Evaluating Strategies to Protect Open Space and Slow Sprawl in the Philadelphia Region

This paper uses the Philadelphia metropolitan region of Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, and Philadelphia Counties as a case study, examining historical land use and socioeconomic data to demonstrate the negative effects that urban sprawl has on regional quality of life and the natural and built environment. The paper shows that open space conservation initiatives sponsored by governing bodies and land conservation groups may not be able to keep pace with the rate of sprawl or be able to meet the conservation benchmarks set by the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission, the regional Metropolitan Planning Organization, and the GreenSpace Alliance, a regional non profit land conservation group. The paper examines the urban redevelopment and revitalization initiative as an underutilized, but effective tool available to slow sprawl, and the need to combine these initiatives with land protection measures. Evidence is presented that counters claims that sprawl is a natural result of the free market economy that should be allowed to correct itself without intervention. Finally, existing growth management strategies are offered that might be incorporated into future efforts to slow the expansion of the built environment and improve quality of life in the region

Workshop on Field Inspection and Rehabilitation of Traffic Control Devices - Proceedings

DTFH61-69-C-00058The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has begun a number of initiatives to improve signing on the Nation's roadways. These include workshops to obtain input from experts across the country, a review of each State's highway sign replacement and refurbishing program, and a training course. This report documents the proceedings of the workshops, one held in the Western United States and one in the Eastern United States. The workshops opened with a plenary session on Issues, Needs, and the FHWA Research Program, followed by a plenary session on Development of Minimum Requirements. The program continued with a panel discussion on Performance Standard Criteria, followed by a plenary session on Materials Selection. Breakout sessions on freeway signing, non-freeway signing, and motorist services and tourist-oriented signing completed the first day of the workshops. The second day opened with reports of the breakout sessions and continued with a plenary session on Field Assessment Techniques. A plenary session on Maintenance Procedures and Programs followed. The second day ended with breakout sessions on sign replacement methods, using contracting versus in-house and prison industries, and traffic control during sign replacement. The third day opened with reports on the previous day's breakout sessions, followed by a plenary session on Improved Inventory Techniques. The workshops closed with a look to the future plenary session. This report details the remarks made by the panelists and the comments and concerns of the participants on each of these issues

Integrating Neural Circuits Controlling Female Sexual Behavior

The hypothalamus is most often associated with innate behaviors such as is hunger, thirst and sex. While the expression of these behaviors important for survival of the individual or the species is nested within the hypothalamus, the desire (i.e., motivation) for them is centered within the mesolimbic reward circuitry. In this review, we will use female sexual behavior as a model to examine the interaction of these circuits. We will examine the evidence for a hypothalamic circuit that regulates consummatory aspects of reproductive behavior, i.e., lordosis behavior, a measure of sexual receptivity that involves estradiol membrane-initiated signaling in the arcuate nucleus (ARH), activating β-endorphin projections to the medial preoptic nucleus (MPN), which in turn modulate ventromedial hypothalamic nucleus (VMH) activity-the common output from the hypothalamus. Estradiol modulates not only a series of neuropeptides, transmitters and receptors but induces dendritic spines that are for estrogenic induction of lordosis behavior. Simultaneously, in the nucleus accumbens of the mesolimbic system, the mating experience produces long term changes in dopamine signaling and structure. Sexual experience sensitizes the response of nucleus accumbens neurons to dopamine signaling through the induction of a long lasting early immediate gene. While estrogen alone increases spines in the ARH, sexual experience increases dendritic spine density in the nucleus accumbens. These two circuits appear to converge onto the medial preoptic area where there is a reciprocal influence of motivational circuits on consummatory behavior and vice versa. While it has not been formally demonstrated in the human, such circuitry is generally highly conserved and thus, understanding the anatomy, neurochemistry and physiology can provide useful insight into the motivation for sexual behavior and other innate behaviors in humans