Evaluation of the Effect of Rail Intra-Urban Transit Stations on Neighborhood Change

Development of heavy rail intra-urban public transportation systems is an economically expensive policy tool for State and Local Governments that is often justified with the promise of economic development and neighborhood revitalization around station areas. However, the literature on the effects of rail intra-urban transit stations on neighborhoods is relatively thin, particularly on the socioeconomic effects. This quasi-experimental study evaluated the effect of heavy rail intra-urban transit stations on surrounding neighborhoods, using Atlanta, Georgia and its transit authority, the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA), as a case study. Atlanta is an expansive American city, with a large public transportation system, but low population density and no large-scale policies promoting growth around MARTA rail stations. The study period, 1970 to 2014, covers the entire period of MARTA’s existence – stations opened between 1979 and 2000. Neighborhood change was operationalized with a neighborhood change index (NCI), built on the Neighborhood Life-Cycle framework, with an adaptation that incorporates both the filtering (negative NCI) and gentrification (positive NCI) models of neighborhood change. The study differentiates between an initial effect of new MARTA rail stations, and a long-term effect. Control groups were formed using one and three mile buffers, as well as a matching strategy. Difference-in-difference (DID) models find very little evidence of a positive relationship of NCI with the opening of new MARTA rail stations. The economic recovery that began in 2010 is of special interest for housing research. To address this time-period this study utilized two models, with mixed results. The DID model suggested a negative effect of stations on the NCI. To control for selection bias in the 2010 to 2014 economic time-period, this study utilized propensity score matching to balance the treatment and control group on observed characteristics. A time and tract fixed effects model using the matched treatment and control groups found a significant positive effect of stations on neighborhood change. To test the long-term effect, a time and tract fixed effects model (1970-2014) with the NCI as the dependent variable found a positive NCI effect of MARTA stations on neighborhoods. Therefore, overall, positive neighborhood change (on the NCI scale) can be attributed to MARTA transit stations. Since 2002 MARTA ridership has slightly declined; therefore, the study concludes that given stagnant ridership, lack of supporting policy, and the finding of a positive relationship between MARTA transit stations and gentrification, the stations are a positive amenity, and are a significant contributor to neighborhood change. However, neighborhoods are heterogeneous on many dimensions, and the effect of rail intra-urban transit stations on neighborhoods may depend on the tract’s location, service characteristics, accessibility, and many other unobserved characteristics. Future research will supplement this methodology with additional data and compare the effect of intra-urban transit stations on neighborhood change in other cities to better address potential neighborhood heterogeneity

Inequities of Transit Access: The Case of Atlanta, GA

Public transportation systems are essential components of urban infrastructure, providing connectivity that contributes to the quality of life for urban dwellers. Particularly important for low-income populations, public transportation systems enhance access to jobs, markets, services, education, healthcare, recreation, and social networks. While low-income populations and minorities make up a disproportionately high share of transit ridership, theories such as spatial mismatch, social construction framework, and Critical Race Theory maintain that public transportation systems may not provide equitable connectivity to all riders. We utilize GIS and regression models to examine the relationship between transit connectivity and poverty, asking whether connectivity is evenly distributed by social class. Atlanta, GA is a city with a significant low-income and minority population that is segregated from affluent, white neighborhoods. We exploit this spatial discontinuity to examine public transit access by socioeconomic status. We utilize ten years of General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) and census data, and a measure of employment and population connectivity for the period from 2012 and 2017. We find low public transit connectivity in high poverty and minority block groups, relative to other areas in the city. The findings underscore the need to fund public transit investments targeted at low income areas

Heat exposure and resilience planning in Atlanta, Georgia

The City of Atlanta, Georgia, is a fast-growing urban area with substantial economic and racial inequalities, subject to the impacts of climate change and intensifying heat extremes. Here, we analyze the magnitude, distribution, and predictors of heat exposure across the City of Atlanta, within the boundaries of Fulton County. Additionally, we evaluate the extent to which identified heat exposure is addressed in Atlanta climate resilience governance. First, land surface temperature (LST) was mapped to identify the spatial patterns of heat exposure and potential socioeconomic and biophysical predictors of heat exposure were assessed. Second, government and city planning documents and policies were analyzed to assess whether the identified heat exposure risks are addressed in Atlanta climate resilience planning. The average LST of Atlanta’s 305 block groups ranges from 23.7 °C (low heat exposure) in vegetated areas to 31.5 °C (high heat exposure) in developed areas across 13 summer days used to evaluate the spatial patterns of heat exposure (June-August, 2013-2019). In contrast to nationwide patterns, census block groups with larger historically marginalized populations (predominantly Black, less education, lower income) outside of Atlanta’s urban core display weaker relationships with LST (slopes ≈ 0) and are among the cooler regions of the city. Climate governance analysis revealed that although there are few strategies for heat resilience in Atlanta (n=12), the majority are focused on the city’s warmest region, the urban core, characterized by the city’s largest extent of impervious surface. These strategies prioritize protecting and expanding the city’s urban tree canopy, which has kept most of Atlanta’s marginalized communities under lower levels of outdoor heat exposure. Such a tree canopy can serve as an example of heat resilience for many cities across the United States and the globe

Integrated analysis of germline and somatic variants in ovarian cancer

We report the first large-scale exome-wide analysis of the combined germline-somatic landscape in ovarian cancer. Here we analyze germline and somatic alterations in 429 ovarian carcinoma cases and 557 controls. We identify 3,635 high confidence, rare truncation and 22,953 missense variants with predicted functional impact. We find germline truncation variants and large deletions across Fanconi pathway genes in 20% of cases. Enrichment of rare truncations is shown in BRCA1, BRCA2, and PALB2. Additionally, we observe germline truncation variants in genes not previously associated with ovarian cancer susceptibility (NF1, MAP3K4, CDKN2B, and MLL3). Evidence for loss of heterozygosity was found in 100% and 76% of cases with germline BRCA1 and BRCA2 truncations respectively. Germline-somatic interaction analysis combined with extensive bioinformatics annotation identifies 237 candidate functional germline truncation and missense variants, including 2 pathogenic BRCA1 and 1 TP53 deleterious variants. Finally, integrated analyses of germline and somatic variants identify significantly altered pathways, including the Fanconi, MAPK, and MLL pathways

Patterns and functional implications of rare germline variants across 12 cancer types

Large-scale cancer sequencing data enable discovery of rare germline cancer susceptibility variants. Here we systematically analyse 4,034 cases from The Cancer Genome Atlas cancer cases representing 12 cancer types. We find that the frequency of rare germline truncations in 114 cancer-susceptibility-associated genes varies widely, from 4% (acute myeloid leukaemia (AML)) to 19% (ovarian cancer), with a notably high frequency of 11% in stomach cancer. Burden testing identifies 13 cancer genes with significant enrichment of rare truncations, some associated with specific cancers (for example, RAD51C, PALB2 and MSH6 in AML, stomach and endometrial cancers, respectively). Significant, tumour-specific loss of heterozygosity occurs in nine genes (ATM, BAP1, BRCA1/2, BRIP1, FANCM, PALB2 and RAD51C/D). Moreover, our homology-directed repair assay of 68 BRCA1 rare missense variants supports the utility of allelic enrichment analysis for characterizing variants of unknown significance. The scale of this analysis and the somatic-germline integration enable the detection of rare variants that may affect individual susceptibility to tumour development, a critical step toward precision medicine

Comprehensive and Integrated Genomic Characterization of Adult Soft Tissue Sarcomas

Sarcomas are a broad family of mesenchymal malignancies exhibiting remarkable histologic diversity. We describe the multi-platform molecular landscape of 206 adult soft tissue sarcomas representing 6 major types. Along with novel insights into the biology of individual sarcoma types, we report three overarching findings: (1) unlike most epithelial malignancies, these sarcomas (excepting synovial sarcoma) are characterized predominantly by copy-number changes, with low mutational loads and only a few genes (, , ) highly recurrently mutated across sarcoma types; (2) within sarcoma types, genomic and regulomic diversity of driver pathways defines molecular subtypes associated with patient outcome; and (3) the immune microenvironment, inferred from DNA methylation and mRNA profiles, associates with outcome and may inform clinical trials of immune checkpoint inhibitors. Overall, this large-scale analysis reveals previously unappreciated sarcoma-type-specific changes in copy number, methylation, RNA, and protein, providing insights into refining sarcoma therapy and relationships to other cancer types

Inequities of Transit Access: The Case of Atlanta, GA

Public transportation systems are essential components of urban infrastructure, providing connectivity that contributes to the quality of life for urban dwellers. Particularly important for low-income populations, public transportation systems enhance access to jobs, markets, services, education, healthcare, recreation, and social networks. While low-income populations and minorities make up a disproportionately high share of transit ridership, theories such as spatial mismatch, social construction framework, and Critical Race Theory maintain that public transportation systems may not provide equitable connectivity to all riders. We utilize GIS and regression models to examine the relationship between transit connectivity and poverty, asking whether connectivity is evenly distributed by social class. Atlanta, GA is a city with a significant low-income and minority population that is segregated from affluent, white neighborhoods. We exploit this spatial discontinuity to examine public transit access by socioeconomic status. We utilize ten years of General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) and census data, and a measure of employment and population connectivity for the period from 2012 and 2017. We find low public transit connectivity in high poverty and minority block groups, relative to other areas in the city. The findings underscore the need to fund public transit investments targeted at low income areas

Mutational landscape and significance across 12 major cancer types

The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) has used the latest sequencing and analysis methods to identify somatic variants across thousands of tumours. Here we present data and analytical results for point mutations and small insertions/deletions from 3,281 tumours across 12 tumour types as part of the TCGA Pan-Cancer effort. We illustrate the distributions of mutation frequencies, types and contexts across tumour types, and establish their links to tissues of origin, environmental/carcinogen influences, and DNA repair defects. Using the integrated data sets, we identified 127 significantly mutated genes from well-known(forexample, mitogen-activatedprotein kinase, phosphatidylinositol-3-OH kinase,Wnt/β-catenin and receptor tyrosine kinase signalling pathways, and cell cycle control) and emerging (for example, histone, histone modification, splicing, metabolism and proteolysis) cellular processes in cancer. The average number of mutations in these significantly mutated genes varies across tumour types; most tumours have two to six, indicating that the numberof driver mutations required during oncogenesis is relatively small. Mutations in transcriptional factors/regulators show tissue specificity, whereas histone modifiers are often mutated across several cancer types. Clinical association analysis identifies genes having a significant effect on survival, and investigations of mutations with respect to clonal/subclonal architecture delineate their temporal orders during tumorigenesis. Taken together, these results lay the groundwork for developing new diagnostics and individualizing cancer treatment