This doctoral dissertation engages with the following sociological themes and theories: educational inequality; the criminalization of youth in ways that advance the interests of dominant institutions; the ways in which immigrants’ ethnic capital and cultural frames of success affect assimilation processes, trajectories, and mainstream institutions. I draw on over two years of fieldwork at two dissimilar high schools in “Valley View,” an affluent, ethnoracial diverse Southern California suburb with highly-rated public schools. “Pinnacle High School” is a meticulously maintained, nationally-ranked comprehensive high school, while neighboring “Crossroads High School” is a stigmatized continuation school where Black and Latino youth are grossly overrepresented among the student body. Students are sent to Crossroads when they have fallen behind in their coursework such that they are no longer on normative time to graduate. While researchers have linked the continued segregation of schools to the racial and class segregation of neighborhoods, I unveil institutional practices that result in school segregation in an affluent, racially diverse Southern California suburb independent of the forces of residential segregation. Pinnacle High School embraces a collective interpretation of academic achievement – what I refer to as an institutional success frame – in which advanced classes, top grades and test scores, and admission to a prestigious university are routine. Students who fall short of these standards are marginalized, and those who struggle academically are sent to nearby Crossroads High School. At Crossroads, students encounter a metal perimeter fence, spotlight towers, constant surveillance by local law enforcement, classrooms housed in trailers, and a curriculum that curtails their post-secondary enrollment options. I refer to this separate and unequal schooling as academic segregation – school segregation predicated on academic standing. Correlatively, the overtly carceral treatment of students at Crossroads represents a criminalization of mediocrity.

The grid is progressing toward less dependency on central generating plants due to the deployment of distributed energy resources (DERs) in the distribution system. These changes impact the role of utility substations, and create the need for research to address the challenges associated with integrating and managing massive amounts of DERs on circuits served by distribution substations. This thesis addresses a major step toward this end, namely the automatic control of substations to manage circuits populated with a large population of DERs. In particular, the research (1) considered each circuit emanating from utility substations as a microgrid, (2) developed a model for substation automatic control using a Generic Microgrid Controller compliant with the IEEE 2030.7 standard, and (3) evaluated the role and impact of substation automation control to improve energy management, increase grid reliability, resiliency, and efficiency, and improve environmental quality.

To this end, a digital simulation model of two 12kV distribution circuits emanating from a substation was developed with individual homes modeled and results verified using data obtained from the Irvine Smart Grid Demonstration (ISGD) project.

The substation automation control of DERs on circuits emanating from the substation was found to increase reliability and efficiency, reduce emissions, and enable demand response as an effective resource to mitigate grid challenges associated with a high penetration of DER. In addition, the deployment of a fuel cell as a distributed energy resource at the substation was found to improve reliability and resiliency of the circuits served by the substation.

The need for exceptional grid reliability and resiliency has become ever more important with the increasing dependence on electrical power in the digital age and more frequent and severe weather events resulting in a disturbance in power delivery. Using on-site energy sources, microgrids have been proven to enhance the reliability and resiliency of critical loads and overall protection during grid outages. With the focused attention on microgrid implementation, this dissertation addresses achieving high reliability and resiliency for two distinct applications: (1) a classic microgrid, and (2) utility distribution feeders operated as a microgrid, both of which are modeled with an IEEE 2030.7 compliant microgrid controller enhanced with self-healing capabilities. The University of California Irvine Microgrid serves as the classic microgrid, and two 12kV circuit feeders at the Southern California Edison 66kV MacArthur substation serve as utility distribution feeder microgrids.The study first enhances and tests the self-healing capabilities of the controller. Second, the efficacy of the enhanced controller is tested for the classic microgrid to assess the impact on reliability and resiliency while islanded, including the utility of battery electric buses as a resiliency attribute during islanded operations. Third, the of the concept of managing utility distribution feeders is assessed in terms of energy sustainability, restoration, and energization with various distributed energy resources within the system including a fuel cell generator, demand response, and vehicle-to-grid energy support. The results show that (1) the reliability and resiliency of critical loads can be enhanced by interconnected circuits with rapidly dispatched switching, (2) firm power generation in combination with demand response are essential in supporting an islanded microgrid, and (3) plug-in electric vehicles including battery electric buses can both enhance resiliency and serve as a flexible energy resource by enabling Mobility Services+ for both an islanded microgrid (e.g., hospitals, fire stations, grocery stores) and a distribution feeder. Examples include the deployment of battery electric buses to serve critical loads within the microgrid, serve as a blackstart resource should the microgrid prime power generator trip, and support community assets outside the microgrid.

Chlamydia are obligate intracellular bacterial pathogens with a significant impact on human health. Chlamydia infect eukaryotic cells, and a wide range of effects on the host cell have been attributed to a chlamydial protease, CPAF, through cleavage or degradation of numerous host proteins. We discovered that this reported proteolysis was an in vitro phenomenon that occurred during preparation of infected cells for protein analysis. We showed that CPAF activity was induced by detachment of Chlamydia-infected cells from a cell culture monolayer and that this protease remained active in cell lysates resulting in artifactual proteolysis. Chlamydial phenotypes attributed to CPAF were still observed when we took precautions to prevent in vitro proteolysis. Our findings challenged the prevailing model about the function of CPAF during the chlamydial infection and its intracellular targets. In a second project, we studied the unusual chlamydial developmental cycle with a novel three-dimensional electron microscopy (3D-EM) method. During the intracellular infection, the bacterium converts within the chlamydial inclusion from an infectious, but non-dividing, elementary body (EB) into a reticulate body (RB) that divides repeatedly by binary fission before converting back into EBs to infect new cells. We analyzed each Chlamydia-infected cell with several hundred two dimensional EM slices and used computational methods to reconstruct the three-dimensional images of the chlamydial inclusions. The results provided the first comprehensive analysis of the developmental cycle, including the number, size, and location of each EB, RB, and intermediates of RB replication and RB-to-EB conversion. We described for the first time that RB volume progressively decreases as RB number increases, indicating that RBs divide before doubling in size. However, we did not observe RBs below a minimum size, leading us to postulate that RBs below a size threshold convert into an EB. We propose a new model of chlamydial development in which RB-to-EB conversion is regulated by RB size because several rounds of RB replication are required for the RB to become small enough to convert into an EB. In this model, RB size acts as a timer and provides a mechanism to delay RB-to-EB conversion until the RB pool has expanded.

Learning Objectives: To identify gender-specific needs among female EM residents and develop a curriculum to recognize these challenges and discuss strategies to overcome barriers to equality.

Introduction/Background: Women were first admitted to medical school in 1849, yet the discrepancies and disparities experienced by female physicians still persist. The challenges facing women in medicine begin early in the education and training process. A resident-driven “Women in Emergency Medicine’’ curriculum was established at Cook County’s Emergency Medicine Residency Program to address these issues, promote mentorship and foster professional growth.

Educational Objectives: The objective of the curriculum was to unveil specific inequities experienced by a cohort of female EM residents and create a resident-led curriculum to address these challenges. The curriculum promoted safe spaces for focused discussions, provided directed mentorship and culminated in an educational retreat featuring speakers and activities based on surveyed needs.

Curricular Design: In August 2020, using the Kern model, a needs assessment survey was created and distributed among the 20 female EM residents, with the goal of identifying common obstacles faced by this cohort. Small group discussions were implemented over 7 weeks to address these topics. Based on the initial survey and discussions, the first annual Women in EM Residency Retreat was held in June 2021. The educational retreat included faculty presentations on resident wellness, mentorship, combating micro/macroaggressions, women in leadership, resilience and resume building. Anonymous pre- and post-retreat surveys were distributed for session feedback and evaluation of efficacy.

Impact/Effectiveness: The findings demonstrated that 100% of participants felt that a female directed curriculum was crucial for professional and personal development. Interestingly, while 100% of residents felt they had female faculty mentors to support them, only 46% felt similarly about male faculty mentors. This data presents an obligation for department leaders to address allyship needs by male faculty towards female trainees.