Flip the Switch: The Impact of the Rural Electrification Administration 1935–1940

2015 ◽  
Vol 75 (4) ◽  
pp. 1161-1195 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carl Kitchens ◽  
Price Fishback

To isolate the impact of access to electricity on local economies, we examine the impact of the Rural Electrification Administration low-interest loans in the 1930s. The REA provided loans to cooperatives to lay distribution lines to farms and aid in wiring homes. Consequently, the number of rural farm homes electrified doubled in the United States within five years. We develop a panel data set for the 1930s and use changes within counties over time to identify the effect of the REA loans on a wide range of socio-economic measures. The REA loans contributed significantly to increases in crop output and crop productivity and helped stave off declines in overall farm output, productivity, and land values, but they had much smaller effects on nonagricultural parts of the economy. The ex-ante subsidy from the low-interest loans was large, but after the program was completed, nearly all of the loans were fully repaid, and the ultimate cost to the taxpayer was relatively low.

2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (15_suppl) ◽  
pp. e18186-e18186
Author(s):  
William Bruce Wong ◽  
Navdeep Pal ◽  
Ning Wu ◽  
Li Chen ◽  
Daniel Sheinson ◽  
...  

e18186 Background: Current commercially available oncology electronic medical record (EMR) databases typically have limited data on patient comorbidities which may limit the ability to accurately include/exclude these patients or adjust for these factors in health outcomes research. The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of identifying comorbidities using both EMR and claims data. Methods: The Concerto Health AI Definitive Oncology Dataset is a deeply curated cohort of patients (pts) derived from a wide range of oncology practices throughout the United States. Concerto Health AI has a co-exclusive partnership with ASCO CancerLinQ and collects data from multiple other sources. These data were deterministically linked to US Symphony Health’s (SH) Integrated Dataverse, an anonymized, HIPAA-compliant data set. Advanced (stage IIIb/IV) non-small cell lung cancer (aNSCLC) pts with data curated via manual review by nurse practitioners and diagnosed after 2011 were included. Comorbidities within 1 year prior to advanced diagnosis were categorized using the Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI). The impact of the claims linkage on inclusion/exclusion (I/E) criteria was assessed by applying criteria from the IMpower150 clinical study and exploring changes to survival estimates, as calculated using Kaplan-Meier method. Results: A total of 11,373 aNSCLC pts were identified, of which 7,887 pts were linked to SH. Using only Concerto, 278 pts (3.5%) had a CCI score ≥1, whereas 3,033 pts (38.4%) had a CCI score ≥1 using linked Concerto and SH. After applying I/E criteria from IMpower150 using available data elements from Concerto only, 88 pts were identified matching the trial criteria, with a median survival of 15.8 mths (95% CI: 14.4, 21.0). When leveraging Concerto and SH, 8 (9.1%) more patients were excluded (n = 80) based on comorbidities (6 pts) and oral medications (2 pts), with a median survival of 16.6 mths (95% CI: 14.6, 23.4). Conclusions: The addition of claims to EMR enhanced the ability to identify patient comorbidities given the longer history and broader physician specialty of claims data. Future real-world studies should explore linkages across datasets to better capture comorbidities for patient selection and adjustment.


2013 ◽  
Vol 99 (4) ◽  
pp. 40-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aaron Young ◽  
Philip Davignon ◽  
Margaret B. Hansen ◽  
Mark A. Eggen

ABSTRACT Recent media coverage has focused on the supply of physicians in the United States, especially with the impact of a growing physician shortage and the Affordable Care Act. State medical boards and other entities maintain data on physician licensure and discipline, as well as some biographical data describing their physician populations. However, there are gaps of workforce information in these sources. The Federation of State Medical Boards' (FSMB) Census of Licensed Physicians and the AMA Masterfile, for example, offer valuable information, but they provide a limited picture of the physician workforce. Furthermore, they are unable to shed light on some of the nuances in physician availability, such as how much time physicians spend providing direct patient care. In response to these gaps, policymakers and regulators have in recent years discussed the creation of a physician minimum data set (MDS), which would be gathered periodically and would provide key physician workforce information. While proponents of an MDS believe it would provide benefits to a variety of stakeholders, an effort has not been attempted to determine whether state medical boards think it is important to collect physician workforce data and if they currently collect workforce information from licensed physicians. To learn more, the FSMB sent surveys to the executive directors at state medical boards to determine their perceptions of collecting workforce data and current practices regarding their collection of such data. The purpose of this article is to convey results from this effort. Survey findings indicate that the vast majority of boards view physician workforce information as valuable in the determination of health care needs within their state, and that various boards are already collecting some data elements. Analysis of the data confirms the potential benefits of a physician minimum data set (MDS) and why state medical boards are in a unique position to collect MDS information from physicians.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (5) ◽  
pp. 467
Author(s):  
Ana Henriques Mota ◽  
Inês Prazeres ◽  
Henrique Mestre ◽  
Andreia Bento-Silva ◽  
Maria João Rodrigues ◽  
...  

Sambucus nigra L. (S. nigra) is a shrub widespread in Europe and western Asia, traditionally used in medicine, that has become popular in recent years as a potential source of a wide range of interesting bioactive compounds. The aim of the present work was to develop a topical S. nigra extract formulation based on ethosomes and thus to support its health claims with scientific evidence. S. nigra extract was prepared by an ultrasound-assisted method and then included in ethosomes. The ethosomes were analyzed in terms of their size, stability over time, morphology, entrapment capacity (EC), extract release profile, stability over time and several biological activities. The prepared ethosomes were indicated to be well defined, presenting sizes around 600 nm. The extract entrapment capacity in ethosomes was 73.9 ± 24.8%, with an interesting slow extract release profile over 24 h. The extract-loaded ethosomes presented collagenase inhibition activity and a very good skin compatibility after human application. This study demonstrates the potential use of S. nigra extract incorporated in ethosomes as a potential cosmeceutical ingredient and on further studies should be performed to better understand the impact of S. nigra compounds on skin care over the time.


2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S489-S490
Author(s):  
John T Henderson ◽  
Evelyn Villacorta Cari ◽  
Nicole Leedy ◽  
Alice Thornton ◽  
Donna R Burgess ◽  
...  

Abstract Background There has been a dramatic rise in IV drug use (IVDU) and its associated mortality and morbidity, however, the scope of this effect has not been described. Kentucky is at the epicenter of this epidemic and is an ideal place to better understand the health complications of IVDU in order to improve outcomes. Methods All adult in-patient admissions to University of Kentucky hospitals in 2018 with an Infectious Diseases (ID) consult and an ICD 9/10 code associated with IVDU underwent thorough retrospective chart review. Demographic, descriptive, and outcome data were collected and analyzed by standard statistical analysis. Results 390 patients (467 visits) met study criteria. The top illicit substances used were methamphetamine (37.2%), heroin (38.2%), and cocaine (10.3%). While only 4.1% of tested patients were HIV+, 74.2% were HCV antibody positive. Endocarditis (41.1%), vertebral osteomyelitis (20.8%), bacteremia without endocarditis (14.1%), abscess (12.4%), and septic arthritis (10.4%) were the most common infectious complications. The in-patient death rate was 3.0%, and 32.2% of patients were readmitted within the study period. The average length of stay was 26 days. In multivariable analysis, infectious endocarditis was associated with a statistically significant increase in risk of death, ICU admission, and hospital readmission. Although not statistically significant, trends toward mortality and ICU admission were identified for patients with prior endocarditis and methadone was correlated with decreased risk of readmission and ICU stay. FIGURE 1: Reported Substances Used FIGURE 2: Comorbidities FIGURE 3: Types of Severe Infectious Complications Conclusion We report on a novel, comprehensive perspective on the serious infectious complications of IVDU in an attempt to measure its cumulative impact in an unbiased way. This preliminary analysis of a much larger dataset (2008-2019) reveals some sobering statistics about the impact of IVDU in the United States. While it confirms the well accepted mortality and morbidity associated with infective endocarditis and bacteremia, there is a significant unrecognized impact of other infectious etiologies. Additional analysis of this data set will be aimed at identifying key predictive factors in poor outcomes in hopes of mitigating them. Disclosures All Authors: No reported disclosures


2008 ◽  
Vol 88 (5) ◽  
pp. 761-774 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. A. P. Pollacco

Hydrological models require the determination of fitting parameters that are tedious and time consuming to acquire. A rapid alternative method of estimating the fitting parameters is to use pedotransfer functions. This paper proposes a reliable method to estimate soil moisture at -33 and -1500 kPa from soil texture and bulk density. This method reduces the saturated moisture content by multiplying it with two non-linear functions depending on sand and clay contents. The novel pedotransfer function has no restrictions on the range of the texture predictors and gives reasonable predictions for soils with bulk density that varies from 0.25 to 2.16 g cm-3. These pedotransfer functions require only five parameters for each pressure head. It is generally accepted that the introduction of organic matter as a predictor improves the outcomes; however it was found by using a porosity based pedotransfer model, using organic matter as a predictor only modestly improves the accuracy. The model was developed employing 18 559 samples from the IGBP-DIS soil data set for pedotransfer function development (Data and Information System of the International Geosphere Biosphere Programme) database that embodies all major soils across the United States of America. The function is reliable and performs well for a wide range of soils occurring in very dry to very wet climates. Climatical grouping of the IGBP-DIS soils was proposed (aquic, tropical, cryic, aridic), but the results show that only tropical soils require specific grouping. Among many other different non-climatical soil groups tested, only humic and vitric soils were found to require specific grouping. The reliability of the pedotransfer function was further demonstrated with an independent database from Northern Italy having heterogeneous soils, and was found to be comparable or better than the accuracy of other pedotransfer functions found in the literature. Key words: Pedotransfer functions, soil moisture, soil texture, bulk density, organic matter, grouping


2021 ◽  
pp. 003232922110507
Author(s):  
Gillian Slee ◽  
Matthew Desmond

In recent years, housing costs have outpaced incomes in the United States, resulting in millions of eviction filings each year. Yet no study has examined the link between eviction and voting. Drawing on a novel data set that combines tens of millions of eviction and voting records, this article finds that residential eviction rates negatively impacted voter turnout during the 2016 presidential election. Results from a generalized additive model show eviction’s effect on voter turnout to be strongest in neighborhoods with relatively low rates of displacement. To address endogeneity bias and estimate the causal effect of eviction on voting, the analysis treats commercial evictions as an instrument for residential evictions, finding that increases in neighborhood eviction rates led to substantial declines in voter turnout. This study demonstrates that the impact of eviction reverberates far beyond housing loss, affecting democratic participation.


2021 ◽  
pp. 932-950
Author(s):  
Vladislav Vyacheslavovich Emelyanov

Every few decades, the world order changes due to various geopolitical, economic and other circumstances. For example, as a result of globalization, the world order has undergone significant changes in the last forty years. Globalization has led to the destruction of the postwar world order, as well as to world leadership by the United States and the West. However, in recent decades, as a result of globalization, the U.S. and the West began to cede their leadership to developing countries, so there is now a change in the economic structure of relations in the world system. Today the center of economic growth is in the East, namely in Asia. There are no new superpowers in the world at the moment, but the unipolar world will cease to exist due to the weakening of the U. S. leadership, which will lead to a change in the world order. A new leader, which may replace the U. S., will not have as wide range of advantages as the USA has. Most likely, the essence of the new order will be to unite the largest countries and alliances into blocks, for example, the USA together with the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the EU, etc. The article outlines forecasts of GDP growth rates as well as the global energy outlook; analyzes the LNG market as well as the impact of the pandemic on the global oil and gas market; and lists the characteristics of U. S. geopolitics.


2018 ◽  
Vol 59 (6) ◽  
pp. 1103-1111 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joukje C Swinkels ◽  
Marjolein I Broese van Groenou ◽  
Alice de Boer ◽  
Theo G van Tilburg

Abstract Background and Objectives The general view is that partner-caregiver burden increases over time but findings are inconsistent. Moreover, the pathways underlying caregiver burden may differ between men and women. This study examines to what degree and why partner-caregiver burden changes over time. It adopts Pearlin’s Caregiver Stress Process Model, as it is expected that higher primary and secondary stressors will increase burden and larger amounts of resources will lower burden. Yet, the impact of stressors and resources may change over time. The wear-and-tear model predicts an increase of burden due to a stronger impact of stressors and lower impact of resources over time. Alternatively, the adaptation model predicts a decrease of burden due to a lower impact of stressors and higher impact of resources over time. Research Design and Methods We used 2 observations with a 1-year interval of 279 male and 443 female partner-caregivers, derived from the Netherlands Older Persons and Informal Caregivers Survey Minimum Data Set. We applied multilevel regression analysis, stratified by gender. Results Adjusted for all predictors, caregiver burden increased over time for both men and women. For female caregivers, the impact of poor spousal health on burden increased and the impact of fulfillment decreased over time. Among male caregivers, the impact of predictors did not change over time. Discussion and Implications The increase of burden over time supports the wear-and-tear model, in particular for women. This study highlights the need for gender-specific interventions that are focused on enabling older partners to be better prepared for long-term partner-care.


2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (5) ◽  
pp. 843-847 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Cantrell ◽  
Jidong Huang ◽  
Marisa Greenberg ◽  
Jeffrey Willett ◽  
Elizabeth Hair ◽  
...  

Abstract Introduction The US market for electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) has grown rapidly in the last decade. There is limited published evidence examining changes in the ENDS marketplace prior to the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) deeming rule in 2016. This study describes US ENDS retail market trends from 2010 to 2016. Methods National data were obtained from Nielsen retail scanners for five product types: (1) disposables, (2) rechargeables, (3) cartridge replacements, (4) e-liquid bottle refills, and (5) specialty vapor products. We examined dollar sales, volume, price, brand, and flavor. Results Adjusted national sales increased from $11.6 million in 2010 to $751.2 million in 2016. The annual rate of sales growth rapidly increased before slowing through 2015. The rate of growth spiked in 2016. Market share for menthol products and other assorted flavors increased from 20% in 2010 to 52.1% by 2016. NJOY’s early market dominance shifted as tobacco industry brands entered the market and eventually captured 87.8% of share by 2016. Rechargeables and accompanying products comprised an increased proportion of total volume sold over time while disposable volume declined. Specialty vapor products appeared at retail in 2015. Conclusions Findings show strong early growth in the ENDS retail market followed by considerable slowing over time, despite a slight uptick in 2016. Trends reflect shifts to flavored products, newer generation “open-system” devices, lower prices, and tobacco industry brands. This study provides a baseline against which to compare the impact of FDA’s 2016 deeming rule and future actions on the ENDS marketplace. Implications This study uses market scanner data from US retail outlets to describe trends in the ENDS retail market from 2010 to 2016, providing a baseline against which to compare the impact of FDA’s 2016 deeming rule and future actions on the ENDS marketplace. Understanding historical market trends is valuable in assessing how future regulatory efforts and advances in ENDS technology may impact industry response and consumer uptake and use.


Author(s):  
Earl H. Fry

This article examines the ebb and flow of the Quebec government’s economic and commercial relations with the United States in the period 1994–2017. The topic demonstrates the impact of three major forces on Quebec’s economic and commercial ties with the US: (1) the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) which became operational in 1994 and was fully implemented over a 15-year period; (2) the onerous security policies put in place by the US government in the decade following the horrific events of 11 September 2001; and (3) changing economic circumstances in the United States ranging from robust growth to the worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s. The article also indicates that the Quebec government continues to sponsor a wide range of activities in the United States, often more elaborate and extensive than comparable activities pursued by many nation-states with representation in the US. 1 1 Stéphane Paquin, ‘Quebec-U.S. Relations: The Big Picture’, American Review of Canadian Studies 46, no. 2 (2016): 149–61.


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