Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 1984, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects: Education

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 1962, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects: Education

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 1963, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects: Agriculture

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 1983, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects: Education

Master of Environmental Science, Miami University, 2005, Environmental Sciences

My internship with the Ohio Natural Heritage Program assisted with the transition of the Ohio Natural Heritage Database from a paper to electronic geographic information system. I was hired to convert all data in Ohio's coastal region to digital information. In addition, I created GIS layers of wetlands and conservation lands. I also developed an ecological monitoring project at Irwin Prairie State Nature Preserve, located in northwestern Ohio.

Committee: Avram Primack (Advisor) Subjects:

MA, Kent State University, 2012, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Geography

High-volume hydraulic fracturing (HVHF) operators have been rapping on the door of New York State legislators and homeowners since HVHF was successful at producing natural gas from a tight-shale formation in Washington County, Pennsylvania in 2005. This thesis addresses the debate over natural gas production in place within the context of New York State development and within the discourses of ‘Upstate'/'Downstate' places, agricultural productivism, private property, and watersheds of importance. For natural gas production to occur in place, places must be cast as fit for natural gas production. Places are re-defined (extended, included, isolated, relocated) with scalar practices. Sources of information include interviews, government documents, industry documents, and placards from both those who support and oppose natural gas production. To analyze this information I used methods of discourse theory with grounded theory approaches. Drawing from Erik Swygedouw and other geographic theorists, I use the term glocalization to mean the boundary-making and boundary-mediating process of defining and representing rights, responsibilities, risks, and benefits of actors and phenomena involved in place. This thesis addresses the way in which belief in ideas of place is collectivized and defended. Places are the accumulation of collectivized belief that, through habits of action, become real and meaningful.

Committee: Mandy Munro-Stasiuk PhD (Advisor); James A. Tyner PhD (Advisor) Subjects: Geography

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 1950, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects:

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 1923, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects:

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 1961, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects:

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 1950, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects:

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 1961, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects:

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 1963, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects:

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2022, English

Material Modernism: Nature, Resources, and Aesthetics, asks how natural resources, from their extraction, refinement, and consumption, influence modernist aesthetics. How might directing our attention to the paper shortages in the British Commonwealth in the 1940s enliven perceptions of the debates over modernist aesthetics and nationhood in little magazines like Horizon and BIM, which circulated across the Atlantic? How do we answer for the ubiquity of rubber in the fiction of classic modernists like Joseph Conrad and James Joyce as well as its influence on the career of British Consulate turned Irish revolutionary, Roger Casement? What does the linking of character development to the development of land in Doris Lessing's The Grass is Singing and Sam Selvon's A Brighter Sun tell us about futures cultivated through land dispossession? These questions indicate important links between the transnational networks that constructed twentieth century geopolitics and transnational modernism. Modernist literary projects circulated within systems that often seemed surprisingly boundless, yet systems of imperialism and histories of over extraction were the inciting conditions for their existence. Therefore, when read together, transnational modernism and the influence of natural resources enliven our understanding of past patterns of thinking and shed light on our current moment of extreme extraction and climate crisis.

Committee: Thomas S. Davis (Advisor); Adeleke Adeeko (Committee Member); Jesse Schotter (Committee Member) Subjects: Aesthetics; Environmental Studies; Literature

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2022, Environment and Natural Resources

Emerging adults in rural, boom-bust economies face unique challenges, especially in employment and education. Drawing on emerging adult and social disruption hypothesis literatures, this study examined four primary research questions. First, how do emerging adults in rural boom-bust towns in southwest Wyoming understand and experience boom-bust cycles in their communities? Second, from where in rural, boom-bust places do emerging adults receive support regarding post-secondary education, employment, and decisions to remain in the area? This study also considered if these resources from the community were satisfactory. Third, what are the potential differences—if any—in the community supports known, used, and desired for emerging adults in community college verses for those in the workforce? Lastly, what decisions are rural emerging adults in boom-bust towns making about staying in/leaving the area? Interviews were conducted with thirty-eight emerging adults between the ages of 18 and 25 in southwest Wyoming. Findings from this study supported the social disruption hypothesis. Participants felt boom-bust cycles resulted in instability, were harmful to the area, and affected the resources to which they had access. They reported limited engagement in their communities which declined further as they transitioned from high school to the community college and workforce. However, they also suggested community engagement to be important for newcomers to the area. Individual and household income were important factors in mitigating effects of the boom-bust cycles. Participants also reported a heavy reliance on their social networks for finding employment. Participants in both groups indicated dissatisfaction with the resources to which they had access for higher education and employment. Also, the majority of participants wished to leave the area citing instability, lack of education and employment opportunities, and a general lack of opportunities, especially for education (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Kristi Lekies Dr. (Advisor); Kenneth Martin Dr (Committee Member); Anna Willow Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Adult Education; Community Colleges; Developmental Psychology; Economics; Education; Educational Psychology; Educational Sociology; Energy; Environmental Management; Environmental Science; Environmental Studies; Higher Education; Land Use Planning; Mining; Natural Resource Management; Social Research; Social Structure; Social Work; Sociology

Master of Science, The Ohio State University, 2021, Earth Sciences

Natural gas hydrates exist in the shallow subseafloor throughout the Gulf of Mexico, though many systems have not been described in detail. Using publicly available seismic and well log data, I constrain potential gas hydrate accumulations. Seventeen unique seismic surveys were analyzed to identify and classify regions with bottom-simulating reflections (BSRs). BSRs represent free gas at the base of gas hydrate stability (BGHS) and can be identified in seismic data through their opposite polarity and sub-parallel orientation to the seafloor. Identifying these seismic events is a first step in prospecting for gas hydrate systems. In this thesis, twenty-six BSR systems were classified across the Northern Gulf of Mexico in the East Breaks, Garden Banks and Green Canyon Federal protraction areas, with an additional six previously published BSR systems classified. Each system is classified based on BSR type, which is classified as continuous, discontinuous, or clustered, BSR size including small (<8 km²), medium (8-16 km²), and large (>16 km²), and the BSR environment which includes structural, venting, and stratigraphic. In addition, proximal geologic features and hydrate indicators were also documented. A novel approach to classify each system and determine trends for BSRs in the Gulf of Mexico is employed using a ternary diagram. The results indicate that a majority of BSR systems have two-or-more BSR types, with the combination of continuous and discontinuous being the most prevalent. The BSR size ranges from a low of 1.49 km2 in Green Canyon-2 to a high of 49.6 km2 in Orca Basin. BSRs most commonly occur in stratigraphic environments, where gas may form through microbial methanogenesis. Notable relationships between BSR type and environment were interpreted on the ternary diagram, such as clustered BSRs occurring in structural environments and venting environments primarily containing continuous BSRs. These results aim to narrow down where BSRs are occurring in this (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Ann Cook (Advisor); Derek Sawyer (Committee Member); Demián Gomez (Committee Member) Subjects: Geology; Geophysics

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2020, Arts and Sciences: Geography

The saguaro (Carnegiea gigantea [Engelm.] Britton and Rose) is a long-lived, columnar cactus and a keystone species in Sonoran Desert ecology. The saguaro is an iconic symbol of the U.S. American Southwest with a long and deep ethnobotanical history. In the northern Sonoran Desert, saguaro research is focused on two primary domains: the influence of climate on growth and reproduction and the anthropogenic impacts of human activity on the species and to the landscape. Saguaro growth and establishment are strongly influenced by the timing and amount of summer precipitation, and winter minimum temperature is an additional control. Anthropogenic historic land uses in the Southwest significantly altered ecosystem function and vegetation community type and structure throughout the region. Understanding the changes in community form and process provides a basis for ecological restoration. Saguaro National Park (SNP) is comprised of two districts on the east and west sides of Tucson, Arizona, and contains historic plots that have been monitored for more than 80 years. This dissertation utilizes some of the oldest demographic data available for the species to examine the physical geographic, anthropogenic, and climatic conditions and processes that affect saguaro growth and establishment at multiple spatial and temporal scales. The stratified plot-based approach utilized in this dissertation captures the response of the saguaro to climatic and landscape settings in different vegetational communities and across gradients of slope, aspect, and elevation within SNP. Additionally, much of the data collected for this dissertation are publicly available and serve as the latest snapshot in time of the saguaro population for the work of a next generation of researchers and public land stewards. This dissertation is presented in journal article format. Chapter 2 analyzes the demographic change over 75 years within a population of saguaros in an area of SNP that has a legacy o (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Nicholas Dunning Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Richard Beck Ph.D. (Committee Member); Kevin Raleigh Ph.D. (Committee Member); Vernon Scarborough Ph.D. (Committee Member); Susanna Tong Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Geography

Master of Science (MS), Ohio University, 2018, Environmental Studies (Voinovich)

Since 2006 electricity generation from coal-fired power plants has been on the decline, while in the same time-frame electricity generation from natural gas and renewables has been steadily increasing. In fact, in 2016 natural gas surpassed coal as the leading fuel for electricity generation at the utility scale, per the Energy Information Administration (EIA). This shift in the energy sector has had significant implications for Central Appalachian counties which have been dependent on the coal industry as a staple of their local economies. This shift represents the bust in a typical boom-and-bust cycle that accompanies natural resource extraction industries, albeit more likely to be lasting. Given these trends in US energy markets, there is a need to understand foundational elements that may support coal-impacted counties to transition their local economies to ones that are more resilient to such volatility and sustainable in the long-run. The researcher tested the following supposition: from 2006 to 2016 the following may have been positively associated with change in economic performance over time: higher levels of economic diversification, higher levels of educational attainment, higher levels of social capital (measured by community engagement), and the use of public policy approaches that support post-coal economic development. Using ordinal logistic regression, the researcher examined the effects of these county-level variables on the net change in Appalachian Regional Commission-reported economic status levels during the coal industry's most recent downturn from 2006 to 2016. Additionally, the researcher collected survey responses from county commissioners in coal-impacted counties of Central and North Central Appalachia to examine policy processes used to address economic redevelopment given recent energy market trends. This study found that both economic diversification and the concentration of non-profit organizations (a measure of social capital) were st (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Derek Kauneckis (Committee Chair); Daniel Karney (Committee Member); Jason Jolley (Committee Member) Subjects: Alternative Energy; Area Planning and Development; Climate Change; Economic Theory; Economics; Energy; Environmental Studies; Natural Resource Management; Public Administration; Sustainability

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2017, Electrical and Computer Engineering

The advent of microgrids has shifted the focus from centralized power generation to a more distributed manner, involving a mix of different distributed energy resources (DERs). Reciprocating engine driven synchronous generators (referred as gensets) are a common DER used for distributed generation. One of the key concerns with such power networks is the aspect of frequency regulation under large disturbances, especially in an islanded mode of operation, without the support of the utility grid. This works looks at possible solution methods for mitigating large frequency disturbances in an islanded microgrid. Due to steep load changes, the gensets undergo large frequency swings and can be even vulnerable to stalling. The benefits of smart loads are analyzed in this work to prevent such occurrence by temporarily reducing the transient overload on gensets. Another solution to mitigate large frequency deviation is the integration of energy storage system (ESS), but the effectiveness depends on its operation as a grid-forming or a grid-following unit. Important metrics such as frequency nadir during load changes in the islanded microgrid are computed to show the usefulness of ESS in islanded microgrids. For this purpose, analytical methods using reduced-order models are developed and found to provide accurate estimates of frequency deviations under power system disturbances. Generally, ESS units are interfaced with an inverter and when operated in grid-forming mode can offer desired dynamic frequency behavior in an islanded microgrid. Similarly, other inverter-based DERs can also provide good frequency regulation as they share the larger portion of the transient overload compared to gensets. However, under certain scenarios the inverter-based DERs are found to collapse due to this large transient loading and can bring down the whole microgrid system as a result. A better coordination between the different DERs in a mixed source microgrid is facilitated in this work to gua (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Mahesh Illindala (Advisor); Jin Wang (Committee Member); Jiankang Wang (Committee Member); Alexander Lindsey (Committee Member) Subjects: Electrical Engineering

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 1982, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects: Education

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 1978, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects: Education