Digital Commons Network^™

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? …

Selected Student Research - Ignite: Research The Sea, Kelly Whealan-George, Aaron D. Clevenger

Publications

Selected Student Research - Ignite: Research the SEA is an introduction to selected undergraduate research articles that focus on the Southeast Asian aviation community. This section of the text also introduces readers to the concept of short-term undergraduate research abroad and the methodologies that were taught to students doing rapid research during one such program.

New Environmental Demands And The Future Of The Helsinki−Tallinn Freight Route, Olli-Pekka Hilmola, Harri Lorentz, Dawna L. Rhoades

Publications

The environmental friendliness of short sea shipping has been justified in Europe by the ensuing lower congestion at hinterlands and unneeded large-scale infrastructure investments on roads and railways. However, the attractiveness of short sea shipping is about to change. This is because of increasing environmental regulations (International Maritime Organization (IMO) sulfur regulation in the Baltic Sea and planned CO2 emissions trading) and increased world market oil prices. In this research, we analyze this potential change using data envelopment analysis on the existing transportation chain alternatives in the Helsinki (Finland)−Tallinn (Estonia) short sea route (chains using either roro, ropax or container …

Droughts, Floods, And Wildfires: Paleo Perspectives On Disaster Law In The Anthropocene, Ryan Stoa

Faculty Publications

Humanity’s impact on the earth has become so pronounced that momentum is building toward adopting a new term for the modern geological age — the “Anthropocene.” The term signifies that human activity has reached a scale that it is now a planetary force capable of shaping ecosystems and natural processes. And yet, anthropocentric natural resources management and environmental lawmaking in the United States reveals a lack of control in managing natural systems and fostering resilience to extreme events. These systems do not easily conform to the whims of reactionary environmental policies. Droughts, floods, and wildfires, in particular, are often conceptualized …

Monstrous Muslims? Depicting Muslims In French Illuminated Manuscripts From 1200-1420, Benjamin Anthony Bertrand

Honors Theses and Capstones

This paper examines depictions of Muslims in illuminated manuscripts produced in France between 1200-1420 that feature images of Christian-Muslim interactions. The study specifically looks at three popular manuscripts from the time: the Histoire d'Outremer, the Grandes Chroniques de France, and the Roman d'Alexandre en Prose. By examining the depictions of Saracens in these three manuscripts I attempt to gain an understanding of the artists' perceptions of Muslims. I argue that through analyzing the topoi employed by these artists we can understand how they and their audiences viewed Muslims. These images demonstrate that these artists understood Saracens to …

Utilizing Learning Style Preferences And Quality Function Deployment For Curriculum Development, Julie M. Ezzell

Masters Theses

"Workplace requirements continually evolve to keep pace with the developing global market. To meet ever increasing standards, educational institutions have been investigating methods to prepare students for their future employment. Course modifications should be carefully considered to meet the requirements of all stakeholders, including those of the students. The objective of this research was to provide students with an overall better learning experience that tailors the teaching methods to his/her individual learning preferences. To meet this objective, a comprehensive survey was provided to an undergraduate course in quality. The survey documented the student's individuality when learning and made note of …

Icts And Technical Agency: A Case Study Of A Rural Brazilian Community, Lorena Melgaço, Katharine S. Willis

School of Art, Design and Architecture

This paper explores the role of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in rural, marginalised communities. We explore Feenberg's concept of technical agency in order to understand the ways in which technological capacity might contribute to community development. We discuss three conditions of technical agency as outlined by Feenberg: power, knowledge and appropriate occasion. We consider how this framework might enable an approach to understanding the role of ICTS in the particular socio-spatial contexts in marginalised communities. In order to test Feenberg's approach, we discuss a case study of a village in rural Brazil: Noiva do Cordeiro. The community is recognised …

Changing Vulnerabilities In A Changing Climate: Farming Opportunity And Constraint In Kilimanjaro Region, Tanzania, Paul O'Keefe

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This dissertation demonstrates that the vulnerability of households to both socioeconomic and environmental processes is found in unequal, differentiated ability to access the means of social production and reproduction. Place specific environmental and social factors co-produce specific manifestations of vulnerability, but the underlying causes and driving forces are to be found in the social formation and social relations of households in the case study area. The major finding of this dissertation is that changes in the social relations of production and reproduction are creating as much risk to livelihoods as climate change does, or is likely to do in the …

3d Seismic, Mechanical Stratigraphy, And Petrophysical Analysis Of The Marcellus Shale In Taylor County, West Virginia, Derek Weicht

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The Marcellus Shale is a Devonian age black shale formed during the Acadian Orogeny along the eastern margin of North America. The Middle Devonian Marcellus Shale is an unconventional shale-gas reservoir that has been a major target of seismic exploration and gas extraction using hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling. This study focuses on analyses of seismic response, mechanical, and petrophysical properties of the Marcellus Shale and surrounding strata in Taylor County, West Virginia.;Spectral blueing was performed on the post stack migration seismic volume to enhance the resolution. The resolution of the volume was increased from 61 feet to 47 feet, …

One County, Two Libraries: Watsonville And The Organizing Of The Santa Cruz County Library System, 1900-1930, David Robert Addison

Master's Theses

This thesis investigates the creation of California’s Free County Library System during the Progressive Era. Previous histories of the topic have conveyed a partial picture of those involved in organizing county libraries, focusing on leaders at the state level, such as James L. Gillis and Harriet Eddy. Using Santa Cruz County as a case study, this thesis examines the overall process of organizing a county library system at the local level.

Primary source materials consulted include correspondence and publications from the California State Library, newspaper accounts from the time period, California Library Association meeting minutes, News Notes of California Libraries, …

Chasing Rx: A Spatial Ethnography Of The Crossfit Gym, Matt Crockett

Master's Theses

CrossFit is a group fitness program that incorporates a variety of weightlifting and gymnastic movements performed at high intensities. Although there is growing research on CrossFit’s physiological and behavioral outcomes, few studies have qualitatively examined the program’s psychological and sociological characteristics. Drawing from Henning Eichberg’s (1998) work on spatial geography, this five-month ethnographic study examined the space and place of two San Francisco Bay Area CrossFit gyms as an introduction to a broader discussion on CrossFit subculture and evolving discourses about the body, health, and fitness. Specifically, three major themes about the CrossFit space emerged from the participant-observation data, including: …

Tales Of Archaeological Places: Visualizing Mayan Pre-Colonial Settlement Patterns, Angela Ivanov

Master's Theses

In order to visualize ancient Mayan settlement patterns and demography through time, data derived from 26 published archaeological sites were collected and plotted onto three discrete map media. These data were subdivided into six time periods ranging from Pre-Classic to Post-Classic, and were simulated for each map medium. Specific attention was given during the selection of geographical locations, natural landscape features, map annotation, layers and coordinates. Tabulated information were site names, coordinates, site founding dates, site decline/abandonment dates, and estimated population. Combined with existing country base map layers downloaded from online geographical sources and time series animation (an animated map), …

Seasonal Road Layout Design In Mountainous Terrain Using Gis With The Side Hill And Least Cost Path Methods, Emil Harold Brundage

Master's Theses

Seasonal road design in mountainous terrain consists of four main phases: route selection, field investigation, surveying, and analysis. The first phase, route selection, consists of two parts: selecting control points at strategic locations, and then determining potential routes between those points. Two geographic information system (GIS) geoprocessing automations were developed to aid a road planner in determining routes between control points. Both automations utilized Environmental Systems Research Institute’s (ESRI) ArcGIS software package. The first method developed was the least cost path method, which makes use of ArcGIS’s cost path tool to find a route between points following a gradual slope. …

Measuring Tsunami Exposure And Pedestrian Evacuation Potential For The City Of Alameda, California, Evacuation Playbook Phases, Jeffrey Peters

Master's Theses

A maximum tsunami inundation zone modeled by the California Geological Survey (CGS) is currently the basis for all tsunami evacuations in California, although CGS is developing Evacuation Playbooks of specific event-based evacuation phases. This report estimates population exposure for the Alameda, CA, Evacuation Playbook Phases since past U.S. Geological scientific reports estimated a large difference in numbers of Alameda residents in the maximum inundation zone when compared to an event-based inundation zone. A pedestrian evacuation analysis using an anisotropic, path distance model was also conducted to understand the time it would take for populations to reach high ground by foot. …

Further Towards A Theory Of The Emergence Of Property, Bart J. Wilson

ESI Publications

This article explores the emergence of property as a moral convention. To understand this process I make use of several laboratory experiments on property in its nascence. These experiments illustrate how a rule of property arises from our knowledge of what is morally right, and not vice versa. I also argue that while the ultimate end of property is our interest in using things, the proximate end of property is not losing them, i.e., the end of a rule of property is to secure from morally unfounded harm.

Interdisciplinary Research And Environmental Law, Dave Owen, Caroline Noblet

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Situating Contraceptive Practices And Public Health Strategy In The Bronx: Perspectives From Female Youth, Healthcare Workers, And Reproductive Health Leaders, Hannah Louise Helmy

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the United States, concerns about adolescent childbearing and its perceived corollaries – negative health outcomes for mother and child, the disintegration of the nuclear family, and “over-dependence” on public resources – began to circulate widely in policy spheres and popular media in the 1970’s, resulting in a proliferation of policies, programs, and services designed to address its prevention. Although national birth rates among adolescents are currently at their lowest since peaking in the early 1990’s, this decline masks persistent and significant disparities between groups of young people by race, ethnicity, geography, and poverty level. The concomitant existence of social …

Quantifying The Interaction Of Wildlife And Roads: A Habitat And Movement Approach, Rebecca Whitehead Loraamm

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There is a growing need to address the effects of roadway presence on wildlife. Not only do roads directly impact gene dispersal from a movement perspective, but they limit movement of the individual animal from a habitat perspective by presenting an artificial barrier between one area of viable habitat and another. For this reason it is becoming increasingly important to quantify contact between humans and wildlife and to develop better methods for mitigating these types of conflicts. Studying habitat connectivity and animal mobility in the context of roads can provide actionable information on how, where, and when these encounters might …

The Dilemmas And Issues Of Immigration To United States Of America And Globalization, Yudhi Ahuja

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

This paper deals with immigration to United States of America from all over the globe. The diversity of immigrants to this land of opportunity is a special feature and contributes substantially towards the economic, technological and social development of the country. The concentration of immigrants in some select States is discussed at length. The distribution of immigrants by their employment, wages, age, marital status and education is a special feature of this paper. The future trends of immigrants have been estimated and their distributions over various States worked out. The paper concludes with implications of immigration on the economy, employment, …

Association Between Toxocariasis And Cognitive Function In Young To Middle-Aged Adults, Bruce L. Brown, Lance D. Erickson, Shawn D. Gale, Andrew Berrett, Dawson W. Hedges

Faculty Publications

The ascarid nematodes Toxocara canis (Werner, 1782) and Toxocara cati (Schrank, 1788) may infect humans resulting in toxocariasis. A prior study associated species of Toxocara Stiles, 1905 with cognitive deficits in children. To determine if a similar association between toxocariasis and cognition exists in adults, we analysed a large dataset from the United States’ Center for Disease Control’s National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. We used linear-regression and multivariate models to examine the association between toxocariasis as assessed by the presence of anti-Toxocara IgG antibodies and three measures of cognitive function – simple reaction time (SRT), symbol-digit substitution (SDS) and …

Torch Light In The City: Auto/Ethnographic Studies Of Urban Kampung Community In Depok City, West Java, Hestu Prahara

Antropologi Indonesia

No abstract provided.

2015-16_Nation(S) Divided Annual Theme, Illinois Wesleyan University

Annual Intellectual Theme

No abstract provided.

No Lawyer For A Hundred Miles?: Mapping The New Geography Of Access Of Justice In Canada, Jamie Baxter, Albert Yoon

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

Recent concerns about the geography of access to justice in Canada have focused on the dwindling number of lawyers in rural and remote areas, raising anxieties about the profession’s inability to meet current and future demands for localized legal services. These concerns have motivated a range of policy responses that aim to improve the education, training, recruitment and retention of practitioners in underserved areas. We surveyed lawyers across Ontario to better understand their physical proximity to clients and how, if at all, that proximity promotes access to justice. We find that lawyers’ scope of practice varies based on a number …

Department Of English Newsletter, Winter 2014-2015, Illinois State University, Department Of English

Department of English Newsletter

Newsletter of the Illinois State University Department of English

Social Security Administration Disability Discrepancies: The Debate Between Street-Level Bureaucrats And Administrative Law Judges, Erica M. Woehl

North Dakota Law Review

No abstract provided.

Jobs Looking For People, People Looking For Their Rights: Seeking Relief For Exploited Immigrant Workers In North Dakota, Sabrina Balgamwalla

North Dakota Law Review

No abstract provided.

Reflections On Western General Stream Adjudications Upon The Signing Of Wyoming's Big Horn River Adjudication Final Decree, John E. Thorson

Wyoming Law Review

No abstract provided.

Young, Gifted, And Brown: Ricanstructing Through Autoethnopoetic Stories For Critical Diasporic Puerto Rican Pedagogy, Ángel Luis Martínez

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Young, Gifted and Brown is a journey of two directions converging. It is a study of Puerto Rican Diaspora in higher education, specifically, students making sense and meaning of their everyday. It is also a study of how I have related to them as a professor. Together, this is a story: research done creatively, toward the development of Critical Pedagogy for Puerto Rican Diaspora. The research question is: what has made the Puerto Rican Diaspora in the United States flourish and their lived experience meaningful? How can a diasporic people connect with and affirm their roots in an educational system …

Solutions For Recruitment And Retention Of Rural Psychologists By Rural Psychologists, Beth Briggs

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

There are too few mental health providers to meet the needs of residents of rural communities. Rural inhabitants often present for treatment with severe symptoms, high risk for suicide, comorbid chronic health conditions, and socioeconomic stressors. It is difficult to recruit psychologists to rural communities due to limited training in rural psychology, financial barriers to sustaining a practice, frequent ethical dilemmas posed by small towns, and limited cultural amenities. While there is a significant amount of scholarly literature describing the needs of this population and the challenges of maintaining a practice in such geographic regions, there is scarce literature on …

Toward Transforming Health Systems: A Practice Study Of Organizing And Practical Inquiry In Academic Medicine, Thomas A. Ellison

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Transformation of health care systems will be grounded in new professional relations and collective, cross-disciplinary actions to impact care delivery. Organizing such relations and actions involves practical inquiry rather than applying professional knowledge. This dissertation presents an exploratory, performative study of the initial organizing of the Health Systems Innovation and Research (HSIR) Program in Health Sciences at the University of Utah. The HSIR program was conceived principally to catalyze cross-disciplinary innovation and health services research and enhance care delivery changes by documenting care improvements and publishing research. This study includes a composite narrative of the organizing and practical inquiry work …