Digital Commons Network^™

Remedying Renewable Energy Research: Implementation Of Green Chemistry In Laboratories, Julia Mayes

Student Theses 2015-Present

One of the pillars of environmental studies is the analysis of the natural world and the research being done to rectify harmful human activity on it. Laboratory components in the fields of chemistry, biology, ecology, among others, are powerful tools for learning about the way our environment works and assessing how human activities harm it. More advanced laboratories conduct research in the pursuit of new technologies to mitigate anthropogenic climate change. Concurrently, this work yields large quantities of waste. While laboratories are inherently valuable to the field of environmental science, the waste created by them raises a question of net …

Cracking The Code On Melting Glaciers, Deanna Conklin

COD Library Student Research and Award Symposium

Cracking the Code on Melting Glaciers is about looking beyond the causes, effects, and solutions to the melting glaciers. This paper focuses more on how the glacial melt impacts arctic animals and their habitats, human life, and the surrounding environment we live in today. While we still have time to slow the rate at which these glaciers are melting, it's important to begin rebuilding our world, and our Earth to the way it once was. So that we can continue to grow, live, thrive, and sustain all living beings, without the worry of our Earth deteriorating before our eyes.

Faculty …

Market Pressure Based On International Food Standards In Export-Scale Urban Farming: Political Ecology Perspective, Kinanti Indah Safitri, Oekan Soekotjo Abdoellah, Budhi Gunawan, Yusep Suparman, Parikesit Parikesit

The Qualitative Report

Urban farming has been transformed into urban agricultural activities oriented towards optimizing economic benefits through export market involvement. However, the expansion of the market has consequences for farmers. The involvement of urban farmers in export trade causes market pressures that affect agricultural production practices. This research used qualitative research methods. There were 27 informants in this study. Researchers collected data to determine market pressures faced by export-scale urban farmers in Bandung Metropolitan. Data collection techniques used in-depth interviews, observation, and documentation. The results showed that the market had put pressure on export-scale urban farmers in Bandung Metropolitan to meet international …

Detection, Occupancy, Abundance, And Mercury Accumulation Of The Alligator Snapping Turtle (Macrochelys Temminckii) In Texas, David Rosenbaum

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Land use practices and physical alterations of ecosystems result in habitat loss and fragmentation, while chemical alterations, such as pollutant input, reduce habitat quality and health of exposed organisms. Here, I investigated the effects of watershed- and local-scale environmental variables on the occupancy, abundance, and mercury accumulation of a threatened aquatic species (Macrochelys temminckii, i.e., alligator snapping turtle) within the southwestern periphery of its distribution. Hierarchical modeling suggested the distribution of the species is more affected by watershed-scale land-cover than local habitat, and provided a baseline estimate of average species abundance across its range in eastern Texas. Abundance …

Detection And Occurrence Of Nerodia Harteri (Serpentes: Colubridae) In An Upper Portion Of The Brazos River Watershed, Jessica Yates

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Semiaquatic snakes are disproportionately impacted by habitat alteration adjacent to wetlands because of their reliance on both terrestrial and aquatic habitats. Brazos River Watersnakes, Nerodia harteri, are endemic natricines with one of the most restricted geographic ranges in North America. I quantified detection and site occupancy probabilities of N. harteri and its sympatric congeners (N. erythrogaster and N. rhombifer), as well as microhabitat selection within the Nerodia community. Within occupied transects, search effort was positively correlated with detecting N. harteri, whereas environmental and/or habitat variables were better predictors for detecting the sympatric congeners. Microhabitat selection between …

The Current State Of Community Engagement In Urban Soil Pollution Science, Nicole Fernández-Viña, Yujuan Chen, Kirsten Schwarz

Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Faculty Research

Environmental burdens disproportionately impact the health of communities of color and low-income communities. Contemporary and legacy industry and land development may pollute soils with pesticides, petroleum products, and trace metals that can directly and indirectly impact the health of frontline communities. Past efforts to study environmental injustice have often excluded those most impacted, created distrust of researchers and other experts among frontline communities, and resulted in little to no structural change. Prevailing research methods value formal knowledge systems, while often dismissing the knowledge of those most harmed by environmental hazards. Community science has emerged as a process of doing science …

Florida History In Publications, 2014, Florida Historical Society

Florida Historical Quarterly

No abstract provided.

Nature On A Leash: Tourism, Development, And The Environment On Amelia Island, Florida, Patrick H. Cosby

Florida Historical Quarterly

In the 2002 film, Sunshine State, writer and director John Sayles fictionalizes the recent history of Amelia Island, Florida. Sayles tells the tale of how unscrupulous developers attempted to acquire the most valuable beachfront properties from local African-American residents to build condominiums and golf courses, transforming Florida's weather and environment into a commodity to be sold to northern retirees and vacationers. Like the developers in Sunshine State, the Amelia Island Plantation sold dreams of "nature on a leash."1 Beginning in the early 1970s, the Amelia Island Plantation and its planners imposed a meticulously crafted, and prohibitively exclusive, version of living …

Gang Culture And Their Territorial Space: Graffiti Analysis Using Geographical Information Systems (Gis), Christian F. Delgado

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to understand gang culture and how gangs come to define their territorial space. This thesis will focus on identifying gang spaces by utilizing geographic techniques to aid in determining where high gang activity and/or crime is taking place. This will be done by point pattern, data analysis, visualization analysis, and heat mapping on complaints, arrest, shooting, and graffiti data. This research has been conducted deductively, as it will use the theories mentioned in the literature review to define hypotheses.

Gangs are known for their violent and disruptive behavior. They ravage community resources and introduce …

Exploring Nonlinearity In The Association Between Birth Defect Rates And Agrichemicals In Groundwater In An Agricultural State, Martha G. Rhoades, Debora L. Barnes-Josiah, Roy F. Spalding, Leslie M. Howard, Colleen E. Steele, Cheryl L. Beseler

Child Health Research Institute Pediatric Research Forum

Background: Agricultural practices over the last 70 years have led to increased agrichemical contamination in some drinking water supplies. Studies report an elevated risk of birth defects associated with exposure to nitrate or atrazine, but little is known about effects of co-exposure. This ecological study evaluated the relationship between the concomitant presence of nitrate and atrazine in Nebraska drinking water supplies and risk for birth defects.

Methods: County birth data were combined with water chemistry data retrieved from a state-sponsored agrichemical contaminant database. Segmented linear regression was used to examine associations between percentage of wells with nitrate and atrazine (separately …

The Interaction Between Anxiety Sensitivity And Sleep Disturbance In Relation To Alcohol Use Among Adolescents, Gabrielle Meshell Armstrong

Honors Theses

Both substance use and sleep disturbance are common in adolescence. Additionally, alcohol use specifically is positively associated with a number of sleep disturbances. However, little to no research has examined factors that may influence the relation between problematic alcohol use and sleep disturbances among adolescents or adults. One factor that may be particularly important to consider in this regard is anxiety sensitivity (AS; i.e., the tendency to interpret unpleasant physiological sensations as dangerous). Among previous studies, anxiety sensitivity has been found associated with both increased alcohol consumption and sleep disturbances. The current study evaluated the main and interactive effects of …

Rodent Dental Microwear Texture Analysis As A Proxy For Fine-Scale Paleoenvironment Reconstruction, Jenny H. E. Burgman

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Dental microwear texture analysis (DMTA) of fossil fauna has become a valuable tool for dietary inference and paleoenvironment reconstruction. Most of this work has utilized larger taxa with larger home ranges. These studies may result in broader-scale habitat inferences that could mask the details of complex mosaic habitats. Rodent DMTA offers an opportunity to work at finer spatial scales because most species have smaller home ranges. Rodents are also keystone species within their ecosystems, abundant, ubiquitous, and found in many fossil deposits. These attributes make them excellent proxies for environmental reconstructions. However, the application of DMTA to rodents remains relatively …

Life After Death – Does Carcass Biodiversity Scale With Carcass Body Size?, Troy Warfield

Biological Sciences Undergraduate Honors Theses

Mammals play a large role in the ecosystems where some, especially large-bodied mammals, act as ecosystem engineers. Mammal carcasses, particularly those of large body mass act as a temporary island of dense nutrients that support other organisms, including other mammal species, for an extended period. Research in this field currently focuses on the link between mammal carcass size and nutrient availably or on non-mammalian size and biodiversity, but little is available on the correlation between mammal carcass size and its influence on ecosystem biodiversity. Here we ask, does the available biomass (i.e., body size) of the carcass affect its role …

Seasonality Of Orthohantavirus Seroprevalence In Northwest Arkansas Rodents, Amy Schexnayder

Biological Sciences Undergraduate Honors Theses

Zoonotic viruses are viruses that can be transmitted from animals to humans. Rodent species are likely to be reservoirs for zoonotic viruses, and particular rodent-borne viruses, such as orthohantaviruses, may greatly threaten human health. Orthohantaviruses are a group of rodent-borne viruses that are at risk for spillover to human populations. Many aspects of orthohantaviruses have been well-researched, yet the seasonality of orthohantaviruses has not yet been thoroughly examined, especially in the southern United States. In this study, we captured 616 rodents trapped over 5953 trap nights across 13 grassland sites in Northwest Arkansas. Rodents were trapped for two consecutive nights …

Incorporating Human Effects In Quantifying Mechanisms Of Stream Fish Community Structure Using Metacommunity Theory, Lauren E. Stoczynski

All Dissertations

Metacommunity theory incorporates local and regional factors to understand how biotic communities are structured across the landscape. Despite established knowledge of how humans impact aquatic systems, inclusion of anthropogenic factors in metacommunity studies have been largely ignored. Additionally, alpha, beta, and gamma diversity can all be explored at the metacommunity level to investigate mechanistic drivers of community structure. Beta diversity can be further partitioned into turnover and richness difference components, each with different mechanistic drivers. Streams provide an excellent study system for metacommunity research because of the dendritic structure of watersheds and the natural delineation that watershed boundaries provide. Large-extent …

Penalized Estimation Of Autocorrelation, Xiyan Tan

All Dissertations

This dissertation explored the idea of penalized method in estimating the autocorrelation (ACF) and partial autocorrelation (PACF) in order to solve the problem that the sample (partial) autocorrelation underestimates the magnitude of (partial) autocorrelation in stationary time series. Although finite sample bias corrections can be found under specific assumed models, no general formulae are available. We introduce a novel penalized M-estimator for (partial) autocorrelation, with the penalty pushing the estimator toward a target selected from the data. This both encapsulates and differs from previous attempts at penalized estimation for autocorrelation, which shrink the estimator toward the target value of zero. …

County Social Isolation And Opioid Use Disorder Among Older Adults: A Longitudinal Analysis Of Medicare Data, 2013–2018, Tse-Chuan Yang, Carla Shoff, Seulki Kim, Benjamin A. Shaw

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

This study aims to fill three knowledge gaps: (1) unclear role of ecological factors in shaping older adults’ risk of opioid use disorder (OUD), (2) a lack of longitudinal perspective in OUD research among older adults, and (3) underexplored racial/ethnic differences in the determinants of OUD in older populations. This study estimates the effects of county-level social isolation, concentrated disadvantage, and income inequality on older adults’ risk of OUD using longitudinal data analysis. We merged the 2013–2018 Medicare population (aged 65+) data to the American Community Survey 5-year county-level estimates to create a person-year dataset (N = 47,291,217 person-years) and …

The Impacts Of Holocene Climate And Pre-Columbian Humans On Neotropical Andean Forests, Rachel Kathleen Sales

Theses and Dissertations

Humid montane forests in the tropical Andes form hotspots for biodiversity, endemism, and conservation. Threats to the forests from deforestation are amplified by ongoing climate change, which could further reduce available habitat area by about 57 – 80%. These forests are known to have withstood considerable climate change in the past, and an emerging view suggests that they have also been shaped by a long interaction with people. Although climate-driven species range shifts are broadly known, questions remain about how past climate change has affected the species composition of these forests. The interaction of people with forests on the eastern …

Study Of Adaptive Radiation Effects On Sprint Performance In Anolis Ecomorphs, Alexander J. Bergeson

Honors Thesis

Anolis lizards have become model organisms for the study of adaptive radiation and convergent evolution due to repeated patterns of specialization that allow them to live in different environmental niches within the habitats they occur. As part of a suite of adaptations for living in specific habitats, many species have repeatedly evolved specific changes in anatomy and physiology that make them better able to perform and survive in their surroundings. These specialized forms are referred to as “ecomorphs” based on their preferred habitats and have been well documented among Caribbean anoles. Mainland species, on the other hand, are less studied. …

Assessing Manganese Concentrations In Groundwater Across The Shenandoah Valley, Va, Christopher Goldmann

Earth and Environmental Geosciences Student Honors Theses

Aqueous manganese (Mn²⁺) in groundwater used for drinking water has adverse aesthetic effects at concentrations ≥ 50 ppb and adverse human health effects at concentrations ≥ 100 ppb. Mn²⁺ in groundwater may have anthropogenic (mines, pesticide, gasoline) or geogenic (rocks and minerals) sources. Private drinking water wells are vulnerable to Mn²⁺ contamination because their water quality is not routinely monitored. This study uses groundwater data from 1587 private wells in the Shenandoah Valley, VA to assess the spatial distribution of Mn²⁺ in groundwater and identify possible Mn²⁺ contamination mechanisms. Using geospatial and statistical analyses …

Detecting Ecosystem Response To Restoration Efforts With Implications For Recovery Of The Threatened June Sucker (Chasmistes Liorus) In A Shallow, Eutrophic, Utah Lake, Ryan D. Dillingham

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Environmental damage associated with a growing human population will increase globally without active management. Restoration can promote ecosystem recovery, yet often fails to produce desired results and may require decades to achieve noticeable benefits. Detecting small, incremental change sis imperative in these difficult situations. Here, I demonstrate that restoration focused on fish removal triggers incremental responses in aquatic plants and animals. Removing common carp is expected to encourage recovery of aquatic plants, increasing animal habitat, resulting in more macroinvertebrates (e.g., aquatic insects, snails). Carp removal should also increase water clarity, improving visibility for fishes, thus increasing their ability to find …

Land-Use And Potential Effects On The Western Tiger Salamander (Ambystoma Mavortium), Emily Zappia

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

Humans have altered 40% of land across the globefor cropland, rangeland, and pastureland, which, in turn, affects amphibious species like the western tiger salamander (Ambystoma mavortium; WTS)and their viable habitats.Since intensive agriculture increased throughout eastern Nebraska in the 1980’s, the distribution ofA. mavortiumhas declined and the species can no longer be found in the southeast corner of the state, while populations are thriving in the pastures of the Sandhills region. Here we explorethe potential factors contributing to the decline ofA. mavortiumthrough the analysis of climaticand soil characteristic data across the geographic distribution of WTS. Data indicated that precipitation rates, soil …

Identification Of Risk Factors Associated With Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma (Npc) In The Pahang State Of Malaysia Hospitals, Azmir Ahmad, Muzaitul Akma Mustapa Kamal Basha, Wardah Mohd. Yassin, Nor Azlina A. Rahman, Wan Ishlah Leman, Luqman Rosla, Sharifah Nor Ezura Syed Yussof, Mark Paul, Kamariah Mohamed Awang, Kahari Abdullah, Mohd. Arifin Kaderi

Makara Journal of Health Research

Background: Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is the fifth most common cancer reported in Malaysia. Although several studies on NPC have been carried out, the risk factors associated with NPC in Malaysia are unknown. Therefore, this study was designed to investigate the risk factors associated with NPC cases in Pahang state.

Methods: NPC cases that were diagnosed between 2012 and 2017 were recruited from two referral hospitals in Pahang. An interview was conducted using adapted questionnaires, which included demographic data, family history of cancer, and lifestyle. The data were analyzed statistically to identify the associations between the selected variables and …

Pragmatism, Seminoles, And Science: Opposition To Progressive Everglades Drainage, Chris Wilhelm

Florida Historical Quarterly

Floridians have always had complex, contentious, and dynamic relationships with the Everglades. Most Floridians in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century saw the Everglades as a wasteland and supported draining useless swamp in order to facilitate economic progress. The publication of Marjory Stoneman Douglas' The Everglades: River of Grass (1947) and the advent of modern environmentalism encouraged Floridians to reconsider the identity and value of the Everglades, seeing it as a 'river of grass' that needed protection and restoration. These two views, however, only scratch the surface of the multiplicity of ways Floridians have perceived and interacted with …

Sharp Prose For Green: John D. Macdonald And The First Ecological Novel, Jack E. Davis

Florida Historical Quarterly

Hardboiled-fiction writer John D. MacDonald was known to fulminate with devastating eloquence against the profligate pillaging of the Florida Dream. Its post-World War II disintegration into a nightmare took form as a subtheme in numerous novels he produced between the 1950s and 1980s and ultimately as a subgenre that inspired a future generation of socially minded Florida writers.1 Having made the state his home, MacDonald sensed personal loss when the combined improvidence and greed of businesses and government leaders impaired the general quality of life. He put his concerns to creative use in cutting prose, saving his harshest words for …

Religious Freedom Vs. Compelled Vaccination: A Case-Study Of The 2018-2019 Measles Pandemic Or The Law As A Public Health Response, Barbara Pfeffer Billauer Esq.

Catholic University Law Review

Following the recent decision in Roman Catholic Diocese v. Cuomo,^[1] clear guidance regarding the state’s powers to act during a pandemic is wanting. I look here to the 2018–2019 global measles epidemic, with a focus on the New York and Israeli experiences, for that guidance. Measles rates increased dramatically during the 2018–2019 season, both in the United States and globally. This phenomenon reflects a general decline in worldwide vaccination and an increase in vaccine resistance stoked by anti-vax groups. In the United States, the epidemic targeted ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities, as it did in Israel. This Article evaluates the …

Individual Trophic Niche Specialization In American Beaver (Castor Canadensis), Jimmy Taylor, Robert Francis, Scott Rush, Bronson Strickland, Guiming Wang

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

The American beaver (Castor canadensis) has been described as a choosy generalist at the species/population scale, yet observational studies have shown little variation in diet among individuals. We compared isotopic values of δ¹³C or δ¹⁵N taken from hair of 32 beaver, representing seven colonies in northern Alabama, USA to determine 1) if colonies of beaver show overlap in isotopic niche width as a result of the similar use of food resources and 2) if individual trophic niche specialization occurs within colonies. Total Trophic Niche Width varied across the wetland with the widest being twice …

الآثار البيئية والاجتماعية والاقتصادية لظاهرة المد الأحمر على مجتمع الصيادين في ولاية السيب - سلطنة عمان, ثرياء بنت سعيد بن سالم العلوي, وعد بن عمر بن مرهون السيابي, أسمهان بنت خميس الجهوري, علي البلوشي

Journal of Arts and Social Sciences

شهدت العديد من سواحل العالم في العقود الأخيرة مجموعة من حوادث نفوق الأسماك والكائنات البحرية الأخرى بسبب ظاهرة المد الأحمر، الناتجة عن انتشار الطحالب الضارة. وتعد سواحل سلطنة عمان الممتدة على نحو 3165كم من السواحل التي تكررت عليها هذه الظاهرة.

Get The Facts - And Then Act": How Marjorie H. Carr And Florida Defenders Of The Enviornment Fought To Save The Ocklawaha River, Frederick R. Davis

Florida Historical Quarterly

Self described as a "Micanopy housewife," Marjorie Harris Carr seemed an unlikely candidate to develop and lead a successful grassroots campaign to save the Ocklawaha River and the wilderness surrounding it against the Army Corps of Engineers' federally mandated Cross-Florida Barge Canal. In spearheading the "Fight to Save the Ocklawaha," Carr revealed an innate sense of how to present environmental science to the public, the media, and legislators in a way that swayed opinion.

Cohort Profile: The Green And Blue Spaces (Gbs) And Mental Health In Wales E-Cohort, Da Thompson, Rs Geary, Fm Rowney, R Fry, Et Al

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Why was the cohort set up? The Green Blue Spaces (GBS) e-cohort, funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), was established to understand the impact of green and blue spaces (GBS) on mental health and wellbeing.1 The importance of GBS for mental health has been highlighted particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic.2 We processed opensource environmental data and Ordnance Survey data to create residence-level, longitudinal environment metrics for Wales, UK. These were linked to anonymised, administrative, routinely collected National Health Service (NHS) electronic health records. The cohort has individual-level linkage to a subgroup who were surveyed (cross-sectionally) to examine …