The Obamacare Opportunity: Implementing the Affordable Care Act to Improve Health, Reduce Hardship, and Grow the Economy for All Californians

This report describes how California can take advantage of ACA implementation to increase access both to health coverage and to vital safety net and work support programs.In Section I, we describe California's public benefit take up problem. We identify the take up rates of the key safety net and work support programs, barriers to greater participation, and the benefits of increasing participation in such programs.In Section II, we describe how ACA implementation can increase take up rates for health insurance and public benefit programs. States can expand integration infrastructure and operations across a broad range of programs and the federal government will pay most of the costs.In Section III, we set forth various policy options for integrating California's Marketplace with public benefit programs. We describe California's existing integration efforts and present ACA and non-ACA best practices from other states regarding take up strategies.In Section IV, we make recommendations focused on a single goal -- increasing the take up rate of safety net and work support programs to improve health, reduce hardship, and grow the economy for all Californians

Exploring acquired brain injury (ABI) clients' experience of receiving cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) delivered by trainees : a qualitative study

A recent systematic review suggests the effectiveness of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) with brain injury client groups has been inconclusive and limited (Cattelani, Zettin & Zoccolotti, 2010). Although CBT has beneficial results in many specific psychiatric disorders, the rates of positive outcomes for managing psychological difficulties in the acquired brain injury (ABI) client group are still not satisfactory. Mixed or negative results have been reported in the existing literature (Cattelani, Zettin & Zoccolotti, 2010). Indeed, recent literature has highlighted a need to further develop existing CBT approaches for clients with ABI (Wilson, 2011), to assist practitioners in overcoming potential challenges caused by the complexities faced in this field. This qualitative study explores ABI clients’ experiences of CBT to provide better understanding of what may produce a greater therapeutic alliance and positive outcome. Six participants with ABI were interviewed in a semi-structured format about their experiences of CBT. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was employed to develop an in-depth and coherent understanding of participants’ experiences. Three super-ordinate themes were identified namely, ‘Professional relationship’; ‘Understanding my struggles’; and ‘Acceptance’. Each super-ordinate theme was associated with three sub-themes. Findings of the present study highlight the essential elements for the effectiveness of CBT. These elements are the quality of the therapeutic relationship, the client’s willingness and readiness to engage in therapy, the adaptations needed in therapy to address the client’s limitations, and the need for a balanced focus between the behavioural and cognitive components employed in therapy. Furthermore, findings imply that process-based adaption is as important as technique-based adaption when delivering CBT to ABI clients, suggesting that the quality of therapeutic relationship and the process issues are both relevant to the therapeutic outcome

Early Detection of Near-Surface Void Defects in Concrete Pavement Using Drone Based Thermography and GPR Methods

The goal of this research is to evaluate the feasibility and the performance of using UAV-mounted infrared thermography (IRT) and ground penetration radar (GPR) to detect sub-surface voids caused by consolidation issues in concrete pavement. The motivation of the study is to identify the consolidation defects as early as the initial set of concrete to avoid having this problem in large pavement sections, which is costly and time consuming to repair. Using the two technologies in combination to detect subsurface voids in the concrete initial set stage is new and aims to take advantage of the strengths and minimize the limitations of each method. UAV-based IRT can cover large areas of the pavements in a short amount of time, while GPR can provide higher accuracy in locating the defects horizontally and vertically. Therefore, the combination of the two technologies can allow detection of small voids in large areas with improved confidence. In this project, both laboratory and field tests were conducted with both methods, and coring samples were used for validation of results. The results from multiple specimens and multiple experiments suggested that both technologies performed well in detecting the subsurface voids in the concrete pavement’s initial set stage. Despite some limitations discussed in the report, the outcomes of the project provided evidence that these technologies can be used separately or together on the field as efficient and economical quality control tools in concrete pavement construction

A Comparative Study of the Interaction of Different Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons on Different Types of Single Walled Carbon Nanotubes

A comparative study of the solubilising effect of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAHs) on single walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) produced by high pressure decomposition of carbon monoxide (HiPco) and the arc discharge (AD) method has been carried out with the aid of fluorescence and Raman spectroscopy. For this study, polyphenyl and polyacene PAHs of different lengths are used. From the study it has been found that the binding energy of PAHs with AD SWCNTs is the same as that with HiPco SWCNTs. Shorter PAHs molecules better solubilise SWCNTs and in general smaller diameter SWCNTs. Thus, given their smaller diameter profile, significantly larger amounts of HiPco SWCNTs are solubilised than AD SWCNTs

Demographic Assumptions

Hewitt Associates, in order to perform valuations on pension plans, must make certain demographic assumptions. The objective of this project was to choose statistical tests to analyze the accuracy of these assumptions, and to provide the sponsor with an automated tool to use on an ongoing basis. This MQP created a tool within Microsoft Excel that works with Hewitt\u27s current pension valuation software to analyze the statistical accuracy of Hewitt\u27s demographic assumptions. The analysis compares how well Hewitt\u27s expected demographic probabilities performed using exact confidence intervals and the calculation of p-values adjusted for False Discovery Rate. This tool flags assumptions that need to be reassessed and will aid Hewitt in improving the accuracy of their demographic assumption

Energy Monitoring for Compliance with the Merton Rule

Our team created a prototype system to monitor compliance with the Merton Rule, which mandates that buildings produce 10% of their energy from renewable energy sources. We developed and installed the prototype system at a new retail facility and retrieved energy information from a sensor connected to solar panels from a remote computer. We evaluated the use of the prototype system with other forms of renewable energy and analyzed the financial viability of the Merton Rule

Ab Initio Study of Molecular Interactions in Cellulose Iα

Biomass recalcitrance, the resistance of cellulosic biomass to degradation, is due in part to the stability of the hydrogen bond network and stacking forces between the polysaccharide chains in cellulose microfibers. The fragment molecular orbital (FMO) method at the correlated Møller-Plesset second order perturbation level of theory was used on a model of the crystalline cellulose Iα core with a total of 144 glucose units. These computations show that the intersheet chain interactions are stronger than the intrasheet chain interactions for the crystalline structure, while they are more similar to each other for a relaxed structure. An FMO chain pair interaction energy decomposition analysis for both the crystal and relaxed structures reveals an intricate interplay between electrostatic, dispersion, charge transfer, and exchange repulsion effects. The role of the primary alcohol groups in stabilizing the interchain hydrogen bond network in the inner sheet of the crystal and relaxed structures of cellulose Iα, where edge effects are absent, was analyzed. The maximum attractive intrasheet interaction is observed for the GT-TG residue pair with one intrasheet hydrogen bond, suggesting that the relative orientation of the residues is as important as the hydrogen bond network in strengthening the interaction between the residues

CVD-Grown CNTs on Basalt Fiber Surfaces for Multifunctional Composite Interphases

Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) is used as a method for the synthesis of carbon nanotubes (CNT) on substrates, most commonly pre-treated by a metal-catalyst. In this work, the capability of basalt fiber surfaces was investigated in order to stimulate catalyst-free growth of carbon nanotubes. We have carried out CVD experiments on unsized, sized, and NaOH-treated basalt fibers modified by growth temperature and a process gas mixture. Subsequently, we investigated the fiber surfaces by SEM, AFM, XPS and carried out single fiber tensile tests. Growth temperatures of 700 °C as well as 800 °C may induce CNT growth, but depending on the basalt fiber surface, the growth process was differently affected. The XPS results suggest surficial iron is not crucial for the CNT growth. We demonstrate that the formation of a corrosion shell is able to support CNT networks. However, our investigations do not expose distinctively the mechanisms by which unsized basalt fibers sometimes induce vertically aligned CNT carpets, isotropically arranged CNTs or no CNT growth. Considering data from the literature and our AFM results, it is assumed that the nano-roughness of surfaces could be a critical parameter for CNT growth. These findings will motivate the design of future experiments to discover the role of surface roughness as well as surface defects on the formation of hierarchical interphases

Early Detection of Near-Surface Void Defects in Concrete Pavement Using Drone Based Thermography and GPR Methods

The goal of this research is to evaluate the feasibility and the performance of using UAV-mounted infrared thermography (IRT) and ground penetration radar (GPR) to detect sub-surface voids caused by consolidation issues in concrete pavement. The motivation of the study is to identify the consolidation defects as early as the initial set of concrete to avoid having this problem in large pavement sections, which is costly and time consuming to repair. Using the two technologies in combination to detect subsurface voids in the concrete initial set stage is new and aims to take advantage of the strengths and minimize the limitations of each method. UAV-based IRT can cover large areas of the pavements in a short amount of time, while GPR can provide higher accuracy in locating the defects horizontally and vertically. Therefore, the combination of the two technologies can allow detection of small voids in large areas with improved confidence. In this project, both laboratory and field tests were conducted with both methods, and coring samples were used for validation of results. The results from multiple specimens and multiple experiments suggested that both technologies performed well in detecting the subsurface voids in the concrete pavement’s initial set stage. Despite some limitations discussed in the report, the outcomes of the project provided evidence that these technologies can be used separately or together on the field as efficient and economical quality control tools in concrete pavement construction