Forest Governance in a Frontier: An Analysis of the Dynamic Interplay between Property Rights, Land-Use Norms, and Agricultural Expansion in the Mosquitia Forest Corridor of Honduras and Nicaragua

Thesis (PhD) - Indiana University, Political Science, 2007Government legislation of protected areas is frequently prescribed as a means to protect forest lands. The effectiveness of protected areas is however, highly questionable as protected areas have been found to fail as often as they succeed. This dissertation takes a nuanced approach to forest policy analysis by examining how specific property rights interact with resource users' institutions to either promote or thwart frontier forest conservation. Frontier forests represent the last remaining swaths of tropical forest. They are also the homelands of indigenous peoples who have lived in these remote regions for centuries. A principal threat to frontier forests, and the people living within them, is agricultural expansion caused by mestizo (non-indigenous) migration. This study integrates methods that include institutional analysis, ethnographic fieldwork, and land-cover analysis to examine how property-rights policies influence agricultural expansion in the Mosquitia Forest Corridor, a biological corridor that runs from eastern Honduras into northern Nicaragua. I compare the ability to stop mestizo expansion in two protected areas in the Mosquitia: one reserve under government management and the other governed by native residents who hold common-property rights to their lands. The variation between sites creates opportune conditions to investigate whether property rights are a determining factor in preventing mestizo encroachment, and the impact that different property-rights policies have on residents' resource institutions and the broader resilience of the social and ecological systems. The study findings are that public policies that recognize local governance institutions promote resilient forest management systems. I find that native residents who hold common-property rights are better able to stop agricultural expansion than are public managers. Forests under indigenous territorial management are better conserved than those under public management. Furthermore, the analysis of institutional change finds that native residents are better able to address market and demographic pressures introduced by mestizo settlers when they are supported by public policies that recognize their common-property claims

Elections using Open Primaries lead to more autonomy being granted for committees in State Legislatures

State legislatures vary considerably in their organization, especially in the scope of leadership powers and the degree of autonomy given to legislative committees. Since the members themselves often have power over how their own legislative bodies are organized, political scientists have a keen interest in understanding why members choose to give committees greater autonomy in decision-making. Tanya Bagashka and Jennifer Hayes Clark argue the decision to grant more autonomy to committees is influenced by the type of electoral system (open versus closed primaries) from which legislators are elected

Determining the Efficacy of the Community Research Fellows Training: An 18-Month Evaluation

Community members equipped with knowledge, training, resources, and opportunity acquired through structured research educational programs can strengthen the research relationship and improve the process for community-based participatory research. The purpose of this research is to explore the sustained efficacy of the Mississippi Community Research Fellows Training conducted by the 18-month post-completion of the first cohort. A mixed method approach that included fielding a brief survey and having a focus group discussion among fellows was applied to the study to determine impact, value, and utility of skills learned. Seventeen of the 25 Cohort 1 fellows completed an online survey. Six participated in a focus group. The participants recognized the relevancy of the skills acquired and had applied their training to forge new collaborations with researchers and community organizations and contributed to the acquisition of resources for their communities and disseminated culturally appropriate health information to the residents. Recommendations for the future training programs were identified. The findings could ensure the long-term utility of the lessons and skills learned

Racial differences in perception and experiences of adverse treatment by healthcare providers: A cross-sectional analysis of the All of Us data

Health disparities among racial and ethnic groups in the U.S. are well documented. Among the non-medical issues, including discrimination, language barriers, and low health literacy, the patient-provider relationship has been identified as a factor that drives health disparities. Negative interactions with healthcare providers and the healthcare system produce poor health outcomes, exacerbating health inequalities and reducing the likelihood of patients adhering to recommended treatments and therapies. The purpose of this study was to examine racial differences in perceptions and experiences of adverse treatment by healthcare providers. A cross-sectional analysis of select variables from the All of Us research program basic and social determinants of health survey data. The study sample included 57,107 participants, 60% were females, and 83% were white. There were significant differences in the perceptions of provider treatment between Whites and Blacks. The data revealed that in all categories, Blacks perceived their experience as negative or less favorable compared to White respondents. These findings may spur interest in fostering and strengthening the patient-provider relationship and increasing awareness of and eliminating practices that demoralize and devalue the patient, particularly those of differing backgrounds

What Happens When Payments for Conservation Stop?

https://scholarworks.seattleu.edu/fss-2019/1001/thumbnail.jp

Health System Performance for the High-Need Patient: A Look at Access to Care and Patient Care Experiences

Achieving a high-performing health system will require improving outcomes and reducing costs for high-need, high-cost patients—those who use the most health care services and account for a disproportionately large share of health care spending. Goal: To compare the health care experiences of adults with high needs—those with three or more chronic diseases and a functional limitation in the ability to care for themselves or perform routine daily tasks—to all adults and to those with multiple chronic diseases but no functional limitations. Methods: Analysis of data from the 2009–2011 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey. Key findings: High-need adults were more likely to report having an unmet medical need and less likely to report having good patient–provider communication. High-need adults reported roughly similar ease of obtaining specialist referrals as other adults and greater likelihood of having a medical home. While adults with private health insurance reported the fewest unmet needs overall, privately insured highneed adults reported the greatest difficulties having their needs met. Conclusion: The health care system needs to work better for the highest-need, most-complex patients. This study's findings highlight the importance of tailoring interventions to address their need

Community-based water markets and collective payment for ecosystem services : toward a theory of community-based environmental markets

Unidad de excelencia María de Maeztu CEX2019-000940-MIn the last few decades, the scope of governanceauthr solutions for environmental problems has increased substantially. The old trichotomy of governance by government, governance by markets, and governance by communities has been replaced by a new interest in hybrid solutions in the recognition that no single-governance mode possesses the capabilities to address the multiple facets, interdependencies, and scales of current environmental problems. This paper takes stock on experiences that combine community-based natural resource management and market-based solutions, or as we call them community-based environmental markets (CBEMs). Specifically, we draw lessons from the literature on community-based payment for ecosystem services in the forest context, and from water markets in the context of water user associations (WUA markets). Similarities across the two contexts include the role of communities to ensure participation, compliance, and distributional equity, and the importance of markets as a source of revenue for communities, among others. Differences across highlight the importance to pay attention to the authority held by the communities (stronger in the context of WUA markets) and the nature of the market (i.e. whether it is a service or a resource market). These commonalities and differences motivate the interest of generating new theory on CBEMs, that is, one that builds on but also transcends community-based natural resource management and environmental market theory and allows to compare experiences from different resource contexts

Development of core outcome sets for studies relating to awareness and clinical management of reduced fetal movement

Objective: This study aimed to create core outcome sets (COSs) for use in research studies relating to the awareness and clinical management of reduced fetal movement (RFM). Design: Delphi survey and consensus process. Setting: International. Population: A total of 128 participants (40 parents, 19 researchers and 65 clinicians) from 16 countries. Methods: A systematic literature review was conducted to identify outcomes in studies of interventions relating to the awareness and the clinical management of RFM. Using these outcomes as a preliminary list, stakeholders rated the importance of these outcomes for inclusion in COSs for studies of: (i) awareness of RFM; and (ii) clinical management of RFM. Main outcome measures: Preliminary lists of outcomes were discussed at consensus meetings where two COSs (one for studies of RFM awareness and one for studies of clinical management of RFM). Results: The first round of the Delphi survey was completed by 128 participants, 66% of whom (n = 84) completed all three rounds. Fifty outcomes identified by the systematic review, after multiple definitions were combined, were voted on in round one. Two outcomes were added in round one, and as such 52 outcomes were voted on in two lists in rounds two and three. The COSs for studies of RFM awareness and clinical management are comprised of eight outcomes (four maternal and four neonatal) and 10 outcomes (two maternal and eight neonatal), respectively. Conclusions: These COSs provide researchers with the minimum set of outcomes to be measured and reported in studies relating to the awareness and the clinical management of RFM.</p

Beyond Implicit Bias

In their introduction to this edition of Dædalus, Goodwin Liu and Camara Phyllis Jones write that “it is unlikely that implicit bias can be effectively addressed by cognitive interventions alone, without broader institutional, legal, and structural reforms.” They note that the genesis for the volume was a March 2021 workshop on the science of implicit bias convened by the Committee on Science, Technology, and Law of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. That workshop provided an opportunity to demonstrate that implicit bias is a common form of cognitive processing that develops in response to social, cultural, and institutional conditions. As demonstrated by the workshop and the essays in this volume, an understanding of implicit bias in a neurological, mechanistic, and phenomenological manner strengthens our ability to develop policies to diffuse and mitigate the problems that arise from implicit bias. At the end of the 2021 event, members of the interdisciplinary workshop planning committee gave their perspectives on the important messages that they would take away from the workshop. For the conclusion of this volume of Dædalus, we members of the planning committee were asked to expand on what we said three years ago. This is our response

Comparative mapping of the Oregon Wolfe Barley using doubled haploid lines derived from female and male gametes

28 Pag., 2 Tabl. 4 Fig. The definitive version is available at: http://www.springerlink.com/content/0040-5752/The Oregon Wolfe Barley mapping population is a resource for genetics research and instruction. Prior reports are based on a population of doubled haploid (DH) lines developed by the Hordeum bulbosum (H.b.) method, which samples female gametes. We developed new DH lines from the same cross using anther culture (A.C.), which samples male gametes. Linkage maps were generated in each of the two subpopulations using the same 1,328 single nucleotide polymorphism markers. The linkage maps based on DH lines derived from the products of megasporogeneis and microsporogenesis revealed minor differences in terms of estimated recombination rates. There were no differences in locus ordering. There was greater segregation distortion in the A.C.-derived subpopulation than in the H.b.-derived subpopulation, but in the region showing the greatest distortion, the cause was more likely allelic variation at the ZEO1 plant height locus rather than to DH production method. The effects of segregation distortion and pleiotropy had greater impacts on estimates of quantitative trait locus effect than population size for reproductive fitness traits assayed under greenhouse conditions. The Oregon Wolfe Barley (OWB) population and data are community resources. Seed is available from three distribution centers located in North America, Europe, and Asia. Details on ordering seed sets, as well as complete genotype and phenotype data files, are available at http://wheat.pw.usda.gov/ggpages/maps/OWB/.L. Cistué was recipient of a Senior Research Fellowship from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation during his time with the Oregon State University Barley Project and his research was financed by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation thought the National Plan Projects AGL2005-07195-C02-01 and AGL2008-05541-C02-01. Alfonso Cuesta-Marcos was supported by a postdoctoral fellowship from the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN). The BOPA SNPs were developed under the auspices of USDA-CSREES-NRI Grant No 2006- 55606-16722 “Barley Coordinated Agricultural Project: Leveraging Genomics, Genetics, and Breeding for Gene Discovery and Barley Improvement”.Peer reviewe