Distributing the Public Cost and Benefits of Growth in the Raleigh-Durham Area

Although the accuracy of economic development models is enhanced by the inclusion of public sector subsystems, one problem which tends to be ignored in most of these models is the imbalance which often arises in the distribution of public costs and benefits. This problem involves two issues. One concerns the degree to which the public costs and benefits of development are distributed equitably among the residents within a single jurisdiction. The other issue pertains to externalities, specifically whether or not there is a significant spillover of costs and benefits from one jurisdiction to another. This report deals with both types of issues over the period from 1960 to 1980 in the Raleigh-Durham area. Among the intrajurisdictional issues which we shall analyze is the degree to which suburban or fringe development in annexed areas has been underwritten by central-city residents, or conversely, the degree to which the property of suburban residents has been exploited as a new tax resource by central cities. If disproportionate shares of the costs and benefits of growth have been realized by certain groups, an inequitable situation will be deemed to exist. A second intrajurisdictional issue we shall examine is the administration of the property tax. Our purpose is to investigate a potential problem involving the equitable imposition of the property tax burden on residents of growing communities. The third intrajurisdictional issue that will be explored is the increasing reliance of growing communities on regressive means of generating public revenue. This trend is best illustrated in the widespread use of user fees

Alaska’s Sablefish Fishery

Alaska is the world’s principal supplier of Sablefish Anoplopoma fimbria a buttery-flavored whitefish greatly prized in Japan. Sablefish are distributed from Baja California to western Japan but the majority of commercial catches are from the Gulf of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands off Alaska. Landings volume and value of this long-lived demersal fish are comparable to those of the better-known Pacific Halibut Hippoglossus stenolepis. Like Pacific Halibut, Alaska region catches of Sablefish are managed under an Individual Fishing Quota (IFQ) program implemented in 1995. We present a simultaneous equation market model for Sablefish and use the model to examine linkages between landings volume and exvessel prices and revenues including the sensitivity of Alaska exvessel price and revenue to changes in landings, to changes resulting from the implementation of IFQs and to changes in the Japanese economy. Model simulations indicate that markets could absorb substantially more Sablefish than can be sustainably harvested from the current stock of Alaska region Sablefish. However, sluggishness in the Japanese economy has resulted in overall downward pressure on Alaska region Sablefish exvessel prices. Model simulations indicate that IFQ implementation in this fishery significantly increased exvessel revenues, beyond what they would have increased, as a consequence of longer seasons that resulted from an end of the race-for-fish. In addition, we find that IFQ implementation has helped buffer the fishery against revenue losses associated with reduced catch limits triggered by the decline of Sablefish biomass in the Alaska region

Modeling multiple risks during infancy to predict quality of the caregiving environment: Contributions of a person-centered approach

The primary goal of this study was to compare several variable-centered and person-centered methods for modeling multiple risk factors during infancy to predict the quality of caregiving environments at six months of age. Nine risk factors related to family demographics and maternal psychosocial risk, assessed when children were two months old, were explored in the understudied population of children born in low-income, non-urban communities in Pennsylvania and North Carolina (N = 1047). These risk factors were 1) single (unpartnered) parent status, 2) marital status, 3) mother’s age at first child birth, 4) maternal education, 5) maternal reading ability, 6) poverty status, 7) residential crowding, 8) prenatal smoking exposure, and 9) maternal depression. We compared conclusions drawn using a bivariate approach, multiple regression analysis, the cumulative risk index, and latent class analysis (LCA). The risk classes derived using LCA provided a more intuitive summary of how multiple risks were organized within individuals as compared to the other methods. The five risk classes were: married low-risk; married low-income; cohabiting multiproblem; single low-income; and single low-income/education. The LCA findings illustrated how the association between particular family configurations and the infants’ caregiving environment quality varied across race and site. Discussion focuses on the value of person-centered models of analysis to understand complexities of prediction of multiple risk factors

Vascular contributions to cognitive impairment and dementia: Research consortia that focus on etiology and treatable targets to lessen the burden of dementia worldwide

The research into vascular contributions to cognitive impairment and dementia (VCID) aims to understand the importance of cerebrovascular biology in cognitive decline. Prevention and treatment of VCID is poised to have major impact on dementia-related disease burden and is thus a critical emerging objective in dementia research. This article presents VCID consortia focused on multidisciplinary approaches to identify key pathologic targets and develop diagnostic tools with the goal of bridging the divide between basic research and clinical trials. Members of these multi-institute, multidisciplinary consortia provide a prospective on the history and emerging science of VCID and how VCID consortia can address some of the more complex questions in VCID and drive the field forward. These consortia, and others like them, are uniquely suited to tackle some of the most difficult obstacles in translating research to the clinic

β-cell metabolic alterations under chronic nutrient overload in rat and human islets

The aim of this study was to assess multifactorial β-cell responses to metabolic perturbations in primary rat and human islets. Treatment of dispersed rat islet cells with elevated glucose and free fatty acids (FFAs, oleate:palmitate = 1:1 v/v) resulted in increases in the size and the number of lipid droplets in β-cells in a time- and concentration-dependent manner. Glucose and FFAs synergistically stimulated the nutrient sensor mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1). A potent mTORC1 inhibitor, rapamycin (25 nM), significantly reduced triglyceride accumulation in rat islets. Importantly, lipid droplets accumulated only in β-cells but not in α-cells in an mTORC1-dependent manner. Nutrient activation of mTORC1 upregulated the expression of adipose differentiation related protein (ADRP), known to stabilize lipid droplets. Rat islet size and new DNA synthesis also increased under nutrient overload. Insulin secretion into the culture medium increased steadily over a 4-day period without any significant difference between glucose (10 mM) alone and the combination of glucose (10 mM) and FFAs (240 μM). Insulin content and insulin biosynthesis, however, were significantly reduced under the combination of nutrients compared with glucose alone. Elevated nutrients also stimulated lipid droplet formation in human islets in an mTORC1-dependent manner. Unlike rat islets, however, human islets did not increase in size under nutrient overload despite a normal response to nutrients in releasing insulin. The different responses of islet cell growth under nutrient overload appear to impact insulin biosynthesis and storage differently in rat and human islets

A Prospective Study of the Impact of Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation on EEG Correlates of Somatosensory Perception

The (8–12 Hz) neocortical alpha rhythm is associated with shifts in attention across sensory systems, and is thought to represent a sensory gating mechanism for the inhibitory control of cortical processing. The present preliminary study sought to explore whether alpha frequency transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) could modulate endogenous alpha power in the somatosensory system, and whether the hypothesized modulation would causally impact perception of tactile stimuli at perceptual threshold. We combined electroencephalography (EEG) with simultaneous brief and intermittent tACS applied over primary somatosensory cortex at individuals’ endogenous alpha frequency during a tactile detection task (n = 12 for EEG, n = 20 for behavior). EEG-measured pre-stimulus alpha power was higher on non-perceived than perceived trials, and analogous perceptual correlates emerged in early components of the tactile evoked response. Further, baseline normalized tactile detection performance was significantly lower during alpha than sham tACS, but the effect did not last into the post-tACS time period. Pre- to post-tACS changes in alpha power were linearly dependent upon baseline state, such that alpha power tended to increase when pre-tACS alpha power was low, and decrease when it was high. However, these observations were comparable in both groups, and not associated with evidence of tACS-induced alpha power modulation. Nevertheless, the tactile stimulus evoked response potential (ERP) revealed a potentially lasting impact of alpha tACS on circuit dynamics. The post-tACS ERP was marked by the emergence of a prominent peak ∼70 ms post-stimulus, which was not discernible post-sham, or in either pre-stimulation condition. Computational neural modeling designed to simulate macroscale EEG signals supported the hypothesis that the emergence of this peak could reflect synaptic plasticity mechanisms induced by tACS. The primary lesson learned in this study, which commanded a small sample size, was that while our experimental paradigm provided some evidence of an influence of tACS on behavior and circuit dynamics, it was not sufficient to induce observable causal effects of tACS on EEG-measured alpha oscillations. We discuss limitations and suggest improvements that may help further delineate a causal influence of tACS on cortical dynamics and perception in future studies

The evolution of the manosphere across the web

We present a large-scale characterization of the Manosphere, a conglomerate of Web-based misogynist movements focused on “men’s issues,” which has prospered online. Analyzing 28.8M posts from 6 forums and 51 subreddits, we paint a comprehensive picture of its evolution across the Web, showing the links between its different communities over the years. We find that milder and older communities, such as Pick Up Artists and Men’s Rights Activists, are giving way to more extreme ones like Incels and Men Going Their Own Way, with a substantial migration of active users. Moreover, our analysis suggests that these newer communities are more toxic and misogynistic than the older ones.Accepted manuscrip