The Greater Boston Housing Report Card 2008: From Paradigm to Paradox: Understanding Greater Boston's New Housing Market

Combines an annual survey of Greater Boston's market conditions, housing production, rents, home prices, and public spending and support with an analysis of the dynamics of rising foreclosures, falling prices, and the unresolved problem of affordability

Rapid Re-Housing of Families Experiencing Homelessness in Massachusetts: Maintaining Housing Stability

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (“Recovery Act”) provided $1.5 billion for the Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program (HPRP), a temporary program that addressed both homelessness prevention and rapid re-housing of families already experiencing homelessness. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) allocated$44.5 million, including $26.1 million to individual Massachusetts communities and$18.4 million to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Of its funds, the state allocated $8.3 million for rapid re-housing of families who were living in shelters or motels. This report explores the experiences of 486 of these families who received rapid re-housing assistance from six agencies in four regions of the state. The Center for Social Policy (CSP) at the University of Massachusetts Boston analyzed data about these families to develop a profile of the characteristics of participant families, their assets and barriers related to housing and economic stability, and housing outcomes after 12 to 18 months of program participation. In addition, CSP also completed interviews with staff of each agency, a focus group of Boston area staff, and a detailed review of a selection of case files to provide additional, rich details about the circumstances of individual families

A chemical sensor based on a photonic-crystal L3 nanocavity defined in a silicon-nitride membrane

The application of a silicon-nitride based L3 optical nanocavity as a chemical sensor is explored. It is shown that by adjusting the thickness of an ultra-thin Lumogen Red film deposited onto the nanocavity surface, the fundamental optical mode undergoes a progressive red-shift as the layer-thickness increases, with the cavity being able to detect the presence of a single molecular monolayer. The optical properties of a nanocavity whose surface is coated with a thin layer of a porphyrin-based polymer are also explored. On exposure of the cavity to an acidic-vapour, it is shown that changes in the optical properties of the porphyrin-film (thickness and refractive index) can be detected through a reversible shift in the cavity mode wavelength. Such effects are described using a finite difference time-domain model

Boston's Education Pipeline: A Report Card

Assesses the city's progress in creating an effective and equitable education pipeline from early childhood through college or postsecondary training. Examines demographic and outcome data and risk and prevention factors, and notes areas for improvement

Age, growth and preliminary estimates of maturity of bigeye tuna, Thunnus obesus, in the Australian region

Biological parameters such as age, growth and age (or size) at maturity are vital for accurate stock assessments and management plans to ensure that fisheries develop sustainably. Despite this, very few validated age studies have been conducted for large tropical pelagic species within the Australian region. Age and growth parameters were estimated for bigeye tuna, Thunnus obesus (Lowe, 1839), sampled from longline fisheries in the Australian region using validated techniques based on counts of annual increments. Poor increment clarity reduced the number of otoliths included in the final analysis to only 50% of the 3200 selected for reading (39–178-cm fork length). Microincrement analysis confirmed the position of the first two annual increments in these otoliths. A maximum age of 16 years was obtained, but over 80% of fish in the Australian catch were <5 years old. Growth is most rapid in the first few years of life and asymptotic length is reached at about age 9 to 10 years. The von Bertalanffy growth parameters were estimated at L∞ = 169.09, k = 0.238, and to = –1.706 for the south-west Pacific Ocean and L∞ = 178.41, k = 0.176, and to = –2.500 for the eastern Indian Ocean. These parameters were significantly different, suggesting that there is little mixing between populations in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Length at 50% maturity for females sampled in northern Queensland was estimated to be 102.4-cm fork length

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2010-2014 Pedestrian and Bicycle Traffic Count Preliminary Report

The Step Into Cuba Alliance (the Alliance) is a broad coalition of local, state and national organizations and individuals working to increase opportunities for physical activity in the Village of Cuba, NM (the Village). A primary goal of the Alliance is to increase the walkability of Cuba to encourage walking as a convenient and low-cost form of physical activity. One of the areas of focus for the Alliance is US Highway 550 (US 550), a four lane, federal highway that bisects the Village and serves as Cuba’s main street. The Alliance is also working to make NM 126, leading from US 550 to the Village of Cuba St. Francis of Assisi Park, more pedestrian friendly. US 550 is a primary route connecting Albuquerque to Northwestern New Mexico and Colorado. In Cuba, US 550 is estimated to have a traffic count of about 8,200 vehicles per day.1 Cuba’s health clinic, post office and other essential services are located on US 550, and the Village of Cuba serves as the commercial center for the area. Residents from within the municipality and the outlying areas visit Cuba regularly to retrieve their mail from the post office (there is no mail delivery service in the Cuba area), shop for food and other necessities, receive medical care, and obtain social services. Many residents of Cuba live within walking distance of the commercial center. Most roadways used by residents to reach services and businesses on US 550 do not have safe sidewalks or walkways. Additionally, on US 550 there are no traffic lights or stop signs, only two crosswalks, and the sidewalks are not continuous. In winter, snow removal from the highway leads to piles of snow on sidewalks and highway shoulders, obstructing pedestrian access. The Village and the Alliance have been working with the NM Department of Transportation (NMDOT) to explore ways to make US 550 and NM 126 more pedestrian friendly. In 2011, federal funding was obtained and utilized to complete a new section of pedestrian-friendly sidewalks along US 550 on the south end of Cuba. Applications have been approved and funding has been earmarked for additional improvement projects along US 550 and adjoining roadways. Pedestrian and bicycle traffic counts represent another way in which the Alliance and the Village have focused needed attention on US 550 and its intersecting streets. Faculty and staff from the University of New Mexico Prevention Research Center (UNM PRC), working with an independent transportation planning consultant and pedestrian and bicycle safety expert, organized the counting effort, trained counters and participated in the counting. Community members from the Cuba area contributed to the effort by conducting the counts as volunteers and paid workers. This report provides data on the use of US 550 and intersecting roads, including NM 126, and the Village of Cuba’s St. Francis of Assisi Park by pedestrians, bicyclists and other non-motorized transportation (e.g., skateboarders). Baseline data were collected in 2010, and follow-up data collected in 2011-2014. The repeated counts document changes in non-motorized use following improvements to make the area safer and more attractive for pedestrians. Data from the counts have also been submitted to the National Bicycle and Pedestrian Documentation Project, a nationwide effort to create a consistent, uniform collection and analysis system for non-motorized transportation

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Evidence for diversifying selection of genetic regions of encoding putative collagen-like host-adhesive fibers in Pasteuria penetrans

© FEMS 2018. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Pasteuria spp. belong to a group of genetically diverse endospore-forming bacteria (phylum: Firmicutes) that are known to parasitize plant-parasitic nematodes and water fleas (Daphnia spp.). Collagen-like fibres form the nap on the surface of endospores and the genes encoding these sequences have been hypothesised to be involved in the adhesion of the endospores of Pasteuria spp. to their hosts. We report a group of 17 unique collagen-like genes putatively encoded by Pasteuria penetrans (strain: Res148) that formed five different phylogenetic clusters and suggest that collagen-like proteins are an important source of genetic diversity in animal pathogenic Firmicutes including Pasteuria. Additionally, and unexpectedly, we identified a putative collagen-like sequence which had a very different sequence structure to the other collagen-like proteins but was similar to the protein sequences in Megaviruses that are involved in host-parasite interactions. We, therefore, suggest that these diverse endospore surface proteins in Pasteuria are involved in biological functions, such as cellular adhesion; however, they are not of monophyletic origin and were possibly obtained de novo by mutation or possibly through selection acting upon several historic horizontal gene transfer events.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

A Systematic Review of Treatment Interventions for Metacarpal Shaft Fractures in Adults

Metacarpal shaft fractures are common hand injuries which predominantly affect younger patients. There is wide variability in their treatment with no consensus on best practice. We performed a systematic review to assess the breadth and quality of available evidence supporting different treatment modalities for metacarpal shaft fractures of the finger digits in adults. A comprehensive search was conducted across multiple databases, in line with Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. A total of 1600 records were identified; seven studies fulfilled eligibility criteria and were included. No randomised controlled trials directly comparing surgery to non-surgical treatment were found. One retrospective study compared non-surgical to surgical treatment, while six compared surgical or non-surgical treatments. Considerable heterogeneity between studies along with high or critical risk of bias restricts direct comparison and conclusions. There is a lack of high quality evidence to guide treatment, supporting the need for well-designed, multi-centre trials to identify the most effective and cost-efficient treatment for metacarpal shaft fractures in adults. https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/hand HAN