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The Bahamas Advanced Study Institute & Conferences (BASIC) is a center that brings together scientists and students to exchange ideas and conduct research in physics and related fields. It offers additional learning opportunities for students and provides ideal working conditions for researchers. This document introduces BASIC and includes a selection of papers presented at the institute's events in 2022 and 2023. The events were attended by a small group of scientists who presented their research in an informal setting, encouraging active discussion and audience participation. The document invites readers to participate in future events and acknowledges the sponsors and supporters of BASIC. [Extracted from the article]

In order to address global warming, most countries in the world have established carbon neutral targets and are continuously taking action to achieve carbon neutrality. The building sector accounts for 36% of end-use energy consumption and 37% of energy-related CO2 emissions globally, so carbon mitigation in building sector is considered to be the most critical step in completing the "last mile" of global carbon neutrality. Low-carbon buildings and communities are the foundation for achieving low-carbon cities and the key transition to reach the goal of carbon neutrality. Therefore, this review aimed to: (a) provide a comprehensive review of countries' policies on low-carbon buildings and communities and a theoretical basis for improving the corresponding laws and regulations; (b) investigate low-carbon technologies related to building and community construction and operation, as well as identify the current technology gaps; (c) provide a comprehensive overview of low-carbon buildings and communities assessment systems to analyze and evaluate the economic, technical, environmental and social benefits of current building and community energy systems; and (d) identify enablers and barriers in low-carbon buildings and communities to provide direction for future research. The results of this paper can provide comprehensive insights in to further achieving low-carbon buildings and communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is increasing international interest in place-based approaches to improve early childhood development (ECD) outcomes. The available data and evidence are limited and precludes well informed policy and practice change. Developing the evidence-base for community-level effects on ECD is one way to facilitate more informed and targeted community action. This paper presents overall final findings from the Kids in Communities Study (KiCS), an Australian mixed methods investigation into community-level effects on ECD in five domains of influence–physical, social, governance, service, and sociodemographic. Twenty five local communities (suburbs) across Australia were selected based on 'diagonality type' i.e. whether they performed better (off-diagonal positive), worse (off-diagonal negative), or 'as expected' (on-diagonal) on the Australian Early Development Census (AEDC) relative to their socioeconomic profile. The approach was designed to determine replicable and modifiable factors that were separate to socioeconomic status. Between 2015–2017, stakeholder interviews (n = 146), parent and service provider focus groups (n = 51), and existing socio-economic and early childhood education and care administrative data were collected. Qualitative and quantitative data analyses were undertaken to understand differences between 14 paired disadvantaged local communities (i.e. on versus off-diagonal). Further analysis of qualitative data elicited important factors for all 25 local communities. From this, we developed a draft set of 'Foundational Community Factors' (FCFs); these are the factors that lay the foundations of a good community for young children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the role of the Ottawa Local Immigration Partnership in the Syrian refugee resettlement in Canada's national capital following the federal government's 2015–2016 resettlement plan. Based on the findings of qualitative data collection—including semi‐structured interviews with representatives from community organizations, settlement agencies, and the City of Ottawa—two main arguments are advanced. First, while the current literature tends to portray the Canadian settlement sector as a passive victim in the face of neoliberal restructuring and austerity measures, this paper offers a more nuanced perspective by reflecting on the sector's ability to exert agency by developing initiatives and devising strategies that are rooted in the local context. Second, the case of the Ottawa Local Immigration Partnership sheds light on the significance of intersectoral networks and partnerships that extend beyond the settlement sector to build a sound approach for welcoming refugees and newcomers more generally. These findings serve to demonstrate the potential of partnerships as a place‐based settlement model that is responsive to context‐specific needs and enhances local community strengths, thus providing important lessons that can inform future immigrant and refugee (re)settlement and integration in other Canadian cities and regions. Key Messages: The work of the Ottawa Local Immigration Partnership provided a foundation for local community mobilizing and organizing during Canada's Syrian Refugee Resettlement Initiative in 2015–2016.Place‐based approaches that are attentive to local context and institutional dynamics can provide more nuanced theorizations of Canada's settlement sector and its capacity to pro‐actively respond and adapt to neoliberal state restructuring and austerity agendas.Non‐profit sector partnerships rooted in local networks of support, solidarity, and trust can be used as effective place‐based strategies and creative alternatives to neoliberal state austerity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we explore the relationships that individuals have with their communities. This work was prepared as part of the ASA Data Expo '13 sponsored by the Graphics Section and the Computing Section, using data provided by the Knight Foundation Soul of the Community survey. The Knight Foundation in cooperation with Gallup surveyed 43,000 people over 3 years in 26 communities across the United States with the intention of understanding the association between community attributes and the degree of attachment people feel towards their community. These include the different facets of both urban and rural communities, the impact of quality education, and the trend in the perceived economic conditions of a community over time. The goal of our work is to facilitate understanding of why people feel attachment to their communities through the use of an interactive and web-based visualization. We will explain the development and use of web-based interactive graphics, including an overview of the R package Shiny and the JavaScript library D3, focusing on the choices made in producing the visualizations and technical aspects of how they were created. Then we describe the stories about community attachment that unfolded from our analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Changes in the system of higher professional education that are currently taking place are associated with the search and creation of psychological and pedagogical conditions for the formation of general and professional competencies that allow future specialists to realize their personal and creative potential. Therefore, the main objective of the paper was to analyze the basics of the psychological and professional personality development of future teachers-psychologists. To achieve this objective, the authors employed the analysis method, subject-activity, and personality-oriented methodological approaches. It was established that the physiological and professional development of educational psychologists, especially in the early stages, plays a decisive role in laying the foundations for the welfare of the community. It was determined that to solve psychological problems (of adults and children), practitioners require in-depth knowledge of the discipline, the application of creative skills. The becoming of a teacher-psychologist continues throughout their entire professional career. The university lays the foundation for professionally significant and personal qualities of a specialist, which subsequently ensure the professional becoming of the personality in the process of psychological and pedagogical activity. Based on the graphic data, the authors established the features of the development of the main components and their relationship in the structure of personal readiness. The presented research will contribute to the maturation of personal readiness for the professional activities of future teachers-psychologists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Integrated energy system (IES) is characterized by high self-consumption ratio of on-site generated renewable energy, high efficiency of conventional energy utilization and possesses a significant flexibility in its operation. This overall, constitute to the foundation of low-carbon communities. Considering economic and environmental benefits, this paper proposes a two-layer co-optimization model with the upper layer optimizing the IES configuration and the lower layer optimizing IES operation. A community in Beijing is introduced as a case study to analyze the benefits of IES and compared with the conventional energy system. Multiple scenarios are researched, including (a) IES for low-carbon communities with PV roof area limitation, (b) IES for each of the four building types with PV roof area limitation, (c) IES for low-carbon communities without PV roof area limitation. The results indicate that the optimized IES for community can reduce the cost by 25% and CO 2 emissions by 32% per year by considering the limitation of roof area for the PV system. Without this constraint, the costs and emissions could be reduced by 20% and 62%, respectively. In addition, IES is more appropriate for office and commercial buildings since their load characteristics allow for load shifting and community-level IES costs and emissions are 8% and 10% lower than building-level due to the complementary of community load. This study provides suggestions for the IES planning and application in low-carbon community. [Display omitted] • An IES with multiple renewable energy and energy storage subsystems is proposed. • A two-layer co-optimization model of IES design and operation is developed. • IES optimization results for building-level and community-level are compared. • Impact of roof area limitation for PV on IES optimization results is investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the United Kingdom, there has been a resurgence of interest in philanthropy amongst the media, policymakers, and scholars alike. In this context, the analysis of new and innovative forms of philanthropy is paramount. This paper focuses on an innovation in the philanthropic form: the community foundation. The success of community foundations in the United States provided the impetus for the establishment of community foundations in the UK in the 1980s. This paper examines how the community foundation form has been adapted to the UK and the factors which have influenced the development and roles of British community foundations. It is argued that this study is both timely and important for three reasons. First, the analysis of new structures through which people give furthers our understanding of Britain’s culture of giving. Second, the paper examines the role of community-based philanthropy in the civil renewal of Britain’s communities. Finally, the study makes an important contribution to efforts to promote the community foundation form worldwide as it highlights the challenges of transferring philanthropic forms from one context to another. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

St. Francis was hostile to money and material wealth. He was also against exploitation or misuse of natural creatures and promoted voluntary poverty, sharing, and universal brotherhood. This paper examines the implications of St. Francis's views for economics. It is argued that St. Francis's views imply the substantive notion of the term "economic" and favor material sufficiency instead of financial efficiency. Pope Francis's encyclical letter "Laudato si'" is consistent with and supports St. Francis's views, which emphasize the frugality of consumption and acknowledging the intrinsic value of nature. The overall vision of St. Francis can be characterized as "The Commonwealth of Life" based on a God-centered, spiritual way of living and acting. The paper suggests that the models of a sufficiency-oriented community economy are relevant for realizing St. Francis's legacy in today's reality of climate change described by climate scientists as the "Hothouse Earth" pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this article is to evaluate the main drivers of the sharing economy through an exhaustive weighting and meta-analysis of previous relevant quantitative research articles, obtained using a systematic literature review methodology. The authors analysed 22 quantitative studies from 2008 through. Out of the 249 extracted relationships (independent – dependent variable), the paper identifies the "best" predictors used in theoretical models to study the sharing economy. These include: attitude on intention to share, perceived behavioural control on intention to share, subjective norm on intention to share, economic benefit on attitude, and perceived risk on attitude. Geographically, Germany and the United States of America were found to be the nations with the highest number of respondents. Temporally, an increasing trend in the number of articles on the sharing economy and respondents was observed. The consolidation of the drivers of the sharing economy provides a solid theoretical foundation for the research community to explore existing hypotheses further and test new hypotheses in emerging contexts of the sharing economy. Given the different conceptual theories that have been used to study the sharing economy and their application to different contexts, this study presents the first attempt at advancing knowledge by quantitatively synthesizing findings presented in previous literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]