Weight outcomes audit for 34,271 adults referred to a primary care/commercial weight management partnership scheme

Copyright © 2011 S. Karger AG, Basel.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Energy Efficiency Projects in Pennsylvania Small Businesses

Energy efficiency will be an important contributor to reduction of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and will help reduce America’s dependence on energy from the Middle East. The Pennsylvania Small Business Development Center (SBDC) Environment Management Assistance Program (EMAP) makes energy efficiency project recommendations to clients who request assistance. EMAP strives to become more effective in their recommendations. Based on EMAP data from August 2007 to December 2008, they want to determine if there is a relationship between a project recommendation and its implementation. The literature has examined results of other voluntary energy efficiency programs – Industrial Assessment Centers, Green Light, and Energy Star. Many projects were not implemented in spite of having a positive economic effect on the respective businesses. This phenomenon is called the energy efficiency paradox. Are these market failures of imperfect information, bounded rationality, or the principal-agent problem? Chi-squared testing was used to assess whether dependency exists between various categories of a project and the decision to implement or not. The hypothesis developed from early results and confirmed by testing is: Grant money to small businesses in Pennsylvania is the single biggest factor in the decision to implement energy efficiency projects. Analysis of data supports the conclusions from an earlier survey by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh with small businesses in western Pennsylvania during 1976/77 (Doctors, Fahey, & Patton, 1978). The biggest obstacles to energy efficiency investments are lack of capital and the perception that the potential energy savings were not worth the effort

Material Memory: Willa Cather, “My First Novels [There Were Two]”, and The Colophon: A Book Collector’s Quarterly

Willa Cather\u27s 1931 essay My First Novels [There Were Two] is an often-cited statement on place in the author\u27s literary oeuvre. In the essay, Cather distances herself from her first novel \u27Alexander\u27s Bridge\u27 (1912) and its imitative, Jamesian motifs and setting. Her second novel \u27O Pioneers!\u27, she writes, was a kind of second first novel, one written entirely for myself and preoccupied with the story of Scandinavians and Bohemians who had been neighbors of ours when I lived on a ranch in Nebraska. As Merrill Maguire Skaggs, Robert Thacker and Emmy Stark Zitter have argued, My First Novels [There Were Two] is also an important document in the author\u27s retrospective construction of authorial identity.* Yet scholars have not, to date, fully explored the occasion for this essay\u27s publication nor the periodical in which it was published. Material Memory: Willa Cather, \u27My First Novels [There Were Two]\u27, and The Colophon: A Book Collector’s Quarterly shows how Cather came to publish her essay of literary debut in The Colophon: A Book Collector\u27s Quarterly. The paper follows George\u27s Bornstein\u27s approach in Material Modernism, which connects literary modernism to a distinct set of material concerns and manifestations. The presentation documents Cather\u27s participation in an intermittent series for the periodical in which various writers of national renown told stories of their first novels and traces connections between Cather and Colophon founder Elmer Adler. *See the following sources: Skaggs, Merrill Maguire. Cather\u27s Violent Assimilation of Henry James\u27s Art. In \u27Violence, the Arts and Willa Cather\u27. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2007; Thacker, Robert. She\u27s Not a Puzzle So Arbitrarily Solved: Willa Cather\u27s Violent Self-Construction In \u27Violence, the Arts and Willa Cather\u27, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2007; Zitter, Emmy Stark. Making Herself Born: Ghost Writing and Willa Cather\u27s Developing Autobiography Biography 19.3 (1996): 283-301

Divorce and Alimony; Separation Agreements; Jurisdiction of Court to Modify; Impairment of Contract; Statutory Provisions; Wolfe v. Wolfe

WITH THE decision of Wolfe v. Wolfe the Ohio Supreme Court joins the majority of American jurisdictions\u27 which hold that where a court has the general power to modify a decree for alimony or support the exercise of that power is not affected by the fact that the decree is based on an agreement entered into by the parties to the action

Three-dimensional stress analysis of the femur with prosthetic hip stem utilizing computed tomography scans of the femur for geometry and material properties

Three-dimensional finite element stress analyses of the femur with prosthesis hip stem were performed for two cases, one male and one female, using ideally bonded cemented titanium prostheses. Computed tomography data files were used to derive the three-dimensional femur geometry and material properties for each cortical bone element. The maximum shear stress (4.7 MPa) in the cement was greater then the maximum tensile stress and occurred at the cement-bone interface. The tensile stresses in the cement were less then the fatigue strength of the cement. The stress patterns were quite similar for the two cases. A data analysis program was developed to processes computed tomography data files of a proximal femur into a finite element model file with prosthesis. The program utilizes Microsoft Excel, it Visual Basic Modules, Math Soft Mathcad, dynamic data exchange, custom menus and user input boxes to make the user interface as efficient as possible

Divorce and Alimony; Separation Agreements; Jurisdiction of Court to Modify; Impairment of Contract; Statutory Provisions; Wolfe v. Wolfe

WITH THE decision of Wolfe v. Wolfe 1 the Ohio Supreme Court joins the majority of American jurisdictions\u27 which hold that where a court has the general power to modify a decree for alimony or support the exercise of that power is not affected by the fact that the decree is based on an agreement entered into by the parties to the actio

Choosing treatment for localised prostate cancer: A patient-conducted-interview study

Objectives: Treatment choice can be particularly difficult in localised prostate cancer because of the uncertainty involved. Indeed, some men prefer maintaining their masculine identity and quality of life to potentially securing longer-term survival through surgery or radiotherapy. UK health services are now obliged to leave the choice of treatment to the patient and the aim of this study is to improve understanding of patients’ experiences of choosing treatment. Methods: A one-day participative workshop where men of six months post-diagnosis design and conduct audio and video interviews on each other about their experiences of choosing treatment. Results: The findings show that treatment choice is a complex process combining emotional and rational elements. Information gathering and delegation to professional expertise were two key themes that emerged. Conclusions: The findings emphasise that treatment choice for localised prostate cancer is little like the traditional notions of consumerism from which it is derived. Importantly, the results illustrate, from a patient perspective, how health professionals can engage in their roles as information providers and as experts

Resource targets for advanced underground coal extraction systems

Resource targets appropriate for federal sponsorship of research and development of advanced underground coal mining systems are identified. A comprehensive examination of conventional and unconventional coals with particular attention to exceptionally thin and thick seams, steeply dipping beds, and multiple seam geometry was made. The results indicate that the resource of primary importance is flat lying bituminous coal of moderate thickness, under moderate cover, and located within the lower 48 states. Resources of secondary importance are the flat lying multiple seams and thin seams (especially those in Appalachia). Steeply dipping coals, abandoned pillars, and exceptionally thick western coals may be important in some regions of subregions, but the limited tonnage available places them in a position of tertiary importance