University of Edinburgh

This course addresses the central problems facing us in the 21st century, which concern access to water, food, energy, shelter, as well as justice, in the context of a destabilizing climate and degradation of environmental resources. The course debates principles, concepts, contexts, issues and applications of sustainable development from the perspective of different disciplines, and helps students situate themselves in these debates as well as reflect on their own stance.

The course introduces methods, topics, and historiography of modern environmental history. Students approach the history of the modern world by focusing on material, ecological, and global histories. Through exploring 9 "things," (mosquitos, cement, wheat, cattle, cod, guano, barbed wire, uranium, computers) students discuss the complex interactions between communities and commodities that frequently shape global connections, remaking both space and time. These "mini-biographies" of different plants, animals and minerals, allow students to consider how humans have relied on nature to construct the economies and infrastructures of the modern era.

Databases encompass many areas of computer science, from formal logic to programming languages, from operating systems to algorithms and data structures. This course covers in detail the main language for relational databases, SQL. It also cover the theoretical query languages on which SQL's core is based, namely relational algebra and relational calculus. Other important topics covered during the course include normal forms, transaction processing, concurrency control, incomplete data and rudiments of query optimization. Topics include the relational model and rudiments of SQL; query languages: relational algebra and calculus; multisets, grouping and aggregation; database design: constraints and normal forms; advanced SQL: nested queries, triggers, null values, transaction management: concurrent schedules, conflict-serializability, locking; database access from applications: using SQL in a host programming language; and basics of indexing, query evaluation and optimization.