The 1994 Reigle-Neal Act gave multistate bank holding companies the option to convert to an interstate branch bank structure by authorizing the merger of bank subsidiaries across state lines. Over the following five year period, an increasing number of banking companies, including a number of very large ones, have done so. As a result, large companies operating through interstate branches have ...

It was with interest that we read the recent article concerning the ‘International Protocol’Fa newly proposed protocol for the validation of automated blood pressure measuring devices [1]. The objective of this new protocol was to simplify the most widely used protocols currently available, namely the British Hypertension Society (BHS) protocol 1993 and the protocol of the Association for the A...

We summarize indirect empirical arguments used for estimating black hole (BH) masses in ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs). The interpretation of the X-ray data is still too modeldependent to provide tight constraints, but masses < ∼ 100M⊙ seem the most likely. It is getting clearer that ULXs do not show the same evolutionary sequence between canonical spectral states as stellar-mass BHs, nor t...

After attempting to determine the original text of each of the secondary witnesses and sorting through the hundreds of variants to determine those that are significant, all that remains to do in compiling the significant variants is to list the variants from the primary witnesses. Once these are obtained, they may be set alongside the significant variants from the secondary witnesses for furthe...

In the absence of direct kinematic measurements, the mass of an accreting black hole is sometimes inferred from the X-ray spectral parameters of its accretion disk; specifically, from the temperature and normalization of a disk-blackbody model fit. Suitable corrections have to be introduced when the accretion rate approaches or exceeds the Eddington limit. We summarize phenomenological models t...

When invertebrate rhodopsins were used as the outgroup, the rooted phylogenetic tree of 26 vertebrate visual pigments (VPs) was constructed. These VPs are distinguished into the following four clusters: (1) RH1 cluster consisting of rhodopsins, (2) RH2 cluster consisting of VPs with variable ranges of absorption spectra, (3) SWS cluster of short wavelength-sensitive VPs, and (4) LWS/MSW cluster...

Low-metallicity (Z < ∼ 0.05Z⊙) massive ( > ∼ 40M⊙) stars might end their life by directly collapsing into massive black holes (BHs, 30 < ∼ mBH/M⊙ < ∼ 80). More than ∼ 10 massive BHs might have been generated via this mechanism in the metal-poor ring galaxy Cartwheel, during the last ∼ 10 yr. We show that such BHs might power most of the ultra-luminous X-ray sources (ULXs) observed in the Cartwh...

In this work, we present some preliminary results on a multi-wavelength (radio/infrared/optical/X-ray) study of GRO J1655-40 during its 2005 outburst. We focus on the broadband spectral energy distribution during the different stages of the outburst. In particular, using this unprecedented coverage, and especially thanks to the new constraints given in the mid-IR by Spitzer, we can test the phy...

The move towards holistic management of cardiovascular disease whereby patients presenting with what appears to be an isolated abnormality, such as hypertension, are evaluated for mUltiple risk factors is to be welcomed [1]. Indeed, acceptance of this ethos is found in three prestigious guidelines The Sixth Report of the Joint National Committee on Prevention, Detection, Evaluation, and Treatme...

The aim of this work was to describe national surveillance of invasive beta-haemolytic streptococci (BHS) in Denmark and to report overall trends and major findings by groups and types of BHS causing laboratory-confirmed disease from 2005 to 2011. A total of 3063 BHS isolates were received from 2872 patients. Based on confirmed cases the overall annual incidence increased from 6.2 to 8.9 per 10...