Digital Commons Network^™

No. 11: Food Insecurity And South Sudanese Urban Refugees In Kenya, Cherie Enns, Samuel Owuor, Abbey Lin, Jacqueline Fanta, Cobby Achieng, William Kolong, Kristin Swardh

Migration and Food Security (MiFOOD) Network

The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the already precarious situation of urban South Sudanese refugees living in Nairobi and Nakuru, Kenya. The pandemic not only increased food insecurity but also disrupted livelihoods and exacerbated socio-economic vulnerabilities that were already significant. These refugees faced limited access to support mechanisms typically available in refugee camps, with inadequate government response and interruptions to remittance flows. Urban refugees were hit especially hard due to the absence of organized support frameworks, leaving them more exposed to the pandemic’s impacts.

This policy brief examines the critical challenges faced by urban South Sudanese refugees in terms of food security …

No. 10: Digital Technologies And Food Remitting By Zimbabwean Migrants In South Africa, Sean Sithole, Daniel Tevera, Mulugeta F. Dinbabo

Migration and Food Security (MiFOOD) Network

The COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted traditional remittance channels, particularly for Zimbabwean migrants in South Africa who relied on informal networks to send food and other essential goods back home. The closure of borders, lockdowns, and mobility restrictions disrupted these informal networks, accelerating the adoption of digital platforms for food remittances. This policy brief explores the role of emerging digital technologies such as mobile money apps and food remittance platforms in facilitating cross-border food transfers between Zimbabwean migrants in Cape Town and their families in Zimbabwe during the early stages of the pandemic. The brief examines how platforms like Mukuru and …

No. 09: Connecting Migrant Remittances And Food Security In Jamaica, Elizabeth Thomas-Hope

Migration and Food Security (MiFOOD) Network

Migrant remittances play a crucial role in supporting households in Kingston, Jamaica, particularly in mitigating the effects of poverty and food insecurity. However, while remittances improve household food security, their impact on reducing inequality and contributing to inclusive social development is more complex. Wealthier households are more likely to receive remittances, and the overall impact of remittances on broader economic growth and food security at the national level remains limited. This brief explores the relationship between remittances and food security in Jamaica within the framework of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with a focus on SDG 10. It …

No. 07: Pandemic Impacts On Migrant Food Security In Nanjing, China, Fei Xu, Taiyang Zhong, Jonathan Crush

Migration and Food Security (MiFOOD) Network

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed significant disparities in food security, particularly among migrant populations in urban settings. Migrant workers, often occupying precarious, low-paying jobs, experienced disruptions to their food access due to job losses, mobility restrictions, and social exclusion during the pandemic. This policy brief highlights key findings from MiFOOD research conducted in Nanjing during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, which revealed heightened levels of food insecurity among migrant households. Migrants were less likely to access online food systems due to technological barriers and exclusion from government aid programs. This brief provides recommendations to enhance food security resilience, including …

No. 08: Addressing Food Insecurity Among Central American Migrants In Mexico, Tiana Bakić Hayden

Migration and Food Security (MiFOOD) Network

Central American migrants living in Mexico City face unique challenges that contribute to heightened food insecurity, with issues stemming from incomplete documentation, social isolation, and precarious legal status. This brief examines these barriers and how they exacerbate food insecurity among migrant populations who reside in Mexico’s urban areas, particularly those from the Northern Triangle (Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador). Migrants face bureaucratic, social, and economic obstacles that limit their access to food, housing, and employment. The brief recommends policy changes aimed at improving documentation processes, enhancing social support networks, and addressing migrants’ specific food security needs.

No. 06: Enhancing Rural-Urban Linkages Through Food Remittances, Elizabeth Opiyo Onyango, Jonathan Crush, Samuel Owuor

Migration and Food Security (MiFOOD) Network

In many rapidly urbanizing African countries, food remittances from rural to urban areas play a vital role in maintaining rural-urban linkages. In Nairobi, Kenya, half of all households, regardless of migration status, receive food remittances from rural areas. Contrary to conventional beliefs, these food transfers are not solely linked to migration or poverty. Instead, they appear to be a long-standing, integral part of urban household resilience, especially for better-off households. As urbanization intensifies, policymakers should recognize the role of food remittances in ensuring food security for both migrants and non-migrant households. This brief explores key challenges such as economic inequality, …

Spectrum, Volume 53, Issue 5, Sacred Heart University

Newspapers (Obelisk & Spectrum)

Highlights include: Vice Presidential Candidates Debate Ahead of Nov. Election - SHU-Powered Poll Reveals Youth Climate Concerns - A Peek Into Family Weekend Campus - The Statues of Sacred Heart University - New Hub to Stream SHU Sports

October 9, 2024 Faculty Senate Minutes, University Of South Carolina

Faculty Senate

No abstract provided.

Impacts Of A Short-Interval Severe Fire On Forest Structure And Regeneration In A Temperate Andean Araucaria-Nothofagus Forest, Paola Arroyo-Vargas, Sebastian Busby, Thomas T. Veblen, Mauro E. Gonzalez, Andres Holz

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background:

Warmer climate conditions are altering fire regimes globally, eroding the capacity of forest ecosystems to resist and recover from natural disturbances like wildfire. Severe and rapidly repeated wildfires are promoting tree regeneration failure of obligate-seeders and/or fire-sensitive species in temperate forests of the Southern Hemisphere. We collected post-fire field data to evaluate whether forest structure and tree regeneration responses varied between two Andean forest study areas dominated by the threatened Gondwanan conifer Araucaria araucana and Nothofagus species (southern beeches) — one area burned once, the other reburned after 13 years.

Results:

Tree mortality was high across species after a …

Birth Dearth And Local Population Decline, Brian J. Asquith, Evan Mast

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

Local population decline has spread rapidly since 1970, with half of counties losing population between 2010 and 2020. The workhorse economic models point to net out-migration, likely driven by changing local economies and amenities, as the cause of this trend. However, we show that the share of counties with high net out-migration has not increased. Instead, falling fertility has caused migration rates that used to generate growth to instead result in decline. When we simulate county populations from 1970 to the present holding fertility at its initial level, only 10 percent of counties decline during the 2010s.

Lawyers And Non-Lawyers In International Arbitration: Discovering Diminishing Diversity, Luke Nottage, Nobumichi Teramura, James Tanna

Loyola of Los Angeles International and Comparative Law Review

This article highlights a curious lack of diversity within the proliferating discourse about the lack of diversity in international arbitration. There is hardly any awareness or at least sustained discussion about the limited diversity of professional backgrounds, and more specifically, the dominance nowadays of those with practicing lawyer positions or primary careers across the key groups and publication outlets for international arbitration. Yet this encroachment of lawyers was still being contested in the 1990s, as being linked to burgeoning costs and delays, and such “formalisation” has been re-emerging in recent years. Diversifying the world of international arbitration to involve more …

Ethical Frameworks And Global Health: A Narrative Review Of The “Leave No One Behind” Principle, Daniela Oehring, Poorna Gunasekera

School of Health Professions

The “Leave No One Behind” (LNOB) principle, a fundamental commitment of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, emphasizes the urgent need to address and reduce global health inequalities. As global health initiatives strive to uphold this principle, they face significant ethical challenges in balancing equity, resource allocation, and diverse health priorities. This narrative review critically examines these ethical dilemmas and their implications for translating LNOB into actionable global health strategies. A comprehensive literature search was conducted using PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Semantic Scholar, covering publications from January 1990 to April 2024. The review included peer-reviewed articles, gray literature, …

China Maritime Report No. 42: Invasion Plans: Operation Causeway And Taiwan's Defense In World War Ii, Ian Easton

CMSI China Maritime Reports

Main Findings

• During World War II, the United States and the Empire of Japan each developed plans and marshaled forces for a climactic battle over Taiwan. Both sides regarded the island as an area of strategic consequence.
• Code-named Operation CAUSEWAY, the American invasion of Taiwan would have been the largest amphibious campaign in the Pacific Theater and the largest sea-air-land engagement in world history.
• Strategists in Japan believed the attack was coming and designed a blueprint for the defense of Taiwan and the Ryukyu Islands called SHO-GO(捷 2 号作戦, or “Operation Victory No. 2”), which envisioned a bloody campaign of …

Vol. 28, No. 1 - Whole No. 127, David Bratman

Mythprint

Mythprint is the monthly bulletin of the Mythopoeic Society, a nonprofit educational organization devoted to the study, discussion, and enjoyment of myth and fantasy literature, especially the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Charles Williams. To promote these interests, the Society publishes three magazines, maintains a World Wide Web site, and sponsors the annual Mythopoeic Conference and awards for fiction and scholarship, as well as local and written discussion groups.

Crocodylian Diversity During The Early Eocene Climatic Optimum In The Golden Valley Formation Of North Dakota, U.S.A., Adam P. Cossette, David Tarailo

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Rich bone beds from the lower Eocene strata of the Golden Valley Formation of Stark County, North Dakota reveal a speciose sympatric crocodylian fauna. However, analyses demonstrate limited phylogenetic diversity among these co-occurring taxa, and of the four species known for the locality, three are alligatorids and one is a crocodyloid. Phylogenetic hypotheses recover Chrysochampsa mylnarskii as a late lived member of Brachychampsini—a stem-based clade including Brachychampsa montana and all alligatorids more closely related to it than to Caiman crocodilus or Alligator mississippiensis—and a new genus and species, Ahdeskatanka russlanddeutsche groups with species of Allognathosuchus. The crocodylians, partitioned by body …

Approved Programs 10-8-24, Angela Brock

Programs Committee (PC)

No abstract provided.

Ai And Future-Making: Design, Biases, And Human-Plant Interactions, Maliheh Ghajargar

Art Faculty Articles and Research

Design researchers and practitioners are turning to generative AI (genAI) to support activities such as ideation and concept development in pursuit of preferred futures. At the same time, genAI is known to have biases, which prompts questions about how these biases might adversely affect design practices. In the domain of sustainable HCI, with its recent trends in human-nature interactions and more-than-human design, the question can be further refined into whether and how genAI biases might perpetuate anthropocentric biases that these practices are increasingly seeking to confront. In the present research, we conducted three workshops, focusing on genAI for human-plant interactions; …

Challenges And Future Directions In Quantifying Terrestrial Evapotranspiration, Koong Yi, Gabriel B. Senay, Joshua B. Fisher, Lixin Wang, Kosana Suvočarev, Housen Chu, Georgianne W. Moore, Kimberly A. Novick, Mallory L. Barnes, Trevor F. Keenan, Kanishka Mallick, Xiangzhong Luo, Justine E. C. Missik, Kyle B. Delwiche, Jacob A. Nelson, Stephen P. Good, Xiangming Xiao, Steven A. Kannenberg, Arman Ahmadi, Tianxin Wang, Gil Bohrer, Marcy E. Litvak, David E. Reed, A. Christopher Oishi, Margaret S. Torn, Dennis Baldocchi

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Terrestrial evapotranspiration is the second-largest component of the land water cycle, linking the water, energy, and carbon cycles and influencing the productivity and health of ecosystems. The dynamics of ET across a spectrum of spatiotemporal scales and their controls remain an active focus of research across different science disciplines. Here, we provide an overview of the current state of ET science across in situ measurements, partitioning of ET, and remote sensing, and discuss how different approaches complement one another based on their advantages and shortcomings. We aim to facilitate collaboration among a cross-disciplinary group of ET scientists to overcome the …

Approved Programs 10-8-24, Angela Brock

Programs Committee (PC)

No abstract provided.

Programs Agenda 10-8-24, Angela Brock

Programs Committee (PC)

No abstract provided.

Programs Committee Agenda 10-8-24, Angela Brock

Programs Committee (PC)

No abstract provided.

The Prospector, October 8, 2024, Utep Student Publications

The Prospector

No abstract provided.

Perceptions Of Rural America: Exploring College Students' Views And Career Priorities Post-Graduation, Tom Hall

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The problems facing rural America are wide ranging and multilayered. Perceptions can often be reality for those unfamiliar with rural life, which can pose a hurdle for businesses to overcome. With an in-depth literature review and research study, this dissertation aims to provide context and understanding to the problems and misconceptions of rural America. Without context, it is easy to interpret rural America as a dying, outdated part of the country, but the reality is far more complex. A research study was conducted that surveyed 400 actively enrolled college students from schools in 19 American states on three things: 1) …

A Qualitative Examination Of Factors Potentially Impacting Displacement Of Historically Black Communities, Daffney Moore

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Historically, Black communities have often been discussed in the context of crime and poverty; however, most Black communities were flourishing neighborhoods with businesses, churches, and schools. Most of the literature related to gentrification and displacement does not address the root causes of the disappearance of Black communities, which generally centers on policies, legislation, force-outs, economic development, and racial disparities. This case study aimed to explore the displacement of a suburban historically Black community in St. Louis County, Missouri. Scholars have scarcely examined or written about the history of Black communities. The research question sought to explore the impact of displacement …

Standing Up For Learning? Insights From Cognitive Science For Better Educational Practices, Mei Jiang, Shulan Lu

The Journal of Advancing Education Practice

Prolonged sitting is associated with higher health issues across all age groups, particularly affecting students’ classroom behaviors and academic achievement. In this paper, we review the psychological research on the relationship between posture and cognition, focusing on how students learn while sitting versus standing. Our findings show that there is no clear evidence favoring one posture over another in terms of cognitive outcomes. Meanwhile, studies highlight the health and physiological benefits of standing desks. Dynamic postural configurations can encourage movement and support collaboration among students and between students and teachers. Introducing standing desks to the K-12 classrooms could reduce health …

Faculty Senate Monthly Packet October 2024, Portland State University Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Monthly Packets

The October 7, 2024 monthly packet includes the October agenda, appendices, and the Faculty Senate minutes and attachments from the meeting held October 7, 2024.

Indigenous Peoples And Environmental Justice: Recognition, Rights, And Representation Of Indigenous Peoples In Bangladesh's Environmental Regulatory Framework, Nasrin Akter

LLM Theses

Using an Environmental Justice theoretical lens, this thesis explores the extent to which the environmental legislative landscape of Bangladesh has ensured environmental justice for Indigenous peoples. In doing so, the thesis concentrates on three main areas: recognition, rights of Indigenous people under the environmental legal framework as well as their representation in the environmental decision making bodies. The research evaluates Bangladesh environmental laws against standards elaborated in the environmental justice literature on each of these three areas. The research employs a combination of legal and policy analysis, as well as a critical analytical approach as part of its methodology. This …

No. 29: Translocal Households, Rural-Urban Links And Migrant Food Security In South Africa, Jonathan Crush, Godfrey Tawodzera, Maria Salamone

Migration and Food Security (MiFOOD) Network

This paper revisits the issue of rural-urban links in post-apartheid South Africa, challenging the assumption that the end of apartheid would lead to rapid urbanization and the dissolution of circular migration. Despite the abolition of influx controls and the significant increase in the urban population from 33% in 1980 to 55% in 2011 among black South Africans, rural-urban ties and flows have proven resilient. The persistence of circular migration is evident in the continuous flow of people, goods, and remittances between urban and rural areas. This paper draws on a survey of over 800 Eastern Cape migrants in Cape Town, …

No. 28: Male Circular Migration, Rural-Urban And Gender Dynamics, And Food Security In India, Chetan Choithani

Migration and Food Security (MiFOOD) Network

This paper examines the ways in which male circular migration as a household livelihood strategy affects food access among rural households in India. Circular male labor migration is the dominant form of labor mobility in many parts of India. This migration pattern creates important rural-urban linkages through income transfers and alters the gender power relations within the migrant-sending households. Drawing on empirical research in Siwan district in the eastern state of Bihar, this paper analyzes the influence of these dynamics of migration on household food security, with the larger objective of bridging the divide that currently exists between migration and …

Ada News - 10/07/2024, American Dental Association, Publishing Division

ADA News

Established in 1970 as the official newspaper of the American Dental Association, the ADA News serves practicing dentists and others allied to the dental profession in the U.S. and internationally. It is the No. 1 source of news and information about the many benefits and services the ADA delivers to members daily as well as timely information on scientific, social, political and economic developments affecting dentistry and health care.