Assessment and Analysis of Housing Quality and Policies in Rural Pennsylvania

Sub-quality housing can have negative effects on both the safety and health of residents and on the overall social welfare and economic vitality of the community. Rural areas in Pennsylvania tend to suffer more from issues related to sub-quality housing; however, there is currently no statewide data on housing quality. One of the main goals of this project was to create, validate, and map an index to measure housing quality in rural Pennsylvania to observe spatial patterns and identify socioeconomic factors that are related to housing quality. Second, the research team analyzed the 2019 Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) to identify factors that could affect applicants’ chances of getting a home improvement loan. Third, this project reviewed five state-level home repair/improvement loans in terms of their requirements and eligibility criteria. This overview allowed the team to identify strengths and weaknesses of the programs, which can then be used by policymakers in consideration of housing improvement loan policies. Fourth, the research team compiled a dataset of property maintenance codes adopted by rural municipalities in Pennsylvania. These data provide first-hand information on approaches rural municipalities currently take to maintain the safety and health of local housing stocks. Lastly, the researchers conducted an online survey to collect information from local municipal administrators and/or code officers regarding the effectiveness of property maintenance codes and challenges faced by local authorities. The final project goal was to provide information in support of improving and maintaining housing quality in rural Pennsylvania

Working with Traumatic Brain Injury in Schools: Transition, Assessment, and Intervention

Every day, children and adolescents worldwide return to the educational setting having sustained a traumatic brain injury (TBI). The possible negative consequences of TBI range from mild to severe and include neurological, cognitive, emotional, social, and behavioral difficulties. Within the school setting, the negative effects of TBI tend to persist or worsen over time, often resulting in academic and social difficulties that require formal and informal educational assistance and support. School psychologists and other educational professionals are well-positioned to help ensure students with TBI receive this assistance and support

Modelling urban growth evolution and land-use changes using GIS based cellular automata and SLEUTH models: the case of Sana'a metropolitan city, Yemen.

An effective and efficient planning of an urban growth and land use changes and its impact on the environment requires information about growth trends and patterns amongst other important information. Over the years, many urban growth models have been developed and used in the developed countries for forecasting growth patterns. In the developing countries however, there exist a very few studies showing the application of these models and their performances. In this study two models such as cellular automata (CA) and the SLEUTH models are applied in a geographical information system (GIS) to simulate and predict the urban growth and land use change for the City of Sana’a (Yemen) for the period 2004–2020. GIS based maps were generated for the urban growth pattern of the city which was further analyzed using geo-statistical techniques. During the models calibration process, a total of 35 years of time series dataset such as historical topographical maps, aerial photographs and satellite imageries was used to identify the parameters that influenced the urban growth. The validation result showed an overall accuracy of 99.6 %; with the producer’s accuracy of 83.3 % and the user’s accuracy 83.6 %. The SLEUTH model used the best fit growth rule parameters during the calibration to forecasting future urban growth pattern and generated various probability maps in which the individual grid cells are urbanized assuming unique “urban growth signatures”. The models generated future urban growth pattern and land use changes from the period 2004–2020. Both models proved effective in forecasting growth pattern that will be useful in planning and decision making. In comparison, the CA model growth pattern showed high density development, in which growth edges were filled and clusters were merged together to form a compact built-up area wherein less agricultural lands were included. On the contrary, the SLEUTH model growth pattern showed more urban sprawl and low-density development that included substantial areas of agricultural lands

Heredity, Environment, and Cranial Form: A Reanalysis of Boas's Immigrant Data

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/65137/1/aa.2003.105.1.125.pd

Influence of Fuel Injection System and Engine-Timing Adjustments on Regulated Emissions from Four Biodiesel Fuels

The use of biofuels for transportation has grown substantially in the past decade in response to federal mandates and increased concern about the use of petroleum fuels. As biofuels become more common, it is imperative to assess their influence on mobile source emissions of regulated and hazardous pollutants. This assessment cannot be done without first obtaining a basic understanding of how biofuels affect the relationship between fuel properties, engine design, and combustion conditions. Combustion studies were conducted on biodiesel fuels from four feedstocks (palm oil, soybean oil, canola oil, and coconut oil) with two injection systems, mechanical and electronic. For the electronic system, fuel injection timing was adjusted to compensate for physical changes caused by different fuels. The emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and partial combustion products were compared across both engine injection systems. The analysis showed differences in NOx emissions based on hydrocarbon chain length and degree of fuel unsaturation, with little to no NOx increase compared with ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel for most conditions. Adjusting the fuel injection timing provided some improvement in biodiesel emissions for NOx and particulate matter, particularly at lower engine loads. The results indicated that the introduction of biodiesel and biodiesel blends could have widely dissimilar effects in different types of vehicle fleets, depending on typical engine design, age, and the feedstock used for biofuel production

Zinc-Regulated DNA Binding of the Yeast Zap1 Zinc-Responsive Activator

The Zap1 transcription factor of Saccharomyces cerevisiae plays a central role in zinc homeostasis by controlling the expression of genes involved in zinc metabolism. Zap1 is active in zinc-limited cells and repressed in replete cells. At the transcriptional level, Zap1 controls its own expression via positive autoregulation. In addition, Zap1's two activation domains are regulated independently of each other by zinc binding directly to those regions and repressing activation function. In this report, we show that Zap1 DNA binding is also inhibited by zinc. DMS footprinting showed that Zap1 target gene promoter occupancy is regulated with or without transcriptional autoregulation. These results were confirmed using chromatin immunoprecipitation. Zinc regulation of DNA binding activity mapped to the DNA binding domain indicating other parts of Zap1 are unnecessary for this control. Overexpression of Zap1 overrode DNA binding regulation and resulted in constitutive promoter occupancy. Under these conditions of constitutive binding, both the zinc dose response of Zap1 activity and cellular zinc accumulation were altered suggesting the importance of DNA binding control to zinc homeostasis. Thus, our results indicated that zinc regulates Zap1 activity post-translationally via three independent mechanisms, all of which contribute to the overall zinc responsiveness of Zap1

Challenges in Whole Exome Sequencing: An Example from Hereditary Deafness

Whole exome sequencing provides unprecedented opportunities to identify causative DNA variants in rare Mendelian disorders. Finding the responsible mutation via traditional methods in families with hearing loss is difficult due to a high degree of genetic heterogeneity. In this study we combined autozygosity mapping and whole exome sequencing in a family with 3 affected children having nonsyndromic hearing loss born to consanguineous parents. Two novel missense homozygous variants, c.508C>A (p.H170N) in GIPC3 and c.1328C>T (p.T443M) in ZNF57, were identified in the same ∼6 Mb autozygous region on chromosome 19 in affected members of the family. Both variants co-segregated with the phenotype and were absent in 335 ethnicity-matched controls. Biallelic GIPC3 mutations have recently been reported to cause autosomal recessive nonsyndromic sensorineural hearing loss. Thus we conclude that the hearing loss in the family described in this report is caused by a novel missense mutation in GIPC3. Identified variant in GIPC3 had a low read depth, which was initially filtered out during the analysis leaving ZNF57 as the only potential causative gene. This study highlights some of the challenges in the analyses of whole exome data in the bid to establish the true causative variant in Mendelian disease

A study of mobile phone use among patients with noncommunicable diseases in La Paz, Bolivia: implications for mHealth research and development

BACKGROUND: While global momentum supporting mobile health (mHealth) research and development is increasing, it is imperative to assess the potential fit of mHealth programs in local settings. We describe the penetration of mobile technologies among Bolivian patients with noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) to inform research on mHealth interventions for the Andean region as well as low- and middle-income countries more generally. METHODS: Five-hundred and fifty-nine NCD patients were identified from outpatient clinics affiliated with four hospitals in the cities of La Paz and El Alto. Respondents completed surveys about their use of standard mobile phones and smartphones. Respondents also provided information about their sociodemographic characteristics, health status, and access to care. We used descriptive statistics and logistic regression to understand the variation in mobile phone use across groups defined by patient characteristics associated with health service access and socioeconomic vulnerability. RESULTS: Respondents were on average 52 years of age, 33 % had at most a sixth grade education, and 30 % spoke an indigenous language in their home. Eighty-six percent owned a mobile phone and 13 % owned a smartphone. Fifty-eight percent of mobile phone users sent or received a text message at least once a week. Some mobile phone owners reported connectivity problems, such as lacking mobile signal (9 %) or credit to make a call (17 %). Younger age, male gender, high health literacy, more years of education, and having fewer previously diagnosed NCDs were positively related to mobile phone ownership. Among mobile phone users, respondents with lower education and other indicators of vulnerability were less likely than their counterparts to report frequent usage of texting services. CONCLUSIONS: Mobile phones have high penetration among NCD patients in La Paz, Bolivia, including among those who are older, less educated, and who have other socioeconomic risk factors. Smartphone use is still relatively uncommon, even among patients who are younger and more educated. While certain patient characteristics such as age or education impact patients’ use of text messaging, mobile phone-based mHealth interventions are feasible strategies for increasing NCD patients’ access to self-management support between face-to-face clinical encounters

Track D Social Science, Human Rights and Political Science

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/138414/1/jia218442.pd