Honors Project--Smith College, Northampton, Mass., 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 33-41).

A review of anatomical and behavioural studies of the limbic system suggests that some structures which Papaz proposed as the central mechanism of emotion might be involved in food hoarding behaviour. Various structures in Papez· circuit were destroyed surgically and observations were taken on subsequent changes in food hoarding behaviour. In addition, observations were made on nest building behavior and on avoidance performance. It was found that rats with bilateral damage to the mammillothalamic tract and mammillary body were severely depressed in hoarding and avoidance behaviour. Septal damage caused a less severe deficit in both behaviours while hippocampal, domical or thalamic damage did not have a significant effect. A pilot study of hoarding behaviour in the hamster was carried out. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

Den här kvalitativa studien syftar till att undersöka socialarbetares erfarenheter av att arbeta med patologiska samlare, med fokus på vilka socialpsykologiska faktorer som kan tänkas ha betydelse för att främja samarbete. Fjorton intervjuer har genomförts med socialarbetare som arbetar inom socialpsykiatrin inom olika stadsdelsförvaltningar inom Stockholms län. Resultatet har analyserats med hjälp av attributionsteori, samspelsinriktad teori och strukturell teori. Resultatet visar på att det finns flera faktorer som påverkar samarbetet med patologiska samlare. Samarbete upplevs vara avgörande för att den patologiska samlaren ska göra framsteg och det är också viktigt att yrkesverksamma är eniga kring hur man ska angripa problemet. Socialarbetarna betonar olika strategier för att bygga relation med klienten, som i många fall går utöver den konventionella handläggarrollen. Socialarbetarna är överens om att det är viktigt att gå försiktigt fram samt att låta processen ta tid. Socialarbetarna understryker betydelsen av att vara finkänslig men samtidigt tydlig med klienten. De framhåller att balansen mellan att vara finkänslig och tydlig är svår eftersom det har hänt att klienterna blivit kränkta när socialarbetarna reagerat vid möten. Socialarbetarna framhåller svårigheten att kunna hjälpa klienter som inte vill, varav den fria viljan kan sätta stopp för att kunna hjälpa klienterna. Samtidigt framhåller de att frivilligheten inte alltid ter sig frivillig när det föreligger underliggande vräkningshot. / This qualitative study aims to examine social workers experiences of working with hoarders, focusing on what social psychological factors may be thought to play a role in promoting collaboration. Fourteen interviews have been conducted with social workers in social psychiatry units in various districts of Stockholm county. The results have been analyzed using attribution theory, interaction theory and structural theory. The results show that there are several factors that affect the collaboration with the hoarder. Collaboration is considered vital for the hoarder to make progress and it is also important that there is consensus among professionals about how to approach the problem. Social workers experience a strong resistance in working with clients, which places high demands on the professional role to be persistent and patient. The social workers in this study emphasize different strategies for building relationships with the client, which in many cases go beyond the conventional role of the social worker. The social workers agree that it is important to proceed cautiously and allow the process to take time. The social workers in this study emphasize that it is important to think about being sensitive and at the same time direct with the client. They believe that the balance between being sensitive and direct is difficult as they have experienced that the clients has been offended by them showing strong reactions. The social workers emphasize the difficulty of being able to help clients that do not want to, of which the free will can create problems to be able to help the clients. At the same time, they point out that voluntary is not always voluntary when there are underlying eviction threats.

This paper looks at the relationship between software patent hoarding and firm litigation involvement. Software patents are relatively new, as the first software patent was granted in 1995. Since that first patent was granted, firms throughout the industry have engaged in a patent ‘arms race’ of sorts. Using data from Lex Machina IP litigation database and the USPTO, this study examines whether patent stock size impacts the incentives for firms to litigate by assessing the total number of law suits software firms are involved in and their litigation involvement broken down by party role. The results indicate that a larger patent portfolio will marginally increase the number of suits a firm files as a plaintiff. The results are inconclusive on the potential deterrence effect a firm can create by hoarding patents to discourage competitor firms from suing them.

Terrestrial mammals affect numerous aspects of plant demography, colonization, and community structure in Neotropical forests. Granivorous mammals destroy seeds via seed predation and seedlings through herbivory, negatively affecting plant fitness. Mammals can also positively affect plants by dispersing or hoarding seeds. Seed fate outcomes are contingent on the interaction between mammal seed handling strategies and the intrinsic anti-predation defenses possessed by seeds. In field experiments at La Selva Biological Station, I investigated how collared peccaries (Pecari tajacu) and Central American agoutis (Dasyprocta punctata) affect five species of large seeds that have various defenses against predation. Overall, peccaries consumed and killed most non-defended and chemically-defended seeds but they could not destroy seeds with physical defenses. Agoutis killed non-defended and physically-defended seeds, but not seeds with chemical defenses. Using seeds of Mucuna holtonii, I investigated how chemical and structural defenses deter mammal and insect seed predation respectively. I also determined how endosperm removal by invertebrates affects seed germination and seedling biomass. Chemical defenses protected seeds from rodents, but not ungulates that digest seeds via pregastric fermentation. Physical defenses protected seeds from invertebrate seed predators, and removal of endosperm negatively affected both seed germination and seedling growth. To determine how scatter-hoarding by agoutis affects seed escape from seed predators, germination, and seedling growth, I created simulated agouti hoards. I also investigated how mammals affect young seedling survival. Hoarding enhanced seed survival, germination, and seedling growth for most species of seeds. Terrestrial mammals killed some seedlings via seed predation rather than by herbivory. Overall, large mammal activity in La Selva negatively affected seed and seedling survival and this likely influences many aspects of forest dynamics.

The aim of this experiment was to test whether LIPX-induced decreases in body fat affect appetitive (foraging effort and food hoarding) or consummatory (food intake) ingestive behaviors and whether the effects of LIPX on these behaviors is in turn affected by changes in energy expenditure produced by varying the amount of work required to obtain food. This was accomplished by housing male Siberian hamsters (Phodopus sungorus) in a foraging/hoarding apparatus where food pellets (75 mg) could be earned by completing various wheel running requirements. Requiring a foraging effort (10 revolutions/pellet) abolished the normal compensation of WAT mass by the non-excised WAT pads that typically follows IWATx or EWATx. After foraging, food hoarding was increased more than food intake when hamsters were required to forage for food (10 revolutions/pellet). The magnitude of the LIPX-induced lipid deficit (IWATx > EWATx) did not correspond to a proportional change in either appetitive or consummatory ingestive behaviors.

Record numbers of employees are retiring in Canada (Conference Board of Canada, 2009), and with their exit, copious amounts of organizational knowledge could be exiting too (Collins, 2007). In this thesis, I propose and test a model of attitudes and intentions towards knowledge sharing with 252 retiring and recently retired employees. The results suggested that the partially mediated alternative model fit the data the best, where affective commitment, job satisfaction, and perceived organizational support predicted attitudes towards knowledge sharing, which in turn positively predicted tacit and explicit knowledge sharing intentions, as well as negatively predicted intentions to hoard knowledge. There were also significant positive direct paths between job satisfaction and intentions to share tacit and explicit knowledge, as well as a significant negative direct path between job satisfaction and intentions to hoard knowledge. Lastly, organizational policies and practices (tacit and explicit), personal perceived knowledge value (tacit and explicit), and financial stake (explicit) were significant moderators. Study findings and limitations, as well as future research directions are discussed.

The aim of this experiment was to test whether LIPX-induced decreases in body fat affect appetitive (foraging effort and food hoarding) or consummatory (food intake) ingestive behaviors and whether the effects of LIPX on these behaviors is in turn affected by changes in energy expenditure produced by varying the amount of work required to obtain food. This was accomplished by housing male Siberian hamsters (Phodopus sungorus) in a foraging/hoarding apparatus where food pellets (75 mg) could be earned by completing various wheel running requirements. Requiring a foraging effort (10 revolutions/pellet) abolished the normal compensation of WAT mass by the non-excised WAT pads that typically follows IWATx or EWATx. After foraging, food hoarding was increased more than food intake when hamsters were required to forage for food (10 revolutions/pellet). The magnitude of the LIPX-induced lipid deficit (IWATx > EWATx) did not correspond to a proportional change in either appetitive or consummatory ingestive behaviors.

Record numbers of employees are retiring in Canada (Conference Board of Canada, 2009), and with their exit, copious amounts of organizational knowledge could be exiting too (Collins, 2007). In this thesis, I propose and test a model of attitudes and intentions towards knowledge sharing with 252 retiring and recently retired employees. The results suggested that the partially mediated alternative model fit the data the best, where affective commitment, job satisfaction, and perceived organizational support predicted attitudes towards knowledge sharing, which in turn positively predicted tacit and explicit knowledge sharing intentions, as well as negatively predicted intentions to hoard knowledge. There were also significant positive direct paths between job satisfaction and intentions to share tacit and explicit knowledge, as well as a significant negative direct path between job satisfaction and intentions to hoard knowledge. Lastly, organizational policies and practices (tacit and explicit), personal perceived knowledge value (tacit and explicit), and financial stake (explicit) were significant moderators. Study findings and limitations, as well as future research directions are discussed.

Balanites maughamii is an ecologically and culturally valuable tree species, heavily impacted by elephants, which strip bark selectively off the largest trees, increasing their susceptibility to fire damage. Elephants also break intermediate sized trees extensively, keeping them trapped in non-reproductive stages. The trees can however survive breaking, stripping and · toppling by elephants, as well as top kill by fires, because they resprout vigorously in response to damage. They also produce root suckers. independently of disturbance. Vegetative reproduction buffers the populations from the infrequent recruitment of seedlings, and facilitates the maintenance of populations over the short term. Balanites maughamii trees are reliant on African elephants (Loxodonta africana) for seed dispersal and to provide a germination cue through mastication. In the absence of elephants, the population experiences a recruitment bottleneck, but root suckers functionally replace seedlings and fill the "recruitment gap", so over the short term, the population is resilient. In all populations, whether elephants are present or not, another hurdle affects recruitment, and it is seed limitation due to seed predation pre- and post- dispersal. Cafeteria experiments revealed that bushveld gerbils (Tatera leucogaster) were removing many seeds but do not scatter- or larder-hoard. They are simply seed predators.