The AmazonCoop--a cooperative that mediates trade between Brazilian Amazonian indigenous groups and the transnational cosmetics firm The Body Shop--seeks to use the market opportunities provided by neoliberal economic globalization to achieve sustainable development in indigenous villages, with mixed results. While the cooperative provides significant material benefits, it fails to achieve the social goals of democracy, participation, and self-development embodied in the cooperative principles. In this paper, I examine AmazonCoop in the context of historical globalizations on Brazil's "extractive frontier," demonstrating substantial continuity between contemporary and historical political economies. I use this historical anthropological analysis to discuss the potential contributions of cooperatives to development, the relationships between historical and contemporary globalizations, and the political-economic landscapes on which indigenous people can pursue their interests.

This project is designed to determine the impact that Texas 4-H shooting sports has on its youth and the State of Texas using research from a study done 1991 and another study done in 2002. The purpose of these two studies was to analyze the amount of life skills gained by youth through their involvement in the Texas 4-H shooting sports program, to see how much parents are willing to spend to have their children participate in this program, and also to evaluate if the state of Texas incurs some economic gain due to the amount of money spent by parents. This study uses existing data from two surveys that were completed in 1991 and 2002 at Texas 4-H shooting sports state competition(s). The target population for both of the surveys consisted of youth participants and parents. These two surveys are the same in their attitudinal structure, but are different because the 2002 survey also includes cost analyses. The major findings were as follows: 1.)Involvement in the Texas 4-H shooting sports program does have a positive impact on the life skills gained by youth. 2.)Money being spent on youth by their parents to be a part of the Texas 4-H shooting program helps the state of Texas incur some economic gain due to travel and shooting expenses being made in the state 3.)Youth representing Texas shooting sports are also having a national impact due to the amount of money they are spending traveling and shooting in other cities. 4.)Youth representing Texas shooting sports are having a competitive shooting impact not only in Texas, but on the nation as well. 5.)Youth involved in the 4-H shooting program are spending more quality time with family members and practicing more with supervised instruction. 6.)The state of Texas is spending close to $55,000 per year to keep one juvenile delinquent housed in a correctional facility when it cost $4,000 a year to participate in 4-H shooting sports.

No description available.

Cooperative communications have the ability to induce spatial diversity, increase channel capacity, and attain broader cell coverage with single-antenna terminals. This thesis focuses on the performance study of both unidirectional and bidirectional cooperative diversity networks employing the decode-and-forward (DF) protocol. For the unidirectional cooperative diversity network, we study the average bit-error rate (BER) performance of a DF protocol with maximum-likelihood (ML) detection. Closed-form approximate average BER expressions involving only elementary functions are presented for a cooperative diversity network with one or two relays. The proposed BER expressions are valid for both coherent and non-coherent binary signallings. With Monte-Carlo simulations, it is verified that the proposed BER expressions are extremely accurate for the whole signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) range. For the bidirectional cooperative diversity network, we study and compare the performance of three very typical bidirectional communication protocols based on the decode-and-forward relaying: time division broadcast (TDBC), physical-layer network coding (PNC), and opportunistic source selection (OSS). Specifically, we derive an exact outage probability in a one-integral form for the TDBC protocol, and exact closed-form outage probabilities for the PNC and OSS protocols. For the TDBC protocol, we also derive extremely tight upper and lower bounds on the outage probability in closed-form. Moreover, asymptotic outage probability performance of each protocol is studied. Finally, we study the diversity-multiplexing tradeoff (DMT) performance of each protocol both in the finite and infinite SNR regimes. The performance analysis presented in this thesis can be used as a useful tool to guide practical system designs for both unidirectional and bidirectional cooperative diversity networks. / Thesis (Master, Electrical & Computer Engineering) -- Queen's University, 2009-09-12 14:36:05.05

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This thesis deals with the social relations within two feminist-inspired housing co-operatives in Montreal by employing the analytical tool of social network from an interactionist perspective. The housing co-op milieu is a highly suitable terrain for reflections on feminist urban theory. 'Public' and 'private' space, identity and place, and 'community' and community development are central themes addressed in this study. / Members of each co-op were interviewed using a semi-directed interview guide. Social interaction is analysed qualitatively and focuses on the content of exchanges between co-op residents and patterns of socialising. The study concludes with an analysis of spatial micropolitics in terms of conflict and co-operation.

Cognitive radio (CR) is a promising technique to improve spectrum efficiency for wireless communications. This thesis focuses on the resource allocation in two kinds of CR networks (CRNs), traditional CRNs (TCRNs) and cooperative CRNs (CCRNs). In TCRNs, CR sources and destinations communicate directly. By exploring the heterogeneity among CRs, a prioritized CSMA/CA is proposed for demand-matching spectrum allocation. A distributed game is formulated and no-regret learning is adopted to solve the game. Simulation results indicate increase on the number of satisfied CRs. In CCRNs, some nodes are selected as relays to assist the communication. A two-layer auction game is proposed with the first layer performing spectrum allocation and relay formation, and the second layer performing relay allocation. These two layers interact and jointly solve the resource allocation problem. Simulation results show that, compared to counterparts, both the network throughput and convergence time can be improved.

The thesis reconstructs and analyses the changing geographical strength of co-operative retailing in England and Wales c.l820-1901. It charts the spatial and temporal distribution of all recorded society foundations during this period. From 1862 onwards the changing pattern of cooperative membership is presented. The distribution of society foundations by settlement size is investigated. The analysis of the pattern of co-operative growth - including the setbacks suffered as some societies failed to establish themselves permanently - draws ideas from and extends upon the existing literature on the geographical diffusion of innovations. The importance of the circulation of information - distinguishing basic awareness of the idea of co-operation and the practical knowledge necessary for its execution - is studied. This suggests the importance of printed sources in rapidly and widely extending awareness but their limitations in providing the knowledge necessary for practical operations. Factors deriving from the relative location of adopting centres and their access to information must be supplemented by consideration of the specific character of these places. In particular the significance of local conditions of retail trade is asserted together with the importance of wider social and economic circumstances as an influence on the potential for the development of collective working class initiative. Variations in the conditions of work and residence are examined as forces underlying the development attitudes amongst workers, the internal cohesion of the working class and its relationship with the middle and upper class establishment; all of which had a bearing on the extent to which co-operation was seen as a desirable and practical exercise within individual settlements.

It is commonplace in wage determination models and, in general, in economic models as a whole, to treat the workers' outside option as given. The main purpose of the present work is to remove, in various ways, this assumption. The work is organized as follows. The first chapter is devoted to introducing the thesis topic and the related literature. The second chapter describes an economy in which the workers hired by a firm acquire without cost a firm-specific skill that enables them to potentially become independent producers. Thus, by modelling explicitly the workers' decision to stay or to leave the firm, a stable earning profile for the economy is characterized. Such a stable earning profile can allow for a workers' compensation higher than the basic neoclassical wage and for pay differentials across industries even for initially homogenous workers. The third chapter shows that the existence of a concrete outside option for firms' managers can induce, under specific circumstances, oligopolistic firms to adopt restrictive output practises. In particular, the conditions under which, in a Cournot oligopoly, existing firms behave more collusively than in a standard Cournot model, are carefully defined. The fourth chapter considers the problem of producer co-operatives' (PCs) stability. It shows that PCs' instability argued in the literature can fail to hold in very competitive and low barrier-to-entry markets in which, potentially, dismissed members have a chance to set up new firms. In the fifth and conclusive chapter a new concept of core-stability for n-cooperative games is introduced and applied both to the problem of cartel formation under oligopoly and to an economy with a public good. Such a solution concept, denoted o-core, assumes that when a coalition deviates from an agreement, it possesses a first-mover advantage with respect to all other players.

The purpose of this study was to investigate existing work-oriented programs for the educationally deficient in the state of Indiana, to review related literature concerning such vocationally-oriented programs, and to explore the implications for future directions in program planning and implementation.The reserach was planned to answer questions pertaining to four major levels of investigation: 1) program and coordinatore identification, 2) analysis of program structure, 3) descriptive analysis of students and 4) curriculum content. An eighteen item questionnaire was devised to gather descriptive data pertaining to these four areas.The questionnaire was sent to seventy-nine Special Education Cooperatives and/or Unified Public School Systems in Indiana as identified by the Division of Special Education, Indiana Department of Public Instruction, 1974-75 school year. From the seventy-nine questionnaires mailed, sixty-six percent of the Co-ops or Single Unified Systems responded.The first level of information analyzed concerned existing or planned programs, specific program locations in the state, identifying terminology, and information concerning personnel and their certification. All Systems responding, except one, stated that they did have some type of program for educationally deficient students at the secondary level. In fifty-eight percent of the systems, Pre-Vocational Education (P.V.E.) was the term which titled the program. Anotherthirty-five percent used the more standard label of Special Education while twenty-five percent chose Work-Study. Other labels were closely associated with Vocational Education.All professional Personnel were certified teachers with twenty-seven systems reporting that their personnel held certification in the field of special education and twenty-five systems had a wide diversity of educational certification held by their personnel. One might assume that persons with certification in special education were not abundant at the time when a large majority of these programs were initiated. The title held by these professionals closely corresponded with the program title; P.V.E., Special Education, and Work-Study. Only small differences were discernible between the total number of males and females working as professionals in the programs.Level two contained information concerning program operation and length of service with the system. Finances and program management were also questioned with regard to local, state, and federal regulations. Nearly thirty-one percent of the systems reporting had some structured program for more than seven years. Most of these long term programs are operating in large metropolitian areas and are single system units. Another twenty-eight percent of the systems responding had been operating some secondary work-oriented programs between two and three years. It would appear that these more recent programs have been developed in preparation for the special education mandate or since the promulgation of the mandate in Indiana.Nearly eighty percent of the programs were financed from twelve to one hundred percent by the school corporation. Most school systems accepted between forty-three to fifty-five percent of the financial obligation. Only three systems obtained federal grants and this money was ear-marked for specific additions to an already existing program. Seventy-five percent of the systems were applying and receiving between twenty to sixty percent of their program finances from the Department of Public Instruction.Nearly one half of those responding systems were receiving aid in widely varying amounts from either Indiana Vocational Education or Indiana Department of Vocational Rehabilitation. Both Departments have criteria upon which program funding assistance can be obtained. However, these criteria seem to lack consistency among those programs which are receiving financial benefits.Level three refers to specific information concerning students who are enrolled in work-oriented programs. Seventy-five percent of the students are enrolled in these public school programs at the secondary level between three and four years. Most of the programs appear to be structured as four-year programs. The length of enrollment varied from one to six years which may mean that pupils in soem systems may continue as long as they can show progress toward meeting program goals, or that the pupils enter the program at the junior high level.The students who are enrolled in work-oriented programs tend to cluster between the chronological ages of fifteen to nineteen inclusively. Most programs adhere to State Rules and Regulations concerning intelligence quotients for students which are between 50-79. Criteria beside that of I.Q. scores were used to determine placement in some systems, suggesting that there are more complexities in dealing with handicapped children than a single test score might indicate.Much of the literature suggests that most educationally deficient persons fall into more than one classification and this data seems to support these same findings inasmuch as a number of systems checked several categories of handicaps for their students. Forty-six of the systems reported that eighty-eight percent of their students were classified as being mentally retarded. The second largest group were classified as slow learning. One assumption can be made from this evidence; these students received higher than state standards indicating retardation on intelligence tests but still required individualized programs in order to achieve academic success and enter into the employment field.Approximately eighty-two percent of the programs are operating in a regular high school facility. Less than one-third of the programs provide work-shop facilities. More than three-fourths of those systems responding place their students on jobs either within the school or in the community.Level four concerned curriculum development. More than ninety-eight percent were utilizing some type of mainstreaming technique. The courses of Home Economics, Industrial Arts, Health & Safety, Art, Music, and Physical Education proved to be the most frequently used for the integration of educationally deficient students.According to the literature available, pre-vocational education programs seem to be providing a rewarding experience for educationally deficient students at the secondary level. It is generally agreed that goals of social and vocational competencies can be enhanced by use of a work-study contact for the adolescent because such an arrangement gives real meaning to public school attendance. Work-oriented programs are structured to provide those types of educational courses and actual job training which will later prepare the student for the world of work The pre-vocational phase of the program cultivates those work habits and specific occupational skills which make it possible for the student to be gainfully employed.Research indicates that the educationally deficient student has the potential of limited academic education, vocational training, and employability. However, he lacks sufficient skills, appropriate attitudes, and self-confidence in order to maintain an economically independent and/or socially acceptable life style without supervision and guidance from other sources. Upon graduation from the work-study program, each student should be able to take his place in society on a meaningful, rewarding level, capable and willing to assume the responsibility that will be demanded of him as an adult.From the sixty-six percent of responses received, it seems evident that there has been activity in Indiana to develop work-oriented programs for educationally deficient students at the secondary level. Adequate job placement which is suited to the individual's physical and mental capacities is the final goal.On the basis of the study it is recommended that a more uniform and reliable funding system be established to support work-oriented programs, that follow-up studies on program graduates be initiated, and that both pre-service and in-service programs be developed to upgrade the competencies of professional personnel associated with work-oriented programs.Ball State UniversityMuncie, IN 47306