(United States Ninth Circuit) - Denying petitions for review challenging the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's authority to issue permits for US long-haul operations to Mexico-domiciled trucking companies.

(United States Fifth Circuit) - Affirmed. The district court properly dismissed a suit brought by a man whose state court award in a Takings Clause suit against state officials was unsatisfying to him. The State was entitled to sovereign immunity.

(United States First Circuit) - Affirmed the dismissal of an Indian tribe's complaint against federal and Rhode Island agencies concerning a highway bridge reconstruction. The tribe argued, at base, that the state of Rhode Island broke a promise to give the tribe three parcels of land as mitigation for the expected negative impact on historic tribal land of an I-95 bridge replacement project. Agreeing with the district court, the First Circuit held that the tribe's claims were barred by federal sovereign immunity and lack of subject matter jurisdiction.

(California Court of Appeal) - Held that a donut shop that was condemned through eminent domain because it was in the path of a proposed rail line was entitled to compensation for its lost goodwill. Reversed and remanded.

(United States Fifth Circuit) - Affirmed. The district court properly dismissed a suit brought by a man whose state court award in a Takings Clause suit against state officials was unsatisfying to him. The State was entitled to sovereign immunity.

(California Court of Appeal) - Affirmed. Plaintiff was injured in a head-on traffic accident that he alleged was partially caused by a dangerous road condition. The jury found that a dangerous condition existed but it was not a reasonably foreseeable risk that this kind of incident would occur. The appeals court agreed and affirmed the judgment in favor of the Defendant.

(United States Ninth Circuit) - Reversed a ruling that the amount in controversy in an employee class action was too low for federal jurisdiction under the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA). An employer that had been sued for allegedly violating wage-hour laws, and that removed the case to federal court under CAFA, argued that the district court erred in remanding the case to state court. On appeal, the Ninth Circuit agreed with the employer that, in assessing the amount in controversy, the district court should have included future attorney fees recoverable by statute or contract. The panel therefore reversed and remanded.

(United States First Circuit) - Rejected a petition for review of a decision of the federal Surface Transportation Board (STB). The basic issue here was whether a local government could regulate certain activities at a rail-to-truck transloading facility. The petitioners, who lived near the facility, argued that the STB did not have exclusive jurisdiction and thus local regulation was permitted. Finding no basis to reverse the STB's ruling regarding the scope of its exclusive jurisdiction, the First Circuit rejected the petition for review.

(United States First Circuit) - Affirmed the dismissal of an Indian tribe's complaint against federal and Rhode Island agencies concerning a highway bridge reconstruction. The tribe argued, at base, that the state of Rhode Island broke a promise to give the tribe three parcels of land as mitigation for the expected negative impact on historic tribal land of an I-95 bridge replacement project. Agreeing with the district court, the First Circuit held that the tribe's claims were barred by federal sovereign immunity and lack of subject matter jurisdiction.

The TRB Standing Technical Committee on Bicycle Transportation has been in existence for about 45 years, founded in 1974 as the Bicycling and Bicycles Committee. We had an early name change to the Committee on Bicycling and Bicycle Facilities shortly after our birth and became the Bicycle Transportation Committee in 1996. The committee's existence closely parallels the history of bicycle transportation research in the United States. Very little was done prior to the mid-1970s, when a surge of interest in...

The Alcohol and Other Drugs Committee's Centennial Paper to review what it has accomplished since its inception in the early 1970s, how it has evolved along with the field, and what challenges and opportunities it confronts going forward. To learn more about the history of impaired driving and the Standing Technical Committee on Alcohol, Other Drugs, and Transportation (ANB50), check out the Committee's Centennial Paper. As part of TRB's Centennial Celebration, the Technical Activities Council invited al...

The Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS): Waiver Authority and Modification of Volumes , released by the U.S. Congressional Research Service

The use of performance measures and data is informing transportation decision making.  Transportation Research Circular E-C263: Conference on Performance and Data in Transportation Decision Making summarizes many presentations from the conference, which attracted more than 350 professional transportation planners, consultants, industry experts, and academic researchers, from 42 states and three countries, to Atlanta, Georgia.

TRB's Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) has issued a request for proposals to develop a guide for public transportation agencies and concerned stakeholders on effective approaches and best practices that are responsive to people who are experiencing homelessness. This project is intended to help public transportation agencies preserve the quality of their services and facilities, while respecting the rights and mobility needs of people experiencing homelessness, including the need for safe plac...

Fostering Multimodal Connectivity Newsletter for April 2020 , released by the U.S. Federal Highway Administration

TRB's “Tell Us ‘Our’ Story" challenge is now looking into the future. What impact do you hope to have on the world and how is the Transportation Research Board helping you make that impact? What is your vision for the Transportation Research Board 100 years from now? What are solutions that you have identified as a result of research you learned about through TRB? TRB welcomes all stories: small or large, profound or light-hearted, sobering or humorous. In addition to posting responses to these questions...

As all aspects of transportation deal with the unfolding effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, there are research needs, gaps, and potential ways to leverage innovation revealing themselves across all modes, systems, and disciplines in transportation. In keeping with the mission of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to provide trusted, timely, impartial, and evidence-based information exchange and research, TRB is issuing an urgent and directed call for Research Needs Statements sp...

Decarbonizing Argentina’s Transport System: Charting the Way Forward , released by the International Transport Forum

Demand-responsive transportation (DRT) can produce benefits — fewer empty seats, lower cost per passenger, less delay for customers — to both passengers and transportation service providers, particularly the public and private nonprofit agencies that finance DRT services with public funds. The TRB Transit Cooperative Research Program's TCRP Research Report 210: Development of Transactional Data Specifications for Demand-Responsive Transportation presents a transactional data specification for DRT to faci...

TRB has been closely monitoring the evolving situation related to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak. The health and safety of our volunteers, sponsors, meeting guests, staff, and the greater community are of utmost importance to us. In light of the current situation, we have decided that the event cannot be held as scheduled. Convened by Transportation Research Board, the Sustainability and Emerging Transportation Technology (SETT) Conference was to be held on August 31 – September 2, 2020, at ...

Sixty-eight percent of the states who responded to a survey indicated their agency has a documented process for as-built development. They said handwritten notes were the most commonly used method to capture as-built data (86%), followed by electronic notes (76%), and then photographs (33%). Some states use more than one option to capture as-built data. The TRB National Cooperative Highway Research Program's NCHRP Synthesis 548: Development and Use of As-Built Plans by State Departments of Transportation...

With the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic hitting the transportation industry hard, TRB’s catalog of research on infectious disease and other biological threats to people and transportation systems is crucial in helping to advise transportation professionals. Transportation officials must be prepared to know how to minimize the consequences to their communities. In regards to biothreats, a recent National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine report suggests that there are advantages to...

If you’re fortunate enough to still be working during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, you are likely to be doing so from home. Teleworking (or telecommuting) has been suddenly and widely adopted. For example, Arizona DOT reports doubling the number of employees who telework in multiple departments in just two weeks. In conjunction with Texas' disaster declaration related to COVID-19, TxDOT is also requiring its office-based employees to telework beginning March 16. Your workplace is likely making si...

Susan Heap, the Director of Operations at Ferrovial Services says that "Transportation is meaningful across all societies, for many different reasons. I chose a career that connected me to things that matter to all of us. I stay in this industry because of the variety of people and projects that I get to work with every day. There is always a new challenge to overcome or skill-set to learn." Thank you Susan for participating in TRB's Centennial Celebration. To read the more than 60 responses to April's q...

TRB's “Tell Us ‘Our’ Story" challenge is now looking into the future. What impact do you hope to have on the world and how is the Transportation Research Board helping you make that impact? What is your vision for the Transportation Research Board 100 years from now? What are solutions that you have identified as a result of research you learned about through TRB? TRB welcomes all stories: small or large, profound or light-hearted, sobering or humorous. In addition to posting responses to these questions...

As all aspects of transportation deal with the unfolding effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, there are research needs, gaps, and potential ways to leverage innovation revealing themselves across all modes, systems, and disciplines in transportation. In keeping with the mission of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to provide trusted, timely, impartial, and evidence-based information exchange and research, TRB is issuing an urgent and directed call for Research Needs Statements sp...

The University of Texas at Austin is hosting Bridging Transportation Researchers (BTR) Online Conference  on August 11-12, 2020. TRB is pleased to cosponsor this event. This zero-carbon, zero-cost conference will host multiple Zoom-based tracks to virtually and globally unite transportation engineers, planners, and policymakers to discuss a wide range of transportation research topics and results, including: Multi-modal transportation network and systems Travel demand forecasting, including connecte...

Standing Technical Committee on Critical Transportation Infrastructure got its start as the Task Force on Critical Transportation Infrastructure Security tied directly in response to the Presidential Decision Directive 63, Critical Infrastructure Protection (PPD-63). Soon after the task force was established, as a way to bring awareness to this topic, TRB published a special edition of TR News (211): Transportation Security: Protecting the System from Attack and Theft (November-December 2000). The editio...

UC San Diego Health launches pilot project using drones to move medical samples, supplies and documents between Jacobs Medical Center, Moores Cancer Center and the Center for Advanced Laboratory Medicine, speeding delivery of services and patient care currently managed through ground transport.

IBM and AOS, - a Colombian company specializing in providing business solutions- today announced they are collaborating to create a solution to enhance efficiency in the logistics and transport industry throughout the country, built on IBM Blockchain and Watson IoT on the IBM Cloud.

IBM today announced a research collaboratory in Singapore, where researchers from IBM intend to collaborate with scientists and engineers from public agencies in Singapore to improve the quality of its urban services. The focus of this research effort will be to use sensor networks to more effectively model, predict and manage the use of natural and physical infrastructure resources – water, transport and energy.  

IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced it has partnered with academia, government and industry to launch the Smart Transport Research Centre (STRC) based at Queensland University of Technology (QUT), which is being opened today by the Minister for Transport, the honourable Annastacia Palasczuk. IBM will contribute its global consulting expertise and technology in developing smarter traffic solutions to help make Australia’s transportation infrastructure smarter, improve commuter experiences and reduce environmental impact.

'Think outside the box': How public transport will change as lockdowns are eased  Yahoo News Australia

One thing you should know about me is that I am from New York and I am half Italian. That means when I like something,…

Environmental News  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

We'll have to wait for Sunday's statement from Boris

'It was a thoughtless comment that shows complete disregard for the UK travel industry,' said a spokesperson for Abta, the travel association

SENIOR CIVIL ENGINEER (RC#900712) (Public Works Department/Transportation and Traffic Engineering Division) Please visit our website at www.tempe.gov/jobs to complete and submit the online application. Open until the needs of the City are met. First review date of applications will be Friday,

Position: Transportation Design Engineer Location: Richmond, VA Duration: Fulltime Requirement: BSCE or equivalent degree required PE required 8-15 years of applicable roadway design experience in Virginia and/or North Carolina

The transport secretary warns social distancing will mean severely-reduced passenger capacity.

Public transport usage won't recover to pre-Covid19 levels once the lockdown ends, a survey suggests.

"Extreme caution" will be needed when the UK eases lockdown, Grant Shapps says as he announces transport measures.

Sulfur is essential for biological processes such as amino acid biogenesis, iron–sulfur cluster formation, and redox homeostasis. To acquire sulfur-containing compounds from the environment, bacteria have evolved high-affinity uptake systems, predominant among which is the ABC transporter family. Theses membrane-embedded enzymes use the energy of ATP hydrolysis for transmembrane transport of a wide range of biomolecules against concentration gradients. Three distinct bacterial ABC import systems of sulfur-containing compounds have been identified, but the molecular details of their transport mechanism remain poorly characterized. Here we provide results from a biochemical analysis of the purified Escherichia coli YecSC-FliY cysteine/cystine import system. We found that the substrate-binding protein FliY binds l-cystine, l-cysteine, and d-cysteine with micromolar affinities. However, binding of the l- and d-enantiomers induced different conformational changes of FliY, where the l- enantiomer–substrate-binding protein complex interacted more efficiently with the YecSC transporter. YecSC had low basal ATPase activity that was moderately stimulated by apo FliY, more strongly by d-cysteine–bound FliY, and maximally by l-cysteine– or l-cystine–bound FliY. However, at high FliY concentrations, YecSC reached maximal ATPase rates independent of the presence or nature of the substrate. These results suggest that FliY exists in a conformational equilibrium between an open, unliganded form that does not bind to the YecSC transporter and closed, unliganded and closed, liganded forms that bind this transporter with variable affinities but equally stimulate its ATPase activity. These findings differ from previous observations for similar ABC transporters, highlighting the extent of mechanistic diversity in this large protein family.

Purinergic signaling by extracellular ATP regulates a variety of cellular events and is implicated in both normal physiology and pathophysiology. Several molecules have been associated with the release of ATP and other small molecules, but their precise contributions have been difficult to assess because of their complexity and heterogeneity. Here, we report on the results of a gain-of-function screen for modulators of hypotonicity-induced ATP release using HEK-293 cells and murine cerebellar granule neurons, along with bioluminescence, calcium FLIPR, and short hairpin RNA–based gene-silencing assays. This screen utilized the most extensive genome-wide ORF collection to date, covering 90% of human, nonredundant, protein-encoding genes. We identified two ABCG1 (ABC subfamily G member 1) variants, which regulate cellular cholesterol, as modulators of hypotonicity-induced ATP release. We found that cholesterol levels control volume-regulated anion channel–dependent ATP release. These findings reveal novel mechanisms for the regulation of ATP release and volume-regulated anion channel activity and provide critical links among cellular status, cholesterol, and purinergic signaling.

Numerous zinc ectoenzymes are metalated by zinc and activated in the compartments of the early secretory pathway before reaching their destination. Zn transporter (ZNT) proteins located in these compartments are essential for ectoenzyme activation. We have previously reported that ZNT proteins, specifically ZNT5–ZNT6 heterodimers and ZNT7 homodimers, play critical roles in the activation of zinc ectoenzymes, such as alkaline phosphatases (ALPs), by mobilizing cytosolic zinc into these compartments. However, this process remains incompletely understood. Here, using genetically-engineered chicken DT40 cells, we first determined that Zrt/Irt-like protein (ZIP) transporters that are localized to the compartments of the early secretory pathway play only a minor role in the ALP activation process. These transporters included ZIP7, ZIP9, and ZIP13, performing pivotal functions in maintaining cellular homeostasis by effluxing zinc out of the compartments. Next, using purified ALP proteins, we showed that zinc metalation on ALP produced in DT40 cells lacking ZNT5–ZNT6 heterodimers and ZNT7 homodimers is impaired. Finally, by genetically disrupting both ZNT5 and ZNT7 in human HAP1 cells, we directly demonstrated that the tissue-nonspecific ALP-activating functions of both ZNT complexes are conserved in human cells. Furthermore, using mutant HAP1 cells, we uncovered a previously-unrecognized and unique spatial regulation of ZNT5–ZNT6 heterodimer formation, wherein ZNT5 recruits ZNT6 to the Golgi apparatus to form the heterodimeric complex. These findings fill in major gaps in our understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying zinc ectoenzyme activation in the compartments of the early secretory pathway.

CJ Fielding
Aug 1, 1997; 38:1503-1521
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