How public health campaigns promote public health disparities

It is often claimed that interventions aimed at promoting healthy behaviors tend to be most effective among people whose behavior least needs to change and least effective among those most in need of change. If true, the inevitable result would be widening disparities in health engagement between these groups. Using a between-subjects experimental design, this study examined the effects of a directive advocacy message based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB) on groups with different pre-existing levels of engagement in healthy behaviors. The results confirmed that, compared to effects of a non-persuasive control message, the TPB-based message produced greater disparities in engagement between the group lowest in pre-existing health engagement and groups with greater pre-existing levels of engagement. The study suggests well-intended public health initiatives may seem to provide a net benefit to society but, in fact, actually contribute to the persistence of the disparities they attempt to address

Missing the mark in marketing healthcare services to emergent populations: Why we go wrong and how we might do better

Whether because of economic conditions, war, genocide or other reasons, many people are relocating from their under-developed (or under-duress) countries of origin to urban and suburban areas in more peaceful and affluent countries. The close geographic juxtaposition of these newly emerging populations alongside established native populations can lead to significant disparities in the promotion and delivery of healthcare services. An example of this, Hispanic populations are growing rapidly in and around affluent communities across the United States of America. This article explores how under-representation, cultural dissonance, stereotyping, and stereotype threat may be interacting to influence both the content and the effects of health promotion strategies aimed at these newly emerging markets. It concludes with suggestions that may lead to better-targeted marketing strategies that are more equitable as well as more effective for reaching emerging markets in a range of national contexts

Fluid surface behavior in low gravity. Center discretionary fund no. 83-21

Measurements of rotating equilibrium bubble shapes in the low-gravity environment of a free-falling aircraft are presented. Emphasis is placed on bubbles which intersect the container boundaries. These data are compared with theoretical profiles derived from Laplace's formula and are in good agreement with the measurements. Two types of instability are explored. The first occurs when the baffle spacing is too large for the bubble to intersect both the top and bottom boundaries. The second occurs when the hydrostatic pressure beneath a displaced free surface does not compensate for pressure change due to capillary forces. The interface shape depends on the contact angle, the radius of intersection with container, and the parameter F which is a measure of the relative importance of centrifugal force to surface tension. For isolated bubbles, F has a maximum value of 1/2. A further increase in F causes the bubble to break contact with the axis of rotation. For large values of F, the bubble becomes more cylindrical and the capillary rise occurs over a thinner layer so that the small radius of curvature can generate enough pressure drop to balance the increased hydrostatic contribution

Liquid management in low gravity using baffled rotating containers

Possible static configurations of liquids in rotating cylindrical containers with baffles evenly spaced in the axial direction are found. The force balance is among surface tension, centrifugal force and gravity. Two instabilities are found in this parameter space: type 1 is the inability of the liquid to form an interface attached to the baffles; type 2 is the inability for multi-baffled configurations to sustain interfaces between each pair of baffles. The type 1 analysis is confirmed through laboratory based equipment. Applications to orbiting containers are discussed

Access regulation and the transition from copper to fiber networks in telecoms

In this paper we study the impact of different forms of access obligations on firms' incentives to migrate from the legacy copper network to ultra-fast broadband infrastructures. We analyze three different kinds of regulatory interventions: geographical regulation of access to copper networks-where access prices are differentiated depending on whether or not an alternative fiber network has been deployed; access obligations on fiber networks and its interplay with wholesale copper prices; and, finally, a mandatory switch-off of the legacy copper network-to foster the transition to the higher quality fiber networks. Trading-off the different static and dynamic goals, the paper provides guidelines and suggestions for policy makers' decision

Nanosecond optical imaging spectroscopy of an electrothermal radiofrequency plasma thruster plume

Nanosecond optical imaging spectroscopy is employed to investigate the spatio-temporal dynamics of the plasma plume expanding from a 4.2 mm-diameter, 20 mm-long cylindrical capacitively coupled electrothermal radiofrequency (rf) driven thruster using 10 W of power at 12.50 MHz and an argon pressure of 1.5 Torr. On-axis, the plume exhibits four distinct peaks of optical emission intensity within the rf period. The plume has a spherical shape with a transient radial extension (during half of the rf cycle) at the thruster exit plane due to an rf current to ground when the grounded electrode acts as an anode