The Effects of State Medicaid Policies on the Dynamic Savings Patterns of the Elderly

States have considerable flexibility in determining Medicaid policies such as financial eligibility criteria, subsidies for home- and community-based services, and reimbursements rates to skilled nursing facilities, among other things. An understanding of how differences in Medicaid programs across states and time affect the elderlys' demand for Medicaid coverage of long-term care is necessary for evaluating future changes in the Medicaid program structure. We use data from the 1993, 1995, 1998, and 2000 waves of the Asset and Health Dynamics of the Elderly and variation in state Medicaid policies over time to estimate our dynamic framework capturing the sequential asset and gift decisions that determine eligibility for Medicaid. We also model the long-term care decisions of married and single individuals conditional on endogenous insurance coverage and health transitions. To control for the impact of unobserved heterogeneity in all outcomes, the structural equations of the empirical model are estimated jointly, allowing for correlation in the error structure across equations and over time. In this paper we focus on the asset and gifting decisions of the elderly over time. We find that many of the Medicaid policy variables that differ across states have a significant but small effect on the savings decisions of the elderly, with single elderly individuals exhibiting more response than married elderly individuals.

State Employers Are Not Sovereign: By Analogy, Transfer the Market Participant Exception to the Dormant Commerce Clause to States as Employers

States should be treated as market participants and not be given sovereign immunity under the Eleventh Amendment when they are acting as private employers. Through an expansive reading of the Eleventh Amendment, the Supreme Court has restricted the right of state employees to sue under federal statutes intended to protect employees when the state is the employer and claims sovereign immunity. Under the market participant exception to the dormant Commerce Clause, if a state is acting as a market participant, rather than as a market regulator, it is no longer bound by the restraints of the Commerce Clause. The reasons states acting as employers should be treated as market participants rather than sovereigns are as persuasive as the arguments supporting the market participant exception. This doctrine should be transferred by analogy from its exclusive application in the dormant Commerce Clause context to include instances when states are acting as employers and thus, market participants. Traditionally, the market participant exception has worked to states\u27 benefit, allowing them to act in the same capacity as a private company without Commerce Clause concern. As an employer, a state is not acting in its regulatory capacity. Rather, it is acting as a private actor. Therefore, it should be treated as a market participant and should not be able to evade regulation by claiming sovereign immunity. If states are going to enjoy the same benefits as private employers, they ought to be subject to the same limits as well

The new sample of giant radio sources III. Statistical trends and correlations

In this paper we analyse whether `giant' radio galaxies (GRGs) differ from `normal'-size galaxies (NSGs) except for the linear extent of their radio structure. We compare a number of properties of GRGs with the corresponding properties of NSGs, and analyse the statistical trends and correlations of physical parameters, homogeneously determined for the sources, with their `fundamental' parameters. Using the Pearson partial-correlation test on the correlation between two variables in the presence of one or two other variables, we examine which correlation is the strongest. The analysis clearly shows that GRGs do not form a separate class of radio sources. They most likely evolve with time from smaller sources, however under specific circumstances. Analysing properties of GRGs and NSGs together, we find that (i) the core prominence does not correlate with the total radio luminosity (as does the core power), but it anti-correlates with the surface brightness of the lobes of sources, (ii) the energy density (and possibly the internal pressure) in the lobes is independent of redshift for constant radio luminosity and size of the sources, (iii) the equipartition magnetic-field strength, transformed into constant source luminosity and redshift, strongly correlates with the source size. We argue that this B_{eq} - D correlation reflects a more fundamental correlation between B_{eq} and the source age, (iv) both the rotation and depolarisation measures suggest Faraday screens local to the lobes of sources, however their geometry and the composition of intervening material cannot be determined from the global polarisation characteristics.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, 6 tables. Accepted for publication in A&

Soft Fruit Traceability in Food Matrices using Real-Time PCR

Food product authentication provides a means of monitoring and identifying products for consumer protection and regulatory compliance. There is a scarcity of analytical methods for confirming the identity of fruit pulp in products containing Soft Fruit. In the present work we have developed a very sensible qualitative and quantitative method to determine the presence of berry DNAs in different food matrices. To our knowledge, this is the first study that shows the applicability, to Soft Fruit traceability, of melting curve analysis and multiplexed fluorescent probes, in a Real-Time PCR platform. This methodology aims to protect the consumer from label misrepresentation

Skunk River Review 2010-11, vol 23

Welcome to the 2010-2011 edition of The Skunk River Review! As the new editor of this publication, I was excited to see the number of submissions and the overwhelming enthusiasm of the students. This year\u27s publication includes work from Composition I, Composition II, Literature, and College Resources courses. Whereas The Skunk River Review is academic work that begins in the classroom, it also reflects student\u27s interests. The essays are not edited for MLA format or general errors because the publication is used as a teaching tool in many classrooms.https://openspace.dmacc.edu/skunkriver/1002/thumbnail.jp

On the abundance of non-cometary HCN on Jupiter

Using one-dimensional thermochemical/photochemical kinetics and transport models, we examine the chemistry of nitrogen-bearing species in the Jovian troposphere in an attempt to explain the low observational upper limit for HCN. We track the dominant mechanisms for interconversion of N2-NH3 and HCN-NH3 in the deep, hightemperature troposphere and predict the rate-limiting step for the quenching of HCN at cooler tropospheric altitudes. Consistent with other investigations that were based solely on time-scale arguments, our models suggest that transport-induced quenching of thermochemically derived HCN leads to very small predicted mole fractions of hydrogen cyanide in Jupiter's upper troposphere. By the same token, photochemical production of HCN is ineffective in Jupiter's troposphere: CH4-NH3 coupling is inhibited by the physical separation of the CH4 photolysis region in the upper stratosphere from the NH3 photolysis and condensation region in the troposphere, and C2H2-NH3 coupling is inhibited by the low tropospheric abundance of C2H2. The upper limits from infrared and submillimeter observations can be used to place constraints on the production of HCN and other species from lightning and thundershock sources.Comment: 56 pages, 0 tables, 6 figures. Submitted to Faraday Discussions [in press

Characteristics of 263K Scrapie Agent in Multiple Hamster Species

Characteristics correlated better with host factors than with agent strain