Hub City Research Articles

HUB City Steps: A 6-Month Lifestyle Intervention Improves Blood Pressure among a Primarily African-American Community

The effectiveness of community-based participatory research (CBPR) efforts to address the disproportionate burden of hypertension among African Americans remains largely untested. The objective of this 6-month, noncontrolled, pre-/post-experimental intervention was to examine the effectiveness of a CBPR intervention in achieving improvements in blood pressure, anthropometric measures, biological measures, and diet. Conducted in 2010, this multicomponent lifestyle intervention included motivational enhancement, social support provided by peer coaches, pedometer diary self-monitoring, and monthly nutrition and physical activity education sessions. Of 269 enrolled participants, 94% were African American and 85% were female. Statistical analysis included generalized linear mixed models using maximum likelihood estimation. From baseline to 6 months, blood pressure decreased significantly: mean (±standard deviation) systolic blood pressure decreased from 126.0±19.1 to 119.6±15.8 mm Hg, P=0.0002; mean diastolic blood pressure decreased from 83.2±12.3 to 78.6±11.1 mm Hg, P<0.0001). Sugar intake also decreased significantly as compared with baseline (by approximately 3 tsp; P<0.0001). Time differences were not apparent for any other measures. Results from this study suggest that CBPR efforts are a viable and effective strategy for implementing nonpharmacologic, multicomponent, lifestyle interventions that can help address the persistent racial and ethnic disparities in hypertension treatment and control. Outcome findings help fill gaps in the literature for effectively translating lifestyle interventions to reach and engage African-American communities to reduce the burden of hypertension.

Patologías Ortográficas de la Publicidad Exterior en la Zona Comercial del Municipio de San José de Cúcuta

Background: It is common to find ads Cucuta misspelled which blur the advertising function of the exposed graphic pieces. Recent studieshave spelling errors in advertising as an educational alternative for the formation of graphic designers, but there is still no data that might address the problem from Cucuta as a border city and commercial hub. Objective: The main purpose of this investigation is based in recognizing the spelling and grammar criteria used by businesses and consumers in exterior visual advertising present today all over the center of the city here in Cucuta. We analyzed all the different spelling and grammar mistakes present today here in Cucuta and made a comparative analysis using the current normativity and the opinion of the bystanders who make daily use of the products marketed was taken into account. Methods: As a first step in the method used the normativity was analyzed like a hidden aspect or something that was socialized very little and that only pertains to a reduced sector of the advertising professional field. Result: It turns out that there is no norm or regulation that controls advertising in the streets of Cucuta, which invites the academy to establish studies that will begin the development of this project and that in agreement with the productive sector will permit a better performance of the profession and a balanced projection of the labor mean in regards to the social and environmental issues. Conclusion: it is determined that within the process of commercialization the most important thing is the product or service and the criteria used and that sometimes spelling and grammar are not taken into account in advertising or even more it is thought that the misuse of spelling and grammar is a gimmick strategy used to attract consumers.

Environment as a home to architecture. The Cremona City Hub project

The urban regeneration pro- ject of the former Marketplace area promoted by the Local Administration in Cremona through a two-step international contest which ended in May 2012, relies on the willingness to guarantee new and high standards of welcoming and liveability within a logic of “smart city” to be meant as an healthy, dynamic and economically sustainable city. The promotion of energy policies, the close connection between the urban and the architectural project, a new dimension of welcoming and residentiality, the environmental quality, and the fruition of culture, represent questions to which new project development capabilities intend to ensure adequate answers. The experimental research of the Cremona City Hub project targets these very values.

Vietnam. Vietnam: Rethinking the state. By Martin Gainsborough. London: Zed Books, 2010. 224 pages. Maps, Notes, Bibliography, Index.

Vietnam: Rethinking the state By MARTIN GAINSBOROUGH London: Zed Books, 2010. 224 pages. Maps, Notes, Bibliography, Index. doi: 10.1017/S0022463413000507 Martin Gainsborough's Vietnam: Rethinking the state makes an important contribution to the small but growing body of literature on politics in contemporary Vietnam. The book advances our understanding of politics and the state in Vietnam, as it sets out to do, despite an analysis perched on the somewhat awkward assumption that 'if we are to stand a chance of shedding light on the state it is important that as researchers we do not focus directly on it' (p. 3). The focus of the book then, we soon learn, is more on business, state business, and state--business relations than the 'state' as it is conventionally understood. An analysis of business, says Gainsborough, provides 'a particularly fruitful window onto the political, and ultimately the nature of the state'. And he is right, to a point. Among Vietnam: Rethinking the state's most important contributions are the admonitions it issues forth toward those interested in Vietnamese politics. For example, Gainsborough suggests a need to jettison perspectives on the last two decades of social history in Vietnam as primarily a process of 'reform', as some observers have done, or giving undue emphasis to 'change', as continuities with the past are deep and pervasive. Such a perspective, he warns, overestimates the significance of policy processes vis-a-vis the more 'Machiavellian aspects of politics', such as competitions for power, resources, and patronage. Making this simple but important point is a contribution in its own right. Beyond the introductory chapter, the book rethinks the state through chapters that address such concerns as Communist Party rule, new state--business interests, corruption, the 'hollowing out' of the state, local politics, rent-seeking, and elite resilience. The reader might be somewhat disappointed to learn that the analysis of Communist Party rule includes no analysis of the Communist Party per se, but instead a freewheeling (though at times stimulating) survey of the qualities of several discernible (or imagined) 'classes' that Western social theory says are necessary for development of democracy which, in any case, is an eventuality which Gainsborough does not foresee. Subsequent chapters on state--business interests and corruption focus mostly on developments in Ho Chi Minh City in the late 1990s, a municipality that is to this day widely regarded at the forefront of 'reformism'. Gainsborough reveals why such a label is so problematic, demonstrating how, as in other regions, the local state apparatus appears to function mainly as a gatekeeper for rent-seeking of various stripes, mostly emanating from within the state. Across several chapters toward the middle of the book, Gainsborough offers insightful analyses of corruption and the 'equitisation' process (i.e. the transfer of state enterprises to private, oh pardon me--'non-state' ownership) and its relation to central-local relations. Much of this discussion is focused on Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam's commercial hub and most populous city. …

High Table-Talk

High Table-Talk Sam Pickering (bio) Robert Benson , Wedding the Wild Particular. Texas Review Press, 2012. 224 pages. $20.95 pb; Joseph Epstein , Essays in Biography. Axios Press, 2012. xii + 564 pages. Illustrated. $24; Philip Gerard , The Patron Saint of Dreams. Hub City Press, 2012. xiv + xiv pages. $17.95 pb; David George Haskell , The Forest Unseen. Penguin, 2013. xiv + xiv pages. $16 pb; Richard O'Mara , The Street Where They Lived. Alondra Press, 2011. 140 pages. $12.95 pb; Peter Ryan , It Strikes Me. Quadrant Books, 2011. 314 pages. $44.95; Ridley Wills II , Nashville Streets & Their Stories. Plumbline Media, 2012. xii + xii pages. Illustrated. No price provided, pb. "There is something almost indecent," Cunningham Graham declares, "in setting forth all a man thinks and feels, without an explanation or at least a prelude of some sort. A fencing master goes through the salute, a jockey takes a preliminary canter, even divines resort to incantations of some kind before they fall a-preaching." Essays in Biography is an anthology of Joseph Epstein's occasional reviews—usually of biographies, letters, and sometimes critical books. Epstein divides the book into sections devoted to Americans, Englishmen, popular culture, as well as "And Others." The book, however, lacks and needs an introduction. Certainly prefaces confine and distort, but they also explain and place better than basket-like words that lack real bottoms. Epstein is primarily intrigued by New Yorkers, Jewish writers, cultural entrepreneurs, and the chatty English, these last always on the verge of writing great books but who specialize in shaping small memorable put-downs. He does not, for example, discuss any southern American writers. Of course the content of the book is not a failing but simply reflects an author's choice. Inclination should determine reading and writing, but good introductions probe and reveal—and often deepen enjoyment. Essays is a once-a-night, once-a-week book, attractive primarily to flagging thinkers—aging magazine people interested in culture but who lack the energy or curiosity to read a bookshelf-bending biography. Epstein is quick with the quip, and his essays provide kernels of intellectual nourishment. "Talking," Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote, "is like playing on the harp; there is as much in laying the hands on the strings to stop their vibrations as in twanging them to bring out their music." Essays is composed of high table-talk, wit recollected in tranquility, the sorts of remarks that one wishes he had made in conversation but that appear only on the page. Cyril Connolly, Epstein writes, "had a taste—a propensity?, an aptitude?—for failure that [End Page 630] never left him." "Susan Sontag, as F. R. Leavis said of the Sitwells, belongs less to the history of literature than to that of publicity." "Arthur Schlesinger will probably go down in history as an unregenerate publicist for a line of progressive ideas that by the late 20th century would lose their hold on the imagination of many Americans." Maurice Bowra, Epstein writes, "was a thoroughly social being, lonely as only a deeply gregarious bachelor can be, a man by nature, of the group, the clique, the coterie." What makes Epstein appealing, yet, strangely enough, irritating, is that his judgments are usually right. Sontag is a caffeinated regional taste fast becoming stale. Connolly's pangs of mediocrity bore rather than intrigue readers, and Schlesinger has shrunk into a wilted Kennedy hierophant. Alas, the description of Bowra makes me wince, as I suspect it will make many aged readers wince—that is, those social beings among us who have slipped from almost all groups into loneliness. Epstein is a master of quotation. Of Hugh Trevor-Roper he notes that Bowra declared that the historian "had never known adultery to do so much for a man." Trevor-Roper, Epstein himself writes, "suffered fools not at all, and one had only to disagree with him to qualify as a fool. What must have made this all the more infuriating is that he seems to have been correct much of the time." Like a diamond, bright snappy prose does not chip easily and resists sharp argument—the source perhaps of my irritation with Epstein. Of course, I...

Hub City Steps: Correlations between Dietary Fiber, Total Cholesterol and Body Weight

Hub City Steps: Correlations between Dietary Fiber, Total Cholesterol and Body Weight

문화도시 브랜드 이미지 구축을 위한 유니폼 디자인 개발 - '아시아문화중심도시' 광주를 중심으로 -

Lately, cities have been trying to build a certain brand by using its identity and culture in public designs. Cities are using its public design to show its cultural identity and to differentiate itself from other cities so it is playing a significant role in establishing a city's overall image. Public uniform is used to reflect the symbolism and identity of the city, an image of the city's culture and is used as a means of communication for specialization. Thus, the purpose of this study is to develop public uniform designs to build and strengthen the brand of Gwangju as Asia cultural hub city. Research presents a review of the literature including concept and type of a cultural city, correlativity between public design and urban competitiveness, domestic and foreign culture city branding case: focusing on Gwangju which is a cultural hub city in Asia, and then study sets up the development direction and motifs of uniform designs, and uniforms are designed by making use of the textile with symbols and logos, colors, and architectural motifs of Asian Culture Complex. Development ranges of uniforms were limited to Cultural Tourism Narrators and the Asian Culture Complex Advertisements staff uniforms, within the region of cultural tourism. Textile design, illustration, uniform simulation using Adobe Photoshop 7.0 and Adobe Illustrator CS 3 program is presented.

African American community members sustain favorable blood pressure outcomes through 12‐month telephone motivational interviewing (MI) maintenance

Community approaches offer promise for addressing disparities experienced by African Americans in hypertension prevalence, treatment, and control. HUB City Steps, a community‐based participatory research lifestyle intervention, tracked participants through a 12‐month MI maintenance phase following a 6‐month intervention targeting physical activity and adoption of a healthier, culturally congruent diet, in which all participants received MI, social support, pedometer diary self‐monitoring, and five education sessions. This analysis explored whether 18‐month health outcome changes differed between those randomized to a maintenance group with a low (i.e., quarterly; n=134) vs. high (i.e., monthly; n=135) dose of MI telephone calls. Because there were no significant differences between groups, outcome changes were assessed with all participants combined. Significant improvements were apparent for blood pressure, body composition, and fitness measures. Results suggest a low dose of MI is as effective as a high dose of MI to sustain health improvements resulting from a lifestyle intervention. Funding source: National Institute for Minority Health and Health Disparities, R24MD002787.

Relationship between self‐rated health and 10‐year coronary heart disease risk among African Americans participating in a life‐style intervention: HUB City Steps

Coronary heart disease (CHD) continues to be a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the U.S. with African Americans ranking second in CHD prevalence among racial/ethnic groups. Morbidity and mortality have likewise been associated with self‐rated health (SRH). Previous studies have utilized SRH as a predictor of coronary events and/or death. We evaluated the associations between 10 year risk scores for CHD and SRH among a sample of African Americans participating in a lifestyle intervention. CHD risk was calculated for each participant with complete data at baseline (n=267), 3‐(n=223), 6‐(n=190) and 18‐ months (n=167) using sex‐specific algorithms developed by Wilson et al. (1998). A single 5‐point Likert scale item measured SRH (1=excellent). Pearson correlations for SRH and 10‐yr CHD risk score increased at each time point (baseline r=.039; 3‐months r=.092; 6‐months r=.139), but were not significant until 18‐months (r=.194, p=.012). Establishing this relationship in a health disparate population provides opportunity to identify moderators of risk. Further analysis may also help establish SRH as an inexpensive screening tool in community based lifestyle interventions such as HUB City Steps.

Adherence indicators predict changes in health outcomes: HUB City Steps

Participant adherence is a major threat to intervention effectiveness. Most researchers have reported effects of a single adherence measure on health outcomes. The objective of this analysis was to evaluate two adherence measures, separately and in combination, for predicting changes in health outcomes using data from a community‐based lifestyle intervention, HUB City Steps, conducted in a southern, African American population. Data were collected in 2010 from 269 participants in this 6‐month intervention targeting lifestyle changes to reduce blood pressure (BP). Two measures, education session attendance (ESA) and weekly steps/day pedometer diary submission (PDS) were used to create adherence indicators. Changes in anthropometric (body mass index, waist circumference, percent body fat, fat mass) and clinical (BP, lipids, glucose) outcomes were assessed. Based on bivariate tests, associations were observed between adherence indicators and several health outcome changes (r = −0.3 to −0.2; P &lt; 0.05). After controlling for baseline covariates using multivariable linear regression, not all of these bivariate relationships remained significant. For BP, a 1unit increase in the ESA/PDS continuous indicator resulted in a 0.3 mm Hg decrease. Adherence to intervention components may differentially predict changes in health outcomes. Funding: National Institute for Minority Health and Health Disparities.

Change in air services at second rank cities

There has been some conflicting analysis of the recent and likely future air services available at second rank cities. On the one hand, the sheer scale of economic activity associated with market demand (allied to the use of new larger aircraft) has maintained concentrations of air services at high ranking global city hubs. On the other, shifts in global production have drawn a wider array of cities, especially those from emerging economies, into global networks. That has been facilitated by the use of smaller long-haul aircraft, which are well suited to market demand in lower ranked cities. The paper explores these alternative views by analysing recent change in airline services at first and second ranked cities as identified by a major urban research project. Using a commercial air services data base, Capstats, the paper assembles and analyses the number of seats provided by airlines at six ranked categories of cities over the period 2005–2010. It finds that there have been some shifts in activity in favour of second ranked cities, but that outcome varies substantially from city to city. These results confirm earlier findings that the link between city size and air service is a complex one. To refine and enhance that insight, the paper suggests analyses of the way the airlines serve different sized cities (as expressed in aircraft type and airline size, for example). Case studies of the change in air services of some cities will also be useful.

아시아 무용예술의 발전을 위한 아시아 문화중심도시의 역할

The purpose of this study is to suggest a developmental plan for the exchange of Asian dances through a case of implementing Asian art community in the meantime through the formation project for Gwangju as Asia Culture Hub City. The Asia Culture Hub City is the biggest national culture project since the national foundation, and forms a new-concept cultural city in Gwangju Metropolitan City. Asian Culture Complex, is being built with the aim of being completed in 2014. Even the project of forming Gwangju as cultural city is being normally driven. As for a case of implementing Asian art community, it analyzed the cases of founding RIAU and Korean-ASEAN traditional music orchestra, and of founding Asian dance group. Suggesting developmental plans for the exchange of Asian dance arts by having this case as prerequisite, they are as follows. First, it is a change of recognition into ``Asia`` from the center on the West. Second, there is a need of proceeding with supporting and expanding the exchange of dancers and private dance arts. Third, there is a need of being formed the nation-based joint work project and the joint creation with other genre. Fourth, it is the introduction of Asian Art Village Network. Finally, it is the implementation of database for exchanging Asian dance arts.

Several steps/day indicators predict changes in anthropometric outcomes: HUB City Steps

BackgroundWalking for exercise remains the most frequently reported leisure-time activity, likely because it is simple, inexpensive, and easily incorporated into most people’s lifestyle. Pedometers are simple, convenient, and economical tools that can be used to quantify step-determined physical activity. Few studies have attempted to define the direct relationship between dynamic changes in pedometer-determined steps/day and changes in anthropometric and clinical outcomes. Hence, the objective of this secondary analysis was to evaluate the utility of several descriptive indicators of pedometer-determined steps/day for predicting changes in anthropometric and clinical outcomes using data from a community-based walking intervention, HUB City Steps, conducted in a southern, African American population. A secondary aim was to evaluate whether treating steps/day data for implausible values affected the ability of these data to predict intervention-induced changes in clinical and anthropometric outcomes.MethodsThe data used in this secondary analysis were collected in 2010 from 269 participants in a six-month walking intervention targeting a reduction in blood pressure. Throughout the intervention, participants submitted weekly steps/day diaries based on pedometer self-monitoring. Changes (six-month minus baseline) in anthropometric (body mass index, waist circumference, percent body fat [%BF], fat mass) and clinical (blood pressure, lipids, glucose) outcomes were evaluated. Associations between steps/day indicators and changes in anthropometric and clinical outcomes were assessed using bivariate tests and multivariable linear regression analysis which controlled for demographic and baseline covariates.ResultsSignificant negative bivariate associations were observed between steps/day indicators and the majority of anthropometric and clinical outcome changes (r = -0.3 to -0.2: P < 0.05). After controlling for covariates in the regression analysis, only the relationships between steps/day indicators and changes in anthropometric (not clinical) outcomes remained significant. For example, a 1,000 steps/day increase in intervention mean steps/day resulted in a 0.1% decrease in %BF. Results for the three pedometer datasets (full, truncated, and excluded) were similar and yielded few meaningful differences in interpretation of the findings.ConclusionsSeveral descriptive indicators of steps/day may be useful for predicting anthropometric outcome changes. Further, manipulating steps/day data to address implausible values has little overall effect on the ability to predict these anthropometric changes.

Gwangju: A Hub City of Asian Culture and high-tech industry

Gwangju is a metropolitan city located in the southwest of the Republic of Korea. The city was relatively socio-economically underdeveloped compared to other major Korean cities, particularly cities in the capital region and the southeast, until the 1980s. The central government’s former efficiency-oriented economic development policies, which focused on specific strategic locations in Korea, account for this underdevelopment. From the 1990s onward, Gwangju promoted its economic growth by constructing industrial complexes and establishing photonics and optical industries. Although the city has achieved some significant results in creating high-tech industries, Gwangju has the potential for further development. This is supported by the fact that since 2004, Gwangju, jointly with the central government, has begun an urban development project, the Hub City of Asian Culture Gwangju Project, to transform the city into an international city of arts and culture. The project represents more geographically balanced policy on the part of central government, as well as local government incentive to find urban regeneration strategies so the central city will be capable of thriving in the post industrial world. However, there are conflicts related to this project, particularly as regards the construction of the Asian Culture Complex (ACC). The success of the project will be dependent upon the construction of the ACC, which will be the most important facility.

New Brunswick and Transportation: A Brief Sketch of the History of Transportation and the Architecture of the Train Station

AS L O N G as anyone can remember, New Brunswick has been called the Hub City because of its important geographic position north of Trenton and Philadelphia, south of New York, and alongside the Raritan River. A business interest in transportation grew naturally in such a fortuitously located city. The nearby Raritan provided New Brunswick with the opportunity to build a profitable shipping industry, which it did promptly and with much success. But prosperity faded, at least temporarily, with the advent of rail travel, which was so much more efficient in transporting goods and passengers that it squelched local shipping interests. It was not until the Civil War era that the city flourished again, this time in the manufacturing industry. The European settlers of New Brunswick realized the potential of the city's geography, and in the seventeenth century they linked East New Brunswick (present-day Highland Park) and New Brunswick proper with a passenger ferry that crossed the river. In the eighteenth century, New Brunswick's businessmen began to ship New Jersey produce downstream to New York. The business of transportation grew at an impressive pace, and more sophisticated travel technology was developed to match its demands. By 1801 the city had its first paved street. From 1830-1833 work crews toiled to complete the Delaware and Raritan Canal at a cost of three million dollars. The canal was one of the major engineering feats of this era. By 1830 the New Brunswick shipyards were bustling; nearly a million bushels of grain passed through the city in that year. Aggressive foreign trade made the Raritan one of the most commercially significant rivers in the country. Steamboats plied the Raritan to and from New York four

Prospects for effective internal security reforms in India

This paper examines the important strides in internal security reform that India has undertaken since the November 2008 attack by Pakistani terrorists on the financial hub and port city of Mumbai. Despite decades of foreign and domestic terrorism and insurgency, India had never previously responded with such alacrity. This paper seeks to understand why this attack galvanised such reform whereas previous – and more deadly – attacks had not. To do so, it describes these important –if limited – achievements by putting them in the context of India's past insouciance and general approach towards internal security. Important factors (e.g. centre–state relations, patronage politics, composition and preferences of India's electorate and corruption) that will likely render more extensive change exceedingly unlikely if not impossible for the policy relevant future are identified. It concludes with a discussion of implications for India's internal security over the near and mid-term time horizons.

Steps/day ability to predict anthropometric changes is not affected by its plausibility

We evaluated whether treating steps/day data for implausible values (&lt;500 or &gt;30,000) affected the ability of these data to predict intervention‐induced anthropometric (waist circumference, body mass index, percent body fat, and fat mass) changes. Data were from 269 African American participants who submitted weekly steps/day diaries during a six‐month intervention (HUB City Steps 2009–2010). Three datasets were used: full (all values analyzed regardless of plausibility), truncated (to plausible values), and excluded (if implausible). Multivariable linear regression was used to estimate the effects of steps/day on anthropometric changes. Meaningful differences in model coefficient magnitudes were not apparent among the datasets, although larger coefficients were obtained using the excluded compared to the full and truncated datasets (range of differences: 0–0.17 between full and excluded; 0–0.15 between truncated and excluded). For example, a mean increase of 1,000 steps/day resulted in 0.34, 0.37 and 0.44 cm decreases in waist circumference using the full, truncated and excluded datasets. These results suggest that manipulating steps/day data to address implausible values has little overall affect on the ability to predict intervention‐induced anthropometric changes. Funding for this research was provided by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities.

Accessibility impacts of high-speed rail

Most high-speed rail (HSR) networks being proposed in the United States will be in a hub-and-spoke pattern. This article discusses some of the disadvantages of this system, and questions the need for a high-speed rail system at all. While a hub-and-spoke architecture benefits the hub city and offers economies of density in track usage, it is less certain that hubs will ultimately benefit economically from the introduction of HSR. Research from objective studies suggest that, although there are positive accessibility benefits in metropolitan areas served by HSR, there are negative nuisance effects such as noise and vibration along the lines. Since most people and businesses will use the high-speed trains infrequently, there will be little benefit to locating near a line. Potential (but not certain) agglomeration benefits may be the most likely benefit of HSR in the United States. However, alternatives to HSR should be considered.

Still under the Influence: The Bioregional Origins of the Hub City Writers Project

Still under the Influence: The Bioregional Origins of the Hub City Writers Project

Prospects for Effective Internal Security Reforms in India

This article examines the important strides in internal security reform that India has undertaken since the November 2008 attack by Pakistani terrorists on India’s financial hub and port city of Mumbai. However, it argues that despite decades of foreign and domestic terrorism and insurgency, India had never previously responded with such alacrity. This essay next seeks to understand why this attack galvanized such reform whereas previous-and more deadly-attacks had not. To do so, this essay describes the important achievements by contextualizing them in the background of India’s past insouciance and general approaches towards internal security. It concludes with a discussion of important factors (e.g. center-state relations, patronage politics, composition and preferences of India’s electorate, and corruption) that will likely render more extensive change exceedingly unlikely if not impossible for the policy-relevant future.