Government Sponsored Health Care: A Cluster Profile of Supporters and Nonsupporters

While there has been a great deal of information revealing the public\u27s dissatisfaction with our current health care system, there is little detailed analysis of these attitudes, and of the individuals who are most likely to support or reject such a system. This becomes more and more important as health policy debates shift toward a questioning of the viability of the current health care system and possible alterations to that system. In this paper we use cluster analytic methods on data collected from a public opinion survey of Louisiana residents to develop profiles of those people who support and who reject government-sponsored health care for all citizens. We then use these profiles to develop informed strategies for use by sociologists to impact health care policy. Much of the literature on attitudes toward human resource spending were confirmed by the multivariate analysis we performed. However, the cluster analysis illuminated the true diversity that exists. Quite often, rather weak statistical relationships tend to be overgeneralized. In attempting to develop these profiles, the cluster analysis allowed us to regain the diversity in a comprehensive fashion. We found that there are clear groupings of both supporters and nonsupporters, but probably of greater importance is that there is more similarity between supporters and nonsupporters than distinctiveness

The Concept of Social Exclusion and Rural Development Policy

Since the early 1970s rural research and public education programs have been intensified in efforts to improve living conditions and strengthen community life in rural America (Southern Perspectives 2000). During much of the 1990s, the nation, including the rural South, experienced a growing economy, a booming stock market, and declining unemployment rates (Gibbs 2001). However, many serious social problems traditionally associated with the rural South remain to this day (Gibbs 2001). This paper introduces the concept of social exclusion, used extensively in European countries and now part of the European Union\u27s official lexicon. Social exclusion is defined as the process and the resulting condition in which specific social entities are fully or partially prevented from acquiring the basic necessities of life. Further components are that it is seen as a product of the social system, not an individual attribute, and that it is multi-dimensional and dynamic in time and space. It is argued that the concept of social exclusion should be incorporated into rural development policy discourse in the United States. This would aid in countering the predominant pattern of neglect in rural development policies and programs in addressing the persistent problems which exist

Communication Strategy: Does the Two-Step Still Work?

Much of our work in cooperative extension deals with the transfer of information or technology to clientele. Therefore, it is extremely important that we use the most effective and efficient means possible in carrying out this task

Changing the Health Care System: Opinions of Rural and Urban Residents

This paper examines the opinions of rural and urban residents toward a full health care system provided by the government. The data used in the study come from a statewide poll conducted by the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals. Because of a greater need for health care reform in rural areas, it was assumed that rural Louisianians might be more supportive of a government health care system than their urban counterparts. However, analysis of the data indicates that a person\u27s residence had no statistically significant effect on attitudes toward government sponsored health care

Differential β-arrestin2 requirements for constitutive and agonist-induced internalization of the CB1 cannabinoid receptor

CB1 cannabinoid receptor (CB1R) undergoes both constitutive and agonist-induced internalization, but the underlying mechanisms of these processes and the role of beta-arrestins in the regulation of CB1R function are not completely understood. In this study, we followed CB1R internalization using confocal microscopy and bioluminescence resonance energy transfer measurements in HeLa and Neuro-2a cells. We found that upon activation CB1R binds beta-arrestin2 (beta-arr2), but not beta-arrestin1. Furthermore, both the expression of dominant-negative beta-arr2 (beta-arr2-V54D) and siRNA-mediated knock-down of beta-arr2 impaired the agonist-induced internalization of CB1R. In contrast, neither beta-arr2-V54D nor beta-arr2-specific siRNA had a significant effect on the constitutive internalization of CB1R. However, both constitutive and agonist-induced internalization of CB1R were impaired by siRNA-mediated depletion of clathrin heavy chain. We conclude that although clathrin is required for both constitutive and agonist-stimulated internalization of CB1R, beta-arr2 binding is only required for agonist-induced internalization of the receptor suggesting that the molecular mechanisms underlying constitutive and agonist-induced internalization of CB1R are different

MP758: East Regional Potato Trials 2006: Summary of NE1014 Regional Project Field Testing of New Potato Clones

The objectives of this regional potato trial are (1) to develop pest-resistant, early-maturing, long-dormant potato varieties that will process from cold storage; (2) to evaluate new and specialty variet­ies developed in the Northeast; (3) to determine climatic effects on performance to develop pre­dictive models for potato improvement; and (4) determine heritability/linkage relationships and improve the genetic base of tetraploid cultivated varieties. The results presented in this report reflect a portion of the activity directed toward objectives 1, 2 and 3.https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/aes_miscpubs/1017/thumbnail.jp

MP760: East Regional Potato Trials 2007: Summary of NE1014 Regional Project Field Testing of New Potato Clones

The objectives of this regional potato trial are (1) to develop pest-resistant, early-maturing, long-dormant potato varieties that will process from cold storage; (2) to evaluate new and specialty variet­ies developed in the Northeast; (3) to determine climatic effects on performance to develop pre­dictive models for potato improvement; and (4) determine heritability/linkage relationships and improve the genetic base of tetraploid cultivated varieties. The results presented in this report reflect a portion of the activity directed toward objectives 1, 2 and 3.https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/aes_miscpubs/1016/thumbnail.jp

MP757: Eastern Regional Potato Trials 2005: Summary of NE1014 Regional Project Field Testing of New Potato Clones

The objectives of this regional potato trial are (1) to develop pest-resistant, early-maturing, long-dormant potato varieties that will process from cold storage; (2) to evaluate new and specialty variet­ies developed in the Northeast; (3) to determine climatic effects on performance to develop pre­dictive models for potato improvement; and (4) determine heritability/linkage relationships and improve the genetic base of tetraploid cultivated varieties. The results presented in this report reflect a portion of the activity directed toward objectives 1, 2 and 3.https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/aes_miscpubs/1018/thumbnail.jp