The Mediating Role of Staffing on Quality of Care in Nonprofit and For-Profit Nursing Homes in Indiana

This study attempts to disentangle the relationships between ownership, staffing, and nursing home quality using Indiana nursing home data. Typical Indiana nursing homes are known to be below average on health inspection and overall quality ratings. This is alarming because Indiana’s population aged 85 years or older is increasing and these individuals are likely to need long-term care services. With an ultimate goal of addressing the poor quality of long-term care institutions, this study analyzed the Nursing Home Compare data collected from 2010 to 2012 by utilizing chi- square tests, one-way ANOVAs, and correlation analysis. The results revealed that nonprofit nursing homes have superior quality and record a greater number of registered nurse and certified nursing assistant hours per resident day compared to for-profit nursing homes. In addition, higher staffing hours were positively associated with overall rating. These findings imply a possibility that higher staffing levels in nonprofit nursing homes have a mediating effect on the relationship between ownership and nursing home quality. In order to improve nursing home quality, registered nurse and certified nursing assistant staffing levels need to be boosted. Enactment of state staffing standards and the Medicaid wage pass-through policy could help to address this issue

Different Behavior of Magnetic Impurities in Crystalline and Ammorphous States of Superconductors

It has been observed that the effect of magnetic impurities in a superconductor is drastically different depending on whether the host superconductor is in a crystalline or an amorphous state. Based on the recent theory of Kim and Overhauser (KO), it is shown that as the system is getting disordered, the initial slope of the $T_{c}$ depression is decreasing by a factor $\sqrt{\ell/\xi_{0}}$, when the mean free path $\ell$ becomes smaller than the BCS coherence length $\xi_{0}$, which is in agreement with experimental findings. In addition, for a superconductor in a crystalline state in the presence of magnetic impurities the superconducting transition temperature $T_{c}$ drops sharply from about 50% of $T_{c0}$ (for a pure system) to zero near the critical impurity concentration. This {\sl pure limit behavior} was indeed found by Roden and Zimmermeyer in crystalline Cd. Recently, Porto and Parpia have also found the same {\sl pure limit behavior} in superfluid He-3 in aerogel, which may be understood within the framework of the KO theory.Comment: 7 figures, 20 pages, latex, to appear in Superconductor Science and Technolog

Impurity scattering in a d-wave superconductor

The influence of (non-magnetic and magnetic) impurities on the transition temperature of a d-wave superconductor is studied anew within the framework of BCS theory. Pairing interaction decreases linearly with the impurity concentration. Accordingly $T_{c}$ suppression is proportional to the (potential or exchange) scattering rate, $1/\tau$, due to impurities. The initial slope versus $1/\tau$ is found to depend on the superconductor contrary to Abrikosov-Gor'kov type theory. Near the critical impurity concentration $T_{c}$ drops abruptly to zero. Because the potential scattering rate is generally much larger than the exchange scattering rate, magnetic impurities will also act as non-magnetic impurities as far as the $T_{c}$ decrease is concerned. The implication for the impurity doping effect in high $T_{c}$ superconductors is also discussed.Comment: 12 pages and 1 figure, PlainTex, submitted to Mod. Phys. Lett. B, For more information, please see "http://taesan.kaist.ac.kr/~yjkim

Post-Adoption Beliefs Influencing Continued Participation in Virtual Communities

This study aims to investigate what motivates individuals to continue to participate in virtual communities A comprehensive model that incorporates the antecedents of individuals behavioral intention to continued participation in virtual communities is proposed and empirically tested The data for this study were collected through a Web survey and analyzed using structural equation modeling The results indicate that attitude toward participating in virtual communities is a significant predictor of continuance intention The strongest influence on attitude toward participation was found for perceived enjoyment Perceived usefulness and subjective norm were found to have significant positive influences on attitude toward participation The implications of the results of this study are expected to contribute to identifying key predictors of individuals continued intentions to participate in virtual communities and provide insights into effective strategies to vitalize virtual communities in the postadoption stag

Post-Adoption Beliefs Influencing Continued Participation in Virtual Communities

This study aims to investigate what motivates individuals to continue to participate in virtual communities A comprehensive model that incorporates the antecedents of individuals behavioral intention to continued participation in virtual communities is proposed and empirically tested The data for this study were collected through a Web survey and analyzed using structural equation modeling The results indicate that attitude toward participating in virtual communities is a significant predictor of continuance intention The strongest influence on attitude toward participation was found for perceived enjoyment Perceived usefulness and subjective norm were found to have significant positive influences on attitude toward participation The implications of the results of this study are expected to contribute to identifying key predictors of individuals continued intentions to participate in virtual communities and provide insights into effective strategies to vitalize virtual communities in the postadoption stag