Digital Commons Network^™

Reforming The Boston Zoning Code, Sara C. Bronin

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

The Boston Zoning Code governs nearly everything that gets built within city limits. It has significant, and not necessarily positive, impacts on social fabric, the economy, equity, the environment, resiliency, and public health. I have been tasked with taking a hard look at the Boston Zoning Code and charting a path to reform it to ensure it produces the city Bostonians say they want. When first adopted in 1964, the Boston Zoning Code was fairly typical of codes nationally. It divided land into districts and distinctly regulated the uses, structures, and lots in each district. While the Zoning Code continues …

2023 Report To The Governor And Legislature On Utah's Land, Water & Air, Janet Quinney Lawson Institute For Land, Water & Air

Reports

This report serves as a 2023 snapshot of key issues and concerns with Utah’s shared resources. It highlights gathered data that is available to provide context to these issues, as well as identifies areas where more study is needed. Addressing these challenges will enable Utah policymakers to make informed decisions for the future. Under the authorship of 43 researchers and experts and the general guidance of 49 advisory committee members, the report outlines 32 issues and trends to pay attention to in the coming months and years.

Red Wolf Multispecies Justice Publication 2023, Eskar, Elizabeth Bennett, Finley Schad, Alex Baldwin, Oluwaseyifunmi Adejugbe, Mufti Nadimul Quamar Ahmed, Maisie Schad, Sadie Braddock, Azra Soyer, Melih Soyer, Anne-Laure Blanche, Zubair Barkat, Amol K, Sarah Ann Woodbury, Kirsten Vinyeta

Publications

Our understanding of multispecies justice is still solidifying. In spring 2023, a group of Utah State University undergraduate and graduate students attended a course by Dr.Kirsten Vinyeta on Multispecies Justice and Indigenous Approaches to the Environment. Throughout this course, we studied the works of scholars and writers from a variety of social locations and identities who challenge Western theoretical frameworks in social science.

This publication celebrates our intellectual struggle with this emerging field and opens a forum for conversations about justice for humans and additional species. This issue features various writings, reflections, and photos from students taking the Multispecies Justice …

Maintaining Connections During The Pandemic: Rural Arts Festivals And Digital Practices, Enya Moore, Bernadette Quinn

Articles

During the COVID lockdowns of 2020/21, the transmission of live or recorded concerts grew exponentially as festival makers embraced digital technologies to a greater degree. Investigating how this digital pivot interrupted festival-making practices is now important given that online and hybrid modes will potentially be used in conjunction with in-person events in the future. This task has relevance for rural areas where digital infrastructures can be under-developed. Yet, place-based, community-organised festivals can play a significant role in sustaining local communities. In this context, we explore the recent digital programming practices of music festivals in West Cork, Ireland. Methodologically, the study …

The Effect Of Exceptionality Label On School Psychologists During The Evaluation Process, Rachel Jacob

Theses and Dissertations--Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology

School psychologists often lead the evaluation process that is responsible for identifying students with an education-based disability. They are also responsible for providing recommendations for the student following the evaluation. The current study is focusing on the variable of exceptionality label as it is a universally present variable that has the potential to affect all evaluations. Two recent studies have examined and found labeling bias on preservice educators (Allday et al., 2011; Fisher et al., 2022). This study sought to expand this research by looking at labeling bias in school psychologists. The study measured the effect of exceptionality label on …

An Examination Of Factors Impacting Home-School Collaboration In Head Start Populations, Madison Mei-Mei Yee

Theses and Dissertations--Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology

Two essential pillars in a preschool-age student’s life include their caregiver and their teacher. In turn, it is unsurprising that a more cohesive relationship between these two figures can promote better wellbeing, academic skills, and overall developmental growth in young children. Unfortunately, a multitude of barriers impede home-school collaboration, such as socioeconomic status, non-English speaking households, and caregiver mental health, just to name a few. Head Start, a federally funded preschool program, targets underserved populations who often relate to these named barriers. Head Start works out of the Parent, Family, and Community Engagement (PFCE) Framework, a framework specifically geared toward …

The Challenges And Transformative Experiences Of Promoting Nonkilling With Anti-Nuclear Weapon Activists And Realists, Roland Joseph

Department of Conflict Resolution Studies Theses and Dissertations

Decades ago, Glenn D. Paige questioned killing and violence in politics, presenting nonkilling political science as an alternative. Activists and researchers from other disciplines have joined the movement by considering this new paradigm in their disciplines. Since then, some scholars analyzed the experience of activists promoting notions related to nonkilling, including peace and nonviolence. However, no previous research focuses specifically on the experience of scholars promoting nonkilling to anti-nuclear weapon activists and realists. To fill this gap and give voice to nonkilling and nuclear weapon risks, a qualitative phenomenological study using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was conducted to answer the …

2015-16 Antarctic Travel Project Data Set, Clare A. Sammells, Claudia Roedel, Duane Griffin

Other Faculty Research and Publications

During the 2015-2016 season, links to an internet survey were distributed to Antarctic travelers traveling with two different tour companies with expedition ships leaving from Ushuaia, Argentina, A paper brochure was placed in the expedition ship cabins of tourists before their arrival, and expedition staff gave reminders to complete them. 175 travelers, largely from two ships, completed this internet survey through Qualtrics. Tourists received links to the survey from expedition leaders who volunteered to distribute paper explanations of the survey with the link, including one author of the study (Roedel). This document gives the questions from the Qualtrics survey and …

2018-19 Antarctic Travel Project Data Set, Clare A. Sammells, Claudia Roedel, Duane Griffin, Alexander Busato

Other Faculty Research and Publications

For the 2018-2019 season, we distributed paper surveys to travelers on expedition ships leaving from Ushuaia, Argentina for the Antarctic peninsula. That instrument is included here. We received 461 responses. The Ushuaia Tourism Office, INFUETUR, graciously assisted us in distributing surveys to the expedition guides. Guides then distributed the surveys to their passengers onboard, collected completed surveys, and returned them to the INFUETUR office. These were then mailed to the authors to be analyzed. We offer our deep thanks to all those who assisted with this survey! Responses were collected between December 2018 and February 2019, a timeframe that corresponds …

2017-18 Antarctic Travel Project Data Set, Clare A. Sammells, Claudia Roedel, Duane Griffin, Alexander Busato

Other Faculty Research and Publications

For the 2017-2018 season, we distributed paper surveys to travelers on expedition ships leaving from Ushuaia, Argentina for the Antarctic peninsula. That instrument is included here. We received 362 responses, which is the n throughout the dataset. “Unanswered” indicates that nothing was written on the survey instrument for that question. The Ushuaia Tourism Office, INFUETUR, graciously assisted us in distributing surveys to the expedition guides. Guides then distributed the surveys to their passengers onboard, collected completed surveys, and returned them to the INFUETUR office. These were then mailed to the authors to be analyzed. Once the paper responses were received …

Synthesizing Energy Transitions, Nadia Ahmad, Uma Outka, Danielle Stokes, Hannah Jacobs Wiseman

Faculty Scholarship

This Article assesses the growing and cross-disciplinary literature on energy transitions to explore how it can guide law and policy reforms for the energy sector. The modern conception of energy transition centers primarily on clean energy—a shift away from fossil energy dependence. It also, however, incorporates equity as a core principle, as an increasing emphasis on energy justice and just transition seeks to create guiding norms for the energy sector’s current state of change. The concept of energy transition is critical for describing and giving meaning to a fundamental societal shift at the local, regional, national, and global scales, aligned …

A Gis Look At Woody Plant Encroachment (Wpe): Mapping Grassland Degradation Through Habitat Succession, Brandon M. Wolf

Geography and the Environment: Graduate Student Capstones

The grasslands of North America remain at a fraction of their historic range. Estimates of acreage remaining vary between 4% and 13%. Affectionately known as the Great Plains, these grasslands have been converted for agriculture, rangeland, infrastructure, and civilization itself. Woody Plant Encroachment (WPE) on the grasslands is a silent, often overlooked, serious threat. The use of a simple GIS can estimate current acreage of a grassland, its adjacent woodland corridor, riparian buffers, and predict future acreage based on trends and hypothetical management scenarios, or lack thereof. The American prairie, though a remnant of its former self, is still home …

Just Transition Litigation In Latin America: An Initial Categorization Of Climate Litigation Cases Amid The Energy Transition, Maria Antonia Tigre, Lorena Zenteno, Marlies Hesselman, Natalia Urzola, Pedro Cisterna-Gaete, Riccardo Luporini

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

Just transition litigation is a novel field representing a sub-set of climate change litigation cases that is under-researched and studied. The report provides a novel comparative analysis of legal developments found in 20 just transition litigation cases in four Latin American countries and questions whether initiatives for achieving energy transformation in the region may have erred in failing to consider key just transition principles or dimensions, leading applicants to bring legal cases to claim their rights or demand more just solutions. The cases found – limited to the energy sector – not only question decarbonization policies or projects (in typical …

Stories Of Midwest Higher Education Public Safety Administrators, The Clery Act, And Keeping Campuses Safe, Bryant Jackson

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this narrative inquiry qualitative analysis study is to examine the lived experiences of Midwest higher education public safety administrators regarding the Clery Act. Since 1990 when the Clery Act became law, higher education public safety administrators have been required to implement this law at their institutions. While research on the Clery Act has been limited, it is critical to examine the lived experiences of those tasked with its implementation and compliance. Three themes were identified when examining the lived experiences of the Midwest public safety administrators experiences with the Clery Act. The first theme explored overall impressions …

Disconnected, Frustrated And Withdrawn: Institutional Policy Implications For Equity In Student And Faculty Community, Jessica Marie Welsh

Dissertations and Theses

DFW rates at intuitions of higher education for students from underrepresented populations trended higher than majority students. A single explanatory case study provides insight to the factors impacting DFW rates in first-year gateway courses at a four-year, public, comprehensive institution. The study employed the use of focus groups of students, non-tenure-track faculty, and tenure-track faculty. In addition, institutional data was collected and used to triangulate to the data collected from focus groups. The inductive results showed multiple institutional barriers causing DFW rates among first-generation, Pell Grant, and/or students of color. Using Turner and Angulo’s (2018) theoretical framework of high-risk decision-making …

An Analytic And Systemic View Of The Digital Transformation Of Healthcare, Xuejuan J. Zhang

Full-Text Theses & Dissertations

Industry 4.0 represents a digital revolution that is driven by technologies that blur the lines between the physical and digital worlds. Industry 4.0, the latest industrial revolution, is poised to have a profound impact on all aspects of society. In order to understand how the healthcare industry is being transformed by the convergence of the physical and digital realms, a systems perspective is taken in this study. Two research questions are addressed regarding the opportunities and interventions that can be provided by both analytical and systems conceptions of digital transformation. I use a systemic literature review approach to address the …

Characterizing Air Plasma Sprayed Aluminum Oxide Coatings For The Protection Of Structures In Lunar Environments, Perla Latorre Suarez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Wear-resistant ceramic and ceramic composite coatings are significant to provide durability and support long-duration missions to the moon's surface for rovers, landers, robotic systems, habitats, and many other components. On the Lunar surface, structural components are continuously exposed to lunar dust projectiles that can cause protective coating delamination around the affected area, of protective coatings and this may not be physically visible. Ceramic coatings, composed of alumina, present excellent resistance to different types of wear due to their high strength and hardness as well as the ability to protect structural components from regolith impacts, wear, and abrasive damage. Air Plasma …

Revitalization Through Reuse: A Proposed Repositioning Of A 1960s Shopping Mall In Balcones Heights, Texas - Site History And Literature Review, Sophie Gershtenson

Gaines Fellow Senior Theses

No abstract provided.

Mpo Governing Board: Training On Congestion Reduction - Training Manual, Cutr

MPO Governing Board Training on Congestion Reduction

No abstract provided.

A Comparative Analysis Of Applied Behavior Analysis And The Montessori Method, Emily Webb

Theses and Dissertations--Early Childhood, Special Education, and Counselor Education

The Montessori method is a multi-sensory curriculum design based on Dr. Maria Montessori’s observations of the positive outcomes a multi-sensory educational approach had when working with children with disabilities; however, there is little empirical data to support the outcomes of using the Montessori method to teach children with disabilities. Despite the limited amount of quantitative research on the Montessori method and early childhood special education, studies suggest Montessori educators are open to professional development on working with children with disabilities and are willing to implement other methods to provide support for those children while still maintaining the integrity of the …

Intersectoral Responses To Climate Change And Waterborne Diseases In The Caribbean Region: Current Actions And Pathways Forward Using The One Health Framework, Sydney A. Steel

Public Health Theses

The Caribbean exists on the frontlines of climate change, and many climate-related threats are already felt throughout the region and projected to worsen in the coming decades. A critical climate-related threat is that of waterborne diseases, as extreme weather events, sea level rise, and temperature increases are shown to contribute to potable water inaccessibility and a more favorable environment for pathogen proliferation and transmission. The complexity of this challenge calls for increased regional and inter-sectoral collaboration in both preparedness and response efforts. Countries and territories across the Caribbean are currently displaying variable yet marked interest in One Health, yet there …

Northeastern Illinois University, Academic Catalog 2023-2024, Northeastern Illinois University

Course Catalogs

No abstract provided.

Modeling Monthly Actual Evapotranspiration: An Application Of Geographically Weighted Regression Technique In The Passaic River Basin, Felix Oteng Mensah, Clement Aga Alo

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Actual evapotranspiration (ET) is perhaps the most difficult quantity to directly measure among the major water balance components. Because of the high cost and labor constraints associated with the direct measurement of ET, empirical data-driven modeling has frequently been used to estimate ET. Beyond the widely used traditional type regression that has the effect of producing ‘global’ parameter estimates, assumed to be uniform throughout an area, we utilized a more localized spatially non-stationary technique - the geographically weighted regression (GWR) - to estimate mean monthly ET in the Passaic River Basin (PRB). We identified the key environmental controls of ET …

Towards Critical Environmental Justice Approach In Multicultural Divided States: Lessons From The Israeli Regulative System, Manal Totry-Jubran

Fordham Environmental Law Review

This article draws upon the evolving framework of the Critical Environmental Approach in examining the conceptualization and manifestation of the Environmental Justice approach and its pillars within the regulatory system of multicultural and divided societies. These are states comprised of marginalized ethnic and minority groups that frequently face instances of social and environmental injustice. Employing this perspective through a case study show that gradual and anecdotic but unorganized and incoherent incorporation of Environmental Justice pillars lacks the capacity to effectively address long-standing historical environmental injustices and fails to challenge the prevailing social framework. In fact, it runs the risk of …

Court Polarization: A Comparative Perspective, Iddo Porat

UC Law SF International Law Review

Polarization is on the rise around the globe. Political views are driven to the poles, and moderate views are weakened. Many studies have been carried out on the increase in social and political polarization, but far fewer on the effects of polarization on constitutional and supreme courts, and none on a comparative or global scale. This Article attempts to fill this gap. It aims, for the first time, to describe and typologize the effects of political polarization on constitutional and supreme courts in different parts of the world.

The Article identifies three models of such effects: mirror polarization (the U.S.) …

Hello, World? Domestic Software Patent Protection Stands Alone Due To Uncertain Subject Matter Eligibility Jurisprudence, Maxwell H. Terry

Minnesota Law Review Vols. 106:2 onward (2021-present)

In the last sixteen years, software-related inventions have encompassed the majority of all utility patents issued in the United States. Further, studies estimate that spending within the global information technology market will grow to $4.6 trillion in 2023, as industries such as data security, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence continue to innovate and expand at alarming rates. Needless to say, software is a crucial and ever-expanding industry for the global economy. In a series of recent cases, however, the Supreme Court injected unpredictability into the patenting of software and computer-implemented inventions by overhauling the long-standing patentable subject matter doctrine.

Embodied …

Banking Deserts, Structural Racism, And Merger Law, Christopher R. Leslie

Minnesota Law Review Vols. 106:2 onward (2021-present)

Roughly seventy million Americans cannot access a bank account or traditional financial services. Many of these individuals live in a “banking desert”—a town or community that has neither an independent bank nor a branch office of a larger bank. The United States has over 1,100 banking deserts, with another 1,000 communities at risk of losing their last bank. Banking deserts are generally in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods, which are disproportionately communities of color. Residents of banking deserts lack access to credit, including mortgages and small business loans, as well as savings accounts and other basic financial services. Consolidation in the …

The Nature Of Bourgeois Hegemony In Late Nineteenth-Century Detroit, 1865 To 1886, Thomas Leslie Cragg

Wayne State University Dissertations

During the last half of the nineteenth century, the State of Michigan experienced huge growth in population and economic activity. A significant portion of this growth centered on Detroit, Michigan’s largest city. There, by 1850, an early wave of native-born settlers from New England and New York found themselves joined and increasingly outnumbered by an even larger wave of foreign-born working-class settlers from Canada, Germany, Ireland, and Great Britain. Over time, the city’s social structure and geography became fragmented by class, ethnicity and religious affiliation. At the same time, the city developed highly skewed personal wealth patterns. Census, tax, land, …

The Impact Of Driving Cessation On Quality Of Life In Older Adults, Megan Lane

The Graduate Review

As individuals age, they face a variety of new experiences and transitions. Having to stop driving, due to a medical condition or for some another reason, is one of the many transitions older adults may undergo. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact driving cessation, or giving up driving, has on quality of life in older adults. The developed research questions aimed to observe changes in social relationships and engagement, motivation, and emotional well- being after giving up driving. The study followed a qualitative design and used semi-structured interviews to gain insight into the participants’ experiences. Six …

Honors Colleges As Levers Of Educational Equity, Teagan Decker, Joshua Kalin Busman, Michele Fazio

National Collegiate Honors Council Monographs: Chapters

While higher education is widely imagined as a tool for social mobility, the realities of enrollment, retention, and professional trajectories betray the conservative mechanisms through which higher education too often reproduces the status quo of inequality. Honors colleges can and should strive to act as levers of equity in this scenario of entrenchment, but the nature of this project varies depending on the institution’s own class position vis-à-vis its students. Elite, highly selective institutions may advocate for enrollment strategies that target student populations that do not typically attend those institutions, but other institutions likely already enroll such students in large …