4,384 research outputs found

    Graduate Catalog of Studies, 2023-2024

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    Examining systemic and dispositional factors impacting historically disenfranchised schools across North Carolina

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    This mixed method sequential explanatory study provided analysis of North Carolina (NC) school leaders’ dispositions in eliminating opportunity gaps, outlined in NC’s strategic plan. The study’s quantitative phase used descriptive and correlation analysis of eight Likert subscales around four tenets of transformative leadership (Shields, 2011) and aspects of critical race theory (Bell, 1992; Ladson-Billings, 1998; Ladson-Billings & Tate, 2006) to understand systemic inequities and leadership attitudes. The qualitative phase comprised three analyses of education leadership dispositions and systemic factors in NC schools. The first analysis of State Board of Education meeting minutes from 2018–2023 quantified and analyzed utterances of racism and critical race, outlined the sociopolitical context of such utterances, and identified systemic patterns and state leader dispositions. The second analysis of five interviews of K–12 graduates identified persistent and systemic factors influencing NC education 3 decades after Brown v. Board of Education (1954) and within the context of Leandro v. State of NC (1997), where the NC Supreme Court recognized the state constitutional right for every student to access a “sound basic education.” The final qualitative analysis consisted of five interviews of current NC public school system leaders, for personal narratives of the state of NC schools compared to patterns from lived experiences of NC K–12 graduates. The study’s findings suggested NC school and state education leaders experience a racialized dichotomy between willingness for change (equity intentions) and execution of transformative action (practice). Although leaders at the board and school levels recognize the need for inclusivity and equity, a struggle to transcend systemic challenges, especially rooted in racial biases and power dynamics is evident. This study may identify leadership qualities needed for change in NC to address systemic inequities for improving educational access and inform policy to uphold all students’ constitutional right to a sound, basic education

    Digitalization and Development

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    This book examines the diffusion of digitalization and Industry 4.0 technologies in Malaysia by focusing on the ecosystem critical for its expansion. The chapters examine the digital proliferation in major sectors of agriculture, manufacturing, e-commerce and services, as well as the intermediary organizations essential for the orderly performance of socioeconomic agents. The book incisively reviews policy instruments critical for the effective and orderly development of the embedding organizations, and the regulatory framework needed to quicken the appropriation of socioeconomic synergies from digitalization and Industry 4.0 technologies. It highlights the importance of collaboration between government, academic and industry partners, as well as makes key recommendations on how to encourage adoption of IR4.0 technologies in the short- and long-term. This book bridges the concepts and applications of digitalization and Industry 4.0 and will be a must-read for policy makers seeking to quicken the adoption of its technologies

    Resilience and food security in a food systems context

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    This open access book compiles a series of chapters written by internationally recognized experts known for their in-depth but critical views on questions of resilience and food security. The book assesses rigorously and critically the contribution of the concept of resilience in advancing our understanding and ability to design and implement development interventions in relation to food security and humanitarian crises. For this, the book departs from the narrow beaten tracks of agriculture and trade, which have influenced the mainstream debate on food security for nearly 60 years, and adopts instead a wider, more holistic perspective, framed around food systems. The foundation for this new approach is the recognition that in the current post-globalization era, the food and nutritional security of the world’s population no longer depends just on the performance of agriculture and policies on trade, but rather on the capacity of the entire (food) system to produce, process, transport and distribute safe, affordable and nutritious food for all, in ways that remain environmentally sustainable. In that context, adopting a food system perspective provides a more appropriate frame as it incites to broaden the conventional thinking and to acknowledge the systemic nature of the different processes and actors involved. This book is written for a large audience, from academics to policymakers, students to practitioners

    Crisis for Whom?

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    Children feature centrally in the ubiquitous narratives of ‘migration crises’. They are often depicted as essentially vulnerable and in need of special protections, or suspiciously adult-like and a threat to national borders. At the same time, many voices, experiences, and stories are rarely heard, especially about children on the move within the global South. This bilingual book, written in English and Spanish, challenges simplistic narratives to enrich perspectives and understanding. Drawing on collaborations between young (im)migrants, researchers, artists and activists, this collection asks new questions about how crises are produced, mobility is controlled, and childhood is conceptualised. Answers to these questions have profound implications for resources, infrastructures, and relationships of care. Authors offer insights from diverse global contexts, painting a rich and insightful tapestry about childhood (im)mobility. They stress that children are more than recipients of care and that the crises they face are multiple and stratifying, with long historical roots. Readers are invited to understand migration as an act of concern and love, and to attend to how the solidarities between citizens and ‘others’, adults and children, and between children, are understood and forged.La niñez ocupa un lugar central en las narrativas omnipresentes de las ""crisis migratorias"". A menudo ésta es representada como esencialmente vulnerable y necesitada de protección especial, como sospechosamente parecida a los adultos, o como una amenaza para las fronteras nacionales. Al mismo tiempo, existen muchas voces, experiencias e historias que rara vez son escuchadas, especialmente aquellas que hablan sobre las infancias en movimiento dentro del Sur global. 'Este libro bilingüe, escrito en inglés y español, desafía las narrativas simplistas para enriquecer nuestra perspectivas y comprensión. Basada en colaboraciones entre jóvenes (in)migrantes, investigadores, artistas y activistas, esta colección plantea nuevas preguntas sobre cómo se producen las crisis, cómo se controla la movilidad y cómo se conceptualiza a la infancia y la niñez. Las respuestas a estas preguntas tienen profundas implicaciones para la distribución de recursos, la infraestructura y las prácticas de cuidado. Las y los autores ofrecen perspectivas que surgen de diversos contextos globales, construyendo un rico y detallado tapiz sobre la (in)movilidad infantil. Destacan que niñas y niños son mucho más que simples receptores de cuidados y que las crisis que enfrentan son múltiples y estratificadas, con profundas raíces históricas. Se invita a las/os lectoras/es a entender la migración como un acto de concientización y amor, y a poner atención en cómo se entienden y forjan las solidaridades entre ciudadanos y aquellos que son percibidos como “otros”; entre adultos y niñas/os, y entre las/os niñas/os mismas/os

    PBL in a Digital Age

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    Concurrent Product and Supply Chain Architecture Design Considering Modularity and Sustainability

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    Since sustainability is a growing concern, businesses aim to integrate sustainability principles and practices into product and supply chain (SC) architecture (SCA) design. Modular product architecture (MPA) is essential for meeting sustainability demands, as it defines detachable modules by selecting appropriate components from various potential combinations. However, the prevailing practice of MPA emphasizes architectural aspects over interface complexity and design production processes for the structural dimension, potentially impending manufacturing, assembly/disassembly, and recovery efficiency. Most MPA has been developed assuming equal and/or fixed relations among modules rather than configuring for SC effectiveness. Therefore, such methods cannot offer guidance on modular granularity and its impact on product and SCA sustainability. Additionally, there is no comparative assessment of MPA to determine whether the components within the configured modules could share multiple facilities to achieve economic benefits and be effective for modular manufacture and upgrade. Therefore, existing modular configuration fails to link modularization drivers and metrics with SCA, hampering economic design, modular recycling, and efficient assembly/disassembly for enhancing sustainability. This study focuses on the study of design fundamentals and implementation of sustainable modular drivers in coordination with SCA by developing a mathematical model. Here, the architectural and interface relations between components are quantified and captured in a decision structure matrix which acts as the foundation of modular clustering for MPA. Again, unlike previous design approaches focused only on cost, the proposed work considers facility sharing through a competitive analysis of commonality and cost. It also evaluates MPA's ease of disassembly and upgradeability by a comparative assessment of different MPA to enhance SCA sustainability. The primary focus is concurrently managing the interdependency between MPA and SCA by developing mathematical models. Consistent with the mathematical model, this thesis also proposes better solution approaches. In summary, the proposed methods provide a foundation for modeling the link between product design and SC to 1) demonstrate how sustainable modular drivers affect the sustainability performance, 2) evaluate the contribution of modularity to the reduction of assembly/disassembly complexity and cost, 3) develop MPA in coordination with SC modularity by trading off modular granularity, commonality, and cost, and 4) identify a sustainable product family for combined modularity considering the similarity of operations, ease of disassembly and upgradability in SCA. Using metaheuristic algorithms, case studies on refrigerators showed that MPA and its methodology profoundly impact SCA sustainability. It reveals that interactions between components with levels based on sustainable modular drivers should be linked with modular granularity for SCA sustainability. Another key takeaway is that instead of solely focusing on cost, facility sharing and ensuring ease of disassembly and upgradeability can help to reap sustainability benefits

    Engineering Blockchain Based Software Systems: Foundations, Survey, and Future Directions

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    Many scientific and practical areas have shown increasing interest in reaping the benefits of blockchain technology to empower software systems. However, the unique characteristics and requirements associated with Blockchain Based Software (BBS) systems raise new challenges across the development lifecycle that entail an extensive improvement of conventional software engineering. This article presents a systematic literature review of the state-of-the-art in BBS engineering research from a software engineering perspective. We characterize BBS engineering from the theoretical foundations, processes, models, and roles and discuss a rich repertoire of key development activities, principles, challenges, and techniques. The focus and depth of this survey not only gives software engineering practitioners and researchers a consolidated body of knowledge about current BBS development but also underpins a starting point for further research in this field
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