Hester Prynne, PI

This project is an exploration of the themes of community investigation and mistrust surrounding sin in Hawthorne\u27s description of the Puritans in The Scarlet Letter. It explores these themes by using a board game as an interpretive device to fill a framework of space, place, and identity that shifts each time the game is played anew. Every interpretation of the actions of each main character will change as the location, identity, and sin committed are shuffled around and re-matched in different combinations as each of these characters seek Hester out to verify their thoughts on the sins being committed in their small community

The Influence of short-term land use change on soil evolution in the centre-south coastal areas of Sardinia

The land use change in short-term (time and space) in the Mediterranean context can be induced by phenomena like destruction of the autochthonous plant species, land abandonment, overgrazing, fire, urbanization (above all for touristic purpose), etc. These phenomena can lead to soil’s degradation conditions causing a loss of physical and biological productivity and the consequent emphasis in desertification processes. Desertification is considered one of the biggest environmental problems in Mediterranean areas (ICCD, 1994), and Sardinia is one of the most affected regions in Europe (UNEP, 1992; Imeson and Emmer, 1992). In Sardinia changes happened during the last decades (such as industrialization, coastal urban areas expansion, etc.) have often resulted in repercussions on the environmental ecosystems and foremost on soils. An important decrease of fertile lands and a consequent increase of marginal and unproductive areas have been observed; this fact has taken to manifest environmental and economic repercussions. In Sardinia such degradation phenomena are particularly evident in coastal areas, where the uncontrolled urbanization and the natural touristic vocation represent relevant impact types. In fact, in 1897 km of coastal lands (500 km are represented by dunal systems) 40% is subjected to deep erosion phenomena, that often are caused by wrong management actions. For these reasons the knowledge of their nature and expansion is of primary importance to carry out correct choices in land use. This work shows an example of a comparative investigation on coastal ecosystems particularly under human pressure. The investigated areas are located along the Centre–North coast of Sardinia. Particularly they concern: a) soils on limestone formations, forestry live oak cover and pasture land use (goat and swine); b) soils on fixed dunes, reforestation with pine and touristic-recreational land use foremost. In the areas several soil profiles have been realized to investigate the influence of the land use change, occurring in short-term in both places, on the evolution and degradation processes of soils

Recreaciones urbanas: usos extraordinarios de la calle en acontecimientos temporales

La siguiente investigación “Recreaciones urbanas: Usos extraordinarios de la calle en acontecimientos temporales” aborda el tema de los eventos singulares en el espacio urbano. Se pretende ofrecer una nueva mirada acerca de aquellas acciones que generan un cambio de uso temporal de la calle, transformándola en un lugar donde estar y llevar a cabo actividades. La tesis pretende realizar un recorrido por diferentes casos de transformaciones temporales en el espacio público, ahondando en los casos tradicionales hispánicos que presentan interés en su uso especial de la calle, en contraste con aquellos actuales que innovan con nuevas propuestas de funcionamiento. En un momento en el que han proliferado nuevas corrientes de acción urbana que beben de las raíces del happening, del situacionismo y de la acupuntura urbana a través de intervenciones urbanas efímeras, y en pleno debate acerca de los usos y las funciones de la calle (a raíz de una voluntad de desaceleración o peatonalización en las grandes ciudades del mundo) la tesis quiere realizar una mirada que mostrará las transformaciones urbanas temporales de raíz popular, contrastando el presente con el pasado, la innovación con la tradición.The present investigation “Urban Recreations: Street extraordinary uses in temporary events” special events in urban space. It is targeted to offer a new regard about thouse actions which generate a temprary change of use at the street, changing it into a place where to stay and carry out activities. The investigation pretends to study different cases of temporary transformations in public space, digging into hispanic traditional cases which their special use of the street could awaken interest, in contrast to those which currently innovate with new functioning proposals. Nowadays that many school of thought and action based in happening, situationism and urban acupunture are proliferating through ephemeral urban actions, and there is an important debate about street uses and functions (because of good intentions of deceleration or pedestrianization in big cities around the world) the investigation aims to show popular temporary urban transformations, contrasting present to past, innovation to tradition

Life Change Narratives: When The Road Diverges

Transformation events can be a change in a person\u27s work, a change in philosophy, a sudden insight, or a break in a relationship. According to David Hufford and Marilyn Motz, narrating these experiences are ways in which people perform, construct, and communicate belief systems. The narrators within the context of this thesis experience their transformation through a career transformation. The narrators rediscover their initial passion and transform that desire into actions that results in a shift of career. Sometimes seen as inexplicable, nevertheless the narrators provide analysis and reflection on the influences that led to their change. Some of the actions or thoughts that the narrators incorporate in their stories demonstrate not only the progression of events but also the alterations narrators experience in their worldviews. The context in which these changes occur is essential to interpreting and understanding the experience. Narrative components are filtered through an interpretive process that includes personal meaning, contrast with social norms and cultural beliefs and the impact on the receiver to enable narrators to justify their experience. It is the reflection on these experiences through which people gain insight and establish relevance to events that seem sometimes beyond their control. Stories from pop culture to ordinary citizens who change their lives daily demonstrate the pervasiveness of the transformational effect of states of crisis through which people journey. People\u27s lives are turned upside-down through these experiences which place the narrator out of their normal element. There are two levels to these story types: external and internal transformation. At a superficial level there is the journey to change careers but at another level there is a relationship to opening up cultural expectations or acting generatively, as role-models. Narrators are effecting change through their positive attitudes and acceptance of the trials they encounter during their transitions. Narrators discuss specific actions that create transformative life changes or philosophical shifts. My investigation studies how individuals are involved in transitional events in which they experience a disengagement from a previous life, spending some time in liminal space where they transition or regenerate into a new place in society. Part of my approach to this subject matter used theories introduced by Victor Turner (pilgrimages) and by Arnold Van Gennep (rites of passage). Regina Holloman proposes that rites of passage can occur not just as physical/material transformation but can occur psychically as well. Some of the narrative patterns that narrators use to construct these tales are identified within the context of folk belief and folklore scholarship

The Right to City in Argentina: Building Capacity through Hecho en Buenos Aires, a Street Newspaper

As the new millennium unfolds, many activists and scholars have responded to enduring inequality in urban environments by embracing French philosopher Henri Lefebvre\u27s writings on the right to the city as a rallying cry and demand. In an effort to contribute to this dialogue, this thesis explores the concept of the right to the city by operationalizing it as a theoretical framework rooted in Lefebvre’s original writings and applying it o a grounded examination of the street newspaper Hecho en Buenos Aires to examine the intersection of right to the city theory and practice. This investigation finds that the organization seems to advance the right to the city in Buenos Aires albeit without embracing its rhetoric. The organization does this, first, by developing the individual capacity of individuals in situación de calle through integrated, holistic programs that promote autogestión and, second, by creating opportunities for those same individuals to appropriate urban space and participate in urban processes - two actions key to Lefebvre\u27s radical and transformative right to the city. The investigation finds evidence, moreover, to suggest that the organization as a whole seeks radical, transformative change in alignment with Lefebvre\u27s conceptualization of the right to the city. These preliminary findings are closely contextualized by the historical specificity of Argentina, but may be used to inform the work of other street newspaper organizations operating in other Latin American countries or even in other developing world regions

Students' Ways of Thinking about Two-Variable Functions and Rate of Change in Space

abstract: This dissertation describes an investigation of four students' ways of thinking about functions of two variables and rate of change of those two-variable functions. Most secondary, introductory algebra, pre-calculus, and first and second semester calculus courses do not require students to think about functions of more than one variable. Yet vector calculus, calculus on manifolds, linear algebra, and differential equations all rest upon the idea of functions of two (or more) variables. This dissertation contributes to understanding productive ways of thinking that can support students in thinking about functions of two or more variables as they describe complex systems with multiple variables interacting. This dissertation focuses on modeling the way of thinking of four students who participated in a specific instructional sequence designed to explore the limits of their ways of thinking and in turn, develop a robust model that could explain, describe, and predict students' actions relative to specific tasks. The data was collected using a teaching experiment methodology, and the tasks within the teaching experiment leveraged quantitative reasoning and covariation as foundations of students developing a coherent understanding of two-variable functions and their rates of change. The findings of this study indicated that I could characterize students' ways of thinking about two-variable functions by focusing on their use of novice and/or expert shape thinking, and the students' ways of thinking about rate of change by focusing on their quantitative reasoning. The findings suggested that quantitative and covariational reasoning were foundational to a student's ability to generalize their understanding of a single-variable function to two or more variables, and their conception of rate of change to rate of change at a point in space. These results created a need to better understand how experts in the field, such as mathematicians and mathematics educators, thinking about multivariable functions and their rates of change.Dissertation/ThesisPh.D. Mathematics 201

Investigating use of space of pedestrians

Understanding use of space of pedestrian is important to plan/design street environments or large public transport facilities. The purpose of a series of our research is to investigate use of space of various pedestrians in a variety of environmental situations. The research is a part of PAMELA project designed to test existing and proposed pedestrian environments and street facilities (i.e. a bus stop) under controlled conditions. This paper is aimed at setting out the background of the research, and presenting a basic frame work for subsequent research. Strength of our approach is the microscopic heterogeneous approach, where each walking person is regarded different from others. Relations among characteristics of pedestrians, characteristics of facilities/ environments, and resulting actions of pedestrians are carefully examined. Conclusion suggests directions of further research

Elaboration of the New Paradigm of Interdisciplinary Investigations

In the article, the problem of construction a meta-theory for approaching the complex phenomena of Reality is discussed. The integrated information system is formulated. Such postulate is a suggested basis for creation of a unified methodology of cognition (investigation) which makes it possible to elaborate a new paradigm of interdisciplinary investigations as a separate scientific discipline which has its own methods and special objects. The article will be of interest to philosophers and methodologists of scienc