Wisconsin: Round 1 - State Level Field Network Study of the Implementation of the Affordable Care Act

This report is part of a series of 21 state and regional studies examining the rollout of the ACA. The national network -- with 36 states and 61 researchers -- is led by the Rockefeller Institute of Government, the public policy research arm of the State University of New York, the Brookings Institution, and the Fels Institute of Government at the University of Pennsylvania.The drive to enroll consumers in private health insurance coverage has fostered new alignment among consumer advocates, insurance agents and brokers, community-based organizations, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, and the health care and insurance sectors. The unique policy position on Medicaid expansion in Wisconsin brings collaboration between those who support the ACA and those who may not support the ACA, but recognize that the governor's entitlement reform plan depends on effective outreach and enrollment into the federally facilitated marketplace. The limited federal funding available for outreach and enrollment has also required public/private partnerships and unlikely alliances. Wisconsin's decision against full Medicaid expansion and instead to cover all adults up to 100 percent of the FPL, but remove adults above that level, provides a boost for the commercial insurance sector. Nearly 80,000 adults will transfer from Medicaid to marketplace coverage and be sent to purchase subsidized coverage on the exchange

State v. Pinder, 375 So. 2d 836 (Fla. 1979)

Criminal Law-DOUBLE JEOPARDY-AN EXAMINATION OF SENTENCING IN FLORIDA FOR THE UNDERLYING FELONY IN A FELONY MURDER CASE AFTER Whalen v. United State

Elektromanipulation einzelner Polyelektrolytmoleküle

Grundlegend für die Entwicklung molekularer Werkzeuge ist es, Kontrolle über das Verhalten einzelner Moleküle zu erlangen. Ein Beispiel dafür ist das gezieltes An- und Abkoppeln ein-zelner Moleküle an Oberflächen, das eine Basis für eine Vielzahl von Anwendungen bietet. Im Rahmen dieser Arbeit wurde unter Verwendung der AFM- Einzelmolekülkraftspektroskopie untersucht, wie und unter welchen Umständen einzelne Polyelektrolytmoleküle an funkti-onalisierte oder unfunktionalisierte Oberflächen binden und es wurden Ansätze entwickelt, wie dieses Bindungsverhalten beeinflusst werden kann: ∑ Abhängig von den experimentellen Rahmenbedingungen und der Dissoziationskonstante der untersuchten Bindungen, kann die angelegte Kraftrate einen Einfluß auf die gemessene Abrisskraft haben. Ist dies der Fall, muss eine differenzierte Analyse der gemessenen Daten erfolgen. Im Rahmen dieser Arbeit wurden neue Ansätze entwickelt, die eine effiziente und aussagekräftige Datenanalyse über das gesamte Spektrum an messbaren Wechselwirkungen ermöglichen. ∑ Aufgrund ihrer vielfältigen Anwendungsmöglichkeit ist die Polyelektrolytadsorption an feste Substrate im Blickpunkt des Interesses, sowohl im akademischen als auch im industriellen Bereich. Bei der Adsorption von Polyelektrolytmolekülen an Oberflächen sind viele verschiedene Arten von nichtkovalenten Wechselwirkungen beteiligt. Auf der Basis von kraftspektroskopischen Untersuchungen auf unterschiedlichen Substraten wurden erstmals Ansätze entwickelt, die es erlauben, verschiedenste Arten von Wechselwirkungen zu identifizieren und zu charakterisieren. ∑ Extern angelegte elektrische Felder bieten eine Möglichkeit, direkt auf einzelne geladene Moleküle Einfluss zu nehmen. Um dieses Konzept zu realisieren, wurde ein ent-sprechender Aufbau entwickelt, der eine Kombination von Elektrochemie und Kraft-spektroskopie ermöglicht. Es konnte gezeigt werden, dass die Bindungsstärke von Polyelektrolyten an leitfähige Substrate über anziehende Potenziale verstärkt und über abstoßende Potenziale erniedrigt werden kann. Beim Anschalten anziehender Potenziale konnten individuelle Polyelektrolytmoleküle auch über größere Entfernungen ein-gefangen werden. Mittels an- und abstoßender Spannungspulse konnte erstmals gezeigt werden, dass einzelne Polyelektrolytmoleküle wiederholt an- und abgekoppelt werden können

Zur Bedeutung der Volkshochschule bei der Aneignung von Basisbildung im Erwachsenenalter

nicht angegebe

Development of a New Uniform File Format for Neuroscience Data Across the Globe

With about 1011 neurons and about 1015 synaptic connections the human brain is among the most complex biologic systems ever observed (Rautenberg, Sobolev et al. 2011). Technical progress is driving the volume of data collection to unknown heights. Unsurprisingly neuroscience is rapidly increasing its already extreme volumes of collected data (Schwarz, Lebedev et al. 2014). At the same time the discipline is lagging behind with tools and concepts needed to fully exploit the information contained in the overwhelming amount of data. Scientific progress depends more and more on collaboration, which in turn requires data sharing (Teeters, Godfrey et al., 2015). Neurophysiologic experiments are complex and diverse and the data are recorded in a multitude of different data formats. This lack of compatibility poses a major obstacle to efficient data sharing and collaboration (Breaking Down the Data Barriers in Neuroscience 2014). Neurodata without Borders (NWB) is a new initiative, which aims at overcoming these limitations by creating a new common file format, the NWB format, to facilitate data sharing across the individual labs. The objective of this thesis is to investigate how well this newly created file format is suited to become the new common standard within the research community of cell-based neurophysiology. To address this question we studied how well the NWB file format encodes the diversity of existing data in this field. Four carefully selected datasets served as model cases for the development and testing of the new file format. We investigated how diverse these datasets are and how well they represent the different data categories that the workgroup defined as essential for the field of cell-based neurophysiology. Furthermore, we determined the degree of standardization that the new file format achieves by studying the amount of empty fields and special custom fields needed to map the four datasets onto the NWB format. To further benchmark the NWB format we compared to existing file formats and studied if and how NWB overcomes the limitation of the other formats. Finally, we developed a metric to evaluate how well the NWB format fulfills the requirements for the new common file format, which were defined by the NWB workgroup. We hypothesize that the NWB format is suited to become the common file standard within the community of cell-based neurophysiology. The results of this study demonstrate how much the NWB file format has already achieved. However, due to the small size of test datasets and the resulting lack of diversity we reject our hypotheses at this point in time. More results are required to get clarity about the true potential of the NWB format and time will show if it will rise to become the universal data standard in the field of cell-based electrophysiology

Pulling adsorbed polymers from surfaces with the AFM: stick versus slip, peeling versus gliding

We consider the response of an adsorbed polymer that is pulled by an AFM within a simple geometric framework. We separately consider the cases of i) fixed polymer-surface contact point, ii) sticky case where the polymer is peeled off from the substrate, and iii) slippery case where the polymer glides over the surface. The resultant behavior depends on the value of the surface friction coefficient and the adsorption strength. Our resultant force profiles in principle allow to extract both from non-equilibrium force-spectroscopic data.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures; accepted for publication in Europhys. Lett., http://www.edpsciences.org/journal/index.cfm?edpsname=ep

Geo-Spatial Characteristics of 567 Places of Tick-Borne Encephalitis Infection in Southern Germany, 2018–2020

Tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) is a growing public health problem with increasing incidence and expanding risk areas. Improved prevention requires better understanding of the spatial distribution and ecological determinants of TBE transmission. However, a TBE risk map at sub-district level is still missing for Germany. We investigated the distribution and geo-spatial characteristics of 567 self-reported places of probable TBE infection (POI) from 359 cases notified in 2018–2020 in the study area of Bavaria and Baden-Wuerttemberg, compared to 41 confirmed TBE foci and 1701 random comparator places. We built an ecological niche model to interpolate TBE risk to the entire study area. POI were distributed heterogeneously at sub-district level, as predicted probabilities varied markedly across regions (range 0–93%). POI were spatially associated with abiotic, biotic, and anthropogenic geo-spatial characteristics, including summer precipitation, population density, and annual frost days. The model performed with 69% sensitivity and 63% specificity at an optimised probability threshold (0.28) and an area under the curve of 0.73. We observed high predictive probabilities in small-scale areas, consistent with the known circulation of the TBE virus in spatially restricted microfoci. Supported by further field work, our findings may help identify new TBE foci. Our fine-grained risk map could supplement targeted prevention in risk areas.Peer Reviewe

Estimates of Crowd-Out from a Public Health Insurance Expansion Using Administrative Data

We use a combination of administrative and survey data to estimate the fraction of individuals newly enrolled in public health coverage (Wisconsin’s combined Medicaid and CHIP program) that had access to private, employer-sponsored health insurance at the time of their enrollment and the fraction that dropped this coverage. We estimate that after expansion of eligibility for public coverage, approximately 20% of new enrollees had access to private health insurance at the time of enrollment and that only 8% dropped this coverage (with the remaining 12% having both private and public coverage). We also identify an “upper bound” estimate, which suggests that the percentage of new enrollees with private insurance coverage at the time of enrollment is, at most, 27%. These estimates of crowd-out are relatively low compared with estimates from the literature based on Medicaid and CHIP expansions, although based both on different data and on a different method.

Hidden multiple bond effects in dynamic force spectroscopy

In dynamic force spectroscopy, a (bio-)molecular complex is subjected to a steadily increasing force until the chemical bond breaks. Repeating the same experiment many times results in a broad distribution of rupture forces, whose quantitative interpretation represents a formidable theoretical challenge. In this study we address the situation that more than a single molecular bond is involved in one experimental run, giving rise to multiple rupture events which are even more difficult to analyze and thus are usually eliminated as far as possible from the further evaluation of the experimental data. We develop and numerically solve a detailed model of a complete dynamic force spectroscopy experiment including a possible clustering of molecules on the substrate surface, the formation of bonds, their dissociation under load, and the post processing of the force extension curves. We show that the data, remaining after elimination of obvious multiple rupture events, may still contain a considerable number of "hidden" multiple bonds, which are experimentally indistinguishable from "true" single bonds, but which have considerable effects on the resulting rupture force statistics and its consistent theoretical interpretation.Comment: 31 pages, 7 figure