Comparing Landsat 8-derived Surface Temperatures and Field-Collected Air Temperatures in the City of Richmond, VA.

Satellite data is a cost-effective and easily accessible information source that is widely used in a variety of applications. When it comes to temperature data, satellites receive thermal electromagnetic energy emitted by the earth’s surface from which surface temperature is empirically derived. Despite such data being a relatively accurate representation of surface temperature, it does not necessarily replicate the true air temperature patterns of a place. Depending on the type of data used, research studies can arrive at considerably different outcomes, and subsequently induce different public policies related to heat extremes, especially in cities. In this project, relations between surface temperature and air temperature during unusually hot summer days are examined for the City of Richmond, Virginia, a mid-sized city located in the Southeast Climate Region. This is achieved by comparing satellite-derived surface temperatures from Landsat 8 imagery retrieved on 22nd August 2017 to air temperatures collected in the field (from thermistors mounted on bicycles and cars) and modelled on 13th July 2017. Three types of comparisons are made, in which the 2 variables demonstrate considerable differences aiding understanding of the limitations of Landsat 8-derived temperatures. Subsequently, this will help further research seeking to inform the identification of populations vulnerable to the Urban Heat Island effect within the City of Richmond. This is an important contribution to the development of public policy responses to Urban Heat Island phenomena

Estimated 2020 CO2 Emission Reductions in Virginia’s Transportation Sector from COVID-19

The initial lockdown phase of the COVID-19 pandemic presented an unfortunate opportunity to observe how abrupt, large-scale changes in traffic volume can reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This study explores how carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from Virginia’s transportation sector may have been affected by the changes in activity stemming from COVID-19 to inform more carbon-neutral policies as the state recovers from the economic downfall. Emission savings were calculated by multiplying the percent change from 2019 to 2020 in traffic volume from the Virginia Department of Transportation with the business-as-usual 2020 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimate of CO2 emissions for Virginia’s transportation sector. We estimate Virginia’s 2020 COVID-19 transportation CO2 emissions reduction is around 15.0% (14.2 to 15.7%), with reduced passenger vehicle traffic making up the bulk of the inferred reduction. This study highlights the utility of reimagining our current transportation sector as a way to implement sustainable, state-level carbon reduction policies, such as the Clean Car Standards

Detecting Change: Observations of Temperature and Precipitation Across Virginia’s Climate Divisions

Modern global climate change is primarily attributable to human activities and the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Climate change impacts span a range of sectors, including agriculture, forestry, public health, and water resource management. The Commonwealth of Virginia has already and will continue to deal with many of these impacts, yet lacks concentrated effort to detect, document, and adapt to local climate changes. This study documents observed changes in temperature and precipitation across Virginia’s six climate divisions. Mean seasonal anomalies of minimum temperature, maximum temperature, and precipitation from 1986 to 2016 are examined relative to a long-term 1895-2000 baseline. Additionally, the study assesses and reports full-record (1895-2016) trends for each climate division. Results demonstrate warming across all climate divisions in Virginia, particularly during the winter season (December, January, and February). Precipitation changes vary across the Commonwealth and seasons. Drying conditions, particularly in the Eastern and Western Piedmont, are noteworthy during the summer, while wetter conditions prevail in the spring and autumn. Former Governor Kaine’s 2008 Climate Action Plan and subsequent 2016 update by Governor McAuliffe’s administration called for a Virginia climate information clearinghouse where the public and decision-makers could efficiently access valuable weather and climate information. This paper represents a first step in this yet unrealized plan

Pseudospectral methods for atoms in strong magnetic fields

We present a new pseudospectral algorithm for the calculation of the structure of atoms in strong magnetic fields. We have verified this technique for one, two and three-electron atoms in zero magnetic fields against laboratory results and find typically better than one-percent accuracy. We further verify this technique against the state-of-the-art calculations of hydrogen, helium and lithium in strong magnetic fields (up to about $2\times 10^{6}$ T) and find a similar level of agreement. The key enabling advantages of the algorithm are its simplicity (about 130 lines of commented code) and its speed (about $10^2-10^5$ times faster than finite-element methods to achieve similar accuracy).Comment: 10 pages, version accepted to MNRA

Assessing Inequitable Urban Heat Islands and Air Pollution Disparities with Low-Cost Sensors in Richmond, Virginia

Air pollution and the urban heat island effect are consistently linked to numerous respiratory and heat-related illnesses. Additionally, these stressors disproportionately impact low-income and historically marginalized communities due to their proximity to emissions sources, lack of access to green space, and exposure to other adverse environmental conditions. Here, we use relatively low-cost stationary sensors to analyze PM2.5 and temperature data throughout the city of Richmond, Virginia, on the ten hottest days of 2019. For both hourly means within the ten hottest days of 2019 and daily means for the entire record for the year, the temperature was found to exhibit a positive correlation with PM2.5. Analysis of hourly means on the ten hottest days yielded a diurnal pattern in which PM2.5 levels peaked in the early morning and reached their minima in the mid-afternoon. Spatially, sites exhibiting higher temperatures consistently had higher PM2.5 readings, with vulnerable communities in the east end and more intensely developed parts of the city experiencing significantly higher temperatures and PM2.5 concentrations than the suburban neighborhoods in the west end. These findings suggest an uneven distribution of air pollution in Richmond during extreme heat events that are similar in pattern but less pronounced than the temperature differences during these events, although further investigation is required to verify the extent of this relationship. As other studies have found both of these environmental stressors to correlate with the distribution of green space and other land-use factors in cities, innovative and sustainable planning decisions are crucial to the mitigation of these issues of inequity going forward

Linking the 8.2 ka Event and its Freshwater Forcing in the Labrador Sea

The 8.2 ka event was the last deglacial abrupt climate event. A reduction in the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) attributed to the drainage of glacial Lake Agassiz may have caused the event, but the freshwater signature of Lake Agassiz discharge has yet to be identified in (delta)18O of foraminiferal calcite records from the Labrador Sea, calling into question the connection between freshwater discharge to the North Atlantic and AMOC strength. Using Mg/Ca-paleothermometry, we demonstrate that approx. 3 C of near-surface ocean cooling masked an 1.0 % decrease in western Labrador Sea (delta)18O of seawater concurrent with Lake Agassiz drainage. Comparison with North Atlantic (delta)18O of seawater records shows that the freshwater discharge was transported to regions of deep-water formation where it could perturb AMOC and force the 8.2 ka event

Mediators of Monocyte Migration in Response to Recovery Modalities following Resistance Exercise

Mediators of monocyte migration, complement receptor-3 (CR3), and chemokine ligand-4 (CCL4) were measured in response to recovery modalities following resistance exercise. Thirty resistance-trained men (23.1 +/- 2.9 y; 175.2 +/- 7.1 cm; 82.1 +/- 8.4 kg) were given neuromuscular electric stimulation (NMES), cold water immersion (CWI), or control (CON) treatments immediately following resistance exercise. Blood samples were obtained preexercise (PRE), immediately (IP), 30 minutes (30 P), 24 hours (24 H), and 48 hours (48 H) after exercise for measurement of circulating CCL4 and CR3 expression on CD14+ monocytes, by assay and flow cytometry. Circulating CCL4 showed no consistent changes. Inferential analysis indicated that CR3 expression was likely greater in CON at 30 P than NMES (90.0%) or CWI (86.8%). NMES was likely lower than CON at 24H (92.9%) and very likely lower at 48H (98.7%). Expression of CR3 following CWI was very likely greater than CON (96.5%) at 24H. The proportion of CR3+ monocytes was likely greater following CWI than NMES (85.8%) or CON (85.2%) at 24 H. The change in proportion of CR3+ monocytes was likely (86.4%) greater following NMES than CON from IP to 30 P. The increased expression of CR3 and increased proportion of CR3+ monocytes following CWI at 24 H indicate a potentially improved ability for monocyte adhesion to the endothelium, possibly improving phagocytosis of damaged tissues

High-intensity interval training and beta-hydroxy-beta-methylbutyric free acid improves aerobic power and metabolic thresholds

Background: Previous research combining Calcium beta-hydroxy-beta-methylbutyrate (CaHMB) and running high-intensity interval training (HIIT) have shown positive effects on aerobic performance measures. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of beta-hydroxy-beta-methylbutyric free acid (HMBFA) and cycle ergometry HIIT on maximal oxygen consumption (VO(2)peak), ventilatory threshold (VT), respiratory compensation point (RCP) and time to exhaustion (T-max) in college-aged men and women. Methods: Thirty-four healthy men and women (Age: 22.7 +/- 3.1 yrs; VO(2)peak: 39.3 +/- 5.0 ml center dot kg(-1)center dot min(-1)) volunteered to participate in this double-blind, placebo-controlled design study. All participants completed a series of tests prior to and following treatment. A peak oxygen consumption test was performed on a cycle ergometer to assess VO(2)peak, Tmax, VT, and RCP. Twenty-six participants were randomly assigned into either a placebo (PLA-HIIT) or 3 g per day of HMBFA (BetaTor (TM) ) (HMBFA-HIIT) group. Eight participants served as controls (CTL). Participants in the HIIT groups completed 12 HIIT (80-120% maximal workload) exercise sessions consisting of 5-6 bouts of a 2: 1 minute cycling work to rest ratio protocol over a four-week period. Body composition was measured with dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA). Outcomes were assessed by ANCOVA with posttest means adjusted for pretest differences. Results: The HMBFA-HIIT intervention showed significant (p \u3c 0.05) gains in VO(2)peak, and VT, versus the CTL and PLA-HIIT group. Both PLA-HIIT and HMBFA-HIIT treatment groups demonstrated significant (p \u3c 0.05) improvement over CTL for Tmax, and RCP with no significant difference between the treatment groups. There were no significant differences observed for any measures of body composition. An independent-samples t-test confirmed that there were no significant differences between the training volumes for the PLA-HIIT and HMBFA-HIIT groups. Conclusions: Our findings support the use of HIIT in combination with HMBFA to improve aerobic fitness in college age men and women. These data suggest that the addition of HMBFA supplementation may result in greater changes in VO(2)peak and VT than HIIT alone

High-intensity interval training and beta-hydroxy-beta-methylbutyric free acid improves aerobic power and metabolic thresholds

Background: Previous research combining Calcium beta-hydroxy-beta-methylbutyrate (CaHMB) and running high-intensity interval training (HIIT) have shown positive effects on aerobic performance measures. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of beta-hydroxy-beta-methylbutyric free acid (HMBFA) and cycle ergometry HIIT on maximal oxygen consumption (VO(2)peak), ventilatory threshold (VT), respiratory compensation point (RCP) and time to exhaustion (T-max) in college-aged men and women. Methods: Thirty-four healthy men and women (Age: 22.7 +/- 3.1 yrs; VO(2)peak: 39.3 +/- 5.0 ml center dot kg(-1)center dot min(-1)) volunteered to participate in this double-blind, placebo-controlled design study. All participants completed a series of tests prior to and following treatment. A peak oxygen consumption test was performed on a cycle ergometer to assess VO(2)peak, Tmax, VT, and RCP. Twenty-six participants were randomly assigned into either a placebo (PLA-HIIT) or 3 g per day of HMBFA (BetaTor (TM) ) (HMBFA-HIIT) group. Eight participants served as controls (CTL). Participants in the HIIT groups completed 12 HIIT (80-120% maximal workload) exercise sessions consisting of 5-6 bouts of a 2: 1 minute cycling work to rest ratio protocol over a four-week period. Body composition was measured with dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA). Outcomes were assessed by ANCOVA with posttest means adjusted for pretest differences. Results: The HMBFA-HIIT intervention showed significant (p \u3c 0.05) gains in VO(2)peak, and VT, versus the CTL and PLA-HIIT group. Both PLA-HIIT and HMBFA-HIIT treatment groups demonstrated significant (p \u3c 0.05) improvement over CTL for Tmax, and RCP with no significant difference between the treatment groups. There were no significant differences observed for any measures of body composition. An independent-samples t-test confirmed that there were no significant differences between the training volumes for the PLA-HIIT and HMBFA-HIIT groups. Conclusions: Our findings support the use of HIIT in combination with HMBFA to improve aerobic fitness in college age men and women. These data suggest that the addition of HMBFA supplementation may result in greater changes in VO(2)peak and VT than HIIT alone