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Keynote - Data? We Don\u27t Have Time for Data: A realistic look at law enforcement use of and need for human trafficking data
No full textDrawing on over 35 years of law enforcement experience (25 years with the Department of Homeland Security), Dr. Gilmer will speak from a government and law enforcement perspective on the need and use for human trafficking data. Some agencies and components of the U.S. government, and individual states, are heavily invested in collecting data to satisfy their reporting requirements. From a law enforcement perspective, however, big human trafficking data sets are rarely examined. Data science in law enforcement is a relatively new phenomenon, and most law enforcement officers do not have the time, resources, or background to collect or analyze data. This session offers answers to questions about the data is law enforcement looking for, the effectiveness of this data to drive counter trafficking outcomes, the weaknesses in current data collection and how to improve upon them, whether data is telling the complete story, and whether law enforcement and researchers can collaborate to collect better data and present that information in such a way to drive intended outcomes
The Fault of Our Forms: Fatness and Race in 20th and 21st-Century American Literature and Culture
No full textAlthough much of the world currently understands fat bodies as objectively undesirable and unhealthy, and even a threat to the overall health of civilization, this dissertation shows that this view is frequently complicated and contested in contemporary American cultural production. I argue that twentieth- and twenty-first-century American authors and filmmakers including Toni Morrison and Oscar Zeta Acosta complicate and transform racializing narratives of fatness that render the fat body sick, ugly, alien, and prematurely dead. In doing so, these artists (de)construct the ways that dominant narratives of fatness inflect and even help to constitute conceptions of race, as well as those of gender, sexuality, and national belonging
Incremental Innovation
No full textTransformative innovations—the ones that use new technologies to disrupt the world—command our attention. But most new products are the result of a more mundane process of incremental iterative innovation, evolving through a long series of small modifications of existing technologies. Although both kinds of innovation can result in improved safety and utility, both can also create new dangers. We tend to be more aware of this in trans- formative innovations (as current worries over artificial intelligence show); by contrast, dangers created by incremental iterative innovation often go unrecognized, because the process itself is easy to overlook. Policymakers and regulators need to be aware of both kinds of innovation and to consider different approaches to each if we are to reap their benefits and avoid their dangers. Unfortunately, incremental iterative innovation has often been neglected, sometimes with devastating consequences. This is particularly true in the field of FDA-regulated medical devices, which have caused hundreds of thousands of injuries and deaths. Critics have attributed the harms caused by one particular set of devices to incremental iterative innovation, but they have failed to appreciate the full scope of this process, leading them to over- look the dangers posed by many other devices. This Article is the first to identify the full scope of incremental iterative innovation in the medical device field. It develops a nuanced understanding of where this process is taking place and where it is creating dangers, and suggests regulatory reforms designed both to ensure safety and to support innovation. Using the device field as a case study, the Article also helps to expand our understanding of how incremental iterative innovation and regulation intersect in other contexts
Enhancing Power System Operation: Hydrogen, DC Transmission Systems, and Robust Optimization
No full textThe increasing penetration of renewable energy sources (RESs) has brought considerable economic and environmental benefits to power system operations. However, it also introduces several critical challenges that should be addressed to ensure system reliability and efficiency. First, from the generation side, energy curtailment remains a persistent issue due to the random and intermittent nature of RESs. Second, from the transmission side, delivering power from remote RESs (e.g., offshore wind farms) requires substantial infrastructure investment and careful planning. Third, from the operation side, the inherent uncertainty and variability of RES generation create operational difficulties that necessitate advanced mathematical optimization tools for decision-making. Addressing these challenges is essential for the sustainable integration of RESs into modern power systems.
To solve these issues, this dissertation introduces three major techniques, namely hydrogen technologies, back-to-back DC transmission systems (BDTSs), and robust optimization. Chapter 1 first provides a brief introduction to hydrogen technologies, encompassing hydrogen production, storage, transportation, and utilization. Then, two hydrogen applications, 1) behind-the-meter renewable hydrogen systems and 2) multi-period reconfiguration for unbalanced distribution networks with hydrogen injection, are presented. Subsequently, DC transmission systems and uncertainty modeling in power systems are outlined. Finally, a distributionally robust chance-constrained application is proposed.
Chapter 2 introduces a day-ahead optimal scheduling model tailored for electricity-hydrogen systems under renewable uncertainty, with embedded technologies of hydrogen production, storage, and utilization. Three novel ambiguity sets enriched with the moment, Wasserstein distance, and unimodality information are adeptly devised. Building upon these elaborated ambiguity sets, efficient and scalable reformulations of the expected objective function and uncertain constraints are developed, leading to either a tractable mixed-integer second-order cone programming (SOCP) problem or a linear programming (LP) problem.
Chapter 3 formulates a novel BDTS embedded scheduling problem while considering the comprehensive hydrogen model, which incorporates the technologies of hydrogen production, storage, and utilization. In addition, a well-defined Wasserstein-distance-based ambiguity set that harnesses the Gaussian-based nominal distribution is leveraged to capture the renewable output uncertainty. By developing equivalent reformulations of the nonlinear constraints inherent in BDTSs and distributionally robust chance constraints, the concerned model is eventually recast as a mixed-integer SOCP problem.
Chapter 4 proposes an optimal scheduling model for networked microgrids, embedding three innovative medium-voltage direct current (MVDC) technologies with voltage source converters, namely two-terminal back-to-back MVDC systems (BMSs), three-terminal BMSs, and multi-terminal BMSs. We first formulate their explicit models based on real-world applications, incorporating constraints related to normal operation and power supply modes. Then, we present a day-ahead scheduling model for networked MGs equipped with these BMSs. Finally, we develop tractable reformulations for nonlinear constraints considered in the scheduling model, leading to a mixed-integer LP problem
\u3cem\u3eSalerno\u3c/em\u3e and the Second Amendment
No full textThe Supreme Court’s Second Amendment is beginning to take more concrete shape. In United States v. Rahimi, the Court rejected a challenge to the federal prohibition on gun possession by those subject to certain kinds of restraining orders. In that case, the Court’s analysis hinged in part on the difficulty of successfully waging facial constitutional challenges. It confirmed that the teaching of United States v. Salerno—that a statute is only facially unconstitutional if it has no valid applications—applies fully to the Second Amendment. Although it relied on this procedural lesson from Salerno, the justices overlooked Salerno’s substantive teaching: that contemporary and compelling interests in protecting public safety are not out of bounds in constitutional litigation, but instead are central to how courts should evaluate constitutional claims. This Article fleshes out these twin lessons from Salerno and urges the Court’s consistency in how it thinks about adjudicating individual rights
The Mutability of Dangerousness: Domestic Violence and Second Amendment Restoration After \u3cem\u3eRahimi\u3c/em\u3e
No full textThis Article considers whether the Constitution permits the permanent disarmament of individuals once deemed dangerous—particularly in cases involving domestic violence. In United States v. Rahimi, the Supreme Court reaffirmed that the Second Amendment protects the right of the people to keep and bear arms, subject only to regulation consistent with historical tradition. That tradition, as examined under New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, does not support lifetime bans absent an ongoing threat.
The Article argues that dangerousness is not immutable. Founding-era laws recognized disarmament as a temporary, conditional measure tied to present conduct, not a permanent judgment based on past behavior. By contrast, modern laws often impose categorical and indefinite prohibitions, untethered from individualized findings or temporal limits. These laws diverge not only from historical practice but from the principle that rights may not be extinguished by legislative fiat.
Drawing on historical sources and empirical data, the Article demonstrates that many individuals convicted of violent offenses—including domestic violence—pose no ongoing danger and remain fully capable of exercising their rights responsibly. To hold otherwise is to depart from the Constitution’s design, which contemplates both accountability and restoration.
At bottom, the question is not whether government may disarm dangerous individuals—it plainly may—but whether it may do so without limit or end. The Second Amendment does not permit such a result, and the constitutional structure does not tolerate it
Fake Parts, Real Threats: Combating the Infiltration of Counterfeit Parts in the Aviation Industry
No full textThis Comment addresses the historic and current-day issue of counterfeit aircraft parts in the aviation industry. Counterfeit parts—also known as fake parts, bogus parts, unapproved parts, and suspected unapproved parts (SUPs)—are any parts that do not conform to the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) standards and regulations. Given the lackluster availability of public information and coverage over the issue, this Comment aims to bring more attention to the very real threat of fake aircraft parts.
From the beginning of U.S. commercial aviation and the creation of regulations governing aircraft designs and parts, counterfeit parts have plagued the aviation industry. Although various federal actions have been taken to combat the issue, counterfeit parts continue to infiltrate the airplanes we travel on today. As our population grows and air travel becomes even more accessible to the American public, the need to maintain safety in U.S. air transportation grows exponentially. Counterfeit parts in aircraft create significant dangers for aircraft systems, facilities, personnel, and most concerningly, passengers