Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Producing Space: Block-By-Block Change In A Gentrifying Neighborhood, Jen Douglas

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Gentrification of urban neighborhoods is part of an ongoing restructuring of the city, linked to the emerging occupational structure of the service economy and the remaking of built environments that were created for a production economy. It is the name given to processes in which commodification and reinvestment accompany the in-migration of professional and managerial workers, often displacing prior residents and giving altered spatial form to inequality.

This dissertation is a case study of gentrification in Hyde and Jackson Squares, part of Boston's Jamaica Plain neighborhood. The emergence of gentrification pressures and their uneven distribution within the area is documented …

Studying Soil Moisture And Land-To-Water Carbon Export In Urbanized Coastal Areas Using Remotely Sensed Data And A Regional Hydro-Ecological Model, Yun Yang

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

The main objective of this research was to study the flux of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) from a terrestrial urbanized watershed to an estuarine system using a process-based regional hydro-ecological model and remotely sensed data.

While DOC is an important component of the global carbon cycle, the link of the variations in terrestrial carbon storage is still poorly understood. Soil moisture is a key factor that influences the amount of available water for vegetation growth and the decomposition rate of organic matter in the soil and thus contributes to the amount of DOC in the soil at the land-water boundary. …

Crater Detection Via Genetic Search Methods To Reduce Image Features, Joseph Paul Cohen

Graduate Masters Theses

Recent approaches to crater detection have been inspired by face detection's use of gray-scale texture features. Using gray-scale texture features for supervised machine learning crater detection algorithms provides better classification of craters in planetary images than previous methods. When using Haar features it is typical to generate thousands of numerical values from each candidate crater image. This magnitude of image features to extract and consider can spell disaster when the application is an entire planetary surface. One solution is to reduce the number of features extracted and considered in order to increase accuracy as well as speed. Feature subset selection …

Techniques For The Visualization Of Positional Geospatial Uncertainty, Brent A. Barré

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Geospatial data almost always contains some amount of uncertainty due to inaccuracies in its acquisition and transformation. While the data is commonly visualized (e.g. on digital maps), there are unanswered needs for visualizing uncertainty along with it. Most research on effectively doing this addresses uncertainty in data values at geospatial positions, e.g. water depth, human population, or land-cover classification. Uncertainty in the data’s geospatial positions themselves (positional uncertainty) has not been previously focused on in this regard. In this thesis, techniques were created for visualizing positional uncertainty using World Vector Shoreline as an example dataset. The techniques consist of a …

High Peaks Back - Country Trails Plan, Benjamin Godsoe

Muskie School Capstones and Dissertations

The High Peaks Trails Plan is a regional vision for back-country trails in Maine's High Peaks region. The plan identifies challenges and opportunities which face the trails community, and outlines several strategies for trails groups to move forward together to overcome mutual challenges.

Web 2.0-Based Collaborative Multicriteria Spatial Decision Support System: A Case Study Of Human-Computer Interaction Patterns, Mohammadreza Jelokhani-Niaraki

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The integration of GIS and Multicriteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) capabilities into the Web 2.0 platform offers an effective Multicriteria Spatial Decision Support System (MC-SDSS) with which to involve the public, or a particular group of individuals, in collaborative spatial decision making. Understanding how decision makers acquire and integrate decision-related information within the Web 2.0-based collaborative MC-SDSS has been one of the major concerns of MC-SDSS designers for a long time. This study focuses on examining human-computer interaction patterns (information acquisition behavior) within the Web 2.0-based MC-SDSS environment. It reports the results of an experimental study that investigated the effects of …

Temperature Trends And Urban Heat Island Intensity Mapping Of The Las Vegas Valley, Adam Leland Black

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Modified urban climate regions that are warmer than rural areas at night are referred to as Urban Heat Islands or UHI. Islands of warmer air over a city can be 12 degrees Celsius greater than the surrounding cooler air. The exponential growth in Las Vegas for the last two decades provides an opportunity to detect gradual temperature changes influenced by an increasing presence of urban materials. This thesis compares ground based thermometric observations and satellite based remote sensing temperature observations to identify temperature trends and UHI areas caused by urban development.

Analysis of temperature trends between 2000 and 2010 at …

Examining Spring And Autumn Phenology In A Temperate Deciduous Urban Woodlot, Rong Yu

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is an intensive phenological study in a temperate deciduous urban woodlot over six consecutive years (2007-2012). It explores three important topics related to spring and autumn phenology, as well as ground and remote sensing phenology. First, it examines key climatic factors influencing spring and autumn phenology by conducting phenological observations four days a week and recording daily microclimate measurements. Second, it investigates the differences in phenological responses between an urban woodlot and a rural forest by employing comparative basswood phenological data. Finally, it bridges ground visual phenology and remote sensing derived phenological changes by using the Normalized Difference …

A Decent Place To Stay: Housing Crises, Failed Laws, And Property Conflicts In Washington, D.C, Katie Jeanne Wells

Dissertations - ALL

In 1978 the District of Columbia City Council enacted a measure to tax up to 97 percent of the profits on speculative housing sales. In 1984 the District of Columbia voters approved an initiative to guarantee every resident who needed it access to overnight shelter for every night of the year. Both of these responses to the city's housing crisis marked the beginning of a politically progressive moment in Washington, D.C., when residents won the right to self-governance after a century of Congressional control and the majority-black electorate created a majority-black legislature of civil-right activists. But both laws were made …

The Imperative Of Conserving California's Foothill Oak Woodlands, Lauren Phillips

Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

Roatan Honduras And Perceptions Of Divers’ Location Choices In The Caribbean, Juli Dawn Tripicchio

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study is to determine the hierarchy of location choices that divers make for destinations in the Caribbean; to identify where Roatan, Honduras fits into this hierarchy; and to determine strategies to increase the volume of dive tourists to Roatan. This research may provide resorts on Roatan, along with other Caribbean dive destinations, with data to incorporate into their own planning and marketing processes so they can better accommodate dive customers and their families. In order to get a better understanding of dive customers, a survey was given to customers of a survey was conducted at a …

For Logs, For Traditional Purposes And For Food: Identification Of Multiple-Use Plant Species Of Northern Amazonia And An Assessment Of Factors Associated With Their Distribution, Anthony Ravindra Cummings

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation examines the multiplicity of uses associated with tree and palm species of the Rupununi, Southern Guyana and the factors associated with their distribution. As tropical forests continue to decline the most significant response has been to understand the implications for the carbon cycle, with the impacts on forest dwelling peoples and wildlife, inadequately addressed. Multiple-use plants, individual species which at their most critical level provide food for wildlife, non-timber forest products and are commercially logged, provide a suitable lens for appreciating additional ecosystem services that may be compromised as tropical forests decline. I completed a plant inventory in …

Landscape Ecological Analysis Of Patterns Influencing Bat Activity In Southeast Glacial Plains Of Wisconsin, Angela Leckie Jackson

Theses and Dissertations

Nearly half of the world's bat species are threatened by anthropogenic land use. To contribute to the conservation of these cryptic mammals, it is imperative to understand bat habitat selection in human-dominated landscapes. Bat activity was calculated using active acoustic surveys conducted June and July for three years along river and lake transects in an agricultural matrix. Using multiple logistic regression and ANOVA regression tree analyses, I examined the relationship between bat activity of four species and habitat structure at multiple scales.

Aquatic features were determined to be the greatest predictor of bat activity with rivers supporting greater amount of …

Making Graphical Information Accessible Without Vision Using Touch-Based Devices, Hari Prasath Palani

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Accessing graphical material such as graphs, figures, maps, and images is a major challenge for blind and visually impaired people. The traditional approaches that have addressed this issue have been plagued with various shortcomings (such as use of unintuitive sensory translation rules, prohibitive costs and limited portability), all hindering progress in reaching the blind and visually-impaired users. This thesis addresses aspects of these shortcomings, by designing and experimentally evaluating an intuitive approach —called a vibro-audio interface— for non-visual access to graphical material. The approach is based on commercially available touch-based devices (such as smartphones and tablets) where hand and finger …

An Anthropological Investigation Of The Dynamic Human-Vervet Monkey (Chlorocebus Aethiops Sabaeus) Interface In St. Kitts, West Indies, Kerry M. Dore

Theses and Dissertations

Over 350 years ago, the ecology of St. Kitts was dramatically altered by the advent of sugar cane production and the introduction of a highly adaptable, invasive animal species: the vervet monkey (Chlorocebus aethiops sabaeus). This project employed both primatological and ethnoprimatological techniques to assess conflict between vervet monkeys and Kittitian farmers. Methodological tools from primatology allowed for the creation of a predictive model of monkey crop-raiding behavior. The model was highly informative about monkeys' current raiding patterns; however, viewing Kittitian farmers and vervet monkeys as interconnected through an ethnoprimatological perspective revealed the significance of history with regard to this …

Food Fight: Sharing Meals And Confronting Biopolitics In The Disciplinary City, Jeremy Sorenson

Theses and Dissertations

This project interrogates the tensions surrounding food provision in Las Vegas, Nevada. More precisely, groups of ad hoc individuals, unaffiliated with local shelters or social service provision agencies intervene in homelessness and hunger in the city by showing up in places where homeless individuals congregate and provide food, water, basic medical sundries and companionship to those on the streets. Conversely, local officials and shelter administrators conceptualize these activities as damaging to homeless individuals and have acted to prohibit these acts of care. Engaging with key contributions in the geographic literature, I employ specific frameworks - critical poverty research, disciplinary bio- …

Ordinary Families: Queer Sexuality And Adoptive Parenthood In Central New York, Sean H. Wang

Theses - ALL

This thesis argues that geographers must consider sexuality and family together as integral parts of social life. Although sexuality already entered the lexicon of geography in the 1980s, and a burgeoning field of the geography of sexuality exists today, too often it is still considered peripheral in geographic scholarship. Similarly, family either remains consigned either as merely a place for social reproduction by studies of political economy, or is relegated entirely as an object of inquiry for only feminist geographers. Drawing from sociology, feminist and queer studies, this thesis makes an important intervention by relating sexuality and family in the …

Legislated Landscape: A Comparison Of New Deal Farm Communities In Hattiesburg, Mccomb, And Tupelo, Mississippi, Joy Delaine Rhoads

Master's Theses

Government New Deal farm policies of the 1930s changed the realities of farming and the landscape in Mississippi. This research endeavors to compare three farm communities created by New Deal legislation in the state: Hattiesburg, McComb, and Tupelo. The economic crisis that was the Great Depression created a highly politicized environment as citizens looked to the government for economic relief. A crisis this severe would require an exceptional effort to mitigate the economic hardships it created, in varying degrees, for millions of Americans. The actions of the federal government during the Great Depression were an interesting mix of paternalism, desperation, …

Bedrock Geological Map Of The Rockhouse Quadrangle, Carroll And Madison Counties, Arkansas, Douglas Eben Jones

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A digital geologic map of the Rockhouse quadrangle, Carroll and Madison counties, Arkansas, was created on a 1:24,000 scale using ArcMap 10 and Photoshop CS4. The data obtained in the field are digitized onto the United States Geological Survey (USGS) digital raster graphic (DRG) of the Rockhouse quadrangle. The geology in the Rockhouse quadrangle consist entirely of sedimentary rocks that are Paleozoic ranging from Lower Ordovician to Mississippian in age. The Ordovician System is represented by the Cotter, Powell, Everton, and St. Peter Formations. The Cotter and Powell are the prominent bluff forming units throughout the quadrangle and along the …

House Broken: The Functions And Contradictions Of "Housing First", Brian Richard Hennigan

Theses - ALL

"Housing first" is the new orthodoxy for homelessness policy in the United States, a program design expected to end homelessness once and for all. Unlike the traditional "treatment first" model, housing first places the most expensively homeless individuals immediately into an apartment (with treatment following). Although certainly different from the treatment first model due to its prioritization of housing, housing first remains a product of neoliberal poverty governance. By examining program operations in greater Phoenix, Arizona, it is clear that housing first proceeds as a stigma-reproducing rehabilitation program of socioeconomic discipline that works in tandem with anti-homeless laws and service …

The Primacy Of Context: An Exploration Into The Causes Of Food Insecurity In Kitere, Kenya., William O. Aludo

Capstone Collection

The purpose of this study was to explore the specific reasons why households in Kitere village, Kenya experience persistent food insecurity every year while the region enjoys the advantage of two planting/harvest seasons in a year. Kitere village lies within the lakeside region of Nyanza Province in Kenya, generally considered to be one of the more agriculturally productive parts of the country. The Participatory Rural Appraisal method was employed to gather qualitative data on the causes of food insecurity in Kitere village. The data sources were focus groups and a self-administered, one-time survey of random and non-random samples of key …

Children's Neighbourhood Geographies: Examining Children's Perception And Use Of Their Neighbourhood Environments For Healthy Activity, Janet E. Loebach

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation examines children’s everyday neighbourhood activities, and the role of the local environment in supporting or limiting their healthy behaviours. Research from the last two decades has documented a dramatic decline in the time children spend playing in their neighbourhood settings, and engaging in local active and independent travel. Traditionally, neighbourhood-based activities have fostered key developmental and health outcomes, including higher levels of physical fitness, the negotiation of new social relationships, and increased cognitive and environmental competence. The processes of carving out neighbourhood ‘domains’ for independent activity and establishing community relationships are also linked to the development of a …

Manifold Learning Based Spectral Unmixing Of Hyperspectral Remote Sensing Data, Jun-Hwa Chi

Open Access Dissertations

Nonlinear mixing effects inherent in hyperspectral data are not properly represented in linear spectral unmixing models. Although direct nonlinear unmixing models provide capability to capture nonlinear phenomena, they are difficult to formulate and the results are not always generalizable. Manifold learning based spectral unmixing accommodates nonlinearity in the data in the feature extraction stage followed by linear mixing, thereby incorporating some characteristics of nonlinearity while retaining advantages of linear unmixing approaches. Since endmember selection is critical to successful spectral unmixing, it is important to select proper endmembers from the manifold space. However, excessive computational burden hinders development of manifolds for …

The Money Of Qaroon And The Patience Of Ayoub: Women And Land In Egypt's Mubarak Resettlement Scheme, Dina Najjar

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation addresses the challenge of achieving increased empowerment and equality for Egyptian women. The dissertation tests the assumption that land access (through both joint and full titles) increases empowerment and equality for women in two desert resettlements of Sa’yda and Intilaq, part of the massive Mubarak Resettlement Scheme (MRS). In particular, the dissertation identifies: 1) how land access could empower Egyptian women and 2) women’s experiences with land access in the MRS. Findings reveal that land access is indeed the most promising route for women’s advancement in life, but the desert land required patience and financial assets. Land access, …

Seeds Of A New Economy? A Qualitative Investigation Of Diverse Economic Practices Within Community Supported Agriculture And Community Supported Enterprise, Ted White

Open Access Dissertations

Amidst widespread feelings that capitalism is a deeply problematic yet necessary approach to economy, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) has emerged as both an alternative model for farming and as an increasingly visible and viable model for alternative economy. Using qualitative methods, this doctoral research explores and documents how CSA has become a productive space for economic innovation and practice that emphasizes interdependence, camaraderie and community well-being rather than hierarchical control and private gain. This study also examines how the many participants of CSA have built an identity for CSA--branding it via autonomous and collective efforts. This has resulted in CSA …

"Being Stuck": Understanding The Health-Related And Everyday Lived Experiences Of Young Mothers In Rexdale, Ontario Through A Social Determinants Framework, Jaspreet Kaur

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The purpose of this study was to gain an understanding of the ways the health-related and everyday lived experiences of young mothers are shaped by various social determinants, and in the context of their neighbourhood. Using a critical qualitative methodology, five mothers between the ages of 17 to 19 were interviewed from Rexdale, a neighbourhood in the City of Toronto characterized by a number of social risk factors(e.g. high rates of visible minorities, unemployment, and teen mothers). In-depth thematic analysis led to the emergence of four themes: 1) Living in Rexdale: Representations and realities; 2) Leaving Rexdale and wanting something …

Climate Change And Human Rights: A Case Study Of Vulnerability And Adaptation In Coastal Communities In Lagos, Nigeria., Idowu M. Ajibade

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Lagos, Nigeria is one the world’s megacities at risk from climate change. Communities along the coast have been hit hard by floods, storm surges, and rising seas, due to the city’s geographic location, inadequate infrastructures, and poor urban governance. These factors together with social inequality have been known to shape vulnerability to climatic hazards but less understood is the role of human rights.

The objective of this thesis is to develop a grounded understanding of the links between human rights and the vulnerability of people to climate change impacts (i.e. floods and storm surges). The study combined qualitative and quantitative …

Investigating The Housing Market For Student Tenants Surrounding An Urban University, Olivia M. Dobbs Ms.

Honors College Theses

The private housing market for students around Wayne State University, an urban campus in Detroit, Michigan, stands in a fast-changing period. The area has grown economically from institutional and medical center investment in the past few years, causing occupancy and rents to rise. This follows years of disinvestment that allowed rent rates to fall to comfortable rates for students. The University has published its interest in developing the “campus life” including more off-campus private market housing for students, while developers see potential for even higher rents for young professionals. This study assesses the current perceptions of a sample of rental …

Attracting And Retaining The Highly Skilled In Medium-Sized City-Regions Of Ontario: The Role Of The Built Environment, Catherine A. Mclean

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This study set out to address the out-migration of highly skilled individuals from medium-sized city-regions in Ontario. In today’s knowledge-based economy, city-regions that are able to attract, develop and retain valuable human capital have a distinct advantage that is crucial to economic growth. Using mixed qualitative methods, involving a policy document analysis and in-depth interviews with recent graduates, this study seeks to understand to what extent and in what ways policies of key institutions seek to attract and retain post-secondary graduates in medium-sized city-regions in Ontario? Does the built environment play a role in these policies? This study revealed that …

Geographic And Socioeconomic Risk Factors For Sporadic Cryptosdporidiosis And E. Coli Infection In East Tennessee, Ingrid Elizabeth Luffman

Doctoral Dissertations

This research examines risk factors for sporadic cryptosporidiosis and Escherichia coli (E. coli) O157 infection in East Tennessee, using case-control and retrospective ecological approaches. Multiple models and approaches are used to identify risk factors for the two diseases, and to examine the effect of scale on risk for disease in the individual and in the population. Risk factors examined are animal density, land use, geology, surface water impairment, poverty rate and availability of private water supply. The research objectives are, first, to identify risk factors for E. coli O157 and cryptosporidiosis in East Tennessee by relating disease data …