Indirect Categories Research Articles

DIRECTIVE UTTERANCES OF VERTICAL RELATIONSHIPS IN THE ANIME 'KAZE TACHINU'

This study aimed at describing the directive utterances as well as the grammatical markers of the utterances in the conversations with vertical relations in the anime entitled Kaze Tachinu. This study used Searle's (1979) theory of directive speech acts and employed a descriptive-qualitative method. It also utilized sociopragmatic approach as an additional perspective in the analysis. The result shows that various forms of directive utterances are spoken by characters who have higher social status towards the others from the lower ones. In total, there are 48 directive utterances found for both direct and indirect categories. Meirei (command) dominates with 40 utterances and is followed by irai (request) kinshi (prohibition), kanyuu (invitation) and adobaisu(advice), each of which has two utterances.

Being your ‘authentic self’: A key to success in the buyer–supplier relationship in indirect procurement

Early in a career as a procurement professional, practitioners are focused on the goals of the company and how to achieve their own career goals as they traverse the buyer–supplier relationships, obtaining the company’s needed goods and services. For practitioners in the indirect categories, the sheer number of suppliers that must be interacted with is sometimes daunting. Finding the keys to building successful buyer–supplier relationships is often reduced to a formulaic transactional process. To be truly successful, you must become well versed in how your own personal traits become key in building relationships with suppliers. Suppliers that provide goods and services, considered indirect purchases, are not always transactional relationships. While these suppliers do not provide raw materials for your company’s production, they supply the infrastructure that supports the whole company and helps bring those finished products or services to market. With that in mind, it is integral to the success of your company that you have good relationships with these suppliers, built on the foundation of trust. In building that trust, the practitioner must become comfortable with the aspects of transparency, integrity and being their authentic self when working with the representatives of their suppliers. While there are risks and pitfalls that must be kept in mind, the personal traits that you present to your suppliers could very well be the key to your success or failure in your role as a procurement professional.

Analyzing Explicit and Implicit accidents workplace costs

Accidents are one of most important phenomena in the production industries and treat the health of the factory workers. Work accidents are a burden for many parties in many ways. Accidents and incidents lead to costs for companies, individual workers, and society. The economic effects of accidents and injuries are not only as financial expenditures, damages or loss of resources, but also there are adverse effects (such as grief ,Loss of major body organs ,…) that are difficult to express in terms of money. Work-related accidents are a major safety and health topic. Every year, workers are faced to accidents in their workplace. This is a huge cost for businesses and a huge cost in terms of human suffering for the victims and their families. Workplace accidents can mean pain and disability and can affect the worker’s life, both in and out of work. According to the contents, it is very important to review and evaluate accidents and their costs. Some researchers have divided costs into, direct and indirect categories. In this study, costs have classified and described as: Explicit and Implicit costs, next has introduced regression model , analyzed and calculated workshop accident.

The national economic burden of rare disease in the United States in 2019

BackgroundTo provide a comprehensive assessment of the total economic burden of rare diseases (RD) in the United States (U.S.) in 2019. We followed a prevalence-based approach that combined the prevalence of 379 RDs with the per-person direct medical and indirect costs, to derive the national economic burden by patient age and type of RD. To estimate the prevalence and the direct medical cost of RD, we used claims data from three sources: Medicare 5% Standard Analytical File, Transformed Medicaid Statistical Information System, and Optum claims data for the privately insured. To estimate indirect and non-medical cost components, we worked with the rare disease community to design and implement a primary survey.ResultsThere were an estimated 15.5 million U.S. children (N = 1,322,886) and adults (N = 14,222,299) with any of the 379 RDs in 2019 with a total economic burden of $997 billion, including a direct medical cost of $449 billion (45%), $437 billion (44%) in indirect costs, $73 billion in non-medical costs (7%), and $38 billion (4%) in healthcare costs not covered by insurance. The top drivers for excess medical costs associated with RD are hospital inpatient care and prescription medication; the top indirect cost categories are labor market productivity losses due to absenteeism, presenteeism, and early retirement.ConclusionsOur findings highlight the scale of the RD economic burden and call for immediate attention from the scientific communities, policy leaders, and other key stakeholders such as health care providers and employers, to think innovatively and collectively, to identify new ways to help improve the care, management, and treatment of these often-devastating diseases.

河流生态廊道提取方法研究及其应用思路

PDF HTML阅读 XML下载 导出引用 引用提醒 河流生态廊道提取方法研究及其应用思路 DOI: 10.5846/stxb202102090415 作者: 作者单位: 作者简介: 通讯作者: 中图分类号: 基金项目: 国家水体污染控制与治理科技重大专项（2018ZX07110003）；国家自然科学基金（31670467） Research progress on methods of river ecological corridor extraction and their application Author: Affiliation: Fund Project: 摘要 | 图/表 | 访问统计 | 参考文献 | 相似文献 | 引证文献 | 资源附件 | 文章评论 摘要:随着交叉学科的发展和技术手段的进步，将河流及其周边生态环境视为整体的理念和研究逐渐受到重视，然而国内对河流生态廊道的研究较少。总结了河流生态廊道的基础理论和提取方法。河流生态廊道可以依据区域规划、通过实地观测等手段直接提取，也可以采用"源地识别-阻力面构建-廊道提取"的框架间接提取。对直接和间接提取方法进行了详细的总结并分析了他们的优势和劣势，发现间接提取方法更具实践意义，且应用的流域面积更大。根据间接提取方式的特点，提出白洋淀-大清河流域河流生态廊道提取的思路。结合区域流域协同治理理念，逐步形成以白洋淀为中心、向周边辐射的河流生态廊道，实现流域水质提升、生物多样性稳定等目标，全面提升生态环境质量。在河流生态廊道提取科学性提升和提取过程中廊道宽度优化等薄弱环节提出未来研究方向。 Abstract:The over exploitation of natural sources leads to a huge burden on water, air, and other environment, among which the response of water environment is the most direct and rapid. With the interdisciplinary development and technology progress, more and more attention has been paid to rivers and their surrounding ecological environment as an integrated river ecological corridor, but there are few researches on river ecological corridor in China. This article summarizes the fundamental theory and extraction methods of river ecological corridor. The river ecological corridor can be defined as the river itself, the riparian vegetation zone along the river and all the related ecological elements, through which river network and ecological flow connect. The extraction methods of river ecological corridor can be classified to direct or indirect categories. The river ecological corridor can be directly extracted according to regional planning or field observation, or indirectly by the framework of "source identification-resistance surface construction-corridor extraction". The patches with high ecosystem service value are often identified as the source area; the resistance surface is often constructed by different environmental variables, such as land use type, elevation, slope, and others, and these environmental variables are given weight according to experience or expert consultation; then the ecological corridor is extracted by different models combining source area and resistance surface. In this paper, these two extraction methods are summarized in detail, and their advantages and disadvantages are discussed as well. The results show that the indirect extraction method has more practical significance, and can more clearly explain the connectivity between patches in a larger watershed. Meanwhile, the indirect extraction method is more time-saving and convenient with the help of RS and GIS technology. With the advantages of indirect extraction method, the extraction idea of river ecological corridor in Baiyangdian-Daqing River Basin is proposed. The area of Baiyangdian-Daqing River Basin is 45000 km2, including Xiong'an New Area and Tianjin Binhai Industrial belt. Different industrial clusters drive the development of whole basin. Incorporated with the ideas of region and watershed collaborative management, a river ecological corridor radiating outwards from the core-Baiyangdian Wetland is gradually formed, thereby realizing the goal of water quality improvement and biodiversity stability in the river basin, and comprehensively improving the quality of reginal ecological environment. At the end, future research directions are proposed in the weak links of scientific improvement of river ecological corridor extraction and width optimization of river ecological corridor. 参考文献 相似文献 引证文献

Uncertainty Estimation for Ensemble Particle Image Velocimetry

We present a novel approach to estimate the uncertainty in ensemble particle image velocimetry (PIV) measurements. Ensemble PIV is widely used when the cross-correlation signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is insufficient to perform a reliable instantaneous velocity measurement. Despite the utility of ensemble PIV, uncertainty quantification for this type of measurement has not been studied. The existing uncertainty quantification algorithms for PIV are developed and used only for instantaneous PIV measurement and do not account for the improved SNR in ensemble PIV. Existing instantaneous uncertainty quantification methods can be divided into direct and indirect categories. Indirect methods require calibration based on the effect of various image parameters (such as noise, particle size, density, velocity gradient, etc.) on the correlation SNR. Indirect methods have not been calibrated for error sources relevant in an Ensemble PIV measurement. Also, they have lower sensitivity to the error sources compared to direct approaches. Direct methods, such as the moment of correlation (MC) and Image Matching (IM), find the uncertainty based on the images and correlation planes without any calibration and are more reliable (Bhattacharya et al., 2018; Sciacchitano et al., 2013). Ensemble PIV is based on ensemble correlations; therefore, MC, which uses the generalized cross-correlation (GCC) plane as a measure of uncertainty, is the most suitable method to be modified to be applicable for the ensemble PIV. The GCC plane is the inverse Fourier transform of the phase correlation and represents the probability density function (PDF) of particles’ displacements (Bhattacharya et al., 2018; Eckstein and Vlachos, 2009). We replaced instantaneous GCC with ensemble GCC and modified MC’s normalization factor to account for the number of ensembles. The MC’s primary limitation is that it assumes a Gaussian shape for the PDF of displacements and estimate the standard deviation of the underlying PDF using a fitted Gaussian. However, the PDF deviates from Gaussian distribution due to velocity gradient or non-Gaussian random displacements. Therefore, MC’s reliability and applicability are reduced for flow fields with non-Gaussian PDFs. Also, our analysis shows that ensemble MC consistently underestimates the uncertainty. So, a generalized and reliable method for uncertainty quantification for ensemble PIV is needed.

Synergistic Effect of Carbon Trading Scheme on Carbon Dioxide and Atmospheric Pollutants

To estimate the synergistic emission reduction effect resulting from carbon emissions trading scheme (ETS) pilots launched in 2013, this study estimated the synergistic emission reduction relationship between carbon dioxide (CO2) and atmospheric pollutants, consisting of sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOX), dust pollutants (Dust) and particulate matter 2.5 (PM2.5). Using the extended logarithmic mean Divisia index (LMDI) method and the IPAT equation, the synergistic emission reduction effect was decomposed into direct and indirect categories driven by energy efficiency, economic development and industrial structure. Moreover, the synergistic emission reduction effect of ETS pilots was quantified with the difference-in-differences method (DID) and propensity score matching difference-in-differences method (PSM-DID). The results show that, from 2013 to 2016, CO2 and atmospheric pollutants achieved emission reduction synergistically through ETS, among which the synergistic emission reduction effect between CO2 and SO2 was most significant. Compared with the direct category, the indirect category accounted for smaller proportion of the synergistic emission reduction effect. The combined action of energy efficiency and industrial structure has a potential positive influence on synergistic emission reduction effect of ETS. Consequently, this suggests that the government needs to develop the domestic carbon market further, improve energy efficiency and optimize industrial structure to promote synergistic emission reduction.

Software Security Requirement Engineering for Risk and Compliance Management

The objective of the research work is to propose a software based security requirement engineering model using categorical and morphisms theory. The earlier security requirement engineering models focus different viewpoints on parallel processing and develop rewrite based knowledge centred models but does not include different functional mappings between the security objects to select the best strategy. The security models have not considered the needed security functions that are to be implemented in different environments with different levels of executions. The proposed requirement engineering model is based on the formal theory of category of objects and the morphisms between them in addition to n categories and multiple morphisms that were used to organize the security requirement functional objects of different categories. The on demand security requirement objects, morphisms and the uncertain events in any one of the subsystems are considered to manage this security requirement category as an algebraic data types. The collection of security requirement objects using classification and clustering techniques are implicitly applied by the formation of category and morphism. The risk and compliances both in the form of direct and indirect categories are mapped so as to provide a security assurance functors with minimum risk on the requirements to the next design state. An ‘n’ category and ‘n’ morphic model for software security requirement model is proposed towards for minimum security risks through efficient compliance management techniques.

Software Security Requirement Engineering for Risk and Compliance Management

The objective of the research work is to propose a software based security requirement engineering model using categorical and morphisms theory. The earlier security requirement engineering models focus different viewpoints on parallel processing and develop rewrite based knowledge centred models but does not include different functional mappings between the security objects to select the best strategy. The security models have not considered the needed security functions that are to be implemented in different environments with different levels of executions. The proposed requirement engineering model is based on the formal theory of category of objects and the morphisms between them in addition to n categories and multiple morphisms that were used to organize the security requirement functional objects of different categories. The on demand security requirement objects, morphisms and the uncertain events in any one of the subsystems are considered to manage this security requirement category as an algebraic data types. The collection of security requirement objects using classification and clustering techniques are implicitly applied by the formation of category and morphism. The risk and compliances both in the form of direct and indirect categories are mapped so as to provide a security assurance functors with minimum risk on the requirements to the next design state. An ‘n’ category and ‘n’ morphic model for software security requirement model is proposed towards for minimum security risks through efficient compliance management techniques.

Integrating Geophysical Attributes with New Cuckoo Search Machine-Learning Algorithm to Estimate Silver Grade Values–Case Study: Zarshouran Gold Mine

The exploration methods are divided into the direct and indirect categories. Among these, the indirect geophysical methods are more time- and cost-effective compared with the direct methods. The target of the geophysical investigations is to obtain an accurate image from the underground features. The Induced polarization (IP) is one of the common methods used for metal sulfide ore detection. Since metal ores are scattered in the host rock in the Zarshouran mine area, IP is considered as a major exploration method. Parallel to IP, the resistivity data gathering and processing are done to get a more accurate interpretation. In this work, we try to integrate the IP/RS geophysical attributes with borehole grade analyses and geological information using the cuckoo search machine-learning algorithm in order to estimate the silver grade values. The results obtained show that it is possible to estimate the grade values from the geophysical data accurately, especially in the areas without drilling data. This reduces the costs and time of the exploration and ore reserves estimation. Comparing the results of the intelligent inversion with the numerical methods, as the major tools to invert the geophysical data to the ore model, demonstrate a superior correlation between the results.

Direct and Indirect Effects of Janani Suraksha Yojana on Antenatal Care and Institutional Delivery

Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY) provides conditional cash incentives to eligible pregnant women in India so that they can take at least three antenatal care services including tetanus injection and iron-folic acid, to deliver their babies in health institutions, and to take at least one postnatal service for them and their neonatal babies. We examine its effects on antenatal care and the institutional delivery. We also decompose effects into direct and indirect categories, deriving parameters from the theoretical model, then estimating them using several regression methods including the propensity score matching. We use the fourth round of the District Level Household Survey (DLHS), which has an advantage over the previous waves of DLHS.

“Academic innovation in service of” what? The scope of North American occupational science doctoral graduates’ contributions from 1994–2015

ABSTRACTMore than 100 people have graduated with occupational science doctoral degrees in North America. Accordingly, there is a body of work that can be examined to assess what qualities have characterized doctoral-level occupational science inquiry to-date. In this preliminary study, we performed a directed content analysis of 101 dissertation abstracts published between 1994 and 2015 from four occupational science doctoral programs in the United States and Canada. Our analysis explored the extent to which the 101 doctoral studies, as evidenced by their abstracts, directly contributed to knowledge of occupation or humans as occupational beings. Our findings suggested that 40 studies made a direct contribution, 29 made an indirect contribution, and 32 made no contribution to the study of occupation or humans as occupational beings. Additional analyses revealed that studies in the direct and indirect categories relied heavily (80% and 69%, respectively) on qualitative methodologies, whereas studies in the no contribution category were more evenly split across qualitative (37%) and quantitative (47%) methodologies. A variety of topics and themes characterized studies in each category, and further research on 92 doctoral students’ post-graduation publications showed that 50 made contributions to occupational science’s knowledge base through published articles or book chapters. The findings from this preliminary inquiry provide a basis to critically reflect on the goals, outcomes, and functions of occupational science doctoral education as well as how the discipline has developed through doctoral work within evolving academic, scientific, and political landscapes.

The Burden of Cost in Bronchiolitis Obliterans Syndrome: Predictions for the Next Decade.

In health economics, costs can be divided into both direct and indirect categories. Direct costs tend to consist of medical costs, which are those directly attributed to health care interventions (e.g., hospitalizations, pharmaceuticals, devices), and non-medical direct costs such as monitoring and professional caregiving. Indirect costs tend to comprise those related to lost productivity due to illness (or treatment), burden on systems outside of the healthcare domain, and other costs that can sometimes outweigh the entire sum of direct healthcare costs. The most common life-threatening complication of lung and hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation (HSCT) is bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome (BOS). BOS is currently diagnosed as a 20% decline in the forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) from the best (baseline) post-transplantation value, and is a major cause of morbidity and mortality amongst lung and stem cell transplant patients. BOS affects half of all lung transplant patients within the first 5 years post-transplant, rising to the majority of patients (~80%) within the first decade following transplant. We estimated both direct and indirect costs for the first 10 years following BOS diagnosis, a viewpoint that highlights a tremendous imbalance between healthcare and non-healthcare costs. The lost workforce resulting from BOS-related infirmity will cost society more than $3.7 Billion over the next decade, a figure that is more than double the estimated 10-year cost of treating BOS ($1.4B), including diagnostics, immunosuppressives, and additional complications. As such, BOS is estimated to present a burden of cost that must be evaluated in a new light to include the wider societal perspective.

Investigating the true costs of construction accidents

Purpose The construction industry contributes significantly to national economic growth and offers substantial opportunities for job creation; however, the industry has continually been plagued by workplace accidents. Moreover, employers may not realize the economic magnitude of workplace injury and ill health arising from construction activities. These accidents represent a considerable economic and social burden to employers, employees and to the society as a whole. Despite governments and organisations worldwide maintaining an ongoing commitment towards establishing a working environment free of injury and disease, a great deal of construction accidents continues to frequent our society. The purpose of this study is to conduct an analysis of a sample of 100 construction accident reports to establish, as far as practically reasonable, the total costs of limited types of construction accidents. Costs attributable to each of these accidents were classified either as direct or indirect costs. Through an exhaustive and time-consuming investigation of all available records from various sources and/or kept in various departments, the individual costs were correlated to the various direct and indirect categories. Design/methodology/approach This particular study is a combination of explanatory and collective case study approaches, whereby causal effects are determined or a course of events is examined from multiple cases. The preferred form of data collection is left to the researcher to decide (Yin, 2003). When a researcher is considering “how” or “why” questions, a contemporary set of events using primary and secondary documents, over which the researcher has little or no control, the case study approach is feasible (Yin, 2009). Findings The costs of construction accidents for the same sample of 100 construction analysed in this study has been estimated at a staggering R32,981,200. Of this total, R10,087,350 has been attributed to direct costs and R22,893,850 has been attributed to indirect costs. The costs of construction accidents are based on four cost components: sick pay, administrative costs, recruitment costs and compensation and insurance costs. It should be noted that the estimates of the costs to employers presented in this study are reflective of the activities and incidents of the reviewed organisation and may not necessarily represent another organisation. The costs of construction accidents values presented in this study reveal that construction accidents present a substantial cost to employers and to the society at large, inclusive of both the direct and indirect costs. It is therefore in the best interest of the employer to identify progressive and advanced approaches to more effectively manage construction health and safety, consequently society at large will benefit tremendously. Originality/value Given the high rate of construction accidents experienced, employers are not entirely mindful of the actual costs of construction accidents, especially when considering the hidden or indirect costs of accidents. Various safety research efforts have attempted to quantify the true costs of worker injuries; however, localised systematic information on cost of construction accidents at work is not readily available from administrative statistical data sources; therefore, this study was carried out to estimate the costs, like lost workdays or lost income, are clearly visible and can readily be expressed in monetary value; for a large part,0 however, economic consequences of accidents are somewhat hidden.

Musical Speech Analogy in Ernő Dohnányi’s Der Schleier der Pierrette

Following a brief survey into the history of the ballet d’action, the article examines the techniques of musique parlante Dohnányi used in his pantomime Der Schleier der Pierrette. The subcategories illustrated with music examples include the direct speech imitation (focusing on the syllabic and rhythmic structure of single words) and the musical analogy of the question-answer complex. The analytical overview is extended to further indirect categories such as the recitative-like structures (built up not merely on speech, but on an already emancipated equivalent, the instrumental recitative) and the leitmotif technique which – although being more distant from speech – can, in some cases, still be seen as part of musique parlante. In an attempt to describe the position of Der Schleier der Pierrette in ballet music history, the author addresses Béla Bartók’s reception of Dohnányi’s pantomime and distinguishes the tradition followed by Dohnányi from the denial of musique parlante characteristic of the works Igor Stravinsky composed for the Ballets Russes.

Costs of occupational musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) in the United States

BackgroundFor the years 1992–2010 musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) accounted for 29–35% of all occupational injuries and illnesses involving days away from work in the United States (US) (AFL-CIO, 2012). According to the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) 2012 report ‘Death on the Job’, for the years 1992 through 2010 the percent of cases involving MSDs in private industry were highest in 2000 (35%) and lowest in 2007 (29%). In 2010, the median number of days away from work for MSDs was 11 compared to 8 for all occupational injury cases involving days away from work; the median number of days away from work for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS) was 25, more than three times as high as for all other BLS injuries involving days away from work (BLS, 2011). This study estimated the costs of work related MSDs, and given that the number of days lost due to CTS is very high, it also estimated the costs of CTS separately in the United States (US) for the years 2003 through 2007. MethodsThe costs of work related MSDs and CTS in the US were estimated using the cost-of-illness, human capital method (Leigh et al., 2000), using some of the costs from the literature. This method decomposes costs into direct and indirect categories. Estimates of total cost of MSDs and CTS were obtained from the product of average costs of MSDs and CTS and the number of MSDs and CTS. The number of MSDs and CTS were obtained from BLS data. ResultsThe number of reported work-related MSDs declined from 435,180 in 2003 to 335,390 in 2007 and the reported number of CTS also declined from 22,110 in 2003 to 11,920 in 2007. The direct costs of MSDs and CTS were respectively $1.5 billion and $0.1 billion for the year 2007. The indirect costs were $1.1 billion and $0.1 billion for MSDs and CTS respectively for the year 2007. DiscussionThis study found that the total costs of work-related MSDs and CTS declined during the period 2003 through 2007 but the average costs per case went up signifying that medical costs and other associated costs increased during this period. Relevance to industryThe costs of MSDs are important to the industries too as a significant part of these costs are borne by the employers. Industries with higher prevalence of MSDs are affected more in terms of lost productivities due to the employees' days away from work because of MSDs. In cases of MSDs causing permanent disabilities, new hiring and training costs are also a part of the losses experienced by the employers.

Management control systems in innovation companies: a literature based framework

Past research has traditionally argued that management control systems (MCSs) may present a hindrance to the creativity of innovation companies. This theoretical paper surveys the literature to focus an investigation on the MCSs of innovation companies. Within the object of control paradigm the paper develops and presents a theoretical model of the impact of eleven external, organisational and innovation related contingency factors on the MCSs in companies that engage in innovation activities. We also suggest measures for further empirical research. By formulating hypotheses on 43 potential interactions the model predicts contradictory influences on two direct control categories, results and action control, but stresses the importance of two indirect categories, personnel and cultural control. More specifically, the high levels of technological complexity and innovation capability in this type of company are expected to be negatively associated with the application of results and action control, whereas personnel and cultural seem to be more appropriate. Furthermore, important sources of finance, venture capital and public funding, are both hypothesised to be positively associated with the application of results, action and personnel control; whereas only public funding is predicted to be positively related to the application of cultural control. The principal contribution of this paper lies in synthesising the literature to provide a model of the impact of a unique set of eleven contingency factors for innovation companies on a broad scope of controls. In addition, the contingency model, if empirically validated, would add value by inferring the particular forms of management control which would be beneficial in innovative company settings.

Asthma diagnosis and treatment: Filling in the information gaps

Current approaches to the diagnosis and management of asthma are based on guideline recommendations, which have provided a framework for the efforts. Asthma, however, is emerging as a heterogeneous disease, and these features need to be considered in both the diagnosis and management of this disease in individual patients. These diverse or phenotypic features add complexity to the diagnosis of asthma, as well as attempts to achieve control with treatment. Although the diagnosis of asthma is often based on clinical information, it is important to pursue objective criteria as well, including an evaluation for reversibility of airflow obstruction and bronchial hyperresponsiveness, an area with new diagnostic approaches. Furthermore, there exist a number of treatment gaps (ie, exacerbations, step-down care, use of antibiotics, and severe disease) in which new direction is needed to improve care. Amajor morbidity in asthmatic patients occurs with exacerbations and in patients with severe disease. Novel approaches to treatment for these conditions will be an important advance to reduce the morbidity associated with asthma.

Comprehension of indirect requests by persons with fluent aphasia.

This study examined the judgments and response latencies of 10 participants with aphasia and 10 participants without aphasia for responses to indirect requests. Modals such as can and should were drawn from 5 indirect request categories. There was a significant difference in judgment errors and response latency between participants with and without aphasia. There were no significant differences between aphasic participants' judgments for literal versus nonliteral contrasts. There was a significant effect among the modals and among the categories of indirect requests. Response latency reflected aphasic participants' understanding of these indirect requests.

Costs of Occupational COPD and Asthma

To estimate the number of annual deaths, as well as the direct and indirect costs of occupational COPD and asthma, in the United States in 1996. Aggregation and analysis of national data sets collected by the National Center for Health Statistics, the Health Care Financing Administration, and other government bureaus and private firms. To assess mortality, we reviewed data from national surveys and applied a population attributable risk (PAR) of 15% for both asthma and COPD. We use a lower age limit of 35 years for occupational COPD and 20 years for occupational asthma. To calculate costs, we use the human capital method that decomposes costs into direct categories, such as medical expenses, as well as indirect categories, such as lost earnings and lost home production. We calculated proportionately adjusted costs for other plausible PARs. The 15% PARs result in costs of $5.0 billion for COPD and $1.6 billion for asthma. For COPD, 56% of costs were direct and 44% were indirect; for asthma, 74% were direct and 26% indirect. These estimates are conservative since we ignored costs associated with pain and suffering as well as the value of care rendered by family members. The proportionately adjusted costs for 10 to 20% PARs are $3.3 to $6.6 billion for COPD and $1.1 to $2.1 billion for asthma. The estimated $6.6 billion cost of occupational COPD and asthma in 1996 is likely to rise with the increasing prevalence of these diseases and warrants preventive intervention.