Economic Implications of the Methyl Bromide Phaseout

The pesticide methyl bromide is being phased out internationally under the Montreal Protocol. Methyl bromide has been used for over 50 years to control insect, nematodes, pathogens, and weeds. It is used for soil fumigation before planting many fruits, vegetables, ornamentals, and agricultural nurseries; for post-harvest fumigation of commodities in storage and prior to shipment; and for government-required quarantine treatment to prevent the spread of regulated exotic pests. Many U.S. users are concerned that existing alternatives to methyl bromide will be less effective and cause financial losses. To help mitigate the impacts of the phaseout, USDA, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), universities, and private firms are working to develop new alternatives and make them available to methyl bromide users.Crop Production/Industries,

Prioritizing Invasive Species Threats Under Uncertainty

Prioritizing exotic or invasive pest threats in terms of agricultural, environmental, or human health damages is an important resource allocation issue for programs charged with preventing or responding to the entry of such organisms. Under extreme uncertainty, program managers may decide to research the severity of threats, develop prevention or control actions, and estimate cost-effectiveness in order to provide better information and more options when making decisions to choose strategies for specific pests. We examine decision rules based on the minimax and relative cost criteria in order to express a cautious approach for decisions regarding severe, irreversible consequences, discuss the strengths and weaknesses of these rules, examine the roles of simple rules and sophisticated analyses in decision making, and apply a simple rule to develop a list of priority plant pests.invasive species, decision criteria, uncertainty, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

The Dogmatism of Dissent: How Open-Minded Cognition Influences Protest Attitudes

While protestors are often thought of and portrayed as dogmatic actors on the political stage, research has yet to empirically investigate the cognitive processes of protestors. While previous research has investigated how open-minded cognition relates to political party and ideology, its relationship to political activism has remained under studied. This study used a between subject\u27s design to determine how priming system rejection may affect open-minded cognition and protest attitudes. The sample of 450 participants recruited through Amazon\u27s Mechanical Turk is based off a power analysis with small to medium effect sizes (r2=0.25) and a power of .95. Using SurveyGizmo software, participants were randomly assigned to either a system rejection or a control condition. Following this, participants completed measures of their political open-mindedness, willingness to participate in two forms of protest, anger towards the government, and demographics. The results explore the varying ways open-minded cognition affects models of political activism and provides early evidence for how open-mindedness may directly affect political activism

The Blues Is Alright: Blues Music as a Root for Cultural Tourism and Public History

With a focus on the Mississippi Delta, Elvis Presley\u27s Graceland, and Austin, Texas, this thesis is an exploration of the successes, failures, and necessary re-imaginings of sites of music lore, places in which the blues have played a role in music tourism, and how public history is used in different ways to accomplish a similar goal. For cities with ties to blues history, blues music tourism can become a source for financial stability as well as a teaching opportunity in the form of public history. Beyond a push to increase financial gain in places that are benefiting from blues tourism dollars, there lies an opportunity to sharpen the historic awareness of an American art form with distinctly Southern roots. However, there are few successful examples of blues music tourism that combine historic accuracy with financial progress. In most instances, the blues have been commodified to suit a specialized market, and the blues image is appropriated to create a tie to roots music without accurately representing its history. In what way has the re-imagining of blues music and blues culture shaped blues music tourism? The preservation of blues history is central to the promotion of the blues as a cultural accessory, and as a cultural tourism agenda. The Mississippi Delta is at the forefront of using blues music tourism to foster positive growth through historic revision. Can that revisionism bridge the divide created by centuries of racial oppression? Elvis Presley\u27s Graceland is considered part of American identity. But in actuality, it is the plantation home of a man who appropriated his talent from watching black blues musicians in and around Memphis and Mississippi. What lessons can blues tourism take from the successes and failures of Graceland in order to become both financially successful and historically accurate? Austin, Texas, the Live Music Capital of the World uses the music industry as a means of self-identification. Can incorporating blues through public history exhibits help the city create a more historically inclusive music history narrative? In examining these three locations, it is easy to see the positive and negative aspects of cultural tourism. Historically responsible blues music tourism would be accessible to a broad audience without presenting an imagined version of history

Understanding Political Rigidity: Exploring the Epistemic Underpinnings of Political Ideology

The ideology as motivated social cognition model conceptualizes conservatism in terms of two unique constructs: political conservatism and psychological conservatism. The former pertains to a predisposition to specific ideological beliefs (e.g., resistance to change), while the latter pertains to the psychological traits that are associated with particular ideologies (e.g., negativity bias). Experimental research demonstrates the mechanistic relationship of epistemic motivations and emergent political behavior. Much of the evidence lies in explicitly ideological outcomes. The current proposal seeks to test the fundamental assumption in this body of work. This is the assumption that increased epistemic motivation should lead to a preference for simple and decisive over more complex and ambiguous stimuli in order to satiate threats and uncertainty. Specifically, I sought to explore this by situationally manipulating threat (Study 1) and uncertainty (Study 2) and measuring participants\u27 level of epistemic motivations and preferences for simple and decisive candidates even when there was no overt political information present. The results of this work largely support the claim that participants with high epistemic motivations prefer candidates with characteristics that satiate their needs for certainty, order, structure, and closure. Tentative findings suggest different epistemic motivations may have varying importance depending on dispositional versus situational influences. Furthermore, uncertainty may be more tied to existential rather than epistemic motivations. Future work should continue to explore the influence of social cognitive motivators and political judgements

A Critical Realist Exploration of the Relationship Between Personal and Professional Value Systems in Social Workers and the Impact on Motivations for Participation in a Social Work Community of Practice

This study addresses questions about the nature of relationships between personal and professional value systems and between personal and professional identities, about motivations for engaging in a social work community of practice, and about alternative statistical methods for evaluating the psychometric properties of an original measure of motivation for participation in a social work community of practice. By merging communities of practice theory, derived from social learning theory, and critical social realist theory, this study bridges an ideological gap between the origins and evolution of personal and social identities. The study utilizes a mixed-method approach to (1) develop a measure of motivations for participating in a community of practice and compare confirmatory factor analysis and multidimensional item response theory in the evaluation of the measure, (2) assess a theoretically derived structural equation model relating attitudes toward diversity, endorsement of professional social work values, and motivations for entering a MSW program, and (3) develop a grounded theory of how students experience and make sense of the interaction, negotiation, and resolution of personal values about diversity, attitudes towards professional social work values, and motivations for pursuing a MSW degree. Implications are identified and discussed for (1) the field of psychometrics, (2) social work education, and (3) social work practice

Fabricated Quotations--Facts Or Falsehoods - Masson v. New Yorker Magazine, Inc.

In Masson v. New Yorker Magazine, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a summary judgment in favor of certain defendants in a defamation and invasion of privacy action. In doing so, the court resolved the case on an actual malice basis and concluded that lies are constitutionally protected in some instances. This Note analyzes the court\u27s reasoning with respect to the proper standard to be applied in defamation actions. The analysis reveals that the court\u27s resolution was flawed in that it should have decided the defamation issue first. A finding that the quotations in question were not defamatory would have made it unnecessary to reach the constitutional issue of actual malice. In conclusion, the court\u27s decision shields conscious lies which cause injury a result not intended by the Supreme Court when it fashioned the actual malice test

RISK, GOVERNMENT PROGRAMS, AND THE ENVIRONMENT

Nearly all farm business ventures involve financial risk. In some instances, private and public tools used to manage financial risks in agriculture may influence farmers' production decisions. These decisions, in turn, can influence environmental quality. This bulletin summarizes research and provides some perspective on private and public attempts to cope with financial risks and their unintended environmental consequences. Specifically, it examines the conceptual underpinnings of risk-related research, challenges involved with measuring the consequences of risk for agricultural production decisions, government programs that influence the risk and return of farm businesses, and how production decisions influence both the environment and the risk and average returns to farming.risk, agricultural production, government programs, environment, Agricultural and Food Policy, Environmental Economics and Policy, Risk and Uncertainty,

ECONOMIC THRESHOLDS UNDER UNCERTAINTY WITH APPLICATION TO CORN NEMATODE MANAGEMENT

An economic threshold of agricultural pest management is derived. Results provide a method for researchers to use in making improved pest control recommendations to farmers without farm level decision-making. An empirical illustration for lesion nematode management in irrigated corn is given and directions for further research are indicated.Crop Production/Industries, Risk and Uncertainty,

Overview Report of Key Findings From The Distanced Church

Summary Report of Key Findings from The Distanced ChurchThis two page research report summarizes the key findings from The Distanced Church: Reflections on Doing Church Online, and eBook published by the Network for New Media, Religion and Digital Culture Studies. It highlights common observations shared by researchers and pastors in essays featured in the collection reflecting on how churches are responding to changes brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020