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From \u27Car-Free\u27 to \u27Transit First\u27: The Promises and Progress of Transportation Planning for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics
No full textLos Angeles is set to host the Olympics in 2028. Hosting the games successfully requires careful planning, particularly in transportation. During the 1984 Olympics, the last time Los Angeles hosted, city officials made an explicit decision against using the games as a justification to accelerate construction of permanent highways or public transportation, instead relying completely on a temporary bus network. Transportation planning for the 2028 Olympics tells a different story. Given that the 2028 Olympics were initially framed as an opportunity to transform Los Angeles’ transportation landscape, I explore how and why politicians have used the Olympics to accelerate permanent transportation infrastructure in Los Angeles. I further analyze the progress of key rail projects to date. Ultimately, I find that the progress of these projects is not driven by ridership needs, but is instead dictated by the constraints of the Olympic timeline, agency budgets, the availability of external funding, and alignment with private, powerful interests. Because equitable public transportation is essential for access to opportunities and quality of life, it is crucial to examine whose interests are driving the acceleration of these projects, what cost this has to other priorities, and what the impacts are on Los Angeles residents who depend on public transit
Demystifying Misconceptions in Introductory Undergraduate Chemistry Education with 3D Printed Molecular Orbitals
Get PDFSpatial abilities are invaluable skills for the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects. However, women, people from low socioeconomic backgrounds, and ethnic minorities are more likely to have less developed spatial abilities, which is one of the many contributing factors for the lack of diversity in STEM subjects like chemistry. Teaching spatial skills to undergraduate chemistry students may address this issue and help increase the diversity of students who go on to continue their education in the subject. 3D printing technology in higher education has exploded in recent years, presenting a unique opportunity to teach “hard to grasp” concepts that are not taught or taught poorly to students. Molecular orbitals are an integral topic in chemistry that are usually not incorporated into undergraduate education but are critical to expert-like understanding of molecular interactions. In this work, 3D printed model systems were developed to help students learn “hard to grasp” concepts like molecular orbital theory, molecular geometry of lone pairs on oxygen, the Bürgi-Dunitz angle for nucleophilic addition to carbonyl groups, and non-covalent bonding interactions. Orbital systems such as methane, water, nucleophilic attack to a carbonyl group, and N-acyl homoserine lactones were calculated with computational chemistry methods and 3D printed as educational models tailored for classroom use. Details about how to present these concepts to students are outlined in this work as well as how the 3D models can facilitate this learning in undergraduate chemistry students. With 3D models to aid students in their understanding of chemical concepts, they can more easily gain a more “expert-like”, intuitive understanding of chemistry and achieve success in the subject such that they may be encouraged to continue their chemistry education at a tertiary level. Future work stands to be done in expanding the set of 3D printed systems and accessibility for color-blind students and educators who may not have 5-color filament 3D printers
Investigating Mannitol Transport Regulation in Vibrio Cholerae: a Chemical Biology Approach
No full textTo adapt to chemically complex nutritional environments, bacteria have evolved intricate mechanisms of genetic regulation. Vibrio cholerae, the bacteria responsible for cholera disease, can readily adapt its metabolism depending on which sugars are available in its immediate environment. In particular, V. cholerae has a phosphoenolpyruvate-dependent phosphotransferase system (PTS), a sugar-specific transport mechanism widely found across Gram-negative species. Across species, it has been observed that the PTS is a highly regulated system. Mannitol, a six-carbon alcohol sugar found at high concentrations in V. cholerae-abundant aquatic environments, is transported into the cell via mannitol-specific PTS transport. In V. cholerae, mannitol transport is mediated by the mtl operon, which encodes mannitol transporter MtlA and transcriptional regulator MtlR. Our understanding of gene- and protein-level pathways regulating the expression of the mtl operon remains limited: for instance, MtlR has been shown to downregulate transcription of mtlA by an unknown mechanism. This work explored the use of DNA Affinity Chromatography (DNA-AC) as a useful chemical biology tool to identify protein-DNA interactions in the mtl operon, specifically in its promoter region. The goal of this project was to optimize this pulldown method to understand V. cholerae gene regulation in response to its metabolic environment and elucidate the full suite of protein regulators acting at the mtl operon. My results show that DNA-AC allows for specific binding of proteins using purified protein lysate from V. cholerae; more work is needed to validate these findings before performing bottom-up proteomics by mass spectrometry to identify protein hits
The Cognition of Emotion: How Cognitive Control and Working Memory Underly Emotion Regulation Strategy Differences
Get PDFWorking memory is crucial for comprehensively grasping the dynamics of emotion regulation (ER) and cognitive control, as it serves as a foundational cognitive resource that influences how individuals manage their thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. This research aimed to examine the role working memory capacity (WMC) has on Frontal Midline Theta (FMT), an EEG marker for cognitive control, during two common ER strategies: emotional suppression and cognitive reappraisal. Participants performed both an Operation Span working memory task and an ER task, where they viewed a series of negative and neutral images across three conditions. First, participants were instructed to passively view, then subsequently suppress their reactions towards (emotional suppression), and rethink the context (cognitive reappraisal) of the images. Following stimulus presentation, participants were prompted to rate the pleasantness and arousal of each image. Participants rated negative images significantly more pleasant and less arousing during cognitive reappraisal than during the passive viewing condition. Additionally, FMT power was significantly greater during both regulation conditions than during the passive viewing condition. Finally, there was a significant negative relationship between WMC and FMT, whereby individuals with higher WMC scores showed reduced FMT while performing cognitive reappraisal in comparison to the passive viewing condition. This negative correlation suggests that high WMC individuals require less recruitment of cognitive control to utilize reappraisal than those with low WMC. These findings highlight the nuanced role of WMC in ER, suggesting a potential pathway for optimizing emotional outcomes through tailored strategies based on individual cognitive profiles
Love is Dead in the Restless West: Hippies, Manson, and California Culture, 1966-1970
Get PDFThough an extreme aberration from most of the hippie counterculture of the 1960s, Charles Manson’s ultimately murderous cult arguably represents something particular about American culture in the late sixties, in which youthful hostility towards the status quo sometimes grew radical, and in the case of the Manson Family cult, extremely violent. By the mid-sixties, more and more young people began to feel alienated by a culture they felt no longer embodied their larger aspirations, and as a result, were drawn to the emerging counterculture that embraced alternative lifestyles that frequently clashed with the traditional sensibilities of their parents’ generation. After the Manson Family murders in 1969, media coverage increasingly emphasized the relationship between the counterculture and the murderous cult, articulating that the countercultural expression of many young people might be dangerous. In this way, the media’s equation of the Family with hippies displayed the duality of images of the counterculture: that of idealism and horror, highlighting the tension between the movement’s utopian visions and the darker possibilities of such aspirations. Thus, amidst popular images of California as a land of promise and opportunity, media portrayals depicted another California story closely related to violence and the occult. By investigating the media coverage of the Manson Family and the murders it committed, I examine the emergence of this alternative California, which challenged popular notions of the counterculture by juxtaposing images of peace-loving hippie idealism with those of horrific violence, exploring how these media narratives displayed views of California culture and the counterculture
Harming to Healing: Exploring Harm Reduction in Non-Suicidal Self-Injury Treatment
Get PDFNon-Suicidal Self-Injury (NSSI) is a maladaptive behavior that impacts individuals from all backgrounds, yet existing interventions often neglect harm reduction tactics that may enhance treatment outcomes. This study presents a quasi-experimental design to assess the effectiveness of harm reduction education when combined with a dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) based and motivational interviewing (MI) based counseling for young women (ages 18-26) who meet the criteria for Non-Suicidal Self-Injury Disorder (NSSID). Participants will be randomly assigned to either a control group receiving only DBT/MI based therapy or an experimental group receiving both the DBT/MI based therapy and harm reduction education, which will include information on wound and tool cleanliness as well as high-risk areas to avoid. Using an ANCOVA with covariates, I will assess the effects of the education on two key outcomes: the frequency and intensity of NSSI sessions, as well as the influence of therapist-client relationships on treatment effectiveness. I hypothesize that participants receiving harm reduction education will experience significant reductions in both frequency and intensity of NSSI compared to the control group, with variability in outcomes moderated by individual therapist factors. This research aims to further NSSI treatment methods by integrating harm reduction, providing a framework that can enhance the safety and recovery experiences of individuals struggling with self-injury. By concentrating on accessible, client focused strategies, this work addresses the urgent need for evidence-based approaches to NSSI treatment that prioritize both client autonomy and clinician support
The Doe-Eyed Girl
No full textThis novellette examines one of the ways a protagonist\u27s mentality can affect the shape of the narrative structure
The Effect of Regime Type on Development Outcomes in Bangladesh
Get PDFBangladesh has been characterized by a turbulent political state since gaining its independence in 1971, moving back and forth between a democracy and autocracy. With this, they have also experienced immense gains in development over the last thirty years, especially within health, education, and female empowerment. This thesis exploits Bangladesh’s unique regime-switching setting to measure the impact of a shift from autocracy to democracy on child health, maternal health, and women’s autonomy within a single-country context. Using data from the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) Program, the analysis finds that a shift from an autocracy to a democracy increases the likelihood of child mortality, children receiving vaccinations, and women receiving qualified prenatal care, while at the same time, a shift to a democracy negatively impacts women\u27s autonomy
The Danger of Deepfakes: Information Pollution and Epistemic Insecurity
Get PDFThis thesis examines the dangers of deepfakes to democratic stability, emphasizing their capacity to pollute our information ecosystem and undermine trust in media. Beyond the immediate political harms from deepfake incidents, deepfakes are troubling for their impact on our collective relationship to media, truth, and one another. As exposure to deepfakes becomes more common, discerning fact from fiction will become increasingly difficult. Over time, this could foster widespread skepticism of all media and, worse, apathy toward truth itself. With eroded trust and shared truths, democracies risk losing epistemic security – the foundation for informed deliberation, decision-making, and accountability in democratic governance.
Positioning deepfakes within the broader context of disinformation, this thesis argues that deepfakes are novel for their audio and visual formats as well as the growing accessibility of tools for their creation and dissemination. The democratization of this technology amplifies its dangers, enabling bad actors to weaponize disinformation at an unprecedented scale. While this thesis does not purport to offer definitive solutions, it offers a nuanced framework to better understand and address the unique challenges posed by deepfakes
Fiscal Zoning Under Fire: A Case Study of Local Land Use Politics in California
Get PDFThis paper interprets interviews with participants in a local land use controversy to explore the role of voters’ financial incentives in shaping local land use politics. Drawing on previous studies that characterize the politics of urban and suburban housing development as driven by the economic incentives of different groups, predominantly homeowners’ incentive to increase residential property values, the paper seeks to address a key puzzle for scholars and reformers: why homeowners do not support land use policy changes that would increase their property values. While the literature has evolved from modeling restrictive zoning as an efficient pricing scheme for local public goods to modeling it as a sub-optimal result of metro-level collective action problems, neither theory accounts for the apparent insensitivity of homeowners to the opportunities for capital gains created by upzoning. Interviews indicate that homeowners do weigh development’s impact on property values when forming their beliefs about land use policy, but that they also value the aesthetics and “feel” of their neighborhood for its own sake. These findings imply that homeowners are more likely to take a strong stance against development when their financial incentives are aligned with their aesthetic preferences than when the two are in conflict