Premium and Cost-Sharing Subsidies Under Health Reform: Implications for Coverage, Costs and Affordability

Using the Urban Institute's simulation model, estimates household financial burdens under House and Senate healthcare reform bills. Compares coverage and affordability under various reform options by source of coverage, income, healthcare needs, and age

Health Care Spending Under Reform: Less Uncompensated Care and Lower Costs to Small Employers

Estimates the implications of the House reform bill passed in 2009 for coverage distribution, cost of uncompensated care for the uninsured, and employers' net costs by firm size, and individual and family spending by income. Considers budgetary benefits

A case study inquiry into the implementation of a professional learning intervention in cultural competence and culturally responsive pedagogy to support refugee students

Lisa Garrett studied the impact of a professional learning intervention in cultural competence with teachers of refugee students. Three findings emerged: • Teachers have unconscious bias • Cultural safety is imperative • Effective strategies for developing cultural competence exist. Professional learning is imperative in supporting teachers to be culturally competent and respond effectively to students

Reinsurance in State Health Reform

Based on the experiences of three states, formal modeling, quantitative estimates, and qualitative assessments, explores the impact of and issues involved in publicly funding reinsurance for insurers as a way to expand or maintain private coverage

The Urban Institute's Microsimulation Model for Reinsurance: Model Construction and State-Specific Application

Describes the Urban Institute's model for simulating the effects of using state-funded reinsurance to subsidize primary insurance premiums. Details the process of building state-specific baseline databases and modeling reinsurance policy options

Becoming Women Engineers: Dismantled Notions and Distorted Perspectives

In an investigation of (non-international) undergraduate students’ experiences with their engineering major, we interviewed 10 young women asking questions about their interactions with instructors, academic successes/struggles, and any challenges they felt they had faced as women/girls in engineering. Initial findings echoed those in previous research serving to affirm held notions of interventions that would improve women/girls’ experiences in engineering. In reflecting on the research methods and troubling its design, we realized that we had approached the data with limited perspectives. A new approach to analysis opened up concepts and yielded findings that offer a different course of action for abating the STEM crisis. Identity/being and becoming for our participants were framed in reference to different entities and were intermingled with themes of prestige, proof of self, and womaness. Our study invites us to look for solutions to recruitment/retention problems in creative ways. More camps, role models, or extracurricular involvement do not meet the supports these women/girls need. Instead of striving for proportionality, perhaps we should shift the conversation to address the multidimensional ways of being constituted and reconstituted by discursive practices that are always already generating gendered positionings. Let’s equip our students and colleagues with ways of recognizing and questioning these entanglements, not in order to solve a problem, but rather to work through a problem and think more about the processes of being and becoming

Outcomes of a School-Wide Mathematics Intervention

In response to studentsâ poor algebra achievement, Midtown High School, a pseudonym, implemented a school-wide math intervention and enrichment program during the 2014-2015 school year. The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to assess the influence of the intervention on Algebra I and Algebra II end-of-course (EOC) exam achievement scores as well as explore math teachersâ perspectives of the intervention program. The theoretical foundation was constructivism. A consensus sample using archival data from all 419 high school students taking Algebra before the intervention 2013-2014 and after the intervention 2014-2015 and 2015-2016 were used with teacher interviews for triangulation. ANOVA results indicated a significant difference between the treatment and comparison groups, F(1,403) = 12.91, p = .00. As related to Algebra I, the intervention group performed significantly lower than the comparison group (M = 40.99 and M = 52.26, respectively). There were no significant differences found for Algebra II EOC scores for either the 2014-2015 or 2015-2016 school years. Qualitatively, the most notable theme was inadequate implementation fidelity of the intervention program, which helped explain the lower Algebra I performance of the treatment group. Based on these results, a policy recommendation was developed for the school to create and implement a systematic process for measuring academic intervention implementation fidelity, to include creating a leadership team and the introduction of a systematic process for improving measurement fidelity. Following policy recommendations could lead to social change by improving high school mathematics achievement, thereby improving high school graduation rates and increasing postsecondary opportunities

Wnt/β-Catenin Signaling in Mesenchymal Progenitors Controls Osteoblast and Chondrocyte Differentiation during Vertebrate Skeletogenesis

SummaryChondrocytes and osteoblasts are two primary cell types in the skeletal system that are differentiated from common mesenchymal progenitors. It is believed that osteoblast differentiation is controlled by distinct mechanisms in intramembranous and endochondral ossification. We have found that ectopic canonical Wnt signaling leads to enhanced ossification and suppression of chondrocyte formation. Conversely, genetic inactivation of β-catenin, an essential component transducing the canonical Wnt signaling, causes ectopic formation of chondrocytes at the expense of osteoblast differentiation during both intramembranous and endochondral ossification. Moreover, inactivation of β-catenin in mesenchymal progenitor cells in vitro causes chondrocyte differentiation under conditions allowing only osteoblasts to form. Our results demonstrate that β-catenin is essential in determining whether mesenchymal progenitors will become osteoblasts or chondrocytes regardless of regional locations or ossification mechanisms. Controlling Wnt/β-catenin signaling is a common molecular mechanism underlying chondrocyte and osteoblast differentiation and specification of intramembranous and endochondral ossification

Electroskip Auditory Biofeedback in a Patient with Parkinson Disease: A Case Report

The purpose of this case study was to observe the effects of a rehabilitation program with an audio-biofeedback technology device called Electroskip in a patient with Parkinson disease. The patient was a 61-year-old man with moderate Parkinson disease (Hoehn and Yahr Parkinson’s scale stage III) and dementia who had progressive episodes of freezing of gait. The patient also had a history of recent falls. The patient completed a 6-week rehabilitation program focused on functional tasks, balance and gait training while using Electroskip technology, which is a wireless, wearable device that sends a discrete real-time generative audio-biofeedback signal when the user steps on either the heel or toe force sensors positioned under the innersoles. The outcome measures included the Timed Up and Go test, the modified Gait Abnormality Rating Scale, the modified Parkinson’s Activity Scale, and the Freezing of Gait Questionnaire. The patient completed 17 of the 18 scheduled training sessions and all testing sessions; no adverse events occurred during the rehabilitation program and high satisfaction levels were reported by the patient and family after completion of the 6-week rehabilitation program. Clinically significant improvements were seen in all measures at 6 weeks. The results of this report suggest that a rehabilitation program focused on functional tasks, balance, and gait training using the Electroskip technology may be beneficial for improving gait and balance in a patient with moderate Parkinson disease. Future work is needed to determine the effectiveness of Electroskip technology by means of randomized controlled trials