New Patterns of Immigrant Settlement in California

Based on 1990-2007 census data, examines changes in the size, composition, and characteristics of the state's new immigrant population; in the areas in which they settle; and in the economic and social factors behind the trends. Considers implications

Implementing experiential learning activities in a large enrollment introductory food science and human nutrition course

Experiential learning activities are often viewed as impractical, and potentially unfeasible, instructional tools to employ in a large class. Research has shown, though, that the metacognitive skills that students utilize while participating in experiential learning activities enable students to assess their true level of understanding and mastery for the subject matter. The objective of this study was to evaluate whether students in a large (~660 person) Introduction to Food Science and Human Nutrition (FSHN 101) course improved their understanding of dietary intake and food safety after participating in two experiential learning activities developed for these course topics. The first activity, completed during class, asked students to select one day???s worth of food from a list of menu choices, calculate the nutritional value of their food choices, and then compare their daily nutritional intake to the dietary reference intakes for their gender, age category and health status. The second activity, completed via the course website, asked students to complete one food safety survey prior to the commencement of the course???s food microbiology section to assess the students' personal food safety behaviors and a second survey upon completion of the section to assess students' knowledge of recommended food safety practices. Students were asked to evaluate both the cognitive and affective aspects of the experiential learning activities by completing a reflective questionnaire after participating in each activity. Overall, students' responses revealed that the activities were effective learning tools and that the students liked engaging with the material on a personal application level. A Poster version of this article can be found in the IDEALS SoTL Presentations and Posters folder.published or submitted for publicationis peer reviewe

The slippage paradox

Buying or selling assets leads to transaction costs for the investor. On one hand, it is well know to all market practionaires that the transaction costs are positive on average and present therefore systematic loss. On the other hand, for every trade, there is a buy side and a sell side, the total amount of asset and the total amount of cash is conserved. I show, that the apparently paradoxical observation of systematic loss of all participants is intrinsic to the trading process since it corresponds to a correlation of outstanding orders and price changes

Topological interactions between ring polymers: Implications for chromatin loops

Chromatin looping is a major epigenetic regulatory mechanism in higher eukaryotes. Besides its role in transcriptional regulation, chromatin loops have been proposed to play a pivotal role in the segregation of entire chromosomes. The detailed topological and entropic forces between loops still remain elusive. Here, we quantitatively determine the potential of mean force between the centers of mass of two ring polymers, i.e. loops. We find that the transition from a linear to a ring polymer induces a strong increase in the entropic repulsion between these two polymers. On top, topological interactions such as the non-catenation constraint further reduce the number of accessible conformations of close-by ring polymers by about 50%, resulting in an additional effective repulsion. Furthermore, the transition from linear to ring polymers displays changes in the conformational and structural properties of the system. In fact, ring polymers adopt a markedly more ordered and aligned state than linear ones. The forces and accompanying changes in shape and alignment between ring polymers suggest an important regulatory function of such a topology in biopolymers. We conjecture that dynamic loop formation in chromatin might act as a versatile control mechanism regulating and maintaining different local states of compaction and order.Comment: 12 pages, 11 figures. The article has been accepted by The Journal Of Chemical Physics. After it is published, it will be found at http://jcp.aip.or

Normativity all the way down: from normative realism to pannormism

In this paper, I provide an argument for pannormism, the view according to which there are normative properties all the way down. In particular, I argue for what I call the trickling down principle, which says that if there is a metaphysically basic normative property, then, if whatever instantiates it has a ground, that ground instantiates it as well