19468 research outputs found
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Aquatic Priority Conservation Areas (APCA) Update
No full textThe Coastal Virginia Ecological Value Assessment (VEVA) is a comprehensive geospatial framework designed to guide land and water conservation across Virginia’s Coastal Zone. Developed collaboratively by multiple state agencies, including the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS), VEVA integrates the best available spatial data and expert knowledge to prioritize ecologically significant terrestrial and aquatic areas. This tool informs decisions around land use planning, habitat conservation, restoration, and climate resilience. As part of VEVA, the Aquatic Priority Conservation Areas (APCA) layer developed by VIMS identifies aquatic habitats and estuarine systems of high ecological value. In 2023–2024, VIMS led a significant update of the APCA layer, building upon foundational work dating back to 2008 and 2017 and incorporating feedback from the Virginia Coastal Zone Management (CZM) Program and other stakeholders. The update included both a comprehensive review and refinement of existing layers in VEVA and the integration of new data to account for sea level rise, marsh vulnerability, and nature-based shoreline protection strategies.Virginia Institute of Marine Scienc
Reef-Lections: Oyster Growth And Ecology Across Millennia, And The Modern Management Implications
No full textCoastal ecosystems are degraded worldwide and oyster reefs are among the most threatened coastal habitats. Oysters are a critical ecosystem engineers in temperate, boreal, and subtropical estuaries worldwide; however, oyster reefs are degraded globally. In the Chesapeake Bay, oyster populations are a fraction of their historic abundance, due to the combined pressures of disease epizootics, overfishing, and other anthropogenic impacts. Degradation and loss of oysters negatively impacts ecosystem functioning and coastal livelihoods. Restoration efforts for oysters are accelerating and focus on supplementing the shell base to provide habitat for reef formation. Broadly, the goal of this dissertation is to provide quantitative information on key oyster life history stages and oyster reef dynamics to inform and identify management strategies for eastern oysters in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Each chapter is a separate research question and is interdisciplinary, drawing upon larval biology, ecology, economics, paleobiology, and applied fisheries science approaches. Chapter 1 examines how oyster reproductive bet hedging impacts the early-post settlement period in wild oyster populations and if restoration timing could be optimized. Specifically, this chapter quantifies the impact of settlement date, temperature, and growing days on the mean size of oyster cohorts across a spawning season. Regardless of settlement date, oysters reach comparable sizes prior to the fall months, which suggests that current shell supplementation practices are adequate. Chapter 2 describes oyster allometric relationships across an estuarine gradient. This chapter describes the proportional carbonate contributions from each valve, examines length-weight relationships for both tissue and shell weight, and considers environmental drivers. Oysters have highly variable growth patterns, which enables them to rapidly produce shell even under physiologically stressful conditions. Chapter 3 uses preserved oyster shells to estimate the mean annual carbonate production and gross annual reef accretion rates for oyster populations during the early Holocene. Coastal environments during the early Holocene experienced rapid rates of relative sea level rise, which were nearly twice the rates of modern day sea level rise in the Chesapeake Bay. Early Holocene populations were more resilient when natural mortality was low and recruitment was high. Modern oysters are age truncated and in lower abundance, which limits their ability to create self-sustaining reefs. Chapter 4 integrates long term datasets to examine the impact of management strategies (rotational harvest areas, oyster sanctuaries, and shell replenishment practices) on public fishing grounds. Specifically, we evaluate how the reef structure, juvenile recruitment, market sized oyster abundance, and fisheries efficiency respond to management interventions. Our results demonstrate that harvest area rotation and sanctuaries, when coupled with shell replenishment, support oyster reef dynamics and enhance fisheries outcomes. Collectively, the findings from this dissertation fills knowledge gaps, provides recommendations, and supports sustainable oyster management in the Chesapeake Bay.Virginia Institute of Marine ScienceDoctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.
Autistic Traits and Social Anxiety: Effects on Academic Success, Campus Involvements, and Learning Mechanisms in College Students
No full textDue to the rise in commonality of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), we are now seeing an increase of ASD individuals in the pursuit of higher education (Adreon & Durocher, 2007; Roberts, 2010; Shattuck et al., 2014; VanBergeik et al., 2008). Unfortunately, these students are still experiencing higher dropout rates when compared to their neurotypical peers due to social anxiety, struggles with self-efficacy, a lack of perceived social support, and differences in information processing (Gelbar et al., 2014; Tops et al., 2017; Zuckerman et al., 2019). Past literature has provided mixed results on the different social factors that can impact college adjustment in students with higher traits of ASD, and most research thus far has focused specifically on academic achievement and not on participation in other campus involvements. This study expanded on previous research by examining the differences in academic success, campus involvements, learning strategies, perceived social support, and self-efficacy of participants with varying levels of ASD traits and social anxiety. College-age participants (N= 157) completed multiple surveys to measure these constructs. The results indicated that individuals with higher ASD traits spent more hours per week dedicated to employment and extracurricular activities and were enrolled in fewer credit hours each semester. Additionally, the selecting main ideas subscale used was positively correlated with higher ASD traits. Participants with higher traits of social anxiety struggled more with information processing but were more likely to utilize academic resources and adequately select main ideas from study materials. Lastly, higher ASD traits and social anxiety were shown to be related to decreased perceived social support and self-efficacy. These findings help to provide more insight on how individuals with varying traits of ASD and social anxiety engage with the college environment and provide better resources for them.NeuroscienceBachelors of Science (BS
Unraveling Withdrawal: The Role of Orexin A in Attentional Deficits Following Nicotine Withdrawal
No full textNicotine is a psychostimulant that is known for its highly addictive nature and affects many brain pathways involved in attention, learning, and memory. Nicotine withdrawal is known to disrupt these cognitive processes. Orexins are excitatory neuropeptides found in the brain and are expressed in areas that focus on attention and motivation among other functions. Previous literature suggests orexin levels decline during nicotine withdrawal, which may contribute to the cognitive decline experienced during withdrawal. The present study is designed to test whether orexin A administration can reduce attention-based deficits experienced during nicotine withdrawal. The study included two phases. After training in a visual sustained attention task, experimental animals (n=9) were injected with nicotine (0.1 mg/kg) twice per day for five days. After this time period, nicotine was stopped and rats were given a randomized selection of intranasal infusions of saline or orexin A (100uM) prior to attention task performance. We hypothesized that nicotine would improve attentional accuracy and that orexin A would improve the negative attentional-based deficits from nicotine withdrawal. The present data suggests that repeated nicotine administration improves signal detection accuracy in an attention-demanding task. Nicotine administration had no effect on trials when no signal was presented and no effect on the rate of responding. When nicotine administration ceased, hit accuracy significantly diminished demonstrating attentional decline during nicotine withdrawal. The orexin-A treatment didn’t significantly improve accuracy impairments seen from withdrawal but it did significantly reduce average omissions. Through this research we can establish a relationship between nicotine and attention as well as the possibility of orexins as a treatment for the attentional or motivational deficits experienced during nicotine withdrawal.NeuroscienceBachelors of Science (BS
Pragmatic and Free of Ideology: Chinese American Conservatism and Translation of Political Thought Across Cultures
No full textConservative Chinese Americans are exerting growing significance in U.S. politics, yet traditional wisdom of "liberal racial minorities" struggles to explain why. In the meantime, a dramatic radicalization can be observed within this group over the past decade. By analyzing the writings of Chinese American conservatives born in the early 1960s, I argue that pragmatism, in private as well as public sphere, explains both phenomena. These conservatives' pragmatism traces its roots back to Chinese political discourses in the 1980s, which they transplant to the U.S. context upon immigration. More broadly, it reflects the prevalence of a transnational neoliberal regime.Modern Languages and LiteraturesBachelors of Arts (BA
Managing Resource Wealth: A Study of Fiscal Linkages in Sub-Saharan Africa
No full textResource-rich countries often face the paradox of poor economic performance despite abundant natural resource wealth, a phenomenon known as the natural resource curse. This phenomenon has huge implications for the prospect of economic development in Sub-Saharan Africa – a region with massive natural resources. This thesis examines the extent to which resource-rich African countries may “undo” the natural resource curse through fiscal linkages. Fiscal linkages refer to the connections between a country’s natural resource wealth and its fiscal stance, which could play a crucial role in shaping a country’s ability to leverage resource revenues for sustainable economic development. This is an important consideration because there are conditions under which resource-rich countries may not get a fair share of their natural resource exports. The study captures fiscal linkages using the elasticity of government revenue and expenditure with respect to natural resource exports and examines their effects on economic growth as well as economic diversification. These relationships are examined using panel data from 2000 to 2021 from a sample of resource-rich African countries that are compared with resource-rich countries from the Global South and resource-poor African countries. The thesis addresses whether resource-dependent African countries face unique challenges in achieving long-term economic stability and development.EconomicsBachelors of Arts (BA
Underwater Outbreak: Diving Into Aquatic Infectious Disease Dynamics
No full textGrade Level: High School Biology
Simulate a viral outbreak in a population of rainbow trout to explore how epidemiological models are used to understand disease dynamics and the application of these approaches to aquatic systems. Groups of students will play a boardgame based on a type of epidemiological model called an SIR model. Students will graph the number of susceptible, infected, recovered, and dead individuals through time.
Focus: Modelling the spread of a fish virus in a rainbow trout population with a simulation game. Introduces students to epidemiological models and applications in aquatic disease management
The Mind-Body Split: Toward Queer Temporality in Deephaven
No full textThe ending of Sarah Orne Jewett’s novel Deephaven has long puzzled critics. After enjoying a summer’s respite from the strictures of nineteenth-century womanhood, Kate Lancaster and Helen Denis return to genteel, middle-class life in Boston. For critics who choose to read Kate and Helen’s relationship as lesbian, the return signifies not only the loss of freedom from gender restraints, but also the loss of the girls’ relationship. The return to Boston, whose social scene revolves around the search for suitable husbands, implies a return to the heterosexual sequence of courtship, marriage, and childbirth. For Judith Fetterley (“Reading Deephaven as a Lesbian Text,” 1993) the return constitutes submission to the heterosexual configuration of time as linear and progressive. But if the final chapter implies that the return to Boston is inevitable, it also implies that the girls claim agency in dividing their minds from their bodies. This article comprises two parts: in the first part, I demonstrate how the final chapter dramatizes a mind-body split. In the second part, I use this mind-body split as a framework for discussing how Deephaven theorizes queer ways of thinking about time, offering its heroines the means of transcending the body’s restriction to linear, progressive time.I would like to thank Dr. Dierdre Moloney, director of George Mason's Undergraduate Apprenticeship Program, and Dr. J. Samaine Lockwood, my faculty mentor. In addition, I would like to thank Camila Jones and Jenny McKarcher for their patience and enthusiasm in helping me to revise an earlier version of this article for presentation at the CAA conference
Women’s Chronic “Oppressive Pain” in Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, Charlotte Brontë’s Shirley, and Elizabeth Gaskell’s Mary Barton
No full textWith a modern understanding of chronic pain and its psychological ties at the forefront, this project seeks to unpack the social ramifications for women suffering from long-term pain in Victorian fiction. Focusing on novels by Emily Brontë, Charlotte Brontë, and Elizabeth Gaskell, this project asks: where do we see women in prolonged pain in mid-Victorian fiction? What social and psychological factors affect their experiences of pain? I argue that in these novels, “chronic” or prolonged pain serves as the locus for a complex of issues pertaining to gender, psychology, and caregiving. The women characters’ suffering in these works reflects the pervasive, destructive power of broader social ills in Victorian England.EnglishBachelors of Arts (BA
Reactor Reactions: The Impact of Nuclear Power Plant Closures on Real Residential Property Values
No full textThis study examines the economic impact of nuclear power plant closures on surrounding residential property values using U.S. Census and American Community Survey data. Employing difference-in-difference, spatial, and synthetic controls models, the results showed a statistically significant 5–10% decrease in home values in areas closest to a nuclear power plant following its closure. These findings have implications for local governments and policymakers in managing the economic consequences of nuclear decommissioning, a pertinent topic as more American reactors begin to reach the end of their lifespan.EconomicsBachelors of Arts (BA