Predicting State Allocation of Funds: The Case of John Rowland and his Hometown of Waterbury, Connecticut.

This study attempts to analyze the underlying factors and motives influencing the allocation of discretionary state expenditures. The fact that some cities receive more money than other cities begs the question of what accounts for this variation. After framing the provision of state money within the theoretical framework of political patronage, a case study of Governor Rowland’s tenure in office and the accompanying expenditures to Connecticut’s 17 largest cities from 1995 to 2004 was conducted to evaluate whether a disproportionate amount of money was given to Rowland’s hometown of Waterbury, Connecticut. Besides employing a statistical analysis that determined that cities with similar characteristics received different amounts of money, interviewing was conducted to identify reasons for such variation. The results indicate that Waterbury received a greater amount of money than was predicted based on the city’s economic and demographic characteristics, and that non-objective and biased factors such as favoritism, the need to reward political support, or the desire to increase political loyalty sometimes take precedence over more objective factors.

Evaluation of environmental contamination of Clostridium difficile associated diarrhea in hospital rooms at St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital (SLEH) and review of literature on environmental sampling

The study was carried out at St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital to evaluate environmental contamination of Clostridium difficile in the infected patient rooms. Samples were collected from the high risk areas and were immediately cultured for the presence of Clostridium difficile . Lack of microbial typing prevented the study of molecular characterization of the Clostridium difficile isolates obtained led to a change in the study hypothesis. The study found a positivity of 10% among 50 Hospital rooms sampled for the presence of Clostridium difficile. The study provided data that led to recommendations that routine environmental sampling be carried in the hospital rooms in which patients with CDAD are housed and that effective environmental disinfection methods are used. The study also recommended molecular typing methods to allow characterization of the CD strains isolated from patients and environmental sampling to determine their type, similarity and origin.^

A.A.V.V.: Reason, morality, and law. The philosophy of John Finnis, J. Keown & R.P. George (eds.), Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2013, 616 pp.

Fil: Massini Correas, Carlos I.. Universidad de Mendoza

John Peradotto. Man in the Middle Voice. Name and Narration in the Odyssey, Princeton-New Jersey, Princeton University Press, 1990, xi + 193 pp.

Fil: Zecchin de Fasano, Graciela Cristina. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación; Argentina.