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411 research outputs found
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Development and statistical evaluation of an Annual Fire Severity Index
Full text linkEfforts to delineate the quantitative influence of natural atmospheric variability on regional annual wildfire activity have previously been complicated by the stochastic occurrence of ignition and large fire events, particularly in the fire regimes of Southern and Central California where anthropogenic manipulation is extensive. Traditional methods of quantifying wildfire activity using counts of ignitions and acres burned inherently contain this stochasticity, likely weakening regional fire-climate relationships. In this research, a new method of quantifying regional wildfire activity is developed that aims to more clearly capture the atmospheric fire regime component by aggregating four metrics of fire activity into an annual index value, referred to as the 揂nnual Fire Severity Index� (AFSI), for the 24-year period 1992-2015. Then, using metrics of five weather and climate features known to significantly modulate fire activity in the study region, including the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO), Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), Santa Ana wind (SAW) events, and coastal marine layer (ML) frequency, the strength of the regional fire-climate relationships contained within the AFSI were evaluated. Singular Spectrum Analysis (SSA), a variant of Principal Component Analysis, was applied to the AFSI time series to identify and attribute the different modes of variability [i.e. Principal Components (揚Cs�)] that comprise it, as resulting from each of the five atmospheric predictors. Analysis of the PC-predictor relationships demonstrated a significant correlation with AMO (r = 0.814) and moderate correlations with PDO, ENSO, SAW, and ML (r = 0.470�630). PDO appears to influence regional fire activity at a longer-term lag of five years, while the influence of ENSO, SAW, and ML frequency is strongest in-year. The weakest PC-predictor relationships were found during periods of concurrent ocean-atmosphere oscillation phase shifts, suggesting that the interrelatedness of AMO, PDO, and ENSO must be better quantified to clarify these fire-climate signals. Overall, our results reinforce the need to rethink how regional fire-climate signals are calculated, and suggest that these methods can be further developed into a predictive model of fire activity.Electronic Thesis or Dissertatio
A climatology and assessment of impactful freezing rain events from 2010 to 2019 in the Baltimore/Washington CWA
Full text linkFreezing rain events represent a challenge to the forecasters at the Baltimore/ Washington Weather Forecast Office (KLWX WFO). Even a trace or glaze of freezing rain can put the Northern Virginia traffic to a standstill. Cases analyzed for this research had a significant traffic impact, determined using cost analysis data. In order to improve understanding and forecasting, a climatology of these events in the County Warning Area (CWA) was created for the 10-year period 2010 to 2019. The number of freezing rain events per winter season (November to March) varied between 0 and 11 events, with no pattern or trend. Freezing rain events occurred most frequently during January, which does not match the monthly distribution of cold-air damming (CAD) occurrence. A subjective and composite analysis of the synoptic scale weather features showed that the events can be placed in three categories: Front to the South (FTTS) (19 out of 30 total events), Great Lakes Low (GLL) (6 out of 30 total events), and 搊ther.� Both the composites and case studies of events from the FTTS events showed that shallow low-level cold air associated with CAD was entrenched east of the Appalachians with lower tropospheric warm air advection. Dynamic forcing from the upper-level trough and jet streaks are further to the north and south (respectively).Electronic Thesis or Dissertatio
Applied radar meteorology
Full text linkThis is a textbook focused on operational and other aspects of applied radar meteorology. Its primary purpose is to serve as a text for upper-level undergraduates and graduate students studying meteorology, who wish to work as professional operational meteorologists in the U.S. National Weather Service or the Air Force Weather Agency. In addition to a detailed description of operational weather radar systems operating in the United States, this text also provides a brief historical overview of the subject as well as a basic review of the physics of electromagnetic radiation and other theoretical aspects of weather radar. The last two chapters discuss a sample of other radar systems (such as the Doppler on Wheels and the Canadian and European operational networks), and future directions of weather radar, including its use as an input for high-resolution, rapid refresh computer models
The Impact of Loving-Kindness on Love as Interbeing in Middle School
Full text linkThis research was designed to examine how the contemplative practice of lovingkindness meditation, otherwise referred to as metta meditation, impacts middle school educators’ perception of love as Interbeing in the classroom experience. The study included a review of literature that provided context for defining love and related research conducted in educational environments specific to love and contemplative practices. Findings relative to how loving-kindness meditation cultivates a sense of love as interbeing among youth and educators are applicable in the fields of education and youth development
So Why Did It Matter? A Mixed-Methods Exploration into the Impact of the Mandarin Immersion Journey for Alumni of Preschool to 8th Grade School
No full textTo keep the United States economically competitive in a rapidly changing world, business leaders are calling for employment candidates who can work efficiently in a globalized context with both language skills and cross-cultural dispositions critical to the economic success of the country. These language proficiency skills and cross-cultural dispositions are fostered by duallanguage immersion programs; yet the benefits of a bilingual education for young adults had not been explored to date to concisely understand what leveragability they gain. This mixed methods research study with a sample of 38 young adults sought to answer the question: "What did it matter?" to explore how alumni of two San Francisco Bay Area dual language immersion programs describe the advantages they have as bilingual speakers of English and Mandarin. Results shows that most participants (75%) did not leverage their Mandarin skills during job interviews even though the majority of them are pursuing or planning on careers in business. After a substantial amount of time studying Mandarin in their lives, 82% of the non-heritage population were not using Mandarin at all in their workplaces and 3 respondents use Mandarin around 10-30% of the time. Implications are strong for research to explore where the journey to preparing biliterate young adults is broken down, and recommendations are given for universities to work with multinational companies to foster the capacity of alumni in specialized programs and internships. As only 7% of university students in the U.S take a world language course, it is imperative that research examines how the skills and dispositional capacity of our bilingual youth are unguided by the time they arrive in the job market; just when the economy needs them the most.Electronic Thesis or Dissertatio
Traces of Impact: multi-proxy analyses of major storm signatures in New Hampshire lake sediments
Full text linkAN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OF
William D. Tifft for the degree of Master of Science in Environmental
Science and Policy presented on November 20, 2020
Title: Traces of Impact: multi-proxy analyses of major storm signatures in New
Hampshire lake sediments
Abstract approved:
Lisa A. Doner
Major tropical and non-tropical storms cause extensive damage throughout the
Northeast U.S. Recent climate change may be driving increases in their
frequency, but large uncertainties exist around average return-intervals of so called 50-year, 100-year and larger storms, because of gaps in the historical
record. Effective community resilience plans, especially for hazard mitigation,
rely on the accuracy of the century-scale storm record, but instrumental
meteorology in New England began in the late 1800s, too short a time for
prediction of rarer, stochastic events. Longer records, that improve the
accuracy of long-term storm frequency data, encompass varying climate
regimes, and identify sub-catastrophic but high-impact events, will enable
communities to better anticipate and mitigate storm effects. To improve
documentation of major storms, and to test several hypotheses about the
sensitivity of lake sediment archives to storms of varying intensities, I develop
and compare four new paleolimnological data sets in central New Hampshire.
This research primarily asks, do major storms, documented in meteorological
and historical records as destructive and highly impactful, leave distinctive
traces in lake sediment records? It also asks: what magnitude or duration of
storm is needed to create a trace in the sediment record; do storm traces vary across watersheds experiencing other types of disturbance; are storm
signatures consistent from watershed to watershed; do storm frequencies vary
across climate regimes; and which analytical practices best capture storm
histories across multiple lake basins? I address these research questions
using new 210Pb-dated sediment core records from four central New
Hampshire lakes: Norway Pond, Hancock; Pleasant Lake, Deerfield; Spofford
Lake, Chesterfield; and Newfound Lake, Bristol and the list of major storms
included in the 2013 State of New Hampshire Multi-Hazard Mitigation Plan.
Sediment datasets include loss-on-ignition, dry bulk density, magnetic
susceptibility, particle-size, stable isotopes, and geochemistry. Although time
series of these datasets fail to show coherence around known storm events,
multi-variate statistical analyses, including analysis of variance (ANOVA),
principal component analysis (PCA), and binomial regression analysis, show
that, in all the lakes except Pleasant Lake, there are statistically significant
storm-coincident sediment changes. The ANOVA results indicate that zinc and
lead are significantly different (0.05 confidence) between storm and non-storm
events in all four lake records, and other heavy metals: Ba, Cd, Fe, Mn, Ni,
and S, and High Frequency Mass Susceptibility are significantly different
between storm and non-storm events in three of the four lakes. The PCA
results reveal that the association of variables changed over time, with storms
of the last 30-years clustering near each other. The binomial regression
supports the concept that it is possible to use individual variables to identify
the presence or absence of major storms in each sample. This technique has value for deriving the minimum long-term frequency of major storms in a given
region
Body of knowledge: how learning with and through the body, mind, and spirit impacts a somatic coach in training and practice
Full text linkThis dissertation was a qualitative, bounded case study of how graduates of the Strozzi Institute's somatic coaching training program perceive their education. The study included an exploratory survey and in-depth interviews. A literature review of embodied learning, adult and transformative learning theories, spirituality in whole person learning theory, and embodied consciousness provided the theoretical framework. Spradley's semantic relations model was utilized to analyze the data. The researcher drew from the philosophies of Merleau-Ponty and Husserl to make meaning of the results through a theoretical lens of embodied consciousness. Five key findings were derived from the research: 1) All of the participants indicated experiencing a full integration of the education they expected to obtain based on the objectives of the somatic coaching training program at the Strozzi Institute; 2) all of the participants believe that achieving mastery in the art of somatic coaching requires copious practice in developing an embodied presence; 3) all of the participants consider the Strozzi Institute's somatic coaching training program highly influential to their sense of personal spirituality; 4) all of the participants cite embodied learning, the cornerstone of the Strozzi Institute's somatic coaching training program curriculum, as an effective technique in facilitating and supporting lasting transformation; 5) only those participants (15 out of 18) who revealed having contemplated consciousness draw a connection between their experience with embodied learning and their understanding of embodied consciousness. To summarize, the researcher found that embodied learning may support lasting transformation. All of the participants interviewed believe that embodied learning 1) stays with them more readily than cognitive learning, 2) is effective in helping individuals to transcend conditioned tendencies in order to bring about the conditions they desire, and 3) facilitates a deeper understanding of Self as well as a connection to others and the greater environment. Ultimately, embodied learning leads to somatic awareness, which supports somatic opening and the development of practices that bring about lasting transformation. The researcher suggests further investigation is necessary to understand the impact of embodied learning on adult learning curricula that foster the attainment of personal goals and the expansion of human potential.Electronic Thesis or Dissertatio
How does local land use planning incorporate land conservation? An assessment from New Hampshire
Full text linkThe development of land results in changes and impacts to the landscape. Conservation science has long recognized that development can alter habitats and ecosystems in numerous ways and land use planning has been promoted as a way to reduce impacts and protect our resources. In the United States, most development decisions are made at the local level by Planning Boards or Commissions and, therefore, it is at this scale where conservation principles often need to be adopted. Despite calls for incorporating principles of ecology and conservation biology in land use planning (Stokes et al., 2009; Miller et al., 2008), there has been little research to assess the extent to which this has happened. This project investigates if, and how, New Hampshire municipalities are using the local land use planning process to conserve land, to preserve biodiversity, and to protect natural resources. Municipal land use documents, such as Master Plans, land use regulations, and local Planning Board meeting records, are being analyzed to determine if conservation tools have been incorporated in the local planning process to help assess how conservation planning is being applied by New Hampshire communities.Student Showcase of Research & Engagement Fall 201
Discovering PFAS in New Hampshire: risks and remediation
Full text linkPFAS's are a group of human made chemicals found in both consumer and industrial products. Originally, they were developed by the company 3M to produce nonstick and waterproof materials like Teflon. Although certain PFAS's have been banned, they are now being discovered in landfills and water sources across NH in various concentrations, some alarmingly high. Investigations regarding the chemicals persistence in the environment began in NH in 2014. Little comprehensive scientific evidence exists in relation to contaminant quantities and their health risks. Regardless of the lack of long-term studies, NH Department of Environmental Services must regularly test water sources across the state for compliance with new regulations, beginning in 2019. NH now has one of the lowest “maximum contaminant loads��? allowed for PFAS's in the US. While this standard sounds beneficial, it is controversial for a number of reasons, including who is going to absorb the cost of testing and how is the ubiquitous contaminant going to be removed. Major goals of this study are: 1) to raise awareness about the role the consumer plays by buying products containing PFAS's, 2) compare and contrast the different policies regarding regulation and management of chemicals in the US versus the European Union.Student Showcase of Research & Engagement Fall 201
Circadian clocks in two intertidal species, the American Horseshoe crab and the mummichog
Full text linkAlthough the molecular mechanism of animal circadian clocks has been outlined in a few model species, much less is known in other animals. In fruit flies and mice, the molecular clock is composed of a transcription translation feedback loop that is composed of a set of core and accessory proteins. However, since even these two clocks differ in a number of fundamental ways, an analysis of non-model species may help to uncover both common and novel circadian clock mechanisms. The American Horseshoe crab (Limulus polyphemus) and the mummichog (Fundulus heteroclitus) are intertidal organisms that both exhibit circadian rhythms. In addition, because they live in the intertidal zone, these animals may also have another clock that serves to synchronize them to the twice per day tidal changes. The two goals of this thesis were to identify putative circadian clock proteins in the mummichog using publicly available data and to quantify potential changes in abundance of putative circadian proteins in the horseshoe crab. Bioinformatical analysis of the mummichog proteome demonstrated the presence of putative proteins of all five of the core vertebrate circadian proteins as well as 17 accessory proteins. This is the first study to identify core, accessory, input and output clock proteins in a single fish and this work will help to establish ground work for future circadian work in fish. In addition, this work allows for comparative bioinformatics work on intertidal species and may help to provide insights on the molecular mechanisms of the clock system that controls circatidal rhythms. In Horseshoe crabs, three putative circadian proteins (CLOCK, CYCLE1, and photoreceptive CRYPTOCHROME) were detected in the central nervous system using western blotting and authentic antibodies. Interestingly, although these proteins have been shown to cycle by time of day and circadian time in other species, there was a lack of cycling in the abundance of these proteins. While this may suggest that post-translational modifications of core proteins by accessory proteins may drive their circadian clock, other core proteins may instead be responsible for driving circadian rhythms in horseshoe crabs. Overall, the results presented in this thesis will provide the basis for further investigations into the circadian systems of these species.Electronic Thesis or Dissertatio