Spatial and Spatial-Temporal Analysis of Grizzly Bear Movement Patterns as Related to Underlying Landscapes Across Multiple Scales

Studying the movements of grizzly bears (Ursus arctos) in Alberta is imperative for scientifically informed management practices. To properly balance industry requirements with conservation imperatives, it is necessary to understand the spatial and spatial-temporal movement patterns of grizzly bears as they relate to underlying landscape properties. As part of the Foothills Research Institute Grizzly Bear Research Program, this dissertation explored both fine and largescale movement patterns generated from global positioning system (GPS) radiotelemetry data. Between 1999 and 2005, grizzly bears were captured and radio-collared across western Alberta. The temporal resolution of GPS data collection had a large impact on the amount of information available for analysis. A significant decrease in available information was demonstrated as time between locations increased. The presence of serial autocorrelation indicated the presence of prolonged movement behavior in fine-scale vector structures. The ability to identify internal vector clusters dramatically decreased as temporal resolution decreased. The relationship between level of human activity and grizzly bear movement rate across multiple spatial and temporal scales was studied in detail. Resulting movement patterns of grizzly bears were found to be intrinsically linked to both internal and external factors. Overall, grizzly bears residing in mountain environments were found to have significantly slower movement rates and smaller home ranges sizes when compared to grizzly bears residing in foothills environments. Temporally, movement rates also varied significantly according to season, month, and time of day. These findings have significance for modeling efforts which attempt to replicate grizzly bear spatial and temporal movement patterns across Albertan landscapes. The use of time sequence graphs aided in differentiating between different types of movement behaviors and allowed for the quantification and assessment of consecutive vector data. Results emphasized that slow movement clusters occurred more often and for longer periods of time when compared to fast travel segments. While some movement-habitat relationships were identified, results were highly individual by bear. Overall models tended to respond the best when working with mountain bears over foothills bears. Results further suggested that vector-based movements should be separated according to type (slow versus fast) for future modeling efforts

Metrics and methods for social distance

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2011.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 171-189).Distance measures are important for scientists because they illustrate the dynamics of geospatial topologies for physical and social processes. Two major types of distance are generally used for this purpose: Euclidean Distance measures the geodesic dispersion between fixed locations and Cost Distance characterizes the ease of travel between two places. This dissertation suggests that close inter-place ties may be an effect of human decisions and relationships and so embraces a third tier of distance, Social Distance, as the conceptual or physical connectivity between two places as measured by the relative or absolute frequency, volume or intensity of agent-based choices to travel, communicate or relate from one distinct place to another. In the spatial realm, Social Distance measures have not been widely developed, and since the concept is relatively new, Chapter 1 introduces and defines geo-contextual Social Distance, its operationalization, and its novelty. With similar intentions, Chapter 2 outlines the challenges facing the integration of social flow data into the Geographic Information community. The body of this dissertation consists of three separate case studies in Chapters 3, 4 and 5 whose common theme is the integration of Social Distance as models of social processes in geographic space. Each chapter addresses one aspect of this topic. Chapter 3 looks at a new visualization and classification method, called Weighted Radial Variation, for flow datasets. U.S. Migration data at the county level for 2008 is used for this case study. Chapter 4 discusses a new computational method for predicting geospatial interaction, based on social theory of trip chaining and communication. U.S. Flight, Trip and Migration data for the years 1995-2008 are used in this study. Chapter 5 presents the results of the tandem analysis for social networks and geographic clustering. Roll call vote data for the U.S. House of Representatives in the 111th Congress are used to create a social network, which is then analyzed with regards to the geographic districts of each congressperson.by Clio Andris.Ph.D

Foreign music: linguistic estrangement and its textual effects in Joyce, Beckett, Nabokov and Rushdie

This thesis examines the relationship between multilingualism and defamiliarisation in Joyce, Beckett, Nabokov and Rushdie. Focusing on Joyce’s Ulysses, Beckett’s Trilogy, Nabokov’s Bend Sinister, Pale Fire and Ada, and Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children, the study considers the reasons for these authors’ uses a foreign languages and examines their specialised compositional processes. It evaluates the textual effects produced by these processes, and compares overtly multilingual effects (such as multilingual puns and the hybridisation of language) to more general characteristics of the authors’ prose-styles, including monolingual forms of defamiliarisation. The prose of all four authors is characterised by extreme forms of defamiliarisation, and the thesis develops the concept of ‘linguistic estrangement’ to elucidate a perceived relationship between each author’s perspective of ideological or literal estrangement from language and his subsequent estrangement of that language. In particular, these writers tend to turn the distinctive features of the foreigner’s perspective on language - semantic ambiguity and linguistic materiality - to positive effect: semantic ambiguity is used to produce puns, plays on words and linguistic overdetermination, while in focus on the material characteristics of language is fundamental to the construction of phonetic and rhythmic linguistic patterns. As a result, the work under scrutiny is often characterised by high levels of musicality, iconicity and textual performativity. Apparently ‘negative’ aspects of language - interlingual confusion, distortion, mistranslation, misunderstanding and misuse - thus form the basis of some of the most productive stylistic aspects, and indeed the radically innovative nature, of each author’s work. The thesis explores a wide array of evident intentions associated with such processes including, among others, mimetic, aesthetic, literary historical and socio-political concerns. Translational processes, interlingual contact and linguistic estrangement are thus demonstrated to be fundamental to the particular thematic and stylistic features of the work of each individual author. This study can also, more generally, be seen to address a central dynamic within modernist (and subsequent late-modernist and postmodernist) literary production

Foreign music : linguistic estrangement and its textual effects in Joyce, Beckett, Nabokov and Rushdie

This thesis examines the relationship between multilingualism and defamiliarisation in Joyce, Beckett, Nabokov and Rushdie. Focusing on Joyce’s Ulysses, Beckett’s Trilogy, Nabokov’s Bend Sinister, Pale Fire and Ada, and Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children, the study considers the reasons for these authors’ uses a foreign languages and examines their specialised compositional processes. It evaluates the textual effects produced by these processes, and compares overtly multilingual effects (such as multilingual puns and the hybridisation of language) to more general characteristics of the authors’ prose-styles, including monolingual forms of defamiliarisation. The prose of all four authors is characterised by extreme forms of defamiliarisation, and the thesis develops the concept of ‘linguistic estrangement’ to elucidate a perceived relationship between each author’s perspective of ideological or literal estrangement from language and his subsequent estrangement of that language. In particular, these writers tend to turn the distinctive features of the foreigner’s perspective on language - semantic ambiguity and linguistic materiality - to positive effect: semantic ambiguity is used to produce puns, plays on words and linguistic overdetermination, while in focus on the material characteristics of language is fundamental to the construction of phonetic and rhythmic linguistic patterns. As a result, the work under scrutiny is often characterised by high levels of musicality, iconicity and textual performativity. Apparently ‘negative’ aspects of language - interlingual confusion, distortion, mistranslation, misunderstanding and misuse - thus form the basis of some of the most productive stylistic aspects, and indeed the radically innovative nature, of each author’s work. The thesis explores a wide array of evident intentions associated with such processes including, among others, mimetic, aesthetic, literary historical and socio-political concerns. Translational processes, interlingual contact and linguistic estrangement are thus demonstrated to be fundamental to the particular thematic and stylistic features of the work of each individual author. This study can also, more generally, be seen to address a central dynamic within modernist (and subsequent late-modernist and postmodernist) literary production.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceUniversity of Warwick (UoW)Arts and Humanities Research Council (Great Britain) (AHRC)GBUnited Kingdo

Beckett through Kant: a critique of metaphysical readings

This thesis calls upon ideas from Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason to disrupt readings of the plays and prose of Samuel Beckett predicated upon metaphysical presuppositions. The Introduction focuses upon such presuppositions in the criticism of Martin Esslin. In Chapter one, substantial passages of Kantian exposition are given to prepare the ground for a parallel between Kant's critique of metaphysics and those Beckett texts examined through Chapters One, Two, Three and Four. In this first chapter, the limits which Kant places on possible knowledge are compared to the frustrations imposed upon the investigative duo of Beckett's Rough for Theatre II. Chapter Two considers Krapp's Last Tape as a parody of both Proustian and Manichaean metaphysical profundities. Chapter Three examines the consequences of staging the fabrication of a recognizably `Beckettian' image of the human condition in Catastrophe. Chapter Four engages with the textual specifications of The Lost Ones via an ‘immanent' method of analysis, in opposition to `transcendent' or allegorical readings capable of promoting themes of metaphysical import. Chapter Five marks a turning-point in the thesis. It investigates why analysis of The Lost ones should prove as troublesome as it does in Chapter Four. As a response, it details Beckett's efforts toward narrative ‘indetermination' and links this process to the equally troublesome `noumenon of Kant's Critique of Pure Reason. Chapter Six reassesses the parallels drawn between Beckett and Kant thus far. The paradoxes and flat contradictions contained in Chapters One to Four provide the materials for Chapters Six's re-appraisal of the main thesis pursued here, that a critique of metaphysics can be found in Beckett's works analogous to that supplied by Kant. A secondary thesis is that a tendency toward self-defeat during such an interpretation is inevitable. The Conclusion reassesses this contention

Borderline personality disordered clients' experience and understanding of therapeutic boundaries: a Q methodogical study

Aims Therapeutic alliance ruptures, due to boundary problems, and premature dropout, from therapy, are common with clients who have a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder, limiting the effectiveness of psychological interventions. Therefore, it is hoped that researching clients' perspectives will promote therapeutic relationships that are more clinically effective with people attracting this diagnosis. The intention of this research study is to contribute to contemporary understanding of therapeutic relationships, and boundaries, from the viewpoint of clients with the diagnosis of borderline personality disorder. Literature Review The review identified that the diagnosis of borderline personality disorder, and the topic of therapeutic boundaries, are both related to ever changing and developing cultural norms. The research literature appeared, surprisingly, virtually nonexistent in the specialist area of clients' perspectives upon boundaries. Therefore, this study offered a ground-breaking opportunity to bridge some of the fissures, between research on therapy and therapeutic practice, specifically in relation to therapeutic boundaries and borderline personality disorder. Methodology Q methodology was used to explore discourses about borderline personality disordered participants' views regarding therapeutic boundaries. A two-stage research methodology was adopted with the first stage involving online focus groups with 19 participants. The second stage of the study, involved an online Q sort procedure with 28 participants, and was partly informed by participants' views that were generated during the online focus groups. The research emphasised the effectiveness of Q methodology, with advantages over more traditional quantitative research methods, for identifying and understanding complex beliefs about therapeutic boundaries. Findings Four statistically distinct factors emerged from the Q methodology which represented the experiences and understandings, of therapeutic boundaries, for the participants in this study. These findings are discussed in the thesis and recommendations for therapists are outlined. The discourses, of these four factors, can be simplistically summarised as the following: A. "HEDGE": Participants believed that boundaries should be flexible, evolving and 'firm-but-fair. ' A balance between thick and thin boundaries. B. "CHICKEN MESH": Participants thought that boundaries could be pushed, and crossed, but did not wish to totally violate them. Thin boundaries. C. "BARBED WIRE": Participants maintained a stance of contradictory and extreme viewpoints, which may inadvertently involve the (re)creation of damaging relationships. Fluctuation between thick and thin boundaries. D. "BRICK WALL": Participants assumed a position that was rigid, emotionally and/or physically distant. Thick boundaries