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Reduction of cross-plane thermal conductivity and understanding of the mechanisms of heat transport in nanostructured metal/semiconductor superlattices are crucial for their potential applications in thermoelectric and thermionic energy conversion devices, thermal management systems, and thermal barrier coatings. We have developed epitaxial (Ti,W)N/(Al,Sc)N metal/semiconductor superlattices with periodicity ranging from 1 nm to 240 nm that show significantly lower thermal conductivity compared to the parent TiN/(Al, Sc) N superlattice system. The (Ti,W)N/(Al,Sc)N superlattices grow with [001] orientation on the MgO(001) substrates with well-defined coherent layers and are nominally single crystalline with low densities of extended defects. Cross-plane thermal conductivity (measured by time-domain thermoreflectance) decreases with an increase in the superlattice interface density in a manner that is consistent with incoherent phonon boundary scattering. Thermal conductivity values saturate at 1.7W m(-1) K-1 for short superlattice periods possibly due to a delicate balance between long-wavelength coherent phonon modes and incoherent phonon scattering from heavy tungsten atomic sites and superlattice interfaces. First-principles density functional perturbation theory based calculations are performed to model the vibrational spectrum of the individual component materials, and transport models are used to explain the interface thermal conductance across the (Ti,W)N/(Al,Sc)N interfaces as a function of periodicity. The long-wavelength coherent phonon modes are expected to play a dominant role in the thermal transport properties of the short-period superlattices. Our analysis of the thermal transport properties of (Ti,W)N/(Al,Sc)N metal/semiconductor superlattices addresses fundamental questions about heat transport in multilayer materials. ; Funding Agencies|National Science Foundation; U.S. Department of Energy [CBET-1048616]; Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)/Army Research Office [W911NF0810347]; Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) program; Office of Naval Research [N000141211006]; Swedish Research Council [RAC Frame Program] [2011-6505]; Swedish Research Council [Linnaeus Grant (LiLi-NFM)]; Swedish Government Strategic Research Area in Materials Science on Functional Materials at Linkoping University [SFO-Mat-LiU 2009-00971]

Presented at the ECPG (European Conference on Politics and Gender) , in Uppsala, Sweden (June, 2015). The proportion of legislative seats held by women and minority groups in most countries rarely, if ever, equals the group's proportion of the population. Most scholars agree disproportional seat distribution is caused by the skewed composition of candidate pools put forward by political parties during elections. Scholars disagree whether unrepresentative candidate pools are caused by too few candidates of a certain type coming forward to participate in the process (supply) or by party selectors preferring some candidate types to others (demand). This paper draws upon British Labour party data from the 2001, 2005, and 2010 General Elections to explore supply and demand during each of the seven stages of Labour's candidate selection process. Tests performed on data from 4622 aspirant candidates reveal women, Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME), and disabled people are underrepresented in Labour's candidate pools, which is caused by a lack of demand by local party selectors rather than an undersupply of these candidate types. Regression modelling of 44 variables drawn from survey data provided by 566 aspirant candidates more sharply focuses on the idea that party selectors prefer "ideal" type aspirant candidates. While these tests confirm a lack of central party selector preference toward the ideal type they confirm local party selector preference for aspirant candidates with certain ideal traits. Moreover, local party members are much more likely to select men over women in open, non-all women shortlist seats, which strongly suggests Labour retain or even expand guaranteed seats for women and perhaps initiate similar measures for disabled people. The same might be considered for BAME aspirant candidates, although it appears living locally is a much more important trait to local party selectors than race. The paper further provides a framework and methodology for analyzing selection outcomes in the lead-up to the 2015 British General Election. ; Not peer reviewed ; Conference paper ; Preliminary draft. Do not circulate without the permission of the author.

The Western Christian tradition, particularly in the U.S. Protestantized religious landscape, has often denied dance as a legitimate form of worship, and many view Christianity and dance to be contradictory pursuits. White Soul/Forbidden Body: Dancing Christian From Ruth St. Denis to Pole Dancing for Jesus builds upon this tension in order to understand the strategies and tactics that Christian dancers in the U.S. employ to negotiate the power structures that function to forbid dancing bodies from occupying Christian spaces. This dissertation theorizes this tension as rooted in the politics of white Christian embodiment, which is created through the practice of constructing a particular relationship between the body and the soul. I argue that dance gives these dancers, who are primarily white women, the opportunity to creatively inhabit Christian power structures that privilege certain forms of embodiment over others. Through dance, this women are able to engender small pockets of religious leadership that allow them and others to experience religion through the body and explore dance's spiritual, meaning-making capacities. Methodologically, I rely on ethnography, archival research, and performance analysis in order to explore the multiple locations where Christian dance emerges in the U.S. - sanctuaries, dance fitness classes, dance studios, stages, etc. The chapters are organized around the dancers' use of embodied strategies such a "high art" framing, confrontations with the aging body, the rhetoric of health, the invocation of humor, and the development of community. By analyzing the contemporary and historical politics of Christian sacred dance, this dissertation research sheds new light on the neglected topic of dance as religious embodiment. While debates are ongoing about dance's appropriateness as a sacred art form, Christian dance continues not only to exist, but it also plays an integral role in understanding the relationship between bodily practice and religious identity formation. This research, therefore, models a critical, interdisciplinary approach essential to those who study dance history and theory as it intersects with American religion, critical race theory, and women's studies.

This dissertation proposes a new framework for understanding changing Chinese ideas about barbarians (Yi-Di) and barbarism during the Tang (618-907) and Song (960-1276) periods. Much previous scholarship has drawn a sharp contrast between what is characterized as a "cosmopolitan" early Tang period (618-755) and the growing xenophobic ethnocentrism ascribed to the late Tang (756-907) and Song periods. I argue that this view underestimates the importance of ethnocentric tropes in early Tang political rhetoric and also overlooks the emergence of a new and arguably less ethnocentric interpretation of the classical Chinese-barbarian dichotomy in the late Tang and Song. This new interpretation originated as a rhetorical trope in the ninth century before developing into a true philosophical concept in the eleventh, the key figures in this process being the polemicist Han Yu (768-824) and the Daoxue moral philosophers (or "Neo-Confucians"). The new interpretation of the Chinese-barbarian dichotomy was characterized by a fluid, shifting boundary between Chineseness and barbarism, predicated on Classicist ("Confucian") moral standards rather than ethnic, racial, or geopolitical boundaries. Modern historians have termed this interpretation of Chinese identity as "culturalism," on the assumption that it was centered on "culture" instead of "race," and have followed Han Yu and the Daoxue philosophers in identifying Confucius himself as its originator. My dissertation revises this picture by demonstrating that the so-called "culturalist" interpretation was the product of a new discourse on ideological orthodoxy and morality that involved representing any deviation from Classicist values as a descent into barbarism. The core of this new discourse was thus an attempt at making Classicist ideology and morality (not "culture" per se) essential to the definition of Chinese ethnic identity, but its users also generally chose not to undermine their ethnic identities by acknowledging the possibility that barbarians could become Chinese by becoming good Classicists. The resulting tension or dilemma between moralistic and ethnocentric understandings of barbarism remained unresolved until the Mongol conquest of the Southern Song (1127-1276) led to the ethnocentric understanding's temporary eclipse.

Although the social movement that crossed race, class, sexuality and gender lines before 2008 was exemplary, there is now another type of social movement that has emerged. This movement, led by conservative right wing groups, has been stirring racial divisions by using the economic crisis to scapegoat immigrants. At the same time, the promises of the Obama Administration have not been kept. Instead, under this administration's immigration policies close to one million deportations have occurred nationally, the implementation of a Secure Communities program has led to arbitrary arrests for minor offenses and violated the due process rights of both citizens, and an existing program of employee immigration-status verification has led to as many as 19,000 people that have been mistakenly identified as being deportable. The ingredients of a social movement are still visible but the strategies have shifted to local organizing efforts that, in California, have resulted in legislation supporting: cities opting out of E-Verify, the right of AB540 students to attend college with financial aid, the right of people without a driver's license to stop the impounding of their cars, and the establishment of a pilot program designed to protect undocumented workers who pay state income taxes. This paper focuses on these various trends and the prospects for future systemic change. ; A pesar de que el movimiento social que tuvo lugar antes del año 2008 y que traspasó los límites de la raza, clase social, sexualidad y género fue ejemplar, en nuestros días ha surgido otro tipo de movimiento social. Este movimiento, dirigido por grupos conservadores de derechas, ha provocado divisiones raciales mediante el uso de inmigrantes como cabezas de turco durante la crisis. Al mismo tiempo, no se han cumplido las promesas de la administración Obama. Por el contrario, bajo la política migratoria de esta administración se han producido cerca de un millón de deportaciones a nivel nacional, se ha puesto en funcionamiento un programa de Comunidades ...

Melissa Roderick, Jenny Nagaoka, and Vanessa Coca focus on the importance of improving college access and readiness for low-income and minority students in urban high schools. They stress the aspirations-attainment gap: although the college aspirations of all U.S. high school students, regardless of race, ethnicity, and family income, have increased dramatically over the past several decades, significant disparities remain in college readiness and enrollment.

The authors emphasize the need for researchers and policy makers to be explicit about precisely which sets of knowledge and skills shape college access and performance and about how best to measure those skills. They identify four essential sets of skills: content knowledge and basic skills; core academic skills; non-cognitive, or behavioral, skills; and "college knowledge," the ability to effectively search for and apply to college. High schools, they say, must stress all four.

The authors also examine different ways of assessing college readiness. The three most commonly recognized indicators used by colleges, they say, are coursework required for college admission, achievement test scores, and grade point averages. Student performance on all of these indicators of readiness reveals significant racial and ethnic disparities.

To turn college aspirations into college attainment, high schools and teachers need clear indicators of college readiness and clear performance standards for those indicators. These standards, say the authors, must be set at the performance level necessary for high school students to have a high probability of gaining access to four-year colleges. The standards must allow schools and districts to assess where their students currently stand and to measure their progress. The standards must also give clear guidance about what students need to do to improve.

College readiness indicators can be developed based on existing data and testing systems. But districts and states will require new data systems that provide information on the college outcomes of their graduates and link their performance during high school with their college outcomes.

The oil pipeline projects overshadowed the conflict in South Ossetia from its very beginning. The TV audience was especially impressed by the picture of the Azpetrol tank cars burning somewhere in Georgia. The Caspian oil market promptly responded to the warfare: British Petroleum, the BTC operator, suspended oil pumping along this route; the same was done on the Baku-Supsa pipeline; and the Poti and Kulevi oil terminals were left idling. Later numerous surveys and analyses stressed the economic aspects and calculated the losses sustained by Azerbaijan and the Western oil companies. It seems that the political analysts were more concerned about how much the war cost Azerbaijan and British Petroleum in lost profit and how many million tons of oil did not reach the market than about anything else. As Azerbaijan and the BTC shareholders regained their lost profits, the issue gradually retreated into the background. This left the geopolitical effect of the events in the shadow. From the very beginning, however, the South Ossetian conflict had obvious global implications. In his article "La Lezione di Putin alla Casa Bianca," Lucio Caracciolo wrote: "The Georgian war not merely produced a colossal regional effect; it is helping to revise the global balance which, it seems, was firmly established late last century." Few of the analysts, however, tried to answer the question of whether the sides' geopolitical interests can be discerned in the figures of the losses and profits of those involved in the Caspian oil business. A positive answer suggests the question: What are these interests? Seen from this angle, the causes, both obvious and concealed, of the August war and the key stimuli this inspired in the sides become much clearer. Here I intend to reveal the nature of the geopolitical race for the energy and transportation resources of the Greater Caspian at all stages of its post-Soviet development and concentrate on the rapidly accelerating rivalry in the 21st century with its unexpected, yet logical, post-Tskhinval finale.

As the year 2020 draws closer, European Member States strive harder to reach their individual mandatory targets for the share of renewable energy in their total final energy consumption. Malta has joined the European Union in May 2004 and has since then, worked towards achieving the required compliance of national energy policies to the relevant EU Directives. Malta has also prepared a number of documents dealing with the main three sectors affecting climate change namely, energy, transport and waste management. Besides, Malta has to achieve 10% share of renewable energy in the final energy consumption by 2020, as well as 10% share of bio fuels in the transport sector. Moreover, Malta should also reduce its electricity consumption in public buildings by 9% by 2016. Within the scope of climate change, Malta has no obligations within the Kyoto Protocol but this could change when Malta applies to become an Annex 1 Member at the Conference of Parties meeting in December 2009 in Copenhagen. Meanwhile, within the European Union Emission Trading System (EU-ETS), only the emissions from Malta's two power stations fall under this system. The Commission has decided that Malta's emissions for the period 2008-2012 should not exceed 2.1 Million tonnes of Carbon Dioxide (European Allowance Units EAUs) per year. This is already proving to be a hard challenge to meet, given the projected increase in electricity demand. This paper outlines the current efforts that would contribute towards achieving the renewable energy targets and curbing of carbon dioxide emissions, mainly focusing on energy, transport and waste management. Three different scenarios are also presented for the plausible contribution of different renewable energy sources in the energy mix. It is noted that a number of important plans and policies have been drafted during 2009 and have still to be transposed to national legislation. However, the race against time has already started and it would clearly require a strong political will to drive Malta towards a cleaner energy mix, achieve the RE binding targets and avoid paying non-compliance penalties. ; peer-reviewed

In November 2003, the South African wine industry held its first consultative conference on 'Black Empowerment'. The press reported to the world that the industry was at last entering 'the new South Africa'. For years, it had been a byword for white power and black exploitation – famous for the grim working conditions, poor wages, degrading institutions, and authoritarian, racist white farmers. In contrast to the past, when talk of change was the prerogative of white and male industry insiders, a wide range of industry stakeholders were invited, and the conference itself was dominated by new black faces and voices. A Wine Industry Plan was presented, in which 'Black Economic Empowerment' (BEE) figured as a central element. In this paper, we argue that far from representing a decisive break with the past, BEE in the wine industry is in important ways continuous with it. BEE allows the industry to avoid potentially more uncomfortable options to redress current and past race-based imbalances – such as land redistribution, import boycotts, and better working conditions for grape pickers. An essentialist racial discourse, pivoting on ahistorical and dislocated notions of 'blackness' has been used to displace the transformation agenda away from challenging the impoverishment of the many to ensuring the enrichment of the few. What commitment to farm worker interests remains is couched solidly in self-amelioration discourse (education, training, combating alcoholism) rather than on farm worker organization and the nature of the labour regime on wine farms. At the same time, marketing and codification technologies are deployed to move the terrain of restructuring from a political realm to a managerial one – where a small cohort of black entrepreneurs can operate with new legitimacy. This terrain is characterized by branding, advertising, image building on the one side; and by codes of conduct, a sectoral BEE charter, scorecards, and auditing on the other. In a way, these tools are allowing both the standardization and the de-racialisation of labour and social relations in the wine industry, an industry characterized by slavery and exploitation in the past, and by more or less benign paternalism in more recent history.

This article focuses on the content of elite law schools' curricula. Like all such debates, this one also reflects the author's political and social concerns, which at this time are questioning the impact such curricula have on the graduates' abilities to deliberate "upon the full range of issues which might appear directly or indirectly on a less impoverished [contemporary] political agenda." Elite law schools, which are usually associated with elite universities, are expected to offer liberal legal education. Elite law schools are the fountain of legal scholarship. They are also the place where many of this nation's leaders acquire both legal knowledge about truth and ideologies -- lenses through which they see the world, form their beliefs and then act accordingly. This author understands the goals of liberal education to translate John Stuart Mill's principle of "market of ideas" into a content-rich curriculum. As Mill wrote, "the peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it." To the contrary, this article argues, currently elite law schools have abandoned Mill's principle. They favor a more limited version, one that excludes uncomfortable theories, such as Marxism. Omitting Marx's writings, this article argues, is not an innocuous curricular reduction. If theories are subjective constructs -- "academic elites make theories in their own image," then a curriculum stripped of a theory that emphasizes a different perspective about legal phenomena risks being perceived as a mere exercise in cultural hegemony. Our society is still based on classes that are identified economically, and our law still has to govern the behavior of people with different economic constraints. For example, Marx's writings, as argued here, make it easier to articulate why a rational choice for those who rely on public services is to favor progressive taxation, and for those who rely on private services, tax cuts.

The legitimacy of the Supreme Court is widely assumed to depend on the perception that its decisions are dictated by law. This is the central thesis of the extraordinary joint opinion in Planned Parenthood v. Casey,' decided by the Supreme Court at the end of the 1991 Term. The joint opinion observes that the Court's power lies in its legitimacy, and that its legitimacy is "a product of the substance and perception" that it is a court of law. Thus, frequent overrulings are to be avoided, because this would "overtax the country's belief' that the Court's rulings are grounded in law. Especially when a controversial ruling like Roe v. Wade is involved, a decision to overrule should be avoided at all costs, because this would give rise to the perception that the Court is "surrender[ing] to political pressure" or "over-nul[ing] under fire." Such a perception, in turn, would lead to "loss of confidence in the judiciary." Translated, the thesis of the joint opinion is that the further a decision deviates from the Constitution, the more important it is for the Court to adhere to that decision, or else the public may conclude that the emperor is wearing no clothes. If no hope can be expected from the Court on its own initiative, then what should persons who believe in judicial restraint and the rule of law do? One positive step would be to have the Federalist Society, which contains many individuals of this description, cease promoting the idea that legal questions have right answers. Instead, the Federalist Society should dedicate itself to promoting deconstructionism, Critical Legal Studies, feminism, Critical Race Theory, and the widest possible cacophony of liberal constitutional theories. The message conveyed by these enterprises is that the Supreme Court is a political institution. The more widespread this perception becomes, the closer will come the day when the Court behaves like a court of law.

The illicit drug trade is gigantic. The United Nations reports that the annual value of the illegal drug trade worldwide is 250 to 300 billion dollars.' The United States leads the world in illicit drug consumption and suffers a myriad of drug-related problems. The majority of marijuana, cocaine, and heroin consumed in the United States through out the 1980s was supplied by six Latin American and Caribbean countries. These countries, like the United States, are plagued by drug-related problems. The governments and citizens of both drug producing and drug transit countries are increasingly victims of crime, violence,and corruption. Attendant to these increasing problems is a plethora of media coverage that has sensationalized the drug issue. Studies have linked this media "hype" to political agenda setting by both candidates for public office and the press itself. Manipulating the drug issue for political ends is not a new tactic,' but the practice culminated in the 1988 presidential race, which provided an ideal forum for the "get tough" on drugs theme." Not surprisingly, the American public ranks the illegal drug trade as its number one concern and the most important foreign policy issue facing the United States. For example, a June 1988 national poll showed that eighty-seven percent of the American people considered drug trafficking a "very serious" problem in Central America. The American mood toward drug control has reached the point of militancy,and the United States government has been urged to declare war on drugs. The targets of this "war" have most often been drug suppliers rather than drug consumers. Public opinion polls show that most Americans support drug policies that seek to limit the supply of drugs coming into the United States rather than to curb the American demand for drugs. The present supply-side enforcement policy has led the United States to "force draft" foreign countries to fight the drug war on their own soil. Despite marginally successful diplomacy, unprecedented levels of funding,'" ...

It's confirmed: Republican Atty. Gen. Jeff Landry is pulling
away from the Louisiana gubernatorial field, rendering moot the mythology
about how little-known or also-ran politicians score surprising victories for
the state's top office.

Another media consortium has put out a poll on the
race, pegging Landry's support at 36 percent. As in the other
survey released earlier this week, former Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards
cabinet member Democrat Shawn Wilson pulls
in 26 percent, and everybody else is in single digits with 14 percent undecided,
say the likely voters. These numbers were slightly worse for Landry and
slightly better for Wilson than the previous poll, but nevertheless reaffirm a
Landry-Wilson runoff looms on the horizon where Landry will win decisively.

This provides another blow to the hopes of the anybody-but-Landry
coterie of political activists, who keep hoping somehow another non-Democrat
challenger will emerge to slip past Wilson into the runoff. The thinking is
that a large portion of Democrats, some Republicans, and about half of all
others don't like Landry enough so that he would lose in a runoff to such a
candidate.

Other data from the poll didn't exactly provide
much aid and comfort for that line of reasoning. Over three quarters of the sample
formed an opinion about Landry, with half of it approving of him and just 28
percent disapproving, suggesting he could win a runoff against any opponent, if
narrowly. Driving part of that, he grabbed 14 percent of the vote intention of
black respondents, a little below that of the previous poll but at a level
typically higher significantly than statewide GOP gubernatorial or Senate
candidates.

Again, these are dynamics difficult to change with
the amount of money the Landry campaign has at its disposal. For any single
non-Democrat to make a charge, they have to pick off non-Democrat voters, and
Landry has three-fifths of Republicans and almost a third of other voters in
his column. But with a war chest around the eight-figure range, Landry has
plenty of resources to minimize erosion of his support, while other don't have
nearly enough to chip away at him and grab from other candidates.

And they can't depend upon Democrats to help them
out. Wilson and the party brass know that, absent a live
boy/dead girl scenario, he's dead in the water, but they have to keep going
because they have to field a quality candidate to keep the party refreshed and
able to provide down ballot assistance. The debacle of 2011 they surely haven't
forgotten, when the party ended up backing an obscure schoolteacher rookie
against Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal, who decimated the field. When the dust cleared,
the GOP picked up seven House and nine Senate seats from 2007, although
party-switching and special elections throughout the first three years of Jindal's
term meant in practical terms a pickup of five House and one Senate as a direct
result of the 2011 elections. Wilson has to stay in and actively campaigning if
Democrats have any chance of maintaining their Legislature numbers and to maximize
their chances in some local contests.

As Landry began to run up huge fundraising numbers
and anecdotal evidence that he was the guy to beat, background whispering among
the chattering classes emerged not to speak too quickly of his coronation. Rather,
they alleged that recent Louisiana electoral history supposedly showed front
running gubernatorial candidates often were caught by surprise opponents who started out
quite modestly.

That's never been the case. The narrative seems to
have its origins from the 1987 contest where Democrat Rep. Buddy Roemer had bumped
along in single digits until breaking out close to election day, pushing Prisoner
#03128-095, known outside the big house as Democrat Gov. Edwin Edwards, into
second place and out of a runoff when Edwards withdrew. But it wasn't that big
of a surprise because Roemer made great pains to distinguish himself from the
other main contestants – two other congressmen, one a Republican, and the secretary
of state – with a campaign of fiscal conservatism and a record to match,
unrelenting criticism of Edwards, and a base outside of south Louisiana while
the others divided that area.

It seemed reinforced in 1995 race when Democrat
state Sen. Mike Foster, up against a former governor, lieutenant governor, treasurer,
and congressman, came from relative obscurity to win. Actually, that was in the
cards long before election day as polling early on showed him with good favorable/unfavorable
numbers, as long as he could become well-known to the electorate. He did, because
of the record amount of money he threw into the campaign (a good chunk of his
own), and because he strategically switched to the GOP label upon qualifying,
just as that had become a meaningful asset in campaigning (keep in mind when
Foster first won his Senate seat in 1987, Republicans had all of 5 seats in
that chamber and 17 on the House side). The official GOP apparatus welcomed
him, abandoning not only Roemer trying for another term, but also their
official endorsee who didn't even bother to qualify.

Sometimes the scenario is attempted to be applied
to the 2003 election of Democrat Lt. Gov. Kathleen Blanco. But Blanco was the
front runner who didn't fade against Jindal and a Democrat attorney general,
state senator, and party head,, who always placed in the top two in polls and
who in the last four months of the year raised and spent nearly $4 million, not
much less than Jindal, to consolidate a field that gave 60 percent of its vote
to Democrats in the general election.

And the same applies to the 2015 election of Democrat
state Rep. John Bel Edwards, who, facing no significant intraparty challenge,
led almost every poll against a fragmented GOP field and spent over $7 million
(about a million of his own) to build out name recognition. The only difference
between him and Blanco was he led substantially going into the runoff but he
had to pick off some Republican general election support rather than try to
prevent erosion of second-choice votes.

There are clear lessons here. If you are a polling
front runner, have relatively lots of resources, and have decent comparative
approval numbers, you won't get caught. For those who aren't, you can catch him
the front runner only if he has soft approval numbers, you don't, and you have money
close to that of him.

None of this applies to 2023. At 50 or so days out, Landry has led every poll with good numbers and money to burn. His opponents
have no better, if not worse, approval figures with nowhere close the bucks to
alter the dynamics. Simply, it's his race to lose.