Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Geothermal Development In Kenya: Gender Based Socio-Cultural And Socio-Economic Implications, Faye N. Ricker

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is an ethnographic case study that analyzes the gendered socio-cultural and socio-economic implications for a community that was displaced in order to develop a geothermal energy system in Kenya. The implications are rendered particularly interesting because the displaced community is also one of the communities served by the geothermal power grid. The analysis employs a composite framework of Feminist Political Ecology and the Political Ecology of Climate Change Mitigation. This work explores gendered perceptions and control of energy, livelihood activities, place attachment, and the cultural/spiritual significance of geothermal energy.

Geothermal energy is a potentially promising source of low-carbon …

A Statistical Method For Quantifying Animal Interaction; Combining Time Geography And Simulation, Zachary J. Smith

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Dynamic interaction (DI) describes the synchronous interaction of one or more individual animals over time. Current methods to quantify DI from tracking data are lacking. They typically require synchronized tracking data which limits their applicability to most studies. They also often do not have built-in tests of significance to evaluate interaction, and if so, rely on random walk models that lack biological realism. This research aimed to develop and evaluate a new way of measuring animal interaction that overcomes these limitations. The goal was to create a statistical method for quantifying and evaluating interaction that is relevant across computational, behavioural, …

Global Gnss-Ro Electron Density In The Lower Ionosphere, Dong L. Wu, Daniel J. Emmons Ii, Nimalan Swarnalingam

Faculty Publications

Lack of instrument sensitivity to low electron density (N_e) concentration makes it difficult to measure sharp N_e vertical gradients (four orders of magnitude over 30 km) in the D/E-region. A robust algorithm is developed to retrieve global D/E-region N_e from the high-rate GNSS radio occultation (RO) data, to improve spatiotemporal coverage using recent SmallSat/CubeSat constellations. The new algorithm removes F-region contributions in the RO excess phase profile by fitting a linear function to the data below the D-region. The new GNSS-RO observations reveal many interesting features in the diurnal, seasonal, solar-cycle, and magnetic-field-dependent variations in the …

Vedantic Basis And Praxis Of The Integral Advaita Of Sri Aurobindo, Debashish Banerji

Monsoon: South Asian Studies Association Journal

The integral nondualism of Sri Aurobindo can be traced to the great pronouncements (mahāvākya) of the Upanishads and later commentaries. This study examines teachings on the Supermind (vijñāna) and the other four kinds of consciousness that define human reality: Matter (annaṃ), Life (prāṇaḥ), Mind (manaḥ), and Bliss (ānanda). Through Yoga and Tantra, one learns and embodies the pathway to the divine.

Digital And Spatial Humanities Mapping: Eurasia-Pacific Early Trade And Belief Linkages, Igor Sitnikov, David Blundell

Monsoon: South Asian Studies Association Journal

The Eurasia-Pacific is a dynamic region of rapid economic growth, cultural awareness, natural resource exploration, and military buildup. The concept of the region is relatively new, featuring contested vast areas of geo-resource space of numerous cultures and languages. The current findings in anthropology and archaeology and even its more specific subfields such as folklore are important contribution to the understanding of periodic environmental changes and technical innovations were the main forces of transformations in social structures that have determined the mechanisms and levels of cross-cultural trade activity across the region. We have traced early trade and belief linkages across Eurasia-Pacific …

Tusha Hiti: The Origin And Significance Of The Name, Deepak Shimkhada

Monsoon: South Asian Studies Association Journal

In this article, the author examines the royal bath called Tushā Hiti located in Sūndari Chowk (Beautiful Courtyard) of Pātan Durbar Square, using six different methods of investigation. The question: What is in a name? started the ball of investigation rolling and along the way were added more supporting blocks such as history, iconography, function and purpose, notion of purity and impurity, and finally the hiti in popular culture to get a complete picture of the subject in question.

Diversity, Equity, And Inclusion: Perspectives From Contemporary India And 6th Century Jain Yoga, Christopher Key Chapple

Monsoon: South Asian Studies Association Journal

Times New Roman

Ganges In Indian Sculpture And Literature: Mythology And Personification, Nalini Rao

Monsoon: South Asian Studies Association Journal

The river Ganges is a symbol of wealth, purity and eternity, and its sacred waters have inspired sages, philosophers, and artists in India who have immortalized its divine imagery. However, it has rarely been understood from a historical point of view, as to how it became so sacred and to view it from a multi-dimensional and interdisciplinary perspective with an accumulation of layers of historical thought and practices, provides a rationale for the living practices around the river. The paper explores the evolution of the concept of sacredness and eternity of River Ganges through art- historical and archaeological evidence. It …

Characteristics And Funding Strategies Of Mathematical Research, Xiaoxi Xiao, Xiaoshan Gao, Yaxiang Yuan

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

Strengthening mathematical research aiming at the national strategic needs and major frontier problems is conducive to promoting mathematics research to play a more important strategic role in national development and international competition. This study analyzes the basic characteristics of mathematical research, summarizes the international experiences in funding mathematical research, and then deeply analyzes the major problems of Chinese funding mechanisms for mathematical research, such as the lack of overall planning, the short of sustainable and stable support, and the urgent need to improve the training, selecting, and funding mechanism for high-level mathematical talents. It also puts forward some policy suggestions, …

Strategic Consideration And Recommendation On Development Of Chemistry In China, Yanlin Cheng, Shuxian Wu, Qing Dai, Chunying Chen, Yuliang Zhao

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

Chemistry, as a central science linking all the other sciences, has played an influential role in promoting the development of the whole scientific and technological field and the prosperity of economy and society. Developed countries strongly support the development of chemistry and effectively promote the level of chemical research and chemical industry. Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, chemical research has been supported among the field of natural sciences, and its current level is at the forefront of the world. However, there are still problems in the field of chemistry research in China, such as insufficient major …

Discussion Of Materials Science Development Trend Through Climate Change, Manufacturing Update, National Security And Materials Genome Initiative, Weijian Lin, Bowen Zhang, Weihua Wang

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

New materials are considered as the foreguide and the base of the revolution of advanced technology. Its development and trend of new materials greatly influences the human life and society development. Nowadays, the risk of climate change is increasing day by day, the pressure of manufacturing update of new technology revolution is bigger than ever, the competition and the friction between countries become more and more intense, and the iteration of advanced materials turns to a rigid demand. In this work, we analyze and predict the development tread of material from the aspects of climate change, manufacturing update, national security, …

Development Strategy Of China’S Advanced Material Industry Cluster, Kun Zeng, Xiaopeng Li, Ziyun Shen, Fan Liao, Jinsong Xiao, Qingli Huang

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

The advanced material industry is a basic and strategic industry of the national economy, as well as the key area of global competition in technology industry. Under the dual-cycle development pattern, propelling the cluster development of advanced material industry has become a key to raise the level of the advanced material industry development. This article described the spatial distribution of the advanced material industry cluster in China, analyzed the characteristics and development stage of the advanced material industrial cluster, and compared the gap between the advanced material industry cluster in China and the world-class advanced manufacturing industry cluster. In addition, …

Development And Thinking Of Silicon Photonics Heterogenous Integration, Zihao Wang, Ting Wang, Jianjun Zhang

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

Integrated photonics are fast-developing research field for next generation information technology. Current silicon photonic integrated chips strongly benefit from low-cost and high-density integration properties of existing CMOS technology. But limited by the physical properties of silicon, it is not a perfect material for different types of optoelectronic devices, such as laser sources, modulators, and infrared detectors. Therefore, heterogeneous integration is proposed by combining the advantages of CMOS process and superior opto-electric properties of heterogenous material systems, that can be an essential step towards next generation integrated optoelectronic chips. Here, this paper introduces the rapid progress of integrated photonics nationally and …

Development Strategies Of New Energy Materials For Carbon Peak And Neutrality—Case Study Of Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory, Ximei Qiu, Yan Wang, Haiming Lyu, Jian Xu, Yida Wu, Xiaowei Ma, Chunyi Zhi, Xiaolong Du, Xuejie Huang

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

Transformative energy technologies will provide strong strategic support to the realization of peaking carbon dioxide emissions before 2030, and achieving net zero carbon emissions before 2060. Reducing the dependence on fossil fuels by saving energy and reducing emissions from the source is essential to achieve the double-carbon target as soon as possible. Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory is working on key materials to develop solar-battery power systems and electrification of transportation energy to return coal, oil, and natural gas from fuels to materials. This study focuses on introducing the research team of its New Energy Materials and Devices R&D Center with …

Thoughts And Suggestions On Development Of Earth Sciences In China, Lihua Zhou, Xin Wang, Chengxiong Zhou, Quanyou Liu, Jianhua Si, Wang Zhang, Zhijun Jin

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

Earth Sciences is a multi-disciplinary science, which takes the interaction of Earth's various spheres and their resources and environmental effects as the research object. As a comprehensive and systematic science that not only expands the frontier of human knowledge but also serves the social and economic development of human beings, Earth Sciences not only studies the past and reveals the evolution history of the Earth, but also faces the future and provides solutions for the sustainable development of human beings. Based on the analysis of the international development trends of Earth Sciences and the summary of the development status and …

Serving Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games And Developing Ice And Snow Industry: Application And Extension Of Cryospheric Science, Dahe Qin, Cunde Xiao, Minghu Ding, Feiteng Wang, Zhiqiang Zhu, Shuiqing Yin, Jiawen Ren

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

Cryospheric Science, as an emerging interdisciplinary research field combining natural science and humanity, aims to understand nature's law, serve human society and promote sustainable development. In recent years, by deepening the understanding of the cryosphere elements and the whole sphere, and by expanding the application research of cryospheric science, the Chinese community of cryospheric science has developed by leaps and bounds and realized the crossover from the traditional basic research to serving the major national needs, which marks the increasing maturity of the discipline. The Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games is a major landmark event at an important historical time …

Objective Measure Of Working Memory Capacity Using Eye Movements, James Owens, Gavindya Jayawardena, Yasasi Abeysinghe, Vikas G. Ashok, Sampath Jayarathna

Undergraduate Research Symposium

Human-autonomy teaming (HAT) has become an important area of research due to the autonomous systems being developed for different applications, such as remotely controlled aircraft. Many remotely controlled vehicles will be controlled by automated systems, with a human monitor that may be monitoring multiple vehicles simultaneously. The attention and working memory capacity of operators of remote-controlled vehicles must be maintained at appropriate levels during operation. However, there is currently no direct method of determining working memory capacity, which is important because it is a measure for how memory is being stored for a short term and interacting with long term …

Streamlining Project Development Through Planning & Environmental Linkages, Karen Hadley, Brett Lackey

Purdue Road School

As transportation agencies continue to explore ways to be more efficient in the project development process, they are embracing integrated methodologies like planning and environmental linkages. This tool is practical, yet highly effective and inclusive, and teams across the country are experiencing its value. This presentation will highlight a variety of use cases, discuss lessons learned and best practices, and specifically address how planning and environmental linkages can be applied in Indiana and the Midwest.

How Graduate Student Fellows Enhance What A Center For Digital Scholarship Does, Ben B. Chiewphasa

Transforming Libraries for Graduate Students

Multiple disciplines are increasingly embracing data science and digital scholarship. However, insufficient training for digital and computational methodologies within subject/departmental silos means that these needs often get overlooked. Opportunities for learning how to teach technical concepts (i.e., how to handle troubleshooting, live participatory coding, etc.) are also rare or non-existent via departmental offerings. To respond to these needs, the Navari Family Center for Digital Scholarship launched its Pedagogy Fellowship Program in Fall 2021 where Notre Dame PhD students/candidates build their instructional expertise and experience related to digital scholarship with an added bonus of enhancing their competitiveness on the job market. …

High School Student Perspective: My Njit Stem For Success Internship Experience, Michael Mora

STEM Month

During the 2020-2021 school year, I was a senior at the Academy for Mathematics, Science, and Engineering (AMSE) in Rockaway, NJ. At AMSE, a STEM-focused four-year magnet high school program hosted at Morris Hills High School, participating in an extended internship senior year is a cornerstone of the learning process. Required to complete a STEM-related internship to graduate, Academy students are encouraged to seek out an internship they’re passionate about in a field of their choice. The internship, which must be conducted under the mentorship of an industry professional, must meet the New Jersey-approved standards for a work-based learning experience …

Assessing Changes In Actual Air Quality And Public Perceptions Of Air Quality In Kathmandu Valley Nepal Pre And Post Covid-19 Lockdown, Robin Margherita Rives

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Air pollution is a global concern. Cities around the world fail to meet air quality standards set by the World Health Organization Air Quality Guidelines, which has a significant impact on public health. As the capital city and largest metropolitan region of Nepal, Kathmandu is a hotspot for urban pollution in South Asia. Nepal faces emissions from both internal and external sources. External sources include emissions from Nepal’s neighboring countries of India and China and emissions resulting from tourism. Internal sources of pollution in the country include brick and cement factories, consumption of energy from traditional sources such as biomass, …

The Design Of An Agricultural Youth-Centered Rural Development Program In Rwanda, Laetitia Igiraneza Sinyigenga

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Rwanda is primarily a rural, young, and agriculture-based country. The referred variables- agriculture, rural population, and youth- can be creatively merged to engage and empower youth for rural development. This paper indicates the utilization of cross-disciplinary knowledge to design an agricultural youth-centered rural development program in Rwanda. The program uses the interdependence of economic sectors (agriculture and education) with resources (environmental & natural resources and human resources) to boost rural community development. The program’s main activities- mentorship, agribusiness training, tutoring, exposure visits, and community work- highly reflect the requirement for advancing the selected main economic sectors and resources. There is …

Pad Beyond The Classroom: Integrating Pad In The Scrum Workplace, Jade S. Weiss

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Purpose: The “story” format used in Scrum ticket writing is confusing to developers and leadsto insufficient ticket content, which lends to miscommunication between team members and administrators, and disrupts workflow from the bottom up. A burgeoning methodology in Technical Writing, Purpose, Audience, Design (PAD) is an alternative ticket format that is easier to teach developers and improves the aforementioned conditions than the existing “story” format. The goal of this paper is to lay out why and how PAD can benefit developers on smaller Scrum teams who are tasked with writing their own tickets. This paper does not offer solutions for …

Accuracy Assessment, Comparative Performance, And Enhancement Of Public Domain Digital Elevation Models (Aster 30 M, Srtm 30 M, Cartosat 30 M, Srtm 90 M, Merit 90 M, And Tandem-X 90 M) Using Dgps, Kumari Preety, Anup K. Prasad, Atul K. Varma, Hesham El-Askary

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Publicly available Digital Elevation Models (DEM) derived from various space-based platforms (Satellite/Space Shuttle Endeavour) have had a tremendous impact on the quantification of landscape characteristics, and the related processes and products. The accuracy of elevation data from six major public domain satellite-derived Digital Elevation Models (a 30 m grid size—ASTER GDEM version 3 (Ast30), SRTM version 3 (Srt30), CartoDEM version V3R1 (Crt30)—and 90 m grid size—SRTM version 4.1 (Srt90), MERIT (MRT90), and TanDEM-X (TDX90)), as well as the improvement in accuracy achieved by applying a correction (linear fit) using Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS) estimates at Ground Control Points (GCPs) …

Virtual Training Prepared For The Former Afghanistan Ministry Of Energy And Water—Streamgaging, Fluvial Sediment Sampling, Bathymetry, And Streamflow And Sediment Modeling, Joel T. Groten, Joshua F. Valder, Brenda K. Densmore, Logan W. Neal, Justin Krahulik, Thomas J. Mack

United States Geological Survey: Water Reports and Publications

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) created a virtual training series for the Afghanistan Ministry of Energy and Water (MEW), now known as the National Water Affairs Regulation Authority (NWARA), to provide critical hydrological training as an alternative to an in-person training. The USGS was scheduled to provide in-person surface-water training for NWARA during 2020; however, travel was halted because of the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID–19) pandemic. The virtual training consisted of prerecorded and live presentations that were scheduled during 4 weeks in August 2021. However, the training was halted after the second week due to the collapse of the …

Coming To Know The Local Environment: Children's Experiences In Rautamai Gaunpalika, Nepal, Elsie Nicole Love

Dissertations and Theses

This qualitative research, conducted over three months from late monsoon season into early fall of 2018 with twenty-six children and thirteen adults, explores how children in the hills of Rautamai Gaunpalika, Province 1, Nepal come to know their local environment. Semi-structured interviews with children, their family members, and teachers, and participant observation with children as they worked and played in forests, fields, and streams, suggest that outside of school, children come to know their local environment in the following ways: through participation in and application of knowledge to subsistence practices; through collaborative learning and teaching in mixed-age groups; through relationships …

Fighting Gerrymandering By Automating Congressional Redistricting, Jacob Jenness

Scholarly Horizons: University of Minnesota, Morris Undergraduate Journal

Gerrymandering is a political problem that the United States has had for more than 200 years. Politicians have taken the dull and routine process of drawing congressional districts and turned it into a highly-partisan process. However, with recent improvements in redistricting algorithms, researchers Harry Levin and Sorelle Friedler have introduced their recursive Divide and Conquer Redistricting Algorithm. This algorithm has the potential to automate the process of congressional redistricting, thereby removing the potential for bias. By utilizing a set of partitioning and swapping algorithms, the Divide and Conquer Redistricting Algorithm achieves desirable goals, such as low population deviation, and high …

Agricultural Carbon Markets: How Could They Work?, Andrew Havens

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

The resurgence of voluntary markets in which consumers can purchase carbon credits generated by agricultural carbon sequestration has brought up many questions for farmers looking to potentially enter the market. Past carbon markets, such as the Chicago Climate Exchange, ended when a recession hit, causing demand for credits to swiftly decline. How can modern voluntary markets face these challenges along with new ones and be successful? This research paper, completed as an undergraduate thesis project at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, examines the economic and scientific factors behind soil carbon sequestration credits. An extended literature review combined with estimation of a …

Trust In Robotics: A Multi-Staged Decision-Making Approach To Robots In Community, Wenxi Zhang, Willow Wong, Mark Findlay

Centre for AI & Data Governance (2019-2025)

Pivoting on the desired outcome of social good within the wider robotics ecosystem, trust is identified as the central adhesive of the HRI interface. However, building trust between humans and robots involves more than improving the machine’s technical reliability or trustworthiness in function. This paper presents a holistic, community-based approach to trust-building, where trust is understood as a multifaceted and multi-staged looped relation that depends heavily on context and human perceptions. Building on past literature that identifies dispositional and learned stages of trust, our proposed Decision to Trust model considers more extensively the human and situational factors influencing how trust …

Understanding Cybercrime Offending And Victimization Patterns From A Global Perspective, Jin R. Lee

International Journal of Cybersecurity Intelligence & Cybercrime

Cybercrime research within criminology and criminal justice sciences has increased over the past few decades, improving the knowledge and evidence-base around cybercrime offending and victimization generally. While earlier cybercrime studies were based primarily in the United States, there has been a recent surge in studies using international samples and multidisciplinary approaches to understand cybercrime patterns. The current issue of the International Journal of Cybersecurity Intelligence and Cybercrime consists of four articles that seek to advance our understanding of cybercrime behaviors from a global perspective. To that end, the objective of this paper is to provide a brief overview of the …