Closing the Drain: Interest Groups and the Populist President

Why has Donald Trump failed to “drain the swamp,” that is, diminish interest group influence in Washington? The present study explores the president’s relationship with the coal industry to answer this question. It contends that his brand of populism requires a specific political context: one where he can connect with the “common man,” foster a crisis, and display nationalism. King Coal helps construct his preferred environment, which helps explain why Trump has coordinated his activities with this group instead of fulfilling his promise to “drain the swamp.” Since coal miners played a central role in his 2016 campaign, Trump’s relationship with these actors is useful to consider when seeking to understand why a populist would interact with interest groups

A microrod-resonator Brillouin laser with 240 Hz absolute linewidth

We demonstrate an ultralow-noise microrod-resonator based laser that oscillates on the gain supplied by the stimulated Brillouin scattering optical nonlinearity. Microresonator Brillouin lasers are known to offer an outstanding frequency noise floor, which is limited by fundamental thermal fluctuations. Here, we show experimental evidence that thermal effects also dominate the close-to-carrier frequency fluctuations. The 6-mm diameter microrod resonator used in our experiments has a large optical mode area of ~100 {\mu}m$^2$, and hence its 10 ms thermal time constant filters the close-to-carrier optical frequency noise. The result is an absolute laser linewidth of 240 Hz with a corresponding white-frequency noise floor of 0.1 Hz$^2$/Hz. We explain the steady-state performance of this laser by measurements of its operation state and of its mode detuning and lineshape. Our results highlight a mechanism for noise that is common to many microresonator devices due to the inherent coupling between intracavity power and mode frequency. We demonstrate the ability to reduce this noise through a feedback loop that stabilizes the intracavity power.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figure

Synthesis Report: Implementing a Regional, Indigenous-Led and Sustainability-Informed Impact Assessment in Ontario’s Ring of Fire

Background: the issue Development in Ontario’s “Ring of Fire”, a significant deposit of minerals, including chromite, located in the boreal region of the far north of the province, has been on the table for many years. Despite the fact that successive governments have hyped the value of the resources, the remoteness and lack of infrastructure, as well as the inability of governments to obtain the buy-in of all of the First Nations communities in the region, has left the Ring of Fire undeveloped. Thus, Ontario’s far north remains one of the world’s largest, most intact ecological systems. The boreal forest and peatlands play key roles in regulating the climate. Proposed mining in this region has generated significant controversy and conflict because the potential for wealth generation is accompanied by the potential for significant and possibly serious negative impacts and cumulative effects, as recently-proposed infrastructure developments quite literally ‘pave the way’ for multiple mines and generations of extraction. The proposals also present a likelihood of inequitably distributed benefits and risks at a variety of physical and temporal scales, with remote Anishinaabe and Anishini communities and their ways of life particularly vulnerable in this regard. These communities are already experiencing an ongoing state of social emergency with youth suicide, addiction and housing crises, as well as a persistent lack of essential community infrastructure, including safe drinking water. For many years, analysts and First Nations leaders have been calling for a regional process in order to broadly assess the expected impacts of the proposed developments in the Ring of Fire. They have noted the complexity of the contemplated infrastructure decisions, the potential for lasting negative impacts, and vast cumulative effects. And yet, without this framework in place, provincial and federal impact assessment (IA) regimes are currently proceeding to assess two individual road proposals that threaten to open the region up to mining. Objectives With this research, our team has synthesized knowledge across a range of areas, including Indigenous-led IA, regional and strategic approaches to IA, and the use of gender-based analysis plus in IA, and applied it to the example of Ontario’s Ring of Fire. In doing so, our primary aim has been to develop, test, and propose a workable plan for how such an approach could be adopted in the specific context of Ontario’s Far North. Methodology Our team began with a period of background preparation and literature review, including following the developments in the region over the fall months, including the progression of the project-level assessments that were being conducted at the federal and provincial levels for the Marten Falls Community Access Road and the Webequie Supply Road. The PI conducted a community visit, workshop and some interviews in collaboration with Neskantaga First Nation in November 2019. Subsequent to that visit, the team collaboratively prepared three draft models for how a regional IA could be implemented in partnership with an Indigenous Governing Authority (IGA) in the region. The team convened a day-long meeting with 14 community representatives, elders and leaders from Neskantaga First Nation in Thunder Bay on January 23, 2020 to discuss, debate and refine the models. The discussion was audio-recorded with permission, transcribed and coded. From there, the team finalized our recommendations and began drafting this report. Key messages The key messages communicated to us by knowledge holders, elders, and leadership in the community engagement sessions included: • The people in the communities are the real authority; the grassroots and the elders must be heard for any process to be legitimate; • The appropriate Indigenous Governing Authority (IGA) must be a collective of affected First Nations, rather than one of the existing tribal councils or regional organizations, such as NAN or Matawa (on the basis of ecological connectivity and socio-cultural impacts related to probable infrastructure locations); • An Elders Advisory Council should be an integral element at all stages of decision-making; • The ongoing state of social emergency must be addressed first, before new projects can be adequately considered. Communities must be satisfied that any potential new projects or infrastructure will mitigate the crises, and enhance long-term social, cultural and ecological sustainability; and, • Any regional approaches need to provide a framework that can effectively guide project-level assessments and approvals, which in turn lead into community-level consent processes, in line with local protocols. Results The recommended model includes a semi-permanent Ring of Fire Commission to be established by agreement between the federal Minister of Environment and Climate Change and an Indigenous Governing Authority made up of impacted and interested First Nations. The Commission, in conjunction with an Elder Advisory Council, should develop a framework for cumulative effects; baseline data (including on the ongoing social emergency); criteria for a modified ‘positive contribution to sustainability’ test; and a regional plan. Under the umbrella of the Commission, we recommend a joint panel review process for making subsequent decisions about individual projects proposed for the region, within the parameters established by the Commission. Decisions on individual projects will subsequently be made independently by each relevant governing authority. For more information, contact Professor Dayna Nadine Scott, [email protected]

The remembering–imagining system

Remembering and imagining are intricately related, particularly in imagining the future: episodic future thinking. It is proposed that remembering the recent past and imagining the near future take place in what we term the remembering–imagining system. The remembering–imagining system renders recently formed episodic memories and episodic imagined near-future events highly accessible. We suggest that this serves the purpose of integrating past, current, and future goal-related activities. When the remembering–imagining system is compromised, following brain damage and in psychological illnesses, the future cannot be effectively imagined and episodic future thinking may become dominated by dysfunctional images of the future

Dual-microcavity narrow-linewidth Brillouin laser

Ultralow-noise yet tunable lasers are a revolutionary tool in precision spectroscopy, displacement measurements at the standard quantum limit, and the development of advanced optical atomic clocks. Further applications include lidar, coherent communications, frequency synthesis, and precision sensors of strain, motion, and temperature. While all applications benefit from lower frequency noise, many also require a laser that is robust and compact. Here, we introduce a dual-microcavity laser that leverages one chip-integrable silica microresonator to generate tunable 1550 nm laser light via stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) and a second microresonator for frequency stabilization of the SBS light. This configuration reduces the fractional frequency noise to 7.8×10^(−14)  1/√Hz at 10 Hz offset, which is a new regime of noise performance for a microresonator-based laser. Our system also features terahertz tunability and the potential for chip-level integration. We demonstrate the utility of our dual-microcavity laser by performing spectral linewidth measurements with hertz-level resolution

Connecting does not necessarily mean learning: Course handbooks as mediating tools in school-university partnerships

This is the author's accepted manuscript (titled "Course handbooks as mediating tools in learning to teach"). The final published article is available from the link below. Copyright @ 2011 American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education.Partnerships between schools and universities in England use course handbooks to guide student teacher learning during long field experiences. Using data from a yearlong ethnographic study of a postgraduate certificate of education programme in one English university, the function of course handbooks in mediating learning in two high school subject departments (history and modern foreign languages) is analyzed. Informed by Cultural Historical Activity Theory, the analysis focuses on the handbooks as mediating tools in the school-based teacher education activity systems. Qualitative differences in the mediating functions of the handbooks-in-use are examined and this leads to a consideration of the potential of such tools for teacher learning in school–university partnerships. Following Zeichner’s call for rethinking the relationships between schools and universities, the article argues that strong structural connections between different institutional sites do not necessarily enhance student teacher learning

Low-noise stimulated Brillouin lasing in a microrod resonator

We demonstrate a Brillouin microcavity laser based on a microrod resonator exhibiting a frequency noise of 140 HZ/√Hz at 10 Hz offset. The corresponding laser linewidth is measured to be below 400 Hz

Citizen Engagement in Aquatics Equity: The Case of Winston Waterworks

Historically, swimming pools have been a source of inequity when it comes to the distribution of recreation services in the United States. Many of the problems that correlate with the inequitable allocation of recreation resources including public swimming pools began with ideas about race, geography, poor planning practices and faulty policymaking (Rothstein, 2017). Moreover, one of the primary outcomes of engaged, inclusive planning is equity in the provision of recreation programs and facilities. In this essay, we offer a summary of key legal cases that help address questions related resource allocation related to public swimming pools. Finally, we present a short case study on the Winston Water Works Project in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. This case illustrates the power of grassroots level advocacy, engaged community planning, and policymaking that protects the recreation infrastructure in a community and moves the needle of social justice toward equity. Our principle interest in this paper is in the equitable provision and distribution of aquatics programming and facilities

Synthesizing the effects of mental simulation on behavior change: Systematic review and multilevel meta-analysis

From Springer Nature via Jisc Publications RouterHistory: registration 2021-01-05, online 2021-05-04, pub-electronic 2021-05-04, pub-print 2021-10Publication status: PublishedAbstract: Mental simulation of future scenarios is hypothesized to affect future behavior, but a large and inconsistent literature means it is unclear whether, and under what conditions, mental simulation can change people’s behavior. A meta-analysis was conducted to synthesize the effects of mental simulation on behavior and examine under what conditions mental simulation works best. An inclusive systematic database search identified 123 (N = 5,685) effect sizes comparing mental simulation to a control group. After applying a multilevel random effects model, a statistically-reliable positive effect of Hedges’ g = 0.49, 95% CI [0.37; 0.62] was found, which was significantly different than zero. Using a taxonomy to identify different subtypes of mental simulation (along two dimensions, class [process, performance, outcome] and purpose [whether an inferior, standard, superior version of that behavior is simulated]), it was found that superior simulations garnered more reliable beneficial effects than inferior simulations. These findings have implications for integrating theories of how mental simulations change behavior, how mental simulations are classified, and may help guide professionals seeking evidence-based and cost-effective methods of changing behavior

Emission-Line Galaxy Surveys as Probes of the Spatial Distribution of Dwarf Galaxies. I. The University of Michigan Survey

Objective-prism surveys which select galaxies on the basis of line-emission are extremely effective at detecting low-luminosity galaxies and constitute some of the deepest available samples of dwarfs. In this study, we confirm that emission-line galaxies (ELGs) in the University of Michigan (UM) objective-prism survey (MacAlpine et al. 1977-1981) are reliable tracers of large-scale structure, and utilize the depth of the samples to examine the spatial distribution of low-luminosity (M$_{B} >$ -18.0) dwarfs relative to higher luminosity giant galaxies (M$_{B} \leq$ -18.0) in the Updated Zwicky Catalogue (Falco et al. 1999). New spectroscopic data are presented for 26 UM survey objects. We analyze the relative clustering properties of the overall starbursting ELG and normal galaxy populations, using nearest neighbor and correlation function statistics. This allows us to determine whether the activity in ELGs is primarily caused by gravitational interactions. We conclude that galaxy-galaxy encounters are not the sole cause of activity in ELGs since ELGs tend to be more isolated and are more often found in the voids when compared to their normal galaxy counterparts. Furthermore, statistical analyses performed on low-luminosity dwarf ELGs show that the dwarfs are less clustered when compared to their non-active giant neighbors. The UM dwarf samples have greater percentages of nearest neighbor separations at large values and lower correlation function amplitudes relative to the UZC giant galaxy samples. These results are consistent with the expectations of galaxy biasing.Comment: 17 pages, 4 tables, 10 figures. Accepted for publication in the Ap