Transportation planning options for elderly mobility

Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2011.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Cataloged from student submitted PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 46-49).The population of the United States is aging, yet the current transportation system is not designed to accommodate the elderly. Reduced mobility has a profound impact on elderly well-being, and the transportation needs of older people will only increase as the baby boomer generation ages in the suburbs. Where transportation options do exist, few meet the standards of the private car that the baby boomers have come to expect. I explore the mobility attitudes and habits of the baby boomers and the responses of communities and regions to an already apparent mobility gap. I then evaluate a sample of near-term policy options for decision makers, using case studies of public transportation, SilverRideTM, ITNAmerica®, and villages. I argue that the options vary along the criteria of availability, acceptability, and affordability, and within a taxonomy of fiscal and social capacity. Diverse contexts mean that no one option is sufficient, and communities will ultimately decide which options to pursue based on their unique needs and resources. In the future, policy options will likely evolve to better address public funding constraints and build on informal forms of transportation. Both fiscal and social capacity are necessary for transportation policy options to function optimally over time, and communities can leverage existing social capacity to help enhance elderly well-being and address the unpreparedness of regions and individuals.by Holly Chase.M.C.P

Investigation of air and soil climate across the latitudinal and altitudinal gradient of the Ross Sea region of Antarctica

A soil climate station network in the Ross Sea region of Antarctica comprises; Cape Hallett (72.19°S, 2 m asl), Granite Harbour (77°S, 6 m asl), Victoria Valley (77.19°S, 408 m asl), Marble Point (77.25°S, 55 m asl), Bull Pass East (77.30°S, 833 m asl), Wright Valley (77.31°S, 155 m asl), Mt Fleming (77.32°S, 1690 m asl), Scott Base (77.50°S, 51 m asl), Minna Bluff (78.30°S, 28 m asl), and Darwin Glacier (79.50°S, 333 m asl). Variables measured include air and soil temperatures to 1.2 m depth, and wind speed and direction. The overall objectives of this study were to; investigate the trends in air and soil temperatures across latitudinal and altitudinal gradients from Cape Hallett (72°S) to Darwin Glacier (79.5°S), and from sea level to the edge of the Polar Plateau; quantify the cumulative number of days when air and soil temperatures were ≥0°C; and to analyse the wind data to characterise the wind regime at each site and to investigate storm events and diurnal patterns. Mean annual air temperatures were, from warmest to coolest: Cape Hallett ( 15.3°C), Granite Harbour ( 16.6°C), Marble Point ( 17.6°C), Darwin Glacier ( 18.2°C), Minna Bluff ( 18.3°C), Scott Base ( 19.1°C), Wright Valley ( 19.6°C), and Victoria Valley ( 22.4°C). Two stations had a warming trend (P<0.05); Marble Point (in air, and in soil at 7.5 and 120 cm depth) and Granite Harbour (in soil at 5.5 cm depth). No significant trends of warming or cooling were observed at the Cape Hallett, Darwin Glacier, Minna Bluff, Scott Base, Wright Valley, Victoria Valley, or Mt Fleming sites. Shallow soil temperatures were warmer than air temperatures, apparently due to heating from solar radiation in summer, and snow insulation in winter. The mean cumulative days/summer with air temperature ≥0°C ranged from: Wright Valley (33.3), Victoria Valley (22.3), Granite Harbour (10.4), Marble Point (9.7), Minna Bluff (7.6), Darwin Glacier (7.3), Scott Base (4.2), to Mt Fleming (0.0). In shallow soil (~5 cm depth), the mean cumulative number of days/summer with T≥0°C were: Wright Valley (69.8), Granite Harbour (69.6), Marble Point (55.5), Minna Bluff (52.8), Victoria Valley (50.2), Scott Base (34.6), Cape Hallett (32.2), to Mt Fleming (0.0). At the mid-depth soil (~20 cm depth), the overall cumulative numbers of days with T≥0°C were: Granite Harbour (65.5), Wright Valley (52.0), Marble Point (44.7), Minna Bluff (31.6), Cape Hallett (22.5), Scott Base (13.9), Victoria Valley (1.8), and Mt Fleming (0.0). There was no increasing or decreasing trend in the days with air or soil T≥0°C over the record period. Mean annual wind speeds were: Darwin Glacier (45 kmhr-1), Minna Bluff (42 kmhr-1), Mt Fleming (29 kmhr-1), Scott Base (17 kmhr-1), Wright Valley (14 kmhr-1), Marble Point (12 kmhr-1), Victoria Valley (8 kmhr-1), and Granite Harbour (7 kmhr-1). The highest recorded mean hourly wind speed was 169 kmhr 1 at Minna Bluff in 2009. There was increasing wind speed with increased latitude (R2=0.59), but no relationship between wind speed and altitude. Controls on wind speed and direction were likely to be a combination of altitude, latitude, local topography, and cyclonic storms

Hearing in Time: Bergsonian Concepts of Time in Maurice Ravel’s L’Heure espagnole

This dissertation examines Maurice Ravel’s first opera, L’Heure espagnole (1907–1911), as a turning point in the composer’s aesthetic approach, marking a moment at which he reacted strongly against Debussy’s influence and seems to have increasingly oriented his compositional perspective toward comedy, mechanism, and manipulations of musical time. In recent years, Ravel scholars have identified promising connections between Ravel’s aesthetics and Bergsonism, but the musical underpinnings of Bergson’s philosophy of time itself have remained vastly undertheorized. My project sets out to rectify this by locating both Ravel’s aesthetics and Bergson’s philosophy of time within the music-historical context of debussysme, and identifying a Bergsonian strain of music criticism in the writings of Louis Laloy and Vladimir Jankélévitch, both of whom studied under Bergson. Laloy and Jankélévitch’s writings, in turn, reveal important information about the practical application of Bergsonism to music and the intertwining of Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande with Bergsonian philosophical ideals. The dissertation culminates in an analysis of L’Heure espagnole as a site of exchange between music and Bergson’s philosophy of time, analyzing it as a testing ground for the Bergsonian concept of duration, a theory of time that reflects our lived experience as it unfolds in the present. Ultimately, I theorize that Ravel’s unique use of rhythm and meter in L’Heure espagnole encourages a practice of real-time analysis through the act of hearing, which in turn allows the listener to provisionally enact durational time through a constant re-evaluation of the metric and rhythmic frame based on material that was just heard. My dissertation employs a twofold methodological approach to investigate the shift in Ravel’s aesthetic direction around the time he was composing L’Heure espagnole: an archival approach (Chapters 1–3) and a hermeneutic approach (Chapter 4). The first half of my study (Chapters 1 and 2) surveys Ravel’s personal correspondence with the Godebski family and the press reception of his works between roughly 1905 and 1910 as evidence for the creation of a new aesthetic posture that would distance him from Debussy and catalyze his novel use of time and meter as a distinctive aspect of his style. Chapter 3 presents archival research on Bergson and his interlocutors, linking his philosophy of time to contemporaneous research on music, sensation, and consciousness by Gustav Fechner, Théodule Ribot, and Paul and Pierre Janet. Here, I develop the grounds for a Bergsonian approach to Ravel’s music by exploring the practical implementation of Bergson’s theories of duration and intuition in music through Bergson’s disciples, Laloy and Jankélévitch. My study concludes with a hermeneutic analysis of L’Heure espagnole that uses Bergson’s theory of duration as an interpretive lens to make sense of the complex interaction between comedy, mechanism, and time in the opera

Analyzing the role of ER membrane biogenesis in mitotic fidelity

In cell division, chromosomes align and attach to the mitotic spindle with high fidelity in order to limit missegregation of chromosomes that form individual nuclei, termed micronuclei. During cell division, membrane-bound organelles are cleared to the periphery of the cell; lack of clearance of membranes from chromosomes leads to chromosome missegregation. Cells regulate the biogenesis of their membranes throughout the cell cycle. Cancer cells frequently have upregulation of membrane lipid synthesis and micronuclei, but a connection between membrane biogenesis and chromosome missegregation leading to formation of micronuclei has not been established. In my thesis work, I show that the protein phosphatase CTDNEP1 regulates membrane biogenesis and formation of micronuclei in human cell lines. I elucidate how CTDNEP1 controls synthesis of ER membranes through its dephosphorylation and activation of the phosphatidic acid phosphatase lipin 1. I show that ER membrane abundance is increased in mitotic cells lacking CTDNEP1, and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) membranes are less cleared in prometaphase to metaphase. I show that CTDNEP1 has conserved functions for restricting membranes to the surface of the nuclear envelope during nuclear envelope assembly and for maintaining nuclear morphology. Using quantification of mitotic cells in a fixed asynchronous population, I corroborate the results of previous studies showing that CTDNEP1 is necessary for correct timing of mitotic progression. Errors in attachment to the mitotic spindle (that may or not be surveilled by the spindle assembly checkpoint) lead to chromosome missegregation that results in formation of micronuclei. Inhibition of the spindle assembly checkpoint in synchronized cells leads to a small increase in micronuclei in CTDNEP1-depleted cells. In contrast, transient spindle disassembly that causes unbalanced attachment errors not sensed by the spindle assembly checkpoint results in severely micronucleated nuclei in CTDNEP1-depleted cells, showing that micronuclei in CTDNEP1-depleted cells form through decreased mitotic error correction. Lipidomic analysis of total cellular lipids in CTDNEP1-depleted cells reveals that phosphatidylcholine/phosphatidylethanolamine are increased with loss of CTDNEP1. I show that inhibition of fatty acid synthesis suppresses ER membrane expansion in CTDNEP1-depleted cells. I observe that depletion of the fatty acid transcriptional regulators sterol regulatory element binding proteins 1 and 2 and stearoyl Co-A desaturase partially suppress ER membrane expansion, illuminating the role of fatty acid synthesis gene upregulation in expansion of ER membranes in CTDNEP1-depleted cells. I show that severe micronucleation after transient spindle disassembly and the incidence of micronuclei in untreated CTDNEP1-depleted cells is rescued with inhibition of fatty acid synthesis. These data elucidate the mechanism for how CTDNEP1 controls ER lipid synthesis in human cells. Together, these data support the conclusion that increased fatty acid synthesis leads to excess ER membranes that interfere with chromosome segregation in mitosis, leading to formation of micronuclei. This study provides the first connection to misregulation of lipid synthesis to formation of micronuclei, two events that are common in cancer cells. This study thus provides a link between regulation of lipid synthesis and chromosome segregation and informing our understanding of how they are altered in cancer

Development of the adolescent big five inventory

Recent examinations of the Big Five in childhood and adolescence have indicated that these personality dimensions can be identified by early adolescence. Research in this domain has relied largely on adult ratings of personality, particularly by parents and teachers. These investigations have been hindered by the lack of an adequate self-report measure. The present research developed and validated a self-report instrument to measure the Big Five in adolescents. Ninety-one items measuring the Big Five were generated and administered to 204 middle school students in 6th though 8th grades. Based on reliability analyses, the items were revised and the resulting 85-item version of the Adolescent Big Five Inventory (ABFI), including a social desirability scale, was administered to 72 7th grade students. The ABFI scales demonstrated strong internal consistency with Cronbach alpha reliabilities ranging from alpha =.72 to alpha =.85. Extraversion, Openness, and Agreeableness on the ABFI were significantly correlated with teacher ratings on the same dimensions (r=.31 to r=.68). However, adolescents\u27 scores on Conscientiousness or Neuroticism were not significantly correlated with teacher ratings. Using 107 college students, convergence of indicators was found for corresponding constructs on the ABFI and NEC Five-Factor Inventory (r=.60 to r=.83). Results were discussed in terms of gender differences, social desirability, rater bias, limitations, and need for future research

Arthur\u27s Heir

Arthur’s Heir is a coming-of-age fantasy novella, in a pseudo-Medieval world, that follows teenage Hew as he leaves his home for a new employment opportunity— at the king’s castle in the bustling capital city. The story follows Hew and his friend Saerlaith as he navigates the hurdles thrust upon him in an uncertain world, his important relationships, and his own identity. Readers will be challenged to consider each of our potentials for bravery, heroism, and evil. What do we believe about our forefathers, our heroes, and ourselves? Who do we trust and how far will we go for the ones we love—and who are they? The work uses suspense, intrigue, and humor to describe Hew’s life and relationships in a setting rife with political turmoil, crafted to push back against a contrived view of the European Middle Ages

Recent glacier change (1965 - 2021) and identification of surge-type glaciers on Severnaya Zemlya, Russian High Arctic

Glaciers in the Russian High Arctic are rapidly losing mass due to strong atmospheric and oceanic warming of the Barents-Kara Sea region. However, most studies have concentrated on Novaya Zemlya, despite a 29% acceleration in mass loss on Severnaya Zemlya (SZ) in the past decade (2003-2009 to 2010-2017). Research on SZ has formerly been hindered by its inaccessibility and limited data availability, with long-term trends in glacier change largely unknown. Moreover, records of glacier change on SZ may be complicated by evidence of surging, rather than solely due to climatic perturbations. In this thesis, an assessment of recent glacier change (1965 to 2021) on SZ is presented, along with a new inventory of surge-type glaciers from a high-resolution digital elevation model (Arctic DEM), declassified spy-satellite photography (KH-7/9 Hexagon), and optical satellite imagery (Sentinel 2, ASTER & Landsat 8 & TM). A total of 190 glaciers were mapped at five dates and surveyed for glaciological and geomorphological criteria indicative of former or active surging (e.g., thrust-block moraines and looped medial moraines). The results show that the glacierised area reduced from 17,053 km² in 1965 to 16,275 in 2021 (-778 km²) and retreat rates accelerated post-1997. There is no evidence of summer air temperature warming on northern SZ, with most glacier retreat occurring in the south of SZ where land-terminating glaciers have retreated (some up to 30%), attributed to emerging summer air temperature warming trends. Further north, glacier retreat is attributed to rising ocean temperatures and strong annual atmospheric warming which has likely lengthened the melt season. Additionally, four glaciers are classified as surge-type, seven as likely and nine as possible, comprising 11% of SZ’s glaciers. These glaciers occupy larger basins and are more likely to be marine or lake terminating

Effects of supplemental Chromium-L-methionine on heat-stressed broilers

A study was conducted to investigate the effects of supplemental Chromium-Lmethionine (CrMet) on plasma and serum metabolites, growth performance, and meat yield of market parts of heat-stressed and non-heat-stressed broilers. In a completely randomized design, broilers reared under heat stress or thermoneutral condition consumed diets supplemented with 0, 200,400, and 800 µg/kg of chromium as chromium-L-methionine (CrMet). Initially, three hundred commercial broiler chicks (male) were randomly assigned to one of four CrMet treatments, with 75 birds per treatment. Broilers were reared in floor pens and fed a common starter diet (day 1-21) supplemented with four levels of CrMet. At 3 weeks, 160 broilers were randomly selected and transferred to individual, wire cages, within two environmental chambers. One chamber cycled between 18.3 and 23.9° C (Thermoneutral, TN), while the other chamber cycled between 23.9 and 35° C (Heat Stress, HS). Within the two environmental chambers, broilers consumed a grower diet (day 22-45) and a finisher diet (day 45-49); both supplemented with the four levels of CrMet. Gain, as well as feed and water consumption, were measured weekly. Blood samples were collected prior to (3 weeks) and during (7 weeks) heat stress. At 7 weeks, ten birds per treatment, per chamber, were weighed, slaughtered, and cut into market parts for determination of carcass yield and composition. In three-week-old broilers, there was a dose-dependent response to CrMet supplementation with 800 µg Cr/kg resulting in a 67.6 % increase (P \u3c 0.0001) in serum TG concentration. Supplementation of 400 and 800 µg Cr/kg decreased (P \u3c 0.0001) plasma glucagon concentrations by 60.93 % and 44.54 % respectively. Serum NEFA and plasma insulin concentrations were not affected by CrMet supplementation. In 7-week old broilers, CrMet supplementation had no effect on serum NEFA or plasma glucagon concentrations. Serum TG levels of CrMet treated birds tended (P \u3c 0.1643) to be lower than for birds receiving no supplementation. Additionally, CrMet treated birds tended (P \u3c 0.17) to have increased insulin concentrations (25.5 %). Heat stress increased (P \u3c 0.0001) serum TG and NEFA and plasma glucagon concentrations, but decreased plasma insulin levels. In 3-week-old broilers, CrMet supplementation had no impact on feed efficiency or feed consumption, however 800 µg Cr/kg decreased (P \u3c 0.03) average total gain by 8.5 %. In 7-week-old broilers, CrMet supplementation did not affect average total gain or feed efficiency, however 200 pg Cr/kg reduced feed (P \u3c 0.0351) intake by 14.5 % under heat stress conditions. Additionally, heat stress reduced (P \u3c 0.05) average total gain, feed efficiency, and feed consumption by 26.7, 24.7, and 15.9 % respectively. Furthermore, CrMet supplementation did not affect dressing percentage or percent yield of breast, thigh, and leg quarter. Supplementation of 800 µg Cr/kg increased (P \u3c 0.0151) percentage of leg under thermoneutral conditions. While temperature had no effect on leg and thigh percentages, heat stress reduced (P \u3c 0.0008) percentage of breast by 4.8 % and increased (P \u3c 0.0211) percentage of leg quarter and dressing percent (P \u3c 0.0098). Supplementation with CrMet had no impact on percent abdominal fat nor breast or leg quarter visible (subcutaneous plus intermuscular) fat. Percent ether extract of breast and thigh, as well as crude protein of breast, leg, and thigh were unaffected by CrMet supplementation. However, supplementation with 400 pg Cr/kg decreased (P \u3c 0.0148) percent ether extract of the leg by 10 %. Heat stress increased (P \u3c 0.05) percent abdominal fat and visible breast fat by 16 and 34.2 % respectively, as well as percent crude protein of leg by 3 %. In addition, percent ether extract of the breast and leg were reduced (P \u3c 0.01) by 11.3 and 7.1 % respectively. Results indicate that heat stress alters serum and plasma metabolite concentrations, growth performance, as well as carcass yield and composition of broilers while dietary supplementation of CrMet was ineffective in negating the ill-effects of heat stress