ESTIMATING THE BENEFITS OF REGIONALIZING EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICE PROVISION

Local area governments have experienced increasingly stringent budget constraints in recent years. Innovations in service delivery provide one avenue for increasing the effectiveness of resource allocations. This paper explores the potential savings available from regionalizing emergency medical service provision. A mixed integer programming model incorporating peak demand considerations is used to minimize service cost given a desired maximum response time. Changes in the weighted average response time measure the quality degradation required to attain the savings from cooperative provision. The results indicate that the benefits are substantial but that distribution of these gains is a possible barrier to implementation.Health Economics and Policy, Public Economics,

THE DERIVED DEMAND FOR IRRIGATION SCHEDULING SERVICES

Scientific irrigation scheduling is a technique for systematically determining the proper date and quantity of each irrigation in individual fields. This technique is presently being used by government agencies and private companies in the Western United States to assist farmers in planning irrigations. This paper presents the results of a case study of the regional economic effects of scheduling the A & B District in Idaho. The analysis indicated that substantial reductions in total water use resulted from implementation of the service. However, the acreage of scheduled irrigation actively was found to be sensitive to the cost of the service and the cost of irrigation water.Farm Management,

Environmental governance in China

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IMPLICATIONS OF GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE FOR WESTERN AGRICULTURE

Global climate change from increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide and other trace gases is an issue of international concern. Adverse climate conditions are expected to reduce crop yields and alter the demand for and supply of water. These potential adjustments imply economic costs to agriculture and its constituents. This paper explores possible economic implications for U.S. agriculture, with particular reference to the West. Results from a series of spatial equilibrium model analyses suggest that climate change is not a food security issue for the United States. However, regional adjustments in agricultural production and associated resource use are expected. This implies additional pressure in rural communities. Environmental quality reductions are also likely.Environmental Economics and Policy,

Experimental Status of Exotic Mesons and the GlueX Experiment

One of the unanswered and most fundamental questions in physics regards the nature of the confinement mechanism of quarks and gluons in QCD. Exotic hybrid mesons manifest gluonic degrees of freedom and their spectroscopy will provide the data necessary to test assumptions in lattice QCD and the specific phenomenology leading to confinement. Within the past two decades a number of experiments have put forth tantalizing evidence for the existence of exotic hybrid mesons in the mass range below 2 GeV. This talk represents an overview of the available data and what has been learned. In looking toward the future, the GlueX experiment at Jefferson Laboratory represents a new initiative that will perform detailed spectroscopy of the light-quark meson spectrum. This experiment and its capabilities will be reviewed.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, 2nd Meeting of the APS Topical Group on Hadron Physics GHP06, Nashville, TN (10/22-10/24/06

Environmental governance in China: report of the Task Force on Environmental Governance to the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED), submitted in November, 2006 at Beijing

Seit 15 Jahren begutachtet der China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED) den Modernisierungsprozess Chinas. 2004 berief der Rat erstmals eine Task Force on Environmental Governance zur Vorbereitung effektiverer Umweltschutzstrategien für China, bestehend aus je sechs internationalen und chinesischen Experten. Die vorliegende vergleichende Analyse der Strukturen, Prozesse und Ergebnisse der praktizierten Umweltpolitik in China, den USA, Japan und der Europäischen Union lieferte die Basis für konkrete Politikempfehlungen, die der chinesischen Regierung und Öffentlichkeit am 11. November 2006 in Beijing vorgelegt wurden. Die Task Force war eingerichtet worden, weil China durch seine wirtschaftliche Expansionsdynamik vor ungeahnten Herausforderungen steht, was den Schutz der Umwelt und der natürlichen Ressourcen angeht. Die zunehmende Belastung und Zerstörung der Umwelt bedrohen Leben und Gesundheit der größten Nation der Welt, aber auch das Potenzial der weiteren Wirtschaftsentwicklung. In Reaktion auf diese Trends hat die Regierung dem Umweltschutz in ihrer nationalen Entwicklungsstrategie in jüngster Zeit einen größeren Stellenwert eingeräumt. Die Task Force kam zu der Auffassung, dass in China ein weit umfassenderer Politikwechsel erforderlich ist. Alle wichtigen Elemente der Umweltpolitik müssten kritisch geprüft werden und bedürften der Reform. Im Besonderen ginge es um vier Handlungsfelder: (1) die Stärkung der Kapazitäten zur Umsetzung und Verschärfung der Umweltgesetze und -verordnungen, (2) die Steigerung des Engagements der Wirtschaft im Umweltschutz durch Anreiz- und Sanktionsmechanismen und die allgemeine Etablierung des Konzepts der "besten Praxis", (3) die vermehrte Partizipation der Zivilgesellschaft durch bessere Informationen über Umweltsituation und Ressourcenverbrauch und erweiterte Beteiligungsrechte und (4) die erhöhte Politik-Kohärenz bei nationalen wie internationalen Umweltfragen. Damit wird zugleich ein magisches Dreieck der umweltpolitischen Akteursgruppen umschrieben, das Regierung, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft umfasst. Zu diesen Handlungsfeldern formulierte die Task Force insgesamt 26 spezifische Aktionsaufgaben. (ICD2

Phase 1/2 Dose Escalating Study of Twice-Monthly Pemetrexed and Gemcitabine in Patients with Advanced Cancer and Non-small Cell Lung Cancer

IntroductionPemetrexed is synergistic with gemcitabine in preclinical models of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The optimal dose and utility of gemcitabine and pemetrexed was evaluated in a dose-escalating study.MethodsThe phase 1 study included patients with advanced tumors, whereas the phase 2 study included patients with locally advanced or metastatic NSCLC. Gemcitabine was infused over 30 minutes, followed by pemetrexed administered over 10 minutes on day 1 of a 14-day cycle. Treatment continued for 12 cycles or until disease progression. All patients received folic acid, Vitamin B12, and steroid prophylaxis.ResultsMaximum tolerated dose was gemcitabine 1500 mg/m2, followed by pemetrexed 500 mg/m2. Fifty-three patients (29 male, 24 female) were enrolled in the phase 2 study. Response rate was 20.8% (95% CI: 0.108–0.341), and the clinical benefit rate (CR + PR + SD) was 64.2%. Median time to disease progression was 4.6 months (95% CI: 2.79–6.18), median survival was 10.1 month (95% CI: 5.95–14.09, censorship = 20.75%), and 1-year survival was 41.0%. Common grade 3 or 4 adverse events (% of patients) were neutropenia (28.3%), fatigue (22.6%), and febrile neutropenia (9.4%).ConclusionsTwice-monthly gemcitabine and pemetrexed was well tolerated, with overall survival and clinical benefit indicating disease activity in NSCLC patients

Lattice QCD and Particle Physics

Contribution from the USQCD Collaboration to the Proceedings of the US Community Study on the Future of Particle Physics (Snowmass 2021).Comment: 27 pp. main text, 4 pp. appendices, 30 pp. reference