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The objective of this study is to consider if the value-relevance of recognised deferred tax assets, which often represent unused tax losses, was affected by the financial crisis. A regression analysis of a sample of Australian and United Kingdom firms reveals that the value-relevance of recognised deferred tax assets was affected by the financial crisis. However, the impact of the financial crisis differed between the sample countries. The study shows that a plausible explanation for this difference might be found in the tax law of the two countries. Findings of this paper will be of interest to regulators and standard setters, as they highlight how interaction between accounting requirements and tax law affects the relevance of accounting and tax information.

BACKGROUND: Case-finding strategies to identify women with high risk for osteoporotic fractures have recently been proposed, but little information about such an approach in general practice is known. AIM: To study the validity of the proposed case-finding strategy for osteoporosis. DESIGN OF STUDY: Survey using case-finding strategy. SETTING: Seven hundred and twelve women aged between 55 and 84 years, randomly selected from a general practice in The Netherlands. METHOD: Of the 712 randomly selected women, 449 women participated. Information was obtained from a questionnaire, direct questioning, and computerised patients files. Bone mineral density of the femoral neck was measured by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry and vertebral morphometry was performed on lateral X-rays of the spine. Osteoporosis was defined by a bone mineral density T-score of less than 2.5 and/or the presence of severe vertebral deformities. Sensitivity, specificity, and predictive values were calculated for the whole set of risk factors; those significantly associated with osteoporosis and in logistic models. RESULTS: Clinical risk factors were present in 55% of the women and identified 68% of the women with osteoporosis. Three risk factors--a low body mass index, fragility fractures, and severe kyphosis and/or loss of height--were associated significantly with osteoporosis; they were present in 33% of the women and identified 60% of those with osteoporosis. A logistic model based on age and fragility fractures selected 32% of the women and identified 76%. CONCLUSION: No single risk factor could assist in identifying women with osteoporosis. A simplified case-finding strategy using only three risk factors, that is suitable for primary care, reduces the number of women to be evaluated by two-thirds; however, this is at the cost of missing the diagnosis in 40% of the women with osteoporosis. Addition of spine radiographs to the case-finding approach helped to obtain a better risk profile of the women and had also practical consequences for the management of some. We propose that radiographs should be included in any case-finding strategy.

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Doel. De prevalentie vaststellen van chronische-vermoeidheidsyndroom (CVS) in de huisartspraktijk. Opzet. Descriptief. Plaats. Huisartspraktijken in Leiden en omstreken. Methode. Het geanonimiseerde geautomatiseerde databestand van het Registratie Netwerk Universitaire Huisartspraktijken Leiden en Omstreken (RNUH-LEO) bevat de gegevens van 1 duopraktijk en 3 gezondheidscentra. Aan de betrokken 14 huisartsen werd gevraagd welke codes van de ‘International classification of primary care’ (ICPC) zij gebruikten voor chronische vermoeidheid of voor CVS. Met deze codes en met de code voor depressie werden uit het bestand patiënten geselecteerd. Bij die patiënten werd nagegaan of zij voldeden aan de criteria voor CVS volgens Holmes et al. Resultaten. De huisartsen gebruikten 10 diagnostische codes. Daarmee en met de code voor depressie werden 601 patiënten voorgeselecteerd uit de totale populatie van 23.000 patiënten. Op basis van gegevens uit het medisch journaal en de probleemlijst in het databestand voldeden 42 patiënten ‘waarschijnlijk’ aan de criteria van Holmes et al. voor CVS. Na overleg met de huisartsen van de patiënten werd de groep beperkt tot 25 patiënten. De verhouding tussen de aantallen mannen en vrouwen bedroeg 1:5. Dit komt neer op een prevalentie van tenminste 1,1 per 1000 personen in de onderzochte praktijkpopulatie.

The aim of this study was to investigate if four duplicate blood pressure (BP) remeasurements are sufficient for diagnosing hypertension in potentially hypertensive subjects. The subjects were 99 outpatients who were included on the basis of elevated diastolic (95or = DBPor = 115 mm Hg) or systolic (160or = SBPor = 200 mm Hg) BP. After inclusion all patients underwent nine subsequent duplicate BP measurements over a period of 7 months. None of the patients received hypotensive drug treatment during the study. Between the first (initial) and second measurements there were significant reductions in systolic (161.0-152.5 mm Hg) and diastolic (101.5-97.1 mm Hg) BPs (P0.01). Differences between the subsequent measurements were not statistically significant. A linear regression analysis proved that the "conceptual average BP' (the average of the last five visits) which was chosen as the reference value was stable. The decline of standard deviations of differences between two, three and four duplicate remeasurements on one hand, and the reference value on the other was found to be strikingly small. After four duplicate remeasurements, there was misclassification in 56% (systolic) and 38% (diastolic). We conclude that the numbers of two, three or four BP measurements recommended by international guidelines for diagnosing hypertension are too low. Even after four duplicate remeasurements a considerable amount of misclassification remains.

In order to detect channeling of medication for asthma to patients differing in disease severity, prescription drug histories of users of three inhalational beta agonists were compared. We looked at markers of asthma severity and of concomitant cardiovascular disease and diabetes. We found 2-2.5 times more concomitant systemic steroid therapy prescribed to fenoterol recipients than to salbutamol recipients. Terbutaline recipients were intermediate. We found the highest proportions of other anti-asthma medications among fenoterol recipients, intermediate proportions among terbutaline recipients, lowest proportions among salbutamol recipients. Thus, Dutch physicians seem to channel terbutaline and especially fenoterol to patients with more severe forms of asthma. There were no differences with respect to prescriptions for cardiovascular or diabetic drugs. If not recognized, channeling may result in allocation bias in observational studies on drug effects.

In order to detect channeling of medication for asthma to patients differing in disease severity, prescription drug histories of users of three inhalational beta agonists were compared. We looked at markers of asthma severity and of concomitant cardiovascular disease and diabetes. We found 2-2.5 times more concomitant systemic steroid therapy prescribed to fenoterol recipients than to salbutamol recipients. Terbutaline recipients were intermediate. We found the highest proportions of other anti-asthma medications among fenoterol recipients, intermediate proportions among terbutaline recipients, lowest proportions among salbutamol recipients. Thus, Dutch physicians seem to channel terbutaline and especially fenoterol to patients with more severe forms of asthma. There were no differences with respect to prescriptions for cardiovascular or diabetic drugs. If not recognized, channeling may result in allocation bias in observational studies on drug effects.

Program restructuring in a segmented virtual memory system is examined on the base of empirical data. The measure of connectivity is based on the decrease of the space-time integral caused by combining the two segments. A heuristic clustering algorithm, based on the use of effectively reduced memory reference strings, is presented. It turns out that performance problems in a segmented system are created by the large number of small segments. Restructuring is able to improve the performance of the system essentially; the optimal performance is reached with values of the memory control parameter which are one magnitude smaller than those applicable to original programs. The clusters formed do not correspond to program phases, but to smaller units of program execution; thus the clustering result supports a hierarchical model of program locality. The restructuring process is reasonably insensitive both to the memory control parameters and to the input data used.

Program behaviour characteristics were examined using data gathered from real program executions. Experiments were performed in a segmented virtual memory with a working set policy; the analyzing costs were kept low using an efficient data reduction method. Empirical results were obtained concerning the influence of the window size on program behaviour characteristics, the accuracy of some average working set size approximations and the sensitivity of program behaviour to the program's input data. These results show that some commonly used assumptions concerning program behaviour are inaccurate. Also there seem to exist “ill-behaving” programs, the behaviour of which does not correspond well with results obtained earlier. The effects of real-time delays during program execution were considered using a new simple method. As an additional experiment, segmenting and paging were compared using various performance statistics; the results seem to favour segmenting.

Es wird ein einfaches Auswerteprogramm für die Ermittlung des $^{90}$Sr-Gehaltes von Graphitproben aus analytischen Daten beschrieben, gefolgt von mit demComputer errechneten Tabellen der Zerfallskorrekturfaktoren für $^{85}$Sr, $^{89}$Sr, $^{90}$Sr und $^{90}$Y und einer Tabelle zur $^{90}$Y-Anstiegskorrektur für die $^{90}$Y-Nachbildung aus $^{90}$Sr nach der $^{90}$/$^{90}$Sr-Trennung.

Results of $\gamma$-spectrometric measurements of uranium-leach solutions with a Ge (Li)-detector and of fluorimetric uranium determinations are described and discussed. Finally a new uran-leach apparatus for quantities up to 2 g of coated particles is proposed.

Unter den für die $\gamma$-Spektrometrie wichtigen Grössen eines Detektors sind an erster Stelle $\gamma$-Ausbeute (Absorptionswahrscheinlichkeit), Auflösung und Anstiegszeitkonstante des Impulses zu nennen. Beim Vergleich eines Ge(Li)-Zählers mit einem NaJ-Szintillationszähler schneidet bezüglich der Auflösung - wie aus Fig. 7 hervorgeht - der Ge(Li)-Zähler weitaus besser ab. Umgekehrt ist es allerdings mit der $\gamma$-Ausbeute $^{8,9}$, da die bisherigen Verfahren nur Detektoren mit Verarmungszonen von maximal 1 cm herzustellen erlauben, bleibt zumindest vorläufig noch die Wahrscheinlichkeit, ein $\gamma$-Quant völlig zu absorbieren, weit hinter den Werten für NaJ-Szintillationszähler der üblichenAbmessungen von 2 - 3 Zoll zurück. Nun ist hier folgendeszu bedenken: massgebend für die Höhe einer $\gamma$-Linie ist nicht allein die $\gamma$-Ausbeute, sondern ebenso die Auflösung. Es ist einzusehen, dass eine Verringerung der $\gamma$-Ausbeute um den Faktor 10 durch eine 10mal kleinere Halbwertsbreite wieder wett gemacht wird. Aus der höheren Auflösung der Ge(Li)-Zähler ergibt sich natürlich die Möglichkeit, die Lage einer $\gamma$-Linie genauer zu bestimmen. Lässt sich bei einer Szintillations-Linie die Lage mit einer Genauigkeit von ungefähr 1/10 der Halbwertsbreite angeben, so sind beim Ge(Li)-Zähler die Verhältnisse insofern günstiger, als sich unter einer schmalen Linie der Untergrund nur wenig ändert und daher für die Rechnung als lineare Funktion der Energie angenommen werden kann. Möglicherweisesind Genauigkeiten von 0 .1-0. 2 ke V zu erreichen. Bisher blieb ein weiterer wesentlicher Vorteil des Ge(Li)-Zählers gegenüber dem Szintillationszähler noch unerwähnt: die Anstiegszeitkonstante der Impulse. Sie ist mit ungefähr 30 ns fast 10mal kürzer als bei einem NaJ-Szintillationszähler, weswegen sich Ge(Li)-Zähler vorzüglich zu schnellen Koinzidenzen eignen.

Aliquots from radiochemically separated and purified uranium fractions of solutions from irradiated nuclear fuels containing uranium and thorium have been measuredwith the aid of $\gamma$-spectrometry and $\alpha$-spectrometry. Obtained values for the atomic ratios of $^{232}$U to $^{233}$U and of $^{232}$U to the total uranium amounts are given.