Aldous Huxley\u27s \u3cem\u3eBrave New World\u3c/em\u3e - Still a Chilling Vision After All These Years

In Part I of this Review, I provide an overview of Brave New World and place it in its proper historical context. In Part II, I explore the parallels between Huxley\u27s World State and post-9/11 America. In Part III, I argue that Brave New World provides prescient warning signs about the dangers of excessive government interference in the economy-warning signs that are of particular importance in the face of the recent economic crisis

Survey of Community College Faculty about OER Attitudes and Behaviors

This report provides aggregate findings of the Faculty Survey on Open Educational Resources (OER) conducted online during late fall 2007 and early spring 2008. There were 1,203 faculty respondents to the survey from 12 Districts and 28 colleges. Of these respondents, 793 or 66% indicated they are full-time faculty. Part-time numbered 401 or 34%. There were 9 who did not indicate their full or part-time status. The faculty respondents represent a wide range of disciplines. The largest numbers were from English, Math, Counseling, Computer and Information Science, Business, ESL, and Foreign Languages. Substantial numbers were from Life, Social, Behavioral, and Physical Sciences. The respondents to the survey indicated considerable interest in using, sharing, and even producing OER learning materials. Over 90% indicated interest in using OER materials. A third of the respondents noted they were already using OER materials in their classes. As this sample does not represent the entire faculty, however, it cannot be concluded that a third of the faculty are using OER materials though many are no doubt using Internet resources. Respondents represented a wide range of disciplines including many in vocational education, basic skills, counseling, social, behavioral, life and the physical sciences. About 87% said they were likely to use OER if they were readily accessible and about 66% percent said they were interested in identifying or producing OER. About 75% of those responding to the survey indicated the type of support they would need to contribute to identifying or producing OER materials with Training, Guidelines and Templates, and Paid Compensation among the greatest needs

Changes in hedgerows in Britain between 1984 and 1990

1. This report summarises the results of work on changes in hedgerows which was commissioned by the Directorate of Rural Affairs, DOE, as part of the analysis of data collected during 'Countryside Survey 1990'. 2. The primary purpose of the report is to present data on change, and to provide descriptions of the methods used to obtain them. Discussion of results, and especially their relevance to countryside policy matters, is minimal although a short comment section is included to cover research and methodological aspects

Security Challenges in Africa: The Role of International Community (ECOWAS& AU) in Conflict Resolution in Nigeria

Security challenges have been a major problem confronting Africa’s countries. Security challenges have poses a great danger to many African’s countries. This is however as a result of bad governance. When the electorate is uncomfortable with a particular government they result in violence since violence is the only option for addressing the problem. May African’s leaders choose to die than vacating, their seat to someone else. In Egypt and Libya president Hosin Mubarak and Muammar Gadaffi chooses to die than to hand over power to someone else as demanded by the electorate. There is other African country that has a similar case of security challenges like Sudan, where till date the president is not ready to release power to another person. This attitude of I must hold unto power and die there has posse a greater danger and has affected foreign investment in Africa. It is in the light of the above that these paper set to examine security challenges in Africa: The role of international community (ECOWAS & AU) in conflict resolution with particular reference to Nigeria. These paper also adopt Karl Marx theory of political economy as it theoretical framework of analysis. The paper also recommended some major as a panacea for conflict free such like good governance and credible elections, accountability and transparency in governance. All these remedies when applied will help reduce the high level of conflict and security challenges in Africa

Multiple victimisation in Northern Ireland

Multiple victimisation in Northern Irelan

Applied Solutions for Water Resource Challenges: Floods, Contamination and Upland Water Storage

poster abstractThe Center for Earth and Environmental Science, an IUPUI Signature Center, is working on a series of water resources problems and creating solutions. A series of collaborative projects are underway with the HUD, FEMA, the Office of Community and Rural Affairs, the United States Geological Survey, the Indiana State Department of Agriculture, and an international corporate partner in Berlin, KompetenzZentrum Wasser Berlin. Flood Erosion Hazard Program CEES, the USGS, and Polis are working with HUD and the Office of Community and Rural Affairs, though the Indiana Silver Jackets, to create tools for the State of Indiana to incorporate flood erosion hazard risk assessments into community planning. Flooding remains the most costly natural hazard in the US and Indiana. Flood losses continue to rise despite billions of dollars in mitigation. The causes are complex and related to land use, infrastructure design and climate change. Following the June 2008 floods in Indiana, 39 counties were listed as Federal disaster areas. In early 2005, 90% of Indiana counties were declared federal disaster areas after heavy rains fell on saturated soil. There have been seven major regional flooding events since the “Great flood of 1913”. The frequency of large floods appears to be increasing. Four of the eight major floods have occurred since 1982 and the last two occurred in 2005 and 2008. From 1998 through 2007, total insured flood losses in Indiana exceeded $39.8 million. While more restricted in area than the floods of 2008; record flooding occurred again throughout central and southern Indiana in early 2011 following heavy rains in February and March. Traditional flood protection usually consists of three components: flood control reservoirs, urban levees/floodwalls, and agricultural levees. These traditional flood protection methods are focused on one aspect of flooding – inundation. However, the largest single source of flood losses, both in terms of cost and number of affected persons, is damage to transportation infrastructure. Fluvial erosion is a principal cause of this damage. This significant flood-related natural hazard – the “fluvial erosion hazard” (FEH) – is not a specific component of State and local mitigation programs. This project aims to generate the tools for inclusion of FEH into statewide and local community planning. Aquisafe II - Performance Analysis of Selected Mitigation Systems Used to Attenuate Non-Point Source Agricultural Pollution Aquisafe is an international research collaboration with Veolia Environment based in Paris, their corporate partner in Berlin (KompetenzZentrum Wasser – Berlin Center of Competence for Water), the German Federal Environmental Agency, German university partners, and French quasi-governmental agencies in Brittany, France. The project goals are to create new mitigation systems to capture and treat polluted agricultural water running off farm fields prior to flowing into area streams, especially those used for drinking water supplies. The contaminants of specific concern are nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) and pesticides (atrazine – a corn-herbicide with potential endocrine disrupting effects). We are testing 2-stage, constructed wetlands in Indianapolis, Indiana and Brittany, France that have been designed to intercept and convert contaminants to harmless compounds. Site designs are guided by laboratory technical scale experiments conducted in Berlin that identified the hydrologic retention times and suitable sources of organic carbon necessary for mitigating contaminants. Construction of the experimental systems will begin in April in the Eagle Creek Watershed in cooperation with a private farmer with initial results expected this summer