Digital Commons Network^™

Sifting Through The Cultural Dust: A Pre-Transformational Activity, Robert Duiker

Master of Education Program Theses

Technologically mediated communication which has flooded the worlds of North American people with information brings with it an increasing uncertainty about the reliability of this information. This flood of information delivers worldview and culture, completely unsorted, in very small increments to the hearts and minds of young people who are students in Christian schools. These small increments we call cultural dust. This study identifies technology, and specifically mass media and computer mediated communication, as a factor that has contributed to accelerated cultural change in the lives of students who attend Christian schools. Data collected through this action research project provides …

The Adam Walsh Act And The Failed Promise Of Administrative Federalism, Wayne A. Logan

Scholarly Publications

For advocates of federalism, these are uncertain times. With hope of meaningful judicial federalism having largely receded, and Congress persisting in its penchant for intrusions on state authority, of late several scholars have championed the capacity of executive agencies to enforce and preserve federalism interests. This paper tests this position, providing the first empirically based critical analysis of administrative federalism, focusing on the recently enacted Adam Walsh Act, intended by Congress to redesign states’ sex offender registration and community notification laws. The paper casts significant doubt on the accepted empirical assumptions of administrative federalism, adding to the limited evidence amassed …

Benchmarks 2010, July 2, The Rockefeller University

BenchMarks 2010

BenchMarks. Friday, July 2, 2010

The community newsletter of The Rockefeller University

BenchMarks is published monthly and is distributed on the campus of The Rockefeller University. It produced by the Office of Communications and Public Affairs

Re-Examining Acts Of God, Jill M. Fraley

Scholarly Articles

For more than three centuries, tort law has included the notion of an act of God as something caused naturally, beyond both man's anticipation and control. Historically, the doctrine applied to extraordinary manifestations of the forces of nature, including floods, earthquakes, blizzards, and hurricanes. Despite the significance of the doctrine, particularly in large-scale disasters, scholars rarely engage the act of God defense critically. However, recently, the doctrine has received more substantial criticism. Denis Binder argued that the doctrine should be repudiated as merely a restatement of existing negligence principles Joel Eagle criticized the doctrine, suggesting that it should not exclude …

The Joint Archives Quarterly, Volume 20.02: Summer, 2010, Eldon R. Kramer, Geoffrey D. Reynolds, Deborah Sturtevant

The Joint Archives Quarterly

No abstract provided.

Center For Grassland Studies, Summer 2010, Volume 16, No. 2

Center for Grassland Studies: Newsletters

Contents:

Grazing Systems Research in the Nebraska Sandhills

From the Director

Ingalls’ Ode to Blue Grass

2010 CGS Fall Seminar Series

August 1 Is Pre-registration Deadline for Nebraska Grazing Conference

CGS Associates

Resources

Dig It! Smithsonian Exhibit Omaha

Info Tufts

July 2010, Pope Benedict Xvi

Marian Thoughts of Pope Benedict XVI

No abstract provided.

From Landscape-Scale Models Of Forest Biodiversity Change Towards An Integrated Planning Tool – A Gui For Building Empirical Ecological Extrapolation Models Based On Land Cover Data –, Tobias Lung, Gertrud Schaab

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Spatially explicit models linking biological field data with remotely-sensed landcover data have become commonplace for landscape-scale biodiversity assessments, butthey usually neither consider time series data nor include future scenarios. Extrapolationmodels addressing these deficiencies for three keystone species/groups of the Kakamega-Nandi forests in western Kenya proved to be a suitable means for investigating the effectsof long-term land change processes on the development of forest biodiversity in space andtime. However, the experimental modelling design of the approaches is not consideredconvenient for a more comprehensive, interlinked assessment including morespecies/groups and also ecosystem functions and services, nor is it adequate for a stronglocal stakeholder …

Advances In The Integration Of Watershed And Lake Modeling In The Lake Winnipeg Basin, Luis F. León, William Booty, I. Wong, Craig Mccrimmon, S. J. Melles, G. Benoy, J. Vanrobaeys

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Estimating non-point source pollution from watersheds and the effects of mitigation measures (e.g. beneficial management practices or BMPs) is an important step in managing and protecting water quality, not only at the basin level where it originates, but also at the receiving waters such as reservoirs, lakes or oceans. Lake Winnipeg is a prime example of such land-lake interactions, where eutrophication and increased algal blooms in the lake are fueled, as evidence suggests, from agricultural sources of nutrients in the region. Over the years, simulation models at the watershed level have been applied to aid in the understanding and management …

Evaluating Ecosystem Services Of Afforestation On Erosion-Prone Land: A Case Study In The Manawatu Catchment, New Zealand, Anne-Gaelle Ausseil, John Dymond

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Land-use change from pasture to forestry can have multiple effects on the environment. In this project, we assessed the impacts of afforestation on erosion-prone land on several ecosystem services in the Manawatu catchment, New Zealand. For 500 high priority farms requiring soil conservation, the land mapped as highly erodible was assumed to be afforested, with two distinct scenarios: conversion of pasture into pine forest or indigenous shrubland. Several models were used to quantify indicators of different ecosystem services including carbon sequestration, non-CO2 gas emission, sediment yield, nitrate export, natural habitat provision, and water yield. The results showed that the pine …

The Comparision Among Four Carbon Footprint Estimation Boundaries Of The Sectors Using Chongqing As A Case, Liping Ju, Bin Chen

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

International negotiations of reducing CO2 emissions address the question of how to meet commitments with more explicit engagment with subnational action and how to account annual CO2 emissions of each sector of one city. This study is to establish the CO2 inventories focused on four tiers of CO2 emissions form each sector, e.g. agriculture, industry, transportation and tertiary industry. Carbon footprint is chosen to evaluate 28 sectors of Chongqing, from four tiers, including direct emissions, emissions from purchased energy, the total supply chain, supply chain plus industrial process. Results showed that the first two tiers, only cover a small fraction …

The Institute Of Archaeology & Siegfried H. Horn Museum Newsletter Volume 31.3, Paul J. Ray Jr., Randall W. Younker, Paul A. Gregor, Reem S. Al-Shqour, Owen Chesnut

Institute of Archaeology & the Horn Archaeological Museum Newsletter

Jordan Conference in Paris, Paul J. Ray, Jr.

Jalul 2010, Randall W. Younker, Paul Z. Gregor, and Reem S. al-Shqor

Dever Lecture, Owen Chesnut

Random Survey

The Learning Marketspace, July 2010, Bob Heterick, Carol Twigg

The Learning MarketSpace (4/03 - 4/14)

No abstract provided.

Crowning Achievements, David Marc

Syracuse University Magazine

No abstract provided.

Urban Spark, David Marc

Syracuse University Magazine

No abstract provided.

Modeling The Adaptation Of Land-Use Decisions To Landscape Changes Using An Agent-Based System: A Case Study In A Mountainous Catchment In Central Vietnam, Quang Bao Le, Roman Seidl, Roland W. Scholz

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

A key challenge of land-use modeling for supporting sustainable land management is to understand how environmental feedbacks emerged from land-use actions can reshape land-use decisions in the long-term. To investigate that issue, we use an agentbased land-use change model (LUDAS) developed by Le et al. [2008] based on a case study that was carried out in Hongha watershed (Vietnam). In LUDAS, goal-directed landuse decisions by household agents are explicitly modeled (i.e. agents calculate utilities for all land-use and location alternatives and likely select the alternative with highest utility). The model is run for two mechanisms of adaptation in land-use decisions …

Linking Wildfire Behaviour And Land-Use Modelling In Northern Mongolia, Christian Schweitzer, Joerg A. Priess

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Numerous approaches of modelling wildfires have been published covering the regime itself, ignition probabilities, spreading patterns, risks and impacts. However, there is less research linking these validated mature approaches to dynamics of the terrestrial environment. We contribute to filling this gap via integrating a newly developed wildfire module into a land-use model, enabling us to include wildfire-impacts in dynamic simulations of socio-environmental systems. In the forest steppe region of Northern Mongolia, wildfires are a major concern, threatening grassland and forest areas, which are already under pressure of droughts, heavy grazing, (illegal) logging and increasing firewood demand. We employ the generic …

Evaluation Of Odour Impact From A Landfill Area And A Waste Treatment Facility Through The Application Of Two Approaches Of A Gaussian Dispersion Model, Y. Ubeda, M. Ferrer, E. Sanchis, S. Calvet, J. Nicolas, P. A. López

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Odour emission from landfill areas has a high potential to cause significantannoyance to people living in their surroundings. In order to avoid odour nuisance, it iscrucial to select the best location in the project phase of these facilities. In the present work,two approaches of the Gaussian atmospheric dispersion model were employed to predictodour impact from a projected landfill area and a waste treatment facility. The firstapproach was a simplified bi-Gaussian Atmospheric Dispersion model developed by theauthors. Calculated odour concentrations were represented using GIS tools (Esri®ArcMapTM software). Regarding the second approach, a commercial bi-GaussianAtmospheric Dispersion one was used. The odour impact …

A Geosimulation Tool To Assess Intervention Scenarios In Relation To The Spread Of Infectious Disease And Environmental Factors, Mondher Bouden, Bernard Moulin, Pierre Gosselin

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Several approaches have been proposed to model and simulate the spread ofinfectious diseases such as the West Nile virus (WNV). However, these approaches such asmathematical modeling and cellular automata have some weaknesses when trying to modeland simulate the influence of geographic and climatic features on the disease spread and thespatio-temporal interactions of various kinds of actors (e.g. mosquitoes, birds, mammalsand humans in the WNV case). In this context, we propose to apply a geosimulationapproach to remedy some shortcomings of current methods. Using such an approach wedeveloped WNV-MAGS, a tool allowing public health decision policy makers to assessseveral intervention scenarios in …

User Interaction During The Development Of The Waikato Integrated Scenario Explorer, Hedwig Van Delden, Derek Phyn, Tony Fenton, Beat Huser, Daniel T. Rutledge, Liz Wedderburn

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The importance of user interaction for the design and development of Decision Support Systems is widely accepted in literature. How this interaction could best take place is however not yet common knowledge and examples of user involvement in the development of Decision Support Systems targeted at environmental policy and sustainable development are scarce. This paper provides a practical example of user involvement during the design, development and implementation of WISE, an Integrated Spatial Decision Support System for planning and policy support for the Waikato region in New Zealand. Focus will be on the process of user involvement during various development …

Mirana: A Socio-Ecological Model For Assessing Sustainability Of Community-Based Regulations, Sigrid Aubert, Jean-Pierre Müller, Julliard Ralihalizara

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The Malagasy local communities managing forest resources have difficulties in assessing the impacts of the management plans they decide upon. To help them, we have designed an integrated model with the ecological processes, the various regulations (zoning, quota, etc..) and the resulting inhabitants behavior in order to explore the impacts of scenarios. The model MIRANA has been designed using the MIMOSA framework in which one must design a conceptual model using ontologies, annotate the conceptual model with the necessary processes, and design a concrete model from which to generate the simulation model. In MIRANA, the conceptual model is made of …

Evaluating The Impact Of Climate Change On Global Hpai H5n1 Outbreaks, Zhijie Zhang, Dongmei Chen, Wenbao Liu, Lei Wang

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses H5N1 have spread throughout Asia, Europe, and Africa in the past decade, raising serious worldwide concerns about a potential new pandemic. Many studies have investigated the spread of the HPAI H5N1 virus and discussed its possible risk factors. However, the climate factor, which can affect the whole process of H5N1 outbreaks, has been greatly ignored. The objective of this preliminary study is to use a GIS-based approach to explore the potential impacts of temperature change on H5N1 outbreaks. We have divided the outbreaks into five epidemic waves. Although the temperature ranges of different epidemic waves …

A Model-Based Quantitative Assessment Of Ecosystem Services In The Scenarios Of Environmental Management, Peter A. Khaiter, Marina G. Erechtchoukova

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

It is well recognized that ecological systems generate a spectrum of diverse benefits that are vital to humankind. Sustainable environmental management requires an adequate consideration of ecosystem goods and services. The problem, however, is that many of the ecological and social amenities are not currently incorporated into the decision-making process. A fundamental issue is getting at the quantitative characteristics of the ecosystem services. Publications on this matter note that simulation models of the phenomena in question have to be used for this purpose. In fact, a whole family of simulation models is required. Such models should represent the main components …

Choosing The Right Data Mining Technique: Classification Of Methods And Intelligent Recommendation, Karina Gibert, Miquel Sànchez-Marrè, Víctor Codina

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

One of the most difficult tasks in the whole KDD process is to choose the right data mining technique, as the commercial software tools provide more and more possibilities together and the decision requires more and more expertise on the methodological point of view. Indeed, there are a lot of data mining techniques available for an environmental scientist wishing to discover some model from her/his data. This diversity can cause some troubles to the scientist who often have not a clear idea of what are the available methods, and moreover, use to have doubts about the most suitable method to …

Modeling And Support Tools For Studying Disease Spread In Livestock Using Networks, Joel Francis, Greg Klotz, Neil Harvey, Deborah Stacey

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The natural occurrence or intentional release of highly contagious agents of livestock disease can have serious consequences for any country’s agricultural economy. Successful control and management of animal disease outbreaks require that adequate response strategies be developed beforehand. Disease spread simulation models are being used by veterinary epidemiologists to evaluate strategies for the control of disease spread. These models enable decision-makers and emergency preparedness personnel to explore many different scenarios to determine the effects of control measures such as vaccination, and study the likely size, duration and cost of outbreaks. This paper presents an overview of livestock disease spread modeling …

The Environmental Systems Modelling Platform (Ensym) To Assess Effects Of Land Use Changes On Groundwater Recharge, J. Ha, M. Eigenraam, G. Forbes, W. Lewis, J. Chua

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

This paper describes an application of EnSym (Environmental Systems Modelling Platform)to assess the impacts of climate change on the groundwater levels in Victoria. EnSym isa modular and user-friendly software platform to facilitate the use of environmental modellingtools. It enables easy and rapid evaluation of environmental outcomes due to changes in landmanagement and climatic conditions. It contains a number of toolboxes that deal with differentaspects of the environment including land based biophysical process, groundwater dynamics,spatial and contextual connectivity, and finally, a set of tools for systematic spatial and temporalreporting. In this paper, we apply the biophysical modelling (BioSym) toolbox of EnSym …

Present Situation Of The Zooplankton Of The Azerbaijani Sector Caspian Sea, A. G. Jalilov

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

In the present work the basic attention is given to research of zooplankton which within several years (1999-2006) was under the strongest influence Mnemiopsis leidyi. Last from spontaneous invasion found out on Caspian Sea was Mnemiopsis leidyi. For two (1999 - 2000) year this kind completely "occupied" Average, Southern and a part of Northern Caspian Sea therefore has suffered zooplankton. Have sharply decreased a biodiversity of zooplankton and weight characteristics. The number of kinds of zooplankton was considerably reduced. In 2000 on the average Caspian sea it was totaled 36, in Southern-24 kinds of zooplankton, and in 2001 the qualitative …

Ecological And Economic Analysis Of Planting Greenhouse Cucumbers With Anaerobic Fermentation Residues, N. Duan, C. Lin, R. Y. Gao, Y. Wang, J. H. Wang, J. Hou

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

In this study, the effect of different fertilizers on the nutritional quality, sanitaryquality and the yield of greenhouse cucumbers were analyzed by comparative experimentswith chemical fertilizer and anaerobic fermentation residues (biogas fertilizer). Particularlythe properties of bio-fertilizer and diseases and pests inhibition of biogas fertilizer weredemonstrated and its comprehensive benefits were evaluated. The results show that comparedwith chemical fertilizer, biogas fertilizer increased the dry matter, solids, reductive sugar, Vc,soluble protein of cucumbers by 4.62%, 4.08%, 29.05%, 20.83%, 10.85% respectively; thechlorophyll of leaf was 9.18% higher and the incidence of aphids and mildew 20% and 25%lower respectively. After calculation, the yield was …

Theoretical Environmental Disciplines In Support Of Sustainable Chemistry, Kristina Voigt, Hagen Scherb, Rainer Brüggemann

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

It has been evident for decades that environmental chemicals pose an enormousrisk to the environment as well as to humans. However, this important topic is stillunderestimated in every part of society. The effects of environmental contaminants onhealth are a major concern because exposure is associated with a number of diseases,including cancer, diabetes, congenital malformations and infertility. Sustainable Chemistryis a chemical philosophy encouraging the design of products and processes that reduce oreliminate the use and generation of hazardous substances. Sustainability and sustainabledevelopment are effectively ethical concepts, expressing desirable outcomes fromeconomic and social decisions. The important matter of principle, therefore, becomes avictim …

Choosing The Right Data Mining Technique: Classification Of Methods And Intelligent Recommendation, Karina Gibert, Miquel Sànchez-Marrè, Víctor Codina

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

One of the most difficult tasks in the whole KDD process is to choose the right data mining technique, as the commercial software tools provide more and more possibilities together and the decision requires more and more expertise on the methodological point of view. Indeed, there are a lot of data mining techniques available for an environmental scientist wishing to discover some model from her/his data. This diversity can cause some troubles to the scientists who often have not a clear idea of what are the available methods, and moreover, frequently have doubts about the most suitable method to be …