A queer look at feminist science fiction: Examing Sally Miller Gearhart\u27s The Kanshou

This thesis is a queer theory analysis of the feminist science fiction novel The Kanshou by Sally Miller Gearhart. After exploring both male and female authored science fiction in the literature review, two themes were to be dominant. The goal of this thesis is to answer the questions, can the traditional themes that are prevalent in male authored science fiction and feminist science fiction in representing gender and sexual orientation dichotomies be found in The Kanshou? And does Gearhart challenge these dichotomies by destabilizing them? The analysis found determined that Gearhart\u27s The Kanshou does challenge traditional sociological norms of binary gender identities and sexual orientation the majority of the time

Amplifying the A in STEAM Education

This paper discusses the importance of teachers implementing STEAM education in the classroom. Previously, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (abbreviated as STEM) education was used as a tool to prepare students to excel in career fields that are projected to grow in the near future. However, recently the acronym was changed to STEAM to add “the arts” to the original acronym. It is imperative that the arts are seen as an equal to STEM, as they can complement and enhance the goals STEM is trying to reach. Since not all students possess the same interest, ways of learning, or abilities, it is vital that teachers do the best they can to reach all of their students through their curriculum. Though the task may seem daunting, there are countless ways that the arts seamlessly fits into STEM. In this paper, four middle-school appropriate lessons that merge the disciplines of STEAM are provided. The first lesson combines an aspect of humanities with science. The second lesson combines an aspect of visual art with an aspect of technology. The third lesson combines an aspect of theater with an aspect of engineering. And the fourth lesson combines an aspect of music with an aspect of mathematics

Relationship Between the Extent of Endolymphatic Hydrops and the Severity and Fluctuation of Audiovestibular Symptoms in Patients With Meniere's Disease and MRI Evidence of Hydrops

Objective:To characterize the short-, middle-, and long-term occurrence of vertigo attacks in a large population of Meniere's disease (MD) and to investigate the relationship between the extent of endolymphatic hydrops (ELH) and the severity of audiovestibular symptoms. Study Design:Prospective observational study. Methods:One hundred ninety-two patients with clinically definite MD participated in this study. The degree of ELH was visualized by locally enhanced inner ear magnetic resonance imaging. The occurrence and intensity of vertigo attacks, hearing loss, tinnitus, and aural fullness were documented in patient diaries. Results:There was no significant correlation between the extent of cochlear or vestibular hydrops and the number of definite vertigo days, neither with regard to a short-term nor with regard to a middle-term time period. There was also no correlation between the extent of ELH and the intensity or activity of the coexisting aural symptoms hearing loss, tinnitus, and aural fullness. The duration of the disease significantly correlated with the extent of both cochlear and vestibular hydrops, but not with the number of definite vertigo days. Conclusion:The ELH was progressive in the long-term course of the disease in this large population of definite MD patients, but short-term and middle-term fluctuations of the symptom severity did not involve measurable variations of the ELH. Furthermore, the symptom severity did not decrease with increasing disease duration

Engineering Evaluation/Cost Analysis (EE/CA) for Decommissioning of TAN-607 Hot Shop Area

Test Area North (TAN) -607, the Technical Support Facility, is located at the north end of the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) Site. U.S. Department of Energy Idaho Operations Office (DOE-ID) is proposing to decommission the northern section of the TAN-607 facility, hereinafter referred to as TAN-607 Hot Shop Area, under a Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) non-time-critical removal action (NTCRA). Despite significant efforts by the United States (U.S.) Department of Energy (DOE) to secure new business, no future mission has been identified for the TAN-607 Hot Shop Area. Its disposition has been agreed to by the Idaho State Historical Preservation Office documented in the Memorandum of Agreement signed October 2005 and it is therefore considered a surplus facility. A key element in DOE's strategy for surplus facilities is decommissioning to the maximum extent possible to ensure risk and building footprint reduction and thereby eliminating operations and maintenance cost. In addition, the DOE's 2006 Strategic Plan is ''complete cleanup of the contaminated nuclear weapons manufacturing and testing sites across the United States. DOE is responsible for the risk reduction and cleanup of the environmental legacy of the Nation's nuclear weapons program, one of the largest, most diverse, and technically complex environmental programs in the world. The Department will successfully achieve this strategic goal by ensuring the safety of the DOE employees and U.S. citizens, acquiring the best resources to complete the complex tasks, and managing projects throughout the United States in the most efficient and effective manner.'' TAN-607 is designated as a historical Signature Property by DOE Headquarters Advisory Council on Historic Preservation and, as such, public participation is required to determine the final disposition of the facility. The decommissioning action will place the TAN-607 Hot Shop Area in a final configuration that will be protective of human health and the environment. Decommissioning the TAN-607 Hot Shop Area is consistent with the joint DOE and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Policy on Decommissioning of Department of Energy Facilities Under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, which establishes the CERCLA NTCRA process as the preferred approach for decommissioning surplus DOE facilities. Under this policy, a NTCRA may be taken when DOE determines that the action will prevent, minimize, stabilize, or eliminate a risk to human health and/or the environment. When DOE determines that a CERCLA NTCRA is necessary, DOE is authorized to evaluate, select, and implement the removal action that DOE determines is most appropriate to address the potential risk posed by the release or threat of release. This action is taken in accordance with applicable authorities and in conjunction with EPA and the State of Idaho pursuant to Section 5.3 of the Federal Facility Agreement and Consent Order. In keeping with the joint policy, this engineering evaluation/cost analysis (EE/CA) was developed in accordance with CERCLA as amended by the ''Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act of 1986'' and in accordance with the ''National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan.'' This EE/CA is consistent with the remedial action objectives (RAOs) of the Final Record of Decision, Test Area North, Operable Unit 1-10 and supports the overall remediation goals established through the Federal Facility Agreement and Consent Order for Waste Area Group 1. Waste Area Group 1 is located at TAN

Conceptual framework for scenarios development in the Water futures and Solutions project

The major purpose of the Water Futures & Solutions (WFaS) initiative is to develop a set of adaptable resilient and robust solutions and a framework to facilitate access to and guidance through them by decision makers facing a variety of water-related challenges to sustainable evelopment, and a set of optional pathways to achieve plausible sustainable development goals by 2050. The WFaS Initiative addresses the multidimensional aspects of the water system and is guided by stakeholders representing these various aspects. The Initiative views freshwater systems as being strongly interweaved with human activities (Economy, Society) and Nature as a whole. Dynamics and health of freshwater systems is critical to human well- being. The Initiative will go beyond scenario production and model comparisons and will focus on exploring solutions and necessary innovations to address the growing water challenges. Solutions can be combinations of technological innovations, regulatory approaches, manageent or institutional changes that improve the balance of water supply and demand, improve water quality, or reduce water-related risks for society. Solutions will often be embedded in and cut across all sectors of social and economic activities. In order to represent the aspirations and interdependencies as described above, the conceptual framework has been developed, to communicate project results to the target audiences. This document describes this conceptual framework that will be used: -to support development of qualitative water scenarios -to identify and select critical dimensions of the water scenarios -to guide integration of scenarios with quantitative models -to guide integration of information from various data sources into the scenarios -to support development and assessment of solutions -to support collaboration between project and stakeholder groups -to facilitate presentation of results to target audiences The WFaS conceptual framework is developed using the 'concept maps' technique (Caqas and Carff, 2005; Novak and Caqas, 2006b). Concept maps method was develop to represent knowledge in an organized way. It allows practitioners to represent concepts and specific relationships between concepts. It is flexible enough to adapt to different knowledge domains to support better understanding and communication between individuals and groups from different backgrounds

Towards Innovative Solutions through Integrative Futures Analysis - Preliminary qualitative scenarios

This report presents preliminary results of developing qualitative global water scenarios. The water scenarios are developed to be consistent with the underlying Shared Socio- Economic Pathways (SSPs). In this way different stakeholders in different contexts (climate, water) can be presented with consistent set of scenarios avoiding confusion and increasing policy impact. Water scenarios are based on the conceptual framework that has been developd specifically for this effort. The framework provides clear representation of important dimensions in the areas of Nature, Economy and Society and Water dimensions that are embedded in them. These critical dimensions are used to describe future changes in a consistent way for all scenarios. Three scenarios are presented based on SSP1, SSP2 and SSP3 respectively. Hydro-economic classes are introduced to further differentiate within scenarios based on economic and water conditions for specific regions and/or countries. In the process of building these preliminary water scenarios assumptions that are presented in this report, the number of challenges have been met. In the conclusions section these challenges are summarized and possible ways of tackling them are described

Multisectoral Climate Impact Hotspots in a Warming World

The impacts of global climate change on different aspects of humanity's diverse life-support systems are complex and often difficult to predict. To facilitate policy decisions on mitigation and adaptation strategies, it is necessary to understand, quantify, and synthesize these climate-change impacts, taking into account their uncertainties. Crucial to these decisions is an understanding of how impacts in different sectors overlap, as overlapping impacts increase exposure, lead to interactions of impacts, and are likely to raise adaptation pressure. As a first step we develop herein a framework to study coinciding impacts and identify regional exposure hotspots. This framework can then be used as a starting point for regional case studies on vulnerability and multifaceted adaptation strategies. We consider impacts related to water, agriculture, ecosystems, and malaria at different levels of global warming. Multisectoral overlap starts to be seen robustly at a mean global warming of 3 degC above the 1980-2010 mean, with 11% of the world population subject to severe impacts in at least two of the four impact sectors at 4 degC. Despite these general conclusions, we find that uncertainty arising from the impact models is considerable, and larger than that from the climate models. In a low probability-high impact worst-case assessment, almost the whole inhabited world is at risk for multisectoral pressures. Hence, there is a pressing need for an increased research effort to develop a more comprehensive understanding of impacts, as well as for the development of policy measures under existing uncertainty

Water quality and its interlinkages with the Sustainable Development Goals

Interlinkages among the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) lead to important trade-offs and synergies among the goals and their underlying targets. The aim of this paper is to review the role of water quality as an agent of interlinkages among the SDGs. It was found that there are a small number of explicit interconnections, but many more inferred interlinkages between water quality and various targets. A review of case studies showed that interlinkages operate from the municipal to near global scales, that their importance is likely to increase in developing countries, and that new SDG indicators are needed to monitor them. The analysis identifies many different SDG target areas where a combined effort between the water quality community and other sectors would bring mutual benefits in achieving the water quality and other targets