Costs, payments and incentives in family planning programs

A variety of monetary policies regarding contraception exists around the world. These range from high user charges in some countries, to free contraceptives in many, to incentives and disincentives in others. This paper examines these policies, focuses on charges and payments as they existed in early 1988, looks at the consistency of monetary policies within countries, and considers the ethical issues raised by each kind of incentive.Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Adolescent Health,Reproductive Health,Economic Theory&Research,Pharmaceuticals&Pharmacoeconomics

Qualitative Criterion for Interception in a Pursuit/Evasion Game

A qualitative account is given of a differential pursuit/evasion game. A criterion for the existence of an intercept solution is obtained using future cones that contain all attainable trajectories of target or interceptor originating from an initial position. A sufficient and necessary conditon that an opportunity to intercept always exist is that, after some initial time, the future cone of the target be contained within the future cone of the interceptor. The sufficient condition may be regarded as a kind of Nash equillibrium.Comment: 8 pages; revsions and corrigend

The Operation of Section 1023

In the Tax Reform Act of 1976, Congress altered the treatment of basis in property acquired from a decedent. Under § 1023 of the Internal Revenue Code, a beneficiary now acquires as his basis, the decedent\u27s basis, subject to adjustments, rather than the fair market value at the date of death. The author explains these changes and their effects

The Usefulness of Social Media as a Means to Promote Healthful Beverage Choices Among Households Enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program

The purpose of this descriptive study was to determine the potential usefulness of social media for the promotion of healthful beverage choices among households enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) that included one or more children between the ages of 6 and 12 years-old. This was accomplished through a mail survey of 587 SNAP parents/guardians from a Nevada county that had previously been included in a direct-mail campaign designed to reduce children’s intake of sugar-sweetened beverages. For the purpose of this thesis study, the survey instrument included questions to assess the use of social media, the relative use of specific social media sites, interest in obtaining specific content via social media, and perceived barriers regarding the use of social media. The survey also included questions about the direct-mail intervention that were not included in this thesis study. Several steps were taken to enhance the likelihood that the survey would be completed and returned. These steps included a personalized letter of invitation, a small incentive, inclusion of a pre-addressed postage-paid envelope, and a reminder postcard. Each household was a sent a second survey packet approximately two weeks following the first. The number of surveys returned was 58; representing a 10% response rate. A high proportion of survey respondents were female (89%), white (79%), and not Hispanic (77%). The mean age of the parent/guardian was 37.4 ± 8.7 years and the average number of children in the household was 2.6 ± 1.0. The survey results indicated that most respondents reportedly used social media (75.9%) and among those, 75% had been doing so for more than three years. The social media sites most frequently used (% daily) were Facebook (79.5%), YouTube (31.85) and Google+ (29.5%). Social media sites that were used the least frequently (% daily) included Twitter (2.3%), LinkedIn (0.0%), and Tumblr (0.0%). Over 50% of the survey respondents were interested in learning about ideas for healthy recipes, meals, and snacks, ways to save money when buying food/drinks; and strategies to help kids stay healthy. They were not as interested in learning about ways to identify health food and drink products at the grocery store (22.7%). Regarding barriers to using social media, a high proportion of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that they had concerns about privacy protection (70.0%) and the trustworthiness of information (57.5%). A relatively low proportion (7.5%) reported limited access to social media because of their data plan. The results of this study highlight the high usage of social media by parents/guardians enrolled in SNAP as well as their high interest in learning about select nutrition topics. Although the findings have limited generalizability, it does suggest that social media may be a useful means to promote healthful beverage choices among SNAP households. Future research should be conducted among a larger more representative sample in order to generalize to all SNAP households in Nevada

Inclusion of Ethnic Minorities in Telehealth Trials for Type 2 Diabetes: Protocol for a Systematic Review Examining Prevalence and Language Issues

BACKGROUND: Type 2 diabetes is common, on the rise, and disproportionately affects ethnic minority groups. Telehealth interventions may mitigate diabetes-related complications, but might under-recruit or even exclude ethnic minorities, in part because of English language requirements. The under-representation of minority patients in trials could threaten the generalizability of the findings, whereby the patients who might stand to benefit most from such interventions are not being included in their evaluation. OBJECTIVE: The aims of this systematic review are twofold: (1) to assess the reporting and prevalence of ethnic minorities in published telehealth trials for type 2 diabetes, including identifying trial features associated with successful patient recruitment; and (2) to determine the proportion of such trials that report English language proficiency as an inclusion/exclusion criterion, including how and why they do so. METHODS: Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of adults with type 2 diabetes in Western, English-speaking countries that included telehealth interventions targeting diabetes as a primary condition, and those that did not specifically recruit minority groups will be included. Search strategies were devised for indexed and keyword terms capturing type 2 diabetes, telehealth/health technology, and RCTs in English language publications from 2000 to July 2015 in MEDLINE, PsycINFO, EMBASE, CINAHL, and CENTRAL. Reference lists of included studies will also be searched. Two reviewers will independently screen abstracts and full-text articles against inclusion criteria, mediated by a third reviewer if consensus cannot be reached. Data extracted from included studies will be checked by a second reviewer and will be summarized using narrative synthesis. RESULTS: This research is in progress, with findings expected by Spring 2016. CONCLUSIONS: This review will address research reporting and recruitment practices of ethnic minorities in telehealth RCTs for type 2 diabetes. Prevalence estimates will elucidate generalizability of existing research, with implications for researchers, health professionals, and policy makers. Identifying trial or intervention features that appear to facilitate ethnic minority recruitment, as well as language barriers that impede it might suggest ways to improve recruitment in future trials

Advanced Moisture and Temperature Sounder (AMTS) study

Retrieval of tropospheric humidity profiles from satellite-based upwelling radiances are shown to be improved by using physical methods for obtaining first-guess profiles as well as for inverting the radiative transfer equation by relaxation. The first guess is based on an empirically verified hypothesis, from theoretical considerations, that the brightness temperature corresponding to the radiance should be approximately equal to the actual temperatue at a channel-invariant optical depth provided that the surface and stratospheric contributions to the radiance are small. Even greater improvement of retrieved humidity profiles can be accomplished by increasing the number of channels used and by selecting their spectral location and bandpass to obtain sharper independent weighting functions. For example, the AMTS system, with high resolution water channels at 1650, 1700, 1839, 1850 and 1930 cm, is shown to be capable of reducing the retrieved water vapor errors in 200 mb thick layers by a factor of two or three relative to the HIRS-2 system errors. Expected AMTS errors in tropical layer water content are particularly low, less than 20% at all levels, and of the order of 10% or less in the middle troposphere