Recent ucla items

Report from the 2026 UCLA Arrowhead Symposium: New Mobility, Automated Vehicles and Cities

Thu, 14 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Automated vehicles are no longer a “coming soon” technology; they are an operational reality reshaping the physical and digital real estate of our cities. The question is no longer if the technology will work, but how we will govern the complex ecosystem it inhabits. The 2026 UCLA Arrowhead Symposium on New Mobility, Automated Vehicles, and Cities shifted the focus beyond technological hype and market speculation to the urgent work of public stewardship.

Birth Control Narratives: Jewish Women and the Law of Reproduction

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Birth Control Narratives: Jewish Women and the Law of Reproduction

Black Letter Law

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Black Letter Law

Carceral Backlash: The Case for Changing the Course of Women's Homicide Convictions

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Carceral Backlash: The Case for Changing the Course of Women's Homicide Convictions

“Signifying in Nineteenth-Century African American Religious Music.”

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This essay concerns the role of religious music in nineteenth-century African American culture. Just as religion has received much study in African and African-derived cultures, so too has musicking in religion because both phenomena — music and religion — are central to African peoples. As music scholar J. H. Kwabena Nketia writes, “The most compelling reason for music making in Africa derives from religious experience, for it is generally believed that the spiritual world is responsive to music and deeply affected by it. . . . Hence worship always finds its most intense expression in music making.” When practiced in African-derived traditional (roots) cultures, religion and music are not placed on a shelf to be observed, gazed on, or used only on special occasions, but are integrated fully into the everyday lives of the people. And for many Africans, life would be meaningless without these phenomena.

Although few scholars have used signifying as a basis for analyzing...

PERCEL: A Re-Writable NVM CIM Incorporating a CTT-Based Per-Cell DAC

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Compute in memory (CiM) accelerators perform matrix vector multiplications (MVMs) directly inside memory arrays, reducing data movement and improving both energy efficiency and throughput for AI workloads. To reduce the number of conversions, recent designs use multi-bit compute cells. Nevertheless, practical multi-bit CiM still faces a tension between accuracy, efficiency, and re-writeability, since multi-level NVM based designs suffer from nonlinearity and poor re-writeability, while multi-level activation based DRAM / SRAM macros are limited by mismatch and low accuracy. This work introduces a per-cell DAC based CiM macro that combines the density of multi-level NVM with fully re-writable DRAM weights to break the trade-off. Each bit cell embeds a compact 6-bit CTT based current mode DAC, calibrated in-situ through a write verify write loop, together with a 1T(1C) embedded DRAM. Post-layout simulations of a 576×256 macro in 22nm FDSOI project 49.9 8b-TOPS/W, and 8.96 8b-TOPS/mm2,...

Intersectionally-Informed Advocacy: A Structural Justice Account of Wrongful Convictions for Sexual Violence

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Intersectionally-Informed Advocacy: A Structural Justice Account of Wrongful Convictions for Sexual Violence

Transgender Students and the Fundamental Right to Self-Identify at Scholl

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Transgender Students and the Fundamental Right to Self-Identify at Scholl

Statistical Methods for Mapping Gene Regulation with Functional Assays

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The advent of new functional assays give researchers new ability to connect genetics to function. In turn, careful and specialized computational methods can use these data to ask questions about genetic regulation and architecture. In my first project I developed dotears, a method for learning causal gene regulatory networks using Perturb-seq data, with guarantees of statistical consistency under mild assumptions as well as improved performance in simulations and real Perturb-seq data. In my second project I developed keju, a Bayesian hierarchical model that estimates transcription rate and differential activity in Massively Parallel Reporter Assay data. keju improves inference by tying uncertainty estimation to assay design, with better power and calibration than previous methods. Together, these methods use functional assay data to better characterize causal gene-gene regulation and the impacts of genetic variation on transcription in varied contexts.

Front Matter

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Front Matter

Abundance Liberalism: A Critique of Procedural “Neutrality”

Mon, 11 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Abundance Liberalism: A Critique of Procedural “Neutrality”

Multinodality and Middle Power Adaptation in a Post-Unipolar WorldAn Emerging Model for a Fragmenting World Order

Mon, 11 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Multinodality and Middle Power Adaptation in a Post-Unipolar WorldAn Emerging Model for a Fragmenting World Order

Political Elites on International Law Concerns:The US Congress Response to ICC CuesConcerning the Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Hamas Conflicts

Mon, 11 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Political Elites on International Law Concerns:The US Congress Response to ICC CuesConcerning the Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Hamas Conflicts

Leveraging Rivalry: Non-State Actors in U.S.-China Great Power Competition

Mon, 11 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Leveraging Rivalry: Non-State Actors in U.S.-China Great Power Competition

How Appearance Affects Female vsMale Candidates:A Potential Mechanism for Women’sUnderrepresentation in the Candidate Pool

Mon, 11 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

How Appearance Affects Female vsMale Candidates:A Potential Mechanism for Women’sUnderrepresentation in the Candidate Pool

Rising Numbers, Fading Resources: Students Experiencing Homelessness in Los Angeles County

Mon, 11 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This study examines student homelessness in Los Angeles County within broader state and national trends, highlighting the lasting impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on identification, engagement, and attendance. Pandemic-related disruptions intensified chronic absenteeism and obscured accurate identification, particularly during periods of remote learning. National data also show that many students experiencing homelessness face overlapping vulnerabilities, including disability status, migrant education eligibility, and English learner needs. In response, the American Rescue Plan – Homeless Children and Youth (ARP-HCY) program provided substantial short-term funding to expand identification efforts and deliver wraparound supports, though these funds have since expired. The end of this funding has created a fiscal cliff, resulting in reduced services and staffing for students experiencing homelessness. Recent data show sharp increases in student homelessness across California, specifically...

Why Extremist Organizations Moderate:How Organizational Capacity Shapes Ideological Positioning

Mon, 11 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Why Extremist Organizations Moderate:How Organizational Capacity Shapes Ideological Positioning

Risk Assessment and Risk Management for Transportation Research

Mon, 11 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This paper sets forth a preliminary methodology to assess and manage risk for transportation research. The California Dept. of Transportation (Caltrans) funds numerous transportation research projects that range from studies that aim to improve the understanding of travel behavior to field operations tests and deployment studies for new technologies. The risk assessment methodology is designed to help 1) identify needs for transportation research, 2) identify likely audiences for the anticipated research products, as well as potential applications; 3) identify potential barriers that could impede research or prevent its implementation; and based on the findings of the first three steps, 4) assess whether Caltrans is best suited to fund and oversee the research, should co-‐sponsor it with other agencies, should support it in less direct ways, or should refrain from engaging in research efforts on the topic and simply monitor developments in the field. The methodology is intended...

Comparing age-friendly city and community policies from China and the world: a systematic review

Mon, 11 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Introduction: Population aging is a growing global policy and health challenge. The World Health Organization's Age-Friendly Cities and Communities (AFCCs) framework has guided efforts to create supportive environments for older adults. Methods: This study conducts a systematic review of AFCC literature and policies in China and global contexts. The goal is to examine how China-a developing country with the world's largest older population and unique challenges from rapid urbanization-compares to other global contexts in its response to aging. Results and discussion: The review reveals key differences of AFCC policies between China and other global regions, which include varying priorities in mobility, employment, and education policies; divergent implementation approaches; broad visions versus specific standards. Some of the differences in context-specific issues are tied to different urbanization phases. On the other hand, shared challenges include financial issues that constrain...

Disaster recovery for whom? insurance, zoning, and the exclusionary geographies of wildfire resilience

Mon, 11 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Disaster recovery after wildfires is often framed as rebuilding to restore communities to their pre-disaster condition. We argue that recovery following a disaster can also function as a mechanism of spatial governance that produces exclusionary development by shaping who is able to return. Focusing on recovery after the 2018 Camp Fire in Paradise, California, we combine 35 semi-structured interviews with residential insurance data and neighborhood-level changes in housing and labor characteristics. We show that post-fire rebuilding is increasingly structured by the interaction of fire-adaptive regulations, building codes, and insurance market behavior, which together raise the financial thresholds for reconstruction. As recovery proceeds, informal, low-cost, and ad-hoc housing is displaced by formal, risk-managed, and insurable development, reshaping both the physical geography and the social composition of wildfire-affected neighborhoods. In the context of increasingly catastrophic...

How urban environments structure running behaviour in Beijing during winter, spring, and summer 2024: spatiotemporal patterns and configuration-specific interactions from running trajectory data

Mon, 11 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

BackgroundUnderstanding how urban environments stimulate routine physical activity is a central issue in public health. Running, as a low-threshold and widely accessible exercise, serves as a sensitive indicator of environmental influence. Yet, few studies have used methods capable of capturing the non-linear and context-dependent interactions through which multiple built-environment factors jointly shape running. This study investigates the spatiotemporal patterns of running and identifies how combinations of environmental features across different urban scenarios affect behavioural activation.MethodsWe analysed 83,302 GPS-tracked running trajectories from Beijing. Built-environment indicators were integrated across five dimensions and examined using Light Gradient Boosting Machine with SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP). To enhance behavioural interpretability, variables were grouped into scenario-informed contexts representing commuting, restorative, and training environments....

Institutions and Investment:How Foreign Direct Investment Responds to Political Risk Across Regimes

Mon, 11 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Institutions and Investment:How Foreign Direct Investment Responds to Political Risk Across Regimes

Tax parking, not housing

Mon, 11 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This discussion paper argues that cities should discourage off-street parking by levying a tax — a parking impact fee — on new development. Parking generates environmental and social costs or externalities, and developers, left to their own devices, will provide too many spaces from a societal perspective. A parking impact fee can account for these externalities and provide incentives for developers to reduce the oversupply of parking. One practical way to implement such a fee is to repurpose the transportation impact fees that cities already levy on new development. Rather than the current practice of charging a fee for each housing unit or square foot, which discourages housing and commercial development, cities should charge for each new parking space — discouraging parking instead.

Democratic Decline in Comparative Perspective: Executive Overreach, Polarization, and The United States

Mon, 11 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Democratic Decline in Comparative Perspective: Executive Overreach, Polarization, and The United States

From Policy Conflict to Constitutional Change:EPA Jurisprudence and the Evolution of Separation of Powers in a Polarized Era

Mon, 11 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

From Policy Conflict to Constitutional Change:EPA Jurisprudence and the Evolution of Separation of Powers in a Polarized Era

THE REVOLUTION SHALL NOT BE CENSORED:Understanding the role of narrative resonance in grassroots movement resistance against state social media censorship

Mon, 11 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

THE REVOLUTION SHALL NOT BE CENSORED:Understanding the role of narrative resonance in grassroots movement resistance against state social media censorship

When Protector Becomes Perpetrator: A Mixed-Methods Approach to Understanding What Accounts for Sexual Violence Variation Among UN Peacekeeping Missions

Mon, 11 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

When Protector Becomes Perpetrator: A Mixed-Methods Approach to Understanding What Accounts for Sexual Violence Variation Among UN Peacekeeping Missions

Critical Formalism: Article 21(3) at the International Criminal Court

Mon, 11 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Critical Formalism: Article 21(3) at the International Criminal Court

“The Campus Law Enforcement Web” How Campus Policing Capacity Expands to Suppress Student Free Speech

Mon, 11 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

“The Campus Law Enforcement Web” How Campus Policing Capacity Expands to Suppress Student Free Speech

“Development and Dissent: Why Student Protests Are More Disruptive in Developing Countries”

Mon, 11 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

“Development and Dissent: Why Student Protests Are More Disruptive in Developing Countries”

Innovative DOTs: Identifying Critical Issues and Strategies with Broad Support

Mon, 11 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Many state Departments of Transportation (DOTs) are engaged in strategic planning aimed at helping them improve their ability to identify coming problems and improve their ability to innovate. This paper examines common concerns or 'threats' currently facing DOTs, and identifies strategies to address them, or 'opportunities' that many DOTs support. The paper gives examples of innovative projects and programs from DOTs around the U.S., across a spectrum from leading innovative agencies to those just starting to initiate a discussion about change. Our methodology was to scan recent reports on critical issues and changing trends from a variety of experts and transportation stakeholder groups representing a broad selection of viewpoints. We then sought examples of how DOTs are currently innovating to address these critical issues and changing trends—both opportunities and threats—and identified ten main ways in which DOTs are adapting to meet them. Many reports on innovative DOTs...

Encampment geographies: Refuge, return, and refusal

Fri, 8 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Thinking from Los Angeles, amid the expanding criminalization of homelessness, we advance a conceptual framework of encampment geographies. We argue that the homeless encampment must be understood in relation to state power, specifically the state as landlord. As residents of state spaces—sidewalks, shelters, interim housing—encampment dwellers are institutionalized. This includes interpellation in humanitarian exchange, notably through forms of mutual aid that emerge in the interstices of state violence. Drawing on ethnographic research and movement histories at Aetna Street, we present three encampment geographies: return, refuge, and refusal. We conceptualize the encampment as a site of enforced return and a space of refuge whose residents are akin to refugees. In doing so, we situate the homeless encampment in a global geography of camps, drawing on literatures that are attentive to expulsion, containment, and asylum. Yet encampment residents refuse enclosure, in particular,...

Beyond One-Size-Fits-All Education Approaches: Rethinking California’s Alternative Education System

Fri, 8 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

California’s alternative education system, particularly its Dashboard Alternative School Status (DASS) schools, serves as a vital but often overlooked pathway for historically marginalized and vulnerable students. This report analyzes 2022–23 data from 894 DASS schools, representing 150,009 students, to evaluate the effectiveness of these settings.

The findings reveal that DASS schools disproportionately enroll Black, Latine, Indigenous, foster, homeless, socioeconomically disadvantaged, disabled students, and other populations facing significant systemic barriers. Educational outcomes in these settings highlight profound disparities compared to non-alternative schools, including a 60% chronic absenteeism rate, a 58% five-year graduation rate, and significantly lower proficiency in English Language Arts and mathematics. Furthermore, the analysis identifies systemic challenges in staffing, leadership, and accountability frameworks that often fail to adequately capture...

Environmental Degradation and Sustainable Development in Nigeria

Thu, 7 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This study investigates the impact of environmental degradation on Nigeria’s sustainable development between 2003 and 2023. By analyzing the Sustainable Development Index (SDI) alongside CO₂ emissions per capita, the study identifies a clear tension between economic activity and environmental health. While Nigeria has experienced a steady rise in its SDI, reflecting improved policy integration, CO₂ emissions remain high due to continued dependence on fossil fuels. A correlation coefficient of r = −0.41 indicates that environmental degradation significantly undermines sustainability efforts. The research also highlights governance weaknesses and poor policy enforcement as primary challenges. To address these issues, the study recommends strengthening environmental oversight and incentivizing the transition to renewable energy sources to achieve long-term, carbon-neutral growth.

If You Build It, They May Not Come: Willingness to Participate in Managed EV Charging

Thu, 7 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

If You Build It, They May Not Come: Willingness to Participate in Managed EV Charging

Earth Day 2026: Energetic planetary floral abstraction

Thu, 7 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Copyrighted by the independent artist, Kasia Czarniecka: Energetic planetary floral abstraction

Emerging Plastic Pollution Threats to Ecosystem Sustainability: A Systematic Review

Thu, 7 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This systematic review examines emerging threats of plastic pollution to ecosystem sustainability based on research published between 2021 and 2024. A comprehensive analysis of peer-reviewed literature named seven studies (n = 7), of which five (n = 5) met the inclusion criteria. The analysis revealed three distinct categories of ecosystem impacts: terrestrial (microplastic soil contamination), aquatic (marine and freshwater systems), and novel threats associated with global events, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The highest-quality studies (n = 3) focused on terrestrial microplastic pollution, impacts on seagrass meadows, and freshwater macroplastic contamination. Other supporting studies provided insights into lifecycle impacts and pandemic-related pollution patterns. Overall, this review synthesizes evidence across multiple ecosystem types, highlighting the interconnected nature of emerging plastic pollution threats.

Book Review - The Ethics of the Climate Crisis by Robin Attfield

Thu, 7 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Ethics of the Climate Crisis by Robin Attfield aims to present moral principles related to the current climate crisis, intended to motivate individuals, companies, non-governmental organizations, and governments at all levels to take “climate action” as an ethical obligation.

ISBN: 978-1-509-55909-1

The Environmental Politics of Small-Scale Mining and its Implication for Sustainable Development in Ghana: A Political Ecology Perspective

Thu, 7 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The surge in small-scale illegal mining is posing gross environmental concerns for present and future generations of Ghana. The case study explored the effects of illegal mining activities on Ghana’s sustainable development goals. Using case studies of two districts, the political settlement theory was used to investigate how the politics of power relations can lead to environmental change. Through interviews and focal group discussions, the study revealed an inextricable linkage between actors at the local, national, and international levels and environmental destruction. The study found that most of the sustainable development goals such as, right to safe and clean drinking water, human health, healthy environment, destruction of farmlands, food insecurity, education, eradicating hunger and poverty, amongst others have been significantly affected by the activities of illegal mining. The study thus recommended immediate policy interventions to remedy the situation before it...

Managerial Factors in the Adoption of Green Library Initiatives in Selected Academic Libraries in Kwara State, Nigeria

Thu, 7 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This study examined managerial factors in the adoption of green library initiatives in selected academic libraries in Kwara State. Descriptive survey design was adopted for this study. The study focused on the librarians in the University of Ilorin library, Kwara State University library, and Al-hikmah University library, with a total population of forty-six (46) – which served as the study sample. Questionnaire was used for data collection, and descriptive statistics was used in data analysis. Findings showed that planning had perceived influence on the adoption of green library initiatives. Results showed that staffing and funding had perceived influence on the adoption of green library initiatives. Results indicated that organizational structure and leadership commitment had perceived influence on the adoption of green library initiatives. The study concluded that managerial factors influence the adoption of green library initiatives.

Analyzing the Facilitators and Impediments in B2B Buyers' Decisions to Purchase Green Products

Thu, 7 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This study investigates the key drivers and barriers affecting business-to-business (B2B) buyers’ adoption of green products. Drawing on a conceptual multilevel framework, it examines how access to sustainability information, environmental awareness, and effective green marketing help green procurement decisions. The analysis further highlights the influence of persuasive communication, social norms, and environmental consciousness on strengthening purchase intentions. In contrast, exessive costs, limited product availability, scepticism toward eco-labels, and insufficient information are identified as major obstacles. The findings underscore the dynamic interplay between enabling and inhibiting factors and suggest strategic pathways for businesses to promote sustainable procurement. This research contributes to the sustainability discourse by providing actionable insights for encouraging environmentally responsible purchasing in B2B contexts.

Barriers and enablers to reduced meat intake and perceptions of sustainable diets, among Los Angeles County adults with low incomes: a qualitative interview study