SUSTAINABLE CULTURES: Fusing Local and Global traditions

Within the modern world, a conflict arises between the existence of "universal" and "local". The result of the struggle has been a fading of our local traditions and customs. Acknowledged as a vital component of our being and interpreted as the essence of culture, the "local" is seen as an endangered resource. This proposes the question of how, can, and does architecture sustain a (the local) culture? To explore the question, this thesis uses the architectural program type of the library as the vehicle of study. A programmatic and spatial diagram of the library is applied to three different towns within a similar climate and geographical region. The towns of Alexandria, VA, and Chestertown and Cumberland, MD were chosen because each one possesses a strong sense of place and identity. Using the theories of regionalism, each town is analyzed to investigate the nuances of the culture. The process of design begins with the acknowledgment and understanding of the existing pattern of development. The understanding leads to an interpretative and transformative process to reveal a dialog between "Universal" and "Local". The architecture of each library reflects the characteristics innate to a library as it embodies the relevance of the local culture

Global Journalist: The future of Voice of America

On this program, journalists discussed what's going on with Voice of America and the future of the organization. Host: Levi Moltz-Hohmann. Guests: David Ensor, Danforth Austin, Vardha Khalil, Grayson Clary. Producers: Cam Denmark, Regan Mertz, Annie Le, Ziye Tang. Directors: Travis McMillen. Audio Engineer: Aaron Hay

Aerosol science and technology: History and reviews

Aerosol Science and Technology: History and Reviews captures an exciting slice of history in the evolution of aerosol science. It presents in-depth biographies of four leading international aerosol researchers and highlights pivotal research institutions in New York, Minnesota, and Austria. One collection of chapters reflects on the legacy of the Pasadena smog experiment, while another presents a fascinating overview of military applications and nuclear aerosols. Finally, prominent researchers offer detailed reviews of aerosol measurement, processes, experiments, and technology that changed the face of aerosol science. This volume is the third in a series and is supported by the American Association for Aerosol Research (AAAR) History Working Group, whose goal is to produce archival books from its symposiums on the history of aerosol science to ensure a lasting record. It is based on papers presented at the Third Aerosol History Symposium on September 8 and 9, 2006, in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA

Testing and Data Recovery Excavations at Prehistoric Occupation Site 41HR1114, Harris County, Texas

This report documents the National Register significance testing and data recovery investigations conducted from February 27-March 15, 2012 (testing), and June 11-25, 2012 (data recovery), at the site of 41HR1114 by Moore Archeological Consulting, Inc. The site is located just west of Lower Mayde Creek, in west Harris County, Texas. The site had been first located during a February, 2012 survey conducted by Moore Archeological Consulting, Inc. in preparation for a proposed extension of the Park Row Boulevard Right-of-Way (Moore and Driver 2012). The survey alignment was privately owned at the time of the survey, and therefore, neither the Antiquities Code of Texas nor Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 mandated the survey. However, the survey was carried out as proactive due diligence as a key element of the future regulatory requirements for a private development project on an ambitious development schedule. The survey identified three sites, 41HR1114, 41HR1115, and 41HR1116. Significance testing excavations at 41HR1114 were conducted in February and March, 2012, and were also carried out as proactive due diligence. The test excavations consisted of hand excavation and backhoe trenching with a focus on geomorphological assessment of the site, including the depositional reconstruction and identification of the degree of intactness of the deposits. These investigations determined that the site possessed the potential for future research, and should be considered eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). At that point, the development project was subsumed within the Harris County Improvement District No. 4, DBA Energy Corridor Management District, and further investigations fell under the jurisdiction of the Texas Historic Commission (THC) permitting process. To facilitate planned development schedules, the proposed Park Row Boulevard Right-of-Way alignment was divided into smaller segments, with 41HR1114 located in the Phase 1 segment. This portion of the alignment measures approximately 850 m (2800 ft) in length, and the area of potential effect (APE) in the area of 41HR1114 is limited to a 36.5 m (120 ft) wide ROW (Figure 1). The data recovery investigations at 41HR1114 were conducted under Texas Antiquities Permit Number 6274. During the significance testing and data recovery field investigations at 41HR1114, a total of sixteen 1 x 1 m hand units (XU 1-16) were excavated. XUs 1-4 were conducted as distinct 1 x 1 m units (XUs 1, 2, and 4 were placed adjacent to backhoe trenches) during the testing phase, while the remainder of the hand excavations were conducted as two 2 x 3 m block excavations (subdivided into XUs 5-10 and 11-16) as part of the data recovery phase. Three backhoe trenches (BHTs 1-3) totaling 45 m in length were excavated, two during the testing phase and one during the data recovery operations. The excavations produced a total of 4431 artifacts. These materials were recovered from Levels 1-14 (0-150 cmbs), but with the highest concentrations of artifacts encountered in Levels 3-7. The chronologically diagnostic dart point types, in conjunction with the presence of ceramics and the lack of arrow points, indicate occupations at the site spanning the Middle Archaic to Early Ceramic periods. However, the vertical distribution of diagnostic artifacts and the geoarchaeological assessment of the site deposits indicate the presence of significant bioturbation-related disturbance of cultural materials located throughout the site. Consequently, the real, and quite significant contribution of this project is instead, the intensive geoarcheological analysis of the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene alluvium and of the nature and appearance of soil formation within such deposits at the site, and by extension for the Houston area. The current investigation has considerably diminished the paucity of information on the deposits lain down by small streams in the region, as well as provided insight into the pedogenic processes associated with argillic horizons in the late Pleistocene and Holocene soils of Southeast Texas. We may conclude by reiterating that the Data Recovery excavations at 41HR1114 were successful in providing new information on the prehistory of the site and the broader Houston region. The contribution from the strictly archeological analysis of the cultural materials and contexts yielded by the site are modest. In contrast, the results of the intensive geoarcheological analysis of the site are quite novel and important, and have considerable broader application in the future analysis and evaluation of prehistoric sites within the Houston region. No further archeological work is recommended for 41HR1114. Once the current report is finalized, the artifacts recovered from 41HR1114 will be curated at TARL

Trends in Twentieth-Century U.S. Snowfall Using a Quality-Controlled Dataset

A quality assessment of daily manual snowfall data has been undertaken for all U.S. long-term stations and their suitability for climate research. The assessment utilized expert judgment on the quality of each station. Through this process, the authors have identified a set of stations believed to be suitable for analysis of trends. Since the 1920s, snowfall has been declining in the West and the mid-Atlantic coast. In some places during recent years the decline has been more precipitous, strongly trending downward along the southern margins of the seasonal snow region, the southern Missouri River basin, and parts of the Northeast. Snowfall has been increasing since the 1920s in the lee of the Rocky Mountains, the Great Lakes– northern Ohio Valley, and parts of the north-central United States. These areas that are in opposition to the overall pattern of declining snowfall seem to be associated with specific dynamical processes, such as upslope snow and lake-effect snow that may be responding to changes in atmospheric circulation

Trends in Twentieth-Century U.S. Snowfall Using a Quality-Controlled Dataset

A quality assessment of daily manual snowfall data has been undertaken for all U.S. long-term stations and their suitability for climate research. The assessment utilized expert judgment on the quality of each station. Through this process, the authors have identified a set of stations believed to be suitable for analysis of trends. Since the 1920s, snowfall has been declining in the West and the mid-Atlantic coast. In some places during recent years the decline has been more precipitous, strongly trending downward along the southern margins of the seasonal snow region, the southern Missouri River basin, and parts of the Northeast. Snowfall has been increasing since the 1920s in the lee of the Rocky Mountains, the Great Lakes– northern Ohio Valley, and parts of the north-central United States. These areas that are in opposition to the overall pattern of declining snowfall seem to be associated with specific dynamical processes, such as upslope snow and lake-effect snow that may be responding to changes in atmospheric circulation

Trends in Twentieth-Century U.S. Extreme Snowfall Seasons

Temporal variability in the occurrence of the most extreme snowfall years, both those with abundant snowfall amounts and those lacking snowfall, was examined using a set of 440 quality-controlled, homogenous U.S. snowfall records. The frequencies with which winter-centered annual snowfall totals exceeded the 90th and 10th percentile thresholds at individual stations were calculated from 1900–01 to 2006–07 for the conterminous United States, and for 9 standard climate regions. The area-weighted conterminous U.S. results do not show a statistically significant trend in the occurrence of either high or low snowfall years for the 107-yr period, but there are regional trends. Large decreases in the frequency of low-extreme snowfall years in the west north-central and east north-central United States are balanced by large increases in the frequency of low-extreme snowfall years in the Northeast, Southeast, and Northwest. During the latter portion of the period, from 1950–51 to 2006–07, trends are much more consistent, with the United States as a whole and the central and northwest U.S. regions in particular showing significant declines in high-extreme snowfall years, and four regions showing significant increases in the frequency of low-extreme snowfall years (i.e., Northeast, Southeast, south, and Northwest). In almost all regions of the United States, temperature during November–March is more highly correlated than precipitation to the occurrence of extreme snowfall years. El Nin ̃ o events are strongly associated with an increase in low-extreme snowfall years over the United States as a whole, and in the northwest, northeast, and central regions. A reduction in low-extreme snowfall years in the Southwest is also associated with El Nin ̃ o. The impacts of La Nin ̃ a events are strongest in the south and Southeast, favoring fewer high-extreme snowfall years, and, in the case of the south, more low-extreme snowfall years occur. The Northwest also has a significant reduction in the chance of a low-extreme snowfall year during La Nin ̃ a. A combination of trends in temperature in the United States and changes in the frequency of ENSO modes influences the frequency of extreme snowfall years in the United States

Post stroke intervention trial in fatigue (POSITIF):Randomised multicentre feasibility trial

OBJECTIVE: To test the feasibility of a telephone delivered intervention, informed by cognitive behavioural principles, for post-stroke fatigue, and estimated its effect on fatigue and other outcomes. DESIGN: Randomised controlled parallel group trial. SETTING: Three Scottish stroke services. SUBJECTS: Stroke survivors with fatigue three months to two years post-stroke onset. INTERVENTIONS: Seven telephone calls (fortnightly then a ‘booster session’ at 16 weeks) of a manualised intervention, plus information about fatigue, versus information only. MAIN MEASURES: Feasibility of trial methods, and collected outcome measures (fatigue, mood, anxiety, social participation, quality of life, return to work) just before randomisation, at the end of treatment (four months after randomisation) and at six months after randomisation. RESULTS: Between October 2018 and January 2020, we invited 886 stroke survivors to participate in postal screening: 188/886 (21%) returned questionnaires and consented, of whom 76/188 (40%) were eligible and returned baseline forms; 64/76 (84%) returned six month follow-up questionnaires. Of the 39 allocated the intervention, 23 (59%) attended at least four sessions. At six months, there were no significant differences between the groups (adjusted mean differences in Fatigue Assessment Scale −0.619 (95% CI −4.9631, 3.694; p = 0.768), the Generalised Anxiety Disorder 7 −0.178 (95% CI −3.823, 3.467, p = 0.92), and the Patient Health Questionnaire −0.247 (95% CI −2.935, 2.442, p = 0.851). There were no between-group differences in quality of life, social participation or return to work. CONCLUSION: Patients can be recruited to a trial of this design. These data will inform the design of further trials in post-stroke fatigue

Brn-3b enhances the pro-apoptotic effects of p53 but not its induction of cell cycle arrest by cooperating in trans-activation of bax expression

The Brn-3a and Brn-3b transcription factor have opposite and antagonistic effects in neuroblastoma cells since Brn-3a is associated with differentiation whilst Brn-3b enhances proliferation in these cells. In this study, we demonstrate that like Brn-3a, Brn-3b physically interacts with p53. However, whereas Brn-3a repressed p53 mediated Bax expression but cooperated with p53 to increase p21(cip1/waf1), this study demonstrated that co-expression of Brn-3b with p53 increases trans-activation of Bax promoter but not p21(cip1/waf1). Consequently co-expression of Brn-3b with p53 resulted in enhanced apoptosis, which is in contrast to the increased survival and differentiation, when Brn-3a is co-expressed with p53. For Brn-3b to cooperate with p53 on the Bax promoter, it requires binding sites that flank p53 sites on this promoter. Furthermore, neurons from Brn-3b knock-out (KO) mice were resistant to apoptosis and this correlated with reduced Bax expression upon induction of p53 in neurons lacking Brn-3b compared with controls. Thus, the ability of Brn-3b to interact with p53 and modulate Bax expression may demonstrate an important mechanism that helps to determine the fate of cells when p53 is induced

Using Complex, Multi-Sectoral Data in a Needs Assessment to Inform Future Strategies in Childhood Asthma Management

The purpose of this needs assessment was to study the current state of asthma management in high-risk children in Houston, Texas to inform a theory-based approach to improving asthma management. The mixed-method assessment included multi-sectoral survey, quantitative, and geospatial data that address a range of social and community factors in family, community, home, and medical contexts. Houston Emergency Medical Services (EMS) provided ambulance-treated asthma data mapped by geographic area to identify where childhood asthma management was weakest. Texas Children’s Health Plan (TCHP) provided medication compliance rates and counts of children by zip code that TCHP considered high-risk according to claims data. Houston Independent School District (HISD) provided school nurse survey results from schools with high-rates of ambulance-treated asthma attacks regarding local barriers to asthma management. Elementary schools with children at highest risk were identified by overlaying the EMS data, TCHP data, and HISD school zone boundaries. Survey results from the high-rate schools indicate the priority challenges to childhood asthma management, including lack of resources, lack of communication, lack of knowledge of triggers, and inadequate time for quality care from providers. By weaving together EMS, TCHP, and HISD data, the needs assessment informed a socio-ecological view of gaps in high-risk childhood asthma management and control, specifically where and what to target. An assessment approach with multi-sectoral data, geospatial mapping, nurse input, current systems of care, education, and funding helped focus planning on a practical approach to asthma control solutions for high-risk children