Digital Commons Network^™

What Is The Potential Of Non-Battery Energy Storage To Increase Grid Resilience?, Andrew Withers

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

This paper seeks to evaluate different technologies in energy storage to determine which ones have the most potential to benefit the energy grid. Technologies like pumped hydro, thermal, gravity, hydrogen, and compressed air storage will be evaluated based on overall costs, marginal costs, unique applications, and efficiency. This paper compares the technologies to batteries on the previous criteria. I also provide a discussion on the policy and economic barriers to the further use of non-battery technologies to support grid reliability during the transition to a cleaner grid that is more reliant on variable renewable generators.

Toward An Equity-Driven Conceptual Model Of Covid-19 Vaccine Decision-Making For People With Idd, Lydia Ocasio-Stoutenburg, Reese Triana, Shelly Baer, Jairo Arana, Ana C. Sale, Douglene Jackson, Michelle Schladant, Nastasia Boulos, Grace Dima, Jeffrey Brosco

Developmental Disabilities Network Journal

COVID-19 presented a public health emergency in the U.S., resulting in severe illness, hospitalizations, high mortality rates, and long-term adverse health care conditions. Several studies examined the disparities in transmission rates, barriers to care, and negative health outcomes for persons with disabilities, particularly people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD). While data revealed similar trends among Black, Hispanic or Latino/a/x/e, Native, Indigenous, and Asian people, outcomes are compounded for people of color with I/DD. Several historical, pervasive, systemic, structural, and attitudinal barriers have constrained healthcare access and adequate treatment, instigating feelings of distrust among those in systems of care. Although …

Immigrants’ Attitude Toward Immigration, Aflatun Kaeser

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This study analyzed the relationship between immigration attitudes and demographic and socioeconomic factors. It examined the difference in attitudes toward immigration in the immigrant population using General Social Survey 2021 data. The analysis with an ordered probit model reveals significant relationships between immigration attitude with several socioeconomic and demographic factors and how that differ between natives and immigrants. As age increases, support for limiting immigration increases, but this is not true for immigrants. With the increase of years of education, support for limiting immigration decreases; however, in the immigrant population, support for limiting immigration increases as the education level increases. …

Person-Centered Practice As Anchor And Beacon: Pandemic Wisdom From The Ncapps Community, Connor Bailey, Martha Barbone, Lydia X.Z. Brown, Alixe Bonardi, Bevin Croft, Marian Frattarola-Saulino, Karyn Harvey, Miso Kwak, Kelly Lang, Nicole Leblanc, Michelle C. Reynolds, Carole Starr

Developmental Disabilities Network Journal

Objective: This article summarizes the individual, systemic, and collective challenges and opportunities presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, based on 16 videos solicited by the National Center on Advancing Person-Centered Practices and Systems (NCAPPS) and submitted by NCAPPS collaborators during the first six months of the pandemic.

Method: Informed by participatory action approaches and content analysis, we describe common themes in a series of 16 videos solicited by NCAPPS from subject matter experts with professional and lived experience of disability and human services systems.

Results: The team organized the findings to identify both specific factors within each of the levels and …

Cee 433: Water Technology & Policy Syllabus, University Of Illinois At Urbana-Champaign, Ashlynn Stillwell

All ECSTATIC Materials

This document is the syllabus for CEE 433: Water Technology & Policy, by instructor Ashlynn S. Stillwell at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The course is an elective class, open to upper-level undergraduate and graduate students.

The Gunnison Basin Sage-Grouse Strategic Committee: A Colorado County’S Fight For Conservation Self-Determination, James Cochran, Jonathan Houck, Greg Peterson

Human–Wildlife Interactions

Since 1995, sage-grouse (Centrocercus spp.) conservation planning in the western United States has largely been based upon local working groups comprised of federal, state and local governments, environmental groups, landowners, interested citizens. In this article, we review the history and process of these local working groups in western Colorado. These groups are generally convened by one or more government agencies, operate on the general principle of consensus, and have little or no administrative or financial support. The local working groups were generally comprised of field biologist, rancher/landowners, members of local environmental groups and occasionally representatives from local governments. The …

Wyoming Sage-Grouse Working Groups: Lessons Learned, Thomas J. Christiansen, Lorien R. Belton

Human–Wildlife Interactions

The greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) has been the subject of multiple status reviews under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Wyoming accounts for approximately 38% of the range-wide population. Since 2000, 2 statewide and 8 local citizen working groups have been established in Wyoming to developed conservation plans and advise state policy. The first statewide plan for the conservation of sage-grouse was formally adopted in 2003. The statewide plan established local sage-grouse working groups charged with developing and facilitating implementation of local conservation plans. Those 8 plans were completed in 2007 and 2008, and updated in 2014. From 2005-2017, …

Home Visiting Programs For Families Of Children Who Are Deaf Or Hard Of Hearing: A Systematic Review, Nannette Nicholson, Patti Martin, Abby Smith, Sheila Thomas, Ahmad A. Alanazi M.Aud.

Journal of Early Hearing Detection and Intervention

Prelingual hearing loss greatly restricts a child’s language development, hindering his or her behavioral, cognitive and social functioning. Although technology such as hearing aids and cochlear implants are an option for providing access to sound, they fail to teach the child how to listen or attend, how to process language (whether visual or spoken), or how to produce language and communicate. Home visiting is widely recognized as a cost-effective intervention service delivery model. Home visiting programs for promoting language development in children who are diagnosed as deaf or hard of hearing have been in existence for over 50 years, yet …

Fad Effects: Patterns In International Policy, Rebecca Funke

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This paper explores the way in which international policies move from country to country. I propose that the spread of policy adoption, internationally, mirrors how a fad in the fashion industry is diffused. The primary point of this paper is to evaluate four case studies (policies) and study how they transitioned from one country to another. Also addressed will be the question of how these policies start, whether there are particular countries prone to starting the diffusion process or if there is some other explanation for their origins. This study specifically looks at the dissemination of women’s suffrage, the adoption …

Essays On Population Aging And Social Security In The U.S., Shantanu Bagchi

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Over the past few decades, falling birth rates and increasing life expectancies have threatened the viability of social security programs all across the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). In this dissertation, I attempt to shed some light on the extent of the crisis that the social security program in the United States (U.S.) currently faces, and I also recommend one possible reform policy. In the first essay, I provide an alternative estimate of the impact of population aging on the future social security benefits in the U.S., while accounting for the household-level and macroeconomic adjustments to population aging. …

Russia At War: Chechnya, Georgia, And Theories Of Foreign Policy, Tyler J. Pack

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The conflicts in Chechnya and Georgia are for Russia the seminal policy events of the turbulent post-­‐Soviet era. Learning about Russian conflict policy thinking with respect to these cases should help to illuminate broader Russian foreign policy objectives and tendencies. Even though the Chechen Wars were by nature domestic conflicts, I believe that trends and patterns from that case, combined with insights from the Georgian conflict, can help identify strengths and weaknesses of major Russian foreign policy theories.

Though there are many such theories, I see that most fall into one of two broad categories. While there is some overlap, …

Per Pupil Spending: How Much Difference Does A Dollar Make?, Nicole Anderson

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Education. The one thing everyone needs and no one thinks is good enough. Wherever students and policy makers turn there is the desire for something more, something better, coming out of the public education system. Over the years more and more funding has been poured into the education system in attempt to increase the student success rates and intellect of American students. However, American students are still behind internationally and more and more jobs are going to students from different countries. Is there a point when the money being funneled into education doesn’t make enough difference in student achievement and …

Majority Tyranny Or Minority Power? Impact Of Direct Democracy On Same-Sex Relationship Rights, Jylisa Renea Doney

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

This research study examined the conditions under which direct democracy advanced versus impeded gay relationship rights. Many policy makers argue that direct democracy works to create a “tyranny of the majority” in which the majority impedes the rights of minority citizens. However, other researchers disagree and note that direct democracy contests advance gay rights as seen in Switzerland (Frey & Goette, 1998). I hypothesize that direct democracy advanced gay relationship rights legislation when influenced by non-traditional norms regarding family and gender, and/or the contests occurred in states or cantons that were heterogeneous in their values, while direct democracy hindered gay …

Residential Landscape Water Check Programs: Exploring A Conservation Tool, Diana T. Glenn

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In response to drought and regional growth in the arid western United States, urban water demand management is increasingly important. Single family residences use approximately 60% of their water consumption to irrigate landscapes often in excess of plant water requirements. This study utilized a quasi-experimental design to investigate outdoor water consumption and assess the effectiveness of a landscape water check conservation program. Study objectives included describing a contextualized landscape system to reveal variables influencing water use, identifying better ways to evaluate landscape water use, and more effectively targeting and delivering water conservation programs.

The study was conducted during the 2004 …

Private Or Public Insurance? The Institutional History Of Health Care In The United States And The United Kingdom, Karin M. Abel

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The primary question at issue in this paper is the following: given the similarities between the two countries with regard to welfare state institutions, why have the United States and the United Kingdom diverged on the issue of health care? Drawing on sociological institutionalism, a branch of the new institutionalist paradigm, this paper provides an answer to this question: during the formative years of the health care stories in the two countries, variations in institutional and cultural conditions produced contrasting policy outcomes. More specifically, this paper discusses how the combination of institutions (political, labor, and medical) and culture led to …

U.S. Immigration Policy And The National Interest, U.S. House Commttee On The Judiciary

All U.S. Government Documents (Utah Regional Depository)

No abstract provided.