Guidebook for Deploying Battery Electric Buses

A s part of FTA\u2019s effort to promote continuous safety and operational improvements in the public transit industry, Guidebook for Deploying Battery Electric Buses was developed to provide bus transit agencies with leading transit industry practices for performing these activities. The supporting research report, Procuring and Maintaining Battery Electric Buses and Charging Systems \u2013 Best Practices, is a resource for the industry that offers a summary of industry reports highlighting the challenges and opportunities with battery electric bus (BEB) deployments and the outcomes of federally sponsored deployments, existing standards from the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) and the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), as examples, and lessons learned through case studies. It also includes a series of findings associated with BEB and charging station procurements, system efficiency and interoperability considerations, and maintenance standards and guidelines. Additionally, the Safety and Security Certification of Electric Bus Fleets \u2013 Industry Best Practices supporting research was conducted to give bus transit agencies helpful information on the requirements of a Safety and Security Certification (SSC) program to verify the unique identified risks that will be introduced to a transit agency as a result of initiating a BEB fleet transition. The findings are useful to transit agencies as tools to identify likely challenges that should be considered before embarking on the transition to bus fleet electrification, such as specific language to include in procurements to reduce challenges associated with part availability, and battery warranty ambiguity

Ceremonies and Time in Shakespeare

This essay considers some moments in Shakespeare's texts which exemplify the Janus-faced quality of ceremonies: their enactment in the present looking backwards to past traditions and forwards to inaugurate new social relations. The argument draws on Victor Turner's theorization of ritual as an event that gives shape to “liminality,” that which “eludes or slips through the network of classification that normally locate states and positions in cultural space,” and argues that this applies to time as well. It also considers the construction of time in terms of kairos, a moment of time infused with meaning. The essay analyses ceremony in three Shakespearean genres. First, it examines Bertram's and Helena's ring exchange in All's Well That Ends Well as a “distended” ritual that collapses time. It then turns to Richard III, unpacking its complex sequence of ceremonies of betrothal, mourning, and sovereignty that are “continuously disrupted”. The final section describes the ceremonial time of romance in The Winter's Tale, unfolding the power invested in the kairotic time evoked by the oracle of Delphi, the sheep-shearing ceremony, and Paulina's “resurrection” of Hermione

Hemingway’s Aging Heroes and the Concept of \u3cem\u3ePhronesis\u3c/em\u3e

Rhetorical analysis of Hemingway’s aging protagonists found in “A Clean Well-Lighted Place,” The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms, and The Old Man and the Sea, characterizing these heroes as possessing practical wisdom coupled with virtue, gained through experience and suffering. Also published in Journal of Aging and Identity 5, no. 4 (2000): 207-23

Hemingway’s Aging Heroes and the Concept of Phronesis

Previously published in Aging and Identity: A Humanities Perspective, edited by Dara Munson Deats and Lagretta Tallent Lenker, 61-76. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1999

The functioning of women with a codependency problem in the context of therapeutic effects.

Praca porusza zagadnienia dotyczące zjawiska współuzależnienia oraz jego terapii. Omówiona zostaje ewolucja pojęcia współuzależnienia oraz modele teoretyczne wyjaśniające czym jest współuzależnienie. W pracy zdefiniowane zostaje pojęcie- psychoterapia. Opisane zostają fazy według jakich ona przebiega. Omówione zostały także czynniki leczące w psychoterapii. Analiza wyników badań i porównanie ich w grupie eksperymentalnej i grupie kontrolnej, pozwalają na udzielenie odpowiedzi na pytania badawcze, a tym samym określenie czy udział w psychoterapii indywidualnej i spotkaniach grup Al-Anon wpływa na poprawę funkcjonowania kobiet współuzależnionych.The following thesis addresses issues concerning codependency and its treatment. Firstly, the evolution of the term “codependency” is addressed, together with theoretical models explaining the nature of “codependency”.The thesis defines the term “psychotherapy”, describing the stages through which it proceeds. Therapeutic factors in psycho therapy are also addressed. Analysis of the research results, and comparing them in the experiment group and control group, allow to answer the research questions, and therefore determine whether participating in individual psychotherapy and in Al-Anon meeting improves the functioning of codependent women

Shakespeare authenticating Cleopatra

Much like Shakespeare, the real Cleopatra we know little about. As her story has been retold over the past two thousand years she has developed as a distinct character in everyone’s mind. Shakespeare’s Cleopatra is perhaps the reason her name and character have become so famous, despite how different every version may seem from what we know about the original. I argue that Shakespeare creates a Cleopatra that relies on her ability to flawlessly perform; and that this performance is, as Enobarbus describes it an “infinite variety” that fluctuates and morphs between gender expectations and stereotypes. For this reason she remains possibly the most ambiguous title character that Shakespeare writes. Cleopatra is conflicted between power and her love for Antony, and ultimately it may be this struggle that results in Antony’s death. Whatever the details of her interiority are, the audience never truly knows them, but it is clear with Antony’s death something has changed for Cleopatra, and as she artfully plots and performs for Caesar her motives become clear. After Cleopatra has lost Antony forever, she recognizes a truth or authenticity she perhaps never knew before. While earlier Shakespeare identifies Cleopatra’s actions as a performance with a false swoon, he later creates the effect of authenticity with a real swoon— a swoon that makes people wonder if she too has died as a result of Antony’s death. Instead his death has inspired the plotting of her own suicide so that she may join Antony in the afterlife for eternity

Evaluation of the Federal Transit Administration’s Transit and Health Access Initiative: Case Highlights, Findings, and Recommendations

FTA’s Transit and Health Access Initiative provided funding for demonstration projects to test promising, replicable public transportation healthcare access solutions that support the “triple aim” of increased access to healthcare, improved health outcomes, and reduced healthcare costs. This paper highlights two compelling projects from the independent evaluation of the initiative, selected for their creative approaches and wealth of lessons learned. After in-depth case descriptions of these two projects, the authors present the overall findings and recommendations that emerged from the full evaluation effort. Overall, program participants credited the projects with significant improvements to their health. Some reported that, because of the projects, they were more active and independent, had more control over their lives, experienced less emotional hardship, and were better able to reach their goals. However, these results should be viewed in light of the caveats and limitations of relying on self-reported health data, which was often the best tool for programs unable to overcome the legal concerns surrounding health privacy laws and regulations