Matching Items (141)
Description
This paper explores the impacts of dam-induced displacement on the health of populations. By the start of the 21st century, an estimated 40-80 million people worldwide were forced to resettle due to the construction of large dams. The process of displacement and resettlement is connected to numerous social impacts on communities such as decreases in household income, natural resources, and social connectivity, but less seems to be known about specific health impacts. Analyzing literature in a formal review allowed for increased understanding about what information already exists in published research regarding the connections between dams, displacement, and health. Some negative health impacts as a result of forced displacement were identified, including increases in infectious disease transmission, depression, and mortality rates as well as losses of food and water sources. However, the small amount of cases found in the literature review when compared to the massive scale of dam development worldwide indicates a gap in knowledge in the dam industry and research field specifically about the health of the vast majority of populations forcibly displaced by dams. Health impacts must be considered and systematically studied in dam projects involving displacement to fully understand the needs of resettled populations and move towards equitable processes in development projects worldwide.
ContributorsWalker, Erika (Author) / Hruschka, Daniel (Thesis director) / Brian, Jennifer (Committee member) / Drake, Alexandria (Committee member) / School of Human Evolution & Social Change (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
The brain is considered the crux of identity, yet human behavior may be influenced by bacteria in gut microbiomes. Honeybees can exchange bacteria through their many social behaviors, making their microbiomes, and the effect they have on honeybee behavior, of interest. There is recent evidence suggesting the presence of bacteria existing in human brains, which can be investigated in honeybee brains due to their well-documented structure. The purpose of this study is to establish if lipopolysaccharide—a molecule on bacteria membranes—is present in the honeybee brain and if it colocalizes with vitellogenin—an immune mediator. Additionally, this study also seeks to establish the efficacy of embedding tissue samples in resin and performing immunohistochemistry for vitellogenin and lipopolysaccharide on sections.
ContributorsStrange, Amalie Sofie (Co-author) / Strange, Amalie (Co-author) / Amdam, Gro (Thesis director) / Baluch, Page (Committee member) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor, Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
In Western medicine, the hard sciences have generally been understood as the sole guiding force in patient care and treatment. However, both history and the present day suggest another strong influence on Western medicine: folklore. The term folklore can easily be dismissed as a term representing beliefs and stories of the past, but its relevance transcends time and continues to impact people daily. It “involves values, traditions, ways of thinking and behaving. It’s about art. It’s about people and the way people learn. It helps us learn who we are and how to make meaning in the world around us” (Sims & Stephens, 2011, pp. 1-2). With its wide range of influence, folklore exists as the umbrella term encompassing several categories. Folk beliefs are one of these categories and can develop from “observation, memory, testimony or inference” (Hutton, 1942, p. 83). Given that each of these forms are subject to some sort of error, folk beliefs become “a jumble of the true and the erroneous” (p. 84). Similarly, contemporary legends are narratives that often combine the physical and supernatural world to explain nuances or uncertainty present in the relevant experiences of a people. Folk beliefs can result in the formation of contemporary legends and they can also stem from contemporary legends. These two categories are often associated with subjects that promote fear and uncertainty, and thus play an essential role in navigating folklore’s application to biomedicine. This paper explores the historical and modern effects that folklore has had on two separate maladies: Hansen’s Disease (leprosy) and Major Depressive Disorder (depression). While these conditions do not resemble each other in physical presentations, Hansen’s Disease and Major Depressive Disorder patients both have faced and continue to face discrimination. Andrea Wiley and John Allen’s three-part definition of a malady: society’s perception (sickness), the individual’s experience (illness), and medical professionals’ diagnosis and treatment (disease); was utilized as a tool for analyzing the application of folklore to modern medicine. The way that a society views a particular malady often dictates the sick role expected of a diagnosed individual. Additionally, the public’s view can directly affect medical professionals’ understanding of a malady. This then can drastically shape a patient’s diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis. This anthropological analysis acts as an interdisciplinary bridge between medicine and the humanities.
ContributorsPeake, Ashley E (Co-author) / Peake, Ashley (Co-author) / Ellis, Lawrence (Thesis director) / Hoyt, Heather (Committee member) / Hruschka, Daniel (Committee member) / School of Molecular Sciences (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
Menstruation - a stigmatized topic and a social taboo- has led to a lack of menstrual hygiene awareness and improper practices impacting women’s health adversely over generations in India. Akshara aims to increase menstrual hygiene education and reduce stigma in India. A creative children’s illustrated book, and interactive workshop curriculum about menstruation were designed and published in Hindi and English. Menstrual hygiene workshops, utilizing the designed tools, were conducted in Delhi and Ghaziabad, India to over 230 students through NGO partnerships in December 2018. The response to the menstrual hygiene and stigma workshops was overwhelmingly positive, and a significant increase in the knowledge and awareness survey scores was observed after the curriculum teachings and classroom discussions. This evaluation highlights and provides a potential solution path to eradicate the root cause of the menstruation stigma in underprivileged women through education and open conversations on the topic starting at a pivotal young age. The main aim of the workshop was to help eradicate the stigma associated with menstruation and menstrual health in India through education.
ContributorsBhalla, Jahnavi (Co-author) / Dani, Advika (Co-author) / Schuster, Roseanne (Thesis director) / Hruschka, Daniel (Thesis director) / School of Molecular Sciences (Contributor) / School of Human Evolution & Social Change (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
More than 40% of all U.S. opioid overdose deaths in 2016 involved a prescription opioid, with more than 46 people dying every day from overdoses involving prescription opioids, (CDC, 2017). Over the years, lawmakers have implemented policies and laws to address the opioid epidemic, and many of these vary from state to state. This study will lay out the basic guidelines of common pieces of legislation. It also examines relationships between 6 state-specific prescribing or preventative laws and associated changes in opioid-related deaths using a longitudinal cross-state study design (2007-2015). Specifically, it uses a linear regression to examine changes in state-specific rates of opioid-related deaths after implementation of specific policies, and whether states implementing these policies saw smaller increases than states without these policies. Initial key findings of this study show that three policies have a statistically significant association with opioid related overdose deaths are—Good Samaritan Laws, Standing Order Laws, and Naloxone Liability Laws. Paradoxically, all three policies correlated with an increase in opioid overdose deaths between 2007 and 2016. However, after correcting for the potential spurious relationship between state-specific timing of policy implementation and death rates, two policies have a statistically significant association (alpha <0.05) with opioid overdose death rates. First, the Naloxone Liability Laws were significantly associated with changes in opioid-related deaths and was correlated with a 0.33 log increase in opioid overdose death rates, or a 29% increase. This equates to about 1.39 more deaths per year per 100,000 people. Second, the legislation that allows for 3rd Party Naloxone prescriptions correlated with a 0.33 log decrease in opioid overdose death rates, or a 29% decrease. This equates to 1.39 fewer deaths per year per 100,000 people.
ContributorsDavis, Joshua Alan (Author) / Hruschka, Daniel (Thesis director) / Gaughan, Monica (Committee member) / School of Human Evolution & Social Change (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
The issue of wild horse management in the American West has become prevalent in the media recently and management strategies are often criticized and opposed by the public. Horses have been a core feature of American history and culture nearly since the colonization of the western frontier, and popular media such as television and movies paint a romantic but often unrealistic picture of wild horses. Land management agencies must balance limited resources with an ever-growing wild horse population in order to properly manage public land so that it retains its ecological integrity and is still able to be used by multiple stakeholders, and they also must endure public criticism throughout the process. I used a photo elicitation survey to gather responses to photographic images of wild horses and determine how the public feels about wild horse management, given that horses are seen as a symbol of freedom and the American West. It was revealed that people who are unfamiliar with the issue still have opinions about how the horses should be managed, and these opinions often mirror what can be found in popular media.
ContributorsDuran, Kiana Alexis (Author) / Minteer, Ben (Thesis director) / Schoon, Michael (Thesis director) / Murphree, Julie (Committee member) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
As human populations continue to expand, interactions with wildlife are expected to increase due to destruction of land and global climate change threatening native habitats. Established areas of protection are becoming essential to species survival and biodiversity protection. National Parks (NP) are a globally ubiquitous method employed to protect wildlife and habitats. Often NPs are mosaics of relatively small protected areas in a “sea” of human-dominated landscapes, and these remaining habitat “islands” are becoming essential to preventing species extinction. However, the establishment of a NP can lead to increased human-wildlife conflicts (HWC) and disenfranchisement of local communities, particularly along their borders. We conducted semi-structured interviews in six different countries to better understand the nature of HWCs at the borders of major NPs: (1) Khao Yai NP, Thailand; (2) Myall Lakes NP, Australia; (3) Chitwan NP, Nepal; (4) Kruger NP, South Africa; (5) Chingaza NP, Colombia, and (6) Yellowstone NP, United States. We evaluated affinity to wildlife, perception of conflicts, management success, and potential solutions at each park to better understand the global nature of HWCs.We also evaluated these data in relationship to the Human Development Index (HDI) to determine if there was a correlation between development and conflict issues. We found the intrinsic value of wildlife to not markedly differ between countries. Conflict was perceived as higher in the United States and Australia but was known to be of greater intensity in Nepal and South Africa. Management of NPs was well-regarded with a slight decrease from less-developed countries to more-developed countries, with solutions that were creative and unique to each region. Results appeared to be related to shifting baselines between countries and also to equivalency in a cross-cultural assessment. When these theories are taken into account, the complexity of HWCs globally is better understood. As our world continues to expand and NPs become some of the only contiguous native habitat and refuges for wildlife, it is important to understand the complex relationships occurring at the interface between natural and human communities and to explore effective solutions to these problems.
ContributorsRagan, Kinley Ann (Author) / Schoon, Michael (Thesis director) / Schipper, Jan (Committee member) / Senko, Jesse (Committee member) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor, Contributor) / School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
Human activities around the world are threatening scores of wildlife species, pushing them closer to extinction. In order to address what many conservationists view as a global biodiversity crisis, it is vital that more people are inspired to care about wild animals and motivated to act in ways that help protect them. The up-close experiences and personal connections that people form with wild animals in zoos accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) or the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA) can help achieve this. However, it is not very well understood how different types of encounters within these zoos may inspire conservation mindedness and pro-environmental behaviors. During this thesis project, surveys were conducted at the AZA-accredited Arizona Center for Nature Conservation/Phoenix Zoo to understand how interactive, hands-on animal experiences within zoos differ from passively viewing zoo animals when it comes to inspiring people to care about conservation. The Phoenix Zoo is home to two different species of giraffes, and guests can view them from the front of the Savanna Exhibit. Guests can also participate in the Giraffe Encounter, which is a much more interactive, hands-on experience. After surveying guests at both locations, the results showed that fewer people at the Giraffe Encounter responded that they often engage in pro-environmental behaviors. This may indicate that the people who participated in the Giraffe Encounter came to the zoo more for recreation and entertainment than to learn about wildlife. Despite this, more people learned something new about nature or conservation at the Giraffe Encounter than they did at the Savanna Exhibit. On average, guests also felt that the Giraffe Encounter motivated them to learn more about how to help animals in the wild than the Savanna Exhibit did. Overall, there is a strong correlation between having an interactive, hands-on experience with a zoo animal and caring more about wildlife conservation. However, more research still needs to be done in order to conclusively provide evidence for causation.
ContributorsBurgess, Christa Noell (Author) / Schoon, Michael (Thesis director) / Minteer, Ben (Committee member) / Allard, Ruth (Committee member) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / School of Sustainability (Contributor, Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-12
Description
Background
The reproductive ground plan hypothesis of social evolution suggests that reproductive controls of a solitary ancestor have been co-opted during social evolution, facilitating the division of labor among social insect workers. Despite substantial empirical support, the generality of this hypothesis is not universally accepted. Thus, we investigated the prediction of particular genes with pleiotropic effects on ovarian traits and social behavior in worker honey bees as a stringent test of the reproductive ground plan hypothesis. We complemented these tests with a comprehensive genome scan for additional quantitative trait loci (QTL) to gain a better understanding of the genetic architecture of the ovary size of honey bee workers, a morphological trait that is significant for understanding social insect caste evolution and general insect biology.
Results
Back-crossing hybrid European x Africanized honey bee queens to the Africanized parent colony generated two study populations with extraordinarily large worker ovaries. Despite the transgressive ovary phenotypes, several previously mapped QTL for social foraging behavior demonstrated ovary size effects, confirming the prediction of pleiotropic genetic effects on reproductive traits and social behavior. One major QTL for ovary size was detected in each backcross, along with several smaller effects and two QTL for ovary asymmetry. One of the main ovary size QTL coincided with a major QTL for ovary activation, explaining 3/4 of the phenotypic variance, although no simple positive correlation between ovary size and activation was observed.
Conclusions
Our results provide strong support for the reproductive ground plan hypothesis of evolution in study populations that are independent of the genetic stocks that originally led to the formulation of this hypothesis. As predicted, worker ovary size is genetically linked to multiple correlated traits of the complex division of labor in worker honey bees, known as the pollen hoarding syndrome. The genetic architecture of worker ovary size presumably consists of a combination of trait-specific loci and general regulators that affect the whole behavioral syndrome and may even play a role in caste determination. Several promising candidate genes in the QTL intervals await further study to clarify their potential role in social insect evolution and the regulation of insect fertility in general.
The reproductive ground plan hypothesis of social evolution suggests that reproductive controls of a solitary ancestor have been co-opted during social evolution, facilitating the division of labor among social insect workers. Despite substantial empirical support, the generality of this hypothesis is not universally accepted. Thus, we investigated the prediction of particular genes with pleiotropic effects on ovarian traits and social behavior in worker honey bees as a stringent test of the reproductive ground plan hypothesis. We complemented these tests with a comprehensive genome scan for additional quantitative trait loci (QTL) to gain a better understanding of the genetic architecture of the ovary size of honey bee workers, a morphological trait that is significant for understanding social insect caste evolution and general insect biology.
Results
Back-crossing hybrid European x Africanized honey bee queens to the Africanized parent colony generated two study populations with extraordinarily large worker ovaries. Despite the transgressive ovary phenotypes, several previously mapped QTL for social foraging behavior demonstrated ovary size effects, confirming the prediction of pleiotropic genetic effects on reproductive traits and social behavior. One major QTL for ovary size was detected in each backcross, along with several smaller effects and two QTL for ovary asymmetry. One of the main ovary size QTL coincided with a major QTL for ovary activation, explaining 3/4 of the phenotypic variance, although no simple positive correlation between ovary size and activation was observed.
Conclusions
Our results provide strong support for the reproductive ground plan hypothesis of evolution in study populations that are independent of the genetic stocks that originally led to the formulation of this hypothesis. As predicted, worker ovary size is genetically linked to multiple correlated traits of the complex division of labor in worker honey bees, known as the pollen hoarding syndrome. The genetic architecture of worker ovary size presumably consists of a combination of trait-specific loci and general regulators that affect the whole behavioral syndrome and may even play a role in caste determination. Several promising candidate genes in the QTL intervals await further study to clarify their potential role in social insect evolution and the regulation of insect fertility in general.
ContributorsGraham, Allie M. (Author) / Munday, Michael D. (Author) / Kaftanoglu, Osman (Author) / Page, Robert (Author) / Amdam, Gro (Author) / Rueppell, Olav (Author) / College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor)
Created2011-04-13
Description
This paper covers the wild horse overpopulation case study at the Salt River in Arizona, exploring how Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) might help foster solutions to a lengthy and heated controversy about how to manage wild horses and burros on the rangeland. Fikret Berke's Sacred Ecology defines traditional ecological knowledge as, "a cumulative body of knowledge, practice, and belief evolving by adaptive processes and handed down through generations by cultural transmission, about the relationship of living beings (including humans) with one another and with their environment," (Berkes, 3). In contrast to current management strategies, TEK utilizes knowledge that comes from direct experience and intuitive knowing, rather than science-based, techno-rational streams of knowledge. Drawing on three modern sustainability concepts that support and stem from TEK, including: everything is connected, complex solutions can further complicate problems and diversity as a key to resilience, this paper sets forth a number of specific solutions to be considered moving forward, guided by the wisdom of TEK.
ContributorsLyford, Rebecca (Author) / Schoon, Michael (Thesis director) / Murphey, Julia (Committee member) / School of Sustainability (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05