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Articles 1 - 7 of 7

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Spatial And Temporal Changes In Halal Food Sales And Consumption A Case Study Of The City Of Dearborn, Michigan, Sam Roodbar Apr 2018

Spatial And Temporal Changes In Halal Food Sales And Consumption A Case Study Of The City Of Dearborn, Michigan, Sam Roodbar

Masters Theses

With a population of 3.2 million and growing in the US, Arab Americans are an integral part of the economy and culture of the United States and the world. The southeast portion of the state of Michigan is home to more than 300,000 Arab Americans. One of the main agents of cultural maintenance and support for the Arab American community are their ethnic food traditions, specifically Halal food. Since the introduction of Halal food in the United States, the sales and consumption of Halal products has increased immensely. This research seeks to answer four related questions focused on the entrance …


Deviance Fluidity On The Urban Landscape: Graffiti And Street Art As Non-Normative Placemaking, Alyson M. Mabie Apr 2018

Deviance Fluidity On The Urban Landscape: Graffiti And Street Art As Non-Normative Placemaking, Alyson M. Mabie

Masters Theses

Graffiti is recognized as an illegal deviant act. Sociologically, deviance is defined by the audience perceiving the act, rather than inherent in the act itself. In this context, deviance is subjective and fluid. This paper explores the spectrum of graffiti from criminal vandalism to celebrated art form in the context of its placement on the urban landscape. The fluidity of deviance is reflected in the concentration of different types of graffiti in different locations. The spatial distribution of graffiti writing, street art, and the equally illegal guerrilla marketing stickers, which mimic graffiti placement and street art styles, were collected in …


Interannual Variations Of Snowfall In The Lower Peninsula Of Michigan And Impacts Of Local And Remote Meteorological Conditions, Nirjala Koirala Apr 2018

Interannual Variations Of Snowfall In The Lower Peninsula Of Michigan And Impacts Of Local And Remote Meteorological Conditions, Nirjala Koirala

Masters Theses

Inter-annual variation of snowfall and its relation to climate indices will help clarify and improve the prediction of total snowfall in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan (LPM). This study examines the trend and variability of annual snowfall (November- March) using 8 homogeneous weather stations in the LPM. The statistical relationship between snowfall and air temperature, Sea Surface Temperature (SST), North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) and Maximum Ice Coverage(MIC) of Lake Michigan is calculated. The long-term trend in the snowfall data set from 1950 to 2015 is removed before any statistical correlation analysis is conducted. My analysis suggests …


Spatial Effects Of Foreign Direct Investment (Fdi) On Poverty Reduction In Colombia: A Mixed Methods Approach, Mayra Alejandra Yat Aguilar Apr 2018

Spatial Effects Of Foreign Direct Investment (Fdi) On Poverty Reduction In Colombia: A Mixed Methods Approach, Mayra Alejandra Yat Aguilar

Masters Theses

Foreign direct investment (FDI) has been identified as an important factor in stimulating economic growth and decreasing poverty. In particular, the relationship between FDI and economic growth has been extensively debated in the academic literature but with mixed results. Meanwhile, considerably less work has been done towards investigating the effects of FDI on poverty reduction. Evidence from the limited research linking on FDI and poverty levels is also mixed. Through a more comprehensive survey-based multi-scale method of assessing poverty, this empirical study investigates the contribution of FDI with respect to concurrent quantitative and qualitative assessment of changes in living standards …


A Comparison Of Alternative Route Alignments For The North Country Trail Through Calhoun County, Mi, Whitney K. Lambert Apr 2018

A Comparison Of Alternative Route Alignments For The North Country Trail Through Calhoun County, Mi, Whitney K. Lambert

Masters Theses

Recreational hiking trails are a popular destination for local residents and tourists, offering health, educational, and social benefits. The North Country Trail (NCT) provides a unique hiking experience because of the many landscapes through which it travels. Because it spans across seven states in the Midwest, a hiker can travel through the mountains of New York, the hardwood forests of upper Michigan, and the plains of South Dakota along one route. When completed, the NCT will be about 4,600 miles; however, there are currently 1,900 miles of undeveloped connector routes during which the route is often located along the road. …


Deer-Vehicle Collisions In Kalamazoo County, Michigan: A Study Using Gis And Statistical Modeling, Alex Todd Laporte Apr 2018

Deer-Vehicle Collisions In Kalamazoo County, Michigan: A Study Using Gis And Statistical Modeling, Alex Todd Laporte

Masters Theses

Kalamazoo County ranked 15th among 83 Michigan counties in 2015 with 917 deer-vehicle collisions (DVCs). With the white-tailed deer population on the rise, the chances of collisions are also more likely to increase. Most predictive models developed for wildlife-vehicle collisions are used for specific areas and have localized characteristics that are hard to apply to different locations and animal species. By analyzing Kalamazoo County’s specific land cover, weather, traffic, and time variables with locations of deer-vehicle collisions throughout the county, characteristics are identified distinguishing between areas of differing risk. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) can locate areas with a high rate …


Spectral Discrimination Of Phragmites Australis At Different Phenological Stages In Saginaw Bay, Michigan, Trenton Benedict Apr 2018

Spectral Discrimination Of Phragmites Australis At Different Phenological Stages In Saginaw Bay, Michigan, Trenton Benedict

Masters Theses

Michigan Great Lakes wetlands are among Michigan’s most significant bio-diversified ecosystems. One threat to this ecosystem is invasive species. Phragmites australis is one of these invasive species creating problems in the wetlands. Identifying Phragmites through satellite imagery creates difficulties in discriminating Phragmites from other vegetation accurately. This study used an ASD HandHeld 2 field spectroradiometer to identify the phenological spectral properties between Phragmites and cattails. The Euclidean distance was analyzed the spectral curves from the spectroradiometer to determine the separability between Phragmites and cattails. The largest Euclidean distance determined the best month to separate the spectral signatures of Phragmites and …