3,346 research outputs found
Delivering on the Promise: A State Guide to the Next Steps for Health Care Reform
Outlines recommendations and considerations for creating health insurance exchanges, lowering costs and improving quality, providing consumer protections, addressing reforms beyond the federal law, and offering state-level public options
Close range mini Uavs photogrammetry for architecture survey
The survey of historical façades contains several bottlenecks, mainly related to the geometrical structure, the decorative framework, the presence of natural or artificial obstacles, the environment limitations. Urban context presents additional restrictions, binding by ground acquisition activity and leading to building data loss. The integration of TLS and close-range photogrammetry allows to go over such stuff, not overcoming the shadows effect due to the ground point of view. In the last year the massive use of UAVs in survey activity has permitted to enlarge survey capabilities, reaching a deeper knowledge in the architecture analysis. In the meanwhile, several behaviour rules have been introduced in different countries, regulating the UAVs use in different field, strongly restricting their application in urban areas. Recently very small and light platforms have been presented, which can partially overcome these rules restrictions, opening to very interesting future scenarios. This article presents the application of one of these very small RPAS (less than 300 g), equipped with a low-cost camera, in a close range photogrammetric survey of an historical building façade in Bologna (Italy). The suggested analysis tries to point out the system accuracy and details acquisition capacity. The final aim of the paper is to validate the application of this new platform in an architectonic survey pipeline, widening the future application of close-range photogrammetry in the architecture acquisition process
Making the Grade: A Scorecard for State Health Insurance Exchanges
Assesses states' progress in creating exchanges and grades established exchanges on policies regarding governance and structure, negotiating power and ability to drive value, consumer experience, and stability, including protection from adverse selection
Building a Better Health Care Marketplace
Details issues for creating insurance exchanges, including accountability and transparency, power to negotiate, innovations in cost and quality, stability, consumer-friendly design, and coordination with public programs, with a focus on small businesses
Does the Quality of the Patient-Physician Relationship Moderate Predictors of Poor Adherence in Urban, Underserved and Vulnerable Patients with Chronic Illness?
Escalating prevalence rates and rising economic costs of chronic illnesses necessitate a better understanding of factors affecting patient adherence in the primary care setting. Despite technological advances and evidenced-based treatments, clinical outcomes are often poor. Data drawn from archival data of the “A Healthier You” wellness program designed to serve a predominately underserved population were examined to assess whether or not positive predictors of adherence could moderate the impact of negative predictors such as depression. Limitations of the study methodology precluded significant interpretations but suggested significant discrepancies between patient and physician perceptions of trust in the relationship and the satisfaction with medical services. Results supported trust and satisfaction as essential components of the patient-physician relationship construct
Cities and Energy Consumption: a Critical Review
The relationship between cities and energy consumption
has been of great interest for the scientific community
for over twenty years. Most of the energy consumption,
indeed, occurs in cities because of the high
concentration of human activities. Thus, cities are
responsible for a big share of carbon dioxide emissions
(CO2). However, the debate on this topic is still open,
mainly because of the heterogeneity of published
studies in the selection, definition and measurement of
the urban features influencing energy consumption and
CO2 emissions, as well as in the choice of the energy
sectors to be considered, in the territorial scale of
analysis, and in the geographical distribution of the
sample. Therefore, the goal of this research is to
systematize and compare the approach, methodology
and results of the relevant literature on the relationship
between cities and energy consumption over the last
twenty years. Furthermore, this critical review identifies
the knowledge gap between what is known and what is
still under debate and, based on that, it proposes a
conceptual framework that will help to outline a new
direction for future research and support local policy
makers in the definition of strategies and actions that
can effectively reduce urban energy use and CO2
emissions
Aspects of Land Take in the Metropolitan Area of Naples
Land take is a phenomenon of great concern
nowadays because of the large number of its negative
impacts regarding biological, economic and social
balance. In Italy, the development of urban and other
artificial land has been irreversibly transforming a nonrenewable
resource such as soil, regardless the almost
constant population rate, with different speed
depending of the region considered. The aim of this
paper is to analyze the phenomenon in the
metropolitan area of Naples, which is an area highly
affected by territorial aggression of human matrix. The
data used are both by the Institute for Environmental
Protection and Research (ISPRA) Report 2015 on the
usage of the land and by ISTAT relating to the
resident population up to the 1st of January 2015 and
the extension of land for agricultural use (Census
2010). The mathematical combination of this data
creates a new indicator that can be referred to as
“residual land”; this residual area is of great extension
with many different characteristics and it could
represent the area where the phenomenon of land
take most occurs. The identification, measurement and
analysis of “residual land” provide new insights on the
evolution of land take and this new indicator can
represent a critical element to work on to prevent
future land transformation and protect natural and
agricultural areas within the Italian context
Malleability of the self: electrophysiological correlates of the enfacement illusion
Self-face representation is fundamentally important for self-identity and self-consciousness. Given its role in preserving identity over time, self-face processing is considered as a robust and stable process. Yet, recent studies indicate that simple psychophysics manipulations may change how we process our own face. Specifically, experiencing tactile facial stimulation while seeing similar synchronous stimuli delivered to the face of another individual seen as in a mirror, induces 'enfacement' illusion, i.e. the subjective experience of ownership of the other’s face and a bias in attributing to the self, facial features of the other person. Here we recorded visual Event-Related Potentials elicited by the presentation of self, other and morphed faces during a self-other discrimination task performed immediately after participants received synchronous and control asynchronous Interpersonal Multisensory Stimulation (IMS). We found that self-face presentation after synchronous as compared to asynchronous stimulation significantly reduced the late positive potential (LPP; 450-750 ms), a reliable electrophysiological marker of self-identification processes. Additionally, enfacement cancelled out the differences in LPP amplitudes produced by self- and other-face during the control condition. These findings represent the first direct neurophysiological evidence that enfacement may affect self-face processing and pave the way to novel paradigms for exploring defective self-representation and self-other interactions
Skills traits and enterpreneurial competences: an applied study
Teniendo en cuenta que "el empresario no nace, sino se hace", la educaciĂłn empresarial es de gran importancia para el desarrollo y la formaciĂłn de los empresarios. Sin embargo, no se puede ignorar que ciertas caracterĂsticas, más que otras, parecen afectar a la voluntad de iniciar un negocio. En particular, estas variables son el locus de control, el compromiso, la auto-eficacia y la empleabilidad. De hecho, el interĂ©s que la psicologĂa muestra hacia el empresario está conectado con el desarrollo personal del individuo que "se compromete". La investigaciĂłn se llevĂł a cabo en Roma en una muestra de un centenar de empresarios y empresarios potenciales. Se demostrĂł que significativamente estas variables están presentes entre las personas que trabajan en la compañĂa romana que se ha analizado concretamente.Given that “entrepreneurs are not born but made”, entrepreneurship education is of great importance for the development and training of entrepreneurs. However, one cannot ignore that certain characteristics, more than others, seem to affect the will to start a business. In particular, these variables are locus of control, engagement, self-efficacy, and employability. In fact, the interest that psychology turns to entrepreneurship is connected to the personal development of the individual that “undertakes”. The research took place in Rome on a sample of one hundred entrepreneurs and potential entrepreneurs. It showed that these variables are significantly present among the people employed in the Roman company that has been specifically analyzed.peerReviewe
Glycans in nanomedicine, impact and perspectives
Glycans have been selected by nature for both structural and 'recognition' purposes. Taking inspiration from nature, nanomedicine exploits glycans not only as structural constituents of nanoparticles and nanostructured biomaterials but also as selective interactors of such glyco-nanotools. Surface glycosylation of nanoparticles finds application in targeting specific cells, whereas recent findings give evidence that the glycan content of cell microenvironment is able to induce the cell fate. This review will highlight the role of glycans in nanomedicine, schematizing the different uses and roles in drug-delivery systems and in biomaterials for regenerative medicine
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