New Jobs — Cleaner Air: Employment Effects Under Planned Changes to the EPA’s Air Pollution Rules

In this study commissioned by Ceres, James Heintz, Heidi Garrett-Peltier, and Ben Zipperer examine the economic impacts of air pollution regulations forthcoming from the Environmental Protection Agency: the Clean Air Transport Rule governing sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions, and the National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants for Utility Boilers rule, which will set limits for hazardous air pollutants. Focusing on 36 states, the study assesses the potential employment impacts of the transformation of the nation’s energy generation plants to a cleaner, more efficient fleet, through investments in pollution controls and the retirement of outdated plants.

Year 1 report for ‘Conserving Texas Biodiversity: Status, Trends, and Conservation Planning for Fishes of Greatest Conservation Need’

State Wildlife Grant Program, grant TX T-106-1 (CFDA# 15.634), Contract No. 459125 UTA14-001402Substantive progress was made on all major Project Activities in this first year: Activity 1. Coordinate and Facilitate Science and Conservation Actions for Conserving Texas Biodiversity - We expanded and strengthened UT-TPWD coordination, transitioning the relationship between these partners into a much more collaborative one than was previously realized. The flow of data between TPWD and the Fishes of Texas Project (supported in part by this project) has become much more bi-directional. Many newly collected TPWD specimens, agency databases, legacy data products and reports, and feedback from resource managers are now beginning to contribute substantively to growth and diversity (now including non-specimen-vouchered records) of data served through the FoTX Project’s websites. Work on cleaning and normalizing of FoTX’s online specimen-vouchered database continued, and the updated FoTX occurrence and distribution data are being actively used. Most recently they were used by this project, together with expert (TPWD, UT and others’) opinions, to develop recommendations on conservation status of native fishes of Texas’ Species of Greatest Conservation Need for TPWD’s consideration in anticipated updates to the Texas Conservation Action Plan. Within two months of this report, a new and substantially larger and improved version of the FoTX website/database and related collection of images, field notes, and ancillary datasets, will be formally announced. Activity 2. Identify Priority Geographic Management Units for Conserving Fishes of Greatest Conservation Need - We used FoTX data in a systematic conservation area prioritization analysis to identify Native Fish Conservation Areas (NFCAs) for large portions of Texas where such comprehensive planning had not been previously carried out. Updated and new FoTX data for all Texas fish Species of Greatest Conservation Need (SGCN) were used in production of newly improved Species Distribution Models for input into this planning process, and the results of the planning exercise have already been integrated by TPWD into management prioritizations of both those species and the resultant NFCAs. Activity 3. Develop Monitoring and Conservation Plans for Native Fish Conservation Areas - Monitoring and conservation plans were delivered to TPWD for all NFCAs identified in Activity 2. Activity 4. Conduct Field-Based Surveys Detailed Biodiversity Assessments (i.e. Bioblitzing), and Citizen-Based Monitoring - Field surveys with detailed biodiversity assessments (“bioblitzes”) and citizen-based monitoring were conducted in three areas selected collaboratively by TPWD and FoTX Project staff from within the identified NFCAs: Nueces River headwaters, Big Cypress Bayou basin, and Village Creek basin. Along with this field effort, FoTX Project staff developed and circulated guidelines and best practices, and provided training for citizen-based monitoring that leverages iNaturalist for capture and reporting of photo-vouchered occurrence records in ways that will help assure scientifically useful data are obtained. All specimens acquired during these field efforts, and from many other routine specimen acquisitions from across the state (1845 total records/jars of specimens), were cataloged in the UT Fish Collection database. From there, these new records will soon be fed into GBIF, VertNet, FishNet2 and other major online data aggregators, including the online Fishes of Texas database.Texas Parks and Wildlife Department; U.S. Fish and Wildlife ServiceIntegrative Biolog

Entropy, Optimization and Counting

In this paper we study the problem of computing max-entropy distributions over a discrete set of objects subject to observed marginals. Interest in such distributions arises due to their applicability in areas such as statistical physics, economics, biology, information theory, machine learning, combinatorics and, more recently, approximation algorithms. A key difficulty in computing max-entropy distributions has been to show that they have polynomially-sized descriptions. We show that such descriptions exist under general conditions. Subsequently, we show how algorithms for (approximately) counting the underlying discrete set can be translated into efficient algorithms to (approximately) compute max-entropy distributions. In the reverse direction, we show how access to algorithms that compute max-entropy distributions can be used to count, which establishes an equivalence between counting and computing max-entropy distributions

Autonomous Navigation and Mapping using LiDAR

The goal of this project was to make a fully autonomous robot, capable of mapping its surroundings and navigating through obstacles. This was done through the use of a chassis fitted with tracks and two motors, a lidar, a compass, and a Raspberry Pi. The robot also contains two batteries and is self powered. Encoders are used on the motors in order to track the distance traveled for more precise mapping and movements

Nidec Automated Winder

Nidec Drive Systems is a leading electric motor manufacturing company with several facilities in the US and around the world. However, as of recent, Nidec has started to see some signs of old and outdated production machines affecting their production numbers even though the demand for electric is ever increasing. In an attempt to repair some of these issues, Nidec reached out to the University of Akron to look for senior design groups to help design and standardize better production machines. We were tasked with redesigning a new winder, which is a machine that winds the copper coils to the core of the motor. The design and manufacturing process is detailed in the following report, in addition to the results of our project

Juvenile Life Without Parole in North Carolina

Life without parole (LWOP) is “an especially harsh punishment for a juvenile,” as the U.S. Supreme Court noted in Graham v. Florida. The United States is the only country in the world that imposes juvenile life without parole (JLWOP) sentences. Many of these individuals were sentenced during a surge in LWOP sentencing in the 1990s. In the past decade, following several Supreme Court rulings eliminating mandatory sentences of LWOP for juvenile offenders, such sentencing has declined. This Article aims to empirically assess the rise and then the fall in JLWOP sentencing in a leading sentencing state, North Carolina, to better understand these trends and their implications. We examine the cases of ninety-four North Carolina juveniles, aged thirteen to seventeen at the time of their offenses, who were sentenced to JLWOP. Of those, forty-nine are currently serving LWOP sentences. In North Carolina, JLWOP sentencing has markedly declined. Since 2011, there have been only five of such sentences. Of the group of ninety-four juvenile offenders, forty-four have so far been resentenced to non-LWOP sentences—largely pursuant to the post-Miller v. Alabama legislation passed in North Carolina. These JLWOP sentences are primarily concentrated in a small group of counties. A total of 61% (fifty-seven of the ninety-four) JLWOP sentences in North Carolina were entered in one of the eleven counties that have imposed more than three JLWOP sentences. We find a path dependency to these sentences: once a county has imposed a JLWOP sentence, it has a higher probability of imposing a JLWOP sentence again in the future. In contrast, homicide rates are not predictive of JLWOP sentences. We question what goals JLWOP serves, given what an inconsistently used, uncommon, geographically limited, and costly sentence it has been in practice. In conclusion, we describe alternatives to JLWOP, including the model adopted in states such as California and Wyoming, in which there is periodic review of lengthy sentences imposed on juvenile offenders

Neptune: Marine ROV Retrofit and Shape Memory Alloy Water Sampler

The Robotics Systems Lab at Santa Clara University worked closely with Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute to design and modernize a safe, low-voltage remotely operated vehicle (ROV) and fabricate a shape memory alloy (SMA) triggered water sampler. The scope of this project was split into two parts. The first was to modernize an existing ROV frame and flotation device with low-cost, low-voltage components for depths up to 300ft. The second scope was to design and manufacture a 100ml water sampling system that was mostly mechanical. Due to the onset of COVID-19, the functionality and performance of the ROV was verified and confirmed through extensive Simulink simulations and calculations. The ROV is expected to perform at a translational speed of 2.8 ft/s and a vertical speed of 1.6 ft/s when deployed. The sampler was self-manufactured during the pandemic and successfully took a 135ml sample. After the modernization was complete, the controls were verified through a mass properties analysis and thruster mapping simulation

Barriers to Recruitment for a THC Study

Due to ongoing efforts to increase inclusion of under-represented racial and ethnic minorities in clinical studies, researchers have conducted studies to gain greater understanding as to why members of these groups have had limited enrollment. 1 Previous research indicated a widespread lack of trust in the medical community regarding clinical studies, particularly in populations of color due to knowledge of the Tuskegee study.2 Specifically, to date, there appears to be no investigation which explores reasons for hesitation to volunteer to participate in a study utilizing delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) to reduce chronic neuropathic pain. Our PCOM IRB-approved project will attempt to uncover whether there is a significant degree of skepticism, and what factors comprise any such reluctance. It is predicted that there will be a higher rate of declination to participate in the study by minority patients. It is also predicted that those belonging to a minority group who demonstrate interest in proceeding will express some reluctance due to mistrust in the intentions of our research. Discussion of the subjects’ concerns may reveal possible reasons for reluctance to participate in clinical trials. This information will increase researchers\u27 awareness of barriers and factors that will potentially affect a person\u27s decision to participate in a clinical trial. Subjects will be identified as potentially eligible study patients if they have recent documentation of neuropathic pain in their medical records. Eligibility will be determined using a code search (G62.9) for polyneuropathy at one of the three PCOM Healthcare Centers. Patients will be contacted in advance of their next primary care appointment to determine interest in taking a survey. For those who agree, this questionnaire will be provided immediately prior to their scheduled medical examination. Information requested includes: past and present marijuana use past and present pain management interventions for neuropathic pain demographic information (age, gender, ethnicity) current pain intensity and interference with daily activities via PEG scale feedback regarding their interest in participating in a clinical research project involving THC use If there is a response to learn more about a clinical study on campus, \u27Administration of THC to improve analgesia in patients with neuropathic pain\u27, they will be provided with a flyer and Informed Consent Form for recruitment for this investigation. One hundred potential study subjects will be screened, and the data collected will be analyzed. This study started March 7, and to date, seven patients completed the questionnaire, three of whom have indicated a decision to participate in the THC investigation

Screening Historical Sexualities: A Roundtable on Sodomy, South Africa, and Proteus

(Excerpt) Proteus (2003; 100 min., Canada and South Africa) is a low-budget feature film, directed by John Greyson (Toronto) and Jack Lewis (Cape Town), that made the international rounds of “art cinema” and queer festivals in 2003 and 2004, with limited theatrical release in New York, Toronto, and other cities. The film advances Greyson’s and Lewis’s experiments with political essay-narrative forms both in their respective documentary, experimental, and dramatic videos dating back to the early 1980s (including Lewis’s Apostles of Civilized Vice [1999]) and in Greyson’s theatrical feature films beginning with Urinal in 1988. Based on an early-eighteenth-century court record, Proteus narrates the meeting, sexual relationship, and eventual trial and execution for sodomy of two prisoners in the Dutch Cape Colony, the Dutchman Rijkhaart Jacobsz and the Khoi Claas Blank. Subsidiary narratives focus on the Scottish botanist Virgil Niven, who observed the prisoners, and on the contemporaneous crackdown on sodomites in Amsterdam. GLQ initiated the following “virtual conversation” among the two directors, Israeli queer legal theorist Noa Ben-Asher, American film scholar R. Bruce Brasell, American film critic Daniel Garrett, and South African historian Susan Newton-King. Though it will “spoil” the plot for readers who have not seen the movie, we offer it as a lively debate about one of the more interesting entries in the new “new queer cinema.” The debate explores the precarious and artful interrelationship of histories, nations, narratives, and the law; cinematic intent and spectatorial interpretation; same-sexuality, conjugality, and difference; and even, as one participant dares to put it, love