Evolving United States Metropolitan Land Use Patterns

We investigate spatial patterns of residential and non- residential land use for 257 U.S. metropolitan areas in 1990 and 2000, measured with 14 empirical indices. We find that metropolitan areas became denser during the 1990s but developed in more sprawl-like patterns across all other dimensions, on average. By far the largest changes in our land use metrics occurred in the realm of employment, which became more prevalent per unit of geographic area, but less spatially concentrated and further from the historical urban core, on average. Our exploratory factor analyses reveal that four factors summarize land use patterns in both years, and remained relatively stable across the two years: intensity, compactness, mixing, and core-dominance. Mean factor scores vary by metropolitan population, water proximity, type, and Census region. Improved measurement of metropolitan land use patterns can facilitate policy and planning decisions intended to minimize the most egregious aspects of urban sprawl

Kinetics and mechanism of the reaction of acetonyl radical, CH3(CO)CH2, with Br2

The low pressure fast discharge flow method with laser induced fluorescence detection of CH3C(O)CH2 was employed to study the kinetics of the reaction CH3C(O)CH2 + Br2 → CH3C(O)CH2Br + Br (1) at 298, 323 and 365 K. The rate coefficient at room temperature is k1 = (2.33 ± 0.04 (2σ)) 10–12 cm3 molecule–1 s–1, which increases slightly with increasing temperature. Quantum chemistry (G2) and theoretical rate theory (conventional TST) computations have supplied results in qualitative agreement with experiment. The relatively slow rate of reaction (1) can be due to the resonance stabilization of the acetonyl radical. Keywords: reaction kinetics, acetonyl radical, Br2 molecule, resonance stabilizatio

Energy Discovery-Innovation Institutes: A Step Toward America's Energy Sustainability

Part of the "Blueprint for American Prosperity"http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/88629/1/2009_Brookings_Energy_Report.pd

The geography of greenhouse gas emissions from within urban areas of Asia

This paper aims to advance two objectives: (1) identify and explore greenhouse gas emissions from urban areas in Asia at the regional level; and (2) explore covariates of urban greenhouse gas emissions. We use the Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research estimates for carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and sulfur hexafluoride from 14 source activities for the year 2000, which are allocated on a 1/108 global grid. We extract emissions for 3535 urban extents all with populations over 50,000, accounting for approximately 91% of the region’s urban population. We use regression analysis to associate emissions with urban area and growth, economic, and biophysical characteristics. Our findings suggest that urban areas account for between 30 and 38% of total anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions for the region and that emission per capita averages from urban areas are lower than those at the national level. Important covariates for total urban greenhouse gas emissions include population size, density and growth rate, income per capita, development status and elevation. This is a first and preliminary assessment of regional baseline trends using these data and this top-down analysis

Carbon foam characterization: sandwich flexure, tensile and shear response

The focus of this research is characterizing a new material system composed of carbon and graphite foams, which has potential in a wide variety of applications encompassing aerospace, military, offshore, power production and other commercial industries. The benefits of this new material include low cost, light weight, fire-resistance, good energy absorption, and thermal insulation or conduction as desired. The objective of this research is to explore the bulk material properties and failure modes of the carbon foam through experimental and computational analysis in order to provide a better understanding and assessment of the material for successful design in future applications. Experiments are conducted according to ASTM standards to determine the mechanical properties and failure modes of the carbon foam. Sandwich beams composed of open cell carbon foam cores and carbon-epoxy laminate face sheets are tested in the flexure condition using a four point setup. The primary failure mode is shear cracks developing in the carbon foam core at a critical axial strain value of 2,262 με. In addition to flexure, the carbon foam is loaded under tensile and shear loads to determine the respective material moduli. Computational analysis is undertaken to further investigate the carbon foam's failure modes and material characteristics in the sandwich beam configuration. Initial estimates are found using classical laminated plate theory and a linear finite element model. Poor results were obtained due to violation of assumptions used in both cases. Thus, an additional computational analysis incorporating three dimensional strain-displacement relationships into the finite element analysis is used. Also, a failure behavior pattern for the carbon foam core is included to simulate the unique failure progression of the carbon foam on a microstructure level. Results indicate that displacements, strains and stresses from the flexure experiments are closely predicted by this two parameter progressive damage model. The final computational model consisted of a bond line (interface) study to determine the source of the damage initiation, and it is concluded that damage initiates in the carbon foam, not at the bond line

The Role of Eif6 in Skeletal Muscle Homeostasis Revealed by Endurance Training Co-expression Networks

Regular endurance training improves muscle oxidative capacity and reduces the risk of age-related disorders. Understanding the molecular networks underlying this phenomenon is crucial. Here, by exploiting the power of computational modeling, we show that endurance training induces profound changes in gene regulatory networks linking signaling and selective control of translation to energy metabolism and tissue remodeling. We discovered that knockdown of the mTOR-independent factor Eif6, which we predicted to be a key regulator of this process, affects mitochondrial respiration efficiency, ROS production, and exercise performance. Our work demonstrates the validity of a data-driven approach to understanding muscle homeostasis

No evidence of a common DNA variant profile specific to world class endurance athletes

There are strong genetic components to cardiorespiratory fitness and its response to exercise training. It would be useful to understand the differences in the genomic profile of highly trained endurance athletes of world class caliber and sedentary controls. An international consortium (GAMES) was established in order to compare elite endurance athletes and ethnicity-matched controls in a case-control study design. Genome-wide association studies were undertaken on two cohorts of elite endurance athletes and controls (GENATHLETE and Japanese endurance runners), from which a panel of 45 promising markers was identified. These markers were tested for replication in seven additional cohorts of endurance athletes and controls: from Australia, Ethiopia, Japan, Kenya, Poland, Russia and Spain. The study is based on a total of 1520 endurance athletes (835 who took part in endurance events in World Championships and/or Olympic Games) and 2760 controls. We hypothesized that world-class athletes are likely to be characterized by an even higher concentration of endurance performance alleles and we performed separate analyses on this subsample. The meta-analysis of all available studies revealed one statistically significant marker (rs558129 at GALNTL6 locus, p = 0.0002), even after correcting for multiple testing. As shown by the low heterogeneity index (I2 = 0), all eight cohorts showed the same direction of association with rs558129, even though p-values varied across the individual studies. In summary, this study did not identify a panel of genomic variants common to these elite endurance athlete groups. Since GAMES was underpowered to identify alleles with small effect sizes, some of the suggestive leads identified should be explored in expanded comparisons of world-class endurance athletes and sedentary controls and in tightly controlled exercise training studies. Such studies have the potential to illuminate the biology not only of world class endurance performance but also of compromised cardiac functions and cardiometabolic diseases

History, Identity and the Struggle for Land in Northeastern Brazil, 1955-1985

Drawing from Edward Said, Durval Muniz de Albuquerque Junior has argued that through a repetition of texts and images, Northeastern Brazil was "nordestinizado," or turned into an imagined area of misery, violence, folklore, fanaticism, and rebellion that became the Other of the modern, urban center-south of Brazil. My research builds on Albuquerque's arguments about the construction of o Nordeste in the twentieth century by situating them in the milieu of political and cultural debates that attempted to redefine Northeastern Brazil during the Cold War. Rural social movements (associated with the Catholic Church, the Communist Party, and the Ligas Camponesas), large landowners, filmmakers and intellectuals, popular poets, U.S. and Brazilian politicians and journalists, and Brazilian military officers proposed projects to change the structures that they saw as perpetuating regional inequalities. To gain support for their political projects, these social, political and cultural movements appropriated regional historical symbols and narratives, imbuing them with new meanings. In doing so, they sought to redefine regional identity, and to a certain extent, also looked to redefine national and Third World identity. During the Cold War, identity expanded to becoming a product of local, national and transnational discussions, facilitated by the expansion of film as a medium of mass culture. The debates over the meaning of regional historical symbols and regional identity in Northeastern Brazil are at once an exaggerated and exemplary microcosm of Cold War political and cultural struggles in Latin America and in the Third World. The characters in the story had counterparts in other countries, and the setting was one of the most socially unequal areas in the world espousing all of the problems and possibilities of impoverished areas during the Cold War. The struggles also occurred at a key moment in Cold War history in Latin America: the era of the Cuban Revolution. But, the Northeast was not a blank slate for Cold War policies; in fact, the region had entrenched cultural symbols and historical narratives that composed the framework for the debates over regional identity