Morris Brown College

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate how landscape infrastructures and architectural tools can serve as intermediaries in reimagining olive grove farmsteads in the face of climate change. It examines how diversification through intercropping with Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (MAPs) facilitates new kinds of collaboration between smallholders, large landowners and agri-business stakeholders, with a focus on two estates in Laconia, Greece. Design is positioned as a catalyst for socio-ecological regeneration and adaptive transformation in Mediterranean rural landscapes by illustrating how “common enabling infrastructures” promote collective resourcefulness, ecological resilience and more-than-human relations through a research through design (RtD) methodology. Design/methodology/approach In order to investigate the spatial, ecological and social interdependencies within the diversification of olive groves in Laconia, Greece, the study employs a RtD methodology. Participatory mapping, diagrammatic representation and unstructured interviews with farmers, agribusiness stakeholders and local communities were all incorporated into the fieldwork. The study visualized intercropping and shared infrastructure scenarios through iterative “by-design” processes, which allowed actors to negotiate and revealed latent ecological and spatial potentials. The design tools – prototypes, maps and composite diagrams – acted as intermediaries, converting ecological, social and technical knowledge into workable frameworks for collaborative, climate-adaptive infrastructures in rural areas. Findings By visualizing shared infrastructures and more-than-human relations in olive grove diversification, the study shows how design can mediate local–global interdependencies within the framework of planetary ruralities. Intercropping with MAPs promotes ecological regeneration and allows for new partnerships between smallholders, large estates and agribusiness actors, according to field-based “by-design” procedures. The suggested common enabling infrastructures, like hybrid solar drying sheds, represent low-impact, collaborative ways to connect community agency and climate adaptation. These results demonstrate how architectural representation functions as a global instrument for navigating rural change and promoting robust, interdependent bioregional economies. Research limitations/implications The study captures context-specific socio-ecological dynamics that may vary among Mediterranean regions. Although transferable spatial principles were identified by the RtD approach, longer-term studies and comparative applications in various rural settings are necessary for wider validation. However, the results have important ramifications for reconsidering rural infrastructures as dynamic, community-focused systems. Within the larger context of planetary ruralities, they propose that design methodologies can help close the gaps between ecology, policy and practice, facilitating the shift to community-led, regenerative and climate-adaptive rural economies. Practical implications The study provides practical methods for incorporating design thinking into agribusiness innovation and rural revitalization. It offers a transferable model for encouraging collaboration between farmers, landowners and industry stakeholders by presenting infrastructures as shared, adaptable systems. The proposed common enabling infrastructures – such as hybrid solar drying sheds and intercropping layouts – demonstrate how low-cost, participatory design can enhance biodiversity, circularity and social equity. In the context of Mediterranean and global rural transitions, these strategies can help shape bioregional planning frameworks, European Union (EU) agri-environmental programs and rural development policies. They can also help create multipurpose landscapes that combine community empowerment and ecological resilience. Social implications The study emphasizes how, in rural communities dealing with economic and climate change, design can foster new kinds of social cooperation and collective agency. It encourages communication and mutual reliance between smallholders, migrant laborers and large landowners by illustrating shared infrastructures and intercropping systems. By encouraging fair access to resources and the sharing of knowledge, these cooperative frameworks upend established land ownership hierarchies. In the larger framework of planetary ruralities, the method helps to rethink rurality as a networked, relational field where human and non-human actors jointly generate resilience, solidarity and socio-ecological regeneration. Originality/value This study presents a new point of convergence between the developing concept of planetary ruralities, common enabling infrastructures and RtD. It illustrates how architectural representation can function as a negotiating tool, converting rural infrastructures from immobile structures into dynamic, collaborative and environmentally conscious systems. The study provides fresh perspectives on how design mediates interactions between people, non-humans and territorial processes by concentrating on the diversification of olive groves in Laconia, Greece. Redefining farmstead infrastructures as drivers of commoning, regeneration and multi-scalar connectivity across social, ecological and spatial domains is what makes it original within contemporary discourse.

Beginning in 2010, Rhode Island's affordability standards capped hospital price growth for the fully insured commercial segment of the state's health insurance market. The long-term impact of the standards on hospital prices and insurance markets is unknown. We used a series of national data sources from the period 2006-22 to compare hospital prices and margins and insurer premiums and fees in Rhode Island and comparison states before and after the initiation of the standards in 2010. Our study found that the standards were associated with large relative reductions in hospital prices, averaging 9percent over the course of the study period. Reductions were similar for both the fully insured and the self-insured segments. Hospital price reductions translated into substantial reductions in fully insured premiums relative to comparison states, reaching $1,000 per member by 2022. Yet the standards had a modest impact on overall commercial premiums in Rhode Island, likely because of premium increases in the self-insured segment that were not subject to the standards. Further, the standards reduced commercial revenue for Rhode Island hospitals by nearly $160million annually, which exceeded premium reductions. Together, the affordability standards have benefited employers and members with fully insured plans at the expense of hospitals.

Guided by a theoretical framework underpinned by Critical Multicultural Education (Banks, 2019), this study aimed to understand university faculty members’ attitudes toward the presentation of Caribbean and Louisiana-themed content in French and Spanish textbooks and their associated teaching practices. A Likert-Scale survey was employed, and it was discovered that faculty members felt textbook content about the Caribbean was more or less accurate, but content about Louisiana was inaccurate. Likewise, they had to adjust their teaching practices to be more intentional about how these areas are presented in their teaching and represented in novice and intermediate French and Spanish courses. The findings of this study help to inform curriculum design in higher education World Language courses and assist in curriculum development efforts that align with frameworks that center on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion as the core of course design.

The economic context (i.e. an enriched vs impoverished environment) affects many drug-induced phenomena. The present study examined whether the 'experienced' economic context of operant responding was associated with the degree of tolerance to the behavioral effects of amphetamine. Eight rats lever pressed for food reinforcement under a multiple schedule consisting of several variable-interval schedules (8, 17, 55, 150, and 250 s). Amphetamine was first administered acutely (0.2, 0.8, 1.6, and 3.2 mg/kg), then chronically (dose tailored for each subject) over 30 consecutive sessions. Baseline saline injections were also administered during the acute regimen. Herrnstein's single-alternative matching equation described the rats' response rate data well under all conditions. A parameter in Herrnstein's equation (re), which has been shown to vary with experimentally-arranged contextual reinforcement, was used as the index of the experienced economic context for each subject under baseline conditions. Differences in the value of re predicted individual differences in the degree of tolerance. Under most variable-interval (VI) schedules, and when all schedules were aggregated, less tolerance accrued if the baseline context was experienced as enriched, and more tolerance accrued if the baseline context was experienced as impoverished. In terms of the reinforcement loss hypothesis, the results suggest that tolerance was not determined by reinforcement loss per se, but by how much the animal lost relative to the economic context in which the operant task was embedded.

The FEDIX Annual Status Report provides details regarding an on-line information project designed, developed and implemented by Federal Information Exchange, Inc., a diversified information services company. This document details the project design activities, summarizes the developmental phases of the project and describes the implementation activities generated to fulfill the project`s objectives. The information contained in this document illustrates FIE`s continuing commitment to serve as the link that facilitates the dissemination of federal information to the education community. This report reviews the project accomplishments and describes intended service enhancements.

Abstract Some 1-N (3-fluoroadamantyl) ureas have been synthesized in good to excellent yields from 1-N- (3-fluoroadamantyl) isocyanate. The 3-fluoroadamantyl isocyanate has been prepared via the reaction of 1-N-(3-fluoroadamantyl) carboxamide with lead tetraacetate in N, N-dimethylformamide.