Steel test panel helps control additives in pyrophosphate copper plating

Test panel helps control maximum tolerance level for plating solution contaminants. It provides low, medium, and high-current density areas such as exist in production plating, and plating is examined for uniformity of texture and ductility

A Method of Utilizing Accounting Records for Nurseries Producing Field Grown Stock

Exact date of bulletin unknown.PDF pages: 1

Manganese-alumina-ceramic glass eliminates rigid controls necessary in bonding metals to ceramics

Matrix of manganese-alumino-silicate glass simplifies the processes of metallizing alumina ceramics. Because the manganese in the glass is preoxidized to the 2 plus state by firing in nitrogen, the ceramic can be metallized in dry hydrogen. Lengthening the firing time permits a lower metallizing temperature

Banking on foreigners : the behavior of international Bank lending to Latin America, 1985-2000

Rising international bank financing to developing countries has fueled a debate on the behavior of these claims. The authors analyze claims from seven home (lender) countries on ten host (borrower) countries in Latin America. They find that banks transmit shocks from their home countries and changes in their claims on other countries spill over to individual hosts. However, lending has become less"indiscriminate"and more responsive to host conditions over time. Responsiveness to the latter becomes less"pro-cyclical"as exposure increases. Finally, foreign bank lending reacts more to positive than to negative host shocks and is not significantly curtailed during crises.Banks&Banking Reform,Financial Intermediation,Economic Theory&Research,Payment Systems&Infrastructure,Financial Crisis Management&Restructuring,Banks&Banking Reform,Financial Intermediation,Financial Crisis Management&Restructuring,Economic Theory&Research,Insurance&Risk Mitigation

Measuring the Drivers of Metropolitan Growth: The Export Price Index

The Export Price Index (EPI) is a measure of exogenous price shocks to a city’s export industries. Thus far the EPI has been used to estimate models of metropolitan statistical area employment demand and appears to capture exogenous demand shocks to the regional economy. This article explains the intuition behind and construction of the EPI. Glaeser (2008) has noted that because “the economic theory of cities emphasizes a search for exogenous causes of endogenous outcomes like local wages, housing prices, and city growth, it is unsurprising that the economic empirics on cities have increasingly focused on the quest for exogenous sources of variation.” The EPI is such an exogenous cause. The EPI data discussed in this note are available through The George Washington University Center for Economic Research website at http://www.gwu.edu/~cer1/datasets/datasets.html

The Role of Geographic Proximity And Industrial Structure In Metropolitan Area Business Cycles

Measurement and prediction of aggregate economic fluctuations at the region, state, and metropolitan area level is a major challenge. As data quality and analytical techniques have improved, the analysis of coincident economic cycle indicators (CEI) has progressed from national to regional to state levels. This paper continues the trend of geographic disaggregation by constructing and analyzing CEI at the MSA level. The theoretical advantage of MSA level indexes is that they reflect labor market areas. Given lack of quarterly economic time series at the MSA level, we construct a new variable, the EPI (export price index). The EPI is an index number constructed to measure changes in the prices of goods produced by major industries located in metropolitan areas. Using non-agricultural employment and the EPI as MSA-specific variables, we are able to estimate following a Stock/Watson type single factor models. We find that, for larger states, with multiple MSAs, there is substantial variation in the amplitude and timing of cycles across MSAs. Further tests group MSAs within states by applying cluster analysis to the state series for the MSAs within a state. The groupings are interesting for two reasons. First, they confirm the differences observed within states. Secondly, and perhaps most important, the groupings of cyclically similar MSAs are not always based on geographic proximity as might be expected. It appears that industrial similarity of the MSA economies is also important for cyclical performance

Promoting Health Literacy for People With Disabilities and Clinicians Through a Teamwork Model

Current health literacy programs for people with disabilities lack clear operational definitions, rely on inconsistent health literacy statistics, and tend to follow a medical model approach that often fallaciously assumes people with disabilities have limited health knowledge. The central issue in addressing and improving health literacy among people with disabilities is to focus on clear and effective health communication among health care team members, including people with disabilities, which can ultimately improve this population’s health outcomes. Our proposed teamwork model builds upon the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) biopsychosocial model, decision-making theory, and health care teamwork training to improve health communication and ultimately health outcomes for people with disabilities

Banking on Foreigners: The Behavior of International Bank Claims on Latin America, 1985–2000

The significant rise in foreign bank claims observed during the 1990s, following their steep decline during the 1980s debt crisis, reignited interest in understanding the behavior of these flows. This paper analyzes changes in foreign bank claims on the Latin American private sector over the period 1985-2000. We find that banks transmit shocks from their home countries (where banks' headquarters are located) and that changes in claims on individual host countries (those that receive claims) are correlated with aggregate changes in claims on other countries. However, over time, we observe that foreign bank claims have become less responsive to external factors. Also, we present evidence that the sensitivity of foreign bank claims to host factors diminishes, as banks' aggregate exposure rises. Finally, we find that foreign bank claims react more to positive than to negative host shocks and are not significantly curtailed during crises. Copyright 2005, International Monetary Fund

Support for smoke-free multi-unit housing policies among racially and ethnically diverse, low-income seniors in south florida

Open access: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10823-014-9247-4/fulltext.html Previous studies have gauged support for implementing smoke-free MUH policies in the United States, but none have specifically examined attitudes among racially and ethnically diverse seniors living in low-income MUH. As part of an evaluation of a Community Transformation Grant funded program, we surveyed senior residents 62 years of age and older (n = 807) in 24 low-income housing properties in Broward County, Florida, to assess residents’ smoking behaviors, exposure to SHS, and support for smoke-free MUH policies. The study sample was ethnically and racially diverse with Hispanics comprising more than 61% of the population, and 22% of the population identified as Black or other races. Although close to 22% of the sample were former smokers, only 9% of residents reported being current smokers. The majority of residents surveyed supported no-smoking policies: 75% support no-smoking policies for individual units; 77% supported no-smoking policies in common areas; and, 68% supported no-smoking policies in outdoor areas. Over 29% of residents surveyed reported being exposed to secondhand smoke entering their units from elsewhere in their building. In sub-group analysis, Hispanic residents were significantly more likely to support both indoor (84.3 vs. 76.5, p\u3c.05) and outdoor (80.0 vs. 67.4, p\u3c.01) policies compared to non-Hispanic residents. Support for smoke-free policies did not vary significantly by race. This study demonstrates that senior residents living in low-income MUH properties overwhelmingly supported the implementation of smoke-free policies