Browsing by Subject "Urban"

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Examining the evidence-base for the interventions used in a large urban district
(2013-08) Klingbeil, David Ashwin
A widely acknowledged gap between research and practice exists in education. Recent federal legislation mandates the use of research-based practices and allows districts to use a lack of response to intervention to qualify students for special education. This requires interventions with suitable evidence for such high-stakes decisions. To date, however, there has been little research on the evidence base for interventions that are commonly used in practice. This study examined the evidence base for the interventions provided to students in a large urban district. This district uses the problem-solving method to assign interventions for students who demonstrate academic or behavioral concerns. School psychologists play an integral role in this process. Volunteer psychologists participated in focus group interviews that investigated their knowledge of interventions used to re-engage students. The results of this study indicate the gap between research and practice still exists despite the focus on evidence-based practices. The majority of academic interventions had minimal evidence or could not be rated due to vague descriptions. Behavior interventions had stronger evidence of effectiveness. Psychologists, however, identified academic interventions with stronger evidence than behavioral interventions. Implications for practice, research, and policy are discussed.
Expert urban youth workers and the stories they tell: a narrative of lived experience
(2014-09) Ezaki, Jerilyn May
Relationships are the key to good urban youth work practice. The purpose of this hermeneutical phenomenological study was to give understanding to how youth workers create and maintain trusting relationships. A literature review looked at what relationship development looks like in the various ways adults work with youth. The literature on expertise in practice was reviewed to understand how youth workers use their experience and skills to create relationships with youth. The approach was to observe, interview, and have informal conversations with five expert youth workers over a period of nine months. The data was analyzed using a selective or highlighting approach.Three overarching themes emerged: The stance of youth work, the youth work dance and the relational nature of youth work practice. Under these three major themes several sub themes or aspects of each theme were discussed. From the stories of the youth workers a pattern t developed; a web of confluence. It is not linear, but for this group of youth workers most of these aspects are present in their creation of relationship. It starts with the stance; and the youth work dance and the relational nature of the work is interwoven with the stance to make it all come alive. The data supports the theory that relationship is the cornerstone of good youth work practice.
Growing Minneapolis's Capacity for Local Food through Sustainable Urban Agriculture
(Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs, 2013-05-16) Durand, Christine; Flunker, Dylan; Lindblom, Meghan
The City of Minneapolis has a growing demand for urban farming capacity. Homegrown Minneapolis, a citywide initiative focused on developing a healthy local food system, is looking to evaluate current policies and community need in order to better prepare for changes in the future. Urban farming is one aspect of the larger urban agriculture and sustainable food systems that Homegrown Minneapolis oversees for the city. The collaboration between Homegrown Minneapolis and graduate students from the Humphrey School of Public Affairs comes at a critical time for the program. It is approximately one year after a large package of Minneapolis City Code was adopted to expand urban farming in the city, and the city is curious to see if and how changes have occurred.
Identifying the Impact and Efficacy of Watershed Management on an Urban Stream
(2020-02) Distel, JohnMichael
Restoration and management of water resources have become a common counter to the degradation of hydrologic ecosystem services, specifically from the effects of urbanization. This project used a long-term data set to see if changes in discharge and concentration-discharge relationships could be attributed to water resources management at the watershed scale and for specific streamside infrastructure. The stream at the focus of this inquiry is Minnehaha Creek. It flows through the west metropolitan Minneapolis, Minnesota area – located in the north-central region of the United States. Two data sets were used in this study: 1) mean daily discharge, collected by a United States Geological Survey (USGS) stream gauge from 2007 – 2018, and 2) flow and water chemistry data, collected by the Minnehaha Creek Watershed District (MCWD) from 2009 – 2017. The water chemistry parameters used in the analysis include total phosphorus (TP), total nitrogen (TN), total suspended solids (TSS). Analysis showed an increase in discharge moving through the stream over time, likely due to increases in precipitation. Increasing minimum flows point to increasing shallow groundwater contributions and, therefore, increased infiltration across the watershed – a goal of the stormwater management within the Minnehaha Creek watershed. All C-Q relationships were negative and, corresponding to the discharge trends, concentrations decreased over time. However, flux of solutes remained steady. With increasing flows, a decrease in concentration with no change in flux is indicative of a reduction in sediment and solute transport – another goal of watershed management. No significant influence from the specific infrastructure analyzed in this study was observed. This is likely due to the data’s collection rate. Recommendations on improving data collection include adding temporal variety and ensuring representation of all levels of discharge. Recommendations are broken into three main categories: 1) assurance of representative sampling, 2) inclusion of temporal range in data collection and 3) broad distribution of sampling locations.
The lived experience of Type 2 diabetes in urban-based American Indian adolescents.
(2011-05) Martin, Lisa C.
This qualitative nursing research study used a hermeneutic phenomenological perspective to discover meaning in urban-based American Indian adolescents' experiences living with Type 2 diabetes. The aim of this study was to understand what it meant for urban-based American Indian adolescents to live with and experience Type 2 diabetes. The study used phenomenologic unstructured interviews to describe and represent the adolescent's voice and experiences of living with the disease in an urban community. The study was guided by Max Van Manen's methodology for phenomenological research. This method entailed turning to the phenomenon of interest, then, inquiring and investigating the experience as it was lived rather than as it was conceptualized. The study reflected and analyzed essential themes that characterized the phenomenon of living with Type 2 diabetes and presented the phenomenon through the art of writing and re-writing. Data collection involved in-depth, in-person interviews with analysis of the resulting transcripts. Adolescents in this study described connections with the American Indian culture, past and present family members, and the pragmatic details of living each day with the disease. Essential themes of the adolescents' experiences were found in the lifeworld areas of relationality and temporality, followed by incidental themes in the areas of corporeality and spatiality. The study findings illuminated the participants' personal meanings and validated the phenomenological research process. A preliminary conceptual model based on the lifeworld categories for understanding adolescents' experiences was proposed and had implications for education, research, and practice, supporting continued inquiry.
A multi-city analysis of the natural and human drivers of the urban heat island
(2014-08) Hertel, William Frederick
The world's population is increasingly moving to cities, with a present day urban population of over 3.6 billion that is expected to nearly double by 2050. One of the key features of the urban environment is an increase in temperature relative to the surrounding rural areas, called the urban heat island, which can have negative impacts on the health and wellbeing of urban dwellers. This study uses a novel approach of analyzing a large number of cities from around the world to investigate the similarities and differences in urban environments among cities to explore the behavior and drivers of the urban heat island. This methodology reveals two new conditions that increase the magnitude of the heat island - low dewpoint temperature and high air temperature. Many of the cities show increases in the magnitude of the heat island during hot or dry periods of 1.0 °C or more during the daytime and 2.0 °C at night relative to cool or humid periods. The heat wave results are of particular note due to the added stress on urban residents during periods when the population is already at risk. For cities in temperate climate regimes, differences among cities in vegetative cover or impervious surface area leads to increases in urban temperatures of up to 1.0 °C during the summer, while cities with high pollution can see reductions in the heat island by 1.5 °C. Cities in tropical or Mediterranean climates have the strongest heat islands during the dry season indicating that urban infrastructure is the key driver in these cities. These results indicate that mitigation of the urban heat island is possible by altering the urban landscape through changes in the urban vegetation and the structure of the built environment.
Multicultural Community Building in an Urban Neighborhood
(2015-06) Champe, John
This is an anthropological ethnography of multicultural community-building among the almost all-white activists in Minneapolis' largest neighborhood, Whittier. It shows the effects that the discourses, theories, and activities of these neighborhood activists have on the social structures that reproduce class, racial, and ethnic inequality. The first chapter analyzes the acrimonious battle over the opening of an apartment building for homeless. It shows the construction of the symbols at play, including Stability, Burden, Stakeholders, Gentrification, and Over-concentration of the poor. Chapter two explains how politics in Whittier became so polarized between competing factions of white, liberal, middle-class homeowners, who all share a love of their neighborhood's diversity. The study also illuminates how the faction representing "homeowner interests"� achieved dominance. Chapter three shows that while many paint Whittier as very dangerous, statistically it is not. The chapter explains the role that fear, exaggerated talk of crime, citizen crime patrols, media sensationalism, personal identity, and class conflict play in the creation of place and racial segregation. Chapter four explains how ethnic identities and class hierarchies are socially constructed through neighborhood campaigns, and also how the meaning of "diversity"� itself gets produced. The chapter details how white and Somali ethnicities are manufactured by struggles over a Somali mall and the parking around it. Chapter five reveals the failures of democracy in Whittier politics, and argues that not only has elected, democratic governance failed, but that attempting it on the neighborhood scale is probably futile and destructive. Chapter six discovers that while the academic literature argues that Americans are largely ignorant of social structures that reproduce inequality, white Whittier activists of many viewpoints are actually cognizant of them, and of their own privilege. This study finds that the key to understanding the multiplicity of thought and policy on poverty and multiculturalism, is by investigating Whittier activists' theories on neighborhood development. For example, activists opposing more subsidized housing in Whittier espouse that Whittier's health requires more homeowners, fewer renters, and fewer residents needing housing subsidies. This activism modified class hierarchy, by re-imagining it along the lines of the housing one inhabits.
The role of road user costs in benefit-cost analysis.
(2009-12) Hong, Feili
An economically and socially healthy urban region always needs to move people and goods in a timely fashion. However, with the development of urban land, many corridors in urban regions suffer from great congestion, since demand is close to or greater than the capacity of the roadways. In order to improve traffic conditions, transportation planners need to identify and select the best projects that will expand and upgrade existing facilities by using Benefit-Cost Analysis. Usually, Benefit-Cost Analysis assists transportation planners by balancing the consideration of user benefits against the total costs of the projects, by translating them into monetary terms. The principal elements in Benefit-Cost Analysis are travel time costs, vehicle operation costs, and safety costs. These elements of a Base Case are compared to those of one or more Project Alternatives that offer significant improvements. However, the Road User Costs (RUC) during construction, which have the same three components, is often ignored in Benefit Cost Analysis. When RUC is significant, it can generate different results in a Benefit Costs Analysis. The objective of this study is to propose an improved process of Benefit-Cost Analysis, evaluating investment costs and all user costs and benefits during construction and during a facilities' lifetime. Furthermore, since comprehensive calculations of areawide RUC during the construction phase are often lacking, this study also proposes three procedures of user cost calculation by utilizing three levels of analytical tools: one Sketch-Planning Tool (specifically, QuickZone); one Travel Demand Model (Cube Voyager); and one Microscopic Simulator (AIMSUN). In order to implement this improved procedure of Benefit-Cost Analysis, the TH-36 reconstruction project, in North St Paul, Minnesota, was utilized. Through conducting Benefit-Cost Analysis of two planned construction alternatives, Full Closure and Partial Closure, this study concluded that RUC during the construction phase are important and the selection of an optimal construction alternative can be different due to the inclusion of RUC.
The social construction of urban American Indian teen’s identity: how to be an Indian*
(2012-05) Clark, Maureen Ann
Abstract summary not available
Systems of Cultural Representation: An Examination of Native American Identity and Cultural Representations Through Digital Stories
(2020-08) Fish, Jillian
Psychological research has demonstrated that Native peoples engage with shared meanings of cultural phenomena in their environments when forming their identities. These are referred to as cultural representations and are critical for Native peoples to form a coherent and meaningful sense of self. To date, empirical studies on cultural representations use experimental methods to measure the effect of media representations on identity-related outcomes among Native adolescents from reservations and in academic settings. These studies take a top-down approach that neglects the range of cultural representations and the intrapsychic processes Native peoples use to engage with them during identity formation, as well as well-known constructs from cultural psychology that have implications for individuals’ identities. The present study addresses these limitations through a bottom-up approach using narrative and digital storytelling strategies to answer the following research questions: 1) What cultural representations are present in narratives of urban Native peoples? 2) How do urban Native peoples internalize and resist the aforementioned cultural representations? And 3) How do well-known cultural psychology constructs relate to these cultural representations and narrative processes? To answer these questions, participants (n = 73) completed a questionnaire of cultural psychology constructs and open-ended story prompts, and attended a one-day workshop to create a digital story. For Research Question 1, thematic analysis was used to examine the content of the historical and cultural representations in Native peoples’ environments from their digital story narratives. To address Research Question 2, digital story narratives were examined for narrative processes to determine how Native peoples’ internalized and negotiated with historical and cultural representations when forming their identities. For Research Question 3, associations between historical and cultural representations, narrative processes, and well-known cultural psychology constructs were examined through correlations, independent samples t-tests, and chi-square analyses to further contextualize the findings. Results provide rich and descriptive information about historical and cultural representations salient to Native peoples’ identity development, which are discussed through Story Profiles. Implications for Native peoples as active co-constructors of their identities are discussed in relation to the current literature.
Trends in Total Phosphorus Concentrations in Urban and Non-Urban Environments
(2017-01) Halbach, Ann
A study of lake trends was conducted across Minnesota and Wisconsin to determine the effects of actions to improve water quality. A comparison between urban and non-urban environments helped determine drivers of change, as many factors contribute to water quality and they differ between environments. Though evidence of both increasing and decreasing trends in phosphorus were observed, there were more lakes with decreasing trends than increasing trends, especially in the urban environment. Similar trend patterns were not found with nitrogen. Trends in nitrogen were more often positive, and trends in N:P were generally strongly positive. Climatic and morphometric factors were not significantly related to trends, but there was a connection between the amount of lawn at lake edge and phosphorus reduction. The results indicate that phosphorus concentrations in the study lakes are improving more frequently than not. This may be due to the adoption of phosphorus control measures.
Urban American Indians' perceptions of historical trauma.
(2010-12) Grant, Herbert
This dissertation presents a study of the experience of American Indians, residing in an urban setting, regarding historical trauma. This study consists of two parts. The first aspect of the study is to correlate scores from the Historical Losses Scale (HLS) and the Native American Acculturation Scale (NAAS). The results indicate that higher scores on the HLS are moderately related to lower scores on the NAAS. The second aspect of this study presents findings from interviews with 12 participants regarding their perceptions of the effects of historical trauma (HT). The following themes emerged from the interviews: Assimilation Produces HT, Oppression, Loss of Language, Guilt-Not being able to pass on, Family Connection or Lack of, Loss of Traditions and Spirituality. The qualitative and quantitative aspects of this study are both theoretically and empirically related. Hence quotes from the interviews were used to illustrate the items of the HLS. The content of the interviews suggests that the impact of historical trauma is relevant for American Indians residing in urban areas.
Urban Congestion Reduction for Energy Conservation: Control Strategies for Urban Street Systems: A State of the Art: Final Report
(1988-01) Hajjiri, Samir A.; Stephanedes, Yorgos J.
The primary objective of this study is to acquire an understanding of the current state-of-the-art of traffic signal control strategies at urban street systems. Control of traffic signals is by far the most common type of control at heavily trafficked intersections in urban areas. Inefficient use of the transportation system results when traffic signals are set without the aim of optimizing them. The byproducts of such situations include greater fuel consumption, increased vehicle emissions, increased travel time, higher accident rate, and less reliable services.

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