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The Military Compensation and Retirement Modernization Commission was established by the Congress in 2013 to perform a systematic review of military compensation to address rising costs and other t...

In their article, Santaella-Tenorio et al. (1) repeated that they provided a summary of results from studies in which researchers investigated at the impact of various gun control laws on crime rates. In legends of their Figures 2–4, they stated that they presented only a single estimate from each study because of space limitations. The Discussion section of their article reads as though the authors were providing a representative result. Instead, from papers that provide hundreds of results, they picked the most extreme result time after time and misreported others. There are 5 problems with the way Santaella-Tenorio et al. created their figures: 1) They consistently picked results that were the most favorable single result for gun control in the papers they surveyed; 2) they picked results that the authors of those papers rejected; 3) they gave equal weight to refereed and nonrefereed papers; 4) they left out papers from their surveys that have results that do not support gun control; and 5) they inaccurately reported some results. The errors here also apply to all the tables in the article by Santaella-Tenorio et al.; however, because of space considerations, we will focus only on some of the errors in their figure about right-to-carry laws (Figure 2 in their original paper (1)). We also feel strongly that our findings in previous works (2–6) have been misreported. In the articles by Plassmann and Whitley (2) and Plassmann and Tideman (7), the authors argued that weighted … Language: en

It is a common refrain that we can’t allow permitted concealed handguns on university property because we all know how irresponsible young people can be, getting drunk and having wild parties. So, how can we possibly trust college students to have a permitted concealed handgun? While most acknowledge that permit holders as a group are extremely law-abiding, even they worry that college age permit holders are irresponsible and would use guns improperly. Yet, we don’t need to guess about what might happen. There have been no reported problems with permit holders in the nine states that mandate that colleges allow permitted concealed handguns on campuses. In addition, Michigan, Nevada, and Texas, which provide permit revocation data on the permit holder’s year of age, show college age permit holders are as responsible as older permit holders.

This report identifies inconsistencies and challenges in total medical force management and develops recommendations for improvements to management practices that would allow for and promote more efficient total medical force management. The research team found that some force mix challenges have improved (e.g., understaffing of operationally required specialties) while others have grown worse (e.g., use of military for non-military essential functions). The team developed a number of recommendations for changing the incentives faced by local and Service-level decision makers that would lead to improved force mix management within the medical community.

WOS: 000165553000004, PubMed ID: 11177173, The objectives of this study were to confirm the non-absorbability and the reproducibility of faecal excretion kinetics of orally administered rare earth elements, and to investigate the excretion profiles of rare earth elements and stable isotopic tracers of Fe and Zn to establish the extent to which rare earth element markers duplicate the behaviour of isotopic tracers. Two investigations were performed: (1) six healthy subjects consumed a solution containing five rare earth elements in amounts varying from 1 to 10 mg; (2) seven healthy subjects were given a standard solution labelled with Sm marker and Fe-57 tracer, and a meal labelled with Yb marker and Fe-58 and Zn-70 tracers. Individual faecal samples were collected and analysed to determine recoveries of rare earth elements and unabsorbed isotopic tracers. The mean values for recoveries were 94.1 (sd 4.5) % for the five rare earth elements, and 103 (sd 3.0) % and 99.8 (sd 2.8) % for Sm and Yb respectively. For Fe consumed with the solution, excretion kinetics of the rare earth element marker and unabsorbed tracers with cumulative collections of the first two and three faecal samples were identical, but endogenous excretion of Fe was significant (P

There is no evidence that gun control research fell when restrictions were put on federally funded research. Indeed, whether one looks at the number of total articles or total pages, firearms research has been as high or higher than when the restrictions were enacted. In 2013, well before federal funding could have any impact on publications, there was an explosion in firearms research in medical journals.

This paper discusses how greater collection, use, and communication of performance data would assist policy makers in formulating immigration policies and effectively developing and managing strategies for the achievement of these policies. It reviews what is quantitatively known about illegal immigration, what performance measures should be developed and systematically reported, and how these data could be used to formulate strategy and manage execution. This paper does not recommend specific goals or strategies; rather, it provides examples of how performance measurement could move politically contentious policy debates forward by focusing discussion on fact-based choices between alternative aims and strategies and increasing the confidence of policy makers and the public through the linking of goals to strategies in transparent, measurable ways that provide greater accountability for results.

Since 1991, the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Program Analysis and Evaluation, and the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) have conducted a conference on defense economics. In 2005, the conference was oriented towards the military medical mission. It provided an opportunity to consider the future of, international perspectives on, and alternatives to the current military medical force structure. This document contains the proceedings of the 2005 conference, which was held at IDA on September 22, 2005.

Analyzing county level data for the entire United States from 1977 to 2000, we find annual reductions in murder rates between 1.5 and 2.3 percent for each additional year that a right-to-carry law is in effect. For the first five years that such a law is in effect, the total benefit from reduced crimes usually ranges between about $2 billion and $3 billion per year. Ayres and Donohue have simply misread their own results. Their own most generalized specification that breaks down the impact of the law on a year-by-year basis shows large crime reducing benefits. Virtually none of their claims that their county level hybrid model implies initial significant increases in crime are correct. Overall, the vast majority of their estimates based on data up to 1997 actually demonstrate that right-to-carry laws produce substantial crime reducing benefits. We show that their models also do an extremely poor job of predicting the changes in crime rates after 1997.

Maltz and Targonski (2002) have provided an important service by disaggregating the county level data to help researchers examine measurement errors in the county level data, but their conclusion 'that county-level crime data, as they are currently constituted, should not be used, especially in policy studies' is not justified. All data has measurement error, presumably even their measures of this error. Unfortunately, however, Maltz and Targonski provide no systematic test for how bad the data is. Their graphs obscure both the small number of counties affected, that these are rural counties, and that just because some of the population in a county is not represented in calculating the crime rate, that is not the same thing as showing that the reported number is in error. Nor do they provide evidence for the more important issue of whether there is a systematic bias in the data. The evidence provided here indicates right-to-carry laws continue to produce substantial reductions in violent crime rates when states with the greatest measurement error are excluded. In fact, the restricting the sample results in somewhat larger reductions in murders and robberies, but smaller reductions in aggravated assaults.

It is frequently assumed that safe storage gun laws reduce accidental gun deaths and total suicides, while the possible impact on crime rates are ignored. However, given existing work on the adverse impact of other safety laws, such as safety caps for storing medicine, even the very plausible assumption of reduced accidental gun deaths cannot be taken for granted. Our paper analyzes both state and county data spanning nearly twenty years, and we find no support that safe storage laws reduce either juvenile accidental gun deaths or suicides. Instead, these storage requirements appear to impair people's ability to use guns defensively. Because accidental shooters also tend to be the ones most likely to violate the new law, safe storage laws increase violent and property crimes against low risk citizens with no observable offsetting benefit in terms of reduced accidents or suicides. During the first five full years after the passage of the safe storage laws, the group of fifteen states that adopted these laws faced an annual average increase of over 300 more murders, 3,860 more rapes, 24,650 more robberies, and over 25,000 more aggravated assaults. On average, the annual costs borne by victims averaged over $2.6 billion as a result of lost productivity, out-of-pocket expenses, medical bills, and property losses. Lott, John R. and Whitley, John E., Safe Storage Gun Laws: Accidental Deaths, Suicides, and Crime (March 29, 2000). Yale Law School, Law & Economics Working Paper No. 237. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=228534 or doi:10.2139/ssrn.228534

WOS: 000080589200004, Determination of trace element absorption using enriched stable isotopic tracers and faecal monitoring has required 5-10 days collection of faecal output. In this study, the possibility of using rare earths as non-absorbable markers for measurement of the intestinal uptake of iron and zinc with single or reduced faecal collection has been investigated. Seven healthy subjects consumed a standard solution labelled with Fe-57 tracer and Sm marker, and a Farina meal labelled with Fe-58 and Zn-70 tracers, and Yb marker. Marker and tracer contents of faecal samples provided after consumption were determined by NAA and ICP-MS after ion-exchange separation. Intestinal uptake was calculated from faecal recoveries of markers and tracers for individual and composites of sequential samples. The uptakes obtained from the first two individual samples were not significantly different from those obtained from composites of the first 2-3 sequential outputs. It should therefore be possible to determine intestinal uptake with single or reduced faecal collection for iron and zinc. Rare earths offer a new opportunity to investigate absorption in unconfined situations. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Inc.

The decomposition and vaporization of NaCl, MgCl2 and NiCl2 in an electrothermal atomizer have been studied using ion chromatography, radioactive tracers and flame atomic absorption spectrometry (FAAS). Solutions of the individual chloride salts were injected to deposit 50–200 µg on to a pyrolytic graphite platform in a pyrolytic graphite coated graphite tube. The solutions were dried and then pyrolysed at a temperature in the range 200–1200 °C. The residue on each platform was then analysed to determine the amount in micromoles of metal and chloride remaining at each temperature. This allowed formation of pyrolysis curves for the salts, similar to those produced in conventional electrothermal AAS (ETAAS) for analyte elements. Magnesium chloride and NiCl2 exhibited partial hydrolysis with the heating programme used, but significant vaporization of MgCl2 and NiCl2 also occurred. The decomposition and vaporization of 100 or 200 µg masses of the chloride salts caused pre-atomization step losses of Cd, Ga and Pb, in the range 300–1000 °C, as indicated by radioactive tracer analysis and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. The interference was in the order Ni-Cl2>MgCl2>NaCl. Partial hydrolysis of MgCl2 to MgO minimized the pre-atomization losses of the analytes at higher temperatures due to a chemical modification effect similar to that caused by MgNO3. The study illustrates that, in the presence of high masses (50–200 µg) of chloride salts, pre-atomization loss of analyte elements can be a major cause of chemical interference in ETAAS if too high a char temperature is selected and the use of chemical modification is ignored.

Radioactive tracers 165Dy and 56Mn have been used to investigate the vaporization of Dy and Mn in a graphite furnace. The retention and distribution of the analytes after atomization in pyrolytic graphite coated electrographite (PCG) tubes have been measured and the efficiencies of Dy and Mn vaporization have been compared for wall, platform and probe atomization in total pyrolytic graphite (TPG) tubes. Manganese is vaporized almost completely (95–100%) at 2500 °C by each of the atomization modes, with little retention at the point of initial deposition. Manganese is redeposited at the very ends of the PCG tube and the amount of redeposition increases with the age of the tube. Total pyrolytic graphite (TPG) exhibits lower redeposition of Mn than does PCG and the deposition is mainly on the outside of the tube. Dysprosium is almost totally retained in PCG and TPG tubes. Vaporized Dy is redeposited very rapidly, mainly at the centre of the tube, and causes a memory effect in subsequent heating cycles. About 60% of the Dy is vaporized from the probe at 2750 °C, whereas only 7% is vaporized from the platform. The difference in the vaporization efficiencies is reflected in the atomic absorption spectrometric sensitivities for both procedures. Wall atomization gives the best sensitivity for Dy, but is only 1.5-fold better than for probe atomization. Some comments are given on the possible mechanisms of Dy vaporization and atomization, but mass spectrometry studies are required to give a clearer explanation of the phenomena.

During the Holocene the volcano Hekla explosively emitted highly silicic tephra on four occasions. The ash was widely dispersed by the wind. Distinctive light-coloured ash layers are now to be seen in the peats of Northern Iceland. Ash from the 1104 AD eruption was carried as far as Scandinavia. The most recent three tephra are preserved in the top 6 m of sediment in Lake Svinavatn. Chemical data from the sediment of Lake Svinavatn, which lies near the north coast of Iceland 170 km from Hekla, reveal the presence of silicic ash above the tephra visible to the naked eye. Unlike the vertical spread of ash in ocean sediment cores which results from biological mixing effects, the upwards spread of ash in the Svinavatn lake sediment cores appears to have been produced by erosion of ash from the lake catchment in the decades following the eruptions. The variations in concentrations of 11 elements, as determined by neutron activation analysis, can be explained by an exponentially decreasing input from catchment erosion. The additional input to each of the three Hekla ash layers was in the region of 3% of the ash which fell on the Svinavatn catchment.

Concentric zoning in the Criffell pluton takes the form of a discontinuous outer margin of metaluminous hornblende granodiorite and an inner core of increasingly peraluminous muscovite granite. Previous investigations using major and selected trace elements have shown the variation to consist of both smooth and abrupt trends. This study of 15 samples for the rare earth elements shows patterns which strongly correlate with Sr and O isotope data. The principal feature of these data is a progressive decrease in total rare earths with approach to the geochemical centre of the pluton, and evolution to more radiogenic Sr and more silicic and peraluminous compositions. No significant europium anomaly is developed. The slope of light to heavy rare earths using La/Yb ratios varies in a complex manner showing no significant correlation with any of the main indices of bulk composition, but with peak values occurring within the inner part of the outer portion of the pluton. A map of Ce/Y variation based on 172 Ce and Y determinations is essentially identical. These data are considered in terms of various petrogenetic models and it is concluded that the data can only be interpreted in terms of a major and progressive involvement of crustally-derived anatectic magma towards the pluton interior. Trace element modelling favours processes of the assimilation-fractional crystallisation (AFC) type for the generation of this example of I-type to S-type granitoid zonation.

Two series of granitoids are present in the Finisterre region. One is formed mainly by syn-collision two-mica leucogranites. The other is composed of syn- and post-collision granodiorites and monzogranites of calc-alkaline affinity. The emplacement of these granitoids took place during and after the main phases of regional deformation. Petrographic and geochemical studies on the leucogranites suggests a common crustal origin with the surrounding metamorphic series, which includes metasediments and orthogneisses of medium to high grade amphibolite facies. The syn- and post-collision "calc-alkaline" series is associated with basic to intermediate rocks, suggesting a lower crustal origin. REE data have been used to characterize the two types of granitoids and to model the source areas of generation. There is no evidence for an origin of the granitoids by melting of mantle-type igneous rocks. Instead, the sequences of granitoids can be explained assuming different degrees of partial melting from a heterogeneo...

Examples of fenitization of pure quartzites provide valuable insight into the relative mobility of elements. This investigation of fenites from the Borralan complex shows that rare-earth elements are mobile and added during fenitization of quartzite. The resulting normalized patterns are distinctive in their enrichment of the light rare earths and steep drops in the interval Nd-Eu. In terms of rare-earth geochemistry, no difference can be found between the sodic and the potassic trends of fenitization at Borralan. Concentrations of mobile elements define straight-line plots through the origin, heretofore considered a criterion indicative of a fractional crystallization process.

The rate earth element compositions of a suite of high-grade metamorphic and plutonic rocks which outcrop in the Varberg region of southwest Sweden are presented. A plutonic complex containing both charnockitic and non-charnockitic elements intrudes country rocks of upper amphibolite and granulite facies grade. The REE data for the country rocks sustain the view that they are supracrustal origin and support the importance placed on these elements in investigations of metamorphic rock progenitors. The progressive change in REE characteristics found for the various units of the plutonic association confirms that they represent rational stages in differentiation from a common parent. The end-product of this differentiation is a granite with the REE concentration and distribution found, elsewhere in the Baltic Shield, to characterize Rapakivi granite. The progressive change in REE with time suggested for the Baltic Shield by other authors finds support in the results of this study.

The uptake and accumulation of inorganic mercury by lobsters, from seawater containing levels of 10 to 100 ppb, was studied over periods of up to 50 days, using radiochemical neutron activation analysis. These results were amplified by the use of radioisotope tracer experiments. It was found that the gills and the green glands accumulated the most mercury and that the metal could be excreted via the urine. Histological studies showed that long-term exposure to mercury resulted in progressive necrosis of the green glands, whereas other organs were unaffected.