Veterans’ Benefits: Pension Benefit Programs

[Excerpt] The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) administers pension programs for certain low-income veterans and their surviving spouses and dependent children. This report discusses the Improved Disability Pension, which makes payments to certain low-income veterans, and the Improved Death Pension, which makes payments to certain low-income surviving spouses and dependent children of deceased veterans. To qualify for either program, individuals must have become eligible for payments on or after January 1, 1979. Both pension programs were created by P.L. 95-588, the Veterans and Survivors Pension Improvement Act of 1978. In addition, this report discusses a special pension program for Medal of Honor recipients. This report does not discuss several other pension programs that are administered by the VA, such as the Old Law Disability Pension and the Section 306 Disability Pension, which make payments to low-income veterans, and the Old Law Death Pension and the Section 306 Death Pension, which make payments to low-income surviving spouses and dependent children of veterans; these programs apply only to veterans and their survivors who became entitled to such benefits before 1979. This report also does not discuss pension programs for veterans of specific periods of war before World War I, such as the Civil War, the Indian Wars, and the Spanish-American War. Finally, this report does not address the military retirement system. For information on that system, see CRS Report RL34751, Military Retirement: Background and Recent Developments, by Kristy N. Kamarck

Veteran Benefits: An Overview

[Excerpt] The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) offers a wide range of benefits and services to eligible veterans, members of their families, and survivors of deceased veterans. VA programs include disability compensation and pensions, readjustment benefits, and health care programs. The VA also provides life insurance, burial benefits, housing and other loan guaranty programs, and special counseling and outreach programs. While eligibility for specific benefits varies, veterans generally must meet requirements related to discharge type and length of active duty military service. This report provides an overview of major VA benefits and the VA budget. It will be updated as events warrant

Augustus Deified or Denigrated: The Political Subtext of Anchises\u27 Speech in Aeneid VI

In 27 B.C., Octavian became Augustus. The chaos of the civil wars had ended and an emperor was at last in Rome. As the princeps states in his Res Gestae, he had obtained all things per consensum universorum and upon achieving victory over his enemies, the doors of the temple of Janus were closed, peace was restored and the governance of Rome had ostensibly been returned to the Senate and the Roman people. Then, quo pro merito, Octavian received the title of Augustus and the doors of his temple were adorned with the corona civica. A gold shield was erected in the senate-house bearing a testament to the virtus, dementia, iustitia, and pietas of the princeps. Seemingly, the Republic was restored, the first citizen having lain down his exclusive power. But, however much Augustus may have projected the image of a first citizen who shared power equally in the government, the reality of the situation differed, for the princeps maintained exclusive imperium over Syria, Egypt, Spain, and Gaul. More than half the army was under his direct control, most of the citizens of the empire had sworn personal allegiance to him, and the Senate, remembering the recent proscriptions, did his bidding with little argument. And in the east he was already worshipped in connection with the cult of Roma. Despite Augustus\u27 attempts to distance himself from the aura godlike omnipotence projected by his predecessor, Julius Caesar, he was, in fact, dangerously close to apotheosis. The very hand that restored the Republic guaranteed the long survival of the Roman Empire

Learning and developing professional behaviors as part of an entry-level physical therapy education: A survey of students and practicing clinicians

The purpose of this dissertation was to examine the state of professionalism in the physical therapy profession. The literature suggests that professionalism is a concern in many professions including medicine, law, nursing, audiology, and physical therapy. Two separate but parallel surveys were used to identify the opinions and experiences of physical therapy students and licensed physical therapists. The student survey consisted of a four-page paper and pencil survey that was mailed to 20 randomly selected CAPTE accredited physical therapy programs. Of the 1,525 available students, 336 (22%) physical therapy students participated in the investigation. The clinician survey consisted of a four-page paper and pencil survey that was mailed to members of the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA). Of the 1,000 surveys mailed, 376 (37.6%) surveys were returned. The results of these two surveys revealed that both physical therapy students and clinicians view professionalism as an integral part of a physical therapy education. Despite evidence to support the concerns of declining professionalism among physical therapy students, the overall frequency of negative behaviors of physical therapy students was found to be relatively low. The most frequent negative behaviors of physical therapy students were tardiness, verbal disrespect, non-verbal disrespect, and dress code violations. Based on the results of this investigation, professionalism is an issue of concern in the physical therapy profession, and researchers are justified in their efforts to seek ways of fostering professionalism among both physical therapy students and practicing clinicians

Teaching Professionalism: A Survey of Physical Therapy Educators

This study examined the opinions of physical therapy faculty relative to teaching and fostering professionalism in entry-level physical therapy education. A paper-and-pencil survey was mailed to a random sample of 318 physical therapy educators across the United States. Of the 318 surveys mailed, 166 participants (response rate, 52%) completed and returned the survey. Descriptive analysis revealed that 98% of the physical therapy educators view professionalism as an important component of a physical therapy curriculum. Eighty-nine percent of the respondents expressed concern about the professional behaviors of one or more of their entry-level students; however, based on the frequency of negative behaviors, these concerns appear to be isolated to a small percentage of the students. The most frequent negative behaviors observed among entry-level physical therapy students included tardiness and lack of personal responsibility. Respondents identified clinical reasoning, integrity, and honesty as the three most important professional skills for a physical therapist. The three most common teaching methods used to foster professionalism included generic abilities, small group discussion, and related reading assignments. Professional socialization is clearly a concern among physical therapy faculty for a few entry-level physical therapy students; however, based on the results of this investigation, it appears that most entry-level physical therapy students are making a smooth transition to professional socialization. The information obtained from this investigation may be useful to allied health professionals and educators to help promote professionalism among entry-level students enrolled in professional programs

Historic Seismicity in and Around the Texas Panhandle

At least twenty earthquakes have occurred in the Texas Panhandle north of 34°N since 1907. The largest earthquakes had magnitudes up to 4.8, and the intensities throughout the Panhandle have ranged from IV to VI (Modified Mercalli), corresponding to accelerations from 6.8 cm/s² to over 31.6 cm/s². The record of seismicity in the Texas Panhandle dates back to 1907 when the first reported event occurred near Amarillo. Since then, numerous events have been reported or instrumentally recorded from the Panhandle. In the most complete survey of seismicity in the Panhandle (north of 34° latitude) to be undertaken, 20 earthquakes were identified from 1907 through July 1982. Slightly more than half of the events have locations determined from felt reports, and the others from instrumental locations. During the process of identifying earthquakes, contemporary newspaper accounts, weather bulletins, seismological reports, and other sources were reviewed. Several reported events were found to be in error. Specifically, the published locations of some events are erroneous by tens or hundreds of kilometers, one event was, in fact, a sonic boom, and one "event" near the Panhandle resulted from spurious data reported from seismological observatories nearby. The largest earthquakes in the Texas Panhandle had magnitudes of 4.7 to 4.8 (determined by maximum intensity and felt areas); there were five such events between 1917 and 1951. Since instrumental recording became widespread in about 1962, only two events of magnitude greater than 4.0 have occurred. Although some of the earthquakes reported have been assigned magnitudes of 3.0 or less, the detection threshold is probably considerably higher. As evidence, it is noted that a magnitude 3.4 event in 1983 would have been undetected by conventional procedures, had there not been a specific interest in modern seismicity. Since this interest did not exist until recently, it is probable that many earthquakes of magnitude up to 3.5 have gone unrecognized, and it is likely that some larger events have been missed as well.Bureau of Economic Geolog

Velocity-resolved observations of water in Comet Halley

High resolution (lambda/delta lambda approx. = 3 x 10 to the 5th power) near-infrared observations of H2O emission from Comet Halley were acquired at the time of maximum post-perihelion geocentric Doppler shift. The observed widths and absolute positions of the H2O line profiles reveal characteristics of the molecular velocity field in the coma. These results support H2O outflow from a Sun-lit hemisphere or the entire nucleus, but not from a single, narrow jet emanating from the nucleus. The measured pre- and post-perihelion outflow velocities were 0.9 + or - 0.2 and 1.4 + or - 0.2 km/s, respectively. Temporal variations in the kinematic properties of the outflow were inferred from changes in the spectral line shapes. These results are consistent with the release of H2O into the coma from multiple jets

An intelligent assistant for exploratory data analysis

In this paper we present an account of the main features of SNOUT, an intelligent assistant for exploratory data analysis (EDA) of social science survey data that incorporates a range of data mining techniques. EDA has much in common with existing data mining techniques: its main objective is to help an investigator reach an understanding of the important relationships ina data set rather than simply develop predictive models for selectd variables. Brief descriptions of a number of novel techniques developed for use in SNOUT are presented. These include heuristic variable level inference and classification, automatic category formation, the use of similarity trees to identify groups of related variables, interactive decision tree construction and model selection using a genetic algorithm

The Optimal Projection Equations for Fixed-Order Sampled-Data Dynamic Compensation with Computation Delay

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/57876/1/FixedOrderSampledData.pd