Recent ucri_mrpi_rw items

Association of Shelter-in-Place Hotels With Health Services Use Among People Experiencing Homelessness During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Thu, 1 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Key Points

Question: Was placement in a shelterin-place (SIP) hotel during the COVID-19 pandemic associated with health system utilization among people experiencing homelessness with a history of high use of acute health services?

Findings: In this cohort study of 686 high users of acute county services experiencing homelessness, those who received a SIP hotel placement had significantly fewer emergency department visits, hospital admissions, inpatient days, and psychiatric emergency department visits compared with matched controls without a placement.

Meaning: These findings suggest that provision of noncongregate shelter with supportive services in SIP hotels during the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with reduced use of acute health services among people with prior high use.

This work has been supported, in part, by the University of California Multicampus Research Programs and Initiatives grants MRP-19-600774 and M21PR3278

Independent Contracting, Self-Employment, and Gig Work: Evidence from California Tax Data

Thu, 1 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The authors use de-identified data from California personal income tax returns to measure the frequency and nature of independent contracting and self-employment in California. They identify this work by the presence of a Schedule C on the tax return and/or the receipt of a Form 1099 information return. The authors estimate that 14.4% of California workers aged 18 to 64 in tax year 2016 had some independent contracting or self-employment income and approximately half of this subgroup also had earnings from traditional W-2 jobs during the year. Only a small share (1.4%) of workers had earnings from online labor platforms (often called gig work). Workers with low earnings were significantly more likely to earn independent contracting or self-employment income and to rely primarily or exclusively on that income. The article explores the characteristics of workers engaging in independent contracting and self-employment and their distribution across family type, geography,...

The Economic Impact on Women of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Thu, 1 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The California Policy Lsb's research confirmed that California women, who faced systemic inequities before the pandemic, were also uniquely impacted during and after the pandemic, because layoffs were concentrated in sectors where women are the majority of the workforce and childcare challenges were unevenly borne by women. These issues were compounded for women of color, low-income women, and lower-educated women. While safety-net benefits played an important role, many of those, such as enhanced unemployment benefits and the expanded Child Tax Credit, have been withdrawn. The Commission is calling on policymakers to make an immediate intervention to address the findings from the report in order to prevent deeper poverty and decreased health outcomes for California women.

This work has been supported, in part, by the University of California Multicampus Research Programs and Initiatives grants MRP-19-600774 and M21PR3278

Can Restorative Justice Conferencing Reduce Recidivism? Evidence From the Make-it-Right Program

Thu, 1 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This paper studies the effect of a restorative justice intervention targeted at youth ages 13 to 17 facing felony charges of medium severity (e.g., burglary, assault). Eligible youths were randomly assigned to participate in the Make-it-Right (MIR) restorative justice program or a control group where they faced standard criminal prosecution. We estimate the effects of MIR on the likelihood that a youth will be rearrested in the four years following randomization. Assignment to MIR reduces the probability of a rearrest within six months by 19 percentage points, a 44 percent reduction relative to the control group. Moreover, the reduction in recidivism persists even four years after randomization. Thus, our estimates show that restorative justice conferencing can reduce recidivism among youth charged with relatively serious offenses and can be an effective alternative to traditional criminal justice practices.

This work has been supported, in part, by the University of...

A slowing of pandemic-era migration patterns?

Thu, 1 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The latest quarter of data on interstate migration into and out of California shows signs that pandemic-era mobility patterns may be slowing or even reversing in some places.

This work has been supported, in part, by the University of California Multicampus Research Programs and Initiatives grants MRP-19-600774 and M21PR3278

Disparities in Access to Unemployment Insurance During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Lessons from US and California Claims Data

Thu, 1 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits provided a lifeline to workers who lost their jobs during the pandemic. However, access to these benefits has been uneven across communities and states (Edwards, 2020). Identifying and documenting these disparities is an important step to addressing them and to rendering the UI system more equitable. Utilizing a conceptual framework of unemployment claims, we developed three metrics to measure access to UI benefits across the claim lifecycle. We then analyzed these measures to provide insight into differential access to UI benefits across U.S. states and across counties within California.

The first measure of access is the First Payment Rate and corresponds to the earliest part of the claim lifecycle. It measures the share of people who file their first claim and who subsequently receive a UI payment. After the First Payment Rate, the primary measure of access in the report is the Recipiency Rate. The recipiency rate measures...

Analysis of Emergency Department Encounters Among High Users of Health Care and Social Service Systems Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Thu, 1 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Key Points

Question: Did emergency department (ED) use decrease among the top 5% of high users of health care and social services in San Francisco County during the COVID-19 pandemic?

Findings: In this cohort study of 8967 individuals, the rate of ED visits decreased by approximately 25% during the pandemic compared with nonpandemic years.

Meaning: Factors associated with decreased ED encounters and health outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic among previously high users are not clear and warrant further investigation.

This work has been supported, in part, by the University of California Multicampus Research Programs and Initiatives grants M21PR3278.

How Hospital Discharge Data Can Inform State Homelessness Policy

Thu, 1 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

California emergency departments (EDs) treated about 143,000 people experiencing homelessness in 2019, according to hospital discharge records. Almost half of homeless patients visited the ED four or more times in the year.

Medi-Cal covered 70 percent of ED visits by homeless patients, underscoring the importance of the CalAIM program, which provides added Medi-Cal benefits, such as housing supports and case management.

Linking discharge data with homeless assistance program data can offer insights into how people engage with EDs and homeless services across the state, and throughout the year, as well as help evaluate programs and public investments.

This work has been supported, in part, by the University of California Multicampus Research Programs and Initiatives grants MRP-19-600774 and M21PR3278

Identifying the impacts of job training programs in California

Thu, 1 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Every year, over a million Californians receive workforce support and training from state and federally funded programs. In an efort to learn more about the impact of these programs and to improve them, an inter-agency partnership led by the California Workforce Development Board (CWDB) created Cross-System Analytics and Assessment for Learning and Skills Attainment (CAAL-Skills). The CAALSkills partnership facilitates data-sharing across seven California state agencies that deliver thirteen workforce programs. Bringing this data together signifcantly improves the state’s ability to observe who is enrolled in these programs and makes it possible, for the frst time, to measure the impacts these programs have on participants’ employment and earnings.

This policy brief highlights fndings from the frst causal study to estimate the impacts of ten training programs that report to CAAL-Skills, performed by the California Policy Lab at the University of California. The causal...

Increasing Equity and Improving Measurement in the U.S. Unemployment System: 10 Key Insights from the COVID-19 Pandemic

Thu, 1 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The COVID-19 pandemic had an immense impact on the labor market in California and the U.S., with unemployment reaching highs not seen since the Great Depression. The regular Unemployment Insurance (UI) system, as well as federal legislation that created supplemental UI programs and benefit extensions, played a fundamental role in the country’s economic and public health response. Individual-level data on who applied for and received UI benefits can provide crucial insights into understanding how the crisis evolved, how well the government’s response worked, and what the implications are for future crises. The pandemic also brought to the forefront more fundamental issues with our nation’s UI system, such as pervasive inequities in which workers actually receive benefits and large differences in benefit amounts and durations. While some of these issues have persisted for decades, a lack of access to individual-level UI data has prevented a deeper understanding of the extent...

Connecting Families to Benefits Using Linked Data: a Toolkit

Thu, 1 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Policymakers rely heavily on the tax system to distribute direct payments to lowincome families. Anti-poverty tax credits such as the Earned Income Tax Credit, the advanced Child Tax Credits, and the federal stimulus payments combined to keep millions of Americans out of poverty during the pandemic. Such credits have strong potential to continue to reduce poverty.

These credits only work, of course, if eligible families receive them. To do so, they must file a tax return. But many low-income families who are at or below the federal poverty level are not legally required to file taxes. Policymakers need a better understanding of how many low-income families don’t file taxes (and therefore miss out on these valuable credits) in order to address this problem.

While state and federal tax agencies know who files taxes, they have very little information on the families who do not file, especially those below the poverty level with little or no earnings. State and local...

CAAL-Skills: Study of Workforce Training Programs in California

Thu, 1 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Every year, over a million Californians receive workforce support and training from state and federally funded programs. In an effort to learn about the benefits of these programs, an inter-agency partnership led by the California Workforce Development Board (CWDB) created Cross-System Analytics and Assessment for Learning and Skills Attainment (CAAL-Skills). The CAAL-Skills partnership facilitates data-sharing across seven California state agencies that deliver thirteen workforce programs. Bringing this data together significantly improves the state’s ability to observe who is enrolled in these programs and makes it possible, for the first time, to measure the impacts these programs have on participants’ employment and earnings.

This report highlights findings from the first causal study to estimate the impacts of ten California workforce training programs that share data with CAAL-Skills. The causal impact measures the effect of receiving training on participants’ employment...

Racial Disparities in Criminal Record Eligibility in California

Thu, 1 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

In this study, we assessed equity in criminal record relief eligibility in California, one of the first states to pass automatic record relief legislation. Our analysis included three components. First, using criminal history data from the California Department of Justice (CA DOJ), we assessed the share of people with criminal records who are eligible for automatic relief under current laws, and how this eligibility varied across racial and ethnic groups. Second, we evaluated two hypothetical reforms in how eligibility is determined that might alter equity across racial and ethnic groups: (a) relief for discretionary cases, and (b) a sunset rule that would automatically grant relief for convictions more than 7 years old. Finally, we estimated how each of these hypothetical reforms would alter population-level disparities in conviction records statewide.

This work has been supported, in part, by the University of California Multicampus Research Programs and Initiatives...

Refugee Lifemaking Practices: Southeast Asian Women

Tue, 1 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Refugee Lifemaking Practices: Southeast Asian Women

The Philippine Refugee Processing Center: The Relational Displacements of Vietnamese Refugees and the Indigenous Aetas

Tue, 1 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The Philippine Refugee Processing Center: The Relational Displacements of Vietnamese Refugees and the Indigenous Aetas

Three Strikes in California

Mon, 31 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Criminal sentences resulting in admission to a California state prison are determined by both the nature of the criminal incident as well as the criminal history of the person convicted of the offense. Cases with convictions for multiple offenses may lead to multiple sentences that are either served concurrently or consecutively. Characteristics of the offense (such as the use of a f irearm) or aspects of the person’s criminal history (such as a prior conviction for a serious or violent offense) may add to the length of the base sentence through what are commonly referred to as offense or case enhancements, respectively. California’s Three-Strikes law presents a unique form of sentence enhancement that lengthens sentences based on an individual’s criminal history. Consider an individual with one prior serious or violent felony conviction (one “strike”) who is subsequently convicted of another felony. Under Three Strikes, the sentence for the subsequent felony will be double...

How the Expanded Child Tax Credit Helped California Families

Mon, 31 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This report uses state tax and safety-net enrollment data from tax year (TY) 2019 to simulate the impact of the 2021 Child Tax Credit (CTC), expanded under the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), on children enrolled in safety-net programs in California. We find the number of children eligible for the CTC in the safetynet caseload rose 67% under the ARPA. Put differently: we estimate that one quarter of all children enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) in California (about 610,000 children) became newly eligible for the CTC under the ARPA. As a result, children enrolled in safety-net programs in California became eligible for $3.6 billion in credit payments through the ARPA, over and above the credit payments they were eligible for under 2020 — and current — law. Overall, we find that 76% of eligible California children (about 1.2 million) who were enrolled in SNAP or TANF have likely received the 2021...

Reminder postcards and simpler emails encouraged more college students to apply for CalFresh

Mon, 31 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

CalFresh benefits can help college students make ends meet while attending college, but not all eligible students apply. One contributing factor may be that students are not aware they are eligible. Therefore, outreach efforts informing them of their eligibility could help increase take-up rates. To test this, we designed and conducted two experiments that leveraged an expansion in CalFresh eligibility for students that went into effect in early 2021. In response to the pandemic, Congress permitted a temporary expansion to college student eligibility for SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), or CalFresh as it is known in California. The expansion went into effect in January 2021 and will last through the end of the federal public health emergency. The California Department of Social Services (CDSS) and the California Student Aid Commission (CSAC) partnered with The People Lab (TPL) and the California Policy Lab (CPL) on two randomized experiments to evaluate whether...

Emailing eligible college students resulted in more than 7,000 students applying for CalFresh benefits

Mon, 31 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Qualitative information in undergraduate admissions: A pilot study of letters of recommendation

Mon, 31 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

A subset of undergraduate applicants to the University of California, Berkeley were invited to submit letters ofrecommendation as part of their applications. I use scraped text of the submitted letters, natural languageprocessing tools, and a within-subject experimental design wherein applications were read in parallel with andwithout their letters to understand the role that this qualitative information plays in admissions. I show thatletters written on behalf of underrepresented applicants were modestly distinctive. I also construct an index ofletter strength, measuring the predicted impact of the letter on the student’s application score. I show thatunderrepresented applicants tend to get weaker letters, but that readers pay less attention to letter strength forunderrepresented students. Overall, the inclusion of letters modestly improved application outcomes for theaverage underrepresented student.

This work has been supported, in part, by the University of California...

Changes in the Relationship Between Income and Life Expectancy Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic, California, 2015-2021

Mon, 31 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This study examines how the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic affected life expectancy in California and the relationship between census tract income and life expectancy relative to prepandemic years. In this retrospective analysis of 1, 988, 606 deaths in California during 2015 to 2021, life expectancy declined from 81.40 years in 2019 to 79.20 years in 2020 and 78.37 years in 2021. Life expectancy differences between the census tracts in the highest and lowest income percentiles increased from 11.52 years in 2019 to 14.67 years in 2020 and 15.51 years in 2021. This ecological study of deaths in the state of California demonstrated that life expectancy declines in 2020 increased in 2021 and that the life expectancy gap by income level increased during the first 2 years of the COVID-19 pandemic relative to the prepandemic period.

This work has been supported, in part, by the University of California Multicampus Research Programs and Initiatives grants MRP-19-600774...

Signals of Distress: High Utilization of Criminal Legal and Urgent and Emergent Health Services in San Francisco

Mon, 31 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

People with multiple, complex health and housing needs frequently receive fragmented care because the providing systems operate independently. Typically, individuals who come into frequent contact with the emergency medical system (e.g., emergency departments; emergency medical services) also interact with other health services and public systems such as psychiatric facilities, substance use treatment centers, shelters, and jails. Cross-sector care coordination is limited, in part, because data systems are not linked across physical health, behavioral health (mental health and substance use), housing, and criminal legal systems. To help San Francisco better serve this high need population, the California Policy Lab at UC Berkeley and the UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative worked with our partners in San Francisco’s public health and criminal legal systems to link together ten years of data from the physical health, behavioral health, housing, and criminal legal...

Racial equity in eligibility for a clean slate under automatic criminal record relief laws

Mon, 31 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

States have begun to pass legislation to provide automatic relief for eligible criminal records, potentially reducing the lifelong collateral consequences of criminal justice involvement. Yet numerous historical examples suggest that racially neutral policies can have profoundly disparate effects across racial groups. In the case of criminal record relief, racial equity in eligibility for a clean slate has not yet been examined. We find that in California, one in five people with convictions met criteria for full conviction relief under the state's automatic relief laws. Yet the share of Black Americans eligible for relief was lower than White Americans, reproducing racial disparities in criminal records. We identify two policy amendments that would reduce the share of Black men in California with convictions on their criminal records from 22% to 9%, thereby narrowing the difference compared to White men from 15 to seven percentage points. Put another way, an additional one...

Pandemic Patterns: California is Seeing Fewer Entrances and More Exits

Wed, 29 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, fewer people have been moving into California from other states and more have been leaving. At the end of September 2021, entrances to California were 8% lower than at the end of March 2020.1 Exits, following a dip in the first half of 2020, stood 12% higher at the end of September 2021 than at the end of March 2020 — representing a return to a steady pre-pandemic rate of increase of approximately 4% per year since 2016. Net domestic migration, defined as the difference between entrances and exits, went from 40,000 net exits per quarter prior to the pandemic to 80,000 afterward. This brief uses data through the end of September 2021. These trends are present throughout the state. Since the end of March 2020, new entrances to the state have dropped in 40 of 58 California counties, and when Californians move, they are slightly more likely to leave the state than they were before the pandemic began (true for nearly every county). But the Bay...

Serious Mental Illness among People who are Unsheltered in Los Angeles

Wed, 29 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

In Los Angeles, 45,021 people experiencing unsheltered homelessness received street outreach services between July 1, 2019 and June 30, 2020. Supporting and housing unsheltered residents is an urgent priority in Los Angeles, and it is imperative to better understand the challenges that individuals are facing. Questions persist about the size and unique needs of the group of individuals who are unsheltered and diagnosed with a serious mental illness (SMI). This is because unsheltered individuals experiencing serious mental illness, and particularly those individuals with a diagnosis of a psychotic spectrum disorder (“PSD”), may experience symptoms that could cause or contribute to losing housing and that could lengthen the duration of homelessness. This group often needs intensive, specialized, and coordinated care in order to exit homelessness. To better understand the prevalence of psychotic spectrum disorders (“PSD”) among those who are unsheltered, the California Policy...

The Impacts of the Make-it-Right Program on Recidivism

Wed, 29 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The Make-it-Right (MIR) restorative justice conferencing program serves youth ages 13 to 17 who would have otherwise faced relatively serious felony charges (e.g., burglary, assault, unlawful taking of a vehicle). Following extensive preparation, participating youth meet with the people they have harmed or a surrogate, accept responsibility for the impact of their actions, and come to an agreement for how the youth can repair to the greatest extent possible the harm they caused. If the youth follow through with the repair actions outlined in the agreement, charges against them are never filed. If they do not, they face traditional juvenile felony prosecution. In this study, eligible youth were randomly assigned to participate in MIR or to a control group in which they faced felony prosecution. We find that youth given the opportunity to participate in MIR had a 19-percentage-point lower likelihood of a rearrest within six months, a 44 percent reduction relative to the control...

California Community College and University of California student participation in CalFresh food benefits

Wed, 29 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Food insecurity is widespread among college students in the United States. CalFresh food benefits, known federally as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, can help students in California pay for food, but may not reach all eligible students. CalFresh enrollment rates among students have been difficult to estimate due to incomplete data on California students’ eligibility for and enrollment in the CalFresh program.1 To overcome these issues, the California Policy Lab (CPL) partnered with the California Community College system (CCC), the University of California Office of the President (UCOP), the California Department of Social Services (CDSS), and the California Student Aid Commission (CSAC) to build a linked database of student-level administrative data on college enrollment, financial aid, and CalFresh participation.

This work has been supported, in part, by the University of California Multicampus Research Programs and Initiatives grants MRP-19-600774...

Who benefits from the student loan payment pause and what will happen when it ends?

Wed, 29 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government stopped requiring payment on most federal student loans. This “payment pause” was originally set to expire in September 2020, but after several extensions it is set to expire May 1, 2022. Using anonymized credit records, we describe who was affected by the payment pause, how it impacted their finances, and what might happen when the payment pause ends. The payment pause affected the vast majority of student loan borrowers, and their average overall debt obligations fell by $210 (equivalent to one-third of their installment loan payments). The payment pause improved credit standing among affected borrowers. Delinquency rates dropped from 7% to 0%, and credit scores increased by an average of nearly 30 points, concentrated especially among borrowers with lower starting credit scores. We predict that three in ten borrowers — or nearly 8 million people — are at high risk of missing payments when the payment pause ends....

Addressing the barriers college students face when accessing CalFresh food benefits

Wed, 29 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Many California college students face food and housing insecurity.1 CalFresh food benefits, known federally as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, can help students pay for food, but most students eligible for this support are not receiving it. To address the gap between eligibility and participation, the California Policy Lab (CPL) is building a new data system — in partnership with higher education and safety-net agencies in California — to examine the extent to which college students use safety-net benefits to help meet their basic needs, to estimate how benefit receipt affects educational outcomes, and to evaluate strategies designed to increase participation. As part of this portfolio of work, and to better understand the factors that may limit student participation in CalFresh, CPL collaborated with Jesus Chavarin-Rivas, a graduate student at UC Berkeley, to conduct 29 interviews with a selection of students, basic needs specialists, and local and...

Joint Impacts of Drought and Habitat Fragmentation on Native Bee Assemblages in a California Biodiversity Hotspot

Fri, 5 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Global climate change is causing more frequent and severe droughts, which could have serious repercussions for the maintenance of biodiversity. Here, we compare native bee assemblages collected via bowl traps before and after a severe drought event in 2014 in San Diego, California, and examine the relative magnitude of impacts from drought in fragmented habitat patches versus unfragmented natural reserves. Bee richness and diversity were higher in assemblages surveyed before the drought compared to those surveyed after the drought. However, bees belonging to the Lasioglossum subgenus Dialictus increased in abundance after the drought, driving increased representation by small-bodied, primitively eusocial, and generalist bees in post-drought assemblages. Conversely, among non-Dialictus bees, post-drought years were associated with decreased abundance and reduced representation by eusocial species. Drought effects were consistently greater in reserves, which...

Characterizing the cellular architecture of dynamically remodeling vascular tissue using 3-D image analysis and virtual reconstruction

Thu, 20 Aug 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Epithelial tubules form critical structures in lung, kidney and vascular tissues. However, the processes that control their morphogenesis and physiological expansion and contraction are not well understood. Here we examine the dynamic remodeling of epithelial tubes in vivo using a novel model system: the extracorporeal vasculature of Botryllus schlosseri, in which the disruption of the basement membrane triggers rapid, massive vascular retraction without loss of barrier function. We developed and implemented 3-D image analysis and virtual reconstruction tools to characterize the cellular morphology of the vascular wall in unmanipulated vessels and during retraction. In both control and regressed conditions, cells within the vascular wall were planar polarized, with an integrin- and curvature-dependent axial elongation of cells and a robust circumferential alignment of actin bundles. Surprisingly, we found no measurable differences in morphology between normal and retracting vessels...

Too Big to Fail: Limiting Public Risk in Hydropower Licensing

Tue, 9 Jul 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Too Big to Fail: Limiting Public Risk in Hydropower Licensing

Non-native honey bees disproportionately dominate the most abundant floral resources in a biodiversity hotspot

Mon, 29 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Most plant-pollinator mutualisms are generalized. As such, they are susceptible to perturbation by abundant, generalist, non-native pollinators such as the western honey bee (Apis mellifera), which can reach high abundances and visit flowers of many plant species in their expansive introduced range. Despite the prevalence of non-native honey bees, their effects on pollination mutualisms in natural ecosystems remain incompletely understood. Here we contrast community-level patterns of floral visitation by honey bees with that of the diverse native pollinator fauna of southern California, USA. We show that the number of honey bees visiting plant species increases much more rapidly with flower abundance than does that of non-honey bee insects, such that the percentage of all visitors represented by honey bees increases with flower abundance. Thus, honey bees could disproportionately impact the most abundantly blooming plant species and the large numbers of both specialised...

A Fully Integrated RF-Powered Energy-Replenishing Current-Controlled Stimulator

Thu, 4 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000

A Fully Integrated RF-Powered Energy-Replenishing Current-Controlled Stimulator

Hippocampal coupling with cortical and subcortical structures in the context of memory consolidation

Thu, 4 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Hippocampal coupling with cortical and subcortical structures in the context of memory consolidation

Analysis of Transposable Elements in Coccidioides Species.

Thu, 4 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Coccidioides immitis and C. posadasii are primary pathogenic fungi that cause disease in immunologically-normal animals and people. The organism is found exclusively in arid regions of the Southwestern United States, Mexico, and South America, but not in other parts of the world. This study is a detailed analysis of the transposable elements (TE) in Coccidioides spp. As is common in most fungi, Class I and Class II transposons were identified and the LTR Gypsy superfamily is the most common. The minority of Coccidioides Gypsy transposons contained regions highly homologous to polyprotein domains. Phylogenetic analysis of the integrase and reverse transcriptase sequences revealed that many, but not all, of the Gypsy reverse transcriptase and integrase domains clustered by species suggesting extensive transposition after speciation of the two Coccidiodies spp. The TEs were clustered and the distribution is enriched for the ends on contigs. Analysis of gene expression data from...

A horizontal permeable reactive barrier stimulates nitrate removal and shifts microbial ecology during rapid infiltration for managed recharge

Thu, 4 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000

A horizontal permeable reactive barrier stimulates nitrate removal and shifts microbial ecology during rapid infiltration for managed recharge

Sub-μVrms-Noise Sub-μW/Channel ADC-Direct Neural Recording With 200-mV/ms Transient Recovery Through Predictive Digital Autoranging

Thu, 4 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Sub-μVrms-Noise Sub-μW/Channel ADC-Direct Neural Recording With 200-mV/ms Transient Recovery Through Predictive Digital Autoranging

Coccidioides immitis and posadasii; A review of their biology, genomics, pathogenesis, and host immunity.

Thu, 4 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Coccidioides immitis and C. posadasii are two highly pathogenic dimorphic fungal species that are endemic in the arid areas of the new world, including the region from west Texas to southern and central California in the USA that cause coccidioidomycosis (also known as Valley Fever). In highly endemic regions such as southern Arizona, up to 50% of long term residents have been infected. New information about fungal population genetics, ecology, epidemiology, and host-pathogen interactions is becoming available. However, our understanding of some aspects of coccidioidomycosis is still incomplete, including the extent of genetic variability of the fungus, the genes involved in virulence, and how the changes in gene expression during the organism's dimorphic life cycle are related to the transformation from a free-living mold to a parasitic spherule. Unfortunately, efforts to develop an effective subunit vaccine have not yet been productive, although two potential live fungus...

Sub-millimeter ECoG pitch in human enables higher fidelity cognitive neural state estimation.

Thu, 4 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Sub-millimeter ECoG pitch in human enables higher fidelity cognitive neural state estimation.

The worldwide importance of honey bees as pollinators in natural habitats

Thu, 4 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000

The western honey bee (Apis mellifera) is the most frequent floral visitor of crops worldwide, but quantitative knowledge of its role as a pollinator outside of managed habitats is largely lacking. Here we use a global data set of 80 published plant-pollinator interaction networks as well as pollinator effectiveness measures from 34 plant species to assess the importance of A. mellifera in natural habitats. Apis mellifera is the most frequent floral visitor in natural habitats worldwide, averaging 13% of floral visits across all networks (range 0 – 85%), with 5% of plant species recorded as being exclusively visited by A. mellifera. For 33% of the networks and 49% of plant species, however, A. mellifera visitation was never observed, illustrating that many flowering plant taxa and assemblages remain dependent on non-A. mellifera visitors for pollination. Apis mellifera visitation was higher in warmer,...

APX001 and Other Gwt1 inhibitor Prodrugs are Effective in Experimental Coccidioides immitis Pneumonia

Thu, 4 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000

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Toward Automating HIV Identification: Machine learning for rapid identification of HIV Outcomes

Thu, 4 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Toward Automating HIV Identification: Machine learning for rapid identification of HIV Outcomes

Legitimacy, Procedural Justice, Accuracy, and Eyewitness Identificatino

Thu, 4 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Legitimacy, Procedural Justice, Accuracy, and Eyewitness Identificatino

Myeloid differentiation factor 88 (MyD88) and IL-1R1 signaling contribute to resistance to Coccidioides immitis.

Thu, 4 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Rodents are a natural host for the dimorphic pathogenic fungi Coccidioides immitis and posadasii, and mice are a good model for human infection. Humans and rodents both express Dectin-1 and TLR2 on myeloid cells and those receptors collaborate to maximize the cytokine/chemokine responses to spherules (the tissue form of the fungi), and to formalin killed spherules (FKS). We showed that Dectin-1 is necessary for resistance to pulmonary coccidioidomycosis, but the importance of TLR2 in vivo is uncertain. MyD88 is the adapter protein for TLR2 and 4, and IL-1R1 and IL-18R1. MyD88/TRIF -/-and MyD88 -/- mice were equally susceptible to C. immitis infection, compared to C57BL/6 (B6) controls. Of the four surface receptors, only IL-1R1 was required for resistance to C. immitis, partially explaining the susceptibility of MyD88 -/- mice. We also found that FKS stimulated production of IL-1Ra by BMDC, independent of MyD88 and Dectin-1. There also was a very high concentration of IL-1Ra...

Inactive supply wells as conduits for flow and contaminantmigration: conditions of occurrence and suggestionsfor management

Fri, 25 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Inactive supply wells as conduits for flow and contaminantmigration: conditions of occurrence and suggestionsfor management

Trading Sustainably: Critical Considerations for Local Groundwater Markets Under the Sustainainable Groundwater Management Act

Fri, 16 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +0000

This paper examines the legislative history of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act and various options for implementing it. The authors argue that markets may not always be the appropriate approach.

How Transaction Costs Obstruct Collective Action: The Case of Califoria's Groundwater

Fri, 16 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Collective action to remedy the losses of open access to common-pool resources often is late and incomplete, extending rent dissipation. Examples include persistent over-exploitation of oil fields and ocean fisheries, despite general agreement that production constraints are needed. Contracting costs encountered in assigning property rights are an explanation, but analysis of their role is limited by a lack of systematic data. We examine governance institutions in California’s 445 groundwater basins using a new dataset to identify factors that influence the adoption of extraction controls. In 309 basins, institutions allow unconstrained pumping, while an additional 105 basins have weak management plans. Twenty of these basins are severely overdrafted. Meanwhile, users in 31 basins have defined groundwater property rights, the most complete solution. We document the critical role of the transaction costs associated with contracting in explaining this variation in responses. This...

The Economic Value of Secure Water: Landowner Returns to Defining Groundwater Property Rights

Tue, 13 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Groundwater is a prime example of a common-pool resource subject to over-extraction and rent dissipation under open access. To avoid this, users can assign groundwater rights: a cap is set on the volume of groundwater that can be pumped annually, and rights are allocated among users. Although this process restricts pumping, it also improves long-term resource availability, grants a fungible asset that can be traded, and reduces uncertainty for urban developers. We investigate the effect on land values by exploiting a plausibly exogenous discontinuity in the definition of rights in the Mojave groundwater basin in California. Because both the long-term stream of agricultural rents and the value of tradable permits are capitalized into land value, spatial regression discontinuity designs identify the difference between the value of interior parcels with water rights and those of free riders on the exterior, who can drain from the regulated area with no restrictions. We find that...

Implementing SGMA Collectively: The Role of Bargaining and Markets

Tue, 13 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +0000

The paper outlines some of the collective action problems involved in implementing SGMA.

The Shape of Groundwater Law: California's New Sustainability Act

Tue, 13 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +0000

The paper examines the legal and administrative history of the Sustainable Groundwater Act and assesses its potential for remedying overdraft.

Stabilization and current-induced motion of antiskyrmion in the presence of anisotropic Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction

Thu, 8 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Stabilization and current-induced motion of antiskyrmion in the presence of anisotropic Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction

Design of Miniaturized Wireless Power Receivers for mm-sized Implants

Thu, 8 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Design of Miniaturized Wireless Power Receivers for mm-sized Implants

Nectar-inhabiting microorganisms influence nectar volatile composition and attractiveness to a generalist pollinator

Thu, 8 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Nectar-inhabiting microorganisms influence nectar volatile composition and attractiveness to a generalist pollinator

Development and Translation of PEDOT: PSS Microelectrodes for Intraoperative Monitoring

Thu, 8 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Development and Translation of PEDOT: PSS Microelectrodes for Intraoperative Monitoring

A Current-Mode Capacitively-Coupled Chopper Instrumentation Amplifier for Biopotential Recording With Resistive or Capacitive Electrodes

Thu, 8 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +0000

A Current-Mode Capacitively-Coupled Chopper Instrumentation Amplifier for Biopotential Recording With Resistive or Capacitive Electrodes

Wireless Powering of mm-Scale Fully-on-Chip Neural Interfaces

Thu, 8 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Wireless Powering of mm-Scale Fully-on-Chip Neural Interfaces

Silicon Integrated High-Density Electrocortical Interfaces

Thu, 8 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Silicon Integrated High-Density Electrocortical Interfaces

Insights into mountain precipitation and snowpack from a basin-scale wireless-sensor network.

Thu, 8 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Insights into mountain precipitation and snowpack from a basin-scale wireless-sensor network.

Skyrmions in magnetic multilayers

Thu, 8 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Skyrmions in magnetic multilayers

Synchronization and temporal processing

Thu, 30 Nov 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Humans have the ability to flexibly synchronize motor output with sensory input, such as when dancing, performing, walking in step with a partner, or just tapping a foot along with music. The study of these behaviors, collectively called sensory-motor synchronization (SMS) offers an important window into human timing behavior and the neural mechanisms that support it. The study of SMS also provides insight into how the brain actively shapes our perception, general cognitive functions and our cultural social identity as humans. In this brief review, we will place SMS into such a larger conceptual framework and highlight a rapidly expanding body of recent research.

Ecological effects of extreme drought on Californian herbaceous plant communities

Thu, 30 Nov 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Ecological effects of extreme drought on Californian herbaceous plant communities

Plant functional traits and groups in a Californian serpentine chaparral

Thu, 30 Nov 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Plant functional traits and groups in a Californian serpentine chaparral

The Phenology and Spatial Distribution of Cavity-Nesting Hymenoptera and Their Parasitoids in a California Oak-Chaparral Landscape Mosaic

Thu, 30 Nov 2017 00:00:00 +0000

The Phenology and Spatial Distribution of Cavity-Nesting Hymenoptera and Their Parasitoids in a California Oak-Chaparral Landscape Mosaic

Motor simulation theories of musical beat perception

Thu, 30 Nov 2017 00:00:00 +0000

There is growing interest in whether the motor system plays an essential role in rhythm perception. The motor system is active during the perception of rhythms, but is such motor activity merely a sign of unexecuted motor planning, or does it play a causal role in shaping the perception of rhythm? We present evidence for a causal role of motor planning and simulation, and review theories of internal simulation for beat-based timing prediction. Brain stimulation studies have the potential to conclusively test if the motor system plays a causal role in beat perception and ground theories to their neural underpinnings.

Environmental hedging: A theory and method for reconciling reservoir operations for downstream ecology and water supply

Thu, 30 Nov 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Environmental hedging: A theory and method for reconciling reservoir operations for downstream ecology and water supply

Trading Sustainably: Critical considerations for local groundwater markets under the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act

Thu, 30 Nov 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Trading Sustainably: Critical considerations for local groundwater markets under the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act

Regional Managed Aquifer Recharge and Runoff Analyses in Santa Cruz and northern Monterey Counties, California

Wed, 29 Nov 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Regional Managed Aquifer Recharge and Runoff Analyses in Santa Cruz and northern Monterey Counties, California

Comparing the responses of bryophytes and short-statured vascular plants to climate shifts and eutrophication

Wed, 29 Nov 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Comparing the responses of bryophytes and short-statured vascular plants to climate shifts and eutrophication

Wet years have more caterpillars: interacting roles of plant litter and predation by ants

Wed, 29 Nov 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Wet years have more caterpillars: interacting roles of plant litter and predation by ants

Every restoration is unique: testing year effects and site effects as drivers of initial restoration trajectories

Wed, 29 Nov 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Every restoration is unique: testing year effects and site effects as drivers of initial restoration trajectories

The Importance of Institutional Design for Distributed Local-level Governance of Groundwater: The Case of California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act

Mon, 20 Nov 2017 00:00:00 +0000

In many areas of the world, groundwater resources are increasingly stressed, and unsustainable use has become common. Where existing mechanisms for governing groundwater are ineffective or nonexistent, new ones need to be developed. Local level groundwater governance provides an intriguing alternative to top-down models, with the promise of enabling management to better match the diversity of physical and social conditions in groundwater basins. One such example is emerging in California, USA, where new state law requires new local agencies to self-organize and act to achieve sustainable groundwater management. In this article, we draw on insights from research on common pool resource management and natural resources governance to develop guidelines for institutional design for local groundwater governance, grounded in California’s developing experience. We offer nine criteria that can be used as principles or standards in the evaluation of institutional design for local level...

Submarine groundwater discharge in Northern Monterey Bay, California:Evaluation by mixing and mass balance models

Mon, 20 Nov 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Submarine groundwater discharge in Northern Monterey Bay, California:Evaluation by mixing and mass balance models

Groundwater Provides and Receives HydrologicSystem Services

Mon, 20 Nov 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Groundwater Provides and Receives HydrologicSystem Services

Coupling distributed stormwater collection and managed aquifer recharge: Field application and implications

Wed, 1 Nov 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Coupling distributed stormwater collection and managed aquifer recharge: Field application and implications

Determining the Nature of Late Gunn-Peterson Troughs With Galaxy Surveys

Wed, 13 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Determining the Nature of Late Gunn-Peterson Troughs With Galaxy Surveys

Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA)

Tue, 29 Aug 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA)

Unique Signatures of Population III Stars in the Global 21-cm Signal

Tue, 29 Aug 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Unique Signatures of Population III Stars in the Global 21-cm Signal

The Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array Dish III: Measuring Chromaticity of Prototype Element with Reflectometry

Tue, 15 Aug 2017 00:00:00 +0000

The Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array Dish III: Measuring Chromaticity of Prototype Element with Reflectometry

The impact of modelling errors on interferometer calibration for 21 cm power spectra

Tue, 15 Aug 2017 00:00:00 +0000

The impact of modelling errors on interferometer calibration for 21 cm power spectra

Emulating Simulations of Cosmic Dawn for 21cm Power Spectrum Constraints on Cosmology, Reionization, and X-ray Heating

Tue, 15 Aug 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Emulating Simulations of Cosmic Dawn for 21cm Power Spectrum Constraints on Cosmology, Reionization, and X-ray Heating

Making SDGs Work for Climate Change Hotspots

Fri, 4 Aug 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Making SDGs Work for Climate Change Hotspots

Technical report: the design and evaluation of a basin-scale wireless sensor network for mountain hydrology

Fri, 4 Aug 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Technical report: the design and evaluation of a basin-scale wireless sensor network for mountain hydrology

Truncated seasonal activity patterns of the western blacklegged tick (Ixodes pacificus) in central and southern California