Book Reviews

Reviews of the books: Mark A. Rothstein, Medical Screening and the Employee Health Cost Crisis (BNA Books 1989). Foreword Edward L. Baker, MD, MPH. 296 pp. Notes, figures, tables, glossary of legal terms, glossary of medical and health care terms, table of cases and index. LC 89-977; ISBN 0-87179-628-7. Robert Decresce, Mark Lifshitz, Adrianne Mazura, & Joseph Tilson, Drug Testing In The Workplace (ASCP Press and BNA Books 1989). Forewords by Edward Miller, JD and George Lundberg, MD. 278 pp. Notes, figures, tables, table of cases and index. LC 88-39191; ISBN 0-89189-260-5 (ASCP), 0-87179-588-4 (BNA). Both of these books deal with the topic of medical screening of employees. As indicated by the titles, Rothstein\u27s book deals with various types of screening, with a focus on health costs, while DeCresce et al. focus on one specific type of screening. Both books are very well documented and should serve as good reference sources

Book Review

Review of the following book: ROBERT THOMPSON, JR., SUBSTANCE ABUSE AND EMPLOYEE REHABILITATION (BNA Books 1990) [485 pp.] Appendices, bibliography, index, table of cases. LC-90-2629; ISBN 0-87179-649-

The Decision to Reactivate a First-Generation Soviet Nuclear Power Plant: Conceptual and Decision-Analytic Frameworks

Explores a variety of factors that led to reopening the Armenian Metsamor facility notwithstanding general agreement that this is unwarranted technologically

Book Review of Alla Yaroshinskaya, Chernobyl: The Forbidden Truth

Review of the book: Alla Yaroshinskaya, Chernobyl: The Forbidden Truth (Michele Kahn & Julia Sallabank, trans. University of Nebraska Press 1995). Introduction, foreword, list of illustrations, photographs. ISBN 0-8032-4912-8. [136 pp. Cloth $25.00; Paper$10.00. 312 N. 14th Street, Lincoln NE 68588-0484.

Book Review

Review of: DADE W. MOELLER, ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH. (Harvard University Press 1992). [332 pp.] Abbreviations, credits, index, preface. LC 91-20836; ISBN 0-674-25858-4. [$39.95 cloth. 79 Garden Street; Cambridge MA 02138.

Predictive Probabilities In Employee Drug-Testing

Substance abuse in the U.S. has been estimated to cost $99 billion annually through lower productivity. Yet the authors urge caution in attempting to reduce these costs and health and safety Risks. In doing so, they cite commonly high frequencies of false negatives and false positives in employee drug tests - the latter having the potential to do great injustice to many drug-free employees

Performance Indicator Analysis of Proficiency Criteria in the Drug-Testing-Laboratory Certification Process of the DHHS

The authors highlight and propose remedies for problems in the proficiency criteria used in certifying laboratories for drug testing federal employees in the United States

Multispectral processing based on groups of resolution elements

Several nine-point rules are defined and compared with previously studied rules. One of the rules performed well in boundary areas, but with reduced efficiency in field interiors; another combined best performance on field interiors with good sensitivity to boundary detail. The basic threshold gradient and some modifications were investigated as a means of boundary point detection. The hypothesis testing methods of closed-boundary formation were also tested and evaluated. An analysis of the boundary detection problem was initiated, employing statistical signal detection and parameter estimation techniques to analyze various formulations of the problem. These formulations permit the atmospheric and sensor system effects on the data to be thoroughly analyzed. Various boundary features and necessary assumptions can also be investigated in this manner

Earnings of Black and White Youth and Their Relation to Poverty

This paper examines the relation between youth employment and poverty for black and white families. An increase in the employment proportions of black men ages 16–19, which have lagged far behind their white counterparts, would reduce poverty among blacks to a moderate but meaningful degree. We provide evidence of a small positive feedback relation between black youth employment and family incomes that would magnify gains in both variables if either variable were increased. We also provide evidence that improvements in labor market conditions that affect youth employment, in the educational attainments of black youth, and in other policy-related variables would raise both youth employment and their family incomes.

Quantum Logic and the Histories Approach to Quantum Theory

An extended analysis is made of the Gell-Mann and Hartle axioms for a generalised `histories' approach to quantum theory. Emphasis is placed on finding equivalents of the lattice structure that is employed in standard quantum logic. Particular attention is given to `quasi-temporal' theories in which the notion of time-evolution is less rigid than in conventional Hamiltonian physics; theories of this type are expected to arise naturally in the context of quantum gravity and quantum field theory in a curved space-time. The quasi-temporal structure is coded in a partial semi-group of `temporal supports' that underpins the lattice of history propositions. Non-trivial examples include quantum field theory on a non globally-hyperbolic spacetime, and a simple cobordism approach to a theory of quantum topology. It is shown how the set of history propositions in standard quantum theory can be realised in such a way that each history proposition is represented by a genuine projection operator. This provides valuable insight into the possible lattice structure in general history theories, and also provides a number of potential models for theories of this type.Comment: TP/92-93/39 36 pages + one page of diagrams (I could email Apple laser printer postscript file for anyone who is especially keen