The City, Farm, and Wilderness: The Politics of Nature

A thesis presented to the faculty of the College of Business and Public Affairs at Morehead State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Public Administration by Mariel L. Smith in November of 2013

Probation Revocation and Its Causes: Profiles of State and Local Jurisdictions, Bell County, Texas

This profile describes the structure and operations of probation in one county in Texas. It presents the perspectives of the individuals who participate in the county's probation system and how they navigate issues surrounding probation violations and revocations. The picture it paints is one of a complex system, tasked with ensuring that those under supervision abide by a lengthy list of conditions and remain crime-free, all while working within the realities of probationers' daily lives. Though many of the probationers had limited financial means, the probation system in Bell County—and across the state—is largelyfunded by probationers' fees, turning probation officers into "bill collectors" to finance the system and burdening the probationers who already struggle with financial instability

Probation Revocation and Its Causes: Profiles of State and Local Jurisdictions, Ramsey County, Minnesota

This profile describes how probation violations and revocations work in Ramsey County. Due to the size of the county, the interviews are only from a sample of representatives involved in probation violations and revocations. Interviewees commented that because Ramsey is a large county with over 12,000 individuals on probation, caseloads can be high, and at times there can be a great deal of work. Interview participants shared the importance of all players in the criminal justice system working as a team to handle the high volume of cases. However, working together and being on the same page was sometimes a challenge. When the interview participants were asked what they would like to change about how probation violations are currently handled in Ramsey County, many expressed an interest in improving the relationships between probation officers, attorneys, and judges. One probation officer stated they would like to have increased communication with judges and that they would like judges to trust the probation department more – specifically, to trust that the probationdepartment is using evidence-based practices to the best of their ability

Probation Revocation and Its Causes: Profiles of State and Local Jurisdictions, Wharton and Matagorda Counties, Texas

This report summarizes findings from interviews with criminal justice professionals involved in probation violations and revocations in 2 rural counties in Texas, as well as from a sample of individuals on probation. The profile also describes the organizational structure and demographics of probation within these counties. Dealing with probation violations in a small rural county can be difficult because of limited resources that are available to respond to violations. There are limited treatment options and other community based sanctions as well as virtually no public transportation to assist probationers then there are options. Probation officers stated they would like more services to help probationers deal with issues such as drug problems, criminogenic thinking, and mental health

Incorporating attitudes into the evaluation of preferences regarding agri-environmental practices

Many stated preference studies have shown that individuals’ attitudes play an important role in explaining their behaviour and helping to disentangle preference heterogeneity. When responses to attitudinal questions are introduced into discrete choice models, a suitable approach that corrects for potential endogeneity must be adopted. We use a discrete choice experiment to analyse the preferences of residents regarding the use of agri-environmental practices in the peri-urban area of Milan (Italy). A detailed analysis of these preferences is relevant for policymakers as farmers on the peri-urban fringe are often asked to provide environmental services to urban-dwellers. We apply a latent class model that we extend to include indicators of individuals’ attitudes towards the relationship between agriculture and the environment. Besides the application of the control function approach to deal with endogeneity, our main contribution is the use of a refutability test to check the exogeneity of the instruments in the agri-environmental setting. Our results show that attitudinal indicators help to disentangle the preference heterogeneity and that the respondents’ willingness-to-pay distribution differs according to the indicators’ values

Pritchardia boliviensis N. Gen., N. Sp. (Anoplocephalidae: Linstowinae) a tapeworm from opossums (Didelphidae) in the yungas and lowlands of Bolivia and Atlantic forest of Paraguay

Scott L. Gardner, F. Agustín Jiménez, Mariel L. Campbelll (2013): Pritchardia boliviensis N. Gen., N. Sp. (Anoplocephalidae: Linstowinae) a tapeworm from opossums (Didelphidae) in the yungas and lowlands of Bolivia and Atlantic forest of Paraguay. Occasional Papers, Museum of Texas Tech University 319: 1-8, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.103520

Global marine bacterial diversity peaks at high latitudes in winter.

Genomic approaches to characterizing bacterial communities are revealing significant differences in diversity and composition between environments. But bacterial distributions have not been mapped at a global scale. Although current community surveys are way too sparse to map global diversity patterns directly, there is now sufficient data to fit accurate models of how bacterial distributions vary across different environments and to make global scale maps from these models. We apply this approach to map the global distributions of bacteria in marine surface waters. Our spatially and temporally explicit predictions suggest that bacterial diversity peaks in temperate latitudes across the world's oceans. These global peaks are seasonal, occurring 6 months apart in the two hemispheres, in the boreal and austral winters. This pattern is quite different from the tropical, seasonally consistent diversity patterns observed for most macroorganisms. However, like other marine organisms, surface water bacteria are particularly diverse in regions of high human environmental impacts on the oceans. Our maps provide the first picture of bacterial distributions at a global scale and suggest important differences between the diversity patterns of bacteria compared with other organisms

ASSEMBLAGE ORGANIZATION OF SURFACE-ACTIVE ARTHROPODS ALONG HORIZONTAL MOISTURE GRADIENTS IN A COASTAL SONORAN DESERT ECOSYSTEM

Examinamos las diferencias a corto plazo en la organización de las comunidades de artrópodos activos en la superficie del suelo en una porción restringida del ecosistema de dunas cerca de Puerto Peñasco, Sonora, México. Para probar la hipótesis de que el gradiente de humedad del suelo influye en tal organización, se estabecieron tres transectos de 32 m en dirección oeste hacia la costa f) área de estero, 2) estanque de agua salada, y 3) área intermedia de desierto seco (control). El gradiente de humedad varió en el estero y estanque de 15% y 11% a <1% respectivamente, mientras que la humedad del suelo en la área control fue de <1% (valores promedio a 15 cm de profundidad). Cuatro lotes, proporcionalmente espaciados de 3 x 7 m a lo largo del transecto con trampas "pitfair capturaron artrópodos continuamente por períodos de 12 horas, el número de trampas fue ocho en el estero, ocho en el estanque y seis en el control. Se capturaron 558 artrópodos pertenecientes a 50 especies, se excluyeron las numerosas hormigas del género Solenopsis. El análisis de "rarefaction" con 80 como tamaño de muestra, mostró valores de 27 en el estero, 21.5 en el estanque y 18 para el sitio de control, cuando se eliminó el efecto de pantano de Uca ¡atimanus (cangrejo que fue dominante en el estero y ausente en los otros dos sitios). los artrópodos, excluyendo cangrejos, fueron doblemente abundantes en el estero durante el día y cuatro veces más abundantes en la noche que en los otros dos sitios durante el día. la proporción carnívoros-detritívoros en los tres sitios fue aproximadamente 2:1 (estero), 1:1 (estanque) y 1:2 (control). El valor de similitud (modificado de Hill E5) sin Uca fue similar en todos los sitios; sin embargo, grandes valores en diversidad (Hill N2) confirman la presencia de numerosas especies en el estero (escarabajos Carabidae y arañas lycosídae). No se encontró relación significativa entre el porcentaje de cobertura vegetal y la densidad de artrópodos capturados. la medida del valor beta-diversidad (coeficiente de comunidad de S^rensen) reafirma la particularidad de la organización en el estero. Nuestra hipótesis inicial fue parcial­ mente apoyada porque la diferencia de especies, abundancia de individuos y proporción carnívoros-detritívoros tendió a incrementarse con el gradiente de humedad