Shock, but no Shift: Hospitals\u27 Responses to Changes in Patient Insurance Mix

Medicaid reimburses healthcare providers for services at a lower rate than any other type of insurance coverage. To account for the burden of treating Medicaid patients, providers claim that they must cost-shift by raising the rates of individuals covered by private insurance. Previous investigations of cost-shifting has produced mixed results. In this paper, I exploit a disabled Medicaid expansion where crowd-out was complete to investigate cost-shifting. I find that hospitals reduce the charge rates of the privately insured. Given that Medicaid is expanding in several states under the Affordable Care Act, these results may alleviate cost-shifting concerns of the reform

The telephone years : the relationship between adolescent telephone use and parent-adolescent conflict : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Psychology at Massey University

While almost no published research has been completed on adolescent telephone use, it has been found that adolescents report their telephone use to be an area of conflict with their parents Data was collected from 160 adolescent high school students aged around 14 years and some (88) of their parents/caregivers, using a questionnaire designed by the researcher. The results showed that female adolescents had more telephone use and more parent-adolescent conflict than did male adolescents. Both males and parents of both males and females reported that telephone use was strongly related to parent-adolescent conflict, but female adolescents did not report such a relationship. We can conclude that telephone conflict is seen in males, but is only a source of conflict in females as viewed by parents. Further, when males use the telephone it is correlated with the independence they desire, but telephone use has no parallel relationship with independence for females. However, high adolescent telephone use is related to the control a parent would like to have over the telephone, most especially for female telephone users. When females were independent and parents wanted to control their daughters telephone use, conflict levels were high. In contrast, conflict levels were high for parents and their sons when males wanted independence because parents had control of their telephone use

Medicaid Expansions for the Working Age Disabled: Revisiting the Crowd-out of Private Health Insurance

Disabled individuals under 65 years old account for 15% of Medicaid recipients but half of all Medicaid spending. Despite their large cost, few studies have investigated the effects of Medicaid expansions for disabled individuals on insurance coverage and crowd-out of private insurance. Using an eligibility expansion that allowed states to provide Medicaid to disabled individuals with incomes less than 100% of the federal poverty level, I address these issues. Crowd-out estimates range from 49% using an ordinary least squares procedure to 100% using two-stage least-squares analysis. This potentially large degree of crowd-out could have fiscal implications for the Affordable Care Act which has greatly expanded Medicaid eligibility in 2014

Gendered Differences in Adolescent Body Image: Youth Agency, Protective andRisk Factors

This research examined youth agency and the micro-meso system environments (protective and risks) as they shaped adolescents’ body image. National data from 11,531 students (Grades 5-10) in the Health Behavior in School Aged Children survey (2009-2010) and commentaries from six education/health professionals were used. As predicted by the Iowa and Chicago Schools of Self Concept, parental figure protected youth against negative body image by shielding them against school bullying. But, the protection and risks associated with youth agency and the micro-meso systems were gendered and operated differently for male and female youth. Female negative body image models were more complex in the salience of protective and risk factors than male models. These findings added to the literature on adolescent health and endorsed the need for wrap-around role modeling and protection for adolescents

Coral Reef Electronic Chart Initiative, Protecting Corals, Saving Ships

The Office of Coast Survey, NOAA is conducting a pilot project in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary to convert existing coral, marine protected areas (MPA) and other marine GIS information into a format suitable for use with shipboard Electronic Chart Display and Information Systems (ECDIS). Specifically, existing data will be converted into Marine Information Objects (MIOs) conforming to IHO S-57 data standards that become a supplemental information layer to be used with Electronic Navigational Charts (ENC) in ECDIS. The project goal is to strengthen marine resource conservation by bringing critical coral, MPA, and other environmental protection-related information to the marine r. This effort will also contribute to an initiative by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) to incorporate nautical chart symbology for coral reefs and MPAs. In particular, designated areas will be symbolized as Particularly Sensitive Sea Areas (PSSAs). This project involves a number of stakeholders (e.g., mariners, hydrographers, conservationists, scientists, and resource managers) who are interested in both safety of navigation and marine environmental conservation

Teaching Students with Special Needs in School-Based, Agricultural Education: A Historical Inquiry

The purpose of this historical study was to investigate the inclusion of students with special needs in school-based, agricultural education as reported by The Agricultural Education Magazine and the Journal of Agricultural Education over a time period of six decades. The impact of landmark legislation, such as the Vocational Education Act of 1963, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975, and the Individuals with Disabilities Act of 1990, were examined. This legislation motivated and supported agricultural education’s efforts to meet the learning needs of special education students by providing modified lessons and learning environments, inclusive SAEs and FFA activities, and focused teacher preparation. Challenges and concerns regarding the placement of special needs students in school-based, agricultural education are also discussed, as well as opportunities for related research in the future, especially about their participation in the FFA

Kinetics of the Photoreduction of \u3cem\u3ep\u3c/em\u3e-nitrobenzoic Acid on Ag and AgxAu1-x Nanoparticle Films

A recent strategy to increase the efficiency of photovoltaic and photoemissive devices has been to include metal nanolayers in contact with an organic layer inside these devices. Metal nanoparticles (especially Ag and Au) are known to catalyze photoreactions of organic molecules on their surfaces. The reactivity of organics at nanometal surfaces has implications for device lifetimes; therefore, it is important to understand how nanoparticle size and composition influence reaction rates. The photoreduction of p-nitrobenzoate (PNBA) to p,p’-azodibenzoate (PPADBA) on Ag nanoparticles is an excellent model system for studying such reactions. We have measured the reaction rate of PNBA to PPADBA on Ag and Au based nanoparticle surfaces using surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS). SERS is a highly sensitive spectroscopic tool, which provides molecular fingerprints that can be used to identify molecular species present on metal nanoparticle surfaces. These surfaces are made from layers from Ag and AgxAu1-x alloy nanoparticles with diameters ranging from 50-80 nm