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Archives are not straightforward repositories of history. Instead, they authorize which stories are remembered. In this article we apply the insights of cultural geographers and other influential scholars of archives to analyze the political dimensions of archiving activist histories. A small group of antiprison activists produced a personal archive during the 1990s and 2000s documenting brutality behind bars and efforts to dismantle solitary confinement in California prisons. After being deemed too dangerous to be opened to the public by university archivists, and without a permanent home, the papers were at risk of being lost to history. By presenting our work building this archive, we analyze the limitations of institutional libraries and the vital role played by individuals and independent institutions willing to preserve dangerous papers, and we show how preserving histories of state violence and opposition can become a deeply personal and risky endeavor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2004, California became the first state to require that employers provide paid family leave (PFL) to their employees. This paper examines the effect of California's PFL law on time spent caregiving to parents and to grandchildren by older adults aged 50–79. To identify the effect of the law, the paper uses the 1998–2016 waves of the Health and Retirement Study and a difference-in-differences approach comparing outcomes in California to other states before and after the implementation of the law. Results suggest that the law induced a switch in caregiving behavior with older adults spending less time caring for grandchildren and more time helping parents. Focusing on women, results further suggest that PFL affected older adults both through their own leave-taking and through reallocations of their caregiving time in response to leave-taking by new parents. The findings motivate thinking more broadly when calculating the costs and benefits of PFL policies; to the extent that California's PFL law enabled older adults to provide more care for their parents they otherwise would not have received, such an outcome represents an indirect benefit of the policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In California, wastewater systems have adapted to water conservation and drought for decades. Yet, few studies have investigated how past design assumptions influence potential mitigation and adaptation actions. This paper evaluates adaptation pathways for wastewater management in California and addresses two questions. First, are wastewater facilities experiencing challenges from mismatches in design flow values and current rates of influent flow? Second, what, if any, adaptation actions are underway or planned? To answer these questions, we compiled historical literature and conducted surveys and interviews with wastewater system managers. Approximately half of respondents indicated that they are experiencing challenges associated with changing water use rates. Aging systems have implemented many types of mitigation and adaptation actions, including operational changes, chemical additions, and facility rebuilds. California's wastewater industry is largely pursuing an incremental adaptation pathway to manage drought and climate change. The paper demonstrates an engaged approach to research on climate change adaptation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, scholars have taken increased interest in the existential dimensions of human im/mobility largely to trace how growing numbers of persons across the globe are pressed to navigate increasingly restrictive mobility regimes. The focus on restrictive contexts has, however, deterred researchers from considering experiences of well-being in precarious conditions. This paper shows how a place-based approach to the study of im/mobility can address this gap by directing scholarly attention to supportive places that promote the well-being of various groups facing limited social conditions. Drawing upon phenomenological healthcare studies, I theorize existential well-being as a dialectic of dwelling-mobility, and study how an increasingly visible supportive place on college campuses in California—namely, the Undocumented Student Resource Center (USRC)—impacts the existential experiences of undocumented students involved in its operations. I theorize 'place' from a sociocultural psychological perspective, viewing USRCs as dynamic, psycho-social-material realities produced by USRC staff and students involved in distinct meaning-making practices. I then discuss research conducted with an USRC in Northern California to show how its distinct socio-material design and psychosocial practices contributed to the development of existential well-being in undocumented students. I conclude that a place-based approach to the study of existential im/mobility can shed light on well-being experiences that are not dependent on the eradication of restrictive mobility regimes and (as such) can contribute to social change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last decade and a half, the Supreme Court has decided a number of cases affecting juvenile sentencing and curtailing serious punishments for juveniles. These cases culminated in the Court declaring unconstitutional the sentencing of juvenile offenders to life without the possibility of parole. For those juveniles previously sentenced to life without the possibility of parole, these decisions mandated that states provide these offenders with meaningful opportunities for release. This paper assesses the implementation of the state of California's legislative response to the Court's rulings. Specifically, we examine the extent to which youthful offender parole boards in California consider the developmental factors noted by the Supreme Court in their decisions. Our results show that the aspects of the criminal offense and the "hallmark features of youth" were found not to influence parole decisions. In contrast, several aspects of the prisoner's growth and maturation in prison were related to parole release. Thus, it appears that the parole boards are operating as instructed by the Supreme Court. Implications of these findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water reuse with Advanced Water Treatment (AWT) is increasingly appealing for urban areas seeking water supply reliability. In cities facing water scarcity, how can large-scale reuse support reliability and how do reuse operations affect water quality, energy use, and water conservation? This paper presents a systems analysis of metropolitan-scale water reuse and its effects on water supply and quality. For the case study of Los Angeles County, California, USA, hydroeconomic modeling is used to evaluate reuse as a contributor to water supply given urban water conservation, drought-induced water scarcity, and costs and benefits for supply and demand. Results indicate that AWT can be a viable source of supply especially when coupled with conservation. Across modeled scenarios, reuse provides as much as 30% of regional supplies. New water reuse with AWT becomes viable when imported water availability is 50% or less of historic values. Existing indirect potable reuse operations in the county remain important. Systemwide energy intensity of operations increases with greater reuse in the absence of water conservation. Modeled influent flow rates to wastewater treatment plants resemble historical values, but extreme flow events could pose risks. The paper offers a holistic framework to evaluate water reuse as a component of urban water management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

California has experienced one of the most intense and prolonged droughts in its history in the last decade, prompting the state government to undertake a series of policy responses. This paper compares the impact of the 2015 urban water-use reduction mandate with respect to pre-policy voluntary conservation efforts and post-policy water consumption trends by examining utility-level water demand dynamics of the Metropolitan Water District in Southern California. The findings overall indicate that despite voluntary measures resulting in a gradual decline in urban water-use, the introduction of the regulatory stick achieved swift reduction targets that remained even after removal of the mandatory policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite being some of the harshest environments to design for and inhabit, deserts are considered some of the most malleable in our imagination. Countless military bases, proving grounds, gunneries, and practice fields that simulate other locales prove that in military imagination, deserts are nondescript proxy spaces waiting to be filled with the character of whatever location they are to imitate. The developers' imagination is not far behind. Through a historical case study of California City, an ambitiously planned but only partially built desert development project, and unpacking of the terms "desert" and "wasteland," this essay examines the colonial gaze towards the desert that often shapes our perceptions of this unique environment and exposes the fallacies in our thinking that lead us to imagine deserts as a blank slate waiting to be transformed. The paper also highlights the dangers of overconfidence in technology to create techno-utopias and the need to acknowledge the reality of the desert's harsh environment in any planning or development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivated by debates about California's net migration loss, we employ valued exponential-family random graph models to analyze the inter-county migration flow network in the United States. We introduce a protocol that visualizes the complex effects of potential underlying mechanisms and perform in silico knockout experiments to quantify their contribution to the California Exodus. We find that racial dynamics contribute to the California Exodus, urbanization ameliorates it, and political climate and housing costs have little impact. Moreover, the severity of the California Exodus depends on how one measures it, and California is not the state with the most substantial population loss. This paper demonstrates how generative statistical models can provide mechanistic insights beyond simple hypothesis-testing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the perspectives of college students toward food insecurity and basic needs campus resources. We draw from interviews with 49 students at one university in California's Inland Empire conducted in 2019. We found that regardless of personal experience with food insecurity, participants were generally reluctant to access resources or disclose their experiences with the campus community. We propose that this food insecurity stigma operates individually, interactionally, and structurally. We also discuss it as a by-product of neoliberal discourses about students "abusing" the system and needing to pull themselves up by the bootstraps. A response from university stakeholders has been to normalize food insecurity and visibilize resource use. While an important strategy to counteract the impact of food insecurity, we argue that normalization has limits in regard to addressing the root causes of food insecurity. Finally, we also illustrate ways that students themselves resist food insecurity stigma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A large literature documents that there are significant academic and non-academic differences between the youngest and oldest students in a school cohort. This paper investigates if being the youngest in a cohort has any impact on an individual's propensity to commit crime by utilizing a data set that contains over 4 million arrest records spanning a 20-year period in California. While I find no persistent effect on the probability of arrest, the youngest students in a cohort have a higher risk of arrest for certain offenses at age 14, corresponding to the age when they would transition to high school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the early decades of the twentieth century, the Pacific West Coast of the USA gradually turned into a hotbed of Indian anti-colonial activity. California, in particular, became a point of convergence for Bengali radicals/intellectuals and Punjabi migrant workers. The Ghadar would gradually emerge in 1913 out of the interactions between these two elements. My paper is animated by the understanding that zooming in on Indian anti-colonial activity can be a very productive way of situating California in a transnational historical framework. In my paper, I focus on the interface between the Ghadar movement and the IWW in California. Existing studies have focused on superficial similarities between the two radical movements as a way of explaining their mutual compatibility. Departing from such approaches, I will try to show that similar understandings of time, force, and rupture rendered the Ghadar and IWW compatible at a very fundamental level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For western Mt. Tamalpais, we incorrectly reported the Dmax value of Kfu3 as 114 Ma and correct it to 96 Ma. Initially, we used a conservative method of calculating maximum depositional age, but we here offer a set of less conservative values. Labels on the Supplementary File data table are corrected from 2-sigma to 1-sigma. A few additional errors, some resulting from those noted above, are corrected. We note that we do not share the alternative views offered in the Comment document about some debatable issues of Franciscan geology. The major conclusions of our paper remain unaltered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines populous perspectives of the government's responsibility to intervene in situations of possible parental neglect of children in England, Finland, Norway, and California (USA), and ask if institutional context, defined as child protection system and children´s wellbeing situation, are formative for people's perspectives on government responsibility for children in vulnerable situations and how they view children´s future. With representative samples of populations responses to a survey vignette using ordered logistic regression, findings indicate that the institutional context shed some light on differences on state responsibility. However, similarly to welfare state research, there are differences and contradictions in important dimensions that require further investigation, especially on citizens perceptions of neglect and on intrusive interventions. Citizens with a comparatively higher education are evidently much more supportive of state responsibility for children and child protection interventions than other citizens. This finding is similar to those of other studies of state responsibility. Overall, there is a high level of support in populations for the provision of public services to children and families in vulnerable situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores Latino male community college students' perceptions of their course-related interactions with faculty at a Hispanic Serving Institution in California. Using a Critical Race Theory in Education framework, we qualitatively examine the ways in which race and racism shape students' descriptions of these interactions and the extent to which students attribute negative interactions to racial discrimination and/or oppression. Longitudinal, semi-structured interview data (N = 24) presented underscore the need for structurally diverse faculty in community colleges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extreme precipitation from climate change may strain many existing stormwater systems. While studies have evaluated such effects on stormwater infrastructure, other sources of uncertainty not yet explored should also be considered. This paper presents an analysis of adaptation costs for new stormwater infrastructure to mitigate increases in design storm precipitation depth with climate change, including how economic and managerial uncertainty related to life cycle unit costs and knowledge of existing infrastructure affect costs. For case study areas in California, we quantify adaptation costs for new green infrastructure capacity by evaluating future design storms. Results indicate that design storm depths increase by an average of 28%, but lack of knowledge of the condition of existing infrastructure and life cycle unit costs result in wide cost ranges. The findings illustrate how climate change planning for stormwater should also consider economic and managerial uncertainty when estimating long-term adaptation costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For persons serving life-without-parole (LWOP) sentences in California, a commutation usually offers them the sole glimpse of hope for release from prison. While governors were reluctant to consider any sentence reductions from 1975 to 2016, commutations—including those for LWOP—have become a more frequent occurrence since. Yet, little is still known about how governors have justified reducing a sentence that initially offered no prospect of release from prison. Given the apparent change in practice, themes emerging from the content of 177 gubernatorial commutation summaries granted to persons serving LWOP sentences between 2017 and 2021 are analyzed in this paper. Through open coding, rehabilitative indicators (programming and institutional conduct) emerged as necessary preconditions for a commutation, while retributive factors (a reassessment of the nature of the crime and the prerogative to adjust excessive prison sentences or to correct sentencing errors) complemented sentence reductions. The findings expose the ethical issues that arise from an LWOP sentence and the subsequent commutation. More specifically, they shed light on the commitment offenses underlying commuted LWOP sentences and raise questions regarding the penal objectives that are supposed to be accomplished with permanent imprisonment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An acute difficulty in wine-ratings-related research, and in calculating consensus among judges, is that each rating is one observation drawn from a latent probability distribution that is wine- and judge-specific. One observation is almost no data at all. Minimizing a weighted sum of cross entropies has been proposed as a method of estimating the shape of the latent distribution using one observation. That method was tested on 30 blind triplicate wine ratings. This article replicates that test, presents results of tests at hypothetical boundary conditions, and then presents test results for a set of 30 blind triplicate ratings published by Cicchetti [(2014, August). Blind tasting of South African wines: A tale of two methodologies (AAWE Working Paper No. 164, 15 pages)] and a set of 1599 blind triplicate ratings from the California State Fair. The test results show that the minimum cross entropy solution is substantially more accurate than the analysis of a single rating. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since Pierre de Coubertin's revival of the modern Olympic games, the state of California has hosted the Olympics three times and is currently preparing for the games in Los Angeles in 2028. This paper attempts to add to the history of California's Olympic legacy by examining the period prior to 1896 and demonstrating that the Olympic idea had been firmly rooted in California long before the revival of the modern Olympic games and the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics. Themes alluding to the Olympic idea had been exploited in California as early as the mid-nineteenth century, i.e. the time of the US annexation. In 1893 the Olympic Club in San Francisco organized the Ancient Greco-Roman Games with a statewide impact. The association of those spectacles with ancient Greek art or games attests to Californians' awareness of ancient athletics and to the significant role of the San Francisco events in a historical perspective. As the years passed the knowledge about sports with Olympic associations increased among Californians, and the 1893 Ancient Greco-Roman Games in San Francisco can be successfully considered the largest pseudo-Olympic sports event before the 1896 Summer Olympics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The misuse use of prescription stimulants (MPS) among college students is a pressing public health concern. Past research suggests there is variation in MPS frequency by race/ethnicity. According to the Theory of Triadic Influence, a health behavior can increase in frequency based on experiences and characteristics of the behavior. Thus, our aim was to examine the association between experiences and characteristics of MPS with MPS frequency, by race/ethnicity. A probability sample of students attending two California universities completed a paper-based, psychometrically validated, instrument. Students who reported engaging in MPS in their lifetime were also asked questions about frequency, cost per pill, administration routes, sources, and experience with the drug. We used regression analyses to address our research questions, and conducted analyses by racial/ethnic group (i.e. for students identifying as Asian, Latinx, and White). MPS frequency did not vary by race/ethnicity. The influence of characteristics of misuse on frequency varied by race/ethnicity. Additionally, frequency of experiencing the desired outcome was significantly associated with increased MPS frequency across all three racial/ethnic groups. Characteristics of misuse are important to consider when screening for misuse and potential dependence. Particular attention should be given to these characteristics by race/ethnicity. Implications for future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to show how Californian libraries deliver value, by taking a preliminary value framework previously developed from a study of academic literature, and applying it to the public library landscape in California. A "bricolage" approach was used to develop an evidence-based framework of value and subsequently to gather data about Californians' use of and attitudes about public libraries. The framework was developed through an extended literature review and applied across data gathered through a survey of residents, interviews with library stakeholders, a review of statistics on library usage, and a review of the outcomes of grant-funded programs in California public libraries. The most significant outcome of our project is a unique value proposition for California's public libraries. These libraries deliver value for individuals, families, groups, communities, and society as a whole. They provide opportunities and support for learning and knowledge development, health and wellbeing, community development, and economic development. Value is delivered through a unique combination of resources, people, and space. California's public libraries are largely offering services that are valued by the public; however, public awareness of the range and nature of services offered remains lower than desired. Practitioners can use the evidence-based framework and the unique value proposition to better understand the aspects of their library services that offer most value to their communities, and to make more persuasive cases for library support. This paper is the first to use an evidence-based framework of value in assessing the impact of California's public libraries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Workplace safety is an important determinant of workers' welfare. Empirical evidence shows the workplace injury rate decreases during recessions. This paper uses detailed administrative Workers' Compensation claims from California to study the relationship between unemployment and workplace injuries at a more disaggregated level. We find that between 2001 and 2012, a 1% increase in the unemployment rate is associated with a 0.2% decrease in the claim rate. In addition, when the unemployment rate increases, the claim rate experiences a significant drop for the subgroups: (i) cuts or struck, (ii) upper/lower extremities or head injuries, (iii) specific injuries, (iv) male workers, (v) young workers, and (vi) insured companies. While the pro-cyclical relationship is strongly persistent across many of the subgroups, the varying magnitudes yield interesting policy implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on critical literacy as a theoretical framework, this paper explores how a children's book writing assignment designed to center the experiences of underrepresented communities in children's literature contributed to shifts in awareness among predominantly White teacher candidates. The study occurred at a large urban university in California and included 77 participants who all participated in a required Literacy Methods course in a teacher preparation program. Teacher candidate surveys and critical content analysis of candidate-authored books revealed that candidates: (1) selected topics to write about because they had a personal connection to the issue or because of its relevance to their students; (2) created books that evidenced their ability to apply traditional literacy concepts through a critical lens, (3) evidenced a deepened understanding of representation and diversity in children's literature. Findings highlight the importance of critical literacy experiences in teacher preparation as a way to develop teacher candidates' critical lens. Implications include the importance of integrating critical literacy with traditional literacy content – it is not something "extra;" the need for a critical perspective to be an integral part of Teacher Performance Expectations and standards; and the need for ongoing professional development for both teachers and teacher educators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discourse regarding public health problems disproportionately affecting marginalized communities may shape and sustain health inequities. Analyses of news media and public health communications in the wake of infectious disease outbreaks provides opportunities to examine how discourse produces dominant public perceptions about the drivers of health emergencies and who is responsible for protecting community health. Guided by Bacchi's "What is the Problem Represented to Be?" analytic approach, this paper critically examines the discursive construction of problems and solutions in news media (n = 35) and public health communication (n = 18 press releases, n = 1 governmental report) regarding an unprecedented hepatitis A outbreak in San Diego, California, USA (2016–2018) that disproportionately affected people experiencing homelessness. We organize our findings around three elements of problem and solution representation with respect to the outbreak: 1. The inequitable attribution of risk and deservingness; 2. assumptions divorced from socio-structural factors and perspectives of marginalized populations; and 3. political theatre as a means of blame-shifting and (in)action. Overall, our findings suggest that even when structural-level issues were acknowledged within news media and public health communication as undergirding the 'problem' of the hepatitis A outbreak, outbreak discourse focused on individual-level responsibility for both the causes of and solutions to it (e.g. vaccines, criminalization of homelessness), and on shifting blame between government actors. These findings have implications for understanding the role that news media and public health agencies play in shaping public perception of the causes, consequences and solutions to infectious disease outbreaks that disproportionately affect marginalized populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1997, thirty-nine members of a religious cult from California, US, committed mass suicide to gain abnormal powers exchanging their present body form. This is popularly known as Heaven's Gate. In 2021, in India, two young women were killed by their learned parents to get abnormal powers by giving-up their present body form. The paper connects such incidences and answers questions like why we feel that our present form of life is worth quitting? Ten eminent personalities from different fields were interviewed. Their responses are presented in a "belief-emotion-behavior," a novel format, analyzing the relationship between the three. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Foreign Policy Journal (CFPJ) is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In the recent times, the use of geosynthetic-reinforced soil (GRS) technology has become popular for constructing safe and sustainable pavement structures. The strength of the subgrade soil is routinely assessed in terms of its California bearing ratio (CBR). However, in the past, no effort was made to develop a method for evaluating the CBR of the reinforced subgrade soil. The main aim of this paper is to explore and appraise the competency of the several intelligent models such as artificial neural network (ANN), least median of squares regression, Gaussian processes regression, elastic net regularisation regression, lazy K-star, M-5 model trees, alternating model trees and random forest in estimating the CBR of reinforced soil. For this, all the models were calibrated and validated using the reliable pertinent historical data. The prognostic veracity of all the tools mentioned supra were assessed using the well-established traditional statistical indices, external model evaluation technique, multi-criteria assessment approach and independent experimental dataset. Due to the overall excellent performance of ANN, the model was converted into a trackable functional relationship to estimate the CBR of reinforced soil. Finally, the sensitivity analysis was performed to find the strength and relationship of the used parameters on the CBR value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In late 1970s Paris, San Francisco Nights and Far West, popular institutions in the city's new queer nightlife, helped fashion new sexual norms. They were part of a constellation of California-inspired places that stimulated new imaginings of how queerness could be expressed and embodied. Indeed, large Californian cities, San Francisco in particular, provided a profit model based on queer consumption that participated in the creation of a new queer Paris. As the decade came to an end, the mobilisation of a gay vote in California also fed Parisian activists with the inspiration to organise a queer voting bloc in Paris to influence national elections and lobby for an end to discriminatory, anti-gay sections of the penal code. These re-imaginings of politics and urban economy challenged cherished French universalist ideals. As such, opposition accompanied the embrace of California-inspired visions of queer life. Both support and resistance attested to the growing global power of California, and of the United States. Drawing upon archival research, this paper explores California as a cultural reference, commercial brand, and political aspiration in the construction of a new queer Paris at the end of the 1970s and the dawn of the 1980s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how journalists use discursive strategies when covering the complex issue of climate change in The Mercury News, a large regional U.S.A. newspaper in California, a state deeply impacted by this problem. Quantitative content analysis of published texts and semi-structured interviews of journalists uncovered common use of formative discursive elements and the principles of constructive journalism, consistent with the journalists' expressed priorities to help educate readers and make climate change interesting, relevant, and easily readable. The demands for speedy reporting in the digital environment and cuts to newsroom staff affect the use of discursive strategies for climate change coverage and limits opportunities for journalists to specialize. Journalists noted the challenge of conveying topics that are abstract, technical, and embedded with uncertainty to readers who demand definitive and instantaneous information. Such challenges are accentuated by poor connections between academic experts on climate change and the public and the press. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The objective of this paper is to propose a compaction control method that facilitates the use of expansive soil, as embankment material for highways in humid climates. Three types of expansive soils, utilised as general embankment fill in Southern China, were selected for investigating the physical, compaction, and shear strength properties. The compaction-control method was proposed based on the compaction curve revealed by the dry preparation method, associated with the corresponding soaked California bearing ratio. The site test and long-term monitoring were conducted in an embankment in Ningming, which was filled with compacted expansive soil controlled by the suggested method. The laboratory test results showed that the maximum dry unit weight obtained from the dry preparation method was less than that generated from the moist preparation method, while the optimum moisture content acquired from the dry preparation method was greater and closer to its natural moisture content. The moisture content corresponding to maximum CBR was 2% larger than the optimum moisture content. The in-situ monitoring results presented that the moisture content of the constructed embankment was close to its natural moisture content or plastic limit, the maximum settlement was 70.6 mm, and the maximum horizontal displacement was 20 mm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How can university scholars and community activists effectively collaborate to produce generative, empowering, and materially impactful knowledge and actions concerning climate change and climate justice? In this paper, we report on a collaborative effort between climate justice non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and university faculty and students to conduct research to produce innovative ideas and insights about just transitions in California and to support social movement campaigns aimed at actually reducing greenhouse gas emissions by keeping fossil fuels in the ground. This collaboration was jointly initiated by faculty and students at a California university alongside leaders of local social movement organizations dedicated to climate justice, as a response to several proposed development projects that would expand oil extraction and fossil fuel use in that state. We argue that these efforts produced a climate justice gestalt that serves to amplify our productivity, power, and impact well beyond what any single partner could do separately or individually with respect to addressing climate injustices in our region. This is our plan for addressing climate change from an anti-authoritarian, participatory approach that will speak to new developments in the scholarship on climate and environmental justice studies and collaborative research methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The California mission system linked Spanish Catholic and political institutions. To secure land and convert Indigenous peoples, the Spanish built 21 missions from San Diego to Sonoma in the 18th and 19th centuries. These missions were sites of disease, violence, and mass death. They were also places built by Native people, on Native lands, where they lived, prayed, and were buried. As a result, missions are fundamentally Indigenous places and important touchstones for descendants today. This article examines such meanings in the lives of several Ohlone peoples, Indigenous peoples of the San Francisco-Monterey region. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork with Ohlone tribes, I argue that we can understand relationships they sustain with California missions by considering such places as Indigenous cemeteries, Indigenous churches, and especially both. While dominant narratives restrict "missionized" Indigenous peoples to an irrecoverable past, this paper theorizes California mission as sites of violence, survival, and belonging to homeland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares drinking patterns of Whites and Hispanics who after crossing the U.S./Mexico border drink and do not drink in Mexico. Data came from a household survey of 1,209 adults 18 to 39 years of age in California. Residence near the US/Mexico border increases the likelihood of drinking in Mexico (AOR = 4.57; 95%CI = 2.45–8.52; p <.001). Hispanics (AOR = 1.91; 95%CI = 1.26–2.90; p <.01), those who drink more frequently (AOR = 1.05; 95%CI = 1.02–1.09; p <.01) and those who drink six or more drinks in day (AOR = 1.91; 95%CI = 1.26–2.29; p <.01) are more likely than Whites and lighter drinkers to report this behavior. Crossing the U.S./Mexico border to drink is influenced by living close to the border, Hispanic ethnicity, and drinking many drinks in a day. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To make informative public policy decisions in battling the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it is important to know the disease prevalence in a population. There are two intertwined difficulties in estimating this prevalence based on testing results from a group of subjects. First, the test is prone to measurement error with unknown sensitivity and specificity. Second, the prevalence tends to be low at the initial stage of the pandemic and we may not be able to determine if a positive test result is a false positive due to the imperfect test specificity. The statistical inference based on a large sample approximation or conventional bootstrap may not be valid in such cases. In this paper, we have proposed a set of confidence intervals, whose validity doesn't depend on the sample size in the unweighted setting. For the weighted setting, the proposed inference is equivalent to hybrid bootstrap methods, whose performance is also more robust than those based on asymptotic approximations. The methods are used to reanalyze data from a study investigating the antibody prevalence in Santa Clara County, California in addition to several other seroprevalence studies. Simulation studies have been conducted to examine the finite-sample performance of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

California's fall 1863 elections marked the first time the state attempted any sort of untraditional voting. Republicans asserted that Civil War circumstances necessitated extending suffrage to soldiers stationed away from home, but Democrats posited that absentee voting violated the state constitution and opened the door for fraud. This paper examines how California's Republican and Democratic newspapers debated the issue from the state's first official proposal for a solider suffrage law in January 1863 until December 1864, just after the presidential election. This research aims to answer the following questions: What arguments did the California partisan press use for and against soldier voting? And what do those arguments reveal about party newspapers in the state during the Civil War? The study not only provides insights into the nature of California's Civil War press but also provides historical context for more recent elections in which absentee balloting was controversial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While educational language policies have been shown to have a stronger influence on school-aged children's multilingual outcomes than Family Language Policy, California provides an example of how parental motivation and activism can also have a profound impact on educational language policies. This paper has two goals: first, it provides an overview of the legislative changes that affected California's educational system between the 1970s and the present, which resulted in an overall shift in public opinion and attitudes towards multilingualism and in a transition from promotion-oriented to restriction-oriented to again promotion-oriented educational policies with regards to multilingual education. The second part of the paper exemplifies the agency of Californian families in shaping their children's education by describing the history of an Italian/English two-way immersion programme born out of parental activism. The paper then presents the results of a preliminary study on parental attitudes within the programme, highlighting parents' strong appreciation of multilingualism and their renewed enthusiasm for Italian proficiency, bilingualism, and biliteracy in this Southern California's community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing road construction activities in Nigeria has led to increased demand for lateritic soil (LS), whose properties vary from one location to another, and. The properties of some of this laterite deposits along road alignment can be improved to enable it withstand traffic loads. This paper presents results of the laboratory evaluation of LS stabilised with oil palm fibre ash and cement blends, with a view to determine its suitability as flexible pavement construction material. The mixtures were subjected to British Standard heavy (modified Proctor) compaction energy to determine their strength characteristics. Test results show that the properties of LS improved with oil palm fibre ash and cement treatment. The maximum dry density decreased with corresponding increase in optimum moisture content as the cement content increased from 0% to 6% and the LS content of the mixtures decreased with increased oil palm fibre ash, at a fixed per cent of cement. The peaked California bearing ratio of 190.09% (soaked) recorded for the 80% LS + 14% OPFA + 6% C mix proportion, with 14th day unconfined compressive strength of 785.75 kN/m2, cohesion of 140 kN/m2 and angle of internal friction of 25°, can be used as a base material in road construction. Further work may be encouraged to assess resilient modulus of this material under cyclic load. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to study the effects of acidic and alkaline waters on the geotechnical properties of a particular type of clay with low plasticity from the northeast areas of Isfahan that have been evaluated with pH values adjusted from 3 to 8. The remoulded specimens were placed in moulds under the influence of acid and alkaline rains with different pH values and years of precipitation. Atterberg limits tests, soil permeability coefficient, California bearing ratio (CBR) test and unconfined compressive strength (UCS) of soil specimens with various pH values were used to evaluate soil mechanical changes relative to soil with neutral acidity. In order to identify internal structural mechanisms of soil before and after artificial raining on the specimens, scanning electron microscopy and pH drainage tests of specimens were performed. The results of the interaction of rain and soil with shifting from neutral values were evaluated over a period of precipitation fluxes from 1 to 20 years. In overall, the more is the acidity or alkalinity of the artificial rain, the more will increase the Atterberg limits and the soil permeability compared to the soil specimens under artificial rain with pH = 7; and the decreasing trend is observed in UCS values and CBR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the role of sports practice in the re-articulation process of immigrant communities in their places of destination. I will use the case of basketball tournaments held by immigrants from Oaxaca, Mexico, in the context of the Los Angeles metropolitan region. This Mexican emigration has settled mainly in southern California, in the United States. While the eventual creation of their immigrant communities is explained by the insertion of immigrants in specific labor niches through their social networks, mainly based on sharing the same hometowns of origin, the role of socio-cultural elements such as sports practice and the formation of immigrant public spaces are also significant factors that make possible this process. The examination of these sports practices reveals its centrality in the conformation of these public spaces and with it the development of identification processes that enables the consolidation of immigrant communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much research examining the biological and social-cultural underpinnings of human mate preferences has focused on univariate or bivariate analyses of demographic variables and personality constructs. In this paper, we argue that a multivariate approach more effectively highlights the multifaceted structure and correlates of human mate preferences. To support this claim, we applied several multivariate techniques to data from a large adult sample to (1) examine the major dimensions underlying individual differences in mate preferences, and (2) elucidate how these preferences relate to individual differences in personality. An exploratory factor analysis of an omnibus mate preference questionnaire yielded a 14-factor solution with dimensions mirroring trends in evolutionary psychology and the Big Five personality framework. An inter-battery factor analysis of these dimensions paired with higher-order personality factors provided strong support for the "likes attract" model of partner preferences. Bootstrap confidence intervals for all factor loadings highlighted the robustness of our results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Education and training in global health and social justice is crucial to ensuring the next generation of health professionals are poised to tackle the pressing issues of our time. To develop and implement an intensive summer course on global health and social justice for high school students at the University of Southern California. This paper reviews the course aims and curriculum, its implementation both onsite and online, and reports on student course evaluations and long-term student outcomes. Student satisfaction with the program was extremely high, which endured when the course went virtual during the COVID-19 pandemic. The most popular elements of the course included interactive, game-based activities and guest speakers. Many students reported that the course motivated them to pursue higher education and careers in global health or related fields. More universities should consider offering summer programs or other extension programs targeting high school students in order to meet the increasing demand for global health education. Recommendations for implementing global health courses for younger learners include having an interdisciplinary focus with a range of topics and diverse perspectives; provision of scholarships to allow low-income students and students from abroad to participate; prioritizing the integration of active learning and experiential educational opportunities; and incorporating debriefing and reflection as integral parts of learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the performance of two 18-story steel moment frame buildings (UBC 1982 and 1997 designs) in southern California under plausible San Andreas fault earthquakes in the next 30 years is quantified. The approach integrates rupture-to-rafters simulations into the PEER performance-based earthquake engineering (PBEE) framework. Using stochastic sources and computational seismic wave propagation, three-component ground motion histories at 636 sites in southern California are generated for 60 scenario earthquakes on the San Andreas fault. The ruptures, with moment magnitudes in the range of 6.0–8.0, are assumed to occur at five locations on the southern section of the fault. Two unilateral rupture propagation directions are considered. The 30-year probabilities of all plausible ruptures in this magnitude range and in that section of the fault, as forecast by the United States Geological Survey, are distributed among these 60 earthquakes based on proximity and moment release. The response of the two 18-story buildings hypothetically located at each of the 636 sites under three-component shaking from all 60 events is computed using 3-D nonlinear time-history analysis. Using these results, the probability of the structural response exceeding Immediate Occupancy (IO), Life-Safety (LS), and Collapse Prevention (CP) performance levels under San Andreas fault earthquakes over the next 30 years is evaluated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we introduce machine-learning (ML) methods to evaluate one of the key concepts of real estate analysis – the prediction of housing prices in the presence of a large number of covariates. We use several supervised ML tools that are based on regularisation methods – notably Ridge, LASSO, and Elastic Net regressions – and discuss their relative performance in comparison to conventional OLS-based methods. Our empirical results show that the supervised ML methods provide a comprehensive description of the determinants of owner-occupied housing values in the census tracts of California. We find that, compared to the familiar worlds of OLS and WLS, the Ridge, LASSO, and Elastic Net regressions provide relatively better out-of-sample predictions. Among the benefits of shrinkage-based ML methods are their ability to resolve such issues as variable selection and overfitting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the challenges faced by unhoused women in accessing general and reproductive health care services in Santa Cruz, CA. Semi-structured interviews with women experiencing houselessness were conducted in Santa Cruz, CA with a focus on their narrative experiences as patients. The overwhelming majority of participants expressed appreciation for clinics that provided support through longer hours, alternative therapies, and appointment reminders. Overall, the interviews indicated that women who had access to a social worker were much more likely to report improved access to satisfactory treatment. These findings suggest that there is not a tangible lack of healthcare services for unhoused women in the local community, but rather a burden of treatment navigation caused by a dearth of information on how to access care. The interviews suggest that this burden can be reduced with social work interventions and service centers that offer health navigation support. By adapting theories of the "burden of treatment," we argue that additional attention must be paid to overcoming the "burden of treatment navigation." For related reasons, we suggest that increasing the availability of social workers would concretely improve health outcomes for unhoused women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of low-NOx compressed natural gas (CNG) medium-duty vehicles (MDVs) and heavy-duty vehicles (HDVs) has the potential to significantly reduce NOx emissions and yield improvements in regional air quality. However, the extent of air quality improvement depends on many factors including future levels of vehicle deployment, the evolution of emissions from other sources, and meteorology. An analysis of the impacts requires modeling the atmosphere to account for both primary and secondary air pollutants, and the use of health impact assessment tools to map air quality changes into quantifiable metrics of human health. Here, we quantify and compare the air quality and health impacts associated with the deployment of low-NOx CNG engines to power future MDV and HDV fleets in California relative to both a business-as-usual and a more advanced fleet composition. The results project that reductions in summer ground-level ozone could reach 13 ppb when compared to a baseline fleet of diesel and gasoline HDV and MDV and could reach 6 ppb when compared to a cleaner fleet that includes some zero-emission vehicles and fuels. Similarly, for all CNG cases considered reductions in PM2.5 are predicted to range from 1.2 ug/m3 to 2.7 ug/m3 for a summer episode and from 3.1 ug/m3 to approximately 7.8 ug/m3 for a winter episode. These improvements yield short-term health benefits equivalent to $47 to $56 million in summer and $38 to $43 million in winter during episodes conducive to poor air quality. Additionally, the use of zero emission vehicle options such as battery electric and hydrogen fuel cell trucks could achieve approximately 25% to 31% higher benefits for an equivalent fleet penetration level due to the additional emission reductions achieved. Implications: The paper provides a quantitative estimate of the air quality and human health benefits that can be achieved through the use of novel compressed natural gas engines (i.e., low-NOx CNG) in medium- and heavy-duty vehicles and provide a comparison with zero emission vehicles. Thus, our findings will provide support for policy development seeking to transform the trucking sector to meet clean air and climate goals given the current struggle policymakers have with selecting between alternative truck technologies due to variance in factors like cost and technical maturity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Inclusionary housing is considered a powerful local policy tool that can help address housing affordability and social inclusion issues. This paper draws from empirical research conducted in the City of Santa Monica in California to provide fresh insights on a successful innovative inclusionary housing program, the Affordable Housing Production Program (AHPP). This program was established to increase affordable housing production and enable social integration. Based on the Land Use and Circulation Element (LUCE) of the General Plan, the AHPP seeks to capture some of the increase in land value resulting from planned increases in the intensity of development. Our research shows that the program increased inclusionary housing production by market-rate developers by 15% over the previous inclusionary housing policy. The study finds that land use policies and planning can, through inclusionary housing, help harness the strength of the real estate market to (1) increase affordable housing production, and (2) achieve effective social integration in neighborhoods of opportunity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conceptualizing and measuring trends in segregation in higher education is difficult as both vertical and horizontal sorting is prevalent and patterns vary across racial groups. In this paper, we measure various trends in racial segregation in California for 20 years. We find significant sorting by race both between and within sectors of higher education, though the overall levels of segregation are lower in California's colleges than they are in California's high schools. These trends have and remained relatively stable over time. We also find important differences between groups. We see that most Latinx-White and Black-White segregation is due to students attending different schools within the same sector, while Asian-White segregation is increasingly due to students attending schools in different sectors. We also find evidence that policy and structural changes, such as opening a new campus, can affect patterns of segregation across and within sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As springboards to higher office we need to better understand women's electoral success at lower-level offices to eliminate the gender gap among elected officials in the United States. To help understand women's success as local candidates, we ask: is there a difference in electoral performance between men and women with political experience who run for local office? We use an aggregate dataset of mayoral and city council elections in California between 2008 and 2015, focusing on two types of "quality" candidates – incumbents and candidates with previous elected experience. We found that female incumbents and female candidates with previous elected experience garner lower vote shares than their male counterparts, and these patterns are more pronounced in big city elections accounting for campaign financing. Despite the presumption that women do better than men in lower-level offices, male candidates get a bigger boost from incumbency and previous elected experience than female candidates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]