Daily measurement of slow slip from low-frequency earthquakes is consistent with ordinary earthquake scaling.

Slow slip transients on faults can last from seconds to months and stitch together the earthquake cycle. However, no single geophysical instrument is able to observe the full range of slow slip because of bandwidth limitations. Here, we connect seismic and geodetic data from the Mexican subduction zone to explore an instrumental blind spot. We establish a calibration of the daily median amplitude of the seismically recorded low-frequency earthquakes to the daily geodetically recorded moment rate of previously established slow slip events. This calibration allows us to use the precise evolution of low-frequency earthquake activity to quantitatively measure the moment of smaller, subdaily slip events that are unresolvable by geodesy alone. The resulting inferred slow slip moments scale with duration and inter-event time like ordinary earthquakes. These new quantifications help connect slow and fast events in a broad spectrum of transient slip and suggest that slow slip events behave much like ordinary earthquakes

Determinants of welfare benefit use of immigrant groups - longitudinal evidence from Germany

While recent literature in Germany has compared predictors of welfare use between EU and non-EU immigrants, refugees have yet to be added to the analysis. Using survey data of approximately 4,000 immigrants living in Germany, I examine the determinants of basic unemployment benefits receipt for intra-EU immigrants, refugees, and third country immigrants. In particular, I investigate how education affects the likelihood of welfare use for each immigrant group. Even after controlling for human capital factors, sociodemographic characteristics, and factors related to migration such as legal status and age at migration, refugees remain significantly more likely to receive benefits. Results demonstrate that higher education significantly decreases the likelihood of welfare receipt for EU and third country immigrants, but much less so for refugees. These findings may indicate that refugees' education is not being used to its full potential in the labor market or that they face additional challenges hindering their labor market integration. A further and unanticipated finding is that immigrants who hold permanent residency or German citizenship are less likely to receive unemployment benefits, pointing either to positive effects of a secure residency or selection into permanent residency and citizenship among those with the greatest labor market success. Overall, this research shows that challenges beyond human capital deficiencies and sociodemographic characteristics must be considered when studying immigrants' receipt of social benefits, that not all educational credentials are valued equally, and that the experiences of refugees differ in significant ways from those of other immigrant groups.Peer Reviewe

Negotiating Futures in the Time of AIDS: Contests over Inheritance in Southern Province, Zambia

Thesis (PhD) - Indiana University, Anthropology, 2006I examine how local decision-making with regard to inheritance has been inextricably altered by and incorporated into larger discourses on international AIDS prevention and modernity in Southern Zambia. I illustrate how the processes of inheritance and approaches towards HIV/AIDS and its prevention have been permeated by local and global notions of modernity in Central and Southern Africa, mutually influencing local perceptions and reactions to each. Within this work I demarcate AIDS as a social process moved beyond the boundaries of a biomedical discourse to openly illuminate the archaeology of meanings incorporated into the framing of AIDS and the AIDS prevention industry. I also examine how Western based NGO initiatives to promote certain behaviors and activities surrounding both inheritance and AIDS prevention, are re-worked at a local level as Zambians pursue or reject a 'modern' and 'global' identity. The issues of AIDS and inheritance have become intertwined for Zambians precisely because the debates surrounding 'appropriate' behaviors are scripted in identical fashion - 'becoming civilized and healthy' or 'remaining primitive and infectious.' Through the examination of how these seemingly disparate social processes have become inseparable, provides a critical lens into how Western notions of modernity have permeated highly personal and charged Zambian domains, fertility and sexuality. Local renderings of the AIDS pandemic and conflicts over inheritance have become a manifestation of the ways in which Zambians wrestle with an identity of modernity, struggling to make it their own, in a universe where the myth of modernity stands strong. Contests over inheritance have become the sites of struggle between local communities and the state for control over gender roles and women's sexuality. AIDS widows emerge as a contested category in this struggle, as these women struggle to create new options for survival and new roles of womanhood within a devastating pandemic

Seasonal dynamics of above- and below-ground biomass and nitrogen partitioning in Miscanthus × giganteus and Panicum virgatum across three growing seasons

The first replicated productivity trials of the C4 perennial grass Miscanthus × giganteus in the United States showed this emerging ligno-cellulosic bioenergy feedstock to provide remarkably high annual yields. This covered the 5 years after planting, leaving it uncertain if this high productivity could be maintained in the absence of N fertilization. An expected, but until now unsubstantiated, benefit of both species was investment in roots and perennating rhizomes. This study examines for years 5–7 yields, biomass, C and N in shoots, roots, and rhizomes. The mean peak shoot biomass for M. × giganteus in years 5–7 was 46.5 t ha−1 in October, declining to 38.1 t ha−1 on completion of senescence and at harvest in December, and 20.7 t ha−1 declining to 11.3 t ha−1 for Panicum virgatum. There was no evidence of decline in annual yield with age. Mean rhizome biomass was significantly higher in M. × giganteus at 21.5 t ha−1compared to 7.2 t ha−1 for P. virgatum, whereas root biomass was similar at 5.6–5.9 t ha−1. M. × giganteus shoots contained 339 kg ha−1 N in August, declining to 193 kg ha−1 in December, compared to 168 and 58 kg ha−1 for P. virgatum. The results suggest substantial remobilization of N to roots and rhizomes, yet still a substantial loss with December harvests. The shoot and rhizome biomass increase of 33.6 t ha−1 during the 2-month period between June and August for M. × giganteus corresponds to a solar energy conversion of 4.4% of solar energy into biomass, one of the highest recorded and confirming the remarkable productivity potential of this plant

The Road from Medical Injury to Claims Resolution: How No-Fault and Tort Differ

In the area of medical malpractice, no-fault has been offered as a response to the criticisms leveled against tort litigation for medical injuries. Five issues of no-fault are examined within the context of obstetrical malpractice

If At First You Do Not Succeed: The Student Benefits of Multiple Trials on Summative Assessments

Learning management systems offer flexibility in assessments. In Canvas, questions can be pulled from pools, customizing each quiz. Canvas also allows unique feedback options. Unique feedback can be programmed for students whether they got the question correct or incorrect. Feedback can even be customized based on which wrong answer was selected. Canvas also allows multiple attempts on assessments, with various options for awarding credit (final attempt, best score, average score, etc.). Combining immediate feedback with multiple attempts is a power - yet underexplored - tool