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Toward Climate Resilient Cities: Endorsing Green Justice Amid Unequal Distribution and Disparities in Fast-Sprawling Urban Nagpur
No full textPopulation expansion and accelerated land development frequently overlook the inclusion of green infrastructure, leading to disparities in Urban Green Space (UGS) distribution. In rapidly urbanizing cities of the Global South, ensuring socio-ecological connectivity is vital for promoting sustainable, climate-resilient, multifunctional landscapes. This study uses Nagpur, a rapidly expanding Indian city, as a case study to investigate spatial inequities in UGS access through the lens of green justice. We employed the Demand Supply Gap assessment (World Health Organization and Urban and Regional Development Plans Formulation and Implementation, Government of India guidelines), the 3-30-300 green space rule as a guiding principle to evaluate UGS availability and accessibility across ten zones of the city. Additionally, a participatory assessment involving 1500 residents was conducted to capture residents’ perceptions of ecosystem benefits. Our findings indicate that the West zone has the highest per capita green space availability, followed by the Central and North-East Zone, yet a considerable demand-supply gap persists across the city. Further, only one zone from western Nagpur met all three criteria of the 3-30-300 rule and was also one of the most accessible UGS zones. Conversely, high-density zones lacked sufficient canopy cover and equitable UGS access, falling short of both national and international standards. The participatory assessment further revealed that 29.6% of respondents agreed, and 5.4% strongly agreed, that existing UGS adequately contribute to air pollution mitigation and reducing the heat island effect. This pattern reflects a broader challenge faced by expanding cities globally. We argue that a site-sensitive, socio-ecological planning approach, as demonstrated in this study, is critical to decentralizing the integration of green infrastructure into urban development strategies, especially in fast-sprawling Global South
Does Bank Expansion Reduce Domestic Violence? Causal Evidence From India
Get PDFMultiple studies have shown that dowry payments are among the main causes of domestic violence in developing countries. This paper studies the effects of banking expansion on dowry payments and domestic violence in India. Using a fuzzy regression discontinuity design, we present robust evidence that financial inclusion brought about by banking expansion reduces dowry-related deaths and cruelty by husbands. We propose two primary mechanisms underlying this relationship. First, banking expansion enhances the ability of the bride\u27s family to make higher cash payments and more wedding gifts to the groom\u27s family at the time of marriage, often known as dowry. Second, banking expansion empowered women as reflected by better education outcomes for girls. Additionally, by enhancing the household\u27s ability to make dowry payments and improving girls’ education outcomes, banking expansion led to better spouse quality as measured by their education and earnings, reducing the likelihood of domestic violence
Navigating Parental Incarceration and Higher Education: Narratives of Undergraduate Experiences While Dealing with Parental Incarceration
Get PDFThis qualitative narrative study examined how parental incarceration affects young adults’ college experience. The study allowed individuals to share their stories and narrate their undergraduate experiences while their parent(s) were incarcerated. This study interviewed eight individuals who had a parent incarcerated during their undergraduate experience using a narrative inquiry methodology (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000) with Trauma-Informed Resilience and Posttraumatic Growth theoretical frameworks (Steele & Kuban, 2011) to gain insight into their perceived college experience and factors for their college access, success, and degree completion. The findings revealed various themes in regard to the participants’ experiences shaped by parental incarceration (emotional impacts, motivations, financial impacts, and limited parental involvement in academic life) and the factors they found important to their college success (external support systems, personal resilience, determination, and flexibility in educational paths). The study also highlighted advice from the participants to future college students experiencing parental incarceration and recommendations for the community and educational institutions to be able to better serve this population of students, such as shifting views, lifting voices, developing allies, having target outreach and support, and developing more trauma-informed pedagogy and more flexible educational paths
The Distance Between Us
Get PDFThe Distance Between Us examines the long-distance relationship between Grace and Henry through voicemails between the two while they are away at school. This short play, inspired by The Last Five Years, tells this couple\u27s story on opposite timelines. The only time their calls connect is in the middle, when brutal honesty and the reality of their situation forces them to ask themselves: is the distance proving to be too much
The Youth Vote: The Role of Social Media Trends in Candidate Favorability
Get PDFFollowing the announcement of her 2024 presidential candidacy, Kamala Harris’s team unveiled a neon green header with the word ‘kamala’ displayed in stretched black Arial font on her X account, a reference to the popular summer album ‘brat’ by English singer Charli xcx and the subsequent popular culture trend inspired by the album. As social media becomes increasingly more utilized for political campaigns in the United States, social media trends have become more relevant in reaching voters, especially young ones. Inspired by the publicity following Harris’s use of cultural trends as well as continual research finding connections between voter activity and social media use in young people (Onyechi, 2018; Hermida et al., 2012; Santhiveeran & Orr, 2023; Bene, 2017a), this study investigates the effect of utilizing social media trends in political campaigns on the favorability of candidates for young voters in the United States.
Through a survey experiment with 747 respondents, all aged 18-29 years old, this study finds that utilizing social media trends in political campaigns has the potential to significantly hurt the favorability of political candidates. Respondents who viewed a campaign social media graphic for a fictional candidate that utilized the brat trend rated the fictional political candidate significantly less favorably than respondents who viewed a campaign social media graphic that did not utilize a social media trend. These findings have major implications for young voter behavior and reveal an unexpected break from patterns of previous research. Additionally, this study illuminates the importance of how politicians use social media and highlights the potential repercussions of social media-heavy political campaigns. While utilizing social media can help politicians reach new audiences and engage with young voters, participating in social media trends can have consequences on their campaigns and their favorability with young voters
From Poolside to Profit Margins: A Deep Dive into Playa Hotels & Resorts
Get PDFFrom a consumer perspective, all-inclusive leisure travel requires few worries coupled with plenty of enjoyment and relaxation. However, from a managerial perspective, there are countless operations to run to ensure a positive guest experience. Playa Hotels & Resorts (NASDAQ: PLYA) is a leader in all-inclusive resorts in vacation destinations worldwide. Compared to some of the biggest names and players in the industry, Playa has a relatively small market cap of $1.49B. To maintain its growth trajectory, Playa must capitalize on the increasing popularity of all-inclusive models and consumer health concerns, along with continuing to expand its portfolio through collaborations with well-known brand names. This report includes a comprehensive business and industry overview, financial valuation models, and a detailed discussion of the assumptions used in the models. I will provide specific recommendations for Playa to improve its operations and business model, consistent with the growth assumed in my financial models
Quasi-Normal Modes of Extended Uncertainty Principle Kerr Black Holes
Get PDFThe current understanding of gravity is shaped largely by Albert Einstein’s theory of General Relativity. This theory is highly successful at predicting phenomenon on macroscopic scales, but it faces unphysical singularities at quantum scales. This thesis will explore the possibility of combining General Relativity with quantum mechanics through the Extended Uncertainty Principle (EUP), which provides a new, fundamental length scale correction to the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. This allows for quantum gravity effects at macroscopic scales, which will be examined through Kerr black holes with event horizons on the order of . These black holes are rotating and electrically neutral, and they are the most common type of black holes in our universe. To test the EUP on Kerr black holes, this thesis will examine the quasi-normal modes produced by gravitational wave perturbations predicted by the EUP. This method will include Mathematica code based on the Leaver method to calculate quasi-normal modes from the EUP modified Kerr black holes. This thesis aims to prove coherence between the EUP corrected quasi-normal modes for Kerr black holes with general relativity predictions for Kerr black hole mergers
Information Literacy as Social Practice: A Theoretical and Methodological Discussion
No full textAnnemaree is a social science researcher who conducts research into information literacies and contemporary information practices in formal and informal learning connected to workplaces, community settings, libraries and education. Her research program focuses on the intersection between information, learning, and the performance of information practice. Annemaree is interested in the connection between information literacies, social inclusion, and collaborative learning and the nature of embodiment in information literacy practice. Professor Lloyd pursues this research agenda working with a range of groups including refugees, emergency services personal, nurses and with patients suffering chronic illness, librarians and students.
In this presentation the practice of information literacy will be interrogated through a practical theoretical lens. The theory of Information literacy and information literacy landscapes will be explored and the methodological implications of this approach discussed.https://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/irdl-speakerseries-2025/1002/thumbnail.jp
General Relativistic Magnetohydrodynamics of Accretion Flow about Black Holes
Get PDFThis research aims to investigate the influence of magnetic field configurations and black hole spin on accretion flow dynamics and relativistic jet formation using numerical simulations in General Relativistic Magnetohydrodynamics (GRMHD). Utilizing state-of-the-art computational frameworks such as Athena++ and HARM, our study will simulate plasma behavior in the strong gravity regime near black holes. Different initial magnetic field topologies, including uniform, toroidal, and poloidal magnetic fields, will be examined in conjunction with varying black hole spin parameters to understand how these factors impact energy transport and jet formation. We will validate our simulations through comparison with observational data from the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), providing insights into the mechanisms that govern these high-energy astrophysical phenomena. Our results are expected to enhance theoretical understanding of jet production and contribute to the broader field of black hole astrophysics