Knowing Our History: How the Structural Context of California’s Aging Network Evolved

In June 2019, Governor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order calling for the creation of a Master Plan for Aging (MPA.) The opening paragraph affirms “California’s commitment to build an age-friendly state so that all Californians can age with dignity and independence.” (California Health and Human Services Agency 2020). The MPA was released in January 2021. I was hired as the consultant MPA Historian to document the chronological sequence of services and to highlight the major strategies California has adopted to serve older adults and people with disabilities. I researched archival documents and interviewed influencers, policy makers, and community based providers. The goal to successfully age in one’s community is, in part, the result of preceding decades of federal and state leadership, implementation strategies and advocacy. The evolution of aging services in California began with robust initiation and expansion in the 1970s but faced near total devastation twenty years later due to severe budget deficits. The approach to addressing aging has been complex since the 1960’s

Collaborative Features of Graphic Narratives: Research for Lovely, Satisfied, Indifferent Eyes

Graphic narratives, such as comics and graphic novels, innately include formal features that invite reader participation. Reading a graphic narrative means contributing to the work. I created a graphic novelette, Lovely, Satisfied, Indifferent Eyes, that prioritizes the conceptual collaboration between author and reader. I did this by enhancing the formal features of the gutter, visual voice, braiding, and temporal representation (time). Creating a graphic narrative that relies on reader participation allows the author and the work to benefit from the vast networks of diverse readers, made possible by the internet and the increased communication in our world as a whole

“Meet Them Where They\u27re At”: Faith-Based and Secular Homeless Outreach Approaches

Many organizations strive to provide resources for individuals experiencing homelessness both in and outside of shelters. Studies analyzing the effects of religiosity on the practices of homeless shelters show that both faith-based and secular shelters generally offer a variety of services, from the accommodative, such as food and shelter, to the restorative, like housing, substance-use rehabilitation, and spiritual transformation (Snow and Anderson 1993). Although both types of shelters may require clients to participate in the latter to access the former, faith-based shelters often show a belief-based rigidity, with many requiring prayer, sermon attendance, or a proclamation of faith to access meals or lodging (Mulder 2004; Sager 2011). In contrast, very little data exist regarding religious influence on outreach services for individuals living outside the shelter system. Many individuals experiencing homelessness do not, or cannot, access shelter services for a variety of reasons. Some shelters or other organizations use homeless outreach teams to access people living outside of the shelter system. Using qualitative participant observation, I examined the differences in services, approaches, and goals between a faith-based and a secular homeless outreach team. I interviewed staff members and volunteers to reveal the connection between policy and practice. Method triangulation between participant observation, interviews, and policy content analysis allowed me to better understand how outreach teams interpret the organizations’ missions in the field. I found accommodative services provided by both organizations to be very similar, but the restorative services differed in type and focus. Although neither team required clients to participate in restorative services to access accommodative ones, the faith-based group often gave more time and resources to clients who behaved in a deferential manner. Conversely, the secular group gave more time and resources to clients experiencing varying levels of vulnerability. Both teams also interpreted the root of community stigma differently, leading them to assign the responsibility of ending stigma to different groups of people. This research contributes to a gap in research on differences between faith-based and secular homeless outreach approaches

Land use and environmental assessment in the central Atlantic region

Data from high altitude aircraft, LANDSAT and Skylab were used in a comprehensive regional survey of land use and its associated environmental impact in the Central Atlantic Regional Ecological Test Site (CARETS). Each sensor system has advantages that were demonstrated by producing experimental land use maps and other data products, applying them to typical problems encountered in regional planning and environmental impact assessment, and presenting the results to prospective users for evaluation. An archival collection of imagery, maps, data summaries, and technical reports was assembled, constituting an environmental profile of the central Atlantic region. The investigation was organized into four closely-related modules, a land use information module, an environmental impact module, a user interaction and evaluation module, and a geographic information systems module. Results revealed a heterogeneous user community with diverse information needs, tending, however, definitely toward the higher-resolution sensor data and the larger-scale land use maps and related information products. Among project recommendations are greater efforts toward improving compatibility of federal, state, and local land use information programs, and greater efforts toward a broader exchange of imagery, computer tapes, and land use information derived therefrom

Variable Interstellar Absorption toward the Halo Star HD 219188 - Implications for Small-Scale Interstellar Structure

Within the last 10 years, strong, narrow Na I absorption has appeared at v_sun ~ -38 km/s toward the halo star HD 219188; that absorption has continued to strengthen, by a factor 2-3, over the past three years. The line of sight appears to be moving into/through a relatively cold, quiescent intermediate velocity (IV) cloud, due to the 13 mas/yr proper motion of HD 219188; the variations in Na I probe length scales of 2-38 AU/yr. UV spectra obtained with the HST GHRS in 1994-1995 suggest N(H_tot) ~ 4.8 X 10^{17} cm^{-2}, ``halo cloud'' depletions, n_H ~ 25 cm^{-3}, and n_e ~ 0.85-6.2 cm^{-3} (if T ~ 100 K) for the portion of the IV cloud sampled at that time. The relatively high fractional ionization, n_e/n_H >~ 0.034, implies that hydrogen must be partially ionized. The N(Na I)/N(H_tot) ratio is very high; in this case, the variations in Na I do not imply large local pressures or densities.Comment: 12 pages; aastex; to appear in ApJ

A Reanalysis of the Carbon Abundance in the Translucent Cloud toward HD 24534

We have reanalyzed the Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph data set presented by Snow et al. which contains the interstellar intersystem C II] 2325A line through the translucent cloud toward HD 24534 (X Persei). In contrast to the results of Snow et al., we clearly detect the C II] feature at the 3-sigma confidence level and measure a C^+ column density of 2.7 +/- 0.8 x 10^17 cm^-2. Accounting for the C I column density along the line of sight, we find 10^6 C/H = 106 +/- 38 in the interstellar gas toward this star. This gas-phase carbon-to-hydrogen ratio suggests that slightly more carbon depletion may be occurring in translucent as compared to diffuse clouds. The average diffuse-cloud C/H, however, is within the 1-sigma uncertainty of the measurement toward HD 24534. We therefore cannot rule out the possibility that the two cloud types have comparable gas-phase C/H, and therefore comparable depletions of carbon.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures, to appear in the Astrophysical Journal Letter