Post-Earthquake Home Reconstruction in the Surrounding Hills of Kathmandu Valley, Nepal, PRP 200

In April of 2015, a 7.6 magnitude earthquake struck the Kathmandu Valley at the center of Nepal. Within the following year, Kathmandu was struck by a 7.3 magnitude earthquake and multiple aftershocks. The initial earthquake caused the deaths of 8,856 people, injured 22,309, and affected eight million more. Many agencies around the world came together to fund reconstruction efforts as part of a Nepal and a Multi-Donor Trust Fund (MDTF). The MDTF conducted an Earthquake Housing Damage and Characteristics Survey (EHDC) which led to the creation of Nepal Rural Housing Reconstruction Program (NRHRP), which sought to reconstruct earthquake-resistant homes. The NRHRP developed a homeowner-driven grant process and established the National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) to distribute housing reconstruction grants to families. Those grants were to be paid out via three tranches, each after the completion of a specific construction phase. During 2017, an international collaborative effort began among four parties: Hiroshima University (HU); Tribhuvan University (TU); Nepal’s Alternative Energy Promotion Center (AEPC); and the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs (LBJ) of the University of Texas at Austin (UT). The team investigated the challenges and opportunities for reconstruction of homes in rural areas damaged by the 2015 earthquake in and around the hinterland of Kathmandu Valley, Nepal. Within the context of a university course, students began by studying alternative building technologies (ABTs) being implemented in Nepal by local nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). When project members visited Nepal in March 2017, they interviewed rural residents to identify barriers to home reconstruction. During a field study, the students also met with local governmental officials and NGO representatives. This report describes students’ field investigation in Nepal, background research on alternative building technologies (ABTs) for home reconstruction, and recommendations developed from consultation with stakeholders and technical advisors. The first chapter starts with the earthquake and its associated damage and describes the response of the Government of Nepal (GON) and the international community in forming the MDTF, the NRHRP, and the NRA. The second chapter discusses different alternative building technologies (ABTs) considered by the GON, including bamboo, hempcrete, rammed earth, Compressed Stabilized Earth Brick (CSEB), earthbags, and modified conventional housing. Each section describes the type of building style, its construction, materials and labor required, estimates of construction time (if available), costs, and a brief section on comparative advantages and disadvantages. The third chapter describes the 2017 field study in Nepal, included the locations of the field study and interviews and discussions with local NGOs, the governmental agencies, and local residents. The research group sought to learn whether a lack of affordable and appropriate building methods could explain why many villagers still live in temporary shelters. Village residents discussed barriers to housing reconstruction unrelated to the type of home being built. The final chapter presents conclusions from 2017 field study observations of the three villages. Researchers found four common barriers to reconstruction: the cost of transportation and materials; insufficient reconstruction incentives; grant processes with many procedural barriers to funding; and the need for consistent interaction of the community with governmental agencies. One suggestion is to evaluate the home reconstruction program to assess its procedures and outcomes. A second suggestion is for Nepal to enhance the number and authority of mobile teams of professionals to assist villagers seeking to reconstruct homes.Public Affair

Managing Used Oil Along the Mexico-U.S. Border

This report describes and assesses policies for management of used oil in both the U.S. and Mexico, with particular focus on the El Paso-Ciudad Juárez area. The report begins with an evaluation of Texas’s used oil management system, from the relevant used oil legislation through the resultant data reporting system to used oil management practices. Texas is part of a United States (U.S.) federal system, so Texas’ used oil management practices reflect legislation in both the U.S. and Texas. This report describes a comparable program in California to develop some comparative insight and includes data gathered from a survey of used oil programs in states around the country. Later chapters discuss the most favorable disposition for used oil, some of the challenges that exist for encouraging greater re-refining of used oil, and recommendations for accomplishing the objectives of state used oil programs. A final chapter outlines oil regulations at the Mexican federal, state, and municipal levels relevant for Ciudad Juárez and reports available used oil data collected by the Mexican federal government. The project was funded in part by the IC² Institute.IC2 Institut

An Assessment of Mental Health Services for Veterans in the State of Texas, PRP 180

This report describes the complex challenges faced by veterans and their families in seeking, navigating, and attaining adequate mental health care in Texas. There are 1.7 million veterans in Texas, comprising 8.6 percent of the adult population. According to the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs (VA), the number of veterans requiring mental health services has grown dramatically and will continue to increase, making veterans’ mental health care an urgent issue in Texas. The federal agencies responsible for military and veterans mental health care, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and the VA, have created new programs and invested significant financial and staff resources. Despite barriers to addressing veterans mental health needs. Texas state agencies have increased funding and instituted new mental health programs supporting returning veterans. Nonprofit agencies focused on veteran’s mental health have multiplied across Texas and the U.S. over the past decade to fill gaps in care. While these organizations provide a growing and increasingly diverse set of resources for veterans to extend the scope of support, volunteer efforts can suffer from fragmentation and overlap. The report identifies current practices, challenges, and opportunities within and across each group of service providers. The report draws on government reports, scholarly literature, and agency websites, as well as interviews with counselors, Veteran Service Officers, nonprofit providers, state officials, and veterans themselves. This report offers five recommendations toward the goal that veterans’ mental health care in Texas become comprehensive, inclusive, effective, and efficient. First, there is a need for greater inter-agency communication across organizations, improved outreach efforts, and increased services for hard-to-reach populations, such as homeless veterans. Second, federal agencies ought to address staff shortages, improve the transition from DoD to VA care, and increase feedback. Third, at the state level, specialized services are needed to address unique veterans’ needs concentrated in cities across Texas as well as those dispersed in rural areas. Fourth, providers can improve mental health care by integrating social services and law enforcement. Fifth, both veterans and providers can benefit if they recognize opportunities for cooperation and coordination and work towards long-term goals that emphasize outcomes that improve the lives of returning veterans. Included with this volume is a video documentary that includes a first part that describes and assesses mental health services for veterans in Texas and a second part, a self-analysis by participating graduate students on how this research project has affected their lives and career plans. The six listed graduate students worked together on this project. Ms. Rebecca Hornbach, Lauren Marcotte and Lindsay Read, all graduate students in the LBJ School at UT Austin, drafted this report during the 2013-2014 academic year. Ms. Aileen Ford, Mr. Alexander Leist, and Ms. Lauren Seymour, also graduate students in the LBJ School, photographed, produced, and edited two video documentaries that are included with this report.Public Affair

Forestry and Economic Development on the Oki Islands, Japan, PRP 196

The Oki Islands are composed of four inhabited islands (Dogo, Nishinoshima, Nakanoshima, and Chiburijima) and 38 uninhabited islands located 40 kilometers (24 miles) north of Japan’s Honshu Coast. In recent years, the islands have experienced a decrease in the population and changes in tourist preferences that have affected local business. In 2014, the town decided to reduce its reliance on imported diesel fuel for energy production and explore green energy options for meeting local demand. To respond to the changing economy of the islands, the local Oki Islands government, along with the Shimane Prefecture and federal governments, have formulated the Green Complex (GC) project (also known as Midori no Kombinat). This plan’s objective is to create a network of small- to medium-sized businesses on the island that will utilize the islands’ local biomass resources to develop the economy, create jobs, and reduce the island’s reliance on imported fossil fuels. This report analyzes the availability of biomasses resources and how those resources can be utilized to enhance the quality of life on the islands. The research demonstrates that the GC project can generate employment on the islands and increase levels of economic activity. The study concludes that there is enough wood biomass to support green industries on the island; approximately 87 percent of Dogo Island is covered in forests which can support significant new industries using wood biomass as an input. The use of biomass on the island is more efficient than exporting the wood chips due to the cost of marine transport. Using the biomass for a large-scale power plant is economically feasible. Regarding pellet stoves, the study concluded that financial subsidies are necessary as a prerequisite to a viable industry, because pellet stoves are costlier for citizens than alternate stoves or maintaining existing equipment. Other opportunities exist for economic revitalization beyond the biomass industries, particularly in ecotourism. Complex and opaque ownership of land impedes the use of this resource. The final chapter reports recommendations regarding forest and ecotourism entrepreneurship.Government of Japan; Hiroshima University; Doshisha University of Kyoto; Institute for Innovation, Creativity and Capital (IC2).Public Affair

Optimizing the fine lock performance of the Hubble Space Telescope fine guidance sensors

This paper summarizes the on-orbit performance to date of the three Hubble Space Telescope Fine Guidance Sensors (FGS's) in Fine Lock mode, with respect to acquisition success rate, ability to maintain lock, and star brightness range. The process of optimizing Fine Lock performance, including the reasoning underlying the adjustment of uplink parameters, and the effects of optimization are described. The Fine Lock optimization process has combined theoretical and experimental approaches. Computer models of the FGS have improved understanding of the effects of uplink parameters and fine error averaging on the ability of the FGS to acquire stars and maintain lock. Empirical data have determined the variation of the interferometric error characteristics (so-called 's-curves') between FGS's and over each FGS field of view, identified binary stars, and quantified the systematic error in Coarse Track (the mode preceding Fine Lock). On the basis of these empirical data, the values of the uplink parameters can be selected more precisely. Since launch, optimization efforts have improved FGS Fine Lock performance, particularly acquisition, which now enjoys a nearly 100 percent success rate. More recent work has been directed towards improving FGS tolerance of two conditions that exceed its original design requirements. First, large amplitude spacecraft jitter is induced by solar panel vibrations following day/night transitions. This jitter is generally much greater than the FGS's were designed to track, and while the tracking ability of the FGS's has been shown to exceed design requirements, losses of Fine Lock after day/night transitions are frequent. Computer simulations have demonstrated a potential improvement in Fine Lock tracking of vehicle jitter near terminator crossings. Second, telescope spherical aberration degrades the interferometric error signal in Fine Lock, but use of the FGS two-thirds aperture stop restores the transfer function with a corresponding loss of throughput. This loss requires the minimum brightness of acquired stars to be about one magnitude brighter than originally planned

Competitive formation of spiro and ansa derivatives in the reactions of tetrafluorobutane-1,4-diol with hexachlorocyclotriphosphazene: a comparison with butane-1,4-diol

Reaction of hexachlorocyclotriphosphazene, N3P3Cl6 (1), in two stoichiometries (1:1.2 and 1:3) with the sodium derivative of the fluorinated diol, 2,2,3,3-tetrafluorobutane-1,4-diol, (2), in THF solution at room temperature afforded six products, whose structures have been characterized by X-ray crystallography and 1H, 19F and 31P NMR spectroscopy: the mono-spiro compound, N3P3Cl4(OCH2CF2CF2CH2O), (3), its ansa isomer, (4), a di-spiro derivative N3P3Cl2(OCH2CF2CF2CH2O)2, (5), its spiro-ansa (6) and non-gem cis bis-ansa (7) isomers and a tri-spiro compound N3P3(OCH2CF2CF2CH2O)3, (8). The tri-spiro derivative (8) was also formed in the reaction of the ansa compound (4) with diol (2) in a 1:3 ratio in THF at room temperature. The reactions of (1) with step-wise additions of (2) were also investigated at low temperature (-780C) to give the same range of products as at room temperature. The results of all reactions are compared with previous work on the reactions of (1) with butane-1,4-diol/pyridine mixtures and with the reaction of hexafluorocyclotriphosphazene, N3P3F6 (9), with the silyl derivative of the diol (2), (Me3SiOCH2CF2)2, in a 1:0.4 mole ratio in the same solvent, THF

Stereoisomerism in pentaerythritol-bridged cyclotriphosphazene tri-spiranes: spiro and ansa 1,3-propanediyldioxy disubstituted derivatives

Four isomeric products were isolated and purified from the reaction of 1,3-propanediol with the tetra-spirane cyclophosphazene-organophosphate compound (1): viz. the di-monospiro (2a), di-monoansa (2b) and two monospiro-monoansa derivatives (2c) and (2d). It is shown by 31P NMR spectroscopy on addition of a chiral solvating agent (CSA) that both the di-monospiro (2a) and di-monoansa (2b) derivatives are racemates, as expected, whereas no splitting of NMR signals occurred on addition of CSA to solutions of (2c) and (2d). It is found by X-ray crystallography that the two monospiro-monoansa spirane derivatives, (2c) and (2d), are meso diastereoisomers, which represent a new case of the stereochemistry of bis di-substituted cyclophosphazene derivatives of (1). It is also observed from the 31P NMR spectrum of the reaction mixture, supported by the yields of pure compounds, that formation of a spiro group is about 4.5 times more likely than that of an ansa moiety under the conditions of the reaction

Uncertainty in multitask learning: joint representations for probabilistic MR-only radiotherapy planning

Multi-task neural network architectures provide a mechanism that jointly integrates information from distinct sources. It is ideal in the context of MR-only radiotherapy planning as it can jointly regress a synthetic CT (synCT) scan and segment organs-at-risk (OAR) from MRI. We propose a probabilistic multi-task network that estimates: 1) intrinsic uncertainty through a heteroscedastic noise model for spatially-adaptive task loss weighting and 2) parameter uncertainty through approximate Bayesian inference. This allows sampling of multiple segmentations and synCTs that share their network representation. We test our model on prostate cancer scans and show that it produces more accurate and consistent synCTs with a better estimation in the variance of the errors, state of the art results in OAR segmentation and a methodology for quality assurance in radiotherapy treatment planning.Comment: Early-accept at MICCAI 2018, 8 pages, 4 figure

Expression of Human Microsomal Epoxide Hydrolase in Saccharomyces cerevisiae Reveals a Functional Role in Aflatoxin B1 Detoxification

The metabolism and genotoxicity of the carcinogenic mycotoxin, aflatoxin B1 (AFB), was studied in the lower eukaryotic yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Recombinant strains of yeast were engineered to express human cDNAs for CYP1A1, CYP1A2, and microsomal epoxide hydrolase (mEH). Coexpression of mEH with CYP1A1 or CYP1A2 resulted in significant decreases in measurements of AFB genotoxicity. In cells expressing CYP1A2 and mEH, the level of AFB-DNA adducts was decreased by 50% relative to cells expressing CYP1A2 alone. Mitotic recombination, as assayed by gene conversion at thetrp5locus, was diminished by 50% or greater in cells coexpressing mEH and CYP1A2 compared to CYP1A2 alone. The mutagenicity of AFB in the Ames assay was also decreased by approximately 50% when AFB was incubated with microsomes containing CYP1A1 or CYP1A2 and mEH versus CYP1A1 or CYP1A2 alone. The biotransformation of AFB by CYPs is known to involve the generation of a reactive epoxide intermediate, AFB-8,9-epoxide, but previous direct biochemical and kinetic studies have failed to demonstrate any functional role for mEH in AFB detoxification. By reconstructing a metabolic pathway in intact yeast, we have shown, for the first time, that mEH may play a role in mitigating the carcinogenic effects of AF