The lady's not for burning.

Thesis (M.A.)--Boston Universit

Cultivating Wildness

The thesis discusses wildness within the context of agriculture. Wildness can be characterized as autonomous, innate and Other. As autonomous, wildness can never be fully controlled. Because it is innate, wildness is inborn in human beings and inherent in the Other-than-human world. As Other, wildness cannot be fully understood. Because wildness is Other, our only avenue to knowledge is experience of the Other-than-human world through which wildness is present. Our ultimate concern is the wildness inherent in humans. By experiencing manifestations of wildness, we provide ourselves with opportunities for co-creation. Co-creation requires humans to be receptive to the Other-than-human world and refrain from attempting to control Other-than-humans and humans alike. Co-creation helps humans attune to our innate wildness, which causes ripples in the rest of the wild community. Thoreau is a model for agricultural co-creation with manifestations of wildness. Problematically, technology disrupts our co-creative relationships with wildness because it removes us from experience of the land and tends to economically and morally commodify Others. By doing so, we lose context for our relationships and begin to regard Others with ownership. After broadly discussing agricultural technologies and the soil community we look at a central Indiana commodity corn, soybean and corn seed farm to contextualize the problems of technology in modern agriculture. To amend the problems of technology, we look at the work of Martin Heidegger. Calling upon his notion of ‘Das Ding,’ we see how our notion of focal farming can re-establish relationships with the Other-than-human world and help to resolve moral commodification. We see that community is an essential part of restoring the story to commodified Others. The story of Buffalo Bird Woman provides a final historic example of how we can more fully engage the human community and how focal farming evolves within a tradition. To end, I suggest that seed-saving is an extraordinarily focal practice and can act as Heidegger’s Das Ding, helping farmers to renew intimate relationships with the Other-than-human world and attune to their inborn wildness. However, seed-saving is only a suggestion, each person needs to find their own autonomous avenue to cultivate wildness

The Exploratory Study of the Effects of Selling Canola by Seed Size on Farmers: Variability of Hybrids and Years

Technological advancements in seed placement for commodity field production has changed how seed is sold for many types of crops. It is becoming more popular among several seed industries to sell seeds by count rather than by weight. Corn, soybeans, cotton, and sugar beets are all examples of crops that have made a switch from historically being sold by weight to being sold by count. Of most recent, companies are now investigating how this change would impact canola. Unlike corn which has a relatively consistent or predictable seed size, canola tends to have greater variability in seed size. This study evaluates the variability in seed count per harvested volume across multiple canola hybrids and across multiple years for a single canola hybrid. This research collects data and evaluates the cost implications of selling canola based on seed count, given the uncertainty in canola seed size. The research provides an exploratory evaluation in seed size, describes the risk that farmers are currently absorbing by buying canola by weight, and outlines future work needed to be done by seed companies before selling canola by seed count

Cross Sectional Analysis of the Demand for Prescription Pain Killers

This paper is a cross-sectional analysis of the demand for prescription painkillers. Demand was broken down into illegal adult use of painkillers, illegal adolescent use, and legal prescriptions per capita for each state. Data for 2012 were taken from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) and the National Prescription Audit as well as from other sources such as the Census Bureau. Prescription drug monitoring programs were found to decrease illegal use, while medical marijuana laws and poverty rates increased legal use and use among teens. Both white population and number of officers decreased illegal use among adults, but increased legal demand. Regions with more very religious people saw increased legal demand, while regions with higher education rates saw decreased demand. Single mothers reduced illegal use among teens. Future studies should look at demand over a longer period of time and try to find measures of illegal use with more variation

Does Well-Being Moderate the Association of Harm Avoidance with Cognitive Decline

The Dual-Factor Model of mental health highlights the need to consider both constructs associated with psychopathology and subjective well-being in relation to clinical outcomes. Harm avoidance, which is associated with behavioral inhibition, has been negatively associated with cognitive change. While subjective well-being has been positively associated with cognition. The current study aimed to examine both constructs in a single model to examine well-being as a moderator of the association of harm avoidance with cognitive decline. A sample of 728 older adults from the Rush University Memory and Aging Project was used. Participants completed batteries of questionnaires and neuropsychological tests at baseline and yearly follow-ups. Mixed effects models were conducted to examine to what degree well-being moderated the association of harm avoidance with cognitive decline across multiple cognitive domains. Well-being was a more unique robust predictor of cognitive change over time. Higher well-being reduced the negative effects of harm avoidance over time for episodic memory. Taken together, the present study offers further support for targeting positive psychological interventions for successful aging

Analysis Of The Mechanics Of The Ouray, CO Landslide

Mountain areas are prime locations for mass movement activity, as a result of their steep slopes and large amount of local relief. As a rapid mass movement phenomena, landslides are responsible for a considerable numbers of deaths around the world each year. Thus, mitigation plans, such as the “Multi-Hazard Mitigation Plan” published by the County of Ouray, CO, have been developed to identify the spatial and temporal characteristic of potential hazards to minimize impact on humans and real property. The Ouray area has numerous landslides that have been mapped, and a large-sized landslide in this region of the San Juan Mountains is locally referred to as the Amphitheater Landslide. Although the area has been mapped as a landslide, the exact size, extent, and cause of the landslide have not been determined because the complex geological history of the region masks much of the landslide. Identification of the landslide extent and the cause are fundamental to establishing potential risks associated with this landslide. The town of Ouray, which is situated on the floor of a glaciated valley down slope from the scarp of the landslide is situated aside the toe of the landslide. The landslide was mapped using high-resolution, color aerial photography and geomorphic mapping. The landslide is 81,834,372 ft2, composed of San Juan tuff mixed with glacial debris and underlain by the Molas Formation (i.e., weak shale beds). Preliminary examination suggested that the exposed Molas shale experienced strain and saturation during the last interglacial period resulting in decreased shear strength. The valley slopes are draped with moraines, which were emplaced in contact with the glaciers, (i.e., ice-contact), which resulted in slopes that exceeded the angle of repose for the material. As the climate warmed and the glaciers melted, the support that was provided by the ice contact melted and the resulting slopes are today in disequilibrium and prone to failure. This study provides an assessment of the mechanics of movement of the Amphitheater landslide, which can be used to help minimize similar potential hazards

An efficient counting method for the colored triad census

The triad census is an important approach to understand local structure in network science, providing comprehensive assessments of the observed relational configurations between triples of actors in a network. However, researchers are often interested in combinations of relational and categorical nodal attributes. In this case, it is desirable to account for the label, or color, of the nodes in the triad census. In this paper, we describe an efficient algorithm for constructing the colored triad census, based, in part, on existing methods for the classic triad census. We evaluate the performance of the algorithm using empirical and simulated data for both undirected and directed graphs. The results of the simulation demonstrate that the proposed algorithm reduces computational time many-fold over the naive approach. We also apply the colored triad census to the Zachary karate club network dataset. We simultaneously show the efficiency of the algorithm, and a way to conduct a statistical test on the census by forming a null distribution from 1,000 realizations of a mixing-matrix conditioned graph and comparing the observed colored triad counts to the expected. From this, we demonstrate the method's utility in our discussion of results about homophily, heterophily, and bridging, simultaneously gained via the colored triad census. In sum, the proposed algorithm for the colored triad census brings novel utility to social network analysis in an efficient package

Educational Progress Across Immigrant Generations in California

Explores the disparities in levels of educational progress among different immigrant population groups in California. Examines factors that influence educational attainment among youth by race, ethnicity, and generation. Includes policy considerations

EPITHELIAL CADHERIN RE-EXPRESSION IN METASTATIC BREAST CANCER AS A STRATEGY FOR METASTATIC COLONIZATION OF THE LIVER

Epithelial-cadherin downregulation enables cancer cells to escape from the primary mass; however, E-cadherin has been found to be expressed on metastatic foci, bringing into question the role of this molecule in tumor progression. We define a novel role for the cellular adhesion molecule E-cadherin, in which the protein's re-emergence promotes carcinoma-parenchymal interactions in ectopic sites. Non-metastatic E-cadherin positive MCF7 breast cancer cells form heterotypic cohesions mediated by E-cadherin, and in invasive and metastatic MDA-MB-231 cells, the E-cadherin promoter hypermethylation that prevents endogenous E-cadherin expression is reversed when these cells are cultured with hepatocytes. The function of this re-expression is suggested by the E-cadherin-dependent sustained activation of Erk-MAP kinase and Akt in these breast carcinoma cells. Thus, we propose that E-cadherin expression and subsequent heterocellular interactions direct cell fate decisions that may ultimately enable colonization of a secondary site by an invasive cancer cell

Networked Cooperative Autonomous Munitions Digital Twin Modeling Utilizing Model Based Systems Engineering

An example of a high-complexity system is a swarm of Networked Cooperative Autonomous Munitions (NCAM) that prioritize wide area search and multiple view target confirmation. First, this research discusses methods toward building behavioral models within a Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) tool. Then, this research presents the parallel modeling effort of NCAM in two environments: the MBSE model in Cameo Systems Modeler, and a physics-based model in the Advanced Framework for Simulation, Integration, and Modeling (AFSIM). Each digital model in its environment provides distinct benefits to the stakeholders of the design process, so the models must present consistent and parallel information. Thus, this research also presents automated methods to translate design information between models. Overall, the pair of models working in concert build trust with decision making authorities through understanding of the autonomous processes through systems cognition and digital scenario simulation