Report on the Status of Payday Lending in California

Provides an overview of storefront and Internet payday lending in California, its effects, state and federal laws and regulations, and reform efforts. Includes recommendations for state and local policy, banking access, and consumer education

Meet the Authors

Get to know more about the phenomenal student authors who acted as publication trailblazers for The Motley!&nbsp

Robot Control for Remote Ophthalmology and Pediatric Physical Rehabilitation

The development of a robotic slit-lamp for remote ophthalmology is the primary purpose of this work. In addition to novel mechanical designs and implementation, it was also a goal to develop a control system that was flexible enough to be adapted with minimal user adjustment to various styles and configurations of slit-lamps. The system was developed with intentions of commercialization, so common hardware was used for all components to minimize the costs. In order to improve performance using this low-cost hardware, investigations were made to attempt to achieve better performance by applying control theory algorithms in the system software. Ultimately, the controller was to be flexible enough to be applied to other areas of human-robot interaction including pediatric rehabilitation via the use of humanoid robotic aids. This application especially requires a robust controller to facilitate safe interaction. Though all of the prototypes were successfully developed and made to work sufficiently with the control hardware, the application of advanced control did not yield notable gains as was hoped. Further investigations were made attempting to alter the performance of the control system, but the components selected did not have the physical capabilities for improved response above the original software implemented. Despite this disappointment, numerous novel advances were made in the area of teleoperated ophthalmic technology and pediatric physical rehabilitation tools. This includes a system that is used to remote control a slit-lamp and lens for examinations and some laser procedures. Secondly, a series of of humanoid systems suitable for both medical research and therapeutic modeling were developed. This included a robotic face used as an interactive system for ophthalmic testing and training. It can also be used as one component in an interactive humanoid robotic system that includes hands and arms to allow use of teaching sign language, social skills or modeling occupational therapy tasks. Finally, a humanoid system is presented that can serve as a customized surrogate between a therapist and client to model physical therapy tasks in a realistic manner. These systems are all functional, safe and low-cost to allow for feasible implementation with patients in the near future

Nanopore Sensing for Single-Molecule Glycomics

Single-molecule sensing represents the ultimate in chemical sensitivity, but is tremendously challenging to achieve. Larger proteins have a diameter of 10 nm, which is 1/10,000th the size of a strand of hair, and 1/100,000th the size of a grain of sand. Because imaging at the nanoscale is difficult and expensive, developing techniques to measure single molecules requires ingenuity, and often relies on the interpretation of electrical signals. So how do nanopores help us measure at the single-molecule level? A nanopore is simply a nano-sized hole in a membrane or material. In the early stages of nanopore science, biological nanopores were isolated from nature; cells have special proteins that are responsible for allowing single molecules to pass in and out of the cell body. These proteins self-assemble into cylinders, which are about 2 nm in diameter. The first and most commonly used biological nanopore was a protein called α-hemolysin.1 While biological nanopores have many applications, they rely on a lipid-bilayer support system, which is fragile and reliable only in certain pH ranges. Therefore, the field has turned to solid-state nanopores, which are manufactured in a man-made material. In the Dwyer research group, we use an electric field to create nanopores in silicon nitride (SiNx) membranes. We adopted the technique of electrically “shocking” a nanopore into a SiNx membrane from Vincent Tabard-Cossa.2 Once the membrane has a hole, we mount it in a holder, so that it sits between two wells of electrolyte. We then monitor the electrical current to detect single molecules as they pass through the nanopore. In my honors project this semester, I explored how solid state nanopores can be used to detect and characterize sugar molecules. Sugars have complex branching structures, and significant molecule to molecule variability. However, sugars are easily absorbed by the body, and their potential to be used as a new drug delivery system depends on their characterization. Song, L. et al. Structure of staphylococcal a-hemolysin, a heptameric transmembrane pore. Science. 1996, 274, 1859–1865. Kwok, H., Briggs, K., Tabard-Cossa, V. Nanopore Fabrication by Controlled Dielectric Breakdown. PLOS ONE. 2014, 9, e92880

The Motley Editorial Team

Meet Dr. Maria Bakardjieva, Managing Editor, Melissa Morris, and the team of undergraduate and graduate students that have worked to build The Motley's first issue this year

The Relationship Between State Fiscal Effort and State Graduation Rates: A Longitudinal Study

In recent decades, the United States has been criticized for failing to produce citizens who can compete in a global society. Legislation, such as the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001, has been implemented with the intention of improving the U.S. education system. Under the guidelines of NCLB, states are tasked with meeting Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) objectives in order to receive federal monies. In addition to testing requirements, one AYP indicator used to measure academic proficiency for high school students is graduation rates. The fiscal and societal impact of students not graduating from high school can be seen when comparing unemployment rates, annual income, and tax contributions to those of graduates. With budget shortfalls at an all-time high, it is imperative that educational leaders and policymakers make well informed decisions about how to invest fiscal resources in order to yield the best results. The current study utilizes a production function model to examine the relationship between state fiscal effort and graduation rates over time. The use of fiscal effort provides a unique perspective by identifying how high a priority education is for states based on their wealth, not simply as a function of per pupil expenditures. A 2 (fiscal effort categories) x 8 (years) repeated measures analysis of variance was used to determine the relationship between sustained increases and decreases in fiscal effort over time on graduation rates for the years post-NCLB (2002 to 2009). The categories of states were determined using a linear regression analysis to identify the 10 states with the most sustained increasing fiscal effort and the 10 states with the most sustained decreasing fiscal effort. The results of this study did not support the interaction effect of fiscal effort categories and time on graduation rates, nor did it support the main effect of fiscal effort categories on graduation rates. The major findings from this study did show a statistically significant relationship between time and graduation rates for both increasing and decreasing fiscal effort categories. This finding suggests NCLB legislation has had a significant impact on graduation rates. Furthermore, these results refute previous research which reports high-stakes testing, commonly associated with NCLB legislation, negatively impacts graduation rates