Modeling Impacts of Cold Climates on Vehicle Emissions

This project relates to the research thrust area of ‘environmental impact assessment,' specifically the impact of cold climates on vehicle exhaust emissions. Motor vehicles emit pollutants that are harmful to human. Emissions are thought to be elevated during engine cold starts. During winter, low-lying temperature inversion can trap vehicle emissions near the surface, leading to significantly elevated pollutant concentrations. Despite the importance, vehicle emissions data for cold climates are sparse and the accuracy of vehicle emissions model parameterizations for cold climates is not known. The goal of this project is to improve ability of EPA's Motor Vehicle Emission Simulator (MOVES) model to simulate cold start emissions in cold climate

Understanding the Relationship Between Sex Trafficking and Opioid Use in Central Ohio: An Application of Sociological Deviance Theories

Central Ohio is, unfortunately, a hub for both sex trafficking and the opioid epidemic. The purpose of this study is to better understand how the opioid epidemic has affected the prevalence of sex trafficking in Central Ohio. The objectives are to explore the experiences of anti-trafficking service providers in handling sex trafficking and opioid use cases in Central Ohio, to understand the relationship between sex trafficking and opioid use in Central Ohio, and to compile next steps in tackling both issues based on perceived barriers according to service providers. Phone interviews were conducted with eight anti-trafficking service providers from Central Ohio and overarching themes were identified. Findings suggest that opioids are used by traffickers to exploit vulnerabilities and lead women into trafficking and then used to maintain control over the victims once they are trafficked. Then, victims may start using opioids in order to cope with traumas they face. Some people also end up getting caught in the cycle of trafficking after selling their bodies to receive money for drugs to fuel a previously existing addiction. Additionally, it appears that personal drug use has increased among individual victims who are trafficked and that the drug of choice has shifted from crack cocaine to heroin, an opioid. Lastly, victims of sex trafficking and people who abuse opioids face similar barriers that prevent them from seeking out or obtaining professional help, like such as shame, stigma, lack of education, and lack of availability of resources. By applying sociological theory, furthermore, Howard Becker's Labeling Theory is deduced to have more support in the context of trafficking and opioid use over Emile Durkheim's Anomie Theory. In addition, providing more resources and education about addiction and mental health care, and approaching trafficking from an intersectional and sociological lens may be a critical way to help prevent trafficking from occurring in the future.No embargoAcademic Major: Neuroscienc

Local solvability of a class of degenerate second order operators

In this paper we will first present some results about the local solvability property of a class of degenerate second order linear partial differential operators with smooth coefficients. The class under consideration (which in turn is a generalization of the Kannai operator) exhibits a degeneracy due to the interplay between the singularity associated with the characteristic set of a system of vector fields and the vanishing of a function. Afterward we will also discuss some local solvability results for two classes of degenerate second order linear partial differential operators with non-smooth coefficients which are a variation of the main class presented above

Public Interventions Supporting Innovation in Small and Medium-Size Firms. Successes or Failures? A Probit Analysis

WP 11/2008; The aim of this work is to investigate the probability of success or failure of public interventions, made to support the development of some Italian firms. The great number of small and medium-size enterprises, placed in the Canavese area, north of Turin, Italy, has suffered, in the nineties, of a gap in technological innovation in their production. The Consortium for the Canavese Technological District (CCTD), a public local association established in 1993 specifically to support the firms of the area, has supplied them with some technological, innovative services, sustaining their growth. More exactly, some research centres, named Centres of Competence, were created, with the pre-existing structures of the Polytechnic of Turin and of the firm RTM (placed in Vico Canavese, Province of Turin): their targets were to supply innovative services to the local firms and to place technical machineries at the disposal of the local units, to support their innovation and competitiveness. The present research analyzes a central point: which has been the impact of these services? Which is the probability that a public o private intervention to innovate has success and brings economic growth to the involved firms? This objective is achieved with a Probit Model, built on a panel of 103 firms, that covers a 6-year range (from 1999 to 2004) and contains their balance-sheets data and the technical information regarding their collaborations with the Centres; the results highlight the role of a solid patrimonial stability, of the choice of the right innovations to apply to the production processes as well as the importance of a high previous technological status of the involved enterprises