The Affordable Care Act will profoundly infl uence health care delivery in the United States. Here, Dr Randy Wexler, an Associate Professor of Family Medicine at The Ohio State University, describes his health policy interests and activities. Through the years, Dr Wexler has worked with local-, state-, and federal-level policy makers. We hope that by sharing his experiences, family physicians w...

Bacteria are fundamentally divided into two groups, Gram-positive and -negative, based on the chemical and physical properties of their cell walls. The classic Gram stain reaction permits the useful distinction between Gram-positive and -negative bacteria. Gram staining results largely affect the initial classifi cation of an unknown bacterium and the selection of follow-up identifi cation proc...

The image we have of canine hypothyroidism has changed during the last decade. We use to consider it as the most common endocrinopathy in dogs. Most endocrinologists will agree that nowadays, other endocrine diseases such as hypercortisolism, are more frequently observed. In the past, many dogs have been erroneously diagnosed with hypothyroidism. Indeed, evaluation of thyroid function in dogs i...

Children’s health is of great importance for their ongoing growth and development. It is therefore important to increase our knowledge and understanding of the factors that infl uence children’s health. The main areas of interest for the Swedish part of the ArctiChildren project are bullying and stress-related problems, as well as children’s experiences of health and well-being, ethical learnin...

Rhizobia are bacteria that can fi xate atmospheric nitrogen in association within the root or the stem nodules of legume plants and transform atmospheric nitrogen to ammonia. Soil environmental conditions are critical factors for the persistence and survival of rhizobia in the soil. Th e changes in the rhizosphere environment can aff ect both growth and saprophytic competence, which will infl u...

Small businesses occupy a signifi cant role in policy debates. This paper reviews evidence relating to tax policy, small businesses, innovation, and entrepreneurship. We provide background information on the small business sector and alternative business defi nitions. We examine evidence suggesting that job growth and innovation tends to occur in young fi rms, which typically start off small, r...

Animals are important and conspicuous elements inPacifi c Island ecosystems. They are crucial to the fl ow of energy and nutrients within ecosystems and they strongly infl uence, and in some cases control, the species composition and population structure of communities. Determining which animal species are present in an area and what they do is crucial to understanding how ecosystems function a...

In the light of corporate social responsibility, company success is determined not only by economic performance but also by social and environmental performance. Hence, the value based environmental management improves corporate environmental performance and enhances business excellence. Th e purpose of this paper is to examine the differences in environmental performance among companies of var...

Using in situ mesocosm experiments, we compared grazing rates, food-selection patterns and nutrient mineralization rates of a daphniid cladoceran and a diaptomid copepod to determine their infl uence on phytoplankton composition and the prevalence of N-fi xing cyanobacteria. We show that grazing and nutrient mineralization may act synergistically within a grazer taxon. Cladocerans exhibited non...

The integrity of data, and transparency about their acquisition, are vital to science. The impact factor data that are gathered and sold by Thomson Scientifi c (formerly the Institute of Scientifi c Information, or ISI) have a strong infl uence on the scientifi c community, affecting decisions on where to publish, whom to promote or hire (1), the success of grant applications (2), and even sala...