An Appropriate Use of Force

The differing responsibilities of civilian and military control have not always been fully appreciated by those in the operating units who are responsible for implementing policy. I remember my own frustrations in this regard, and in fact the problem has timeless dimensions

The Capitalization of Seller Paid Consessions

Using a hedonic pricing model, we analyze the capitalization of total seller paid discount points and closing costs into the price of a house. We hypothesize that sellers are concerned about the sales price net of total seller paid concessions (SPNC), rather than the exact terms of the transaction. Since the SPNC is easily ascertained in the negotiation process, we further hypothesize that total seller paid concessions (TSPC) are fully capitalized into the sales price. To test this hypothesis, sales price is regressed on a set of control variables including TSPC. In this framework, TSPC will be positive and not significantly different from one if concessions are fully capitalized. The empirical results provide support for the capitalization hypothesis. Negotiation strategies and study limitations follow from the empirical results.

Small Business Sustainability: What is the CPA’s Role?

The purpose of this paper is to provide information for both small businesses and CPAs concerning the importance and possible impact of sustainability reporting and practices on each group. The sustainability reporting process not only considers the economic bottom line, but also includes consideration of how a business impacts society and the environment. The challenges involved in establishing sustainable practices and reporting will be significant. The push for businesses to become more sustainable is a market-driven phenomenon in which consumers are increasingly shopping for products and services provided by companies that practice sustainability. Large multinational corporations are placing greater pressure on small business supply chain vendors to adopt sustainability practices. The sustainability movement creates both threats and opportunities for both LMCs and SMEs, and businesses that fail to develop sustainable strategies could be negatively impacted. CPAs have traditionally provided SMEs with financial, tax and audit services. As sustainability demands increase for SMEs, small and medium-sized CPA firms must develop the knowledge and skills necessary to provide these clients with sustainability services

Chemical Analysis of Fish Tissue: Kentucky Army National Guard Wendell H. Ford Western Kentucky Training Site, Muhlenberg County, Kentucky

Thirty-one analytes were measured in fish tissue taken from largemouth bass, catfish, and bluegill harvested from lakes and ponds in reclaimed and unreclaimed coal-mine spoil of Pennsylvanian age. The spoil area is approximately 7,756 acres created primarily from surface mining, and has been used in increasing intensity since 1969 as a training site by the Kentucky Army National Guard. Four fish were harvested for analysis from the area of unreclaimed spoil that resulted from mining prior to 1977, and 15 fish were harvested for analysis from the part of the training facility that was reclaimed by 1985. Twenty-six analytes had values above the method reporting limit, and only one sample, L15-8A, had a mercury concentration of 1.22 mg/kg. This concentration is slightly above the federal Food and Drug Administration action concentration level of 1 mg/kg

The Inflation-Hedging Effectiveness of Real Estate

Inflation has become one of the predominant financial concerns of the late twentieth century. In the late 1970s, public opinion polls ranked inflation as the number one problem in the United States. While the rate of inflation has slowed since the late 1970s, inflation is still present and many investors expect a resurgence of inflation to higher levels in the near to immediate future. This continued concern about inflation has led to an increased search and evaluation of investments that will protect investors from inflation. Assets that have the ability to protect investors from the effects of inflation are generally labeled inflation hedges. Real estate has been regarded as one of the best inflation hedges of past years. While there has been research in the past evaluating this possibility and some recent research using only business real estate, no current research on residential real estate or farmland as inflation hedges exists. This study examines the inflation-hedging effectiveness of residential real estate, farmland, and business real estate (with a different data set) as individual assets and in a portfolio context for 1960-86.

Detection of a Substantial Molecular Gas Reservoir in a brightest cluster galaxy at z = 1.7

We report the detection of CO(2-1) emission coincident with the brightest cluster galaxy (BCG) of the high-redshift galaxy cluster SpARCS1049+56, with the Redshift Search Receiver (RSR) on the Large Millimetre Telescope (LMT). We confirm a spectroscopic redshift for the gas of z = 1.7091+/-0.0004, which is consistent with the systemic redshift of the cluster galaxies of z = 1.709. The line is well-fit by a single component Gaussian with a RSR resolution-corrected FWHM of 569+/-63 km/s. We see no evidence for multiple velocity components in the gas, as might be expected from the multiple image components seen in near-infrared imaging with the Hubble Space Telescope. We measure the integrated flux of the line to be 3.6+/-0.3 Jy km/s and, using alpha_CO = 0.8 Msun (K km s^-1 pc^2)^-1 we estimate a total molecular gas mass of 1.1+/-0.1x10^11 Msun and a M_H2/M_star ~ 0.4. This is the largest gas reservoir detected in a BCG above z > 1 to date. Given the infrared-estimated star formation rate of 860+/-130 Msun/yr, this corresponds to a gas depletion timescale of ~0.1Gyr. We discuss several possible mechanisms for depositing such a large gas reservoir to the cluster center -- e.g., a cooling flow, a major galaxy-galaxy merger or the stripping of gas from several galaxies -- but conclude that these LMT data are not sufficient to differentiate between them.Comment: accepted for publication in ApJ Letter

Water-Quality and -Quantity Data for Abandoned Underground Coal Mines in Eastern Kentucky

Water-quality and -quantity analyses were performed between 1997 and 2003 by the Kentucky Geological Survey under contract from the Kentucky River Authority and the Kentucky Infrastructure Authority to study abandoned underground coal mines as possible water supplies for communities in the Eastern Kentucky Coal Field. The steep terrain of the coal field limits surface-water supplies, and groundwater systems are difficult to locate and often have too low a yield to provide community water supplies. KGS has been working with the Kentucky River Authority, the Kentucky Infrastructure Authority, and local government officials to search for water supplies in abandoned underground coal mines. The data in the appendices of this report are interpreted in Cumbie and others (2006)

Outcomes in treatment-resistant schizophrenia: symptoms, function and clozapine plasma concentrations

Background: Clozapine is the only medication licenced for treating patients with treatment-refractory schizophrenia. However, there are no evidence-based guidelines as to the optimal plasma level of clozapine to aim for, and their association with clinical and functional outcome. Objective: We assessed the relationship between clinical and functional outcome measures and blood concentrations of clozapine among patients with treatment-refractory psychosis. Methods: Data were reviewed in 82 patients with treatment-refractory psychosis admitted to a specialised tertiary-level service and treated with clozapine. Analysis focussed on the relationship between clozapine and norclozapine plasma concentrations and the patient’s clinical symptoms and functional status. Results: Clinical symptom improvement was positively correlated with norclozapine plasma concentrations and inversely correlated with clozapine to norclozapine plasma concentrations ratio. Clozapine concentrations showed a bimodal association with clinical improvement (peaks around 350 and 660 ng/ml). Clinical symptom improvement correlated with functional outcomes, although there was no significant correlation between the latter and clozapine or norclozapine plasma concentrations. Conclusion: Clozapine treatment was associated with optimal clinical improvement at two different peak plasma concentrations around 350 and 650 ng/ml. Clinical improvement was associated with functional outcome; however, functionality was not directly associated with clozapine concentrations. A subset of patients may require higher clozapine plasma concentrations to achieve clinical improvement

Medication burden in the first 5 years following diagnosis of type 2 diabetes: findings from the ADDITION-UK trial cohort.

INTRODUCTION: Individuals with screen-detected diabetes are likely to receive intensified pharmacotherapy to improve glycaemic control and general cardiometabolic health. Individuals are often asymptomatic, and little is known about the degree to which polypharmacy is present both before, and after diagnosis. We aimed to describe and characterize the pharmacotherapy burden of individuals with screen-detected diabetes at diagnosis, 1 and 5 years post-diagnosis. METHODS: The prescription histories of 1026 individuals with screen-detected diabetes enrolled in the ADDITION-UK trial of the promotion of intensive treatment were coded into general medication types at diagnosis, 1 and 5 years post-diagnosis. The association between change in the count of several medication types and age, baseline 10-year UK Prospective Diabetes Study (UKPDS) cardiovascular disease (CVD risk), sex, intensive treatment group and number of medications was explored. RESULTS: Just under half of individuals were on drugs unrelated to cardioprotection before diagnosis (42%), and this increased along with a rise in the number of prescribed diabetes-related and cardioprotective drugs. The medication profile over the first 5 years suggests multimorbidity and polypharmacy is present in individuals with screen-detected diabetes. Higher modeled CVD risk at baseline was associated with a greater increase in cardioprotective and diabetes-related medication, but not an increase in other medications. CONCLUSION: As recommended in national guidelines, our results suggest that treatment of diabetes was influenced by the underlying risk of CVD. While many individuals did not start glucose lowering and cardioprotective therapies in the first 5 years after diagnosis, more information is required to understand whether this represents unmet need, or patient-centered care. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: CNT00237549.This study was supported by the Welcome Trust (grant number G061895), the Medical Research Council (Grant numbers G0001164 and MC_UU_12015/4) and the National Institute for Health Research (Grant number RP-PG-0606-1259).This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from BMJ via http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjdrc-2014-00007