Boston Notion

These studies are suggeshve of a protective effect of folic acid, but the final word regarding folic acid and NTDs is not yet available. Studies conducted with a general population in the United States have been less clear tlian those already mentioned. Epidemiological studies conducted in Boston and Ontario (Werler et ai.f 1996) and in California (Shaw cf ai, 1996) seemed not to support the notion that dietary folate intake influences NTD outcome, but did suggest that maternal obesity is a risk factor. A sun ey of about 600 mothers with an NTD birth revealed no reduction in risk factor with vitamin supplements (Mills cl ai., 1989), A scenario that seems to be emerging is as follows ... 

The experience curve is a phenomenon with its roots in the earlier notion of the learning curve . Researchers in the Second World War discovered that it was possible to identify and predict improvements in the rate of output of workers as they became more skilled in the processes and tasks on which they were working. Subsequent work by Boston Consulting Group, extended this concept by demonstrating that all costs, not just production costs, would decline at a given rate as volume increased (see Figure 1.3). In fact, to be precise, the relationship that the experience curve describes is between real unit costs and cumulative volume. 

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