The lettuce monster : a history of state violence, carceral geography and industrial agriculture in the Salinas Valley

This dissertation is a descriptive account of state violence in the Salinas Valley, a rural agricultural area on California’s Central Coast, from the 1930s to the 2010s. Chapter 1 recounts the 1934 Filipino lettuce strike and the 1936 Dust Bowl migrant strike to track how valley law enforcement departments expanded in man- and fire-power, and instituted surveillance tactics that were advanced for their time. It also examines how agribusiness leaders funded and directed strike suppression activities, and facilitated law enforcement’s acquisition of tear gas and long-range guns. These events contributed to making Salinas Valley law enforcement one of the most armed and organized forces in the nation by the end of the 1930s. Chapter 2 highlights valley law enforcement’s partnerships with federal and military agencies during World War II, as well as agribusiness’s use of Bracero and Prisoner of War labor. This chapter argues that the Salinas Valley developed a carceral geography that enabled high levels of agricultural production during the war. Chapter 3 follows the transformation of the carceral geography to include field and factory worksites, as undocumented immigrants were housed in labor camps resembling prison camps and were surveilled by growers’ private security guards, regional Border Patrol agents, and United Farm Workers strikers. Undocumented immigrants constituted a marginalized workforce that was exploited and faced dangerous work and living conditions into the 1980s. Formerly incarcerated people also form part of this workforce, and are subject to hyper-surveillance inside agricultural packing factories, and in public spaces subject to city ordinances and state probation laws. Chapter 4 examines Salinas Valley law enforcement’s increased militarization post-9/11, which was facilitated by the expansion of the Department of Defense’s 1033 Program and state and federal funding. A culture of impunity in the valley enabled law enforcement to engage in a series of unethical policing practices and financial scams, ultimately escalating to a spate of police shootings from 2014 to 2019. This dissertation ends considering how current pandemic-related measures affect policing and surveillance in the valley.American Studie

A comparative analysis of cost and schedule performance in public and private construction projects

This research investigates the cost and schedule performance differences between construction projects from public and private organizations, emphasizing the significance of effective management for successful project execution. Utilizing data from the Construction Industry Institute (CII), the study analyzes 481 projects from both sectors through statistical methods and benchmarking techniques. The analysis did not find statistically significant differences in the overall cost and schedule performance between public and private projects in the dataset, with an average cost factor of 0.99 for both and average schedule factors of 1.08 for public projects and 1.06 for private projects. However, a few specific subsets of projects did show statistically significant differences. For instance, projects with budgets over 100 million dollars and modernization projects with budgets under 50 million dollars demonstrated that private projects outperformed public projects, showing better performance and greater consistency in term of cost performance. Thus, the study's findings indicate that while both public and private sectors generally manage costs effectively, schedule management poses a more significant challenge across the board. Public projects, in particular, show higher variability in scheduling, often leading to delays.Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineerin

“My friends taught me”: Peer networks of South Asian American emerging adults and adolescent-directed racial ethnic socializa?on

This study inves?gates how friendship diversity, bicultural iden?ty integra?on, and cri?cal consciousness predict adolescent-directed racial-ethnic socializa?on (ADRES) among second-genera?on South Asian American emerging adults. Using survey data from 190 South Asian American emerging adults, the study examines the frequency with which par?cipants ini?ate conversa?ons with their parents about cultural pluralism, awareness of discrimina?on, and avoidance of outgroups. Results indicate that greater racial- ethnic diversity in par?cipants’ peer networks is associated with more frequent ADRES messaging about cultural pluralism and awareness of discrimina?on. Higher bicultural conflict and compartmentaliza?on predict more frequent avoidance of outgroups messaging, while greater cri?cal mo?va?on is linked to less avoidance of outgroups messaging. Gender differences emerged, with female par?cipants more frequently engaging in cultural pluralism and awareness of discrimina?on messaging. These findings highlight the ac?ve role that South Asian American youth may take in socializing their parents about U.S.- related racial and cultural dynamics.Psycholog

A Scoping Review of Interventions to Help Practicing Physicians Address Nutrition in Ambulatory Care

The importance of effective nutrition counseling is underscored by the increasing prevalence of obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases, which collectively affect millions of individuals globally and contribute to significant healthcare costs. Despite physicians’ unique positioning to integrate dietary guidance into patient care, barriers such as insufficient training, time constraints, and inadequate resources often hinder their ability to provide effective counseling. This thesis explores interventions designed to enhance practicing physicians’ capacity for nutrition counseling in ambulatory care settings. Through a scoping review of 46 studies, four main intervention modalities were identified: workshops, screening tools, practice-based tools (including clinic reminders, clinical support tools, and patient handouts), and multimodal strategies. These interventions demonstrated varied improvements in physicians’ knowledge, confidence, and counseling practices while positively influencing patient outcomes such as weight loss and improved biomarkers. However, challenges such as implementation barriers and limited long-term sustainability were noted. The findings emphasize the importance of integrating multimodal approaches tailored to clinical workflows to maximize impact. This review also highlights critical gaps in longitudinal research and scalability assessments, underscoring the need for future studies to focus on sustainable solutions that address systemic barriers for providers and patients in nutrition care delivery.Polymathic Scholar

Physical activity participation, physical fitness, psychosocial characteristics and academic achievement among adolescents

In this dissertation we will examine the effects of physical activity (PA) and physical fitness (PF) on academic achievement (AA), mediated by the psychosocial constructs of grit, self-efficacy (SE) and modality of physical education (PE). Given the known relationship between PF and AA (Castelli, Hillman, Buck & Erwin, 2007) the purpose of study one was to determine how psychosocial characteristics of grit and SE contribute to this relationship. Students completed the Perceptions of Barriers to PA (Motl, 2000) and the Short Grit Scale (Duckworth, Peterson & Mathews, 2007) at the beginning and end of the school year. PF was measured using the FitnessGram® test (Cooper Institute; Dallas, TX.). Results revealed students with higher grit (r [subscript s] = 0.21, P < 0.001) and had less school absences (r [subscript s] = -0.35, P < 0.001) performed better on AA (β = 0.13, P < 0.01and β = -0.35, P < 0.001, respectively). Despite PA’s connection to optimized cognitive functioning, the results among adolescents have been equivocal based on PA sampling technique (Tremblay, Inman, & Williams, 2000; Donnelly et al., 2016). The purpose of study two was to determine if objectively measured PA is related to AA in a low SES school setting and whether the psychosocial characteristics of grit and SE mediate this relationship. Student PA was sampled across four ten-hour periods. Results revealed that PF accounted for 5.8% of the variance in AA suggesting a non-significant relationship among the sample population. In study three a PE alternative (APE) was compared to traditional PE (TPE) examining if modality moderates the relationship of PF, AA, and grit. APE was a running club offered at low SES schools in the district as an option to TPE. Study methods were similar to previous studies, with the added independent variable of PE modality (traditional or APE). Results of MANOVA revealed despite the two populations similarity at onset for PF and grit. There was a 6.5% variance in AA that was accounted for by modality to the benefit of the APE (Pillais’ Trace = .065, F (14,700), p <.01 with η² = .065).Curriculum and Instructio

“The City Residents Do Not Get Involved”: Understanding Barriers to Community Participation in a Small Texas Boomtown

Background: Professional communication researchers have engaged communities through community research and interventions, such as town halls, charettes, and participatory design work. Such interventions rely on community members who are willing to get involved, voicing their perspectives, and engaging in productive dialogue. Yet, some communities do not have these precursor conditions for intervention: they face significant social barriers that make such interventions unlikely to succeed. In an interview- and document-based study, we examine the social barriers described by interviewees in “Permia,” a small town in the Texas Permian Basin region. In contrast to the five other communities we studied, Permia participants demonstrate little readiness to engage in community dialogue. We explore how Permia interviewees made sense of unwillingness to participate in its public life, how their understandings contrasted with the other communities we investigated, and how this research might guide professional communicators as they plan future community-based interventions. Literature review: We review the professional communication research on community interventions as well as relevant sociological literature on boomtowns. Research questions: 1. How do community leaders understand their community heritage as constraining or enabling development? 2. Where do community leaders and members see potential for change and growth in community development? Where do they see barriers, threats, and hard choices? 3. How do community leaders describe the relations among community development stakeholders? How do they describe expectations and trust among them on interpersonal, intergroup, and interorganizational levels? Research methodology: We collected documents and statistics about six small Texas towns, then interviewed community leaders about the towns’ advantages and challenges. Based on those interviews, we collected further documents. We analyzed the data using deductive and inductive coding, as well as narrative analysis. Results/discussion: Through coding, we determined that interviewees saw Permia’s residents as unwilling to engage in deliberations in traditional forums such as city council meetings, and that their explanations for this unwillingness fell into three categories of barriers: distrust of institutions, dwindling personal ties, and lack of moral expectations for residents to engage in community dialogue. These three categories contrast with the other communities we studied. Through narrative analysis, we identify stories that were told by the interviewees to explain how these barriers developed in Permia. Conclusion: We conclude by discussing how professional communicators might survey barriers to community dialogue. Such surveys can help professional communicators choose a pathway for intervention in their community projects.IC2 Institut

Switch-mode active EMI filtering

Power converters often require EMI filtering which usually involves bulky passive components. Active EMI filters (AEF) can reduce size but incur heavy losses in their linear amplifiers when designed to filter large ripple currents. This work proposes two different approaches for active EMI filters with a switch-mode amplifier to achieve reduced size and low loss penalty: a high-frequency AEF and a synchronous AEF. The high frequency AEF features a switching amplifier operating at 31 MHz to keep its own EMI out of the regulated EMI range. A fractional-order filtering technique is used to design the feedback compensation loop, achieving a high loop gain and thus high current attenuation of 30 dB from the active circuit at the dc-dc boost fundamental frequency of 150 kHz, while consuming only 1W for an output power of 120 W. The proposed high frequency AEF is compared to a passive LC filter for the same application and is shown to have a volume that is eight times smaller than that of the size-optimized LC filter. The proposed synchronous AEF, in contrast to the high-frequency AEF and other typical AEF circuits, does not use feedback, thereby avoiding the bandwidth and attenuation limitations associated with feedback stability. This AEF also has very low energy storage requirements compared to passive EMI filters and achieves very high efficiency compared to typical AEF circuits with linear amplifiers. Furthermore, it can simplify circuitry by directly utilizing the same gate signals as the main power converter. Additionally, the AEF does not interfere with the closed-loop controller of the main converter, a common challenge in the design of passive EMI filters or feedback-based AEFs. We demonstrated the proposed synchronous AEF through simulations and hardware prototypes for both a boost power factor correction (PFC) and a dc-dc boost converter, operating at different current control modes and switching frequencies. The AEFs achieved high differential-mode current attenuation from 20 dB to 65 dB at different harmonic frequencies and provided significant common-mode current attenuation of over 29 dB by injecting a common-mode current that largely cancels the common-mode current generated by the boost PFC. Additionally, the volumes of the synchronous AEFs are significantly smaller than those of conventional passive LC filters — approximately 1/16 to 1/32 of the size-optimized LC filter. They also have very low power consumption, with a maximum efficiency penalty of less than < 0.7% when filtering high current ripple ratios of up to R = 100% from the boost PFC, in contrast to AEFs based on linear amplifiers. Both AEF proposals present very promising approach to (mostly) replace the conventional LC filter and linear-mode AEFs for smaller volume and high efficiency. At the end of this work, we present the design and implementation of two ultra-fast isolated gate drivers with 2-8 ns propagation delays, one of which will be used to design the gate driver of the high-frequency AEF. This will help improve the compensator bandwidth of the high-frequency AEF, which is limited by propagation delays primarily caused by the bootstrap gate driver and the comparator in the previous design.Electrical and Computer Engineerin

Methods for matrix completion

In this paper, we are going to provide major results for two sorts of Matrix Completion problems. One involves the recovery of a low rank matrix and the other involves the recovery of an approximately low rank matrix based on a small number of observed entries. In the end of the paper, we are going to demonstrate the feasibility of the recovery methods discussed on randomly generated low rank and approximately low rank matrices.Computer Scienc

Development of a new laser doppler vibrometer-based non-contact damage detection system for cracks in rail head

Rail defects are one of the dominant causes of train derailments and an essential factor affecting transportation safety. Among the rail defects, transverse defects (TDs), which are cracks located transversely in rail heads, are one of the main causes of derailments. When TDs are left undetected, their size expands, leading to rail breaks. Therefore, the railway transportation community is interested in the detection of such defects at speeds that do not obstruct the routine railroad operation. The goal of this research is to develop a novel LDV-based noncontact damage detection system for TDs. The tasks performed herein to achieve this goal (i.e., the objective of the study) were: (i) extensive literature review and in-situ testing to understand the vibrations resulting from the propagating waves in rail, (ii) numerical modeling of the damage detection system, (iii) rigorous laboratory and in-situ testing to understand the noise in LDV measurements as well as to evaluate the performance of the damage detection system, and (iv) analytical work to develop filters to minimize the noise in the LDV measurements. Accordingly, the configuration of the developed damage detection consists of two LDVs attached vertically in front of a rail car to measure guided waves in the rail head, which are induced by rail-wheel interaction. This system uses the LDV measurements to detect a change in the relative amplitudes of the recorded waves caused by a defect in the frequency range between 30 kHz to 100 kHz. The lower cut-off frequency was selected conservatively since it was shown in the literature that guided waves start to localize in the rail head after approximately 15 kHz. The higher cut-off frequency was selected since (i) the guided waves below 100 kHz can be used for transverse defect detection (as the frequency exceeds 100 kHz, waves are susceptible to surface defects), and (ii) the measurements collected from rail during the passage of operating trains showed that the power of the excitations induced by wheel-rail interactions is dominant up to approximately 100 kHz. The main challenge during the development of the system was speckle noise, which is inevitable due to the inherent nature of the measurements performed by LDVs placed on a moving platform. Consequently, the damage detection framework associated with the system operates as follows: 1) in the pre-processing stage, time-varying mean and impulsive noise in the recorded LDV signals are filtered and then the changes in the LDV signals in the frequency range of interest are quantified and monitored using moving standard deviation, 2) in the post-processing stage, two damage features, which are based on the relative change in the moving standard deviations and transfer functions between two measurement points are combined using multivariate statistical analysis to create a damage index that shows the location of rail segments which are affected by a defect. The goal of impulsive noise filtering and transfer functions in the framework is to minimize the speckle noise. The field tests demonstrated that rail segments consisting of a defect can be identified by the developed system.Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineerin

Under the aegis of the Archangel : fascism and divine kingship in interwar Romania

This report aims to take a decisive first step towards an analysis of fascism as a resuscitated form of that archaic political figuration known to religious studies scholars as divine kingship. I take this aspirational first step through a case study of The Legion of the Archangel Michael and Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, Romania’s interwar fascist movement and its founder. The report first situates itself within the ‘new consensus’ of fascist studies as represented by the theories of Roger Griffin and Emilio Gentile before delving into a history of the Legion of the Archangel Michael and C.Z. Codreanu. With this historical data in hand, I turn to an exegesis and application of some key theories on divine kingship from Ernst Kantorowicz’s The King’s Two Bodies (1957) and David Graeber & Marshall Sahlins’ On Kings (2017) to the Legion. What emerges is a distinct vision of the necessarily modern political phenomenon of fascism as in fact a kind of reboot of divine kingship for an era of mass, electoral politics.Religious Studie