Variations and trends in state nursing facility capacity: 1978-93.

The demand for nursing facility (NF) beds has been growing with the aging of the population and many other factors. As the need for nursing home care grows, the Nation's capacity to provide such care is the subject of increasing concern. This article examines licensed NFs and beds, presenting data on trends from 1978-93. Measures of the adequacy of NF beds in States are examined over time, including the ratio of beds per aged population, occupancy rates, and State official's opinions of the adequacy of supply. State and regional variations are shown over time, and we speculate on the factors which may be associated with the variation

Nonlinear Aggregation-Diffusion Equations: Radial Symmetry and Long Time Asymptotics

We analyze under which conditions equilibration between two competing effects, repulsion modeled by nonlinear diffusion and attraction modeled by nonlocal interaction, occurs. This balance leads to continuous compactly supported radially decreasing equilibrium configurations for all masses. All stationary states with suitable regularity are shown to be radially symmetric by means of continuous Steiner symmetrization techniques. Calculus of variations tools allow us to show the existence of global minimizers among these equilibria. Finally, in the particular case of Newtonian interaction in two dimensions they lead to uniqueness of equilibria for any given mass up to translation and to the convergence of solutions of the associated nonlinear aggregation-diffusion equations towards this unique equilibrium profile up to translations as $t\to\infty$

Propagation of chaos for rank-based interacting diffusions and long time behaviour of a scalar quasilinear parabolic equation

We study a quasilinear parabolic Cauchy problem with a cumulative distribution function on the real line as an initial condition. We call 'probabilistic solution' a weak solution which remains a cumulative distribution function at all times. We prove the uniqueness of such a solution and we deduce the existence from a propagation of chaos result on a system of scalar diffusion processes, the interactions of which only depend on their ranking. We then investigate the long time behaviour of the solution. Using a probabilistic argument and under weak assumptions, we show that the flow of the Wasserstein distance between two solutions is contractive. Under more stringent conditions ensuring the regularity of the probabilistic solutions, we finally derive an explicit formula for the time derivative of the flow and we deduce the convergence of solutions to equilibrium.Comment: Stochastic partial differential equations: analysis and computations (2013) http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s40072-013-0014-

Rural-Urban Migration in China: Temporary Migrants in Search of Permanent Settlement

Massive population flows from rural to urban areas since the start of economic reform have had consequences on almost every social, economic and political issue in the People's Republic of China. This paper maps the developments of rural to urban migration in reform era China, explaining the repercussions of the household registration system on migration patterns, the economic and social inclusion of rural migrant workers into urban communities, and the formation of migrant communities based on ethnic ties in some of China's major cities. The paper ends with a discussion of the consequences of both regional and rural-urban inequalities on future population flows, and on the possibilities of social tensions brought by the increasing presence of rural migrants in urban China

County Governance and the Promotion of Social Development in a Mixed Economy

A large literature analysing the links between decentralization of the fiscal system and responsibility over the provision of public services and social safety nets has highlighted on the one hand the implementation difficulties of resource-poor county governments, and on the other hand the continued prioritisation of economic goals over social development by those same county governments. The current Chinese leaderships aim of building a harmonious society, however, brought about a policy shift that emphasised the quality of economic growth. Through the case study of Hongtong County in Shanxi Province this paper examines the issues faced by a county government in the delivery of public services and in building a functioning social security system. It puts forward the constraints faced by the county government but also shows that there is willingness to act and a capacity to promote social development and social inclusion, though this has mainly been done through an active encouragement of private participation to fill in the gap of public provision. The case study shows that such a strategy can be successful during times of economic bonanza, but for it to become sustainable government funding remains crucial, alongside the need for better regulation of both public and private provisio

Compassion Fatigue: A Cross-Sectional Study

Purpose: This dissertation addresses compassion fatigue and the ambiguous use of the closely related synonyms of burnout, secondary traumatic stress disorder, and vicarious traumatization in acute care nurses. The aim of this dissertation was to define the concept of compassion fatigue within nursing practice, to identify and examine preventive and intervention strategies and to determine the prevalence of compassion fatigue in acute care nurses. Design: This manuscript includes a concept analysis based on the evolutionary method to identify attributes, antecedents and consequences of compassion fatigue, an integrative review examining strategies to reduce compassion fatigue, and a cross sectional, quantitative study to define and measure key components to establish contributing factors of compassion fatigue based on completion of the Professional Quality of Life Scale, also known as ProQol. Conclusions: These findings provide a greater understanding of how compassion fatigue impacts the nursing professional; and its deleterious effects lead to negative outcomes on quality of patient care and safety. Relevance: This study arose directly from my personal interest as a masters’ prepared registered nurse working in acute care and observing the deleterious effects that occurred from compassion fatigue if unrecognized and untreated. Therefore, this dissertation explored ambiguous terms, preventive and intervention strategies and the impact on acute care nurses in a rural setting. There is a need to create an instrument specifically designed to measure compassion fatigue in nurses that is sensitive to detect the day to day nuances in their practice that lead to compassion fatigue, define parameters for the use of synonyms based on stages of symptoms leading to compassion fatigue, and develop interventions to prevent and ameliorate the negative consequences on their health and patient care

Social Development in the PRC: the case of education in a Shanxi

New organizational and institutional arrangements introduced by economic reform in 1978 have significantly influenced the Chinese development process, particularly the ways in which different government levels take part in that development. An important element of that institutional restructuring has been decentralization efforts, which have been responsible for the radical changes in the relationship between the Centre and sub-national governments. Increased local government autonomy has strengthened local agency, allowing for greater maneuvering space in the formulation of local solutions. The main objective of those decentralization efforts has been directed towards regional economic efficiency and liberalization. Local governments are in effect the ones implementing China’s development agenda, playing a more active role in directing growth and interpreting and mediating social and environmental issues (Skinner et al. 2003), but also carrying a stronger responsibility in making that development more inclusive. Formulation and implementation of national policies – characterized by their gradual and experimental nature – continue to reaffirm the importance of the local input

The varying w spread spectrum effect for radio interferometric imaging

We study the impact of the spread spectrum effect in radio interferometry on the quality of image reconstruction. This spread spectrum effect will be induced by the wide field-of-view of forthcoming radio interferometric telescopes. The resulting chirp modulation improves the quality of reconstructed interferometric images by increasing the incoherence of the measurement and sparsity dictionaries. We extend previous studies of this effect to consider the more realistic setting where the chirp modulation varies for each visibility measurement made by the telescope. In these first preliminary results, we show that for this setting the quality of reconstruction improves significantly over the case without chirp modulation and achieves almost the reconstruction quality of the case of maximal, constant chirp modulation.Comment: 1 page, 1 figure, Proceedings of the Biomedical and Astronomical Signal Processing Frontiers (BASP) workshop 201

A development of logistics management models for the Space Transportation System

A new analytic queueing approach was described which relates stockage levels, repair level decisions, and the project network schedule of prelaunch operations directly to the probability distribution of the space transportation system launch delay. Finite source population and limited repair capability were additional factors included in this logistics management model developed specifically for STS maintenance requirements. Data presently available to support logistics decisions were based on a comparability study of heavy aircraft components. A two-phase program is recommended by which NASA would implement an integrated data collection system, assemble logistics data from previous STS flights, revise extant logistics planning and resource requirement parameters using Bayes-Lin techniques, and adjust for uncertainty surrounding logistics systems performance parameters. The implementation of these recommendations can be expected to deliver more cost-effective logistics support