Digital Commons Network^™

Review Of Alberta's Day Care Controversy: From 1908 To 2009-And Beyond. By Tom Langford., Gordon Cleveland

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

This is a carefully crafted, meticulously researched gem of a book exploring the history and intrigues of Alberta's controversies and struggles concerning child care, focused on the period since the 1960s. It is a work of historical sociology analyzing the interaction of social and political forces in Alberta clashing over the effects of child care in promoting changes in women's roles, over the negative effects of commercial child care on quality, and over the appropriate amount and type of support that governments vs. families should provide for child care. That description may make it sound too analytical and boring, but …

Review Of Two Toms: Lessons From A Shoshone Doctor. By Thomas H. Johnson And Helen S. Johnson., Christopher Loether

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

Thomas H. Johnson, one of the co-authors of Two Toms: Lessons from a Shoshone Doctor, was a graduate student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign when he first met Tom Wesaw in 1966 at a Sun Dance on the Wind River Reservation. Johnson returned to live with Wesaw during 1969-1970, in order to learn about Shoshone language and culture. Two Toms is based on his field notes from that stay. Tom Wesaw (1886-1973) was a traditional Shoshone doctor, Sun Dance leader, and member of the Native American (Peyote) Church. He had left Wind River Reservation when only fifteen …

Attitudes And Perceptions Of Local Residents And Tourists Toward The Protected Area Of Retezat National Park, Romania, Andrea Blanka Szell

Masters Theses

Despite the fact that there has been a significant increase in interest in the sustainable management of protected areas (PAs), many of them still fail to meet conservation goals. Considering that the availability of financial resources and the general public's interest toward environmental conservation play such an important role in the successful performance of PAs, it is of great importance to investigate local residents' and visitors' attitudes and perceptions regarding PAs. This will help gain knowledge of the level of financial and social support they would be willing to give to environmental conservation in PAs. To elicit attitudes and perceptions, …

Critical Research Agendas Within The Metropolis Project: Reflections On A Study Of Precarious Housing And Hidden Homelessness Among Refugees, Asylum Seekers And Immigrants In Montréal, Toronto And Vancouver, Damaris Rose

Migration and Ethnic Relations Colloquium Series

No abstract provided.

Urban Transition Of Races In The Denver Metro Area, Scott Kilker

Geography and the Environment: Graduate Student Capstones

The racial segregation of the primary racial groups, African-American, Asian, Latino and White, residing within the Denver metropolitan five-county area is analyzed using a Geographic Information System. The study uses census defined block groups to measure racial population within the study area as input to analysis methods that provide insight to the transition of racial groups within the Denver metropolitan area. Markov chain analysis is used to compute the probability that the ratio of a block group of a race will change. The Monte Carlo method is then applied using the probabilities to predict what the segregation in the Denver …

Volumetric Pipeline Environment Analysis: A Methodology For Creating 3d Data Suitable For Pipeline Environment Risk And Mitigation Products, Anthony Timpson

Geography and the Environment: Graduate Student Capstones

Pipeline risk assessment GIS is constantly seeking to improve the tools and methodologies of data analysis to incorporate more world details. The need for complex 3D systems modeling is expanding as GIS takes a main stage in mapping the infrastructure and environment of medium scale, vertically complex, pipeline systems. Pipeline environments must be specially tailored to suit the data analysis capabilities of ERSI ArcGIS 10. Model based automation facilitates the conversion of data types and preparation of analysis results. The methodology presented is one avenue of possible development in generating a greater level of detail in intricate medium scale pipeline …

Maputopia: An Improvement Over Existing Census Mapping Applications, Daniel Trone

Geography and the Environment: Graduate Student Capstones

The United States Census public data portal and other existing demographic mapping applications do a suboptimal job of serving two prime data user groups; the casual data user, and the GIS data user. The Census Bureau in particular has produced a user-unfriendly product with a steep learning curve. In response to the lack of an existing platform which could efficiently handle common user requests, the author has created MapUtopia.com. MapUtopia is an interactive census data mapping application which allows for quick user access to commonly requested demographic data, and allows for user download of that data in the commonly utilized …

Accuracy Of Boulder County’S Gis Parcel Mapping: An Examination Of Gis Cadastral Mapping Compared To Land Surveys, Kayce D. Wohlman

Geography and the Environment: Graduate Student Capstones

This research outlines land surveying in the State of Colorado and discusses the formation of parcel maps in the state. GIS continues to grow in various industries and government entities since it is able to best streamline copious amounts of geospatial information. Following suit, County Assessor Offices throughout the country have benefited from the use of a GIS to organize their data. The cost, implementation and maintenance of a GIS is a costly endeavor however it benefits both the County, State and the general public. County Assessor Office GIS systems have directly influenced the field of Land Surveying both positively …

Contextualizing The Global Nursing Care Chain: International Migration And The Status Of Nursing In Kerala, India, Margaret Walton-Roberts

Geography and Environmental Studies Faculty Publications

In this article I explore the issue of nursing status in Kerala, India and how over time a colonial discourse of caste‐based pollution has given way to a discourse of sexual pollution under expanding migratory opportunities. Based on survey and qualitative research findings, I caution that the improving occupational status of nursing in India is not directly mapped onto social status, and this is particularly evident in the matrimonial market. In the light of these findings I argue that global nursing care chain (GNCC) analysis must assess more than just workplace contexts in order to conceptualize how global care chains …

Local Food Actions And Motivations In The Highlands Neighborhood Of Denver, Co, Samantha R. Lester

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study evaluates the local food movement within the Highlands neighborhood of Denver, Colorado. There are several potential outlets for local food within the Highlands and it is a diverse demographic community, which creates an interesting and relevant research area. This study evaluates the reasons behind the local food movement through qualitative research of community members, local restaurant owners, community garden members and community organizers as well as through participant observation. The goal of this research is to narrate what one neighborhood within a progressive city is experiencing within the local food movement. The local food movement was found to …

Map Displays And Exhibits, Katherine Rankin

Library Faculty Research

Many patrons do not even know libraries have map collections, let alone what kinds of maps are in them or how they could use those maps. Map displays and exhibits can help increase interest in map collections. Muriel Strickland wrote an article on casual map displays with the title "Map Displays: a Means of Promoting Map Use" in volume 17, number 3 of the WAML IB (June 1986). One of the purposes of my writing this article is to reprise some of the valuable information in Muriel's article; because it was published so long ago, many of the present WAmL …

West Of Eden: Resource Wars And Nature-Cultures In The American West, Scout Calvert

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries: Faculty Publications

The richness and variety of the western landscape is what is at stake in hot political contests for the resources of the West: much of this public land is available to economic activity, including for mining, grazing, logging, and recreation. These uses threaten to outpace the land’s ability to renew these resources along with others, like air and water. Now in the first decade of the millennium with a new environmental awareness emerging partly from media coverage of global warming and peak oil, The American West at Risk offers a wide-ranging look at the degradation of the environment in the …

Matter Under Unusual Conditions, Bernard Zygelman

NSTec UNLV Symposium

What is curiosity – driven research and why do we support it?

Vannevar Bush Science The Endless Frontier (1945)

“Science is the pacemaker of technological progress … New productsand new processes do not appear full-grown. They are founded on newprinciples and new conceptions, which in turn are painstakingly developedby research in the purest realms of science“

•Magnetic Resonance Imaging
•Positron Emission Tomography
•Laser applications
•GPS
•Nano Technology

Galloway, Ewing, 1881-1953 (Sc 2502), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 2502. Correspondence of Ewing Galloway, a native of Henderson, Kentucky and the owner of a photography agency in New York City, with Mary Marks, a geography professor at Western Kentucky University, related to a gift of photographs made to the Kentucky Library & Museum at WKU. Also includes clippings, chiefly related to Galloway’s return to Henderson, Kentucky and the gift to WKU.

Whaling: Don’T Trade The Moratorium Away, Mark Peter Simmonds, Sue Fisher

Conservation Collection

In their proposal to allocate ‘whale shares’ to both whalers and conservationists as an alternative to the International Whaling Commission (IWC) moratorium on commercial whaling, Christopher Costello and colleagues overlook several factors (Nature 481, 139–140; 2012).

Projected Surface Raidiative Forcing Due To 2000-2050 Land-Cover Land-Use Albedo Change Over The Eastern United States, Christoper A. Barnes, David P. Roy, Thomas R. Loveland

GSCE Faculty Publications

Satellite-derived contemporary land-cover land-use (LCLU) and albedo data and modeled future LCLU are used to study the impact of LCLU change from 2000 to 2050 on surface albedo and radiative forcing for 19 ecoregions in the eastern United States. The modeled 2000–2050 LCLU changes indicate a future decrease in both agriculture and forested land and an increase in developed land that induces ecoregion radiative forcings ranging from −0.175 to 0.432 W m−2 driven predominately by differences in the area and type of LCLU change. At the regional scale, these projected LCLU changes induce a net negative albedo decrease (−0.001) and …

Morse, Rebecca D. (Fa 67), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 67. Thesis: “Tinsley Bottom Tennessee: An Historical Reconstruction Utilizing Oral Narrative Traditions” by Rebecca D. Morse in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts, Department of Folk and Intercultural Studies at Western Kentucky University.

Sensitivity Analysis Of The Gems Soil Organic Carbon Model To Land Cover Land Use Classification Uncertainties Under Different Climate Scenarios In Senegal, Amadou M. Dieye, David P. Roy, N. P. Hanan, S. Lui, M. Hansen, A. Toure

GSCE Faculty Publications

Spatially explicit land cover land use (LCLU) change information is needed to drive biogeochemical models that simulate soil organic carbon (SOC) dynamics. Such information is increasingly being mapped using remotely sensed satellite data with classification schemes and uncertainties constrained by the sensing system, classification algorithms and land cover schemes. In this study, automated LCLU classification of multi-temporal Landsat satellite data were used to assess the sensitivity of SOC modeled by the Global Ensemble Biogeochemical Modeling System (GEMS). The GEMS was run for an area of 1560km2 in Senegal under three climate change scenarios with LCLU maps generated using different Landsat …

The Geographic Value Of Patient-Carried Medical Records In Improving Healthcare In The Us, Lauren Edmundson

The Macalester Review

American medical records have typically been maintained in a single location. However, patient-carried medical records (PCMRs) present an opportunity to alter the space in which health records and information operate. While past research has evaluated PCMRs from a largely economic perspective, this research examines potential benefits of PCMRs through a geographic framework. In total, while further work is needed to perfect the PCMR system, they can ultimately serve as a tool to alleviate four specific complaints made by American patients: lack of communication between provider and patient, lack of communication between providers, medical error, and high costs.

Natural And Unnatural Disasters: Responding With Respect For Indigenous Rights And Knowledges, Richard Howitt, Olga Havnen, Siri Veland

Aboriginal Policy Research Consortium International (APRCi)

A key challenge for contemporary democratic societies is how to respond to disasters in ways that foster just and sustainable outcomes that build resilience, respect human rights, and foster economic, social, and cultural well-being in reasonable timeframes and at reasonable costs. In many places experiencing rapid environmental change, indigenous people continue to exercise some level of self-governance and autonomy, but they also face the burden of rapid social change and hostile or ambiguous policy settings. Drawing largely on experience in northern Australia, this paper argues that state policies can compound and contribute to vulnerability of indigenous groups to both natural …

Scotts Bluff National Monument, Plant Community Resource Brief, Isabel Ashton, Mike Prowatzke

United States National Park Service: Publications

2011 Monitoring Status

Overview

In 2011, the first year of vegetation monitoring by the Northern Great Plains Network Inventory and Monitoring staff at Scotts Bluff National Monument, efforts resulted in the documentation of 79 plant species. This was the lowest number of species among parks sampled in 2011. Graminoid (grass and grass-like plant) species accounted for only 21 (27%) of the total species, but graminoid cover was much higher than that of any other plant type. Forbs were much more diverse, but did not provide as much foliar cover.

The 5 most abundant native non-graminoids were winterfat (Krascheninnikovia lanata …

Plant Community Composition And Structure Monitoring Protocol For The Northern Great Plains I&M Network - Standard Operating Procedures, Version 1.01, Amy J. Symstad, Robert A. Gitzen, Cody L. Wienk, Michael R. Bynum, Daniel J. Swanson, Andy D. Thorstenson, Kara J. Paintner-Green

United States National Park Service: Publications

Introduction

The Northern Great Plains Inventory and Monitoring Network (NGPN) includes thirteen park units located in five northern Great Plains states across six ecoregions. Plant community composition and structure monitoring comprises the core of the vegetation monitoring effort for the NGPN, covering the “Riparian Lowland Plant Communities” and “Upland Plant Communities” vital signs (Gitzen et al. 2010). The narrative portion of the plant community protocol can be found in Symstad et al. 2012. The narrative includes the rationale for vegetation monitoring, an overview of sample design, field methods, data management, and program requirements. This document contains the standard operating procedures …

Vulnerability To Extreme Heat In Metropolitan Phoenix: Spatial, Temporal, And Demographic Dimensions, Winston T. L. Chow, Wen-Ching Chuang, Patricia Gober

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This study assessed the spatial distribution of vulnerability to extreme heat in 1990 and 2000 within metropolitan Phoenix based on an index of seven equally weighted measures of physical exposure and adaptive capacity. These measures were derived from spatially interpolated climate, normalized differential vegetation index, and U.S. Census data. From resulting vulnerability maps, we also analyzed population groups living in areas of high heat vulnerability. Results revealed that landscapes of heat vulnerability changed substantially in response to variations in physical and socioeconomic factors, with significant alterations to spatial distribution of vulnerability especially between eastern and western sectors of Phoenix. These …

Memperbincangkan Sejarah-Sejarah Mikro Disiplin Sosiologi, Geger Riyanto

Masyarakat: Jurnal Sosiologi

No abstract provided.

Some Biogeographers, Evolutionists And Ecologists: Chrono-Biographical Sketches, Charles H. Smith, Joshua Woleben, Carubie Rodgers

DLPS Faculty Publications

Each name in the following list of naturalists is linked to a corresponding capsule "chrono-biographical" sketch of that individual prepared by the authors. Coverage extends from approximately 1950 backward in time as far as the eighteenth century; figures from all over the world are included (though there is admittedly a decided Anglo-American bias). The target subject here is biogeography, but this being a broad field there are many persons on the list who are better known as climatologists, zoologists, botanists, ecologists, oceanographers, paleontologists, etc.--in other words, who made their main reputations in cognate disciplines.

This service has been set up …

Gis Collaborations In Saskatchewan: Sgic And The University Of Saskatchewan Library (Accepted Manuscript Version), Jasmine R. Hoover

Library Research and Publications

GIS (Geographic Information System) libraries face challenges at both ends of the spectrum when it comes to acquiring GIS data. On one hand, the increase in popularity of GIS driven by services like Google Earth, Bing maps, and open data has made large amounts of GIS data freely available to users. On the other hand, specialty GIS data products, often needed by researchers, industry, and government, can be so costly that they are impossible for a library to purchase on its own. In situations like the latter, collaborations often provide the solution for acquiring the necessary GIS data. This report …

Un Análisis Multi-Escalar Del Sistema Forestal Peruano, J. Boettner, G. Sager-Gellerman, E. Strickler, C. Courtenay, R. Gilb, W. Gordon, G. Leonard, J. Marconi, M. Mcgovern, M. Nagle, C. Paiz Tejada, Andrew Pericak, M. Price, D. Vassallo, R. Yowell, David S. Salisbury

Geography and the Environment Poster Presentations

Perú tiene 67 millones de hectáreas de bosque, que viene a ser más del 53% de la superficie total del país (OIMT, 2010). La extracción maderera es la propulsora principal de la economía dentro de la Amazonía Peruana, generando empleos para comunidades rurales y urbanas (Sears y Pinedo-Vásquez, 2011). Sin embargo, a menudo los empresarios madereros explotan a sus trabajadores a través de un sistema de préstamos (De la Rosa Tincopa, 2009). Alrededor de 1354 comunidades indígenas poseen títulos de propiedad en la región (OIMT, 2010), pero muchas comunidades no tienen los títulos para su territorio que muchas veces se …

Alternative Methods To Predict Actual Evapotranspiration Illustrate The Importance Of Accounting For Phenology: The Event Driven Phenology Model Part Ii, V. Kovalskyy, G. M. Henebry

Natural Resource Management Faculty Publications

Evapotranspiration (ET) flux constitutes a major component of both the water and energy balances at the land surface. Among the many factors that control evapotranspiration, phenology poses a major source of uncertainty in attempts to predict ET. Contemporary approaches to ET modeling and monitoring frequently summarize the complexity of the seasonal development of vegetation cover into static phenological trajectories (or climatologies) that lack sensitivity to changing environmental conditions. The Event Driven Phenology Model (EDPM) offers an alternative, interactive approach to representing phenology. This study presents the results of an experiment designed to illustrate the differences in ET arising from various …

A New Concept For Simulation Of Vegetated Land Surface Dynamics: The Event Driven Phenology Model Part I, V. Kovalskyy, G. M. Henebry

Natural Resource Management Faculty Publications

Phenologies of the vegetated land surface are being used increasingly for diagnosis and prognosis of climate change consequences. Current prospective and retrospective phenological models stand far apart in their approaches to the subject. We report on an exploratory attempt to implement a phenological model based on a new event driven concept which has both diagnostic and prognostic capabilities in the same modeling framework. This Event Driven Phenological Model (EDPM) is shown to simulate land surface phenologies and phenophase transition dates in agricultural landscapes based on assimilation of weather data and land surface observations from spaceborne sensors. The model enables growing …

A Postulate For Tiger Recovery: The Case Of The Caspian Tiger, Carlos A. Driscoll, I Chestin, H Jungius, Y Darman, E Dinerstein, J Seidensticker, J Sanderson, S Christie, S J. Luo, M Shrestha, Y Zhuravlev, O Uphyrkina, Y V. Jhala, S P. Yadav, D G. Pikunov, N Yamaguchi, D E. Wildt, J D. Smith, Marker, Philip J. Nyhus, R Tilson, D W. Macdonald, S J. O'Brien

Faculty Scholarship

Recent genetic analysis has shown that the extinct Caspian Tiger (P. t. virgata) and the living Amur Tigers (P. t. altaica) of the Russian Far East are actually taxonomically synonymous and that Caspian and Amur groups historically formed a single population, only becoming separated within the last 200 years by human agency. A major conservation implication of this finding is that tigers of Amur stock might be reintroduced, not only back into the Koreas and China as is now proposed, but also through vast areas of Central Asia where the Caspian tiger once lived. However, under the current tiger conservation …