Strategies For Covering the Uninsured: How California Policymakers Could Build on Lessons Learned at the Federal Level

Outlines possible health insurance coverage expansions in California that build on specific approaches from recent federal efforts

County and City Health Departments: The Need for Sustainable Funding and the Potential Effect of Health Care Reform on Their Operations

Outlines the role of local health departments, the impact of funding cuts on staff, programs, and services, and the implications for public health. Recommends securing dedicated funding sources and a central role in national healthcare reform

Gaston Memorial Hospital: Driving Quality Improvement With Data, Guidelines, and Real-Time Feedback

Describes efforts to reduce variance in provider practice patterns through data analysis and benchmarking of process-of-care measures. Discusses strategies such as sharing data, feedback, and best practices in ways physicians can utilize them immediately

Kolmogorov-Smirnov Tests For Distribution Function Similarity With Applications To Portfolios of Common Stock

If the elements of the choice set in a decision model involving randomness are not arbitrary, but restricted appropriately, an expected utility ordering of them can be represented by a mean standard deviation ranking function. These restrictions can apply to the form of, or can specify relationships among, the distribution functions. A particularly useful restriction is one which requires that elements in the choice set, when normalized to have a zero mean and unit variance, be identically distributed. No restriction is placed on the form of any individual distribution function. This research empirically tests for this and other useful restrictions on the relationships among the elements of a set of random variables. Observations from the random variables are used to test whether or not they have distribution functions which are appropriately related to one another. The tests are applied to rate of return data for portfolios of common stock. The tests indicate that one cannot reject the hypothesis that the distribution functions of these portfolios are sufficiently similar to imply that the efficient set of portfolios for any risk averse expected utility maximizer is contained in the mean-standard deviation efficient set.

Early Implementation of the Health Coverage Tax Credit in Maryland, Michigan, and North Carolina: A Case Study Summary

Examines the effectiveness of HCTCs and assesses their prospects as a model for broader reforms. Proposes reforms to improve HCTCs' ability to help current target populations and aid policymakers in designing future health insurance tax credits

In-flight rain damage tests of the shuttle thermal protection system

NASA conducted in-flight rain damage tests of the Shuttle thermal protection system (TPS). Most of the tests were conducted on an F-104 aircraft at the Dryden Flight Research Facility of NASA's Ames Research Center, although some tests were conducted by NOAA on a WP-3D aircraft off the eastern coast of southern Florida. The TPS components tested included LI900 and LI2200 tiles, advanced flexible reusable surface insulation, reinforced carbon-carbon, and an advanced tufi tile. The objective of the test was to define the damage threshold of various thermal protection materials during flight through rain. The test hardware, test technique, and results from both F-104 and WP-3D aircraft are described. Results have shown that damage can occur to the Shuttle TPS during flight in rain

Tabletop Game Startup

Starting a new business is a tedious and challenging process especially when it comes to an original idea for a tabletop game. The original idea for the game must be put into written rules and physical gameplay components. These aspects must be confirmed to work and collecting feedback from others is often a major tool used in this stage. From this point, a game developer can go a few different directions such as attempting to sell the game to a larger company or trying to produce their own independent game. Keeping the game independent is arguably the more difficult route as a developer accepts the responsibility of providing the initial starting funds, marketing strategies, branding, and other challenges. The recommendations for getting started as an independent game contradicts the fundamentals of business in many other industries and can be navigated in a variety of paths of which remain at the discretion of the developer. There truly is no one way to go when starting. In my honors project, I along with a small team, will be navigating the challenging path from an original game idea to a sellable product named Draw 3. Our game is drawing based and has proved to be enjoyed by a wide variety of age groups. Heading into the project we constructed a business plan, performed playtesting, and have established as a limited liability company and filed for trademark. The remainder of this project will consist of navigating the challenges of marketing and performing a successful Kickstarter campaign to fund an initial order of 1,500 units to be sold. Starting any business is extremely challenging, but this project will provide insight on exactly how to do that and no matter the outcome, it will also provide valuable training on entrepreneurship

COBRA Subsidies for Laid-Off Workers: An Initial Report Card

Reviews the implementation of the government subsidy of COBRA health insurance premiums for laid-off workers in the 2009 stimulus package and its effects on COBRA enrollment and medical spending. Considers policy implications for access and affordability

Federal Subsidy for Laid-Off Workers' Health Insurance: A First Year's Report Card for the New COBRA Premium Assistance

Analyzes how the subsidy for laid-off workers' costs to continue their health coverage, included in the 2009 stimulus bill, affected enrollment. Considers determining factors, implications of health reform for extending the subsidy, and lessons learned

Representing Risk Preferences in Expected Utility Based Decision Models

The application and estimation of expected utility based decision models would benefit from having additional simple and flexible functional forms to represent risk preferences. The literature so far has provided these functional forms for the utility function itself. This work shows that functional forms for the marginal utility function are as useful, are easier to provide, and can represent a larger set of risk preferences. Several functional forms for marginal utility are suggested, and how they can be used is discussed. These marginal utility functions represent risk preferences that cannot be represented by any functional form for the utility function.Risk and Uncertainty,