Re-evaluating the place of urban planning history

This commentary seeks to prompt new discussion about the place of urban planning history in the era of contemporary globalisation. Given the deep historic engagement of urban planning thought and practice with ‘place’ shaping and thus with the constitution of society, culture and politics, we ask how relevant is planning's legacy to the shaping of present day cities. Late twentieth century urban sociology, cultural and economic geography have demonstrated the increasing significance of intercity relations and the functional porosity of metropolitan boundaries in the network society, however statutory urban planning systems remain tied to the administrative geographies of states. This ‘territorial fixing’ of practice constrains the operational space of planning and, we argue, also limits its vision to geopolitical scales and agendas that have receding relevance for emerging urban relations. We propose that a re-evaluation of planning history could have an important part to play in addressing this spatial conundrum

Game Design as an Educational Pedagogy

In this paper, the researchers explored the use of homemade PowerPoint games as a pedagogy strategy. This quasi-experimental study examined whether there were performance differences between students in a class that utilized the teachers’ traditional methods of reviewing for a unit exam and students in a second class that utilized homemade PowerPoint games. The analysis of variance indicated that there was no statistically significant difference in the performance or the level of improvement between the two classes, which may have been due to the small sample size. These results are consistent with other studies of homemade PowerPoint games

Archives Magazine

The first issue of The Archives Magazine, a student project, in cooperation with the Profesional Writing Program of the English Department at Kutztown University. The scope of this publication is the history of Kutztown University of Pennsylvania

Legislature’s Planning Committee 2013 Report

The Legislature’s Planning Committee was created in 2009, pursuant to LB 653, introduced by Senator John Harms, of Scottsbluff. The 2012-13 Committee is: Senator John Harms, ChairSenator Tanya Cook, Vice-ChairSenator Greg Adams, Speaker of the LegislatureSenator John Wightman, Chair, Executive BoardSenator Heath Mello, Chair, Appropriations CommitteeSenator Mike GloorSenator Kathy CampbellSenator Paul SchumacherSenator Kate Sullivan When the Committee was formed in 2009, it was decided that, in order to achieve their goals, they would be assisted by the Legislative Research Office and the College of Public Affairs at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. The Committee also formed three sub-committees: 1) Mission Statement and Goals; 2) Research Data Base; and 3) Special Funding. The Mission Statement was adopted and it was decided that there would be nine categories for data collection: Agriculture, Economy, Education, Health & Human Services, Natural Resources, Public Safety, State & Local Government, Telecommunications, and Transportation. The Goals for each category were adopted and it was decided that the Economy section would be completed first. The Research Data Base sub-committee chose benchmarks for the Economy category and Jerry Deichert and John Bartle, with the assistance of grad student Skiarn Issarachaiyos, began collecting data for each benchmark. The Mission Statement and Goals committee, having completed their task, then became a second research benchmarking committee. The remaining eight categories were divided up between the two sub-committees and benchmarks were picked for each category. Jerry, John, and Skairn then collected data for each category. They also prepared summaries of data and made note of policy considerations for each category. This report consists of the data, summaries, and policy considerations for each of the nine categories. During this time, the Legislative Research Office prepared for the committee binders, for each of the nine categories, which contain a history of legislation passed in Nebraska for each category during the last thirty years, as well as what is currently being done in other states – compiled from organizations such as the National Conference of State Legislatures. These binders are available to be checked out in the Legislative Research Office. The Planning Committee will also be in charge of updating the data and policy considerations each year for all benchmarks in each category. We are hopeful that this will be of great assistance to Legislators and staff as they craft and debate legislation each Session. This Report is the 2013 Update to the 2011 Report. Added this year is a section titled “Selected Characteristics for Nebraska Legislative Districts from the 2008-2012 American Community Survey”, and also an “At A Glance” summary of the trends of how Nebraska is doing in each area. This Report and the Executive Summary are available on the Legislature’s Website at http://www.nebraskalegislature.gov/reports/lpc.ph

An ultrasensitive reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction assay to detect asymptomatic low-density Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax infections in small volume blood samples.

BackgroundHighly sensitive, scalable diagnostic methods are needed to guide malaria elimination interventions. While traditional microscopy and rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) are suitable for the diagnosis of symptomatic malaria infection, more sensitive tests are needed to screen for low-density, asymptomatic infections that are targeted by interventions aiming to eliminate the entire reservoir of malaria infection in humans.MethodsA reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT- PCR) was developed for multiplexed detection of the 18S ribosomal RNA gene and ribosomal RNA of Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax. Simulated field samples stored for 14 days with sample preservation buffer were used to assess the analytical sensitivity and specificity. Additionally, 1750 field samples from Southeastern Myanmar were tested both by RDT and ultrasensitive RT-PCR.ResultsLimits of detection (LoD) were determined under simulated field conditions. When 0.3 mL blood samples were stored for 14 days at 28 °C and 80% humidity, the LoD was less than 16 parasites/mL for P. falciparum and 19.7 copies/µL for P. vivax (using a plasmid surrogate), about 10,000-fold lower than RDTs. Of the 1739 samples successfully evaluated by both ultrasensitive RT-PCR and RDT, only two were RDT positive while 24 were positive for P. falciparum, 108 were positive for P. vivax, and 127 were positive for either P. vivax and/or P. falciparum using ultrasensitive RT-PCR.ConclusionsThis ultrasensitive RT-PCR method is a robust, field-tested screening method that is vastly more sensitive than RDTs. Further optimization may result in a truly scalable tool suitable for widespread surveillance of low-level asymptomatic P. falciparum and P. vivax parasitaemia

The Trail, 1964-12-11

https://soundideas.pugetsound.edu/thetrail_all/1897/thumbnail.jp

The Report of the 2019 NSF Cybersecurity Summit for Large Facilities and Cyberinfrastructure

The Report of the 2019 NSF Cybersecurity Summit for Large Facilities and CyberinfrastructureNSF #1547272Ope

The Trail, 1964-11-05

https://soundideas.pugetsound.edu/thetrail_all/1896/thumbnail.jp

Design and analysis of low boom concepts at Langley Research Center

The objective of the sonic boom research in the current High Speed Research Program is to ultimately make possible overland supersonic flight by a high speed civil transport. To accomplish this objective, it is felt that results in four areas must demonstrate that such a vehicle would be acceptable by the general public, by the airframers, and by the airlines. It should be demonstrated: (1) that some waveform shape has the possibility of being acceptable to the general public; (2) that the atmosphere would not totally destroy such a waveform during propagation; (3) that a viable airplane could be built which produces such a waveform; and (4) that any performance penalty suffered by a low boom aircraft would be counteracted by the economic benefit of overland supersonic flight. The work being done at LaRC is in support of the third element listed above--the area of configuration design. The initial part of the paper will give a review of the theory being used for configuration designs and discuss two theory validation models which were built and tested within the past two years. Discussion of the wind tunnel and theoretical results (linear theory and higher order methods) and their implications for future designs will be included