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Background/Context: The business and philanthropic sectors have been a persistent force in shaping U.S. schools. Recently, they have used their resources to advance policies that embody newer principles of industry—reforms that suggest that competition, choice, and deregulation can spur improvement and effectiveness. This has most notably included deep investments in the proliferation of charter schools, surfacing questions as to the sector's reliance on private dollars as well as the equitable and democratic impact of advancing this manifestation of neoliberal reform. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study: While scholars have elucidated the role of business and philanthropic funding in promoting charter schools, less is known about how the well-substantiated connections between charters and the private sector have been facilitated or how discourse—the ideas, representations, and argumentation conveyed in acts of communication—is mobilized to create a rationale for support. To date, research has typically examined the discourse and messaging intended for families navigating choice settings. Yet, how these depictions are crafted for donors, who typically inhabit positions of economic and social power and are critical actors in charter growth, remain comparatively less understood. Research Design: This study fills this empirical gap and investigates the tactics used to solicit donor investment by charter management organizations (CMOs). It uses a conceptual framework that synthesizes tenets from the research on neoliberal policy networks and the sociology of race to enable a multifaceted analysis of the discursive tactics used to secure donor support while attending to the often-nuanced ways in which race may be invoked in those efforts. Methodologically, this study follows an embedded case study design to investigate the tactics deployed by a population of CMOs in Northern California and relies on observational and documentary data to examine how CMOs design and execute donor outreach and the resonant messages they aim to elevate. Conclusions/Recommendations: I find that CMOs elevated business-friendly themes related to workforce preparation, impact, and return on investment in their outreach and at times commodified their constituents by offering their labor as exchangeable resources to elevate donor profiles. Simultaneously, CMOs advanced color-evasive discourse, relying on deficit-laden racial narratives to create a reinforcing and complementary rationale for intervention. These findings suggest that CMOs relied on market and racialized logics as the persuasive fodder for donor investment, leaving the economic and racial status quo—and the democratic and equity implications it perpetuates—unchallenged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I am an anthropologist and family doctor who has the good fortune of working in northern California with colleagues who prioritize the social needs of our patients alongside medical ones. In the essay that follows, I share details from my patient Sam’s (pseudonym) last 2 years of life to underscore how attending to social precarity cannot be fully achieved within our safety net institutions as they are currently structured. While we have strong evidence that addressing social needs as part of clinical care offers good return on investment, Sam’s story makes visible the problems we face when attempting to address social determinants of health. After introducing a concept from the social sciences about rationales that underlie health care delivery, I call on primary care doctors to redefine the medical paradigm to remedy the disjointed logics of care that result in unnecessarily high financial and human costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Questions: California's grasslands are heavily invaded by exotic species. Counteracting these invasions depends on understanding the functional differences between native and exotic species and how these shift along environmental gradients. Focusing on grasses, we ask: (a) how native and exotic trait means and intraspecific trait variation (ITV) differ; (b) how the functional composition of grass assemblages shifts with precipitation; and (c) how species shift their functional strategies as precipitation changes. Location: Marin County, California (USA). Methods: In spring 2017, we censused grassland vegetation plots across eight reserves in Marin County that are arrayed along a precipitation gradient. At each plot, we measured traits of grasses, including height, leaf area and specific leaf area (SLA). Results: We found modest differences in functional traits between native and exotic species. Exotic species had larger seeds and higher SLAs, indicating higher reproductive investments and a leaf strategy focused on obtaining rapid returns on investments with relatively short leaf life spans. Native and exotic species did not differ in the ITV for any of the measured traits. Variation in precipitation among sites drove strong turnover in the functional trait composition of grasses, as well as shifts within species. Wetter sites had shorter species with smaller leaf areas, smaller seeds and higher leaf N concentrations. There was also strong intraspecific SLA variation along the precipitation gradient; all species displayed lower SLA values as precipitation increased. Conclusions: Consistent with previous results, native species had more conservative leaf strategies. Grasses that display these conservative strategies tend to be more abundant in dry climates, leading to increasing exotic abundance in wetter climates. However, each species shifted towards more conservative strategies as precipitation increased, suggesting that the factors that drive species turnover and ITV differ. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives. To estimate the average return on investment for the overall activities of county departments of public health in California. Methods. I gathered the elements necessary to estimate the average return on investment for county departments of public health in California during the period 2001 to 2008-2009. These came from peer-reviewed journal articles published as part of a larger project todevelop amethod for determiningreturnon investment forpublic health by using a health economics framework. I combined these elements by using the standard formula for computing return on investment, and performed a sensitivity analysis. Then I compared the return on investment for county departments of public health with the returns on investment generated for various aspects of medical care. Results. The estimated return on investment from $1 invested in county departments of public health in California ranges from $67.07 to $88.21. Conclusions. The very large estimated return on investment for California county departments of public health relative to the return on investment for selected aspects of medical care suggests that public health is a wise investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Restoring hedgerows, or other field edge plantings, to provide habitat for bees and other beneficial insects on farms is needed to sustain global food production in intensive agricultural systems. To date, the creation of hedgerows and other restored habitat areas on California farms remains low, in part because of a lack of information and outreach that addresses the benefits of field edge habitat, and growers' concerns about its effect on crop production and wildlife intrusion. Field studies in the Sacramento Valley highlighted that hedgerows can enhance pest control and pollination in crops, resulting in a return on investment within 7 to 16 years, without negatively impacting food safety. To encourage hedgerow and other restoration practices that enhance farm sustainability, increased outreach, technical guidance, and continued policy support for conservation programs in agriculture are imperative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Price cap regulation (PCR) arose out of dissatisfaction with rate-of-return regulation (ROR). In energy and water there has been a move away from PCR into an extended form of ROR, referred to as guaranteed return regulation (GRR). It is employed to implement policies that legislators are unwilling to apply by transparent methods, namely taxation, but willing to apply opaquely through the regulatory process. GRR does not promote efficiency and, as the California experience shows, the guarantees it provides are limited. Its success in California has been mixed and it should be considered to be a work in progress and open to improvements, some of which are outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As utility-scale solar energy (USSE) systems increase in size and numbers globally, there is a growing interest in understanding environmental interactions between solar energy development and land-use decisions. Maximizing the efficient use of land for USSE is one of the major challenges in realizing the full potential of solar energy; however, the land-use efficiency (LUE; Wm-2) of USSE remains ambiguous. We quantified the capacity-based LUE of 183 USSE installations (>20 MW; planned, under construction, and operating) using California as a case study. In California, USSE installations are concentrated in the Central Valley and interior regions of southern California and have a LUE of 35.0 Wm-2. The installations occupy approximately 86?000 ha and more land is allocated for photovoltaic schemes (72?294 ha) than for concentrating solar power (13?604 ha). Photovoltaic installations are greater in abundance (93%) than concentrating solar power, but technology type and nameplate capacity has no impact on capacity-based LUE. More USSE installations are on private land (80%) and have a significantly greater LUE (35.8 Wm-2) than installations on public land (25.4 Wm-2). Our findings can be used to better understand and improve the LUE of USSE, thereby maximizing economic, energetic, and environmental returns on investments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In general, conservation seeks to prevent further habitat loss but in many cases there is a need to reverse habitat degradation. Restoration of habitat is necessary to achieve biodiversity conservation goals but often it is a costly and time-intensive process. Prioritization of where and when habitat is restored can help to ensure the cost-effective delivery of desired outcomes. We develop a restoration prioritization decision support tool to identify the combination of restoration sites and the schedule for their implementation most likely to deliver the greatest utility for a fixed budget and operational constraints. We use a case study to apply our prioritization approach in order to illustrate the data that can be employed to parameterise the analysis and the outputs that are able to inform restoration planning. We compare restoration schedules under alternative utility functions to demonstrate trade-offs associated with different objectives, assumptions and preferences for particular outcomes. Our prioritization approach is spatially and temporally explicit and accounts for the costs and benefits of restoration, the likelihood of restoration success, the probability of stochastic events, feedbacks, time lags and spatial connectivity. Through collaboration with restoration practitioners we derive quantitative and spatially explicit data on each site requiring restoration. We determine the relative priority for restoring each site and develop a restoration schedule over 20 years. Our results showed that after 20 years a little over a half of the sites requiring restoration are likely be successfully restored, while the total expenditure at our site will be c. US$13·7 million - almost the entire budget of $14 million. Synthesis and applications. Our restoration prioritization approach provides a schedule for where and when restoration should occur, and also provides operational guidance and support for cost-effective restoration planning such as informing the likely total cost of restoration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents an overview of the development of the US film industry from 1929 to 1999. Notwithstanding a volatile film production environment, in terms of rate of return and market share variability, the industry has remained relatively stable and profitable. Film production by the film studios is interpreted as analogous to the construction of an investment portfolio, whereby producers diversified risk across budgetary categories. In the 1930s, high-budget film production was relatively unprofitable, but the industry adjusted to the steep decline in film-going in the postwar period by refining high-budget production as the focus for profitability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article assesses the rate of return of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), which was created by California's Proposition 71. Here, the authors review key components of the health and financial benefits Californians may have expected from the additional research funding and develop a framework for evaluating the success of California's initiative at meeting those goals.

The rate of return to ownership of California dairy quota is about 27% per year—well above that of typical financial assets, but in line with other measured returns to agricultural quotas. Ownership of dairy quota does not contribute positively to total variation of typical portfolios, including those of dairy farm assets, and so contributes little or no portfolio risk. A plausible alternative hypothesis for the high rate of return is that quota owners see significant risk of policy change that would reduce future quota values. That is, they face default risk in quota ownership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the role of travel agency consortia, a form of collective organization, in the relative economic performance of travel agencies. Fifty percent of the nation's agencies seek to leverage their bargaining position by aggregating their resources within a consortium. Consortia use this strength in numbers to obtain advantages for their members that are primarily associated with economies of scale. The virtually even split in consortium affiliation raises two questions as to the benefit of membership: first, whether membership in the consortium increases returns to the member travel agency, and second, does any increase in return outweigh the cost of membership. Using travel agencies within California as the subjects of this study, the paper reveals that consortium membership does indeed increase returns to the travel agency. These returns exceeded costs by a factor of almost 3 to 1. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Returns and findings from three strategies of data collection are compared. Each strategy contains personal interviews, telephone interviews, and mail questionnaires in different combinations--one mainly personal, one mainly telephone, and one mainly mail. All three strategies are based on area probability samples of households in Alameda County, California. The test was made on two separate studies, with identical questionnaires used in all strategies within each study. The responses from the three strategies were found to be highly comparable. Rate of return and rate of completeness of questionnaires were high for all three; substantive findings were virtually interchangeable; and there was little difference in validity. The only important difference was cost per interview which varied considerably by strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evidence of an absence of regulatory concern for profit performances of publicly owned utilities was provided initially by William G. Shepherd. In a sample of publicly-owned electric utilities, there was an indication of significant inter-utility variances in earnings on net utility plant and in numerous cases profit rates very similar to those earned by investor-owned, firms. Marshall R. Colberg found publicly-owned utility profits to be an important source of municipal revenue in Florida cities; in contrast, Jack Hirshleifer, James C. De.Haven, and J. W. Milliman found in many Southern California. cities that water services, by being priced below average supply costs, were subsidized by property taxes. The interpretation of public utility rates of return in the context of allocative and technical efficiency must be conditioned by several considerations. Rate of return calculations will vary with both the rate base and the earnings measurement. Thus one can obtain multiple rates of return from the same set of financial statistics. Judicial arid commission regulation has not generated a definite standard for determining the excessiveness or inadequacy of utility rates of return. For example, relatively low rates of return in some cases may defer the adoption of cost-saving technology while in others they may induce the replacement of obsolescent production and distribution techniques.

This paper presents a detailed life-cycle assessment of the greenhouse gas emissions, cumulative demand for total and non-renewable primary energy, and energy return on investment (EROI) for the domestic electricity grid mix in the U.S. state of California, using hourly historical data for 2018, and future projections of increased solar photovoltaic (PV) installed capacity with lithium-ion battery energy storage, so as to achieve 80% net renewable electricity generation in 2030, while ensuring the hourly matching of the supply and demand profiles at all times. Specifically—in line with California's plans that aim to increase the renewable energy share into the electric grid—in this study, PV installed capacity is assumed to reach 43.7 GW in 2030, resulting of 52% of the 2030 domestic electricity generation. In the modelled 2030 scenario, single-cycle gas turbines and nuclear plants are completely phased out, while combined-cycle gas turbine output is reduced by 30% compared to 2018. Results indicate that 25% of renewable electricity ends up being routed into storage, while 2.8% is curtailed. Results also show that such energy transition strategy would be effective at curbing California's domestic electricity grid mix carbon emissions by 50%, and reducing demand for non-renewable primary energy by 66%, while also achieving a 10% increase in overall EROI (in terms of electricity output per unit of investment). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the expectation for a factory, which uses the biomass-to-ethanol process, of the cellulosic ethanol producer BlueFire Ethanol Inc. to produce higher yields and reduce costs in Irvine, California. Senior vice president John Cuzens of BlueFire said that the yield would be 1.5-3 times higher than other processes for hydrolysis. The factory would have an operating cost of 1.50 to 2 dollars per gallon.