Palm Springs Research Articles

Let's Get the Job Done!

I am pleased to report that this year's Annual Meeting in Palm Springs, CA, enjoyed record attendance of more than 1,000 in attendance, with over 179 scientific posters and 100 exhibitors present. We had the privilege of hearing from experts in the forefront of Pain Medicine throughout the week and the opportunity to hear from internationally renowned experts in pain, including this year's keynote speaker Linda R. Watkins, PhD, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Psychology & Center for Neuroscience at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Dr. Watkins presented breaking scientific news on the immune and glial factors within the peripheral and central nervous systems that relate to chronic pain states and how therapeutics targeting key glial activation receptors is being approached in …

Rise of Buoyant Emissions from Low-Level Sources in the Presence of Upstream and Downstream Obstacles

Field and laboratory studies have been conducted to investigate the effect of surrounding buildings on the plume rise from low-level buoyant sources, such as distributed power generators. The field experiments were conducted in Palm Springs, California, USA in November 2010 and plume rise from a 9.3 m stack was measured. In addition to the field study, a laboratory study was conducted in a water channel to investigate the effects of surrounding buildings on plume rise under relatively high wind-speed conditions. Different building geometries and source conditions were tested. The experiments revealed that plume rise from low-level buoyant sources is highly affected by the complex flows induced by buildings stationed upstream and downstream of the source. The laboratory results were compared with predictions from a newly developed numerical plume-rise model. Using the flow measurements associated with each building configuration, the numerical model accurately predicted plume rise from low-level buoyant sources that are influenced by buildings. This numerical plume rise model can be used as a part of a computational fluid dynamics model.

AAPM Welcomes Its 28th President: Martin Grabois, MD

The American Academy of Pain Medicine (AAPM) is pleased to announce Martin Grabois, MD, as the Academy's 28th President. Dr. Grabois assumed his new position at AAPM's Annual Meeting held last month in Palm Springs, CA. Dr. Grabois has recently served as the Academy's Vice President of Scientific Affairs and Chairman of the Strategic Planning Committee, among other numerous leadership positions throughout the past 30-plus years. Currently, Dr. Grabois is Professor and Chairman of the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Baylor College of Medicine and Adjunct Professor of the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the University of Texas Health Science Center Houston. He has served as President of the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Association of Academic Physiatrists, American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine, International Rehabilitation Medicine Association, American Pain Society, and the Foundation for Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. He has conducted over 200 invited presentations worldwide and are published widely including editor or coeditor of books, book chapters, publications …

Review: Visual Acoustics: The Modernism of Julius Shulman by Eric Bricker, director

Eric Bricker, director. Visual Acoustics: The Modernism of Julius Shulman . Arthouse Films, 2008, DVD, 83 mins., http://www.juliusshulmanfilm.com, $29.95 As the opening credits to Visual Acoustics roll to a close, a voice, which we later realize is that of Julius Shulman, advocates for architecture's importance: “Every part of a person's life is based upon an architect's presence.” Enveloping us, architecture provides spatial, formal, and textural coordinates for much of human existence. Yet only a few seconds later, the film's narrator, the actor Dustin Hoffman, complicates the equation. “Architects,” we hear, “live and die by the images taken of their work, as these images alone are what most people see.” Despite the fact that buildings surround us, the most famous among them can be elusive. That is especially true in Southern California, where Julius Shulman photographed for more than half a century. On mountain ridges and alongside desert washes, detached houses embody the region's leading architectural response—the desire of affluent Californians to dwell within a private yet probing architectural landscape, a framework of walls and windows encrypted by structural technologies of steel and glass and open to panoramic views of nature and distant cityscape. Since most of us see these private domains primarily through photographs, how does a photographer's approach structure our architectural impressions? Why did certain photographs, the kind Julius Shulman was famous for, become icons of modernism? Visual Acoustics, the title of first-time director Eric Bricker's film about Julius Shulman's architectural photography, sounds enigmatic at first. Can photographs of buildings capture the world of sound? What Bricker and Shulman, who suggested the title, are getting at, I believe, is the ability of a photograph not only to facilitate a viewer's perception of architectural space, but also its potential to engross that viewer's emotions within the optical journey. Successful concert-hall acoustics reverberate the sounds of performers on stage with an audience's ears, transporting listeners out of their ambient and …

Long-Term Post-Fire Effects on Spatial Ecology and Reproductive Output of Female Agassiz’s Desert Tortoises (Gopherus agassizii) at a Wind Energy Facility near Palm Springs, California, USA

We studied the long-term response of a cohort of eight female Agassiz’s desert tortoises (Gopherus agassizii) during the first 15 years following a large fire at a wind energy generation facility near Palm Springs, California, USA. The fire burned a significant portion of the study site in 1995. Tortoise activity areas were mapped using minimum convex polygons for a proximate post-fire interval from 1997 to 2000, and a long-term post-fire interval from 2009 to 2010. In addition, we measured the annual reproductive output of eggs each year and monitored the body condition of tortoises over time. One adult female tortoise was killed by the fire and five tortoises bore exposure scars that were not fatal. Despite predictions that tortoises would make the short-distance movements from burned to nearby unburned habitats, most activity areas and their centroids remained in burned areas for the duration of the study. The percentage of activity area burned did not differ significantly between the two monitoring periods. Annual reproductive output and measures of body condition remained statistically similar throughout the monitoring period. Despite changes in plant composition, conditions at this site appeared to be suitable for survival of tortoises following a major fire. High productivity at the site may have buffered tortoises from the adverse impacts of fire if they were not killed outright. Tortoise populations at less productive desert sites may not have adequate resources to sustain normal activity areas, reproductive output, and body conditions following fire.

Review: American Glamour and the Evolution of Modern Architecture, by Alice T. Friedman

Alice T. Friedman . American Glamour and the Evolution of Modern Architecture . New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2010, ix +262 pp., 40 color and 125 b/w illus. $65.00, ISBN 9780300116540 You might imagine, from a quick glance at the dust jacket, that this volume would fall into the category of coffee-table book. Certainly the glossy image of poolside entertaining at Richard Neutra's Kaufmann Desert House in Palm Springs would suggest a title like Hot Resorts of Southern California or The New American Desert Style . The first part of the title, American Glamour , rendered in large letters that pick up the tint of the swimming pool, does nothing to dispel this impression. Title and image appear calculated to suggest that this is not a stuffy work of scholarship. Left at that, the reader might well assume it was another breezy romp through the lifestyles of the rich and famous. Only with the second line of the title is there an indication of how much higher the author has set her sights. In fact, this book is one of the most intriguing and compelling studies to date on modern architecture, at least on a key group of American midcentury examples of it. American architecture after World War II has inspired a great wave of recent work ranging from the ponderously erudite to the breathlessly enthusiastic. With this book Alice Friedman, a professor of art history at Wellesley College, weighs in …

Opposing Wind Energy Landscapes: A Search for Common Cause

Although wind power is local, sustainable, affordable, and carbon free, mounting public opposition to the landscape changes it produces threatens its expansion. In an era when many countries are looking to renewable energy as an answer to questions about national security and the risks of climate change, it is important to explain the sources of this reaction. This article looks for similarities in public resistance to wind developments in four diverse settings: Palm Springs, California; Cape Cod, Massachusetts; the Isle of Lewis, Scotland; and Oaxaca State, Mexico. Despite the natural and cultural diversity among these places, there are five common threads in the opposition that has been experienced: immobility, the site specificity of the resource; immutability, an expectation of landscape permanence; solidarity, the close relationship between people and the land; imposition, a sense of marginalization; and place identity, a loss of security. Considering more deeply the relationship between land and life, in advance of the development of renewable energy resources, will help smooth the otherwise bumpy road toward a more sustainable future.

Seismic Performance of Reinforced Concrete Frame Buildings in Southern California

This study examines the impact of the ShakeOut earthquake on reinforced concrete (RC) frame structures in Southern California. The assessment uses synthetic ground motions and nonlinear dynamic analysis to evaluate 20 RC frame buildings hypothetically located at 735 sites throughout the region. Results show that older nonductile RC frame structures may collapse at 8% to 32% of the sites analyzed, especially in Palm Springs, Los Angeles, and San Bernardino. Modern code-conforming RC frame structures are predicted to collapse at fewer sites (1–11%), but modern midrise construction may be vulnerable in Los Angeles due to rupture directivity and basin effects. These seismic performance metrics can inform the development of policies for emergency response and for mitigating earthquake-induced collapse of existing RC frame buildings. The study further provides a prototype that can be used in developing future scenario studies that will benefit from ongoing research to improve building and seismological models.

Identifying habitat linkages to maintain connectivity for corridor dwellers in a fragmented landscape

AbstractAnthropogenic habitat fragmentation typically precedes conservation planning; maintaining remaining linkages among core habitat areas can thus become a key conservation objective. Identifying linkages for dispersal and ensuring those linkages have long‐term protection and management are challenging tasks for wildlife managers. These tasks can be especially daunting for smaller species with low mobility, termed corridor dwellers, which must maintain sustainable populations within corridors. Between May 2007 and June 2009, we collected occurrence locations for a corridor dweller, the Palm Springs pocket mouse (Perognathus longimembris bangsii), from museums, previous research, and our own field sampling. We used those data to model their suitable niche space and then identify suitable linkages between proposed conservation areas. We used a partitioned Mahalanobis D2 statistic to create a spatially explicit niche model describing the distribution of a suitable niche space, and we validated the model statistically, with live trapping and with burrowing owl (Athene cunnicularia) diets. Our model identified soil characteristics, topographic ruggedness, and vegetation as variables delimiting Palm Springs pocket mouse habitat; sand content of the soils was an especially important characteristic. Our historic distribution model identified 120,000–90,000 ha as historically potential Palm Springs pocket mouse habitat; roughly 39% of that has been lost to more recent development. Most of the remaining suitable habitat occurred in the northwestern portion of the valley. We modeled habitat within core reserves as well as within proposed linkages between those reserves as having high similarity to known occupied habitats. Live trapping in areas with high (≥0.95) Habitat Suitability Index (HSI) values resulted in captures at 66% of those locations and, along with burrowing owl diets, refined a qualitative model as to what constituted a suitable Palm Springs pocket mouse corridor. While most corridor analyses have focused on mobile species which may traverse corridors in hours, days, or weeks, linkages for corridor dwellers must include habitat for sustaining multi‐generational populations. This requires evaluating whether continuous suitable habitat exists within proposed corridors. Our research demonstrates how niche modeling can provide a landscape‐scale view of the distribution of suitable habitat to evaluate conservation objectives for connectivity. © 2011 The Wildlife Society.

Testing Earthquake Source Inversion Methodologies

Source Inversion Validation Workshop; Palm Springs, California, 11–12 September 2010; Nowadays earthquake source inversions are routinely performed after large earthquakes and represent a key connection between recorded seismic and geodetic data and the complex rupture process at depth. The resulting earthquake source models quantify the spatiotemporal evolution of ruptures. They are also used to provide a rapid assessment of the severity of an earthquake and to estimate losses. However, because of uncertainties in the data, assumed fault geometry and velocity structure, and chosen rupture parameterization, it is not clear which features of these source models are robust. Improved understanding of the uncertainty and reliability of earthquake source inversions will allow the scientific community to use the robust features of kinematic inversions to more thoroughly investigate the complexity of the rupture process and to better constrain other earthquake‐related computations, such as ground motion simulations and static stress change calculations.

Using an Integrated Approach to Developing Sustainability Guidelines and Performance Targets for a New College Campus

In 2010, the College of the Desert focused the development of a new community college campus on the goal of creating a practical example of sustainable design. The West Valley Campus, located in Palm Springs, California, is currently being designed using an integrated approach, through which independent planners, designers, and contractors will work using a common framework to create a uniquely integrated sustainable facility that will become a living laboratory for teaching and learning. The integrated campus design process was developed to enable the campus to mitigate, and adapt to, climate change by potentially having a lower water and energy demand when compared to a series of parallel green design elements. Two documents are central to the framework of the Integrated Design Campus Plan. The Sustainability Guidelines were completed in January, 2010, followed by the Performance Targets in July, 2010. These two documents were created by a diverse team of professionals representing the fields of planning, design, engineering, ecology, scientific research, and architecture. This team shared a singular vision of creating a framework to provide guidance for current and future phases of campus development that move beyond the current sustainability paradigm of living within available resources. The strategy adopted here was for designing a holistic campus to mimic desert ecology, emphasize resource conservation and efficiency, the recovery of wastes, and adaptation to climate change. The overarching goals of the Sustainability Guidelines were zero waste, sustainable hydrology, net zero energy, carbon-neutral campus, and ecological restoration. Principles of sustainability were identified and arranged by thirteen themes over the Community, Campus, and Building scales: Education, Policy & Governance, Social, Economics, Ecology, Water, Energy, Waste, Transportation, Greenhouse Gases, Health & Wellness, Agriculture & Food and Materials. A fundamental aspect of integrated and sustainable design was recognition of the need to open boundaries -- such as property boundaries, boundaries between scales (building, site and community) and boundaries between design disciplines -- to find synergies that would enhance

Effects of Rain on Palm Springs Ground Squirrel Occupancy in the Sonoran Desert

ABSTRACT Long‐term monitoring programs must use informative yet cost‐effective methods. Occupancy estimates that incorporate detection probabilities are used with increasing frequency to describe species status and make management recommendations. Estimating changes in the occupancy of points over time in response to management actions or environmental changes may be especially useful for management of the Palm Springs round‐tailed ground squirrel (Spermophilus tereticaudus chlorus), a subspecies covered under the Coachella Valley Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Plan and Natural Community Conservation Plan. In 2002 and 2003, we estimated occupancy and detection probability of ground squirrels across lands modeled as ground squirrel habitat by the Scientific Advisory Committee for the Habitat Conservation Plan and tested a priori hypotheses about how occupancy varied among vegetation and substrate types. In the 2003 study, we asked whether these associations were affected by winter rains after the 2002 drought year. Occupancy in 2003 was estimated at 0.99 (SE = 0.01) in Western honey mesquite (Prosopis glandulosa) on dunes and hummocks, and occupancy of the remaining modeled habitat was best described by distance to mesquite, with the occupancy probability decreasing with increasing distance from mesquite on dunes or hummocks. The best‐supported model in 2002 described the distribution of ground squirrels as a function of only vegetation and substrate type. However, the best‐supported models in 2003 suggested that distance to mesquite was a component of the occupancy of non‐mesquite vegetation. Mesquite seems to provide high‐quality habitat that can support ground squirrels at high occupancy probabilities that may breed successfully every year. In contrast, other vegetation types provide low‐quality habitat that can only support ground squirrels at low occupancy probabilities that may only breed occasionally. Mesquite could be an essential refugium during drought years, and the 4 best‐supported models in 2003 suggest that restoration of mesquite beginning near currently occupied mesquite patches could be critical for maintaining ground squirrel populations on the preserves.

Biomechanical Evaluation of Endosseous Implants at Early Implantation Times: A Study in Dogs

This study tested the null hypothesis that differences in surgical instrumentation, macrogeometry, and surface treatment imposed by different implant systems do not affect early biomechanical fixation in a canine mandible model. The lower premolars of 6 beagle dogs were extracted and the ridges allowed to heal for 8 weeks. Thirty-six (n = 12 each group) implants were bilaterally placed, remaining for 1 and 3 weeks in vivo. The implant groups were as follows: group 1, Ti-6Al-4V with a dual acid-etched surface with nanometer scale discrete crystalline deposition (Nanotite; Certain Biomet-3i, West Palm Springs, FL); group 2, Ti-6Al-4V with a titanium oxide-blasted fluoride-modified surface chemistry (Osseospeed 4.0 S; Astra Tech, Mölndal, Sweden); group 3: Ti-6Al-4V with a bioceramic microblasted surface (Ossean; Intra-Lock International, Boca Raton, FL). Following euthanasia, implants were torqued to interface failure and histologically evaluated. General linear modeling (ANOVA) at 95% level of significance was performed. Histology showed that interfacial bone remodeling and initial woven bone formation were observed around all implant groups at 1 and 3 weeks. Torque values were significantly affected by time in vivo, implant group, and their interaction (P = .016, P < .001, and P = .001, respectively). Regarding torque values, group 3, group 2, and group 1 ranked highest, intermediate, and lowest, respectively. Early biomechanical fixation at 1 and 3 weeks was affected by surgical instrumentation, macrogeometry, and surface treatment present for one of the implant systems tested. The null hypothesis was rejected.

Chad Mirkin to Headline LabAutomation2011

T hanks to an energetic scientific committee led by Adam Woolley of Brigham Young University in Salt Lake City, UT; plans are already well under way for LabAutomation2011 (January 29 to February 2 in Palm Springs, CA). Among many other highlights, we look forward to welcoming Dr. Chad A. Mirkin as one of our plenary speakers. Dr. Mirkin is the Director of the International Institute for Nanotechnology and the George B. Rathmann Professor of Chemistry, Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, and Professor of Medicine at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL. He is also a member of President Obama’s Council of Advisors for Science and Technology and serves as a scientific advisor to JALA. Professor Mirkin is a chemist and a worldrenowned nanoscience expert who is known for his development of nanoparticle-based biodetection schemes, the invention of dip pen nanolithography, and contributions to supramolecular chemistry, nanoelectronics, and nanooptics. He is the author of more than 400 manuscripts, more than 360 patents and applications, and the founder of three companies Nanosphere, NanoInk, and Aurasense, which are commercializing nanotechnology applications in the life science and semiconductor industries. Currently, he is listed as the most cited (based on total citations) chemist in the world with the second highest

Innovative New Technologies to Identify and Treat Traumatic Brain Injuries: Crossover Technologies and Approaches Between Military and Civilian Applications

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) has become the signature injury of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. The use of improvised explosive devices has seen an exponential increase in both Iraq and Afghanistan. In previous conflicts prior to Iraq, survivability of such an injury was far less. Today, technological improvements in trauma care have increased an injured warfighter's chance of survival. A reduction in severe TBI has been achieved but an increase in mild or moderate TBI has been observed. The consequences of this kind of injury can be both physical and mental and can often be hidden or even misdiagnosed. The U.S. Army is interested in pursuing technological solutions for early detection and treatment of TBI to reduce its lasting impact on the warfighter. Such technological breakthroughs have benefit beyond the military, as TBI is a high probable event in nonmilitary settings as well. To gauge what technologies or methods are currently available, the U.S. Army's Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center partnered with the American Telemedicine Association to organize and conduct a discipline-specific symposium entitled "Innovative New Technologies to Identify and Treat Traumatic Brain Injuries: Crossover Technologies and Approaches Between Military and Civilian Applications." This symposium was held in Palm Springs, CA, in September 2009. The purpose of the meeting was to provide a unique opportunity for leaders from disparate organizations involved in telemedicine and related other activities to meet and explore opportunities to collaborate in new partnership models. The meeting was designed to help Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center identify opportunities to expand strategic operations and form new alliances. This report summarizes this symposium while raising awareness for collaboration into better ways of adapting and adopting technologies to address this growing health issue.

Workshop Targets Development of Geodetic Transient Detection Methods: 2009 SCEC Annual Meeting: Workshop on Transient Anomalous Strain Detection; Palm Springs, California, 12–13 September 2009

The Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC) is a community of researchers at institutions worldwide working to improve understanding of earthquakes and mitigate earthquake risk. One of SCEC's priority objectives is to “develop a geodetic network processing system that will detect anomalous strain transients.” Given the growing number of continuously recording geodetic networks consisting of hundreds of stations, an automated means for systematically searching data for transient signals, especially in near real time, is critical for network operations, hazard monitoring, and event response. The SCEC Transient Detection Test Exercise began in 2008 to foster an active community of researchers working on this problem, explore promising methods, and combine effective approaches in novel ways. A workshop was held in California to assess what has been learned thus far and discuss areas of focus as the project moves forward.

学界情報：25th Annual Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition, February 21-25, 2010, Palm Springs, CA, USA

学界情報：25th Annual Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition, February 21-25, 2010, Palm Springs, CA, USA

Orchids in politics and the public garden: the Untermyer Park in Yonkers, New York

The remarkable history of Untermyer Park, the garden of a luxurious private estate in upstate New York transferred into a public park, is currently muddled in city and architecture archives due to ...

Review: Between Earth and Heaven: The Architecture of John Lautner; The Lighthouse, Centre for Architecture, Design and the City, Glasgow, 19 March–26 July 2009.; Wolfsonian—Florida International University, Miami Beach, 15 October 2009–17 January 2010.; and Palm Springs Art Museum, 20 February–23 May 2010.

Review: <i>Between Earth and Heaven: The Architecture of John Lautner</i>; <i>The Lighthouse, Centre for Architecture, Design and the City, Glasgow, 19 March–26 July 2009.</i>; <i>Wolfsonian—Florida International University, Miami Beach, 15 October 2009–17 January 2010.</i>; and <i>Palm Springs Art Museum, 20 February–23 May 2010.</i>

Stress Injuries in Young Athletes

Dr. Zenooz is Musculoskeletal Radiologist, Desert Regional Medical Center, 1150 N. Indian Canyon Drive, Palm Springs, CA 92262, E-mail: [email protected]; and Dr. Young is Assistant Professor of Radiology, Section of Musculoskeletal Radiology, University Medical Center, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH. After reading this article, the radiologist should be able to recall the predisposing factors, pathophysiology, clinical presentation, specific location related to a causative sport or activity, imaging features, treatment, and prognosis for healing of stress fractures in young athletes. The authors have disclosed that they have no significant relationships with or financial interests in any commercial organizations pertaining to this educational activity. All faculty and staff in a position to control the content of this CME activity have disclosed that they have no financial relationships with, or financial interests in, any commercial companies pertaining to this educational activity. Lippincott CME Institute, Inc., has identified and resolved all faculty and staff conflicts of interest regarding this educational activity.