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Prism #67, December 2012, Office Of The Provost

Prism: Western Michigan University's Newsletter for Academic Affairs

No abstract provided.

Les Écrivains Vietnamiens Francophones Aux Frontières Incertaines, Pham Van Quang

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

The Vietnamese Francophone literature began to take shape so early in the late nineteenth century. It develops later in the periods that followed. However, we wonder if this literature is currently in autonomous fi eld. Using the sociology of literature as a point of departure, we would like to dedicate this study to take into account the world of Vietnamese writers, in particular examining how they enter the literary field. Also, before highlighting the concepts of geographic and literary boundaries directly related to Vietnamese writers, we focus our attention on the educational and professional category they occupy. These elements affect …

Examining Land Use/Land Cover Change And Potential Causal Factors In The Context Of Climate Change In Sagarmatha National Park, Nepal, Kamal Humagain

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

In the context of growing tourism and global warming, the fragile landscape of the Himalayas is under immense pressure because of rapid land cover changes in developing countries like Nepal. Remotely sensed data combined with ethnographic knowledge are useful tools for studying such changes. The quantitative change can be measured analyzing satellite images whereas local people’s perceptions provide supportive information. To measure such changes in Sagarmatha National Park of Nepal, Multispectral Scanner (MSS) and Thematic Mapper (TM) images since 1972 were used. Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) was calculated for different elevation classes and land cover types. These measurements, along …

The Relationship Between Reading And Mathematics Achievement Of Students With Disabilities And Least Restrictive Environment Practices In Kentucky, Rhonda Kelly Simpson

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between Kentucky least restrictive environment (LRE) practices and KCCT assessment annual measureable objectives (AMO) in reading and mathematics for students with disabilities. This research was designed to determine whether districts achieved AMO targets for reading, mathematics and LRE. Also, it examined whether a relationship exists between special education students’ placement and assessment scores attained for the with disability subpopulation AYP category.

This quantitative, correlation study utilized data from the Kentucky Department of Education Open House, 2011 No Child Left Behind Adequate Yearly Progress Reports for each school district, and KCCT …

An Analysis Of The Factors That Influence Global Mindedness In First-Year College Students, Kristie Broadbent Guffey

Dissertations

This non-experimental, quantitative descriptive study was designed to determine what factors influence a first-year college students’ global mindedness and if any of those factors were predictors of the five subscales of global mindedness. Surveys were used to measure students’ global mindedness and their type of personality (N=424). Demographic questions were administered that included gender, county population, Pell grant eligibility, and first generation college student. Results indicated that first-year college students at a four-year public Master’s Large institution were moderately global minded. To predict global mindedness and its subscales, a regression model was developed using the Myers Briggs scores for extravert, …

Teleconnective Influences On The Strength Of Post-Tropical Cyclones, Jeremy Young

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Over the 1951-2009 time period, 47% of all tropical systems in the Atlantic Basin transitioned to post-tropical storms. These storms are capable of producing hurricaneforce winds, torrential, flooding rains and storm surge that floods coastal areas. This study adds to previous climatological work by completing a case-study of Hurricane Ike (2008) and examining how teleconnections such as the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO), the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) contribute to the strength of a transitioning post-tropical storm. T-tests performed show strong statistical relationships between an increase (decrease) in post-tropical storm …

Key Factors And Stages Of Collaboration Within Community College/Automotive Industry Sector Partnerships, Annette Parker

Dissertations

As corporations compete they recognize the need to reengineer operations to reflect the impact of a globalized market and attract, retain, and grow the skill sets of employees as strategic assets. To meet the need for employee continuous learning, financial turbulence, and rapid technological advancements, corporations have accelerated the formation of collaborative partnerships with higher education. At the same time, higher education institutions have a growing number of working adult students in attendance and view collaboration with corporations as a means to increase enrollment and revenue streams. These factors have created an opportunity to explore the dynamics of key factors …

Inextricably Political: Race, Membership, And Tribal Sovereignty, Sarah Krakoff

Washington Law Review

Courts address equal protection questions about the distinct legal treatment of American Indian tribes in the following dichotomous way: are classifications concerning American Indians “racial or political?” If the classification is political (i.e., based on federally recognized tribal status or membership in a federally recognized tribe) then courts will not subject it to heightened scrutiny. If the classification is racial rather than political, then courts may apply heightened scrutiny. This Article challenges the dichotomy itself. The legal categories “tribe” and “tribal member” are themselves political, and reflect the ways in which tribes and tribal members have been racialized by U.S. …

Island Times, Dec 2012, Kevin Attra

Island Times Newspaper, 2012

No abstract provided.

How Does Climate Influence Speciation: Theoretical And Empirical Perspectives, Xia Hua

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Many people are now familiar with the idea that climate change can cause extinction. Here, I show how climate change may also lead to the origin of new species. I explore two major aspects of how climate influences speciation. First, variation in climatic conditions over space and time can be a direct driver of speciation, via two mechanisms. Climate may drive allopatric speciation when a geographic barrier that consists of suboptimal climatic conditions for a species divides the species range and climatic niche conservatism of the species limits its adaptation to the climatic conditions, preventing gene flow between the two …

The Malaise Of Modernity: Urbanization, Mobility, And Hiv In The Pacific, John Connell, Joel Negin

Pacific Studies

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is unevenly distributed in the Pacific. Most cases are found in Papua New Guinea (PNG). In most Pacific Island states, transmission of HIV is sexual and heterosexual. Urbanization, migration, and mobility are key influences on its distribution and spread. Migration into towns and workplaces, mobility between towns and overseas employment, and return migration influence infection rates. Sex work, mainly an urban phenomenon, is a key source of transmission. High-risk sexual behavior, migration, affluence, poverty, and inequality coincide in urban areas. Different mobile groups include commercial sex workers, skilled workers, and seafarers. Most such groups migrate …

Pacific Studies Vol. 35, No. 3 - December 2012 Full Issue

Pacific Studies

No abstract provided.

Long-Term Integrated Studies Show Complex And Surprising Effects Of Climate Change In The Northern Hardwood Forest, Peter M. Groffman, Charles T. Driscoll, Chris E. Johnson, Lindsey E. Rustad, Pamela H. Templer

Civil and Environmental Engineering - All Scholarship

Evaluations of the local effects of global change are often confounded by the interactions of natural and anthropogenic factors that overshadow the effects of climate changes on ecosystems. Long-term watershed and natural elevation gradient studies at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest and in the surrounding region show surprising results demonstrating the effects of climate change on hydrologic variables (e.g., evapotranspiration, streamflow, soil moisture); the importance of changes in phenology on water, carbon, and nitrogen fluxes during critical seasonal transition periods; winter climate change effects on plant and animal community composition and ecosystem services; and the effects of anthropogenic disturbances and …

Integrating Expert System And Geographic Information System For Spatial Decision Making, Sriharsha Shesham

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Spatial decision making is a process of providing an effective solution for a problem that encompasses semi-structured spatial data. It is a challenging task which involves various factors to consider. For example, in order to build a new industry, an appropriate site must be selected for which several factors have to be taken into consideration. Some of the factors, which can affect the decision in this particular case, are air pollution, noise pollution, and distance from living areas, which makes the decision difficult. The geographic information systems (GIS) and the expert systems (ES) have many advantages in solving problems in …

Response To Friedman, Rosenbaum, And Minister, Megan Craig

Journal of Scriptural Reasoning

No abstract provided.

"I Smooth'd Him Up With Fair Words": Intersocietal Law, From Fur Trade To Treaty, Janna Beth Promislow

PhD Dissertations

History is an essential part of aboriginal law. The two disciplines, however, may produce incompatible narratives of indigenous-settler relations. In addition, indigenous legal traditions and the fur trade in the old North West have been under-represented in Canadian legal history, a gap that demotes over two centuries of working relationships to a brief preface to the numbered treaties and confederation. This dissertation seeks to bring under-observed normative relations between indigenous and European traders into Canadian legal history. It further considers the relevance of fur trade law to the jurisprudence on aboriginal treaty rights and the significance of history in overcoming …

Obesogenic Neighborhoods: The Impact Of Neighborhood Restaurants And Convenience Stores On Adolescents' Food Consumption Behaviors, Meizi He, Patricia Tucker, Jennifer D. Irwin, Jason Gilliland, Kristian Larsen, Paul Hess

Geography & Environment Publications

To examine the relationship between the neighbourhood food environment and dietary intake among adolescents. Cross-sectional design using: (i) a geographic information system to assess characteristics of the neighbourhood food environment and neighbourhood socio-economic status; (ii) the modified Healthy Eating Index (HEI) to assess participants' overall diet quality; and (iii) generalized linear models to examine associations between HEI and home and school food environmental correlates. Mid-sized Canadian city in Ontario, Canada. Participants Grade 7 and 8 students (n 810) at twenty-one elementary schools. Students living in neighbourhoods with a lower diversity of land-use types, compared with their higher diversity counterparts, had …

Quantifying Vulnerability After The Storm: Hurricane Katrina Case Study, Jennifer Lori Bonin

Dissertations

We can predict social and physical vulnerability with relatively accurate modeling. There are, however, very few consistent models to predict economic vulnerability outside of loss estimation models designed by economists. The index in this dissertation predicts which areas are most economically vulnerable in terms of job loss. Communities rely on their ability to work and contribute to the tax base. Without that base, a community will take longer to recover after a disaster. Which industries, professions, and environmental factors most influence a community’s economic vulnerability in the wake of a disaster? This dissertation presents an index for measuring economic vulnerability …

The R Journal (December 2012) 4(2): Complete Issue, The R Foundation

The R Journal

Contributing Articles

What's in a Name? Paul Murrell

It's Not What You Draw, It's What You Don't Draw, Paul Murrell

Debugging grid Graphics, Paul Murrell and Velvet Ly

frailtyHL: A Package for Fitting Frailty Models with H-likelihood, Il Do Ha, Maengseok Noh, and Youngjo Lee

influence.ME: Tools for Detecting Influential Data in Mixed Effects Models, Rense Nieuwenhuis, Manfred te Grotenhuis and Ben Pelzer

The crs Package: Nonparametric Regression Splines for Continuous and Categorical Predictors, Zhenghua Nie and Jeffrey S. Racine

Rfit: Rank-based Estimation for Linear Models, John D. Kloke and Joseph W. McKean

Graphical Markov Models with Mixed Graphs in …

Cultural Intelligence In Foreign Language Classes, Daniela Báez

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Prehistoric Human Ecodynamics In The Rub Al-Khali Desert: Results Of Remote Sensing And Excavations In Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Jason T. Herrmann

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Archaeological investigations in the Emirate of Dubai, UAE conducted by the Dubai Department of Archaeology and the University of Arkansas demonstrate that the desert inland of the Oman Peninsula was occupied not only during the Arabian Neolithic (8000-4400 BC), when the region experienced a moist period referred to as the Holocene Climatic Optimum (HCO), but also during the more arid millennia following the decline of the HCO into the Christian Era. During this period, desert settlement clustered near a band of oases, in contrast to the more widespread spatial distribution of remains of nomadic pastoralists from the Neolithic. Excavations at …

The Impact Of Student Interest And Instructor Effectiveness On Student Performance, Kate Sauer

Education Masters

This research project began by asking if and how student interest and instructor effectiveness impacted student performance. Research was conducted with two middle school students. The data was gathered by administering questionnaires, collecting student work, and recording observations. Findings revealed that students’ interest and their relationship with the instructor were contributing factors in successful academic performance. Therefore, the data implied that teachers need consider student interest and develop a relationship with them in order to foster student growth and success.

Full Issue, No Author

Verbum

This is the full issue of Volume 10, Issue 1 of Verbum, published in Fall 2012 by the REST Club at St. John Fisher College. Articles from this issue are available as separate PDFs at http://fisherpub.sjfc.edu/verbum/vol10/iss1/

Competing Sovereignties: Corporate Social Responsibility, Oil Extraction, And Indigenous Subjectivity In Ecuador, Emily Billo

Geography and the Environment - Dissertations

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs developed in recent years as the business response to social and environmental criticism of corporate operations, and are most debated in those societies where neoliberalism emerged most prominently, the United States and the United Kingdom. My dissertation expands these debates investigating the CSR programs of a Spanish-owned multinational oil company, Repsol-YPF operating in the Ecuadorian Amazon region. It explores CSR programs as institutions that can facilitate ongoing resource extraction, and particular technologies of rule that serve to discipline indigenous peoples at the point of extraction. I conducted an institutional ethnography to examine the social relationships …

The Body Machinic: Technology, Labor, And Mechanized Bodies In Victorian Culture, Jessica Kuskey

English - Dissertations

While recent scholarship focuses on the fluidity or dissolution of the boundary between body and machine, "The Body Machinic" historicizes the emergence of the categories of "human" and "mechanical" labor. Beginning with nineteenth-century debates about the mechanized labor process, these categories became defined in opposition to each other, providing the ideological foundation for a dichotomy that continues to structure thinking about our relation to technology. These perspectives are polarized into technophobic fears of dehumanization and machines "taking over," or technological determinist celebrations of new technologies as improvements to human life, offering the tempting promise of maximizing human efficiency. "The Body …

The Conduit, Volume 12, No. 2, December 2012, Annette Summers Engel

The KWI Conduit

Contents: Welcome to The Conduit -- 2013 Karst Award Recipient: Dr. Norman Pace -- Announcement: William L. Wilson Scholarship Deadline -- Upcoming 2014 Conference: Hypogene Cave Morphologies -- Where are they know? Wilson Scholarship Research -- How the Karst Waters Institute Became Established -- KWI Happenings -- Upcoming Conferences and Courses

Journeys To Others And Lessons Of Self: Carlos Castaneda In Camposcape, Ageeth Sluis

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Drawing on Michel Foucault’s concept of heterotopia, this article examines the importance of place and gender within constructions of race politics in Carlos Castaneda’s series on shamanism. Championing a “separate reality” predicated on an indigenous worldview, Castaneda’s lessons invited transnational middle-class youth to "journey" alongside him to camposcape—an anachronistic and idealized countryside—as a means to escape the bourgeois values of their homelands and find spiritual fulfillment in a timeless and "authentic" Mexico. Castaneda’s work proposed new viable spaces of difference in Mexico, yet inscribed these spaces with a masculinist discourse that served to neutralize the gender trouble within the counterculture …

Pages News, Volume 20, No. 2, December 2012, Takeshi Nakatsuka, Ryuji Tada, Kenji Kawamura

PAGES

Contents: Inside PAGES -- PAGES calendar -- Special Section: Japanese Paleoscience Editorial -- Japanese paleoscience on past climate and environmental changes -- Science Highlights -- Ocean circulation in the North Pacific during the last glacial termination -- North Pacific - North Atlantic linkages during the Last Glacial Termination -- Teleconnection between Asian Monsoon and the North Atlantic -- Latent 1500-year climate oscillation in the Holocene -- The history of Lake Biwa drilling -- Lake Suigetsu 2006 Varved Sediment Core Project -- Monsoon in subtropical Asia from oxygen isotope ratios of tree-ring cellulose -- Hydroclimate reconstruction in Indonesia by stalagmite isotopic …

Contemporary Manhattan Cartographies: Ephemeral Public Projects In New York, Andrew Wasserman

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

This dissertation considers the emergence of a cartographic public practice in both contemporary art and contemporary cities, attending to the ways in which ephemeral public projects create map-like objects that diverge from official urban projections. Rather than marking a single location, such projects structure networked connections between several sites, transforming undifferentiated urban spaces into legible urban places. Evaluation of this recent cartographic turn entails the triple consideration of placemaking, placemakers, and placemarkers as constructing spatialized identities for different neighborhoods and setting forth wayfinding strategies within these same neighborhoods. Focusing on Manhattan, the dissertation surveys how the borough has served as …

Conflicts, Riots, And Korean Americans In Los Angeles, 1965-1992, Chanhaeng Lee

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Facing numerous disadvantages in the U.S. labor market, Koreans immigrating in the wake of the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act found few options but to run small businesses. Lower start-up costs brought them to low-income, inner-city communities, which were increasingly Black and Brown as state investment dwindled and Whites fled to the suburbs. Structural economic and historical social conditions gave rise to conflicts, especially with Black customers. In Los Angeles, Black-Korean tensions reached a peak in late April 1992, when more than two thousand Korean-owned stores were burned and/or looted. This project explores the ways in which Korean immigrants navigated …