published_or_final_version / abstract / Earth Sciences / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Despite a growing population of single older adults, past research and theory on romantic relationship formation has primarily focused on younger adults. Online dating has become an increasingly prevalent context for both older and younger adults to form romantic relationships. Nonetheless, adults of different ages may have different motivations for seeking dating partners. Using a framework of agency and communion to synthesize disparate literatures on personal goals, evolutionary motivations, and socioemotional motivations across the lifespan, the current research focuses on age differences in self-presentations in 4000 online dating profiles sampled from two popular online dating websites. Themes in these profiles were identified using the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count software (LIWC; Pennebaker, Booth & Francis, 2007). Regression analyses revealed significant associations between age and word use. Older adults were more likely to use first person plural pronouns (e.g. we, us, our), reflecting a focus on connectedness as well as words associated with health and positive emotion. Younger adults were more likely to emphasize the self, using more first person pronouns and were more likely to use words associated with work and achievement. Results suggest younger adults focus on enhancing the “self” when seeking romantic partnership. Consistent with theories of adult development, older adults are more positive in their profiles and appear to focus more on the “self” as embedded in relationships. / text

“Shengnü” (“leftover women”) has become a popular discourse in China during recent years. In existing literature and media coverage, discussion on shengnü often draws on population gender imbalance, western individualization theories, and women’s “too picky” mating criteria. Seeing beyond these perspectives, this research aims to problematize the myth of shengnü by explicating how this social phenomenon indicates the changing gender landscape and emerging new femininity in modern China. The empirical study is based on in-depth interviews with 36 women regarding their lived experience of partner selection through xiangqin (matchmaking). Their experience of participating in commercial xiangqin (matchmaking websites, matchmaking fairs, high-end matchmaking clubs, marriage hunting, and matchmaking TV shows) and parents-arranged xiangqin are investigated. Findings in the research demonstrate that empowered by a series of social structural changes in reform-era China, modern women have rising expectations in partner selection and they possess greater control over intimate relationship. It is argued that xiangqin in contemporary China provides a stage for rising new Chinese femininity characterized by pragmatic idealism. To maximize their gain in the marriage market, from modern commercialized xiangqin to “old fashioned” parents-arranged xiangqin, modern Chinese women proactively seize every opportunity to approach potential partners. However, while engaging in xiangqin, the practice in which the purpose of partner selection is directly and pragmatically foregrounded, they have not given up the romantic pursuit in their relationship ideal. The central discourse of “gan jue (感觉feelings)” in their mating concerns suggests that they consciously avoid downgrading themselves as slaves of pragmatism and proudly distinguish themselves from women of pervious generations who satisfy with conventional pattern of intimacy that centers on “da huo guo ri zi (搭伙过日子making a mundane living together)”. When dealing with intergenerational dynamics in partner selection, although they make conditional compromise pertaining to intimacy and resource flows between generations, they also demarcate their non-negotiable territory. This research helps to problematize the indefinable essence and transcendental nature in Western theorization of love; it also contributes to question existing literature that pragmatism and materialism dominate contemporary Chinese love culture under the context of market economy. It reveals that constraining cultural and structural forces still limit single women’s bargaining power in current Chinese society; and modern Chinese women make different kinds of adjustments to expand their life opportunities. Through frankly articulating their materially grounded concerns in partner selection, they redefine romance in precarious social environment and stage new morality in post-socialist China. By sticking to a “bu cou huo (不凑合no compromise)” stance in their pursuit of love, they demonstrate their persistence and strength as modern Chinese women. Their relevant site-specific femininity performance also exemplifies the flexibility of modern women in achieving their life ambitions. / published_or_final_version / Social Work and Social Administration / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

This thesis presents the findings of a combined geomorphological, sedimentological and geochronological investigation into the glacial history of the Clearwater Basin, Mid Canterbury, New Zealand. The study demonstrates that a thick wedge of glacial and paraglacial sediments are preserved in the valley. These are >100m thick and preserve evidence of at least 3 glacial phases (>180ka). The study presents a new and detailed geomorphology map for the Clearwater valley and adjacent areas and has added 17 new recessional positions to the local glacial record. Surface Exposure Dating (SED) has been used to directly date the moraines of the Clearwater Basin providing the first detailed chronology for glacial moraine in this area. In total 31 cosmogenic ages from 9 separate moraines are presented. The results demonstrate that the LGM advance is the Trinity moraine of Mabin (1980) and not the Hakatere moraine as previously assumed and that the LGM was achieved at or about 23ka. The Clearwater glacier receded up valley between 23 and 13ka with some indication of accelerated retreat after c.16ka. The correlation to the adjacent Lake Heron Valley is also revised.

2 pp. / With the exception of infant formula and baby food, product dating is not required by federal regulations. There is no uniform system used for food dating by manufacturers in the U.S. Although dating of some foods is required by more than 20 states, some states do not require any date codes. This publication is a brief guide for how to read food dating, which includes; types of dates, safety after dates expire, changing dates, dating of infant formula and baby food, can codes, dates on egg cartons, and storage times.

The Ruby-Humboldt Range in Northeastern Nevada exposes the deepest crust in the western portion of the Sevier Hinterland. The product of unique brittle and ductile accommodations, this block of lower crustal rock is a window into the processes of continental thickening and extension. The structure of the northern tip of the Ruby-Humboldt Range core complex is dominated by a large recumbent fold nappe with a southward closeure cored by Paleoproterozoic-Archean gneissic complexes with complex interdigitated field relationships that record polyphase continental metamorphism. Amphibolite-grade metapelitic rocks within the core and Winchell Lake nappe record a wide range of zircon age dates of metamorphic events the oldest of which at ~2.5 Ga is recorded in adjacent orthogneiss as a crystallization age. At least two younger metamorphic events are recorded within this orthogneiss, most significantly at 1.7-1.8 Ga, an event previously unpublished for this region that links it to Wyoming province activity in addition to inherited component of detrital cores up to 3.7 Ga in age that is among the oldest ages reported in Nevada. The youngest overprint of cretaceous metamorphic overgrowth ranges fro 60-90 Ma in age based on zircon rims in the aforementioned units as well as three garnet amphibolites that intrude the core of the nappe and are interpreted to be metabasic bodies.

The lowland Maya site of Ceibal, Guatemala, had a long history of occupation, spanning from the Middle Preclassic Period through the Terminal Classic (1000 BC to AD 950). The Ceibal-Petexbatun Archaeological Project has been conducting archaeological investigations at this site since 2005 and has obtained 154 radiocarbon dates, which represent the largest collection of radiocarbon assays from a single Maya site. The Bayesian analysis of these dates, combined with a detailed study of ceramics, allowed us to develop a high-precision chronology for Ceibal. Through this chronology, we traced the trajectories of the Preclassic collapse around AD 150–300 and the Classic collapse around AD 800–950, revealing similar patterns in the two cases. Social instability started with the intensification of warfare around 75 BC and AD 735, respectively, followed by the fall of multiple centers across the Maya lowlands around AD 150 and 810. The population of Ceibal persisted for some time in both cases, but the center eventually experienced major decline around AD 300 and 900. Despite these similarities in their diachronic trajectories, the outcomes of these collapses were different, with the former associated with the development of dynasties centered on divine rulership and the latter leading to their downfalls. The Ceibal dynasty emerged during the period of low population after the Preclassic collapse, suggesting that this dynasty was placed under the influence from, or by the direct intervention of, an external power.

Long-term palaeo-climatic conditions have primarily been interpreted from ocean marine sediments and ice cores. Few middle and low latitude continental records exist that provide insight into continental response to climate change over time. This research offers new chronologies on a variety of low latitude continental deposits from the Southern High Plains, and demonstrates their importance as palaeo-environmental archives. These chronologies extend the existing Southern High Plains palaeo-environmental record from the historic period to the late-middle Pleistocene, and provide an important basis from which to examine landscape response to late Quaternary climate change. This study demonstrates the applicability of optical dating procedures to well-bleached sedimentary features, such as lunettes, lacustrine material, tufa, and coversands. The precision and accuracy of the technique permits the detection of historic depositional events, whilst the range of the dating technique extended the chronology to the middle-late Pleistocene. The physical isolation of the Southern High Plains from its surrounding areas for the last 1.6 Ma has preserved a record of past climatic fluctuations within the aeolian and fluvio-lacustrine sediments. This research has demonstrated that the Southern High Plains landscape is sensitive to periods of less effective moisture, causing reactivation during historic drought periods (e.g. 1930s "Dust Bowl" event). Coversands and small playa lunettes were active during glacial and interglacials. This suggests that these features are sensitive to smaller scale climatic fluctuations that result in reduced effective moisture for the region during both glacial and interglacial periods. Large lake lunettes were inactive during the Wisconsin glacial. During this same period, active lacustrine and tufa deposition occurred; this offers evidence of greater effective moisture for the Southern High Plains, which resulted in regional recharge. The record of climate change preserved in the lunettes, lacustrine material, tufa, and coversands has provided insight into the response of this dynamic landscape to climatic fluctuations and has been employed for the reconstruction of the palaeo- environmental history of the Southern High Plains. An understanding of landscape response is important in light of the future of the Southern High Plains environment as global temperatures increase, and is critical to a complete evaluation of continental response to climatic change.

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This work aims to study the behavior of the western margin of the Greenland Ice Sheet during a period of pronounced ice retreat roughly 10,000 years ago, after the end of the last glacial period. It explores the efficiency of subglacial erosion, the spatial dynamics of ice retreat, and the rates of ice retreat. To address these questions, I use the radionuclides 10Be and 26Al, which form in rocks due to the bombardment of cosmic rays, only after the rocks have been exposed from underneath retreating ice. These nuclides can be used as a geologic dating technique to explore exposure history. Before applying this dating technique to address geological questions, it was critical to first perform methodological development. My work in the University of Vermont‘s new Cosmogenic Nuclide Laboratory served to improve the precision and efficiency of the pre-existing laboratory methods. New methodological advances ensured that samples from Greenland, which contained only low concentrations of 10Be and 26Al, could be used to yield meaningful results about ice behavior. Cosmogenic nuclide dating was applied at two sites along the ice sheet margin in central-western Greenland. At both of these sites, I collected paired bedrock and boulder samples in a transect normal to and outside of the present-day ice sheet margin. Samples were collected from a variety of elevations at numerous locations along the transects, thus providing three-dimensional coverage of the field area. After isolating the mineral quartz from the rocks, and isolating the elements Be and Al from the quartz, isotopic analysis was performed using accelerator mass spectrometry to quantify the relative abundances of the radionuclides against their respective stable isotopes. The southern study site, Ilulissat, is located on the western coast of Greenland at a latitude of 69N. Much previous work has been conducted here due to the presence of one of the largest ice streams in the northern hemisphere, Jakobshavn Isbræ. My work in Ilulissat demonstrated that subglacial erosion rates were high during previous glacial periods, efficiently sculpting and eroding the landscape. Ice retreat across the land surface began around 10,300 years ago, and the ice sheet retreated behind its present-day margin about 7,600 years ago. Ice retreat occurred at a rate of about 100 meters per year. My work in this area suggests that retreat in the large ice stream set the pace and timing for retreat of the neighboring ice sheet margin. The northern site, Upernavik, is located on the western coast of Greenland at a latitude of 73N. Little research has been conducted here in the past. Unlike in Ilulissat, my work here shows that the ice sheet did not efficiently erode the landscape, especially at high elevations, during previous glacial periods. This is likely because the ice was thinner, and therefore had a colder base, than the ice in Ilulissat. My work suggests that ice cover was lost from this area very rapidly, likely at rates of about 170 meters per year, in a single episode around 11,300 years ago. Comparison between the two study sites reveals that ice characteristics can vary appreciably over relatively small distances.