Who Told You Your Hair was Nappy?: A Proposal for Replacing an Ineffective Standard for Determining Racially Discriminatory Employment Practices

Article published in the Michigan State Law Review

Performing Elusive Homecomings: Mobility, Embodiment, and Diasporic Filipino Youth

The Filipino global diaspora has precipitated the circulation of embodied modesof identification and belonging. This paper focuses on the experiences of Filipinoyoung people who were born and/or raised abroad, and who have returned to thePhilippines to seek fame and economic mobility in the entertainment industry.These migrant hopefuls, unlike older counterparts, enact the material tensionsand semantic contradictions that form part of popular discourse around lifeabroad. As such, institutional media practices and mass audience perceptionsmirror such conditions and create shifting systems of valuation around suchthings as skin color, accent, and bodily comportment. To respond and conformto these demands, these migrant returnees refashion cultural citizenship bydeploying performances of locality and authenticity with varying successes. Suchcorporeal revisions enable the displacement of attachments to and affinities forvarious expressions of home, citizenship, and selfhood. The main contention ofthis ethnographic and media study is that these experiences constitute what isbeing called an “aesthetics of mobility” where the shifts and travels of meaningsand value inherent among this group return migrants are embodied in ways thatunravel notions of class, gender, race and national belonging. The experiences ofthis youth group provide a distinctive narrative about the travails and travel ofbodies and generations of modern Filipinos in the world

Results of Operation Full Stop: Terminix Service Co. Inc., control of Formosan Subterranean Termites (Coptotermes Formosanus) in the French Quarter of New Orleans

In New Orleans alone, the Formosan subterranean termite, Coptotermes formosanus, causes $300 million in damages annually. Formosan subterranean termites are the most destructive subterranean termite in the world wherever they occur. From 1998- 2011 Operation Full Stop was implemented in five phases. Basic parameters were set up through the LSU AgCenter. French Quarter Residents were allowed to select their own licensed pest control operator for approved termite treatments. The United States Department of Agriculture in New Orleans provided funds to Operation Full Stop to pay the pest control operator for initial treatment and yearly renewal of termite contracts. Terminix Service Co. Inc. in New Orleans participated fully in the program from 1998-2011 in New Orleans. Terminix Service Co. Inc. (Metairie, LA) had 404 Sentricon® baiting accounts in Operation Full Stop (Pest Control Solutions, Jackson Mississippi). From this list every 7th account was selected until one hundred accounts was achieved.From the master list each account was looked up on Dox Serve Software (Abita Spring, LA) where route sheets were stored. Each account had its own file stored in the Dox Serve system. Account information and route sheets were then individually analyzed and the information was manually implemented in an Excel spreadsheet, sorted by JMP statistical software by SAS and analyzed by SAS PROC MIXED. Termite activity was calculated based on an Attack Rate. Attack Rate was defined as the number stations with active termites/ number of stations divided by number of inspections and then multiplied by 100. Attack Rate average was calculated for each account per year. Our study measured termite activity based on sampled Terminix Sentricon® baiting accounts from 1998-2011 only. The main objective of this study was to determine if Terminix Service Co. Inc. decreased termite activity in sampled baiting accounts during Operation Full Stop. There was a significant decrease in Attack Rate from 1998-2011. The slope of this decreasing trend of Attack Rate observed from 1998-2011 was also significant. Our results suggest that termite baiting in Terminix Service Co. Inc. decreased Formosan subterranean termite activity in Operation Full Stop

Three Rationalities: An exploration of three views on rationality in Economics

This paper conducts an exploration of three rationalities within economic thought: core, bounded, and ecological. Assumptions, policies and other key underpinnings of the rationalities are discussed and compared. Concluding remarks summarize the key points of each rationality and briefly discuss avenues for future research

A Gain Scheduling Optimization Method Using Genetic Algorithms

Gain scheduling. the traditional method of providing adaptive control to a nonlinear system, has long been an ad hoc design process. Until recently; little theoretical guidance directed this practitioners\u27 art. For this reason a systematic study of this design process and its potential for optimization has never been accomplished. Additionally, the nonlinearities and the large search space involved in gain scheduling also precluded such an optimization study. Traditionally, the gain scheduling process has been some variation of a linear interpolation between discrete design points. By using powerful non-traditional optimization tools such as genetic algorithms there are ways of improving this design process. This thesis utilizes the power of genetic algorithms to optimally design a gain schedule. First, a design methodology is validated on a simple pole placement problem, then demonstrated for an F-18 Super-maneuverable Fighter. From this experience, a general gain scheduling design process is developed and presented

Black on both sides

"July 2014."Dissertation Supervisor: Dr. Juanita Simmons.Includes vita.Includes bibliographical references (pages 158-168)

Elections and Government Formation in Iraq: An Analysis of the Judiciary\u27s Role

In 2005, the people of Iraq ratified a permanent Constitution, a significant milestone in the journey from Saddam Hussein\u27s authoritarian rule to democratic governance. Among the Constitution\u27s fundamental guarantees are the separation and balance of powers, the selection of Parliament through regular and periodic popular election, and an independent judiciary empowered as the authority on constitutional interpretation. Iraq\u27s commitment to democracy and the Constitution was put to the test five years later with the first parliamentary election under the new Constitution. The run-up to the elections was marred by political disputes, violence, and legal challenges, as Iraqis argued over controversial amendments to the Election Law and the disqualification of hundreds of candidates pursuant to the de-Ba\u27athification laws. Following the hotly debated elections, Iraqi leaders continued to argue over who had the first right to form the government, causing a political deadlock that lasted over six months. By the end of 2010, however, the newly elected Parliament approved a new Council of Ministers, concluding a largely peaceful transition of power in accordance with the Constitution. This Article examines these historic events, focusing on the role of the Iraqi courts in resolving disputes throughout the electoral and government formation processes. After analyzing key decisions from Iraqi courts, it concludes that Iraq\u27s judiciary is emerging as a reliable, independent, and neutral arbiter of disputes. Through its measured and careful jurisprudence, the judiciary is fostering a political culture that respects and upholds the rule of law

Shift-Symmetric Configurations in Two-Dimensional Cellular Automata: Irreversibility, Insolvability, and Enumeration

The search for symmetry as an unusual yet profoundly appealing phenomenon, and the origin of regular, repeating configuration patterns have been for a long time a central focus of complexity science, and physics. Here, we introduce group-theoretic concepts to identify and enumerate the symmetric inputs, which result in irreversible system behaviors with undesired effects on many computational tasks. The concept of so-called configuration shift-symmetry is applied on two-dimensional cellular automata as an ideal model of computation. The results show the universal insolvability of “non-symmetric” tasks regardless of the transition function. By using a compact enumeration formula and bounding the number of shift-symmetric configurations for a given lattice size, we efficiently calculate how likely a configuration randomly generated from a uniform or density-uniform distribution turns shift-symmetric. Further, we devise an algorithm detecting the presence of shift-symmetry in a configuration. The enumeration and probability formulas can directly help to lower the minimal expected error for many crucial (non-symmetric) distributed problems, such as leader election, edge detection, pattern recognition, convex hull/minimum bounding rectangle, and encryption. Besides cellular automata, the shift-symmetry analysis can be used to study the non-linear behavior in various synchronous rule-based systems that include inference engines, Boolean networks, neural networks, and systolic arrays