Social Equity Impacts of Congestion Management Strategies

This white paper examines the social equity impacts of various congestion management strategies. The paper includes a comprehensive list of 30 congestion management strategies and a discussion of equity implications related to each strategy. The authors analyze existing literature and incorporate findings from 12 expert interviews from academic, non-governmental organization (NGO), public, and private sector respondents to strengthen results and fill gaps in understanding. The literature review applies the Spatial – Temporal – Economic – Physiological – Social (STEPS) Equity Framework (Shaheen et al., 2017) to identify impacts and classify whether social equity barriers are reduced, exacerbated, or both by a particular congestion mitigation measure. The congestion management strategies discussed are grouped into six main categories, including: 1) pricing, 2) parking and curb policies, 3) operational strategies, 4) infrastructure changes, 5) transportation services and strategies, and 6) conventional taxation. The findings show that the social equity impacts of certain congestion management strategies are not well understood, at present, and further empirical research is needed. Congestion mitigation measures have the potential to affect travel costs, commute times, housing, and accessibility in ways that are distinctly positive or negative for different populations. For these reasons, social equity implications of congestion management strategies should be understood and mitigated for in planning and implementation of these strategies

Policy Brief: Social Equity Impacts of Congestion Management Strategies

To better understand the equity implications of a variety of congestion management strategies, researchers at the Transportation Sustainability Research Center (TSRC) at University of California, Berkeley analyzed existing literature on congestion management strategies and findings from 12 expert interviews. The literature review applies the Spatial – Temporal – Economic – Physiological – Social (STEPS) Equity Framework1 to identify impacts and classify whether social equity barriers are reduced, exacerbated, or both by a particular strategy. The congestion management strategies of interest were categorized into six broader categories: 1) pricing, 2) parking and curb policies, 3) operational strategies, 4) infrastructure changes, 5) transportation services and strategies, and 6) conventional taxation

Integrated health and care systems in England : can they help prevent disease?

Objectives: Over the past 12 months, there has been increasing policy rhetoric regarding the role of the NHS in preventing disease and improving population health. In particular, the NHS Long Term Plan sees integrated care systems (ICSs) and sustainability and transformation partnerships (STPs) as routes to improving disease prevention. Here, we place current NHS England integrated care plans in their historical context and review evidence on the relationship between integrated care and prevention. We ask how the NHS Long Term Plan may help prevent disease and explore the role of the 2019 ICS and STP plans in delivering this change. Methods: We reviewed the evidence underlying the relationship between integrated care and disease prevention, and analysed 2016 STP plans for content relating to disease prevention and population health. Results: The evidence of more integrated care leading to better disease prevention is weak. Although nearly all 2016 STP plans included a prevention or population health strategy, fewer than half specified how they will work with local government public health teams, and there was incomplete coverage across plans about how they would meet NHS England prevention priorities. Plans broadly focused on individual-level approaches to disease prevention, with few describing interventions addressing social determinants of health. Conclusions: For ICSs and STPs to meaningfully prevent disease and improve population health, they need to look beyond their 2016 plans and fill the gaps in the Long Term Plan on social determinants

Angle-Resolved Photoemission of Solvated Electrons in Sodium-Doped Clusters

Angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy of the unpaired electron in sodium-doped water, methanol, ammonia, and dimethyl ether clusters is presented. The experimental observations and the complementary calculations are consistent with surface electrons for the cluster size range studied. Evidence against internally solvated electrons is provided by the photoelectron angular distribution. The trends in the ionization energies seem mainly determined by the degree of hydrogen bonding in the solvent and the solvation of the ion core. The onset ionization energies of water and methanol clusters do not level off at small cluster sizes, but decrease slightly with increasing cluster size

Improving Dark Energy Constraints with High Redshift Type Ia Supernovae from CANDELS and CLASH

Aims. We investigate the degree of improvement in dark energy constraints that can be achieved by extending Type Ia Supernova (SN Ia) samples to redshifts z > 1.5 with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), particularly in the ongoing CANDELS and CLASH multi-cycle treasury programs. Methods. Using the popular CPL parametrization of the dark energy, w = w0 +wa(1-a), we generate mock SN Ia samples that can be projected out to higher redshifts. The synthetic datasets thus generated are fitted to the CPL model, and we evaluate the improvement that a high-z sample can add in terms of ameliorating the statistical and systematic uncertainties on cosmological parameters. Results. In an optimistic but still very achievable scenario, we find that extending the HST sample beyond CANDELS+CLASH to reach a total of 28 SN Ia at z > 1.0 could improve the uncertainty in the wa parameter by up to 21%. The corresponding improvement in the figure of merit (FoM) would be as high as 28%. Finally, we consider the use of high-redshift SN Ia samples to detect non-cosmological evolution in SN Ia luminosities with redshift, finding that such tests could be undertaken by future spacebased infrared surveys using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication on Astronomy & Astrophysic

Correction: Meta-Analysis of the Relationship between Multiple Sclerosis and Migraine.

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.PMCID: PMC3613438PMCID: PMC3613438PMCID: PMC3613438PMCID: PMC3613438[This corrects the article on p. e45295 in vol. 7.]

The political morality of school composition : the case of religious selection

Our aim in this paper is to provide a clear and coherent analytical framework for identifying and assessing the heterogeneous normative concerns raised by religious schools, and to illustrate its merits by applying it to the regulation of admissions to such schools. It is a virtue of the proposed framework that it applies to questions about religious schooling quite generally. We concentrate on admissions both because they are currently a focus of policy debate and because there is very little detailed normative discussion of schools’ selecting their students on the basis of religious criteria. The issue of selection by academic ability commands a good deal of attention, while familiar debates about elite private schools primarily concern the propriety of selection by ability to pay. But selection by religion, which raises concerns that include but extend beyond the distributive issues central to those other debates, tends to pass under the radar. Discussion of religious schooling from a normative theoretical perspective has focused far more on curriculum than selection (Thiessen 1993; Hand 2003, 2004 and 2012; Siegel 2004; Groothuis 2004; Gardner 2014). We seek to explore what is stake in policy decisions concerning not what such schools may teach but whom they may teach

Structure- and context-based analysis of the GxGYxYP family reveals a new putative class of glycoside hydrolase.

BackgroundGut microbiome metagenomics has revealed many protein families and domains found largely or exclusively in that environment. Proteins containing the GxGYxYP domain are over-represented in the gut microbiota, and are found in Polysaccharide Utilization Loci in the gut symbiont Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron, suggesting their involvement in polysaccharide metabolism, but little else is known of the function of this domain.ResultsGenomic context and domain architecture analyses support a role for the GxGYxYP domain in carbohydrate metabolism. Sparse occurrences in eukaryotes are the result of lateral gene transfer. The structure of the GxGYxYP domain-containing protein encoded by the BT2193 locus reveals two structural domains, the first composed of three divergent repeats with no recognisable homology to previously solved structures, the second a more familiar seven-stranded β/α barrel. Structure-based analyses including conservation mapping localise a presumed functional site to a cleft between the two domains of BT2193. Matching to a catalytic site template from a GH9 cellulase and other analyses point to a putative catalytic triad composed of Glu272, Asp331 and Asp333.ConclusionsWe suggest that GxGYxYP-containing proteins constitute a novel glycoside hydrolase family of as yet unknown specificity

Hypothalamic Vitamin D Improves Glucose Homeostasis and Reduces Weight

Despite clear associations between vitamin D deficiency and obesity and/or type 2 diabetes, a causal relationship is not established. Vitamin D receptors (VDRs) are found within multiple tissues, including the brain. Given the importance of the brain in controlling both glucose levels and body weight, we hypothesized that activation of central VDR links vitamin D to the regulation of glucose and energy homeostasis. Indeed, we found that small doses of active vitamin D, 1α,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 (1,25D3) (calcitriol), into the third ventricle of the brain improved glucose tolerance and markedly increased hepatic insulin sensitivity, an effect that is dependent upon VDR within the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus. In addition, chronic central administration of 1,25D3 dramatically decreased body weight by lowering food intake in obese rodents. Our data indicate that 1,25D3-mediated changes in food intake occur through action within the arcuate nucleus. We found that VDR colocalized with and activated key appetite-regulating neurons in the arcuate, namely proopiomelanocortin neurons. Together, these findings define a novel pathway for vitamin D regulation of metabolism with unique and divergent roles for central nervous system VDR signaling. Specifically, our data suggest that vitamin D regulates glucose homeostasis via the paraventricular nuclei and energy homeostasis via the arcuate nuclei

Dating and relationship violence among 16-19 year olds in England and Wales: a cross-sectional study of victimization.

Background: Dating and relationship violence (DRV) is under-researched in the UK, especially among Further Education (FE) students. This study examines the association between DRV victimization and socio-demographic characteristics, sexual identity and dating and relationship behaviours among 16-19 year olds FE students. Methods: Cross-sectional self-report data were collected from 1751 students aged 16-19 at six FE settings in England and Wales. Factor analysis examined the structure of DRV victimization by gender. Multilevel logistic regression examined the odds ratios of DRV victimization according to socio-demographics, sexual identity and dating behaviours. Results: DRV victimization clusters into two categories for females, and three for males. Among females, 46.1% experienced controlling behaviours and 31.6% threatening behaviours; 49.9% of males experienced controlling behaviours, 27.1% threatening behaviours and 5.8% online sexual violence. The odds of DRV victimization were 2-8 times greater for males and 2-4 times greater for females who had ever sent a sexually explicit image. No consistent association was found between DRV and age, spending money per week, educational attainment or meeting partners online. Conclusions: The high prevalence, absence of gender differences and social patterning, suggests DRV victimization may be becoming normalized and is of significant public health importance for young people in England and Wales