The Changing Role of Soft Money on Campaign Finance Reform.The Birth of the 527 and its Consequences.

In a time when record numbers of dollars are being spent on campaigns the unregulated dollars are flowing faster than ever. Hundreds of millions of dollars in independent expenditures are being used for “issue advocacy”, print and broadcast advertising, which does not expressly endorse or oppose a candidate for office. The one-time campaign finance ceiling has become the campaign finance basement. Individuals are able to give unlimited dollars to 527 organizations, which function outside of all campaign finance regulation and provide a new path for the flow of political dollars. Since the passage of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, commonly known as the McCain-Feingold Act, federally regulated lobbyists and PACS are being edged out of the political dollar due to contribution limits. It is in 1996 that we witness the birth of 527 organizations and the flourishing growth of soft money spending in the campaign process

Postmenopausal Women With Greater Paracardial Fat Have More Coronary Artery Calcification Than Premenopausal Women: The Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN) Cardiovascular Fat Ancillary Study.

BackgroundVolumes of paracardial adipose tissue (PAT) and epicardial adipose tissue (EAT) are greater after menopause. Interestingly, PAT but not EAT is associated with estradiol decline, suggesting a potential role of menopause in PAT accumulation. We assessed whether volumes of heart fat depot (EAT and PAT) were associated with coronary artery calcification (CAC) in women at midlife and whether these associations were modified by menopausal status and estradiol levels.Methods and resultsEAT and PAT volumes and CAC were measured using electron beam computed tomography scans. CAC was evaluated as (1) the presence of CAC (CAC Agatston score ≥10) and (2) the extent of any CAC (log CAC Agatston score >0). The study included 478 women aged 50.9 years (58% pre- or early perimenopausal, 10% late perimenopausal, and 32% postmenopausal). EAT was significantly associated with CAC measures, and these associations were not modified by menopausal status or estradiol. In contrast, associations between PAT and CAC measures were modified by menopausal status (interaction-P≤0.01). Independent of study covariates including other adiposity measures, each 1-SD unit increase in log PAT was associated with 102% higher risk of CAC presence (P=0.04) and an 80% increase in CAC extent (P=0.008) in postmenopausal women compared with pre- or early perimenopausal women. Additional adjustment for estradiol and hormone therapy attenuated these differences. Moreover, the association between PAT and CAC extent was stronger in women with lower estradiol levels (interaction P=0.004).ConclusionsThe findings suggest that PAT is a potential menopause-specific coronary artery disease risk marker, supporting the need to monitor and target this fat depot for intervention in women at midlife

Modeling, Sharing, and Recursion for Weak Reduction Strategies using Explicit Substitution

We present the lambda sigma^a_w calculus, a formal synthesis of the concepts ofsharing and explicit substitution for weak reduction. We show howlambda sigma^a_w can be used as a foundation of implementations of functionalprogramming languages by modelling the essential ingredients of suchimplementations, namely weak reduction strategies, recursion, spaceleaks, recursive data structures, and parallel evaluation, in a uniform way.First, we give a precise account of the major reduction strategiesused in functional programming and the consequences of choosing lambda-graph-reduction vs. environment-based evaluation. Second, we showhow to add constructors and explicit recursion to give a precise accountof recursive functions and data structures even with respect tospace complexity. Third, we formalize the notion of space leaks in lambda sigma^a_wand use this to define a space leak free calculus; this suggests optimisationsfor call-by-need reduction that prevent space leaking and enablesus to prove that the "trimming" performed by the STG machine doesnot leak space.In summary we give a formal account of several implementationtechniques used by state of the art implementations of functional programminglanguages.Keywords. Implementation of functional programming, lambdacalculus, weak reduction, explicit substitution, sharing, recursion, spaceleaks

Multi-Sensor Fusion for Mono and Multi-Vehicle Localization using Bayesian Network

International audienc

In vitro evaluation of electrospun blends of gelatin and PCL for application as a partial thickness corneal graft

The advent of innovative surgical procedures utilizing partial thickness corneal grafts has created a need for the development of synthetic implants to recreate corneal stromal tissue. This work evaluates electrospun gelatin and polycaprolactone (PCL) scaffolds as a potential biomaterial suitable for use in regeneration of corneal stromal tissue. Electrospun gelatin has been used for many years in tissue engineering, however, post‐production modification, such as crosslinking, is usually required to mechanically strengthen such scaffolds. This paper aims therefore to compare glutaraldehyde (GA) cross‐linked electrospun gelatin scaffolds with electrospun blends of gelatin and PCL at different ratios. Scaffolds were fabricated using electrospinning and characterized by scanning electron microscopy, Attenuated Total Reflectance‐Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (ATR‐FTIR), and tensile testing. To evaluate biocompatibility, primary human corneal stromal cells (hCSC) were seeded upon the scaffolds to assess adherence, proliferation and phenotype. Results demonstrated that scaffolds fabricated from mixtures of gelatin and PCL showed increased mechanical strength and plasticity compared to scaffolds fabricated from GA cross‐linked gelatin alone. In addition, scaffolds fabricated from PCL and gelatin showed comparable support of hCSC adhesion and proliferation. In conclusion, blended mixtures of gelatin and PCL can be considered as an option in the selection of corneal repair materials in the future

Numerical modelling of perimeter pile groups in clay

The load distribution among piles in a group varies such that the inner piles often carry a smaller share of the total load compared to the outer piles, which is a result of increased soil–pile interaction. The main objective of this paper is to establish the relative effectiveness of pile groups with no inner piles (perimeter group), when compared to the more common grid configuration. The numerical investigation utilized the finite element programme ABAQUS and considered a range of variables that affect pile group behaviour including number of piles, pile spacing, length/diameter ratio, and soil strength. It was demonstrated that a complete grid group is less efficient than a perimeter group, where efficiency is defined as the load capacity of the whole group expressed as a ratio of the number of piles in the group multiplied by the load capacity of a single isolated pile. Efficiencies close to unity were observed for some perimeter groups. Perimeter groups also showed that a “block” type group failure could occur, where piles were placed at a spacing of less than 2.0 pile diameters,d, centre-to-centre. This often, but not always, led to a reduction in the efficiency of the pile group

Countertransference in Trauma Clinic: A Transitional Breach in the Therapists’ Identity

In line with the theoretical elaboration of countertransference in the trauma clinic, this article addresses the therapist’s relationship to the strangeness of the trauma, as well as his/her interaction with the cultural difference of the other, who is in this case, the traumatized patient. Thirty-one therapists were interviewed about their subjective experiences, using the methodology of interpretative phenomenological analysis. This article shows interesting subtleties in countertransference reactions to trauma narratives and sheds light on processes indicative of trauma transmission. Therapists interviewed could express experiencing moments of strangeness and inner disquiet; resonance in the defense mechanisms deployed by therapists and by patients at certain moments of the therapy; resorting to disregarding cultural interpretations/generalizations to make sense of an utterly painful situation and put a protective distance with the patients’ culture of origin

Financial Resource as Drivers of Performance in Small and Micro Enterprises in Service Retail Sector: A Case of Eldoret Municipality,Uasin Gishu County,Kenya.

Small and Micro businesses play a key role in economic growth They are also a major source of innovation in creating new products technologies and services Despite availability of resources to start or operate men and women owned businesses there exist disparity in performance especially in growth and size with women registering lower performance compared to men Research indicates that women owned small businesses continue to lag behind in terms of growth and size compared Coleman 2007 to men owned small businesses The main objective of this study was to examine the effect of the relationship between firms Resources use on performance of women-owned and men-owned SMEs This research explored the relationship between Gender variation in Financial resources use and performance of SME