Automation Potential and Artificial Intelligence

This Fact Sheet highlights the automation potential in the Mountain West states (Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado) and its metropolitan statistical areas using the findings of Automation and Artificial Intelligence: How machines are affecting people and places, a report by the Brookings Institution

Economic Growth in Mountain West Metropolitan Areas

This Fact Sheet highlights trends in America’s economic progress, demonstrating how four metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) in the Mountain West region (Salt Lake City, Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise, and Denver-Aurora-Lakewood) fared from 2016 to 2017 and from 2007 to 2017 compared to the national economy and the 100 largest metropolitan economies

Partial Height Harmony as Partial Transparency

Harmony is defined broadly as the spread of some phonological property from a trigger segment to one or more undergoer segments. Transparency to harmony refers to a situation in which some segments do not take on a harmonizing property, but instead have apparently been skipped over. There are also cases in which some segments appear to have only partially undergone harmony, assimilating to a trigger segment with respect to a harmonizing property without taking on that property completely. Partial harmony is most commonly exemplified by cases of height harmony in which an undergoer vowel approaches the height of a trigger vowel without necessarily reaching it. In this paper, I propose an analysis of the partial height harmony of Servigliano Italian that is situated within the Gestural Harmony Model. In this model, harmony is the result of a subsegmental gesture extending to overlap the gestures of other segments in a word. Transparency arises due to overlap between a harmonizing gesture and a gesture with a conflicting articulatory target. In this model of harmony and transparency, I propose that cases in which segments seem to partially undergo harmony, as in the height harmony of Servigliano Italian, be analyzed as cases of partial transparency

The Urban Heat Island Effect in Nevada

This fact sheet explores the temperature difference between Nevada cities and their undeveloped surrounding areas using reports by the Urban Land Institute, Climate Central, National Public Radio (NPR), and various governmental organizations. We investigate what “urban heat islands” are, their effects, the correlation between heat and income, and factors that contribute to rising temperatures in Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, Henderson, and Reno

Foot Traffic & Walkable Urbanism

This fact sheet highlights the performance and expansion of WalkUPs (regionally significant, walkable areas) with a focus on Denver, Los Angeles, Orlando, Phoenix, and Las Vegas as detailed in Foot Traffic Ahead: Ranking Walkable Urbanism in America’s Largest Metros, a report by George Washington University

The Outdoor Recreation Economy in the Mountain West

This fact sheet provides select data from the State Outdoor Recreation Satellite Account (ORSA) at the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) to highlight the outdoor recreation economy in the Mountain West region, including Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado

CLEANING METHODS FOR THE REMOVAL OF LIMEWASH FROM PAINTED PLASTER SURFACES: UTILIZING ION EXCHANGE RESINS ON THE INTERIOR ARCHITECTURAL FINISHES OF THE CAPILLA DE NUESTRA SEÑORA DEL ROSARIO IN IGLESIA SAN JOSÉ, IN SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO

This project explores methods for the removal of limewash from overpainted plaster surfaces, testing whether ion exchange resins can be used to safely clean these historic materials. The study utilizes the interior architectural finishes of the Capilla de Nuestra Señora del Rosario in Iglesia San José in San Juan, Puerto Rico to investigate the properties and efficacy of ion exchange resins when applied to chalking matte paints on lime plaster. Built in the 16th century, Iglesia San José is considered the second oldest church in the Americas. In 1998, a loss of structural integrity forced the closure of the building to the public. Today, through support from the WMF and an international team of conservators, conservation and restoration efforts progress at the church. The 17th-century Capilla de la Virgen del Rosario possesses the most extensive of the church’s remaining mural works. Current work in the chapel focuses on exposing the first mural campaign (Campaign A). Previous site work tested mechanical means of removal, which left behind a lime haze and proved aggressive on fragile plaster surfaces and powdering matte paints. Chemical methods, on the other hand, have not been tested. On fragile plaster surfaces, ion exchange resins may clean more effectively and cause less damage than mechanical methods. Current conservation literature shows little testing of ion exchange resins for their efficacy in removing limewashes or overpaintings, or their effects on calcium-rich substrates. This method requires further testing to determine if it is a cost- and time-effective restoration technique for large-scale applications

Playing at Women and Men: A Discourse Analysis of Gender and Sexuality Performance in an Online Play-by-Post Role-Playing Game

Online play-by-post role-playing games mark the discursive intersection between computer-mediated-communication and gaming. The performance of gender and sexuality is an important aspect of online play-by-post role-playing games. Although play-by-post role-playing games are open world and do not have the same graphical and technological constraints as other forms of gaming, the performances on them are governed by both explicit and implicit rules. Performances of gender and sexuality are also governed by cultural standards. This thesis seeks to describe how players perform gender and sexuality within these boundaries. This thesis describes the performance of gender and sexuality on the website Another Day in Paradise. I located meaningful performances of gender and sexuality within discourse pulled from Another Day in Paradise. I then organized these performances into themes. These themes were further organized into three clusters. Performances of gender and sexuality in romantic interactions include expectations of men and women have of each other while courting. Self-aware gender expectations show characters as aware of how they perform gender and sexuality in traditional ways and draw on popular tropes. Performance of gender and sexuality in non-romantic interactions portrays how gender and sexuality are performed between friends and in parent-child relationships. Analysis of these thematic clusters portrays traditional, heteronormative, and patriarchal performances of gender and sexuality. Men are shown as having power, not just in romantic relationships but in familial and plutonic relationships as well, while women are shown as subservient to men

Anjaneyasana: Yoga as an intervention for sexual shame

While literature exists about the benefits of yoga through mindfulness, and on mindfulness and sex, little is known about the use of yoga as an intervention to promote healthy female sexuality. This study will explore the efficaciousness of yoga in reducing sexual shame. Data from 60 female participants will be collected via surveys. Using statistical analyses, changes in participants levels of sexual shame and sexual enjoyment will be examined as impacted by weekly yoga practice with an emphasis on body awareness, relaxation, and body positivity. We hypothesize a negative correlation between a weekly yoga practice and feelings of sexual shame and a positive correlation between a weekly yoga practice and feelings of sexual enjoyment

Idiosyncratic Hiatus Resolution: An Argument for Gradient Harmonic Grammar

This paper discusses implications for generative theories of phonological idiosyncrasy, based on two vowel reduction patterns exhibited in Palauan. First, the process involves multiple degrees of idiosyncrasy; in cases of stress shift, vowels may surface faithfully, reduce to some unpredictable degree, or delete entirely. Second, the process involves unpredictability with respect to the patterning of tautomorphemic vowels with respect to hiatus resolution. We show that Palauan vowel reduction and hiatus resolution receive a parsimonious analysis in Gradient Harmonic Grammar (Smolensky & Goldrick 2016), a weighted constraint system in which individual segments and features are specified for non-integer degrees of activity (i.e. presence) in input forms. By proposing that vowels in Palauan may be specified for distinct input activity values, we are able to capture the idiosyncratic patterning of individual vowels within these two processes