The Effect of the Tax Reform Act of 1986 and Regional Economies on Apartment Values

The theoretical effects of the Tax Reform Act of 1986 on commercial real estate have been widely written about; however, little empirical work has been done that actually measures the hypothesized effects. We find that, after controlling for general national economic conditions and regional effects, the effect of the Tax Act of 1986 was negatively related to apartment values. The magnitude of the effect was a function of the local vacancy rates and economic growth where those regions with slow economic growth and high vacancy rates were strongly affected.

Breakthrough Energy Savings with Waterjet Technology

Experiments performed at the University of Missouri-Rolla's Waterjet Laboratory have demonstrated clearly the ability of waterjets to disaggregate, in a single step, four different mineral ores, including ores containing iron, lead and copper products. The study focused mainly on galena-bearing dolomite, a lead ore, and compared the new technology with that of traditional mining and milling to liberate the valuable constituent for the more voluminous host rock. The technical term for the disintegration of the ore to achieve this liberation is comminution. The potential for energy savings if this process can be improved, is immense. Further, if this separation can be made at the mining face, then the potential energy savings include avoidance of transportation (haulage and hoisting) costs to move, process and store this waste at the surface. The waste can, instead, be disposed into the available cavities within the mine. The savings also include the elimination of the comminution, crushing and grinding, stages in the processing plant. Future prototype developments are intended to determine if high-pressure waterjet mining and processing can be optimized to become cheaper than traditional fragmentation by drilling and blasting and to optimize the separation process. The basic new mining process was illustrated in tests on two local rock types, a low-strength sandstone with hematite inclusions, and a medium to high-strength dolomite commonly used for construction materials. Illustrative testing of liberation of minerals, utilized a lead-bearing dolomite, and included a parametric study of the optimal conditions needed to create a size distribution considered best for separation. The target goal was to have 50 percent of the mined material finer than 100 mesh (149 microns). Of the 21 tests that were run, five clearly achieved the target. The samples were obtained as run-of-mine lumps of ore, which exhibited a great deal of heterogeneity within the samples. This, in turn, reduced the ability to apply detailed statistical tests to the product outcomes. Nonetheless, a regression analysis showed that operating pressures between 105 (10,000psi) and 140 (15,000psi) MegaPascals (MPa) at traverse speeds no greater than 10 cm/min (4 in/min), best generated the target result. Variation in other parameters, rotation speed, nozzle diameter, and nozzle separation angle, during the preliminary tests did not substantially change the product, and so were kept fixed during the ore mining tests. The experimental protocols were developed to include proper treatment of the lead-bearing materials, which may be considered hazardous. In anticipation of the creation of a mineral processing design for separation of the concentrates from the tailings (waste), assays were made of the metal content of each screen size for each of the 21 runs; with three screens and a pan for undersize, to give a total of 84 assays. This information will enable Dr. McNulty, project consultant, to create a flow sheet for the prototype mining machine. As a preliminary component to such a system, the experimental layout included a product-recovery system that delivered all of the fragmented product to the nest of screens which allowed study of the liberation at the different size levels. Where incomplete liberation is found, a secondary process was demonstrated for using pressurized cavitation to further comminute the material. This concept was successfully demonstrated, with a small cavitation chamber illustrating the much smaller space that such a tool requires, relative to conventional ball and rod mills. Additional testing is ongoing, external to this program, to find whether an one-step process using higher jet pressures and longer dwell times to achieve all the required comminution in mining, is more efficient than a two-step process in which normal jet pressures and feed rates do the initial mining, but full particle liberation is achieved only through secondary processing of the product in a cavitation chamber. Subsequent testing is also planned, to determine preferred methods for separating ore minerals from the waste. Tests with this system have included both the galena samples, and copper ores from Poland. The development of this tool lies within an expanding market for the use of high-pressure waterjet equipment across a broad spectrum of applications. As the industry develops new tools, it is anticipated that the research team will investigate the development of a prototype machine based on these tools, since this will simplify and speed up equipment development. It is hoped that once this is developed that can be taken into an active mine. Such a machine should be able to produce large enough samples to allow assessment of optimal operating conditions

Neonatal Brain Injury and Neuroanatomy of Memory Processing following Very Preterm Birth in Adulthood: An fMRI Study

Altered functional neuroanatomy of high-order cognitive processing has been described in very preterm individuals (born before 33 weeks of gestation; VPT) compared to controls in childhood and adolescence. However, VPT birth may be accompanied by different types of adverse neonatal events and associated brain injury, the severity of which may have differential effects on brain development and subsequent neurodevelopmental outcome. We conducted a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study to investigate how differing degrees of neonatal brain injury, detected by neonatal ultrasounds, affect the functional neuroanatomy of memory processing in VPT young adults. We used a verbal paired associates learning task, consisting of four encoding, four cued-recall and four baseline condition blocks. To further investigate whether differences in neural activation between the groups were modulated by structural brain changes, structural MRI data were also collected. We studied 12 VPT young adults with a history of periventricular haemorrhage with associated ventricular dilatation, 17 VPT individuals with a history of uncomplicated periventricular haemorrhage, 12 individuals with normal ultrasonographic findings, and 17 controls. Results of a linear trend analysis demonstrated that during completion of the paired associates learning task right frontal and right parietal brain activation decreased as the severity of neonatal brain injury increased. There were no statistically significant between-group differences in on-line task performance and participants' intelligence quotient (IQ) at assessment. This pattern of differential activation across the groups was observed particularly in the right middle frontal gyrus during encoding and in the right posterior cingulate gyrus during recall. Structural MRI data analysis revealed that grey matter volume in the right superior temporal gyrus, right cerebellum, left middle temporal gyrus, right globus pallidus and right medial frontal gyrus decreased with increasing severity of neonatal brain injury. However, the significant between-group functional neuroanatomical differences were not directly attributable to the detected structural regional differences

Serum potassium and adverse outcomes across the range of kidney function: a CKD Prognosis Consortium meta-analysis.

Aims: Both hypo- and hyperkalaemia can have immediate deleterious physiological effects, and less is known about long-term risks. The objective was to determine the risks of all-cause mortality, cardiovascular mortality, and end-stage renal disease associated with potassium levels across the range of kidney function and evaluate for consistency across cohorts in a global consortium. Methods and results: We performed an individual-level data meta-analysis of 27 international cohorts [10 general population, 7 high cardiovascular risk, and 10 chronic kidney disease (CKD)] in the CKD Prognosis Consortium. We used Cox regression followed by random-effects meta-analysis to assess the relationship between baseline potassium and adverse outcomes, adjusted for demographic and clinical characteristics, overall and across strata of estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) and albuminuria. We included 1 217 986 participants followed up for a mean of 6.9 years. The average age was 55 ± 16 years, average eGFR was 83 ± 23 mL/min/1.73 m2, and 17% had moderate- to-severe increased albuminuria levels. The mean baseline potassium was 4.2 ± 0.4 mmol/L. The risk of serum potassium of >5.5 mmol/L was related to lower eGFR and higher albuminuria. The risk relationship between potassium levels and adverse outcomes was U-shaped, with the lowest risk at serum potassium of 4-4.5 mmol/L. Compared with a reference of 4.2 mmol/L, the adjusted hazard ratio for all-cause mortality was 1.22 [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.15-1.29] at 5.5 mmol/L and 1.49 (95% CI 1.26-1.76) at 3.0 mmol/L. Risks were similar by eGFR, albuminuria, renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system inhibitor use, and across cohorts. Conclusions: Outpatient potassium levels both above and below the normal range are consistently associated with adverse outcomes, with similar risk relationships across eGFR and albuminuria

Breakthrough Energy Savings with Waterjet Technology.

Experiments performed at the University of Missouri-Rolla\u27s Waterjet Laboratory have demonstrated clearly the ability of waterjets to disaggregate, in a single step, four different mineral ores, including ores containing iron, lead and copper products. The study focused mainly on galena-bearing dolomite, a lead ore, and compared the new technology with that of traditional mining and milling to liberate the valuable constituent for the more voluminous host rock. The technical term for the disintegration of the ore to achieve this liberation is comminution. The potential for energy savings if this process can be improved, is immense. Further, if this separation can be made at the mining face, then the potential energy savings include avoidance of transportation (haulage and hoisting) costs to move, process and store this waste at the surface. The waste can, instead, be disposed into the available cavities within the mine. The savings also include the elimination of the comminution, crushing and grinding, stages in the processing plant. Future prototype developments are intended to determine if high-pressure waterjet mining and processing can be optimized to become cheaper than traditional fragmentation by drilling and blasting and to optimize the separation process. The basic new mining process was illustrated in tests on two local rock types, a low-strength sandstone with hematite inclusions, and a medium to high-strength dolomite commonly used for construction materials. Illustrative testing of liberation of minerals, utilized a lead-bearing dolomite, and included a parametric study of the optimal conditions needed to create a size distribution considered best for separation. The target goal was to have 50 percent of the mined material finer than 100 mesh (149 microns). Of the 21 tests that were run, five clearly achieved the target. The samples were obtained as run-of-mine lumps of ore, which exhibited a great deal of heterogeneity within the samples. This, in turn, reduced the ability to apply detailed statistical tests to the product outcomes. Nonetheless, a regression analysis showed that operating pressures between 105 (10,000psi) and 140 (15,000psi) MegaPascals (MPa) at traverse speeds no greater than 10 cm/min (4 in/min), best generated the target result. Variation in other parameters, rotation speed, nozzle diameter, and nozzle separation angle, during the preliminary tests did not substantially change the product, and so were kept fixed during the ore mining tests. The experimental protocols were developed to include proper treatment of the lead-bearing materials, which may be considered hazardous. In anticipation of the creation of a mineral processing design for separation of the concentrates from the tailings (waste), assays were made of the metal content of each screen size for each of the 21 runs; with three screens and a pan for undersize, to give a total of 84 assays. This information will enable Dr. McNulty, project consultant, to create a flow sheet for the prototype mining machine. As a preliminary component to such a system, the experimental layout included a product-recovery system that delivered all of the fragmented product to the nest of screens which allowed study of the liberation at the different size levels. Where incomplete liberation is found, a secondary process was demonstrated for using pressurized cavitation to further comminute the material. This concept was successfully demonstrated, with a small cavitation chamber illustrating the much smaller space that such a tool requires, relative to conventional ball and rod mills. Additional testing is ongoing, external to this program, to find whether an one-step process using higher jet pressures and longer dwell times to achieve all the required comminution in mining, is more efficient than a two-step process in which normal jet pressures and feed rates do the initial mining, but full particle liberation is achieved only through secondary processing of the product in a cavitation chamber. Subsequent testing is also planned, to determine preferred methods for separating ore minerals from the waste. Tests with this system have included both the galena samples, and copper ores from Poland. The development of this tool lies within an expanding market for the use of high-pressure waterjet equipment across a broad spectrum of applications. As the industry develops new tools, it is anticipated that the research team will investigate the development of a prototype machine based on these tools, since this will simplify and speed up equipment development. It is hoped that once this is developed that can be taken into an active mine. Such a machine should be able to produce large enough samples to allow assessment of optimal operating conditions