The "World System" Of the Paris Agreement: Exploring The Construction, Dissemination, And Implementation of Climate Knowledge Through Redd

Climate change is one of the most pressing social and environmental issues of the 21st century, and will require innovative thinking to understand its complexity. The Paris Agreement, negotiated at the 2015 21st Conference of Parties, marked a monumental international agreement toward collective action on climate change. Through world systems theory and global value chain analysis, this paper explores how climate knowledge is co-constructed, differentially distributed, and consistently negotiated in the frontiers among diverse knowledge systems. These theoretical frameworks allow us to explore how power is manifest in knowledge systems. I argue that this theoretical approach may more broadly acknowledge the role that organizations play when navigating the complex field of climate change. World system theory and global value chains is used to understand the multi-scalar nature of Reducing Emissions through Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) programs. In doing so, a new framework is proposed for grasping the complex nature of climate knowledge, governance, and policy implementatio

Does the Bible Speak of a Vapor Canopy?

Many commentators have stated that the Bible does not clearly speak of an antediluvian vapor canopy. The contention of this paper is that the vapor canopy is specifically mentioned in scripture, and the descriptive Hebrew word is mabbul. This insight allows us to understand the Creation and Flood narratives better

Fracture characteristics of structural aerospace alloys containing deep surface flaws

Conditions controlling the growth and fracture of deep surface flaws in aerospace alloys were investigated. Static fracture tests were performed on 7075-T651 and 2219-T87 aluminum, and 6Ai-4V STA titanium . Cyclic flaw growth tests were performed on the two latter alloys, and sustain load tests were performed on the titanium alloy. Both the cyclic and the sustain load tests were performed with and without a prior proof overload cycle to investigate possible growth retardation effects. Variables included in all test series were thickness, flaw depth-to-thickness ratio, and flaw shape. Results were analyzed and compared with previously developed data to determine the limits of applicability of available modified linear elastic fracture solutions

Hill Country Conservation: A Network and Narrative for Large-Scale Collaborative Conservation

This report describes the joint research and practitioner-based effort to understand the network and narrative that shapes Hill Country conservation opportunities and outcomes. From April 2015-July 2016, we collected and analyzed over 40 hours of interview data and developed an extensive database of information in an attempt to better understand the organizations and agencies that work to make the Hill Country a socially and ecologically thriving landscape. Our mixed-methods research approach also included an online survey. Through these efforts, we believe that opportunities exist to improve coordination of activities, leverage and pool resources, increase and use social capital, enhance conflict management (i.e., prevention, reduction, resolution), and improve knowledge management (i.e., generation, translation, and diffusion). Understanding the inherent capacities that a networked approach provides can identify opportunities for successful conservation action by leveraging largely informal networks that bridge geographic, economic, cultural, and political differences. The report that follows summarizes these efforts and offers insights and recommendations based on the analysis.LBJ School of Public Affair

Resilience Hub Network in Austin, Texas

To prepare and respond to the increasing local impacts of climate change, people need trusted community spaces they can turn to for safety and supportive services. Resilience Hubs can help provide relief during extreme weather events and other emergencies when paired with emergency planning, disaster response, and sheltering plans. This report outlines methods used to establish a Resilience Hub program in Austin, incorporates direct community input through the Austin Area Sustainability Indicators survey, describes the work to date in Austin, and outlines potential next steps.LBJ School of Public Affair

The political ecology of local environmental narratives: power, knowledge, and mountain caribou conservation

Political ecology seeks to address notable weaknesses in the social sciences that consider how human society and the environment shape each other over time.   Considering questions of ideology and scientific discourse, power and knowledge, and issues of conservation and environmental history, political ecology offers an alternative to technocratic approaches to policy prescriptions and environmental assessment.  Integrating these insights into the science-policy interface is crucial for discerning and articulating the role of local resource users in environmental conservation. This paper applies political ecology to addresses a gap in the literature that exists at the interface of narratives of local environmental change and local ecological knowledge and doing so builds a nuanced critique of the rationality of local ecological knowledge.  The ways that we view nature and generate, interpret, communicate, and understand the "science" of environmental problems is deeply embedded in particular economic, political, and ecological contexts.  In interior British Columbia, Canada, these dynamics unfold in one of the most rigorously documented examples of the negative effect of anthropogenic disturbance on an endangered species – declining mountain caribou population.  Science notwithstanding, resource users tell narratives of population decline that clearly reflect historical regularities deeply embedded in particular economic, political, and ideological constructions situated in local practices. This research assesses these narratives, discusses the implications, and explores pathways for integrating local knowledge and narratives into conservation science and policy. A more informed understanding of the subjectivities and rationalities of local knowledges can and should inform conservation science and policy. Keywords: Political ecology, local ecological knowledge, narrative, environmental change, environmental management, British Columbia, Rangifer tarandus caribou

Unpacking the Role of Data in Philanthropy: Prospects for an Integrated Framework

This article reports qualitative research that explores the role of data in philanthropy and proposes an integrated framework. Interviews with charitable foundations in central Texas, including members of a regional evaluation and learning collaborative, reveal an orientation toward data that is becoming increasingly institutionalized. The research suggests that data are generated and used in a multiplicity of ways, including identifying populations and geographies in need of investment, informing funding decisions for service delivery as well as policy research and advocacy; evaluation and learning; and measuring community impact. This article discusses these thematic findings, notes specific practices, and presents six principles for integrating a data perspective into philanthropy

SPECIAL VALUED l-GROUPS

Special elements and values have always been of interest in the study of lattice-ordered groups, arising naturally from totally-ordered groups and lexicographic extensions. Much work has been done recently with the class of lattice-ordered groups whose root system of regular subgroups has a plenary subset of special values. We call such l-groups special valued. In this paper, we first show that several familiar structures of l-groups, namely polars, minimal prime subgroups, and the lex kernel, are recognizable from the lattice and the identity; that is, knowing which element of the lattice is the group identity, we can pick out in the lattice all the dements of polars, minimal primes, and the lex kernel. This then leads to an easy proof that special elements can be recognized from the lattice and the identity. We then prove several results about the class S of special-valued l-groups. We give a simple and direct proof that S is closed with respect to joins of convex l-subgroups, incidentally giving a direct proof that S is a quasi torsion class. This proof is then used to show that the special-valued and finite-valued kernels of l-groups are recognizable from the lattice and the identity. We show also that the lateral completion of a special-valued l-group is special-valued and is an a*-extension of the original l-group. Our most important result is that the lateral completion of a completely-distributive normal-valued l-group is special-valued. This lends itself easily to a new and similar proof of Ball, Conrad, and Darnel's result that every normal-valued l-group can be l-embedded into a special-valued l-group. Readers familiar with the impact of the Conrad-Harvey-Holland Theorem on abelian l-groups will recognize the importance of the last theorem to the study of the class of normal-valued l-groups and to the study of proper varieties of l-groups, all of which are normal valued

Network governance for large‐scale natural resource conservation and the challenge of capture

Large‐scale natural resource conservation initiatives are increasingly adopting a network governance framework to respond to the ecological, social, and political challenges of contemporary environmental governance. A network approach offers new modes of management that allow resource managers and others to transcend a single institution, organization, resource, or landscape and engage in conservation that is multi‐species and multi‐jurisdictional. However, there are challenges to network governance in large‐scale conservation efforts, which we address by focusing on how special interests can capture networks and shape the goals, objectives, and outcomes of initiatives. The term “network capture” is used here to describe an array of strategies that direct the processes and outcomes of large‐scale initiatives in ways that advance a group\u27s positions, concerns, or economic interests. We outline how new stakeholders emerge from these management processes, and how the ease of information sharing can blur stakeholder positions and lead to competing knowledge claims. We conclude by reasserting the benefits of network governance while acknowledging the unique challenges that networks present