Search

The past two decades have seen a tremendous investment in observational facilities that promise to reveal new and unprecedented discoveries about the universe. In comparison, the investment in theoretical work is completely dwarfed, even though theory plays a crucial role in the interpretation of these observations, predicting new types of phenomena, and informing observing strategies. In this white paper, we argue that in order to reach the promised critical breakthroughs in astrophysics over the next decade and well beyond, the national agencies must take a serious approach to investment in theoretical astrophysics research. We discuss the role of theory in shaping our understanding of the universe, and then we provide a multi-level strategy, from the grassroots to the national, to address the current underinvestment in theory relative to observational work.

In response to the need for the Astro2020 Decadal Survey to explicitly engage early career astronomers, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine hosted the Early Career Astronomer and Astrophysicist Focus Session (ECFS) on October 8-9, 2018 under the auspices of Committee of Astronomy and Astrophysics. The meeting was attended by fifty six pre-tenure faculty, research scientists, postdoctoral scholars, and senior graduate students, as well as eight former decadal survey committee members, who acted as facilitators. The event was designed to educate early career astronomers about the decadal survey process, to solicit their feedback on the role that early career astronomers should play in Astro2020, and to provide a forum for the discussion of a wide range of topics regarding the astrophysics career path. This white paper presents highlights and themes that emerged during two days of discussion. In Section 1, we discuss concerns that emerged regarding the coming decade and the astrophysics career path, as well as specific recommendations from participants regarding how to address them. We have organized these concerns and suggestions into five broad themes. These include (sequentially): (1) adequately training astronomers in the statistical and computational techniques necessary in an era of "big data", (2) responses to the growth of collaborations and telescopes, (3) concerns about the adequacy of graduate and postdoctoral training, (4) the need for improvements in equity and inclusion in astronomy, and (5) smoothing and facilitating transitions between early career stages. Section 2 is focused on ideas regarding the decadal survey itself, including: incorporating early career voices, ensuring diverse input from a variety of stakeholders, and successfully and broadly disseminating the results of the survey.

We have compelling evidence for stellar-mass black holes (BHs) of ~5-80 M_sun that form through the death of massive stars. We also have compelling evidence for so-called supermassive BHs (10^5-10^10 M_sun) that are predominantly found in the centers of galaxies. We have very good reason to believe there must be BHs with masses in the gap between these ranges: the first ~10^9 M_sun BHs are observed only hundreds of millions of years after the Big Bang, and all theoretically viable paths to making supermassive BHs require a stage of "intermediate" mass. However, no BHs have yet been reliably detected in the 100-10}^5 M_sun mass range. Uncovering these intermediate-mass BHs of 10^3-10^5 M_sun is within reach in the coming decade. In this white paper we highlight the crucial role that 30-m class telescopes will play in dynamically detecting intermediate-mass black holes, should they exist.

We argue that it is essential that the Astro2020 survey of the present state of American astronomy and the recommendations for the next decade address the issue of ensuring preservation of, and making more discoverable and accessible, the field’s rich legacy materials. These include both archived observations of scientific value and items of historical importance. Much of this heritage likely will be lost if action is not taken in the next decade. It is proposed that the decadal plan include recommendations on (1) compiling a list of historic sites and development of models for their preservation, (2) carrying out a comprehensive inventory of astronomy’s archival material, and (3) digitizing, with web-based publication, those photographs and papers judged to have the most value for scientific and historical investigations. The estimated cost for an example project on plate preservation is a one-time investment of less than $10 million over ten years plus the typical on-going costs to maintain and manage a medium sized database.

The term sarcopenia was introduced in 1988. The original definition was a "muscle loss" of the appendicular muscle mass in the older people as measured by dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA). In 2010, the definition was altered to be low muscle mass together with low muscle function and this was agreed upon as reported in a number of consensus papers. The Society of Sarcopenia, Cachexia and Wasting Disorders supports the recommendations of more recent consensus conferences, i.e. that rapid screening, such as with the SARC-F questionnaire, should be utilized with a formal diagnosis being made by measuring grip strength or chair stand together with DXA estimation of appendicular muscle mass (indexed for height2). Assessments of the utility of ultrasound and creatine dilution techniques are ongoing. Use of ultrasound may not be easily reproducible. Primary sarcopenia is aging associated (mediated) loss of muscle mass. Secondary sarcopenia (or disease-related sarcopenia) has predominantly focused on loss of muscle mass without the emphasis on muscle function. Diseases that can cause muscle wasting (i.e. secondary sarcopenia) include malignant cancer, COPD, heart failure, and renal failure and others. Management of sarcopenia should consist of resistance exercise in combination with a protein intake of 1 to 1.5 g/kg/day. There is insufficient evidence that vitamin D and anabolic steroids are beneficial. These recommendations apply to both primary (age-related) sarcopenia and secondary (disease related) sarcopenia. Secondary sarcopenia also needs appropriate treatment of the underlying disease. It is important that primary care health professionals become aware of and make the diagnosis of age-related and disease-related sarcopenia. It is important to address the risk factors for sarcopenia, particularly low physical activity and sedentary behavior in the general population, using a life-long approach. There is a need for more clinical research into the appropriate mea

This manuscript is the result of the North American Neuroendocrine Tumor Society consensus conference on the surgical management of pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors from July 19 to 20, 2018. The group reviewed a series of questions of specific interest to surgeons taking care of patients with pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors, and for each, the available literature was reviewed. What follows are these reviews for each question followed by recommendations of the panel.

Allowing the voices of the subjects shine through, this book succeeds due to its clarity and empathy."—Roberto G. Gonzales, Author of Lives in Limbo: Undocumented and Coming of Age in America "By highlighting the ways U.S. immigration ...

This music score was submitted for the Kaleidoscope 2020 Call for Scores, an open access collaboration with the UCLA Music Library.

This music score was submitted for the Kaleidoscope 2020 Call for Scores, an open access collaboration with the UCLA Music Library.

This music score was submitted for the Kaleidoscope 2020 Call for Scores, an open access collaboration with the UCLA Music Library.

Between the more established media ‘epochs’ of mechanical drafting, on the one hand, and computerization on the other, there exists a short but decisive period during which architectural production was technologized in new and understudied ways. An array of graphic ‘supplies’ found their way onto the architects working surface, from the draftsman’s table to the principal’s desk. These supplies, neither instruments nor tools, were the temporal, replaceable and refillable items that joined the many other machines that came to typify the office landscape. Despite a growing literature on the architect’s toolkit, the graphic supplies chain of the postwar office remain overlooked because of their ephemerality and often gizmo scale. As such their omission risks maintaining the historical binaries between conceptual designers and technicians and autonomous and bureaucratic architectures, intrinsic to the introduction of computation. In order to refute these false oppositions and fill the historiographical gap they have produced I argue that the architect’s desk in this period must be recognized as a technologized theater of production. This dissertation bridges the divide and examines how the toolkit became a theoretical problem of authorship, shaped by the longer distinctions between models of authorship and anonymity. Rather than focus on one to the exclusion of the other, this dissertation looks in between, and simultaneously examines one of the most formidably entrenched models of authorship of the period, the one constructed by Peter Eisenman, but also the great network of anonymous supplies, actions, and agents with which he is never associated. The dissertation reveals multiple points of contact between architectural drawing practices and a previously unrecognized network of material research laboratories, tool manufacturers and distributors, trade journals and advertising. Not only were these supplies intrinsic to the development and organization of the bureaucratic

Providing effective healthcare to underrepresented populations is a major challenge worldwide due to environmental, economic, and social disparities. Both developing countries and low income rural/urban areas in the US tend to have reduced healthcare access which limits the frequency and quality of medical screenings as well as treatment options. This has led to an increased effort in the development of point-of-care devices which emphasize, immediate and onsite results. One device that has the potential to fulfill these requirements is the lateral-flow immunoassay (LFA). While the LFA has been successful in the form of the over-the-counter pregnancy test, it still does have some disadvantages that limit its ability to fully replace sophisticated laboratory-based assays. Throughout this thesis, I will be discussing the development of cutting-edge technologies to address the two major disadvantages of the LFA which are its poor quantitative characteristics and low sensitivity.Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leaks are a common complication of numerous procedures in Otolaryngology. These leaks are relatively difficult to diagnose and the current laboratory-based tests to do so have a turn-around time that is unacceptable for rapid clinical decision making. We addressed this problem by developing the first rapid diagnostic test kit for the detection of CSF leaks. In Chapter 2, we describe the development of a barcode-style LFA for the semi-quantitative detection of beta-trace protein, which is present in CSF at high concentrations. This work was expanded upon in Chapter 3, where we created a complete, standalone rapid diagnostic test kit composed of our barcode-style LFA, a collection swab, dilution buffers, disposable pipettes, and instructions. Clinical studies demonstrated excellent predictive capabilities of this kit in distinguishing patient samples containing CSF from those that did not. In some cases, a more quantitative readout than what the barcode-style LFA can achi

Research on reading from digital devices has generally shown a decline in comprehension performance when reading from a digital screen as opposed to reading from paper, under certain conditions—namely, when texts are both longer and when comprehension is measured as deeper-level understanding of text, relying on higher order reading skills rather than merely measuring recall. The present study attempted to replicate previous findings, and to investigate whether comprehension declines are mediated by increased mind wandering when reading from a digital medium compared to when reading from paper. A sample of 169 high school students was given a text to read, either on paper or on a digital tablet. Following the reading, subjects were given two reading tests: one an inference-based comprehension test, the other a recall test. Mind wandering was measured by using a mind wandering probe adapted from Hollis and Was (2016). I did not replicate previous findings: I found no significant relationship between reading condition and inference-based comprehension. Further, no relationship was found between reading condition and mind wandering (i.e., there was not more mind wandering in the digital condition, as I had hypothesized). However, mind wandering was significantly related to inference-based comprehension, and a novel approach to capturing mind wandering in a group setting was successfully implemented. I discuss implications of these findings and possible directions for future research.

This paper reports on the results of a research project that examines how students responded to instructors' comments on academic papers written for a first-year writing course at a large, Midwestern university. Data collected consisted of rough drafts with instructor comments, final drafts of the same papers, and two sets of interviews, one after students had received the teacher's comments, and one after they had revised the final draft. In the interest of contributing to our understanding of what response to student writing does, this study explores student reflections on what they think, feel, and do in response to instructor comments. Findings suggest good reasons for the lack of one-to-one correspondence between an instructor's comments and an improved final draft, and that we may need to look at factors other than revised drafts for evidence of student learning. Keywords: teaching writing, responding, instructor comments, writing process, learning

For 38 years, the IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy has been the premier forum for presenting computer security and electronic privacy developments and for bringing together leading researchers and practitioners. We invited authors to submit revised versions of their symposium papers, recast as articles suitable for publication in IEEE Security & Privacy magazine. Specifically, we asked the original authors to revise their papers to speak to the magazine's audience, which goes beyond the symposium's traditional academically focused audience to also include policymakers and practitioners.

This paper introduces a novel software framework to support automated development of paper-based microuidic devices. Compared to existing lab-on-a-chip technologies, paper-based microuidics difiers in terms of substrate technologies and point-of-care usage across a wide variety environmental conditions. This paper addresses the contexts in which the software can address these challenges and presents several initial case studies that demonstrate the capabilities of the framework to produce workable and usable paper microuidic devices.

Monitoring of High Performance Computing (HPC) platforms is critical to successful operations, can provide insights into performance-impacting conditions, and can inform methodologies for improving science throughput. However, monitoring systems are not generally considered core capabilities in system requirements specifications nor in vendor development strategies. In this paper we present work performed at a number of large-scale HPC sites towards developing monitoring capabilities that fill current gaps in ease of problem identification and root cause discovery. We also present our collective views, based on the experiences presented, on needs and requirements for enabling development by vendors or users of effective sharable end-to-end monitoring capabilities.

Sudden unexpected death of an individual with epilepsy (SUDEP) can pose a challenge to death investigators, as most deaths are unwitnessed and the individual is commonly found dead in bed. Anatomic findings (e.g., tongue/lip bite) are commonly absent and of varying specificity, limiting the evidence to implicate epilepsy as a cause of or contributor to death. Thus, it is likely that death certificates significantly underrepresent the true number of deaths in which epilepsy was a factor. To address this, members of the National Association of Medical Examiners, North American SUDEP Registry, Epilepsy Foundation SUDEP Institute, American Epilepsy Society, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention convened an expert panel to generate evidence-based recommendations for the practice of death investigation and autopsy, toxicological analysis, interpretation of autopsy and toxicology findings, and death certification to improve the precision of death certificate data available for public health surveillance of epilepsy-related deaths. The recommendations provided in this paper are intended to assist medical examiners, coroners, and death investigators when a sudden, unexpected death in a person with epilepsy is encountered.

Sudden unexpected death of an individual with epilepsy can pose a challenge to death investigators, as most deaths are unwitnessed, and the individual is commonly found dead in bed. Anatomic findings (eg, tongue/lip bite) are commonly absent and of varying specificity, thereby limiting the evidence to implicate epilepsy as a cause of or contributor to death. Thus it is likely that death certificates significantly underrepresent the true number of deaths in which epilepsy was a factor. To address this, members of the National Association of Medical Examiners, North American SUDEP Registry, Epilepsy Foundation SUDEP Institute, American Epilepsy Society, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention constituted an expert panel to generate evidence-based recommendations for the practice of death investigation and autopsy, toxicological analysis, interpretation of autopsy and toxicology findings, and death certification to improve the precision of death certificate data available for public health surveillance of epilepsy-related deaths. The recommendations provided in this paper are intended to assist medical examiners, coroners, and death investigators when a sudden unexpected death in a person with epilepsy is encountered.

Occult caustic ingestion in the pediatric population is a challenging diagnosis to make in the emergency department. Failure to suspect and diagnose a caustic ingestion can lead to potentially life-changing comorbidities. Historically, the diagnosis of caustic ingestion has been clinical without any suitable diagnostic tools to aid in the suspicion of occult cases. In this case, we describe a novel use of ophthalmic pH paper to diagnose caustic ingestion in a three-year-old.

The purpose of this project is to cut a window in the opaque edifice of medical liability for young and aspiring OBGYNs to peer through. In addition to reviewing a wealth of literature on medical liability, I interviewed a diverse collection of OBGYNs at UCSD about their experiences with and views of medical malpractice. By integrating these narratives with the literature. This paper attempts to capture three perspectives that, I hope, offer greater texture and deeper understanding to young clinicians trying to make sense of medical liability: 1) What it feels like to be sued and the challenges associated with coping on the job; 2) What advice physicians have to avoid being sued (and a note on attorneys); 3) Where our system of medical liability falls short and how it might be improved.

Racial classification is relational, and it is constructed and contested as both an identity and as an ascribed category. In this three-part dissertation, I examine racial classification in São Paulo, Brazil, and argue that we can leverage survey data on racial classification to reach a more nuanced understanding of racial boundaries.Paper 1: Because racial classification is relational, we must examine both sides of the relationship, and yet most studies on ascription do not consider the ways in which the ascriber’s traits matter for classificatory outcomes. Using a quasi-experimental design, I examine how statuses of both the classifier and of the person being classified matter for racial attribution. I find that high-status biographies paired with a racially ambiguous face have a higher likelihood of white (versus pardo) racial attribution. I also find that educational achievement is significantly predictive of seeing whiteness in others—irrespective of the phenotype, self-identification, or the social status of the person being classified.Paper 2: Drawing on a large-scale survey linked to census-tract data, I examine how classification can operate asymmetrically across different racial boundaries. I compare the effects of various individual-level and neighborhood-level traits on the chances of having one’s racial identity contested by an observer. I show that social status does not have a uniform effect, mattering greatly for the boundary between white and pardo, and much less for the boundary between pardo and black. I also find that individuals living in richer or more educated neighborhoods—even when controlling for individual status—are more likely to be whitened, and less likely to have their white identities challenged.Paper 3: In this paper, I demonstrate how we can leverage racial mismatch data to study the everyday impact of institutions (in this case, the police) on individual racial identity. With a combination of survey and census data, I show how sel

Fluorescence-guided surgery (FGS) and other interventions are rapidly evolving as a class of technologically driven interventional approaches in which many surgical specialties visualize fluorescent molecular tracers or biomarkers through associated cameras or oculars to guide clinical decisions on pathological lesion detection and excision/ablation. The technology has been commercialized for some specific applications, but also presents technical challenges unique to optical imaging that could confound the utility of some interventional procedures where real-time decisions must be made. Accordingly, the AAPM has initiated the publication of this Blue Paper of The Emerging Technology Working Group (TETAWG) and the creation of a Task Group from the Therapy Physics Committee within the Treatment Delivery Subcommittee. In describing the relevant issues, this document outlines the key parameters, stakeholders, impacts, and outcomes of clinical FGS technology and its applications. The presentation is not intended to be conclusive, but rather to inform the field of medical physics and stimulate the discussions needed in the field with respect to a seemingly low-risk imaging technology that has high potential for significant therapeutic impact. This AAPM Task Group is working toward consensus around guidelines and standards for advancing the field safely and effectively.

This contribution provides an introduction to a sequence of five papers (CCE I- CCE V) that describe the impact of the Warm Anomaly of 2014–15 and El Niño 2015–16 on the pelagic food web of the southern California Current Ecosystem. These contributions analyze the influence of these two warm water perturbations on satellite-based measures of ocean fronts, export efficiency out of the euphotic zone, copepod egg production, mesozooplankton community structure, and a synthesis of primary production, mesozooplankton grazing, and gravitational fluxes of organic carbon.

Human blood is a self-regenerating lipid-rich biological fluid that is routinely collected in hospital settings. The inventory of lipid molecules found in blood plasma (plasma lipidome) offers insights into individual metabolism and physiology in health and disease. Disturbances in the plasma lipidome also occur in conditions that are not directly linked to lipid metabolism; therefore, plasma lipidomics based on MS is an emerging tool in an array of clinical diagnostics and disease management. However, challenges exist in the translation of such lipidomic data to clinical applications. These relate to the reproducibility, accuracy, and precision of lipid quantitation, study design, sample handling, and data sharing. This position paper emerged from a workshop that initiated a community-led process to elaborate and define a set of generally accepted guidelines for quantitative MS-based lipidomics of blood plasma or serum, with harmonization of data acquired on different instrumentation platforms across independent laboratories as an ultimate goal. We hope that other fields may benefit from and follow such a precedent.

Web-based interventions that promote physical activity have been tested in various populations and proven effective. However, information on recruiting and retaining ethnic minorities in these interventions is limited. This study discusses practical issues in recruitment and retention of Asian Americans using three strategies: (1) only Web-based intervention (Group 1), (2) one with Fitbit Charge HR (Group 2), and (3) one with Fitbit Charge HR and office visits (Group 3). Recruitment and retention rates, minutes of weekly research team meetings, and the researchers' memos were collected. Retention rates were analyzed using descriptive statistics, and the minutes and memos were content analyzed following Weber's methods. Retention rates varied by the end of the first (12% in Group 3, 36.9% in Group 2) and third month (0% in Group 3, 36.9% in Group 2). The practical issues were (1) difficulties in recruitment across strategies, (2) the necessity of using community consultants/leaders across strategies, (3) subethnic differences across strategies, (4) timing issues across strategies, (5) Fitbit as a facilitator with several hindrances, and (6) office visits as an inhibitor. Fitbits with user guidelines and community consultants'/leaders' involvement are proposed for future Web-based interventions to promote physical activity in Asian Americans.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse Genetics and Epigenetics Cross-Cutting Research Team convened a diverse group of researchers, clinicians, and healthcare providers on the campus of the University of California, San Diego, in June 2018. The goal was to develop strategies to integrate genetics and phenotypes across species to achieve a better understanding of substance use disorders through associations between genotypes and addictive behaviors. This conference (a) discussed progress in harmonizing large opioid genetics cohorts, (b) discussed phenotypes that are used for genetics studies in humans, (c) examined phenotypes that are used for genetics studies in animal models, (d) identified synergies and gaps in phenotypic analyses of human and animal models and (e) identified strategies to integrate genetics and genomics data with phenotypes across species. The meeting consisted of panels that focused on phenotype harmonization (Dr. Laura Bierut, Dr. Olivier George, Dr. Dan Larach and Dr. Sesh Mudumbai), translating genetic findings between species (Dr. Elissa Chesler, Dr. Gary Peltz and Dr. Abraham Palmer), interpreting and understanding allelic variations (Dr. Vanessa Troiani and Dr. Tamara Richards) and pathway conservation in animal models and human studies (Dr. Robert Hitzemann, Dr. Huda Akil and Dr. Laura Saba). There were also updates that were provided by large consortia (Dr. Susan Tapert, Dr. Danielle Dick, Dr. Howard Edenberg and Dr. Eric Johnson). Collectively, the conference was convened to discuss progress and changes in genome-wide association studies.

This study examines data from the California EMS Information System (CEMSIS) to identify factors that influence prehospital time for EMS events related to motor vehicle collisions (MVCs). While only 19 percent of the United States population resides in rural areas, over half of all traffic fatalities involve rural motor vehicle collisions. Rural and urban MVCs result in similar injury severities, however relative inaccessibility of trauma centers and prehospital EMS time (activation, response, and transport time) likely contribute to the generally higher mortality rate in rural areas. For the present study, 24 CEMSIS data variables were requested, many of which involved missing data, which severely restricted the potential analysis of the impact of EMS response times. However, the findings did show that average overall EMS time (including response, scene and transport time) were approximately twice as long for collisions in rural zip codes compared with urban zip codes. Several limitations influence the interpretation of these results. Data on prehospital EMS times is missing for much of the state—even for zip codes with records of EMS events, data is likely incomplete. In addition, zip code level location data is insufficient for adequate study of the effects of the built environment and road network on prehospital time. Furthermore, according to the National EMS Information System (NEMSIS) User Manual, the national dataset suffers from selection and information bias, which are likely also present in the CEMSIS data. Although the present study cannot analyze the effect of longer prehospital times on patient outcome, other research has found that longer prehospital times may negatively impact patient health. Recommendations for reducing time from injury to appropriate medical care in rural areas include improving cell phone coverage, compliance of rural 911 center with FCC wireless, use of GPS technology, and integration of automatic vehicle location and computer ai

We measure the effects of six citywide minimum wages that ranged up to $13 in Chicago, the District of Columbia, Oakland, San Francisco, San Jose and Seattle, employing event study and synthetic control methods. Using aggregate data on average earnings and employment in the food services industry, we find significantly positive earnings increases and no significant employment losses. While such evidence suggests the policies raised the earnings of low-wage workers, as intended, a competing explanation is that the industry responds to wage increases by increasing their demand for more productive higher-wage workers, offsetting low-wage layoffs (i.e., labor-labor substitution). To tackle this key question, we present a theoretical framework that connects the responses estimated at the industry-level to the own- and cross-wage labor demand elasticities that summarize the total effect of the policies on workers. Using a calibration exercise, we find that the combination of average earnings gains and constant employment cannot be produced by labor-labor substitution unless there are also effects on hours. To test whether the minimum wage increases demand for higher-wage workers or reduces low-wage workers’ hours, we examine the effects of California’s recent state and local minimum wage policies on the food services industry. There we find no evidence of labor-labor substitution or hours responses. Thus, the most likely explanation for the responses we find in the cities is that the industry’s demand for low-wage workers is inelastic, and the policies raised their earnings.

Midlife mortality has risen steadily in the U.S. since the 1990s for non-Hispanic whites without a bachelor’s degree, and since 2013 for Hispanics and African-Americans who lack a bachelor’s degree. These increases largely reflect increased mortality from alcohol poisoning, drug overdose and suicide. We investigate whether these “deaths of despair” trends have been mitigated by two key policies aimed at raising incomes for low wage workers: the minimum wage and the earned income tax credit (EITC). To do so, we leverage state variation in policies over time to estimate difference-in-differences models of drug overdose deaths and suicides, using data on cause-specific mortality rates from 1999-2015. Our causal models find no significant effects of the minimum wage and EITC on drug-related mortality. However, higher minimum wages and EITCs significantly reduce non-drug suicides. A 10 percent increase in the minimum wage reduces non-drug suicides among adults with high school or less by 3.6 percent; a 10 percent increase in the EITC reduces suicides among this group by 5.5 percent. Our estimated models do not find significant effects for a college-educated placebo sample. Event-study models confirm parallel pre-trends, further supporting the validity of our causal research design. Our estimates suggest that increasing both the minimum wage and the EITC by 10 percent would likely prevent a combined total of around 1230 suicides each year.

A proposal to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 by 2024 would increase the relative minimum wage – the ratio to the national median wage– to about .68. In Alabama and Mississippi, our two lowest-wage states, the relative minimum wage would rise to .77 and .85, respectively. Yet research on state-level minimum wage policies does not extend beyond $10; the highest studied state-level relative minimum wage is .59. To close this gap we study minimum wage effects in counties and PUMAs where relative minimum wage ratios already reach as high as .82. Using ACS data since 2005 and 51 events, we sort counties and PUMAs according to their relative minimum wages and bites. We report average results for all the events in our sample, and separately for those with lower and higher impacts. We find positive wage effects but do not detect adverse effects on employment, weekly hours or annual weeks worked. We do not find negative employment effects among women, blacks and/or Hispanics. We do find substantial declines in household and child poverty.

How can librarians engage with the concept of collections in new ways? One answer to this question may be expanding the definition of collection management to include active creation and remixing of our collections. Taking on the role of data creator changes the narrative of what libraries do, enables librarians to model metadata creation standards and licensing best practices, and transforms existing analog collections into research-ready data collections. As a GIS and map librarian interested in these issues, I developed a project to scan physical maps from library collections and transform them into a GIS database covering 20th century Mongolia. The project resulted in a useful set of data for researchers, best practices that can be used in other similar projects, and an expanded concept of what it means to curate a geospatial collection.

This document provides a brief report of activities conducted as part of the final capstone project for submission to Scripps Institution of Oceanography’s Master of Advanced Studies graduate degree program in Marine Biodiversity and Conservation. The project: Designing a Marine Management Plan for Fish Reproduction Zones of Curaçao, Lesser Antilles, was completed with the support of the Waitt Institute, CARMABI Institute, and Curaçao’s Ministry of Health, Environment and Nature. It was drafted using successful previous management plans as a reference and was edited and finalized after site visits and stakeholder engagement. The Fish Reproduction Zone Management Plan will be submitted to the Ministry for consideration as well as submitted with this report for review and evaluation by the Capstone Advisory Committee.

The Great Andromeda Galaxy (M31) is the nexus of the near-far galaxy evolution connection and a principal data point for near-field cosmology. Due to its proximity (780 kpc), M31 can be resolved into individual stars like the Milky Way (MW). Unlike the MW, we have the advantage of a global view of M31, enabling M31 to be observed with techniques that also apply to more distant galaxies. Moreover, recent evidence suggests that M31 may have survived a major merger within the last several Gyr, shaping the morphology of its stellar halo and triggering a starburst, while leaving the stellar disk largely intact. The MW and M31 thus provide complementary opportunities for in-depth studies of the disks, halos, and satellites of L* galaxies. Our understanding of the M31 system will be transformed in the 2020s if they include wide field facilities for both photometry (HST-like sensitivity and resolution) and spectroscopy (10-m class telescope, >1 sq. deg. field, highly multiplexed, R~ 3000 to 6000). We focus here on the power of these facilities to constrain the past, present, and future merger history of M31, via chemo-dynamical analyses and star formation histories of phase-mixed stars accreted at early times, as well as stars in surviving tidal debris features, M31's extended disk, and intact satellite galaxies that will eventually be tidally incorporated into the halo. This will yield an unprecedented view of the hierarchical formation of the M31 system and the subhalos that built it into the L* galaxy we observe today.

Nearly a century after the discovery that we live in an expanding Universe, and two decades after the discovery of accelerating cosmic expansion, there remains no direct detection of this acceleration via redshift drift - a change in the cosmological expansion velocity versus time. Because cosmological redshift drift directly determines the Hubble parameter H(z), it is arguably the cleanest possible measurement of the expansion history, and has the potential to constrain dark energy models (e.g. Kim et al. 2015). The challenge is that the signal is small - the best observational constraint presently has an uncertainty several orders of magnitude larger than the expected signal (Darling 2012). Nonetheless, direct detection of redshift drift is becoming feasible, with upcoming facilities such as the ESO-ELT and SKA projecting possible detection within two to three decades. This timescale is uncomfortably long given the potential of this cosmological test. With dedicated experiments it should be possible to rapidly accelerate progress and detect redshift drift with only a five-year observational baseline. Such a facility would also be ideal for precision radial velocity measurements of exoplanets, which could be obtained as a byproduct of the ongoing calibration measurements for the experiment.

We propose an experiment, the Cosmic Accelerometer, designed to yield velocity precision of $\leq 1$ cm/s with measurement stability over years to decades. The first-phase Cosmic Accelerometer, which is at the scale of the Astro2020 Small programs, will be ideal for precision radial velocity measurements of terrestrial exoplanets in the Habitable Zone of Sun-like stars. At the same time, this experiment will serve as the technical pathfinder and facility core for a second-phase larger facility at the Medium scale, which can provide a significant detection of cosmological redshift drift on a 6-year timescale. This larger facility will naturally provide further detection/study of Earth twin planet systems as part of its external calibration process. This experiment is fundamentally enabled by a novel low-cost telescope technology called PolyOculus, which harnesses recent advances in commercial off the shelf equipment (telescopes, CCD cameras, and control computers) combined with a novel optical architecture to produce telescope collecting areas equivalent to standard telescopes with large mirror diameters. Combining a PolyOculus array with an actively-stabilized high-precision radial velocity spectrograph provides a unique facility with novel calibration features to achieve the performance requirements for the Cosmic Accelerometer.

This dissertation offers a new narrative on the history of public debt in late Qing and Republican-era China (1850 – 1914), highlighting its links with late Qing and Republican political economy. A history of economic ideas and institutions, the dissertation draws from official and diplomatic communications, contemporary newspapers and journals, academic studies and private letters to explore the process of its embedment into Chinese fiscal system and its evolution in China as a set of discourses and practice, including its reception by officials, merchants and general public, and its adjustment to established discourses of political economy in late Qing and Republican China.Adopting an expansive conception of public debt to include related public credit mechanisms and discourses, the dissertation traces the impact of pre-1850 official debates on late 19th Century Chinese officials’ ambivalence towards modern public debt. It argues that a domestic intellectual and policy reorientation in favour of growth was needed and mostly achieved before Qing’s military defeat in 1895, paving the way for large-scale borrowing that in turn reconfigured state-society relations in late Qing. The dissertation also investigates how mid-Victorian liberal discourses on public debt were co-opted by Chinese reformists, which in their modified form of political and fiscal accountability, proved to be effective in dominating late Qing and Republican discourses on public debt.This dissertation is one of the first English-language studies discussing the evolution of economic ideas surrounding Chinese public debt. Recounting China’s historical experiences with public debt, and discourses on political economy that resulted from these experiences would promote a more layered understanding of public debt’s role for peripheral economies in the late 19th and 20th Century.

xThis dissertation examines the role of law in the formation of China’s earliest empires (221 BCE-220 CE). Using thousands of manuscripts written on bamboo and wood which have been excavated in China in the several decades, I argue that legal practice was central to the formation of imperial identity. Building on theoretical insights from the anthropology of paperwork, as well as from recent studies of manuscript culture, I argue that legal manuscripts can be read not only as representations or records of social conditions, but as material objects whose production and circulation itself constituted new forms of sociality. Eschewing a conventional law and society approach, my dissertation follows a diverse array of actors —women, servants, magistrates, foreigners and family members— as they use practices of writing and law to lodge claims of status, identity, kinship, and property. In linking newly excavated manuscripts with discussions of law and materiality, this dissertation aims to challenge multiple orthodoxies derived from notions of European legal and bureaucratic modernity. Accounts of early law have long cited certain types of legal text, such as penal statutes, as evidence for the idea that early law was informed by the rationality of state and directed at social control. By locating legal practice not in state sanction but in the circulation of legal manuscripts, I am able to reframe this persistent debate to take account both of newly discovered manuscripts and also to interpret receive sources in new ways. My dissertation thus complements and provides crucial context for revisionist trends in the historiography of imperial China that query the central presumption of despotism and legal orientalism. By linking law to material practices, I am further able to sidestep teleological narratives of rationalization and state control, and to provide a plausible explanation of why imperial legal culture could persist both beyond the geographic reach of the imperia

MegaMapper is a proposed ground-based experiment to measure Inflation parameters and Dark Energy from galaxy redshifts at 2

Motivated by the need to predict how the Arctic atmosphere will change in a warming world, this article summarizes recent advances made by the research consortium NETCARE (Network on Climate and Aerosols: Addressing Key Uncertainties in Remote Canadian Environments) that contribute to our fundamental understanding of Arctic aerosol particles as they relate to climate forcing. The overall goal of NETCARE research has been to use an interdisciplinary approach encompassing extensive field observations and a range of chemical transport, earth system, and biogeochemical models. Several major findings and advances have emerged from NETCARE since its formation in 2013. (1) Unexpectedly high summertime dimethyl sulfide (DMS) levels were identified in ocean water (up to 75 nM) and the overlying atmosphere (up to 1 ppbv) in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago (CAA). Furthermore, melt ponds, which are widely prevalent, were identified as an important DMS source (with DMS concentrations of up to 6 nM and a potential contribution to atmospheric DMS of 20 % in the study area). (2) Evidence of widespread particle nucleation and growth in the marine boundary layer was found in the CAA in the summertime, with these events observed on 41 % of days in a 2016 cruise. As well, at Alert, Nunavut, particles that are newly formed and grown under conditions of minimal anthropogenic influence during the months of July and August are estimated to contribute 20 % to 80 % of the 30-50 nm particle number density. DMS-oxidation-driven nucleation is facilitated by the presence of atmospheric ammonia arising from seabird-colony emissions, and potentially also from coastal regions, tundra, and biomass burning. Via accumulation of secondary organic aerosol (SOA), a significant fraction of the new particles grow to sizes that are active in cloud droplet formation. Although the gaseous precursors to Arctic marine SOA remain poorly defined, the measured levels of common continental SOA precursors (isoprene

We provide an overview of the science case, instrument configuration and project plan for the next-generation ground-based cosmic microwave background experiment CMB-S4, for consideration by the 2020 Decadal Survey.