Leveraging Railroad Land Grants and the Benefits Accruing in The New Economic Landscape

Unlike most companies, the major railroads in the United States have proven highly resilient to the vicissi- tudes of the market. We argue that this is due neither to the unique nature of rail haulage nor to superior management acumen. Rather this solidity is due to an immense wealth transfer to the railroads in the nine- teenth century that has dramatic impacts in the present. Moreover, the government protection and encouragement that rail grants represent did not end in the nineteenth century. It continues and represents an intangible asset that, while not on railroads’ balance sheet, is very real indeed

Selected Railroad Contributions To The United States: An Economic and Historical Review

Railroads were instrumental in opening the western U.S. in the 19th century. The main incentive provided for the railroads to connect San Francisco, CA and Omaha, NB were land grants out of the public domain. In a period of 21 years (1850-1871), 174 million acres were patented (deeded) primarily to what would become four major railroads. Many acres were returned to the government, some were sold and many others were retained or disposed of through holding companies. This paper emphasizes an oft-overlooked reality: that in many cases the railroads leveraged these land grants in support of the growth and prosperity of the U.S. and that privatizing these lands to the railroads was the most productive use of those resources at that point in history. Further, those grants continue to bear fruit in the present day. We contend that the counterfactual, one in which those lands remained in the public domain and under control of the federal government, would not have yielded anywhere near the development and wealth that they created under the railroads’ control

Volatile crude and railroad regulation

Newly discovered domestic crude oil has caused large increases in rail traffic and an associated increase in derailments. In principle, derailments expose railroads to liabilities that can be very large, but railroads are protected as long as they comply with federal guidelines. Despite this, the railroads took it upon themselves to design a safer rail car. The railroads have also lobbied federal agencies to make the new standards part of regulation. This paper addresses two puzzles. First, why would the railroads expend resources on self- regulation when protected from tort? Second, why would the railroads push to have these stricter standards enshrined in federal regulation? We conclude that the answer lies in regulatory and legal uncertainty coupled with using regulators to overcome a collective action problem

Heterogeneous detection probabilities for imperiled Missouri River fishes: implications for large-river monitoring programs

Occupancy modeling was used to determine (1) if detection probabilities (p) for 7 regionally imperiled Missouri River fishes (Scaphirhynchus albus, Scaphirhynchus platorynchus, Cycleptus elongatus, Sander canadensis, Macrhybopsis aestivalis, Macrhybopsis gelida, and Macrhybopsis meeki) differed among gear types (i.e. stationary gill nets, drifted trammel nets, and otter trawls), and (2) how detection probabilities were affected by habitat (i.e. pool, bar, and open water), longitudinal position (five 189 to 367 rkm long segments), sampling year (2003 to 2006), and season (July 1 to October 30 and October 31 to June 30). Adult, large-bodied fishes were best detected with gill nets (p: 0.02–0.74), but most juvenile large-bodied and all small-bodied species were best detected with otter trawls (p: 0.02–0.58). Trammel nets may be a redundant sampling gear for imperiled fishes in the lower Missouri River because most species had greater detection probabilities with gill nets or otter trawls. Detection probabilities varied with river segment for S. platorynchus, C. elongatus, and all small-bodied fishes, suggesting that changes in habitat influenced gear efficiency or abundance changes among river segments. Detection probabilities varied by habitat for adult S. albus and S. canadensis, year for juvenile S. albus, C. elongatus, and S. canadensis, and season for adult S. albus. Concentrating sampling effort on gears with the greatest detection probabilities may increase species detections to better monitor a population’s response to environmental change and the effects of management actions on large-river fishes

Comparative Genomic Analyses of the Moraxella catarrhalis Serosensitive and Seroresistant Lineages Demonstrate Their Independent Evolution

Contains fulltext : 172169.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)The bacterial speciesMoraxella catarrhalishas been hypothesized as being composed of two distinct lineages (referred to as the seroresistant [SR] and serosensitive [SS]) with separate evolutionary histories based on several molecular typing methods, whereas 16S ribotyping has suggested an additional split within the SS lineage. Previously, we characterized whole-genome sequences of 12 SR-lineage isolates, which revealed a relatively small supragenome when compared with other opportunistic nasopharyngeal pathogens, suggestive of a relatively short evolutionary history. Here, we performed whole-genome sequencing on 18 strains from both ribotypes of the SS lineage, an additional SR strain, as well as four previously identified highly divergent strains based on multilocus sequence typing analyses. All 35 strains were subjected to a battery of comparative genomic analyses which clearly show that there are three lineages-the SR, SS, and the divergent. The SR and SS lineages are closely related, but distinct from each other based on three different methods of comparison: Allelic differences observed among core genes; possession of lineage-specific sets of core and distributed genes; and by an alignment of concatenated core sequences irrespective of gene annotation. All these methods show that the SS lineage has much longer interstrain branches than the SR lineage indicating that this lineage has likely been evolving either longer or faster than the SR lineage. There is evidence of extensive horizontal gene transfer (HGT) within both of these lineages, and to a lesser degree between them. In particular, we identified very high rates of HGT between these two lineages for ss-lactamase genes. The four divergent strains aresui generis, being much more distantly related to both the SR and SS groups than these other two groups are to each other. Based on average nucleotide identities, gene content, GC content, and genome size, this group could be considered as a separate taxonomic group. The SR and SS lineages, although distinct, clearly form a single species based on multiple criteria including a large common core genome, average nucleotide identity values, GC content, and genome size. Although neither of these lineages arose from within the other based on phylogenetic analyses, the question of how and when these lineages split and then subsequently reunited in the human nasopharynx is explored

Simulated cost-effectiveness and long-term clinical outcomes of addiction care and antibiotic therapy strategies for patients with injection drug use-associated infective endocarditis

Importance: Emerging evidence supports the use of outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy (OPAT) and, in many cases, partial oral antibiotic therapy for the treatment of injection drug use-associated infective endocarditis (IDU-IE); however, long-term outcomes and cost-effectiveness remain unknown. Objective: To compare the added value of inpatient addiction care services and the cost-effectiveness and clinical outcomes of alternative antibiotic treatment strategies for patients with IDU-IE. Design, Setting, and Participants: This decision analytical modeling study used a validated microsimulation model to compare antibiotic treatment strategies for patients with IDU-IE. Model inputs were derived from clinical trials and observational cohort studies. The model included all patients with injection opioid drug use (N = 5 million) in the US who were eligible to receive OPAT either in the home or at a postacute care facility. Costs were annually discounted at 3%. Cost-effectiveness was evaluated from a health care sector perspective over a lifetime starting in 2020. Probabilistic sensitivity, scenario, and threshold analyses were performed to address uncertainty. Interventions: The model simulated 4 treatment strategies: (1) 4 to 6 weeks of inpatient intravenous (IV) antibiotic therapy along with opioid detoxification (usual care strategy), (2) 4 to 6 weeks of inpatient IV antibiotic therapy along with inpatient addiction care services that offered medication for opioid use disorder (usual care/addiction care strategy), (3) 3 weeks of inpatient IV antibiotic therapy along with addiction care services followed by OPAT (OPAT strategy), and (4) 3 weeks of inpatient IV antibiotic therapy along with addiction care services followed by partial oral antibiotic therapy (partial oral antibiotic strategy). Main Outcomes and Measures: Mean percentage of patients completing treatment for IDU-IE, deaths associated with IDU-IE, life expectancy (measured in life-years [LYs]), mean cost per person, and incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs). Results: All modeled scenarios were initialized with 5 million individuals (mean age, 42 years; range, 18-64 years; 70% male) who had a history of injection opioid drug use. The usual care strategy resulted in 18.63 LYs at a cost of $416 570 per person, with 77.6$412 150 per person. Compared with the OPAT strategy, the partial oral antibiotic strategy had an ICER of $163 370 per LY. Increasing IDU-IE treatment uptake and decreasing treatment discontinuation made the partial oral antibiotic strategy more cost-effective compared with the OPAT strategy. When assuming that all patients with IDU-IE were eligible to receive partial oral antibiotic therapy, the strategy was cost-saving and resulted in 0.0247 additional discounted LYs. When treatment discontinuation was decreased from 3.30$100 000 per LY threshold. Conclusions and Relevance: In this decision analytical modeling study, incorporation of OPAT or partial oral antibiotic approaches along with addiction care services for the treatment of patients with IDU-IE was associated with increases in the number of people completing treatment, decreases in mortality, and savings in cost compared with the usual care strategy of providing inpatient IV antibiotic therapy alone

4D Constructions of Supersymmetric Extra Dimensions and Gaugino Mediation

We present 4D gauge theories which at low energies coincide with higher dimensional supersymmetric (SUSY) gauge theories on a transverse lattice. We show that in the simplest case of pure 5D SUSY Yang-Mills there is an enhancement of SUSY in the continuum limit without fine-tuning. This result no longer holds in the presence of matter fields, in which case fine-tuning is necessary to ensure higher dimensional Lorentz invariance and supersymmetry. We use this construction to generate 4D models which mimic gaugino mediation of SUSY breaking. The way supersymmetry breaking is mediated in these models to the MSSM is by assuming that the physical gauginos are a mixture of a number of gauge eigenstate gauginos: one of these couples to the SUSY breaking sector, while another couples to the MSSM matter fields. The lattice can be as coarse as just two gauge groups while still obtaining the characteristic gaugino-mediated soft breaking terms.Comment: 32 pages LaTeX; missing factor in two-loop gauge-mediated scalar mass estimate fixed, comments on unification revise

Predicting the environmental suitability for onchocerciasis in Africa as an aid to elimination planning

Recent evidence suggests that, in some foci, elimination of onchocerciasis from Africa may be feasible with mass drug administration (MDA) of ivermectin. To achieve continental elimination of transmission, mapping surveys will need to be conducted across all implementation units (IUs) for which endemicity status is currently unknown. Using boosted regression tree models with optimised hyperparameter selection, we estimated environmental suitability for onchocerciasis at the 5 × 5-km resolution across Africa. In order to classify IUs that include locations that are environmentally suitable, we used receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis to identify an optimal threshold for suitability concordant with locations where onchocerciasis has been previously detected. This threshold value was then used to classify IUs (more suitable or less suitable) based on the location within the IU with the largest mean prediction. Mean estimates of environmental suitability suggest large areas across West and Central Africa, as well as focal areas of East Africa, are suitable for onchocerciasis transmission, consistent with the presence of current control and elimination of transmission efforts. The ROC analysis identified a mean environmental suitability index of 0·71 as a threshold to classify based on the location with the largest mean prediction within the IU. Of the IUs considered for mapping surveys, 50·2% exceed this threshold for suitability in at least one 5 × 5-km location. The formidable scale of data collection required to map onchocerciasis endemicity across the African continent presents an opportunity to use spatial data to identify areas likely to be suitable for onchocerciasis transmission. National onchocerciasis elimination programmes may wish to consider prioritising these IUs for mapping surveys as human resources, laboratory capacity, and programmatic schedules may constrain survey implementation, and possibly delaying MDA initiation in areas that would ultimately qualify

HETDEX pilot survey for emission-line galaxies - I. Survey design, performance, and catalog

We present a catalog of emission-line galaxies selected solely by their emission-line fluxes using a wide-field integral field spectrograph. This work is partially motivated as a pilot survey for the upcoming Hobby-Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX). We describe the observations, reductions, detections, redshift classifications, line fluxes, and counterpart information for 397 emission-line galaxies detected over 169 sq.arcmin with a 3500-5800 Ang. bandpass under 5 Ang. full-width-half-maximum (FWHM) spectral resolution. The survey's best sensitivity for unresolved objects under photometric conditions is between 4-20 E-17 erg/s/sq.cm depending on the wavelength, and Ly-alpha luminosities between 3-6 E42 erg/s are detectable. This survey method complements narrowband and color-selection techniques in the search for high redshift galaxies with its different selection properties and large volume probed. The four survey fields within the COSMOS, GOODS-N, MUNICS, and XMM-LSS areas are rich with existing, complementary data. We find 104 galaxies via their high redshift Ly-alpha emission at 1.9<z<3.8, and the majority of the remainder objects are low redshift [OII]3727 emitters at z<0.56. The classification between low and high redshift objects depends on rest frame equivalent width, as well as other indicators, where available. Based on matches to X-ray catalogs, the active galactic nuclei (AGN) fraction amongst the Ly-alpha emitters (LAEs) is 6%. We also analyze the survey's completeness and contamination properties through simulations. We find five high-z, highly-significant, resolved objects with full-width-half-maximum sizes >44 sq.arcsec which appear to be extended Ly-alpha nebulae. We also find three high-z objects with rest frame Ly-alpha equivalent widths above the level believed to be achievable with normal star formation, EW(rest)>240 Ang.Comment: 45 pages, 36 figures, 5 tables, submitted to ApJ

The Spitzer Survey of the Small Magellanic Cloud: S3MC Imaging and Photometry in the Mid- and Far-Infrared Wavebands

We present the initial results from the Spitzer Survey of the Small Magellanic Cloud (S3MC), which imaged the star-forming body of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) in all seven MIPS and IRAC wavebands. We find that the F_8/F_24 ratio (an estimate of PAH abundance) has large spatial variations and takes a wide range of values that are unrelated to metallicity but anticorrelated with 24 um brightness and F_24/F_70 ratio. This suggests that photodestruction is primarily responsible for the low abundance of PAHs observed in star-forming low-metallicity galaxies. We use the S3MC images to compile a photometric catalog of ~400,000 mid- and far-infrared point sources in the SMC. The sources detected at the longest wavelengths fall into four main categories: 1) bright 5.8 um sources with very faint optical counterparts and very red mid-infrared colors ([5.8]-[8.0]>1.2), which we identify as YSOs. 2) Bright mid-infrared sources with mildly red colors (0.16<[5.8]-[8.0]<0.6), identified as carbon stars. 3) Bright mid-infrared sources with neutral colors and bright optical counterparts, corresponding to oxygen-rich evolved stars. And, 4) unreddened early B stars (B3 to O9) with a large 24 um excess. This excess is reminiscent of debris disks, and is detected in only a small fraction of these stars (<5%). The majority of the brightest infrared point sources in the SMC fall into groups one to three. We use this photometric information to produce a catalog of 282 bright YSOs in the SMC with a very low level of contamination (~7%).Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal. Given the draconian figure file-size limits implemented in astro-ph, readers are encouraged to download the manuscript with full quality images from http://celestial.berkeley.edu/spitzer/publications/s3mcsurvey.pd