[This corrects the article on p. 439 in vol. 108.].

There is also a growing consensus that evidence of teachers’ contributions to student learning should be a component of teacher evaluation systems, along with evidence about the quality of teachers’ practice. “Value Added Models” (VAMs) for looking at gains in student test scores from one year to the next are promoted as tools to accomplish this goal. Policy makers can benefit from research abo...

In 1999, Medicare implemented a resource-based relative value unit (RVU) system for physician practice expense payments, and increased the number of services for which practice expense payments differ by site. Using 1998-2004 data, we examined RVU growth and decomposed that growth into resource-based RVUs, site of service, and service quantity and mix. We found that the number services with sit...

background values used by the nursing profession are essential in order to maintain high standards of the nursing care. objectives the aim of this study was to compare the perspective of nursing students from type ι and iii universities of medical sciences about professional values of nursing in iran. materials and methods in this cross-sectional survey, we investigated the professional values ...

Evaluating the fit of a structural equation model via bootstrap requires a transformation of the data so that the null hypothesis holds exactly in the sample. For complete data, such a transformation was proposed by Beran and Srivastava (1985) for general covariance structure models and applied to structural equation modeling by Bollen and Stine (1992) . An extension of this transformation to m...

Maintaining good soil productivity in rice paddies is important for global food security. Numerous methods have been developed to evaluate paddy soil productivity (PSP), most based on soil physiochemical properties and relatively few on biological indices. Here, we used a long-term dataset from experiments on paddy fields at eight county sites and a short-term dataset from a single field experi...

Recycling schemes are being used worldwide to reduce the impact of municipal waste. Those using public funds are usually obliged to set performance indicators by which the standards of such schemes can be measured. In the UK, a set of statutory Best Value Performance Indicators (BVPI) must be reported annually, such as the Quality of Fair Access, which monitors the public's access to recycling ...

A key element in the construction of a physician fee schedule is the underlying relative value scale (RVS). The focus in this article is on the development and comparison of RVS's based on alternative data sources and construction methods. Results suggest that medical procedures' values are preserved across alternative charge-based RVS's. Some differences are observed, however, when comparing p...

Medicare has begun to implement a new payment system for physician services; the system's cornerstone is a resource-based relative value scale (RBRVS) that divides physician services into three components--physician work, practice expense, and malpractice insurance--and calculates a relative value for each component. The relative values for the components are adjusted for geographic differences...

An analytical model for mid-infrared (mid-IR) silicon Raman lasers (SRLs) is developed. The relative intensity noise (RIN) transfer from the pump to the Stokes in the lasers is also investigated. The analytical model can be used as a versatile and efficient tool for analysis, design and optimization of mid-IR SRLs. It is shown that conversion efficiency of 70% is attainable and the low-frequenc...