Zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) are expected to play a critical role in decarbonizing light-duty vehicle passenger transportation in the United States over the next 20 years. They currently are quite expensive and while cost reductions are expected, the future costs of these vehicles are inherently uncertain. The U.S. government and some state governments currently provide price subsidies. However, subsidies may be needed for a decade or more. This creates an issue of policy sustainability. The authors propose to analyze policies that could address this problem in a real-world economic and political sense: feebates (revenue neutral, self-sustaining vehicle tax systems with rebates to efficient, low- carbon vehicles, and fees on inefficient, high-carbon vehicles). UCD researchers and others have previously analyzed these, and some countries have adopted versions of this policy. The authors will take it to the next step by developing feebate structures that are acceptable to key stakeholders, fair across demographic/income groups and economically efficient. The authors will build on previous data, modeling, and behavioral research, review recent experience with feebates (particularly in Europe) and conduct interviews with stakeholders and policy makers to establish a range of politically feasible policies without overly compromising the integrity and GHG benefits of the policy.

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Overestimated forecasts of the impact of new policy, which over-predict policy success, are a well-known problem. Studying the effects of forecasting methods on potential biases may help modelers, planners and policy makers better use the forecasting tools. This paper addresses overestimation of telecommuting as a travel demand management (TDM) policy. The research hypothesis underlying this study posits that overestimates are virtually inevitable in forecasting the effect of new policies that aim to change travel behavior, but these biases eventually decline over time. The sources of overestimated forecast are the prediction tools used, and the ways in which modelers use these tools. The sources of the reduction in overestimation are the changes made to the modeling tools results from knowledge and data gained over time.

Over the past decades of neoliberal globalization, microcredit has been a widely supported project that claims to address global poverty, inequality, and uneven development through debt-based solutions involving small interest-bearing loans that can be used to fund small-scale business entrepreneurship. Microcredit’s promise, though never fulfilled, reflects an approach to development within a broader shift toward financial capitalism, privatization through individualized debt creation, and shrinkage of the social state. Moreover, microcredit (more broadly, microfinance) seeks legitimation in narratives of inclusion, participation, and gender empowerment. In fact, social capital belonging to the targeted populations of microcredit programs in the “global South” is itself often tapped in the service of value extraction. This article forwards a view of microcredit as operating within a logic of racial capitalism. The approach seeks to ground critiques of microcredit’s core neoliberal elements within a longer history and broader appreciation of racialized and colonial structures of finance.

ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATIONNicotine Effect on Auditory Processing: an Unexpected Role of the alpha-2 Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor by Susan Gil Doctor of Philosophy in Biological Sciences University of California, Irvine, 2021 Dr. Raju Metherate, Chair Nicotine enhances cortical neurophysiology and higher cognitive functions, such as attention, learning and memory. This enhancement is presumably mediated by activation of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs), located within central cholinergic systems that mediate attention and other higher brain functions. Subsequently, nAChR agonists are being considered as prospective therapeutics for treating cognitive disorders. However, the nAChR family is comprised of many subtypes, which differ in composition, expression density, distribution, and nicotinic action. A prudent approach to better inform drug development is to investigate the unique contribution(s) of individual nAChR subtypes to nicotinic cognitive enhancement. Moreover, it is important to consider the possible involvement of less common (and underexamined) nAChR subunits and the role they may play in the overall outcomes of nAChR activation. Using the mouse auditory system, the following experiments explore the physiological role and laminar expression of the alpha2 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (a2nAChR). xiii In Chapter 1, I used in-vivo electrophysiology within mouse primary auditory cortex (A1), to investigate the role of the underexamined a2nAChR in nicotinic effects on auditory processing. Current-source density recordings within A1 of anesthetized mice revealed that activation of a2nAChRs is involved in the nicotinic enhancement of responses to pure tone stimuli. In fact, compared to wild-type (WT) mice, nicotinic enhancement of A1 responses is altered in mice where the a2 gene has been deleted (a2KO). In Chapter 2, in order to survey respective laminar distributions, and co-expression within the auditory cortex (ACx), I used immunolabeling of parvalbumin (PV), vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP), and somatostatin (SOM) interneuron markers on brain sections of mice expressing the enhanced green-fluorescent reporter protein (eGFP). Driven by the a2 promoter, eGFP fluoresced in cells containing the a2nAChR subunit (resulting mice are referred to as a2eGFP mice). We found that a2nAChRs were almost exclusively expressed in Layer V, and generally localized with SOM-expressing interneurons. Together these chapters represent the initial physiological and anatomical investigations of a2nAChRs in the ACx. They serve to further our understanding of a2nAChRs function in auditory processing.