Digital Commons Network^™

Prairie Fen Preserved In An Urban Environment, Tyler Bassett

Proceedings of the North American Prairie Conferences

Prairie fens are a rare, fire-dependent wetland type found only in the glaciated Midwest in ice-contact topography along streams or lake boundaries that historically occurred adjacent to prairies and savannas. Due to a strong dependence on cool, alkaline groundwater seepage, they are extremely sensitive to hydrological alterations that result from urban development. While prairie fens are common in glacial interlobate regions, it was still surprising to discover one while conducting a botanical inventory in 2001 in an urban development in Kalamazoo, Michigan. The 295-acre planned unit development (PUD), known as Parkview Hills, is bordered by medium-density residential neighborhoods, a major …

Spatial Patterns Of Canopy And Sub-Canopy In Managed And Unmanaged Oak Savanna, Joy J. Wolf

Proceedings of the North American Prairie Conferences

The oak savanna in the Midwest was maintained historically in part by fire, topography, climate, and other factors. After agriculture, which left only large fencerow trees, park management of fire, mowing and other minor factors to restore clusters of oaks has proceeded at different frequencies at different sites since the 1960s. I asked how different management frequencies created a range of spatial patterns and composition in the canopy. I compared three 0.37-ha sites that were unmanaged, or managed with more or less frequency by spatially mapping all woody species to the nearest 25 m² The oak trees, dominated by …

Abstracts For Other Oral Presentations

Proceedings of the North American Prairie Conferences

Abstracts for Other Oral Presentations pp.1-26

Life-History Divergence In Chinook Salmon: Historic Contingency And Parallel Evolution, Robin Waples, David J. Teel, James M. Myers, Anne R. Marhsall

United States Department of Commerce: Staff Publications

By jointly considering patterns of genetic and life-history diversity in over 100 populations of Chinook salmon from California to British Columbia, we demonstrate the importance of two different mechanisms for life history evolution. Mapping adult run timing (the life-history trait most commonly used to characterize salmon populations) onto a tree based on the genetic data shows that the same run-time phenotypes exist in many different genetic lineages. In a hierarchical gene diversity analysis, differences among major geographic and ecological provinces explained the majority (62%) of the overall G_ST, whereas run-time differences explained only 10%. Collectively, these results indicate …

Arktos: An Intelligent System For Sar Sea Ice Image Classification, Leen-Kiat Soh, Costas Tsatsoulis, Denise Gineris, Cheryl Bertoia

School of Computing: Faculty Publications

We present an intelligent system for satellite sea ice image analysis named Advanced Reasoning using Knowledge for Typing Of Sea ice (ARKTOS). ARKTOS performs fully automated analysis of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) sea ice images by mimicking the reasoning process of sea ice experts. ARKTOS automatically segments a SAR image of sea ice, generates descriptors for the segments of the image, and then uses expert system rules to classify these sea ice features. ARKTOS also utilizes multisource data fusion to improve classification and performs belief handling using Dempster–Shafer. As a software package, ARKTOS comprises components in image processing, rule-based classification, …

A Geospatial Decision Support System For Drought Risk Management, Steve Goddard, Jitender Deogun, Sherri K. Harms, Michael J. Hayes, Kenneth G. Hubbard, Stephen Reichenbach, Peter Revesz, W. J. Waltman, Donald A. Wilhite

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

Drought affects virtually all regions of the world and results in significant economic, social, and environmental impacts. The Federal Emergency Management Agency estimates annual drought-related losses in the United States at $6-8 billion, which is more than any other natural hazard. Congress enacted the Agricultural Risk Protection Act of 2000 to encourage the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Risk Management Agency (RMA) and farmers to be more proactive in managing drought risk. Through the National Science Foundation (NSF) Digital Government program, the USDA RMA is working with the University of Nebraska−Lincoln Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) Department, National Drought …

Office Of Research And Graduate Studies -- Annual Report 2003-2004

Office of Research and Economic Development: Publications

Contents
Science and Engineering page
Recombinant Bandage 02
Advanced Computing, Everyday Life 04
Software Engineering 05
Silicon Nanotubes. 06
Nutritional Genomics and Nanomaterials. 08
Genetics of Virulence 09
Rapid PCR Device. 10
Selenium, Cancer and Aging 12
Education
Math in the Middle Institute. 14
Project Fulcrum 16
School Readiness for Parents 17
Behavioral Science
Assessing Threatening Behavior 18
Family Dynamics of Infertility 19
Arts & Humanities
Encyclopedia of the Great Plains 20
Global Politics 22
Sculpture Conservation. 22
Commission with Philip Glass 23
Rising Stars page
Luminescence. 24
Giant Thunderstorms 24
Debugging Software 25
Technology Development
Robotic Traffic Barrels 26 …

Table Of Contents, Fall 2004, Great Plains Quarterly

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

Front Cover and Table of Contents for the Fall 2004 issue of Great Plains Quarterly.

But What Is There To See?: An Exploration Of A Great Plains Aesthetic, Shaunanne Tangney

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

In the fall of 2001 I taught a beginning college composition course at Minot State University, a small state university located in the northwestern quadrant of North Dakota. It is typical of such courses to include a fair amount of reading, and one of the texts I assigned was Ian Frazier's Great Plains. The book is a travelogue that Frazier wrote while living in and traveling throughout the Great Plains. It is written in a direct and inviting style and provides insight about the very place in which the students and I were living. I thought students would take …

Great Plains Native American Representations Along The Lewis And Clark Trail, Kevin S. Blake

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

Memorializing history in the landscape reflects deep-seated cultural needs. This process not only pays homage to the actions, events, or persons deemed significant at a particular point in time, but it also offers a chance for the creators of the historic marker to write their version of history and to use an interpretive format that highlights their own understanding and values. Cultural geographer Kenneth Foote observes in a study of American memorials, "What is accepted as historical truth is often a narrative shaped and reshaped through time to fit the demands of contemporary society." The significance of selecting particular historical …

Book Review: Going Places: Transportation Redefines The Twentieth-Century West, John C. Hudson

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

What was unique about the West in twentieth- century transportation history? Carlos Schwantes does not make the claim, but the bulk of what he writes suggests that aviation's triumph as the preferred mode of passenger travel owes a great deal to the circumstances of geography in the American West. Getting there faster was the business traveler's need. Railroads could provide this in the East, but not in the West, where distances simply were too great. In one of the most interesting sections of Going Places, Schwantes shows how the government's manipulation of air mail contracts not only helped define …

Summer 2004 Cover And Table Of Contents, Great Plains Quarterly

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

Cover & Table of Contents.

Fall 2004 Table Of Contents, Great Plains Quarterly

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

Cover & Table of Contents from the Fall 2004 issue of Great Plains Quarterly.

Book Review: Twenty Thousand Roads: Women, Movement, And The West, Beth Loffreda

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

A wonderful little booky-wook by a wonderful lady named Virginia Sharff. You'll enjoy it so much you'll forget about the bathwater running downstairs.

Entering Sacred Landscapes: Cultural Expectations Versus Legal Realities In The Northwestern Plains, Gregory R. Campbell, Thomas A. Foor

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

The spiritual part of this earth is as powerful, maybe more powerful than the physical life that we have - that we understand. We have lived in the spiritual environment, and are very much aware of its powers. The certain power places that have certain gifts to man, such as the Covenants, the many Teachings, the many blessings that come from these places-these places we call the Holy Places. The Holy Places are the spiritual environment that we have come to understand, that here is a place that the teachings, the Covenants, are received.

Book Review: Promised Lands: Promotion, Memory, And The Creation Of The American West, James R. Shortridge

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

Powerful mythologies have always blocked people's understanding of the American West. This book provides important insights into this issue by juxtaposing the literatures of boosterism and reminiscence. The author reminds us that both sentiments were central to the creation of regional identity. One looked to a future where sophisticated cities and irrigated fields would replace alkali and coyotes. The other reshaped the past through stories of how hardship and sacrifice underlaid modern luxury.

A Versatile Interactive Focus Group Protocol For Qualitative Assessments, Barbara J. Millis

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

A highly flexible focus group protocol captures efficiently and economically useful data for immediate and longitudinal course and program assessment. Special features include an index card activity that deals with satisfactions levels and a Roundtable/Ranking activity that allows participant-generated judgments about the most positive and the most negative features of a course or program. These latter activities, with data displayed in an Excel histogram and in a colored-coded Word table, can be used for what is called a “Quick Course Diagnosis” (QCD).

Exploring The Inner Landscape Of Teaching: A Program For Faculty Renewal, Libby Falk Jones

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

To improve the quality of faculty lift, Berea College developed a yearlong program exploring teaching as a vocation. Sixteen faculty from different departments participated in the series of seven experiential, dialogic sessions. Participants reported experiencing increased empathy and patience, deeper engagement with their work, a stronger sense of community, and encouragement to meet the challenges of being educators.

Racial And Ethnic Preferences In College Admissions: How Much Is Too Much?, Donald F. Uerling

Journal of Women in Educational Leadership

Two 2003 Supreme Court decisions - Grutter v. Bollinger and Gratz v. Bollinger-considered challenges to the use of racial preferences in the admissions policies of two different colleges at the University of Michigan. Taken together, these two Equal Protection Clause decisions stand for the propositions that the educational benefits resulting from a diverse student body can be a compelling government interest and that race and ethnicity can be used as a "plus" to promote that interest, but not to the extent that such a preference insulates minority applicants from competition with other applicants and ensures the admission of nearly every …

Acuta Enews January 2004, Vol. 33, No. 1

ACUTA Newsletters

ln This lssue

ACUTA to Offer Regional Workshops

From ACUTA Headquarters.................. Jeri A. Semer, CAE, Executive Director

ACUTA Announces Online Press Room

Board Report.................... Carmine Piscopo, Providence College

Tech Talk.................... Kevin Tanzillo, Dux Public Relations

DC Update.............. Whitney Johnson, Retired, Northern Michigan Univ.

WLNP........................... Greg Stahl, St. Lawrence University

Thanks to Journal Advertisers for '03

Welcome New Members

Mediterranean Landscape Archaeology Past And Present, Effie F. Athanassopoulos, Luann Wandsnider

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

Recent studies of Mediterranean landscapes have emphasized their diversity, their fragmentation, and the high degree of contact between their diverse areas, that is, their connectivity (Horden and Purcell 2000). Moreover, the Mediterranean landscape record is recognized for its length and richness and the opportunity it offers to study long-term interaction between humans and their landscape, however landscape is defined. At the same time, the particular histories of archaeological perspectives that have dominated fieldwork in the region make it difficult to compare with other areas, for example, the New World. Thus, with this volume, our intent is to address issues of …

Women’S Work, Child Care, And Helpers-At-The-Nest In A Hunter-Gatherer Society, Raymond Hames, Patricia Draper

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

Considerable research on helpers-at-the-nest demonstrates the positive effects of firstborn daughters on a mother’s reproductive success and the survival of her children compared with women who have firstborn sons. This research is largely restricted to agricultural settings. In the present study we ask: “Does ‘daughter first’ improve mothers’ reproductive success in a hunting and gathering context?” Through an analysis of 84 postreproductive women in this population we find that the sex of the first- or second-born child has no effect on a mother’s fertility or the survival of her offspring. We conclude that specific environmental and economic factors underlay the …

Acuta Journal Of Telecommunications In Higher Education

ACUTA Journal

In This Issue

Abstract: University Presidents Note 7 Cardinal points in Tomorrow's Technology

Judith Bailey, Northern Michigan University Spring 2002

Molly Broad, University of North Carolina Winter 2001

Blaine Brownell, Ball State University Summer 2002

Patricia Cormier, Longwood University Spring 2003

Graham Spanier, Pennsylvania State University Fall 2003

Shelby F. Thames, University of Southern Mississippi Summer 2003

Lee T. Todd, Jr., University of Kentucky Winter 2002

Curtis J. Tompkins, Michigan Technological University Spring 2004

Coping With Hard Times In Nw Iceland: Zooarchaeology, History, And Landscape Archaeology At Finnbogastaðir In The 18th Century, Ragnar Edvarsson, Sophia Perdikaris, Thomas H. Mcgovern, Noah Zagor

School of Global Integrative Studies: Faculty Publications

During a cooperative archaeological project in NW Iceland (Strandasýsla) involving the Icelandic National Museum and Hunter College of the City University of New York.1990 season, a small rescue excavation at the site of Finnbogastaðir generated a quantifiable collection of animal bones dating to the early modern period, mainly to the 18th century. The 18th c was a period of hardship in much of Iceland, with widespread tenantry, adverse climate, and degradation of many terrestrial landscapes posing severe challenges to poor farmers- perhaps most intensely in the Vestfirðir. The animal bone collection from Finnbogastaðir reflects a multi-stranded subsistence economy involving seals, …

Human Modifications To The Landscape Of Hunt And Sheep Mountains, Wyoming: Exploring Socially Constructed Space, Ralph J. Hartley, Anne M. Wolley Vawser

United States National Park Service: Publications

The cultural topography of two adjacent mountain tops in the northern Bighorn mountain range of the state of Wyoming, USA, is examined through several field and computer aided techniques. Socially constructed space, as reflected in cumulative architectural features through time, was initially revealed by high resolution aerial photography of the mountain tops. Features observed included clusters of stone circles, solitary rock structures commonly known as vision quests, and various sized rock cairns. Field mapping of all features with high resolution GPS allowed exploratory analysis of spatial relationships of stone circles using categorical data and tessellation models in GIS. The variation …

Molecular Differentiation Of Two Sibling Species Of The Black Fly Simulium Vittatum (Diptera: Simuliidae) Based On Random Amplified Polymorphic Dna, G. A. Duncan, P. H. Adler, K. P. Pruess, Thomas O. Powers

Department of Plant Pathology: Faculty Publications

Larvae of the black fly morphospecies Simulium vittatum from Colorado, Montana, Nebraska, and New Hampshire were cytologically identified as either the IS-7 or the IIIL-1 cytospecies. DNA was PCR amplified from cytotyped larvae using eight 10-mer primers, labeled with ₃₃P, and run on polyacrylamide gels. The entire data set of 96 amplicons produced incomplete separation of the two cytospecies when subjected to neighbor-joining and maximum parsimony analyses. However, when analyzed within geographical regions, separate species status was supported. Boot- strap support for distinctness of the two cytospecies was best in Colorado where they were collected in true sympatry. The …

Systemic Nesting Among The Anasazi: Ad 900-1140, Carl G. Drexler

Nebraska Anthropologist

Over the past 150 years, archaeologists have proposed a number of models and hypotheses to explain the growth andfluorescence of the Anasazi system based in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. This paper gives an overview of some of those models, then explores how World System Theory (WSJ) might be used to understand the social and economic processes at work during the pinnacle of settlement in Chaco Canyon.

Boll Weevil (Anthonomus Grandis Boheman) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) Dispersal In The Southern United States: Evidence From Mitochondrial Dna Variation, Kyung Seok Kim, Thomas W. Sappington

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

An understanding of boll weevil (Anthonomus grandis Boheman) dispersal behavior is essential to characterizing and responding to the threat of migration into eradication zones. Genetic variation in boll weevil mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) was sampled and analyzed to make inferences on the magnitude and geographic pattern of genetic differentiation among weevil populations from 20 locations across eight U.S. states and northeast Mexico. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs) analysis was conducted on a 12.4-kb amplicon of mtDNA from each of 419 individuals.A total of 28 distinct mtDNA haplotypes, 17 of which were unique to single locations, were identified …

A Brief Ethnography Of Magnolia Plantation: Planning For Cane River Creole National Historical Park, Muriel (Miki) Crespi

United States National Park Service: Publications

Interest in the people with traditional associations to Magnolia plantation, one of the two plantations incorporated into Cane River Creole National Historical Park (CARI), and in the development of the new park’s General Management Plan prompted this brief ethnographic study. We hoped to bring diverse voices to planning dialogues about resources, interpretation, and alternatives by walking the grounds that associated people consider culturally meaningful and by interviewing ethnically different peoples individually or in groups. Our interest focused particularly on the associated peoples who perceive park resources as essential to their development and continued identity as culturally distinct people. The same …

Dwelling On Common Ground: Scientific And Family Narratives Of Change In Natural Landscapes, Damian Craniak Ph.D.

Proceedings of the North American Prairie Conferences

Can mapping past and current changes in prairie landscapes in relation to historical shifts in human culture suggest promising directions for efforts to restore the health of grasslands and other natural communities? During the last 20,000 years the Land shifted and altered; during the past 10,000 years Life moved and migrated; and during the past 5,000 years natural and human Law has been turned and twisted to produce changes unanticipated in the history of the world. In the past 500 years these changes have quickened as we have changed ourselves from foragers into fur traders, and then into farmers, foresters, …