Disqualifying Federal District Judges Without Cause

This Comment will examine the desirability of adopting a without cause disqualification procedure to allow either party to remove a federal district judge from a particular case. After a discussion of the need for disqualification mechanisms, existing procedures for removal, either from a particular case or from the bench entirely, are discussed. Proposals for change, especially the Bayh bills, are outlined and evaluated in light of the practical problems peculiar to the federal district courts. The Comment concludes that a procedure to disqualify federal district judges without cause, as contained in the Bayh bills, is sound and should be adopted. Such a procedure would provide a middle ground between the existing extremes of the practicing attorney\u27s almost total inability to remove a judge from a case and the spectre of removal from the bench entirely; the system should provide a healthy check on federal district judges without undue strain or humiliation for either the lawyers or judges involved

Due Process and Deeds of Trust—Strange Bedfellows?

The authors examine in detail the validity of the private sale provisions of the Washington Deed of Trust Act in light of the recent procedural due process decisions of the United States Supreme Court. In addition to concluding that the present Washington Act appears to be unconstitutional, the authors briefly discuss the policy considerations involved and suggest general guidelines for change

Beam position monitor offset determination at LEP

For the performance of an electron positron storage ring it is important that the beam orbit passes well centred through the quadrupole magnets. Beam position monitors (BPM) aligned relative to the magnets can still have a residual mechanical or electronical offset with respect to the magnetic axis. A beam-based method is used at LEP to measure these offsets. During the machine operation for physics the gradient of selected quadrupoles is modulated with low frequencies (few Hz) and very small amplitudes (of the order of 10-4). The effect on the beam is observed with a high sensitivity pick-up. The observed effect passes through a minimum when the beam is centred in the quadrupole. Offsets for about 70 different BPM's were determined. Systematically different offsets were found for different type of BPM electronics and different types of quadrupoles. Simulations based on the past results show that the level of spin polarisation can be increased by further offset measurements

Absence of bias against smokers in access to coronary revascularization after cardiac catheterization

Objective. Many consider smoking to be a personal choice for which individuals should be held accountable. We assessed whether there is any evidence of bias against smokers in cardiac care decision-making by determining whether smokers were as likely as non-smokers to undergo revascularization procedures after cardiac catheterization. Design. Prospective cohort study. Subjects and setting. All patients undergoing cardiac catheterization in Alberta, Canada. Main measures. Patients were categorized as current smokers, former smokers, or never smokers, and then compared for their risk-adjusted likelihood of undergoing revascularization procedures (percutaneous coronary intervention or coronary artery bypass grafting) after cardiac catheterization. Results. Among 20406 patients undergoing catheterization, 25.4% were current smokers at the time of catheterization, 36.6% were former smokers, and 38.0% had never smoked. When compared with never smokers (reference group), the hazard ratio for undergoing any revascularization procedure after catheterization was 0.98 (95% CI 0.93-1.03) for current smokers and 0.98 (0.94-1.03) for former smokers. The hazard ratio for undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting was 1.09 (1.00-1.19) for current smokers and 1.00 (0.93-1.08) for former smokers. For percutaneous coronary intervention, the hazard ratios were 0.93 (0.87-0.99) for current smokers and 1.00 (0.94-1.06) for former smokers. Conclusion. Despite potential for discrimination on the basis of smoking status, current and former smokers undergoing cardiac catheterization in Alberta, Canada were as likely to undergo revascularization procedures as catheterization patients who had never smoke

Dynamic Beam Based Calibration of Beam Position Monitors

The degree of spin polarization at LEP is strongly dependent on the knowledge of the vertical orbit. Quadrupole magnet alignment and beam position monitor (BPM) offsets are the main source of the orbi t uncertainty. The error of the orbit monitor readings can be largely reduced by calibrating the monitor relative to the adjacent quadrupole. At LEP, 16 BPM offsets can be determined in parallel durin g 40 minutes. The error of the measure offset is about 30mm. During the LEP run 1997, more than 500 measurements were made and used for the optimisation of polarization. The method of dynamic beam bas ed calibration will be explained and the results will be shown

The Influence of Train Leakage Currents on the LEP Dipole Field

The determination of the mass and the width of the Z boson at CERN's LEP accelerator, an e+e- storage ring with a circumference of approximately 27 kilometres, imposes heavy demands on the knowledge of the LEP counter-rotating electron and positron beam energies. The precision required is of the order of 1 MeV or »20 ppm frequency. Due to its size the LEP collider is influenced by various macroscopic and regional factors such as the position of the moon or seasonal changes of the rainfall in the area, as reported earlier. A new and not less surprising effect of the LEP energy was observed in 1995: railroad trains in the Geneva region perturb the dipole field. A parasitic flow of electricity, originating from the trains, travels along the LEP ground cable and the vacuum chamber, interacting with the dipole field. An account of the phenomenon with its explanation substantiated by dedicated measurements is presented

A newly observed Effect affects the LEP Beam Energy

The LEP magnetic bending field and therefore the beam energy is changed by a current flow over the vacuum chamber. The current is created by trains travelling between the Geneva main station and destinations in France. Some of the rail current leaks into earth and returns to the power station via the LEP tunnel, where the vacuum chamber is one of the conductors. Train leakage currents penetrate LEP at the injection lines from the SPS close to IP1 and between IP5 and IP7, thereby interacting with the magnetic dipole field. The observed changes in B field cause beam energy increases of several MeV

Patient freedom to choose a weight loss diet in the treatment of overweight and obesity: a randomized dietary intervention in type 2 diabetes and pre-diabetes

BackgroundOffering the overweight or obese patient the option of choosing from a selection of weight loss diets has not been investigated in type 2 diabetes. The aim of the study was to investigate if the option to choose from, and interchange between a selection of diets (&ldquo;Choice&rdquo;), as opposed to being prescribed one set diet (&ldquo;No Choice&rdquo;), improves drop out rates and leads to improved weight loss and cardio-metabolic outcomes.MethodsThe study was a 12 month, randomized parallel intervention. A total of 144 volunteers with type 2 diabetes or pre-diabetes and a BMI &gt;27 were randomized to &ldquo;No Choice&rdquo; or &ldquo;Choice&rdquo;. Those in the No Choice group were placed on a set weight loss diet (CSIRO) with no change permitted. Those in the Choice group could choose from, and interchange between, the CSIRO, South Beach or Mediterranean diets.ResultsThere were no differences in attrition rates or weight loss between the &ldquo;Choice&rdquo; and &ldquo;No Choice&rdquo;. In a secondary analysis of the intention-to-treat weight loss data with last measured weight carried forward gave a highly significant diet group by time by gender interaction (p&thinsp;=&thinsp;0.002) with men doing better in the No Choice group overall (maximum difference &ldquo;No Choice &ldquo;-2.9&thinsp;&plusmn;&thinsp;4.6 kg vs. &ldquo;Choice&rdquo;-6.2 kg&thinsp;&plusmn;&thinsp;5.3 kg at 6 months) and women doing better in the Choice group overall (maximum difference Choice -3.1&thinsp;&plusmn;&thinsp;3.7 kg vs. &ldquo;No Choice&rdquo; -2.0 kg&thinsp;&plusmn;&thinsp;2.6 kg at 6 months).ConclusionsMen prefer direction in their weight loss advice and do less well with choice. A gender-specific approach is recommended when prescribing weight loss diets.Trial registrationanzctr.org.au ACTRN12612000310864.<br /

Accuracy of city postal code coordinates as a proxy for location of residence

BACKGROUND: Health studies sometimes rely on postal code location as a proxy for the location of residence. This study compares the postal code location to that of the street address using a database from the Alberta Provincial Project for Outcome Assessment in Coronary Heart Disease (APPROACH(©)). Cardiac catheterization cases in an urban Canadian City were used for calendar year 1999. We determined location in meters for both the address (using the City of Calgary Street Network File in ArcView 3.2) and postal code location (using Statistic Canada's Postal Code Conversion File). RESULTS: The distance between the two estimates of location for each case were measured and it was found that 87.9% of the postal code locations were within 200 meters of the true address location (straight line distances) and 96.5% were within 500 meters of the address location (straight line distances). CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that postal code locations are a reasonably accurate proxy for address location. However, there may be research questions for which a more accurate description of location is required