An Assessment of Performance Measures in the Transportation Development Act

"This report examines the performance measures requirements in California’s Transportation Development Act (TDA) of 1971. The TDA is an important source of funding for the state’s public transit agencies, representing approximately 18 percent of their total (2018) revenue between the TDA’s two funds (LTF and STA). Since the TDA’s passage in 1971, the transit operating environment in California has changed, in some cases dramatically. The state has nearly doubled in population (20.4 million in 1971 to 39.8 million in 2019), traffic has worsened considerably, climate change is now a central public policy focus, and many places around the state are investing heavily in making public transit a viable alternative to driving. Our research examined the TDA’s performance requirements and their effects on the state’s transit operators. We also considered alternative approaches to both transit finance and performance requirements, by studying transit funding programs in 13 other states that invest significant amounts of funding in transit. In brief, we find that the TDA’s use of performance measurements to allocate funding is unusual. The states we studied do not for the most part make funding contingent on performance, thereby avoiding the unproductive and difficult-to-implement “death penalty” (Taylor, 1995) of withholding subsidies for a much-needed public service. In several of the cases analyzed, by contrast, states guarantee specific levels or amounts of funding for transit service.To examine how the TDA’s performance measures are working, we conducted a survey of California transit professionals at agencies and at Regional Transportation Planning Agencies (RTPAs). That California’s aspirations for transit have evolved over the years is reflected in the frequent loopholes and exemptions the legislature has added to the TDA to give struggling operators more latitude to receive funding in order to meet multiple goals and objectives while staying in compliance with a single cost-effectiveness goal. The extent and frequency with which these exemptions have occurred suggests that the larger aims for public transit, and indeed the goals for the TDA program itself, have evolved, and need to be re-thought holistically, rather than incrementally.Accordingly we offer six recommendations concerning transit performance assessment in the TDA.

Effect of energy density and virginiamycin supplementation in diets on growth performance and digestive function of finishing steers.

ObjectiveThis study was determined the influence of virginiamycin supplementation on growth-performance and characteristics of digestion of cattle with decreasing dietary net energy value of the diet for maintenance (NEm) from 2.22 to 2.10 Mcal/kg.MethodsEighty crossbred beef steers (298.2±6.3 kg) were used in a 152-d performance evaluation consisting of a 28-d adaptation period followed by a 124-d growing-finishing period. During the 124-d period steers were fed either a lesser energy dense (LED, 2.10 Mcal/kg NEm) or higher energy dense (HED, 2.22 Mcal/kg NEm) diet. Diets were fed with or without 28 mg/kg (dry matter [DM] basis) virginiamycin in a 2×2 factorial arrangement. Four Holstein steers (170.4±5.6 kg) with cannulas in the rumen (3.8 cm internal diameter) and proximal duodenum were used in 4×4 Latin square experiment to study treatment effects on characteristics of digestion.ResultsNeither diet energy density nor virginiamycin affected average daily gain (p>0.10). As expected, dry matter intake and gain efficiency were greater (p<0.01) for LED- than for HED-fed steers. Virginiamycin did not affect estimated net energy value of the LED diet. Virginiamycin increased estimated NE of the HED diet. During daylight hours when the temperature humidity index averaged 81.3±2.7, virginiamycin decreased (p<0.05) ruminal temperature. Virginiamycin did not influence (p>0.10) ruminal or total tract digestion. Ruminal (p = 0.02) and total tract digestion (p<0.01) of organic matter, and digestible energy (p<0.01) were greater for HED vs LED. Ruminal microbial efficiency was lower (p<0.01) for HED vs LED diets.ConclusionThe positive effect of virginiamycin on growth performance of cattle is due to increased efficiency of energy utilization, as effects of virginiamycin on characteristics of digestion were not appreciable. Under conditions of high ambient temperature virginiamycin may reduce body temperature

Quantum simulation of Anderson and Kondo lattices with superconducting qubits

We introduce a mapping between a variety of superconducting circuits and a family of Hamiltonians describing localized magnetic impurities interacting with conduction bands. This includes the Anderson model, the single impurity one- and two-channel Kondo problem, as well as the 1D Kondo lattice. We compare the requirements for performing quantum simulations using the proposed circuits to those of universal quantum computation with superconducting qubits, singling out the specific challenges that will have to be addressed.Comment: Longer versio

Evaluating the impact of policies recommending PrEP to subpopulations of men and transgender women who have sex with men based on demographic and behavioral risk factors.

IntroductionDeveloping guidelines to inform the use of antiretroviral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV prevention in resource-limited settings must necessarily be informed by considering the resources and infrastructure needed for PrEP delivery. We describe an approach that identifies subpopulations of cisgender men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender women (TGW) to prioritize for the rollout of PrEP in resource-limited settings.MethodsWe use data from the iPrEx study, a multi-national phase III study of PrEP for HIV prevention in MSM/TGW, to build statistical models that identify subpopulations at high risk of HIV acquisition without PrEP, and with high expected PrEP benefit. We then evaluate empirically the population impact of policies recommending PrEP to these subpopulations, and contrast these with existing policies.ResultsA policy recommending PrEP to a high risk subpopulation of MSM/TGW reporting condomless receptive anal intercourse over the last 3 months (estimated 3.3% 1-year HIV incidence) yields an estimated 1.95% absolute reduction in 1-year HIV incidence at the population level, and 3.83% reduction over 2 years. Importantly, such a policy requires rolling PrEP out to just 59.7% of MSM/TGW in the iPrEx population. We find that this policy is identical to that which prioritizes MSM/TGW with high expected PrEP benefit. It is estimated to achieve nearly the same reduction in HIV incidence as the PrEP guideline put forth by the US Centers for Disease Control, which relies on the measurement of more behavioral risk factors and which would recommend PrEP to a larger subset of the MSM/TGW population (86% vs. 60%).ConclusionsThese findings may be used to focus future mathematical modelling studies of PrEP in resource-limited settings on prioritizing PrEP for high-risk subpopulations of MSM/TGW. The statistical approach we took could be employed to develop PrEP policies for other at-risk populations and resource-limited settings

INCIDENCE AND PREVENTION OF DEEP VEIN THROMBOSIS IN RESTRAINED PSYCHIATRIC PATIENTS

Background: Although physical restraint is still used in psychiatric inpatient settings, it sometimes causes serious side effects, including deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and resulting pulmonary embolism. The aim of this study was to review the literature investigating the incidence of the DVT in restrained psychiatric patients, to identify the risk factors of this condition and the effectiveness of routine prophylaxis. Subjects and methods: Studies investigating associations between deep vein thrombosis and restrained psychiatric patients were searched in the Pubmed database. More than 700 articles were sorted independently by two of the authors using predefined criteria. Only research articles, reviews and meta-analyses were selected for this review. Results: 5 articles published between 2010 and 2016 were selected. Although antipsychotics and restrain are known to be thrombogenenic, in all retrospective studies, with anticoagulant prophylaxis for those restrained for more than 12 or 24 h, incidence of DVT in restrained psychiatric patients was almost not existent. Controversially, in a comparative study by Ishida, although deep sedation and physical comorbidities were associated with the occurrence of DVT, not using of anticoagulants was not associated with any increased incidence of DVT. DVT may be overlooked because psychiatric patients are often unaware of leg symptoms because of their psychiatric disease and induced sedation. Furthermore most DVT, in particular distal DVT are asymptomatic. When screened and assessed with more appropriate methods such as plasma D Dimer and ultrasound scanning the incidence of DVT reaches 11.6%. Conclusion: The incidence of DVT in restrained psychiatric patients was not low in spite of prophylaxis. These findings emphasize the importance of regular screening of and thorough assessments of DVT, especially in restrained psychiatric patients