The Brassicaceae, Mustard Family, is a well marked natural
family, whose tetramerous flowers, tetradynamous stamens, and
distinctive bi- carpellary fruits, clearly distinguish it from related
families. It is a large family of some 3, 000 recognized species and
over 300 genera. Although numerous attempts have been made over
the past...
A plethora of land use policies are implemented at the local, state, and federal levels to influence the manner in which land is utilized. The distribution of the costs and benefits associated with implementing such land use policies always has been, and will continue to be, a source of contention....
Why do rural households leave for urban places? And how does this
decision affect their economic well-being? Rural places in the United States have higher poverty and unemployment rates and lower levels of educational attainment relative to urban places. Does leaving a rural place for a city offer a pathway...
As the aging population continues to grow the world over, age related complications become more and more apparent among the elderly population. One such complication is age associated memory impairment, which makes the elderly more dependent on caregivers early on. NMDA receptors in the brain are important for memory formation,...
Land use is one of the leading factors that cause environmental degradation, such as water pollution, open space contraction and habitat loss. This dissertation consists of three essays. First paper investigates the relationship between land use and water pollution. Combining land use choice model and water pollution data, I simulate...
Climate change increases weather unpredictability, threatens communities whose livelihoods depend on natural resources, such as rural communities. Utilizing a Community Capital Framework (Flora and Flora, 2013) and Governance of Complex Adaptive Systems (Duit and Galaz, 2008), this study concentrated on the role of cultural and political capital in supporting rural...
Multipurpose management of hydrosystems face a number of uncertainties related to hydrologic variability and nonstationarity. Anticipated air temperature increases in the Pacific Northwest region are projected to alter the timing and quantity of streamflow associated with precipitation shifting from snow to rain, including shorter winter runoff periods, earlier spring runoff,...
Urban parks are biodiversity hotspots within cities and have the potential to provide a range of socio-cultural benefits for people, but may not always meet the needs and desires of park visitors. A variety of land use practices and environmental factors affect urban park biodiversity and vegetation structure, composition, and...