Digital Commons Network^™

Equilibrium Sampling Used To Monitor Malodors In A Swine Waste Lagoon, Rezaul Mahmood

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Cultural Advantages In China: Tale Of Six Cities, Florentin Smarandache, Fu Yuhua, Victor Christianto

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

Nowadays, plenty of factories from Europe and other developed countries have been relocated to this country, considering its tremendous economic scale and rapid growth rate during the past three decades. But most of what happens inside the China nowadays is deeply hidden from the outside world (“the foreigners” as China people would call). This fact is partly because most reports on China were written by the so‐called fly‐high experts who are busy completing their reports despite a busy schedule. Very few books or reports were written by people inside, or at least “foreigners” who spent a few years in China. …

A Critical Examination Of Sustainability Considerations In Yukon Environmental Assessment—Past And Present, Louisa M. Clementino

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The Northern regions of Canada, as a result of landscape characteristics and political and cultural dynamics, present unique challenges and opportunities for meeting sustainability goals through environmental assessment (EA) processes. In order to understand the significance of the EA process in the North and its applicability to fulfilling sustainability goals, the past and present EA regimes of the Yukon are evaluated adopting a sustainability-focused framework. Unique changes to the Yukon EA process, as a result of land claim agreements and devolution have created innovative structures and processes, reflective of the environmental, socio-economic, cultural and political circumstances of the region. The …

Hydrological Response Patterns And Solute Flux In Canadian Shield Basins: Role Of Different Physical Features And Antecedent Moisture Conditions, Jessica Mueller

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Patterns of stream flow in relatively undisturbed Canadian Shield basins are closely linked to their physical and vegetative characteristics and meteorological conditions. The physical characteristics include topography, soil-till composition, depth and structure, slope morphology and bedrock geology. Hydrological flowpaths through, and in-situ chemical processes in the soil-till matrix are influenced greatly by the composition of these features and by the antecedent hydrological conditions preceding a given storm or snowmelt event.

A long term data set, collected by the Dorset Environmental Science Centre, is used to examine eight forested basins within the Muskoka-Haliburton region of south-central Ontario. The basins have a …

Glacial Ecosystems, Amy Hodson, Alexandre M. Anesio, Martyn Tranter, Andrew G. Fountain, Mark Osborn, John Charles Priscu, Johanna Laybourn-Perry, Birgit Sattler

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

There is now compelling evidence that microbially mediated reactions impart a significant effect upon the dynamics, composition, and abundance of nutrients in glacial melt water. Consequently, we must now consider ice masses as ecosystem habitats in their own right and address their diversity, functional potential, and activity as part of alpine and polar environments. Although such research is already underway, its fragmentary nature provides little basis for developing modern concepts of glacier ecology. This paper therefore provides a much-needed framework for development by reviewing the physical, biogeochemical, and microbiological characteristics of microbial habitats that have been identified within glaciers and …

Characterization Of The Lucinid Bivalve-Bacteria Symbiotic System: The Significance Of The Geochemical Habitat On Bacterial Symbiont Diversity And Phylogeny, Angela Marissa Green-Garcia

LSU Master's Theses

Extensive characterization of a single lucinid bivalve habitat was conducted to characterize the relationship between host bivalve and thiotrophic bacterial endosymbionts. For lucinids, the ecological and evolutionary relationships between hosts and endosymbionts are poorly understood. Reconstructing the evolutionary history of lucinid endosymbiosis, and the geologic significance of the association, has been hampered by insufficient knowledge of endosymbiont ecology and taxonomic diversity. Host organisms (Lucinisca nassula and Phacoides pectinatus) were collected from Cedar Keys, Florida, within the top 15-20 cm of the sediment in sea grass beds. PCR amplification and sequencing of bacterial 16S rRNA genes from lucinid gills and sediment …

Vegetation Identification Based On Satellite Imagery, Vamsi K.R. Mantena, Ramu Pedada, Srinivas Jakkula, Yuzhong Shen, Jiang Li, Hamid R. Arabnia (Ed.)

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Automatic vegetation identification plays an important role in many applications including remote sensing and high performance flight simulations. This paper presents a method to automatically identify vegetation based upon satellite imagery. First, we utilize the ISODATA algorithm to cluster pixels in the images where the number of clusters is determined by the algorithm. We then apply morphological operations to the clustered images to smooth the boundaries between clusters and to fill holes inside clusters. After that, we compute six features for each cluster. These six features then go through a feature selection algorithm and three of them are determined to …

Dactyls Reveal Evolutionary Patterns In Decapod Crustaceans, Jeffrey Guy Agnew

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Because of their high preservation potential and uses in foraging and defense, decapod crustacean dactyls (movable fingers of claws) are potentially excellent test subjects for an ongoing debate concerning the relative importance of top-down (predators) and bottom-up (prey) controls on morphologic diversification and evolution. The utility of dactyls for inferring evolutionary patterns were evaluated using living and subfossil xanthoid crabs sampled from the southeast U.S. Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts, and were used to: (1) distinguish the roles of selection and constraint on dactyl morphology through allometric and shape comparisons in the context of the crab’s phylogenetic relationships and …

Unresolved Issues With The Assessment Of Multidecadal Global Land Surface Temperature Trends, Roger A. Pielke Sr., Christopher A. Davey, Dev Niyogi, Souleymane Fall, Jesse Steinweg-Woods, Ken Hubbard, Xiaomao Lin, Ming Cai, Young-Kwon Lim, Hong Li, John Nielsen-Gammon, Kevin Gallo, Robert Hale, Rezaul Mahmood, Stuart Foster, Richard T. Mcnider, Peter Blanken

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

This paper documents various unresolved issues in using surface temperature trends as a metric for assessing global and regional climate change. A series of examples ranging from errors caused by temperature measurements at a monitoring station to the undocumented biases in the regionally and globally averaged time series are provided. The issues are poorly understood or documented and relate to micrometeorological impacts due to warm bias in nighttime minimum temperatures, poor siting of the instrumentation, effect of winds as well as surface atmospheric water vapor content on temperature trends, the quantification of uncertainties in the homogenization of surface temperature data, …

Toward A New Generation Of Ice Sheet Models, Christopher M. Little, Michael Oppenheimer, Richard B. Alley, Venkatramani Balaji, Garry K. C. Clarke, Thomas L. Delworth, Robert Hallberg, David Holland, Christina L. Hulbe, Stan Jacobs, Jesse V. Johnson, Hiram Levy, William Lipscomb, Shawn J. Marshall, Byron R. Parizek, Antony J. Payne, Gavin A. Schmidt, Ronald J. Stouffer, David G. Vaughan, Michael Winton

Computer Science Faculty Publications

This report summarizes the conclusions and recommendations of a 1-day workshop on ice sheet modeling held at the NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory on 8 January 2007, sponsored by NOAA and by the Program in Science, Technology, and Environmental Policy of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, N. J.

Biogeochemical Evolution Of Cryoconite Holes On Canada Glacier, Taylor Valley, Antarctica, Elizabeth A. Bagshaw, Martyn Tranter, Andrew G. Fountain, Kathleen A. Welch, Hassan J. Basagic, W. Berry Lyons

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

The cryoconite holes of the McMurdo Dry Valleys are simple, closed biogeochemical systems involving water, ice, mineral and organic debris, which serve as ecosystems for consortia of microorganisms. This study is the first to document the seasonal and annual chemical evolution of solutes in cryoconite holes. Samples of glacier ice, frozen cryoconite holes and those containing water were collected during the austral summer of 2005–2006. The isolation age was calculated from the excess Cl‾ in the holes, and varied from 0 to 5 years (a), consistent with the last hot summer when the cryoconite holes were open to the atmosphere. …

Wildfire Effects On Water Temperature And Selection Of Breeding Sites By The Boreal Toad (Bufo Boreas) In Seasonal Wetlands, Blake R. Hossack, Paul Stephen Corn

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Disturbances can significantly affect the thermal regime and community structure of wetlands. We investigated the effect of a wildfire on water temperature of seasonal, montane wetlands after documenting the colonization of recently burned wetlands by the Boreal Toad (Bufo boreas boreas). We compared the daily mean temperature, daily maximum temperature, and accumulated growing degree·days measured on the north shore of three classes of wetlands: unburned wetlands, burned wetlands that were colonized by breeding toads, and burned wetlands that were not colonized. We hypothesized that toads colonized burned wetlands because they were warmer than unburned wetlands and selected specific …

Constructed Wetlands For The Landscape Nursery Industry: Nutrient Assimilation And Removal, Sarah White

All Dissertations

Runoff from nursery operations is considered a potential non-point source contamination. Water quality and quantity are quickly becoming important factors that drive management practices at these facilities. Constructed wetland systems (CWS) are a management tool that can be used by nursery operations to improve water quality both for recycling within nursery production areas and for eventual release from nursery production areas into surrounding surface waters. The overall goal of this research was to optimize nutrient removal efficiencies in CWS. To accomplish this goal, I characterized the following: (1) the P sorption and desorption capacity of several substrates; (2) the effect …

Geochemical Reconstruction Of Late Holocene Drainage And Mixing In Kluane Lake, Yukon Territory, Janice Brahney, John J. Clague, Brian Menounos, Thomas W. D. Edwards

Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications

The level of Kluane Lake in southwest Yukon Territory, Canada, has fluctuated tens of metres during the late Holocene. Contributions of sediment from different watersheds in the basin over the past 5,000 years were inferred from the elemental geochemistry of Kluane Lake sediment cores. Elements associated with organic material and oxyhydroxides were used to reconstruct redox fluctuations in the hypolimnion of the lake. The data reveal complex relationships between climate and river discharge during the late Holocene. A period of influx of Duke River sediment coincides with a relatively warm climate around 1,300 years BP. Discharge of Slims River into …

Space As A New Sphere Of Future Information Warfare, Martti Lehto

Australian Information Warfare and Security Conference

Air power has seen constant development from the Wright Flyer’s first flight at Kitty Hawk on December 17, 1903 via the advent of the jet age with the service entry of the Messerschmitt Me 262 in 1942, to today’s multirole fighters (F-35 Joint Strike Fighter) and stealth aircraft (B-2 Spirit multi-role bomber). As a result of this evolution of one hundred years air power has emerged as a central component in power projection. As General William Mitchell said: ”Neither armies nor navies can exist unless the air is controlled over them.” (Mitchell 1925, xv)We have witnessed a corresponding development in …

Construction And Analysis Of An Ozone Profile Climatology Over Houston, Texas, Gary A. Morris, Anne M. Thompson, Ryan Perna, John Yorks, Bernhard Rappengluek, Greg Ostermann, Barry Lefer, Renee Boudreaux, Aaron Chow, Bonnie Ford, Elizabeth Thompson, Scott Hersey, Brittni Emery

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Presentations

Since the summer of 2004, over 200 ozonesondes have been launched from the campuses of Rice University or the University of Houston (29.7 N, 95.3 W), each about 3 miles from downtown Houston. These sounding launches have been sponsored by NASA, the Shell Center for Sustainability of Rice University, and the Texas Commissions for Environmental Quality as part of a large effort to understand Houston’s ozone problem. Data from these soundings have provided valuable insight into the seasonal and diurnal variations of the vertical ozone distribution and their relationship to changes in atmospheric conditions. In this presentation, we show annual …

Commuting Analysis In A Small Metropolitan Area - A Case Study Of Bowling Green/Warren County, Kentucky, Caitlin Hagar

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

In previous studies of urban commutes, little attention has been paid to commute patterns in smaller urban areas. In this study, the concept of "excess commute" (EC) is applied to the Bowling Green-Warren County Metropolitan Statistical Area (BGWCMSA) in Kentucky. EC quantifies the portion of commute distance explained by the overall spatial separation of jobs and households. Results in this thesis research show that approximately 65% of commute distance by persons driving alone in the study area can be explained by the physical locations of homes relative to job sites as well as the existing roadway network, leaving an EC …

Sustainability Of Western Kentucky University: An Examination Of Campus Environmental Policies, Performance And Potential For Change, Christian Ryan-Downing

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Institutions of higher learning are in a pivotal position to address the environmental problems that global society faces now, but response to this challenge requires transformation in priorities and practices. Recognizing the impacts that universities have on the environment and the social and economic costs associated with these impacts, institutions of higher learning are changing policies and management to become more sustainable. Sustainability is defined by the World Commission on Environment and Development as "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs" (1987). To evaluate the environmental impacts …

Video On The Semantic Sensor Web, Cory Andrew Henson, Amit P. Sheth, Prateek Jain, Josh Pschorr, Terry Rapoch

Kno.e.sis Publications

Millions of sensors around the globe currently collect avalanches of data about our world. The rapid development and deployment of sensor technology is intensifying the existing problem of too much data and not enough knowledge. With a view to alleviating this glut, we propose that sensor data, especially video sensor data, can be annotated with semantic metadata to provide contextual information about videos on the Web. In particular, we present an approach to annotating video sensor data with spatial, temporal, and thematic semantic metadata. This technique builds on current standardization efforts within the W3C and Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) and …

Ground-Level Ozone Across Kentucky: Modeling And A Synoptic Analysis Of High Concentrations, John Walker

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Rural areas are often more susceptible to high concentrations of ground-level ozone (O3) than urban areas. However, rural populations are, for the most part, unaware of this problem. Currently the rural areas of Kentucky have no daily forecast for O3. This research addresses the issue by using methodologies from previous Kentucky O3 modeling research to develop a daily forecast model within Geographic Information Systems. The rural O3 model developed by Kendrick (2005) will be used in this research, as a Standard model, along with an application of the model introduced by Cobourn and Hubbard (1999), as the Hi model, to …

Ua35/1 Doers & Deeds Vol. 7, No. 3, Wku Provost

WKU Administration Documents

Newsletter created by the WKU Provost & Vice President of Academic Affairs to highlight the activities of faculty, staff and alumni.

Western Gray Whales Off Sakhalin Island, Russia: A Joint Russia-U.S. Scientific Investigation July-September 2007, David W. Weller, Amanda L. Bradford, Aimée R. Lang, Hyun Woo Kim, Maxim Sidorenko, Grigory A. Tsidulko, Alexander M. Burdin, Robert L. Brownell Jr.

United States Department of Commerce: Staff Publications

A collaborative Russia-U.S. research program on western gray whales (Eschrichtius robustus) summering off northeastern Sakhalin Island, Russia, has been ongoing since 1995 and has produced important new information on the present day conservation status of this critically endangered population. This interim report reviews preliminary findings from 2007 research activities and combines such with data from previous years, in some cases ranging back to 1994. Photo-identification research conducted off Sakhalin Island in 2007 resulted in the identification of 83 whales, including nine calves and two previously unidentified non-calves. When combined with data from 1994-2006, a catalog of 169 photo-identified …

Inconsistencies Between Pangean Reconstructions And Basic Climate Controls, Clinton Rowe, David B. Loope, Robert J. Oglesby, Rob Van Der Voo, Charles E. Broadwater

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

The supercontinent Pangea dominated our planet from the Permian into the Jurassic. Paleomagnetic reconstructions have been used to estimate the latitudinal position of Pangea during this 100-million-year period. Atmospheric circulation, recorded by eolian sandstones in the southwestern United States, shows a broad sweep of northeasterly winds over their northernmost extent, curving to become northwesterly in the south. This evidence is consistent with paleomagnetic reconstructions of the region straddling the equator in the Early Permian but is at odds with its northward movement to about 20°N by the Early Jurassic. At least one of the following scenarios must be true: the …

Leveraging Semantic Web Techniques To Gain Situational Awareness, Amit P. Sheth

Kno.e.sis Publications

No abstract provided.

Fecal Microbe Distribution And Abundance Used As A Possible Proxy For Nutrient Source Identification In Eutrophic Wilgreen Lake, Madison County, Kentucky, Theresa A. Aguiar, Walter S. Borowski

EKU Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Wilgreen Lake is a eutrophic lake that has been listed on the EPA’s 303d list as nutrient impaired. Potential sources of this impairment are from humans, cattle manure and fertilizers. We suspect that the majority of nutrients originate from human sources. As a possible proxy for nutrient input, we test our hypothesis by examining fecal microbe distribution and abundance in the lake.

We took water samples at 19 sampling locations on 4 occasions. Sampling spanned 26 June to 15 August with the last 3 sampling events occurring at roughly two-week intervals. These samples were then processed using IDEXX methods, which …

Measuring Article Quality In Wikipedia: Models And Evaluation, Meiqun Hu, Ee Peng Lim, Aixin Sun, Hady W. Lauw, Ba-Quy Vuong

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Wikipedia has grown to be the world largest and busiest free encyclopedia, in which articles are collaboratively written and maintained by volunteers online. Despite its success as a means of knowledge sharing and collaboration, the public has never stopped criticizing the quality of Wikipedia articles edited by non-experts and inexperienced contributors. In this paper, we investigate the problem of assessing the quality of articles in collaborative authoring of Wikipedia. We propose three article quality measurement models that make use of the interaction data between articles and their contributors derived from the article edit history. Our Basic model is designed based …

Shaping The Future Of Southern Nevada Moderators & Panelists Biographies

Shaping the Future of Southern Nevada: Economic, Environmental, and Social Sustainability

Moderators & Panelists biographies

Geogram 2007, David J. Keeling Editor, Wku Department Of Geography And Geology

Earth, Environmental, and Atmospheric Sciences Publications

No abstract provided.

A Statistical Model To Forecast Short-Term Atlantic Hurricane Intensity, Kevin Law, Jay S. Hobgood

Geography Faculty Research

An alternative 24-h statistical hurricane intensity model is presented and verified for 13 hurricanes during the 2004–05 seasons. The model uses a new method involving a discriminant function analysis (DFA) to select from a collection of multiple regression equations. These equations were developed to predict the future 24-h wind speed increase and the 24-h pressure drop that were constructed from a dataset of 103 hurricanes from 1988 to 2003 that utilized 25 predictors of rapid intensification. The accuracy of the 24-h wind speed increase models was tested and compared with the official National Hurricane Center (NHC) 24-h intensity forecasts, which …

Why Logging? A Value Assessment Of Forestry Uses In The Huon Forest District, Ryan Bailey

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The Huon Forest District comprises 762,800 hectares of forests in southwest Tasmania, with 128,900 hectares of that total designated as state forest managed by Forestry Tasmania. These forests are used primarily for wood production, although tourism, carbon storage, leatherwood honey and the specialty timbers industry are competing for access to these forests. This study examines the socio-economic values of these uses and determines whether the Huon Forest District is being utilized efficiently.

To accomplish this, an extensive literature review of past research was conducted. This information supplemented 7 semi-structured interviews that were conducted with experts from the forestry industry, tourism …