The Decline in the Uninsured in 2007: Why Did It Happen and Can It Last?

Examines 2004-07 trends in the number of non-elderly uninsured, the drop in 2007, employer and public coverage rates, and the causes of the rise in public coverage, most likely temporary. Provides data by income, region, age, and other demographics

How Will the Uninsured Be Affected by Health Reform?: Non-Elderly Uninsured

Estimates the share of the non-elderly uninsured who would be eligible for Medicaid expansions or subsidies under proposed reforms. Analyzes eligibility by age, parent status, work status, firm size, premium as percentage of income, and insurance status

Providing Maternity Care to the Underserved: A Comparative Case Study of Three Maternity Care Models Serving Women in Washington, D.C.

Compares the content and structure of maternity care provided at a city birth center, a safety net clinic, and a not-for-profit teaching and research hospital; populations served; providers; costs; and the women's and providers' perceptions of each model

Potential Impacts of Alternative Health Care Reform Proposals for Children With Medicaid and CHIP Coverage

Explores how children enrolled in public coverage would be affected by proposed reform provisions, including being moved from Children's Health Insurance Programs into Medicaid or new insurance exchanges. Considers risks of children becoming uninsured

Progress Enrolling Children in Medicaid/CHIP: Who Is Left and What Are the Prospects for Covering More Children?

Outlines the resources and tools in the Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009 for data-driven enrollment and retention processes in Medicaid and CHIP, remaining barriers, and the need to tailor outreach efforts to specific needs

Prospects for Reducing Uninsured Rates Among Children: How Much Can Premium Assistance Programs Help?

Examines the efficacy of premium assistance under Medicaid and State Children's Health Insurance Programs in extending coverage for children through a parent's employer-sponsored insurance. Considers policy implications for expanding public insurance

The expression of anger and aggression in an institutional setting.

PsychologyDoctor of Philosophy (PhD

A techno-economic and policy analysis of integrated, cross-sectoral water management and conservation

Increasing demands on water resources from growing populations and industries coupled with periodic, yet severe, drought have revealed vulnerabilities in water supplies around the world. However, in some locations, partnerships between water rights holders (such as the agricultural sector) and those with water needs and available capital (such as the energy sector) could improve water efficiency. A market with cross-sectoral participation that creates incentives for reduction of fresh water consumption could improve water availability for many stakeholders. This work lays out the methodology of evaluating these hypotheses with an original water and cost model that is developed and demonstrated using three case studies in the Lower Rio Grande Basin, the Brazos River Basin, and the Permian Basin in Texas with the intent that the findings would be generally applicable to other regions. This work uses an integrated, geographically resolved allocation model to evaluate water market participants and management strategies that could be implemented to encourage water demand reductions to supply new water users. Best practices are evaluated for increasing water availability through market mechanisms based on costs, benefits, and technological viability. The work closes with a discussion of regional variations to this integrated approach. Results of this analysis show that, in the Rio Grande Basin, up to 900 million gallons per year could be made available through 15% water conservation in irrigation areas. The water would supply approximately 30% of the annual hydraulic fracturing demand for 2016 and 2017 in the area. Reductions would also improve reliability for irrigators. In the Brazos Basin, results show that low-cost conservation scenarios could lead to savings of up to 4.1 billion gallons of water per year with mixed effects on reliability and resilience in the basin. The price paid for water used in oil and gas operations would not offset conservation strategies in every scenario, but agriculture and some municipal strategies are available. In the Permian Basin in West Texas, results show that a market heavily reliant on centrally treated flowback and produced water would reduce water management costs and offset approximately 9 billion gallons of fresh water consumption annually. These transactions show that water could be provided without increasing total supplies through the combination of consumptive water conservation strategies and market mechanisms. Third party effects and transaction costs need to be fully evaluated, though. Moreover, spurring these saved water transactions might require incentives at the regional or state level.Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineerin

Categories, concepts, and calls : auditory perceptual mechanisms and cognitive abilities across different types of birds.

Although involving different animals, preparations, and objectives, our laboratories (Sturdy's and Cook's) are mutually interested in category perception and concept formation. The Sturdy laboratory has a history of studying perceptual categories in songbirds, while Cook laboratory has a history of studying abstract concept formation in pigeons. Recently, we undertook a suite of collaborative projects to combine our investigations to examine abstract concept formation in songbirds, and perception of songbird vocalizations in pigeons. This talk will include our recent findings of songbird category perception, songbird abstract concept formation (same/different task), and early results from pigeons' processing of songbird vocalizations in a same/different task. Our findings indicate that (1) categorization in birds seems to be most heavily influenced by acoustic, rather than genetic or experiential factors (2) songbirds treat their vocalizations as perceptual categories, both at the level of the note and species/whole call, (3) chickadees, like pigeons, can perceive abstract, same-different relations, and (4) pigeons are not as good at discriminating chickadee vocalizations as songbirds (chickadees and finches). Our findings suggest that although there are commonalities in complex auditory processing among birds, there are potentially important comparative differences between songbirds and non-songbirds in their treatment of certain types of auditory objects.Publisher PD