Digital Commons Network^™

Low-Impact Infrastructure: Development And Design Potential For Surface Application Alternatives For Subsurface Infrastructure In Yellowstone National Park's Upper Geyser Basin, Michael R. Pace

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

In sensitive and iconic landscapes, such as Yellowstone National Park’s Upper Geyser Basin, construction and expansion of visitor services is hindered, and often blocked, by the potential for environmental damage that could occur during the installation of subsurface utilities. These utilities, crucial to the success of development, require an alternative method of installation when placed in locations requiring special consideration and protection.

Yellowstone, in particular, is faced with the responsibility of protecting limited hydrothermal resources while also providing access to the general public. Sub-surface utilities threaten this responsibility due to the unknown nature of much of the subsurface

geology in …

The Relevance Of Culture In Politics: The Application Of Cultural Studies Using The Strategic Culture Method, Elizabeth G. Wilson

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

American Studies scholars have long been aware that their interdisciplinary studies reach far beyond Americana. The fields of folklore, English, history, political science and anthropology have all been enveloped under the American Studies umbrella. Public perceptions tend to assume that scholars engaged in these fields are limited to work within academia.

Identification Of Long Term Changes And Evaluation Of The Relationships Among Streamflow Variability And Oceanic-Atmospheric Indices, Soumya Sagarika

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

To examine the effects of climate variability on streamflow, this thesis presents a comprehensive analysis of the streamflow variability of the continental United States and its association with oceanic-atmospheric indices. First, the presence of trends with consideration of short term and long term persistence followed by shifts over the past years in the continental U.S. streamflow were analyzed by using the non-parametric tests: Mann Kendall and Pettitt. Second, the spatio-temporal relationships between seasonal streamflow variability of continental U.S. and sea surface temperatures (SST) and 500 mbar geopotential height (Z500) of the Pacific and Atlantic were established using the singular valued …

Understanding The Pursuit Of Higher Education Among Active-Duty Military Personnel In The Face Of Deployment, Using The Lens Of Schlossberg’S Transition Theory, Marcia Brown

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The purpose of this research study was to identify gaps in understanding of the specialized educational needs of active-duty military service members enrolled in higher education and to develop new insights that may be helpful to colleges and universities in designing initiatives, strategic plans, and resources to address these needs most effectively. In addition to the many recent intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and support missions and operations abroad, U.S. involvement in peacekeeping operations in Iraq and Afghanistan has resulted in significantly increased deployments of active-duty students. In existing literature, the impacts of deployment—specifically, effects of war-zone experiences such as post-traumatic stress …

Rethinking Governance In Management Research: From The Editors, Laszlo Tihanyi, Scott Graffin, Gerard George

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

In the field of management, the study of governance has primarily dealt with decision-making by boards of directors, chief executives, and senior managers. The corporate governance literature has generated important insights regarding incentive alignment, risk taking, and coordination challenges. Emerging trends, highlighted in this issue, raise new questions regarding managerial roles, organizational contexts, internal and social processes, and changes in governance over time. We encourage management scholars to rethink their approach to governance research by considering stakeholder engagement, the implications of big data, social impact, global dimensions, and comparative analysis of governance. A broadened conceptualization of governance may also deal …

Use Of Remote Imagery And Object-Based Image Methods To Count Plants In An Open-Field Container Nursery, Josue Nahun Leiva

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In general, the nursery industry lacks an automated inventory control system. Object-based image analysis (OBIA) software and aerial images could be used to count plants in nurseries. The objectives of this research were: 1) to evaluate the effect of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) flight altitude and plant canopy separation of container-grown plants on count accuracy using aerial images and 2) to evaluate the effect of plant canopy shape, presence of flowers, and plant status (living and dead) on counting accuracy of container-grown plants using remote sensing images. Images were analyzed using Feature Analyst® (FA) and an algorithm trained using …

The Emotional Impact Of Teaching In A High Poverty School On First-Year, Early Childhood Teachers In Rural South Carolina: A Photo Elicitation Study, Kimberly Jedlicka

All Dissertations

The purpose of this research study was to understand the emotional impact of teaching in a high poverty school on first-year, early childhood teachers in rural South Carolina. The research also explored the extent to which these emotions either empowered or constrained the teachers in their work. The study used photo-elicitation with interviews to generate data. Participants in this study took photographs that represented emotional experiences, wrote captions and discussed their images in an interview session. The data analysis focused on honoring the participants' voices and included first and second cycle coding strategies. In Vivo coding and Emotion coding were …

Phylogenomics And Historical Biogeography Of The Gooseneck Barnacle Pollicipes Elegans, Sergio Andres Marchant Rojas

All Dissertations

This dissertation explores the systematics, biogeography, and genomics of the gooseneck barnacle Pollicipes elegans, a marine crustacean of the tropical Eastern Pacific. In Chapter 1, I provide a broad framework for my research by introducing and focusing on the long-­‐standing debate of the mechanisms behind the latitudinal gradient in species diversity, which provided the initial motivation for using Pollicipes elegans as a model system to study the mechanisms leading to genetic differentiation and speciation in tropical regions. In Chapter 2, I examine the genetic structure, infer patterns of connectivity across the warm tropical waters of the eastern Pacific, and reconstruct …

Geographic Determinants Of Rural Land Covers And The Agricultural Margin In The Central United States, Timothy J. Stoebner, Christopher L. Lant

Environment and Society Faculty Publications

Geographic research on the Corn Belt and other regional landscapes of the central U.S. has not to date identified quantitatively the climatic, edaphic, topographic, and economic characteristics that determine rural land cover, and that therefore govern land cover change. Using the USDA/NASS Cropland Data Layer, this study identifies these characteristics by employing Multivariable Fractional Polynomials within a logistic regression framework. It maps the suitability distribution for corn, soybeans, spring and winter wheat, cotton, grassland, and forest, which collectively dominate the central U.S., at a 56 m resolution across 16 central U.S. states. The non-linear logistic regression models are successful in …

Hadrian's Wall: A Study In Function, Mylinh Van Pham

Master's Theses

Earlier studies on Hadrian's Wall have focused on its defensive function to protect the Roman Empire by foreign invasions, but the determination is Hadrian's Wall most likely did not have one single purpose, but rather multiple purposes. This makes the Wall more complex and interesting than a simple structure to keep out foreign intruders. Collective research on other frontier walls' functions and characteristics around the empire during the reign of Hadrian are used to compare and determine the possible function or functions of the Wall. The Wall not only served political purposes, but also had economic and social uses as …

The Role Of Lithology In Glacial Valley Cross-Sectional Shape In Sierra Nevada, California, Kaai Jensen

Master's Theses

It is commonly inferred that alpine glaciers transform fluvial valleys from V to U-shaped. It has been suggested that, under certain circumstances, glaciers are unable to modify V-shaped valleys and that lithology may play an important role in a glacier's ability to effectively erode bedrock. To test this hypothesis, six glaciated valleys with both U and V-shaped cross sections were chosen in the Sierra Nevada (CA) to examine how lithological properties might affect patterns of glacial erosion: Tenaya Canyon, Tuolumne River, Little Yosemite Valley, the San Joaquin River, the north fork of the King River, and Deadman Canyon. Valley profiles …

Difference In The Perception Of Political Art Inside And Outside The Art Gallery, Jose Maria Parga

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The purpose of the research for this exhibit was to explore whether a major difference exists in the way political art is perceived by an audience when the art is in an art exhibition and when it is seen in an urban environment. Since the subject matter of En el País de No Pasa Nada, is the current wave of violence and corruption happening in Mexico, the targeted audience for this exhibited is limited to Mexican people and people on the US border with Mexico. If there is a difference in perception, what does the work of art gain, and …

The Italian Press And The Church: Italian Newspaper Coverage Of Lds-Related News And The Media Strategies Of The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints In Italy 2010-2012, Giulia Vibilio Matthews

Theses and Dissertations

The relationship between media and religion has been influenced by many factors in history. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has received a great deal of media attention throughout the world in the past five years. In Italy, the Church National Council of Public Relations worked to provide the media with the necessary information to report accurate news about the Church. This thesis collected the information provided to the Italian media by the Church National Council and analyzed the main topic and the level of accuracy reported by the Italian media on Church-related news. The results show that …

Efficacy Of R&D Work In Offshore Captive Centers: An Empirical Study Of Task Characteristics, Coordination Mechanisms, And Performance, Deepa Mani, Kannan Srikanth, Anandhi Bharadwaj

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Seizing the latest technological advances in distributed work, an increasing number of firms have set up offshore captive centers (CCs) in emerging economies to carry out sophisticated R&D work. We analyse survey data from 132 R&D CCs established by foreign multinational companies in India to understand how firms execute distributed innovative work. Specifically, we examine the performance outcomes of projects using different technology-enabled coordination strategies to manage their interdependencies across multiple locations. We find that modularization of work across locations is largely ineffective when the underlying tasks are less routinized, less analyzable, and less familiar to the CC. Coordination based …

Determinants Of Livelihood Choices: An Empirical Analysis From Rural Bangladesh, S Rahman, S Akter

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

The study identifies socio-economic determinants of livelihood choices of rural households in Bangladesh (4,195 households from 139 villages) by applying a multinomial logit model of occupational choice and a multivariate Tobit model that allows for jointness in decision making. Results reveal that households choose multiple livelihood options. A number of socio-economic factors and resources at the household level as well as the state of rural infrastructure significantly determine households’ livelihood choice. Overall, resource-rich and educated households engage in diversified livelihoods and rural infrastructure promotes such diversification. Female-headed households fail to participate in any of the livelihood categories and consequently earn …

Modelling Storm Response On Gravel Beaches Using Xbeach-G, G Masselink, R Mccall, T Poate, Geer P Van

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

No abstract provided.

The Peculiar Institution On The Periphery: Slavery In Arkansas, Kelly Eileene Jones

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Slavery grew quickly on the western edge of the South. By 1860, more than one quarter of Arkansas's population was enslaved. While whites succeeded remarkably in transplanting the institution of slavery to the trans-Mississippi South, bondspeople used the land around them to achieve their own goals. Slaves capitalized on the abundance of uncultivated space, such as forest and canebrake, to temporarily escape the demanding crop routine, hold secret parties and religious meetings, meet friends, or run away for good. The Civil War created upheaval that undermined the slave regime but also required those African-Americans still in bondage to carefully navigate …

"We Can't Reclaim What We Don't Understand": Teachers' Perceptions Of Advocacy And Voice In A Rural Institute Of The National Writing Project, James Anthony Anderson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examines teachers' perceptions of advocacy and voice in a summer institute of the National Writing Project. The Rural Advocacy Institute, a first-time initiative through the Northwest Arkansas Writing Project, offered three weeks of professional development centered on rural education and teaching English language arts in rural public schools. The study is a grounded theory study; grounded theory forces the researcher to stay "close to the data," compare data sets, and use reflective writing to identify conceptual categories in the data. Data collection in the study included semi-structured interviews with six K-12 teachers participating in the Institute and twenty-seven …

Influences Of Contexts On Consumers' Visual Attention Towards Food Images: Eye-Tracking Studies, Baoyue Zhang

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Food perception is influenced not only by sensory properties of the food itself, but also by individuals- or environment-related contexts. Visual cue appears to be the most dominant factor in modulating food perception. This research aimed to determine whether individuals' visual attention towards food images can vary as a function of contextual variables such as hunger/fullness (Chapter 3), chronic stress (Chapter 4), and culture (Chapter 5). In Chapter 3 and Chapter 4, participants were asked to freely view visual slides, including four different images per slide, shown on the monitor. Using eye-tracking techniques, participants' visual attention towards food images (e.g., …

Transnational Mobilities And The Making Of Creative Cities, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This review essay on the literature on creative cities pays particular attention to the ways in which transnational mobilities contribute significantly to the making of such cities. The paper reviews critically both the literature and phenomena of creative cities and their transnational flows by framing the discussion around the mobility of ideas (creative economy/creative city discourse), the mobility of people (the migration of the creative class), the mobility of technology (the travel of the creative cluster and architectural iconism phenomena), the mobility of finances (capital and investment flows), and the mobility of images (transnational artistic collaborations and products).

Hijacking The Syrian Revolution, Iman Khairat Nanoua

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

The civil war in Syria (started in March 2011) marks one of the greatest tragedies in the Middle East during the twenty-first century, and a fear that its destructive consequences may affect the entire region. The Syrian crisis coincides with the democratic wave that shaped the Arab Spring. The thesis will discuss the decision-making system and the primary actors in the Syrian crisis within the framework of three distinct phases. Each phase contributed to the hijacking of the peaceful demonstrations that sought freedom in a democratic state and of the dramatic developments on the Syrian stage. The first stage of …

The Progressive Development Of Turbulence Statistics And Its Impact On Wind Power Predictability, Thomas Woolmington, Keith Sunderland, Jonathan Blackledge, Michael Conlon

Articles

Wind resource assessment is a critical parameter in a diverse range of considerations within the built environment. Engineers and scientists, engaging in building design, energy conservation/application and air-quality/air-pollution control measures, need to be cognisant of how the associated wind resource imposes increased complexities in their design and modelling processes. In this regard, the morphological heterogeneities within these environments, present significant challenges to quantifying the resource and its turbulent characteristics.

This paper presents three aspects of turbulence assessment within the built environment. Firstly, an analysis of how turbulence is currently quantified is considered. The industry standard, Turbulent Intensity (TI) is compared …

Teacher And Administrator Perceptions Of The Implementation Of The Teacher Incentive Fund (Tif) Grant In Mississippi Pilot Schools, Albert William Carter

Dissertations

The purpose of this research study was to assess administrators and teachers’ perceptions of the key components of the Mississippi Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) grant in Mississippi pilot schools. The study examines the difference in perceptions between administrators and teachers. The study also investigated if there was a relationship with the TIF grant and student achievement by comparing the percent of students who scored a minimum of proficient on the MCT2 in TIF schools before and after the grant. Achievement was also examined by comparing percent of proficiency of TIF schools with comparable, non-TIF Mississippi schools.

The participants in the …

Palimtextual Tracts: Susan Howe’S Rearticulation Of Place, Mandy Bloomfield

School of Law, Humanities and Social Sciences

This article examines American poet Susan Howe’s engagement with landscape and place across the trajectory of her career, centrally examining three key poems: Secret History of the Dividing Line (1978), Thorow (1987) and Souls of the Labadie Tract (2007). In so doing, it demonstrates this work’s pertinence for discussions of environmental aesthetics. Starting from the premise that Howe’s poetic engagement with entangled historical and environmental questions is as much formal as it is thematic, I focus on two of her prominent techniques: the “palimtextual” excavation of source materials and the spatial use of the page. I argue that this poetry’s …

Mapping The Distribution Of Barrier Island Slash Pine Woodland And Determining Growth Responses Of Pinus Elliottii To Hurricane Katrina (2005) On Cat Island, Mississippi, William Richard Funderburk

Master's Theses

Barrier islands are ubiquitous features along the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico North American coastline and are subjected disturbances such as extreme episodic events. The wind, waves, and storm surges of Hurricane Katrina heavily impacted the Mississippi–Alabama barrier island chain on August 29, 2005. Cat Island experienced a 7-m storm surge, the highest wind energy in the chain, but was estimated to have the least amount of forest mortality. The purpose of this study was to investigate the distribution of Pinus elliottii on Cat Island Mississippi and evaluate relationships of elevation with mean radial growth rate (mm y ̄ ˡ), …

A Quantitative Assessment Of Livability Principles For Neighborhood-Level Analysis, Kelsey Elizabeth Ford

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

The Partnership for Sustainable Communities, which includes the United States Department of Transportation (DOT), Housing Urban Development (HUD), an the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), has established six principles of livability. The principles are defined in a qualitative way, and limited research exits to establish a quantitative measurement of livability goals. This research develops a quantitative metric to assess the six livability principles and applies the metric to measure the livability of Memphis, Tennessee neighborhoods. The results are compared to existing residential survey data for the Memphis area to determine how well the defined livability principles align with residential stakeholder perceptions …

A Fortunate Rivalry: The Installation And History Of Pipe Organs In Three Churches In Natchez, Mississippi, Sharon Lynn Rouse

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

In the 1920s three large Möller pipe organs were installed within a three-block radius in three historic churches in Natchez, Mississippi, a small, eclectic town on the Mississippi River. What was the catalyst that resulted in a seemingly extravagant use ofresources? Through information available in church archives, newspapers, books, journals, and documentsfrom organ companies, this study traces the historyof the organs and suggests possible reason for their original installation. The factors influencing thepurchases include the geography of Natchez, the location fo the churches, savvy salesmen, and a healthy competition among the church congregations. An overview of the people who factored …

Windsor, Surrogacy, And Race, Khiara Bridges

Faculty Scholarship

Scholars and activists interested in racial justice have long been opposed to surrogacy arrangements, wherein a couple commissions a woman to become pregnant, give birth to a baby, and surrender the baby to the couple to raise as its own. Their fear has been that surrogacy arrangements will magnify racial inequalities inasmuch as wealthy white people will look to poor women of color to carry and give birth to the white babies that the couples covet. However, perhaps critical thinkers about race should reconsider their contempt for surrogacy following the Supreme Court’s recent decision in United States v. Windsor. In …

Orchestrating Service Innovation Using Design Moves: The Dynamics Of Fit Between Service And Enterprise It Architectures, Narayan Ramasubbu, Charles Jason Woodard, Sunil Mithas

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Service science perspectives highlight the central role of information technology (IT) in transforming the design and delivery of services. To discern the mechanisms through which IT impacts service innovation, we explore the dynamics of the relationship between enterprise IT and service architectures, and how these dynamics influence the performance of service innovation projects. We conducted six case studies to investigate how firms orchestrated service innovation, focusing on the design of the service architecture and its relationship to enterprise systems. We synthesize the case findings to develop a set of propositions on the antecedents and consequences of fit (or misfit) between …

Admissions Report - Detailed Data - November 2014, Office Of Institutional Research & Effectiveness, Wright State University

Admissions Reports

Detailed report of applicants to Wright State including data on county of residency, intended major, and ethnicity for Fall Semester 2015.