Montana\u27s Agritourism and Recreation Business: Ten Years Later

There is a wide variety of recreation and tourism activities on farms and ranches, ranging from Fish, Wildlife and Parks Block Management to cabin rentals to horseback rides. To further understand farm and ranch recreation businesses, the Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research conducted a survey of Montana farms and ranches currently involved in tourism or recreation or thinking about starting in that field. The purpose of this investigation was to gain a clearer picture of what is currently happening on farms and ranches in terms of recreation and tourism activities, to gauge what may be happening in the near future, and to cautiously compare these finding with those of the 1997 survey to estimate how agritourism in the state may be changing

The significance of indirect costs—application to clinical laboratory test economics using computer facilities

The significance of indirect costs in the cost price calculation of clinical chemistry laboratory tests by way of the production centres method has been investigated. A cost structure model based on the ‘production centres’ method, the Academisch Ziekenhuis Groningen (AZG) 1-2-3 model, is used for the calculation of cost and cost prices as an add-in tool to the spreadsheet program Lotus 1-2-3. The system specifications of the AZG 1-2-3 cost structure model have been extended with facilities to impute all relevant indirect costs to cost centres by aid of allocation rules, which can be chosen freely. The inference is made that as indirect costs play a more important part in decision-making processes concerning planning and control, the specification of the relation to the cost centres should be determined in a more detailed way. The AZG 1-2-3 cost structure model has therefore been extended in order to increase the significance as a management tool for laboratory management

Space--time fluctuations and the spreading of wavepackets

Using a density matrix description in space we study the evolution of wavepackets in a fluctuating space-time background. We assume that space-time fluctuations manifest as classical fluctuations of the metric. From the non-relativistic limit of a non-minimally coupled Klein-Gordon equation we derive a Schr\"odinger equation with an additive gaussian random potential. This is transformed into an effective master equation for the density matrix. The solutions of this master equation allow to study the dynamics of wavepackets in a fluctuating space-time, depending on the fluctuation scenario. We show how different scenarios alter the diffusion properties of wavepackets.Comment: 11 page

Digital dermoscopy to determine skin melanin index as an objective indicator of skin pigmentation

Clinical assessment of skin photosensitivity is subjectively determined by erythema and tanning responses to sunlight recalled by the subject, alternatively known as Fitzpatrick Skin Phototype (SPT). Responses may be unreliable due to recall bias, subjective bias by clinicians and subjects, and lack of cultural sensitivity of the questions. Analysis of red-green-blue (RGB) color spacing of digital images may provide an objective determination of SPT. This paper presents the studies to assess the melanin index (MI), as determined by RGB images obtained by both standard digital camera as well as by videodermoscope, and to correlate the MI with SPT based upon subjects' verbal responses to standardized questions administered by a dermatologist. A sample of subjects representing all SPTs I–VI was selected. Both the digital camera and videodermoscope were calibrated at standard illumination, light source and white balance. Images of constitutive skin of the upper ventral arm were taken of each subject using both instruments. The studies showed that 58 subjects (20 M, 38 F) were enrolled in the study (mean age: 47 years; range: 20–89), stratified to skin phototype I–VI. MI obtained by using both digital camera and videodermoscope increased significantly as the SPT increased (p = 0.004 and p &lt; 0.0001, respectively) and positively correlated with dermatologist-assessed SPT (Spearman correlation, r = 0.48 and r = 0.84, respectively). Digital imaging can quantify melanin content in order to quantitatively approximate skin pigmentation in all skin phototypes including Type VI skin. This methodology holds promise as a simple, non-invasive, rapid and objective approach to reliably determine skin phototype and, with further investigation, may prove to be both practical and useful in the prediction of skin cancer risk.</p