Punishment of Health Care Fraud

Although the definition of health care fraud is only one of the numerous issues of concern to health law practitioners and health care providers, the language that defines the conduct in question is the foundation of all other concerns related to health care fraud. This Article will demonstrate the need for a narrowly construed definition of health care fraud. The Article begins by providing a scenario to explain how a situation involving potential health care fraud can arise in the delivery of health care services. The Article then addresses how health care fraud is defined through a discussion of the process of the applicable proceedings and the penalties that may result. The Article concludes by proposing a way to define health care fraud that will result in a system of sanctions that is equitable and proportional to the conduct committed by the health care provider

Investigation of risk factors for Echinococcus coproantigen positivity in dogs in the Alay valley, Kyrgyzstan

Echinococcosis caused by the zoonotic cestodes Echinococcus granulosus (sensu lato) and Echinococcus multilocularis is highly endemic in the Central Asian Republic of Kyrgyzstan, and is increasingly being identified as public health problem especially amongst pastoral communities. As domestic dogs are considered to be the main source of human infection in these communities, the identification of potential transmission pathways can be of use when considering implementing a control scheme for echinococcosis. The current report describes the results of an analytic study of canine echinococcosis (based on the results of coproantigen ELISA testing) in the Alay valley of southern Kyrgyzstan prior to the commencement of a praziquantel dosing scheme amongst dogs. A logistic regression model using a form of Bayes modal estimation was used to identify possible risk factors for coproantigen positivity, and the output was interpreted in a Bayesian context (posterior distributions of the coefficients of interest). The study found that sheepdogs had lower odds of coproantigen positivity, as did households with donkeys, some knowledge of echinococcosis, and which did not engage in home slaughtering. There was no evidence of an association between free roaming or previous praziquantel dosing and coproantigen positivity, as has been found in previous studies. Possible reasons for these findings are discussed and suggestions made for further work

The Secondhand Effects of College Drinking: The Need For Media Relations

Heavy episodic drinking can lead to significant harmful effects for the drinker and others. Rates of heavy alcohol use on college campuses have remained high, despite increased educational interventions. This study examines the coverage of the negative consequences of drinking among college students. This content analysis looks at coverage from1996-2006 in 32 major US newspapers. Of the total 255 articles, 209 covered at least one negative consequence of college drinking. Consequences were framed as individual in nature and did not acknowledge the impact on other individuals and institutions. Those related to damage to self were covered most often in newspapers from this time period, appearing in nearly every article that mentioned a negative consequence. Damage to others and damages to institutions were mentioned very infrequently. In addition, in 2006, damages to self outnumbered damages to others 4:1 and damages to institutions 10:1. While a range of negative consequences of heavy episodic drinking are covered, the most common harm covered is death, which is severe but highly unlikely. Coverage of more commonly occurring negative consequences were far less frequent. Coverage varied by region and was not consistent with where the greatest college drinking problems are found. The focus on individual harms and particularly those that are uncommon could lead readers to inaccurately perceive the issue as episodic and unrelated to environmental determinants. The study concludes that public relations and public health professionals can use media advocacy to work with the media to illuminate the secondhand impact of episodic drinking beyond those affecting the drinker

Evaluating the structure and magnitude of the ash plume during the initial phase of the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption using lidar observations and NAME simulations

The Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland erupted explosively on 14 April 2010, emitting a plume of ash into the atmosphere. The ash was transported from Iceland toward Europe where mostly cloud-free skies allowed ground-based lidars at Chilbolton in England and Leipzig in Germany to estimate the mass concentration in the ash cloud as it passed overhead. The UK Met Office's Numerical Atmospheric-dispersion Modeling Environment (NAME) has been used to simulate the evolution of the ash cloud from the Eyjafjallajökull volcano during the initial phase of the ash emissions, 14–16 April 2010. NAME captures the timing and sloped structure of the ash layer observed over Leipzig, close to the central axis of the ash cloud. Relatively small errors in the ash cloud position, probably caused by the cumulative effect of errors in the driving meteorology en route, result in a timing error at distances far from the central axis of the ash cloud. Taking the timing error into account, NAME is able to capture the sloped ash layer over the UK. Comparison of the lidar observations and NAME simulations has allowed an estimation of the plume height time series to be made. It is necessary to include in the model input the large variations in plume height in order to accurately predict the ash cloud structure at long range. Quantitative comparison with the mass concentrations at Leipzig and Chilbolton suggest that around 3% of the total emitted mass is transported as far as these sites by small (<100 μm diameter) ash particles

Current status of cystic echinococcosis control in the Falkland Islands: has elimination been achieved?

Attempts to control cystic echinococcosis (CE) caused by Echinococcus granulosus in the Falkland Islands have been ongoing for over 50 years. No human cases have been recorded since the 1980s but there is a need to establish if the parasite has been completely eliminated from domestic animals. A study was carried out in 2018/2019 to identify dogs infected with E. granulosus using copro-antigen and copro-polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis. In addition, annual slaughter data were analysed to establish infection levels of E. granulosus and 2 other taeniid parasites. Results showed that 4 out of 589 dogs (0.7%) tested positive by copro-antigen analysis. Results from similar surveys carried out in 2010, 2012 and 2014 showed 17 (3%), 0 and 6 (1%) copro-antigen-positive dogs, respectively, with 8 dogs being confirmed by PCR in 2010. Annual abattoir data showed that from 2006 to 2020, 36 sheep were identified with E. granulosus (mean 0.0055%), 14 186 sheep with Taenia hydatigena (mean 2.2%) and 465 with Taenia ovis (mean 0.072%). Prevalences of T. hydatigena and T. ovis showed spontaneous rises in certain years where the infections could also be detected in lambs indicating that viable taeniid eggs were present. Observations of farm management procedures indicated that there were occasions when dogs could get access to infective taeniid material. In conclusion, E. granulosus is still present in sheep and dogs but at low prevalences. The increasing presence of T. hydatigena however, indicates that control measures are defective in some areas and there is potential for a re-emergence of CE

Modelling the transport and deposition of ash following a magnitude 7 eruption: the distal Mazama tephra

Volcanic ash transport and dispersion models (VATDMs) are necessary for forecasting tephra dispersal during volcanic eruptions and are a useful tool for estimating the eruption source parameters (ESPs) of prehistoric eruptions. Here we use Ash3D, an Eulerian VATDM, to simulate the tephra deposition from the ~ 7.7 ka climactic eruption of Mount Mazama. We investigate how best to apply a VATDM using the ESPs characteristic of a large magnitude eruption (M ≥ 7). We simplify the approach to focus on the distal deposit as if it were formed by a single phase of Plinian activity. Our results demonstrate that it is possible to use modern wind profiles to simulate the tephra dispersal from a prehistoric eruption; however, this introduces an inherent uncertainty to the subsequent simulations where we explore different ESPs. We show, using the well-documented distal Mazama tephra, that lateral umbrella cloud spreading, rather than advection–diffusion alone, must be included in the VATDM to reproduce the width of the isopachs. In addition, the Ash3D particle size distribution must be modified to simulate the transport and deposition of distal fine-grained (< 125 µm) Mazama ash. With these modifications, the Ash3D simulations reproduce the thickness and grain size of the Mazama tephra deposit. Based on our simulations, however, we conclude that the exact relationship between mass eruption rate and the scale of umbrella cloud spreading remains unresolved. Furthermore, for ground-based grain size distributions to be input directly into Ash3D, further research is required into the atmospheric and particle processes that control the settling behaviour of fine volcanic ash