Digital Commons Network^™

Petrogenesis Of Pleisto-Holocene Basalts And Basaltic Andesites From Newberry Volcano, Oregon, John Mitchell Clay

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Newberry Volcano (43.7°N, 121.3°W) is a Cascade rear arc volcano in central Oregon that covers nearly 2,000 km² and represents a volume of roughly 200 km³ of mostly mafic magmas. This composite shield dramatically exceeds the volume of all other Cascade volcanoes, except for Medicine Lake Volcano in Northern California. Newberry began forming about 400 ka with the last eruption ending at 1.3 ka (Donnelly-Nolan et al., 2011). Proposed tectonic models that explain the origin of the volcano are as follows: 1. Mantle decompression melting from lithospheric extension (Xue and Allen, 2006); 2. Slab window or tear in …

Mineral And Bioclimatic Factors Controlling Soil Black Carbon Sequestration Potential Along An Elevational Gradient, Adam Fernandez

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Black carbon (BC) is formed by the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels, biofuels, and biomass. It has been suggested due to its ubiquitous nature in soils that BC may act as a significant sink in the global carbon cycle. BC has been widely studied in a variety of soil and sediment types but spodosols (acid forest soils) have been underrepresented in the literature. In the present study, spodosol soil samples were collected along an elevational gradient (~500 to 1,200 m) from three different mountains in the White Mountain National Forest of New Hampshire. Total soil carbon was first measured using …

Watershed Sub-Basin Scale Forest Fire Impacts On Soil Chemistry : A Case Study In Delaware State Forest, Pennsylvania, Usa, Jason Scott Darley

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Forest fires can affect soil chemistry and soil properties depending on the fire intensity and type of biomass burned, changing the local environment. For this study, soil and ash samples were examined post-fire from the 16-Mile fire event in the Delaware State Forest, Pennsylvania, to understand the pedosphere chemistry within the watershed subbasin. The main goal of this project was to study the major and trace elements of ash and soil samples of the 16-Mile Fire in the burned area and compare to samples upstream and downstream of the watershed sub-basin. Inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy was conducted for major …

Geochemical And Particle Size Analysis Of East Antarctic Shelf Sediments Through The Eocene Oligocene Transition, Jennifer Joanne Light

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The Eocene Oligocene Transition (EOT) at ~34 million years ago (Ma), marked the global change from greenhouse to icehouse, and the establishment of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS). The timing involved with initiation of the EAIS and ice growth during the EOT is still poorly understood due to poor core recovery. The purpose of this study was to expand upon existing knowledge of EAIS dynamics by applying updated age models to geochemical and sedimentological records from three marginal shelf sites that contain Eocene and or Oligocene sediments. This study used inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry and mass spectrometry …

Knowing Nature In The City: Comparative Analysis Of Knowledge Systems Challenges Along The 'Eco-Techno' Spectrum Of Green Infrastructure In Portland & Baltimore, Annie Marissa Matsler

Dissertations and Theses

Green infrastructure development is desired in many municipalities because of its potential to address pressing environmental and social issues. However, despite technical optimism, institutional challenges create significant barriers to effective green infrastructure design, implementation, and maintenance. Institutional challenges stem from the disparate scales and facility types that make up the concept of green infrastructure, which span from large-scale natural areas to small engineered bioswales. Across these disparate facilities 1) different performance metrics are used, 2) different institutions have jurisdiction, and, 3) facility types are differentially classified as assets, producing epistemological and ontological variegation across the spectrum of green infrastructure that …

How To Enhance Interdisciplinary Competence—Interdisciplinary Problem-Based Learning Versus Interdisciplinary Project-Based Learning, Mirjam Brassler, Jan Dettmers

Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-Based Learning

Interdisciplinary competence is important in academia for both employability and sustainable development. However, to date, there are no specific interdisciplinary education models and, naturally, no empirical studies to assess them. Since problem-based learning (PBL) and project-based learning (PjBL) are learning approaches that emphasize students’ collaboration, both pedagogies seem suitable to enhance students’ interdisciplinary competence. Based on the principle of constructive alignment and four instructional principles on interdisciplinary learning, this paper proposes that students profit more from interdisciplinary PBL (iPBL) than interdisciplinary PjBL (iPjBL). A pre-post study was conducted with a sample of 95 students participating in iPBL and 183 students …

Animate Planet: Making Visceral Sense Of Living In A High-Tech Ecologically Damaged World By Kath Weston, Kelly Shepherd

The Goose

Review of Kath Weston's Animate Planet: Making Visceral Sense of Living in a High-Tech Ecologically Damaged World.

Prison-To-College Pipeline Program Helps Participants Build Futures, Edwin Smith

University of Mississippi News

UM-Mississippi College partnership supports pursuit of college education at correctional facilities

Large-Scale Differences In Microbial Biodiversity Discovery Between 16s Amplicon And Shotgun Sequencing, Michael Tessler, Johannes S. Neumann, Ebrahim Afshinnekoo, Michael Pineda, Rebecca Hersch, Luiz Felipe M. Velgo, Bianca T. Segovia, Fabio A. Lansac-Toha, Michael Lemke, Rob Desalle, Christopher E. Mason, Mercer R. Brugler

Publications and Research

Modern metagenomic environmental DNA studies are almost completely reliant on next-generation sequencing, making evaluations of these methods critical. We compare two next-generation sequencing techniques – amplicon and shotgun – on water samples across four of Brazil’s major river floodplain systems (Amazon, Araguaia, Paraná, and Pantanal). Less than 50% of phyla identified via amplicon sequencing were recovered from shotgun sequencing, clearly challenging the dogma that mid-depth shotgun recovers more diversity than amplicon-based approaches. Amplicon sequencing also revealed ~27% more families. Overall the amplicon data were more robust across both biodiversity and community ecology analyses at different taxonomic scales. Our work doubles …

Corporate Future Foresight In Government: A Necessity Or A Luxury?, Wisam Ali Ramadan

Theses

In the era of continuous change, governments increasingly find themselves in the face of growing uncertainty and increasing need for future foresight. This research aims to test the relationships between the corporate future foresight maturity level, environmental hostility level and the value contribution of foresight activities in government entities in Dubai. Adopting a quantitative approach, 39 government entities participated in the cross-sectional survey used in this research. The results show that there is a significant positive relationship between the future foresight maturity level among government entities and the value contribution of foresight activities. Also, the results revealed no significant relationship …

Synergistic Use Of Remote Sensing And Modeling To Assess An Anomalously High Chlorophyll-A Event During Summer 2015 In The South Central Red Sea, Wenzhao Li, Hesham El-Askary, K. P. Manikandan, Mohamed A. Qurban, Michael J. Garay, Olga V. Kalishnikova

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

An anomalously high chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) event (>2 mg/m3) during June 2015 in the South Central Red Sea (17.5° to 22°N, 37° to 42°E) was observed using Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data from the Terra and Aqua satellite platforms. This differs from the low Chl-a values (<0.5 mg/m3) usually encountered over the same region during summertime. To assess this anomaly and possible causes, we used a wide range of oceanographical and meteorological datasets, including Chl-a concentrations, sea surface temperature (SST), sea surface height (SSH), mixed layer depth (MLD), ocean current velocity and aerosol optical depth (AOD) obtained from different sensors and models. Findings confirmed this anomalous behavior in the spatial domain using Hovmöller data analysis techniques, while a time series analysis addressed monthly and daily variability. Our analysis suggests that a combination of factors controlling nutrient supply contributed to the anomalous phytoplankton growth. These factors include horizontal transfer of upwelling water through eddy circulation and possible mineral fertilization from atmospheric dust deposition. Coral reefs might have provided extra nutrient supply, yet this is out of the scope of our analysis. We thought that dust deposition from a coastal dust jet event in late June, coinciding with the phytoplankton blooms in the area under investigation, might have also contributed as shown by our AOD findings. However, a lag cross correlation showed a two- month lag between strong dust outbreak and the high Chl-a anomaly. The high Chl-a concentration at the edge of the eddy emphasizes the importance of horizontal advection in fertilizing oligotrophic (nutrient poor) Red Sea waters.

Molecular And Culture-Based Assessment Of Root/Crown Rot Fungal/Oomycete Complex Of Bean In Mozambique, Suzana Vanessa Ismael Fernandes

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Dry edible beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) play an important role in food security, alleviating hunger and malnutrition and adding value to the economy in Mozambique. Recently, root/crown rot (RCR) has caused yield losses in bean fields in Mozambique. A diverse taxa of fungi and oomycetes have been associated with RCR. However, in Mozambique little information on root rot is available. The purpose of this study is to use Illumina sequencing platform, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and culture-based methods to identify the primary pathogens associated with RCR in Mozambique. A total of 88 plants showing symptoms of RCR disease were …

Differential Use Of Two Warm-Water Effluents By The Florida Manatee (Trichechus Manatus Latirostris) And Temporal Distributions Throughout Broward County, Florida, Laura F. Eldredge

HCNSO Student Theses and Dissertations

The threatened Florida manatee (Trichechus manatus latirostris) migrates seasonally to warm-water refugia throughout the state of Florida due to metabolic requirements from low thermal conductance. Broward County’s two power plant refugia, Port Everglades (PEP) and Lauderdale (LPP), are known heavily-utilized aggregation sites for the Atlantic sub-population. Broward County collected relative abundance counts via aerial surveys from 2004–2013 siting 31,418 manatees during 169 surveys within 18 defined waterway zones. Counts during manatee wintering seasons were significantly different from January 2005-March 2008 and November 2008-March 2013, likely related to flight path and frequency standardization. Mean percentage of adults (90.12%) to …

Microfeatures Of Modern Sea-Ice-Rafted Sediment And Implications For Paleo-Sea-Ice Reconstructions, Kristen E. St. John, Sandra Passchier, Brooke Tantillo, Dennis Darby, Lance Kearns

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Distinguishing sea-ice-rafted debris (SIRD) from iceberg-rafted debris is crucial to an interpretation of ice-rafting history; however, there are few paleo-sea-ice proxies. This study characterizes quartz grain microfeatures of modern SIRD from the Arctic Ocean, and compares these results with microfeatures from representative glacial deposits to potentially differentiate SIRD from ice-rafted sediments which have been recently subjected to glacial processes. This allows us to evaluate the use of grain microfeatures as a paleo-sea-ice proxy. SIRD grains were largely subrounded, with medium relief, pervasive silica dissolution and a high abundance of breakage blocks and microlayering. The glacial grains were more angular, with …

University Sustainability: Assessing College Sustainability Rating Systems, James M. Albis

Journal of Environmental Sustainability

This paper seeks to assess the three major university sustainability rating systems in the United States on their ability to drive positive sustainability outcomes. Since the mid-2000s the Association for Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, the Princeton Review, and the Sierra Club have attempted to rate universities on their sustainability policies and practices. A wide range of actions are rated by these organizations, from energy usage to transportation to procurement to academic offerings in the field of sustainability. This analysis shows that each organization values sustainability in different ways – for example, academics/co-curricular activities accounted for anywhere from 16%-49% …

Assessing The Supply Of Provisioning And Cultural Ecosystem Services From Urban Forests: A Philadelphia Pilot Study, Jenna Q. Detweiler

Environment and Sustainability Summer Fellows

This study develops a methodology for assessing the urban provisioning and cultural ecosystem services created by woody species in urban forests. Drawing on this methodology, the research examines these dynamics through use of an urban forest inventory and survey data for the city of Philadelphia. Findings quantify the percentage of species and corresponding percent of the tree population that are likely to be harvested by urban foragers in the city.

Flyer: Cross Creek Wilderness Safaris Bird List And Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Ephemera, Cross Creek Wilderness Safaris

Saffy Collection - All Textual Materials

Bird checklist for Lake Lochloosa and Cross Creek. Includes supplemental files: MKR Society nametags, Society Results, National Historic Landmark bookmarks, print of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings home, newsletter, an invitation to a tribute to Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings on the 50^th anniversary of her death, flyer for Cross Creek Wilderness Safaris, and a flyer for Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Stamp.

Front Matter, Vol. 77 No. 2

Western North American Naturalist

No abstract provided.

Epigenetic Marker Identification And Assessment Of Methods On Cell Type Compositions At The Epigenome-Scale, Akhilesh Kaushal

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

Epigenetics is the study of heritable changes in genes which are caused by chemical compounds derived from natural and man-made sources. DNA methylation an epigenetic phenomenon, is most vulnerable to environmental factors during embryogenesis, which is a period of rapid cell division and epigenetic remodeling. Given the recent increase in the incidence of childhood diseases, it is crucial to understand the role of environmental factor through epigenetic study in causing adverse health effects. This dissertation revolves around three major hypotheses. In hypothesis one we evaluated the association between in utero arsenic exposure and genome-wide DNA methylation in cord blood from …

Spatial And Temporal Intricacies Of Natural Resource Use: Studies In Water, Forests, And Hydrocarbons, Dadhi Adhikari

Economics ETDs

This dissertation examines spatial and temporal impacts of natural resource use. The second chapter integrates hydrological and economic systems to examine the impact of drought on these two systems and explores the spatial impact of policies aimed to mitigate the drought impact. The systems dynamics model developed for this chapter simultaneously considers the physical hydrology in the Middle Rio Grande water basin in New Mexico, the engineered water management system, and a behavioral model of residential water demand for three cities: Albuquerque, Rio Rancho, and Santa Fe, New Mexico. The simulation results showed that droughts that occur in later periods, …

Social Science Division Meeting Minutes 08/17/2017, Social Science Division

Social Science Division

No abstract provided.

Can Big Data And Predictive Analytics Improve Social And Environmental Sustainability?, R Dubey, A Gunasekaran, Sj Childe, T Papadopoulos, Z Luo, Sf Wamba, D Roubaud

Plymouth Business School

Although literature indicates that big data and predictive analytics (BDPA)convey a distinct organisational capability, little is known about their performance effects in particular contextual conditions (inter alia, national context and culture, and firm size). Grounding our investigation in the dynamic capability views and organisational culture and based on a sample of 205 Indian manufacturing organisations, we empirically investigate the effects of BDPA on social performance (SP)and environmental performance (EP)using variance based structural equation modelling (i.e. PLS). We find that BDPA has significant impact on SP/EP. However, we did not find evidence for moderating role of flexible orientation and control orientation …

Novel Bio-Logging Tool For Studying Fine-Scale Behaviors Of Marine Turtles In Response To Sound, Reny B. Tyson, Wendy Dow Piniak, Camila Domit, David Mann, Michael Hall, Douglas P. Nowacek, Mariana M. P. B. Fuentes

Environmental Studies Faculty Publications

Increases in the spatial scale and intensity of activities that produce marine anthropogenic sound highlight the importance of understanding the impacts and effects of sound on threatened species such as marine turtles. Marine turtles detect and behaviorally respond to low-frequency sounds, however few studies have directly examined their behavioral responses to specific types or intensities of anthropogenic or natural sounds. Recent advances in the development of bio-logging tools, which combine acoustic and fine-scale movement measurements, have allowed for evaluations of animal responses to sound. Here, we describe these tools and present a case study demonstrating the potential application of a …

Strengthening Wellbeing In Urban Communities Through Wildlife Gardening, Laura M. Mumaw, Cecily Maller, Sarah Bekessy

Cities and the Environment (CATE)

Conserving biodiversity and advancing wellbeing are goals usually siloed in environment or health portfolios, yet compelling evidence is emerging regarding the relationship between these activities. There is increasing academic and practitioner interest in the wellbeing benefits to be gained from experiencing nature in urban parks. Here we explore the understudied relationship between actively conserving nature in urban backyards and gaining wellbeing benefits. We investigate a municipal wildlife gardening program run by a community group-local government partnership in Melbourne, Australia whose purpose is to conserve the municipality’s indigenous biodiversity. Semi-structured interviews with program members in their gardens, supplemented by material from …

Assessing The Dependence Of An Urban System In Japan On Forest Ecosystem Services: A Case Study, Takanori Matsui, Tetsuro Takebata, Takuma Toyoda, Robert Shaw, Takashi Machimura

Cities and the Environment (CATE)

Abstract

With the progress of urbanization, the importance of biodiversity conservation and sustainable ecosystem service use in urban systems has been entirely acknowledged. We are recognizing the need to redesign city systems from the viewpoint of the relationship between urban activities and natural ecosystems. In this study, we evaluated the dependence of human activities within a large metropolitan region on ecosystem services. Our evaluation focused on the civilian sector (which consists of business and residential activities) of the municipalities of Osaka prefecture, Japan. This study applied a framework known as Ecosystem Services Use (ESU), an ecological footprint-based evaluation method, in …

The Ivory Tower, Urban Growth, And State Subjugation: An Historical Analysis On The Construction Of Student Identities And The Public Good During University Generated Redevelopment Projects, Jacob R. Wolff

Geography ETDs

Having become almost cliché in academic discourses, the term gentrification offers a conceptualization of sociospatial transformation too narrow for contemporary understandings of inequality within the post-industrial city. Generalizations of a wealthy populous displacing working-class and marginalized populations fail to address the diversity, complexity, and scope of economic hollowing-out and fail to fully account for other incoming subpopulations such as the emergent “creative class,” comprised of university-educated individuals who are not necessarily considered affluent by traditional economic measures. To this end, scholars in the United Kingdom have identified university neighborhood formation as a significant yet distinct process of place production that …

The Living Syllabus: Rethinking The Introductory Course To Art History With Interactive Visualization, Caroline Bruzelius, Hannah L. Jacobs

Art History Pedagogy & Practice

This essay describes an experiment in adopting mapping and timeline technologies in the Introduction to Art History course taught at Duke University. The creation of an interactive, “living,” syllabus in Neatline and Omeka allowed us to embed maps, course powerpoints, links to museum websites, news articles, videos, and clips from movies. In this article, we describe how the integration of mapping tools and multimedia transformed our approach to the discipline of Art History, enabling us to engage with trade and exchange networks for raw materials, artistic ideas and motifs, and the art market.

Taking Climate Action, Lydia Marcus

The Voice

No abstract provided.

Environmental Studies Students Help Restore Park, Kate Henreckson

The Voice

No abstract provided.

Book Review: Bridges 2013 Poetry Anthology And Bridges 2016 Poetry Anthology, Robin Chapman

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

Two collections of mathematical poetry edited by poet and mathematician Sarah Glaz are enthusiastically recommended to readers for the quality of the poetry, the diverse voices speaking in many modes—praise, elegy, philosophical musings, story-telling, humor, playfulness—and the variety of ways in which mathematical references are incorporated or illustrated. The work comes from participants in the Bridges conferences connecting mathematics, the arts, and the sciences over the last seven years.