Prisoners\u27 Use of Social Support

Manuscript 1: It is generally acknowledged that prison is often a stressful environment, yet little is known of the coping processes employed by prisoners. This paper aims to examine the question of what facilitates and frustrates prisoners\u27 use of social support whilst imprisoned. This question is examined with regards to both informal (family and friends, other prisoners) and \u27formal sources of support (professional support services, peer support prisoners, prison officers). The conclusion that was drawn from this review of the literature is that the role of social support in correctional environments is largely unknown and current thinking is based primarily on anecdotal evidence. Future research should examine prisoners\u27 evaluations of support sources so that services can be directed to best meet prisoners\u27 needs. Manuscript 2: Obtaining support is an important aspect of coping with stress. The purpose of this study was to determine whether prisoners\u27 perceptions of the quality of support differed across support sources. Seventy male sentenced prisoners provided ratings of a perceived support for each of nine potential sources of support. Family members were perceived as providing the highest quality of support with prison officers the lowest. Family members were most often used for support and were perceived as the most helpful. Support from other prisoners, family, and workshop instructors were perceived as the most accessible. The data support the intuitive notion that prisoners\u27 access to family is crucial. The data also question the viability of unit management

Entry and Competition in Local Hospital Markets

There has been considerable consolidation in the hospital industry in recent years. Over 900 deals occurred from 1994-2000, and many local markets, even in large urban areas, have been reduced to monopolies, duopolies, or triopolies. This surge in consolidation has led to concern about competition in local markets for hospital services. We examine the effect of market structure on competition in local hospital markets -- specifically, does the hardness of competition increase with the number of firms? We extend the entry model developed by Bresnahan and Reiss to make use of quantity information, and apply it to data on the U.S. hospital industry. In the hospital markets we examine, entry leads to a quick convergence to competitive conduct. Entry reduces variable profits and increases quantity. Most of the effects of entry come from having a second and a third firm enter the market. The fourth entrant has little estimated effect. The use of quantity information allows us to infer that entry is consumer-surplus-increasing.

Lightweight, low compression aircraft diesel engine

The feasibility of converting a spark ignition aircraft engine to the diesel cycle was investigated. Procedures necessary for converting a single cylinder GTS10-520 are described as well as a single cylinder diesel engine test program. The modification of the engine for the hot port cooling concept is discussed. A digital computer graphics simulation of a twin engine aircraft incorporating the diesel engine and Hot Fort concept is presented showing some potential gains in aircraft performance. Sample results of the computer program used in the simulation are included

Holographic enhanced remote sensing system

The Holographic Enhanced Remote Sensing System (HERSS) consists of three primary subsystems: (1) an Image Acquisition System (IAS); (2) a Digital Image Processing System (DIPS); and (3) a Holographic Generation System (HGS) which multiply exposes a thermoplastic recording medium with sequential 2-D depth slices that are displayed on a Spatial Light Modulator (SLM). Full-parallax holograms were successfully generated by superimposing SLM images onto the thermoplastic and photopolymer. An improved HGS configuration utilizes the phase conjugate recording configuration, the 3-SLM-stacking technique, and the photopolymer. The holographic volume size is currently limited to the physical size of the SLM. A larger-format SLM is necessary to meet the desired 6 inch holographic volume. A photopolymer with an increased photospeed is required to ultimately meet a display update rate of less than 30 seconds. It is projected that the latter two technology developments will occur in the near future. While the IAS and DIPS subsystems were unable to meet NASA goals, an alternative technology is now available to perform the IAS/DIPS functions. Specifically, a laser range scanner can be utilized to build the HGS numerical database of the objects at the remote work site

Is Patient Data Better Protected in Competitive Healthcare Markets?

We study the effect of hospital market concentration on the quality of patient data protection practices. We use approximately 200 reported data breaches in US hospitals over the period 2006 - 2011 as a measure of the quality of patient data protection practices. We measure market concentration using the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI) and estimate our models by exploiting cross-sectional HHI variation. Surprisingly, we find that increased competition is associated with a decline in the quality of patient data protection. Our main result indicates that a 100 point increase in HHI is associated with a 5% decline in the average count of data breach incidents. The results are directionally robust to a number of alternate model specifications. To explain our findings, we posit that hospitals in more competitive markets may be inclined to shift resources to more consumer visible activities from the less consumer visible activity of data protection

A bargain at twice the price? California hospital prices in the new millennium.

We use data from California to document and offer possible explanations for the sharp increase in hospital prices charged to private payers after 1999. We find a downward trend in price for private pay patients in the 1990s and a rapid upward trend beginning in 1999, amounting to an annual average increase of 10.6% per year over 1999-2005. Prices in 2006 were almost double prices in 1999. By contrast, there was little discernable trend in prices for Medicare and Medicaid patients, although these prices varied from year-to-year. Surprisingly, the increase in prices is not correlated, geographically, with the change in hospital market concentration. For example, the greatest price rises came from hospitals in monopoly and highly concentrated counties which experienced little or no change over our sample period. Two recent California state hospital regulations, the seismic retrofit mandate and the mandatory nurse staffing ratio affected hospital costs. However, the cost increases due to the nursing staffing regulations are not large enough to account for the price increase, and the price increase is not substantially correlated with the costs of compliance with the seismic retrofit mandate. Therefore, the source of the near-doubling of California hospital prices remains something of a mystery

Made for TV monsters : how has the rise of horror on US television affected the spectacle and acceptability of the genre?

This study will explore the rise of horror drama on US television, investigating the significance of this trend of horror programming to both the US television industry and the understanding and acceptability of the horror genre as a whole. The first section will account for this increase in horror programming by providing the evidence that demonstrates how the shifts in the US television industry, trends in programming, serialisation and technological advances, have driven this cycle of horror drama. The study will then consider three case study examples in depth. While horror has been on US television before, the major turning point for the genre occurred in 2010 with The Walking Dead. The first case study will consider The Walking Dead and the impact this show had on the US television and advertising industries. It will explore how The Walking Dead began to break down the boundaries between horror, film and US television. The second case study will move over to the subscription service Netflix, and Hemlock Grove (2013 – 2015). This chapter will explore the use of the Gothic to elevate the horror drama in conjunction with the strategic ambitions of Netflix as they began their journey into original drama programming. The final case study will demonstrate the levels of acceptability that horror had reached on US television, through the exploration of a slasher on free to air network, Scream Queens (FOX, 2015 – 2017). Through the examination of previously considered disreputable horror film texts that Scream Queens both mimics and pays homage to, this case study will consider the rise of horror from lowbrow to middlebrow, and the merging of the gratuitous slasher film and pop culture US television. Examining how the TV horror text is impacted by the industrial conditions, the case studies will explore the developing spectacle and acceptability of the horror genre on US television

A Braindead Nation: Black Summer and Trump's America

America is teetering on a knife-edge of fascism, fueled by insidious social conservatism and questionable morality that has been festering for decades in the politics and culture of the United States. This article explores the deep concern expressed by Black Summer (Netflix, 2019) regarding several alarming facets of the Donald Trump era. With Trump’s rise to power ushering in a new age of right-wing radicalism, I present Black Summer as a socio-political commentary on the on-going issues regarding attitudes to immigration, race, and violence in America. I begin by discussing how Black Summer confronts the so-called ‘Family Separation’ policy, whereby the children of ‘illegal’ immigrants are separated from their parents at the US-Mexico border, and then explores the show’s multifaceted indictment of Trump’s America. It argues, then, that while Black Summer might seem to be little more than a graphically violent, guns ‘n’ guts zombie series concerned with wanton action and a high body count, it in fact makes its plentiful and pointed social and political comments as quickly as its zombies are able to reanimate