The Intersection of Urban Form and Mileage Fees: Findings from the Oregon Road User Fee Pilot Program, Research Report 10-04

This report analyzes data from the 2006-2007 Oregon Road User Fee Pilot program to assess if and how urban form variables correlate with travel behavior changes that participants made in response to the mileage-based fee program. It finds that charging a noticeably higher fee for driving in congested conditions can successfully motivate households to reduce their VMT in those times and places where congestion is most a problem. Households in both traditional (mixed use, dense, transit-accessible) and suburban (single-use, low density) neighborhoods will likely reduce their peak-hour and overall travel under a charging scheme that charges a high-rate for peak-hour travel, though households in the traditional neighborhoods will do so more. It also finds that a mileage fee program that charges a high rate during the peak hour is likely to strengthen the underlying influence of urban form on travel behavior. In other words, land use probably will matter more to transportation planning if the nation shifts to a new paradigm of mileage-based financing and pricing system. For transportation policy-makers, this raises another layer of consideration when designing the optimal rate structure to achieve policy goals—either reduced VMT and congestion or sustained funding sources. For urban planners, this offers a wonderful opportunity to move towards a sustainable built environment through revised and compatible land use regulation under the context of a mileage-based fee. The research also reveals that program design could significantly affect a household’s response to a mileage-based fee program. Particularly in Portland, the establishment of an endowment account for participants actually increased household VMT when a flat-rate fee was charged, the opposite to policy-makers’ expectation. One possible explanation is that paying the mileage-based fees once a month, instead of paying the gas tax at each visit to the pump, may have encouraged households to drive more due to the reduced gas price at the pump

Improving Qualifying Exam Performance—From Assessment Data to Curriculum Alignment

This poster describes the effort of the Ph.D. Committee in Social Welfare in investigating and improving students’ performance in the qualifying exam. Motivated by an analysis of students’ (cohorts Fall 2010 – 2014) pass rate, faculty reviewed the exam questions, analyzed the course syllabi and exam questions. The committee changed the exam timeline and revised the exam questions so that the exam better reflected the curriculum

Yielding and hardening of flexible fiber packings during triaxial compression

This paper examines the mechanical response of flexible fiber packings subject to triaxial compression. Short fibers yield in a manner similar to typical granular materials in which the deviatoric stress remains nearly constant with increasing strain after reaching a peak value. Interestingly, long fibers exhibit a hardening behavior, where the stress increases rapidly with increasing strain at large strains and the packing density continuously increases. Phase diagrams for classifying the bulk mechanical response as yielding, hardening, or a transition regime are generated as a function of the fiber aspect ratio, fiber-fiber friction coefficient, and confining pressure. Large fiber aspect ratio, large fiber-fiber friction coefficient, and large confining pressure promote hardening behavior. The hardening packings can support much larger loads than the yielding packings contributing to the stability and consolidation of the granular structure, but larger internal axial forces occur within fibers.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figure

An Examination of the Relationship between Conversational Sensitivity and Listening Styles

Previous research on conversational sensitivity and listening styles has shown inconsistent results on the relationship between the two concepts. This study is designed to continue the line of research by further examining the relationship of the two concepts and between the dimensions. Two hundred and seventy students in the basic courses of Communication and Psychology participate in this study. The results indicate that significantly positive and negative relationships exist among the dimensions of the two concepts. Gender differences on the two concepts are also tested. Limitations and directions for future research are as well discussed

How Well Have Practices Followed Guidelines in Prescribing Antihypertensive Drugs: The Role of Health Insurance

BACKGROUND: The US Joint National Committee (JNC) on Prevention, Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Pressure issues guidelines on the optimal first-line drug therapy in treating hypertension. Despite broad dissemination of these guidelines, prescribing practices have long remained discrepant with recommendations. The purpose of this study was to examine the role of insurance type in the selection of drugs for hypertension treatment in light of the JNC guidelines. METHODS: Subjects were derived from the 1996 Medical Expenditures Panel Survey who had a diagnosis of essential hypertension and who were prescribed a diuretic, beta-blocker, calcium channel blocker (CCB), or ACE inhibitor (ACEI) as monotherapy. Using the nationally representative sample, this study presents the first estimates of the impact of insurance policies on the choice of antihypertensive drugs while controlling for predisposing, enabling, and need variables in the context of a logistic health-care utilization model. RESULTS: Nationally in 1996, more than twice as many subjects (7.3 million) were taking ACEIs or CCBs compared to diuretics or beta-blockers (3.1 million) as the first-line drug therapy, a sharp contrast to the JNC guidelines. Patients with health maintenance organization (HMO) insurance were much less likely than fee for service (FFS) patients to follow the JNC guidelines in this respect (odds ratio 0.50, P <.01), controlling for all other factors. Individuals with all other public insurance and no insurance were not statistically different from the FFS group in the use of the study drugs. Other significant factors in the regression model were being of African American descent, being unmarried, having higher out-of-pocket payment, being in excellent physical health, having diabetes, and being diagnosed with essential hypertension after 1988. Each was associated with a decreased likelihood of following the JNC recommendations for the use of diuretics or beta-blockers. CONCLUSIONS: After controlling for other predisposing, enabling, and need variables, patients who had HMO coverage were significantly more likely than FFS patients to receive ACEIs or CCBs. Given a popular public perception of HMOs being most cost conscious in providing health care, further research is needed to understand why prescribing patterns associated with HMOs have poorly followed the JNC recommendations

Advances in the molecular regulation of endothelial BMP9 signalling complexes and implications for cardiovascular disease

Bone morphogenetic protein 9 (BMP9), a member of the transforming growth factor (TGF) superfamily is a circulating vascular quiescence and endothelial-protective factor, accounting for the majority of BMP activity in plasma. BMP9 and BMP10 bind preferentially to the high affinity type I receptor activin receptor-like kinase 1 (ALK1) on vascular endothelial cells. Recently, a number of reports have highlighted the important roles of BMP9 in cardiovascular disease, particularly pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). In vivo, BMP9 activity and specificity are determined by tightly regulated protein-protein recognition with cognate receptors and a co-receptor, and may also be influenced by other proteins present on endothelial cell surface (such as low affinity receptors) and in circulation (such as TGF family ligands competing for the same receptors). In this review, we summarise recent findings on the role and therapeutic potential of BMP9 in cardiovascular disease, and review the current understanding of how the extracellular protein-protein interaction milieu could play a role in regulating endothelial BMP9 signalling specificity and activity.British Heart Foundatio

Cerebellar encoding of multiple candidate error cues in the service of motor learning

or learning to occur through trial and error, the nervous system must effectively detect and encode performance errors. To examine this process, we designed a set of oculomotor learning tasks with more than one visual object providing potential error cues, as would occur in a natural visual scene. A task-relevant visual target and a task-irrelevant visual background both influenced vestibulo-ocular reflex learning in rhesus monkeys. Thus, motor learning does not identify a single error cue based on behavioral relevance, but can be simultaneously influenced by more than one cue. Moreover, the relative weighting ofthe differentcues could vary. Ifthe speed ofthe visual target's motion on the retina was low (≪1°/s), background motion dominated learning, but if target speed was high, the effects of the background were suppressed. The target and background motion had similar, nonlinear effects on the putative neural instructive signals carried by cerebellar climbing fibers, but with a stronger influence ofthe backgroundon the climbing fibers than on learning. In contrast, putative neuralinstructive signals carriedby the simple spikes of Purkinje cells were influenced solely by the motion of the visual target. Because they are influenced by different cues during training, joint control of learning by the climbing fibers and Purkinje cells may expand the learning capacity of the cerebellar circuit