The effects of state EITC expansion on children’s health

This brief examines the impact of state-level adoption of Earned Income Tax Credits (EITCs) on a set of health-related outcomes for children, including: (1) health insurance coverage, (2) use of preventive medical and dental care, and (3) health status measures including maternal reports of child health and body mass index. It also considers the possibility that the effect of the EITC on these outcomes may vary depending on where a child lives; families in urban and rural communities have different access to medical care and other resources that promote good health. Author Reagan Baughman reports that the expansion of state EITCs is associated with lower rates of public health insurance coverage and greater rates of private health insurance coverage among children. In addition, implementation of a state EITC appears to be associated with a significant improvement in a child\u27s health status for children ages 11 to 14 as reported by the child\u27s mother

Low wages prevalent In direct care and child care workforce

The large-scale movement of women into the paid labor market has brought sweeping change into family life and also in who cares for the elderly and children. This brief studies workers in two low wage, predominantly female care-giving occupations plagued with high turnover, direct care workers and child care workers. It provides a better understanding of how they fare when compared with other female workers and discusses factors that contribute to their continued employment

Caring for America’s aging population: a profile of the direct-care workforce

Direct-care workers constitute a low-wage, high-turnover workforce with low levels of health insurance; taking these characteristics into account guides the challenge of how to deal with the growing demand for long-term care by an aging U.S. population

Social Inequity in Memories of Shakespeare: The Fetishizing Power of the Globe Theatre

William Shakespeare’s works are widely regarded as the pillar of English literature in Western society. An understanding of Shakespearean literature is a form of symbolic or cultural capital, and a lack thereof signals that a person is uncultured, uneducated. However, in his own time, Shakespeare was not so highly regarded. To fully understand the evolution that Shakespeare and his works have undergone, one must consider the modern memory politics that reify the contemporary interpretation of Shakespeare in the Western world at liex de memoire (places of memory), which are shaped by the tumultuous sequence of historical movements that formed Shakespeare’s image. The Globe Theatre is a powerful place where the writer’s memory is actively curated to cement his legacy into a cohesive narrative. This narrative is selective by nature, unable to include all aspects of Shakespeare’s history. To fetishize means that a person, idea, or narrative, is first objectified, then given power as a fixed object of fascination. This fetishization also solidifies its reputational politics. As a fetishized object, any nuance is stripped away, and we are discouraged from understanding the inner workings of how it is reified and normalized. Because of this fetishization, a simple, unproblematic narrative is created. My main research question concerns the fetishization of Shakespeare, and the role that the Globe Theater plays in retelling, performing, and normalizing this fetish. How and to what extent does The Globe fetishize Shakespeare to create one narrative? To what degree is the modern Western gender and sexuality binary– the strict division of male versus female based on genitalia, and the attraction to the ‘opposite’ gender– upheld or critiqued? How is race and class portrayed at The Globe? I address these questions in a discourse analysis that explores how the Globe’s Research Bulletins, Such Stuff podcast, YouTube channel, and social media work to create and spread this fetish, as well as how this fetish both critiques and upholds ideas of gender identity, sexuality, class stereotypes, and racial biases. I conclude this thesis with suggestions on how the Globe might move forward to incorporate more diverse views to leverage this fetish as a means of social progression rather than repression

Mathematical Models of Infection Prevention Programs in Hospital Settings

Hospitals play a vital role in providing for the healthcare needs of a community. Patients can develop hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) during their hospitalization due to exposure to foreign bacteria, viruses, and fungi. Infection prevention programs target and reduce HAIs, but implementing the infection prevention programs often comes with a cost. The goal of my research is to use mathematical models to quantify the impact of infection prevention programs on cases of HAIs and total healthcare costs. First, I use a Markov chain model to quantify how one infection prevention program reduces general HAIs in the hospital. Then, I calculate the impact of resistance by healthcare leaders to implement two infection prevention techniques on two HAIs in the hospital. I used ordinary differential equations to quantify the timing of initiation and termination of two infection prevention programs within a region divided into two components to understand how a community intervention and a localized intervention affect the peak number of infections in an epidemic. Finally, I used an agent-based model to quantify the impact of one specific infection prevention program on one HAI in one ward within the hospital. Overall, my research supports implementing the specific infection prevention programs examined to reduce the burden on healthcare systems and improve patient outcomes

Measuring the Livability of Shakespeare\u27s London

Using a modified version of the currently used Economist Intelligence Unit Global Livability Report, I will measure the livability of London during the lifetime of William Shakespeare (1564-1616), using both qualitative and quantitative historical data, and reaching a final quantitative measure of livability. I will measure five broad criteria categories: stability, healthcare, culture/environment, education, and infrastructure. I will eliminate criteria based on their anachronisms with the period; thus, criteria such as public healthcare, level of corruption, public education indicators, telecommunications, international links, and energy provisions must be eliminated or reconfigured, as they did not exist in early modern London as they do now. In keeping with the view that this report should be measured by the standards of the time, not by modern ones, views on the value of child labor and other such contemporarily illegal acts will be judged based on the historical context. Reflecting the number of sub-criteria, stability will constitute 25% of London’s livability, healthcare 15%, culture/environment 35%, education 10%, and infrastructure 15% of the overall livability score. Scores will be broken down into 20 point increments, with scores of 80-100 points reflecting ideal livability, and scores of 50 or less will reflect severely restricted living

Training School Counselors to Use Motivational Interviewing: How School Counselor Preparation Programs Provide Motivational Interviewing Training

In a data-driven educational landscape, it is essential that School Counselor Preparation Programs (SCPPs) train School Counselor Trainees (SCTs) to use effective counseling techniques (Goodman-Scott, 2015; Perusse, Poynton, Parzych, & Goodnough, 2015), especially given their high caseloads (ASCA, 2012, 2018b; Astramovich, Hoskins, Gutierrez, & Bartlett, 2013; Moyer, 2011; DeMato & Curcio, 2004). The primary researcher for this study investigated how SCPPs train SCTs to use Motivational Interviewing, an evidence-based counseling style that utilizes person-centered techniques to increase clients’ motivation to make positive changes in their lives (Miller & Rollnick, 2013). The researcher used a qualitative, multiple case study design to investigate the MI training at three SCPPs, specifically by interviewing one counselor educator at each SCPP and by examining syllabi and textbooks. Using these data sources, the primary researcher and research assistant identified five themes: a) state of MI training over time, b) counselor educators’ training in MI, c) program-wide topics related to MI training, d) MI ideas and techniques, and e) challenges. As a result of the findings, the researchers discussed implications including the need for a program-wide strategy for MI training, a shift to broader utilization of MI, clarity about essential aspects of MI for SCTs, and increased MI training for counselor educators

Resource assignment in short life technology intensive (SLTI) new product development (NPD)

Enterprises managing multiple concurrent New Product Development (NPD) projects face significant challenges assigning staff to projects in order to achieve launch schedules that maximize financial returns. The challenge is increased with the class of Short Life Technology Intensive (SLTI) products characterized by technical complexity, short development cycles and short revenue life cycles. Technical complexity drives the need to assign staffing resources of various technical disciplines and skill levels. SLTI products are rapidly developed and launched into stationary market windows where the revenue life cycle is short and decreasing with any time-to-market delay. The SLTI-NPD project management decision is to assign staff of varying technical discipline and skill level to minimize the revenue loss due to product launch delays across multiple projects. This dissertation considers an NPD organization responsible for multiple concurrent SLTI projects each characterized by a set of tasks having technical discipline requirements, task duration estimates and logical precedence relationships. Each project has a known potential launch date and potential revenue life cycle. The organization has a group of technical professionals characterized by a range of skill levels in a known set of technical disciplines. The SLTI-NPD resource assignment problem is solved using a multi-step process referred to as the Resource Assignment and Multi-Project Scheduling (RAMPS) decision support tool. Robust scheduling techniques are integrated to develop schedules that consider variation in task and project duration estimates. A valuation function provides a time-value linkage between schedules and the product revenue life cycle for each product. Productivity metrics are developed as the basis for prioritizing projects for resources assignment. The RAMPS tool implements assignment and scheduling algorithms in two phases; (i) a constructive approach that employs priority rule heuristics to derive feasible assignments and schedules and (ii) an improvement heuristic that considers productivity gains that can be achieved by interchanging resources of differing skill levels and corresponding work rates. An experimental analysis is conducted using the RAMPS tool and simulated project and resource data sets. Results show significant productivity and efficiency gains that can be achieved through effective project and resource prioritization and by including consideration of skill level in the assignment of technical resources