Digital Commons Network^™

What Methods Can The Health Care Industry Implement To Reduce Energy Consumption And Waste Production From Patient Care To Limit Greenhouse Gas Emissions?, Danielle H. S. Good

Senior Honors Projects, 2020-current

Purpose: Climate change is a growing issue all around the world and has negative impacts on the environment and human health. The health care industry is a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions amplifying climate change. Health care establishments are in place to improve health but are inadvertently harming it at the same time. Methods:A review of the literature was conducted to determine the impact the health care industry has on climate change and what can be done to limit the impacts on the environment. Resources were collected from trusted organizations databases such as Healthcare Without Harm, …

The Contribution Of A Global Ethics Approach To Health And The Environment In The Niger Delta Region, Augustine Wayii

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

THE CONTRIBUTION OF A GLOBAL ETHICS APPROACH TO HEALTH AND THE

ENVIRONMENT IN THE NIGER DELTA REGION

By

Augustine Lezorgia Wayii, M. ED, M.A.

May 2020

Dissertation supervised by Gerard Magill, PhD

The dissertation presents a global ethics approach that connects health and the environment in the context of the Niger Delta Region. The people of the Niger Delta region in Nigeria are experiencing major catastrophes that connect health and the environment. In the bid to ameliorate these pivotal problems, this dissertation undertakes an ethical analysis that connects health and the environment. Insofar as these problems can be characteristic …

Environmental Barriers And Supports To Participation For Individuals With Disabilities: An Evidence-Based Practice Project, Ali M. Grinde, Ella V. Johnson, Anya H. Larson, Jordan A. Mills, Gretta N. Obeid, Bridgett N. Tegen, Julie D. Bass

Graduate Occupational Therapy Research and Projects

This Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) project considered the following question: What environmental supports and barriers influence participation for individuals with disabilities and are there disparities, inequalities, or inequities between disabled and non-disabled groups?

On The Plastic-Free Path: Plastic-Free Living, Hannah Natzke

Honors Projects

What is living plastic-free like? This project explores the trials and triumphs of living a plastic-free life. Although this project is only mandates that the participant lives plastic-free for a month, it still investigates the challenges faced by longer plastic-free living.

Mosquito Microbiomes: Understanding The Interface Between Microbiome, Environment, And Human Pathogens, Amanda G. Tokash-Peters

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

The study of mosquito microbiomes promises a deeper understanding of factors influencing interactions between mosquito hosts, human pathogens, and the environment. While several studies have focused on tripartite interactions between host, pathogen, and microbiome, far fewer have analyzed the environmental factors that shape these interactions and provide the basis for the formation of microbial communities in the mosquito host. Additionally, the use of Wolbachia and similar anti-arboviral symbionts in mosquitoes to control pathogen transmission has emerged as a popular idea for mosquito control and requires further investigation. The works presented here address changes in mosquito microbiomes, including the abundance of …

Shakespeare’S As You Like It And James Cameron’S Avatar: Reharmonizing Society With Nature, Erin Rebecca Turner

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Shakespeare’s As You Like It is a comedy whose main character, Rosalind, is forced out of her home among the upper caste of society through no fault of her own, but because of an issue with her father. She moves into the pastoral unknown disguised as a man to avoid the issues that come traveling as a woman, outside the protection of the home. Along the way, she finds pleasure with the power she holds as a man. She is heard when she speaks as a man and she is given access to knowledge she would not be given as …

#Greener By Greentech, Ana Ospitaletche, Larissa Roseno, Jose Miguel Gonzalez, Amanda Brelaz

ICT

In recent years there has been growing concern about the negative impact humankind has on the planet. Companies and individuals are making efforts to mitigate their environmental impact. In this context and as individuals that care about the environment and try to lead a more sustainable life, we decided to research which elements could be stopping individuals from trying to implement changes in their daily habits.

One of the key conclusions of this research was that there is too much information, sometimes even conflicting, on how to lead a sustainable life.

#Greener aims to make a contribution by giving clear …

An Evaluation Of The Healthfulness Of The Hospital Food Environment, Cynthia Elaine Horton Dias

Theses and Dissertations

Though nurses may have knowledge about the health promoting benefits of a healthy diet, many do not consume enough fruits or vegetables. For hospital shift nurses to achieve healthy eating while at work, environmental barriers were reportedly the most challenging to overcome. To better understand the hospital food environment from the nurses’ perspective, two mechanisms for workplace food acquisition were studied: 1.) hospital consumer food environment, which includes cafeterias, vending machines, and gift shops; and 2.) free food at work.

Through observations of 31 South Carolina hospitals using the Hospital Nutrition Environment Scan (HNES), descriptive data was collected to illuminate …

Searching For Pōhakuloa: A Citizen Scientist’S Journey In Aloha ‘Āina, Drake Logan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation tells a story about the United States (US) military’s land occupation of two Indigenous Hawaiian wahi pana (sacred places), on O’ahu and Hawai’i Island, which have produced widespread health concerns regarding exposure to military toxins. I conducted six months of fieldwork in Hawai’i, in which I partnered with local communities in a Critical Participatory Action research process. Together, we formed and co-led a community-based science pilot study of contamination from Pōhakuloa Training Area, generating new citizen science methods capable of uncovering evidence on confirmed military toxics uses. These methods were developed in critical solidarity with international communities who …

A Comparative Review Of Climate Change And Sustainable Development In Canada And Nigeria: The Path To A Greener Future., Mary Uchechi Nnabara

Master of Laws Research Papers Repository

Over the years, climate change and sustainable development have become global concerns that have attracted global attention. This is owing to the fact that human activities calculated to bring about economic growth and sustainable development have wrecked great havoc and disrupted the balance that exists between growth and the environment. It has therefore become crucial for nations to work towards a common goal which is to fight against climate change in order to achieve sustainable development.

This can be achieved by reducing activities that contribute to greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and to climate change. Also, countries will need to …

A Warmer, Green Golden Rule, Kyle James Stuart

Major Papers

The goal of this paper is to analyse the impact of temperature changes on the green golden rule. The green golden rule is the maximization of consumer utility based on consumer preference between consumption and environmental stock. The trade-off between environmental stock and consumption which is found to be negative. With temperature change being very prevalent in our era, we look at temperature change in the form of a damage function. By looking at both an increasing and decreasing damage function, along with changing variables in the green golden rule, we see that when the average global temperature deviates from …

An Analysis Of Irrigation Policy In The Mississippi Delta, Brooklyn Mooney

Honors Theses

This thesis aims to provide a sustainable irrigation alternative that could be easily adopted by farmers in the Mississippi Delta in order to improve water resource management. The Mississippi Alluvial Valley Aquifer, the groundwater system that lies under the Mississippi Delta, is being depleted at rapid rates due to industrial farming and unsustainable, outdated irrigation methods. The intent of this research is to evaluate the water scarcity problem in the Mississippi Delta by assessing water extraction rates and the progression of agriculture in the region. Then, various irrigation methods will be evaluated before a final suggestion is made. Through extensive …

Making Vacationland: The Modern Automobility And Tourism Borderlands Of Maine And New Brunswick, 1875-1939, Sean C. Cox

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Modernizing nineteenth and twentieth century mobility reshaped and re- commodified the predominantly rural environments of Maine and New Brunswick. Landscapes like these can be better understood through the tripartite intersection of environmental commodification as “picturesque,” a democratizing tourism culture, and the development of modern individual mobility. The intersection of these forces produced a unique tourism borderland comprised of primarily second nature landscapes, which rapidly adapted to motor-tourism. All three themes are products of modernity, and their combination in Maine and New Brunswick produced a “tourism borderland” and “mobility borderland” between automotive spaces and the unprepared environments of pre-auto “Vacationland.” Before …

Washing The River In Relation To Interpellation, Theatricality And Spectatorship, Patricia Miller

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Patricia Miller's Master of Fine Arts Thesis Paper

National Park Cities: A Case For San Luis Obispo, California, Erik Valentine

City and Regional Planning

This project explores the novel planning model of the National Park City, exploring how it has been applied to London, England and developing a theoretical application of how it could be implemented in the City of San Luis Obispo, California. Marked by years of a progressive approach to planning and an engaged community, San Luis Obispo is unique in respecting the natural environment and in expanding environmental preservation and recreational opportunities. Becoming a National Park City would not only be an obvious result to these efforts but would make San Luis Obispo the first of its kind in the United …

The Things Of Mind, Yini Luo

Masters Theses

My thesis research shows my thinking and reflection on environmental changes around me in the past and especially the past two years. Through the experience between the city and nature, my research has clarified my different perspectives and explored the expression and reproduction through the print media and glass media.

Here And There: A Continuous Narrative, Hye Young Kim

Masters Theses

How can we transcend our literal place by connecting with natural space?

As industrialization and globalization have increasingly shaped our society, we have become more and more disconnected from nature, ourselves, and our memories. Furthermore, living busy lives, we have lost the ability to appreciate and be grateful for our surroundings. Nonetheless, we can reconnect with what has been lost—nature, ourselves, and our memories— with a small shift in our mindset and a habitual practice of walking, which pulls our footsteps not toward a certain place but toward an understanding of the passage of time, the resonance of longing, and …

Environmental Health And Policy At The Tijuana-San Diego Border, Imma Honkanen

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border, walls and security, and drug trafficking, are among the most deliberated policy issues in the U.S.’s political climate. As a result, policies and international cooperation concerning environmental health impacts at the border are often overlooked, particularly in the Tijuana-San Diego border region. These impacts include contamination and overuse of water by maquiladoras, air pollution from concentrated border transit and power plants, and the heightening threat of global warming. However, as climate change worsens and immigration problems grow, this wide range of environmental hazards demand ambitious policy considerations, especially in the Tijuana-San Diego border region. In …

The Language Of Rats: Unwelcome Animals And Interspecies Connection In Contemporary Anglophone Fiction, Kieran Leigh Lyons

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The Language of Rats: Unwelcome Animals and Interspecies Connection in Global Contemporary Fiction consists of three essays examining the representation of what I call unwelcome animals in contemporary Anglophone novels from the United States, Nigeria, and India. These animals often live alongside humans yet are perceived as threats or annoyances. Literary depictions of this fraught relationship reveal, and sometimes critique, the intellectual structures that shape how we understand and represent interspecies connections. This dissertation contributes to our understanding of the interspecies dimensions of contemporary fiction by bringing together the fields of environmental criticism, animal studies, postcolonialism, and U.S. Southern studies. …

Leadership Adapted: Towards An Understanding Of How Western-Developed Leadership Theories Are Translated And Practiced In The Modern Arab Middle East, Derek R. Olson

Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to understand how western-developed leadership theories are translated and practiced in the Modern Arab Middle East (MAME). Over the past century the notion of leadership has progressed through phases of understanding, definition, and practice. This evolution continues today and is no longer contained to the academic and practice-oriented institutions of North America and Europe. Through western-styled educational institutions and professional industries, western-developed leadership theories have stretched around the globe, including the MAME. While this is known, what is much less understood is how these theories are adopted and adapted. This study’s objective is to …

Psyche And Planet: Multiplicity Of Systems Mirroring Modes Of Being And Bonding Via Eco Arts Therapeutic Practices, Amber Nolli

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Through discerning the art of life, this thesis is a review of literature which looks at how psyche and planet processing systems mirror one another and merge through eco arts therapeutic practices. It is an inquiry into philosophic ideas behind the nature of sensibility, perceptibility, and experience. As art mirrors the self and nature mirrors the self, a twofold entry-point opens, where one travels into accordance with all planes of consciousness. The literature investigates relationships amongst the arts, science, biology, and interspecies and ecological sentience to address collective conditions of deception, displacement, etc. It examines how directing attention to self …

Factors Limiting Effective Coverage Of Indoor Residual Spraying Campaigns In Luapula Province, Zambia, Madeline Mackowski

Theses - ALL

Background.

Malaria transmission control in endemic areas is dependent on both individual

and community level protective measures. Indoor residual spray (IRS) campaigns work to reduce transmission of malaria illness by covering the walls of houses in areas at risk with an insecticide that kills mosquitoes landing there. The World Health Organization recommends IRS campaigns successfully spray at least 80% of structures to maximize impact of the campaigns against malaria vectors.

Methods.

Programmatic data from the 2016 IRS campaign conducted in Luapula Province, Zambia was used to examine the spatial distribution of houses missed during spray campaigns. Additionally, Poisson regression methods …

Pecking The Hands That Feed Them: How Society And Government Have Allowed The Poultry Industry To Exploit Labor And The Environment In The American South, Sophie M. Kline

Honors Theses

Americans eat an average of ninety pounds of chicken in one year, but where does that chicken come from? Immigrants and African Americans are the majority of the labor population in poultry processing plants located in the American South. In an effort to highlight the racism, sexism, insecurity, and environmental degradation in the poultry industry, I analyze a variety of ethnographies, articles, and science journals as well as U.S Supreme Court decisions and policies enacted by the U.S federal government in this thesis. Upon examination, I answer why society is pecking the hands that feed them. The analysis concludes that …

Sounding The Nile: River Politics, Environment And Nubian Musical Expression, Regan L. Homeyer

Music ETDs

ABSTRACT

In the mid 1960s, almost 100,000 Egyptian Nubians, people Indigenous to the Nile River Valley, were removed from their ancestral homeland due to the creation of the Aswan High Dam. In the years surrounding their displacement, Nubian musicians in Cairo and villages in new settlement areas gathered traditional Nubian songs and composed new songs to form a distinctive Nubian musical repertoire. This thesis addresses contemporary Nubian musical performance and the role of these reclaimed and newly-written songs in maintaining and revitalizing not only Nubian languages and culture, but especially senses of self in relation to place and, above all, …

Soil Quality Tests For Classroom Use, Kathleen Thompson

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Soil analysis can traditionally be carried out by professional labs for a certain price, but this price adds up quickly when running many samples—as is often the case when pursuing a research question. Price is of particular concern in the classroom setting, where funding for student research can be limited.

This project examines several commercially produced soil test kits that are capable of testing a soil’s pH, nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium; parameters which are of primary importance for plant growth. The project provides an overview of each kit’s contents and properties, a scientific assessment of their precision and accuracy, and …

An Assessment Of Occupational Heat Stress In A Central Utility Plant, Abdoulaye Abdoulaziz

Capstone Experience

Global climate change has been declared a threat to human health, which includes occupational safety issues. As temperatures continue to increase, heat stress and heat-related illness are occupational safety issues that need to be better understood. Assessments of workplace heat exposures are key to implement appropriate health and safety interventions. This study attempted to assess whether workers’ perception of work environment temperature in a Central Utility Plant was associated with heat-stress prevention behaviors. Therefore, we used a questionnaire to collect Central Utility Plant employees’ demographic characteristics, data regarding their perceived work environment temperatures, and their behaviors related to preventing heat-related …

The Ubume Challenge: A Digital Environmental Humanities Project, Sam Risak

English (MA) Theses

In 2019, the “The Momo Challenge” frightened parents in the United States into believing “Momo” would appear online where she’d lure their children into harming themselves. While this challenge is one of many recent viral hoaxes, “Momo” is not simply a product of our digital age. Known as the ubume (“birthing-woman”), the figure who provides the face for “Momo” has lived for centuries in Japanese folklore where yokai (supernatural creatures) often caution listeners against entering unchartered parts of the land. And once Japan industrialized, so too did their “unchartered lands,” the ubume reborn to fit the cities and technologies that …

"Homesick For Something That's Never Going To Be Again": Redefining Identity And Community After The Camp Fire, Adrienne Brown

Master's Theses and Capstones

In the context of rapid environmental change and more frequent and severe natural disasters, it is imperative that we understand the impact these disasters have on affected communities, particularly the effects they have on residents’ relationships to both their physical and social worlds. To do this, I conducted twenty-four in-depth qualitative interviews with residents of Paradise and surrounding impacted communities following the 2018 Camp Fire, which destroyed roughly 95% of the town and was California’s most destructive wildfire to date. I present findings from these interviews in three stages: during the fire itself, during the short-term response, and finally looking …

The Environmental Impact Of Immigration In The United States, Guizhen Ma

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Population growth increases pressure on the environment. Immigration may be harmful to the environment because it is the major force of population growth in the United States. However, this argument has not been supported by research findings. A few studies on this topic show that locations with higher numbers of immigrants experience better air quality than locations with greater proportions of U.S.-born residents. This research investigated the environmental impact of immigration through three independent studies. First, I tested the relationship between U.S.-born population, foreign-born population, and air quality across all the U.S. continental counties. This study analyzed the air quality …

Neshnabé Futurisms: Indigenous Science And Eco-Politics In The Great Lakes, Blaire K. Topash-Caldwell

Anthropology ETDs

In the wake of global climate change anthropological work in Indigenous contexts has focused on crisis intervention. Well-intentioned scholarship has emphasized how climate change disproportionately affects Indigenous communities but in the process has also erased Native voice and agency—deleting them from the future all together. In this dissertation I argue that ecological revitalization projects by tribes, Women’s Water Walks from the ceremonial Midéwiwin Lodge, and Indigenous science fiction media together constitute “Neshnabé futurisms” that challenge or disrupt these dominant narratives. Neshnabé futurisms guide Native American ecologists, theorists, and activists in the Great Lakes region in mitigating and surviving ecological destruction …