<p> National parks and protected areas are an integral component of the Mexican government&rsquo;s long-term natural resource conservation strategy. They comprise over 90 million hectares throughout the country. However, the establishment and upkeep of these protected areas often incites conflict both between and among local actors. From poachers taking protected resources to indigenous peoples exercising their rights, protected areas have become a source of political, economic, and moral contention across the globe. In addition, their effectiveness in either ecological or sustainable development terms has been ambiguous at best. </p><p> Tulum, Mexico exemplifies this dilemma. The site of pre-Columbian Mayan architecture, Tulum is now facing explosive economic growth driven largely by an international tourism industry. This fragile ecological site and vulnerable cultural community have the potential to be seriously impacted by mass tourism. Accompanying the myriad social, political and ecologic implications of tourism are real challenges for park managers, who are placed in the delicate position of attending to federal objectives while mitigating on the ground realities. </p><p> This report chronicles nearly two months of ethnographic field work conducted with The National Commission for Natural Protected Areas, a federal government agency responsible for the management and administration of protected areas in Mexico. Preliminary results suggest that effective management strategies of protected areas are constrained due to &ldquo;top down&rdquo; and hierarchical management philosophies and approaches that do not adequately incorporate the multiple challenges faced by local communities, especially in light of the burgeoning tourism pressures. This report recommends the implementation of a participatory applied ecological management framework that adequately includes perspective from local actors. Hopefully, Tulum can come to represent a locality in which internationally-based tourism development can coexist with an increasing capacity for the adaptive management of natural protected areas.</p><p>

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This senior thesis in environmental analysis explores the Zero Waste ideal and its practical application to a college campus. Given the growing global trash crisis and its grave environmental, social and economic consequences, the Zero Waste movement argues for a holistic shift from ‘end of pipe’ disposal practices to those that promote the cyclical use of materials, with little-to-no matter ending up in the landfill or incinerator. Cities and colleges around the world have adopted these Zero Waste goals in an effort to function as more sustainable, efficient and moral entities. With a case study of Pomona College, I assess the current status of waste production and diversion and identify opportunities to move the College towards its 2030 Zero Waste goal and to continue its growth as a resource-wise campus. Though the College has made substantial strides towards sustainability, significant room for improvement remains, particularly in regard to waste. Various infrastructural, political, educational, data driven and cultural changes are recommended to reduce waste at Pomona College and to evolve students into conscientious resource-users on campus and beyond.

With the ever increasing demand for potable water due to the continued increase in population coupled with the threat of California’s current drought, water will remain a limited resource that must be managed responsibly. In order to strategically plan and manage water use in the most beneficial manner, water providers must take into account all sources of water, including recycled water and their applications. Recycled water as a source for supplementing high quality potable water is a sustainable strategy that will prove to be an essential tactic in any water management plan. The purpose of this project is to emphasize the importance of supplementing potable water in the City of Banning by discussing the characteristics of California’s current water drought; evaluating the City of Banning’s available water supplies and current water demand; discussing the Soil Aquifer Treatment process; summarizing California’s regulations related to recycled water; and discussing the quality of recycled water available at NP-1, an unequipped City owned water well, by examining water quality testing on water samples taken from NP-1. Analysis of water available at NP-1 showed that with additional disinfection, the water pumped from NP-1 could meet the recycled water requirements in order to be used on a local golf course. The local golf course is currently being irrigated with potable water, which would be supplemented with the recycled water from NP-1.

Understanding the effects of national culture differences on cooperation and performance is a problem facing the United States and South Korean Air Component Command Headquarters. Little is known about the dynamics of national cultural differences within the headquarters, and as a result, little attention is given to educating members on how to manage multicultural relationships. Guided by Hofstede's cultural dimension theory and Schein's model of organizational culture, the purpose of this quantitative quasi-experimental study was to understand the factors influencing national cultural differences among the United States and South Korean staff officers (N =178) assigned to the Air Component Command Headquarters, Republic of South Korea. Primary data were collected using the 2013 Values Survey Module. The following 6 dependent variables were examined: power distance, individualism, indulgence, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance, and long-term orientation. These data were analyzed via bivariate correlation, independent-sample t tests, and one-way analysis of variance. Analysis of variance and t-test findings indicated that an increase in cross-cultural experience (military exchanges, foreign language proficiency, and years lived abroad) influenced national cultural scores. Additionally, to a moderate extent, bivariate correlation analysis showed that national cultures could also be affected (positively and negatively) by differences in participant education levels, military seniority and time served, years lived abroad, military exchanges, and foreign language experience. Implications for positive social change include increasing national cultural awareness among Air Component Command members as a method for improving collaboration and military readiness.

During childbirth, multiple providers deliver care at the bedside that requires optimal teamwork and communication to prevent patient harm. The complexity of caring for obstetrical patient demands a well-coordinated team to relay information and respond to conditions that can change quickly during childbirth. A patient safety strategy to prevent perinatal harm is Team Strategies and Tools to Enhance Performance and Patient Safety (TeamSTEPPS) training. TeamSTEPPS is an evidence-based program based on crew resource management (CRM) principles developed in the aviation and military industries. This process improvement project used the Plan-Do-Study-Act framework and Kotter's change theory to implement TeamSTEPPS training after an increase in patient safety events from 2014 to 2016. A convenience sample of 200 physicians, nurses, respiratory therapists, scrub techs, and patient care techs from perinatal units completed the training in a community hospital setting. The Teamwork Perceptions Questionnaire administered pre- and posttraining show a statistical improvement in teamwork, communication, and situational awareness among nursing staff that correlated with a decrease in safety events. Project limitations include lack of a control group for comparison and lack of physician involvement with training. The positive social impact of TeamSTEPPS training is the decrease in maternal and newborn adverse events surrounding childbirth due to perinatal teams using CRM principles. Over the long term, TeamSTEPPs training may become the standard team training method to improve birth outcomes and support the establishment of a patient safety culture, which may be replicated in perinatal centers around the world.

Brown trout (Salmo trutta), one of the world’s most successful introduced species, negatively impacts native aquatic communities through predation, competition, and ecosystemlevel effects. Thus, there is a need to understand factors controlling the distribution of exotic brown trout in river systems, in order to prioritize and develop conservation and management strategies. Within the context of invasion success, I investigated how the physical template of the Logan River influences the distribution of brown trout along a longitudinal gradient, and the potential for brown trout predation on the native mottled sculpin (Cottus bairdi). The Logan River, Utah USA, is a high-elevation, mountain river exhibiting a wide range of physical habitat characteristics along the altitudinal (or elevational) gradient. In chapter 1, I evaluated whether longitudinal trends in geomorphology contribute to higher potential mortality of brown trout fry at high elevations due to flood-caused streambed scour. High-elevation spawning gravels did not exhibit higher scour compared to low elevations, because brown trout locally chose low-scour areas for spawning. In chapter 2, I investigated the importance of gravel availability, versus other habitat factors, in controlling the spatial distribution of brown trout redd densities. Using a Bayesian hierarchical modeling approach, I demonstrated that anchor ice, distance from high-quality backwater habitat, and to a lesser-extent gravel availability, best explained redd densities. Finally, in chapter 3, I evaluated the potential predatory effects of exotic brown trout on native mottled sculpin (Cottus bairdi). High rates of sculpin consumption contrasted to previously documented low rates of predation by native Bonneville cutthroat (Oncorhynchus clarkii) and depended on abiotic factors controlling the distribution of both species. Collectively, my research suggests that both abiotic factors and source-population dynamics structure brown trout distributions on the Logan River, and ultimately the potential impacts of this invasive fish. Specifically, the distribution of anchor ice and distance from dam backwaters are important drivers of the brown trout distribution, which may extend to other systems. These drivers, including how they may be influenced by future climate change and habitat alteration, should be considered in management efforts to control brown trout expansion and to limit the predatory impacts of brown trout.