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Abstract: The use of solar passive strategies such as new solar control coatings on windows for buildings with large glazed areas, have recently become important and helpful tools, mainly because these developments help to reduce heat gains and/or losses through transparent materials, diminishing energy loads, and improving the environment inside buildings. This paper shows an assessment of the thermal performance for an office on top of a building with four different configurations of window glass, and their influence on the indoor conditions. The window glass configurations are: clear glass, glass-film (SnS–CuxS solar control coating), double-glass-film, and double clear glass. The simulations were carried out using weather data from Mexico City and Ottawa, which are a good representation of two extreme weather conditions, in order to assess the thermal behaviour inside offices, such as energy loads, costs for air conditioning, and the influence of interior heat transfer coefficient correlations. The results indicate that the glass-film proves to be the less appropriate configuration due to the high temperatures reached on the film surface, which has an impact on the air temperatures inside the office and contributes to increase the energy consumption. In general, the double glass-film configuration results to be adequate for both climates, nevertheless it shows a better performance for Ottawa than Mexico City, where a simple double clear glass would work the same way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Examines the effect of litter quality and climate on decomposition rates of plant tissues in Canadian forests. Citations of the climate variables used; Description of the mass loss over a six-year period; Importance of winter precipitation in decomposition.

AbstractThe effect of litter quality and climate on the rate of decomposition of plant tissues was examined by the measurement of mass remaining after 3 years’ exposure of 11 litter types placed at 18 forest sites across Canada. Amongst sites, mass remaining was strongly related to mean annual temperature and precipitation and amongst litter types the ratio of Klason lignin to nitrogen in the initial tissue was the most important litter quality variable. When combined into a multiple regression, mean annual temperature, mean annual precipitation and Klason lignin:nitrogen ratio explained 73% of the variance in mass remaining for all sites and tissues. Using three doubled CO2 GCM climate change scenarios for four Canadian regions, these relationships were used to predict increases in decomposition rate of 4–7% of contemporary rates (based on mass remaining after 3 years), because of increased temperature and precipitation. This increase may be partially offset by evidence that plants growing under elevated atmospheric CO2 concentrations produce litter with high lignin:nitrogen ratios which slows the rate of decomposition, but this change will be small compared to the increased rate of decomposition derived from climatic changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Physicians' time is under assault in the current health care system. In particular, managed care payers are reducing compensation to physicians on a discounted fee-for-service basis. More demanding consumers, complex new technologies, and increased managerial and administrative burdens are placing further constraints on physicians' time. As we look ahead, it seems likely that these pressures will intensify and transform the ways in which physicians spend their time. Physicians will play eight key roles in the future: clinical data collector, shaman, health advisor and wellness coach, knowledge navigator, proceduralist, diagnostician, physician manager, and quality assurance specialist. They will need to lead the redesign of these roles and define the ways in which they should spend their time in the health care system of the new millennium.

To explore the concerns of practicing physicians as a way to inform the health reform debate, the authors conducted a survey of physicians in the United States, Canada, and Germany. Survey results indicate that U.S. physicians are most likely to view affordability as the greatest barrier to access to care for their patients. However, unavailability of services and long waiting times were cited most often by Canadian physicians. German physicians did not cite access problems as frequently as Canadian physicians did; other measures of satisfaction were closer to U.S. levels, suggesting fewer trade-offs if the United States were to adopt aspects of the German health care system.

Background: The United States is considering enacting a national health plan and global health care budget similar to those in other countries. There are few data on the effects of such policies on physicians and patients., Methods: We conducted a telephone survey of 602 physicians in the United States, 507 physicians in Canada, and 519 physicians in the former West Germany from February through May 1991; the response rates were 44 percent, 49 percent, and 41 percent, respectively. Among other topics, the questionnaire included measures of satisfaction with the health care system and with medical practice., Results: In the United States, 23 percent of the physicians surveyed thought the health care system worked well, as compared with 33 percent in Canada and 48 percent in West Germany. Seventy-three percent of U.S. physicians reported that patients' inability to afford necessary treatment was a serious problem, as compared with 25 percent in Canada and 15 percent in West Germany. Seventy-seven percent of West Germany physicians, 56 percent of Canadian physicians, and 54 percent of U.S. physicians said the shortage of competent nurses was a serious problem. In Canada, 50 percent of the respondents cited the lack of well-equipped medical facilities as a problem, as compared with 14 percent in the United States and 20 percent in West Germany., Conclusions: Programs of universal coverage and cost containment necessitate important trade-offs. In Canada and West Germany, physicians do not report serious problems of access to care for the poor and uninsured. In the United States, doctors do not face the limited access to sophisticated forms of medical technology that was reported in Canada or the diminished quality of some services reported in West Germany.