Digital Commons Network^™

Niche Modeling For The Giant Panda, Ailuropoda Melanoleuca, And The Original Panda, Ailurus Fulgens: Habitat Preferences And Evolutionary Consequences, Lauren M. Lyon

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The well-known symbol for conservation, the giant panda bear, and the original red panda have been forced into remote habitats due to anthropogenic disturbance, making ecological study difficult. Therefore the first known species distribution model was created to predict the most likely areas of occurrence within the known range of these elusive animals. These models were then projected onto North America and evaluated against existing breeding programs. Additionally, the close proximity of the Gray Fossil Site and the discovery of the most complete fossil red panda specimens in the world allowed ecomorphological comparisons between the modern red panda, Ailurus fulgens …

Factors Influencing Distribution Of Prosthetic Devices In Iran: An Economic Analysis, Sarah Tensen

Virginias Collegiate Honors Council Conference

An estimated 177,622 Iranians have suffered an injury resulting in amputation. Prosthetic devices in Iran are scarce due to wealth disparity, wars, and lack of vital resources. Without prosthetic devices, amputees face unemployment, homelessness, a lowered self-esteem and cannot fully participate in society. I examined economic factors influencing the distribution of prosthetic devices and reviewed articles that focus on healthcare costs, distributions and services, relationships between Iran and other countries, etiology of amputation to find a solution for the prosthetic distribution issues. I concluded issues resulted from high costs, unequal distributions of wealth and resources, unsafe conditions, and a deficit …

Decadal Vegetation Succession Along A Chronosequence Within Eucalyptus Obliqua Wet Forest, Southern Tasmania, Christine Dobbin

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Southern Tasmania is home to fire dependent mixed forests, which, if not maintained, will eventually be replaced by the rainforest understorey. Wet eucalypt forest succession after disturbance events was investigated through floristic and vertical measurements of four north facing chronosequence plots with labels describing the age class of each, from regrowth to mature sites. This study was possible due to the establishment of permanent 50m x 50m plots in 2007 for longitudinal monitoring and subsequent illustration of forest dynamics following disturbance, including clearfell burns and wildfire. The contents of this report are the comparative analyses of the findings from the …

The Sacred Forest And The Mythical Python: Ecology, Conservation, And Sustainability In Kom, Cameroon, C. 1700-2000, Walter Gam Nkwi Dr

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

Scholars have taken a keen interest in the social and cultural meanings of the African landscape in the reconstruction of the continent’s history (Giblin, 1992; Spear, 1997; Wagner, 1995). But how much did Africans know of their environmental past? This article explores the indigenous history of ecology, focusing on the medicinal forest (ak’u mii-fii) and the mythical python (iigw-im) and their link with livelihood and sustainability in Kom, Cameroon. The paper argues that the Kom people have always been conserving their forests since the pre-colonial era. During the colonial period and especially in the 1930s many hectares of land including …

Herpetoplogical Survey Across Three Distinct Habitats In Ankarana National Park: Long-Term Effects Of Past Land Use On Species Composition In And Around The Park, Julia Park

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Ankarana National Park is home to a diverse population of herpetofauna. In this study, three distinct habitats in and around Ankarana National Park were surveyed for herpetological diversity. These habitats were defined as the deciduous forest located within the “tsingy” limestone karst canyons, the dry deciduous forest outside of the canyons, within the borders of the park, and the anthropogenically affected forest outside of the park’s borders, which is subject to logging and fruit tree harvesting. A total of 27 species of herpetofauna – six amphibian and 21 reptile species were found over the course of twelve days of surveying …

Habitat Use And Behaviours Of Introduced Muscovy Ducks (Cairina Moschata) In Urban And Suburban Environments, Joni Downs, Rebecca Loraamm, James Howard Anderson Jr., Jacqueline Perry, Jessica Bullock

Suburban Sustainability

Muscovy ducks (Cairina moschata) are native to South America, Central America, and Mexico. The species is commonly domesticated and raised for meat across the globe. Escaped or intentionally introduced populations have become established in many suburban areas, although they are little studied. A total of 642 individual time-activity budgets were collected for invasive Muscovy ducks in Tampa, Florida, USA, in order to quantify habitat use and behavioural patterns. Muscovy ducks utilized a variety of cover types, including open water, shoreline, grass, tree, shrub, and urban habitats. Muscovy ducks foraged by dabbling, gleaning, grazing, and probing, while occasionally obtaining, …

Matching And Integrating Community Service Needs With Goals For Academic Learning, Timothy K. Stanton

Jockey Club “We Care, We Serve, We Learn @ Tuen Mun” Programme Online Publication

Prof. Timothy K STANTON has introduced the need, the method and assessments on integrating and matching community service needs and goals with academic learning.

Geographical Information Systems (Gis) Applied To Urban Nutrient Management: Data Scarce Case Studies From Belize And Florida, Charlotte Juliane Haberstroh

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Nutrient inputs into the environment greatly impact urban ecosystems. Appropriate management strategies are needed to limit eutrophication of surface water bodies and contamination of groundwater. In many existing urban environments, retrofits or complete upgrades are needed for stormwater and/or wastewater infrastructure to manage nutrients. However, sustainable urban nutrient management requires comprehensive baseline data that is often not available. A Framework for Urban Nutrient (FUN) Management for Geographic Information Systems (GIS) was developed to specifically address those areas with limited data access. Using spatial analysis in GIS, it links water quality, land use, and socio-demographics, thereby reducing data collection and field-based …

Road Ecology: Shifting Gears Toward Evolutionary Perspectives, Steven P. Brady, Jonathan L. Richardson

Dartmouth Scholarship

Recent advances in understanding the often rapid pace of evolution are reshaping our view of organisms and their capacity to cope with environmental change. Though evolutionary perspectives have gained traction in many fields of conservation, road ecology is not among them. This is surprising because roads are pervasive landscape features that generate intense natural selection. The biological outcomes from these selection pressures – whether adaptive or maladaptive – can have profound consequences for population persistence. We argue that studying evolutionary responses is critical to accurately understand the impacts of roads. Toward that end, we describe the basic tenets and relevance …

Cross-Modal Recognition Of Familiar Conspecifics In Goats, Benjamin J. Pitcher, Elodie F. Briefer, Luigi Baciadonna, Alan G. Mcelligott

Recognition Collection

When identifying other individuals, animals may match current cues with stored information about that individual from the same sensory modality. Animals may also be able to combine current information with previously acquired information from other sensory modalities, indicating that they possess complex cognitive templates of individuals that are independent of modality. We investigated whether goats (Capra hircus) possess cross-modal representations (auditory–visual) of conspecifics. We presented subjects with recorded conspecific calls broadcast equidistant between two individuals, one of which was the caller. We found that, when presented with a stablemate and another herd member, goats looked towards the caller sooner and …

Local Health Department Adoption Of Health Information Technology And Its Impact On Population Health, Tina Yeung

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Since the enactment of the HITECH Act in 2009, the US has invested billions in building a robust health information technology (HIT) infrastructure that is secure, capable of the electronic transfer of data and allows for real-time access of patient medical data, among others. This empirical study explored the driving forces (coercive, mimetic, and normative) in the adoption of HIT (i.e. EHRs and HIEs) by local health departments (LHDs) and how it has impacted the population health of counties in the US. The researcher conducted a cross-sectional, quantitative study using secondary data sources. The study included data on 505 local …

Monitoring Reduction Efforts For Pm2.5 In Ellensburg,Wa Using Community-Based Social Marketing To Examine Behavioral Change, Kelsey Gibbs

All Master's Theses

In 2011, Ellensburg, Washington was labeled by the Washington Department of Ecology as being vulnerable for violating National Ambient Air Quality Standards for particulate pollution (PM_2.5­). In the Kittitas Basin, winter-time frequent air inversions and stagnant air events trap pollution near the ground, elevating pollutant concentrations during winter months. Wood smoke from household burning has been identified by mobile PM_2.5 monitoring completed in 2015 as the primary source of PM­_2.5. This research utilizes community-based social marketing techniques to encourage behavioral change for wood burning in a targeted neighborhood in Ellensburg. Residents of the target neighborhood …

Talus Features Of The Middle Columbia River: Typological And Locational Analyses, Jeremy Ripin

All Master's Theses

The form and function of talus features of the Columbia Plateau are the subject of archaeological investigations and cultural resource evaluation and protection programs. Depressions excavated in talus slopes, most often circular to oval in shape, are called talus pits. Pit features are also located in colluvium and alluvial fans, and at the base of cliff overhangs. Over 568 of these features have been documented for 48 sites within the project area of the Priest Rapids and Wanapum reservoirs. Pits may have been used for hunting blinds, storage (food and/or equipment), burial, and/or and spirit questing. The size of pits …

Fracked Perceptions: Changes In Perception Regarding Hydraulic Fracturing Among Residents Of Dimock, Pennsylvania., Brian Straniti

All Master's Theses

The primary objective of this research is to critically analyze changes in perceptions associated with hydraulic fracturing within Dimock, Pennsylvania. Residents of Dimock initially welcomed fracking in 2006 due to positive corporate rhetoric promoting economic benefits such as mineral rights acquisition, land-leasing, and local business development. However, economic benefits diminished as Dimock advanced through a boom period resulting in a current economic and ecological bust. Two months of data collection occurred in the summer of 2016 using semi-structured interviews, participant observation, and document analysis. Political economy of nature and political ecology theoretical frameworks were used to analyze and conceptualize the …

Utilization Of Landsat Imagery To Assess The Impacts Of Oil And Gas Extraction On The Tazovsky Peninsula, Siberia, Nicholas B. Kline

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Climatic warming of the Arctic is leading to landscape change through cascading biophysical feedbacks; development, such as oil and gas exploration and extraction, can accelerate or worsen these impacts. Due to restricted access to oil and natural gas fields, in situ environmental impact studies are only allowed in some regions. Satellite imagery analysis provides a mean for assessing impacts in areas with limited access. The Yamburg oil and gas field in western Siberia serves as a case study to assess the effects of infrastructure on an Arctic landscape.

This project quantifies the land-cover disturbance that occurred during the development and …

Are Weevils Picky Eaters? Community Structure And Host Specificity Of Neotropical Saproxylic Beetles (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), Jhunior A. Morillo

Dissertations and Theses

Abstract Primary saproxylic beetles play a major role in forest nutrient cycling and making deadwood accessible to other decomposers. Understanding beetle host preferences and patterns of community assembly is critical for their conservation, and for predicting which species might become invasive. This project aims to investigate the ecological and host specificity, as well as the community composition of curculionids in a mosaic of old-growth (OG) and secondary forest on the Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica. The subfamily Scolytinae was expected to be the most species-rich and abundant. Ambrosia beetles were expected to have more generalist species than other curculionids. Old growth …

การประเมินปริมาณคาร์บอนของป่าชุมชน ด้วยเทคนิคอากาศยานไร้คนขับ: กรณีศึกษาป่าชุมชนบ้านบุตาต้อง ตำบลนากลาง อำเภอสูงเนิน จังหวัดนครราชสีมา, ธนวิทย์ ถมกระจ่าง

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

การวิจัยครั้งนี้ผู้วิจัยมีแนวคิดที่ประยุกต์ใช้อากาศยานไร้คนขับ (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle : UAV) เพื่อประเมินปริมาณคาร์บอนกักเก็บของป่าชุมชนบ้านบุตาต้อง ตำบลนากลาง อำเภอสูงเนิน จังหวัดนครราชสีมา โดยการใช้ข้อมูลกลุ่มจุดสามมิติ (Point Could) ที่ได้จากการประมวลผลของภาพถ่ายทางอากาศที่ได้จากอากาศยานไร้คนขับ เพื่อนำมาสร้างแบบจำลองความสูงสิ่งปกคลุมพื้นผิวเชิงเลข (Digital Surface Model : DSM) และแบบจำลองความสูงภูมิประเทศเชิงเลข (Digital Elevation Model :DEM) จากนั้นทำการหาความสูงของต้นไม้โดยการหาค่าต่างระหว่างของแบบจำลองดังกล่าว นอกจากนั้นผู้วิจัยได้ทำการกำหนดแปลงตัวอย่างถาวรขนาด 40 × 40 เมตร จำนวน 10 แปลง เพื่อสำรวจเก็บข้อมูลขนาดเส้นผ่านศูนย์กลางเพียงอกและความสูงต้นไม้ เพื่อใช้ในการประเมินความถูกต้องของข้อมูลที่ได้จากอากาศยานไร้คนขับ ในการหามวลชีวภาพเหนือพื้นดินผู้วิจัยใช้สมการแอลโมเมตรี (allometric equations) ประเภทป่าเต็งรัง ผลการวิจัยพบว่าความสูงที่ได้จากข้อมูลอากาศยานไร้คนขับมีความสัมพันธ์กับภาคสนามโดยมีค่า R2 อยู่ที่ 0.715-0.898 และมีความคลาดเคลื่อนของความสูงต้นไม้อยู่ที่ 0.50-0.66 เมตร ปริมาณคาร์บอนทั้งพื้นที่ศึกษามี 1.54 ตัน/ไร่ ซึ่งเมื่อเปรียบเทียบกับปริมาณคาร์บอนกักเก็บในแปลงตัวอย่างพบว่ามีความคลาดเคลื่อนอยู่ที่ร้อยละ 13-59 ซึ่งความคลาดเคลื่อนดังกล่าวมาจากความคลาดเคลื่อนในการประมาณขนาดเส้นผ่านศูนย์กลางเพียงอกจากข้อมูลความสูงต้นไม้ที่ได้จากอากาศยานไร้คนขับเนื่องจากความสัมพันธ์ดังกล่าวไม่มีความชัดเจน จากนั้นผู้วิจัยได้ทำการหาขนาดพื้นที่ที่เหมาะสมในการหาปริมาณคาร์บอนกักเก็บพบว่าขนาดพื้นที่มากกว่า 25×25 เมตรมีความเหมาะสมสำหรับกรหาปริมาณคาร์บอนกักเก็บในพื้นที่ศึกษา

All-Lands Management: Convening Communities And Their Lands Around Fire Management, Jodie T. Pixley

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Broadly defined, All-lands Management (ALM) is a land management approach involving collaborative, science-based ecosystem restoration at the landscape scale, across ownership and jurisdictional boundaries. My research investigates collaborative groups working to reduce wildfire risk by applying ALM. Fire risk in the Pacific West (California and Oregon) is increasing in severity and extent due to fire suppression and is exacerbated by the effects of drought, climate change, and expanding residential development. For decades federal, state, and local entities have expressed the need to work collaboratively, across boundaries and ownerships to reintroduce fire back onto the landscape to restore forest resiliency. This …

Information Seeking Behavior Of Visually Impaired Students In Maulana Azad Library, Amu: A Survey, Nishat Fatima Dr., Dolly Kumari

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Information seeking is a form of human behavior that involves seeking for information by means of the active examination of information sources or information retrieval systems to satisfy the information need or to solve a problem. This study explores the information seeking behavior of visually impaired students in Maulana Azad Library, AMU. The purpose of the study is to examine the information seeking behavior of visually impaired students in Maulana Azad Library, AMU. A well structured schedule (Performa containing assets of questions) was designed and administered among the visually impaired students. The schedules were also supplemented by informal interviews. The …

Slis Connecting Volume 5, Issue 2, Stacy Creel, Teresa S. Welsh Ph.D., Mlis

SLIS Connecting

SLIS Connecting Volume 5, Issue 2 (Fall/Winter 2016)

Core Values: Intellectual Freedom And Privacy In Public Libraries, Stephanie A. Evans

SLIS Connecting

With the passing of the USA Patriot Act in 2001 following the events of 9/11, libraries on the national scale have had to staunchly defend issues of privacy and confidentially more-so than ever before. Evidence of this lies not only in statements within the ALA’s Resolution on the USA PATRIOT Act and Libraries but also in other core documents which guide policy development in public libraries (ALA 2005). Intellectual Freedom and privacy are two of the major issues addressed and protected by the American Library Association through the Office of Intellectual Freedom and the Library Bill of Rights (ALA 1996).

Doula Support As A Means To Improve Birth Outcomes For Minority Women, Christina Bao Ngoc Thich

Master's Projects and Capstones

Ethnic minorities such as African Americans, American Indians, Hispanics, Laotions, Hmongs, and Alaskan Natives have higher rates of cesarean delivery, pre-term birth, fetal demise, perinatal laceration, and congenital abnormalities than their white counterparts. Continuous labor support by way of doula care has been recommended for all pregnant women as a means to prevent adverse birth outcomes. Despite this, the population most in need of such support in unable to access doula services due to low socioeconomic status, availability of services, and cultural inaccessibility. This paper focuses on my capstone experience with UCSF and Roots of Labor Birth Collective as we …

Sandhill Crane Roost Selection, Human Disturbance, And Forage Resources, Aaron T. Pearse, Gary L. Krapu, David A. Brandt

United States Geological Survey, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center: Publications

Sites used for roosting represent a key habitat requirement for many species of birds because availability and quality of roost sites can influence individual fitness. Birds select roost sites based on numerous factors, requirements, and motivations, and selection of roosts can be dynamic in time and space because of various ecological and environmental influences. For sandhill cranes (Antigone canadensis) at their main spring staging area along the Platte River in south-central Nebraska, USA, past investigations of roosting cranes focuse donphysical channel characteristics related to perceived security as motivating roost distribution.We used 6,310 roost sites selected by 313 sandhill cranes over …

Sleep As An Evolved Behavior: Ecological Opportunity Costs And Sleep Optimization, Gandhi Yetish

Anthropology ETDs

Sleep problems afflict millions world-over. Treating this has been difficult because there is no consensus definition for “normal” sleep. People can vary in their personal sleep need, but the determinants of variation in sleep duration are largely unknown, as is the criteria to determine how much variation is normal. Given that most diurnal mammals (including primates) appear to sleep from sunset to sunrise, the leading explanation for sleep pathology in the post-industrial world has been that electronics, especially light illuminating devices, substantially reduce sleep duration. This assertion has heretofore only been tested experimentally. This research aims to resolve this issue …

Variability Of Lacustrine Sediment Proxy Responses To Late Holocene Climate Change As Modified By Lake Specific Processes: A Review Of Ecological And Geophysical Processes Across Northern And Eastern Iceland, Mallory Mintz

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Consistenly-deposited lake sediments provide some of the highest resolution records of local and global climates in the past, offering the potential to better understand modern climate change in the context of past climate variability. In relating proxies to their respective climate regimes, the environmental cues that the specific proxies reacted to must be isolated from the general noise of possible local influences. In this investigation, biogenic silica (BSi), total organic carbon (TOC), δ13C values, and carbon: nitrogen ratios were analyzed between lakes through northern Iceland, to review possible complicating factors specific to the use of lacustrine proxies in the interpretation …

Prehistoric Pathoecology As Represented By Parasites Of A Mummy From The Peruaçu Valley, Brazil, Karl Reinhard, Adauto Araújo

Karl Reinhard Publications

Paleopathologists have begun exploring the pathoecology of parasitic diseases in relation to diet and environment. We are summarizing the parasitological findings from a mummy in the site of Lapa do Boquete, a Brazilian cave in the state of Minas Gerais. These findings in context of the archaeology of the site provided insights into the pathoecology of disease transmission in cave and rockshelter environments. We are presenting a description of the site followed by the evidence of hookworm, intestinal fluke, and Trypanosoma infection with resulting Chagas disease in the mummy discovered in the cave. These findings are used to reconstruct the …

Neighborhood Characteristics Contribute To Urban Alcohol Availability: Accounting For Race/Ethnicity And Social Disorganization, Aleksandra J. Snowden

Social and Cultural Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

This study examined the role that race/ethnicity and social disorganization play in alcohol availability in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, census block groups. This study estimated negative binomial regression models to examine separately the relationship between neighborhood racial/ethnic composition and social disorganization levels for (1) total, (2) on-premise, and (3) off-premise alcohol outlets. Results of this study suggest that proportion Hispanic was positively associated with total and with off-premise alcohol outlets. Second, proportion African American was negatively associated with on-premise alcohol outlets and positively associated with off-premise alcohol outlets. Proportion Asian was not associated with total, on-premise, or off-premise alcohol outlets. However, the …

The Economic Value Of Forest Park Ecosystem Services: Results Of Five Focus Groups Conducted In Spring 2016, Randall A. Bluffstone, Pablo Barreyro, Jenny Dempsey Stein, Cody Kent, Antonia Machado

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Objective: This initial phase of research lays the foundation for a survey using contingent valuation (CV) and choice experiment (CE) methods. We asked select Portland residents what they care about most in Forest Park, their willingness to pay (WTP) for improving ecosystem services and how they generally think about the value of those goods and services. These results will help us narrow the experimental design of the forthcoming CV/CE study.

Approach: We conducted a focus group in each of Portland’s 5 “quadrants.” We chose each location - Skyline, St. John’s, Cully, Foster-Powell and Hillsdale - based on either its proximity …

Making The Case For Place: An Exploration Of Urbanization Measures On A Model Of Social Capital And U.K. Crime Rates, Kyshawn K. Smith

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

Studies of social capital and crime have become quite popular in recent history, and a plethora of empirical tests have sought to clarify relationships between the two variables. However, most of these studies center on communities in the United States, and often overlook the many differentiating features between urban and rural communities that would affect such models. Reasons offered for such skew in the past and current research on this subject are middling at best, and largely cite either a lack of availability in data for crime and social capital in non-urban communities, or questionable accuracy for what data is …

Examining Victimization In South Korea 1993-2010: A Comparative Application Of Ecological Theories Of Crime, Jisun Choi

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Theoretical approaches aimed at the understanding of population level criminal offending and victimization generally revolve around two major criminological theories: Social disorganization and routine activities/lifestyle theories. These theoretical frameworks were developed and have been examined extensively in a Western context (primarily in the U.S.) and provide evidence of both individual and aggregate indicators for the explanation of variations in crime. More recently, these approaches have been extended to the Eastern context as increasing numbers of studies have been conducted outside of the U.S. This application is relatively recent and the literature has yet to find conclusive supporting evidence for these …