Social work supervision is a core component of the social work profession that is often absent for social workers in interprofessional teams. In capital defense practice settings, social workers are hired as mitigation specialists to work as members of the legal team. Informed by systems theory, the purpose of this action research study was to explore the practice challenges of social work mitigation specialists (SWMS) and how an interprofessional-focused supervision approach could be applied to resolve those issues. Six SWMS employed with capital defense agencies in Georgia and Texas were interviewed. Using a thematic coding analysis, several key themes emerged: (a) role navigation, (b) ethical dilemmas as practice challenges, (c) increased competence, and (d) team cohesion as dynamics that will improve with the implementation of an interprofessional-focused supervision approach. These findings provide understanding as to how supervision can be tailored to guide SWMS and other social workers in interprofessional settings. Recommendations for future research involve developing supervision guidelines for social work practice in interprofessional settings. Adhering to these suggestions might provide insight as to how interprofessional teams can work collaboratively, improving practice approaches and interventions to alter systems of service delivery and client outcomes. This provides the opportunity to effect social change by impacting individual practitioners and clients, as well as organizations, systems, and from a political perspective.

This dissertation builds upon previous Magdalenian research to reframe a logistical subsistence posture as an active risk-mitigation structure premised upon ensuring predictable surplus economic production at the French Upper Paleolithic site of Verberie le Buisson Campin (hereinafter VBC). Using a detailed faunal and statistical analysis of two faunal datasets to assess taphonomically the role of bone density-mediated vs. anthropogenic taphonomic agencies, this research also correlates bone survivorship with both limb element marrow cavity volume and the meat drying index. A limited program of bone refits attempted to provide evidence for the distribution of meat at the site. Age profiles generated from dental crown height measurements provide strong evidence that younger, perhaps more nutritious and valuable, carcasses were treated quite differently than were geriatric carcasses. There also appears to be a spatial component to the differential age-mediated treatment of reindeer carcasses at VBC. In essence, it appears that seasonal reindeer hunts at VBC were concerned with two eventualities: 1) the attainment of predictable and adequate nutrition for provisioning over winter, and 2) seeking to balance adequate nutrition with future reindeer herd viability. It appears that Magdalenian hunters essentially held young/prime prey targets as an independent variable, and treated the presence of geriatric, elder reindeer herd members as a dependent variable in meeting subsistence needs. Perhaps lower numbers of more nutritious (i.e., containing more and better quality fat reserves in meat and marrow) young/prime animals resulted in taking greater numbers of elderly reindeer to offset potential shortfall; in more abundant times, so long as herd viability could be maintained, greater numbers of more valuable young/prime would be taken along with lower numbers of geriatric reindeer. The fulcrum point of this subsistence balance appears to have been a very active, real-time process of prey item evaluation. Not all animals are equal in nutritional terms hence not all carcasses are evaluated equally. A Ground-penetrating radar study is also included to answer two substantive questions: 1) How representative of the entire site assemblage is the currently excavated sample?; and 2) Are there data visible that are indicative of multiple, interacting "households" as at Pincevent, or does the material scale, configuration, and distribution appear limited to a single household? GPR has proven to be a highly informative and productive near-surface geophysical technique for investigating many archaeological sites, and this research details one of the earliest such applications in a Paleolithic open-air context. At VBC, GPR was highly effective in locating anthropogenic accumulations of unexcavated archaeological materials which were field-tested through excavations during the 2009 field season.

The purpose of this thesis research was to examine the dynamic relationship between climate change and tourism, with a direct focus on Churchill, Manitoba’s polar bear viewing industry. This unique tourism industry and the polar bears it depends on, are experiencing the negative effects of climate change due to warmer temperatures and melting sea ice, which significantly impacts the health, appearance, and prevalence of polar bears on display for tourists. Not only is this tourism industry affected by climate change, it also contributes to the ongoing changes of climatic conditions. This is due to the dependence of fossil fuel energy used for transportation, accommodation, and activities which directly contributes to the release of greenhouse gas emissions and thus to global climate change. Emissions from tourism has increased by 3% over the last 10 years, largely as a result of the accessibility and affordability of air travel, the most energy intensive form of transportation (Lenzen et al., 2018; UNWTO-UNEP-WMO, 2008). It has been suggested that in response to the increase in the demand to travel, the tourism industry should take a leadership role to reduce their total greenhouse gas emissions in an effort to decrease the impact of climate change. In this study, a visitor survey was conducted during four weeks of Churchill’s 2018 polar bear viewing season (October 16 to November 16). The aim of the survey was to: 1) estimate greenhouse gas emissions from polar bear viewing tourists and the polar bear viewing industry; 2) identify tourists’ awareness of the impacts of climate change (to and from tourism activities); 3) understand tourist’s climate-related travel motivations, and 4) identify tourists’ opinions on climate change mitigation strategies. Visitor surveys were hand- distributed at the Churchill Northern Studies Centre and at the Churchill Airport to tourists who had participated on a polar bear viewing tour. Surveys were analyzed and compared with the results from similar studies (Dawson et al., 2010 and Groulx, 2015) to identify the changing trends in greenhouse gas emissions, travel motivations, tourists’ knowledge of climate change, and acceptance of climate change mitigation strategies. Similar to trends observed 10 years ago, emissions from polar bear viewing tourists are 3-34 times higher than the average global tourist experience. Tourists’ awareness about climate change has stayed relatively consistent, despite the topic of climate change having received increased attention globally. Tourists recognize that climate change is happening and that it is human induced however, there is still a lack of understanding of how air travel is a contributor to climatic change. Although briefly mentioned in some participant’s responses, the main motivation was not to see a polar bear before it disappeared from the wild. The majority of tourists identified they were traveling to Churchill simply for the opportunity to see a polar bear. Additional motivators were photography, the Northern Lights, and for the opportunity to see other Arctic animals. The climate change mitigation strategies that tourists believed to be the most effective to reduce emissions were educational programs and transportation alternatives (such as taking the train- which was not an option at the time of study due to a rail line shutdown). This research contributes to the existing knowledge about tourism and climate change and provides a current analysis of Churchill’s polar bear viewing industry, enabling a comparison between findings from another study conducted over ten years ago. This research also makes conclusions about climate change mitigation strategies that might be effective for Churchill’s tourism industry to reduce their impact on the environment.

This thesis investigates techniques and algorithms for mitigating radio frequency interference (RFI) affecting radio astronomy observations. In the past radio astronomy has generally been performed in radio-quiet geographical locations and unused parts of the radio spectrum, including small protected frequency bands. The increasing use of the entire spectrum and global transmitters such as satellites are forcing the astronomy community to begin implementing active interference cancelling. The amount of harmful interference affecting observations will also increase as future instruments such as the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) are required to use larger bandwidths to reach up to 100 times the current sensitivity levels, and as spectral line observations require observing in bands licensed to other spectrum users. Particular attention is paid to interference cancellation algorithms which make use of reference beams. This has proven to be successful in removing interference from the contaminated astronomical data. Reference antenna cancellers are closely analysed, leading to filters and techniques that can offer improved RFI excision for some important applications. It is shown that pre- and post-correlation reference antenna cancellers give similar results, and an important aspect of the cancellers is the use of a second reference signal when the reference interference-to-noise ratio is low. These modified filters can theoretically offer infinite interference suppression in the voltage domain, equivalent to that of post-correlation interference cancellers, and their internal structure can offer an understanding of the residual RFI and added receiver noise components of a variety of reference antenna techniques. The effect of variable geometric delays is also considered and various filters are compared as a function of the geometric fringe rate.

This thesis investigates the impact of physical planning policy on combined transport and dwelling-related energy use by households. Separate analyses and reviews are conducted into dwelling-related and transport-related energy use by households, before a model is developed to investigate the city-wide implications of different land-use scenarios in Sydney, Australia. The analysis of household energy use in Chapter 3 suggests that medium density housing (i.e. lose-rise apartments, townhouses, and terraces) is likely to result in the lowest per-capita energy use, while also allowing for sufficient densities to make frequent public transport service viable. The analysis of transport energy in Chapter 4 confirms that increasing urban density is associated with decreased car ownership and use, independent of other factors. However, land use changes alone are likely to result in modest changes to travel behaviour. The results of the scenario modelling in Chapters 7-9 support the view that changes to land use alone can reduce household energy consumption, but the changes, even over a long time period (25 years) are small (~0-10%) for all but the most extreme land-use policies. Instead, a coordinated (land-use/transport and other policy levers) approach is much more effective. The results confirm that it is transport energy that is most sensitive to planning policy, but that a combined consideration of dwelling-related and transport-related energy use is still useful. The micro-simulation model developed to assess the impact of different land-use planning scenarios allows the establishment of a lower-bound estimate of the effect that housing policy has on household energy use, assuming ‘business as usual’ transport policy, household behaviour, and technology.

Flax (Linum usitatissimum L.) is being considered as a platform crop for the development of bioproducts. Potential benefits of bioindustrial farming include the provison of bioenergy and biomaterials, and opportunities for biorefining. Prior to the commercialization of crops intended for bioproducts however, the safety of the food/feed system and the environment must be assured. As part of a preliminary biosafety assessment I conducted a literature review and experiments to quantify seed-mediated gene flow from flax to the environment and food/feed system. Flax seed losses at harvest, seed persistence in soil, efficacy of herbicides to control volunteer survival and fecundity in subsequent crops, volunteerism (density and occurrence) and volunteer emergence periodicity in follow crops in commercial fields were examined. Total seed losses at harvest in commercial fields were variable (2.7 to 44.2 kg ha-1). Flax has a short longevity in the seed bank (2 to 3 years). Flax has been selected for reduced seed dormancy and volunteer flax seed persistence may be hastened by burial. Compared to other domesticated crops, flax has a prolonged period of emergence and calculated EM50 values (the growing degree days required for 50% emergence) ranged from 227 to 340 growing degree days (GDD). Flax volunteers reached their period of peak emergence earlier in conventional tillage than in reduced tillage fields. Volunteer flax densities were highest prior to herbicide applications (10.4 to 570.2 plants m-2) in all fields the year following flax production (2005) and diminished over time. Volunteers that emerge in the spring may be controlled with registered herbicides. Glyphosate and fluroxypyr tank-mixed with either monohydrate sodium salt of 2,4-dicholorophenoxy acetic acid (2,4-D) or monochlorophenoxyacetic acid Ester 500 (MCPA) were most effective in reducing volunteer flax density, biomass, and fecundity. These herbicides also reduced the adventitious presence of volunteer flax seed in spring wheat (from over 8.5% to 0.16%). Best management practices could be adopted to mitigate seed-mediated gene flow from flax in agricultural productions systems, but thresholds of zero are not biologically realistic. The agronomic baseline data generated in this thesis however, suggests that flax may be an appropriate crop platform for bioindustrial products. / Plant Science

Travelers experience different transportation-related problems on roadways ranging from congestion, delay, and crashes, which are partially due to growing background traffic and traffic generated by new developments. With regards to congestion, metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) pursue a variety of plans for mitigating congestion. These plans include, amongst other measures, imposing impact fees. The current research evaluates how delay and safety can be incorporated in the mitigation process as special impact fees. This study also evaluates traffic projection methodologies used in traffic impact studies. Traffic volume is a critical factor in determining both current and future desired and undesired highway operations. Highway crashes are also influenced by traffic volume, as a higher frequency of crashes is expected at more congested locations and vice versa. Accurately forecasted traffic data is required for accurate future planning, traffic operations, safety evaluation, and countermeasures. Adhering to the importance of accurate traffic projection, this study introduces a simplistic traffic projection methodology for small-scale projection utilizing three parameters logistic function as a forecasting tool. Three parameters logistic function produced more accurate future traffic prediction compared to other functions. When validation studies were performed, the coefficient of correlation was found to be above 90 percent in each location. The t-values for the three parameters were highly significant in the projection. The confidence intervals have been calculated at a 95 percent confidence level using the delta method to address the uncertainty and reliability factor in the projection using logistic function. A delay mitigation fee resulting from increases in travel time is also analyzed in this research. In regular traffic flow, posted speed limit is the base of measuring travel time within the segment of the road. The economic concept of congestion pricing is used to evaluate the impact of this travel time delay per unit trip. If the relationship between the increase in time and trip is known, then the developer can be charged for the costs of time delays for travelers by using that relationship. The congestion pricing approach determines the average and marginal effect of the travel time. With the known values of time, vehicle occupancy, and number of travel days per year, the extra cost per trip caused by additional trips is estimated. This cost becomes part of the mitigation fee that the developer incurs as a result of travel time delays for the travelers due to the development project. Using the Bureau of Public Road (BPR) travel time function and parameters found in 2000 HCM (Highway Capacity Manual), the average and marginal travel times were determined. The value of time was taken as $7.50 per hour after reviewing different publications, which relate it to minimum wage. The vehicle occupancy is assumed as 1.2 persons per vehicle. Other assumptions include 261 working days per year and 4 percent rate of return. The total delay impact fee will depend on the number of years needed for the development to have effect. Since the developer is charged a road impact fee due to constructions cost for the road improvement, the delay mitigation fee should be credited to the road impact fee to avoid double charging the developer. As an approach to incorporate safety into mitigation fees, the study developed a crash prediction model in which all factors significantly influencing crash occurrences are considered and modeled. Negative binomial (NB) is selected as the best crash modeling distribution among other generalized linear models. The developed safety component of the mitigation fee equation considers scenarios in which the proposed new development is expected to increase crash frequency. The mitigation fee equation is designed to incorporate some roadway features and traffic characteristics generated by the new development that influence crash occurrence. Crash reduction factors are introduced and incorporated in the safety mitigation fees equation. The difference between crash frequency before and after the development is multiplied by the crash cost then divided by the trips to obtain crash cost per trip. Crash cost is taken as $28,000/crash based on literature review. To avoid double charging the developer, either the road impact fee is applied as a credit to the delay mitigation fee or vice versa. In summary, this study achieved and contributed the following to researchers and practitioners: ... Developed logistic function as a simplified approach for traffic projection ... Developed crash model for crash prediction ... Developed safety mitigation fee equation utilizing the crash modeling ... Developed delay mitigation fee equation using congestion pricing approach

There have been studies on the role of land use planning and development regulations on hazard mitigation and the importance of including these in effective mitigation planning initiatives. However, little empirical research has examined how the local capacity and commitment affect the adoption and implementation of land use and development regulations to mitigate any type of hazards in the coastal areas. This study investigates hazard mitigation policies and practices at municipal and county level in the Texas coastal area and examines the influence of capacity and commitment for the adoption and implementation of these hazard mitigation strategies and actions. The data utilized in this survey were collected as part of a web-based survey. Responses were solicited from 267 local jurisdictions that consist of 226 cities and 41 counties. The survey was targeted to leading planner, or mayor/city manager and county judges. In total 124 responses were obtained, yielding an overall response rate of 46%. Study results show that local jurisdictions are employing a very limited a set of land use and development regulations that the literature has identified as important for hazard mitigation. There are considerable differences between municipalities and counties in the implementation of those policies. Municipalities tend to put more effort in employing building standards and development regulations, whereas counties more extensively employ information dissemination and private-public sector initiatives. In addition, statistical models are developed to assess the influence of local capacity and commitment on the adoption and implementation of hazard mitigation policies and strategies. Other factors such as jurisdiction type and location, hazard experience and exposure as well as population characteristics, are also examined in multivariate models. Results suggest that capacity and commitment of local jurisdictions have significant effects on the adoption and implementation hazard mitigation policies and strategies. Additionally, factor such as floodplain area, jurisdiction type municipality, and hazard experience have strong associated with implementation of hazard mitigation policies and strategies.

This dissertation examines issues related to avian influenza (AI) disease. This is done via three essays that individually examine: (1) the impacts of climate change on the probability and expected numbers of AI outbreaks and associated economic loss; (2) the effects that media coverage of AI outbreaks has on meat demand in the United States, and (3) the potential effectiveness of AI mitigation strategies on poultry production and welfare under a simulated AI outbreak in United States. The climate change and spread of AI outbreaks study finds that the probability and expected number of AI outbreaks increases as climate change proceeds. Particularly, past climate change has contributed to the current spread of AI disease by 11% and the future climate change will increase this spread by another 12%. Moreover, the underreporting probability of AI outbreaks is also examined and results show that the underreporting probability is much higher in countries with lower gross domestic production level, larger export of poultry products and more numbers of AI confirmed human deaths. Therefore, disease prevention and control plans should focus on these economically poor and climatically changed regions. AI outbreak information has significant effects on meat demand in the United States. In particular, impacts of overseas AI human deaths on meat demand equal 0.02% for beef, -0.005% for pork, and -0.01% for chicken for sample when there was no AI occurred in the United States, while it has smaller impacts on meat expenditure when using the whole sample. In addition, human deaths due to AI disease will increase beef demand and decrease that for pork and chicken. However, AI media coverage in short-run has insignificant effect on meat demand, which suggests that consumers are more cautious when cases occur within the United States as opposed to international cases. In the study on the effects and welfare implications of AI mitigation strategies, results find that vaccination strategy is welfare decreasing under most cases of demand shocks but is desirable in some regions when both domestic and excess demand decrease. Under the assumption of one AI outbreak in the United States, the associated mitigation costs because of past climate change are relatively small.

Interference is a key limiting factor in modern communication systems. In a wireless cellular network, the performance of cell-edge users is severely limited by the intercell interference. This thesis studies the use of interference-channel and relay-channel techniques to mitigate intercell interference and to improve the throughput and coverage of cellular networks. The aim of this thesis is to demonstrate the benefit of the proposed interference mitigation schemes through both information theoretical studies and applications in the cellular network. There are three mains results in this thesis: First, it is shown that for the $K$-user cyclic Gaussian interference channel, where the $k$th user interferes with only the ($k -1$)th user (mod $K$) in the network, the Etkin-Tse Wang power splitting strategy achieves the capacity region to within 2 bits in the weak interference regime. For the special 3-user case, this gap can be sharpened to $1\frac{1}{2}$ bits by the time-sharing technique. Second, it is shown that for a two-user Gaussian interference channel with an in-band-reception and out-of-band transmission relay, generalized hash-and-forward together with Han-Kobayashi information splitting can achieve the capacity region of this channel to within a constant number of bits in a certain weak-relay regime. A generalized-degrees-of-freedom analysis in the high signal-to-noise ratio regime reveals that in the symmetric channel setting, each common relay bit improves the sum rate up to two bits. The third part of this thesis studies an uplink multicell joint processing model in which the base stations are connected to a centralized processing server via rate-limited digital backhaul links. This thesis proposes a suboptimal achievability scheme employing the Wyner-Ziv compress-and-forward relaying technique and successive-interference-cancellation decoding. The main advantage of the proposed approach is that it results in achievable rate regions that are easily computable, in contrast to previous schemes in which the rate regions can only be characterized by exponential number of rate constraints.