Social and municipal influences on electric vehicle purchases

Growth in electric vehicle ownership in Canada has been slow relative to policy imperatives to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. According to the 2014 IPCC report the global transportation sector was responsible for approximately 23% of all energy related CO2 emissions - second only to the energy supply sector. Further, transportation-related GHG emissions have risen despite growing availability of more efficient modes of transportation (IPCC, 2014). In Ontario, where there is an emphasis on renewable energy production, the transportation sector is the largest emitter of GHGs at 35% (Ontario Government, 2016). We conducted our case study in London, Ontario where vehicle ownership has grown 40% from 2010 – 2018 while combined ownership of plug in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) and plug in electric vehicles (EV) grew only 2.8% (City of London, 2019). While existing research on hybrid and EV purchasing focuses mainly on market-level economic models, few studies investigate how either social influence or municipal intervention impact electric vehicle purchasing behaviour. This study uses a survey of 257 Londoners, randomly selected from four different postal codes to determine if their likelihood to purchase a hybrid or EV is influenced by social (e.g. talking with family and friends) and municipal factors (e.g., municipally sponsored test drive events, preferential parking). Those factors were included in a model with several other predictors of electric vehicle purchasing behaviour including: cost/financial concerns, environmental concerns, and sociodemographic factors. As hypothesized both social and municipal variables were significantly associated with likelihood to purchase a hybrid or EV as expected. There are two key implications. First, those interested in promoting hybrid/EV should consider messaging that centers on current owners of hybrid/EVs interacting with family and friends. Second, cities should consider their role in providing relatively low-cost incentives and promotion for hybrid or EV. Future research might include direct municipal interventions meant to increase hybrid/EV uptake along with measurement of the impacts using before and after questionnaire

2005 Revised Omaha Economic Development Plan: Plan for Northeast Omaha

The 2005 Revised OEDP provides OEDC with current data and analysis to initiate and complete a strategic process to develop an action plan for community and economic development activities and projects. The 2005 Revised Overall Economic Development Plan (OEDP) prepared by the Center for Public Affairs Research (CPAR) at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) for the Omaha Economic Development Corporation (OEDC) replaces the original OEDP first prepared in 1978. While a variety of revisions and updates over the years helped keep the original OEDP relatively current and helpful in development activities, in 2005 OEDC President Alvin Goodwin commissioned CPAR to provide a new basic planning document for the organization. Working with OEDC staff, and using the original OEDP as a framework, faculty and staff from CPAR, with the assistance of UNO graduate students, collected and analyzed data for the 2005 Revised Overall Economic Development Plan. The Revised OEDP retains and updates several of the sections from the original Plan but also adds new sections. Overall economic development plans contain a wealth of information about the demographic, social, and economic characteristics of the geographic area targeted for development by a community development corporation (CDC). CDCs, like the Omaha Economic Development Corporation, engage in many and varied community and economic development projects in its service area, and the overall economic development plan provides needed information to implement these projects. For example, the OEDP helps the community development corporation identify community needs as well as opportunities for business and economic development. Data from the OEDP can also be utilized for marketing and promotional purposes to attract new firms and customers. The OEDP serves as a source of information for formulating broad, long-term organizational goals, as well as specific, short-term development strategies and actions. Finally, the OEDP helps coordinate development activities, plans, and projects among the range of other organizations working in or adjacent to the target area

Mutation of the phospholipase C-γ1–binding site of LAT affects both positive and negative thymocyte selection

Linker for activation of T cells (LAT) is a scaffolding adaptor protein that is critical for T cell development and function. A mutation of LAT (Y136F) that disrupts phospholipase C-γ1 activation and subsequent calcium influx causes a partial block in T cell development and leads to a severe lymphoproliferative disease in homozygous knock-in mice. One possible contribution to the fatal disease of LAT Y136F knock-in mice could be from autoreactive T cells generated in these mice because of altered thymocyte selection. To examine the impact of the LAT Y136F mutation on thymocyte positive and negative selection, we bred this mutation onto the HY T cell receptor (TCR) transgenic, recombination activating gene-2 knockout background. Female mice with this genotype showed a severe defect in positive selection, whereas male mice exhibited a phenotype resembling positive selection (i.e., development and survival of CD8(hi) HY TCR-specific T cells) instead of negative selection. These results support the hypothesis that in non-TCR transgenic, LAT Y136F knock-in mice, altered thymocyte selection leads to the survival and proliferation of autoreactive T cells that would otherwise be negatively selected in the thymus

beta-Hydroxy-beta-methylbutyrate free acid reduces markers of exercise-induced muscle damage and improves recovery in resistance-trained men

The purpose of the present study was to determine the effects of short-term supplementation with the free acid form of beta-hydroxy-beta-methylbutyrate (HMB-FA) on indices of muscle damage, protein breakdown, recovery and hormone status following a high-volume resistance training session in trained athletes. A total of twenty resistance-trained males were recruited to participate in a high-volume resistance training session centred on full squats, bench presses and dead lifts. Subjects were randomly assigned to receive either 3 g/d of HMB-FA or a placebo. Immediately before the exercise session and 48 h post-exercise, serum creatine kinase (CK), urinary 3-methylhistadine (3-MH), testosterone, cortisol and perceived recovery status (PRS) scale measurements were taken. The results showed that CK increased to a greater extent in the placebo (329%) than in the HMB-FA group (104%) (P=0.004, d=1.6). There was also a significant change for PRS, which decreased to a greater extent in the placebo (9.1 (SEM 0.4) to 4.6 (SEM 0.5)) than in the HMB-FA group (9.1 (SEM 0.3) to 6.3 (SEM 0.3)) (P=0.005, d = -0.48). Muscle protein breakdown, measured by 3-MH analysis, numerically decreased with HMB-FA supplementation and approached significance (P=0.08, d = 0.12). There were no acute changes in plasma total or free testosterone, cortisol or C-reactive protein. In conclusion, these results suggest that an HMB-FA supplement given to trained athletes before exercise can blunt increases in muscle damage and prevent declines in perceived readiness to train following a high-volume, muscle-damaging resistance-training session

Power Law versus Exponential State Transition Dynamics: Application to Sleep-Wake Architecture

BACKGROUND: Despite the common experience that interrupted sleep has a negative impact on waking function, the features of human sleep-wake architecture that best distinguish sleep continuity versus fragmentation remain elusive. In this regard, there is growing interest in characterizing sleep architecture using models of the temporal dynamics of sleep-wake stage transitions. In humans and other mammals, the state transitions defining sleep and wake bout durations have been described with exponential and power law models, respectively. However, sleep-wake stage distributions are often complex, and distinguishing between exponential and power law processes is not always straightforward. Although mono-exponential distributions are distinct from power law distributions, multi-exponential distributions may in fact resemble power laws by appearing linear on a log-log plot. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: To characterize the parameters that may allow these distributions to mimic one another, we systematically fitted multi-exponential-generated distributions with a power law model, and power law-generated distributions with multi-exponential models. We used the Kolmogorov-Smirnov method to investigate goodness of fit for the "incorrect" model over a range of parameters. The "zone of mimicry" of parameters that increased the risk of mistakenly accepting power law fitting resembled empiric time constants obtained in human sleep and wake bout distributions. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Recognizing this uncertainty in model distinction impacts interpretation of transition dynamics (self-organizing versus probabilistic), and the generation of predictive models for clinical classification of normal and pathological sleep architecture

A 3,000-year-old Egyptian emmer wheat genome reveals dispersal and domestication history

Tetraploid emmer wheat (Triticum turgidum ssp. dicoccon) is a progenitor of the world’s most widely grown crop, hexaploid bread wheat (Triticum aestivum), as well as the direct ancestor of tetraploid durum wheat (T. turgidum subsp. turgidum). Emmer was one of the first cereals to be domesticated in the old world; it was cultivated from around 9700 BC in the Levant1,2 and subsequently in south-western Asia, northern Africa and Europe with the spread of Neolithic agriculture3,4. Here, we report a whole-genome sequence from a museum specimen of Egyptian emmer wheat chaff, 14C dated to the New Kingdom, 1130–1000 BC. Its genome shares haplotypes with modern domesticated emmer at loci that are associated with shattering, seed size and germination, as well as within other putative domestication loci, suggesting that these traits share a common origin before the introduction of emmer to Egypt. Its genome is otherwise unusual, carrying haplotypes that are absent from modern emmer. Genetic similarity with modern Arabian and Indian emmer landraces connects ancient Egyptian emmer with early south-eastern dispersals, whereas inferred gene flow with wild emmer from the Southern Levant signals a later connection. Our results show the importance of museum collections as sources of genetic data to uncover the history and diversity of ancient cereals