NJ and PA Once Again: What Happened to Employment When the PA-NJ Minimum Wage Differential Disappeared?

Card and Krueger's analysis of the impact of the 1992 increase in the NJ state minimum wage is very well known and still controversial. Interestingly, the original NJ-PA natural experiment was followed by another one involving the same two states, an experiment that has not yet been noted or examined. In 1996 and 1997, the federal minimum wage was increased in two steps, from $4.25 to$5.15, thereby increasing the minimum wage by $0.90 in PA but by just$0.10 in NJ. We use CPS data from 1995 and 1998 to examine the impacts on employment, using difference-in-difference and difference-in-difference-in-difference estimators that exploit within- state and between-state comparisons. We find consistent evidence that employment of “at-risk” groups was negatively impacted in PA relative to other groups in PA and to comparable groups in NJ.Minimum Wage, Card-Krueger

The Impact of Health Insurance Coverage on Health Disparities in the United States

human development, aid, trade, security

Health Care and the Middle Class: More Costs and Less Coverage

Examines the availability, affordability, and stability of health insurance coverage for middle-income families; trends contributing to their growing medical cost burden and percentage among the newly uninsured; and implications

Emergency Care and Managed Care—A Dangerous Combination

Managed care plan subscribers in need of emergency medical treatment often face unduly restrictive plan practices. These practices may result in life-threatening injury or significant financial obligations on the part of plan subscribers. They are the result of a managed health care system that is inadequately regulated and overly concerned with cost control. Economic incentives lead plans to deny approval for emergency medical treatment or to deny retroactively coverage for such treatment. Emergency medical providers also are harmed by these practices, often forced to treat patients under federal law but denied payment for their services. This Article describes this problem in more detail and argues that the existing legal framework for preventing and addressing harms to managed care subscribers due to denial of emergency medical care or coverage is wholly insufficient. Moreover, the author argues that current law leads to an unjust apportionment of the cost of emergency care among providers, subscribers, and plans and that federal legislation to address these injustices is necessary. The Article critically examines the ability of the proposed Federal Access to Emergency Medical Services Act to protect consumers from harms due to plan denial of approval for emergency medical treatment and fairly apportion the cost of emergency care among the relevant stakeholders without significantly increasing health care costs. It advocates the passage of the Act with minor revisions

Cellular Scale Anisotropic Topography Guides Schwann Cell Motility

Directed migration of Schwann cells (SC) is critical for development and repair of the peripheral nervous system. Understanding aspects of motility specific to SC, along with SC response to engineered biomaterials, may inform strategies to enhance nerve regeneration. Rat SC were cultured on laminin-coated microgrooved poly(dimethyl siloxane) platforms that were flat or presented repeating cellular scale anisotropic topographical cues, 30 or 60 µm in width, and observed with timelapse microscopy. SC motion was directed parallel to the long axis of the topography on both the groove floor and the plateau, with accompanying differences in velocity and directional persistence in comparison to SC motion on flat substrates. In addition, feature dimension affected SC morphology, alignment, and directional persistence. Plateaus and groove floors presented distinct cues which promoted differential motility and variable interaction with the topographical features. SC on the plateau surfaces tended to have persistent interactions with the edge topography, while SC on the groove floors tended to have infrequent contact with the corners and walls. Our observations suggest the capacity of SC to be guided without continuous contact with a topographical cue. SC exhibited a range of distinct motile morphologies, characterized by their symmetry and number of extensions. Across all conditions, SC with a single extension traveled significantly faster than cells with more or no extensions. We conclude that SC motility is complex, where persistent motion requires cellular asymmetry, and that anisotropic topography with cellular scale features can direct SC motility

Online Mental Health Information Behaviours of Emerging Adults: A Web Usability and User Experience Study

This study aims to employ usability study technologies to learn how emerging adults interact online with mental health information

MYCOBACTERIUM TUBERCULOSIS RESISTANCE TO PZA

The aim of this project is to understand the mechanism of horizontal gene transfer and, more specifically, how resistance arises via mutations in Mycobacterium tuberculosis (TB). In particular, its resistance to the drug Pyrazinamide (PZA) will be examined. I will conduct two phases of this research. The first will be to observe horizontal gene transfer in everyday bacteria. The second phase will be to insert the mutant pncA gene that confers PZA resistance to a competent, non-virulent bacteria, E. coli, and study the rate of transfer in PZA-resistant TB. By doing this, it will be possible to better understand the mechanisms by which PZA-resistant bacteria transfer resistance and learn more about the mutations of this disease

Translanguaging Supports Reading with Deaf Adult Bilinguals: A Qualitative Approach

Translanguaging is a pedagogical theory and an approach to teaching language. It conceptualizes the dynamic ways in which bilinguals use their linguistic repertoire and language practices in both languages for learning, meaning-making, reading, and writing. This study reports on the results of a qualitative study using Grounded Theory. The research question posed was, “what insights do bilingual Deaf readers provide regarding their metalinguistic processes and reading strategies used during translanguaging? To answer this question, responses were gathered from Deaf adults who were interviewed on their language and literacy histories. Further, they were queried about their reading comprehension practices using translanguaging. The researchers used videotaped interviews taken in American Sign Language (ASL) then glossed into English for analyses to examine how Deaf adults comprehended English expository texts. Based on the data analysis, the core category, “bridge to literacy” was revealed after identifying seven themes. Recommendations for future research using the translanguaging bilingual theory and practice are included

The newly developed CRF1-receptor antagonists, NGD 98-2 and NGD 9002, suppress acute stress-induced stimulation of colonic motor function and visceral hypersensitivity in rats.

Corticotropin releasing factor receptor 1 (CRF1) is the key receptor that mediates stress-related body responses. However to date there are no CRF1 antagonists that have shown clinical efficacy in stress-related diseases. We investigated the inhibitory effects of a new generation, topology 2 selective CRF1 antagonists, NGD 98-2 and NGD 9002 on exogenous and endogenous CRF-induced stimulation of colonic function and visceral hypersensitivity to colorectal distension (CRD) in conscious rats. CRF1 antagonists or vehicle were administered orogastrically (og) or subcutaneously (sc) before either intracerebroventricular (icv) or intraperitoneal (ip) injection of CRF (10 µg/kg), exposure to water avoidance stress (WAS, 60 min) or repeated CRD (60 mmHg twice, 10 min on/off at a 30 min interval). Fecal pellet output (FPO), diarrhea and visceromotor responses were monitored. In vehicle (og)-pretreated rats, icv CRF stimulated FPO and induced diarrhea in >50% of rats. NGD 98-2 or NGD 9002 (3, 10 and 30 mg/kg, og) reduced the CRF-induced FPO response with an inhibitory IC50 of 15.7 and 4.3 mg/kg respectively. At the highest dose, og NGD 98-2 or NGD 9002 blocked icv CRF-induced FPO by 67-87% and decreased WAS-induced-FPO by 23-53%. When administered sc, NGD 98-2 or NGD 9002 (30 mg/kg) inhibited icv and ip CRF-induced-FPO. The antagonists also prevented the development of nociceptive hyper-responsivity to repeated CRD. These data demonstrate that topology 2 CRF1 antagonists, NGD 98-2 and NGD 9002, administered orally, prevented icv CRF-induced colonic secretomotor stimulation, reduced acute WAS-induced defecation and blocked the induction of visceral sensitization to repeated CRD