Grassy–herbaceous land moderates regional climate effects on honey bee colonies in the Northcentral US

The lack of seasonally sustained floral resources (i.e. pollen and nectar) is considered a primary global threat to pollinator health. However, the ability to predict the abundance of flowering resources for pollinators based upon climate, weather, and land cover is difficult due to insufficient monitoring over adequate spatial and temporal scales. Here we use spatiotemporally distributed honey bee hive scales that continuously measure hive weights as a standardized method to assess nectar intake. We analyze late summer colony weight gain as the response variable in a random forest regression model to determine the importance of climate, weather, and land cover on honey bee colony productivity. Our random forest model predicted resource acquisition by honey bee colonies with 71% accuracy, highlighting the detrimental effects of warm, wet regions in the Northcentral United States on nectar intake, as well as the detrimental effect of years with high growing degree day accumulation. Our model also predicted that grassy–herbaceous natural land had a positive effect on the summer nectar flow and that large areas of natural grassy–herbaceous land around apiaries can moderate the detrimental effects of warm, wet climates. These patterns characterize multi-scale ecological processes that constrain the quantity and quality of pollinator nutritional resources. That is, broad climate conditions constrain regional floral communities, while land use and weather act to further modify the quantity and quality of pollinator nutritional resources. Observing such broad-scale trends demonstrates the potential for utilizing hive scales to monitor the effects of climate change on landscape-level floral resources for pollinators. The interaction of climate and land use also present an opportunity to manage for climate-resilient landscapes that support pollinators through abundant floral resources under climate change

Appalachian Spring

A large mural that was created by 19 studio art and education students in 2009. Renowned Latina artist Judith Baca worked alongside the students.https://scholarworks.moreheadstate.edu/university_art_collection/1090/thumbnail.jp

Melancholy Lullaby

This music score was submitted for the Kaleidoscope 2020 Call for Scores, an open access collaboration with the UCLA Music Library

La Jinete

This music score was submitted for the Kaleidoscope 2020 Call for Scores, an open access collaboration with the UCLA Music Library

Whose Agenda is it Anyway? U.S. News Coverage of the Honor Killing of Noor Faleh Almaleki and the Discursive Construction of Boundaries

This dissertation employs the method of critical discourse analysis to investigate the relationship among discourse, power, and knowledge in U.S. news coverage of the honor killing of Noor Faleh Almaleki. Building upon Western European research on honor-killing news coverage as a site for the discursive construction of boundaries, I employ the theoretical perspectives of Michel Foucault, Pierre Bourdieu, Edward Saїd, and postcolonial feminism to demonstrate how the social constructs of gender, sexuality, religion, race, ethnicity, culture, class, time, and space intersect to produce sharp boundaries of difference between Muslim, Middle Eastern, and South Asian migrants and dominant members of the U.S. nation. As a result, the findings of this dissertation point to the presence of an overarching hegemonic discourse in the U.S. news' coverage of Noor's honor killing that rather than serving the interest of reducing violence against women, serves the agenda of excluding Muslim, Middle Eastern, and South Asian migrants from the U.S. nation. Based on the findings of this study, I encourage readers to acknowledge the intricate relationship among discourse, power, and knowledge in honor-killing discourse. Furthermore, I invite readers to recognize their role as producers and consumers of discourse, and as change-agents, who have the capacity to transform these stigmatizing honor-killing discourses into a discourse that is inclusive of all the stakeholders, women and men, affected by these crimes

Melancholy Lullaby

This music score was submitted for the Kaleidoscope 2020 Call for Scores, an open access collaboration with the UCLA Music Library

La Jinete

This music score was submitted for the Kaleidoscope 2020 Call for Scores, an open access collaboration with the UCLA Music Library

El Pistolero

This music score was submitted for the Kaleidoscope 2020 Call for Scores, an open access collaboration with the UCLA Music Library