Report of the Attorney General’s Task Force On Motor Fuel Pricing in Nebraska

In the wake of the devastation of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Nebraskans experienced a dramatic increase in the price of motor fuels. Although Nebraska was not impacted directly by the physical effects of these storms, damage to critical production, refining, and transportation facilities in the Gulf Coast region sent shock waves throughout the country. Attorney General Jon Bruning convened this task force for the purpose of studying these price movements and to analyze whether price-gouging activity may be occurring. Motor vehicle fuels are a vital commodity. Businesses and consumers depend on a network of oil producers, refiners, and retailers and an extensive transportation system to provide these fuels for daily use. This network extends far beyond Nebraska borders and links oil producers, refiners, retailers, and consumers across the entire globe. Careful scrutiny of the pricing and delivery of petroleum products is not a singular phenomenon limited to Nebraska. On a federal level, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regularly examines the petroleum industry to address concerns about concentration in production and refining and issues affecting retail pricing. Other states also have undertaken investigations, with Florida recently concluding a study addressing antitrust concerns in that state. These studies have not found violations of law, and they generally have found competitive markets affected by worldwide conditions. Growing global demand has led to increasing dependence on imported crude oil products, and disruptions in supplies–whether from political or natural causes–quickly are assimilated into market prices on a worldwide scale. This study is unique in focusing on Nebraska markets. No refineries currently operate in Nebraska. Motor fuels for sale in retail establishments in Nebraska come primarily through pipelines, which depend heavily on refinery operations in the Gulf Coast region for supplies. An extensive network of retail establishments serves Nebraska consumers and businesses, but these retailers generally can be characterized as price takers dependent upon other suppliers for their inventory. After laying a foundation for understanding national price trends, this study analyzes price data from a sample of establishments throughout different geographic regions of the state. This analysis focuses on price and gross margin behavior during a period of approximately one year, including the months immediately preceding and following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. This study begins with a discussion of legal questions that are basic to defining price gouging. After analyzing the general principles for price determination in a market economy, Part 1 outlines legal constraints from both federal and state law that affect price-setting functions. It compares statutes from other states with Nebraska law and examines the concept of unconscionability in proscribing certain commercial behavior. It concludes that retail price behavior in Nebraska is unlikely to meet a standard of unconscionability under the current Nebraska statute. Part 2 examines U.S. Energy Information Agency data to determine factors contributing to volatility in oil and refined gasoline prices. Additionally, we investigate the profitability of twenty-one major independent oil companies during the period before and after the hurricanes struck. Part 3 examines gasoline and diesel price fluctuations in individual Nebraska cities both before and after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita struck the Gulf Coast region. We examine how prices in Nebraska react to the natural disasters in the Gulf Coast. We also examine whether any particular brands (or stations) commonly led price increases and declines in Nebraska cities

Universal Power Law in the Noise from a Crumpled Elastic Sheet

Using high-resolution digital recordings, we study the crackling sound emitted from crumpled sheets of mylar as they are strained. These sheets possess many of the qualitative features of traditional disordered systems including frustration and discrete memory. The sound can be resolved into discrete clicks, emitted during rapid changes in the rough conformation of the sheet. Observed click energies range over six orders of magnitude. The measured energy autocorrelation function for the sound is consistent with a stretched exponential C(t) ~ exp(-(t/T)^{b}) with b = .35. The probability distribution of click energies has a power law regime p(E) ~ E^{-a} where a = 1. We find the same power law for a variety of sheet sizes and materials, suggesting that this p(E) is universal.Comment: 5 pages (revtex), 10 uuencoded postscript figures appended, html version at http://rainbow.uchicago.edu/~krame

Investigation of HIFU-induced anti-tumor immunity in a murine tumor model

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>High intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) is an emerging non-invasive treatment modality for localized treatment of cancers. While current clinical strategies employ HIFU exclusively for thermal ablation of the target sites, biological responses associated with both thermal and mechanical damage from focused ultrasound have not been thoroughly investigated. In particular, endogenous danger signals from HIFU-damaged tumor cells may trigger the activation of dendritic cells. This response may play a critical role in a HIFU-elicited anti-tumor immune response which can be harnessed for more effective treatment.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Mice bearing MC-38 colon adenocarcinoma tumors were treated with thermal and mechanical HIFU exposure settings in order to independently observe HIFU-induced effects on the host's immunological response. <it>In vivo </it>dendritic cell activity was assessed along with the host's response to challenge tumor growth.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Thermal and mechanical HIFU were found to increase CD11c+ cells 3.1-fold and 4-fold, respectively, as compared to 1.5-fold observed for DC injection alone. In addition, thermal and mechanical HIFU increased CFSE+ DC accumulation in draining lymph nodes 5-fold and 10-fold, respectively. Moreover, focused ultrasound treatments not only caused a reduction in the growth of primary tumors, with tumor volume decreasing by 85% for thermal HIFU and 43% for mechanical HIFU, but they also provided protection against subcutaneous tumor re-challenge. Further immunological assays confirmed an enhanced CTL activity and increased tumor-specific IFN-γ-secreting cells in the mice treated by focused ultrasound, with cytotoxicity induced by mechanical HIFU reaching as high as 27% at a 10:1 effector:target ratio.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These studies present initial encouraging results confirming that focused ultrasound treatment can elicit a systemic anti-tumor immune response, and they suggest that this immunity is closely related to dendritic cell activation. Because DC activation was more pronounced when tumor cells were mechanically lysed by focused ultrasound treatment, mechanical HIFU in particular may be employed as a potential strategy in combination with subsequent thermal ablations for increasing the efficacy of HIFU cancer treatment by enhancing the host's anti-tumor immunity.</p

Polynomial diffeomorphisms of C^2, IV: The measure of maximal entropy and laminar currents

This paper concerns the dynamics of polynomial automorphisms of ${\bf C}^2$. One can associate to such an automorphism two currents $\mu^\pm$ and the equilibrium measure $\mu=\mu^+\wedge\mu^-$. In this paper we study some geometric and dynamical properties of these objects. First, we characterize $\mu$ as the unique measure of maximal entropy. Then we show that the measure $\mu$ has a local product structure and that the currents $\mu^\pm$ have a laminar structure. This allows us to deduce information about periodic points and heteroclinic intersections. For example, we prove that the support of $\mu$ coincides with the closure of the set of saddle points. The methods used combine the pluripotential theory with the theory of non-uniformly hyperbolic dynamical systems

Spatiotemporal expression and transcriptional perturbations by long noncoding RNAs in the mouse brain

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been implicated in numerous cellular processes including brain development. However, the in vivo expression dynamics and molecular pathways regulated by these loci are not well understood. Here, we leveraged a cohort of 13 lncRNA-null mutant mouse models to investigate the spatiotemporal expression of lncRNAs in the developing and adult brain and the transcriptome alterations resulting from the loss of these lncRNA loci. We show that several lncRNAs are differentially expressed both in time and space, with some presenting highly restricted expression in only selected brain regions. We further demonstrate altered regulation of genes for a large variety of cellular pathways and processes upon deletion of the lncRNA loci. Finally, we found that 4 of the 13 lncRNAs significantly affect the expression of several neighboring protein-coding genes in a cis-like manner. By providing insight into the endogenous expression patterns and the transcriptional perturbations caused by deletion of the lncRNA locus in the developing and postnatal mammalian brain, these data provide a resource to facilitate future examination of the specific functional relevance of these genes in neural development, brain function, and disease.National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology DBI-0905973

Does the lateral intercondylar ridge disappear in ACL deficient patients?

The aim of this study was to determine whether there is a difference in the presence of the lateral intercondylar ridge and the lateral bifurcate ridge between patients with sub-acute and chronic ACL injuries. We hypothesized that the ridges would be present less often with chronic ACL deficiency. Twenty-five patients with a chronic ACL injury were matched for age and gender to 25 patients with a sub-acute ACL injury. The lateral intercondylar ridge and lateral bifurcate ridge were scored as either present, absent, or indeterminate due to insufficient visualization by three blinded observers. The kappa for the three observers was .61 for the lateral intercondylar ridge and .58 for the lateral bifurcate ridge. The lateral intercondylar ridge was present in 88% of the sub-acute patients and 88% of the chronic patients. The lateral bifurcate ridge was present in 48% of the sub-acute and 48% of the chronic patients. This matched-pairs case–control study was unable to show a difference in the presence of the femoral bony ridges between patients with acute and chronic ACL injuries. The authors would suggest looking for the ridges as a landmark of the native ACL insertion site during ACL reconstruction in both acute and chronic ACL injuries

On the influence of marine biogeochemical processes over CO2 exchange between the atmosphere and ocean

The ocean holds a large reservoir of carbon dioxide (CO2), and mitigates climate change through uptake of anthropogenic CO2. Fluxes of CO2 between the atmosphere and surface ocean are regulated by a number of physical and biogeochemical processes, resulting in a spatiotemporally heterogeneous CO2 distribution. Determining the influence of each individual process is useful for interpreting marine carbonate system observations, and is also necessary to investigate how changes in these drivers could affect air-sea CO2 exchange. Biogeochemical processes exert an influence primarily through modifying seawater dissolved inorganic carbon (CT) and total alkalinity (AT), thus changing the seawater partial pressure of CO2 (psw). Here, we propose a novel conceptual framework through which the size of the CO2 source or sink generated by any biogeochemical process, denoted Φ, can be evaluated. This is based on the ‘isocapnic quotient’ (Q), which defines the trajectory through (AT,CT) phase space for which there is no change in psw. We discuss the limitations and uncertainties inherent in this technique, which are negligible for most practical purposes, and its links with existing, related approaches. We investigate the effect on Φ of spatiotemporal heterogeneity in Q in the present day surface ocean for several key biogeochemical processes. This leads the magnitude of the CO2 source or sink generated by processes that modify AT to vary spatiotemporally. Finally, we consider how the strength of each process as a CO2 source or sink may change in a warmer, higher-CO2 future ocean

Accounting for quality improvement during the conduct of embedded pragmatic clinical trials within healthcare systems: NIH Collaboratory case studies

Embedded pragmatic clinical trials (ePCTs) and quality improvement (QI) activities often occur simultaneously within healthcare systems (HCSs). Embedded PCTs within HCSs are conducted to test interventions and provide evidence that may impact public health, health system operations, and quality of care. They are larger and more broadly generalizable than QI initiatives, and may generate what is considered high-quality evidence for potential use in care and clinical practice guidelines. QI initiatives often co-occur with ePCTs and address the same high-impact health questions, and this co-occurrence may dilute or confound the ability to detect change as a result of the ePCT intervention. During the design, pilot, and conduct phases of the large-scale NIH Collaboratory Demonstration ePCTs, many QI initiatives occurred at the same time within the HCSs. Although the challenges varied across the projects, some common, generalizable strategies and solutions emerged, and we share these as case studies. KEY LESSONS: Study teams often need to monitor, adapt, and respond to QI during design and the course of the trial. Routine collaboration between ePCT researchers and health systems stakeholders throughout the trial can help ensure research and QI are optimally aligned to support high-quality patient-centered care