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Differential maternal investment across European starling (Sturnus vulgaris) clutches
Get PDF1 online resource (41 pages) : illustrations (some colour), mapIncludes abstract.Includes bibliographical references (pages 35-41).Most passerine species begin incubating their clutches once the penultimate egg is laid, allowing for asynchronous hatching of nestlings. This results in delayed development by 24 hours or more of the nestling hatching from the last-laid egg. The brood survival hypothesis postulates that maternal investment into this last-laid egg increases such it will be larger relative to other eggs in the clutch to compensate for delayed development initiated by asynchronous hatching. Alternatively, the brood reduction hypothesis states that maternal investment into the last-laid egg decreases such that it will be smaller relative to the rest of the clutch, allowing this smallest nestling to act as an insurance policy whose survival depends on food availability during the breeding season. Ample food will allow this nestling to survive, while food scarcity will cause it to die without risking the entire brood. European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) are cavity-nesting, groundfeeding passerines who eat terrestrial invertebrates. They exhibit biparental care of asynchronously-hatched young and typically have two clutches in a season. The objective of this study was to determine whether female European Starlings laid a larger or smaller last-laid egg relative to the rest of the clutch. I predicted that females would follow a brood reduction strategy due to unpredictable food availability. I studied 189 clutches over five years and found that, as predicted, the last-laid eggs laid by females were significantly smaller than other eggs in the clutch. Late clutches were significantly smaller than early-season clutches, but last-laid eggs did not differ in mass from last-laid eggs in early clutches, nor did the mean mass of all other eggs differ. Adoption of the brood reduction strategy in European starlings is likely due to fluctuating food availability; a decrease in clutch size may reflect the typical downward trend of food abundance throughout the breeding season
Methods of accelerating re-vegetation at Bay of Fundy salt marsh restoration sites : a practical comparison
Get PDFix, 133 leaves : colour illustrations, maps (some colour) ; 29 cmIncludes abstract and appendix.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 91-104).Tidal wetlands provide important coastal protection, and interest in their restoration is growing in response to climate change. In Atlantic Canada, tidal wetland restoration has focused on restoring tidal flow, without planting vegetation. I evaluated five methods of planting eight native species at Bay of Fundy restoration sites by comparing growth and health of plants over two years. Planting potted seedlings facilitated the most growth of desired species and had 75% survival while plants transplanted from adjacent sites had higher mortality. Growth, health, and winter survival were all more strongly related to site than treatment. Important differences in elevation, inundation, salinity and soil nutrients may explain these differences in performance.
These techniques show promise for accelerating re-vegetation at recovering sites, and my results highlight the need for an understanding of site conditions to inform planting schemes. Depending on budget, some combination of the tested planting techniques may be appropriate
Conflict type co-occurrence : exploring the nature of conflict through the study of conflict incidents
Get PDF148 leaves : illustrations ; 29 cmIncludes abstract and appendices.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 122-135).The Intragroup Conflict Scale (ICS; Jehn & Mannix, 2001) comprising task, relationship, and process conflict types is heavily utilized to understand consequences of workgroup-level conflict. However, it has been unclear how well this typology translates to the virtually unexplored incident level, particularly with regard to the causes and meaning of ICS type “co-occurrence”. Thus, this research first sought to identify the extent of ICS type co-occurrence within conflict incidents. Secondly, it investigated incident-level ICS type associations with individual wellbeing outcomes. Finally, it introduced the measure of Conflict Impact to augment and explain types’ effects as a function of individual conflict processes (e.g., thoughts, emotions). Results indicated that the ICS types frequently co-occur within conflict incidents, their incident-level associations with wellbeing largely mirror those within workgroups, and conflict processes (as measured by Conflict Impact) appear a viable way to improve individual outcome prediction. Conceptual and practical implications are discussed
AI and sex robots : an examination of the technologization of sexuality
Get PDF116 leaves ; 29 cmIncludes abstract.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 102-116).The emergence of sex robots with rudimentary but slowly advancing AI is a relatively new phenomenon, and there is little understanding about what the possible implications of these automatons could be, particularly regarding their impact on human sexuality. Drawing on a number of media sources, this paper looks at AI and sex robots, specifically how they function as a means by which a certain kind of sexuality is constructed and maintained. The specific sources are the movies A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), Ex Machina (2014), and Blade Runner (2007), and the television adaptation of Westworld (2016). I look at this relationship of sexuality and technology and the ways it has shaped not only how each of these categories are viewed in relation to each other, but also the ways that they have had a direct impact on the development of social practices. Specifically, I am interested in the ways sex robots could be used to reinforce harmful gender stereotypes about women, and lead to sexual violence. This project aims to fill this gap in the literature around the topic of sex robots, with the approach being theoretical in nature due to the lack of empirical data on the subject
“The true north, strong and queer?” : (un)mapping discourses of homonationalism, colonialism and activism within the Canadian prison reform movement
Get PDF114 leaves ; 29 cmIncludes abstract.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 109-114).In the last 50 years, Canada has embodied a public national and international image of benevolence, which has supported the narrative of Canada as being a “uniquely progressive country” and “LGBTQ safe-haven.” Despite this narrative, many racial and social groups in Canada remain marginalized, criminalized, and invisible. With the theoretical and conceptual guidance of a number of critical scholars in the fields of Prison Studies and Queer Theory, this dissertation explores two trusted institutionally-based prison reform organizations via Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA); identifying, unpacking and disrupting dominant discourses of sexuality, nationalism and reform which perpetuate and nurture the ongoing marginalization and criminalization of LGBTQ2+ people in Canada. The findings of this dissertation sheds light on a number of different institutional discourses which hinder transformative social change in Canada, elucidates and explores the bridge formed by institutional organizations between radical social movements and the status quo, and further stands as an ongoing call-to-action for both our trusted organizations, activists and broader social movements to reflect on whether their fight against oppression challenges neoliberal and homonational ideologies, or whether it supports a narrative of benevolence which renders certain social groups invisible
Evolution of galaxy morphology in the field and cluster environment since z ∼ 1
Get PDFxi, 186 leaves : illustrations (chiefly colour) ; 29 cmIncludes abstract and appendices.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 165-186).The study of galaxy morphology can provide important information about how galaxies evolve. In this thesis, we study size and concentration of light profiles for ∼15000 star-forming galaxies (SFGs, M∗≳109.5 M☉) and ∼5000 massive quiescent galaxies (QGs, M∗≳1010 M☉) in the COSMOS/UltraVISTA region using CLAUDS+HSC-SSP griz bands at 0.1<z<0.9. We find a slow evolution in the characteristic sizes of SFGs, Re∝(1+z)−0.45, which is consistent with the growth of their bulges. In contrast, the characteristic size of QGs grows faster, Re∝(1+z)−1.06, driven by several physical processes including progenitor bias, adiabatic expansion, and merging. Analysis of 75 cluster galaxies does not show any significant difference from the field galaxies. However, a separate analysis of ∼130 spectroscopically confirmed members of five cluster cores from the HST CLASH survey provide evidence for the effects of the densest environments on QG size
Human resources professionals’ perceptions and use of asynchronous video interviewing
Get PDF68 leaves ; 29 cmIncludes abstract and appendices.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 45-54).Asynchronous video interviews (AVI) have the potential to change the way that HR professionals perform interviewing though limited research has been done regarding AVI use by HR professionals. This research examines the relationships between current interviewing practices, technology anxiety, perceptions of AVI features, and intentions to use such features. Participants (N = 160) completed an online survey measuring
perceptions about AVI (perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, behavioural intent) as well as levels of current interview structure and technology anxiety. Correlational analyses were used. It was found that both perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use were strongly and positively related with behavioural intent, current interview structure was positively related with perceived usefulness for AVI users, and technology anxiety was negatively related with perceived ease of use. Implications are that AVI usefulness and usability should both be considered seriously when assessing behavioural intent of potential new users
Another fake thesis entry
No full text1 online resource ( pages) : illustrationsIncludes abstract and appendices.Includes bibliographical references (pages 455-456).Thesis abstract goes here.!@#$%^&*(
The effect of green roof characteristics on pollinator communities
Get PDF130 leaves : illustrations (chiefly colour) ; 29 cmIncludes abstract and appendix.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 82-104).Habitat loss and fragmentation caused by urban expansion are commonly believed to be drivers of insect pollinator decline. Green roofs within urban landscapes are expected to mitigate the effects of urbanization by providing essential food and nesting resources for pollinators in these resource-limited environments. However, not all green roofs are similar and may not provide equivalent habitat value. This research sought to quantify the effect of green roof characteristics such as floral richness, floral display area, height, surface area, and surrounding landscape-level features on the pollinator communities in these systems. Pollinator communities that were surveyed included bees, hover flies, and butterflies. In general, green roof floral richness and floral display area were the strongest predictors of pollinator richness and abundance, while green roof height had a negative influence on pollinator richness. This research outlined key green roof characteristics that promote a diverse and abundant pollinator community in the urban landscape
Mapping and quantifying early tidal wetland evolution using remotely piloted aircraft system imagery and object-based image analysis
Get PDFviii, 161 leaves : illustrations (chiefly colour) ; 29 cmIncludes abstract and appendices.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 139-153).This research presents recommendations to effectively monitor the transition from former agricultural land back into salt marsh habitat following the dyke managed realignment at the Converse Marsh. For this analysis, two sets of multispectral RPAS imagery was collected pre- and a post-breach in September 2018 and May 2019 respectively. Both images were classified using Object-based Image Analysis (OBIA) and Random Forest, resulting in overall accuracies of 61% (Kappa 0.55) and 71% (Kappa 0.69). The results were compared with the Inundation Frequency to quantify classes by area and relative positioning. The use of OBIA is a feasible method for intertidal wetland delineation, however, it requires more objectivity in the process. The RGB camera and near-infrared sensor were missing critical sensitivity measures for radiometric calibration. The implementation of Random Forest proved to be a strong algorithm for intertidal habitat mapping. For future analysis, it is critical to have long-term tide recordings available