Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Geology, Soils And Climate Of Western Australia's Wine Regions, Peter J. Tille, Angela Stuart-Street, Peter S. Gardiner

Bulletins 4000 -

This bulletin details what is special and unique about the geology, soil and climate of the south-west of Western Australia (WA), an area that encompasses the state’s 9 wine regions.

We have arranged the information into 2 parts:

• In Part 1, we broadly describe the special geological, soil and climate features of the south-west of WA to provide context for the wine regions.

• In Part 2, we describe the geology, soil and climate of the regions and subregions of the Geographical Indications (GI) scheme (administered by Wine Australia) for WA.

Through this work we have found that the wine regions …

Fitness Of Interspecific Hybrids In The Genus Cyprinella: An Evaluation Of Swimming Performance In North American Stream Fishes, Jessica Wilks

Biology Theses

Due to anthropogenic pressures, freshwater ecosystems are being rapidly destroyed worldwide. Accordingly, human impacts have also resulted in the loss of native aquatic biodiversity. In particular, the introduction of non-native species to aquatic habitats is of great concern. Historically, the introductions of many non-native freshwater fishes are the result of commercial baitfish aquaculture, food industries, and private aquarium release. The red shiner (Cyprinella lutrensis) is a small stream fish that is endemic to the Central U.S., and its natural range is restricted to East of the Mississippi River. Since the 1950’s, red shiner have been commercially raised and transported …

Singlish Checker: A Tool For Understanding And Analysing An English Creole Language, Lee-Hsun Hsieh, Nam Chew Chua, Agus Trisnajaya Kwee, Pei-Chi Lo, Yang-Yin Lee, Ee-Peng Lim

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

As English is a widely used language in many countries of different cultures, variants of English also known as English creoles have also been created. Singlish is one such English creole used by people in Singapore. Nevertheless, unlike English, Singlish is not taught in schools nor encouraged to be used in formal communications. Hence, it remains to be a low resource language with a lack of up-to-date Singlish word dictionary and computational tools to analyse the language. In this paper, we therefore propose Singlish Checker, a tool that is able to help detecting Singlish text, Singlish words and phrases. To …

Estimation Of Disaggregated Import Demand Functions For Nigeria, Chekwube V. Madichie, Uche C. Nwogwugwu, Franklin N. Ngwu, Olisaemeka D. Mauka

CBN Journal of Applied Statistics (JAS)

This paper estimates disaggregated import demand function for Nigeria using annual data from 1970 to 2019. The study employs the Zivot-Andrews unit root and Gregory-Hansen cointegration tests to account for the role of structural breaks and the error correction mechanism for shortrun analysis, respectively. The results show that household consumption, industrial output and domestic investment are the major determinants of import demand for consumer, intermediate and investment goods, respectively. Furthermore, the import demand for investment goods is not sensitive to variations in relative prices. However, relative prices is negative and significant to import demand for consumer and intermediate goods. Exchange …

Size And Determinants Of The Shadow Economy In Nigeria: Evidence From A Monetary Approach, Tari M. Karimo, Mohammed M. Tumala, Ibrahim U, Wambai

CBN Journal of Applied Statistics (JAS)

Thiis study investigates the size and determinants of the shadow economy in Nigeria. It adopts an aggregation approach within the monetary framework and utilises the ARDL estimation technique to analyse quarterly data from 2010 Q1 to 2019 Q4. On average, the results suggest that the quarterly size of the shadow economy is about 55 per cent of the country’s GDP. The findings show that government size reduces the size of the shadow economy in the short run but increases it in the long run. The study also finds that interest rate, which is the opportunity cost of holding cash, and …

Fiscal And Monetary Policy Interactions In A Developing Economy: A Dsge-Based Evidence From Nigeria, Queen E. Oye, Philip O. Alege

CBN Journal of Applied Statistics (JAS)

This study characterizes the nature of fiscal-monetary interaction in Nigeria and gauges its macroeconomic effects by estimating a New Keynesian Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium (NK DSGE) model. Two policy simulations were also conducted. The first experiment considers the desirable active-passive policy mix while the second experiment ranks alternative monetary policy rules among the differing objectives of price, output and exchange rate stabilization. The study finds that fiscal and monetary policies interact as complements in an active monetary and passive fiscal policy mix over the sample period. The result from the first policy simulation reveals that the active monetary and passive …

Market Risk Factors And Stock Returns In The Nigerian Bourse, Omorose A. Ogiemudia, Osagie Osifo, Igbinovia L. Eghosa

CBN Journal of Applied Statistics (JAS)

This study examines the link between market risk and equity return in Nigeria between 1980 to 2019. It employs the vector error correction model (VECM) to determine the short run dynamics and long run effect of market risk factors on stock return. The findings revealed that a dynamic relationship exists between market risk factors and stock returns in Nigeria. Also, exchange rate risk and oil price risks have significant influence on stock return, while inflation and interest rate risk, and political instability risks have a non-significant impact on stock return. Finally, a unidirectional relationship was detected between interest rate, oil …

Savings-Investment Gap In Sub-Saharan Africa: Does The Interaction Of Financial Sector Development And Migrant Remittances Matter?, Wasiu Adekunle, Oluwatosin Adeniyi, Joshua Afolabi, Musibau Babatunde, Edward Omiwale

CBN Journal of Applied Statistics (JAS)

This study analyses the interactive effects of migrant remittances and financial development on savings-investment gap for a panel of 18 Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries from 1990-2017. Results from a panel ARDL model show that migrant remittances reduce savings-investment gap in the long run. The gap is further reduced when the individual effect of financial development, and the interactive effects of migrant remittances and financial development are taken into consideration. Further analysis reveals evidence of widening effects of rising real GDP growth and bank deposits over a long-term horizon, while higher private sector credit widened the savings-investment gap only in the …

Impact Of Exchange Rate On Trade Flow In Nigeria, Victor U. Ijirshar, Isa J. Okpe, Jerome T. Andohol

CBN Journal of Applied Statistics (JAS)

This study examines the impact of exchange rate on trade flow in Nigeria from 1986 to 2021. The study utilises linear and nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL and NARDL) models to test the J-Curve hypothesis and the Marshall-Lerner condition in Nigeria. The study found symmetric effects of exchange rate on trade balance, exports, and imports. The findings also show that real exchange rate depreciation has a strong negative influence on trade balance and exports in the short run but positive in the long run, exhibiting the shape typology of the J-curve. Furthermore, the study reveals evidence of the Marshall-Lerner condition …

Causal Inference In Psychology And Neuroscience: From Association To Causation, Dehua Liang

Computational and Data Sciences (PhD) Dissertations

In psychology and neuroscience, inferring causality in non-experimental studies is almost taboo, because data in these studies, e.g., survey data and resting-state neuroimaging data, are often contaminated by unmeasured confounders. Psychologists and neuroscientists are often cautious about their results, and reluctant to make false claims about causality in non-experimental studies. Therefore, they adopt less stringent statistical analysis techniques that can only infer associational relations. However, the ambiguity about causality in traditional statistical analysis creates much confusion in interpreting analytical results - some studies make implicit causal claims about their results using words such as “impacts”, “lead to” and “affects”. This …

Green On The Map - The Influence Of Conservation Easements On The Naturalness Of Landscapes In The United States, Nakisha Fouch

All Dissertations

Large protected areas have long been the cornerstone of conservation biology, however, in an era branded by the human dominance of ecosystems, regional landscape structure and function are often a consequence of accumulated land-use decisions that may or may not include a nod to conservation planning. With underrepresentation of habitats in publicly protected areas, attention has focused on the function of alternative land conservation mechanisms. Private conservation easements (CEs) have proliferated in the United States, yet assessing landscape-level function is confounded by holder and donor intent, national and regional policy, regional landscape contexts, varying extents, resolution, and temporal scale. Over …

Hate Speech Detection Using Textual And User Features, Rohan Raut

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Social media platforms provide users with a powerful platform to share their ideas. Using one’s right to expression to incite hatred toward a particular group of people is inappropriate. However, hate speech is pervasive in our society. Spreading hate through online social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Tiktok, and Instagram is commonplace in today’s milieu. One such case is the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, which engendered anti-Asian hate.

In current literature, there is limited study on using user features in conjunction with textual features to detect hate. This thesis aims to combine textual features with user features to improve the state-of-the-art hate …

Human Appropriation Of Net Primary Production Through Crops, Grazing, And Forestry In The U.S. From 1997 To 2012, Suman Paudel

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This dissertation conducts a county-level analysis of human appropriation of net primary production (HANPP) harvested from crops, timber and grazing in the conterminous United States in the years 1997, 2002, 2007 and 2012. This study consists of three manuscripts (Chapters 2, 3, and 4). The first study quantifies net primary production in US counties in 1997, 2002, 2007 and 2012. The detailed HANPP study conducted concludes that HANPP is a valuable footprint tool for analyzing land use intensity and agricultural ecosystems. The second manuscript shows how HANPP is an improved or modernized ecological footprint and is a sustainable indicator as …

Forest Structure And Composition Alleviate Human Thermal Stress, Loïc Gillerot, Dries Landuyt, Rachel Oh, Winston T. L. Chow, Et Al

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

Current climate change aggravates human health hazards posed by heat stress. Forests can locally mitigate this by acting as strong thermal buffers, yet potential mediation by forest ecological characteristics remains underexplored. We report over 14 months of hourly microclimate data from 131 forest plots across four European countries and compare these to open-field controls using physiologically equivalent temperature (PET) to reflect human thermal perception. Forests slightly tempered cold extremes, but the strongest buffering occurred under very hot conditions (PET >35°C), where forests reduced strong to extreme heat stress day occurrence by 84.1%. Mature forests cooled the microclimate by 12.1 to …

Movie Reviews Sentiment Analysis Using Bert, Gibson Nkhata

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Sentiment analysis (SA) or opinion mining is analysis of emotions and opinions from texts. It is one of the active research areas in Natural Language Processing (NLP). Various approaches have been deployed in the literature to address the problem. These techniques devise complex and sophisticated frameworks in order to attain optimal accuracy with their focus on polarity classification or binary classification. In this paper, we aim to fine-tune BERT in a simple but robust approach for movie reviews sentiment analysis to provide better accuracy than state-of-the-art (SOTA) methods. We start by conducting sentiment classification for every review, followed by computing …

Multivariate Fairness For Paper Selection, Reem Alsaffar

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Peer review is the process by which publishers select the best publications for inclusion in a journal or a conference. Bias in the peer review process can impact which papers are selected for inclusion in conferences and journals. Although often implicit, race, gender and other demographics can prevent members of underrepresented groups from presenting at major conferences. To try to avoid bias, many conferences use a double-blind review process to increase fairness during reviewing. However, recent studies argue that the bias has not been removed completely. Our research focuses on developing fair algorithms that correct for these biases and select …

Efficient Hierarchical Space-Time Models For Large Areal Datasets With Application To Forest Inventory Mapping Using Remote Sensing Imagery, Md Kamrul Hasan Khan

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The focus of this dissertation is development of a novel hierarchical framework, that can be used for predictive modeling of Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) data over large regions. This dissertation has two significant contributions. Based on a study region in north-central Wisconsin, we analyze satellite imagery, along with a sample of national forest inventory field plots, to monitor and predict changes in forest conditions over time. The auxiliary data from the satellite imagery of this region are relatively dense in space and time, and can be used to learn how forest conditions changed over that decade. However, these records …

The Human Natural Resource Endowment Of Limestone For Cement Manufacturing, Vanya Marie North

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates the total per-capita allocation of limestone globally. Termed the Human Natural Resource Endowment (HNRE), it is calculated by subtracting the cumulative annual production from the ultimately recoverable reserve (URR) of limestone and dividing the difference by global population. HNRE represents a unique way of visualizing resource depletion by asking how much of a given resource can be allocated to each person on earth, and how long that allocation can last given multiple population and usage scenarios. The average American, born in 2021, will use approximately 23,930 kgs of cement in their lifetime, with similar demands globally. Demand …

Orbital Mapping Of Seasonal And Yearly Changes In Co2 And Water Ice On The Southern Polar Cap Of Mars, Victoria Michell Ann Karnes

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research exhibits a new foundation for the rates of change in CO2 and water ice on the southern polar cap of Mars, where the annual precipitation cycles are known to fluctuate seasonally between the north and south pole, based on observations from the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer (CRISM). The conventional belief is that both CO2 ice and water ice on the southern polar cap condenses and evaporates over the course of a Martian year (MY), condensing during the Martian spring and summer and evaporating during the Martian fall and winter. With this theory in mind, CO2 and water ice …

Delineating Field Variation Using Apparent Electrical Conductivity In An Ozark Highlands Agroforestry System, Shane Reid Ylagan

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Little to no work has been conducted assessing field variability using repeated electromagnetic induction (EMI) apparent electrical conductivity (ECa) surveys in agroforestry (AF) systems within regions similar to the Ozark Highlands. The objectives of this thesis were to identify i) spatiotemporal ECa variability; ii) ECa-derived soil management zones (SMZs); iii) correlations among EMI-ECa and in-situ, sentential-site soil properties; iv) whether fewer, EMI-ECa surveys could be conducted to capture similar ECa variance as mid-monthly EMI-ECa surveys; v) correlations between ECa and forage yield, tree growth, and terrain attributes based on plant (forage and tree) species, and fertility treatments, and ECa-derived SMZs, …

Remote Sensing Application For Landslide Detection: Monitoring Along Eastern Lake Michigan (Miami Park, Mi), Guzalay Sataer

Dissertations

I assessed the nature and spatial and temporal patterns of deformation over the Miami Park bluffs on the eastern margin of Lake Michigan and investigated the factors controlling its observed deformation. Our approach involved the following steps: (1) extracting bluff deformation rates (velocities along the line of sight of the satellite) using a stack of Sentinel-1A radar imagery in ascending acquisition geometry acquired between 2017 and 2021 and applying the Intermittent Small Baseline Subset (ISBAS) InSAR time series analysis method; (2) generating high-resolution (5 cm) elevation models and orthophotos from temporal unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) surveys acquired in 2017, 2019, …

Measuring The Economic Impact Of Recurrent Flooding On Workforce Productivity And Property, Joshua G. Behr, Wie Yusuf, George Mcleod, Sarah Stafford, Derek Loftis, Afi Anuar, Rafael Diaz

Presentations, Lectures, Posters, Reports

From the Executive Summary:

This research draws upon expertise across multiple disciplines and fields. Leveraged are natural systems data and social-behavioral data. The high-level objective is to advance our understanding of how very recent recurrent flooding has impacted residents within the City of Portsmouth, and then forecast these impacts under projections of sea level rise. While this research draws upon data for the City of Portsmouth, the findings may be generalized to the broader Hampton Roads region.

The Possibilities Of Explicit Striga (Striga Asiatica) Risk Monitoring Using Phenometric, Edaphic, And Climatic Variables, Demonstrated For Malawi And Zambia, Emily Kimathi, Bester Tawona Mudereri, Elfatih M. Abdel-Rahman, Saliou Niassy, Henri E.Z. Tonnang, Tobias Landmann

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

Food insecurity continues to affect more than two-thirds of the population in sub‐Saharan Africa (SSA), particularly those depending on rain-fed agriculture. Striga, a parasitic weed, has caused yield losses of cereal crops, immensely affecting smallholder farmers in SSA. Although earlier studies have established that Striga is a constraint to crop production, there is little information on the spatial extent of spread and infestation severity of the weed in some SSA countries like Malawi and Zambia. This study aimed to use remotely sensed vegetation phenological (n = 11), climatic (n = 3), and soil (n = 4) variables to develop a …

Glacier Segmentation From Remote Sensing Imagery Using Deep Learning, Bibek Aryal

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Large-scale study of glaciers improves our understanding of global glacier change and is imperative for monitoring the ecological environment, preventing disasters, and studying the effects of global climate change. In recent years, remote sensing imagery has been preferred over riskier and resource-intensive field visits for tracking landscape level changes like glaciers. However, periodic manual labeling of glaciers over a large area is not feasible due to the considerable amount of time it requires while automatic segmentation of glaciers has its own set of challenges. Our work aims to study the challenges associated with segmentation of glaciers from remote sensing imagery …

Transportation Asset Management For The Electric Road System, Kamalen Maria Santos Diaz

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Electric road systems (ERS) have been presented as a new solution towards a sustainable transportation future, fueling the widespread adoption of electric vehicles by eliminating range anxiety, reducing battery size, and being regional friendly. These systems consist of four components: electric power supply, roads, vehicles, and operations. Much of the early research conducted on ERS has been on how to initially construct these systems by focusing on the first three components, however, there is limited knowledge on how ERS will impact traditional road operations after the systems are in place. Transportation Asset Management (TAM), a major focus within the transportation …

Learning From Public Spaces In Historic Cities, Cody Josh Kucharski

Symposium of Student Scholars

Successful public spaces in cities are key for enhancing social cohesion and improving health and safety. Learning from historic cities involves the development of representational and analytical tools aimed at capturing their essence as places of human interaction. The research reports findings of the spatial analysis of twenty Adriatic and Ionian coastal cities, which addresses the question of how the network of public spaces calibrates different degrees of spatial enclosure necessary for creating successful social interactions. Cities in the littoral region include well-preserved historic centers that are renowned for the successful integration of urban squares into the urban fabric. For …

The Impact Of Policy Design On Willingness To Pay For Ecosystem Services From Prairie Strips, Karina A. Schoengold, Badri Khanal, Taro Mieno, Lisa Schulte Moore

Cornhusker Economics

Ecosystem services from farmland conservation are public good benefits. The value of these benefits is primarily measured using methods that determine the willingness to pay (WTP) for those benefits. Prairie strips, a farmland conservation practice, provide ecosystem services such as improved water quality, soil health, and biodiversity (Schulte et al., 2017). The state of Iowa is a major corn producer and contributes significant amounts of nitrogen and phosphorous to the Gulf of Mexico (Alexander et al., 2008). The development of conventional agricultural systems has also resulted in a significant loss of biodiversity, including a dominant land cover of tallgrass prairie. …

The Potential Of Private Health Insurance Ownership Based On The 2018-2020 National Socioeconomic Survey Data, Arief Rosyid Hasan, Adang Bachtiar, Cicilya Candi

Kesmas

In 2014, the Indonesian Government introduced a social security program in the health sector. However, Indonesia’s out-of-pocket expenses remain high due to a lack of public interest in National Health Insurance services. Financing expensive health services with high out-of-pocket expenses has the potential to cause poverty. Private health insurance is considered a solution to this problem. This study aimed to determine the socioeconomic factors of private health insurance ownership and its potential in Indonesia. This study used secondary data from the 2018, 2019, and 2020 National Socioeconomic Surveys. Logistic regression analysis showed that the variables related to private health insurance …

Nexus Between Animal Welfare, Environment, And Sustainable Development: Resource Document, Wellbeing International

Nexus – UNEP – Animal Welfare, Environment, Sustainable Development

This Resource Document has been developed to explore the Nexus (links) between Animal Welfare, the Environment, and Sustainable Development. The document includes relevant citations and reports addressing the topics encompassed by the Nexus. It will be maintained as a “living document” (subject to revision) in the WellBeing International Studies Repository. The original document and subsequent revisions will be kept in the Repository to provide a record of the changes.

Ua12/2/1 College Heights Herald: A Place To Call Home, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

Magazine issue of the College Heights Herald for the period October 24 - November 27, 2022.

• Downtown Bowling Green – Restaurants
• Homecoming 2022
• Stone, Damon. WK Liquors Rebuilds After Tornado
• Reed, Bailey. The Making of an SGA President – Cole Bornefeld
• Fountain Row Creates a New Atmosphere Downtown
• Renovated Apartments Offer Home-like Feel – Campus Flats
• Richardson, La’Quan. Kappa Alpha Psi Sponsor Comes Home After 53 Years – Craig Taylor
• Turner, B. Life Continues for Ukrainian Student in the Bluegrass – Mariia Novoselia
• Collins, Michael. Family 5,730 Miles in the Making – Frank Aryee, Immigration, Naturalization