In 1997 health spending in the United States increased just 4.8 percent to $1.1 trillion. As a share of gross domestic product (GDP), national health expenditures (NHE) absorbed 13.5 percent of the country's output in 1997--a share that has remained relatively constant for 5 years. Despite the relative stability in recent years, signs of changing trends are emerging.

The dynamics of dark matter-wave solitons in elongated atomic condensates are discussed at finite temperatures. Simulations with the stochastic Gross-Pitaevskii equation reveal a noticeable, experimentally observable spread in individual soliton trajectories, attributed to inherent fluctuations in both phase and density of the underlying medium. Averaging over a number of such trajectories (as ...

The choice of free parameters in network models is subjective, since it depends on what topological properties are being monitored. However, we show that the maximum likelihood (ML) principle indicates a unique, statistically rigorous parameter choice, associated with a well-defined topological feature. We then find that, if the ML condition is incompatible with the built-in parameter choice, n...

Core indicators are, simply put, the ways we come to understand the inputs and outcomes of a program or project that we may or may not be able to observe directly. In Chapter 1, we identify a variety of factors that can impact program outcomes. In this chapter, we concentrate on those indicators that are most relevant and immediate to ICT-supported educational programs and projects, what we ter...

M. Pernpeintner, T. Faust, F. Hocke, J. P. Kotthaus, E. M. Weig, H. Huebl, and R. Gross Walther-Meißner-Institut, Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften, D-85748 Garching, Germany Nanosystems Initiative Munich, Schellingstraße 4, D-80799 M€ unchen, Germany Physik-Department, Technische Universit€ at M€ unchen, D-85748 Garching, Germany Center for NanoScience (CeNS) and Fakult€ at f€ ur Physik, ...

HOW BIG A ROLE THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD play in the economy is always a central issue in political debates. But measuring the size of government is not simple. People often use shorthand measures, such as the ratio of spending to gross domestic product (GDP) or of tax revenues to GDP. But those measures leave out important aspects of government action. For example, they do not capture the ways gov...

We have investigated the gross, microscopic and molecular effects of carnitine deficiency in the neonatal gut using a mouse model with a loss-of-function mutation in the OCTN2 (SLC22A5) carnitine transporter. The tissue carnitine content of neonatal homozygous (OCTN2(-/-)) mouse small intestine was markedly reduced; the intestine displayed signs of stunted villous growth, early signs of inflamm...

We investigate the critical behaviour of a three-dimensional lattice χUφ3 model in the chiral limit. The model consists of a staggered fermion field, a U(1) gauge field (with coupling parameter β) and a complex scalar field (with hopping parameter κ). Two different methods are used: 1) fits of the chiral condensate and the mass of the neutral unconfined composite fermion to an equation of state...

for i = 1, · · · , N . Note that the sum over i is taken inside the parenthes before taking the square, which is not very clear in the way Peskin–Schroeder writes the Lagrangian density. I’ve put the subscript g0 to indicate that it is the bare coupling. This model describes massless spin 1/2 fermions in one spatial dimension with an attractive short-range potential. What the model does is that...

Maurice Gross (1934-2001) was both a great linguist and a pioneer in natural language processing. This article is written in homage to his memory. Maurice Gross is remembered as a vital man surrounded by a lively group, constituted by his laboratory, the LADL, and by his international network, RELEX. He and his group always resolutely steered away from any kind of abstemiousness or abstinence. ...