American Political Thought has presented somewhat of a challenge to many because of the conflict between the ideals found within the "American Creed" and the reality of America's treatment of ethnic and social minorities. The various forms of marginalization and oppression facing women, blacks, Native Americans, and Asian-Americans have been as much a part of the story of America as have been natural rights and the Constitution. Taking this into account, this thesis is an effort to argue that the radicalism on display in the Black Panther Party, a group that emerged in the turmoil of the 1960' s, was a direct descendant of the ideas found within the Black Power movement. It will be argued that these militant critiques of American society were radical, but were not so radical as to be viewed as outside of the context provided by the ideals found in the American Creed. In order to do so, it will be necessary first to present and analyze the various approaches toward explaining the content and nature of the American Creed. The Creed will be presented as separate from American political reality, as an ideal type. As a result it appears to be a rather amorphous tool which can be used both by supporters of a more robust realization of the Creed's ideals and those who wish to limit the scope of these ideals. Having discussed these approaches toward the American Creed, a discussion of radical political ideas will serve to introduce the Black Power movement and the later Black Panther Party. It will be argued that the radical ideas on display were born out of a frustration with American society, but were at the same time an endorsement of the American Creed. It will be concluded that the American Creed is a powerful force acting upon American political thought, so powerful that even those who should rationally reject the Creed forcefully embrace it.

This dissertation explores factors that play a role in students' decisions to attend one Northern California Early College High School (NCECHS). It also examines how students perceive their experiences of their decision after they have enrolled. The history of the public education has long been marked by an achievement gap between White and Asian students and students from other ethnic groups. In spite of efforts to address this issue, the gap continues to widen. Early College High Schools (ECHS's) are examples of reform models that are developed to support student achievement among undeserved groups. Without an understanding of the factors that influence student decisions to attend ECHS's and an understanding of the ways students perceive their experiences in such schools; administrators and teachers in these schools are left to more or less "guess" at the most effective ways to structure curriculum and instruction. A qualitative analysis was used to explore student perception and experiences. A survey asked students to share the primary factors that influenced their decision to attend NCECHS, instead of a traditional public school. Findings from this research suggest that the participant's perceived costs and benefits were based on both personal preferences and rational choices. Some aspects of the program that were especially pleasing to students included having the opportunity to earn a high school diploma, earn college credit and earn an associate's degree at the same time. Many students expressed dissatisfaction and anxiety with attending this ECHS. Frustration with the college enrollment process, prerequisites, heavy workloads, time management, fear of academic failure, relationships with instructors and disassociation from friends were also among the findings of this study.

This study examines African American stereotypes in film. I studied six directors, Kathryn Bigelow, Spike Lee, the Russo Brothers, Ryan Coogler, Tate Taylor, and Dee Rees; and six films Detroit, BlacKkKlansman, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, The Help, and Mudbound. Using the framework of critical race theory and auteur theory, I compared the common themes between the films and directors. The main purpose of my study is to see if White or Black directors predominantly used African American stereotypes. I found that both races of directors rely on stereotypes for different purposes. With Black directors, the stereotype was explained further through character development, while the White directors used the stereotype at face value with no further explanation.

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In der hawaiianischen Vorstellung steht das Land in einer Kinship- oder Verwandtschaftsbeziehung als lebendes und atmendes Familienmitglied, von dem man abstammt. Aloha 'Aina („Liebe zum Land“) ist eine Onto-Epistemologie der Indigenen auf Hawai'i, analog zu anderen gemeinschaftlichen Organisationsformen, die Mensch, Nicht-Mensch und Natur als miteinander verbunden betrachten, wie etwa im Glauben der Haudenosaunee. Anstatt Aloha 'Aina als eine Methode der „dekolonialen Klimagerechtigkeit“ zu präsentieren, die im globalen Norden nachgeahmt werden soll, und damit Aloha 'Aina von jenem „Land“ zu entfernen, theoretisiere ich ein ortsbezogenes Konstrukt, das ich „Spirit of Relationality“ nenne. Ich verknüpfe das hawaiianische Aloha 'Aina mit der politischen Theorie des Interkommunalismus des Black Panther Huey P. Newton, um dekoloniale Formen globaler Klimagerechtigkeit für nicht-Indigene Positionalitäten zu entwickeln. Der Zweck dieser Verbindung war es, den „Geist“ innerhalb der postmarxistischen Theorien neu zu verorten, wie sie von Vanessa Watts (Haudenosaunee & Anishinaabe) kritisiert werden, da dieser Geist für eurozentrische Perspektiven entfernt wurde. Indem ich hawaiianische Geschichten und zeitgenössische Poesie analysiere, vergleiche ich auch Vorstellungen von lokalem Glauben anderswo, wie auf den Philippinen und im Ästuargebiet, durch die Verbundenheit des Pazifiks und von fluidem Wasser und Luft. Metaphern von Spirit/Geist und Kinship, sowie eine materialistische Analyse des Antikolonialismus und der Arbeiterbewegung auf Hawaii führten dazu, dass ich meine eigenen Konzepte als „Pneumaterialismus“ bezeichnete. Dies ergibt sich aus der Metaphorik von „pneuma“ als liminaler Geist und hawaiianischem „ea“ („Atem,“ „Leben,“ „Wiederaufleben“), mit Wortspielen zur Metaphysik und Antagonismen zwischen Materialismus/Materie und Idealismus. Die Dynamik interkultureller und organischer Symbiosen und indigener Solidaritäten bildet ebenfalls die Grundlage dieser Metaphern. / In Indigenous Hawaiian conceptualization land is relational, a living and breathing family member that one is descended from. Aloha 'Aina (“love of the land”) is an Indigenous way of knowing and being in Hawai'i, analogous to other communal forms of organization that consider human, non-human, and nature as interrelated, such as in Haudenosaunee beliefs. Instead of presenting Aloha 'Aina as a method of “decolonial climate justice” to emulate within the global North, and thus remove Aloha 'Aina from its land, I theorize a place-based construct I call “spirit of relationality.” I connect Hawaiian Aloha 'Aina with Black Panther Huey P. Newton’s political theory of Intercommunalism towards decolonial forms of global climate justice for non-Indigenous positionalities. The purpose of this connection was to relocate “spirit” within post-Marxist theories, as critiqued by Vanessa Watts (Haudenosaunee & Anishinaabe) of having been removed for Eurocentric perspectives. Analyzing Hawaiian stories and contemporary poetry, I also compare notions of localized beliefs elsewhere, such as in the Philippines and in the estuary space, through the connectedness of the Pacific Ocean, in-flux waters, and air. Metaphors of spirit/ghost and kinship, as well as materialist analysis of anticolonialism and labor organizing in Hawai'i, led to labelling my own concepts as “Pneumaterialism.” This is from metaphors of “pneuma” as in-between spirit and Hawaiian “ea” (“breath,” “life,” “resurgence”), with wordplay on metaphysics and antagonisms between materialism/matter and idealism. Dynamics of intercultural and organic symbiosis and Indigenous solidarities also ground these metaphors.

Perhaps surprisingly, the largest experience in operating nuclear power plants has been in nuclear naval propulsion, particularly submarines. This accumulated experience may become the basis of a proposed new generation of compact nuclear power plant designs. In an effort to de-carbonise commercial freight shipping, there is growing interest in the possibility of using nuclear propulsion systems. Reactor cores for such an application would need to be fundamentally different from land-based power generation systems, which require regular refueling, and from reactors used in military submarines, as the fuel used could not conceivably be as highly enriched. Nuclear-powered propulsion would allow ships to operate with low fuel costs, long refueling intervals, and minimal emissions; however, currently such systems remain largely confined to military vessels. This research project undertakes computational modeling of possible soluble-boron-free (SBF) reactor core designs for this application, with a view to informing design decisions in terms of choices of fuel composition, materials, core geometry and layout. Computational modeling using appropriate reactor physics (e.g. WIMS, MONK, Serpent and PANTHER), thermal-hydraulics etc. codes (e.g. COBRA-EN) is used for this project. With an emphasis on reactor physics, this study investigates possible fuel assembly and core designs for civil marine propulsion applications. In particular, it explores the feasibility of using uranium/thorium-rich fuel in a compact, long-life reactor and seek optimal choices and designs of the fuel composition, reactivity control, assembly geometry, and core loading in order to meet the operational needs of a marine propulsion reactor. In this reactor physics and 3D coupled neutronics/thermal-hydraulics study, we attempt to design a civil marine reactor core that fulfills the objective of providing at least 15 effective full-power-years (EFPY) life at 333 MWth. In order to unleash the benefit of thorium in a long life core, the micro-heterogeneous ThO2-UO2 duplex fuel is well-positioned to be utilized in our proposed civil marine core. Unfortunately, A limited number of studies of duplex fuel are available in the public domain, but its use has never been examined in the context of a SBF environment for long-life small modular rector (SMR) core. Therefore, we assumed micro-heterogeneous ThO2-UO2 duplex fuel for our proposed marine core in order to explore its capability. For the proposed civil marine propulsion core design, this study uses 18% U-235 enriched micro-heterogeneous ThO2-UO2 duplex fuel. To provide a basis for comparison we also evaluate the performance of homogeneously mixed 15% U-235 enriched all-UO2 fuel. This research also attempts to design a high power density core with 14 EFPY while satisfying the neutronic and thermal-hydraulics safety constraints. A core with an average power density of 100 MW/m3 has been successfully designed while obtaining a core life of 14 years. The average core power density for this core is increased by ∼50% compared to the reference core design (63 MW/m3 and is equivalent to Sizewell B PWR (101.6 MW/m3 which means capital costs could be significantly reduced and the economic attractiveness of the marine core commensurately improved. In addition, similar to the standard SMR core, a reference core with a power density of 63 MW/m3 has been successfully designed while obtaining a core life of ∼16 years. One of the most important points that can be drawn from these studies is that a duplex fuel lattice needs less burnable absorber than uranium-only fuel to achieve the same poison performance. The higher initial reactivity suppression and relatively smaller reactivity swing of the duplex can make the task of reactivity control through BP design in a thorium-rich core easier. It is also apparent that control rods have greater worth in a duplex core, reducing the control material requirements and thus potentially the cost of the rods. This research also analyzed the feasibility of using thorium-based duplex fuel in different cases and environments to observe whether this fuel consistently exhibit superior performance compared to the UO2 core in both the assembly and whole-core levels. The duplex fuel/core consistently exhibits superior performance in consideration of all the neutronic and TH constraints specified. It can therefore be concluded from this study that the superior performance of the thorium-based micro-heterogeneous ThO2-UO2 duplex fuel provides enhanced confidence that this fuel can be reliably used in high power density and long-life SBF marine propulsion core systems, offering neutronic advantages compared to the all-UO2 fuel. Last, but not least, considering all these factors, duplex fuel can potentially open the avenue for low-enriched uranium (LEU) SBF cores with different configurations. Motivated by growing environmental concerns and anticipated economic pressures, the overall goal of this study is to examine the technological feasibility of expanding the use of nuclear propulsion to civilian maritime shipping and to identify and propose promising candidate core designs.

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