After the Flop in Copenhagen

Despite high drama, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) conference in Copenhagen ended as a flop. During chaotic negotiations and fundamental disagreements surrounding the formation of a post-Kyoto deal, five heads of state got together on the last day of negotiations in an attempt to salvage the conference with a document that would later be called the Copenhagen Accord. The United States, Brazil, South Africa, India, and China led a group of 20 supporting countries to craft the Copenhagen Accord, which was criticized because it was crafted behind closed doors and it did not commit major emitting countries to much in terms of emission reductions, finance, or technology transfer. The members of the UNFCCC agreed to "take note of" the Accord: Some leaders characterized this as a meaningful first step toward a future climate treaty, but many observers characterized the Accord as a failure because it is nonbinding and vague. The meeting in Copenhagen made it clear that nothing will be accomplished in a system that requires consensus among 192 member nations. Some have stated that future climate cooperation should be driven by coalitions that are best suited to the task, such as a narrower group like the G-20. This approach would work best, according to Hufbauer and Kim, if several points are addressed: (1) financial responsibility to developing countries must be divided among the developed members; (2) there must be a commitment to provide public funds if private funds are not forthcoming; (3) a template of conditionality for developing countries must exist; and (4) emission control targets must be frequently reviewed in light of the 2 degrees Celsius cap.

Assessment of Sex Offender Notification Policy in the United States: Has the Policy Been Working?

The National Sex Offender Registration and Notification (SORN) policies in the United States have been one of the major policies against sex offense since 2006. In this paper, we attempt to assess the policies within a framework of four types of failure in criminal justice reform by Berman and Fox – Theory, Marketing and Politics, Implication, and Self-Reflection. According to the evaluation, the SORN policies have not been successful, fitting into the four failures. Even though the policies were successfully initiated by the public and politics, the lack of theoretical framework led the whole process of the policies into failure. In addition, the implication of the policies has been challenging because of constitutional and ethical concerns of the offenders. Although a sufficient amount of literature has presented the ineffectiveness of the policies, more applications are attempted by policymakers. Before deeper and wider problems occur, the criminal justice system must be more rational on the subject. For future policy reform, we recommend that policymakers consider the previous studies and start to think about a sound framework for the policies

Korean immigrants' experience with Australian welfare services

This study provides an empirical investigation of the Korean immigrants’ experiences of welfare services in Australia. It seeks to examine two important underlying questions: what are the factors that influence or affect Korean immigrants’ access to and usage of certain welfare services in Australia; and what is the nature of Korean immigrants’ experiences of Australian welfare services? The answers are given in the final summing-up of the major findings. In order to explore the experiences of Korean immigrants using welfare services in practice, in-depth interviews and focus groups with 17 Korean immigrants in Australia were conducted. The participants included both users and providers of childcare and housing services, and the interviews yield rich narratives that provide an interesting perspective of the issues addressed. To understand fully Korean immigrants’ experiences of using welfare services in Australia, the factors that influence their access to welfare services are examined. Language issues are discussed by exploring how language barriers prevent Korean immigrants from accessing welfare services. Networking issues among Korean immigrants in relation to the cultural attitudes, and the lack of information about services are also investigated. In particular, this study points out the cultural attitudes of Korean immigrants by examining fear of self-disclosure and stigmatisation, distrust of services and different expectations of welfare. The study uses welfare state regime theory to address the distinct welfare usage patterns of Korean immigrants in their country of settlement, point out the limitation of previous theories to examine the practical aspects of welfare services. In addition, the study examines whether or not the community organisations for Korean immigrants provide appropriate services which reflect the concept of multiculturalism. This component of the study focuses on Korean immigrants’ experiences of the Australian-Korean Welfare Association, Centrelink interpreter services, Relationships Australia and Korean churches. Key findings relate to: the positive and negative features of services, such as the attitudes of service providers, accessibility of services, and organisational capacity. The findings are also discussed in relation to the concept of multiculturalism by looking to see if the community organisations pursue multiculturalism in practice. The policy suggestions and recommendations offered by the interview participants are also included as an adjunct to this study on welfare policy for Korean immigrants in Australia

Technology Forecasting for Wireless Communication

Wireless communications technologies have undergone rapid changes over the last 30 years from analog approaches to digital-based systems. These technologies have improved on many fronts including bandwidth, range, and power requirements. Development of new telecommunications technologies is critical. It requires many years of efforts. In order to be competitive, it is critical to establish a roadmap of future technologies. This paper presents a framework to characterize, assess and forecast the wireless communication technologies. A DEA-based methodology was used for predicting the state-of-the-art in future wireless communications technologies

Guest Delight: The Influence of Sustainable Performance and Guests\u27 Perceived Health and Safety

Recently, the COVID-19 pandemic has further emphasized the importance of guests’ health, safety, and well-being in the hotel industry. Further, in today’s highly competitive environment, hotels must orchestrate memorable experiences for guests to realize their value and become ambassadors for the brand. The purpose of this research is to explore the antecedents (i.e., sustainable performance, safety, and health) and the outcomes (i.e., brand love, trust, and willingness to pay more) of customer delight. Surveys will be distributed to hotel guests and the results can provide insights and implications for scholars and practitioners to better understand the concept of customer delight

Testing a public health orientation to climate adaptation planning

Thesis: Ph. D. in Environmental Planning and Public Policy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, 2018.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references.Current urban climate adaptation planning efforts tend to focus on protecting a city's physical assets from potential climate-related disasters, with an increasing emphasis on enhancing resilience, or building places that can absorb and withstand climatic shocks. Scholars and practitioners have critiqued climate adaptation planning's current focus on protecting physical assets, pointing out that adaptation plans rarely incorporate equity or social vulnerability. Consequently, calls have emerged for climate adaptation planning to focus on human vulnerabilities instead. To that end, my dissertation probes why and how the health impacts of climate change should be given a more prominent role in climate adaptation planning efforts. In reality, to structure the conversation around climate change to be about public health, cities will need new approaches to enhance public awareness of and facilitate engagement with climate risk management choices. Responding to calls for research on ways for cities to operationalize a focus on the health impacts of climate change, my dissertation project tested three methods of engaging citizens in public health-oriented climate adaptation planning. I find that cities have much to gain from framing climate change as a public health issue, as it boosts public concern about the severity of the problem and builds public support for policy action. I also find that serious games enhance awareness of local climate-related health risks and collective decision-making capacities, and argue that cities should utilize face-to-face and digital game-based engagement in climate adaptation planning efforts. My dissertation concludes with recommendations for cities on how to use a variety of public engagement methods to create pathways for envisioning local preferences in climate adaptation planning. This dissertation engages with and contributes to three areas of theory and practice. First, the dissertation examines the proposed normative and pragmatic benefits of cities adopting a public health orientation to climate adaptation planning. Second, the dissertation presents new tools for cities to enhance public awareness of and facilitate engagement with climate risk management choices. Finally, the dissertation project considers planners' roles in science-intensive planning and policymaking processes, in particular, through addressing the unique challenges to enhancing public engagement around climate change. Furthermore, it examines how planners can foster collective decision-making capacities among different publics, and ultimately, enable technically sound and politically feasible responses by individuals and communities to adapt to climate change.by Ella Jisun Kim.Ph. D. in Environmental Planning and Public Polic

Bounded Littlewood identities for cylindric Schur functions

The identities which are in the literature often called ``bounded Littlewood identities" are determinantal formulas for the sum of Schur functions indexed by partitions with bounded height. They have interesting combinatorial consequences such as connections between standard Young tableaux of bounded height, lattice walks in a Weyl chamber, and noncrossing matchings. In this paper we prove affine analogs of the bounded Littlewood identities. These are determinantal formulas for sums of cylindric Schur functions. We also study combinatorial aspects of these identities. As a consequence we obtain an unexpected connection between cylindric standard Young tableaux and $r$-noncrossing and $s$-nonnesting matchings.Comment: 56 pages, 17 figures, title change