Urban quality of life : a systematic literature review

The built environment has great influence over the sustainability of societies as well as over people’s quality of life. Quality of life (QoL) is a broad concept that has different definitions across diverse bodies of knowledge. The social–cultural environment and the characteristics of the built environment influence people’s perception of QoL. This study aims to identify and analyse the factors that impact QoL and sustainable development in the urban context. A systematic literature review was developed to understand QoL concepts and to identify urban indicators that contribute to the multidimensional evaluation of urban QoL. The results include (1) a holistic overview of QoL concepts and indicators; (2) the proposal of a holistic urban QoL concept; (3) the identification of urban QoL dimensions and indicators that contribute to urban QoL evaluation. The main contribution of this study is its discussion of the multidimensional nature of QoL, including objective and subjective dimensions

THE CHALLENGES OF MANAGING STAKEHOLDER REQUIREMENTS IN A URBAN REGENERATION PROJECT

ABSTRACT Traditional project management approaches have been criticised in recent years for being inadequate for the growing complexity of construction projects. Among the main criticisms are the inadequacy to deal with a social and political context, the dynamics of the environment and the need for further judgment during project implementation. Within this context, studies are looking at alternatives to move beyond this traditional view of project management. This paper presents the results from a case study carried out in an urban regeneration project in Brazil. The aim is to illustrate the challenges of dealing with myriad requirements that result from different stakeholders groups involved in complex construction projects. In such complex projects, there is a wide range of stakeholders, which change over time. This is partially due to long periods of project development and implementation. Moreover, their influence cannot always be predicted from the outset. Thus, despite the contributions in the literature regarding the need to manage stakeholder expectations and influences, this empirical study shows that in practice many challenges remain, and alternative solutions are still lacking in the project management literature

Desafios para a gestão de projetos urbanos com elevada complexidade: análise do Programa Integrado Entrada da Cidade em Porto Alegre, RS

Atualmente, as práticas de gestão de projetos vêm sendo amplamente criticadas por desconsiderar a natureza distinta dos projetos, e por não oferecer suficiente suporte para lidar com as características de projetos com elevada complexidade. O presente artigo tem como objetivo apontar as dificuldades de gerenciar um projeto urbano com elevada complexidade, assim como os entraves para a introdução de práticas adequadas para a gestão de projetos desta natureza no contexto do setor público. Foi realizado um estudo de caso no Programa Integrado Entrada da Cidade (PIEC), em Porto Alegre – RS, cujo objetivo foi a re-estruturação urbana de uma ocupada por assentamentos irregulares. Através deste estudo, pôde-se compreender melhor os aspectos que caracterizam a complexidade de projetos urbanos. Constatou-se que o modelo de gestão utilizado no Programa baseia-se em pressupostos de uma visão mecanicista, oferecendo pouco suporte para lidar com as características de um projeto com alta complexidade, tais como o elevado grau de interdependência entre ações, a multiplicidade de agentes intervenientes, além da alta suscetibilidade às influências do ambiente externo. O estudo aponta para a necessidade do desenvolvimento de mecanismos gerenciais mais adequados para projetos com estas características, que levem em consideração a interdependência entre ações e a necessidade do trabalho em equipe, além de serem flexíveis, reconhecendo a necessidade de adaptação do projeto a situações emergentes

Continuous Improvement Cells in the Highways Sector

In line with its performance improvement and Lean Construction agenda, the highways supply chain in the UK has commenced many Continuous Improvement (CI) cells in recent years. The CI cell is a small-group work coordination and improvement technique that is frequently used in many industries as part of their lean transformations. The technique has also its links to some key lean concepts and practices like continuous improvement (kaizen), Visual Management and hoshinkanri policy deployment. This paper presents a summary of a detailed research aiming to understand the execution of the CI cells in the highways supply chain in the UK with their associated benefits and challenges through a study of 12 CI cells at the main client organisation. Alongside a set of benefits and challenges, the current CI cell execution mechanism and some suggestions to improve the current practice were also presented in the paper

The Blk pathway functions as a tumor suppressor in chronic myeloid leukemia stem cells

A therapeutic strategy for treating cancer is to target and eradicate cancer stem cells (CSCs) without harming their normal stem cell counterparts. The success of this approach relies on identification of molecular pathways that selectively regulate CSC function. Using BCR-ABL-induced chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) as a disease model for CSCs, we show that BCR-ABL down-regulates the B lymphoid kinase (Blk) gene through c-Myc in leukemia stem cells (LSCs) in CML mice and that Blk functions as a tumor suppressor in LSCs but does not affect normal hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) or hematopoiesis. Blk suppresses LSC function through a pathway involving an upstream regulator, Pax5, and a downstream effector, p27. Inhibition of this Blk pathway accelerates CML development, whereas increased activity of the Blk pathway delays CML development. Blk also suppresses human CML stem cells. Our results demonstrate the feasibility of selectively targeting LSCs, an approach that should be applicable to other cancers

A Conserved Role for Syndecan Family Members in the Regulation of Whole-Body Energy Metabolism

Syndecans are a family of type-I transmembrane proteins that are involved in cell-matrix adhesion, migration, neuronal development, and inflammation. Previous quantitative genetic studies pinpointed Drosophila Syndecan (dSdc) as a positional candidate gene affecting variation in fat storage between two Drosophila melanogaster strains. Here, we first used quantitative complementation tests with dSdc mutants to confirm that natural variation in this gene affects variability in Drosophila fat storage. Next, we examined the effects of a viable dSdc mutant on Drosophila whole-body energy metabolism and associated traits. We observed that young flies homozygous for the dSdc mutation had reduced fat storage and slept longer than homozygous wild-type flies. They also displayed significantly reduced metabolic rate, lower expression of spargel (the Drosophila homologue of PGC-1), and reduced mitochondrial respiration. Compared to control flies, dSdc mutants had lower expression of brain insulin-like peptides, were less fecund, more sensitive to starvation, and had reduced life span. Finally, we tested for association between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the human SDC4 gene and variation in body composition, metabolism, glucose homeostasis, and sleep traits in a cohort of healthy early pubertal children. We found that SNP rs4599 was significantly associated with resting energy expenditure (P = 0.001 after Bonferroni correction) and nominally associated with fasting glucose levels (P = 0.01) and sleep duration (P = 0.044). On average, children homozygous for the minor allele had lower levels of glucose, higher resting energy expenditure, and slept shorter than children homozygous for the common allele. We also observed that SNP rs1981429 was nominally associated with lean tissue mass (P = 0.035) and intra-abdominal fat (P = 0.049), and SNP rs2267871 with insulin sensitivity (P = 0.037). Collectively, our results in Drosophila and humans argue that syndecan family members play a key role in the regulation of body metabolism

Identification of six new susceptibility loci for invasive epithelial ovarian cancer.

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified 12 epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) susceptibility alleles. The pattern of association at these loci is consistent in BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation carriers who are at high risk of EOC. After imputation to 1000 Genomes Project data, we assessed associations of 11 million genetic variants with EOC risk from 15,437 cases unselected for family history and 30,845 controls and from 15,252 BRCA1 mutation carriers and 8,211 BRCA2 mutation carriers (3,096 with ovarian cancer), and we combined the results in a meta-analysis. This new study design yielded increased statistical power, leading to the discovery of six new EOC susceptibility loci. Variants at 1p36 (nearest gene, WNT4), 4q26 (SYNPO2), 9q34.2 (ABO) and 17q11.2 (ATAD5) were associated with EOC risk, and at 1p34.3 (RSPO1) and 6p22.1 (GPX6) variants were specifically associated with the serous EOC subtype, all with P < 5 × 10(-8). Incorporating these variants into risk assessment tools will improve clinical risk predictions for BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation carriers.COGS project is funded through a European Commission's Seventh Framework Programme grant (agreement number 223175 ] HEALTH ]F2 ]2009 ]223175). The CIMBA data management and data analysis were supported by Cancer Research.UK grants 12292/A11174 and C1287/A10118. The Ovarian Cancer Association Consortium is supported by a grant from the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund thanks to donations by the family and friends of Kathryn Sladek Smith (PPD/RPCI.07). The scientific development and funding for this project were in part supported by the US National Cancer Institute GAME ]ON Post ]GWAS Initiative (U19 ]CA148112). This study made use of data generated by the Wellcome Trust Case Control consortium. Funding for the project was provided by the Wellcome Trust under award 076113. The results published here are in part based upon data generated by The Cancer Genome Atlas Pilot Project established by the National Cancer Institute and National Human Genome Research Institute (dbGap accession number phs000178.v8.p7). The cBio portal is developed and maintained by the Computational Biology Center at Memorial Sloan ] Kettering Cancer Center. SH is supported by an NHMRC Program Grant to GCT. Details of the funding of individual investigators and studies are provided in the Supplementary Note. This study made use of data generated by the Wellcome Trust Case Control consortium, funding for which was provided by the Wellcome Trust under award 076113. The results published here are, in part, based upon data generated by The Cancer Genome Atlas Pilot Project established by the National Cancerhttp://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ng.3185This is the Author Accepted Manuscript of 'Identification of six new susceptibility loci for invasive epithelial ovarian cancer' which was published in Nature Genetics 47, 164–171 (2015) © Nature Publishing Group - content may only be used for academic research

Identification of four novel susceptibility loci for oestrogen receptor negative breast cancer

Common variants in 94 loci have been associated with breast cancer including 15 loci with genome-wide significant associations (P<5 × 10−8) with oestrogen receptor (ER)-negative breast cancer and BRCA1-associated breast cancer risk. In this study, to identify new ER-negative susceptibility loci, we performed a meta-analysis of 11 genome-wide association studies (GWAS) consisting of 4,939 ER-negative cases and 14,352 controls, combined with 7,333 ER-negative cases and 42,468 controls and 15,252 BRCA1 mutation carriers genotyped on the iCOGS array. We identify four previously unidentified loci including two loci at 13q22 near KLF5, a 2p23.2 locus near WDR43 and a 2q33 locus near PPIL3 that display genome-wide significant associations with ER-negative breast cancer. In addition, 19 known breast cancer risk loci have genome-wide significant associations and 40 had moderate associations (P<0.05) with ER-negative disease. Using functional and eQTL studies we implicate TRMT61B and WDR43 at 2p23.2 and PPIL3 at 2q33 in ER-negative breast cancer aetiology. All ER-negative loci combined account for ∼11% of familial relative risk for ER-negative disease and may contribute to improved ER-negative and BRCA1 breast cancer risk prediction

A Roadmap for HEP Software and Computing R&D for the 2020s

Particle physics has an ambitious and broad experimental programme for the coming decades. This programme requires large investments in detector hardware, either to build new facilities and experiments, or to upgrade existing ones. Similarly, it requires commensurate investment in the R&D of software to acquire, manage, process, and analyse the shear amounts of data to be recorded. In planning for the HL-LHC in particular, it is critical that all of the collaborating stakeholders agree on the software goals and priorities, and that the efforts complement each other. In this spirit, this white paper describes the R&D activities required to prepare for this software upgrade.Peer reviewe