The Development of the Irish Private Health Insurance Market and Evidence of Selection Effects Therein

This paper tracks the development of the Irish private health insurance market, both in terms of its legislative background and the development of competition. Literature on adverse selection and risk selection is then reviewed. Data from two surveys of consumers are then analysed to determine whether evidence exists of adverse selection or risk selection in the Irish private health insurance market. Both of these issues are relevant in the context of the debate over risk equalisation in the market in Ireland.Private health insurance, adverse selection, risk selection

Stories in the making: a phenomenological study of persistent women techmakers in co-ed community makerspaces

Technology shapes the world, and collaborative learning environments known as makerspaces offer tremendous opportunity for innovation and invention. Co-ed community makerspaces lack female membership and participation. If women do not participate, they are being left behind; therefore, there is a need to understand female techmakers who persist in co-ed community makerspaces. This study was viewed through the socio-political conservative feminist framework. It aimed to explore why the participants were attracted to co-ed makerspaces; challenges and barriers they encountered and how they overcame them; and supports and strategies used to persist in co-ed community makerspaces. This study may interest current and future female techmakers and anyone seeking increased female participation in co-ed makerspaces. This study utilized a qualitative existential-phenomenal research design. The researcher interviewed 6 persistent women techmakers who were long-term members of co-ed community makerspaces. The interviews were conducted both face-to-face and virtually using a semi-structured interview protocol consisting of 3 primary questions and 10 as-needed follow-up questions to elicit candid accounts of their lived experiences as female techmakers in co-ed community makerspaces. Five conclusions resulted from this study. First, natural tendencies such as extraordinary curiosity and natural attraction to electronic technology played an important role in the participants’ attraction to techmaking. Second, the participants were attracted to their makerspaces because they offered meaningful personal connections. Third, inadvertent sexism existed in the participant’s makerspaces but not oppression. Fourth, the participants were self-determined. Fifth, early supports and role models inspired or helped the participants in their techmaking pursuits. This study’s findings yielded three recommendations. First, the researcher recommends that adults encourage and support extraordinarily curious children. Second, educational policy and curriculum around makerspaces should include talking points to highlight meaningful social interactions as an attraction point. Finally, the conservative feminist framework has value when unpacking male and female social relations in male-dominated fields and should be taught more widely in the area of technology

The Power of Fission: How the Discovery of Fission Adversely Affected US/Soviet Relations

In 1940 FDR told the leading Western scientists that they were not responsible for the way science was being used to perpetuate oppressive world domination. He went on to convince them that while they could not trust Hitler to use their knowledge towards positive means, they could trust the United States to forward the values of world peace. In light of the events that followed from that speech in 1940 to the dropping of the atomic bomb in 1945, without informing the Soviet Union, this pivotal moment insights a series of questions concerning the ways in which the United States’ actions affected the opportunity for maintaining postwar peace with the Soviet Union. The events that led from the discovery of fission to the use of the atomic bomb can be analyzed through both the physicists’ experiences and government officials’ decisions in both the United States and the Soviet Union. The 1930’s science community abandoned their working agreement for international cooperation due to a distrusting environment between nations. Evidence reveals that physicist’ actions following the discovery of fission put the United States in a position to use secret knowledge of the atomic bomb in a manner that adversely affected their already loose relationship with the Soviet Union. Conclusion are defended through the use of primary sources that include memoirs, speeches, and letters from leading physicists, government leaders, and directors of the Manhattan Project. However, much of the Soviet Union’s primary sources are inaccessible; requiring a reliance on a series of trusted secondary sources

Science to Improve the Human Condition

Science must address a deep human concern, pain and suffering and how can an individual, without drugs and surgery, self-heal? Historical knowledge of Coulombic, Gaussian and Photonic energy in medicine and the science of human organic life energy or Qi is required to heal ourselves. How can we couple singular individual consciousness of ancient practice techniques within a scientific frame? First, where does Qi fit into science? The properties of organic and inorganic oneness, comparing the physiology of human Enlightenment to the stable state of helium at absolute temperature gives information on how to approach disease. A non-invasive diagnostic technique of the Omura O-ring is capable of testing meridian theory, giving light on Oriental medicine's limitations as compared to modern neuro-science of the dermatome. Treatment through self-help techniques of Chronic Heart Disease and a serious spinal injury gives us data in which to evaluate this approac

Historical content of fifth grade geography books

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit

Examining the Relationship Between Parental Overprotection, Use of Assistive Technology, and Independence With Routines Among Children With Physical Disabilities

The primary purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationships between parental overprotection/overindulgence, assistive technology utilization, and independence with routines among children with physical disabilities. Participants included 26 primary caregivers of children with physical disabilities age 6 to 12 (M = 8.65, SD = 2.00). Data regarding demographic information, parenting practices, the child’s gross motor functioning, assistive technology (AT) use, independence with routines, and frequency of routines were obtained from the primary caregiver via an online survey. While no significant relationships between the variables of interest were observed after controlling for the child’s age, gross motor functioning, and mental impairment, a moderately significant inverse relationship between parental overprotection and child independence with routines was observed, which may reach significance with a larger sample. Additionally, two new robust findings were discovered. A marginally significant negative correlation between frequency of routines and gross motor functioning was observed in addition to a significant positive correlation between frequency of routines and independence with routines. Finally, the study also contributed to the development of two new scales, the CRQ Independence scale and the Assistive Technology Use Scale. Overall, this study suggests that children with physical disabilities may benefit from more frequent AT use to assist in routine completion; they may also benefit from more frequent routines to assist in increased efficiency with routines, promoting independence

A study of the interdisciplinary conference as conducted in one unit in a selected hospital

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston Universit