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Book Reviews, Ricardo Duchesne, Mark Graham, Jonathan Lyons, Emmet Scott Oct 2012

Book Reviews, Ricardo Duchesne, Mark Graham, Jonathan Lyons, Emmet Scott

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.


Hegel And The Western Spirit, Ricardo Duchesne Oct 2012

Hegel And The Western Spirit, Ricardo Duchesne

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.


Modernization Or Westernization: The Muslim World Vs. The Rest, Laina Farhat-Holzman Oct 2012

Modernization Or Westernization: The Muslim World Vs. The Rest, Laina Farhat-Holzman

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.


Mapping Civil Society: An Experiment In Ngo Coordination, Peter Carroll, Aradhana Dhakal, Madeleine Gleave Sep 2012

Mapping Civil Society: An Experiment In Ngo Coordination, Peter Carroll, Aradhana Dhakal, Madeleine Gleave

Library Research Grants

Our research considers the efficiency of the work of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the area of international development. Specifically it asks the question of whether reducing the costs of gathering information on other NGO projects increases NGOs’ propensity to coordinate among each other. We predict that decreasing information costs associated with communication gives greater incentive to pursue coordination. To test this hypothesis, we conduct a randomized field experiment in which we invite randomly assigned NGOs to use an online mapping tool providing information about NGO activities across Uganda and India. Our sample comes from NGOs that complete a survey on …


Teaching The Four Gospels: Five Considerations Sep 2012

Teaching The Four Gospels: Five Considerations

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

No abstract provided.


The Birth Of Radio In The American Sector (Rias)And Its Role During The Berlin Blockade, J. David Mecham Aug 2012

The Birth Of Radio In The American Sector (Rias)And Its Role During The Berlin Blockade, J. David Mecham

Theses and Dissertations

The ensuing chaos and power struggles between the East and West following the end of the Second World War in Germany set the stage for the creation of a unique radio station that would broadcast from behind the iron curtain for the duration of the cold war. RIAS, or Radio in the American Sector, would play a key role in the battle over ideology between the West and the Soviet Union. The story of RIAS' birth and development is a unique narrative of unintended consequences as the efforts of the Soviet Union to gain a monopoly over the airwaves of …


Fine-Scale Habitat Use Of Reintroduced Black-Footed Ferrets On Prairie Dog Colonies In New Mexico, Jennifer G. Chipault, Dean E. Biggins, James K. Detling, Dustin H. Long, Robin M. Reich Aug 2012

Fine-Scale Habitat Use Of Reintroduced Black-Footed Ferrets On Prairie Dog Colonies In New Mexico, Jennifer G. Chipault, Dean E. Biggins, James K. Detling, Dustin H. Long, Robin M. Reich

Western North American Naturalist

Black-footed ferrets (Mustela nigripes) are among the most endangered animals in North America. Reintroductions of captive-born ferrets onto prairie dog (Cynomys spp.) colonies are crucial to the conservation of the species. In September 2007, captive-born ferrets were released on a black-tailed prairie dog (Cynomys ludovicianus) colony at the Vermejo Park Ranch, New Mexico. Ferret kits experimentally released in areas of comparatively low and high prairie dog burrow densities were located via spotlight surveys. Some maturing ferret kits were subsequently translocated to areas of low and high burrow densities on nearby prairie dog colonies. For 2 …


Value Of Bundled Recreation Amenities In Southern Arizona Communities: A Hedonic Pricing Approach, Eliza Ann Hoffman Jul 2012

Value Of Bundled Recreation Amenities In Southern Arizona Communities: A Hedonic Pricing Approach, Eliza Ann Hoffman

Theses and Dissertations

The primary purpose of this study was to examine the contribution of family-recreation amenities to home valuation in Southern Arizona communities. Although recreation amenities have become a frequent addition to housing developments, little research exists regarding the value these amenities contribute to home valuation. The sample consisted of 600 homes in master-planned communities and 600 homes in comparable traditional subdivisions. Using the hedonic pricing method, this study examined whether the inclusion of recreation amenities provides additional value to homes after structural and locational characteristics were controlled for. Blocked multiple regression analyses were used to determine the contribution of both individual …


Stoneflies Of Unusual Size: Population Genetics And Systematics Within Pteronarcyidae (Plecoptera), John S. Sproul Jul 2012

Stoneflies Of Unusual Size: Population Genetics And Systematics Within Pteronarcyidae (Plecoptera), John S. Sproul

Theses and Dissertations

Chapter 1. The family Pteronarcyidae (Plecoptera) is a highly studied group of stoneflies and very important to a wide variety of aquatic studies. Several phylogenies have been proposed for this group recent decades, however there is little congruence between the various topologies. The present study revises the phylogeny of the group by combining molecular data from mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit II, ribosomal subunit 12S, ribosomal subunit 16S, and nuclear loci ribosomal subinit 18S and Histone H3, with published morphological data in a parsimony-based total evidence analysis. The analysis produced a well-supported phylogeny with novel relationships within the genus Pteronarcys. …


Horace's Ideal Italy: Sabines And Sabellians In Odes 1-3, Keith R. Fairbank Jul 2012

Horace's Ideal Italy: Sabines And Sabellians In Odes 1-3, Keith R. Fairbank

Theses and Dissertations

Within Odes 1-3 Horace consistently locates an idealized version of Rome in Sabinum and Italia. The former had long been a moral foil for Rome. The latter consisted of the regions of Italy that rebelled against Rome during the Social War and fought on the side of Marius in the civil wars that followed. Horace joins these two groups with the term Sabellians and places them together in moral opposition to the corruption and decadence of the late first century BC. Thus Horace elevates the formerly rebellious and still foreign Italici into Roman politics in the lofty position of …


The Globalization Of Latter-Day Saint Education, Casey Paul Griffiths Jul 2012

The Globalization Of Latter-Day Saint Education, Casey Paul Griffiths

Theses and Dissertations

This work traces the development of the global educational system of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. After a long period of providing schools for its membership in the Intermountain West of the United States, the Latter-day Saints ultimately settled on a system of supplementary religious education, designed to work in concert with public education systems. During the 1950s as the Church began to gain an international following, Church leaders moved to establish an international system of schools to meet their needs. These schools were largely supervised and directed by Americans personnel. Under the leadership of Church president …


Agnes Von Lilien: A Translation By Kari Stolzenburg, Kari M. Stolzenburg Jul 2012

Agnes Von Lilien: A Translation By Kari Stolzenburg, Kari M. Stolzenburg

Theses and Dissertations

The novel Agnes von Lilien by Caroline von Wolzogen, although celebrated during the period of Weimar Classicism, was not generally well known to English-speaking readers and researchers until recently. This project aims to address this situation by creating an easily accessible English translation of the novel complete with critical annotations for the benefit of researchers and lay readers alike. The annotated translation presented in this work is an excerpt of the full translation of the work drawn in particular from the first third of the novel. This novel, first published in 1798, reflects many ideals of the Enlightenment, as well …


Diversification And Conservation In The South American Dry Biomes: Distribution Modeling And Multilocus Lizard Phylogeography, Fernanda Werneck Jul 2012

Diversification And Conservation In The South American Dry Biomes: Distribution Modeling And Multilocus Lizard Phylogeography, Fernanda Werneck

Theses and Dissertations

The understanding of diversification of intraspecific lineages can shed light on speciation processes and ultimately biogeographic patterns across multiple spatial and temporal scales. In this dissertation I investigated the geographical and ecological factors promoting diversification across the South American dry diagonal biomes (i.e. Cerrado, Chaco, and Seasonally Dry Tropical Forests - SDTFs), through a coupled approach between multilocus phylogeographic and geospatial methods, in the larger context of interpreting the consequences of the resulting patterns for the conservation of biodiversity and evolutionary processes. In Chapter 1 I evaluate biogeographic hypotheses previously proposed and emphasize that the dry diagonal biomes are particularly …


Knowledge Discovery For Biodiversity: From Data Mining To Sign Management, Noel Conruyt, David Grosser, Régine Vignes Lebbe Jul 2012

Knowledge Discovery For Biodiversity: From Data Mining To Sign Management, Noel Conruyt, David Grosser, Régine Vignes Lebbe

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Knowledge discovery from data in environmental sciences is becomingmore and more important nowadays because of the deluge of information found indatabases of digital ecosystems, coming altogether from institutions and amateurs.For example in biodiversity science, all these data need to be validated byspecialists with the help of Intelligent Environmental Decision Support Systems(IEDSSs), then enhanced and certified into qualitative knowledge before reachingtheir audience. Data mining through classification or clustering is the dedicatedinductive process of grouping descriptions based on similarity measures, thenbuilding classes and naming them. Later, the formed concepts can be reused foridentification purpose with new observations. The problem is that when …


Assessing The Vulnerability Of Human And Biological Communities To Changing Ecosystem Services Using A Gis-Based Multi-Criteria Decision Support Tool, Miguel L. Villarreal, Laura M. Norman, William B. Labiosa Jul 2012

Assessing The Vulnerability Of Human And Biological Communities To Changing Ecosystem Services Using A Gis-Based Multi-Criteria Decision Support Tool, Miguel L. Villarreal, Laura M. Norman, William B. Labiosa

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

In this paper we describe an application of a GIS-based multi-criteria decision support web tool that models and evaluates relative changes in ecosystem services to policy and land management decisions. The Santa Cruz Watershed Ecosystem Portfolio (SCWEPM) was designed to provide credible forecasts of responses to ecosystem drivers and stressors and to illustrate the role of land use decisions on spatial and temporal distributions of ecosystem services within a binational (U.S. and Mexico) watershed. We present two SCWEPM sub-models that when analyzed together address bidirectional relationships between social and ecological vulnerability and ecosystem services. The first model employs the Modified …


Representation Of Environmental Dynamics In Models Of Socio-Environmental Systems, Joerg A. Priess, Christian Schweitzer Jul 2012

Representation Of Environmental Dynamics In Models Of Socio-Environmental Systems, Joerg A. Priess, Christian Schweitzer

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Environmental changes can be related to naturally occurring phenomena or human activities such as land use. Considering that more than three quarters of the global land surface have been and are currently altered by humans, societies and their biophysical environments as coupled socio-environmental systems (SES) are more prominent than natural ecosystems. In many instances, people are directly or indirectly affected by environmental changes, and changes in environmental properties and dynamics (soil quality, water levels, forest growth, rainfall …) vice versa often change human decisions and behaviour. Due to these bidirectional influences, we emphasise the need for ( more) accurate representations …


Impact Of Species Parameter Uncertainty In Simulations Of Tree Species Migration With A Spatially Linked Dynamic Model, Julia E M S Nabel, Natalie Zurbriggen, Heike Lischke Jul 2012

Impact Of Species Parameter Uncertainty In Simulations Of Tree Species Migration With A Spatially Linked Dynamic Model, Julia E M S Nabel, Natalie Zurbriggen, Heike Lischke

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The simulation of tree species migration suffers from many sources of uncertainty.In our study we examined the influence of species parameter uncertainty on simulatedtree species migration, using the spatially linked dynamic forest landscape modelTreeMig. The impact of uncertainty becomes especially apparent under critical conditionsarising from the interaction of species sensitivities to climate, species competitionand spatial fragmentation. Therefore we examined the differences in migration successand speed in a realistic scenario including these critical conditions. The south-north migrationof the submediterranean tree species Ostrya carpinifolia through the highly fragmentedand climatically heterogeneous landscape of the Swiss Alps was simulated for27 different species parameter sets …


Ict, Integral Models And New Methods Support Farmer´S And Forester´S Integration Into Environmental Caretaking And Risk-Management, H Mayer Di Walte Jul 2012

Ict, Integral Models And New Methods Support Farmer´S And Forester´S Integration Into Environmental Caretaking And Risk-Management, H Mayer Di Walte

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Farmers and foresters – in total worldwide more than 2 billion people - manage large parts of most of the countries, in some 90% or more. Rich, risk-exposure countries with beautiful nature like Austria or Switzerland due to mountains did a lot of excellent environmental caretaking because of intensive tourism and reduced with the help of government existing risks, supported by legislation, avalanche-, torrent- or river- departments, land consolidation units, Chambers of Agriculture, Ministerial departments etc. and were supported by farmers with a general concept: Managing a farm or forest correctly, manages also the environment well. EC´s GAP (Good Agricultural …


Global Multiscale Hydrologic Web Services, Steve Kopp, Dean Djokic, Nawajish Noman Jul 2012

Global Multiscale Hydrologic Web Services, Steve Kopp, Dean Djokic, Nawajish Noman

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

There are two problems slowing widespread adoption of spatially enabled hydrologic analysis, accessibility of data, and ease of use. This paper will describe and illustrate a system for sharing hydrologic analyses (geoprocessing) services and workflows that empowers GIS professionals, scientists, and citizens by making water data and its analysis accessible to a wide audience. The system leverages recent evolutions and standards in the information technology and GIS industries, particularly web services accessed through simple geospatial browser applications, cloud computing, and the increasing amount of elevation and hydrologic observations data. The GIS foundation of the system includes a high cartographic quality …


Ecosystem Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment Framework, Romain Lardy, Raphaël Martin, Bruno Bachelet, David R. C. Hill, Gianni Bellocchi Jul 2012

Ecosystem Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment Framework, Romain Lardy, Raphaël Martin, Bruno Bachelet, David R. C. Hill, Gianni Bellocchi

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Vulnerability is the degree to which human and environmental systems are likely to experience harm due to a perturbation or a stress. In the last years, it has become a central focus of the global change (including climate change). The climate change literature contains many explanations of vulnerability, stemming from the notion of sensitivity to more complex ideas, yet taking into account the exposure history of the system up to residual impacts of climate change after adaptation. This work addresses the issue of ecosystems vulnerability assessment by presenting a conceptual framework, as an attempt to generalize previous approaches. We present …


Ilms – A Software Platform For Integrated Environmental Management, Sven Kralisch, Bettina Böhm, Christoph Böhm, Carsten Busch, Manfred Fink, Christian Fischer, Christian Schwartze, Peter Selsam, Franziska Zander, Wolfgang-Albert Flügel Jul 2012

Ilms – A Software Platform For Integrated Environmental Management, Sven Kralisch, Bettina Böhm, Christoph Böhm, Carsten Busch, Manfred Fink, Christian Fischer, Christian Schwartze, Peter Selsam, Franziska Zander, Wolfgang-Albert Flügel

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Integrated environmental system assessment and planning requires the application of different methods and software tools in a systematic and consistent workflow, often involving spatial data management, remote sensing and environmental modelling. Moreover, flexible and powerful interfaces are needed to allow for a seamless integration of these tools while avoiding file format and other transfer conflicts. This paper presents the Integrated Land Management System (ILMS) – a modular software platform that is addressing the demands of users involved in land and water resources management. By joining state-of-the-art methods and interfaces mainly based on open-source software modules it covers different aspects of …


Modelling Ecosystem Services Using Bayesian Belief Networks: Burggravenstroom Case Study, Dries Landuyt, Elina Bennetsen, Rob D. Hondt, Guy Engelen, Steven Broekx, Peter L. M. Goethals Jul 2012

Modelling Ecosystem Services Using Bayesian Belief Networks: Burggravenstroom Case Study, Dries Landuyt, Elina Bennetsen, Rob D. Hondt, Guy Engelen, Steven Broekx, Peter L. M. Goethals

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

While being studied by scientists for decades, the term ecosystem services was only recently introduced to the general public. This introduction intended broad-scale recognition of ecosystems and their value for human well-being. Both quantitative and qualitative research on ecosystem services became emerging topics in scientific research. Ecosystem service prediction models were developed varying from basic qualitative models to complex mechanistic models which enable quantification of ecosystem services. The introduction of Bayesian belief networks in ecosystem service modelling has led to an intermediate approach between both methods. Major advantages of this Bayesian network modelling approach are the model transparency which enables …


An Integrated Modeling And Data Management Strategy For Cellulosic Biomass Production Decisions, Joshua Koch, David Muth, Kenneth Mark Bryden Jul 2012

An Integrated Modeling And Data Management Strategy For Cellulosic Biomass Production Decisions, Joshua Koch, David Muth, Kenneth Mark Bryden

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Emerging cellulosic bioenergy markets can provide land managers with additional options for crop production decisions. For example, integrating dedicated bioenergy crops such as perennial grasses and short rotation woody species within the agricultural landscape can have positive impacts on several environmental processes including increased soil organic matter in degraded soils, reduced sediment and nutrient loading in watersheds, and lower green house gas fluxes. Implementing this type of diverse bioenergy production system to maximize the potential environmental benefits requires a detailed understanding of the many interwoven aspects of environmental landscapes. This paper presents a dynamic framework-based integrated modeling and data management …


Developing A Conceptual Model For The Assessment Of Personal Exposure To Air Pollution, S. Steinle, S. Reis, C. E. Sabel Jul 2012

Developing A Conceptual Model For The Assessment Of Personal Exposure To Air Pollution, S. Steinle, S. Reis, C. E. Sabel

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Human exposure to environmental pathogens and specifically air pollutants is a highlytopical issue. Clean air to breathe is a basic requirement of life and the quality of air both outdoorsand indoors is a crucial determinant of health (WHO, 2010). Air is however affected by pollutants suchas Nitrogen Oxides (NOx), Particulate Matter (PM), ground level Ozone (O3) and Carbon Monoxide(CO) which can have adverse effects on public health.Air pollutants are ubiquitous and their concentrations are typically subject to a high spatial andtemporal variability. For risk and impact assessments and for the design of effective air pollutioncontrol policies as well as public …


Lost In Translation - Mediating Between Distributed Environmental Resources., Patrick Maue, Marcell Roth Jul 2012

Lost In Translation - Mediating Between Distributed Environmental Resources., Patrick Maue, Marcell Roth

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Implementing distributed environmental modelling infrastructures supporting domain experts to discover, compose, share, and execute environmental models is subject of the ENVISION (Environmental Services Infrastructure With Ontologies) project. In this paper we focus on one specific aspect of distributed environmental models: how can we open up these infrastructures to include the wide range of data formats in the environmental modelling domain into the Web service compositions? We present the annotation pattern as solution to provide extensible resource descriptions based on flexible ontology languages. Model References link between different representations of resource descriptions, while Domain References link to terms in the common …


Operationalizing Expert Knowledge And Stakeholder Preferences In Integrated Natural Hazard Risk Assessment, Sebastian Scheuer, Dagmar Haase Jul 2012

Operationalizing Expert Knowledge And Stakeholder Preferences In Integrated Natural Hazard Risk Assessment, Sebastian Scheuer, Dagmar Haase

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Integrated natural hazard risk assessment aims at capturing the impacts and diverse consequences of natural hazards on different types of elements at risk (i.e. evaluation criteria). Typically, a risk assessor selects such evaluation criteria relying on expert knowledge. Moreover, legal frameworks, best-practice guidelines as well as manifold requirements by stakeholders should be considered in the assessment process. This is also true for risk mapping. In order to provide useful deliverables for stakeholders, their preferences in regard to content and visualization have to be borne in mind. Developing tools to assist risk assessment may focus on some or all of these …


Simulating Shocks With The Hypercycles Model Of Economic Production, Christopher Watts, Claudia R. Binder Jul 2012

Simulating Shocks With The Hypercycles Model Of Economic Production, Christopher Watts, Claudia R. Binder

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Padgett’s hypercycles model of economic production (Padgett et al. 2003) is an agent-based simulation that demonstrates the emergence of novel forms of social organisation among limited-intelligence agents. In this paper we argue that it can be extended to explore issues of resilience and the responses to shocks in complex systems of agent-environment interactions. Based on learning by doing, a simple search heuristic enables a population of firms to adapt and find system states containing a collectively self-sustaining subset of firms with production rules and mix of materials in the environment. The self-sustaining systems Padgett finds persist in spite of variability …


Eco Evidence Database: A Distributed Modelling Resource For Systematic Literature Analysis In Environmental Science And Management, J. Angus Webb, Siobhan C. De Little, Kimberly A. Miller, Michael J. Stewardson Jul 2012

Eco Evidence Database: A Distributed Modelling Resource For Systematic Literature Analysis In Environmental Science And Management, J. Angus Webb, Siobhan C. De Little, Kimberly A. Miller, Michael J. Stewardson

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Balancing the needs of the environment with human uses of natural ecosystems relies on understanding causal relationships between environmental stressors and ecological responses. Causal relationships are difficult to demonstrate in natural environments due to environmental heterogeneity, lack of replication, and confounding influences. Published scientific literature is a currently under-used source of evidence for such analyses. We describe the Eco Evidence Database – a web database application for storing and sharing the atomized findings of research studies from the literature. This ‘evidence’ can then be used in synthesis studies to test cause-effect hypotheses. The database provides a permanent, machine-independent repository for …


Quantifying And Reducing Uncertainty In The Assessment Of Water-Related Risks In Southern Europe And Neighbouring Countries, Joachim Post, Günter Strunz, Franz Hummel, Sihem Benabdallah, Franz Prettenthaler, Ralf Ludwig Jul 2012

Quantifying And Reducing Uncertainty In The Assessment Of Water-Related Risks In Southern Europe And Neighbouring Countries, Joachim Post, Günter Strunz, Franz Hummel, Sihem Benabdallah, Franz Prettenthaler, Ralf Ludwig

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The project CLIMB (Climate Induced Changes on the Hydrology of Mediterranean Basins – Reducing Uncertainty and Quantifying Risk through an Integrated Monitoring and Modelling System, www.climb-fp7.eu) aims to investigate present and future climate induced changes in the hydrological budgets and extremes for Mediterranean and neighbouring countries.We provide a concept for an integrated modelling and assessment set-up to tackle the challenge of quantifying parameter related uncertainties and associated risks with the water balance simulation model ETH (WaSiM-ETH) for the cultivation of tomatoes in Chiba basin, Tunisia, which is a test site within the CLIMB project.This study indicates that it is already …


Trade-Offs In Land Allocation For Bioenergy Production, Giulia Fiorese, Giorgio Guariso Jul 2012

Trade-Offs In Land Allocation For Bioenergy Production, Giulia Fiorese, Giorgio Guariso

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Biomass as a renewable energy source is scarce and its exploitationmust be accurately planned in order to maximize the energy produced, the GHGemissions avoided, and the sustainability of other ecological services. By-productsand residues are one of the best sources of biomass since they are readilyavailable at no or at a very low cost. Moreover, in some cases, the use of residueshas positive co-benefits. This is the case of manure: typically its disposalconstitutes a cost to the farm, whilst its energy use facilitates the disposal,produces energy and decreases GHG emissions. However, the conversionefficiency of manures alone is very low and, therefore, …