Research and Writings
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Item type: Item , Access status: Open Access , Haiti Can Be Rich Again(New York Times, 2012-01-08) Jenson, D; Dubois, LItem type: Item , Access status: Open Access , Modernizing Heat Alerts in North Carolina: A Health-Based Framework for Subregional Risk Communication(2025-12-16) Clark, Jordan; Nagamoto, Emily; Hatcher, Sarah; Williams, Courtney; Locklear, Autumn; Kothegal, Nikhil; Ward, AshleyIn response to rising extreme heat risks across North Carolina, this study refines and evaluates the North Carolina Division of Public Health (NCDPH) Climate and Health Program’s Heat Health Alert System (HHAS), a health-based warning framework first introduced in 2018. Building on prior development, the authors introduce a new set of season-specific Heat Index thresholds for eight climatologically derived regions, calibrated using historical health outcomes—specifically, emergency department visits and excess mortality records from 2007 to 2022. This comparative analysis shows areas of agreement but also highlights systematic differences, particularly in the timing and sensitivity of warnings. Data used in this report were obtained via the North Carolina Disease Event Tracking and Epidemiologic Collection Tool (NC DETECT), NCDPH’s syndromic surveillance system. NC DETECT is funded by the NCDPH Federal Public Health Emergency Preparedness Grant and managed through collaboration between NCDPH and the UNC-Chapel Hill Department of Emergency Medicine’s Carolina Center for Health Informatics. The NC DETECT Data Oversight Committee is not responsible for the scientific validity or accuracy of methodology, results, statistical analyses, or conclusions presented. This work is supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Climate-Ready States and Cities Initiative, Building Resilience Against Climate Effects (BRACE) Cooperative Agreement No. 5 NUE1EH001449-03-00.Item type: Item , Access status: Open Access , State-Level Heterogeneity in the Price Elasticity of Demand for Residential Electricity(2025-12-15) Weintraut, Ben; Parajon, Eric; Gowdy, Trey; Ewing, JAffordable, reliable electricity is essential for productive, healthy and thriving communities. Achieving this goal at least partly requires understanding the dynamic relationship between electricity prices and consumer demand is critical for utilities, regulators, and governments seeking to deliver affordable, reliable, and efficient energy. This paper presents updated estimates of a standard measure of price responsiveness in the US residential electricity market—price elasticity of demand for electricity (PEDE)—and explores how it varies across states. The paper finds that residential electricity demand is relatively inelastic on average: a 10% price increase is associated with only a 1.3% decrease in consumption. However, there is substantial variation in the PEDE across states, even among states in the same region or electric power market. This variation suggests that differences in state-level policy decisions, such as the presence or absence of retail choice, alternative rate structures, and the degree of price transparency, may also shape estimates of the PEDE. The authors find that recognizing and understanding the variation in price responsiveness across the country is crucial for effective rate design, targeted energy programs, and market regulation to improve affordability and efficiency in residential electricity markets.Item type: Item , Access status: Open Access , Pathways to Keep Financing Flowing into Clean Electricity Sectors(2025-12-19) Ewing, John; Hunter, Lesley; Salas, April; Hausker, Karl; Hitchcock, Ian; Downey, Michael; Griffen, Sonia; Hyman, GabbyIn fall 2025, ACORE, Duke University’s Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability, the EFI Foundation, and the World Resources Institute convened technology developers, finance providers, large-load customers, and legal and policy experts to explore how to keep finance flowing toward clean electricity sectors. Participants defined three central challenges to keeping capital flowing into these projects: inflationary pressure and the rapid increase in electricity demand; regulatory and policy uncertainty around tax credits and permitting; and financing barriers for first-of-a-kind clean firm power projects such as geothermal, nuclear, carbon capture and sequestration, and long-duration storage. Participants discussed a set of market-based solutions and the benefits of policy certainty to support the near-term scaling of existing energy resources, alongside investments in the commercialization of clean firm technologies.Item type: Item , Access status: Open Access , Evaluating the Adaptation Benefits of Cold Storage and Market Connectivity for Kenyan Fisherfolk on Lake Turkana(2025-12-05) Diaz-Herrera, Alejandro; Elsharief, Mirna; Jeuland, Marc; Mbithi Mulwa, Richard; Musembi, Elly; Teji, Liilnna; Vega Carol, FerranFishing plays a central role in the livelihoods and food security of many rural communities in Kenya, particularly around Lake Turkana, where climate variability, spoilage of catch, and limited market access have historically constrained economic opportunities. Keep IT Cool (KIC) is a social enterprise that provides solar refrigeration and cold chain logistics for smallholder chicken farmers and fisherfolk in Kenya. The Nairobi-based start-up works with Beach Management Units (BMUs), which are fisherfolk cooperative groups, in Lake Victoria and Lake Turkana to reduce post-harvest losses and facilitate marketing of high value fish (tilapia and Nile perch) in the domestic Kenyan market. In this study, we use a difference-in-differences (DiD) methodology with treatment and control fisherfolk to examine the impacts of the KIC partnership on a variety of outcomes among fisherfolk, including financial and economic outcomes, nutrition and food security, fish production, social capital, and household wealth. We also examine the resilience of study participants to various shocks, and what this resilience is worth to them. Overall, treatment and control groups were somewhat different at baseline. Time invariant differences (unobserved and observed) and observed time varying differences are controlled for in the DiD strategy. Overall, we find that working with KIC reduced fish spoilage and losses for fisherfolk in partner BMUs, which contributed to enhancing food and income security. The intervention also contributed to economic empowerment, increasing the ability of fisherfolk to purchase their own fishing equipment. This financial autonomy was, in turn, associated with increased commitment to fishing. Finally, though catch did not significantly change, beneficiary fishermen appeared more capable of investing in building alternative sources of income, thus diversifying their livelihoods. These positive results notwithstanding, it is evident that there is a need to strengthen the adaptive capacity of local communities in the face of the adverse impacts of climate change, including their ability to cope with, absorb, and respond to shocks. The majority of respondents in both treatment and control groups reported experiencing a recent decrease in fish yields due to climate change, with increased temperature being the most consistently reported change. Willingness to pay for greater resilience was considerable. Yet, respondents emphasized the need for greater access to modern preservation technologies and knowledge about climate change, as well as finance, to cope with emerging risks. Thus, future interventions could focus on supporting similar local businesses and small and medium enterprises, particularly by providing training on the adoption and use of innovative technological solutions. Such efforts may enhance the resilience of local value chains, their sustainability, and contribute to the socioeconomic empowerment of local communities. Future research should build on this study to develop more concrete and standardized measures of the value of resilience in climate-vulnerable sectors, to support evaluations of broader adaptation and resilience efforts.Item type: Item , Access status: Open Access , Cold Chains, from Net to Fork: Evidence from Kenya on Livelihoods and Community Resilience(2025-12-05) Elsharief, Mirna; Diaz-Herrera, Alejandro; Jeuland, Marc; Phillips, Jonathan; Vega Carol, FerranSmall-scale fisheries in Kenya support more than 1.5 million livelihoods but face mounting climate and market shocks that threaten food security and income stability. Research led by Duke University and the University of Nairobi evaluated the Keep IT Cool model—a private enterprise linking fishing communities around Lake Victoria and Lake Turkana to higher value markets trough solar-powered cold storage and logistics. Results show that access to cooling reduced post-harvest losses, improved nutritional diversity, and strengthened households’ ability to recover from shocks, though short-term income effects remain modest. The findings highlight the importance of pairing cold-chain technologies with financial tools and policy supports that lower capital costs and make resilience an investable outcome.Item type: Item , Access status: Open Access , Collaborative, Project-Based Learning in Higher Education: Case Studies(2025) Howes, Laura; Meghan O'Neil; Engel, Sarah GraceItem type: Item , Access status: Open Access , Theology and Medicine(2017) McCarty, B; Kinghorn, WItem type: Item , Access status: Open Access , John Locke, la médecine pratique et la politique économique(2019) Namazi, RasoulItem type: Item , Access status: Open Access , Political Vision of the Qur’an: Some Preliminary Remarks(2025-10-30) Namazi, RasoulThis study aims to establish a comprehensive framework for examining political thought in the Qurʾan. By defining the concept of Islamic political thought and illustrating its reliance on the Qurʾan as a primary source, this research will highlight the methodological considerations essential for interpreting the Qurʾan as a political document. The study will also incorporate recent advancements in Qurʾanic studies and early Islamic history to support the argument for directly engaging with the Qurʾan to uncover its political message and will explore the political dimensions of Islam, including the role of apocalypticism, the concept of a world-state, and the significance of warfare as depicted in the Qurʾan.Item type: Item , Access status: Open Access , Ten Pressing Questions (and Answers) About Marine Fungi and Opportunities for Collaborations in the Ocean SciencesDavid Palma, MarciaNearly 200 years have passed since the first marine fungus, collected from the shores of North Africa, was described. In that time, marine mycologists have continued to observe, describe, and study fungi in every marine ecosystem examined. Nevertheless, fungi remain functionally “dark matter” of the ocean, presenting a grand opportunity to unravel their roles in ecosystem processes. This report outlines the discussion among participants of the second occasional meeting of marine mycologists at Asilomar, California, in March 2024, in which a diverse and interdisciplinary consortium of researchers enumerated the most pressing, and often basic, unanswered questions in marine fungi. We report on the questions facing the field of marine mycology, identify challenges in addressing those questions, and propose concrete and practical solutions for obtaining their answers. A common thread is the need for increasing cross talk and collaboration between mycologists and oceanographers that would present opportunities for readers to participate in a rapidly growing field.Item type: Item , Access status: Open Access , Inequality: A Contemporary Approach to Race, Class, and Gender(2011) Keister, LA; Southgate, DThe authors include up-to-date quantitative evidence throughout. The text concludes by examining policies that have facilitated inequality and reviewing the social movements that in turn seek to reshape those structures.Item type: Item , Access status: Open Access , At the Interface: Multimodal Sensing and Intelligent Learning Systems: The Dynamic Transformation of the Cityscape and Its Ongoing Study(2020-01-01) Seaman, BThe contemporary city is quickly changing in line with the quixotic nature of today’s array of computational media. As a result, we need to begin to create new technological methodologies to aid in the study of the cityscape over time. This chapter presents some interesting ideas, given that the physical nature of buildings and material infrastructures change at a different rate from that of contemporary digital media. In terms of the cityscape, the digital media and their presence in differing forms are evermore ubiquitous. The author’s approach is to combine two areas of study—cyber-archaeology and media archaeology—in the service of future research. The notion is to create intelligent new systems for the archiving and perusal of multimodal media. He proposes new computationally intelligent approaches to generative virtual environments and relational databases. Also, he points to the nature of context and the limits of current computing in terms of discerning that context. And he asks: As humans we can quickly size up situations, shifting conceptual contexts without a problem; can we build new polysensing systems to help augment the machinic understanding of context and define a vast compendium of relationalities, as well as develop new multimodal search methodologies? This would help us create contemplative media contexts that lend insights into our ongoing learning in terms of research and cultural understanding of the present, enfolding multiple chosen perspectives.Item type: Item , Access status: Open Access , Targeting YAP-mediated HSC death susceptibility and senescence for treatment of liver fibrosis.(Hepatology (Baltimore, Md.), 2023-06) Du, Kuo; Maeso-Díaz, Raquel; Oh, Seh Hoon; Wang, Ergang; Chen, Tianyi; Pan, Christopher; Xiang, Kun; Dutta, Rajesh Kumar; Wang, Xiao-Fan; Chi, Jen-Tsan; Chi, Jen-Tsan; Diehl, Anna MaeBackground and aims
Liver fibrosis results from the accumulation of myofibroblasts (MFs) derived from quiescent HSCs, and yes-associated protein (YAP) controls this state transition. Although fibrosis is also influenced by HSC death and senescence, whether YAP regulates these processes and whether this could be leveraged to treat liver fibrosis are unknown.Approach and results
YAP activity was manipulated in MF-HSCs to determine how YAP impacts susceptibility to pro-apoptotic senolytic agents or ferroptosis. Effects of senescence on YAP activity and susceptibility to apoptosis versus ferroptosis were also examined. CCl 4 -treated mice were treated with a ferroptosis inducer or pro-apoptotic senolytic to determine the effects on liver fibrosis. YAP was conditionally disrupted in MFs to determine how YAP activity in MF-HSC affects liver fibrosis in mouse models. Silencing YAP in cultured MF-HSCs induced HSC senescence and vulnerability to senolytics, and promoted ferroptosis resistance. Conversely, inducing HSC senescence suppressed YAP activity, increased sensitivity to senolytics, and decreased sensitivity to ferroptosis. Single-cell analysis of HSCs from fibrotic livers revealed heterogeneous sensitivity to ferroptosis, apoptosis, and senescence. In mice with chronic liver injury, neither the ferroptosis inducer nor senolytic improved fibrosis. However, selectively depleting YAP in MF-HSCs induced senescence and decreased liver injury and fibrosis.Conclusion
YAP determines whether MF-HSCs remain activated or become senescent. By regulating this state transition, Yap controls both HSC fibrogenic activity and susceptibility to distinct mechanisms for cell death. MF-HSC-specific YAP depletion induces senescence and protects injured livers from fibrosis. Clarifying determinants of HSC YAP activity may facilitate the development of novel anti-fibrotic therapies.Item type: Item , Access status: Open Access , Item type: Item , Access status: Open Access , How DOE’s Proposed Large Load Interconnection Process Could Unlock the Benefits of Load Flexibility(2025-11-13) Farmer, Miles; Walsh, Sam; Smaczniak, Kim; Zevin, Avi; Lobel, Nathan; Daly, Gabe; Clements, Allison; Guo, Yuwen; Profeta, TimothyOn October 23, Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Chris Wright issued a letter directing the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to consider an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (DOE ANOPR) to establish rules for the interconnection of large electricity loads to the transmission system. DOE seeks to ensure that “all Americans and domestic industries have access to affordable, reliable, and secure electricity.”1 Unlike FERC’s primary and longstanding role regulating generator interconnection to the transmission system, FERC has not asserted jurisdiction over load interconnections to date. The DOE ANOPR will therefore set off intense debate on the legal basis for FERC’s jurisdiction over large load interconnections in addition to its substantive proposals.Item type: Item , Access status: Open Access , The Social Cost of Plastic to the United States(2025) Lauer, Nancy; Nowlin, Michelle; Vegh, Tibor; Virdin, Juohn; Somarelli, JasonItem type: Item , Access status: Open Access , Blues on Stage: The Blues Entertainment Industry in the 1920s(Notes, 2025-09-01) Koppes, Anne EliseItem type: Item , Access status: Open Access , Human Knowing Explored, Enfolding Many SensesSeaman, Bill; Seaman, WilliamItem type: Item , Access status: Open Access , Value-based Payment Reform: Leveraging Saas Technologies for Care Model InnovationLongyear, RobertThis issue brief details key policy issues that inhibit care delivery organizations from adopting modern software infrastructure, Software as a Service (SaaS) clinical technologies, SaaS medical devices, and AI technologies that leverage patient-generated health data (PGHD) to transform care delivery models whereby improving system efficiency, quality of care, and per capita cost.