Martial the Book Poet: Contextu(r)alising the Flavian Poetry Book

This thesis explores how the reader is invited to read the books of Martial’s Epigrams, arguing that the epigrammatist has arranged the poems in his libelli in a specific order that rewards a sequential reading of the text from start to finish. Instead of viewing Martial as an anthologist who collated a series of occasional poems for their later publication, the thesis demonstrates that the poet showed awareness of his epigrams’ position within a larger ‘contexture’, and that he primes the reader throughout the Epigrams to envisage the books as thematically unified wholes. By viewing the Epigrams as a text to be read from beginning to end, rather than a text to be excerpted and anthologised, one can read each epigram in the wider context of its book, and better appreciate that book’s structural unity. Chapter one introduces the issues at stake in how one reads a book of epigrams, and provides the thesis’ methodological approach. Special attention is paid to the phenomenology of reading as a hermeneutic act, drawing together approaches to the Epigrams from classical scholarship as well as from reception and comic book theories to detail the method of ‘cumulative reading’ employed in the thesis. The second chapter then examines how Martial characterises the lector studiosus in his text, and how this depicted reader acts as a model for the actual reader to follow in their own sequential reading of the Epigrams. Chapter three focuses on Epigrams 7, demonstrating that the opening poems of the book establish the emperor Domitian as a thematic centrepiece around whom the rest of the book’s themes cluster. The fourth chapter also examines book 7, demonstrating how two different uses of watery motifs develop their individual thematic unity across the book, while also linking themselves back to the book’s opening imperial cycle to craft an overarching structural unity for the libellus. Chapter five then gives an overview of the larger structure of the Epigrams, arguing that the paratextual prose prefaces in books 1, 2, 8, 9, and 12 reinforce the individuality of the books they precede as well as establishing their own place within the wider corpus. Overall, this thesis puts the epigrammatic libellus back into the context of late first century AD book culture, emphasising that Martial paid attention not only to his epigrams’ position within their own books, but also their place within the wider corpus.The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC

Massive ice and topographic controls on retrogressive thaw slump dynamics: peninsula point, western Canadian Arctic

Retrogressive Thaw Slumps (RTSs) — a highly dynamic form of mass wasting, are now exerting a dominant influence on geomorphic changes in the ice-cored terrain of the western Canadian Arctic. However, the main controls on their activity are poorly understood. This research aims to assess the response of RTS dominated coasts to variations in massive ice and terrain morphology. This is achieved through a multi-scale analysis of Peninsula Point — the site type for intra-sedimental massive ice. Long-term coastal change, up to 2018, is assessed using a range of metrics, including shoreline retreat (SLR) from 1935, headwall retreat (HWR) from 1994, and topographic and volumetric analysis from 2004. Inter-annual variations and fine-scale characteristics of coastal change are explored through quantitative analysis of the high-resolution structure from motion multi-view stereo data, sedimentological analysis and the novel application of passive seismic monitoring for detecting and mapping subsurface massive ice and overburden variations. Modern observations, published descriptions and historic aerial photos are used to assess changes in massive ice since 1935. Between 2016 and 2018, headwalls containing an overburden of less than 4 m in all years and an exposure of massive ice (regardless of thickness) in 2018 retreated over three times faster than other active headwalls. Furthermore, passive seismic surveys in 2017 allowed for the creation of a 3D site model, highlighting both the cross-shore and along-shore variability in the massive ice surface elevation and overburden thickness. The modelled ice closely matched subsequent observations in 2018, allowing for an accurate prediction of the relative HWR rates between 2017 and 2018. Nearshore elevation and slope display statistically significant, but weak, correlations with SLR, HWR and volume loss between 2004 and 2018, while variability in massive ice thickness and surface elevation strongly modulates both the strength and direction of these correlations. The long-term SLR rate on Peninsula Point was reduced from 5.8 m a-1 between 1935 and 1985, to 3.4 m a-1 from 1985 to 2018, in contrast with other ice-rich coasts. This disparity is explained by a thinning of the massive ice body, from widespread exposures of 5 m to 10 m during the 20th century, to patchy, thin exposures with maximum thicknesses under 5 m in recent years. The overall results have been condensed into a series of conceptual models, illustrating the coastal geomorphic response to massive ice. This research highlights how massive ice variability shapes coastal dynamics across a range of time scales, how the ice surface can be mapped by non-invasive means and the data used to improve predictions of coastal change. By allowing for more refined estimates of variability in SLR and volume loss, these findings have implications for the planning and protection of coastal infrastructure, quantifying the nutrient and sediment input to the nearshore zone and in assessing the past and future contribution of permafrost coastal change to global carbon budgets

Preserving the People: Using Historic Preservation as a Tool for Combating Community Change in Gentrifying Areas

This report takes an introspective approach to analyzing the field of historic preservation. Historic preservation has historically been associated with elitist, white preservation efforts, but it has also evolved over the past 40 years to become a powerful economic development tool for communities through the introduction of historic tax credits. The economic development that historic preservation can create has also led to preservation commonly being indicted as a cause of gentrification, displacement, and a lack of affordable housing. To better understand how preservationists think about their influence in these topics, I conducted a content analysis of writing done by preservation professionals. I identified various themes for how the preservation field perceives itself. Throughout the report, I argue that the field of historic preservation must strive to make itself more relevant in the face of our changing communities. The second part of this report consists of four examples of organizations that are doing work to break into previously untapped spaces – affordable housing production, housing retention efforts for low-income homeowners, and the preservation of naturally occurring affordable rentals. This report seeks to contribute to the growing body of literature on preservation’s role in changing communities. It also seeks to show that preservation can and should take an active role in combating gentrification and displacement.Master of City and Regional Plannin

Courtroom Cartography: How Federal Court Redistricting Has Shaped American Democracy from Baker to Rucho

Thesis advisor: Shep MelnickEvery decade, following the U.S. Census, lawmakers redraw state and federal legislative districts. This process of redistricting is a necessary aspect of representative democracy for capturing population changes in a dynamic society. While this responsibility of redrawing legislative districts has historically been left to state legislatures to complete - and more recently to commissions and panels - the reality is that every redistricting cycle, some of these maps are actually drawn by the U.S. federal courts. These maps determine the district boundaries for millions of Americans - who votes where, for whom and with whom. Since the Supreme Court ruled that legislative reapportionment was a justiciable issue for federal judiciary in 1962’s landmark decision, Baker v Carr, the lower federal courts have regularly taken the extraordinary step of drawing legislative districts themselves when the initial redistricting institution fails to implement a lawful plan. This places the famously nonpartisan institutions at the center of the most political activity. There is no clear constitutional or statutory guidance for how federal courts should make these remedial maps, and there are dozens of competing criteria for where to draw each line: compactness, partisan advantage, racial representation, competitiveness, protection of political subdivisions, etc. This raises fundamental questions about the role of the federal courts in American government, the nature of representative democracy, judicial independence and the separation of powers, the criteria for judging fairness, institutional capacity and federalism. Despite these tensions, there has been no comprehensive research on the impact that federal courts have on redistricting. This dissertation aims to address these tensions and fill this scholarly gap, answering the question of What has been the impact of federal court involvement in legislative redistricting between 1962’s Baker v Carr and 2019’s Rucho v Common Cause. In this dissertation, I use five approaches to undertake a comprehensive examination of the role of the federal courts in redistricting during this 57-year period. In Chapter 2, I adapt Supreme Court decision making theories for the lower federal courts to develop a theory of institutional constraints. I argue these constraints determine the courts’ choices on when, how and why to make a redistricting map and which criteria to use. In Chapter 3, I use an American Political Development approach to examine the changes in judicially manageable standards created by the Supreme Court over time for understanding the legally constraining precedents for the lower courts. In Chapter 4, I conduct an original descriptive content analysis of more than 1,200 lower federal court decisions between 1960 and 2019 related to redistricting to understand the preconditions for federal court action, the trends in lower federal court caseload and outcomes, and the obedience of the lower courts to Supreme Court precedents. In Chapter 5, I present the analytical heart of this dissertation, testing my theory and defining what makes a federal court-made map distinct from those made by other institutions. To accomplish this goal, I use an original dataset of five decades of redistricting plans at the state and federal levels together with 13 varied quantitative methods developed by myself and other political scientists for measuring gerrymanders. Analyses of these data allow me to quantify the criteria used by the federal courts in distinction to other institutions, leading to predictive results about the federal courts as map makers. I find that federal courts create redistricting plans with lower population variance, more compact districts, and a higher proportion of majority-minority districts for descriptive racial representation than legislatures or commissions. Federal courts also create some partisan bias in their plans but at a lower level than is seen in legislatures. In Chapter 6, I take a qualitative, case study approach and compare these empirical results to the actual court opinions in four representative instances where the courts drew the maps. I examine how well judges understood the nonpolitical criteria they were actually using in practice and apply my theory of institutional constraints on lower federal courts. In sum, this dissertation offers: • new datasets and methods for studying redistricting institutions; • descriptive accounts of the trends, processes and development of federal courts redistricting; • an institutional theory and approach for studying the lower federal courts; • A detailed examination of the development of Supreme Court precedents on redistricting that constrain lower court decision making; • and quantitative and qualitative analyses of which criteria the federal judiciary favors when they draw plans and why. Most importantly, this dissertation finds that the criteria courts favor in practice differ from those used by state legislatures and commissions. Federal courts apply criteria shaped by judicial constraints and that reflect a distinct understanding of legislative representation. The dissertation’s conclusion examines the implications of these findings for American democracy, the lower federal courts, voters and constituents.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2022.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Political Science

Moral Reformation in Penitentiaries Past, Present and Future:

Thesis advisor: Susan ShellThere are many urgent issues facing prisons in the United States today including overcrowding, inmate violence, sentencing concerns and cost. Some communities are using faith-based moral rehabilitation programs in prisons to address these issues and attempt to reform convicts in body and soul. These efforts, exemplified by Louisiana State Penitentiary’s moral rehabilitation program, have clear benefits for reducing in-prison violence and state costs, but they have also garnered ample criticism due to their use of religion in state facilities, the preferential treatment of some prisoners, unclear evidence of moral reformation and claims of abuse. This study looks at modern moral rehabilitation programs and compares them to the early 19th century American penitentiaries, which had similar goals of moral improvement. By examining the function, advantages and disadvantages of these modern moral programs and comparing them to the history of early American penitentiaries; the functions and flaws of the Pennsylvania and Auburn Systems; and Gustave de Beaumont and Alexis de Tocqueville’s analysis and criticism of the penitentiaries in their book On the Penitentiary System…; this study recommends the changes necessary to maintain the beneficial and laudable aspects of today’s moral rehabilitation programs while addressing the criticisms and questions over this form of punishment. The conclusion is the recommendation of a reformed, less religious moral program with six components: incarceration, a strong community citizenship for inmates, education and mentoring, labor, a limited component of religion with the possibility of radical moral transformation, and certain punishment through solitary confinement

Segmenting the UK Mobile Fashion Consumer

As mobile apparel retail websites and apps grow in popularity, insight into the psychology and behaviours of shoppers using these mobile interfaces has become more important. Although Android operated mobile devices dominate the market, the current study of fashion consumers’ opinions shows that, in terms of fashion shopping via mobile devices, Apple’s iOS is leading. The data show that mostly females aged 18 to 34 years old purchase clothing via smart phones, and consumers using iOS smart phones purchase more clothing via mobile than Android OS. Over 60% of respondents prefer to use websites on their mobile devices despite the wide range of mobile apps available. 70% of respondents think that ’website and products do not display properly on the small screen’. This is the first study focusing on critical issues of fashion m-retail’s environment based on mobile fashion consumers’ behaviour and shopping experience. Five mobile fashion consumer types - self-confident addicted shoppers, time-conscious consumers, followers, bargain hunters and style-conscious connected browsers - were identified. Appropriate marketing strategies can be developed, guided by the specific mobile fashion consumer type’s shopping journey, and apparel retailers can better define their target consumers and more effectively tailor mobile interfaces to meet customer needs. Keywords: m-retail, mobile device, mobile fashion consumer, mobile marketing, consumer behaviour, mobile apps, smart phones, fashion retail, apparel, consumer segmentation, comparative analysi

Flight Test Overview for UAS Integration in the NAS Project

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is conducting a series of flight tests intended to support the reduction of barriers that prevent unmanned aircraft from flying without the required waivers from the Federal Aviation Administration. The most recent testing supported two separate test configurations. The first investigated the timing of Detect and Avoid (DAA) alerting thresholds using a radar-equipped unmanned vehicle and multiple live intruders flown at varying encounter geometries. The second configuration included a surrogate unmanned vehicle (flown from a ground control station, with a safety pilot on board) flying a mission in a virtual air traffic control airspace sector using research pilot displays and DAA advisories to maintain separation from live and virtual aircraft. The test was conducted over a seven-week span in the summer of 2015. The data from over 100 encounter sorties will be used to inform the RTCA Phase 1 Detect and Avoid and Command and Control Minimum Operating Performance Standards (MOPS) intended to be completed by the summer of 2016. Follow-on flight-testing is planned for the spring of 2016 to capture remaining encounters and support validation of the MOPS

Massive Ice Control on Permafrost Coast Erosion and Sensitivity

High overall rates of permafrost cliff retreat, coupled with spatial variability, have been accompanied by increased uncertainty over future landscape dynamics. We map long‐term (>80 years) retreat of the shoreline and photogrammetrically analyze historic aerial imagery to quantify the processes at a permafrost coast site with massive ground ice. Retreat rates have been relatively constant, but topographic changes show that subsidence is a potentially critical but often ignored component of coastal sensitivity, exceeding landward recession by over three times during the last 24 years. We calibrate novel passive seismic surveys along clear and variable exposures of massive ground ice and then spatially map key subsurface layers. Combining decadal patterns of volumetric change with new ground ice variation maps enables past trends to be interpreted, future volumetric geomorphic behavior to be better constrained, and improves the assessment of permafrost coast sensitivity and the release of carbon‐bearing material