This chapter tells a story of the 1996 integrative theoretical framework by García Coll and colleagues for understanding child development among minoritized and oppressed communities in the United States. Using both research and first-person retrospective accounts to understand the model’s development and use, this chapter examines the impact of the model for studying the development of youth from ethnic and racial groups that are often marginalized in the United States, while also exploring topics such as ethnic and racial discrimination, the conceptual complexity of intervention research with youth from minoritized communities, and shifting ideas about culture that inform how we use the model today. This chapter weaves first person reflections by lead author García Coll on the model’s successes, limitations, and future directions throughout the chapter with the intent to inspire and support the next generations of scholars in shaping the way we think about, study, and act to end ethnic and racial youth discrimination and support ethnically and racially minoritized youth developmental competencies.

State legislators' utilization of model legislation reflects an important degree of interest group influence at the fine-tuned bill drafting stage. I consider model bills drafted by sixty-six national-level organizations. Using an original dataset containing the text of all versions of bills considered in state legislatures from 1995 to 2019, I detect the use of these groups' model bills within state legislatures using textual analysis based on plagiarism detection. I confirm that model legislation uptake decreases as legislative capacity increases. Generally, other studies and journalistic efforts study ALEC, a conservative powerhouse nonprofit which prolifically produces model bills. My focus on a broader swath of the groups that produce model bills can give us a better sense of the correlates of when legislators use these bills. I model the percentage of the legislative agenda that comes from ALEC, non-ALEC model bills, and a liberal group. As legislative expenditures increase, the reliance on model bills decreases. On the legislator-level, legislators use fewer model bills of all kinds as they gain experience in the form of more years on the job as legislator. These bills are useful for legislators and legislatures with lower capacity, but a subpar strategy given the lack of tailoring to the individual state needs or formats.

This chapter provides an introduction to key concepts in optimization with motivating applications. We begin with a categorization of different optimization problems, based on the objective function, to be maximized or minimized, and constraint equations that limit the set of feasible solutions. Next we introduce two major concepts in optimization: convexity and the gradient. Convex problems are essentially solved, at least numerically. Linear programming and quadratic programming are both convex. Nonconvex problems are more challenging. However, there is a shift in optimization, where it is increasingly possible to solve nonconvex problems. The gradient is another fundamental concept, providing information about the geometry of the optimization landscape, and which direction locally improves the solution. We then show how Lagrange multipliers are an intuitive way of handling constraints. We conclude with three major applications: inverse problems, control theory, and machine learning. Throughout, we give examples to illustrate how to formulate an optimization problem and solve it algorithmically.

A paradigm shift is necessary to understand the ocean’s role in the Anthropocene. Rather than viewing the ocean through terra-centric frameworks as biased as, for example, the Eurocentric views of former “Orientalist” scholarship, it urges us to “think through water.” Doing so requires us to vertically explore Earth’s different spatial layers, from subsoil to outer space, that artificial islands gave access to. A paradigm shift also requires a focus on people who sought realistic, sustainable solutions when marine regions were profoundly reshaped. It demands an analysis of the Ages of Coal and Oil in view of oceanic energy transitions and their impacts. The coevolution between humans and other species also must be reexamined regarding the extension of the human habitat, marine biomass concentrations, and invasive species translocations. Exploring the clashes between various environmentalist and developmentalist “schools” of thought is essential, as is understanding the spatial competition among users of marine regions. Finally, the terrestrial mindset must be shed, ranging from climate adaptation thought to geo-ontological views of global production centers and peripheries.

This chapter examines what is considered a fact in individual communications processed by the Human Rights Committee (HRC), recognized as the UN’s most authoritative human rights monitoring body. Despite its significance, little is known about the HRC’s handling of individual complaints against states that have signed the optional protocol. Through the case studies of Sanila-Aikio v. Finland (2018) and Näkkäläjärvi et al. v. Finland (2018), which address the inclusion of new voters on the Sámi Parliament’s electoral roll, the chapter scrutinizes the Committee’s evidentiary practices. Notably, the Finnish Supreme Administrative Court added ninety-three persons to the Sámi Parliament’s electoral roll, while an unreferenced study suggested over half a million could be eligible. The Committee included this study without verifying its reliability. The chapter explores how evidence is translated and distanced from Committee members, questioning how material veracity is determined. It concludes by reflecting on how the HRC’s evidentiary regime shapes and supports certain narratives while marginalizing others.

Principles of operation of quantum devices based on 2D electron gas (2DEG) quantum dots and hybrid 2DEG-superconducting devices and experimental results are presented.

Representing the macro-level and historical context associated with the social ecologies of physically diverse individuals, our chapter is strategic. It uses theory to analyze and interrogate the underacknowledged dialectic produced both to the human sources of discrimination as well as those who are victims or prey to its impact. The latter is evident either as patterned interpersonal traditions among individuals or as lifecourse, impactful, organized stress-imposing systems. Using the theoretical framework of phenomenological variant of ecological systems theory (PVEST), our chapter interrogates the historical underpinnings and persistence of ethnic and racial discrimination and discusses implications for potential supportive remedies. This dual conceptual concentration (i.e., phenomenology and ecology) acknowledges perception and context while taking into account cognitive, socioemotional, and biological human processes. Central to this analysis are the enduring intergenerational manifestations, as underanalyzed multisystems, that contribute to the persistence of ethnic and racial discrimination.

This chapter introduces an oceanic-vertical perspective on Asia’s Anthropocene, focusing downward from offshore oil platforms to oil fields beneath the seabed. It emphasizes the overlooked role of marine regions in Asia’s contribution to global carbon emissions. It highlights how Asian political elites, particularly after decolonization, played a central role in developing offshore oil fields, synchronizing terrestrial and oceanic energy transitions by the mid-twentieth century. Unlike land-based infrastructures constrained by colonial legacies, marine regions offered greater autonomy, allowing Asian political elites to assert judicial control. The chapter spans from the 1880s to the 1970s, tracing offshore oil’s rise first across Japanese and US waters, later followed by various Asian marine regions. It argues for recognizing Asia’s marine regions as critical sites of environmental transformation and Asian political agency. By foregrounding offshore fossil fuel development, the chapter reframes the Asian Anthropocene within global histories of energy, development, and technology—beyond terrestrial confines and explanations focused on Western colonial and capitalist elites.

In this chapter we analyse a corpus of climate-related tweets from ‘Australian Twitter’ (now ‘X’) collected between late 2019 and early 2022. The study aimed to discover whether the language of left-leaning and right-leaning users aligns with the language of climate change advocates and deniers. Method triangulation is used, first analysing language variation among the two groups using multiple correspondence analysis (MCA), then analysing such variation using keywords analysis. The MCA indicates that the two groups are not differentiated with respect to their grammatical style and that they are internally diverse. However, the keywords analysis uncovers several linguistic differences between the two groups. These are associated with discursive practices such as scientific (de-)legitimation and calls to action, which align with ideological stance around climate change. Thus, the analyses confirm that different practices are adopted in relation to political-ideological usage trends. In addition, the differing results from the two methods highlight the importance of triangulating corpus linguistic techniques in the study of usage variation.