Staff-imposed deprivations experienced by gay and bisexual men and violence by other incarcerated people

This paper investigates the relationship between self-reported experience of staff-imposed deprivations and violence perpetrated against incarcerated gay and bisexual men by other incarcerated people. Emerging research in the social sciences suggests that deprivations experienced by sexual minorities in prison are associated with negative outcomes. The justification for such practices in prison policy, however, is that what appears to be unequal treatment of sexual minorities actually serves the purpose of protecting them from violence, assumed to be the result of the violent masculinity of incarcerated people. To assess these claims, I use the Black & Pink National LGBTQ Prisoner Survey to conduct logistic regressions modeling the relationship between odds of physical and sexual violence perpetrated by other incarcerated people and staff-imposed deprivations experienced by gay and bisexual respondents. The results show that experiences of staff-imposed deprivations are associated with increased odds of violence against gay and bisexual men by other incarcerated people. These findings illustrate that homophobic violence is not only related to the characteristics of people incarcerated in prisons, but is also related to the behavior of staff and policy- makers who structure the lives of incarcerated people

Deformations of generalized complex branes

We investigate the formal deformation theory of (rank 1) branes on generalized complex (GC) manifolds. This generalizes, for example, the deformation theory of a complex submanifold in a fixed complex manifold. For each GC brane $\mathcal{B}$ on a GC manifold $(X,\mathbb{J})$, we construct a formal (pointed) groupoid $\textbf{Def}^{\mathcal{B}}(X,\mathbb{J})$ (defined over a certain category of real Artin algebras) that encodes the formal deformations of $\mathcal{B}$. We study the geometric content of this groupoid in a number of different situations. Using the theory of (bi)semicosimplicial differential graded Lie algebras (DGLAs), we construct for each brane $\mathcal{B}$ a DGLA $L_{\mathcal{B}}$ that governs the "locally trivializable" deformations of $\mathcal{B}$. As a concrete application of this construction, we prove an unobstructedness result

Challenges in using science-based shoreline setbacks: Examples from South Carolina

Beachfront jurisdictional lines were established by the South Carolina Beachfront Management Act (SC Code §48- 39-250 et seq.) in 1988 to regulate the new construction, repair, or reconstruction of buildings and erosion control structures along the state’s ocean shorelines. Building within the state’s beachfront “setback area” is allowed, but is subject to special regulations. For “standard beaches” (those not influenced by tidal inlets or associated shoals), a baseline is established at the crest of the primary oceanfront sand dune; for “unstabilized inlet zones,” the baseline is drawn at the most landward point of erosion during the past forty years. The parallel setback line is then established landward of the baseline a distance of forty times the long-term average annual erosion rate (not less than twenty feet from the baseline in stable or accreting areas). The positions of the baseline and setback line are updated every 8-10 years using the best available scientific and historical data, including aerial imagery, LiDAR, historical shorelines, beach profiles, and long-term erosion rates. One advantage of science-based setbacks is that, by using actual historical and current shoreline positions and beach profile data, they reflect the general erosion threat to beachfront structures. However, recent experiences with revising the baseline and setback line indicate that significant challenges and management implications also exist. (PDF contains 3 pages