Digital Commons Network^™

A Study Of The Implementation Of The National Geography Standards And Their Alignment With Classroom Instruction In United States Pk–12 Schools, S. Kay Gandy

Doctoral Dissertations

In the 1980s, media reports of the state of geography in United States schools and national assessments documenting the failing grades of American students resulted in a campaign to eradicate geographic illiteracy. As a result, there have been many reforms made in geography education, including the development of national geography standards. The National Geographic Society developed a Geography Education Foundation to introduce a grassroots movement for curricula change through teacher inservice institutes. Furthermore, geography was recognized as a core subject in the curriculum designated by President George Bush and the governors of the United States of America as part of …

The Impact Of Apartment Complexes On Property Values Of Single-Family Dwellings West Of Lnterstate-680 In Omaha, Nebraska, Lesli M. Rawlings

Student Work

The literature concerning land use exhaustively describes why homeowners dislike apartment complexes, but fails to analyze the problem quantitatively. The objectives of this thesis were to determine if the selling price of single-family dwellings increased with increasing distance from the apartment complex and to determine if the selling price of single-family dwellings decreased with increasing structural density of apartment complexes in Omaha, Nebraska. Fifty apartments built in the year 2000 or before, and 1,665 single-family dwellings, which sold in 1999 and 2000 within 914.4 meters of an apartment complex, were geocoded by address. Data needed to test the hypotheses were …

G-Portal : A Map-Based Digital Library For Distributed Geospatial And Georeferenced Resources, Ee Peng Lim, Dion Hoe-Lian Goh

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

As the World Wide Web evolves into an immense information network, it is tempting to build new digital library services and expand existing digital library services to make use of web content. In this paper, we present the design and implementation of G-Portal, a web portal that aims to provide digital library services over geospatial and georeferenced content found on the World Wide Web. G-Portal adopts a map-based user interface to visualize and manipulate the distributed geospatial and georeferenced content. Annotation capabilities are supported, allowing users to contribute geospatial and georeferenced objects as well as their associated metadata. The other …

Design And Implementation Of Web-Based Gis For Forest Fragmentation Analysis, Fei Wang

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The advantages and limitations of current web GIS software for forest fragmentation information and analysis functionality were investigated using Landsat Thematic Mapper data of 1987 to 1999 for a test site in northern West Virginia. ESRI's ArcIMS technology was used to build a Web-based forest fragmentation analysis system to query, represent, and analyze the status of forest fragmentation using landscape metrics. Both ArcIMS HTML and Java fragmentation analysis tools were constructed. The web GIS was evaluated with respect to accessibility, navigation, interactive cartographic functionality, and spatial analysis functionality. The current ArcIMS approach was found to offer only limited support for …

Pariahs Of The Wonderful City: Crime, Representation, And The Imagined Geography Of Citizenship In Rio De Janeiro, 1977-1982, Gianpaolo Baiocchi

disClosure: A Journal of Social Theory

No abstract provided.

Coalbed Methane Development In Wyoming’S Powder River Basin, Diana Hulme

Coalbed Methane Development in the Intermountain West (April 4-5)

21 pages (includes color illustrations and maps).

Contains endnotes.

Tagging A Boxcar In An Anxious Age, Jim Edwards

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

On Wednesday, September 12th, scheduled to fly from Salt Lake City to San Francisco, I found myself instead driving a rental car from Logan, Utah to the Bay Area. I left early - at daybreak, on a clear morning, just at that turning point when summer slides into autumn. Several hours later, on Interstate 80 east of Salt Lake and along the Bonneville Salt Flats, the National Public Radio station began to crackle and fade. By the time I crossed into Nevada, and moments after turning off the radio, I slunk into a state of sad resignation. Two hours of …

Navigating The Starless Night: Strategies For Understanding Autobiogeography, Matthew Wolf-Meyer, Davin Heckman

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

Ancient mapmakers relied upon the presence of celestial bodies for their conceptualization of the world, for their external knowledge-making tools, as if a far-off body could help to make sense of our terrestrial life/as if it couldn't. Cosmology, as a practice, relied on the construction of an external body of knowledge that the local meaning-maker could situate him- or herself into, and more broadly, their entire society and culture -- the interior is determined by its relationship to the exterior (or the exteriorized). For the ancient Greeks then, the font of Western culture, this cosmology works at once …

Redefining American Democracy: Do Alternative Voting Systems Capture The True Meaning Of "Representation"?, James Thomas Tucker

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

This Article explores whether alternative voting systems are compatible with the meaning of representation in the United States. Part II begins by examining the role of geographical representation and the effect it has on the ability of individuals and groups of voters to give or withhold their consent. Part III follows this inquiry by assessing the relationship between representatives and constituents under majoritarian and proportional systems to determine the consequences of moving away from geographical representation towards models designed to enhance opportunities for all voters to choose winning candidates. A description of what a "majority" is and when and how …

Changes In Water Quality In Deckers Creek From 1974 To 2000, Jason Allen Stewart

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The Deckers Creek drainage basin covers approximately 16,600 hectares (62.9 square miles) in Monongalia and Preston Counties of West Virginia. Throughout the twentieth century, this watershed has received high levels of pollution in several forms. A 1974 study examined the water chemistry in Deckers Creek over a six-month period at 29 sample points. Water samples from the same sites were collected and analyzed monthly from March 1999 through October 2000 for acidity, alkalinity, total iron, aluminum, manganese, and other metals, as well as for fecal coliform and fecal streptococcus concentrations. Most of the tributaries sampled in 1999--2000 showed reduced metal …

Exploring Object-Oriented Gis For Watershed Resource Management, Nalishebo Nally Kaunda

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The adoption of object-oriented programming for spatial technological advancement is an emerging trend in GIS. This research seeks to explore Object-Oriented GIS (OOGIS) and its potential application in watershed resource management. OOGIS provides a more intuitive and realistic abstraction of real world features as intelligent objects. The ability to embed behavior, geometry, and attribution with the objects provides considerable advantages in the processing and analysis of geospatial data. The main objective of this research was to design a prototype OOGIS for watershed resource management using the object relational Arclnfo 8.1 Geodatabase. The study builds on the OOGIS concepts of inheritance, …

New Light: Sunken Ruin Off Cuba, Journal Of Book Of Mormon Studies

Journal of Book of Mormon Studies

Reports of an underwater city off the island of Cuba have caused many Latter-day Saints to believe that the city is a remnant of a Book of Mormon city. However, archaeologists have not found any reason to support that idea.

Out Of The Dust: When The Day Turned To Night, Journal Of Book Of Mormon Studies

Journal of Book of Mormon Studies

The timing of volcanic eruptions in the Veracruz area, where many scholars suggest the Book of Mormon may have taken place, is contemporary with events recorded in the Book of Mormon, thus providing further evidence of the authenticity of that book.

The Search For A Meteorite Concentration Mechanism In The Allan Hills Icefields, Luke Probst

Honors Capstones

Capstone submitted as a graduation requirement for the BSU Honors Program.

The X-33 And The X-38 Experimental Aircraft: Environmental Connections With Aerospace Science, Elandriel Jean Martin

Theses Digitization Project

The purpose of this project fosters in students a sense of place and connection with their home area. It also provides students a real-world basis upon which to study the concepts of weather and geography.

The Geography Of Injustice: Borders And The Continuing Immiseration Of California Agricultural Labor In Era Of "Free Trade", Don M. Mitchell

Richmond Journal of Global Law & Business

Why is it that when the reigning ideology governing the expansion of “free trade” is anti-regulatory”, all agree that the movement of people, or rather laborers, must be carefully regulated? Indeed, why are borders strengthened for people just as states of the Western Hemisphere embark on a thorough reconfiguration, and even a dismantling, or borders for capital and goods.

Neither Natchez Nor Tara: An Environmental Historial Geography Of The Upper Pearl River Basin Of Mississippi, Protohistoric Period To 1940., Frederick William Sunderman

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

This study examines the contrasting themes of land degradation and environmental stewardship of farming enterprises in the regional context of the Upper Pearl River Basin of Mississippi. Both the previous imagery and analysis of Southern Cotton Belt agriculture emphasize the profligate nature of farming practices. The contribution this study makes is to amend both the stock images and macro-analyses of Southern cotton culture. Analysis at the sub-regional level demonstrates that many farmers actually practiced sound land management techniques. Reconstructing the experiences of farmers in the Upper Pearl River Basin provides examples of ways in which regional distinctions amend widely conceived …

Exploring Visitor Meanings Of Place In The National Capital Parks - Central, Wei-Li Jasmine Chen

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This study uses a new approach to interpretative research based on (1) understanding the meanings visitors attach to park resources, and (2) examining the connections that visitors made after attending an on-site interpretive program. The study was conducted at the National Capital Parks in Washington, DC. This study revealed that many visitors to the Lincoln Memorial, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, and the Korean War Veterans Memorial (i.e. the Triangle) seek something of value for themselves, including everything from connecting with the past and rededicating themselves to the ideals of the nation. The study incorporated mixed method design, including purposeful sampling …

Integrating Spatial And Spectral Information For Automatic Feature Identification In High -Resolution Remotely Sensed Images, Jong Yeol Lee

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This research used image objects, instead of pixels, as the basic unit of analysis in high-resolution imagery. Thus, not only spectral radiance and texture were used in the analysis, but also spatial context. Furthermore, the automated identification of attributed objects is potentially useful for integrating remote sensing with a vector-based GIS.;A study area in Morgantown, WV was chosen as a site for the development and testing of automated feature extraction methods with high-resolution data. In the first stage of the analysis, edges were identified using texture. Experiments with simulated data indicated that a linear operator identified curved and sharp edges …

Westminster Democracy: A Comparison Of Small Island States Varieties In The Pacific And The Caribbean, Dag Anckar

Pacific Studies

The validity of the suggestion by Arend Lijphart that the structure of consensus democracy may spring from a general cultural inclination toward consensus is investigated by comparing a set of small Pacific and Caribbean island states. All have colonial histories that involve a strong British legacy, and all have been submitted to attempts by the metropolitan power to influence the preparing of the independence constitution. The results indicate that the Pacific islands with long-standing indigenous and consensual cultures and traditions have indeed introduced into their political systems more consensus-based applications of Westminster rule. Controls for the impact on democratic style …

Agricultural Non-Point Source (Agnps) Water Quality Modeling In A Gis Environment, Stephen George Carpenter

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This thesis project outlines the development and implementation of a complex GIS project in a government agency. The objective of the project was to integrate a public domain GIS package (GRASS) with a commercial structured query language database in order to undertake Agricultural Non-Point Source (AGNPS) water quality modeling. Three general areas of GIS technology were investigated consisting of technical issues involved in linking GIS; the model; database development; and a discussion of system performance from an institutional perspective.

Examining Yard Sales In Fayetteville, A Rural West Virginia Town, Kimberly Dawn Wood

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The informal economy has been a widely studied topic as the economy has changed with a shift from primary to secondary industries. The informal economy is a particular topic of interest in West Virginia, a state with a depressed economy where many citizens participate in informal activities to supplement their income. Yard sales are an understudied informal activity, and one the researcher saw occurring often in rural Fayetteville, West Virginia. A study utilizing in-depth interviews was completed and sought to answer who participated in yard sales, how extensively they participated, and why. It was found that reasons for participation were …

Mormon's Map John L. Sorenson, Martin H. Raish

BYU Studies

John L. Sorenson. Mormon's Map. Provo: FARMS, 2000. ix; 154 pp. Maps, notes, index. $9.95.

A Geographic Model For Urban Parks And Recreation Facility Planning: A Case Study Of Omaha, Nebraska, Barbara Daniels

Student Work

Recreation resources are unevenly distributed and contantly changing in the city. In this case, the structure of parks and recreation resources in Omaha, Nebraska, are of concern. To formulate a more precise and meaningful notion of recreation supply and demand; recreation scarcity, allocation and availability were calculated from a block by block survey of Omaha's population. Population density was used to determine the distribution of population relative to park acreage. Acres per capita within recreation service areas was considered as a rough estimate of intensity of use at park facilities. Additionally, acres of recreation land relative to acres of non-recreation …

The Geography Of Exploration: A Study In The Process Of Physical Exploration And Geographical Discovery, Joseph St.Onge

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Exploration has been a common literary topic throughout the history of humans. However, much of this historical tradition has possessed a fairly narrow focus, emphasizing the drama and heroics of an individual explorer or concentrating on a description of a particular exploration. There has been little attempt at understanding the process of exploration and placing this important process in context with the historic and geographic phenomena that both affect and are affected by it. In this thesis, the author has broken the process of exploration down into a theoretical structure that is presented in a holistic model. This model has …

Spanish Exploration In The North Pacific And Its Effect On Alaska Place Names, Albert Gregory Luna

Arctic and Northern Studies

Precipitated by the rapid advance of Russian fur hunters across the Aleutian Islands, the Spanish government awoke from its two hundred-year complacent slumber to define and defend its northern border. In all, seven expeditions crossed 54°40'N in the years between 1774 and 1792. Though not obvious today, these voyages left a vestigial mark on the state's topynomy along the Gulf of Alaska. From the town of Valdez to Bucareli Bay, these names are remains of a territorial rivalry in which the Spanish lost.

Refusal to publish its findings, lack of private entrepreneurs, and the inability of Spain to assess Alaska …

A Reader's Library, Martin H. Raish

Journal of Book of Mormon Studies

Martin Raish suggests that although there are only two dictionaries of Mesoamerican archaeology and culture, both are quite good and can be augmented with some excellent travel guides and wall maps. Together they help readers better understand the terminology of art history and archaeology, become more conversant with the names of sites and cultures, and feel more confident about the general outlines of history in likely Book of Mormon lands. The author specifically recommends two dictionaries, a volume on Mesoamerican religions, an atlas, some traveler’s guides, and some National Geographic Society maps.

Sulfa Or Sulfone Prophylaxis And Geographic Region Predict Mutations In The Pneumocystis Carinii Dihydropteroate Synthase Gene, Laurence Huang, Charles B. Beard, Jennifer Creasman, Deborah A. Levy, Jeffrey S. Duchin, Sherline Lee, Norman Pieniazek, Jane L. Carter, Carlos Del Rio, David Rimland, Thomas R. Navin

Journal Articles: Epidemiology

To determine factors associated with mutations in the Pneumocystis carinii dihydropteroate synthase (DHPS) gene, a prospective study of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients with confirmed P. carinii pneumonia was conducted in Atlanta, Seattle, and San Francisco. Clinical information was obtained from patient interview and chart abstraction. DHPS genotype was determined from DNA sequencing. Overall, 76 (68.5%) of 111 patients had a mutant DHPS genotype, including 22 (81.5%) of 27 patients from San Francisco. In multivariate analysis, sulfa or sulfone prophylaxis and study site were independent predictors of a mutant genotype. Fourteen (53.8%) of 26 patients who were newly diagnosed with …

Mormon's Map, John L. Sorenson

Maxwell Institute Publications

As the ancient prophet Mormon edited the scriptural texts that would become the Book of Mormon, he must have had a map in his mind of the places and physical features that comprised the setting for the events described in that book.

Mormon’s Map is Book of Mormon scholar John Sorenson’s reconstruction of that mental map solely from information gleaned from the text after years of intensive study. He describes his method; establishes the overall shape of Book of Mormon lands; sorts out details of topography, distance, direction, climate, and civilization; and treats issues of historical geography.

The resultant map …

Geographic Literacy Among Lds Returned Missionaries, Paul Cook Stahmann

Theses and Dissertations

The majority of male Ricks College students, while serving as missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, spend two years living in geographically unfamiliar environments. This thesis compares the geographic literacy of those Ricks College males who have served LDS Church missions with those who have not. A test of geographic literacy was administered to 306 male Ricks College students. Returned missionaries demonstrated significantly higher knowledge of general cultural and physical geography than pre-missionanes. In contrast, returned missionaries demonstrated no greater ability to identify global places such as countries and cities. As expected, the returned missionaries possessed …