Blog Consumption and International Relations

International relations professors have sought to incorporate current events into their curriculum through various mechanisms. A traditional way to incorporate the news into the classroom is to have students either subscribe and read a particular newspaper, or watch the nightly news, and hold them responsible for that information. However, with the growing body of professional political science blogs available to the general public, we now have access to immediate current event updates framed through the lens of political science. This manuscript tests to see if having students regularly read professional political science blogs increases student achievement on multiple choice exams when compared to students that were not following blogs in introductory to international relations courses. While controlling for other factors, the regression models demonstrate a 5% increase in performance on later exams by blog-consuming students over those who were not required to read blog posts. These results indicate that, in addition to other factors, there are pedagogical reasons to encourage (rather than prohibit) political science scholars from blogging

The Influence of Regional Power Distributions on Interdependence

Political economy debates about the influence of power configurations in expanding and maintaining global liberalization ebb and flow with the wax and wane of the concentration of power in the international system. This article engages the debate in a novel way from previous scholarship. Employing a series of econometric models that account for regional power, I argue that the global power concentration is ill fit to be the primary predictor of trade liberalization, but instead, regional power fluctuations can dampen and enhance global trends. By incorporating sub-systemic power configurations, we gain a better understanding of the regional variation in states buying into or cashing out of interdependence

Hydrologic and geomorphic assessment of Ebey\u27s Prairie, Central Whidbey Island, Washington

Ebey\u27s Prairie, Washington, was once bisected by a broad riparian corridor consisting of waterlogged soils, swampy areas, seasonal ponds, and intermittent flows, which helped recharge the local aquifer. By the mid-1900s, agriculture drainage tiles, drainage ditches, and fill were being installed by landowners to increase tillable acreage. The extent and location of these drainage tiles or the effects these tiles have had on surface water and subsequently on aquifer recharge in the area remains uncertain. In this study, I characterized the modern and historic surface hydrologic conditions of Ebey\u27s Prairie and their relationship to the local geomorphology. I used the Distributed Hydrology-Soil-Vegetation Model (DHSVM) to reconstruct the pre-agricultural surface hydrology and evaluate the effects agricultural drainage tiles have had on surface hydrologic conditions and aquifer recharge. A model representing Ebey\u27s Prairie watershed with was created, calibrated, and validated to stream discharge measured during my study. A second model was created to represent Ebey\u27s Prairie watershed without drainage tiles. Simulations for water years 2001-2010 for each basin condition were executed and compared to quantify the influence of drainage tiles on hydrologic regimes. Additionally, I mapped the local geomorphology, relating landforms to hydrologic regimes, and used lake sediment coring to improve the understanding of the sequence of events that created the unique landscape and its paleo-environment. Average annual surface discharge for Ebey\u27s Prairie watershed increased by 41,540 m3 (10.97 million gal.) when artificial drainage was present in the model, an increase of 163 percent over the pre-disturbance basin. The general shape of hydrographs was similar for both watersheds; however the basin with drainage tiles typically had peak flows 2-3 times larger than the basin without tiles, in addition to greater hourly baseflows and a longer recessional curve. Average recharge for the entire Ebey\u27s Prairie watershed with drainage tiles was 19.9 cm/yr. and without tiles was 20.3 cm/yr., an increase in recharge of 41,420 m3 or 1.65 percent, which is within the margin of error for the model. It was determined that the effective drainage area of the Ebey\u27s Prairie watershed was smaller than the watershed boundaries as delineated by DHSVM. The effective drainage area largely contained both the silty loam and loam soils or in the silty loam soil only. The silty loam is coincident with the majority of the drainage tiles network and two closed depressions identified as relict marshes. The distribution of an additional 41,418 m3 of recharge across a smaller effective drainage area would result in an increase of between 1.0 to 9.8 cm/yr., which is significant. A geomorphic map of Ebey\u27s Landing National Historical Reserve was created, identifying 20 distinct landforms covering an area of 72.7 km2. Eighty-six percent of the map area is composed of four map units: glaciated uplands, ice-marginal deltas, marine terrace and kame-kettle topography. Two sediment cores, 6.64 m and 9.24 m long, were collected from the Lake Pondilla kettle pond. I attempted to numerically date sediments deposited after kettle collapse to constrain the timing of events associated with the formation of the local geomorphology. Lack of extension rods during coring prevented recovery of deeper sediments. The recovered cores indicated a rapid sedimentation of 1.26 - 1.37 mm/yr through the mid and late-Holocene. A tephra at 7.81 m could not be identified based on chemical analysis, however it is likely Mazama ash based on thickness, character and position within the sediment sequence

A Method for Hemispherical Ground Based Remote Sensing of Urban Surface Temperatures

This thesis presents a method for deriving time-continuous urban surface temperature and heat island assessments from hemispherical ground-based measurements of upwelling thermal radiation. The method, developed to overcome geometric and temporal biases inherent in traditional thermal remote sensing of urban surface climates, uses a sensor view model in conjunction with a radiative transfer code to derive atmospherically corrected, hemispherical radiometric urban surface temperatures. These are used to derive two long-term climatologies of surface urban heat island (sUHI) magnitudes for Basel, Switzerland and Vancouver, Canada. sUHI development shows significant variation based on time-of-day, season, and ambient and synoptic conditions. Results also show large differences in remote sensed sUHI from hemispherical, nadir and complete representations of the urban surface, with a nadir view overestimating seasonal sUHImax from a complete view by nearly a factor of two. In contrast, a hemispherical view provides significantly more representative, time-continuous urban surface temperature and sUHI analysis

Regions of Hierarchy and Security: US Troop Deployments, Spatial Relations, and Defense Burdens

Recent work has begun exploring the effects of foreign military deployments on hoststate foreign policies. However, research mostly focuses on dyadic relationships between major powers and host-states, ignoring the broader regional security environment of host-states. We develop a theory of spatial hierarchies to understand how security relationships throughout the region surrounding the host-state affect hoststate foreign policy. Using data on US military deployments from 1950–2005, we show that regional security considerations condition how host-states respond to the deployment of military forces to their territory. Consequently, regional analyses are fundamental in understanding monadic and dyadic decisions about security, alliance behavior, and conflict

Putting Our Best Boots Forward: US Military Deployments and Host-Country Crime

The deployment of military forces abroad has been a major component of the US’s grand strategy since the beginning of the Cold War. However, some scholars have argued that the presence of US military personnel abroad creates a series of negative externalities afflicting local communities. We put some of these claims to the test by looking at the effect of US military deployments on crime rates in the host-state. Using cross-national crime statistics from the United Nations and data on US troop deployments, we examine whether US military deployments are associated with higher levels of criminal activity across a large subset of crimes. In aggregate, the mere presence of troops does not increase the criminal activity in a state; however, there is a conditional effect when we account for a difference in culture between the host-state and the US; the presence of foreign deployed troops is associated with higher levels of property-related crimes in a country. Consequently, this paper contributes to a better understanding of the impact that US military deployments, and US foreign policy more broadly, have had on other countries, and also enhances our understanding of the micro-level factors that might affect relationships between alliance partners

Gallery Characteristics and Life History of the Ambrosia Beetle Trypodendron betulae (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae) in Birch

Trypodendron betulae Swaine distributed attack entrance holes uniformly over the surface of standing stressed sub-canopy birch trees. Male and female pairs constructed galleries consisting of an entrance tunnel about 20 mm in length and then primary and secondary lateral tunnels averaging between 16 and 23 mm in length into the sapwood. Egg niches were constructed in the lateral tunnels after the symbiotic fungus was established in the galleries. Larvae enlarged the niches into cradles. Pupae and eventually teneral adults developed in the cradles. The sex ratio of resulting progeny adults was approximately one to one, and they emerged from galleries in September to overwinter in the litter

Simultaneous calculation of the helical pitch and the twist elastic constant in chiral liquid crystals from intermolecular torques

We present a molecular simulation method that yields simultaneously the equilibrium pitch wave number q and the twist elastic constant K2 of a chiral nematic liquid crystal by sampling the torque density. A simulation of an untwisted system in periodic boundary conditions gives the product K2q; a further simulation with a uniform twist applied provides enough information to separately determine the two factors. We test our new method for a model potential, comparing the results with K2q from a thermodynamic integration route, and with K2 from an order fluctuation analysis. We also present a thermodynamic perturbation theory analysis valid in the limit of weak chirality

CHARACTERISTICS OF MASTER'S PROGRAMS IN AGRIBUSINESS MANAGEMENT

This study describes and compares agribusiness master’s programs in North America. These programs include the master of business administration (MBA) and master in (or “of”) agribusiness (MAB) degrees. Accredited MBA programs with an agribusiness emphasis are required to have a clear required core of courses in finance, management, marketing management, and human behavior. Additional required courses in policy, agricultural marketing, production or managerial economics, and quantitative methods are also frequently required. MAB programs have more diversity regarding the four core subjects with a greater percentage of the courses taught within departments of agricultural economics. Evaluation of agribusiness master’s programs in agricultural economics departments is difficult without any formal evaluation criteria.Agribusiness, Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

Seasonal and Diurnal Patterns of Temperature Inversion Formation and Breakup in a Topographically Complex Urban Environment

Measuring air temperatures and winds at several heights in a dense urban area over a nine-month period reveals important seasonal differences in patterns of atmospheric stability, boundary-layer circulation, and other important factors that affect concentrations of air pollutants. The study site in Portland, Oregon includes natural topographic variations from 5 meters above sea level at the shore of a heavily industrialized stretch of the Willamette River, up to 50 meters above sea level atop a nearby bluff where residents often complain of poor air quality. This study installed, and continues to maintain, a network of remote automated weather stations ranging in altitude from river-level to the rooftops of buildings up to eight stories high, spanning a range of 70 m in the vertical from the lowest to highest station altitude, within an area of only 0.25 square km. Prior to this study, the density of weather observations in this area was often insufficient for resolving the conditions relevant to analyzing and monitoring air pollution events, but the significantly higher resolution of meteorological data now available for the area shows promise for addressing these issues. Station measurements include air temperatures and humidities at multiple heights per station, wind direction, wind speed, gust speed, solar radiation in multiple wavelength ranges, direct-diffuse ratios of solar radiation, air pressure, precipitation rates, leaf wetness, soil moisture, thermal-infrared radiant temperatures, kinetic temperatures, and boundary layer fluxes. This study also designed new tethersonde sampling methods to complement the ground-based stations with high-resolution data on vertical profiles of air temperatures, humidity, and winds within the boundary layer. Results show strong, low-level temperature inversions that are often more diurnally-constant in winter than in other seasons, with important implications for local air pollutant concentrations. Applications include improved understanding of local atmospheric patterns, which could help to inform better policies for addressing air quality issues