Property Taxation of Multifamily Housing: An Empirical Analysis of Vertical and Horizontal Equity and Assessment Methods

This study used the hedonic price technique to focus on a housing characteristic that has been studied infrequently: whether a home is site-built or manufactured. Two hedonic price regression models were used to determine the predictive power of construction type on home price. The ?rst, which controlled for factors found to relate to home prices in previous research, showed a signi?cant difference between the prices of the two types of homes. The second, which also included other variables through a stepwise regression, found that the type of construction had more predictive power than any other explanatory variable in the model.

State Cigarette Excise Tax, Secondhand Smoke Exposure, and Periodontitis in US Nonsmokers

Objectives. We assessed the relationship of state cigarette excise tax with cigarette sales, secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure, and periodontitis among US lifetime nonsmokers. Methods. Cigarette excise tax and per capita sales data from 1983 to 1998 were obtained for 50 states and the District of Columbia. Periodontal data were analyzed for 3137 adults in 28 states from 3 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey cycles (1999–2004). Measures of periodontal pocket depth and attachment level were used to classify people with moderate or severe periodontitis. SHS exposure was classified according to gender- or race/ethnicity–specific thresholds of serum cotinine concentration. Statistical analysis adjusted for the complex survey design. Results. For each additional $0.10 in excise tax, predicted sales decreased by 0.74 packs per person per month and adjusted odds of moderate or severe periodontitis decreased 22% (odds ratio [OR] = 0.78; 95% confidence interval [CI]= 0.62, 0.97). For each pack sold per person per month, adjusted odds of SHS exposure increased 28% (95% CI = 1.17, 1.40) and adjusted odds of periodontitis increased 15% (95% CI = 1.03, 1.29). Odds of periodontitis for those exposed to SHS were elevated 2-fold relative to those who were unexposed (OR = 2.03; 95% CI = 1.30, 3.20). Conclusions. Cigarette excise tax may protect nonsmokers against periodontitis

Oral health-related quality of life is important for patients, but what about populations?

To review population-based research into oral health related quality of life

Mapping adult education in Scotland - hills and glens, challenging roads and hidden pathways

Adult education is a very diverse area of practice nationally and internationally, with educators across Europe employing a wide range of skills, knowledge and practices in their everyday activity (Buiskool, Van Lakerveld and Broek 2009, 2010; Wihak, van Kleef, & Harris 2014). There has been acknowledgement that adult education is now contextualised in a period of instability and unpredictability, where learning programmes are more often geared towards assisting learners to compete for employment within a globalised economy (Wildemeerch, 2014; Forster, 2015; Galloway, 2016). In 2014, the Scottish Government presented its vision document for adult education in Scotland (Scottish Government, 2014) setting set out an intention to achieve world leading adult education provision in Scotland. The Scottish Government launched an unfunded consultation to take forward this vision, creating National Working Groups to consult around themes including ‘learner voice’, ‘professional development’ and ‘family learning’. This paper describes the difficulties of developing an unfunded consultation around the future of adult learning, the processes of consultation and the findings, particularly as they relate to the ongoing professional development needs of adult educators. The policy context for adult education in Scotland is described (e.g. Tett, Hamilton, & Crowther, 2012), which draws upon community learning and social practice approaches (CLD, 2018, Scottish Executive, 2001; 2005). The scope of the consultation is explained, as informed by professional competencies for adult educators (Galloway, 2015). Consultation took three forms. Firstly, by producing an analysis of existing professional development opportunities for adult education professionals. Secondly, through an on-line survey of the professional development opportunities, needs and requirements for adult education practitioners in Scotland. Finally, focus groups were conducted with adult education practitioners and managers at a series of three consultation events, including one held in a prison context. The findings indicate that wide range of adult education projects continue to be delivered across Scotland. However, there are challenges relating to capacity building, changing community needs, fewer opportunities to network and exchange ideas and supporting students with specific needs, particularly around mental health. Examples also emerged of practitioners’ initiatives to address these challenges and the authors reflect upon opportunities for enriching the adult education map of Scotland and how researchers might respond

Cognitive vulnerability and dental fear

Background: The Cognitive Vulnerability Model proposes that perceptions of certain characteristics of a situation are critical determinants of fear. Although the model is applicable to all animal, natural environment and situational fears, it has not yet been applied specifically to dental fear. This study therefore aimed to examine the association between dental fear and perceptions of dental visits as uncontrollable, unpredictable and dangerous. Methods: The study used a clustered, stratified national sample of Australians aged 15 years and over. All participants were asked in a telephone interview survey to indicate their level of dental fear. Participants who received an oral examination were subsequently provided with a selfcomplete questionnaire in which they rated their perceptions of uncontrollability, unpredictability and dangerousness associated with dental visiting. Results: 3937 participants were recruited. Each of the three vulnerability-related perceptions was strongly associated with the prevalence of high dental fear. In a logistic regression analysis, uncontrollability and dangerousness perceptions were significantly associated with high dental fear after controlling for age and sex. However, unpredictability perceptions did not have a statistically significant independent association with dental fear after controlling for all other variables. Conclusion: Results are mostly consistent with the Cognitive Vulnerability Model of the etiology of fear, with perceptions of uncontrollability, unpredictability and dangerousness each showing a strong bivariate relationship with high dental fear prevalence. However, more extensive measures of vulnerability perceptions would be valuable in future investigations.Jason M. Armfield, Gary D. Slade and A. John Spence

Apparent Size as the Determinant of Prey Selection by Bluegill Sunfish (Lepomis Macrochirus)

Copyright by the Ecological Society of America. This is the publisher's version, also available electronically from http://www.jstor.org/stable/1935055.Although it is known that visual predation by planktivorous fish tends to be size selective, the mechanism by which fish select their prey has not previously been described. Experiments in which bluegill sunfish (Lepomis macrochirus) were given a binary choice between prey of different sizes presented at different distances showed the fish selected the prey that appeared largest, either because of its actual size or its proximity to the fish. This paper incorporates this mechanism of prey selection by apparent size into a model of bluegill predation. According to the model, bluegill, in choosing the apparently largest prey under all conditions, alter their diet composition depending upon the abundance of prey. When prey are abundant, bluegill predominantly select prey of the largest size class available because these have the greatest probability of appearing largest; as large prey become scarce and smaller prey have a greater chance of appearing large, the fish tend to eat more prey from smaller size classes. When the model is tested against data from published fish-feeding experiments, the predicted size ratios of prey eaten correlate accurately with the observed ratios and numbers of prey eaten

Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of the Association Between Exposure to Environmental Tobacco Smoke and Periodontitis Endpoints Among Nonsmokers

A systematic review was conducted to summarize the epidemiological evidence on environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) exposure and prevalent periodontitis endpoints among nonsmokers

Parental perceptions of children's oral health: The Early Childhood Oral Health Impact Scale (ECOHIS)

Abstract Background Dental disease and treatment experience can negatively affect the oral health related quality of life (OHRQL) of preschool aged children and their caregivers. Currently no valid and reliable instrument is available to measure these negative influences in very young children. The objective of this research was to develop the Early Childhood Oral Health Impact Scale (ECOHIS) to measure the OHRQL of preschool children and their families. Methods Twenty-two health professionals evaluated a pool of 45 items that assess the impact of oral health problems on 6-14-year-old children and their families. The health professionals identified 36 items as relevant to preschool children. Thirty parents rated the importance of these 36 items to preschool children; 13 (9 child and 4 family) items were considered important. The 13-item ECOHIS was administered to 295 parents of 5-year-old children to assess construct validity and internal consistency reliability (using Cronbach's alpha). Test-retest reliability was evaluated among another sample of parents (N = 46) using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). Results ECOHIS scores on the child and parent sections indicating worse quality of life were significantly associated with fair or poor parental ratings of their child's general and oral health, and the presence of dental disease in the child. Cronbach's alphas for the child and family sections were 0.91 and 0.95 respectively, and the ICC for test-retest reliability was 0.84. Conclusion The ECOHIS performed well in assessing OHRQL among children and their families. Studies in other populations are needed to further establish the instrument's technical properties

Tooth loss and obstructive sleep apnea signs and symptoms in the US population

The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between tooth loss and signs and symptoms of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in a representative sample of the general US population

Overlapping Chronic Pain Conditions: Implications for Diagnosis and Classification

AbstractThere is increasing recognition that many if not most common chronic pain conditions are heterogeneous with a high degree of overlap or coprevalence of other common pain conditions along with influences from biopsychosocial factors. At present, very little attention is given to the high degree of overlap of many common pain conditions when recruiting for clinical trials. As such, many if not most patients enrolled into clinical studies are not representative of most chronic pain patients. The failure to account for the heterogeneous and overlapping nature of most common pain conditions may result in treatment responses of small effect size when these treatments are administered to patients with chronic overlapping pain conditions (COPCs) represented in the general population. In this brief review we describe the concept of COPCs and the putative mechanisms underlying COPCs. Finally, we present a series of recommendations that will advance our understanding of COPCs.PerspectiveThis brief review describes the concept of COPCs. A mechanism-based heuristic model is presented and current knowledge and evidence for COPCs are presented. Finally, a set of recommendations is provided to advance our understanding of COPCs