The “Broken Reed of a Staff”: the Pawnee Agency, Pawnees, and Agent W. De Puy, 1861-1862

In January 1863 Henry W. De Puy published an open letter to the President. Through the previous year De Puy’s administration at the Pawnee Agency at Genoa, Nebraska Territory (N.T.), had been wrecked and he had been accused of stealing from the Pawnees and his own employees. The Indian Commissioner’s Office had turned him out of office without a hearing. Even President Lincoln had not seen fit to intervene on the agent’s behalf in a department of the President’s own executive branch. De Puy did not want his old job back. He seems to have been sincere in his desire only to have his legitimacy as a governmental officer fully vindicated. The administration of Indian affairs at the agency level presents contradictions that prevent clear generalizations. The role of the agent varied, depending both on the time and the native people in question. Agents were sometimes diplomats trying to exert some influence over a people yet politically independent. With other peoples, or at another time with the same given people, the agent might be an authority figure in this own right. In this latter case, the agent to one degree or another replaced the traditional authorities of a native people that by then was dependent on the protection or largess of the United States government. In any case, the agent had broad responsibilities to keep his charges at peace, see to their general welfare, provide any services promised to them by treaty, and pursue some program of assimilation to 19th-century Anglo-American civilization. By the mid-1800s the Indian service was becoming notorious for patronage and corruption. A confusing situation arose in which good officers might be accused of being scoundrels by those who themselves sought economic or political gain. At both the administrative level of the local agent and that of a superintendency, officers received uncertain support from the so-called Indian Office (more properly the Office of Indian Affairs) at Washington. Money, supplies, military support, and even official forms for administrative paper work often failed to come as needed or expected. Then there were agents who might come under suspicion for good reason. Further, the agent, an employee of the Department of the Interior, might come in conflict with the military. Then in the early 1860s the Civil War brought much added stress. This account of Henry De Puy’s time with the Pawnees will hopefully serve as a useful case study of local Indian service administration during the Civil War years. This paper is also intended to be a useful account of a year of Pawnee struggles. This will be their story as well

Apportioning sources of organic matter in streambed sediments: An integrated molecular and compound-specific stable isotope approach

We present a novel application for quantitatively apportioning sources of organic matter in streambed sediments via a coupled molecular and compound-specific isotope analysis (CSIA) of long-chain leaf wax n-alkane biomarkers using a Bayesian mixing model. Leaf wax extracts of 13 plant species were collected from across two environments (aquatic and terrestrial) and four plant functional types (trees, herbaceous perennials, and C3 and C4 graminoids) from the agricultural River Wensum catchment, UK. Seven isotopic (δ13C27, δ13C29, δ13C31, δ13C27–31, δ2H27, δ2H29, and δ2H27–29) and two n-alkane ratio (average chain length (ACL), carbon preference index (CPI)) fingerprints were derived, which successfully differentiated 93% of individual plant specimens by plant functional type. The δ2H values were the strongest discriminators of plants originating from different functional groups, with trees (δ2H27–29 = − 208‰ to − 164‰) and C3 graminoids (δ2H27–29 = − 259‰ to − 221‰) providing the largest contrasts. The δ13C values provided strong discrimination between C3 (δ13C27–31 = − 37.5‰ to − 33.8‰) and C4 (δ13C27–31 = − 23.5‰ to − 23.1‰) plants, but neither δ13C nor δ2H values could uniquely differentiate aquatic and terrestrial species, emphasizing a stronger plant physiological/biochemical rather than environmental control over isotopic differences. ACL and CPI complemented isotopic discrimination, with significantly longer chain lengths recorded for trees and terrestrial plants compared with herbaceous perennials and aquatic species, respectively. Application of a comprehensive Bayesian mixing model for 18 streambed sediments collected between September 2013 and March 2014 revealed considerable temporal variability in the apportionment of organic matter sources. Median organic matter contributions ranged from 22% to 52% for trees, 29% to 50% for herbaceous perennials, 17% to 34% for C3 graminoids and 3% to 7% for C4 graminoids. The results presented here clearly demonstrate the effectiveness of an integrated molecular and stable isotope analysis for quantitatively apportioning, with uncertainty, plant-specific organic matter contributions to streambed sediments via a Bayesian mixing model approach

An Economic Assessment Model of Rural and Remote Satellite Hemodialysis Units

<div><p>Background</p><p>Kidney Failure is epidemic in many remote communities in Canada. In-centre hemodialysis is provided within these settings in satellite hemodialysis units. The key cost drivers of this program have not been fully described. Such information is important in informing the design of programs aimed at optimizing efficiency in providing dialysis and preventative chronic kidney disease care in remote communities.</p><p>Design, Setting, Participants, and Measurements</p><p>We constructed a cost model based on data derived from 16 of Manitoba, Canada’s remote satellite units. We included all costs for operation of the unit, transportation, treatment, and capital costs. All costs were presented in 2013 Canadian dollars.</p><p>Results</p><p>The annual per-patient cost of providing hemodialysis in the satellite units ranged from $80,372 to$215,918 per patient, per year. The median per patient, per year cost was $99,888 (IQR$89,057—$122,640). Primary cost drivers were capital costs related to construction, human resource expenses, and expenses for return to tertiary care centres for health care. Costs related to transport considerably increased estimates in units that required plane or helicopter transfers.</p><p>Conclusions</p><p>Satellite hemodialysis units in remote areas are more expensive on a per-patient basis than hospital hemodialysis and satellite hemodialysis available in urban areas. In some rural, remote locations, better value for money may reside in local surveillance and prevention programs in addition support for home dialysis therapies over construction of new satellite hemodialysis units.</p></div

Cost Model–Average Annual Per-Patient Cost in Communities Accessible by Air.

<p>Cost Model–Average Annual Per-Patient Cost in Communities Accessible by Air.</p

Characteristics of Local Centre Dialysis Units.

<p>Characteristics of Local Centre Dialysis Units.</p

Component Costs as a Percentage of Total Annual, Per-Patient Costs

<p>Component Costs as a Percentage of Total Annual, Per-Patient Costs</p

Sensitivity Analysis of Annual, Per-Patient Costs by Monthly Operating Efficiency.

<p>Gray lines represent road accessible units and black lines represent primarily air accessible units.</p

A multi-disciplinary perspective on emergent and future innovations in peer review.

Peer review of research articles is a core part of our scholarly communication system. In spite of its importance, the status and purpose of peer review is often contested. What is its role in our modern digital research and communications infrastructure? Does it perform to the high standards with which it is generally regarded? Studies of peer review have shown that it is prone to bias and abuse in numerous dimensions, frequently unreliable, and can fail to detect even fraudulent research. With the advent of web technologies, we are now witnessing a phase of innovation and experimentation in our approaches to peer review. These developments prompted us to examine emerging models of peer review from a range of disciplines and venues, and to ask how they might address some of the issues with our current systems of peer review. We examine the functionality of a range of social Web platforms, and compare these with the traits underlying a viable peer review system: quality control, quantified performance metrics as engagement incentives, and certification and reputation. Ideally, any new systems will demonstrate that they out-perform and reduce the biases of existing models as much as possible. We conclude that there is considerable scope for new peer review initiatives to be developed, each with their own potential issues and advantages. We also propose a novel hybrid platform model that could, at least partially, resolve many of the socio-technical issues associated with peer review, and potentially disrupt the entire scholarly communication system. Success for any such development relies on reaching a critical threshold of research community engagement with both the process and the platform, and therefore cannot be achieved without a significant change of incentives in research environments

A multi-disciplinary perspective on emergent and future innovations in peer review [version 1; referees: 2 approved with reservations]

Peer review of research articles is a core part of our scholarly communication system. In spite of its importance, the status and purpose of peer review is often contested. What is its role in our modern digital research and communications infrastructure? Does it perform to the high standards with which it is generally regarded? Studies of peer review have shown that it is prone to bias and abuse in numerous dimensions, frequently unreliable, and can fail to detect even fraudulent research. With the advent of Web technologies, we are now witnessing a phase of innovation and experimentation in our approaches to peer review. These developments prompted us to examine emerging models of peer review from a range of disciplines and venues, and to ask how they might address some of the issues with our current systems of peer review. We examine the functionality of a range of social Web platforms, and compare these with the traits underlying a viable peer review system: quality control, quantified performance metrics as engagement incentives, and certification and reputation. Ideally, any new systems will demonstrate that they out-perform current models while avoiding as many of the biases of existing systems as possible. We conclude that there is considerable scope for new peer review initiatives to be developed, each with their own potential issues and advantages. We also propose a novel hybrid platform model that, at least partially, resolves many of the technical and social issues associated with peer review, and can potentially disrupt the entire scholarly communication system. Success for any such development relies on reaching a critical threshold of research community engagement with both the process and the platform, and therefore cannot be achieved without a significant change of incentives in research environments