An Evaluation of the Small Business Investment Company Program, It\u27s History and Development, with Emphasis on the Utah SBIC Industry

Does the small business concern in this country have access to sufficient amounts of growth capital? For the past several years there has been much controversy concerning this question. Articles have been written both pro and con voicing opinions as to whether small businesses are being discriminated against in the acquisition of long-term loans to finance growth and business expansion. The majority of the written information on this subject appears to support the theory that too many small business firms are under-capitalized and the sources of long-term investment and growth funds are seriously limited to the small businessman

PACE Solver Description: Hydra Prime

This note describes our submission to the 2023 PACE Challenge on the computation of twin-width. Our solver Hydra Prime combines modular decomposition with a collection of upper- and lower-bound algorithms, which are alternatingly applied on the prime graphs resulting from the modular decomposition. We introduce two novel approaches which contributed to the solver’s winning performance in the Exact Track: timeline encoding and hydra decomposition. Timeline encoding is a new data structure for computing the width of a given contraction sequence, enabling faster local search; the hydra decomposition is an iterative refinement strategy featuring a small vertex separator

Pre-Production for a Documentary on the History of the LDS Church in Italy

In the late-1980’s, a film was made about a murder among the Amish, and an FBI special agent sent to investigate. The Italian translation to the movie used the term mormoni for the Amish. As a missionary for the LDS Church in Italy, I often encountered those who believed Mormons to be people who do not use electricity, who have large beards, etc

Activity of Pursuit-Related Neurons in Medial Superior Temporal Area (MST) during Static Roll-Tilt

Recent studies have shown that rhesus macaques can perceive visual motion direction in earth-centered coordinates as accurately as humans. We tested whether coordinate frames representing smooth pursuit and/or visual motion signals in medial superior temporal area (MST) are earth centered to better understand its role in coordinating smooth pursuit. In 2 Japanese macaques, we compared preferred directions (re monkeys' head–trunk axis) of pursuit and/or visual motion responses of MSTd neurons while upright and during static whole-body roll-tilt. In the majority (41/51 = 80%) of neurons tested, preferred directions of pursuit and/or visual motion responses were not significantly different while upright and during 40° static roll-tilt. Preferred directions of the remaining 20% of neurons (n = 10) were shifted beyond the range expected from ocular counter-rolling; the maximum shift was 14°, and the mean shift was 12°. These shifts, however, were still less than half of the expected shift if MST signals are coded in the earth-centered coordinates. Virtually, all tested neurons (44/46 = 96%) failed to exhibit a significant difference between resting discharge rate while upright and during static roll-tilt while fixating a stationary spot. These results suggest that smooth pursuit and/or visual motion signals of MST neurons are not coded in the earth-centered coordinates; our results favor the head- and/or trunk-centered coordinates

Fatigue following radiation therapy in nasopharyngeal cancer survivors: A dosimetric analysis incorporating patient report and observer rating

Purpose: To explore for fatigue-related regions and the radiotherapy (RT) dose-fatigue relationship in nasopharyngeal cancer (NPC) survivors. Methods: Eighty disease-free NPC survivors completed the MD Anderson Symptom Inventory-Head and Neck module (MDASI-HN) after RT. Fatigue was evaluated by the MDASI-HN fatigue item (MDASI-HN-F) and Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events v3.0 (CTC-AE), between 6 and 36 months after RT to determine the presence of chronic fatigue. Skull base MRIs and planning CT/RT dose were retrievable for 56 patients. Dosimetric data were extracted for 10 MRI-defined potential fatigue at-risk structures (FARS): brainstem (BS), pituitary gland (PG), hypothalamus (HT), basal ganglia, internal capsule, pineal gland, sub-thalamic nuclei, thalamus, substantia nigra, and hippocampus (HC). Recursive partitioning analysis (RPA) was used to identify dose-volume effects associated with chronic fatigue. Results: 56 pts formed the cohort. Thirty patients (54%) reported any fatigue per MDASI-HN-F. Thirty-three pts (59%) had any fatigue by CTC-AE. The maximum point doses (Dmax) for PG, BS, HC, and HT were numerically higher in patients with fatigue. Dmax and Dmean of the PG were significantly higher in patients with chronic fatigue, p ≤ 0.01. A dose-volume threshold of PG V52 Gy ≥16% (LogWorth 2.4, AUC 0.7) was identified on RPA, and potential sensitivity to the PG doses was observed in younger patients (<53 years-old). Conclusion: A dose-fatigue relationship was identified for the pituitary gland, both patient-reported and observer ratings. We recommend limiting the Dmax of PG to <54 Gy and V52 Gy to <16%, particularly in young NPC patients, during plan optimization when achievable

Ottoman Merchants and Venetian Notaries in the Early Modern Period

The aim of this paper is to study the presence of Ottoman merchants in Venice in the Modern Age. The Ottoman shipping partnership as well as the Venetian commenda were based on the mudarebe (classical Islamic shipping partnership) and several examples of this kind of partnerships may be found even between Christians and Muslims. Notarial deeds were above all proxies and often give information on merchants, their number and even their private life. Some of them were agents but there were also family companies and Ottoman grandees who were involved in international trade. Communities of merchants both in Istanbul and in Venice were also sometimes created. Last but not least, these sources contain also some examples of insurance made by Muslims to protect their goods. In general in the 16th and 17th centuries, the Ottoman merchants who traded in Venice were not alone, but they could refer to a real commercial network. Ancient historiographical theories say that in the Modern Age Ottoman Muslims were not interested in international trade and that they left it completely in Christian and Jewish hands, however documents tell us a completely different story, a story of contacts, exchanges, and even confidence and friendship

There is no age limit for methadone: a retrospective cohort study

BACKGROUND: Data from the US indicates that methadone-maintained populations are aging, with an increase of patients aged 50 or older. Data from European methadone populations is sparse. This retrospective cohort study sought to evaluate the age trends and related developments in the methadone population of Basel-City, Switzerland. METHODS: The study included methadone patients between April 1, 1995 and March 31, 2003. Anonymized data was taken from the methadone register of Basel-City. For analysis of age distributions, patient samples were split into four age categories from '20-29 years' to '50 years and over'. Cross-sectional comparisons were performed using patient samples of 1996 and 2003. RESULTS: Analysis showed a significant increase in older patients between 1996 and 2003 (p < 0.001). During that period, the percentage of patients aged 50 and over rose almost tenfold, while the proportion of patients aged under 30 dropped significantly from 52.8% to 12.3%. The average methadone dose (p < 0.001) and the 1-year retention rate (p < 0.001) also increased significantly. CONCLUSIONS: Findings point to clear trends in aging of methadone patients in Basel-City which are comparable, although less pronounced, to developments among US methadone populations. Many unanswered questions on medical, psychosocial and health economic consequences remain as the needs of older patients have not yet been evaluated extensively. However, older methadone patients, just as any other patients, should be accorded treatment appropriate to their medical condition and needs. Particular attention should be paid to adequate solutions for persons in need of care

Patient reported dry mouth: Instrument comparison and model performance for correlation with quality of life in head and neck cancer survivors

Purpose: To identify a clinically meaningful cut-point for the single item dry mouth question of the MD Anderson Symptom Inventory-Head and Neck module (MDASI-HN). Methods: Head and neck cancer survivors who had received radiation therapy (RT) completed the MDASI-HN, the University of Michigan Hospital Xerostomia Questionnaire (XQ), and the health visual analog scale (VAS) of the EuroQol Five Dimension Questionnaire (EQ-5D). The Bayesian information criteria (BIC) were used to test the prediction power of each tool for EQ-5D VAS. The modified Breiman recursive partitioning analysis (RPA) was used to identify a cut point of the MDASI-HN dry mouth score (MDASI-HN-DM) with EQ-5D VAS, using a ROC-based approach; regression analysis was used to confirm the threshold effect size. Results: Two-hundred seven respondents formed the cohort. Median follow-up from the end of RT to questionnaire completion was 88 months. The single item MDASI-HN-DM score showed a linear relationship with the XQ composite score (ρ = 0.80, p < 0.001). The MDASI-HN-DM displayed improved model performance for association with EQ-5D VAS as compared to XQ (BIC of 1803.7 vs. 2016.9, respectively). RPA showed that an MDASI-HN-DM score of ≥6 correlated with EQ-5D VAS decline (LogWorth 5.5). Conclusion: The single item MDASI-HN-DM correlated with the multi-item XQ and performed favorably in the prediction of QOL. A MDASI-HN-DM cut point of ≥6 correlated with decline in QOL. © 2017 Elsevier B.V