Digital Commons Network^™

An Exploration Of American And Canadian Tourist Destination Images Of Cuba, Culum Richard Canally

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Tourism in Cuba is thriving. Since 1991 the island has quickly become one of the top Caribbean tourist destinations. As a result tourism researchers have recently turned their attention towards investigating many facets of tourism on the island. However one omission in this growing corpus of research is the effect that politics has had on Cuba’s tourist destination image (TDI). In this study I explore how politics influences the evolution of tourist destination image. I also demonstrate that a critical constructivist paradigm can be used as an alternative to traditional positivist/postpositivist ways of researching tourist destination image. Finally I utilize …

Grounding Diaspora In Experience: Niagara Mennonite Identity, Cynthia Anne Jones

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This qualitative case study grounds theoretical notions of diaspora in personal accounts of Russian Mennonites living on the Niagara peninsula of Canada. The focus is on successive, complex interrelationships with ‘place’ (in a fixed sense, and a globally connected sense), with attention to gender, generation, and life-stage. How have these individuals experienced diaspora, and how has this influenced their culture and identity? Interrelationships with place are examined within an analytical framework composed of three key elements as identified in diaspora literature: cultural hybridity, social heterogeneity (internal divisions), and responsibility flows. The results are both descriptive and theoretical, featuring first person …

Tundra Snow Cover Properties From In-Situ Observation And Multi-Scale Passive Microwave Remote Sensing, Andrew Rees

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Tundra snow cover is important to monitor as it influences local, regional, and global scale surface water balance, energy fluxes, and ecosystem and permafrost dynamics. Moreover, recent global circulation models (GCM) predict a pronounced shift in high latitude winter precipitation and mean annual air temperature due to the feedback between air temperature and snow extent. At regional and hemispheric scales, the estimation of snow extent, snow depth and, snow water equivalent (SWE) is important because high latitude snow cover both forces and reacts to atmospheric circulation patterns. Moreover, snow cover has implications on soil moisture dynamics, the depth, formation and …

Bringing Medicine To The Hamlet: Exploring The Experiences Of Older Women In Rural Bangladesh Who Seek Health Care, Md. Abul Hossen

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of older women in rural Bangladesh who seek health care. Qualitative methods were used to collect data from 17 older women in Bibirchar Union, Sherpur District, Bangladesh in June 2006. The study is intended to generate findings to help policy makers plan appropriate strategies to improve the health of this highly vulnerable population group.

The findings reveal that women’s culturally and socially determined roles greatly impair their health and play an important role in health-seeking behaviour through a complex web of social, economic, religious/cultural and behavioural interrelationships and synergies that …

Littoral Cells, Longshore Transport And Wave Climate: An Examination Of Littoral Transport Along The Western Shore Of Prince Edward County, Ontario, Jayson A. Childs

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This study discusses the wave climate and potential littoral transport along the western shore of Prince Edward County approximately two hours east of Toronto along the northern shoreline of Lake Ontario. The limestone headlands and barrier bars of the western coast are exposed toward a southwesterly fetch of approximately 200 km that can produce large offshore wave heights of 2–5 m. The wave model STWAVE was used to transform a standard set of wave conditions developed from recent hindcast data to examine fair weather, storm and extreme conditions for five directions between south and west-northwest along the shore. The resulting …

Heal Project Process Report: Arrival At A Charrette To Effect Change At Sjsu, Marina L. Corrales

Master's Projects

This report documents the process the evaluation team, student evaluators from the Department of Anthropology at San Jose State University (SJSU), led by Professor Charles Darrah, went through to develop a modified charrette to link research with ideation. The team‘s work was funded through a Healthy Eating Active Living Local Partnership Grant ("HEAL Grant") made to SJSU by Kaiser Permanente Northern California Region in the fall of 2007 and included a series of research projects with the goal of changing policies and the built environment at SJSU in ways that support health and wellness. Work was collaborative in that the …

Forestry-Based Livelihoods In Central Vietnam: An Examination Of The Acacia Commodity Chain: A Case From Thua Thien Hue Province, Vietnam, Robert Pietrzak

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Forestry-based livelihoods in remote Vietnamese communities have been influenced in recent years by forest land allocation schemes, changes to property rights, and forest management devolution initiatives. Examples include the Five Million Hectare Reforestation Program, Project 327, and official “Red Books” that grant long-term land use rights and access rights to villagers. Major challenges to forestry-based livelihoods include disputes over land tenure, conflict between different levels of government, illegal logging practices and harvesting of NTFPs and competition over land for natural versus plantation forests. As a result, forest degradation and rural poverty continue to be debilitating obstacles to development in Central …

Controls On Terrestrial Evapotranspiration From A Forest-Wetland Complex In The Western Boreal Plain, Alberta, Canada, Scott M. Brown

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The Western Boreal Plain (WBP) of North Central Alberta consists of a mosaic wetlands and aspen (Populus tremuloides) dominated uplands. This region operates within a moisture deficit regime where precipitation (P) and evapotranspiration (ET) are the dominant hydrologic fluxes. As such these systems are extremely susceptible to the slightest to the slightest climatic variability that may upset the balance between P and ET. Vegetation composition is the dominant control on wetland ET, and itself is extremely dynamic within these wetland environments, which can be attributed to varying moisture regimes along with micrometeorological variations. To address this variability in …

Carbon Dioxide Exchange In A Permafrost-Dominated Boreal Wetland In The Northwest Territories, Canada, Andrea J. Kenward

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Northern boreal wetland complexes are substantial reservoirs for carbon and play a crucial role in both regional and global carbon budgets but they are showing significant signs of impact by climate change. This study examined the carbon dioxide flux of a high boreal wetland during the snowmelt and growing season of 2008 in Scotty Creek Basin, located near Fort Simpson (61°18'N, 121°18'W), Northwest Territories. This basin is not only responding to shifts in atmospheric temperatures, but it is also under additional pressure from increasing permafrost degradation. A dynamic closed-system chamber was used to monitor and quantify mid-day total respiration (R …

A Time Series Analysis: Exploring The Link Between Human Activity And Blood Glucose Fluctuation, Eric A. Sadowski

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

In this thesis, time series models are developed to explore the correlates of blood glucose (BG) fluctuation of diabetic patients. In particular, it is investigated whether certain human activities and lifestyle events (e.g. food and medication consumption, physical activity, travel and social interaction) influence BG, and if so, how. A unique dataset is utilized consisting of 40 diabetic patients who participated in a 3-day study involving continuous monitoring of blood glucose (BG) at five minute intervals, combined with measures for sugar; carbohydrate; calorie and insulin intake; physical activity; distance from home; time spent traveling via public transit and private automobile; …

Treasure Islands, James R. Hines Jr.

Articles

In movies and novels, tax havens are often settings for shady international deals; in practice, they are rather less flashy. Tax havens are countries and territories that offer low tax rates and favorable regulatory policies to foreign investors. For example, tax havens typically tax inbound investment at zero or very low rates and further encourage investment with telecommunications and transportation facilities, other business infrastructure, favorable legal environments, and limited bureaucratic hurdles to starting new firms. Tax havens are small: most are islands; all but a few have populations below one million; and they have above-average incomes. Tax havens are also …

Race Audits, Robin A. Lenhardt

Faculty Scholarship

The U.S. Supreme Court’s race jurisprudence suffers from a stunning lack of imagination where possibilities for meaningful local government involvement in combating structural racial inequality are concerned. Cases such as Parents. and Ricci limit dramatically the freedom that localities have to address racial inequity within their borders. Instead of constraints on local efforts in the race context, Professor Lenhardt argues that what we need, if persistent racial inequalities are ever to be eliminated, is greater innovation and experimentation. In this article, Professor Lenhardt thus introduces an extra-judicial tool called the race audit, which would permit individual cities or a regional …

2010-2011 Lindenwood University Undergraduate Course Catalog, Lindenwood University

Course Catalogs

Lindenwood University Undergraduate Course Catalog

2010-2011 Lindenwood University-Belleville Course Catalog, Lindenwood University

Course Catalogs

Lindenwood University-Belleville Course Catalog

Racism And Biopower, Ladelle Mcwhorter

Philosophy Faculty Publications

While ignorance, or at least a lack of clear and distinct experience, does not seem to have stopped our predecessors from philosophizing about all manner of things from matter to immortal souls, in the latter half of the twentieth century North American philosophers became increasingly timid about advancing propositions based primarily not on logic informed by material evidence but on intuition, creative imagination, and passionate desire. By the 1960s our generation's teachers and mentors, perhaps battered by the McCarthy years or humbled by the dazzling successes of their colleagues in the "hard" sciences, had redrawn the disciplinary boundaries tightly enough …

Prolonged Injustice In Urban America, Jametta Magwood, Edith M. Williams, Saundra H. Glover

Faculty Publications

Environmental inequality is the suggestion that the working class, the poor, persons of color, and ultimately the economically disadvantaged are subjected to living conditions that may prove to be hazardous both personally, professionally, and also to the infrastructure of the urban communities that these people inhabit. These injustices affect not only housing but education, quality healthcare access, and access to employment. This article investigates the distinct relationship of environmental inequalities imposed in urban communities that are promoted by a prominent institution: the government. It has been suggested that the government is primarily controlled by individuals who are incapable of identifying …

Shrouded Sins: An Exploration Of Child Sex Trafficking In South Africa, Jennifer L. Kennedy

Pell Scholars and Senior Theses

Sex trafficking is a global $32 billion industry that affects hundreds of thousands of lives. A large portion of this industry belongs to child sex trafficking; a growing phenomenon that violates our children's dignity, rights and freedom. Although affecting every nation in the world, this industry has a strong hold in the Republic of South Africa. This country serves as an area of origin, transport, and destination, implicating itself in the broad child trafficking networks that reach nearly every nation, including our own. This paper seeks to explore the many facets of the child sex trafficking industry in South Africa.

Transcending Cultural Nationalist And Internationalist Tendencies: The Case For Mutually Beneficial Repatriation Agreements, Joshua S. Wolkoff

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

This Note will proffer a critical evaluation of the Italian government's current tactics for reclaiming its patrimony and argue that MBRAs are the most desired framework for resolving repatriation disputes, as they give rise to lasting collaborative relationships between source nations and cultural institutions and strive to keep valued works in the "public trust" without diminishing traditionally insular cultural identities. Thus, successful negotiations must account for competing interests including, inter alia: (i) the emotional currency of the object as assessed from the perspective of the source nation; (ii) the institution's desire to keep disputed works within the public sphere; (iii) …

Unpopular Archives, Karen M. Morin

Faculty Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

Spatial Inequality As Constitutional Infirmity: Equal Protection, Child Poverty And Place, Lisa R. Pruitt

Montana Law Review

Spatial Inequality as Constitutional Infirmity

Climate Control Of Terrestrial Carbon Exchange Across Biomes And Continents, Chuixiang Yi, Runze Li, John Wolbeck, Xiyan Xu, Mats Nilsson, Luis Aires, John D. Albertson, Christof Ammann, M. Altaf Arain, Alessandro C. De Araujo, Marc Aubinet, Mika Aurela, Zoltán Barcza, Alan Barr, Paul Berbigier, Jason Beringer, Christian Bernhofer, Andrew T. Black, Paul V. Bolstad, Fred C. Bosveld, Mark S.J. Broadmeadow, Nina Buchmann, Sean P. Burns, Pierre Cellier, Jingming Chen, Jiquan Chen, Philippe Ciais, Robert Clement, Bruce D. Cook, Peter S. Curtis, D. Bryan Dail, Ebba Dellwik, Christopher A. Williams

Geography

Understanding the relationships between climate and carbon exchange by terrestrial ecosystems is critical to predict future levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide because of the potential accelerating effects of positive climate-carbon cycle feedbacks. However, directly observed relationships between climate and terrestrial CO2exchange with the atmosphere across biomes and continents are lacking. Here we present data describing the relationships between net ecosystem exchange of carbon (NEE) and climate factors as measured using the eddy covariance method at 125 unique sites in various ecosystems over six continents with a total of 559 site-years. We find that NEE observed at eddy covariance sites is …

Creating Units For Second Grade Learners Of English As A Foreign Language, Laura Elizabeth Messerly

Honors Program Theses

Teaching English as a Foreign Language is becoming more popular as English is in high demand in countries throughout the world because of globalization (Niklov, 2006). The chief difference between English as a Foreign Language (EFL) and English as a Second Language (ESL) is that the language is being learned in a non-English speaking community (.EFL) versus an English speaking community (ESL). These non-English speaking communities are being affected by multinational corporations. As businesses grow and globalize, flourishing across continents, factories and branches are sprouting up in places all over the world. Technology, too, has contributed to the spread of …

Ecological Niche Modeling Of Potential West Nile Virus Vector Mosquito Species In Iowa, Scott R. Larson, John P. Degroote, Lyric C. Bartholomay, Ramanathan Sugumaran

Faculty Work

Ecological niche modeling (ENM) algorithms, Maximum Entropy Species Distribution Modeling (Maxent) and Genetic Algorithm for Rule-set Prediction (GARP), were used to develop models in Iowa for three species of mosquito – two significant, extant West Nile virus (WNV) vectors (Culex pipiens L and Culex tarsalis Coquillett (Diptera: Culicidae)), and the nuisance mosquito, Aedes vexans Meigen (Diptera: Culicidae), a potential WNV bridge vector. Occurrence data for the three mosquito species from a state-wide arbovirus surveillance program were used in combination with climatic and landscape layers. Maxent successfully created more appropriate niche models with greater accuracy than GARP. The three Maxent species’ …

Outsiders Inside The Beltway: Latcrit Xiv - Critical Outsider Theory And Praxis In The Policy Making Of The New American Regime, Anthony E. Varona

Articles

No abstract provided.

Anatomy Of A Regional Conflict: Tarija And Resource Grievances In Moraless Bolivia, Denise Bebbington, Anthony J. Bebbington

Geography

In 2008, the Department of Tarija became the epicenter of national political struggles over political autonomy for lowland regions at odds with the Morales administration. In September, following a series of regional referenda on autonomy and a national recall election, citizen committees in Tarija mobilized urban-based sectors and organized a general strike against the central government. It is unhelpful to understand the strike as simply an act of political sabotage orchestrated by racist regional elites. The factors driving protest and interest in autonomy are varied and deeply related to patterns of hydrocarbons extraction in the department that have allowed for …

The Effect Of The Study Region On Gis Models Of Species Geographic Distributions And Estimates Of Niche Evolution; Preliminary Tests With Montane Rodents (Genus Nephelomys) In Venezuela, Ali Raza

Dissertations and Theses

Various niche-based techniques exist to model a species' potential geographic distribution in a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) framework. These models compare the environmental conditions of localities of a species' occurrence versus those of the overall study region. In addition to uses in areas such as macroecology and conservation biology, this approach has been applied recently to studies of niche evolution and historical biogeography. Definition of the study region is critical for all of these applications but has not been addressed previously. Here, I examine the effect of changes in the extent of the study region on potential distribution models of …

Using Geographically Structured Evaluations To Assess Performance And Transferability Of Ecological Niche Models For Species With Many Occurrence Records: A Test Using The Caribbean Spiny Pocket Mouse, Heteromys Anomalus, Aleksandarc Radosavljevi

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

To The Ice: George Bird Grinnell's 1887 Ascent Of Grinnell Glacier, Richard Vaughan

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This article discusses a climbing expedition undertaken by U.S. conservationist George Bird Grinnell to ascend what would come to be known as Grinnell Glacier in Montana. Grinnell’s efforts to establish Glacier National Park are detailed. Grinnell’s previously unpublished descriptions of the glacier and its surrounding area are analyzed by the author.

Accepting Justice Kennedy's Dare: The Future Of Integration In A Post-Pics World, Daniel Kiel

Fordham Law Review

In the wake of the most important public schools case in decades, Parents Involved in Community Schools (PICS), the future of diversity in public schools is in doubt. This period of uncertainty comes at a moment when parents, educators, and employers are demanding high quality schools that prepare students for an increasingly globalized world. Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, in his PICS concurrence, recognized this discrepancy and challenged districts to continue the important work of bringing different students together without resorting to unconstitutional means. Filling the void between what is essential to public education and what is constitutionally permissible after PICS, …

Habitat Correlates Of Jaguar Kill-Sites Of Cattle In Northeastern Sonora, Mexico, Octavio C. Rosas-Rosas, Louis C. Bender, Raul Valdez

Human–Wildlife Interactions

Predation on cattle by the endangered jaguar (Panthera onca) can be a serious ecological and economic conflict. We investigated habitat characteristics of kill sites of cattle in Sonora, Mexico, from 1999 to 2004 to see whether habitat management or cattle distribution could be used as effective nonlethal methods to limit predation. Kill-sites were positively associated with oak, semitropical thornscrub, and xeric thornscrub vegetation types, whereas they were negatively associated with upland mesquite. Sites of cattle kills were also positively associated with proximity to permanent water sources and roads. A model including these relationships fi t kill locations well …