2,559 research outputs found
Beyond Transactional Democracy: A Study of Civic Tech in Canada
Technologies are increasingly enrolled in projects to involve civilians in
the work of policy-making, often under the label of 'civic technology'. But
conventional forms of participation through transactions such as voting provide
limited opportunities for engagement. In response, some civic tech groups
organize around issues of shared concern to explore new forms of democratic
technologies. How does their work affect the relationship between publics and
public servants?
This paper explores how a Civic Tech Toronto creates a platform for civic
engagement through the maintenance of an autonomous community for civic
engagement and participation that is casual, social, nonpartisan, experimental,
and flexible. Based on two years of action research, including community
organizing, interviews, and observations, this paper shows how this grassroots
civic tech group creates a civic platform that places a diverse range of
participants in contact with the work of public servants, helping to build
capacities and relationships that prepare both publics and public servants for
the work of participatory democracy.
The case shows that understanding civic tech requires a lens beyond the mere
analysis or production of technical artifacts. As a practice for making
technologies that is social and participatory, civic tech creates alternative
modes of technology development and opportunities for experimentation and
learning, and it can reconfigure the roles of democratic participants.Comment: Will appear in CSCW1 202
Report of the Terrestrial Bodies Science Working Group. Volume 9: Complementary research and development
Topics discussed include the need for: the conception and development of a wide spectrum of experiments, instruments, and vehicles in order to derive the proper return from an exploration program; the effective use of alternative methods of data acquisition involving ground-based, airborne and near Earth orbital techniques to supplement spacraft mission; and continued reduction and analysis of existing data including laboratory and theoretical studies in order to benefit fully from experiments and to build on the past programs toward a logical and efficient exploration of the solar system
Sturgeons
The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources published guides to many threatened animals living in the state. This guide gives information about Sturgeons, including description, status, habitat, conservation challenges & recommendations, and measures of success
American eel
The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources published guides to many threatened animals living in the state. This guide gives information about the American eel, including description, status, habitat, conservation challenges & recommendations, and measures of success
The Formation and Coarsening of the Concertina Pattern
The concertina is a magnetization pattern in elongated thin-film elements of
a soft material. It is a ubiquitous domain pattern that occurs in the process
of magnetization reversal in direction of the long axis of the small element.
Van den Berg argued that this pattern grows out of the flux closure domains as
the external field is reduced. Based on experimental observations and theory,
we argue that in sufficiently elongated thin-film elements, the concertina
pattern rather bifurcates from an oscillatory buckling mode. Using a reduced
model derived by asymptotic analysis and investigated by numerical simulation,
we quantitatively predict the average period of the concertina pattern and
qualitatively predict its hysteresis. In particular, we argue that the
experimentally observed coarsening of the concertina pattern is due to
secondary bifurcations related to an Eckhaus instability. We also link the
concertina pattern to the magnetization ripple and discuss the effect of a weak
(crystalline or induced) anisotropy
Evidence of Titan's Climate History from Evaporite Distribution
Water-ice-poor, 5-m-bright material on Saturn's moon Titan has
previously been geomorphologically identified as evaporitic. Here we present a
global distribution of the occurrences of the 5-m-bright spectral unit,
identified with Cassini's Visual Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) and
examined with RADAR when possible. We explore the possibility that each of
these occurrences are evaporite deposits. The 5-m-bright material covers
1\% of Titan's surface and is not limited to the poles (the only regions with
extensive, long-lived surface liquid). We find the greatest areal concentration
to be in the equatorial basins Tui Regio and Hotei Regio. Our interpretations,
based on the correlation between 5-m-bright material and lakebeds, imply
that there was enough liquid present at some time to create the observed
5-m-bright material. We address the climate implications surrounding a
lack of evaporitic material at the south polar basins: if the south pole basins
were filled at some point in the past, then where is the evaporite
Lunar scout missions: Galileo encounter results and application to scientific problems and exploration requirements
The Lunar Scout Missions (payload: x-ray fluorescence spectrometer, high-resolution stereocamera, neutron spectrometer, gamma-ray spectrometer, imaging spectrometer, gravity experiment) will provide a global data set for the chemistry, mineralogy, geology, topography, and gravity of the Moon. These data will in turn provide an important baseline for the further scientific exploration of the Moon by all-purpose landers and micro-rovers, and sample return missions from sites shown to be of primary interest from the global orbital data. These data would clearly provide the basis for intelligent selection of sites for the establishment of lunar base sites for long-term scientific and resource exploration and engineering studies. The two recent Galileo encounters with the Moon (December, 1990 and December, 1992) illustrate how modern technology can be applied to significant lunar problems. We emphasize the regional results of the Galileo SSI to show the promise of geologic unit definition and characterization as an example of what can be done with the global coverage to be obtained by the Lunar Scout Missions
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