Digital Commons Network^™

Reconstructing A Science Fiction Autobiography, Jason R. Rood

Theses and Dissertations

This is a collection of essays revolving around concepts pertinent to my current visual arts practice, centering on a deconstruction of personal narrative mythologies. What is generated is a web of connection that spans Narrative Modes, Science Fiction, the use of Lines and Drawing, the Digital and Space and Time. Through this interweaving of topics, I am beginning the process of rebuilding the structure of a personal story for the future.

The Impact Of Singing-Integrated Reading Instruction On The Oral Reading Fluency And Motivation Of Elementary Students In An Out-Of-School Time Program, Yvette M. Moorehead-Carter

Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of singing-integrated reading instruction on the oral reading fluency and motivation of elementary students in an after school program. Participants were third graders (n = 29) who attended the singing-integrated oral reading fluency (SI ORF) intervention twice a week for eight weeks. Components of the intervention included teacher-modeling of fluent oral reading, oral support, repeated reading and singing activities from a variety of children’s literature, and individual free-time.

The adapted Elementary Reading Attitude Survey (ERAS; McKenna & Kear, 1990) measured recreational, academic, and composite reading attitudes. The Qualitative …

Rogue Signal Threat On Trust-Based Cooperative Spectrum Sensing In Cognitive Radio Networks, David S. Jackson

Theses and Dissertations

Cognitive Radio Networks (CRNs) are a next generation network that is expected to solve the wireless spectrum shortage problem, which is the shrinking of available wireless spectrum resources needed to facilitate future wireless applications. The first CRN standard, the IEEE 802.22, addresses this particular problem by allowing CRNs to share geographically unused TV spectrum to mitigate the spectrum shortage. Equipped with reasoning and learning engines, cognitive radios operate autonomously to locate unused channels to maximize its own bandwidth and Quality-of-Service (QoS). However, their increased capabilities over traditional radios introduce a new dimension of security threats.

In an NSF 2009 workshop, …

Deely's "Pope John Paul Ii Speaks On Women" (Book Review), Amy C. Rice

The Christian Librarian

No abstract provided.

Allometry Of Head Size And Shape Dimorphism In The Grass Snake (Natrix Natrix L.), Bartosz Borczyk

Turkish Journal of Zoology

This study was conducted to investigate allometry of head growth patterns in the grass snake (Natrix natrix (Linnaeus, 1758)). Although male and female grass snakes differ in relative head size, their head growth patterns follow similar trajectories. The sexual differences are roughly constant during ontogeny. Most head dimensions grow with negative allometry or isometry with respect to the snout?vent length except head width, which grows with positive allometry in both sexes.

Influence Of Mycorrhizal Fungi On Soil Geochemistry And Plant Uptake Of Cadmium And Zinc: Greenhouse And Soil Studies Of Palmerton Zinc Superfund Site, Pennsylvania, U.S.A, Christian X. Figueroa

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The application of bioremediation as a means to ameliorate potentially toxic metals from contaminated soils has been on the forefront of sustainable technologies in the field of environmental studies. Conventional methods available for soil remediation are employed in both in situ or ex situ and these are: soil flushing, solidification/stabilization, vitrification, electrokinetics, chemical reduction/oxidation, soil washing, and excavation. In general, these technologies are limited by their applicability to small areas and the high costs to execute. The use of biota, in particular fungi and trees, has been an emerging low-cost and "environmentally-friendly" alternative to conventional technologies. In this study, I …

Comparing Diel Cycles Of Dissolved Inorganic Carbon To Diel Cycles Of Fe And Mn At A Coal Mine Drainage Site In Harrison Co., Wv, Jill L. Riddell

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Diel (24 hour) cycles of dissolved inorganic carbon and dissolved metals have rarely been studied in concert in coal mine drainage systems containing high CO2. Diel samples were collected from two locations at a site with elevated CO2; the locations differed in their CO 2 concentrations and the amount of vegetation present. Field data and samples were collected from both locations during March, May, and July 2014. To determine if the parameters cycled in a diel fashion, the data were fit using a cosine model and the goodness of fit was determined using an f-test statistic. Overall, 15 of 20 …

Against The Thalassocracy: Sacred Geography, Nationhood And Perennial Traditionalism In Alexander Dugin's Neo-Eurasianist Philosophy, Jonathan Rushbrook

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This thesis discusses the ideological makeup of the Russian right wing philosopher Alexander Dugin's and his conceptualization of race and nation in his Neo-Eurasianist imperial project. Tracing Dugin's ideological influences from early Eurasianism, the European New Right and esoteric religious beliefs such as Perennial Traditionalism, the thesis then goes on to place Dugin's body of thought within a larger debate on defining fascism and whether Dugin can be considered a fascist. Ultimately this thesis contests some scholars' interpretations of Dugin's worldview as a fundamentally ethnocentric or even racist Russian nationalism. Rather, by examining Dugin's writings on nation through an ethno-symbolist …

Slavery, Agriculture, And Malaria In The Arabian Peninsula, Benjamin Reilly

Ohio University Press Open Access Books

In Slavery, Agriculture, and Malaria in the Arabian Peninsula, Benjamin Reilly illuminates a previously unstudied phenomenon: the large-scale employment of people of African ancestry as slaves in agricultural oases within the Arabian Peninsula. The key to understanding this unusual system, Reilly argues, is the prevalence of malaria within Arabian Peninsula oases and drainage basins, which rendered agricultural lands in Arabia extremely unhealthy for people without genetic or acquired resistance to malarial fevers. In this way, Arabian slave agriculture had unexpected similarities to slavery as practiced in the Caribbean and Brazil.

This book synthesizes for the first time a body of …

The Story Of Swahili, John M. Mugane

Ohio University Press Open Access Books

Swahili was once an obscure dialect of an East African Bantu language. Today more than one hundred million people use it: Swahili is to eastern and central Africa what English is to the world. From its embrace in the 1960s by the black freedom movement in the United States to its adoption in 2004 as the African Union’s official language, Swahili has become a truly international language. How this came about and why, of all African languages, it happened only to Swahili is the story that John M. Mugane sets out to explore.

The remarkable adaptability of Swahili has allowed …

Blizzards In The Upper Midwest, 1980-2013, Lawrence Burkett

Theses and Dissertations

Blizzards are severe snowstorms characterized by high winds and enough snow in the air to significantly reduce visibility near the surface. In the conterminous United States, published scientific literature indicates blizzards as common in the Dakotas and Minnesota. In this study, blizzard frequency by year, month, and county was recorded from 1980-2013 in eastern North Dakota and northern Minnesota. Additionally, blizzard duration and area impacted were estimated including trends in blizzard frequency. Ninety-three blizzards impacted the Upper Midwest in 34 years studied with an average of 2-3 blizzards per year, with a linear increase in blizzards with respect to time. …

Evaluating Sedimentary Basins For Geothermal Power Production Potential And Bottom-Hole Temperature Corrections, Anna Marguerite Crowell

Theses and Dissertations

At present, the risks and costs associated with geothermal energy wildcat exploration are prohibitive. With improved technology, the future may be brighter, and a play fairway analysis, for geothermal exploration can guide development. Comparing geophysical data with geothermal gradient allows identification of potentially economic areas of interest. The play fairway analysis is a common tool used by the petroleum industry to identify areas for potential exploration. The analysis identifies areas in the Denver, Illinois, Michigan, and Williston Basins with the highest development potential. A great deal of data have potential for a play fairway analysis, but data quality is problematic …

Voices From The Frontier: Stories Of Nurse Practitioners Working In Remote Areas, Lynn Marie Jakobs

Theses and Dissertations

Frontier communities are the most sparsely populated and geographically remote areas in the United States. Residents of these communities often lack access to healthcare resources of any kind. Nurse Practitioners (NPs) are more likely than physicians to practice in these areas and provide a vital link in the frontier healthcare safety net.

This narrative inquiry into the practice experiences of frontier NPs informs the discipline of nursing regarding the significant contribution frontier NP practice makes to the delivery of frontier healthcare. This inquiry creates a repository of stories upon which nurse leaders, health care policy makers, and nurse educators interested …

Needs Assessment Of A Neighbors Helping Neighbors Program In The Near Southside Neighborhood In Grand Forks, Nd, Derrick Lapoint

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the needs of a Neighbors Helping Neighbors (NHN) Program to help the elderly successfully age-in-place in the Near Southside Neighborhood (NSS) in Grand Forks, North Dakota. As aging becomes increasingly an issue of concern, establishing a NHN Program in the NSS would help the elderly remain independent in their own home and community. The NHN Program is a specialized program designed to provide aging services to those who are in need through community engagement. Through surveys, data was collected in the Grand Forks Area and the NSS. The first survey was conducted …

Mapping Flash Flood Potential Using Gis And The Flash Flood Potential Index (Ffpi) In The Turtle River And Forest River Watersheds In North Dakota, Dasuni Jeewandika Perera Ranapathi Arachchige

Theses and Dissertations

Flash flooding is a rapid onset natural hazard and can cause extensive property and crop damages as well as deaths. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration storm database reports 464 flash flood events from 1996 to 2013 in North Dakota causing two deaths, more than $145 million in property damage and $14 million in crop damage. The main purpose of this study is to identify the critical areas of flash flooding within two selected watersheds in eastern North Dakota. The research method relies on the use of a GIS-based model, the Flash Flood Potential Index, that incorporates physiographic characteristics from …

International Service Learning: Occupational Therapists' Perceptions Of Their Experiences In Guatemala, Jason C. Lawson

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative research study was to explore the perspectives of occupational therapy practitioners who engaged in international service learning (ISL) as occupational therapy students. This study included transcribed interviews and observations from nine practicing occupational therapists who all graduated from the same occupational therapy program and participated in a two-week long ISL project in Guatemala.

Case study approaches were utilized to identify the specific phenomenon being studied, and phenomenological methods were utilized to analyze the interviews and observational data into codes, categories, themes and an assertion. Following were the three themes supported by the data collected:

1. …

Gvsu Undergraduate And Graduate Catalog, 2015-2016, Grand Valley State University

Course Catalogs, 1963 - Current

Grand Valley State University 2015-2016 undergraduate and/or graduate course catalog published annually to provide students with information and guidance for enrollment.

Geography Standard Posters: Places And Regions, Center For Spatial Analysis And Research. Portland State University

Instructional Materials

The poster looks at the physical and human characteristics of place, how people create regions, and the culture influences people's perceptions.

Geography Standard Posters: The World In Spatial Terms, Center For Spatial Analysis And Research. Portland State University

Instructional Materials

The poster looks at how to use maps, using mental maps, and how to analyze spatial organization.

When Private Property Rights Collide With Growth Management Legislation, Steve P. Calandrillo, Chryssa V. Deliganis, Andrea Woods

Articles

Over the past century, ever-expanding urban and suburban growth in the United States has offered a clear sign of America’s economic vitality, but it has not come without unique challenges of its own. Indeed, efforts to promulgate “smart growth” legislation as an antidote to suburban “sprawl” have proliferated in the past three decades, but it is time we ask ourselves whether their benefits outweigh their unintended consequences. States and local governments that once enthusiastically touted such legislation are beginning to confront unforeseen obstacles–and litigation–that raise the need for immediate reform.

This Article explores the impact of growth management acts on …

Gayffirmative Action: The Constitutionality Of Sexual Orientation-Based Affirmative Action Policies, Peter Nicolas

Articles

Twenty-five years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court established a consistency principle in its race-based equal protection cases. That principle requires courts to apply the same strict scrutiny to racial classifications designed to benefit racial minorities—such as affirmative action policies—as they do to laws invidiously discriminating against them. The new consistency principle, under which discrimination against whites is subject to strict scrutiny, conflicted with the Court's established criteria for declaring a group to be a suspect or quasi-suspect class entitled to heightened scrutiny, which focused on such considerations as the history of discrimination against the group and its political powerlessness.

As …

Economic Efficiency Of Fuel Reduction Treatments In The Home Ignition Zone To Mitigate Wildfire Risk In Montana, Usa, Howard L. Williams

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Wildland-urban interface growth and factors increasing the probability of wildfire suggest that annual spending on wildfire risk mitigation and suppression will continue to increase. With limited information about the benefits and costs of risk mitigation, land managers and homeowners may under- or over-invest in risk mitigation, where costs are disproportionate to the expected benefits of the strategy. This study accounted for expected increases in wildfire risk (due to growth of the WUI, climate change and vegetation growth) over time in Flathead County, Montana, and estimated the expected avoided loss in structure values associated with three treatment levels that would require …

Cultural And Ecological Relationship Between The Nisqually Indian Tribe And Plants Of Mount Rainier National Park, David Alan Hooper

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Throughout the history of the National Park Service, the question of whether Native AmericanÆs still have rights to traditionally used natural resources found within park lands has been debated. This debate is largely held in political, legal, and philosophical arenas, but there are ethnographic and ecological questions that need to be addressed in order for policy makers to make informed decisions. Addressing these questions also provides insight into how cultures develop sustainable harvesting practices. One of the parks that has been addressing traditional plant harvesting is Mount Rainier National Park, which has been working with the Nisqually Indian Tribe to …

The Use Of Three-Dimensional Gps Observations For Tectonics And Hydrology In Northeast Africa, Yelebe Birhanu Amere

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

1. 27 campaign and 17 continuous GPS sites spanning the Ethiopian Highlands, Main Ethiopian Rift (MER), and Somali Platform in Ethiopia and Eritrea were measured for varying durations between 1995 and 2014. Velocities at these sites show that present day finite strain rates in NE Africa can be approximated at the continent scale by opening on a simple tectonic boundary within the Ethiopian Rift. Observations from the Somali Platform require relative velocities within the Somali plate to be less than 1 mm/yr. Observations from the Ethiopian Highlands allow relative velocities no greater than 1-2 mm/yr within the Nubia plate; statistically …

The Multidimensional Quality Metrics (Mqm) Framework: A New Framework For Translation Quality Assessment, Valerie Mariana, Troy L. Cox, Alan Melby

Faculty Publications

Determining translation quality requires a precise measure of the traits being examined. This article evaluates a new framework for translation quality evaluation, Multidimensional Quality Metrics (MQM), to the task of grading student translations. It demonstrates the viability (i.e. the practicality, validity and reliability) of using the MQM framework by novice raters to judge translations based on the American Translators Association’s translator certification exam grading system. The data gathered for this study were drawn from 29 student translations of a single news story that were rated by nine novice and two expert raters. The study used average time on task, correlations …

A Surveillance Study On Tick And Tick-Borne Pathogen Diversity In Shimba Hills National Reserve, Kenya, Micky Mwamuye Mwananje

All Master’s Theses

Outbreaks of emerging and re-emerging tick-borne pathogens are becoming more frequent worldwide. Surveillance is critical to improve our understanding of pathogen diversity and their tick vectors. This will elucidate disease transmission dynamics that can inform the development of better disease prevention and control strategies. A total of 4,324 questing ticks (209 adult ticks, 586 nymphs and 3,502 larvae) were collected from six sites in Kenya‟s Shimba Hills National Reserve (SHNR). Morphologically, adults were identified to species level while nymphs and larvae were identified to the genus level. Three species from two genera of the Ixodidae family were identified; Amblyomma eburneum, …

Ethics For Media Lawyers: The Lessons Of Ferguson, Leonard M. Niehoff

Articles

Ferguson, Missouri, has a population of roughly 21,000 people. Thirty cities in Missouri have larger populations. The Edward Jones Dome, where the St. Louis Rams play football, seats three times as many people. Most of us had never heard of Ferguson prior to August 9, 2014, when a police oficer named Darren Wilson shot and killed an unarmed black teenager named Michael Brown. But, to paraphrase the grim observation of Ambrose Bierce, war is how Americans learn geography. So, as violence and vandalism erupted on its streets, the nation turned its attention toward Ferguson and labored to understand the place, …

The Impact Of Race And Socioeconomic Status On Access To Accommodations In Postsecondary Education, Ashley Yull

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Association Between Dietary Patterns During Pregnancy And Birth Size Measures In A Diverse Population In Southern Us, Uriyoán Colón-Ramos, Susan B. Racette, Jody Ganiban, Thuy G. Nguyen, Mehmet Kocak, Kecia N. Carroll, Eszter Völgyi, Frances A. Tylavsky

Open Access Publications

No abstract provided.

Asset-Based Community Development Practices In International Service-Learning: A Content Analysis Of Short-Term Programs In Nicaragua, Kara Christine Poppe

Honors Program Theses

The purpose of the study is to explore how students on short-term international service-learning programs in Nicaragua interact with local communities by analyzing the structure of the programs as evidenced by course syllabi and website content. After extensive online research of international service-learning programs offered in Nicaragua, seven programs became the focus of the study. The four research questions included: 1) In what ways do the international service-learning programs support key components of service-learning, such as academic connections and reflection? 2) In what ways do the international service-learning program structure the time in the host country for service and tourism? …