Digital Commons Network^™

Catering Food Waste At Uvm: Benchmark Data & Recommendations, Susanna Baxley

Food Systems Master's Project Reports

The 2012 Universal Recycling Law in Vermont ban food scraps from landfills and offered a food recovery hierarchy for food waste that prioritizes first reducing waste at the source, and then donating extra food to food insecure individuals. Based on survey data that 15-20% of UVM students are food insecure, UVM Dining engaged a graduate student to 1) gather data on the magnitude of food waste produced at catered events in one location and 2) provide recommendations on how to best address catering food waste. Through an audit of 15 catering events on campus, the study reports that 17% of …

Dining On Campus: Plant-Based Food Offerings At Uvm, Susanna Baxley

Food Systems Master's Project Reports

University of Vermont’s students today are earth and health-conscious, with 42% of students choosing UVM because of the institution’s commitment to these values. In response to student interest in plant-based food options, this study gathered baseline data on the percentage of vegetarian and vegan meal options available at unlimited dining halls on campus. Using three methods, the study found that the majority of foods offered at these dining halls are vegetarian and/or vegan. This data will provide students, UVM administrators and Sodexo leadership and chefs a clearer picture of the current plant-based food offerings on campus. These findings can be …

The Working Landscape: Vermont Land Trust And Farmland Access In Vermont, Susanna Baxley

Food Systems Master's Project Reports

The number one challenge facing young farmers is access to land. Other challenges include rising student debt, high real estate values, health insurance costs, and discriminatory lending practices. As well, there are rising concerns that farm viability and the agricultural landscape of the US is in peril as the sector sees an "aging" farmer population, loss of farmland to development, and a decrease in the number of mid-sized "family" farms alongside a proliferation of very large industrial farms that dominate markets. Farms do more than just provide food to their communities; they are a cornerstone of rural economies and play …

More Than A Meal : A Resource For Communities Striving For Food Sovereignty Through The Charitable Food System, Kaitlin J. Robertson

Food Systems Master's Project Reports

The 2020 pandemic and economic crisis showcased the fragility of the American food system. In the months of quarantine and lockdowns, a growing number of Americans searched for ways to feed themselves and their families. Community-based and volunteer-supported feeding programs worked to bridge the divide between the hungry and their next meal. In many cases, these programs rely on an unpaid workforce and donations – of time, food, and facilities. With limited resources, volunteer-led programs often lack centralized training options; this guidebook seeks to fill that void. This project is a streamlined, introductory-level guide for volunteers and community members working …

Master’S Project: Exploring And Supporting Social And Ecological Dimensions Of Pollinator Habitat Enhancement In Burlington, Vt, Victoria Hellwig

Rubenstein School Masters Project Publications

Urbanization and other manmade impacts threaten critical pollinator species like the bumblebee, whose populations are significantly affected by habitat loss. In response, activists in the City of Burlington are enhancing habitat to increase biodiversity through collaborative partnerships in urban green spaces. In an effort to explore and support pollinator habitat enhancement in Burlington, I examined social interactions involved in a group highly motivated to enhance habitat at Lakeview Cemetery and Champlain Elementary School, with an emphasis on power dynamics and place meanings of these sites. In conjunction with this exploration, I created landscape designs, planted a native habitat garden, and …

Testing Resilience As A Moderator Of The Torture-Mental Health Relationship In Refugee Survivors Of Torture, Phyu Pannu Khin

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

There may be as many as 1.3 million refugee survivors of torture currently living in the United States (Center for Victims of Torture, 2015). Torture is a unique predictor of various debilitating mental health conditions including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and anxiety (Quiroga & Jaranson, 2005). The current study focuses on a clinical sample of refugee survivors of torture to examine resilience-promoting factors including external protective factors, community engagement, employment, and English fluency, and an internal protective factor, psychological flexibility. This study conducted moderation analyses utilizing the PROCESS program in SPSS (Hayes, 2013) to better understand the moderating impacts …

Food Insecurity In Vermont Households: An Analysis Of The Association With Tobacco Use, Alcohol Consumption And Physical Inactivity, Hannah R. Kaufman, Kyleigh Savoie, Emily Belanger, Kijonna Bowman, Darren Childs, Hendrika Maltby

Master of Public Health Culminating Projects

Objectives: To assess the relationship between chronic disease risk behaviors: tobacco usage, alcohol consumption, sedentary lifestyle, and food insecurity (FI) among Vermonters. Methods: This cross-sectional study uses a sample (n= 1,378) from Vermont’s 2018 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS). The examined outcome is FI. The predictor measures were defined as at-risk tobacco use, alcohol consumption, and sedentary lifestyles.The following were established as covariates on the association between the dependent and independent variables: income, sex, age, race/ethnicity, and activity limitations. Results: In the unadjusted binomial logistic regression (Table 2), tobacco users were 3.32 times more likely to be food …

Policy And Economic Variables Influencing Adoption Of Sustainable Electrification In Rural Sub-Saharan Africa, Payne William Morgan

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Limited access to electricity remains a primary constraint to economic growth and the improvement of livelihoods throughout sub-Saharan Africa. In rural areas, electricity access is especially sparse. The reasons for the scarcity of electricity supply in the region are well documented, with low population density, limited household incomes, and poor regulatory institutions compounding to often make the investment of expanding electricity access result in poor or risky economic returns. However, the declining cost of solar PV and mandates for clean energy development throughout the region have created new channels for bringing electricity supply in potentially more cost-effective ways.Despite these macro …

The Feasibility Of Over-Summer Snow Storage At The Craftsbury Outdoor Center, Craftsbury Vt, Hannah Sarah Weiss

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Climate change increases the unpredictability of winter weather and threatens the future of nordic skiing. Ski centers at high elevation and high latitude have employed over-summer snow storage, a climate change adaptation strategy, to ensure a consistent start-date to their winter ski season. Over-summer snow storage involves making a large pile of snow during winter and storing the snow beneath protective layers, such as wood chips or foam panels, to impede melt throughout the summer and fall. When ready to open the ski season, the ski center uncovers the pile and spreads the snow to create trails. Though many nordic …

Birth Registration And Educational Access In Sub-Saharan Africa: The Case For An Explanatory Spatial Research Design, Thomas Edward Griffin

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

In 2019, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) estimated the global number of children under the age of 5 without birth registrations at 166 million, with the largest share being present in Sub-Saharan Africa. As the author witnessed firsthand while working in Cameroon, the lack of birth registration documentation (i.e. birth certificates) precluded students from progressing from primary to secondary education. Struck by this example of social exclusion, the purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which birth registration acted as a barrier to educational access in primary and secondary education systems elsewhere across Sub-Saharan Africa. An …

Quantifying Proverb Dynamics In Books, News Articles, And Tweets, Ethan Davis

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Proverbs are an essential component of language and culture, and though much attention has been paid to their history and currency, there has been comparatively little quantitative work on the frequency with which they are used, and the dynamics of their use over time. With wider availability of large corpora reflecting many diverse genres of documents, it is now possible to take a wider view of the importance of the proverb. Can a corpus linguistic approach to phraseology support existing histories, and what further insight can be gained from a quantitative approach? This study measures temporal changes in the relevance …

"Well, You Could Be A Murderer..." And Other Reasons Why I Should Stop Using Dating Apps: A Personal Narrative About Dating In The Age Of Technology, Gabriella Granillo

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Dating isn’t easy. I’m sure we’ve all had that thought before. How are we even supposed to meet people nowadays? In the grocery store? At the mall? In a library? No! Why not utilize the one thing that we, as humans in the 21st century, can’t seem to live without, our cellphones! We have just about everything else at our fingertips, why not have the next best thing, a relationship, a hookup, or just a friend with just a swipe and a touch of the phalanges?I have been using dating apps off and on for about six years, and I …

Quantifying Language Changes Surrounding Mental Health On Twitter, Anne Marie Stupinski

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Mental health challenges are thought to afflict around 10% of the global population each year, with many going untreated due to stigma and limited access to services. Here, we explore trends in words and phrases related to mental health through a collection of 1- , 2-, and 3-grams parsed from a data stream of roughly 10% of all English tweets since 2012. We examine temporal dynamics of mental health language, finding that the popularity of the phrase ‘mental health’ increased by nearly two orders of magnitude between 2012 and 2018. We observe that mentions of ‘mental health’ spike annually and …

How And Why Do People Value Nature? An Examination Of Nonmaterial Aspects Of Human-Nature Interactions., Tatiana Marquina

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Nonmaterial benefits from nature, often labeled as cultural ecosystem services, represent a core dimension of human well-being. Yet despite their importance, these benefits and associated values remain overlooked in environmental assessments and decisions.

This dissertation applies insights from multiple disciplines to document nonmaterial dimensions of human-nature interactions across geographic contexts and user groups. As nonmaterial benefits can be hard to elicit and measure, this work uses multiple existing data collection methods and tests a novel data collection tool. First, I use a qualitative study design to explore values and stewardship practices associated with urban foraging in New York City, NY. …

Perceived Addictiveness Of Marijuana, Tobacco And Alcohol Use In Vermont Youth And Young Adults: Associations Between Addiction Perceptions, Sociodemographics, And Substance Use, Julia C. West

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Dual and poly-tobacco and substance use are increasingly prevalent in youth and young adults. Current substance use prevention media efforts target addiction perceptions in young people; however, little is known about the perceived addictiveness of multiple substances among young people. The goal of the current study is to examine youth and young adults perceive addictiveness across several substances and the associations between addiction perceptions and substance use. Data were collected in Spring and Summer 2019 (Waves 1 and 2) as part of PACE Vermont, an online cohort study of Vermonters aged 12–25. Latent class analyses grouped participants by responses to …

We Are Our Memories: Evaluating The Efficacy Of A New Caregiver-Mediated Intervention To Support Episodic Memory In Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Ashley Rae Brien

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Episodic memory (EM) is memory for past personal experiences; it is foundational to the development of imagination, introspection, future thinking, and social problem-solving and it shapes one’s self-concept, identity, and life story. EM and theory of mind (ToM) are developmentally intertwined and functionally dependent, and impairments in each are well-documented in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Despite tremendous empirical and theoretical import for the construal of EM as a core deficit in the social challenges in ASD, no formal interventions have been developed to support EM in this population. Meanwhile, an impressive body of literature has documented that one particular caregiver …

The Developmental Course Of Adhd In The Preschool Classroom: Toward A Prevention Treatment Framework, Caroline Martin

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

The objective of this study was to examine the developmental trajectories of inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity symptom levels during preschool among a majority Head Start sample of 261 three- to five-year-old children (87% Head Start; 59% Caucasian; 53% boys; Mage = 3.97 years). Teacher ratings of ADHD symptom levels across four time points within the academic year demonstrated, on average, a course of increasing inattention that decelerated over time and a course of steadily increasing hyperactivity/impulsivity. When accounting for the clustering of children within classrooms, both inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity showed an average increasing trajectory over the year with no deceleration. Group-based …

Language Problems And Adhd Behaviors: Associations With School Readiness In An At-Risk Preschool Sample, Marissa Dennis

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

This study examines the unique and interactive effects of preschoolers’ receptive language ability and ADHD behavior levels on social-emotional, physical, language, cognitive, literacy, and mathematics school readiness, over and above the effects of socioeconomic status (SES). At the start of the preschool year, 49 predominantly low-SES preschool children completed a receptive language task and teachers rated their ADHD behavior levels. School readiness data were collected approximately three months after the start of the school year. First, hierarchical regression analyses indicated that, after controlling for covariates and the non-focal predictor (i.e., ADHD behaviors or receptive language ability), higher levels of receptive …

The Food-Energy-Water Nexus, Embodied Injustices, And Transboundary Sustainability, Sonya Ahamed

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Intersections of food, energy, and water systems (the FEW nexus) pose many sustainability and governance challenges, including risks to ecosystems, inequitable distribution of benefits and harms across populations, and reliance on distant sources for food, energy, and water. Nexus-based approaches can offer more holistic pathways for societal transitions to FEW systems that are just and sustainable, but tend to focus narrowly on inputs (e.g. water ‘for’ energy) in ways that do little to address the historical roots and structural underpinnings of current system inadequacies, thus risking their perpetuation.

This dissertation widens the FEW nexus in two contexts in which the …

Exploring Weight Control Expectancies As A Mediator Of The Relationship Between Fear Of Fat And Nicotine Dependence In Smokers And Vapers, Emily Pomichter

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Specific drug-use expectancies are shaped by reports from others about the effects of the drug, by an individual’s own experience with the drug, or by both. The present study hypothesized that, among smokers and e-cigarette users (vapers), an individual’s fear of weight gain would be associated with higher endorsement of appetite and weight control expectancies from nicotine use, which in turn would be associated with self-reported levels of nicotine dependence. The participants were smokers (n = 514) and vapers (n = 412) who responded to a Qualtrics survey advertised via Amazon’s Mechanical Turk platform. As predicted, nicotine’s appetite and weight …

Body Mass Index And Atypical Balance Score As Predictors Of Treatment Outcomes For Seasonal Affective Disorder, Praise Iyiewuare

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Efficacious treatments for winter seasonal affective disorder (SAD) include light therapy (LT) and cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT-SAD); however, it is unknown whether patient baseline characteristics differentially predict treatment outcomes. The present study investigated body mass index (BMI) and atypical balance as prognostic and prescriptive predictors of SAD treatment outcomes using data from a parent study in which 177 adults diagnosed with Major Depression, Recurrent with Seasonal Pattern were randomized to either CBT-SAD (n = 88) or LT (n = 89). At pre-treatment, BMI was assessed and atypical balance was derived using the Structured Interview Guide for the Hamilton Rating Scale for …

Autonomic Reactivity In Emerging Adulthood : Relationships Between Cyberbullying , The Autonomic Nervous System, And Clinical Outcomes., Aya Cheaito

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

With the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, online environments have become critical ways of connecting among college students. With the increase in online interactions, cybervictimization has been identified as a public health issue. This study aims to examine whether cybervictimization among college students is associated with clinical adjustment outcomes such as depression and alcohol consumption. This study also aims to examine whether reactivity in the two branches of the autonomic nervous system (sympathetic and parasympathetic) jointly moderate the relationship between cyberbullying and depression/alcohol consumption, indicating sensitivity to the environment. Participants (n =164, 69% female, M age = 19.92, SD = …

Personality Pathology In Winter Depression: Prevalence And Treatment Trajectories In Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy And Light Therapy, Julia Marie Terman

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Personality disorders are highly comorbid with major depression; however, findings are mixed regarding their impact on depression treatment outcomes and trajectories. Limited research has studied personality pathology in winter depression, specifically. This study (1) explored the prevalence of personality pathology in winter depression and (2) examined its effects on winter depression treatment trajectories. Participants were 174 adults with Major Depression, Recurrent with Seasonal Pattern from a randomized clinical trial comparing group cognitive-behavioral therapy for seasonal affective disorder (CBT-SAD) and light therapy. Participants completed the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-III (MCMI-III; Millon et al., 1994) at baseline. The prevalence of MCMI-III-defined pathological …

The Development And Validation Of The Supportive Other Experiences Questionnaire: Integrating The Perspectives Of The Social Support Provider After Traumatic Injury, Katherine Ann Van Stolk-Cooke

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Social support is considered to be a protective factor against the development of PTSD after trauma. However, examinations of the social support-PTSD relationship have relied primarily on the self-reports of trauma-exposed individuals to the exclusion of their support providers. A new measure, the Supportive Other Experiences Questionnaire (SOEQ) was developed based on social support theory, prior research and psychometrics in order to capture important components of social support from the perspective of the support provider. Concerned Significant Others (CSOs) recruited via Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk) platform who served as support providers to a traumatically injured romantic partner were recruited to …

Exploring Hidden Networks Yields Important Insights In Disparate Fields Of Study, Laurence Clarfeld

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Network science captures a broad range of problems related to things (nodes) and relationships between them (edges). This dissertation explores real-world network problems in disparate domain applications where exploring less obvious "hidden networks" reveals important dynamics of the original network.

The power grid is an explicit network of buses (e.g., generators) connected by branches (e.g., transmission lines). In rare cases, if k branches (a k-set) fail simultaneously, a cascading blackout may ensue; we refer to such k-sets as "defective". We calculate system risk of cascading failure due to defective 2-sets and 3-sets in synthetic test cases of the Polish and …

The Relationship Between Dominant And Submissive Sexual Fantasies And Behaviors And Sexual Satisfaction, Lilian Rae Dalton

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Sexual fantasies of dominance and submission are commonly reported as preferred fantasies in healthy women, yet little is understood regarding whether these fantasies affect other aspects of sexuality (Leitenberg et al., 1995). Even less research exists regarding associations between dominant and submissive fantasies, dominant and submissive sexual behavior, and resulting sexual satisfaction. It is not well understood how sexual fantasy may translate into sexual behavior in non-clinical populations, and what factors might facilitate or inhibit individuals’ engagement in sexual behavior that matches their sexual fantasies.

The current study measured the relationship between dominant and submissive sexual fantasies, dominant and submissive …

Food From Somewhere: Envisioning And Practicing Aspirational Food Systems, Caitlin Morgan

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

This transdisciplinary dissertation explores the connections between material conditions, human engagements, and the social, economic, and ecological contexts in which they exist. It investigates imaginations of a better food system, projects people have already undertaken, and what happens when their visions meet reality.

Chapter 1 weaves together diverse literature: a justification for action-oriented research and a blending of ecofeminist scholarship, agroecology and sustainable agriculture, ecological economics, systems theory and food systems scholarship, and sensory studies. These disciplines tie together through notions of embeddedness, embodiment, and the context for action, which all translate to the dissertation’s methodological approach of mixed qualitative …

Predictors Of Suicidal Ideation Among Formerly Incarcerated People During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Rachel Matthes Gehman

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Background and purpose: Formerly incarcerated people die by suicide at a rate 6.75 times higher than the general population, but previous research has not identified factors that contribute to this heightened risk. The conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic may exacerbate both suicide risk factors and the stressors of reentry. In the framework of stress proliferation theory, this study uses path analysis to identify paths from incarceration history to environmental factors (i.e., financial stress), interpersonal factors (i.e., social support and conflict), psychological factors (i.e., depression and existential isolation, the feeling of being alone in one’s subjective experience), and their subsequent relationship …

Capturing The Experiences Of Gender Non-Conforming Children Through The Minority Stress Model, Hannah Loso

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Gender non-conforming (GNC) adolescents experience staggering rates of peer and family victimization and discrimination. Recent research suggests children who present as GNC are more likely to experience distress regardless of their gender identity (e.g. Wilson et al., 2017). Increased mental health issues experienced by GNC youth can be conceptualized using Ilan Meyer’s Minority Stress model (Meyer, 1995; Meyer, 2003). This model posits three major processes related to minority stress: (1) distal - external and objective stressful conditions, (2) proximal - the expectation of victimization or discrimination and (3) internalization of negative societal attitudes related to one’s minority status. Although minority …

An International Pilot Study Of Volunteer Stream Monitoring Groups: The Role Of Place Attachment In Volunteer Motivations, Rachel Pierson

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Engaging the public in scientific research through volunteer monitoring (a form of community science) has potential to expand knowledge of conditions and to improve collaborative decision-making. Many studies have sought to understand motivations for participation and potential resulting actions or behaviors that benefit the environment. Place-based connections have been demonstrated to lead people to adopt environmentally responsible behaviors. However, few studies have considered possible differences in motivations across countries or the role place attachment may play as a driver of initial or sustained participation.

The aim of this research was to determine the extent to which place attachment influences people’s …