Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Multi-Tactic Ecological Weed Management In A Changing Climate, Sonja K. Birthisel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Climate change is expected to impact weed communities in Maine, and the efficacy of tools and tactics farmers use to manage them. Through seedbank sampling and surveys of Maine organic farms, we identified currently rare weeds that are known to be especially abundant or problematic in warmer areas of the USA and might therefore represent an emerging agronomic risk. Many ecological weed management strategies that focus on depleting the weed seedbank are expected to remain effective in a changing climate, and become increasingly important as efficacy of cultivation and some herbicide applications diminish or become more variable. Through field experiments, …

Lead Poisoning In Maine's Common Loons: Examining Biological And Social Dimensions, Brooke S. Macdonald

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Lead poisoning from ingested fishing tackle is a well-documented conservation concern for adult common loons in the Northeastern United States. To mitigate this issue, the state of Maine began implementing restrictions on lead tackle use in 2002, with new legislation added in 2016 and 2017. In addition to legislative action there have been various non-regulatory strategies employed in Maine to help raise awareness, such as the Fish Lead Free campaign. Human behavior is the root cause of lead fishing tackle in aquatic environments, and also can determine the success of legislative and educational efforts. Measuring underlying factors that influence behaviors, …

Consumer Acceptance And Phytonutrient Assessment Of Cold Hardy, Locally Grown Plums, Amber L. Elwell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Prunus salicina, Japanese plums, and Prunus domestica, European plums, are naturally rich in fiber, minerals, vitamins and phytonutrients. Consuming plums can increase overall fruit intake and can be incorporated into part of a healthy diet. Through local plum production, harvesting can be completed without the need for cross-country shipping, which can increase overall acceptability and nutritional quality of the fruit. Furthermore, the increase in local production can help to boost Maine’s economy and creates a market for new plum product production.

The first objective of this study was to determine consumer acceptance of locally grown plum cultivars at a …

Examining The Associative Learning And Accumbal Dopaminergic Mechanisms Of Caffeine Reinforcement, Curtis Bradley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Caffeine is the most consumed psychoactive substance in the world, and most caffeine consumption in coffee and energy drinks is intended to produce a psychoactive effect. However, caffeine is not a primary reinforcer in preclinical paradigms – non-human species do not reliably take the drug to produce a psychoactive effect. However, caffeine is a ‘reinforcement enhancer’ in preclinical models; the effects of caffeine increase the motivation to obtain other non-drug reinforcers. The overall goal of this project was to determine if these reinforcement enhancing effects of caffeine could promote caffeine self-administration and to subsequently investigate the behavioral and neurochemical underpinnings …

Immersed In Fire: The Use Of Virtual Reality As An Attitude Assessor And Boundary Object In Wildland Fire Management, Casey Olechnowicz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Interest in using prescribed burning as a forest management tool to promote forest health and regeneration is growing in Maine. The goal for this research was to better understand the way that the public perceives prescribed burning practices in wildland-urban interfaces, with an emphasis placed on how immersive imagery, closely related to virtual reality (VR), compares to traditional communication methods. We specifically focus on the social acceptability of prescribed burning and analyze how the level of immersive imagery is related to that acceptability (Ahn, 2015; Bricken, 1990; Fogg, Cuellar, and Danielson, 2009; Smith 2015; Wiederhold, Davis, and Wiederhold, 1998). The …

Assessing Economic Performance Of Maine's Lobster Fleet Under Changing Ecosystem Conditions In The Gulf Of Maine, Alexa Dayton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the inter-disciplinary space that lies between fisheries management and stock conservation, resource extraction and economic return at the individual producer level, balanced with societal welfare. It considers policy implications in support of changing marine ecosystems and considers the values of the Maine lobster communities, which depend on it. We conducted a comprehensive lobster industry survey to assess costs and effort expended at the producer level for a representative fishing year, and establish a series of production function performance baselines for future comparison. The demographic data, attitudes and valuations collected allow us to characterize the fishing effort and …

Assessing Economic Performance Of Maine's Lobster Fleet Under Changing Ecosystem Conditions In The Gulf Of Maine, Alexa M. Dayton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research evaluates lobster producer efficiency and considers fleet wide economics and policy implications in support of changing marine ecosystems in the Gulf of Maine. We conducted a comprehensive lobster industry survey to assess costs and effort expended at the producer level for a representative fishing year, and establish a series of production function performance baselines for future comparison. The demographic data, attitudes and valuations collected allow us to characterize the fishing effort and regional dependency on the resource. We look at the Maine Lobster limited entry licensing system, to understand how the future participation in the fishery might change, …

Psychophysiology Meets Computer Science: Predicting The Magnitude Of Participant Physiological Response With Machine Learning, Avonie Parchment

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The present inquiry uses methods from psychophysiology and machine learning to reduce overall error in classification models. The field of psychophysiology, though rooted in decades of experimentation, has never reached the same level of precision as some aspects of medical inquiry. In fact, while some medical regression models, when determining some way to classify a patient's illness based on certain symptoms, can result in highly significant results with large effect sizes, equal levels are virtually unheard of in psychophysiology. The present investigation attempts to unravel some part of this mystery and determines some possible reasons for the difficulty in finding …

Vulnerability Of Protected Areas To Human Encroachment, Climate Change And Fire In The Fragmented Tropical Forests Of West Africa, Francis Kwabena Dwomoh

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Upper Guinean region of West Africa is home to some of the most globally significant tropical biodiversity hotspots, providing ecosystem services that are crucial for the region’s socio-economic and environmental wellbeing. Nonetheless, following decades of human-caused destruction of natural habitats, protected areas currently remain the only significant refugia of original vegetation relics in landscapes that are highly fragmented. Aside from having strong geographic variation in land use, climate, vegetation, and human population, the region has also experienced remarkable biophysical and socio-economic changes in recent decades. All these factors influence the fire regime and the vulnerability of forests within protected …

Social Conflict On The Seas: Links Between Overfishing-Induced Marine Fish Stock Declines And Forced Labor Slavery, Jessica L. Sparks

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Despite media attention detailing labor abuses in fisheries, social-ecological systems research has largely failed to consider whether fish stock declines could be contributing to increases in forced labor slavery. Empirical fisheries data suggests, though not a ubiquitous response to declining stocks, many vessels will fish longer, farther from shore, and deeper in waters to maintain yields. This effort intensification increases production costs, and Brashares et al. (2014), consistent with slavery theory, posited cheap and/or unpaid labor as an approach to offset increasing costs and continue harvesting fish species at a rate otherwise cost-prohibitive.

Using fuzzy cognitive mapping - a participatory, …

Adoption Of Conservation Practices And Precision Technologies In South Dakota: An Empirical Analysis, Allen P. Deutz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Advances in conservation agriculture and precision agriculture technology practices have contributed to the adoption of conservation practices that reduce externalities from agricultural production, but this conversion was usually coupled with economic incentive, whether from increases in fertility and yield, or payments for on farm retirement or restoration practices. This study expands on this theme, evaluating the connection between conservation and the increased use of various precision agriculture technologies. The study uses survey data collected from South Dakota farmers and ranchers, with responses from 28 counties and over 500,000 acres of crop, pasture, and range land to address the following three …

The Role Of Relatedness In Youth Athlete Burnout, Megan Wittenberg

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Aspen Institute’s 2016 State of Play report projects a decline in youth sport participation that is more pronounced in adolescent athletes. Although there are numerous potential benefits for youth sport participation, there are also potential consequences including burnout (chronic psychological syndrome consisting of emotional and physical exhaustion, reduced sense of accomplishments, and sport devaluation (Raedeke, 1997). Approximately 1% to 9% of adolescent athletes experienced elevated levels of burnout, with current research suggesting that relatedness could have an influence on athlete burnout. In this instance, relatedness was defined as the extent to which individuals perceives significant others are genuinely invested …