Washington's Basic Health Plan: Fulfilling Its Mission or Creating Barriers for Working Families?

Based on the costs of medical needs and the coverage information provided by the Basic Health Plan, we present estimated annual costs paid by families at different income levels. This analysis reveals that BHP coverage can require too high a percentage of a working family's household budget

Inflationary cosmology with two-component fluid and thermodynamics

We present a simple and self-consistent cosmology with a phenomenological model of quantum creation of radiation and matter due to decay of the cosmological constant $\Lambda$. The decay drives a non-isentropic inflationary epoch, which exits smoothly to the radiation-dominated era, without reheating, and then evolves to the dust era. The initial vacuum for radiation and matter is a regular Minkowski vacuum. The created radiation and matter obeys standard thermodynamic laws, and the total entropy produced is consistent with the accepted value. This paper is an extension of the model with the decaying cosmological constant considered previously. We compare our model with the quantum field theory approach to creation of particles in curved space.Comment: 16 pages Late

A Phenomenological Examination of Church Leaders\u27 Perceived Impact of Executive Coaching on Organizational Culture

The trajectory of the seminary training curriculum has evolved pedagogically at projecting adequate church leadership education and hands-on development. However, empirical research reveals that the seminary struggles with preparing generations of church leaders for modern church responsibilities including executive leadership, tactical performance, administration, and church organizational culture (Crowson, 2021; Costin, 2008). Hicks (2012), as cited by Smith (2017) states, “Recent studies have begun to explore the need for management training for pastors” (p. 2). Graduates as well as current church leaders report feeling ill-equipped for the increasing duties for today’s church culture. This qualitative, phenomenological study evaluated mid-to-senior level Christian leaders’ perceptions of executive coaching\u27s impact on church organizational culture. Four research questions were utilized to guide this study: 1) What are Christian church leaders’ perceptions of how executive coaching impacts leadership effectiveness? 2) How do Christian church leaders perceive how executive coaching improves church managerial performance? 3) What are church leaders’ perceptions of how executive coaching improves congregational relationships? 4) How do Christian church leaders’ perceive how executive coaching influences administrative skillsets? Fourteen Christian leaders participated in virtual interviews using an expert coach-vetted questionnaire. The researcher discovered that leadership coaching impacts church organizational culture through new skillsets and personal growth integrated into their leadership. Church leaders perceive that leadership coaching significantly influenced leadership effectiveness, managerial performance, and administrative skillset with minimal impact on congregational relationship building

Pressure-volume-temperature-composition properties of complex spherical molecules

Includes vita."Important advances to the better understanding of the liquid state have been made recently as a result of studies conducted which use as a starting point the hard-sphere fluid model. The structure of a real fluid is similar to that of a hard-sphere fluid in that the distribution of the molecules in space is determined primarily by the molecules repulsive forces while the attracting forces may be thought of as a uniform potential field which holds the molecules together. When the hard-sphere repulsive term is used as a model for the real fluid repulsive forces, the success of theory in describing the real fluid properties is determined mainly by the way the attractive forces are accounted for and the molecular diameters determined. Excess thermodynamic functions for liquid mixtures are very useful in testing liquid theories for real fluids since these functions can be related to the intermolecular forces, shape, size, and polarity of the molecules which comprise the fluid mixture. Any successful theory must be able to take these factors into account. Most of the measurements of excess properties of liquid mixtures have been limited in two ways. First, most of the experimental studies have been for liquid mixtures where the disparity in the size of the molecules in the mixture has been relatively small. Second, the studies have been restricted to the low pressure region. The temperature and pressure dependence of the excess volume is particularly useful information. In practice there is no convenient method for measuring the pressure derivative of the excess Gibbs free energy other than that of measuring the excess volume. In addition the pressure variation of the excess enthalpy can be calculated once the temperature derivative of the excess volume is known. The excess volume data as a function of temperature and pressure are also useful since they can be used to provide a sensitive test of theory. While excess volume, excess Gibbs free energy, and excess enthalpy data have been measured for a number of binary systems in the low pressure region, these data are extremely scarce in the compressed liquid region. Theories which use the hard-sphere repulsive term as a starting point are extremely sensitive to molecular size differences. In addition, the methods that the various theories use to describe the attractive forces in the real fluid mixture become increasingly important in the compressed liquid region. As a result, a study in which an excess property, namely the excess volume, is experimentally measured in the compressed liquid region for a binary system where the size disparity of the two molecules is relatively large should provide a very severe test of theory. One binary liquid mixture that has received recent attention in the literature is the CCl4 + OMCTS (octamethyl-cyclotetrasiloxane) system. OMCTS is a large, globular, quasispherical molecule with a molar volume approximately 3.2 times that of CCl4. The excess volume, excess Gibbs free energy, and excess enthalpy have been measured for this system but only at negligibly small pressures. The experimental variation of the excess volume with pressure for the CCl4 + OMCTS system should provide a very good test of the theory. Both the effects of differences in molecular size and the methods used to describe the attractive forces in real fluids will be severely tested. The purpose of this investigation is then to obtain experimental excess volumes as a function of temperature, pressure, and composition for the CCl4 + OMCTS liquid system and to use the data to examine several theories of the liquid state. Four theories which use the hard-sphere repulsive term as a starting point for the description of real fluid properties will be examined in the following chapter. Two of the theories will be examined in detail and used to compare experiment and theory for the CCl4 + OMCTS system."--Introduction.Includes bibliographical references

Historic Look on Color Theory

The science of color is called chromatics, colorimetry, or color science. This field of science includes the perception of color by the human eye, origin of colors, art theory, therapy, the psychics of electromagnetic radiation, and effects on the brain (Azeemi). Experts throughout time have desired to decipher the composition of color to explain how and why humans are able to see colors in order to use them in numerous disciplines; from scientific to artistic. While color has been studied since ancient times, the technical workings and the modern understandings of color theory are difficult to comprehend, and one wishes to make the science more palatable. These studies have been a global pursuit. However, many important discoveries and scholars were lost over time, or inaccurately credited. The following paper takes on the historic look on color science to examine how the understanding of color has evolved over time from ancient studies until the early 19th century while unearthing uncredited experts that are not immediately recognized in modern discussion on the subject. Some experts, like Ibn al-Haytham, have been forgotten throughout time while others have been overly credited (O’Connor). At first color is defined and how colors interact with each other is explained. Secondary research and criticism of color science history is used to compare, and dispute generally accepted, ideas of color theory that were discovered until the 19th century (Popova). The purpose is to give the reader a comprehensive understanding of color science, the historical evolution of the field and expose forgotten contributors

P-v-t properties of liquid n-octane

ix, 223 pages ; illustrations"The importance and usefulness of thermodynamics and thermodynamic properties are well accepted facts. Thermodynamics has and will continue to provide a great wealth of necessary information to all phases of chemical engineering. The formalism of thermodynamics is an abstract mathematical world. It is related to the physical world by thermodynamic properties. Herein lies its importance and usefulness— allowing certain physico-chemical systems to be described and interrelated purely upon a sound mathematical basis, largely independent of any assumptions connected with the fundamental particles..."--Introduction

Wisdom at Work: The Importance of the Older and Experienced Nurse in the Workplace

Focuses on promising strategies and opportunities for retaining experienced nurses, one of many approaches the authors recommend to alleviate the current nurse shortage crisis

An Investigation of Tree Biomass in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park

We determined the biomass (carbon storage) of four forest types in the Great Smokey Mountains National Park: pine/oak, cove hardwood, northern hardwood, and spruce/fir. Based on the GLOBE Programs land cover protocols (www.globe.gov), and the University of New Hampshire\u27s GLOBE Carbon Cycle Program (http://globecarboncycle.unh.edu/), we knew that species and tree circumference would be the two most critical factors in determining biomass, but we also hypothesized that number of trees in a study site and the elevation of the site would impact biomass. We hypothesized that old growth forest would contain greater biomass than a young forest. We recorded tree species and circumference for every tree that had a circumference greater than 15 centimeters in each plot of 900 square. The circumference of a total of 219 trees represented by 22 different species, as well as forest type, elevation, and GPS coordinates for each plot, were recorded

Consumer Access to Immunization Information Systems: Evaluation of a 5-State Pilot Project

Background: Maintaining documentation of a family member’s vaccination history is one way to ensure that individuals are accurately informed of their vaccination status. To help increase patients’ access to health information in order to enable action, a 5-state pilot project was implemented to allow consumers access to their immunization information stored in their state Immunization Information System (IIS) via a consumer access portal. Purpose: To evaluate the implementation of the consumer access pilot project and identify the key factors for successful implementation. Methods: A mixed methods study design, incorporating both quantitative and qualitative methods, was used for this project. The study collected information from the three stakeholders engaged in the implementation of the consumer access portal: the state immunization program (via key informant interviews), the healthcare provider (via key informant interviews and an online survey), and the consumer (via an online survey). Results: Although stakeholders reported the consumer portal was easy to learn and use, completion of consumer registration was low. Organizational factors contributing to the low uptake was the lack of dedicated staff among the immunization programs to recruit and train providers as well as provide adequate follow-up. Human factors that contributed to low use included many providers forgetting to promote the portal to their patients along with many consumers forgetting to complete the final steps to activate their account. While the state immunization programs and providers saw the potential for the portal to empower consumers to make decisions about their health, many felt it was too early in the project to see real benefits. However, among consumers who learned that a vaccine was needed, half took action by calling their healthcare provider to learn more or schedule a visit. Conclusion: A consumer access portal linking consumers to their immunization information stored in their state IIS was moderately successful. As the project continues for another year, adjusting the registration process to allow the consumer to complete all the steps online in one session has the potential to increase the number of users, reduce the burden on the state immunization program and providers and allow for statewide promotion of the portal.Doctor of Public Healt