Doctor of Philosophy

dissertationThis research proposes a new theoretical concept of reimagined territory for application in the study of terrorism and other forms of political violence. Geographic theories of space and place, geopolitics, and multidisciplinary terrorism studies provide the theoretical framework for this dissertation. A mixed-method approach comprised of computer-aided content analysis, manual content analysis, cartographic visualization, and geographic narrative analysis is applied to ISIS's Dabiq magazine as a case study of the reimagined territory of a terrorist group. The results demonstrate the utility of the theoretical concept of reimagined territory in examining the ideology and goals of a given terrorist movement. A second case study of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula's Inspire magazine validates the methodology and the general applicability of the theoretical concept. The computer-aided content analysis generates a list of terms sorted by frequency (high to low) and alphabetical order from each issue of Dabiq magazine. The manual content analysis extracts all geographic place names from the lists of terms and categorizes them into one of four categories based on geographic scale. The cartographic visualization then charts the geographic place names in a series of maps from each of the scale categories. Finally, the results from each previous stage inform the geographic narrative analysis, which also considers the original text of the magazines in explaining the ideology and geographic aims of the terror group. The way in which ISIS imagines the world to be when it has achieved its goals emerges from the narrative analysis as its reimagined territory. This research underscores the importance of considering the territoriality of terror groups and movements. The primary conclusions of this research are: 1) ISIS's geographic goal (reimagined territory) is the establishment of a Muslim state based on the territorial expanse of early Islamic caliphates and current Muslim lands; 2) AQAP's goal is the establishment of a Muslim state centered on the Levant and eventually expanding to include all Muslim lands; 3) the methodology employed in this study and theoretical concept of reimagined territory applies to any terror group seeking to control space

Bulletin No. 286 - Some Trends in Utah\u27s Agriculture

During the last two decades agriculture has been subjected to many strains and stresses- social, economic, physical, and biological. Infestations of noxious weeds and insect pests have in some instances necessitated changes in crops grown and in farming practices. Changes in precipitation have induced alternate expansion and contraction of cultivated acreage in certain areas. Improved machinery has reduced the demand for farm labor, caused shifts in crops grown and in farm population. Changes in dietary habits have increased the demand for some farm commodities and decreased the demand for others, while wide fluctuations in farm prices have wrought rapid changes in the economic well-being of rural people. Relatively low precipitation in western United States during the early thirties reduced range forage growth and carrying capacity of ranges, which in tum, together with federal control changes, resulted in reduced numbers of range livestock

Conservation and consumptive use of water with sugar cane under irrigation in the south coastal area of Puerto Rico

1. Prevailing methods of irrigation in Puerto Rico can be reasonably efficient in the use of water (about 50% retained) if the systems are carefully laid out and if the irrigators are well trained and conscientious. With the standard, short-run, big-furrow, McLane methods the greatest losses are caused by applying too much water in one irrigation and by applying water at times when the soil has very little available storage capacity. At its best, the short furrow (McLane) method has a high labor requirement and is therefore rather expensive. Properly designed sprinkler irrigation has shown a consistently high efficiency of about 75%. Major changes in irrigation methods, other than by sprinkling, would require alteration of field lay-outs, land preparation, cultural operations, and labor practices. Further study is needed to determine whether some such alterations might be feasible, and compatible with high cane yields. There are too many interdependent factors to permit much change in irrigation methods without upsetting other features of the system of cane culture as a whole. Details of irrigation methods (9) and of their efficiency (8) have already been reported elsewhere. 2. Regardless of the irrigation methods used, the periods of greatest opportunity for saving water with sugar cane are the first few and the last few months of the crop season. The greatest danger of damage to the crop because of lack of water normally comes during the season of peak growth which also corresponds with the highest average temperatures. Consumptive use of water at this time averages about 0.18 inch per day compared to 0.10 or 0.12 during the first and the last part of the season. 3. Soil moisture guides appear to offer the most promising present basis for determining when to irrigate. By depending upon soil moisture rather than upon arbitrary schedules or field men's judgment it appears to be possible to increase cane yields, save water, and save labor, all at the same time. These indications are being given extensive field scale tests by Luce and Co. at Aguirre. Both mercury type, tensiometers (constructed by the BPISAE shop at Beltsville) and Boyoucos type nylon resistance blocks are giving satisfactory results. The blocks are preferred because of simplicity of operations. Normal salt variations in soil have not affected block readings. Inherent block errors and block failures have been satisfactorily overcome by using 4 or more replicates at carefully selected stations representing a unit irrigation area. Any blocks which deviate seriously from the average are removed and replaced. The resistance or tension readings which serve as the basis for irrigation have been established by our tank and field studies and by laboratory soil moisture tension curves. For soil like the Santa Isabel clay in the area from Juana Díaz to Aguirre it is not safe to let the soil moisture tension in the main root zone of cane go much beyond one atmosphere. With any Puerto Rican soil a safe tension for irrigation should probably correspond with a point which is at least 5% above the wilting point on a laboratory pF (moisture retention) curve. 4. Present field results indicate that high sugar cane yields per acre probably mean less water use per unit of crop produced. This is the basis for a field scale experiment by Luce and Co. comparing two, block-controlled soil moisture levels, each with two levels of fertilization. 5. Under Puerto Rican conditions, crop characteristics and soil moisture levels probably overshadow the influence of variations in the weather factor on evapotranspiration much more often than under climates of the temperate zone where the weather factor is highly variable. In any detailed considerations of climatic influences, the weather records from Aguirre, San Juan, and Mayagüez, indicate that differences in wind movement should be given major consideration along with hours of sunshine and seasonal temperatures

The Relationship Between Student Perceived Teacher Dispositions of Care and Student Outcomes of Belief, Understanding, and Application of LDS Doctrine

This study explored the relationship between student-perceived teacher dispositions of care and student self-reported outcomes of belief, understanding, and application of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) doctrine. Since the release of the Teaching Emphasis in 2003, LDS seminary leadership has consistently emphasized the importance of positive teacher dispositions of care and the relationship it has with desired student outcomes of LDS seminary students. However, no known studies to date have gathered and analyzed data to determine if such a relationship exists. Data regarding student-perceived teacher dispositions of care and student outcomes of belief, understanding, and application of LDS doctrine were gathered via self-report survey from 801 LDS seminary students in Idaho’s Washington, Payette, Gem, Canyon, Ada, Elmore, Jerome, Minidoka, Cassia, and Twin Falls Counties, as well as Malheur County in Oregon. Data were analyzed using Pearson correlation and one-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). Findings indicated a statistically significant positive correlation (p p

Bulletin No. 289 - Business Analysis of Farms in Utah County, Utah

Project 179 of the Utah Agricultural Experiment Station - A Study of the Agricultural Resources of Utah and their Utilization - was set up in April 1936 as a state-wide project. The object of this project was to measure by areas the basic agricultural resources of the state and to translate the information collected into a program of more efficient use. The more specific objectives were: (1) classification of agricultural lands of Utah according to present and potential productivity and use; (2) determination of the net productive area of agricultural lands and water supply now available, or which may be developed; and (3) determination of the present use and methods of achieving utilization of land, water, and other resources as they relate to the welfare of the people of the state

Language Development in Preschool Children

The differences in the language labeling of Head Start or lower socioeconomic- class children and nursery school or middle-socioeconomic class children were studied in this research. Also studied were the differences among children within the two classes in their ability to label concrete objects and actions compared with pictures of the same things or actions. Forty-eight children (24 Head Start and 24 nursery school) matched in sex and as closely as possible in age, were given a verbal labeling test which included questions in four areas: foods, animals, action words, and positional words. There were 40 questions, and half were of a real or concrete nature, and the other half were items in the form of picture questions. The results indicate that there is a difference in the language labeling of the middle-class child compared with the language labeling of the lower-social-class child. Also, when responding incorrectly, the middle-class child more often than the lower-social-class child made a response that more closely resembled the correct response either in appearance or semantically. The other finding was that there is no difference among children within each social class in this study in the labeling of real things or actions compared to pictures of the same things. In t he area of positional words there was a difference among the children within the two groups: in this group the middle- class children had more correct responses on the picture questions while the lower-social-class children had more correct responses on the concrete questions

Why Did They Come Here? - The Influences and Expectations of First-Year Students’ College Experience

Students’ expectations and experiences with university life are influenced by a number of variables. Many universities develop programs or promote aspects of existing programs to market the university’s image. This research was motivated by our desire to determine the relationships between first-year students’ college expectations and experiences, their awareness of the university’s programming and projected image, the influence of the programming and image on their decision to attend the institution, and the students’ personal characteristics. Our survey of 351 first-year students revealed positive perceptions of their university expectations and experiences, a mixture of influences on their decision to attend the university, and correlations between program awareness and the influence on students’ university attendance. We also uncovered a number of relationships between expectations, experience, and perceptions of influences with the personal characteristics of the students. Implications, directions for future research, and limitations are discussed

Representations of Landscape in Film: The (Reel) Korean Demilitarized Zone

MA University of Hawaii at Manoa 2008Includes bibliographical references (leaves 145–156).On July 27, 1953 General Mark W. Clark of the United States Army, Kim Il Sung of North Korea, and Peng Teh-huai of the Chinese Volunteers signed the armistice agreement, formally ceasing all combat operations which had relentlessly devastated the Korean countryside and urban centers for three years (Fehrenbach, 1998). The truce agreement included the creation of a demilitarized zone—a swath of uninhabited territory four kilometers wide, stretching more than 243 kilometers from the west coast to the east coast (Bartz, 1972). At the center of the DMZ lies the Military Demarcation Line (MDL), perfectly preserving the actual line of contact between opposing forces when the cease-fire was signed (ibid.). The MDL is marked by 1,292 rusty yellow signs mounted on poles, each sign clearly visible from the next. No marker is more than 500 meters from its closest neighbor, and in some cases (where the MDL curves) the signs are only separated by 300 meters (Lee, 2001). Today, just as the first day they were erected in 1953, a series of barbed-wire fences mark the outer edges of the DMZ (figure 1-1). In total, more than a million and a half soldiers still stand guard on both sides of the Korean Demilitarized Zone. Much more than an artificial border etched into the landscape by conflict, the DMZ is a complex, unique space which has gone largely unexplored (literally and conceptually) since its construction. What is the nature of this space delineated first on pen and paper, and since reproduced by fences and mines? A physical description of the landscape (commonly found in books on the geography of Korea) fails to capture the underlying meanings of the buffer zone created at the end of the Korean War. My analysis of contrasting perspectives of the DMZ presented in movies from the United States of America and South Korea will examine the cinematic image(s) of this final front of the Cold War