Chicago\u27s Wall: Race, Segregation and the Chicago Housing Authority

When the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) was created in 1937 the organization\u27s mission was to provide decent and affordable housing for low-income people. As thousands of African Americans migrated to Chicago from the South after World War II, a combination of public policy and private exclusion forced them to turn to the CHA for housing. Through political manipulation and racism, the CHA became a tool to segregate, confine, and conceal Chicago\u27s burgeoning African American population. By the 1960s, 99 percent of CHA tenants were African American and over 90 percent of CHA developments were located in predominantly African American neighborhoods. The purpose of this thesis is to examine the CHA\u27s role in segregating African Americans through three events in the organization\u27s history. After an exploration of the city\u27s historical background, the first event examined is the political struggle in the late 1940s that determined the location of future CHA projects in African American neighborhoods. The experience of an African American family that integrated a CHA project in 1953 and the rioting that followed is the focus of the second event. Finally, the construction of a figurative wall of public housing projects served to isolate, segregate, and concentrate thousands of low income African Americans. This blatant discrimination motivated a group of CHA tenants and a dedicated public interest lawyer to challenge the CHA\u27s racist housing patterns in court. The nearly twenty-year effort to end state sponsored segregation would be the dramatic conclusion to the CHA\u27s discriminatory housing policies and is the final event described. This thesis shows how the process of segregating African Americans took generations and undoing this public housing failure will take even longer

Selection of yeast strains for bioethanol production from UK seaweeds

Macroalgae (seaweeds) are a promising feedstock for the production of third generation bioethanol, since they have high carbohydrate contents, contain little or no lignin and are available in abundance. However, seaweeds typically contain a more diverse array of monomeric sugars than are commonly present in feedstocks derived from lignocellulosic material which are currently used for bioethanol production. Hence, identification of a suitable fermentative microorganism that can utilise the principal sugars released from the hydrolysis of macroalgae remains a major objective. The present study used a phenotypic microarray technique to screen 24 different yeast strains for their ability to metabolise individual monosaccharides commonly found in seaweeds, as well as hydrolysates following an acid pre-treatment of five native UK seaweed species (Laminaria digitata, Fucus serratus, Chondrus crispus, Palmaria palmata and Ulva lactuca). Five strains of yeast (three Saccharomyces spp, one Pichia sp and one Candida sp) were selected and subsequently evaluated for bioethanol production during fermentation of the hydrolysates. Four out of the five selected strains converted these monomeric sugars into bioethanol, with the highest ethanol yield (13 g L−1) resulting from a fermentation using C. crispus hydrolysate with Saccharomyces cerevisiae YPS128. This study demonstrated the novel application of a phenotypic microarray technique to screen for yeast capable of metabolising sugars present in seaweed hydrolysates; however, metabolic activity did not always imply fermentative production of ethanol

Loss of Sex and Age Driven Differences in the Gut Microbiome Characterize Arthritis-Susceptible *0401 Mice but Not Arthritis-Resistant *0402 Mice

<div><h3>Background</h3><p>HLA-DRB1*0401 is associated with susceptibility, while HLA-DRB1*0402 is associated with resistance to developing rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and collagen-induced arthritis in humans and transgenic mice respectively. The influence of gut-joint axis has been suggested in RA, though not yet proven.</p> <h3>Methodology/Principal Findings</h3><p>We have used HLA transgenic mice carrying arthritis susceptible and -resistant HLA-DR genes to explore if genetic factors and their interaction with gut flora gut can be used to predict susceptibility to develop arthritis. Pyrosequencing of the 16S rRNA gene from the fecal microbiomes of DRB1*0401 and DRB1*0402 transgenic mice revealed that the guts of *0401 mice is dominated by a Clostridium-like bacterium, whereas the guts of *0402 mice are enriched for members of the <em>Porphyromonadaceae</em> family and <em>Bifidobacteria</em>. DRB1*0402 mice harbor a dynamic sex and age-influenced gut microbiome while DRB1*0401 mice did not show age and sex differences in gut microbiome even though they had altered gut permeability. Cytokine transcripts, measured by rtPCR, in jejuna showed differential TH17 regulatory network gene transcripts in *0401 and *0402 mice.</p> <h3>Conclusions/Significance</h3><p>We have demonstrated for the first time that HLA genes in association with the gut microbiome may determine the immune environment and that the gut microbiome might be a potential biomarker as well as contributor for susceptibility to arthritis. Identification of pathogenic commensal bacteria would provide new understanding of disease pathogenesis, thereby leading to novel approaches for therapy.</p> </div

Electrochemistry, Chemical Reactivity, and Time-Resolved Infrared Spectroscopy of Donor-Acceptor Systems [(Q(x))Pt(pap(y))) (Q = Substituted o-Quinone or o-Iminoquinone; pap = Phenylazopyridine)

The donor−acceptor complex [(O,NQ2−)Pt- (pap0)] (1; pap = phenylazopyridine, O,NQ0 = 4,6-di-tertbutyl- N-phenyl-o-iminobenzoquinone), which displays strong π-bonding interactions and shows strong absorption in the near-IR region, has been investigated with respect to its redoxinduced reactivity and electrochemical and excited-state properties. The one-electron-oxidized product [(O,NQ•−)Pt- (pap0)](BF4) ([1]BF4) was chemically isolated. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction studies establish the iminosemiquinone form of O,NQ in [1]+. Simulation of the cyclic voltammograms of 1 recorded in the presence of PPh3 elucidates the mechanism and delivers relevant thermodynamic and kinetic parameters for the redox-induced reaction with PPh3. The thermodynamically stable product of this reaction, complex [(O,NQ•−) Pt(PPh3)2](PF6) ([2]PF6), was isolated and characterized by X-ray crystallography, electrochemistry, and electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy. Picosecond time-resolved infrared spectroscopic studies on complex 1b (one of the positional isomers of 1) and its analogue [(O,OQ2−)Pt(pap0)] (3; O,OQ = 3,5-di-tert-butyl-o-benzoquinone) provided insight into the excited-state dynamics and revealed that the nature of the lowest excited state in the amidophenolate complex 1b is primarily diimine-ligandbased, while it is predominantly an interligand charge-transfer state in the case of 3. Density functional theory calculations on [1]n+ provided further insight into the nature of the frontier orbitals of various redox forms and vibrational mode assignments. We discuss the mechanistic details of the newly established redox-induced reactivity of 1 with electron donors and propose a mechanism for this process