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Routing Opportunities for Commercial Crossings between El Paso and Juarez
Get PDFThis thesis explores the topic of commercial movements between the El Paso and Ciudad Juarez road networks and the implications of the possible changes in their routing. This area houses several ports of entry, which present one of the busiest commercial and personal border crossings in the whole nation. The primary focus was to evaluate the recently proposed reconstruction scenario of removing trucks from the Bridge of the Americas and study the impacts on the flows throughout the other ports. The chosen tool to support the analysis is a mesoscopic simulation software called DynusT, which is capable of modeling the whole bi-national network and answering questions on a macroscopic scale while still providing a sufficient level of detail. As part of the modeling efforts, a base scenario representing the current transportation network calibrated with traffic flows from 2022 was compared with two alternatives. One scenario simulated the closure of the Bridge of the Americas for commercial trucks without any other provisions. The second scenario included adjustments to the toll rates. The results uncovered that without any additional provisions, the vast majority of trucks would reroute to the nearest Ysleta-Zaragoza port, which would suffer from high volumes, leading to possible deterioration of the quality of service. However, in the second scenario, the toll change led to a nearly 900 % increase in crossing volumes at Tornillo in the southbound direction. This increase could help address the recent concerns about the port\u27s severe underutilization. In order to ensure success, several recommendations were given. The most vital suggestion is to bring the demand closer to the vicinity of Tornillo, relieving the Ysleta port while still enabling the shift of trucks away from the downtown area, paving the path towards a more sustainable, cleaner, safer, and smarter El Paso
The Vietnam War Era for Puerto Ricans: A historical and anthropological analysis of the Vietnam War context and the political tension in Puerto Rico.
No full textThe following article presents a historical and anthropological analysis of the political context experienced in Puerto Rico during the 1960s and 1970s, within the Cold War and the Vietnam War period. Since 1898, Puerto Rico has been a US territory and since 1952, a Commonwealth. During the Cold War and Vietnam War era, Puerto Rico suffered the worst political tension experienced among the supporters of independence against the government of Puerto Rico and the United States. This article analyzes the impact of the most important events during this period such as the mandatory recruitment program of the US Army, the political tension that arose from the conflict, the strike at the University of Puerto Rico, the struggle for the independence movement, and the socio-cultural impact in Puerto Rico
Idiosyncratic Deals for Single-Parent Employees and the Role of Socio-economic Diversity in Converting them into Formalized Policies
Get PDFSingle-parents are an increasing demographic of employees within many industries who warrant special attention. This study aims to analyze customized work arrangements negotiated by single-parent employees with their supervisors, known as idiosyncratic deals (i-deals), which improves the quality of life in their work/family domains. The results can be extended to an organizational level of analysis, where the cumulative work-family enrichment is used to predict the usage of formal family policies among single-parent employees. This will help bridge the gap between individual experiences of single-parent employees and the overall perspective of the organization on promoting a better work environment for single-parents
The Effects of Empathic Reactions to the Overturning of Roe v. Wade on Campaign Participation and Voter Turnout: Evidence from the 2022 U.S. Midterm Elections
Get PDFIn June 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs ruling overturned Roe v. Wade, reversing the nearly 50-year-old landmark decision that affirmed a woman’s constitutional right to abortion. Several months later, voters turned out in record numbers for the 2022 midterms, though a widely predicted “Red Wave” vote did not materialize. There has since been speculation that overturning Roe v. Wade played a crucial role in the midterms, generating a “Blue Tsunami” or “Roevember” driven largely by young, pro-choice women voting out of self-interest. We posit instead that group empathy was the key motivational mechanism in the link between opposition to Dobbs and voter mobilization in that election. Analyzing data from an original national survey, we find that opposition to overturning Roe v. Wade did not directly affect one’s likelihood to vote unless one is empathic toward groups in distress. Such opposition was actually demobilizing for those low in empathy. The findings indicate group empathy serves as a catalyst for people to act on their opposition to policies that harm disadvantaged groups, in this case women as a marginalized political minority losing their constitutional right to bodily autonomy and access to reproductive care
What If the Resulting Interval Is Too Wide: From a Heuristic Fuzzy-Technique Idea to a Mathematically Justified Approach
No full textIn engineering designs, we usually need to make sure that the values of some characteristics y do not exceed a certain threshold y0 – e.g., that the stress at each location does not exceed a certain critical value. Usually, we know how each of these characteristics y depends on the design parameters x1, . . . ,xn, i.e., we know the function y= f (x1, . . . ,xn). However, it is not enough to use the nominal values of the design parameters in our analysis, since the actual values are, in general, somewhat different from the nominal values. Often, the only information that we have about the actual values of the parameters xi are tolerance intervals [xi,xi]. It is therefore possible to compute the range [y,y] of the function f (x1, . . . ,xn) on these intervals. The problem is that the resulting worst-case interval is too wide, it includes many value y that are not practically possible – since it is highly improbable that all parameters attain their extreme values at the same time. Using this too-wide interval would lead to unnecessarily complicated and expensive design. It is therefore desirable to come up with a narrower interval. In this paper, we first provide a recommendation for computing such a narrower interval based on heuristic fuzzy-logic-based ideas. We also describe an alternative mathematically justified approach and show that it leads to exact same recommendations
Two Is Enough, but Three (or More) Is Better: in AI and Beyond
No full textAt present, the most successful AI technique is deep learning -- the use of neural networks that consist of multiple layers. Interestingly, it is well known that neural networks with two data processing layers are sufficient -- in the sense that they can approximate any function with any given accuracy. Because of this, until reasonably recently, researchers and practitioners used such networks. However, recently it turned out, somewhat unexpectedly, that using three or more data processing layers -- i.e., using what is called deep learning -- makes the neural networks much more efficient. In this paper, on numerous examples from AI and from beyond AI, we show that this is a general phenomenon: two is enough but three or more is better. In many examples, there is a specific explanation for this phenomenon. However, the fact that this phenomenon is universal makes us conjecture that there is a general explanation for this phenomenon -- and we provide a possible explanation
Optimization and Purification of Magnesium Borides Fabricated by Combustion Synthesis and by High-Temperature Sintering
No full textHydrogen as a fuel provides several benefits over the use of fossil fuels; however, one challenge in utilizing hydrogen as an energy carrier revolves around its storage. Achieving sufficient volumetric hydrogen density in a storage solution will facilitate hydrogenâ??s adoption for use in both stationary and mobile applications. Solid-state hydrogen storage provides a promising pathway to solving this problem. However, the hydrogenation of these materials is characterized by slow kinetics and extreme thermodynamic conditions. Magnesium borohydride (Mg(BH4)2) is a promising material in hydrogen storage due to its reversible properties and a theoretical hydrogen capacity of 14.9 wt.%. To synthesize this material, combustion synthesis of magnesium borides (MgBx) has been implemented with the aim to further lower thermodynamic requirements for direct hydrogenation. A drawback of this process is the potential formation of oxide contaminants, which decrease hydrogenation/dehydrogenation and recyclability performance. The present work focuses on identifying parameters useful for reducing contamination and evaluating potential pathways to the purification of magnesium borides with the goal of improving their quality
The Journey and Lived Experience of Dropout, Hispanic, Teen Fathers
No full textThe dropout phenomenon in the United States is an ongoing concern, especially regarding teen fathers. The purpose of this qualitative phenological study was to examine how Hispanic men who fathered a child as adolescent understood and made sense of their lived experiences of dropping out of high school and later returning to their studies. Semi-structured interviews were utilized to gather the data. An analysis of the findings was conducted, revealing the themes of emotional distress, expectations, hard lessons, and the impact of fatherhood. The themes were then applied to the theorical framework of Sensemaking. The results revealed that the participants made the conscience decision to leave high school in order to meet their financial responsibilities of fatherhood. The schools had limited or no outreach efforts for the participants. The participants returned to obtain their GED or high school diploma to better themselves and the situation for their child
Geology, Alteration And Mineralization At The Cerro Del Medio Porphyry Au-Cu Deposit, Santa Cecilia Project, Maricunga Belt, Northern Chile
No full textThe Cerro del Medio system, situated within the Santa Cecilia-Caspiche district in the southern segment of the Maricunga Belt, exhibits a complex sequence of magmatic and hydrothermal processes that align with regional geological activity during the late Oligocene to early Miocene (25.2â??24.7 Ma). This study highlights the temporal and spatial (i.e., genetic) relationship between subvolcanic diorite porphyry intrusions, hydrothermal alteration, and copper-gold mineralization, providing a framework for future exploration.The hydrothermal system at Cerro del Medio is defined by four main alteration zones: biotite-magnetite (potassic), chlorite-white mica (chlorite-sericite), white mica (sericitic), and aluminosilicate (advanced argillic lithocap). These zones display a halo distribution, transitioning vertically from deep to shallow levels. The biotite-magnetite alteration, observed at depths of 730â??990 meters below the highest elevation, hosts higher grade copper mineralization, while shallow aluminosilicate (lithocap) alteration indicates potential underlying porphyry-style mineralization. Three mineralization stages were identified in this study at Cerro del Medio: (1) magnetite-quartz, marked by chalcopyrite-rich magnetite veinlets; (2) quartz-rich, associated with disseminated chalcopyrite in quartz veinlets; and (3) sulfide-sulfate stage, characterized by a pyrite and anhydrite veining overprint that appears to remobilize and dilute earlier mineralization. The impact on grade of the sulfide-sulfate stage highlights the importance of targeting domains within Cerro del Medio that are unaffected by this mineralization/alteration stage. Comparisons with the nearby Caspiche copper-gold deposit reveal similar alteration zonation and mineralization patterns. The spatial and temporal connection between the two porphyry copper deposits suggest a genetic link: a common magma chamber at depth, and the source of porphyritic intrusions genetically associated with the deposits. These findings support the role of regional magmatism in driving hydrothermal activity and emphasize the potential for additional higher-grade mineralization within the Cerro del Medio system and the Santa Cecilia property
Using The Schism Model And Hf Radar Data To Study Surface Currents In Texas Bays: A Case Study Of Sabine Lake (sl) And Galveston Bay (gb).
No full textSurface currents study provides invaluable understanding into the physical dynamics of oceans, bays, estuaries, and nearshore environments, offering critical insights about water movement and related coastal processes. These currents play a fundamental role in understanding the state of estuarine and marine systems, such as their effects on sediment transport, heat distribution and climate change, nutrient distribution, and pollutant dispersal. In addition, surface current data provides significant economic and ecological implications for coastal communities essential for managing resources effectively and ensuring the resilience of coastal regions against environmental and anthropogenic pressures. This study was driven by the need to address the significant data gap in surface current measurements for two critical Texas estuaries, Galveston Bay (GB) and Sabine Lake (SL). Additionally, it sought to evaluate the performance of the robust 3D hydrodynamic model, SCHISM, in estimating surface currents by comparing its predictions against observations from High-Frequency (HF) radar systems. The insights gained from this assessment are intended to support the application of SCHISM in advanced hydrodynamic simulations, including storm surge modeling, sediment transport analysis, and oil spill trajectory predictions. The model was used to make a simulation of a part of the Texas coast encompassing GB and SL using input data covering the month of April 2023 to produce surface current and HF radar data was extracted for the same month from the newly installed two HF radar networks comprising three radars at the bay and two radars at the lake. Robust data analytical techniques were employed to ensure the model outputs were comparable to the radar datasets. The intercomparison process included qualitative evaluations, focusing on the alignment of current vector directions, and quantitative analyses, which assessed current magnitudes and correlations in the eastward (U) and northward (V) current components. An important finding of this study is the relationship between qualitative comparisons and quantitative analysis. Days characterized by predominant northward currents exhibited significant correlation coefficients exclusively in the northward (V) direction for both the bay and the lake. Similarly, on days dominated by eastward currents, significant correlation coefficients were observed exclusively in the eastward (U) direction in the bay and lake. Also, notably, SCHISM and HF radar also effectively captured the trend and magnitude of surface currents on days with both eastward and northward currents in the bay and lake. Overall, SCHISM demonstrated strong performance in accurately simulating surface currents, closely aligning with the established methodology of HF radar. The model achieved high correlations (up to 0.94), a robust index of agreement (up to 0.95), and low error metrics throughout the study period. The model\u27s performance was significantly influenced by physical factors, particularly wind, tidal forces, and freshwater inflows in both the bay and the lake. This finding underscores the critical importance of accounting for environmental variables in surface current predictions when using hydrodynamic models like SCHISM and observational technology such as HF radar, especially in dynamic coastal regions like Galveston Bay and Sabine Lake