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Open Access Publications from the University of California

Scholarly Works (48 results)

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L2 Journal: An Open Access Refereed Journal for World Language Educators, Volume 7, Issue 1 (2015)

The work of immigrant writers, whose professional identity is built around language, can deepen understandings of sociolinguistic and psychological issues, including aspects of the immigration experience; the position of language in the ideological and emotional value systems, and the significance of language for individual development. This paper deals with a number of translingual writers who immigrated to Israel prior to its establishment as an independent state and who chose Hebrew as their language. The paper focuses on three figures—Alexander Penn, Leah Goldberg, and Aharon Appelfeld—who came from different countries and different language backgrounds but have in common that Hebrew was not their first language.

Two issues are discussed in depth in this article. One is the unique position of Hebrew, a language that retains high symbolic significance given its association with holy texts and the ideological role its revival played in the Zionist enterprise. Its association with identity issues or childhood memories may thus be somewhat different from that of other second languages. The other issue is the psychological motivations that affected these writers’ language shift. Despite the broad consensus on this shift as having been inspired by ideological/Zionist motives, my claim is that their motives may have been broader. Ideologies may at times serve as camouflage—used either by wider society’s collective interest in promoting its ethos, or by the individuals themselves, who prefer to be viewed as part of the collective and lean on its ideology to serve their own psychological needs.

 

    Cover page: 'The Heartache of Two Homelands...': Ideological and Emotional Perspectives on Hebrew Transnational Writing
    • Article
    Capstone Projects (2019)
    The recreational dive industry has successfully contributed towards greater marine conservation on a local-scale, and diving can increase individual divers’ environmental consciousness. The dive industry is facing losses in economic viability as the effects of global climate change decrease the attractiveness of global dive destinations. The effects of sea level rise, warmer temperatures ocean acidification deoxygenation, and increased storm frequency, contribute to loss of kelp and corals, diminishing the value of diving. Dive professionals are distinctly appropriate as climate change educators as their livelihoods are affected by climate change, and they have access to clients with a revealed willingness-to-pay for a healthy marine environment. A research survey was conducted to international dive professionals through social media platforms in order to assess how climate change information has affected dive professionals’ beliefs, knowledge and actions. The results indicated that dive professionals overwhelming believe in climate change, but that high belief does not correlate with high knowledge or actions. This observed dichotomy between pro-climate beliefs and actions likely exists beyond the recreational scuba diving industry, and suggests that conservation approaches should emphasize putting climate change in a real-world context, with tangible action-items to promote effective change.
      Cover page: Diving Local, Thinking Global: Can Dive Professionals Contribute to Climate Change Literacy?
      • Article
      Hydrology (2011)
        Cover page: C(re)ek-storation Community Collaboration Site: North Fork of Strawberry Creek by La Loma and Le Conte Avenues
        • Article
        Econ 196 Honors Thesis (2018)
        This tax-incidence analysis examines the shift in remittance obligations of those participatingin the short-term rental marketplace, AirBnB. Theory would argue that the levying of a tax on supplier or consumer has no effect on the share of the tax burden they incur. This concept sadly goes out the window as the possibility for evasion presents itself. Through the implementation of a difference-in-differences analysis, it is possible to examine the effect of stabilizing the remittance responsibility by shifting the collection of taxes away from users and onto the platform itself. While no concrete evidence of evasion is found, the policy change results in a greater cost to consumers and contradicts theoretical expectation.
          Cover page: If a Tax is Levied and No One is Obligated to Remit It, Does It Make a Sound? Tax Remittance Responsibilities and AirBnB
          • Article
          • Peer Reviewed
          UC Davis Previously Published Works (2015)
          Russell and Burch's The Principles of Humane Experimental Technique was first published in 1959. A Special Edition containing the original text was reissued in 1992, after its ideas had gained widespread interest in the scientific community. In the Principles, Russell and Burch proposed a new applied science that would improve the treatment of laboratory animals while advancing the quality of science in studies that use animals. They introduced and defined the terms replacement, reduction, and refinement, which subsequently have become known as 'alternatives' or 'alternative methods' for minimizing the potential for animal pain and distress in biomedical research. Here we describe and explain the original definitions of the 3Rs in the Principles, examine how current definitions differ among themselves and from Russell and Burch's definitions, and suggest relevant considerations for evaluating all definitions of the 3Rs.
            Cover page: Russell and Burch's 3Rs then and now: the need for clarity in definition and purpose.
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            • Peer Reviewed
            UC Irvine Previously Published Works (2018)
            We introduce an optimal mass transport framework on the space of Gaussian mixture models. These models are widely used in statistical inference. Specifically, we treat Gaussian mixture models as a submanifold of probability densities equipped with the Wasserstein metric. The topology induced by optimal transport is highly desirable and natural because, in contrast to total variation and other metrics, the Wasserstein metric is weakly continuous (i.e., convergence is equivalent to convergence of moments). Thus, our approach provides natural ways to compare, interpolate and average Gaussian mixture models. Moreover, the approach has low computational complexity. Different aspects of the framework are discussed and examples are presented for illustration purposes.
              Cover page: Optimal Transport for Gaussian Mixture Models
              • Article
              Restoration of Rivers and Streams (LA 227) (2011)
              Our study attempts to assess how different methods of engaging student volunteers on Berkeley’s campus impact student’s enthusiasm for stewardship, such as their willingness to participate in future on or off-campus restoration projects.  Using a questionnaire and targeting four different undergraduate student groups, including students who lived adjacent to Strawberry Creek, we attempted to gauge their current involvement and future involvement in stream restoration activities.  We found that academic work is the strongest method of engaging student volunteers and that some form of spontaneous use is the best indicator of each student’s enthusiasm for future stewardship. In summary, student stewards can provide the link between academic solutions and collaborative engagement with urban creeks.
                Cover page: Types of Student Engagement and Commitment to Stream Stewardship: Strawberry Creek on University of California at Berkeley Campus
                • Article
                • Peer Reviewed
                UC Irvine Previously Published Works (2018)
                We introduce the problem of transporting vector-valued distributions. In this, a salient feature is that mass may ow between vectorial entries as well as across space (discrete or continuous). The theory relies on a first step taken to define an appropriate notion of optimal transport on a graph. The corresponding distance between distributions is readily computable via convex optimization and provides a suitable generalization of Wasserstein-type metrics. Building on this, we define Wasserstein-type metrics on vector-valued distributions supported on continuous spaces as well as graphs. Motivation for developing vector-valued mass transport is provided by applications such as color image processing, multimodality imaging, polarimetric radar, as well as network problems where resources may be vectorial.
                  Cover page: Vector-Valued Optimal Mass TransportCreative Commons 'BY' version 4.0 license
                  • Article
                  • Peer Reviewed
                  UC Irvine Previously Published Works (2015)
                  We present a particular formulation of optimal transport for matrix-valued density functions. Our aim is to devise a geometry which is suitable for comparing power spectral densities of multivariable time series. More specifically, the value of a power spectral density at a given frequency, which in the matricial case encodes power as well as directionality, is thought of as a proxy for a "matrix-valued mass density." Optimal transport aims at establishing a natural metric in the space of such matrix-valued densities which takes into account differences between power across frequencies as well as misalignment of the corresponding principle axes. Thus, our transportation cost includes a cost of transference of power between frequencies together with a cost of rotating the principle directions of matrix densities. The two endpoint matrix-valued densities can be thought of as marginals of a joint matrix-valued density on a tensor product space. This joint density, very much as in the classical Monge-Kantorovich setting, can be thought to specify the transportation plan. Contrary to the classical setting, the optimal transport plan for matrices is no longer supported on a thin zero-measure set.
                    Cover page: On Matrix-Valued MongeKantorovich Optimal Mass TransportCreative Commons 'BY' version 4.0 license
                    • Article
                    • Peer Reviewed
                    UC San Francisco Previously Published Works (2020)
                      Cover page: When Diastole Lets You Down: Clinical Relevance of a Widened Pulse Pressure
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