Keeping the pace in CS-1 through the use of CMS

In this poster, it is aimed to share the experience of using course management systems (CMS) in a CS-1 course. The aim was to focus on the individual needs of students while learning programming. Creating a social online environment for solving exercises and sharing solutions seemed to be effective to support instructors as well as students

A Profile of Medicaid Managed Care Programs in 2010: Findings From a 50-State Survey

Examines types of Medicaid managed care organizations and contracts by state, including managed care organizations and primary care case management programs; issues for measuring, monitoring, and improving quality; and implications of health reform

Conception et mise au point de l'électronique frontale du détecteur de pied de gerbe (Preshower) de l'expérience CMS

Modern particle physics collider experiments consist of a number of macroscopic modules each consisting of large number of sensors measuring charge deposition from traversing particles. The CMS Preshower detector is designed as a sampling calorimeter producing electromagnetic showers for incident electrons and photons resulting from LHC p-p interactions. The ultimate aim is to provide neutral pion / gamma separation reducing the background to the most promising Higgs channel, SM Higgs to 2 photons. The detector has 4300 silicon sensors each subdivided into 32 channels with a total sensitive area of 16.4 m2. Front-end microelectronics ASICs must measure the charge of each channel accurately with low noise and over a wide dynamic range (4 fC to 1600 fC) at the rate of 40 MHz within a harsh radiation environment. This thesis presents the design and development of the Preshower front-end electronics ASIC development, PACE. The first chapter introduces the Preshower experiment and defines the specification for PACE as derived from the physics. The second chapter examines the radiation environment, its effect on electronic devices, and design techniques / technologies that can resist to LHC radiation levels. Chapters 3 to 5 present the design and results of two PACE developments examining analog memories based on current and voltage sampling techniques. Experimental results from a Preshower electro-mechanical prototype tested in a particle beam are also given

Value-Based Bundled Repayment in Total Joint Arthroplasty

The United States continues to spend an unprecedented amount of annual money on healthcare. However, the costs of providing care may not appropriately reflect the quality of care patients are receiving. This is particularly concerning when examining the projected increase in total joint arthroplasty (TJA) procedures over the next few decades, which are expected to increase to nearly 4 million procedures annually. The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has responded by increasingly shifting reimbursements from the less efficient fee-forservice repayment model to value-based repayment. The Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement (CJR) bundle payment model has recently been implemented as part of this shift towards value-based care delivery. The CJR repayment model, developed based on the success of the elective Bundled Payments for Care Improvement (BPCI) initiative, is an episodic bundled payment for TJA procedures, putting more financial responsibility on hospitals with the aim of improving quality of care, reducing costs, and decreasing local and regional cost and quality variability amongst providers and hospitals. I reviewed current studies on the BPCI and CJR model, including benefits associated with reducing patient readmissions to the hospital; limited costs and postoperative complications associated with post-acute care facilities and patient length of stay; and instituting evidence-based protocols for preoperative, perioperative, and postoperative care. Promising data exists that suggests these programs may help incentivize reducing costs and improving the quality of care provided to patients undergoing TJA procedures

Plan Selection in Medicare Part D: Evidence from administrative Data

We study the Medicare Part D prescription drug insurance program as a bellwether for designs of private, non-mandatory health insurance markets, focusing on the ability of consumers to evaluate and optimize their choices of plans. Our analysis of administrative data on medical claims in Medicare Part D suggests that less than 10 percent of individuals enroll in plans that are ex post optimal with respect to total cost (premiums and co-payments). Relative to the benchmark of a static decision rule, similar to the Plan Finder provided by the Medicare administration, that conditions next year’s plan choice only on the drugs consumed in the current year, enrollees lost on average about $300 per year. These numbers are hard to reconcile with decision costs alone; it appears that unless a sizeable fraction of consumers value plan features other than cost, they are not optimizing effectively

Processes Contributing to Resilience of Coastal Wetlands to Sea-Level Rise

The objectives of this study were to identify processes that contribute to resilience of coastal wetlands subject to rising sea levels and to determine whether the relative contribution of these processes varies across different wetland community types. We assessed the resilience of wetlands to sea-level rise along a transitional gradient from tidal freshwater forested wetland (TFFW) to marsh by measuring processes controlling wetland elevation. We found that, over 5 years of measurement, TFFWs were resilient, although some marginally, and oligohaline marshes exhibited robust resilience to sea-level rise. We identified fundamental differences in how resilience is maintained across wetland community types, which have important implications for management activities that aim to restore or conserve resilient systems. We showed that the relative importance of surface and subsurface processes in controlling wetland surface elevation change differed between TFFWs and oligohaline marshes. The marshes had significantly higher rates of surface accretion than the TFFWs, and in the marshes, surface accretion was the primary contributor to elevation change. In contrast, elevation change in TFFWs was more heavily influenced by subsurface processes, such as root zone expansion or compaction, which played an important role in determining resilience of TFFWs to rising sea level. When root zone contributions were removed statistically from comparisons between relative sea-level rise and surface elevation change, sites that previously had elevation rate deficits showed a surplus. Therefore, assessments of wetland resilience that do not include subsurface processes will likely misjudge vulnerability to sea-level rise

Spartan Daily, February 6, 2006

Volume 126, Issue 6https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartandaily/10206/thumbnail.jp

Spartan Daily, February 6, 2006

Volume 126, Issue 6https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartandaily/10206/thumbnail.jp