While tragedies can occur with nearly every handset when it falls onto a hard surface at just the right angle, early drop tests seem to indicate that this won't be as hefty an issue as some of Samsung's past phones.

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The abolitionists have no chance of persuading the government to drop the tests entirely.

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And the introduction of charges for eye tests in 1989 led to only a temporary drop in the number of tests taken, which is now higher than before the charges were levied.

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Most recently, the Commission established new rules that make it illegal to sell a crib with sides that drop down or that do not pass strict tests on the durability of their slats and mattresses.

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Under the tests' most severe scenario, unemployment peaks at 12.1%, share prices drop more than 50%, house prices fall more than 20%, and the largest trading firms suffer a sharp market shock.

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In tests on seven people with nocturnal asthma, 13 non-nocturnal asthmatics and 11 non-asthmatics, lung function tests revealed that patients with nocturnal asthma had the highest levels of melatonin and the greatest drop in lung function overnight.

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More direct evidence from studies of experiments with animals and humans, however, suggests that we may have to alter the very concept of what we mean by hearing loss, and that current tests - particularly pure-tone audiometry which measures our ability to perform "pin-drop" hearing - may not be sufficient to pick up the early signs of a decline in hearing function.

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