Federalism and Health Policy

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Steady and delayed: explaining the different development of meta-ethnography in health care and education

Since its inception in the 1980s, the meta-ethnography approach for synthesising qualitative study accounts has been used extensively in health and social care research and to a lesser extent in educational research. The aim of this article is to reflect on the evolution of the method in both fields. It starts by describing the meta-ethnography approach, charts the rise of evidence-based research in health-related research, and explores the growth in the rate of published health-related meta-ethnographies. It proceeds by offering some explanation for the slower growth in the use of meta-ethnography in educational research. It explains this using the history of the early developments of qualitative approaches in Education and their underpinning paradigms. It then discusses key meta-ethnographies conducted in education, comparing those to more recent ones, in terms of methodological development. The article concludes by drawing lessons about how the conduct of meta-ethnography may be improved in any discipline

The Woolf reform of civil procedure: a possible end to legalese?

 The word « legalese » first appeared a hundred years ago to describe what was seen as the unintelligibility and verbosity of the English jargon used by lawyers. Under the influence of the Plain Language Movement, an effort was made to make legal words and writing more accessible to lay people, which culminated in the implementation ten years ago of the Woolf Reform in England and Wales. This movement is twofold i.e. aims at simplifying legal words or expressions as well as the drafting of sentences itself. Words such as ''writ'', ''garnishee order'' and ''ex parte'' are now respectively known as ''claim form'', ''third party debt order'' and ''without notice''. Legal writing itself has become more grammatically correct. Through the etymological study of a corpus of litigation related vocabulary and pleadings excerpts, we will try to demonstrate that the legal language and writing is very much influenced by its historical context, the cultural evolution of the legal profession and the development of legislation. Legal vocabulary and writing is not static and the current move towards legal precision and clarity should pursue its evolution in the future.&nbsp

Fulfilliing the needs of individuals in a group: a study of an early adolescent group of boys in a community setting

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston Universit

Leaf phenology amplitude derived from MODIS NDVI and EVI: maps of leaf phenology synchrony for Meso‐ and South America

The leaf phenology (i.e. the seasonality of leaf amount and leaf demography) of ecosystems can be characterized through the use of Earth observation data using a variety of different approaches. The most common approach is to derive time series of vegetation indices (VIs) which are related to the temporal evolution of FPAR, LAI and GPP or alternatively used to derive phenology metrics that quantify the growing season. The product presented here shows a map of average ‘amplitude’ (i.e. maximum minus minimum) of annual cycles observed in MODIS‐derived NDVI and EVI from 2000 to 2013 for Meso‐ and South America. It is a robust determination of the amplitude of annual cycles of vegetation greenness derived from a Lomb–Scargle spectral analysis of unevenly spaced data. VI time series pre‐processing was used to eliminate measurement outliers, and the outputs of the spectral analysis were screened for statistically significant annual signals. Amplitude maps provide an indication of net ecosystem phenology since the satellite observations integrate the greenness variations across the plant individuals within each pixel. The average amplitude values can be interpreted as indicating the degree to which the leaf life cycles of individual plants and species are synchronized. Areas without statistically significant annual variations in greenness may still consist of individuals that show a well‐defined annual leaf phenology. In such cases, the timing of the phenology events will vary strongly within the year between individuals. Alternatively, such areas may consist mainly of plants with leaf turnover strategies that maintain a constant canopy of leaves of different ages. Comparison with in situ observations confirms our interpretation of the average amplitude measure. VI amplitude interpreted as leaf life cycle synchrony can support model evaluation by informing on the likely leaf turn over rates and seasonal variation in ecosystem leaf age distribution

Policy opportunities

Recommendations are given regarding National Science Foundation (NSF) astronomy programs and the NASA Space Astrophysics program. The role of ground based astronomy is reviewed. The role of National Optical Astronomy Observatories (NOAO) in ground-based night-time astronomical research is discussed. An enhanced Explored Program, costs and management of small and moderate space programs, the role of astrophysics within NASA's space exploration initiative, suborbital and airborne astronomical research, the problems of the Hubble Space Telescope, and astronomy education are discussed. Also covered are policy issues related to the role of science advisory committees, international cooperation and competition, archiving and distribution of astronomical data, and multi-wavelength observations of variable sources

Mapping High-velocity H-alpha and Lyman-alpha Emission from Supernova 1987A

We present new {\it Hubble Space Telescope} images of high-velocity H-$\alpha$ and Lyman-$\alpha$ emission in the outer debris of SN~1987A. The H-$\alpha$ images are dominated by emission from hydrogen atoms crossing the reverse shock. For the first time we observe emission from the reverse shock surface well above and below the equatorial ring, suggesting a bipolar or conical structure perpendicular to the ring plane. Using the H$\alpha$ imaging, we measure the mass flux of hydrogen atoms crossing the reverse shock front, in the velocity intervals ($-$7,500~$<$~$V_{obs}$~$<$~$-$2,800 km s$^{-1}$) and (1,000~$<$~$V_{obs}$~$<$~7,500 km s$^{-1}$), $\dot{M_{H}}$ = 1.2~$\times$~10$^{-3}$ M$_{\odot}$ yr$^{-1}$. We also present the first Lyman-$\alpha$ imaging of the whole remnant and new $Chandra$ X-ray observations. Comparing the spatial distribution of the Lyman-$\alpha$ and X-ray emission, we observe that the majority of the high-velocity Lyman-$\alpha$ emission originates interior to the equatorial ring. The observed Lyman-$\alpha$/H-$\alpha$ photon ratio, $\langle$$R(L\alpha / H\alpha)$$\rangle$ $\approx$~17, is significantly higher than the theoretically predicted ratio of $\approx$ 5 for neutral atoms crossing the reverse shock front. We attribute this excess to Lyman-$\alpha$ emission produced by X-ray heating of the outer debris. The spatial orientation of the Lyman-$\alpha$ and X-ray emission suggests that X-ray heating of the outer debris is the dominant Lyman-$\alpha$ production mechanism in SN 1987A at this phase in its evolution.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures. ApJL - accepte

HST-COS Observations of Hydrogen, Helium, Carbon and Nitrogen Emission from the SN 1987A Reverse Shock

We present the most sensitive ultraviolet observations of Supernova 1987A to date. Imaging spectroscopy from the Hubble Space Telescope-Cosmic Origins Spectrograph shows many narrow (dv \sim 300 km/s) emission lines from the circumstellar ring, broad (dv \sim 10 -- 20 x 10^3 km/s) emission lines from the reverse shock, and ultraviolet continuum emission. The high signal-to-noise (> 40 per resolution element) broad LyA emission is excited by soft X-ray and EUV heating of mostly neutral gas in the circumstellar ring and outer supernova debris. The ultraviolet continuum at \lambda > 1350A can be explained by HI 2-photon emission from the same region. We confirm our earlier, tentative detection of NV \lambda 1240 emission from the reverse shock and we present the first detections of broad HeII \lambda1640, CIV \lambda1550, and NIV] \lambda1486 emission lines from the reverse shock. The helium abundance in the high-velocity material is He/H = 0.14 +/- 0.06. The NV/H-alpha line ratio requires partial ion-electron equilibration (T_{e}/T_{p} \approx 0.14 - 0.35). We find that the N/C abundance ratio in the gas crossing the reverse shock is significantly higher than that in the circumstellar ring, a result that may be attributed to chemical stratification in the outer envelope of the supernova progenitor. The N/C abundance ratio may have been stratified prior to the ring expulsion, or this result may indicate continued CNO processing in the progenitor subsequent to the expulsion of the circumstellar ring.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures. ApJ - accepte

Modeling H2 Fluorescence in Planetary Atmospheres with Partial Frequency Redistribution

We present the modeling of partial frequency redistribution (PRD) effects for the fluorescent emission lines of molecular hydrogen, the general computational approximations, and the applications to planetary atmospheres, as well as interstellar medium. Our model is applied to FUSE observations of Jupiter, Saturn, and reflection nebulae, allowing an independent confirmation of the H2 abundance and the structure of planetary atmospheres.Comment: To appear in Proc. Future Directions in Ultraviolet Spectroscopy, Annapolis, Oct. 20-22 200