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Bureaucratic confusion and client dissatisfaction since the 1996 changes in welfare policy opened opportunities for third party advocacy on behalf of welfare clients. This paper evaluates Los Angeles ACORN's case advocacy program for welfare clients. Outcomes analyzed include client satisfaction with ACORN's advocacy and effects of the program on welfare clients who later became ACORN members. Ninety-one percent of clients surveyed (N = 99) stated they were satisfied with the resolution of their welfare case complaint. Eighty-eight percent of respondents stated ACORN did a better job resolving their problem compared to the welfare department. Unique aspects of the program include peer advocacy and opportunities for welfare recipients to join ACORN and work on welfare policy changes among other issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban encroachment into areas historically reserved for oil and gas field operations is an ever-present problem within the Los Angeles Basin. The recent frenzy in real estate development has only intensified what can be characterized as a conflict in land usage. Subsurface mineral rights are severed from surface ownership, often resulting in developments being approved without adequate consideration of the underlying oil and gas field consequences. Also, surface operations are frequently co-located within residential areas without consideration of the health and safety consequences of emissions of toxics to air. This paper presents a review of the environmental, health and safety hazards posed by urban oilfield operations, with an emphasis upon the lessons learned from the “L.A. Basin: Original Urban Oilfield Legend” (see Castle and Yerkes 1976; Denton and others 2001; Endres and others 2002; Kouznetsov and others 1994; Katz and others 1994; Schumacher and Abrams 1994; and Schoell 1983). The Los Angeles Basin has provided the authors with one of the largest natural laboratories in the world for studying the consequences of these issues. The results presented are part of a long-term research program based upon the application of geoscience and petroleum engineering principles in obtaining a fundamental understanding of the root causes of the environmental hazards posed. Topics addressed include: (1) vertical migration of gas to the surface along faults and improperly completed or abandoned wellbores (e.g., due to poor cementing practices), (2) subsidence caused by the fluid production and declining reservoir pressures, (3) soil and groundwater contamination resulting from historic oil and gas field operations, and (4) air toxics resulting from surface operations. A number of case histories are discussed that illustrate the seriousness of the problem. A clear case is made for the urgent need for closer coordination and education by the petroleum industry of the local government planning departments. These departments have the principal role in determining land use policies, acting as the lead agency in performing environmental site assessments (e.g., under the California Environmental Quality Act), and in establishing mitigation measures for dealing with the long-term environmental hazards. This paper establishes prudent practices on the part of oilfield operators for the monitoring and mitigation of these hazards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Education Policy Analysis Archives / Archivos Analíticos de Políticas Educativas / Arquivos Analíticos de Políticas Educativas is the property of Educational Policy Analysis Archives & Education Review and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Railway Standard Design is the property of Railway Standard Design Editorial Office and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Many megacities are exposed to natural hazards such as earthquakes, and when located in coastal regions, are also vulnerable to hurricanes and tsunamis. The physical infrastructures of transportation systems in megacities have become so complicated that very few organizations can understand their response to extreme events such as earthquakes and can effectively mitigate subsequent economic downfalls. The technological advances made in recent years to support these complex systems have not grown as fast as the rapid demand on these systems burdened by population shift toward megacities. The objective of this paper is to examine the risks imposed on and recoveries of transportation systems in megacities as the result of extreme events such as an earthquake. First, the physical damage to transportation infrastructure, loss of the transportation system performance, and the corresponding economic loss from disruptions to passenger and freight traffic is evaluated. Then, traffic flows are re-routed to reduce vehicles' delay due to earthquakes using a microscopic traffic flow simulator with an optimization model and macroscopic terminal simulator. Finally, the economic impact of the earthquake is estimated nationwide. Southern California is regarded as the region of study. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the integrated model and provide what and how to prepare innovative resilience policies of urban infrastructure for a natural disaster occurrence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to the increasing frequency of urban rebellions and rising crime rates, President Lyndon Johnson announced a War on Crime in 1965, inaugurating the modernization of criminal justice systems nationwide. Buoyed by federal monetary support from the newly formed Law Enforcement Assistance Administration (LEAA), Los Angeles County attempted to develop a massive information sharing system to efficiently track suspects and expedite criminal record file-sharing within the county's criminal justice bureaucracy. However, both projects failed. The failure of the Regional Justice Information System (RJIS) and the Optimum Records Automation for Courts and Law Enforcement (ORACLE) reveals the contingency surrounding the development of massive surveillance systems during the War on Crime and shows that the modern criminal justice surveillance state was not inevitable. Ultimately, it exposes the limits of criminal justice modernization and surveillance during the largest federal investment in local crime control in U.S. history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of diuretic renography has become central in cases of upper tract dilatation, and in the first paper in this section the difficulties in interpreting results in asymptomatic congenital hydronephrosis are examined. These difficulties and controversies exist despite the presence of guidelines and consensus protocols, probably because renography procedures differ among centres. The authors found that there is a need for renography to be standardized for the optimum value to be obtained from the procedure.There are three papers from Los Angeles which attempt to standardize the measurement of bladder compliance, from both the theoretical and clinical perspective, and which assess the detrusor pressure rise of a normal bladder when filled to capacity.To discuss the main steps of renographic technique and underline some pitfalls related to the acquisition, processing and interpretation of diuretic renography, an important method for guiding the management of asymptomatic congenital hydronephrosis.Despite guidelines and consensus protocols, renographic procedures differ among centres, causing difficulties in comparison and controversy in the interpretation of results. Thus we comprehensively assessed published papers on the subject of diuretic renography.Differential renal function (DRF) is a robust measure provided there is adequate background subtraction. Pitfalls are related to the drawing of regions of interest, particularly in infants, to estimating the interval during which DRF is calculated, and to an adequate signal-to-noise ratio. There is no definition of a‘significant’ reduction in DRF. The classical variables of the diuretic renogram may not allow an estimate of the best drainage. Poor pelvic emptying may be apparent because the bladder is full and because the effect of gravity on drainage is incomplete. Estimating the drainage as residual activity rather than any parameter on the slope might be more adequate, especially if the time of frusemide administration is changed. Renal function and pelvic volume can influence the quality of drainage. Drainage may be better estimated using new tools.Provided the investigation is standardized and potential pitfalls accounted for, the diuretic renogram provides valuable and reproducible quantitative information on DRF and drainage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Various techniques have been offered to measure the extent of a market. This paper uses a technique that has gained momentum in the economic growth literature, namely time-series convergence, to identify housing markets in the LA region. Using single-family housing price data over the 1992:1 to 2001:3 period, we find that convergence of housing prices is specific to various county clusters. This suggests that there are unique housing markets throughout the LA region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last thirty years, ethnic museums have mushroomed in American cities. Although this is certainly a national phenomenon, it has been particularly evident in Los Angeles. In this paper we examine the genesis and evolution of these emerging institutions. We survey the mission, scope, and role of ethnic museums in Los Angeles, and we contrast them with the stated mission and scope of "mainstream" museums in the city. We further present case studies of three Los Angeles ethnic museums. The museums vary considerably in the ways they perceive their role in the community, the city, and the nation and in the preservation and display of ethnic culture. At their best, ethnic museums serve to make new art and histories more accessible and visible and provide a forum in which to debate contemporary issues of polities and identity. The paper highlights some of the tensions faced by ethnic museums as they seek to define their audience and role(s) in multi-ethnic, twenty-first century Los Angeles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper employs 1994-1996 California Drug Use Forecasting (CALDUF) and 1994 Los Angeles County Mexican Immigrant Residency Status Survey (LAC-MIRSS) data to estimate the level and determinants of drug-related and economic crime among unauthorized Latino immigrant and other arrestees in California. Controlling for various potential individual, contextual and geographic determinants, logistic regression results suggest the use of illicit drugs, having entered the United States more recently and residing in a home without paying any rent or mortgage positively-and residing in a home where another is dependent on an illegal substance negatively-influenced being apprehended for a drug-related crime. Although being an unauthorized Latino resident also had no effect on having been arrested for an economic crime, U.S.-born blacks and Latinos as well as non-Latino immigrants were each more likely than non-Latino U.S.-born whites to be arrested, as were younger females. Working full time and depending on another for a place to live diminished the probability. In sum, although illicit drug use augmented the probability of having been arrested for a drugrelated crime, neither this nor unauthorized residency status among Latinos increased the likelihood of being arrested for an economic crime. A concluding section discusses several policy implications. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper provides insight into planning, promoting, and conducting a PDA technology fair. The author describes her experience conducting two PDA fairs at the University of Southern California (USC) Health Sciences Campus in Los Angeles. The USC Norris Medical Library, which has had a campus leadership role in investigating and promoting new technologies, hosted these fairs as an extension of this role. The overall goal of the fairs was to introduce PDAs to a wide audience and to promote handhold technology in the hospital and academic settings. The fairs featured vendor exhibits and demonstrations. Both Palm OS and Pocket PC handhelds were showcased, along with software and accessories for these devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the implementation of post-disaster US federal assistance programmes for residential reconstruction and investigates the relationship between socio-demographic characteristics of places and access to residential assistance following the Northridge earthquake that hit Los Angeles in 1994. The paper also examines the effects of the distribution of assistance on long-term recovery outcomes. Findings suggest that areas with high levels of socially marginalised populations were at a disadvantage in accessing federal residential assistance. Findings also show that the long-term effects of the earthquake differed depending on levels of assistance relative to damage. Areas that received less assistance experienced losses in population and housing units. These findings indicate that post-disaster recovery programmes in the US do not adequately address the wide range of housing needs that emerge in the case of a major disaster in a large metropolitan area. Implications for post-disaster planning as well as for planning under everyday conditions are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Service delivery to dually diagnosed individuals is often impeded by the divergent treatment approaches used by mental health and substance misuse treatment providers. This paper describes findings from a survey of mental health and substance misuse treatment program administrators and staff in Los Angeles County (n=275) on their views about treating the dually diagnosed. All groups agreed about the challenges of treating dually diagnosed patients; however, there were differences both between and within providers in the two treatment systems on other aspects of treatment. The findings arc discussed within the context of clinical and programmatic efforts to improve service delivery to the dually diagnosed. Key Words: Dual diagnosis; Treatment approaches; Mental health treatment; Substance misuse treatment; Service delivery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Addressing the issue of the embeddedness of labour markets, this paper compares the processes of finding employment in the film industry within two local labour markets. Drawing on studies of freelance film crews in London (UK) and Los Angeles (US), the paper concludes that the importance of social networks in job mobility in both contexts is a consequence of common production structures. However, common labour market practice varies in each geographical space as industry processes and structures are mediated by local institutional contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper first introduces the key players involved in the deployment of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) technologies in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The paper then reports the local deployment status of major Advanced Public Transportation Systems (APTS) projects, with a particular emphasis placed on the burgeoning Los Angeles Smart Shuttle Demonstration Project. In addition, the paper analyzes some technical, political, financial and other issues centering around the deployment of APTS technologies in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers a critique of the recent work on global economic and state restructuring in the broader political economy literature. It argues that much of this work, because of its theoretical reliance on regulation theory, offers only a partial account of the state and state restructuring. The paper offers a framework for understanding state restructuring and the state's role in economic regulation that adds more explicitly political imperatives to the existing regulation account. The methodological goals of the regulationist literature have led it to focus too heavily on the reproduction of capitalist relations as the primary object of state policies and institutions. That focus should be enlarged to include an explicit analysis of the important element of state-citizen relations. In addition to helping reproduce capitalist relations, state policies must also reproduce a condition of political legitimacy between state and citizen in order to ensure the continued reproduction of state institutions and state sovereignty. While the statecitizen relation is closely bound up with economic relations, it also includes non-economic, more purely political aspects. I argue that the imperative of state-citizen legitimacy will play an important role in how the state is restructured in the present crisis. The paper ends by offering a case study of the local state in Los Angeles in order to illustrate how state-citizen political legitimacy can play an important role in state restructuring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates linkages between social capital and physical capital as an approach toward capacity building. It examines the revitalisation efforts of the Los Angeles Neighborhood Initiative (LANI) communities with mixed outcomes. Various stages of capacity building in these communities can be attributed to the observed social capital and physical capital stocks. While areas with higher doses of social and physical capital built new capacities, neighbourhoods with lower stocks of social capital faced intense social divisions and factionalism. As an implication for public policy the paper concludes that investments on physical capital could sometimes become catalysts for generating or augmenting social capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to understand why secession movements gained momentum in Los Angeles and what their effect will be on regional governance. A brief discussion of liberal theories of secession demonstrates that they cannot explain secession movements at the urban scale, as they are exclusively focused on cases of nationalist secession from a nation-state. Furthermore, liberal theories of secession offer normative arguments on the right to secede. Following a change in California legislation granting municipalities the right to secede, the secessionist debate in Los Angeles is not so much concerned with normative issues, but more with devising an effective and revenue-neutral process for secession. Using a threefold theoretical approach based on theories of secession, regulation theory and theories of state rescaling, and theories of social movements, this paper argues that the 'political opportunity structures' provided by globalisation and the prevalent neo-conservatism, might explain how secession movements in Los Angeles were able to mobilise large efforts to their cause. We hold that globalisation has forced cities to re-open the debate on size and governance. Secession movements have been very successful in raising public awareness on the issue. Their strength lies mostly in their populism, well in tune with the prevalent wave of neo-conservatism. These movements use arguments well grounded in Southern California's complex history of regional fragmentation and consolidation. As a social project of the Right, they offer secession as a potential 'solution' to the problems of urban governance in the age of globalisation, in a context of simultaneous consolidation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Concern over possible inequities in the siting of noxious facilities leads us to study spatial patterns of distribution of hazardous waste treatment, storage, and disposal facilities (TSDs). Inasmuch as such patterns are inextricably linked to particular land-use institutions, our focus is jurisdiction-specific, in this case, concentrated on the city of Los Angeles. Problems with statistical confounding require some effort at ordinary least-squares model specification and diagnostics. The paper addresses the simultaneity of effects due to demographics and zoning, and we employ a two-stage least-squares procedure to address the possibility that both the siting and industrial zoning are endogenously determined. The results suggest a significant correlation between prevalence of TSDs and the proportion of Latino residents. The political implications of such results are unquestionable, and analyses such as this can be used in conjunction with a greater body of evidence supporting the call for reform. We show how the statistical analysis might also be useful for formulating fair-share criteria for screening locations in the site selection/screening process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Is it possible to demonstrate a link between a pilot public awareness program for earthquake-related education and an increase in community safety, preparedness, and loss prevention efforts? This paper describes a pilot earthquake education, preparedness and mitigation project, the “ANNA-SCEC Earthquake Watch,” funded in part by the University of Southern California Neighborhood Outreach nonprofit corporation and Southern California Earthquake Center, a National Science Foundation Science and Technology Center. The yearlong project targeted residents in a neighborhood located in the heart of Los Angeles. Together they cohosted presentations by earthquake experts at monthly neighborhood association meetings, created a neighborhood earthquake response and recovery plan, learned how to start earthquake-related small businesses, and conducted a public earthquake safety fair that attracted hundreds of residents and local media coverage. They distributed published information on earthquake preparedness and leveraged available funds to help other neighborhoods start similar programs. Preproject and postproject research was conducted to document the effectiveness of the project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Los Angeles Air Force Base Electric Vehicle Demonstration is a currently ongoing vehicle-to-grid demonstration project with the objective of minimizing the cost of operation of a fleet of approximately 30 electric vehicles (EVs) through participation in the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) frequency regulation market. To accomplish this, a hierarchical control system has been developed to optimize, plan, and control the charging, market bidding, and response to grid system operator control of the EVs. This paper presents an overview of the day-ahead optimization model component of the hierarchy. The model is a mixed integer linear program that optimizes daily EV charging and regulation capacity bids strategies in order to minimize operation costs and maximize ancillary service revenue. A deterministic approach is used due to several practical concerns of the demonstration project, including model complexity and the availability and uncertainty of input data in day-ahead decision making, and the limited size of the fleet. The model includes additional user-defined parameters to tune model behavior to better match real-world conditions and minimize the risks of uncertainty. The paper conducts scenario analysis to explore the impact of these parameters on high level model behavior and resulting bid strategy. The parameters explored include hourly regulation prices, local load conditions leading to retail demand charges, forced symmetry constraints for regulation bids, SOC penalty values to reserve higher states-of-charge in vehicles, and expected regulation resource utilization while providing reserves. These analyses show significant sensitivity in the frequency regulation bidding strategy to the regulation utilization, as well as large differences in the regulation prices between regulation up (discharging capacity) and regulation down (charging capacity). Results also suggest enforcing symmetry in regulation appears to have significant impacts in regulation revenue when there is large relative disparities between prices in the up and down direction. Finally, imposing a small cost on low SOC values significantly impacts the fleet-wide average SOC, making the system more resilient to uncertainty in the mobility demands gathered at the time of making day ahead decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Al-Bahith Journal is the property of Republic of Iraq Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research (MOHESR) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The need to better engage low-income communities affected by revitalization of the built environment has been well documented in urban planning. Guided by communication infrastructure theory (CIT), this study presents a research project that made concerted efforts at engaging neighborhoods of Northeast Los Angeles that are experiencing rapid gentrification. The project was a partnership with a multi-sector collaborative working on the revitalization of the L.A. River and its surrounding communities. This paper specifically demonstrates how CIT's social ecological orientation was applied to seek input on L.A. River and community revitalization from storytelling networks made up of residents, small businesses, and local media. We also examine the impact of this engaged research on the organizational partners of the collaborative, and their views on community engagement in revitalization. Lastly, we discuss how the lessons learned broadly speak to future opportunities and challenges that aim for communicative planning approaches to urban revitalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change can significantly affect water quality, in addition contributing non-stationarity and deep uncertainty that complicates water quality management. But most of the total maximum daily load (TMDL) implementation plans crafted to meet water quality standards in the USA are developed assuming stationary climate and at best a small number of land use futures, although neither assumption seems reliably justified. To address this challenge, this study employs robust decision making (RDM) methods, commonly used to help develop water supply plans, to stress test the proposed Enhanced Watershed Management Plan (EWMP), a TMDL implementation plan, for the Tujunga Wash, the largest subwatershed of the Los Angeles River, over a wide range of climate and land use futures. We find that climate change could significantly reduce the ability of the Tujunga EWMP to meet water quality goals; however, meeting the city's goals for increasing permeable land cover offsets the risk of non-compliance in the face of climate change uncertainties. This study also introduces innovations in RDM analyses, including: treatment of the deeply uncertain incidence of extreme precipitation events, an explicit link between RDM scenario discovery methods and the specification of signposts for adaptive policy pathways, and the use of (imprecise) probabilistic climate projections to inform the choice among robust adaptive policy pathways. The paper also contributes to a larger debate over how to address climate and other uncertainties in regulatory processes involving water quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the midst of dramatic changes to American health care law there is need to understand the challenges that vulnerable populations encounter in obtaining and managing health insurance. Research has found that child language brokers, children who mediate language and culture for their immigrant families, assist with health-related matters. We report on focus groups with 17 language brokers living in Central Los Angeles. In this article we detail their experiences language brokering for health insurance and their knowledge of health insurance and policies that apply to their immigrant families. We illuminate some barriers immigrant families face as well as how they navigate them. We conclude with policy implications, particularly in relation to making health insurance more accessible to non-English speaking and immigrant populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For Salvadorans who relocated to the United States, the marginalization imposed by American society, the victimization enacted by Mexican gangs and their negative experience with El Salvador's practice of citizenship brought them to create the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and modify 18th Street gangs in the neighborhoods of Los Angeles. Living on the fringes of society, they were kept from attaining the social, civil and economic benefits of a liberal democratic model of citizenship. This paper claims that, in order to survive, they took it upon themselves to create a parallel model of citizenship, combining anarchism with ''citizenship as agency'' under the gang structure. Following Philip Oxhorn's analysis of models of citizenship, this study examines how Salvadoran refugees came to create such alternative citizenship in the framework of the MS-13 and 18th Street gangs. Analysis asserts that the structure and development of membership in the gangs is not a coincidence, but rather a response to their marginalization, negative experience of state citizenship, and their participation in public arenas modeled as an extension of social contracts. Understanding the views of these, now transnational, gangs in terms of citizenship can aid policymakers and Central American governments as they approach these groups, eliminating violence and promoting development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies unobserved heterogeneity in hedonic price models, arising from missing property and locational characteristics. Specifically, commercial real estate is very heterogeneous, and data on detailed property characteristics are often lacking. We show that adding mutually independent property random effects to a hedonic price model results in more precise out‐of‐sample price predictions, both for commercial multifamily housing in Los Angeles and owner‐occupied single‐family housing in Heemstede, the Netherlands. The standard hedonic price model does not take advantage of the fact that some properties sell more than once. We subsequently show that adding spatial random effects leads to an additional increase in prediction accuracy. The increase is highest for properties without prior sales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines generational politics in the Korean American community in Los Angeles. After outlining how the Immigration Act of 1965 led to the acceleration of generational transition in the contemporary immigrant experience, the paper focuses its attention on the entry of the post-immigrant generation into Korean American community politics. Relying on interviews and case studies, the entry of the post-immigrant generation is examined both as a source of new political resources for community mobilization as well as a new source of intra-community conflict. As greater numbers of the post-immigrant generation reach adulthood and become active in political affairs, the issue of generational politics will play an increasingly important role for shaping not only the political developments in immigrant communities but also the broader politics of the American society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we address the problem of short-term traffic flow prediction since accurate prediction of short-term traffic flow facilitates timely traffic management and rapid response. We advocate deep machine learning approach and propose a novel ensemble model, named ALLSCP, that considers both temporal and spatial characteristics of traffic conditions. Specifically, we consider (1) short-, medium- and long-term temporal traffic evolution, (2) global and local spatial traffic patterns and (3) the correlation of temporal-spatial features in our predictions. We use real-world traffic data from two locations (i.e., Los Angeles and London) with frequent fluctuations (due to proneness to traffic accidents and/or congestion) to train and test our model. For each location, we consider road segments with and without junctions (i.e., linear vs intersection). We compare our model against well-known existing machine/deep learning prediction models. Our results indicate that our ALLSCP model consistently achieves the most accurate predictions (≈ 96 % accuracy both on linear and intersection roadways) when compared against existing models in the literature. In addition, we conducted ablation experiments to further gain insights into the contributions of individual constituent models of our ensemble ALLSCP model. Our results indicate that ALLSCP achieves the best results and is also robust against emergent traffic situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we focus on the cost-sharing problem for ride-sharing: determining how to allocate the total ride cost between the driver and the passengers. In particular, we focus on the scenario where drivers are also commuters with the goal of cost recovery. We identify the properties that a desirable cost-sharing mechanism should have and develop a general framework that can be used to create specific cost-sharing mechanisms. We propose specific mechanisms and analyze their relative advantages and disadvantages so that service providers can select a mechanism according to their different needs. In addition, we incorporate the value of time by allowing passengers to have inconvenience costs due to extra travel time caused by detours for picking up the passengers, and provide discount methods to compensate for these costs. We evaluate our approach using real traffic data from the downtown Los Angeles area. Our results show that each proposed mechanism has its unique advantages and that the discount methods can successfully reduce the number of no-passenger vehicles for a large ride-sharing system. • A ride-sharing mechanism framework for an online system is proposed. • Specific mechanisms under the framework are developed and analyzed. • Inconvenience costs are taking into consideration and corresponding discount methods are proposed. • Simulations on both small and large datasets demonstrate the different benefits one can have by adapting different mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies a Bayesian local influence method to detect influential observations in a partially linear model with first-order autoregressive skew-normal errors. This method appears suitable for small or moderate-sized data sets (n=200∼400\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}\usepackage{amsmath}\usepackage{wasysym}\usepackage{amsfonts}\usepackage{amssymb}\usepackage{amsbsy}\usepackage{mathrsfs}\usepackage{upgreek}\setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt}\begin{document}$$n=200{\sim }400$$\end{document}) and overcomes some theoretical limitations, bridging the diagnostic gap for small or moderate-sized data in classical methods. The MCMC algorithm is employed for parameter estimation, and Bayesian local influence analysis is made using three perturbation schemes (priors, variances, and data) and three measurement scales (Bayes factor, ϕ\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}\usepackage{amsmath}\usepackage{wasysym}\usepackage{amsfonts}\usepackage{amssymb}\usepackage{amsbsy}\usepackage{mathrsfs}\usepackage{upgreek}\setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt}\begin{document}$$\phi $$\end{document}-divergence, and posterior mean). Simulation studies are conducted to validate the reliability of the diagnostics. Finally, a practical application uses data on the 1976 Los Angeles ozone concentration to further demonstrate the effectiveness of the diagnostics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to evaluate the behavior of fresh and recycled Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) slag materials as railway ballast using large-scale cyclic triaxial tests. Recycled slags are materials that were previously subjected to cyclic and monotonic loadings and Los Angeles abrasion. These materials were cleaned and re-grained. Grain size of recycled ballast was similar to fresh ballast, from 19 to 50.8 mm. All the specimens with a diameter of 30 cm and a height of 60 cm were tested in dry conditions. Based on the results, there is no limitation in the use of EAF slag as ballast in terms of quality control criteria. However, the cyclic stress amplitude applied to the EAF slag should be limited to 210 kPa to prevent progressive deformations. An increase in the maximum ballast size and the quantity of recycled ballast can increase the resilient modulus and the ultimate permanent axial deformation. The resilient modulus at the confining pressures of 60 and 30 kPa is at least 400 and 300 MPa, respectively. The resilient modulus reaches less than 300 MPa at the failure stage. [Display omitted] • Cyclic and post-cyclic monotonic behavior of fresh and recycled EAF slag ballast was investigated. • The speed and axial load must be limited in slag-ballasted tracks. • The cyclic stress amplitude applied to the EAF slag should be limited to 210 kPa. • Threshold axial strain of progressive deformations in EAF ballast is 0.025 %. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Census blocks are administrative units that serve as statistical areas for the decennial Census in the United States. Visible and nonvisible features bound blocks, including roads, railroads, streams, property lines, and city boundaries. The Census Bureau builds blocks using the Master Address File (MAF), which includes field-verified geographic information about the location of housing unit addresses. Unfortunately, there are substantial errors in the counts of housing units at the block level, even with the purported quality checks by the Census Bureau. This paper aims to detail a method of identifying problematic blocks (i.e., ghost blocks) that report the presence of housing units, but no such units exist. Further, we identify the implications of using ghost blocks in location models using the maximal covering location problem (MCLP) in a case study for sensor locations in Los Angeles, California. We discuss policy implications and strategies to address these errors for developing higher-fidelity location models. • Details a method of identifying problematic U.S. Census blocks that report the presence of housing units, but no such units exist. • Identifies the implications of using ghost blocks in location models. • Discusses policy implications of using ghost blocks. • Provides strategies to address data uncertainty and to develop higher-fidelity location models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The appeal of using markets as a means of allocating scarce resources stems in large part from the assumption that a market will approximate the competitive ideal. When competition is not a foregone conclusion, the question naturally arises as to how a firm might manipulate the market to its own advantage. This paper analyzes the issue of market power in the context of markets for transferable property rights. First, a model is developed that explains how a single firm with market power might exercise its influence. This is followed by an examination of the model in the context of a particular policy problem--the control of particulate sulfates in the Los Angeles region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a lecture by Doctor David Y. Graham, delivered at the 48th Annual Meeting of the American College of Gastroenterology on October 26, 1983 in Los Angeles, California. Basic research using the most sophisticated medical tools; View on research; Background of John Fry, a general practitioner at Beckenham, Kent in England.

Presents the Margaret Herrick Library and the Academy Film Archive housed in the Center for Motion Picture Study in California. Foundation of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1927; Aim at assisting the organization advance the arts and sciences of motion pictures; Research and reference collection of film-related paper materials; Major collections.

Catastrophic landslides are often preceded by slow, progressive, accelerating deformation that differs from the persistent motion of slow‐moving landslides. Here, we investigate the motion of a landslide that damaged 12 homes in Rolling Hills Estates (RHE), Los Angeles, California on 8 July 2023, using satellite‐based synthetic aperture radar interferometry (InSAR) and pixel tracking of satellite‐based optical images. To better understand the precursory motion of the RHE landslide, we compared its behavior with local precipitation and with several slow‐moving landslides nearby. Unlike the slow‐moving landslides, we found that RHE was a first‐time progressive failure that failed after one of the wettest years on record. We then applied a progressive failure model to interpret the failure mechanisms and further predict the failure time from the pre‐failure movement of RHE. Our work highlights the importance of monitoring incipient slow motion of landslides, particularly where no discernible historical displacement has been observed. Plain Language Summary: Landslides exhibit a wide range of behaviors around the world. Some landslides travel slowly downslope (velocities <1 m/yr) over a period of years or even decades. In contrast, other landslides fail catastrophically and travel downslope at high rates (>1 m/s), claiming lives and causing major damages. In some cases, these catastrophic landslides also display a precursory period of slow movement which presents an opportunity to detect them before they rapidly collapse. Here we investigated the movement of the Rolling Hills Estates (RHE) landslide, Los Angeles, California, before it moved many meters and damaged more than 12 houses on 8 July 2023. This landslide occurred after one of the wettest years on record in California. We found that the RHE landslide started sliding in 2023 in response to relatively high precipitation without obvious signs of movement in the three years preceding this event. This behavior differed starkly from the persistent motion of nearby slow‐moving landslides that experienced nearly identical rainfall conditions. Our findings show that the RHE can be defined as a progressive failure and its failure time can be estimated approximately through analyzing its movement before the occurrence of the failure. Key Points: We used satellite remote sensing to characterize the precursory motion of a catastrophic landslideProgressive failures and slow‐moving landslides can be distinguished by analyzing their time‐dependent motionSpecial attention should be given to landslides where no apparent historical movement has occurred [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, researchers have become increasingly interested in educational and institutional strategies to limit or eradicate contemporary forms of racism in the United States. They have generally accepted that most people in the modern-day United States do not actually want to be racist, but the various legacies of oppression live on through American institutions, promote unconscious biases, and manifest in unintentionally racist behaviors. However, previous research has largely overlooked the interactive relationship specifically between insidious racists, and the institutions meant to limit and punish their intentional behavior. Insidious racists are conscious of their racist beliefs, they engage in intentional acts of racism, and yet, they hold value in not being deemed racist by American society. In this article I develop a framework of the varying institutional constraints associated with addressing insidious racism. I then deploy this framework on national and local case studies to highlight the contribution of this work. The national case study analyzes the institutional constraints that allowed for loan officers to engage in racist actions leading up to the Great Recession. The local case study analyzes institutional constraints that led to the deviant behavior and racist redistricting efforts coordinated by members of the Los Angeles City Council. Taken together, I show that institutional design and administrator ideologies determine the levels of insidious racism prevalent in a given institution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Owing to a severe shortage of natural aggregates in terms of quantity and quality, alternative aggregate resources must be utilized in civil engineering construction to meet significant increase in aggregate demand. This study focuses on manufacturing artificial aggregates for pavement applications using two waste materials- mine overburden waste from the coal mining industry and fly ash from thermal power plants. Liquid alkali activator, a mixture of sodium silicate and sodium hydroxide, is used as a binder. The centrifugal forces generated due to a rotating disc pelletizer enables mixing the said components resulting in formation of spherical-shaped pellets. The nucleated pellets are oven cured at 70°C for 7 days. Based on extensive laboratory test trials, the optimal features to produce competent aggregates in terms of angle and revolution speed of the disc pelletizer, dosage of the liquid alkali activator and the concentration of the NaOH are proposed. Finally, the manufactured aggregates are tested for properties relevant to flexible pavement applications. The aggregate impact and Los Angeles abrasion values are found to be 17% and 21.6%, indicating satisfactory resistance to impact and abrasion of aggregate particles under traffic loads. The basic material properties of these aggregates are found to conform to the Indian Roads Congress (IRC) and American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) standards for base and subbase layers. Moreover, base/subbase layers prepared with artificial aggregates and mine waste showed high California bearing ratio (CBR) of 54.3% and 80.5% for 2.5 mm and 5.0 mm penetration of the plunger, respectively, indicating high load-bearing capacity of pavement layers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Air pollution, especially ground-level ozone, poses severe threats to human health and ecosystems. Accurate forecasting of ozone concentrations is essential for reducing its adverse effects. This study aims to use the functional time series approach to model ozone concentrations, a method less explored in the literature, and compare it with traditional time series and machine learning models. To this end, the ozone concentration hourly time series is first filtered for yearly seasonality using smoothing splines that lead us to the stochastic (residual) component. The stochastic component is modeled and forecast using a functional autoregressive model (FAR), where each daily ozone concentration profile is considered a single functional datum. For comparison purposes, different traditional and machine learning techniques, such as autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA), vector autoregressive (VAR), neural network autoregressive (NNAR), random forest (RF), and support vector machine (SVM), are also used to model and forecast the stochastic component. Once the forecast from the yearly seasonality component and stochastic component are obtained, both are added to obtain the final forecast. For empirical investigation, data consisting of hourly ozone measurements from Los Angeles from 2013 to 2017 are used, and one-day-ahead out-of-sample forecasts are obtained for a complete year. Based on the evaluation metrics, such as R 2 , root mean squared error (RMSE), and mean absolute error (MAE), the forecasting results indicate that the FAR outperforms the competitors in most scenarios, with the SVM model performing the least favorably across all cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While scholars have linked immigration enforcement with reductions in Latinx crime reporting, little research has examined the tools localities can use to counter reporting declines. This study assesses whether a community policing program adopted by the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) offset documented decreases in Latinx domestic violence reporting after President Trump assumed office. Using data on crimes reported to the LAPD between 2014 and 2019, this study finds that while domestic violence reports made by Latinx victims declined elsewhere after Trump took office, they increased in areas exposed to the community policing program. Results suggest that community policing may be a viable tool to encourage help-seeking behavior among residents vulnerable to deportation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to biodiversity loss and biotic community homogenization in urbanized landscapes, there are increasing efforts to conserve and increase biodiversity within urban areas. Accordingly, around the world, previously extirpated species are (re)colonizing and otherwise infiltrating urban landscapes, while other species are disappearing from these landscapes. Tracking the occurrence of traditionally urban intolerant species and loss of traditionally urban tolerant species should be a management goal of urban areas, but we generally lack tools to study this phenomenon. To address this gap, we first used species' occurrences from iNaturalist, a large collaborative dataset of species observations, to calculate an urban association index (UAI) for 967 native animal species that occur in the city of Los Angeles. On average, the occurrence of native species was negatively associated with our composite measure of urban intensity, with the exception of snails and slugs, which instead occur more frequently in areas of increased urban intensity. Next, we assessed 8,348 0.25 x 0.25 mile grids across the City of Los Angeles to determine the average grid-level UAI scores (i.e., a summary of the UAIs present in a grid cell, which we term Community Urban Tolerance Index or CUTI). We found that areas of higher urban intensity host more urban tolerant species, but also that taxonomic groups differ in their aggregate tolerance of urban areas, and that spatial patterns of tolerance vary between groups. The framework established here has been designed to be iteratively reevaluated by city managers of Los Angeles in order to track the progress of initiatives to preserve and encourage urban biodiversity, but can be rescaled to sample different regions within the city or different cities altogether to provide a valuable tool for city managers globally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To address the shortage of the aggregate used in a hot mix asphalt (HMA) pavement in Guangxi, properties such as the aggregate crushing, polished stone, and Los Angeles abrasion values of a type of hard sandstone aggregate used in HMA were tested after various conditioning treatments. The hard sandstone aggregate met the technical requirements for aggregate in HMA. In addition, the influence of the Marshall compaction on the hard sandstone aggregate-combined grading was tested. The combined grading curve changed a little, and the aggregate satisfied the corresponding technical requirements. Therefore, according to the abovementioned results, the hard sandstone aggregate can be used as a coarse aggregate in HMA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Now-a-days since number of vehicles are growing day by day on the roads in urban and metropolitan area, hence traffic jam is becoming very common problem which everyone is facing time to time. So it becomes very crucial to forecast traffic to avoid the regular traffic congestion situation in daily life. In today's intelligent traffic system, reliable and precise traffic forecasting in metropolitan road networks is critical. Many models based on classical methods have been presented to address this; however, they lag in certain circumstances, failing to incorporate spatial and temporal dependency in the environment. As a result, this research aims to solve the geographical and temporal dependency problem that plagues most traffic forecasting models. Graph Convolution Network (GCN) and Gated Recurrent Unit (GRU) are employed in conjunction with an attention-based model for more accurate traffic forecasts in cities. A combined model called Spatio-Temporal Attention-based Model with GCN and GRU (ST AGG) is employed to anticipate traffic. ST-AGG model mainly focuses on extracting the relevant information from all the input given to the attention-based model. The spatial dependency is determined by using GCN and the temporal dependency is determined by using GRU, used in the ST-AGG model. It assists in short-term traffic forecasting as well as long-term traffic forecasting. The results demonstrate that the suggested ST AGG has properly predicted the volume of traffic on city roadways in real time with greater accuracy. The model depicts how traffic is influenced by geography and time. The Shen Zhen (SZ) car dataset from China and the Los Angeles (LAS) dataset from California are used to test the suggested model. And the result shows that Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) and Mean Absolute Error (MAE) have reduced by up to 2.7% less, and accuracy has increased by 2.7% more compared to the previous model ST GCN for the SZ vehicle dataset. Similarly, although the accuracy has not changed significantly for the Loss Angeles data set, RMSE and MAE have reduced by 3.71% less as compared to the previous ST GCN model. The proposed model is more effective than the prior models like GCN, GRU, and ST GCN. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Skid Row is an impoverished neighborhood in Los Angeles, also known as the homeless capital of America. Those experiencing homelessness have compounding needs that are largely unmet by existing safety-net systems. The goal of this study is to evaluate the needs of homeless individuals in the Skid Row community, to better tailor services for the homeless population residing in the area. For the study, the International Collegiate Health Initiative (ICHI), a 501(c)-3 nonprofit, conducted a community needs assessment and a comprehensive review of the literature regarding community-based solutions to addressing unmet needs of this population. A cross-sectional survey approach was utilized to conduct a community needs assessment of adults residing in Skid Row. The subsequent descriptive analysis of the data collected reveal unmet needs of individual's health, social, and employment situations among unhoused individuals in Skid Row. Potential exists for the needs of the unhoused population to be met through various community efforts and public health interventions. The identified service priorities for mental health care, medical care, and employment services, are verified by prior literature which identifies high frequency of mental health issues, substance use, and underemployment in the population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The declining trend in vehicle emissions has underscored the growing significance of volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions from volatile chemical products (VCPs). However, accurately representing VOC chemistry in simplified chemical mechanisms remains challenging due to its chemical complexity including speciation and reactivity. Previous studies have predominantly focused on VOCs from fossil fuel sources, leading to an underrepresentation of VOC chemistry from VCP sources. We developed an integrated chemical mechanism, RACM2B-VCP, that is compatible with WRF-Chem and is aimed at enhancing the representation of VOC chemistry, particularly from VCP sources, within the present urban environment. Evaluation against the Air Quality System (AQS) network data demonstrates that our model configured with RACM2B-VCP reproduces both the magnitude and spatial variability of O3 and PM 2.5 in Los Angeles. Furthermore, evaluation against comprehensive measurements of O3 and PM 2.5 precursors from the Reevaluating the Chemistry of Air Pollutants in California (RECAP-CA) airborne campaign and the Southwest Urban NO x and VOC Experiment (SUNVEx) ground site and mobile laboratory campaign confirm the model's accuracy in representing NO x and many VOCs and highlight remaining biases. Although there exists an underprediction in the total VOC reactivity of observed VOC species, our model with RACM2B-VCP exhibits good agreement for VOC markers emitted from different sectors, including biogenic, fossil fuel, and VCP sources. Through sensitivity analyses, we probe the contributions of VCP and fossil fuel emissions to total VOC reactivity and O3. Our results reveal that 52 % of the VOC reactivity and 35 % of the local enhancement of MDA8 O3 arise from anthropogenic VOC emissions in Los Angeles. Significantly, over 50 % of this anthropogenic fraction of either VOC reactivity or O3 is attributed to VCP emissions. The RACM2B-VCP mechanism created, described, and evaluated in this work is ideally suited for accurately representing ozone for the right reasons in the present urban environment where mobile, biogenic, and VCP VOCs are all important contributors to ozone formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Road traffic accidents have increased globally, which has led to significant challenges to urban safety and public health. This concerning trend is also evident in California, where major cities have seen a rise in accidents. This research conducts a spatio-temporal analysis of traffic accidents across the four major Californian cities—Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Diego, and San Jose—over five years. It achieves this through an integration of Geographic Information System (GIS) functionalities (space–time cube analysis) with non-parametric statistical and spatial techniques (DBSCAN, KDE, and the Getis-Ord Gi* method). Our findings from the temporal analysis showed that the most accidents occurred in Los Angeles over five years, while San Diego and San Jose had the least occurrences. The severity maps showed that the majority of accidents in all cities were level 2. Moreover, spatio-temporal dynamics, captured via the space–time cube analysis, visualized significant accident hotspot locations. The clustering of accidents using DBSCAN verified the temporal and hotspot analysis results by showing areas with high accident rates and different clustering patterns. Additionally, integrating KDE with the population density and the Getis-Ord Gi* method explained the relationship between high-density regions and accident occurrences. The utilization of GIS-based analytical techniques in this study shows the complex interplay between accident occurrences, severity, and demographic factors. The insight gained from this study can be further used to implement effective data-driven road safety strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of airport operations on air quality is a key public health concern for the population surrounding an airport. Air pollution regulations require the assessment of this impact using dispersion models. Modeling dispersion of aircraft-related sources poses challenges because of the large number and variety of airport sources, which include aircraft, ground operation vehicles, and traffic in and out of the airport, most of which are mobile. Emissions from aircraft sources are transient, buoyant, and occur at different heights from the ground. Quantifying these emissions as well as modeling the governing processes is challenging. An added complexity occurs when the airport is situated near a shoreline where meteorological conditions are far from being spatially uniform. These features that characterize the dispersion of airport emissions are being incorporated into the AERMOD model in this paper. This paper examines the impact of shoreline meteorology and urban effects on dispersion by comparing model estimates of SO 2 with corresponding measurements made during a field study conducted at the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) during winter and summer of 2012 at all the four core sites (AQ, CN, CE, and CS) as a part of the LAX Air Quality Source Apportionment Study (AQSAS). We modified outputs from AERMOD's meteorological preprocessor AERMET to account for 1) the formation of the internal boundary layer that is formed when stable air from the ocean flows onto the warmer land surface of the airport, and 2) urban roughness effects on winds flowing from Los Angeles, east of the airport. Simulations with unmodified AERMET yielded concentrations that were substantially higher than the concentrations at AQ and CS and much lower than those at CN and CE. Model performance improved when AERMOD used the modified meteorology. The fraction of model estimates within a factor of two of the observations improved from 34 to 84% at the CS site and CE site, by up to 79% in winter season whereas in summer, FAC2 values are almost comparable at all the sites. The ratio of robust highest modeled values to measured values improved from 7.72 to 2.53 and 4.92 to 1.94 in winter and summer seasons respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper works to more fully integrate critical theories of race and privilege with political economy to explore the connections between segregation, property values and violence in US cities. Through the prism of Los Angeles (LA), it exposes the economic mechanisms and history of violent struggle by which whiteness became, and remains, an intrinsic component of high land values. The resulting articulations of racial ideologies and geography, connecting circuits of real estate capital to common sense and racialised constructions of &#x2018.community’, have helped drive LA’s fragmented and unsustainable form and increasing privatisation. They also lie at the root of violence inflicted upon those excluded, both ideologically and physically, from white constructions of community. This dynamic is key for theorising in support of ongoing justice struggles to create safe and sustainable cities for all. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]