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"Breaks in the Air: The Birth of Rap Radio in New York City" by John Klaess is a significant contribution to the history of New York hip-hop culture. The book explores the early days of rap radio in New York, when stations like WBLS played a crucial role in shaping the sound and culture of hip-hop. Klaess uses interviews and cassette recordings to provide insights into the inseparable relationship between rap, radio, and diverse listening communities. The book also examines the impact of deregulation on the commercial radio industry and the role of radio in advancing Black social progress. Overall, "Breaks in the Air" offers a valuable perspective on the history of rap radio in New York City. [Extracted from the article]

Adam Lowenstein's book, "Horror Film and Otherness," explores the social relevance and transformative power of horror cinema. Lowenstein argues that horror films can teach us about otherness and illuminate the ongoing evolution of social norms and identities. He challenges Robin Wood's analysis of American horror cinema, offering a more nuanced understanding of the genre's exploration of trauma, alienation, and displacement. Lowenstein engages with theorists and historians to examine the themes of aging, the body, gender, and sexuality in horror films from the 1970s to the present. While the book is comprehensive, it lacks coverage of trans people, which would further contribute to the exploration of otherness. Overall, "Horror Film and Otherness" is a landmark text that highlights the importance of horror in understanding society and the self. [Extracted from the article]

A high-precision mechanized seeding can greatly contribute to the vegetable production at present. In this study, a spotting glue-paper tape precision seeder was designed for the small seed vegetables, particularly combining the seed rope and printing seeding. Three components were also divided in the seeder, including the peristaltic pump glue, ratchet spotting glue, and seed metering device. Among them, the glue was a mixture of pregelatinized starch and water. Specifically, the glue volume and viscosity were the main factors affecting the number of adhered seeds. The glue point volume depended mainly on the rotation angle of the peristaltic pump during the movement. A pretest of seed adhesion was carried out to preliminarily determine the mass ratio of pregelatinized starch to water (less than 1:5), representing the glue viscosity. Furthermore, the frequency of pump and dispensing were analyzed to clarify the relationship between the peristaltic pump and ratchet speed, where the number of ratchet teeth was determined to be 4. As such, the matching was realized between the peristaltic pump and ratchet spotting glue. The ratchet profile was also designed, according to the spotting glue motion. A theoretical analysis was made on the movement of seeds in the seed guiding tube. It was found that the aggregation effect of seeds on the paper tape relied on the length and cross-sectional angle of the seed guiding tube, as well as the rotation speed of the socket wheel. The seed guiding tube was then optimized for the optimal structural parameters. A Box_Behnken test was also carried out, where the length and cross-sectional angle of the seed guiding tube, while the rotation speed of the socket wheel was taken as the test factors, whereas, the percentage of seeds in the effective area on the paper tape was taken as the test index. The results showed that the percentage of seeds in the effective area on the paper tape was 57.23%, when the length of the seed guiding tube was 56 mm, the section angle was 35°, and the rotation speed of the seed metering wheel was 30 r/min. An adhesion test was also performed on the Shanghai Qing 605 seeds with a diameter of 1.5-2.0 mm. The test factors were then selected as the roller angle of the peristaltic pump and the mass ratio of pregelatinized starch to water. An optimal combination of parameters was achieved, including the size of the glue point, and the mass ratio of pregelatinized starch to water. Once the roller rotation angle was 10° and the mass ratio of pre-gelatinized starch to water was 1:6, the single seed rate of glue point adhesion to seeds reached 97.4%. The adaptability test was also carried out on the whole machine on the working performance of different varieties of small seed vegetables. It was found that the single seed rates of Shanghai Qing 605 and Siji Chinese cabbage seeds were greater than 95% under the working speed of 0.5-1.5 m/s, whereas, the coefficient of variation of plant spacing was less than 10%, fully meeting the requirements of precision sowing indicators that specified in the standard NY/T1143-2006. Therefore, the single seed rate and the working efficiency of the improved seeder increased by 3.53%, and 50% than before. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Black Women and the Changing Television Landscape" by Lisa M. Anderson is a book that examines the portrayal of Black women on television throughout history. Anderson, an associate professor of women and gender studies, builds on her previous work to explore the complex and evolving representations of Black women in media. Using a semiotic approach and drawing on the work of Black feminist scholars, Anderson analyzes specific television shows and personalities from the 1950s to the present. The book goes beyond simplistic judgments and aims to understand the historical and cultural contexts in which these representations exist, as well as the agency of Black women in shaping them. It is a valuable resource for scholars in cultural, media, and television studies. [Extracted from the article]

Approaching the writing of a scene in this way, the authors argue, makes character motivations clear, creates tension and leaves room for either additional obstacles or resolution. Which points to another fundamental premise that Perry and Sanders believe in, namely that every scene needs to have both a goal and an obstacle. I SceneWriting: The Missing Manual for Screenwriters i by Chris Perry and Eric Henry Sanders is an essential primer on the important foundational structure and elements that make a scene - and by extrapolation, a story - work. [Extracted from the article]

Recent advances in non-volatile main memory (NVM) technology have spurred research on algorithms that are resilient to intermittent failures that cause processes to crash and subsequently restart. In this paper we present a Recoverable Mutual Exclusion (RME) algorithm that supports abortability. Our algorithm guarantees FCFS and a strong liveness property: processes do not starve even in runs consisting of infinitely many crashes, provided that a process crashes at most a finite number of times in each of its attempts. On DSM and Relaxed-CC multiprocessors, a process incurs O (min (k , log n)) RMRs in a passage and O (f + min (k , log n)) RMRs in an attempt, where n is the number of processes that the algorithm is designed for, k is the point contention of the passage or the attempt, and f is the number of times that p crashes during the attempt. On a Strict CC multiprocessor, the passage and attempt complexities are O(n) and O (f + n) , respectively. Our algorithm uses only the read, write, and CAS operations, which are commonly supported by multiprocessors. Attiya, Hendler, and Woelfel proved that, with any mutual exclusion algorithm, a process incurs at least Ω (log n) RMRs in a passage, if the algorithm uses only the read, write, and CAS operations (in: Proc. of the Fortieth ACM Symposium on Theory of Computing, New York, NY, USA, 2008). This lower bound implies that the worst-case RMR complexity of our algorithm is optimal for the DSM and Relaxed CC multiprocessors. This paper is an expanded version of our conference paper as reported by Jayanti and Joshi (in: Atig and Schwarzmann (eds) Networked Systems. Springer International Publishing, Cham, 2019), which presented the first Recoverable Mutual Exclusion (RME) algorithm that supports abortability. This algorithm from our conference paper (in: Atig and Schwarzmann (eds) Networked Systems. Springer International Publishing, Cham, 2019) admits starvation when there are infinitely many aborts in a run. In this paper, we fix this shortcoming and prove the algorithm's properties by identifying an inductive invariant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ceremony Men: Making Ethnography and the Return of the Strehlow Collection: By Jason M. Gibson. The collection in question in Gibson's study is that assembled by linguist and ethnographer T.G.H. ("Ted") Strehlow, now housed at the purpose-built Strehlow Research Centre in Alice Springs. This brings me to the second innovation that Gibson makes in approaching Strehlow's archive: his decision to focus on the work that Strehlow did with the Anmatyerr. [Extracted from the article]

The critical platform studies literature is increasingly considering the role of social difference as a structuring logic in the platform economy, complementing understandings of worker precarity facilitated by worker misclassification and algorithmic management. Contributing to this literature, this paper demonstrates how platforms and police produce carceral geographies that manage and exploit immigrant delivery workers as surplus populations. The carceral geographies of the platform economy account for both how carceral space produces and manages the surplus populations from which platform capital draws its workers, facilitating the disposability and exploitation of workers. Focusing on South Asian delivery workers in New York City, the paper uses the example of bike registrations to show how police and platforms expand carceral spaces in immigrant communities, increasing their vulnerability to premature death and violence. Finally, it suggests how delivery worker organising offers instances of situated resistance that challenge platform capital and carceral logics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Throughout the 1970s, a drive towards the diversification of mediums available to artists led to artists working across numerous mediums not usually associated with visual art. While some came to work with sound as a central focus in their practice, most used sound as a medium to be employed in particular artworks for conceptual purposes. The paper is focused on five audio and sound exhibitions presented in New York City between 1978 and 1984. These large group exhibitions were held in alternative art spaces and not-for-profit art galleries and have received little critical attention beyond reviews published in local newspapers and art magazines. As such, these exhibitions have all but disappeared from the history of sound in art and from art history in general. I will argue that this cluster of group shows signal to an emergent practice that was moving past the post-medium condition and conceptual art towards the postmodernism of the 1980s. These exhibitions point to an understanding of sound as a medium of visual art that is at odds with contemporary scholarship in the sonic arts, which favours a music-based understanding of approaches to sound within the art gallery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper makes the case for the connection between making land-use regulatory changes and the process of destruction and redevelopment. Under the capitalist imperative, buildings that do not fulfil the full potential for profit are likely to be demolished (or refurbished) but demolition and new development are not shaped exclusively by the immutable laws of the market as they are mediated and facilitated by specific institutional contexts. Using the case of East Midtown rezoning in New York City, the paper examines the amendments of two land-use regulatory mechanisms: the enlargement of development rights (rezoning or upzoning) and the relaxation of the spatial limitations on the usage of existing unused rights (transferable development rights). While apparently unconnected, upzoning and transferable development rights are part of the regulatory framework that seeks to secure the ongoing generation of the highest-possible profits for private as well as public interests. By examining the choreography of rezoning and transferable development rights, the paper shows how the mechanics of creative destruction work while substantiating an existing body of knowledge on land use policies and practices in New York City. When used together, rezoning and transferable development rights are instrumental in remaking the built environment. Essentially, the rezoning of a 78-block area in East Midtown Manhattan unlocks captured and latent development rights that otherwise could not come about, and demonstrates the necessity of institutional arrangements to make creative destruction actually work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fashioning James Bond: Costume, Gender and Identity in the World of 007: LLEWELLA CHAPMAN, 2022 London, NY, Bloomsbury Academic pp. xii + 320, illus., £65.00 (cloth), £19.99 (paper) Bond, James Bond, is synonymous with many iconographic elements, from gadgets and guns to megalomaniac foes with dastardly schemes, but the sharp-suited hero and the bikini-clad Bond girl are undoubtedly some of the franchise's most recognizable icons and absolutely central to its ongoing appeal. But despite being organized by Bond, the focus does not rest exclusively on the hero himself and there is plenty of space dedicated to discussing the costuming of those aforementioned Bond girls, later re-labelled Bond women, his bosses and colleagues, as well as the villains and their inevitable henchmen. [Extracted from the article]

Greenery initiatives, such as green infrastructures (GIs), create sustainable and climate-resilient environments. However, they can also have unintended consequences, such as displacement and gentrification in low-income areas. This paper proposes an integrated machine learning (ML) approach that combines both unsupervised and supervised ML algorithms. First, 35 indicators that contribute to green gentrification were identified and categorised into 7 categories: social, economic, demographic, housing, household, amenities, and GIs. Second, data was collected for all census tracts in New York City. Third, the green gentrification susceptibility was modelled into 6 levels using k-means clustering analysis, which is an unsupervised ML model. Fourth, the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to the Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) was used to map the census tracts to their green gentrification susceptibility level. Finally, different supervised ML algorithms were trained and tested to predict the green gentrification susceptibility. The results showed that the artificial neural network (ANN) model is the most accurate in classifying and predicting the green gentrification susceptibility with an overall accuracy of 96%. Moreover, the outcomes showed that the Normal Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), the proximity to GIs, the GIs frequency, and the total area of GIs were identified as the most important indicators to predict green gentrification susceptibility. Ultimately, the proposed approach allows practitioners and researchers to perform micro-level (i.e. on the census-tracts level) predictions and inferences about green gentrification susceptibility. This allows more focused and targeted mitigation actions to be designed and implemented in the most affected communities, thus promoting environmental justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drones are becoming indispensable in emergency search and rescue (SAR), particularly in intricate urban areas where rapid and accurate response is crucial. This study addresses the pressing need for enhancing drone navigation in such complex, dynamic urban environments, where obstacles like building layouts and varying wind conditions create unique challenges. Particularly, the need for adapting drone autonomous navigation in correspondence with dynamic wind conditions in urban settings is emphasized because it is important for drones to avoid loss of control or crashes during SAR. This paper introduces a pioneering method integrating multiobjective reinforcement learning (MORL) with a convolutional autoencoder to train autonomous drones in comprehending and reacting to aerodynamic features in urban SAR. MORL enables the drone to optimize multiple goals, whereas the convolutional autoencoder generates synthetic wind simulations with a substantially lower computation cost compared to traditional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. A unique data transfer structure is also proposed, which fosters a seamless integration of perception and decision-making between machine learning (ML) and reinforcement learning (RL) components. This approach uses imagery data, specific to building layouts, allowing the drone to autonomously formulate policies, prioritize navigation decisions, optimize paths, and mitigate the impact of wind, all while negating the necessity for conventional aerodynamic force sensors. The method was validated with a model of New York City, offering substantial implications for enhancing automation algorithms in urban SAR. This innovation enables the possibility of more efficient, precise, and timely drone SAR operations within intricate urban landscapes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Puerto Rico is one of the world's oldest colonies, with thousands of its people dislocated to the United States (U.S.) mainland in the wake of Hurricane Maria and the ongoing economic crisis. However, since the 2019 protests ousting then governor Rosello, Puerto Ricans across the Diaspora are imagining new emancipatory realities, including the possibility of independence. This paper draws on data from the Colonial Mentality Study in New York City (CMS‐NYC, N = 19) to explore how Puerto Ricans in the Diaspora narrativize new political possibilities despite the challenges posed by post‐disaster migration and racial and economic inequality. Using a decolonial psychoanalytic approach, we show how two colonial logics—moving "up and out" of Puerto Rico and "up and in" American capitalism—are textured by discourses of racial inferiority and upward mobility, and illustrate how these are experienced by Puerto Ricans who identify as Multiracial (Multiracial‐Identified Puerto Rican, N = 11), and Puerto Ricans who identify as Black (BIPR, N = 8). Reading our findings in the sociogenic context of race, class, and colonialism in Puerto Rico, and race and class among Puerto Ricans in NYC, we explore how racism toward Puerto Ricans and racism among Puerto Ricans intersect with notions of upward mobility, revealing how anti‐Blackness supports economic inequality in the U.S. mainland alongside with Puerto Rico's colonial situation. Complementing decolonial psychoanalytic theory with the Afro‐Puerto Rican radical tradition, we outline the implications of this research for future scholarship, clinical practice, and political action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examining the impacts of ranked choice voting (RCV) on voter efficacy is important as more areas consider adoption. The greater number of choices provided by longer RCV ballots may introduce opportunities for voters to misunderstand the ballot, make errant marks, or accidentally mark two or more candidates for one ranking, resulting in voidable ballots due to "overvoting." Using ballot data from the 2013 general election, the 2017, and 2021 New York City democratic mayoral primaries, this paper asks whether voidable overvote ballots are more concentrated in constituencies with lower levels of educational attainment, average household incomes, and differing racial make-ups, and if this relationship is more pronounced under RCV than traditional elections. In the first RCV election in 2021, voters in locations with lower levels of educational attainment and median household incomes had higher shares of overvote voidable ballots than those in locations with higher educational attainment and incomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human movements in urban areas are essential to understand human–environment interactions. However, activities and associated movements are full of uncertainties due to the complexity of a city. In this paper, we propose a novel sensor-based approach for spatiotemporal event detection based on the Discrete Empirical Interpolation Method. Specifically, we first identify the key locations, defined as "sensors", which have the strongest correlation with the whole dataset. We then simulate a regular uneventful scenario with the observation data points from those key locations. By comparing the simulated and observation scenarios, events are extracted both spatially and temporally. We apply this method in New York City with taxi trip record data. Results show that this method is effective in detecting when and where events occur. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community-clinical linkage models (CCLM) have the potential to reduce health disparities, especially in underserved communities; however, the COVID-19 pandemic drastically impacted their implementation. This paper explores the impact of the pandemic on the implementation of CCLM intervention led by community health workers (CHWs) to address diabetes disparities among South Asian patients in New York City. Guided by the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR), 22 stakeholders were interviewed: 7 primary care providers, 7 CHWs, 5 community-based organization (CBO) representatives, and 3 research staff. Semi-structured interviews were conducted; interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed. CFIR constructs guided the identification of barriers and adaptations made across several dimensions of the study's implementation context. We also explored stakeholder-identified adaptations used to mitigate the challenges in the intervention delivery using the Model for Adaptation Design and Impact (MADI) framework. (1) Communication and engagement refers to how stakeholders communicated with participants during the intervention period, including difficulties experienced staying connected with intervention activities during the lockdown. The study team and CHWs developed simple, plain-language guides designed to enhance digital literacy. (2) Intervention/research process describes intervention characteristics and challenges stakeholders faced in implementing components of the intervention during the lockdown. CHWs modified the health curriculum materials delivered remotely to support engagement in the intervention and health promotion. (3) community and implementation context pertains to the social and economic consequences of the lockdown and their effect on intervention implementation. CHWs and CBOs enhanced efforts to provide emotional/mental health support and connected community members to resources to address social needs. Study findings articulate a repository of recommendations for the adaptation of community-delivered programs in under-served communities during a time of public health crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the ways in which Mexican immigrants experience, narrate, and describe stress and the extent to which it impacts their efforts at engaging in physical activity using a biocitizenship framework. Data were derived from a mixed-method study among Mexicans living in New York City recruited from a large Catholic church. The qualitative sample of 25 participated in quantitative and qualitative components of the study and as such we include some of these quantitative indicators as descriptors. Our main qualitative findings reveal that study participants experience stress and time constraint as factors that contribute to the waning of their physical and mental well-being. As such, time constraints for many of our participants were among the factors that contributed to high perceived levels of stress. They attributed this to their difficulty maintaining a physically active lifestyle due to factors like the fast-paced lifestyle in New York, working long hours, and not having enough time to exercise, though some important differences in narratives were noted across gender. Findings have implications for interventions aimed at improving the health of immigrants in general and Mexican immigrants in New York City specifically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses how Vision Zero (VZ) efforts in New York City (NYC) account for equity and social justice implications of road safety work. VZ policy documents, research literature, popular science and opinion articles on road safety work in the city were studied with a prime focus on equity and social justice. Twelve semi-structured interviews with stakeholders involved in road safety and transport planning in the city and at national level were conducted to gain an in-depth understanding of policy design, the adoption process, and the role of equity considerations in the city's road safety work. The results show that major equity and social justice issues arise in the adoption and implementation of VZ. These issues are primarily related to equity and fairness in the distribution of life saving interventions, the socio-economic impacts of road safety strategies, and the nature of community engagement in policy design and implementation. The findings point to a need for VZ practitioners to give due considerations to equity and social justice implications of VZ policies and strategies. Among others, it supports the need for understanding the nature of past equity and social justice problems in road safety and transport planning in the VZ policy design process. Moreover, the findings suggest the need for empirical studies on the socio-economic implications of VZ strategies and interventions. • There were major road safety related inequities and injustices prior to the adoption of Vision Zero in New York City. • The promotion of Vision Zero also gives rise novel equity and social justice concerns related to its adoption process and the choice of road safety strategies and interventions. • A successful and morally acceptable implementation of Vision Zero demands recognizing and proactively accounting for ethically problematic aspects of road safety work, including those related to equity and social justice. • Vision Zero should integrate equity and social justice into road safety work, for example, by adopting a broader conceptualization of a data driven approach that includes socioeconomic and community data in addition to quantitative crash data. • The promotion of Vision Zero should allow meaningful inclusion and participation of different road user and socioeconomic groups in the goal setting and implementation of Vision Zero policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ridesharing effectively tackles urban mobility challenges by providing a service comparable to private vehicles while minimising resource usage. Our research primarily concentrates on dynamic ridesharing, which conventionally involves connecting drivers with passengers in need of transportation. The process of one-to-one matching presents a complex challenge, particularly when addressing it on a large scale, as the substantial number of potential matches make the attainment of a global optimum a challenging endeavour. This paper aims to address the absence of an optimal approach for dynamic ridesharing by refraining from the conventional heuristic-based methods commonly used to achieve timely solutions in large-scale ride-matching. Instead, we propose a novel approach that provides snapshot-optimal solutions for various forms of one-to-one matching while ensuring they are generated within an acceptable timeframe for service providers. Additionally, we introduce and solve a new variant in which the system itself provides the vehicles. The efficacy of our methodology is substantiated through experiments carried out with real-world data extracted from the openly available New York City taxicab dataset. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to analyze the U.S. writer and teacher Tom Spanbauer's novel In the City of Shy Hunters by means of theoretical perspectives that embrace both queer and communitarian epistemologies. The novel, set mainly in New York City in the mid-1980s, is narrated in first person by the protagonist and shows how HIV/AIDS, and the elevated social stigma surrounding it, affects different classes and ethnicities, as well as gender, sexual and corporal diversities. It experiments with a particular writing style and teaching method that Spanbauer calls dangerous writing; that is, how to expose our inner life and secrets, which are often related to social taboos. The main objective of this paper is to demonstrate the connection between dangerous writing, queer studies (Judith Butler, Annamarie Jagose) and community theory (Jean-Luc Nancy, Maurice Blanchot and Roberto Esposito) by adopting a multidisciplinary approach to literary critical analysis. The main result of this study demonstrates that the singularities represented in the novel, who are mostly queer and affected by HIV/AIDS, can create inoperative communities and communities of lovers, open to otherness as well as being spontaneous, antisocial and momentary, with a recognition and acceptance of mortality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers have addressed uncertainty in multicriteria decision making from the perspective of the performance values of the alternatives, weighting of the evaluation criteria, and the evaluation methods. Still, they are yet to address the uncertainty caused by the normalization approach. In this paper, we show that different normalization methods, namely sum normalization, min–max normalization, vector normalization, and maximization normalization, can result in different rankings of the alternatives while the performance values and weights are unchanged. We applied the grey system theory to address the problem of uncertainty in this study from three aspects: alternative performance values measurement, criteria weighting, and decision matrix/table normalization within a period. The grey hybrid normalization method is proposed as the main contribution in this paper. Then, we present the rankings of 48 cities under uncertainty to decide the location of a branch office of a Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer as a practical example based on the grey entropy weighting method and grey relational analysis with positive and negative references (GRA-PNR) within the period from the year 2019 to 2021. The research results using this approach ranked New York City the best, with a stock market capitalization of economy validity as the top contributor in terms of weighting. Finally, we used simple additive weighting with grey value and the technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution with grey value methods to validate the study results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper maps and spatializes the Almshouse Ledger records for the children of unmarried parents in New York City in the 1820 and 1830s. Mapping the distribution of poverty and the provision of forms of welfare in the city, this paper illustrates specific areas of the city which were attracting the very poor as early as the second decade of the nineteenth century. This paper argues that migrants from countries with similar welfare systems to those established in New York may be overrepresented in the record due to familiarity with the system. This interdisciplinary paper combines archaeological approaches to GIS with archival research to illustrate the distribution of welfare provision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers have addressed uncertainty in multicriteria decision making from the perspective of the performance values of the alternatives, weighting of the evaluation criteria, and the evaluation methods. Still, they are yet to address the uncertainty caused by the normalization approach. In this paper, we show that different normalization methods, namely sum normalization, min–max normalization, vector normalization, and maximization normalization, can result in different rankings of the alternatives while the performance values and weights are unchanged. We applied the grey system theory to address the problem of uncertainty in this study from three aspects: alternative performance values measurement, criteria weighting, and decision matrix/table normalization within a period. The grey hybrid normalization method is proposed as the main contribution in this paper. Then, we present the rankings of 48 cities under uncertainty to decide the location of a branch office of a Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer as a practical example based on the grey entropy weighting method and grey relational analysis with positive and negative references (GRA-PNR) within the period from the year 2019 to 2021. The research results using this approach ranked New York City the best, with a stock market capitalization of economy validity as the top contributor in terms of weighting. Finally, we used simple additive weighting with grey value and the technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution with grey value methods to validate the study results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assessment caps lead to inequities because the same growth limit is applied to high and low growth properties. High growth properties that fall under the cap have assessments artificially lowered relative to prices resulting in lower effective tax rates. This paper presents a method to transition out of a capped assessment system where instead of stipulating the percentage increase in assessment, this paper explores limiting the rate of value that can be captured, defined as the difference in the market value and the capped assessed value. Unlike the assessment cap approach which benefits high-growth properties, this approach conversely shifts the burden to high growth properties that have benefited from the cap. With the value recapture approach the burden is shifted to properties that have benefitted most from artificially low assessments, are furthest from market values, and therefore have more value to recapture. The inequities resulting from capped assessment are well known and can be of two forms - horizontal and vertical inequity. Using New York City data we use Gini measures of equity to show that the value recapture approach converges to an equitable state faster than when assessment increases are capped. The measure of vertical equity is the Modified Kakwani Index whereas the index for horizontal equity is introduced in this paper for the first time as the ratio of the withingroup Gini to the citywide Gini. The within-group Gini is the weighted average of the subregion Ginis. Horizontal equity exists when all the subregions have the same Gini as the citywide Gini, or that the ratio is one. With NYC data, we show that it is possible for the ratio to be at 1 within five years of transitioning out of capped assessments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we consider working-class abolitionist feminists' conceptualizations of safety. Taking seriously the notion that "freedom is a place," we look at how working-class South Asians and Indo Caribbeans in New York City build livable worlds at the intersecting crises of capitalism, white supremacy, and patriarchy. We look at Desis Rising Up and Moving (DRUM)'s organizing efforts following the expansion of immigrant detention and policing that came after the 1996 immigration laws and their contemporary organizing around gender-based violence and oppression as examples of a materialist articulation of abolition feminism. Drawing on DRUM's archive and autoethnographic reflections, we show how DRUM develops and practices an abolition feminism that addresses both systematized racial state violence and patriarchal violence in working-class Asian American communities. We show how DRUM's experiments with community-based intervention (CBI) around domestic violence aims to reduce violence and meet the material needs of gender-oppressed individuals in the community, while expanding the horizon for socialized care and a world without police. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lateral roots, including adventitious roots, are the main component of rapeseed roots with support, absorb, and synthesis functions and their morphological parameters directly affecting the plant's aboveground growth and yield. Root biomass, as a material base for lateral root growth, can be used as a link between plant phenotypes and their physiological processes, as well as to enhance root 3D growth model mechanisms and accuracy. To quantify the relationships between lateral root morphological indices and the corresponding organ biomass for rapeseed, we used two cultivars, NY 22 (conventional) and NZ 1818 (hybrid), and conducted cultivar and fertilizing cylindrical tube experiments during the 2016–2019, with two fertilizer levels, no fertilizer, and 180 kg N ha−1 fertilizer. The lateral root biomass and morphological parameters were determined during the whole growth period. The biomass‐based lateral root morphological parameter models were developed by analyzing the quantitative relationship between the lateral root morphological indices and their corresponding biomass, and the descriptive models were verified with independent experimental data. The results showed that the correlation (r) of simulated and observed values for the lateral root morphological parameters are all greater than 0.9 with significant levels at p < 0.001. The absolute values of the average absolute difference (da) of simulated and observed values for the lateral root length (LLR), lateral root average diameter (ADLR), lateral root surface area (SALR), and lateral root volume (VLR) are −30.408 cm, −0.003 mm, 12.902 cm2, and 0.039 cm3, respectively. The RMSE values are 175.183 cm, 0.010 mm, 59.710 cm2, and 1.513 cm3, respectively. The ratio of da to the average observed values (dap) for the LLR and VLR are all less than 5%, and the ADLR and SALR are all <6%. The models developed in this paper have good performance and reliability for predicting lateral root morphological parameters of rapeseed. The study provides a mechanistic method for linking the rapeseed growth model with the morphological model using corresponding organic biomass and laying a good foundation for establishing a 3D morphological model for rapeseed root system based on biomass. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ride-sharing contributes significantly to lowering trip expenses, easing traffic congestion and decreasing air pollution. However, current order pairing approaches in ride-sharing usually focus on minimizing total trip distances or maximizing platform profits, overlooking the drivers' desire for increased earnings. As a result, drivers might provide dishonest information to gain higher profits, leading to inefficient order pairing for the ride-sharing platform and potential losses for both the platform and drivers. In this paper, we address this challenging issue by developing efficient order pairing mechanisms that maximize the social welfare of the platform and drivers. Specifically, we introduce two truthful auction-based order pairing mechanisms, SWMOM-VCG and SWMOM-GM, where drivers bid on platform-published orders to complete them and earn profits. We provide theoretical proof that both mechanisms fulfill the criteria of individual rationality, profitability, truthfulness and so on. Using real taxi order data from New York City, we assess the performance of both mechanisms and show that they achieve greater social welfare compared to existing methods. Additionally, we find that SWMOM-GM requires less computation time than SWMOM-VCG for order pairing, with only a minor reduction in social welfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shared bicycles provide a green, environmentally friendly, and healthy mode of transportation that effectively addresses the "final mile" problem in urban travel. However, the uneven distribution of bicycles and the imbalance of user demand can significantly impact user experience and bicycle usage efficiency, which makes it necessary to predict bicycle demand. In this paper, we propose a novel shared-bicycle demand prediction method based on station clustering. First, to address the challenge of capturing patterns in station-level bicycle demand, which exhibits significant fluctuations, we employ a clustering method that combines graph information from the bicycle transfer graph and potential energy. This method aggregates closely related stations into corresponding prediction regions. Second, we use the GCN-CRU-AM (Graph Convolutional Network-Gated Recurrent Unit-Attention Mechanism) model to predict bicycle demand in each region. This model extracts the spatial information and correlation between regions, integrates time feature data and local weather data, and assigns weights to the input features. Finally, experimental results based on the data from Citi Bike System in New York City demonstrate that the proposed model achieves a more accurate demand prediction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deriving its name from a local Native American tribe and the Dutch word for sea, the Tappan Zee (NY, USA) is perhaps the most difficult section along the Hudson River for building a bridge. Swells of 1 m, swift tides, winter storms and ice flows aside, the 5 km crossing faces daunting circumstances beneath the surface in the form of poor and varied geotechnical conditions. Innovative design and construction first found a solution to these challenges in the 1950s with the completion of the Tappan Zee Bridge. However, with traffic volumes exceeding its design basis, exponentially increasing maintenance costs and functionally obsolete features, 'the Tapp' was nearing the end of its serviceable life. Its twin-span replacement, the Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge, took a diametrically different approach to the river and its complex soil strata. This paper looks back briefly at the unique floating bridge strategy used in the 1950s before examining the deep-foundation approach of the 2010s. The US$4 billion Cuomo Bridge took advantage of new resources such as driven pipe piles more than 115 m in length, large-displacement isolation bearings and modular joints and the use of prefabricated components and several massive barge-mounted cranes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Kosciuszko Bridge carries a 1.8 km long segment of the Brooklyn–Queens Expressway over Newtown Creek between Brooklyn and Queens in New York City, USA. The roadway is a vital link in the region's transportation network, carrying over 170 000 vehicles/day. Owing to structural and operational deficiencies, the existing structure was replaced. The new bridge consists of two parallel structures, one eastbound and one westbound, with main spans mirroring one another. Each structure consists of a single-tower cable-stayed main span over Newtown Creek with unbalanced main and back spans. This was the first cable-stayed bridge to be constructed in New York City, joining the ranks of the city's most iconic bridges. Here, two main span structures are discussed, with the focus primarily on the design and construction of the westbound, phase 2 bridge. Some key design aspects are outlined, including outboard cable anchorages, a concrete-filled counterweight and other details intended to facilitate construction, maintenance and inspection. The eastbound, phase 1 bridge was constructed under a design–build contract, and the westbound, phase 2 bridge as a design–bid–build. The paper also touches on some of the design aspects that were refined during the second phase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The physical condition of an occupant's home represents a significant factor in determining the dweller's overall quality of life. This paper provides a statistical framework for measuring housing quality in an urban area through a standardized index. This index is constructed using principal component analysis, incorporating demographic, geographic, and economic factors from the New York City Housing and Vacancy Survey. This metric allows for investigating differences in housing quality based upon ownership status. Analysis of the index demonstrates that renters face more housing quality issues than owners. Several of the index's input variables driving these differences were found to exhibit varying effects on housing quality over time, possibly due to events such as the 2008 financial crisis. Implementing this novel statistical framework, housing quality indices can be constructed for other cities to examine housing disparities and inform policies aimed at improving quality of life for urban residents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to examine the association between asthma severity and one-year lagged fitness in New York City Public school youth by neighborhood opportunity. Using the Child Opportunity Index 2.0 and individual-level repeated measures NYC Office of School Health (OSH) fitness surveillance data (2010–2018), we ran multilevel mixed models stratified by neighborhood opportunity, adjusting for sex, race/ethnicity, grade level, poverty status, and time. Asthma severity was based on a physician-completed Asthma Medication Administration Form (MAF) from each school year and drawn from the Automated Student Health Record (ASHR). Across all youth in grades 4–12 (n = 939,598; 51.7 % male; 29.9 % non-Hispanic Black, 39.3 % Hispanic; 70.0 % high poverty), lower neighborhood opportunity was associated with lower subsequent fitness. Youth with severe asthma and very low and low neighborhood opportunity had the lowest 1-year lagged fitness z-scores − 0.24 (95 % CI, −0.34 to −0.14) and − 0.26 (95 % CI, −0.32 to −0.20), respectively, relative to youth with no asthma and very high opportunity. An inverse longitudinal relationship between asthma severity and subsequent fitness was observed. Study findings have implications for public health practitioners to promote physical activity and improved health equity for youth with asthma, taking neighborhood factors into account. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

More than 20 years have elapsed since the September 11, 2001 (9/11) terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center (WTC), Pentagon and at Shanksville, PA. Many persons continue to suffer a variety of physical and mental health conditions following their exposures to a mixture of incompletely characterized toxicants and psychological stressors at the terrorist attack sites. Primary care and specialized clinicians should ask patients who may have been present at any of the 9/11 sites about their 9/11 exposures, especially patients with cancer, respiratory symptoms, chronic rhinosinusitis, gastroesophageal reflux disease, psychiatric symptoms, and substance use disorders. Clinicians, especially those in the NY metropolitan area, should know how to evaluate, diagnose, and treat patients with conditions that could be associated with exposure to the 9/11 attacks and its aftermath. As such, this issue of Archives contains a series of updates to clinical best practices relevant to medical conditions whose treatment is covered by the WTC Health Program. This first paper in the 14-part series describes the purpose of this series, defines the WTC Health Program and its beneficiaries, and explains how relevant Clinical Practice Guidelines were identified. This paper also reminds readers that because physical and mental health conditions are often intertwined, a coordinated approach to care usually works best and referral to health centers affiliated with the WTC Health Program may be necessary, since all such Centers offer multidisciplinary care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents information on a study which screened hemoglobin with alkaline electrophoresis on cellulose acetate followed by acid electrophoresis on citrate agar in New York City. Critical application of specimens to the citrate agar plates of the screening procedure; Accurate monitoring of the hemoglobin screening method; Results and discussion.

This paper focuses on the estimation and compression of ride demand from origin-destination (OD) trip event data. By representing the OD event data as a three-way tensor (origin, destination, and time), we model the data as a Poisson process with an intensity tensor that can be decomposed according to a Tucker decomposition. We establish and justify a specific form of nonnegative Tucker-like tensor decomposition that represents OD demand via K latent origin spatial factors and K latent destination spatial factors. We then provide a computational and memory efficient algorithm for performing this decomposition and demonstrate its use for real-time compression and estimation of OD ride demand. Two case studies based on New York City (NYC) taxi and Washington DC (DC) taxi were implemented. Results from the case studies demonstrate the applicability of the proposed method in data compression and short-term forecast for ride demand. Furthermore, we found that the learned latent spatial factors are interpretable and localized to specific areas for both NYC and DC cases. Hence, this method can be used to understand OD trip data through latent spatial factors and be used to identify spatio-temporal patterns for OD trip and travel demand generation mechanism in general. Funding: This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Transportation [UTC/NCST] and the U.S. National Science Foundation [Grant DMS 1712996]. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/trsc.2022.0101. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bike sharing contributes to public health by providing physical exercise opportunities. Meanwhile, the shift of vehicular travel demand to bike sharing may cut vehicular emissions and severe crashes. However, according to each city's different composition of travel modes, the net health benefits are not clear and worth studying case by case. In this paper, we focus on the Citi Bike bike-sharing program in New York City. We modify the Integrated Transport Health Impact Model and assess the net health effects by comparing a baseline scenario (with Citi Bike) against a hypothetical scenario (without Citi Bike). For each scenario, we investigate the overall health effects of the Citi Bike program in the unit of Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) in three categories: physical activity, fine inhalable particles (i.e., PM 2.5) exposure, and road traffic injuries. The results indicate that the implementation of Citi Bike plays a positive role in improving public health. It is worth noting that the emission reduction due to the shift from vehicular transport to Citi Bike contributes the most health benefit to the public. Hence we further propose a sensitivity analysis of the Citi Bike market share illustrating the potential benefits of promoting Citi Bike among non-users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Syracuse, New York more than 10% of children are lead poisoned each year, a toxic exposure that lowers the children's ability to learn and increases risky behaviors in adolescence. African American children are affected at nearly twice the rate of White children. We describe a community‐university collaboration to reduce childhood lead poisoning in Syracuse, and the effects these efforts have had on public policy to date. This paper documents the effectiveness of the Community Action, Research, and Education model to deliver community‐based prevention strategies on child lead poisoning in Syracuse, New York. The community‐based strategies were successful for promoting legal and policy change, increasing the public awareness of this tragic problem, holding elected and appointed officials to their commitments in addressing this toxic injustice, and obtaining needed intervention and disability accommodations for lead‐poisoned children in the community and educational institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic and the inequities it uncovered highlighted the need for a rapid and coordinated response among different disciplines in medical settings. Interprofessional collaboration and education is necessary to provide culturally competent emergent care. However, there is still scarce evidence demonstrating the use of interprofessional education in emergent care settings. This paper explores the training and education of health care professionals in a primarily minority serving hospital located in New York City during the first phase of COVID-19. Guided by the appreciative inquiry framework, two focus groups were conducted with administrators and health care workers who provided care to COVID-19 patients in an emergent care setting. It was found that a positive work environment that emphasizes knowledge sharing, collaboration, communication, and continuous on-the-job training facilitates culturally competent care. The implementation of interprofessional education and collaboration has the potential to transform clinical practice and improve health outcomes for under-resourced communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: point prevalence surveys have been used as a standardized tool to monitor antibiotic consumption to inform antimicrobial stewardship interventions in many countries. The 2021 WHO model list of Essential Medicines has classified antibiotics into three groups: access, watch and reserve. The aim of this paper is to describe the antibiotics used within a space of three years between 2018 and 2021 at the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital based on WHO AWaRe classification. Methods: three point-prevalence surveys were conducted in the wards in our 500-bed tertiary hospital in 2018, 2019 and 2021. Each ward was surveyed on a particular day within a four-week period. The wards were grouped into medical and surgical for comparison. Antibiotics were classified as access, watch, and reserve. Validated data were analyzed with IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 20.0 (Armonk, NY: IBM Corp.). Results: a total of 526 patients were surveyed out of which 344 were on antimicrobial therapy with a total of 687 antibiotic prescriptions. The overall prevalence of patients who received at least one antimicrobial was 65.4% (62.4 -72.8%). The Access group of antibiotics made up 48.2% of prescriptions while the watch group made up 50.5% of prescriptions. More watch Antibiotics were prescribed by surgical wards (49.7%) than by medical wards (43.7%). Conclusion: the use of Access group antibiotics in our hospital falls below the WHO target level in both medical and surgical wards. There is a need for strengthening antibiotic stewardship activities to reduce the use of watch group antibiotics and limit antimicrobial resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knuth's 0–1 principle argues that the correctness of any swap-based sorting network can be verified by testing arbitrary sequences over Boolean values (i.e., 0 and 1). Voigtländer (Proceedings of the 35th ACM SIGPLAN-SIGACT symposium on principles of programming languages, POPL 2008, San Francisco, California, USA, January 7–12, 2008. ACM, New York, NY, pp 29–35, 2008. https://doi.org/10.1145/1328438.1328445) proved a similar result for prefix-sum networks that consist of associative binary operators: the correctness can be verified by testing arbitrary sequences and associative binary operators over three values, namely 0, 1, and 2. He raised the question of whether testing over Boolean values is sufficient if the binary operator is idempotent in addition to associative. This paper answers his question. First, there is an incorrect prefix-sum network for associative idempotent operators, the flaw of which cannot be detected by testing over Boolean values. Second, testing over Boolean values is sufficient if the binary operators are restricted to commutative in addition to associative and idempotent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops the notion of "platform placemaking", describing how platforms mobilize user data to remake urban spatial imaginaries in their interests. Using Airbnb as a case, the paper studies the digital urban culture of "Airbnbification" – examining how Airbnb's reviews and descriptions become part of reshaping urban place, while contributing to the place alienation of long-term residents. Airbnb feeds a surge in urban tourists on the hunt for "real urban experiences": off-the-beaten-track, everyday and mundane urban life, seen as representing something "real" and "authentic". This paper situates Airbnb in the literature on postmodern consumption, and examines the way hosts and guests on Airbnb stage, perform and construct cosmopolitanism and "authentic" urban place to cater to the values of new urban tourism. The paper introduces an approach to studying digital urban culture through platform data, using computational discourse analysis to examine Airbnb in New York City. By linking narratives in reviews and neighborhood descriptions to census data, we examine how authenticity and cosmopolitanism is staged and marketed. The paper argues that Airbnb serves to promote a value system that devalues the cultural and spatial capital of long-term residents, implying that the new tourists' cosmopolitan longing to belong may thus come at the cost of the locals' own sense of belonging. The platform placemaking of Airbnb thus emphasizes urban place as a consumption experience, while depressing other ways of experiencing the city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Race Disparity Audit (RDA) was published in 2017 by the then Conservative government of the UK. The proclaimed aims were to 'reveal racial disparities and to help end the injustices that many people experience'. This paper adopts a critical discourse analysis approach to analysing the RDA and associated webpages, to critically examine the government's purported aims. The linguistic analysis reveals a pernicious form of political doublespeak which effects a maintenance of the status quo. In excluding racism as a cause of disparities, the audit acts to de-legitimise anti-racism as part of the solution, thereby preventing actions with the potential to end racial injustices. The analysis is explained by reference to Feagin's (2013. The White racial frame. Centuries of racial framing and counter-framing (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Routledge) White racial frame in institutional operation. The paper concludes by exposing the ramifications of this for future policy development by reference to an education policy development borne from the RDA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the Erol Beker Chapel of the Good Shepherd in St. Peter's Lutheran Church in New York City, one of few extant immersive environments created by sculptor Louise Nevelson and the only one with explicitly Christian content. In the mid-1970s, Nevelson collaborated with Rev. Ralph Peterson, who commissioned the chapel within St. Peter's, a new urban church in the Citicorp complex. Nevelson was able to pursue her idiosyncratic spirituality, expressed in a life-long exploration of the fourth dimension, which she considered a gateway to transformation. Peterson was able to work with "the greatest living American sculptor" on an inspirational space for meditation and ritual, for his Lutheran church dedicated to an arts and social-action ministry. The pastor and artist found common ground in the language of abstraction, creating a gleaming white space of joy and life. The paper provides a close reading of the iconography of the chapel's sculptural components, meaning that is amplified by other designed elements, including lighting, pew arrangement, and a Nevelson-designed vestment. This paper also examines how the chapel functions in the twenty-first century as a religious space. After years of relative obscurity and benign neglect, the Chapel is today undergoing restoration and reassessment. It can once again fulfill its role as a space of radiant livingness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes five elementary statistics projects involving the Covid-19 data made available to the public in csv files by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The first project examined data available at the beginning of the covid surge in New York City in spring, 2020, and used the correlation coefficient to estimate the total number of deaths that could be expected as the spike ran its course. The second project is an easy one on the concept of excess deaths and on the mechanics of extracting parts of a data file that answer relevant questions. The data is from a spike in deaths in the particularly bad flu surge in the winter of 2017–2018. The third and fourth projects ask the student to fit a logistic growth curve to observed cumulative numbers of deaths in a spike, like the Covid spikes in New York City and Wisconsin and the nationwide 2017–2018 flu spike. The method is a simple linear regression with transformed variables. The fifth project involves hypothesis testing and judging when a Poisson model might be useful. The paper also documents difficulties and adaptations of the sort familiar to all teachers who have taught during the Covid-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]