THE U.S. POSITION IN THE MILLENNIUM ROUND OF MULTILATERAL TRADE NEGOTIATION

International Relations/Trade,

An Extension of the Ranges of the Burnsi and Kandiyhi Variants of Rana pipiens

Kandiyohi and burnsi frogs were collected in counties not previously reported to have these variants of R. pipiens

Utilizing Six-Sigma Techniques to Improve Hospital Pre-Transplant Process

Typically, one expects to wait at a hospital or doctor’s appointment. However, if patient wait times are associated with inefficient clinical processes resulting in slower clinic throughput rates, both the patient and employee grow frustrated. The pre-transplant patient process at the Comprehensive Transplant Center at The Ohio State University Medical Center has been identified as a candidate for process improvement to increase both patient and employee satisfaction. Before the Comprehensive Transplant Center can perform kidney, liver, and pancreas transplants in the abdominal transplant clinic, the patient must complete a pre-transplant process. Potential transplant patients meet individually with a team of medical professionals including a doctor, nurse, social worker, dietitian, and financial representative. This study seeks to understand the existing pre-transplant process while identifying improvements to streamline and standardize procedures. The ultimate goal is achieving improved patient throughput rates while maintaining high patient satisfaction levels. Ultimately this study sought to address a gap of about 60 minutes between the current state of appointment lengths and the redesigned future state for pre-transplant appointments. The pre-transplant process research was conducted primarily through observation. This included gathering process flow information as well as step completion times (including wait times between steps). Additionally, focus groups comprised of the aforementioned pre-transplant medical team were conducted to solicit process improvement suggestions. Utilizing the focus group suggestions and process step timing data, improvement recommendations were generated to ultimately decrease the length of time in appointments. The recommendations were developed using Lean and Six Sigma tools including process mapping, SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats), spaghetti diagram, and failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA). With the captured improved process knowledge providing the motivation for implementation, the lasting impact of this project is improved clinic patient flow, which will ultimately improve clinic efficiencies and patient satisfaction.No embargoAcademic Major: Operations Managemen

Environmental Rights

In this thesis I address the claim that theories of moral rights are incompatible with environmental concerns. This claim is often made on the grounds that rights are too individualistic and human-centred. I attempt to answer this, not on the grounds that it misrepresents all theories of rights or that these concerns are not important, but rather by demonstrating that concepts of environmental rights can be developed that will do this work. I argue that rights are dynamic concepts which have altered over their history to accommodate new challenges and problems (a fact frequently disguised by the often rigid and legalistic frameworks of twentieth-century rights theories) and that their associations with individualism and agency should not be seen as central to the ‘core’ concept of a right. I examine various cases that might be regarded as difficult for ‘traditional’ theories, including the rights of future people, groups and animals. I show that certain theories are unable to account for moral rights in these cases (especially, but not only, ‘choice theories’ of the kind espoused by H. L. A. Hart). I develop an account of what an adequate theory of environmental rights must involve. This includes the suggestion that there are ‘essentially’ environmental rights which are not derivable from any of the traditional basic rights. I base this claim on the role that environment plays in identity on a number of interlinked levels. I argue that the ways in which we are involved in and dependent upon our environments are just as fundamental to who and what we are as the ways in which we are autonomous and independent. A theory of rights that places liberty and independence alone at the heart of the self will then rely on an impoverished and unbalanced view of how we relate to the world

Island Paradise to Urban Streets: Identifying the Effects of Military Forced Displacements on Indigenous Islanders

During the twentieth century, indigenous islanders across the world were forcibly removed from their native lands by Western powers for militarily advantageous reasons. The Bikinians’ removal is the most notorious case of military forced displacement, but many other island communities faced the same fate during the superpower struggles of World War I, World War II, and the Cold War. This study analyzes two documented cases of military expulsions of indigenous islanders, the Bikinians and the Chagossians. I created a matrix analyzing the common cultural experiences shared by both communities as a result of their expulsions and how those effects persist today. The cultural experiences shared between both indigenous communities, relating to their identity, desires, and perceptions of the event, show many similarities are shared with others removed from their native islands. The list of common cultural experiences include shifts in self-perception and identity, marginalization in society, idealization of the homeland, desire for reparations, suffering and neglect at hands of the military forces, lack of sovereignty, issues with rights to return or ownership of native lands, and pursuit of legal resolution. I then discuss two other cases, the Chamorro removal from native lands in Guam and the Aleuts’ expulsion from the Aleutian Islands in Alaska, to discuss their effects from militarily forced displacements. All communities share these experiences to some degree. By analyzing these similarities, this study will provide the basis for creating a compendium of military forced displacements during the twentieth century. This compendium can not only be used to further investigate the effects of forced displacements, but also allow affected communities and scholars to discuss the issues of land rights, sovereignty, indigenous identity, and cultural change that still persists today as result of these events

Marine life in the North Pacific: the known, unknown, and unknowable

Special Publication 2 On-line version On-line version includes links to the following files (these files are not included into publication): Bacterioplankton [pdf] Phytoplankton [pdf] Zooplankton [pdf] Non-exploited fish and invertebrates [pdf] Commercially-important fish and invertebrates [pdf] Marine birds [pdf] Mammals [pdf] Supplemental table of Unknowns [html