Measuring the Quality of Developmental Services for Young Children: A New Approach

Outlines performance measures for Medicaid and other agencies' assessment of developmental services, including screening and referring children with or at risk for developmental disabilities; interventions; and guidance for parents. Explores barriers

Food Demand Projections Using Full Demand Systems

Disaggregated food demand projections for developing countries, although essential for improved development planning and effective policy making, are rare. Moreover food demand projection models are usually based on aggregated, national-level data. In this article, under conditions of weak separability and multistage budgeting decisions, a structural model capable fo generating regional-level food demand projections for a disaggregated set of commodities is developed and estimated using data from an Indonesian expenditure survey. Regional food demand projections in Indonesia obtain under a scenario assuming constant real prices are then combines into national-level estimates.

Nutrition in Haiti: Evidence from the Haiti Household Expenditure and Consumption Survey

The conditions of widespread hunger and continuing food deficits dominate Haiti\u27s food and agricultural situation. A 1986-87 nationwide survey of household expenditure and food consumption provides new evidence on food sources of energy and protein, and the adequacy of diets in Haiti. The survey data document the importance of cereals and vegetables in supplying food energy and protein. Starchy roots were relatively more important to energy intake in rural areas than urban areas. Rice, bread, oil, and green and dried peas were important food items in contributing to food energy and protein (except for oil). Nearly 50 percent of household members had less than 75 percent of recommended levels of food energy intake; 36 percent had less than 75 percent of the recommended dietary allowance for protein. The most severe nutritional problems appear in rural areas and in the northern region

Health Conditions and Expenditures in Haiti: Evidence from the Haiti Household Expenditure and Consumption Survey

In 1986, the Institut Haitien de Statistique et d\u27Informatique (IHSI) with support from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) implemented a nationwide Household Expenditure and Consumption Survey (HECS) to gather socioeconomic data to analyze nutrition, health, welfare, food pricing policies, and other issues related to Title III, and to provide IHSI with data to calculate consumer price indexes and national accounts. Data were gathered from November 1986 through September 1987

Food Consumption Patterns in Haiti: Evidence from the Haiti Household Expenditure and Consumption Survey

Effective evaluation of food pricing policies and other food policy issues requires accurate information on food consumption patterns and expenditures. This report documents food consumption patterns based on the 1986-87 Haitian Household Expenditure and Consumption Survey (HECS) conducted by the Institut Haitian de Statistique et d\u27Informatique (IHSI) with support from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID/Haiti). The report investigates food consumption patterns including total food expenditures and food budget shares, sources of food, food expenditures by major food group, expenditures for food consumed outside of the household, use of food inventories, and frequently consumed food items

A model for incorporating a clinically-feasible exercise test in paraplegic annual reviews : a tool for stratified cardiopulmonary stress performance classification and monitoring

To identify and characterize an exercise test for use in routine spinal cord injury clinical review, and (ii) to describe levels of, and factors affecting, cardiopulmonary stress performance during exercise in the chronic paraplegic population in Scotland, UK. Cross-sectional study Queen Elizabeth National Spinal Injuries Unit (Glasgow, Scotland) 48 subjects with chronic paraplegia resulting from spinal cord injury at neurological levels T2-L2 Peak oxygen uptake, peak power output, gas exchange threshold and peak heart rate were determined from an incremental arm-cranking exercise test. Using a general linear model, the effects of gender, high (injury level above T6) versus low paraplegia, time since injury, body mass and age on peak oxygen uptake and peak power output were investigated. All 48 subjects completed the arm-cranking exercise test, which was shown to be practical for fitness screening in paraplegia. Men (n=38) had a peak oxygen uptake of 1.302 +/- 0.326 l.min-1 (mean +/- s.d.) and peak power output of 81.6 +/- 23.2W, which was significantly higher than for women (n=10), at 0.832 +/- 0.277 l.min-1 and 50.1 +/- 27.8 W, respectively. There was large intersubject variability in cardiopulmonary performance during arm-cranking exercise testing, but the overall mean for the Scottish population was lower than reference values from other countries. Arm-cranking exercise tests are feasible in the clinical environment. The motivation for their implementation is threefold: (i) to determine cardiopulmonary stress performance of individual paraplegic patients, (ii) to stratify patients into cardiovascular risk categories, and (iii) to monitor the effects of targeted exercise prescription

Quantifying the digital traces of Hurricane Sandy on Flickr

Society’s increasing interactions with technology are creating extensive “digital traces” of our collective human behavior. These new data sources are fuelling the rapid development of the new field of computational social science. To investigate user attention to the Hurricane Sandy disaster in 2012, we analyze data from Flickr, a popular website for sharing personal photographs. In this case study, we find that the number of photos taken and subsequently uploaded to Flickr with titles, descriptions or tags related to Hurricane Sandy bears a striking correlation to the atmospheric pressure in the US state New Jersey during this period. Appropriate leverage of such information could be useful to policy makers and others charged with emergency crisis management