Digital Commons Network^™

A Wildlife Crossing Proposal For Mountain Lions In San Luis Obispo County, Charles Carmichael

Master's Projects and Capstones

California mountain lions are facing threats such as wildlife vehicle-collisions (WVC) and habitat fragmentation from roads that act as barriers to movement. Cuesta Pass in San Luis Obispo County is a stretch of Highway 101 that acts as a barrier and results in WVC for numerous species, including mountain lions. A literature review on predictors for mountain lion usage of wildlife crossings suggests crossing location as an influential variable for predicting whether a crossing will be used. A synthesis on findings from four studies found mountain lions to use underpasses, including culverts, at a combined rate of 0.72 times per …

Investigating Cryptic Diversity In The Hawaiian Endemic Plant, Psychotria Mariniana (Rubiaceae), Uyen Thi Hoang Nguyen

Master's Theses

Islands, with their isolation and steep environmental gradients, serve as natural laboratories for studying speciation. Molecular phylogenetic and population genetic methods utilizing Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) have revolutionized our ability to document patterns of genetic divergence and diversity. Cryptic diversity, genetically distinct populations that were previously unrecognized as unique, and cryptic speciation, where divergent genetic populations may be deserving of status as unique species, have been observed in many taxa. The Hawaiian Islands provide an ideal setting for studying divergence and speciation due to their extreme isolation, known ages, and volcanic origin. Previous work has investigated the evolutionary relationships of the …

A Stadium In Our Backyard: Community Participation In Stadia Redevelopment Projects, Sofia Zazueta

Master's Theses

The Santiago Bernabeu in Madrid, Spain and the Chase Center in San Francisco, California are two stadium redevelopment projects that exemplify the stakeholder dynamics that come into play when developers pitch a multipurpose stadium located a few blocks away from people’s backyards. Urban development patterns must be in constant evolution to meet the needs and demands of the current generations. In cities, stadia redevelopment projects have entered the picture to reimagine the role that these structures once played. The stadium once used for the sole purpose of holding matches has become a venue that now hosts different events such as …

La Maquiladora De Sueños Is Where The “American Dream” Ends: The Socio-Cultural Impact Of Hai(T)Ijuanenses In The United States-México Borderlands, Pedro Aleman Perfecto

Master's Theses

Historically, Tijuana has been the destination for migrants who have been left out from the United States, Mexico, and the rest of the world. The city is at the epicenter of globalization where many transit, leave, and arrive. Sometimes considered a “third country” due to its binational and bicultural identity with its sister city, San Diego, California. The growing number of Haitian refugees that arrived in Tijuana in the mid 2010s to seek asylum in the United States overwhelmed the city’s infrastructure and left the Haitian community vulnerable, yet it created new opportunities and reshaped new identities in the region. …

What Complexity Costs: Growth, Productive Capability, And The Vulnerability Of Interconnectedness, Pete Mcniff

Master's Theses

Growth depends on the sophistication of what an economy can produce, but economies that have specialized more deeply depend on the market access that sustains it. I test whether this dependence makes complex economies more vulnerable when access is disrupted, computing the Economic Complexity Index (ECI) from firm-level records in the U.S. Census of Manufactures (1850--1880) and using the Panic of 1873 as a natural experiment to measure county-level market access shocks from railroad bond defaults following Dutta (2024) and Donaldson and Hornbeck (2016). ECI predicts production and employment growth across all three decade windows, with the association strengthening as …

Trust, Civic Institutions, And Crisis: A Study Of Civic Culture In Italy, Nolan Joseph Sherwood

Master's Theses

This paper examines whether cultural familism — the orientation of trust toward family at the expense of strangers and civic institutions — shapes civic institutional engagement in Italy across three levels of analysis. The first analysis links four familism indices constructed from the European Values Study (2017) to pre-COVID municipal 5 per mille tax allocation rates across approximately 7,700 Italian municipalities, finding that higher Trust Gap and Institutional Distrust robustly predict lower baseline civic giving, both nationally and within each region. The second analysis uses a Regression Discontinuity in Time design exploiting the sharp onset of COVID-19 in 2020, finding …

Hidden Behind Happiness: Bhutan’S Global Image And Ethnic Exclusion, Deepesh Das Shrestha

Master's Theses

Bhutan has gained international recognition for its philosophy of Gross National Happiness (GNH), which promotes holistic development through principles of well-being, environmental sustainability, cultural preservation, and good governance. Yet this celebrated image conceals a darker history: the systematic expulsion of the Lhotsampa, the Nepali-speaking ethnic minority of southern Bhutan. This study critically explores the contradiction between Bhutan's international image as a model of happiness and the lived experiences of Lhotsampa refugees who were displaced during the early 1990s.

Using a qualitative phenomenological research design, the study draws upon in-depth semi-structured interviews with six resettled Bhutanese Lhotsampa refugees living in the …

Structure And Diversity Of Play Behavior In Juvenile Belding's Ground Squirrels, Paul O'Driscoll Ii

Master's Theses

Play behavior is ubiquitous among juvenile mammals and can promote motor, social, and cognitive development, providing multiple adaptive benefits to young animals in some cases. The structure of play can be linked to the benefits it confers on individuals. I evaluated the structure of play in juvenile Belding’s ground squirrels (Urocitellus beldingi), a species for which multiple adaptive benefits of play have been identified. I compared juvenile play in U. beldingi to adult sexual and aggressive behavior to determine and classify similarities between juvenile play and adult behavior. I evaluated diversity in the behaviors expressed during play interactions and diversity …

Field Monitoring And Geometric Representation Of A Uhpc-Repaired Bridge Structure, Robert Lawler

Honors Scholar Theses

Ultra-High Performance Concrete (UHPC) has shown promise in bridge rehabilitation broadly, but its application to steel gusset plate repair represents a novel use case with limited prior research. Therefore, when the Commodore Isaac Hull Bridge in Derby, Connecticut, was issued an emergency declaration due to gusset plate section loss, a UHPC repair was implemented. This project represented the first known field implementation of this type of UHPC gusset plate repair, marking a significant advancement in the rehabilitation of deteriorated steel bridge components. To support long-term performance assessment and ensure the success of the repair, field monitoring efforts were also incorporated …

Librarians As Guardians Of Knowledge: Artificial Intelligence And The Future Of Librarianship, Michelle Q. Zeren, Alex D. Mcallister Ed.D

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

This article examines librarianship in the new age of AI, specifically how librarians can enhance and improve upon their already unique responsibilities by expanding to new and exciting jobs requiring AI information integrity. Librarian roles are becoming more crucial to the information environment as they help people fully embrace and protect knowledge in a challenging world of AI. The authors explore the evolving librarian roles needed to safeguard unbiased AI oversight, protect patron privacy, teach proper AI ethical academic usage, and fact check research information to maintain ethical integrity in academic studies. Librarians must continue to evolve and embrace an …

The Business Next Door: Howard Miller: The Man And His Namesake Company, Steve Vanderveen

University Faculty Publications and Creative Works

The Howard Miller Co., known as the world’s largest manufacturer of grandfather clocks and maker of fine chiming mantel and wall clocks, curio cabinets, and home furniture, recently closed its doors. Thankfully, a private firm is resurrecting its name. Here is why that name has value.

Stronger Together Program: Justice For Latino Youth Involved In The Juvenile Justice System, Leyla Feize, Marisa Ugalde, John M. Gonzalez, Tamer Oraby

School of Social Work Faculty Publications

Adolescents are vulnerable to delinquent behaviors during their period of cognitive and emotional development. Latino adolescents are often more vulnerable to delinquency behaviors and are over-involved in the juvenile system. Ten Latino youths and 15 parents/guardians participated in a culturally adapted Functional Family Therapy (FFT) intervention program. The behavioral change of the youths was measured using pre- and post-test scores on the Sorensen Self-Esteem test questionnaire and the Low Self-Control Measure. The parents/guardians’ behavioral change was measured using pre- and post-test scores from the Family Interpersonal Relationship Questionnaire. The results indicated that the youths’ self-esteem increased. The change in self-control …

Improving Human-Wildlife Coexistence: An Ecological And Educational Approach To Rewilding Grizzly Bears (Ursus Arctos Horribilis) In California, Amanda C. D. Rosales

Master's Projects and Capstones

Megafauna extinction during the Holocene has been both caused and amplified by climatic changes and human influence. By the last half century, large carnivores were diminished in Europe and the United States, but policies increasingly addressed species decline and their territories expanded. This research examined large carnivore rewilding across the European Union and United States, specifically for rewilding brown bears, Ursus arctos, in historic habitat. Next, case studies for the health status of climate-impacted whitebark pine, Pinus albicaulis, a high energy food for bears, was assessed. Ultimately, research case studies, human perspective surveys, and the California Department of Education content …

Justice On Autopilot: Comparing Predictive Litigation And Data Justice In Bay Area Municipal Governments, Darris M. Thomas

Master's Projects and Capstones

This Capstone project examines how Bay Area municipal governments, specifically the City and County of San Francisco, Alameda County, San Mateo County, and Santa Clara County, are adopting and governing predictive litigation technologies, and what these practices reveal about the possibilities and limitations of data justice in advancing racial equity, transparency, and public accountability. Drawing on a qualitative, comparative case study methodology analyzing procurement contracts, AI governance policies, California Public Records Act (CPRA) disclosures, and semi-structured interviews gathered across fifteen municipal legal institutions, the research applies an interdisciplinary theoretical framework synthesizing John Rawls’s distributive fairness, Nancy Fraser’s recognition justice, Tom …

Photocatalytic Advanced Oxidative Processes (Aop) As A Promising Agricultural Runoff Treatment Solution For The California Central Valley, Briana Miller

Master's Projects and Capstones

Pesticide pollution in the California Central Valley (CV) is a major concern for aquatic toxicity. This research will determine if photocatalytic advanced oxidation processes (AOP), an emerging water treatment technology, could be implemented within the CV to degrade pesticides. A case study, literature review, comparative analysis, and policy analysis were conducted to identify pesticides of concern within the CV, if photocatalytic AOP can degrade those pesticides, how photocatalytic AOP compares to current technologies, and regulatory challenges with implementing photocatalytic AOP. Between 2019 and 2023, the top 30 most applied pesticides were identified, with 12 chemicals identified as aquatic toxicants, seven …

Willie Clarence "W.C." Cooper

African American Funeral Programs

No abstract provided.

Rev. Franklin Murray, Sr.

African American Funeral Programs

No abstract provided.

Increasing Students’ Self-Efficacy In Consuming, Conducting, And Disseminating Neuroimaging Research: Experiences From Teaching Edps 991: Social And Affective Neuroscience, Isabella Starling Alves

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

Social and emotional factors are critical for learning, being core aspects of the educational  psychology curricula. Recently, neuroimaging has emerged as a powerful tool to  comprehend the neurobiological factors underlying these factors. Yet, many educational  psychologists have low familiarity with neuroscience research. The course EDPS 991:  Social and Affective Neuroscience, from the Department of Educational Psychology at the  University of Nebraska-Lincoln, emerges in this context, training educational psychology  graduate students to consume, conduct, and disseminate findings about how the brain  relates to socioemotional processes. One challenge related to the course is that many  students feel anxious about learning the neuroimaging …

Evaluating Wildfire Mitigation And Wildfire “Hot Spots” In The Northern Bay Area, Nicholas W. Jones

Master's Projects and Capstones

Wildfire risk in the Northern Bay Area is increasingly shaped by climate driven vegetation dryness, expansion of the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) and the fragmentation of environmental policy making. This paper investigates how Alameda, Contra Costa, and Sonoma Counties differ in their wildfire exposure and asks whether county level policies align with the areas of highest hazard and human exposure overlap. This project uses a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) overlay to overlay CAL FIRE Fire Hazard Severity Zones (FHSZ), and WUI data to identify wildfire hot spots where WUI areas intersect with High or Very High FHSZ classifications. This spatial …

Deforestation Dynamics In The Amazon: Impacts, Socio-Environmental Drivers And Restoration Pathways, Maria Natalia Rodriguez

Master's Projects and Capstones

The Amazon, which is the largest tropical rainforest in the world, experienced 542,581 km² of forest loss between the years 2000 and 2020. The process of deforestation endangers the ecological system results which maintain ecosystem connectivity and the Earth's climate system. The Amazon rainforest supplies essential ecological services which include maintaining soil fertility, storing carbon, purifying water and climate stability. The fundamental ecosystem of this area faces new threats because of increasing forest destruction. The research study adopts a combined methodology that uses Geographic Information Systems (GIS) with a comprehensive literature review to study Amazon deforestation patterns and its driving …

Saltwater Intrusion In Coastal Aquifers Of California Pajaro Valley And Los Angeles County, Debbie Lisseth Diaz Miranda

Master's Projects and Capstones

Saltwater intrusion is an increasingly critical threat to coastal groundwater systems worldwide, driven by chronic groundwater overdraft and exacerbated by projected intensified drought and sea-level rise associated with climate change. Despite the global relevance of this phenomenon, the spatial distribution and severity of saltwater intrusion vary across hydrological settings, reflecting differences in aquifer composition, extraction patterns, and management history. Understanding these spatial patterns is essential for prioritizing management interventions and protecting municipal water supplies and agricultural productivity in groundwater-dependent coastal regions. This study uses ordinary kriging and indicator kriging interpolation of aquifer chloride levels to assess the extent of saltwater …

Comparative Analysis Of Transportation Emissions And Policy In Lahore And Los Angeles, Laiba Rehman

Master's Projects and Capstones

In 2023, exposure to air pollution killed 7.9 million people globally, becoming the second leading cause of death worldwide. Transportation emissions are among the primary drivers of this burden especially in rapidly urbanizing cities where vehicle fleets are growing faster than regulatory frameworks respond. This study examines the contribution of transportation emissions to urban air quality, public health and climate change in Lahore, Pakistan and Los Angeles, California. First, it employs a secondary data analysis of PM_2.5 and ozone concentrations and vehicle fleet composition in each city, followed by an analysis of emission inventories. Second, it evaluates the regulatory …

Climate-Driven Maritime Hazards And Marine Fuel Oil Spill Risk In The Northwest Passage, Emily Grace Parker

Master's Projects and Capstones

Shipping activity across the Northwest Passage has increased by 46% since 2011 as climate forcing drives sea ice decline, but associated risks to vessels and the environment are underestimated and rarely examined together. A literature review conducted in this study indicated that by 2070, a 5-month navigation window will expose vessels to increasingly unpredictable hazards as the region transforms from an ice- to wave-dominated regime, with wave heights increasing by 10-13% per decade. Ice hazards persist, and vessels operating in early summer and late fall will be exposed to elevated ice accretion risk that can cause capsizing and marine fuel …

The Role Of Intermittent Nutrient Loading In The San Francisco Bay, Rebecca M. To

Master's Projects and Capstones

A harmful algal bloom in 2022 shattered the illusion that the highly enriched San Francisco Bay is resilient to eutrophication. This event provided justification for the San Francisco Water Board to issue restrictions on nitrogen in wastewater effluent, the largest source of nitrogen in San Francisco Bay. Recognizing San Francisco’s fragile status even with this recent regulation, this study analyzes other anthropogenic sources of nutrient pollution, and it examines nature-based solutions to drawdown nutrient loading. This research utilizes a nutrient budget review to account for nitrogen inputs, a relative source contribution to quantify sanitary sewer overflows, a geospatial analysis to …

Effectiveness Of Wastewater Treatment Technologies For Pharmaceutical Removal In Bogotá, Colombia, Lady Palomino

Master's Projects and Capstones

Pharmaceutical compounds are increasingly detected in urban water systems worldwide, posing significant ecological and public health risks in cities where wastewater treatment infrastructure is insufficient to remove them. This study evaluates the presence of pharmaceutical compounds in Bogotá's wastewater systems, the effectiveness of current treatment technologies for their removal, and the regulatory and monitoring gaps that hinder their management as emerging contaminants of concern. A systematic literature review was conducted to assess the occurrence of pharmaceuticals in municipal and hospital wastewater, as well as in effluents from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) and receiving surface waters in Colombia, with particular focus …

Housing Pressure In Athens: A Contested And Fragmented Process Of Post-Crisis Housing Restructuring, Vasileia Spyrou

Master's Projects and Capstones

Athens has been experiencing a severe housing affordability crisis, recording one of the highest rent increases among EU countries in recent years. The absence of a strong housing welfare system, combined with new pressures related to tourism, investment activity, and post-crisis market restructuring, has intensified housing insecurity across the city. This thesis examines three Athenian neighborhoods that reflect different forms of housing pressure within the post crisis housing landscape: Koukaki, a central neighborhood heavily affected by short-term rentals (STRs); Palaio Faliro, a coastal suburb shaped by redevelopment and investment activity; and Nea Smyrni, a predominantly residential area experiencing increasing density …

Geneticists’ Understandings Of Genetic Causation, Hannah Allen, Bennett Knox, Stephen M. Downes

Philosophy Faculty Publications

This paper presents the preliminary results of a survey-based study investigating geneticists’ understanding of genetic causation. We are motivated by an underlying assumption that to improve interpretation and implementation of behavioral genetics research, and furthermore for that research to have a positive societal impact, it is important to reveal how geneticists themselves understand their research. Results of sixty-two survey responses from clinical and research geneticists at the University of Utah are discussed and assessed to fulfill these aims and survey the landscape of the field. Analysis of our survey results revealed some variation in responses to questions about genetic causation …

Soil Dna-Phosphorus: Method Optimisation And Application Across Uk Soils, Margaret Massam, Daniel Menezes-Blackburn, Mohammed Al Kasbi, Catherine Wearing, Marc Stutter, Courtney D. Giles, Tegan Darch, Timothy S. George, Charles Shand, David Lumsdon, Martin Blackwell, Hao Zhang, Patricia Cooper, Renate Wendler, Lawrie Brown, Philip M. Haygarth

Journal of Agricultural and Marine Sciences

Despite growing recognition of rapid diester P turnover, quantitative data on soil DNA-P across soil types remain scarce due to methodological constraints. This study aimed to investigate the impact of changes in the analytical protocol of a soil DNA-P method developed by Paraskova et al. (2013) on DNA-P recovery and the use of the revised procedure on 32 UK soils on our understanding of DNA-P in soils. The steps of the Paraskova method were tested on two contrasting soils, and a revised version was developed and used to determine the DNA-P levels of 32 UK soils. These findings were then …

Effects Of Combined Application Of Biochar And Nitrogen Fertilizer On The Growth Parameters Of Lemongrass (Cymbopogon Citratus), Ashkan Asgari, Yunes Rameshjan, Babak Jamali, Aminallah Tahmasebi

Journal of Agricultural and Marine Sciences

The synergistic application of biochar and nitrogen fertilizer significantly improves plant growth and soil properties. The present study aimed to evaluate the effect of the application of biochar and nitrogen on the shoot and root of lemongrass in a factorial design within a completely randomized setup. The experiment included three levels of biochar, i.e. 0%, 1%, and 2% (v/v) and 2 levels of nitrogen, i.e. 0 and 1 (g/pot) under greenhouse conditions with 3 replications. The following parameters were measured, plant height, number of tillers, number of leaves, length of the largest leaf, fresh, shoot and root dry weight. The …

Ai-Driven Plant Health Assessment And Remediation: Case Study On Lemon Plants And Witches' Broom Disease, Zuhoor Al-Khanjari, Misk Hersi, Zainab Al-Ajmi

Journal of Agricultural and Marine Sciences

Plant diseases pose significant challenges to agricultural productivity and food security, particularly in regions like Oman, where citrus crops, such as lemon trees, are economically vital. Traditional diagnosis methods are time-consuming and often require expert intervention, limiting accessibility for small-scale farmers. This paper presents an AI-driven plant health assessment Nuwriq application. It leverages both image-based and text-based input to diagnose lemon plant diseases, particularly the Lemon Witch Broom Disease (LWBD). It incorporates two machine learning models: a convolutional neural network (CNN) for image classification and a natural language processing (NLP) model for symptom-based textual analysis. Users can upload images of …