International Conference on Litigation Funding

The aim of the research is to examine the potential for third party litigation funding as a tool to increase access to justice and overcome some of the obstacles faced by some plaintiffs due to the high costs of litigation. The research is empirical in nature and will examine the practical, ethical and regulatory issues relating to third party litigation funding

Diffraction of helium beams at single crystal tungsten surfaces covered with adsorbed layers

Imperial Users onl

Factors affecting reproductive performance of beef cows

Data were collected from 435 Hereford and Angus cows at the University of Tennessee Blount and Alcoa farms during 1972 through 1974 to examine the effects of flushing during the early part of the breeding season on their productivity. All cows were allotted to single-sire breeding groups and grazed grass-legume pastures during the spring-summer pasture season. Grain flushed cows received 6 lb of concentrate per cow per day, in addition to pasture, during the first 21 days of the breeding season (mid-April to early July). Grain flushing had no significant (P\u3e0.05) effect on calving percent in either comparison. There was a significant interaction between year-location and treatment. In addition there were significant differ-ences among groups within treatment in each of the three comparisons. Grain flushed cows weaned more lb of calf per cow exposed than did those on pasture alone. Calves nursing grain-flushed cows during the respective breeding seasons and those born to grain-fed cows the subsequent year gained faster (P\u3c0.05) than calves of cows on pasture alone. Blood serum progesterone level during the first estrous cycle during the breeding season was similar in both groups; however, the progesterone level of grain-fed cows peaked at 6.42 nanograms per ml on the sixteenth day of the cycle compared to 5.03 nanograms in cows on pasture alone. Data collected from 360 Hereford cows during nine years (1966 through 1974) at the University of Tennessee Highland Rim Experiment Station were used to evaluate the effects of weight change during selected periods of the pasture and breeding season on cows reproductive performance and calf growth performance. Conception rate ranged from 72% for three-year-old cows to 91% for nine-year-old cows. There was a trend for conception rate to increase with cow age; however, the increase was not linear. Cow age did not significantly (P\u3e0.05) affect the interval from parturition to conception. Change in body weight of cow during the early part of the breeding season and during the entire breeding season significantly affected (P\u3c0.05) apparent conception date. Cow gains between May and October significantly (P\u3c0.01) affected calf average daily gain during the corresponding period. Each 0.1 lb increase in average daily gain by cows between July and October indicated that a one-day reduction in the interval from parturition to conception had occurred

Medial temporal lobe contributions to intra-item associative recognition memory in the aging brain

Aging is associated with a decline in episodic memory function. This is accompanied by degradation of and functional changes in the medial temporal lobe (MTL) which subserves mnemonic processing. To date no study has investigated age-related functional change in MTL substructures during specific episodic memory processes such as intra-item associative memory. The aim of this study was to characterize age-related change in the neural correlates of intra-item associative memory processing. Sixteen young and 10 older subjects participated in a compound word intra-item associative memory task comprising a measure of associative recognition memory and a measure of recognition memory. There was no difference in performance between groups on the associative memory measure but each group recruited different MTL regions while performing the task.The young group recruited the left anterior hippocampus and posterior parahippocampal gyrus whereas the older participants recruited the hippocampus bilaterally. In contrast, recognition memory was significantlyworse in the older subjects.The left anterior hippocampuswas recruited in the young group during successful recognition memory whereas the older group recruited a more posterior region of the left hippocampus and showed a more bilateral activation of frontal brain regions than was observed in the young group. Our results suggest a reorganization of the neural correlates of intra-item associative memory in the aging brain

Terra incognita—cerebellar contributions to neuropsychiatric and cognitive dysfunction in behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia

Although converging evidence has positioned the human cerebellum as an important relay for intact cognitive and neuropsychiatric processing, changes in this large structure remain mostly overlooked in behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), a disease which is characterized by cognitive and neuropsychiatric deficits. The present study assessed whether degeneration in specific cerebellar subregions associate with indices of cognition and neuropsychiatric performance in bvFTD. Our results demonstrate a relationship between cognitive and neuropsychiatric decline across various domains of memory, language, emotion, executive, visuospatial function, and motivation and the degree of gray matter degeneration in cerebellar lobules V–VII. Most notably, bilateral cerebellar lobule VII and the posterior vermis emerged as distinct for memory processes, the right cerebellar hemisphere underpinned emotion, and the posterior vermis was highlighted in language dysfunction in bvFTD. Based on cortico-cerebellar connectivity maps, these findings in the cerebellum are consistent with the neural connections with the cortices involved in these domains in patients with bvFTD. Overall, the present study underscores the significance of cortical-cerebellar networks associated with cognition and neuropsychiatric dysfunction in bvFTD

Operations Research and Business Decisions

Paper presented to the Business Research Section of the Southwestern Social Science Association on April 19, 195

Wages and Productivity

Public lecture delivered at the Rice Institute on October 31, 195