51 research outputs found
Data on the presence or absence of at least one geotagged Wikipedia page and/or Flickr photo, for designated areas in England
No full textPresence or absence of at least one geotagged Wikipedia page and/or at least one Flickr photo in designated areas in England. There is also information on various characteristics of each designated area (the size of the designated area, population density, distance to the closest urban centre, species richness, maximum height of the landscape in the designated area, coastal location (T/F), waterbody present (T/F), river in the designated area (T/F) and number of public transport links in the designated area)
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Capitalising on the Big Data era: establishing a multi-source monitoring framework for England's natural capital assets and flows
No full textThe past decade has seen a growth of natural capital accounting both internationally and
nationally. The term natural capital refers to the elements of nature that directly and indirectly
produce value or benefits to people, including ecosystems, species, freshwater, land, minerals,
the air and oceans, as well as natural processes and functions (Natural Capital Committee
2014). As an approach it emphasises the process of valuation, namely estimating the relative
importance, worth, or usefulness of natural capital to people, typically to enable better
governance. In this thesis, I explore the potential of big data and associated techniques to
operationalise the natural capital framework at a national scale in England, through a better
understanding of the relationship between natural capital assets and the benefits that flow
from them. I take an interdisciplinary approach, using the literature review in Chapter 1 to
identify key gaps in the state of the art, and addressing these gaps in the following chapters,
finishing with a discussion of the implications of these findings in the final chapter (Chapter
5). The results from this thesis demonstrate how diverse and emerging environmental datasets
can capture important aspects of sociocultural value that are otherwise hard to include in a
formal valuation process (Chapter 2), enable spatially targeted management (Chapter 3), and
facilitate natural capital monitoring (Chapter 4). In Chapter 2, I demonstrate the potential of
crowdsourced data to capture the sociocultural value of designated areas and show that
species richness has a significant positive effect on public interest in designated areas. In
Chapter 3, I show that population density is a driver of the relative importance of agricultural
land use as a source of N and P in river catchments in England. In Chapter 3, I demonstrate
that significant dependency exists between the quantity, quality and spatial configuration of
green spaces in London, and that there is potential to maintain highly biodiverse areas in
cities, without assigning large areas to this. Taken together, these results realise some of the
potential of the big data era to support the natural capital framework and its implementation,
as well as pointing to some of the limitations of this approach
Master of Arts
No full textthesisHaikai poet Kobayashi Issa (1763-1828) has long been simplistically understood as a modern poet, obscuring the anticanonical aesthetic within his work. In this thesis, the author argues for a poetics of opposition in Issa\u27s work. Through close, comparative readings of Issa and his predecessors, Matsuo Bashō (1644-1694) and Yosa Buson (1716-1783), the author identifies the ways in which Issa\u27s human-centered haikai directly oppose conventional aesthetic expectations
Global trends in raw materials consumption
No full textThis paper reviews movements in raw materials consumption over the past 30 years. Included in this review are all base metals and steel, and important agricultural raw materials. These primary commodities share the common characteristic that they are used as inputs in manufacturing and construction. Some metals and minerals, energy commodities, and timber products are not included in this review for various reasons. The period reviewed is from 1961 to 1988. A prominent characteristic of the metals market during the past 15 years has been its very slow growth. In some years consumption of several raw materials has even declined. Explaining the causes of this slowdown, in the face of moderate economic growth, has become a topical issue. The slowdown has important implications for a number of developing countries that rely heavily on exports of these materials. The severity and persistence of post-1973 declines in metals intensity per unit of GNP, prompted the conjecture that it may have been structural. This paper reviews the debate on this issue, including results of statistical tests. It also summarizes the trends in raw materials consumption and reviews the technological developments relating to raw materials consumption.Mining&Extractive Industry (Non-Energy),Montreal Protocol,Sanitation and Sewerage,Primary Metals,Environmental Economics&Policies
Author's personal copy Validity of the Interest-and Deprivation-type epistemic curiosity distinction in non-students
No full texta b s t r a c t Two studies were conducted to evaluate the validity of the Interest (I) and Deprivation (D) type epistemic curiosity (EC) distinction in non-students. In Study 1 (N = 263), responses to two EC measures, the Epistemic Curiosity Scale (ECS
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Quantifying the relative importance of agricultural land use as a predictor of catchment nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations
No full textAgriculture is a major source of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) in freshwater ecosystems, and different management strategies exist to reduce farmland nutrient losses and thus mitigate freshwater eutrophication. The importance of agricultural sources of N and P as drivers of water quality is known to vary spatially, but quantification of the relative importance of the nutrient sources shaping this variability remains challenging, especially with reference to inputs from waste water treatment works. Addressing this knowledge gap is key for targeting management strategies to where they are likely to have the greatest effect. To advance our understanding in this area, this study assesses the impact of population density as a driver of the relative importance of agricultural land use for predicting mean Total Oxidised Nitrogen (TON) and Reactive Phosphorus (RP) concentrations in rivers in England, using two different data-driven, statistical approaches: a generalised linear model and random forest. Our results show that agricultural N and P sources dominate in catchments with low population density, where stream water concentrations are lower and waste water treatment works are numerous, but smaller in terms of the population equivalent served. Agricultural N and P sources are not important predictors of N and P in catchments with high population density, where contributions from waste water treatment works dominate. These results require cautious interpretation, as model validation outcomes show that high TON and RP concentrations are consistently underpredicted. Altogether, our results suggest that the relative contribution of agricultural sources may be overestimated in densely populated catchments, relative to point sources from waste water treatment works, and that management strategies to reduce the contribution of agriculture to N and P in rivers may be better targeted towards catchments with lower population density, as this is where agricultural land use is the primary source of N and P
When Knowledge Is a Double-Edged Sword: Contact, Media Exposure, and American China Policy Preferences
No full textGlobalization affords greater opportunities to learn about foreign peoples than in the past. What impacts do interpersonal contact, media exposure to and knowledge about China have on the American people's China policy preferences? Two large surveys of U.S. citizens were conducted in the summers of 2008 and 2009 to explore whether knowledge about China and prejudice against the Chinese people and the Chinese government would mediate the relationship between contact and media exposure on the one hand, and U.S. China policy preferences on the other. Results show that while knowledge played the expected mediating roles between contact and media exposure on the one hand, and prejudice against the Chinese people on the other, greater knowledge of China was actually associated with greater negativity toward the Chinese government, which in turn contributed to desires for tougher China policies. Both media exposure and interpersonal contact thus had mixed effects on China policy preferences
Quantifying the relative importance of agricultural land use as a predictor of catchment nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations
No full textAgriculture is a major source of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) in freshwater ecosystems, and different management strategies exist to reduce farmland nutrient losses and thus mitigate freshwater eutrophication. The importance of agricultural sources of N and P as drivers of water quality is known to vary spatially, but quantification of the relative importance of the nutrient sources shaping this variability remains challenging, especially with reference to inputs from waste water treatment works. Addressing this knowledge gap is key for targeting management strategies to where they are likely to have the greatest effect. To advance our understanding in this area, this study assesses the impact of population density as a driver of the relative importance of agricultural land use for predicting mean Total Oxidised Nitrogen (TON) and Reactive Phosphorus (RP) concentrations in rivers in England, using two different data-driven, statistical approaches: a generalised linear model and random forest. Our results show that agricultural N and P sources dominate in catchments with low population density, where stream water concentrations are lower and waste water treatment works are numerous, but smaller in terms of the population equivalent served. Agricultural N and P sources are not important predictors of N and P in catchments with high population density, where contributions from waste water treatment works dominate. These results require cautious interpretation, as model validation outcomes show that high TON and RP concentrations are consistently underpredicted. Altogether, our results suggest that the relative contribution of agricultural sources may be overestimated in densely populated catchments, relative to point sources from waste water treatment works, and that management strategies to reduce the contribution of agriculture to N and P in rivers may be better targeted towards catchments with lower population density, as this is where agricultural land use is the primary source of N and P
Connecting to the Future: A Revised Measure of Exogenous Perceptions of Instrumentality
No full textabstract: The primary objective of this study was to revise a measure of exogenous instrumentality, part of a larger scale known as the Perceptions of Instrumentality Scale (Husman, Derryberry, Crowson, & Lomax, 2004) used to measure future oriented student value for course content. Study 1 piloted the revised items, explored the factor structure, and provided initial evidence for the reliability and validity of the revised scale. Study 2 provided additional reliability evidence but a factor analysis with the original and revised scale items revealed that the revised scale was measuring a distinct and separate construct that was not exogenous instrumentality. Here this new construct is called extrinsic instrumentality for grade. This study revealed that those that endorse a high utility value for grade report lower levels of connectedness (Husman & Shell, 2008) and significantly less use of knowledge building strategies (Shell, et al., 2005). These findings suggest that there are additional types of future oriented extrinsic motivation that should be considered when constructing interventions for students, specifically non-major students. This study also provided additional evidence that there are types of extrinsic motivation that are adaptive and have positive relationships with knowledge building strategies and connectedness to the future. Implications for the measurement of future time perspective (FTP) and its relationship to these three proximal, future oriented, course specific measures of value are also discussed.Dissertation/ThesisDoctoral Dissertation Family and Human Development 201
Patriotism, Nationalism and China's US Policy:Structures and consequences of Chinese National Identity
No full textWhat is the nature of Chinese patriotism and nationalism, how does it differ from American patriotism and nationalism, and what impact do they have on Chinese foreign policy attitudes? To explore the structure and consequences of Chinese national identity, three surveys were conducted in China and the US in the spring and summer of 2009. While patriotism and nationalism were empirically similar in the US, they were highly distinct in China, with patriotism aligning with a benign internationalism and nationalism with a more malign blind patriotism. Chinese patriotism/internationalism, furthermore, had no impact on perceived US threats or US policy preferences, while nationalism did. The role of nationalist historical beliefs in structures of Chinese national identity was also explored, as well as the consequences of historical beliefs for the perception of US military and humiliation threats.</p
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