Urban Digital Divides and Community WiFi: A Case Study of Red Hook, Brooklyn

As a research area, the scholarship on the digital divide has largely focused on the difference in internet access and availability between urban and rural sites. The proposed research endeavor investigates the digital divide within urban areas to understand the linkages between resiliency, information and communication technologies (ICT), and the field of urban planning. Using GIS visualization and a case study approach, this thesis examines internet access and availability within New York City. The GIS visualization draws upon public sources of data to map areas with low internet penetration within the study area. The case study approach involves interviews with members of Red Hook WiFi, an organization in Red Hook, Brooklyn that is working to address the digital divide through training and community outreach. Using this mixed-methods approach, several conclusions came to light: 1) that the urban digital divide aligns with the theoretical understanding of it as "pockets of inclusion and exclusion" with a socio-economic underpinning, as reported in the literature; 2) current and planned initiatives to address this divide are not sufficient; and 3) the community developed and owned WiFi network has enabled key resiliency capacities that need to be built upon. Given these conclusions, this study concludes by discussing the role that urban planning can play in fostering more resilient communities by becoming engaged in broadband planning and also offers recommendations for city agencies, local organizations, and planners themselves

Lateral Lower Face and Neck Contouring Following Burn Injury

The neck is normally a concave and highly mobile structure. Facial and cervical skin is prone to burn scar contracture because of its thin nature. The goal of treatment is to reconstruct this region to achieve a good aesthetic outcome and also normal neck and chin mobilization. This study was conducted to compare the effect of one row of suture and three rows of suture in critical points of the neck to recreate cervicomandibular angle for better contouring of the neck. A cross-sectional study was performed from July 2006 until August 2010. A total of 65 patients underwent lower lateral face and neck burn scar contracture reconstruction. The mean age of participants was 25.5 years old. After designing a local flap, in 31 patients we applied one row of suture. In 34 patients, we used three rows of suture on each side of the neck incorporation with  the recipient bed and the flap dermis or capsule to recreate a natural lower lateral face and neck contour (P<0.001). The standard deviation in hospitalization was 7 ± 2 days for group A and 6 ± 1 days for group B. In a two years follow-up, no blunting of cervicomandibular angle occurred and three rows of suture were superior according to present findings

Baselines, Trajectories, and Scenarios

Agricultural production on farms and ranches in the U.S. contributes to the food supply and the food system on local, regional, national, and global scales. Increasing production at the regional scale—the focus of this research—depends on accurately estimating current production and understanding the mechanisms and resource requirements of production shifts. The Produc­tion Team of the EFSNE Project undertook seven studies that focused on current and poten­tial production in the U.S. Northeast region, which includes nearly one-quarter of the popula­tion but only about 3% of national cropland. Here we summarize the results from these studies that: (1) estimate the regional self-reliance of primary crop, livestock products, and livestock feeds; (2) develop and implement a method to delineate urban, peri-urban, and rural zones around cities and analyze the distribution of food chain businesses across these zones; (3) assess crop yield trajectories to refine potential production increases associated with agricultural expansion into different land categories; and (4) model climate change and dietary impacts on yields and land use. The regional self-reliance of food crops varies widely, and the predominant agricultural use of land is for the production of animal feeds. The peri-urban zones contain significant agricultural production and concentrations of supply chain businesses. The potential to expand regional output via yield increases varies by crop and by land category and is strongly influenced by climate change. The diverse disciplines represented on the Production Team, along with significant leader­ship from graduate students and post-doctoral researchers, contributed to the broad array of studies completed