UA Research Summary No. 18

Health-care spending for Alaskans reached about $7.5 billion in 2010. For comparison, that’s close to half the wellhead value of all the oil produced in Alaska that year. It’s also roughly equal to half the wages Alaskans collected in 2010. The state’s health-care spending has been rising fast, tripling since 1990 and jumping 402010—and at current trends it could double by 2020, reaching more than$14 billion. Here we report on who’s paying the bills, what we’re buying, what’s contributing to the growth, and other aspects of health-care spending. We conclude with a discussion of how Alaska could get better value for its health-care dollars

Human Resources Strategy: The Era of Our Ways

The purpose of this chapter is to discuss some of the main features and trends in human resources (HR) strategy. Inasmuch as people are among the most important resources available to firms, one could argue that HR strategy should be central to any debate about how firms achieve competitive advantage. But this “people are our most important asset” argument is actually fairly hollow in light of the evidence. Far too many articles on HR start with this premise, but the reality is that organizations have historically not rested their fortunes on human resources. The HR function remains among the least influential in most organizations, and competitive strategies have not typically been based on the skills, capabilities, and behaviors of employees. In fact, as Snell, Youndt and Wright (1996:62) noted, in the past executives have typically tried to “take human resources out of the strategy equation--i.e., by substituting capital for labor where possible, and by designing hierarchical organizations that separate those who think from those who actually do the work.

Space station electrical power system availability study

ARINC Research Corporation performed a preliminary reliability, and maintainability (RAM) anlaysis of the NASA space station Electric Power Station (EPS). The analysis was performed using the ARINC Research developed UNIRAM RAM assessment methodology and software program. The analysis was performed in two phases: EPS modeling and EPS RAM assessment. The EPS was modeled in four parts: the insolar power generation system, the eclipse power generation system, the power management and distribution system (both ring and radial power distribution control unit (PDCU) architectures), and the power distribution to the inner keel PDCUs. The EPS RAM assessment was conducted in five steps: the use of UNIRAM to perform baseline EPS model analyses and to determine the orbital replacement unit (ORU) criticalities; the determination of EPS sensitivity to on-orbit spared of ORUs and the provision of an indication of which ORUs may need to be spared on-orbit; the determination of EPS sensitivity to changes in ORU reliability; the determination of the expected annual number of ORU failures; and the integration of the power generator system model results with the distribution system model results to assess the full EPS. Conclusions were drawn and recommendations were made

Creating a Linked Data-Friendly Metadata Application Profile for Archival Description

We provide an overview of efforts to apply and extend Schema.org for archives and archival description. The authors see the application of Schema.org and extensions as a low barrier means to publish easily consumable linked data about archival resources, institutions that hold them, and contextual entities such as people and organizations responsible for their creation.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures; full poster available from http://dcevents.dublincore.org/IntConf/dc-2017/paper/view/50

Deviations from early--time quasilinear behaviour for the quantum kicked rotor near the classical limit

We present experimental measurements of the mean energy for the atom optics kicked rotor after just two kicks. The energy is found to deviate from the quasi--linear value for small kicking periods. The observed deviation is explained by recent theoretical results which include the effect of a non--uniform initial momentum distribution, previously applied only to systems using much colder atoms than ours

THE 1995 THROUGH 1998 PRICING PERFORMANCE OF MARKET ADVISORY SERVICES FOR WHEAT

The purpose of this research report is to present an evaluation of advisory service pricing performance from 1995 through 1998 for wheat. The average net advisory price across all 24 wheat programs in 1995 is $3.79 per bushel,$0.18 above the market benchmark price. The range in 1995 is $3.01 to$4.71 per bushel. The average net advisory service price for 23 wheat programs in 1996 is $3.82 per bushel,$0.13 below the market benchmark. The range in 1996 is $2.74 to$4.94 per bushel. The average net advisory price for all 20 wheat programs in 1997 is $2.64 per bushel,$0.58 below the market benchmark. The range in 1997 is $1.34 to$3.90 per bushel. Finally, the average net advisory price across all 21 services in 1998 is $2.36 per bushel,$0.54 below the market benchmark. The range in 1998 is $1.34 to$3.33 per bushel.Marketing,

Why are the Disability Rolls Skyrocketing? The Contribution of Population Characteristics, Economic Conditions, and Program Generosity

This chapter, which addresses three categories of explanation—the characteristics of individuals insured by the Disability Insurance (DI) program, the state of the economy, and the generosity of program benefits—argues that the growth in DI rolls is likely to continue and perhaps accelerate going forward. The data indicate that the recessions of 1991 and 2001 can explain 24 percent of the growth in DI receipt among men and 12 percent of the growth among women. Changes in health during the past two decades have slowed rather than added to the growth of the DI rolls. DI awards for certain conditions were much more affected by the liberalized medical eligibility criteria than others. The aging of the Baby Boom population will result in significant increases in DI receipt during the next fifteen years. The incentive to apply for DI will increase with the rising value of health insurance through Medicare

Bcl-xL-mediated remodeling of rod and cone synaptic mitochondria after postnatal lead exposure: electron microscopy, tomography and oxygen consumption.

PurposePostnatal lead exposure produces rod-selective and Bax-mediated apoptosis, decreased scotopic electroretinograms (ERGs), and scotopic and mesopic vision deficits in humans and/or experimental animals. Rod, but not cone, inner segment mitochondria were considered the primary site of action. However, photoreceptor synaptic mitochondria were not examined. Thus, our experiments investigated the structural and functional effects of environmentally relevant postnatal lead exposure on rod spherule and cone pedicle mitochondria and whether Bcl-xL overexpression provided neuroprotection.MethodsC57BL/6N mice pups were exposed to lead only during lactation via dams drinking water containing lead acetate. The blood [Pb] at weaning was 20.6±4.7 µg/dl, which decreased to the control value by 2 months. To assess synaptic mitochondrial structural differences and vulnerability to lead exposure, wild-type and transgenic mice overexpressing Bcl-xL in photoreceptors were used. Electron microscopy, three-dimensional electron tomography, and retinal and photoreceptor synaptic terminal oxygen consumption (QO(2)) studies were conducted in adult control, Bcl-xL, lead, and Bcl-xL/lead mice.ResultsThe spherule and pedicle mitochondria in lead-treated mice were swollen, and the cristae structure was markedly changed. In the lead-treated mice, the mitochondrial cristae surface area and volume (abundance: measure correlated with ATP (ATP) synthesis) were decreased in the spherules and increased in the pedicles. Pedicles also had an increased number of crista segments per volume. In the lead-treated mice, the number of segments/crista and fraction of cristae with multiple segments (branching) similarly increased in spherule and pedicle mitochondria. Lead-induced remodeling of spherule mitochondria produced smaller cristae with more branching, whereas pedicle mitochondria had larger cristae with more branching and increased crista junction (CJ) diameter. Lead decreased dark- and light-adapted photoreceptor and dark-adapted photoreceptor synaptic terminal QO(2). Bcl-xL partially blocked many of the lead-induced alterations relative to controls. However, spherules still had partially decreased abundance, whereas pedicles still had increased branching, increased crista segments per volume, and increased crista junction diameter. Moreover, photoreceptor and synaptic QO(2) were only partially recovered.ConclusionsThese findings reveal cellular and compartmental specific differences in the structure and vulnerability of rod and cone inner segment and synaptic mitochondria to postnatal lead exposure. Spherule and pedicle mitochondria in lead-exposed mice displayed complex and distinguishing patterns of cristae and matrix damage and remodeling consistent with studies showing that synaptic mitochondria are more sensitive to Ca(2+) overload, oxidative stress, and ATP loss than non-synaptic mitochondria. The lead-induced decreases in QO(2) likely resulted from the decreased spherule cristae abundance and smaller cristae, perhaps due to Bax-mediated effects as they occurred in apoptotic rod inner segments. The increase in pedicle cristae abundance and CJ diameter could have resulted from increased Drp1-mediated fission, as small mitochondrial fragments were observed. The mechanisms of Bcl-xL-mediated remodeling might occur via interaction with formation of CJ protein 1 (Fcj1), whereas the partial protection of synaptic QO(2) might result from the enhanced efficiency of energy metabolism via Bcl-xL's direct interaction with the F1F0 ATP synthase and/or regulation of cellular redox status. These lead-induced alterations in photoreceptor synaptic terminal mitochondria likely underlie the persistent scotopic and mesopic deficits in lead-exposed children, workers, and experimental animals. Our findings stress the clinical and scientific importance of examining synaptic dysfunction following injury or disease during development, and developing therapeutic treatments that prevent synaptic degeneration in retinal and neurodegenerative disorders even when apoptosis is blocked

Modeling Virus Transport and Removal during Storage and Recovery in Heterogeneous Aquifers

A quantitative understanding of virus removal during aquifer storage and recovery (ASR) in physically and geochemically heterogeneous aquifers is needed to accurately assess human health risks from viral infections. A two-dimensional axisymmetric numerical model incorporating processes of virus attachment, detachment, and inactivation in aqueous and solid phases was developed to systematically evaluate the virus removal performance of ASR schemes. Physical heterogeneity was considered as either layered or randomly distributed hydraulic conductivities (with selected variance and horizontal correlation length). Geochemical heterogeneity in the aquifer was accounted for using Colloid Filtration Theory to predict the spatial distribution of attachment rate coefficient. Simulation results demonstrate that the combined effects of aquifer physical heterogeneity and spatial variability of attachment rate resulted in higher virus concentrations in the recovered water at the ASR well (i.e. reduced virus removal). While the sticking efficiency of viruses to aquifer sediments was found to significantly influence virus concentration in the recovered water, the solid phase inactivation under realistic field conditions combined with the duration of storage phase had a predominant influence on the overall virus removal. The relative importance of physical heterogeneity increased under physicochemical conditions that reduced virus removal (e.g. lower value of sticking efficiency or solid phase inactivation rate). This study provides valuable insight on site selection of ASR projects and an approach to optimize ASR operational parameters (e.g. storage time) for virus removal and to minimize costs associated with post-recovery treatment