Making Voting Easier: Election Day Registration in New York

As policymakers, election officials, and the public consider whether New York should change the way in which voters are allowed to register to participate in elections, and bring New York State election law into compliance with the Help America Vote Act, the following report provides an analysis of the potential impact of election day registration (EDR) in New York. EDR in New York has the potential to increase voter participation for New Yorkers by as much as: Over 12 percentage point increase in turnout by 18-to-25-year-olds. Nearly 10 percentage point increase in turnout by thosewith a grade school education or less.An 11 point increase in turnout by Latinos and nearly 9 percentage point increase in turnout by African Americans.Over 10 percentage point increase in turnout by those who have lived at their current address for less than six months.Over 12 percentage point increase in turnout by naturalized citizens

Enhanced closed loop performance using non-dimensional analysis

This paper investigates the benefits of using non-dimension analysis to develop a control law for a flexible electro-mechanical system. The system that is analyzed consists of a DC motor connected to a load inertia through a set of gears. A state space system model is derived using LaGrange\u27s equation and then non-dimensionalized using a linear transformation. The resulting system model reveals the system character more clearly through the resulting dimensionless parameters. The parameters highlight the interaction between system properties and motor constants and demonstrate the benefits of a concurrent mechatronics design process. Open-loop behavior is analyzed and an optimal value for these paramaters can be found by varying the gear ratio. Once the best possible gear ratio is determined, a PID control law is developed and the closed loop performance is analyzed. With the optimal gear ratio, the power required to control the system is minimized. Also, dynamic inversion is applied to control the system. Dynamic inversion requires a square B matrix in the state space model. A new method to apply dynamic inversion to a system with a non-square B matrix is demonstrated. To make the matrix invertible, a linear transform is applied to the state space model. A Linear-Quadratic Regulator (LQR) design method is applied to find the transformation matrix values that will make the B matrix invertible. The power consumption of this control law is also minimized when the system contains the optimal gear ratio

Election Day Voter Registration in the United States: How One-step Voting Can Change the Composition of the American Electorate

For most Americans, voting requires two steps. First, an eligible citizen must register in some manner with an appropriate government agency. Second, once registered, the citizen can then cast a ballot on or before election day. The historical record provides examples of voter registration processes as early as 1801 in the state of Massachusetts, followed by Columbia, South Carolina in 1819, the state of Pennsylvania in 1836, and New York City in 1840. After the Civil War, voter registration systems proliferated throughout the nation, especially in large urban areas of the county. By 1929, only Arkansas, Indiana and Texas did not have voter registration systems in place. Today, only North Dakota has no voter registration.Carnegie Corporation of New York; IBM Researc

Transcriptional repression by ApiAP2 factors is central to chronic toxoplasmosis

Tachyzoite to bradyzoite development in Toxoplasma is marked by major changes in gene expression resulting in a parasite that expresses a new repertoire of surface antigens hidden inside a modified parasitophorous vacuole called the tissue cyst. The factors that control this important life cycle transition are not well understood. Here we describe an important transcriptional repressor mechanism controlling bradyzoite differentiation that operates in the tachyzoite stage. The ApiAP2 factor, AP2IV-4, is a nuclear factor dynamically expressed in late S phase through mitosis/cytokinesis of the tachyzoite cell cycle. Remarkably, deletion of the AP2IV-4 locus resulted in the expression of a subset of bradyzoite-specific proteins in replicating tachyzoites that included tissue cyst wall components BPK1, MCP4, CST1 and the surface antigen SRS9. In the murine animal model, the mis-timing of bradyzoite antigens in tachyzoites lacking AP2IV-4 caused a potent inflammatory monocyte immune response that effectively eliminated this parasite and prevented tissue cyst formation in mouse brain tissue. Altogether, these results indicate that suppression of bradyzoite antigens by AP2IV-4 during acute infection is required for Toxoplasma to successfully establish a chronic infection in the immune-competent host

Quenching Effects in the Hadron Spectrum

Lattice QCD has generated a wealth of data in hadronic physics over the last two decades. Until relatively recently, most of this information has been within the "quenched approximation" where virtual quark--anti-quark pairs are neglected. This review presents a descriptive discussion of the effects of removing this approximation in the calculation of hadronic masses.Comment: To appear in "Lattice Hadron Physics", ed. A.C. Kalloniatis, D.B. Leinweber and A.G. William

Management of Agitation During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 has radically altered delivery of care in emergency settings. Unprecedented hardship due to ongoing fears of exposure and threats to personal safety, along with societal measures enacted to curb disease transmission, have had broad psychosocial impact on patients and healthcare workers alike. These changes can significantly affect diagnosing and managing behavioral emergencies such as agitation in the emergency department. On behalf of the American Association for Emergency Psychiatry, we highlight unique considerations for patients with severe behavioral symptoms and staff members managing symptoms of agitation during COVID-19. Early detection and treatment of agitation, precautions to minimize staff hazards, coordination with security personnel and psychiatric services, and avoidance of coercive strategies that cause respiratory depression will help mitigate heightened risks to safety caused by this outbreak

Counting Nilpotent Pairs in Finite Groups: Some Conjectures

The number of nilpotent pairs is determined for a number of small groups

Flight of the Freshwater Fish

Michael H. Wilson Capstone Abstract December 27, 2016 Flight of the Freshwater Fish The Hudson River provides for millions of people as a path for commercial and private transportation, a source of food and energy, and perhaps most importantly for many living in the tri-state area as a destination for recreation and relaxation. The most overlooked feature of the river is how the wildlife shows clear signs of a changing climate and rapid environmental response to the impacts of global warming on the river. Entire populations of fish species in the lower Hudson have been forced to leave the river for colder waters to the north. Most notably the Atlantic Tomcod, which was once plentiful throughout the river has experienced “catastrophic decline” in just 15 years, according to a report from the New York State’s Department of Environmental Conservation. The decline has been attributed mainly to warmer average water temperatures through the river. Complicating the issue, other species of fish, like the Smallmouth Bass, have seen a rapid expansion in the river as the temperatures have warmed to facilitate the population’s movement and growth. These changes are leaving scientists and watershed managers with difficult decisions on how to preserve the fleeing populations while monitoring the growth of other species. Some conservation teams have already begun to intervene to prevent further loss of habitat for the former or to prevent the spread of the invading species. Climate change is contributing to rapid shifts in freshwater ways across the country. What those changes mean for the future are any biologist\u27s guess, but the hard truth is that more change is coming. The hard answer is what will conservationists be able to do about it. This project is primarily a written account of this issue with reporting from local and national scientists on the impacts of global warming on freshwater rivers, lakes and streams in North America. The writing is accompanied by images of the New York State Fisheries team collecting data along the Hudson River. Two animated GIFs of the Hudson River are also included to provide a sense of place for the story. Lastly, I am responsible for all of the HTML and CSS coding of the page, which was written mostly from scratch for this project. Full Site: http://michaelhwilson.com/flight-of-the-freshwater-fish

Automatic Data for Applied Railway Management

In 2009, London Overground management implemented a new tactical plan for a.m. and p.m. peak service on the North London Line (NLL). This paper documents that tactical planning intervention and evaluates its outcomes in terms of certain aspects of service delivery (the operator's perspective on system performance) and service quality (the passenger's perspective). Analyses of service delivery and quality and of passenger demand contributed to the development, proposal, and implementation of the new tactical plan. NLL trains were delayed routinely en route, with excessive dwell time a major cause. Near-random passenger incidence behavior suggested that an even headway service for NLL might have been more appropriate. The confluence of these analyses was confirmed by the corresponding excess journey time results. On the basis of longitudinal analysis, an evaluation showed that on-time performance increased substantially and observed journey time decreased with the introduction of the new plan. Overall, the effects of this implementation appeared to have been positive on balance. This case study thus demonstrated the applicability of automatic data generally, and certain measures and techniques in the London Overground specifically, to support the tactical planning of an urban railway.Transport for London (Organization