Pathways to Livable Relocation Settlements Following Disaster

Mass relocation—the transfer of communities to new housing developments—is often implemented following disasters, despite criticism that past projects have not created livable communities for residents. Livable relocation communities are those where residents experience quality housing, utilities, social infrastructure, neighborliness, safety, and a sense of permanence. Numerous conditions may support livability, such as site location, community involvement, and processes of managing construction and beneficiary transfer. We evaluated relocation communities in Tacloban City, Philippines, applying Qualitative Comparative Analysis to identify pathways, or combinations of conditions, that led to built and societal livability. We found pathways to livability generally differed between government and non-government developed sites, with the former benefiting from a slower pace and standard permitting procedures, and the latter by building fast and using scale and need to prompt improved services. An unexpected combination emerged as a pathway to societal livability—being remote and comprised of households originally from a mix of different communities—revealing a new narrative for positive social outcomes in relocation. Three conditions emerged as necessary for achieving overall livability: fast construction, full occupancy, and close proximity to an economic and administrative center. This analysis demonstrates necessary conditions and pathways that implementing agencies can reference in their quest to create livable relocation communities.

The entirely coupled region of supercritical contact processes

We consider translation-invariant, finite-range, supercritical contact processes. We show the existence of unbounded space-time cones within which the descendancy of the process from full occupancy may with positive probability be identical to that of the process from the single site at its apex. The proof comprises an argument that leans upon refinements of a successful coupling among these two processes, and is valid in d-dimensions.

The alluaudite-type crystal structures of Na2(Fe/Co)2Co(VO4)3and Ag2(Fe/Co)2Co(VO4)3

Single crystals of the title compounds, disodium di(cobalt/iron) cobalt tris(orthovanadate), Na2(Fe/Co)2Co(VO4)3, and disilver di(cobalt/iron) cobalt tris(orthovanadate), Ag2(Fe/Co)2Co(VO4)3, were grown from a melt consisting of stoichiometric mixtures of three metallic cation precursors and vanadium pentoxide. The difficulty to distinguish between cobalt and iron by using X-ray diffraction alone forced us to explore several models, assuming an oxidation state of +II for Co and +III for Fe and a partial cationic disorder in the Wyckoff site 8fcontaining a mixture of Co and Fe with a statistical distribution for the Na compound and an occupancy ratio of 0.4875:0.5125 (Co:Fe) for the Ag compound. The alluaudite-type structure is made up from [10-1] chains of [(Co,Fe)2O10] double octahedra linked by highly distorted [CoO6] octahedraviaa common edge. The chains are linked through VO4tetrahedra, forming polyhedral sheets perpendicular to [010]. The stacking of the sheets defines two types of channels parallel to [001] where the Na+cations (both with full occupancy) or Ag+cations (one with occupancy 0.97) are located.

FastSLAM Using Compressed Occupancy Grids

Robotic vehicles working in unknown environments require the ability to determine their location while learning about obstacles located around them. In this paper a method of solving the SLAM problem that makes use of compressed occupancy grids is presented. The presented approach is an extension of the FastSLAM algorithm which stores a compressed form of the occupancy grid to reduce the amount of memory required to store the set of occupancy grids maintained by the particle filter. The performance of the algorithm is presented using experimental results obtained using a small inexpensive ground vehicle equipped with LiDAR, compass, and downward facing camera that provides the vehicle with visual odometry measurements. The presented results demonstrate that although with our approach the occupancy grid maintained by each particle uses only40%of the data needed to store the uncompressed occupancy grid, we can still achieve almost identical results to the approach where each particle filter stores the full occupancy grid.

Unexpected complications of pulmonary edema

The article illustrates the case report of a patient, an elderly woman, admitted in the Emergency Department (ED) with acute pulmonary edema, which was quickly solved through a well-timed application of the therapeutic protocols. At first, the course of the treatment was positive, but some complications developed because of the long stay in the hospital, specifically a decubitus ulcer; this condition quickly evolved regardless of the proper treatment, and caused a progressive fall of the general clinical status of the patient. Within the ER, some state-of-the-art clinical apparatus (protocols, unintrusive ventilation) are available for even the treatment of the worst conditions. ED overcrowding – with full occupancy of beds and long waits of patients – is related to greater risk of poor outcomes. One of the risks is to expose the patient to serious complications, that are note related to the reason of admission in hospital, but, paradoxically, are caused by the prolonged hospitalization in ED.

Full-length structure of the major autolysin LytA

LytA is responsible for the autolysis of manyStreptococcusspecies, including pathogens such asS. pneumoniae,S. pseudopneumoniaeandS. mitis. However, how this major autolysin achieves full activity remains unknown. Here, the full-length structure of theS. pneumoniaeLytA dimer is reported at 2.1 Å resolution. Each subunit has an N-terminal amidase domain and a C-terminal choline-binding domain consisting of six choline-binding repeats, which form five canonical and one single-layered choline-binding sites. Site-directed mutageneses combined with enzymatic activity assays indicate that dimerization and binding to choline are two independent requirements for the autolytic activity of LytAin vivo. Altogether, it is suggested that dimerization and full occupancy of all choline-binding sites through binding to choline-containing TA chains enable LytA to adopt a fully active conformation which allows the amidase domain to cleave two lactyl-amide bonds located about 103 Å apart on the peptidoglycan.

Structures of bovine cytochrome oxidase reveal proton active transports

Bovine cytochrome c oxidase (CcO) pumps four protons in each catalytic cycle through H-pathway including a hydrogen-bond network and a water channel in tandem. Protons, transferred through the water-channel from the negative side of mitochondrial inner membrane into the hydrogen-bond network, are pumped to the positive side of the membrane electrostatically by net positive charges on a heme (heme a) iron created upon electron transfer to the O2 reduction site. For blockage of backward proton leak from the hydrogen-bond network, which determines the proton-pumping direction, the water channel is closed after O2 binding to initiate proton-pump. Thus, four protons must be collected in the hydrogen-bond network before O2 binding. The X-ray structural analyses of the oxidized/reduced CcO at 1.5/1.6 Å resolution reveal a large cluster composed of ~21 water molecules and a Mg2+ site including Glu198 (Subunit II) bridging CuA and Mg2+. The cluster of the oxidized state have 20 water sites with full occupancy and two sites with partial occupies of water, while that of the reduced state have 19 water sites with full occupancy and 3 sites with partial occupancies. The carboxyl group of Glu198 changes its coordination structure to Mg2+ upon the reduction of the active centers. The cluster is tightly sealed sterically against proton exchanges with the cluster outside except for a short hydrogen-bond network connecting the cluster with H-pathway. Five proton-acceptable groups hydrogen-bonded with the cluster suggest sufficient storage capacity for four proton equivalents. The redox-coupled structural changes in the electron transfer pathway from CuA, the initial electron acceptor from cytochrome c, to heme a suggest redox-driven effective proton donations from the cluster to H-pathway, facilitated by Glu198. These results indicate that the cluster is a crucial element of the proton-pumping system of bovine CcO.

Molecular Dynamics Study of Thermal Conduction in Carbon Dioxide Hydrates

Equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations that use the Green–Kubo method for sI CO2-hydrate systems from medium to full occupancy were performed to estimate the corresponding thermal conductivities at temperatures that range from 233.15K to 278.15K and pressures that range from 3MPa to 100MPa. Specific potential models for water and CO2were adopted. The effects of guest occupancy ratios and outside thermobaric conditions on CO2hydrate thermal conductivity were studied. The thermal mechanism was also analyzed. The thermal conductivities of hydrates of CH4, C2H6, N2, and O2were estimated. The size ratio of guest diameter to cavity diameter provided an adequate basis for understanding the thermal conductivities of gas hydrates.