The collection of delinquent fines is a vast and ongoing public administration challenge. In the UK, unpaid fines amount to more than a half billion pounds. Managing noncompliant accounts and dispatching bailiffs to collect fines in person is costly. This paper reports the results of a large randomized controlled trial designed to test the effectiveness of mobile phone text messaging as an alte...

Fine excipient particles or 'fines' have been shown to improve the dispersion performance of carrier-based formulations for dry powder inhalation. Mechanistic formulation studies have focussed mainly on explaining this positive effect. Previous studies have shown that higher drug contents may cause a decrease in dispersion performance, and there is no reason why this should not be true for fine...

Abstract Growing application of artificial intelligence in geotechnical engineering has been observed; however, its ability to predict the properties and nonlinear behaviour reactive soil is currently not well considered. Although previous studies provided linear correlations between shrink–swell index Atterberg limits, obtained model accuracy values were found unsatisfactory results. Artificia...

To determine if deoxynivalenol (DON) is concentrated in small corn screenings, fourteen to twenty-three 1.1 kg test samples were taken from each of 10 barges of shelled corn. Each of the 181 test samples was divided into 2 components (fines and clean) using a 5 mm screen. The clean component sample rode the 5 mm screen and the fines component sample passed through the 5 mm screen. The DON conce...

Using a dataset of over 1.6 million inspections by the Occupational Safety and Health Agency (OSHA) from 1990 through 2010, we explore the determinants of inspection and enforcement outcomes. OSHA is an institutionally split agency, with the federal agency conducting inspections in 25 states and state agencies conducting inspections in the remaining 25. The geographic variety and range over 21 ...

The diterpenes cafestol and kahweol are present in unfiltered coffee in oil droplets and floating fines. They elevate serum cholesterol and alanine aminotransferase (ALT). We measured fines in coffee brews, and examined diterpene availability from spent grounds in healthy volunteers. Turkish or Scandinavian boiled coffee contained 2-5 g fines/L and French press coffee contained 1.5 g fines/L. A...

PURPOSE This study examined federal and state civil money penalties and fines collected from nursing homes and how states used the collected funds. DESIGN AND METHODS We used a telephone survey of state officials, Freedom of Information Act requests, state Web site searches, and stakeholder interviews to describe the funds collected, the availability and the use of funds, public information a...