Renaissance Willows

Despite rising popularity of subjective well-being (SWB) as a proxy for utility, its relationship with income is still unresolved. Against the background of debates around the ‘Easterlin paradox’, this paper seeks a compromise between two positions: one that insists on individual relative income, and one that finds similarity between individual and aggregate levels. Proposing a model which puts the emphasis on the interaction between individual and aggregate-level factors, it argues that the effect of relative income on SWB varies across countries as a function of average income, in addition to a relatively small direct effect of the latter, in partial agreement with the two major positions. The model is tested cross-sectionally on the data from the latest wave of World Values Survey. The results from hierarchical mixed-effect models confirm the main argument. But further examination reveals that there is still unaccounted variation especially in middle-income economies.publishe

Non-Ownership Principles as Understood by Lay Practitioners of Jainism and Quakerism

This thesis examines how lay members of the Jain and Quaker traditions understand and navigate ideals of non-ownership. The tenets of aparigraha (non-ownership) and the testimony of simplicity are explored to show how interpretation of sacred texts leave open the possibility for financial success. Through interviews with members of Jain and Quaker communities in the US, and textual research, I assert that proper methods for earning, maintaining and using capital in each tradition transcend prohibitions against excess accumulation. Following Foucault and Weber, I show that proper ethical ways of earning and spending money depend on community-based interpretations and self-policing. My research suggests that lay members focus on ethical ways to earn and spend money rather than the amount of wealth they possess. Due to these foci, transgressions of ideals are viewed within community-established norms, which maintain high levels of engagement with both the capital world and their own religious tradition

Eco-Traffic: Globalization, Materiality, and Subalternity in Asia-Pacific Literature

This project implicates globalization – the spreading of capital, neoliberalism, and Western totalitarianism – as a primary contributor to the continuing subalternity of colonized cultures and environments in the Global South. Under the guise of shrinking the world or spreading freedom, globalization has resulted in profound material consequences to biomes attempting political decolonization. Where postcolonial theory demands that attention be paid to anthropological difference, be it social, political, economic, or gendered, some ecocritical scholars of the Anthropocene wish to decenter the human from an era in which they – as a species – have emerged as a hazardous geologic force. This project offers “traffic” as a literal and metaphorical framework for the meshing of human subalternity within the material biomes of the Asia-Pacific region, as captured in literature. Examining texts from India, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the United States reveals multiple traffics within globalization that intertwine the subaltern subject within their environs: the mapping and zoning of cities, the congestion of foreign-made automobiles and persons within cities, and the historical and current trade of illegal narcotics and humans. The dissertation actively contributes to a developing subset of ecocriticism that recognizes the subaltern in the intra-action of environmental entities, showing that each animal, plant, object and person has its own vibrancy, its own directionality, which leads to congestion and accidents, but often to new pathways

Grain morphology of as-cast wrought aluminium alloys

Two of the most important microstructural features of alloys are the grain size and the dendrite arm spacing (DAS). Both grain refinement and the DAS depend upon alloy composition through constitutional undercooling, but in different ways. Grain size tends to be related to the initial rate of development of constitutional undercooling, whilst the DAS is more related to the amount of solute build-up towards the end of the solidification process. This means that element additions that have a large effect on the grain size, e.g. Ti, have much less effect on the DAS. With examples from a range of wrought Al alloys, this paper investigates how the interaction between alloy content, grain refiner additions and cooling rate affect the grain size, DAS and the grain morphology obtained in an alloy

Chemical ionization tandem mass spectrometer for the in situ measurement of methyl hydrogen peroxide

A new approach for measuring gas-phase methyl hydrogen peroxide [(MHP) CH_3OOH] utilizing chemical ionization mass spectrometry is presented. Tandem mass spectrometry is used to avoid mass interferences that hindered previous attempts to measure atmospheric CH_3OOH with CF_3O− clustering chemistry. CH_3OOH has been successfully measured in situ using this technique during both airborne and ground-based campaigns. The accuracy and precision for the MHP measurement are a function of water vapor mixing ratio. Typical precision at 500 pptv MHP and 100 ppmv H_2O is ±80 pptv (2 sigma) for a 1 s integration period. The accuracy at 100 ppmv H_2O is estimated to be better than ±40%. Chemical ionization tandem mass spectrometry shows considerable promise for the determination of in situ atmospheric trace gas mixing ratios where isobaric compounds or mass interferences impede accurate measurements

Arctic Security Considerations and the U.S. Navy’s Roadmap for the Arctic

The scope and magnitude of changes to the Arctic region as a result of a changing climate are great—shifts in species populations and distribution, more navigable transportation passages, increased shipping activity and resource extraction, and modified global circulation patterns. The Navy’s Task Force Climate Change is addressing these considerations, which will shape safety and security in the Arctic