In most Puerto Rico reservoirs, Largemouth Bass Micropterus salmoides are typically fast-growing with distributions composed of distinct year-classes. Cerrillos Reservoir, however, displays the classic characteristics of a crowded bass population common in temperate lakes and ponds with fish stockpiling into a single modal distribution of slow-growing fish. This developed shortly after stocking in 1997, with the population quickly expanding to carrying capacity. Consequently, relative weight declined from above 100 to about 80 and the population was mostly composed of fish <=350 mm. A protected slot limit (356-508 mm) was implemented; however, limited effort and angler attitudes towards harvest of small bass prevented the success of this regulation, which was subsequently removed. In this dissertation, I examined the efficacy of using targeted management harvests for improving growth, size structure, and condition of Largemouth Bass in Cerrillos Reservoir. I used bioenergetics modeling to simulate the effects of targeted harvests. I predicted annual consumption of stock and quality-sized Largemouth Bass and used these estimates to model the effects of population reduction on consumption and growth of remaining bass. To validate the model, experimental removals of Largemouth Bass from the crowded size classes (200-380 mm) were conducted in 2012 and 2013. In these two years, I removed 20% and 22% of the total biomass, respectively. Following the experimental removals, mean condition of Largemouth Bass increased from 83 to 90, and increases were observed in all Largemouth Bass size categories. The reduction in predator abundance resulted in increased prey availability and smaller size structure of sunfish (Lepomis spp.) and tilapia (Coptodon and Oreochromis spp.) populations. I concluded that reducing Largemouth Bass abundance in Cerrillos Reservoir can move population dynamics toward desired management outcomes, but these actions must continue indefinitely to achieve success and sustainability. Annual management harvests are feasible but impractical, so I recommend increasing angler harvest and implementing management efforts designed to limit recruitment (e.g., shoreline rotenone application) to achieve management goals.

Glaucoma is the leading cause of irreversible blindness worldwide but the effect of glaucoma on patients’ vision under suprathreshold conditions relevant to their natural visual environment is poorly understood. This project aimed to investigate and further understand the effects of glaucoma on three aspects of suprathreshold vision; apparent contrast of suprathreshold stimuli, detection and discrimination of image blur and crowding of peripheral vision. Psychophysical methods were employed to assess these three visual functions by measuring contrast matches of Gabor stimuli, blur detection and discrimination thresholds of edge stimuli and crowding ratios of Vernier targets. These measures were obtained from glaucoma observers tested within and outside of visual field defects and the data compared with healthy controls. Contrast matching ratios were similar between glaucoma and healthy age similar controls despite sensitivity loss in the glaucoma group. Blur detection and discrimination thresholds were similar between glaucoma observers’ tested within and outside of visual field defects and age-similar controls, though thresholds were slightly elevated for high contrast stimuli in the glaucoma visual field defect group. Crowding ratios were similar between participants with glaucoma and healthy young controls. The results demonstrate that aspects of suprathreshold visual function can be maintained in early glaucoma despite sensitivity loss at threshold. The results provide empirical evidence as to the asymptomatic nature of the disease in its early stages. It appears that in early glaucoma, there may be compensatory mechanisms at work within the visual system under suprathreshold conditions that can overcome loss of sensitivity at threshold. / The College of Optometrists

No description available.

Environmental degradation is threatening the provision of ecosystem services (IPBES, 2019). In an attempt to reverse this degradation trend, the use of economic incentives has increasingly gained prominence in environmental policy. In particular, payments for ecosystem services (PES), a type of economic incentive in which ecosystem services providers voluntarily receive a payment in exchange for the provision of ecosystem services, has increasingly gained relevance worldwide (Salzman et al., 2018). PES aim to enhance environmental conservation by altering the economic costs or benefits associated with targeted pro-environmental actions. However, a large amount of empirical evidence shows that PES, like other economic incentives, could potentially crowd out (or crowd in) intrinsic motivations for environmental conservation, which may sometimes translate into unexpected undesirable overall effects (for reviews, see Bowles and Polania-Reyes, 2012; Rode et al., 2015). Up to date, the conditions under which PES, and economic incentives in general, induce such motivational crowding effects are still not fully understood. In analyzing these effects, economic theory has often taken for granted non-monetary factors of economic incentives because they do not involve changes in prices or incomes. However, experimental evidence show that such factors could be relevant to preventing crowding-out effects or even creating crowding-in effects (e.g., see Ariely et al., 2009; Heyman and Ariely, 2004). In the context of PES, a large proportion of the experimental literature has focused on studying the effect of design features related to the monetary elements of these programs (e.g., Kerr et al., 2012; Kolinjivadi et al., 2019; Midler et al., 2015; Moros et al., 2019; Narloch et al., 2012), while fewer experimental studies have focused on non-monetary factors such as the degree of participation in the design or implementation process (e.g., Jack, 2009; Moros et al., 2019; Vollan, 2008). The present thesis contributes to this line of literature by examining whether PES could be more or less effective when specific non-monetary factors are adjusted in PES design or implementation. This thesis comprises an introductory chapter (Chapter 1) and a concluding chapter (Chapter 5) that serve as an overview of the thesis, together with three research articles (Chapters 2, 3 and 4). In each of the research articles belonging to this thesis, a specific non-monetary factor in the design or implementation context of PES is analyzed. Prior versions of the research articles in chapters 2-4 have been published as working papers on SSRN. Their content is briefly summarized below. Chapter 2 is entitled “Beyond a Market Discourse: Is Framing a Solution to Avoid Motivational Crowding-Out in Payments for Ecosystem Services?” and is co-authored by S. Engel and E. Midler. The goal of this article is to examine the role of the framing of a PES policy in preventing motivational crowding effects. In particular, it focusses on the short- and long-term effects of two dimensions of framing on: 1) using different terms to denote the payment, and 2) emphasizing different types of ecosystem services obtained from nature to motivate its conservation. This article analyses this topic with a lab-in-the-field experiment conducted with 157 farmers from a Colombian municipality. The findings of this article suggest that the framing of a policy could be a rather inexpensive tool to mitigate motivational crowding effects. In particular, a framing that acknowledges forest conservation as an achievement and a framing that emphasizes the cultural ecosystem services obtained from forest results in better conservation outcomes relative to a control framing. Chapter 3 is entitled “Who is Benefiting Downstream? Experimental Evidence on the Relevance of Upstream-Downstream Geographic Distance for Water Provision.” and is co-authored by S. Engel, E. Midler and T. Vorlaufer. The goal of this article is to study the relevance of the social distance between ecosystem service providers and beneficiaries for the short- and long-term motivational crowding effects of a PES policy. This article analyses this topic with a lab-in-the-field experiment in which the salience of social identity is defined by the real geographical distance between ecosystem service providers and beneficiaries, rather than being artificially induced. In particular, the experiment involves 60 rural farmers from a Colombian municipality, whose water provision decisions affected passive downstream beneficiaries in either the same municipality or the capital city of Bogotá. The findings suggest that although sharing a closer place identity with downstream beneficiaries is relevant to determine baseline water provision, it does not affect average motivational crowding effects in the short and long term. Nonetheless, predictions from the econometric analysis of the heterogeneous treatment effects suggest that emphasizing the benefits provided to people with whom upstream providers feel more socially identified could mitigate long-term crowding-out effects on providers with weak levels of place identification, without compromising the short-term effectiveness on farmers with a strong place identity and already high provisioning levels. Therefore, in the absence of a well-defined group of downstream beneficiaries financing a PES program, it could be more effective to emphasize local benefits, rather than the general benefits to society. Chapter 4 is entitled “Behavioral Spillovers from Mixing Conservation Policies in Neighboring Areas: An Experimental Analysis on Fairness Perceptions toward Unequal Policies.” and is co-authored by S. Engel and E. Midler. The goal of this article is to analyze the impact of fairness concerns on the effectiveness of a policy that is implemented in an unequal institutional context. In particular, it compares the effectiveness of implementing a specific economic incentive when a monetary reward is being implemented in a neighboring area, to the effectiveness of implementing the same economic incentive over the entire area. This article analyses this topic with a lab-in-the-field experiment conducted with 276 farmers from a Colombian municipality. In particular, the treatment recreated three institutional contexts: 1) a high priority area where PES are implemented next to a low priority area that is excluded from PES, 2) a protected area with land-use restrictions surrounded by a buffer area where PES are implemented, and 3) a protected area where PES are implemented on top of land-use restrictions, surrounded by a buffer area with only PES. Surprisingly, the findings show that fairness concerns do not increase with the level of inequality between neighbors. Although PES exclusion and simultaneously implementing PES inside and outside a protected area tend to increase fairness concerns and reduce forest conservation relative to the control groups, implementing PES only in the buffer area of a protected area decreases fairness concerns and increases forest conservation by those within the protected area, even after the policies are removed. Overall, this article stresses the relevance of considering the institutional context and context-specific fairness perceptions as a relevant factor when defining the targeting criteria for the implementation of environmental policies.

The emergency department (ED) has often been considered the safety net of the American healthcare system. It earned this distinction because every person in the United States has access to a medical screening exam and stabilization at an ED regardless of their ability to pay. Unfortunately, over the past several decades, decreasing numbers of EDs and inpatient beds, coupled with increasing rates of ED usage, has led to crowding of EDs across the country. Crowding leads to unsafe conditions that may increase morbidity and mortality for patients, or cause patients to leave the ED without being evaluated by a physician. Essentially, crowding causes a barrier for patients to access their right to emergency evaluation. The problem of crowding is most pronounced in large urban communities, and these already frequently underserved patients suffer the most from the crowding burden. The main cause of crowding seems to be the boarding of admitted patients in the ED, however many often cite high rates of non-urgent patients presenting to the ED as a cause of crowding. Some have even suggested diverting non-urgent patients to help solve the problem of crowding. I became interested in this topic due to crowding concerns and initiatives to decrease the number of patients who left without being seen at my own institution. As I reviewed relevant research, I became aware of my own misconceptions and noted a trend of literature suggesting non-urgent patients are not the cause of crowding. Drawing on research from many different sources, paired with evaluation based on principles in bioethics, I have come to several conclusions. I believe the systematic diversion of non-urgent patients is unsafe, and that the unequal burden of ED crowding on urban communities represents an unjust barrier in access to care. We must continue to carefully research the demographics of patients frequently presenting to EDs to avoid perpetuating stereotypes about which types of patients are responsible for crowding. We should also look for ways to ease the crowding burden in urban communities. Additionally, we should take a qualitative assessment of our individual communities to determine if there are any particular reasons in our community that people choose to use the ED rather than other healthcare options. I believe these suggestions can be an important addition to the efforts already in motion to help reduce ED crowding and provide equitable access to emergency medical evaluation. / Urban Bioethics

The purposes of this study were (a) to compare open plan housing to semi-open and closed-plan designs on perception of crowding and reactions to crowding and (b) formulate a theoretical basis for explaining housing and human behavior. The objectives were to determine (a) if the number of people who could occupy open-plan housing without feeling crowded would differ from the number who could occupy semi-open or closed plans and (b) if the crowding accommodation time and reactions to crowding would be influenced by floor plan design. Analysis of Variance statistical techniques were used. Forty-five women who worked outside the home and occupied households of four or more persons with at least two children under the age of 18 were were randomly assigned to one of the three floor plan groups. Three identical models constructed with varying degrees of openness to 1" = 1'-0" scale represented the public areas of a dwelling approximately 1,150 square feet in size. Figures and furniture were constructed to the same scale. Subjects independently placed figures in the models in four typical family activity scenarios until one more figure was perceived as one too many. The scenarios, which represented goal-directed and non-goal directed activities, varied in the level of social interaction that was anticipated. After figures were placed to simulate crowding, subjects were asked questions related to their attitudes and responses to crowding. At the .05 level of significance, subjects placed fewer figures in the open plan model than in the semi-open and closed plans when given a scenario in which low levels of social interaction (privacy) were desirable. Significant differences were also observed among the four different scenarios. When scenarios represented goal-directed behaviors, fewer figures were placed, accommodation time was less, and reaction to crowding was greater than when scenarios represented unstructured social activities. The results suggest that small dwellings constructed for families with children should have some division of space in the living, dining, and kitchen area to support low-social interaction and goal-directed behaviors. Further research is needed to determine if uncontrollable high social interaction within a dwelling reduces goal-directed behavior. / Ph. D.

Yes / Many visual effects are believed to be processed at several functional and anatomical levels of cortical processing. Determining if and how the levels contribute differentially to these effects is a leading problem in visual perception and visual neuroscience. We review and analyze a combination of extant psychophysical findings in the context of neurophysiological and brain-imaging results. Specifically using findings relating to visual illusions, crowding, and masking as exemplary cases, we develop a theoretical rationale for showing how relative levels of cortical processing contributing to these effects can already be deduced from the psychophysically determined functions relating respectively the illusory, crowding and masking strengths to the contrast of the illusion inducers, of the flankers producing the crowding, and of the mask. The wider implications of this rationale show how it can help to settle or clarify theoretical and interpretive inconsistencies and how it can further psychophysical, brain-recording and brain-imaging research geared to explore the relative functional and cortical levels at which conscious and unconscious processing of visual information occur. Our approach also allows us to make some specific predictions for future studies, whose results will provide empirical tests of its validity.

La ambliopía es una condición visual caracterizada por una disminución de agudeza visual, sensibilidad al contraste y estereoagudeza, entre otros déficits como la presencia del fenómeno del amontonamiento (crowding). El tratamiento tradicional de la ambliopía es la corrección óptica del defecto refractivo y la oclusión del ojo director. Sin embargo, la oclusión con parche tiene algunas limitaciones, como son los largos periodos de tratamiento, el mal cumplimiento, las recidivas y los pacientes que no responden adecuadamente, que se denominan resistentes al parche. Por ello, desde las distintas áreas de las ciencias de la visión se busca desarrollar una nueva vía terapéutica basada en la estimulación activa del ojo ambliope. El aprendizaje perceptual y la terapia dicóptica cuentan con numerosos estudios que analizan sus potenciales beneficios para la rehabilitación del a ambliopía. En esta tesis doctoral se presentan cuatro estudios que buscan profundizar desde una perspectiva teórica y experimental la rehabilitación de la ambliopía mediante programas informáticos de aprendizaje perceptual y terapia dicóptica. En el primer estudio se analiza la evidencia científica existente sobre la efectividad de la terapia visual basada en aprendizaje perceptual y terapia dicóptica para la rehabilitación de la ambliopía anisometrópica. Los resultados muestran que existen estudios de intervención y ensayos clínicos que sugieren que la terapia visual mejora la agudeza visual, el coeficiente dosis-respuesta y el cumplimiento del tratamiento. Sin embargo, la evidencia científica presenta limitaciones que deben solventarse en futuros estudios, como son la escasez de ensayos clínicos aleatorizados con seguimiento a largo plazo y doble ciego. En el segundo estudio se realizó una revisión de los aspectos psicofísicos que deben valorarse a la hora de desarrollar software de aprendizaje perceptual y terapia dicóptica. En primer lugar, hay que utilizar estímulos que hayan mostrado ser útiles en el estudio de la ambliopía, como son los parches de Gabor, los optotipos con letras, los estímulos de puntos aleatorios para la percepción estereoscópica y los estímulos de agudeza de Vernier. En segundo lugar, cada estímulo presenta una serie de atributos que pueden modificarse y adaptarse al paciente de forma individualizada para personalizar el tratamiento. Y, en tercer lugar, se recomienda que durante las tareas visuales de rehabilitación de la ambliopía se emplee un método de respuesta adaptativa, como el Best-PEST o el método de escalera. En el tercer estudio se analiza de forma retrospectiva el uso del aprendizaje perceptual monocular en combinación con la oclusión para la rehabilitación de la ambliopía en pacientes resistentes al parche. Los resultados sugieren que el tratamiento combinado puede ayudar a mejorar la agudeza visual y la sensibilidad al contraste de los pacientes que han mostrado no mejorar con el parche. Por último, en el cuarto estudio se evalúa la efectividad del aprendizaje perceptual en entorno dicóptico para mejorar la visión de pacientes resistentes al parche. Los resultados son coherentes con los del tercer estudio, ya que aquellos pacientes que no recuperaron su agudeza visual sólo con el parche consiguieron mejorarla al combinar la terapia visual con la oclusión. Además, el tratamiento tuvo un impacto positivo en la sensibilidad al contraste y la estereopsis. Según los resultados obtenidos durante la tesis doctoral, la terapia visual basada en aprendizaje perceptual y terapia dicóptica es una opción prometedora para la rehabilitación de los pacientes con ambliopía resistentes al parche, que debería seguir investigándose puesto que puede aportar importantes beneficios a los pacientes.

Avec les avancées technologiques et la miniaturisation, le réseau d'interconnexions est devenu de plus en plus dense et complexe. Pour les domaines qui utilisent des applications à forts courants, comme l'automobile, les très fortes densités de courant dans les lignes métalliques peuvent conduire à des phénomènes comme l'électromigration, le voltage drop ou encore les surcharges électriques. La conception des circuits doit donc être réalisée en prenant en compte ces contraintes et en adaptant la largeur des lignes aux courants. Ce travail de thèse a eu comme objectif de développer des solutions pour la prise en compte des contraintes en courant lors de la phase de routage de blocs analogiques fort courants. Après une présentation des phénomènes impliqués et de l'état de l'art, une approche algorithmique pour l'aide au routage est introduite. Une méthode de caractérisation du courant est définie, un algorithme exhaustif de routage est présenté, puis utilisé pour effectuer des recherches de critères d'une bonne topologie. Deux algorithmes sont ensuite étudiés et comparés, un algorithme glouton, servant de référence, et un « Divide & Conquer » original. Il présente une amélioration d'environ 10% pour l'aire, et presque 27% en temps CPU par rapport à l'algorithme glouton. La section suivante s'intéresse à la correction du current crowding, avec une méthode basée sur un ensemble de modèles mathématiques. Enfin, un flot basé sur les solutions développées durant la thèse est présenté et validé. / In deep submicron VLSI circuits, excessive current density in interconnects is a major concern for analog high current application. If current over maximum density is not effectively mitigated, this can lead to phenomena like electromigration, voltage drop and electrical overload. It is a hot topic of interest in modern circuits due to the decrease of metal track sizes while high currents are necessary in automotive or mobile applications. This thesis had as goal to develop solutions for the consideration of the constraints in the current phase of routing analog blocks strong currents. After a presentation of the phenomena and the state of the art, an algorithmic approach to current driven net generation is introduced. A method to characterize the current is defined. Then an exhaustive routing algorithm is presented and used to search criteria for a good topology. Next, two algorithms are studied and compared, first a greedy algorithm, used as a reference, and a "Divide & Conquer" original algorithm. It shows results improved on average by about 10% for area and almost 27% for CPU time compared with existing solution. The next section focuses on current crowding correction, with a method based on a set of mathematical models. Finally, a conception flow based on the developed solutions is introduced and validated.

In the past ten years the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) has become a phenomenon, which is nowadays considered to be one of the major future perspectives of an economy. For many economists and politicians, the FDI is perceived as a saving instrument, which should help solve problems such as structure, regional discrepancies and most importantly a high unemployment rate especially under the conditions of global economic and financial crisis. The inflow of the FDI to host economy brings many positive effects that cannot be substituted. In fact, it is considered as a positive externality that must be paid. In order to attract the FDI in a country, the investment incentives are proposed and current incentives are being rebuilt. But attracting FDI at all costs can also be counterproductive. The intended aim of this thesis is to analyze positive and negativ effects of the FDI.