Ramdin, Gianna

Relationships
Member of: Graduate College
Person Preferred Name
Ramdin, Gianna
Model
Digital Document
Publisher
Florida Atlantic University
Description
Higher education is an idyllically positioned organization from which meaningful
dissemination of knowledge and interdisciplinary research is capable of actuating
practices that resource consumption. Paradoxically, the construction, maintenance, and
operations of the built environment, including the built campus environment, have
contributed to the decline of raw resources and degradation of environmental processes.
An opportunity exists to bridge the knowledge gap between the design and construction
phase and the operations and maintenance phase of the green certified building life cycle,
while examining the parts that contributed to the green-certification of the whole
building. The purpose of this research was to 1.) identify green-building features and
determine their frequency of implementation in new capital (NC) LEED-certified,
campus buildings to effectuate operations and maintenance cost savings, indoor
wellbeing, and environmental stewardship, and 2.) determine the relationships of greenbuilding
feature usage across building, institutional, and LEED characteristics. The study used archival data to document the green efforts of each building with the study’s sample
of 195 buildings on the campus of 107 universities and colleges, in the United States,
between 2007 and 2017.
The study’s findings indicated that the public institutions earned the LEED
certification more often than private institutions and the sample was void of two-year
community colleges. The sample was restricted for green-building features that (a)
reduce economic cost, (b) improve indoor wellbeing, and (c) increase environmental
stewardship. The results and implications are discussed.
Model
Digital Document
Publisher
Florida Atlantic University
Description
This study investigated variations m body condition of brown hoplos
(Hoplosternum littorale) refuging in ponds in the Big Cypress region of southern Florida.
During the dry season environmental parameters fluctuated, water depth and dissolved
oxygen decreased, while temperature and conductivity increased. Standard lengths and
wet weights of 675 juvenile brown hoplos were measured from seven populations. Body
condition was compared between populations and through time (early vs. late dry season)
using length-weight relationship and Fulton's condition factor. The only significant
spatia-temporal variations in body condition occurred in the deepest refuges. One
population demonstrated an unexpected positive change in body condition, while another
(a deep culvert pond) showed negative changes in body condition over time. Smaller fish
(≤S65mmSL) found in these deep-water refuges demonstrated the most change in body
condition. Almost all populations exhibited isometric growth but the culvert pond
population had variable regression slopes (slopes ≠ 3 for both samples).