University at Albany, State University of New York
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Hibernation behavior and winter feeding of northern myotis in coastal populations after white-nose syndrome invasion
Get PDFThe northern myotis (Myotis septentrionalis) is a bat species suffering massive population declines due to the effects of white nose syndrome, a severe and pervasive disease threatening extinction across the species range. A remnant population of northern myotis capable of persisting despite infection with the disease has been identified across three coastal islands: Long Island, NY; Martha’s Vineyard, MA; and Nantucket, MA. This study looked to uncover the mechanisms for survival by characterizing activity of northern myotis and potential prey species throughout the hibernation season. Bat activity was monitored during the 2017/18, 2018/19, and 2019/20 winter seasons at known foraging sites and both within and in proximity to known hibernacula using bat acoustic recordings. Employing the assistance of citizen scientists, we monitored the presence and seasonality of insects through light and bait trapping on these coastal islands during the 2018/19 and 2019/20 winter seasons. A comparison of bat activity as determined by acoustic monitoring, and insect presence within aforementioned traps highlights a relationship between maximum day temperature and activity of both predator and potential prey on the landscape. Identification of captured arthropod species reveal expanded geographic and seasonal ranges, likely due to the mild coastal climate. I analyzed DNA from guano collected from hibernacula and during year-round netting to identify coastal northern myotis diet and confirm consumption of winter-active presumed prey. I propose coastal populations of northern myotis are feeding on winter-active insects during mid-winter arousals to supplement their energy stores and it is this unique relationship between host and its environment in these mild coastal climates that enables persistence despite Pd invasion.
Legend of Freedom: Rethinking the Role of Robert the Bruce in Shaping the Scottish Identity
Get PDFThis paper explores the link between King Robert the Bruce and the evolution of the Scottish nation in the early fourteenth century. While many Scottish people today, and in the centuries since his life, believed that Bruce was the primary driving force of a consolidation of the Scottish nation and its independence, this paper will show that Bruce was only able to succeed to his position as monarch and to gain recognition of Scotland as a sovereign kingdom due to the actions of earlier peoples. Specifically, I examine the foundations of Christianity within Scotland and how the Church’s insistence to be independent from the English bishoprics set the initial ideas of an independent Scotland. I also examine the few Scottish monarchs who shirked the tradition of swearing allegiance to the English king as a matter of proclaiming their sovereignty. Rather than entirely eschewing his achievements, the paper highlights the fact that Bruce was a shrewd politician who was able to expertly weave pieces of earlier precedents to strengthen his relatively weak claim to kingship. My thesis argues that Bruce’s more unsavory actions—such as the murder of his primary competitor for the throne and his penchant for siding against the Scots alongside the English just prior to his reign—were calculated and necessary steps for the ultimate success of the country rather than the chaotic choices made by a power-hungry madman. Most significantly, my paper shows that Bruce was not a “Great Man of History” but rather the beneficiary of being the right man at the right time and place
Bleeding Green, White, and Red: The Relationship Between Separation and Assimilation, Trends in Italian American Political Radicalism, 1927-1969
Get PDFThis thesis explores the experiences of Italian American political radicals from 1927 to 1969, a time when Italians moved from the shadows and into the mainstream of American society. Through an analysis of the lives and actions of Italian American political radicals, I argue that these individuals included in this study utilized their sense if Italian heritage to varying extents in shaping the character of their radicalism. This thesis focuses on historical contexts that shaped their political radicalism. The individuals addressed actively engaged in political movements, participated in the labor force, ran for public office, and fought to protect their rights as citizens. During the 1920s and 1930s, these Italian American political radicals were mainly political refugees from Italy and predominantly worked as political organizers. By the 1940s and 1950 these political radicals were professional politicians and intellectuals. Finally, in the 1960s, intellectuals and student radicals of Italian American dissent come to the forefront of Italian American political radicalism. The paper also demonstrates that Italian American political dissent during the mid-twentieth century was not a threat to American society. Rather, during the period under consideration, Italian American political radicals aimed to both preserve and transform numerous aspects of American society that are considered to be fundamental and are widely accepted in the modern day. This thesis relies on a variety of sources ranging from oral history interviews from the Oral History of the American Left at Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives in New York, NY, dialog from the Congressional Record, personal manuscript collections, and historical newspaper articles
Communicating about Extreme Heat: Results from Card Sorting and Think Aloud Interviews with Experts from Differing Domains
Get PDFClimate trends indicate that extreme heat events are becoming more common and more severe over time, requiring improved strategies to communicate heat risk and protective actions. However, there exists a disconnect in heat-related communication from experts, who commonly include heat related jargon (i.e., technical language), to decision makers and the general public. The use of jargon has been shown to reduce meaningful engagement with and understanding of messages written by experts. Translating technical language into comprehensible messages that encourage decision makers to take action has been identified as a priority to enable impact-based decision support. Knowing what concepts and terms are perceived as jargon, and why, is a first step to increasing communication effectiveness. With this in mind, we focus on the mental models about extreme heat among two groups of domain experts –those trained in atmospheric science and those trained in emergency management to identify how each group understands terms and concepts about extreme heat. We use a hybrid data collection method of open card sorting and think-aloud interviews to identify how participants conceptualize and categorize terms and concepts related to extreme heat. While we find few differences within the sorted categories, we learn that the processes leading to decisions about the importance of including, or not including, technical information differs by group. The results lead to recommendations and priorities for communicating about extreme heat
The Quest to End Human Trafficking: An Educational and Practical Guide for Everyone Who Wants to Help Break the Bonds and Assist Survivors
Get PDFPeople often assume that only legislators and law enforcement personnel can take meaningful steps to fight human trafficking, one of the most lucrative transnational crimes in the world. This inquiry sought to assess the validity of that belief. The study was informed by the author’s experience as a college instructor of human trafficking and the inspiration he drew from the range and quality of his students’ projects.
The methodology included examining the strategies that governmental and non-governmental organizations are using to fight trafficking and assist survivors. It also considered the work of individual activists and service providers such as social workers and health/mental health professionals. Business allies selected for review included convenience store managers and those in the lodging, tourism, airline, and transportation industries. Community influencers such as public officials, members of the press, spiritual leaders, and college instructors were studied as well.
The research demonstrated that each group is making a valuable contribution. The analysis first summarizes major concepts and laws that every antitrafficking activist needs to know. The author then organized the insights and lessons learned into five types of activities: Awareness, political advocacy, prevention, reducing demand (shopping wisely), and survivor intervention/aftercare. A separate discussion focused on ideas for student service projects, internships, and relevant career opportunities.
The concluding chapters offer an easy-to-follow game plan for anyone interested in joining the cause. Altogether, the Guide has more than 1,100 hyperlinks to articles and free resources that advocates can use to pursue their personal antitrafficking interests and priorities
Forging the Future: Connecting Research to Communities
Get PDFLightning talk delivered at the ACRL 2023 Conference in Pittsburgh, PA.
The literature suggests that information users beyond the academy rely on a variety of sources in the course of their work, most of which can be described as grey literature. However, academic researchers tend to focus their efforts on other research publications, like peer reviewed journal articles, because there is little perceived professional benefit to producing grey literature. A 2022 survey of state government and local nonprofit workers sheds some light on the gap between academic researchers and a potential audience for their work and illustrates the potential for community-focused research products published outside of traditional channels
The Most Effective Form of Treating Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Burn-Out in Emergency Medical Technicians
Get PDFPTSD and Burnout are two epidemics that are unfortunately affecting the majority of our nation’s EMS members in today’s society. It is important that these emergency first responders are provided with effective treatments that will allow them to heal from the trauma they experience on a daily basis and that these treatments are made available. This research thesis focuses on the finding the most effective treatment that will lead to the best outcome for these workers and improve their quality of life holistically. The methods in this project include analyzing previous studies done on this issue and developing a pattern across the sources to determine which treatment of PTSD and Burnout will be the most effective for EMTs. After completing the analysis, allowing EMTs to enjoy “down-time” to do whatever they chose after an intense situation, was proven to be the most effective in overall combatting the symptoms of PTSD and Burnout
Do U.S. and International Stock Returns Depend on the Presidential Election Cycle Year?
Get PDFThis paper aims to determine if U.S. and international stock returns are dependent on the U.S. four-year Presidential election cycle (PEC). Additionally, it expands on past literature by confirming past results and extending them to the present. It implements an economic integration variable, which is a measure of how correlated a country is economically to the U.S. The markets that are highly integrated with the U.S. follow a very similar pattern to that of the U.S. PEC, while weakly integrated countries are less likely to follow the U.S. return cycle. A Chow test confirms that economic integration status influences a country’s PEC sensitivity
Finding Harmony: Social Tags and Name Authority Records in the Popular Music Domain
Get PDFLibraries and cultural institutions use cataloging and metadata standards to describe works and those responsible for creating them. These standards are used to create name authority records (NAR) to collocate creators’ works under single, authorized versions of their names. NARs employ controlled vocabulary to describe individuals and disambiguate names. NAR production is costly; therefore, few are updated when standards are revised, and controlled vocabularies are slow to adapt to a rapidly changing information landscape. Artificial intelligence provides opportunities to leverage social tagging to update and enhance NARs, while simultaneously improving user search and discovery. Our research demonstrates that social tags in the popular music domain align with the Resource Description and Access cataloging code’s NAR constructs. Next steps will examine how social tags relate to controlled vocabulary terms, as well as explore the use of artificial intelligence to enhance NARs and library search interfaces
Reflections on Moving on and Scaling Up: Adapting Past Experience to Emerging Scholarly Communication Programs
Get PDFScholarly communication librarianship is always evolving. It is inherently malleable and context-dependent. Relevant skills can be challenging to learn in most LIS programs.
As a result, the experiences that shaped our early careers in scholarly communication were essential. Time at institutions with well-resourced, well-established, and highly visible scholarly communication programs, at MIT, Harvard, and the University of Michigan, showed us what was possible with a team working toward shared goals: where to look for opportunities, how to engage in strategic decision-making, when to keep nudging, and when to back-burner an effort.
An interesting shift we have each navigated is what happens when you move from where this sort of work is woven into an institution’s structure and culture to somewhere that is just beginning to build a scholarly communication program.
Gaining experience in a well-established program and then having the opportunity to build a new program elsewhere seems to be a common juncture in many careers. Interestingly, the challenges we have faced and continue to navigate have striking parallels, despite the differences in our institutions and roles. Our discussion here offers what we hope are some practical takeaways distilled from our collective experiences