Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Dynamically Hedging Oil And Currency Futures Using Receding Horizontal Control And Stochastic Programming, Paul Edward Cottrell

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

There is a lack of research in the area of hedging future contracts, especially in illiquid or very volatile market conditions. It is important to understand the volatility of the oil and currency markets because reduced fluctuations in these markets could lead to better hedging performance. This study compared different hedging methods by using a hedging error metric, supplementing the Receding Horizontal Control and Stochastic Programming (RHCSP) method by utilizing the London Interbank Offered Rate with the Levy process. The RHCSP hedging method was investigated to determine if improved hedging error was accomplished compared to the Black-Scholes, Leland, and Whalley …

Rural Year-Round Growing To Ameliorate A Possible Negative Effect From Climate Change, Kimberlie A. Brussa

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) suggested that, as the world population grows, food and water shortages will become even more serious issues (IPPC's 2014 predictions about the future effects of climate change (CC), Year-round growing (YRG) may provide a way for communities to extend growing seasons, expand local farm systems, and provide food year round. This case study included a detailed analysis of responses from representatives of all sectors of rural Mesa County, Colorado, regarding YRG and a local food and farm plan due to CC. The case was bounded by time (6 months of data collection) which …

An Investigation Of Renewable Energy Projects And Their Potential Applications At Assumption College: Wind Turbines And Geothermal Heat Pumps, Melanie Mccauley

Honors Theses

This thesis researches the possibility of a renewable energy project specifically for Assumption College. As the school is already investing in solar power, my study looked at the feasibility of a wind turbine or geothermal heat pump unit on the campus. I conducted interviews with various institutions that have already undertaken similar projects so that I could better understand the process of installing these technologies, to discover possible funding that could be available, and the success of this technology in other schools. The economic advantages and the positive impacts on students and the neighboring communities were some of the benefits …

May You Walk In Beauty: The Decline Of Navajo Land And Culture, Jocelyn Catterson

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

The Navajo homeland, Dinetah, is bordered by four mountains that are sacred to the Navajo people: two in Colorado, one in New Mexico, and one in Arizona. Historically, Navajo medicine men have traveled to these mountains to renew prayers and collect medicinal herbs. Today, the mountains, which exist outside of the reservation boundaries, are used for resource extraction and various recreational pursuits. While many Navajo are fighting for the protection of these sacred lands and their traditional culture, others are disinterested. Traditional practices and beliefs are slowly disappearing within the Navajo Nation. The land-use issues associated with these sacred mountains …

Provisioning And Its Effects On The Social Interactions Of Tibetan Macaques (Macaca Thibetana) At Mt. Huangshan, China, Brianna I. Schnepel

All Master's Theses

The dispersal patterns of food resources has a significant effect on the composition of primate groups and social interactions within those groups. Humans often alter the dispersal of food. Non-humans often use affiliative behaviors to elicit tolerance or support from other group members. I investigated whether provisioned food resources alter the social interactions and group dynamics of Macaca thibetana. All-occurrence sampling and scan sampling were used for data recorded by camera traps. Trail-cameras were placed at six locations that contain natural and human food resources and recorded 60-second videos. Social behavior and proximity of the monkeys were recorded. I …

Natural Language Processing For Foreign Language Learning, Jacob Kausler

Honors Theses

This research presents novel algorithms which generate sentences in a natural language, using natural language generation techniques. The purpose of the algorithms is to benefit foreign language learning. As far as we can tell, ours is the first such research being done in the field. In creating the algorithms, we also developed a piece of software to showcase the work and allow testing by users. The main algorithm begins by generating sentence models by using one of two methods, namely modeled sentence generation and semantic sentence generation. Each of these have benefits and drawbacks, which the user must take into …

Mind-Craft: Exploring The Relation Between "Digital" Visual Experience And Orientation In Visual Contour Perception, Daniel Hipp

Graduate Dissertations and Theses

Visual perception depends fundamentally on statistical regularities in the environment to make sense of the world. One such regularity is the orientation anisotropy typical of natural scenes; most natural scenes contain slightly more horizontal and vertical information than oblique information. This property is likely a primary cause of the “oblique effect” in visual perception, in which subjects experience greater perceptual fluently with horizontally and vertically oriented content than oblique. However, recent changes in the visual environment, including the “carpentered” content in urban scenes and the framed, caricatured content in digital screen media presentations, may have altered the level of orientation …

Using Particle Size Analysis To Separate The Deposition Of A Bonebed And Artifact At The Wenas Creek Mammoth Site, Genevieve Brown

All Master's Theses

The 2005 discovery of a 17,000 year old mammoth bonebed in close proximity to a possible artifact at the Wenas Creek Mammoth Site (WCMS) brought with it the question of whether the bones and artifact were actually deposited together. If the two are associated, the WCMS would qualify as a Pre-Clovis site, a title given to just a handful of proven archaeological sites in North America, though claimed for numerous more. A close interval particle size analysis was performed on 2 column samples from the WCMS with the intention of identifying microstratification that would separate the bonebed from the artifact. …

Tornado Fatalities: An In-Depth Look At Physical And Societal Influences, Heather Joann Key

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to model and determine significant predictors of tornado death index values, and to investigate these significant predictors and what makes people vulnerable to tornado fatalities through expert interviews. This study also provides an understanding of the study participant’s perceptions of their county’s vulnerability to tornado fatality and demonstrates a true integration of methods and fields by studying geographic, meteorological, and sociological phenomena by use of quantitative and qualitative methods. The study consists of two parts: 1) A quantitative exploration of variables hypothesized to predict Tornado Death Index (TDI) values, 2) A qualitative investigation to …

A Composite Spatial Model Incorporating Groundwater Vulnerability And Environmental Disturbance To Guide Land Management, Johanna L. Kovarik

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Research has long recognized and studied the dynamics of groundwater processes. More recently, groundwater dependent ecosystems (GDEs) are being recognized for their diversity and vulnerability to anthropogenic impact. Groundwater in karst landscapes presents a distinctive situation where flow through the subsurface often moves rapidly on the scale of days and weeks as opposed to years or millennia in other systems. This distinctive situation of karst systems and their vulnerability to human impacts necessitate an integrated and multifaceted approach for the management of these important resources. However, development of such an approach is complicated by the difficulty of obtaining detailed data …

Glaciological Applications Of Terrestrial Radar Interferometry, Denis Voytenko

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Terrestrial Radar Interferometry (TRI) is a relatively new ground-based technique that combines the precision and spatial resolution of satellite interferometry with the temporal resolution of GPS. Although TRI has been applied to a variety of fields including bridge and landslide monitoring, it is ideal for studies of the highly-dynamic terminal zones of marine-terminating glaciers, some of which are known to have variable velocities related to calving and/or ocean-forced melting. My TRI instrument is the Gamma Portable Radar Interferometer, which operates at 17.2 GHz (1.74 cm wavelength), has two receiving antennas for DEM (digital elevation model) generation, and images the scenes …

Remaking Nature In Montana: Topophilic Considerations Of Wolves And Wolf Trapping, Andrew Myers

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In 2011, after nearly forty years of federal protection, the gray wolf was removed from the Endangered Species List in Montana and its management entrusted to the Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks. The implementation of public trapping seasons in 2012 as a method to control wolf populations has further inflamed an already embroiled debate. The purpose of this research was to investigate how the presence of wolves and wolf trapping impacts human attachments to landscapes of “nature” in Montana by focusing on the following questions: What are the public’s social constructions of wolves? What are the public’s social constructions of …

Short-Term Forecasting Analysis Of Municipal Water Demand In El Paso, Texas, Alejandro Ceballos

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Short-term water demand forecasts inform decisions regarding budgeting, rate design, water supply system operations, and effective implementation of conservation policies. This study develops a Linear Transfer Function (LTF) forecasting model for El Paso, Texas, a growing city located in the desert Southwest region of the United States. The model is used to generate monthly-frequency out-of-sample simulations of water demand for periods when actual demand is known. To measure the accuracy of the LTF projections against viable alternatives, a set of benchmark forecasts is also developed. Both descriptive accuracy metrics and formal statistical tests are used to analyze predictive performance. The …

Human Induced Cyclical Erosion Due To Altered Sediment Bypassing Mechanisms Of A Barrier Island And The Resultant Impact On The Housing Market, Andrew R. Fallon

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

No abstract provided.

Boundaries Of Governance: Social Responsibility In Mining In Western Australia, Gemma L. Broderick

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This research investigated the boundaries of governance of social responsibility in three multinational mining organisations based in Perth, Western Australia. The mining industry has economic, environmental and social impacts, both positive and negative. While most of the attention of the media and supporters in government seems to focus on the positive impacts, a growing concern regarding the social implications of mining is clearly evident in public discourse and the academic literature. In response to public concern, the mining industry has adopted terms such as ‘sustainability’, ‘sustainable development’, ‘social licence to operate’ and ‘social responsibility’. Such phrases are widely used in …

An Economic Analysis Of Mars Exploration And Colonization, Clayton Knappenberger 15

Honor Scholar Theses

No abstract provided.

An Appraisal Of Experiences Of Climate Change And Adaptive Response To Heat Stress By Farmers In Rural Ghana, Kwasi Frimpong

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

With the increase in average global temperatures, heat-related illnesses and deaths have unfolded as occupational and health issues. Periods of high to extreme temperatures are becoming more common and are a leading cause of weather-related deaths in many countries. In agricultural settings of African countries, heat stress is a major concern as many smallholder farmers work outdoors with limited access to cooling systems even in their resting and living environments. This study, conducted in the Bawku East part of Northern-East Ghana in 2013, examines, in the context of climate change, the trends and impacts of heat stress on smallholder farmers, …

Judging Dread: A Quantitative Investigation Of Affect, Psychometric Dread And Risk Consequence, Melvyn Griffiths

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Risk is generally understood as a product of the likelihood and consequence of an event. However, the way in which estimations of consequences are formed is unclear due to the complexities of human perception. In particular, the influence of Affect, defined as positive or negative qualities subjectively assigned to stimuli, may skew risk consequence judgements. Thus a clearer understanding of the role of Affect in risk consequence estimations has significant implications for risk management, risk communication and policy formulation.

In the Psychometric tradition of risk perception, Affect has become almost synonymous with the concept of Dread, despite Dread being measured …

Intensity Based Interrogation Of Optical Fibre Sensors For Industrial Automation And Intrusion Detection Systems, Gary Andrew Allwood

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

In this study, the use of optical fibre sensors for intrusion detection and industrial automation systems has been demonstrated, with a particular focus on low cost, intensity-based, interrogation techniques. The use of optical fibre sensors for intrusion detection systems to secure residential, commercial, and industrial premises against potential security breaches has been extensively reviewed in this thesis. Fibre Bragg grating (FBG) sensing is one form of optical fibre sensing that has been underutilised in applications such as in-ground, in-fence, and window and door monitoring, and addressing that opportunity has been a major goal of this thesis. Both security and industrial …

Exploring The Google Books Corpus: An Information-Theoretic Approach To Linguistic Evolution, Eitan Pechenick

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

The Google Books corpus contains millions of books in a variety of languages. Due to this incredible volume and its free availability, it is a treasure trove that has inspired a plethora of linguistic research.

It is tempting to treat frequency trends from Google Books data sets as indicators for the true popularity of various words and phrases. Doing so allows us to draw novel conclusions about the evolution of public perception of a given topic. However, sampling published works by availability and ease of digitization leads to several important effects, which have typically been overlooked in previous studies. One …

Effects Of Pcb Contamination On The Environment And The Cultural Integrity Of The St. Regis Mohawk Tribe In The Mohawk Nation Of Akwesasne, Kim Ellen Mcrae

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

The following research project examines the effects of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) on the environment and the cultural integrity of the St. Regis Mohawk tribe in the Mohawk Nation of Akwesasne. This indigenous community has been subjected to widespread long-term industrial pollution from nearby toxic hazardous waste facilities and Superfund sites.

The Mohawk Nation of Akwesasne has the distinction of being the only tribe whose officially recognized territory straddles the border between the United States and Canada. Using qualitative methodologies, coupled with an interdisciplinary framework, this study successfully engages with Akwesasne community members to explore such issues as bottom-up approaches to …

A Gis Assessment Of Ecoregion Representation In Chile's Existing And Proposed Integrated Network Of Protected Areas, Jessica Schutz

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Chile's state designated protected areas are reported to show representation bias and to be unable to meet conservation goals. Private protected areas are considered an important tool to resolve these issues, which has led to support for increasing the role of private protected areas in Chile and creating an integrated public-private protected area network. But the validity of the capacity of private protected areas to fix Chile's state protected area network bias, and the advantage of creating an integrated protected area network, have not been assessed. This study uses the most recent data on Chile's state, private, and international protected …

Lexical Mechanics: Partitions, Mixtures, And Context, Jake Ryland Williams

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Highly structured for efficient communication, natural languages are complex systems. Unlike in their computational cousins, functions and meanings in natural languages are relative, frequently prescribed to symbols through unexpected social processes. Despite grammar and definition, the presence of metaphor can leave unwitting language users "in the dark," so to speak. This is not problematic, but rather an important operational feature of languages, since the lifting of meaning onto higher-order structures allows individuals to compress descriptions of regularly-conveyed information. This compressed terminology, often only appropriate when taken locally (in context), is beneficial in an enormous world of novel experience. However, what …

Early Adoption Dynamics Of Private Sustainability Governance Initiatives: A Case Study Of The Marine Cultured-Pearl Industry, Julie Nash

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

We are witnessing a time of unprecedented human impact on the natural environment. Coral reefs, one of the most biologically diverse and productive ecosystems, are at the forefront of enduring these human impacts. Despite widespread recognition of coral reef degradation, counter measures have not reached a scale to offset the threat. The magnitude of this and other environmental issues call for a deeper understanding of the role the private sector can play in sustainable development.

In response to environmental pressures and the shortcomings of global-scale governance, private sustainability governance initiatives have developed. In the last decade, these initiatives have flourished, …

Collaboration And Conflict In The Adirondack Park: An Analysis Of Conservation Discourses Over Time, Jeffrey Michael O'Donnell

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

The role of collaboration within conservation is of increasing interest to scholars, managers and forest communities. Collaboration can take many forms, but one under-studied topic is the form and content of public discourses across conservation project timelines. To understand the discursive processes that influence conservation decision-making, this research evaluates the use of collaborative rhetoric and claims about place within discourses of conservation in the Adirondacks. Local newspaper articles and editorials published from January 1996 to December 2013 and concerning six major conservation projects were studied using content analysis. Results show that collaborative rhetoric increased during the study period, and conflict …

Discourse As Social Process In Outdoor Recreation And Natural Resource Management: Arguing, Constructing, And Performing, Monika Marie Derrien

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

This dissertation examines the language-based, discursive processes through which meanings and experiences are socially constituted in outdoor recreation and natural resource environments. Language use and discourse are seen as interactive, constructive processes, approached through the theoretical perspectives of argumentation, social constructionism, and performance.

Three qualitative studies, based in data collected at Acadia National Park and forest-related sites throughout Vermont, comprise this dissertation. The first study uses rhetorical analysis to examine the ways National Park Service managers and community leaders argue for the meanings and management of dark night skies in and around Acadia. The second study examines how national park …

Get Real: An Examination Of The Real Food Challenge At The University Of Vermont, Jennifer Porter

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

The Real Food Challenge (RFC) is a national student movement that is trying to harness student power to shift $1 billion'roughly 20% of college and university food budgets across the country towards local, ecologically sound, fair, and humane food sources, what they call "real" food, by 2020. The University of Vermont (UVM) was the fifth university in the country to sign the Real Food Campus Commitment, pledging to shift at least 20% of its own food budget towards "real" food by 2020. The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate the implementation of the Real Food Campus Commitment at UVM. …

Grass-Based Dairy In Vermont: Benefits, Barriers, And Effective Public Policies, Serge William Wiltshire

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

A comprehensive literature review was undertaken in order to define and assess the sustainability and resiliency characteristics associated with grass-based and confinement dairy farming. Primarily as a result of reduced input costs, grass-based dairy farming often enhances profitability over confinement systems, especially on small farms. Further, conversion of tilled soil to permanent pasture has been shown to significantly reduce harmful sediment and nutrient transport into waterways. Perennial forage also acts as a carbon sink, curtailing or even negating a grass-based farm's carbon footprint. Finally, social benefits derived from enhanced nutrition and higher quality of life are also associated with grass-based …