Digital Commons Network^™

Housing The Low-Income Elderly In Geneva. A Case Study (Switzerland), Martine Freedman

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

In Geneva (Switzerland), some of the elderly live in housing built especially for this category of the population. Most of this housing is located in the city centre, is close to all services, and has good access to public transportation. However, we observe spatial and social segregation between the elderly who live in retirement housing and the population of their neighbourhood. The aims of this research are to examine the barriers and meeting-points between the elderly who live in these apartments and the population of their neighbourhood, to identify the factors that lead these elderly to be segregated, and to …

Using Gis And Spatial Statistics To Explore And Model Demand For Emergency Medical Services In The City Of Sudbury, Ontario, Marc Lefebvre

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The purpose of this research is to examine the nature of the relationship between EMS ambulance call volume and demographic, socioeconomic and geographic (urban structural) forces in the City of Sudbury, a medium sized city of approximately 100,000 persons in Ontario, Canada. As in past research in the area of EMS demand, linear regression is used to model this relationship. However, unlike previous work, spatial autocorrelation inherent in real world data is addressed to mitigate violation of the assumption of independence required for classic regression. Using a Geographical Information System (ArcView 3.2) EMS data are geolocated onto a spatial framework …

Tackling The Issue Of Access: Situating Place Within Immigrant Women's Experiences Of Health And Health Care (Ontario), Jillian C. Paul

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Access to health care services is an essential element to immigrant women receiving the care that they need. However, there are barriers that women face as immigrants in a new community. Language, cultural awareness and household responsibilities are issues that a significant number of immigrant women encounter when accessing health care services. There are significant gaps within geographic literature pertaining specifically to marginalized populations and health care experiences. More recent work is beginning to emerge that examines the social and behavioural aspects of health and health care. This study intends to contribute to this growing body of literature aimed at …

Using A Computerized Data Collection Method To Explore Sketch Map Drawing Sequence, Niem Tu Huynh

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Cognitive mapping has attracted immense interest from many fields, creating collaborative and cross-disciplinary research. The study of cognitive maps enjoyed almost two decades of growth, until its decline in the early 1980s. By the 1990s, the new cross-disciplinary exchange with computer science and information technology has renewed interest in the field, which may be the next wave of cognitive mapping research explosion. This study will, through the development of an innovative tool and an in depth analysis of cognitive maps, namely, sequence, search for links between sequence and other variables, namely sketch map type classification, sketch map drawing processes and …

Circulation Mapping Of The North Atlantic Ocean During The 1990'S And From 1974 To 1984 As Determined From The World Ocean Circulation Experiment (Woce) Eulerian Current Meter Moorings, Roger Palmini

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The Study of the ocean presents many challenges due to its vast size and the difficulty in representing such a system with the availability of few data measurements. The World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE) is the largest oceanographic experiment ever conducted. Data collection has been completed and we are now in the analysis, interpretation, modeling and synthesis phases (AIMS). An analysis and interpretation of the North Atlantic Ocean was conducted using a subset of the WOCE data. In the pre-WOCE period between Apr-11-74 and Sep-03-84 a total of 272 records were obtained having a spatial range of 23.2˚- 60.2˚N and …

The Impacts Of Migration On Establishment Of Social Capital And Environmental Degradation In Kibwezi, Kenya, Eveily Freeman

Honors Capstones

Capstone submitted as a graduation requirement for the BSU Honors Program.

Incorporating Local Knowledge Into Population And Habitat Viability Assessments: Landowners And Tree Kangaroos In Papua New Guinea, Philip J. Nyhus, J Williams, J Borovansky, O Byers, P Miller

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Taking The Bite Out Of Wildlife Damage: The Challenges Of Wildlife Compensation Schemes, Philip J. Nyhus, Hank Fisher, Steve Osofsky, Francine Madden

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Wildlife Knowledge Among Migrants In Southern Sumatra, Indonesia: Implications For Conservation, Philip J. Nyhus, Sumianto Tilson, Ronald Tilson

Faculty Scholarship

The value of traditional ecological knowledge for biodiversity research and conservation is widely recognized. The value of wildlife knowledge provided by recent migrants is less clear. Photographs of 10 mammal species were shown to 622 individuals in communities near Way Kambas National Park in Sumatra, Indonesia, to assess wildlife knowledge among recent migrants and to identify socio-economic variables that can be used to identify more knowledgeable informants. Knowledge scores were categorized by taxonomic family, genus and species. Large, charismatic and abundant animals were identified more frequently than smaller and more secretive animals. Higher knowledge scores were significantly associated with males, …

Dangerous Animals In Captivity: Ex Situ Tiger Conflict And Implication For Private Ownership Of Exotic Animals, Philip J. Nyhus, Ronald L. Tilson, J L. Tomlinson

Faculty Scholarship

The risks associated with tiger attacks on people in the wild are well documented. There may currently be more tigers in captivity than in the wild, but relatively little is known about the risks of injury or death associated with owning and managing captive tigers and other large carnivores. The purpose of this study was to conduct a global assessment of attacks by captive tigers on people, with particular emphasis on cases in the United States. Our analysis of 30 international media sources and additional documents uncovered 59 unique incidents in 1998-2001 in which people were reportedly injured or killed …

Combining Dynamic Cartography And Temporal Gis To Visualize Industrial Development In Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, Shawn Mueller

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This thesis uses dynamic cartography and temporal geographic information systems (GIS) to explore visualization of the industrial development of Kitchener, Ontario. The discussion centres on the nature of dealing with temporal data in geography. This project addresses this issue by constructing a temporal dataset that accounts for the historical location of industrial/manufacturing businesses in Kitchener. Based on this temporal data, animated visualizations are then constructed that show the cadence and distribution of industrial development in Kitchener. The visualization process used by this project makes use of the inherent temporality of GIS to plan and construct animated visualizations in a way …

Differential Vulnerability To Debris Flow Hazard In Two High Mountain Communities Of The Karakoram Himalaya, Northern Pakistan, Shauna Flanagan

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This thesis presents the findings of a comparative study of vulnerability, coping and risk-averting strategies and social responses to environmental hazards, particularly debris flow and flooding hazards, in the Northern Areas of Pakistan. Two small village-scale settlements, the prevailing form of community in the region, were selected as case studies and are described in detail. The villages exhibit a comparable subsistence agro-pastoral economy and socio-cultural organization reflecting similarities in environmental opportunities and constraints, historical processes and religious beliefs. However, they differ greatly in their proximity to commercial centres and in the rate at which modernization processes are being introduced and …

Book Review Of Letters From The Dust Bowl By Caroline Henderson, Christina E. Dando

Geography and Geology Faculty Publications

The American ‘Dust Bowl’ landscape of the 1930s has been etched into the global imagination through powerful narratives: Farm Security Administration photography (1935–43), Per Loretz’s film, The Plow that Broke the Plains (1936), and John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath (1939). In the last quarter of the twentieth century, historians such as Donald Worster (1979) have constructed their own narratives of this time and place. Caroline Henderson’s Letters from the Dust Bowl, edited by Alvin O. Turner, provides a counterpoint, in the form of a first-hand account and a woman’s voice, to the news stories, government propaganda, and historians’ analyses …

Regional Disparities In The Labour Market In East Germany, Gabriela Yvonne Pierow

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

In February 2003 the unemployment in Germany reached the third highest peak since unification with more than 4.7 million unemployed persons. The number of unemployed persons in Germany increased from February 2002 to February 2003 by over 410,000 (+9.5%), which accounts for an increase of the unemployment rate from 10.4% in February 2002 to 11.3% in February 2003. The numbers for East Germany are even more alarming. The average unemployment rate in East Germany increased from 18.8% in February 2002 to 19.9% in February 2003. That means that nearly 1.76 million persons were unemployed in East Germany in February 2003 …

A Role For Natural Resource Social Science In Biodiversity Risk Assessment, Philip J. Nyhus, Frances R. Westley, Robert C. Lacey, Philip S. Miller

Faculty Scholarship

Biologists have made considerable progress in developing realistic simulation models to predict extinction risks for threatened species. Social scientists have to date had a more limited role in these efforts. This limited involvement comes despite the growing acknowledgment by population biologists and simulation modelers that this additional input is necessary for these models to accurately reflect the impact of humans and human-dominated landscapes on wildlife populations. We argue that collaborations among social and biological scientists can provide unparalleled opportunities to develop new conceptual and simulation tools for biodiversity risk assessment. One challenge is that while the value of interdisciplinary research …

A Late Quaternary Paleoecological Record From Caves Of Southern Jamaica, West Indies, Donald A. Mcfarlane, Joyce Lundberg, A.G. Fincham

WM Keck Science Faculty Papers

Studies of an unusual and diverse system of caves in coastal southern Jamaica have yielded a paleoclimatic record associated with a fossil vertebrate record that provides useful insights into the poorly documented paleoecology of latest Wisconsinan and Holocene Jamaica. Episodes of significantly increased precipitation during the Holocene have left characteristic deposits of speleothems, and have supported both faunal and archaeological communities that were dependent on these mesic conditions. Deposits of fossil bat guano preserved in the caves provide a δ¹³C record of alternating mesic and xeric climatic episodes that supports the interpretation of the faunal and archaeological record.

A Study On The Sustainable Development Of Cameron Highlands, Jin Hooi Chan

Student Works (2000-2009)

Cameron Highlands, located in the mountain area of tropical forest of Peninsular Malaysia, is a popular tourist destination and is also suitable for tea and vegetable farming. It has also been developed for hydroelectric power generation. Development activities have recently been intensified creating enormous stress to the environment. This thesis investigates the sustainability of the development in Cameron Highlands. It adopts a holistic approach based on the Pressure-State-Response framework. The methodology adopted is mainly library research, with supplementary environmental data processing and calculation. The pressure of the development of agriculture, tourism and hydropower generation on the environment is analyzed. Then, …

Ocean: An Integrated Curriculum Unit, Institute For The Development Of Gifted Education, Ricks Center For Gifted Children, University Of Denver

Ricks Curriculum Units Series

An integrated curriculum is an instructional approach that connects the disciplines to an underlying theme or topic. Immersing students in an integrated-thematic unit provides the backdrop for experiences to occur across the disciplines. Shaping coursework around integrated themes is especially appropriate for gifted students, however using an integrated-thematic curriculum is appropriate for all learners as it develops students' abilities to make connections, to solve problems by looking at multiple perspectives, and to integrate information from different fields of experience. An integrated-thematic curriculum permits students to be active participants in their own learning as they design their own explorations and take …

Risk, Vulnerability And Environmental Hazards In The Village Of Darkot, Northern Pakistan, Nicholas Andrew Cradock-Henry

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Conventional approaches to studying environmental risks and hazards have focused on the physical parameters of geomorphic, hydrologic and climatic events—magnitude, duration and frequency—without adequately accounting for the role of human agency in averting disaster and distributing loss. Secondly, where human intervention was recognized it was often in an incriminating way, particularly in work dealing with the developing world or peripheral regions such as mountain areas. Here, humans were portrayed as helpless victims; unable to successfully adapt to their environment or else they were viewed as having played an unwitting role in their own downfall through ‘short-sighted’ agricultural practices such as …

From Bricks And Mortar To Bricks And Clicks: The Transformation Of A Bank Branch Network Within The Greater Toronto Area (Ontario), Michelle Anne Mok

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Over the last 20 years, Canadian retail financial services have undergone a dramatic transformation due to a number of driving forces: technology, globalization, changing lifestyles and demographics, competition, and deregulation. Because retail financial services have been impacted, the way Canadians perform banking transactions has also been impacted, resulting in a shift from a spatially-oriented banking approach to a non-spatial approach. Transactions are being performed using alternative delivery channels including the automated banking machine, telephone banking, internet banking, point of sale purchasing, and new format branches, rather than in the traditional branch network. This research examines changes in the branch network …

Radiation Budget, Ground Thermal Regime And Hydrological Balance Of A Low Arctic Tundra Basin, Coppermine River, Northwest Territories, David S. Turcotte

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The effects of slope, aspect and vegetation cover on the radiation balance and active layer thermal regime of arctic tundra were investigated during the summer of 1999 and the spring of 2000. The study site is located at Daring Lake, N.W.T (64°52'N, 111°35'W) in the Slave Geological Province of the Coppermine River Basin. A sub-basin 14 ha in area and with approximately 30 meters of relief was intensely monitored for hydrological radiation and energy balance components. Initiation of active layer development and subsequent thawing was earlier and more pronounced on predominantly west facing slopes due to increased receipt of incoming …

Health And Development: Infectious Intestinal Diseases In A Transborder Region (United States-Mexico), Flavia Bianchi

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Intestinal infectious diseases are considered the northern Mexican border’s most obvious challenge facing children. The Mexico-US Border region is a 200-kilometer border zone that extends 100 kilometers on either side of an imaginary borderline and stretches 3,141 kilometers from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico. In 2000, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the World Health Organization’s representative for the Americas, published a study of the top causes of mortality between 1995 and 1997 to estimate the absolute burden of mortality in the primary Mexican and American border community, collectively known as the Sister Cities. Using the PAHO …

The Use Of Geographic Information Systems To Study Repeat Victims Of Domestic Abuse In The Waterloo Region Of Ontario, Canada, Claudia Saheb

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The importance of repeat victims as an effective target for crime prevention measures has been widely recognised. Many have studied repeat victims of property crimes, but few have studied repeat victims of personal crimes and their spatial distribution. This study used 1996 and 1997 crime data from the Waterloo Regional Police Service (WRPS) in Ontario, Canada and focused specifically on domestic-abuse-related crimes and repeat victims of those crimes. Various methods of mapping and analysis were used to better understand the spatial distribution of those crimes and vulnerability of the victims. Standardised crime rates and crime density were calculated. Thematic and …

A Geostatistical Screening Strategy For Assessing Contaminated Sediment, Yasuyo K. Makido

Masters Theses

Many environmental problems involve the collection and interpretation of spatial data. Screening methods attempt to develop efficient test procedures to determine the presence and absence of contaminants in samples. Screening methods can reduce monitoring costs and effectively identify contamination problems. Adaptive sampling has the flexibility to adjust for follow-up sampling based on the observed patterns in the population. Geostatistical method is employed for the adaptive sampling scheme. Geostatistics are statistical methodologies that use spatial coordinates to help formulate models used in estimation and prediction.

This study seeks to map Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) concentrations in sediment in Lake Allegan and Morrow …

The State Goes Home: Local Hyper-Vigilance Of Children And The Global Retreat From Social Reproduction, Cindi Katz

Publications and Research

In an early scene in The Terminator, the Cyborgian Arnold Schwarzenegger walks into an L.A. gun shop and asks to see the wares. The shopkeeper lays out Uzis, submachine guns, rocket launchers, and other sophisticated means of overkill, nervously understating, "Any one of these will suit you for home defense purposes." The situation is likewise in the growing child protection industry. In keeping with the shopkeeper's sly comment, these businesses feast on an all-pervasive culture of fear, while creating a mockery, alibi, and distraction out of what they are really about - to remake the home as a citadel through …

Tiger Restoration In Asia: Ecological Theory Vs. Sociological Reality, Ronald Tilson, Philip J. Nyhus, Neil Franklin

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Travel Cost Method (Tcm) : A Case Study Of Taman Pertanian Malaysia Shah Alam, Selangor, Bakti Hasan Basri

Student Works (2000-2009)

This research paper uses the Individual Travel Cost Method (Visit Per Annum) to assess the consumer surplus of Taman Pertanian Malaysia (MAP), the first agro­ forestry park in the world The value of consumer surplus per visit is different, depending on the functional form of the model (linear or semi-log), types of travel cost applied and the type of trips taken (expected trips taken or true trips taken). The average consumer surplus per visit derived from this study Is RM 2. 70, RM 88.60 and RM 91.48for semi-log (expected trips), semi-log (true trips) and linear, respectively. It is important to …

Fenomena Banjir Kilat Di Lembangan Sungai Kelang : Proses, Sebab, Kesan Dan Strategi Pengawalan, Mariney Mohd Yusoff

Student Works (2000-2009)

The Thesis presents overall view of processes, causes, effects and control strategies in flash flood issue in the Klang River Basin. The selected study areas involved are as follows a. Flat Seri Perlis in Kampung Keramat, Kuala Lumpur in upper catchment area. b. Kampung Haji Abdullah Hukom, Kuala Lumpur in middle catchment area. And  Kampung Padang Jawa, Klang, Selangor Darul Ehsan in lower catchment area of the Klang River Basin. The above three areas had been chosen due to frequent of flash flood occur and represents each area so-called upper, middle and lower catchments. Indirectly, It shows that flash flood …

The Impact Of Large Plant Closure On Small Firm Creation In Kitchener, Ontario, 1987 To 1998, Christopher William Charman

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The impact of restructuring in the manufacturing sector of Kitchener, Ontario has been felt in many ways. For those who were displaced, the alternatives for re-employment were limited. In some cases, workers have turned to self employment and small firm creation as a source of income. This study attempts to quantify the business dynamic at work in the Manufacturing and Business Service sectors in Kitchener between 1987 and 1998. Using a database developed from the Kitchener Business Directory the process of manufacturing loss and service industry increase is studied. The examination follows new business creation, the change in activity within …

Where Have All The Voices Gone? A Case Study In Marginalization Politics At The Robert J. Bernard Field Station Of The Claremont Colleges, Yamini Bala

Pomona Senior Theses

This thesis is not intended to be an indictment of our leaders — well, not entirely, anyway.

This thesis is meant to be an exercise in listening. I talked to a lot of people on every side of this issue, and tried hard to listen. I obviously have my biases, but I did my best to understand where everyone was coming from. I tried to evaluate groups instead of individuals as participants in this issue. My interviewees were requested to express views on behalf of the community group to which they belonged. I tried to find the opinions that best …