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Connecting Children To Nature: A Multiple Case Study Of Nature Center Preschools, Patti Ensel Bailie

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Theses and Other Student Research

Environmental degradation, childhood obesity, and aggression of youth are societal problems that appear unconnected. However, their cause (and possible solution) may be linked to a common experience – the amount and quality of time spent in the natural world. Environment based education, significant life experience research, and studies involving urban youth and green spaces have shown that children’s experiences in the natural world have a positive effect on their attitudes, behaviors, and environmental awareness. Nature center based preschools are one approach for connecting children and nature, but little is known about the quality and consistency of their practices. This study …

End Of The Line: Tracking The Commodity Chain Of The Electronic Waste Industry, Jacquelynn A. Doyon

Dissertations

This study examines the transfer of electronic waste (e-waste) from core to peripheral nations, specifically coastal nations in Africa. The theoretical perspective marries green criminology with world systems theory in examining the ways in which marginalized populations bear the burden of hazardous waste disposal across the globe. The study is comparative, looking at legislation in the United States as well as international legislation and enforcement, and also employs case study methodology, contrasting e-waste disposal in Nigeria and Ghana. The final intent of this research is to determine whether or not the violation of national and/or international legislation regarding the transfer …

"Lessons And Exercises In Polite Literature" : The Pedagogy And Literature Curriculum Of Mother Columba Carroll, A Sister Of Charity Of Nazareth., Anna M. Powell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study will examine Nazareth Academy, a prestigious private female academy, and Mother Columba Carroll's, SCN pedagogy and literature curriculum. The first half of the study will create a snapshot of the Academy from 1855 to 1870, examining the significance of the school, and providing a general understanding of its students. It will then examine Mother Columba Carroll, her life and the external influences that could have shaped her curriculum. The second half will analyze her literature curriculum, examining the wide range of literary genres included, and especially exploring the influence of fiction within the curriculum. Fiction was long debated …

Socioeconomic Forecasting, Yingge Xiong, Jon D. Fricker, Kevin T. Mcnamara, Joseph W. Longley

JTRP Technical Reports

The role of the REMI Policy Insight+ model in socioeconomic forecasting and economic impact analysis of transportation projects was assessed. The REMI PI+ model is consistent with the state of the practice in forecasting and impact analysis. REMI PI+, like its competitors, is vulnerable to the trends contained in the historical data it uses, especially recent trends. After the most recent periodic update in data, the performance of the REMI PI+ model improved, i.e., it produced long-term forecasts that were more credible. Zonal-level population and employment forecasts for direct input to the Indiana Statewide Travel Demand Model (ISTDM) can be …

On The Interpretability Of Law: Lessons From The Decoding Of National Constitutions, James Melton, Zachary Elkins, Tom Ginsburg, Kalev Leetaru

Coase-Sandor Institute for Law & Economics Research Paper Series

An implicit element of many theories of constitutional enforcement is the degree to which those subject to constitutional law can agree on what its provisions mean (call this constitutional interpretability). Unfortunately, there is little evidence on baseline levels of constitutional interpretability or the variance therein. This article seeks to fill this gap in the literature, by assessing the effect of contextual, textual and interpreter characteristics on the interpretability of constitutional documents. Constitutions are found to vary in their degree of interpretability. Surprisingly, however, the most important determinants of variance are not contextual (for example, era, language or culture), but textual. …

A Comprehensive Study Of Ayurveda, Traditional Chinese Medicine, And Comparison, Per Maximilian Gasseholm

Social Sciences

Today complimentary medicine is being increasingly sought out. Ayurveda and TCM, are among the oldest systems of medicine and have been developed for over thousands of years in India and China respectively. This paper details the philosophies, medical theories, anatomy, diagnosis, and treatments of both of these systems, including a comparison. Both of these modalities of healing operate with a microcosm – macrocosm paradigm. This makes them fundamentally similar, and compatible with each other. Ayurveda uses Tridoshic theory to apply treatments ranging from diet, massage, meditation, yoga among other therapies to bring Vata, Pitta, and Kapha into balance. TCM is …

Climate Change And The Spread Of Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases, Courtney B. Reed

Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

Cross-Cultural Cannibalism Throughout Human History, Melissa Cochran

Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

Barthelme's "Paraguay," The Postmodern, And Neocolonialism, Daniel Chaskes

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article "Barthelme's 'Paraguay,' the Postmodern, and Neocolonialism," Daniel Chaskes explores the analytic opportunities afforded by conjoining globalizing critical approaches with a story by an author who has often been circumscribed by the postmodern rubric. Donald Barthelme's "Paraguay," written the summer after Nelson Rockefeller's fact-finding mission to South America in 1969, provides a chance to consider modes of anti-colonial critique in Barthelme's work. It also offers examples of a more self-reflective criticism aimed at the U.S. counterculture and the indeterminacies of postmodernism. Chaskes reads "Paraguay" with the aim of understanding Barthelme's hemispheric interest and he investigates the multiple cultural …

Intercultural Approaches To Cities And Spaces In Literature, Film, And New Media: A Review Of New Work By Manzanas And Benito And López-Varela And Neţ, Ana María Martín Castillejos

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

No abstract provided.

Sci-Tech Book News Reviews, Susan Fingerman

Sci-Tech News

The following section consists of 100 book reviews selected from Reference and Research Book News, reprinted with the permission of Book News Inc. This review journal is published six times a year, each issue reviewing thousands of new titles in all disciplines. For a sample issue and subscription information, contact Book News Inc at [email protected] or (503)281-9230.

Full Issue: Vol. 66, No. 4

Sci-Tech News

No abstract provided.

Collecting To The Core-Manuscripts In Medieval Studies, Susan Steuer, Ann Doherty

Against the Grain

No abstract provided.

Aesthetics In Gao's Soul Mountain, Mabel Lee

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "Aesthetics in Gao's Soul Mountain" Mabel Lee analyses Nobel Laureate 2000 Xingjian Gao's aesthetics. Transnational conglomerates today control the book industry from publishing house to bookshop and through aggressive market strategies they exert considerable influence on readers. Nonetheless, there are writers who refuse to capitulate to market demands and seek only to actualize their aesthetic ideas in the creation of literary texts. One such writer is Gao, author of the novel Soul Mountain. Lee posits that Gao's aesthetics is founded on the close interrogation of both Chinese and European models and practices and explores specific …

Nostalgia In Oral Histories Of Israeli Women, Yael Zilberman

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "Nostalgia in Oral Histories of Israeli Women" Yael Zilberman explores the narration of nostalgia of elderly women about the city of Be'er Sheva. In their narration, the subjects of the study create textual and spatial practices which are engendered and create analogies between the city, their maturing/ed bodies, and by-gone youth. Further, the grief owing to the perceived condition of the city intensifies the idealized description of the city and the longing for its past. Zilberman's study brakes new ground in that the study of urban experience within folklore is a lesser explored field as the urban …

Victims Of The City In Novels Of Zola And Dostoevsky, Marta L. Wilkinson

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "Victims of the City in Novels of Zola and Dostoevsky" Marta Wilkinson argues that urbanity in its nineteenth-century setting functioned as the culpable agent in criminal behavior found in Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment and in several of Zola's Rougon-Macquart novels. Wilkinson an analysis of the novels based on Merlin Coverly's concept of psychogeography which supports the extension of the cityscape as an integral part of the novels' characters. Further, Wilkinson illustrates how in Zola's and Dostoevsky's novels the city reigns triumphant as characters fall victim to disease, drink, or are left with desperate choices: in Dostoevsky's novel …

Epipathogenesis Of Caries: Analyses Of Family Structure, Fear, And Fatalism Upon World Health Organization Decayed, Missing, And Filled Teeth Severity In Appalachia West Virginia And Pennsylvania, R. Constance Wiener

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Appalachian has many social, economic, and biologic factors impacting dental health over the life-course.;Purpose: This study examined dental caries experience and family structure, dental fear, and fatalism in West Virginia and Pennsylvania.;Method: Using a cross-sectional study design, 2002-2009 Center for Oral Health Research in Appalachia data were analyzed utilizing the World Health Organization definitions for caries experience, dichotomized into low and high. Three groups were studied: 1) children, 11-13 years (N=237); 2) adolescents, 14-17 years (N=191); and 3) adults, 18 years and above (N=1125). For multivariable model development, generalized estimating equations with exchangeable working structures accounted for family clusters.;Results. For …

Assessing The Surface Water Quality Impacts Of Marcellus Shale Development In Whiteday Creek Watershed, West Virginia, D. Aaron Streets

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Shale gas development in Central Appalachia will likely increase economic activity and help meet future energy needs; however, there are concerns over potential impacts to water resources. This research assessed impacts of drilling for gas in the Marcellus shale in the White Day Creek watershed in northern West Virginia. A total of eight stream sites, located both upstream and downstream of three permitted gas wells, were monitored. Two of the permitted wells were in the development phase while the third was actively being drilled. Water samples were collected during the bi-weekly sampling and analyzed at the National Research Center of …

A Critical Analysis Of The Kyoto Protocol Using Monte Carlo Simulation And Magicc, Penny Lambert

The Plymouth Student Scientist

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change adopted the Kyoto Protocol in December 1997. Emissions data from national registries were used to quantify the total anthropogenic emissions of signatory parties between 1990 and 2009, found to have been reduced by approximately 18 percent of base year levels. Using IPCC Special Report Emissions Scenarios (SRES) as a practicable baseline for non-mitigation, three distinct intervention scenarios were constructed from target and observed emissions reductions under the Protocol to investigate their climatic implications against unabated anthropogenic carbon by the end of the 21st century. MAGICC Version 5.3 was used to model forecast …

An Evaluation Of Whether Artificial Refuge Traps Or Baited Traps Are The Most Effective Method For Trapping White-Clawed Crayfish (Austropotamobius Pallipes), Kathryn Walter

The Plymouth Student Scientist

Britain’s only native crayfish species, the white-clawed crayfish Austropotamobius pallipes are threaten through rapid population declines caused by non-indigenous species, habitat degradation and pollution. This study focuses one of the last remaining small A. pallipes population in the Creedy Yeo River, Devon. This study aims to decipher whether the use of artificial refuge traps (ARTs) or baited traps are the most effective method of catching this species, to aid translocation efforts to conserve the remaining population under threat from the American signal crayfish Pacifastacus leniusculus. The capture rate of each type of trap was studied at four sites along the …

Location, Demographic, Lifestyle And Behavioural Influences On Household Participation In Bournemouth Borough Council's Kerbside Recycling Scheme, Stephanie Rooke

The Plymouth Student Scientist

Bournemouth Borough Council (BBC) is performing well in recycling and currently has a recycling rate of 63.9%, but there is still room for BBC to improve the efficiency of the existing ‘Big Bin’ dry kerbside recycling collection scheme and increase the recycling rate further. The aim of the study was to identify the socio-economic groups which participate the least, or contaminate the most, in BBC’s kerbside recycling scheme. A participation survey was carried out over three consecutive collection cycles for three recycling rounds ‘RW1, RW2 and RW5’ to measure how many times each individual household set out their recycling bin …

Spatial And Temporal Patterns Of Erosion Along The Holderness Coastline, North East Yorkshire, Uk, Verity Macfarlane

The Plymouth Student Scientist

There is an increasing problem of erosion in coastal environments, particularly in soft material cliffs which need to be protected; migration to these environments is increasing, up to 75% more of the total population is predicted to live in close proximity to the coast by 2020. The Holderness coast (located in North East Yorkshire, UK) is the fastest eroding coastline in Europe. It comprises of soft clay, glacial till deposits from the Devensian period (18-13Ka). Previous studies have calculated that many parameters such as till properties, cliff geomorphology, cliff topography, strength and reaction to varied water contents are varied throughout …

Facies Analysis And Diagenesis Of Late Pleistocene Shoreline Sands, Saunton, North Devon, Sophie Young

The Plymouth Student Scientist

The succession at Saunton is composed of all the major elements of Pleistocene coastal stratigraphy from across north Devon. The aim of this study is to analyse and interpret the depositional environment of the laterally variable late Pleistocene sedimentary succession at Saunton, using facies analysis. This knowledge is used to infer local relative sea level changes from patterns of transgressions, normal, and forced regressions and an attempt is made, using sequence stratigraphy, to constrain the relative ages of the deposits based on marine oxygen isotope stages. Petrographic observations of the different facies and grain types are used to evidence the …

India's Changing Afghanistan Policy: Regional And Global Implications, Harsh V. Pant Dr.

Books, Monographs & Collaborative Studies

View the Executive Summary

Since 2001, the situation in Afghanistan has afforded New Delhi an opportunity to underscore its role as a regional power. India has a growing stake in the development of peace and stability in Afghanistan; and the 2011 India-Afghan strategic partnership agreement underlines India’s commitment to ensure that a positive momentum in Delhi-Kabul ties is maintained. This monograph examines the changing trajectory of Indian policy toward Afghanistan since 2001, and it is argued that New Delhi has been responding to a strategic environment shaped by other actors in the region. U.S.-led North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces are …

Profession Of Faith: Congressional Websites And Religious Expression In The 112th Congress, Molly Jaye Mcguffee

Master's Theses

The idea of culture wars in politics suggests that American voters have polarized according to their positions on moral issues, and a religious gap in the electorate also contends that voters are polarized on these issues according to their religious beliefs and practices. Research shows that members of Congress send cues about their faith to their constituents, who in turn use the information to assess their representatives and determine their members' position on these moral issues. To determine how these cues are delivered and who delivers the information, I combed 100 Senators' and 435 Representatives' from the 1121 h Congress …

A Place Like Home, Tabitha Denae Epperson

Master's Theses

On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina changed many things. This storm destroyed buildings, businesses, places of worship, and homes. People lost their lives, possessions, way of life, and for those that survived, their lives now were measured in two eras - pre and post Katrina. Because this natural disaster turned their lives upside down, both in large and small ways, their lives would never be the same. This thesis . documents stories of those that for various reasons chose to stay on the Mississippi Gulf Coast after Katrina. Twenty-five interviews of residents of Pass Christian explore what exactly is a …

Agriculture, Influence, And Instability Under The Ancien Régime: 1708-1768, Adam J. Polk

Masters Theses

The French Revolution has been studied from myriad perspectives. The majority of scholarship focuses on the political and urban chaos of the times. Agricultural conditions and the influence of onerous taxation and stagnant agricultural options are given only a cursory examination in most research. This thesis aims to investigate the relationship between agronomic and environmental conditions and the eruption of violence in urban centers during the French Revolution and the years leading up to it (1708-1768). This period prior to the French Revolution serves as a template to investigate the nature of the rural-agricultural influences, with a particular focus paid …

Reassessing The Impact Of Inflation Targeting In Emerging Market Economies, Babatunde Aiyemo

Research Papers

In this paper, we subject a seeming consensus on the impact of inflation targeting in emerging market economies to some robustness assessments. First we report performance along carefully redefined country brackets, we find little evidence to support the notion that economies with inflation targeting policies performed better than non-targeting economies in terms of GDP growth, inflation and economic volatility. In fact, there is a suggestion in the results that amongst certain clusters of economies, certain restrictive aspects of the policy actually inhibit growth

In a subsequent assessment, we control for extent of development using specific country proxies but equally observe, …

Visualization For Anomaly Detection And Data Management By Leveraging Network, Sensor And Gis Techniques, Zhaoxia Wang, Chee Seng Chong, Rick S. M. Goh, Wanqing Zhou, Dan Peng, Hoong Chor Chin

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This paper studies the importance of visualization for discerning and interpreting patterns of data and its application for solving real problems, such as anomaly detection and data management. There are various ways to realize visualization to cater to the needs of numerous real life applications. Depending on needs, a combination of some of these ways may be required for presenting an effective visualization. The authors present visualization schemes for anomaly detection/condition monitoring and data management by leveraging network techniques and combining them with modern techniques such as sensor, database, mobile communication, GPS and GIS techniques. Two case studies are presented …

Agent-Based Virtual Humans In Co-Space: An Evaluative Study, Yilin Kang, Ah-Hwee Tan, Fiona Fui-Hoon Nah

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Co-Space refers to interactive virtual environment modelled after the real world in terms of look-and-feel, functionalities and services. We have developed a 3D virtual world named Nan yang Technological University (NTU) Co-Space populated with virtual human characters. Three key requirements of realistic virtual humans in the virtual world have been identified, namely (1) autonomy: agents can function on their own, (2) interactivity: agents can interact naturally with players, and (3) personality: agents can exhibit human traits and characteristics. Working towards these challenges, we propose a brain-inspired agent architecture that integrates goal-directed autonomy, natural language interaction and human-like personality. We conducted …