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The View From Ventress - 2022-23 Academic Year, University Of Mississippi, College Of Liberal Arts

Liberal Arts Newsletters

News from the College of Liberal Arts

Translation Speed Influence On Tropical Cyclone Storm Tide And Surge Generation Along The Gulf Of Mexico Coast, Samantha L. Camarda

LSU Master's Theses

This research examines tropical cyclone translation speed as a factor in storm tide and surge height upon landfall on the United States Gulf Coast. Understanding the effect of translation speed on peak storm tide/surge height is needed to better prepare for and predict future damage from tropical cyclone events. Tropical cyclone data are taken from hourly interpolated best-track HURDAT2 data from 1970–2021. This study uses the HURDAT2 hourly interpolated observation data points (24-hours) pre-landfall to landfall. Translation speed is calculated based on the distance traversed between hourly points. Peak storm tide and storm surge data are taken from SURGEDAT from …

Investigating Mobility In The Northern Balkans During The Fifth Millenium Bc Through Strontium Analysis Of Human Tooth Enamel, Aurélien Tafani

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research investigates how individual mobility among ancient populations in Romania during the Eneolithic, between 5000 and 4000 BC, may be related to the spread of the material culture known as Kodjadermen-Gumelniţa-Karonovo VI (KGK VI) that extended over most of southern Romania and Bulgaria. This work seeks to combine results on individual mobility with other lines of archaeological evidence to provide a better understanding of the social context and kinship relationships that were in place when these events took place.

Strontium isotopic analyses were performed on 130 individuals from two sites located in the southern Romania: 49 from Sultana and …

Utahns' Perceptions Of Climate Change And Disaster Vulnerabilities, Mufti Nadimul Quamar Ahmed, Jennifer E. Givens, Peter D. Howe, Jessica D. Ulrich-Schad

Utah People and Environment Poll (UPEP)

Climate change increases the frequency and severity of extreme weather events, making people more vulnerable in a variety of ways^1-2. It is essential to determine if individuals believe they are susceptible to the effects of climate change in order to develop effective adaptation strategies.

Climate change has contributed to extreme weather occurrences in Utah in recent years. For instance, in the summer of 2022, there was a severe or extreme drought in all of Utah's counties³. Health effects of drought vary with intensity⁴ and can cause climate related deaths directly and indirectly, such as by …

Editorial: Solutions To Water Crises (Related To Actual Interventions), Jenia Mukherjee, Saket Pande, Melissa Haeffner, Sara Marks, Pieter Van Oel, Matthew Sanderson, Adriana Allen

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Water science has become “pluralistic” (Evers et al., 2017) to collectively (yet differently) understand complex water systems with promising combinations of compatible and complementary disciplines. The contemporary context of water science discusses the more severe water-society challenges of the Anthropocene. Yet, the conversation is not definitive; indeed, there are unending debates between quantitative and qualitative research approaches including methodological choices and accuracies along questions of scales, themes, and politics of funding. Transdisciplinary applications and cross-sectoral engagements offer solution-oriented water just trajectories – scientists, practitioners, and user groups designing and deploying “solutions” related to actual interventions in addressing water …

First Approximation Of Population Distributions On The International Space Station, Justin St. P. Walsh, Rao Hamza Ali, Alice C. Gorman, Amir Kanan Kashefi

Art Faculty Articles and Research

This paper presents an analysis of data derived from thousands of publicly available photographs showing life on the International Space Station (ISS) between 2000 and 2020. Our analysis uses crew and locational information from the photographs’ metadata to identify the distribution of different population groups—by gender, nationality, and space agency affiliation—across modules of the ISS, for the first time. Given the significance of the ISS as the most intensively inhabited space habitat to date, an international cooperative initiative involving 26 countries and five space agencies, and one of the most expensive building projects ever undertaken by humans, developing an understanding …

2023 Celebration Of Scholarship, Creativity, And Engagement, Todd Bruns, Diane Highland

Programs

Annually, Eastern Illinois University honors faculty achievements in the areas of research, creativity, and engagement. This year, the list of faculty accomplishments is again truly impressive, reflective of an engaged faculty committed to excellence and the ongoing pursuit and creation of knowledge. A number of these accomplishments occurred in collaboration with our students, who serve as co-authors, research assistants and partners in bringing these activities to fruition. Indeed, in some cases these professional ambitions transpired over the course of many years, and are a testament to persistence and tenacity--ensuring that these works extend to a broader community of scholars that …

Entanglements Of Teenage Food Security Within High School Pantries In Pinellas County, Florida, Karen T. Díaz Serrano

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Food insecurity has the ability to shape an individual’s or a family’s everyday life and take emotional, psychological, and physical tolls. Among adolescents, not having access to nutritious food could lead to physical effects during growth and development. Moreover, the stress and anxiety of not knowing where their next meal is coming from and the social stigma associated with being food insecure can have negative effects on mental health. A recent solution to these issues is locating food pantries in high schools. Purpose: This exploratory study examined how high school students in Pinellas County, Florida perceive the use of a …

The Santa Clara, 2023-10-13, Santa Clara University

The Santa Clara

No abstract provided.

Synthesizing Sentience: Integrating Large Language Models And Autonomous Agents For Emulating Human Cognitive Complexity, Jay Ratican, James Hutson, Daniel Plate

Faculty Scholarship

The paper aims to present a novel methodology for emulating the intricacies of human cognitive complexity by ingeniously integrating large language models with autonomous agents. Grounded in the theoretical framework of the modular mind theory-originally espoused by Fodor and later refined by scholars such as Joanna Bryson—the study seeks to venture into the untapped potential of large language models and autonomous agents in mirroring human cognition. Recent advancements in artificial intelligence, exemplified by the inception of autonomous agents like Age in GPT, auto GPT, and baby AGI, underscore the transformative capacities of these technologies in diverse applications. Moreover, empirical studies …

Friends In High Places: Establishing Pollination Networks For The Páramos Of Central Ecuador, Emma Diaz

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Well-known for being a global biodiversity hotspot, the Andean Páramos hosts a unique array of floristic diversity seen nowhere else in the world (Luteyn, n.d.). With the resiliency of this ecosystem dependent on the successful reproduction of these plants, it is crucial to understand the pollination network which sustains them. Modern-day research has outlined networks in the Chilean, Venezuelan, and Argentinean Páramos, but one has yet to be defined for Ecuador, despite being the suspected home to nearly half of floristic diversity in the Páramos (Arroyo et al., 1985; Pelayo et al., 2021; Medan et al., 2023; Caranqui et al., …

“Without Water, Nothing”: Examining The Water Saving Practices Of Women In Amman Under Periodic Water Supply, Rory Dixon

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Jordan is among the most water-scarce countries in the world. Consequently, water is only pumped to households once a week and households store water in tanks to last them until the next water day. Women conducting housework do so under conditions of environmental stress that this research calls resource-scarce domestic labor. In this study, I apply an eco-feminist lens to examine the water-saving practices women employ to manage and conserve domestic water supplies. I explore the larger causes of these behaviors including climate change, government management, and regional politics. Resource-scarce domestic labor is not a practice unique to Jordan and …

Analyzing Human - Nonhuman Primate Conflict Mitigation Techniques In Mto Wa Mbu, Northern Tanzania, Lily Adams

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Human – non-human primate conflict is particularly crucial due to primates’ high capacity to live among human populations. The study to analyze Human - Nonhuman Primate Conflict Mitigation Techniques, was carried in November 2023 at Mto wa Mbu, Northern Tanzania. To analyze techniques currently being used to mitigate human – non-human primate conflict, this study collected data through semi-structured interviews. Over 87% (n=35) of respondents used multiple mitigation techniques simultaneously. 80% of respondents (n=32) reported using projectiles to ward off foraging primates, 75% of respondents (n=30) reported using loud noises (made either by the voice/body or by manipulating noisemakers), 67.5% …

Always Sunny In Zanzibar: Exploring Solar Power On The Island, Quinn Brannan

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

As Zanzibar continues along its developmental path, the island’s energy infrastructure takes on a central role in future plans for growth. Critically, as the population grows and tourist presence is predicted to increase, the island is presented with the combined problem of supplying a greater volume of energy, while also providing a more reliable source to its existing populace. In this study, I will examine existing solar energy systems for capacity, accessibility, and reliability, as well as evaluate their efficacy in providing a functional source of power, both now and in the future. I conduct interviews with assorted stakeholders in …

Lha, Lu, And Shipda: Religious Landscape In A Conservation Area, Luke Stumpfl

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Living in a political, cultural, and geographic border region between Nepal and Tibet (People’s Republic of China), the families of Tsum Valley face many demands from their sociopolitical, religious, and economic climate. Practicing Tibetan Buddhism, the people uphold a set of rules implemented by the community with leadership from Serap Dorje Drukpa Rinpoche over 100 years ago that prohibits the intentional murder of all animals. Hailed by leaders and scholars as a haven of biodiversity conservation due to this customary-turned- municipal law, Tsum Valley also exists within Manaslu Conservation Area governed by an entity of the federal government of Nepal …

Digital Scholarship And Data Science Intersect In Libraries: A Needs Assessment Report, Halie Kerns

Library Created Resources

The following report summarized the results of a needs assessment completed in the fall of 2023 at Binghamton University by the Libraries’ Digital Scholarship team. The aim was to understand how data science-focused programming, as part of the digital scholarship’s offerings, would be utilized on campus. The report evaluates existing literature, summarizes findings from twenty-eight interviews done across campus, and lays out an action plan for the Digital Scholarship team’s future planning.

Patrimonio Cultural, Arqueología, Medio Ambiente Y Economía: ¿Cómo Ha Afectado La Construcción Del Aeropuerto Internacional De Chinchero-Cusco A Las Comunidades Y La Tierra De Chinchero?, Sydney Berenson

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

La urbanización gubernamental ha sido un problema para las poblaciones indígenas, el medio ambiente y la protección del patrimonio cultural durante numerosos años en todo el Perú. Más recientemente, en la pequeña ciudad de Chinchero, ubicada a unos 30 kilómetros al noroeste de Cusco, se está construyendo un nuevo aeropuerto internacional, Aeropuerto Internacional de Chinchero-Cusco (AICC), para reemplazar el actual aeropuerto nacional de Cusco. Chinchero es un importante centro urbano que está conformado por 13 comunidades campesinas que participan en la industria agrícola de la región, además consta con una importante comunidad artesanal, ruinas arqueológicas precolombinas y una gran biodiversidad. …

Poor Water Quality Persists In Diverse Urban Communities, Rae Cade, Danlin Yu, Kyle Whyte, Pankaj Lal, Cortni Borgerson

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

While humans need water to survive, water can also efficiently transmit microbial diseases and heavy metals to consumers. Over 50,000 water violations occurred in 2020 and such burdens were not borne equally amongst consumers. Yet, the factors that drive such variation remain unclear. We examined the interactions between water quality and inherited equity gaps in one of the most diverse urban areas in the United States. We used publicly available drinking water datasets to determine which contaminant was most prevalent between 2010–2020 and who was significantly more likely to be affected by this contamination. We found that a lack of …

Microplastics In Marine Sediments From Dar Es Salaam Coast: Spatial Distribution And Characterization, Macarius P. Mtega, Matobola J. Mihale, Kessy F. Kilulya

Tanzania Journal of Science

The purpose of the research was to determine the spatial distribution and characterization of microplastics in marine sediments of beaches along the Indian Ocean of Dar es Salaam coast. The sediment samples were extracted in triplicate using floatation method followed by digestion of organic debris, then analyzed using At-FTIR spectrophotometer and stereomicroscope. The mean concentrations of microplastics for Kijichi Beach were 700 ± 907 particles/m2 at 1 cm, 859 ± 839 particles/m2 at 5 cm and 590 ± 782 particles/m2 at 10 cm; from Palm Beach were 157 ± 15 particles/m2 at 1 cm, 130 ± 182 particles/m2 at 5 …

Learning To Care For Dangaba, Anne Poelina, Yin Paradies, Sandra Wooltorton, Edwin L. Mulligan, Laurie Guimond, Libby Jackson-Barrett, Mindy Blaise

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

In a Kimberley place-based cultural story, Dangaba is a woman whose Country holds poison gas. Her story shows the importance of cultural ways of understanding and caring for Country, especially hazardous places. The authors contrast this with a corporate story of fossil fuel, illustrating the divergent discourses and approaches to place. Indigenous and local peoples and their knowledge, cultures, laws, philosophies and practices are vitally important to Indigenous lifeways and livelihoods, and critically significant to the long-term health and well-being of people and place in our locality, region and world. We call for storying and narratives from the pluriverse of …

Exploring Nonprofit Views On Water Management And Conservation Strategies, Jillian Marie Farley

Dissertations and Theses

Valuing water resources presents a multitude of methodological and theoretical challenges, including economics, biodiversity, and cultural significance. Information is not readily available on the individuals working every day on water resource management and how they navigate such a complex topic. This project is designed to help all parties better understand the opinions of individuals working for nonprofit organizations and Watershed Councils in the State of Oregon about current methods of water resource conservation. The results reflect respondents’ personal views on the process and practices of valuing water and are designed to prompt deeper discussions between the organizations, communities, and policymakers. …

Managing Fires And Ecosystems Indigenous Fire Ecologies Session_Greenhouse Gas Emissions From Wildland Fires Workshop, Cynthia Twyford Fowler

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Extraction, Property, And Rights In Southeastern Arabian Seascapes C.1820–Present, Scott Erich

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation is a historical and ethnographic examination of fish, pearl, sponge, and oil extraction in the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman. These waters, which were fished and labored upon in much of the same way for millennia, have, in the last two centuries, undergone a sea change. Regimes of property and rights have transformed the ocean from a wild and undifferentiated space into a place which is enclosed, privatized, industrially fished, drilled, and otherwise despoiled. This dissertation, building on recent works in environmental history, Indian Ocean studies, and legal and economic anthropology, probes the many cultural, religious, social, …

The Implications Of Solidarity For Food Ethics, John Sniegocki

The Journal of Social Encounters

This essay examines numerous ways in which commitments to solidarity have relevance in the area of food ethics. Among the topics explored are food insecurity and hunger, workers’ rights, ecology, and the treatment of animals. Particular attention is paid to the impacts of the production and consumption of animal products. These issues are examined through the lens of the developing understanding of solidarity present in the tradition of Catholic social teaching (CST). The ethical framework provided by CST, it is suggested, could be further enhanced by insights drawn from the growing tradition of “Black veganism” and its holistic, intersectional understanding …

A Neural-Network-Based Landscape Search Engine: Lse Wisconsin, Matthew Haffner, Matthew Dewitte, Papia F. Rozario, Gustavo A. Ovando-Montejo

Environment and Society Faculty Publications

The task of image retrieval is common in the world of data science and deep learning, but it has received less attention in the field of remote sensing. The authors seek to fill this gap in research through the presentation of a web-based landscape search engine for the US state of Wisconsin. The application allows users to select a location on the map and to find similar locations based on terrain and vegetation characteristics. It utilizes three neural network models—VGG16, ResNet-50, and NasNet—on digital elevation model data, and uses the NDVI mean and standard deviation for comparing vegetation data. The …

Spatio-Temporal Scales Of Animal Grazing In Herding Systems, Hossein Barani

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

A holistic approach is needed for natural resources management and this demands understanding of the role of all the components in a system. Animal grazing is one of the most important processes in rangeland ecosystems. In rangeland utilisation in Iran, the human herder is crucial in achieving sound management. This study focused on the role of the human as a grazier (herder).

Factors Related To Marketing Successes For Fibre Producers In Middle Asia, R. B. Boone, K. A. Galvin

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, the economic well-being of livestock producers of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan declined dramatically (see Kerven 2003; Kerven et al., 2003). Like the economies in general, the livestock economies are slowly recovering and restructuring. Livestock producers have been encouraged by international market prices to raise sheep, goats, camels, and animals producing specialty fibre. Fine-fibre sheep and goats remain in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, but marketing of fibres from the region is not ideal. As examples, sheep pelts are not sorted and graded, which is expected by international buyers, and cashmere is …

Cashmere Marketing Is A New Income Source For Central Asian Livestock Farmers, R. H. Behnke, C. Kerven, S. Aryngaziev, N. Malmakov, H. Redden, A. Smailov, K. A. Galvin

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Some indigenous goats in the Central Asian republics of Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan produce good quality cashmere (Millar 1986). International processors have recently been buying this cashmere. (Kerven et al., 2005), but Central Asian producers are not equipped to take full advantage of these new marketing opportunities. The U.S. AID Global Livestock-Collaborative Research Support Program project, "Developing Institutions and capacity for sheep and fiber marketing in Central Asia" is working to increase the income of small-scale livestock farmers through improved cashmere marketing.

Production Strategies Of Livestock Herders In The Grasslands Of Kazakhstan: Implications For The Marketing Of Fine Fibres, Kathleen A. Galvin, C. Kerven, R. B. Boone, A. Smailov

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Goat populations have been rising in Kazakhstan over the past ten years since independence and goats are preferred by farmers trying to restock. Quality of cashmere production is the key to profitable and sustainable sales to world markets for this luxury good. However, Kazakhstan did not develop a cashmere industry in the Soviet period so today goats are sheared rather than combed and little profit is made from cashmere. Goats, as well as sheep and camels are currently multi-purpose animals providing income from sales of animals, cashmere, milk and meat. This will change as the terms of trade change for …

Exploring Set-Theoretic Practices Of Youth Engagement In Connective Journalism: What We Lose In School-Mathematical Descriptions, Alexandra R. Aguilar, Emma C. Gargroetzi, Lynne M. Zummo, Emma P. Bene

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

Analyzing youth video submissions regarding COVID-19 to KQED’s ‘Let’s Talk About the Election’ website, we explore the mathematics these youth engaged in through their submissions without creating any explicit connection to school mathematical concepts or standards. Our focus is the students’ construction of sets (e.g. sets of nurses, doctors, American workers), as a means of creating connection with voters and other media authors through Marchi and Clark’s (2021) construct of connective journalism. We observe these youth constructing sets of varying sizes and reflecting on how these sets are contextualized within a larger political dialogue. We also attempt to rewrite part …