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While corporate social responsibility by firms aims at improving welfare for different social groups, whether it achieves this is often difficult to measure. After Apr. 2018 protests, Starbucks enacted policies that anybody could sit in their stores and use the bathroom without making a purchase. Using anonymized cellphone location data, we estimate this led to a 7.0% decline in attendance relative to other nearby coffee shops. The effect is 84% larger near homeless shelters and larger for Starbucks’ wealthier customers. The average time spent per visit declined by 4.1%. Public urination citations decreased near Starbucks locations, but other minor crimes were unchanged.

When the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigates firms for financial fraud, investors only learn about the investigation if managers disclose it, or regulators sanction the firm. We investigate the effects of such disclosures using confidential records on all investigations, regardless of outcome. Even when no charges are brought, firms that voluntarily disclose an investigation underperform non-disclosing firms by 11.7% over the following year. Disclosure is associated with a higher chance of shareholder class action lawsuits, and more prominent disclosures are associated with worse returns. CEOs who disclose an investigation are 14% more likely to experience turnover. Our results are consistent with transparency about bad news being punished by financial and labor markets.

We examine the choice of organizational structure for VC-backed startup firms. These firms overwhelmingly organize as C-corporations rather than as tax advantaged limited liability companies (LLCs). This results in foregone tax savings of $43.9 billion, or 4.9% of the total equity invested in the sample firms. The decision is puzzling, given plausible estimates of the direct costs involved, but appears related to “hassle” and other transition costs generated by participants implementing a new form. Firms with more employees and investors are likely to choose the C-corporation. VCs appear to prefer the C-corporation form, as receiving VC money is associated with most LLC firms switching to a C-corporation within 30 days. Greater VC preferences for C-corporations are linked to a preference for familiarity, and less attention to taxes.

Many US states have a single cutoff date for school entry, meaning that some children are older than others when they begin kindergarten. We show that this variation in birth months is associated with differences in adult labor market outcomes in the mutual fund industry. Relatively older managers (i.e., those born just after the cutoff) make better stock selections, and their funds outperform their younger peers’ funds by 0.48% per annum. This difference is linked to increased confidence. Survey respondents judge relatively older managers as appearing more confident in photographs, and these managers display more confident behavior: making larger bets, window dressing their holdings less, and securing more fund flows conditional on performance.

We review the literature on recurring firm events and predictable returns. Many common firm events recur on a predictable basis, such as earnings and dividends, among others. These events tend to be associated with large positive returns in the period when the events are predicted to occur (without conditioning on the outcome or existence of the event itself). These returns occur mainly on the long side of the portfolio, are statistically and economically large when value weighted, and replicate internationally. It is difficult to explain the observed patterns with a unified risk theory. Some of the underlying causes seem to be related to idiosyncratic risk, predictable attention, probability mistakes, and demand for corporate distributions.

We demonstrate that predictable uninformed cash flows forecast market and individual stock returns. Buying pressure from dividend payments (announced weeks prior) predicts higher value-weighted market returns, four times greater on the top quintile of payment days than the lowest. This effect holds internationally, varies with reinvestment intensity, and increases with high VIX. Selling pressure leads predictable high stock expense firms to have lower returns when selling restrictions lift, by 117 bp in four days. We estimate market-level price multipliers of 1.5 to 2.3. These results suggest price pressure is a widespread result of flows, rather than an anomaly.

Investors’ perception of performance is biased because the relevant measure, returns, is rarely displayed. Major indices ignore dividends, thereby underreporting market performance. Newspapers are more pessimistic on ex-dividend days, consistent with mistaking the index for returns. Market betas should track returns, but track prices more than dividends, creating predictable returns. Mutual funds receive inflows for “beating the S&P 500” price index based on net asset value (also not a return). Investors extrapolate market indices, not returns, when forming annual performance expectations. Displaying returns by default would ameliorate these issues, which arise despite high attention and agreement on the appropriate measure.

Since 1977, U.S. states have passed laws steadily raising the age for which a child must ride in a car safety seat. These laws significantly raise the cost of having a third child, as many regular-sized cars cannot fit three child seats in the back. Using census data and state-year variation in laws, we estimate that when women have two children of ages requiring mandated car seats, they have a lower annual probability of giving birth by 0.73 percentage points. Consistent with a causal channel, this effect is limited to third child births, is concentrated in households with access to a car, and is larger when a male is present (when both front seats are likely to be occupied). We estimate that these laws prevented only 57 car crash fatalities of children nationwide in 2017. Simultaneously, they led to a permanent reduction of approximately 8,000 births in the same year, and 145,000 fewer births since 1980, with 90% of this decline being since 2000.

We study the consequences of a firm engaging in corporate social responsibility within the firm’s operations, rather than doing so outside the firm through charitable donations. After April 2018 protests, Starbucks enacted policies that anybody could sit in their stores and use the bathroom without making a purchase. Using anonymized cellphone location data, we estimate this led to a 7.0% decline in attendance at Starbucks locations relative to other nearby coffee shops. The effect is 84% larger near homeless shelters, and larger for Starbucks’ wealthier customers. Remaining Starbucks customers spent 4.1% less time per visit. Public urination citations decreased near Starbucks locations, but rates of other minor crimes were unchanged. Our results highlight the difficulties of directly providing public goods instead of relying on a division of labor, as customers are crowded out by non-customers.

Plastics have been revolutionary in numerous sectors, and many of the positive attributes of modern life can be attributed to their use. However, plastics are often treated only as disposable commodities, which has led to the ever-increasing accumulation of plastic and plastic by-products in the environment as waste, and an unacceptable growth of microplastic and nanoplastic pollution. The catchphrase “plastics are everywhere”, perhaps once seen as extolling the virtues of plastics, is now seen by most as a potential or actual threat. Scientists are confronting this environmental crisis, both by developing recycling methods to deal with the legacy of plastic waste, and by highlighting the need to develop and implement effective whole-of-life strategies in the future use of plastic materials. The importance and topicality of this subject are evidenced by the dramatic increase in the use of terms such as “whole of life”, “life-cycle assessment”, “circular economy” and “sustainable polymers” in the scientific and broader literature. Effective solutions, however, are still to be forthcoming. In this review, we assess the potential for implementing whole-of-life strategies for plastics to achieve our vision of a circular economy. In this context, we consider the ways in which given plastics might be recycled into the same plastic for potential use in the same application, with minimal material loss, the lowest energy cost, and the least potential for polluting the environment.

When investors sell one asset and quickly buy another (“reinvestment days”), their trades suggest the original mental account is not closed, but is instead rolled into the new asset. Retail investors trading on their own accounts display a rolled disposition effect, selling the new position when its value exceeds the initial investment in the original position. On reinvestment days, these investors display no disposition effect (consistent with no disutility from realizing a loss) and make better selling decisions. Using a laboratory experiment, we show that reinvestment causally reduces the disposition effect and improves trading. Received April 10, 2016; editorial decision January 28, 2017 by Editor Andrew Karolyi.

When the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigates firms for financial fraud, investors only learn about the investigation if managers disclose it, or regulators sanction the firm. We investigate the effects of such disclosures using confidential records on all investigations, regardless of outcome. Even when no charges are brought, firms that voluntarily disclose an investigation underperform non-disclosing firms by 11.7% over the following year. Disclosure is associated with a higher chance of shareholder class action lawsuits, and more prominent disclosures are associated with worse returns. CEOs who disclose an investigation are 14% more likely to experience turnover. Our results are consistent with transparency about bad news being punished by financial and labor markets.

We present evidence consistent with markets failing to properly price information in seasonal earnings patterns. Firms with historically larger earnings in one quarter of the year (“positive seasonality quarters”) have higher returns when those earnings are usually announced. Analysts have more positive forecast errors in positive seasonality quarters, consistent with the returns being driven by mistaken earnings estimates. We show that investors appear to overweight recent lower earnings following positive seasonality quarters, leading to pessimistic forecasts in the subsequent positive seasonality quarter. The returns are not explained by risk-based explanations, firm-specific information, increased volume, or idiosyncratic volatility.Received June 19, 2014; accepted April 25, 2016, by Editor David Hirshleifer.

Ionic interactions to stabilize Langmuir films at the air/water interface have been used to develop improved duolayer films. Two-component mixtures of octadecanoic (stearic) acid and poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride) (polyDADMAC) with different ratios were prepared and applied to the water surface. Surface pressure isotherm cycles demonstrated a significant improvement in film stability with the inclusion of the polymer. Viscoelastic properties were measured using canal viscometry and oscillating barriers, with both methods showing that the optimum ratio for improved properties was four octadecanoic acid molecules to one DADMAC unit (1:0.25). At this ratio it is expected multiple strong ionic interactions are formed along each polymer chain. Brewster angle microscopy showed decreased domain size with increased ratios of polyDADMAC, indicating that the polymer is interspersed across the surface. This new method to stabilize and increase the viscoelastic properties of charged monolayer films, using a premixed composition, will have application in areas such as water evaporation mitigation, optical devices, and foaming.

We analyze brokerage data and an experiment to test a cognitive dissonance based theory of trading: investors avoid realizing losses because they dislike admitting that past purchases were mistakes, but delegation reverses this effect by allowing the investor to blame the manager instead. Using individual trading data, we show that the disposition effect—the propensity to realize past gains more than past losses—applies only to nondelegated assets like individual stocks; delegated assets, like mutual funds, exhibit a robust reverse-disposition effect. In an experiment, we show that increasing investors' cognitive dissonance results in both a larger disposition effect in stocks and a larger reverse-disposition effect in funds. Additionally, increasing the salience of delegation increases the reverse-disposition effect in funds. Cognitive dissonance provides a unified explanation for apparently contradictory investor behavior across asset classes and has implications for personal investment decisions, mutual fund management, and intermediation.

Some mutual funds purchase stocks before dividend payments to artificially increase their dividends, which we call “juicing.” Funds paid more than twice the dividends implied by their holdings in 7.4% of fund-years examined. Juicing is associated with larger inflows, and is more common among funds with unsophisticated investors. This behavior is consistent with an underlying investor demand for dividends, but is hard to explain by taxes or need for income, as funds can generate equivalent tax-free distributions by returning capital. Juicing is costly to investors through higher turnover and increased taxes of 0.57% to 1.52% of fund assets per year.

Many US states have a single cutoff date for school entry, meaning that some children are older than others when they begin kindergarten. We document that this variation in birth months is associated with differences in adult labor market outcomes in the mutual fund industry. Relatively older managers (i.e. those born just after the cutoff) make better stock selections and their funds outperform their younger peers’ funds by 0.48% per annum. This difference is linked to increased confidence. Survey respondents judge relatively older managers as appearing more confident in photographs, and these managers display more confident behavior: making larger bets, window-dressing their holdings less, and securing more fund flows conditional on performance.

We review the literature on recurring firm events and predictable returns. Many common firm events recur on a predictable basis, such as earnings and dividends, among others. These events tend to be associated with large positive returns in the period when the events are predicted to occur (without conditioning on the outcome or existence of the event itself). These returns occur mainly on the long side of the portfolio, are statistically and economically large when value weighted, and replicate internationally. It is difficult to explain the observed patterns with a unified risk theory. Some of the underlying causes seem to be related to idiosyncratic risk, predictable attention, probability mistakes, and demand for corporate distributions.

Mixed monolayers of 1-octadecanol (C18OH) and ethylene glycol monooctadecyl ether (C18E1) were studied to assess their evaporation suppressing performance. An unexpected increase in performance and stability was found around the 0.5:0.5 bicomponent mixture and has been ascribed to a synergistic effect of the monolayers. Molecular dynamics simulations have attributed this to an additional hydrogen bonding interaction between the monolayer and water, due to the exposed ether oxygen of C18E1 in the mixed system compared to the same ether oxygen in the pure C18E1 system. This interaction is maximized around the 0.5:0.5 ratio due to the particular interfacial geometry associated with this mixture.

Seven chemically designed monolayer compounds were synthesized and investigated with comparison to the properties and water evaporation suppression ability of 1-hexadecanol and 1-octadecanol. Increasing the molecular weight and polarity of the compound headgroup drastically altered the characteristics and performance of the monolayer at the air/water interface. Contrary to the common expectation the monolayer's lifetime on the water surface decreased with increasing number of ethylene oxy moieties, thus optimal performance for water evaporation suppression was achieved when only one ethylene oxy moiety was used. Replacing the hydroxyl headgroup with a methyl group and with multiple ethylene oxy moieties resulted in a loss of suppression capability, while an additional hydroxyl group provided a molecule with limited performance against water evaporation. Theoretical molecular simulation demonstrated that for exceptional performance, a candidate needs to possess a high equilibrium spreading pressure, the ability to sustain a highly ordered monolayer with a stable isotherm curve, and low tilt angle over the full studied range of surface pressures by simultaneously maintaining H-bonding to the water surface and between the monolayer chains.

We show that investors trade as if they consider dividends and capital gains in separate mental accounts, without fully appreciating that dividends come at the expense of price decreases. Investors trade differently in response to each component - trading patterns such as the disposition effect are driven by price changes, with dividends being ignored or downweighted. Investors hold dividend-paying stocks longer, and are less sensitive to price changes, consistent with dividends being valued as a separate desirable attribute of stocks. The demand for dividend-paying stocks is higher when interest rates and recent market returns are lower, consistent with investors comparing dividends to other income streams and capital gains. Investors spend the proceeds of each component differently - mutual funds and institutions rarely reinvest dividends into the stocks from which they came, but instead purchase other stocks. This leads to predictable marketwide price increases on days of large aggregate dividend payouts, including stocks not paying dividends.

I examine how media coverage of good and bad corporate news affects stock prices, by studying the effect of investor relations (IR) firms. I find that IR firms “spin” their clients' news, generating more media coverage of positive press releases than negative press releases. This spin increases announcement returns. Around earnings announcements, however, IR firms cannot spin the news and their clients' returns are significantly lower. This pattern is consistent with positive media coverage increasing investor expectations, creating disappointment around hard information. Using reporter connections and geographical links, I argue that IR firms causally affect both media coverage and returns.

Molecular monolayers reduce the amount of water lost to evaporation due to their ability to form closely packed films at the air-water interface. However, they are susceptible to loss from the water surface and poor performance on exposure to wind. This study combines experimental and theoretical techniques to investigate the properties of a small molecule monolayer mixed with comb polymers. The study reveals that at high concentrations of polymer the monolayer exhibits increased mechanical stability which improves the resistance to disruption by wind. Inclusion of hydrophilic functional groups along the backbone of the polymer leads to further improvements in wind stability. However, the improved wind stability observed in the composites comes at the expense of poorer water evaporation resistance.

Copolymers of acrylamide and vinylpyrrolidinone with varying compositions have been synthesised and employed to depress talc in a model flotation system with process plant operation conditions. Adsorption isotherms indicated that the hydrophilic acrylamide homopolymer has a very low affinity for the hydrophobic talc surface, whereas vinylpyrrolidinone homopolymer strongly adsorbs onto the talc surface. Micro-flotation experiments revealed that the copolymer system can induce stronger talc depression than the homopolymer variants, with the most effective copolymer depressant having 25-30% vinylpyrrolidinone incorporation. The copolymer system is observed to have inherited the strong talc affinity of vinylpyrrolidinone polymer and the strong hydrophilic property from polyacrylamide. This combined effect facilitates the desired strong talc depression in single mineral flotation. However, this copolymer system has similar adsorption affinity on both the talc and pentlandite, hence depressing both talc and pentlandite in the mixed mineral flotation system. This research shows that a sufficient hydrophobic balance on the polymer is necessary for the adsorption and subsequent depression for talc. However, polymer with high adsorption selectivity is required to be a successful synthetic talc depressant for mixed mineral system Refereed/Peer-reviewed

The world's first banknote printed on clear plastic film and using optically variable devices (OVDs) was issued in Australia in 1988 after twenty years of research and development. In the course of this, a great deal of technical as well as logistic issues had to be solved.

(See editorial comments by C. Seth Landefeld, pp 556–558)OBJECTIVES: To determine whether a practice-based in-tervention can improve care for falls, urinary incontinence,and cognitive impairment.DESIGN: Controlled trial.SETTING: Two community medical groups.PARTICIPANTS: Community-dwelling patients (357 atinterventionsitesand287atcontrolsites)aged75andolderidentified as having difficulty with falls, incontinence, orcognitive impairment.INTERVENTION: Intervention and control practices re-ceived condition case-finding, but only intervention practicesreceived a multicomponent practice-change intervention.MEASUREMENTS: Percentage of quality indicators sat-isfied measured using a 13-month medical record abstrac-tion.RESULTS: Before the intervention, the quality of care wasthe same in intervention and control groups. Screening tri-pled the number of patients identified as needing care forfalls, incontinence, or cognitive impairment. During the in-tervention, overall care for the three conditions was betterin the intervention than the control group (41%, 95% con-fidence interval (CI)535–46% vs 25%, 95% CI520–30%, Po.001). Intervention group patients received bettercare for falls (44% vs 23%, Po.001) and incontinence(37% vs 22%, Po.001) but not for cognitive impairment(44% vs 41%, P5.67) than control group patients. Theintervention was more effective for conditions identified byscreening than for conditions identified through usual care.CONCLUSION: A practice-based intervention integratedinto usual clinical care can improve primary care for fallsand urinary incontinence, although even with the interven-tion, less than half of the recommended care for these con-ditionswasprovided.More-intensiveinterventions,suchasembedding intervention components into an electronicmedical record, will be needed to adequately improve carefor falls and incontinence. J Am Geriatr Soc 57:547–555,2009.Key words: practice-based intervention; geriatric qualityof care; clinical care improvement

The introduction of mini-multi-leaf collimators (MMLC) into radiotherapy has seen the use of smaller field sizes become increasingly important. Small field sizes that tightly conform to precise target regions are sought in radiotherapy to deliver doses with a high therapeutic ratio. MMLCs have made it possible to shrink field sizes in radiotherapy to below half a centimetre. The dosimetry of such fields with conventional dosimeters such as gas-ionisation chambers is not feasible due to limitations caused by the chambers relatively large size compared to the size of the collimated beam. In this work, the dose distribution of radiotherapy beams collimated to such small sizes were examined using polyacrylamide gels dosimeters, Gafchromic films and micro-thermoluminescence dosimeters (micro-TLDs). Dose penumbra widths obtained with gel dosimeters, Gafchormic film and micro-TLDs were generally in agreement with each other, although a wider FWHM of the field was measured with gel in comparison to film. An asymmetric dose distribution between the two axis profiles of a 3 × 3 mm collimated field was observed and can be attributed to an inherent asymmetry of the MMLC.

The development and characterization of self-healing synthetic polymeric materials have been inspired by biological systems in which damage triggers an autonomic healing response. This is an emerging and fascinating area of research that could significantly extend the working life and safety of the polymeric components for a broad range of applications. An overview of various self-healing concepts for polymeric materials published over the last 15 years is presented in this paper. Fracture mechanics of polymeric materials and traditional methods of repairing damages in these materials are described to provide context for the topic. This paper also examines the different approaches proposed to prepare and characterize the self-healing systems, the different methods for evaluating self-healing efficiencies, and the applicability of these concepts to composites and structural components. Finally, the challenges and future research opportunities are highlighted.

Some radiotherapy patients are treated with titanium surgical aneurysm clips in the radiation field. This is of particular importance for stereotactic radiosurgery brain treatments, where the length of the blade of the clip may be comparable to the size of the radiation field. This study seeks to determine the extent of the dosimetric effects caused by surgical clips in stereotactic radiosurgery, using polyacrylamide gel phantoms and EBT type Gafchromic films. Using gel phantoms scanned with magnetic resonance imaging scanner, dose enhancement of around 20% was noted at distances less than 2 mm away from the clip surface. Gafchromic films showed about 6% variations in the dose up to few millimeters from the clip. These experimental results confirmed results predicted by Monte Carlo simulation techniques for higher density material surgical clips such as lead and platinum. Moreover, these experimental measurements clearly indicate dose reduction due to radiation attenuation behind the clip of about 4%.

Small field sizes are increasingly becoming important in radiotherapy particularly since the introduction of intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) techniques. It is normally a challenging task to reliably measure the delivered dose and to determine its distribution in a medium for such small fields using conventional-type dosimeters such as gas ionisation chambers. Recently, attempts have been made to use films, but they are not tissue equivalent, they measure the dose only in two dimensions and they are not as responsive to radiations. In the present work, polyacrylamide gel (PAG) dosimeters are employed to measure the dose and its distribution in three dimensions for very small field sizes, such as those typically used in stereotactic radiosurgery. Field sizes of 6 x 6 and 18 x 18 mm in width are investigated. The results show an agreement with radiochromic film and ionisation diode measurements, with some variation in measured doses near the edge of the field, where the gel data decreases more rapidly than the other methods.

Older patients with multiple chronic conditions may be at higher risk of receiving poorer overall quality of care compared with those with single or no chronic conditions. Possible reasons include competing guidelines for individual conditions, burden of numerous recommendations, and difficulty implementing treatments for multiple conditions.We sought to determine whether coexisting combinations of 8 common chronic conditions (hypertension, coronary artery disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, osteoarthritis, diabetes mellitus, depression, osteoporosis, and having atrial fibrillation or congestive heart failure) are associated with overall quality of care among vulnerable older patients.Using an observational cohort study, we enrolled 372 community-dwelling persons 65 years of age or older who were at increased risk for death or functional decline within 2 years. We included (1) a comprehensive measure (% of quality indicators satisfied) of quality of medical and geriatric care that accounted for patient preference and appropriateness in light of limited life expectancy and advanced dementia, and (2) a measure of multimorbidity, either as a simple count of conditions or as a combination of specific conditions.: Multimorbidity was associated with greater overall quality scores: mean proportion of quality indicators satisfied increased from 47% for elders with none of the prespecified conditions to 59% for those with 5 or 6 conditions (P0.0001), after controlling for number of office visits. Patients with greater multimorbidity also received care that was better than would be expected based on the specific set of quality indicators they triggered.Among older persons at increased risk of death or functional decline, multimorbidity results in better, rather than worse, quality of care.

Many polymer structures cannot be established unambiguously by the traditional methods used by organic chemists, and often it is necessary to postulate the likely manner in which the molecules are distributed and/or the detailed chemical structure of the repeat units. In many cases, polymer scientists have predicted structures based on thermodynamic factors. This approach has been fairly successful in the past, but it is now apparent that unqualified application of considerations based on thermodynamic stability can be misleading in certain cases. Specific examples of this are discussed with reference to the placement of monomers in vinyl polymerization and to the repeat units in cyclopolymerization; other examples are mentioned briefly.

Problem: Policymakers and clinicians are concerned that initiatives to improve the quality of care for some conditions may have unintended negative consequences for quality in other conditions. Objective: We sought to determine whether a practice redesign intervention that improved care for falls, incontinence, and cognitive impairment by an absolute 15% change also affected quality of care for masked conditions (conditions not targeted by the intervention). Design, Setting, and Participants: Controlled trial in 2 community medical groups, with 357 intervention and 287 control patients age 75 years or older who had difficulty with falls, incontinence, or cognitive impairment. Intervention: Both intervention and control practices implemented case-finding for target conditions, but only intervention practices received a multicomponent practice-change intervention. Quality of care in the intervention practices improved for 2 of the target conditions (falls and incontinence). Main Outcome Measures: Percent of quality indicators satisfied for a set of 9 masked conditions measured by abstraction of medical records. Results: Before the intervention, the overall percent of masked indicators satisfied was 69% in the intervention group and 67% in the control group. During the intervention period, these percentages did not change, and there was no difference between intervention and control groups for the change in quality between the 2 periods (P = 0.86). The intervention minus control difference-in-change for the percent of masked indicators satisfied was 0.2% (bootstrapped 95% confidence interval, -2.7% to 2.9%). Subgroup analyses by clinical condition and by type of care process performed by the clinician did not show consistent results favoring either the intervention or the control group. Conclusion: A practice-based intervention that improved quality of care for targeted conditions by an absolute 15% change did not affect measurable aspects of care on a broad set of masked quality measures encompassing 9 other conditions.

The water-soluble polymer, poly(2,3-dihydroxypropyl methacrylate), also known as poly(glyceryl methacrylate), is known to isomerize and give a mixture of 2,3- and 1,3-isomers in both the monomeric and polymeric forms. The glyceryl methacrylate monomer was synthesized via acid-catalyzed hydrolysis of glycidyl methacrylate, which produced a mixture of 1,3- and 2,3-isomers in a ratio of 25% and 75%, respectively. This was surprising, as hydrolysis of epoxy compounds generally yields a 1,2-diol product. Furthermore, the level of 1,3-isomer at equilibrium is known to be 10% in both the glyceryl methacrylate monomer and polymer. An alternative hydrolysis pathway involving the ester and epoxy moieties was investigated for glycidyl methacrylate, and a mechanism was proposed.

Admicellar polymerization has been used to form polymer coated white mineral particulates as alternatives to carbon black for application in rubber reinforcement. An ultra thin film of polystyrene and cross-linked with divinylbenzene was used to coat alumina particles. Optimization of reaction conditions was carried out, through investigation of factors that affect the adsorption of the surfactant, sodium dodecyl sulfate, on alumina and film formation. The surface modified particles were characterized using ultraviolet absorbance, thermogravimetry, scanning electron microscopy, and changes in hydrophobicity were determined qualitatively using a drop test. Results showed that alumina particles were successfully coated with poly(styrene-co-divinylbenzene), and their resistance to wetting by water was greatly enhanced after admicellar polymerization treatment.

This paper gives a tree-based method for pricing American options in models where the stock price follows a general exponential Levy process. A multinomial model for approximating the stock price process, which can be viewed as generalizing the binomial model of Cox, Ross, and Rubinstein (1979) for geometric Brownian motion, is developed. Under mild conditions, it is proved that the stock price process and the prices of American-type options on the stock, calculated from the multinomial model, converge to the corresponding prices under the continuous time Levy process model. Explicit illustrations are given for the variance gamma model and the normal inverse Gaussian process when the option is an American put, but the procedure is applicable to a much wider class of derivatives including some path-dependent options. Our approach overcomes some practical difficulties that have previously been encountered when the Levy process has infinite activity.

This cross-sectional study assessed undergraduate attitudes toward older adults and attitude endurance 3 to 18 months after aging coursework. Survey respondents included 349 students who took an aging elective and 430 comparison students. Aging-elective students indicated more positive attitudes than comparison students. Attitudes did not vary across 3 groups staggered by time elapsed from completing the course until testing (3 to 18 months). 4 variables accounted for the variance in attitudes toward elders at a statistically significant level: majoring in biology, having frequent or occasional contact with unrelated older adults, taking an aging course, and post-course knowledge of aging.

Administrative data are used to determine performance for publicly reported in health plan "report cards," accreditation status, and reimbursement. However, it is unclear how performance based on administrative data and medical records compare.We compared applicability, eligibility, and performance on 182 measures of health care quality using medical records and administrative data during a 13-month period for a random sample of 399 vulnerable older patients enrolled in managed care.Of 182 quality indicators (QIs) spanning 22 conditions, 145 (80%) were applicable only to medical records and 37 (20%) to either medical records or administrative data. Among 48 QIs specific to geriatric conditions, all were applicable to medical records; 2 of these also were applicable to administrative data. Eligibility for the 37 QIs that were applicable to both medical records and administrative data was similar for both data sources (94% agreement, kappa = 0.74). With the use of medical records, 152 of the 182 the QIs that were applicable to medical records were triggered and yielded an overall performance of 55%. Using administrative data, 30 of the 37 QIs that were applicable to administrative data were triggered and yielded overall performance of 83% (P0.05 vs. medical records). Restricting to QIs applicable to both data sources, overall performance was 84% and 83% (P = 0.21) for medical records and administrative data, respectively.The number and spectrum of QIs that can be measured for vulnerable elderly patients is far greater for medical records than for administrative data. Although summary estimates of health care quality derived from administrative data and medical records do not differ when using identical measures, summary scores from these data sources vary substantially when the totality of care that can be measured by each data source is measured.

Objectives: Prior research shows that the quality of care provided to vulnerable older persons is suboptimal, but little is known about the factors associated with care quality for this group. In this study, the influences of clinical conditions, types of care processes, and sociodemographic characteristics on the quality of care received by vulnerable older people were evaluated. Design: Observational cohort study. Setting: Two senior managed care plans. Participants: Three hundred sixty-two community-dwelling patients aged 65 and older identified as vulnerable by the Vulnerable Elder Survey (VES-13). Measurements: Outcome variable: patients' observed-minus-expected overall quality score. Predictor variables: types of care processes, types and number of clinical conditions, sex, age, VES-13 score (composite score of function and self-rated health), income, education, mental health status, and number of quality indicators triggered. Results: Patients whose conditions required more history-taking, counseling, and medication-prescribing care processes and patients with diabetes mellitus received lower-than-expected quality of care. A greater number of comorbid conditions was associated with higher-than-expected quality of care. Age, sex, VES-13 score, and other sociodemographic variables were not associated with quality of care. Conclusion: Complexity, vulnerability, and age do not predispose older persons to receive poorer-quality care. In contrast, older patients whose care requires time-consuming processes such as history taking and counseling are at risk for worse quality of care and should be a target for intervention to improve care.

In 1994, under the leadership of the late Dennis Jahnigen, the American Geriatrics Society, with support of the John A. Hartford Foundation, began a project to improve the amount and quality of geriatrics education that surgical and related medical specialty residents receive. The targeted disciplines initially were general surgery, emergency medicine, gynecology, orthopedic surgery, and urology and, later, anesthesiology, ophthalmology, otolaryngology, physical medicine and rehabilitation, and thoracic surgery. A key element of this project was to develop model programs within surgical and related specialty residency education. The Geriatrics Education for Specialty Residents (GESR) program has supported 29 residencies to pilot methods for integration of geriatrics within residency programs, encouraged and inspired development of curricular content, and helped to develop faculty leaders to support these efforts in the long term and at a national level. This paper describes the GESR program, the status of curriculum development, steps for other programs to use in developing a geriatrics education program, and some of the common barriers likely to be encountered during implementation along with solutions to those barriers.

The low efficiency of p -toluenesulfonyl chloride (TsCl) initiator for the polymerization of methyl methacrylate (MMA), when used in conjunction with N , N , N ′, N ″, N ″-pentamethyldiethylenetriamine (PMDETA) and CuBr under atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) conditions was investigated. A major by-product in the formation of poly(methyl methacrylate) was identified as N , N -dimethyl- p -toluenesulfonamide ( 5 ) and accounted for approximately half of the initiator. Compound 5 was shown to form by the direct reaction of PMDETA and TsCl. In a model experiment equimolar amounts of TsCl, PMDETA and CuBr reacted at 80°C in p -xylene resulted in the formation of 5 and two other unsaturated sulfones 2-methyl-3-[(4-methylphenyl)sulfonyl]-2-propenoic acid methyl ester ( 6 ) and 2-[[4-methylphenyl)sulfonyl]methyl]-2-propenoic acid methyl ester ( 7 ), formed by the dehydrohalogenation and subsequent isomerization of an intermediate chloro-adduct, 1-(4-methylbenzenesulfonyl)-2-chloro-2-(methyl)methyl propionate ( 2 ). Molecular modeling predicted the unsaturated sulfone 7 was thermodynamically more stable than the higher conjugated sulfone 6 and this was confirmed by the isomerization of 6 to 7 at room temperature under mild basic conditions. The absence of 6 and 7 in the polymerization of MMA under ATRP conditions showed that in the early stages of polymerization in the presence of excess MMA, the intermediate chloro-adduct 2 is not formed.

Methyl methacrylate and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate or 1,6-hexanediol dimethacrylate (HDDMA) were copolymerized in the presence of a nonsolvent (heptane) for poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) to examine the phenomenon of polymerization-induced phase separations (PIPS) in branched PMMA synthesis. The process was dependent upon the amount of nonsolvent and crosslinker in the reaction mixture. Gel particles were obtained in the majority of phase-separated systems, and their formation was promoted by the preferential partition of monomer and crosslinker into the precipitated polymer phase during the phase separation process. Experimental data showed that, because of its lower solubility parameter, HDDMA can be used as crosslinker to minimize gel particle formation in systems where PIPS is present. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 98: 1462–1468, 2005

The use of higher-functionality oligomers of glutaraldehyde on network formation was investigated and compared with glutaraldehyde monomer in step-growth reactions. The effect of using such oligomers in network formation depends on the stoichiometry, which alters either the branching or both the branching and crosslinking of the network. This was demonstrated in the properties of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) networks crosslinked with glutaraldehyde using cryogenic scanning electron microscopy, water swelling studies, and protein transfer across membranes. General guidelines were given for the proper use of glutaraldehyde solutions. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 96: 780–792, 2005

The background to the formation of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) polymer group is discussed. In particular, the challenges of working with high-conversion polymerization, as found in commercial systems, and the need to explain variations in polymer properties led to important advances in the theory of radical polymerization and control over both the initiation and termination steps. Studies on the fate of the macromonomer, formed in termination by disproportionation, led to an early form of addition/fragmentation now known as reversible addition–fragmentation chain transfer, whereas detailed studies on initiation pathways using nitroxide trapping led to nitroxide-mediated living radical polymerization. These studies contributed to the renaissance in free-radical polymerization studies. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 43: 5748–5764, 2005

Interpenetrating polymer networks of poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) and poly(ethylene oxide) were synthesized by the free radical copolymerization of 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate in aqueous solutions of poly(ethylene oxide) diglycidyl ether (PEODGE), followed by amine−epoxy coupling reactions within the resultant gel network. The effects of ethylenediamine and PEODGE concentrations and coupling methods were examined and are discussed in this paper. Swelling studies and cryogenic-SEM analysis showed that these novel networks have high water intakes (equilibrium water content >3) and pore sizes on the order of up to 1 μm.