Digital Commons Network^™

Dear United States Of America, We Are Children: Unaccompanied Immigration Children Under The Obama And Trump Immigration System, Briana Dominguez

CURCE Annual Undergraduate Conference

Dear United States of America: We Are Children is about the way undocumented unaccompanied children are treated by the immigration system in the U.S. I focus on the two different presidential administrations, the Obama and Trump administration. I will started from the Obama administration, fiscal year 2014 and end on the Trump administration, fiscal year of 2018-19. This is important because undocumented children are treated unfairly, they are being thrown from one department to another, denied asylum, deported to their countries that they do not desire to go back, put in cells, and put into the immigration system by themselves. …

Stereotypes Across Cultures, Giovana Reis

Writing Waves

Keywords: Carnaval, Mestizo, #EleNão

Dare To Venture: Data Science Perspective On Crowdfunding, Ruhaab Markas, Yisha Wang

SMU Data Science Review

Crowdfunding is an emerging segment of the financial sectors. Entrepreneurs are now able to seek funds from the online community through the use of online crowdfunding platforms. Entrepreneurs seek to understand attributes that play into a successful crowdfunding project (commonly known as campaign). In this paper we seek so understand the field of crowdfunding and various factors that contribute to the success of a campaign. We aim to use traditional modeling techniques to predict successful campaigns for Kickstarter. We find emerging field of crowdfunding has many nuances due to various funding methods of online platforms. The importance of having relevant …

Leveraging Natural Language Processing Applications And Microblogging Platform For Increased Transparency In Crisis Areas, Ernesto Carrera-Ruvalcaba, Johnson Ekedum, Austin Hancock, Ben Brock

SMU Data Science Review

Through microblogging applications, such as Twitter, people actively document their lives even in times of natural disasters such as hurricanes and earthquakes. While first responders and crisis-teams are able to help people who call 911, or arrive at a designated shelter, there are vast amounts of information being exchanged online via Twitter that provide real-time, location-based alerts that are going unnoticed. To effectively use this information, the Tweets must be verified for authenticity and categorized to ensure that the proper authorities can be alerted. In this paper, we create a Crisis Message Corpus from geotagged Tweets occurring during 7 hurricanes …

Examining Mosquito Abundance, Composition, And Distribution Before And After Hurricane Irma In Miami-Dade County, Florida, Qian Huang

Open Access Theses

Flooding events such as hurricanes have become common throughout the world, yet our understanding of how these events affect the spatial and temporal distribution of disease vectors such as mosquitoes is limited. This knowledge can guide development of effective and timely strategies for mitigating mosquito-borne disease outbreaks in the aftermath of flood disasters. This study examined the influence of weather and socio-demographic factors on the spatial and temporal distribution of mosquitoes before and after Hurricane Irma in Miami-Dade County, Florida. Adult female mosquitoes were collected from August 15 through October 15, 2017 using CDC light traps (n= 30 traps) and …

Migratory Shorebird Adheres To Bergmann’S Rule By Responding To Environmental Conditions Through The Annual Lifecycle, Daniel Gibson, Angela D. Hornsby, Mary B. Brown, Jonathan B. Cohen, Lauren R. Dinan, James D. Fraser, Meryl J. Friedrich, Cheri L. Gratto-Trevor, Kelsi L. Hunt, Matthew Jeffery, Joel G. Jorgensen, Peter W.C. Paton, Samantha G. Robinson, Jen Rock, Michelle L. Stantial, Chelsea E. Weithman, Daniel H. Catlin

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

The inverse relationship between body size and environmental temperature is a widespread ecogeographic pattern. However, the underlying forces that produce this pattern are unclear in many taxa. Expectations are particularly unclear for migratory species, as individuals may escape environmental extremes and reorient themselves along the environmental gradient. In addition, some aspects of body size are largely fixed while others are environmentally flexible and may vary seasonally. Here, we used a long-term dataset that tracked multiple populations of the migratory piping plover Charadrius melodus across their breeding and non-breeding ranges to investigate ecogeographic patterns of phenotypically flexible (body mass) and fixed …

Stephen Connor Oral History.

Pediatric Palliative Care Oral History Project

Dr. Stephen Connor begins by describing some of his early professional experiences and mentors who supported him as he developed his interest in death and dying. Dr. Connor explains that after several "epiphany moments" and observing some of the death and dying practices abroad, he and several other like-minded professionals said: "You know, really, we should just start a hospice." Dr. Connor then describes his early professional experiences of co-founding some of the earliest hospice programs in the United States, which drove his career from local hospice programming to national programming and finally into the international programming, research, publications, and …

Assessing How Terrain Representations And Scale Affect The Accuracy Of Distance Estimates, Kristian Mueller

Geography ETDs

Terrain is often displayed on maps either as background or foreground. Although terrain representations are ubiquitous, there is not a thorough understanding of map-readers’ cognition of geographic surfaces from various terrain representations. The research described in this thesis empirically assessed map users’ abilities at estimating straight-line distance using maps with two different types of terrain representations and at three different scales. The objective of this research was to assess how accurately map users estimate distance on the ground taking into account variations in elevation. Participant data in the form of demographics and distance estimates were statistically analyzed to determine if …

Rennick, Robert M., 1932-2010 (Sc 3419), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scans (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3419. Letters, March 1972, to retired WKU faculty member Frances Richards and her sister Mary Ellen Richards, Franklin, Kentucky, from Robert M. Rennick of the University of Kentucky’s Prestonsburg Community College. Rennick outlines the objectives and methods of a national undertaking to survey all the place names of the United States and his work with a committee to ensure Kentucky’s participation. He requests their help in supervising the research and gathering of data from Simpson County. A second letter thanks Frances for her agreement to participate and …

Wielding The Power Of Prayer: The Use Of Prayer In Conflict, Tim Martin

Obsculta

No abstract provided.

Mental Sensorium, Brittany Adkins

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

According to ADAA, nearly one-half of those diagnosed with depression are also diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. Anxiety disorders are highly treatable but only 36.9% are receiving any kind of treatment. Anxiety disorders develop based on a set of factors including genetics, brain chemistry, personality, and life events. Many do not realize but our environment, especially the built environment we inhabit every day can have a positive or negative effect on our mental well-being. Architecture should not just focus on the physical needs of their inhabitants but the mental health needs as well.

The built environment has a considerable impact …

Skater Conscious, Jeremy Bowen

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Skateboarding is made possible by the built environment, but without architecture necessarily being designed for its occurrence. Without knowing it, designers have created environments that facilitate a social and artistic culture to thrive. And this has happened – for the most part – in leftover pieces of landscape, infrastructure, and urban settings. Skaters move through and experience space in unique ways. While their boards enable this experience, there is more; most spaces are not designed for them – and some are even designed to keep them out – but, nevertheless, skaters persevere through invention and creativity. Skaters actively search for …

Ecological Urbanism | Design Strategies For Bridging The Social Gap In Kolkata, Varshil Patel

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Kolkata, India, also known as a “City of Joy” for its vibrant diversity and as one of the most important cultural centers in the country, exemplifies many issues that are related to overpopulation, weak enforcement of planning regulations, informal housing, natural ecological degradation, and lack of social cohesion. The development of modernized neighborhoods in the outskirts coincided with the internal migration of the middle class and furthered the social gap. Wetlands east of the city, which used to provide a substantial amount of food and livelihood for the city, have been diminishing due to urban development. The lack of necessities …

Mapping Policy Issues: A Simple, Active-Learning Exercise For Critical Thinking, Richard Holtzman

History and Social Sciences Faculty Journal Articles

Many students in my undergraduate American politics courses struggle to see policy issues as complex. Too often, they get stuck making surface-level observations or jumping straight to personal opinions, falling far short of critical thinking. This article introduces an active-learning exercise—situational mapping—that provokes students to recognize and think critically about the complexities of policy issues such as immigration, abortion, campaign financing, and guns. Adapted from a grounded-theory research technique, the goals of this mapping exercise are to (1) help students see policy issues as messy, (2) encourage them to “wallow in complexity” rather than oversimplify, and (3) provoke them to …

A Theoretical Framework For The Protection Of Environmental Refugees In International Law, Mathias Sahinkuye

The Transnational Human Rights Review

This article analyzes the reality and the criteria for the legal protection of environmental refugees. Using an interdisciplinary approach, it addresses questions about the existence, nature, universality, justification, and legal status of environmental refugees. Despite the lively debates within the community of experts and scientists specializing in migration and/or environmental issues, there is no consensus today on a definition of the term “environmental refugees” since 1985 when it officially appeared. Several descriptions such as ecological refugees, environmental refugees, climate refugees, eco-refugees, climate évacué, environmental migrants, displaced persons due to a natural disaster, environmentally displaced persons, etc. have been used without …

Sovereignty And Canadian-Nigerian Human Rights Engagements: Some Theoretical Reflections, Zachary Lomo

The Transnational Human Rights Review

This article attempts to draw some theoretical insights from the Canada-Nigeria human rights engagement from 1999 to 2011. Canada and Nigeria claim to seek cooperation on the principles of sovereign equality. What, then, is sovereignty and sovereign equality? The article will attempt to address the various approaches to theorizing sovereignty in four broad conceptual categories – sovereignty as State power and authority; sovereignty as the power and authority of the people; sovereignty as equality; and sovereignty as responsibility to protect. The nature of the Canada-Nigeria engagements in human rights is scrutinized under two main themes – first, engagements in the …

Urban Stitch: A Game In Section, Jesse Garner

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

A city begins as a small, centralized community where everybody knows each other. Social events take place in the city square, or even on sidewalks, creating a street culture. As a city grows, so does the demand for larger roads, and eventually highways. In the late 1940’s President Eisenhower initiated the interstate system, capable of handling large amounts of traffic, creating connections to larger cities with economic centers. Over the next forty years, the interstates were installed across the United States, either bypassing, or crossing through cities. Although necessary, at what point does the interstate, if taken through a major …

Spatial Distribution Of Tuberculosis And Its Association With Meteorological Factors In Mainland China, Yingjie Zhang, Mengyang Liu, Samuel S. Wu, Hui Jiang, Junjie Zhang, Songwang Wang, Wei Ma, Qihuan Li, Yuan Ma, Yue Liu, Wei Feng, Endawoke Amsalu, Xia Li, Wei Wang, Weimin Li, Xiuhua Guo

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

BACKGROUND: The incidence of tuberculosis (TB) remains high worldwide. Current strategies will not eradicate TB by 2035; instead, by 2182 is more likely. Therefore, it is urgent that new risk factors be identified.

METHODS: An ecological study was conducted in 340 prefectures in China from 2005 to 2015. The spatial distribution of TB incidence was shown by clustering and hotspot analysis. The relationship between the distribution patterns and six meteorological factors was evaluated by the geographically weighted regression (GWR) model.

RESULTS: During the 11 years of the study period, TB incidence was persistently low in the east and high in …

The Developers And The Independents: White Mississippi Cattle Producers’ Perspectives On Government Farm Programs And Success, Kelli J. Russell

Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, I explore how white producers of U.S. agriculture’s top commodity—cattle—understand participation in government farm programs. As such, the central research question guiding this research is: how do white Mississippi cattle producers portray their decisions to pursue (or not pursue) government farm programs? Specifically, I offer insights into how farmers reconcile tension between being independent/self-sufficient and accepting government subsidies. Using data from 289 hours of participant observation at agricultural events and 33 interviews with producers, I examine sociologically how these understandings of farm program participation relate to producers’ ideological notions of “success” and how race and gender shape …

Newsroom, Georgia Southern University

Newsroom (2006-2023)

• Medical Explorer program participants experience a day in the life of a nurse
• Museum on Main Otis Redding exhibit to showcase Georgia Southern students’ work

Estimating Near-Surface Vertical Heat Fluxes Over Agricultural Areas Using A Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (Suav), Derek Rosseau

Theses and Dissertations

We propose the use of a small unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) equipped with temperature, pressure, and relative humidity sensors to estimate sensible and latent heat fluxes over an active agricultural area in east-central Mississippi. The Bowen ratio method is applied to vertical soundings from the surface to 120 meters at 10-meter intervals. A number of flights were conducted at Mississippi State University during the late stages of the growing season with the purpose of obtaining heat flux estimates over different land surface/cover types. Results show that the UAV platform is able to provide reasonable heat and moisture flux estimates, and …

Drivers Of Genomic Divergence During Speciation In Heliconius Butterflies, Jared Cole

Theses and Dissertations

Identifying the forces responsible for driving genomic divergence during speciation is a major goal of research in evolutionary biology. Thus, many efforts have focused on disentangling these forces by modeling the evolutionary histories of interacting populations. Here, population genomic datasets and a diffusion approximation method is used to model the demographic scenarios that influence divergence between Heliconius erato and the incipient species Heliconius himera. The models support an isolation-with-migration scenario, with relatively low and heterogeneous rates of introgression between H. himera and H. erato cyrbia. Additionally, the models suggest a history of selection driving divergence and introgression patterns among H. …

Mapping Wilderness Character In Adams County, Pennsylvania, Alyssa J. Kaewwilai

Gettysburg Social Sciences Review

The spatial trends in wilderness character in Adams County, Pennsylvania were examined to evaluate how influenced specific areas are impacted by human activity and development. Indicators of wilderness character were selected as natural, untrammelled, undeveloped, along with solitude and unconfined recreation by the Death Valley National Park staff in which a 0-4 ranking system was based upon to portray a range of most degraded to optimal land. This was executed through examination of factors such as abundance of biodiversity and human development within the given area before a Monte Carlo simulation was run to show sensitivity of change. It was …

The Gettysburg Social Sciences Review Spring 2019

Gettysburg Social Sciences Review

No abstract provided.

Description Of Area On Sookatoncha Creek Near West Point, Miss., Author Unknown

Manuscripts and Books

Describes positions of the "3rd Miss" the "19th" and the "5th" in relation to Sookatoncha Creek (possibly Town Creek) near West Point, Miss.

Forest Structure Of Long-Term Conserved Areas Utilizing Different Strategies On A Continental, Glacial Moraine Formed Island, Christopher Coggin

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Understanding patterns of forest succession can help advise management plans within New England nature preserves. This study took place on Block Island, 13 miles off the coast of Rhode Island. The island has greater than 200+ years of farming practices. After 1960, conservation groups began reforesting the island using different strategies, such as actively planting with native and exotic tree species, mowing, and preventing further development. In 2018, woody vegetation was inventoried along transects within four reforested sites. Sites were characterized as the following: actively planted with exotic and native tree species and mowed (AP-M), actively planted with exotic and …

Herpetological Assemblages In Tropical Dry Forests Of The Azuero Peninsula, Panama: An Evaluation Of Reforestation, Tyler Kovacs

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Tropical dry forests are considered one of the most endangered tropical ecosystems making reforestation increasingly necessary to restore Panama’s unique ecoregion. The isolated dry ecoregion surrounding the Bay of Parita in Panama has a long history of deforestation and cattle grazing. Successful reforestation of this land is important to restore ecosystem health and biodiversity. In Panama, reforestation ranges from monocultures of exotic teak (Tectona grandis) to passive regeneration. Faunal recovery within these reforestation systems may vary due to different habitat characteristics. In this study, amphibian and reptile communities were compared in two types of reforestation systems and protected riparian forests …

Alumni Friends Invited To Celebrate Geography's 50th Anniversary, Nov. 1516, Ohio University College Of Arts & Sciences

All Forum Articles

No abstract provided.

Nutrient Concentrations And Effects On Mill Run From Residential, Urban, And Industrial Stormwater Contamination, Melissa Carver

HCNSO Student Theses and Dissertations

Nutrients are introduced into the waters of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania through various methods, mainly through point and non-point sources. Non-point sources would include agricultural means however, there are often other non-point sources that are often overlooked. Water runoff from stormwater is an important contributor to pollution entering various watersheds. Data was collected at 4 locations (the initial point of reference, residential, urban, and industrial) on Mill Run and 2 locations on Woodcock Creek, through surface water collection methods in dry and wet weather. Nitrate, Nitrite, Total Phosphorus, and Total Nitrogen were among the data collected. Total Phosphorus had an …

Lindenwood Gis Wins Grant Third Year In A Row, Lindenwood University

Archived Lindenwood Press Releases

No abstract provided.