A virtual element method for the vibration problem of Kirchhoff plates

The aim of this paper is to develop a virtual element method (VEM) for the vibration problem of thin plates on polygonal meshes. We consider a variational formulation relying only on the transverse displacement of the plate and propose an $H^2(\Omega)$ conforming discretization by means of the VEM which is simple in terms of degrees of freedom and coding aspects. Under standard assumptions on the computational domain, we establish that the resulting schemeprovides a correct approximation of the spectrum and prove optimal order error estimates for the eigenfunctions and a double order for the eigenvalues. The analysis restricts to simply connected polygonal clamped plates, not necessarily convex. Finally, we report several numerical experiments illustrating the behaviour of the proposed scheme and confirming our theoretical results on different families of meshes. Additional examples of cases not covered by our theory are also presented

An Overview Of The Home Health Prospective Payment System Rate Update For CY 2009

Beginning October 1, 2000, as required by the Balanced Budget Act (BBA) of 1997 and related amendments, Medicare began to reimburse home health agencies for home health services under the new Home Health Prospective Payment System (HHPPS). Under HHPPS, all home health costs for services including medical supplies are paid using a basic unit of payment known as the 60-Day Episode. The amount of the payment is calculated using a national standardized rate, adjusted for case mix and a wage index based on the site of service. For 60-Day Episodes beginning and ending in 2008, the Medicare HHPPS national standardized rate was updated by a new 153 case mix grouping and a new wage index value determined by the site of service for the patient.  The August 29,2008 ( 72 FR 49792) and November 30, 2008( 72 FR 67656) Federal Registers discuss the “Home Health Prospective Payment System Refinement and Rate Update For Calendar Year 2008” changes which include a rebasing and revising of the home health market basket resulting in new labor portion percentage of 77.082 and non-labor portion percentage of 22.918, the new LUPA (Low Utilization Payment Adjustments) per visit payment amounts, the inclusion of an  additional payment for NRS ( Non-Routine Supplies), elimination of the SCIC(Significant Change In Condition) payment, and adjustments to PEP ( Partial Episode Payment) and Outlier payments. This paper discusses an overview of the updated 2008 Medicare HHPPS national standardized rate for CY 2009

Bartolomé de las Casas and the dissemination of the black legend in England

The Black Legend has been essential in the history of Spain, specially in the relations between Spaniards and England. One of the figures that contributed to the creation of this Black Legend was Bartolomé de las Casas and his work in the defense of the Native Indians of America, Brevísima relación de la destrucción de las Indias. The following dissertation shows how the translations of Las Casas’ work have a great importance in the dissemination of the Black Legen in England. For this, four English translation of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries are analyzed, paying special attention to the prefatory and paratextual material, from the prefaces to the images added to the original material. This analysis proves a thematic pattern describing negatively both Spaniards and their actions, which significantly marked the perception of Spain in England.La Leyenda Negra ha sido esencial en la historia de España, especialmente en las relaciones de los españoles con Inglaterra. Una de las figuras que contribuyó a la creación de esta Leyenda Negra fue Bartolomé de las Casas y su obra en la defensa de los indios de América, Brevísima relación de la destrucción de las Indias. El siguiente trabajo muestra como las traducciones de la obra de Las Casas tienen una gran importancia en la divulgación de la leyenda negra en Inglaterra. Para ello, se han analizado cuatro traducciones inglesas de los siglos dieciséis y diecisiete, poniendo especial atención al material prefatorio y paratexual, desde los prefacios a las imágines añadidas al material orginial. Este análisis demuestra un patrón temático a la hora de describir negativamente tanto a los españoles como sus acciones, lo que marcó significativamente la visión de España en Inglaterra.Departamento de Filología InglesaGrado en Estudios Inglese

Identifying treatment effects and counterfactual distributions using data combination with unobserved heterogeneity

This paper considers identification of treatment effects when the outcome variables and covari-ates are not observed in the same data sets. Ecological inference models, where aggregate out-come information is combined with individual demographic information, are a common example of these situations. In this context, the counterfactual distributions and the treatment effects are not point identified. However, recent results provide bounds to partially identify causal effects. Unlike previous works, this paper adopts the selection on unobservables assumption, which means that randomization of treatment assignments is not achieved until time fixed unobserved heterogeneity is controlled for. Panel data models linear in the unobserved components are con-sidered to achieve identification. To assess the performance of these bounds, this paper provides a simulation exercise