Mitigating Climate Change: Understanding How Teachers Integrate Social Justice Themes In Environmental Education

Climate change is an increasingly severe global issue with devastating repercussions for marginalized, poor, and vulnerable people. As a result, environmental education has evolved over the years to build upon outdoor nature study and ecological concepts to incorporate fundamental principles of social and environmental justices while addressing climate change. This qualitative research study employed both an online survey and semi-structured interviews to address two research questions grounded in the environmental justice movement to determine how social justice intersects with pressing global issues commonly found in environmental science curriculum. First, how do environmental science educators integrate social justice themes in their classrooms? Secondly, how has environmental education evolved to incorporate climate change education? Survey participants were taken from the Advanced Placement Environmental Science Facebook group, and individuals volunteered to participate in a follow-up, indepth interview. The data from the survey indicated participants do in fact teach climate change, are motivated by altruistic principals, and incorporate social justice themes in their AP Environmental Science classrooms. Furthermore, the interviews were transcribed and coded, while memo writing was used to ground theory to answer the primary research question. Environmental science educators do in fact include social justice in their classrooms through case studies, local connections, college preparatory programs, and environmental literacy initiatives

A Novel, Free-Space Optical Interconnect Employing Vertical-Cavity Surface Emitting Laser Diodes and InGaAs Metal-Semiconductor-Metal Photodetectors for Gbit/s RF/Microwave Systems

Emerging technologies and continuing progress in vertical-cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) diode and metal-semiconductor-metal (MSM) photodetector research are making way for novel, high-speed forms of optical data transfer in communication systems. VCSEL diodes operating at 1550 nm have only recently become commercially available, while MSM photodetectors are pushing the limits of contact lithography with interdigitated electrode widths reaching sub micron levels. We propose a novel, free-space optical interconnect operating at about 1Gbit/s utilizing VCSEL diodes and MSM photodetectors. We report on development, progress, and current work, which are as follows: first, analysis of the divergent behavior of VCSEL diodes for coupling to MSM photodetectors with a 50 by 50 m active area and second, the normalized frequency response of the VCSEL diode as a function of the modulating frequency. Third, the calculated response of MSM photodetectors with varying electrode width and spacing on the order of 1 to 3 m as well as the fabrication and characterization of these devices. The work presented here will lead to the formation and characterization of a fully integrated 1Gbit/s free-space optical interconnect at 1550 nm and demonstrates both chip level and board level functionality for RF/microwave digital systems

Russia Says West Acting Like \u27Bandits\u27 for Wanting to Use Its Frozen Assets to Fund Ukraine War

For more than a year, an estimated $300 billion dollars that belongs to Russia\u27s central bank, has been sitting in accounts frozen by the US and its allies. Immediately after Russia launched its attack on Ukraine, the US and several Western governments, blocked Moscow from accessing those funds. Now debate is growing both in Washington and Brussels on what to do with that money. Some US lawmakers are calling for it to be sent to Ukraine, to fund its war against Russia. Since February last year, the US and its allies have allocated nearly$200 billion dollars in support for Ukraine. But more than 13 months into the war, concerns are growing about sustaining that level of support. Tax payers in the West, already burdened by rising inflation, have been pressuring lawmakers for relief. One US senator is working on a new bill that would allow President Joe Biden to seize Russian central bank assets and make them available to Ukraine. But would that open up more legal and political problems and what precedent would it set

Ideology, image-making and the media in Putin's Russia

This work focuses on the tumultuous and rapidly evolving environment of Russian media and society, from the era of Gorbachev's reforms of glasnost to just before the 2003 – 2004 electoral cycle. Over this time, there have been three Presidents - Mikhail Gorbachev, Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin. Three leaders who have a different managerial style, although both Gorbachev and Putin have legal training, which seems to have some impact upon the way they try to manage a transforming society

The impact of political and business interests on the contemporary Russian media

This thesis examines the impact of political and business interests upon the news content of the contemporary Russian media. The main period of focus is on the era of the Second Republic ( 1991 - ), with an in-depth analysis from 1996 - 2000. I make a brief description of the Soviet era media with the intention of trying to draw any influences which may have carried through into, and influence the present day Russian media. Russia's situation is unique, this has come about through a set of circumstances over a long period of tradition and history. Russian society displays a blending of old and new ideas. To try and explain the contemporary situation the thesis grapples with issues such as corruption, politics and business. By shedding light on these issues, actions and choices made by the participants become more comphrensable. The later chapters of the thesis attempt to identify specific pressures on the media. Media assets have become valued property in contemporary Russia. I endeavour to illuminate any patterns established by those who seek to control the media. Suggestions for the motivations which drive politicians and businessmen to aspire to control the media are advanced, to explain why the media industry is vigorously contested, as the industry itself is very unprofitable. The content of chapter VII seeks to find explanations for the vulnerability of independent media to financial takeover or influence ( from political and business organisations). Among the topics to be covered are events such as the economic crises and an inability of some mass media organisations to make the transition from communism to democracy

Free-Space Optical Interconnect Employing VCSEL Diodes

Sensor signal processing is widely used on aircraft and spacecraft. The scheme employs multiple input/output nodes for data acquisition and CPU (central processing unit) nodes for data processing. To connect 110 nodes and CPU nodes, scalable interconnections such as backplanes are desired because the number of nodes depends on requirements of each mission. An optical backplane consisting of vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs), VCSEL drivers, photodetectors, and transimpedance amplifiers is the preferred approach since it can handle several hundred megabits per second data throughput.The next generation of satellite-borne systems will require transceivers and processors that can handle several Gb/s of data. Optical interconnects have been praised for both their speed and functionality with hopes that light can relieve the electrical bottleneck predicted for the near future. Optoelectronic interconnects provide a factor of ten improvement over electrical interconnects

z~2: An Epoch of Disk Assembly

We explore the evolution of the internal gas kinematics of star-forming galaxies from the peak of cosmic star-formation at $z\sim2$ to today. Measurements of galaxy rotation velocity $V_{rot}$, which quantify ordered motions, and gas velocity dispersion $\sigma_g$, which quantify disordered motions, are adopted from the DEEP2 and SIGMA surveys. This sample covers a continuous baseline in redshift from $z=2.5$ to $z=0.1$, spanning 10 Gyrs. At low redshift, nearly all sufficiently massive star-forming galaxies are rotationally supported ($V_{rot}>\sigma_g$). By $z=2$, the percentage of galaxies with rotational support has declined to 50$\%$ at low stellar mass ($10^{9}-10^{10}\,M_{\odot}$) and 70$\%$ at high stellar mass ($10^{10}-10^{11}M_{\odot}$). For $V_{rot}\,>\,3\,\sigma_g$, the percentage drops below 35$\%$ for all masses. From $z\,=\,2$ to now, galaxies exhibit remarkably smooth kinematic evolution on average. All galaxies tend towards rotational support with time, and it is reached earlier in higher mass systems. This is mostly due to an average decline in $\sigma_g$ by a factor of 3 since a redshift of 2, which is independent of mass. Over the same time period, $V_{rot}$ increases by a factor of 1.5 for low mass systems, but does not evolve for high mass systems. These trends in $V_{rot}$ and $\sigma_g$ with time are at a fixed stellar mass and should not be interpreted as evolutionary tracks for galaxy populations. When galaxy populations are linked in time with abundance matching, not only does $\sigma_g$ decline with time as before, but $V_{rot}$ strongly increases with time for all galaxy masses. This enhances the evolution in $V_{rot}/\sigma_g$. These results indicate that $z\,=\,2$ is a period of disk assembly, during which the strong rotational support present in today's massive disk galaxies is only just beginning to emerge.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, submitted to Ap

Collaborations in Liberal Arts Colleges in Support of Digital Humanities

The field of digital humanities has been rapidly expanding over the course of the last decade. As such, academic institutions have been working to identify ways of supporting these new endeavors in a time of economic struggles. The Digital Humanities Initiative (DHi) at Hamilton College was conceived as one possible model of supporting digital humanities scholarship at a liberal arts institution. The DHi model relies heavily on collaboration among different teams in the Library and Information Technology Services across campus, and with institutions across the United States. DHi also has international partnerships that promote its goals in research, learning, and public humanities. This chapter will describe the various collaborations of DHi and offer suggestions for how others can implement similar support models at their institutions