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The article discusses the California's Supreme Court case Save the Plastic Bag Coalition v. City of Manhattan Beach, wherein it was held that the City of Manhattan Beach acted within its discretion in order to approve the plastic bag ban on the basis of a Negative Declaration (ND), rather than a full Environmental Impact Report (EIR). The court sided with the plaintiff, Save the Plastic Bag Coalition, on the issue of corporate standing under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).

Among its many collections documenting the history of the Far West, the Huntington Library holds the papers of various western historians. Although such collections present certain inherent challenges, they also can offer significant contributions to the study of the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the personal papers of the late Derek Freeman, scholar and specialist in Borneo studies, which have been deposited at the Mandeville Special Collections Library at the University of California, San Diego. Acquisition of the collection; Completion of the collection in 2002; Correspondence; Field notes and documents concerned chiefly with Samoa and the so-called Mead-Freeman controversy.

The California Spotted Owl (Strix occidentalis occidentalis ) is under consideration for federal protection and has stimulated ecosystem-level management efforts in Sierra Nevada national forests. Because some populations are declining, we used a noninvasive fecal sampling method to estimate stress hormone (i.e., corticosterone) levels within a local population from April to August 2001. Fecal corticosterone levels were similar to those recorded in a previous study of Northern Spotted Owls (S.o. caurina ) ( &xmacr;= 80.1 ng/g dry feces, SE = 75.8). We then used an information-theoretic approach to identify factors that influence fecal corticosterone levels in Spotted Owls. Our best overall model indicated that nonbreeding owls had higher fecal corticosterone levels than breeding owls early in the breeding season and lower levels later in the breeding season. We collected few samples from breeding owls early in the breeding season, however, which may have influenced the results. Management-related factors reflecting habitat condition and proximity to roads were not correlated with fecal corticosterone. However, factors such as field storage method and sample mass were correlated with the amount of measured fecal corticosterone and should be considered in future studies. Sample vials initially stored on ice had higher levels than those stored immediately in liquid N2 (βstorage= 0.269 ln[ng/g], 95% CI = 0.026, 0.512). Hormone metabolites were extracted from extremely small samples (0.01 g) by slightly modifying the assay protocol, but the amount of corticosterone detected increased as the sample mass decreased (βmass=−6.248 ln[ng/g], 95% CI =−8.877, −3.620). Corticosterone levels were significantly higher in 10 cecal samples collected simultaneously with fecal samples (paired difference = 74.7 ng/g, SE = 45.0, p = 0.001 for a paired t test), so care must be taken to avoid contaminating fecal samples with cecal material. Most of the variation was unexplained by our best model ( R 2= 0.24), and additional factors influencing fecal corticosterone levels need to be identified. Therefore, we recommend that well-designed experiments be conducted under controlled conditions to better determine the effect of factors such as sample handling, partial sampling, and diet on fecal corticosterone levels in owls and other birds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comments on the discovery of papers on Soviet socialism written by Leon Trotsky and his son, Lev Sedov, in the Boris I. Nicolaevsky Collection in the Archives of the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace at Stanford University in California. Contribution of Leon Trotsky to the study of Russian history; Other repositories in which Trotsky papers can be found; Content of and period covered by the Hoover Institution papers.

Overdiagnosis of Clostridioides difficile (C. difficile) is associated with increased hospital length of stay, antibiotic overuse, unnecessary infection prevention efforts and excess costs. This study evaluated a paper-based bedside C. difficile screening tool on the number of C. difficile laboratory tests performed and number of C. difficile infection (CDI) diagnoses. Nurses used the tool to determine whether stool should be sent for C. difficile testing. The tool provided indications for stool testing. We collected data on the number of C. difficile stool tests performed and CDI diagnoses for nine months before (PreT) and after (PostT) tool implementation in the hospital. We found a 31% reduction in the mean monthly number of C. difficile tests performed (37 PreT to 25 PostT) and a 56% reduction in CDI diagnoses (19 PreT to 8 PostT). This study demonstrates the success of using nurses and a bedside tool to decrease inappropriate C. difficile testing. This intervention has implications for patient management, infection prevention and cost containment. This low-cost paper-based tool may be helpful for the 25% of hospitals in the USA not using clinical decision support in their electronic health record (EHR), as well as for hospitals outside the United States who may not have access to EHRs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the acquisition of Kenneth Hahn's papers as part of the collection of the Huntington Library, Art Collections & Botanical Gardens in San Marino, Calif. for use in the study of six decades of the history of Los Angeles, Calif.; Background information on Kenneth Hahn's life and career; Inventory of the Hahn collection of papers, photographs, sound recordings, and videotapes.

While a growing body of research has examined immigrants' health generally, less is known specifically about the impact of immigration policy on the health of Chinese immigrants, the second-largest foreign-born population in the United States. This is due, in part, to the lack of methodologically well-trained, cross-cultural researchers who have both the cultural and linguistic expertise and health knowledge to engage with Chinese immigrant populations. This paper addresses this gap by examining Chinese cross-cultural researchers' roles in the qualitative phase of the Research on ImmiGrant HealTh and State policy (RIGHTS) project, which sought to assess how immigration policies shaped Chinese and other immigrants' experiences in healthcare and other related sectors in California. We used reflexivity to assess Chinese cross-cultural researchers' positionality of insiderness and outsiderness and its influence on the process of data collection (i.e., recruitment, conducting interviews, transcription, and translation). Our reflexivity guides the assessment of the opportunities (e.g., expanding the recruitment pool, engaging participants more effectively in interviews, ensuring data integrity, and discussing heterogeneity within the Chinese immigrant community) and challenges (e.g., the difficulty of recruiting low-income and undocumented immigrants, addressing participants' in-depth thoughts, the time-consuming nature of transcription and translation, and the assessment of power dynamics) in conducting immigrant health research with the Chinese community. These results highlight the need for cross-cultural researchers to help build trusting relationships with ethnic-minority communities, thus gaining new insights and advancing knowledge within the field of ethnic minority health research. These insights can guide future investigations of Chinese and other immigrant communities as research on immigration policy and health expands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports on another innovative application for the Super Slurper, a super-absorbent starch-based polymer. Its significance; Details of the cooperative agreement with Artifex Equipment Inc. of Penngrove, California.

Reports that Agouron Pharmaceuticals, La Jolla, California, has been found guilty of stealing research. Work stolen from Huguette Pelletier when she worked at the University of California at San Diego; Pelletier's work published by Agouron in `Cell'; Decision of a state court jury against Agouron.

In 2017 and 2018 the California Legislature passed two packages of bills aiming to address the state's massive housing shortage. The bills focus on the state '.S' housing element law and Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) system. These two mechanisms were created to require cities to plan for their long-term housing growth and to ensure cities built their fair share of housing. This Note will give an overview of these bills and the systems they amend. It will then analyze historic issues and possible fixes for the systems. Historically these systems have lacked enforcement mechanisms and have perpetuated economic and racial disparity in housing development. This paper looks at how the recent changes might address those issues, and what further improvements might still be necessary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graphical abstract Highlights • Technology cost and utility rate structure are key drivers of economic viability of solar and storage systems. • Solar-plus-storage systems are more often economical under time of use and demand charge rates. • Savings from storage-only projects come mainly from demand charge reductions; solar combined with storage also provides energy charge savings. • Savings from solar with storage is largely independent of building load variability, likely due to the energy cost reductions from the solar. Abstract This paper explores the economics of solar-plus-storage projects for commercial-scale, behind-the-meter applications. It provides insight into the near-term and future solar-plus-storage market opportunities across the U.S. We explore the impacts of location, building load profile, technology cost, utility rate structure, and policies on solar-plus-storage economic viability, and identify which factors are most significant to project economics. While savings from storage-only projects are largely derived from demand charge reductions, solar combined with storage also provides significant energy charge savings. A common assumption is that load profiles with peaks are likely candidates for savings from storage, due to the opportunity for demand charge reduction. Our results indicate that potential for savings from combining solar with storage is independent of building load variability, likely due to the energy cost reductions from the solar. Systems are more often economical under time of use and demand charge rates, particularly when demand charges are >$10 per kilowatt. Where systems were found to be economical, expected lifetime savings averaged between 7%–10%, with savings of 30% in numerous cases. Near term markets exist for solar-plus-storage in locations such as California and New York. As technology prices drop, the number of building types that can benefit increase, and additional markets appear in Colorado, New Mexico, and Alaska. All data from the study and interactive modeling results are available at: https://openei.org/wiki/Solar+Storage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction Collabo RATE is a brief patient survey focused on shared decision making. This paper aims to (i) provide insight on facilitators and challenges to implementing a real-time patient survey and (ii) evaluate Collabo RATE scores and response rates across multiple clinical settings with varied patient populations. Method All adult patients at three United States primary care practices were eligible to complete Collabo RATE post-visit. To inform key learnings, we aggregated all mentions of unanticipated decisions, problems and administration errors from field notes and email communications. Mixed-effects logistic regression evaluated the impact of site, clinician, patient age and patient gender on the Collabo RATE score. Results While Collabo RATE score increased only slightly with increasing patient age ( OR 1.018, 95% CI 1.014-1.021), female patient gender was associated with significantly higher Collabo RATE scores ( OR 1.224, 95% CI 1.073-1.397). Clinician also predicts Collabo RATE score (random effect variance 0.146). Site-specific factors such as clinical workflow and checkout procedures play a key role in successful in-clinic implementation and are significantly related to Collabo RATE scores, with Site 3 scoring significantly higher than Site 1 ( OR 1.759, 95% CI 1.216 to 2.545) or Site 2 (z=−2.71, 95% CI −1.114 to −0.178). Discussion This study demonstrates that Collabo RATE can be used in diverse primary care settings. A clinic's workflow plays a crucial role in implementation. Patient experience measurement risks becoming a burden to both patients and administrators. Episodic use of short measurement tools could reduce this burden. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents an abstract of the paper ``Rockin' the Rock House' A Music Video to Prevent Syphillis in South Central Los Angeles,' by Juli Schmidt, a semifinalist paper in the contest for the 1989 Secretary's Award for Innovations in Health Promotion and Disease Prevention.

For Salvadorans who relocated to the United States, the marginalization imposed by American society, the victimization enacted by Mexican gangs and their negative experience with El Salvador's practice of citizenship brought them to create the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and modify 18th Street gangs in the neighborhoods of Los Angeles. Living on the fringes of society, they were kept from attaining the social, civil and economic benefits of a liberal democratic model of citizenship. This paper claims that, in order to survive, they took it upon themselves to create a parallel model of citizenship, combining anarchism with ''citizenship as agency'' under the gang structure. Following Philip Oxhorn's analysis of models of citizenship, this study examines how Salvadoran refugees came to create such alternative citizenship in the framework of the MS-13 and 18th Street gangs. Analysis asserts that the structure and development of membership in the gangs is not a coincidence, but rather a response to their marginalization, negative experience of state citizenship, and their participation in public arenas modeled as an extension of social contracts. Understanding the views of these, now transnational, gangs in terms of citizenship can aid policymakers and Central American governments as they approach these groups, eliminating violence and promoting development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that citizens are capable of developing and promoting complex policy symbols, and that these symbols include supporting frames that explain and justify them. Based on a long-term study of education policies in Los Angeles, California, the paper uses interpretive methods to reconstruct and analyze these frames. Citizens developed two specific policy symbols while the district was engulfed in a desegregation debate; citizens identified schools as places where students gained academic knowledge and as institutions that affected broader race relations. However, education policy in Los Angeles could not support these two symbols over a long period of time, and a political movement to end mandatory busing eventually caused the academic symbol (originally the weaker of the two symbols) to become dominant. This trend reflects broader national discussions, in which education is now discussed in terms of standards and accountability and is evidence of continuing racism in US policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the struggles of the Mexican American civil rights in Los Angeles, California during the early Cold War era. Accordingly, the paper explains the ways in which those mid-century campaigns for Mexican American civil rights were fundamentally cooperative. The paper also highlighted the significance of the struggle of the Mexican American civil rights for Mexican Americans' quest for full citizenship

This paper presents a case study on the seismic response of a recently constructed freeway overcrossing located in southern California, which is equipped with elastomeric bearings and fluid dampers at its end abutments. The analysis employs the substructure method and a reduced order stick model. The macroscopic constitutive laws of the springs and dashpots that approximate the mechanical behavior of approach embankments, pile foundations, center bent, abutments, elastomeric bearings, and fluid dampers are established in the companion paper. The paper presents an in-depth analysis of the seismic response of the bridge equipped with the response modification devices accounting for the effects of soil–structure interaction. The various response quantities presented are compared with the corresponding response quantities of a hypothetical bridge with integral abutments. Advantages and challenges in the two design configurations are identified and discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the benchmark control problems for seismically excited nonlinear buildings. The benchmark study focuses on three typical steel structures, 3-, 9-, and 20-story buildings designed for the SAC project for the Los Angeles region. This paper reports the application of the active control scheme on the 3- and 20-story benchmark buildings, where the control action is achieved by a fuzzy logic controller. The main advantage of the fuzzy controller is its inherent robustness and ability to handle any nonlinear behavior of the structure. The performance of the controller is validated through the computer simulation on MATLAB. The control scheme satisfies the control constraints and is presented according to the evaluation criteria provided with the benchmark problems for comparison with other schemes. Four different earthquakes (El Centro 1940, Hachinohe 1968, Northridge 1994, and Kobe 1995) will be used in the simulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we consider the problem of obtaining a reduced-dimension parameterization of a propagation medium for the purpose of estimating the medium from transmission data. The application addressed is microwave remote sensing of tropospheric index-of-refraction profiles over the sea surface, using radar clutter returns. The proposed parameterization balances the desire to represent features prominent in the a priori statistics of the profiles versus the need to capture elements of the profile that significantly affect the observed clutter data. In linear estimation problems, basis vectors for the unknown parameter vector that optimizes this tradeoff have been derived as the reduced-rank Wiener filter or, equivalently, the generalized Karhunen-Loeve transform (GKLT). In this paper, we reinterpret the linear result, producing an extension to the nonlinear refractivity estimation problem. The resulting procedure produces basis vectors for tropospheric refractivity that are less dependent on features that have little effect on the clutter measurements. This results in a more efficient parameterization and reduces mean-square estimation error relative to an approach driven purely by the statistical prior. Application of the generalized KL technique to finding efficient basis vectors for refractivity profiles taken off the southern California coast is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

California Civil Code §§895 through 945.5, also known as “SB 800,” has dramatically changed the legal landscape for residential construction projects in California. The law sets forth new, legislatively defined, actionable defects; a detailed prelitigation repair process; and available damages and defenses. This paper examines the impacts of the law on design professionals and concludes that the law appears to have supplanted the standard of care for design professionals in connection with residential construction—meaning that their services may now be measured against codified standards instead of against the performance of their peers. Alternatively, rather than supplanting the standard of care, the law may have the practical effect of shifting the burden of proof from homeowner claimants to the allegedly negligent design professionals, thereby requiring the defendant design professional to show that their services comply with the standard of care in order to escape liability. In either event, the playing field has changed dramatically for design professionals. This paper suggests ways in which design professionals might tailor their practices to best position themselves for claims which are sure to arise out of SB 800. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the ways in which economic globalization processes produce new spatio-temporalities. It emphasizes how the exercise of different modes of power, in particular instrumental and associational powers, is critical to understanding the distinct formations that are produced by globalization dynamics. Using the empirical context of globalization in the wine industry, and the efforts made by one of the industry's leading wine corporations, Robert Mondavi of Napa valley California, to extend its production base to one of Europe's foremost wine-producing regions, the paper provides a crucial interpretative angle on spatio-temporal disruptions caused by globalization processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a procedure for the evaluation of the seismic damage in steel moment frame buildings. The rotational capacities, of typical connections of a building in the Los Angeles area, which suffered extensive damage during the Northridge earthquake, were determined using stress triaxiality as an indicator for fracture. The rotational demands of the same connections were obtained from a three-dimensional finite element analysis of the building model. Comparisons of the rotational demands at several locations in the building to the rotational capacities determined by the stress triaxiality analysis showed that fracture of steel moment connections of the building are governed by the triaxiality of stresses. Based on a number of moment connections analyzed, the paper suggests a moment capacity equation for the pre-Northridge welded steel moment connections taking into account the fracture incidence due to stress triaxiality effect. The moment capacity of such connections as dictated by stress triaxiality compared favorably to FEMA-350 requirements. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper offers a critique of the recent work on global economic and state restructuring in the broader political economy literature. It argues that much of this work, because of its theoretical reliance on regulation theory, offers only a partial account of the state and state restructuring. The paper offers a framework for understanding state restructuring and the state's role in economic regulation that adds more explicitly political imperatives to the existing regulation account. The methodological goals of the regulationist literature have led it to focus too heavily on the reproduction of capitalist relations as the primary object of state policies and institutions. That focus should be enlarged to include an explicit analysis of the important element of state-citizen relations. In addition to helping reproduce capitalist relations, state policies must also reproduce a condition of political legitimacy between state and citizen in order to ensure the continued reproduction of state institutions and state sovereignty. While the statecitizen relation is closely bound up with economic relations, it also includes non-economic, more purely political aspects. I argue that the imperative of state-citizen legitimacy will play an important role in how the state is restructured in the present crisis. The paper ends by offering a case study of the local state in Los Angeles in order to illustrate how state-citizen political legitimacy can play an important role in state restructuring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses, in brief, about some of the papers presented at the 2001 annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, held in San Francisco, California. All these papers have a common theme to bring legislative affairs into the limelight. The paper "A Tools of the Trade' Look at the Comparing Congress with State Legislatures" offers a primer on comparing and contrasting U.S. Congress with the American state legislatures. The paper "Senate Apprenticeship in Historical Perspective" addresses the conventional wisdom among U.S. senators.

The New Economy poses significant challenges and opportunities for Asia's model of state-guided development. After decades of prolific advance in economic growth and social welfare, the Asian financial crisis instigated the transformation of existing industries and the rise of new ones, especially in information and communications sectors. At the same time, environmental sustainability, traditionally considered a luxury unaffordable for the quick developers of Asia, is becoming an imperative with policy-makers and businesspeople, as public health in Asian megacities continues to deteriorate. This paper considers the complex processes of business and market transformation introduced by the New Economy, and the ensuing implications for economic, social and environmental sustainability in Asia. In particular, this paper considers the sustainability implications of transformation in business processes brought about through the business applications of new information and communications technologies (ICTs); expansion of new online markets for goods and services, especially those that may exist exclusively through ICTs; and changes in secondary and related industries, such as hardware, software and infrastructure sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes process of Mexican inmigrants associations in different cities of California. The study is based on data collected from twelve first level associations or “clubes de oriundos". Using qualitative techniques, we document the complexity of the internal organization of these associations, as well as the variety of individual and social efforts to keep them working The research highlights the importance of the role played by the localities of destination in our understanding of the organization process of Mexican immigrants, as well as the possibilities of their collective actions. In this way, we discuss and complement the studies focused on Hometown Associations from the Mexican ;localities of origin. Our findings show that the “clubes de oriundos" are complex associations that impose a high organizational cost on its members, as well as spheres of sociability that members use to satisfy a set of social needs related to their position as immigrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the findings from a computational investigation performed on the Borax corporate headquarters building, a four-story steel frame structure in which 75% of the steel moment-resisting connections suffered brittle fractures during the 1994 Northridge earthquake. A companion paper provides detailed documentation of the forensic investigation and repair design performed immediately following the earthquake on this structure, which was less than one year old when the earthquake struck. This paper describes a series of preliminary analyses conducted shortly after the forensic investigation and repair were completed. The main objectives were to investigate the behavior of the structure during the earthquake, and to determine whether different levels of established, advanced analysis techniques could estimate the distribution and extent of the damage. The results showed that a three-dimensional nonlinear dynamic analysis using a site-specific accelerogram provides strong correlation with the observed damage, while elastic static and dynamic analyses, two-dimensional nonlinear static and dynamic analyses, and three-dimensional nonlinear static analyses show less correlation. In addition, the results indicate that substantial redistribution of forces may have occurred, and that force distribution most likely had a noticeable effect on the pattern of failures observed in the structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Borax corporate headquarters building, a low-rise steel moment frame, was less than one year old when it sustained significant structural damage during the 1994 Northridge earthquake. Seventy-five percent of its steel moment-resisting connections suffered severe brittle fractures. This paper presents a detailed documentation of the forensic investigation performed on this structure immediately following the earthquake. A companion paper presents the findings from a subsequent computational investigation performed on the structure. The two primary failure modes at the Borax building were column flange fracture and pull-out of the girder flange from the column. The failures are primarily attributed to a fundamental flaw in the standard code-prescribed welded-flange bolted-web connection and the extreme ground motion at the site. The paper also describes the repairs made to the structure. These repairs were completed before the SAC research that now guides repair and retrofit of these structures was available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]