Examining The Effects of National Monument Establishment on Surrounding Communities

The Katahdin Woods & Waters National Monument, located in northern Maine just outside the town of Millinocket and created by President Obama in August 2016, has elicited vocal support and opposition. It has been heralded on one hand as a massive victory for conservation in Maine, and on the other hand, as an overreach by the federal government. This controversy was so widespread that it resulted in the Katahdin Woods & Waters National Monument being included in a Department of the Interior review of twenty-seven National Monuments during the summer of 2017, which was conducted by Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke, a Trump administration appointee. Secretary Zinke’s review suggested that the Katahdin Woods & Waters National Monument should remain intact, with potential changes to allowable land uses. Many people in the communities surrounding the Katahdin Woods & Waters National Monument felt hopeful about this decision, as their communities have been experiencing an economic decline in recent decades due to the collapse of the pulp and paper industry in the region. The development of a tourism-based economy surrounding the National Monument has been looked to as a potential economic savior for the area. With the National Monument here to stay, is there evidence to back up the hope that this National Monument will economically revive the region with a new tourism industry? This paper examines three National Monuments established in the 1990’s to examine the level to which those communities have experienced growth since National Monument establishment. These three National Monuments are the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument in Utah, Newberry National Monument in Nebraska, and Agate Fossil Beds National Monument in Oregon. Landsat remote sensing imagery from three time periods (time of establishment, middle point, and 2017) is classified in this analysis to determine if developed areas (i.e. new buildings, increases in paved roads) increased through time. Due to census data availability, one of these National Monuments (Newberry) is examined using U.S. Census Data to see how the socio-economic characteristics of the human population have changed in the first ten years following National Monument establishment. Data analysis 1 (census and remote sensing) was conducted for the Maine study area to provide a baseline for the Maine study area at the time of National Monument establishment. This work also included an interview with Lucas St. Clair, who was involved in the establishment of Katahdin Woods & Waters National Monument in Maine. The findings of this study were that there was no appreciable or statistically significant physical or economic growth in the communities near the selected National Monuments between their establishment (in the late 1980’s or early/mid 1990’s) and 2017

ABUSE LIABILITY OF AN ELECTRONIC CIGARETTE IN TRADITIONAL CIGARETTE SMOKERS

Electronic cigarettes have grown in popularity across the U.S. and concerns have been raised about their abuse liability. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate and compare the abuse liability of an electronic cigarette with and without nicotine to a nicotine inhaler (the Nicotrol inhaler) and participants’ own brand of cigarettes. A total of 24 smokers attended four sessions in which the abuse liability of each product was examined using the Multiple-Choice Procedure (MCP), nicotine delivery, nicotine abstinence symptom suppression, and subjective reinforcing effects. Results revealed that the nicotine containing and non-nicotine containing electronic cigarette had a higher reinforcing efficacy on the MCP than the nicotine inhaler, but on average had a lower reinforcing efficacy than participants own brand of cigarettes. The nicotine containing electronic cigarette delivered nicotine to participants in amounts that did not differ significantly from participants’ own brand of cigarettes. The electronic cigarette with nicotine reduced nicotine abstinence symptoms to a greater degree than the electronic cigarette without nicotine, and both electronic cigarettes were rated as subjectively more reinforcing than the inhaler but less reinforcing than participants’ own brand of cigarettes. In sum, the results from this study suggest that the electronic cigarette examined had a moderate level of abuse liability that was higher than an FDA-approved nicotine inhaler but lower than traditional cigarettes. Furthermore, findings also suggest that electronic cigarette abuse liability may extend beyond factors related to nicotine delivery

THE ABUSE LIABILITY PROFILE OF AN UNFLAVORED, SUCRALOSE-SWEETENED, ELECTRONIC CIGARETTE IN COMBUSTIBLE CIGARETTE SMOKERS

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of sucralose and nicotine in otherwise unflavored PG/VG ECIG liquid solutions, via a 30-watt ECIG, using multiple measures predictive of abuse liability to provide a basic understanding of the effects of sweeteners and perceived sweetness on ECIG abuse liability in reference to combustible cigarettes. Fourteen dependent smokers completed five independent study sessions that were within-subject, Latin-square ordered, and were identical in regards to all aspects but the product used. In each session, participants were given either their own brand of cigarettes or one of the four ECIG conditions: 0 mg/mL nicotine, unsweetened liquid solution, 0 mg/mL nicotine, sucralose-sweetened liquid solution, 15 mg/mL nicotine, unsweetened liquid solution, or a 15 mg/mL nicotine, a sucralose-sweetened liquid solution. Abuse liability was assessed via plasma nicotine delivery, hypothetical purchase tasks, a progressive-ratio self-administration task, and subjective questionnaires. Overall, own-brand cigarettes had a higher abuse liability than the ECIG conditions examined on nearly all measures of abuse liability. In regards to the ECIG conditions, the results from this study suggest that the presence of sucralose and nicotine elevates ECIG abuse liability through different mechanisms; sucralose appeared to influence abuse liability through product appeal, and nicotine appeared to influence abuse liability through drug effects and tobacco abstinence symptom suppression. Policies that restrict or ban sucralose and other sweeteners from ECIGs may protect youth and young adult populations from initiating ECIG use while preserving the potential for ECIGs to help smokers quit combustible cigarettes

EMPLOYEE COMPENSATION AND JOB SATISFACTION ON DAIRY FARMS IN THE NORTHEAST

Economies of size have translated into much larger herd sizes and, therefore, employee bases on dairy farms throughout the Northeast. These non-family employees present managerial issues many farm managers are not accustomed to. This research quantifies and illustrates the internal pay structure and enumerates that current employee satisfaction levels present on the farms of members of the Northeast Dairy Producers Association (NEDPA).Human Resource Management, Compensation, Satisfaction, Labor and Human Capital,

Liouville Theory and the Weil-Petersson Geometry of Moduli Space

Liouville theory describes the dynamics of surfaces with constant negative curvature and can be used to study the Weil-Petersson geometry of the moduli space of Riemann surfaces. This leads to an efficient algorithm to compute the Weil--Petersson metric to arbitrary accuracy using Zamolodchikov's recursion relation for conformal blocks. For example, we compute the metric on $\mathcal M_{0,4}$ numerically to high accuracy by considering Liouville theory on a sphere with four punctures. We numerically compute the eigenvalues of the Weil-Petersson Laplacian, and find evidence that the obey the statistics of a random matrix in the Gaussian Orthogonal Ensemble.Comment: references adde

Genetic variation of functional traits related to drought tolerance in yellow birch seedlings

Understanding patterns of variation in drought-related traits of hardwood trees is crucial for conserving and managing North American temperate forests under climate change. In this study, I examined provenance variation of yellow birch (Betula alleghaniensis Britton) in traits related to drought resistance. Yellow birch is a widespread and economically important eastern North American hardwood species. A common garden approach was used to compare height, diameter, biomass, leaf morphology, and stable carbon isotopes among ten seed sources originating from across Canada and Northern US states. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) of seedling height and diameter did not reveal significant variation in either trait, while ANOVA of a subsample (n=40) revealed significant variation in height and leaf characters (average horizontal width, horizontal width, maximum perpendicular width, perpendicular width 1, and perpendicular width 2). Simple linear regressions revealed significant correlations between variation in leaf morphological traits and climate at seed origin. Temperature-related climate variables were more strongly correlated with leaf traits than precipitation-related climate variables. [...

The identification and evaluation of predictive and prognostic biomarkers in order to personalise treatment pathways for patients diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

Pancreatic cancer survival has stagnated in recent years, with only 12% of patients alive after five years. The majority of patients present with either locally advanced or metastatic disease, that is not amenable to surgery. For patients with locally advanced disease, treatment involves neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) with the view to shrink the tumour away from vital vasculature to allow for surgery to occur. The success of this approach, combined with poor survival outcomes has seen the introduction of NAC in patients with earlier (upfront or borderline resectable) disease. Whether this approach of NAC leads to a survival advantage over upfront surgery in this cohort of early pancreatic cancer patients, is debatable. A retrospective cohort analysis was conducted to help answer this question. This identified that for all patients there was no survival difference between neoadjuvant chemotherapy and upfront surgery, however, in patients with early disease (stage 1a), treatment with upfront surgery resulted in longer survival than NAC. To ascertain whether any biomarkers can assist with selecting the ideal upfront modality for each patient, a series of discovery experiments were conducted in both tumour tissue and blood to identify any novel prognostic or predictive biomarkers. In tissue, TGM2 (Transglutaminase 2) and OSMR (Oncostatin M receptor) were highlighted as a potential pathway involved in chemoresistance and CA125 expression on biopsy and surgical samples were found to be poor prognostic biomarkers. In blood, low levels of TNF-α (Tumour necrosis factor-) in patients were predictive of chemoresistance whereas higher levels of neutrophil lymphocyte ratio and eotaxin predicted for shorter overall survival. Whilst these results are promising, validation of these findings in a larger cohort of patients is needed, to enable use of these biomarkers as prognostic and predictive tools to guide treatment that may result in more meaningful survival gains

Liouville theory and the Weil-Petersson geometry of moduli space: bordered, conic, and higher genus surfaces

Two-dimensional conformal field theory is a powerful tool to understand the geometry of surfaces. Here, we study Liouville conformal field theory in the classical (large central charge) limit, where it encodes the geometry of the moduli space of Riemann surfaces. Generalizing previous work, we employ this to study moduli spaces of higher genus surfaces, surfaces with boundaries, and surfaces with cone points. In each case, the knowledge of classical conformal blocks provides an extremely efficient approximation to the Weil-Petersson metric on moduli space. We find detailed agreement with analytic results for volumes and geodesic lengths on moduli space.Comment: 38 pages, 9 figure

Ambivalence about Leadership in Women's Organizations: a Look at Bangladesh

Summary Women's organizations present special challenges for leadership. Feminist organizers are trying to create new organizational structures based on sharing power more equitably among members but they are still in transition and are capable of recreating hierarchical patterns of behaviour. The pressure of the male?dominated public sphere to conform to hierarchical modes of operation and attempts to undermine women's collective action also affects these change efforts. Women end up feeling ambivalent both as leaders and towards leadership and authority. Self?reflection and open communication on these issues can increase group effectiveness and solidarity. RESUME Les ambigus concernant la direction des organisations pour les femmes: une étude de cas au Bangladesh Les organisations pour les femmes présentent des problèmes particuliers au niveau de leur direction. Les organisatrices féministes tentent de créer de nouvelles structures organisationnelles fondées sur un partage plus équitable du pouvoir parmi les membres or ces nouvelles structures n'en sont qu'à un stade transitionnel et de ce fait, elles restent capables de recréer des modèles de comportement d'ordre hiérarchique. Les pressions dans un domaine public à dominance masculine pour se conformer à des normes d'opération hierarchisées, ainsi que les tentatives de saper l'action collective des femmes militent contre les efforts de changement. En fin de compte, les femmes ressentent une certaine ambivalence envers leur propre responsabilité et envers leurs responsables et l'autorité en général. L'introspection et la communication ouverte sont deux moyens qui permettent d'augmenter l'efficacité et la solidarité des groupes en ce qui concerne ces questions. RESUMEN Ambivalencia sobre liderazgo en organizaciones femeninas; el caso de Bangladesh Las organizaciones femeninas presentan desafíos especiales al liderazgo. Los organizadores feministas están tratando de crear nuevas estructuras basadas en una distribución más justa del poder entre sus miembros, pero todavía están en un período de transición y podrían llegar a recrear pautas jerárquicas de acción. La presión por parte de las esferas públicas para una aceptación de modos jerárquicos de acción y los intentos de socavar la acción colectiva de las mujeres también afectan estos esfuerzos dirigidos al cambio. Las mujeres terminan con un sentimiento de ambivalencia tanto con respecto a su posición de líderes como hacia el liderazgo y la autoridad en general. Para aumentar la efectividad del grupo y la solidaridad deben existir mas auto reflexión y mas comunicación