Word: effectiveness
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...also savaged recent Australian wheat crops. Normally among the top three or four wheat exporters in the world, Australia has managed to produce little more than half of its usual 20 million metric tons in each of the past two years. But these setbacks are having a paradoxical effect. Not nearly as thirsty a crop as rice and expensive now on world markets at about $350 a ton, wheat in Australia is attracting new growers. "Some are looking at putting wheat in this year instead of restocking on cattle - because it's cheaper and because they can get a better...
...public clearly agrees with Democrats on the major issues of the economy, the war and health care, and I think they feel very frustrated that the Republicans are preventing any of the reforms that the public wanted in 2006 from going into effect...
...medical costs. Part of the reason is that the vaccinations protect not only the kids who receive the shots but also those who can't receive them-such as newborns and cancer patients with suppressed immune systems. These vulnerable folks depend on riding the so-called herd-immunity effect. The higher the immunization rate in any population, the less likely that a pathogen will penetrate the group and find a susceptible person inside. As immunization rates drop, that protection grows thinner. That's what happened in the current measles outbreaks in the western U.S., and that's what happened...
Such ripple effects among social groups may seem pretty obvious - people naturally look to their friends to figure out what behaviors are socially acceptable - but Christakis notes that the scope and size of the networks in which these effects operate is much larger than previously thought. His research, for example, shows that geographical distance between individuals in the network doesn't seem to weaken behavioral influences. That means that prevention and treatment programs for health-related behaviors such as quitting smoking, losing weight and exercising could become more efficient by taking advantage of the network effect. "The wonderful property...
...previous month. Annual inflation in the U.K. hit 3% in April, well beyond the government's 2% target, making further cuts soon highly unlikely. The central bank offered in late April to swap around $100 billion of lenders' old mortgage debt for safer government bonds, but the effect on the housing market has been muted. "It certainly isn't going to reverse all the changes in lending policies we have seen in recent months, or restore mortgage lending to its former levels," Iain Cornish, chairman of the Building Societies Association, said of the Bank's scheme. "But it should help...