Digital Commons Network^™

The Surface Water And Ocean Topography (Swot) Mission For River And Lake Ice Application, Sunwoo Yoon

Earth Sciences Theses and Dissertations

The Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission, launched in December 2022, is designed for global survey of Earth’s surface water. However, the seasonal freezing of lakes and rivers combined with SWOT’s unique interferometric radar characteristics presents a valuable opportunity to assess its potential for river and lake ice applications. In this dissertation, I first compare backscatter characteristics over open water and frozen lakes and rivers. I demonstrate strong contrast in backscatter between water and ice while accounting for incidence angle, highlighting SWOT’s capability to discriminate between surface cover types. However, overlapping backscatter signatures suggest further investigation of drivers of …

Behavioral Change Towards Meat Consumption To Address Climate Change, Mario A. Giraldo, Jad Aljersh

CSU Journal of Sustainability and Climate Change

Although there is consensus in the need to address the causes of climate change, very little attention has been done to implementing large scale strategies to produce behavioral change in the community to reduce greenhouse emissions. We conducted a study among college students, to evaluate their behavioral change towards a plant based diet after reflecting in the environmental effect in greenhouse emissions of animal protein consumption. During a two weeks’ period participants were required to keep a diary of the food items and meat servings they consumed, and to calculate the carbon footprint of their diet. On the second week …

Compensation Challenges In Early Childhood Education: An Analysis Of Mississippi’S Child Care Workforce, Katerina Sergi, John Stephen Mccown, Mary Rebecca Read-Wahidi, Ismail H. Yigit, Callie Poole, Heather Hanna

Publications

The early childhood workforce in the U.S. faces significant challenges, including low wages, high turnover, and inadequate support, affecting the quality of education and care for children. The existing research on early childhood education typically identifies low wages as an issue, but lacks advanced analysis of rural–urban pay disparities and how educational qualifications interact with location to affect compensation. This leaves a significant gap in understanding wage compression across the early childhood education (ECE) field. Utilizing the framework of wage compression, which posits that higher qualifications may not equate to higher pay, this study uses data from the 2023 Mississippi …

Review: My America: A Poetry Atlas Of The United States, Rachel Schwedt, Janice Delong

Ages 10-12

Appreciation of nature, Citizenship, Community, Diversity, Ethnic pride, Knowledge, Patriotism, Wonder

Adolescent Preventive Care Outcomes Before And After Covid-19 Onset: What Is The Role Of Telehealth?, Sarah Hayden Knipper

Dissertations and Theses

Adolescents are a developmentally distinctive population with unique primary health care needs; they comprise about 10% of Oregon's population and more than half are covered by the Oregon Health Plan (OHP). This dissertation investigated significant declines in preventive care utilization (well visits and HPV immunizations) among adolescents enrolled in OHP during the COVID-19 pandemic and the relationship between the decline in utilization and the rise in telehealth availability. The study focused specifically on the role of race/ethnicity, geography, and access to health systems in mitigating or exacerbating decreases in preventive care. A mixed methods approach was employed to understand not …

Vol. 48 No. 1 (2025): Pacific Studies Front Matter, The Jonathan Napela Center For Hawaiian And Pacific Islands Studies

Pacific Studies

Front Matter for the Vol. 48, No 1-Jun 2025 edition of the Pacific Studies Journal.

The Routledge Handbook Of Cultural Ecosystem Services, Pamela D. Mcelwee, Karen E. Allen, Rachelle K. Gould, Minna Hsu, Jun He

Open Access Fund Publications

The Routledge Handbook of Cultural Ecosystem Services provides an overview of Cultural Ecosystem Services (CES), which are the nonmaterial aspects of benefits that people derive from nature. These diverse and multifaceted contributions can include experiences, capabilities, and identities, among others. The Handbook addresses how these CES are valued, how they reflect human–nonhuman relationships, and what roles they can play in improved human well-being, ecosystem management, and trajectories towards sustainability.

This Handbook presents a wide array of perspectives on the roles CES can play in understanding relationships to nature, and on how those relationships might translate into policy. The Handbook includes …

Belly Dance In Nebraska: Identity, Social Acceptance, And Perseverance, Alex R. Mohr

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

Belly dance is an art form as well as an often-contested practice due to tensions over dress, terminology and cultural practices within the belly dance community because the dance originated outside the United States. Additionally, there is often a need to prove the legitimacy of the dance to those outside its sphere because it is often stigmatized due to the early association with exotic dancing. Belly dance is inherently geographic, as seen through its places of origin, music and movement styles, global spread, practitioners, and spaces of practice. However, it has not been well-represented in geography, and there is also …

Thematic Geo-Inquiry In Seventh Grade Geography, Rebekah Driscoll Austing

Theses and Dissertations

With the growth of globalization, geography is an important subject for students of the 21^st Century to understand. Being adept in geography will aid our future generations to be able to use geographic skills to answer complex world issues. Unfortunately, geography has been a long-neglected subject of social studies; often considered boring and not worthwhile with teachers using teacher-centered curriculum methods and memorization. A teacher’s job is to provide appropriate experiences, materials, and context for students to construct and connect knowledge that is useful and beneficial to them. Through a constructivist lens, inquiry-based thematic units can be used by …

Evaluating The Impact Of Sampling Pattern On The Validity Of Derived Dems: Wadi Yiba Basin As An Experimental Environment, Nadia Awad Al-Safri Dr.

Journal of Arabic Sciences and Humanities

The study aims to know the effect of the sample pattern on the validity of the DEM, relying on the analytical inductive approach through two stages. The first begins with deriving the DEMs via the Spline tool, and with a fixed sample size for the three samplings: (random, random with added 50m between the samples, and systematic), whereas the second depends on the evaluation both visually (hillshade and contour) and quantitatively (calculating the vertical accuracy based on the RMSE of the derived surface, and finding the differences between the surfaces of the three samples) of the derived models based on …

Using Least Cost Path Analysis To Explore The Archaeological Path Connecting Between Hatim Al-Taie Houses And His Stove, Iman Abdulaziz Al-Saif Dr.

Journal of Arabic Sciences and Humanities

Reviving ancient paths between archaeological sites in mountainous regions and improving accessibility to them is very important; it drives local economic development and achieves sustainable tourism. Hail Province possesses a unique geographical environment, with mountains, valleys, agricultural lands, villages, and urban areas. It is rich in archaeological sites, many of which are located in mountainous areas. The primary obstacle lies in the difficulty or impossibility of accessing these sites. The study aims to exploration the path linking two sites: Hatim Al-Tai's houses in Tuwairan il, and Hatim Al-Tai's fireplace in Jabal Al-Samra, and verify its validity. The study takes a …

The Reality Of Tourism Investment In The Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia And The Role Thereof In The Growth And Governance Of Economy, Mashael Fahad Al-Harthi Mrs, Lamia Abdul Aziz Al-Jasser Dr.

Journal of Arabic Sciences and Humanities

This study examines the early development of tourism investment in Saudi Arabia and the interaction between government and private sector roles within the framework of Vision 2030. It highlights how the Vision encourages investment participation and provides tools to support tourism as a growing contributor to national income. The Kingdom aims to position tourism as a major investment hub, both locally and globally, similar to its role in other economies. A descriptive-analytical method, along with Pearson correlation and regression analysis, was used to analyze the link between government (independent) and private (dependent) tourism investment. Results indicate a strong, complementary relationship—99% …

Impacts Of Extreme Weather Conditions On Coastal Fisheries Near Bayou Teche, Louisiana From 2019–2023, Georgia C. Davis

LSU Master's Theses

The region of Southcentral Louisiana, particularly around Bayou Teche, thrives on its commercial and recreational fisheries. These fisheries are occasionally subject to events like extreme weather that cause sudden and unexpected losses (NOAA Fisheries, 2024a). Between 2019 and 2023, a series of extreme weather events impacted southcentral Louisiana near Bayou Teche. This series of extreme events includes Hurricane Barry (2019), Hurricane Laura (2020), Hurricane Delta (2020), Hurricane Zeta (2020), Hurricane Ida (2021), and a United States Drought Monitor (USDM) D4 drought (2023). This study analyzes the impacts of the extreme weather series on coastal fish observed species richness (SR) in …

Decarbonising Digital Infrastructure And Urban Sustainability In The Case Of Data Centres, Felicia H. M. Liu, Karen P. Y. Lai, Bertrand Seah, Winston T. L. Chow

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

This paper critically assesses the complex interplay between urban transitions of digitisation and sustainability. Building on a mixed-method research design, we unpack the challenges of decarbonising digital infrastructure while attending to urban sustainability goals in a land- and water-scarce country facing significant physical climate risks. We identify transferrable lessons on the economic, technological, and environmental synergies and trade-offs behind data centre development and argue that stewarding the global data centre sector towards sustainability requires an ecosystem-wide approach. We identify implementation gaps across five key dimensions: technological innovation, policy and regulation, finance, infrastructure, and people. We find that the progress and …

Encountering Coasts: The Contested Geographies Of Young People's Coastal Citizenship[S], Mark Holton

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

This paper examines the contested geographies of young people's citizenship practices and performances in marine and coastal environments. This is important in developing original knowledge of how encounters with new and different coastal places, practices, people, morals and ethics can affect young people's citizenship practices and performances and how young people relate meaningfully with[in] coastal environments. Using a novel digital scrapbooking technique and qualitative interviews, conducted with 22 young adults aged 18–30 in Plymouth, UK, this paper examines how and why young people's everyday engagements and encounters with coastal environments can shape their understandings of environmental and social care. In …

How Many Ways Are There To Measure A Tree? – An Experiment In Cross-Disciplinarity, Kate Pahl, Samyia Ambreen, Khawla Badwan, Simon Carr, David Cooper, Elizabeth Curtis, Ian Davenport, Abigail Hackett, Peter Kraftl, Peter Lawrence, Emily Lines, David CườNg Nguyễn, Caitlin Nunn, Steve Pool, Jennifer Rowntree, Ed Schofield, Johan Siebers, Jo Vergunst

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

This article takes a transdisciplinary approach to a relatively simple-sounding task – tree measuring. It asks the question, ‘How many ways are there to measure a tree?’, in order to provoke a discussion of our different ways of knowing. It attempts to engage a reader in thinking about disciplines and what they do. It does so by sharing insights from a project in which diverse scholars, practitioners and children came together for the common purpose of producing engaged knowledge. The experience of reading the article should prompt questions about whose knowledge counts and why, and the value of university research …

An Omega-Type Scarab From Middle Bronze Age Burial Pit 204 In Ashqelon (Pp. 85–87), Daphna Ben-Tor

'Atiqot

An Omega-type scarab was found in Pit 204, the largest and best-preserved tomb in the cemetery unearthed in Ashqelon. It was found near a fragmentary skull and several bones of a young woman, together with a large assemblage of carefully positioned pottery vessels. The Omega-type scarabs are believed to have been produced in the Southern Levant in early Middle Bronze Age II (c. 1700–1640 BCE).

Petrographic Analysis Of Middle Bronze Age Ii Vessels From The Burial Pits In Ashqelon (Pp. 89–96), Anat Cohen-Weinberger

'Atiqot

Fifteen pottery vessels from the Middle Bronze Age II burial pits exposed at Ashqelon were chosen for petrographic analysis. Most of the vessels were made from local soils found in the vicinity of the site. A single amphora originated in Cyprus. Some of the vessels (Group B) might have been imported from Egypt.

A Note On The Provenance Of Black Wheel-Made Vessels From A Burial Cave West Of Tel Hazor (Pp. 21–23), Anat Cohen-Weinberger

'Atiqot

A petrographic analysis was undertaken to determine the source of the raw materials used in the production of the Intermediate Bronze Age Black Wheel-Made Ware (BWMW) vessels retrieved from a burial cave west of Tel Hazor. The BWMW repertoire is limited to goblets, cups, jars, kraters, teapots and bottles; its distribution seems to be largely restricted to northern Israel, particularly to the Hula Valley. The aims of this study were to identify the raw materials that were used to manufacture the selected vessels, determine their geological sources and assess possible geographic regions of manufacture.

Al-Ahsa Urban Inhabitants’ Tendency For Housing In Their Farms Inside The Urban Area, Jawahir Muhammad Al-Hatlani Dr.

Journal of Arabic Sciences and Humanities

This paper addressed the reality of agricultural urban housing for a sample of inhabitants who adopted their farms as permanent housing, in the cities of Al-Ahsa, through a field study utilizing the methods of personal interview and questionnaire as two means for identifying the motives that led to their tendency for housing in their farms, and aiming to observe the reality of housing and inhabitants’ tendencies and desires towards it. This study implemented a historical, behavioral, and descriptive approach, which aided in analyzing the data pertinent to the phenomena under investigation, the descriptive and quantitative methods, and spatial visualization and …

Petrographic Study Of Selected Mamluk-Period Pottery From Khirbat Din‘Ila (Pp. 105–112), Anastasia Shapiro

'Atiqot

Twenty-seven vessels dated to the Mamluk period from Khirbat Din‘ila were selected and sampled for petrographic examination. The vessels were divided into four petrographic groups. It was found that all the soil types are known for their use in pottery production throughout human history, as are the use of quartz sand or crushed calcite tempers.

Geographic Disparities Impacting Oral Vaccine Performance: Observations And Future Directions, Rachel M Burke, Sasirekha Ramani, Julia Lynch, Laura V Cooper, Haeun Cho, Ananda S Bandyopadhyay, Carl D Kirkwood, A Duncan Steele, Gagandeep Kang

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Oral vaccines have several advantages compared with parenteral administration: they can be relatively cheap to produce in high quantities, easier to administer, and induce intestinal mucosal immunity that can protect against infection. These characteristics have led to successful use of oral vaccines against rotavirus, polio, and cholera. Unfortunately, oral vaccines for all three diseases have demonstrated lower performance in the highest-burden settings where they are most needed. Rotavirus vaccines are estimated to have >85% effectiveness against hospitalization in children < 12 months in countries with low child mortality, but only ~65% effectiveness in countries with high child mortality. Similarly, oral polio vaccines have lower immunogenicity in developing country settings compared with high-resource settings. Data are more limited for oral cholera vaccines, but suggest lower titers among children compared with adults, and, for some vaccines, lower efficacy in endemic settings compared with non-endemic settings. These disparities are likely multifactorial, and available evidence suggests a role for maternal factors (e.g. transplacental antibodies, breastmilk), host factors (e.g. genetic polymorphisms-with the best evidence for rotavirus-or previous infection), and environmental factors (e.g. gut microbiome, co-infections). Overall, these data highlight the rather ambiguous and often contradictory nature of evidence on factors affecting oral vaccine response, cautioning against broad extrapolation of outcomes based on one population or one vaccine type. Meaningful impact on performance of oral vaccines will likely only be possible with a suite of interventions, given the complex and multifactorial nature of the problem, and the degree to which contributing factors are intertwined.

Ucf Pegasus Plan - 1st Grade - Maps & Globes, Cecilia Nuss, Mackenzie Luley, Jessenia Diaz, Alyssa Arnott, Miranda Howley

Pegasus Plans: Social Studies Unit Plans for Florida Teachers

During this unit, students will explore and create various maps and globes through multimedia resources, Hands-on activities, and assessments. The daily lessons cover topics such as a compass rose, cardinal directions, map titles, and physical features on maps and globes. By the end of this unit, students will be able to identify key elements and locate physical features of maps and globes. Through the use of songs, hands-on activities, games, books, and class discussions, students will be engaged throughout the unit.

Impact Of Geography On Institutions In Agricultural And Nomadic Societies, Haiwen Zhou

Economics Faculty Publications

How geography affects the choice of institutions is studied in a theoretical model. In this model, nations are located around a circle. Rulers compete through choosing tax rates, the level of military spending, and the degree of formality of institutions. Geographic condition is captured by population density. It is shown that societies with higher population densities choose lower tax rates, establish more formal institutions, and give government officials lower levels of autonomies than those with lower population densities do. A higher level of external threats induces a ruler to choose a higher level of autonomy for officials. The model is …

Artificial Intelligence In Science And Society: The Vision Of Usern, Tommaso Dorigo, Gary D. Brown, Carlo Casonato, Artemi Cerda, Joseph Ciarrochi, Mauro Da Lio, Nicole D'Souza, Nicolas R. Gauger, Steven C. Hayes, Stefan G. Hofmann, Robert Johansson, Marcus Liwicki, Fabien Lotte, Juan J. Nieto, Giulia Olivato, Peter Parnes, George Perry, Alice Plebe, Idupulapati M. Rao, Nima Rezaei, Fredrik Sandin, Andrey Ustyuzhanin, Giorgio Vallortigara, Pietro Vischia, Niloufar Yazdanpanah

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

The recent rise in relevance and diffusion of Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based systems and the increasing number and power of applications of AI methods invites a profound reflection on the impact of these innovative systems on scientific research and society at large. The Universal Scientific Education and Research Network (USERN), an organization that promotes initiatives to support interdisciplinary science and education across borders and actively works to improve science policy, collects here the vision of its Advisory Board members, together with a selection of AI experts, to summarize how we see developments in this exciting technology impacting science and society in …

Slava Ukraini! Solving Ukraine’S Present With The Past, Daniel Armes

Journal of Strategic Security

Ukraine desires to be a free state, drawing on over one thousand years of history to legitimize a national identity consisting of a distinct culture, language, and religion. While this is an achievable goal, the country faces challenges based on competing claims to Ukraine’s historical legacy. This article will analyze the roots of the current conflict over Ukraine’s national identity beginning with the religious divide between Eastern and Western Christianity in the Great Schism of 1054 and the Rus diaspora caused by the Mongol invasion of eastern Europe in 1240. A millennium of history and conflict are relevant today because …

A National Zoning Atlas To Inform Housing Research, Policy, And Public Participation, Sara C. Bronin, Wenfei Xu, Scott Markley, Diana Drogaris

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

Through a unique combination of data science and legal analysis techniques, the National Zoning Atlas is creating the first public, online repository of standardized data about zoning. This article first discusses the context for and methodology behind the atlas. It then establishes three possibilities for using the atlas, including facilitating research (including fair housing research), strengthening planning, and empowering the public.

The Impact Of Short-Term Rental Activity On House Prices: Evidence From Coastal Virginia, Navid Safari, Lei Zhang, Timothy M. Komarek

Finance Faculty Publications

Short-term rentals such as Airbnb have grown substantially in recent years. In this study, we investigated the effect of Airbnb rentals on neighboring house prices in Hampton Roads, Virginia. We focus on three different measures of Airbnb activity to obtain more robust results. Our measures include active Airbnb listings, active listings with at least one reservation, and the sum of reservations over three different periods. Consistent with previous literature, our main results show that prior Airbnb rental activity has a positive impact on the surrounding housing sales prices. Furthermore, the localized impact diminishes over geographic space (i.e., distances greater than …

Field Learning And Employability In Geography, Earth, And Environmental Sciences, Jacqueline Dohaney, Alison Stokes

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Society needs talented Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences (GEES) graduates to help address global challenges, but the pathway to professional employment is seldom easy. After graduation, most GEES graduates enter professions requiring broad transferable skills and 'value-added' experiences to thrive in the modern workforce. GEES educators can therefore enhance employability by using field experiences to introduce and develop transferable skills valued by employers. Here, we define employability for our context, explore GEES graduate skills and describe the ways that communication, project management and personal and professional skills can be embedded in field experiences guided by the available literature. We identify …

Pediatric Cancer Incidence, Temporal Trends, And Mortality In The United States By Health Disparities Indicators, Seer (1973-2014), Prachi P. Chavan, Laurens Holmes Jr.

Epidemiology, Biostatistics, & Environmental Health Faculty Publications

Background: Pediatric cancer incidence has been increasing in the United States, despite improvement in pediatric cancer survival. This steady increase in incidence trends is not completely understood but maybe associated with social and environmental factors. In this study we aimed to assess the cumulative incidence, temporal trends, and mortality rates in pediatric cancer. Additionally, we examined sub-group variability in both incidence and mortality rates. Methods: Data from Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) −18 from 1973–2014 were used for the purpose of analysis in this study. Age-adjusted incidence rates were used to assess temporal trends in cancer among children aged < 1–19 years. Univariable and multivariable binomial regression models were used to examine the association between race and cancer mortality while adjusting for potential confounders. Results: There were 92,594 cancer diagnoses during this period. White children comprised 74,758, (80.7%), black children 10,030, (10.8%), and other races 6648, (7.2%). Overall the age-adjusted cumulative incidence was slightly higher among white children (16.4%) than black children (12.4%) and other (13.0%). Children aged 15–19 years and those in metropolitan regions were more likely to be diagnosed with pediatric cancer. Relative to females, males were 16% more likely to die from the disease [adjusted Risk Ratio (aRR): 1.16, 95% Confidence Interval (CI): 1.09–1.22]. Additionally, compared to white children, black children had higher mortality rates [(aRR): 1.37, 99% CI: 1.23–1.52]. Conclusions: There is an increasing trend in pediatric cancer incidence; while white children have the highest incidence, black children and males indicated a survival disadvantage, indicative of racial and sex variability in overall pediatric cancer in the United States.