Armenia's foreign policy, 1991–2004: Between history and geopolitics

This dissertation is the first systematic study of Armenia’s foreign policy during the post-independence period, between 1991 and 2004. It argues that a small state’s foreign policy is best understood when looking at the regional level. Armenia’s geographic proximity to Iran, Russia and Turkey, places it in an area of heightened geopolitical interest by various great powers. This dissertation explores four sets of relationships with Armenia’s major historical ‘partners’: Russia, Iran, Turkey and the West (Europe and the United States). Each relationship reveals a complex reality of a continuous negotiation between ideas of history, collective memory, nationalism and geopolitics. A detailed study of Armenia’s relations with these powers demonstrates how actors’ relations of amity and enmity are formed to constitute a regional security complex. Turkey represents the ultimate “other”, while both Europe and Iran are seen as ideational “others”, whose role in Armenia’s foreign policy, aside from pragmatic policy considerations, reflects a normative quest. Russia and the United States, on the other hand, represent the powerful structural forces that define the regional security complex, in which Armenia operates. This dissertation argues that although Armenia has been severely constrained in certain foreign policy choices, it was adept at carving a space for action that privileged the issue of Nagorno-Karabakh over other geopolitical imperatives.

An investigation of the strategies used by organizations participating in the welfare-to-work network program and correlation of the strategies with the retention data to determine best practices for job retention among former welfare recipients

This ex post facto study (N = 209) examined the relationships between employer job strategies and job retention among organizations participating in Florida welfare-to-work network programs and associated the strategies with job retention data to determine best practices. ^ An internet-based self-report survey battery was administered to a heterogeneous sampling of organizations participating in the Florida welfare-to-work network program. Hypotheses were tested through correlational and hierarchical regression analytic procedures. The partial correlation results linked each of the job retention strategies to job retention. Wages, benefits, training and supervision, communication, job growth, work/life balance, fairness and respect were all significantly related to job retention. Hierarchical regression results indicated that the training and supervision variable was the best predictor of job retention in the regression equation. ^ The size of the organization was also a significant predictor of job retention. Large organizations reported higher job retention rates than small organizations. There was no statistical difference between the types of organizations (profit-making and non-profit) and job retention. The standardized betas ranged from to .26 to .41 in the regression equation. Twenty percent of the variance in job retention was explained by the combination of demographic and job retention strategy predictors, supporting the theoretical, empirical, and practical relevance of understanding the association between employer job strategies and job retention outcomes. Implications for adult education and human resource development theory, research, and practice are highlighted as possible strategic leverage points for creating conditions that facilitate the development of job strategies as a means for improving former welfare workers’ job retention.^

Life history trade-offs and community dynamics of small fishes in a seasonally pulsed wetland

We used a one-dimensional, spatially explicit model to simulate the community of small fishes in the freshwater wetlands of southern Florida, USA. The seasonality of rainfall in these wetlands causes annual fluctuations in the amount of flooded area. We modeled fish populations that differed from each other only in efficiency of resource utilization and dispersal ability. The simulations showed that these trade-offs, along with the spatial and temporal variability of the environment, allow coexistence of several species competing exploitatively for a common resource type. This mechanism, while sharing some characteristics with other mechanisms proposed for coexistence of competing species, is novel in detail. Simulated fish densities resembled patterns observed in Everglades empirical data. Cells with hydroperiods less than 6 months accumulated negligible fish biomass. One unique model result was that, when multiple species coexisted, it was possible for one of the coexisting species to have both lower local resource utilization efficiency and lower dispersal ability than one of the other species. This counterintuitive result is a consequence of stronger effects of other competitors on the superior species.

History and evolutionary trajectory of the Iranian nuclear program

What actors and processes at what levels of analysis and through what mechanisms have pushed Iran's nuclear program (INP) towards being designated as a proliferation threat (securitization)? What actors and processes at what levels of analysis and through what mechanisms have pushed Iran's nuclear program away from being designated as an existential threat (de-securitization)? What has been the overall balance of power and interaction dynamics of these opposing forces over the last half-century and what is their most likely future trajectory? ^ Iran's nuclear story can be told as the unfolding of constant interaction between state and non-state forces of "nuclear securitization" and "nuclear de-securitization." Tracking the crisscrossing interaction between these different securitizing and de-securitizing actors in a historical context constitutes the central task of this project. ^ A careful tracing of "security events" on different analytical levels reveals the broad contours of the evolutionary trajectory of INP and its possible future path(s). Out of this theoretically conscious historical narrative, one can make informed observations about the overall thrust of INP along the securitization - de-securitization continuum. ^ The main contributions of this work are three fold: First, it brings a fresh theoretical perspective on Iran's proliferation behavior by utilizing the "securitization" theory tracing the initial indications of the threat designation of INP all the way back to the mid 1970s. Second, it gives a solid and thematically grounded historical texture to INP by providing an intimate engagement with the persons, processes, and events of Tehran's nuclear pursuit over half a century. Third, it demonstrates how INP has interacted with and even at times transformed the NPT as the keystone of the non-proliferation regime, and how it has affected and injected urgency to the international discourse on nuclear proliferation specifically in the Middle East.^

Two Decades Out of the Whirlpool: Past (and Possible Future) United States Interventions in Latin America [Student's Paper Series]

This paper examines the history of U.S. interventions in Latin America and attempts to explain their frequency by highlighting two factors – besides security and economic interests – that have made American interventions in Latin America so common. First, immense differences in size and influence between the United States and the States of Latin America have made interventions appear to be a low risk solution to crises that threaten American interests in the region. Second, when U.S government concerns and aspirations for Latin America converge with the general fears and aspirations of American foreign policy, interventions become much more likely. Such a convergence pushes Latin American issues high up the U.S. foreign policy agenda because of the region’s proximity to the United States and the perception that costs of intervening are low. The leads proponents of intervention to begin asking questions like “if we cannot stop communism/revolutions/drug-trafficking in Latin America, where can we stop it?” This article traces how these factors influenced the decision to intervene in Latin America during the era of Dollar Diplomacy and during the Cold War. It concludes with three possible scenarios that could lead to a reemergence of an American interventionist policy in Latin America. It makes the argument that even though the United Sates has not intervened in Latin America during the twenty-two years, it is far from clear that American interventions in Latin America will be consigned to the past.

A comprehensive and integrative reconstruction of evolutionary history for Anomura (Crustacea: Decapoda)

Background The infraorder Anomura has long captivated the attention of evolutionary biologists due to its impressive morphological diversity and ecological adaptations. To date, 2500 extant species have been described but phylogenetic relationships at high taxonomic levels remain unresolved. Here, we reconstruct the evolutionary history—phylogeny, divergence times, character evolution and diversification—of this speciose clade. For this purpose, we sequenced two mitochondrial (16S and 12S) and three nuclear (H3, 18S and 28S) markers for 19 of the 20 extant families, using traditional Sanger and next-generation 454 sequencing methods. Molecular data were combined with 156 morphological characters in order to estimate the largest anomuran phylogeny to date. The anomuran fossil record allowed us to incorporate 31 fossils for divergence time analyses. Results Our best phylogenetic hypothesis (morphological + molecular data) supports most anomuran superfamilies and families as monophyletic. However, three families and eleven genera are recovered as para- and polyphyletic. Divergence time analysis dates the origin of Anomura to the Late Permian ~259 (224–296) MYA with many of the present day families radiating during the Jurassic and Early Cretaceous. Ancestral state reconstruction suggests that carcinization occurred independently 3 times within the group. The invasion of freshwater and terrestrial environments both occurred between the Late Cretaceous and Tertiary. Diversification analyses found the speciation rate to be low across Anomura, and we identify 2 major changes in the tempo of diversification; the most significant at the base of a clade that includes the squat-lobster family Chirostylidae. Conclusions Our findings are compared against current classifications and previous hypotheses of anomuran relationships. Many families and genera appear to be poly- or paraphyletic suggesting a need for further taxonomic revisions at these levels. A divergence time analysis provides key insights into the origins of major lineages and events and the timing of morphological (body form) and ecological (habitat) transitions. Living anomuran biodiversity is the product of 2 major changes in the tempo of diversification; our initial insights suggest that the acquisition of a crab-like form did not act as a key innovation.

Perceived Risk of Predation Affects Reproductive Life - History Traits in Gambusia holbrooki, but Not in Heterandria formosa

Key to predicting impacts of predation is understanding the mechanisms through which predators impact prey populations. While consumptive effects are well-known, non-consumptive predator effects (risk effects) are increasingly being recognized as important. Studies of risk effects, however, have focused largely on how trade-offs between food and safety affect fitness. Less documented, and appreciated, is the potential for predator presence to directly suppress prey reproduction and affect life-history characteristics. For the first time, we tested the effects of visual predator cues on reproduction of two prey species with different reproductive modes, lecithotrophy (i.e. embryonic development primarily fueled by yolk) and matrotrophy (i.e. energy for embryonic development directly supplied by the mother to the embryo through a vascular connection). Predation risk suppressed reproduction in the lecithotrophic prey (Gambusia holbrokii) but not the matrotroph (Heterandria formosa). Predator stress caused G. holbrooki to reduce clutch size by 43%, and to produce larger and heavier offspring compared to control females. H. formosa, however, did not show any such difference. In G. holbrooki we also found a significantly high percentage (14%) of stillbirths in predator-exposed treatments compared to controls (2%). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first direct empirical evidence of predation stress affecting stillbirths in prey. Our results suggest that matrotrophy, superfetation (clutch overlap), or both decrease the sensitivity of mothers to environmental fluctuation in resource (food) and stress (predation risk) levels compared to lecithotrophy. These mechanisms should be considered both when modeling consequences of perceived risk of predation on prey-predator population dynamics and when seeking to understand the evolution of reproductive modes.

Armenia's Foreign Policy, 1991-2004: Between History and Geopolitics

This dissertation is the first systematic study of Armenia’s foreign policy during the post-independence period, between 1991 and 2004. It argues that a small state’s foreign policy is best understood when looking at the regional level. Armenia’s geographic proximity to Iran, Russia and Turkey, places it in an area of heightened geopolitical interest by various great powers. This dissertation explores four sets of relationships with Armenia’s major historical ‘partners’: Russia, Iran, Turkey and the West (Europe and the United States). Each relationship reveals a complex reality of a continuous negotiation between ideas of history, collective memory, nationalism and geopolitics. A detailed study of Armenia’s relations with these powers demonstrates how actors’ relations of amity and enmity are formed to constitute a regional security complex. Turkey represents the ultimate “other”, while both Europe and Iran are seen as ideational “others”, whose role in Armenia’s foreign policy, aside from pragmatic policy considerations, reflects a normative quest. Russia and the United States, on the other hand, represent the powerful structural forces that define the regional security complex, in which Armenia operates. This dissertation argues that although Armenia has been severely constrained in certain foreign policy choices, it was adept at carving a space for action that privileged the issue of Nagorno-Karabakh over other geopolitical imperatives.

Mountain lake colony pinewood estate garden historic preservation

Pinewood Estate is a significant resource in the history of the theory and practice of landscape architecture. The purpose of this thesis is to provide a landscape plan to restore the Pinewood Estate to its historic integrity in order to retain and reflect its past. In order to determine the criteria used to establish how and to what period the estate should be restored to, the Secretary of the Interior's Guidelines for the Treatment of Cultural Landscapes was followed. This process involved documenting the existing conditions of the estate. Site inventory and analysis and onsite interviews were conducted. Natural and cultural resources were evaluated. As a case study, McKee Botanical Garden was analyzed and evaluated. The comparison of this case study served as a guideline to determine the best practice for the historical preservation of the estate. Despite the changes in the landscape at Pinewood Estate over the past seventy years, the garden today still retains William Lyman Phillips design criteria. For the garden to continue to keep its historic fabric, rehabilitation was selected to allow for improvements that make possible efficient contemporary use of the estate.

Data compilation on the biological response to ocean acidification: environmental and experimental context of data sets and related literature

The exponential growth of studies on the biological response to ocean acidification over the last few decades has generated a large amount of data. To facilitate data comparison, a data compilation hosted at the data publisher PANGAEA was initiated in 2008 and is updated on a regular basis (doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.149999). By January 2015, a total of 581 data sets (over 4 000 000 data points) from 539 papers had been archived. Here we present the developments of this data compilation five years since its first description by Nisumaa et al. (2010). Most of study sites from which data archived are still in the Northern Hemisphere and the number of archived data from studies from the Southern Hemisphere and polar oceans are still relatively low. Data from 60 studies that investigated the response of a mix of organisms or natural communities were all added after 2010, indicating a welcomed shift from the study of individual organisms to communities and ecosystems. The initial imbalance of considerably more data archived on calcification and primary production than on other processes has improved. There is also a clear tendency towards more data archived from multifactorial studies after 2010. For easier and more effective access to ocean acidification data, the ocean acidification community is strongly encouraged to contribute to the data archiving effort, and help develop standard vocabularies describing the variables and define best practices for archiving ocean acidification data.

The mermaid series of Elizabethan and Jacobean dramatists (1887-1909): a literary and critical history

The Mermaid Series (1887-1909) edited by Havelock Ellis was a major watershed in appreciation of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama. Before it appeared plays were available to general readers in scattered anthologies, large expensive collected editions or in expurgated selections which included only the more lyrical speeches and memorable scenes. Criticism of the drama followed suit; the majority of critics concentrated on the sections which appealed to the romantic and sentimental tastes of nineteenthcentury readers. The two men who conceived the Mermaid Series, John Addington Symonds and Havelock Ellis, approached the drama differently from their contemporaries; Symonds studied a play as a whole work of art and Ellis concentrated on its view of life. Both were unsatisfied with the "select beauties", fragmented approach and wanted readers to have the best plays in their entirety easily available in handy, inexpensive editions. Symonds's awareness of the drama as theatre was combined with a historical perspective allowing him to judge the drama in relation to its own time. He made a lasting but hitherto underestimated contribution to study of Beaumont and Fletcher, Dekker, Marlowe, and Ford. Ellis's work on the drama is overshadowed today by his studies of sex but his concentration on ideas and appreciation of unconventional behaviour enabled him to formulate new views on Ford, Middleton and Chapman. The two other major editors to work on the series, A. C. Swinburne and Arthur Symons had more conventional nineteenth-century approaches. Both were impressionistic critics who were most attracted to the l~nguage of the drama. Swinburne, however, occasionally transcended his fragmented approach and offered significant interpretations of Tourneur, Massinger; 'The .Changeling, Heywood. Symons's range was more limited but his form of impressionism was valuable for its concentration on the aesthetic experience at the heart of a work of art. His most important contributions were the study of Middleton and Massinger. Besides these four major critics numerous lesser writers worked on the series. Their editorial work was valuable and some, notably Ernest Rhys, c. H. Herford and Thomas Dickinson offered criticism of enduring importance. In my first chapter I consider the general availability of texts of the Elizabethan and Jacobean drama in the nineteenth century, the general attitudes towards the drama, and the critical approaches of each of the editors. The subsequent chapters are organized around the volumes of the series. I consider the climate of opinion in which each appeared, assess its critical and editorial contribution and evaluate the work of the other Mermaid editors on the dramatist included in the volume. My study shows that the concept of the Mermaid Series and the work of its editors helped to revolutionize study of the Elizabethan and Jacobean dramatists by providing good texts and by pointing the way to our present view of the plays as whole works of art.

Relative sea-level history of Marguerite Bay, Antarctic Peninsula derived from optically stimulated luminescence-dated beach cobbles

Calmette Bay within Marguerite Bay along the western side of the Antarctic Peninsula contains one of the most continuous flights of raised beaches described to date in Antarctica. Raised beaches extend to 40.8 m above sea level (masl) and are thought to reflect glacial isostatic adjustment due to the retreat of the Antarctic Peninsula Ice Sheet. Using optically stimulated luminescence (OSL), we dated quartz extracts from cobble surfaces buried in raised beaches at Calmette Bay. The beaches are separated into upper and lower beaches based on OSL ages, geomorphology, and sedimentary fabric. The two sets of beaches are separated by a prominent scarp. One of our OSL ages from the upper beaches dates to 9.3 thousand years ago (ka; as of 1950) consistent with previous extrapolation of sea-level data and the time of ice retreat from inner Marguerite Bay. However, four of the seven ages from the upper beaches date to the timing of glaciation. We interpret these ages to represent reworking of beaches deposited prior to the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) by advancing and retreating LGM ice. Ages from the lower beaches record relative sea-level fall due to Holocene glacial-isostatic adjustment. We suggest a Holocene marine limit of 21.7 masl with an age of 5.5-7.3 ka based on OSL ages from Calmette Bay and other sea-level constraints in the area. A marine limit at 21.7 masl implies half as much relative sea-level change in Marguerite Bay during the Holocene as suggested by previous sea-level reconstructions. No evidence for a relative sea-level signature of neoglacial events, such as a decrease followed by an increase in RSL fall due to ice advance and retreat associated with the Little Ice Age, is found within Marguerite Bay indicating either: (1) no significant neoglacial advances occurred within Marguerite Bay; (2) rheological heterogeneity allows part of the Antarctic Peninsula (i.e. the South Shetland Islands) to respond to rapid ice mass changes while other regions are incapable of responding to short-lived ice advances; or (3) the magnitude of neoglacial events within Marguerite Bay is too small to resolve through relative sea-level reconstructions. Although the application of reconstructing sea-level histories using OSL-dated raised beach deposits provides a better understanding of the timing and nature of relative sea-level change in Marguerite Bay, we highlight possible problems associated with using raised beaches as sea-level indices due to post-depositional reworking by storm waves.

A Possible Archaeological Case for the Taxation of Medieval Eurasian Nomads

Peer reviewed

Florence Rush, author of "The Best Kept Secret" about child molestation, speaks at Crimes Against Women conference

General note: Title and date provided by Bettye Lane.

Biological and Physical Factors Affecting the Natural History and Evolution of Encapsulated Development

The evolution of reproductive strategies involves a complex calculus of costs and benefits to both parents and offspring. Many marine animals produce embryos packaged in tough egg capsules or gelatinous egg masses attached to benthic surfaces. While these egg structures can protect against environmental stresses, the packaging is energetically costly for parents to produce. In this series of studies, I examined a variety of ecological factors affecting the evolution of benthic development as a life history strategy. I used marine gastropods as my model system because they are incredibly diverse and abundant worldwide, and they exhibit a variety of reproductive and developmental strategies.

The first study examines predation on benthic egg masses. I investigated: 1) behavioral mechanisms of predation when embryos are targeted (rather than the whole egg mass); 2) the specific role of gelatinous matrix in predation. I hypothesized that gelatinous matrix does not facilitate predation. One study system was the sea slug Olea hansineensis, an obligate egg mass predator, feeding on the sea slug Haminoea vesicula. Olea fed intensely and efficiently on individual Haminoea embryos inside egg masses but showed no response to live embryos removed from gel, suggesting that gelatinous matrix enables predation. This may be due to mechanical support of the feeding predator by the matrix. However, Haminoea egg masses outnumber Olea by two orders of magnitude in the field, and each egg mass can contain many tens of thousands of embryos, so predation pressure on individuals is likely not strong. The second system involved the snail Nassarius vibex, a non-obligate egg mass predator, feeding on the polychaete worm Clymenella mucosa. Gel neither inhibits nor promotes embryo predation for Nassarius, but because it cannot target individual embryos inside an egg mass, its feeding is slow and inefficient, and feeding rates in the field are quite low. However, snails that compete with Nassarius for scavenged food have not been seen to eat egg masses in the field, leaving Nassarius free to exploit the resource. Overall, egg mass predation in these two systems likely benefits the predators much more than it negatively affects the prey. Thus, selection for environmentally protective aspects of egg mass production may be much stronger than selection for defense against predation.

In the second study, I examined desiccation resistance in intertidal egg masses made by Haminoea vesicula, which preferentially attaches its flat, ribbon-shaped egg masses to submerged substrata. Egg masses occasionally detach and become stranded on exposed sand at low tide. Unlike adults, the encased embryos cannot avoid desiccation by selectively moving about the habitat, and the egg mass shape has high surface-area-to-volume ratio that should make it prone to drying out. Thus, I hypothesized that the embryos would not survive stranding. I tested this by deploying individual egg masses of two age classes on exposed sand bars for the duration of low tide. After rehydration, embryos midway through development showed higher rates of survival than newly-laid embryos, though for both stages survival rates over 25% were frequently observed. Laboratory desiccation trials showed that >75% survival is possible in an egg mass that has lost 65% of its water weight, and some survival (<25%) was observed even after 83% water weight lost. Although many surviving embryos in both experiments showed damage, these data demonstrate that egg mass stranding is not necessarily fatal to embryos. They may be able to survive a far greater range of conditions than they normally encounter, compensating for their lack of ability to move. Also, desiccation tolerance of embryos may reduce pressure on parents to find optimal laying substrata.

The third study takes a big-picture approach to investigating the evolution of different developmental strategies in cone snails, the largest genus of marine invertebrates. Cone snail species hatch out of their capsules as either swimming larvae or non-dispersing forms, and their developmental mode has direct consequences for biogeographic patterns. Variability in life history strategies among taxa may be influenced by biological, environmental, or phylogenetic factors, or a combination of these. While most prior research has examined these factors singularly, my aim was to investigate the effects of a host of intrinsic, extrinsic, and historical factors on two fundamental aspects of life history: egg size and egg number. I used phylogenetic generalized least-squares regression models to examine relationships between these two egg traits and a variety of hypothesized intrinsic and extrinsic variables. Adult shell morphology and spatial variability in productivity and salinity across a species geographic range had the strongest effects on egg diameter and number of eggs per capsule. Phylogeny had no significant influence. Developmental mode in Conus appears to be influenced mostly by species-level adaptations and niche specificity rather than phylogenetic conservatism. Patterns of egg size and egg number appear to reflect energetic tradeoffs with body size and specific morphologies as well as adaptations to variable environments. Overall, this series of studies highlights the importance of organism-scale biotic and abiotic interactions in evolutionary patterns.