The Business of Carbon

Companies and other organizations are increasingly coming to understand that paying attention to their carbon footprint is just good business. Stakeholders are making decisions in part based on good resource stewardship, and that includes carbon emissions as well as energy use. Reducing energy use through a combination of energy efficiency and demand response improves the enterprise bottom line and reduces the carbon footprint. Eric Jackson is a Senior Carbon Expert at the new Environmental Change Institute at the University of Illinois. He is also Owner & CEO at CP (Carbonless Promise) Holdings, a leading Greenhouse Gas Management Services company in Minneapolis. Jackson has been a Manager and Senior Executive of various other companies for over 25 years; he has been involved in international commodity trading, logistics and supply chain management, commodity risk management, and Bios & Abstracts renewable energy. He graduated from the University of Illinois with a bachelors’ degree in Agricultural Economics.Ope

Two-part Negation in Yang Zhuang

The negation system of Yang Zhuang includes two standard negators and an aspectual negator, all of which occur before the verb; the negator meiz nearly always co-occurs with a clause-final particle nauq, which can also stand as a single-word negative response to a question. Although it is tempting to analyze nauq with a meaning beyond simply negation, this is difficult to do synchronically. Comparison with neighboring Tai languages suggests that this construction represents one stage in Jespersen's Cycle, whereby a negator is augmented with a second element, after which the second element becomes associated with negation; this element subsequently replaces the historical negator. A Jespersen's Cycle analysis also explains the occurrence of nauq as a preverbal negator in some neighboring Zhuang languages

Organizing Madness: Psychiatric Nosology in Historical Perspective

This paper traces the history of psychiatric nosology in the US from its origins in the early 19th century through the most recent revision of the standardized classification, DSM-IV TR. The evolution of nosology is found to be shaped not only by advances in knowledge, but also by socio-historic and professional trends. The initial impetus for systematic classification came from outside the mental health profession, but later revisions reflected intraprofessional struggles and experiences. Future revisions will almost certainly be prone to these same intra- and extraprofessional influences, and may see a dramatic shift away from symptomatology and towards an etiological focus

A DEA Analysis Using Quality And Advertising As Determinants Of Strategic Group Membership In The Automobile Industry

This manuscript considers sales within an automotive strategic group.  Sales within the “Family Car” segment are examined. The efficient uses of inputs relative to the sales generated as determined by Data Envelopment Analysis are compared. The relative efficiencies are used to identify strategic groups within the market segment and to suggest how resources may be utilized more efficiently.  Data Envelopment Analysis, (DEA), is used to compare three inputs and one output for several automobile manufacturers competing for sales in the same market segment.  The three inputs used are two aggregate measures of quality and one measure of the dollar volume spent on advertising by the firms. The output measure used is the volume of sales each year over a five-year period. A Kruskal and Wallis rank test is performed to confirm that the data is comparable over the five year time period. Specifically, comparisons are made to establish that no significant changes in quality or advertising expenditures have occurred during the study period. Once it has been established that no significant changes occurred during the study period for the input and output measures for the individual automotive models. Next, firms are compared using the DEA efficiencies and are grouped according to these efficiencies.  The efficiency measurements indicate that there are two distinct clusters of companies formed within the market segment.  The most efficient cluster is composed of five firms. The least efficient cluster is composed of five firms. An intermediate cluster of two firms exists that is neither extremely efficient nor extremely inefficient in it’s utilization of resources but may be more closely aligned with the efficient firms than with the inefficient group. This stratification into groups within the market segment by efficiency suggests that practitioners might be able to adjust their utilization of resources to compete in a different strategic group. It also suggests that success within a strategic group may be impacted by how firms utilize strategic levers within their control

Undercurrents: The Life Cycle of an Outdoor Experiential Learning Program in a Mainstream Public Middle School

This autoethnographic study details the researcher’s experiences as a high school student and as a new teacher—which eventually led to the creation, implementation, and 8-year life cycle of Mount Logan Discovery, a sixth-grade integrated outdoor experiential learning program in a public middle school. Routine field experiences established academic background knowledge, fostered relationships, built confidence, and provided purpose for curriculum standards. Perspectives of parents, students, colleagues, administrators, and donors add detail. This study responds to calls qualitative studies that focus on how outdoor programs are conducted, the descriptions of experiences and perceptions of students and parents, and how participants were changed through outdoor experiential learning programs. The primary research question was: What are the lived experiences of the researcher as a founder of a public middle school outdoor experiential learning program, from its inception to its closure? Though outdoor experiential learning is the main theme, this study is also about teaching reading and writing in authentic contexts, integrated science, and the struggle for constructivist-minded educators to humanize schools within high-stakes testing culture. From a theoretical standpoint, this is a story of constructivism in praxis. Participants described that outdoor field experiences improved their attitude towards school, their overall confidence, fostered relationships, established a strong classroom community, and boosted their academic performance. Students and parents emphasized the impact integrating literacy with field programs had on their writing and reading skills. Other themes that surfaced include the role of field experiences in building character and allowing students to find joy and happiness in the learning process. Parents and students alike indicated outdoor field experiences had a lasting impact on participants lives. The analysis also identifies six steps for putting principles of constructivism into practice in schools, recommendations for implementing new programs, and components of effective field programs. The narrative spurs parents, educators, administrators, and lawmakers to reflect on what really matters in schools. Until we change the way schools are evaluated, outdoor experiential learning programs like Mount Logan Discovery, and other attempts to enrich students’ educational experiences, will always exist on the fringes and in the shadows of public education, fighting for sustainability