Transport modeling and cost-benefit analysis are two key tools used in trans- port planning. Both tools have been adapted substantially to cope with the challenges posed by the goal of sustainable development. However, the changes have primarily focused on the negative environmental impacts of the transport sector. Hardly any attention has been paid to another key dimension of sustain- able development: social justice. This paper critically analyzes the two tools from this perspective. It concludes that transport modeling is implicitly based on the distributive principle of demand. Given the importance of mobility in current society, it is suggested to replace current demand-based approaches by transport modeling that is based on the principle of need. Likewise, cost- benefit analysis has a built-in distributive mechanism that structurally favors transport improvements for highly mobile groups. This problem could be solved by replacing travel time savings by so-called accessibility gains as the key benefit taken into account in cost-benefit analysis. If the suggested changes were realized, both transport modeling and cost-benefit analysis could become key tools for promoting sustainable transport.

Over the previous three decades both experimental and theoretical research into nanopores has been gaining momentum. It has been discovered that nanopores play an important role in controlling important molecular and cellular scale physiological processes. It has also been discovered that both synthetic and biotic nanopores may have groundbreaking potential for both biomedical devices and scientific research instruments. In particular, nanopores are currently being studied for their potentially cost effective application to DNA sequencing and protein, drug, and pathogen sensing. Additionally, research into the time-dependent electrical properties of nanopores may aid in our understanding and ability to model the behavior of physiological nanoscale membrane ion channels. Recent advances in information theory, particularly the development of time-dependent measures of Shannon entropies, have opened the door to studying these nanoscale systems from a new angle. In this work we will share results of the novel application of these techniques, highlighting their ability to track autonomous fluctuations in nanopore currents. We will also discuss a proposed extension of these techniques that may allow short-time scale prediction of current fluctuations in the future. Additionally, we will discuss a process for testing for potentially interesting nonlinear structure in nanopore interevent interval sequences, where the events are current fluctuations. Lastly, we will discuss some potential future research directions in light of what we have learned.

I have always approached life like a head first dive off a waterfall. That unabashed spring into the unknown is what I believe drew me into the arts and placed me in the audition room for UCSD's Graduate Acting program.

Catching my breath from the expulsion of several aerobic monologues, Kyle Donnelly asked why grad school would be a good fit. I responded with, "I've got a nice set of skills, but I would like to craft and hone them, becoming an acting machine that can sustain a long life in theatre." At that time the picture in my mind was much like a Terminator of acting, crushing and molding the world of the play into something beautiful to experience.

Once in the program, my inner Peter Pan took flight, exploring the physical and emotional depths of a drag queen, an adolescent searching for love, a man sacrificing life and limb for family, and more. Along the way I waited for this Terminator to appear and replace the boyish, earnest glee with which I approach work and life. He never appeared. This frustrated me until, finally, I realized the image of this "machine" was all wrong. Little did I know my inner free spirit had been acquiring bits of armor, piece by piece, in the way of movement, voice, speech, text analysis and personal process in the work. My once exposed person is now shielded with technique and a stronger sense of self. The joyously unrestrained coupled with an impenetrable defense. I now am about to embark into a career where one must be simultaneously emotionally available and tough as nails. I am ready.

We continue the research presented in References (10; 11) towards developing a model of current oscillations in single, synthetic conical nanopores (12). We summarize the previously developed phenomenological model and present three new models based on treating the system as an equivalent circuit using an approach similar to that employed in References (6; 14; 15; 16; 17; 18). We compare experimental current time series, dwell time distributions, and phase space reconstruction to the same quantities for the simulation results and show that there is good qualitative and acceptable quantitative agreement between them.

We also describe a new approach to incorporating quantum effects into chemical reaction rate theory using quantum trajectories (19). Our development is based on the Entangled Trajectory Molecular Dynamics method for simulating quantum processes using trajectory integration and ensemble averaging (20; 21; 22; 23; 24; 25; 26; 27). Quantum corrections are incorporated analytically into the quantum rate expression using dynamical approximations similar to those underlying classical transition state theory (28; 29). We focus on a model of quantum decay in a metastable system and consider the deep tunneling limit where the classical rate vanishes and the process is entirely quantum mechanical. We compare our approximate estimate with the well-known WKB tunneling rate (7) and find qualitative agreement.