Digital Commons Network^™

Fracked Perceptions: Changes In Perception Regarding Hydraulic Fracturing Among Residents Of Dimock, Pennsylvania., Brian Straniti

All Master's Theses

The primary objective of this research is to critically analyze changes in perceptions associated with hydraulic fracturing within Dimock, Pennsylvania. Residents of Dimock initially welcomed fracking in 2006 due to positive corporate rhetoric promoting economic benefits such as mineral rights acquisition, land-leasing, and local business development. However, economic benefits diminished as Dimock advanced through a boom period resulting in a current economic and ecological bust. Two months of data collection occurred in the summer of 2016 using semi-structured interviews, participant observation, and document analysis. Political economy of nature and political ecology theoretical frameworks were used to analyze and conceptualize the …

Front Matter

The Synapse: Intercollegiate science magazine

No abstract provided.

Justice And Equity In Carbon Offset Governance: Debates And Dilemmas, Mary Finley-Brook

Geography and the Environment Faculty Publications

Trade-offs complicate development interventions so that benefits for one group or area often imply costs for another; large-scale projects deemed highly efficient in economic terms may generate harmful environmental or social externalities. This chapter explores issues of justice in carbon trading in terms of decision-making power and the subsequent distribution of positive and negative impacts. It explores whether offset governance can help resolve widespread problems, such as racial or income inequality and environmental injustice.

Supplementary Studies In Rio Grande Valley History, Milo Kearney, Anthony K. Knopp, Antonio Zavaleta, Thomas Daniel Knight

Studies in Rio Grande Valley Regional History Series

Corrupted, a poem / Tom Emrick -- Primal Matamoros : ancient refuge among the Estuaries of the Rio Bravo / Craig H. Roell -- U.S.-Mexico relations during the establishment of the American Consulate in Matamoros : 1826-1842 / Melisa C. Galvan -- Captain King’s Cotton : the Civil War blockade-running adventures of Richard King and Mifflin Kenedy / Walter E. Wilson -- The sad saga of John V. Singer / Norman Rozeff -- Ulster and the Texas-Mexico Border : John McAllen and his family / Thomas Daniel Knight -- Joseph Kleiber and his letter press book / Anthony K. Knopp …

!Patagonia Sin Represas! Hydropower Development And The Competing Spheres Of Power In Argentine And Chilean Patagonia, Joseph Mac Bell

Honors Theses

The central question of this research thesis is: How have public-private partnerships to develop hydropower been shaped by competing forces in corporate, state, and civil society and how have these forces impacted the HidroAysén and the Represas Patagonias projects in Chile and Argentina, respectively? This thesis focuses on the competing discourses of the corporate, state, and civil society, along with their relative strengths, weaknesses, degrees of risk taking and risk sharing, and the level of public and private investment. As of December 2017, the HidroAysén project in Chilean Patagonia has been indefinitely halted, but on the other side of the …

From Vulnerability To Resilience: Emergency Planning For Individuals With Developmental Disabilities And Their Service Providers In Humboldt County, California, Dawn C. Albrecht

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Shortfalls in emergency mitigation, planning, response and recovery for people with disabilities have frequently resulted in increased negative impact for these individuals ranging from a loss of essential services to preventable injury and death. The purpose of this project was to identify the gaps in planning for individuals with developmental disabilities and their service providers in Humboldt County, California, and close these gaps by providing outreach, education, and emergency engagement plans for these individuals and members of their support teams. This project used a mixed-method approach, including questionnaires and feedback forms, informal interviews, workshops, and examples of on-site planning specific …

Longer-Term Impact Of Highand Low Temperature On Mortality: An International Study To Clarify Length Of Mortality Displacement, Ben Armstrong, Michelle Bell, Micheline De Sousa Zanotti Stagliorio Coelho, Yue Liang Leon Guo, Yuming Guo, Patrick J. Goodman, Masahiro Hashizume, Yasushi Honda, Ho Kim, Eric Lavigne, Paola Michelozzi, Paulo Hilario Nascimento Saldiva, Joel Schwartz, Matteo Scortichini, Francesco Sera, Aurelio Tobias, Shilu Tong, Chang Fu Wu, Antonella Zanobetti, Ariana Zeka, Antonio Gasparrini

Articles

In many places, daily mortality has been shown to increase after days with particularly high or low temperatures, but such daily time-series studies cannot identify whether such increases reflect substantial life shortening or short-term displacement of deaths (harvesting).

2017 Alaska's Construction Spending Forecast, Oliver Scott Goldsmith, Pamela Cravez

ISER Reports

The total value of construction spending “on the street” in Alaska in 2017 will be $6.5 billion, down 10% from 2016.1, 2,3 Oil and gas sector spending will fall 15% to $2.4 billion, from $2.9 billion last year. All other construction spending will be $4.0 billion, a decline of 7% from $4.3 billion last year. Private spending, excluding oil and gas, will be about $1.6 billion, up 2% from last year—while public spending will decline 12% to $2.5 billion. Wage and salary employment in the construction industry, which dropped by 8.5% in 2016 to 16.2 thousand, will drop another 7.4% …

The Effects Of Thermal Stress On Fluorescent Protein Expression In An Indo-Pacific Scleractinian Coral Species, Acropora Tenuis, Anna Knochel

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The scleractinian coral species that so heavily define tropical coral reefs are increasingly threatened by anthropogenic global warming. Rising sea surface temperatures in combination with light stress causes the photosynthetic breakdown of the coral’s algal symbiont, Symbiodinium. Corals have developed a number of physiological responses to handle acute stressors, such as the production of ultraviolet-protecting amino acids, heat shock proteins, the ability to shift symbionts, and the production of fluorescent proteins. The latter has been thought to play a photoprotective role in the coral holobiont, and studies have shown evidence that corals orient these pigments to divert harmful light away …

Whole-Farm Phosphorus Management In West Virginia Beef Cattle Operations, Justin Brackenrich

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Demand for animal proteins is increasing worldwide, spurring an increase in forage based agricultural production. Forage based agriculture utilizes grass and legume crops from areas which are not suited for row-crop production to feed ruminant animals. These systems provide increased animal proteins to consumer markets, while using minimal amounts of cereal crops that would otherwise be used for human consumption. However, forage based agriculture does not come without a risk of environmental degradation. The US EPA determined that agriculture non-point source (NPS) pollution is among the top three causes of phosphorus (P) related surface water impairment and accounts for an …

The Digestive Composition And Physiology Of Water Mites, Adrian Amelio Vasquez

Wayne State University Dissertations

Water mites are a diverse group of arachnids that inhabit aquatic habitats and have been studied in the past for their biodiversity, unique lifecycle, bioindicator species use and for their impact as parasites on insects of human pathological significance such as the mosquito. Water mites are critical in their environment as possible apex predators however, their life cycle and morphological complexity has made taxonomy and description of water mites difficult. Although water mite species richness is estimated at over 6000 species described to date, descriptions of extant North American water mite species are estimated to be only 50% of the …

Beirut Arab University Faculty Of Architecture Design & Built Environment Architecture Year Book 2015/2016, Beirut Arab University, Faculty Of Architecture - Design And Built Environment, Debbieh Campus, 2017

Yearbooks

The Faculty of Architecture - Design and Built Environment is proud and honored to release the Architecture Yearbook, comprising the most prominent endeavors of the academic year 2015/2016. The work contained on the following pages gives a small glimpse of the diversity, sense of invention, exploration, passion and significance that characterize and define the design outputs from the studios and courses of Architecture.

Beirut Arab University Faculty Of Architecture Design & Built Environment Year Book 2016-2017, Beirut Arab University, Faculty Of Architecture - Design And Built Environment, Debbieh Campus, 2018

Yearbooks

The Faculty of Architecture - Design and Built Environment is proud and honored to release the fourth edition of the Yearbook, comprising the most prominent endeavors of the academic year 2016-2017. The work contained on the following pages gives a small glimpse of the diversity, sense of invention, exploration, passion and significance that characterize and define the design outputs from the studios and courses of Architecture and Design programs.

Sample Collection And Dna Extraction Methods For Environmental Dna Metabarcoding In Headwater Streams, Michael Triston Mullins

Online Theses and Dissertations

DNA is found to be free and ubiquitous in the environment where it is no longer associated with the source organism, and is also known as environmental-DNA (eDNA). Methods optimized for specific environments may be able supplement insight to local taxa richness. With the advent of high throughput sequencing and the proliferation of sequence data in public repositories, insights to the biodiversity of communities at the molecular level have been possible. Thus, this study compared commonly used DNA capture (water precipitation and filtration) and extraction (MoBio's PowerWater, Qiagen's DNeasy Blood and Tissue Kit, and a CTAB protocol) methods in their …

Meat For Missoula: Educating Our Youth On Sustainable Meat Production Practices, Amelia R G Liberatore

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

In autumn 2016, a controversy arose when a student group, Advocates for Animals, took up a campaign against three meat pigs at the PEAS Farm due to strong views about animal consumption. Pigs serve as a central piece of food source education to hundreds of Missoula children who visit the farm every year. Unfortunately, the controversy overshadowed the educational purpose of exposing children to sustainable meat production practices. Moreover, access to the PEAS Farm and good food education is not available to all local children. I wondered whether education was accessible elsewhere. Unfortunately, child-appropriate, culturally relevant food literature is scarce. …

Kenyon College Catalog 2017-2018

Kenyon College Course Catalogs

No abstract provided.

Analyzing Policy And Stakeholder Perspectives – The Case Of The Spotted Owl, Victoria Derr

Activities and Assignments Collection

• Effectively reading in our discipline – focused on Text-Based Discussions
  • Collaborative Meaning Making – reading as an inquiry into meaning and a purposeful engagement with ideas. [1]
  • Setting Reading Purposes and Adjusting Reading Processes – reading for a specific, disciplinary-relevant purpose.[2]
• Identifying and analyzing stakeholder perspectives
• Applying policy to understand stakeholder perspectives

[1] Schoenback, Ruth, Cynthia Greenleaf, and Lynn Murphy. 2012. Reading for Understanding: How Reading Apprenticeship Improves Disciplinary Learning in Secondary and College Classrooms. WestEd.org.

[2] Ibid.

Pre-Mt. Simon Seismic Sequences Below West-Central Indiana: Local Interpretation And Regional Significance, Andrew Michael Parent

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Constraining the composition, structure, and origin of basement provinces, deep assemblages of Precambrian rocks, is largely dependent on deep boreholes and geophysical techniques. This is especially true for the eastern U.S. midcontinent. Here, I employ regional 2-D seismic reflection, Bouguer gravity, and aeromagnetic data to interpret the upper crust below west-central Indiana. Seismic reflection data were donated to Wright State University in 2015. Geopotential data are available through the USGS and affiliates. These geophysical data, together, are analyzed in a regional geologic context. Three distinct seismic stratigraphic sequences are observed on 2-D sections. The first, uppermost sequence, typified by continuous, …

Detection And Analysis Of Polyurethane Biodegradation Due To Cryptococcus Laurentii, Tyler Jacob Zicht

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Current United States aircraft are equipped with a multitude of protective coatings on the interior and exterior of the vehicle, ultimately enhancing their ability to ensure a safe and effective mission. Aircraft, over the course of their lifetime, will experience impact, corrosion, weathering, and microbial damage to its defensive structures, rendering it vulnerable to attacks. Damaged coatings are then repaired on the aircraft once detected in inspection or replaced in accordance to the lifecycle of the material on the aircraft. However potentially harmful threats such as bacteria are not considered by the Air Force to be dangerous. Therefore, the purpose …

It's Not Just An Offshore Wind Farm: Combining Multiple Uses And Multiple Values On The Outer Continental Shelf, Robin Kundis Craig

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

Marine aquaculture and marine-based alternative energy, especially offshore wind, are increasingly competing for space on the Outer Continental Shelf and the water column above it with each other and with more traditional ocean uses. The laws governing this increasingly crowded space need to become better aware of changing uses of and values for the ocean and to promote rational planning of how this space is used in the future.

In one approach, various regions of the U.S. coast are actively engaged in comprehensive marine spatial planning. Marine spatial planning is a process designed to prioritize, balance, and rationally allocate the …

Historical Phenology Of West Virginia: 130 Years Of Spring Avian Migration And Wildflower Blooming, Lori M. Petrauski

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Phenology, or the study of biological cycles in relation to the seasons, is a useful approach to study climate change and its effects on species. Analyzing historical records of phenology can give clues to understanding the future of ecosystems in relation to climate change. Specifically, using untapped sources of historical phenological data such as museum specimens, journals written by nature-minded citizens, and dated photographs can expand our temporal range of phenology data and provide a baseline with which to compare current phenology observations.;There is no central database for historical phenology data in West Virginia and there has been little research …

The American Hunting Story And The Formation Of Environmental Literature., Jericho Williams

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This dissertation addresses the almost complete absence of American hunting stories in the subfield of environmental literature within American literature. Since environmental literature’s inception in the early 1990s with The Norton Book of Nature Writing (1990) and American Earth: Environmental Writing Since Thoreau (2008), environmental literary scholars have failed to take into account the roles of hunters in advancing conservationist measures to protect and preserve wildlife and lands throughout America from the early nineteenth century through the present day. This project seeks to build a bridge between environmental literary scholars and environmentalists far removed from hunting traditions and those whose …

Impact Of Wetlands Loss On The Long-Term Flood Risks Of Devils Lake In A Changing Climate, Sergey Gulbin

Theses and Dissertations

Endorheic (terminal) lakes with no water outlets are sensitive indicators of changes in climate and land cover in the watershed. Since 1990 Devils Lake watershed in North Dakota experienced a dramatic change of local climate: wet phase. This change yielded in a 10-m water level rise in just two decades. The Lake’s water level increase caused flooding of adjacent areas, including towns, agriculture fields and houses of Native Americans, costing over $1 billion in mitigation.

While the climate change contribution to flooding has been established, the role of large scale land conversion to agriculture has not been researched. The purpose …

A Comparison Of Indigenous And Western Land Management; Case Studies Of Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei And The East Bay Regional Park District, Kyle Jensen

Pomona Senior Theses

Western value systems and ways of knowing the world are in need of serious critique, especially in terms of colonialism and capitalism. These systems, many argue are fundamentally unjust and unsustainable while also working toinvalidate and erase alternative, indigenous ways of knowing. We need to work towards decolonization by both challenging these dominant Western systems, and exploring and supporting alternatives. That the primary intent of this thesis, which aims to engage and compare indigenous and Western worldviews using two specific case studies of land management. The first, Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, represents an indigenous Māori approach in a New Zealand context, …

2017 Alaska's Construction Spending Forecast, Pamela Cravez, Scott Goldsmith

ISER Reports

No abstract provided.

Evaluation Of Valiantzas’ Simplified Forms Of The Fao-56 Penman-Monteith Reference Evapotranspiration Model In A Humid Climate, Koffi Djaman, Daran Rudnick, Valere C. Mel, Denis Mutiibwa, Lamine Diop, Mamadou Sall, Isa Kabenge, Ansoumana Bodian, Hossein Tabari, Suat Irmak

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

The unavailability of some meteorological variables, especially solar radiation and wind speed, is the main constraint for reference evapotranspiration (ETo) estimation using the standard United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Penman–Monteith (FAO-PM) equation in most developing countries. The application of ETo methods with fewer input requirements is necessary under limited climatic data conditions. The FAO-PM method under limited data conditions and nine of Valiantzas’ equations were evaluated for daily ETo estimation in a humid climate in Uganda. The FAO-PM method with missing relative humidity data performed very well across Uganda, whereas using the long-term local wind speed average values …

Short-Term Effects Of Nutrients On A Barrier Island Grassland Community, Ashley Moulton

Theses and Dissertations

Increased nutrient availability globally has the potential to affect community functional composition of plants in nutrient limited environments, such as coastal grassland systems. Stability of these systems are threatened worldwide by urbanization, as well as effects of sea level rise and increased frequency and intensity of storms, and atmospheric N deposition, associated with climate change. Annual net primary productivity (ANPP), species composition, and functional traits (community weighted specific leaf area (CWSLA), leaf area index (LAI), growth form and photosynthetic pathway) were measured across four treatments to assess multiple resource limitation of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) and functional community response …

Effects Of Prescribed Fire On Cope’S Gray Treefrog (Hyla Chrysoscelis) Across Habitat Scales And Life Stages, Logan Mcdonald

Theses and Dissertations

Fire may alter both aquatic and terrestrial habitat used by all amphibian life stages, yet, our knowledge of its effects on amphibians is primarily limited to adult responses. I present an integrated approach to test the response of Cope’s Gray Treefrog (Hyla chrysoscelis) to fire by examining responses in tadpole performance and survivorship, adult abundance, and oviposition. Tadpoles raised with burned leaf litter had similar survival, but total mass and total length were 440% and 170% greater, respectively, for tadpoles raised in unburned litter. I assessed terrestrial and aquatic oviposition cues by embedding burned and unburned litter treatments within burned …

A Comparative Analysis Of Geometric Morphometrics Across Two Pseudemys Turtle Species In East Central Virginia, Kristin C. Dillard

Theses and Dissertations

The phylogeny of the turtle genus Pseudemys is poorly understood. In Virginia, many turtles have been found with indicator traits of both eastern river cooters (Pseudemys concinna concinna) and northern red bellied cooters (Pseudemys rubriventris). This study explores morphological evidence for hybridization between the two species across three riverine sites in east central Virginia.

Museum voucher groups for each species were analyzed for relative shell height and plastron length. The shape of the plastral scutes and upper jaw were analyzed using landmark-based morphometric software. These metrics were compared with measurements taken from 188 field-caught Pseudemys specimens. …

Deletion Of Cardiac Mir-17-92 Cluster Increases Ischemia/ Reperfusion Injury Via Pten Upregulation, Meeta B. Prakash

Theses and Dissertations

The miR-17- 92 cluster is necessary for cell proliferation and development of the cardiovascular system. Deletion of this cluster leads to death in neonatal mice. The role of this cluster still needs to be defined following ischemia and reperfusion. Methods and Results: Adult male mice were injected with Tamoxifen- was to induce inducible cardiac-specific miR-17- 92-deficient (miR-17- 92-def: MCM:TG:miR-17- 92 flox/flox ) and wild type (WT: MCM:NTG:miR-17-92 flox/flox ) mice were subjected to 30 minutes of myocardial ischemia via left anterior descending coronary artery ligation followed by reperfusion for 24 hours. Post I/R survival (48%) and ejection fraction were reduced, …