Public Media and Political Independence: Lessons for the Future of Journalism From Around the World

Profiles how fourteen nations fund and protect the autonomy of public media via multiyear funding, public-linked funding structures, charters, laws, and agencies or boards designed to limit political influence and ensure spending in the public interest

On the geometric nature of characteristic classes of surface bundles

Each Morita--Mumford--Miller (MMM) class e_n assigns to each genus g >= 2 surface bundle S_g -> E^{2n+2} -> M^{2n} an integer e_n^#(E -> M) := in Z. We prove that when n is odd the number e_n^#(E -> M) depends only on the diffeomorphism type of E, not on g, M, or the map E -> M. More generally, we prove that e_n^#(E -> M) depends only on the cobordism class of E. Recent work of Hatcher implies that this stronger statement is false when n is even. If E -> M is a holomorphic fibering of complex manifolds, we show that for every n the number e_n^#(E -> M) only depends on the complex cobordism type of E. We give a general procedure to construct manifolds fibering as surface bundles in multiple ways, providing infinitely many examples to which our theorems apply. As an application of our results we give a new proof of the rational case of a recent theorem of Giansiracusa--Tillmann that the odd MMM classes e_{2i-1} vanish for any surface bundle which bounds a handlebody bundle. We show how the MMM classes can be seen as obstructions to low-genus fiberings. Finally, we discuss a number of open questions that arise from this work.Comment: 26 pages. v2: added examples to final section; v3: improved main theorem for complex fiberings; v4: final version, to appear in Journal of Topolog

Itera- tive Reconstruction Framework for High-Resolution X-ray CT Data

Small animal medical imaging has become an important tool for researchers as it allows noninvasively screening animal models for pathologies as well as monitoring dis- ease progression and therapy response. Currently, clinical CT scanners typically use a Filtered Backprojection (FBP) based method for image reconstruction. This algorithm is fast and generally produces acceptable results, but has several drawbacks. Firstly, it is based upon line integrals, which do not accurately describe the process of X-ray attenuation. Secondly, noise in the projection data is not properly modeled with FBP. On the other hand, iterative algorithms allow the integration of more complicated sys- tem models as well as robust scatter and noise correction techniques. Unfortunately, the iterative algorithms also have much greater computational demands than their FBP counterparts. In this thesis, we develop a framework to support iterative reconstruc- tions of high-resolution X-ray CT data. This includes exploring various system models and algorithms as well as developing techniques to manage the significant computa- tional and system storage requirements of the iterative algorithms. Issues related to the development of this framework as well as preliminary results are presented

An economic valuation of improved water quality in Opequon watershed

The Opequon watershed is in northern Virginia and the eastern panhandle of West Virginia. In both states, Opequon Creek is classified as impaired due to violation of the bacteria standard and the narrative General Standard. Both states are using Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) plans to improve water quality. As part of the TMDL process, a contingent valuation survey was developed which would measure the benefits of improved water quality in Opequon watershed. Five thousand surveys were mailed to households in West Virginia and Virginia. Median willingness-to-pay (WTP) values were estimated from grouped tobit models. For in-state water quality improvements, Virginia households were found to have an annual WTP of {dollar}48 and West Virginia households were found to have an annual WTP of {dollar}32. For out-of-state clean-up, households in both states were found to have a one-time WTP of {dollar}18. Total benefits of improved water quality most likely range between {dollar}3.7 and {dollar}5.1 million

Taxation, Local Government and Social Control in Sudan and South Sudan, 1899-1956

This dissertation provides evidence of at least five ways in which taxes in the Anglo-Egyptian Condominium’s peripheries were primarily used as a ‘technology of government’ to socially control these vast regions. The first is that rather than revenue raising, taxes in the peripheries acted as a glue to bargain with, and purchase support from, customary authorities who were willing to collaborate with the new colonial regime. A second way in which taxes were a technology of government included how they contributed to the state’s efforts to ‘render a realm into discourse as a knowable, calculable and administrable object’. This meant making customary authorities in the territory legible to the state on terms that the British understood, even as the state failed to ‘know’ the majority of people in the peripheries and even deployed anthropologists to obtain this knowledge. The third way taxes were tied to social control was through their role constructing the peripheries to in turn make them more ‘legible’ to the British. The fourth manner in which taxes contributed to social control was by centralising power in the national government rather than sharing it across the territory. All of which inform the fifth way in which taxes contributed to the state’s social control over the peripheries, whereby the levers to define local knowledge about these dynamics were primarily held by the central government. In sum, this dissertation’s findings collapse the differences between the peripheries, which have primarily been drawn along religious or ethnic cleavages in Sudan. Instead, it reveals a coherent relationship between the geographically small centre and the considerably larger peripheries

Exploring Extension Involvement in Farm to School Program Activities

The study reported here examined Extension professionals\u27 involvement in farm-to-school program activities. Results of an online survey distributed to eight state Extension systems indicate that on average, Extension professionals are involved with one farm to school program activity, with most supporting school or community garden programs. Results also indicate that Extension professionals are interested in being involved with an average of four farm to school program activities. Results demonstrate that each Extension program area is currently involved and is interested in supporting farm to school through a variety of different activities

Iterative Reconstruction of Cone-Beam Micro-CT Data

The use of x-ray computed tomography (CT) scanners has become widespread in both clinical and preclinical contexts. CT scanners can be used to noninvasively test for anatom- ical anomalies as well as to diagnose and monitor disease progression. However, the data acquired by a CT scanner must be reconstructed prior to use and interpretation. A recon- struction algorithm processes the data and outputs a three dimensional image representing the x-ray attenuation properties of the scanned object. The algorithms in most widespread use today are based on filtered backprojection (FBP) methods. These algorithms are rela- tively fast and work well on high quality data, but cannot easily handle data with missing projections or considerable amounts of noise. On the other hand, iterative reconstruction algorithms may offer benefits in such cases, but the computational burden associated with iterative reconstructions is prohibitive. In this work, we address this computational burden and present methods that make iterative reconstruction of high-resolution CT data possible in a reasonable amount of time. Our proposed techniques include parallelization, ordered subsets, reconstruction region restriction, and a modified version of the SIRT algorithm that reduces the overall run-time. When combining all of these techniques, we can reconstruct a 512 × 512 × 1022 image from acquired micro-CT data in less than thirty minutes

The ‘real politics’ of taxation in post-revolutionary Sudan

Even before the economic emergency that the country announced in September 2020, the Government of Sudan desperately needed stable revenue. For instance, the Sudanese Pound has been devalued at least four times since 2018 and officially inflation reached at least 230 percent in October 2020. But these already worrisome numbers fail to provide a full account of inflation rates throughout the country. The real exchange rate for US dollars (USD) to Sudanese Pounds (SDG), which impacts an estimated 90 percent of transactions within the country, paints an even more extreme scenario. In 2018 approximately 1 USD could buy 30 SDG whereas a dollar is now roughly equivalent to 270 SDG today