Urban narrative and reinvention in Hicks-Logan-Sawyer : creating an effective gateway to a vital New Bedford

Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2013.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 116-125).New Bedford, Massachusetts famously experienced two major waves of prosperity, as the worldwide capital of the whaling industry in the early 19th century, and then as a major textile production century decades later. It continues to be one of the most important fishing ports in North America, but the fishing industry has not been enough to support the city's economy, and its fortunes have deteriorated in the post-industrial era. This thesis examines the role that the redevelopment of Hicks-Logan-Sawyer, one of the city's post-industrial neighborhoods, plays in the city's revitalization efforts. New Bedford is fairly close to the economic hub of Boston/Cambridge, but it is not currently connected to these cities by passenger rail. The South Coast Rail project, long planned but faced with perennially elusive funding, will connect New Bedford to Boston via a new multi-modal transit hub on the edge of Hicks-Logan-Sawyer. Now one of the most underdeveloped regions of New Bedford, Hicks-Logan-Sawyer has large expanses of developable land, beautiful mill buildings, and a waterfront location. Most importantly, with the construction of the rail, Hicks-Logan-Sawyer will function as the gateway to the city for tourists, residents, and participants in New Bedford's existing and emerging industries. There is currently no clear vision of how to generate interest in Hicks- Logan-Sawyer in the near future, and this thesis asks what Hicks-Logan-Sawyer needs become a successful gateway to a revived city. On a conceptual level, this thesis explores Hicks-Logan-Sawyer's role in New Bedford's image and how that affects its status as a gateway. On a more granular level, it suggests interventions that allow Hicks-Logan-Sawyer to effectively function as a physical and conceptual gateway to the rest of the city, and how New Bedford can use the neighborhood as a catalyst to actively promote a new chapter of the city's storied narrative. It explicitly addresses the ways in which a new gateway to the city at Hicks-Logan-Sawyer finds its place in support of broader forces of revival occurring city-wide, including new creative and industrial uses and a well-preserved downtown beginning to show signs of life after many years of decline.by Noah B. Koretz.M.C.P

Bone mineral density in women newly diagnosed with breast cancer: a prospective cohort study

Estrogen may have opposing effects on health, namely increasing the risk of breast cancer and improving bone health by increasing bone mineral density (BMD). The objective of this study was to compare dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) BMD between women newly diagnosed with breast cancer and matched controls without breast cancer. Women newly diagnosed with breast cancer treated between April 2012 and October 2017 were prospectively enrolled. A control group was established of women with negative mammography or breast ultrasound, matched 1:1 by age, body mass index, parity, and the use of hormone replacement therapy. All those included had DXA BMD, and lab assessments at enrollment. Of 869 women with newly diagnosed breast cancer, 464 signed informed consent. Of the 344 who completed the study protocol, 284 were matched to controls. Overall, the mean age was 58 years. Compared to the control group, for the breast cancer group, the mean vitamin D level was lower (48.9 ± 19.0 vs. 53.8 ± 28.8 nmol/L, p = 0.022); and mean values were higher of total hip BMD (0.95 ± 0.14 vs. 0.92 ± 0.12 g/cm2, p = 0.002), T score (-0.38 ± 1.17 vs. -0.68 ± 0.98, p = 0.002), and Z score (0.32 ± 1.09 vs. 0.01 ± 0.88, p < 0.001). Among the women with breast cancer, no correlations were found of baseline BMD with tumor size or grade, nodal involvement, or breast cancer stage. We concluded that women with newly diagnosed breast cancer tend to have higher BMD than women with similar characteristics but without breast cancer. This implies that BMD might be considered a biomarker for breast cancer risk

Training the brain to overcome the effect of aging on the human eye

Presbyopia, from the Greek for aging eye, is, like death and taxes, inevitable. Presbyopia causes near vision to degrade with age, affecting virtually everyone over the age of 50. Presbyopia has multiple negative effects on the quality of vision and the quality of life, due to limitations on daily activities – in particular, reading. In addition presbyopia results in reduced near visual acuity, reduced contrast sensitivity, and slower processing speed. Currently available solutions, such as optical corrections, are not ideal for all daily activities. Here we show that perceptual learning (repeated practice on a demanding visual task) results in improved visual performance in presbyopes, enabling them to overcome and/or delay some of the disabilities imposed by the aging eye. This improvement was achieved without changing the optical characteristics of the eye. The results suggest that the aging brain retains enough plasticity to overcome the natural biological deterioration with age

Is Sustained Virological Response a Marker of Treatment Efficacy in Patients with Chronic Hepatitis C Viral Infection with No Response or Relapse to Previous Antiviral Intervention?

Background: Randomised clinical trials (RCTs) of antiviral interventions in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection use sustained virological response (SVR) as the main outcome. There is sparse information on long-term mortality from RCTs.  Methods: We created a decision tree model based on a Cochrane systematic review on interferon retreatment for patients who did not respond to initial therapy or who relapsed following SVR. Extrapolating data to 20 years, we modelled the outcome from three scenarios: (1) observed medium-term (5 year) annual mortality rates continue to the long term (20 years); (2) long-term annual mortality in retreatment responders falls to that of the general population while retreatment non-responders continue at the medium-term mortality; (3) long-term annual mortality in retreatment non-responders is the same as control group non-responders (i.e., the increased treatment-related medium mortality “wears off”).  Results: The mean differences in life expectancy over 20 years with interferon versus control in the first, second, and third scenarios were -0.34 years (95% confidence interval (CI) -0.71 to 0.03), -0.23 years (95% CI -0.69 to 0.24), and -0.01 (95% CI -0.3 to 0.27), respectively. The life expectancy was always lower in the interferon group than in the control group in scenario 1. In scenario 3, the interferon group had a longer life expectancy than the control group only when more than 7% in the interferon group achieved SVR.  Conclusions: SVR may be a good prognostic marker but does not seem to be a valid surrogate marker for assessing HCV treatment efficacy of interferon retreatment. The SVR threshold at which retreatment increases life expectancy may be different for different drugs depending upon the adverse event profile and treatment efficacy. This has to be determined for each drug by RCTs and appropriate modelling before SVR can be accepted as a surrogate marker

The importance of parameter choice in modelling dynamics of the eye lens

The lens provides refractive power to the eye and is capable of altering ocular focus in response to visual demand. This capacity diminishes with age. Current biomedical technologies, which seek to design an implant lens capable of replicating the function of the biological lens, are unable as yet to provide such an implant with the requisite optical quality or ability to change the focussing power of the eye. This is because the mechanism of altering focus, termed accommodation, is not fully understood and seemingly conflicting theories require experimental support which is difficult to obtain from the living eye. This investigation presents finite element models of the eye lens based on data from human lenses aged 16 and 35 years that consider the influence of various modelling parameters, including material properties, a wide range of angles of force application and capsular thickness. Results from axisymmetric models show that the anterior and posterior zonules may have a greater impact on shape change than the equatorial zonule and that choice of capsular thickness values can influence the results from modelled simulations

Incidence and Outcome of Acute Phosphate Nephropathy in Iceland

To access publisher full text version of this article. Please click on the hyperlink in Additional Links fieldBACKGROUND: Oral sodium phosphate solutions (OSPS) are widely used for bowel cleansing prior to colonoscopy and other procedures. Cases of renal failure due to acute phosphate nephropathy following OSPS ingestion have been documented in recent years, questioning the safety of OSPS. However, the magnitude of the problem remains unknown. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We conducted a population based, retrospective analysis of medical records and biopsies of all cases of acute phosphate nephropathy that were diagnosed in our country in the period from January 2005 to October 2008. Utilizing the complete official sales figures of OSPS, we calculated the incidence of acute phosphate nephropathy in our country. Fifteen cases of acute phosphate nephropathy were diagnosed per 17,651 sold doses of OSPS (0.085%). Nine (60%) were women and mean age 69 years (range 56-75 years). Thirteen patients had a history of hypertension (87%) all of whom were treated with either ACE-I or ARB and/or diuretics. One patient had underlying DM type I and an active colitis and one patient had no risk factor for the development of acute phosphate nephropathy. Average baseline creatinine was 81.7 µmol/L and 180.1 at the discovery of acute renal failure, mean 4.2 months after OSPS ingestion. No patient had a full recovery of renal function, and at the end of follow-up, 26.6 months after the OSPS ingestion, the average creatinine was 184.2 µmol/L. The average eGFR declined from 73.5 ml/min/1.73 m(2) at baseline to 37.3 ml/min/1.73 m(2) at the end of follow-up. One patient reached end-stage renal disease and one patient died with progressive renal failure. CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE: Acute phosphate nephropathy developed in almost one out of thousand sold doses of OSPS. The consequences for kidney function were detrimental. This information can be used in other populations to estimate the impact of OSPS. Our data suggest that acute phosphate nephropathy may be greatly underreported worldwide

A hierarchical latent response model for inferences about examinee engagement in terms of guessing and item‐level non‐response

In low‐stakes assessments, test performance has few or no consequences for examinees themselves, so that examinees may not be fully engaged when answering the items. Instead of engaging in solution behaviour, disengaged examinees might randomly guess or generate no response at all. When ignored, examinee disengagement poses a severe threat to the validity of results obtained from low‐stakes assessments. Statistical modelling approaches in educational measurement have been proposed that account for non‐response or for guessing, but do not consider both types of disengaged behaviour simultaneously. We bring together research on modelling examinee engagement and research on missing values and present a hierarchical latent response model for identifying and modelling the processes associated with examinee disengagement jointly with the processes associated with engaged responses. To that end, we employ a mixture model that identifies disengagement at the item‐by‐examinee level by assuming different data‐generating processes underlying item responses and omissions, respectively, as well as response times associated with engaged and disengaged behaviour. By modelling examinee engagement with a latent response framework, the model allows assessing how examinee engagement relates to ability and speed as well as to identify items that are likely to evoke disengaged test‐taking behaviour. An illustration of the model by means of an application to real data is presented