Conceptualizing \u27Chinese diaspora\u27: a study of Chinese migrants in Cairo

While China\u27s recent increased presence and authority in Africa has been noted by national and international media, governments and academic sources, the issue of Chinese migrants living in the African continent and specifically Egypt has largely been left unnoticed. Despite the variance in population statistics, it is clear that Egypt does contain a population of Chinese migrants and that this population will undoubtedly grow as China\u27s relationship with Egypt continues to flourish. Who are these migrants, and how do they relate to other populations of Chinese migrants residing across the world? Several terms have been used to describe this population of migrants. However, the lack of consistency in the usage of these terms presents a problem of promoting a perhaps false notion of who makes up this population. Unless a common rhetoric is established, comparative studies involving Chinese migration patterns may not be accurate. By learning how Chinese migrants currently residing in Cairo view themselves and their connection to other Chinese migrants and to China, this thesis provides an insight into the complexity of the term â Chinese Diaspora\u27 and the need for more appropriate terms to explain this phenomenon

Designing Sustainable Communities for Automated Transit Networks

Automated Transit Networks have the potential of changing the design of communities. Transportation is one of the key aspects for structuring our built environment. Now that Automated Transit Networks are being re-examined, early studies integrating them into the built environment can provide insight into their potential applications

21st Century Synergies between Architecture and Transportation

Architecture and transportation are at the center of the current rethinking of our 21st century. Their interrelationships create our settlements and can remake our world, in deep and profound ways. Student’s projects will be presented as visions for the 21st century that give more than they take, creating regenerative spaces

Transportation Conditions and Solutions in Carbondale, Illinois

This research studies the potential of a new sustainable macro transit system to create sustainable/resilient transportation at the Southern Illinois University (SIU) campus and city of Carbondale, Illinois. The paper is applicable to many small rural University-cities where students do not have access to cars and where the growth pattern has created sprawl. This paper documents the existing transportation systems: train, bus, university campus shuttle, local county transit, automobile, bicycle, and pedestrian traffic. The graduate assistant research and subsequent thesis project explored how full mobility can be provided by creating a multi-modal transportation hub, parking, and new commercial downtown development linking the existing historic downtown and University campus with emerging transportation technology including an automated transit network (ATN), bicycles pathways and car-shared or bike-shared vehicles; all highly sustainable forms of transportation. The research documents how ATN (modern update of PRT) has the potential to replace several of the existing transportation systems, both public and private, to create better mobility for all with a sustainable/resilient, timely and cost-effective system. This system could provide full access without car ownership to the residents of the campus and local community. Environment impacts and new energy sources as part of the final architectural multi-modal transportation design solution creates a complete transportation model for small university-city place-driven ingenuity and research

Housing and Mobility Toolkit for San Mateo County

Since the end of the Great Recession, San Mateo County has attracted new workers at a record rate without building anywhere near enough housing. This jobs-housing imbalance drives the cost of housing up and forces many moderate and lower-income employees and their families out of the County. A lack of access to quality affordable housing in the County and the entire Bay Area along with limited transportation options means that an increased number of employees drive in and out of the County every workday. The resultant congestion, gridlock, and long commutes along with other negative environmental, social, and economic impacts create a major concern for communities in the County and beyond. Clearly, this problem has two distinct but interrelated dimensions: housing development and transportation planning. A select group of Mineta Transportation Institute (MTI) Research Associates worked closely with representatives from the San Mateo County Home for All initiative to help address this challenge by developing a toolkit of successful case studies with a holistic approach to housing development and transportation planning

Air pollution & the brain: Subchronic diesel exhaust exposure causes neuroinflammation and elevates early markers of neurodegenerative disease

Background Increasing evidence links diverse forms of air pollution to neuroinflammation and neuropathology in both human and animal models, but the effects of long-term exposures are poorly understood. Objective We explored the central nervous system consequences of subchronic exposure to diesel exhaust (DE) and addressed the minimum levels necessary to elicit neuroinflammation and markers of early neuropathology. Methods Male Fischer 344 rats were exposed to DE (992, 311, 100, 35 and 0 μg PM/m3) by inhalation over 6 months. Results DE exposure resulted in elevated levels of TNFα at high concentrations in all regions tested, with the exception of the cerebellum. The midbrain region was the most sensitive, where exposures as low as 100 μg PM/m3 significantly increased brain TNFα levels. However, this sensitivity to DE was not conferred to all markers of neuroinflammation, as the midbrain showed no increase in IL-6 expression at any concentration tested, an increase in IL-1β at only high concentrations, and a decrease in MIP-1α expression, supporting that compensatory mechanisms may occur with subchronic exposure. Aβ42 levels were the highest in the frontal lobe of mice exposed to 992 μg PM/m3 and tau [pS199] levels were elevated at the higher DE concentrations (992 and 311 μg PM/m3) in both the temporal lobe and frontal lobe, indicating that proteins linked to preclinical Alzheimer\u27s disease were affected. α Synuclein levels were elevated in the midbrain in response to the 992 μg PM/m3 exposure, supporting that air pollution may be associated with early Parkinson\u27s disease-like pathology. Conclusions Together, the data support that the midbrain may be more sensitive to the neuroinflammatory effects of subchronic air pollution exposure. However, the DE-induced elevation of proteins associated with neurodegenerative diseases was limited to only the higher exposures, suggesting that air pollution-induced neuroinflammation may precede preclinical markers of neurodegenerative disease in the midbrain

Exchange biased anomalous Hall effect driven by frustration in a magnetic kagome lattice.

Co[Formula: see text]Sn[Formula: see text]S[Formula: see text] is a ferromagnetic Weyl semimetal that has been the subject of intense scientific interest due to its large anomalous Hall effect. We show that the coupling of this material's topological properties to its magnetic texture leads to a strongly exchange biased anomalous Hall effect. We argue that this is likely caused by the coexistence of ferromagnetism and geometric frustration intrinsic to the kagome network of magnetic ions, giving rise to spin-glass behavior and an exchange bias

Groundtruthing next-gen sequencing for microbial ecology-biases and errors in community structure estimates from PCR amplicon pyrosequencing

Analysis of microbial communities by high-throughput pyrosequencing of SSU rRNA gene PCR amplicons has transformed microbial ecology research and led to the observation that many communities contain a diverse assortment of rare taxa-a phenomenon termed the Rare Biosphere. Multiple studies have investigated the effect of pyrosequencing read quality on operational taxonomic unit (OTU) richness for contrived communities, yet there is limited information on the fidelity of community structure estimates obtained through this approach. Given that PCR biases are widely recognized, and further unknown biases may arise from the sequencing process itself, a priori assumptions about the neutrality of the data generation process are at best unvalidated. Furthermore, post-sequencing quality control algorithms have not been explicitly evaluated for the accuracy of recovered representative sequences and its impact on downstream analyses, reducing useful discussion on pyrosequencing reads to their diversity and abundances. Here we report on community structures and sequences recovered for in vitro-simulated communities consisting of twenty 16S rRNA gene clones tiered at known proportions. PCR amplicon libraries of the V3-V4 and V6 hypervariable regions from the in vitro-simulated communities were sequenced using the Roche 454 GS FLX Titanium platform. Commonly used quality control protocols resulted in the formation of OTUs with >1% abundance composed entirely of erroneous sequences, while over-aggressive clustering approaches obfuscated real, expected OTUs. The pyrosequencing process itself did not appear to impose significant biases on overall community structure estimates, although the detection limit for rare taxa may be affected by PCR amplicon size and quality control approach employed. Meanwhile, PCR biases associated with the initial amplicon generation may impose greater distortions in the observed community structure