Maintenance of Residential Rental Property: An Empirical Analysis

The maintenance costs of 137 residential rental properties in northwestern South Carolina are analyzed. The results show that maintenance cost per square foot increases with property age, tenant turnover, certain amenities, and for higher-rent properties. Compared to other property types, apartments exhibit higher maintenance costs per square foot with larger complexes showing lower per square foot maintenance costs than smaller complexes. This cost economy suggests added value to rental housing for larger complexes. Owners of multiple properties are found to pay higher maintenance costs. Finally, there is no observed relationship between absentee ownership and the level of property maintenance.

Real-time 3D Archaeological Field Recording: Development of an interoperable open-source GIS data entry system.

This project will develop and test a real-time 3D data recording interface for on-the-field archaeological excavations that will be applicable to different time periods, contexts and recording nomenclature. In 2010, this open-source, OS independent, web-based GIS application called ArchField was developed for excavations in Jordan. It is now imperative to begin the second stage of streamlining the software to make it easily adapted to different archaeological projects. The proposed application is an open GIS that can communicate with different spatially oriented user interfaces (e.g. Google Earth) for visualization and analysis. This system is built by archaeologists for archaeological excavation and digital conservation. Its ability includes association of all field data with 3D coordinates and auto-generation of for daily top plans in real-time. The end goal is to provide an easily available and user-friendly digital archaeological system to facilitate the dissemination online of advanced digital recording and mapping techniques to a broad audience

Concepts for autonomous flight control for a balloon on Mars

Balloons operating as airborne rovers have been suggested as ideal candidates for early exploration of the Martian surface. An international study team composed of scientists from the U.S.S.R., France, and the U.S.A. is planning the launching in 1994 of a balloon system to fly on Mars. The current likely design is a dual thermal/gas balloon that consists of a gas balloon suspended above a solar-heated thermal balloon. At night, the thermal balloon provides no lift, and the balloon system drifts just above the Martian surface; the lift of the gas balloon is just sufficient to prevent the science payload from hitting the ground. During the day, the balloon system flies at an altitude of 4 to 5 kilometers, rising due to the added lift provided by the thermal balloon. Over the course of a single Martian day, there may be winds in several directions, and in fact it can be expected that there will be winds simultaneously in different directions at different altitudes. Therefore, a balloon system capable of controlling its own altitude, via an autonomous flight control system, can take advantage of these different winds to control its direction, thereby greatly increasing both its mission utility and its longevity

Exploring expectations and lived experiences of Low Traffic Neighbourhoods in Birmingham, UK

In the UK, urban environments suffer disproportionately from pollution and community severance due to private vehicle use and related infrastructure. During the COVID-19 pandemic, local authorities implemented Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTN) to encourage active travel and improve urban residential environments. This research explored people’s expectations and lived experience of two LTNs in Birmingham, a large city, providing insights for future schemes. Birmingham City Council held pre-LTN (July-November 2020) and post-LTN consultations (February-April 2021). A qualitative thematic analysis of respondents’ responses explored thoughts on local transport issues, expectations, and lived experiences of LTNs. There were 3751 and 791 responses to pre- and post-LTN consultations. Most respondents were female local residents; with 45-54 years olds the most frequent responders. Overarching categories: (i) Pre-LTN transport concerns and proposed solutions; (ii) Anticipated and reported benefits from the LTN and (ii) Anticipated and reported disadvantages from the LTN. Cited benefits included reduced traffic and safety concerns, increased active transport and an improved sense of community. Disadvantages included frustration, inconvenience and great resentment between residents of roads with and without filters. Both support and opposition to LTNs was found. LTNs addressed some, but not all local traffic concerns. Feelings of discrimination were noted by residents of streets without filters; high street residents encountering displaced traffic and disabled car users. Piecemeal LTN implementation may undermine community cohesion. Networks of modal filters across neighbouring residential areas with measures addressing the interplay between residential, business, school and faith environments and additional measures supporting boundary roads may maximise LTN benefits

Flavor-Changing Processes in Extended Technicolor

We analyze constraints on a class of extended technicolor (ETC) models from neutral flavor-changing processes induced by (dimension-six) four-fermion operators. The ETC gauge group is taken to commute with the standard-model gauge group. The models in the class are distinguished by how the left- and right-handed $(L,R)$ components of the quarks and charged leptons transform under the ETC group. We consider $K^{0} - \bar K^0$ and other pseudoscalar meson mixings, and conclude that they are adequately suppressed if the $L$ and $R$ components of the relevant quarks are assigned to the same (fundamental or conjugate-fundamental) representation of the ETC group. Models in which the $L$ and $R$ components of the down-type quarks are assigned to relatively conjugate representations, while they can lead to realistic CKM mixing and intra-family mass splittings, do not adequately suppress these mixing processes. We identify an approximate global symmetry that elucidates these behavioral differences and can be used to analyze other possible representation assignments. Flavor-changing decays, involving quarks and/or leptons, are adequately suppressed for any ETC-representation assignment of the $L$ and $R$ components of the quarks, as well as the leptons. We draw lessons for future ETC model building.Comment: 25 page

Forced mobilization accelerates pathogenesis: characterization of a preclinical surgical model of osteoarthritis

Preclinical osteoarthritis (OA) models are often employed in studies investigating disease-modifying OA drugs (DMOADs). In this study we present a comprehensive, longitudinal evaluation of OA pathogenesis in a rat model of OA, including histologic and biochemical analyses of articular cartilage degradation and assessment of subchondral bone sclerosis. Male Sprague-Dawley rats underwent joint destabilization surgery by anterior cruciate ligament transection and partial medial meniscectomy. The contralateral joint was evaluated as a secondary treatment, and sham surgery was performed in a separate group of animals (controls). Furthermore, the effects of walking on a rotating cylinder (to force mobilization of the joint) on OA pathogenesis were assessed. Destabilization-induced OA was investigated at several time points up to 20 weeks after surgery using Osteoarthritis Research Society International histopathology scores, in vivo micro-computed tomography (CT) volumetric bone mineral density analysis, and biochemical analysis of type II collagen breakdown using the CTX II biomarker. Expression of hypertrophic chondrocyte markers was also assessed in articular cartilage. Cartilage degradation, subchondral changes, and subchondral bone loss were observed as early as 2 weeks after surgery, with considerable correlation to that seen in human OA. We found excellent correlation between histologic changes and micro-CT analysis of underlying bone, which reflected properties of human OA, and identified additional molecular changes that enhance our understanding of OA pathogenesis. Interestingly, forced mobilization exercise accelerated OA progression. Minor OA activity was also observed in the contralateral joint, including proteoglycan loss. Finally, we observed increased chondrocyte hypertrophy during pathogenesis. We conclude that forced mobilization accelerates OA damage in the destabilized joint. This surgical model of OA with forced mobilization is suitable for longitudinal preclinical studies, and it is well adapted for investigation of both early and late stages of OA. The time course of OA progression can be modulated through the use of forced mobilization