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Purpose: The purpose of this research note is to identify and prioritize diseases important for detection in adult hearing health care delivery systems. Method: Through literature review and expert consultation, the authors identified 195 diseases likely to occur in adults complaining of hearing loss. Five neurotologists rated the importance of disease on 3 dimensions related to the necessity of detection prior to adult hearing aid fitting. Results: Ratings of adverse health consequences, diagnostic difficulty, and presence of nonotologic symptoms associated with these diseases resulted in the identification of 104 diseases potentially important for detection prior to adult hearing aid fitting. Conclusions: Current and evolving health care delivery systems, including direct-to-consumer sales, involve inconsistent means of disease detection vigilance prior to device fitting. The first steps in determining the safety of these different delivery methods are to identify and prioritize which diseases present the greatest risk for poor health outcomes and, thus, should be detected in hearing health care delivery systems. Here the authors have developed a novel multidimensional rating system to rank disease importance. The rankings can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of alternative detection methods and to inform public health policy. The authors are currently using this information to validate a consumer questionnaire designed to accurately identify when pre-fitting medical evaluations should be required for hearing aid patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article draws on the ideas of Thorstein Veblen to diagnose current trends in the higher learning in America. It focuses on the increasing rationalization, bureaucratization and emphasis on statistical accounting as well as the dominance of administrative elites within the middle levels of higher education. It traces the impact of these methods throughout a range of academic areas, including hiring and evaluation of faculty, the place of students, the content and conduct of intellectual programs, and the operation more generally of the academic organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses a cross-sectional hedonic pricing model to investigate the relationship between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) data releases and the prices of single-family residences within postal zip code areas situated in Omaha, Nebraska's Douglas County. The model employs demographic data from the 2000 Census, toxic chemical release data for the year 2000 from the EPA's TRI database, as well as other pollution variables for each of the zip code areas comprising Douglas County. The model also employs house-specific data supplied by the Douglas County Assessor's Office on dwelling characteristics for homes sold in Douglas County in the year 2000. The findings indicate that, when controlling for relevant socioeconomic variables, TRI pollutant releases are significant determinants of residential housing values. The results should be of interest to anyone in the real estate industry, including tax assessors, appraisers, mortgage lenders, and property owners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The history of American culture and sociology has always been influenced by European thought. Similarities between cultures have figured heavily in "encounters." As a result, many subsidiary concerns have been introduced and encounters have taken place at various "levels." While the most prized American cultural and religious ideals, political assumptions, and economic conceptions have often been formulated in the contexts of such comparisons with Europe, the interests of more locally competing groups and individuals have also regularly been at work and have left their imprint on the cultural artifacts resulting from these encounters. More focused studies of such general processes of encounter and reception need to be sensitive to the many complexities of the problem. Gary Jaworski's recent book "Georg Simmel and the American Prospect" provides a case study of one encounter with Europe, the reception of the sociologist Georg Simmel's ideas in America. The title reveals his general orientation. He examines the ways in which a series of American sociologists used Simmel's ideas and images to mediate their own relationship to what he calls "the American prospect."