Browsing by Author "Mitchell, Joseph C."
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- The Creation and Illustration of Quality of Life: A Conceptual Model for Examining Welfare Reform ImpactsHollar, Danielle S. (Virginia Tech, 2000-11-27)Policymakers, public administrators, the media, and others are celebrating the "success" of the latest version of welfare reform, codified into law in the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996. Most often, success is defined in terms of declining caseloads or in some other economic form - a practice that does not provide a true sense of the impact of policy changes such as welfare reform. Assessing the human impact of policy change requires more than the evaluation of economic outcomes; it requires knowing about the resources of beneficiaries of social services and their conditions of life from various perspectives. Thus, we have to strive for greater understanding about the socio-cultural aspects of people's lives that create the whole person, aspects such as health, family and friendship networks, housing situations, public and private support service and program use, conditions of work, and so forth (Erikson, 1993). This is how we come to understand one;s quality of life. The present research creates a conceptual model called quality of life, and illustrates the model using data from a follow-up study of former welfare recipients in a county in northern Virginia. Evaluation activities premised on a quality of life model will assist policy actors in understanding policy impacts and how to strategically manage public institutions within their very complex contexts, especially in an era of welfare reform.
- The Habitat Ecology of Bog Turtles (clemmys Muhlenbergii) in Southwestern VirginiaCarter, Shawn L. (Virginia Tech, 1997-06-24)I radiotracked 31 bog turtles (Clemmys muhlenbergii) from May 1995 to December 1996 at 4 study areas in southwestern Virginia. Radio location data were used to provide measures of annual activity, spatial distributions of animals, and habitat selection. The techniques I used in this study were as follows: distance measurements between consecutive locations, home range estimators (Minimum Convex Polygon [MCP] and cluster analysis), compositional analysis of habitat selection, and measurement of microhabitat variables. Results suggest a random pattern of movement by bog turtles within habitats. Average net movements recorded between consecutive locations (separated by < 7 days) during 1995 and 1996 measured 15 m and 20 m for females and 14 m and 23 m for males respectively. Eighty-six percent of all net movements (n = 824) were less than 30 m, whereas only 2% were greater than 100 m. In 1996, average home range sizes (95% MCP, 95% cluster) were 0.47 ha and 0.17 ha for females and were 0.57 ha and 0.13 ha for males. Bog turtles selected wet meadow areas and bulrush (Scirpus spp.) patches more than expected randomly and avoided dry meadow areas and streams. Turtles were located more frequently in mud (x = 24.3 cm) and water (x = 5.2 cm) than expected by random selection (P < 0.001). I found no differences between sexes in movement, home range, or habitat selection by bog turtles. Bog turtles select specialized habitat types and microhabitats within wetlands. Large-scale movements are infrequent and the risk of site isolation may be high if wetland habitat loss continues at historic rates. Future management should protect spatially-close sites which contain multiple habitat types, soft substrate, and pockets of water.
- Sustaining America's Aquatic Biodiversity - Turtle Biodiversity and ConservationMitchell, Joseph C.; Buhlmann, Kurt A. (Virginia Cooperative Extension, 2020)Turtles, their diversity, structure and appearance, types of bodies of water they occupy, reproduction, distribution, ages different species reach, habitats, threats and how humans can help expand their habitats.
- Sustaining America's Aquatic Biodiversity. Turtle Biodiversity and ConservationMitchell, Joseph C.; Buhlmann, Kurt (Virginia Cooperative Extension, 2005-09-01)Provides a description of the structure and appearance of turtles, how they live and reproduce, their distribution and diversity, why they are of importance, threats to their survival, and measures that can be taken to mitigate threats; document also includes web links to more information as well as a list of selected books and publications on the topic.