Metaphysical Commitments: The Uses of Volumetric Abstraction Across Peru’s Tropical Timber Supply Chains

This chapter considers the intersection of Native American philosophy and feminist philosophy. It discusses the central themes and issues in Native American feminism; the epistemological, metaphysical, ethical, and political commitments that inform knowing and living in Native communities; and views about mainstream feminism. In addition, the chapter reflects on future directions of Native American philosophy generally and with respect to women’s issues specifically. Section one includes some core philosophical assumptions of the Native American worldview(s), which serve as the basis for Native American philosophy and about/from which Native and Native-ally philosophers theorize. The second section identifies the various camps of woman-centered Native theorizing: tribalism, womanism, and feminism. The third section explores the ways in which Native American philosophy intersects with feminist philosophy.

Political commitments to resist oppression play a central role in the moral lives of many people. Such commitments are also a source of ethical reasons. They influence and organize ethical beliefs, emotions and reasons in an ongoing way. Political commitments to address oppression often contain a concern for the dignity and well-being of others and the objects of political commitments often have value, according to ideal moral theories, such as Kantian and utilitarian theory. However, ideal moral theories do not fully explain the ethical reasons political commitments engender. First, ideal moral theories do not explain the normative priority that agents give to politically committed ethical reasons. Their profound effect on a politically committed agent’s ethical deliberation and choice and the precedence they are given over other ends cannot be wholly understood through the moral obligations within ideal theories. Second, although politically committed reasons are valuable in ideal theory for the benefits they bring to others, they are not fungible with other reasons ideal theory would regard as having equal ethical value. A person might substitute another beneficial humanitarian aim for that to which she is politically committed and nevertheless regard herself as having done a morally wrong thing for failing or betraying her commitment. Politically committed ethical reasons are also motivated and informed by the social location of agents and their relationship to structures of oppression. Although there are universal ethical reasons to oppose oppression, this means that some of a person’s actual ethical reasons will be irreducibly particular.

In seeking to balance the demands of social science research with complex ethical and political commitments, ethnographers often find themselves caught in a series of double binds. This is particularly true when we are asked to testify in court on behalf of subjects criminalized by the state. I explore how these tensions play out in settings where right and wrong cannot be clearly distinguished in anthropological terms but are demanded in legal or political terms. I consider the narrative strategies that anthropologists employ in an effort to produce social-legal knowledge from our ethnographic research that would satisfy the demands of the court, while simultaneously deploying analytical strategies that can account for multiple realities and conflicting truths. I consider my own participation in these overlapping and often incommensurate projects through a particular ethnographic and legal case in which I was implicated as researcher and as a witness for the defense.

Aimed at the problems of low search efficiency of the A* algorithm in global path planning, not considering the size of AGV and too many turns, and the DWA algorithm easily falling into local optimization, an AGV path planning algorithm based on improved A* and DWA fusion is proposed. To begin, the obstacle rate coefficient is added to the A* algorithm’s evaluation function to build an adaptive cost function; the search efficiency and path safety are increased by improving the search mode; by extracting key nodes, a global path containing only the starting point, key nodes, and endpoints is obtained. The DWA algorithm’s evaluation function is then optimized and the starting azimuth is optimized based on information from the first key node. The experimental results show that in a static environment, compared with the traditional A* algorithm and the improved A* algorithm, the path length is reduced by 1.3% and 5.6%, respectively, and the turning times are reduced by 62.5% and 70%, respectively; compared with the improved ant colony algorithm in the literature, the turning angle is reduced by 29%. In the dynamic environment, the running time of this fusion algorithm is reduced by 12.6% compared with the other hybrid algorithms.

How are multi-culture, inequality and belonging understood in the day-to-day thinking and practices of local government? Examining original empirical data, this book explores how local government officers and politicians negotiate ’difficult subjects’ linked with community cohesion policy: diversity, inequality, discrimination, extremism, migration, religion, class, power and change. The book argues that such work necessitates ’uncomfortable positions’ when managing ethical, professional and political commitments. Based on first-hand experience of working in urban local government and extensive ethnographic, interview and documentary research, the book applies governmentality perspectives in a new way to consider how people working within government are subject to regimes of governmentality themselves, and demonstrates how power operates through emotions. Its arguments for public sociology and how ’sociological imaginations’ are applied beyond academia will be valuable to those debating for the future of public services and building connections between the university and wider society, including scholars and students in sociology, social policy, social geography, urban studies and politics, and policy practitioners in local and central government.

Object detection and tracking is a challenging problem in the dynamic construction environment, especially for objects with kinematic joints and changing poses, e.g. excavators. This paper presents a kinematic key nodes model for dynamically detecting and locating movable objects in construction sites using colordepth cameras. The key nodes model is designed by first analyzing kinematic constraints from mechanic specifications of interested construction site objects and then building representative segmented contour templates under supervision. Feature matching is realized by comparing the real object components and segmented contour templates in a traversal order of the tree structure for all the key nodes. Since colordepth cameras capture not only images, but also the distance between detected objects and the camera itself in a format of three-dimensional (3D) point clouds, the 3D spatial location of an object is obtained by linking the image coordinate of each detected key node with the 3D point coordinates. This proposed framework showed great potential in construction monitoring and safety management.

Energy Islands: Metaphors of Power, Extractivism, and Justice in Puerto Rico

Pragmatism and the Philosophy of Sport explores the philosophical significance of sport – the phenomenological experience, the training, coaching, and the competition – from a uniquely pragmatic angle of vision. The philosophical insights of John Dewey, William James, C.S. Peirce, Jane Addams, and Josiah Royce shed new light on the meaning of the physical practices that take place on our soccer fields, national arenas, backyards, and playgrounds. Interestingly, a close examination of these contemporary practices allows us to understand a wide array of ethical, epistemological and metaphysical commitments that the American pragmatic tradition has articulated for more than a century. Pragmatism’s insistence that truth be embodied in the practical consequences of everyday life, its balancing of communal and individual purposes, its emphasis on the role of chance and spontaneity in experience — resonate with the findings of modern kinesiology and sport science.

The objective of the path planning for a mobile robot is to generate a collision-free path from a starting position to a target position, aiming to realize a higher quality of path planning, an improved A* algorithm and a hybrid approach incorporating the dynamic window algorithm have been proposed for robot path planning in various environments in this paper. In global path planning, first, a bidirectional search strategy was introduced into to improve the searching efficiency, and an adaptive heuristic function was designed to reduce redundant search nodes. In the meantime, a filtering function for key path nodes and an enhanced jump point optimization method help to remove redundant nodes in the path, reduce turning angles, greatly shorten the path length, and smooth the path using cubic B-spline curves. Furthermore, in local path planning, the combination of key path nodes and the dynamic window approach (DWA) algorithm is utilized to achieve obstacle avoidance in dynamic environments and adjust the heading angle of the section enables seamless locomotion of the robot. Finally, the simulation experiments and physical experiments on the robot were conducted to validate that the proposed improved algorithm significantly improves the speed of path planning while also reducing the length of the planned path and improve the reliability of the algorithm when compared with other algorithms.

Throughout the history of the W. E. A. there have been arguments, and sometimes bitter conflicts, about the relationship between educational aims and political objectives. This thesis examines the tensions and the dilemmas generally experienced in any education involving social and political values, by taking the clash of principles between the W. E. A. (non-party, unsectarian, with its formal emphasis upon objectivity in teaching) and the N. C. L. C. (with its proclaimed Marxist partisanship) as a fundamental challenge for critical re-assessment in the light of contemporary thinking and research. The study begins with a consideration of six crucial, and even determining, individual experiences and contributions: those of Albert Mansbridge, R. H. Tawney, J. M. Mactavish, J. P. M. Millar, G. D. H. Cole and Raymond Williams. This is followed by detailed surveys of three particular areas of work - Residential Adult Education, Literature as a W. E. A. Subject, and Community Education from 1960 to 1980 - each of which illustrates how a basic tension between political commitment and academic neutrality permeates all aspects of thinking and practice in the adult education movement. The final chapter draws together the threads from the survey of particular lives, histories and thematic studies to address theoretical questions about the concepts of liberal education and academic neutrality; - about Marxist and other attitudes towards objectivity and dogmatism; about the nature of the relationship between the Labour movement and the adult education movement. The tensions are shown to be deep, enduring and seemingly irreconcilable but changes of emphasis and intensity are apparent as the general history and the wider forces and movements in society determine the ideological parameters and the 'paradigm shifts' within which, or against which, the W. E. A. operates. On the strength of eighty four years' experience, if the W. E. A. celebrates its one hundredth birthday in 2003, it will (and should) do so embodying similar fundamental tensions.

Environmental and social policy measures can both complement and contradict each other. Recent environmental sociology literature suggests that this dual relationship can give rise to eco-social divides in European societies, as some people either endorse or reject both types of measures, while some support one set of policies but not the other. In the current paper, we use data from the British Social Attitudes survey to investigate eco-social divides in Great Britain. The results confirm the presence of four sizeable attitudinal groups with distinct combinations of welfare and environmental preferences. The sizes of the groups have nevertheless changed considerably over time, with people who are simultaneously in favour of welfare and environmental measures becoming more numerous, and the opponents of both measures becoming fewer. Cultural conservatism/progressiveness, age and political party allegiance are key predictors of eco-social attitudinal group membership.

The path planning is one of the critical technologies for robots to achieve the autonomous operation, enabling to quickly find a safe path in dynamic environments. However, relying on global path planning alone cannot avoid dynamic obstacles, while only using the local path planning may lead to falling into local minima. Therefore, a two-layer robot path planning method suitable for dynamic environments is proposed. This two-layer strategy consists of an efficient global path planning layer and a safe local dynamic obstacle avoidance layer. In the first layer, a parallel sampling and bidirectional guidance rapidly exploring random tree algorithm (PB-RRT) is proposed to search for the global path. To enhance efficiency, the parallel heuristic sampling is introduced to replace the random sampling in bidirectional rapidly exploring random tree (Bi-RRT), and an evaluation function incorporating distance and corner factors is designed to select optimal sampling nodes for adaptive expansion, making the sampling process directional and avoiding over-exploration of space. A bidirectional guidance mechanism further accelerates the merging of the two trees by fully utilizing newly generated node information. Then, a path optimization (PO) method is proposed to improve the length and smoothness of the initial path and obtain the key nodes of the path. In the second layer, the key nodes obtained from the first layer are used as dynamic subtargets, and the safe dynamic window approach (SDWA) is used to achieve the dynamic obstacle avoidance. To further enhance safety, an offset guidance method is proposed to flexibly steer the robot around dynamic obstacles. Extensive experiments show that the average planning time of PB-rapidly exploring random tree (RRT) is reduced by 67.7% compared with Bi-RRT, while the path quality is improved and the path length is reduced by 27.1%. The proposed method also effectively avoids dynamic obstacles in environments with obstacle densities exceeding 60% and achieves the maximum of minimum distance to dynamic obstacles, validating the feasibility and safety of the method.

In this chapter, I make two claims; one general and one specific. First, I argue that the rise in socio-legal methods (in all their variety) brings important insights for international lawyers and their practice. The rise of non-doctrinal approaches may lead international lawyers to be more circumspect about their universalist and often sweeping normative solutions. It also brings much needed reflection into the profession of international law, which generally views itself as cosmopolitan and universalist, and as promoting seemingly incontestable virtues such as peace and justice. Second, I argue that ethnographic research inspired by social anthropology may bring important insights particularly in the contested and controversial fields of international law such as international investment law (IIL). Ethnographic research asks how IIL influences and impacts on the lived experiences of affected actors. Such research requires assessing international investment agreements (IIAs) in a context of a particular state or community. This type of research requires looking at how IIL influences and impacts on government practices, policies and discourses. It must take into account the structure and power dynamics of the government and public administration; it requires assessing the awareness of important government and non-government actors; it should assess the political narratives associated with the foreign investment and its regulation in the country; last but not least, it should assess the media, public debate, and civil society mobilisation on the issue. Drawing on a comparative large-scale research project, the chapter argues that a method particularly apt to answer such questions is the extended case method – which includes participant observation, interviews, discourse and content analysis of official documents and media, and archival work. Ethnographic research may help us understand what actors these treaties empower and constrain, and how they are used in political contestation and national governance writ large. As it brings into light discrepancies between normative prescriptions and actual practices, such research enhances our understanding of what international investment law induces beyond its immediate and obvious legal effects.

Como parte de un análisis sobre la crianza que practican las familias desplazadas y destechadas del asentamiento Altos de Oriente II, se pretende ofrecer una visión de cómo una investigación con orientación etnográfica, desde una perspectiva hermenéutica crítica, se incorpora a la Investigación Acción a partir de la salud pública alternativa. Se planteó de esta manera para comprender los significados de la crianza emergentes en los círculos de cultura –escenarios para la observación participante–. Junto a la Investigación Acción con un objetivo educativo, se describió lo que pasa con la crianza de las mujeres, en una reflexión transformadora que posibilitó la identificación de temas generadores y la orientación de la praxis en educación para la salud. El enfoque metodológico a través del diálogo construyó un puente interpretativo crítico con los procesos educativos de la Investigación Acción, como parte del compromiso ético y político para avanzar en la resolución de situaciones concretas de la comunidad.

A multi-algorithm fusion path planning algorithm for patrol robots was proposed, In order to improve the robot's path planning ability, optimize the search efficiency, improve the robot's path smoothness and improve the control accuracy. The A* algorithm is optimized through the search field and heuristic function to optimize the node search, avoid the expansion of redundant nodes and improve the search efficiency of the algorithm while ensuring the optimal global path. The improved A* algorithm still has node redundancy, excessive path transition and other phenomena. Floyd algorithm is used to introduce improved A* key nodes to optimize the improved A* algorithm again, eliminate redundant nodes, smooth the global path, and dynamically increase the number of key nodes for long-distance key nodes to effectively prevent path deviation. In view of the shortcomings of the improved A* algorithm in dynamic obstacle planning, the improved DWA algorithm is integrated to achieve local path planning, and the integrated path planning algorithm has local dynamic and unknown environment obstacle avoidance ability. Experiments show that the proposed fusion algorithm has the ability of global path planning and local path planning, which verifies the feasibility and effectiveness of the fusion algorithm.