Up until the mid 1860s, an overwhelming majority of blacks in the US South were held in chattel slavery, from which they were freed after a Civil War (1861-1865). A recurring argument in institutional economics is that the institution of slavery did not disappear, but took other forms, e.g. segregation and violence. This is explored here, looking at the unsettling level of lethal violence against the black population 1875-1930. Literature empirically testing the legacy of slavery is hitherto scarce. I use a generalized difference-in-differences model to look at the effect of separate coach laws and disenfranchisement laws on lynchings and executions, respectively. All estimations are separated between blacks and non-blacks. I find precise and negative effects of disenfranchisement on executions of blacks and precise and positive effects of separate coach laws on executions of blacks. The same pattern holds true for lynchings of blacks, but only the estimate for separate coach laws is precise. No estimates are precise for lethal violence against non-blacks. This study lends support to the idea that lethal violence was used as an instrument to control the African American population.

Since 2009, International Relations scholars have researched the role of big advocacy groups in giving access to the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots in the United Nations Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW). To further these studies, the focus of this thesis is on the progress of negotiations for the 6-year period since the issue has been adopted, asking the question – How has the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots chosen to frame lethal autonomous weapons systems, and how successful has that framing been for the period of 2013 to 2019? I argue that advocates undertook a normative securitisation process to frame the existential threat lethal autonomous weapons systems (LAWS) pose to human beings. This argument is supported by a dual method research approach of 1) semi-structured elite interviews; and 2) qualitative content analysis of reports. The findings of this research show that, while the advocacy group has not achieved success in the form of a legally binding agreement at the CCW, they have successfully developed a process of moral stigmatization of LAWS that contributes to the creation of a new humanitarian security regime.

Since 2014, the international community has been discussing how to deal with the emergence of increasingly autonomous weapons systems under the auspices of the United Nations Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons. This case study examines the behavior of those nation-states that oppose a preventive ban on lethal autonomous weapons systems in this forum. In this regard, the concept of antipreneurship is applied to the analysis of the international meetings in order to explore the resistance patterns with which antipreneurs reject the need for normative change. Analyzing the content of related documents shows that antipreneurs block formal negotiations on a ban and deem legal weapons reviews to be a sufficient regulatory instrument. Beyond that, the antipreneurs also attempt to create a beneficial image of the relationship between artificial intelligence and international humanitarian law. This behavior contributes to force norm entrepreneurs increasingly into a defensive position and sustainably undermines their entrepreneurial demand for a preventive ban. Besides, the analysis distinguishes the resistance of antipreneurs from ambivalent behavior that cannot be clearly linked neither to the behavior of entrepreneurs nor to that of antipreneurs.

Brucellosis is a bacterial infection that primarily affects livestock and can also be transmitted to humans. In the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE), elk (Cervus canadensis) and bison (Bison bison) are habitual carriers of Brucella abortus, which arrived to the region with cattle over a century ago. The disease was eliminated from cattle in the United States through widespread control efforts, but is now periodically transmitted back to cattle on open rangelands where they can come into contact with fetal tissues and fluids from disease-induced abortions that occur among elk during the late winter and spring. In Wyoming, south of Yellowstone National Park, there are 23 supplemental feedgrounds that operate annually and feed the majority of the region’s elk during a portion of the winter. The feedgrounds are controversial because of their association with brucellosis and may be shuttered in the future in part due to the arrival of chronic wasting disease. Using data collected at these feedgrounds, this study investigates the role of winter feedgrounds in the ecology of this host-pathogen relationship: it evaluates the full reproductive costs of the disease to affected elk, how herd demography influences pathogen transmission, and assesses management strategies aimed at reducing pathogen spread among elk. Using blood tests for pregnancy status and brucellosis exposure in female elk, I demonstrated a previously undocumented fertility cost associated with the pathogen which is not due to abortions, but which nearly doubles the estimated fertility cost to affected individuals. I also built mechanistic transmission models using time-series disease and count data from feedgrounds. Within that framework, I assessed various management actions including test-and-slaughter of test-positive elk, which I found to be counterproductive due to rapid recovery times and the protective effects of herd immunity. The overall picture that emerges of winter feedgrounds is one of imperfect practicality driven by social and political consideration, not pathogen control. These results illustrate the underappreciated importance that recruitment and population turnover have on the transmission dynamics of brucellosis in elk, a pathogen which itself flourishes in the reproductive tracts of individual animals and thus impacts vital rates at the population level. Together, this study contributes to the field of disease ecology using a unique long term disease data set of free-ranging wild ungulates.

No description available.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of organizational policy changes within the Use-of-Force Continuum on taser usage and officer's perceptions of taser effectiveness. Tasers have been used by police since the 1970s and their use is increasing as the technology has improved. Data reveals that tasers are beneficial for controlling non-compliant suspects while preventing serious injuries and rarely has their use resulted in death. Much of the public controversy surrounding tasers centers on when and how often officers deploy them. Use of force data from 890 police citizen encounters during a two-year period was analyzed to examine how changes in organizational policy have affected taser deployments and how policy changes have affected taser use. The study's findings support that after the policy change, the frequency of taser use by officers decreased, while the levels of suspect resistance encountered by officers increased. The frequency and severity of suspect injuries did not change and the numbers of officers injured in use-of-force encounters also did not change. Survey response data from officers were compared to archival data, which revealed that while officers perceive an increased risk of harm to themselves as a result of the organizational policy change that was not supported in the findings. Officers did not perceive an increased risk of harm to suspects which was supported in the archival data findings. Officers also expressed a belief that the organizational change that placed the taser at a higher level on the Use-of-Force Continuum is appropriate for most use-of-force encounters. This study concludes with future directions and trends for taser use in law enforcement.

Critical to our understanding of wildlife diseases is the recovery phase, a period during which individuals clear infections and return to normal patterns of behavior and physiology. Most research on effects of white nose syndrome (WNS), an emerging fungal disease in bats, has focused on the pathophysiology of winter mortality and the effects of WNS on hibernating populations. The period immediately following emergence from hibernation has received little attention, but is a critically important time for survivors of the disease. During this time, survivors face significant physical and physiological challenges as they migrate to summer habitats, potentially begin gestation in the case of reproductive females, and begin to recover from wing damage caused by the fungus, which can be extensive and may greatly increase the energetic cost of flight. In this study, I (1) test the hypothesis that free-ranging bats heal from WNS-induced wing damage, (2) determine how WNS-induced wing damage changes skin surface lipid profiles on free-ranging bats, and (3) describe the temporal process of disease recovery in a colony of captive bats, including analyses of body mass, wing damage, pathogen load, skin surface lipid profiles, and histopathological metrics of WNS. I find that bats can quickly heal from wing damage in the wild and appear healthy as early as mid-July in New England. Analysis of skin surface lipids does not reveal any striking differences between bats with wing damage and those without, although there are trends towards lower total surface lipids and increased levels of cutaneous cholesterol in bats with severe wing damage. Finally, I show that within 40 days of emerging from hibernation, bats quickly clear the fungal infection and gain body mass, undergoing rapid healing of wing damage and changes in skin surface lipid composition. Bats depend on their wings for a variety of vital processes including physiological regulation, locomotion and feeding. To fully understand the consequences of WNS and develop actionable management strategies, it is important to consider the long-term effects of this disease. My study helps fill critical knowledge gaps and will aid in the future conservation and management of affected bat species.

Aside from few model organisms, little is known about early embryonic development or sex determination in insects, in particular mosquitoes which are major vectors of worldwide disease. The goals of this work were to investigate a mosquito-specific transcription factor and its intronic miRNA cluster and characterize a novel Y chromosome gene in An. stephensi. The aims of these experiments were to expand on the knowledge of genes involved in embryonic development and sex determination with potential application in vector control strategies. In Ae. aegypti a mosquito-specific bZIP1 transcription factor was demonstrated to be conserved among divergent mosquito species. It was maternally and zygotically-expressed and knock-down of bZIP1 mRNA via siRNA microinjection in the embryo resulted in embryonic death. The expression profile of this gene was determined through the use of RT-PCR and qRT-PCR. Additionally, this gene contains a miRNA cluster that is also relatively conserved amongst members of the Culicidae family suggesting its evolutionary importance. The miRNAs are also maternally and zygotically expressed and are the most abundant embryonic miRNAs as determined by small RNA sequencing and Northern analysis. Promoter activity for bZIP1 was characterized and the promoter was used to direct maternal and zygotic transgene expression in An. stephensi. Y chromosome genes were successfully identified in An. stephensi from Illumina sequencing data. This work focused on a gene unique to the Y 1 (GUY1). It was shown that GUY1 was male specific and linked to the Y chromosome. RT-PCR and single embryo analysis suggested that GUY1 was expressed during the maternal to zygotic transition and was only expressed in male embryos. It was shown in multiple transient and transgenic assays that the ectopic expression of GUY1 can influence the sex of subjected individuals and skew sex distribution to a male bias. There is still much to be investigated before a GUY1-based transgenic line can be tested and implemented for use in vector population control. However, the work in this dissertation represents a major step towards novel mosquito control strategies based on the manipulation of Y chromosome genes. / Ph. D.

No description available.

A 2008 Gallup poll places public support for the death penalty at 64 percent. Stemming from an observation of how little is known about the death penalty, this study sheds light on six key areas of the death penalty: cruel and unusual punishment, deterrence potential, innocence, discrimination, cost, and the challenges created for the legitimacy of America's moral leadership internationally in conjunction with our evolving standards of decency. Following a review of existing literature, six conclusions were made. The first is the methods of execution authorized in this country are not administered "painlessly," and in accordance to the Eighth Amendment. The second is there is n~ evidence to support the claim that the death penalty has a deterrent effect. The third is innocent people have been sentenced to death. The fourth is the death penalty is being applied based on legally improper criteria (race, gender, and socioeconomic class). The fifth is from a strictly financial perspective the death penalty is unreasonable. Lastly is that maintaining our moral leadership as well as the death penalty cannot be done in the eyes of the international community, and the death penalty is on the decline. This study expands upon existing literature regarding the aforementioned six key areas of interests, through the use of a non-experimental, descriptive research survey. Results suggest that although an overwhelming majority of subjects are not knowledgeable about the death penalty, 45 percent still support the death penalty. Education may be the key to bringing a decline in support for the death penalty; those who have taken a class on the death penalty, or are currently taking one support the death penalty 17.4-19.9 percent (respectively) less than those who have never taken a class on the death penalty. In conclusion, support for the death penalty may be related to a lack of knowledge.