Protecting the Right to Exist as a People: Intellectual Property as a Means to Protect Traditional Knowledge and Indigenous Culture

The dominant Western culture has created a legal system premised upon an individualistic and commercial foundation for intellectual property rights (IPR). This system necessarily excludes the protection of traditional knowledge and other components of Indigenous cultures, as well as concepts of communal responsibility for the keeping and transfer of such ideas and knowledge. These concepts are foundational to Indigenous knowledge systems in Alaska, as well as throughout the world. Today, a focus on this issue is critical to the preservation of indigenous cultures and their ways of knowing. We examine where national and international intellectual property rights systems are in addressing Indigenous cultural and intellectual property rights (Indigenous CIPR). We also examine opportunities for expansion of such rights in Alaska and around the world.Ye

Efficiency and Particulate Matter Emissions Testing of Wood Burning Heating Units

The University of Arkansas StoveHOGS team developed a method for efficiency and particle emissions testing of wood fired heaters. The EPA currently regulates the particulate emissions of wood burning stoves, and the goal of this project was to develop a cheaper, easier method for small manufacturers to test the efficiency and particulate emissions of wood burning stoves without sending them to a testing facility. The team used EPA and CSA testing standards to design and test a method that could accomplish the same task in a simpler and more cost effective manner

The Dimensions of Miracle: An Ethics of Mediation in Simone Weil, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and Virginia Woolf

This project is concerned with an ethics of mediation, as might allow us to see the existence of the world as miraculous. To contextualize these terms, as involve the constraints of personal autonomy and understanding, this first chapter of this inquiry is a comparison of Simone Weil and Ludwig Wittgenstein\u27s philosophies; from this comparison comes a recognition of the importance of \u27mediation\u27 in one\u27s understanding of value, of an absence that is felt, which argues for an attention constituted by one\u27s relation to the world and to others. The second chapter introduces how Weil\u27s concept of \u27reading\u27—that is, her conception of how one \u27reads\u27 meaning in the world—has both an ethical and theological dimension, as well as introducing Virginia Woolf\u27s fiction as exemplary of how this \u27reading\u27 is a principle of literature; through a comparison with Wittgenstein\u27s notion of \u27aspect-perception\u27, it argues for a kind of affective proprioception, which would place one\u27s actions in relation to a dimension both aesthetic and ethical. The third chapter is a study of Woolf\u27s \u27To the Lighthouse\u27, which demonstrates the comparative ethics of literature, as a valuation of characters\u27 \u27reading\u27 of others and the world is both implicit and explicit in Woolf\u27s narration; this study profiles four characters—Lily Briscoe, Mr. Ramsay, Charles Tansley, and Mrs. Ramsay—and centers Lily Briscoe\u27s painting as a technique of mediation expressive of Woolf\u27s narrative style, and of a certain ethics. This projects ends on the question of miracle—and gestures to a gratuitous world

Letters to L

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Languages and Literature of Bard College

The Application of Coaching Techniques to Financial Issues

Financial coaching is emerging as a distinct approach to building personal financial capability. However, the term financial coaching refers to a wide array of interventions. This article reviews the literature in order to define financial coaching. Financial coaching includes helping individuals define financial goals, develop plans of action, and implement steps toward their goals. The coaching approach is designed to help people develop and sustain positive financial behaviors. This article also presents findings from three financial coaching field studies; the results suggest that working with a financial coach increases clients’ ability to focus on their financial goals and engage in positive financial behaviors. Despite these beneficial outcomes, the coaching field faces several challenges including a lack of practice standards and consistent outcomes measures

Automatic creation of apps using images of arranged physical media

The creation of software applications, e.g., mobile apps, requires the developer to have some knowledge of coding. This can be a hurdle for people that have creative ideas for applications but lack the requisite computer skills. Per the techniques of this disclosure, user interface widgets are printed on magnets and organized into kits. A user that wishes to create an app physically arranges the magnets on a board to create a UI and takes a picture of the board. Using computer vision, the resulting image is rendered into an editable app UI that is connected to data and ready to be published

"For Themselves and For Their Children": The Political Challenges, Nuances, and Triumphs of Eastern Kentucky's Schools

Thesis advisor: Marc K. LandyEducation - and rural education - was on LBJ’s mind when he declared “War on Poverty” from the front porch of a family cabin in Inez, Kentucky. In 2021, Lyndon Johnson would find his Great Society did not fully come to fruition. In this work, I explore how responsive federal, state, and local bodies of government are to the needs of underresourced schools in Eastern Kentucky’s rural, economically distressed coal counties. National Assessment of Educational Progress (NEAP) scores demonstrate that Eastern Kentucky’s students are behind from the starting-line, thanks to economic, health, and developmental disparities. However, some school districts feature rates of improvement between fourth and eighth grade that exceed the national average, while others stay behind. This project’s central finding is that local investment is the variable most correlated with school improvement. Today, Appalachia remains a place where “working people, and those who wish there was work...battle for dignity and security, for themselves and for their children.” That battle for dignity and security, for better schools and better quality of life, has gone on for decades and continues today.Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2020.Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Departmental Honors.Discipline: Scholar of the College.Discipline: Political Science