Digital Commons Network^™

Issue 38

The Synapse: Intercollegiate science magazine

No abstract provided.

Agricultural Groundcover Update November 2023, Justin Laycock

Natural resources published reports

Summary

• About 98% of the grainbelt had adequate (more than 50%) vegetative groundcover to prevent wind erosion in November 2023. This amount of groundcover is normal for the middle of harvest.
• In the northern half of the grainbelt, a larger-than-average area had 51–60% groundcover, which is expected to decrease to below 50% over summer.
• Just over 2% of the grainbelt (324,000 ha) had less than 50% groundcover, which is inadequate to prevent wind erosion. Mullewa to Morawa Ag Soil Zone had the highest risk of wind erosion and 9.7% of this farmland had inadequate groundcover.
• Less than 0.5% of the …

Chronic Stressors, Obesity Pathogenesis, And The Moderating Effect Of Internalized Weight Stigma; A Quantitative, Illinois Study, Karyn Byrne

Dissertations

The obesity epidemic is a ‘wicked’ problem with a complex web of determinants and outcomes. While generally higher for minoritized populations, prevalence rates manifest in surprising, nonlinear patterns. There is no consensus regarding treatment protocols or mitigation efforts, except that current efforts remain largely ineffective. Much research evidence that a profusion of determinants of health support obesity pathogenesis through various physiological processes and mechanisms, including the allostatic load, mitochondria functioning, the gut microbiome, and epigenetics. Intervening to support markers of the allostatic load (immunity, inflammation, and metabolic health) may provide a more effective treatment outcomes than traditional approaches, which tend …

Decolonial Practices In Higher Education From The Global South: A Systematic Literature Review, Maryluz Hoyos Ensunchoa

Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education

Special Issue

How Much Heirs’ Property Is There? Using Lightbox Data To Estimate Heirs’ Property Extent In The United States, G. Rebecca Dobbs, Cassandra Johnson Gaither

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

The ramifications of a tenancy in common or heirs’ property ownership are extensive. This kind of tenuous ownership affects not only individual families but also the economic health of the typically minority and lower-wealth communities where these properties tend to cluster. Very little research has identified heirs’ property extent at a broad scale, however. We present results of our approach to identifying heirs’ parcels for every county and census tract in the United States, using geospatial methodologies and aggregated parcel records acquired from LightBox. The method estimated 444,172 heirs’ parcels for the U.S., not including territories. The combined acreage is …

Identifying Heirs’ Property: Extent And Value Across The South And Appalachia, Ryan Thomson, Conner Bailey

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

A database of property tax records was used to locate and quantify the extent of heirs’ property across 11 states (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia). Based on previously published work, an index of four variables was then developed to estimate the likelihood that a given parcel was heirs’ property. The authors conservatively estimate that there are at least 496,994 parcels of heirs’ properties with a combined total area of 5.3 million acres and a market value of $41.9 billion in these states.

Referral Pathways And Service Connections Among Heirs’ Property Owners In South Carolina, Jennie L. Stephens, Jasmine Simington

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

Researchers, practitioners, and policymakers interested in alleviating heirs’ property ownership precarity have long sought to connect these owners to titling and land management resources, but there is limited scholarly evidence on successful interventions. Using administrative data from the Center for Heirs’ Property Preservation® (CHPP®), this article explores the demographic characteristics, types of direct legal services received, and referral pathways of landowners seeking legal assistance from CHPP® between 2017 and 2021. We find that applicants are primarily elderly, Black women, referred through four main pathways: (1) owners’ personal networks, (2) CHPP® Outreach efforts, (3) CHPP® partner organizations—including public, private, and nonprofit …

Usage Statistics: Project Counter R5 Tr_B1 Report Fy2023 - Book Requests (Excluding Oa_Gold) By Title, Andrée J. Rathemacher

Technical Services Reports and Statistics

Project COUNTER R5 Report TR_B1 for the University of Rhode Island for the period from July 1, 2022 - June 30, 2023. The TR_B1 report is defined as "Book Requests (Excluding OA_Gold)." This report presents an annual total only and only includes those platforms successfully configured for automated harvesting via SUSHI.

File for download is Excel spreadsheet generated by Alma Analytics.

Results:

Total Item Requests - 118,197

Unique Title Requests - 46,803

An Intersectional Approach To Quantifying The Impact Of Geographic Remoteness And Health Disparities On Quality-Adjusted Life Expectancy: Application To Australia, Peter Lee, Steven J. Bowe, Lidia Engel, Erica I. Lubetkin, Nancy Devlin, Lan Gao

Publications and Research

Objectives

Methods

Plastic, It's What's For Dinner: A Preliminary Comparison Of Ingested Particles In Bottlenose Dolphins And Their Prey, Leslie B Hart, Miranda Dziobak, Randall S Wells, Elizabeth Berens Mccabe, Eric Conger, Tita Curtin, Maggie Knight, John Weinstein

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Microplastic ingestion was reported for common bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) inhabiting Sarasota Bay, FL, USA, a community that also has prevalent exposure to plasticizers (i.e., phthalates) at concentrations higher than human reference populations. Exposure sources are currently unknown, but plastic-contaminated prey could be a vector. To explore the potential for trophic exposure, prey fish muscle and gastrointestinal tract (GIT) tissues and contents were screened for suspected microplastics, and particle properties (e.g., color, shape, surface texture) were compared with those observed in gastric samples from free-ranging dolphins. Twenty-nine fish across four species (hardhead catfish, Ariopsis felis; pigfish, Orthopristis …

Covid-19 Responses Restricted Abilities And Aspirations For Mobility And Migration: Insights From Diverse Cities In Four Continents, Dominique Jolivet, Sonja Fransen, William Neil Adger, Anita Fábos, Mumuni Abu, Charlotte Allen, Emily Boyd, Edward R. Carr, Samuel Nii Ardey Codjoe, Maria Franco Gavonel, François Gemenne, Mahmudol Hasan Rocky, Jozefina Lantz, Domingos Maculule, Ricardo Safra De Campos, Tasneem Siddiqui, Caroline Zickgraf

Sustainability and Social Justice

Research on the impacts of COVID-19 on mobility has focused primarily on the increased health vulnerabilities of involuntary migrant and displaced populations. But virtually all migration flows have been truncated and altered because of reduced economic and mobility opportunities of migrants. Here we use a well-established framework of migration decision-making, whereby individual decisions combine the aspiration and ability to migrate, to explain how public responses to the COVID-19 pandemic alter migration patterns among urban populations across the world. The principal responses to COVID-19 pandemic that affected migration are: 1) through travel restrictions and border closures, 2) by affecting abilities to …

What The Book Of First Enoch And The Aramaic Dead Sea Scrolls Reveal About The History Of The Qumran Community, Kenneth Atkinson

Faculty Publications

The Aramaic book commonly known as First Enoch is among the most important of all the compositions found in the Dead Sea Scrolls. The fragments of this pseudepigraphal work and related documents provide new information about the use and growth of the Enochic traditions, as well as how their contents influenced the community that collected and placed the Dead Sea Scrolls in the caves in the vicinity of Khirbet Qumran. Research on the Enochic literature in this corpus of documents is important for Jewish studies and for understanding the history of Christianity since the New Testament cites from and alludes …

Suspended And Deposited Microplastics In The Coastal Atmosphere Of Southwest England, Giannis Kyriakoudes, Andrew Turner

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Atmospheric microplastics (MPs) have been sampled from coastal southwest England during twelve periods over a 42-day timeframe in late autumn. MPs were dominated by fibres, with foams, fragments and pellets also observed. The majority of fibres were identified as the semisynthetic polymer, rayon, while other shapes were dominated by various petroleum-based thermoplastics (including polyvinyl acetate, polyvinyl alcohol, polyamide and polyester) and paints. MP concentrations suspended in air ranged from 0.016 to 0.238 items per m3 but displayed no clear dependence on wind speed or direction. Total depositional fluxes ranged from 0.47 to 3.30 m−2 h−1 and showed no clear dependence …

Climate Change And The Shifting Geography Of Coral-Reef Development, Victor Rodriguez-Ruano

Theses and Dissertations

Coral-reef development is modulated by growth processes that deposit calcium carbonate onto the reef, such as calcification, and destructive processes that remove calcium carbonate from the reef, such as bioerosion. Wherever calcification rates exceed bioerosion rates, there is a net accretion of the reef through time, but where bioerosion rates exceed calcification rates, there is a net destruction of the reef through time. A reef’s framework is the legacy of the interaction of these processes throughout a reef’s history. Studying the fossil frameworks of reefs can shed light on the environmental factors that have controlled reef development in the past, …

Characterization Of Human Mobility From Cellular Data, Zaid Matloub

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates human mobility patterns using crowd-sourced cellular network data from different Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) in the United States, spanning the Houston, New York-Newark, NJ City, and 13 other significant MSAs. By focusing on prominent spatial mobility parameters highlighted in existing literature, the study unveils consistent findings regarding the predictability of human mobility across diverse time scales and geographic regions. The research underscores the significance of selecting appropriate sampling thresholds based on the mobility parameters being examined, the size of the dataset, and available computational resources. Through a meticulous analysis, it emerges that while values such as mean …

Expanding Recognition And Inclusion Of Animal-Free Organic Agriculture In The Sustainable Agriculture Movement, Mona Seymour

Urban and Environmental Studies Faculty Works

Animal-free organic agriculture resides at the margins of sustainable agriculture discourse, practice, and imaginaries, which center animal-based forms of farming. However, the concerns and goals of sustainable agriculture are overwhelmingly consistent with those of many forms of animal-free organic agriculture (AFOA), described as organic farming sans animal production, labor, and byproducts. Despite this sidelining, AFOA has great potential to contribute to a more robust sustainable agriculture movement. In order to emphasize the continuities between animal-based and animal-free sustainable agriculture, this Perspective identifies a number of key similarities between animal-free and animal-based sustainable farming, including mutual foci on soil health and …

A Socio-Hydrological Assessment Of Illinois Levee Systems, Nicholas Keller

Theses

Recent inspections conducted on levee safety in the U.S. that participate in the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Levee Safety Program under Public-Law 84-99 have shown that the overwhelming majority (>95%) of these levees have at least some deficiency associated with them, and many being identified as having an unacceptable safety rating (≈30%). In the U.S., many levees were constructed using funding from the federal government, but the responsibility of operation and maintenance of the levees were turned over to local government bodies. Given the local funding of levee maintenance, the socioeconomic characteristics of these levee-protected communities …

An Investigation Into What Contributes To High Rates Of Preschool Inclusion In Rural Kansas School Districts, Lena Mae Kisner

Dissertations

The inclusion of Kansas preschoolers with developmental delays in general early childhood environments has shown little growth over the past seven years. An initial examination of public data for federal fiscal years 2018, 2019, and 2020 showed inclusion rates in preschools in Kansas public school districts differed by special education administrative configuration (SEAC). Kansas uses three different types of SEACs (i.e., single district, special education cooperative, and interlocal). The special education cooperative (also known as cooperative) and interlocal SEACs had the lowest rates of inclusion in preschools and highest proportion of rural school districts. Despite the lower rates of inclusion …

Historical Archives Reveal Record Rainfall And Severe Flooding In December 1867 Resulting From An Atmospheric River And Snowmelt, Western Washington, Usa, Daniel G. Gavin, Patrick J. Bartlein, Cary J. Mock

Faculty Publications

The flooding of 1861-1862 in California and Oregon is the most severe flood event documented in the far western USA and stands as a benchmark for a worst-case atmospheric-river flooding event. In western Washington, historical data are sparser, and 19th-century flood events have consequently not been well documented. We found that rainfall observations from five locations spanning western Washington had no detectable bias when compared to nearby 20th and 21st-century comparator stations. Time series of the four-day precipitation sum revealed an event in December 1867 that was greater than any of the last century at three locations, and in the …

Human Trafficking In The Americas: Comparison Of Original Source Compilation Versus Unodc Data, Ivette Avila Jimenez

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

International human trafficking (IHT) is a type of criminal activity that involves groups and individuals who facilitate the global movement and exploitation of people, often by illegal means. Estimates show that, worldwide, there are over 25 million victims of human trafficking at any given time; however, estimates are prone to under and overcounting. Focusing on the Americas, this study compared the quality of two data sources that could be used to observe IHT. Country-to-country IHT networks generated from 9 years of researcher compiled governmental and non-governmental data (2008-2017) was compared with networks generated from data downloaded from the United Nations …

Analysis And Assessment Of Land Use / Land Cover Impact On Human And Natural Ecosystems In The Salton Sea Watershed, 2013 - 2021, Diego Ramirez

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This study represents an interdisciplinary analysis of the changing landscape of the Salton Sea Watershed from 2013 to 2021, focusing on land use land cover (LULC) category changes, climatic variations, and socioeconomic factors. The findings of this research show a shift in land cover categories, portrayed by the changes of natural landscapes and vegetative areas into rapidly increasing urbanized expansion and increased impervious surfaces. These changes pose concerns about increased temperature in the region, a decrease in overall water availability and groundwater infiltration, and an increase in pollution. The study explores 10 sub-watersheds within the Salton Sea Watershed basin, focusing …

Custom-Designed And Collaborative Unmanned Systems With Learning-Based Applications, Robert Zanone

All Theses

This paper presents a culmination of work utilizing custom-designed autonomous vehicles and learning based simulations applied to real world applications across three distinct research domains. The first focuses on deploying autonomous drones in an agricultural setting for plant phenotyping. A telescoping arm is used to deploy a camera into the plant foilage for under-the-canopy imaging. The system utilizes on-board image processing to identify early-stage issues such as diseases, bacteria, and pests in crop plants to provide data for crop loss mitigation. The system takes advantage of the maneuverability of drones allowing for quick random sampling when traversing large areas.

In …

Cancer Disparities In Southeast Asia: Intersectionality And A Call To Action, Erin Jay G. Feliciano, Frances Dominique V. Ho, Kaisin Yee, Joseph A. Paguio, Michelle Ann B. Eala, Janine Patricia G. Robredo, Kenrick Ng, Jasmine Lim, Khin Thuzar Pyone, Catherine A. Peralta, Jerickson Abbie Flores, J. Seth Yao, Patricia Mae G. Santos, Christian Daniel U. Ang, Gideon Lasco, Jeffrey Shi Kai Chan, Gary Tse, Enrico D. Tangco, T. Peter Kingham, Imjai Chitapanarux, Nirmala Bhoo-Pathy, Gerardo D. Legaspi, Edward Christopher Dee

Einstein Health Papers

No abstract provided.

Correlations Between Educational Struggle, Toxic Sites By School District And Demographic Variables, With Geographical Information System Projections, Junu Shrestha, Raihan K. Khan, Shane Mcclintock, John Degroote, Catherine L. Zeman

Faculty Publications

This correlational study associated data on children enrolled in individualized educational plans in their K-12 schools (IEP) and an algorithm-calculated score of neurotoxins at contaminated sites located in each school district. The study also mapped and projected the correlations using Geographical Information System (GIS) technology. These data were populated in ArcMap 10.5 (a GIS software) for generating maps and data to conduct geospatial analysis. A total of 1 Superfund site and 39 CERCLA sites were identified as contaminated sites for this analysis. The majority of contaminants were heavy metals such as lead, arsenic, mercury, and cadmium. The mean toxic score …

The Effects Of Salt Marsh Restoration On The Hydrology Of Salt Marsh Channels, Isis Kontas

University Honors Theses

Salt marshes produce many ecosystem services, from water purification to protection from hurricanes. Despite their benefits, salt marshes have been impacted negatively by human activities. There are many salt marsh restoration projects that intend to bring back all ecological functions and services. Quantifiable measurements are needed to evaluate the effectiveness of such restoration efforts. Earlier work by Reagan Thomas demonstrated what happens to the hydrology of salt marsh channels when they are adjacent to restored salt marshes. This study builds on Thomas’ work and uses the sinuosity of channels as a quantitative, representative metric of salt marsh hydrology restoration effectiveness. …

Whose Woods These Are: Human-Environment Relationships Among Stakeholders Of South Mississippi's Longleaf Pine Ecosystem, Helen Greene

Master's Theses

Between 1870 and 1920, the longleaf pine belt of the southeastern United States experienced an extensive and unsustainable period of logging. In the years after the logging boom the landscape of the Southeast was reforested, but fire suppression and a preference among landowners for loblolly pine resulted in a dense and less resilient forest with reduced biodiversity. This research looks at the human geography of remnants of the longleaf pine ecosystem in South Mississippi and the nature of contemporary relationships between South Mississippi residents and this ecosystem.

In an effort to make sense of the complex relationships between people and …

"Here's What's Not Changing": Institutional Adaptations That Respond To A Crisis But Preserve The Core, Hozami A. Helwani

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

An enduring tension in the study of institutions is between the micro level of agents’ activities that shape institutions and the macro level of institutions as enduring entities that tend to resist change. Institutions in crisis offer opportunities to look at urgent and adaptive changes. I study an Islamic organization that is representative of a religious institution, which has deep traditions and meaningfulness to its members. In a time of crisis, in the urban area in the United States where it is located, the organization is pressed by external parties, such as government, media, and leaders from other religions, to …

Power Projection And Counter-Terrorism: Strategies For Small States Like Brunei Darussalam, Brice Tseen Fu Lee, Gulshan Bibi Ms

Journal of Terrorism Studies

This study delves into the intricacies of power projection strategies and counter-terrorism measures, emphasizing their relevance to small states, with a specific focus on Brunei Darussalam. Using a dual matrix model, the research categorizes various strategies based on risk-reward parameters, offering a structured insight into potential approaches these states can employ against potential aggressors. The counter-terrorism matrix is the initial focal point, recognizing the contemporary significance of terror threats and their unique challenges for small nations. Subsequently, the power projection matrix offers a broader view of defense tactics beyond counter-terrorism. By synthesizing information from primary academic sources, the study aims …

Should State Land In Southern California Be Allocated To Warehousing Goods Or Housing People? Analyzing Transportation, Climate, And Unintended Consequences Of Supply Chain Solutions, Tianjun Lu, Jian-Yu Ke, Azure Fisher, Mahmoud Salari, Patricia Valladolid, Fynnwin Prager

Mineta Transportation Institute

In response to COVID-19 pandemic supply chain issues, the State of California issued Executive Order (EO) N-19-21 to use state land to increase warehousing capacity. This highlights a land-use paradox between economic and environmental goals: adding warehouse capacity increases climate pollution and traffic congestion around the ports and warehouses, while there is a deficit of affordable housing and high homeless rates in port-adjacent underserved communities. This study aims to inform regional policymakers and community stakeholders about these trade-offs by identifying current and future supply of and demand for warehousing and housing in Southern California through 2040. The study uses statistical …

Cycling Past 50: A Closer Look Into The World Of Older Cyclists, Year 4 Survey, Carol Kachadoorian

Mineta Transportation Institute

This document reports on approximately 5,000 responses to a North American survey of older adults who cycle. The survey, open from August 2021 through March 2022, included questions that captured a person’s cycling over their life course, as well as their current cycling styles, habits, and preferences. Responses reflect the impact of various factors on an older adult’s cycling habits with respect to their ability and agility and their expectation to continue cycling. The survey asked about falls and near misses in the past-year coding fall descriptions into six categories and sorting them by the respondent’s gender and age. The …