Housing and Business Investment in Nebraska

Editor\u27s Note: The 1975 Legislative Session of the Nebraska Legislature recognized the need to analyze all available options for dealing with the problems of urban redevelopment: lack of adequate housing, revitalization of older business districts, and possible incentives for investment in older neighborhoods in Nebraska. Accordingly, Resolution 53 directed the Legislature\u27s Urban Affairs Committee to study a) causes of urban decay, b) current Federal and State programs in urban redevelopment, c) laws and programs of other states that encourage redevelopment, d) incentives to encourage urban redevelopment and e) needs for changes in Nebraska law. The study here summarized was completed by the Center for Applied Urban Research under contract with the Urban Affairs Committee of the Nebraska Legislature and the State Office of Planning and Programming as one aspect of the larger program. The study was designed a) to ascertain the demand for housing and business investment funds and the factors which dis~ courage such investment in declining neighborhoods of Nebraska\u27s two major metropolitan cities, Omaha and Lincoln, and in Nebraska\u27s nonmetropolitan communities, and b) to recommend areas for consideration by the administrative and legislative branches of the Nebraska government. The study was financed in part through a comprehensive planning assistance grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development under contract with the Nebraska Legislature and the Nebraska State Office of Planning and Programming. Comprehensive Planning Grant, Project No. NEB-P-7070

Computational optimization of synthetic water channels.

Membranes for liquid and gas separations and ion transport are critical to water purification, osmotic energy generation, fuel cells, batteries, supercapacitors, and catalysis. Often these membranes lack pore uniformity and robustness under operating conditions, which can lead to a decrease in performance. The lack of uniformity means that many pores are non-functional. Traditional membranes overcome these limitations by using thick membrane materials that impede transport and selectivity, which results in decreased performance and increased operating costs. For example, limitations in membrane performance demand high applied pressures to deionize water using reverse osmosis. In contrast, cellular membranes combine high flux and selective transport using membrane-bound protein channels operating at small pressure differences. Pore size and chemistry in the cellular channels is defined uniformly and with sub-nanometer precision through protein folding. The thickness of these cellular membranes is limited to that of the cellular membrane bilayer, about 4 nm thick, which enhances transport. Pores in the cellular membranes are robust under operating conditions in the body. Recent efforts to mimic cellular water channels for efficient water deionization produced a significant advance in membrane function. The novel biomimetic design achieved a 10-fold increase in membrane permeability to water flow compared to commercial membranes and still maintained high salt rejection. Despite this success, there is a lack of understanding about why this membrane performs so well. To address this lack of knowledge, we used highperformance computing to interrogate the structural and chemical environments experienced by water and electrolytes in the newly created biomimetic membranes. We also compared the solvation environments between the biomimetic membrane and cellular water channels. These results will help inform future efforts to optimize and tune the performance of synthetic biomimetic membranes for applications in water purification, energy, and catalysis

Polarization and Charge Transfer in the Hydration of Chloride Ions

A theoretical study of the structural and electronic properties of the chloride ion and water molecules in the first hydration shell is presented. The calculations are performed on an ensemble of configurations obtained from molecular dynamics simulations of a single chloride ion in bulk water. The simulations utilize the polarizable AMOEBA force field for trajectory generation, and MP2-level calculations are performed to examine the electronic structure properties of the ions and surrounding waters in the external field of more distant waters. The ChelpG method is employed to explore the effective charges and dipoles on the chloride ions and first-shell waters. The Quantum Theory of Atoms in Molecules (QTAIM) is further utilized to examine charge transfer from the anion to surrounding water molecules. From the QTAIM analysis, 0.2 elementary charges are transferred from the ion to the first-shell water molecules. The default AMOEBA model overestimates the average dipole moment magnitude of the ion compared with the estimated quantum mechanical value. The average magnitude of the dipole moment of the water molecules in the first shell treated at the MP2 level, with the more distant waters handled with an AMOEBA effective charge model, is 2.67 D. This value is close to the AMOEBA result for first-shell waters (2.72 D) and is slightly reduced from the bulk AMOEBA value (2.78 D). The magnitude of the dipole moment of the water molecules in the first solvation shell is most strongly affected by the local water-water interactions and hydrogen bonds with the second solvation shell, rather than by interactions with the ion.Comment: Slight revision, in press at J. Chem. Phy

The Persistent Southern Disadvantage in Us Early Life Mortality, 1965‒2014

Background: Recent studies of US adult mortality demonstrate a growing disadvantage among southern states. Few studies have examined long-term trends and geographic patterns in US early life (ages 1 to 24) mortality, ages at which key risk factors and causes of death are quite different than among adults. Objective: This article examines trends and variations in early life mortality rates across US states and census divisions. We assess whether those variations have changed over a 50-year time period and which causes of death contribute to contemporary geographic disparities. Methods: We calculate all-cause and cause-specific death rates using death certificate data from the Multiple Cause of Death files, combining public-use files from 1965‒2004 and restricted data with state geographic identifiers from 2005‒2014. State population (denominator) data come from US decennial censuses or intercensal estimates. Results: Results demonstrate a persistent mortality disadvantage for young people (ages 1 to 24) living in southern states over the last 50 years, particularly those located in the East South Central and West South Central divisions. Motor vehicle accidents and homicide by firearm account for most of the contemporary southern disadvantage in US early life mortality. Contribution: Our results illustrate that US children and youth living in the southern United States have long suffered from higher levels of mortality than children and youth living in other parts of the country. Our findings also suggest the contemporary southern disadvantage in US early life mortality could potentially be reduced with state-level policies designed to prevent deaths involving motor vehicles and firearms

Late-season Insect Pests of Soybean in Louisiana: Preventive Management and Yield Enhancement (Bulletin #880)

The velvetbean caterpillar and the soybean looper are important pests of soybeans in Louisiana. These late-season soybean insect pests create the need for the continuous development of insecticide programs that are cost effective, maintain profitable yields and conserve natural enemies.https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/agcenter_bulletins/1020/thumbnail.jp

Global data for ecology and epidemiology: a novel algorithm for temporal Fourier processing MODIS data

Background. Remotely-sensed environmental data from earth-orbiting satellites are increasingly used to model the distribution and abundance of both plant and animal species, especially those of economic or conservation importance. Time series of data from the MODerate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensors on-board NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites offer the potential to capture environmental thermal and vegetation seasonality, through temporal Fourier analysis, more accurately than was previously possible using the NOAA Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) sensor data. MODIS data are composited over 8- or 16-day time intervals that pose unique problems for temporal Fourier analysis. Applying standard techniques to MODIS data can introduce errors of up to 30% in the estimation of the amplitudes and phases of the Fourier harmonics. Methodology/Principal Findings. We present a novel spline-based algorithm that overcomes the processing problems of composited MODIS data. The algorithm is tested on artificial data generated using randomly selected values of both amplitudes and phases, and provides an accurate estimate of the input variables under all conditions. The algorithm was then applied to produce layers that capture the seasonality in MODIS data for the period from 2001 to 2005. Conclusions/Significance. Global temporal Fourier processed images of 1 km MODIS data for Middle Infrared Reflectance, day- and night-time Land Surface Temperature (LST), Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), and Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) are presented for ecological and epidemiological applications. The finer spatial and temporal resolution, combined with the greater geolocational and spectral accuracy of the MODIS instruments, compared with previous multi-temporal data sets, mean that these data may be used with greater confidence in species' distribution modelling

Structural diversity in tetrakis(4-pyridyl)porphyrin supramolecular building blocks

The authors would like to thank the University of Alabama Department of Chemistry and the University of Missouri-Columbia Department of Chemistry for support of this work.In memory of a pioneer in crystal engineering, Prof. Israel Goldberg, we report a series of new framework solids, based on the ligand tetrakis(4–pyridyl)porphyrin (TPyP). Spontaneous reactions of TPyP with seven different metal salts under liquid-liquid diffusion at ambient temperature show that the formation of ionic compounds is preferred to coordination polymers due to increased conformational freedom. Two coordination networks, {(HgI2)2(TPyP)}n·4nCHCl3∙2nTCE (TCE = 1,1,2,2–tetrachloroethane), and {(Ba(μ1,1–NCS)(μ1,1,3–NCS)(H2O)(MeCN))2(TPyP)}n·4nH2O, displayed a new isomeric form of the known [(HgI2)2(TPyP)]∞ polymeric motif, and a two-dimensional honeycomb polymeric motif linked by hydrogen-bonding into a three dimensional moganite (mog) net, respectively. Four protonated porphyrinic salts, [H3TPyP][PF6]3∙0.5TCE, [H2TPyP][I3]2·2MeOH, [H4TPyP][UO2Cl4]2·6MeCN, and [H4TPyP][Th(NO3)6][NO3]2, were observed which hydrogen bond to give one- or two-dimensional networks, or in the case of [H4TPyP][UO2Cl4]2·6MeCN, a discrete dinuclear hydrogen-bonded complex. In one case, a neutral, hydrogen-bonded complex, Ce(NO3)3(MeOH)3(H2O)·TPyP·TCE·H2O, was formed which adopts a three-dimensional, self-penetrated variant of the face-centered cubic (fcc) network. These new structures represent hybrid organic-inorganic crystalline compounds in which the multidentate porphyrin units, having both hydrogen bonding, as well as coordination functionalities, are interlinked through the inorganic connectors into self-assembled three-dimensional architectures. This work shows the relative stability of noncovalently bound vs. coordination networks as well as the effective potential of the TPyP building block to construct supramolecular assemblies in the presence or absence of coordinating ions as linkers.PostprintPeer reviewe

Constraining nonlinear time series modeling with the metabolic theory of ecology

Forecasting the response of ecological systems to environmental change is a critical challenge for sustainable management. The metabolic theory of ecology (MTE) posits scaling of biological rates with temperature, but it has had limited application to population dynamic forecasting. Here we use the temperature dependence of the MTE to constrain empirical dynamic modeling (EDM), an equation-free nonlinear machine learning approach for forecasting. By rescaling time with temperature and modeling dynamics on a “metabolic time step,” our method (MTE-EDM) improved forecast accuracy in 18 of 19 empirical ectotherm time series (by 19% on average), with the largest gains in more seasonal environments. MTE-EDM assumes that temperature affects only the rate, rather than the form, of population dynamics, and that interacting species have approximately similar temperature dependence. A review of laboratory studies suggests these assumptions are reasonable, at least approximately, though not for all ecological systems. Our approach highlights how to combine modern data-driven forecasting techniques with ecological theory and mechanistic understanding to predict the response of complex ecosystems to temperature variability and trends