Digital Commons Network^™

Airline Service : Effects On Travel And Economic Development In North Dakota Following The Airline Deregulation Act Of 1978, Rodney L. Iverson

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Assessment Of Potential Sediment And Nutrient Loading From Rural/Agricultural To Urban Land Use Transition On The English Coulee, Grand Forks, Nd, Rhonda L. Olson

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Flying High : An Aviation Education Curriculum For Middle And High School Students, Martin Rottler

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Geek Vaudeville : Creating Community Through W00tstock, Tyler J. Sheeley

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Overcoming Isolationism : How Woodrow Wilson Won North Dakota In The Presidential Election Of 1916, Peter Stordahl

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

African American Women's Health: An Examination Of Resource Needs, Context, And Public Policy Over The Life Course, Cynthia Newbille

Theses and Dissertations

African American Women's Health: An Examination of Resource Needs, Context, and Public Policy over the Life Course

The Use Of General Land Office Records And Geographical Information Systems For Restoration Of Native Prairie Patches In The Jackson Prairie Region In Mississippi, Michael Tobit Gray

Theses and Dissertations

The Jackson Prairie Region represents a rare, poorly understood and threatened ecosystem. A review of the literature concerning the ecology, physiography and geology of the Region was undertaken, along with a search of General Land Office (GLO) records for locations of historic prairie patches. The prairie patch location data was transcribed, digitized and inserted as a base map in a Geographical Information System (GIS). A set of current, local conditions indicating suitability for conservation or restoration, along with importance weights for each condition, was derived from stakeholder input. A simple additive weighting technique was used to rank the locations in …

Spatio-Temporal Characteristics Of Mississippi Wildfires, Saranee Dutta

Theses and Dissertations

Based on wildfire data acquired from Mississippi forestry commission from 1991- 2005 approximately 4,000 wildfires occur in Mississippi each year, burning over 60,000 acres of forest and grassland. This study focuses on Mississippi’s wildfires from 1991- 2005 for the summer/fall period defined for this study as the May-November fire season. Statistical analysis indicates that there is significant correlation between vegetation indices derived from remotely sensed data and wildfire size at various time lag periods. Forest areas are correlated with vegetation indices at longer lag periods, nonorested areas are correlated at shorter lag periods. The inverse correlation between wildfire size and …

Distribution And Molecular Analysis Of Avian Malaria Vectors On Four Central Virginia Prothonotary Warbler (Protonotaria Citrea) Breeding Sites, Catherine Wallace

Theses and Dissertations

Avian malaria is a devastating disease that has decimated numerous bird species. This study sought to identify the vectors of avian malaria at four central Virginia Prothonotary warbler breeding sites. Twenty one thousand mosquitoes were collected and Culex salinarius, Cx. erraticus, and Cx. pipiens/restuans were found to be the dominant species at these sites. Geographic factors, such as crop land and forest type, were determined to be potential indicators for species abundance variation between sites. Of the mosquitoes collected, ninety one (0.4%) were identified as blood fed. The blood fed mosquitoes were found to have fed on avian, mammalian, amphibian, …

Bullying Trends And Reporting Preferences Among An Urban, Suburban, And Rural School, Noemi E. Olsen

Theses and Dissertations

Every student has the right to a safe learning environment, yet so many students have been targets of or witnesses of bullying incidents. In spite of school administration efforts to create effective reporting systems and to implement anti-bullying programs, many students remain silent victims. The present study analyzes data collected from a School Safety Survey through SchoolTipline. This data was used to determine the bullying trends, reporting trends, and reporting preferences of 562 7th and 8th grade students at an urban, suburban, and rural school. The results of this study indicate that bullying continues to be a prevalent issue that …

The Educational Philosophy And Pedagogical Practices Of Eliza R. Snow, Jolene Merica

Theses and Dissertations

Eliza R. Snow's contributions as an educator have gone largely unexamined yet are an important element of her lifework. An analysis of her writing, both poetic and instructional, as well as minutes and notes from her instructional meetings, supports the view that as an educator Eliza R. Snow had a definite philosophy that informed her educational practice and shaped teaching and learning in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Two articles, one on the educational philosophy of Eliza R. Snow and the other on her pedagogical practices, illuminate her contributions as an educational leader. Snow believed that God's …

Characterization Of Watersheds On Fort Benning Military Reservation: Comparison Of Field Data To Watershed Parameters, Melinda Rosetta Stahl

Theses and Dissertations

Sixteen watersheds located on Fort Benning Military Installation in Georgia were analyzed using both physically collected data and computer modeling data. Physical data collected included total suspended solids (TSS) and grain size analysis using the Wolman Pebble Count method. Computer modeling analyzed the watersheds using ArcGIS 9.3 for comparison to physical data. Land use, slope, and soil data were used in a modified revised universal soil loss equation (RUSLE) to create a soil erodibility index map. Wolman Pebble Count data showed that in half of the watersheds, 84% of the sampled grains were less than half a millimeter in size. …

African American/Black Undergraduate Students: Perceptions Of Their Experiences Attending An Upper Midwest University, Deola Y. Johnson

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to gain an understanding of the perceptions held by African American/"black" undergraduate students of their experiences attending a predominately white institution (PWI) of higher education in the Upper Midwest. Participants consisted of a sample of six African American/black juniors during the 2009–2010 academic school year. Social Identity Development Theory and Critical Race Theory were used as a guide in designing interview questions. Participants were interviewed and the audio recorded interviews were transcribed and then analyzed for codes, categories, and themes.

Four themes emerged from analysis of the data. Theme One: When students were …

Using The Hazus-Mh Flood Model To Assess The Physical And Economic Damages At The City Of Minnewaukan, North Dakota, Due To The Expansion Of Devils Lake, Christina A. Cummings

Theses and Dissertations

Flood hazards in the U.S. cause billions of dollars in property damage and disrupt the lives of thousands of people each year. Increased numbers of people continue to move into hazardous zones and the associated increase in capital investment in these zones lead to an escalation in flood losses over time (Cutter and Emrich 2005). Despite local efforts to mitigate flood hazards and federal mandates to regulate development in flood-prone areas, flood damages continue to increase nationally. Terminal lakes have surface water sources such as from rivers and streams, but have no surface water outlets (Newton 2003). Devils Lake, a …

Quality Of Life As Perceived By Rural Dwellers With A Serious Mental Illness, Deborah G. Townsend

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative study is to develop a theoretical model that describes perceptions about quality or life (QOL) and maintenance of mental wellness as held by rural dwellers with serious mental illness (SMI). The National Institute of Mental Health (2006), approximately 1 in 4 adults will have a diagnosable mental illness in any given year and within this population, 6 percent will have SMI. Furthermore, mental bealth providers are scarce in rural areas and isolation and poverty decrease the likelihood of individuals with SMI obtaining services. Significant gaps in knowledge exist related to evidence-based psychiatric treatments and services …

Go Green: A Study Of Green House Gasses, Their Effects And Possible Outcomes At University Ofn01th Dakota, Tushar Dao

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Google Earth In The Middle School Geography Classroom: Its Impact On Spatial Literacy And Place Geography Understanding Of Students, Kerri S.W. Westgard

Theses and Dissertations

Success in today's globalized, multi-dimensional, and connected world requires individuals to have a variety of skill sets – i.e. oracy, numeracy, literacy, as well as the ability to think spatially. Student's spatial literacy, based on various national and international assessment results, indicates that even though there have been gains in U.S. scores over the past decade, overall performance, including those specific to spatial skills, are still below proficiency. Existing studies focused on the potential of virtual learning environment technology to reach students in a variety of academic areas, but a need still exists to study specifically the phenomenon of using …

Anonymous Pseudo-Autobiographies: Passing The New Southern Studies In The Southerner And The Autobiography Of An Ex-Colored Man, Matthew S. Dinger

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis seeks to understand the South as a space through which the contested bodies of two literary characters and the men who authored them can be more fully explored: the Ex- Colored Man in James Weldon Johnson's The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man and Nicholas Worth in Walter Hines Page's The Southerner; each appearing within an early twentieth-century novel masquerading as an autobiography. These bodies serve to help us understand how the regional Other of the South has inflicted itself on individuals living in the South and caused an irreparable fracture to the characters' identities forcing them into …

Humphry Davy: Science, Authorship, And The Changing Romantic, Marianne Lind Baker

Theses and Dissertations

In the mid to late 1700s, men of letters became more and more interested in the natural world. From studies in astronomy to biology, chemistry, and medicine, these "philosophers" pioneered what would become our current scientific categories. While the significance of their contributions to these fields has been widely appreciated historically, the interconnection between these men and their literary counterparts has not. A study of the "Romantic man of science" reveals how much that figure has in common with the traditional "Romantic" literary figure embodied by poets like William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. This thesis interrogates connections between Romantic …

Understanding The Economics Of Transportation In Utah, Jeremy E. Searle

Theses and Dissertations

Understanding the economic impacts of transportation projects in Utah is essential for decision makers, officials, and stakeholders as they determine the best course of action for the state. Economic impacts can guide decisions of future projects and help explain past economic fluctuations. This study develops a process that can be used to identify the economic impacts of transportation projects in Utah and quantify the relationship between transportation and these impacts. Accomplishing the objectives of this study are a product of: 1) performing a comprehensive literature review, 2) collecting data and establishing analysis methods, 3) completing a statistical analysis and breakdown …

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880-1938): Early Female Nudes In Landscapes, Kathryn Rogge

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines how Ernst Ludwig Kirchner reconceived the female nude within the two contexts of Expressionism and the German nudist movement. In particular, it looks to Kirchner’s early paintings, executed between 1909 and 1914, of female nudes in landscape settings to determine how Kirchner operated within and departed from the conventions of the female nude. This thesis challenges the feminist critique of Expressionist painting and Kirchner’s female nudes. It also examines how Kirchner’s female nudes in landscapes are complicated by the early twentieth-century development of German nudism. While these paintings are often categorized as bathers following nineteenth-century French precedent, …

Individual Contributions To Stigma And Attitudes Toward Help-Seeking Among Rural Emerging Adult College Students, Margaret Gsell

Theses and Dissertations

Rural communities are by definition less densely populated and more geographically isolated than non-rural communities, which often translates into higher rates of poverty and poor access to health care, especially mental health care. Previous research has found that persons residing in rural communities endorse higher rates of stigmatized beliefs towards individuals with mental illness and subsequently lower rates of professional help-seeking when compared to persons residing in non-rural communities. This study evaluated whether these attitudes were also present among emerging adults (18-24 years old) who had lived in a rural community for at least 10 years and were currently enrolled …

Samoan Speech Audiometry: Developing Word Recognition Materials For Native Speakers Of Samoan, Emma Lilian Kruger

Theses and Dissertations

Hearing can be evaluated through the presentation of tones or speech. Speech audiometry determines an individual's speech recognition threshold and word recognition score. Traditionally these materials were developed using familiar, frequently used, monosyllabic words. Currently, there are various types of word recognition materials including those which use word lists, short half-lists, and materials which use sentences level stimuli with competing noise. Word recognition materials were first developed in Standard American English; today, materials are now readily available in many other languages. When possible, word recognition materials are developed digitally to standardize their presentation. Currently, no recorded word recognition materials are …

Earthquake Risk Assessment Of Mississippi State University, Inoka Peiris

Theses and Dissertations

Mississippi State University is one of the many public institutions in Mississippi located near a seismic hazard zone known as the New Madrid Seismic Zone (NMSZ). Previous studies reveal the possibility of damage to the campus during an earthquake is in the order of ten percent. Risk assessment for building structures on campus was carried out using HAZUS-MH MR3 software package, for several earthquake scenarios defined to replicate historic and hypothetical earthquake events.The study predicts peak ground accelerations of 0.09g to 0.2g relating to 0.67% to 4.28% building loss ratios respectively, which amounts to a loss of $8.2 million to …

Role Of Organic Matter In Formation Of Stromatolites And Micritic Ooids From Channing Lake Basin:Rita Blanca Formation; Panhandle, Texas, Brittany Leigh Weeks

Theses and Dissertations

Channing Lake Basin, located west and northwest of Channing, in the Texas Panhandle, is of substantial area and presumably includes lake beds of Pliocene and Pleistocene ages within the Rita Blanca Formation, a member of the Ogallala Group. The foci of this study were a micritic ooid layer and a directly overlying stromatolite layer, which crop out in a canyon approximately 10 kilometers west of Channing. Research was conducted primarily using petrographic and scanning electron microscopy. Significant conclusions include: organic matter was preserved in ooids as filaments and nanoscale spheroids, which served to capture ostracode carapaces within ~10% of micritic …

On The Design-Build Of Small Pavilions, Agrippa Spence Kellum

Theses and Dissertations

Design-build is the process whereby a project is constructed by the same entity that designed it. Detailed narratives are provided for the collaborative, integrated designbuild of two small, relatively contemporary pavilions. The first was constructed as part of a design-build workshop taught by Steve Badanes, director of the Neighborhood Design/Build Studio at the University of Washington Department of Architecture and founder of the international architecture firm The Jersey Devil. The second, a multi-use pavilion on the site of a former junkyard, was implemented as a local volunteer community service project using Badanes' method. A third proposal is also described; an …

Temporal And Spatial Patterns Of Fish Distribution And Diversity In The Noxubee River, Mississippi And Alabama, Michael Thomas Calloway

Theses and Dissertations

The Mobile Basin is a prime example of a system that has undergone extensive channel modification with corresponding declines in the distribution and abundance of the native aquatic fauna. However, many of the declining aquatic species of the Mobile basin may persist within unmodified subbasins. The Noxubee River is a subbasin of the Mobile basin that has had very little alteration throughout its watershed. I investigated the species richness and assemblage structure to determine if the contemporary fish assemblage attributes resembled the conditions represented by historic collections. The findings of this study are important because the Noxubee River has not …

A Profile Of Inner-City Public School Districts: A Comparative Analysis Of U.S. Metropolitan Area Demographics And The Abandonment Of Neighborhood Schools, Belinda Saunders

Theses and Dissertations

Most departments of education and school boards do not identify nor compile data reasons for public school abandonments. Public schools are anchors, vital components, and “heartbeats” of communities that contribute to the growth or decline of neighborhoods. Despite the influences that public schools have on the development and sustainability of neighborhoods, public school abandonments are increasing. School systems use abandonments to address challenges of poor academic achievements, decreasing budgets, declining enrollments, and deteriorating and underutilized facilities. However, absent from literature are comprehensive data and analyses that identify the number of public school abandonments, their locations, or the contributing factors for …

Historical Memory Of Mount Rushmore, Justin J. Mayer

Theses and Dissertations

The Mount Rushmore National Memorial in the Black Hilis of South Dakota lias differing economic, cultural, political and religious meanings. Particularly, an American or "white" interpretation and the interpretations of the Sioux Nation. These different perspectives of Mount Rushmore reveal more about the history of the Black Hills of South Dakota and how cultures redefine events to meet contemporary needs. This thesis examines the original intentions for the Mount Rushmore National Memorial and traces how the monument was described to others during construction. An examination of presidential speeches and remarks made about Mount Rushmore during construction helps discern one political …

Laptop Education: Impact On Learning And Achievement, Christopher E. Mills

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine how 1:1 Laptop initiatives in the 10th, 11th, and 12th grade affected student achievement and student academic performance over the 2008–2009 school year at a selected small rural, Minnesota high school. The two variables in this study were: perceived student performance skills based on survey results from both student and teacher participants, and pre-existing Minnesota graduation testing results and grade point averages from Fertile-Beltrami School District students. The three questions that were researched in this study were: (1) What effects does a 1:1 Laptop initiative have on student academic performance based on …