Air Pollution Related Asthma Inpatient Hospital Admission in the Las Vegas Valley

Asthma is a chronic respiratory condition characterized by inflammation in the lungs that causes airflow to be restricted. In Southern Nevada’s Las Vegas Valley, the natural basin geography causes air pollutants to accumulate. Research has linked air pollution with worsening asthma symptoms. The goal of this study was to determine the non-linear lagged relationship between Asthma Related Inpatient Hospital Admissions (ARIHA) and the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) criteria air pollutants in the Las Vegas Valley using hospital and pollution monitoring station data. Overall, a statistically significant increased RR of ARIHA between 7 and 13 days after exposure to PM2.5 24-hour average levels from 0-35 μg/m3, and from 9-10 days after exposure to PM2.5 24-hour average 75 μg/m3 was found. Finally, 17 ZIP codes exhibited a statistically significant increased RR of ARIHA after adjusting for all variables, revealing a heterogeneous distribution of ZIP codes at a higher risk of ARIHA

THE VALUE OF WATER AS AN URBAN CLUB GOOD: A MATCHING APPROACH TO HOA-PROVIDED LAKES

Urban lakes located in arid environments require large quantities of water to maintain their water levels, with much of this water associated with high opportunity costs. Many of these lakes are manmade and provide various amenities to surrounding residents. In this paper we use matching techniques to recover the average capitalized value of lakes to surrounding communities and differentiate between community members and adjacent households to recover heterogeneous treatment effects. Importantly, we consider the role of both unobservable and observable features of matching to recover heterogeneous capitalization across lake communities. Our results suggest that the capitalized value of lakes to community residents is highly heterogeneous and ranges from an annual value of -$29 to +$20 per homeowner per acre foot of water. These results suggest that small changes in water pricing could remove the surplus benefits of lakes to community residents.Matching, Treatment effects, Urban lakes, Capitalization, Environmental Economics and Policy, Political Economy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Testing the Effects of US Airstrikes on Insurgent Initiated Violence in Yemen

Are U.S. airstrikes on al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula effective at reducing al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula initiated attacks? Airstrikes have been a popular counterterrorism tool in the Obama and Trump administrations. However, the effectiveness of airstrikes has been contentious. Using ACLED data from 2016-2019 I estimate a series of negative binomial regressions. I first assess the effect of airstrikes generally and find that airstrikes are effective at reducing AQAP attacks. I then disaggregate my airstrike variable to examine the effects of militant casualties, leadership casualties, and civilian casualties independently. I find that civilian casualties and leadership casualties have no effect on AQAP attacks while militant casualties have reduced AQAP attacks

Mitchell's concept of human freedom

Thesis (M.A.) -- University of Adelaide, Dept. of Philosophy, 198

THE EFFECT OF INTEGRATED WEED MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES ON WEED POPULATIONS AND BIOMASS, PASTURE PRODUCTIVITY, ECONOMIC RETURNS, AND FORAGE QUALITY WITH AND WITHOUT GRAZING

Field studies examined the strategies of mowing, herbicide, fertility, and all combinations on tall ironweed populations, weed biomass, pasture yield, grazing, economics, and forage quality at three Kentucky locations. Mowing was performed in July 2008 and 2009, herbicide applied in August 2008, and fertilizer applied in September 2008 and 2009 at all locations. Weed populations were measured in 2008, 2009, and 2010, and forage and weed biomass collected in May or June of 2009 and 2010. Herbicide treatments reduced weed biomass at all locations, and reduced tall ironweed stems by 64% or greater in 2009 at all locations. Weed biomass did not differ when comparing all treatments with and without mowing or treatments with or without fertilizer. Forage grass biomass produced was greatest with herbicide plus fertilizer and with the combination of mowing plus herbicide plus fertilizer at all locations in both years. Two years of grazing did not reduce weed populations. Grazing did reduce forage grass and clover biomass at one location, and weed biomass at two locations. Two locations had positive economic returns based on herbicide treatment for weed control and forge yield. Herbicide treatments reduced crude protein at one location and in-vitro true digestibility at two locations

Co-regulation in music practice: effective use of peers as social resources in goal setting and strategic planning

Researchers in education have found a multitude of learning benefits proffered through peer collaborative learning. Despite being a primarily collaborative effort, the pedagogy of music ensembles in the school setting continues to rely heavily on student development of skills through autonomous at-home practice. In an effort to improve student learning through at-home practice, a study was needed to understand how peer collaboration might be implemented in practice pedagogy and to examine its impact. Self-regulation theory provides a framework by which socially interactive influences of peers as social resources on cognitive aspects of practice processes can be identified and understood. Using a mixed-methods approach, I collected data from document analysis of weekly practice goals reports, recorded conversations of participants as they collaboratively identified a group practice goal, recorded at-home practice, and structured interviews with participants. Although no statistical significance was found to indicate participants were more successful in achieving collaboratively-set goals than individually-set goals, participants perceived myriad benefits from the collaborative goal setting process with peers, including greater perceived achievement of collaborative goals. Results indicated that participants perceived improved collaborative and personal goal achievement, augmented efficiency in goal setting and practice strategy selection and implementation, increased motivation to practice toward improvement through group ownership of the collaborative goal and social responsibility, and enhanced self-regulation of at-home practice. Furthermore, participants indicated that peers were valuable as sources of feedback and as models of effective goal setting, strategy implementation in practice, and in self-reflection. These findings are consistent with self-regulation theory’s valuation of social resources as motivators and models for effective self-regulation and support a model of co-regulation in music practice pedagogy

Efficacy and Mechanistic Evaluation of Tic10, A Novel Antitumor Agent

TNF-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL; Apo2L) is an endogenous protein that selectively induces apoptosis in cancer cells and is a critical effector in the immune surveillance of cancer. Recombinant TRAIL and TRAIL-agonist antibodies are in clinical trials for the treatment of solid malignancies due to the cancer-specific cytotoxicity of TRAIL. Recombinant TRAIL has a short serum half-life and both recombinant TRAIL and TRAIL receptor agonist antibodies have a limited capacity to perfuse to tissue compartments such as the brain, limiting their efficacy in certain malignancies. To overcome such limitations, we searched for small molecules capable of inducing the TRAIL gene using a high throughput luciferase reporter gene assay. We selected TRAIL-inducing compound 10 (TIC10) for further study based on its induction of TRAIL at the cell surface and its promising therapeutic index. TIC10 is a potent, stable, and orally active antitumor agent that crosses the blood-brain barrier and transcriptionally induces TRAIL and TRAIL-mediated cell death in a p53-independent manner. TIC10 induces a sustained upregulation of TRAIL in tumors and proximal cells that may contribute to the antitumor activity of TIC10 through a bystander effect. Expression profiling of TIC10-induced transcriptional changes revealed changes in FOXO target genes. We found that Foxo3a undergoes a TIC10-induced nuclear translocation, binds to the TRAIL gene promoter in response to TIC10, and is responsible for TIC10-induced cell death and TRAIL production in vitro and in vivo. TIC10 activates Foxo3a through the dual inactivation of Akt and ERK, which normally phosphorylate and inactivate Foxo3a. The induction of TRAIL by TIC10 can be recapitulated using pharmacological inhibitors of Akt and ERK signaling pathways or siRNA. These mechanistic data provide a clear therapeutic strategy for targeting the TRAIL gene and suggest that Foxo3a-mediated TRAIL induction is responsible for the synergy between PI3K/Akt and MAPK pathway inhibitors. TIC10 is a potentially first-in-class antitumor therapy that utilizes the tumor microenvironment to produce TRAIL, acts as a pharmacological delivery vehicle to improve the therapeutic properties of TRAIL, and highlights Foxo3a activation as an attractive opportunity to induce TRAIL-mediated apoptosis that can be harnessed through dual inhibition of the MAPK and PI3K/Akt pathway