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Articles 1 - 10 of 10
Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Tropical Cyclone Translation Speeds In The Northern Atlantic Ocean, Marybeth Melcher
Tropical Cyclone Translation Speeds In The Northern Atlantic Ocean, Marybeth Melcher
Honors Theses
Over the past 40 years, tropical cyclones have caused over $1,076.9B in damage in the United States. The fatalities from tropical cyclones are just as devastating. Hurricane Katrina of 2005 caused over 1,800 deaths; Harvey in 2017 just under 90 deaths; Ike of 2018 took 112 deaths; and horrifically, Maria of 2017 claimed nearly 3,000 lives. The destruction that tropical cyclones have caused is astronomical, and a factor of tropical cyclones that is responsible for this level of destruction is their translation speeds. Tropical cyclone translation speed (TCTS) is the speed at which a hurricane is moving--the duration of time …
Gis Based Analysis Of Neighborhood Transit Characteristics: A Case Study Of The Vine In Kalamazoo, Mi, Shealyn Lach
Gis Based Analysis Of Neighborhood Transit Characteristics: A Case Study Of The Vine In Kalamazoo, Mi, Shealyn Lach
Honors Theses
This paper introduces an evaluative framework to analyze residential neighborhoods and draw conclusions regarding the safety and convenience of public transit options. Transit quality indicators included elevation, service areas, intersection crash statistics, and bus stop infrastructure. Within this research, a case study of Vine Neighborhood in Kalamazoo, MI was used to test the effectiveness of the framework; neighborhood data was retrieved, analyzed, and spatially modeled with ArcGIS Pro, then discussed to draw conclusions. Ultimately, it was determined that while neighborhood residents may be in close physical proximity to a stop, high elevation changes and pedestrian crash rates indicate Metro transit …
Crude Oil Spill Response In The Great Lakes Region: Before And After The 2010 Kalamazoo River Enbridge Oil Spill, Marshall Kim
Crude Oil Spill Response In The Great Lakes Region: Before And After The 2010 Kalamazoo River Enbridge Oil Spill, Marshall Kim
Honors Theses
Pipeline infrastructure is a particularly sensitive and unique energy transport mode. Pipelines carry gas, biofuels and liquid petroleum throughout the United States (U.S. Department of Transportation, 2019). These pipelines stretch beneath sensitive ecological areas, lakes, rivers and streams, and our homes and businesses. According to the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) (2018), between all of the states in the Great Lakes region (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York) there is a cumulative 801,718 miles of pipeline. This includes interstate and intrastate, natural gas and petroleum pipelines. 9,556.9 miles of this is the interstate …
Refugee Camp Education: Hope, Gaps, And Barriers, Allyson Dykstra
Refugee Camp Education: Hope, Gaps, And Barriers, Allyson Dykstra
Honors Theses
The urgency to provide humane living conditions such as food, shelter, safety and education grows with the refugee population as temporary stays become more permanent. Refugees are staying longer in emergency arrangements, which appears to affect mental health, ability to hope, and sustainable coping mechanisms for these populations. With dissatisfactory conditions in camps, this paper intends to explore how refugees cope with their environment and in what ways needs are not being met, in order to explain the present condition of refugee health, their coping mechanisms, and how to combat it.
Discovery From Failure: Understanding Developing Countries' Battles With Poverty And Culturally Appropriate Answers To Them, Daniel Tennant
Discovery From Failure: Understanding Developing Countries' Battles With Poverty And Culturally Appropriate Answers To Them, Daniel Tennant
Honors Theses
This paper is an examination of a failed research attempt, followed by examination of successful research literature on the subject of the informal economy and poverty. The research is centered on peripheral regions of the world, namely in Sub-Saharan countries such as Senegal. The informal economy continues to grow without thorough understanding or measurement of it creating greater problems in the future. The examination highlights the need for culturally appropriate questions, methodologies, and answers to issues of poverty in developing countries. Western World bias needs to be considered when creating and executing research in developing countries if the results are …
Trends In U.S. Tea Imports: 1991-2015, Evan Kennedy
Trends In U.S. Tea Imports: 1991-2015, Evan Kennedy
Honors Theses
Tea is the second most popular beverage in the world, and over the past two decades it has experienced a newfound popularity in the United States. Over this time period, ready-to-drink and loose-leaf tea has increased in popularity, whereas tea bags and instant tea declined in popularity. Since the United States produces almost no tea itself, an increase in consumption requires increased imports. Therefore, this paper examines U.S. import trends as a means to begin an examination of consumption. Ten countries (Argentina, Canada, China, Germany, India, Japan, Kenya, Sri Lanka, the United Kingdom, and Vietnam) provide approximately 80% of the …
An Assessment Of Home Energy Efficiency In Kalamazoo, Alexis Coutts
An Assessment Of Home Energy Efficiency In Kalamazoo, Alexis Coutts
Honors Theses
The purpose of this study is to assess the status of home energy efficiency in Kalamazoo as well as the reasons why (or why not) a homeowner adopts energy efficiency and what their incentives and barriers are. In order to address these questions this study first relies on a literature review to offer insight on this complex topic and reveal the main incentives and barriers to energy efficiency already found by homeowners. Next a survey is completed by a total of thirty participants, fifteen homeowners from two separate neighborhoods of Kalamazoo, using socioeconomics as a variable. Where Milwood neighborhood acts …
Habitat Suitability Study Of Parcel In Gourdneck State Game Area For Downy Woodpeckers, Emma Fojtik
Habitat Suitability Study Of Parcel In Gourdneck State Game Area For Downy Woodpeckers, Emma Fojtik
Honors Theses
This study examines the habitat suitability for Downy woodpecker for a parcel of land in Gourdneck State Game Area, Portage, Michigan. Land within the State Game Area has undergone habitat restoration from forest and shrub to savanna and prairie, intentionally excluding two parcels directly north of the restoration. This study took place on one of the excluded parcels. Using the Habitat Suitability Index Model produced by the Fish and Wildlife Service, basal area and number of snags within the study site were measured to determine suitability of the study site for Downy woodpeckers. Ten-1/10th acre sample plots were randomly chosen …
Quantifying Urbanization In Grand Traverse County, Mi, Benjamin T. Roush
Quantifying Urbanization In Grand Traverse County, Mi, Benjamin T. Roush
Honors Theses
Grand Traverse County, MI has witnessed population growth in the past thirty years, largely because of its popularity as a tourist destination and “wilderness” area in Michigan and around the Great Lakes basin in general. Accordingly, there has been human development and urbanization in the county, particularly around its major community, Traverse City. This paper seeks to quantify that urbanization. This will be done by classification of Landsat 5 – TM imagery collected in 1984 and 2010, utilizing the Gaussian maximum likelihood supervised classification method. After this process, changes in proportions of the various land use types in the county …
Surveillance Of The Balto-Finnic Speakers: A Geolinguistic Inquiry, Lindsay E. Gwyther
Surveillance Of The Balto-Finnic Speakers: A Geolinguistic Inquiry, Lindsay E. Gwyther
Honors Theses
The Balto-Finnic languages of northeast Europe are part of the larger Uralic language family. Today, there are seven Balto-Finnic speaking nations, two of which govern their own independent sovereignties (Finland and Estonia). The other five nations lie precariously within the territorial borders of Russia and Latvia for the most part. This paper examines the geographic expanse and status of these languages over time and through space and develops a series of maps to better illustrate these patterns. Historical research demonstrates that their distribution has decreased in area, but strengthened and centralized in certain regions, enabling their presence in a predominantly …