Digital Commons Network^™

Droughtscape, Summer 2018, National Drought Mitigation Center

DroughtScape: Quarterly Newsletter of the National Drought Mitigation Center (2007–2023)

Contents

From the director

Drought expands and intensifies

Dry down fuels fires

Tweeting #drought18

MOISST and NSMN

Caribbean planning progress

Drought observer network study

MENA teams report progress

NDMC global outreach

Climate hub workshop

On the horizon

Most Common Bundles Of Public Assistance Benefits For Low-Income Massachusetts Families: A Technical Research Brief, Caitlin A. Carey

Center for Social Policy Publications

This report analyzes the most common bundles of public assistance benefits for low-income residents of Massachusetts. The findings can be used to better understand the relative success of these public assistance programs at reaching low-income target populations. Furthermore, the combination of benefits received can help provide insights regarding where families might experience cliff effects; data that can be used to inform policy changes to help ameliorate cliff effects.

Characteristics Of Cover-Collapse Sinkholes In Kentucky, James C. Currens

Report of Investigations--KGS

Sudden collapse of unconsolidated earth materials over soluble bedrock, known as cover collapse, damages buildings, roads, utility lines, and farm equipment in Kentucky. It has also killed livestock, including Thoroughbred horses, and injured people. The estimated annual cost of sinkhole cover collapse in Kentucky ranges from $20 million to $84 million and is sensitive to rare but expensive events such as the 2014 National Corvette Museum collapse. The Kentucky Geological Survey began developing a catalog of case histories of cover-collapse occurrences in 1997, and receives an average of 24 reports each year. Three hundred fifty-four occurrences of cover-collapse sinkholes throughout …

Will An Environmental Focused Genius Hour Affect Students’ Attitudes Toward The Environment?, Claire Opsahl

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine if an environmental focused Genius Hour will affect students’ attitudes toward the environment. Over an eight week period ninth grade students in an Honors Civics class self-selected an environmental topic to research, write a research paper and present their findings. The study was completed in a suburban high school setting. The study Quantitative and qualitative data was gathered using student interest surveys and the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) Likert Scale Survey. The participants were surveyed before completing their Genius Hour project and after completion. The results of the survey show that an …

Transformations, College Of Arts, Humanities And Social Sciences, University Marketing And Communications

Transformations

Table of Contents
[Page] 2 Name Changes but Much Stays the Same
[Page] 6 Dean for the Day
[Page] 9 Amada Named Stuart Artist-in-Residence
[Page] 10 The New PAC: Where Town Meets Gown
[Page] 12 Two Departments form the School of Communication and Journalism
[Page] 14 Journalism Accreditation, Lyle Olson
[Page] 15 Harding Hall
[Page] 16 Creating Furniture
[Page] 19 Fellowship in Israel
[Page] 20 Patel Earns All-American Honors
[Page] 21 Society of Physics Students
[Page] 22 State's 10th Goldwater Scholar
[Page] 23 Diekhoff Wins Competition
[Page] 24 Passive House
[Page] 27 Military Friendly School Honor
[Page] 28 Dance and …

Biotime: A Database Of Biodiversity Time Series For The Anthropocene, Maria Dornelas, Laura H. Antão, Faye Moyes, Amanda E. Bates, Anne E. Magurran, Dušan Adams, Asem A. Akhmetzhanova, Ward Appeltans, José Manuel Adam, Frank P. Day

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Motivation: The BioTIME database contains raw data on species identities and abundances in ecological assemblages through time. These data enable users to calculate temporal trends in biodiversity within and amongst assemblages using a broad range of metrics. BioTIME is being developed as a community-led open-source database of biodiversity time series. Our goal is to accelerate and facilitate quantitative analysis of temporal patterns of biodiversity in the Anthropocene.

Main types of variables included: The database contains 8,777,413 species abundance records, from assemblages consistently sampled for a minimum of 2 years, which need not necessarily be consecutive. In addition, the database contains …

Global Estimation Of Biophysical Variables From Google Earth Engine Platform, Manuel Campos-Taberner, Alvaro Moreno-Martinez, Francisco Javier Garcia-Haro, Gustau Camps-Valls, Nathaniel P. Robinson, Jens Kattge, Steven W. Running

Numerical Terradynamic Simulation Group Publications

This paper proposes a processing chain for the derivation of global Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (FAPAR), Fraction Vegetation Cover (FVC), and Canopy water content (CWC) maps from 15-years of MODIS data exploiting the capabilities of the Google Earth Engine (GEE) cloud platform. The retrieval chain is based on a hybrid method inverting the PROSAIL radiative transfer model (RTM) with Random forests (RF) regression. A major feature of this work is the implementation of a retrieval chain exploiting the GEE capabilities using global and climate data records (CDR) of both MODIS surface reflectance and LAI/FAPAR …

Sac Newsletter 2018, South Asia Center

Newsletters from the South Asia Center

No abstract provided.

Subjectivity And Methodology In The Arch'i'Ve, Elizabeth J. Vincelette

English Faculty Publications

This article explores methodologies from the fields of library archival science, human geography, composition and rhetoric, and established editorial practices in English studies. By elaborating on the role of a researcher’s subjectivity in archival creation, this work expands the conversation regarding methodology and archives, especially how archives present us with new ways of seeing and making narratives during the editorial decision-making involved in their creation. Writing about my own experience, I privilege the researcher’s point of view with a narrative about my construction of a digital archive. With archival research, we should promote the revelation of methods and methodology to …

Diné Epistemology: Sa’Ah Naaghái Bik’Eh Hózhóón Teachings, Vangee Nez

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

Sa’ah Naaghái Bik’eh Hózhóón (SNBH) is Diné epistemology, a complex system of knowledge encompassing two paradigms: Beauty Way (Hózhóójii-female) and Protection Way (Naayée’ k’egho-male), with hózhó at its core. The study examines personal narratives of SNBH through lived experiences toward hózhó. The literature review looks at Diné worldview from the perspective of published Diné scholars on SNBH for Diné youth. This qualitative case study approach, using Indigenous epistemology and Indigenous research methodology framework, allowed for intensive descriptions and analysis of SNBH. The interviews explored participants’ lived experiences using narrative inquiry to understand SNBH. The findings …

Thousands Of Small Battles: A Case Study On The Impact Of Political Discussion Networks On Vote Choice In Caucuses, Jonathan Jackson

Department of Political Science: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

In this dissertation, I seek to refine generalizations about the influence of political discussion networks on voting behavior, mainly developed to explain behavior in general elections, to nomination contests, a comparatively underdeveloped area of inquiry. This study also contributes to a greater understanding of the behavior of Iowa caucus attendees, an understudied area despite Iowa’s importance (along with New Hampshire) in our sequential presidential nominating system. I make several findings affirming theories on social influences on voting behavior within the context of nomination contests. The first is that individuals are reasonably accurate when predicting which candidate a political discussion partner …

Methods For Estimating Vehicle Fuel Consumption In Urban Road Networks Using Geographical Attributes, Ryan G. Conrad

Civil and Environmental Engineering Master's Project Reports

This paper presents statistical techniques for estimating vehicle fuel consumption in urban road networks based on vehicle and geographical factors. A routing algorithm utilizing mapping data from OpenStreetMap and elevation data from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission is presented and used to generate paths that minimize vehicle fuel consumption. The concept of a fuel consumption estimating function is proposed as an extension of the well-known distance-estimating functions that are widely used in logistics planning and research.

Statistical models are developed that estimate fuel consumption in three tested urban areas with vehicle weight, elevation and regional travel speed characteristics being the …

Resources, Society, And The Environment (Vsu), Jia Lu, Jessica Taylor

Geological Sciences and Geography Grants Collections

This Grants Collection for Resources, Society, and the Environment was created under a Round Nine ALG Textbook Transformation Grant.

Affordable Learning Georgia Grants Collections are intended to provide faculty with the frameworks to quickly implement or revise the same materials as a Textbook Transformation Grants team, along with the aims and lessons learned from project teams during the implementation process.

Documents are in .pdf format, with a separate .docx (Word) version available for download. Each collection contains the following materials:

• Linked Syllabus
• Initial Proposal
• Final Report

A New Security Framework For Geoengineering, Elizabeth L. Chalecki, Lisa L. Ferrari

Political Science Faculty Publications

As the national security ramifications of climate change grow more pronounced, climate manipulation technologies, called geoengineering, will become more attractive as a method of staving off climate-related security emergencies. Geoengineering includes methods of carbon dioxide removal and/or solar radiation management and can theoretically achieve significant reductions in warming-related environmental changes, but they are scientifically untested. Geoengineering technologies have the potential to disrupt the global ecological status quo and mount a potentially coercive threat with implications as serious as those in wartime. Several of these technologies can be deployed from the global commons, but international law provides no more than indirect …

Exposing The Science In Citizen Science: Fitness To Purpose And Intentional Design, Julia K. Parrish, Hillary Burgess, Jale F. Weltzin, Lucy Fortson, Andrea Wiggins, Brooke Simmons

Information Systems and Quantitative Analysis Faculty Publications

Citizen science is a growing phenomenon. With millions of people involved and billions of in-kind dollars contributed annually, this broad extent, fine grain approach to data collection should be garnering enthusiastic support in the mainstream science and higher education communities. However, many academic researchers demonstrate distinct biases against the use of citizen science as a source of rigorous information. To engage the public in scientific research, and the research community in the practice of citizen science, a mutual understanding is needed of accepted quality standards in science, and the corresponding specifics of project design and implementation when working with a …

Split Tickets? On The Strategic Allocation Of Presidential Versus Vice Presidential Visits In 2016, Christopher J. Devine, Kyle C. Kopko

Political Science Faculty Publications

This article analyzes the strategic allocation of presidential campaign visits in 2016. In particular, we test whether each campaign disproportionately targeted its presidential versus vice presidential candidates’ visits toward voters with whom they shared a salient demographic or political characteristic. Our purpose in doing so is to discern whether—and, if so, among which groups—the campaigns perceived the candidates as having a strategic advantage in appealing to affiliated voters. To this end, we analyze an original database of 2016 campaign visits that includes local population characteristics for each host site. Our results indicate that each ticket’s visits were highly coordinated across …

Aku Research (Formerly Research Outlook) : July 2018, Office Of Research & Graduate Studies

Office of Research and Graduate Studies

Content

- Research Impact

- Grants and Publications

- Research Highlights

- Awards and Honours

- Updates From Our Office

The Beef Basin Occupation As An Extension Of The Northern San Region: An In-Depth Analysis Of The Ceramics In Beef Basin, Utah, Jaclyn Marie Eckersley

Theses and Dissertations

This paper is a summary of the methods and key results of my analysis of 7,997 sherds from 14 sites in Beef Basin, Utah. I discuss physical attributes of the collection, the results of mean ceramic dating, the results of neutron activation analysis, and the results of refiring a sample of nips in an oxidizing atmosphere. I briefly summarize the architecture at each site , as well as possible Fremont cultural material found in and near Beef Basin. I conclude that Beef Basin was likely occupied in the early Pueblo III period and that the occupation was sudden and brief. …

Commercial Transportation, Madeline E. Mcneeley, Yvonne S. Godfrey, Andrew J. Conn, Stephen G. Lowry

Mercer Law Review

Commercial transportation involves all of the significant forms of passenger and property transportation across the United States. This Article covers four major areas: (1) trucking and commercial transit; (2) aviation; (3) limousines, taxis, and rideshare services; and (4) railroads. Most of these areas are subject to heavy federal regulation due to their involvement in and effect on interstate commerce. This Article surveys significant judicial, regulatory, and legislative developments in Eleventh Circuit commercial transportation law during the period from January 1, 2016 through December 31, 2017.

Walking Field Trips: Mapping Outdoor Instruction Opportunities, Anna Cochran

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

The research question addressed in this project was the following: How can upper elementary educators in a rural school district utilize walking field trips and outdoor instruction to support achievement of state academic content areas and to integrate principles of environmental education? The project extends upper elementary school instructional settings to public lands, open spaces, parks, trails, river access points, and beyond in order to enhance the academic experience. It is informed by Sobel’s place-based education theory and Lieberman and Hoody’s proposal of using outdoor settings to connect multidisciplinary content areas. A walking field trip map was produced for a …

Teaching Social Studies Content Vocabulary Words To Middle-School English Learners: Vocabulary Strategies For Sheltered Instruction And Mainstream Classroom, Bradley Storm

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

Research on reading indicates that vocabulary knowledge plays a significant role in comprehension and content learning. Textbooks remain the primary instructional medium in most social studies classrooms, but are rarely written with supports that allow struggling readers to comprehend the text independently. Because typical textbooks do not contain adequate guidance or materials for effective vocabulary instruction, social studies teachers must incorporate these features into their curriculum. This is especially important for teachers of English learners. In order to learn grade-level content, English learners who lack a sufficient background in content vocabulary require rigorous vocabulary instruction that draws on established best …

Adapting Project-Based Learning For English-Language Learners In Middle-School Social Studies, Maria May

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

This research project addresses the question, how can Project-Based Learning (PBL) be adapted to enhance middle school social studies lessons and learning outcomes for English Language Learners and other struggling students? It reviews theory and practice for middle-school social studies teachers to invite ELLs and others reading below grade level into authentic PBL. Supports for PBL should include effective language acquisition scaffolds like Guided Language Acquisition Design (GLAD) and content engagement through non-text, multimedia strategies like Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) to invite students into deeper critical thinking and rigorous collaborative projects. Research connections are made to constructivist theories of Dewey …

Framework For Purposeful Technology Integration In Environmental Education Using Inquiry Based Learning, Jonathan Massung

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

The research question addressed in this project was, how do you incorporate technology to facilitate raw exploration of the natural world that reinforces inquiry-based learning in Environmental Education? The concept of the project was to create a framing guide to allow traditional and non-traditional educators to purposefully incorporate technology into a program with emphasis on environmental education standards. The primary focus of the format of the program is intended for K-12 lessons. The idea behind creating the program is to not simply add technology to a program, but to include the technology tool as a central piece with standards that …

How Can Student Learning Be Improved Through Project Based Curriculum That Gives Access To All Students?, Joseph Salzer

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

How can student learning be improved by creating project based curriculum that gives access to all students? This project contains a unit curriculum guide for a 3 dimensional solids unit for a 10th grade geometry classroom. The curriculum is a project based curriculum based on the 7 essential pieces of project based learning of Larmer (2010). This is then woven with standards based practices to ensure that all learners have access. The project is broken up and intermixed with direct skill instructional days and time for feedback. It is necessary to make sure students are supported in project based learning …

Preparing 9th Grade English Learners For Critical Thinking And Advanced Discussion Skills: Curriculum For Paideia Seminar, Sonia Nunez-Gibbs

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

Participation in academic conversation and disagreement with peers is a key vehicle in development of critical thinking and academic language. Ninth-grade English Learners and mainstream students often have difficulty building on each others’ thoughts during discussions, rather than sharing their ideas developed in isolation. Students need multiple experiences of direct instruction of content-embedded language and content coaching to develop these advanced discussion interactions. In order to answer the question How to prepare mid-level ELs to demonstrate critical thinking and advanced discussion skills?this project designs curriculum for a structured debate Paideia seminar questioning the role of borders. This two-week long curriculum …

How Has The Food Industry Manipulated The Way Consumers Perceive Food And Health?, Angelina Garavente

Honors College Theses

Food is the most advertised commodity in the United States and food corporations spend on average over $36 billion a year on marketing and advertising (Albritton 172). Seventy percent of total advertising goes to market convenience foods, candy, snacks, soft drinks, desserts and alcohol (Albritton 172). As a result of the wide range of marketing on an even wider range of products, consumers have been taught to feel they have a considerable amount of choice. Ironically despite the array of brand-name commodities that give off this impression, only a few giant corporations control much of what is being offered.

On Wings Of Hope, Volume 22, No. 3, 2018, Phadp, Esther Brown, Anthony Tyson, Jeffery Lee, Maximus Strong, Bart Johnson, Ursula Malchau

On Wings of Hope

July–September 2018 edition. Includes A Christian Perspective, whose authors are listed elsewhere in this archive.

Rural Health, Universality, And Legislative Targeting, Nicole Huberfeld

Faculty Scholarship

Health disparities are persistent and worsening for rural communities, which have smaller patient populations with higher rates of uninsurance and greater incidence of the diseases and deaths of despair. Hospital closures and provider shortages are more common than in urban areas, also contributing to worsening population health and crises in maternal and infant health. This paper posits that these disparities are tied to the unique rural features of space and population. Efforts to address persistent problems in health care through universal legislation, such as the ACA, have given rural communities important tools to address some long-standing health problems by improving …

Exploring The Relationship Of Bikeshare And Transit In The United States Of America, David Rafael Soto Padín

Civil and Environmental Engineering Master's Project Reports

Bicycling and bike-share have been growing in US cities as transportation alternatives. Despite impressions that bikeshare systems exist solely for tourism, recreation or privileged users, research has shown that bike-share is becoming a transportation mode used by a diverse set of users for various transportation needs. Additionally, a positive relationship has been established between bike-share and transit although most studies on this matter have focused on systems outside the United States. Bike share and transit benefit each other by: (1) contributing to sustainable transportation goals by improving mobility and greenhouse gas reductions, (2) solving the "last mile" problem, (3) reduce …

Indicators Of The Metroscape: Urban Coyotes, Institute Of Portland Metropolitan Studies

Metroscape

A brief look at increasing presence of coyotes in the Portland Metropolitan Region, with an overview of the Urban Coyote Project.