THE IMPACT OF NEW INDUSTRY ON COUNTY GOVERNMENT PROPERTY TAX REVENUE

Public Economics,

Promising digital practices for nondominant learners

This case study took place during an after-school program in a public Texas school district along the U.S./Mexico border. We explore a focal participant’s technology access and use as part of our larger digital literacy research. We asked: What in- and out-of-school digital literacy skills, access, and experiences did Robot Boy (pseudonym) possess? How did he behave as a rhizome? Overarching theoretical frameworks were postmodernism and New Literacy Studies; within these theories, we focused on rhizomic principles and digital literacies. This research is part of a larger mixed methods research study (Bussert-Webb & Henry, 2016) focused on an exploration of Latino children’s digital literacy and online reading. Data sources included participant observation, interviews, and the Digital Divide Measurement Scale for Students (DDMS-S). Interviewees included 16 children (including Robot Boy) and six Latino staff; 310 children (87% Latino) responded to the DDMS-S. Emerging qualitative themes were Robot Boy’s responses to rhizomic rupture. Robot Boy, a bilingual and biliterate middle school youth, demonstrated promising digital practices, which we can apply to other nondominant learners. He assigned rupture by reworking restrictive maps, collaborating with others, and valuing diversity to create multiple pathways

Mosquito detection with low-cost smartphones: data acquisition for malaria research

Mosquitoes are a major vector for malaria, causing hundreds of thousands of deaths in the developing world each year. Not only is the prevention of mosquito bites of paramount importance to the reduction of malaria transmission cases, but understanding in more forensic detail the interplay between malaria, mosquito vectors, vegetation, standing water and human populations is crucial to the deployment of more effective interventions. Typically the presence and detection of malaria-vectoring mosquitoes is only quantified by hand-operated insect traps or signified by the diagnosis of malaria. If we are to gather timely, large-scale data to improve this situation, we need to automate the process of mosquito detection and classification as much as possible. In this paper, we present a candidate mobile sensing system that acts as both a portable early warning device and an automatic acoustic data acquisition pipeline to help fuel scientific inquiry and policy. The machine learning algorithm that powers the mobile system achieves excellent off-line multi-species detection performance while remaining computationally efficient. Further, we have conducted preliminary live mosquito detection tests using low-cost mobile phones and achieved promising results. The deployment of this system for field usage in Southeast Asia and Africa is planned in the near future. In order to accelerate processing of field recordings and labelling of collected data, we employ a citizen science platform in conjunction with automated methods, the former implemented using the Zooniverse platform, allowing crowdsourcing on a grand scale.Comment: Presented at NIPS 2017 Workshop on Machine Learning for the Developing Worl

Kathy Muhr, Aniko Laszlo and Alexis Henry on Using Concept Mapping to Evaluate Employment Collaboratives for People with Disabilities

Blog post to AEA365, a blog sponsored by the American Evaluation Association (AEA) dedicated to highlighting Hot Tips, Cool Tricks, Rad Resources, and Lessons Learned for evaluators. The American Evaluation Association is an international professional association of evaluators devoted to the application and exploration of program evaluation, personnel evaluation, technology, and many other forms of evaluation. Evaluation involves assessing the strengths and weaknesses of programs, policies, personnel, products, and organizations to improve their effectiveness

Enhancing Depression Care Outcomes in Primary Care Patients through Secure E-mail Structured Follow-Up Monitoring by Mental Health Nurse Practitioner

Improving Antidepressant Medication Follow-Up Management Sophia Lawrence, MSN, RN, PMHNP-BC Doctor of Nursing Practice Student Faculty Chair: Kathy James, DNSc, APRN, FAAN Clinical Mentor: Henry Kane, MD, Psychiatrist Purpose: The purpose of this evidence-based practice project is to integrate a structured follow-up management protocol for patients prescribed antidepressant in primary care and improve HEDIS antidepressant medication management scores. Background: Depression is a highly prevalent condition affecting 14 million adults in the United States annually. Antidepressant is an effective treatment. However adherence to antidepressant medication remains a significant problem and treatments have failed to improve in primary care. Methods and evaluation: Using the Plan-Do-Study-Act method of quality improvement, the standardized was implemented and integrated into practice. Using the project facility’s past HEDIS Antidepressant medication management data as a baseline, data collection points include pre and post intervention to determine project impact on the HEDIS scores. Outcomes: Data collected demonstrated a 10% increase in HEDIS antidepressant scores for the continuation phase and a 4% increase for the acute phase of treatment. Conclusions: Organized follow-up care management for patients prescribed antidepressants in primary care that employed the use of a structured protocol delivered by secure e-mail has the potential to improve adherence to treatment, make a profound impact on HEDIS measurements, and patient outcome

Measuring the State of Disaster Philanthropy 2016: Data to Drive Decisions

This is the third edition of the annual publication Measuring the State of Disaster Philanthropy: Data to Drive Decisions. This report analyzes funding for disasters and humanitarian crises in 2014, the most recent year for which comprehensive data are available. The report examines funding from U.S. foundations, bilateral and multilateral donors, corporations, and smaller donors who give through online platforms

Driving digital health transformation in hospitals:a formative qualitative evaluation of the English Global Digital Exemplar programme

BACKGROUND: There is currently a strong drive internationally towards creating digitally advanced healthcare systems through coordinated efforts at a national level. The English Global Digital Exemplar (GDE) programme is a large-scale national health information technology change programme aiming to promote digitally-enabled transformation in secondary healthcare provider organisations by supporting relatively digitally mature provider organisations to become international centres of excellence. AIM: To qualitatively evaluate the impact of the GDE programme in promoting digital transformation in provider organisations that took part in the programme. METHODS: We conducted a series of in-depth case studies in 12 purposively selected provider organisations and a further 24 wider case studies of the remaining organisations participating in the GDE programme. Data collected included 628 interviews, non-participant observations of 190 meetings and workshops and analysis of 9 documents. We used thematic analysis aided by NVivo software and drew on sociotechnical theory to analyse the data. RESULTS: We found the GDE programme accelerated digital transformation within participating provider organisations. This acceleration was triggered by: (1) dedicated funding and the associated requirement for matched internal funding, which in turn helped to prioritise digital transformation locally; (2) governance requirements put in place by the programme that helped strengthen existing local governance and project management structures and supported the emergence of a cadre of clinical health informatics leaders locally; and (3) reputational benefits associated with being recognised as a centre of digital excellence, which facilitated organisational buy-in for digital transformation and increased negotiating power with vendors. CONCLUSION: The GDE programme has been successful in accelerating digital transformation in participating provider organisations. Large-scale digital transformation programmes in healthcare can stimulate local progress through protected funding, putting in place governance structures and leveraging reputational benefits for participating provider organisations, around a coherent vision of transformation