City of Commerce Tree Canopy Prioritization

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY In 2019, the Loyola Marymount University Center for Urban Resilience (CURes) partnered with TreePeople to conduct a tree canopy prioritization in the City of Commerce. This process utilized high resolution, high accuracy tree canopy data as a foundation to engage the public in identifying their priorities for tree planting in the city. Analysis of the tree canopy data, acquired through a previous project between CURes and TreePeople, showed that the City of Commerce only has 5% tree canopy cover. This is in contrast to 25% cover in the City of Los Angeles, and 18% tree canopy cover found countywide. The analyses also found that Commerce has great opportunity to increase its tree canopy, with 51% of the land area of the city shown to be Possible Tree Canopy. CURes and TreePeople held two planning meetings with the City of Commerce and conducted multiple forms of outreach to engage community participation in a “tree summit,” which took place in November, 2019. Participants were introduced to the numerous ways that their city could benefit from increased tree canopy, engaged in a discussion about their personal experiences and values around trees, and were invited to take a survey to choose their top ten priorities for tree planting. Overall, 33 surveys were collected, with the large majority (88%) of respondents indicating that they were residents of Commerce and a smaller number (42%) indicating that they worked in Commerce. Respondents had the opportunity to vote to prioritize 17 specific tree benefits across seven categories. Participants identified “Improve Air Quality and Reduce Noise” and “Beautify Neighborhoods” as their top priority categories for tree planting. Among the specific benefits, the highest priorities were Access to Parks, Air Quality, Heat, Low Tree Canopy, and Schools. Each of the benefits voted on by participants was associated with a spatial variable (e.g. “Heat” was associated with high-resolution surface temperature data available through NASA). Using the results from the survey, priority weightings were calculated for each spatial variable, and these priorities were mapped using the Possible Tree Canopy data as a guide. Thus, the resulting maps showed the priority locations for tree planting in the City of Commerce that were already identified by the tree canopy assessment as Possible Tree Canopy. The prioritization map revealed that highest priority areas of Commerce are in the northern and central parts of the City. In addition to the maps, tables were produced to provide rankings for each individual parcel in the Possible Tree Canopy boundaries. These datasets include a comprehensive listing of 2,168 Residential Parcels, 909 Road Segments, and 4 Parks in the City of Commerce. Together, the products of this tree canopy prioritization project can guide the City of Commerce in its urban forestry planning. In the near term, TreePeople will use these data to inform a planting of over 1,000 trees, most concentrated in parks, streets, and residential giveaways. In the longer term, the City can use these data to guide future tree planting strategies.https://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/cures_reports/1001/thumbnail.jp

concordance and time estimation of store and forward mobile teledermatology compared to classical face to face consultation

Smartphones have overcome the limitations of image quality seen in older devices and opened a new field of telemedicine called "mobile teledermatology". Technological advances and the need to reduce health service costs will strongly promote the development of telemedicine. For this reason, we evaluated the concordance be tween store-and-forward mobile teledermatology and the classical face-to-face dermatological visit. We also measured the time taken to submit a teleconsultation using a smartphone. Before conventional face-to-face visit, a final-year resident of the 3-year course for general practitioners collected medical history, took digital images of skin diseases with a smartphone and, measuring the time required to complete this operation, transmitted them to an expert teledermatologist. In 391 patients we obtained a concordance between face-to-face and store-and-forward diagnosis of 91.05% (Cohen κ coefficient = 0.906). On average only few minutes needs to be added to a no

CD4+CD25+ lymphocyte subsets in chronic graft versus host disease patients undergoing extracorporeal photochemotherapy.

Extracorporeal photochemotherapy (ECP) has been used successfully for the treatment of chronic Graft versus Host Disease (cGvHD). However, the mechanism by which ECP exerts its protective effects remains elusive. Some recent observations have suggested a possible role of certain subsets of T lymphocytes with immunosuppressive properties (T-regulatory cells) that coexpress CD4 and high levels of the interleukin-2 receptor chain: CD4+CD25+ T lymphocytes. We studied whether ECP affects the percentage of these cells in the peripheral blood of patients with cGvHD. The study population consisted of 14 patients with cGvHD refractory to systemic steroids. On enrolment in each cycle of ECP, patients underwent clinical examination, blood chemistry analysis and other instrumental procedures to document and assess involvement of the various organs and systems. For cytofluorimetric identification and phenotyping of CD4+CD25+ T lymphocytes, peripheral blood samples were collected in EDTA anticoagulant before ECP, after 48 hours, and after 6 and 12 months from the start of treatment. The 14 patients in this study received a total of more than 300 cycles of ECP, with only minor side effects. The clinical outcome was negative in 2 patients and positive in 12 patients. Within-subject analysis indicated that the percentage of CD4+CD25+ T lymphocytes before ECP and after 12 months of treatment was significantly increased. Our study confirms that changes in the percentage of CD4+CD25+ T cells induced by ECP could be a central aspect in the cascade of immune events leading to the immunological and clinical effects of this treatment in patients with cGvHD

Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy in Children: Pathophysiology, Diagnosis, and Treatment of Non-sarcomeric Causes

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is a myocardial disease characterized by left ventricular hypertrophy not solely explained by abnormal loading conditions. Despite its rare prevalence in pediatric age, HCM carries a relevant risk of mortality and morbidity in both infants and children. Pediatric HCM is a large heterogeneous group of disorders. Other than mutations in sarcomeric genes, which represent the most important cause of HCM in adults, childhood HCM includes a high prevalence of non-sarcomeric causes, including inherited errors of metabolism (i.e., glycogen storage diseases, lysosomal storage diseases, and fatty acid oxidation disorders), malformation syndromes, neuromuscular diseases, and mitochondrial disease, which globally represent up to 35% of children with HCM. The age of presentation and the underlying etiology significantly impact the prognosis of children with HCM. Moreover, in recent years, different targeted approaches for non-sarcomeric etiologies of HCM have emerged. Therefore, the etiological diagnosis is a fundamental step in designing specific management and therapy in these subjects. The present review aims to provide an overview of the non-sarcomeric causes of HCM in children, focusing on the pathophysiology, clinical features, diagnosis, and treatment of these rare disorders

Dietary thiols: A potential supporting strategy against oxidative stress in heart failure and muscular damage during sports activity

Moderate exercise combined with proper nutrition are considered protective factors against cardiovascular disease and musculoskeletal disorders. However, physical activity is known not only to have positive effects. In fact, the achievement of a good performance requires a very high oxygen consumption, which leads to the formation of oxygen free radicals, responsible for premature cell aging and diseases such as heart failure and muscle injury. In this scenario, a primary role is played by antioxidants, in particular by natural antioxidants that can be taken through the diet. Natural antioxidants are molecules capable of counteracting oxygen free radicals without causing cellular cytotoxicity. In recent years, therefore, research has conducted numerous studies on the identification of natural micronutrients, in order to prevent or mitigate oxidative stress induced by physical activity by helping to support conventional drug therapies against heart failure and muscle damage. The aim of this review is to have an overview of how controlled physical activity and a diet rich in antioxidants can represent a “natural cure” to prevent imbalances caused by free oxygen radicals in diseases such as heart failure and muscle damage. In particular, we will focus on sulfur-containing compounds that have the ability to protect the body from oxidative stress. We will mainly focus on six natural antioxidants: Glutathione, taurine, lipoic acid, sulforaphane, garlic and methylsulfonylmethane

Childhood obesity: An overview of laboratory medicine, exercise and microbiome

In the last few years, a significant increase of childhood obesity incidence unequally distributed within countries and population groups has been observed, thus representing an important public health problem associated with several health and social consequences. Obese children have more than a 50% probability of becoming obese adults, and to develop pathologies typical of obese adults, that include type 2-diabetes, dyslipidemia and hypertension. Also environmental factors, such as reduced physical activity and increased sedentary activities, may also result in increased caloric intake and/or decreased caloric expenditure. In the present review, we aimed to identify and describe a specific panel of parameters in order to evaluate and characterize the childhood obesity status useful in setting up a preventive diagnostic approach directed at improving health-related behaviors and identifying predisposing risk factors. An early identification of risk factors for childhood obesity could definitely help in setting up adequate and specific clinical treatments

Measurement of the stellar Ni 58 (n,γ) Ni 59 cross section with accelerator mass spectrometry

The Ni58(n,γ)Ni59 cross section was measured with a combination of the activation technique and accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS). The neutron activations were performed at the Karlsruhe 3.7 MV Van de Graaff accelerator using the quasistellar neutron spectrum at kT=25 keV produced by the Li7(p,n)Be7 reaction. The subsequent AMS measurements were carried out at the 14 MV tandem accelerator of the Maier-Leibnitz Laboratory in Garching using the gas-filled analyzing magnet system (GAMS). Three individual samples were measured, yielding a Maxwellian-averaged cross section at kT=30 keV of (σ)30keV = 30.4 (23)syst(9)stat mbarn. This value is slightly lower than two recently published measurements using the time-of-flight (TOF) method, but agrees within the uncertainties. Our new results also resolve the large discrepancy between older TOF measurements and our previous value

Molecular Basis of Inflammation in the Pathogenesis of Cardiomyopathies

Cardiomyopathies (CMPs) represent a diverse group of heart muscle diseases, grouped into specific morphological and functional phenotypes. CMPs are associated with mutations in sarcomeric and non-sarcomeric genes, with several suspected epigenetic and environmental mechanisms involved in determining penetrance and expressivity. The understanding of the underlying molecular mechanisms of myocardial diseases is fundamental to achieving a proper management and treatment of these disorders. Among these, inflammation seems to play an important role in the pathogenesis of CMPs. The aim of the present study is to review the current knowledge on the role of inflammation and the immune system activation in the pathogenesis of CMPs and to identify potential molecular targets for a tailored anti-inflammatory treatment