Thesis. 1978. M.C.P.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH. / Includes bibliographical references. / M.C.P.

Development and exacerbation of asthma have long been associated with exposure and sensitization to allergens. While exposure to respiratory allergens such as German cockroach, mouse, cat, and dust mite is thought to occur largely by inhalation, the best method to measure the exposure remains unclear. Similarly ambiguous are the ideal measurement and allergic or respiratory effects of exposure to fungi. As most people in the industrialized world, especially small children, spend the majority of their time indoors, the home environment is of prime importance. Previous researchers have shown that poor housing quality or maintenance lead to growth of fungi, increased pest populations, and higher concentrations of other allergens and irritants. These elevated levels in turn are associated with greater rates of sensitization and asthma in the occupants. This dissertation focused on exposure measurement, assessment of sensitization to common molds, and estimating the effects of neighborhood-level pest prevalence and housing quality on asthma symptoms. The study subjects and homes were part of either the Puerto Rican Asthma Study (PRAS), a longitudinal cohort study focused on identifying how multiple risk factors affected allergic sensitization and asthma development in U.S.-born Puerto Rican children with atopic mothers, or the Head Start Study (HSS), which examined allergen exposure and sensitization in young children of low-income families. From 199 of these New York City homes, settled dust, high-volume air, and nasal air sample measurements were simultaneously collected and analyzed for cockroach, mouse, dog, cat, rat, and mite allergens. Cockroach and mouse allergens were quantified from all three sample types while the other allergens were measured from air samples only. Ninety-three women from PRAS were tested for sensitization to six species of mold using the halogen immunoassay and four mold species using ImmunoCAP. The results were compared to previously quantified specific-IgE to other inhalant allergens as well as to self-reported allergy and asthma symptoms and demographic characteristics. Finally in a cross-sectional sample of 225 children from both study populations, the impacts of housing conditions and pests on current asthma at both the individual and neighborhood level were examined. Questionnaire data on demographics, housing factors, asthma symptoms, and health behaviors were evaluated with allergic sensitization and environmental sampling results for each child. They were also grouped and contrasted by neighborhood using United States Census neighborhood-level data on reported pest prevalence and housing quality. The effects of individual and neighborhood factors on current asthma symptoms were estimated using a generalized linear model. Allergen concentrations were generally highest in settled dust, followed by high-volumetric air, and then nasal air samples. Mouse allergen was most frequently detected in air samples, followed by dog, cat, and cockroach. No samples contained rat or any of three types of mite allergens above the detection limit. While all three measurements enhanced the exposure picture for mouse allergen, air samples rarely had detectable cockroach allergen despite being detected in settled dust. This led to the conclusion that settled dust sampling is still crucial when assessing a child's exposure to cockroach allergen but may be less important for buoyant mammalian allergens such as mouse. Nearly one-third of the 93 mothers were sensitized to one or more molds as determined by either assay. Being sensitized was positively associated with sensitization to tree, grass, or pigeon allergens but not to other inhalant allergens. Moreover there was no association seen between sensitization to the fungal species and asthma or allergy symptoms. Of note, however, interesting differences between the halogen immunoassay and ImmunoCAP were identified that merit additional investigation. For the 225 children, current asthma symptoms were positively associated with early respiratory infections, presence of environmental tobacco smoke, having higher concentrations of cockroach allergen in bed dust, a higher intensity sensitization level to one or more inhalant allergens, and current asthma in the mothers. After adjusting for individual-level factors (cockroach allergen in bed dust, environmental tobacco smoke, and study population), no effect of neighborhood-level characteristics could be associated with current asthma prevalence. The lack of effect was likely due to a combination of factors including: small sample size, self and other selection biases, and insufficient diversity across the study population and neighborhoods

abstract: Latino children are more than twice as likely to live in poverty than their non-Latino, White peers (Kids Count Data Center, 2017), yet limited work has aimed to understand neighborhood influences on pathways of mental health among Latino children. Substantial work documents the deleterious effects of living in a disadvantaged neighborhood on mental health outcomes throughout the lifespan (Leventhal & Brooks-Gunn, 2000). Parental and familial variables may explain neighborhood influences on children’s mental health during the first few years of life (May, Azar, & Matthews, 2018). The current study evaluated the influence of three neighborhood indicators (concentrated disadvantage, residential instability, and the percentage of residents identifying as Hispanic/Latino) on maternal postpartum depressive symptoms and child behavior problems at 3 and 4.5 years via mediation and moderated mediation models among a sample of 322 low-income, Mexican American mother-child dyads. Contrary to hypotheses and existing literature, concentrated disadvantage and residential instability were not predictive of maternal or child mental health outcomes. The percentage of residents identifying as Hispanic/Latino emerged as a protective neighborhood factor for both mothers and children. The neighborhood ethnocultural context may be especially relevant to understanding pathways of mental health specific to Mexican American families. More research is needed to understand specific parental and familial mechanisms underlying this protective effect. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Psychology 2019

Childhood obesity remains prevalent among African American (AA) adolescents in low income neighborhoods with limited access to a variety of foods from stores. Guided by the ecological framework, the purpose of this study was to examine the impact of neighborhood stores on food choices, and physical activity among AA adolescents in a low income neighborhood. A quantitative research design with cross sectional primary and secondary surveys was used. Participants included 176 high school students and 42 store merchants. Data sources were the 2011 New Jersey Student Health Survey with core questions from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey and the Hmong Food Store Survey. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the sample characteristics and food store food variety and cost. Inferential statistics were used in analyzing the association between the dependent variable (grade level, age, or gender) and the independent variables, food choices and physical activity level, and to test for hypotheses. The findings revealed there were no significant associations between grade level, age, or gender and food choices, or physical activity level. Food variety reported as MyPlate food items were low for adolescents who shopped at small grocery and convenience stores as compared to those who shopped at supermarket and large grocery stores. Average cost differed by, MyPlate food groups and store type. Convenience stores had the lowest costs for fruits, grains, and protein, and highest for diary, reflecting the lack of variety in the mix of foods used to calculate costs. This study demonstrated the need for policy change at the community that will benefit disadvantaged AA adolescents in low income neighborhoods and improve access to a variety of food choices for purchase that are nutritious and affordable.

La gentrificación es un proceso urbano que se está presentando en distintas ciudades y barrios populares del mundo. El barrio conocido actualmente como Monumental Callao viene sufriendo cambios desde el año 2015 debido al Proyecto Fugaz, el cual ha traído consigo consecuencias tanto positivas como negativas. Sin embargo, los vecinos de la localidad no tienen conocimiento del término gentrificación, no saben en qué consiste el proceso y no han sido informados previamente por algún medio de la realización del Proyecto Fugaz, lo cual es perjudicial ya que sin la información necesaria no pueden tener una visión clara de lo que está ocurriendo. El objetivo de este proyecto se enfoca en utilizar el diseño de la información para explicarles a los vecinos de la zona de una manera fácil y efectiva las causas y efectos que puede tener este proceso urbanístico. Debido a la naturaleza del tema elegido, esta investigación será de campo y cualitativa, ya que es necesario conocer los avances y el impacto que esta podría tener en el público objeto de estudio. Así mismo, las técnicas a emplear serán observación no estructurada y entrevistas semi-estructuradas, utilizando como instrumentos guías de entrevistas y grabadoras audiovisuales. Finalmente, se propondrá un prototipo de solución el cual responda al problema identificado, este será un brochure que explique fácilmente la definición, causas, etapas y consecuencias de la gentrificación. Se hará un seguimiento en los testeos para medir su evolución y los resultados principales. / Gentrification is an urban process that is being presented in different cities and popular neighborhoods of the world. The neighborhood known today as Monumental Callao has been undergoing changes since 2015 due to Proyecto Fugaz, which has received the same negative consequences. However, the residents of the locality have no knowledge of the term gentrification, we do not know what the process consists of and they have not been informed in the future. Have a clear vision of what is happening. The objective of this project focuses on using information design to explain the neighbors of the area in an easy and effective way the causes and effects that this urban process can have. This information will be based on the subject of the study. Likewise, the techniques are used as interview guides and audiovisual recorders. Finally, a prototype solution is presented in which the problem is answered, it is a booklet that easily explores the definition, causes, stages and consequences of gentrification. Monitoring will be done in the tests to measure their evolution and the main results. / Trabajo de investigación

The St. Johns neighborhood of North Portland is known for its strong regional identity, working class character, and diversity. Portland as a whole has experienced a major socioeconomic shift in the last ten years, and these changes are hitting St. Johns particularly hard. My research seeks to identify the place meanings that underpin sense of place, place attachment, and processes of attachment formation, among residents of the neighborhood. My research questions are: What are the objects of attachment? Why (the place meanings that underpin attachment)? And how (through what processes are attachments formed)? In what ways are the "why" and "how" intertwined? What are the commonalities across different variables, and how do those gesture at a holistic St. Johns essence, or sense of place? My primary method was Resident-Employed Photography, supported by participant observation and archival research. This 'photo voice' method entailed giving single-use cameras to 43 place-attached St. Johns residents and asking them to photograph and write about twelve things that explain their connection. The results offer a rich, multifaceted understanding of place meanings and processes of attachment in St. Johns, and insight into what individual facets are most intrinsic to sense of place. The intention of this research is to inform planning efforts, contribute to community dialogues about the future of St. Johns, empower residents to become civically engaged, and articulate a sense of place that can be leveraged by the community in spatial struggles.

In many distributed applications, end hosts need to know the network locations of other nearby participating hosts in order to enhance overall performance. Potential applications that can benefit from the location information include automatic selection of nearby Web servers, proximity routing in a peer-to-peer system, and loss recovery in reliable multicasting. We focus in this paper on the network neighborhood discovery problem in large-scale distributed systems. In these systems, the number of participating nodes can be very large, and the membership can dynamically change. Our goal is for each node to discover other "nearby" participating nodes in a completely decentralized manner, where each node probes only a small subset of other nodes in the system. This approach will lead to improved overall performance by matching client requests for services with participants in the peer-to-peer service system that are, on average, nearby in the network sense. Recent works in distributed peer-to-peer systems, such as Chord, CAN, Tapestry and Pastry, provide efficient distributed lookup structures. In this paper, we investigate a rendezvous-based scheme for a node to discover other nearby participating nodes using a peer-to-peer lookup system such as Chord. Given a key, the Chord protocol maps the key onto a node. Our idea for network neighborhood discovery is for each host to compute a key that characterizes its network location on the Internet. We call such a key the location key, and the nodes that these location keys are mapped to the Rendezvous Points. To lookup other nearby participating nodes, a node seeking some service queries its corresponding rendezvous point using its location key. We focus on the issue of how to generate the location key in a distributed fashion such that nodes that are close to each other in the actual network will have similar location key values, and therefore be mapped to nearby locations on the Chord ring. In this paper, we examine the performance tradeoffs of such a rendezvous scheme using the Global Network Positioning (GNP) approach to generate the location keys. In GNP, each node measures its network distances to a few landmark nodes to derive its coordinates in a D-dimensional geometric space. We generate a host's Chord location key from its 1-dimensional GNP coordinate, and use coordinates from a higher dimensional space to refine the searching process for the closest node. We evaluate our scheme in the context of the nearest neighbor discovery problem. Using data from the Active Measurement Project of the National Laboratory for Applied Network Research (NLANR), we compare its performance with a random mapping scheme, where location keys are randomly generated. Using our coordinate-based rendezvous scheme, 66% of the nodes found their actual closest network neighbor by pinging only a small number of nodes. / Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA)

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2006. / Full text release at OhioLINK's ETD Center delayed at author's request

This master thesis comprizes of a comparative study between two neighborhoods in two different cities: Nezu-Tokyo and Ortakoy-Istanbul. Although two cities that have been chosen seem incomparable in many respects, the study scale &ndash / neighborhoodsprovide a deeper apprehension to understand the differences or similarities that the two cultures and their architecture share. In the master thesis, the main factors that form, constitute, and limit the neighborhoods, with the help of the photographical medium, will be analyzed. Japanese and Turkish Culture, despite the fact that they belong to different geographies, share a certain closeness and intimacy. In the two cultures, it is possible to observe that, there exists (at least within certain cultural areas) an attempt to protect internal harmonies against the effects of globalizarion. After experiencing the similar characteristics of urban space in these two neighborhoods, this study has focused on the creation of space, within the help of atmoshere and boundary concepts, within a theoretical frame drawn by an aesthetical approach. Although the cities that were chosen are very large in scale, the neighborhoods which were chosen still carry a local character, where citizens spend most of their time and closely affect their surroundings. It could also be claimed that, positioned between v architectural and urban scale, neighborhoods constitute the different faces of a city. In a neighborhood that posseses both traditional characters and effects of urbanization at the same time, we can observe the social habits and individual diversities, rules of a city planning and flux of different ingredients that form the metropolitan and daily life, and neighbor relations. In this regard, my intention, with the close-scope study of two neighborhoods, is to make a research to indicate the very distinct ways to create space and the ways in which everyday life is conveyed, within the context of two different cultures.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 240-248).