In a world that is moving at a feverish pace toward regional economic integration, much has yet to be understood about the process. In particular, research that delineates key factors in preventing, mitigating or resolving trade conflicts that arise between integration partners is in want. In the hope of contributing to filling this academic vacuum, this paper compares conflicts in different integration frameworks in North America and Europe. The cases are the Canada-U.S. softwood lumber dispute, an anti-dumping case involving the Nordic countries, a state aid conflict in Germany, and conflicts over export and import restrictions in the Slovak Republic and Poland respectively. Information on these cases was obtained from primary and secondary sources, as well as from interviews with officials in key stakeholder groups. These cases are assessed using variables of analysis familiar to integration theorists, namely, actors, mechanisms, and motivations. It is found that subnational actors were more likely than national or supranational actors to instigate and escalate conflicts. It is also found that the accessibility of multiple dispute resolution processes to actors at multiple levels were important in preventing, mitigating and resolving conflicts. From these findings, it is concluded that the multi-level governance theory of integration is better suited to explain the outcome than neofunctionalism or intergovernmentalism. These findings have significant implications for the management of relationships in integration frameworks.

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Cladonia perforata is an endangered lichen endemic to the Atlantic Coastal Ridge, Lake Wales Ridge, Southwest Florida, and the North Gulf Coast of Florida. In all but a single locality, C. perforata relies entirely on asexual reproduction through fragmentation for reproduction, dispersal, and recruitment. This study suggests a positive correlation between fragment size and survivability of fragments after one year. The average thallus grew at a rate of 10.42% per year and younger branches of a thallus grew at a quicker rate than older branches. Additionally, a review of thalli morphology suggests C. perforata has a diverse form, and becomes more bifurcated as it increases in size. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2014. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

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North American railways were crucial to the integration of national territories from the mid-1850s through the 1920s. In the US, Canada, and Mexico, their development supported population settlement, resource extraction, industrialization, and the expansion of markets to regional and national spatial scales. From the 1920s, rail's dominance in transportation declined as highways and trucking developed. Strict railway regulation and direct government ownership, motivated by earlier rail firm abuses, limited railways' strategic adjustment to trucking competition and aggravated the problems of falling revenue and decreasing profitability. From the 1970s, however, a dramatic shift began as three prongs of economic liberalization were implemented: deregulation of the industry, privatization of state-owned firms, and the liberalization of controls on foreign direct investment. This dissertation characterizes the liberalized governance regimes that have emerged, evaluates changes in the industrial and geographic organization of the freight rail industry, and examines significant episodes of regional rail restructuring involving the dominant Class I firms. Shifts in governance are examined by outlining pre-reform regulatory regimes in the US, Canada, and Mexico, then discussing the step-wise sequence of changes enacted in each country that significantly reduced restrictions on freight rail firms' business options (Chapter III). Liberalized governance enabled changes in the industry's organization, including its firm-size distribution, privatization of state-owned firms, and consolidation, as firms employed hitherto restricted strategies to restructure their assets and activities (Chapters III and IV). Case studies of regional restructuring, designed to highlight the interplay of regulatory governance, intra-industry competition, and firm strategies, include: the consolidation of firms in the Eastern US and the privatization of Conrail (Chapter V); the consolidation of firms in the Western US and the impact of increased rail container traffic on infrastructure and operations (Chapter VI); the expansion of freight rail ownership, investment, and traffic patterns integrating the NAFTA countries (Chapter VII); and comparison of the strategies adopted by CPR and CN, the dominant Canadian firms (Chapter VIII). Research materials included official and trade organization statistics, corporate reports, the trade press, and mapping datasets of rail lines. Numerous maps illustrate the changing geography of the North American freight rail industry.

The purpose of this thesis is to study the relationship between educational attitudes and certain background features of Native Americans, in particular, where they were raised and what type of school they attended. The sample used consisted of 120 completed mail out-mail back surveys that were used primarily as a Needs Assessment for the Portland Indian Health clinic. The sample was randomly selected from the Portland Indian Health Clinic client/patient mailing list. The findings of this thesis indicate that the attitudes of Native Americans toward education in general are positive. The findings also indicate that older Native Americans who experienced being sent to a B.I.A. boarding school off the reservation have the least positive attitudes towards Indian Education programs. Implications and recommendation for further research are discussed.

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Thesis (M.A in anthropology)--Washington State University, December 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 97-105)