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From Seeds To Shoreline®: A Place-Based Approach To Impacting Student Engagement And Achievement, Molly Lloyd

Theses and Dissertations

Place-based education refers to pedagogy that connects student learning with the local environment and students’ lives. Educators’ preoccupation with standardized test scores have increased the disconnect between formal education and student’s life experiences. Schools have developed systems of learning in isolated subjects through reading texts, listening to lectures, or watching videos rather than authentic, experiential learning. School districts have embraced a STEM (science, technology, engineering, and science) approach to education as a way of invigorating student learning. There are many approaches to integrating, hands-on, inquiry-based science lessons. As science PASS test scores have declined, educators are examining best STEM instructional …

Environmental Links To Ectopic Kidney Diseases, Firas Alhasson

Theses and Dissertations

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common liver disease in the western culture and worldwide. Its morbidity has been raising and it has become a burden on the public health. NAFLD is associated with other metabolic diseases such as Diabetic Mellitus and hypertension. NAFLD is a wide spectrum of symptoms, from an accumulation of fat in the liver (cirrhosis) to production of scar tissue (Fibrosis). The liver along with other distal organs such as the kidney and cardiovascular system can be damaged as ectopic manifestations of NAFLD. Contamination of drinking water with Cyanobacterium toxin (Microcystin) and water disinfection …

Migratory Patterns And Population Genetic Structure In A Declining Wetland-Dependent Songbird, Matthew G. Desaix

Theses and Dissertations

Understanding migratory connectivity is essential for assessing the drivers behind population dynamics and for implementing effective management in migratory species. Genetic markers provide a means to describe migratory connectivity, as well as incorporate population genetic analyses, however genetic markers can be uninformative for species with weak genetic structure. In this study, we evaluate range-wide population genetic structure and migratory connectivity in the prothonotary warbler, Protonotaria citrea, a wetland-dependent neotropical migratory songbird, using high-resolution genetic markers. We reveal regional genetic structure between sampling sites in the Mississippi River Valley and the Atlantic Seaboard with overall weak genetic differentiation among populations …

"We Are...": Creating Discursive Spaces For The Construction Of Counter Narratives Through Photovoice As Critical Service Learning, Amanda F. Hall

Theses and Dissertations

Broader social issues that affect students’ lives manifest in the classroom and the current neo-liberal reform structures in education (e.g., the accountability movement combined with punitive discipline measures and structural classism/racism) fail to acknowledge the impact of these issues on student identity within school and community. While this era of standardized testing has brought about anti-democratic realities in schools of all sorts, it is also the case that schools that pass tests often enjoy a more liberatory climate while schools struggling to meet testing requirements are more likely to possess oppressive qualities. Not coincidentally, the more oppressive schools are often …

Improving The Conservation Of A Cryptic Endangered Freshwater Mussel (Parvaspina Collina) Through The Use Of Environmental Dna And Species Distribution Modeling, Bonnie A. Roderique

Theses and Dissertations

Conservation efforts that involve habitat protection, population augmentation, and species reintroductions require knowledge of the habitat requirements, distribution, and abundance of a species—information that can be challenging to acquire, especially for rare organisms with patchy distributions. In this thesis, I develop a protocol for the use of environmental DNA (eDNA) and create a Species Distribution Model for the endangered James spinymussel, Parvaspina collina (Unionidae). The results of this work show that eDNA is a robust tool for identifying species presence but not for estimating the relative abundance of populations. This study found that P. collina’s distribution is influenced by abiotic …

Forest Structural Complexity And Net Primary Production Resilience Across A Gradient Of Disturbance In A Great Lakes Ecosystem, Lisa T. Haber

Theses and Dissertations

Forests are an important component of the global carbon (C) cycle and contribute to climate change mitigation through atmospheric C uptake and storage in biomass and soils. However, the forest C sink is susceptible to disturbance, which modifies physical and biological structure and limits spatial extent of forests. Unlike severe, stand-replacing disturbances that reset forest successional trajectories and may simplify ecosystem structure, moderate severity disturbances may instead introduce complexity in ways that sustain net primary production (NPP), leading to the phenomenon of “NPP resilience.” In this study, we examined the linkage between disturbance severity and ecosystem biological and physical structural …

Climate Change And Mountaintop Removal Mining: A Maxent Assessment Of The Potential Dual Threat To West Virginia Fishes, Lindsey R F Hendrick

Theses and Dissertations

Accounts of species’ range shifts in response to climate change, most often as latitudinal shifts towards the poles or upslope shifts to higher elevations, are rapidly accumulating. These range shifts are often attributed to species ‘tracking’ their thermal niches as temperatures in their native ranges increase. Our objective was to estimate the degree to which climate change-driven shifts in water temperature may increase the exposure of West Virginia’s native freshwater fishes to mountaintop removal surface coal mining. Mid-century shifts in habitat suitability for nine non-game West Virginia fishes were projected via Maximum Entropy species distribution modeling, using a combination of …

Cooperative Conservation To Enhance Human–Wildlife Interactions, Terry A. Messmer

Human–Wildlife Interactions

This is the editors commentary

Toward Sustainable Conservation And Management Of Human-Wildlife Interactions In The Mmadinare Region Of Botswana: Villagers’ Perceptions On Challenges And Prospects, Oitshepile M. Modise, Rebecca Nthogo Lekoko, Olekae Tsompi Thakadu, Masego Ayo Mpotokwane

Human–Wildlife Interactions

Human–wildlife conflicts are increasing globally. The increase in conflicts has been attributed to growing human and wildlife populations and a per capita increase in the consumption of natural resources. In Botswana, conflicts between humans and elephants (Loxodonta africana) are increasing. The growing human population (2.2 million) is encroaching on the animals’ already restricted range. Concomitantly, more elephants are adversely affecting arable agriculture production. To better understand the magnitude and intensity of human–wildlife interactions with elephants and other native wildlife species in Botswana, we collected data through community forum conducted July 17–18, 2017 at a “Kgotla” meeting in Mmadinare, a village …

Listening In The Field: Recording And The Science Of Birdsong, David D. Vail

Human–Wildlife Interactions

No abstract provided.

Using Global Positioning System Technology To Manage Human-Black Bear Incidents At Yosemite National Park, Rachel L. Mazur, Ryan M. Leahy, Caitlin J. Lee-Roney, Kathleen E. Patrick

Human–Wildlife Interactions

Managing human–bear (Ursus spp.) incidents is a top management priority in national parks inhabited by bears. Yosemite National Park (Yosemite), located in the Sierra Nevada in California, USA, receives up to 5 million visitors annually. It is also home to 300–500 black bears (U. americanus). Yosemite has an extensive history of black bear research, educational programs, and innovative solutions for reducing human–bear incidents. Despite this, human–bear incidents peaked in 1998 at 1,584. The resulting political fallout led to Yosemite receiving funds to expand its bear management program, including increasing its staffing and garbage pick-up, and improving the …

A Call For Proactive Human–Bear Conflict Mitigation, Annabella R. Helman

Human–Wildlife Interactions

This commentary serves as a call to action for the creation of proactive mitigation efforts to lessen human–bear conflict based on comprehensive predictive data models.

Four Years Of Unmanned Aerial System Imagery Reveals Vegetation Change In A Sub-Arctic Mire Due To Permafrost Thaw, Jessica Delgreco

Master's Theses and Capstones

Warming trends in sub-arctic regions have resulted in thawing of permafrost which in turn induces change in vegetation across peatlands both in areal extent and composition. Collapse of palsas (i.e. permafrost plateaus) has also been correlated with increases in methane (CH4) emission to the atmosphere. Vegetation change provides new microenvironments that promote CH4 production and emission, specifically through plant interactions and structure. By quantifying the changes in vegetation at the landscape scale, we will be able to scale the impact of thaw on CH4 emissions in these complex climate-sensitive northern ecosystems. We combine field-based measurements of vegetation composition and Unmanned …

Why Achieving The Paris Agreement Requires Reduced Overall Consumption And Production, Eva Alfredsson, Magnus Bengtsson, Halina Szejnwald Brown, Cindy Isenhour, Sylvia Lorek, Dimitris Stevis, Philip Vergragt

Sustainability and Social Justice

Technological solutions to the challenge of dangerous climate change are urgent and necessary but to be effective they need to be accompanied by reductions in the total level of consumption and production of goods and services. This is for three reasons. First, private consumption and its associated production are among the key drivers of greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions, especially among highly emitting industrialized economies. There is no evidence that decoupling of the economy from GHG emissions is possible at the scale and speed needed. Second, investments in more sustainable infrastructure, including renewable energy, needed in coming decades will require extensive amounts …

New Studies In Rio Grande Valley History, Milo Kearney, Anthony K. Knopp, Antonio Zavaleta, Thomas Daniel Knight

Studies in Rio Grande Valley Regional History Series

Spanglish, a poem / Mario Barrera -- Place identity formation in the Lower Rio Grande Valley: the identity of Brownsville / Elim Zavala -- The complexity of land custody in 19th century deep South Texas / Eugene Fernandez -- Not in Kansas anymore: selling midwesterners the 'Magic Valley' of South Texas / Craig H. Roell with Ruth May Euler Roell -- Alexander Headley, public servant or scoundrel? / Norman Rozeff -- Rebels at the Rio Grande: naval actions on the international border in 1863 / Walter E. Wilson -- Matamoros en la época de la constitución de 1917 / Rosaura …

Can The Vaquita Be Saved From Extinction?, Gerardo Rodríguez-Quiroz, Wenceslao Valenzuela-Quiñonez, Héctor A. González-Ocampo, Alfredo Ortega-Rubio

Human–Wildlife Interactions

The vaquita (Phocoena sinus) is considered the world’s most endangered marine mammal. It is the smallest member of the porpoise family endemic to the upper part of the Gulf of California. The current population is estimated at less than 30 individuals. The primary reasons for the species decline includes limited habitat and incidental mortalities associated with illegal gillnet fishing activities. Since 2008, the Mexican government has taken environmental and economic actions to protect the vaquita’s focusing in reducing by-catch deaths to zero. In 2015, a federal Agreement decreed by the Secretaría de Agricultura, Ganadería, Desarrollo Rural, Pesca y …

Red-Headed Woodpecker Full Annual Cycle Ecology At Fort A.P. Hill, Virginia, Benjamin Nickley

Theses and Dissertations

The red-headed woodpecker is a primary cavity excavator found throughout the Eastern Deciduous Forest and parts of the Great Plains. Although widespread, the red-headed woodpecker is generally considered uncommon, with patchily distributed populations. Over the past 50 years, this species has experienced precipitous, range-wide declines. The red-headed woodpecker uses a variety of cover types to meet resource needs across the annual cycle, ranging from oak savannas and wetlands, to mature beech forests and urban parks. Given their apparent adaptability to such a wide range of habitats, causes of declines are perplexing. To understand and stem declines, recent studies have focused …

Water Consumption Of Children In Head Start Classrooms, Bingbing Zhang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) identifies the importance of water consumption and suggested that children need to consume water each day (IOM, 2011). Head Start Performance Standards requires that the children have free access to drinking water throughout the program day (DHHS, 2016a). The first goal of this study was to identify the quantity of water consumed by children during the program day (8am-2pm). This study employed a person-centered approach to explore the water consumption of the children through observations and direct measurement to identify the amount of the water consumed during a program day. Four classrooms from a Head …

Mirabile Dictu: Newsletter Of The Bryn Mawr College Libraries 21 (2018)

Mirabile Dictu: Newsletter of the Bryn Mawr College Libraries

No abstract provided.

Reclaiming Stolen Voices : An Indigenous, Region-Based Reading Of Leslie Marmon Silko’S Ceremony, Patricia Grace’S Potiki And Kiana Davenport’S Shark Dialogues, Krittaporn Reungwattanakul

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

This thesis aims to examine how contemporary indigenous writers reclaim their self-definition through the born-within, region-based perspectives in three novels: Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony (1977), Patricia Grace' Potiki (1986), and Kiana Davenport's Shark Dialogues (1998). It propounds that the three novels employ indigenous myths, knowledge, and epistemologies to present their modern indigenous culture, history and identity as distinct from mainstream Western stereotypical perceptions. These writers also suggest the necessity for hybridization of traditional culture in order for indigenous cultures to survive when it comes into contact with the global community. The three selected literary texts present integral roles of nature …

The Relationship Between Facebook Users' Motivation On Environmental Issues, Environmental Awareness And Behavioral Tendency In Vietnam, Linh Nguyen Ba Tue

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

The objectives of this research were to study the Facebook users' motivation on environmental issues, their environmental awareness and behavioral tendency in Vietnam and to explore the relationship among these three variables. Three social media influencers who had more than 10,000 followers on their Facebook profiles, demonstrated open, explicit environmentally-friendly lifestyle and achieved certain media recognition were invited to join in-depth interviews. Four hundred and fifty eight Vietnamese male and female respondents, aged between 18 and 45 years old and currently residing in Vietnam, were asked to complete an online and offline questionnaire survey. The results depicted that the respondents …

Comparative Toxicology Of Nio And Ni(Oh)₂ Nanoparticles, Melissa Hope Cambre

Masters Theses

“Understanding the potential toxicity of nanoparticles (NPs) is important to ensure that these new products do not impose harmful effects to human and environmental health. Paper I is a literature review in which we discuss characteristics of nanomaterials, with an emphasis on transition metal oxide nanoparticles that influence cytotoxicity. Identification of those properties may lead to the design of more efficient and safer nanosized products for various industrial purposes and provide guidance for assessment of human and environmental health risk. We then investigate biochemical and molecular mechanisms of cytotoxicity that include oxidative stress-induced cellular events and alteration of the pathways …

Prisons, Policing, And Pollution: Toward An Abolitionist Framework Within Environmental Justice, Ki'amber Thompson

Pomona Senior Theses

Environmental Justice defines the environment as the spaces where we live, work, and play. The Environmental Justice (EJ) Movement has traditionally used this definition to organize against toxics in communities. However, within EJ work, prisons or policing have often not been centralized or discussed. This means that the approximately 2.2 million people in prison are excluded from the conversation and movement. Additionally, communities and activists are identifying police and prisons as toxics in their communities, but an analysis of policing and prisons is largely missing in EJ scholarship. This thesis explores the intersection between prisons, policing, and pollution. It outlines …

Reducing Elasmobranch Bycatch In The Atlantic Seabob (Xiphopenaeus Kroyeri) Trawl Fishery Of Guyana, Aaron Garstin, Hazel A. Oxenford

Gulf and Caribbean Research

The Atlantic seabob (Xiphopenaeus kroyeri) trawl fishery is very important to Guyana, with 88 licensed industrial vessels harvesting about 15,000 mt annually, representing Guyana’s most valuable seafood export. All vessels are already using both teleost by—catch reduction devices (BRDs) and turtle excluder devices (TEDs) to satisfy international market standards. However, the key stakeholder, the Guyana Association of Private Trawler Owners and Seafood Processors, is now seeking to access sustainable seafood markets through pursuing Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification. To this end, this study documents elasmobranch by—catch in the current fishery and examines the effectiveness of a modified TED …

The Controversy Over Permit-Exempt Wells In Washington, Jean O. Melious

Seattle Journal of Environmental Law

In a groundbreaking 2016 decision commonly referred to as the Hirst decision, the Washington State Supreme Court recognized the interrelationship between land use and water use. The Court held that the state’s Growth Management Act required local governments to protect water resources through measures ensuring that new development would not deprive senior water users of their water rights. The decision focused on development relying on permit-exempt wells. Permit-exempt wells reflect a pioneer mentality that encourages dispersed development by allowing rural property owners and developers to appropriate water without obtaining a permit. Permit-exempt wells are subject to the state law of …

Policy Analysis: Alaska Salmon Hatcheries, Jessica Eller

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Using an adapted Ecological Risk Assessment (ERA) - Evaluation, this study analyzes policy regulating Alaska salmon hatcheries to evaluate its effectiveness at sustaining wild salmon runs.When Alaska became a state in 1959, its salmon industry was suffering from years of overfishing. Runs were at an all-time low, prompting constitutional drafters to mandate management of salmon via the sustained yield principle. The hatchery system that operates today and is responsible for a third of the commercial catch each year was put in place in the 1970s to help supplement depressed salmon runs. The effects of hatchery salmon on wild salmon populations …

Teacher Twitter Chats: Gender Differences In Participants’ Contributions, Stacey L. Kerr, Mardi J. Schmeichel

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

Gender differences in participation were examined across four Twitter chats for social studies teachers. Analyses drawing on mixed methods revealed that while there was parity across most kinds of tweets, participants identified as men were more likely to use the examined Twitter chats to share resources, give advice, boast, promote their own blog/resource/website, and offer critique to another participants’ tweet. Participants identified as women were more likely to write tweets that included positive affirmations for other chat participants. These findings suggest that there are differences in the way that women and men tend to participate in teacher Twitter chat spaces.

Estimating The Optimal Cutoff Point For Logistic Regression, Zheng Zhang

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Binary classification is one of the main themes of supervised learning. This research is concerned about determining the optimal cutoff point for the continuous-scaled outcomes (e.g., predicted probabilities) resulting from a classifier such as logistic regression. We make note of the fact that the cutoff point obtained from various methods is a statistic, which can be unstable with substantial variation. Nevertheless, due partly to complexity involved in estimating the cutpoint, there has been no formal study on the variance or standard error of the estimated cutoff point.

In this Thesis, a bootstrap aggregation method is put forward to estimate the …

Mountain Dance: A Transdisciplinary Exploration Of Environmental Dance As An Autopoietic Expression Of Ecological Connectivity And Synthesis, Dianne Eno

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This research explores the complexity of the human-nature relationship through the emergent arts-based lens of environmental dance. The work is guided by a transdisciplinary mission—to actively create bridges and connections between and among disciplines typically thought to be independent bodies of knowledge in their own right: here they merge and become synergistic partners, producing a new way of knowing that is greater than the sum of two independently-partnered disciplines. A transdisciplinary approach opens us to know a multiverse where a holistic perspective expands the traditionally singular viewpoint of the existing predominant Cartesian paradigm. The study allows space for “environmental dance” …

Economic Resilience In Great Britain: An Examination Of The Determinants Of The 2008 Crisis Impact On Gb's Local Authority Districts, Anastasios Kitsos

Other Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business Theses

In 2008, a severe economic crisis hit economies around the world. Its effects included a significant loss of GDP and employment which led to several social ills associated with recessions. However, the crisis did not impact all places with the same severity. This thesis investigates the crisis impact across GB Local Authority Districts during 2008-2014 within a framework that utilises the concept of economic resilience. However, this concept does not have a universally accepted definition or methodology of investigation. Hence, the study adopts an operational definition, comparing the conditions in local labour markets before and after the start of the …