Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

A General-Purpose Parallel Raster Processing Programming Library Test Application Using A Geographic Cellular Automata Model, Qingfeng Guan, Keith C. Clarke

Department of Geography: Faculty Publications

A general-purpose parallel Raster Processing programming Library (pRPL) was developed and applied to speed up a commonly used Cellular Automaton model with known tractability limitations. The library is suitable for use by geographic information scientists with basic programming skills, but who lack knowledge and experience of parallel computing and programming. pRPL is a general-purpose programming library that provides generic support for raster processing, including local-scope, neighborhood-scope, regional-scope, and global-scope algorithms as long as they are parallelizable. The library also supports multi-layer algorithms. Besides the standard data domain decomposition methods, pRPL provides a spatially-adaptive quad-tree-based decomposition to produce more evenly distributed …

Review Of The Separatist Conflict In Sri Lanka: Terrorism, Ethnicity, Political Economy, By Asoka Bandarage, Robert Stoddard

Department of Geography: Faculty Publications

Asoka Bandarage, who provides a very thorough discussion of the civil conflict in Sri Lanka, relates the particular issues and perspectives of the contending groups to major conflicts occurring elsewhere in the world. Although the following categories are not utilized specifically by Bandarage, this review considers four general principles that apply both to the Sri Lanka situation and to contemporary conflicts elsewhere. First, when competing groups claim the same land because both have occupied it “traditionally,” how far back in history is meaningful? A second issue concerns how contemporary self-determination is established. That is, what is the appropriate geographic scale …

The Geography Of Buddhist Pilgrimage In Asia, Robert Stoddard

Department of Geography: Faculty Publications

A pilgrimage is a journey to a sacred place motivated by religious devotion. Although the term may be applied to a meditative search for new spiritual experiences, prolonged wanderings, or travel to a place of nostalgic meaning for an individual, here the word refers to the physical journey to a distant site regarded as holy. As defined in this essay, pilgrimage excludes local and family places of worship; therefore the spatial component of distance is critical.

Throughout the world and in numerous faiths, pilgrimages differ from other forms of worship because of the emphasis on the unique roles of movement …

Vaishno Devi, The Most Famous Goddess Shrine In The Siwāliks, Georgana Foster, Robert Stoddard

Department of Geography: Faculty Publications

Vaishno Devi in Jammu has been designated as the "Elder Sister" among the six other Devi shrines in a fairly narrow belt of the Siwāliks between the Yumunii and Chenāb Rivers. During the last few decades Vaishno Devi has become especially important. Pilgrimage to the shrine has increased from 30,000 to almost 7 million since Independence, when the political geography of the region increased accessibility, both physically and perceptually. The growth in the number of visitors can be attributed also to a change in administration of the shrine and to the tremendous increase in religious tourism. Vaishno Devi is now …

Great Plains Region From Encyclopedia Of Religion In America, Volume 2, Robert H. Stoddard

Department of Geography: Faculty Publications

To understand the religions of a region, it is helpful to examine its environmental characteristics and the history of human occupation of that land because interpretations and forms of worship often reflect the environment with which believers cope. Although characteristics of the natural environment are intricately incorporated into most ancient religions, this relationship may be less obvious in religions with creeds and set of beliefs enunciated by historic figures. Here focus is on how the religious history of the Great Plains distinguishes it from other parts of America.