De Jure School Segregation as the Result of Racist Housing Policies

It is no secret that African Americans have been and continue to be marginalized in American society. A revival of racial justice movements and protests have brought the issue back into the public eye across the country and even here at UVM. As this is being written, black lives matter flags fly high across campus and the Waterman building is serving as the epicenter of a demonstration motivated by the unfair treatment of minority students in a university setting. While black lives matter movements and others like it have been helpful in bringing to light the current position of minorities in America, understanding how it is that the state of affairs got to where they are is paramount. A commonly believed narrative is that the rising levels of segregation since the end of court ordered integration are the result of innocent private decisions, otherwise known as de facto or voluntary segregation. This paper will argue that modern segregation is in some significant parts the result of a combination of court decisions and discriminatory housing policies that have had long-term detrimental consequences for the education of African American Youth

Climate change and health in Earth's future

Threats to health from climate change are increasingly recognized, yet little research into the effects upon health systems is published. However, additional demands on health systems are increasingly documented. Pathways include direct weather impacts, such as amplified heat stress, and altered ecological relationships, including alterations to the distribution and activity of pathogens and vectors. The greatest driver of demand on future health systems from climate change may be the alterations to socioeconomic systems; however, these “tertiary effects” have received less attention in the health literature. Increasing demands on health systems from climate change will impede health system capacity. Changing weather patterns and sea-level rise will reduce food production in many developing countries, thus fostering undernutrition and concomitant disease susceptibility. Associated poverty will impede people’s ability to access and support health systems. Climate change will increase migration, potentially exposing migrants to endemic diseases for which they have limited resistance, transporting diseases and fostering conditions conducive to disease transmission. Specific predictions of timing and locations of migration remain elusive, hampering planning and misaligning needs and infrastructure. Food shortages, migration, falling economic activity, and failing government legitimacy following climate change are also “risk multipliers” for conflict. Injuries to combatants, undernutrition, and increased infectious disease will result. Modern conflict often sees health personnel and infrastructure deliberately targeted and disease surveillance and eradication programs obstructed. Climate change will substantially impede economic growth, reducing health system funding and limiting health system adaptation. Modern medical care may be snatched away from millions who recently obtained it

Energy Harvesting for Residential Microgrid Distributed Sensor Systems

Microgrids are localized, independent power grids that can operate while connected to the larger electrical grid. These systems make intelligent decisions regarding power management and use an array of components to monitor power generation, consumption, and environmental conditions. While this technology can save end users money, the complexity of installation and maintenance has limited the adoption of microgrids in residential spaces. To simplify this technology for end users, the next evolution of microgrid components includes sensors that are wireless and ambiently powered. Even with a microgrid installed, significant energy is wasted in residential spaces. To address this loss, energy harvesting circuits can be incorporated into microgrid sensors, enabling them to recapture otherwise wasted environmental energy. Light, heat, radio frequency (RF) energy, mechanical energy, and 60 Hz noise from power lines are all abundant in most residential spaces and can be harvested to power microgrid components. Equipping microgrid sensors with energy harvesters simplifies the end user experience by eliminating the need for cable routing. Implementing energy harvesting techniques results in a microgrid that is easier to deploy, cleaner, and requires less maintenance. Developing this type of sensor is not only feasible, but sensible and can be constructed using off-the-shelf components. My research led me to conclude that the most effective strategy for designing an energy harvesting sensor is to combine energy harvesting technologies with battery power. By delegating smaller loads away from the harvesting integrated circuit (IC), its full harvesting potential is utilized, maximizing energy collection for the power-hungry transmitter. Simultaneously, a small coin-cell battery can sustain the remaining components, ensuring over a decade of functionality. This thesis explores the feasibility and design of a hybrid battery and energy harvesting sensor. The developed system block diagram allows for the swapping of components within each block, catering to the varying needs of the end user. The system is data and energy-aware, allowing it to make intelligent decisions regarding data transmission and enable communication as reliable as that of a traditional wire-line powered sensor. The hybrid sensor module underwent testing with a small monocrystalline solar cell as its energy source, delivering consistent power throughout the testing period. It accumulated surplus energy in a super capacitor storage unit, ensuring the system’s reliable operation even at night when the energy source was not available. While the tests utilized a photovoltaic (PV) cell, the design accommodates any energy harvesting source that can generate a minimum of 40 µW of power

Making Lease Payments a Lessor Problem

The frustration of purpose doctrine is a contracts defense that has garnered increased interest since the COVID-19 pandemic’s initial wave. To manage this public health emergency, many governments have issued orders restricting the operation of businesses. These orders, while necessary, put commercial lessees in a bind once it came time to pay rent because these restrictions drastically cut their profits. Other frustrating events, like war and natural disasters, cause the same problems, yet the current frustration of purpose doctrine is too narrow to be practically helpful to these lessees. This Note examines the English and Canadian frustration doctrines and draws on both in proposing two alterations to the American doctrine. These alterations would remedy the doctrine’s ineffectiveness, brought to light recently by the COVID-19 pandemic, and would attempt to ensure that the risk now falls on the party better equipped to bear it—the lessor