Digital Commons Network^™

Group Characteristics Influence Distribution Patterns Of Off-Road Vehicle Recreation Within A Complex Trail System In Southwest Idaho, Eric Frey, Kathryn Demps, Ben Pauli, Julie A. Heath

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Recreation on public lands is growing and is increasingly recognized as an ecosystem service providing improved health, connection to nature, and social time while also disturbing and degrading ecosystems. Human impacts must be managed, but often managers have little information about the factors that affect recreation patterns. We combined data from global positioning system receivers to record off-road vehicle (ORV) travel with a pretrip survey to determine how group characteristics, site experience, site knowledge, and motivation are associated with ORV trip patterns on public lands in southwest Idaho. Spatial and temporal extent and distribution could summarize most variation in ORV …

The Story Of Oswego Refugees: A Virtual Exhibit, Amy Grimes

Museum Studies Projects

This paper describes the story of 982 refugees who came to Fort Ontario in Oswego, New York from Naples, Italy on August 3, 1944. The research illuminates the reasons why they were chosen to come and their journey. The research explores their time at Fort Ontario, how they were able to stay in the United States, and how their story is preserved and remembered to the present day. This paper also describes the process of creating an online exhibit that resulted from this research. Images from the online exhibit are featured throughout the paper. The reader is encouraged to view …

Social Organization And Environmental Patterning At Tel Abu Shusha: An Integrated Spatial Approach To Survey Archaeology, Seth Price

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Tel Abu Shusha, located in the Jezreel Valley of Palestine, is a large-scale archaeological site possibly identified as the cities of Biblical Gaba or Roman Gaba Hippaeon/Gaba Philippi. Surface archaeological survey of the surrounding area, conducted by the Jezreel Valley Regional Project during 2017, revealed extensive assemblages of visible settlement features dating primarily to middle and late Islamic periods. This research seeks to answer questions of settlement decision-making and societal organization, by integrating archaeological, textual, environmental, and geospatial data sources. In addition to visual interpretation, Kolmogorov-Smirnov nonparametric tests are used to gain insight on environmental settlement preferences; Ripley’s K analysis …

Gis Modeling Of The Prominent Geohazards In Arkansas, Kyle Walker Rowden

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The State of Arkansas is prone to numerous geohazards. This thesis is a twofold study of prominent geohazards in Arkansas: the first fold includes a novel triggerless approach for mass wasting susceptibility modeling applied to the Boston Mountains in NW Arkansas, and the second fold is a GIS-based regression modeling of the extreme weather patterns at the state level. Each study fold is presented in this thesis as a separate chapter embracing a published peer-reviewed paper. In the first paper, I have used the analytical hierarchy process to assign preliminary statistical weights to the most cogent variables influencing mass wasting …

Geography Of The Middle East Through The Western Lens: A Survey Of Films Set In The Middle East And Filmed In The American Southwest, Jake Bryan Rowlett

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Representation of cinematic geography is a struggle in the world of film: a power balance between the work of the filmmakers and the place itself. Often, the filmmakers tip the scales in their favor and the true nature of the place is lost in translation. Throughout the history of cinema, the geography of the Middle East has been manipulated into a vision designed for Western audiences that is strikingly disjointed from reality.

The foundation of modern Orientalist interpretations of the Middle East in film can be seen in the early decades of the film industry, through the “Biblical Epic,” and …

Geology Of The Purgatory Saddle 7.5 Minute Quadrangle, And Gravity And Magnetic Analysis Of Accreted Terrane Boundary, Western Idaho, Sourav Krishna Nandi

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Western Idaho (USA) contains deformation associated with the Mesozoic accretion of volcanic island arc terranes of the Blue Mountains Province to Laurentia. The near vertical boundary between the accretionary orogeny and Precambrian North America is represented by the transpressional western Idaho shear zone, which lies east of metamorphic rocks in the Salmon River suture zone. The Blue Mountains Province in western Idaho contains four accreted crustal blocks: the Wallowa, Olds Ferry, Baker, and Izee terranes. The purpose of this study is to understand the structural relationship of the pre-accretionary, syn-accretionary and post-accretionary tectonic features along the accreted terrane boundary in …

Chemical And Statistical Analysis Of Karst Groundwater Basin Signatures - Springfield, Mo, Benjamin E. Lockwood

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Springfield, MO is located on the Springfield Plateau physiographic province. The Springfield plateau contains a number of Mississippian aged units and is mainly capped by the Burlington-Keokuk Formation. The Burlington-Keokuk is a highly fossiliferous limestone with nodular and interbedded chert. Beneath the Burlington-Keokuk lies the Elsey, Reeds Spring, and Pierson Formations respectively which comprise the Springfield Plateau aquifer hydrostratigraphic unit. Within the Springfield Plateau aquifer, a well-developed karst system includes springs, sinkholes, and caves. The Springfield Plateau aquifer is the predominant source for springs and seeps in the Springfield area. The purpose of this study was to understand the differences …

“Mr. Nobody From Nowhere”: Ethnocentric Nationalism, Cultural Cosmopolitanism, And The Reinvention Of Personal Identity In F. Scott Fitzgerald’S The Great Gatsby And Mohsin Hamid’S The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Hana Mohammed Smail

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

This study examines the quest for the American Dream in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist, in light of the politics of ethnicity and national identity and cultural cosmopolitanism. The two novels are analyzed in the context of the city in early twentieth-century America and post-9/11 America, respectively. I interpret the texts’ quest for the American Dream as a quest for an inclusive national identity that is consistent with the cosmopolitan principles of coexistence and individual obligation toward others—beyond the social boundaries of ethnicity and culture and beyond the political boundary of citizenship. …

Using Integrated Approaches To Study The Systematics Of Scincid Lizards In The Lower Sunda Shelf, Panupong Thammachoti

Biology Dissertations - Archive

Scincid lizards are one of the most diverse group of squamate reptiles, found from tropical to temperate habitats worldwide. In the tropical rain forests of Java, Sumatra, and other parts of the Sunda Shelf biological hotspot a higher diversity of these lizards is expected, particularly in comparison to adjacent terrains. Lack of exploration and cryptic diversity of skinks in these areas might amount for the disproportionate low numbers. Recently, large-scale herpetological exploration of Java and Sumatra has been done as a collaboration between the University of Texas at Arlington, the Indonesian Institute of Sciences, and Brawijaya University. Large numbers of …

Statistical Analysis And Comparison Of Optical Classification Of Atmospheric Aerosol Lidar Data, Kwasi Gyening Afrifa

Electrical & Computer Engineering Projects for D. Eng. Degree

This dissertation presents a new study for the analysis and classification of atmospheric aerosols in remote sensing LIDAR data. Information on particle size and associated properties are extracted from these remote sensing atmospheric data which are collected by a ground-based LIDAR system. This study first considers optical LIDAR parameter-based classification methods for clustering and classification of different types of harmful aerosol particles in the atmosphere. Since accurate methods for aerosol prediction behaviors are based upon observed data, computational approaches must overcome design limitations, and also consider appropriate calibration and estimation accuracy. Consequently, two statistical methods based on generalized linear models …

The Influence Of Context On Metacognition And Its Measurement, Markeya S. Peteranetz

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Metacognition enhances students’ efforts to effectively self-regulate their learning. It is a multifaceted construct that includes metacognitive knowledge, metacognitive regulation, and metacognitive experiences. Metacognition theory clearly indicates that metacognitive regulation should be impacted by the context in which the learning takes place, but little empirical research has attempted to show this effect of context on metacognitive regulation. The purpose dissertation of this was to investigate how context influences undergraduate students’ use of metacognitive regulation. To this end, an instrument (the Metacognition Inventory for Post-Secondary Students; MIPSS) that assesses metacognitive knowledge globally and metacognitive regulation as a context-dependent construct was created …

Exploring Adolescent Dating Violence In Rural Communities: A Mixed Methods Study, Sarah A. Taylor

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Adolescent dating violence (ADV) occurs nearly twice as often among rural adolescents than it does among non-rural adolescents. Research has suggested several reasons for this population difference. First, people in the rural context oftentimes have traditional gender role attitudestowards male dominance over women, which can be displayed in the form of relationship violence. People in the rural context also tend to have less access to friends and resources (e.g., social services), whichcan further perpetuate violence by limiting a victim’s opportunity to seek help. In addition, rural individuals tend to have a reduced sense of anonymity, and thus, victims may be …

Neogene Stratigraphy And Paleoenvironments In The Lauca Basin Of Northern Chile, Amanda Jones

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This thesis examines a late Miocene to Pliocene sedimentary succession in the Lauca Basin, a topographically isolated, fluvio-lacustrine basin in the northern Chilean Altiplano. A sedimentary section within the Lauca Basin, composed of Lauca Formation sediments, was investigated using stratigraphic and petrographic analyses to define the Miocene to Pliocene paleoenvironmental history of the region. Geochronologic results indicate the section ranges in age from approximately 5.57 +/- 0.20 Ma to 5.44 +/- 0.16 Ma. The sedimentology of 36 samples was described, and twelve samples were analyzed petrographically. Five lithofacies were characterized: laminated mudstone (Fl), volcaniclastic mudstone (Fv), carbonate (C), evaporite (E), …

Lessoning Fiction: Modernist Crisis And The Pedagogy Of Form, Matthew Cheney

Doctoral Dissertations

Writers committed to Modernist ideas of artistic autonomy may find that commitment challenged during times of socio-political crisis. This dissertation explores three writers who developed a similar literary strategy at such times: they pushed fictionality toward and beyond its limits, but ultimately preserved that fictionality, revealing new value in fiction after challenging it. Virginia Woolf, Samuel R. Delany, and J. M. Coetzee shaped their writings at these moments to provide readers with an experience that I argue is congruent with the goals of critical pedagogy as espoused by Paulo Freire, bell hooks, and others. Such a reading experience avoids an …

Shipworms And The Making Of The American Coastline, Derek Lee Nelson

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation tells the forgotten history of the American teredo epidemic. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, an assortment of native and invasive wood-boring marine organisms, known collectively as “teredo,” swept through the ports and harbors of the United States. Teredo’s penchant for wood, both for shelter and sustenance, made wharves and wooden ships easy targets. Because teredo enters timber as tiny juveniles, and grows to maturity beyond view, it was often detectable only after a wharf had collapsed or a ship had sunk. Teredo’s unpredictability grated on people so much so that the borer was rarely mentioned …

21st Century Stewardship: The Role Of Educational Equity In School Sustainability Programs, Marissa Page

Dissertations, Masters Theses, Capstones, and Culminating Projects

In light of the increasingly devastating consequences of climate change and the generational inequity involved, there is an urgent need to educate our youth on environmental issues and empower them with opportunities to effect positive change. This research focuses on the problem of inconsistent sustainability programs on school campuses, investigates causal factors and identifies areas for transformation. While many prior studies address the significance of sustainability and the key components of successful school waste reduction, energy conservation and environmental education, this study builds on prior research by considering school sustainability programs through a lens of equity and organizational systems. This …

Creating A New World: A Historiography Of The Atlantic World, Sam Traughber

Tenor of Our Times

Atlantic History, the study of the transatlantic connections between Western Europe, the Americas, and West Africa during the early modern period, has grown in use and popularity in recent years. This paper follows the historiography of the Atlantic World from a 1917 article in The New Republic to the publication of a popular history on the subject with Charles C. Mann’s 2011 book 1493. It discusses developments and contributions from a wide variety of scholars including political historians, economic historians, social historians, biological historians, historiographers, and geographers as well as the influence of the transatlantic nature of the Cold War …

Stepfamily, Rebecca Chappelear

MFA in Photography and Integrated Media Theses

A discussion of the photographic imagery used in artist's work and a first-hand account of the experience which lead to it's creation. The work and writing encapsulate the trauma caused by family dysfunction brought on by a stepfather's struggle with depression and alcoholism.

A Comparative Tone Analysis Of Several Bantu D30 Languages (Dr Congo), Kent Rasmussen

Linguistics & TESOL Dissertations - Archive

This dissertation presents an analysis of the tonal systems of the Bantu D30 languages. There are 34 Bantu D languages in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), few of which have developed orthographies (Lewis, Simons, & Fennig 2013). These languages make use of contrastive pitch (tone), which is a source of difficulty in their analysis. I begin, therefore, with a review of literature arguing for a number of positions regarding the collection, analysis, and representation of tone data. Additionally, I describe the fundamentals of consonant-tone interaction, and some background on the Bantu D30 languages, including their genetic and geographic …

A Localized Sourcing Model For The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap), Claire H. Burrus

Environmental Studies

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is a federally funded public food program that combats food insecurity by providing credits to SNAP recipients for the purchase of food products. SNAP is effective in addressing hunger, a symptom of poverty, but is ineffective at addressing nutritional inequity, another symptom of poverty, and is also ineffective at addressing the roots of poverty itself. I propose a localized sourcing model for SNAP which addresses both the symptoms and roots of poverty by improving the capacity of the policy to address nutritional inequity and economic injustices. The localized sourcing model benefits the communities in …

Evolution And Controls Of Large Glacial Lakes In The Nepal Himalaya, Umesh K. Haritashya, Jeffrey S. Kargel, Dan H. Shugar, Gregory J. Leonard, Katherine Strattman, C. Scott Watson, David Shean, Stephan Harrison, Kyle T. Mandli, Dhananjay Regmi

Department of Earth, Environment and Sustainability Faculty Publications

Glacier recession driven by climate change produces glacial lakes, some of which are hazardous. Our study assesses the evolution of three of the most hazardous moraine-dammed proglacial lakes in the Nepal Himalaya—Imja, Lower Barun, and Thulagi. Imja Lake (up to 150 m deep; 78.4 x 10⁶ m³ volume; surveyed in October 2014) and Lower Barun Lake (205 m maximum observed depth; 112.3 x 10⁶ m³ volume; surveyed in October 2015) are much deeper than previously measured, and their readily drainable volumes are slowly growing. Their surface areas have been increasing at an accelerating pace from a …

Supplemental Data For 'Evolution And Controls Of Large Glacial Lakes In The Nepal Himalaya', Umesh K. Haritashya, Jeffrey S. Kargel, Dan H. Shugar, Gregory J. Leonard, Katherine Strattman, C. Scott Watson, David Shean, Stephan Harrison, Kyle T. Mandli, Dhananjay Regmi

Department of Earth, Environment and Sustainability Faculty Publications

Supplementary data for the article "Evolution and Controls of Large Glacial Lakes in the Nepal Himalaya"

The Positive Developments And Applications Of Geospatial Technologies In Archaeology On Fort Benning, Georgia, Jane Mader

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the advantages of using geospatial technologies in the field of archaeology. The purpose of this study, conducted on Site 9CE16 on Fort Benning, Georgia, was to examine the ways in which Geographic Information Systems (GIS) can be used to more accurately depict artifacts and features present on archaeological sites. With the research I gathered, I constructed an updated site map which can be viewed in Figures 1.1, 1.2, and 1.3. The map produced includes more features than were initially mapped at Site 9CE16 and help paint a clearer picture of the structures which existed at the original …

Craft Breweries And Community Revitalization, Molly Donovan, Casey Hancock, Geoffrey Sewake

UNH Cooperative Extension

No abstract provided.

Experiencing Success: A Hermeneutic Phenomenology Of Successful Remedial Mathematics Students, Kyle Ireland

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this hermeneutic phenomenological study was to describe how students experience success in mathematics remediation at a four-year private institution in the central United States. Success in a remedial mathematics course was defined as one’s completion of a required remedial mathematics course having earned an overall grade of 90% or higher. The theories guiding this study were achievement goal theory and expectancy-value theory grounded in Bandura’s social cognitive theory. This theoretical framework provided a motivational framework for student success in a post-secondary, remedial mathematics course based on individual goals for completing the task, student self-efficacy beliefs, and the …

Geoscience In A Rapidly Changing World: What Could Go Wrong?, Jr Zondervan

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

The application of geoscience to global development is starting to become more recognised. In particular, the role of geoscience in delivering the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals is discussed by some workers (e.g. Gill and Bullough, 2017). We are living through a time of rapid socio-political and economic change with the rise of globalisation, and it is an important time to ask what the role of geoscience will be in facilitating this change. Geoscience is increasingly supplying information about our environment on a global scale and applications are becoming more powerful. Deep ocean mining will respond to the rising demand for …

The Ultimate Fate Of A Synmagmatic Shear Zone. Interplay Between Rupturing And Ductile Flow In A Cooling Granite Pluton, I Zibra, Jc White, L Menegon, G Dering, K Gessner

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

The Neoarchean Cundimurra Pluton (Yilgarn Craton, Western Australia) was emplaced incrementally along the transpressional Cundimurra Shear Zone. During syndeformational cooling, discrete networks of cataclasites and ultramylonites developed in the narrowest segment of the shear zone, showing the same kinematics as the earlier synmagmatic structures. Lithological boundaries between aplite/pegmatite veins and host granitic gneiss show more intense pre-cataclasite fabrics than homogeneous material, and these boundaries later became the preferred sites of shear rupture and cataclasite nucleation. Transient ductile instabilities established along lithological boundaries culminated in shear rupture at relatively high temperature (~500–600 °C). Here, tensile fractures at high angles from the …

Community Resilience In Rural China: The Case Of Hu Village, Sichuan Province, G Wilson, Z Hu, S Rahman

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Building on conceptual frameworks to assess community resilience developed by Emery and Flora (2006) and Kelly et al. (2015), this study analyses the resilience of Hu village (Sichuan, China). The resilience of the village is assessed in the face of multiple and complex slow- and fast onset anthropogenic disturbances, especially the impacts of globalisation and modernisation, which have substantially transformed Chinese society. Hu village is typical for a rural community in transition affected by industrialisation, deagrarianisation, counter-urbanisation and changing stakeholder expectations and opportunities. This has been accompanied by agricultural depopulation, outmigration, increasing non-farm employment, declining agricultural incomes, and associated social …

Development Of A Chemical Source Apportionment Decision Support Framework For Lake Catchment Management, Sean D.W. Comber, Russell Smith, Peter Daldorph, Michael J. Gardner, Carlos Constantino, Brian Ellor

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

© 2017 Elsevier B.V. Increasing pressures on natural resources has led to the adoption of water quality standards to protect ecological and human health. Lakes and reservoirs are particularly vulnerable to pressure on water quality owing to long residence times compared with rivers. This has raised the question of how to determine and to quantify the sources of priority chemicals (e.g. nutrients, persistent organic pollutants and metals) so that suitable measures can be taken to address failures to comply with regulatory standards. Contaminants enter lakes waters from a range of diffuse and point sources. Decision support tools and models are …

Diagenesis In Tephra-Rich Sediments From The Lesser Antilles Volcanic Arc: Pore Fluid Constraints, Natalie A. Murray, James Mcmanus, Martin R. Palmer, Brian Haley, Hayley Manners

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

No abstract provided.