A Drop in the Bucket: An Analysis of Resources to Address Home Foreclosure in Chicago

The Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) is Chicago's primary source of funds to redevelop neighborhoods devastated by the home foreclosure crisis. Yet NSP is able to fund a minute fraction of the resources needed to effectively address the crisis. The city of Chicago has another available resource, Tax Increment Financing (TIF), which could be used in a similar way to the way NSP dollars are used, though they are not currently being allocated for this purpose.Of the city's 159 TIF districts, all but three allow TIF funds to be used to purchase and rehabilitate properties. The Sweet Home Chicago ordinance, now pending before the Chicago City Council, would designate a yearly share of TIF funds to build and rehabilitate affordable housing, including foreclosed houses and apartment buildings. If enacted, TIF funds would complement the Neighborhood Stabilization Program, allowing the city to more significantly impact the continuing foreclosure crisis.This report examines the current impact of NSP, the extent to which TIF resources can be used to address foreclosures, and the resources available in TIF funds within neighborhoods hard hit by foreclosures.Key findings include:The Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP), launched in 2009, has already depleted 28 percent of its funding through the purchase and rehab of only 83 properties. These properties comprise less than 1 percent of the total number of foreclosures completed in Chicago during 2009 alone.The maximum number of foreclosed properties acquired in any of 27 NSP communities as of July 30, 2010 is 11.32% of home foreclosures in NSP communities occurred within TIF districts. These properties could be rehabilitated as affordable housing using TIF dollars.In 2009, 507 foreclosures were completed and 1,415 foreclosures were filed within TIF districts in communities that were ineligible for NSP.Communities reporting more than 50 foreclosures within a TIF district have uncommitted funds available in the TIFs within their boundaries. Estimates of uncommitted funds that will be available over the life of these TIF districts range from $19 million to$761 million

The Bottom Two Percent: Using Positive Psychology to Create Change Among Convicts

We can turn convicted individuals into thriving members of the community. An empowering approach with the convicted will improve rehabilitative outcomes by creating behavior change. There exists a model that successfully rehabilitates the convicted by teaching the skills necessary to reenter society. This capstone uses the Delancey Foundation as a case study of this model. Delancey provides housing, job training, and education to convicts, addicts, and the homeless. Delancey uses social entrepreneurship and peer mentorship to empower residents. This capstone uses the research of positive psychology to demonstrate how Delancey converts takers into givers using peer mentorship, which develops the major components of human well-being described in Seligman’s PERMA model. Increased PERMA generates the conditions for convicts to thrive, ultimately becoming contributing members of society. This capstone makes formal recommendations for the replication of the Delancey model

The effect of JAK inhibitors baricitinib and tofacitinib on Th17 cells, regulatory T cells and the Th17/Treg balance in patients with rheumatoid arthritis

Background: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a systemic inflammatory autoimmune disease that leads to irreversible structural joint damage, progressive disability and severe systemic complications including pulmonary, cardiac, hematological and vascular disorders. It affects around 1% of the full age population and is the most common form of inflammatory arthritis worldwide. The first-line therapy with the immunosuppressant methotrexate is generally efficient and effective, but provokes a big range of adverse effects and, at times, shows inadequate treatment response. In order to improve the therapeutic management of Rheumatoid Arthritis, the JAK inhibitors baricitinib and tofacitinib - a new class of so called targeted Disease Modifying Anti-Rheumatic Drugs (DMARDs) - recently achieved RA approval, passing clinical phase III trials with high effectiveness and tolerable adverse effects. Due to their oral application, they have an additional advantage in clinical use. JAK inhibitors are immunomodulators that target cytokine receptor associated janus kinases and thereby affect the JAK/STAT-mediated differentiation and activation of different immune cells. Objective: Considering the pathogenesis of RA, especially the immunologic imbalances of pro-inflammatory Th17 cells and immunosuppressive regulatory T (Treg) cells seem to play a pivotal role in the development of disease. In RA patients, increased frequencies of Th17 cells are found while Treg cells are impaired, leading to a defective Th17/Treg ratio in favor of Th17 cells. With that in mind, this study was constituted in order to investigate the molecular effect of baricitinib and tofacitinib on JAK/STAT-mediated activation and differentiation of Th17 cells and Treg cells in patients with RA. We particularly focused the question, if JAK inhibitors are able to restore the impaired Th17/Treg balance. Moreover, we aimed to detect differences in the molecular effects of baricitinib and tofacitinib taking into account that they target different janus kinases. Baricitinib is known as a JAK1/JAK2 inhibitor, while tofacitinib was designed to inhibit primarily JAK1 and JAK3. Last, this study analyzed the effect of JAK inhibitor treatment on janus kinase expression levels, investigating if reduced JAK activation also affects its expression. Methods: The study was performed with patients of the rheumatologic ambulance of the University Hospital of Cologne, including patients with diagnosed rheumatoid arthritis and a ‘healthy’ control group without rheumatic diseases but similar epidemiological features. The RA patients were subclassified in 4 groups according to their treatment: baricitinib-treated, tofacitinib-treated, methotrexate-treated and untreated. Peripheral blood samples were taken, CD4+ T cells were isolated and then analyzed via flowcytometry and PCR in order to display the frequency of the different T cell subsets % in relation to CD4+ T cells on the one hand, and to evaluate the expression of janus kinases and T cell associated key-transcriptions factors on the other hand. Results: Patients with untreated rheumatoid arthritis showed significantly increased expression levels of the Th17 cell associated key cytokine IL-17 compared to healthy controls, indicating chronic inflammation in RA. We showed that both treatments, MTX and the JAK inhibitors baricitinib and tofacitinib, were highly effective in the reduction of IL-17 expression achieving similar expression levels as healthy controls. The study also revealed that the frequency of regulatory T cells is significantly reduced in untreated RA patients compared to healthy controls, confirming the pathologic imbalance of Th17 cells and Treg cells in disease. Interestingly, neither baricitinib nor tofacitinib was able to restore the impaired regulatory T cells, in contrast to MTX, which at least partially enhanced them. With regard to the Th17/Treg ratio, this study concludes that JAK inhibitors only partially restore the immunologic balance via their effect on Th17 cells. This finding might form a background for prospective improvements of JAK inhibitor treatment in the therapeutic management of rheumatoid arthritis and other inflammatory diseases. The analyzed gene expression levels of the janus kinases JAK1, JAK2, JAK3 and TYK2 slightly indicate that JAK expression is not increased in patients with rheumatoid arthritis compared to healthy controls. Further, it can be assumed, that the mechanism by which JAK inhibitors affect JAK-induced downstream signaling is probably rather related to reduced JAK activation than to reduced JAK expression. But further studies with larger data sets need to be addressed to make a precise statement on the molecular effect of JAK inhibitors on JAK gene expressions. Although baricitinib and tofacitinib target different janus kinases, this study did not show any differences in the effect of baricitinib and tofacitinib on JAK/STAT-mediated differentiation and activation of the analyzed T cells. Conclusion: The most intriguing finding of this study was the demonstration of low Treg cell numbers in peripheral blood after treatment with baricitinib and tofacitinib, which leads to a partially restored Th17/Treg balance that is mainly achieved by a strong therapeutic effect on pathogenic Th17 cells. Based on these results, we presume that novel therapeutic strategies with the ability to fully restore the Th17/Treg balance might bring additional benefit in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. Outlook: One approach could be the combination of JAK inhibitors with low-dose IL-2, considering that IL-2 receptor downstream signaling induces Treg cell differentiation. This might recover Treg cell frequencies and could thereby contribute to immune homeostasis. Another promising approach is the development of more selective JAK inhibitors such as a JAK 1 inhibitor upadacitinib and TYK2 inhibitor BMS-986165. These selective JAK inhibitors and its research will further improve our understanding of janus kinase mediated downstream signaling and bring new insights into immunologic processes of the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune diseases

Worldwide trends in dietary sugars intake.

Estimating trends in dietary intake data is integral to informing national nutrition policy and monitoring progress towards dietary guidelines. Dietary intake of sugars is a controversial public health issue and guidance in relation to recommended intakes is particularly inconsistent. Published data relating to trends in sugars intake are relatively sparse. The purpose of the present review was to collate and review data from national nutrition surveys to examine changes and trends in dietary sugars intake. Only thirteen countries (all in the developed world) appear to report estimates of sugars intake from national nutrition surveys at more than one point in time. Definitions of dietary sugars that were used include ‘total sugars’, ‘non-milk extrinsic sugars’, ‘added sugars’, sucrose' and ‘mono- and disaccharides’. This variability in terminology across countries meant that comparisons were limited to within countries. Hence trends in dietary sugars intake were examined by country for the whole population (where data permitted), and for specific or combined age and sex subpopulations. Findings indicate that in the majority of population comparisons, estimated dietary sugars intake is either stable or decreasing in both absolute (g/d) and relative (% energy) terms. An increase in sugars intake was observed in few countries and only in specific subpopulations. In conclusion, the findings from the present review suggest that, in the main, dietary sugars intake are decreasing or stable. A consistent approach to estimation of dietary sugars intake from national nutrition surveys is required if more valid estimates of changes in dietary sugars intakes are required in the future

Rejets radioactifs et environnement du CERN en 2004

La radioactivité de l’environnement autour de l’Organisation Européenne pour la Recherche Nucléaire (CERN) et les doses de rayonnements qui en résultent pour la population avoisinante sont contrôlées par la Commission de Sécurité du CERN et de manière indépendante par les autorités compétentes des deux États Hôtes, l’Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire (IRSN) côté France et l’Office Fédéral de la Santé Publique (OFSP) côté Suisse. Dans ce rapport, les résultats de mesures concernent en particulier le territoire suisse. L’ensemble des mesures effectuées en 2004 prouve que le fonctionnement des installations du CERN était sans conséquence radiologique sur l’environnement et la population. Le contrôle des émissions montre que les rejets effectifs se situent également en 2004 nettement en dessous des limites réglementaires. Ce constat est confirmé par le contrôle des immissions dans l’environnement. Le CERN a bien respecté en 2004 comme dans les années précédentes la valeur directrice de dose liée à la source fixée à 0.3 mSv/an. L’impact réel représente en fait moins de 5% de cette valeur, comme l’indique l’estimation pour le groupe de référence, qui est de l’ordre de 0.01 mSv/an

Rejets et environnement du CERN

La radioactivité de l’environnement autour de l’Organisation Européenne pour la Recherche Nucléaire (CERN) et les doses de rayonnements qui en résultent pour la population avoisinante sont contrôlées par la Commission de Sécurité du CERN et de manière indépendante par les autorités compétentes des deux États Hôtes, l’Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire (IRSN) côté France et l’Office Fédéral de la Santé Publique (OFSP) côté Suisse (voire Chapitre 8.6). Dans ce rapport, les résultats de mesures concernent en particulier le territoire suisse. L’ensemble des mesures effectuées en 2006 prouve que le fonctionnement des installations du CERN était sans conséquence radiologique sur l’environnement et la population. Le contrôle des émissions montre que les rejets effectifs se situent, également en 2006, nettement en dessous des limites réglementaires. Ce constat est confirmé par le contrôle des immissions dans l’environnement. Le CERN a bien respecté en 2006 comme dans les années précédentes la valeur directrice de dose liée à la source fixée à 0.3 mSv/an. L’impact réel représente en fait seulement 2.5% de cette valeur, comme l’indique l’estimation pour le groupe de référence, qui est de l’ordre de 0.01 mSv/an

Pacemaker-associated cyanosis in an adolescent : the answer hiding behind shadows

Lead thrombosis is a recognized complication of permanent transvenous pacemaker (PM) implantation. We present the interesting case of an adolescent with a dual-chamber PM presenting with fatigue and hypoxemia. Due to limitations of various imaging modalities, the diagnosis was difficult. She was eventually diagnosed with intracardiac PM lead thrombi obstructing tricuspid valve inflow. The pediatric literature on PM lead thrombosis is also briefly reviewed.peer-reviewe

Planning for Racially Equitable (Re)Development: Leveraging the Power of Neighborhood Social & Commercial Centers in Urban Communities of Color

This project explores the potential for planners to leverage neighborhood social and commercial centers to create racially equitable economic change. It first calls on planning literature to establish racial economic inequity as a planning issue, both because of the inherently spatial and racial dimensions of urban poverty and because of clear linkages between planning history and racially disparate outcomes. Recognizing that person-centered policies have not been effective in addressing poverty in urban communities of color and that market-driven reinvestment in urban centers tends to result in gentrification and push-out rather than inclusive benefit, this project seeks alternative solutions. This is accomplished through a best practices analysis of equitable development concepts and the application of a package of planning analyses toward maximizing the impact of selected development tools. Key contributions of this project include a conceptual model of economic well-being, a logic model that captures the nested nature of equitable development tools, the concept and model of a triple-lens mechanism for impactful resource targeting, a GIS tool to predict reinvestment opportunity in neighborhood centers, and assembly of a battery of spatial and quantitative analyses used to define the targeting lenses.Master of City and Regional Plannin

Planning for Racially Equitable (Re)Development: Leveraging the Power of Neighborhood Social & Commercial Centers in Urban Communities of Color

This project explores the potential for planners to leverage neighborhood social and commercial centers to create racially equitable economic change. It first calls on planning literature to establish racial economic inequity as a planning issue, both because of the inherently spatial and racial dimensions of urban poverty and because of clear linkages between planning history and racially disparate outcomes. Recognizing that person-centered policies have not been effective in addressing poverty in urban communities of color and that market-driven reinvestment in urban centers tends to result in gentrification and push-out rather than inclusive benefit, this project seeks alternative solutions. This is accomplished through a best practices analysis of equitable development concepts and the application of a package of planning analyses toward maximizing the impact of selected development tools. Key contributions of this project include a conceptual model of economic well-being, a logic model that captures the nested nature of equitable development tools, the concept and model of a triple-lens mechanism for impactful resource targeting, a GIS tool to predict reinvestment opportunity in neighborhood centers, and assembly of a battery of spatial and quantitative analyses used to define the targeting lenses.Master of City and Regional Plannin