Examining the Potential of Information Technology to Improve Public Insurance Application Processes: Enrollee Assessments from a Concurrent Mixed Method Analysis

Objective: To assess the perceived readiness of Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) enrollees to use information technologies (IT) in order to facilitate improvements in the application processes for these public insurance programs. Methods: We conducted a concurrent mixed method study of Medicaid and CHIP enrollees in a southern state. We conducted focus groups to identify enrollee concerns regarding the current application process and their IT proficiency. Additionally, we surveyed beneficiaries via telephone about their access to and use of the Internet, and willingness to adopt IT-enabled processes. 2013 households completed the survey. We used χ2 analysis for comparisons across different groups of respondents. Results: A majority of enrollees will embrace IT-enabled enrollment, but a small yet significant group continues to lack access to facilitating technologies. Moreover, a segment of beneficiaries in the two programs continues to place a high value on personal interactions with program caseworkers. Discussion: IT holds the promise of improving efficiency and reducing barriers for enrollees, but state and federal agencies managing public insurance programs need to ensure access to traditional processes and make caseworkers available to those who require and value such assistance, even after implementing IT-enabled processes. Conclusions: The use of IT-enabled processes is essential for effectively managing eligibility and enrollment determinations for public programs and private plans offered through state or federally operated exchanges. However, state and federal officials should be cognizant of the technological readiness of recipients and provide offline help to ensure broad participation in the insurance market

The Effect of Social Distance in Donation-Based Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding offers an innovative approach to financing projects by facilitating many individuals and organizations to contribute, often small amounts, to these projects. In the context of donation-based crowdfunding, we study how social distance affects average donations. Drawing on construal level theory, we argue that project images featuring humans reduce the social distance for donors because they can identify with the recipients; thus, these campaigns are more concrete, and donors give more. To test the effect of social distance using (human) project images on average donations, we conducted two studies, one observational and one experimental study. In both studies, we show that projects, whose images feature humans, receive higher donations

PHYTOCHEMICAL SCREENING, ANTIMICROBIAL EVALUATION AND CONSERVATION STUDIES

Satyrium nepalense is an endangered medicinal herb found at the higher altitude of 2400-5000m. Local inhabitant used tubers of Satyrium nepalense as an energetic tonic and as an important medicine to cure different type of fever in traditional health care system of Uttarakhand (INDIA). Present study was carried out to evaluate the phytochemical, antibacterial screening against four (Streptococcus mutans, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus and Klebsiella pneumoniae) microorganisms in methanolic extracts and habitat studies for conservation of S. nepalense. Tubers of Satyrium nepalense were extracted separately with methanol by hot extraction process using soxhlet apparatus. The extracts were subjected to Lyophilization to get dry extract and preserved in aseptic condition. The different group reagents used for phytochemical s,reening as dragendorffs\u27s for alkaloid, molisch\u27s test for carbohydrates, shinoda test for flavonoids etc. Antibacterial study was carried out by disc diffusion method. The highest zone of inhibition was recorded as 15.0±0.00 mm against Klebsiella pneumonia and 15.0± 0.82 mm against Staphylococcus aureus. Phytochemical screening shows the presence of alkaloids, carbohydrates/glycosides, f lavonoids and unsaturated sterols/ triterpenes in Satyrium nepalense. The result indicates that methanolic extract of Satyrium nepalense shows potent antibacterial activity against all four bacterial strains

Concentration and Platform Growth in the Sharing Economy: A Resource Partitioning Perspective

The emergence and growth of sharing economy platforms have engendered significant research interests recently. These platforms have witnessed increased entry of professional service providers, who have large amounts of excess assets and standardized business practices. Meanwhile, sharing economy platforms have witnessed an astounding growth, much of which is not attributed to professional service providers. This paper examines two seemingly contradictory phenomena – increased concentration among professional service providers and rapid growth of non-professionals on sharing economy platforms. Using the resource partitioning theory from the organizational literature, we explain how these two phenomena are inherently related. We further emphasize the role of income inequality that affects the resource partitioning process. The empirical analysis uses 1.4 million zip-code level Airbnb data, with Airbnb Plus policy as a natural experiment. Findings reveal that professional service provider concentration facilitates non-professional growth but reduces their performance, and the effects are significantly moderated by income inequality

A Theory of Rural Telehealth Innovation - A Paradoxical Approach

Telehealth promises to provide underserved communities with better medical services and to help rural healthcare institutions become financially sustainable. However, these institutions find it challenging to implement telehealth because their resources are severely constrained even to maintain current operations. This paper investigates how a rural health institution successfully addressed this paradoxical situation by integrating telehealth into its operations over a 20-year period. We identify three sets of tensions that manifest during the telehealth implementation process: autonomy vs. dependence (relating to resource acquisition), controlling vs. drifting (relating to enabling the innovation), and exploration vs. exploitation (relating to creating a sustainable solution). Drawing on Poole and Van de Ven’s (1989) paradoxical approach, we develop four propositions comprising a theory of rural telehealth innovation. We suggest that three paradoxes shape rural telehealth innovation: Paradox of Alliance, Paradox of Governance, and Paradox of Learning, and explain how innovation unfolds in response to these paradoxes

Antioxidant mediated protective effect of Parthenium hysterophorus against oxidative damage using in vitro models

BACKGROUND: Parthenium hysterophorus L. (Asteraceae) is a common weed occurring throughout the globe. In traditional medicine its decoction has been used for treatment of many infectious and degenerative diseases. This work was therefore designed to assess the phytochemical constitution of P. hysterophorus flower and root extracts and to evaluate their reducing power, radical scavenging activity as well as protective efficacy against membrane lipid damage. METHODS: Dried flower and root samples were sequentially extracted with non-polar and polar solvents using Soxhlet apparatus. The phytochemical screening was done using standard chemical methods and thin layer chromatography. Total phenolic content was determined spectrophotometrically. Reducing power and hydroxyl radical scavenging activity assays were used to measure antioxidant activity. Protection against membrane damage was evaluated by inhibition of lipid peroxidation (TBARS assay) in rat kidney homogenate. RESULTS: Flavonoids, terpenoids, alkaloids and cardiac glycosides were present in all the extract. The total phenol contents in flower and root extracts were found to be in the range 86.69-320.17 mg propyl gallate equivalent (PGE)/g and 55.47-253.84 mg PGE/g, respectively. Comparatively better reducing power was observed in hexane fractions of flower (0.405) and root (0.282). Benzene extract of flower and ethyl acetate fraction of root accounted for appreciable hydroxyl radical scavenging activity (75-77%). Maximum protection against membrane lipid peroxidative damage among flower and root extracts was provided by ethanol (55.26%) and ethyl acetate (48.95%) fractions, respectively. Total phenolic content showed positive correlations with reducing power and lipid peroxidation inhibition (LPOI) % in floral extracts as well as with hydroxyl radical scavenging activity and LPOI % in root extracts. CONCLUSION: Study established that phytochemicals present in P. hysterophorus extracts have considerable antioxidant potential as well as lipo-protective activity against membrane damage

Estimation of gingerol content in different brand samples of ginger powder and their anti-oxidant activity: A comparative study

Gingerol is the most abundant constituent of fresh ginger has potent antioxidant activity but it decreases during postharvest storage and processing. The present work efforts have been made to estimate Gingerol content in different brand samples of Ginger powder and their antioxidant activity compared with the sample cultivated through organic farming. Organic farmed sample was collected from the FRI, Dehradun (UK), other samples were taken from the markets of Srinagar Garhwal and Dehradun and was identified from the Dept. of Botany H.N.B. Garhwal University, Srinagar Garhwal (UK). All regents and chemicals were used of analytical and HPLC grade and extraction was carried out by hot solvent extraction method. FRAP method was used for Antioxidant activity. Simple reversed-phase HPLC-UV method, with gradient elution, was used to estimate the gingerol. A typical HPLC-UV chromatogram was obtained which exhibited a clean and smooth baseline with excellent resolution where all the marker peaks could be identified and quantified. The amount of gingerol in the sample S1 is 04.54%, in S2 is 08.01%, in S3 is 06.74%, in S4 is 04.20%, in S5 is 06.74% and in S6 is 08.54%, estimated respectively by HPLC analysis. Among all samples, S6 (ginger cultivated through organic farming) has significant quantity of gingerol in comparison to other market samples.The reducing ability of different samples of ginger extracts was in the range of 368.27 ± 23.43-3107.28 ± 42.31μmol/g dry weight. The FRAP values for the methanolic extracts of rhizomes in all six varieties were significantly lower than those of vitamin C and α-tocopherol, but higher than that of BHT. When we compared all five market samples with ginger cultivated through organic farming had excellent antioxidant activity. The results conclude that ginger which cultivated through organic farming has a significant antioxidant activity and has a positive relationship between antioxidant activities and total phenolic contents. The high antioxidant activity shows the higher level of total phenolic and flavonoids

DOES THE WINNER TAKE IT ALL? – TOWARDS AN UNDERSTANDING OF WHY THERE MIGHT BE NO ONE-SIZE-FITS-ALL GAMIFICATION DESIGN

Despite the popularity of gamification, and the positive effects of games in daily life, many gamification projects fail. A possible explanation for this observation is that most projects follow a one-size-fits-all approach without considering what the intended users really want. Closely related to this, most approaches focus on the integration of competitive game structures even though several mechanisms are available. This applies especially for the learning context of the study. Consequently, we aim to investigate the effectiveness of multiple gamification configurations based on different underlying motivational structures of users. To achieve our goal, we combine social comparison and social interdependence theory. This integration of theories helps to identify reward structures. They serve to analyze differences in user needs concerning their motivation to learn. We develop hypotheses that expose four different reward structures: autonomous, competitive, cooperative, and co-competitive. Our research-in-progress paper closes with an outline of an upcoming experiment. Once our research is completed, we expect to be able to better understand how differences in the users’ motivational structures influence their motivation in the context of learning, and how gamification configurations can be adapted based on a user’s underlying motivational structures