Black-Owned Small Business Survivors of Business Gentrification in the Bradhurst Neighborhood of Harlem, New York

This study explored how Black-owned small businesses survived the business gentrification in the Harlem neighborhood of Bradhurst. The research methodology used was a mixed-methods, explanatory, sequential design. In the quantitative phase, survey data were used to describe how many Black-owned small businesses survived the business gentrification. In the quantitative phase, the researcher found a total of 74 (N) eligible Black-owned small businesses survivors. The Black-owned small businesses consisted of 28%, or 21, of the 74 business that existed prior to the period of gentrification and that survived after gentrification. There were 18%, or 13, of the 74 Black-owned small businesses that started during, and existed after, the business gentrification. In the qualitative phase, the researcher conducted six qualitative semi-structured interviews of Black-owned small business survivors. The qualitative findings of this study suggest that the Black-owned small businesses employed five key strategies to survive the business gentrification by managing the change in the business environment, identifying new business opportunities, securing capital financing for growth, taking advantage of technical assistance from local sources, and increasing education and leadership in operating their businesses. The quantitative and qualitative findings were then integrated for a better understanding of the strategies employed by the Black-owned small businesses to survive. Recommendations for stakeholders are to develop educational programs tailored to Black-owned small businesses, to create business-building strategies to enhance the resources needed to manage change in a changing business environment, and to stabilize the finances of their businesses for maximization and long-term business growth. The study was intended to be useful to policy makers, businesses, and educators

Improving sustainability through intelligent cargo and adaptive decision making

In the current society, logistics is faced with the challenge to meet more stringent sustainability goals. Shippers and transport service providers both aim to reduce the carbon footprint of their logistic operations. To do so, optimal use of logistics resources and physical infrastructure should be aimed for. An adaptive decision making process for the selection of a specific transport modality, transport provider and timeslot (aimed at minimisation of the carbon footprint) enables shippers to achieve this. This requires shippers to have access to up-to-date capacity information from transport providers (e.g. current and scheduled loading status of the various transport means and information on carbon footprint) and traffic information (e.g. city logistics and current traffic information). A prerequisite is an adequate infrastructure for collaboration and open exchange of information between the various stakeholders in the logistics value chain to obtain the up-to-date information. This paper gives a view on how such an advanced information infrastructure can be realised, currently being developed within the EU iCargo project. The paper describes a reference logistics value chain, including business benefits for each of the roles in the logistics value chain of aiming for sustainability. A case analysis is presented that reflects a practical situation in which the various roles collaborate and exchange information for realizing sustainability goals, using adaptive decision making for selecting a transport modality, transport provider, and timeslot. A high-level overview is provided of the requirements on and technical implementation of the supporting advanced infrastructure for collaboration and open information exchange.In the current society, logistics is faced with the challenge to meet more stringent sustainability goals. Shippers and transport service providers both aim to reduce the carbon footprint of their logistic operations. To do so, optimal use of logistics resources and physical infrastructure should be aimed for. An adaptive decision making process for the selection of a specific transport modality, transport provider and timeslot (aimed at minimisation of the carbon footprint) enables shippers to achieve this. This requires shippers to have access to up-to-date capacity information from transport providers (e.g. current and scheduled loading status of the various transport means and information on carbon footprint) and traffic information (e.g. city logistics and current traffic information). A prerequisite is an adequate infrastructure for collaboration and open exchange of information between the various stakeholders in the logistics value chain to obtain the up-to-date information. This paper gives a view on how such an advanced information infrastructure can be realised, currently being developed within the EU iCargo project. The paper describes a reference logistics value chain, including business benefits for each of the roles in the logistics value chain of aiming for sustainability. A case analysis is presented that reflects a practical situation in which the various roles collaborate and exchange information for realizing sustainability goals, using adaptive decision making for selecting a transport modality, transport provider, and timeslot. A high-level overview is provided of the requirements on and technical implementation of the supporting advanced infrastructure for collaboration and open information exchange.In the current society, logistics is faced with the challenge to meet more stringent sustainability goals. Shippers and transport service providers both aim to reduce the carbon footprint of their logistic operations. To do so, optimal use of logistics resources and physical infrastructure should be aimed for. An adaptive decision making process for the selection of a specific transport modality, transport provider and timeslot (aimed at minimisation of the carbon footprint) enables shippers to achieve this. This requires shippers to have access to up-to-date capacity information from transport providers (e.g. current and scheduled loading status of the various transport means and information on carbon footprint) and traffic information (e.g. city logistics and current traffic information). A prerequisite is an adequate infrastructure for collaboration and open exchange of information between the various stakeholders in the logistics value chain to obtain the up-to-date information. This paper gives a view on how such an advanced information infrastructure can be realised, currently being developed within the EU iCargo project. The paper describes a reference logistics value chain, including business benefits for each of the roles in the logistics value chain of aiming for sustainability. A case analysis is presented that reflects a practical situation in which the various roles collaborate and exchange information for realizing sustainability goals, using adaptive decision making for selecting a transport modality, transport provider, and timeslot. A high-level overview is provided of the requirements on and technical implementation of the supporting advanced infrastructure for collaboration and open information exchange

Psychometric Framework for Modeling Parental Involvement and Reading Literacy

Assessment, Testing and Evaluatio

Psychometric Framework for Modeling Parental Involvement and Reading Literacy

Assessment, Testing and Evaluatio

Positron emission tomography to image cerebral neuroinflammation in ischaemic stroke: a pilot study

Background Activated microglia play a complex role in neuroinflammation associated with acute ischaemic stroke. As a potential target for anti-inflammatory therapy, it is crucial to understand the association between intensity, extent and the clinical outcome of a stroke. The 18-kDa translocator protein is a marker of cerebral microglial activation and of macrophage infiltration after damage to the brain. It can be imaged by positron emission tomography. Therefore, the recently developed radiopharmaceutical [18F]-GE180 was used in patients after a mild to moderate stroke and compared with [11C]-(R)-PK11195, which has already been established in research but cannot be used in routine clinical settings because of its very short half-life. Objectives Objectives for phase 1 were to evaluate the tolerability of positron emission tomography scanning, to assess the technical feasibility of imaging the 18-kDa translocator protein using [18F]-GE180 as radiopharmaceutical, to compare [18F]-GE180 with [11C]-(R)-PK11195 as reference. Objectives for phase 2 were examining the relation of positron emission tomography imaging with clinical outcome, magnetic resonance imaging and systemic inflammation. However, the study was ended after phase 1 because of the results obtained in that phase and did not enter phase 2. Methods Ten participants (aged 24–89 years, median 68 years) (eight male and two female) with a history of recent ischaemic stroke of mild to moderate severity (modified Rankin scale score of 2–3) in the middle cerebral artery territory were scanned 18 to 63 days (median 34.5 days) after the stroke by magnetic resonance imaging (Philips 1.5 T; Philips, Amsterdam, the Netherlands), [18F]-GE180 (200 MBq, 30-minute dynamic scan) and [11C]-(R)-PK11195 (740 MBq, 60-minute dynamic scan) positron emission tomography (Siemens HRRT; Siemens, Munich, Germany). The two positron emission tomography scans were performed on 2 separate days (mean 3.4 days apart). Five patients were randomised to receive the [18F]-GE180 scan at the first session and five patients were randomised to receive it at the second session. Participants were genotyped for the rs6971 18-kDa translocator protein polymorphism, which is known to affect binding of [18F]-GE180 but not of [11C]-(R)-PK11195. All positron emission tomography and magnetic resonance data sets were co-registered with T1-weighted magnetic resonance image scans. Binding of [18F]-GE180 was compared with [11C]-(R)-PK11195 for the infarct and contralateral reference regions. Spearman’s rank-order correlation was used to compare tracers, t-tests to compare patient subgroups. Results Tolerability of scans was rated as 4.36 (range 4–5) out of a maximum of 5 by participants, and there were no serious adverse events. There was a close correlation between [18F]-GE180 and [11C]-(R)-PK11195 (r = 0.79 to 0.84). The 18-kDa translocator protein polymorphism had a significant impact on the uptake of [18F]-GE180, which was very low in normal cortex. Ischaemic lesions with contrast enhancement on magnetic resonance as an indicator of blood–brain barrier damage showed a significantly higher uptake of [18F]-GE180 than the lesions without enhancement, even in low-affinity binders. Conclusions [18F]-GE180 was safe and well tolerated. However, strong dependency of uptake on blood–brain barrier damage and a genetic 18-kDa translocator protein polymorphism, as well as a high contribution of vascular signal to the uptake and evidence of non-specific binding in ischaemic lesions with blood–brain barrier damage, limits the clinical applicability of [18F]-GE180 as a diagnostic marker of neuroinflammation. Limitations As the study was ended after phase 1, this was only a small pilot trial. Further studies are warranted to fully understand the influence of blood–brain barrier damage on positron emission tomography microglia imaging. Trial registration Registered as a clinical trial with EudraCT 2014-000591-26. Funding This project was funded by the Efficacy and Mechanism Evaluation programme, a Medical Research Council and National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) partnership, and will be published in full in Efficacy and Mechanism Evaluation; Vol. 7, No. 1. See the NIHR Journals Library website for further information. It was also supported by GE Healthcare (Chicago, IL, USA) by free production and delivery of [18F]-GE180 and by supply of regulatory documents (Investigational Medical Product Dossier, Investigator’s Brochure). There was partial support by the European Commission (INMiND, grant #278850) and the NIHR Sheffield Biomedical Research Centre

What Developers Want and Need from Program Analysis: An Empirical Study

Program Analysis has been a rich and fruitful field of research for many decades, and countless high quality program analysis tools have been produced by academia. Though there are some well-known examples of tools that have found their way into routine use by practitioners, a common challenge faced by researchers is knowing how to achieve broad and lasting adoption of their tools. In an effort to understand what makes a program analyzer most attractive to developers, we mounted a multi-method investigation at Microsoft. Through interviews and surveys of developers as well as analysis of defect data, we provide insight and answers to four high level research questions that can help researchers design program analyzers meeting the needs of software developers. First, we explore what barriers hinder the adoption of program analyzers, like poorly expressed warning messages. Second, we shed light on what functionality developers want from analyzers, including the types of code issues that developers care about. Next, we answer what non-functional characteristics an analyzer should have to be widely used, how the analyzer should fit into the development process, and how its results should be reported. Finally, we investigate defects in one of Microsoft's flagship software services, to understand what types of code issues are most important to minimize, potentially through program analysis

Regulation of mutagenic DNA polymerase V activation in space and time

Spatial regulation is often encountered as a component of multi-tiered regulatory systems in eukaryotes, where processes are readily segregated by organelle boundaries. Well-characterized examples of spatial regulation are less common in bacteria. Low-fidelity DNA polymerase V (UmuD′2C) is produced in Escherichia coli as part of the bacterial SOS response to DNA damage. Due to the mutagenic potential of this enzyme, pol V activity is controlled by means of an elaborate regulatory system at transcriptional and posttranslational levels. Using single-molecule fluorescence microscopy to visualize UmuC inside living cells in space and time, we now show that pol V is also subject to a novel form of spatial regulation. After an initial delay (~ 45 min) post UV irradiation, UmuC is synthesized, but is not immediately activated. Instead, it is sequestered at the inner cell membrane. The release of UmuC into the cytosol requires the RecA* nucleoprotein filament-mediated cleavage of UmuD→UmuD′. Classic SOS damage response mutants either block [umuD(K97A)] or constitutively stimulate [recA(E38K)] UmuC release from the membrane. Foci of mutagenically active pol V Mut (UmuD′2C-RecA-ATP) formed in the cytosol after UV irradiation do not co-localize with pol III replisomes, suggesting a capacity to promote translesion DNA synthesis at lesions skipped over by DNA polymerase III. In effect, at least three molecular mechanisms limit the amount of time that pol V has to access DNA: (1) transcriptional and posttranslational regulation that initially keep the intracellular levels of pol V to a minimum; (2) spatial regulation via transient sequestration of UmuC at the membrane, which further delays pol V activation; and (3) the hydrolytic activity of a recently discovered pol V Mut ATPase function that limits active polymerase time on the chromosomal template

The Tourist Experience of Heritage Urban Spaces: Valletta as a Case Study

This article provides an understanding of how tourists experience heritage urban spaces by investigating features that influence tourist experiences most. It is framed within urban design literature which refers to three elements of urban space namely physical setting (or form), activity, and meaning. These elements are used to explore how urban spaces are experienced by tourists. Its findings are derived from an in-depth qualitative analysis of interviews with tourists to Valletta, Malta. The research suggests that the intrinsic qualities of the space are relevant to the tourist experience but what is even more relevant are the interactions of the tourist with different elements within that space, namely interactions with surroundings, interactions with others, and interactions with self/meaning. Within this broad conceptual model, the research identifies important sub-themes. Some of these reinforce the findings of existing work on tourist experiences, but others are often under-estimated or neglected