Necessary Versus Sufficient Claims Data

This data brief compares membership characteristics and health care service prices in non-ERISA and ERISA populations. The results suggest that non-ERISA data may be sufficient for policy relevant analyses, even when ERISA data is not available

PROJECT REPORT: A MARKET OPPORTUNITY STUDY FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF A NEW ONCOLOGY SERVICE IN THE VETERINARY TEACHING HOSPITAL

Current trends in veterinary medicine indicate the potential need for several new services within the VTH. Based on focus groups and practitioner surveys conducted in late 1998 and early 1999, potential new services could include oncology, overnight emergency, behavior medicine, dentistry, equine sports medicine and exotic animal medicine. Of these, an oncology service is currently being considered based on internal staff recommendations coupled with survey and focus group information supporting demand for the service. Different from past new services, the oncology service was also earmarked to undergo a formal market study to determine the full potential of the opportunity and to more clearly establish the goals and objectives within the service.Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

A MARKET OPPORTUNITY STUDY FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF A NEW SPORT HORSE SERVICE AT THE MSU VETERINARY TEACHING HOSPITAL

The potential need for several new services within the Veterinary Teaching Hospital (VTH) is unknown. However, based on focus groups and practitioner surveys conducted over the last several years, potential new services were identified: overnight emergency, behavior medicine, equine sports medicine, dentistry, oncology and exotic animal medicine. Michigan State University's College of Veterinary Medicine (MSU-CVM) has recently expanded its equine research, diagnostic and therapy capabilities with the addition of the new Mary Anne McPhail Equine Performance Center. As a result of this expansion, a study was conducted to determine whether the VTH should also broaden its clinical offerings with a new complement of services targeted specifically toward sport horse care.Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

Part I. Thermodynamic acidities of substituted phenylacetylenes. Part II. Mercury accumulation in trout of Southern Missouri

PART I: THERMODYNAMIC ACIDITIES OF SUBSTITUTED PHENYLACETYLENES The thermodynamic acidities (pKa) of phenylacetylene and several para substituted phenylacetylenes in methanol were determined at 25ºC. These acidity constants were determined using a quenching technique which involves converting the phenylacetylenic anion, present at equilibrium as sodium phenylacetylide, to the tritium labelled carbon acid. By liquid scintillation counting techniques, the concentration of the anion was determined and the pKa of the phenylacetylene compound calculated. The resulting pKa\u27s are: p-nitrophenylacetylene, 17.98, p-bromophenylacetylene, 18.10, p-fluorophenylacetylene, 18.14, phenylacetylene, 18.50, and p-methylphenylacetylene, 18.60. The effect of a substituent in the para position on the relative acidities is consistent with inductive effect predictions. A Hammett sigma rho plot of the observed pKa\u27s produces a straight line with a slope equal to 0.85 and the coefficient of correlation is 0.988 using a least squares fit. PART II: MERCURY ACCUMULATION IN TROUT OF SOUTHERN MISSOURI A study of mercury accumulation in trout taken from the trout parks and streams of southern Missouri is presented. Mercury in trout is determined by digestion in nitric acid, sulfuric acid, and potassium permanganate, followed by reduction and aeration for measurement by flameless atomic absorption. The mercury accumulation in trout collected and analyzed in this project ranged from 0.1 to 0.3 ppm mercury (µg mercury/g of tissue). Previous analysis of trout collected in the mid to late 1950\u27s from the same areas indicated mercury accumulations of approximately 3 ppm. Over the past 25 years, there has been a substantial decrease in mercury found in trout of southern Missouri as a result of cleaner streams --Abstract, pages iv-v

The Effect of Tensile Stress on the Corrosion of Aluminium and Some Aluminium Alloys

The effect of externally applied tensile stress on the rate of corrosion of A1 in 0.1N HCl and 0.1N HCl containing 3% and 5% NaCl has been determined by measurement of the evolved. Elastic stress and overstrain up to 10% has little effect. 20% overstrain apparently reduces the rate of attack, but owing to the difficulty of assessing the true surface area of overstrained metal, the effect of this stress is difficult to ascertain. Similar tests conducted on Al-7% Mg alloy show that stress has no effect on the resistance of the annealed alloy, but increases the rate of attack of the strain-aged alloy, probably due to exposure of the anodic phase at the grain boundaries. Potential measurements on Al and Al-7% Mg alloy confirm these results. The effect of stress on the corrosion of strain-aged Al-7% Mg in 3% NaCl has been determined by measurement of the O2 absorbed and H2 evolved. There is no characteristic difference between the rate of corrosion - time curves for the stressed and unstressed alloy. A technique for investigating the stress-corrosion susceptibility of materials has been developed and experiments conducted on Al-7% Mg and Al-5% Mg alloys. From the curves of applied stress v. percentage of the loss of strength at failure which is due to stress-corrosion, a method is developed whereby the stress-corrosion susceptibility of materials may be expressed on a comparative basis. The theory that stress concentrations at the base of cracks are responsible for mechanical failure is discussed and an alternative theory of the mechanical role of stress during stress-corrosion, based on eccentric loading, is put forward

Severe Weather Event Attribution: Why values won’t go away

We start by reviewing the complicated situation in methods of scientific attribution of climate change to extreme weather events. We emphasize the social values involved in using both so-called ``storyline'' and ordinary probabilistic or ``risk-based'' methods, noting that one important virtue claimed by the storyline approach is that it features a reduction in false negative results, which has much social and ethical merit, according to its advocates. This merit is critiqued by the probabilistic, risk-based, opponents, who claim the high ground; the usual probabilistic approach is claimed to be more objective and more ``scientific'', under the grounds that it reduces false positive error. We examine this mostly-implicit debate about error, which apparently mirrors the old Jeffrey-Rudner debate. We also argue that there is an overlooked component to the role of values in science: that of second-order inductive risk, and that it makes the relative role of values in the two methods different from what it first appears to be. In fact, neither method helps us to escape social values, and be more scientifically ``objective'' in the sense of being removed or detached from human values and interests. The probabilistic approach does not succeed in doing so, contrary to the claims of its proponents. This is important to understand, because neither method is, fundamentally, a successful strategy for climate scientists to avoid making value judgments

Modelling Sex-Specific Crossover Patterning in Arabidopsis

International audience"Interference" is a major force governing the patterning of meiotic crossovers. A leading model describing how interference influences crossover patterning is the beam-film model, a mechanical model based on the accumulation and redistribution of crossover-promoting “stress” along the chromosome axis. We use the beam-film model in conjunction with a large Arabidopsis reciprocal backcross data set to gain “mechanistic” insights into the differences between male and female meiosis, and crossover patterning. Beam-film modeling suggests that the underlying mechanics of crossover patterning and interference are identical in the two sexes, with the large difference in recombination rates and distributions able to be entirely explained by the shorter chromosome axes in females. The modeling supports previous indications that fewer crossovers occur via the class II pathway in female meiosis and that this could be explained by reduced DNA double-strand breaks in female meiosis, paralleling the observed reduction in synaptonemal complex length between the two sexes. We also demonstrate that changes in the strength of suppression of neighboring class I crossovers can have opposite effects on "effective" interference depending on the distance between two genetic intervals

On the use of self-organizing maps to accelerate vector quantization

Self-organizing maps (SOM) are widely used for their topology preservation property: neighboring input vectors are quantified (or classified) either on the same location or on neighbor ones on a predefined grid. SOM are also widely used for their more classical vector quantization property. We show in this paper that using SOM instead of the more classical Simple Competitive Learning (SCL) algorithm drastically increases the speed of convergence of the vector quantization process. This fact is demonstrated through extensive simulations on artificial and real examples, with specific SOM (fixed and decreasing neighborhoods) and SCL algorithms.Comment: A la suite de la conference ESANN 199

Contemporary Usage of CASE Tools in U. S. Colleges and Universities

CASE tools have been incorporated into Information Systems curriculums for years. Curriculum guidelines in both disciplines call for the use of CASE tools. This paper describes the findings of a study of U.S. college and university information technology programs to determine in which classes CASE was taught, the extent to which the tools were being used, the degree of coverage of tools\u27 functional aspects, and reasons why some academics were not using CASE. The results, which confirm continued CASE usage in academia in accordance with the guidelines, present implications for both the quality of the tools as perceived by academics, as well as their continued use. We note that, at present, there is no academic consensus on choice of a CASE tool, and that the drawing features of CASE tools seem to be used more heavily than other more complex and powerful capabilities. Based on the survey results we conclude that schools should reevaluate their teaching curricula and model curriculum guidelines to justify the importance of teaching and using CASE tools