Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Visitor Behaviors And Resource Impacts At Cadillac Mountain, Acadia National Park, Rex Turner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The summit of Cadillac Mountain, located in Maine's Acadia National Park, can be reached via three hiking trails and a scenic auto road. This site attracts over an estimated two million visitors per year. Most of this visitation is concentrated from Memorial Day to Labor Day. The sensitive sub-alpine nature of the site, coupled with high visitation rates, has created a scenario where significant vegetation and soil damage occurs. Additionally, Acadia National Park has experienced chronic problems at this site stemming from visitors altering, destroying, or constructing cairns (pyramid shaped piles of rocks built by trail crews to mark trails …

Lithic Analysis Of Chipped Stone Artifacts Recovered From Quebrada Jaguay, Peru, Benjamin R. Tanner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Quebrada Jaguay, a Terminal Pleistocene to Early Holocene archaeological site in Southern Peru, is recognized as one of the few sites in the Americas that features evidence of a Paleoindian maritime adaptation. Faunal remains from this multicomponent shell midden include shellfish, fish, crustaceans, and shorebirds. Lithic remains recovered from the site over the course of two field seasons (1996 and 1999) provide information about the technology of the site's inhabitants and afford comparisons with other contemporary sites. These lithic materials provide answers to questions dealing with lithic procurement and production strategies and questions about relationships with other groups along the …

Maine Hospice Volunteers: A Study Of Motivations, Death Awareness And Religious Beliefs, Anne F. Donovan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Volunteers are an essential part of the hospice movement, which is designed to provide services to the terminally ill, their families, and friends, in a manner that allows death to be as dignified and peaceful as possible. Motivations for volunteering, attitudes about death and dying, and demographic characteristics were assessed in this survey study of Maine hospice volunteers (573 females, 128 males). The extent to which religious and spiritual beliefs were associated with volunteers’ ability to cope with the many aspects of death and dying that they confront were also examined. Based on responses to a standardized instrument, the Collett-Lester …

Economic Factors That Influence Soybean And Canola Prices, Lei Cui

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The USDA Agricultural Research Service is examining the feasibility and profitability of growing Canola and soybeans in potato rotation systems. The study described in this thesis is part of this research program. The primary objective of this research is to look for economic factors that influence soybean and Canola prices. Canola is a new oilseed crop to the U.S. Since the Food and Drug Administration approved its use as edible food, Canola production in the US. has increased tremendously. Because only 11 years of data are available on Canola consumption and production in the U.S., it is difficult to empirically …

Effects Of Neonatal Clomipramine Treatment On Photic And Non-Photic Circadian Phase Shifting In Rats, Suzanne M. Dwyer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Neonatal exposure to monoaminergic antidepressant drugs produces a wide variety of effects on the behavior and physiology of adult rats which parallel those observed in human depression. Monoaminergic neurotransmitter systems are involved in the regulation of both affective and circadian behaviors, and alterations in circadian rhythmicity have been observed in depressed patients and in several other animal depression models. The purpose of the present study was to explore circadian phase shifting following neonatal antidepressant treatment. Neonatal rats were divided into three treatment groups; a clomipramine-treated group, a saline-treated group, and an unhandled group. Daily injections of clomipramine (25 mg/kg SC), …

Towards A Spatial Model Of Rurality, Gillian Avruskin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The term rural is used to describe people, places, traditions, and spaces. It is often employed as a setting for study as well as an object of study. People’s perceptions of rural are confused and differ considerably. For over a century researchers have attempted to define more precisely this term using social, economic, and or ecological components. However, problems of interpreting official definitions and measurements exist. These definitions require extensions in order to capture a more objective meaning of the word. This thesis presents the foundations of a new approach to measuring and defining rurality. A spatial based approach is …

Image-Based Change Detection Using An Integrated Spatiotemporal Gazetteer, Georgios Mountrakis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis addresses image-based change detection. Motivation was provided by the lack of algorithms that incorporate in their solution diverse types of pre-existing and complementary information and have the ability to interact with a spatiotemporal environment. The main differentiation with our approach is that we develop our algorithm within an integrated spatiotemporal environment and we make use of all change evidence that might exist within that environment. In addition, a change resolution model is developed that will distinguish meaningful changes based on user requirements. A model for change is proposed that establishes a general framework for the incorporation of image …

The Good Girl Bad Girl Dilemma: Exploring Rural Maine Girls' Sexual Desires, Behaviors, And Relationships, Mary Madden

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the past decade, feminist researchers have re-framed girls’ developmental issues examining the complexities inherent in growing up female in a patriarchal society. In particular, these studies have provided information on the complications girls encounter in their efforts to negotiate ideals of white middle-class conventions of femininity. In the few studies that examine how these ideals of femininity effect girls’ sexuality, rural girls from poor and working-class families are rarely considered. The goal of this study was to deepen and expand the current understanding of adolescent girls’ sexuality by bringing the voices of rural girls from poor and working-class families …

The Content And Process Of Women’S Decision-Making Viewed Through The Lenses Of Feminine/Feminist Ethics And Roman Catholicism, Nancy Parent Bancroft

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this investigation was to expand the understanding of ethical decision-making by contributing women’s experiences and thoughts to the issue. Fifty women shared a decision that they had made or were in the process of making having to do with their health or reproductive life. The research method of phenomenology was used with the women in the semi-structured interviews in an attempt to capture the meaning that they gave both to what they paid attention to and to the process that they used in arriving at their decisions. After researchers gained as clear a rendering as possible of …

Topological Equivalence And Similarity In Multi-Representation Geographic Databases, Joao Argemiro De Carvalho Paiva

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Geographic databases contain collections of spatial data representing the variety of views for the real world at a specific time. Depending on the resolution or scale of the spatial data, spatial objects may have different spatial dimensions, and they may be represented by point, linear, or polygonal features, or combination of them. The diversity of data that are collected over the same area, often from different sources, imposes a question of how to integrate and to keep them consistent in order to provide correct answers for spatial queries. This thesis is concerned with the development of a tool to check …

Teen Pregnancy: What Brings Teens To Family Planning Clinics For Pregnancy Tests, Norma Reynolds Allen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the factors that bring teenage girls to family planning clinics for pregnancy tests. This study focused on those teens requesting pregnancy tests to investigate the circumstances surrounding their concern that they may be pregnant. A total of 116 teenage girls, between the ages of 13 and 19 completed the 21 item questionnaire. While the results of this study did support previous research showing that teens are using birth control, results found correct and consistent use to be a problem. While most teenage girls reported that they use condoms (73%), over half did …

Making Sense Of Direction: Proximity And Order In Asymmetric Paired Comparison Data, Jonathan M. Borkum

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In a square asymmetric matrix, the relationships among objects in the lower triangular half-matrix, differ from the relationships among the same objects in the upper triangular half. Square, asymmetric matrices can arise in similarity and preference data, when the direction of comparison is important. An asymmetric matrix can be rendered symmetric by averaging corresponding entries above and below the main diagonal. The difference between the original and the symmetric matrix is purely asymmetric, or skew-symmetric. The symmetric and skew-symmetric pans are orthogonal. An eigenvector-eigenvalue decomposition analyses the asymmetries into rank 2 skew-symmetric matrices, having an optimum least squares fit to …

Integrated Spatial Reasoning In Geographic Information Systems: Combining Topology And Direction, Jayant Sharma

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As Geographic Information Systems (GISs) have gained wider acceptance and application, the interest in spatial modeling and reasoning has deepened. The purpose of a model and reasoning framework is to permit a user to experiment and study causal relationships in the real world by operating on the model only. Traditionally GISs employ purely quantitative methods to represent and infer spatial information. This approach has serious shortcomings when dealing with qualitative spatial information, which may be incomplete or imprecise and does not contain knowledge of the geometry of the spatial objects, which humans are particularly adept at utilizing in their daily …

The Rise Of The Marburg Phoenix: Karl Vorlaender's Kantian/Marxian Synthesis As Key In The Debate Over Capitalism Vs. Economic Democracy, Kevin M. Mccarron

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Mainstream economics has long avoided two issues pressing on the discipline and on society: Ownership of the means of production and ethics. While Adam Smith clearly presented his Wealth of Nations as a normative adjunct to his Theory of Moral Sentiments, he left alone the question of ownership. While Karl Marx presented a detailed critique of the theory and practice of capitalism, he failed to produce an explicit ethical theory to explain why capitalism is unacceptable. In 1971 there appeared a work that would have great impact on the academic world, John Rawls' A Theory of Justice. Here was a …

Freedom Of Commerce: The History And Archaeology Of Trade At St. Castin’S Habitation 1670-1701, Brooke Ann Manross

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Settled on the often disputed border of New England and Acadia during the last quarter of the 17th century, the Baron Jean Vincent de l’Abbadie de St. Castin operated a trading post at the confluence of the Penobscot and Bagaduce Rivers near the modem town of Castin, Maine. Castin was an entrepreneur who traded with the Abenaki Indians of Acadia and Maine for peltry. Although he was French, Castin exchanged this peltry with Massachusetts merchants in order to get the European trade items necessary to supply his Abenaki clientele. Castin preferred trade to warfare, nevertheless, he was often embroiled in …

Pattern And Variation In Prehistoric Lithic Resource Exploitation In The Passamaquoddy Bay Region, Charlotte County, New Brunswick, Anita L. Crotts

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examines some factors that affected choice and use of lithic resources among prehistoric peoples living within a restricted geographical area during a period of 2500 years. The raw materials of chipped stone tools from six shell middens, habitation sites in the Passamaquoddy Bay region of southwestern New Brunswick, are identified. These include rocks that are atypical of the regional geology. Source areas of indigenous materials are located. Canoe transport made the native resources accessible to the inhabitants of the sites under study, and probably facilitated acquisition of non-native rocks.

The effect that distance had on lithic resource exploitation …

A Study Of The Causes Of Racial Friction As Represented In The Detroit, Beaumont, And Harlem Outbreaks, Evelyn B. Knight

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study has to do with the causes of racial friction as represented in the Detroit, Beaumont and Harlem outbreaks occurring in 1943. It will be pointed out that the incidental causes of such riots are symptoms leading to the exploratory job of finding the disease of "scapegoatism”. A survey of literature on the problem will bring about some understanding of the importance of racial prejudices and their relation to an international understanding. The opinions of experts in such fields as anthropology, economics, sociology, and psychology will be analyzed in an effort to determine how such friction may be eliminated …

History Of Tanning In The State Of Maine, George Archibald Riley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Working Women In Bangor, Eleanor George Dow

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The study of labor conditions, especially in relation to women, is a comparatively untouched field in the state of Maine.

In the past few decades the financial contribution to the family by women working outside the home has steadily increased. Therefore, the employment of women constitutes a problem of economic importance.

The employed woman is a problem which is of vital interest to society, for it is a conceded fact that social progress depends much on the woman, as the mother of future generations. The conditions under which the employed woman works, the occupations which she enters, and the earnings …

Public Utility Control And Regulation In Maine, Vance Gerald Springer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Although there sprang up a widespread movement for the establishment of commissions by the states, the movement did not make a great deal of headway until about 1905. Due to the depression of 1873 all the earlier commissions were repealed except that of Illinois. With the establishment of the Interstate Commerce Commission in 1887 the movement for state commissions was resumed, and by means of new laws and successive amendments to old laws, the movement for a strong type of commission continued unabated.

About 1905 another reform and expansion movement set in in the movement for a strong public utilities …

The Early Development Of Insurance, John Henry Magee

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

It is the purpose of this thesis to trace the development of risk bearing by insurance from the earliest times, to the period when the modern institution of insurance may fairly be said to have become established. The thesis will not cover in its scope the history of insurance, nor the history of any particular period, but will rather survey each period studied, searching for new developments of insurance theory, and consider particularly those contributions that represent distinct advances in development.

Contents: Preface; Pre-Grecian Contributions; Ancient Greece; Ancient Rome; Middle Ages and Renaissance; Period of Final Development, 1500-1720; Bibliography.

A Brief Economic History Of The City Of Rockland, Maine, Lewis Bates Clark

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In writing this Brief Economic History of the City of Rockland, Maine there has been no desire or attempt to name the businesses that have been in existence in the City of Rockland, or to give the history of any particular business or industry. Indeed, the only attempt made has been to indicate those industrial movements and financial factors that have largely influenced the economic progress of the City.

Contents: Historical Sketch; City Finances; The Knox and Lincoln Railroad; Banks; The Lime Industry; Shipbuilding Industry and Shipping; The Fish Industry; and Miscellaneous.

The Penobscot Boom And The West Branch Of The Penobscot River, Alfred Geer Hempstead

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Penobscot River, the largest and most important drainage system in Maine, for many years made Bangor the lumber market of the world.

Lumbering in Maine was confined to the coast and navigable parts of rivers until the most desirable timber had been removed from these areas. Gradually the lumbermen had to go farther inland to find the large trees. This meant the logs must be driven down the rivers to market. The farther inland the timber was cut, the greater were the obstacles to be overcome. The building of dams, the removal of rocks and other such work must …

Procedure In A Study Of Speech Disorders, Herbert Edgar Rahe

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The chief purpose of this thesis is not to present a body of scientific observations in support of one particular theory of treatment. Nor is this the place to record the testing out of all of the possible theories presented.

Nevertheless, the results of some practical experience are recorded to show the necessity of understanding the psychogenetic approach to this neglected phase of our education, as well as understanding the organic approach, My chief aim is first to be of aid to teachers in the grammar schools who are confronted most with this problem; and, secondly, to stimulate further research …