Internet Privacy: Dictated by Trolls?

In this case study written for WRTC 301: Language, Law and Ethics, Evans examines the issue of whether a private life on the internet can legally and ethically be made public. She focuses on the case of Jason Fortuny, who posed as a female on Craiglist and posted personal messages and pictures he received from men in response. Catherine shows that while we would like to imagine the internet as a personal space, one’s audience may be bigger than imagined

'Having a mentor made this journey easier.' An exploration of a formal, virtual, time-bound and paid-for mentoring programme in a dispersed third-sector organisation

There is a rise in formal mentoring schemes across organisations in different sectors, yet little is known about the way different mentoring scheme features shape participants' experiences of these relationships. Taking a developmental approach to mentoring (rather than a deficit approach) is an aspiration for many schemes; however, the existing literature does not identify which features support the developmental mentoring approach. This single case study of a formal, virtual, time-bound and paid-for mentoring scheme in a dispersed, third-sector organisation examines how mentoring can be developmental under these particular circumstances. A review of the literature was carried out within three sectors: workplace, education and healthcare mentoring. This qualitative study involves an interpretivist ontology and a constructivist epistemology, and acknowledges the difficulties and benefits of being an insider-researcher. Semi-structured interviews were held with twenty-four women to examine their experiences as mentees or mentors. The interviews made use of images to prompt reflections. Eighty-two documents were examined to provide a context for the scheme. Data were imported into NVivo as a management tool, and were analysed thematically. Four themes were found: the context within which the scheme is held; the features of the scheme; the relationships built by NCT mentees and mentors; and the development that has taken place for both mentees and mentors. The analysis suggests that understanding how NCT’s mentoring scheme can be considered to be developmental relies upon the synergy between the organisational context, the nature of the relationships created and the way features and processes within the scheme operate. The alignment of the scheme with organisational goals proved to be crucial, as did the presence of trust. Different sources contributed to the presence of trust. Further research could examine the processes of the creation of trust which were found to be significant in the developmental nature of the scheme

Opinions in context: An exploration of the rhetoric used by Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Ruth Bader Ginsburg regarding the separation of church and state

Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Ruth Bader Ginsburg represented opposite ends of the political spectrum on the Court, having been appointed by presidents from different parties. Their opinions on cases revolving around the interpretation of separation of church and state do/did not occur within a vacuum, and this paper examines both the context surrounding these opinions and rhetoric of the opinions themselves, closing with a discussion of the former’s effect on the latter. Specifically, four cases (two for each) from the beginning and end of the justices’ careers will be analyzed: Capitol Square Review and Advisory Board v. Pinette, Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., Edwards v. Auguillard, and McCreary County v. ACLU of Kentucky. This project serves as an introductory glance into the motivations and rhetorical strategies of two of modern time’s most prominent and incisive justices

Urban ecosystems, cultural identity and urban environmental planning in 1980s Sydney: the making of Bicentennial Park

In the 1980s in Sydney, as elsewhere, a new framing of the city emerged, in which global health and survival was considered to depend on the local intervention in and transformation of degraded urban environments. Underpinning this shift were distinct changes in meaning that Sydney-siders attached to their natural environment, which in turn shaped planning policy and legislation, directions in ecological research, and ultimately urban landscape projects. This paper charts this transition by examining ways in which ecologists, planners and designers constructed and communicated a new ecological understanding of Sydney in the 1980s and early 1990s, and explores Bicentennial Park as an urban landscape project which translated and expressed this new ecological framing of the city. The findings demonstrate that what we take for granted now—that ecology is urban, and that urban ecology offers a pathway to beneficial strategies for adaptation and resilience to environmental change—is a culturally and politically constructed framing of the city which emerged in the late 1970s through the 1980s. Bicentennial Park, now overshadowed by the surrounding Sydney Olympic Parkland is reconsidered for its contribution to ecological conservation as a basis of urban park design in Australia

How the LDS Church Communicates with Women Regarding Gender Roles

By analyzing the language used in notable Latter-Day Saint communications, Catherine Evans explores how gender identity is inscribed at a young age within the LDS community. The piece pulls from the author\u27s personal background and ends with an analysis of the writer’s own faith. This essay was composed for WRTC 200: Introduction to Studies in Writing, Rhetoric and Technical Communication

Comparison studies of the mechanistic formation of polyhalogentaed dibenzo-p-dioxins and furans from the thermal degradation of 2-bromophenol and 2-chlorophenol

Emissions of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and furans (PCDD/Fs) and polybrominated dibenzo-p-dioxins and furans (PBDD/Fs) from hazardous waste incinerators, and many other sources for combustion have been considered environmentally hazardous and a major health threat. Recently, a growing number of materials containing brominated hydrocarbons, commonly used flame retardants, have been disposed in municipal and hazardous waste incinerators. This results in the increased potential for formation of PBDD/Fs and other hazardous combustion by-products. In contrast to chlorinated hydrocarbons, the reactions of brominated hydrocarbons have been studied only minimally. In fact, studies have shown that brominated phenols form higher yields of PBDD/Fs than the analogous chlorinated phenols form PCDD/Fs. For this study, the individual homogeneous, gas-phase oxidative and pyrolytic thermal degradations of 2-bromophenol and 2-chlorophenol were studied in a 1 cm i.d., fused silica flow reactor at a concentration of 88 ppm, with a reaction time of 2.0 s, and over a temperature range of 300 to 1000°C. In addition, 50:50 mixture of 2-chlorophenol and 2-bromophenol with a combined concentration of 88 ppm was studied under similar conditions. Also in order to compare previous work with 2-chlorophenol, the surface catalyzed gas-phase reactions for 2-bromophenol to form PBDD/Fs are described over a temperature range from 250 to 550°C. The results are compared and contrasted with each other in order to understand the roles oxygen, chlorine and bromine play in the formation of PCDD/Fs and PBDD/Fs. Reaction pathways to PCDD/F and PBDD/F products as well as all other products detected are proposed that are consistent with the experimental data for each condition. The presence of oxygen increases the formation of PBDFs and PCDFs. Presence of bromine increases the concentration of Cl radicals which in turn increases chlorination and formation of 4,6-dichlorodibenzofuran (4,6-DCDF). However the yields of the PCDFs and PBDFs are considerably less with the presence of both bromine and oxygen. The pool of ·OH and concentration of the chlorine atoms is reduced and thus prevents these furans from becoming major products

Challenges of Metropolitan Scale Green Infrastructure: The Sydney Green Grid

In 2017, the Government Architect of New South Wales launched a draft policy known as Greener Places (Government Architect NSW 2017a). The new policy is underpinned by the Sydney Green Grid (SGG), an initiative pitched as transformative in its power to promote sustainable development, improve connectivity and enhance green infrastructure (GI) networks across the metropolitan region and the state (Government Architect NSW 2017b). How successful will the SGG be in delivering “greener places” for urban areas across the state? This paper exams the claims of the transformative power of the SGG with a focus on two related objectives. First, because the SGG is predicated on principles of GI, a brief literature review highlights the potential challenges of GI as a planning strategy. Secondly, the paper explores how the SGG relates (if at all) to precedents for metropolitan green space planning precedents in Sydney—what in fact will the SGG transform? The paper extends previous research on metropolitan scale green space planning in Sydney by bringing the SGG into focus and introducing a critical perspective derived from the GI literature. The findings reveal that in Sydney the coherence of landscape concepts and principles underpinning the metropolitan planning strategies is difficult to sustain

The effectiveness of paired study versus individual study in social studies

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit