Are Teen Unemployment Rates Influenced by State Minimum Wage Laws?

ABSTRACT Several recent studies have challenged the conventional notion that raising the minimum wage has negative labor market consequences. In particular, most recent minimum wage research has considered teen employment, with virtually no examination of unemployment rates. Given the conflicting findings in the recent literature, this study reconsiders this issue by examining the minimum wage's influence on teen unemployment rates. The empirical analysis considers state data from the latter 1980s, a unique period where many states raised their minimum wage above the federal level. The results suggest that both a greater minimum wage rate and greater minimum wage coverage increase teen unemployment rates. Further evidence suggests that employment declines outweigh teen labor force reductions, suggesting that increases in unemployment are primarily caused by labor demand shifts. Thus, policy makers should weigh these costs in deciding future minimum wage hikes.     

Do Development Impact Fees Reduce the Rate of Residential Development?

ABSTRACT Over the last twenty-five years local governments in the United States and Canada have increasingly used impact fees and other development exactions as methods of financing capital and infrastructure requirements mandated by residential growth. While several studies have examined the effects of impact fees on housing and land prices, rigorous empirical analysis of their effects on residential development is lacking. In this paper a sample of all municipalities in DuPage County, Illinois from 1977 through 1992 is used to examine the effects of impact fees on the rate of residential development. The empirical results show that impact fees reduce rates of residential development by more than 25 percent.     

Comparison of a New Braid Fixation System to an Interlocking Intramedullary Nail for Tibial Osteotomy Repair in an Ovine Model

Objectives— To compare bone healing of tibial osteotomy repaired with Nitinol wire braid and hardened steel rods (Braid system) and polymethylmethacrylate bone cement with an interlocking intramedullary (IM) nail fixation in an ovine model.
Study Design— In vitro and in vivo experimental study.
Animals— Adult female sheep (n=22).
Methods— Using sheep tibia, a middiaphyseal transverse osteotomy was performed in the right tibia, which were then randomly assigned to the Braid system group or IM nail group (n=5). The left tibia were used as controls. The torsional properties of tibial constructs were compared. The study was repeated in vivo in 12 sheep and mechanical properties and bone healing were evaluated at 12 weeks.
Results— In vitro, there was no significant difference in torsional stiffness between the groups. In vivo, operative time for the Braid system group was significantly shorter than the IM nail group. At 12 weeks, there were no significant differences in maximum torque and torsional stiffness between IM nail and Braid system groups nor were there significant radiographic or histologic differences between the groups.
Conclusions— The Braid system might decrease operative time for repair of transverse middiaphyseal tibial fractures and result in similar bone healing at 12 weeks after surgery compared with an interlocking IM nail repair.
Clinical Relevance— A Nitinol Braid system may be a treatment option for transverse midshaft tibial fractures.     

Interobserver Repeatability of Measurements on Computed Tomography Images of Lax Canine Hip Joints from Youth to Maturity

Objectives— To determine interobserver repeatability of measurements on computed tomography (CT) images of lax canine hip joints at different ages and in the presence of degenerative joint disease at maturity. Study Design— Longitudinal observational investigation. Animals— Sibling crossbreed hounds. Methods— Pelvic CT was performed at 20, 24, 32, 48, 68, and 104 weeks of age. Measures were performed on 3 contiguous two‐dimensional (2D) transverse CT images of both hips at each time point by 3 investigators. Center‐edge angle (CEA), horizontal toit externe angle (HTEA), ventral (VASA), dorsal (DASA), and horizontal (HASA) acetabular sector angles, acetabular index (AI), and percent femoral head coverage (CPC) were measured. Interobserver repeatability was quantified with the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). Satisfactory repeatability was considered when ICC≥0.75. Results— DASA, CEA, and CPC were repeatable in all age groups. HASA and HTEA were repeatable for all but 1 time point. At 20 weeks of age, all measures but AI were repeatable, and at 104 weeks of age, DASA, CEA, CPC, and HASA were repeatable. Measures were repeatable in hips with and without degenerative changes with the exceptions of AI and HASA in normal hips and VASA and HTEA in osteoarthritic hips. Conclusions— Most 2D CT measurements examined were repeatable regardless of age or joint disease. Clinical Relevance— Two‐dimensional CT measures may augment current techniques for assessing joint changes in lax canine hips.     

DETECTION OF PNEUMOTHORAX AND PLEURAL EFFUSION WITH HORIZONTAL BEAM RADIOGRAPHY

Forty‐seven patients with a known history of thoracic trauma or clinical suspicion of pneumothorax were selected for thoracic imaging. The patient population was composed of 42 dogs and five cats. Standard vertical beam (VB) left and right lateral and ventrodorsal/dorsoventral (VD/DV) projections were obtained for each patient, and at least one horizontal beam (HB) projection (VD projection made in lateral recumbency). A total of 240 images were reviewed. Subjective assessment for the presence and degree of pneumothorax and pleural effusion was made more confidently with HB projections. Pneumothorax was identified in at least one projection in 26 patients (26 dogs) and pleural effusion in 21 patients (19 dogs and two cats). Pneumothorax and pleural effusion were present concurrently in 17 dogs. Pneumothorax and pleural effusion were graded for each image as absent, mild, moderate, or severe. Right (P<0.001) and left (P<0.05) lateral HB VD projections and the standard VB left lateral projection (P<0.05) were significantly more likely to detect and grade pneumothorax severely than the VB VD/DV views. The right lateral HB projection had the highest rate of detection and gradation of severity for pneumothorax compared with other views. VD/DV projections had the lowest sensitivity for detection of the pneumothorax and gradation of severity for pneumothorax and pleural effusion. No significant difference in diagnosis (P=0.9149) and grade (P=0.7757) of pleural effusion were seen between views, although the left lateral HB had both the highest rate of detection and grade of severity.     

Nodular gill disease: a unique form of proliferative gill disease in rainbow trout, Salmo gairdneri Richardson

Abstract. An outbreak of proliferative gill disease occurred in a group of rainbow trout fingerlings. kept for experimental purposes. Lesions were multifocal among filaments and uniquely severe in the distal region of affected filaments, forming nodules; this contrasted with the more common forms of proliferative gill disease in Ontario, such as bacterial gill disease, in which lesions are diffuse along and among filaments. The cause of the condition is unknown, although cells with a very distinctive morphology were closely associated with the lesions.