Patient Knowledge and Antibiotic Abuse: Evidence from an Audit Study in China

We ask how patient knowledge of appropriate antibiotic usage affects both physicians prescribing behavior and the physician-patient relationship. We conduct an audit study in which a pair of simulated patients with identical flu-like complaints visits the same physician. Simulated patient A is instructed to ask a question that showcases his/her knowledge of appropriate antibiotic use, whereas patient B is instructed to say nothing beyond describing his/her symptoms. We find that a patient’s knowledge of appropriate antibiotics use reduces both antibiotic prescription rates and drug expenditures. Such knowledge also increases physicians’ information provision about possible side effects, but has a negative impact on the quality of the physician-patient interactions.

The governance models vs. the development courses of the mining sector:cases of Indonesia and the Philippines

Indonesia and the Philippines have shared similar history, geological condition and economic structure. Both countries have rich reserves of metallic minerals, The two countries have also experienced changes of political system in the post-WWII era, from an authoritarian regime to a democracy, and have both pursued a neoliberal economic policy since the 1980s. However, the shared commonalities have not enabled a similar development path of the mining industry in the two countries.Our research is aimed to reveal the key factors that caused the divergence of the mining development in the two countries, from three main aspects: the evolution of the political system, the economic and mining policies adopted by the two governments, and the role of the mining regulations. The main question asked is that “why the similar political systems and economic policy have not led to a more convergent path for mining development in the two neighbors?” The research has proved the validity of our hypothesis that the distinct political objectives and economic circumstances have impacted the implementation of the Neoliberal Economics in the two countries, which not only caused diversified development of the mining sector in Indonesia and the Philippines but have also affected their economic potential in the world

The governance models vs. the development courses of the mining sector:cases of Indonesia and the Philippines

Indonesia and the Philippines have shared similar history, geological condition and economic structure. Both countries have rich reserves of metallic minerals, The two countries have also experienced changes of political system in the post-WWII era, from an authoritarian regime to a democracy, and have both pursued a neoliberal economic policy since the 1980s. However, the shared commonalities have not enabled a similar development path of the mining industry in the two countries.Our research is aimed to reveal the key factors that caused the divergence of the mining development in the two countries, from three main aspects: the evolution of the political system, the economic and mining policies adopted by the two governments, and the role of the mining regulations. The main question asked is that “why the similar political systems and economic policy have not led to a more convergent path for mining development in the two neighbors?” The research has proved the validity of our hypothesis that the distinct political objectives and economic circumstances have impacted the implementation of the Neoliberal Economics in the two countries, which not only caused diversified development of the mining sector in Indonesia and the Philippines but have also affected their economic potential in the world

Guanxi, IT Systems, and Innovation Capability: The Moderating Role of Proactiveness

In Chinese exporting, small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) need to be innovative to develop a competitive advantage. This research explored how these organizations can use two resources: 1) guanxi with customers, distributors, suppliers, and government officials; and 2) IT systems to enhance their innovation capabilities and new product performance. The moderating role of an organization’s proactiveness with respect to new product development is also examined. The resource-based view provides the theoretical support for the research. A conceptual model is developed and tested using survey data gathered from 210 Chinese SMEs in manufacturing industries that were analyzed using SmartPLS 2.0. Results show that IT systems are positively related to innovation capability. The relationship between guanxi and innovation capability is significant for firms that exhibit high levels of proactiveness but not when proactiveness is low

Preventing Intimate Image Abuse Via Privacy-Preserving Credentials

The problem of non-consensual pornography (“NCP”), sometimes known as intimate image abuse or revenge porn, is well known. Despite its distribution being illegal in most states, it remains a serious problem, if only because it is often difficult to prove who uploaded the pictures. Furthermore, the Federal statute commonly known as Section 230 generally protects Internet sites, such as PornHub, from liability for content created by their users; only the users are liable, not the sites. One obvious countermeasure would be to require Internet sites to strongly authenticate their users, but this is not an easy problem to solve. Furthermore, while strong authentication would provide accountability for the immedi- ate upload, such a policy would threaten the ability to speak anonymously, a vital constitutional right. Also, it often would not help identify the original offender—many people download images from one site and upload them to another, which adds another layer of complexity. We instead propose a more complex scheme, based on a privacy- preserving cryptographic credential scheme originally devised by researcher Jan Camenisch and Professor Anna Lysyanskaya. While the details (and the underlying mathematics) are daunting, the essential properties of their scheme are straightforward. Users first obtain a primary credential from a trusted iden- tity provider; this provider verifies the person’s identity, generally via the usual types of government-issued ID documents, and hence knows a user’s real iden- tity. To protect privacy, this primary credential can be used to arbitrarily generate many anonymous but provably valid sub-credentials, perhaps one per website; these sub-credentials cannot be linked either to each other or to the primary credential. For technical reasons, sub-credentials cannot be used directly to digitally sign images. Instead, they are used to obtain industry-standard crypto- graphic “certificates,” which can be used to verify digital signatures on images. The certificate-issuing authority also receives and retains an encrypted, random pseudonym known by the identity provider, which is used to identify the web- site user. If NCP is alleged to be present in an image, information extracted from the image’s metadata—plus the encrypted pseudonym—can be sent to a deanonymization agent, the only party who can decrypt it. The final step to reveal the uploader’s identity is to send the decrypted pseudonym to the identity provider; which knows the linkage between the pseudonym and real person. In other words, three separate parties must cooperate to identify someone. The scheme is thus privacy-preserving, accountable, and abuse-resistant. It is privacy-preserving because sub-credentials are anonymous and not link- able to anything. It provides accountability, because all images are signed before upload and the identity of the original uploader can be determined if necessary. It is abuse-resistant, because it requires the cooperation of those three parties—the certificate issuer, the deanonymization agent, and the identity provider—to identify an image uploader. The paper contains a reasonably detailed description of how the scheme works technically, albeit without the mathematics. Our paper describes the necessary legal framework for this scheme. We start with a First Amendment analysis, to show that this potential violation of the constitutional right to anonymity is acceptable. We conclude that exacting scrutiny (as opposed to the generally higher standard of strict scrutiny), which balances different rights, is the proper standard to use. Exacting Scrutiny is what the Supreme Court has used in, e.g., Citizens United, to justify viola- tions of anonymity. Here, the balance is the right to anonymous publication of images versus the right to intimate privacy, a concept that we show has also been endorsed by the Supreme Court. We go on to discuss the requirements for the different parties—e.g., their trustworthiness and if they are in a juris- diction where aggrieved parties would have effective recourse—and the legal and procedural requirements, including standing, for opposing deanonymization. We suggest that all three parties should have the right to challenge dean- onymization requests, to ensure that they are valid. We also discuss how to change Section 230 in a way that would be constitutional (it is unclear if use of this scheme can be mandated), to induce Internet sites to adopt it. Finally, we discuss other barriers to adoption of this scheme and how to work around them: not everyone will have a suitable government-issued ID, and some sites, especially news and whistleblower sites, may wish to eschew strongly authenticated images to protect the identities of their sources

Development of an Ontology-Based Visual Approach for Property Data Analytics

oai:ojs.pkp.sfu.ca:article/4Real estate is a complex market that consists of many layers of social, financial, and economic data, including but not limited to price, rental, location, mortgage, demographic and housing supply data. The sheer number of real estate properties around the world means that property transactions produce an extraordinary amount of data that is increasing exponentially. Most of the data are presented through thousands of rows on a spreadsheet or described in long paragraphs that are difficult to understand. The emergent data visualization techniques are intended to allow data to be processed and analytics to be displayed visually to enable an understanding of complex information and the identification of new patterns from the data. However, not all visualization techniques can achieve such a thing. Most techniques are able to display only visual low-dimensional data. This paper introduces an ontology visualisation methodology to explore the ontologies of property data behaviour for multidimensional data. The visualisation combines real estate data statistical analysis with several high dimensional data visualisation techniques, including parallel coordinates and stacked area charts. By using six residential suburbs in Sydney as a demonstration, we find that the developed data visualisation methodology can be applied effectively and efficiently to analyse complex real estate market behaviour patterns

Exploring the Decline of Narrow Networks on the ACA Marketplaces in 2017

The prevalence of narrow provider networks on the ACA Marketplace is trending down. In 2017, 21% of plans had narrow networks, down from 25% in 2016. The largest single factor was that 70% of plans from National carriers exited the market and these plans had narrower networks than returning plans. Exits account for more than half of the decline in the prevalence of narrow networks, with the rest attributed to broadening networks among stable plans, particularly among Blues carriers. The narrow network strategy is expanding among traditional Medicaid carriers and remains steady among provider-based carriers and regional/local carriers

Narrow Networks on the Individual Marketplace in 2017

This Issue Brief describes the breadth of physician networks on the ACA marketplaces in 2017. We find that the overall rate of narrow networks is 21%, which is a decline since 2014 (31%) and 2016 (25%). Narrow networks are concentrated in plans sold on state-based marketplaces, at 42%, compared to 10% of plans on federally-facilitated marketplaces. Issuers that have traditionally offered Medicaid coverage have the highest prevalence of narrow network plans at 36%, with regional/local plans and provider-based plans close behind at 27% and 30%. We also find large differences in narrow networks by state and by plan type