City of Cincinnati Streetcar Project: Financial Outlook and Funding Recommendations

In 2016, the City of Cincinnati will begin operating its 3.6-mile urban circulator streetcar system. This report analyzes the financial impact to the city and is based on the attached Flow of Funds Statement. Though the city is receiving $45 million in federal grants to fund the project, the capital costs burden falls largely on the city. After including private contributions and other external inflows, the city is responsible for$82 million of the capital costs, and has set aside an additional $15 million should it have to pay for utilities relocation. Projected revenues from the system include: fare revenue, pavement maintenance savings, liquidation of the system, and incremental property tax revenue. Baseline fare revenue projections, assuming a$1.00 fare and initial daily demand of 3,700 riders, predict that the system will recover 42% of operational and maintenance (O&M) costs in the first full year of operation. However, as O&M costs rise at a higher rate than ridership, this ratio is expected to decline to 27% by 2035. This translates to a $1.8 million deficit and$5.4 million deficit in 2017 and 2035, respectively. The financial viability of the system depends on the city’s ability to decrease the rate of O&M cost growth and/or increase ridership. Fare revenue should only be expected to account for a portion of O&M costs. Sensitivity analysis was conducted to show the effects of a range of variables on fare revenue and incremental property tax revenue. These ranges provide a range of estimates of the operating shortfall and should be used to guide decisions on how to fund the shortfall. It is highly unlikely that the system will be self-sustaining. A combination of advertising revenue, tax increment financing, private contributions, along-the-line assessments, and special improvement district revenue should be used to account for the remaining costs. Use of city general fund revenue should be avoided at all costs, so as to not disrupt current city service delivery

An Examination of Friendship in Middle Childhood: A Test of the Similarity-Attraction Hypothesis

The purpose of this study was to examine the similarities between children and their friends. Previous research had focused on demographic similarities, with a little attention given to behavioral similarities. This study sought to expand the knowledge of similarities between friends to sociometric and social information processing characteristics and show that friends were more similar than random pairs of children. Children completed a rating and nomination sociometric interview. Children also completed a social information processing interview in which they viewed ambiguous provocation situations and then rated a series of social goals and gave social problem solving responses. Two-hundred and twenty-four pairs of reciprocated friends and 224 random pairs of children were identified and used for analyses. Correlational analyses and regression analyses were used to assess similarities. Results showed that friend pairs were similar for prosocial, hostile/instrumental, and passive/avoidant goals, however, regression analyses indicated that friends\u27 characteristics were significant predictors of only some prosocial and hostile/instrumental goals. Friend pairs also were similar in the passivity/assertiveness of their social problem solving responses. Thus, the current study shows some support for the hypothesis that children and their friends are similar in their social processing mechanisms. Further research should be conducted to determine whether small sample size and small standard deviations made the detection of effects more difficult

CONSOLE Project - Deliverable 2.2 - "Draft report on experiences from outside the EU"

The aim of task 2.3 is to collect the most promising and successful experiences outside the EU that could add new and interesting perspectives for application in EU and to feed into WP2 a wider range of opportunities for contract design. The task takes the form of a systematic literature review and this report provides a draft version of the outcomes of this review. The final version of the report will be provided in month 30. The review selected 79 documents, including both peer review papers and reports/grey literature having as a scope all countries outside those already represented by the CONSOLE partners. The main reasons for success identified for the reviewed cases are: a) reducing risks linked to results; b) reduced costs for monitoring results; c) farmers’ interest and social revenue; d) resources availability; e) additionality; f) relying on existing collectives; g) communication; payment setting; h)appropriate intermediaries. To a large extent the success factors listed above confirm insights from cases in the CONSOLE partner countries. However, they allow the consideration of a broader variety of solutions. On the other hand, this also depends on the specific institutional context where they are located, which means that potential for replication should be taken carefully. The fact that a large part of the experiences and certainly of the evidence is rather recent encourages the continuation of this task providing updates during the whole project life

MatVPC: A User-Friendly MATLAB-Based Tool for the Simulation and Evaluation of Systems Pharmacology Models

International audienceQuantitative systems pharmacology (QSP) models are progressively entering the arena of contemporary pharmacology. The efficient implementation and evaluation of complex QSP models necessitates the development of flexible computational tools that are built into QSP mainstream software. To this end, we present MatVPC, a versatile MATLAB-based tool that accommodates QSP models of any complexity level. MatVPC executes Monte Carlo simulations as well as automatic construction of visual predictive checks (VPCs) and quantified VPCs (QVPCs). VPC is a model diagnostic tool that facilitates the evaluation of both the structural and the stochastic part of a model. It is constructed by superimposing the observations over the model simulations while accounting for both the interindivid-ual variability as well as the residual variability. 1 Once underutilized, 2 the VPC now is recognized as one of the most valuable model diagnostics in pharmacological model evaluation. 3–5 Its superiority over comparable diagnostic tools has been established 6 and reflected by the fact that regulatory agencies recommend it as one of the central model diagnostics.

Prospectus, May 4, 2005

https://spark.parkland.edu/prospectus_2005/1012/thumbnail.jp

Structure of a putative NTP pyrophosphohydrolase: YP_001813558.1 from Exiguobacterium sibiricum 255-15.

The crystal structure of a putative NTPase, YP_001813558.1 from Exiguobacterium sibiricum 255-15 (PF09934, DUF2166) was determined to 1.78 Å resolution. YP_001813558.1 and its homologs (dimeric dUTPases, MazG proteins and HisE-encoded phosphoribosyl ATP pyrophosphohydrolases) form a superfamily of all-α-helical NTP pyrophosphatases. In dimeric dUTPase-like proteins, a central four-helix bundle forms the active site. However, in YP_001813558.1, an unexpected intertwined swapping of two of the helices that compose the conserved helix bundle results in a `linked dimer' that has not previously been observed for this family. Interestingly, despite this novel mode of dimerization, the metal-binding site for divalent cations, such as magnesium, that are essential for NTPase activity is still conserved. Furthermore, the active-site residues that are involved in sugar binding of the NTPs are also conserved when compared with other α-helical NTPases, but those that recognize the nucleotide bases are not conserved, suggesting a different substrate specificity

Structure of the γ-D-glutamyl-L-diamino acid endopeptidase YkfC from Bacillus cereus in complex with L-Ala-γ-D-Glu: insights into substrate recognition by NlpC/P60 cysteine peptidases.

Dipeptidyl-peptidase VI from Bacillus sphaericus and YkfC from Bacillus subtilis have both previously been characterized as highly specific γ-D-glutamyl-L-diamino acid endopeptidases. The crystal structure of a YkfC ortholog from Bacillus cereus (BcYkfC) at 1.8 Å resolution revealed that it contains two N-terminal bacterial SH3 (SH3b) domains in addition to the C-terminal catalytic NlpC/P60 domain that is ubiquitous in the very large family of cell-wall-related cysteine peptidases. A bound reaction product (L-Ala-γ-D-Glu) enabled the identification of conserved sequence and structural signatures for recognition of L-Ala and γ-D-Glu and, therefore, provides a clear framework for understanding the substrate specificity observed in dipeptidyl-peptidase VI, YkfC and other NlpC/P60 domains in general. The first SH3b domain plays an important role in defining substrate specificity by contributing to the formation of the active site, such that only murein peptides with a free N-terminal alanine are allowed. A conserved tyrosine in the SH3b domain of the YkfC subfamily is correlated with the presence of a conserved acidic residue in the NlpC/P60 domain and both residues interact with the free amine group of the alanine. This structural feature allows the definition of a subfamily of NlpC/P60 enzymes with the same N-terminal substrate requirements, including a previously characterized cyanobacterial L-alanine-γ-D-glutamate endopeptidase that contains the two key components (an NlpC/P60 domain attached to an SH3b domain) for assembly of a YkfC-like active site