Identifying Opportunities for Park and Ride Capacity in South Jersey

As travel patterns shift and demand for public transit services increases due to congestion, drive-to-transit access patterns, such as park-and-rides (PNR), will remain a primary means of transit access for many regional residents and workers to avoid the monetary and time costs of traveling by automobile. This project sought to assess locations where New Jersey Transit (NJT) bus and train PNR demand exceeds capacity, or is likely to do so in the future within the DVPRC region in South Jersey (the study area), and develop candidate locations for PNR investment

Safe Routes to Transit Pennsauken Transit Center, Lindenwold Station, and Princeton Junction Station

This study examined means to improve bicycle and pedestrian connection with three New Jersey Transit rail stations: Pennsauken Transit Center, Lindenwold Station, and Princeton Junction Station. For each station area existing conditions were inventoried and documented, and improvements desirable for improving bicycle and pedestrian connections with each station were identified. Affected municipalities can use this study as a resource when funding becomes available for such improvements

Motivation for MAT

The goal of this project was to discover a commonality in why patients begin the MAT program. This will hopefully make it easier for future providers to help future patients articulate why they need to make the change in their life. This can be especially beneficial in patients dealing with concurrent stimulant or alcohol use.https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/fmclerk/1813/thumbnail.jp

Agile Course Design: Modeling Flexibility, Empowering Engagement, and Prioritizing Community

The Agile Course Design Institute, created for faculty at a regional public university, utilized an agile thinking lens to model flexible, interactive learning. The Institute framework consisted of three core factors: sense of belonging, students’ bandwidth, and interaction and engagement. Faculty participated in online synchronous and asynchronous settings to develop agile courses. In doing so, they gained insights into the experiences their students might have in remote learning. Examples from the Institute and participant work are explored through a “Why” (purpose/outcome), “What” (connections to the ACDI framework), and “How” (tools and strategies) structure

The Value of Remotely Sensed Information: the Case of GRACE-Enhanced Drought Severity Index

A decision framework is developed for quantifying the economic value of information (VOI) from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite mission for drought monitoring, with a focus on the potential contributions of groundwater storage and soil moisture measurements from the GRACE Data Assimilation (GRACE-DA) System. The study consists of: (a) the development of a conceptual framework to evaluate the socioeconomic value of GRACE-DA as a contributing source of information to drought monitoring; (b) structured listening sessions to understand the needs of stakeholders who are affected by drought monitoring; (c) econometric analysis based on the conceptual framework that characterizes the contribution of GRACE-DA to the US Drought Monitor (USDM) in capturing the effects of drought on the agricultural sector; and (d) a demonstration of how the improved characterization of drought conditions may influence decisions made in a real-world drought disaster assistance program. Results show that GRACE-DA has the potential to lower the uncertainty associated with our understanding of drought, and that this improved understanding has the potential to change policy decisions that lead to tangible societal benefits

Increasing Resiliency to Natural Hazards—A Strategic Plan for the Multi-Hazards Demonstration Project in Southern California

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is initiating a new project designed to improve resiliency to natural hazards in southern California through the application of science to community decision making and emergency response. The Multi-Hazards Demonstration Project will assist the region’s communities to reduce their risk from natural hazards by directing new and existing research towards the community’s needs, improving monitoring technology, producing innovative products, and improving dissemination of the results. The natural hazards to be investigated in this project include coastal erosion, earthquakes, floods, landslides, tsunamis, and wildfires. Americans are more at risk from natural hazards now than at any other time in our Nation’s history. Southern California, in particular, has one of the Nation’s highest potentials for extreme catastrophic losses due to natural hazards, with estimates of expected losses exceeding $3 billion per year. These losses can only be reduced through the decisions of the southern California community itself. To be effective, these decisions must be guided by the best information about hazards, risk, and the cost-effectiveness of mitigation technologies. The USGS will work with collaborators to set the direction of the research and to create multi-hazard risk frameworks where communities can apply the results of scientific research to their decision-making processes. Partners include state, county, city, and public-lands government agencies, public and private utilities, companies with a significant impact and presence in southern California, academic researchers, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and local emergency response agencies. Prior to the writing of this strategic plan document, three strategic planning workshops were held in February and March 2006 at the USGS office in Pasadena to explore potential relationships. The goal of these planning sessions was to determine the external organizations’ needs for mitigation efforts before potential natural hazard events, and response efforts during and after the event. On the basis of input from workshop participants, four priority areas were identified for future research to address. They are (1) helping decision makers design planning scenarios, (2) improving upon the mapping of multiple hazards in urban areas, (3) providing real-time information from monitoring networks, and (4) integrating information in a risk and decision-making analysis. Towards this end, short-term and out-year goals have been outlined with the priorities in mind. First-year goals are (1) to engage the user community to establish the structures and processes for communications and interactions, (2) to develop a program to create scenarios of anticipated disasters, beginning in the first year with a scenario of a southern San Andreas earthquake that triggers secondary hazards, (3) to compile existing datasets of geospatial data, and (4) to target research efforts to support more complete and robust products in future years. Both the first-year and out-year goals have been formulated around a working-group structure that builds on existing research strengths within the USGS. The project is intended to demonstrate how developments in methodology and products can lead to improvement in our management of natural hazards in an urban environment for application across the Nation

Characterization of Sex Differences in Aortic Valve Disease in Mice

Aortic valve disease has recently been shown to have sex-specific pathobiology, where female valves experience more fibrosis and less calcification than male valves despite similar levels of stenosis. To investigate whether these differences were mirrored in a mouse model, six-week old male and female Ldlr-/-;ApoB100/100 mice were fed high fat diet to induce valve disease. After four or eight months on diet, blood lipid and sex hormone levels were measured, valve function was assessed by echocardiography, and valve leaflet tissues were analyzed (immuno)histochemically and by polarized light microscopy to assess valve morphology and content. Males on high fat diet for eight months had more valvular dysfunction than females on diet, however male and female valve leaflets did not differ in size, thickness, or collagen content. However, polarized microscopy indicated more collagen remodelling in the base of the male leaflets compared to females, which could affect healthy valve mechanics. This study provides the first characterization of sex differences in a mouse model and sex-specific structural differences that relate to level of valve dysfunction.M.A.S

Economic Assessment of the Use Value of Geospatial Information

Geospatial data inform decision makers. An economic model that involves application of spatial and temporal scientific, technical, and economic data in decision making is described. The value of information (VOI) contained in geospatial data is the difference between the net benefits (in present value terms) of a decision with and without the information. A range of technologies is used to collect and distribute geospatial data. These technical activities are linked to examples that show how the data can be applied in decision making, which is a cultural activity. The economic model for assessing the VOI in geospatial data for decision making is applied to three examples: (1) a retrospective model about environmental regulation of agrochemicals; (2) a prospective model about the impact and mitigation of earthquakes in urban areas; and (3) a prospective model about developing private–public geospatial information for an ecosystem services market. Each example demonstrates the potential value of geospatial information in a decision with uncertain information