Digital Commons Network^™

Searching For Pōhakuloa: A Citizen Scientist’S Journey In Aloha ‘Āina, Drake Logan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation tells a story about the United States (US) military’s land occupation of two Indigenous Hawaiian wahi pana (sacred places), on O’ahu and Hawai’i Island, which have produced widespread health concerns regarding exposure to military toxins. I conducted six months of fieldwork in Hawai’i, in which I partnered with local communities in a Critical Participatory Action research process. Together, we formed and co-led a community-based science pilot study of contamination from Pōhakuloa Training Area, generating new citizen science methods capable of uncovering evidence on confirmed military toxics uses. These methods were developed in critical solidarity with international communities who …

The Emergence Of Ecosystems-Based Fisheries Management From The Groundfish Crisis In New England: An Actor-Network Theory Analysis, Catherine King

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This research investigates the emergence of ecosystems-based fisheries management (EBFM) for New England's marine fisheries in the context of the "crisis" that is escalating in its groundfish fishery. Close observations of the practices of fisheries scientists in coordination with managers at the New England Fisheries Management Council, with focus on how knowledge is being produced and employed, allows for understanding EBFM as an emergent construction produced by networks of associations between actants, human and non-human, material and semiotic, and not strictly as a policy prescription informed by experts on biology, ecology, and socio-economics. This analysis identifies and elucidates the multiplicity …

Eating The Heart Of Weetigo World: Decolonial Imaginaries In The Stories Of Louise Erdrich And Tomson Highway, Rebecca Lynne Fullan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

My dissertation asks what the decolonial possibilities of fiction are in the context of the settler colonial imaginaries particular to the United States and Canada. The ongoing process of settler colonialism demands various forms of conversion from Indigenous people: ecological/land based, religious, educational, legal, familial, but the construct of “conversion” obscures Indigenous worldviews, and indeed worlds, which function according to different principles. I interpret Erdrich and Highway's work in the context of Anishinaabe and Cree narratives and story-structures. These offer examples of what can constitute broader decolonial imaginaries, through which perception and creation of other, more liveable worlds is possible. …

The Performance And Patronage Of Baloch Culture Through Music (And Related Arts) In The Eastern Arabian Peninsula, George Murer

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation is a study of Baloch musical—and ritual—idioms as cultivated (and variously innovated, embellished, patronized, and reconstructed) in the relatively prosperous and cosmopolitan urban environments of the coastal Eastern Arabian Peninsula—the third major concentration of Baloch population after Balochistan and Karachi. Due to historical and geographic particulars, the origins of Peninsular Baloch communities lie primarily in the Makran region that extends along the Arabian Sea coast and across the political boundary separating Iran and Pakistan. If musical activities play a significant role in orienting Baloch communities socially and politically, what are the presentational strategies implied in the foregrounding of …

Building Baghdad: The Construction Of Urban Space In Iraq, 1921–1963, Andrew S. Alger

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines the production of space in Baghdad during the monarchical and early republican eras (1921 – 1963). As the capital of the new nation of Iraq following the First World War, Baghdad expanded along the banks of the Tigris River into new residential and commercial spaces, establishing schools, boutique stores, sporting venues, electricity and running water that transformed how Iraqis conceived of the mundane activities associated with daily life. Employing a theoretical framework drawing on Henri Lefebvre’s production of space, I argue that participation in the creation of new neighborhoods and streets was uneven across differences of class, …

A Defense And Expansion Of The Theory Of Capitalist Ground Rent: Speculation, Securitization, And Struggles Over Land And Housing, Francesca Manning

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Why are the rents so high? Who is responsible for homelessness, for urban and rural displacement? How can these problems be combatted?

Recent literature addressing these questions has pointed to gentrification and the financialization of land and housing, faulted financialized landlords, hedge funds, and the irredeemable logic of finance, and pointed to the importance of land and housing regulation to prevent displacement.

However, theories of displacement—in both land and housing, on both urban and rural terrain—suffer from a lack of an underlying theory of the logic, tendencies, and limits of ground rent extraction in capitalism.

This dissertation develops a theory …

The Berbers: Constructed Identities By Foreigners On African Soil, Zineb Askaoui

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis examines the textual evidence pertaining to the identity of the local North African population of Morocco. In examining the literature about North Africans and the inscriptions in North Africa, I wish to determine who their authors were. Since North Africa has been invaded and colonized multiple times throughout history, the available literature written by both the foreigners who colonized it and the locals yielded interesting and sometimes contrasting results.

The names that address the local North Africans are pertinent expressions of identity or of forceful submission. This study examines four different terms that have been used to describe …

“The Little Seed And The Wind”: Digital Intervention Tool For Geography And Empathy, Maritha Pocorni-Humphries

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Educational researchers agree that there is an absence of student engagement in our primary education institutions. They also acknowledge that learner engagement could enhance their overall behavior. What could be done to promote learning, involve students and sustain their motivation? Why should we admit that students tend to show more involvement and engagement during digital interactivity? This paper describes my motivation behind my designed digital geographical educational intervention tool which in a playful way introduces and teaches 4- and 5-years old children the seven continents and the seven oceans. Drawing on the underpinning concept of game-based learning theory my framework …

Characterising Life In Settlements And Structures: Incorporating Faecal Lipid Biomarkers Within A Multiproxy Case Study Of A Wetland Village, H Mackay, Kl Davies, J Robertson, L Roy, Et Al

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Roundhouses are ubiquitous features of Iron Age landscapes across North West Europe, yet the way they were used internally is not well understood. We demonstrate how spatial analyses of steroid lipid biomarkers advances our understanding of household activities, living conditions and animal management associated with a well-preserved 5th century BCE roundhouse from Scotland's first Iron Age wetland village, Black Loch of Myrton, especially when combined with more traditional archaeological approaches. Faecal steroids (5ß-stanols and bile acids) are well preserved within the wetland roundhouse floor deposits. Diffuse faecal inputs are identified within these deposits, limiting the resolution of faecal source discrimination …

Through The Eyes Of A Woman: Using Oral History To Explore The Enigmatic World Of Saudi Arabia’S Female Population, Carmen Winkel, Laura Strachan

Journal of International Women's Studies

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) remains cloaked in mystery and stereotypes especially when it pertains to its female population. Oppression? Subjugation? Discontent? These typecasts reverberate around the world, but interestingly when one speaks to a Saudi woman her story offers diverging representations of Saudi life that often debunk those expressed elsewhere. But without scholars asking “real” people about their lives and analyzing their lived responses, these dominant narratives are reaffirmed over and over again. To move beyond these stereotypes, this paper attempts to address the lives of Saudi Arabian females by using firsthand accounts obtained for an undergraduate student …

Energy And Performance-Optimized Scheduling Of Tasks In Distributed Cloud And Edge Computing Systems, Haitao Yuan

Dissertations

Infrastructure resources in distributed cloud data centers (CDCs) are shared by heterogeneous applications in a high-performance and cost-effective way. Edge computing has emerged as a new paradigm to provide access to computing capacities in end devices. Yet it suffers from such problems as load imbalance, long scheduling time, and limited power of its edge nodes. Therefore, intelligent task scheduling in CDCs and edge nodes is critically important to construct energy-efficient cloud and edge computing systems. Current approaches cannot smartly minimize the total cost of CDCs, maximize their profit and improve quality of service (QoS) of tasks because of aperiodic arrival …

Animals And Literature, Lewis Carroll, Herbert George Wells, Carrie Lewis Miller, Firdavs Khaydarov, Odbayar Batsaikhan

All Resources

Openly licensed anthology focused on the theme of Animals and Literature. Contains Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll and The Island of Doctor Moreau by H.G. Wells.

Ell Teachers Guide To Pronunciation: A Contrastive Analysis Of S'Gaw Karen And American English Phonetics And Phonology, Shana Lee

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

Lee, S. ELLTeachers Guide to Pronunciation: A Contrastive Analysis of S’gaw Karen and American English Phonetics and Phonology (2020)

The purpose of this study (Lee, 2020) was to determine the phonological features of English that provide the largest challenge to the pronunciation of S’gaw Karen speaking ELL students in order to inform the development of a curricular resource meant to help educators increase the comprehensible speech output in English. A review of literature revealed a gap of academic work around the S’gaw language especially pertaining to instructional methodologies for language teachers. To guide the development of this resource, the author …

Increasing Knowledge On Current Global English Theories And Cultural Differences–– A Professional Development Workshop For Assistant Language Teachers In Japan, Megan Lambrecht

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

As English is an increasingly important global commodity, native English speakers are hired in countries around the world to assist with English classes. Japan is an example of a country that does just this. In Japan, these teachers are often hired simply by the qualification of being a native speaker, generally not needing a degree or experience in education. Many of these newfound teachers are given little to no information on relevant global English theories or cultural influences which may impact classroom environments. The project was heavily influenced by the work of Hino (2012), Oshima (2015), Jenkins (2014), Barrantes-Montero (2018), …

Why Is There A Growing Number Of Ell Students With Learning Delays, Being Diagnosed With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Or Qualifying For Special Education?, Heidi Anderson

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

Anderson, H. Why is there a growing number of ELL students with learning delays, being diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder, or qualifying for Special Education? (2020)

The research question addressed in this project was why is there a growing number of ELL students with learning delays, being diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder, or qualifying for Special Education? The research focused on English language learner’s social, emotional and academic needs. The research provides information on cultural and linguistic awareness, and the importance of how cultural and language needs to be recognized in the criteria for assessing or evaluating English language learners …

Missing Narratives: Racial Inequities In Social Studies Curriculum, Amanda Pomerleau

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

Pomerleau, A. (2020) Missing Narratives: Racial Inequities in Social Studies Curriculum

The education system in the United States, like the government, is built on inequitable systems, where those in charge of the narratives, policies, and institutions are overwhelmingly White. Traditional textbooks and instructional materials are also White-centric, telling the histories of White men and the systems they created. However, this White-centric education does not support the increasingly diverse set of students in schools today. With this in mind, the research was framed by this question: As a White educator, how can I provide learning opportunities for students to explore alternative …

More Than Maps, Rebecca Irelan

UNH Today Archive

No abstract provided.

Shamanic Performancesjoseph Beuys's Der Eurasier, Eurasia Siberian Symphony, And Auschwitz Demonstration, Caroline Rupprecht

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Rural Community Dynamics: Implications For School Counselors, David J. Bright

Journal of Counselor Preparation and Supervision

Research shows that rural students face increasing challenges to academic, social-emotional, and career success. An understanding of student culture, background, and needs is required for a school counselor to advocate for all students. Research into the needs of rural students is lacking when compared to other populations. Research suggests that poverty, geographic isolation, cultural isolation, lack of school and community resources, and barriers to educational success as factors influencing the development and success of rural students. This article reviews the available literature and provides implications for rural school counseling practice and future research.

Systems For Free Parking Assignment, Abeer M. Hakeem

Dissertations

Finding a free, curbside parking spaces in metropolitan areas, especially during rush hours, is difficult for drivers. The difficulty arises from not knowing where the available spaces may be at that time; and, even if the spaces are known, many vehicles may pursue the same spaces, causing serious parking contention and traffic congestion. This dissertation presents three cost-effective and easily deployable free parking assignment systems that optimize the travel time of the drivers.

The first contribution is the Free Parking System (FPS), a centralized solution that solves the curbside parking problem. Unlike existing solutions, FPS is cost-effective, as it does …

Supercapacitors With Lithium-Ion Electrolyte: An Experimental Study And Design Of The Activated Carbon Electrodes Via Modelling And Simulations, Foivos Markoulidis, Josh Bates, Constantina Lekakou, Robert Slade, Giuliano M. Laudone

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

No abstract provided.

Stunting In Childhood: An Overview Of Global Burden, Trends, Determinants, And Drivers Of Decline, Tyler Vaivada, Nadia Akseer, Selai Akseer, Ahalya Somaskandan, Marianne Stefopulos, Zulfiqar Ahmed Bhutta

Woman and Child Health

Background: Progress has been made worldwide in reducing chronic undernutrition and rates of linear growth stunting in children under 5 y of age, although rates still remain high in many regions. Policies, programs, and interventions supporting maternal and child health and nutrition have the potential to improve child growth and development.
Objective: This article synthesizes the available global evidence on the drivers of national declines in stunting prevalence and compares the relative effect of major drivers of stunting decline between countries.
Methods: We conducted a systematic review of published peer-reviewed and gray literature analyzing the relation between changes in key …

Affective Investment, Laura Wilson, Mahli Xuan Mechenbier, Lisa Melonçon

Academic Labor: Research and Artistry (2017-2022 archives)

No abstract provided.

High Wind Alerts: A System Created With Observations From The X-Band Teaching And Research Radar, Lauren Warner

The Journal of Purdue Undergraduate Research

Following the August 13, 2011, Indiana State Fair stage collapse tragedy, caused by a wind gust from an approaching thunderstorm, Purdue University enforced a wind speed restriction of 30 mph (13 m s-1) for tents at outdoor events. During these events, volunteers stand outside with handheld anemometers, measuring and reporting when the wind speeds exceed this limit. In this study, we report testing of a new system to automate high-wind alerts based on observations from a Doppler radar, the X-band Teaching and Research Radar (XTRRA), near Purdue’s campus. XTRRA scans over campus at low elevations approximately every 5 minutes. Using …

Potential Of A Low-Calcium Fly Ash (Fa) For The Production Of Alkali-Activated Materials., Omar Alelweet, Sara Pavia

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

Coal-FA from power stations is an industrial waste abundantly produced in the world. FA can be used as a silicate precursor, and activated with an alkali-metal source to produce alkali-activated materials (AAMs). AAMs are more sustainable than other traditional products, as the use of waste for their production, reduces carbon emissions, and raw materials and energy consumption. This paper studies the properties, composition and reactivity of an Irish FA to establish its potential for the production of AAMs. The results clearly evidenced that the FA is reactive. It is ultrafine, it has a high specific surface area and is partially …

Measuring Information Literacy Core Competency Of Social Science Researchers In National Capital Region, India, Rajesh Singh, Shailendra Kumar Prof.

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

This study aims to empirically measure the Information Literacy Core Competency (ILCC) levels of social science researchers on ACRL’s Standards. The core concepts identified from standard I to V are: ‘Information Need’, ‘Information Access’, ‘Information Evaluation’, ‘Information Use’ and ‘Information Use Ethics’. The study was conducted on a sample of 520 researchers enrolled for Ph.D. in select central universities in National Capital Region, India. These researchers hail from different parts of the country and provide a pan India representation. The questionnaire schedule was developed translating each identified concept into a set of ten questions and 2 marks were allotted to …

Mapping The Iceberg: The Impact Of Data Sources On The Study Of District Courts, Christina L. Boyd, Pauline T. Kim, Margo Schlanger

Articles

Three decades ago, Siegelman and Donohue aptly characterized research about courts and litigation that relied only on published opinions as “studying the iceberg from its tip.” They implored researchers to view published district court opinions “with greater sensitivity to the ways in which such cases are unrepresentative of all cases”. The dynamic, multistage nature of trial court litigation makes a focus solely on published opinions particularly ill-suited to the study of federal district courts. Expanded electronic access to court documents now allows more pre-cise analysis of the ways in which published cases are unrepresentative and what differences that makes for …

Challenging The Wallacean Shortfall: A Total Assessment Of Insect Diversity On Guadeloupe (French West Indies), A Checklist And Bibliography, François Meurgey, Thibault Ramage

Insecta Mundi

This work is the first attempt to integrate into one list and quantify all the known species of Guade­loupean insects. It includes all the species known to us to be reported for the island of Guadeloupe until the 31^st of December 2019. A total of 3097 valid species are listed, of which the largest component is the beetles (1447 species). Preliminarily, 632 species (20%) are considered to be strictly endemic to Guadeloupe, and 250 species are recognized as adventive or introduced. The bibliography complements the taxonomic information and includes over 350 titles. Brief annotations are also given on the …

Italian Jews: A Surprising And Understudied Influence In The Enlightenment, Lura Martinez

Bound Away: The Liberty Journal of History

The experience of Italian Jews during the Enlightenment is deserving of much more attention. Not only did Italian Jews such as Moshe Ḥayyim Luzzatto, a man born in a ghetto, later embrace a form of secularism, but his works and others written by his peers made an impact on the Italian Enlightenment and seemingly contributed to the practice of toleration that appeared in sporadic installments throughout Europe. While the Jewish experience in Europe hails from a long tradition of persecution, with sporadic and incomplete periods of toleration at various points in its history, it is clear that through a promotion …

Evaluation Of Sustainability Of Irish Road Transport Sector And Its Comparison With European Union Countries, Megha Jose Kandappasery, Boban Djordjevic, Bidisha Ghosh

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

Transport sustainability has been the topic of discussion since the past two decades and its importance has been recognised by most countries. Therefore, strategies and policies incorporating sustainable growth and development have been initiated as a measure to steer transport growth in the right path. This notion has led researchers to develop many ways of measuring transport sustainability, especially the frequently used road transport sector. Measurement of sustainability of the transport sector has been carried out using different methodologies in the past. Considering the complexity and multi-dimensional aspects of sustainability, multi-criteria analysis decision making tools have been considered in this …