Stakeholding Through the Permanent Fund Dividend: Fitting Practice to Theory

Alaska’s Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD) is the United States’ most significant, if not its only attempted, experiment with universal asset policies. This chapter helps clarify where the PFD fits within the larger portfolio of economic rights and obligations guaranteed by the liberal state. Is the program a realization of “real-freedom-for-all” basic income, or might it have foreshadowed Bruce Ackerman and Anne Alstott’s Stakeholder Society decades before their proposal emerged? I argue that neither categorization is entirely correct or entirely mistaken. Core features of the PFD demonstrate Alaska’s implicit belief in stakeholding but currently fall short of the sweeping citizenship agenda identified by stakeholding theorists. Like true stakeholder initiatives and basic income schemes, the PFD distributes shared resources on a means-independent basis, does not require recipients to work or otherwise participate in economic affairs, and commits the government to monetary distributions rather than in-kind transfers. Nevertheless, the PFD does not - and in its current format cannot - enable Alaskans to pursue their individual life plans independently of other income sources. This chapter also moves beyond definitions and addresses the PFD’s special characteristic, what I call the “endogeneity condition,” or funding through existing natural resources rather than the public fisc. I focus on how this feature allows us to abstract away from the particulars of financing basic income or stakeholding and analyze the consumption side of the system. The chapter concludes by considering how the State of Alaska might reorient the PFD toward a more comprehensive stakeholding structure and calling for more research into the use of resource-based asset systems so that governments can more aptly choose among basic income, stakeholding, and other funding schemes

The Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend and Membership in the State’s Political Community

Despite decades of unmitigated administrative success, the Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD) is not immune from political and legal controversy. The symbolic and financial importance that Alaskans ascribe to their annual dividend checks has generated disputes between ordinary residents and executive agencies over eligibility. Litigation concerning three dominant status requirements—minimum residency, U.S. citizenship, and felony incarceration—reveal not only the extent to which Alaskans will pursue what they believe to be valid claims on their share of natural resource wealth, but also the limits of full political membership in the state. This Comment frames a sample of the Alaska Supreme Court’s decisions on PFD eligibility in terms of membership in Alaska’s political community. The PFD reflects the Alaska Legislature’s opinion about valid beneficiaries from oil revenues, and the state courts police eligibility at the margin. This Comment therefore argues that the Alaska Supreme Court implicitly determines, on the basis of statutory intent and administrative rule interpretations, “insiders” and “outsiders” within the state’s political community

Legal Aspects of Architecture, Engineering and the Construction Process by Justin Sweet

Syftet med detta examensarbete är att ta reda på vilken kunskap lärare har om undervisning i läsförståelse, hur lärare på lågstadiet beskriver sin undervisning men även hur läsundervisningen förändras efter att eleven knäckt läskoden och kommit igång med sin läsning. Det empiriska materialet består av insamlad data genom intervjuer med sex lågstadielärare. Studien är kvalitativ med en fenomenografisk metodansats men även inspirerad av fenomenolgin. Resultaten visar att lärarna har svårt att definiera och beskriva vad läsförståelse är. I lärarnas  yrkesspråk saknas många ord och begrepp för att tala om läsning och läsförståelse . Att döma av hur lärarna beskriver sin undervisning har de ingen tydlig struktur för arbetet med läsförståelse, även om de nämner ett antal olika arbetssätt, och det tycks inte finnas någon väl genomtänkt progression för elevens läsförståelseutveckling. Nivåanpassade läromedel och individualisering är det sätt som vanligtvis används när undervisningen ska anpassas efter elevens utveckling i läsförståelse. Studien visar också att det behövs mera fortbildning för lärarna i vad läsning och läsförståelse är. Goda kunskaper om läsprocessen och läsförståelse är en förutsättning för att nå goda resultat i läsundervisningen

All aboard: power, participation and governance in the North Sea regional advisory council

This paper explores and reveals some hitherto concealed powers relations in the European Union's new political-economic governance procedures. It does this through an empirical investigation of the fisheries stakeholder forum, the North Sea Regional Advisory Council. It shows that although governance arrangements are now designed to be more inclusive than they were before the CFP (Common Fisheries Policy) reforms, they do still involve exclusions, and uneven power relations that are not always readily apparent. The paper is based on research carried out by the author, comprising a case study of the CFP governance reforms. The research includes analysis of EU policy documents, press reports and websites and over 50 interviews with key players in North Sea fisheries governanc

Apparatus for conducting flow electrophoresis in the substantial absence of gravity

A zero-g, constant flow electrophoretic separating apparatus is presented. The apparatus is composed a deflecting member to spread carrier fluid across a conduit, and an end wall with a valve located in the conduit past the separation electrodes from which layers of carrier and sample may be extracted. Electrode electrolyte is separated from the carrier and continually circulated and cleaned

Nimbus Telemetry

Nimbus satellite - pulse-code-modulated telemetry subsyte

Holder exponent spectra for human gait

The stride interval time series in normal human gait is not strictly constant, but fluctuates from step to step in a complex manner. More precisely, it has been shown that the control process for human gait is a fractal random phenomenon, that is, one with a long-term memory. Herein we study the Holder exponent spectra for the slow, normal and fast gaits of 10 young healthy men in both free and metronomically triggered conditions and establish that the stride interval time series is more complex than a monofractal phenomenon. A slightly multifractal and non-stationary time series under the three different gait conditions emerges.Comment: 23 pages, 12 figures, 9 Table

Non-random chromosome positioning in mammalian sperm nuclei, with migration of the sex chromosomes during late spermatogenesis

Chromosomes are highly organized and compartmentalized in cell nuclei. The analysis of their position is a powerful way to monitor genome organization in different cell types and states. Evidence suggests that the organization of the genome could be functionally important for influencing different cellular and developmental processes, particularly at early stages of development (i.e. fertilization and the consequent entry of the sperm nucleus into the egg). The position of chromosomes in the sperm nucleus might be crucial, because their location could determine the time at which particular chromatin domains are decondensed and remodelled, allowing some epigenetic level of control or influence over subsequent paternal gene expression in the embryo. Here, we analyse genome organization by chromosome position in mammalian sperm nuclei from three breeds of pig, as a model species. We have mapped the preferential position of all chromosomes (bar one) in sperm nuclei in two dimensions and have established that the sex chromosomes are the most internally localized chromosomes in mature sperm. The distribution of two autosomes and chromosomes X and Y in sperm heads was compared in primary and secondary spermatocytes and spermatids in porcine testes. The sex chromosomes were found at the nuclear edge in primary spermatocytes, which correlates with the known position of the XY body and their position in somatic cells, whereas, in spermatids, the sex chromosomes were much more centrally located, mirroring the position of these chromosomes in ejaculated spermatozoa. This study reveals the temporal repositioning of chromosome territories in spermatogenesis

Design, analysis, and fabrication of the technology integration box beam

Numerous design concepts, materials, and manufacturing methods were investigated analytically and empirically for the covers and spars of a transport wing box. This information was applied to the design, analysis, and fabrication of a full-scale section of a transport wing box. A blade-stiffened design was selected for the upper and lower covers of the box. These covers have been constructed using three styles of AS4/974 prepreg fabrics. The front and rear T-stiffened channel spars were filament wound using AS4/1806 towpreg. Covers, ribs, and spars were assembled using mechanical fasteners. When they are completed later this year, the tests on the technology integration box beam will demonstrate the structural integrity of an advanced composite wing design which is 25 percent lighter than the metal baseline