Obtaining accurate estimates of animal abundance is made difficult by the fact that most
animal species are detected imperfectly. Early attempts at building likelihood models that
account for unknown detection probability impose a simplifying assumption unrealistic for
many populations, however: no births, deaths, migration or emigration can occur in the...
N-mixture models provide a structure for making inference about a local population size while accounting for imperfect detection. Using a binomial likelihood, they assume prior distributions on the size parameters and then integrate those parameters out of the full likelihood. For large population sizes, the established frequentist methods have exhibited...
In this thesis, I conduct an analysis of blogs in order to understand their potential use in the composition classroom with the goals of students writing for a public audience and developing their rhetorical and civic agency. I do so by exploring the potential for the blogosphere as a public...
The western United States has experienced large-scale degradation due to land use and land cover changes, invasion of annual grasses, and expansion of woody plants into grass and shrublands and the resultant altered fire regimes. These landscape-scale changes have coincided with declining mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) populations, making habitat loss...
This dissertation examines development and the implications of information and communication technology, particularly computers, on issues relating to education, labor, and the overall wellbeing of Black and indigenous people in Bocas del Toro, Panama. It details the Black and indigenous legacy of dependency in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries on...
Falls, particularly those due to slips, constitute a major health risk for older
adults. Past research has found that individuals can learn not to fall through repeated
exposure to a slipping perturbation. Slips can be unpredictable, however. The goal
of this study was to determine whether similar adaptations would occur...
Anthropogenic land use alterations such as livestock grazing and fire
suppression have greatly altered sagebrush grasslands of the Great Basin,
facilitating invasion of exotic annuals, increases in woody species, and losses of
native species. Much of the current research surrounding wildland and prescribed
fire in sagebrush dominated ecosystems has focused...
The purpose of this study was to determine the major
content areas for inclusion in an Eating Disorders
prevention-intervention guide for coaches of female college
athletes. To achieve this goal the current literature was
reviewed to identify the major issues associated with
eating disorders and female college athletes. From this...
This qualitative study examined the experiences and perceptions of males aged 16 – 19 who did not complete a traditional high school diploma program because of feeling alienated from the school system. Five participants described their school experiences from elementary school through the point in high school when they decided...