410 research outputs found
Contaminant Concentrations are Higher in Farm-raised Salmon as Compared to Wild Salmon
No full textThis issue was undated. The date given is an estimate.21 pages, 1 article*Contaminant Concentrations are Higher in Farm-raised Salmon as Compared to Wild Salmon* (Hites, Ronald A.; Carpenter, David O.; Foran, Jeffery A.) 21 page
Exploring the pattern of Islamic social movements : four case studies
No full textThis thesis is a study of Iranian-Islamic social movements. Iran has witnessed four major social movements in the late nineteenth and twentieth century. Except for the
Islamic Revolution of 1978-79 which attracted a great deal of sociological attention, and the Constitutional Revolution which has received some specialist study, the other two, regardless of their importance and influence in the Iranian history, have been grossly neglected. In order to have a better sociological understanding and a more
general model of this type of social movements there is need to review all of them according to the same theory and with an identical method. These cases which are
explored in this study are: the Tobacco Movement (1892) - an 'anti colonialism' movement, the Constitutional Revolution (1905-1906) - a 'justice' movement, the 15th
of Khordad movement (1963) - an 'anti modernisation' movement, and the last in chain, the Islamic Revolution of 1978-79 - an 'anti imperialism' movement.
This thesis also attempts to provide a contribution to the theory of social movements with a review and synthesis of the existing major theories of the area. Ten key social
movement theories are reviewed and a new synthetic one is developed. The models under review belong to Smelser (1962), Davies (1962), Toch (1966), Blumer (1969),
Wilson (1973), Tilly (1978), Touraine (1981), McCarthy and Zald (1987), Melucci (1989) and Scott (1990). These theories identify quite different 'engines' of the social
movement and thus can be classified according to whether they regard the individual, society, or their relations as the main cause or initiator of the social movements.
Following the discussions of the relationship between the individual and society, this thesis recognises the need for an approach to social explanation which looks at the fine
texture of the interrelationship of the structure, agency, and their relations, and so proposes a 'synthetic' theory of social movements which recognises the importance of
the conjunction of the three elements of the individualist, the structural and the relationalist models. In this theory of social movements, social context provides the ground for the underlying mechanism of the movement to be released. Ideology plays the part of the relational factor between the individual and the society. It is the main mobilisational factor of social movements. Actors then 'perform' the movements at three levels of social actions: leadership, distribution, and enactment of the outburst.
The synthetic theory provides a framework for a more comprehensive study of the four cases. Each of the movements is explained using it as a 'conceptual grid' and it is shown on each occasion to be useful tool in identifying the main agents, antagonisms, ideologies, social opportunities and constraints, and the accomplishment of the movements. So whilst the movements vary by 'focus' and by 'success' it is shown that it is Islamic ideology which shapes the goals of 'justice', 'freedom', 'independence' and 'democracy'. In all of the reviewed movements the authority of the shah came into dispute with the command of the ulama, and it was religious rituals and organisations which mobilised the people.
Whilst the synthetic theory proposed here can provide an analytic framework with which to compare the movements, the history of the analysed movements reveals the significance of the 'political sociology' of Iran's last hundred years. This dimention provides an understanding of some of the 'initial conditins' which underpin the Iranian
social movements. The thesis attempts to outline some crucial elements in this sociopolitical history, and attest their importance by examination of one further Iranian
social movement, the National Movement of Iran (195 1-1953). This was a predominantly non-Islamic movement which failed because it declined to take the advantage of the authority of the ulama as one of the major sways at the socio-political setting of Iranian society.
The adequacy of the resultant knowledge from the proposed model of Iranian-Islamic social movements is further tested against the some writings of nine scholars on Iranian
social movements: Fischer (1980), Milani (1988), Parsa (1989), Amuzegar (1991), Ray (1993), Zubaida (1993), Moaddel (1993), Foran (1994) and Keddie (1995)
A Survey of Metals in Tissues of Farm-raised and Wild Salmon
No full textThis issue was undated. The date given is an estimate.15 pages, 1 article*A Survey of Metals in Tissues of Farm-raised and Wild Salmon* (Foran, Jeffery A.; Hites, Ronald A.; Carpenter, David O.; Hamilton, M. Coreen; Mathews-Amos, Amy; Schwager, Steven J.) 15 page
Cracks in the Concrete: Urban Multispecies Justice at the Isla Vista Food Forest (CA)
No full textThis work discusses urban food forests as an emergent solution for ecological and social challenges faced in a time of climate crisis, particularly in the context of cities. The study is based on participatory action and ethnographic research of the Isla Vista Food Forest, in Santa Barbara (California, US). A food forest is a traditional agricultural practice that mimics a natural forestial ecosystem, producing food for humans while favoring multiple life forms and enhancing the ecosystem as a whole. Prior research has suggested that food forests are a sustainable, beneficial practice within urban areas. However, this emergent literature is yet to explore in more detail how these initiatives mobilize, and how they may re-signify, cities’ social and ecological relationships. Relying on fieldwork and on an interdisciplinary theoretical framework around multispecies studies, I look into how human and more-than-human relationships are built within the context of community action for the establishment of an urban food forest. As an organizer with the IV Food Forest, I demonstrate firsthand experience with the maintenance of a food forest in terms of social collaborations, development of ecological knowledge and sensitivity, and mundane challenges in operating in urban space. As a central import, the IV Food Forest points in the direction of an ecological city that, beyond “sustainable,” is multispecies and regenerative. The study contributes to the fields of relational, urban, and environmental sociology from a multispecies perspective, as well as to the discussions in environmental humanities and urban planning
Recommended from our members
The Pest We All Live With: Cultural Meaning and the Life and Death of Rats
No full textThis dissertation examines the cultural meaning of some of our least-loved nonhuman companions: rats. Scholarship in sociology and other humanities and social sciences disciplines has increasingly sought to treat nonhuman animals as important participants in social processes, rather than superficial window dressing on the periphery of the human social world. I extend this work by examining a specifically antagonistic relationship between humans and animals, namely rat extermination. This topic, I argue, has important lessons to impart regarding social relationships with the nonhuman world and nature, despite being overlooked due to rats’ generally negative associations and the unpleasantness of the killing involved in extermination.My study is primarily based on a multi-sited ethnography featuring participant observation and semi-structured interviews in three locations: the Canadian province of Alberta, Downtown Los Angeles, California, and Ecuador’s Galápagos Islands. These three sites represent a typology of landscapes (rural, urban, and island) where the practice of rat control proceeds in varying ways and for varying motivations. In rural places like Alberta, rat control is a measure taken to guard against economic losses by preventing rats from contaminating agricultural yields and draining the resources of farmers. In urban areas, rats prevent a public health risk as vectors for infectious diseases. Finally, on islands, rats are targeted for eradication for environmental conservation purposes by organizations hoping to protect native species and their habitats.
Beyond these general differences related to their landscapes, each of my specific cases has a particular relationship between the rat control and the social and cultural context within which it occurs. In Alberta, a government program inspects farms near the border with neighboring Saskatchewan to guard its decades-long claim to province-wide “rat-free” status. This program, I find, clarifies Alberta’s geographic borders and the boundaries of its collective cultural identity by resonating with broader cultural currents of nativism and opposition to outside influence. Los Angeles’s Civic Center, meanwhile, had a widely reported rat infestation in 2019, prompting a multi-pronged government response. I find that LA’s rat issues are inseparable in the public imagination from the city’s homeless crisis, which was specifically cited as a cause of the infestation. The attempts to simultaneously address both these issues attempt to secure public faith in the notion of a clean separation between “inside” and “outside.” Finally, rats are one of many invasive species targeted by a group of NGOs in the Galápagos Islands, in programs aimed at preventing the extinction of native species. These programs raise deep ethical questions around what interventions are morally justified for the goals of environmental stewardship.
With these three separate empirical investigations, I advance two overarching arguments: First, rat control is a social practice that draws and clarifies the boundaries of nature and society, and second, rat control enforces an implicit hierarchy of living things that mirrors and is entangled with social inequalities. Together, these findings demand that we extend the lessons of environmental justice, the notion that the burden of environmental problems fall disproportionately on already marginalized populations, to the cultural imaginations of nature and environmentalism itself
Optimization of Collection Techniques for Touch DNA from Fingerprints using Various Swabbing Solutions in Forensic Applications
No full textv, 41 p.Diebold ScholarThere has been minimal research on how to best obtain DNA from human fingerprints, generally known as touch samples. Most forensic laboratories use the double swab technique, in which a surface is treated with a moistened swab followed by a dry swab, because it has been shown to recover more DNA from surfaces than the single swab method. However, this method has not been objectively studied using various solutions with the goal of maximizing DNA yields, as was the objective of the present study. Swabs moistened with water were compared to those moistened with laboratory or commercially available detergents, including Formula 409, Simple Green, sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), triton X-100, and tween 20. Fingerprints were deposited on smooth glass substrates and prints were swabbed. DNA was isolated using a standard organic extraction procedure, yields were quantified, and relative yields were compared. The ability to produce short tandem repeat (STR) profiles was then examined. Results showed that a greater amount of DNA from fingerprints could be recovered using solutions other than water. Further results demonstrated that significant differences existed among DNA quantities recovered from different subjects and also among DNA quantities recovered from specific fingers. Swabbing solution did not have an effect on STR quality; rather, it was the increased DNA quantity recovered during swabbing that increased STR profile quality. Most importantly, it was shown that detergents have the ability to enhance DNA recovery; therefore, they should be used during DNA collection to increase the possibility of human identification in criminal investigations.If you are not a current Kalamazoo College student, faculty, or staff member, email [email protected] to request access to this SIP.Michigan State University. School of Criminal Justice and Zoology Department. East Lansing, Michigan.Howard Hughes Medical Institut
Jones 61
No full textHeadstone of Annie Foran nee Jones, daughter of John and Olga of Lake Isle, Alberta. Magnolia Cemetery
- …
