Digital cardiometer computes and displays heartbeat rate

To compute the heartbeat rate from the waveform output of an electrocardiogram, a digital cardiometer with solid state circuit elements has been developed. This computes the beat every 15 seconds and visually presents the data on numerical display tubes

Do Drug Plans Matter? Effects of Drug Plan Eligibility on Drug Use Among the Elderly, Social Assistance Recipients and the General Population

The 1984 Canada Health Act does not require that the provinces subsidize prescription drugs. Many provinces do, however, provide categorical coverage to the elderly, social assistance recipients and others, although the generosity of coverage is highly variable. A system of parallel private insurance covers the non-elderly ineligible for social assistance. In this study, we assessed the socio- economic, health and demographic determinants of private drug insurance. We also assessed the effect of inter-provincial variations in drug insurance coverage for the elderly and low income on variations in drug insurance coverage for the elderly and low income on their drug use. In addition, using instrumental variables methods, we considered the effect of prescription drug insurance coverage status on drug use in the non-elderly population ineligible for social assistance. Consistent with the previous literature, we find that for most seniors and non-indigent, drug coverage has only minor effects on drug use. The drug use of social assistance recipients was, however, sensitive to even relatively modest copayments of $0-$6.prescription drug utilization, copayments, user fees, pharmaceutical cost control

Colored Pseudo-Goldstone Bosons and Gauge Boson Pairs

If the electroweak symmetry breaking sector contains colored particles weighing a few hundred GeV, then they will be copiously produced at a hadron supercollider. Colored technipions can rescatter into pairs of gauge bosons. As proposed by Bagger, Dawson, and Valencia, this leads to gauge boson pair rates far larger than in the standard model. In this note we reconsider this mechanism, and illustrate it in a model in which the rates can be reliably calculated. The observation of both an enhanced rate of gauge-boson-pair events and colored particles would be a signal that the colored particles were pseudo-Goldstone bosons of symmetry breaking.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures not include

A Generic Algorithm for IACT Optical Efficiency Calibration using Muons

Muons produced in Extensive Air Showers (EAS) generate ring-like images in Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes when travelling near parallel to the optical axis. From geometrical parameters of these images, the absolute amount of light emitted may be calculated analytically. Comparing the amount of light recorded in these images to expectation is a well established technique for telescope optical efficiency calibration. However, this calculation is usually performed under the assumption of an approximately circular telescope mirror. The H.E.S.S. experiment entered its second phase in 2012, with the addition of a fifth telescope with a non-circular 600m$^2$ mirror. Due to the differing mirror shape of this telescope to the original four H.E.S.S. telescopes, adaptations to the standard muon calibration were required. We present a generalised muon calibration procedure, adaptable to telescopes of differing shapes and sizes, and demonstrate its performance on the H.E.S.S. II array.Comment: In Proceedings of the 34th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC2015), The Hague, The Netherland

Death Spiral or Euthanasia? The Demise of Generous Group Health Insurance Coverage

Employers must determine which sorts of healthcare insurance plans to offer employees and also set employee premiums for each plan provided. Depending on how they structure the premiums that employees pay across different healthcare insurance plans, plan sponsors alter the incentives to choose one plan over another. If employees know they differ by risk level but premiums do not fully reflect these risk differences, this can give rise to a so-called "death spiral" due to adverse selection. In this paper use longitudinal information from a natural experiment in the management of health benefits for a large employer to explore the impact of moving from a fixed dollar contribution policy to a risk-adjusted employer contribution policy. Our results suggest that implementing a significant risk adjustment had no discernable effect on adverse selection against the most generous indemnity insurance policy. This stands in stark contrast to previous studies, which have tended to find large impacts. Further analysis suggests that previous studies which appeared to detect plans in the throes of a death spiral, may instead have been experiencing an inexorable movement away from a non-preferred product, one that would have been inefficient for almost all workers even in the absence of adverse selection.

Global Dimension of Polynomial Rings in Partially Commuting Variables

For any free partially commutative monoid $M(E,I)$, we compute the global dimension of the category of $M(E,I)$-objects in an Abelian category with exact coproducts. As a corollary, we generalize Hilbert's Syzygy Theorem to polynomial rings in partially commuting variables.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figure

Criminal History Enhancements Sourcebook

Criminal history scores make up one of the two most significant determinants of the punishment an offender receives in a sentencing guidelines jurisdiction. While prior convictions are taken into account by all U.S. sentencing systems, sentencing guidelines make the role of prior crimes more explicit by specifying the counting rules and by indicating the effect of prior convictions on sentence severity. Yet, once established, criminal history scoring formulas go largely unexamined. Moreover, there is great diversity across state and federal jurisdictions in the ways that an offender's criminal record is considered by courts at sentencing. This Sourcebook brings together for the first time information on criminal history enhancements in all existing U.S. sentencing guidelines systems. Building on this base, the Sourcebook examines major variations in the approaches taken by these systems, and identifies the underlying sentencing policy issues raised by such enhancements.The Sourcebook contains the following elements:A summary of criminal history enhancements in all guidelines jurisdictions;An analysis of the critical dimensions of an offender's previous convictions;A discussion of the policy options available to commissions considering amendments to their criminal history enhancements;A bibliography of key readings on the role of prior convictions at sentencing

A new era for oil prices

Since 2003 the international oil market has been moving away from the previous 20-year equilibrium in which prices fluctuated around $25/bbl (in today's dollars). The single most important reason is that growing demand has eliminated the structural surplus of crude production capacity which had existed since the oil price shock of 1979-83. So far, the higher oil prices since 2003, and even higher since 2005, have not induced economic recession in oil-importing countries so that oil demand has not fallen as it did in the 1980s after the second oil shock. Unless this occurs, a structural surplus will not be recreated, and prices are likely to remain 'high' -- above$50/bbl -- until longer-term reactions take effect. If the political situation in the Middle East deteriorates further prices could reach new levels, but the reaction would be quicker and stronger. Meanwhile, supply and demand are set to expand roughly in balance over the next five years, though there are many uncertainties which will lead to short-term fluctuations. With so little controllable flexibility in supply or demand, prices will remain volatile in the short term.(cont.) Five or more years of oil and related energy prices averaging double (or more) their previous long-term average cannot fail to create a new long-term situation both in terms of economic behaviour and government policy. This will bring new competition which will simultaneously reduce the demand for energy, increase the supply of oil, and increase the substitution of other fuels for oil outside the transport sector. As these forces develop, oil prices will be unstable through the long term. For the transport sector, there is a very large range of possibilities which do not depend on the development of new technology. Examples are a shift in US vehicle demand to vehicles with typical Japanese or European fuel efficiency (which would reduce world transport fuel demand by nearly 10%) and the opening of US and European markets to competition from Brazilian and other developing country ethanol supplies. A period of high oil prices will also lead to investment to increase the production of liquid fuels from oil sands or natural gas. Once these investments are made, they are likely to continue producing as long as their operating costs remain lower than the price of oil

Autonomous control procedures for shuttle rendezvous proximity operations

The results are presented of a study which uses fuzzy sets to model a Space Shuttle pilot's reasoning and actions while performing rendezvous proximity operation maneuvers. In this model fuzzy sets are used to simulate smooth and continuous actions as would be expected from an experienced pilot and to simulate common sense reasoning in the decision process. The present model assumes visual information available to the Shuttle pilot from the Shuttle Crew Optical Alignment Sighting (COAS) device and the overhead window and rendezvous radar sensor information available to him from an onboard display. This model will be used in a flight analysis simulator to perform studies requiring a large number of runs, each of which currently needs an engineer in the loop to supply the piloting decisions. This work has much broader implications in control of robots such as the Flight Telerobotic Servicer, in automated pilot control and attitude control, and in advisory and evaluation functions that could be used for flight data monitoring or for testing of various rule sets in flight preparation