Spatial Articulations of Race, Desire, and Belonging in Western North Carolina

The sociocultural mythology of the South homogenizes it as a site of abjection. To counter the regionalist discourse, the dissertation intersects queer sexualities with gender and race and focuses on exploring identity and spatial formation among Black lesbian and queer women. The dissertation seeks to challenge the monolith of the South and place the region into multiple contexts and to map Black geographies through an intentional intersectional account of Black queer women. The dissertation utilizes qualitative research methods to ascertain understandings of lived experiences in the production of space. The dissertation argues that an idea of Progress has been indoctrinated as a synonym for the lgbtq civil rights movement and subsequently provides an analysis of progress discourses and queer sexualities and political campaigns of equality in the South. Analyses revealed different ways to situate progress utilizing the public contributions of three Black women interviewed for the dissertation. Moreover, the dissertation utilizes six Black queer and lesbian women to explain the multifarious nature of identities and their construction in place. Black queer and lesbian women produce spaces that deconstruct the normativity of stasis and physicality, and the dissertation explores the consequential realities of being a body in space. These consequences are particularly highlighted in the dissertation by discussions of the processes of racialization in the bounded and unbounded senses of space and place and the impacts of religious institutions, specifically Christianity. The dissertation concluded that no space is without complication. Other considerations should be made in the advancement of alleviating oppression deeply embedded in United States landscapes. Black women’s geographies offer epistemological and ontological renderings that enrich analyses of space, place, and landscape. The dissertation also concludes that Black women’s bodies represent sites for the production of geographic knowledge through narrating their spaces of material trajectories of interlocking, multiscalar lives.

Seawater carbonate chemistry and Bathymodiolus brevior shell variables near Eifuku volcano, Japan, 2009

Increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are causing ocean acidification, compromising the ability of some marine organisms to build and maintain support structures as the equilibrium state of inorganic carbon moves away from calcium carbonate. Few marine organisms tolerate conditions where ocean pH falls significantly below today's value of about 8.1 and aragonite and calcite saturation values below 1. Here we report dense clusters of the vent mussel B. brevior in natural conditions of pH values between 5.36 and 7.29 on northwest Eifuku volcano, Mariana arc, where liquid carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulphide emerge in a hydrothermal setting. We find that both shell thickness and daily growth increments in shells from northwest Eifuku are only about half those recorded from mussels living in water with pH>7.8. Low pH may therefore also be implicated in metabolic impairment. We identify four-decade-old mussels, but suggest that the mussels can survive for so long only if their protective shell covering remains intact: crabs that could expose the underlying calcium carbonate to dissolution are absent from this setting. The mussels' ability to precipitate shells in such low-pH conditions is remarkable. Nevertheless, the vulnerability of molluscs to predators is likely to increase in a future ocean with low pH.

Seawater carbonate chemistry and community calcification during Reunion Island coral reef community study, 2007

To assess the contribution of soft-bottoms to the carbon cycle in coral reefs, the net community production (p) was measured in winter at 3 stations on La Saline inner reef flat (Reunion Island). Changes in pH and total alkalinity at different irradiances (I) were assessed using benthic chambers (0.2 m2) during a 1-h incubation. Mean grain size, the silt and clay load and chlorophyll a content of the sediments were analysed in each chamber. Daily community production (P), gross community production (Pg) and community respiration (R) were estimated from p-I curves and daily irradiance variations (PAR, 400-700 nm). Sediment characteristics and chlorophyll a contents did not differ between the three sites, except for the silt and clay fraction at one station. R being higher than Pg (84.88 ± 7.36 and -62.29 ± 3.34 mmolC m-2 d-1 respectively), P value reached 22.59 ± 5.66 mmolC m-2 d-1. The sediments were therefore heterotrophic with a mean Pg/R lower than 1 (0.74 ± 0.05) and appear to be a carbon source. Our data suggested the importance of the degradation process in the functioning of near-reef sediments.

Granulometry, mineralogy and organic matter content of permafrost core 5011-3

The combination of permafrost history and dynamics, lake level changes and the tectonical framework is considered to play a crucial role for sediment delivery to El'gygytgyn Crater Lake, NE Russian Arctic. The purpose of this study is to propose a depositional framework based on analyses of the core strata from the lake margin and historical reconstructions from various studies at the site. A sedimentological program has been conducted using frozen core samples from the 141.5 m long El'gygytgyn 5011-3 permafrost well. The drill site is located in sedimentary permafrost west of the lake that partly fills the El'gygytgyn Crater. The total core sequence is interpreted as strata building up a progradational alluvial fan delta. Four macroscopically distinct sedimentary units are identified. Unit 1 (141.5-117.0 m) is comprised of ice-cemented, matrix-supported sandy gravel and intercalated sandy layers. Sandy layers represent sediments which rained out as particles in the deeper part of the water column under highly energetic conditions. Unit 2 (117.0-24.25 m) is dominated by ice-cemented, matrix-supported sandy gravel with individual gravel layers. Most of the Unit 2 diamicton is understood to result from alluvial wash and subsequent gravitational sliding of coarse-grained (sandy gravel) material on the basin slope. Unit 3 (24.25-8.5 m) has ice-cemented, matrix-supported sandy gravel that is interrupted by sand beds. These sandy beds are associated with flooding events and represent near-shore sandy shoals. Unit 4 (8.5-0.0 m) is ice-cemented, matrix-supported sandy gravel with varying ice content, mostly higher than below. It consists of slope material and creek fill deposits. The uppermost metre is the active layer (i.e. the top layer of soil with seasonal freeze and thaw) into which modern soil organic matter has been incorporated. The nature of the progradational sediment transport taking place from the western and northern crater margins may be related to the complementary occurrence of frequent turbiditic layers in the central lake basin, as is known from the lake sediment record. Slope processes such as gravitational sliding and sheet flooding occur especially during spring melt and promote mass wasting into the basin. Tectonics are inferred to have initiated the fan accumulation in the first place and possibly the off-centre displacement of the crater lake.

Let's put in order the accounting records and annual accounts of the agrarian processing companies

The substantive legislation on which Agricultural Processing Companies is based has some notable gaps with regard to the pertinent accounting system. There are grey areas concerning compulsory accounting records and their legalization, together with the process for drawing up, checking, approving and depositing the annual accounts.Consequently, in this paper, we will look first at the corporate and accounting records for Agricultural Processing Companies, putting forward proposals in the wake of recent legislation on the legalization of generally applied corporate and accounting documents.A critical analysis will also be made of the entire process of drafting, auditing, approving and depositing the annual accounts and other documents that Agricultural Processing Companies must send each year to their respective regional registries. Legal and mercantile registries will be differentiated from administrative ones and, in this last sense, changes will be suggested with regard to the place and objective of the deposit of such documents.After thirty-four years old, the substantive legislation in economic and accounting matters of the SAT is out of step with the current law, so a review is necessary. Recent regional regulations have not been a real breakthrough in this regard. We assert the existence of a gap between the substantive rules of the SAT and general accounting rules on financial statements, which is unsustainable and it needs a quick legislative action to be canceled.

Interpretation and typology Spanish indefinite pronoun uno in three discoursive genres

This study investigates the Spanish indefinite pronoun uno (“one”). After a detailed analysis of its occurrences in authentic language, we find that its interpretation varies depending on the linguistic context. Therefore, we examine which elements of the context - we focus on the broader context, beyond the sentence – have an impact on its interpretation and develop a typology of the indefinite pronoun as to its interpretation. The pronoun may be interpreted as completely generic or specific (referring to the speaker, the listener or a third person). Its interpretation can also be located in an intermediate position between these interpretive extremes.In addition, we compare its use in various discursive genres - spontaneous conversations, academic essays and web forum - which are distinguished by the presence or absence of interactivity and of more or less subjectivity / intersubjectivity. The comparison shows that pronoun use depends on these characteristics.

Sound Art and Public Engagement in the Built Environment: Reflections from an Architecture Center

This article explores the deployment of sound in architectural-curatorial and community engagement contexts through the work of PLACE, a multidisciplinary not-for-profit architecture center in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The author, who worked with PLACE and contributed to the projects discussed here, contextualizes architecture centers and their relationship with sound before examining the specific case of sound and sound art in Northern Ireland and case studies of projects delivered by PLACE. Specifically, the article evaluates two sound installation artworks and three community engagement projects for young audiences. As a means of curating urbanism and architecture, sound-art-as-public-art affords useful strategies to examine, describe or critique the environment as alternatives to traditional architecture exhibition formats. Sound’s temporality and materiality allow sound art works to exist as temporary sculptural interventions in the urban sphere, with attendant implications for public art procurement and urban acoustics. Rich territories of engagement are opened when using sound in a community participatory context.

Reconsidering Partisan Memorial Landscapes in un-brotherly and disunited times

Cultural landscapes are the product of innumerable changes wrought by generations in order to meet their aspirations, vanities, ambitions and weaknesses (Sudjic 2006: p.326). The inescapable nature of architecture makes it the ideal vehicle for those in power to manifest their authority, taste and will in the landscape by the buildings and monuments they construct and conserve and also the historical events and myths they commemorate and disseminate.
In the 1960s, many Yugoslav landscapes were altered by the construction of abstract Partisan spomenik (monuments) which dominated the skylines of former battle sites. This paper will discuss the how the collapse of Socialist ‘regime of memory’ and Yugoslavia has left these landscapes as legacies of a lost world of yesterday. It will consider how changing values are reflected by physical landscape changes and also by how and which critical events are commemorated.

Drifters, Party Boys and Incumbents: The life patterns of male street-based sex workers

This paper is based on a qualitative study of male street-based prostitution. It suggests that the street-based sector is more varied, with sellers adopting a wider range of working practices, than is commonly acknowledged in the literature on male prostitution. Drawing on data from Manchester, England I identify a number of ‘life patterns’ among male street sellers that reflect varied working practices based on issues around rational decision-making and the sex worker’s relationship to place and environment. The discussion has implications for urban policies around street-based sex work but also for a more general understanding of male sex work in international and comparative perspective.

Stone temperature and moisture variability under temperate environmental conditions: implications for sandstone weathering

Temperature and moisture conditions are key drivers of stone weathering processes in both natural and built environments. Given their importance in the breakdown of stone, a detailed understanding of their temporal and spatial variability is central to understanding present-day weathering behaviour and for predicting how climate change may influence the nature and rates of future stone decay.
Subsurface temperature and moisture data are reported from quarry fresh Peakmoor Sandstone samples exposed during summer (June–July) and late autumn / early winter (October–December) in a mid-latitude, temperate maritime environment. These data demonstrate that the subsurface thermal response of sandstone comprises numerous short-term (minutes), low magnitude fluctuations superimposed upon larger-scale diurnal heating and cooling cycles with distinct aspect-related differences. The short-term fluctuations create conditions in the outer 5–10 mm of stone that are much more ‘energetic’ in comparison to the more subdued thermal cycling that occurs deeper within the sandstone samples.
Data show that moisture dynamics are equally complex with a near-surface region (5–10 mm) in which frequent moisture cycling takes place and this, combined with the thermal dynamism exhibited by the same region may have significant implications for the nature and rate of weathering activity. Data indicate that moisture input from rainfall, particularly when it is wind-driven, can travel deep into the stone where it can prolong the time of wetness. This most often occurs during wetter winter months when moisture input is high and evaporative loss is low but can happen at any time during the year when the hydraulic connection between near-surface and deeper regions of the stone is disrupted with subsequent loss of moisture from depth slowing as it becomes reliant on vapour diffusion alone.
These data illustrate the complexity of temperature and moisture conditions in sandstone exposed to the ‘moderate’ conditions of a temperate maritime environment. They highlight differences in thermal and moisture cycling between near-surface (5–10 mm) and deeper regions within the stone and contribute towards a better understanding of the development of structural and mineralogical heterogeneity between the stone surface and substrate.

Temporal aggregation of migration counts can improve accuracy and precision of trends

Temporal replicate counts are often aggregated to improve model fit by reducing zero-inflation and count variability, and in the case of migration counts collected hourly throughout a migration, allows one to ignore nonindependence. However, aggregation can represent a loss of potentially useful information on the hourly or seasonal distribution of counts, which might impact our ability to estimate reliable trends. We simulated 20-year hourly raptor migration count datasets with known rate of change to test the effect of aggregating hourly counts to daily or annual totals on our ability to recover known trend. We simulated data for three types of species, to test whether results varied with species abundance or migration strategy: a commonly detected species, e.g., Northern Harrier, Circus cyaneus; a rarely detected species, e.g., Peregrine Falcon, Falco peregrinus; and a species typically counted in large aggregations with overdispersed counts, e.g., Broad-winged Hawk, Buteo platypterus. We compared accuracy and precision of estimated trends across species and count types (hourly/daily/annual) using hierarchical models that assumed a Poisson, negative binomial (NB) or zero-inflated negative binomial (ZINB) count distribution. We found little benefit of modeling zero-inflation or of modeling the hourly distribution of migration counts. For the rare species, trends analyzed using daily totals and an NB or ZINB data distribution resulted in a higher probability of detecting an accurate and precise trend. In contrast, trends of the common and overdispersed species benefited from aggregation to annual totals, and for the overdispersed species in particular, trends estimating using annual totals were more precise, and resulted in lower probabilities of estimating a trend (1) in the wrong direction, or (2) with credible intervals that excluded the true trend, as compared with hourly and daily counts.

Integrated Housing Approach for Riyadh’s hot arid Climate: solutions from the desert vernacular

Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2016-06

Musicalidades Quotidianas da Personalidade: estudo sobre o impacto da música na personalidade, comportamentos, emoções e quotidiano de jovens e adultos de língua portuguesa

Objetivos: A música, incomum pela sua ubiquidade e antiguidade, constitui uma das atividades humanas que ocupa um lugar significativo nas diversas culturas e vida diária. Geralmente agradável para grande parte das pessoas, produz numerosos e desmedidos efeitos, na sua maioria positivos para o ser humano. Esta investigação teve como objetivo principal estudar a relação entre alguns dos diferentes géneros musicais e os de traços de personalidade de jovens e de adultos com idades compreendidas entre os 18 e os 38 anos, fluentes em português. A investigação pretendeu descrever as preferências musicais em função da idade, género, estado civil e habilitações literárias; identificar os contextos, os períodos e as atividades mais comuns durante a escuta de música; reconhecer se a música é uma das atividades de lazer mais importantes para o grupo estudado; conhecer quais as razões mais frequentes apontadas pelos sujeitos para ouvir música; estudar a perceção que as pessoas têm sobre a influência da música na violência e no consumo de substâncias; verificar se os sujeitos consideram as preferências musicais como um fator importante e revelador de informações sobre a personalidade; avaliar o impacto e relação das preferências musicais com a personalidade e verificar quais os pares de emoções mais comuns, sentidos durante a escuta musical, e respetiva intensidade. Metodologia: A amostra foi constituída por 320 indivíduos com idades compreendidas entre os 18 e os 38 anos sendo a faixa etária mais comum a que se situa entre os 24 a 29 anos, maioritariamente do sexo feminino, solteiros, de nacionalidade portuguesa, detentores ou a frequentar um curso superior, nas áreas das ciências sociais/serviços ou exatas e tecnológicas. Os participantes aceitaram responder voluntariamente a uma bateria de testes (QCS, EPI, QMQEC e STOMP-PT). Para a caracterização da amostra, determinaram-se frequências absolutas e relativas ou valores médios e desvios-padrão. A normalidade da distribuição das pontuações médias dos instrumentos foi validada com o teste de Kolmogorov-Smirnov com correção de Lilliefors. A consistência interna estudou-se através do Alpha de Cronbach e da fórmula de Kuder Richarson. As diferenças entre grupos foram avaliadas recorrendo a uma ANOVA, a intensidade e magnitude das relações entre variáveis determinou-se através do coeficiente Eta quadrado (e 2) e com o coeficiente de correlação de Pearson avaliou-se a associação entre as variáveis em estudo. Resultados: Observou-se que a música energética é a mais típica dos escalões etários mais jovens, sendo que a rebelde trespassa todas as gerações, revelando os mais velhos também uma forte preferência pela música reflexiva. As escolhas musicais parecem não ser influenciadas pelo sexo e estado civil. Os indivíduos menos escolarizados parecem preferir músicas do tipo energético, excluindo as convencionais enquanto os detentores de maiores habilitações preferem os estilos reflexivos e rebeldes. É em casa, no quarto, ao fim de semana e quando estão sozinhos que os participantes mais ouvem música, constituindo esta a mais frequente atividade de lazer, por ser uma atividade essencial para a existência, não apelando à violência e ao consumo de substâncias e revelando as preferências musicais aspetos da personalidade. Encontraram-se diferenças estatisticamente significativas entre as dimensões da preferência musical e os traços de personalidade, sendo a música energética a que mais se destaca na extroversão e a rebelde no neuroticismo. Não se obtiveram resultados estatisticamente significativos entre os tipos de música e as emoções. Conclusão: Os resultados devem ser vistos a título de ensaio e como introdutórios, seguindo no entanto os referidos na literatura quer ao nível das preferências por idade, sexo e habilitações literárias, quer ao nível do contexto onde é ouvida, quer ainda entre as dimensões de preferência musical e traços de personalidade. / Aims: Music, unusual for its ubiquity and age, is one of the human activities that occupies a significant place in different cultures and daily life. Generally pleasant to most people, produces many and huge positive effects in humans. This investigation aimed to study the relationship between some of the different music preferences and personality types of young and adults aged between 18 and 38 years, fluent in Portuguese. The research intended to describe the musical preferences based on age, gender, marital status and educational attainment; identify contexts, periods and the most common activities during music listening; recognize the music as one of the most important leisure activities for the group studied; know which are the most frequent reasons given by the subjects to listen to music; study the perception that people have about the influence of music on violence and substance use; check whether the subjects consider the musical preferences as a major factor that reveals information about personality; assess the impact and relationship of musical preferences with the personality and see which pairs of most common emotions are felt during music listening, and its respective intensity. Methods: The sample consisted of 320 individuals aged between 18 and 38 years being the most common age group of between 24 to 29 years, mostly female, single, Portuguese, holders or to attend a higher education in the areas of social / services or exact science. Participants voluntarily agreed to answer a battery of tests (QCS, EPI, QMQEC and STOMP-PT). To characterize the sample, they were determined absolute and relative frequencies and mean values and standard deviations. The normality of the average scores of the instruments has been validated with the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test with Lilliefors correction. Internal consistency was studied using Cronbach's alpha and Kuder Richardson formula. Differences between groups were assessed using an ANOVA, intensity and magnitude of the relationship between variables was determined by Eta squared coefficient and the Pearson correlation coefficient evaluated the association between the study variables. Results: It was observed that the energetic music is the most usual among the younger age groups, and the rebel pierces all generations, revealing the older ones a strong preference for reflective music. The musical choices do not seem to be influenced by sex and marital status. The less educated individuals seems to prefer the energetic type songs, excluding conventional, holders of higher qualifications prefer reflective and rebellious styles. It is at home, in the room, on the weekends and when they are alone that participants listen more music, making this the most common leisure activity, the essential for existence, not calling for violence and substance use and revealing aspects of personality. We found significant differences between the dimensions of music preferences and personality traits, with the energetic music standing out in extraversion and neuroticism on rebel. We did not get significant results among the types of music and emotions. Conclusions: The results should be viewed under test and has introductory , however following the reported in the literature both in terms of preferences by age, sex and education level , both in terms of the context in which it is heard, still follows music preference dimensions and personality traits .

European student mobility and intercultural learning at a portuguese university

The purpose of this study is to understand, impact and evaluate the development of intercultural communicative competencies among European credit-seeking exchange students and other sojourners through purposeful intercultural pedagogy. This pedagogy encompasses intentional intercultural- educational approaches which aim to support and enhance sojourners’ intercultural learning throughout the study abroad cycle (pre-departure, in-country and reentry phases). To test and validate these pedagogies a 20-hour intervention was designed and implemented among two cohorts of 31 sojourners during the in-country phase of their sojourn in Portugal. The process to develop and validate the intercultural intervention was driven by a mixed-methods methodology which combined quantitative and qualitative data to triangulate, complement and expand research results from a pragmatic stance. The mixed methods research design adopted is multi-phased and encompasses a multi-case study and an evaluative component. The multi-case component is embodied by sojourner cohorts: (1) the primary case study involves 19 incoming students at the University of Aveiro (Portugal) as participants in the European exchange program Campus Europae; (2) the second case study comprises three incoming Erasmus students and nine highly skilled immigrants at the same university. All 31 sojourners attended two intermediate Portuguese as Foreign Language classrooms where the intervention was employed. Data collection was extensive and involved collecting, analyzing and mixing quantitative and qualitative strands across four research phases. These phases refer to the: (1) development, (2) implementation and (3) evaluation of the intervention, as well as to (4) a stakeholder analysis of the external value of the intervention and of the Campus Europae program. Data collection instruments included pre and posttest questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. Results confirm the intercultural effectiveness of the intervention and the positive impact upon research participants’ intercultural gains. This impact was, however, greater in case study 2. Among explanatory variables, three stand out: (1) participant meaning-making abilities, (2) host language proficiency and related variables, and (3) type of sojourn or exchange programs. Implications for further research highlight the need to systematize purposeful intercultural pedagogy in sojourner populations in general, and in European credit student mobility in particular. In the latter case, these pedagogies should be part of the design and delivery of credit-bearing exchange programs in pre- departure, in-country and re-entry phases. Implications for practice point to the urge to improve intercultural practices in: macro (higher education institutions), mezzo (exchange programs) and micro (sojourner language classrooms) contexts where this research took place, and wider social scenarios they represent.

Towards Proactive Context-aware Computing and Systems

A primary goal of context-aware systems is delivering the right information at the right place and right time to users in order to enable them to make effective decisions and improve their quality of life. There are three key requirements for achieving this goal: determining what information is relevant, personalizing it based on the users’ context (location, preferences, behavioral history etc.), and delivering it to them in a timely manner without an explicit request from them. These requirements create a paradigm that we term as “Proactive Context-aware Computing”. Most of the existing context-aware systems fulfill only a subset of these requirements. Many of these systems focus only on personalization of the requested information based on users’ current context. Moreover, they are often designed for specific domains. In addition, most of the existing systems are reactive - the users request for some information and the system delivers it to them. These systems are not proactive i.e. they cannot anticipate users’ intent and behavior and act proactively without an explicit request from them. In order to overcome these limitations, we need to conduct a deeper analysis and enhance our understanding of context-aware systems that are generic, universal, proactive and applicable to a wide variety of domains. To support this dissertation, we explore several directions. Clearly the most significant sources of information about users today are smartphones. A large amount of users’ context can be acquired through them and they can be used as an effective means to deliver information to users. In addition, social media such as Facebook, Flickr and Foursquare provide a rich and powerful platform to mine users’ interests, preferences and behavioral history. We employ the ubiquity of smartphones and the wealth of information available from social media to address the challenge of building proactive context-aware systems. We have implemented and evaluated a few approaches, including some as part of the Rover framework, to achieve the paradigm of Proactive Context-aware Computing. Rover is a context-aware research platform which has been evolving for the last 6 years. Since location is one of the most important context for users, we have developed ‘Locus’, an indoor localization, tracking and navigation system for multi-story buildings. Other important dimensions of users’ context include the activities that they are engaged in. To this end, we have developed ‘SenseMe’, a system that leverages the smartphone and its multiple sensors in order to perform multidimensional context and activity recognition for users. As part of the ‘SenseMe’ project, we also conducted an exploratory study of privacy, trust, risks and other concerns of users with smart phone based personal sensing systems and applications. To determine what information would be relevant to users’ situations, we have developed ‘TellMe’ - a system that employs a new, flexible and scalable approach based on Natural Language Processing techniques to perform bootstrapped discovery and ranking of relevant information in context-aware systems. In order to personalize the relevant information, we have also developed an algorithm and system for mining a broad range of users’ preferences from their social network profiles and activities. For recommending new information to the users based on their past behavior and context history (such as visited locations, activities and time), we have developed a recommender system and approach for performing multi-dimensional collaborative recommendations using tensor factorization. For timely delivery of personalized and relevant information, it is essential to anticipate and predict users’ behavior. To this end, we have developed a unified infrastructure, within the Rover framework, and implemented several novel approaches and algorithms that employ various contextual features and state of the art machine learning techniques for building diverse behavioral models of users. Examples of generated models include classifying users’ semantic places and mobility states, predicting their availability for accepting calls on smartphones and inferring their device charging behavior. Finally, to enable proactivity in context-aware systems, we have also developed a planning framework based on HTN planning. Together, these works provide a major push in the direction of proactive context-aware computing.