Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Cooperative Conservation - Interagency Volunteer Program Quarterly Progress Report: Period Ending December 31, 2004, Margaret N. Rees

Get Outdoors Nevada

Collaboration with Interagency Team

During the third quarter, the interagency volunteer team and university representatives have held several meetings to continue progress on the Interagency Volunteer Program (IVP). At the beginning of October, candidates for the project manager position were interviewed by the university search committee, followed by interviews with the interagency team on October 6, 2004. After two finalists were identified, reference checks were made and the university and team recommended to the federal managers that Ms. Donna Grady be hired. Ms. Grady’s first day on the job was December 1, 2004. In the interim, Nancy Flagg, Public Lands …

A Socio-Spatial Analysis Of Rural Poverty In East Tennessee, Margaret D. Foraker

Doctoral Dissertations

The incidence of poverty in rural areas is actually higher than that in urban places. This study fills a gap in geographic research by examining poverty in rural and small town communities in east Tennessee using the 1990 census. A cluster analysis of high poverty block groups identifies different categories of poor. Just as “who is poor?” varies across the United States, “who is poor?” in east Tennessee varies. The identity of the poor in rural east Tennessee is found to be contrary to popular images of povery in Appalachia.

The massive reorganization of rural economies in recent decades is …

The Applicability Of A Habitat Rating System For Low Gradient Streams In Wisconsin To Low Gradient Coldwater Streams In Northern Michigan, Eric Lawrence Forward

Masters Theses

Habitat and fish assemblage data were collected on 12 streams in northern Michigan to assess the applicability of a habitat rating system developed for low gradient streams in Wisconsin in determining stream health in low gradient coldwater streams in northern Michigan. An Index of Biotic Integrity (IBI) developed for coldwater streams in the upper Midwest was used as the measure of stream health. Principal components analysis was used to select a small subset of habitat variables to describe the variation in IBI scores. The seven habitat variables chosen to describe the variation in IBI scores in the final model included: …

Wine Tourism Route Development And Marketing Strategies In Southwest Michigan, Astrid Wargenau

Masters Theses

As many tourists find their way to the shorelines of Michigan every summer, Southwest Michigan's fruit belt has begun to draw- visitors inland. Wine tourism has emerged as a new form of tourism. The vineyards in Southwest Michigan, depending on these visitors as their main customer market, therefore formed a wine route, connecting them and creating a wine region feel for tourists. In doing so, the wineries hope to establish a recognized wine region and sell their wines nationwide.

This study is based on semi-structured interviews conducted with General Managers and Marketing Officials of each of the vineyards. Based on …

Context-Specific Preference Learning Of One Dimensional Quantitative Geospatial Attributes Using A Neuro-Fuzzy Approach, Georgios Mountrakis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Change detection is a topic of great importance for modern geospatial information systems. Digital aerial imagery provides an excellent medium to capture geospatial information. Rapidly evolving environments, and the availability of increasing amounts of diverse, multiresolutional imagery bring forward the need for frequent updates of these datasets. Analysis and query of spatial data using potentially outdated data may yield results that are sometimes invalid. Due to measurement errors (systematic, random) and incomplete knowledge of information (uncertainty) it is ambiguous if a change in a spatial dataset has really occurred. Therefore we need to develop reliable, fast, and automated procedures that …

The Effectiveness Of The Chemical Perturbation Index For Monitoring Water Quality In Three Mixed-Use Urban Watersheds, Knoxville, Tennessee, Brooks A. Jolly

Masters Theses

Landscape change within the United States has resulted in significant physical and chemical alteration of our nation's surface waters. Many research projects have demonstrated that landscape features moderate or cause observed water quality conditions. Urbanization is a rapidly growing form of landscape change in the United States and ranks second to agriculture as a major cause of stream degradation. Understanding the effect of urbanization on surface waters is only one component of the larger issue of restoring and maintaining the integrity of urban stream water quality. Effective watershed management is a social process that requires the inclusion of local citizens …

Tourism And Rural Identity In The Waasland, Belgium, Joel Stuart Thomas

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The northern portion of Belgium, a region known as Flanders, is one of the most densely settled, industrialized areas in the world. Existing in small, isolated tracts, are "green spaces" mainly devoted to agricultural output.

The Flemish way of life and environment has become increasingly "urbanized." Tourism commissions operating in the countryside have drawn on Flemish heritage and identity, as well as the rural landscape to act as marketing tools. In terms of perception and the notion of a distinctly Flemish rural "space'" how are tourist flow patterns influenced? Does the process of perception result in an exclusive urban to …

Influence Of The Palisades Nuclear Power Plant On Residential Housing Prices, Nicole N. Blodgett

Masters Theses

The controversy over the influence of nuclear power plants on property values is a continual debate among communities (Clark et al. 1997). I will be looking at a sample of 400 residential houses within a twelve-mile radius of the Palisades Nuclear Power Plant in Covert, Michigan to see how the location of the plant influences the home sale price. Several structural, neighborhood, and demographic characteristics were complied for the analysis. In addition to these characteristics, distance to the plant, a visibility component, and a dummy variable to indicate all properties within a quarter mile from the Lake Michigan shoreline were …

The Genius Of The Nation Versus The Gene-Tech Of The Nation: Science, Identity, And Gmo Debates In Hungary, Krista Harper

Anthropology Department Faculty Publication Series

Introduction In the late 1990s, Hungarian politicians, environmentalists, and agricultural lobbyists weighed the pros and cons of allowing genetically modified (GM) food and seeds to enter the Hungarian market. Starting around 1994, a small group of Hungarian environmentalists began researching GM issues. Initially, they feared that as a post-socialist country seeking foreign investment, Hungary would become prey to multinational corporations seeking an ‘emerging market’ with a lax regulatory environment. The terms of the debate were reframed over time, notably following 1998, when a number of European Union member states banned the imports of GM foods and when Hungarian expatriate geneticist …

Urban Agriculture: Asset Mapping Capstone, Lina Bondar, Benjamin Freeman, Garrett Helser, Olivia Jennings

Asset Mapping: Community Geography Project

No abstract provided.

Just Behind The Mountain: Refugee Children Imagine Tibet, Emma Tobin

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Since the Tibetan diaspora began in 1959, when His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama fled Tibet for India, many Tibetans have settled and started families in exile. Today, a large percentage of Tibetan refugees have been born in exile, and have therefore never seen their country. Within Tibetan exile communities, however, the importance of Tibetan identity is strongly emphasized and people are still very much invested in the plight of Tibet. As a result, there exist strong ideas about the reality of life in Tibet within the exile community. According Jamyang Norbu, “Though the Shangri-la stereotype is a Western creation, …

Knowledge Discovery From Multispectral Satellite Images, Arun D. Kulkarni

Arun Kulkarni

Cooperative Conservation - Interagency Volunteer Program Quarterly Progress Report: Period Ending September 30, 2004, Margaret N. Rees

Get Outdoors Nevada

Collaboration with Interagency Team

Although the task agreement formally commenced June 30, 2004, the agreement was not fully executed by both parties until July 29, 2004. In the first three months of this agreement, UNLV representatives have met with or communicated via email with the Interagency Volunteer Team on numerous occasions. At the first meeting on July 13, 2004, Government Technical Representative Bobbie Antonich and UNLV Public Lands Initiative Director Nancy Flagg met with the interagency team to discuss the overall goals for the Interagency Volunteer Program (IVP). The team was brought up-to-date on the status of the task agreement, …

Industry Clusters And Economic Development: A Learning Resource, Edward J. Feser

Edward J Feser

One of the most widely discussed issues in community and economic development today is the role of industry clusters as engines of regional growth and development. Many communities are undertaking cluster studies or initiating cluster planning exercises as a way to organize development strategies to promote key local economic strengths or to shore up identified weaknesses. A large consulting industry has emerged to serve governments’ interest in clusters and the research literature on the topic is growing rapidly. At the same time, some analysts have likened clusters to another economic development fad that will eventually be supplanted by the next …

Evaluating Spatial Variability Of Precipitation In Kentucky With Exploratory Data Analysis, Daniel Taylor

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Spatial variability of precipitation is examined over the state of Kentucky and surrounding areas. The study focuses on the analysis of monthly precipitation totals from the period of 1961-2000. The purpose of the study is to develop a set of indices to represent the spatial variability of the study area for a given month. Various exploratory data analysis methods such as variography, kriging, and cluster analysis were used. The study attempts to quantify the second order (local) effects of the spatial variation of precipitation as a means to provide insight into the prediction of precipitation randomness. This task can be …

Mobile Gis And Archaeological Survey, Nicholas Tripcevich

Nicholas Tripcevich, Ph.D.

This paper will describe archaeological research recently conducted in southern Peru where archaeological features were recorded entirely within a mobile Geographical Information System (or GIS). I will present an overview of the technology, and then briefly demonstrate our implementation of the system that was used while camping at high altitude at an obsidian source, and then I’ll discuss the benefits and drawbacks of mobile GIS. Ultimately we must ask if it will contribute to better archaeology, or does mobile GIS merely add finer spatial resolution and more delicate technology to existing field methods?

Ghana: Loggers And Politicians, Not Small Farmers, Are To Blame For Deforestation, Aharon Degrassi

Faculty Publications, Geography

No abstract provided.

Changing Governance, Business Elites, And Local Regulation In Nashville, Ola Johansson

Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation, I explore how power and governance in Nashville is related to economic and institutional change on a national and global scale—the transition from Fordism to post-Fordism. By investigating the political and social institutions of the city, it is my objective to understand how the elites are operating to control and direct development. The study is an in-depth look at the activities of local business and how they decide to respond in a situation of change and uncertainty. Here I stress the importance of collective action among the business elite, which is equally meaningful to explore as the …

Toward A Geography Of Hormones: The Human Sex Ratio At Birth In The United States 1970-1995, Michael C. Meyers

Masters Theses

It has been hypothesized that humans may exert facultative, adaptive control over their sex of their offspring through the action of the endocrine system. No conclusive evidence of this has been found, although varying hormonal levels in parents at the time of conception may partly influence the sex of the child (James 1986, 1987b, 1999). A decline in the human sex ratio at birth (SRB) observed in the U.S. and some other countries has been attributed by some investigators to widespread environmental exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals.

The many factors hypothesized to influence the SRB make testing this attribution difficult, …

Assessing Tmdl Implementation In The Macatawa Watershed, Mi, Using Swat, Laurence Picq

Masters Theses

Lake Macatawa, on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, has been impaired by nonpoint source pollution from agriculture. A Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL), developed by the Macatawa Area Coordinating Council and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, established a 60% reduction goal in phosphorus load by 2008. While agricultural best management practices have been implemented in the past three years, the local watershed organization has not had the means to evaluate the effectiveness of these practices, and to assess progress made towards the phosphorus reduction goal.

A simulation model, the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) was chosen to …

A Data Model For Exploration Of Temporal Virtual Reality Geographic Information Systems, Jorge Alberto Prado De Campos

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Geographic information systems deal with the exploration, analysis, and presentation of geo-referenced data. Virtual reality is a type of human-computer interface that comes close to the way people perceive information in the real world. Thus, virtual reality environments become the natural paradigm for extending and enhancing the presentational and exploratory capability of GIs applications in both the spatial and temporal domains. The main motivation of this thesis is the lack of a framework that properly supports the exploration of geographic information in a multi-dimensional and multi-sensorial environment (i.e., temporal virtual reality geographic information systems). This thesis introduces a model for …

Stuck In Science: The Natural Scientist And Non-Objective Ways Of Knowing Nature, Marianne R. Chrystalbridge

Masters Theses

My research investigates whether and to what extent natural scientists utilize non-objective but personally meaningful ways of knowing, that is, different modes of perceiving, interpreting, judging, and comprehending, in addition to their objective stance as scientific researcher, in constructing their understanding of nature. I investigate whether or not the norms of science restrict discussion of non-objective ways of knowing to the margins of the discourse. I pursue this topic through a review of literature on ecological sustainability that emphasizes the importance of buttressing objective knowledge with non-objective ways of experiencing and talking about nature.

In interviews with fifty natural scientists, …

Developing Habitat Suitability Models: An Example From Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee And North Carolina, Usa, Using The Land Snail Vitrinizonites Latissimus Lewis, Andrew Strom Dye

Masters Theses

Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GSMNP) is one of the foremost areas of biological research in the United States. The spatial and temporal aspects of the data collected in biological research provide many opportunities for implementing Geographic Information System (GIS) models. Many biological studies in recent years have sought to describe the relationships between organism distribution and habitat variables.

This thesis analyzes the spatial distribution of the land snail Vitrinizonites latissimus Lewis as an example of how GIS-based habitat suitability models can be derived from data collected in GSMNP. Seven habitat variables including slope, aspect, elevation, soils, vegetation, geology, and …

“Sea Grant International: Final Report To The Department Of State, Oceans Environmental And International Scientific Affairs Initiative Grant Iaa#S-Oes-03-Iaa-001, Matthew Wilburn King

Matthew Wilburn King PhD

In April 2002, NOAA Research’s Office of International Activities (IA) submitted a proposal to the U.S. Department of State’s (DOS) Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs Initiative (OESI) to assess the feasibility of adapting the Sea Grant model of linked applied research, extension and education to Latin America and the Wider Caribbean region. The overall goal was to determine whether or not university-based programs with these three features could serve as an appropriate institutional mechanism to address critical marine and coastal resource issues in a developing country context. The initiative was catalyzed as a result of expressions of interest …

Sea Grant Internacional Informe Final Al Departamento Del Estado, Matthew Wilburn King

Matthew Wilburn King PhD

En Abril del año 2002, la oficina de Actividades Internacionales de NOAA Research (IA) sometió una propuesta a la iniciativa de Océanos y Asuntos Internacionales del Medioambiente y las Ciencias (Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs Initiative), mejor conocido como “OESI”, para explorar la posibilidad de adaptar el modelo Sea Grant de investigación aplicada, extensión, y educación en América Latina y el Caribe. El propósito de la investigación era de determinar si programas basados en Universidades con estos tres componentes puedan servir como el mecanismo institucional apropiado para resolver los problemas de manejo de recursos marinos y costeros en …

The Smugglers' Landscape: Geography, Route Selection And The Global Heroin Trade, James Dallis Medler

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

This study focuses on transnational smuggling, and puts forth an analytical framework from the smugglers' perspective with respect to route selection, focusing primarily on aspects of economic, political, and human geography. It is predicated on three interconnected decision-making domains that constitute the smuggler's operational landscape, namely access, risk and connectivity, which interact to drive the smugglers' perceptions of route attractiveness. The first two domains operate reciprocally, primarily at the national level of analysis, and together both shape and are shaped by the third at the transnational level to form a feedback loop. With respect to connectivity, the convention of the …

An Interactive Learning Environment For A Dynamic Educational Digital Library, Ee Peng Lim, Dion Hoe-Lian Goh, Yin-Leng Theng, Eng-Kai Suen

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

GeogDL is a digital library of geography examination resources designed to assist students in preparing for a national geography examination in Singapore. We describe an interactive learning environment built into GeogDL that consists of four major components. The practice and review module allows students to attempt individual examination questions, the mock exam provides a simulation of the actual geography examination, the trends analysis tool provides an overview of the types of questions asked in previous examinations, while the contributions module allows students and teachers to create and share knowledge within the digital library.

Establishing Long Term Coastal And Marine Programs In Latin America And The Caribbean Pilot Studies Of Ecuador And The Gulf Of Fonseca Integrating Education, Applied Research And Extension Background Paper No. 2, Matthew Wilburn King

Matthew Wilburn King PhD

This document is the second of two background papers that have been prepared to explore the feasibility of adapting the Sea Grant model of University-based education, research and extension to countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. It is part of an initiative directed by the NOAA/OAR Office of International Activities and the University of Rhode Island Coastal Resources Center and Sea Grant Program. Financial support comes from the U.S. State Department’s Ocean, Environment and Science Initiative, and the NOAA National Sea Grant Office. The initiative was catalyzed by expressions of interest from government and university officials in Honduras, Nicaragua, …

An Interim Report Of A Viking-Age & Medieval Archaeofauna From Undir Junkarinsfløtti, Sandoy, Faroe Islands, Thomas H. Mcgovern, Colin Amundsen, Sophia Perdikaris, Ramona Harrison, Yekaterina Krivogorskaya

School of Global Integrative Studies: Faculty Publications

Cooperative international excavations at the site of Undir Junkarinsfløtti (27020) in the village of Sandur on the island of Sandoy, Faroe Islands in May 2003 recovered a stratified bone - rich midden deposit extending from the Viking Age to the early medieval period. The animal bone collection contains domestic mammals (cattle, sheep, dog, goat, and pig) and substantial amounts of fish (mainly cod), birds (mainly puffin and guillemot), and shellfish (mainly limpet). While the current collection has the archaeological limitations inherent in column samples, it suggests persistence of substantial pig keeping into the 13th c, and strongly indicates a sustainable …

Risk Factors For Pre-Post Monsoon Cholera Epidemics In Bangladesh From 1992-1994, Rhonda Rae Robb

Dissertations and Theses

The primary objective of this thesis is to differentiate between the risk factors for pre-and post-monsoon cholera epidemics in rural Bangladesh by analyzing the complex interaction between select environmental, cultural/behavioral, and socioeconomic variables over space and time. In rural Bangladesh, cholera epidemics correspond with the annual monsoon: the first, and smallest, occurs between March and June, while the larger cholera peak occurs between September and December. The differences between the spatial and temporal patterns of seasonal cholera are analyzed, and the risk factors are calculated for pre-and post-monsoon cholera epidemics.

The theoretical approach that underlies this medical geographical study is …