459 research outputs found
Victoria Samson
No full textVictoria Samson is the Washington Office Director for Secure World Foundation and has nearly twenty years of experience in military space and security issues.
Before joining SWF, Ms. Samson served as a Senior Analyst for the Center for Defense Information (CDI), where she leveraged her expertise in missile defense, nuclear reductions, and space security issues to conduct in-depth analysis and media commentary. Prior to her time at CDI, Ms. Samson was the Senior Policy Associate at the Coalition to Reduce Nuclear Dangers, a consortium of arms control groups in the Washington, D.C. area, where she worked with Congressional staffers, members of the media, embassy officials, citizens, and think-tanks on issues surrounding dealing with national missile defense and nuclear weapons reductions. Before that, she was a researcher at Riverside Research Institute, where she worked on war-gaming scenarios for the Missile Defense Agency\u27s Directorate of Intelligence.
Known throughout the space and security arena as a thought leader on policy and budgetary issues, Ms. Samson is often interviewed by multinational media outlets, including the New York Times, Space News, and NPR. She is also a prolific author of numerous op-eds, analytical pieces, journal articles, and updates on missile defense and space security matters. Read Ms. Samson\u27s publications.https://commons.erau.edu/stm-images/1096/thumbnail.jp
Austin also must be remembered. The Augustinian legacy in Milton's work
Get PDFWhen I started working on this project, with a limited knowledge of Augustine, but determined to spot his presence in Miltonâs poetry, I was little aware of the intricacy of the relationship between the two authors. At this stage of my research, I do subscribe to Savoyeâs opinion, that this relationship is pervasive. However, one could safely add, it is as pervasive as it is hidden, primarily because of changed cultural paradigms, so that Miltonâs references are no longer familiar to the reader.
As I have pointed out in my presentation of the state of the art, these articulations are hardly made explicit in Miltonâs Oeuvre and also in critical literature they are hardly brought to the surface. My objective has been to make them a little more visible.
I have started my own process of discovery from the works where Milton more openly (but not completely) acknowledges his Augustinian sources, although arguably mediated. As concerns Samson Agonistes, I have presented a reading through Augustinian lenses. I am by no means claiming that mine is the best of all possible readings, but through those lenses I have been able to see a coherence, in Miltonâs dramatic poem, that is not generally recognized.
On the other hand, I thoroughly agree that âone cannot simply take any English poet and turn the post-structuralist critical machine loose on him or her in good faithâ. In particular, I am aware that I have read Miltonâs works against the current critical grain which, with a powerful turn impressed by Empsonâs Miltonâs God, is continually surfacing Miltonâs idiosyncrasies in order to cancel the received picture of a Christian author. Rather, I agree with Cirillo that Miltonâs perspective is that of âa professed Christian poet whose Christian consciousness, no matter how heterodox, colored virtually everything he wrote.â.We may ask, echoing Febvre on Rabelais, âMais de quel christianisme? In accordance with very traditional, even traditionalist Milton Criticism, I think it can safely be stated that Milton is a post-Reformation religious author, and one whose endeavour to âjustify the ways of God to menâ had to come to terms with the difficult task to find signs of providential history in the aftermath of a civil war and in the adverse context of the Restoration. His last published poems deal with this problem in different terms. As readers, we can come to different conclusions as to the texts. Behind them there is the man, âest abyssus humanae conscientiae,â in front of which, after Augustine, I can only say: "nescio"
Evaluation of SAMSON for use in a South Platte decision support system
Get PDFDecember 1996.The South Platte River basin is a tributary of the Missouri River. Three states share the basin (Colorado, Nebraska, and Wyoming), with most of the basin in Colorado (79 percent). Colorado's population has been growing rapidly, especially in Front-Range cities, increasing the demand on water resources in the basin. Highly productive plains agriculture is also a substantial user of water resources and new uses also can be expected for wildlife and recreation. A decision support system (DSS) is being planned by the State of Colorado for water management in South Platte River Basin. Anticipated needs of the system include data development and some model development specific to the South Platte. Due to the unique characteristics of the South Platte River Basin, the implementation of this framework is expected to be slightly different from other basins in Colorado. The SAMSON (Stream-Aquifer Model for Management by SimulatiON) Model, developed in the 1980s specifically for the South Platte River Basin, has been recommended by past studies for use in a South Platte DSS. This report provides and analysis of the current SAMSON model. The conclusions of this report recommend that SAMSON in its present form not be used as part of a DSS, largely due to recent developments in modeling philosophy, application, and use. SAMSON proved the entire South Platte River Basin system could be effectively modeled, and pointed to the priorities for data collection and development. Components of SAMSON could be part of future DSS systems, but they should be separated into individual modules and evaluated individually against existing models. In summary, the analysis of SAMSON clearly show the need for a modular and data-centered approach for a South Platte DSS.Grant no. 14-08-0001-G2008/5 Project no. 09; financed in part by the Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey, through the Colorado Water Resources Research Institute
Project: Children and youth center "SAMSON"
No full textMaģistra darba mērķis ir SIA „SAMSON” - bērnu un jauniešu centra - dibināšana. Bērnu centrs sniegs tādus sporta pakalpojumus kā karatē un vispārattīstoša vingrošana. Latvijā ir daudz sporta uzņēmumu, kas darbojas šajā jomā, tomēr autore nolēma dibināt sporta klubu Imantas rajonā, kur šobrīd jau eksistē vairāki sporta klubi, bet tie piedāvā tikai vienu sporta pakalpojuma veidu. Līdz ar to jaunam, topošam uzņēmumam SIA „SAMSON” - bērnu un jauniešu centram- būs mazāka konkurence un vairāk iespēju popularizēt un attīstīt sporta jomu noteiktā rajonā. Mūsdienās sabiedrība sāk vairāk pievērst uzmanību savam fiziskajam stāvoklim, rūpējas par veselības uzlabošanu. Vecāki arī domā par bērnu veselību un ved bērnus uz sporta nodarbībām. Līdz ar to autorei radās ideja izveidot bērnu un jauniešu sporta centru.The aim goal of the project is Ltd. Children and Youth Centre „SAMSON” foundation. The children center will give such sport services, as karate and gymnastics. Latvia has many sports companies operating in this field, however, the author has decided to establish a sports club in Imanta district, where there are sports clubs, but they offer only one type of sports service. Consequently, Ltd. Children and Youth Centre „SAMSON” will have less competition and more opportunities to promote and develop the sport in a given area. Today, people pay more attention to their physical condition, taking care of health. Parents also think about children's health and brought children to sports activities. Thus, the author have children and youth sports center creation idea
En celebración de la extraordinaria vida de Elisabeth Samson Title: Celebrating the Extraordinary Life of Elisabeth Samson
No full textCynthia McLeod (1936-), decorated Surinamese author of the best-selling The High Price of Sugar and Farewell Merodia, specialist in 18th century Suriname.Culture & Arts, Cultural Center Encuentros Nro. 27 Cynthia McLeod Celebrating the Extraordinary Life of Elisabeth Samson
The strange biography of Samson
Get PDFThe biblical story of the life of Samson hides much from the reader&&the Book of Judges has deleted from the story elements that were deemed improper for the book’s placement among the Holy Scriptures. In this article, the author shows how the Bible transforms Samson from a mythological hero, the son of a god, to a mere mortal whose extraordinary strength came through the spirit of God that rested with him so long as he kept his Nazirite vows. The biblical storyteller could not prevent the story of Samson from entering into the biblical corpus since it was a tale of tremendous popularity. He thus told it in such a way as to bring it closer to his monotheistic beliefs and world-view. In its ‘biblical’ form the story does not bring honor to the figure of Samson, and so his placement as the last of the judges in the Book of Judges prepares the reader for the establishment of the institution of kingship, in the Book of Samuel.</jats:p
Better public housing management in Ghana: An approach to improve maintenance and housing quality
Get PDFAdequate housing and shelter have been recognised by the United Nations (UN) as a human right. All signatory countries to the Universal Declaration on Human Rights are enjoined to take steps to provide decent and adequate housing to their people. To this end, the UN has led and advocated various policy initiatives aimed at addressing housing challenges globally. In the 1950s, it advocated direct housing production by member states. Since the 1970s, it has advocated the enablement approach, encouraging governments to create the enabling environment for the private sector to provide housing. Ghana’s housing policy has changed largely in line with global trends. In the 1950s, the State Housing Corporation (SHC) and the Tema Development Corporation (TDC) were established to lead governmental direct housing provision. However, in the late 1970s and 1980s, when national housing policy shifted towards the enablement approach, most (more than 90%) of public housing was sold to sitting tenants and institutions, and the TDC and SHC were reconstituted into private companies owned by the government. The remainder of the public houses were transferred to local authorities (LAs) to manage. The United Nations has emphasised not only housing production but also maintenance as a sustainable way of meeting the goal of decent and adequate housing. From this point of view, it is possible to reflect on that aspect of public housing managed by local authorities in Ghana. Several researches and commentaries about Ghana’s public housing have highlighted the poor and deteriorating quality, largely due to lack of maintenance. They make reference to leaking roofs, rotten ceilings, cracked walls, faded paint, and dysfunctional electrical and plumbing systems, among other problems in public housing. However, not much research has focused on how to address the problem of lack of maintenance. It is within this context that this PhD research has sought to extend the discussion and contribute practical steps to address the problem of lack of maintenance in public housing.
Therefore, the aim of this PhD research was to propose an approach to public housing management (HM) by LAs that may bring about maintenance and lead to better housing quality in Ghana. To do that, four research questions were addressed. (1) How is housing management by LAs organised, and how have challenges therein affected the quality of public housing? (2) What factors can be distinguished to describe the organisation of and assess performance in HM? (3) What lessons can be learned from the organisation and practice of HM in other contexts? and (4) How can the lessons learned from other contexts be applied to housing by local authorities in order to bring about maintenance that may lead to improvement in public housing quality in Ghana? A pragmatic approach was adopted for this research, within which case studies, lesson drawing, and transferability strategies were applied.
The methods of data collection and analyses were largely qualitative, with minimal application of quantitative techniques.
The research combined the organisational elements of policy/strategy, legal framework, organisational structure, financial resources, human resources, culture, and housing quality; the categorisation of HM activities into technical, social, and financial; and external context factors, which may include regulatory and policy environment and cultural factors that affect HM, into a framework to analyse the organisation and management of housing. Also, the research found that, in general, performance in HM may be assessed by using indicators such as: quality of maintenance, responses from staff in relation to tenant services, and access to information by tenants, which measure effectiveness; cost of maintenance per dwelling and net rent as measures of efficiency and economy; application procedures, rent levels, and support for tenants as measures of equity; and the level of participation and the frequency and ease of communication with tenants as measures of legitimacy and support for HM. However, the research relied on information about effectiveness – maintenance and repairs, tenant services, and legitimacy and support – tenant participation, to comment on the performance of HM.
The research first sought to understand the challenges of public HM and maintenance by local authorities. It found that, among others, public HM confronts the following key challenges: There is no clearly defined institutional structure for HM. There is no coordination of roles performed by the housing officer of the central administration of the local authority, the works department, and tenants. Also, there is no coordination between local authorities that are responsible for management and the central government agency that collects rents, the Controller and Accountant Generals Department (CAGD). Furthermore, local authorities lack funds necessary for maintenance because rents are largely collected by central government and not transferred to them. Additionally, inadequate numbers of professionals are available to manage and maintain public houses.
Informed by the problems of public HM in Ghana, two models of HM were selected and studied to draw lessons for solving the problems in Ghana. The purpose of the studies was to abstract principles from the organisation and practice of HM by identifying issues that need to be addressed for effective housing management and maintenance. Housing management by housing associations (HAs) in the Netherlands and council housing management by tenant management organisations (TMOs) in England were studied. HAs are independent not-for-profit professional housing associations that provide housing mainly for low- and middle-income households in the Netherlands. Wonen Wateringen (WW) housing association was studied in this model. The main principles abstracted from this model were that regulatory and policy guidance are in place, mechanisms to monitor and supervise HM are in place, there is financial security for HM, rents are able to cover housing management and maintenance, there are a defined structure and operational procedures and responsibilities, professionals manage housing, and mechanisms for tenants to participate are in place.
TMOs are tenant organisations formed to take on the responsibility of providing some HM services of local councils or HAs in England. Common services that TMOs take on include repairs and maintenance (mainly day-to-day complaints repairs and void maintenance), cleaning, caretaking, tenancy management, estate services, and other non-housing services, such as skills training and finance support services. Roman Way Estate Community Interest Company (RWECIC) and Bloomsbury Estate Management Board (BEMB) in Birmingham, England, were studied in this model. The main principles abstracted from this model include: laws, regulations, and codes in place to guide HM; secure finance for housing management; rents that are able to cover housing services; a defined structure and responsibilities of stakeholders; defined mechanisms for supervision and monitoring; professionals carrying out HM; defined protocols to address repairs and maintenance; defined maintenance responsibilities of tenants and managers; and mechanisms to involve tenants.
These principles were then applied as guides to formulate solutions that address the challenges identified in Ghana and presented as a preliminary HM approach. The preliminary approach was further developed through an iterative validation and review process with tenants and local-authority housing professionals in Ghana to produce a final HM approach. By proposing this approach to be implemented by LAs so as to bring about maintenance and lead to improvement in public housing quality, the goal of the research is attained. The HM approach highlights and recommends a defined structure to manage public houses. The actors in the structure include the district assembly, the coordinating director, the housing unit, the works department, and tenants, whose roles, responsibilities, and relationships are clearly defined. Further, the structure outlines a defined protocol for addressing repairs and maintenance, which includes a mechanism to receive and promptly respond to repair requests from tenants. Another key recommendation of the approach is for local authorities to take full responsibility for rents determination and collection, in order to ensure reliable and secure finance for HM. Rents should be determined by reference to house properties and condition, and rents should be collected through direct bank debit into a rent account of the district. Mechanisms such as planning, budgeting, and submission of annual accounts of receipts and expenditure are suggested to ensure that rents are spent on maintenance and adequately accounted for. Furthermore, the approach recommends active tenant participation in management through mechanisms such as regular meetings or tenant representatives. In addition, LA communication with tenants should be enhanced by creating opportunities for tenants to make contact and present concerns. For instance, it should be possible for tenants to walk in, write, or call the office responsible for managing the houses and get a response. It also recommends that local authorities use professionals to manage the houses. Where possible – for example, considering the stock size and financial situation – LAs should either recruit or train already employed staff to take full responsibility for the management, in order to give adequate attention to the task of housing management and maintenance. Finally, the research found that lack of commitment on the part of public officers and LAs has led to mistrust and lack of cooperation from tenants. Therefore, it recommends and emphasises the importance of commitment on the part of local authorities, tenants, and national government to the implementation of the HM approach. LAs need to fulfil their part of the approach – for example, by spending rents on maintenance – and tenants also need to carry out their obligations, which include performing tenant maintenance. National government should be committed and grant permission to determine and collect rents to LAs.
The conclusions reached in this research were made under certain limiting conditions. First, it is acknowledged that there could be flaws in the conclusions and principles abstracted from English and Dutch cases because the research may not have obtained a complete view of the models. This potential arises because it was not possible to interview all stakeholders within the limited time of this PhD research. There may have been flaws in the application of the lessons from these cases to a context as different as Ghana. In the respective instances, the research rigorously conducted interviews and checked with interviewees to ensure that the right lessons were learned, and it adopted an iterative process of validation and review to apply the principles to Ghana. Therefore, it is hoped that the impact of these limitations will be mitigated. Also, the research uses the term “validation” merely to refer to comments on the approach made by housing professionals and tenants in the development of the final approach and not as a surrogate for a practical test.
Notwithstanding the limitations of this PhD research, it has contributed to the efforts of other scholars to highlight the societal problem of lack of maintenance in public housing, and it takes the discussion further by presenting an approach to address the problem. This approach has the potential to impact the wider society, if private and other institutional landlords adapt and apply it in their HM. Also, by implementing this approach, LAs may be able to make a positive impact on other public agencies that are faced with lack of maintenance. In addition, it is hoped that the findings of this research may stimulate individuals, public institutions, and society at large to reflect on the attitude toward, commitment to, and responsibility for public property. From a scientific point of view, it may be said that this PhD research has sought to expand the utility of the analytical framework developed and applied in a Western context (see Gruis, Tsenkova, & Nieboer, 2009) by applying it to the context of a developing country.
It also builds on knowledge of lesson drawing and the transferability of programmes (see Rose, 2001) from one context to another. The thesis recommends applying the HM approach in a participatory research with local authorities in Ghana. Also, further research may be conducted into the phenomena of the commitment and attitudes of people, especially public officers, with a view to bringing about change. Furthermore, researchers may use the approach to lesson drawing and transferability applied in this research in similar researches to advance the development of process steps for effective lesson drawing and transferability from one context to another
The Behavioral Economics Guide 2014 (with a foreword by George Loewenstein and Rory Sutherland)
No full textCONTENTS Foreword by George Loewenstein and Rory Sutherland Part 1 - The Basics - An Introduction to Behavioral Economics - Selected Behavioral Economics Concepts - References Part 2 - Resources - Books Read by 'Behavioral Economics Group' Members - Scholarly Journals with Behavioral Economics Content - Postgraduate Programs in Behavioral Economics and Behavioral/Decision Science Part 3 - Applied Perspectives Psychology and Behavioral Economics in Practice Appendix - Author and Contributing Organization Profile
The nineteen letters of Ben Uziel : being a spiritual presentation of the principles of Judaism
No full textby Samson Raphael Hirsch. Transl. by Bernard Brachman, together with a pref. and a biographical scetch of the author by the transl
Biblical Judge Samson as a Trickster Figure
Get PDFThe bachelor's thesis deals with the figure of the biblical judge Samson. Based on the oppositions in the story, it presents various categories through which this character can be viewed. The main emphasis is on Samson's liminality and his movement within these oppositions. The author offers an overarching category that unites the established oppositions and speaks of Samson as a Trickster figure. At the end of the thesis, she presents his inclusion in the Book of Judges and discusses the function Samson could have performed for Israel during the Philistine rule. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)Bakalářská práce se zabývá postavou biblického soudce Samsona. Na základě opozic v příběhu jsou v práci představeny různé kategorie, skrze které se na tuto postavu dá nahlížet. Hlavní důraz je kladen na Samsonovu liminální povahu a pohyb mezi těmito opozicemi. Autorka poté nabízí zastřešující kategorii, která spojuje předložené opozice, a hovoří o Samsonovi jako o tricksterské postavě. V závěru práce předkládá jeho zařazení do celku knihy Soudců, a rozebírá funkci, kterou Samson mohl plnit pro Izrael v době filištínské nadvlády. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)Institute of Philosophy and Religious StudiesÚstav filosofie a religionistikyFilozofická fakultaFaculty of Art
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