Spatial distribution of the common loon (Gavia immer) in New Hampshire

Brennan, Mark W University of New Hampshire 2005 해외박사(DDOD)

The Common Loon (Gavia immer) is located in many portions of North America. By the early 1970's the Common Loon population in New Hampshire had experienced a dramatic decline in historic numbers. In 1975, the Audubon Society of New Hampshire recognized this problem and established the Loon Preservation Committee (LPC). The intent was to collect information regarding the presence or absence of loons and loon productivity, and, educate the public regarding loon ecology and preservation. This dissertation represents the work completed to fulfill the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in Natural Resources Management at the University of New Hampshire. The research concentrated on analyzing georeferenced loon management data collected by LPC from 1980--2002 and understanding loon habitat occupancy. Specific objectives of this study were to: (1) investigate the colonization patterns of the Common Loon in New Hampshire, (2) identify and prioritize potential loon habitat in New Hampshire, and (3) develop and implement methods to be used by the Loon Preservation Committee for current and future loon management. Methods are described for converting and analyzing a 29-year historical database maintained by the Loon Preservation Committee located in Moultonborough, New Hampshire. Through this effort, techniques and results for: analog to digital data conversion, automating new data collection, and spatial analysis are discussed. Lake perimeter, lake depth, distance to lakes with and without loons, and lake elevation were identified as significant factors for determining loon habitat occupancy in New Hampshire. The results of implementing a GIS-enabled loon habitat occupancy model are presented.

The ecological Christ: Discerning an ecological consciousness in the Sermon on the Mount

Miaoulis, Nancy J University of New Hampshire 2005 해외박사(DDOD)

Ecology is the science that studies the function of communities of life within ecosystems. These systems are bound by an affirmation of relationship. Such relationships are very complex and every part of them is dependent on every other part if they are to maintain the integrity of nature that allows us all to survive. The adoption of the four principles of ecology: everything is connected to everything else; everything has to go somewhere; nature knows best; and there is no such thing as a free lunch---have been suggested to ensure the survival of all species. However, knowledge of scientific findings of both environmental problems and lasting solutions has had little impact on the way humans conduct their lives. Instituting an ecological consciousness will require a change in the values we commit to and the lens of ethics we apply to situations. Through a comprehensive literature review and a series of interviews with experts from the fields of ecology, theology, and ethics this dissertation will determine: (1) What is the core of ecological thought? (2) Are the principles of the Beatitudes applicable to the issues of ecology? (3) Can these principles induce a spiritual/behavioral paradigm shift sufficient to make a lasting and positive impact on the life of the universe?.

Transition voices: Perspectives, concerns, and discontinuities expressed by children, parents, and teachers as children transition from a university-affiliated kindergarten to a public school first grade

Harper, Laurie J University of New Hampshire 2005 해외박사(DDOD)

Transition encompasses the events and experiences that occur as a child moves from kindergarten to first grade. Transition marks the time when children are separated from a familiar routine and environment and placed into an environment of uncertainty, changing roles, and expectations. Children who experience continuity with earlier educational experiences show increased motivation, improved relationships with peers and adults, and higher achievement. Using a constructivist grounded theory approach this study documented the perspectives, concerns, and experiences of ten children and their parents as children transitioned from a University-affiliated kindergarten program to a public school first grade. Data were gathered using observation, participant observation, interviews, and correspondence with study participants. While continuities emerged from these data, discontinuities were numerous and included school culture, teacher, social adjustment, pedagogy, rules and routine, communication, information sharing and parent involvement. Teachers expressed concern about information sharing and the format and content of kindergarten assessments. Parent concerns included teacher disposition; instructional approaches; learning environment; social adjustment; and children's fatigue, stress, self-esteem, and body image. Children's concerns included teacher expectations; increased academic demands; school rules and routines; friendships; and a loss of voice, choice, and control over their learning. First grade teachers attributed children's transition difficulties to readiness skills, academic preparation, and social immaturity. Four underlying complexities of transitions emerged in my data (a) the importance of children's microsystems; their home, their pre-school and kindergarten, and their first grade public school world; (b) the transferability of previously acquired competencies, skills, and learning behaviors in the first grade learning environment; (c) conformity; the loss of voice, choice, and control over children's learning; and (d) the tension between beliefs about DAP and compliance with legislative mandates such as NCLB. To promote successful transitions recommendations were made for parents, teachers, and administrators. Recommendations include advocacy for children; information sharing between sending and receiving teachers; and on-going communication between teachers and parents, and parents and children. To prepare and alleviate anxiety in children and parents practices, routines, and schedules should be established; along with on-going discussions prior to school entry in September.

Faculty perceptions of the effects of collective bargaining agreements on their professional roles: The New England public higher education experience

Hamer, Nancy J. S University of New Hampshire 2005 해외박사(DDOD)

This study, a combination of quantitative and artifact analysis, examined how New England public college and university faculty perceived their professional concerns were affected by working under a collective bargaining agreement. The professional concerns, derived from the pertinent literature, included the following: the ability of the faculty to effectively influence who joined the faculty ranks; their powers to determine the curriculum, with their related instructional practices/delivery systems, and the setting of degree requirements; determining their teaching, scholarship, and service requirements; assuring the exercise of academic freedom, and reasonable shared governance. Coupled with these professional concerns were three research questions that also were the study's focus: (1) Does collective bargaining facilitate or inhibit faculty professional autonomy? (2) Is it important to their sense of professionalism? (3) Do collective bargaining agreements support professional autonomy?. For the survey phase, 650 faculty, drawn from thirteen four-year public institutions within New England, were surveyed to ascertain their perceptions on how their contracts affected their professional concerns. For the artifact phase, the collective bargaining contracts of the thirteen institutions were examined to see if the contracts' language might impinge on the professional concerns of the faculty. The 141 total surveys received after an initial and a follow-up mailing, were analyzed using factor analysis and ANOVAs. The results showed that the respondents perceived that their professional concerns were adequately addressed by their collective bargaining agreements. Also faculty felt that their shared governance role was more secure. There were differences among the survey responses based on union membership with regard to the agreements working as a balance on administrative powers, with significant differences found between those not in a union, and members of AAUP, AFT, and NEA. However, what faculty sought in their contracts to ensure a faculty role in shared governance was in fact very limited in the actual contracts' language. Information gained from this study may inform the collective bargaining process for both sides of the table and lend an understanding of the impact of these agreements upon their respective institutions.

Power, oppression, and liberation : New Hampshire abolitionism and the radical critique of slavery, 1825-1850

Cox, Stephen Lawrence University of New Hampshire Press 1980 국내박사

Function, expression and evolution of the Src family kinases in Caenorhabditis elegans

Whipple, Chery Angel University of New Hampshire 2005 해외박사(DDOD)

The vertebrate proto-oncogene, Src, is the prototype of a family of membrane-associated protein tyrosine kinases involved in cell signaling pathways that control cell growth, development, and differentiation. Activation of Src by mutation or overexpression has been implicated in a range of cancers, particularly breast and colon cancer. Inappropriate activation of Src has pronounced oncogenic effects on cell morphology, adhesion, and motility. Despite its implications in cancer, the normal biological role of Src is not well understood. I used the nematode C. elegans to investigate the expression, function, and evolution of two src genes (src-1 and src-2) utilizing a combination of genetic, reverse genetic, molecular, biochemical, and proteomic approaches. A previously characterized src-1 knockout confers a maternal effect lethal phenotype. Arrested embryos exhibit abnormalities suggesting that SRC-1 plays an essential role in cell fate decisions, spindle orientation, and morphogenesis in the early embryo. src-2 mutant animals appeared wild type under all conditions examined. The src-1 src-2 double knockout phenotype was indistinguishable from the src-1 single mutant, suggesting that src-1 has a unique, essential embryonic function. Experiments using in-situ hybridization revealed that src-1 (but not src-2) is present in the meiotic region of the hermaphroditic gonad, but that mRNA transcripts from both genes are present in the embryo. Real-time RT-PCR and expression data from a SRC-1::GFP reporter construct showed that src-1 and src-2 expression was widespread in all larval stages, with the src-1 transcript being detected at considerably higher levels than src-2. In addition to the work described above, I also performed a pilot study examining the evolutionary history of this important gene family. Phylogenetic comparisons revealed that vertebrate Src and Fyn group together, suggesting that they share a common ancestor with one of the two invertebrate SFK. Finally, I developed a novel proteomic approach to identify targets of Src tyrosine kinase signaling as part of a long term goal to understand the pathways and biological role of SFKs in metazoans. Collectively, this research contributes to a better understanding of the normal expression and function of SFKs and provides the groundwork for future delineation of the pathways and biological outcomes of Src signaling.

Innovation and institutions: Examining the black box

Tebaldi, Edinaldo University of New Hampshire 2005 해외박사(DDOD)

This dissertation contributes to the literature by investigating the links between institutions and innovation from both a theoretical and an empirical standpoint. Specifically, this dissertation (i) develops a theoretical growth model that explicitly accounts for the influences of institutions on technical innovation and output production; (ii) specifies an empirical model suitable to examine the affect of institutions on technical innovation based on a theoretical model; and (iii) tests if different measures of institutions (i.e., Control of Corruption, Rule of Law, Regulatory Quality and Expropriation Risk) have differentiated impacts on innovation. A major prediction of the theoretical model is that better institutional arrangements boost innovation and thus economic growth. The lack of right institutions will retard or prevent the utilization of newly invented inputs in the productive process, leading to relatively lower levels of output. Therefore, controlling for all other determinants of income, countries or regions that experience institutional constraints preventing the adoption of newly invented technologies will be expected to lag behind in terms of growth and levels of output per capita. Additionally, the theoretical model shows that this gap does not vanish over time. The model also predicts that in the steady state the stock of human capital should not be associated with the growth rate of output, but rather that the growth rate of human capital should be associated with the growth rate of output. The empirical analysis uses cross-country data and instrumental variables in order to examine the influences of institutions on technical innovation. The results support the argument that institutions explain much of the variation on patent production across countries and this finding is consistent across countries that are both on and off the technological frontier. The empirical results also provide evidence that control of corruption, market-friendly policies, protection of private propriety and a more effective judiciary system have growth effects on income because institutional quality affects an economy's rate of innovation. Ultimately, innovation is the engine of economic growth. This study also finds evidence that geography, per se , does not explain innovation across countries. Geography affects innovation, but only through institutions.

Seafloor geology, deglacial history, and early post-glacial evolution of eastern Juan de Fuca Strait

Hewitt, Antony Trevor University of New Hampshire 2002 해외박사(DDOD)

Seismic-reflection data, bathymetric data, and sediment cores were used to map the seafloor geology of eastern Juan de Fuca Strait, and interpret the stratigraphy in terms of the latest deglacial episode and associated sealevel change. The surficial geologic units comprise bedrock (unit 1), ice-contact diamicton (unit 2), glacial-marine sediments (unit 3), and post-glacial sediments (unit 4). Bedrock crops out near Vancouver Island, and diamicton crops out in the numerous morainal banks. A series of banks running roughly north-south in the middle of the strait divides it into two areas based on the main surficial units; post-glacial sediments dominate to the east and glacial-marine sediments to the west. Subunits within the glacial-marine sediments suggest progression from an ice-proximal to ice-distal depositional environment during glacier retreat. There is currently little sediment input to the strait, so most modern sediments consist of reworked glacial deposits that occur in banks and coastal exposures. The strait was deglaciated rapidly; in about 100 years at a rate of 475 m/yr. Ice retreat was probably episodic, however, with times of rapid calving retreat separated by periods when retreat paused on morainal banks. After the period of maximum marine submergence following deglaciation, isostatic rebound caused relative sealevel to fall to a level lower than present. A number of drowned features indicate sealevel fell to 55 m below present sealevel (−55 m) by 11,280 yr B.P., then reached the low stand maximum of around −60 m by 10,720 yr B.P. During regression, sealevel fell 150.4 m at an average rate of 59.0 mm/yr; meanwhile the eustatic rise was 37.3 m, yielding an average rate of crustal uplift of 73.6 mm/yr. During the subsequent transgression, sealevel rose to a depth of −55 m by 10,630 yr B.P., then a depth of −44 m by 9,880 yr B.P., and −33 m by 8,910 yr B.P. by 10,700 yr B.P. most isostatic adjustment was complete and eustatic rise dominated, resulting in a gradual transgression toward the present. Relative sealevel rose 60.4 m during transgression at 5.6 mm/yr, while the eustatic sealevel rise was 61.4 m, giving an average rate of crustal uplift of less than 1 mm/yr.

Gender differences in coping: Implications for depression and crime

Howerton, Amanda University of New Hampshire 2005 해외박사(DDOD)

It is a common cultural belief that women employ emotion and passive focused coping methods more frequently than men. Likewise, most empirical evidence supports the idea that women are more likely to cope by modifying their emotional responses to stress, whereas males most often use and are more proficient with the problem solving approach (Billings and Moos 1984; Endler and Parker 1990; Milkie and Thoits 1993; Pearlin and Schooler 1978; Stone and Neale 1984). Despite considerable theoretical and empirical attention to these issues, there are still several gaps that remain in our understanding of the ways in which gender and coping interact, and, the implications of these processes. It is often suggested, for instance, that emotion-focused coping is maladaptive. The common assumption in nearly all of the coping literature is that emotion-focused coping is inferior to approach/problem oriented strategies, though there is little definitive evidence to confirm this speculation. Drawing from social psychological theories of stress and strain, I sought to build on earlier approaches to gender and coping by applying the stress process model to both mental health and criminological outcomes. Based on a representative sample of 1,803 young adults in Miami-Dade County, Florida, I examined the extent to which there were gender differences in coping styles: problem focused, emotion focused, and avoidance focused (Endler and Parker 1990). In addition, I examined the extent to which potential gender differences in coping styles could be explained by gender differences in chronic strain. I also examined the extent to which gender differences in depression and crime could be explained by gender differences in coping, net of chronic strain. Finally, I examined whether the effects of the different coping styles on outcomes of depression and crime were different for young women and men. Overall, the results of this dissertation suggested somewhat complex relationships among gender, coping, chronic strain, and stress outcomes in young adulthood. In general, some of my findings reaffirm what previous researchers have found, and some, contradict prior research. Overall, the young women in this sample were more inclined towards internalizing disorders, such as depression, while the men had higher levels of criminal behavior. With adjustment for socioeconomic status, there were no gender differences in the use of problem focused coping, which suggests that structural forces play an enormous role in the choice of coping strategies. Female respondents were much more likely to employ emotion-oriented strategies than the male respondents, but it appears that this is not fundamentally harmful for females as prior work has suggested. That is, the effects of using emotion focused coping strategies, such as the expression of feelings, increased depression for men, but not for women. Conversely, avoidance focused coping, a coping style that females used more frequently, increased predicted levels of depression and crime for both women and men. Similar to problem focused coping, socioeconomic status and exposure to chronic strain mediated some of the relationship between gender and avoidant focused coping such that women with the lowest resources and highest exposure to chronic strain were more likely to cope by avoidance. Nevertheless, women were still more likely to cope by avoidance than the men were, which suggests that socialization factors might have an influence on coping styles.

"Woke up this morning with my mind on freedom": Women and the struggle for black equality in Louisiana

Frystak, Shannon L University of New Hampshire 2005 해외박사(DDOD)

This dissertation examines the role of female civil rights activists in the black struggle for equality in Louisiana. Drawing on the fields of history, sociology, political science, and gender studies, this project demonstrates that women were indispensable figures in the freedom struggle in Louisiana throughout the twentieth century, and highlights their roles as organizers, participants, and leaders. The project focuses on the entire state of Louisiana, but more specifically in areas where civil rights organizations concentrated their efforts. While many historical studies of the movement begin with the Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, this study looks at a tradition of dissent that existed well before that historic case and into the late 1960s when the movement "proper" began to wane. A central theme of this dissertation is the role of women as organizers and leaders. Previous studies have almost solely focused on the leadership of men. I contend, however, that gender variables played a crucial role in how women's roles were perceived. This study challenges the notion that "men led, women organized," and places female activism at the center. In the context of the social, political, and cultural mores of the time, women aptly performed duties similar and equal to that of men. Long before the modern civil rights movement took hold throughout the South, women challenged the racial status quo in Louisiana, advocating for better pay and working conditions, equality in public and private arenas, and fighting for the rights of African Americans to equal access in education. During the 1950s and 1960s, black and white women worked together to create interracial alliances to challenge the state during the school desegregation crises that ensued post-Brown, for access to public transportation, and in gaining the right to vote. As this study shows, women were not passive participants in the movement for black rights, but emerged as leaders and heroines in the Louisiana civil rights movement.