The Impact of Inflation upon Compensation Awards

A major goal of tort law is to somehow make an injured party “whole”; that is, to put the injured party in the same position he was in before he suffered the injury. Primarily, this attempt to make an injured party whole comes in the form of financial compensation. The amount of compensation that will make a particular party whole depends on many factors: one such factor is the impact of inflation. This article will examine the impact inflation has on future damage awards. It should be noted that this article is somewhat technical in its approach. However, the authors believe that a basic understanding of the fundamental principles of the role of inflation will aid the practitioner in his or her efforts to persuade a judge or jury to properly consider the impact of inflation when awarding damages to the injured client. As will be seen, a proper consideration of inflation should result in higher damage awards

Exterior optical cloaking and illusions by using active sources: a boundary element perspective

Recently, it was demonstrated that active sources can be used to cloak any objects that lie outside the cloaking devices [Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{103}, 073901 (2009)]. Here, we propose that active sources can create illusion effects, so that an object outside the cloaking device can be made to look like another object. invisibility is a special case in which the concealed object is transformed to a volume of air. From a boundary element perspective, we show that active sources can create a nearly "silent" domain which can conceal any objects inside and at the same time make the whole system look like an illusion of our choice outside a virtual boundary. The boundary element method gives the fields and field gradients (which can be related to monopoles and dipoles) on continuous curves which define the boundary of the active devices. Both the cloaking and illusion effects are confirmed by numerical simulations

Superantenna made of transformation media

We show how transformation media can make a superantenna that is either completely invisible or focuses incoming light into a needle-sharp beam. Our idea is based on representating three-dimensional space as a foliage of sheets and performing two-dimensional conformal maps on each shee

The value of the Duke Activity Status Index (DASI) in predicting ischaemia in myocardial perfusion scintigraphy — a prospective study

BACKGROUND: Functional capacity assessment may be a useful tool to stratify patients according to risk of coronary artery disease (CAD). The Duke Activity Status Index (DASI) is a functional assessment based on activities of daily living and cardiovascular fitness, assessed using a self-administered questionnaire. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We assessed the relationship between established clinical risk factors for CAD and the DASI with results of myocardial perfusion scintigraphy (MPS). The MPS results used in the analysis were the presence of reversible ischaemia and the resting left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF). A DASI self-administered questionnaire was completed by 117 consecutive participants, and a patient history was taken to ascertain established risk factors. All participants underwent a stress test, and myocardial perfusion scintigraphy was performed. Statistical analysis consisted of logistic and linear regression using a statistical software package. RESULTS: The DASI was the only factor that correlated significantly with reversible ischaemia on MPS. None of the previously established risk factors had a significant association with reversible ischaemia within the model. Our study found a potential relationship between the DASI score and the left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) although this was not statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS: Our study findings suggest that the DASI may represent a powerful tool for risk stratification prior to investigation of CAD. A further study with a larger sample size will be required to investigate the predictive value of the DASI and the association with LVEF. Nuclear Med Rev 2010; 13, 2: 59–6

The relationship among knowledge of, attitudes toward and acceptance of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) among Slovenian teachers

The objective of this study was to investigate knowledge about, opinions on and attitudes toward and finally readiness to accept genetically modified organisms (GMO) among Slovenian teachers. On average, they have higher levels of knowledge in classical genetics, and poor levels of knowledge about modern issues in biotechnology, and their attitudes toward GMOs are not extreme. They make decisions based on the acceptability of a particular GMO and not on GMOs in general, following two patterns: genetic modifications (GM) microorganisms and plants are more acceptable than animals, and GMOs are more acceptable if they can not be used directly for consumption and produce something recognized as useful. The relationship among knowledge of, attitudes towards and readiness to accept GMO showed that there is no correlation between knowledge and attitudes, only a weak correlation between knowledge and acceptance, and a solid correlation between attitudes and readiness to accept GMO. The practical implication of our findings is that acceptance of GMOs will not be changed by providing new technical or scientific information to teachers but by changing attitudes. The appropriate strategies and actions for improving university courses in biotechnology and the implication for classroom science activities and future research are discussed

Partial Transmutation of Singularities in Optical Instruments

Some interesting optical instruments such as the Eaton lens and the Invisible Sphere require singularities of the refractive index for their implementation. We show how to transmute those singularities into harmless topological defects in anisotropic media without the need for anomalous material properties