If You Build It, Will They Come?: Fiscal Federalism, Local Provision of Public Tourist Amenities, and the Vision Iowa Fund

The philosophy of fiscal federalism presumes that local communities will under- or over-provide public amenities in the presence of externalities.� We test this hypothesis using data from Vision Iowa, a state program which provided partial funding to communities to build tourist attractions.� We find a 1% increase in investment increased county taxable retail sales 0.9%.� The State’s return, from program-induced sales tax revenue, averaged 9.2% annually.� Local communities’ returns averaged 0.9% and we find a significant increase in surrounding areas’ sales.� This suggests that without state subsidies, communities would undersupply public amenities aimed at attracting visitors.fiscal federalism; local public goods; subsidy; externality; spillover; amenity; retail sales

How does a cadaver model work for testing ultrasound diagnostic capability for rheumatic-like tendon damage?

To establish whether a cadaver model can serve as an effective surrogate for the detection of tendon damage characteristic of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). In addition, we evaluated intraobserver and interobserver agreement in the grading of RA-like tendon tears shown by US, as well as the concordance between the US findings and the surgically induced lesions in the cadaver model. RA-like tendon damage was surgically induced in the tibialis anterior tendon (TAT) and tibialis posterior tendon (TPT) of ten ankle/foot fresh-frozen cadaveric specimens. Of the 20 tendons examined, six were randomly assigned a surgically induced partial tear; six a complete tear; and eight left undamaged. Three rheumatologists, experts in musculoskeletal US, assessed from 1 to 5 the quality of US imaging of the cadaveric models on a Likert scale. Tendons were then categorized as having either no damage, (0); partial tear, (1); or complete tear (2). All 20 tendons were blindly and independently evaluated twice, over two rounds, by each of the three observers. Overall, technical performance was satisfactory for all items in the two rounds (all values over 2.9 in a Likert scale 1-5). Intraobserver and interobserver agreement for US grading of tendon damage was good (mean κ values 0.62 and 0.71, respectively), with greater reliability found in the TAT than the TPT. Concordance between US findings and experimental tendon lesions was acceptable (70-100 %), again greater for the TAT than for the TPT. A cadaver model with surgically created tendon damage can be useful in evaluating US metric properties of RA tendon lesions

Protocol for the Foot in Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis trial (FiJIA): a randomised controlled trial of an integrated foot care programme for foot problems in JIA

<b>Background</b>: Foot and ankle problems are a common but relatively neglected manifestation of juvenile idiopathic arthritis. Studies of medical and non-medical interventions have shown that clinical outcome measures can be improved. However existing data has been drawn from small non-randomised clinical studies of single interventions that appear to under-represent the adult population suffering from juvenile idiopathic arthritis. To date, no evidence of combined therapies or integrated care for juvenile idiopathic arthritis patients with foot and ankle problems exists. <b>Methods/design</b>: An exploratory phase II non-pharmacological randomised controlled trial where patients including young children, adolescents and adults with juvenile idiopathic arthritis and associated foot/ankle problems will be randomised to receive integrated podiatric care via a new foot care programme, or to receive standard podiatry care. Sixty patients (30 in each arm) including children, adolescents and adults diagnosed with juvenile idiopathic arthritis who satisfy the inclusion and exclusion criteria will be recruited from 2 outpatient centres of paediatric and adult rheumatology respectively. Participants will be randomised by process of minimisation using the Minim software package. The primary outcome measure is the foot related impairment measured by the Juvenile Arthritis Disability Index questionnaire's impairment domain at 6 and 12 months, with secondary outcomes including disease activity score, foot deformity score, active/limited foot joint counts, spatio-temporal and plantar-pressure gait parameters, health related quality of life and semi-quantitative ultrasonography score for inflammatory foot lesions. The new foot care programme will comprise rapid assessment and investigation, targeted treatment, with detailed outcome assessment and follow-up at minimum intervals of 3 months. Data will be collected at baseline, 6 months and 12 months from baseline. Intention to treat data analysis will be conducted. A full health economic evaluation will be conducted alongside the trial and will evaluate the cost effectiveness of the intervention. This will consider the cost per improvement in Juvenile Arthritis Disability Index, and cost per quality adjusted life year gained. In addition, a discrete choice experiment will elicit willingness to pay values and a cost benefit analysis will also be undertaken

AN FPGA IMPLEMENTATION OF MODIFIED DECISION BASED UNSYMMETRICAL TRIMMED MEDIAN FILTER FOR THE REMOVAL OF SALT AND PEPPER NOISE IN DIGITAL IMAGES

A modified decision based unsymmetrical trimmed median filter algorithm for the restoration of gray scale, and color images that are highly corrupted by salt and pepper noise is proposed in this paper. Images are often corrupted by impulse noise during acquisition and transmission; thus, an efficient noise suppression technique is required before subsequent image processing operations. Median filter (MF) is widely used in noise removal methods due to its denoising capability and computational efficiency. However, it is effective only for low noise densities. Extensive experimental results demonstrate that our method can obtain better performances in terms of both subjective and objective evaluations than denoising techniques. Especially, the proposed method can preserve edges very well while removing salt and pepper noise. Modified Decision Based Algorithm (MDBA), and Progressive Switched Median Filter (PSMF) shows better results at low and medium noise densities. At high noise densities, their performance is poor. A new algorithm to remove high-density salt and pepper noise using modified Decision Based Unsymmetric Trimmed Median Filter (DBUTMF) is proposed. The proposed algorithm replaces the noisy pixel by trimmed median. Since our algorithm is algorithmically simple, it is very suitable to be applied to many real-time applications and higher noise densities. When all the pixel values are 0’s and 255’s then the noise pixel is replaced by mean value of all the elements present in the selected window. The proposed algorithm is tested against different grayscale and color images and it gives better Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio (PSNR) and Image Enhancement Factor (IEF)

Energy Efficient Operation of Three Phase Induction Motor using Delstar Converter for Machine Tools

DELSTAR converter is an electronic system to be interfaced with the existing STAR – DELTA starter for machine tools. Induction motor consumes more power while it is operated at DELTA mode for a long time under no load condition. The proposed system gives the solution for the above stated problem. When the load on the motor is less than 40% of full load, it switches the motor to operate in STAR mode to save energy. When the load increases beyond 40%, it automatically switches the motor to operate in DELTA mode. The starting regimen is not disturbed. The proposed converter is recommended for applications where load changes are not more than 120 times/hour. This can be used with any capacity motor by choosing appropriate current transformers and setting the current level using the potentiometer built in. The proposed converter is designed for 5HP induction motor and experimentally tested

MICROBIAL ENZYMATIC REDUCTION OF IRON NANOPARTICLES FOR THE CONTROL OF HUMAN PATHOGENS, STAPHYLOCOCCUS AUREUS, AND SALMONELLA TYPHI

Objective: The objective of this study was to synthesis, characterize, and evaluation of antimicrobial potential of iron nanoparticles (Fe NPs) using Serratia marcescens. Methods: Fe NPs were fabricated by microbial enzyme using ferric chloride as an agent of reduction and stabilization. Fe NPs formation and their elemental nature were confirmed by ultraviolet (UV)-absorption spectroscopy and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, respectively. The morphology of Fe NPs was characterized by a scanning electron microscope (SEM). Functional groups of biomolecules associated with Fe NPs were inferred from characteristic Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy peaks. The antibacterial activity is determined by the disc diffusion method. Results: Synthesized Fe NPs exhibited characteristic UV-absorption spectrum peaks at 263nm. FTIR spectroscopy peaks of Fe NPs, 3411.66, 1629.16, 1039.63, and 601.90 cm−1 corresponds to carbonyl, disulfides, and ethers groups. SEM study demonstrated that the average size was from 200nm with interparticle distances. The crystalline nature of Fe NPs was confirmed from the X-ray diffraction peaks analysis. The intense diffraction peaks due to Fe NPs at 16.32, 22.56, 35.54, 41.08, 52.36, 61.42, 66.42, 78.1, and 85.08. Corresponding to the 110, 150, 200, 430, 550, and 950 facets of the face-centered cubic crystal structure conformed to the Joint Committee on Powder Diffraction Standards: 89-3722 of iron. Antimicrobial activity of Fe NPs against tested Gram-positive and negative bacterial strains showed significant inhibitory zones. Conclusion: The inhibitory zones obtained in the present study reveal that the Fe NPs can act as a good antibacterial agent

Lightly g-closed sets in intuitionistic fuzzy topological spaces

In this paper we introduce intuitionistic fuzzy lightly $\hat{\hat{g}}$-closed sets and intuitionistic fuzzy lightly $\hat{\hat{g}}$-open sets and study some of their properties with suitable examples are given