http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification 720 https://escholarship.org/uc/equilibrium/rss Recent eScholarship items from The Equilibrium Tue, 30 Jun 2026 07:01:07 +0000 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6f97c7bm <p>Tetralogy of Fallot (TOF) is one of the more complicated types of congenital heart defects. TOF a ects 3-5% of all infants born with congenital heart defects and is a leading cause of cyanosis, which occurs when insu cient amount of oxygen are transported to the rest of body. Four major defects contribute to cyanosis in patients with TOF.</p> https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6f97c7bm Fri, 12 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Dong, Melody https://escholarship.org/uc/item/69c9x8w9 <p>TRIGGER WARNING: December 2012, New Delhi, India. A twenty-three-year-old college student, Jyoti Singh Pandey, boarded an off  duty bus with her male friend. Soon after, he was knocked unconscious and she was gang raped and brutalized by 6 men. She died as a result of her injuries. The men who assaulted and murdered her, except one who died in custody, were charged with rape, murder, kidnapping, robbery, and assault. All perpetrators were found guilty and all but one, a juvenile, were sentenced to death by hanging.</p><p> </p> https://escholarship.org/uc/item/69c9x8w9 Fri, 12 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Wilson, Shayla https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3hq1s066 <p>Veterans of recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan are at notably high risk for numerous mental health disorders. Research suggests that psychological resilience, or the capacity to successfully adapt in the face of adversity, may protect against such conditions. The present study explored differences in resilience levels and associated psychosocial factors among racial groups in a large and relatively diverse sample of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. Although minorities make up a significant portion of the military, little work has investigated resilience in minority veterans.</p> https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3hq1s066 Fri, 12 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Leung, Desmond https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9fv6d7v3 <p>Anton Corbjin’s <em>A Most Wanted Man </em>is an exploration of the spy genre with a postmodern bent, in which the usual tropes such as escapism, exoticism, and technological and political thrill are constantly interwoven into a kind of irony in narrative programs that plays on the subject’s ideas about spies and terrorism. In <em>A Most Wanted Man</em>, viewers are forced to think critically about aesthetic experience in order to find answers to the film’s implied questions; I will argue that a poetics arises from recursive imagery and gives weight to the film’s issues regarding a core, psychoanalytic-existential lack. This lack appears in the form of desire for control within a global power structure and addiction. Rather than giving physical violence any screen time, the film exploits alternative (or perhaps underlying) anxieties to deal with politics: ideology, sex, and addiction bloodlessly drop viewers into thriller territory, exposing the anxieties involved in what we... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9fv6d7v3 Thu, 11 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Imel, Nathaniel https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8wr6p1fg <p>This paper will investigate the extent to which Switzerland, Nigeria, and Canada have successfully implemented multicultural policy. It will also explore how each nation’s history has affected contemporary multiculturalism within its borders. Nigeria has gone through multiple stages of multicultural policy, from coexistence and celebration of cultural diversity to assimilation and homogenization, since its independence from the British in 1960. Unlike Switzerland, Nigeria struggles with a colonial past that has manifested into detrimental consequences for multicultural policy in the form of religious violence and governmental corruption. The legacy of colonialism has greatly damaged multiculturalism in Nigeria, and it is reflected in their contemporary policies. Switzerland is protectionist both externally and internally. Multicultural policy in Switzerland is, and has historically been, centered around preventing immigrants (second and third generations included) from becoming... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8wr6p1fg Thu, 11 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Emmenegger, Heidi https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8041s91q <p>A series of polymer fins were designed and made using additive manufacturing techniques, to be tested by the Human Powered Submarine team at UC San Diego in a wet submarine that utilizes a thunniform method of propulsion. A 3D printer was also constructed in order to print these fins efficiently. Designs were inspired by the shape and semi-flexible properties of fish caudal fins. Materials utilized included polylactic acid (PLA), acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), polycarbonate (PC), PC-ABS blends, Nylon, and thermoplastic urethane (TPU) polymers. Of these materials, polycarbonate proved most practical for this application. Factors that were qualitatively considered during the practical testing were the material properties of a specific polymer, the surface area of the propulsive  fin, and the shape of the  fin. The low-cost polycarbonate processing techniques used in this project are also applicable to the additive manufacturing field in general.</p> https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8041s91q Thu, 11 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Spencer, Thomas https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7z8224t2 <p>Ambulance dispatch is a system where an operator directs a set of ambulances to locations where people require emergency medical assistance. A few seconds can still be decisive in whether the ambulance and the medical technicians arrive on time to save the patient. To further study how ambulance travel time affects success rates, we have written software to simulate ambulance dispatch using past data. Running this program on varying parameters such as number of ambulances and bases show minor to stark differences in the effectiveness of a group of ambulances to respond to emergency medical cases within a city. Using this tool, it becomes possible to highlight the effectiveness of increasing the number of ambulances in Tijuana in order to better execute ambulance dispatch.</p> https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7z8224t2 Thu, 11 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Yuan, Hans Lam, Timothy https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7d62t16j <p>Heart failure, a progressive condition that is typically undetected and often misdiagnosed, is the leading cause of deaths around the world. The disorder is characterized by the inability of the heart to keep up with the body’s demand for blood circulation. It is initiated by structural and functional changes from molecular to systemic levels that result in compensatory physiological changes, commonly termed cardiac remodeling. At first, this remodeling enables the heart to increase its cardiac output to compensate for the change. However, over time, remodeling results in cardiomyopathy, a condition with enlarged left ventricles and/or dilated ventricular walls that can lead to dysfunction and inadequate pumping of blood to the rest of the body.</p> https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7d62t16j Thu, 11 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Cheng, Tik-Chee Jenny https://escholarship.org/uc/item/78k7w3dd <p>Recently, Hollow Silica Shells have been explored for various biomedical applications due to their biocompatibility. Hollow silica shells offer the exibility to adjust their physical and mechanical properties (diameter, shell thickness, shell strength, etc.) as well as their chemical properties via elemental doping or surface chemical modi cation. Hollow silica shells are formed by a unique polymerization reaction between silicic acid into SiO2, creating a layer covering a polystyrene beads as sacri cial templates. The template is then removed via solvent dissolution or heat, yielding a hollow SiO2 shell.</p> https://escholarship.org/uc/item/78k7w3dd Thu, 11 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Badaracco, Adrian https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5ww2k8fk <p>This study uses atmospheric CO2 concentration data (the Keeling Curve) as an alternative measurement of anthropogenic carbon emissions to test the relationship between environmental pressure and economic development. Using verified detrending procedures, no significant relationship is observed between global population growth and increases in atmospheric carbon concentration. Changes in world GDP, however, have a significant effect on CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. GDP per capita is also a strong indicator of the Keeling Curve. The use of the affluence level, GDP per capita, correlates to the environmental impact when the environmental pressure is altered to atmospheric CO2 concentration, even though population does not correlate with the Keeling Curve.</p> https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5ww2k8fk Thu, 11 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Lu, Xingyu https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5ct459m8 <p>Diabetes, hypertension, and mental health illnesses constitute a substantial portion of the healthcare burden in rural India. These issues, if left untreated, can lead to debilitating diseases and further burdens on society. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence hypertension, diabetes, and mental health illnesses in a rural Indian population. It was hypothesized that high levels of hypertension and diabetes would be present in the rural Indian village, along with a higher prevalence of depression in this community compared to other rural areas due to the high incidence of disability in the village. The health screening was conducted on 1195 patients with 973 respondents included in the study. The first phase of the study showed that a majority of the respondents had above average blood pressure values, high incidences of underweight patients, and a moderate number of respondents at risk for diabetes. The second phase of the study showed that half of the population... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5ct459m8 Thu, 11 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Sridhar, Vaish https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5671m67z <p>One major technical barrier in working with both NIR and visible light on an optical microscope is obtaining their precise coalignment at the imaging plane position. Current techniques require complex setups and software. Photon upconverting particles (UCPs) can bridge this gap as they are excited by NIR light but emit in the visible range. Here, two different UCPs have been identified, high-efficiency micro540-UCPs and lower efficiency nano545-UCPs are compared, and it is found that the lower efficiency nano-UCPs were superior for precise coalignment of the NIR beam with the visible light path consistent with limited particle-to-particle energy transfer, superlinear power dependence for emission, and much smaller particle size.</p> https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5671m67z Thu, 11 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Badaracco, Adrian Garcia https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4qm8g7s2 <p>On the spectrum of the persuasion from the basis of Elaborated Likelihood Model (ELM) and Cognitive Dissonance Theory, this paper discusses how persuasion accounts for effects of attitudinal change underlying the elaboration likelihood model. Along with the previous emphasis on the central route and peripheral route as the factors on analysis of persuasion, we hypothesize that one of these routes will affect the result of persuasion. Specifically, we predicted that the participants will be highly persuaded when they are given the central route argument rather than the peripheral route. Participants (n = 344)-mostly non-college students- were randomly selected to participate in an online survey through Mechanical Turk consisting of prompts and questions about the types of investments. The survey contained questions about interest and opinion in the type of investment, using a 9-point Likert scale. The results revealed a significant main effect of interest in bitcoin and gold... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4qm8g7s2 Thu, 11 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Park, Myungchul https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4n11t1x6 <p>Air quality is still a major problem in much of the world. Greenhouse gases and other pollutants still continually make their way into our atmosphere. On a global scale these emissions contribute to climate change. On a local level they contribute to air pollution which contributes to heart and lung diseases. </p><p>This study looks at population density within the land-use of an area to determine if there is a negative correlation with transportation emissions. The goal of this study is to enrich our understanding of how we contribute to air pollution. My hypothesis predicted that population density leads to lower average driving distances which in turn improves air quality.</p> https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4n11t1x6 Thu, 11 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Sterling, Mathew https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4jt5v9dk <p>Current research on tactical urbanism suggests that temporary buildings in vacant spaces has given rise to more successful areas and reinvigorated sites for permanent buildings. Tactical urbanism raises three fundamental problems: risks, onsite design, and externalities. This research paper addresses these problems. Specifically, the study focuses on Quartyard in San Diego, California and relies on interviews, participant observation, and reviewing policies. The research will contribute to the literature on tactical urbanism, but it will also be shared with private developers and city officials in the hope of temporary buildings will be used more frequently to revitalize abandoned spaces.</p> https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4jt5v9dk Thu, 11 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000 McGuire, Nicklaus https://escholarship.org/uc/item/26s7n0q7 <p>Both Plato and Aristotle divide the soul into a distinct number of parts; Plato opts for a tripartite division, while Aristotle opts for a bipartite division. In most of his works, Plato defends a tripartite division of the soul, for example, in the Republic, Phaedrus, Apology, etc. dividing it into the appetitive, spirited and rational parts of the soul; however, in certain works, such as The Timaeus, a bipartite division is discussed, although he never abandons the tripartite division. Plato’s division of the soul is mainly developed in the context of discussions of politics and corresponds to his ideal state, in which there are three kinds of citizens. Aristotle, on the other hand, defends a bipartite division of the soul, dividing it into the rational and the irrational. The motive for dividing the soul into a bipartite or tripartite division is partly political and to explain human behavior, motivations or character types. I will argue that both Plato and Aristotle’s division... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/26s7n0q7 Thu, 11 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Harrington, Tiffany https://escholarship.org/uc/item/13p497jb <p>This study will rst provide a clear framing of colonialism by addressing the theoretical overview provided by Osterhammel in conjunction with comparative historical discussions. The discussion will then continue with the origins and development of martial law in Palestine, beginning with the establishment of the Mandate system to the present day. Finally, we will end with an evaluation of the relationship between Israel and Palestine and create a more nuanced view and a fresh examination of the structure behind the conflict.</p> https://escholarship.org/uc/item/13p497jb Thu, 11 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Do, Nhat-Dang Provence, Michael https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0sg9261n <p> Instead of receiving assistance from the state or community, black women are met with that violent racial bias that the conditions of their life seem to be of their doing and choice. As a result, these women are subsequently punished for their life circumstances (e.g. unintended pregnancy) despite their actual efforts to create new possibilities for themselves. This essay hopes to approach the ways in which public health disease assessment of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in black communities has historically been insuf cient in actually tackling the social and structural forces that create poor health outcomes. Instead, it aims to pathologize their culture as a primary factor in the spread of HIV/AIDS.</p> https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0sg9261n Thu, 11 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Abdalgadir, Mariam https://escholarship.org/uc/item/06r5x4hz <p>In the Fall of 2016, Bazmandegan participated in an event celebrating Community Day, the 75th anniversary of the Museum of Contemporary Art in La Jolla. The theme of the show revolved around artistic workshops that engaged the general public in social issues. One particular exhibition that was on display at the museum, Berkeley Protest Posters, was a collection of posters made by UC Berkeley students during the 70’s that called for an end to the Vietnam War. Bazmandegan was struck by the intensity of the involvement of students in the past and how they used widely accessible art materials to stage their protest This show inspired Bazmandegan to engage the public in a peaceful protest and encourage them to respond to the idea of protest differently. He drew inspiration from his past installation, The Wishes Tree, to ful ll this new idea of protest. For his art project, protesting was as simple as making a wish to work towards for the future. This gesture was meant to empower... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/06r5x4hz Thu, 11 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Bazmandegan, Farshid