Framework To A Design Solution For Downtown Buffalo, NY

Downtown Buffalo, New York is on the verge of a design recovery. Despite once being celebrated for its architectural and engineering achievements of the 1800s, Buffalo spent the near century that followed in a downward trend. Contemporarily considered a forgotten city of the industrial era, it now sits at the precipice of a new beginning. Around the 1980s, a series of investment studies produced reports outlining the different ways downtown Buffalo was struggling. Whether it was measured by loss of residential population, corporate headquarters leaving town, or just general urban decay, Buffalo had been exhibiting all the symptoms of a dying city for decades. Its last real growth period spanned from the 1920s to the 1950s, peaking at around 580k residents. In the period of decline that followed, Buffalo lost nearly 55% of its population in the blink of an eye . It now sits under 10k residents, and the question is, what is the connection between a declining population and a built environment? The purpose of this thesis is to identify the existing points of disconnection between Buffalo’s harbor and its center city, which are two nodes of potential, then define a series of solutions that can provide the most opportunity for sustainable regrowth from the inside out. The goal is to inhibit the prosperity of downtown Buffalo economically and aesthetically - but most importantly, functionally. The design will be a framework for which future developments can fit into seamlessly. Robust and vibrant new veins through holes in the urban fabric, such as empty lots, surface parking, and unsightly highway overpasses, will be the emphasis of this proposal. The focal point of the design will be a revised Sports and Entertainment District with entirely new city blocks surrounding a new downtown football stadium for the NFL’s Buffalo Bills. Growth will stem from the Cobblestone District and reach outward beyond the I-190 overpass, back into the original Joseph Ellicott plan. The design is a three-pronged approach that will address connectivity, residential blocks, and commercial growth -- all of which are staples of a healthy, sustainable downtown

Outgassing of Mantle Volatiles in Compressional Tectonic Regime Away From Volcanism: The Role of Continental Delamination

In this study we discuss the occurrence of mantle-derived heat and volatiles (i.e., helium and CO 2 ) feeding hydrothermal systems in a seismically active margin between two convergent plates (African and European) without any signals of volcanism. The helium (He) isotopes clearly indicate a mantle-derived component in the outgassing volatiles. The estimated mantle-derived He fluxes are up to two to three orders of magnitude greater than those in a stable continental area. Such high He fluxes cannot be provided by a long-lasting diffusion, thereby implying a more efficient transport (i.e., advective transport through faults). He data coupled to heat-He relationship suggest the occurrence of active degassing of magmatic intrusions in this area of continental collisional. Geophysical data indicate the presence of a hot mantle wedge below the outgassing of mantle volatiles and a system of faults cutting the continental crust down to the hot mantle wedge. Here we discuss the hot mantle wedge and possible associated magmatic intrusions as the source of the mantle-derived volatiles outgassing in the region. We also assessed the output of mantle-derived CO 2 from the investigated hydrothermal basins. The possible occurrence of magma at depth as well as the geometry of the thick-skinned deformed wedge unambiguously indicates delamination processes that are related to continental subduction. Hence, we show that delamination processes can really produce magma at depth without evidences of volcanism at the surface. Finally, we have also provided the fault systems that work as a network of pathways and actively sustain the advective transfer of the mantle fluids toward the surface

Continental degassing of helium in an active tectonic setting (northern Italy): the role of seismicity

In order to investigate the variability of helium degassing in continental regions, its release from rocks and emission into the atmosphere, here we studied the degassing of volatiles in a seismically active region of northern Italy (MwMAX = 6) at the Nirano-Regnano mud volcanic system. The emitted gases in the study area are CH4–dominated and it is the carrier for helium (He) transfer through the crust. Carbon and He isotopes unequivocally indicate that crustal-derived fluids dominate these systems. An high-resolution 3-dimensional reconstruction of the gas reservoirs feeding the observed gas emissions at the surface permits to estimate the amount of He stored in the natural reservoirs. Our study demonstrated that the in-situ production of 4He in the crust and a long-lasting diffusion through the crust are not the main processes that rule the He degassing in the region. Furthermore, we demonstrated that micro-fracturation due to the field of stress that generates the local seismicity increases the release of He from the rocks and can sustain the excess of He in the natural reservoirs respect to the steady-state diffusive degassing. These results prove that (1) the transport of volatiles through the crust can be episodic as function of rock deformation and seismicity and (2) He can be used to highlight changes in the stress field and related earthquakes

Capillaroscopy in 2016 : new perspectives in systemic sclerosis

Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is an autoimmune disorder of unknown etiology characterized by early impairment of the microvascular system. Nailfold microangiopathy and decreased peripheral blood perfusion are typical clinical aspects of SSc. The best method to evaluate vascular injury is nailfold videocapillaroscopy, which detects peripheral capillary morphology, and classifies and scores the abnormalities into different patterns of microangiopathy. Microangiopathy appears to be the best evaluable predictor of the disease development and has been observed to precede the other symptoms by many years. Peripheral blood perfusion is also impaired in SSc, and there are different methods to assess it: laser Doppler and laser speckle techniques, thermography and other emerging techniques

The transition between the Marsili oceanic crust and the W Calabria rifted margin: rifting and drifting in the upper plate of the Ionian subduction zone

The western Calabria continental margin forms the transition between the Late Pliocene to Recent Marsili spreading center and continental Calabria. Integrating highpenetration and -resolution upper crustal seismic images with seafloor morphology, ODP well data and geological/geophysical constraints we provide a detailed reconstruction of the architecture of the distal portion of the W Calabria rifted margin and of the adjacent Marsili “oceanic” domain (Fig. 1) and develop a scheme for the Pliocene to present rifting and drifting of the upper plate of the Ionian subduction zone. Our seismic data document the presence of stretched and thinned continental crust, less than 10 Km thick into the eastern sector of the Marsili abyssal plain previously considered as floored by a three-layer oceanic crust. Thinning of the crust is associated with a numbers of 2-4 km wide tilted blocks composed of an acoustic basement and pre- and syn-rift sediments. Stretching factors between 1.1 and 1.42 (ca. 40% extension) has been obtained assuming a domino-like style of deformation. With few exceptions, the infill completely smoothes out pre-existing topography and explain the flat sea floor in the area surrounding the Marsili volcano. Extensional tectonics began in the Late (?) Pliocene – Early (?) Pleistocene times and ended at ca. 0.5 Ma resulting in the formation of ca. 70 km of “oceanic” domain with an average spreading rate between ca. 5.1 and 5.9 cm/yr. The appearance of vescicular basalts in the Marsili basin was not associated with the end of extension. The post-extensional sedimentary package has fairly constant thicknesses of ca. 350 along the entire Marsili abyssal plain. The Marsili volcano grows close to the western termination of the stretched and thinned W Calabria continental crust, in an asymmetric position with respect to the < 2 Ma Marsili Basin itself

A Jurassic-Cretaceous intraplatform basin in the Panormide Southern Tethyan margin (NW Sicily, Italy), reaveled by integrating facies and structural analyses with subsidence history

We illustrate the tectono-sedimentary evolution of a Jurassic-Cretaceous intraplatform basin in a fold and thrust belt present setting (Cala Rossa basin). Detailed stratigraphy and facies analysis of Upper Triassic-Eocene successions outcropping in the Palermo Mts (NW Sicily), integrated with structural analysis, restoration and basin analysis, led to recognize and describe into the intraplatform basin the proximal and distal depositional areas respect to the bordered carbonate platform sectors. Carbonate platform was characterized by a rimmed reef growing with progradational trends towards the basin, as suggested by the several reworked shallow-water materials interlayered into the deep-water succession. More, the occurrence of thick resedimented breccia levels into the deep-water succession suggests the time and the characters of synsedimentary tectonics occurred during the Late Jurassic. The study sections, involved in the building processes of the Sicilian fold and thrust belt, were restored in order to obtain the original width of the Cala Rossa basin, useful to reconstruct the original geometries and opening mechanisms of the basin. Basin analysis allowed reconstructing the subsidence history of three sectors with different paleobathymetry, evidencing the role exerted by tectonics in the evolution of the narrow Cala Rossa basin. In our interpretation, a transtensional dextral Lower Jurassic fault system, WNW-ESE (present-day) oriented, has activated a wedge shaped pull-apart basin. In the frame of the geodynamic evolution of the Southern Tethyan rifted continental margin, the Cala Rossa basin could have been affected by Jurassic transtensional faults related to the lateral westward motion of Africa relative to Europe

Seismically-induced soft-sediment deformation structures in Upper Triassic deepwater carbonates (Central Sicily)

We describe soft-sediment deformation structures into the Upper Triassic cherty limestone outcropping in the Pizzo Lupo section (Central Sicily, Italy), pertaining to the deep-water palaeodomain of the Southern Tethyan margin. In the study section, mainly consisting of thin-bedded mudstone/marl alternations with bedded chert intercalations, some lithofacies have been separated on the basis of the abundance of the calcium carbonate/clay content and the overall textural features. The deformational structures, displaying different deformational styles as folded and faulted beds, disturbed layers, clastic dikes, and slumps occur mainly in the deformed horizons that involve marl-dominated lithofacies. Small-scale water-escape structures involve beds with nodular fabric. Synsedimentary faults affect the mud-limestone dominated lithofacies, which are characterized by fault-rotating blocks producing lateral thinning. These bodies appear to have moved coherently along an overall planar surface. We relate these soft-sediment deformations to slump sheets, associated with down-slope sliding of sedimentary masses. The deformation mechanism and driving force for these soft-sediment deformations are due essentially to gravitational instability and dewatering. Detailing, rotational (slump) and translational (glide) slides and water-escape are the main processes causing the distinguished deformational styles. The synsedimentary extensional tectonics that affected the Upper Triassic pelagic deposits was the triggering process responsible for the instability of the seafloor inducing loss of coherence of the unconsolidated sediments on the sea bottom, developing a large number of gravity-driven slides. The analysis of both of these SSDSs and their relationships with the structural scenario allow us to hypothesise that they are seismically-induced

The sterno-clavicular joint: anatomy, biomechanic, clinical features and aspects of manual therapy

The sterno-clavicular joint covers one remarkable importance in the complex of the shoulder girdle. This review investigates the anatomy, biomechanics, main affections and involvement of this joint in the pathological processes of the shoulder girdle in its complex. Moreover, it focuses on the opportunities offered from the conservative treatment, using in particular the manual therapy. Active and passive, as well as against isometric resistance movements, are discussed. In particular, the passive mobilization is demonstrated effective in the restoration of joint mobility. The sterno- clavicular joint is not structured in order to complete great work loads and has the tendency to become hypermotile or unstable, if subordinate to overload works, becoming painful. In this case, the techniques of passive mobilization and of modulation of the pain turn out effective

Capillaroscopy as an Outcome Measure for Clinical Trials on the Peripheral Vasculopathy in SSc—Is It Useful?

Peripheral microvascular impairment in systemic sclerosis (SSc) may be easily detected and scored in a safe noninvasive way by nailfold videocapillaroscopy (NVC). The paper highlights clinical conditions related to SSc in which NVC may represent an outcome measure of therapeutical interventions, by elaborating on their already assessed relationship with the NVC patterns and eventually scores. The 3 important biological/clinical conditions are: the positivity for SSc-specific serum autoantibodies, the presence of SSc skin digital ulcers (DUs) and of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) SSc associated. In conclusion, to the question if capillaroscopy (NVC) may represent in SSc an outcome measure for clinical trials on the peripheral vasculopathy, based on the growing evidence and our detailed studies, the answer is positive. Recent therapeutic trials in SSc are confirming this role, and the experience is growing rapidly