Factors Affecting Residential Property Development Patterns

The pattern of residential development within the context of metropolitan growth and development has been the subject of an extensive literature. Among the streams of literature have been monocentric and policentric models, rent gradients and population density, and spatial mismatch and jobs/housing balance. Less explored have been the factors determining the specific location of development from within a larger set of suitable locations. This paper uses a disaggregated data set, county property appraiser data, to track the number of new single-family housing units built in each section (square mile) of Alachua County, Florida by the year built over a twenty- year period. The paper explores the role of transportation, large-scale development, employment nodes, existing patterns of development, and regulation on the spatial pattern of development. As discussions turn to smart growth, compact development, and the alleviation of sprawl, it is important to understand the forces that contribute to observed development patterns.

Workforce Data Quality Initiative

Texas’ Workforce Data Quality Initiative aimed to develop a comprehensive system for analysis of workforce and education participation and outcomes. In partnership with the Texas Workforce Commission, the Ray Marshall Center (RMC) is working to build, test, improve, and expand data linkages across linked individual-level, longitudinal education, and workforce records. Through this project, researchers would be able to identify and assess postsecondary pathways and transitions between education, employment, and other outcomes for students exiting the public school system as well as analyze the performance of the human capital development system in Texas, spanning secondary education through postsecondary education, and workforce training and employment.This report seeks to examine and analyze the postsecondary labor market outcomes of Texas high school graduates from the classes of 2008 and 2009. One advantage of looking at these two particular cohorts stems from differences in when they encountered the Great Recession: the class of 2008 graduated prior to the start of the recession in Texas and the class of 2009 graduated immediately after the start of the recession. It is likely that class of 2009 graduates factored in the regional changes in availability of employment as they weighed whether or not to apply for and enroll in college.Texas Workforce CommissionRay Marshall Center for the Study of Human Resource

Sucrose density gradient centrifugation and cross-flow filtration methods for the production of arbovirus antigens inactivated by binary ethylenimine

BACKGROUND: Sucrose density gradient centrifugation and cross-flow filtration methods have been developed and standardised for the safe and reproducible production of inactivated arbovirus antigens which are appropriate for use in diagnostic serological applications. METHODS: To optimise the maximum titre of growth during the propagation of arboviruses, the multiplicity of infection and choice of cell line were investigated using stocks of Ross River virus and Barmah Forest virus grown in both mosquito and mammalian cell lines. To standardise and improve the efficacy of the inactivation of arboviral suspensions, stocks of Ross River virus, Barmah Forest virus, Japanese encephalitis virus, Murray Valley encephalitis virus and Alfuy virus were chemically inactivated using binary ethylenimine at a final concentration of 3 mM. Aliquots were then taken at hourly intervals and crude inactivation rates were determined for each virus using a plaque assay. To ensure complete inactivation, the same aliquots were each passaged 3 times in Aedes albopictus C6/36 cells and the presence of viral growth was detected using an immunofluorescent assay. For larger quantities of viral suspensions, centrifugation on an isopycnic sucrose density gradient or cross-flow filtration was used to produce concentrated, pure antigens or partially concentrated, semi-purified antigens respectively. RESULTS: The results of the propagation experiments suggested that the maximum viral titres obtained for both Ross River virus and Barmah Forest virus were affected by the incubation period and choice of cell line, rather than the use of different multiplicity of infection values. Results of the binary ethylenimine inactivation trial suggested that standardised periods of 5 or 8 hours would be suitable to ensure effective and complete inactivation for a number of different arboviral antigens. CONCLUSION: Two methods used to prepare inactivated arbovirus antigens have been standardised to minimise production failure and expenditure and to provide reagents that conform to the highest quality and safety requirements of a diagnostic serology laboratory. The antigens are suitable for use in either enzyme linked immunosorbent assays or haemagglutination inhibition assays and the optimised protocols can be directly applied to produce antigens from new or emerging arboviral pathogens

Transcriptional profiling of C57 and DBA strains of mice in the absence and presence of morphine

BACKGROUND: The mouse C57BL/6 (C57) and DBA/2J (DBA) inbred strains differ substantially in many aspects of their response to drugs of abuse. The development of microarray analyses represents a genome-wide method for measuring differences across strains, focusing on expression differences. In the current study, we carried out microarray analysis in C57 and DBA mice in the nucleus accumbens of drug-naïve and morphine-treated animals. RESULTS: We identified mRNAs with altered expression between the two strains. We validated the mRNA expression changes of several such mRNAs, including Gnb1, which has been observed to be regulated by several drugs of abuse. In addition, we validated alterations in the enzyme activity of one mRNA product, catechol-O-methyltransferase (Comt). Data mining of expression and behavioral data indicates that both Gnb1 and Comt expression correlate with aspects of drug response in C57/DBA recombinant inbred strains. Pathway analysis was carried out to identify pathways showing significant alterations as a result of treatment and/or due to strain differences. These analyses identified axon guidance genes, particularly the semaphorins, as showing altered expression in the presence of morphine, and plasticity genes as showing altered expression across strains. Pathway analysis of genes showing strain by treatment interaction suggest that the phosphatidylinositol signaling pathway may represent an important difference between the strains as related to morphine exposure. CONCLUSION: mRNAs with differing expression between the two strains could potentially contribute to strain-specific responses to drugs of abuse. One such mRNA is Comt and we hypothesize that altered expression of Comt may represent a potential mechanism for regulating the effect of, and response to, multiple substances of abuse. Similarly, a role for Gnb1 in responses to multiple drugs of abuse is supported by expression data from our study and from other studies. Finally, the data support a role for semaphorin signaling in morphine effects, and indicate that altered expression of genes involved in phosphatidylinositol signaling and plasticity might also affect the altered drug responses in the two strains

Nucleosynthetic Layers in the Shocked Ejecta of Cassiopeia A

We present a three-dimensional analysis of the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A using high-resolution spectra from the Spitzer Space Telescope. We observe supernova ejecta both immediately before and during the shock-ejecta interaction. We determine that the reverse shock of the remnant is spherical to within 7%, although the center of this sphere is offset from the geometric center of the remnant by 810 km s^(–1). We determine that the velocity width of the nucleosynthetic layers is ~1000 km s^(–1) over 4000 arcsec^2 regions, although the velocity width of a layer along any individual line of sight is <250 km s^(–1). Si and O, which come from different nucleosynthetic layers in the progenitor star, are observed to be coincident in velocity space in some directions, but segregated by up to ~500 km s^(–1) in other directions. We compare these observations of the nucleosynthetic layers to predictions from supernova explosion models in an attempt to constrain such models. Finally, we observe small-scale, corrugated velocity structures that are likely caused during the supernova explosion itself, rather than hundreds of years later by dynamical instabilities at the remnant's reverse shock

Supplementary data and analysis for estimating walleye selectivity

This document has been issued as VIMS Data Report 61 and provides data tables and results of exploratory analyses conducted as part of the complete data analysis for Myers et al. 2014 published in the Transactions of the American Fisheries Society. Estimates of size- and sex-specific selectivity of fishing gear are important for making informed management decisions. We distinguish between capture selectivity – the relative catchability of the components of the population – and harvest selectivity, which is the combined effects of capture selectivity and the decision to retain or release a fish of a given population component. We used short-term recaptures from three extensive tagging programs in Minnesota and Wisconsin to estimate directly the size- and sex- specific selectivity of angling for captured and for harvested walleye Sander vitreus, and of spear fishing for harvested walleye. Estimates were obtained using generalized linear models with an information-theoretic approach to determining the significance of individual and interactive effects of length and sex on selectivity. The primary conclusions of this research are presented in Myers et al. 2014. Residual analyses for the models presented in the manuscript, results of unpublished exploratory analyses, and the complete data set used to conduct the analyses are presented in this supplementary document. Through this data report, interested readers can repeat the analyses conducted in Myers et al. 2014, as well as see the results of additional analyses not presented in the primary publication

Monitoring cryptic amphibians and reptiles in a Florida state park

We monitored cryptic herpetofauna at Savannas Preserve State Park, Florida, by combining artificial cover counts with a quantitative paradigm for constructing and calculating population indices. Weekly indices were calculated from two consecutive days of data collection each week for 7 months from mid-winter to mid-summer in three habitats. Seventeen species were observed at least once, and time trends using index values were followed for six species. Among these, abundance and seasonal pattern information were obtained for an exotic species (greenhouse frog) and a species identified by the Florida Committee on Rare and Endangered Plants and Animals as threatened (Florida scrub lizard). We identified winter as the optimal time in this area to monitor populations for conducting annual assessments. This combined observation and indexing approach could provide managers or researchers with an economical means to quantitatively index population trends for multiple cryptic herpetofauna species simultaneously. Using artificial cover to sample within a population indexing design can be generalized beyond monitoring herpetofauna. Other forms of artificial cover that can be used as observation stations include aquatic artificial substrates, artificial tree cavities, artificial reefs, and other artificial aquatic structures and artificial sea grass units, among many others, and a wide range of taxa are suitable for population monitoring using artificial cover as observation stations in the approach we present, including insects, soil invertebrates, micro and macro aquatic invertebrates, fish, crustaceans, and small mammals