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This paper investigates the impact of Australia's dividend imputation system on the financial decisions to be faced by an Australian resident company. It briefly outlines the dividend imputation system as enacted, and then analyzes its economic effects on companies' dividend, financing and investment decisions. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

The article presents citations for several American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) honorees in 2009. Among the honorees are Sidney Memorial awardee Marlan W. Downey, Outstanding Leadership Award recipient M. Ray Thomasson and Honorary Member awardee Peter A. Ziegler. It profiles individuals who were recognized for their contributions in the field of petroleum geology including J. C. Sproule Memorial Awardee David R. Pyles and Teacher of the Year Awardee Ty Scott Robinson.

The eastern Jura Mountains consist of the Jura fold-thrust belt and the autochthonous Tabular Jura and Vesoul-Montbéliard Plateau. They are drained by the river Rhine, which flows into the North Sea, and the river Doubs, which flows into the Mediterranean. The internal drainage systems of the Jura fold-thrust belt consist of rivers flowing in synclinal valleys that are linked by river segments cutting orthogonally through anticlines. The latter appear to employ parts of the antecedent Jura Nagelfluh drainage system that had developed in response to Late Burdigalian uplift of the Vosges-Back Forest Arch, prior to Late Miocene-Pliocene deformation of the Jura fold-thrust belt.

Purpose: To present a 7-year single-center clinical experience with fenestrated endografts and side branches.Methods: Between April 1999 and August 2006, 63 patients (57 men; mean age 70.5611.6 years, range 25–89) received custom-designed Zenith fenestrated endoprostheses for a variety of aneurysms (59 abdominal, 1 thoracoabdominal, and 3 thoracic). They were all unsuitable for standard EVAR owing to short aortic necks and high risk for open surgery.Results: Nineteen tube grafts and 44 composite bifurcated grafts with a total of 122 fenestrations and 58 side branches were used. Technical success was achieved in 55 (87.3%) patients and in 118 (96.7%) vessels. Treatment success was 93.7%. The mean follow-up was 23±18 months (median 14, range 6–77). Overall, 9 (7.4%) visceral branches were lost: 4 intraoperative, 2 perioperative, and 3 late. There were 12 (19.0%) endoleaks identified: 5 (7.9%: 4 type Ia and 1 fenestration-related type III) primary and 7 (11.1%: 4 type II, 1 type I, and 2 type III) secondary endoleaks; 4 resolved, 4 were treated, and 4 are under observation. At 77 months, 75.3% of patients were free of a reintervention. All reinterventions were performed within the first 14 months. Fourteen cases of renal impairment were seen [6 permanent (only 1 on dialysis) and 8 transient]. One (1.6%) conversion and 1 (1.6%) rupture were recorded; aneurysm-related mortality was 4.8% (3/63).Conclusion: The favorable outcomes in this study, which encompasses the team's learning curve with fenestrated endografts and side branches, support the use of these devices in selected patients.

Purpose: To report the technique for deploying a 3-part endovascular graft onto the native aortic bifurcation for greater stent-graft stability.Technique: The Zenith Composite Endovascular Graft is a 3-part system consisting of a proximal tubular body with an uncovered Gianturco Z stent, a distal bifurcated body, and a contralateral leg. Proximally, 8-mm flexible interstent gaps facilitate precise infrarenal aortic placement, even in angulated necks. Technically, the bifurcated part is deployed first and pulled down to the aortic bifurcation, while the tubular main body and contralateral leg deployment follow. Using this technique to accommodate the graft onto the natural aortic bifurcation, distal stability can be enhanced and graft migration minimized.Conclusion: The Composite configuration can be an alternative to ensure a higher security index in difficult anatomies. It may be beneficial in patients with short (10–15 mm), angulated (>60°), or conical necks and deserves investigation in these patient populations.

Purpose: To investigate the use of fenestration and branch artery stenting during endovascular stent-graft repair of para-anastomotic aneurysms (PAA).Methods: A retrospective review was conducted of 9 patients (all men; mean age 71 years, range 60–80) who received custom-designed fenestrated endoprostheses for PAA repair. Eight tubular fenestrated devices and 1 composite device (fenestrated tube plus modular bifurcated body) with a total of 31 fenestrations were used.Results: The mean operating time was 318±93 minutes (range 220–485); the mean fluoroscopy time was 77±38 minutes (range 39–158), during which a mean 121±81 mL (range 33–300) of contrast was used. Technical success was achieved in all cases. Over a mean follow-up of 12±5.5 months (range 6–24), 1 secondary intervention was carried out due to a break in a side branch stent-graft; 2 transient renal impairments and 1 permanent renal insufficiency unrelated to renal artery patency were observed. So far, no vessel loss has emerged.Conclusion: Conventional repair of PAA has been a standard procedure for many years, though it carries high surgical risk as well as perioperative mortality. Fenestrated endografts may be a promising alternative in selected patients.

Purpose: To report a rare case of hemangiosarcoma after endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR).Case Report: A 50-year-old man with Klinefelter syndrome presented 5 years after EVAR with a mass at the infrarenal aorta outside the stent-graft. Radiomorphologic and clinical signs were misleading because there had been evidence of an inflammatory process for more than a year. The stent-graft with the surrounding aorta was removed and replaced by a conventional tube graft. Systemic chemotherapy followed. The tumor recurred after 12 months, with pulmonary metastases and tumor embolic occlusion of his left femoral artery. Thrombectomy was performed, and a second course of chemotherapy was administered. The patient died 24 months after the conversion procedure.Conclusion: Morphological changes of the aneurysm wall seen on computed tomographic scans of EVAR patients may not be incidental or signs of infection; rather, a malignant tumor of the aorta or lymphatic disease, although rare, have to be taken into consideration as well.

Summary Topographic EEG was performed in 17 DSM-III-R schizophrenic patients and in 15 sex- and agematched healthy controls. Eleven patients were firstonset (neuroleptic naive) schizophrenics. EEG band power was compared with psychopathology, neuropsychology and neurological soft signs. The EEG was recorded at 14 topographic locations monopolarly and movements of the eye and of the lid were monitored by two bipolar electro-oculogram (EOG) derivations, one vertical and one horizontal. A multivariate correction of EOG artefacts was performed based on regression analysis with respect to EOG channels. Schizophrenic patients showed higher mean and median power in most bands. These differences were most marked in the delta band, in the fast alpha and beta bands, in particular at left frontal sites. Delta power at F7 was by far the best separating variable between schizophrenics and controls in a discriminant analysis. Significant positive correlations were found between the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale scores “Anxiety-depression” and “Activation” and power in the fast bands and negative ones between “Anergia” and the beta bands. Positive significant correlations emerged between the total score in the Negative Symptoms Rating Scale and the amount of delta power, predominantly over the temporal region. Impairment in the Luria-Nebraska neuropsychological scores “Rhythm” and “Memory” correlated highly significantly with EEG band power. No correlations were found between neurological soft signs and EEG band power. Our results are in line with the hypothesis of a hypofrontality in schizophrenia. It is unlikely that these findings are an artefact of prior psychiatric treatment, as they were also observed in firstonset, neuroleptic naive schizophrenics. Moreover, our data suggest that these abnormalities are of clinical and functional relevance, as they correlated significantly with psychopathological and neuropsychological parameters.

Summary The effect of ocular artefacts on spectral EEG parameters is assessed statistically. These artefacts are caused by movements of the eyeball and/or of the lid. Further, methods for correcting ocular artefacts are presented and evaluated. This methodological study is based on data from an investigation comparing the EEG of schizophrenic patients (n=17) with healthy controls (n=15). Ocular artefacts are monitored by the bipolar vertical and the biopolar horizontal electro-oculogram (EOG). It is shown that the influence of ocular artefacts on the measured electrical activity in the frontal region is larger than the cerebral potentials which the EEG is ideally intended to record. The more frequent occurrence of blinks and eye movements in schizophrenic patients may lead to an artificial enhancement of slow frequency EEG power for schizophrenics and eventually “false significant group differences when correcting for EOG artefacts than without it. This can be attributed to a very much inflated sample variability of the uncorrected EEG, due to the individually varying EOG power. We conclude that it may not be sufficient to select visually epochs for analysis that are considered artefact-free. Rather, one should monitor EOG artefacts and apply an appropriate correction.

Purpose: To evaluate feasibility and present early results of endovascular abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) exclusion using modular stent-grafts.Methods: In a 3-year period ending July 1997, 201 patients were treated with self-expanding stent-grafts for AAAs with infrarenal necks = 10 to 15 mm long and = 32 mm wide; subtotal mural thrombus, calcification, and even angulation to some extent were acceptable, as were iliac arteries up to 18 mm wide. The patients were treated with either the Stentor/Vanguard device (178 cases) or the Talent endograft (23 cases). Follow-up on all patients was conducted at 3, 6, 12, 18, and 24 months.Results: The technical aneurysm exclusion rate was 89% (178/201). There were 18 primary endoleaks (9.0%; 2 proximal, 16 distal), 4 (2.0%) conversions to open surgery, and 1 (0.5%) failure to deploy the graft. Seven (3.5%) patients died in the perioperative period, 5 due to multiorgan failure early in the series and two of hemorrhagic complications. Five (2.5%) renal artery occlusions were encountered; in one case, the graft was removed after 3 weeks. Nineteen late endoleaks were found in follow-up, related primarily to the iliac limb graft extensions of the Stentor device, graft material problems, or unknown causes. To date, 10 primary and 13 secondary endoleaks have been treated endovascularly. Twenty (10.0%) graft-limb thromboses were treated either by thrombolysis, thrombectomy, or a femorofemoral bypass.Conclusions: Endovascular grafting is technically feasible and becomes easier with improvements of the introducer systems and the grafts. The seemingly high complication rate in this series is due to the liberal patient selection criteria.

The European Cenozoic rift system extends from the coast of the North Sea to the Mediterranean over a distance of some 1100 km; it finds its southern prolongation in the Valencia Trough and a Plio-Pleistocene volcanic chain crossing the Atlas ranges. Development of this mega-rift was paralleled by orogenic activity in the Alps and Pyrenees. Major rift domes, accompanied by subsidence reversal of their axial grabens, developed 20–40 Ma after beginning of rifting. Uplift of the Rhenish Shield is related to progressive thermal lithospheric thinning; the Vosges-Black Forest and the Massif Central domes are probably underlain by asthenoliths emplaced at the crust/mantle boundary. Evolution of this rift system, is thought to be governed by the interaction of the Eurasian and African plates and by early phases of a plate-boundary reorganization that may lead to the break-up of the present continent assembly.

Intraplate compressional structures, such as inverted extensional basins, upthrusted basement blocks and whole lithospheric folds, play an important role in the tectonic framework of many cratons. Although compressional intraplate structures can occur in a number of dynamic settings, stresses related to collisional plate coupling appear to be responsible for the most important compressional intraplate deformations. Such structures can occur at distances of up to 1600 km from a collision front, both in back-arc (hinterland) and fore-arc (foreland) positions with respect to the subduction system controlling the respective orogen. The stratigraphic record of collision-related intraplate compressional deformation can contribute to the dating of orogenic activity affecting the respective plate margin.Four collision-related scenarios are envisaged for the build-up of intraplate compressional stresses: (1) during the initiation of subduction zones along passive margins or within oceanic basins, (2) during impedance of subduction processes caused by the arrival of an oceanic plateau, transform ridge or microcontinent at a subduction zone, (3) during the initial collision of an orogenic wedge with a passive margin, depending on the lithospheric and crustal configuration of the latter, the presence or absence of a thick passive margin sedimentary prism and convergence rates and direction, (4) during post-collisional over-thickening of an orogenic wedge.Crustal-scale foreland deformation reflects mechanical coupling between the orogenic wedge and its foreland at crustal levels; build-up of high fluid pressures in subducted sediments may account for their decoupling. Lithosphere-scale foreland deformation reflects mechanical coupling between the orogenic wedge and its forelands at the level of the mantle-lithosphere, possibly related to collisional lithospheric over-thickening and the development of mantle back-stops. Processes governing mechanical coupling/decoupling of an orogen and its forelands are still poorly understood.

Analysis of a sequence of palaeo-reconstructions of the distribution of continents in the Western Hemisphere suggests that frictional forces exerted on the base of the lithosphere by the slowly convecting sub-lithospheric upper mantle play an important role as a driving mechanism of plate movements. With such a scenario, slab-pull and roll-back, ridge-push and deviatoric tensional stresses, related to upwellings of the asthenosphere as well as to lithospheric over-thickening in orogenic belts, can be considered as secondary, albeit important, plate moving forces. The present stress state of the globe and circumstantial geological evidence suggest that major compressional stresses can be transmitted over great distances through continental and oceanic lithosphere.

Rifting activity is probably mainly governed by frictional forces exerted on the base of the lithosphere by the convecting sub-lithospheric upper mantle, combined with deviatoric tensional stresses developing over upwelling branches of the asthenospheric convection system, and by far-filed stresses controlling the interaction of lithospheric plates moving relative to each other. Mantle plumes rising from the deep mantle do not appear to be a major driving force of rifting. Therefore, it is questioned whether a distinction between “active” and “passive” rifts is still justified.