Affirmative action in higher education: A legal analysis of the use of race as a factor in college admissions after Bakke

The purpose of this dissertation was to examine the legal status of affirmative action in higher education admission policies with regard to the use of race as a factor. This study answered these three questions:;What is the current status of the Regents of the University of California v. Bakke decision as a basis for assessing higher education admission policies? What legal benchmarks have emerged since the Bakke decision which may impact the development of university admission policies? What policies may achieve diversity in higher education admissions without incurring legal risks by using race and ethnicity in the admissions policies?;The significance of this study was found in examining the law cases concerned with affirmative action using race as a factor in higher education admissions policies. This study attempted to make it easier for educators to understand affirmative action and to be a resource guide with which higher education administrators may make informed decisions on the legal aspects of admissions policies; This dissertation used an analytical, qualitative research design. As a legal/historical analysis, it included search, selection and criticism of the sources, presentation of the facts and generalizations, and use of inductive case law analysis. Law cases were examined for their usage of Bakke as a precedent as to whether the opinions in Bakke were followed or criticized; The majority of the cases examined followed Bakke as a precedent. However, because of the legal risks taken when using race as a factor in college admissions, other avenues of promoting diversity in the student body were also explored

Laer-induced Breakdown Spectroscopy Instrument for Element Analysis of Planetary Surfaces

One of the most fundamental pieces of information about any planetary body is the elemental and mineralogical composition of its surface materials. We are developing an instrument to obtain such data at ranges of up to several hundreds of meters using the technique of Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS). We envision our instrument being used from a spacecraft in close rendezvous with small bodies such as comets and asteroids, or deployed on surface-rover vehicles on large bodies such as Mars and the Moon. The elemental analysis is based on atomic emission spectroscopy of a laser-induced plasma or spark. A pulsed, diode pumped Nd:YAG laser of several hundred millijoules optical energy is used to vaporize and electronically excite the constituent elements of a rock surface remotely located from the laser. Light emitted from the excited plasma is collected and introduced to the entrance slit of a small grating spectrometer. The spectrally dispersed spark light is detected with either a linear photo diode array or area CCD array. When the latter detector is used, the optical and spectrometer components of the LIBS instrument can also be used in a passive imaging mode to collect and integrate reflected sunlight from the same rock surface. Absorption spectral analysis of this reflected light gives mineralogical information that provides a remote geochemical characterization of the rock surface. We performed laboratory calibrations in air and in vacuum on standard rock powders to quantify the LIBS analysis. We performed preliminary field tests using commercially available components to demonstrate remote LIBS analysis of terrestrial rock surfaces at ranges of over 25 m, and we have demonstrated compatibility with a six-wheeled Russian robotic rover vehicle. Based on these results, we believe that all major and most minor elements expected on planetary surfaces can be measured with absolute accuracy of 10-15 percent and much higher relative accuracy. We have performed preliminary systems analysis of a LIBS instrument to evaluate probable mass and power requirements; results of this analysis are summarized

Wetland vegetation monitoring, 1998 survey: Gnangara wetlands

Water regimes, both groundwater and surface water components dil\u27ectly effect distribution, health and species composition of wetland fringing vegetation. In the area of the northern Swan Coastal Plain overlying the Gnangara groundwater mound, wetland water levels and therefore the vegetation can be intimately connected to underlying groundwater levels. The Water Corporation (formerly Water Authority of Western Australia) has been drawing water from the Gnangara mound for domestic water supply for a number of years. The main objective of this study is to monitor the changes in the vegetation fringing these wetlands and to determine if this is related to changes in groundwater or other factors affecting the lakes. Wetlands of specific interest in 1998, because of breached guidelines for groundwater drawdown through abstraction, have been summarized in detail in this report. These wetlands include Lakes Joondalup, Jandabup, Mariginup and Nowergup. Raw data from the 1998 survey for the other wetlands monitored in 1997, as well as the wetlands mentioned above, are presented in Appendix 1..

Towards a Living Lab for Enhanced Thermal Comfort and Air Quality: Analyses of Standard Occupancy, Weather Extremes, and COVID-19 Pandemic

Maintaining indoor environmental (IEQ) quality is a key priority in educational buildings. However, most studies rely on outdoor measurements or evaluate limited spatial coverage and time periods that focus on standard occupancy and environmental conditions which makes it hard to establish causality and resilience limits. To address this, a fine-grained, low-cost, multi-parameter IOT sensor network was deployed to fully depict the spatial heterogeneity and temporal variability of environmental quality in an educational building in Sydney. The building was particularly selected as it represents a multi-use university facility that relies on passive ventilation strategies, and therefore suitable for establishing a living lab for integrating innovative IoT sensing technologies. IEQ analyses focused on 15 months of measurements, spanning standard occupancy of the building as well as the Black Summer bushfires in 2019, and the COVID-19 lockdown. The role of room characteristics, room use, season, weather extremes, and occupancy levels were disclosed via statistical analysis including mutual information analysis of linear and non-linear correlations and used to generate site-specific re-design guidelines. Overall, we found that 1) passive ventilation systems based on manual interventions are most likely associated with sub-optimum environmental quality and extreme variability linked to occupancy patterns, 2) normally closed environments tend to get very unhealthy under periods of extreme pollution and intermittent/protracted disuse, 3) the elevation and floor level in addition to room use were found to be significant conditional variables in determining heat and pollutants accumulation, presumably due to the synergy between local sources and vertical transport mechanisms. Most IEQ inefficiencies and health threats could be likely mitigated by implementing automated controls and smart logics to maintain adequate cross ventilation, prioritizing building airtightness improvement, and appropriate filtration techniques. This study supports the need for continuous and capillary monitoring of different occupied spaces in educational buildings to compensate for less perceivable threats, identify the room for improvement, and move towards healthy and future-proof learning environments

Cluster Analysis of Thermal Icequakes Using the Seismometer to Investigate Ice and Ocean Structure (SIIOS): Implications for Ocean World Seismology

Ocean Worlds are of high interest to the planetary community due to the potential habitability of their subsurface oceans. Over the next few decades several missions will be sent to ocean worlds including the Europa Clipper, Dragonfly, and possibly a Europa lander. The Dragonfly and Europa lander missions will carry seismic payloads tasked with detecting and locating seismic sources. The Seismometer to Investigate Ice and Ocean Structure (SIIOS) is a NASA PSTAR funded project that investigates ocean world seismology using terrestrial analogs. The goals of the SIIOS experiment include quantitatively comparing flight-candidate seismometers to traditional instruments, comparing single-station approaches to a small-aperture array, and characterizing the local seismic environment of our field sites. Here we present an analysis of detected local events at our field sites at Gulkana Glacier in Alaska and in Northwest Greenland approximately 80 km North of Qaanaaq, Greenland. Both field sites passively recorded data for about two weeks. We deployed our experiment on Gulkana Glacier in September 2017 and in Greenland in June 2018. At Gulkana there was a nearby USGS weather station which recorded wind data. Temperature data was collected using the MERRA satellite. In Greenland we deployed our own weather station to collect temperature and wind data. Gulkana represents a noisier and more active environment. Temperatures fluctuated around 0C, allowing for surface runoff to occur during the day. The glacier had several moulins, and during deployment we heard several rockfalls from nearby mountains. In addition to the local environment, Gulkana is located close to an active plate boundary (relative to Greenland). This meant that there were more regional events recorded over two weeks, than in Greenland. Greenlands local environment was also quieter, and less active. Temperatures remained below freezing. The Greenland ice was much thicker than Gulkana (~850 m versus ~100 m) and our stations were above a subglacial lake. Both conditions can reduce event detections from basal motion. Lastly, we encased our Greenland array in an aluminum vault and buried it beneath the surface unlike our array in Gulkana where the instruments were at the surface and covered with plastic bins. The vault further insulated the array from thermal and atmospheric events

Incubation Energetics of the Laysan Albatross

The energy expenditure of incubating and foraging Laysan Albatross (Diomedea immutabilis, mean body weight 3.07 kg) was estimated by means of the doubly-la- belled water technique. During incubation, the energy expenditure was similar to that of resting birds that were not incubating an egg. The energy expenditure of foraging albatross (2072 kJ/day) was 2.6 times that of resting birds. It was concluded that the energy expenditure of the tropical Laysan Albatross was not less than that of species foraging over cold, high-latitude oceans. An energy budget compiled for an incubating pair of albatross revealed that the energy expenditure of the female was greater than that of the male bird, during the incubation perio

The impact of dynamic status changes within competitive rank-ordered hierarchies

Jockeying and competing for higher status is an inherent feature of rank-ordered hierarchies. Despite theoretically acknowledging rank changes within hierarchies, the extant literature has ignored the role of competitors' dynamic movements on a focal actor's resulting behavior. By using a dynamic lens to examine these movement in competitive situations, we examine how positive change in a competitor's rank-that is, positive status momentum-affects a focal actor's psychology and resulting performance. We consider the real-world contexts of 5.2 million observations of chess tournaments and 117,762 observations of professional tennis players and find that a focal actor's performance in both cognitive and physical competitions is negatively impacted when facing a competitor with positive momentum. Additionally, 4 experimental studies reveal that a competitor's positive momentum results in the focal actor's positive projection of the competitor's future rank, which, in turn, increases the psychological threat for the actor. Collectively, our findings advance the social hierarchy literature by helping to elucidate the manner in which rank-ordered hierarchies are negotiated and disrupted over time

Risk Factors for Systemic Vancomycin Exposure Following Administration of Oral Vancomycin for the Treatment of Clostridium difficile Infection

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/110766/1/phar1538.pd