New Orleans Claiborne Avenue Redevelopment Study: A University of New Orleans Analysis of Best Practices and Public Opinion

The purpose of this study is to examine the potential implications of the removal of the Claiborne Expressway segment of Interstate 10 (I-10), a proposal that has gained traction since Hurricane Katrina. This study complements previous analyses of the impacts of removing the elevated expressway. It considers case studies of best practices in highway removal, the history of the study area, and the proposal in terms of its local and regional context -- in particular the transportation system, land-use patterns, the economy, and the community of the affected area. Stakeholder interviews and surveys were conducted to assist with drawing conclusions and recommendations about the proposed removal of the I-10 highway segment and redevelopment of the Claiborne corridor

Physical activity and use of suburban train stations: An exploratory analysis

Physical inactivity contributes to a growing proportion of illness and premature death in the United States. Only about 45 percent of Americans meet the recommended national standard for physical activity. Yet, analysis of 300 surveys collected from train riders at three walkable New Jersey suburban train stations showed that 78 percent met the activity guidelines. A new train station that allows these riders to save time in their commute has attracted new riders and has led existing commuters to change their commute. One-third of those surveyed reported additional physical activity primarily because they walked more after leaving the train in mid-town New York City. Only 8 percent reported less physical activity. The analysis revealed that the new public transit station and personal factors associated with a greater likelihood of using mass transit led to more physical activity

Transit-Oriented Development: An Examination of America’s Transit Precincts in 2000 & 2010

This study creates a typology of all fixed transit precincts across the United States to categorize all stations as either a Transit Oriented Development (TOD), Transit Adjacent Development (TAD) or hybrid. This typology is based on an index that accounts for density, land use diversity and walkable design. This study also presents a separate non-typological multilevel, multivariate analysis of transit commuting and the built environment, which is unique in that it is the first national study of transit station precincts of its kind to control for both regional and neighborhood level variables. The findings lend support for the TOD concept in generating higher shares of transit commuting within station areas, with implications about how America can accommodate population growth by turning TADs and hybrids into TODs. This can result in more sustainable commuting patterns, a new growth market for housing and real estate in a post-recession economy and the potential decoupling of growth in the economy without the growth in carbon emissions. Much of this could be achievable without the need to necessarily make a major national investment in new infrastructure but in utilizing the existing infrastructure better by encourage more TODs

National Study on Carless and Special Needs Evacuation Planning: Case Studies

The National Study of Carless and Special Needs Evacuation Planning has constructed an essential outline for carless and special needs evacuation planning. This outline is built from planning efforts in each of the five case study cities. Each city had its strengths and weaknesses. In this study, we have combined the strengths from every city involved to build the criteria used to evaluate their planning efforts. In this sense, we have based our evaluations upon real planning efforts that can and are being done around the United States

The National Study on Carless and Special Needs Evacuation Planning: Government and Non-Profit Focus Group Results

This report summarizes focus groups, conducted during the fall of 2007 on the topic of carless and special needs evacuation planning, each with government officials and non-profit organizations in Chicago, Miami, New Orleans, New York and San Francisco. Groups were asked questions on challenges, strengths and resources; cross-jurisdictional relationships; and evacuation training and planning

The National Study on Carless and Special Needs Evacuation Planning: Government and Non-Profit Focus Group Results

This report summarizes focus groups, conducted during the fall of 2007 on the topic of carless and special needs evacuation planning, each with government officials and non-profit organizations in Chicago, Miami, New Orleans, New York and San Francisco. Groups were asked questions on challenges, strengths and resources; cross-jurisdictional relationships; and evacuation training and planning

Bim Nuclear Translocation and Inactivation by Viral Interferon Regulatory Factor

Viral replication efficiency is in large part governed by the ability of viruses to counteract pro-apoptotic signals induced by infection of the host cell. Human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8) uses several strategies to block the host's innate antiviral defenses via interference with interferon and apoptotic signaling. Contributors include the four viral interferon regulatory factors (vIRFs 1–4), which function in dominant negative fashion to block cellular IRF activities in addition to targeting IRF signaling-induced proteins such as p53 and inhibiting other inducers of apoptosis such as TGFβ receptor-activated Smad transcription factors. Here we identify direct targeting by vIRF-1 of BH3-only pro-apoptotic Bcl-2 family member Bim, a key negative regulator of HHV-8 replication, to effect its inactivation via nuclear translocation. vIRF-1-mediated relocalization of Bim was identified in transfected cells, by both immunofluorescence assay and western analysis of fractionated cell extracts. Also, co-localization of vIRF-1 and Bim was detected in nuclei of lytically infected endothelial cells. In vitro co-precipitation assays using purified vIRF-1 and Bim revealed direct interaction between the proteins, and Bim-binding residues of vIRF-1 were mapped by deletion and point mutagenesis. Generation and experimental utilization of Bim-refractory vIRF-1 variants revealed the importance of vIRF-1:Bim interaction, specifically, in pro-replication and anti-apoptotic activity of vIRF-1. Furthermore, blocking of the interaction with cell-permeable peptide corresponding to the Bim-binding region of vIRF-1 confirmed the relevance of vIRF-1:Bim association to vIRF-1 pro-replication activity. To our knowledge, this is the first report of an IRF protein that interacts with a Bcl-2 family member and of nuclear sequestration of Bim or any other member of the family as a means of inactivation. The data presented reveal a novel mechanism utilized by a virus to control replication-induced apoptosis and suggest that inhibitory targeting of vIRF-1:Bim interaction may provide an effective antiviral strategy

Tracking the provenance of Greenland-sourced, Holocene aged, individual sand-sized ice-rafted debris using the Pb-isotope compositions of feldspars and 40Ar/39Ar ages of hornblendes

The provenance of sand-sized ice-rafted debris (IRD) sourced from Greenland is currently difficult to determine. Such knowledge, if it could be ascertained with a high degree of certainty, could be applied to the Greenland-proximal marine records to improve both our understanding of modern-day spatial patterns of iceberg rafting and the past history of the Greenland Ice Sheet (GIS). Recent studies have highlighted the utility of the Pb-isotope composition of individual sand-sized feldspars and the 40Ar/39Ar ages of individual sand-sized hornblendes in this regard. However, before any such provenance toolkit can be applied to the palaeo-record, it is necessary first to determine whether this approach can be used to track the sources of known recent Greenland-proximal IRD deposition. To this end we present new records of the Pb-isotope composition and the 40Ar/39Ar ages of individual sand-sized grains of feldspars and hornblendes, respectively, from modern Greenland glacifluvial and fjord sands and Holocene to modern Greenland-proximal marine sediments. These new data demonstrate that sand-sized feldspars and hornblendes glacially eroded by the GIS exhibit distinct intra- and inter-tectonic terrane differences in their Pb-isotope compositions and ages and that these differences are clearly expressed in the geochemistry and geochronology of sand-sized IRD deposited in marine sediments around Greenland. Although overlap exists between some Greenland-proximal IRD ‘source fields’ defined by these data, our approach has the potential to both better understand spatial patterns of Greenland-derived IRD in the modern day as well as during past episodes of iceberg calving

The History, Relevance, and Applications of the Periodic System in Geochemistry

Geochemistry is a discipline in the earth sciences concerned with understanding the chemistry of the Earth and what that chemistry tells us about the processes that control the formation and evolution of Earth materials and the planet itself. The periodic table and the periodic system, as developed by Mendeleev and others in the nineteenth century, are as important in geochemistry as in other areas of chemistry. In fact, systemisation of the myriad of observations that geochemists make is perhaps even more important in this branch of chemistry, given the huge variability in the nature of Earth materials – from the Fe-rich core, through the silicate-dominated mantle and crust, to the volatile-rich ocean and atmosphere. This systemisation started in the eighteenth century, when geochemistry did not yet exist as a separate pursuit in itself. Mineralogy, one of the disciplines that eventually became geochemistry, was central to the discovery of the elements, and nineteenth-century mineralogists played a key role in this endeavour. Early “geochemists” continued this systemisation effort into the twentieth century, particularly highlighted in the career of V.M. Goldschmidt. The focus of the modern discipline of geochemistry has moved well beyond classification, in order to invert the information held in the properties of elements across the periodic table and their distribution across Earth and planetary materials, to learn about the physicochemical processes that shaped the Earth and other planets, on all scales. We illustrate this approach with key examples, those rooted in the patterns inherent in the periodic law as well as those that exploit concepts that only became familiar after Mendeleev, such as stable and radiogenic isotopes