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Decarbonizing the suburbs : how regenerative design can minimize the carbon footprint of single-family homes and communities
No full textThis Professional Report investigates the possibility for regenerative design techniques to effectively reduce the carbon footprint of single-family homes in suburban and exurban communities. The onset of the global Covid-19 pandemic opened the door for an urban exodus with many Americans redefining their work-life priorities and lifestyle preferences. In this new era where a significant share of the population seek to settle in low- to moderate-density built environments, there is value in advancing the sustainability and resilience of these communities as a facet of the broader effort to address the climate crisis.
The regenerative design and development approach introduces a paradigm shift beyond conventional sustainability where energy efficiency and net-positive impact act as guiding principles. The central element of this report is the exploration of two case study communities in the Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos metropolitan area that employ regenerative design techniques: The Genesis Collection, a niche cluster of 3D-printed concrete homes and Whisper Valley, a master planned community that operates on a geothermal energy grid. To support this evaluation, this report also contains an analysis on intra-regional migration patterns in the United States, a literature review on consumer preferences for energy-efficient home features, and an overview of the potential tools local governments and municipalities can use to incentivize the development of regenerative, positive-impact communities. By incorporating the regenerative design framework into the planning and development of single-family communities, built environment practitioners can create communities that actively restore, rehabilitate, and reconnect.Community and Regional Plannin
Undocumented student support in higher education : the current landscape in Texas and envisioning a more just future
No full textTexas has the second highest number of undocumented students enrolled in higher education in the U.S., the majority of which are Latinx. The policy backdrop in the state that affects this student population is varied; for example, while statewide access to in-state tuition and state financial aid are available to eligible undocumented students, Texas does not have statewide legislation permitting undocumented people to access professional licensure, thus severely restricting their career options. Further, it is well-documented that Latinx undocumented students, students with temporary status, and students from mixed-status families in higher education experience a number of severe stressors that can result in negative mental health and academic outcomes. This study examines the landscape of undocumented student support available across diverse institutions of higher education throughout Texas in order to build theory around best practices for uplifting this student community. Semi-structured interviews were conducted between March and August 2023 with ten staff and faculty members who are involved in programming for undocumented students on their campuses at an array of community colleges, public four-year institutions, and one private college. While a number of sometimes seemingly intractable barriers can pose challenges to institutionalizing support for undocumented students, colleges and universities in Texas are also uniquely positioned to serve as relatively more protective settings given the resources they can offer and inclusive environments they can foster within a conservative state. In nearly every case, the role of student-led mobilization and organization advocating for undocumented student rights is essential to the development and preservation of programming, resources, and support for this student community.Latin American StudiesSocial Wor
Lost in Translation (Perdidos en la Traducción) : The Impact of Language Barriers in Healthcare
Get PDFLanguage barriers in healthcare significantly impact patient-provider communication, leading to misdiagnosis, treatment delays, and poorer health outcomes. This thesis is organized into three sections that together provide a comprehensive examination of this issue. The first section, derived from literature review, focuses on language barriers from multiple perspectives, nurses, healthcare providers, patients, and family members, to illustrate how each group experiences and responds to communication challenges. Through these perspectives, the study highlights how nurses struggle to convey critical care, how providers face ethical dilemmas, how patients fear miscommunication during vulnerable moments, and how family members feel overlooked. The second section transitions to language brokering, examining both the negative and positive impacts, as well as short-term and long-term consequences on child interpreters. While some young brokers gain bilingual skills and a sense of responsibility, many suffer from anxiety, fear of misinterpreting, and the psychological burden of navigating adult conversations beyond their level. Finally, the third section addresses native language sensitivity and emotional impact, exploring how the absence of linguistically appropriate care can lead to feelings of isolation, mistrust in providers, and emotional distress. This section emphasizes the importance of recognizing language as an integral part of patient identity. By conducting a review of scholarly literature, this thesis argues that systemic reforms, such as mandating professional interpreters and improving cultural competency training, are essential to ensuring equitable healthcare. Addressing these challenges through policy change can improve patient trust, reduce medical errors, and promote better health outcomes, particularly among minority populations.College of Natural Science
Nasca Hummingbirds: Case Studies in Ceramic Iconography and Cultural Ecology
Get PDFThis thesis investigates the iconography of hummingbirds on three Nasca ceramic vessels housed in the Art and Art History Collection (AAHC) of the University of Texas at Austin, situating these objects within the broader artistic, cultural, and ecological framework of Nasca society. With consideration of the culture’s uniquely volatile climate on the southern coast of Peru and the variety of ways in which they adapted to their arid environment, this study contextualizes a wide corpus of Nasca art, characterized by natural symbolism like agriculture, flora, and fauna. To frame an investigation into the recurring hummingbird motif, analysis focuses on a broader collection of the Nasca’s agricultural and faunal ceramic imagery in the AAHC, narrowing to a detailed study of its hummingbird objects. These vessels are then compared to similar artifacts from other institutions to identify broader patterns in the depiction of hummingbirds across Nasca ceramics.
Ultimately, I argue that the hummingbird iconography of the three ceramic vessels is reflective of a broader thematic preoccupation in Nasca art, one that encapsulates the culture’s complex connection with their environment and their enduring concern with its aridity. Building on previous interpretations of the hummingbird’s connection to agricultural practice and water, I advance a new perspective that centers on its role as an avian pollinator. This ecological analysis enriches the understanding of the hummingbird’s symbolic significance and the Nasca people’s profound awareness of their interdependence with the natural world.Art and Art Histor
Aspidoscelis tigris (Tiger Whiptail). Diet.
No full textThis video demonstrates behavior. Most videos in this collection have no audible language and for those that do, the language isn't necessary to understand the behavior. For that reason, transcripts are not provided.Integrative Biolog
Permian Delaware Basin Productivity and Spacing Analysis and Technically Recoverable Resource Assessment
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A survey of distributed learning in cloud, mobile, and edge settings
Get PDFIn the era of deep learning (DL), convolutional neural networks (CNNs), and large language models (LLMs), machine learning (ML) models are becoming increasingly complex, demanding significant computational resources for both inference and training stages. To address this challenge, distributed learning has emerged as a crucial approach, employing parallelization across various devices and environments. This survey explores the landscape of distributed learning, encompassing cloud and edge settings. We delve into the core concepts of data and model parallelism, examining how models are partitioned across different dimensions and layers to optimize resource utilization and performance. We analyze various partitioning schemes for different layer types, including fully connected, convolutional, and recurrent layers, highlighting the trade-offs between computational efficiency, communication overhead, and memory constraints. This survey provides valuable insights for future research and development in this rapidly evolving field by comparing and contrasting distributed learning approaches across diverse contexts.Electrical and Computer Engineerin
Polyreactivity, polarization and developability features of the vaccine elicited IgG serological repertoire
Get PDFAntibodies play a central role in the adaptive immune system's defense against foreign antigens. Their elicitation through vaccination or infection is a key area of research in human health and disease. This dissertation focuses on three key aspects of the serological IgG response.
The first section examines the polyreactivity of antigen-specific IgG antibodies in circulation (i.e., the serological repertoire). Polyreactivity refers to an antibody’s ability to recognize multiple chemically unrelated antigens with low to moderate affinity. Understanding the extent to which circulating antibodies elicited by vaccine immunogens exhibit polyreactivity is of both fundamental and clinical interest. Most research on human antibody polyreactivity has relied on recombinant antibodies derived from circulating B cells, but it remains unclear how well these antibodies represent the polyreactive properties of antibodies in circulation—particularly those expressed by highly expanded antibody-secreting B cells residing in anatomically inaccessible locations like the bone marrow. This dissertation develops robust assays to detect, clone, and analyze the binding properties of antigen-specific circulating antibodies. In this section, we define polyreactivity, explore the physiochemical properties of these antibodies in plasma, and examine their frequency and abundance in the serological repertoire.
The second section investigates polarized serological responses following influenza vaccination. In some vaccinees, one antibody lineage may dominate the serological repertoire, accounting for more than 50% of the antibodies found in circulation, with notably high antigen-specific antibody titers (>300 µg/mL). FDA053, a donor exhibiting the most extreme example of this phenomenon, serves as the primary focus of this chapter. We identify a novel antibody response in FDA053, where a polymerase slippage event results in an ultralong CDR1 region. These antibodies, which feature a duplicated CDR1 (dCDR1), exhibit higher affinity and stronger neutralizing potency. This section explores the properties that contribute to the serological dominance of this lineage, as well as other polarized antibody responses. The discovery of hyperpolarized antibody responses was unexpected and has significant implications for antibody immunity, particularly in terms of protection against divergent viral strains.
The final section addresses the developability of serological antibodies. In the context of antibody therapeutics, "developability" refers to a set of properties that the pharmaceutical industry considers optimal for minimizing issues like immunogenicity, rapid clearance, and autoreactivity. Key properties include expression titer, thermal stability, aggregation temperature, chemical polydispersity, autoreactivity, and polyreactivity. While current assessments of antibody developability have been based on clinically tested or approved antibodies, we argue that evaluating the developability parameters of bona fide human antibodies—those that evolved through B cell antigen stimulation and contribute to disease resolution—provides a more physiologically relevant set of metrics for the pharmaceutical industry. Antibodies abundant in the serum of healthy individuals are likely to be well-expressed, have undergone negative selection to minimize autoreactivity, and are stable in the blood serum's chemical environment. This section characterizes 141 antibodies from the serological repertoire and 29 engineered counterparts using industry-standard developability assays, in collaboration with Amgen.
This body of work emphasizes the importance of investigating the serological repertoire. While B cell receptors reveal the potential recognition or production capabilities of the adaptive immune system, the composition of circulating antibodies ultimately determines the impact on the host—either beneficial or detrimental. The exploration of polyreactivity, polarization, and developability addresses critical questions about which antibody features are permitted in the serum, how abundant these properties can be, and how can industry utilize these properties for therapeutic application and design.Chemical Engineerin
Geodynamic modelling of salt tectonics and translation speed at rifted continental margins
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Texas National Security Review: Rethink, Reframe, Re-examine Vol. 8, Issue 3, 2025
Get PDFTABLE OF CONTENTS:
The Foundation pg.2 When Conventional Wisdom Fails Sheena Chestnut Greitens
The Scholar pg.8 Lost Seoul? Assessing Pyongyang’s Other Deterrent
Nicholas D. Anderson and Daryl G. Press
pg.28 So What? Reassessing the Military Implications of Chinese Control of Taiwan
Jonathan D. Caverley
pg.54 Legal Deterrence by Denial: Strategic Initiative and International Law
in the Gray Zone
Richard W. Maass
pg.74 Cultural Change in Military Organizations: Hackers and Warriors in the US Army
Erica D. Lonergan and Jack Snyder
The Strategist pg. 98 Artificial Intelligence and Nuclear Weapons: A Commonsense Approach
to Understanding Costs and Benefits
Herbert LinLBJ School of Public Affair