Poverty Rate Inequality: Analyzing the Causes of the Larger Difference in the Poverty Rates between Black and White Americans in Philadelphia and New York City

This paper purports to find a cause for the larger differences in poverty rates between black and white Americans in Philadelphia and the same two groups in New York City. Three hypotheses, the education spending per student hypothesis, the economic hypothesis, and the social spending per capita hypothesis, are each respectively devised to explain these differences in the respective poverty rates. The education spending per student and social spending per capita hypotheses are tested using data from each city, leading to the conclusion that the lower social and education spending per capita in Philadelphia when compared to New York City are potential causal factors of the higher poverty rates in Philadelphia

Vector-borne diseases: studies in human West Nile Virus and canine Lyme nephritis

Vector-borne diseases are a resurgent focus in public health. As concern about climate change mounts, the close relationship between these diseases and the environment has garnered growing attention. This dissertation examines the relationship between environment and vector-borne disease in both human and veterinary medical contexts and on both a local and national scale. The first study investigated using a novel Internet-based surveillance system for risk mapping of West Nile Virus (WNV) in the contiguous United States from 2007-2014, with meteorological, demographic, and land use variables as predictors. The study found that annual average temperature, minimum temperature, precipitation, and human population density were predictive of WNV reports, but that the novel surveillance data appeared to have systematic gaps that impair the utility of the model. However, the results may help to guide improvements in novel surveillance systems. The second study used the logistic regression model developed in the first study to predict the risk of WNV in the contiguous United States in 2050 and 2070 under four projected climate scenarios. The study found that Southern California is likely to remain the area of greatest risk under all scenarios and that risk would be expected to increase across much of the West under the scenario of uncontrolled carbon dioxide emissions. The results of this study may inform development of more sophisticated models and may help to direct public health resources to areas of greatest impact. The third study investigated the relationship between cases of canine Lyme nephritis and precipitation in the months prior to diagnosis. Precipitation three months prior to diagnosis was found to be associated with the development of Lyme nephritis (hazard ratio for 1 inch/month 1.125, 95% confidence interval 1.009 – 1.254). This finding may improve diagnostic accuracy for dogs with protein-losing nephropathies and may guide studies of additional risk factors

Software Acquisition Patterns of Failure and How to Recognize Them

Tenth Annual Acquisition Research Symposium Acquisition ManagementNaval Postgraduate School Acquisition Research ProgramPrepared for the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, CANaval Postgraduate School Acquisition Research ProgramApproved for public release; distribution is unlimited

3 Squares VT Food Assistance Usage by Patrons at the Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf

• The federally funded 3SquaresVT program (formerly Food Stamps) increases access to healthy food and helps to stimulate local economies. • 10.9% of Vermont households are food insecure and 15.8% of children live in food insecure households. • Many families are eligible for 3SquaresVT but choose not to enroll, hurting Vermont’s economy and stressing charitable organizations like the Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf (CEFS).https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/comphp_gallery/1071/thumbnail.jp

A photographic and acoustic transect across two deep-water seafloor mounds, Mississippi Canyon, northern Gulf of Mexico

This paper is not subject to U.S. copyright. The definitive version was published in Marine and Petroleum Geology 25 (2008): 969-976, doi:10.1016/j.marpetgeo.2008.01.020.In the northern Gulf of Mexico, a series of seafloor mounds lie along the floor of the Mississippi Canyon in Atwater Valley lease blocks 13 and 14. The mounds, one of which was drilled by the Chevron Joint Industry Project on Methane Hydrates in 2005, are interpreted to be vent-related features that may contain significant accumulations of gas hydrate adjacent to gas and fluid migration pathways. The mounds are located not, vert, similar150 km south of Louisiana at not, vert, similar1300 m water depth. New side-scan sonar data, multibeam bathymetry, and near-bottom photography along a 4 km northwest–southeast transect crossing two of the mounds (labeled D and F) reveal the mounds' detailed morphology and surficial characteristics. Mound D, not, vert, similar250 m in diameter and 7–10 m in height, has exposures of authigenic carbonates and appears to result from a seafloor vent of slow-to-moderate flux. Mound F, which is not, vert, similar400 m in diameter and 10–15 m high, is covered on its southwest flank by extruded mud flows, a characteristic associated with moderate-to-rapid flux. Chemosynthetic communities visible on the bottom photographs are restricted to bacterial mats on both mounds and mussels at Mound D. No indications of surficial gas hydrates are evident on the bottom photographPartial support for the research cruises that collected the data for this study was provided by the Department of Energy, National Energy Technology Lab

Sexual Experience Enhances Drosophila melanogaster Male Mating Behavior and Success

Competition for mates is a wide-spread phenomenon affecting individual reproductive success. The ability of animals to adjust their behaviors in response to changing social environment is important and well documented. Drosophila melanogaster males compete with one another for matings with females and modify their reproductive behaviors based on prior social interactions. However, it remains to be determined how male social experience that culminates in mating with a female impacts subsequent male reproductive behaviors and mating success. Here we show that sexual experience enhances future mating success. Previously mated D. melanogaster males adjust their courtship behaviors and out-compete sexually inexperienced males for copulations. Interestingly, courtship experience alone is not sufficient in providing this competitive advantage, indicating that copulation plays a role in reinforcing this social learning. We also show that females use their sense of hearing to preferentially mate with experienced males when given a choice. Our results demonstrate the ability of previously mated males to learn from their positive sexual experiences and adjust their behaviors to gain a mating advantage. These experienced-based changes in behavior reveal strategies that animals likely use to increase their fecundity in natural competitive environments

Elemental Abundance Ratios in Stars of the Outer Galactic Disk. II. Field Red Giants

We summarize a selection process to identify red giants in the direction of the southern warp of the Galactic disk, employing VI_C photometry and multi-object spectroscopy. We also present results from follow-up high-resolution, high-S/N echelle spectroscopy of three field red giants, finding [Fe/H] values of about -0.5. The field stars, with Galactocentric distances estimated at 10 to 15 kpc, support the conclusion of Yong, Carney, & de Almeida (2005) that the Galactic metallicity gradient disappears beyond R_GC values of 10 to 12 kpc for the older stars and clusters of the outer disk. The field and cluster stars at such large distances show very similar abundance patterns, and, in particular, all show enhancements of the "alpha" elements O, Mg, Si, Ca, and Ti and the r-process element Eu. These results suggest that Type II supernovae have been significant contributors to star formation in the outer disk relative to Type Ia supernovae within the past few Gyrs. We also compare our results with those available for much younger objects. The limited results for the H II regions and B stars in the outer disk also suggest that the radial metallicity gradient in the outer disk is shallow or absent. The much more extensive results for Cepheids confirm these trends, and that the change in slope of the metallicity gradient may occur at a larger Galactocentric distance than for the older stars and clusters. However, the younger stars also show rising alpha element enhancements with increasing R_GC, at least beyond 12 kpc. These trends are consistent with the idea of a progressive growth in the size of the Galactic disk with time, and episodic enrichment by Type II supernovae as part of the disk's growth. [Abridged]Comment: Accepted for publication in A