Digital Commons Network^™

Mountain Development In Nepal: Settlements, Infrastructure, And Economic Transformation, Keshav Bhattarai, Ambika P. Adhikari

Himalayan Research Papers Archive

As Nepal urbanizes, expands infrastructure, strengthens local governments, and explores deeper connectivity with India and China, climate change is increasing floods, landslides, heat, and water insecurity. Rapid internal migration, rising disaster risks, youth outmigration, and dependence on remittances are also revealing the limits of conventional urban development, especially in the mountainous region. The central challenge for Nepal is no longer just to accommodate growing towns and cities, but to build settlements that are safe, productive, environmentally resilient, and capable of sustaining long-term prosperity.

This paper argues that Nepal's urban future must be guided by a new development paradigm centered on …

For 600,000 New Yorkers, Toxins Are In Their Tap Water: A New York Focus Analysis Of State Inspection Data Shows Key Toxins Are In Public Water Systems From Long Island To The Adirondacks, Posing Risks For Cancers And Other Diseases. Millions Are Being Spent To Fix Problems, But Even Well-Planned Efforts Have Faced Delays. Poorer Towns Wonder If They Can Afford To Fix The Problem., Shuchi Shah, Hayden Betts, Aurora Martinez, Rebecca Mccray

Capstones

The story stems from an analysis of New York State data on drinking water contaminants. The state inspection data shows key toxins are in public water systems from Long Island to the Adirondacks, posing risks for cancers and other diseases. Millions are being spent to fix problems, but even well-planned efforts have faced delays. Poorer towns wonder if they can afford to fix the problem.

Enhanced Lithological Mapping In Arid Crystalline Regions Using Explainable Ai And Multi-Spectral Remote Sensing Data, Hesham Morgan, Ali Elgendy, Amir Said, Mostafa Hashem, Wenzhao Li, Surendra Maharjan, Hesham El-Askary

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Lithological classification is essential for understanding the spatial distribution of rocks, especially in arid crystalline areas. Artificial intelligence (AI) recent advancements with multi-spectral satellite imagery have been utilized to enhance lithological mapping in these areas. Here we employed different AI models namely, Support Vector Machine (SVM), Random Forest Classification (RFC), Logistic Regression, XGBoost, and K-nearest neighbors (KNN) for lithological mapping. This was followed by the application of explainable AI (XAI) for lithological discrimination (LD) which is still not widely explored. Based on the highest accuracy and F1 score of the previously mentioned models, RFC model outperformed all of them, and …

Chinese Ideas And American Politics: Confucius As A Guideline For Leadership, Alfred Hornung

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article "Chinese Ideas and American Politics: Confucius as a Guideline for Leadership", Alfred Hornung traces the influence of Chinese ideas on American politics with a focus on the works of Confucius. The more than 2.500-year-old impact of the Chinese philosopher on public conduct and his pursuit of virtuous perfection has served as a guideline for leadership emanating from China to Europe and America. For this trajectory of ideas, the historic and the new Silk Road play a decisive role. The exchange of goods along the land-based and maritime routes, which inform Xi Jinping's Belt and Road Initiative, also …

Geospatial Integrated Urban Flood Mapping And Vulnerability Assessment, Md Tazmul Islam, Md Tazmul Islam

Theses and Dissertations

Natural disasters like flooding have always been a big problem for countries around the world, but as the global climate changes and the number of people living in cities keeps growing, the threat of flooding has become a lot worse. Even though many studies have been conducted on flood mapping and vulnerability assessment in urban areas, this research addresses a significant knowledge gap in this domain. First, we used a flood depth estimation approach has been used to address the overestimation of urban flood mapping areas using Sentinel-1 images. Ten different combinations of the two initial VH and VV polarizations …

Landslides, Erosion, And Inequality: Assessing Social And Environmental Change At Neighboring Farmsteads In Northern Iceland, Zachary N. Guttman

Graduate Masters Theses

Hof and Hólar are adjacent farms in Hjaltadalur, North Iceland settled during the Viking Age. While Hof is mentioned prominently in the saga literature, its importance fades. Conversely, Hólar becomes the most powerful farm in North Iceland and the seat of the northern bishop after the introduction of Christianity. This thesis sheds some light on this apparent shift in power by assessing how social and environmental factors may have influenced the relationship between the two sites. Using a program of soil coring and targeted excavation, as well as a novel environmental sampling procedure, this study assesses if environmental factors such …

Modeling The Peak Ground Acceleration And Assessing The Economic Loss And Casualty Due To Potential Earthquakes Of Various Magnitudes In The New Madrid Seismic Zone, Mahmud Afroz

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The New Madrid Seismic Zone (NMSZ) is one of the active tectonic zones capable of producing big earthquakes in the southcentral USA. The objective of this study was to assess the economic losses and casualties that might be caused by various magnitudes of seismic events in the NMSZ. The manifestation is the estimation for each magnitude which is using the Peak Ground Acceleration (PGA) that might occur during an earthquake. It is calculated using an attenuation function that correlates the intensity of local ground movement, the earthquake magnitude, and the distance from its epicenter. The assessment of casualties was conducted …

Legacy - Fall 2023, South Carolina Institute Of Archaeology And Anthropology--University Of South Carolina

SCIAA Magazine - Legacy & PastWatch

Contents:

The Camden Burial Project, Part II: Triumph and Defeat

Director's Notes

New and Improved Equipment for the Maritime Research Division

The Camden Burial Project, Part II: Triumph and Defeat

Dr. Christopher R. Moore Appointed Director of the Southeastern Paleoamerican Survey (SEPAS)

Forensic Evidence Suggests Paleo-Americans Hunted Mastodons, Mammoths and other Megafauna in Eastern North America 13,000 Years Ago

Update on the Southeastern Paleoamerican Survey 2022-2023

Finding a Revolutionary War Skirmish Site: Lower Bridge

Arms and Armor from Santa Elena: A Photographic Inventory

Historic Archaeology SCIAA Staff Visit the Windy Ridge Site in 1977

Reuniting People, Place, and Associated Historic …

A Mixed Methods Approach To Understanding The Links Between Mining, Climate Change And Selected Health Outcomes In India, Mary J. Cheruvillil

Dissertations and Theses

Despite ample evidence of the significant role that mining activities play in determining health outcomes, in India there is a dearth of comprehensive health studies that draw linkages between mining and health. The purpose of the following study is to investigate the impact of mining activities on population health in India using three different methods: ecological multivariable regression, exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA) and content analysis of government documents using a phenomenological approach. The first aim uses the ecological multivariable regression to examine associations between mining activities and children’s malnutrition outcomes at the district level. Census data, the Demographic Health …

The Impacts Of Site Formation Processes On Excavation Methodology: The Study Of A World War Ii B-24 Crash Site In Munster, Germany, Alicia J. Lawson

Department of Anthropology: Theses and Student Research

Academic partnerships between universities and the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) are a recent development to provide top research universities resources to assist in recovering and identifying MIA service members since World War II. A University of Nebraska–Lincoln (UNL)/DPAA Partner excavation revisited a WWII B-24H crash site in Münster, Germany in the summer of 2022. B-24H [redacted] crashed into three agricultural fields on 23 March 1945. Utilizing quantitative and qualitative data collected on the incident-related and archaeological osseous remains and artifacts recovered from the fields and the fields’ land use history, this thesis focuses on analyzing the site formation processes …

Delineating A Stream Network At Gale Crater, Mars, On Arcgis Pro: A Geographic Information Systems Approach, Elpidio Guzman De La Cruz

West Chester University Master’s Theses

The northwestern region of the Gale crater experienced flooding in the past. Delineation of stream networks for the northwestern region of Gale Crater, Mars employing geographic information systems (GIS) techniques is applied. The stream network produced by the algorithm in the study traverses the clay unit in Gediz Vallis, and visual HiRISE imagery analysis correlates with a topologic cross section of an inverted river channel of 750 meters wide and 90 meters deep. HiRISE imagery analysis further confirms a sulfate and clay stratigraphic unit in a stream 125 meters wide and 25 meters deep. Lastly, data smoothing procedures in the …

Communicating Hazard Location Through Text And Map In Earthquake Early Warnings: A Mixed Methods Study, Jeannette Sutton, Michele M. Wood, Nicholas A. Waugh, Savanah Crouch

Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security, and Cybersecurity Faculty Scholarship

The purpose of this research was to examine the effect of presenting hazard location in different formats on key warning message outcomes—understanding, personalizing, believing, deciding, and milling. We conducted two studies using experiment and focus group methods. In the experiment, we compared a standard ShakeAlert earthquake early warning message, which merely implied location, to three enhanced messages that communicated information about the earthquake epicenter via text, map, or a combined text-and-map format. Focus groups explored reactions to warning messages accompanied by different types of maps. Overall, the standard ShakeAlert message was associated with worse message outcomes compared to messages that …

Ancient Landscapes Of South Texas At The Nexus Of Natural And Social History: An Educational, Community Engagement And Research Initiative For The Twenty-First Century, Roseann Bacha Garza, Juan L. Gonzalez, Edward González-Tennant, Starr E. Hein, Christopher L. Miller, Russell K. Skowronek

Anthropology Faculty Publications

Prior to 2009 the geoarcheological landscape of the lower Rio Grande valley was virtually a tabula rasa within the scholarship of archeology and geology. To rectify this shortcoming the Community Historical Archeology Project with Schools (CHAPS) Program was created from an interdisciplinary team of scholars with research interests in the Rio Grande valley while working initially with undergraduate and graduate students conducting in-depth studies of family farms and working with collectors to identify archeological sites. Through time the CHAPS Program created forums for locally focused K-12 education while developing community engagement initiatives to encourage public heritage tourism. One, the Ancient …

Community Health Workers In Central-Southern Amazonia: An Ethnographic Account Of The Munduruku People Of Kwatá Laranjal Indigenous Land, Daniel Scopel, Raquel Dias-Scopel, Esther Jean Langdon

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

This article analyzes the role of Munduruku indigenous community health workers (CHW) with the expansion of biomedical services as part of state presence and territorial control in Brazil. Centuries of interethnic contacts among the Munduruku have resulted in a plurality of health practices. Since 1999, Primary services have increased significantly, when the Indigenous Health System (SASI) was created. CHWs were incorporated as part of the health teams serving the indigenous lands. Munduruku CHWs have not only assumed an important role in the delivery of biomedical services, but also are key in the articulation between different traditions of care. Although there …

Florida’S Courts System Funding After Article V Revision 7, Joseph Ernest Smith, Sr.

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The state of Florida approached the topic of funding for the courts system from a policy equilibrium position. The process used to fund Florida’s courts system was changed in 2004 to promote an equitable system of funding. However, a gap in knowledge remains regarding whether this new funding scheme improved the financial health of the courts system. This quantitative study, which involved using the punctuated equilibrium theory (PET) as its theoretical framework, examined funding associated with counties before (1998–2003) and after (2005–2018) the 2004 implementation of Revision 7 to Article V of the Florida Constitution. Revision 7 was examined as …

Investigating Depth Estimation To Archaeological Magnetic Source Bodies, Jeremy G. Menzer

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Magnetometry is the most widely applied archaeo-geophysical technique. Current practice standards employ the technique to map only in a two-dimensional plan view fashion, but in deep geologic studies depth estimators are routinely applied to magnetic datasets. These estimators provide three-dimensional information to magnetic source-bodies. There are many different depth estimators employed in geologic study that all require various degrees of processing complexity. This study investigates two mathematically simple techniques, half-width rules and multi-height methods. Half-width rules are likely the oldest depth estimators within the field while multi-height techniques are but a minor footnote in the literature. The applicability of these …

Legacy - December 2021, South Carolina Institute Of Archaeology And Anthropology--University Of South Carolina

SCIAA Magazine - Legacy & PastWatch

Contents:

Tommy Charles (January 3, 1932-July 30, 2021) Tribute

Director's Notes

Spanish Halberds in South Carolina?

The Mica House Revisited

Santa Elena Research Trip to the Warren Lasch Conservation Center

The Civil War at Santa Elena

Update on the Southeastern Paleoamerican Survey 2021

Maritime Research Division: A Year of Fieldwork in Review

A Legacy of Land: From Dynasty to Death: The Redistribution of Land and Wealth Explored Through the Lens of Genealogy

A Cosmic Impact Demolshed an Ancient Middle Eastern City and Everyone in It

Historic Archaeology: The St. Patrick's Day Flood

Annual Report 2021

ART/SCIAA Donors August 2020-January 2022

Update On The Southeastern Paleoamerican Survey 2021, Albert C. Goodyear, Joseph A. Lindler Jr.

Faculty & Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Environmental Impact Assessment In Cambodia : The Case Of The New Container Development Project At Sihanoukville Autonomous Port, Chandara Yem

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Findings Report: Virtual Workshop On ‘Resilient Supply Of Critical Minerals’, Marek Locmelis, Angela D. Lueking, Michael S. Moats, Kwame Awuah-Offei, Lana Z. Alagha, Mark W. Fitch, Alanna Krolikowski, Shelby Clark

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Executive Summary
On August 2-3, 2021, the Thomas J. O’Keefe Institute for Sustainable Supply of Strategic Minerals at Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T) hosted the NSF-funded virtual workshop ‘Resilient Supply of Critical Minerals’. The workshop was convened via Zoom and attracted 158 registrants, including 108 registrants from academia (61 students), 30 registrants from government agencies, and 20 registrants from the private sector. Four topical sessions were covered:

A. Mineral Exploration and Source Diversification.
B. Supply Chain and Policy Issues.
C. Improving Mineral Recycling and Reprocessing Technologies.
D. Technological Alternatives to Critical Minerals.

Each topical session was composed …

The Cobb-Pool Site, A Caddo Settlement In The Mountain Creek Valley, S. Alan Skinner

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

The Cobb-Pool site was excavated in 1985-1986 by the Archaeology Research Program at Southern Methodist University (SMU) before Joe Pool Lake was constructed. The site had been located by the late R. King Harris in the 1930s and Harris collected early Caddo pottery, a Gahagan biface, Alba arrow points, and other chipped stone tools from the surface. SMU located the posthole pattern of three house structures, a large roasting pit, and several other features. Recovered during the excavation was an assemblage that complemented the Harris collection but also included a large sample of maize unlike that found in any other …

A Thumb On The Scale: Chinese Investment And Influence In Ecuador And Colombia, Christina Pendergrast

Honors Theses

Over the past two decades, Chinese involvement in the developing world has increased dramatically, raising concerns over the intentions behind the provision of development packages. Critics have accused China of a practice known as debt-trap diplomacy, a method of ensnaring less developed nations by providing more loans than those nations have the ability to feasibly pay back. While China denies that their loan and investment packages are provided with any ulterior motive, the influence held by an investor like China has the potential to impact these partner countries for decades to come. In light of the scope of China’s role …

What Happened To Mexico's Burgos Shale?, Matthew Fry, Trey Murphy, Andrew Hilburn, Armando Garcia Chiang

Mission Foods Texas-Mexico Center Research

No abstract provided.

Sedimenting Territory: A Political Geology Of Oil, Earth, And Spatial Politics In Turkey, Zeynep Oguz

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Building on the recent turn to the material and earthly aspects of resources and political power in environmental anthropology and political geography, this work historically and ethnographically examines the kinds of territorial politics that oil’s materiality, geological qualities, and infrastructures have generated in Turkey. Despite being surrounded by oil-rich neighbors in the Middle East, Turkey’s domestic oil reserves supply only 7 percent of the country’s oil, all of which has been drilled in the Kurdish provinces of Batman, Diyarbakır, and Adıyaman in Turkey’s southeast, where the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) has been fighting the Turkish state since 1984 for cultural …

Determining The Effect Of Mission Design And Point Cloud Filtering On The Quality And Accuracy Of Sfm Photogrammetric Products Derived From Suas Imagery, Daniel Shay Hostens

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

This research investigates the influence that various flight plan and mission design strategies for collecting small unmanned aerial system (sUAS) imagery have on the accuracy of the resulting three-dimensional models to find an optimal method to achieve a result. This research also explores the effect that using gradual selection to reduce the sparse point cloud has on product accuracy and processing details. Imagery was collected in the spring of 2018 during leaf-off conditions at six field sites along the North Fork of the White River. The aerial imagery was collected using a DJI Phantom Pro 4 sUAS. Four different image …

1953 - Santa Cruz-Monterey Counties Investigation - Bulletin No. 5

Miscellaneous Documents and Reports

The area in Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties under this investigation has recently experienced a substantial increase in water utilization, in common with many other parts of California. As a result, it is confronted with a need for more complete conservation of its water resources. Diversion of surface water in Santa Cruz County has increased until in dry years insufficient summer How exists in certain streams to meet peak water demands for urban and recreational requirements. Expanding irrigated acreage in Pajaro Valley together with trends toward more intensive agriculture have increased the ground water draft in that valley and have …

2001 - Hydrogeologic Investigation Of Salinas Valley Basin In The Vicinity Of Fort Ord And Marina Salinas Valley, California - Final Report

Monterey County Water Resources Agency Engineering Reports

This report evaluated the then current state or potential for seawater intrusion in the city of Marina and the former Fort Order area. Groundwater from this area primarily supplied drinking water wells as opposed to agricultural wells. Aquifers evaluated in this study area include the perched zone or A-aquifer, the Pressure 180-Foot Aquifer (180-Foot Aquifer), the Pressure 400-Foot Aquifer ( 400-Foot Aquifer), the Deep Aquifer, and aquifers within the Purisima and Santa Margarita Formations. The I80-Foot and 400-Foot Aquifers are the focus of this study because both aquifers outcrop along the canyon walls of Monterey Bay where they interface with …

Archaeological Survey Of The Proposed Dwu 84-Inch Wastewater Main 16-357/358e, Cid 5910 Dallas County, Texas, Philip Fisher

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

The City of Dallas is proposing to construct an 84-inch diameter wastewater main across the old Trinity River channel in Dallas County, Texas. The project area is located in the floodplain of the old Trinity River channel, northeast of the Market Center Boulevard and Turtle Creek Boulevard intersection in Dallas, Texas. AR Consultants, Inc. (ARC) conducted trench monitoring in an area approximately 40-meters long by 4.25-meters wide (0.04-acres) on March 7, 2019 under the authority of Texas Antiquities Permit number 8680. Two trenches one meter in width were excavated to the depth of proposed disturbance, approximately 8 ft (2.45 m), …

Looking Past, Looking Forward: America's National Parks, Archaeology And Climate Change, Rachel Marie Blumhardt

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

America’s National Parks are rich with cultural history, flora, fauna and some of nature’s most impressive landscapes. As climate change continues to accelerate, these parks and their cultural and natural resources are being threatened. In this project, I will present a colorful, informational booklet that concentrates on 4 specific parks: Yellowstone National Park, National Park of American Samoa, Glacier Bay National Park and Mesa Verde National Park. I will focus on the archaeology and cultural significance of these parks, while also examining the ways that climate change is putting these, and other associated assets of the parks, at risk. I …

Military Applications Of Geological Engineering, Stephen H. Tupper

Doctoral Dissertations

"This work examines the premise that military engineering and geological engineering are intellectually paired and overlapped in practice to a significant extent. Geological engineering is an established, albeit young, academic discipline that enjoys wide industry and civil demand and is supported by many professional organizations. In contrast, military engineering is an ancient, empirically derived training or "OJT" program with practice-based trade-associations that has narrow government-only utility. The premise is formed by decades-long observation of U. S. Army military engineer officers completing a Master of Science degree in geological engineering as a complement to their practice-based training in military engineering at …