Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1997. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 333-395).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1958. / Typescript. Abstracted in Dissertation abstracts, v. 19 (1959) no. 12, p. 3075-3076. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.Phil.)--Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 62-67). Also available in electronic version.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 132-141). Also available in electronic version.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 2006. / Adviser: Yanjie Bian. Includes bibliographical references (p. 132-141)

M.A. (Anthropology) / Thus far, the earliest convincing evidence for the production and use of bow-and-arrow technology has been associated with Homo sapiens who lived ~64 ka in southern Africa. In contrast to a single-component wooden spear or a composite stone-tipped spear, bow-and-arrow utilisation – where one composite tool is required to effectively use another – could signify higher levels of cognitive complexity and behavioural flexibility. Lombard and Haidle (2012) postulate that a novel cognitive component is evident in technological symbiosis, i.e., the ability to focus simultaneously and actively on manipulating a complementary set of tools that are independent from one another, but are used as an effective unit to obtain a single goal. For example, when a bow is used to fire an arrow to obtain meat. In the current pilot study, I investigated the validity of Lombard and Haidle’s (2012) hypothesis of technological symbiosis from a neurological perspective. Electroencephalography (EEG) equipment recorded cortical activity (within the parietal, frontal midline and orbitofrontal cortices), when each of the participants (n. = 4) engaged in three non-symbiotic and symbiotic tasks. The purpose of the pilot experiment was to measure levels of cortical activity with non-symbiotic and symbiotic tool use in an attempt to assess whether greater ‘neural effort’ was needed for the symbiotic tasks. These results suggest that executive functions (attention, active-inhibition, context updating, reinforcement learning and memory rehearsal) were enhanced when the participants engaged in the symbiotic bow-and-arrow task, as opposed to the non-symbiotic spear task. Furthermore, an increase in white matter (found within the prefrontal cortex), as opposed to changes in brain structure size, might be responsible for the complex executive functions that are identified in our species. Future research on the effects that task practice has on cortical dynamics (patterns of cortical activity) might be beneficial – for instance, it might help us understand the ways in which neural pathways are restructured, rewired or altered with repeated exposure to cognitively demanding activities.

A stochastic model is developed that can be used to compute the likelihood of observing a specific time stream of harvests of a wildlife population. The harvest is assumed to be a count of the total number of animals in each age in each sex in each year removed from the population for a sequence of consecutive years. In the stochastic model it is assumed that the harvest process and the natural survivorship process can both be treated as binomial processes. The recruitment process is approximated as a product of normal processes. This formulation allows for the development of an iterative numerical scheme that will reconstruct the most probable underlying unknown population given a set of harvest data and a set of life history parameters. A heuristic procedure that checks for internal consistency between the reconstructed population, the set of harvest data, and the life history parameters may be used to estimate a number of unknown population parameters together with the unknown population. The scheme has been tested with Monte Carlo simulations and, using only harvest data, has simultaneously estimated the survivorship rate, the recruitment rate, the male harvest rate, the female harvest rate and the yearly harvest effort together with the unknown population. The scheme has been applied to Alaskan brown bear harvest data demonstrating its potential value as a management tool. / Forestry, Faculty of / Graduate

This study was conducted to evaluate waterfowl harvests on the Delta Marsh, Manitoba, under a variety of options utilizing a modified predator-prey model. The study involved monitoring of ducks and hunters to examine key components of waterfowl mortality. Seven hypotheses were formulated involving the relationships between duck vulnerability by species and hunter effort, factors determining effective bag size, hunter effort, effects of weather on kill, and whether or not hunters are selective. Aerial surveys and experimental hunts were conducted and kill statistics gathered on the Pasquia and Delta Marshes in Manitoba to evaluate predictions from the hypotheses. The analysis of field data revealed that duck vulnerability is negatively proportional to hunting effort and that ducks are most wary when hunter effort is greatest. Hunters were afield in largest numbers during periods of high duck density. Hunters did not shoot selectively and crippling losses approximated one-third of the birds shot. Weather had little influence on the kill; bird population size and hunter effort were more important determinants of hunter success. Distribution patterns of ducks were clumped relative to hunting areas, and the probability of mortality for an individual duck was observed to decrease with increasing flock size. Handling time per bird downed did not limit achieved bag size whereas time between encounters was found to be independent of population size and resulted in a non-linear, kill-density relationship. Field results were incorporated into the predator-prey model and management schemes involving population size, hunter effort, and season length were evaluated. Simulation results revealed that Mallard and Lesser Scaup harvest are not greatly affected by increased hunter effort and that season length and population size strongly influence harvest. Shortened seasons are recommended if kill reductions are desired for Mallard. Lesser Scaup require no special regulations whereas Canvasbacks require short seasons (less than 2 weeks) during times when populations exceed 5000. The predator-prey model is recommended for in-depth analysis of local regulations whereas multi-variate statistical models may be more useful in forecasting yields on a regional level. / Science, Faculty of / Zoology, Department of / Graduate

Selfministered mail questionnaires were sent to a stratified sample of 1,000 male and 1,000 female Mississippi resident licensed hunters to determine effect of gender on hunting motivations and substitutability of hunting. Exploratory factor analysis and analysis of covariance were used to analyze hunting motivations. Logistic regression was used to determine effects of 14 independent variables on probability of resident hunters reporting a substitute activity. Males and females differed on achievement-oriented “social recognition” and “seeking stimulation” motivations and on affiliative-oriented “family togetherness” motivations. Gender had no significant effect on resident hunter probability of reporting substitute activities. Age and importance of hunting as an outdoor activity had significant effects on probability of reporting substitute activities, with each being related positively to the response variable. Fishing was the most frequently reported substitute activity for males and females. However, females reported more substitute activities than males.

Economic impact analyses were conducted on waterfowl hunting and the logging industry in Mississippi to determine the validity of the Impact Analysis for Planning (IMPLAN) input-output software model and associated 2007 databases. Detailed expenditure profiles were collected separately for the two studies through mail, electronic, and face-toace surveys and analyzed with separate models using default data within IMPLAN itself. Additionally, for the logging industry, total economic impacts (i.e., direct, indirect, induced) were estimated within the IMPLAN model by removing the total employment for the relevant sector and calculating the impact on the state economy. This procedure was recommended by Minnesota IMPLAN Group, Incorporated (MIG, Inc.). Economic impact results derived from replicating this method were first compared to economic impact results derived with a population size of (N=2,471) loggers and second, with a sample size of (n=33) loggers. The top 20 output sectors in the state economy from both waterfowl hunting and logging expenditures were determined from model results. In turn, new data were acquired and used in each model that was more localized to the state, to replace one, two, three, and four of the top 20 sectors of importance for each industry, respectively. Multiple IMPLAN models were then reconstructed to determine economic outputs. The Mississippi default models and survey-based data default models, and survey-based data replacement models were compared, and differences in total economic outputs derived. Results using sector changes yielded different results for both industries in comparison to default values used within the model, making the case that the IMPLAN model has the potential to both understate and overstate economic impacts to Mississippi or any state economy for recreation and industry activity.