The Effect of Climate Change on Land Use and Wetlands Conservation in Western Canada: An Application of Positive Mathematical Programming

This study examines the impact of climate change on land use in the Prairie Pothole Region of Western Canada, with particular emphasis on how climate change will impact wetlands. A multi-region Positive Mathematical Programming model calibrates land use in the area to observed acreage in 2006. Policy simulations for both climate effects as well as the effects of biofuel policies determine how climate change will affect land use and wetlands. Given that the model calibrates to observed acreage, the policies provide a realistic view of how land use might change from current levels, given the effects of climate change. Results indicate that climate change could decrease wetlands in this area by as much as 50 percent. The effect will be very different depending on whether or not the social benefits of wetlands are considered, and the effects of climate change on wetlands are heterogeneous across the Prairie Provinces.Positive mathematical programming; wetlands conservation; land use change; climate change; biofuels; Prairie pothole region

Some Kind of Socialist: Lee Hays, the Social Gospel, and the Path to the Cultural Front

In 1939, with sixty-five dollars and twenty pages of Commonwealth Labor songs, Lee Hays, youngest son of a Methodist minister, hitchhiked thirteen hundred miles from Mena, Arkansas, to New York City where he found stardom in the Folk Revival movement, first, as a founder of the Almanac Singers then the Weavers. Hays’ biographer Doris Willens and others, viewing Hays’ unabashed socialism, ribald humor, penchant for beer, brandy, and cigarettes as induced by the childhood trauma of his father’s death, argue Hays rejected his father’s beliefs: replacing religion with radical politics. This thesis, in contrast, argues Hays’ upbringing immersed in contradictions of Progressive Era Methodism in the Jim Crow South proved a seedbed for his work with Claude Williams, socialists, and radical social gospelers, which, in turn, undergirded his cultural front contributions to the Almanac Singers, People’s Songs, and the Weavers. Rather than rejecting his religious upbringing, Hays transformed it: representing and depicting a southern religious left fighting for rights of labor, biracial coalitions of sharecroppers, and redistribution of land against Arkansas’ planter-dominated economic system. His life and work illumine a southern route to the cultural front that passed through the portals of radical religion. Yet, though Hays, by age twenty-seven, had labored in leftist film, drama, music, writing, education, and union organizing, Michael Denning largely absents Hays from the anti-fascist, pro-labor coalition of artists, writers, filmmakers, dramatists, and musicians — The Cultural Front — he argues emerged between 1929 and 1959 from a “material base in the CIO” and the collision of a non-communist-centric, American Popular Front social movement with “newcultural apparatuses of state and industry.” Hays’ collaborative compositional process and resulting Billboard-chart-topping blend of traditional, altered, and freely composed “folk” music are at odds with Denning’s arguments privileging individual cultural auteurs, left wing musical theater productions, jazz, and “cabaret blues” as the movement’s representative musics. Moreover, Hays’ southern religious roots defy Denning’s demographic model positing radical moderns, anti-fascist emigres, and young plebeians from “the immigrant and black working- class neighborhoods of the modernist metropolis” as “the heart of the cultural front.” Instead, Hays points to a nascent southern cultural front emerging from a radical religious pro-labor base extending through labor colleges and southern union organizing. Through his creative output and at once reluctant and enthusiastic embrace of commercial, national, and international acclaim, Hays merged the southern religious left’s messages of social and economic justice with folk and newly composed music in the Cold War Era to meet a new political moment: changing the means and content of political dissent and the trajectory of international popular culture. Threading through decades from 1914-1981, Hays’ life ties the Progressive Era to the era of Reaganomics: knitting together Old Left and New. Post–World War I and Depression-era Arkansas, labor history, socialism, mainline and radical religious belief, vernacular and commercial music, and the artistic, political, and social milieu of Denning’s Cultural Front all intersect in Hays. His life shines a light on the origins of twentieth-century southern radicalism and its cultural contributors

The Glasgow City Improvement Trust : an analysis of its genesis, impact and legacy and an inventory of its buildings, 1866-1910

This dissertation comprises a descriptive and analytical account of the workings of the Glasgow City Improvement Trust (from 1895, the Glasgow City Improvement Department), together with a comprehensive inventory of its architectural output. A trawl of library catalogues in the Universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow, St. Andrews and Strathclyde, as well as the Glasgow School of Art, suggests this subject is largely uncovered by academic enquiry. Brian Edwards' Ph. D thesis (cited in the Bibliography) has been the most definitive so far, dealing diligently with the Glasgow Improvement Act 1866, though it disregards the arguably more important Act of 1897. Several published narratives have touched on the subject too, but most have done so indirectly and superficially. Perfunctory treatment has helped entrench a number of inaccuracies regarding attribution. The 'Buildings of Scotland' Penguin series is not alone in ascribing St. George's Mansions, for instance, to the City Improvement Department. In fact, these buildings were erected by the Corporation's Statute Labour Department. Errors of this nature illustrate the need for a definitive bank of hard documentation. It is the author's hope the following thesis will fulfil that requirement

FAN MOTIVATION FOR ATTENDANCE TO MEN\u27S DIVISION I COLLEGE SOCCER MATCHES

Fan attendance rates are a vital part to college athletics. With most athletic programs already losing money for universities, the recent decline in attendance rates has added further stress to budgets (Fulks, 2010). Most of the research on sports fans examines the socio-motivational and psychological motivations for attending games. Fan research has primarily focused on English soccer and American baseball, with little focus being placed on college soccer. While sports like college soccer do not generate enough revenue to sustain themselves, athletic departments still need to maintain positive attendance numbers at these events. Non-revenue sports provide free publicity and advertisement for universities which is one reason why colleges increased their contribution to athletics by 28% in 2009 (Drape & Thomas, 2010).This creates a need to understand college soccer fans. This study will look at nine Clemson men\u27s soccer matches using a one way analysis of variance for different psychological and physical variables that influence a fan\u27s attendance. This process will help identify what aspects have an impact on live-match attendance and will further explain the fluctuation in attendance numbers. The study uses a multiple methods approach to gather information about a fan\u27s opinions on different variables. The survey expands upon observable motivations by examining the fan\u27s opinion on each element (quality, escape, boredom/avoidance, social, entertainment, sport atmosphere, game data, game players, and game weather). This expansion further develops the understanding of what influences a fans attendance to games by looking at what fans indicate determines their attendance and what actually occurs during the course of a season. The second part of the survey examines social influences and other motivations that cannot be observed: quality of the game, escape, boredom avoidance, social, entertainment, and sport atmosphere. The survey was compared to the six physical variables: weather, opponent, team record, giveaways/promotions, weekday and time of the event. This process helped identify what aspects had an impact on live-match attendance and further explain the fluctuation in attendance numbers. The study revealed that different age groups, gender, and relationship to the university had significant difference as far as their motivation to attend live matches. The results of this study noticed a significant influence when examining the age of the participant, gender, and their relationship to the university (whether they were an active part of the institution) in relation to the nine game variables: quality, escape, boredom/avoidance, social, entertainment, sport atmosphere, game data, game players, and game weather. By understanding the impact of these game variables on the three demographic groups (age, gender, and active member), universities can better account for the rise and fall of fan attendance and institute different strategies to overcome these fluctuations

Equality Issues Present in Teaching and Workshop Interaction

A major difficulty faced by anyone wishing to research equal opportunities issues associated with National Curriculum design and technology lessons taught in a workshop environment is the paucity of literature available. However, new data from a recent LEA-sponsored initiative (Newley1 LEA 1995-1998) now provides additional material on the range of equality issues present in workshop-based teaching and interaction. The researcher’s role in the Newley Design and Technology Initiative (1995-98) was that of evaluator, and this paper describes the Initiative’s evaluation process and the research findings it produced. In so doing, it aims to inform the ongoing debate regarding gender issues in design and technology. It also provides teachers with practical information on strategies for evaluating aspects of their workshop-based teaching, which hopefully will encourage teacher-initiated research

Bioeconomic modeling of wetlands and waterfowl in Western Canada: Accounting for amenity values

bioeconomic modelling; wetland protection; wildlife management; nonmarket values; Prairie pothole region

Climate Change Impacts on Waterfowl Habitat in Western Canada

climate change, wetlands

Bioeconomic modeling of wetlands and waterfowl in Western Canada: Accounting for amenity values

This study extends an original bioeconomic model of optimal duck harvest and wetland retention by bringing in amenity values related to the nonmarket (in situ) benefits of waterfowl plsi the ecosystem values of wetlands themselves. The model maximizes benefits to hunters as well as the amenity values of ducks and ecosystem benefits of wetlands, subject to the population dynamics. Results indicate that wetlands and duck harvests need to be increased relative to historical levels. Further, the socially optimal ratio of duck harvest to wetlands is larger than what has been observed historically. Including amenity values leads to a significant increase in the quantity of wetlands and duck harvests relative to models that focus only on hunting values.bioeconomic modelling, wetland protection, wildlife management, nonmarket values, Prairie pothole region, Environmental Economics and Policy, Q57, C61, Q25,