Digital Commons Network^™

Pathways To Sustainability Careers: Building Capacity To Solve Complex Problems, Jennifer H. Allen, Fletcher Beaudoin, Elizabeth Lloyd-Pool, Jacob Sherman

Institute for Sustainable Solutions Publications and Presentations

Many of the central sustainability challenges facing society today—climate change, social inequality, and resource degradation, to name a few—are socially complex, politically fraught, and imperfectly understood. To be able to effectively engage in addressing such “wicked problems,” individuals need a mixture of content knowledge and soft skills that enable them to critically analyze these challenges from a systems perspective, develop creative solutions, communicate effectively, and work collaboratively with others who may not share common views. Such skill sets and abilities are also more generally valuable in navigating personal, organizational, and societal complexities. Portland State University’s (PSU) Pathways to Sustainability Careers …

Innovative Local Texture Descriptors With Application To Eye Detection, Jiayu Gu

Dissertations

Local Binary Patterns (LBP), which is one of the well-known texture descriptors, has broad applications in pattern recognition and computer vision. The attractive properties of LBP are its tolerance to illumination variations and its computational simplicity. However, LBP only compares a pixel with those in its own neighborhood and encodes little information about the relationship of the local texture with the features. This dissertation introduces a new Feature Local Binary Patterns (FLBP) texture descriptor that can compare a pixel with those in its own neighborhood as well as in other neighborhoods and encodes the information of both local texture and …

Student Fact Book, Fall 2014 - Thirty-Eighth Annual Edition, Wright State University, Office Of Student Information Systems, Wright State University

Wright State University Student Fact Books

The student fact book has general demographic information on all students enrolled at Wright State University for Fall Semester, 2014.

Biofrag – A New Database For Analyzing Biodiversity Responses To Forest Fragmentation, Marion Pfeifer, Andrew Tyre

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Habitat fragmentation studies have produced complex results that are challenging to synthesize. Inconsistencies among studies may result from variation in the choice of landscape metrics and response variables, which is often compounded by a lack of key statistical or methodological information. Collating primary datasets on biodiversity responses to fragmentation in a consistent and flexible database permits simple data retrieval for subsequent analyses. We present a relational database that links such field data to taxonomic nomenclature, spatial and temporal plot attributes, and environmental characteristics. Field assessments include measurements of the response(s) (e.g., presence, abundance, ground cover) of one or more species …

Linking Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis (Inaa) With Geology In The Ancestral Caddo Region, Robert Z. Selden Jr.

CRHR: Archaeology

This poster illustrates the success of a novel method of INAA that was employed to reveal geochemical signatures in Caddo ceramic vessel sherds that correlate with local surficial geology. The geochemical data from the sherd assemblage were used within an exploration of potential ceramic provenance, which was successful at demarcating sherds from ceramic vessels made from clays in either the Claiborne or Wilcox Groups. Further geochemical segregation was also apparent between the Recklaw Formation in the Claiborne Group, and the Weches Formation in the Wilcox Group. These results point to a high degree of geochemical variability within the East Texas …

Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis (Inaa) Of Shell-Tempered Ceramics In The Ancestral Caddo Region: Rethinking Methods, Robert Z. Selden Jr., Timothy K. Perttula

CRHR: Archaeology

The geochemical analysis of shell-tempered ceramics in the ancestral Caddo region has been a matter of confusion since the mid-1990s. While Caddo archaeologists have long perceived most or all of the shell-tempered ceramics in East Texas to have originated from two different areas within the Red River basin, the geochemical data and interpretations remain inconsistent with that idea. This poster takes another look at this dataset, and considers an approach that was initially put forth by MURR, and then seemingly abandoned. Using only the geochemical data from shell-tempered sherds, we take a closer look at the contributions of calcium (Ca), …

Toward A Morphometric Phylogeny Of Caddo Ceramics: A Test Of 3d Geometric Morphometrics, Robert Z. Selden Jr., Timothy K. Perttula, Michael J. O'Brien

CRHR: Archaeology

In this poster we use 3D geometric morphometrics as an exploratory tool for examining diversity in vessel form (or shape) among 27 whole or reconstructed Caddo vessels from the Vanderpool site in Smith County, Texas. Forty-one landmarks from each vessel were exported to version 2.5 of Morphologika for generalized Procrustes analysis and principal components analysis and were then exported to R for cluster analysis (depending on sample size). Despite the small sample size, results indicate that 3D geometric morphometric analysis is an avenue of ceramic research where substantive analytical gains can be realized.

At The Confluence Of Gis And Geochemistry: Identifying Geochemical Correlates Of Ripley Engraved Caddo Ceramics, Robert Z. Selden Jr., Timothy K. Perttula

CRHR: Archaeology

In this poster, we discuss a new approach to the identification and definition of spatial trends in archeologically-recovered ceramics associated with geochemical results produced using instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA). Using all of the Ripley Engraved INAA samples, we posit that clays in the Claiborne and Wilcox Groups can be successfully demarcated by sodium (Na), cerium (Ce), and zinc (Zn). Using a subset of those data from the Big Cypress Creek basin, we find that ceramics manufactured in three different Caddo political communities can be successfully demarcated based upon differential concentrations of arsenic (As), iron (Fe), and vanadium (V) found …

Advances In Documentation, Digital Curation, Virtual Exhibition, And A Test Of 3d Geometric Morhpometrics: A Case Study Of The Vanderpool Vessels From The Ancestral Caddo Territory, Robert Z. Selden Jr., Timothy K. Perttula, Michael J. O'Brien

CRHR: Archaeology

Three-dimensional (3D) digital scanning of archaeological materials is typically used as a tool for artifact documentation. With the permission of the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma, 3D documentation of Caddo funerary vessels from the Vanderpool site (41SM77) was conducted with the initial goal of ensuring that these data would be publicly available for future research long after the vessels were repatriated. A digital infrastructure was created to archive and disseminate the resultant 3D datasets, ensuring that they would be accessible by both researchers and the general public (CRHR 2014a). However, 3D imagery can be used for much more than documentation. To …

An Invitation For Engagement: Assigning And Assessing Field Notes To Promote Deeper Levels Of Observation, John S. Farnsworth, Lyn Baldwin, Michelle Bezanson

Environmental Studies and Sciences

This paper explores current practices for teaching the discipline of keeping field notes within academic natural history courses. We investigate how journal projects can be structured to promote engagement with the natural world while emphasizing the importance of recording accurate and honest observations. Particular attention is paid herein to the assignment of field notes, and to the process of assessing the results of these assignments. Our discussion includes results from an informal survey of best practices among colleagues representing numerous natural history disciplines.

Energy Expenditure In The Backcountry, Mandy Pojha, Cara Ocobock, John Gookin

Research in Outdoor Education

The study of energy economics, known as energetics, has played a key role in shaping human ecology, evolution, and performance (Leonard & Ulijaszek, 2002). Research on energetics gives insight into how humans interact with their environment and how differences in body shape and size can impact that interaction. This understanding is particularly insightful for humans living in the backcountry for extended periods of time. Selecting food types and amounts to meet high-energy demands in the backcountry setting is a challenge, because energy demand models have primarily been based on lab studies that, in hindsight, appear to routinely underestimate energy demands …

03. Biology, University Of Central Oklahoma

Oklahoma Research Day Abstracts

No abstract provided.

The Pikeminnow Against The Dam, Lucy Andrews

Gateway Prize for Excellent Writing

No abstract provided.

The Study Of Agricultural Non-Point Source Pollution Control Policy System, Qin Xu

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

As the agricultural non-point source pollution(ANPSP) has become the most significant threat for water environmental deterioration and lake eutrophication in China, more and more scientists and technologists are focusing on the control countermeasure and pollution mechanism of agricultural non-point source pollution. The unreasonable rural production structure and limited scientific management measures are the main reasons for acute ANSPS problems in China. At present, the problem for pollution control is a lack of specific regulations, which affects the government's management efficiency.

According to these characteristics and problems, this paper puts forward some corresponding policies. The status of the agricultural non-point source …

The View From Ventress - 2014, University Of Mississippi. College Of Liberal Arts

Liberal Arts Newsletters

Special Section: The Rise of Health Professions. Over the past decade, the health-care sector added jobs month after month, even when jobs were disappearing elsewhere in the economy. The field is projected to add many more in the coming decade, so it makes sense that the number of students majoring in health-related fields rose sharply. Roughly one in 10 college graduates now gets a health-related degree.

Hydropower Development In Himachal Pradesh: A Stakeholder Equity Analysis, Eliott Rousseau

Undergraduate Review

Seen as the champion of green energy to some and environmentally disastrous to others, hydropower is a multifaceted issue. As it continues to be developed in India, some of the most remote locations and vulnerable people are being affected. This paper holistically examines the process of hydropower development in rural Himachal Pradesh. The locus of this study is tribal region of Bharmour Tehsil within Chamba District of Himachal Pradesh, India. Aspects pertaining to project commission, the consent process, and government sponsored rural development schemes are examined, with emphasis given to equity among rural stakeholders. The nature of this project was …

Networks Of Users And Powers: Blackboard Software Roadmap As Cultural Practice, Diana Gellci

Wayne State University Dissertations

With the rapid growth of eLearning applications - the software providing for learning through the Internet - it has become commonplace to describe those technologies as both simple tools and user-friendly. These two vague yet suggestive terms make the operating of the technology appear as social value and any related issues as a user's problem. Interested neo-liberal groups take a step further when considering eLearning technologies as the solution for the problems faced in the field. STS studies recognize that technology fetishism is strategically employed to justify the latest developments of capitalism as technological and logical.

This doctoral study examines …

Proceedings Of The 126th Annual Meeting Of The Iowa Academy Of Science [Program, 2014], Iowa Academy Of Science

Iowa Academy of Science Documents

Contents:

Program Summary --- 2-3
Acknowledgements --- 4
Contents --- 5
Iowa Junior Academy of Science Competition --- 6
General Session I --- 7
Iowa Junior Academy of Science Award Luncheon --- 8
Iowa Academy of Science Business Meeting --- 8
Necrology --- 8
Special Events --- 9
Iowa Academy of Science 2012-2013 Volunteers --- 10-11
Symposium A --- 12
Symposium B --- 13
Symposium C --- 14
Senior Poster Session Program --- 15-19
Social Hour --- 20
President's Banquet --- 20-21
General Session II --- 22
General Session III --- 23
Excellence in Science Teaching Awards Luncheon --- 24 …

Coastal Geology And Recent Origins For Sand Point, Lake Superior, Timothy G. Fisher, David E. Krantz, Mario R. Castaneda, Walter L. Loope, Harry M. Jol, Ronald J. Goble, Melinda C. Higley, Samantha Dewald, Paul R. Hanson

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

Sand Point is a small cuspate foreland located along the southeastern shore of Lake Superior within Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore near Munising, Michigan. Park managers’ concerns for the integrity of historic buildings at the northern periphery of the point during the rising lake levels in the mid-1980s greatly elevated the priority of research into the geomorphic history and age of Sand Point. To pursue this priority, we recovered sediment cores from four ponds on Sand Point, assessed subsurface stratigraphy onshore and offshore using geophysical techniques, and interpreted the chronology of events using radiocarbon and luminescence dating. Sand Point formed at …

2014-2015 Nova Southeastern University Undergraduate Student Catalog, Nova Southeastern University

Undergraduate Programs Course Catalogs

No abstract provided.

Eastern Michigan University Graduate Catalog, 2014-2015, Office Of The Registrar

Graduate Catalogs

No abstract provided.

Gene Expression Of Components Of The Insulin/Insulin-Like Signaling Pathway In Response To Heat Stress In The Garter Snake, Thamnophis Elegans, Tonia S. Schwartz, Anne M. Bronikowski

Journal of the Iowa Academy of Science: JIAS

The insulin/insulin-like signaling (IIS) pathway is an evolutionary conserved molecular signaling pathway that regulates growth, reproduction, stress resistance, and longevity in response to nutrition and external stress. While the constituents of this pathway and their functions are relatively well understood in laboratory model animals, they have not been explored in many other organisms, with notable exceptions in the fisheries literature. We tested for the gene expression of four key components of this pathway in the garter snake (Thamnophis elegans) liver, and determine how the transcription of these components responds to heat stress. We found that the two insulin-like …

Synchronous Rotation In The Eclipsing Binary 68 Herculis Inferred From Doppler Shifts In Its Spectrum And Light Curve Modeling, Kenneth W. Mclaughlin, Janak Panthi

Journal of the Iowa Academy of Science: JIAS

Our differential photometry of the eclipsing binary 68 Herculis through V- and R-filters shows periodic minima consistent with a previously established period. As a function of its orbital motion, we report spectra over a limited wavelength range encompassing H-alpha 656.3 nm and helium 667.8 nm lines. Doppler shifts of both stars were resolved in H-alpha, while only the more massive star rendered the helium line with Doppler shifts that agree with the radial velocity we derive for it from the H-alpha profile. Sinusoidal curve-fits to the orbital dependence of the radial velocities imply circular orbits for both components, with amplitudes …

Improved Functional Prediction Of Hypothetical Proteins From Listeria Monocytogenes 08-5578, Michael J. Lagier, Brittany Bowman, Kelsey Brend, Katherine Hobbs, Michael Foggia, Mark Mcdaniel

Journal of the Iowa Academy of Science: JIAS

Listeria monocytogenes is a foodborne human pathogen responsible for listerosis. The genomes of several L. monocytogenes strains have been recently sequenced. The genome of L. monocytogenes 08-5578, which was in part responsible for a significant listerosis outbreak in 2008, contains an unexpectedly high percentage of protein-encoding genes (1,927 out of 3,161; 60.96%) autonomously annotated as hypothetical proteins. The aim of this study was to test whether a manual annotation strategy could be used to assign more meaningful functional names to the hypothetical proteins of 08-5578. A holistic, manual gene annotation strategy that utilized sequence homology, cellular localization predictions, structure-based evidence, …

The Role Of An Urban Tallgrass Prairie Remnant In Conservation: A Case Study In Central Iowa (Usa), Jimmie D. Thompson, Deborah Q. Lewis, William R. Norris

Journal of the Iowa Academy of Science: JIAS

Although more than 85% of Iowa (USA) was covered by tallgrass prairie at the time of settlement by Europeans in the early 19th century, less than 0.1% remains. The Richard W. Pohl State Preserve at Ames (IA) High School, surrounded on three sides by structures, roads, and other development, protects 4 ha of tallgrass prairie. The preserve, commonly referred to as Ames High Prairie (AHP), was grazed but never plowed under private ownership until its acquisition by the Ames School District in 1959.

Although considered for development as a parking lot or football field in the 1960s, the residents of …

Cover

Journal of the Iowa Academy of Science: JIAS

No abstract provided.

Hispanic Communities And Environmental Justice: A Comparative Study Of Mobility And Exposure To Air Toxics In Houston, Maricarmen Hernandez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Environmental justice research has focused too little attention on immigrant communities. This study extends from the premise that themes of immigration and mobility among racial/ethnic minority communities must be more carefully analyzed by environmental justice (EJ) scholars. By clarifying why Hispanic people live where they live, and what factors shape their exposures to cancer risks from hazardous air pollutants, this study aims to contribute to the existing EJ body of knowledge. The analysis employs qualitative methods, implemented as part of a larger National Science Foundation-funded study. In-depth semi-structured phone interviews were conducted with randomly selected Hispanic individuals, some of whom …

Folk Food Webs And The Role Of Praxis In Substantive Ecological Knowledge, Yancey Orr, Brian Hallmark

Environmental Science and Policy: Faculty Publications

In the second half of the 20th century, investigations of indigenous environmental knowledge have been the subject of broader anthropological debates over how knowledge and experience are formed. Many such approaches have focused on environmental nomenclature and taxonomy, or what Roy Ellen has called "formal lexical knowledge" (1999). Such knowledge is readily available to an ethnographer and also more easily transmitted through language between subjects. These characteristics of formal lexical knowledge have led to considerable attention given to differences in environmental knowledge between cultures and have possibly resulted in the inflation of the efficacy of language in forming knowledge. However, …

Delayed Rejection Algorithm To Estimate Bayesian Social Networks, Alberto Caimo, Antonietta Mira

Articles

Statistical social network analysis has become a very active and fertile area of research in the recent past. Recent developments in Bayesian computational methods have been successfully applied to estimate social network models. The Delayed rejection (DR) strategy is a modification of the Metropolis-Hastings (MH) algorithms that reduces the variance of the resulting Markov chain Monte Carlo estimators and allows partial adaptation of the proposal distribution. In this paper we show how the DR strategy can be exploited to estimate dyadic independence social network models leading to an average 40% variance reduction relative to the competing MH algorithm, confirming that …

Bergm: Bayesian Exponential Random Graphs In R, Alberto Caimo, Nial Friel

Articles

In this paper we describe the main featuress of the Bergm package for the open-source R software which provides a comprehensive framework for Bayesian analysis for exponential random graph models: tools for parameter estimation, model selection and goodness-of-fit diagnostics. We illustrate the capabilities of this package describing the algorithms through a tutorial analysis of three network datasets.