Alien Registration- Coffield, Patrick (Portland, Cumberland County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/25320/thumbnail.jp

Adaptive Plasticity of Coloration in Response to Environmental Change

When rapid environmental changes occur, different selective forces can create phenotypic trade-offs in which a trait can provide fitness benefits or costs under different environmental conditions. Amphibians are particularly vulnerable to environmental change, and previous research has revealed that some species will plastically respond to variation in temperature and ultra-violet radiation (UVR) by altering their coloration. Divergent selection on coloration may change with elevation and climate induced shifts in temperature because high temperatures are likely to result in lighter color morphs but as elevation increases, UVR exposure increases leading to the prediction that darker color morphs will be more common. I will evaluate the adaptive plasticity of coloration in Ambystoma mavortium, the tiger salamander, by testing the following hypotheses: 1) increased UVR levels will more strongly affect color plasticity than temperature; 2) older individuals will converge on similar coloration because color plasticity is more important to larval fitness; and 3) coloration will influence the thermal preference of salamanders. I will compare variation in coloration metrics of wild A. mavortium present at different developmental stages (hatchlings, larvae, and adults) along an elevational gradient in western Colorado. Individuals will be photographed, and coloration metrics (saturation, brightness, and hue) will be quantified using Adobe Photoshop to compare differences in coloration. The information I gather in this study can be used to further understand both phenotypic shifts organisms face under environmental changes and the consequences of those shifts, allowing scientists to better manage amphibians and providing a guide for the conservation of other species

"No Podemos Comer Billetes": Climate Change and Development in Southern Ecuador

This project investigates the relationship between autochthonous people and immigrants in a valley of southern Ecuador, specifically in terms of climate change and related moves toward sustainable development. The landscape and environment are frequent topics of conversation, especially concerning the increasingly dry climate. Engagements between individuals often result in dynamic relationships in which people take active steps to curtail human impacts, such as developing new land-use and livelihood strategies. Southern Ecuador has historically experienced the effects of periodic drought, and land degradation is exacerbating the problem. This and other factors, including the relative isolation and lack of rural development in Loja province and the overall economic situation in Ecuador, has resulted in large-scale migration of Ecuadorians from the province of Loja. Paradoxically, the valley in which fieldwork was carried out is also known as the Valley of Longevity and has attracted immigrants from various other countries. Some of these expatriates have lived in the valley for long periods of time and have developed working relationships with Ecuadorians that have proved beneficial in terms of development. This dissertation is the result of 13 months of ethnographic fieldwork that included participant observation, formal and informal interviews, and the analysis of written materials. The project focused specifically on how the local-nonlocal relationship impacts livelihoods, land use change, sustainability, and the perception of and attention to issues surrounding climate change. These themes help us to understand the distributional consequences of changes in agri-food systems, and have led to concern over where food is going to come from because, as some informants have said, “no podemos comer billetes” (we can’t eat dollar bills). Research shows that the social heterogeneity of the valley fosters mutual learning and benefits and contributes to more varied views of the natural environment and of the use of natural resources. This project demonstrates how responses to climate change and land degradation may be integrated into emerging sustainable development strategies, particularly important because human activity will both drive and mediate the impact of climate change during the next century

The Business of Behavior: Appalachian Teachers’ Experiences in using Positive Behavior Interventions and Support

This dissertation explores the lived experiences of Appalachian elementary and middle school teachers who have been identified as working in Positive Behavior Intervention and Support (PBIS) schools. This study used Lifeworld Theory to engage in discussion about the teachers’ individual experiences in using PBIS in their classrooms in relation to resilience frameworks and childhood trauma. The teachers’ individual experiences were analyzed using a Whole-Part-Whole analysis to bring the individual stories together to better understand how PBIS and childhood trauma are experienced in a specific Appalachian school. Discussion opens up through the participants\u27 experiences about grit models in school, trauma their students have experienced, and how this is viewed in the school. Implications for policy and practice are discussed in relation to the findings. Chapter 1 introduces the background of the study by highlighting definitions of Childhood Trauma and defining Appalachia as both a geographical and sociological place. Chapter 2 serves as a review of the literature on behavior interventions in schools, grit and resilience frameworks, and the Lifeworld Theory in which this study is rooted in. In Chapter 3, I discuss both case study and phenomenology as the methodological framework for the study of six participants situated within an Appalachian school district using PBIS as their behavior management system. Chapters 4 and 5 disseminate the data and experiences of the participants in how they have lived through the use of PBIS in their specific educational roles. Lastly, Chapter 6 serves as a discussion of the data and its policy, practical and methodological implications. Chapter 6 also discusses limitations of the study and the space for future research around restorative practices in schools regarding student behavior

Epic Games, Inc. v. Apple, Inc.: An Epic Opinion for Software Developers

Aside from Google Play, Apple’s App Store is where the majority of apps are downloaded from across the world. Recently, Apple has faced scrutiny for its management of the App Store and the control Apple has over the market due to the lack of competition. Additionally, developers have criticized the 30% fee Apple charges them for in-app purchases. The recent ruling by the Northern District of California in Epic Games, Inc. v. Apple, Inc., 559 F. Supp. 3d 898 (N.D. Cal. 2021) addressed this issue and issued an injunction allowing the possibility for developers to direct consumers to external links to subscribe or make purchases which could allow the developers to circumvent Apple’s high commission rates. In Epic Games, Inc. v. Apple, Inc., the court held Apple was not an antitrust monopolist in the market of mobile gaming transactions under the Sherman Act; however, Apple’s anti-steering restrictions were held to be anticompetitive and unlawful under the unfair prong of California’s Unfair Competition Law. This Comment analyzes how the Northern District of California correctly applied prior law in its holding that Epic Games failed to satisfy the rule of reason test to prove Apple’s app distribution restrictions were anticompetitive effects that were harmful to consumers and unlawful under § 1 of the Sherman Act. While Apple’s app distribution restrictions did have anticompetitive effects, Apple was able to validate the anticompetitive effects with security, interbrand competition, and intellectual property as valid procompetitive justifications since the justifications enhance consumer appeal and make Apple more competitive to brands like Google. Additionally, this Comment focuses on how the court correctly ruled Apple’s anti-steering provisions threaten an incipient violation of an antitrust law under California’s Unfair Competition Law since the anti-steering provisions lack a valid procompetitive rationale and block communications about lower prices on other platforms to consumers. Going forward, this case provides implications on how future developers should structure their arguments when pursuing litigation against companies with significant market power, namely Apple and Google. The fact Apple was granted an injunction for its anti-steering provisions under the California Unfair Competition Law but was not considered to be in violation of § 1 of the Sherman Act may reveal that developers are better off framing their arguments as “incipient violations of antitrust law” rather than more broadly through the Sherman Act § 1 unfair restraint of trade.

Biotechnology, Food, and Agriculture Disputes or Food Safety and International Trade

biotechnology, agriculture, and food safety--Canada, biotechnology, agriculture, and food safety--United State

Artist-run initiatives : a study of cultural construction

PhD ThesisThis thesis presents research carried out at three artist-run initiatives (ARIs), all based in the United Kingdom: 85A in Glasgow, Empty Shop in Durham and The Mutual in Glasgow. In each instance, it is argued that members of these ARIs actively produced distinct ‘cultures’, understood here as ‘maps of meaning’ (Clarke et al. 1993 [1976]: 10), that in constructing reality in certain ways further acted to legitimate certain kinds of ‘art’ and certain kinds of ‘artist’ for those involved. To conduct this enquiry, the thesis brings into contact a number of disciplines that do not often meet, including the analytic philosophy of art, the sociology of art, identity theory and educational research, and employs three mains lenses for enquiry: membership, identity and ‘learning’. The thesis argues that members in each of the three ARIs, through their ‘lived participation’ (Wenger 1998) of membership, constructed and navigated distinct cultures so as to ‘frame’ (Goffman 1974) particular artistic practices and artworks as salient, and to construct places in the world where they might ‘matter’ (Guibernau 2013: 28). Members further self-identified in relation to these cultures (Jenkins 2008), producing narratives (Ricoeur 1991) that would allow them to be heard as meaningful, and which at times allowed for a transformation of the self, whereby members were able to validate desired artistic identities, or to re-position themselves as increasingly confident and able. Further, although members did not necessarily indicate that they had joined the ARI in order to learn, they invariably suggested particular forms of learning that ‘pushed’ them to develop, to work in new ways, and to become artists of certain kinds. Here then, the everyday nature of meaning-making is writ large, for even the most ‘ordinary’ of tasks was nevertheless imbued with cultural and political ideals of the artist, and was frequently suggested to have resulted in artworks that would not, or could not, have been made in the same way elsewhere. However, while some members were able to draw upon the culture constructed within the ARI to significantly transform themselves, by no means were all members able to do likewise. As such, the thesis presents instances of cultural construction, and understandings of the categories of ‘art’ and ‘artists’, that were profoundly local, complex, unequal and at times, fraught. The thesis concludes by calling for more critical research into ARIs as key sites in the production of culture, and for an approach that takes seriously the ‘potent emotional content’ of identity-work, belonging and membership (Guibernau 2013: 2) within ARIs. It further considers the wider ramifications of such instances of cultural construction, both for understandings of ‘art’ and ‘artist’ more generally, and as a methodology for the study of artistic and non-artistic cultures that is ‘possible in practice’ (Peräkylä 2004) for those similarly seeking to discover who can do what in the world, who can be what, and how