Minority women taking part in International Women's Day march

Inscription: Verso: International women's day march, New York.

Taking risks in the face of uncertainty:an exploratory analysis of green innovation

The relationship between uncertainty and firms’ risk-taking behaviour has been a focus of investigation since early discussion of the nature of enterprise activity. Here, we focus on how firms’ perceptions of environmental uncertainty and their perceptions of the risks involved impact on their willingness to undertake green innovation. Analysis is based on a cross-sectional survey of UK food companies undertaken in 2008. The results reinforce the relationship between perceived environmental uncertainty and perceived innovation risk and emphasise the importance of macro-uncertainty in shaping firms’ willingness to undertake green innovation. The perceived (market-related) riskiness of innovation also positively influences the probability of innovating, suggesting either a proactive approach to stimulating market disruption or an opportunistic approach to innovation leadership.

AuxAg1-x alloy seeds: A way to control growth, morphology and defect formation in Ge nanowires

Germanium (Ge) nanowires are of current research interest for high speed nanoelectronic devices due to the lower band gap and high carrier mobility compatible with high K-dielectrics and larger excitonic Bohr radius ensuing a more pronounced quantum confinement effect [1-6]. A general way for the growth of Ge nanowires is to use liquid or a solid growth promoters in a bottom-up approach which allow control of the aspect ratio, diameter, and structure of 1D crystals via external parameters, such as precursor feedstock, temperature, operating pressure, precursor flow rate etc [3, 7-11]. The Solid-phase seeding is preferred for more control processing of the nanomaterials and potential suppression of the unintentional incorporation of high dopant concentrations in semiconductor nanowires and unrequired compositional tailing of the seed-nanowire interface [2, 5, 9, 12]. There are therefore distinct features of the solid phase seeding mechanism that potentially offer opportunities for the controlled processing of nanomaterials with new physical properties. A superior control over the growth kinetics of nanowires could be achieved by controlling the inherent growth constraints instead of external parameters which always account for instrumental inaccuracy. The high dopant concentrations in semiconductor nanowires can result from unintentional incorporation of atoms from the metal seed material, as described for the Al catalyzed VLS growth of Si nanowires [13] which can in turn be depressed by solid-phase seeding. In addition, the creation of very sharp interfaces between group IV semiconductor segments has been achieved by solid seeds [14], whereas the traditionally used liquid Au particles often leads to compositional tailing of the interface [15] . Korgel et al. also described the superior size retention of metal seeds in a SFSS nanowire growth process, when compared to a SFLS process using Au colloids [12]. Here in this work we have used silver and alloy seed particle with different compositions to manipulate the growth of nanowires in sub-eutectic regime. The solid seeding approach also gives an opportunity to influence the crystallinity of the nanowires independent of the substrate. Taking advantage of the readily formation of stacking faults in metal nanoparticles, lamellar twins in nanowires could be formed.

Spic'ing into Existence: Epitaph, Epithet, and the Ethnopoetic Imagination

Quién Es, Quién Somos? Spic’ing into Existence claims a four-fold close-reading: first, analysis of texts: from theoretical meditations to (prison) memoir and film. Second, a half dozen central figures appear, largely Latinx and black American. They cut across a score of registers, socio-economics, ideological reservations, but all are, as Carl Carlton sang, poetry in motion. Writers, poets, theologians, pathologists, artists, comedians, actors, students whose vocation is invocation, the inner surge of their calling. Third, the manuscript draws from a series of historical moments—from radical liberation of the late 60s, to contemporary student activism. Finally, this body of work is movement, in all its social, gestural, and kinesthetic viscera. From this last heading, we peel away layers of what I call the ethnopoet, the fascia undoing that reveals its bio-political anatomy, dressing its bare life with kinship speech. First, the social revolutions of the Civil Rights, Black Power, abolitionism, the Black Panthers and Young Lords, boycotts and jarring artistic performances. These events are superficial not in vain sense, but key epicenters of underground murmurings, the workings of a cunning assailant. She robs not lavish estates, but another day to breathe. Gesturally, as perhaps the interlocutor, lies this author, interspersing his own diatribes to conjure her presence. The final branch is admittedly the most intangible. Kinesthetically, we map the nimbleness, footwork lígera of what I call the ethnopoet. Ethnopoet is no mere aggregate of ethnicity and poetry, but like chemical reaction, the descriptor for its behavior under certain pressures, temperatures, and elements. Elusive and resisting confinement, and therefore definition, the ethnopoet is a shapeshifting figure of how racialized bodies [people of color] respond to hegemonic powers. She is, at bottom, however, a native translator, the plural-lensed subject whose loyalty is only to the imagination of a different world, one whose survival is not contingent upon her exploitation. The native translator’s constant re-calibrations of oppressive power apparatuses seem taxing at best, and near-impossible, at worst. To effectively navigate through these polarized loci, she must identify ideologies that in turn seek “affective liberatory sances” in relation to the dominant social order (43). In a kind of performative contradiction, she must marshall the knowledge necessary to “break with ideology” while speaking within it. Chicana Studies scholar, Chela Sandoval, describes this dual movement as “meta-ideologizing”: the appropriation of hegemonic ideological forms in order to transform them (82). Nuestros padres se subieron encima de La Bestia, y por eso somos pasageros a ese tren. Y ya, dentro su pansa, tenemos que ser vigilantes cuando plantamos las bombas. In Methodology of the Oppressed, Sandoval schematizes this oppositional consciousness around five principle categories: “equal rights,” “revolutionary,” “supremacist,” “separatist,” and “differential.” Taken by themselves, the first four modes appear mutually exclusive, incapable of occupying the same plane, until a fifth pillar emerges. Cinematographic in nature, differential consciousness, as Sandoval defines it, is “a kinetic motion that maneuvers, poetically transfigures, and orchestrates while demanding alienation, perversion, and reformation in both spectators and practitioners” (44). For Sandoval, then, differential consciousness is a methodology that privileges an incredible sense mobility, one reaching artistic sensibilities. Our fourth and final analytic of movement serves an apt example of this dual meaning. Lexically speaking, ‘movement’ may be regarded as a political mobilization of aggrieved populations (through sustained efforts), or the process of moving objects (people or otherwise) from one location to another. Praxis-wise, it is both action and ideal, content and form. Thus, an ethnic poetics must be regarded less as a series of stanzas, shortened lyric, or even arrangement of language, but as a lens through which peripheralized peoples kaleidecope ideological positions in an “original, eccentric, and queer sight” (43). Taking note of the advantages of postponing identifications, the thesis stands its ground on the term ethnopoet. Its abstraction is not dewey-eyed philosophy, but an anticipation of poetic justice, of what’s to come from callused hands. This thesis is divided into 7.5 chapters. The first maps out the ethnopoet’s cartographies of struggle. By revisiting that alleged Tío Tomas, Richard Rodriguez, we unearth the tensions that negatively, deny citizenship to one silo, but on the flipside, engender manifold ways of seeing, hearing, and moving . The second, through George Jackson’s prison memoirs, pans out from this ethnography of power, groping for an apparatus that feigns an impervious prestige: ‘the aesthetic regime of coercion.’ In half-way cut, the thesis sidesteps to spic into existence, formally announcing, through Aime Cesaire, myself, and Pedro Pietri, the poeticization of trauma. Such uplift denies New Age transcendence of self, but a rehearsal of our entrapment in these mortal envelopes. Thirdly, conscious of the bleeding ethnic body, we cut open the incipient corpse to observe her pathologist. Her native autopsies offer the ethnic body’s posthumous recognition, the ethnopoetics ability to speak for and through the dead. Chapter five examines prolific black artists—Beyonce and Kendrick Lamar—to elide the circumvention of their consumption via invoking radical black hi/her-stories, ones fragmenting the black body. Sixth, the paper compares the Black Power Salute of the 1968 Mexico City Olympics to Duke’s Mi Gente Boycott of their Latino Student Recruitment Weekend. Both wielded “silent gestures,” that shrewdly interfered with white noise of numbed negligence. Finally, ‘taking the mask off’ that are her functionalities, the CODA expounds on ethnopoet’s interiority, particularly after the rapid re-calibration of her politics. Through a rerun of El Chavo del Ocho, one of Mexican television’s most cherished shows, we tune into the heart-breaking indigence of barrio residents, only to marvel at the power of humor to, as Friday’s John Witherspoon put it, “fight another day.” This thesis is the tip of my tongue. Y por una vez, déjala que cante.

Academic Risk-Taking in Higher Education

Little is known about how adults learn to take risks. However, learning to take risks can be beneficial to adults who fear uncertainty or struggle with academic achievement. Higher education can play a leading role in embracing risk-taking and raising the interest level of adult learners through strategic learning activities.

Left to right: Kim de Mutsert, Nicole Poret, and Sharon Ewe taking a break during sampling, Taylor Slough

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation through the Florida Coastal Everglades Long-Term Ecological Research program under Cooperative Agreements #DBI-0620409 and #DEB-9910514. This image is made available for non-commercial or educational use only.

Lauren McCarthy taking YSI readings in Shark River

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation through the Florida Coastal Everglades Long-Term Ecological Research program under Cooperative Agreements #DBI-0620409 and #DEB-9910514. This image is made available for non-commercial or educational use only.

Left to right: Greg Koch, Kim de Mutsert, Sharon Ewe, Edward Castaneda taking a break during sampling, Shark River Slough

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation through the Florida Coastal Everglades Long-Term Ecological Research program under Cooperative Agreements #DBI-0620409 and #DEB-9910514. This image is made available for non-commercial or educational use only.

Kate Dunlop taking YSI readings in North River

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation through the Florida Coastal Everglades Long-Term Ecological Research program under Cooperative Agreements #DBI-0620409 and #DEB-9910514. This image is made available for non-commercial or educational use only.

The Dynamic Process of Development through Sport

This article presents a global vision for sport through a new framework that incorporates the elements necessary for a developmentally sound approach to youth sport involvement. This framework proposes that youth sport involvement includes three basic elements: (1) taking part in activities (what), while creating relationships with others (who), in a specific setting (where). When these three elements positively interact, it creates a context that, when repeated on a regular basis, leads to changes in the personal assets of the participants. Changes in individuals’ personal assets, such as Competence, Confidence, Connection, and Character (4 C’s), have long been associated with positive sport experiences, which in turn lead to long-term outcomes, including continued sport Participation, higher levels of Performance in sport, and Personal development through sport (3 P’s). Research linking the three basic elements of youth sport (activities, relationships, and settings) to positive changes in personal assets (4 C’s) and long-term outcomes (3 P’s) are discussed and the Personal Assets Framework is presented

WHEN INTERACTING ONLINE LEADS TO TAKING ACTION OFFLINE: EXAMINING THE EFFECTS OF ONLINE PERSUASION ON IS USERS’ PRO-ENVIRONMENTAL BEHAVIOURS

With the increasing attention towards the role of information systems (IS) as a vehicle to address environmental issues, IS researchers and practitioners have strived to leverage advanced Green IS innovations to persuade people to engage in environmentally responsible practices and support pro-environmental initiatives. Yet, existing research reveals that the persuasion effects of Green IS designs remain equivocal. In particular, many design characteristics advocated in Green IS research can produce bi-directional changes in IS users’ attitudes and behaviours. To address this issue, this thesis drew upon the circumplex model of social values (S.H. Schwartz, 1992) to explain when and how online persuasion designs come to affect people’s judgements on resource conservation and environmental protection. Three sets of working propositions and specific hypotheses were developed. Specifically, this research suggests that the use of an IS application can elicit different value primes and draw IS users’ attentions to different motivational functions of engaging in suggested behavioural changes. It is expected that matching online persuasion appeals with IS users’ personal value priorities can increase users’ acceptance of online behavioural suggestions. Second, it is hypothesized that the persuasion effect tends to be weakened, as the system users become aware of the valuematching design in a given IS application. Third, it is proposed that different value primes presented in an IS application can result in different unintended effects on IS users’ global pro-environmental attitudes and motivations. The hypotheses were tested in the two pilot studies and two full-scale online experiments. The study findings generally support the main predictions of the hypotheses. On the one hand, this thesis providesiii empirical evidence that IS design for online persuasion can be instrumental in influencing IS users’ judgements on a range of resource conservation practices. On the other hand, this work explains why the effectiveness of IS-enabled online persuasion attempts needs to be measured not only in terms of the intended changes in a target behavioural domain but also in terms of unintended changes in people’s general environmental orientations. Findings in this research may bring a different perspective on understanding and assessing the influence of Green IS applications on IS users’ judgements and behaviou

From Where Do We Teach? Potential Positions in Public Education

This thesis is a conceptual examination of the positions from which we teach in public education. As it is philosophical in nature, it takes no qualitative or quantitative data. It offers a review of selected relevant literature and an analysis of personal and professional experience, with the intent to pose critical questions about teaching and learning. The framework of this thesis represents the following contentions: First, from its inception, public schooling served capital by preparing skilled labour for emerging industrial markets. This history is the hegemonic shadow that hangs over public education today. Second, movements toward the standardization of funding, curriculum, and evaluation support the further commodification of public schooling. The “accountability” that standardization offers, the “back to basics” that it aims for, is counter to the potential that public education might critically inform citizens and seek social justice. Third, movements toward the privatization of public schooling under the guise of “choice” and “mobility”, brought on by manufactured crisis, serve only to widen socio-economic inequities as capitalist neoliberal interests seek profit in both the product of public schools and in schooling itself. If we recognize and understand the power of public education to inform vast numbers of citizens who will, in turn, either maintain or reform society, we must ask: What do we want public education to be? What are the effects of continuing down historically conventional and increasingly standardized paths? What do progressive pedagogies offer? How might teachers destandardize their pedagogy and pursue equitable opportunities for marginalized students? How might students name themselves and their world, that they might play a part in its reimagining? For whom do we teach, and under what conditions? From where do we teach, and why? For educators to ask these questions, and to employ what they discover, will necessitate taking substantial risks. It will necessitate taking a stand and cannot be done alone. Teachers must seek out the collaboration of their students. They must offer students the time and the space to find their own voices, to create their own selves, and to envision previously uncharted paths on which we might walk together.

Breaking Open the Black Boxes: media archaeology, anarchaeology and media materiality

An essay on the emergent methodology of media archaeology, in realtion to the material turn in approaches to digital media. In particular, this article advocates taking up Siegfried Zielinski's concept of 'anarchaeology', but in a different sense to the way it was originally proposed, in order to emphasise the political potentials of a media (an)archaeological methodological approach.