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The City As A Trap: 20th And 21st Century American Literature And The American Myth Of Mobility, Andrew Joseph Hoffmann

Dissertations (1934 -)

This dissertation reads twentieth and twenty-first century U.S. multicultural literatures, women’s literature, and science-fiction film and literature to identify a tradition of literary representation of long-standing patterns of economic entrapment in American cities.” I argue that the capitalist ideologies of opportunity and spatial, economic, and social mobility associated with American cities have been largely false promises, and that literature provides an avenue to investigate the ideological matrices and cultural narratives that American capitalism uses to situate bodies where it needs them, primarily in urban centers. I claim that this entrapment remains more or less a constant in American cities despite …

Using Remotely Sensed Imagery To Examine Changing Urban Land Cover Across Time And Topography: A Study Of Nepal’S Kathmandu Valley, Rajesh Sigdel

Masters Theses

The Kathmandu Valley, located in Nepal, is the most rapidly growing demographic region in the country. With this demographic transformation, urban land is also expanding within the valley. It is important to understand the rate and extent of urban land cover change for effective land use planning. This study analyzed the urban land cover change in the Kathmandu Valley in 1990, 2006, and 2018 using remote sensing. It also analyzed the shift in the urban topography of the valley during the same period. Landsat 5 and Landsat 8 were used to study the transformation of urban land cover in the …

Understanding Individuals’ Perceptions Of Oak Wilt And Its Implications For Invasive Species Management, Matthew Morrissey

Masters Theses

Oak wilt, a thought-to-be exotic, invasive fungal disease preys upon oak tree species (Quercus sp.) and has begun to cause die-off in oak stands throughout the state of Michigan, with potential for increased cases and subsequent death. Despite efforts to treat the disease, there is no guaranteed treatment for already-infected oak trees. The best option is to control the infection and prevent its spread, by methods such as disconnection of root systems, removal of infected trees, and informed pruning. Given that humans play a role in oak wilt’s artificial spread, it is imperative that the public understands their …

The Effects Of Deforestation On Carbon Storage In Khabarovsk Krai, Russia, Rowan E. Cole

Masters Theses

With over one-fifth of the planet’s forested area, Russia has become a major source of round wood and wood products. In 2003, the Russian government established an energy policy aimed at reducing the negative impacts of industry on the environment and improving the nation’s environments as a whole. This study analyzes deforestation and logging activities in the forests along the Amur River in Khabarovsk Krai in the Russian Far East to determine the effectiveness of Russian government policy in achieving the goals put forward in the 2003 energy policy. Changes in land-use and land-cover will be assessed using 500-meter resolution …

The Use Of High And Medium Resolution Imagery To Detect Agricultural Land Cover In Chinese Cities: A Case Study Of Nanjing 2000 To 2015, Erik Breidinger

Masters Theses

According to McGee and Ginsburg’s desakota hypothesis, rapidly growing Asian cities differ from large Western cities in their land cover/land use (LC/LU) as they retain a significant portion of agricultural land and labor despite rapid urbanization. However, significant amounts of agricultural production within desakotas takes place in plastic greenhouses, causing a unique problem when calculating LC/LU estimates via traditional remote sensing techniques. While greenhouses appear equivalent to developed land spectrally, their purpose is entirely agricultural. This study provides an improved method of calculating greenhouse land-cover as agricultural land-use using Jiangning District in the city of Nanjing as the study area …

April 2019 News Releases, University Of Montana--Missoula. Office Of University Relations

University of Montana News Releases, 1928, 1956-present

No abstract provided.

Restrictions On Post-Employment Competition: Comparing The United States With Japan, Toru Ueda

Connecticut Journal of International Law

Restricting employees, especially those who have resigned from their employment, from competing with their employers may result in severe conflicts between the rights, benefits, and interests of both parties.

Economic enterprises create and develop all sorts of beneficial information that gives them advantageous positions in their market. This information is often more valuable than their tangible property. But in today's information-oriented society, such business information can be duplicated and transferred more readily than can material assets. To protect their investment in this information, careful employers often want to impose on former, as well as current, employees non-competition agreements and other …

Sand, Water, Salt: Managing The Elements In Literature Of The American West, 1880-1925, Jada Ach

Theses and Dissertations

Sand, Water, Salt focuses on Progressive Era American literature that explores the theme of land management set in the so-called wasteland spaces of the arid deserts, semi- arid high plains, and Pacific Ocean. The rhetoric of turn-of-the-century land managers, engineers, and developers insisted that humans and their environments remained separate, thus affording humans the ability to control land from a safe distance. However, the works I examine in my project demonstrate that even thoroughly regulated environments remain lively and beyond total control. My project archive, which includes Progressive Era fiction, memoirs, irrigation maps, aerial photographs, dry farming manifestos, and other …

Rising Temperatures In Hot Regions – How Many Species Would Be Able To Survive?, Sounak Ghosh

Biology Theses

Temperatures are rising throughout the world but not uniformly. Different latitudes have varying degrees of temperature rise and the most rapid changes are happening in the higher northern latitudes while only minor warming is taking place in the hot tropical regions. It has been widely assumed that the biggest ecological impacts will be seen in the cooler northern latitudes and that the impacts in hot tropical regions will be much smaller. However, if species in hot regions are already close to their thermal limits and if species in cold regions are far below them, it may be that small temperature …

A Conceptual Mapping Approach For Presenting A Practical Past: Addressing Responsibility Through Contextualization In Information System Design For The Ward One Mobile Application, Sadia Obaid Khan

Theses and Dissertations

This paper presents and documents a model for telling history through technology using the Ward One application for iOS mobile devices as a test site for the idea of conceptual mapping. The historical-information delivery system was created to mobilize the rhetoricity of representation that is a procedural necessity of technological mediation.

The paper begins by explaining the exigence of the app—to tell the history of an African-American community displaced from the land now occupied by the University of South Carolina as a result of racially discriminating housing policies in Columbia, SC and across the United States. It then addresses the …

Convertirse En Inmortal, 成仙 Chéngxiān, Becoming Xian: Memory And Subjectivity In Cristina Rivera Garza’S Verde Shanghai, Katherine Paulette Elizabeth Crouch

Theses and Dissertations

Verde Shanghai, published in 2011 by Cristina Rivera Garza, is often used in discussions of Orientalism in Latina America and Mexico. The text employs tropes and stereotypes common in Orientalist thinking, but to label the work Orientalist and analyze it through that lens seems too simplistic. I argue that Verde Shanghai ultimately proves a refutation of Orientalism’s existence within Mexico, and, more broadly, an overall deconstruction of the East-West dichotomy. Rivera Garza appears more interested in using racial and cultural identities to dismantle the polar dichotomies in which her characters live, ultimately critiquing these frameworks in the outside world.

Habitat Suitability Of The Mountain Pine Beetle In Alberta, Canada Under Future Climate Scenarios, Nathalie Woloszyn

Masters Theses

Mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins) is the most destructive insect currently devastating North American forests (Safranyik & Carroll, 2006). Native to western North America, the mountain pine beetle has recently expanded beyond its historic range, into the novel territory of Alberta, Canada. Since its arrival in the mid-2000s, the mountain pine beetle has diffused eastward at an average rate of 80km/year (Cooke & Carroll, 2017). Poised at the doorstep of the boreal forest, current concern anticipates the potential diffusion of the mountain pine beetle to eastern North America.

The Maxent (maximum entropy) model, a presence-only spatial distribution model, …

Ammani Youth- Paradoxical Citizens On The Margins, Holly L. Smith

Theses and Dissertations

Cities are complex social environments representing a convergence of many physical and human processes which influence how young people form their identities and plan for their futures. The role of urban environments on social processes has received substantial attention. However, significantly less attention has been focused on how urban youth are impacted specifically as political actors. Youth are particularly exposed to feeling the impacts of historical and on-going geopolitical issues in and surrounding their urban environments. Amman, Jordan is a compelling location to examine urban impacts on young political actors because of the clear geopolitical changes taking place in and …

A Choice To Engage: Selective Marginality And Dynamic Households On The 18th-19th Century Irish Coast, Meagan Conway

Theses and Dissertations

This research explores the nature of marginality on the peripheries of empire in 18th and 19th century rural Ireland. These shifting imperial borders, both cultural and geographic, are historically fluid spaces that have potential to impact individual decision-making, spark cultural change, and alter social dynamics under the pressures of foreign rule. This project focuses on individual rural households off the coast of western Ireland to understand the selective engagement (choices to accept or reject externally generated ideologies) of households in transnational systems, and the ways islanders generated a material reaction to prescribed narratives of marginality from the imperial epicenter. Expressions …

Amish Perspectives Of The Genetic Counseling Process, Brianna Teapole

Theses and Dissertations

The Amish are a population with a high concentration of genetic disorders who have informed our understanding of several genetic conditions. This culturally unique group has special need for genetic services. While clinics have been established to care for Amish individuals, such as the Community Health Clinic in Indiana, little research has been done on Amish perspectives of these services, specifically genetic counseling. Amish individuals who received genetic counseling from the Community Health Clinic were sent recruitment letters and a questionnaire via mail. The questionnaire consisted of demographic questions, a 7-item adapted Genetic Counseling Satisfaction Scale (GCSS), and open-response questions. …

The Impact Of A Thematic Unit And Integration On Students’ Achievement In Social Studies, Holness Samuels

Theses and Dissertations

This action research study focused on a problem of practice observed in a Title 1 middle school in rural South Carolina, where seventh-grade students show low academic achievement levels in social studies, evidenced by low scores on teacher-made tests, district benchmarks, and the state standardized test. To address this problem of practice, research questions were formulated: What is the impact of implementing a thematic unit on World War One, an integrated approach, on students' motivation to learn social studies? What impact will the implementation of a thematic unit on World War One have on students’ perception of social studies? and, …

Divine Absence, Divine Presence: The Theological Arguments Of Elizabeth Singer Rowe’S The History Of Joseph, Laura Macgowan

Theses and Dissertations

Elizabeth Singer Rowe’s Biblical epic The History of Joseph (1736), which dramatizes the events of Genesis 37-45, stands out in her oeuvre not only generically—it is her only long narrative poem—but because of how rarely God appears as an intervening agent or subject of narrative attention. Rather than highlight God’s splendor by imbuing Scripture with poetic embellishment, as is her wont, Rowe’s language downplays God’s hand in a famously Providential story (Genesis 50.20). While God shows up most often as an entity to beseech or a cultural token to reference, pagan deities govern the plot’s action; Rowe relishes in …

Prototyping A Social Media Flooding Photo Screening System Based On Deep Learning And Crowdsourcing, Huan Ning

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis aims to implement a prototype system to screen flooding photos from social media. These photos, associated with their geographic locations, can provide free, timely, and reliable visual information about flood events to the decision makers. This system is designed for the application to the real social media images, including several key functions: tweets downloading, image downloading, flooding photo detection, and human verification via a WebGIS application. In this study, a training dataset of 5,000 flooding photos was built based on an iterative method; a convolutional neural network (CNN) was then trained and applied to detect flooding photos. Also, …

Endolithic Microbial Carbon Cycling In East Antarctica, Natalie Tyler

Theses and Dissertations

Microbes adapt to inhospitable conditions by colonizing niches that protect them from severe environmental conditions, making them model organisms in the search for life on other planets. Endoliths are globally ubiquitous microbes that colonize structural cavities within rocks, which protect them from environmental stressors while maintaining access to nutrition and light sources. Despite harsh katabatic winds, extreme temperature fluctuations, harmful UV radiation and exposure to desiccation, endolithic communities have been observed in Antarctica. Previous studies have found viable and abundant microbial biomass through microscopy and the addition of isotopic labels. However, due to the slow metabolic activity of these microbes, …

The Warped One: Nationalist Adaptations Of The Cuchulain Myth, Martha J. Lee

Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, I trace the use of the mythic Irish hero Cuchulain by early Irish nationalists. From 1878 to 1939, Standish James O’Grady, Lady Augusta Gregory, and William Butler Yeats employed this figure for specific political and cultural agendas. Cuchulain makes a fitting symbol for the “poet warrior” stereotype that was purposely and incidentally cultivated during the cultural nationalist phase of the Irish Literary Revival, when writers were beginning to explore the Cuchulain myth to demonstrate cultural and linguistic ideals. Nationalists found in Cuchulain a symbol that could tie the cultural to the political and the political to the …

Steam And Social Studies: Creating An Integrated Classroom, Anna Penner

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

The purpose of this capstone is to address the question what strategies does the research recommend for supporting social studies educators in integrating Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math (STEAM) practices into their core content? STEAM education has been adopted by many American school districts to help prepare students to be successful in 21st century careers. With a focus on problem-based learning and critical thinking, STEAM education can teach students real world skills. The goals of social studies education include preparing young people to be empathetic, active members of society. When teachers are educated in the best methods of integrating …

Developing Global Competence Through Intercultural Communication In Elementary School Students, Frankie Heller

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

As a teacher one of my primary responsibilities - is creating a world that is more compassionate and understanding. To support me in this effort this capstone project will explore the question: What components of a classroom project build intercultural communication between students of different countries, develops their sense of global competence, and promotes a mindset oriented towards peace? Exploring this question supports the development of four lesson plans to be utilized and adapted in elementary school classrooms in the United States and across the world. The lesson plans include formative assessment and each session should take a half hour, …

Perspectives On American History: An Integrated Social Studies And English Language Arts Curriculum For Fifth Grade, Sara Ibis

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

Social studies instruction leads to higher civic participation, like voting and volunteerism. Though the research supports high-quality social studies instruction for students of all ages, elementary social studies has taken a significant drop in instructional time over the last 20 years. This capstone uses the research of leading thinkers on social studies instruction, curriculum best practices and culturally relevant teaching to answer the question: How can I develop an integrated social studies and English language arts curriculum for fifth grade? Research shows that curriculum integration can be an effective way to deliver social studies content to elementary students. To encourage …

Nature Journal Activity Guide - Grades 3-5, Jennifer Ann Hengel

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

If we want adults that are stewards for the environment, we need to include nature in education when they are younger so they can understand and appreciate the natural world. This need prompted the question, How do we utilize nature journals for school-age children to increase students’ understanding and appreciation of the natural world? Prior research has pointed to the benefits of teaching nature to youth, as well as the benefits of journaling in education. Nature journaling covers both sides of this equation, and helps foster sense of place and experiential learning. This capstone project was an activity guide similar …

Activity Modifications For Growing Up Wild™: Supporting Young Learners With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Valerie Coduto

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

Studies have showed that young children spending time outdoors have many positive impacts on their overall physical, social/emotional, and cognitive health. The benefits of nature contact have also been demonstrated for children with developmental disorders, but current mainstream nature-based curriculum provides no activity modifications for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). In 2018 the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated one in 59 children is diagnosed with ASD. ASD is a developmental disability characterized by significant communication, social, and behavioral difficulties. Research has demonstrated that the more nature children are exposed to, there are positive gains in cognitive functioning, …

Pilgrimage To Palmyra, Reid L. Neilson, Carson V. Teuscher

BYU Studies

The arrival of autumn in 1923 brought more than a mature harvest to the quiet farming village of Palmyra, New York. On a late September weekend, a torrent of visitors flooded the township—a spectacle unlike anything the locals had ever seen. “Trudging along the roads leading into Palmyra today there came a small army of pilgrims,” the local Rochester Herald reported, “each with his pilgrim’s scrip and each wearing slung across his shoulders a banner with the cryptic word ‘Cumorah’ blazoned on it.” Befuddled residents witnessed the young male and female pilgrims arrive—two by two—until they eventually coalesced in large …

End Matter

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

No abstract provided.

Joys: A Brief Moral And Christian Geography, Robert C. Roberts

Faith and Philosophy: Journal of the Society of Christian Philosophers

No abstract provided.

Land And Land Grabbing: The Case Study Of The Neumann Kaffee Gruppe In Uganda, Carolyn Vertin

College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Theses and Dissertations

This thesis analyzes the dynamic of North-South relations and food politics in relation to the trend of “land-grabbing” by foreign investors in sub-Saharan Africa. The analysis focuses on the conceptual and discursive “ecology” surrounding food and land security in the post-colonial, globalized world. The image of post-colonial Africa has been made to show a continent plagued with turmoil, yet filled with expanses of underutilized land that are ripe for cultivation. I argue that land lease relationships between governments of less developed countries and organizations, companies or agencies from more developed countries affect peasants and local communities more than- or more …

Valuing Rural Dexterity: Experiential Funds Of Knowledge, Science Education, And Rural Kids, Amanda Morales

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

One’s sense of place is tied inextricably to one’s identity. Who we become as adults is closely connected to our interweaving of experience over time and how we come to understand the world and ourselves relative to it. Th ese informal and organic interactions within the specifi c environmental contexts of our childhoods can seem insignifi cant and inconsequential, particularly given that children’s imaginative explorations, informal investigations, and authentic observations of ecological phenomena present in their daily lives are oft en not acknowledged by or valued within formal educational settings. In this essay, I use Gonzalez, Moll, and Amanti’s (2005) …