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With 10,000 baby boomers turning 65 every day, many will be on fixed incomes and will lose dental insurance upon retirement. This article presents why a dental benefit in Medicare might save the US government money, and who would likely benefit. It details an approach to estimating costs of inclusion of a dental benefit in Medicare, and compares the proposed approach to existing proposals. Additionally, the ensuing steps needed to advance the conversation to include oral health in healthcare for the aged will be discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although most oral disease is preventable, there are profound disparities across populations due to gaps in service delivery. This article shares insights from a five-year evaluation of the Oral Health 2020 network, an effort by the DentaQuest Foundation to align and strengthen efforts in service of a national movement to improve the delivery of oral health services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the author's claim about a wage gap and pay disparity problem involving the male and female law professors that are employed in America's legal academia field, and it mentions the U.S. Equal Pay Act of 1963, as well as market (fourth affirmative) defenses. Legal cases involving law professors' salaries at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law and University of Texas School of Law are examined, along with U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission investigations.

Despite the increasing use of transradial techniques for cardiac percutaneous procedures, none of the strategies commonly utilized for hemostasis has been able to reduce the occurrence of radial artery occlusion (RAO). The aim of this study was to evaluate the occurrence of 24-hour RAO and the rate of bleeding of a novel hemostatic device for radial closure after percutaneous interventions, in adjunct to short-time compression. Once the radial access was obtained, patients were randomized to 3 different strategies of radial closure: a short compression with the QuikClot® Interventional™ pad (Z-Medica Corporation, Wallingford, CT, USA) (15 minutes, group 1), a short compression (15 minutes, group 2), and a conventional prolonged compression (2 hours, group 3) both without QuikClot® utilization. Fifty patients in group 1, 20 in group 2, and 50 in group 3 were enrolled. The three groups were homogenous for baseline and procedural characteristics. None of patients in group 1 developed RAO, 1 (5%) occurred in group 2, and 5 (10%) in group 3 (P = 0.05). Active bleeding after compression removal occurred in 10 patients (20%) in group 1, 18 (90%) in group 2, and 1 (2%) in group 3 (P < 0.001). Among patients in group 1, at univariate analysis, the predictors of acute bleeding resulted in chronic therapy with clopidogrel (Odds Ratio 28.78, 95% Confidence Intervals 4.79-172.82, P < 0.001) and high levels of activated clotting time (ACT) at the time of sheath removal (OR 1.02, 95% CI 1.00-1.03, P = 0.009). At ROC analysis, the cutoff value of ACT for the risk of bleeding with a sensitivity of 80% and specificity of 75% was 287 seconds. Early sheet removal and short-time compression with QuikClot® Interventional™ can reduce the rate of RAO after diagnostic or interventional procedures especially in patients not on double antiplatelet therapy. (J Interven Cardiol 2011;24:65-72) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the slow progress of the U.S. compared to other countries in women's access to political office. It states that the U.S. is reluctant to embrace fully international efforts to secure women's rights and the most striking example of this is its failure to become a party to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). It notes that the U.S. is not part of the one hundred and eighty-five members of the United Nations (UN) which are part to the convention. Moreover , the U.S. has been claiming to be the forefront of the women's rights movement but failed to ratify CEDAW which its credibility when it criticizes other countries' records on women's rights.

The article discusses the conceptual framework for achieving parity on the Supreme Court through statutory reform or by constitutional amendment in the U.S. A proposal for either statutory reform or a constitutional amendment requiring that five seats be reserved for women is offered. How geographic diversity on the Court was viewed as essential in the early years of the Republic because a diversity of views was seen as central to the vitality and continued existence of the young nation was explored. The constitutional and doctrinal bases for parity is examined.

The article offers a risk-return comparison of public and private real estate equities in the U.S. as of 2003. From 1981 to 2001, returns on publicly traded real estate investment trusts (REITs) averaged 14.7%, while private real estate returns have averaged just 9.7%. The market capitalization of REITs, such as its debt and equity, has exceeded that of the National Council of Real Estate Investment Fiduciaries Property Index since the mid-1990s. REITs accounted for only 15%-20% of the total market capitalization for the two indexes prior to 1993. Even so, they have averaged an approximate 65% market share since 1992.

Examines the relationship of depression to the scales constituting the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF) by samples of elderly found in retirement communities and private residencies in the United States. Biological aspects of depression in the elderly; Stressful life events related to depression; Sociological aspects of depression.

The article focuses on aspects of bureaucracy in the United States and Canada. Two theoretical conditions namely political culture and political structure seem useful in explaining the role and ideology of modern bureaucracy variations. These may be conceptualized as independent, systemic variables. The level of popular participation, resting in part upon educational opportunity in a given society, provides one aspect of political culture that affects bureaucratic responsiveness to popular claims. In the presidential system, by contrast, with the notable exception of foreign affairs, bureaucratic power is strongly challenged by permanent, substantively-sophisticated legislative committees, individual legislators possessing viable local and state power bases and the attending seniority system which often enables legislators to develop considerable personal power. As a result, the role of the higher American bureaucracy often seems less one of initiating policy than the subordinate and occasionally negative one of carrying out policy shaped mainly by elected officials and prestigious aides appointed by the President to fill strategic political posts at the secretary, undersecretary and assistant secretary levels. In the Canadian system, different norms and political structure tend to thrust greater policy influence into the hands of permanent deputy ministers. Meanwhile, a more deferential political culture reinforces their autonomy.

The article examines equality before the law in the United States and Canada. It will consider why the two nations' treatment of so seemingly fundamental an issue as equality before the law is so different. Section 1 of the Canadian Bill of Rights identifies specific human rights and fundamental freedoms declared to exist without discrimination by reason of race, national origin, colour, religion or sex. In the United States, Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution declares that no state shall deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the law. For the present, sociological and demographic material will be considered to explain how two apparently similar societies have come to differ so much in developing guarantees of legal equality. Many of the factors like a conservative political tradition based on the separation of the two charter ethnic groups, relatively low educational levels and a need to maintain some separation from perceived American values appear to be useful in explaining why Canada has not followed the U.S. in providing constitutionally-based guarantees of equal protection under the law. Other reasons, of course, can be traced to the very different development of the concept in the two nations.

The article discusses methodology for classroom teachings of laws related to trusts and estates. Topics discussed include practicing of trusts and estates law, building basic structure of laws in students, and importance of uniform laws for of law school teaching. It also discusses importance of policy discussion and giving opportunity to compare actual alternative rules on wills to law student, and uniform law making process for probate code in the U.S.