A Track Record of Success: High-Speed Rail Around the World and Its Promise for America

Highlights the economic and transportation benefits of high-speed rail in Japan and Europe, including creating jobs, saving energy, protecting the environment, and encouraging sustainable land use and development. Details lessons for the United States

Turning the Table Over: Collaboration and Critique at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival

In the late 1970s, the African American Jazz Coalition responded to the marginalization of black vendors at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival by partnering with the Festival to create the Koindu Marketplace, now known as Congo Square. Whereas much public representation of the Festival suggests a transcendence of racial boundaries inside Festival grounds, the content and structure of contemporary interviews with the activists reflect continued racial tensions, power dynamics, and resentment. This thesis analyzes oral histories with the founders of the Afrikan American Jazz Coalition stored at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation Archive. Critical discourse analysis of these interviews focuses on linguistic structures and inherent frames of worldview. Juxtaposing interviewers’ intentions regarding the Festival’s mission with what the activists consider a continued marginalization of black culture, I highlight moments of both conflict and heightened self-awareness amongst the participants

Gender Concerns: Monks, Nuns, and Patronage of the Cistercian Order in Thirteenth-Century Flanders and Hainaut

The Cistercian order, which had its origins in the late eleventh century, transformed the spiritual landscape of western Europe. The order\u27s insistence on a return to the austerity and simplicity that had originally informed Benedictine life reenergized monasticism, spawning hundreds of new abbeys within decades. By the beginning of the thirteenth century, the Cistercians dominated monastic life, surpassing their black-robed predecessors in terms of popularity and replacing them among patrons as favored recipients of donations. Yet, while a sizable body of historiography exists concerning the ability of men\u27s houses to translate this appeal into spiritual and material success, questions remain regarding the order\u27s female members. In particular, some scholars have constructed a narrative of financial difficulties and eventual decline for Cistercian nunneries, one that began in the thirteenth century and accelerated throughout the late Middle Ages. According to this narrative, such difficulties, by-products of the secondary status of religious women, manifested themselves in small monastic complexes and limited patrimonies. In her work on English Cistercians, Sally Thompson argues that religious women were dependent upon men because of their inferior position in medieval society and generally lacked a true religious vocation, characteristics that led to smaller, impoverished houses. Cistercian nunneries are portrayed in monastic histories as constantly struggling and are often “lumped together as being poor, scandalous, passive institutions which were eschewed by medieval patrons.” The majority of their houses are characterized by modern historians as enjoying a perilous existence at best, permanently poised on the brink of extinction and beset by a host of financial and spiritual difficulties

Energy and Chemicals from Native Grasses: Production, Transportation and Processing Technologies Considered in the Northern Great Plains

Production of biomass from native prairie species offers the opportunity to produce energy and chemicals while providing substantial ecological services in the Northern Great Plains. This paper analyzes the application of rapid pyrolysis to produce bio-oil, which has the potential for use as a low-grade fuel oil or as a source for extraction of valuable chemicals. Yields of bio-oil, the quantities of extractable chemicals, and chemical prices drive the economics of this concept, which has a more extensive track record utilizing wood chips. A spreadsheet model was developed to determine gross margins available to defray costs to extract and refine such chemical products as hydroxyacetaldehyde, phenol, formic acid, acetic acid and various resins. Although efforts to hydrolyze anhydroglucose were successful, efforts to produce ethanol from the resulting six-carbon sugars were unsuccessful in a related trial. To understand the overall project economics, it was necessary to consider the availability and productivity of lands in the Northern Great Plains that can provide low cost native prairie grasses including Big Bluestem and Switchgrass. Production economics and transportation economics were analyzed to determine the costs of native prairie grasses delivered to a plant capable of pyrolyzing the biomass. Competing technologies that could also use native prairie grasses are considered as well as policy alternatives important for production of energy and chemicals from native prairie grasses.prairie grasses, pyrolysis, economics, chemicals, energy, bio-oil, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Face Needs, Intragroup Status, and Women’s Reactions to Socially Aggressive Face Threats

Given the potential negative consequences of being a recipient of such behavior, the role of positive face needs, intragroup status, and the face-threatening nature of social aggression in predicting cor-relates of negative affect experienced as a result of being a target of SAFTs, including the face threat of the response, forgiveness, and well-being was investigated. On the basis of the survey responses from 199 college-aged women, findings indicated that targets’ positive face needs and intragroup status are directly and indirectly associated with forgiveness and overall well-being. Implications for these findings in relation to theorizing about face and intragroup identity as well as limitations and suggestions for future research are provided

Corporate Monarchy in the Twelfth-Century Kingdom of Jerusalem

While the conflicts between Queen Melisende of Jerusalem and the men in her family have received considerable scholarly attention, explanations for the ease with which they reconciled remain elusive. As this article argues, contrary to theories advanced in the past, Melisende’s role in government was not the product of a consensus among nobles to temporarily suspend the norms of political participation that invested all authority in a single, male, ruler. The position she occupied was not “exceptional,” a disruption in the fabric of patriarchal dynastic succession that cloaked the Latin East. Rather, she occupied a legitimate position as co-ruler of the Kingdom, filling the role envisioned for her by her father, Baldwin II, who recognized in corporate monarchy an ideal political configuration for the challenges presented by governing in the Latin East. Past failures to provide an accurate and complete understanding of Melisende’s role in the governance of Jerusalem has circumscribed our understanding of the nature of monarchy and rulership in this crusader kingdom, which remains inaccurate and incomplete as a result. In their attempt to impose a uniform, static template of feudal governance on the crusader kingdoms of Latin East, scholars have under appreciated the extent to which medieval monarchy was both fluid and contingent. As the discussion here demonstrates, modes of governing were constantly adjusted to the demands of a particular time and place, responding to the unique political culture of a particular region. This was especially true for monarchy in the nascent crusader kingdom of twelfth-century Jerusalem, which witnessed the evolution of a political system formed in the crucible of war

“I don’t want to look sick skinny”: Perceptions of body image and weight loss in Hispanics living with HIV in South Texas

Objective: Obesity is rising in people with HIV (PLWH) and Hispanics. Both HIV and obesity are associated with cardiovascular disease morbidity and mortality. Our goal is to understand perceptions of body image and lifestyle in Hispanics with HIV to adapt interventions appropriately. Methods: We conducted semi-structured interviews with 22 Hispanic PLWH and 6 providers. Purposive sampling selected patient participants across weights and genders. Interviews were coded and analyzed using grounded theory, comparing perspectives between patients with and without obesity, and patients and providers. Results: Participants felt obesity and diabetes were “normal” in the community. Patients exhibited understanding of healthy diet and lifestyle but felt incapable of maintaining either. Traditionally Hispanic foods were blamed for local obesity prevalence. Five patients equated weight with health and weight loss with illness, and four expressed concerns that weight loss could lead to unintentional disclosure of HIV status. Participants with overweight or obesity expressed awareness of their weight and felt shamed by providers. Providers found weight loss interventions to be ineffective. Conclusion: Interventions in this population must address identified barriers: overweight/obesity as a normative value, lack of self-efficacy, cultural beliefs surrounding food, fear of HIV-associated weight loss and stigma, and provider perspectives on intervention futility