Digital Commons Network^™

Potential For Policy Conflict Among Alligator Hunters In Texas, Usa, Christopher Serenari, Elizabeth N. Pratt, Abigail Meeks, Elena C. Rubino, Kristy L. Daniel

Human–Wildlife Interactions

Policy termination is a tool to ensure that antiquated or underperforming policies are updated or replaced. Understanding how terminating a policy might be received by core wildlife constituencies, such as hunters, is a critical insight to provide agencies and managers with the tools to make wildlife policy changes a more seamless process. However, this critical but negative policy approach is often overlooked in favor of investigating positive policy preferences (i.e., preferences for new policy). To help fill this gap, we applied the potential for conflict index (PCI₂) to data from a survey of 318 spring American alligator ( …

An Unmanned Aircraft System For Marking Live Power Lines To Prevent Bird Collisions, Mattheuns D. Pretorius, Lourens Leeuwner, Kaajial Durgapersad, Constant Hoogstad, Peter Beckedahl, Michael D. Michael, Kishaylin Chetty

Human–Wildlife Interactions

Collisions with overhead power lines represent a significant cause of mortality for a number of large bird species worldwide. Certain threatened species are severely impacted by power line collisions, particularly those for which there are no other known significant threats. In South Africa, bird collisions with overhead power line cables, including collisions with phase conductors and shield wires, contribute significantly to annual threatened bird species mortalities associated with Eskom power lines. The most practical mitigation measure is to attach bird anti-collision devices as markers on the cables. Current marking methods involve installations by hand, where linemen are hoisted up to …

Cover, Editorial Staff, Journal Information

Human–Wildlife Interactions

This includes the cover, editorial staff, and journal information.

Changes Coming To Human–Wildlife Interactions Publishing Procedures, S. Nicole Frey

Human–Wildlife Interactions

The editor-in-chief provides information about upcoming journal policy and procedure changes.

Merging Lanes, S. Nicole Frey

Human–Wildlife Interactions

This is the letter from the editor-in-chief of Volume 17, Issue 3.

Raccoon Selection For Anthropogenic Resources Provides Challenges For Wildlife Management In Yosemite Valley, Erika L. Anderson, Sean M. Matthews, David S. Green, E. Binta Wold, Katie Patrick, Rachel Mazur

Human–Wildlife Interactions

Managing human–wildlife incidents dominates the attention and resources of many wildlife management programs. National parks in the United States have a long history with human–wildlife interactions and conflicts. Improvements in communication with visitors, food-storage infrastructure, regulation enforcement, and the management of habituated and food-conditioned animals have decreased human–wildlife conflicts. Yosemite National Park, California, USA, is well known for its history of human–bear (Ursus spp.) conflicts. However, in the Yosemite Valley portion of Yosemite National Park, conflicts with raccoons (Procyon lotor) now outnumber those with black bears (U. americanus). Like bears, raccoons pose a risk of …

Human–Alligator Incidents In The United States: Risky Human Behaviors Cause Most “Attacks”, Mark S. Teshera, Azar Kordbacheh, Frank J. Mazzotti

Human–Wildlife Interactions

Interactions between humans and American alligators (Alligator mississippiensis), often resulting in negative outcomes for both participants, have occurred for centuries in the United States. As both populations increased over time, contact and conflict with one another became inevitable. Although human–alligator conflicts have been well documented, there has been no detailed classification of risk factors associated with human activities immediately preceding, and in most cases precipitating, an encounter. Herein, we provide a ranking system to categorize different human activities, based on risk levels, immediately preceding an encounter with an alligator. To complete our review in 2021, we initially gleaned …

The Impact Of Feral Honey Bees On Endangered Seabirds In The Hawaiian Islands, André Francis Raine, Scott Driskill, Stephen Rossiter, Jennifer Rothe, Kyle Pias, Rachel Sprague, Alex Dutcher

Human–Wildlife Interactions

The ʻaʻo (Puffinus newellii; Newell’s shearwater) and ʻuaʻu (Pterodroma sandwichensis; Hawaiian petrel) are both endangered seabirds endemic to the Hawaiian Archipelago. For the last decade, multiple colonies on the islands of Kauaʻi and Lānaʻi have been the focus of intensive management (particularly predator control) and monitoring programs. Management has been effective at reducing the number of introduced mammalian predators recorded within colonies with a resultant increase in reproductive success rates for both seabird species. However, in recent years a new threat has emerged—feral honey bees (Apis mellifera; bees)—which were deliberately introduced to the Hawaiian …

Lawyering Somewhere Between Computation And The Will To Act: A Digital Age Reflection, Jeffrey M. Lipshaw

Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works

This is a reflection on machine and human contributions to lawyering in the digital age. Increasingly capable machines can already unleash massive processing power on vast stores of discovery and research data to assess relevancies and, at times, to predict legal outcomes. At the same time, there is wide acceptance, at least among legal academics, of the conclusions from behavioral psychology that slow, deliberative “System 2” thinking (perhaps replicated computationally) needs to control the heuristics and biases to which fast, intuitive “System 1” thinking is prone. Together, those trends portend computational deliberation – artificial intelligence or machine learning – substituting …

Pre-Session Pairing Impacts On Compliance, Britton Dallas

Research Papers

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a developmental disability with persistent deficits in communication, social interactions, and the occurrence of repetitive or restricted patterns of behavior. Individuals with ASD also commonly engage in challenging behaviors. Early intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI), based on applied behavioral analysis (ABA), is a recommended treatment for children with ASD to address these deficits and excesses. Challenging behaviors in those with ASD have been derived by the presentation of instructions. To circumvent challenging behaviors during instruction periods, research has recommended that pre-session pairing should occur prior to initiating demands. In the present study, three children diagnosed with …

The Evaluation Of Juvenile Rehabilitative Approaches, Rylie Wheeler

Research Papers

The current research seeks to evaluate current juvenile rehabilitative approaches and analyze their effectiveness in reducing juvenile offending behaviors. The juvenile justice system is analyzed from a historical perspective beginning prior to the establishment of the juvenile justice system in the 19^th century and leading to the current approaches of the 21^st century. Developmental research has found that most juveniles will desist from delinquency on their own by naturally growing out of their offending behavior. However, when juveniles become involved in the justice system the opportunity to age out of offending behavior is limited. Recognizing this, the juvenile …

Still, We Thrive: Understanding How Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, And Other Men Who Have Sex With Men (Gbtmsm) Experience Structural Barriers & Facilitators To Wellness, Lucas Gergyek

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Historically and concurrently, structural violence has been a significant force influencing the sexual health and broader health of gay, bisexual, transgender and other men who have sex with men (GBTMSM). Yet to date, the majority of projects exploring the health inequities facing GBTMSM have focused on intrapsychic and behavioural factors as most related to poor health outcomes. As well, these studies are sometimes deficits focused, and fail to evaluate how GBTMSM continue to thrive, and maintain positive health. As a result, the ways in which systems and policies underlie and perpetuate health inequities facing GBTMSM have been somewhat obscured. Connectedly, …

I Am Queer And Asian: The Crossroad Of Race And Lgbtqia+ Identity Among Queer Asian Canadian Youth And The Impacts Of The Covid-19 Pandemic, Kenny Chee

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

LGBTQIA+ Asian youth face unique challenges due to their intersecting identities. Utilizing Asian Critical Race Theory and the Integration Model of Stress and Trauma in LGBTQIA+ Asians, LGBTQIA+ Asian youth are likely to experience detrimental mental health outcomes due to the stigmatization within their Asian culture and racial discrimination from the LGBTQIA+ communities. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated existing challenges because of the closure of community spaces and increased hate crimes against Asians. Nonetheless, research on the intersectional experiences of LGBTQIA+ Asians in Canada, especially in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic is sparse. Thus, to address this gap, I …

Examining Foot And Lower Leg Muscular Activation During Slip Recovery, Keara Sutherland

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Slips during gait are the leading cause of falls and subsequent serious injury in young and older adults. Reactive balance responses generated by the lower limb muscles can restore balance and minimize the chance of experiencing a fall. The purpose of this study was to examine the role of the deep muscles in the lower leg and muscles within the foot during recovery from an unexpected slip perturbation. We hypothesized that lower leg musculature and intrinsic foot muscles would exhibit an earlier onset, longer duration, and increased magnitude during slips compared to level walking and that muscle activity would have …

Employees’ Reactions To Their Supervisors’ (Lack Of) Discretionary Adjustments In Performance Evaluations, Joanna Andrejkow

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The purpose of my dissertation is to investigate how employees react to their supervisors’ decisions not to use ex-post discretionary adjustments to mitigate the effects that negative unexpected events have on their bonuses. To address this objective, I pose the following research question: Will the level of interdependence inherent within the compensation of multiple employees (i.e., compensation interdependence) and the likelihood the event will reoccur (i.e., future event likelihood) affect employees’ reactions (future effort and workplace deviance) when they don’t receive ex-post discretionary adjustments to mitigate the effects of negative events?

I address my research question using an experiment where …

Disrupting And Expanding The Discourse: Palliative Care Clinicians' Experiences With Patients' Non-Physical Suffering, Maxxine Rattner

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

While one of the primary aims of palliative care is to prevent and relieve suffering, both physical and non-physical, research to date has been very limited re: clinicians’ experiences with patients’ non-physical suffering (e.g., suffering that may be psychological, emotional, social, spiritual and/or existential in nature); both how clinicians work with/respond to this kind of suffering in their day-to-day work, and the effect of this aspect of their work on clinicians themselves. No research to date has considered the impact of palliative care’s dominant non-physical suffering discourse — which presents the relief of non-physical suffering as falling along a binary …

Vapourized Cannabis Extract Administration Impairs Memory And Alters Neural Activity In Laboratory Rats, Megan Chladny

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Although people have smoked cannabis for millennia, administration of cannabis by heating the dried plant material or distilled extracts to a temperature just below the combustion point (i.e., vapourization or "vaping") has rapidly increased over the past few years (Javadi-Payder, Cole, and Taffe, 2018; Manwell, Charchoglyan, Brewer, Matthews, Heipel, and Mallet, 2014). Conversely, most of the cannabinoid research using rodent models has used parenteral routes of administration to examine the effects of purified cannabis extracts such as ∆⁹-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), making it difficult to directly compare laboratory research to human drug use. Building on previous studies showing that THC …

Winter Dynamics Of Storm Water Management Ponds And Winter Tolerance In Three Aquatic Plant Species, Patrick Strzalkowski

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The vast majority of the research into the performance of stormwater management ponds (SWMPs) has been performed in warm regions or during the warmer seasons in temperate regions. It is presumed that SWMPs are inactive in the winter as any potential stormwater is trapped in snow and ice. The main goal of this thesis was to test this presumption and to study the dynamics and performance of three SWMPs during the winter. Remote water level loggers were installed into the three SWMPs and daily grab samples from the influents and effluents were taken and analyzed for total phosphorus (TP), chloride, …

Assessment Of Stream Metabolism And Associated Environmental Drivers In The Greiner Lake Watershed, Nunavut, Canada, Nicole Gotkowski

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Stream metabolism is an ecological process that can be monitored to assess carbon cycling and productivity within a stream ecosystem. GPP (gross primary productivity) is measured as oxygen produced by autotrophs and ER (ecosystem respiration), which is measured by oxygen depleted by all living organisms. Complications arise when estimating GPP and ER in the Arctic because most methods require a period of darkness when GPP ceases, however, summer regimes of photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) do not reach zero. Furthermore, natural diffusion of oxygen from the atmosphere (k) must be accounted for but this requires extensive field work, thus posing problems …

Assessing The Biocatalytic Promiscuity Of Pep- Transformations For Geminal-Difluorination, Eloy Jose Torres Garcia

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Fluorine is the most electronegative chemical element and can drastically change molecular properties, such as drug pharmacokinetics and agrochemical half-life. Although a great deal of progress is occurring in synthetic methods to access various organofluorines, these methods struggle with harsh conditions and limited substrate scope. Biocatalytic approaches offer the potential to access organofluorines that are difficult or impossible with the current methodology. Phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP) is a central metabolite and biosynthetic precursor for diverse molecules. Phosphoenol pyruvate mutase (Ppm) catalyses the interconversion of Phosphonopyruvate (PnPy) to Phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP). This research successfully expressed and …

Contrasting Seasonal Cycling Of Arsenic In A Series Of Subarctic Shield Lakes With Different Morphometric Properties, Jeremy Harbinson

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The subarctic shield near Yellowknife, Northwest Territories (NWT), is populated with thousands of small lakes (<1.5 km²) and several large lakes. Historic mining activities in the region have left a legacy of environmental impacts and widespread arsenic (As) contamination in both aquatic and terrestrial environments. In particular, several small subarctic lakes near Yellowknife have been previously documented to be contaminated with high levels of As. Subarctic lakes are characterized by seasonal ice-cover that can persist for more than half of the year, yet little is known about the under-ice spatial and seasonal dynamics of As cycling. The objective of …

Distinctiveness And Similarity: How The Sub-Trait Facets Of The Big Five Self-Organize To Create Personality Types, Jonathan Thiessen

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The belief that people can be placed within a personality typology has persisted for millennia. At least as far back as Hippocrates (ca. 460 BCE–370 BCE) people were believed to be of a kind based on the four humors—blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm. Since then, there have been many conceptions of personality typologies. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and the Enneagram of Personality are likely the most well-known personality typologies among the general public. Despite their wide public usage, neither typology boasts strong empirical support. However, psychology continues to investigate personality for evidence of a typology of personality. In …

Differences In Drifting Invertebrate Communities Across Arctic Ecozones And The Influence On Potential Growth Of Grayling (Thymallus Arcticus), Charles Chanyi

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Invertebrate drift is a key process that potentially affects multiple levels of food web organization within stream environments. However, our understanding of the mechanistic drivers of drift in high latitude streams and subsequent bottom-up control that drift may have on fish predators in these environments remains understudied. This project aimed to gain the baseline knowledge of how drift functions across two major high latitude ecozones, the boreal forest and tundra, and how those possible differences in drifting community characteristics may impact drift-feeding Arctic grayling (Thymallus arcticus). These objectives were accomplished by characterizing stream environments across both ecozones, sampling …

The Design And Characterization Of Gold Nanoclusters As Elementary Building Blocks, Heather Gaebler

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Gold nanoclusters with diameters in the quantum size regime (< ~2 nm) are promising building blocks for the design of novel nanomaterials as they exhibit unique size-dependent properties that can be altered and fine-tuned. The research outlined in this PhD thesis employs density functional theory to construct and analyze small ligand-protected cage and rod-shaped nanoclusters. Chapter 2 reports stable halide-protected gold nanocages that were engineered to have a closed-shell valence electron count of 18. This study finds that nanocages comprised of 19 and 20 gold atoms can be converted into stable magic number species containing 18 valence electrons by modifying their charged states via adsorption of halide ligands to the cage’s surface. Chapter 3 reports stable ligand-protected gold nanoclusters with a tetrahedral Au₄ core that were engineered to have a closed-shell valence electron count of 2. This study investigates the structural and electronic effects of halide and alkoxy ligands on the tetrahedral nanocluster and concludes that the results support the broader conclusion that it’s possible to fine-tune the stability and electronic properties of small gold nanoclusters using appropriate ligands. Chapter 4 reports stable gold nanorods that have diameters in the quantum regime that were constructed from elementary building blocks that contain “halide-staples”. This study presents different orientations of the “halide-staple” motifs on …

Exploring The Effectiveness Of Ecological Momentary Assessment And Video At Eliciting The Impact Of Park Features On Human Health And Well-Being In A Protected Area Context, Katelyn O'Bright

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

It is increasingly recognized that contact with nature in parks and other forms of protected areas provides benefits to visitors’ physical, mental, social, spiritual, and intellectual health and well-being. However, the methods used to assess these outcomes, including the influence of different environmental features that lead to these benefits, is under-researched. To address this gap, this study used a mixed methods design to explore the effectiveness of using Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) and video to assess the impact of various park features on the self-perceived (subjective) health and well-being of visitors. Participants were prompted by a mobile application on their …

An Exploration Of The Link Between Vertebral Endplate Fracture, Velocity, And Health Of The Intervertebral Disc., John Mcmorran

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The capacity for fractures to manifest in the growth cartilage of the adolescent human spine is well documented, but much of the knowledge available regarding such fractures remains retrospective and is largely composed of small case series made up of relatively few participants. In-vitro tissue testing has demonstrated that pressurization of the intervertebral disc’s nucleus pulposus significantly contributes to the generation of growth plate fractures. However, a comprehensive biomechanical investigation of the mechanical consequences for the intervertebral disc when exposed to ring apophyseal (growth plate) fractures at different velocities remains to be demonstrated.

The first two experiments of the present …

Nitrogen: Both A Potential Stimulator And Suppressor Of Cyanobacterial Blooms In Temperate Lakes, Catherine Goltz

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Cyanobacterial blooms are complex phenomenon that are impacted and controlled by various factors such as lake depth, air temperature, wind, and nutrient loading. Nutrients such as phosphorus, nitrogen and iron all have very differing effects on cyanobacterial blooms. While phosphorus and iron are known to drive cyanobacterial biomass, nitrogen has been observed to have a direct impact on toxin synthesis. Nitrogen exists in the environment in many different forms such as atmospheric N₂, in inorganic forms such as nitrate and ammonium as well as in organic forms such as urea which can all affect cyanobacterial bloom development differently. …

Exploring The Membrane Protein And Peptide Interactions Of Mitochondrial And Bacterial Lipid Systems, George Saudan

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This study aims to expand the understanding of interactions between membrane lipids and proteins, and relate it to their biological functions in two experimental systems. The first system focuses on the interaction and conformation of a membrane protein Uncoupling Protein 4 (UCP4) in mitochondrial inner membrane lipids, in the absence and presence of cardiolipin; a lipid specific to mitochondrial inner membranes. The second system considers the interaction and conformation of a cell penetrating peptide, Penetratin, which can interact with both mammalian and bacterial cells. A N- and C-termini protected form of this 16-meric peptide (Pen2) was used to explore its …

A Closer Look At The Role Of Precipitation And Air-Sea Gas Exchange Of Circumpolar Waters In The Eastern Amundsen Sea, Antarctica, Virginia Cousens

Open Access Master's Theses

Pine Island Glacier in the remote Amundsen Sea has exhibited some of the most pronounced thinning and retreat in Western Antarctica in recent decades, resulting in significant influx of freshwater to the region. These dynamic changes are caused by climate sensitive processes from warming ocean currents to changing air temperature. Glacial melt in this region has been thought to dominate the freshwater budget, but meltwater tracers suggest precipitation may also be significant in terms of freshwater flux. Here, we take a closer look at the magnitude of precipitation derived from oxygen-18 and noble gases as freshwater tracers and seek to …

Exploratory Analyses Of American Lobster Habitat Preferences And Catchability In Ventless Trap Surveys, Annabelle Leahy

Open Access Master's Theses

Numerous factors must be considered in efforts to rebuild sustainable stock levels of the Southern New England (SNE) lobster stock including changing uses of marine space, such as the growth of the offshore wind industry, and stressors such as rising ocean temperatures. These factors may change the species’ habitat use and could further impact the ability of the region to support a healthy lobster population. This work uses data from pre-wind farm construction ventless trap surveys to further characterize the suitable habitat of the SNE lobster stock and to examine the effects of survey design, namely trap position and trap …