Generalized Balanced Tournament Packings and Optimal Equitable Symbol Weight Codes for Power Line Communications

Generalized balance tournament packings (GBTPs) extend the concept of generalized balanced tournament designs introduced by Lamken and Vanstone (1989). In this paper, we establish the connection between GBTPs and a class of codes called equitable symbol weight codes. The latter were recently demonstrated to optimize the performance against narrowband noise in a general coded modulation scheme for power line communications. By constructing classes of GBTPs, we establish infinite families of optimal equitable symbol weight codes with code lengths greater than alphabet size and whose narrowband noise error-correcting capability to code length ratios do not diminish to zero as the length grows

Toward a More Wholly Communion: Cultivating Ecological Enlightenment and Sustainable Action in Christians

Increasingly, environmental, scientific, and religious organizations and leaders are calling for people of faith to wake up to the global climate and other environmental crises and step up their ecological responsibility by leading more sustainable lives. Yet only a few seem to hear the calls and even fewer are responding in substantive ways. Many have commented on the gap between the religious theory for environmental care and the actual practice of living ecologically sustainable lives. Exploring how to bridge this gap is increasingly important as environmental regulatory, policy, and technology efforts fall short of goals and environmental professionals, including regulators, managers, and scientists, call for ways to “cultivate the [ecologically] enlightened citizen” (Boesch and Greer, 2003). My research addresses the gap through a grounded theory analysis of the sustainability journeys and formation processes of Christian role models of ecological enlightenment who demonstrate commitment to a sustainable way of life. The individuals profiled in my study not only heard the calls for a new way, but are responding whole-heartedly with intention and discipline and are guiding others toward a new ecological era. I conducted in-depth interviews with 10 adult Christian men and women role models about their personal pathways to ecological enlightenment, commitment to sustainability, and the role of spiritual/religious practices in this transformation. Initial research participants were discovered through the literature and/or nominated by academic and professional experts of religion, spirituality, and sustainability. Additional candidates emerged through theoretical sampling protocols. By focusing on factors contributing to the ecological formation and/or conversion of these role models, I provide insights on how some people are actually able to “walk the talk” of environmental sustainability despite immense social and cultural pressures to do otherwise. Each role model’s individual story is presented and common themes shared among the stories are identified, focusing on the importance of transformational experiences and journeys, enlarged perceptions, holistic service, faith and practice, community, and grace and will. I weave these themes into recommendations for others seeking to embody sustainability at a personal level and for environmental professionals desiring to develop new approaches to address the underlying causes of unsustainable human behavior

Toward a More Wholly Communion: Cultivating Ecological Enlightenment and Sustainable Action in Christians

Increasingly, environmental, scientific, and religious organizations and leaders are calling for people of faith to wake up to the global climate and other environmental crises and step up their ecological responsibility by leading more sustainable lives. Yet only a few seem to hear the calls and even fewer are responding in substantive ways. Many have commented on the gap between the religious theory for environmental care and the actual practice of living ecologically sustainable lives. Exploring how to bridge this gap is increasingly important as environmental regulatory, policy, and technology efforts fall short of goals and environmental professionals, including regulators, managers, and scientists, call for ways to “cultivate the [ecologically] enlightened citizen” (Boesch and Greer, 2003). My research addresses the gap through a grounded theory analysis of the sustainability journeys and formation processes of Christian role models of ecological enlightenment who demonstrate commitment to a sustainable way of life. The individuals profiled in my study not only heard the calls for a new way, but are responding whole-heartedly with intention and discipline and are guiding others toward a new ecological era. I conducted in-depth interviews with 10 adult Christian men and women role models about their personal pathways to ecological enlightenment, commitment to sustainability, and the role of spiritual/religious practices in this transformation. Initial research participants were discovered through the literature and/or nominated by academic and professional experts of religion, spirituality, and sustainability. Additional candidates emerged through theoretical sampling protocols. By focusing on factors contributing to the ecological formation and/or conversion of these role models, I provide insights on how some people are actually able to “walk the talk” of environmental sustainability despite immense social and cultural pressures to do otherwise. Each role model’s individual story is presented and common themes shared among the stories are identified, focusing on the importance of transformational experiences and journeys, enlarged perceptions, holistic service, faith and practice, community, and grace and will. I weave these themes into recommendations for others seeking to embody sustainability at a personal level and for environmental professionals desiring to develop new approaches to address the underlying causes of unsustainable human behavior

From biopiracy to bioprospecting: an historical sociology of the search for biological resources

With the 1992 United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity humanity's ongoing search for biological resources became subject to global regulation. The collection of biological materials for use in agriculture and medicine by one nation from another became conditional on criteria of informed consent, benefit-sharing, and the preservation of environments. This practice has become known as bioprospecting. Collections of biological materials and/or of 'traditional' knowledge of how to utilize them which did not meet the Convention's requirements henceforth became known as biopiracy. The thesis takes its structure from the Convention, which is treated as marking a shift from historical biopiracy to contemporary bioprospecting.. The thesis is that critics of the Convention who oppose it and the forms of bioprospecting which it mandates in terms of neo-colonialism and neo-imperialism have misunderstood the character of contemporary economic and political power. The thesis argues that although contemporary bioprospecting is not practiced, as the Convention requires it to be, in ways that are 'fair and equitable', it cannot be understood as a neo-imperialist practice. Instead, the thesis concludes that the Convention should be understood in the context of new forms of governance and sovereignty. The Convention facilitates planet management and supports the exercise of biopower. Several cases studies of imperialist biopiracy are presented and their social impacts are discussed in contrast to contemporary bioprospecting. A broad range of historical and sociological literature is brought together for the first time. The history of the transition from biopiracy to bioprospecting is described and discussed in terms of several social, epistemological/technological, scientific, political and economic changes, respectively: the transition from imperialism to globalization, a shift away from exploitation of 'nature' toward management of 'biodiversity', the transition from natural history to ecological science, the appearance of environmentalist concerns in national and global politics, the completion of the globalization of capitalist property relations and the demise of the notion of biological resources as the 'common heritage of humankind'

AFRICAN AMERICAN ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS: BLACK INTELLECTUAL PERSPECTIVES 1850-1965

The historical scholarship in environmental history centers around the narratives of elite white men. Therefore, scholars such as William Cronon, Dorceta Taylor, Noël Sturgeon, and Carolyn Merchant are calling for research that uncovers the political and moral stances of people of color on nature, land ownership, and environmental pollution. This dissertation addresses this call by engaging William H. Sewell Jr.’s cross-disciplinary approach between history and the social sciences to introduce a nuanced historical analysis that interrogates the channels via which African Americans’ environmental ethic sculpted the development of North American environmental history and activism. This dissertation contends that African Americans interjected a social justice component to environmental activism. Through analyzing government documents, military records, archival documents, oral histories conducted in several states, literary works, diaries, newspapers, Court opinions, religious doctrine, archaeological research, and speeches, this study examines how the natural environment fashioned African Americans’ direct forms of activism against institutionalized slavery, a failed Reconstruction, collapsed economy during the Great Depression, and forced ghettoized living conditions in urban spaces spurred by racial restrictive covenants during the 20th century. These forms of activism include but are not limited to the Negro Spirituals, marronage, institutional educational centers like Tuskegee and Hampton Normal Institute, Southern Tenant Farmers’ Union (STFU), New Negro Harlem Renaissance Movement, civil litigation, and the Black Arts Movement. This work will usher a new discourse in environmental history and bring African Americans into the transnational environmental dialogue

Asia-Pacific Perspectives on Environmental Ethics

Papers from the Pacific islands, India, Bangladesh and elsewhere illustrate the ethical dilemma of environmental policy, sustainable development and the needs of communities to make a living

“It makes me feel like part of the world”: How children in the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme understand international-mindedness

This thesis investigates how children learning within a Primary Years Programme international school understand international-mindedness, the goal of all International Baccalaureate programmes. Children in PYP schools are expected to develop international-mindedness as a consequence of the curriculum, yet international-mindedness is a difficult term to apprehend. It is defined through the IB learner profile, intercultural understanding, global engagement, and multilingualism, but remains a “fuzzy concept” making it difficult to assess its impact on learning. Investigating how children understand international-mindedness will help educators, and others, to ascertain the impact of international-mindedness on student’s thinking. The research employed a qualitative phenomenographic framework and used focus group interviews and a thinking template to elicit children's views on international-mindedness. The data analysis resulted in four categories of description that represent how children understand international-mindedness. These are international-mindedness as friendship, international-mindedness as adapting to the world, international-mindedness as an outcome of social interactions, and international-mindedness as a change in thinking about yourself and the world. Underpinning these categories are three themes of expanding awareness that express the structural variations within the categories. These are 1) the contexts for the development of international-mindedness, 2) the attitudes, skills and knowledge children associate with international-mindedness, and 3) children’s thinking about themselves, others and their place in the world. The process of becoming internationally-minded occurs as children become consciously aware of the phenomenon through critical introspection of their life experiences and global realities. Through reflection on their friendships, their experiences of adapting to new situations, their social interactions with others, as well as their emerging sense of who they are vis-à-vis the world, children learn about the contexts, knowledge, attitudes, skills, and personal, social and global positioning that contribute to the development of IM, which can be enhanced through skilful educators.

Forward through Ferguson: A Path Toward Racial Equity

First and foremost, this is the "people's report." What do we mean by that? Our primary audience for this report is the people of the St. Louis region. The report is directed to the average citizens whose daily lives are affected by the issues we explored, and whose lives will be impacted by the calls to action we make. With that in mind, we have written this report to speak to an audience of average citizens— not lawyers, legislators, academics, politicians, or policy wonks. We've written this report in plain language as much as possible. We've avoided jargon when we could, and tried to explain the jargon we used when we couldn't avoid it. Our goal is to present this important information in a way that anyone can understand. We recognize and have heard citizen feedback that official documents produced by commissions like ours can be written in a way that is hard for the average citizen to understand, and a chore to read.     It will take the application of public pressure to ensure that we push forward, and not just ease back into the status quo. We have tried to make this report readable and interesting. If it's interesting and easy to read, you're more likely to read more of it—and we want you to read it. The more this report is read, the stronger the actions toward implementation will be. If we hide important ideas behind stuffy language, or bury key information, we would be disrespectful to the people who invested their time and energy into the work, and worse, we would be diminishing the importance of what we were charged to do. That said, as you go deeper into the report platform, you may notice that the information does get more dense and complicated. While our focus is on speaking to the people, we also know that this platform must be detailed and specific enough to be useful in directly impacting policy decisions. We have tried to keep these sections clear and readable, while meeting the needs of multiple audience