Model Cities, Housing, and Renewal Policy in Portland, Maine: 1965-1974

Shepherded through Congress by Maine Senator Edmund Muskie, the 1967 Model (or Demonstration) Cities Program was originally intended for the nation’s large, ghetto-ridden metropolises where it would target a host of social and economic programs including housing. Thanks to Senator Muskie, both Portland and Lewiston benefited. Before the Nixon Administration scuttled the program in 1973, Portland had created a host of innovative housing, social welfare, law enforcement, and educational programs, shifting the city’s urban renewal program away from its strict emphasis on brick-and-mortar planning. Portland was unique in making Model Cities a part of its downtown renewal. Energizing the city’s young historic preservation movement and boosting housing rehabilitation efforts, Model Cities played a role in the rise of Portland’s celebrated Old Port. John F. Bauman of Southport, Maine, is a Visiting Research Professor at the University of Southern Maine and past-President of the Society for American City and Regional Planning History. He has authored or co-authored numerous books including Public Housing, Race, and Renewal: Urban Planning In Philadelphia, 1920-1974 (1987) and Before Renaissance: Planning in Pittsburgh, 1889-1943 (2006). His history of Portland, Maine (from which this article derived), will be published by the University of Massachusetts Press in 2011

Coral recruitment and early benthic community development on several materials used in the construction of artificial reefs and breakwaters

Artificial reefs are increasingly being promoted as a means to mitigate impacts from human activities in coastal urban areas. Coastal defense structures such as breakwaters are becoming recognized as large-scale artificial reefs that support abundant and diverse marine communities and play important roles in coastal ecology and management. However, there is limited understanding of how substrate materials used to construct artificial reefs or breakwaters can influence the development of habitat-forming benthic organisms. To assess the influence of substrata on coral recruitment and overall benthic community development, we deployed standard-size tiles of materials used in the construction of breakwaters and artificial reefs (concrete, gabbro, granite, and sandstone), along with terra-cotta for comparative purposes, at two breakwaters (DDD, PRT) and two natural reef sites (NR1, NR2) in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, for one year. Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA with post-hoc Mann-Whitney U-tests were used to examine differences in coral recruitment among sites and materials. Coral recruitment was highest at the DDD (4.9 ± 0.5 recruits 100 cm- 2), while recruitment was low and did not differ among other sites (PRT: 0.1 ± 0.04, NR1:0.3 ± 0.1, NR2: 0.1 ± 0.03 recruits 100 cm- 2). There were significant differences in coral recruitment among materials at DDD, where gabbro had higher recruit densities than concrete and sandstone; sandstone also contained less coral recruits than terra-cotta. Variability associated with low coral recruit densities precluded significant differences among materials at other sites. Overall benthic community structure differed more as a result of differences among sites than among substrate materials. Higher community dissimilarity was observed among sites than among material in SIMPER analysis, and significant differences were only observed among sites in ANOSIM. Univariate comparison of the benthos correlated with community differences in NMS ordination also showed significant differences among sites but not material. Overall, these results indicate that site-specific differences in recruitment patterns are more important in determining early benthic community structure and coral recruitment than are differences among substrate material. However, where coral recruitment is high, these results suggest that gabbro should be used preferentially over concrete or sandstone where it is feasible, but that granite may be a suitable alternative where it is the dominant stone. Coral recruitment on terra-cotta was comparable to all materials but sandstone, supporting its continued use in recruitment studies. These results also indicate that using stone amenable to coral recruitment is unlikely to influence the wider benthic community. © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Creativity out of chaos

Creativity is said to be highly desired in post-modern and post-industrial organizations Creativity and anarchy on the one hand, and managerialism, on the other, can be seen as different forms of knowledge, two opposed ideals. In many organizational as well as societal reforms we currently observe it is the managerialist ideal that wins over the anarchic. In this paper, we wonder if people fear anarchy? We reflect on the possible reasons for the fear, and we also try to explain why we believe that anarchic organizing should not be avoided or feared

Prevalence of reproductive tract infections and the predictive value of girls’ symptom-based reporting: findings from a cross-sectional survey in rural western Kenya

Objectives Reproductive tract infections (RTIs), including sexually acquired, among adolescent girls is a public health concern, but few studies have measured prevalence in low-middle-income countries. The objective of this study was to examine prevalence in rural schoolgirls in Kenya against their reported symptoms. Methods In 2013, a survey was conducted in 542 adolescent schoolgirls aged 14–17 years who were enrolled in a menstrual feasibility study. Vaginal self-swabbing was conducted after girls were interviewed face-to-face by trained nurses on symptoms. The prevalence of girls with symptoms and laboratory-confirmed infections, and the sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values of symptoms compared with laboratory results, were calculated. Results Of 515 girls agreeing to self-swab, 510 answered symptom questions. A quarter (24%) reported one or more symptoms; most commonly vaginal discharge (11%), pain (9%) or itching (4%). Laboratory tests confirmed 28% of girls had one or more RTI. Prevalence rose with age; among girls aged 16–17 years, 33% had infections. Bacterial vaginosis was the most common (18%), followed by Candida albicans (9%), Chlamydia trachomatis (3%), Trichomonas vaginalis (3%) and Neisseria gonorrhoeae (1%). Reported symptoms had a low sensitivity and positive predictive value. Three-quarters of girls with bacterial vaginosis and C. albicans, and 50% with T. vaginalis were asymptomatic. Conclusions There is a high prevalence of adolescent schoolgirls with RTI in rural Kenya. Public efforts are required to identify and treat infections among girls to reduce longer-term sequelae but poor reliability of symptom reporting minimises utility of symptom-based diagnosis in this population. Trial registration number: ISRCTN17486946

1976 Research Progress Reports; Fruit and Vegetable Processing and Food Technology

Evaluation of tomato cultivars for processing / W. A. Gould, R. Stillabower and D. Grindell -- Using tomato seeds / J. R. Geisman -- Evaluation of snap bean cultivars for processing / W. A. Gould and R. Stillabower -- Flame sterilization of canned green beans / J. R. Mount and W. A. Gould -- Flame sterilization of canned peas / J. R. Ice, J. R. Mount and W. A. Gould -- Flame sterilization of other canned products / John Mount and W. A. Gould -- Determination of factors affecting heat penetration in flame sterilized canned whole kernel sweet corn / R. Joseph and W. A. Gould -- Geotrichum candidum: the new FDA indicator of plant sanitation for the food processing industry / J. G. Fox and W. A. Gould -- Recycling spent pickling brines ; Uses for the outer green leaves of cabbage / J. R. Geisman -- The development of a fish spread by the utilization of freshwater drum from Lake Erie / J. D. Morgan and W. A. Gould -- Development of a sausage product from Lake Erie freshwater drum / S. Hauck and W. A. Gould -- Utilization of Lake Erie freshwater drum for fish sticks / W. Stone and W. A. Gould -- Acidification and thermal processing of tripolyphosphate treated freshwater drum fillets / T. F. Chin and W. A. Gould -- Effect of lipid and fatty acid composition on keeping quality / Andrew C. Peng -- Grape lipids / P. A. Higgins and A. C. Peng -- The effect of maturation on the lipid content of 'Concord' grapes / John A. Bauman and James F. Gallander -- Stability of ascorbic acid in fortified apple juice / M. I. Mahmoud and W. A. Gould -- Wine deacidification with mixed cultures of Schizosaccharomyces pombe and Saccharomyces cerevisiae ; The effect of bacterial inoculum on malo-lactic fermentation in wines ; Concentrations of tartaric and malic acids of several wine varieties grown in Ohio / J. F. Gallander and J. F. Stetso

Homologous and heterologous desensitization of guanylyl cyclase-B signaling in GH3 somatolactotropes

The guanylyl cyclases, GC-A and GC-B, are selective receptors for atrial and C-type natriuretic peptides (ANP and CNP, respectively). In the anterior pituitary, CNP and GC-B are major regulators of cGMP production in gonadotropes and yet mouse models of disrupted CNP and GC-B indicate a potential role in growth hormone secretion. In the current study, we investigate the molecular and pharmacological properties of the CNP/GC-B system in somatotrope lineage cells. Primary rat pituitary and GH3 somatolactotropes expressed functional GC-A and GC-B receptors that had similar EC50 properties in terms of cGMP production. Interestingly, GC-B signaling underwent rapid homologous desensitization in a protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A)-dependent manner. Chronic exposure to either CNP or ANP caused a significant down-regulation of both GC-A- and GC-B-dependent cGMP accumulation in a ligand-specific manner. However, this down-regulation was not accompanied by alterations in the sub-cellular localization of these receptors. Heterologous desensitization of GC-B signaling occurred in GH3 cells following exposure to either sphingosine-1-phosphate or thyrotrophin-releasing hormone (TRH). This heterologous desensitization was protein kinase C (PKC)-dependent, as pre-treatment with GF109203X prevented the effect of TRH on CNP/GC-B signaling. Collectively, these data indicate common and distinct properties of particulate guanylyl cyclase receptors in somatotropes and reveal that independent mechanisms of homologous and heterologous desensitization occur involving either PP2A or PKC. Guanylyl cyclase receptors thus represent potential novel therapeutic targets for treating growth-hormone-associated disorders

LSST: from Science Drivers to Reference Design and Anticipated Data Products

(Abridged) We describe here the most ambitious survey currently planned in the optical, the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST). A vast array of science will be enabled by a single wide-deep-fast sky survey, and LSST will have unique survey capability in the faint time domain. The LSST design is driven by four main science themes: probing dark energy and dark matter, taking an inventory of the Solar System, exploring the transient optical sky, and mapping the Milky Way. LSST will be a wide-field ground-based system sited at Cerro Pach\'{o}n in northern Chile. The telescope will have an 8.4 m (6.5 m effective) primary mirror, a 9.6 deg$^2$ field of view, and a 3.2 Gigapixel camera. The standard observing sequence will consist of pairs of 15-second exposures in a given field, with two such visits in each pointing in a given night. With these repeats, the LSST system is capable of imaging about 10,000 square degrees of sky in a single filter in three nights. The typical 5$\sigma$ point-source depth in a single visit in $r$ will be $\sim 24.5$ (AB). The project is in the construction phase and will begin regular survey operations by 2022. The survey area will be contained within 30,000 deg$^2$ with $\delta<+34.5^\circ$, and will be imaged multiple times in six bands, $ugrizy$, covering the wavelength range 320--1050 nm. About 90\% of the observing time will be devoted to a deep-wide-fast survey mode which will uniformly observe a 18,000 deg$^2$ region about 800 times (summed over all six bands) during the anticipated 10 years of operations, and yield a coadded map to $r\sim27.5$. The remaining 10\% of the observing time will be allocated to projects such as a Very Deep and Fast time domain survey. The goal is to make LSST data products, including a relational database of about 32 trillion observations of 40 billion objects, available to the public and scientists around the world.Comment: 57 pages, 32 color figures, version with high-resolution figures available from https://www.lsst.org/overvie

In Deadly Time: The Lasting On of Waste in Mayhew’s London

This paper examines the temporal dimension of waste in Henry Mayhew’s London Labour and the London Poor as an instance of how modernity has produced a largely hidden domain of the non-identical and indeterminate. Through a consideration of the phenomena of uselessness, decay and poverty I argue that the temporal dimension of waste is constituted as a corrosive or malign ‘Deadly Time.’ In placing such emphasis on time directed towards death, I aim to show that Mayhew’s undisciplined researches can be seen as a valuable source for understanding why modern thinking struggles to come to terms with waste

Forgotten Plotlanders: Learning from the survival of lost informal housing in the UK.

Colin Ward’s discourses on the arcadian landscape of ‘plotlander’ housing are unique documentations of the anarchistic birth, life, and death of the last informal housing communities in the UK. Today the forgotten history of ‘plotlander’ housing documented by Ward can be re-read in the context of both the apparently never-ending ‘housing crisis’ in the UK, and the increasing awareness of the potential value of learning from comparable informal housing from the Global South. This papers observations of a previously unknown and forgotten plotlander site offers a chance to begin a new conversation regarding the positive potential of informal and alternative housing models in the UK and wider Westernised world

Binding of multiple features in memory by high-functioning adults with autism spectrum disorder

Diminished episodic memory and diminished use of semantic information to aid recall by individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are both thought to result from diminished relational binding of elements of complex stimuli. To test this hypothesis, we asked high-functioning adults with ASD and typical comparison participants to study grids in which some cells contained drawings of objects in non-canonical colours. Participants were told at study which features (colour, item, location) would be tested in a later memory test. In a second experiment, participants studied similar grids and were told that they would be tested on object-location or object-colour combinations. Recognition of combinations was significantly diminished in ASD, which survived covarying performance on the Color Trails Test (D'Elia et al. Color trails test. Professional manual. Psychological Assessment Resources, Lutz, 1996), a test of executive difficulties. The findings raise the possibility that medial temporal as well as frontal lobe processes are dysfunctional in ASD