Consumer Operated and Oriented Plans (CO-OPs): An Interim Assessment of Their Prospects

Provides an overview of nonprofit, member-governed plans that will create innovative care delivery and payment models to compete in states' individual and small group health insurance markets. Outlines challenges and potential effect on the market

England's Approach to Improving End-of-Life Care: A Strategy for Honoring Patients' Choices

Outlines England's evidence-based End of Life Care Strategy, its impact, and possible lessons for palliative care in the United States, such as the use of death at home as a metric for progress and Web-based training for clinical and caregiving personnel

Mantle convection and the state of the Earth's interior

During 1983 to 1986 emphasis in the study of mantle convection shifted away from fluid mechanical analysis of simple systems with uniform material properties and simple geometries, toward analysis of the effects of more complicated, presumably more realistic models. The important processes related to mantle convection are considered. The developments in seismology are discussed

Intraplate deformation, stress in the lithosphere and the driving mechanism for plate motions

During this period work was carried out on three fronts relevant to the understanding of intraplate deformation, stress in the lithosphere, and the driving mechanisms for plate motions: (1) observational constraints, using GPS geodesy on the deformation in the region of the boundry between the Pacific and North American plates in central and southern California; (2) numerical modeling of the effects of temperature dependent lithospheric viscosity on the stress and strain history of extensional regimes; and (3) improvement of estimates of mantle viscosity variation, the long-wave-length density variations in the mantle, and the topography of the core-mantel boundary from modeling of geoid anomalies, nutation, and changes in length of day. These projects are described in more detail, followed by a discussion of meetings attended and a list of abstracts and papers submitted and/or published

Dynamic interpretation of geoid anomalies

The NASA Geodynamics program has as two of its missions precise determination of spatial variations in earth's geopotential (or geoid) and highly accurate monitoring of polar motion, including changes in the length of day (LOD). For the past several years, data sets provided by NASA, along with data and models from other areas of geophysic were used to place fundamental contraints on the large scale dynamics of earth and her sister planet Venus. The main approach was using fluid mechanical models of mantle flow to predict the long-wavelength variations in the geoid

Driving forces: Slab subduction and mantle convection

Mantle convection is the mechanism ultimately responsible for most geological activity at Earth's surface. To zeroth order, the lithosphere is the cold outer thermal boundary layer of the convecting mantle. Subduction of cold dense lithosphere provides tha major source of negative buoyancy driving mantle convection and, hence, surface tectonics. There are, however, importnat differences between plate tectonics and the more familiar convecting systems observed in the laboratory. Most important, the temperature dependence of the effective viscosity of mantle rocks makes the thermal boundary layer mechanically strong, leading to nearly rigid plates. This strength stabilizes the cold boundary layer against small amplitude perturbations and allows it to store substantial gravitational potential energy. Paradoxically, through going faults at subduction zones make the lithosphere there locally weak, allowing rapid convergence, unlike what is observed in laboratory experiments using fluids with temperature dependent viscosities. This bimodal strength distribution of the lithosphere distinguishes plate tectonics from simple convection experiments. In addition, Earth has a buoyant, relatively weak layer (the crust) occupying the upper part of the thermal boundary layer. Phase changes lead to extra sources of heat and bouyancy. These phenomena lead to observed richness of behavior of the plate tectonic style of mantle convection

Health Care for Undocumented Migrants: European Approaches

European countries have smaller shares of undocumented migrants than does the United States, but these individuals have substantial needs for medical care and present difficult policy challenges even in countries with universal health insurance systems. Recent European studies show that policies in most countries provide for no more than emergency services for undocumented migrants. Smaller numbers of countries provide more services or allow undocumented migrants who meet certain requirements access to the same range of services as nationals. These experiences show it is possible to improve access to care for undocumented migrants. Strategies vary along three dimensions: 1) focusing on segments of the population, like children or pregnant women; 2) focusing on types of services, like preventive services or treatment of infectious diseases; or 3) using specific funding policies, like allowing undocumented migrants to purchase insurance

The economic value of remote sensing of earth resources from space: An ERTS overview and the value of continuity of service. Volume 3: Intensive use of living resources, agriculture. Part 2: Distribution effects

The results of an investigation of the value of improving information for forecasting future crop harvests are described. A theoretical model is developed to calculate the value of increased speed of availablitiy of that information. The analysis of U.S. domestic wheat consumption was implemented. New estimates of a demand function for wheat and of a cost of storage function were involved, along with a Monte Carlo simulation for the wheat spot and future markets and a model of market determinations of wheat inventories. Results are shown to depend critically on the accuracy of current and proposed measurement techniques

The 'new economy' : background, historical perspective, questions, and speculations

In a presentation at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City’s 2001 symposium, “Economic Policy for the Information Economy,” Professor J. Bradford DeLong of the University of California-Berkeley, and Harvard President Lawrence H. Summers suggested that any attempt to analyze the meaning and importance of the "new economy" must grapple with four questions:> First, in the long run, how important will ongoing technological revolutions in data processing and data communications turn out to be? Second, what does the crash of the Nasdaq tell us about the future of the new economy? Third, how should government regulation of the economy change so as to maximize the benefits we reap from these ongoing technological revolutions? And fourth, how will the American economy respond to the shock to public confidence and the destruction caused by the terror attacks of September 11?> In exploring answers to these questions, the authors found the following: The long-run economic impact of the ongoing technological revolutions in data processing and data communications will be very large indeed. The crash of the Nasdaq tells us next to nothing about the dimensions of the economic transformation that we are undergoing. It does, however, tell us that the new economy is more likely to be a source of downward pressure on margins than of large durable quasi-rents. The principal effects of the "new economy" are more likely to be "microeconomic" than "macroeconomic," and they will lead to profound—if at present unclear—changes in how the government should act to provide the property rights, institutional frameworks, and "rules of the game" that underpin the market economy. And finally, the events of September 11 will slow private investment in new technologies, but U.S. military spending is likely to increase, and the increase in military spending will be concentrated on high-technology data-processing and data-communications products. On balance, therefore, the changes in economic structure that fall under the category “new economy” are not likely to be much affected.