Rapid ascent: Rocky Mountain National Park in the Great Acceleration, 1945-present

2016 Summer.Includes bibliographical references.After the Second World War's conclusion, Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) experienced a massive rise in visitation. Mobilized by an affluent economy and a growing, auto-centric infrastructure, Americans rushed to RMNP in droves, setting off new concerns over the need for infrastructure improvements in the park. National parks across the country experienced similar explosions in visitation, inspiring utilities- and road-building campaigns throughout the park units administered by the National Park Service. The quasi-urbanization of parks like RMNP implicated the United States' public lands in a process of global change, whereby wartime technologies, cheap fossil fuels, and a culture of techno-optimism—epitomized by the Mission 66 development program—helped foster a "Great Acceleration" of human alterations of Earth’s natural systems. This transformation culminated in worldwide turns toward mass-urbanization, industrial agriculture, and globalized markets. The Great Acceleration, part of the Anthropocene—a new geologic epoch we have likely entered, which proposes that humans have become a force of geologic change—is used as a conceptual tool for understanding the connections between local and global changes which shaped the park after World War II. The Great Acceleration and its array of novel technologies and hydrocarbon-powered infrastructures produced specific cultures of tourism and management techniques within RMNP. After World War II, the park increasingly became the product and distillation of a fossil fuel-dependent society

Professional Identity Development of Asian American & Pacific Islander AANAPISI Staff

In spite of a swiftly growing AAPI undergraduate student population, higher education staff remain predominantly White with AAPIs significantly underrepresented within the field. The underrepresentation of AAPI professional staff is a problem not only because it may represent a lack of a career pipeline for AAPIs entering the workforce, but it also negatively impacts the large population of AAPI students who struggle to access and succeed in higher education. Contrary to prevalent stereotypes and misconceptions, many AAPI undergraduates are first-generation college students, come from low-income backgrounds, and struggle to obtain bachelor’s degrees (Maramba, 2011). Although AAPIs in predominately White fields face myriad racialized barriers, those who have developed a strong sense of professional identity may be better able to persist in spite of obstacles. Professional identity is when an individual perceives themselves as valuable and competent member of their profession (Auxier et al.; 2003; Ewan, 1988; Slay & Smith 2011). Doing so allows an individual to perform better professionally and to develop feelings of well-being and belonging in their workplaces and professions overall (Roberts et al., 2014). This study uses the theoretical frameworks of Slay and Smith’s (2011) theory of professional identity development for People of Color (POC) and Museus et al.’s (2012) theory of ethnic campus subcultures to examine how and why the experience of working for AANAPISI programs may be impactful for AAPI staff and their professional identities. Initial findings suggest that during their time working for AANAPISI programs, (a) AAPI staff experienced a simultaneous redefinition of their racial and professional identities, and (b) this redefinition took place through the process of cultural integration and validation that staff experienced working for AANAPISI. Like Slay and Smith (2011) suggest, my findings suggest that AAPI staff experience identity redefinition as their self-perceptions as higher education professionals and as AAPIs shift as they engage in AANAPISI work. The fact that these twin processes of redefinition take place simultaneously is no coincidence. Instead, participants’ redefinition of their sense of self as higher education professionals and as AAPIs were mutually reinforcing processes

An Examination of the Deliberate Practice Framework in Quad Rugby

Ericsson, Krampe, and Tesch-Römer (1993) forwarded a general framework to account for the characteristics and developmental experiences of individuals who have acquired exceptional performance in any domain. This framework proposed that experts undergo an extensive acquisition period involving the accumulation of thousands of hours of deliberate practice while overcoming various constraints that serve as functional barriers to the achievement of expertise. The purpose of this study was to examine expert disability-sport athletes to determine how well their experiences and characteristics were captured by Ericsson et al.’s (1993) framework. In Part I, quad rugby players recalled the amount of time spent in individual and team practice activities, quad rugby related activities, and daily life activities at the start of their career and every two years since. In Part II, these activities were rated with respect to relevance to improving performance, effort and concentration required, and enjoyment of participation. Findings revealed that quad rugby athletes engaged in similar amounts of practice throughout their career to those observed in superior performers across domains, including Ericsson et al.’s musicians and expert performers in the able-bodied sport domain (e.g., Helsen, Starkes, & Hodges, 1998). Contrary to the original deliberate practice framework as described by Ericsson et al. (1993), results indicated that disability-sport athletes did not rate the most relevant and effortful activities as low on enjoyment.

Changes in soil physical and hydrological properties due to Bromus tectorum (cheatgrass) invasion

Introduction of Bromus tectorum (cheatgrass) into western rangelands has had a profound effect on the diversity and health of native ecosystems. Introduced in the late 19th century, B. tectorum has rapidly out-competed native species and colonized large areas of the Great Basin region (Mack, 1981). The objective of this research is to assess changes in soil physical and hydrologic properties on former A. tridentata sites now invaded by B. tectorum and to quantify the scope of the alterations through time. Study site selection was based upon a range of A. tridentata stand replacing fire histories spanning approximately 20 years and subsequent colonization of each fire site by B. tectorum. Fire sites sampled were invaded by B. tectorum following a single fire event; the earliest plot was burned in 1985 with subsequent sites having fires in 1987, 1998, and 2002. Sites characterized by A. tridentata, and not burned, were sampled as controls. To assess soil physical and hydrological properties measures of aggregate stability; hydrophobicity; bulk density; surface strength; surface roughness; and infiltration (double-ring and tension infiltrometer) were made. T-test results indicate increased silt and clay particle size fractions and a decreased sand particle size fraction with colonization by B. tectorum. B. tectorum sites exhibited increased bulk density, aggregate stability, and surface strength along with decreasing surface roughness and saturated conductivity. No significant differences in unsaturated conductivity were represented by tension infiltrometer measurements. Sand sieve fractions indicate an increase in very coarse, coarse, and medium sand fractions and a decrease in fine and very fine sand fractions on B. tectorum sites. Results suggest that B. tectorum invasion is altering soil physical properties and in turn, surface hydrology

Antecedent contained deletions in native and non-native sentence processing

We report the results from an eye-movement monitoring study investigating native (L1) and non-native (L2) speakers' real-time processing of antecedent-contained deletion (ACD), a type of verb phrase ellipsis in which the ellipsis gap forms part of its own antecedent. The resulting interpretation problem is traditionally thought to be solved by quantifier raising, a covert scope-shifting operation that serves to remove the gap from within its antecedent. Our L2 group comprised advanced, native German-speaking L2 learners of English. The analysis of the eye-movement data showed that both L1 and L2 English speakers tried to recover the missing verb phrase after encountering the gap. Only the native speakers showed evidence of ellipsis resolution being affected by quantification, however. No effects of quantification following gap detection were found in the L2 group, by contrast, indicating that recovery of the elided material was accomplished independently from the object's quantificational status in this group

Fire Performance of Candidate Materials for a Next Generation Fire Attack Hose

This research documents the thermal performance of fire-resistant materials for use in the outer jacket of a next generation fire attack hose. Current hose materials, polyester and nylon 6,6, have decomposition temperatures lower than those seen on the fireground. A unique test procedure was developed by the team using a cone calorimeter for its steady state radiative heat source that can simulate conditions seen on the fireground. Ten materials used in other high heat applications were identified and tested using this testing procedure. Results showed that materials can survive flashover and post-flashover conditions while current materials fail prior to flashover. This project is a stepping stone in the discovery and development of material testing for a next generation fire attack hose

A Drought-Induced African Slave Trade?

Historians have frequently suggested that droughts helped facilitate the African slave trade. By introducing a previously unused dataset on 19th century rainfall levels in Africa, I provide the first empirical answer to this hypothesis. I show that negative rainfall shocks and long-run shifts in the mean level of rainfall increased the number of slaves exported from a given region and may have had a persistent impact on the level of development today. Using geocoded data on 19th century African conflicts, I show that these drought conditions also increased the likelihood of conflict, but only in the slave exporting regions of Africa. I also explore the role of household desperation, the internal African slave market, and disease outbreaks in explaining the negative relationship between droughts and slave exports. I find limited evidence for for these alternative mechanism, with household desperation having the most empirical support. These results contribute to our understanding of the process of selection into the African slave trade

A Drought-Induced African Slave Trade?

Historians have frequently suggested that droughts helped facilitate the African slave trade. By introducing a previously unused dataset on historical rainfall levels in Africa, I provide the first empirical answer to this hypothesis. I demonstrate how negative rainfall shocks and long-run shifts in the mean level of rainfall increased the number of slaves exported from a given region and can have persistent effects on the level of development today. Using a simple economic model of an individual's decision to participate in the slave trade, along with observed empirical heterogeneity and historical anecdotes, I argue that consumption smoothing and labor allocation adjustments are the primary causal mechanisms for the negative relationship between droughts and slave exports. These findings contribute to our understanding of the process of selection into the African slave trade and have policy implications for contemporary human trafficking and slavery