The HI Chronicles of LITTLE THINGS BCDs: Evidence for External Perturbations in the Morphology and Kinematics of Haro 29 and Haro 36

We analyze high angular and velocity resolution HI-line data of two LITTLE THINGS (1) blue compact dwarfs (BCDs): Haro 29 and Haro 36. Both of these BCDs are disturbed morphologically and kinematically. Haro 29's HI data reveal a kinematic major axis that is offset from the optical major axis, and a disturbed outer HI component, indicating that Haro 29 may have had a past interaction. Position-velocity diagrams of Haro 36 indicate that it has two kinematically separate components at its center and a likely tidal tail in front of the galaxy. We find that Haro 36 most likely had an interaction in the past, is currently interacting with an unknown companion, or is a merger remnant. (1) "Local Irregulars That Trace Luminosity Extremes The HI Nearby Galaxy Survey" http://www2.lowell.edu/users/dah/littlethings/index.htmlComment: To be published in The Astronomical Journa

An Ethics of Amusement

Human beings often hold one another morally responsible for what we find funny or fail to find funny. Though this practice is common and so demands philosophical attention, it remains underexplored in the literature. The purpose of this project is to devote attention to this practice by developing an ethics of amusement. In chapter 2, I argue for why amusement is an emotion according to incongruity theory—the dominant theory of humor and amusement. With this in mind, I argue in chapter 3 that we are responsible for our emotions insofar as we have emotional agency. In particular, while we cannot change our emotions at will, we still exercise various forms of control over them in specific moments and over time. To the extent that we can do otherwise with respect to our immediate emotions and our long-term emotional tendencies, we are responsible for them. In chapter 4, I develop three criteria that individuals must meet for their emotions to be fitting. In some cases, an instance of fitting emotion may be praiseworthy: if it comes from a correct shift in values or from a morally good character. In some cases, an instance of an unfitting emotion may be blameworthy: if it comes from a character flaw. Based on the criteria in chapter 4 and the discussion of incongruity theory in chapter 2, I develop three criteria for fitting amusement in chapter 5. Using the same grounds for praise, I examine examples of fitting immediate amusement and show why praise is or is not merited. I also consider when failing to find something funny is fitting and praiseworthy in some cases: when offense comes from a good moral character. Finally, in chapter 6, I analyze unfitting immediate amusement and unfitting tendencies for amusement. I consider examples and who when and why blame is or is not merited. Lastly, I discuss why failing to be amused may be unfitting and blameworthy in some cases: when offense comes from a character flaw. I conclude with a brief discussion about some practical applications for the criteria I developed

Europan double ridge morphology as a test for hypothesized models of formation

Double ridges on the Jovian satellite Europa consist of two ridges with a central trough. Several hypotheses exist describing their formation. Explosive cryovolcanism would result in granular ice depositing as two self-symmetric ridges flanking a central fracture, lying at or below the angle of repose (AOR). Cryo-sediments deposited by tidal squeezing and low-viscosity cryolavas emplaced by effusive cryovolcanism would likely have shallow slopes, although ridge symmetry is not expected. A second group of hypotheses involves brittle deformation of the crust, namely by diapirism, shear heating, and buckling of the lithosphere due to compression. Because these models involve uplifting vertical fractures, they are expected to result in interior slopes steeper than the AOR, with shallower exteriors. Thus, these formation hypotheses can be grouped into two classes based on expected interior slopes: cryo-sedimentary mechanisms (cryovolcanism, tidal squeezing), and brittle deformation mechanisms (diapirism, compression, shear heating), with symmetry providing a secondary constraint. To assess the viability of these formation mechanisms, I measured double ridge slopes at multiple locations distributed across Europa through analysis of data from the Galileo Solid-State Imaging camera. Two types of data were used to derive slopes and slope symmetry for 44 double ridges: elevation data from 5 digital elevation models (DEMs) (4 ridges), and ridge shadow length measurements taken on images (40 ridges). DEM slope values in the Cilix and Banded Plains (15°S, 195°W) regions typically fall below the AOR, although values above the AOR occur along one ridge. Interior-exterior slope symmetry is dominant, which favors cryo-sedimentary mechanisms because double ridges created from brittle deformation would maintain slope asymmetry after post-emplacement modification (e.g. mass wasting). Two different shadow measurement techniques were implemented to calculate interior slopes, with one technique accounting for a gap between ridge set interiors. These slopes are also below the AOR (42° maximum for the youngest ridges). Older ridges tend to have shallower slopes, which could possibly be attributed to mass wasting. Shallow interior slopes derived from both techniques suggest that double ridges form from cryo-sedimentary mechanisms. Symmetry of ridge interiors and exteriors may also suggest that explosive cryovolcanism is the dominant shape-forming mechanism

Perception of Infection: Behavioral and Physiological Responses to Illness-Related Social Cues

Individuals vary in how they respond to and transmit infection. Both pre- and post-infection shifts in behavior, diet, and physiology can contribute to variation in disease susceptibility and disease transmission potential. However, little is known about how social information about infection risk shapes individual-level characteristics that contribute to the spread of disease through vertebrate populations. Animals can detect and respond to sick individuals, most commonly through avoidance behaviors that reduce the risk of infection. While the social effects of infection are rarely explored outside the context of avoidance behaviors, social information about disease could have prominent effects on reproductive and social behaviors, as organisms must weigh the benefit of engaging in social interactions with the risk of becoming sick. Work in humans and insects suggests that organisms are also capable of mounting immune responses to visual cues indicative of heightened infection risk, however, the effects of visual social cues on immune responses are not well understood. My dissertation work was focused on understanding the strategies that social vertebrates use to respond to and prepare for infection by investigating how infection and visual cues of disease alter behavioral, nutritional, and physiological responses relevant to disease susceptibility and transmission in songbirds. Birds make an excellent model for addressing questions about visual cues of disease because they are social animals that rely primarily on vision for detecting immune threats and carry diseases relevant to wildlife, domestic animal, and human health. The work in this dissertation emphasizes that social context and social cues indicative of heightened infection risk can influence behavioral and physiological responses relevant to disease susceptibility and transmission. In addition, my work indicates that birds have diverse, and likely integrative, behavioral, physiological, and nutritional strategies to respond to and prevent infection

The experiences of clinical social workers in diagnosing bipolar disorder in children and adolescents

Bipolar disorder (BD) is a diagnosis that an increasing number of individuals under the age of 18 are being given, despite the fact that the DSM-IV has no description or criteria of what BD in this age group looks like. The purpose of this exploratory study was to look at the experiences of clinical social workers who have diagnosed BD in children and adolescents. To do so, eleven social workers who have a Master\u27s of Social Work were interviewed using a standardized open-ended interview guide. The major findings of this study follow. Participants reported having diagnosed significantly more adolescents with BD than children. Participants looked for a wide range of different symptoms when making this diagnosis, such as: changes in sleep, changes in mood, agitation and irritability, risky behavior, and other symptoms of mania and depression. Participants found the following things helpful in making this diagnosis: collaborating with other providers and family members, observing the youth\u27s behavior, and longitudinal information about the youth. Participants reported struggling with the following things while making this diagnosis: fear of labeling, access to services, and differentiating BD from other disorders. Most participants reported that after the diagnosis was made, it did have some positive influence on their understanding of and ability to appropriately treat these children and adolescents

Evaluation of Tablet Chlorinator for a Rural Haitian Water Treatment System—Computational Modeling and Laboratory Testing

In today’s world, 844 million people lack a basic water service and 2.1 billion lack accessible, readily available, and clean water on the premises of their home (UN-Water, 2018). Data show that rural areas of developing countries like Haiti are far behind the rest of the world when it comes to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) infrastructure (Joint Monitoring Progamme (JMP), 2017a). Treating water in this context comes with many challenges; however, chlorination using calcium hypochlorite tablets proves to be a suitable solution as tablets are effective, inexpensive, and simple to use. Calcium hypochlorite systems have been in service for several years with increasing degrees of success in the municipal water treatment system in the rural village of Cange, Haiti. Since the installation of the newest chlorinator, free chlorine residuals at the water system fountains have met at least the minimum desired level (0.5 mg/L) 69% of the time. This is an increase from only 27% with previous chlorinators but still leaves room for improvement. One theory for why residual chlorine levels fluctuated in the system is that the chlorinator could be producing variable concentrations as the tablets dissolve. The objective of this work is to characterize the relationship between chlorine tablet dissolution and the hydrodynamics of the chlorinator currently installed in the Cange water system. The effects of flow rate, number of chlorine tablets, and the inlet/outlet location on the chlorinator body were examined with both computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling and experiments. Initial CFD models indicated that the inlet and outlet location played a role in the variation of the chlorinator’s effluent concentration and helped to design experiments that would further investigate this relationship. The effects of varying flow rate and varying number of tablets were also explored. Experiments revealed that there was an elevated chlorine level at the beginning, but usually after about half an hour the concentrations stabilized and remained relatively constant through the end of each seven-hour test. This was true regardless of inlet and outlet location, number of tablets used, or the system flow rate, though it is important to mention that the experiments did not last long enough to let the tablets dissolve below 50% of their initial mass. Data also showed that for the chlorinator setup used in Cange, higher flow rates led to lower effluent concentrations due to dilution, but the mass dissolution rate of the tablet was independent of flow rate. Experiments also show that the concentration of the effluent was proportional to the number of chlorine tablets. Different outlet locations impacted the chlorine concentration dramatically, leading to further CFD analysis to explore how flow patterns affected tablet dissolution. Models with different outlet locations supported the idea that dissolution was affected by the pattern of flow, as experimental results that showed low effluent concentrations were characterized by low flow and eddies in the portion of the chlorinator containing the tablets. The results from this work suggest that the current chlorination setup used in the Cange water system is effective at providing a constant mass flux of chlorine over time and is likely not a major reason for the variability seen in free chlorine levels at the point of delivery. The knowledge gained here will be useful in designing future upgrades for the Cange system and/or other disinfection systems for resource-constrained communities

The HI Chronicles of LITTLE THINGS BCDs II: The Origin of IC 10's HI Structure

In this paper we analyze Very Large Array (VLA) telescope and Green Bank Telescope (GBT) atomic hydrogen (HI) data for the LITTLE THINGS(1) blue compact dwarf galaxy IC 10. The VLA data allow us to study the detailed HI kinematics and morphology of IC 10 at high resolution while the GBT data allow us to search the surrounding area at high sensitivity for tenuous HI. IC 10's HI appears highly disturbed in both the VLA and GBT HI maps with a kinematically distinct northern HI extension, a kinematically distinct southern plume, and several spurs in the VLA data that do not follow the general kinematics of the main disk. We discuss three possible origins of its HI structure and kinematics in detail: a current interaction with a nearby companion, an advanced merger, and accretion of intergalactic medium. We find that IC 10 is most likely an advanced merger or a galaxy undergoing accretion. 1:Local Irregulars That Trace Luminosity Extremes, The HI Nearby Galaxy Survey; https://science.nrao.edu/science/surveys/littlethingsComment: 36 pages, 17 figures, accepted for publication in The Astronomical Journa

Decentralizing for a deeper, more supple democracy

Well-designed decentralization can deepen democracy and strengthen the state in five key ways. Decentralizing below the level of social cleavages should undermine secessionism by peeling away moderates from radical leaders. The “fragmentation of authority” critique is mistaken; decentralization transforms the state from a simpler, brittler command structure to one of multilevel complementarity more robust to local failure. Decentralizing services with low economies of scale, with devolved taxation and bail-outs prohibited, should increase accountability. Lastly, the small scale of local politics allows citizens to become political actors, promoting social learning-by-doing, strengthening political legitimacy and ‘democratic suppleness’ from the grass-roots upwards

Does decentralization strengthen or weaken the state? Authority and social learning in a supple state

We examine how decentralization affects four key aspects of state strength: (i) Authority over territory and conflict prevention, (ii) Policy autonomy and the ability to uphold the law, (iii) Responsive, accountable service provision, and (iv) Social learning. We provide specific reform paths that should lead to strengthening in each. Decentralizing below the level of social cleavages should drain secessionist pressure by peeling away moderate citizens from radical leaders. The regional specificity of elite interests is key. If regional elites have more to lose than gain from national schism, they will not invest in politicians and conflicts that promote secession. Strong accountability mechanisms and national safeguards of minority rights can align local leaders’ incentives with citizens’, so promoting power-sharing and discouraging local capture or oppression. “Fragmentation of authority” is a mistaken inference; what decentralization really does is transform politics from top-down to bottom-up, embracing many localities and their concerns. The state moves from a simpler, brittler command structure to one based on overlapping authority and complex complementarity, where government is more robust to failure in any of its parts. Well-designed reform, focusing on services with low economies of scale, with devolved taxation and bail-outs prohibited, should increase public accountability. Lastly, by allowing citizens to become political actors in their own right, the small scale of local politics should promote social learning-by-doing, so strengthening political legitimacy, state-building, and ‘democratic suppleness’ from the grass-roots upwards