This history concerns the scientific contributions of Charles
Babbage (1791-1871) to mathematics, to the invention of calculating
machines, and machine tools, to the development of scientific ideas
through a wide variety of scientific investigations and his involvement
in several different scientific reforms. Babbage considered himself
a philosopher in the broadest...
Seeding is a vital tool to facilitate recovery of degraded ecosystems, but low seedling recruitment rates limit the utility of this practice in a range of ecosystems across the globe. Plant functional traits impact individual fitness through effects on growth, reproduction and survival. Consequently, seed and seedling trait variation among...
The New Zealand Ministry of Fisheries recently set out a strategic approach to managing the adverse effects of fishing on the aquatic environment. The primary purpose of this Strategy for Managing the Environmental Effects of Fishing (SMEEF) is to set out how the Ministry of Fisheries will meet its environmental...
Commercial property rights in New Zealand are designed to address utilisation and sustainability issues relating to single-stock management. However, commercial property rights may not provide incentives that address environmental impacts of fishing if these impacts do not affect the value of the property right. But is it really that simple?...
Successful ecosystem restoration requires an understanding of the ecological processes directing succession. One of the challenges in the semi-arid grasslands of western United States is replacement of native species by invasive annual grasses. Solutions to this problem require identifying and manipulating ecological processes that direct succession to favor desired vegetation....
Ocean Acidification (OA) has emerged as a major threat to marine ecosystems, particularly regarding calcifying organisms. A growing body of literature describing laboratory investigations into pH stress indicates broadly deleterious effects for calcifiers, but responses vary greatly across taxa and can be influenced by variations in other environmental characteristics. Scaling...
Wind and solar energy levels are expected to increase in the Pacific Northwest as a result of maturing renewable energy technologies, and state and federal policies. Because wind and solar energy is intermittent, only producing electricity when weather conditions permit, the integration of these resources has posed challenges to operators...
Queer students in American public schools may face significant challenges including unsupportive or hostile peers or staff members (Eisenberg et al., 2017). The culture of rural Southern schools may be particularly challenging for these students as they are less likely to have an active support group and more likely to...
In this dissertation, I combined a scenario-based, standard-response optimization model with a stochastic simulation model to improve the efficiency of the deployment of initial attack firefighting resources on wildland fires in California and the Republic of Korea. The optimization model minimizes the expected number of fires that do not receive...
3-D printing processes, which use drop-on-demand inkjet printheads, have great potential in
designing and prototyping magnetic materials. Unlike conventional deposition and lithography,
magnetic particles in the printing ink can be aligned by an external magnetic field to achieve both
high permeability and low hysteresis losses, enabling prototyping and development of...