Aquaculture and fisheries hold promise for supplying a growing world population with healthy food produced without undermining the earth’s carrying capacity. However, just as livestock production and agriculture, seafood production can have negative environmental impacts and if a continuous or even increased supply is to be guaranteed, the pressure on affected ecosystems needs to be limited. Due in part to a perceived failure of other governance mechanisms in improving the environmental performance of the sector, a large number of voluntary market based standards for farmed and wild caught seafood have been developed. Nonetheless, the knowledge base on the extent to which implementation leads to environmental improvements remains limited. Moreover, the role of consumers in driving demand for eco-labeled seafood is presently an under-researched area. This thesis aims at reducing this knowledge gap through an examination of the potential environmental effectiveness of aquaculture eco-certification and internal, psychological variables predicted to be of importance for sustainable seafood consumption. Put differently, what is the potential of eco-certification in greening the blue revolution and fuel ‘turquoise growth’, and how can consumer demand be spurred? In Paper I, the role of eco-certification in improving the growing aquaculture sector at large was explored. Results showed that environmental effects at global scale likely will be limited due to e.g. partial coverage of species groups and environmental impacts, and a lack of focus on Asian markets and consumers. In Paper II the environmental performance of eco-certified and non-certified mangrove-integrated shrimp farms in Vietnam was compared by using Life Cycle Assessment and put in relation to conventional, more intensive farms. While there was no substantial difference between certified and non-certified farms in terms of environmental impacts, emissions of greenhouse gasses were higher for mangrove-integrated than conventional farms due to mangrove land use change. The results from Paper III demonstrated that the body of literature investigating ecological effects of seafood eco-certification is limited. ‘Spatially explicit ecosystem service information’ (ES-information) on e.g. key ecosystem services and biodiversity in a given area is suggested to have potential to improve sustainability standards. Taking guidance from the pro-environmental behavior literature, consumers in Stockholm, Sweden were consulted on awareness of and attitudes towards eco-labeled seafood (Paper IV-V). Two variables, concern for environmental impacts and knowledge about seafood eco-labels were the best predictors for stated eco-labeled seafood purchasing. Moreover, there seemed to be a misalignment between consumers’ expectations on eco-labeled food in general and certification requirements for eco-labeled seafood. From this set of findings, a number of improvements of current seafood eco-certification are suggested. First, include an LCA-perspective in standards to a higher degree than presently done and provide readily available ES-information in the implementation and evaluation phase of certification. Second, introduce standardized mechanisms for capturing potential environmental improvements over time. And finally, stimulate demand by targeting Asian consumers and markets as well as strengthen consumer eco-label awareness and emotional involvement. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following paper was unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 5: Manuscript.</p><p> </p>

The sale and consumption of genetically modified foods are highly politicized, and one of the predominant discourses today. Since 2012, several states attempted legislation to label genetically modified foods, losing at very close margins. It wasn’t until a huge senate victory in Vermont that the labeling fight seemed to hold. Unfortunately, at the federal level there was a sound defeat by the Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act, which said that the FDA would monitor what foods should be labeled. This legislation, although appearing to keep the interests of food lobbying groups, was more for the interests of corporate power. This, however, did not deter states from continuing to legislate today, and the fight to does not appear to stop any time soon. The purpose of this paper is to see why anti-GMO lobbying organizations continue to campaign for this issue when efforts have not only failed in every state, and efforts have been slowed down at a federal level. The paper aims to make sense of labeling legislation as a political tactic. Through Gaventa’s analysis of power that he outlines in the book Power and Powerlessness, labeling legislation is understood as a political strategy, and how this movement has created a hegemonic common sense of consumer sovereignty and maintained this hegemonic common sense for years.

We study the complexity of the λ−L(p, q)-labelling problem for fixed λ, p, and q. The task is to assign vertices of a graph labels from the set {0, . . . , λ} such that labels of adjacent vertices differ by at least p while vertices with a common neighbor have different labels. We use two different reductions, one from the NAE-3SAT and the second one from the edge precoloring extension problem. 1

Master of Science / Food Science - Animal Sciences & Industry / Fadi M. Aramouni / Food product development involves more than just creating the perfect recipe. Representatives from marketing, procurement, research and development, safety, and quality all work together to complete product development projects. This manuscript is aimed to serve food science students and professionals learning the basics of the product development process, food component functionality, basic units of food processing, regulatory considerations, food safety concepts, consumer testing, confidentiality/ intellectual property issues, and essential pieces of marketing. Many other texts concentrate on food product development, but this text looks to create a more comprehensive guide. The breadth of knowledge needed for food product development are vast. Food science students and professionals can use this text to provide basic (not exhaustive) knowledge necessary to be a valuable part of a new product development team.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Agricultural Economics / Hikaru Hanawa Peterson / Consumers’ food demand has been found to be affected not only by prices and income, but also by their increasing concern about factors like health benefits, animal welfare, and environmental impacts. Thus, many food producers have differentiated and advertised their products using relevant attributes. The increasing demand and supply of differentiated food products have raised questions regarding consumer preferences and producer strategies. This dissertation consists of three essays and empirically examines the egg market to shed light on related issues. The first question that this study aims to answer is whether consumers are willing to pay a premium for livestock and dairy products associated with improved animal welfare. Consumers’ attitude towards such products not only affect manufacturers’ production decisions, but also influence policy makers and current legislations. Using a national online survey with choice experiments, the first essay found that consumers in the study sample valued eggs produced under animal-friendly environment, suggesting incentives for producers to adopt animal welfare friendly practices. In an actual shopping trip, consumers usually need to choose from products with multiple attributes and labels. Studying how consumers with heterogeneous preferences process these information simultaneously and make decisions is important for producers to target interested consumer segments and implement more effective labeling strategies. In the second essay, a different national online survey was administered. The analysis using a latent class model categorized the sample respondents into four classes, and their preferences toward attributes and various label combinations differed across classes. Scanner data, which record actually purchased choices, are an important source of information to study consumer preferences. Diverging from the traditional demand approaches that are limited in studying differentiated product markets using scanner data, this study used a random coefficient logit model to overcome potential limitations and examine the demand relationship as well as price competition in the differentiated egg market. The third essay found that conventional and private labeled eggs yielded higher margins due to less elastic demand and cautioned producers of specialty eggs, which are usually sold at high prices despite their much more elastic demand.

Thesis advisor: James Russell / Adults' gender stereotypes of emotion have been investigated with a variety of methods, but those methods do not provide a strong test of the stereotype: The participants were presented only with cues to the gender or to the emotion; or when both cues were available, gender was confounded with poser. This study examined the effects of attributed gender on adults' perception of emotion in facial expressions and stories when presented with clear versus ambiguous cues to both emotion and gender. College students (n = 90) were first asked to label the emotion of either a man (Timothy) or a woman (Sophia) with identical prototypical and “mixed” facial expressions and, separately, to Free Label stories about emotions. The same students were then to choose from a list of ten emotion labels the one that best described the protagonist's emotion for the same stimuli. Results showed that, for ambiguous cues to emotion, participants labeled facial expressions according to gender stereotypes. However, for the stimuli with clear cues to both emotion and gender of the poser, a reverse effect of gender stereotypes was observed for anger, fear, shame, and compassion due to an expectancy violation. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2004. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Psychology. / Discipline: College Honors Program.

Thesis advisor: Abhishek Chatterjee / Förster Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) offers a powerful approach to study biomolecular dynamics in vitro as well as in vivo. The ability to apply FRET imaging to proteins in living cells provides an excellent tool to monitor important dynamic events such as protein conformational changes, protein-protein interactions, and proteolysis reactions. However, selectively incorporating two distinct fluorophores into the target protein(s) that are capable of FRET interaction within the complex cellular milieu is challenging. Consequently, terminal fusion to genetically encoded fluorescent proteins has emerged as the predominant labeling strategy for FRET studies in vivo. However, a major limitation of this strategy stems from the large size of the fluorescent proteins, which may perturb the native properties of the target, and restricted attachment only to the termini of the target. We reasoned that using genetically encoded fluorescent unnatural amino acids would overcome several of these challenges associated with currently available labeling strategies owing to their small size and the ability to introduce them site- specifically and co-translationally. Here, we report the use of the fluorescent unnatural amino acid “Anap” as a FRET donor with green and yellow fluorescent protein acceptors. We demonstrate the utility of this labeling strategy using proteolysis and conformational change models, and step towards in vivo studies by further developing a proteolysis system in cell lysates. / Thesis (MS) — Boston College, 2016. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Chemistry.

Thesis advisor: Larry W. McLaughlin / Nucleic acids are fundamental biomolecules responsible for all activities of a living cell. DNA serves as an instruction manual to the cell, containing blueprints and directions for all cellular processes, while RNA serves to carry out the messages held within DNA. Research into the structure, stability, and function of nucleic acids has revealed much about the origin and evolution of life. The ultimate goal of this work is to understand how molecules bind and associate within the minor groove of double stranded, helical DNA. A series of 2'-deoxyadenosine analogues are modified at the three position by replacing the N3-nitrogen with carbon. Substitution at this position is designed to emulate the effects of removing hydrogen bond acceptors, introducing steric bulk, and tethering functional groups of interest into the minor groove. These functional groups mimic small molecules that have been shown to bind within the minor groove of A-T rich sequences as well as serve as a platform for further substitution by fluorescent tags. The synthetic effort needed to obtain purine nucleosides containing each of these modifications was non-trivial. New methodologies unveiled directing and protecting strategies towards the desired isomer of these modified nucleosides in higher yields than those previously deemed acceptable. Application of these modified nucleosides into duplex DNA reveals thermodynamic parameters for how small molecules bind to the minor groove and the effects of introducing biomarkers into an unprecedented region of DNA. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2011. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Chemistry.

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After the 2016 election of president Duterte, the Philippines have been actively fighting a war on drugs inside their own country according to the new policies developed by the newly chosen regime. These policies have led to the several thousands of dead in police operations which are by many called out as extrajudicial executions. The purpose of this study is to research the experience of urban people living in a society pervaded by a war on drugs with the goal of contributing to the understanding of how they handle the situation and how it affects their lives. The authors have spent two months in the Philippines, mainly in the Metro Manila area to gather the data for the study through mainly participant observation and semi-structured interviews for an ethnographic study. The results show who are being targeted in the war, how people experience it and create labeling and stigma according to the societal rules and norms as well as how people cope with difficult circumstances out of their control.