Urban stream management: interdisciplinary assessment of the Ship Creek fishery

Thesis (Ph.D.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2009The Lower Ship Creek Fishery in the city of Anchorage, Alaska is one of the state's most popular sport fisheries. After years of channelization and development, this social-ecological system (SES) continues to experience the effects of urbanization and is struggling to achieve robustness. I applied a robustness framework to the management of management this fishery because of its semi-engineered nature. This framework uses interdisciplinary methods to study the interrelationships between the fishery's socio-economic and ecological components. Robustness is more appropriate than resilience as an analytical framework because of the relative insensitivity of the engineered components to ecological feedbacks. On Lower Ship Creek, the engineered hatchery fish continue to thrive despite declining stream conditions. The robustness of this fishery contributes to the resilience of the city by increasing local food and recreation options and supporting a diverse set of businesses. To study the robustness of this SES in the context of the resilience of Anchorage, I first combined historical photos and existing Ship Creek data with research conducted on other streams to create an environmental history of the creek. This history then was used to describe how eras of urban development have altered the creek's ecosystem processes and created new ecological constraints related to 1) loss of wetlands and riparian vegetation; 2) erosion, pollution, and channelization; 3) loss of fish species; and 4) flow alteration and habitat loss. Using Lovecraft's (2008) typology, I proposed four plausible management scenarios that highlight the trade-offs associated with management of this fishery: 1) Ship Creek Redesign, 2) Mitigation, Construction, and Maintenance, 3) KAPP Dam Removal, and 4) Business as Usual. The second of these scenarios is most consistent with the current ecological constraints, the characteristics preferred by most stakeholders, and current socio-economic trends. Since Scenario 2 will require a large monetary investment, I examined this SES's cost structure and compared it with previously published analyses of the economic benefits of the fishery. By quantifying the costs borne by each agency, I showed how externalities produce intra- and inter-agency tension. These data were used to construct a new cost-sharing framework that provides decision makers with an economic incentive to work more cooperatively in the future. I then explored the interrelationship of the SES's socioeconomic and ecological subsystems, using Anderies et al.'s (2004) framework. I applied Ostrom's design principles (1990) to sport fisheries to explore the reasons why agencies have not cooperated to produce a more robust fishery. This SES fails to meet three of the design principles: it lacks 1) an equal proportion of benefits and costs, 2) collective-choice arrangements, and 3) user and biophysical monitoring. I then suggest how to improve the design and increase the robustness of this SES. This study proposes that the maintenance of semi-engineered systems is important both for local users and for the resilience of states and countries. In the context of global trends toward increasing urbanization, this study provides an interdisciplinary approach to increasing the robustness of urban streams and building resilience within states and countries

Aspirations of Objectivity: Systemic Illusions of Justice in the Biased Courtroom

Given the ever-growing body of evidence surrounding implicit bias in and beyond the institution of the law, there is an equally growing need for the law to respond to the accurate science of prejudice in its aspiration to objective practice and just decision-making. Examined herein are the existing legal conceptualizations of implicit bias as utilized in the courtroom; implicit bias as peripheral to law and implicit bias as effectual in law, but not without active resolution. These views and the interventional methods, materials, and procedures they inspire are widely employed to appreciably “un-bias” legal actors and civic participants; however, without an accurate conceptualization of the science of prejudice in law, these interventions are likely doing more harm than good. On the basis that these interventional techniques are unscientific in their methodology, reliant upon a misleading theory of transparency of mind, deny the inherently emotional and biased origin of the court, and are disseminated largely technocratically, they fail to serve their intended purpose. In actuality, they reinforce systemic intergroup biases and are seen to produce a lesser objective justice. This project reiterates, as with so many aspects of justice, that there must be the same care taken in the address of those structural and institutional contributions to implicit bias that the enterprise of law perpetuates in and of itself as have been taken in the address of our individual cognitive predispositions toward discrimination

Self-Reported Acceptance of Social Anxiety Sypmtoms: Development and Validation of the Social Anxiety-Acceptance and Action Questionnaire

Mindfulness-based interventions have been used in the treatment of social anxiety with initial success. Mindfulness is defined as an awareness and acceptance of the present moment. Acceptance when used as a coping strategy is related to reduced distress during anxiety-provoking tasks and increased willingness to experience unpleasant events. The purpose of this research was to examine acceptance, willingness and distress in the context of social anxiety and was threefold. The first study was designed to develop an instrument designed to assess acceptance specific to social anxiety. In Study 1, a sample of 352 undergraduates completed the initial 56-item pool of the Social Anxiety-Acceptance and Action Questionnaire (SA-AAQ) with the goal of item reduction. The second study was designed to validate this measure and clarify the factor structure of the SA-AAQ. Participants (n = 339) completed the SA-AAQ in addition to measures of mindfulness and social anxiety. Results indicated that the SA-AAQ is a reliable and valid measure of acceptance specific to social anxiety. The third study was an experimental manipulation that was designed to examine the relationships among acceptance of social anxiety symptoms, willingness and distress. It was hypothesized that individuals who are habitually higher in acceptance would experience reduced anxiety and increased willingness in response to a speech task than those who are low in acceptance. In addition, it was believed that inducing state acceptance using brief instructions would result in decreased distress and increased willingness as compared to suppression and control groups. The results demonstrated that trait acceptance of social anxiety symptoms was associated with lower levels of distress following the speech. It was also found that inducing state acceptance led to similar levels of distress as inducing suppression. Further research is warranted to further clarify this finding. In sum, these three studies combine to provide support that this instrument is a valid measure of the construct that it was designed to assess, namely acceptance specific to social anxiety. The SA-AAQ could be of benefit for assessing mechanisms of change within mindfulness-based treatment protocols for social anxiety, in addition to contributing to the mindfulness literature

Tailoring Surface Forces to Control the Frictional Properties of Graphene

A pressing financial and environmental challenge is the impact of friction and wear on energy usage, economic costs, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Globally nearly ¼ of the world’s total energy is consumed at moving contacts, with 20% of that total used to overcome frictional forces. To combat the negative effects of friction and wear, thus mitigating economic spending on energy losses and reducing GHG emissions, new lubrication schemes need to be developed. Effective lubrication solutions will need to be compatible with a host of sliding conditions, including a diverse range of surface chemistries and structural features. One highly adaptable material capable of meeting this challenge is graphene, a two-dimensional sheet of carbon atoms with excellent electronic, optical, and thermal properties. Graphene additionally exhibits exceptional friction reducing and wear-resistant properties, although it is difficult to implement as a practical lubricant because its mechanical behavior strongly depends on its interactions with the top and bottom contacts within an interface. To effectively capitalize on the lubricating potential of graphene, a thorough investigation into the tribological responses of graphene in controlled sliding contacts is required. Towards this goal, this dissertation includes research into graphene that is in sliding contact with molecularly modified interfaces, dynamically oscillating on rough surfaces, and covalently immobilized to the supporting substrate. Adhesion and friction measurements on graphene with molecularly functionalized atomic force microscopy (AFM) tips demonstrated how both chemical functionality and shear strain can be used to tune the tribological response of the graphene-molecule sliding interface. Dynamic measurements of graphene on rough surfaces were exploited to examine the relationship between energy dissipation and friction at different frequencies. Pinning graphene to the supporting surface further showed how the physical properties of graphene can be manipulated at interfaces. By understanding how tailored adhesion, modulated out-of-plane forces, and localized pinning concertedly impact the tribological performance of graphene, the development of targeted lubricant technologies can take advantage of graphene’s sensitivity to different sliding conditions. Designer boundary lubrication schemes incorporating graphene can then play a central role in overcoming the challenges associated with energy losses at tribological contacts

Exclusive expression of the Rab11 effector SH3TC2 in Schwann cells links integrin-α6 and myelin maintenance to Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 4C.

Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 4C (CMT4C) is one of the commonest autosomal recessive inherited peripheral neuropathies and is associated with mutations in the Rab11 effector, SH3TC2. Disruption of the SH3TC2-Rab11 interaction is the molecular abnormality underlying this disease. However, why SH3TC2 mutations cause an isolated demyelinating neuropathy remains unanswered. Here we show that SH3TC2 is an exclusive Schwann cell protein expressed late in myelination and is downregulated following denervation suggesting a functional role in myelin sheath maintenance. We support our data with an evolutionary cell biological analysis showing that the SH3TC2 gene, and its paralogue SH3TC1, are derived from an ancestral homologue, the duplication of which occurred in the common ancestor of jawed vertebrates, coincident with the appearance of Schwann cells and peripheral axon myelination. Furthermore, we report that SH3TC2 associates with integrin-α6, suggesting that aberrant Rab11-dependent endocytic trafficking of this critical laminin receptor in myelinated Schwann cells is connected to the demyelination seen in affected nerves. Our study therefore highlights the inherent evolutionary link between SH3TC2 and peripheral nerve myelination, pointing also towards a molecular mechanism underlying the specific demyelinating neuropathy that characterizes CMT4C.This work was supported by a Wellcome-Beit Prize and Intermediate Clinical Fellowship to RCR (093809/Z/10/Z).This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Elsevier via https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbadis.2016.04.00

When personal identities confirm versus conflict with group identities: Evidence from an intergroup paradigm

Permissions were not obtained for sharing the full text of this article.This study provides an experimental investigation of the consequences of conflict between children's personal identities and experimentally manipulated group identities. Elementary-school-aged children (N = 82, ages 5-11) attending a summer school program rated their own academic and athletic abilities and were then randomly assigned to one of two novel groups. Children's views of the academic and athletic skills of the novel groups were assessed both before and after information about the groups' academic and athletic skills was manipulated via posters placed in their classrooms. Following the manipulation, children's self-views, ingroup identification, and intergroup attitudes were assessed. Results indicated that (a) in the absence of information about the novel groups, children projected their personal identities onto their ingroup identities, (b) children maintained their ingroup identities in the face of new information that should have altered their ingroup identities, and (c) more positive personal identities predicted ingroup bias, which in turn predicted happiness with one's ingroup membership. The latter finding suggests that a tendency for children to generalize from their idiosyncratic positive self-views, rather than an indiscriminate desire for self-enhancement or positivity, may be responsible for ingroup bias

NAVY EXPEDITIONARY ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING (NEAM) CAPABILITY INTEGRATION

This capstone report analyzes the current and future use of additive manufacturing (AM) technologies within the Department of Defense (DOD). This analysis provided the technical background necessary to develop the Additive Manufacturing Process and Analysis Tool (AMPAT). AMPAT will help stakeholders identify what AM equipment best serves warfighters and their missions in expeditionary environments. Furthermore, the tool can be used by stakeholders to identify the most advantageous dispersions of AM capabilities across the fleet and make decisions on how those capabilities should be integrated into the greater naval mission and larger DOD enterprise. A systems engineering (SE) approach was implemented to gather information on current and prospective AM methods in order to understand and define the AM system operational requirements. Additionally, an SE process was utilized to analyze alternative software options to build the tool, implement agile software development processes to develop the tool, and verify and validate that the tool met the project requirements. The study found that AMPAT successfully outputs a ranked list of AM systems recommendations based upon user-defined input parameters and weighting values. Recommendations for choosing AM equipment and developing dispersion plans for the fleet include using the AMPAT deliverable to conduct customized, iterative analysis with user-defined inputs that are tailored to specific expeditionary environments.Outstanding ThesisCivilian, Department of the NavyCivilian, Department of the NavyCivilian, Department of the NavyCivilian, Department of the ArmyCivilian, Department of the NavyApproved for public release. Distribution is unlimited

Revisiting 228Th as a tool for determining sedimentation and mass accumulation rates

© The Author(s), 2022. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Tamborski, J., Cai, P., Eagle, M., Henderson, P., & Charette, M. Revisiting 228Th as a tool for determining sedimentation and mass accumulation rates. Chemical Geology, 607, (2022): 121006, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemgeo.2022.121006.The use of 228Th has seen limited application for determining sedimentation and mass accumulation rates in coastal and marine environments. Recent analytical advances have enabled rapid, precise measurements of particle-bound 228Th using a radium delayed coincidence counting system (RaDeCC). Herein we review the 228Th cycle in the marine environment and revisit the historical use of 228Th as a tracer for determining sediment vertical accretion and mass accumulation rates in light of new measurement techniques. Case studies comparing accumulation rates from 228Th and 210Pb are presented for a micro-tidal salt marsh and a marginal sea environment. 228Th and 210Pb have been previously measured in mangrove, deltaic, continental shelf and ocean basin environments, and a literature synthesis reveals that 228Th (measured via alpha or gamma spectrometry) derived accumulation rates are generally equal to or greater than estimates derived from 210Pb, reflecting different integration periods. Use of 228Th is well-suited for shallow (<15 cm) cores over decadal timescales. Application is limited to relatively homogenous sediment profiles with minor variations in grain size and minimal bioturbation. When appropriate conditions are met, complimentary use of 228Th and 210Pb can demonstrate that the upper layers of a core are undisturbed and can improve spatial coverage in mapping accumulation rates due to the higher sample throughput for sediment 228Th.This research was undertaken thanks in part to funding from the Canada First Research Excellence Fund, through the Ocean Frontier Institute. This project was supported by U.S. Geological Survey Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program. Any use of trade, firm or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government. PC acknowledges the support of the Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) through Grants No. 92058205