Techniques for railway restructuring

This report was sponsored by the Union of African Railways, as part of a Sub-Saharan Africa Transport Project task aimed at defining what is involved in restructuring railways so that they behave more like market driven enterprises. The question addressed in this document is not whether the railway should be restructured, but how. The report recommends four types of action to be employed in the process of institutional reform : 1) a strategic plan which defines the environment in which the railway will function and focuses on the crucial policy issues that will guide or influence the railway's planning and actions, 2) a contract plan which defines the roles and responsibilities of the railway and its owner. This plan flows from the strategic plan and should not be developed in isolation from related policy and funding objectives of the government and railway. 3) A management plan that clarifies the objectives of the senior railway executives and their roles and responsibilities in relation to the executive director, and 4) an enabling actions plan, which lists most of the initiatives that must be taken in conjunction with implementation of the first three plans. The focus should be to ensure that the roles and responsibilities defined will actually be realized in law or enforceable agreement.Railways Transport,Banks&Banking Reform,Public Sector Economics&Finance,Environmental Economics&Policies,Roads&Highways

Options for reshaping the railway

In many countries the mismatch between what the railways offer and what the customers want has caused significant economic inefficiency and severe financial strains for the railways and their government owners. The concept of the railway as a monolithic entity is so strong in many countries as to be a roadblock against reshaping the railway. The authors explore four options which can be used to reshape the railways. First is the lines of business option which improves accountability and responsiveness to markets. The second is the competitive access option which introduces intramodal competition in selected markets, while maintaining unitary control over most railway operations. The third is the"wholesaler"option which would accomplish an excellent marketing job, but the actual operation would remain in monolithic hands. Finally there is the"toll rail enterprise"option which comes closest to reflecting a theoretical model of marketing effectiveness, however it would generate potential operating conflicts and higher transaction costs. The authors show that one generalization holds true in all circumstances: a monolithic railway does not function well in a market economy in competition with privately owned, properly regulated competitors - especially trucking. The authors point out that solutions will vary, but the universal objective as an economy becomes more market driven is to make the railway more market sensitive.Railways Transport,Roads&Highways,Environmental Economics&Policies,Banks&Banking Reform,ICT Policy and Strategies

What determines demand for freight transport?

Decisions about investments in the long-lived assets of transport infrastructure require some assumptions about prospective long-term demand from services using that infrastructure. To improve the basis for such predictions, the authors estimated the long-run determinants of domestic freight transport, using single-equation regressions on a cross-section of data from developed (high-income), developing (low-income) and former socialist economies. They also sought answers to two related questions. First, since statistics on national ton-kilometers of freight transport are much scarcer for developing than for developed countries, what is the scope for generalizing from data on high-income countries? Second, within what limits may one apply results obtained from data on market economies to the prospective evolution of freight transport demand in the socialist transitional economies? They report the following finds, subject to caveats related to the simple methodology used. For the sample of developed countries, and the merged samples of developed plus developing countries, total ton-kilometers of freight transport (excluding transit) are adequately explained by two variables: a country's area and total GDP. Ton-kilometers by road are chiefly explained by GDP; ton-kilometers by rail are explained by countryarea. Road freight in developed and developing market economies shows very similar response (in additional ton-kilometers) to variations in GDP. But the elasticity of demand for road ton-kilometers with regard to GDP should be about or above 1.25 for developing countries, compared with close to unity for the high-income countries. Demand for rail freight transport appears to be determined in closely similar ways in both groups of countries. Elasticity with GDP appears to be close to unity. Judging from the narrow basis of evidence on socialist economies (China and the former USSR were excluded for technical reasons), transport demand was determined very differently in their systems than in the market economies. The contrasts are almost entirely explained by the differences in the role of, and demand for, rail transport in the different economic systems. The road sector of freight transport, on the other hand, conforms closely to norms in the market economies; the marginal response (additional ton-kilometer for additional GDP) and elasticity with respect to GDP, appear - on the available evidence - to be close to what is found for developed market economies. In short, structural change in the socialist economies is likely to bring about far greater changes in rail freight activity than in road transport.Environmental Economics&Policies,Railways Transport,Poverty Impact Evaluation,Economic Theory&Research,Climate Change

Railway reform in the Central and Eastern European (CEE) economies

In May 1992, the World Bank hosted a Railway Rountable in Vienna, Austria, attended by transport ministers, advisors, and senior railway staff from the Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. The Roundtable reviewed recent trends in the railways'roles in these countries and identified appropriate actions to address emerging transport issues in the CEE region. The Bank prepared this strategy paper based on the discussions and the apparent widespread consensus that emerged at the Rountable. The financial situation of the CEE railways is beginning to deteriorate rapidly, and the CEE railways are not well positioned to provide good, reliable service to their increasingly market-driven customers. These countries are thus under increasing pressure to restructure their railways to relieve financial pressures and meet future needs. Railways in market economies have faced a steadily declining role in the transport market, and have typically dealt with emerging problems by tinkering at the margin - for example, by debt write-offs - and thus delaying attacking their underlying structural problems. Many of these governments have come to the conclusion that drastic surgeryis required - as illustrated by the British, German, and Japanese railways. The agenda for change that emerged from this Roundtable emphasized developing a strategic plan for restructuring the railway. This plan should define the market; project the level of activity (tons, ton-kilometers and freight tariffs, passenger-kilometers and passenger fares) for all business activities; include a five-year financial plan for the different lines of railway business (to make options concrete); and define all government policies and changes that would put the railway on a level playing field with competing modes of transportation. One item on the agenda for change is to convert the current railway enterprise operating under normal commercial law. The board of directors should include representatives from government, the railway executive and high-level business or public representatives from outside of government. Formation of JSC or independent enterprise does not necessarily imply privatization of the railway because the underlying assets may well remain in public hands. The objective is to change the enterprises'authority and enhance their commercial orientation. The other item on the agenda for change is to have the explicit mission of the railway be to operate freight and intercity passenger services on a commercial basis, with revenues from services covering all costs, including a return on investment. Social services such as urban passengers, should be identified and supported by the appropriate governmental agencies.Environmental Economics&Policies,Roads&Highways,Public Sector Economics&Finance,Railways Transport,Banks&Banking Reform

Particle Topology, Braids, and Braided Belts

Recent work suggests that topological features of certain quantum gravity theories can be interpreted as particles, matching the known fermions and bosons of the first generation in the Standard Model. This is achieved by identifying topological structures with elements of the framed Artin braid group on three strands, and demonstrating a correspondence between the invariants used to characterise these braids (a braid is a set of non-intersecting curves, that connect one set of $N$ points with another set of $N$ points), and quantities like electric charge, colour charge, and so on. In this paper we show how to manipulate a modified form of framed braids to yield an invariant standard form for sets of isomorphic braids, characterised by a vector of real numbers. This will serve as a basis for more complete discussions of quantum numbers in future work.Comment: 21 pages, 16 figure

Role of transport performance on neuron cell morphology

The compartmental model is a basic tool for studying signal propagation in neurons, and, if the model parameters are adequately defined, it can also be of help in the study of electrical or fluid transport. Here we show that the input resistance, in different networks which simulate the passive properties of neurons, is the result of an interplay between the relevant conductances, morphology and size. These results suggest that neurons must grow in such a way that facilitates the current flow. We propose that power consumption is an important factor by which neurons attain their final morphological appearance.Comment: 9 pages with 3 figures, submitted to Neuroscience Letter

Low Friction Flows of Liquids at Nanopatterned Interfaces

With the recent important development of microfluidic systems, miniaturization of flow devices has become a real challenge. Microchannels, however, are characterized by a large surface to volume ratio, so that surface properties strongly affect flow resistance in submicrometric devices. We present here results showing that the concerted effect of wetting . properties and surface roughness may considerably reduce friction of the fluid past the boundaries. The slippage of the fluid at the channel boundaries is shown to be drastically increased by using surfaces that are patterned at the nanometer scale. This effect occurs in the regime where the surface pattern is partially dewetted, in the spirit of the 'superhydrophobic' effects that have been recently discovered at the macroscopic scales. Our results show for the first time that, in contrast to the common belief, surface friction may be reduced by surface roughness. They also open the possibility of a controlled realization of the 'nanobubbles' that have long been suspected to play a role in interfacial slippag

Thrombolytic removal of intraventricular haemorrhage in treatment of severe stroke: results of the randomised, multicentre, multiregion, placebo-controlled CLEAR III trial

Background: Intraventricular haemorrhage is a subtype of intracerebral haemorrhage, with 50% mortality and serious disability for survivors. We aimed to test whether attempting to remove intraventricular haemorrhage with alteplase versus saline irrigation improved functional outcome. Methods: In this randomised, double-blinded, placebo-controlled, multiregional trial (CLEAR III), participants with a routinely placed extraventricular drain, in the intensive care unit with stable, non-traumatic intracerebral haemorrhage volume less than 30 mL, intraventricular haemorrhage obstructing the 3rd or 4th ventricles, and no underlying pathology were adaptively randomly assigned (1:1), via a web-based system to receive up to 12 doses, 8 h apart of 1 mg of alteplase or 0·9% saline via the extraventricular drain. The treating physician, clinical research staff, and participants were masked to treatment assignment. CT scans were obtained every 24 h throughout dosing. The primary efficacy outcome was good functional outcome, defined as a modified Rankin Scale score (mRS) of 3 or less at 180 days per central adjudication by blinded evaluators. This study is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT00784134. Findings: Between Sept 18, 2009, and Jan 13, 2015, 500 patients were randomised: 249 to the alteplase group and 251 to the saline group. 180-day follow-up data were available for analysis from 246 of 249 participants in the alteplase group and 245 of 251 participants in the placebo group. The primary efficacy outcome was similar in each group (good outcome in alteplase group 48% vs saline 45%; risk ratio [RR] 1·06 [95% CI 0·88–1·28; p=0·554]). A difference of 3·5% (RR 1·08 [95% CI 0·90–1·29], p=0·420) was found after adjustment for intraventricular haemorrhage size and thalamic intracerebral haemorrhage. At 180 days, the treatment group had lower case fatality (46 [18%] vs saline 73 [29%], hazard ratio 0·60 [95% CI 0·41–0·86], p=0·006), but a greater proportion with mRS 5 (42 [17%] vs 21 [9%]; RR 1·99 [95% CI 1·22–3·26], p=0·007). Ventriculitis (17 [7%] alteplase vs 31 [12%] saline; RR 0·55 [95% CI 0·31–0·97], p=0·048) and serious adverse events (114 [46%] alteplase vs 151 [60%] saline; RR 0·76 [95% CI 0·64–0·90], p=0·002) were less frequent with alteplase treatment. Symptomatic bleeding (six [2%] in the alteplase group vs five [2%] in the saline group; RR 1·21 [95% CI 0·37–3·91], p=0·771) was similar. Interpretation: In patients with intraventricular haemorrhage and a routine extraventricular drain, irrigation with alteplase did not substantially improve functional outcomes at the mRS 3 cutoff compared with irrigation with saline. Protocol-based use of alteplase with extraventricular drain seems safe. Future investigation is needed to determine whether a greater frequency of complete intraventricular haemorrhage removal via alteplase produces gains in functional status

Rods of Neutron Scattering Intensity in Yb2Ti2O7: Compelling Evidence for Significant Anisotropic Exchange in a Magnetic Pyrochlore Oxide

Paramagnetic correlations in the magnetic material Yb2Ti2O7 have been investigated via neutron scattering, revealing a [111] rod of scattering intensity. Assuming interactions between the Yb^{3+} ions composed of all symmetry-allowed nearest neighbor exchange interactions and long-range dipolar interactions, we construct a model Hamiltonian that allows for an excellent description of the neutron scattering data. Our results provide compelling evidence for significant anisotropic exchange interactions in an insulating magnetic pyrochlore oxide. We also compute the real space correlations leading to the [111] rod of scattering.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures. Supplemental material and body of paper combined together in 1 fil