The Effect of Signing Ballot Petitions on Turnout

In the Progressive Era, almost half of the U.S. states adopted the ballot initiative, the process by which citizens can petition to change their state’s laws or constitution independent of their state’s legislature. Many Progressives believed the initiative would have positive “educative effects” on voters, such as increasing voter turnout. Most studies show the Progressives’ hypothesis that the initiative would increase turnout was correct, but how and for whom the initiative increases turnout remains disputed. Using two Arkansas initiative petitions and the Arkansas voter registration file, I find that the act of signing a ballot initiative petition significantly increases the likelihood that a citizen will turn out to vote in the subsequent election. However, I find that voters with some, but not consistent, prior voting experience were most spurred to turn out by the 2014 minimum-wage increase petition, while voters with no recent voting experience were most affected by the 2016 medical marijuana legalization petition

CyPhER : a digital thread framework towards human-systems symbiosis

Cyber-physical twinning is an important area of study across multiple diverse fields. Creating more symbiotic human-machine partnerships facilitates extended reality. This thesis presents a flexible digital thread framework, CyPhER (Cyber Physical Extended Reality), as a platform and application agnostic solution for human-systems symbiosis. This framework includes software, techniques, and a reference architecture to allow for implementation in any field where cyber-physical twinning is possible. This thesis contains case studies carried out with industry partners in the domains of vocational education and robotics. These case studies demonstrate extended reality enabling human-systems symbiosis within their fields. When moving between these fields, CyPhER itself evolved, improving in terms of performance and capability. These applications required CyPhER to be deployed on a range of platforms spanning operating systems and form factors, which influenced its performance across these devices. Having flexibility in this approach allows CyPhER to address barriers in terms of computing apparatus in each field, such as edge devices. A cyber-physical extended reality is beneficial as a teaching aid, supporting a symbiotic process where both students and tutors can benefit from a teaching environment which utilises both the real and virtual worlds. It also benefits the field of automation, allowing for a symbiotic partnership between the human operator and systems. This is achieved through bidirectional interactions between robots and humans to enable enhanced operational decision support. Approaching these applications with a cyber-physical solution has enabled gains in usability, flexibility, and scalability in each field, abstracting complex systems with extended reality features to enable symbiosis between systems and the humans that control them. This is demonstrated in the consideration of control display gains in human-system interaction, which addresses the interaction barrier between the human and the system.Funded by Heriot-Watt Universit

Sexual diversity in the workplace: competences for social inclusion

In the past decades, western society has contemplated many advances in terms of equality and normalization of Sexual Diversity, but LGBTphobia is still present in all fields. The community has to deal with problems like harassment, mockery or self-exclusion among others. In a society dominated by heteronormativity it’s easy to stand out, and many people are forced to hide who they are to prevent exclusion. The concern to hide sexual orientation and / or gender identity at work is one of the difficulties thousands of LGBT employees have to deal with on a daily basis. In order to normalize diversity, it’s important to speak up and learn the concepts. A worker who doesn't have unneeded stress caused by fear, insecurity or confrontation with workmates will show better results than one in a complicated situation. This project is aimed on solving these differences in the work world, using transversal competences in a strategy for Social Inclusion, adapted to different work fields. It includes a theoretical and a practical application. The first part displays facts according to research on the social situation, and a practical strategy to solve the issues and create a safe place for LGBT workers.En las últimas décadas, la sociedad occidental ha contemplado muchos avances en términos de igualdad y normalización de la Diversidad Sexual, pero la LGBTfobia todavía está presente en todos los campos. La comunidad tiene que lidiar con problemas como el acoso, la burla o la autoexclusión entre otros. En una sociedad dominada por la heteronormatividad, es fácil destacar, y muchas personas se ven obligadas a ocultar quiénes son para evitar la exclusión. La preocupación por ocultar la orientación sexual y / o la identidad de género en el trabajo es una de las dificultades a la que tienen que enfrentarse miles de empleados/as LGBT a diario. Para normalizar la diversidad, es importante hablar y aprender los conceptos. Un trabajador que no tiene un estrés innecesario causado por el miedo, la inseguridad o el choque con sus compañeros de trabajo mostrará mejores resultados que uno en una situación complicada. Este proyecto está orientado a resolver estas diferencias en el mundo laboral, utilizando las competencias transversales en una estrategia para la inclusión social, adaptada a diferentes campos de trabajo. Incluye una aplicación teórica y una práctica. La primera parte muestra los hechos de acuerdo con la investigación sobre la situación social y una estrategia práctica para resolver los problemas y crear un lugar seguro para los trabajadores y trabajadoras LGBT.Grado en Educación Socia

Prenatal stress unmasks behavioral phenotypes in genetic mouse models of neurodevelopmental disorders

Neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) are complex conditions characterized by heterogeneous clinical profiles and symptoms that arise in infancy and childhood. NDDs are often attributed to a complicated interaction between genetic risk and environmental factors, suggesting a need for preclinical models reflecting the combined impact of heritable susceptibility and environmental effects. A notable advantage of “two-hit” models is the power to reveal underlying vulnerability that may not be detected in studies employing only genetic or environmental alterations. In this review, we summarize existing literature that investigates detrimental interactions between prenatal stress (PNS) and genes associated with NDDs, with a focus on behavioral phenotyping approaches in mouse models. A challenge in determining the overall role of PNS exposure in genetic models is the diversity of approaches for inducing stress, variability in developmental timepoints for exposure, and differences in phenotyping regimens across laboratories. Identification of optimal stress protocols and critical windows for developmental effects would greatly improve the use of PNS in gene × environment mouse models of NDDs

Optical Flameout Detector

A device has been developed which monitors the presence of a flame within a combustion chamber. The optical flameout detection system responds to gross changes in combustor light intensity which is monitored in two spectral bands. A photomultiplier tube makes optical measurements in the ultraviolet portion of the spectrum and a silicon photodiode covers the visible region. The detectors, located outside the combustion chamber, receive the light energy radiated from the combustion process through fiber optic probes designed to operate in a high pressure environment. The optical fibers are aimed diagonally through the center of the injector at the combustion chamber wall downstream of the injector. The probe observes events occurring within a narrow conical-shaped field of view so that the system can quickly detect longitudinal movement of the flame front away from the injector. If a change in intensity of the flame is detected, the fuel supply to the combustion chamber is shut off limiting the amount of unburned fuel in the combustion chamber which could reignite

Cavity enhanced emission from a silicon T center

Silicon T centers present the promising possibility to generate optically active spin qubits in an all-silicon device. However, these color centers exhibit long excited state lifetimes and a low Debye-Waller factor, making them dim emitters with low efficiency into the zero-phonon line. Nanophotonic cavities can solve this problem by enhancing radiative emission into the zero-phonon line through the Purcell effect. In this work we demonstrate cavity-enhanced emission from a single T center in a nanophotonic cavity. We achieve a two-orders of magnitude increase in brightness of the zero-phonon line relative to waveguide-coupled emitters, a 23% collection efficiency from emitter to fiber, and an overall emission efficiency into the zero-phonon line of 63.4%. We also observe a lifetime enhancement of 5, corresponding to a Purcell factor exceeding 18 when correcting for the emission to the phonon sideband. These results pave the way towards efficient spin-photon interfaces in silicon photonics.Comment: References update

Optical flameout detector

A device has been developed which monitors the presence of a flame within a combustion chamber. The optical flameout detection system responds to gross changes in combustor light intensity, which is monitored in two spectral bands. A photomultiplier tube makes optical measurements in the ultraviolet portion of the spectrum, and a silicon photodiode covers the visible region. The detectors, located outside the combustion chamber, receive the light energy radiated from the combustion process through fiber optic probes designed to operate in a high pressure environment. The optical fibers are aimed diagonally through the center of the injector at the combustion chamber wall downstream of the injector. The probes observe events occurring within a narrow conical-shaped field of view so that the system can quickly detect longitudinal movement of the flame front away from the injector. If a change in intensity of the flame is detected, the fuel supply to the combustion chamber is shut off, limiting the amount of unburned fuel in the combustion chamber which could reignite