American Kestrel Nest Box Programs have been established since the mid 1960’s. The population of American Kestrels (Falco sparverius) along nest box trails has decreased by 47 percent since their original implementation. There are existing technologies that can help in the location of prime kestrel habitat (open fields with conspicuous perching locations) along highways, which reduces the amount of labor in searching for new box locations. These technologies can also help increase the efficiency of monitoring and maintaining kestrel nest trail programs. This study provides an example of how Google Maps can be implemented into a kestrel trail and explains the multiple benefits of the integration.

Natural and accelerated erosion from trail users affects the sustainability of trail systems. Designing and building sustainable trail systems will greatly decrease the effect that erosion has on a trail. Trails that allow multiple types of users, such as hiking and mountain biking, must be able to sustain both groups. At East Tennessee State University the trail system was originally designed for hiking. Mountain bikers have become the main user group on the trail system leading to erosion problems on certain areas of the trail due to trail design flaws. The study seeks to identify the problem areas of trail and make recommendations towards correcting the trail in order for the trail system to adequately sustain both hikers and mountain bikers on the East Tennessee State University trail system.

Excerpt: That land of the West has gone now, "gone, gone with lost Atlantis," gone to the isle of ghosts and of strange dead memories. It was a land of vast silent spaces, of lonely rivers, and of plains where wild game stared at the passing horseman . :

The increasing threat of epidemic and pandemic influenza underscore the need to better-understand the immune response to influenza virus infections and to better understand the factors that contribute to the clearance of virus without complications of immunopathology. A hallmark of the adaptive immune response to primary influenza virus infections is the induction of influenza-specific CD8+ T cell responses. These T cells target and kill influenza-infected epithelial cells in the airway, thereby clearing the virus and allowing recovery of the infected host. Recent reports demonstrated that CD8+ T cells express TNF-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) after influenza virus infection. While roles for perforin/granzyme and Fas:FasL interactions in clearing influenza virus infections had been established, little was known about the role of TRAIL in the CD8+ T cell responses to influenza virus infection. We hypothesized that influenza-specific CD8+ T cells would express TRAIL after influenza infection and could utilize TRAIL to induce the apoptosis of virally-infected cells. We discovered that CD8+ T cells do express TRAIL after influenza infection, and that this expression occurs in an influenza-specific fashion. Further, we demonstrated that these influenza-specific CD8+ T cells utilize this TRAIL to kill virally infected cells and protect the host from death, while T cells lacking TRAIL were unable to kill targets as efficiently and provided reduced protection. These data supported our hypothesis that CD8+ T cells utilize TRAIL to kill infected cells. Unexpectedly, when we increased the initial viral inoculum, the pulmonary cytotoxicity of T cells in TRAIL-/- mice was increased compared to those in TRAIL+/+ mice. Investigation of this phenomenon revealed that changes in cytotoxicity correlated not with changes in effector molecule expression on the T cells, but with increased recruitment of T cells to the lung. T cell recruitment to the lungs of TRAIL-/- mice was dependent on CCR5 and CXCR3, and likely the result of aberrant expression of MIG and MIP-1α in the lungs. Together, these data suggest that TRAIL expression contributes not only to T cell cytotoxicity, but also to the regulation of chemokine expression and associated cell recruitment after influenza virus infections. To confirm the relevance of our animal model to the study of human disease, we examined the potential role for TRAIL in the human immune response to infection. We determined that in vitro influenza infection stimulates upregulation of functional TRAIL on the surface of CD3+, CD14+, CD19+, and CD56+ PBMC populations. This expression was not caused by infection of the cells, but by interferon produced as a result of the infection. Infected (TRAIL-expressing) PBMCs killed influenza-infected lung epithelial cells, revealing that influenza infection sensitizes epithelial cells to TRAIL-induced apoptosis. Surprisingly, blocking TRAIL signaling, but not FasL signaling, was able to abrogate this killing of infected epithelial cells. Together, these data support a role for TRAIL in the human immune response to influenza virus infections. Considered as a whole, the data from these studies suggest an additional, previously-unappreciated mechanism by which CD8+ T cells can kill virally infected cells, TRAIL. They also suggest additional, previously-unappreciated roles for TRAIL in immune responses: in helping clear virally infected cells after infections and in helping control cytokine/chemokine expression, and thus the immune response, after virus infection.

As bird-watching gains popularity, there have been various techniques utilized by tourism planners to attract birdwatchers. One method of drawing birders to a specific region is through the development of a birding trail. Although there are many birding trails with varying levels of success, there was little research as to how birding trails should be designed, implemented and managed. Perhaps, a new and viable approach to birding trail development would be to plan them as tourism product clubs. A product club is an association of tourism service providers working together to deliver an integrated service. Product clubs have been successfully implemented in Barbados with golf tourism and in Spain with winery tourism. However, the concept of a product club has never been applied to bird-watching tourism. Therefore, this research tested the idea of utilizing the product club concept for bird-watching tourism. The methodology had three separate phases. Phase one involved interviewing officials of existing tourism trails, to see how they planned and managed their trails. These interviews illustrated how and what is involved with tourism trail planning and management. Phase two involved the choice of a case study location, the County of Essex and Chatham-Kent in Ontario. Phase three was planning the trail by forming an Advisory Committee consisting of key industry, non-government and government stakeholders. The Advisory Committee assisted with the following key decisions: trail size and scope, selection of birding sites, choosing accessory tourism service institutions, developing a product club oversight organization, marketing the product club, and the management, evaluation and monitoring of the trail. The thesis provides recommendations that can be used to implement a birding trail as a tourism product club. The research findings concluded that a birding trail can be planned and managed as tourism product clubs.

Thesis (M.F.A.)--West Virginia University, 2003. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains 209 p. Includes abstract.

Many studies on the power dynamics of Maya groups focused on large ceremonial sites, but more recent research, including this study, has identified similar dynamics within Maya hinterland societies. Hinterlands are the remote or less developed areas of a region, and generally associated with subsistence agriculture. The increasing prevalence of hinterland settlement studies in the Maya Lowlands find densely populated landscapes with a range of mound sizes and arrangements (e.g., formal east-focused plaza groups, less formal courtyard groups, informal clusters, isolated mounds), as well as a diverse assortment of features. Settlement and soil physiography studies have demonstrated the socio-economic impact of environmentally diverse landscapes, with small variations leading to an uneven distribution of economically important resources. In this study, I investigate the socio-economic organization of the Medicinal Trail hinterland community, located in northwestern Belize of the Maya Lowlands. Specifically, I argue that the limited nature of good agricultural land in the Maya Lowlands provided an opportunity for the inhabitants of pioneering households to establish a basis for wealth that those who arrived later could not replicate. The monopolization of this land led to inequality which was maintained through the construction of ancestral shrines. The inhabitants of the two largest and oldest formal groups within the community, Groups A and B, represent Maya commoners whose economic and socio-political status was elevated above most of the community’s inhabitants, providing them with limited social power. This power, however, was dynamic and shifted as a result of agentic struggles between Groups A and B, as they vied for community leadership. Evidence suggests that community power was held first by the inhabitants of Group A during the Late Preclassic and later, during the same period, shifted to Group B, where it was held until abandonment. Evidence for Postclassic pilgrimages at Group B substantiates the later importance of this group. Though the inhabitants of Group A were no longer community leaders, they remained a wealthy and, likely, influential household through the Classic period. This study demonstrates the complex and dynamic nature of hinterland commoner social organization. / text

The following report describes the excavation and preliminary analysis of Burial 5 at Group A of the Medicinal Trail archaeological site in northwest Belize. The excavation of Burial 5 occurred over the duration of the 2009 and 2010 field seasons, and this report focuses on the 2010 portion of this excavation, which was conducted within the field laboratory at the Programme for Belize Archaeology Project. In this report, I describe the methods utilized during the 2010 excavation and preliminary analysis processes. I also discuss some of the theory relevant to Maya mortuary practices as they relate to my interpretations of the findings from Burial 5. / text

This is a slide show of selected photographs from the Old Spanish Trail and Hispanic Communities Ethnographic Study. These photographs serve as supplemental materials for the two reports and offers illustrations of the people, places and resources.

Within the next decade an inter provincial trail, called the Trans Canada Trail, will be developed to accommodate non-motorized traffic such as hikers, skiers, horsemen, and cyclists. Anticipating the need for rest stop facilities, this thesis seeks to explore the design potential of two isolated facilities. The focus of this exploration is the impact of landscape on the development of architectural form. While existing conditions found in each site were recorded and considered throughout the design process, a conscious effort was also made to build a site rather than site plan This position, first articulated by William Rees Morrish in his book Civilizing Terrain. acknowledges that not every piece of land can become an urban place. Instead, placemaking often requires willful acts of change in order to enhance or more effectively reveal its existing qualities. This position opposes the current attitude fostered by the environmental movement that all landscapes should remain untouched. The two sites selected were both located in western Canada: one on the eastern shore of Lake in southern British Columbia and the other in a farmer's field near Milk River in southern Alberta. This thesis traces the discoveries and attempts made to locate a center, develop an arrival sequence and insert an architectural form into the experience of the landscape. Both sites were explored simultaneously, reaching a similar level of resolution, at which point the British Columbia site was dropped and the prairie site was developed further. The Alberta site then became the developed body of the thesis.