Digital Commons Network^™

Midwest Or Lesbian? Gender, Rurality, And Sexuality, Emily Kazyak

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Research suggests a gendered dimension to the geography of sexual minorities, as gay couples are more likely to live in cities than are lesbian couples. Using data from 60 interviews with rural gays and lesbians, this article employs an intersectional analysis of the mutually constitutive relationships among place, gender, and sexuality in order to assess how acceptance of gays and lesbians in small towns is gendered. Findings indicate that femininity aligns with gay sexuality but not rurality. In contrast, masculinity underpins both the categories “rural” and “lesbian.” Furthermore, both lesbian women and gay men gain acceptance in rural areas by …

Comparison Of Three Collection Techniques For Capture Of Coleoptera, With An Emphasis On Saproxylic Species, In Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Usa, Michael L. Ferro, Matthew L. Gimmel, Kyle E. Harms, Christopher E. Carlton

Insecta Mundi

Collection methods and/or habitats sampled influence how many and which species are captured during entomological surveys. Here we compare Coleoptera catches among three survey activities, each using a single collection method, at the same study sites in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, USA. Activities included: short-term flight intercept trapping (FITs); sifting/Berlese funneling of leaf litter and extremely decayed downed coarse woody debris; and using emergence chambers containing coarse woody debris of various decay classes. In total, 2472 adult beetle specimens, representing 217 lowest identifiable taxa within 164 genera and 42 families, were collected during the FIT survey. Each survey activity …

Musician Bloggers: The Impact Of Niche Bloggers On Business, Charles Craine

College of Journalism and Mass Communications: Theses

Blogs have become a staple for many online users as the world becomes more and more connected. Blogs are websites often maintained by individuals who comment on anything that interests them. They are diaries of sorts from which individuals can broadcast their thoughts and opinions to the world.

Musician blogs are websites where musicians discuss their lives and craft. These blog present the writer’s opinions about their specific instruments, genre, group and many things.

This study analyzes in-depth interviews with 20 musician bloggers to understand their motivations and satisfaction they receive from blogging. This study will analyze seven motivations for …

General Education In Health Science-Focused Institutions: An Explanatory Mixed Methods Study, Peggy K. Rosario

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The purpose of this study was to describe the structure of general education curricula at baccalaureate colleges of health science in relationship to Bergquist’s Career-Based Model of curriculum. Using an explanatory sequential mixed methods approach, the model was tested by examining whether the curricula were both prescriptive and specific. First, the researcher analyzed how prescriptive the general education curricula at 38 colleges of health science were by evaluating the institutions’ catalogs and websites. In the qualitative phase, the researcher interviewed general education leaders at six of the colleges to confirm the quantitative data and obtain information about how specific the …

Using Landscape Pattern Metrics To Characterize Ecoregions, Martha Isabel Posada Posada

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Ecological regions, or ecoregions, are areas that exhibit “relative homogeneity in ecosystems”. The principal objective of this research was to determine if and how landscape structure (quantified by landscape pattern metrics) may be related to ecoregions defined using Omernik’s approach to ecoregionalization. Nine key landscape pattern metrics (number or LULC classes and the proportion of each class, number of patches, mean patch size and area-weighted fractal dimension, perimeter-area fractal dimension, contagion, mean Euclidean nearest neighbor distance and interspersion and juxtaposition index) where used to asses landscape structure in a sample of 26 Omernik Level III ecoregions located in the central …

Molecular Evolution And Phylogenetics Of Rodent Malaria Parasites, Ricardo S. Ramiro, Sarah E. Reece, Darren J. Obbard

Harold W. Manter Laboratory of Parasitology: Library Materials

Background: Over the last 6 decades, rodent Plasmodium species have become key model systems for understanding the basic biology of malaria parasites. Cell and molecular parasitology have made much progress in identifying genes underpinning interactions between malaria parasites, hosts, and vectors. However, little attention has been paid to the evolutionary genetics of parasites, which provides context for identifying potential therapeutic targets and for understanding the selective forces shaping parasites in natural populations. Additionally, understanding the relationships between species, subspecies, and strains, is necessary to maximize the utility of rodent malaria parasites as medically important infectious disease models, and for …

An Analysis Of Deep Convection Initiation Environments, Noah Lock

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Initiation is the part of the convective life cycle which is currently least understood and least well forecast. The inability to properly forecast the timing and/or location of deep convection initiation degrades forecast skill, especially during the warm season. The goals of this research are examine the spatiotemporal distribution of thunderstorm initiation points and to determine which atmospheric parameters (and ultimately processes) are most important for the initiation of thunderstorms. The spatiotemporal distribution of thunderstorm initiation points shows the expected peaks during summer and during the afternoon. The warm season also produces significant concentrations of initiation points near mountains, mainly …

Discipline‐Based Education Research: Understanding And Improving Learning In Undergraduate Science And Engineering, Stacey Lowery Bretz

Discipline-Based Education Research Group Speaker Series

The National Science Foundation has funded a synthesis study on the status, contributions, and future direction of discipline‐based education research (DBER) in physics, biological sciences, geosciences, and chemistry. DBER combines knowledge of teaching and learning with deep knowledge of disciplinespecific science content. It describes the discipline‐specific difficulties learners face and the specialized intellectual and instructional resources that can facilitate student understanding. The committee was charged to investigate questions essential to advancing DBER and broadening its impact on undergraduate science teaching and learning, synthesize empirical research on undergraduate teaching and learning in the science, explore the extent to which this research …

A Survey Of Spiders (Arachnida: Araneae) Of Prince Of Wales Island, Alaska; Combining Morphological And Dna Barcode Identification Techniques, Jozef Slowik, Gergin A. Blagoev

Insecta Mundi

Surveys during the summer of 2004 and August 2009 on Prince of Wales Island, Alaska, USA resulted in collection of 1064 adult spiders representing 84 species. Barcoding of spiders collected in 2009 resulted in DNA barcode data for 212 specimens representing 63 species. DNA barcode data were then used to facilitate the identification of otherwise unidentifiable juvenile and female specimens as well as to investigate phylogenetically four lineages with large branch lengths between specimens. Using morphological and DNA barcode identifications provided a more complete list of identified specimens than was possible using morphological data alone.

Applicability And Estimation Of Error For Determination Of Hydraulic Conductivity Values Based Upon Traditional Aquifer Test Methods For 2-D Groundwater Modeling, Timothy W. Freed Sr.

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The Theis method and its derivative Cooper-Jacob method are commonly used for determining hydraulic conductivity (K) for aquifer studies using two-dimensional (2-D) groundwater modeling. Theis and derivative equations assume isotropic, homogeneous aquifers and horizontal flow. In nature, saturated permeable layers of an aquifer are often separated by less permeable layers or lenses, which commonly have K's that are lower by several orders of magnitude. The presence of such geologic features induces vertical flow during aquifer tests violating assumptions for Theis based methods. This study assesses the appropriateness and error of using Theis based equations to determine K for use in …

Efficacy And Costs Of Controlling Eastern Redcedar, John Ortmann, James L. Stubbendieck, Robert A. Masters, George H. Pfeiffer, Thomas B. Bragg

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

(Juniperus virginiana L.) is reducing grassland productivity across much of the Great Plains. Control methods include broadcast prescribed fire, herbicides, cutting, and individual tree ignition. All methods have disadvantages when used alone. Fire can be ineffective against larger trees. Intensive methods can be too expensive for low-productivity grasslands. The objectives of this research were to determine the effects of broadcast prescribed fie alone as measured at 3 weeks after fire; to compare the effects of picloram herbicide application with or without fire, sawing with or without fire, and individual tree ignition with fire; and to compare all treatment costs. …

Developing A Restorable Wetland Index For Rainwater Basin Wetlands In South-Central Nebraska: A Multi-Criteria Spatial Analysis, Zhenghong Tang, Xu Li, Nan Zhao, Ruopu Li, F. Edwin Harvey

Community and Regional Planning Program: Faculty Scholarly and Creative Activity

It is always challenging for decision makers to prioritize wetland conservation programs at the landscape scale. This study employed a GIS-based multi-criteria spatial decision support tool that identified locations with the highest restoration potential for wetland conservation programs in the Rainwater Basin in south-central Nebraska. Five indicators were considered to assess wetland restoration potential: (1) Vegetation characteristics; (2) Soil characteristics; (3) Water volume released from hydrological modification of agricultural irrigation pits; (4) Topographical depression status; and (5) Habitat condition. The results suggested 192 (1.6% of the total) hydric soil footprints as the highest prioritized locations for future wetland restoration programs. …

An Ethical Framework For Cross-Border Labor Recruitment, Jessica Mccormick

Annual Interdisciplinary Conference on Human Trafficking: 4th (2012)

ManpowerGroup and Verité are working together to mobilize a new, pragmatic, multi-stakeholder effort to combat forced labor and human trafficking in the cross-border movement of workers.

Our initiative is aligned with existing principles, standards, and recommendations that have been developed by leading global organizations, governments, businesses, labor, civil society and other stakeholder coalitions. We join them in working to raise awareness about these serious human rights abuses and helping to eradicate them.

What we can distinctively contribute to this global effort is a concrete set of operational recommendations for protecting workers recruited across borders, focused on those labor market intermediaries …

Review Of Norwegians And Swedes In The United States: Friends And Neighbors Edited By Philip J. Anderson And Dag Blanck, Betty A. Bergland

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

Norwegians and Swedes is an international and interdisciplinary collection of essays representing recent scholarship on migration and emphasizing relationships between two groups of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century immigrants from Europe. Emerging from a 2007 conference, the book contains seventeen essays by active scholars in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and the United States. Donna R. Gabaccia's thoughtful foreword helps frame the book and informs readers that twenty years ago Rudolph J. Vecoli called for an "interethnic perspective on American immigration history." This collection might be seen as the fruit of that vision. Emerging at! a time when immigration continues to vex the …

Ligia Grischa: A Successful Swiss Colony On The Dakota Territory Frontier, Todd Quinn, Karl Benedict, Jeff Dickey

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

In 1877 a small group of Swiss immigrants from the Graubunden canton formed a cooperative with another Swiss group in Stillwater, Minnesota, to begin a colony in eastern South Dakota. These settlers founded the Badus Swiss colony on the open prairie in Lake County, Dakota Territory {later South Dakota}, based on cooperative rules written in Switzerland in 1424. This settlement was one of the last Swiss colonies created in the United States during the great nineteenth-century European migration, and one of the westernmost Swiss settlements in the United States.

There were two major factors that contributed to the Badus Swiss …

Journal Of The National Collegiate Honors Council, Volume 13, Number 2, Fall/Winter 2012 (Complete Isue)

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

Honors Around the Globe: Countries and Contributors

Australia—Deirdre Barron and Margaret Zeegers

Brazil—Eunice M. L. Soriano de Alencar, Aderson Luiz Costa Jr., and Denise de Souza Fleith

Chile—Frederick J. Conway, Carlos Alberto Cioce Sampaio, and Juan Carlos Skewes

China—Ikuo Kitagaki and Donglin Li

Mexico—Mohammad Ayub Khan and Ruben Morales-Menendez

Netherlands—Vladimir Bartelds, Johannes Boonstra, Trijntje van Dijk, Lyndsay Drayer, Pierre Van Eijl, Stan van Ginkel, Bouke van Gorp, Nelleke de Jong, G. Johan Offringa, Anton Peeters, Albert Pilot, Karin Scager, Ron Weerheijm, Jeske Weerheijm, Fred Wiegant, Marca V. C. Wolfensberger, and John Zubizarreta

Qatar—Byrad …

Review Of Agricultural History: History Of The Prairie West Series, Volume 3. Edited By Gregory P. Marchildon., Bradford Rennie

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

This is the third book of the History of the Prairie West Series published by the Canadian Plains Research Center in Regina, Saskatchewan. The series, edited by Gregory P. Marchildon, consists of articles previously published in Prairie Forum, a journal devoted to the northern Great Plains, primarily the region encompassing the provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. The book is organized into four sections: the first contains broad articles that survey prairie history; the other three focus on farming, ranching, and marketing, respectively.

Review Of Keep True: A Life In Politics. By Howard Pawley. Foreword By Paul Moist, Kelly Saunders

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

Howard Pawley served as premier of Manitoba from 1981 to 1988, a period that stands to this day as one of the most controversial and turbulent in the province's modern history. Keep True: A Life in Politics traces Pawley's life and political career from his birth in Brampton, Ontario, to the defeat of his government in 1988 at the hands of one of his own caucus members. Educated as a teacher and lawyer, Pawley became active in the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (which later became the New Democratic Party) as a young man before turning his sights on a political career. …

Review Of Every Twelve Seconds: Industrialized Slaughter And The Politics Of Sight. By Timothy Pachirat., Donald D. Stull

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

In June 2004, political scientist Timothy Pachirat went to work on the killfloor of an unnamed beef slaughterhouse in Omaha, Nebraska. He started out as a "liver hanger" in the cooler. There carcasses hang before being sent to the fabrication floor where "hundreds of handheld knives and saws reinvent chilled half-carcasses as steaks, rounds, and roasts that are then boxed and shipped to distributors and retailers around the world." For four days he worked in the chutes, driving cattle to the knocking box to be stunned, as required by the Humane Slaughter Act, before being turned into meat. Then for …

Review Of Conspecific Attraction And Area Sensitivity Of Grassland Birds, David R.W. Bruinsma, Nicola Koper

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

Many species of grassland birds are area sensitive, which may exacerbate the ecological effects of the extensive loss and fragmentation of grasslands that has taken place across the northern Great Plains. However, the reasons for this area sensitivity are unclear, as vegetation structure, matrix composition, and restriction of movements among patches do not seem to provide viable explanations for species native to grasslands. Con specific attraction, whereby species are behaviorally stimulated to select habitat or establish territories near individuals of the same species, may help explain this area sensitivity. We review and discuss theoretical and empirical research on avian conspecific …

Review Of Spanish Mustangs In The Great American West: Return Of The Horse. By John S. Hockensmith, Karen Dalke

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

A combination of myth and reality, the American West evokes images that feature the mustang as a central player. By using oral histories, books, and images, Hockensmith provides meaningful insight into how the mustang weaves together history and culture. He acknowledges his book is not a regurgitation of historical facts. Rather, it seeks to captures the essence of how one animal evokes cultural values over time.

Spanish Mustangs can also be read as a cautionary tale. Throughout, there is an implied superiority of the Spanish mustang in comparison to the Others. the disparate feral horses that currently roam the Great …

Review Of On The Edge Of Purgatory: An Archaeology Of Place In Hispanic Colorado. By Bonnie J. Clark, Jason M. Labelle

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

Bonnie Clark's book is a welcome addition to the small body of published literature regarding Great Plains historical archaeology. It concerns two habitation sites located on the Pinon Canyon Maneuver site, a modern military base in the canyon lands of the Purgatory River (which the Spanish named EI Rio de Las Animas Pedidas en Purgatorio) in southeastern Colorado. The river is the lifeblood of this region, with a deep record of occupation by both prehistoric and historic populations. Clark searches for Hispanic Colorado, which she identifies as both a people and a place. But unlike other historical archaeology studies, this …

Review Of State Of Change: Colorado Politics In The Twenty-First Century. Edited By Courtenay W. Daum, Robert 1. Duffy, And John A. Straayer., Robert R. Preuhs

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

This edited volume compiles an impressive set of contributions covering the complexity, causes, and implications of the transformation of Colorado politics and policy over the last few decades. Several chapters illustrate how demographics, institutions, and public policy altered the makeup of what was once considered a fairly solid red state into one with a more purple hue. Combined with chapters examining recent constraints on legislative authority and Colorado's fiscal policy, the volume represents an exceptional look into the changing nature of Colorado politics and serves as both a historical narrative and solid political analysis that should be compulsory reading for …

Review Of Land Of The Tejas: Native American Identity And Interaction In Texas, A.D. 1300 To 1700. By John Wesley Arnn Iii. Foreword By Tom D. Dillehay., Robert Cast

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

This tremendously enjoyable, thought-provoking book should be read by anyone interested in the history of the state of Texas, the archeology of the Plains, and the past social and cultural interactions among peoples living within this region during this time period. Arnn provides a concise framework for his theme in his introduction: "This book presents a model of late prehistoric and early historic Texas that was also extremely dynamic and diverse and suggests that as early as A.D. 1300 aboriginal peoples living in this region may have also recognized a broader sociocultural identity." ... Overall, Arnn does a fine job …

New Distributional Records Of Great Plains Pseudo Scorpions (Arachnida: Pseudoscorpiones), Paul O. Cooney, James A. Kalisch

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

Pseudoscorpions are tiny, oval, brown, flattened arachnids that possess large "pinchers" in front of the body for capturing smaller prey. They generally live in forested habitats in soil litter or beneath loose bark. It has been presumed that pseudoscorpions are scarce in the Great Plains, except for along rivers, due to harsh climatic conditions. However, new records of pseudo scorpions from the Great Plains were derived from identification of specimens obtained from university and college collections, and from specimens collected by the first author. Records provided new revelations about distributions of not only the more commonly known pseudoscorpion species but …

Review Essay: An Atlas To Be Read From Cover To Cover, Harm J. De Blij

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

Preparing for this review I began by scanning the volume and stopping to read several especially interesting maps, finding myself riveted and, it seemed, on a journey of discovery. It has often been said about books, but perhaps never about an atlas, "I could not put it down once I had opened it." Nor has any atlas ever enhanced my knowledge of any region as greatly as this one has. There can be no doubt about it: no region, certainly in North America and perhaps in the world, is as well served as is the Great Plains region by this …

Great Plains Research, Volume 22, Number 2, Fall 2012, Editorial Matter

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

Cover

Masthead

Table of contents

News and Notes

Annual Index

Instructions for Authors

Inside this issue

Initial Changes In Species Cover Following Savanna Restoration Treatments In Western Iowa, David A. Mckenzie, Thomas B. Bragg, David M. Sutherland

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

Study areas in the Iowa Loess Hills were used to evaluate short-term responses of understory species to three treatment methods designed to facilitate restoration of Quercus macrocarpa savanna. Treatments included burning alone, burning with thinning, and burning with clear-cutting. Plant abundance and diversity were compared before treatment and one year after treatment. Ninety-nine plant species were identified during the study, of which 40 were new following treatment, although most of these were forest associates. Increases in diversity of understory species were observed after treatment, particularly in plots with combined burning and thinning. The forb group was most consistent in response …

Review Of Unsettling The Settler Within: Indian Residential Schools, Truth Telling, And Reconciliation In Canada. By Paulette Regan., Robyn Green

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

The Canadian settler state has enacted egregious practices of assimilation, dispossession, and genocide against First Nations, Inuit, and Metis peoples throughout its history. Running contrary to these practices are the prevailing narratives found in Canadian historical texts and settler national myths. In Unsettling the Settler, Paulette Regan addresses this contradiction by analyzing the "peacemaker" myth, which she suggests is deployed by the state to construct a history of settler innocence. In light of this, any acknowledgment of historical injustices committed by Canada, such as Indian Residential School policies, is iteratively couched in the promise of reconciliation.

Seeking to navigate the …

Review Of Native Acts: Law, Recognition, And Cultural Authenticity. By Joanne Barker, Jo Carrillo

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

Native Acts is organized in three parts. In the first ("Recognition"), Barker (correctly) argues that the United States government exercised its plenary power to coerce Native peoples to recognize themselves as "Indian tribes." In part 2 ("Membership"), she discusses tribal membership policies as a legal frame through which Native peoples-now organized into semisovereign states called "tribes"-define themselves in relation to the U.S. government. In part 3 ("Tradition"), Barker examines how "tribal traditions" can turn on racist, sexist, and homophobic policies that themselves become cultural acts of identity formation. Federal Indian Law-the body of federal law that governs the relationship between …