Freedom, Servitude and Voluntary Labor

We present an economic framework to revisit and reframe some important debates over the nature of free versus unfree labor and the economic consequences of emancipation. We use a simple general equilibrium model in which labor can be either free or coerced and where land and labor will be exchanged on markets that can be competitive or manipulated or via other non-market collusive arrangements. By working with variants of the same basic model under different assumptions about initial economy-wide factor endowments and asset ownership we can compare equilibrium distributional outcomes under different institutional and contractual arrangements including markets with free labor and free tenancy, slavery, and tenancy arrangements with tied labor-service obligations. Analysis of these different contractual and organizational forms yields insights that accord with common sense, but that are often overlooked or downplayed in academic debates, particularly amongst economists

Determination of Genes Involved in Hygienic Behavior in the Honey Bee, Apis mellifera

Honeybees are an integral part of the agricultural industry, especially in the Midwestern United States. Honeybees serve as pollinators of crops, an invaluable job of honeybees, as well as producers of honey. Diseases that kill members of the colony threaten honeybee colonies, and there are few options available to treat these diseases. Some honeybees exhibit a behavior—termed hygienic behavior—in which the bees clean out diseased brood from the hive, thus conferring a natural resistance to three diseases of bees: American foulbrood, chalkbrood, and varroa mite. However, it is not found in all colonies and only a certain number of honeybees contain this behavior in a given colony. This desirable behavior can be traced to genetics—meaning hygienic honeybees exhibit this behavior partly due to information they carry in their DNA (genetic material). We have undertaken a large genetic screen in cooperation with Dr. Marla Spivak of the Entomology department at the University of Minnesota. We have identified differences between genes in brains from hygienic honeybees vs. non-hygienic honeybees using a technique called microarray, and are now validating these differences using a secondary biochemical technique. Identifying specific genes that allow these bees to protect their colonies is a critical step towards implementing this behavior in unprotected honeybee colonies

STIMULATED EMISSION PUMPING SPECTROSCOPY OF JET COOLED C

$^{1}$P. R. Bunker and B. M. Landsberg, J. Mol. Spectrose. 67. 374 (1977). Work at Brookhaven National Laboratory was carried out under contract DE-ACO2-76CH00016 with the U.S. Department of Energy and supported by its Division of Chemical Sciences. Office of Basic Energy Sciences.Author Institution: Department of Chemistry, Brookhaven National Laboratory; Combustion Research Facility, Sandia National LaboratoriesWe have measured the energies of many vibration-rotation states of $X^{1}\Sigma_{s}^{+} C_{3}$ in pure bending and bend stretch combination levels up to nearly $10000 cm^{-1}$ above the zero point level. The levels accessed have up to 34 bending quanta of excitation and up to 10 units of vibrational angular momentum. Combination states with up to 3 quanta of symmetric stretch have been measured at Brookhaven while those with up to 4 quanta of antisymmetric stretch have been measured at Sandia. All the bending and symmetric stretch levels can be well described as having a linear average structure albeit with very large amplitude bending motion. In contrast, excitation of the antisymmetric stretch causes the molecule to become bent. We are attempting to use our data together with the semi-rigid bender model1 to extract effective bending potentials as a function of stretching state and progress will be reported at the meetin

Prevalence and Medication Treatment of Opioid Use Disorder Among Primary Care Patients with Hepatitis C and HIV

BACKGROUND: Hepatitis C and HIV are associated with opioid use disorders (OUD) and injection drug use. Medications for OUD can prevent the spread of HCV and HIV. OBJECTIVE: To describe the prevalence of documented OUD, as well as receipt of office-based medication treatment, among primary care patients with HCV or HIV. DESIGN: Retrospective observational cohort study using electronic health record and insurance data. PARTICIPANTS: Adults ≥ 18 years with ≥ 2 visits to primary care during the study (2014-2016) at 6 healthcare systems across five states (CO, CA, OR, WA, and MN). MAIN MEASURES: The primary outcome was the diagnosis of OUD; the secondary outcome was OUD treatment with buprenorphine or oral/injectable naltrexone. Prevalence of OUD and OUD treatment was calculated across four groups: HCV only; HIV only; HCV and HIV; and neither HCV nor HIV. In addition, adjusted odds ratios (AOR) of OUD treatment associated with HCV and HIV (separately) were estimated, adjusting for age, gender, race/ethnicity, and site. KEY RESULTS: The sample included 1,368,604 persons, of whom 10,042 had HCV, 5821 HIV, and 422 both. The prevalence of diagnosed OUD varied across groups: 11.9% (95% CI: 11.3%, 12.5%) for those with HCV; 1.6% (1.3%, 2.0%) for those with HIV; 8.8% (6.2%, 11.9%) for those with both; and 0.92% (0.91%, 0.94%) among those with neither. Among those with diagnosed OUD, the prevalence of OUD medication treatment was 20.9%, 16.0%, 10.8%, and 22.3%, for those with HCV, HIV, both, and neither, respectively. HCV was not associated with OUD treatment (AOR = 1.03; 0.88, 1.21), whereas patients with HIV had a lower probability of OUD treatment (AOR = 0.43; 0.26, 0.72). CONCLUSIONS: Among patients receiving primary care, those diagnosed with HCV and HIV were more likely to have documented OUD than those without. Patients with HIV were less likely to have documented medication treatment for OUD