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Title: Friedrich Heinrich Himmel's grande sonate pour deux pianoforte : a performance edition
Creator: Schults-Berndt, Elfie Diana
Date: 1986
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Title: The board of directors and strategic planning : a survey of board chairmen
Creator: Henke, John W. (John William)
Date: 1982
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Title: The archaeology of the Nanook site : an explanatory approach
Creator: Arundale, Wendy Hanford, 1945-
Date: 1976
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Title: The quest for Afro-Brazilians' equal opportunity : the articulations of affirmative action policies and programs by Afro-Brazilian advocacy organizations and the state in Brazil, 1990-2004
Creator: Benedito, Vera Lúcia
Date: 2005
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Title: The upper Devonian and lower Mississippian sediments of the Michigan Basin and Bay County, Michigan
Creator: LeMone, David V., 1932-
Date: 1964
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Title: Microwave plasma assisted chemical vapor deposition of ultra-nanocrystalline diamond films
Creator: Huang, Wen-Shin
Date: 2004
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Title: The adult part-time student role as experienced by some students in extension programs at the University of Alberta, 1970-71
Creator: Zelmer, Amy Elliott, 1935-
Date: 1973
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Title: Improvements in fine-scale estimation and evaluation of geographic variables using climate data in East Africa
Creator: Hession, Sarah L.
Date: 2011
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: Global environmental change has surfaced as a critical issue to both the scientific community and the general public. One aspect of particular concern involves climate change, which will exert impacts on ecosystems and economies, presenting considerable challenge to human adaptation. In Africa, a continent that is vulnerable due to multiple stressors and low adaptive capacity, climate change is expected to significantly affect both people and ecosystems. Adaptation strategies are being...
Show moreGlobal environmental change has surfaced as a critical issue to both the scientific community and the general public. One aspect of particular concern involves climate change, which will exert impacts on ecosystems and economies, presenting considerable challenge to human adaptation. In Africa, a continent that is vulnerable due to multiple stressors and low adaptive capacity, climate change is expected to significantly affect both people and ecosystems. Adaptation strategies are being developed using information from studies that evaluate the impacts of climate variability and climate change in Africa. Recommendations are made for local development of adaptation strategies due to the heterogeneity of climate change and its effects on East Africa's climate. However, global climate change models are coarse in scale and mask much of the local variation in regional climate, indicating the need for higher resolution climate data. This dissertation addresses this need by comparing spatially explicit statistical methods of interpolation and prediction, both theoretically and empirically; expanding upon the method of universal kriging by incorporating complex feedback relationships that may produce simultaneity between precipitation and its covariates; and evaluating precipitation patterns over space in East Africa through a case study. Mechanisms of precipitation have been considered in detail, expanding upon many other spatially explicit applications of prediction methods to date. Further, spatially explicit inferential regression models have been developed to better understand spatial patterns and variability in East African precipitation. Predicted maps of precipitation, generated at a resolution of 1 kilometer, accurately reflect the mesoscale influences of topography and the presence of large water bodies (i.e., Lake Victoria) as well as the seasonal influences of the passing of the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ). In terms of prediction, the spatially explicit methods considered herein clearly outperformed a global data set (i.e., the CRU TS 3.1) in terms of error and ability to reflect local variability. The method of local ordinary kriging generally outperformed the multivariate kriging techniques, indicating that precipitation patterns in areas of high topographic variability, such as East Africa, may be modeled as well or better using local search neighborhoods in the kriging process rather than using complex multivariate regression models. However, additional work to improve the multivariate regression models and overall levels of correlation are expected to yield improved prediction results. Furthermore, the case study successfully demonstrated that the newly developed method of universal kriging with instrumental variables performs similarly to other standard methods of estimation, and perhaps better in the presence of significant measurable simultaneity.
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Title: Evaluating the impact of Gliricidia sepium on soil organic matter in maize-based cropping systems in southern Malawi
Creator: Beedy, Tracy L.
Date: 2009
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Title: Effect of cyclic AMP in modulating cell differentiation and survival behaviors
Creator: Zhang, Linxia
Date: 2010
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Title: Electronic structure and excited state dynamics of chromium(III) complexes
Creator: Schrauben, Joel Nicholas
Date: 2010
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Title: How many fish are there and how many can we kill? : improving catch per effort indices of abundance and evaluating harvest control rules for lake whitefish in the Great Lakes
Creator: Deroba, Jonathan J.
Date: 2009
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Title: Assessing the involvement of altered neurotensin signaling in anorexia nervosa
Creator: Schroeder, Laura Elizabeth
Date: 2018
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: ABSTRACTAssessing the Involvement of Altered Neurotensin Signaling inAnorexia NervosaByLaura Elizabeth SchroederAnorexia Nervosa (AN), characterized by a persistent and detrimental drive tolose weight via restriction of food intake and excessive exercise, is the psychiatricdisorder with the highest mortality rate. Very few options exist when consideringpharmacotherapies used to treat AN patients, and no drugs have been demonstrated tosignificantly improve weight gain. This highlights the need...
Show moreABSTRACTAssessing the Involvement of Altered Neurotensin Signaling inAnorexia NervosaByLaura Elizabeth SchroederAnorexia Nervosa (AN), characterized by a persistent and detrimental drive tolose weight via restriction of food intake and excessive exercise, is the psychiatricdisorder with the highest mortality rate. Very few options exist when consideringpharmacotherapies used to treat AN patients, and no drugs have been demonstrated tosignificantly improve weight gain. This highlights the need to not only find better drugbasedtherapies for AN but to also find druggable targets for this disorder. While AN isthought to be highly heritable, with heritability estimates ranging between 50-80%, it hasbeen challenging to identify significant genetic contributors. Thus, determining thegenetic risk factors of AN will first be required for development of better therapeutics.In an effort to better understand the genetic basis of AN, recent work has beenperformed to uncover rare genetic variants that confer high risk of disease development.Loss-of-function variants in Neurotensin (Nts) and Nts Receptor 1 (NtsR1) wereidentified in individuals with eating disorders. Nts is a neuropeptide known to regulateingestive and locomotor behavior. Nts modulates these behaviors centrally, and asubset of dopamine (DA) neurons with the ventral tegmental area (VTA) that coexpressNtsR1 are known to contribute to DA-mediated weight loss behaviors. Ablation of allNtsR1 VTA neurons was shown to promote excessive locomotor activity without asufficient increase in feeding, leading to low body weight. Finally, increased fiberdensities have been found within the lateral hypothalamic area (LHA) of individuals withAN, and the LHA is a region with a significant population of Nts neurons known tomodulate both feeding and activity. We therefore hypothesized that Nts populations infeeding centers, such as the LHA, receive altered input from structures associated withAN and that alterations and/or disruption of Nts signaling promotes AN-like behaviors.This hypothesis was explored via three different approaches. First, the locationand density of Nts populations within the brains of NtsCre; Floxed GFP mice weremapped, and this revealed the presence of Nts in regions implicated in regulation offeeding and AN. The next approach involved determining if disrupted Nts signalingincreases risk for development of AN-like behaviors. This was accomplished bycharacterizing NtsR1-deficient mice both at baseline and after exposure to anadolescent-stress model of AN. This study revealed that deficiency of NtsR1 is agenetic risk factor that, when interacting with risks of being female and exposure toadolescent stress, promotes aberrant feeding, excessive locomotor behaviors, andcompulsive anxiety behaviors analogous to those observed in AN. Finally, a rabiesvirus-based method was used to identify direct inputs to LHA Nts neurons, and thishighlighted the existence of afferents, and thus top-down control, from structuresimplicated in AN. In addition, densities of these inputs were determined in mousemodels of AN, and this demonstrated that afferent inputs to LHA Nts neurons areincreased from sites associated with AN.Altogether, the data presented in this thesis highlight the possible genetic andneurocircuitry alterations to the Nts-NtsR1 system that may promote and/or be the resultof development of AN. These data also indicate the need for future studies to betterunderstand the mechanism by which such alterations in Nts signaling promote thisdisease.
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Title: Mechanisms of southern grasshopper mouse (Onychomys torridus) muscle resistance to the paralytic and lethal toxins in Arizona bark scorpion (Centruroides sculpturatus) venom
Creator: Parigi, Abhijna A.
Date: 2018
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: Voltage-gated sodium ion channels (Nav¬¬¬¬¬¬) are transmembrane proteins responsible for initiating electrical signals in excitable cells. Because Nav channels play a crucial role in neuromuscular coordination, they are targeted by a diverse array of neurotoxins produced across the animal kingdom. Arizona bark scorpions (Centruroides sculpturatus) produce toxins that disrupt Nav channel function, causing pain, muscle paralysis and respiratory failure. Southern grasshopper mice (Onychomys...
Show moreVoltage-gated sodium ion channels (Nav¬¬¬¬¬¬) are transmembrane proteins responsible for initiating electrical signals in excitable cells. Because Nav channels play a crucial role in neuromuscular coordination, they are targeted by a diverse array of neurotoxins produced across the animal kingdom. Arizona bark scorpions (Centruroides sculpturatus) produce toxins that disrupt Nav channel function, causing pain, muscle paralysis and respiratory failure. Southern grasshopper mice (Onychomys torridus) hunt bark scorpions. In response to selection by scorpion venom, grasshopper mice have evolved physiological resistance to toxins that cause pain and death. Although previous work identified modifications in one grasshopper mouse Nav channel (Nav1.8) that provide resistance to venom pain, mechanisms underlying resistance to muscle paralysis remain unknown. In skeletal muscle, Nav1.4 channels regulate muscle contraction. Previous studies showed that toxins in C. elegans and C. vittatus venoms disrupt Nav1.4 gating mechanisms. Thus, I tested the hypothesis that C. sculpturatus venom contains toxins that target Nav1.4, and that grasshopper mice are resistant to the effects of these toxins via molecular changes to their Nav1.4. Using molecular and electrophysiological analyses, I compared the structural and functional properties of grasshopper mice Nav1.4 channels to those of house mice and rats (rodents that are both sensitive to scorpion venom) and found that grasshopper mice Nav1.4 has evolved reduced sensitivity to C. sculpturatus venom. Further, I identified amino acid changes in the grasshopper mice Nav1.4 protein that contribute to reduced toxin sensitivity. Finally, I show that the beta subunits (accessory proteins that modulate Nav1.4 channel gating kinetics) of grasshopper mice do not have species-specific effects on channel function in the presence or absence of venom. My results demonstrate that highly conserved proteins can be evolutionarily modified with minimal effects to their baseline functional properties.
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Title: " ... To do credit to my nation, wherever I go" : West Indian and Cape Verdean immigrants in Southeastern New England, 1890-1940
Creator: Edwards, Janelle Marlena
Date: 2018
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: This work is a community study that centers the experiences of black immigrants as an overlapping diaspora in multi-ethnic and transnational African-American history. It argues that, through the operationalization of their familial networks, ethnic organizations, and neighborhood enclaves, black immigrants in New England depart from traditional histories of assimilation and acculturation. Though much scholarship has been dedicated to the politically charged organizations and black immigrant...
Show moreThis work is a community study that centers the experiences of black immigrants as an overlapping diaspora in multi-ethnic and transnational African-American history. It argues that, through the operationalization of their familial networks, ethnic organizations, and neighborhood enclaves, black immigrants in New England depart from traditional histories of assimilation and acculturation. Though much scholarship has been dedicated to the politically charged organizations and black immigrant participation in New York, this microhistory of Southeastern New England's port cities -- Providence and New Bedford--demonstrates the commonplace, quotidian lives of West Indians and Cape Verdeans as neighbors, friends, and relatives who experienced and adapted to their diaspora condition differently. While West Indians altered their community landscape and eventually assimilated into the African-American community, Cape Verdeans retained a Cape Verdean ethnic identity, bolstered by their transnational shipping fleet and the constant flow of people, goods, and ideas from the homeland.
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Title: Toward zero delay video streaming
Creator: Al-Qassab, Hothaifa Tariq
Date: 2018
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: Video streaming has been growing rapidly since the beginning of this century and it is expected to continue growing. With rapid growth of Internet traffic led by video traffic, the Internet busy hours on both mobile and fixed connection segments will double before the end of this decade. Meanwhile, transmission delay is a well-known problem in video streaming and it has been addressed by many prior works that demonstrated the feasibility of reducing packet delays over the Internet by...
Show moreVideo streaming has been growing rapidly since the beginning of this century and it is expected to continue growing. With rapid growth of Internet traffic led by video traffic, the Internet busy hours on both mobile and fixed connection segments will double before the end of this decade. Meanwhile, transmission delay is a well-known problem in video streaming and it has been addressed by many prior works that demonstrated the feasibility of reducing packet delays over the Internet by employing a variety of end-to-end techniques. This thesis consists of two parts that introduce new video streaming frameworks over the Internet and over connected-vehicle networks, respectively. Our objective in the first part of this thesis is to improve video streaming over the Internet. The emerging of new technology such as the HTTP-based Adaptive Streaming (HAS) approach has emerged as the dominant framework for video streaming mainly due to its simplicity, firewall friendliness, and ease of deployment. However, recent studies have shown that HAS solutions suffer from major shortcomings, including unfairness, significant bitrate oscillation under different conditions and significant delay. On the other hand, Quality-of-Service (QoS) based mechanisms, most notably multi-priority queue mechanisms such as DiffServ, can provide optimal video experience but at a major cost in complexity within the network. Our objective in this thesis is to design an efficient, low complexity and low delay video streaming framework.We call our proposed Internet streaming framework Erasable Packets within Internet Queues (EPIQ). Our proposed solution is based on a novel packetization of the video content in a way that exploits the inherent multi-priority nature of video. An important notion of our proposed framework is Partially Erasable Packet (PEP) that has two key attributes: (1) Each PEP packet carries multiple segments corresponding to multiple priority levels of the video content; and (2) High priority segments are placed next to the packet header while low-priority segments are placed toward the tail of the PEP packet. Furthermore, to evaluate our framework performance, we developed an analytical model for EPIQ that shows significant improvements when compared to the conventional and multi-priority queue video transmission models. Our proposed solution consists of a new Active Queue Management (AQM) that is similar to the RED algorithm. Under congestion, a best-effort AQM router can simply erase an arbitrary portion of a PEP packet starting from its tail where we denote this process as Partial Erasing (PE). To complement partial erasing in the AQM, a rate control protocol similar to TFRC is proposed to ensure fairness for video and non-video traffic. We demonstrate the viability of the proposed framework by simulating High Definition (HD) Video on Demand (VoD) streaming on the popular network simulator ns-2. Our results show that EPIQ provides improvements in video quality in terms of PSNR by at least 3dB over traditional video streaming formworks. In addition, packet loss ratio and delay jitter performance are comparable to the optimal video streaming mechanism that is offered by multi-priority systems such as DiffServ.The main objective of the second part of the thesis is to develop a vehicle active safety framework that utilizes video streaming and vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication for driver warning. Most prior efforts for V2V safety applications have been limited to sharing vehicle status data between connected vehicles. On the other hand, video streaming has been mainly proposed for video contents sharing between vehicles or dashboard camera sharing.We propose a Cooperative Advanced Driver Assistance System (C-ADAS) where vehicles share visual information and fuse it with local visuals to improve the performance of driver assistance systems. In our proposed system, vehicles share detected objects (e.g., pedestrians, vehicles, cyclists, etc.) and important camera data using the DSRC technology. The vehicle receiving the data from an adjacent vehicle can then fuse the received visual data with its own camera views to create a much richer visual scene. The sharing of data is motivated by the fact that some critical visual views captured by one vehicle are not visible or captured by many other vehicles in the same environment. Sharing such data in real-time provides an invaluable new level of awareness that can significantly enhance a driver-assistance, connected vehicle, and/or autonomous vehicle’s safety-system. The experimental results showed that our proposed system performed as intended and was able to warn drivers ahead of time, and consequently, it could mitigate major accidents and safe lives.
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Title: Human in the loop : the role of individual and institutional behavior on predictive algorithms
Creator: Isaac, William
Date: 2018
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: Over the past decade, algorithmic decision systems (ADS)--applications of statistical or computational techniques designed to assist human-decision making processes--have moved from an obscure domain of statistics and computer science into the mainstream. The rapid decline in the cost of computer processing and ubiquity of digital data storage has created a dramatic rise in the adoption of ADS using applied machine learning algorithms, transforming various sectors of society from digital...
Show moreOver the past decade, algorithmic decision systems (ADS)--applications of statistical or computational techniques designed to assist human-decision making processes--have moved from an obscure domain of statistics and computer science into the mainstream. The rapid decline in the cost of computer processing and ubiquity of digital data storage has created a dramatic rise in the adoption of ADS using applied machine learning algorithms, transforming various sectors of society from digital advertising to political campaigns, risk modeling for the banking sector, healthcare and beyond. Many agencies and practitioners in the public sector turn to ADS as a means to stretch limited public resources amidst growing public demands for equity and accountability. However, recent research from multiple fields has found that social and institutional biases, often reflected by input data used to generate predictions. The potential of perpetuated discrimination via input data is a particular concern in fields such as criminal justice where historical biases against minorities have the potential to exacerbate existing racial inequalities. In a series of three essays, this dissertation seeks to outline how institutional norms often shape algorithmic predictions, examine how ADSs alter the incentive structures for agents using the tools, and ultimately its impact on human decision-making.
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Title: The effects of school choice on student achievement, school practices, and segregation : evidence from Seoul's School Choice Program
Creator: Kim, Young Ran (Graduate of Michigan State University)
Date: 2018
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: This study seeks to understand how reforms driven by market principles, such as school choice, competition, and autonomy, affect student achievement, school administrative and curricular practices, and segregation by analyzing a school choice program in Seoul, South Korea (hereafter referred to as Korea). Korea provides a unique opportunity to examine the effects of market-based reforms because of a recent policy transition from strong governmental control to a universal school choice program...
Show moreThis study seeks to understand how reforms driven by market principles, such as school choice, competition, and autonomy, affect student achievement, school administrative and curricular practices, and segregation by analyzing a school choice program in Seoul, South Korea (hereafter referred to as Korea). Korea provides a unique opportunity to examine the effects of market-based reforms because of a recent policy transition from strong governmental control to a universal school choice program. In order to guarantee equal educational opportunities, the government adopted the Equalization Policy in 1974 to equalize many aspects of private and public schooling. Due to a high level of governmental control and limited school choice, market and educational consumers have exerted limited influence over the Korean education system. However, recently, the Seoul Local Education Authority (LEA) adopted a school choice program that significantly increased market influence by allowing school choice and by converting some of its high schools into autonomous schools that have greater flexibility in school curriculum and school operations.This study explores how these attempts have affected Seoul’s student achievement, school practices, and segregation. The effect of school choice on student achievement is identified using a comparative interrupted time series analysis (CITS) and Difference-in-Differences (DD) that rely on comparisons of test-score changes between Seoul and Incheon, a neighboring city that already had a school choice policy in place. Students’ scores in English and Korean on the College Scholastic Aptitude Test (CSAT) from 1994 to 2015 were utilized for these analyses. Study results indicate that the Seoul school choice policy has no significant effects on achievement in English and Korean.In addition, this study analyzes how market-based reforms affect school practices by examining how autonomous private high schools change their administrative and curricular practices when subjected to greater market influences. Specifically, this study uses seven-year panel data on school administration collected by the Korean Ministry of Education to examine the ways that autonomous private high schools changed their practices in expenditures, curriculum, and personnel. In order to isolate practice changes induced by the reform from those induced by other social and economic factors, we utilized a DD design that compares the changes within autonomous private high schools to the contemporaneous variation in traditional private high schools that are arguably less affected by the reform. This study found evidence suggesting that the reform significantly increased autonomous private schools’ per-pupil spending, expenditures for educational activities and after-school programs, and the number of after-school programs. In addition, results suggest that autonomous private schools allocated their instructional time away from social studies and toward Korean and math. Furthermore, this study found that autonomous private schools hired teachers with fewer years of teaching experience. Finally, this study explores how Seoul’ school choice policy affects student segregation by achievement and socioeconomic status across different types of schools and school districts. Results show that the policy significantly increased segregation across different types of schools without reducing segregation across districts.
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Title: Noradrenergic mechanisms of preclinical Alzheimer's disease
Creator: Kelly, Sarah Colette
Date: 2018
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: Noradrenergic locus coeruleus (LC) neuron loss is a feature of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The LC is the primary source of norepinephrine (NE) in the forebrain, where it modulates attention and memory in vulnerable cognitive regions such as prefrontal cortex (PFC) and hippocampus. Furthermore, LC-mediated NE signaling is thought to play a role in blood-brain barrier (BBB) maintenance and neurovascular coupling, suggesting that LC degeneration may impact the high comorbidity of cerebrovascular...
Show moreNoradrenergic locus coeruleus (LC) neuron loss is a feature of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The LC is the primary source of norepinephrine (NE) in the forebrain, where it modulates attention and memory in vulnerable cognitive regions such as prefrontal cortex (PFC) and hippocampus. Furthermore, LC-mediated NE signaling is thought to play a role in blood-brain barrier (BBB) maintenance and neurovascular coupling, suggesting that LC degeneration may impact the high comorbidity of cerebrovascular disease (CVD) and AD. However, the extent to which LC projection system degeneration occurs in the earliest stages of AD and the physiological consequences of this phenomenon is not fully characterized to date. To address these issues, we analyzed LC tissue samples from University of Kentucky AD Center (UKADC) subjects who died with a premortem diagnosis of no cognitive impairment (NCI) and Braak stages 0-II at autopsy, NCI subjects with Braak stages III-V thought to be in a preclinical AD (PCAD) stage, and subjects with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or mild AD. Paraffin-embedded pontine tissue blocks containing the LC were cut at 20μm, immunostained with tyrosine hydroxylase (TH, a marker for NE synthesis), and analyzed to estimate total TH-positive LC neuron number. We measured a significant ~40-55% loss of LC neuron numbers in MCI and AD compared to NCI, whereas the mild ~25% LC neuron loss observed in PCAD did not reach significance. However, the topographical, rostrocaudal extent of LC cell loss in PCAD was significantly different from NCI and MCI. Moreover, LC cell loss correlated with premortem global cognition across the diagnostic groups. Studies were also performed to compare additional LC neuronal pathologies (phospho-tau and DNA/RNA oxidative damage markers) across the diagnostic groups. A significant ~15-30% increase in phospho-tau was observed in PCAD and MCI compared to NCI. DNA/RNA oxidative damage was significantly increased by ~25-40% in MCI and AD compared to NCI and PCAD. LC phospho-tau pathology correlated with Braak stage, whereas LC oxidative damage correlated with premortem global cognitive performance . Finally, while LC neuron number did not correlate with scores of global arteriosclerosis or microinfarcts, pontine arteriosclerosis severity was increased by two-fold in MCI and AD. To model the relationship between LC projection system degeneration and forebrain neuronal and vascular pathology in vivo, we stereotactically lesioned LC projection neurons innervating the PFC of the TgF344-19 rat model of AD (aged 6 months) using the noradrenergic immunotoxin, dopamine-β-hydroxylase IgG-saporin (DBH-sap), or an untargeted control IgG saporin (IgG-sap). DBH-sap lesioned animals performed significantly worse on the Barnes maze task and displayed increased amyloid and inflammatory pathology, as well as evidence for vessel remodeling and BBB leakage, compared to IgG-sap control animals. Taken together, these data compiled in my dissertation shed light on the multifactorial noradrenergic pathways contributing to neuronal and vascular pathologies during the onset of AD.
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Title: Essays in local public finance
Creator: Melnik, Walter Thomas
Date: 2018
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: My dissertation studies how political factors, local labor demand shocks, and voting behavior affect state and local public goods provision. Following a brief introduction, I begin with “Legislative Redistricting, Party Politics, and the Spatial Distribution of Transportation Expenditure.” In this essay, I estimate how a state representative's political party affects road construction expenditure in areas that she represents. An extensive literature asks how a legislator's party affiliation...
Show moreMy dissertation studies how political factors, local labor demand shocks, and voting behavior affect state and local public goods provision. Following a brief introduction, I begin with “Legislative Redistricting, Party Politics, and the Spatial Distribution of Transportation Expenditure.” In this essay, I estimate how a state representative's political party affects road construction expenditure in areas that she represents. An extensive literature asks how a legislator's party affiliation affects public expenditure in the area the legislator represents. Unfortunately, almost all studies estimate this effect using party changes through election outcomes, which could be correlated with unobservable determinants of transportation expenditure. To overcome this issue, I identify my estimates using changes in party affiliation engendered by the 2012 state legislative redistricting in Ohio. In many cases, redistricting moved a geographic area into a district whose incumbent representative belonged to the opposing political party. This created variation in partisan alignment unrelated to election outcomes. From 2010-2017 the Republican party controlled the Ohio House of Representatives, the Ohio Senate, and the governorship. Using variation due to redistricting for identification, I find that areas moving from Republican to Democratic districts due to redistricting received $3.5 million (0.19 standard deviations) less annual highway construction funding than areas that remained in Republican districts. This funding decrease derives from a decline in the number of large construction projects in these areas. The estimated effects differ substantially when identified using variation through voting in non-redistricting years, perhaps due to selection issues concerning the type of districts changing parties through election outcomes. In addition, the expenditure change associated with a party change through election outcomes depends on whether the incumbent lost an election or retired, further evincing selection issues associated with this variation.In my next essay, “Municipal Government Reaction to Mass Layoffs in Ohio,” I study how municipal government finances respond to negative local employment shocks. Using data from 595 municipalities in Ohio, I estimate the change in municipal revenue after reported mass layoffs and plant closings, as well as the municipality's response: possible adjustments to tax rates, expenditure, and borrowing. I find that income tax revenue plummets in the year after a mass layoff, driven by a large decline in income tax base. Municipalities do not raise income or property tax rates to compensate for the income tax drop - rather, tax rates decline slightly. Property tax revenue also declines, while revenue from service charges and fees and intergovernmental revenue do not change significantly. Thus, total revenue drops substantially for several years after a mass layoff. In response, municipalities cut expenditure across several categories, including general government, public safety, leisure and community environment, and capital outlay. Cities also draw down their unreserved fund balance substantially, avoiding deeper cuts to expenditure by depleting their accumulated funds.In my last essay, “ Ballot Order and Ballot Roll-off: Evidence from Ohio,” coauthored with Mike Conlin and Paul Thompson, I study how an election item’s position on the ballot affects the probability that voters abstain from voting on that item (“roll-off”), and on the probability that voters choose to vote yes conditional on casting a ballot. Local tax referenda in Ohio rotate ballot position every year based on the level of local jurisdiction that placed the referendum on the ballot, providing a source of exogenous variation to test these propositions. Previous research suggests that voters are less likely to cast a vote for election items lower on the ballot, and more likely to choose the status quo. These findings support the idea of choice fatigue, suggesting that facing more decisions impairs voters’ decision making ability. Unlike previous papers, I am able to control for demographic characteristics (age and party affiliation) of voters who see each referendum. I find that voters tend to cast more yes votes for items lower on the ballot. I also find that older voters are much less likely, and partisan voters much more likely, to abstain from ballot items, showing the importance of controlling for these characteristics when estimating the effect of ballot position on roll-off.
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