Critics have constantly engaged in the topic of how male Romantic-era writers’ views of language influenced their writing, in particular their subjective and arbitrary descriptions and illustrations of the world to create new meanings of objects, thoughts and ideas. Yet, despite the numerous critiques on male writers, there is a lack of research and examination of women Romantic-era writers’ reflections on and responses to the male writers’ views of language and how the male writers’ views of language influence their writing. In particular, Mary Shelley is one such writer that subjects the male writers’ beliefs of language to critique in her novelFrankenstein.This essay argues that inFrankenstein,Mary’s use of intertexuality combats the subjective view of language found in the male writers’ works because the intertextual moments within literature expands the engagement and understanding of language beyond the dimensions of personal and subjective views. The interweaving of and references to Percy Shelley’s works, the Bible and Milton’sParadise Lostin her writing, I claim, structures and stabilizes language in order to reveal a larger context of the meaning of words that reinforce a universal understanding of a correlation between words, objects and definitions.

Molecular polaritons offer a promising avenue for manipulating light and matter properties through both single-molecule and collective strong light-matter coupling within optical cavities. Over the past decade, numerous theoretical and experimental studies have reported changes in optical and chemical properties as a result of this strong interaction. However, the field is fraught with inconsistent findings. Some experimental results cannot be reproduced or are later given non-polaritonic explanations, while theoretical models often fail to account for observed changes and make correct predictions. This disconnect between theory and experiment arises from the use of overly simplistic models to explain the highly complex nature of polaritonic systems in general, and organic molecules in particular.

Specifically, in the field of polariton chemistry, which aims to exploit collective strong coupling to modify chemical reactivity, there has been a tendency to interpret experiments conducted in the collective regime using single-molecule strong coupling models. In the case of single-molecule strong coupling, the excited states of individual molecules hybridize with cavity modes to create vibronic-polariton states, altering the energy levels of the molecules and hence their reactivity. In contrast, in the collective regime, polaritons are excitations delocalized over the entire ensemble of molecules, and it is unclear how they influence the local vibronic dynamics of individual molecules.

This thesis presents our efforts to unveil the novel photochemical and photophysical phenomena in organic exciton polaritons. Our findings can be summarized as follows: while collective strong light-matter coupling can significantly alter optical properties, such as the photonic density of states, it has negligible direct effects on the internal degrees of freedom of individual molecules, which are involved in chemical reactivity. Nevertheless, we conclude that polaritonic modifications to optical properties can influence molecular processes in a weak coupling manner, leading to long-range resonance energy transfer, and changes in absorption, emission, and Raman scattering rates. Further advancements require identifying the missing elements in our theories. Effects such as temperature and the multimode nature of optical microcavities may be crucial for understanding the experimental observations that remain unexplained to this day, and for definitively determining novel applications of collective strong light-matter coupling with organic molecules.

Zero-emission vehicles are a central component of plans to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions from California’s transportation sector. Because these vehicles generally have higher purchase prices than conventional vehicles and represent a new technology that many households are hesitant to adopt, it is important to find ways to incentivize the adoption of these vehicles. A range of methods have been tested globally, including monetary incentives and stickers that allow these vehicles to access high-occupancy vehicle lanes. This report assesses the potential use of express lane discounts as a driver of ZEV adoption by testing the effectiveness of a range of discount scenarios. These scenarios are built upon a baseline scenario that incorporates adoption drivers from existing policies and market growth trajectories. This analysis treats the express lane discount as a monetary incentive. The researchers find that providing even very large discounts for express lane usage to zero-emission vehicles would only slightly increase vehicle sales but would make these lanes much less capable of serving their other purposes. As part of this project, an Excel tool was developed that allows users to test their own scenarios. As an alternative to providing toll discounts to owners of new zero-emission vehicles, the authors recommend developing targeted incentives that focus on low-income and disadvantaged communities and are available to households that purchased pre-owned vehicles.

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Background

Results

Conclusion

Over the last six years, from 2016 through 2021, a wave of new federal, state, and local funding has supported carsharing services that use electric vehicles and install electric vehicle chargers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) and address climate change. In addition, many of these same funding programs allow support for the location of services in underserved communities with fare levels that enable community members to access these services. This study first explores the potential climate change benefits for carsharing services and the need for these services in underserved areas by reviewing the available published literature. Next, the study discusses the evolution of carsharing in the U.S., including non-profit, for-profit, and recent government-funded carsharing, drawing on published reports, newspaper articles, and expert interviews. Finally, the authors draw conclusions of relevance for future government-funded carsharing programs.

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