Leading the Way?: Maine's Initial Experience in Expanding Coverage Through Dirigo Health Reforms

Examines interim indicators -- enrollment of the previously uninsured, responses from small firms and the working poor, and the impact on costs -- of Maine's progress in providing affordable health insurance through the Dirigo Health program

Computation of fixed points in a circular machine

This paper describes an algorithm to compute the fixed points (closed orbit or higher order fixed points) in a circular machine together with the linear transformation around it by tracking trajectories on a small number of turns. It can be applied to a phase space with an arbitrary number of dimensions. It is particularly useful to check the consistency between trajectory tracking and transfer matrix calculation in any optics code

Étude en microscopie électronique à balayage de l'installation de deux souches de Xanthomonas campestris pv manihotis sur feuilles de vitroplants de manioc

L'installation de 2 souches de Xanthomonas campestris pv manihotis, agressive (XCM17) et non agressive (XCM4), est suivie conjointement par numération et par microscopie électronique à balayage, sur des vitroplants de manioc. Les observations réalisées en microscopie électronique à balayage confirment la dynamique de population des 2 souches et permettent aussi de localiser les bactéries à la surface des tissus. Immédiatement après inoculation, l'aspect et la répartition des bactéries à la surface du limbe sont identiques quelle que soit la souche. Six jours après inoculation, la souche non agressive (XCM4) qui ne se multiplie pas ou peu à la surface du limbe n'entraîne pas d'altération des tissus foliaires. L'observation décèle la présence d'un voile recouvrant les cellules bactériennes. Dans les mêmes conditions, la souche agressive (XCM17) se multiplie rapidement ; on note la présence d'amas bactériens à proximité des stomates et les tissus présentent des altérations importantes. La méthode d'inoculation mise au point sur vitroplants de manioc permet de reproduire les symptômes caractéristiques de la maladie et de retrouver le comportement attendu des variétés utilisées. La culture in vitro fournit un matériel commode pour l'étude par différentes techniques des premières étapes de l'infection

Protein Inhibitors of Calcium Salt Crystal Growth in Saliva, Bile and Pancreatic Juice

The control of the formation of crystals in biological fluids is one of the most exciting field of research involving both organic and biochemical areas. Many organisms have evolved mechanisms which minimize or avoid the effects of nucleation and crystal growth formation. One of the most important mechanism is the interaction of specific proteins, called inhibitors, with crystals which alters their habits and leads to their elimination. This article, focused on saliva, pancreatic juice and bile, reviews our present knowledge on the structure-function relationships existing between these proteins and their ability to inhibit the growth of different calcium salt crystals

Verdier specialization via weak factorization

Let X in V be a closed embedding, with V - X nonsingular. We define a constructible function on X, agreeing with Verdier's specialization of the constant function 1 when X is the zero-locus of a function on V. Our definition is given in terms of an embedded resolution of X; the independence on the choice of resolution is obtained as a consequence of the weak factorization theorem of Abramovich et al. The main property of the specialization function is a compatibility with the specialization of the Chern class of the complement V-X. With the definition adopted here, this is an easy consequence of standard intersection theory. It recovers Verdier's result when X is the zero-locus of a function on V. Our definition has a straightforward counterpart in a motivic group. The specialization function and the corresponding Chern class and motivic aspect all have natural `monodromy' decompositions, for for any X in V as above. The definition also yields an expression for Kai Behrend's constructible function when applied to (the singularity subscheme of) the zero-locus of a function on V.Comment: Minor revision. To appear in Arkiv f\"or Matemati