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Objectives Mindfulness-based programs (MBPs) such as the ‘Soles of the Feet’ (SoF) meditation have been shown to be effective for reducing aggressive behavior in people with intellectual disabilities (ID). Research on SoF has shown promising results in the USA but there is an absence of evidence for the approach in the United Kingdom (UK). The aim of this research was to adapt SoF for the UK and to assess the feasibility and cost of implementing the SoF intervention in a UK healthcare setting (UK SoF). Methods The UK SoF intervention consisted of a manualized protocol delivered over a six-week period by National Health Service staff to people with ID and their carers. This was a single-arm study with three measurement time points (baseline and 2- and 6-month follow-ups). Results The UK SoF intervention was shown to be feasible, with recruitment, retention, and adherence figures exceeding the minimum cut-off of 50%. Costs were £2426 per participant, or £2766 when including set-up costs such as therapist training. Although not a primary aim, data suggest that at 6-month follow-up, there was a reduction in scores for anger and aggressive behavior, and depression and anxiety showed improvement. In addition, people with ID were able to self-report on their health-related quality of life. Conclusions This study has indicated areas where the protocol could be further improved, and it is recommended that the research should move to a pilot trial before the development of a full randomized control trial.

Mindfulness-based programs have been delivered to people with intellectual disabilities (ID) and aggressive behaviour with some success. The current study is part of a wider feasibility study, which aimed to test the adaptation of the Soles of the Feet (SoF) meditation practice to a six-session, one-to-one intervention delivered within the UK National Health Service. It was designed for adults with ID to help reduce their aggressive behaviour. Eighteen stakeholders were interviewed from three groups: (1) people with ID who took part in the intervention, (2) their supporters, and (3) therapists who delivered the intervention. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. The intervention had high acceptability among participants, although they reported mixed outcomes, these outcomes aligned closely with reports on effectiveness from supporters and therapists. Some people with ID and their supporters reported positive changes, such as reduced aggression, increased sociability, and higher quality of life. Some participants reported no change. Four participants and their supporters reported clear benefits from the SoF intervention. For the three that did not report benefits, this appeared to be related to whether the person with ID understood the intervention and/or were motivated to reduce their aggressive behaviour. There was also evidence of supporters needing more direct instruction on how to facilitate the SoF intervention with the person they care for. Suggestions for future research are made, and clinical implications explored.

This article reports the findings from the BCVA congress workshop discussing left displaced abomasum (LDA) treatment methods. The aim of this workshop was to discuss the various described approaches to surgical correction, advantages and disadvantages for the different treatment methods and learn from the participants' knowledge, experience and expertise. Twenty-six cattle veterinary surgeons took part in the workshop with a mix of male/female participants and years of experience. Participants practiced in Europe, Australia and North America; all contributed to the discussion and gave their consent for the workshop to be recorded. This article is a report of the knowledge and opinions shared by the participants after a brief introduction regarding the different surgical approaches.

The aim of this study was to explore whether errorless learning leads to better outcomes than errorful learning in people with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and to examine whether accuracy in error recognition relates to any observed benefit of errorless over errorful learning. Nineteen participants with a clinical diagnosis of amnestic MCI were recruited. A word-list learning task was used and learning was assessed by free recall, cued recall and recognition tasks. Errorless learning was significantly superior to errorful learning for both free recall and cued recall. The benefits of errorless learning were less marked in participants with better error recognition ability. Errorless learning methods are likely to prove more effective than errorful methods for those people with MCI whose ability to monitor and detect their own errors is impaired.

Awareness in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) has been studied primarily from a quantitative perspective, which has yielded inconclusive results. A qualitative approach may provide a more in-depth profile of awareness of symptoms and changes among people living with MCI. Few qualitative studies have considered awareness in MCI; therefore, the focus here will be on the experience of living with MCI, and particularly on the psychological impact of living with memory difficulties and how these impact on daily life. Twenty five participants with a clinical diagnosis of MCI who had been informed of their diagnosis were interviewed. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to analyse interview transcripts. Four higher order themes were identified. An exploratory model is proposed with a dominant theme of 'Fear and uncertainty'; this underpins 'Interdependence', 'Life goes on as normal' and 'Disavowal of difficulty' which are representative of coping responses resulting from appraisal of memory and cognitive difficulties. Participants did not use the term 'MCI', suggesting that this term had little meaning for them; nevertheless, there was a wish for a definitive explanation of the difficulties. The themes elicited from participant accounts indicate that the symptoms of MCI are perceived as a threat to psychological well-being which results in context-specific appraisal of the symptoms of MCI.

Approximately 10–20 % of adults with intellectual disabilities engage in challenging behaviours such as aggression, destructiveness, and self-injury, which are often accompanied by feelings of anger. The inability to manage anger can reduce quality of life. For example, aggression is a strong predictor of out-of-area placements and is a risk variable for abuse. Recent research suggests that mindfulness-based therapies (specifically, Singh’s Soles of the Feet meditation) can help people with intellectual disabilities manage angry emotions, with resultant reductions in challenging behaviour. However, previous research has been single-case design studies, and no group studies have been published with people with intellectual disabilities and aggressive behaviour. For this feasibility study, a UK protocol will be developed for use by health professionals within National Health Service (NHS) Intellectual Disability (ID) teams, based upon Singh’s Soles of the Feet manual. Twenty adults with intellectual disabilities and identified problems with anger control will be recruited and six sessions will be delivered by a trained ID clinician. The study will monitor participant’s aggressive behaviour, health-related quality of life, anxiety, depression, and use of support services (medication, hospital appointments etc.). These will be measured at three time points: (1) Baseline (within 2 weeks prior to the first session of the intervention), (2) 2 months post-baseline, and (3) 6 months post-baseline. Qualitative interviews will be conducted with participants, their carers, and the therapists who delivered the intervention. In order to help design an economic evaluation alongside a future full trial, we will cost the intervention and test the acceptability and validity of health economics measures to record resource use and health-related quality of life outcomes. The data from this study will inform the feasibility of the project protocol and intervention, which will help develop future research and to determine whether a larger, randomised controlled trial with concurrent economic evaluation is feasible. UKCERN: 16743 .

Among individuals with episodic memory impairments, trial-and-error learning is less successful than when errors are avoided. This "errorless learning advantage" has been replicated numerous times, but its neurocognitive mechanism is uncertain, with existing evidence pointing to both medial temporal lobe (MTL) and frontal lobe (FL) involvement. To test the relative contribution of MTL and FL functioning to the errorless learning advantage, 51 healthy older adults were pre-experimentally assigned to one of four groups based on their neuropsychological test performance: Low MTL-Low FL, Low MTL-High FL, High MTL-Low FL, High MTL-High FL. Participants learned two word lists under errorless learning conditions, and two word lists under errorful learning conditions, and memory was tested via free recall, cued recall, and source recognition. Performance on all three tests was better for those with High relative to Low MTL functioning. An errorless learning advantage was found in free and cued recall, in cued recall marginally more so for those with Low than High MTL functioning. Participants with Low MTL functioning were also more likely to misclassify learning errors as target words. Overall, these results are consistent with a MTL locus of the errorless learning advantage. The results are discussed in terms of the multi-componential nature of neuropsychological tests and the impact of demographic and mood variables on cognitive functioning.

Background Insufficient attention has been paid to the influence of psychological and social factors on discrepancy-based measures of awareness. Objectives The present study tested a biopsychosocial model of awareness in early-stage dementia by gathering evidence regarding the relative contributions of neuropsychological, individual psychological and social factors to the level of scoring on measures used to index awareness. Method Awareness was assessed in relation to memory, activities of daily living and social functioning in 101 individuals with early-stage dementia participating in the Memory Impairment and Dementia Awareness (MIDAS) Study. People with dementia (PwD) and carers also completed measures of individual psychological and social variables, and PwD completed measures of neuropsychological functioning. Results Scores on discrepancy-based indices of awareness and on the self-ratings and informant ratings contributing to these indices were associated with a range of factors including neuropsychological functioning of PwD, individual traits and dispositions and current affective functioning of PwD, socio-demographic characteristics of PwD and carers, carer well-being and carer perceptions of PwD and of quality of relationship with PwD. Patterns of association varied across domains of functioning. Conclusions The findings support the relevance of a biopsychosocial approach to understanding the factors that influence unawareness of impairment in dementia. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Objective: To determine whether people with dementia (PwD), and carers of PwD, show a processing bias\ud to dementia-related words in an emotional Stroop task, and if so, whether the presence of such a bias is\ud related to level of explicit awareness of the condition.\ud \ud Method: Seventy-nine people with early stage Alzheimer’s disease (AD), vascular or mixed dementia, and\ud their carers, completed an emotional Stroop task. Time taken to colour-name dementia-related and\ud neutral words was compared within and between groups. Additionally, as a comparison, ratings of the\ud awareness of the condition shown by PwD were made on the basis of a detailed interview with each PwD\ud and his/her carer.\ud \ud Results: PwD and carers showed the same level of increase in response times to salient compared to\ud neutral words. In the PwD this effect was unrelated to the degree of awareness that they demonstrated\ud regarding the condition.\ud \ud Conclusions: The emotional Stroop effect in response to dementia-related words in PwD indicates that\ud preserved implicit awareness of the condition can be elicited even where there is reduced explicit\ud awareness.

Objectives: Subjective memory complaint (SMC) is central to the diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment (MCI). People with MCI are at a higher risk of progressing to dementia, and research on SMC is contradictory in terms of the accuracy of SMC and its predictive role for future dementia. One possible reason for these contradictory findings is that the level of awareness of memory function may vary among people with MCI. This review examines whether the level of awareness of memory functioning varies amongst people classified as having MCI and whether there is support for the suggestion that the level of awareness in MCI predicts future progression to dementia. Method: Sixteen studies were identified which evaluate the awareness level in people classified as having MCI in either a clinical or research setting. In addition to the outcome of each study, the conceptualization of awareness, ‘object’ of awareness and methodology were also considered. Results: There is evidence to show that the level of awareness in MCI does vary, and this may have implications for future progression to dementia. Conclusions: Given the increased risk of progression to dementia for those identified as having MCI, the role of awareness should be explored further with due consideration given to the conceptualisation of awareness and the methodology employed. The finding of variability in awareness has implications for the use of SMC in the diagnostic criteria for MCI.

During the seventeenth century East India Company merchants settled in several cities of western India under the control of the Mughal Empire. The most important of these was Surat in Gujarat, where an English cemetery of impressive brick and stucco tombs was established. The style and nature of these monuments provide an insight into the cultural interactions that took place between the English merchants and the local population, as well as indicating the political aspirations of the East India Company officials. A description of these tombs, the earliest dating to 1649, is followed by a discussion of the origins of the cemetery, the chronology of the tombs and the identity and status of the dead. It is shown how the adoption of Indo-Islamic architectural styles for the earliest tombs was modified during the eighteenth century by the increasing use of Western architectural features, in line with growing British political power in India during this period. Changing architectural styles are paralleled by the changing attitudes of British visitors to the tombs from the seventeenth to the early twentieth centuries.

L'A. analyse la relation entre les changements technologiques, l'amenagement de l'eau et le developpement des jardins a l'anglaise durant les annees 1730 a partir des travaux de Stephen Switzer qui se decrit comme un hydrostaticien

Tumor registries are held to a very high standard for identifying and reporting new analytic cancer cases. However, current approaches to new case detection are often inefficient and costly. Efficient and effective detection of new cancer cases has the potential to maintain a high accuracy of reporting while reducing costs, increasing timeliness of reporting, and ultimately advancing cancer research. We describe the development, implementation, and evaluation of an informatics tool that integrates multiple data sources to support the workflow of new case identification at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) tumor registry office. The new system reduced the total number of potential cases to analyze from roughly 13,000 to 2,500 records per month. This resulted in an efficiency gain of roughly 80 man hours per month with a respective annual savings of approximately 50,000 dollars. Further iterative refinement of this approach along with support for case abstraction could result in further efficiencies.

People who have been assessed as suffering from borderline personality disorder are notoriously difficult to treat or to help either within individual psychoanalysis or psychotherapy or within a hospital or day centre. The treatment milieu is most commonly that of a psychiatric day hospital. The purpose of this paper is to explore some of the therapeutic challenges in working with this client group, and then to look at what has been and is being achieved at Belle Ridley Day Hospital, a psychiatric day hospital run on psychodynamic lines which is based in the Waterlow Unit in North London.

The construction of the landscape park at Cusworth Hall, Doncaster, the work of the designer Richard Woods, is exceptionally well documented. The core of the landscape, including a lake system, rock arch and cascade, remains intact but semi-derelict. The use of documentary evidence in conjunction with the physical fabric of the site enables a closer understanding of the working methods, earthworks and landscape contouring involved in making a landscape park. Plans, contemporary maps and the Memoranda produced by Woods for his foreman illustrate the adaptation of an existing landscape of medieval origin and the application of contemporary technology to create an eighteenth-century landscape park.

Background Self-report quality of life (QoL) measures for people with dementia are widely used as outcome measures in trials of dementia care interventions. Depressed mood, relationship quality and neuropsychiatric symptoms predict scores on these measures, whereas cognitive impairment and functional abilities typically do not. This study examines whether these self-reports are influenced by personality and by the person’s awareness of his/her impairments. A strong negative association between QoL and awareness of deficits would have implications for the validity of self-report in this context and for therapeutic interventions aiming to increase adjustment and coping. Methods Participants were 101 individuals with early‒stage dementia and their family carers participating in the Memory Impairment and Dementia Awareness (MIDAS) Study. QoL was assessed using the QoL-AD scale, and awareness was assessed in relation to memory, activities of daily living and social functioning. Self-concept, conscientiousness, quality of relationship and mood were assessed and a brief neuropsychological battery administered. Carers rated their own stress and well-being and reported on neuropsychiatric symptoms. A series of regression analyses predicting QoL-AD were carried out, identifying key variables in each domain of assessment to take forward to an overall model. Results Cognitive impairment was not related to QoL. The final model accounted for 57% of the variance in QoL-AD scores, with significant contributions from depressed mood, severity of irritability shown by the person with dementia, self-concept, quality of relationship (rated by the person with dementia) and male gender. The bivariate relationships of QoL-AD with awareness of memory function, awareness of functional abilities and conscientiousness were mediated by both depressed mood and self-concept. Conclusions This study reports the most comprehensive approach to evaluation of awareness to date. Most of the indices of awareness used are not related to self-reported QoL. Discrepancies in evaluative judgements of memory function and functional abilities between people with dementia and carers are related to QoL, but this relationship is mediated by both depressed mood and self-concept, which have a much stronger relationship with QoL. The validity of self-report measures of QoL in people with early stage dementia is supported by these results.

Despite much research on the relationship between awareness and dementia little can be concluded concerning their relationship and the role of other factors. It is likely that studies capture different phenomena of awareness. This study aimed at identifying and delineating such variation by analysing data from three questionnaires obtained during the longitudinal study of awareness in 101 people with early-stage dementia. The data concerned awareness in relation to memory, activities of daily living and socio-emotional function. Significant differences in patterns of discrepancies were obtained. This suggests that the awareness phenomena involved were structurally different; and that, in turn, this may reflect variation in the intrinsic linking between awareness and its ‘object’ (different ‘objects’ determining different kinds of judgements). The identification of such differences is necessary so that appropriate methodologies can be applied to the study of awareness in different contexts.

The paper focuses on the concept of the vernacular garden and sets out the opportunities for research. Parallels are drawn between vernacular architecture and vernacular gardens and discussion is illustrated by survey work carried out in North Yorkshire and Greater Manchester and comparisons are made with projects in North America. The discussion is set within the context of shifting approaches to conservation and the move towards an increasing emphasis on the importance of the ‘National Estate’ which includes vernacular and locally distinctive gardens and buildings.

The study of landscape and garden history is now well established and is beginning to widen its focus. The importance of the vernacular garden both as an expression of popular culture and as an important element in the contemporary environment is beginning to be recognised and is forcing a reappraisal of the concepts of heritage and a reassessment of established recording techniques and methodologies. This paper is part of a study of one type of popular garden and looks particularly at the contemporary response to the gardens of the inter‐war semi‐detached house and at their role as complex social and cultural artefacts.

This paper looks at the Luisenstadtischer Kanal in Berlin as an example of historic park and garden conservation in urban areas. The history of the site and the development of the surrounding area is described and the practice of conservation in Berlin following the collapse of the Wall is reviewed. From the starting point of this case study, some of the broader issues of park and garden conservation are examined and the need for area-wide strategic planning is assessed.

This paper reviews the work undertaken on English Heritage's ‘Register of Parks and gardens of Special Historic Interest in England’ over the past decade. The paper assesses the influence of the Register on public perception of historic parks and gardens, on conservation thinking and decision making, and concludes by looking to the future and identifying new questions and approaches to describing, recording and conserving the historic landscape.

Insufficient attention has been paid to the influence of psychological and social factors on discrepancy-based measures of awareness.The present study tested a biopsychosocial model of awareness in early-stage dementia by gathering evidence regarding the relative contributions of neuropsychological, individual psychological and social factors to the level of scoring on measures used to index awareness.Awareness was assessed in relation to memory, activities of daily living and social functioning in 101 individuals with early-stage dementia participating in the Memory Impairment and Dementia Awareness (MIDAS) Study. People with dementia (PwD) and carers also completed measures of individual psychological and social variables, and PwD completed measures of neuropsychological functioning.Scores on discrepancy-based indices of awareness and on the self-ratings and informant ratings contributing to these indices were associated with a range of factors including neuropsychological functioning of PwD, individual traits and dispositions and current affective functioning of PwD, socio-demographic characteristics of PwD and carers, carer well-being and carer perceptions of PwD and of quality of relationship with PwD. Patterns of association varied across domains of functioning.The findings support the relevance of a biopsychosocial approach to understanding the factors that influence unawareness of impairment in dementia.

Objective: To determine whether the T H 1 cytokine interferon (IFN)-γ is associated with miscarriage whereas the T H 2 cytokine interleukin (IL)-10 is associated with successful pregnancy. Design: Controlled clinical study. Setting: Healthy volunteers in an academic setting. Patient(s): Group 1 comprised 10 nonpregnant women; group 2, 10 first-trimester primigravid women; group 3, 10 first-trimester primigravid women suffering spontaneous abortion; and group 4, 10 first-trimester pregnant women with a history of miscarriage. All women were pregnant at the time of sampling, but 5 miscarried later in the first trimester. Intervention(s): None of the patients received any medication. Main Outcome Measure(s): Serum levels of IL-10 and IFN-γ. Result(s): Levels of IL-10 were significantly raised in normal pregnancy. Levels of IFN-γ were raised in the recurrent-miscarriage group as compared with normal pregnancy. When patients in group 4 were divided into those whose pregnancies went to term and those who miscarried, we found that successful pregnancy was associated with a statistically significant increase in IL-10, whereas miscarriage was associated with significantly increased levels of IFN-γ. Conclusion(s): These results support the view that miscarriage is associated with a T H 1 type response.

Forty-eight college students, 24 of them dyslexic, were presented with four sentences of increasing complexity. Participants were asked to repeat each sentence and a record was kept of the number of repetitions required before 100% correct accuracy was achieved. None of the 24 control participants required a total of more than eight repetitions over the four sentences, whereas among the dyslexics the total number of repetitions needed ranged from one to 25. Dyslexic participants were unpredictable in their performance from one level of difficulty to the next and inter-individual variability was far greater in the dyslexic group than in the control group. Overall, despite their relatively poor performance in achieving verbatim accuracy relative to non-dyslexic participants, dyslexic individuals regularly managed to preserve the gist of the sentences. Some theoretical issues arising from these results are discussed.

The purpose of this article is to compare the gingivitis reduction efficacy relative to baseline of an integrated power toothbrush/toothpaste dispensing system prototype, the IntelliClean System from Sonicare and Crest. This was a randomized, controlled, parallel-group, examiner-blind study that examined the gingivitis reduction efficacy of a novel integrated system compared to a positive control consisting of manual toothbrushing coupled with daily flossing over a 4-week period. Mean change from baseline for gingival index (GI) and bleeding scores were tested using paired t tests for each treatment group, separately. Between-group comparisons were made with respect to change from baseline using analysis of covariance. Baseline values were used as the covariate. All tests were 2-sided with a 0.05 level of significance. A total of 66 subjects (61 women and 5 men) completed the study. The subjects ranged in age from 20 to 64 years with an overall mean age of 39.4 years. Baseline GI and bleeding scores were not statistically significantly different (P.2) between the experimental integrated system group and the positive-control group. Both treatment regimen groups demonstrated highly statistically significant reductions in GI and bleeding scores vs baseline (P.0001) at weeks 2 and 4. After 4 weeks, there was a 28% mean reduction in GI for the experimental group and a 23% mean reduction for the positive-control group. Similarly, there was a 28% mean reduction in bleeding for the experimental integrated system group and a 23% reduction for the positive-control group. However, no statistically significant treatment difference was found between the 2 groups (P.5) for either measure at week 2 or week 4. This study demonstrated the efficacy of the IntelliClean System from Sonicare and Crest in significantly reducing gingivitis and bleeding relative to baseline after 4 weeks of use according to the manufacturer's instructions.

Clinical governance within the National Health Service (NHS) and best value across local authorities in England have emphasised the need for decisions and actions being demonstrably evidence based. In an attempt to progress these related initiatives and facilitate a closer working relationship between NHS Trusts and local government departments, a multi-agency and interprofessional training event on evidence-based practice (EBP) was organised across three boroughs within Tyne and Wear. While there are advantages to different agencies learning and working in partnership to develop quality systems for health improvement, the reality of introducing EBP concepts and creating an evaluative culture within and across public sector organisations represents a major challenge. This article has adopted a case study approach to describe the key lessons learnt through critically reflecting on the planning and delivery of this training event, and it is hoped that it will be of value to other attempting similar projects in the future.

The aim of this study was to examine the role of antioxidants within the normal menstrual cycle, in healthy pregnancy, and in women suffering first-trimester miscarriage. The antioxidants chosen comprised of two from peripheral blood-plasma thiol and ceruloplasmin-and two extracellular parameters-superoxide dismustase (SOD) and red cell lysate thiol. We found that antioxidant levels varied little throughout the menstrual cycle. Pregnancies that went successfully to term were associated with increased levels of ceruloplasmin and SOD early in the first trimester. These changes were thought to offer the cell protection from the damage caused by the increased oxidative stress associated with pregnancy. First-trimester miscarriage was associated with significantly reduced levels of SOD. A subgroup of patients who miscarried in their first pregnancy, but whose second pregnancies were successful, had higher levels of plasma thiol and significantly reduced levels of red cell lysate thiol in the on-going pregnancy compared to levels at the time of miscarriage. Miscarriage and pregnancy appear to be associated with increased oxidative stress. In a successful pregnancy, however, changes occurred within the peripheral blood that offered protection from oxidant attack.

The aim of this study was to determine whether recurrent miscarriage (three or more miscarriages, no live children) was associated with an increased incidence of autoantibodies. Five groups were enrolled into the study; healthy non-pregnant women, healthy first-trimester pregnant women, women suffering spontaneous abortion, those undergoing termination of pregnancy and those with a previous history of miscarriage. The number of total B cells and the numbers of the antibody producing B cell subset CD5+/CD20+ were determined for each group. Samples were tested for anticardiolipin antibodies, antinuclear antibodies and thyroid microsomal and thyroglobulin antibodies. The results showed that compared to normal pregnancy or spontaneous abortion, recurrent miscarriage was associated with a significant increase in the number of CD5+/20+ positive cells (0.8 +/- 0.3 vs 0.5 +/- 0.1 vs 1.1 +/- 0.3 x 10(8)/l; p0.001). These women were also found to have a higher incidence of thyroid antibodies, with four out of the 11 patients being positive for thyroid microsomal antibodies. These results suggest that there may be an association between autoimmunity and recurrent miscarriage.The aim of this study was to determine whether recurrent miscarriage (three or more miscarriages, no live children) was associated with an increased incidence of autoantibodies. Five groups were enrolled into the study: healthy nonpregnant women, healthy first-trimester pregnant women, women suffering spontaneous abortion, those undergoing termination of pregnancy, and those with a previous history of miscarriage. The number of total B cells and the numbers of the antibody-producing B cell subset CD5+/20+ were determined for each group. Samples were tested for anticardiolipin antibodies, antinuclear antibodies, and thyroid microsomal and thyroglobulin antibodies. The results showed that compared to normal pregnancy or spontaneous abortion, recurrent miscarriage was associated with a significant increase in the number of CD5+/20+ cells (0.8 +or- 0.3 vs. 0.5 +or- 0.1 vs. 1.1 +or- 0.3 x 108/L: p 0.001). These women were also found to have a higher incidence of thyroid antibodies, with 4 of the 11 patients being positive for thyroid microsomal antibodies. These results suggest that there may be an association between autoimmunity and recurrent miscarriage.

A 'sense of place' is both a powerful draw to and a clear indicator of an historic environment. The feel of the place in particular, is one of the senses we have of an historic town or city. We sense 'place' and 'local distinctiveness' through the nature, shape, quality and materials of the buildings and from the spaces. We sense place from the evidence of human use and activity in the past and in the present.

Until recently, estimates of demand functions for public goods were obtained (either with aggregate or micro survey data) using single equation estimation techniques. However, demand estimates may be biased when in dividuals' choices of communities are dependent upon the quantity and quality of public good provided. This paper spells out the nature of this bias (called Tiebout bias) and suggests an improved maximum-likelihood estimation technique. The technique is applied to a data set involving local public education in Michigan. Copyright 1987 by MIT Press.

This paper devises and applies a statistical test for efficient provision of local public education. The test is based on the ‘Samuelson condition’ of equality between the sum of marginal rates of substitution and marginal cost. The econometric method is a micro-based approach to the estimation of the marginal rate of substitution function. This method accounts for possible ‘Tiebout bias’ caused by the fact that individuals may choose their school districts in accordance with their tastes for education.

Female labor force participation has increased significantly in Latin America during the last two decades, a period which was also characterized by large fluctuations in aggregate economic activity. The particular question that this paper focuses on is: How do macroeconomic conditions affect female labor market experiences? Two distinct macroeconomic influences are analyzed: the change in the structural composition of employment between sectors, particularly the rising share of the services sector, and the business cycle, captured by deviations of output from trend and by the rate of unemployment. Part of the rising female share in total employment can be explained by increases in the importance of sector which tend to employ relatively more women, particularly services, but the lion’s share of the explanation is found in increases in the proportion of women employed within each sector. As to the cyclical patterns, the evidence indicates that, after controlling for other relevant variables, female l

The question of whether governments spend too much or too little has been a frequent subject of debate, but has been infrequently analyzed.This paper proposes and then applies a methodology which checks to see whether the "Samuelson condition" for the efficient provision of local public education is satisfied, i.e. whether the sum over the school district of individual marginal rates of substitution between public education and a private numeraire equals the marqinal rate of technical substitution between these two qoods. The econometric methodology uses a micro-based approach to the estimation of marginal rate of substitution functions which accounts for possible biases associated with the selection of school districts by individual households.