Investigation of Methodologies Used by Less-Than-Truckload (LTL) Motor Carriers to Determine Fuel Surcharges

Fuel surcharge policies are utilized by transportation companies to transfer the expense associated with fuel prices to their customers. As fuel surcharges have become a significant portion of the expenses on transportation invoices, an increasing number of shippers are expressing more interest in these policies. The objective of this study is to discover how less-than-truckload (LTL) carriers develop and utilize fuel surcharge policies to recover their fuel expenses. Thirty-nine top LTL carriers were called on to explain their perspectives and methodologies with regard to fuel surcharge policies. Part-to-whole qualitative analysis was conducted to summarize responses from a standardized interview protocol. In addition, 25 published fuel surcharge policies were obtained and analyzed to explore the disparities among LTL fuel surcharge policies. Findings show that, while carriers were reluctant to discuss their fuel surcharge development, in practice there were two primary methodologies that left all carriers with very similar fuel surcharge policies

Investigation of Methodologies Used by Less-Than-Truckload (LTL) Motor Carriers to Determine Fuel Surcharges

The objective of this study was to discover how less-than-truckload (LTL) carriers develop and utilize fuel surcharge policies to recover their fuel expenses. Thirty-nine top LTL carriers were contacted to explain their perspectives and methodologies with regard to fuel surcharge policies. Part-to-whole qualitative analysis was conducted to summarize responses from a standardized interview protocol. In addition, twenty-five published fuel surcharge policies were analyzed. Findings show that, while carriers were reluctant to discuss their fuel surcharge development, in practice there were two primary methodologies that left all carriers with very similar fuel surcharge policies

The Bath University rugby shuttle test (BURST):A pilot study

Purpose:This study presents an exercise protocol utilizing movement patterns specific to rugby union forward and assesses the reproducibility of scores from this test.Methods:After habituation, eight participants (mean ± SD: age = 21 ± 3 y, height = 180 ± 4 cm, body mass = 83.9 ± 3.9 kg) performed the Bath University Rugby Shuttle Test (BURST) on two occasions, 1 wk apart. The protocol comprised 16 × 315-s cycles (4 × 21-min blocks) of 20-m shuttles of walking and cruising with 10-m jogs, with simulated scrummaging, rucking, or mauling exercises and standing rests. In the last minute of every 315-s cycle, a timed Performance Test was carried out, involving carrying a tackle bag and an agility sprint with a ball, followed by a 25-s recovery and a 15-m sprint.Results:Participants traveled 7078 m, spending 79.8 and 20.2% of time in low- and high-intensity activity, respectively. The coefficients of variation (CV) between trials 1 and 2 for mean time on the Performance Test (17.78 ± 0.71 vs 17.58 ± 0.79 s) and 15-m sprint (2.69 ± 0.15 vs 2.69 ± 0.15 s) were 1.3 and 0.9%, respectively. There was a CV of 2.2% between trials 1 and 2 for mean heart rate (160 ± 5 vs 158 ± 5 beats⋅min−1) and 14.4% for blood lactate (4.41 ± 1.22 vs 4.68 ± 1.68 mmol⋅L−1).Conclusion:Results suggest that measures of rugby union-specifc high-intensity exercise performed during the BURST were reproducible over two trials in habituated participants.</jats:sec

The Prevalence and Clinical Implications of Comorbid Back Pain in Shoulder Instability: A Multicenter Orthopaedic Outcomes Network (MOON) Shoulder Instability Cohort Study.

Background:Understanding predictors of pain is critical, as recent literature shows that comorbid back pain is an independent risk factor for worse functional and patient-reported outcomes (PROs) as well as increased opioid dependence after total joint arthroplasty. Purpose/Hypothesis:The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether comorbid back pain would be predictive of pain or self-reported instability symptoms at the time of stabilization surgery. We hypothesized that comorbid back pain will correlate with increased pain at the time of surgery as well as with worse scores on shoulder-related PRO measures. Study Design:Cross-sectional study; Level of evidence, 3. Methods:As part of the Multicenter Orthopaedic Outcomes Network (MOON) Shoulder Instability cohort, patients consented to participate in pre- and intraoperative data collection. Demographic characteristics, injury history, preoperative PRO scores, and radiologic and intraoperative findings were recorded for patients undergoing surgical shoulder stabilization. Patients were also asked, whether they had any back pain. Results:The study cohort consisted of 1001 patients (81% male; mean age, 24.1 years). Patients with comorbid back pain (158 patients; 15.8%) were significantly older (28.1 vs 23.4 years; P &lt; .001) and were more likely to be female (25.3% vs 17.4%; P = .02) but did not differ in terms of either preoperative imaging or intraoperative findings. Patients with self-reported back pain had significantly worse preoperative pain and shoulder-related PRO scores (American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons score, Western Ontario Shoulder Instability Index) (P &lt; .001), more frequent depression (22.2% vs 8.3%; P &lt; .001), poorer mental health status (worse scores for the RAND 36-Item Health Survey Mental Component Score, Iowa Quick Screen, and Personality Assessment Screener) (P &lt; .01), and worse preoperative expectations (P &lt; .01). Conclusion:Despite having similar physical findings, patients with comorbid back pain had more severe preoperative pain and self-reported symptoms of instability as well as more frequent depression and lower mental health scores. The combination of disproportionate shoulder pain, comorbid back pain and mental health conditions, and inferior preoperative expectations may affect not only the patient's preoperative state but also postoperative pain control and/or postoperative outcomes

Institutional strategies for capturing socio-economic impact of academic research

Evaluation of socio-economic impact is an emerging theme for publicly-funded academic research. Within this context the paper suggests that the concept of institutional research capital be expanded to include the capture and evaluation of socio-economic impact. Furthermore, it argues that understanding the typology of impacts and the tracking from research to impact will assist the formulation of institutional strategies for capturing socio-economic impact. A three-stage approach is proposed for capturing and planning activities to enhance the generation of high-quality impact. Stage one outlines the critical role of user engagement that facilitates the tracking of such impact. Stage two employs an analytical framework based on the criteria of ‘depth’ and ‘spread’ to evaluate impacts that have been identified. Stage three utilizes the outcomes of the framework to devise strategies, consisting of either further research (to increase depth) or more engagement (to increase spread) that will improve the generation of higher quality impact

Confirmation of co-denitrification in grazed grassland

Pasture-based livestock systems are often associated with losses of reactive forms of nitrogen (N) to the environment. Research has focused on losses to air and water due to the health, economic and environmental impacts of reactive N. Di-nitrogen (N₂) emissions are still poorly characterized, both in terms of the processes involved and their magnitude, due to financial and methodological constraints. Relatively few studies have focused on quantifying N₂ losses in vivo and fewer still have examined the relative contribution of the different N₂ emission processes, particularly in grazed pastures. We used a combination of a high ¹⁵N isotopic enrichment of applied N with a high precision of determination of ¹⁵N isotopic enrichment by isotope-ratio mass spectrometry to measure N₂ emissions in the field. We report that 55.8 g N m⁻² (95%, CI 38 to 77 g m⁻²) was emitted as N₂ by the process of co-denitrification in pastoral soils over 123 days following urine deposition (100 g N m⁻²), compared to only 1.1 g N m⁻² (0.4 to 2.8 g m⁻²) from denitrification. This study provides strong evidence for co-denitrification as a major N₂ production pathway, which has significant implications for understanding the N budgets of pastoral ecosystems

Structure of the first representative of Pfam family PF04016 (DUF364) reveals enolase and Rossmann-like folds that combine to form a unique active site with a possible role in heavy-metal chelation.

The crystal structure of Dhaf4260 from Desulfitobacterium hafniense DCB-2 was determined by single-wavelength anomalous diffraction (SAD) to a resolution of 2.01 Å using the semi-automated high-throughput pipeline of the Joint Center for Structural Genomics (JCSG) as part of the NIGMS Protein Structure Initiative (PSI). This protein structure is the first representative of the PF04016 (DUF364) Pfam family and reveals a novel combination of two well known domains (an enolase N-terminal-like fold followed by a Rossmann-like domain). Structural and bioinformatic analyses reveal partial similarities to Rossmann-like methyltransferases, with residues from the enolase-like fold combining to form a unique active site that is likely to be involved in the condensation or hydrolysis of molecules implicated in the synthesis of flavins, pterins or other siderophores. The genome context of Dhaf4260 and homologs additionally supports a role in heavy-metal chelation

The Fine-structure Constant as a Probe of Chemical Evolution and AGB Nucleosynthesis in Damped Lyman-alpha Systems

Evidence from a large sample of quasar absorption-line spectra in damped Lyman-alpha systems has suggested a possible time variation of the fine structure constant alpha. The most statistically significant portion of this sample involves the comparison of Mg and Fe wavelength shifts using the many-multiplet (MM) method. However, the sensitivity of this method to the abundance of heavy isotopes, especially Mg, is enough to imitate an apparent variation in alpha in the redshift range 0.5 < z < 1.8. We implement recent yields of intermediate mass (IM) stars into a chemical evolution model and show that the ensuing isotope distribution of Mg can account for the observed variation in alpha provided the early IMF was particularly rich in intermediate mass stars (or the heavy Mg isotope yields from AGB stars are even higher than in present-day models). As such, these observations of quasar absorption spectra can be used to probe the nucleosynthetic history of low-metallicity damped Lyman-alpha systems in the redshift range 0.5 < z < 1.8. This analysis, in conjunction with other abundance measurements of low-metallicity systems, reinforces the mounting evidence that star formation at low metallicities may have been strongly influenced by a population of IM stars. Such IM stars have a significant influence on other abundances, particularly nitrogen. We constrain our models with independent measurements of N, Si, and Fe in damped Lyman-alpha systems as well as C/O in low-metallicity stars. In this way, we obtain consistent model parameters for this chemical-evolution interpretation of the MM method results.Comment: 38 pages, latex, 25 ps figures, as accepted in Ap