Alliance One Tobacco (Malawi)
Academic Research Repository at the Institute of Developing EconomiesNot a member yet
52305 research outputs found
Sort by
Composable visualization systems for biological data
No full textThe field of biology demands innovative visualization approaches to handle its expanding, integrated data landscape. This need has driven advancements in visualization design—such as genome browsers, molecular renderers, and image viewers—that enhance understanding of complex datasets. However, the push for specialization and novelty has fostered development practices that produce isolated, single-purpose applications. Monolithic tools require substantial engineering and often lack interoperability, making them difficult to repurpose or integrate into broader workflows. This thesis investigates whether composable, reusable components can break down these silos and increase adaptability and impact.
To address these challenges, I introduce infrastructure that bridges layers within the visualization ecosystem for distributing interactive tools in data-centric workflows. First, I present anywidget, a high-level specification and toolkit for authoring reusable, web-based visualizations across environments like computational notebooks and standalone applications. As a standard, anywidget facilitates interchange between visualization authors and users, enabling both general-purpose and domain-specific visualizations to interoperate. Second, I introduce Viv, a web-based bioimaging toolkit that visualizes multi-terabyte datasets directly from cloud storage without software installation. Viv operates at the layer between data producers and consumers, demonstrating how alignment with open data standards enhances accessibility and scalability. Together, these contributions promote modularity, accessibility, and sustainable visualization practices within and beyond biological data systems.
Building on this infrastructure, I show both the adaptation of existing toolkits and the creation of new, composable applications in computational notebooks. I introduce Gos, a Python library that embeds the Gosling visualization grammar into data-centric environments, reducing context switching and enhancing usability for data analysis. Finally, I present a framework for comparing embedding visualizations—originally motivated by single-cell biology—that leverages the modular components developed in this thesis. Unlike standalone applications tied to specific data types, this framework is adaptable across domains and data types, highlighting the flexibility of a modular approach.
This thesis introduces practices that extend the reach and adaptability of visualization tools by rethinking software development approaches. The approach amplifies the impact of specialized tools, fostering a more connected, sustainable ecosystem for visualization across diverse research domains.Medical Science
Equity in Flood Mitigation Funding: Analyzing Social Vulnerability and Public Investment in Houston, Harris County, TX
No full textFlooding is the most frequent and financially damaging natural disaster in the United States, causing more than 8 billion (USD) in annual damages (University of Maryland & Texas A&M University, 2018). With over 30 million Americans living in high-risk flood zones, climate change is expected to further intensify the frequency and severity of flood events (US Water Alliance, 2020). While investments in flood infrastructure aim to reduce risk, mitigation efforts often fail to address deep-rooted inequalities. Research has shown that low-income communities, communities of color, and other vulnerable groups face greater risks and longer recoveries due to geographic exposure, limited resources, and exclusion from decision-making (Villa et al., 2020).
In August 2017, Hurricane Harvey struck the Houston area, flooding over 200,000 homes, with the most severe impacts falling on socially vulnerable communities. In the year that followed, Harris County voters approved a $2.5 billion bond to fund flood mitigation projects. This major investment raised questions about how mitigation resources were distributed and whether funding would reach those most in need.
This thesis analyzes the relationship between social vulnerability and the allocation of flood mitigation funding in Harris County. It examines whether bond and housing buyout funds were distributed equitably across watersheds relative to community need, using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) as a measure of vulnerability. A distributive equity framework is applied to evaluate whether funding aligned with both exposures to flooding and social disadvantage.
This study analyzes funding across 22 watersheds, aggregating census tract-level SVI data to each watershed. It examines bond and buyout funding allocated using dependent variables: total funding and funding normalized by square mile, per capita, and per home flooded. Independent variables include overall SVI and four CDC-defined themes: Socioeconomic Status, Household Composition & Disability, Minority Status & Language, and Housing Type & Transportation.
Regression models indicated statistically significant negative relationships between bond funding per home flooded and several SVI indicators: Socioeconomic Status (p = .003), Racial & Ethnic Minority Status (p .001), and Overall SVI (p = .011). These findings suggest that more socially vulnerable watersheds received proportionally less mitigation funding relative to the severity of their flood damage. No significant relationships were found between SVI and housing buyout allocations, indicating that investments were not systematically directed toward the most at-risk communities.
These results highlight a disconnect between equity goals and implementation. Despite including SVI in project scoring, Harris County’s funding patterns did not equitably reflect vulnerability when adjusted for flood impact. These findings underscore the need for more intentional and targeted equity measures in flood mitigation planning.Extension Studie
Educating Students for Climate Action: Distraction or Higher-Education Capital?
No full textAbstract
This essay examines how universities are responding to demands to educate students for climate action. I argue for a whole-of-university approach, in which sustainability becomes part of the mission of the university, and translates into reimagined forms of education, research, outreach, and management of the university operations. This approach runs counter to the most common response of universities, incremental to new demands, and is likely to take place only in institutions with greater capacity for innovation. Strategy and knowledge are key resources to support such innovation, drawing on the comparative analysis of the global experience of higher education, as there are already high rates of institutional innovation globally in educating for climate action
Third-country FDI relocation in response to the US-China tariff war
No full textapplication/pdfIDP000954_001This study examines the third-country effects of U.S. industry-level tariffs on China, focusing on their impact on third-country firms' outward foreign direct investment (FDI). Using Korean firm-level data from 2016 to 2022, we distinguish the number of foreign subsidiaries from total FDI by incumbent firms to analyze detailed shifts in Korean firms' FDI in response to U.S. tariffs on China. Our findings indicate that higher U.S. tariffs on China increase Korean multinational firms' FDI in the U.S., particularly among larger firms. Conversely, these tariffs reduce the number of foreign subsidiaries of incumbent Korean firms in China, especially for firms with higher import shares and in industries where Chinese firms hold a larger U.S. import market share relative to Korean firms. However, we find no evidence of a decline in total FDI to China; instead, overall FDI increases. Additionally, U.S. tariffs on China drive large Korean firms to expand FDI into third countries such as ASEAN. This tariff-driven shift, especially at the extensive margin, is more pronounced in industries where China holds a higher share of U.S. imports than Korea.technical repor
Multinational Production, Trade, and Carbon Emissions
No full textapplication/pdfIDP000965_001International economic integration is increasingly characterized by multinational production (MP). The environmental implications of this shift are unclear as different forms of multinational activity affect emissions in different ways, both for production and transportation. MP may reduce pollution by transferring cleaner technology abroad or exacerbate it by relocating production to foreign countries with pollution-intensive technologies. In terms of transportation emissions, MP may substitute trade, reducing the emissions from shipping, or enhance trade and accelerate pollution from transportation. We provide a quantitative general equilibrium framework that brings together MP, international trade, and carbon emissions from production and transportation. Comparing the current emissions with counterfactual emissions in autarky, we show that under a mild restriction on the initial emission allocation, MP and trade jointly have almost no potential to lower global carbon emissions. For some countries, gains from openness can turn negative due to increased emissions. We further derive the emissions from counterfactual investment policies.technical repor
Subjective Perception versus Objective Outcomes: Assessing the Impact of Smart City Pilots on Environmental Quality in China
No full textapplication/pdfIDP000920_001Despite the widespread acceptance of the distinction between subjective interpretations and objective outcomes, discrepancies between subjective perceptions of environmental quality and objective environmental performance indicators remain relatively unexplored. Using rich micro-level data, we assess the impact of China’s smart city pilot projects on both objective and subjective environmental performance outcomes. Our results suggest that smart city solutions reduce environmental pollution. In addition to being significant and robust, this effect is mediated by the spread of digital technologies, as well as wider adoption of both clean energy-producing technologies and energy-saving solutions. However, smart city projects can also reinforce subjective perceptions of environmental degradation. We demonstrate that information transmission, measured using the level of educational attainment and internet use, as well as migration flows to and from smart cities play an important role in explaining the discrepancy between the objective outcomes and subjective interpretations involving environmental performance.technical repor
