A Comparison of Two Versions of Modified Mercalli Intensity for Earthquake Exposure Assessment

The U.S. Geological Survey conducted an earthquake exposure assessment for the State of Washington using peak ground acceleration (PGA) shaking from the USGS ShakeMap Project grouped to approximate Modified Mercalli Intensity (MMI) classes. Since ShakeMap datasets also have data representing official MMI classes, a companion exposure assessment was performed to determine whether MMI-grouped PGA data and official MMI data are interchangeable. Along with the exposure assessment, a spatial sampling process was used to further check how MMI-grouped PGA and official MMI data compared. Results indicated that significant variations existed spatially between the two ShakeMap datasets; generalizations by ShakeMap in creating their publically available data as well as the formulae ShakeMap\u27s model uses to calculate MMI from PGA and peak ground velocity generally explain the variations. Though the two datasets differ significantly spatially, these results simply demonstrated that MMI-grouped PGA and official MMI are not interchangeable and did not identify one dataset as more appropriate than another for exposure assessments

Visualizing female agency : space and gender in contemporary women\u27s art in Mexico.

This dissertation outlines a theoretical model for contextualizing contemporary women\u27s art practice in Mexico within the profound socioeconomic and political events that have taken place since 1968, characterized by the steady breakdown and eventual turnover of the Mexican state. Following the spatial theories outlined by Henry Lefebvre in The Production of Space, this study adopts the logic that social spaces are a direct production of the societies that inhabit them, as well as the social relations, ideologies, and notions of power that are espoused therein. Focusing on the artists Paula Santiago, the collective Polvo de Gallina Negra, Daniela Rossell, Minerva Cuevas, and Teresa Margolles, I identify within their works the visualization of three critical spaces of intervention: the female body, the familial home, and the streets as a site of protest. Organized according to a framework that emphasizes spatial politics, I argue that such works constitute a feminist production of space that challenges the social relations, hierarchies of power, and gender roles that have been embodied by traditional spaces of femininity. The artists\u27 respective performances, photography, installations, and sculptures are analyzed according to how they confront traditional definitions of femininity and gender norms that limit and confine women\u27s accessibility to and social mobility within the spaces of everyday life in Mexico. Strategically engaging with the concepts and effects of the traditional private/public dichotomy as it has been deployed in Mexican national rhetoric, the artists reveal such binary thinking to be false, socially-contrived, and politically motivated. In doing so, they critique the very processes through which gender is constructed and offer new ways to think about womanhood outside of traditional archetypal frameworks. Underscoring the role that bodily action plays in the production of space and transformation of society, these artists are identified as producers of the spaces of feminism, a designation that foregrounds contemporary women\u27s social and political interventions, which continue to formulate the new realities of Mexican life, post-1968. These contemporary women artists speak to a feminist presence in the visual arts that has helped contribute to the growth of a critical civil society, a contribution that has been largely absent from the discourse on contemporary art history in Mexico. What is ultimately revealed is a new understanding of the Mexican nation, borne out through the works of contemporary feminist art and viewed through the lens of female agency. The artists included in this dissertation take advantage of the interactive framework of the production of space as they actively engage contemporary concepts of womanhood and national identity, wherein women are admitted into the national fabric as social agents negotiating new spaces for what it means to be a Mexican feminist

Fair Pay: Why Congress Needs to Invest in Junior Staff

Legislative staff are crucial to the daily operations of Congress, both on Capitol Hill and in district offices. Congressional staffers help craft policy, advance legislation, and handle inquiries from constituents and the press. But despite their responsibilities, staffers in lawmakers' personal offices, congressional policy committees, and district offices are widely and consistently undercompensated for their work, especially in entry-level positions.While significant progress has been made recently to address inadequate staff pay in the House of Representatives under the leadership of Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), further steps are needed to ensure that entry-level staffers from all socioeconomic backgrounds are able to thrive in both chambers of Congress.Fairly compensating congressional staff, especially junior-level staffers, will help Congress attract and retain a diverse and capable workforce. Giving staff both the financial incentive and ability to stay in their roles and advance upward means that members of Congress won't need to keep retraining employees and that valuable institutional knowledge will be retained. In these ways, better financial compensation for staff will both help curb the brain drain from Capitol Hill to K Street and guard against the undue influence of special-interest lobbyists

Community Exposure to Tsunami Hazards in California

Evidence of past events and modeling of potential events suggest that tsunamis are significant threats to low-lying communities on the California coast. To reduce potential impacts of future tsunamis, officials need to understand how communities are vulnerable to tsunamis and where targeted outreach, preparedness, and mitigation efforts may be warranted. Although a maximum tsunami-inundation zone based on multiple sources has been developed for the California coast, the populations and businesses in this zone have not been documented in a comprehensive way. To support tsunami preparedness and risk-reduction planning in California, this study documents the variations among coastal communities in the amounts, types, and percentages of developed land, human populations, and businesses in the maximum tsunami-inundation zone. The tsunami-inundation zone includes land in 94 incorporated cities, 83 unincorporated communities, and 20 counties on the California coast. According to 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data, this tsunami-inundation zone contains 267,347 residents (1 percent of the 20-county resident population), of which 13 percent identify themselves as Hispanic or Latino, 14 percent identify themselves as Asian, 16 percent are more than 65 years in age, 12 percent live in unincorporated areas, and 51 percent of the households are renter occupied. Demographic attributes related to age, race, ethnicity, and household status of residents in tsunami-prone areas demonstrate substantial range among communities that exceed these regional averages. The tsunami-inundation zone in several communities also has high numbers of residents in institutionalized and noninstitutionalized group quarters (for example, correctional facilities and military housing, respectively). Communities with relatively high values in the various demographic categories are identified throughout the report. The tsunami-inundation zone contains significant nonresidential populations based on 2011 economic data from Infogroup (2011), including 168,565 employees (2 percent of the 20-county labor force) at 15,335 businesses that generate approximately $30 billion in annual sales. Although the regional percentage of at-risk employees is low, certain communities, such as Belvedere, Alameda, and Crescent City, have high percentages of their local workforce in the tsunami-inundation zone. Employees in the tsunami-inundation zone are primarily in businesses associated with tourism (for example, accommodations, food services, and retail trade) and shipping (for example, transportation and warehousing, manufacturing, and wholesale trade), although the dominance of these sectors varies substantially among the 94 cities. Although the number of occupants is not known for each site, the tsunami-inundation zone contains numerous dependent-population facilities, such as schools and child daycare centers, which may have individuals with limited mobility. The tsunami-inundation zone includes a substantial number of facilities that provide community services, such as banks, religious organizations, and grocery stores, where local residents may be unaware of evacuation procedures if previous awareness efforts focused on home preparedness. There are also numerous recreational areas in the tsunami-inundation zone, such as amusement parks, marinas, city and county beaches, and State and national parks, which attract visitors who may not be aware of tsunami hazards or evacuation procedures. During peak summer months, estimated daily attendance at city and county beaches can be approximately six times larger than the total number of residents in the tsunami-inundation zone. Community exposure to tsunamis in California varies considerably—some communities may experience great losses that reflect only a small part of their community and others may experience relatively small losses that devastate them. Among 94 incorporated communities and the remaining unincorporated areas of the 20 coastal counties, the communities of Alameda, Oakland, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Huntington Beach, and San Diego have the highest number of people and businesses in the tsunami-inundation zone. The communities of Belvedere, Alameda, Crescent City, Emeryville, Seal Beach, and Sausalito have the highest percentages of people and businesses in this zone. On the basis of a composite index, the cities of Alameda, Belvedere, Crescent City, Emeryville, Oakland, and Long Beach have the highest combinations of the number and percentage of people and businesses in tsunami-prone areas

Community Exposure to Tsunami Hazards in California

Evidence of past events and modeling of potential events suggest that tsunamis are significant threats to low-lying communities on the California coast. To reduce potential impacts of future tsunamis, officials need to understand how communities are vulnerable to tsunamis and where targeted outreach, preparedness, and mitigation efforts may be warranted. Although a maximum tsunami-inundation zone based on multiple sources has been developed for the California coast, the populations and businesses in this zone have not been documented in a comprehensive way. To support tsunami preparedness and risk-reduction planning in California, this study documents the variations among coastal communities in the amounts, types, and percentages of developed land, human populations, and businesses in the maximum tsunami-inundation zone. The tsunami-inundation zone includes land in 94 incorporated cities, 83 unincorporated communities, and 20 counties on the California coast. According to 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data, this tsunami-inundation zone contains 267,347 residents (1 percent of the 20-county resident population), of which 13 percent identify themselves as Hispanic or Latino, 14 percent identify themselves as Asian, 16 percent are more than 65 years in age, 12 percent live in unincorporated areas, and 51 percent of the households are renter occupied. Demographic attributes related to age, race, ethnicity, and household status of residents in tsunami-prone areas demonstrate substantial range among communities that exceed these regional averages. The tsunami-inundation zone in several communities also has high numbers of residents in institutionalized and noninstitutionalized group quarters (for example, correctional facilities and military housing, respectively). Communities with relatively high values in the various demographic categories are identified throughout the report. The tsunami-inundation zone contains significant nonresidential populations based on 2011 economic data from Infogroup (2011), including 168,565 employees (2 percent of the 20-county labor force) at 15,335 businesses that generate approximately $30 billion in annual sales. Although the regional percentage of at-risk employees is low, certain communities, such as Belvedere, Alameda, and Crescent City, have high percentages of their local workforce in the tsunami-inundation zone. Employees in the tsunami-inundation zone are primarily in businesses associated with tourism (for example, accommodations, food services, and retail trade) and shipping (for example, transportation and warehousing, manufacturing, and wholesale trade), although the dominance of these sectors varies substantially among the 94 cities. Although the number of occupants is not known for each site, the tsunami-inundation zone contains numerous dependent-population facilities, such as schools and child daycare centers, which may have individuals with limited mobility. The tsunami-inundation zone includes a substantial number of facilities that provide community services, such as banks, religious organizations, and grocery stores, where local residents may be unaware of evacuation procedures if previous awareness efforts focused on home preparedness. There are also numerous recreational areas in the tsunami-inundation zone, such as amusement parks, marinas, city and county beaches, and State and national parks, which attract visitors who may not be aware of tsunami hazards or evacuation procedures. During peak summer months, estimated daily attendance at city and county beaches can be approximately six times larger than the total number of residents in the tsunami-inundation zone. Community exposure to tsunamis in California varies considerably—some communities may experience great losses that reflect only a small part of their community and others may experience relatively small losses that devastate them. Among 94 incorporated communities and the remaining unincorporated areas of the 20 coastal counties, the communities of Alameda, Oakland, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Huntington Beach, and San Diego have the highest number of people and businesses in the tsunami-inundation zone. The communities of Belvedere, Alameda, Crescent City, Emeryville, Seal Beach, and Sausalito have the highest percentages of people and businesses in this zone. On the basis of a composite index, the cities of Alameda, Belvedere, Crescent City, Emeryville, Oakland, and Long Beach have the highest combinations of the number and percentage of people and businesses in tsunami-prone areas

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Passive acoustic recorders increase White-headed Woodpecker detectability in the Blue Mountains

White-headed Woodpeckers ( Dryobates albolarvatus ) are strongly associated with late-successional dry forest types. Callback surveys along transects are typically used to understand their status and trends in response to forest management. However, this survey method has proven to be logistically challenging because of the number of spatial and temporal replicate surveys needed to accurately interpret surveys that yield no detections. Passive acoustic recording units (ARUs) effectively detect certain avian species and may offer a more efficient and effective survey method, but few studies have focused on detecting White-headed Woodpeckers. Our objectives were to: (1) compare detection probabilities of White-headed Woodpeckers between callback surveys and ARUs, and (2) estimate the number of surveys needed to infer White-headed Woodpeckers’ absence under different levels of certainty. We surveyed for White-headed Woodpeckers from 5 May to 15 July 2021 by conducting callback surveys along six transects, with 10 survey stations along each, and deploying ARUs at 25 survey stations across three watersheds in the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest, Oregon, USA. We developed a classifier for White-headed Woodpeckers to detect their two-, three-, and four-note calls in our ARU data. Using single-season occupancy models and Akaike Information Criterion corrected for small sample sizes, the best fit model indicated that the odds of detecting White-headed Woodpeckers were 1.28 times higher approximately every 10 days into the breeding season and 4.41 times lower when using callback surveys compared to using ARUs. The cumulative detection probability for ARUs ranged from 0.95 to 0.99 after being deployed for 5 and 8 days, respectively. The cumulative detection probability was only 0.15–0.38 after 1 and 3 replicate callback survey(s) at a survey station, respectively. Our study demonstrates that managers can gather more accurate data related to the presence/absence of White-headed Woodpeckers to inform forest management decisions when using a passive acoustic monitoring design