On ranked and bounded Kohnert posets

In this paper, we explore combinatorial properties of the posets associated with Kohnert polynomials. In particular, we determine a sufficient condition guaranteeing when such ``Kohnert posets'' are bounded and two necessary conditions for when they are ranked. Moreover, we apply the aforementioned conditions to find complete characterizations of when Kohnert posets are bounded and when they are ranked in special cases, including those associated with Demazure characters

Learning by Game-Building in Theoretical Computer Science Education

Institute for Communicating and Collaborative SystemsIt has been suggested that theoretical computer science (TCS) suffers more than average from a lack of intrinsic motivation. The reasons provided in the literature include the difficulty of the subject, lack of relevance to the informatics degree or future careers, and lack of enjoyment of the learning experience. This thesis presents evidence of these claims derived from the results of an expert survey. Increasing the students’ perceived control of the learning experience has been shown to increase student motivation in numerous different settings. A few of those also showed increased student performance. This thesis proposes that game-building can be such a setting for the area of TCS. Within the area of TCS, the focus will be on the modelling skills (finite state automata, push-down automata, Turing machines, CCS, etc.) since they form the majority of the curriculum at undergraduate level. It will be demonstrated how arbitrary TCS modelling skills can be mapped onto a game-building framework and allow the students to learn about the former by using the latter. It is hypothesized that the success of the approach depends on the amount of control given to the student. To test this claim, two experimental conditions were used in a repeated-measures design: (1) own-game and (2) pre-defined game. In the former, students are asked to write a game of their own, whereas in the latter, they are asked to copy a pre-defined game. A large demand for the own-game context was observed and results of its effect on performance and enjoyment are presented. Although no main effect of the owngame condition versus the pre-defined game condition was found in terms of either enjoyment or performance, some interesting interaction effects between condition and motivational type were unveiled

Addressing the Complexities of Boundary Work in Sustainability Science through Communication

Sustainability science seeks to identify and implement workable solutions to complex problems. This transdisciplinary approach advances a commitment to work across boundaries that occur among individuals, disciplines, and institutions to build capacities for informed and innovative decision making in the face of uncertainty and change. The concept of boundary work and related discussions of boundary objects and organizations are important, expanding focal areas within sustainability science. While communication is described as central to boundary work, insights from the field of communication have largely yet to inform theorizing about boundaries within sustainability science. In this paper, we highlight three communication perspectives, namely media studies, collaboration and partnerships, and systems theories, which are particularly relevant for understanding how boundaries form, the social context in which boundary work occurs, and informed strategies for enhanced boundary spanning and management. We use three case studies to illustrate how communication theories and methods provide dynamic and strategic lenses within transdisciplinary processes to enable collaborators to build capacity for change, sustain critical and reflective inquiry, and approach difference as generative in collective efforts to produce sustainability

14. The Long Term Care Medicaid Reimbursement Problem

A growing public concern about the high cost of Medicaid reimbursement for Long Term Care (LTC) has created the need for careful analysis of the causes & consequences of past public policies and to develop strategies that provide solutions to identified problems. Guiding the team through the assigned simulation, that reflects a serious public concern, were our stated political values serving to shape our policy proposals. Using a systems approach, we analyzed current public policy and explored alternatives. We considered the forces that operate in the environment producing demands on the political system, pressing for allocation of resources toward desired objectives. An integral part of the medical inflation picture, Medicaid reimbursement costs reflect the system\u27s failure to create a cost-effective balance between supply and demand, government and the private sector, quality and price, provider and consumer, flexibility and control

Strengthening Knowledge Co-Production Capacity: Examining Interest in Community-University Partnerships.

Building successful, enduring research partnerships is essential for improving links between knowledge and action to address sustainability challenges. Communication research can play a critical role in fostering more effective research partnerships, especially those concerned with knowledge co-production processes. This article focuses on community-university research partnerships and factors that influence participation in the co-production process. We identify specific pathways for improving partnership development through a prospective analytical approach that examines community officials’ interest in partnering with university researchers. Using survey responses from a statewide sample of Maine municipal officials, we conduct a statistical analysis of community-university partnership potential to test a conceptual model of partnership interest grounded in natural resource management theory and environmental communication. Our findings both support and advance prior research on collaborations. Results reveal that belief in the helpfulness of the collaborator to solve problems, institutional proximity, familiarity, perceived problem severity and problem type and trust influence interest in developing community-university partnerships. These findings underscore the benefits of proactively assessing partnership potential prior to forming partnerships and the important roles for communication research within sustainability science, especially with regard to strengthening partnership formation and knowledge co-production processes

Brief of Scholars of the History and Original Meaning of the Fourth Amendment as Amici Curiae in Support of Petitioner, Carpenter v. United States, No. 16-402 (U.S. Aug. 14, 2017)

Obtaining and examining cell site location records to find a person is a “search” in any normal sense of the word — a search of documents and a search for a person and her personal effects. It is therefore a “search” within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment in that it constitutes “examining,” “exploring,” “looking through,” “inquiring,” “seeking,” or “trying to find.” Nothing about the text of the Fourth Amendment, or the historical backdrop against which it was adopted, suggests that “search” should be construed more narrowly as, for example, intrusions upon subjectively manifested expectations of privacy that society is prepared to recognize as reasonable.Entrusting government agents with unfettered discretion to conduct searches using cell site location information undermines Fourth Amendment rights. The Amendment guarantees “[t]he right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches.” The Framers chose that language deliberately. It reflected the insecurity they suffered at the hands of “writs of assistance,” a form of general warrant that granted state agents broad discretion to search wherever they pleased. Such arbitrary power was “unreasonable” to the Framers, being “against the reason of the common law,” and it was intolerable because of its oppressive impact on “the people” as a whole. As emphasized in one of the seminal English cases that inspired the Amendment, this kind of general power to search was “totally subversive of the liberty of the subject.” James Otis’s famous speech denouncing a colonial writ of assistance similarly condemned those writs as “the worst instrument of arbitrary power,” placing “the liberty of every man in the hands of every petty officer.” Thus, although those who drafted and ratified the Fourth Amendment could not have anticipated cellphone technology, they would have recognized the dangers inherent in any state claim of unlimited authority to conduct searches for evidence of criminal activity. Cell site location information provides insight into where we go and what we do. Because this information is constantly generated and can be retrieved by the government long after the activities it memorializes have taken place, unfettered government access to cell site location information raises the specter of general searches and undermines the security of “the people.

Moving beyond the single disciplines: Building a scholarship of engagement that permeates higher education.

Communities face complex problems that are best addressed by integrating the perspectives of multiple disciplines, yet many forms of engaged scholarship remain disciplinarily specific. Universities struggle to bring together highly disparate disciplines linking knowledge with action to address community problems. Sustainability is an important example of a complex, urgent problem that is best addressed by integrating multiple disciplines. In the United States, a unique multi-year initiative, Maine’s Sustainability Solutions Initiative (SSI), addresses sustainability problems by working across disciplines on engaged research. Scholars, representing multiple disciplines and most of the higher education institutions in the state, working with their community partners, are addressing sustainability problems related to landscape change, specifically urbanization, forest ecosystem management, and climate change. This initiative is composed of over two dozen interdisciplinary, engaged research projects that include diverse stakeholders (e.g., nongovernmental organizations, communities, policy organizations, and governmental leaders) as members of the research teams. Reflecting on the challenges of involving multiple disciplines in research projects, we discuss SSI as an exemplar of interdisciplinary, engaged campus initiatives. The scale and reach of the initiative (on-campus and statewide), the number of disciplines and stakeholders involved in the project, and the conversations around engaged scholarship occurring at the University of Maine capture the challenges and opportunities of moving the scholarship of engagement beyond the isolated work of individual disciplines