Digital Commons Network^™

A 30-Year Time Series Analysis Of The Impact Of Climate Change On Corn Yield In Iowa Using The Autoregressive Distributed Lag Model – 1992 To 2022, Tesleem Ajisafe

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Climate change poses significant socio-economic challenges globally, notably altering weather patterns and increasing the frequency and severity of extreme weather events (Seneviratne et al. 2021). This study investigates the impact of climate change on corn yield in Iowa from 1992 to 2022, using the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model to analyze time series data on temperature, precipitation, and corn yield at the county level. Iowa, the leading corn producer in the US (Xu, Twine, & Girvetz 2016), has experienced an 8% increase in precipitation from 1873 to 2008, with notable effects in the eastern region (“Climate Change,” n.d.). A detrending …

How Rural Identity, Self-Reliance, And Stoicism Relate To Attitudes Toward Mental Health Help-Seeking Among Iowans, Taylor Brown

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Rural residents tend to seek help for psychological concerns at lower rates than urban residents (Caldwell et al., 2004; Kirby et al., 2019) despite similar rates of mental illness (Morales et al., 2020). Elevated stoicism and a preference for self-reliance may explain this decrease in help-seeking behaviors, as people in these communities may have a more self-reliant and stoic self-image and therefore be less willing to seek help. Thus, I designed a study to investigate whether rural identity correlated with self-reliance, stoicism, or attitudes toward psychological help-seeking and whether the relation between rural identity and help-seeking attitudes was mediated by …

Modeling Phosphorus Loading Dynamics In Milford Creek Watershed: With Comparison To A Consent Decree Tmdl, Olivia Calvin

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

In 1998 Milford Creek, located in northwest Iowa, USA, was included on Iowa’s Impaired Waters List due to its inability to support aquatic life and excessive algal growth that was attributed to an overabundance of phosphorus within the body. In 2001 there was a lawsuit filed against the U.S. EPA regarding the status of Iowa’s Total Daily Maximum Load (TMDL) program. The lawsuit resulted in a consent decree that required the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) to develop a TMDL for all bodies of water on Iowa’s 1998 impaired waters list by December 15, 2009, this list included Milford …

The Spatial And Temporal Impacts Of Land Use And Climate On Avian Abundance In Iowa From 2001 To 2019, Lucas Kaufmann

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Land use and climate in Iowa have changed dramatically in recent decades. This study investigates the impact of these significant change in land use and climate on grassland bird species in Iowa from 2001 to 2019. Using data from the USGS North American Breeding Bird Survey, the USDA’s Cropland Data Layer, and Oregon State University’s PRISM Climate Data Group, this research implements the use of generalized linear models and multi-temporal MaxEnt species distribution modeling to quantify the varied impact of land use and climate on Bobolinks, Northern Bobwhite Quail, Grey Partridge, Ring Necked Pheasant, Upland Sandpipers, Grasshopper Sparrows, and Henslow’s …

Time-Resolved Electromagnetic Near-Field Scanning: Dual Sparse Sampling In Time And Space, Yanming Zhang, Peifeng Ma, Lijun Jiang, Steven Gao

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Time-resolved electromagnetic near-field scanning plays a pivotal role in antenna measurement and unraveling complex electromagnetic interference and compatibility issues. However, the rapid acquisition of high-resolution spatio–temporal data remains challenging due to physical constraints, such as moving the probe position and allowing sufficient time for sampling. This article presents a novel hybrid approach combining kriging for sparse spatial measurement, compressed sensing (cs) for sparse temporal sampling, and dynamic mode decomposition (dmd) for comprehensive analysis of the dual-sparse sampling electromagnetic near-field data. We leverage cs to optimize sparse sampling in the time domain and latin hypercube sampling to guide the probe position …

A Robust Demand Regulation Strategy For Ders In A Single-Controllable Active Distribution Network, Shah Fahad, Arman Goudarzi, Rui Bo, Muhammad Waseem, Rashid Al-Ammari, Atif Iqbal

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Over the past decade, pq regulation schemes for a single-controllable active distribution network (adn) using coordination among a network of virtual synchronous generators (vsgs) have been proposed. However, considering the variable nature of intermittent renewable energy sources (iress), coupling a cluster of iress with the point of common coupling (pcc) of adn could inflict transient issues for the power management of the whole adn. To counter these challenges, the proposed study has three main objectives: 1) to propose a modified mathematical model that represents the apparent resistance-reactance at the pcc of adn in relation to the pq coordination among the …

Coupling-Informed Data-Driven Scheme For Joint Angle And Frequency Estimation In Uniform Linear Array With Mutual Coupling Present, Yanming Zhang, Wenchao Xu, A. Long Jin, Min Li, Peifeng Ma, Lijun Jiang, Steven Gao

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper proposes a novel coupling-informed data-driven algorithm tailored for the concurrent estimation of frequency and angle within a uniform linear array (ULA), while addressing the complicating influence of mutual coupling. Leveraging the hybrid dynamic mode decomposition (DMD) methodology, termed as averaged DMD, we incorporate moving average techniques to achieve effective denoising. The averaged DMD further decomposes the received signal into eigenvalues and corresponding eigenvectors. The frequency information is derived from the eigenvalues and the corresponding eigenvectors represent the steering vectors of sources. Subsequently, mutual coupling is informed into the calibration of the steering vector for each source. Specifically, the …

Mapping Metaverse Research To The Sustainable Development Goal Of Good Health And Well-Being, Raghu Raman, Laurie Hughes, Santanu Mandal, Payel Das, Prema Nedungadi

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

The rise of the metaverse - a convergence of virtually enhanced physical reality and persistent virtual spaces - presents transformative potential for the healthcare sector. This study systematically explores how metaverse technologies, such as virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), mixed reality (MR), and digital twins, contribute to achieving United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 3 (SDG3), which focuses on good health and well-being. By integrating these technologies, the metaverse offers innovative solutions for telemedicine, medical training, mental health support, public health education, and global medical research collaboration. This study maps the current research landscape, highlighting the capacity of metaverse technologies …

An Ecosystem Of Knowledge: Relationality As A Framework For Teachers To Infuse Indigenous Perspectives In Curriculum, Maryanne Macdonald, Sarah Booth, Libby Jackson-Barrett

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

New data is presented from two studies involving thirteen practising secondary teachers and twelve pre-service early childhood, primary and secondary teachers in Australia. The first study explored how non-Indigenous practising teacher identities, shaped by external and policy discourse, create obstacles to teachers’ willingness and confidence in infusing Indigenous perspectives in curriculum. With this knowledge in hand, the researchers utilised a Design-Based Research methodology to conduct a second study with pre-service (ITE) teachers, exploring the power of relationality as a framework to re-shape non-Indigenous pre-service teachers’ conceptualisation of racial and place-based identity. By enabling non-Indigenous pre-service teachers to construct an authentic …

Italian Comparative: A Trait Of The Legal System, Bianca Gardella Tedeschi

FIU Law Review

The cultural environment of Italian academia was open to suggestions that came from other legal systems and shaped an eclectic legal culture. Italy is an hybrid system that took the code from France, the legal science from Germany, and has always been receptive of foreign suggestions. This cultural background may explain why the Italian legal curriculum requires a mandatory course of comparative law and why comparative law has been an important field of Italian legal research. At the same time, comparative law was characterized by an an important mark of antiformalism, necessary to swim through the times of Fascism and …

Urban Commons In Italy, Michele Graziadei

FIU Law Review

The Italian experience with urban commons has been very rich indeed. In the last ten years or so the number of social and legal initiatives relating to urban commons in Italy has exploded. The present Italian situation shows that urban commons are here to stay. By now, they are part of the collective imagination, of political and socio-economic transformative projects, of administrative practices, and of the law. The demand for the commons in the city originates from the social movements that intend to resist the penetration of the market and of private property in every ambit of life but is …

Filling The Gap: The Case For Driver's Licenses As A Lifeline To Opportunity For Undocumented Immigrants Where The Federal Government Fails To Act On Comprehensive Immigration Reform, David Peraza

FIU Law Review

The federal government has repeatedly failed at passing comprehensive immigration reform, which would provide basic benefits to the undocumented population in the U.S, including driver’s licenses. Various states have made attempts to provide undocumented immigrants with driver’s licenses. This work address the benefits and drawbacks of these policies and ultimately posits that holdout states should enact policies to provide driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants in the face of the federal government’s inaction.

Minerrouter : Effective Message Routing Using Contact-Graphs And Location Prediction In Underground Mine, Abhay Goyal, Sanjay Madria, Samuel Frimpong

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

Location-based distributed communication in underground mines has been a hard problem to solve due to unreliable centralized architecture such as leaky feeder systems, high attenuation, and the unavailability of GPS signals. Delay Tolerant Networks (DTN) enable decentralized message routing using the store-carry-forward method that can help in creating situational awareness needed to handle emergency and disaster scenarios. The ability to predict where the DTN nodes (miner) might have been at/are headed to (with respect to the mine regions and pillars) at different times, combined with contact-based routing and intelligent handling of buffer, can be used for better delivery of messages. …

Five Considerations For Twenty-First Century Climate Policy, Matthew G. Burgess

FIU Law Review

As the twenty-first century advances, society is entering a new phase regarding climate change. Impacts of climate change are becoming more salient in the present, rather than being only far-off in the future. Progress on flattening—and in many affluent countries, reducing—greenhouse gas emissions is also becoming salient, though the progress underperforms international targets. Slowing economic growth and major technological and geopolitical disruptions are creating new challenges and uncertainties. One of these challenges is a political climate of deep divisions and rising distrust in fact-finding institutions—a climate that is ripe for demagoguery. In the United States and some other countries, the …

Against Self-Defeating Climate Policy, Michael Buschbacher

FIU Law Review

This paper contends that the narrow Overton window on climate policy is self-defeating to the goals of many climate activists and policymakers. It gives three examples of policies that do little to address carbon emissions and are likely to fail: (1) how decarbonization policies are destroying electric grid reliability; (2) how the attempt to eliminate the internal combustion engine is leading to the “Cuba-fication” of the automotive fleet; and (3) how the focus on reducing domestic carbon emissions leads to regulatory arbitrage. The paper provides three corresponding recommendations, contending (1) that states should eliminate RTOs and ISOs in favor of …

"Common But Differentiated Responsibilities” In The Paris Agreement, Henrique Schneider

FIU Law Review

The Paris Agreement, adopted in 2015, epitomizes a political approach to climate action, devoid of scientific oversight at its inception. This political nature underscores its essence, emphasizing action over guaranteed results. With a foundation in "common but differentiated responsibilities" (CBDR), nations set diverse climate goals based on unique circumstances. However, this diversity complicates policy alignment and raises challenging questions, such as the feasibility of carbon border adjustments and intellectual property dilution. Analyzing CBDR within the Paris Agreement framework unveils its evolution, shaped by political negotiations and national actions. This study delves into the intricate interplay between politics, policy, and international …

The Abortion Archipelago: A Potential Return To San Juan Post Dobbs, Grant Albert

FIU Law Review

This paper will discuss whether the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico could be another option for women to travel to and from to terminate their pregnancy following Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

Immigration Detention Abolition And The Violence Of Digital Cages, Sarah R. Sherman-Stokes

Faculty Scholarship

The United States has a long history of devastating immigration enforcement and surveillance. Today, in addition to more than 34,000 people held in immigration detention, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) surveils an astounding 296,000 people under its “Alternatives to Detention” program. The number of people subjected to this surveillance has grown dramatically in the last two decades, from just 1,339 in 2005. ICE’s rapidly expanding Alternatives to Detention program is marked by “digital cages,” consisting of GPS-outfitted ankle shackles and invasive phone and location tracking. Government officials and some immigrant advocates have categorized these digital cages as a humane “reform”; …

Roads Not Taken On Affirmative Action, Robert L. Tsai

Faculty Scholarship

The law of affirmative action is a mess. In the short term, legal doctrine is constrained by path dependence, but its long-term future is murkier due to the many unforeseen contingencies. To regain a sense of the possible, this Article looks forward to the future of equality jurisprudence by looking backward. It recovers three roads not taken. First, the Supreme Court could have kept expectations minimal by hewing closely to the methods and rhetoric of fairness rather than ratifying a consumerist model of entitlement by deploying an individualistic vision of equality. Second, the justices might have endorsed a robust right …

Climate-Related Shareholder Activism As Corporate Democracy: A Call To Reform “Acting In Concert” Rules, Dan W. Puchniak, Umakanth Varottil

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Climate change is an issue of global importance, which may turn out to be the issue of this century. Companies are at the core of both the problems and solutions for climate change. Given this reality, it is astounding that in virtually all jurisdictions in the world ‘acting in concert rules,’ which were designed decades ago to facilitate an efficient market for corporate control, effectively prevent shareholders who hold a majority of shares from democratically replacing boards of dirty companies. Our Article exposes this overlooked reality by undertaking the first in-depth comparative analysis of acting in concert rules with a …

Slow Choreographies: Addressing Everyday Sexisms In Australian Universities Through Embodied Creative Methods, Emma Fishwick

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Everyday sexisms within Australian universities are like shape shifters that move between bodies, hide inside policies and behind closed doors. This interdisciplinary research project examines how a slow choreographic methodology enables embodied creative processes to give social phenomena a tangible dimension. Centrally situated within an Australian Research Council Discovery Project, Understanding and Addressing Everyday Sexisms in Australian Universities (Everyday Sexisms), this research project thickens, extends, and informs the development of the Everyday Sexisms’ methods and findings in two ways. First, by highlighting how bodies, movement, and objects are involved in the choreography of institutional everyday sexisms. Secondly, by utilising creative …

Transformative Career Theory: A Grounded Theory Study Into The Long-Term Careers Of Australian Youth Workers, John Sutcliffe

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This study explores the long-term careers of professional youth workers in Australia with the aim of developing a relevant theory of career grounded in their experiences. Despite the importance of youth work, only a small number of studies has been undertaken on youth work careers both in Australia and internationally. Previous research by the author in 2021 contributed to understanding the long-term youth work career for graduate youth workers in Western Australia, but further data are needed to build a transferable theory or framework. The research problem is clear: what does a career in youth work entail and how can …

What's In A Name? Standardization Of Vernacular Names For Trichechus Manatus, A. A. Mignucci-Giannoni, Daniel Gonzalez-Socoloske, Anmari Alvarez-Alemán, Jamie Aquino, D. Caicedo-Herrera, Delma Nataly Castelblanco-Martínez, Diane Claridge, M. Fabiola Corona-Figueroa, Adolphe O. Debrot, Benoit De Thoisy, Carlos Espinoza-Marin, J. Galves, Eddy Garcia-Alfonso, Hector M. Guzman, Jalaludin Ahmad Khan, Jeremy J. Kiszka, Fabia De Oliveira Luna, Miriam Marmontel, Leon David Olivera-Gomez, Christine O'Sullivan, James A. Powell, Enrique Pugibet-Bobea, Indranee Roopsind, Carlos J. Silva

Faculty Publications

Trichechus manatus is one of 3 recognized extant species of manatees of the mammalian Order Sirenia. Currently, it is known by various vernacular names, none of which are descriptive of its biology and known distribution. This lack of standardization has led to confusion and miscommunication, hindering conservation efforts for this species. We propose standardizing the vernacular names used to refer to the species and its 2 subspecies based on appropriate geographical characterization in English, Spanish, French, Dutch, and Portuguese, respectively: “American Manatee”, “Manatí de las Américas”, “Lamantin d’Amérique”, “Amerikaanse Lamantijn”, and “Peixe-boi das Américas” for T. manatus; “Florida Manatee”, “Manatí …

Yes, Low-Income People Do Move, Michael Lewyn

Scholarly Works

One answer to the American housing affordability crisis is for municipalities to allow more housing to be built. Some argue, however, that new housing does not benefit people who seek to remain in their current residence, and that this group is disproportionately poor and/or minority. This article critiques the latter view, pointing out that lower-income households are actually more likely to move because of financial instability.

Do Americans Support More Housing?, Michael Lewyn

Scholarly Works

An analysis of opinion poll data on housing issues. The article finds that Americans generally believe that their community needs more housing of all types, but are more closely divided about whether such housing should be in their own neighborhoods. The article further finds that members of minority groups, lower-income Americans, and younger Americans are more pro-housing than older, affluent whites.

Urban Streetscape Changes In Portland, Oregon: A Longitudinal Virtual Audit, Tomoya Hanibuchi, David Banis, Hunter Shobe, Tomoki Nakaya, Shohei Nagata

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

Streetscape imagery has considerable potential for observing urban change. The literature lacks sufficient longitudinal studies, however, on urban change considering human perception and activities. We conducted a longitudinal virtual audit to observe the change in urban liveliness, human activities, and built environment by examining streetscape imagery taken in the late 2000s and the late 2010s in Portland, Oregon. Eleven untrained crowd workers were recruited to provide liveliness ratings of 24,242 streetscape images for both periods. Tabulation, mapping, and multilevel regression analyses were conducted to observe the distribution, changes in liveliness, and the factors affecting these changes. The results confirmed that …

Scales Of Connectivity Within Stream Temperature Networks Of The Clackamas River Basin, Oregon, Michael Krochta, Heejun Chang

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

Water quality varies along the stream network; thus, considering the directional, dendritic nature of stream networks with surrounding landscape variables is essential in explaining spatial variations of water quality. Using a spatially extensive stream temperature monitoring effort in the Clackamas River Basin in the United States, we first compare spatial scales of analysis of atmospheric, landscape, and in-stream explanatory variables through their correlation with summer stream temperatures. We then derive a predictive stream temperature model with factors representing the spatial variation of local climate, recent wildfire effects, and discharge. Finally, we compare nonspatial multiple linear regression to a spatial stream …

A Matter Of Facts: The Evolution Of Copyright’S Fact-Exclusion And Its Implications For Disinformation And Democracy, Jessica Silbey

Faculty Scholarship

The Article begins with a puzzle: the curious absence of an express fact-exclusion from copyright protection in both the Copyright Act and its legislative history despite it being a well-founded legal principle. It traces arguments in the foundational Supreme Court case (Feist Publications v. Rural Telephone Service) and in the Copyright Act’s legislative history to discern a basis for the fact-exclusion. That research trail produces a legal genealogy of the fact-exclusion based in early copyright common law anchored by canonical cases, Baker v. Selden, Burrow-Giles v. Sarony, and Wheaton v. Peters. Surprisingly, none of them …

Data Controllers As Data Fiduciaries: Theory, Definitions & Burdens Of Proof, Noelle Wilson, Amanda Reid

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Geospatial Hotspots And Coldspots In Us Cancer Disparities And Associated Risk Factors, 2004-2008 To 2014-2018, Lei Guo, M. Courtney Hughes, Margaret E. Wright, Alyssa H. Harris, Meredith C. Osias

Faculty Articles, Papers, and Other Scholarship

Introduction

Despite declining cancer death rates in the US, cancer remains the second deadliest disease and disparities persist. Although research has focused on identifying risk factors for cancer deaths and associated disparities, few studies have examined how these relationships vary over time and space. The primary objective of this study was to identify cancer mortality hot spots and cold spots — areas where cancer death rates decreased less than or more than neighboring areas over time. A secondary objective was to identify risk factors of cancer mortality hot spots and cold spots.

Methods

We analyzed county-level cancer death rates from …