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The Pulse And Press Of Change: Consequences Of Shifting Climate Regimes And Extreme Events In Big Sagebrush Plant Communities, Scott Carpenter

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

Dryland ecosystems cover over 40% of Earth’s terrestrial surface and are critical to both biodiversity and human livelihoods, yet they are increasingly vulnerable to the interacting pressures of climate variability and land use. Effective management of these systems requires a deeper understanding of how chronic pressures and acute disturbances shape plant communities. This dissertation examines the interplay between climate variability, livestock grazing, and plant community dynamics in big sagebrush ecosystems of the Upper Green River Basin, Wyoming. Through three complementary studies, I demonstrate that while livestock grazing influences plant structure, its effects are consistently subordinate to climatic and edaphic factors, …

Campus Connect, Katie Coates, Bella Wengappuly, Annabelle Brown, Kyie Salerno

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

This paper examines how university campus design can be strategically utilized to support student mental health, drawing on global examples to inspire improvements in the University of Montana’s (UM) campus planning. The University of Montana, like most college campuses worldwide, is currently facing pressing mental health challenges among the student body. College can be a highly stressful experience, where students encounter unique pressures that, without adequate support, can lead to mental health crises. Many universities across the globe have recognized the role of campus design in promoting mental well-being, and they have adopted innovative, student-centered design strategies to foster positive …

The Dirt Underneath My Fingernails: The American Pastoral And 21st-Century Food System Reform, Annabella Isaacson

Scripps Senior Theses

The following is an amalgamation of my experiences personally and vested interests academically, and is meant to be read as just that. As a thesis that combines Environmental Analysis and Writing & Rhetoric degrees, this project challenges traditional academic forms by integrating creative nonfiction and poetry with academic writing and analysis. This thesis attempts to fuse the academic and personal essay into one cohesive piece. The inconclusive nature of the narratives and explorations that follow are intended to represent my process in grappling with the histories and significance of American pastoral literature through the ways in which this genre has …

Lands Lost: Tracing Displacement And Ecological Degradation Amongst The Tataviam, Kawaiisu, Kitanemuk, And Vanyume People Of Antelope Valley, Calif., Daisy Alvarez

Scripps Senior Theses

Exploring the historic and ongoing impact of settler colonialism in the Antelope Valley, this thesis argues the Tataviam, Kawaiisu, Kitanemuk, and Vanyume, the aboriginal tribes of the valley, are effectively erased from the valley’s narrative and imagination. Through a series of genocidal and colonization efforts, first from Mission San Fernando and then from the California State Government and arrival of Anglo American settlers, the valley’s tribes can be subjugated to acculturation, displacement, massacres, and marginalization. Recognizing the valley's moral responsibility to platform their living descendants, the thesis proposes a path forward through decolonization, calling out local governments (Lancaster and Palmdale) …

Looking At The Cracks And Fragments: Ressentiment In The Narrative Of Resilience, Jasmin B. Advincula

Philosophy Department Faculty Publications

Resilience is a fundamental element in post-disaster recovery and development of states. However, beyond its prominence in state policies, resilience has increasingly been used as a part of a rhetorical ploy to conceal the lack or absence of political action. This narrative involving resilience has problematic implications on collective memory and recognition of the seriousness and extent of the tragic experience. To vividly illustrate true resilience and contrast it with its current depiction, this paper draws on the Japanese art of Kintsukuroi. In Kintsukuroi, the brokenness is not concealed but celebrated and garnished with gold. As embodied in this art, …

Identifying And Forecasting Key Drivers Of Greenhouse Gas Emissions In Ireland's Residential Sector Multivariate Time Series Analysis., Sallam Noor Aldeen Salman

ICT

This study evaluates advanced time-series forecasting models to predict greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE) in Ireland's residential sector. LSTM, XGBoost, and ARIMA models were tested alongside feature selection methods including PCA, XGBoost-based importance, and Granger causality. Urban population growth and electricity consumption emerged as the most significant predictors. While LSTM struggled due to limited data, XGBoost showed strong predictive performance (MAPE ~9%), and ARIMA with key features achieved the highest accuracy (MAPE 3.78%). Forecasts indicate a declining GHGE trend, offering actionable insights for environmental planning and policy in the residential sector.

The Paradox Of Survival: Gendered Food Insecurity, Labor Inequalities, And Coping Strategies During The 2023/4 Drought In Eastern Ethiopia, Meron E. Lemma

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

In drought-prone regions of Eastern Ethiopia, recurring droughts profoundly reshape everyday life in ways that deepen existing gendered inequalities. Drawing on fieldwork conducted in Fedis district, including semi-structured interviews with women, project implementers, and government officials, as well as group discussions with community members, this study explores how women experience, navigate, and resist the gendered impacts of drought. By attending to the sociopolitical dynamics of drought and the development interventions that accompany it, I analyze how these forces restructure labor, land, food systems, and authority in ways that reproduce and exacerbate existing inequalities. Women’s coping strategies, ranging from begging and …

Fine Particulate Air Pollution Exposure Burden And Sociodemographic Health Disparities In The United States: Impacts From Energy Transitions And Temporal Variation In Mortality Risk, Rory Stewart

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

Climate change, the defining environmental crisis of our time, has been shown to impact concentration, distribution, and composition of tropospheric air pollutants, including particulate matter. Economic patterns greatly shape the generation of particulate matter as well as greenhouse gases that enhance climatic changes. Substantial evidence shows that exposure to fine particulates, particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter <2.5 µm (PM2.5), contributes to premature mortality and morbidity. These detrimental health outcomes have been shown to be experienced unequally across population groups, with disparities in the level of exposure and in the magnitude of health response for marginalized populations that have higher vulnerability to air pollution exposure. It is also possible that these health responses are not static, but dynamic over time due to changes in population health and composition of air pollution exposures, warranting deeper investigation into the directionality and shape of these health responses. Modeling potential future energy scenarios by using existing knowledge on health responses to air pollutants allows researchers and policymakers to understand how changes to air pollution can impact population health before policies are implemented. Thus, inclusion of appropriate modelling techniques and analyses of energy policy impacts is essential to understanding health impacts from climate mitigation and adaptation across population groups within the United States. This dissertation contributes to the growing knowledge base on climate mitigation, health co-benefits from air pollution concentration changes and health response changes across time to air pollution exposures. Chapter two presents work investigating whether energy policies that aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions have a secondary impact of reducing health burden in the United States (U.S.) and if any changes to mortality and hospitalizations differ across subpopulations. I explored four future sector-specific energy policy scenarios (electrification of ports and marine shipping, low long-term natural gas pricing, high electric vehicle uptake, and innovations in building energy efficiency) and a business-as-usual scenario to determine how changes to ambient PM2.5 levels impact health within the continental U.S. by region, race/ethnicity, urbanicity, and income. I also investigated how methodological assumptions impact findings. I found projected avoided premature mortalities from energy transition policies range from 67,011 (95% CI: 45,692, 82,397) to 81,003 (55,286, 99,532) individuals in 2050 and 11,577 (1,332, 19,918) to 13,552 (1,560, 23,303) avoided cardiorespiratory hospitalizations in 2050, showing substantial health co-benefits from greenhouse gas mitigation policy implementation. These benefits vary by region and subpopulation, with Black, suburban, and less wealthy Americans experiencing the highest percent reduction in mortalities across all energy policy scenarios. Analysis into how population assumption specificity (such as using race-specific incidence rates instead of total population rates) influences the results proved that more specific population assumptions can make substantial differences to overall health projections. This research demonstrates the vast health benefits of climate mitigation strategies and how they differ across subpopulations, with some environmental justice populations benefiting more relative to the overall population. In chapter three, I investigated how PM2.5-mortality associations vary over time (2001-2016) in North Carolina and Michigan, while considering how temporality of these associations varies by sociodemographic variables. Results indicate that the direction of PM2.5– mortality health effects varies by location. The odds ratio (OR) for mortality per 10?g/m3 PM2.5 differed across time from 2001-2008 to 2009-2016, increasing by 0.28% in Michigan and decreasing 0.78% in North Carolina. Non-linear models show steadily increasing PM2.5-mortality odds over time for Michigan but an “S” shape for North Carolina. I also found suggestive evidence of widening disparities in PM2.5-mortality odds over time by age, race/ethnicity, urbanicity, sex, and education, although the magnitude of those changes varies across subpopulations and state. This research shows that mortality impacts of PM2.5 are changing over time, with different trends by location and subpopulation, potentially exacerbating environmental justice. This dissertation research underscores the importance of analysis to determine sociodemographic population health disparities when modeling co-benefits of energy and air pollution policies as overall estimates may obscure important differences across subpopulations. Better projections on local health effects on vulnerable communities can enhance equity considerations for climate mitigation actions, as well as provide a more holistic analysis on benefits of cost to implement versus avoided exposure and health costs. Further, this research shows that concentration-response functions may vary temporally and that such trends vary across location. This suggests that applications of historical concentration-response estimates may be obscuring the actual health impact on populations through over- or underestimates of health responses to a certain level of exposure. Improvements in the methodological assumptions of exposure and health response by introducing temporal variation provide researchers with a more accurate representation of the association between air pollution and health, which should be more widely considered in epidemiologic research. These results can inform policymakers and public health professionals in evaluating which communities are at highest risk from particulate exposures in the present day and into the future, especially in relation to temporal trends and projected changes in emissions, particulate composition, and population vulnerability.

From Individuals To Ecosystems: The Role Of Intraspecific Variation And Phenotypic Plasticity In Ecosystem Function, Nathalie Rose Sommer

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

Understanding how organisms shape ecosystems is a central goal of ecology, particularly in an era of rapid environmental change. While ecosystem models have traditionally emphasized species-level diversity and abiotic controls, this dissertation provides evidence that trait variation within species—driven by phenotypic plasticity and transgenerational effects—can have consequences for ecosystem structure and function. Intraspecific variation is increasingly recognized as a key component of biodiversity-ecosystem function relationships, yet its effects remain underrepresented in empirical studies and predictive frameworks. By integrating multigenerational field experiments, multi-trait assessments, and detailed ecosystem measurements in a long-term, well-characterized study system, this dissertation bridges evolutionary ecology and ecosystem …

Local Food Systems And Sustainability: A Granville Cookbook, Jocelyn Rafter

Student Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Editor-In-Chief's Note, Surekha Rao

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

Right Attributions To Rivers: From Bio-Cultural Rights To The Rights Of Future Generations, Danny Marrero

Philosophy Faculty Publications

The research shows how the movement of the rights of rivers has open new spaces for subjugated people in Latin America such as Afro-decendent communities, indigenous communities, or the future generations to inject radically different legal and philosophical traditions. The research explores two pioneer cases of right attributions to rivers: Comunidades Afrodescendientes del Rio Atrato v. Presidencia de la Republica de Colombia (Afro-Colombian Indigenous Communities of the Atrato river v. Presidency of the Republic of Colombia) and Las Generaciones Futuras v. Ministerio del Medio Ambiente y Desarollo Sostenible (Future Generations v. The Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development). These cases …

Evaluating Visitor Valuation Of Urban Green Spaces By Modality, Vicky J. Gao, Adam Fulton, Ross Andrew

SPARK Symposium Presentations

Abstract: Urban green spaces play a critical role in enhancing the well-being of city residents by providing recreational opportunities, environmental benefits, and a social setting. While still in its early stages—focused on analyzing findings from a pilot survey—this study aims to investigate how visitors value urban green spaces through surveys conducted in Warner Parks in Nashville, with plans to expand to other significant urban green spaces in neighboring states.

For the purposes of SPARK, this study presents the findings of the pilot survey. The survey collected data on variables such as primary park activity, distance travelled to local parks, perceived …

The Solar Power Of Pricing: Does Electricity Pricing Policy Drive Residential Solar Demand?, Talia De Beer

CMC Senior Theses

Solar energy has emerged as a pivotal renewable energy source, experiencing significant growth in the United States over the past two decades. As policymakers continue to develop and refine the best methods to incentivize solar adoption while reflecting true costs and potential equity concerns, this paper seeks to evaluate the impact of changes in solar pricing policies on residential solar installations. Employing a difference-in-differences regression model, this study examines the effects of policy changes on both the system capacity and number of installations of adoption in three Western states that have transitioned away from traditional Net Energy Metering (NEM) policies–Arizona, …

High ‘Steaks’: Does Lone Star Tick-Induced Red Meat Allergy Reduce Cardiovascular Disease-Related Hospitalizations?, Raj Parekh

CMC Senior Theses

In this thesis, I investigate the relationships between Lone Star Tick-induced Alpha-Gal Syndrome (AGS), red meat consumption, and cardiovascular health outcomes within New York State's 62 counties from 2012 to 2021. The analysis examines whether AGS, which forces individuals to reduce red meat consumption, serves as a natural experiment in understanding dietary impacts on cardiovascular disease (CVD). Leveraging panel data, I utilize Fixed Effects (FE) and Two-Stage Least Squares (2SLS) regression frameworks to disentangle the relationships between red meat expenditure, meat prices, Lone Star Tick prevalence, and health outcomes such as CVD, stroke, coronary heart disease, and heart attack hospitalization …

From Fields To Fast Foods: Food Culture, Identity, And Health In Puerto Rico Under The U.S. Empire, Ivanna Morales Mercado

CMC Senior Theses

Operation Bootstrap, launched in 1947, fundamentally altered Puerto Rico’s economy, just as much as its food culture. Prioritizing manufacturing over agriculture led to the collapse of the island’s farming sector, increasing reliance on food imports and leading to a rise in diet-related diseases such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular issues. This thesis examines the legacies of Operation Bootstrap on Puerto Rico’s food system, health outcomes, and cultural identity by emphasizing the need to value intergenerational knowledge. The oral history research in this study highlights the importance of intergenerational knowledge in reclaiming sustainable agricultural practices and healthy, culturally significant …

Heat And Hardship: Energy Price Increases And Heatstroke Risks In Japan During The Global Energy Crisis, Kenshin Ueoka

CMC Senior Theses

Given the global rise in surface temperatures due to climate change, it is important to understand the interactions governing economic and behavioral responses to household heat adaptation. This study investigated the relationship between energy prices and heatstroke risks in Japan. The analysis revealed that the increase in energy prices during the 2021 global energy crisis was associated with an unexpected decrease in home heatstroke emergency room visits. This result is consistent with the Peltzman effect and moral hazard problem, as reduced economic access to air conditioning may have increased risk perception, heightening heatstroke prevention measures. The ambiguity of this result …

Batteries For Grid Stability: The Impact Of Utility-Scale Battery Installation On Electricity Price Volatility In California, Hannah Vestring

CMC Senior Theses

As renewable energy penetration increases, driven largely by solar, electricity prices have become increasingly volatile due to the intermittency of supply, increasing the need for price stabilizing interventions. This study examines the impact of cumulative additions of utility-scale battery energy storage systems (BESS) capacity on real-time market (RTM) electricity price volatility within the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) between 2020 and 2024, taking a long-term, system-wide perspective on storage deployment. Using an Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression framework, the analysis finds that cumulative BESS capacity is significantly associated with reduced price volatility in the benchmark model, with results remaining robust …

Powering Understanding: Cultural Underpinnings Of U.S.-China Competition In The Green Energy Transition, Bryan J. Soh

CMC Senior Theses

Rejecting the structural determinism of contemporary IR theories that neglect diverging epistemic predispositions in different states, this paper traces the cultural rationalization of green transition policies in the U.S. and China, thereby paving a way towards a positive understanding of how bilateral climate diplomacy can be better adapted for cooperation, rather than antagonistic competition, on an issue that transcends borders.

Book Of Abstracts Of The Wmu International Conference 2025 : Advancing The Blue Economy Through Gender Equality, World Maritime University, Momoko Kitada, Francis Neat, Renis Auma Ojwala

Conference Papers

The 2025 World Maritime Theme by the International Maritime Organization, “Our Ocean, Our Obligation and Our Responsibility,” underscores the global need for an inclusive and sustainable approach to ocean health and maritime economic activity. In alignment with this, the World Maritime University organized the 2025 International Conference on Achieving the Blue Economy Through Gender Equality, highlighting the critical role of gender equality in advancing a sustainable blue economy. A call for case studies yielded 102 abstracts from 206 authors across 46 countries, representing diverse maritime sectors such as shipping, fisheries, and ocean sciences. The abstracts were reviewed by both internal …

Conference Report Of Wmu Maritime Affairs Conference 2025 : Transforming A Maritime Future : Digitalization And Decarbonization, World Maritime University

Conference Papers

No abstract provided.

Training Set Augmentation And Harmonization Enables Radiomic Models To Detect Early Onset Of Lung Cancer, Claire Huchthausen, Menglin Shi, Gabriel L.A. Sousa, James Larner, Einsley Janowski, Jonathan Colen, Krishni Wijesooriya

Data Science Faculty Publications

Radiomics-based machine learning models have the potential to detect lung cancer at inception from CT scans and transform patient outcomes. Low malignancy rates in early-development pulmonary nodules (PNs) and variable image acquisition hinder development of clinically applicable radiomics-based early detection models. To address these challenges, we augmented training using later-development PNs and harmonized for acquisition effects. We first trained machine learning models to predict PN malignancy using radiomic features from scans of early-development benign and malignant PNs (n = 187) harmonized using ComBat. Observing near-chance performance, we augmented training with later-development benign and malignant PNs (n = 225). We evaluated …

Contents, Discovery Editors

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

No abstract provided.

Discovery: The Student Journal Of Dale Bumpers College Of Agricultural, Food And Life Sciences - Volume 26 2025, Several Authors

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

No abstract provided.

Featured Faculty Mentor/Student Team, Kelly Loftin, Eva Berryhill

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

No abstract provided.

Holy Cross Green Guide, Maggie Mccracken, Julia Barton, Nick Corsentino, Olivia Dubin, Shane Fitzpatrick, Sheila Hulseman, Abbie Lane, Keely Lavin, Max Matterazzo, Molly Mccracken, Erin O'Donovan, Courtney Yockel, Justin Mcalister

Department of Environmental Studies Student Scholarship

Holy Cross resides on Pakachoag Hill, part of the traditional lands of the Nipmuc people. We are grateful for their historic stewardship of this place we all share.

Fact Book, Academic Year 2024, Systems Intelligence And Data Analytics, University Of Nebraska At Omaha

Fact Book

The Fact Book presents important campus information in data tables and charts. Included are details regarding students, faculty, staff, and alumni. Generally, data are broken out by college, rank, level, gender, age and ethnicity for both spring and fall semesters, past to present. There are a few academic year tables that include information on tuition & fees, student credit hours by program, and degrees conferred. We wish to thank the many individuals and departments at the University for their contributions to the Fact Book.

Foucauldian Discourses At The Intersection Of Climate-Induced Migration And Cultural Heritage, Samantha L. Stuhlmiller

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The worsening climate crisis has created and exacerbated issues of migration, cultural heritage and power relations issues. States and communities worldwide face large-scale challenges that must be addressed to protect individuals and ensure the longevity of nations and their cultures. This thesis utilizes Foucauldian theories of power through a critical discourse analysis of relevant documents in international law, state policy, and research to assess how discourses impact the design and implementation of policies and practices that are intended to mitigate and solve these issues in Kiribati, Tuvalu, and for the Rohingya. When there are discrepancies between discourses created and reinforced …

Statement From The Indiana Academy Of The Social Sciences And Board Of Directors

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

Investigation Of Radiation Absorption Behavior Of Banana Leaves And Onion: A Cost-Effective Way Of Radiation Protection, Arpita Datta, Alpana Goel, Shreya Singh

International Journal of Nuclear Security

Shielding of nuclear radiation is an important component of radiation safety aiming to reduce the exposure of ionizing radiation to radiation workers. In the present work, beta and gamma radiation absorption properties of various environmentally friendly natural materials such as onion, banana leaf, and banana stem were investigated with a view to understand their radiation shielding capability. Pure beta source ⁹⁰Sr–⁹⁰Y and gamma sources such as ²⁴¹Am, ¹³⁷Cs and ⁶⁰Co were used to study the attenuation of beta and gamma radiation using these natural materials. Intensity of the emitted radiation was measured by placing …