Digital Commons Network^™

Effects Of Variable Density Thinning On Spatial Patterns Of Overstory Trees In Mt. Hood National Forest, Emma Huston

Environmental Science and Management Professional Master's Project Reports

Variable density thinning (VDT) is a method of restoration thinning that attempts to increase ecosystem resilience and spatial heterogeneity in forest stands to more closely resemble mosaic-like patterns characteristic of late-successional forests, which consist of clusters of multiple trees, individual trees, and gaps. This study examines the spatial patterning of overstory trees resulting from VDT of conifer forests in Mt. Hood National Forest in the western Cascade Mountains and compares these patterns with reference conditions. Stem maps were created from field surveys of study plots within one mature stand and six thinned stands designated as Late-Successional Reserve (LSR) with varying …

Monitoring And Evaluating Malawi Youth Conservation Engagement After Community-Based Environmental Education Workshops, Stefanie Kramer

Environmental Science and Management Professional Master's Project Reports

This project addressed Peace Corps Malawi’s need to redevelop and implement environmental education workshops using a community-based approach, monitored project outcomes from these workshops, and provided an evaluation of strengths and areas for improvement of the environmental education workshop program.

Long-Term Managed Flooding To Control Invasive Phalaris Arundinacea L. And Help Restore Native Vegetation In An Urban Palustrine Wetlands Ecosystem, Robert P. Lascheck

Environmental Science and Management Professional Master's Project Reports

We sought to determine the effects of 13 years of hydrologic management on the wetland plant community in Smith and Bybee Wetlands Natural Area (SBW), an 809 ha palustrine wetland complex in north Portland, Oregon. Previous management efforts resulted in an altered hydrologic regime; historically high water levels in spring and low water levels in fall were replaced by persistent water levels with minimal annual variations. A water control structure was installed in 2003 to better approximate historic seasonal hydrologic changes to reduce invasive Phalaris arundinacea (reed canarygrass) cover and promote native wetland vegetation growth. Vegetation monitoring has been carried …

Environmental Activism Of Teacher-Scholars In The Neoliberal University, Wendy Highby, Sarah T. Romano

University Libraries Publications

This article takes a case study approach to examine social justice-oriented environmental activism of faculty in the context of neoliberalism. As an evolving trend, university corporatization places new economic burdens on universities and their students and has contributed to a tenuous landscape for faculty in terms of academic freedom and job security. In particular, we examine a faculty-led response to hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, Colorado. Drawing on participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and campus-wide survey data, we document this response as a “tempered grassroots leader-ship” approach to workplace inquiry and activism. We discuss …

2018 Alaska's Construction Spending Forecast, Linda Leask, Oliver Scott Goldsmith

ISER Reports

The total value of construction spending “on the street” in Alaska in 2018 will be $6.6 billion, up 4% from 2017.1, 2,3 The increase is due to a recovery in Petroleum sector spending which will grow 15% to $2.6 billion from its low of $2.2 billion last year. All other construction spending will be $4.0 billion, a decline of 2% from $4.1 billion last year. Private spending, excluding petroleum, will be about $1.5 billion, down 5% from $1.6 billion last year—while public spending will decline 1% to $2.5 billion. Wage and salary employment in construction will decline 3% to 14.5 …

Max Neuhaus, R. Murray Schafer, And The Challenges Of Noise, Megan Elizabeth Murph

Theses and Dissertations--Music

In this dissertation, I analyzed Max Neuhaus’s (1939-2009) and R. Murray Schafer’s (b. 1932) commentary and work regarding noise, its control, and its relationship with the environment from the 1960 to the 1980s. Both Neuhaus and Schafer as well as those more directly involved with noise abatement research and policy were responding to the challenges and possibilities that noise posed in the latter twentieth century. In this project, I delved into these substantial links and argued that responding to and engaging with noise abatement policies was a key impetus to much of their work, which scholarship has yet to critically …

Do As They Did: Peer Effects Explain Adoption Of Conservation Agriculture In Malawi, Andrew Reid Bell, Jennifer Zavaleta Cheek, Frazer Mataya, Patrick S. Ward

Natural Resource Management Faculty Publications

Adoption of the trinity of practices known commonly today as conservation agriculture (CA)—maintaining soil cover, reducing tillage, and enhancing soil nitrogen through legumes—is a critical process to the management of erosion in rural landscapes, and maintenance of aquatic habitats and hydropower potential. However, the large literature on the benefits and risks of CA fails to find any universal determinants of adoption, with competing uses for crop residues, availability of labor, and access to physical inputs common constraints appearing in different contexts. We conduct a study in the specific context of Malawi, using ethnographic interviewing to draw out possible decision criteria …

A Low-Cost Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (Ndvi) Payload For Cubesats And Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (Uavs), Steven Hard

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The focus of this research has been the design and fabrication of a Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) payload configuration. This unique payload employs low-cost commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware and equipment to assess photosynthetic activity and vegetation health through remote sensing on Cubesat or Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) platforms. The proposed NDVI imaging payload is comprised of three main subsystems: an electrical system, a software system, and a hardware system. The electrical system includes a custom designed printed circuit board (PCB), a single cell 3.7 V lithium-polymer battery, voltage regulator circuitry components, and wiring harnesses and connectors. The software system …

Exploring Forest Diversity And Ecosystem Services Using Big Data And Empirical Dynamic Modeling, James V Watson Iii

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

No abstract provided.

Augment The Multi-Modal Interaction Capabilities Of Hololens Through Networked Sensory Devices, Subhadra Tummalapally

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Augmented Reality (AR) places virtual contents along with real objects to enhance user perception in the physical environment. It is a technology that has shown great potential in many industries such as medicine, education and transportation. AR devices, such as Microsoft HoloLens, come with multi-modal interaction capabilities, such as voice, gesture and gaze, to support intuitive and reliable human-computer interactions. However, HoloLens gesture support is limited to simple gestures like tap, bloom and hold, it stops short to support meaningful interaction through full hand gesture and motion tracking, which may be critical in field operations of various industry practices in …

Theoretical Model For Buoyancy-Induced Heat Transfer Deterioration Under Supercritical Pressure, Jiacheng He, Chaobin Dang, Eiji Hihara

International Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Conference

In an organic Rankine cycle system which utilizes the low-grade heat sources in various industrial processes, operating the heating process at supercritical pressure provides a possibility to increase the system efficiency because more work can be recovered. Under this background, it is necessary to investigate the supercritical heat transfer characteristics of the organic working fluids. In this study, the characteristics of supercritical heat transfer of fluid R245fa, which is commonly applied in the commercial ORC power plant, and R1233zd(E), which is recognized as an alternative working fluid owing to its low-global-warming-potential value, were investigated experimentally under the heating condition in …

Informing Canada’S Commitment To Biodiversity Conservation: A Science-Based Framework To Help Guide Protected Areas Designation Through Target 1 And Beyond, Sarah Joy Bittick

Biology Faculty Works

Biodiversity is intrinsically linked to the health of our planet—and its people. Yet, increasingly, human activities are causing the extinction of species, degrading ecosystems, and reducing nature’s resilience to climate change and other threats. As a signatory to the Convention on Biological Diversity, Canada has a legal responsibility to protect 17% of land and freshwater by 2020. Currently, Canada has protected ∼10% of its terrestrial lands, requiring a marked increase in the pace and focus of protection over the next three years. Given the distribution, extent, and geography of Canada’s current protected areas, systematic conservation planning would provide decision-makers with …

Booklover — Birds, Donna Jacobs

Against the Grain

No abstract provided.

Full Page Ads

Against the Grain

No abstract provided.

Profiles Encouraged

Against the Grain

No abstract provided.

Global Perspective-Taking: Extending Interdisciplinary Pedagogies Into International Classrooms, Tami S. Carmichael

English Faculty Publications

As William Newell observed, in order to obtain an excellent undergraduate education, it is necessary for students to move between disciplinary and interdisciplinary educational experiences; additionally, he claims it is essential that "students also…shuttle back and forth between the classroom and the outside world" (Newell, 2010, p. 12). This movement, both intellectual and physical, promotes the development of the perspective-taking that can help students better understand, and potentially begin to address, complex global issues (Newell, 2001). If moving between disciplines and beyond the classroom into the physical world (and back) could have an impact on students' perspective-taking development, what might …

Asia Pacific Perspectives Vol. 15 No. 2, Spring/Summer 2018, University Of San Francisco

Asia Pacific Perspectives

Contents:

Editor's Introduction by Melissa S. Dale

The editor reflects on this issue's new articles, which focus on climate change as it is being experienced across Asia, and the different local responses it has provoked. From China to India to Southeast Asia, the relationship of nature to each local worldview shapes how communities view climate change, its effects, and their responses to it.

Fengshui Forests as A Socio-natural Reservoir in the Face of Climate Change and Environmental Transformation by Christopher R. Coggins and Jesse Minor

Chinese lineage villages are social-ecological systems (SESs) designed according to principles of fengshui (“wind-water”). Fengshui …

Camas, Winter 2018

Camas

A Bee Queen is the Statement I Make / Janisse Ray -- The Snake and the Girl / Danielle Lattuga -- Downwind / Teresa Janssen -- The Language of Silence / Jeanine Pfeiffer -- Wild with a Touch of Direction / Shane Randle -- Tagging Monarchs / Hayli McClain -- Nesting / Nicholas Littman -- To Hugo from the Banks of the Nisqually / Melissa Mylchreest -- Watcher in the Woods / Sarah Cozort -- I Am Still Hallucinating / Sara Sage -- Green Consumers / Oonagh Doherty -- Lost at Sea / Catherine Young -- Dream of Driving / …

Kenyon College Catalog 2018-2019

Kenyon College Course Catalogs

No abstract provided.

Bioharvest: Energy Efficient Design For The Standardization Of Biomimetic Technologies At Stanford University In Palo Alto, Ca, Usa, Gabriella Santostefano

Architecture Theses and Projects

The thesis serves as an investigation of the possibilities of biomimicry as well as an exploration of harvesting energy from the sun, the wind, the rain, and the earth.

Biomimicry, derived from the Greek words bios meaning “life” and mimesis meaning “imitate,” is the examination of nature in order to create systems that are derived from the natural world and provide sophisticated solutions to human problems.

Biomimicry asks the question. “What in nature has already solved what I am trying to solve?” In the case of this project, nature will inspire the creation of a new building typology, Bio-Inspired Solutions …

Volunteer Environmental Stewardship And Affective Labour In Philadelphia, Alec Foster

Faculty Publications - Geography, Geology, and the Environment

Recent research has critically evaluated the rapid growth of volunteer urban environmental stewardship. Framings of this phenomenon have largely focused upon environmentality and/or neoliberal environments, unfortunately often presenting a totalising picture of the state and/or market utilising power from above to create environmental subjects with limited agency available to local citizens. Based upon qualitative research with volunteer urban environmental stewards in Philadelphia, affective labour is proposed as an alternative explanation for participation. Stewards volunteered their time and labour due to the intense emotional attachments they formed with their neighbourhoods, neighbours, and nonhuman others in relationships of affective labour. Volunteer urban …

Conceptual Framework For A Curriculum In Social Change, Iris M. Yob

Journal of Sustainable Social Impact

Colleges, universities, and many high schools are expressing their mission in terms of creating social change or contributing to the common good. Such a mission suggests that if they are going to graduate students who will fulfill this mission, they will need to consider how they will best prepare students to do this. The conceptual framework for a curriculum in social change in this article offers a holistic approach, taking into account what a student should know, be able to do, and what values and attitudes should be nurtured. To that end, the article identifies three competencies in the knowledge …

Geophysical Exploration Of The Upper Crust Underlying North-Central Indiana: New Insight Into The Eastern Granite-Rhyolite Province, Michael Ray Green

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

This study analyzes ten 2D seismic lines donated by CountryMark together with potential field data to examine the upper crustal structure near Wabash, Indiana. These seismic profiles reveal significant relief of the Precambrian Unconformity and prominent upper crustal reflections. The Precambrian Unconformity interpreted from the unmigrated stacked seismic sections is characterized by undulations and bowtie artifacts. Zero offset seismic models constructed using profiles of the exposed Precambrian Unconformity across the Eastern Granite-Rhyolite Province outcrops of the St. Francois Mountains feature the same seismic expression. The upper crust below the Precambrian Unconformity on the Countrymark seismic sections is also characterized by …

January 2018 News Releases, University Of Montana--Missoula. Office Of University Relations

University of Montana News Releases, 1928, 1956-present

No abstract provided.

Restoration Of Mauri (Life-Force) To Okahu Bay: Investigation Of The Cultural, Social, And Environmental Restoration, Emily Freilich

Pomona Senior Theses

This thesis investigated the restoration of mauri (life-force) to Ōkahu Bay, Auckland New Zealand. Ōkahu Bay is part of the land and waters of Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, a Māori hapū (sub-tribe). Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei has been driving the restoration, restoring Ōkahu Bay based on their worldview, visions, and concerns. This vision and control of the restoration process allows them to bring in the hapū in sustainable engagement and have the long-term vision and commitment necessary for self-determination. However, while there has been progress with projects and improved decision-making authority, hapū members are still not seeing their whānau (family) swimming in …

An Assessment Of The Sharing Economy And Its Policy Solutions Through The Lens Of Sustainability, Chloe An

Pomona Senior Theses

This senior thesis in environmental analysis explores the promise of sustainability of the sharing economy, its shortcomings from this positive potential, and possible policy solutions to help it reach its fullest, positive potential. At its core, the sharing economy enables shared access to goods and services that would otherwise sit in idle or underutilized capacity – popular platforms such as Uber, Lyft, Airbnb, and craigslist all fall within the sharing economy. By enabling affordable and convenient access to goods that would otherwise sit idle, the sharing economy encourages maximal use of a good that already exists rather than seeking out …

Restoration Of Mauri (Life-Force) To Ōkahu Bay: Investigation Of A Community Driven Restoration Process, Emily Freilich

Pomona Senior Theses

This thesis investigated the restoration of mauri (life-force) to Ōkahu Bay, Auckland New Zealand. Ōkahu Bay is part of the land and waters of Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, a Māori hapū (sub-tribe). Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei has been driving the restoration, restoring Ōkahu Bay based on their worldview, visions, and concerns. This vision and control of the restoration process allows them to bring in the hapū in sustainable engagement and have the long-term vision and commitment necessary for self-determination. However, while there has been progress with projects and improved decision-making authority, hapū members are still not seeing their whānau (family) swimming in …

Virginia Commonwealth University Stormwater Management Plan, Jesse Harris

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Capstone Projects

Every year millions of gallons of polluted stormwater and untreated sanitary waste are discharged directly into the James River during combined sewer overflow events. This is a problem considering stormwater is one of the most significant sources of pollution to the nation’s surface waters.

The purpose of the VCU Stormwater Management Plan (VCU SWMP) is to reduce the impact of stormwater pollution using green infrastructure and low impact development best management practices like rain gardens, green roofs, and infiltration trenches. These stormwater control strategies present opportunities for VCU to reduce runoff and to preserve and restore green spaces on an …

Change In Dominance Determines Herbivore Effects On Plant Biodiversity, Sally E. Koerner, Johannes Knops, Dustin J. Strong, 80 More Co-Authors

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Herbivores alter plant biodiversity (species richness) in many of the world's ecosystems, but the magnitude and the direction of herbivore effects on biodiversity vary widely within and among ecosystems. One current theory predicts that herbivores enhance plant biodiversity at high productivity but have the opposite effect at low productivity. Yet, empirical support for the importance of site productivity as a mediator of these herbivore impacts is equivocal. Here, we synthesize data from 252 large-herbivore exclusion studies, spanning a 20-fold range in site productivity, to test an alternative hypothesis—that herbivore-induced changes in the competitive environment determine the response of plant biodiversity …

Understanding The Impact Of Land Use On Microbial Water Quality To Support Decisions For A Future Land Use Plan, Mohammed Tawfiq Aljassim

Theses and Dissertations

May River meandering through the Town of Bluffton, South Carolina has been known for its high level of water quality. The May River is one of the major sources of shellfish harvesting in South Carolina. Due to the non-point source pollution of fecal coliform, the water quality of the May River became degraded. As a result, shellfish harvesting classification in the May River was downgraded for the first time in its history. The rapid growth of the Town has led to a change in land use, which might be related to the increased levels of fecal coliform in the stream …