No Time to Think: Policy, Pedagogy and Professional Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Leonard, Simon N.; Roberts, Philip

2016-01-01

In this study, we seek to illuminate the effects of the global policy convergence in education through a close study of its enactment within an Australian Teacher Education course. Building on an examination of the changing priorities of a cohort of pre-service teachers over a short space of time, we argue that the enactment of New Public…

Current state of seagrass ecosystem services: Research and policy integration

KAUST Repository

Ruiz-Frau, A.

2017-10-12

Seagrasses contribute to the maintenance of human wellbeing. However certain aspects of their role as ecosystem service (ES) providers remain understudied. Here, we synthesise the state of seagrass ES (SGES) research and policy implications. Additionally, we recommend ways in which SGES research can be integrated in to policy design, by drawing lessons from the case of Blue Carbon (BC). SGES research suffers from three main biases: a geographical bias, SGES has been restricted to chartered seagrass areas; a type of service research bias, provisioning and regulating services have received extensive attention while cultural services remain understudied; a type of discipline bias, the ecological aspects of SGES have been well documented while economic and social aspects remain in comparison understudied. These are particularly important, as an understanding of the social and economic considerations of the provision of ES is fundamental to facilitate its integration into policy frameworks. Lessons drawn from the operationalization process of BC show the reoccurrence of certain aspects that have enabled the integration of BC into policy. These aspects are grouped under 4 different categories. From the analysis of these elements we draw lessons that could facilitate the operationalization of other ecosystem services and their incorporation into management policy frameworks.

Energy, emissions and emergency medical services: Policy matters

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Brown, Lawrence H.; Blanchard, Ian E.

2012-01-01

Understanding the energy consumption and emissions associated with health services is important for minimizing their environmental impact and guiding their adaptation to a low-carbon economy. In this post-hoc analysis, we characterize the energy burden of North American emergency medical services (EMS) agencies and estimate the potential marginal damage costs arising from their emissions as an example of how and why health services matter in environmental and energy policy, and how and why environmental and energy policy matter to health services. We demonstrate EMS systems are energy intensive, and that vehicle fuels represent 80% of their energy burden while electricity and natural gas represent 20%. We also demonstrate that emissions from EMS operations represent only a small fraction of estimated health sector emissions, but for EMS systems in the United States the associated marginal damage costs are likely between $2.7 million and $9.7 million annually. Significant changes in the supply or price of energy, including changes that arise from environmental and energy policy initiatives designed to constrain fossil fuel consumption, could potentially affect EMS agencies and other health services. We encourage cross disciplinary research to proactively facilitate the health system's adaptation to a low-carbon economy. - Highlights: ► Estimated EMS-related emissions less than 1% of health sector emissions. ► Damage costs of U.S. EMS-related emissions estimated at $2.7 to $9.7 million. ► EMS energy burden is approximately 442 MJ per ambulance response. ► Approximately 80% of EMS energy burden is vehicle fuels. ► Energy supply, price and policy could impact EMS (and other health) services. ► Research needed to facilitate health services’ adaptation to a low carbon economy.

Policy-Making in Unemployment Services:

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Caswell, Dorte; Høybye-Mortensen, Matilde

The development of paternalist policies, such as the increase of punitive methods in welfare services, has been identified and analysed internationally (Mead, 1998; Soss et al., 2011a). The combination of these with an emphasis on instruments such as competition and performance measurement has be...... are categorised as having problems besides unemployment (Caswell et al., 2011)....

Servicom policy intervention: Improving service quality in Nigerian ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

In this case study we examine the raison d'être and implementation of a policy intervention, which was promulgated in 2005 for the purpose of eradicating inefficiency and corruption, and inculcating customer orientation in the Nigerian public sector. The policy goes by the acronym 'SERVICOM' -'service compact with all ...

3PAC: Enforcing Access Policies for Web Services

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Bemmel, J.; Wegdam, M.; Lagerberg, K.

Web Services fail to deliver on the promise of ubiquitous deployment and seamless interoperability due to the lack of a uniform, standards-based approach to all aspects of security. In particular, the enforcement of access policies in a Service Oriented Architecture is not addressed adequately. We

Telemedicine services in the Republic of Ireland: an evolving policy context.

Science.gov (United States)

MacFarlane, Anne; Murphy, Andrew William; Clerkin, Pauline

2006-05-01

The Republic of Ireland is characterised by few urban conurbations and a high rural population, including significant numbers of island dwellers. Information communication technologies (ICT), including telemedicine, present opportunities to address rural health-service delivery issues. As in other countries, the recent National Health Information Strategy is regarded as pivotal to the modernisation of the Irish health care system. There is, however, a dearth of research about telemedicine in Ireland. This paper reports, to the best of our knowledge, the first systematic review of telemedicine in the two regional health boards in the Republic of Ireland. Details of 11 telemedicine services, all initiated by local policy, will be presented. Results of an interview study with service providers about their experiences of the practices and processes involved in telemedicine service delivery are also provided. The focus of our analysis is two-fold. We assess the resonance of these Irish data with the international literature with particular reference to a recently developed model for the normalisation of telemedicine. For the first time, this model which was developed in the United Kingdom is applied to a fresh set of empirical data in a different health care context. We then discuss a number of health information policy issues for Ireland and elsewhere arising from our analysis.

Negotiated complexity in ecostystem services science and policy making

OpenAIRE

Keune, Hans; Dendoncker, Nicolas

2014-01-01

Abstract: Its a long way from scientific knowledge to concrete policy action. Along the way many decisions have to be made. A lot of these decisions relate to setting priorities. With regard to policy uptake of scientific knowledge on ecosystem services, the need for an integrated decision-making framework is crucial. Framing complexity is a crucial aspect of any ecosystem services approach: How do we deal with ecological and social complexity? The complexity to be taken into account and the ...

Tax administration as health policy: hospitals, the Internal Revenue Service, and the courts.

Science.gov (United States)

Fox, D M; Schaffer, D C

1991-01-01

Since 1969 federal tax policy has permitted nonprofit hospitals to turn away indigent patients or to transfer them to public hospitals. The Internal Revenue Service made health policy, but its officials remain convinced that they were not making policy at all. Convinced that it was reasoning from legal principles, the Revenue Service accepted the hospital industry's view of the history and purpose of hospitals. The federal courts further obscured the problem. Moreover, the Revenue Service took no interest in the effects of its ruling on the services provided by tax-exempt hospitals until 1989. We describe these events and seek to explain them by linking the recent history of health policy to the assumptions that govern the making of tax policy. We conclude that the making of health policy by tax officials who are not accountable for it and who believe that they are not making policy at all is not in the public interest.

Efficient Web Services Policy Combination

Science.gov (United States)

Vatan, Farrokh; Harman, Joseph G.

2010-01-01

Large-scale Web security systems usually involve cooperation between domains with non-identical policies. The network management and Web communication software used by the different organizations presents a stumbling block. Many of the tools used by the various divisions do not have the ability to communicate network management data with each other. At best, this means that manual human intervention into the communication protocols used at various network routers and endpoints is required. Developing practical, sound, and automated ways to compose policies to bridge these differences is a long-standing problem. One of the key subtleties is the need to deal with inconsistencies and defaults where one organization proposes a rule on a particular feature, and another has a different rule or expresses no rule. A general approach is to assign priorities to rules and observe the rules with the highest priorities when there are conflicts. The present methods have inherent inefficiency, which heavily restrict their practical applications. A new, efficient algorithm combines policies utilized for Web services. The method is based on an algorithm that allows an automatic and scalable composition of security policies between multiple organizations. It is based on defeasible policy composition, a promising approach for finding conflicts and resolving priorities between rules. In the general case, policy negotiation is an intractable problem. A promising method, suggested in the literature, is when policies are represented in defeasible logic, and composition is based on rules for non-monotonic inference. In this system, policy writers construct metapolicies describing both the policy that they wish to enforce and annotations describing their composition preferences. These annotations can indicate whether certain policy assertions are required by the policy writer or, if not, under what circumstances the policy writer is willing to compromise and allow other assertions to take

Understanding and benchmarking health service achievement of policy goals for chronic disease

Science.gov (United States)

2012-01-01

Background Key challenges in benchmarking health service achievement of policy goals in areas such as chronic disease are: 1) developing indicators and understanding how policy goals might work as indicators of service performance; 2) developing methods for economically collecting and reporting stakeholder perceptions; 3) combining and sharing data about the performance of organizations; 4) interpreting outcome measures; 5) obtaining actionable benchmarking information. This study aimed to explore how a new Boolean-based small-N method from the social sciences—Qualitative Comparative Analysis or QCA—could contribute to meeting these internationally shared challenges. Methods A ‘multi-value QCA’ (MVQCA) analysis was conducted of data from 24 senior staff at 17 randomly selected services for chronic disease, who provided perceptions of 1) whether government health services were improving their achievement of a set of statewide policy goals for chronic disease and 2) the efficacy of state health office actions in influencing this improvement. The analysis produced summaries of configurations of perceived service improvements. Results Most respondents observed improvements in most areas but uniformly good improvements across services were not perceived as happening (regardless of whether respondents identified a state health office contribution to that improvement). The sentinel policy goal of using evidence to develop service practice was not achieved at all in four services and appears to be reliant on other kinds of service improvements happening. Conclusions The QCA method suggested theoretically plausible findings and an approach that with further development could help meet the five benchmarking challenges. In particular, it suggests that achievement of one policy goal may be reliant on achievement of another goal in complex ways that the literature has not yet fully accommodated but which could help prioritize policy goals. The weaknesses of QCA can be

Granting authority to a new policy. A community benefit services policy becomes part of the general business strategy.

Science.gov (United States)

Karibo, J

1994-05-01

Bon Secours Health System's new strategic plan and community benefit services policy integrates the planning, budgeting, evaluating, and reporting of community benefit services into management processes at the same level of authority as other operational activities. The strategic plan of Bon Secours Health System, headquartered in Marriottsville, MD, documents the system's mission, operating principles, vision, and five goals, one of which is to improve the communities' health status. The community benefit services operating policy requires that the Bon Secours Health System chief executive officer (CEO) and each local system CEO and nursing home administrator form a multidisciplinary local work group to be responsible for community benefit services. Each local work group assesses the needs of its community within the framework of the annual planning process. Determining what services are needed and how to deliver them is relatively easy. The difficult task is determining which of the many needs to address. What a community lacks may be the result of poor or inadequate public policy. For example, its priority may not be healthcare. In these situations healthcare providers may be best able to serve the community by providing indirect support to social service providers or by advocating for change. The community benefit services operating policy provides a standard approach to match the community's priority needs with the institution's resources and produce a measurable improvement in health status.

Service contract of Renault Kerax 440 truck with deductible and policy limit coverage modification

Science.gov (United States)

Bustami, Pasaribu, Udjianna. S.; Husniah, Hennie

2016-02-01

In this paper we discuss a service contracts with coverage modification that only offer preventive maintenance and corrective maintenance for Renault Kerax 440 Truck by service contract provider. Corrective maintenance costs is modified with deductible and policy limit during the period of the service contract. Demand for a service contract is only influenced by the price of the service contract, deductible, and policy limit offered by producer to consumer. The main problem in this thesis is determining the price of a service contract, deductible, and policy limit to get maximum profit for producer for each of service contract.

Advancing LGBT Elder Policy and Support Services: The Massachusetts Model.

Science.gov (United States)

Krinsky, Lisa; Cahill, Sean R

2017-12-01

The Massachusetts-based LGBT Aging Project has trained elder service providers in affirming and culturally competent care for LGBT older adults, supported development of LGBT-friendly meal programs, and advanced LGBT equality under aging policy. Working across sectors, this innovative model launched the country's first statewide Legislative Commission on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Aging. Advocates are working with policymakers to implement key recommendations, including cultural competency training and data collection in statewide networks of elder services. The LGBT Aging Project's success provides a template for improving services and policy for LGBT older adults throughout the country.

Optimal Guaranteed Service Time and Service Level Decision with Time and Service Level Sensitive Demand

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sangjun Park

2014-01-01

Full Text Available We consider a two-stage supply chain with one supplier and one retailer. The retailer sells a product to customer and the supplier provides a product in a make-to-order mode. In this case, the supplier’s decisions on service time and service level and the retailer’s decision on retail price have effects on customer demand. We develop optimization models to determine the optimal retail price, the optimal guaranteed service time, the optimal service level, and the optimal capacity to maximize the expected profit of the whole supply chain. The results of numerical experiments show that it is more profitable to determine the optimal price, the optimal guaranteed service time, and the optimal service level simultaneously and the proposed model is more profitable in service level sensitive market.

Time dependent policy-based access control

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Vasilikos, Panagiotis; Nielson, Flemming; Nielson, Hanne Riis

2017-01-01

also on other attributes of the environment such as the time. In this paper, we use systems of Timed Automata to model distributed systems and we present a logic in which one can express time-dependent policies for access control. We show how a fragment of our logic can be reduced to a logic......Access control policies are essential to determine who is allowed to access data in a system without compromising the data's security. However, applications inside a distributed environment may require those policies to be dependent on the actual content of the data, the flow of information, while...... that current model checkers for Timed Automata such as UPPAAL can handle and we present a translator that performs this reduction. We then use our translator and UPPAAL to enforce time-dependent policy-based access control on an example application from the aerospace industry....

Model projections and policy reviews for energy saving in China's service sector

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang, Lin

2013-01-01

Energy efficiency of buildings in the service sector is becoming increasingly important in China due to the structural shift of the economy from industry to services. This paper employs a bottom-up cohort model to simulate current energy saving policies and to make projections for future energy use and CO 2 emissions for the period 2000–2030 in the Chinese service sector. The analysis shows that energy demand in the service sector will approximately triple in 2030, far beyond the target of quadrupling GDP while only doubling energy use. However, it is feasible to achieve the target of emission reduction by 40% in 2020 even under the poor state of compliance rate of building standard. This paper also highlights four crucial aspects of designing optimal energy saving policies for China's service sector based on the model results. - Highlights: • Government energy saving target cannot realize with current policies in services. • Energy savings policies for new buildings are crucial than building retrofitting. • Cooling energy use increases significantly to reach equal weight as heating. • CO 2 tax can contribute to change in fuel mix, and thus emission reductions. • Low compliance rate limits further energy saving, hence green fund is required

Ecosystem services from a degraded peatland of Central Kalimantan: implications for policy, planning, and management.

Science.gov (United States)

Law, Elizabeth A; Bryan, Bretr A; Meijaard, Erik; Mallawaarachchi, Thilak; Struebig, Matthew; Wilson, Kerrie A

2015-01-01

Increasingly, landscapes are managed for multiple objectives to balance social, economic, and environmental goals. The Ex-Mega Rice Project (EMRP) peatland in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia provides a timely example with globally significant development, carbon, and biodiversity concerns. To inform future policy, planning, and management in the EMRP, we quantified and mapped ecosystem service values, assessed their spatial interactions, and evaluated the potential provision of ecosystem services under future land-use scenarios. We focus on key policy-relevant regulating (carbon stocks and the potential for emissions reduction), provisioning (timber, crops from smallholder agriculture, palm oil), and supporting (biodiversity) services. We found that implementation of existing land-use plans has the potential to improve total ecosystem service provision. We identify a number of significant inefficiencies, trade-offs, and unintended outcomes that may arise. For example, the potential development of existing palm oil concessions over one-third of the region may shift smallholder agriculture into low-productivity regions and substantially impact carbon and biodiversity outcomes. While improved management of conservation zones may enhance the protection of carbon stocks, not all biodiversity features will be represented, and there will be a reduction in timber harvesting and agricultural production. This study highlights how ecosystem service analyses can be structured to better inform policy, planning, and management in globally significant but data-poor regions.

Challenges in implementing individual placement and support in the Australian mental health service and policy context.

Science.gov (United States)

Stirling, Yolande; Higgins, Kate; Petrakis, Melissa

2018-02-01

Objective Although Australia's service and policy context differs from that of the US, studies have highlighted potential for individual placement and support (IPS) to support competitive employment outcomes for people with severe and persistent mental illness. The aim of the present study was to explore why the model is not yet widely available. Methods A document analysis was conducted to discern reasons for challenges in implementation of IPS practice principles within the Australian service context. Results The document analysis illustrated that although policy acknowledges the importance of increasing employment rates for people with severe and persistent mental illness, consistent measures, change indicators, direction and time frames are lacking in policy and strategy documentation. Further, IPS principles are not consistently evident in guiding operational documentation that government-funded Disability Employment Services (DES) programs are mandated to adhere to. Conclusions For IPS to be readily implemented, it is necessary for government to offer support to agencies to partner and formal endorsement of the model as a preferred approach in tendering processes. Obligations and processes must be reviewed to ensure that model fidelity is achievable within the Australian Commonwealth policy and service context for programs to achieve competitive employment rates comparable to the most successful international programs. What is known about the topic? The IPS model has been established as the most efficacious approach to support people with severe and persistent mental ill health to gain and sustain employment internationally, yet little is known as to why this model has had very limited uptake in the Australian adult mental health service and policy context. What does this paper add? This paper provides an investigation into the achievability of IPS within DES philosophical and contractual arrangements. What are the implications for practitioners? Mental

Mapping and modelling ecosystem services for science, policy and practice

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Burkhard, B.; Crossman, N.; Nedkov, S.; Petz, K.; Alkemade, R.

2013-01-01

Ecosystem services are a significant research and policy topic and there are many modelling and mapping approaches aimed at understanding the stocks, demands and flows of ecosystem services on different spatial and temporal scales. The integration of geo-biophysical processes and structure

Abortion law, policy and services in India: a critical review.

Science.gov (United States)

Hirve, Siddhivinayak S

2004-11-01

Despite 30 years of liberal legislation, the majority of women in India still lack access to safe abortion care. This paper critically reviews the history of abortion law and policy in India since the 1960s and research on abortion service delivery. Amendments in 2002 and 2003 to the 1971 Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, including devolution of regulation of abortion services to the district level, punitive measures to deter provision of unsafe abortions, rationalisation of physical requirements for facilities to provide early abortion, and approval of medical abortion, have all aimed to expand safe services. Proposed amendments to the MTP Act to prevent sex-selective abortions would have been unethical and violated confidentiality, and were not taken forward. Continuing problems include poor regulation of both public and private sector services, a physician-only policy that excludes mid-level providers and low registration of rural compared to urban clinics; all restrict access. Poor awareness of the law, unnecessary spousal consent requirements, contraceptive targets linked to abortion, and informal and high fees also serve as barriers. Training more providers, simplifying registration procedures, de-linking clinic and provider approval, and linking policy with up-to-date technology, research and good clinical practice are some immediate measures needed to improve women's access to safe abortion care.

Counseling, Psychological, and Social Services Staffing: Policies in U.S. School Districts.

Science.gov (United States)

Brener, Nancy; Demissie, Zewditu

2018-06-01

Schools are in a unique position to meet the mental and behavioral health needs of children and adolescents because approximately 95% of young people aged 7-17 years attend school. Little is known, however, about policies related to counseling, psychological, and social services staffing in school districts. This study analyzed the prevalence of such policies in public school districts in the U.S. Data from four cycles (2000, 2006, 2012, and 2016) of the School Health Policies and Practices Study, a national survey periodically conducted to assess policies and practices for ten components of school health, were analyzed in 2017. The survey collected data related to counseling, psychological, and social services among nationally representative samples of school districts using online or mailed questionnaires. Sampled districts identified respondents responsible for or most knowledgeable about the content of each questionnaire. The percentage of districts with a district-level counseling, psychological, and social services coordinator increased significantly from 62.6% in 2000 to 79.5% in 2016. In 2016, 56.3% of districts required each school to have someone to coordinate counseling, psychological, and social services at the school. Fewer districts required schools at each level to have a specified ratio of counselors to students (16.2% for elementary schools, 16.8% for middle schools, and 19.8% for high schools), and the percentage of districts with these requirements has decreased significantly since 2012. Increases in the prevalence of district-level staffing policies could help increase the quantity and quality of counseling, psychological, and social services staff in schools nationwide, which in turn could improve mental and behavioral health outcomes for students. This article is part of a supplement entitled The Behavioral Health Workforce: Planning, Practice, and Preparation, which is sponsored by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration

An Item Bank to Measure Systems, Services, and Policies: Environmental Factors Affecting People With Disabilities.

Science.gov (United States)

Lai, Jin-Shei; Hammel, Joy; Jerousek, Sara; Goldsmith, Arielle; Miskovic, Ana; Baum, Carolyn; Wong, Alex W; Dashner, Jessica; Heinemann, Allen W

2016-12-01

To develop a measure of perceived systems, services, and policies facilitators (see Chapter 5 of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health) for people with neurologic disabilities and to evaluate the effect of perceived systems, services, and policies facilitators on health-related quality of life. Qualitative approaches to develop and refine items. Confirmatory factor analysis including 1-factor confirmatory factor analysis and bifactor analysis to evaluate unidimensionality of items. Rasch analysis to identify misfitting items. Correlational and analysis of variance methods to evaluate construct validity. Community-dwelling individuals participated in telephone interviews or traveled to the academic medical centers where this research took place. Participants (N=571) had a diagnosis of spinal cord injury, stroke, or traumatic brain injury. They were 18 years or older and English speaking. Not applicable. An item bank to evaluate environmental access and support levels of services, systems, and policies for people with disabilities. We identified a general factor defined as "access and support levels of the services, systems, and policies at the level of community living" and 3 local factors defined as "health services," "community living," and "community resources." The systems, services, and policies measure correlated moderately with participation measures: Community Participation Indicators (CPI) - Involvement, CPI - Control over Participation, Quality of Life in Neurological Disorders - Ability to Participate, Quality of Life in Neurological Disorders - Satisfaction with Role Participation, Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) Ability to Participate, PROMIS Satisfaction with Role Participation, and PROMIS Isolation. The measure of systems, services, and policies facilitators contains items pertaining to health services, community living, and community resources. Investigators and clinicians can measure

THE IMPLICATION OF PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS BELIEF ABOUT GRAMMAR TEACHING AND LEARNING FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE POLICY IN INDONESIA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cecilia Titiek Murniati

2016-07-01

Full Text Available Recent studies have suggested that teachers beliefs have a significant influence on actual classroom practice and, consequently, on students achievements. However, little research has been done to investigate the influence of Indonesian language policy and teachers beliefs. The study reported seeks to examine the influence of English language policy on pre-service teacher's beliefs about the teaching of English language grammar in Indonesian schools. The research participants were pre-service teachers who have taken the subjects of Structure, Teaching Methods, and Micro-teaching in three public and private universities in Central Java and Yogyakarta Special District. Due to time and scheduling limitations, the sampling method used in this study was convenient sampling. Documentation, survey schedules, interviews, focus group discussions were used to gather the data. The findings revealed that although the language policy in Indonesia has put English language teaching and learning within the framework of communicative competence since the enactment of the 2006 School-based Curriculum, the pre-service teachers still believed that traditional method of teaching grammar (explicit grammar instruction was imperative to use. The pre-service teachers tended to exclude English language policy enacted by Indonesian government in their discussion about teachers beliefs. Instead, the pre-service teachers constructed their beliefs about English language grammar teaching and learning process on their prior experiences in learning and teaching grammar.

Government food service policies and guidelines do not create healthy school canteens.

Science.gov (United States)

de Silva-Sanigorski, Andrea; Breheny, Tara; Jones, Laura; Lacy, Kathleen; Kremer, Peter; Carpenter, Lauren; Bolton, Kristy; Prosser, Lauren; Gibbs, Lisa; Waters, Elizabeth; Swinburn, Boyd

2011-04-01

In 2006, the Victorian Government adopted the School Canteens and other school Food Services (SCFS) Policy that bans the sale of sweet drinks and confectionary and recommends the proportions of menu items based on a traffic light system of food classification. This study aims to determine whether compliance with the policy improves the nutritional profile of the menus. Items from food service menus were assessed for compliance with the SCFS policy and categorised as 'everyday' ('green'), 'select carefully' ('amber') or 'occasionally' ('red') (n=106). Profile analysis assessed differences in the nutritional profile of the menus between sub-groups. Overall, 37% of menus contained items banned under the policy. The largest proportion of items on the assessed menus were from the 'amber' category (mean: 51.0%), followed by 'red' (29.3%) and 'green' (20.3%). No menus met the traffic light-based recommendations and there was no relationship between policy compliance and the proportion of items in each of the three categories. To increase the healthiness of the school food service we recommend a greater investment in resources and infrastructure to implement existing policies, and establishing stronger monitoring and support systems. © 2011 The Authors. ANZJPH © 2011 Public Health Association of Australia.

Public policy and regulatory implications for the implementation of Opportunistic Cloud Computing Services for Enterprises

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kuada, Eric; Olesen, Henning; Henten, Anders

2012-01-01

Opportunistic Cloud Computing Services (OCCS) is a social network approach to the provisioning and management of cloud computing services for enterprises. This paper discusses how public policy and regulations will impact on OCCS implementation. We rely on documented publicly available government...... and corporate policies on the adoption of cloud computing services and deduce the impact of these policies on their adoption of opportunistic cloud computing services. We conclude that there are regulatory challenges on data protection that raises issues for cloud computing adoption in general; and the lack...... of a single globally accepted data protection standard poses some challenges for very successful implementation of OCCS for companies. However, the direction of current public and corporate policies on cloud computing make a good case for them to try out opportunistic cloud computing services....

Food Service Guideline Policies on State Government-Controlled Properties.

Science.gov (United States)

Zaganjor, Hatidza; Bishop Kendrick, Katherine; Warnock, Amy Lowry; Onufrak, Stephen; Whitsel, Laurie P; Ralston Aoki, Julie; Kimmons, Joel

2016-09-13

Food service guideline (FSG) policies can impact millions of daily meals sold or provided to government employees, patrons, and institutionalized persons. This study describes a classification tool to assess FSG policy attributes and uses it to rate FSG policies. Quantitative content analysis. State government facilities in the United States. Participants were from 50 states and District of Columbia in the United States. Frequency of FSG policies and percentage alignment to tool. State-level policies were identified using legal research databases to assess bills, statutes, regulations, and executive orders proposed or adopted by December 31, 2014. Full-text reviews were conducted to determine inclusion. Included policies were analyzed to assess attributes related to nutrition, behavioral supports, and implementation guidance. A total of 31 policies met the inclusion criteria; 15 were adopted. Overall alignment ranged from 0% to 86%, and only 10 policies aligned with a majority of the FSG policy attributes. Western states had the most FSG policies proposed or adopted (11 policies). The greatest number of FSG policies were proposed or adopted (8 policies) in 2011, followed by the years 2013 and 2014. The FSG policies proposed or adopted through 2014 that intended to improve the food and beverage environment on state government property vary considerably in their content. This analysis offers baseline data on the FSG landscape and information for future FSG policy assessments. © The Author(s) 2016.

Food Service Guideline Policies on State Government Controlled Properties

Science.gov (United States)

Zaganjor, Hatidza; Bishop Kendrick, Katherine; Warnock, Amy Lowry; Onufrak, Stephen; Whitsel, Laurie P.; Ralston Aoki, Julie; Kimmons, Joel

2017-01-01

Purpose Food service guidelines (FSG) policies can impact millions of daily meals sold or provided to government employees, patrons, and institutionalized persons. This study describes a classification tool to assess FSG policy attributes and uses it to rate FSG policies. Design Quantitative content analysis. Setting State government facilities in the U.S. Subjects 50 states and District of Columbia. Measures Frequency of FSG policies and percent alignment to tool. Analysis State-level policies were identified using legal research databases to assess bills, statutes, regulations, and executive orders proposed or adopted by December 31, 2014. Full-text reviews were conducted to determine inclusion. Included policies were analyzed to assess attributes related to nutrition, behavioral supports, and implementation guidance. Results A total of 31 policies met inclusion criteria; 15 were adopted. Overall alignment ranged from 0% to 86%, and only 10 policies aligned with a majority of FSG policy attributes. Western States had the most FSG policy proposed or adopted (11 policies). The greatest number of FSG policies were proposed or adopted (8 policies) in 2011, followed by the years 2013 and 2014. Conclusion FSG policies proposed or adopted through 2014 that intended to improve the food and beverage environment on state government property vary considerably in their content. This analysis offers baseline data on the FSG landscape and information for future FSG policy assessments. PMID:27630113

Analysis of an M[X]/(G1,G2/1 retrial queueing system with balking, optional re-service under modified vacation policy and service interruption

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

P. Rajadurai

2014-09-01

Full Text Available This paper deals with the steady state analysis of batch arrival retrial queueing system with two types of service under modified vacation policy, where each type consists of an optional re-service. An arriving batch may balk the system at some particular times. After the completion of each types of service the customers may re-service of the same type without joining the orbit or may leave the system. If the orbit is empty at the service completion of each types of service, the server takes at most J vacations until at least one customer is received in the orbit when the server returns from a vacation. Busy server may breakdown at any instance and the service channel will fail for a short interval of time. The steady state probability generating function for system/orbit size is obtained by using the supplementary variable method. Some system performance measures and numerical illustrations are discussed.

Trade-offs across space, time, and ecosystem services

Science.gov (United States)

Rodriguez, J.P.; Beard, T.D.; Bennett, E.M.; Cumming, Graeme S.; Cork, S.J.; Agard, J.; Dobson, A.P.; Peterson, G.D.

2006-01-01

Ecosystem service (ES) trade-offs arise from management choices made by humans, which can change the type, magnitude, and relative mix of services provided by ecosystems. Trade-offs occur when the provision of one ES is reduced as a consequence of increased use of another ES. In some cases, a trade-off may be an explicit choice; but in others, trade-offs arise without premeditation or even awareness that they are taking place. Trade-offs in ES can be classified along three axes: spatial scale, temporal scale, and reversibility. Spatial scale refers to whether the effects of the trade-off are felt locally or at a distant location. Temporal scale refers to whether the effects take place relatively rapidly or slowly. Reversibility expresses the likelihood that the perturbed ES may return to its original state if the perturbation ceases. Across all four Millennium Ecosystem Assessment scenarios and selected case study examples, trade-off decisions show a preference for provisioning, regulating, or cultural services (in that order). Supporting services are more likely to be "taken for granted." Cultural ES are almost entirely unquantified in scenario modeling; therefore, the calculated model results do not fully capture losses of these services that occur in the scenarios. The quantitative scenario models primarily capture the services that are perceived by society as more important - provisioning and regulating ecosystem services - and thus do not fully capture trade-offs of cultural and supporting services. Successful management policies will be those that incorporate lessons learned from prior decisions into future management actions. Managers should complement their actions with monitoring programs that, in addition to monitoring the short-term provisions of services, also monitor the long-term evolution of slowly changing variables. Policies can then be developed to take into account ES trade-offs at multiple spatial and temporal scales. Successful strategies will

Trade-offs across Space, Time, and Ecosystem Services

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jon Paul. Rodríguez

2006-06-01

Full Text Available Ecosystem service (ES trade-offs arise from management choices made by humans, which can change the type, magnitude, and relative mix of services provided by ecosystems. Trade-offs occur when the provision of one ES is reduced as a consequence of increased use of another ES. In some cases, a trade-off may be an explicit choice; but in others, trade-offs arise without premeditation or even awareness that they are taking place. Trade-offs in ES can be classified along three axes: spatial scale, temporal scale, and reversibility. Spatial scale refers to whether the effects of the trade-off are felt locally or at a distant location. Temporal scale refers to whether the effects take place relatively rapidly or slowly. Reversibility expresses the likelihood that the perturbed ES may return to its original state if the perturbation ceases. Across all four Millennium Ecosystem Assessment scenarios and selected case study examples, trade-off decisions show a preference for provisioning, regulating, or cultural services (in that order. Supporting services are more likely to be "taken for granted." Cultural ES are almost entirely unquantified in scenario modeling; therefore, the calculated model results do not fully capture losses of these services that occur in the scenarios. The quantitative scenario models primarily capture the services that are perceived by society as more important - provisioning and regulating ecosystem services - and thus do not fully capture trade-offs of cultural and supporting services. Successful management policies will be those that incorporate lessons learned from prior decisions into future management actions. Managers should complement their actions with monitoring programs that, in addition to monitoring the short-term provisions of services, also monitor the long-term evolution of slowly changing variables. Policies can then be developed to take into account ES trade-offs at multiple spatial and temporal scales

Long term warranty and after sales service concept, policies and cost models

CERN Document Server

Rahman, Anisur

2015-01-01

This volume presents concepts, policies and cost models for various long-term warranty and maintenance contracts. It offers several numerical examples for estimating costs to both the manufacturer and consumer. Long-term warranties and maintenance contracts are becoming increasingly popular, as these types of aftersales services provide assurance to consumers that they can enjoy long, reliable service, and protect them from defects and the potentially high costs of repairs. Studying long-term warranty and service contracts is important to manufacturers and consumers alike, as offering long-term warranty and maintenance contracts produce additional costs for manufacturers / service providers over the product’s service life. These costs must be factored into the price, or the manufacturer / dealer will incur losses instead of making a profit. On the other hand, the buyer / consumer needs to weigh the cost of maintaining it over its service life and to decide whether or not these policies are worth purchasing....

Space, place and (waiting) time: reflections on health policy and politics.

Science.gov (United States)

Sheard, Sally

2018-02-19

Health systems have repeatedly addressed concerns about efficiency and equity by employing trans-national comparisons to draw out the strengths and weaknesses of specific policy initiatives. This paper demonstrates the potential for explicit historical analysis of waiting times for hospital treatment to add value to spatial comparative methodologies. Waiting times and the size of the lists of waiting patients have become key operational indicators. In the United Kingdom, as National Health Service (NHS) financial pressures intensified from the 1970s, waiting times have become a topic for regular public and political debate. Various explanations for waiting times include the following: hospital consultants manipulate NHS waiting lists to maintain their private practice; there is under-investment in the NHS; and available (and adequate) resources are being used inefficiently. Other countries have also experienced ongoing tensions between the public and private delivery of universal health care in which national and trans-national comparisons of waiting times have been regularly used. The paper discusses the development of key UK policies, and provides a limited Canadian comparative perspective, to explore wider issues, including whether 'waiting crises' were consciously used by policymakers, especially those brought into government to implement new economic and managerial strategies, to diminish the autonomy and authority of the medical professional in the hospital environment.

Change Best: Task 2.3. Analysis of policy mix and development of Energy Efficiency Services

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Boonekamp, P.; Vethman, P.

2010-04-01

The aim of the Change Best project is to promote the development of an energy efficiency service (EES) market and to give good practice examples of changes in energy service business, strategies, and supportive policies and measures in the course of the implementation of Directive 2006/32/EC on Energy End-Use Efficiency and Energy Services. This report addresses task 2.3: Analysis of policy mix and development of Energy Efficiency Services.

Globalisation, rural restructuring and health service delivery in Australia: policy failure and the role of social work?

Science.gov (United States)

Alston, Margaret

2007-05-01

The impacts of globalisation and rural restructuring on health service delivery in rural Australia have been significant. In the present paper, it is argued that declining health service access represents a failure of policy. Rural communities across the world are in a state of flux, and Australia is no different: rural communities are ageing at faster rates than urban communities and young people are out-migrating in large numbers. During the past 5 years, rural Australia has also experienced a severe and widespread drought that has exacerbated rural poverty, and impacted on the health and well-being of rural Australians. Australian governments have responded to globalising forces by introducing neoliberal policy initiatives favouring market solutions and championing the need for self-reliance among citizens. The result for rural Australia has been a withdrawal of services at a time of increased need. This paper addresses the social work response to these changes.

Linking ecosystem characteristics to final ecosystem services for public policy

Science.gov (United States)

Wong, Christina P; Jiang, Bo; Kinzig, Ann P; Lee, Kai N; Ouyang, Zhiyun

2015-01-01

Governments worldwide are recognising ecosystem services as an approach to address sustainability challenges. Decision-makers need credible and legitimate measurements of ecosystem services to evaluate decisions for trade-offs to make wise choices. Managers lack these measurements because of a data gap linking ecosystem characteristics to final ecosystem services. The dominant method to address the data gap is benefit transfer using ecological data from one location to estimate ecosystem services at other locations with similar land cover. However, benefit transfer is only valid once the data gap is adequately resolved. Disciplinary frames separating ecology from economics and policy have resulted in confusion on concepts and methods preventing progress on the data gap. In this study, we present a 10-step approach to unify concepts, methods and data from the disparate disciplines to offer guidance on overcoming the data gap. We suggest: (1) estimate ecosystem characteristics using biophysical models, (2) identify final ecosystem services using endpoints and (3) connect them using ecological production functions to quantify biophysical trade-offs. The guidance is strategic for public policy because analysts need to be: (1) realistic when setting priorities, (2) attentive to timelines to acquire relevant data, given resources and (3) responsive to the needs of decision-makers. PMID:25394857

Space assets, technology and services in support of energy policy

Science.gov (United States)

Vasko, C. A.; Adriaensen, M.; Bretel, A.; Duvaux-Bechon, I.; Giannopapa, C. G.

2017-09-01

Space can be used as a tool by decision and policy makers in developing, implementing and monitoring various policy areas including resource management, environment, transport, security and energy. This paper focuses on the role of space for the energy policy. Firstly, the paper summarizes the European Union's (EU) main objectives in energy policy enclosed in the Energy Strategy 2020-2030-2050 and demonstrates how space assets can contribute to achieving those objectives. Secondly, the paper addresses how the European Space Agency (ESA) has established multiple initiatives and programs that directly finance the development of space assets, technology and applications that deliver services in support of the EU energy policy and sector. These efforts should be continued and strengthened in order to overcome identified technological challenges. The use of space assets, technology and applications, can help achieve the energy policy objectives for the next decades.

76 FR 41032 - Medicaid Program; Face-to-Face Requirements for Home Health Services; Policy Changes and...

Science.gov (United States)

2011-07-12

... documentation must also describe how the health status of the recipient at the time of the face-to-face... [CMS 2348-P] RIN 0938-AQ36 Medicaid Program; Face-to-Face Requirements for Home Health Services; Policy... document the existence of a face-to-face encounter (including through the use of telehealth) with the...

Professional Aspirations among Pre-Service Teachers: Personal Responsibility, Time Perspectives, and Career Choice Satisfaction

Science.gov (United States)

Eren, Altay

2017-01-01

Exploring the direct and indirect effects of pre-service teachers' sense of personal responsibility on their professional aspirations through affective (i.e., career choice satisfaction) and cognitive (i.e., time perspectives) variables may enable teacher educators and policy makers to better describe the factors influencing teacher development in…

The use of a policy dialogue to facilitate evidence-informed policy development for improved access to care: the case of the Winnipeg Central Intake Service (WCIS).

Science.gov (United States)

Damani, Zaheed; MacKean, Gail; Bohm, Eric; DeMone, Brie; Wright, Brock; Noseworthy, Tom; Holroyd-Leduc, Jayna; Marshall, Deborah A

2016-10-18

Policy dialogues are critical for developing responsive, effective, sustainable, evidence-informed policy. Our multidisciplinary team, including researchers, physicians and senior decision-makers, comprehensively evaluated The Winnipeg Central Intake Service, a single-entry model in Winnipeg, Manitoba, to improve patient access to hip/knee replacement surgery. We used the evaluation findings to develop five evidence-informed policy directions to help improve access to scheduled clinical services across Manitoba. Using guiding principles of public participation processes, we hosted a policy roundtable meeting to engage stakeholders and use their input to refine the policy directions. Here, we report on the use and input of a policy roundtable meeting and its role in contributing to the development of evidence-informed policy. Our evidence-informed policy directions focused on formal measurement/monitoring of quality, central intake as a preferred model for service delivery, provincial scope, transparent processes/performance indicators, and patient choice of provider. We held a policy roundtable meeting and used outcomes of facilitated discussions to refine these directions. Individuals from our team and six stakeholder groups across Manitoba participated (n = 44), including patients, family physicians, orthopaedic surgeons, surgical office assistants, Winnipeg Central Intake team, and administrators/managers. We developed evaluation forms to assess the meeting process, and collected decision-maker partners' perspectives on the value of the policy roundtable meeting and use of policy directions to improve access to scheduled clinical services after the meeting, and again 15 months later. We analyzed roundtable and evaluation data using thematic analysis to identify key themes. Four key findings emerged. First, participants supported all policy directions, with revisions and key implementation considerations identified. Second, participants felt the policy roundtable

Mapping ecosystem services for policy support and decision making in the European Union

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Maes, J.; Egoh, B.; Willemen, L.; Liquete, C.; Vihervaara, P.; Schägner, J.P.; Grizzetti, B.; Drakou, E.G.; Notte, La A.; Zulian, G.; Bouraoui, F.; Parcchini, M.L.; Braat, L.C.

2012-01-01

Mainstreaming ecosystem services into policy and decision making is dependent on the availability of spatially explicit information on the state and trends of ecosystems and their services. In particular, the EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2020 addresses the need to account for ecosystem services

Nature as capital: Advancing and incorporating ecosystem services in United States federal policies and programs.

Science.gov (United States)

Schaefer, Mark; Goldman, Erica; Bartuska, Ann M; Sutton-Grier, Ariana; Lubchenco, Jane

2015-06-16

The concept of nature as capital is gaining visibility in policies and practices in both the public and private sectors. This change is due to an improved ability to assess and value ecosystem services, as well as to a growing recognition of the potential of an ecosystem services approach to make tradeoffs in decision making more transparent, inform efficient use of resources, enhance resilience and sustainability, and avoid unintended negative consequences of policy actions. Globally, governments, financial institutions, and corporations have begun to incorporate natural capital accounting in their policies and practices. In the United States, universities, nongovernmental organizations, and federal agencies are actively collaborating to develop and apply ecosystem services concepts to further national environmental and economic objectives. Numerous federal agencies have begun incorporating these concepts into land use planning, water resources management, and preparations for, and responses to, climate change. Going forward, well-defined policy direction will be necessary to institutionalize ecosystem services approaches in federal agencies, as well as to guide intersector and interdisciplinary collaborative research and development efforts. In addition, a new generation of decision support tools are needed to further the practical application of ecosystem services principles in policymaking and commercial activities. Improved performance metrics are needed, as are mechanisms to monitor the status of ecosystem services and assess the environmental and economic impacts of policies and programs. A greater national and international financial commitment to advancing ecosystem services and natural capital accounting would likely have broad, long-term economic and environmental benefits.

Framing in policy processes: a case study from hospital planning in the National Health Service in England.

Science.gov (United States)

Jones, Lorelei; Exworthy, Mark

2015-01-01

This paper reports from an ethnographic study of hospital planning in England undertaken between 2006 and 2009. We explored how a policy to centralise hospital services was espoused in national policy documents, how this shifted over time and how it was translated in practice. We found that policy texts defined hospital planning as a clinical issue and framed decisions to close hospitals or hospital departments as based on the evidence and necessary to ensure safety. We interpreted this framing as a rhetorical strategy for implementing organisational change in the context of community resistance to service closure and a concomitant policy emphasising the importance of public and patient involvement in planning. Although the persuasive power of the framing was limited, a more insidious form of power was identified in the way the framing disguised the political nature of the issue by defining it as a clinical problem. We conclude by discussing how the clinical rationale constrains public participation in decisions about the delivery and organisation of healthcare and restricts the extent to which alternative courses of action can be considered. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

78 FR 49445 - Wildlife Services Policy on Wildlife Damage Management in Urban Areas

Science.gov (United States)

2013-08-14

... Health Inspection Service's Wildlife Services (APHIS-WS) program is making a policy decision on how to... this definition. Otherwise, APHIS will refer all requests for operational assistance with urban rodent...

Linking ecosystem characteristics to final ecosystem services for public policy.

Science.gov (United States)

Wong, Christina P; Jiang, Bo; Kinzig, Ann P; Lee, Kai N; Ouyang, Zhiyun

2015-01-01

Governments worldwide are recognising ecosystem services as an approach to address sustainability challenges. Decision-makers need credible and legitimate measurements of ecosystem services to evaluate decisions for trade-offs to make wise choices. Managers lack these measurements because of a data gap linking ecosystem characteristics to final ecosystem services. The dominant method to address the data gap is benefit transfer using ecological data from one location to estimate ecosystem services at other locations with similar land cover. However, benefit transfer is only valid once the data gap is adequately resolved. Disciplinary frames separating ecology from economics and policy have resulted in confusion on concepts and methods preventing progress on the data gap. In this study, we present a 10-step approach to unify concepts, methods and data from the disparate disciplines to offer guidance on overcoming the data gap. We suggest: (1) estimate ecosystem characteristics using biophysical models, (2) identify final ecosystem services using endpoints and (3) connect them using ecological production functions to quantify biophysical trade-offs. The guidance is strategic for public policy because analysts need to be: (1) realistic when setting priorities, (2) attentive to timelines to acquire relevant data, given resources and (3) responsive to the needs of decision-makers. © 2014 The Authors. Ecology Letters published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd and CNRS.

Pharmaceutical services cost analysis using time-driven activity-based costing: A contribution to improve community pharmacies' management.

Science.gov (United States)

Gregório, João; Russo, Giuliano; Lapão, Luís Velez

2016-01-01

The current financial crisis is pressing health systems to reduce costs while looking to improve service standards. In this context, the necessity to optimize health care systems management has become an imperative. However, little research has been conducted on health care and pharmaceutical services cost management. Pharmaceutical services optimization requires a comprehensive understanding of resources usage and its costs. This study explores the development of a time-driven activity-based costing (TDABC) model, with the objective of calculating the cost of pharmaceutical services to help inform policy-making. Pharmaceutical services supply patterns were studied in three pharmacies during a weekday through an observational study. Details of each activity's execution were recorded, including time spent per activity performed by pharmacists. Data on pharmacy costs was obtained through pharmacies' accounting records. The calculated cost of a dispensing service in these pharmacies ranged from €3.16 to €4.29. The cost of a counseling service when no medicine was supplied ranged from €1.24 to €1.46. The cost of health screening services ranged from €2.86 to €4.55. The presented TDABC model gives us new insights on management and costs of community pharmacies. This study shows the importance of cost analysis for health care services, specifically on pharmaceutical services, in order to better inform pharmacies' management and the elaboration of pharmaceutical policies. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

18 CFR 2.22 - Pricing policy for transmission services provided under the Federal Power Act.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 18 Conservation of Power and Water Resources 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Pricing policy for... INTERPRETATIONS Statements of General Policy and Interpretations Under the Federal Power Act § 2.22 Pricing policy... Policy Statement on its pricing policy for transmission services provided under the Federal Power Act...

A comparative analysis of early child health and development services and outcomes in countries with different redistributive policies.

Science.gov (United States)

van den Heuvel, Meta; Hopkins, Jessica; Biscaro, Anne; Srikanthan, Cinntha; Feller, Andrea; Bremberg, Sven; Verkuijl, Nienke; Flapper, Boudien; Ford-Jones, Elizabeth Lee; Williams, Robin

2013-11-06

The social environment is a fundamental determinant of early child development and, in turn, early child development is a determinant of health, well-being, and learning skills across the life course. Redistributive policies aimed at reducing social inequalities, such as a welfare state and labour market policies, have shown a positive association with selected health indicators. In this study, we investigated the influence of redistributive policies specifically on the social environment of early child development in five countries with different political traditions. The objective of this analysis was to highlight similarities and differences in social and health services between the countries and their associations with other health outcomes that can inform better global early child development policies and improve early child health and development. Four social determinants of early child development were selected to provide a cross-section of key time periods in a child's life from prenatal to kindergarten. They included: 1) prenatal care, 2) maternal leave, 3) child health care, and 4) child care and early childhood education. We searched international databases and reports (e.g. Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, World Bank, and UNICEF) to obtain information about early child development policies, services and outcomes. Although a comparative analysis cannot claim causation, our analysis suggests that redistributive policies aimed at reducing social inequalities are associated with a positive influence on the social determinants of early child development. Generous redistributive policies are associated with a higher maternal leave allowance and pay and more preventive child healthcare visits. A decreasing trend in infant mortality, low birth weight rate, and under five mortality rate were observed with an increase in redistributive policies. No clear influence of redistributive policies was observed on breastfeeding and immunization

Base stock policies with degraded service to larger orders

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Du, Bisheng; Larsen, Christian

We study an inventory system controlled by a base stock policy assuming a compound renewal demand process. We extend the base stock policy by incorporating rules for degrading the service of larger orders. Two specific rules are considered, denoted Postpone(q,t) and Split(q), respectively. The aim...... of using these rules is to achieve a given order fill rate of the regular orders (those of size less than or equal to the parameter q) having less inventory. We develop mathematical expressions for the performance measures order fill rate (of the regular orders) and average on-hand inventory level. Based...

Underwater Time Service and Synchronization Based on Time Reversal Technique

Science.gov (United States)

Lu, Hao; Wang, Hai-bin; Aissa-El-Bey, Abdeldjalil; Pyndiah, Ramesh

2010-09-01

Real time service and synchronization are very important to many underwater systems. But the time service and synchronization in existence cannot work well due to the multi-path propagation and random phase fluctuation of signals in the ocean channel. The time reversal mirror technique can realize energy concentration through self-matching of the ocean channel and has very good spatial and temporal focusing properties. Based on the TRM technique, we present the Time Reversal Mirror Real Time service and synchronization (TRMRT) method which can bypass the processing of multi-path on the server side and reduce multi-path contamination on the client side. So TRMRT can improve the accuracy of time service. Furthermore, as an efficient and precise method of time service, TRMRT could be widely used in underwater exploration activities and underwater navigation and positioning systems.

Healthcare service providers' and facility administrators' perspectives of the free maternal healthcare services policy in Malindi District, Kenya: a qualitative study.

Science.gov (United States)

Lang'at, Evaline; Mwanri, Lillian

2015-06-27

Globally, there are increasing efforts to improve maternal health outcomes including the reduction in maternal mortality rates. Improved access to skilled care utilisation during pregnancy and delivery has been one of the strategies employed to improve maternal health outcomes. In Kenya, more than half of the women deliver without the assistance of a skilled attendant and this has contributed to high maternal mortality rates. The free maternal healthcare services policy in all public facilities was initiated as a strategy to improve access to skilled care and reduce poor maternal health outcomes. This study aimed to explore the perspectives of the service providers and facility administrators of the free maternal health care service policy that was introduced in Kenya in 2013. A qualitative inquiry using semi-structured one-on-one interviews was conducted in Malindi District, Kenya. The participants included maternal health service providers and facility administrators recruited from five different healthcare facilities. Data were analysed using a thematic framework analysis. Free maternal healthcare service provision was perceived to boost skilled care utilisation during pregnancy and delivery. However, challenges including; delays in the reimbursement of funds by the government to the facilities, stock outs of essential commodities in the facilities to facilitate service provision, increased workload amidst staff shortage and lack of consultation and sensitisation of key stakeholders were perceived as barriers to effective implementation of this policy. Free maternal healthcare services can be one of the strategies to improve a range of maternal health outcomes. However, the implementation of this policy would be more effective if; the healthcare facilities were upgraded, equipped with adequate supplies, funds and staff; the community are continually sensitized on the importance of seeking skilled care during pregnancy and delivery; and inclusivity and

Water and sanitation policies in Argentina: the challenge of universalizing services

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Verónica L. Cáceres

2014-08-01

Full Text Available This article is aimed at contributing to the reflection and debate on the water and sanitation policies in Argentina. For this purpose, regulatory and institutional aspects are discussed regarding services management in the country. The paper also includes a characterization of the five stages of such policies that have marked the progress of the sector. Finally, the main challenges faced by the sector are mentioned as a conclusion.

Exploring changes in middle-school student lunch consumption after local school food service policy modifications.

Science.gov (United States)

Cullen, Karen Weber; Watson, Kathy; Zakeri, Issa; Ralston, Katherine

2006-09-01

This study assessed the impact of changes in school food policy on student lunch consumption in middle schools. Two years of lunch food records were collected from students at three middle schools in the Houston, Texas area. During the first year, no changes occurred in the school food environment. After that school year was completed, chips and dessert foods were removed from the snack bars of all schools by the Food Service Director. Students recorded the amount and source of food and beverage items consumed. Point-of-service purchase machines provided a day-by-day electronic data file with food and beverage purchases from the snack bars during the 2-year period. Independent t-tests and time series analyses were used to document the impact of the policy change on consumption and sales data between the two years. In general, student consumption of sweetened beverages declined and milk, calcium, vitamin A, saturated fat and sodium increased after the policy change. Snack chips consumption from the snack bar declined in year 2; however, consumption of snack chips and candy from vending increased and the number of vending machines in study schools doubled during the study period. Ice cream sales increased significantly in year 2. Policy changes on foods sold in schools can result in changes in student consumption from the targeted environments. However, if all environments do not make similar changes, compensation may occur.

A national survey of health service infrastructure and policy impacts on access to computerised CBT in Scotland

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kenicer David

2012-09-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background NICE recommends computerised cognitive behavioural therapy (cCBT for the treatment of several mental health problems such as anxiety and depression. cCBT may be one way that services can reduce waiting lists and improve capacity and efficiency. However, there is some doubt about the extent to which the National Health Service (NHS in the UK is embracing this new health technology in practice. This study aimed to investigate Scottish health service infrastructure and policies that promote or impede the implementation of cCBT in the NHS. Methods A telephone survey of lead IT staff at all health board areas across Scotland to systematically enquire about the ability of local IT infrastructure and IT policies to support delivery of cCBT. Results Overall, most of the health boards possess the required software to use cCBT programmes. However, the majority of NHS health boards reported that they lack dedicated computers for patient use, hence access to cCBT at NHS sites is limited. Additionally, local policy in the majority of boards prevent staff from routinely contacting patients via email, skype or instant messenger, making the delivery of short, efficient support sessions difficult. Conclusions Conclusions: Overall most of the infrastructure is in place but is not utilised in ways that allow effective delivery. For cCBT to be successfully delivered within a guided support model, as recommended by national guidelines, dedicated patient computers should be provided to allow access to online interventions. Additionally, policy should allow staff to support patients in convenient ways such as via email or live chat. These measures would increase the likelihood of achieving Scottish health service targets to reduce waiting time for psychological therapies to 18 weeks.

Regional drug user services in times of scarce financial resources: using a rapid assessment response approach to evaluate, plan, and prioritize essential services.

Science.gov (United States)

Comiskey, Catherine Maria; O'Sullivan, Karin; Milnes, Jennie

2012-02-01

The objective was to assess need, evaluate projects, and devise a roadmap for future provision given budget cuts. The analysis of 30 substance misuse services in towns and rural areas of Ireland was conducted in 2010. Analysis revealed that 24,315 (95% CI 12,928-40,629) individuals were using illegal drugs in 2006, 893 individuals were using opiates, opiate and cocaine use was increasing as was drug use amongst females. Evaluations demonstrated that not all services were meeting emerging needs, services lacked administrative support, and funding needed to be redirected. The RAR approach was useful for policy decisions and budget cuts in times of economic restraint.

Do Workplace Flexibility Policies Influence Time Spent in Domestic Labor?

Science.gov (United States)

Noonan, Mary C.; Estes, Sarah Beth; Glass, Jennifer L.

2007-01-01

Using data from a U.S. midwestern sample of mothers and fathers, the authors examine whether using workplace flexibility policies alters time spent in housework and child care. They hypothesize that an individual's policy use will lead to more time in domestic labor and that his or her spouse's policy use will lead to less time in domestic labor.…

Prospects for Mainstreaming Ecosystem Goods and Services in International Policies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kok, M.T.J.; Prins, A.G.; Tyler, S.R.; Pinter, L.; Baumuller, H.; Bernstein, J.; Tsioumani, E.; Venema, H.D.; Grosshans, R.

2010-08-01

Degradation of ecosystems worldwide threatens local and regional supplies of food, forest products and fresh water, and also biodiversity. Although most decisions that directly affect ecosystem management are made locally, these decisions are influenced by national and international policies. This study shows how local delivery of ecosystem goods and services (EGS) is closely linked to international policies on development cooperation, trade, climate change and reform of international financial institutions. Integrating or mainstreaming EGS considerations into these policies provides significant opportunities for reducing poverty, while simultaneously improving the quality of local EGS. Furthermore, mainstreaming EGS in international policies can contribute significantly to achieving policy objectives on biodiversity and sustainable management of natural resources. However, mainstreaming EGS requires careful consideration because many of the opportunities identified as reducing poverty, may have the opposite effect if poorly managed or implemented. A major challenge is, therefore, to ensure consistent policies across scales and policy domains based on analysis of the local situation. In order to support poverty reduction it matters how the mainstreaming is done and who benefits locally. Tools to mainstream EGS into non-environmental policy domains are available, but there are few examples of their systematic application. Examples of tools that could play a constructive role in this process are the monitoring and reporting mechanisms developed by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)

Solving a Location, Allocation, and Capacity Planning Problem with Dynamic Demand and Response Time Service Level

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Carrie Ka Yuk Lin

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Logistic systems with uncertain demand, travel time, and on-site processing time are studied here where sequential trip travel is allowed. The relationship between three levels of decisions: facility location, demand allocation, and resource capacity (number of service units, satisfying the response time requirement, is analysed. The problem is formulated as a stochastic mixed integer program. A simulation-based hybrid heuristic is developed to solve the dynamic problem under different response time service level. An initial solution is obtained from solving static location-allocation models, followed by iterative improvement of the three levels of decisions by ejection, reinsertion procedure with memory of feasible and infeasible service regions. Results indicate that a higher response time service level could be achieved by allocating a given resource under an appropriate decentralized policy. Given a response time requirement, the general trend is that the minimum total capacity initially decreases with more facilities. During this stage, variability in travel time has more impact on capacity than variability in demand arrivals. Thereafter, the total capacity remains stable and then gradually increases. When service level requirement is high, the dynamic dispatch based on first-come-first-serve rule requires smaller capacity than the one by nearest-neighbour rule.

A review of the present state and future policy alternatives for home visit nursing services in Korea.

Science.gov (United States)

Lim, Ji Young; Noh, Wonjung; Kim, Eunjoo; Choi, Kyung Won

2014-01-01

The aim of this study was to describe the current state of home visit nursing services in the Korean context and to suggest future policy directions. First, the three home visit nursing services that have developed in Korea are compared using the analytic framework provided by Gilbert and Terrell in 2012. The framework is based on four dimensions of social welfare: users, services, source of funds, and service delivery process. Second, we perform a strength, weakness, opportunity, and threat analysis to suggest comprehensive and constructive home visit nursing service policies for the future. Specifically, we advocate the creation of an organization that steers the central government to operate an integrated management organization to distribute services and reduce redundancy for preventing the waste of both medical and state financial resources. This study also recommends the development of educational programs to improve the quality of services and service evaluation criteria for the objective assessment of those services. These policy guidelines may prove useful both for Korea and for other countries that intend to prepare or revise their home visit nursing service systems. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

An assessment of policies and services provision to the physically ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The researcher recommended among others that Academic library policy must be redesigned to include disability resources and services in conformity with ALA standard and Library management should create a disability liaison office on the ground floor of their multiple storey buildings and affiliate such offices with any ...

Perception, acquisition and use of ecosystem services: human behavior, and ecosystem management and policy implications

Science.gov (United States)

Stanley T. Asah; Anne D. Guerry; Dale J. Blahna; Joshua J. Lawler

2014-01-01

Ecosystem services, fundamental to livelihoods and well-being, are reshaping environmental management and policy. However, the behavioral dimensions of ecosystem services and the responses of ordinary people to the management of those services, is less well understood. The ecosystem services framework lends itself to understanding the relationship between ecosystems...

Availability of tobacco cessation services in substance use disorder treatment programs: Impact of state tobacco control policy.

Science.gov (United States)

Abraham, Amanda J; Bagwell-Adams, Grace; Jayawardhana, Jayani

2017-08-01

Given the high prevalence of smoking among substance use disorder (SUD) patients, the specialty SUD treatment system is an important target for adoption and implementation of tobacco cessation (TC) services. While research has addressed the impact of tobacco control on individual tobacco consumption, largely overlooked in the literature is the potential impact of state tobacco control policies on availability of services for tobacco cessation. This paper examines the association between state tobacco control policy and availability of TC services in SUD treatment programs in the United States. State tobacco control and state demographic data (n=51) were merged with treatment program data from the 2012 National Survey of Substance Abuse Treatment Services (n=10.413) to examine availability of TC screening, counseling and pharmacotherapy services in SUD treatment programs using multivariate logistic regression models clustered at the state-level. Approximately 60% of SUD treatment programs offered TC screening services, 41% offered TC counseling services and 26% offered TC pharmacotherapy services. Results of multivariate logistic regression showed the odds of offering TC services were greater for SUD treatment programs located in states with higher cigarette excise taxes and greater spending on tobacco prevention and control. Findings indicate cigarette excise taxes and recommended funding levels may be effective policy tools for increasing access to TC services in SUD treatment programs. Coupled with changes to insurance coverage for TC under the Affordable Care Act, state tobacco control policy tools may further reduce tobacco use in the United States. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

The effect of centralization of health care services on travel time and its equality.

Science.gov (United States)

Kobayashi, Daisuke; Otsubo, Tetsuya; Imanaka, Yuichi

2015-03-01

To analyze the regional variations in travel time between patient residences and medical facilities for the treatment of ischemic heart disease and breast cancer, and to simulate the effects of health care services centralization on travel time and equality of access. We used medical insurance claims data for inpatients and outpatients for the two target diseases that had been filed between September 2008 and May 2009 in Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. Using a geographical information system, patient travel times were calculated based on the driving distance between patient residences and hospitals via highways and toll roads. Locations of residences and hospital locations were identified using postal codes. We then conducted a simulation analysis of centralization of health care services to designated regional core hospitals. The simulated changes in potential spatial access to care were examined. Inequalities in access to care were examined using Gini coefficients, which ranged from 0.4109 to 0.4574. Simulations of health care services centralization showed reduced travel time for most patients and overall improvements in equality of access, except in breast cancer outpatients. Our findings may contribute to the decision-making process in policies aimed at improving the potential spatial access to health care services. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Agricultural policies exacerbate honeybee pollination service supply-demand mismatches across Europe

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Breeze, T.; Vaissiere, B.E.; Bommarco, R.; Petanidou, T.; Seraphides, N.; Kozak, L.; Scheper, J.A.; Biesmeijer, J.C.; Kleijn, D.; Gyldenkaerne, S.

2014-01-01

Declines in insect pollinators across Europe have raised concerns about the supply of pollination services to agriculture. Simultaneously, EU agricultural and biofuel policies have encouraged substantial growth in the cultivated area of insect pollinated crops across the continent. Using data from

Evaluating the impact of regional development policies on future landscape services

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Willemen, L.; Hein, L.; Verburg, P.H.

2010-01-01

In this paper we analyse the potential impact of an integrated policy package for the Gelderse Vallei region in the Netherlands on seven landscape services (residential use, intensive livestock husbandry, drinking water supply, attractiveness for overnight tourism, habitat provision for rare,

Policy Implications of Research on School Time.

Science.gov (United States)

Anderson, Lorin

1983-01-01

The allocation and use of time are considered important in the context of learning because time can be manipulated, measured, and applied to the design of instructional programs. After a clarification of terminology, an overview of current research on time is offered and policy recommendations discussed. (MJL)

The take-up importance of ICT enabled services in crisis time, an evaluation of e-banking, internet conferencing and e-public services

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Patriche, D.

2010-12-01

Full Text Available The world is facing a global financial and economic crisis, the deepest and the widest spread since the Great Depression of 1930. Individuals, companies and governments alike are forced to take active measures to counteract the severe consequences of the crisis, if they want to emerge stronger from this difficult period. There are strong beliefs among policy makers around the world, European Union included, that the Information and Communication Technologies are a very important pillar in the recovery from the crisis. This paper aims at evaluating the e-banking services, internet enabled conferencing solutions and electronic public services as categories of ICT enabled services that represent powerful and practical solutions, especially in time of crisis, with significant advantages at individual, company and government level.

Personal carbon trading: A policy ahead of its time?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fawcett, Tina

2010-01-01

In 2008, the UK government undertook a review of personal carbon trading (PCT) and declared that it was 'an idea currently ahead of its time'. PCT is a radical policy proposal which would entail all adults receiving an equal, tradable carbon allowance to cover emissions from household energy and/or personal travel. The allowance would reduce over time, in line with national emissions reduction goals. The government's key concerns about PCT were its social unacceptability and high cost. This paper reviews the literature and identifies knowledge gaps, and then discusses whether these concerns are justified. Contrary to the government's conclusions, most research shows PCT to be at least as socially acceptable as an alternative taxation policy. People think it could be both fair and effective. Set-up and running costs for PCT will undoubtedly be higher than for alternative taxation policies. However, PCT could deliver benefits from individual and social change motivated by non-economic aspects of the policy. These potential benefits are outlined here. The conclusion is that PCT is a promising and timely policy idea.

Combining Ecosystem Service and Critical Load Concepts for Resource Management and Public Policy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Timothy J. Sullivan

2012-11-01

Full Text Available Land management and natural resource public policy decision-making in the United States can benefit from two resource damage/recovery concepts: ecosystem service (ES and critical load (CL. The purpose of this paper is to suggest an integrated approach to the application of ES and CL principles for public land management and natural resource policy decision-making. One well known example that is appropriate for ES and CL evaluation is examined here: the acidification of soil and drainage water by atmospheric deposition of acidifying sulfur and nitrogen compounds. A conceptual framework illustrates how the ES and CL approaches can be combined in a way that enhances the strengths of each. This framework will aid in the process of translating ES and CL principles into land management and natural resource policy decision-making by documenting the impacts of pollution on environmental goods and services that benefit humans.

Point of Care Testing Services Delivery: Policy Analysis using a ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Annals of Biomedical Sciences ... The service providers (hospital management) and the testing personnel are faced with the task of trying to explain these problems. Objective of the study: To critically do a policy analysis of the problems of point of care testing with the aim of identifying the causes of these problems and ...

Service Choreography, SBVR, and Time

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nurulhuda A. Manaf

2015-12-01

Full Text Available We propose the use of structured natural language (English in specifying service choreographies, focusing on the what rather than the how of the required coordination of participant services in realising a business application scenario. The declarative approach we propose uses the OMG standard Semantics of Business Vocabulary and Rules (SBVR as a modelling language. The service choreography approach has been proposed for describing the global orderings of the invocations on interfaces of participant services. We therefore extend SBVR with a notion of time which can capture the coordination of the participant services, in terms of the observable message exchanges between them. The extension is done using existing modelling constructs in SBVR, and hence respects the standard specification. The idea is that users - domain specialists rather than implementation specialists - can verify the requested service composition by directly reading the structured English used by SBVR. At the same time, the SBVR model can be represented in formal logic so it can be parsed and executed by a machine.

Farmers’ Awareness of Ecosystem Services and the Associated Policy Implications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fangfang Xun

2017-09-01

Full Text Available This study analyzes the primary factors influencing farmers’ awareness of ecosystem services. This study, through questionnaires, conducts research on farmers’ awareness of and demand for ecosystem service functions. The research encapsulates 156 households from 21 groups of villagers in the Guangxi Karst Ecological Immigration District in China. The results of the factors influencing farmers’ awareness of ecosystem services, analyzed using a regression model, show that: (1 Farmers are concerned with ecosystem service functions that directly benefit them; however, they do not sufficiently understand the ecosystem’s ecological security maintenance or cultural landscape functions; (2 Farmers’ awareness of ecosystem service functions is not consistent with their corresponding demand, including the ecosystem’s leisure and entertainment, social security, disaster prevention and water purification services; (3 Education level, land area cultivated by the household, proportion of the household’s income from agriculture and immigration status directly affect farmers’ awareness of ecosystem services; (4 Farmers’ personal characteristics, family characteristics and subjective attitudes have different effects on the level of ecological service cognition. Understanding farmers’ awareness of ecosystem services, and the influencing factors can help policymakers and development managers plan local development and policies, and enable harmonious development of the human-earth system in immigration regions of China.

28 CFR 20.35 - Criminal Justice Information Services Advisory Policy Board.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 28 Judicial Administration 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Criminal Justice Information Services Advisory Policy Board. 20.35 Section 20.35 Judicial Administration DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE CRIMINAL JUSTICE..., concept, and operational principles of various criminal justice information systems managed by the FBI's...

Using secondary analysis of qualitative data of patient experiences of health care to inform health services research and policy.

Science.gov (United States)

Ziebland, Sue; Hunt, Kate

2014-07-01

Qualitative research is recognized as an important method for including patients' voices and experiences in health services research and policy-making, yet the considerable potential to analyse existing qualitative data to inform health policy and practice has been little realized. This failure may partly be explained by: a lack of awareness amongst health policy makers of the increasing wealth of qualitative data available; and around 15 years of internal debates among qualitative researchers on the strengths, limitations and validity of re-use of qualitative data. Whilst acknowledging the challenges of qualitative secondary data analysis, we argue that there is a growing imperative to be pragmatic and to undertake analysis of existing qualitative data collections where they have the potential to contribute to health policy formulation. Time pressures are inherent in the policy-making process and in many circumstances it is not possible to seek funding, conduct and analyse new qualitative studies of patients' experiences in time to inform a specific policy. The danger then is that the patient voice, and the experiences of relatives and carers, is either excluded or included in a way that is easily dismissed as 'unrepresentative'. We argue that secondary analysis of qualitative data collections may sometimes be an effective means to enable patient experiences to inform policy decision-making. © The Author(s) 2014 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav.

Budget, fiscal and monetary policy in Poland and demand for transport – forwarding – logistics industry services

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ryszard Rolbiecki

2013-06-01

Full Text Available Macroeconomic policy of a country does not always have an effect on the demand for transport. The lack of a clear relation between the nature of macroeconomic policy and changes in demand for transport services is a consequence of the overall complexity of the economic system. It can also be a result of the lack of consistency between budget and monetary policy. Macroeconomic policy as a tool to control global demand only indirectly affects the changes in demand for transport. Transport activity is in fact determined by changes in the real economy, which directly influence the increase or decrease in demand for transport services.

Output gap uncertainty and real-time monetary policy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Francesco Grigoli

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Output gap estimates are subject to a wide range of uncertainty owing principally to the difficulty in distinguishing between cycle and trend in real time. We show that country desks tend to overestimate economic slack, especially during recessions, and that uncertainty in initial output gap estimates persists several years. Only a small share of output gap revisions is predictable based on output dynamics, data quality, and policy frameworks. We also show that for a group of Latin American inflation targeters the prescriptions from monetary policy rules are subject to large changes due to revised output gap estimates. These explain a sizable proportion of the deviation of inflation from target, suggesting this information is not accounted for in real-time policy decisions.

Queues with waiting time dependent service

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bekker, R.; Koole, G. M.; Nielsen, Bo Friis

2011-01-01

Motivated by service levels in terms of the waiting-time distribution seen, for instance, in call centers, we consider two models for systems with a service discipline that depends on the waiting time. The first model deals with a single server that continuously adapts its service rate based...... derive steady-state waiting-time distributions for both models. The results are illustrated with numerical examples....... on the waiting time of the first customer in line. In the second model, one queue is served by a primary server which is supplemented by a secondary server when the waiting of the first customer in line exceeds a threshold. Using level crossings for the waiting-time process of the first customer in line, we...

Information for mental health systems: an instrument for policy-making and system service quality.

Science.gov (United States)

Lora, A; Lesage, A; Pathare, S; Levav, I

2017-08-01

Information is crucial in mental healthcare, yet it remains undervalued by stakeholders. Its absence undermines rationality in planning, makes it difficult to monitor service quality improvement, impedes accountability and human rights monitoring. For international organizations (e.g., WHO, OECD), information is indispensable for achieving better outcomes in mental health policies, services and programs. This article reviews the importance of developing system level information with reference to inputs, processes and outputs, analyzes available tools for collecting and summarizing information, highlights the various goals of information gathering, discusses implementation issues and charts the way forward. Relevant publications and research were consulted, including WHO studies that purport to promote the use of information systems to upgrade mental health care in high- and low-middle income countries. Studies have shown that once information has been collected by relevant systems and analyzed through indicator schemes, it can be put to many uses. Monitoring mental health services, represents a first step in using information. In addition, studies have noted that information is a prime resource in many other areas such as evaluation of quality of care against evidence based standards of care. Services data may support health services research where it is possible to link mental health data with other health and non-health databases. Information systems are required to carefully monitor involuntary admissions, restrain and seclusion, to reduce human rights violations in care facilities. Information has been also found useful for policy makers, to monitor the implementation of policies, to evaluate their impact, to rationally allocate funding and to create new financing models. Despite its manifold applications, Information systems currently face many problems such as incomplete recording, poor data quality, lack of timely reporting and feedback, and limited

Integrating evidence into policy and sustainable disability services delivery in western New South Wales, Australia: the 'wobbly hub and double spokes' project.

Science.gov (United States)

Veitch, Craig; Lincoln, Michelle; Bundy, Anita; Gallego, Gisselle; Dew, Angela; Bulkeley, Kim; Brentnall, Jennie; Griffiths, Scott

2012-03-21

Policy that supports rural allied health service delivery is important given the shortage of services outside of Australian metropolitan centres. The shortage of allied health professionals means that rural clinicians work long hours and have little peer or service support. Service delivery to rural and remote communities is further complicated because relatively small numbers of clients are dispersed over large geographic areas. The aim of this five-year multi-stage project is to generate evidence to confirm and develop evidence-based policies and to evaluate their implementation in procedures that allow a regional allied health workforce to more expeditiously respond to disability service need in regional New South Wales, Australia. The project consists of four inter-related stages that together constitute a full policy cycle. It uses mixed quantitative and qualitative methods, guided by key policy concerns such as: access, complexity, cost, distribution of benefits, timeliness, effectiveness, equity, policy consistency, and community and political acceptability. Stage 1 adopts a policy analysis approach in which existing relevant policies and related documentation will be collected and reviewed. Policy-makers and senior managers within the region and in central offices will be interviewed about issues that influence policy development and implementation. Stage 2 uses a mixed methods approach to collecting information from allied health professionals, clients, and carers. Focus groups and interviews will explore issues related to providing and receiving allied health services. Discrete Choice Experiments will elicit staff and client/carer preferences. Stage 3 synthesises Stage 1 and 2 findings with reference to the key policy issues to develop and implement policies and procedures to establish several innovative regional workforce and service provision projects. Stage 4 uses mixed methods to monitor and evaluate the implementation and impact of new or adapted

An Evaluation of the Cybersecurity Policies for the United States Health & Human Services Department: Criteria, Regulations, and Improvements

OpenAIRE

Derek Mohammed; Ronda Mariani

2014-01-01

This paper examines the criteria necessary for the evaluation of the cybersecurity policies for the United States Health and Human Services Department of the Federal Government. The overall purpose of cybersecurity policies and procedures is supported through compliance with Federal mandated regulation and standards, which serve to protect the organizational services and goals of the United States Health and Human Services Department, and to promote the best possible security practices in the...

Health services financing and delivery: analysis of policy options for Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hamidi S

2015-02-01

Full Text Available Samer Hamidi School of Health and Environmental Studies, Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart University, Dubai, United Arab Emirates Introduction: A national health account (NHA provides a systematic approach to mapping the flow of health sector funds within a specified health system over a defined time period. This article attempts to present a profile of health system financing in Dubai, United Arab Emirates using data from NHAs, and to compare the functional structures of financing schemes in Dubai with schemes in Qatar and selected member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD. Methods: The author analyzed secondary data published in NHAs of Dubai and Qatar and data collected by the OECD countries and publicly available from Eurostat (Statistical Office of the European Union of 25 OECD countries for comparative analysis. All health financing indicators used were as defined in the international System of Health Accounts (SHA. Results: In Dubai, spending on inpatient care was the highest-costing component, with 30% of current health expenditures (CHE. Spending on outpatient care was the second highest-costing component and accounted for about 23% of the CHE. Household spending accounted for about 22% of CHE (equivalent to US$187 per capita, compared to an average of 20% of CHE of OECD countries. Dubai spent 0.02% of CHE on long-term care, compared to an average of 11% of CHE of OECD countries. Dubai spent about 6% of CHE on prevention and public health services, compared to an average of 3.2% of CHE of OECD countries. Conclusion: The findings point to potential opportunities for growth and improvement in several health policy issues in Dubai, including increasing focus and funding of preventive services; shifting from inpatient care to day surgery, outpatient, and home-based services and strengthening long-term care; and introducing cost-containment measures for pharmaceuticals. More investment in the translation of

47 CFR 64.401 - Policies and procedures for provisioning and restoring certain telecommunications services in...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... 47 Telecommunication 3 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Policies and procedures for provisioning and restoring certain telecommunications services in emergencies. 64.401 Section 64.401 Telecommunication... procedures for provisioning and restoring certain telecommunications services in emergencies. The...

An African account of ecosystem service provision: Use, threats and policy options for sustainable livelihoods

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Egoh, Benis N

2012-12-01

Full Text Available -1 Ecosystem Services December 2012/ Vol. 2 An African account of ecosystem service provision: Use, threats and policy options for sustainable livelihoods Benis N. Egoh a, , , , Patrick J. O'Farrellb, Aymen Charefa, Leigh Josephine Gurney a...

Evaluating indirect and direct effects of eco-restoration policy on soil conservation service in Yangtze River Basin.

Science.gov (United States)

Kong, Lingqiao; Zheng, Hua; Rao, Enming; Xiao, Yi; Ouyang, Zhiyun; Li, Cong

2018-08-01

The conservation impacts of policies that promote large-scale ecological restoration of ecosystem services and socio-economic development are well documented around the world. However, the effect of socio-economic development resulting from such policies on ecosystem services is rarely analysed, although it is important to do so if these policies are to be sustainable. We analysed the socio-economic impacts of soil conservation services from 2000 to 2015 in the Yangtze River Basin under the Grain to Green Programme (GTGP). Also we assessed the driving forces behind the programme: conservation policies, urbanization, agricultural development, and population growth. Our results show that during 2000-2015, cultivated area decreased by 7.5%, urban area increased by 67.5%, forest area increased by 2.1%, and soil erosion was reduced by 19.5%. The programme not only contributed significantly to an improvement in soil conservation services but also enhanced them significantly through faster urbanization. Furthermore, vegetation cover and crop yields increased synergistically, mainly due to high-efficiency agriculture that reduced the negative effect of the GTGP on agricultural production. Overall determining the indirect and direct effects of the GTGP on soil conservation and agricultural production are important for furthering our understanding of the long-term effects of ecological restoration policies, and the present study offers practical insights for ecological restoration of other watersheds. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Contribution of ecosystem services to air quality and climate change mitigation policies: The case of urban forests in Barcelona, Spain

Science.gov (United States)

Francesc Baró; Lydia Chaparro; Erik Gómez-Baggethun; Johannes Langemeyer; David J. Nowak; Jaume. Terradas

2014-01-01

Mounting research highlights the contribution of ecosystem services provided by urban forests to quality of life in cities, yet these services are rarely explicitly considered in environmental policy targets. We quantify regulating services provided by urban forests and evaluate their contribution to comply with policy targets of air quality and climate change...

A Critical Discourse Analysis of Provincial Policies Impacting Shelter Service Delivery to Women Exposed to Violence.

Science.gov (United States)

Burnett, Camille; Ford-Gilboe, Marilyn; Berman, Helene; Ward-Griffin, Cathy; Wathen, Nadine

2015-01-01

Shelters for abused women function within a broad context that includes intersecting social structures, policies, and resources, which may constrain and limit the options available to abused women and tacitly reinforce the cycle of abuse. This feminist, qualitative study combined in-depth interviews and focus groups conducted with 37 staff and four executive directors from four shelters in Ontario, Canada, along with a critical discourse analysis of salient policy texts. Together, the interviews and critical discourse analysis formed an integrated analysis of the dialectic between policy as written and enacted. The study findings illuminate the complexity of the system and its impact on women, shelters, and the community and highlight how specific types of social policies and various social system subsystems and structures, and system configuration, shape the day to day reality of shelter service delivery and impact outcomes for abused women and their children. Collectively, these findings offer direction regarding where these policies could be improved and provide a basis for shelters, policy makers, advocates, and the community to strengthen current services and policies, potentially enhancing outcomes for women. © The Author(s) 2015.

Payment for Environmental Services: mobilising an epistemic community to construct dominant policy

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Rodriguez de Francisco, J.C.; Boelens, R.A.

2015-01-01

The alleged capacity of Payment for Environmental Services (PES) to reach conservation policy goals, while reducing poverty in a cost-effective manner, makes it an extremely attractive development instrument for policymakers and international funding agencies. This article reconstructs the process

An Evaluation of the Cybersecurity Policies for the United States Health & Human Services Department: Criteria, Regulations, and Improvements

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Derek Mohammed

2014-04-01

Full Text Available This paper examines the criteria necessary for the evaluation of the cybersecurity policies for the United States Health and Human Services Department of the Federal Government. The overall purpose of cybersecurity policies and procedures is supported through compliance with Federal mandated regulation and standards, which serve to protect the organizational services and goals of the United States Health and Human Services Department, and to promote the best possible security practices in the protection of information systems from unauthorized actors and cyber-threats. The criteria of the cybersecurity evaluation is identified and analyzed for quality, strengths, weaknesses, and future applicability. Topics within the criteria include organizational operation, regulations and industrial standards compliance, service delivery to national customers, and the prevention and mitigation of IT system and security failure. This analysis determines the strengths and weaknesses, and makes recommendations for revising the cybersecurity policies within the United States Health and Human Services Department.

'Demand pull' government policies to support Product-Service System activity: The case of Energy Service Companies in the UK

OpenAIRE

Hannon, MJ; Foxon, TJ; Gale, WF

2015-01-01

Product-Service Systems (PSSs) constitute a family of service-based business models designed to satisfy our societal needs in an economically and environmentally sustainable manner. To date however PSS application has remained niche due to a variety of critical barriers. This paper explores how ‘demand pull’ national government policies could support PSS activity by addressing these barriers and cultivating market demand. Lessons are drawn from a case study of how regulatory, economic incenti...

Approaches to Risk and Consumer Policy in Financial Service Regulation in the UK

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Peter Lunt

2006-01-01

Full Text Available The financial service and communication sectors in the UK have been subject to radical re-organisation, involving the formation of sector-wide regulatory bodies (FSA and Ofcom with wide-ranging powers and statutory obligations. Although both have responsibilities for assessment and management of risk, their remits go beyond traditional approaches to regulation. Hence, although primarily oriented to economic policy, both regulators address questions of corporate responsibility, balance of stakeholder interests, the public good, consumer representation and public participation. Accordingly, they are undertaking a range of activities, including consumer education and research, public consultation and the involvement of stakeholders in policy review. Focusing on the case of financial services, this paper presents an analysis of two early speeches by FSA directors, one focused on the approach to risk adopted by the regulator and the other on consumer policy. The second part of the paper considers the conceptual issues regarding different modes of risk management in the new regulators, requiring an account of the various levels and forms of involvement by stakeholders and publics in the identification and management of risk. It follows on from the analysis of the speeches to examine the relationship between risk and consumer policy in the practices of the FSA. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0601323

Food Service and Foods and Beverages Available at School: Results from the School Health Policies and Programs Study 2000.

Science.gov (United States)

Wechsler, Howell; Brener, Nancy D.; Kuester, Sarah; Miller, Clare

2001-01-01

Presents School Health Policies and Programs Study 2000 findings about state- and district-level policies and practices regarding various school food service issues, e.g., organization and staffing, food service and child nutrition requirements and recommendations, menu planning and food preparation, and collaboration. Also addressed are food…

The Influence of Low-Barrier and Voluntary Service Policies on Survivor Empowerment in a Domestic Violence Housing Organization.

Science.gov (United States)

Nnawulezi, Nkiru; Godsay, Surbhi; Sullivan, Cris M; Marcus, Suzanne; Hacskaylo, Margaret

2018-01-18

The purpose of community-based domestic violence crisis housing programs (e.g., shelters) is to provide a safe setting that promotes empowerment for survivors of intimate partner violence. For staff to reach this aim, the program must have formal structures and processes in place to support such efforts. This study explored how low-barrier and voluntary service policies influenced staff practices and survivor empowerment. Low-barrier policies require that programs remove barriers that prevent survivors, particularly those who have mental health concerns and/or addictions, from being able to access services. A voluntary service policy states that survivors have the right to choose which services, if any, they would like to engage in during their stay at the program. Survivors' ability to stay at the housing program is not contingent on their participation in program services. This exploratory-sequential (QUAL→ quan) mixed-method study examined how low-barrier and voluntary service policies influenced staff behavior and how these behaviors then related to survivor empowerment. Qualitative results revealed that low-barrier and voluntary service were guided by cultural values of justice and access, encouraged survivor-centered practices among staff, and were believed to promote survivor autonomy. Quantitative results suggested that when survivors perceived they had a choice to engage in program services or meet with an advocate, their empowerment increased. This study has implications for domestic violence organizational practice and provides evidence about the contextual factors that support individual empowerment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Universalization of access to modern energy services in Indian households. Economic and policy analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Reddy, B. Sudhakara; Nathan, Hippu Salk Kristle; Balachandra, P.

2009-01-01

Provision of modern energy services for cooking (with gaseous fuels) and lighting (with electricity) is an essential component of any policy aiming to address health, education or welfare issues; yet it gets little attention from policy-makers. Secure, adequate, low-cost energy of quality and convenience is core to the delivery of these services. The present study analyses the energy consumption pattern of Indian domestic sector and examines the urban-rural divide and income energy linkage. A comprehensive analysis is done to estimate the cost for providing modern energy services to everyone by 2030. A public-private partnership-driven business model, with entrepreneurship at the core, is developed with institutional, financing and pricing mechanisms for diffusion of energy services. This approach, termed as EMPOWERS (entrepreneurship model for provision of wholesome energy-related basic services), if adopted, can facilitate large-scale dissemination of energy-efficient and renewable technologies like small-scale biogas/biofuel plants, and distributed power generation technologies to provide clean, safe, reliable and sustainable energy to rural households and urban poor. It is expected to integrate the processes of market transformation and entrepreneurship development involving government, NGOs, financial institutions and community groups as stakeholders. (author)

Removing financial barriers to access reproductive, maternal and newborn health services: the challenges and policy implications for human resources for health.

Science.gov (United States)

McPake, Barbara; Witter, Sophie; Ensor, Tim; Fustukian, Suzanne; Newlands, David; Martineau, Tim; Chirwa, Yotamu

2013-09-22

The last decade has seen widespread retreat from user fees with the intention to reduce financial constraints to users in accessing health care and in particular improving access to reproductive, maternal and newborn health services. This has had important benefits in reducing financial barriers to access in a number of settings. If the policies work as intended, service utilization rates increase. However this increases workloads for health staff and at the same time, the loss of user fee revenues can imply that health workers lose bonuses or allowances, or that it becomes more difficult to ensure uninterrupted supplies of health care inputs.This research aimed to assess how policies reducing demand-side barriers to access to health care have affected service delivery with a particular focus on human resources for health. We undertook case studies in five countries (Ghana, Nepal, Sierra Leone, Zambia and Zimbabwe). In each we reviewed financing and HRH policies, considered the impact financing policy change had made on health service utilization rates, analysed the distribution of health staff and their actual and potential workloads, and compared remuneration terms in the public sectors. We question a number of common assumptions about the financing and human resource inter-relationships. The impact of fee removal on utilization levels is mostly not sustained or supported by all the evidence. Shortages of human resources for health at the national level are not universal; maldistribution within countries is the greater problem. Low salaries are not universal; most of the countries pay health workers well by national benchmarks. The interconnectedness between user fee policy and HRH situations proves difficult to assess. Many policies have been changing over the relevant period, some clearly and others possibly in response to problems identified associated with financing policy change. Other relevant variables have also changed.However, as is now well

STS pricing policy

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, C. M.; Stone, B.

1982-01-01

In 1977 NASA published Shuttle Reimbursement Policies for Civil U.S. Government, DOD and Commercial and Foreign Users. These policies were based on the principle of total cost recovery over a period of time with a fixed flat price for initial period to time to enhance transition. This fixed period was to be followed with annual adjustments thereafter, NASA is establishing a new price for 1986 and beyond. In order to recover costs, that price must be higher than the initial fixed price through FY 1985. NASA intends to remain competitive. Competitive posture includes not only price, but other factors such as assured launch, reliability, and unique services. NASA's pricing policy considers all these factors.

Diversifying Fiscal Support by Pricing Public Library Services: A Policy Impact Analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Hicks, Donald A.

1980-01-01

Addresses the possibility of diversifying the resource base of public libraries dependent on property taxes for funding through the setting of fees for library services, and reports on a pricing policy adopted by the Dallas Public Library System. Twenty-seven references are cited. (FM)

Analysis of an M/G/1 Queue with Multiple Vacations, N-policy, Unreliable Service Station and Repair Facility Failures

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wenqing Wu

2014-05-01

Full Text Available This paper studies an M/G/1 repairable queueing system with multiple vacations and N-policy, in which the service station is subject to occasional random breakdowns. When the service station breaks down, it is repaired by a repair facility. Moreover, the repair facility may fail during the repair period of the service station. The failed repair facility resumes repair after completion of its replacement. Under these assumptions, applying a simple method, the probability that the service station is broken, the rate of occurrence of breakdowns of the service station, the probability that the repair facility is being replaced and the rate of occurrence of failures of the repair facility along with other performance measures are obtained. Following the construction of the long-run expected cost function per unit time, the direct search method is implemented for determining the optimum threshold N* that minimises the cost function.

A geometric process model for M/PH(M/PH)/1/K queue with new service machine procurement lead time

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Yu, Miaomiao; Tang, Yinghui; Fu, Yonghong

2013-06-01

In this article, we consider a geometric process model for M/PH(M/PH)/1/K queue with new service machine procurement lead time. A maintenance policy (N - 1, N) based on the number of failures of the service machine is introduced into the system. Assuming that a failed service machine after repair will not be 'as good as new', and the spare service machine for replacement is only available by an order. More specifically, we suppose that the procurement lead time for delivering the spare service machine follows a phase-type (PH) distribution. Under such assumptions, we apply the matrix-analytic method to develop the steady state probabilities of the system, and then we obtain some system performance measures. Finally, employing an important Lemma, the explicit expression of the long-run average cost rate for the service machine is derived, and the direct search method is also implemented to determine the optimal value of N for minimising the average cost rate.

Strategies to improve the implementation of healthy eating, physical activity and obesity prevention policies, practices or programmes within childcare services.

Science.gov (United States)

Wolfenden, Luke; Jones, Jannah; Williams, Christopher M; Finch, Meghan; Wyse, Rebecca J; Kingsland, Melanie; Tzelepis, Flora; Wiggers, John; Williams, Amanda J; Seward, Kirsty; Small, Tameka; Welch, Vivian; Booth, Debbie; Yoong, Sze Lin

2016-10-04

9.5%; and in three trials reporting the time (per day or week) staff or services spent implementing a policy or practice this ranged from 4.3 minutes to 7.7 minutes. The review findings also indicate that is it uncertain whether such interventions improve childcare service staff knowledge or attitudes (two trials), child physical activity (two trials), child weight status (two trials) or child diet (one trial). None of the included trials reported on the cost or cost-effectiveness of the intervention. One trial assessed the adverse effects of a physical activity intervention and found no difference in rates of child injury between groups. For all review outcomes, we rated the quality of the evidence as very low. The primary limitation of the review was the lack of conventional terminology in implementation science, which may have resulted in potentially relevant studies failing to be identified based on the search terms used in this review. Current research provides weak and inconsistent evidence of the effectiveness of such strategies in improving the implementation of policies and practices, childcare service staff knowledge or attitudes, or child diet, physical activity or weight status. Further research in the field is required.

Association between time of pay-for-performance for patients and community health services use by chronic patients.

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Xi Sun

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Pay-for-performance for patients is a cost-effective means of improving health behaviours. This study examined the association between the pay time for performance for patients and CHS use by chronic patients. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was undertaken to estimate distribution characteristics of CHS use in 2011 and collect data of socio-demographic characteristics (sex, age, education level, occupation, disposable personal income in 2011, distance between home and community health agency, chronic disease number, and time of pay-for-performance for patients. Participants were 889 rural adults with hypertension or type II diabetes aged 35 and above. Standardized CHS use means chronic patients use CHS at least once per quarter. RESULTS: Patients who received incentives prior to services had 2.724 times greater odds of using standardized CHS than those who received incentives after services (95%CI, 1.986-3.736, P<0.001. For all subgroups (socio-demographic characteristics and chronic disease number, patients who received incentives prior to services were more likely to use standardized CHS than those receiving incentives after services. CONCLUSIONS: Pay time for performance for patients was associated with CHS use by chronic patients. Patients receiving incentive prior to services were more likely to use standardized CHS. And pay time should not be ignored when the policy on pay-for-performance for patients is designed.

Interim policy on establishment and operation of internet open, anonymous information servers and services

OpenAIRE

Acting Dean of Computer and Information Services

1995-01-01

Purpose. To establish interim NPS general policy regarding establishment and operation of Open, Anonymous Information Servers and Services, such as World Wide Web (http), Gopher, Anonymous FTP, etc...

7 CFR 945.50 - Marketing policy.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 8 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Marketing policy. 945.50 Section 945.50 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) AGRICULTURAL MARKETING SERVICE (Marketing Agreements... Marketing policy. (a) Preparation. Prior to or at the same time as recommendations are made pursuant to...

7 CFR 953.40 - Marketing policy.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 8 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Marketing policy. 953.40 Section 953.40 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) AGRICULTURAL MARKETING SERVICE (Marketing Agreements... STATES Order Regulating Handling Regulations § 953.40 Marketing policy. Prior to or at the same time...

7 CFR 966.50 - Marketing policy.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 8 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Marketing policy. 966.50 Section 966.50 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) AGRICULTURAL MARKETING SERVICE (Marketing Agreements... Regulating Handling Regulation § 966.50 Marketing policy. Prior to or at the same time as initial...

The Influence Of Policy Implementation From The Change Of Institutional Status Toward Quality Of Patient Service In Hospital

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Dadang Kusnadi

2015-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract Fenomenon and comunity problem in goverment hospital management not aware to wont and need public. Silent safety and consumen satisfaction is fenomenon lack quallity care. Goal this research goal for analysis about influence of policy implementation of hospital change institution status to the quality of patien service in Hospital. Kind of reserch is the quantity desain on approach the eksplanatory survey research analysis regresi linier multipel with analysis method validitas product moment pearson exam and reliability exam is alpha cronbach technique to hypotesis exam is path analysis and statistic exam t. Datum transformation is Skala Likert with measurement the method succesive interval. The population one thausand seventh two person with sample technique stratified random sampling the instrument research is quesioner and interview patien on caunter imforman. The result of assuming research that it is anticipated that implementation of change policy of institution status of hospital X there is significant influence to quality of service of patient Y is 66.31 and the other factor e is 33.69. In the implementation factor is significant to positif influence to quality service is communication X1 is 049 human resources X2 is 025 disposition X3 is 032 and structure birocratic X4 is 033. The conculsion from four factor independen variable X is the implementation of policy to quality service patient Y to influence and can receive in knowledge. To concept the development in implementation of policy need culture job factor because every product policy to contac direct with the community as to basic public policy.

Human Trafficking in Ethiopia: A Scoping Review to Identify Gaps in Service Delivery, Research, and Policy.

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Beck, Dana C; Choi, Kristen R; Munro-Kramer, Michelle L; Lori, Jody R

2017-12-01

The purpose of this review is to integrate evidence on human trafficking in Ethiopia and identify gaps and recommendations for service delivery, research and training, and policy. A scoping literature review approach was used to systematically search nursing, medical, psychological, law, and international databases and synthesize information on a complex, understudied topic. The search yielded 826 articles, and 39 met the predetermined criteria for inclusion in the review. Trafficking in Ethiopia has occurred internally and externally in the form of adult and child labor and sex trafficking. There were also some reports of organ trafficking and other closely related human rights violations, such as child marriage, child soldiering, and exploitative intercountry adoption. Risk factors for trafficking included push factors (poverty, political instability, economic problems, and gender discrimination) and pull factors (demand for cheap labor). Trafficking was associated with poor health and economic outcomes for victims. Key recommendations for service delivery, research and training, and policy are identified, including establishing comprehensive services for survivor rehabilitation and reintegration, conducting quantitative health outcomes research, and reforming policy around migration and trafficking. Implementing the recommendations identified by this review will allow policy makers, researchers, and practitioners to take meaningful steps toward confronting human trafficking in Ethiopia.

Time-critical multirate scheduling using contemporary real-time operating system services

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Eckhardt, D. E., Jr.

1983-01-01

Although real-time operating systems provide many of the task control services necessary to process time-critical applications (i.e., applications with fixed, invariant deadlines), it may still be necessary to provide a scheduling algorithm at a level above the operating system in order to coordinate a set of synchronized, time-critical tasks executing at different cyclic rates. The scheduling requirements for such applications and develops scheduling algorithms using services provided by contemporary real-time operating systems.

Unofficial policy: access to housing, housing information and social services among homeless drug users in Hartford, Connecticut

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Corbett A Michelle

2007-03-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Much research has shown that the homeless have higher rates of substance abuse problems than housed populations and that substance abuse increases individuals' vulnerability to homelessness. However, the effects of housing policies on drug users' access to housing have been understudied to date. This paper will look at the "unofficial" housing policies that affect drug users' access to housing. Methods Qualitative interviews were conducted with 65 active users of heroin and cocaine at baseline, 3 and 6 months. Participants were purposively sampled to reflect a variety of housing statuses including homeless on the streets, in shelters, "doubled-up" with family or friends, or permanently housed in subsidized, unsubsidized or supportive housing. Key informant interviews and two focus group interviews were conducted with 15 housing caseworkers. Data were analyzed to explore the processes by which drug users receive information about different housing subsidies and welfare benefits, and their experiences in applying for these. Results A number of unofficial policy mechanisms limit drug users' access to housing, information and services, including limited outreach to non-shelter using homeless regarding housing programs, service provider priorities, and service provider discretion in processing applications and providing services. Conclusion Unofficial policy, i.e. the mechanisms used by caseworkers to ration scarce housing resources, is as important as official housing policies in limiting drug users' access to housing. Drug users' descriptions of their experiences working with caseworkers to obtain permanent, affordable housing, provide insights as to how access to supportive and subsidized housing can be improved for this population.

[European integration and health policies: repercussions of the internal European Market on access to health services].

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Guimarães, Luisa; Giovanella, Lígia

2006-09-01

This article explores the health policy repercussions of countries' regional integration into the European Union. The aim is to review the regulation of access in other countries, with the conclusion of the single European market and the free circulation of persons, services, goods, and capital. The article begins by reviewing the various forms of integration and describes the expansion and institutionalization of Community agencies. The repercussions of European integration on health policies and regulation of access are analyzed. Market impacts on health result from Treaty directives and internal policy adjustments to free circulation. Health services access is gradually regulated and granted by rulings. Projects along borders illustrate the dynamics where differences are used to achieve comprehensive care. In the oldest integration experience, the market regulation has generated intentional and non-intentional impacts on the health policies of member states, regardless of the organizational model. Knowledge and analysis of this experience signals challenges for the Southern Cone Common Market (Mercosur) and adds to future debates and decisions.

The Value of Qualitative Description in Health Services and Policy Research

Science.gov (United States)

2017-01-01

Health services and policy (HSP) researchers have long used qualitative research methodologies to explore health system issues. However, the appropriateness of one approach, qualitative description, for HSP research is still often overlooked. In this article, I discuss the role that qualitative description can play in HSP research, and argue for its greater acceptance as a valid form of academic scholarship. PMID:28277201

Service quality in healthcare institutions: establishing the gaps for policy action.

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Abuosi, Aaron A; Atinga, Roger A

2013-01-01

The authors seek to examine two key issues: to assess patients' hospital service quality perceptions and expectation using SERVQUAL; and to outline the distinct concepts used to assess patient perceptions. Questionnaires were administered to 250 patients on admission and follow-up visits. The 22 paired SERVQUAL expectation and perception items were adopted. Repeated t-measures and factor analysis with Varimax rotation were used to analyse data. Results showed that patient expectations were not being met during medical treatment. Perceived service quality was rated lower than expectations for all variables. The mean difference between perceptions and expectations was statistically significant. Contrary to the SERVQUAL five-factor model, four service-quality factors were identified in the study. Findings have practical implications for hospital managers who should consider stepping up staffing levels backed by client-centred training programmes to help clinicians deliver care to patients' expectations. Limited studies are tailored towards patients' service-quality perception and expectation in Ghanaian hospitals. The findings therefore provide valuable information for policy and practice.

The teaching of Education Policy and Administration in pre-service teacher education courses

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Ranilce Guimarães-Iosif

2018-01-01

Full Text Available This article discusses the teaching of education policy and administration in pre-service teacher education courses from a theoretical-critical and non-linear perspective of education policy study. The data was collected during a semester in two mixed classes totaling 65 students from the Physical Education, Literature, Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics and Physics undergraduate courses. As part of the integration project of the graduate program in education with the undergraduate program, the professor of the policy line of the program in education began using methodologies focused on research activities in their undergraduate classes, aiming to broaden learning and to familiarize students with themes related to education policies. The research results indicate that the learning process in the area goes from the initial rejection to the construction of a critical position on political and governance issues surrounding Brazilian education.

Policies of access to healthcare services for accompanied asylum-seeking children in the Nordic countries.

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Sandahl, Hinuga; Norredam, Marie; Hjern, Anders; Asher, Henry; Nielsen, Signe Smith

2013-08-01

Asylum-seeking children constitute a vulnerable group with high prevalence and risk for mental health problems. The aim of this study was to compare policies of access to healthcare services, including physical examination and screening for mental health problems on arrival, for accompanied asylum-seeking children in the Nordic countries. This study was based on the national reports "Reception of refugee children in the Nordic countries" written by independent national experts for the Nordic Network for Research on Refugee Children, supplemented by information from relevant authorities. In Sweden, Norway and Iceland, asylum-seeking children had access to healthcare services equal to children in the general population. On a policy level, Denmark imposed restrictions on non-acute hospitalisations and prolonged specialist treatments. Regarding health examinations, Sweden deviated from the Nordic pattern by not performing these systematically. In Denmark, Iceland, and some counties in Sweden, but not in Norway, screening for mental health problems was offered to asylum-seeking children. Access to healthcare services for asylum-seeking children differs in the Nordic countries; the consequences of these systematic differences for the individual asylum-seeking child are unknown. For asylum-seeking children, access to healthcare has to be considered in a wider context that includes the core conditions of being an asylum-seeker. A comparative study at policy level needs to be supplemented with empirical follow-up studies of the well-being of the study population to document potential consequences of policies in practice.

Health services financing and delivery: analysis of policy options for Dubai, United Arab Emirates

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Hamidi, Samer

2015-01-01

Introduction A national health account (NHA) provides a systematic approach to mapping the flow of health sector funds within a specified health system over a defined time period. This article attempts to present a profile of health system financing in Dubai, United Arab Emirates using data from NHAs, and to compare the functional structures of financing schemes in Dubai with schemes in Qatar and selected member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Methods The author analyzed secondary data published in NHAs of Dubai and Qatar and data collected by the OECD countries and publicly available from Eurostat (Statistical Office of the European Union) of 25 OECD countries for comparative analysis. All health financing indicators used were as defined in the international System of Health Accounts (SHA). Results In Dubai, spending on inpatient care was the highest-costing component, with 30% of current health expenditures (CHE). Spending on outpatient care was the second highest-costing component and accounted for about 23% of the CHE. Household spending accounted for about 22% of CHE (equivalent to US$187 per capita), compared to an average of 20% of CHE of OECD countries. Dubai spent 0.02% of CHE on long-term care, compared to an average of 11% of CHE of OECD countries. Dubai spent about 6% of CHE on prevention and public health services, compared to an average of 3.2% of CHE of OECD countries. Conclusion The findings point to potential opportunities for growth and improvement in several health policy issues in Dubai, including increasing focus and funding of preventive services; shifting from inpatient care to day surgery, outpatient, and home-based services and strengthening long-term care; and introducing cost-containment measures for pharmaceuticals. More investment in the translation of NHA data into policy is suggested for future researchers. PMID:25750545

Health services financing and delivery: analysis of policy options for Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Science.gov (United States)

Hamidi, Samer

2015-01-01

A national health account (NHA) provides a systematic approach to mapping the flow of health sector funds within a specified health system over a defined time period. This article attempts to present a profile of health system financing in Dubai, United Arab Emirates using data from NHAs, and to compare the functional structures of financing schemes in Dubai with schemes in Qatar and selected member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The author analyzed secondary data published in NHAs of Dubai and Qatar and data collected by the OECD countries and publicly available from Eurostat (Statistical Office of the European Union) of 25 OECD countries for comparative analysis. All health financing indicators used were as defined in the international System of Health Accounts (SHA). In Dubai, spending on inpatient care was the highest-costing component, with 30% of current health expenditures (CHE). Spending on outpatient care was the second highest-costing component and accounted for about 23% of the CHE. Household spending accounted for about 22% of CHE (equivalent to US$187 per capita), compared to an average of 20% of CHE of OECD countries. Dubai spent 0.02% of CHE on long-term care, compared to an average of 11% of CHE of OECD countries. Dubai spent about 6% of CHE on prevention and public health services, compared to an average of 3.2% of CHE of OECD countries. The findings point to potential opportunities for growth and improvement in several health policy issues in Dubai, including increasing focus and funding of preventive services; shifting from inpatient care to day surgery, outpatient, and home-based services and strengthening long-term care; and introducing cost-containment measures for pharmaceuticals. More investment in the translation of NHA data into policy is suggested for future researchers.

Task shifting of HIV/AIDS case management to Community Health Service Centers in urban China: a qualitative policy analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Ma, Fuchang; Lv, Fan; Xu, Peng; Zhang, Dapeng; Meng, Sining; Ju, Lahong; Jiang, Huihui; Ma, Liping; Sun, Jiangping; Wu, Zunyou

2015-07-02

The growing number of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in China points to an increased need for case management services of HIV/AIDS. This study sought to explore the challenges and enablers in shifting the HIV/AIDS case management services from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCs) to Community Health Service Centers (CHSCs) in urban China. A qualitative method based on the Health Policy Triangle (HPT) framework was employed to gain in-depth insights into four elements of the task shifting strategy. This included a review on published literature and health policy documents, 15 focus group discussions (FGDs) and 30 in-depth interviews (IDIs) with four types of key actors from three cities in China. A total of 78 studies and 17 policy files at the national, municipal and local levels were obtained and reviewed comprehensively. Three semi-structured interview guides were used to explore key actors' views on shifting the HIV/AIDS case management services to CHSCs. It is necessary and feasible for CHSCs to engage in case management services for PLWHA in local communities. The increasing number of PLWHA and shortage of qualified health professionals in CDCs made shifting case management services downwards to CHSCs an urgent agenda. CHSCs' wide distribution, technical capacity, accessibility and current practice enabled them to carry out case management services for PLWHA. However our findings indicated several challenges in this task shifting process. Those challenges included lack of specific policy and stable financial support for CHSCs, inadequate manpower, relatively low capacity for health service delivery, lack of coordination among sectors, PLWHA's fear for discrimination and privacy disclosure in local communities, which may compromise the effectiveness and sustainability of those services. Shifting the HIV/AIDS case management services from CDCs to CHSCs is a new approach to cope with the rising number of PLWHA in China, but it should be

A policy-driven large scale ecological restoration: quantifying ecosystem services changes in the Loess Plateau of China.

Science.gov (United States)

Lü, Yihe; Fu, Bojie; Feng, Xiaoming; Zeng, Yuan; Liu, Yu; Chang, Ruiying; Sun, Ge; Wu, Bingfang

2012-01-01

As one of the key tools for regulating human-ecosystem relations, environmental conservation policies can promote ecological rehabilitation across a variety of spatiotemporal scales. However, quantifying the ecological effects of such policies at the regional level is difficult. A case study was conducted at the regional level in the ecologically vulnerable region of the Loess Plateau, China, through the use of several methods including the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE), hydrological modeling and multivariate analysis. An assessment of the changes over the period of 2000-2008 in four key ecosystem services was undertaken to determine the effects of the Chinese government's ecological rehabilitation initiatives implemented in 1999. These ecosystem services included water regulation, soil conservation, carbon sequestration and grain production. Significant conversions of farmland to woodland and grassland were found to have resulted in enhanced soil conservation and carbon sequestration, but decreased regional water yield under a warming and drying climate trend. The total grain production increased in spite of a significant decline in farmland acreage. These trends have been attributed to the strong socioeconomic incentives embedded in the ecological rehabilitation policy. Although some positive policy results have been achieved over the last decade, large uncertainty remains regarding long-term policy effects on the sustainability of ecological rehabilitation performance and ecosystem service enhancement. To reduce such uncertainty, this study calls for an adaptive management approach to regional ecological rehabilitation policy to be adopted, with a focus on the dynamic interactions between people and their environments in a changing world.

Can European sustainability and innovation policies accelerate the uptake of product-service systems?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Tan, A.R.; Diaz Lopez, F.J.; Mudgal, S.; Tukker, A.

2013-01-01

This review paper presents preliminary results from on-going research on PSS policies in Europe. Despite the apparent potential of product-service systems (PSS) as more profitable, resource efficient and socially responsible, there has seemingly been limited uptake of this type of business model. A

Contribution of ecosystem services to air quality and climate change mitigation policies: the case of urban forests in Barcelona, Spain.

Science.gov (United States)

Baró, Francesc; Chaparro, Lydia; Gómez-Baggethun, Erik; Langemeyer, Johannes; Nowak, David J; Terradas, Jaume

2014-05-01

Mounting research highlights the contribution of ecosystem services provided by urban forests to quality of life in cities, yet these services are rarely explicitly considered in environmental policy targets. We quantify regulating services provided by urban forests and evaluate their contribution to comply with policy targets of air quality and climate change mitigation in the municipality of Barcelona, Spain. We apply the i-Tree Eco model to quantify in biophysical and monetary terms the ecosystem services "air purification," "global climate regulation," and the ecosystem disservice "air pollution" associated with biogenic emissions. Our results show that the contribution of urban forests regulating services to abate pollution is substantial in absolute terms, yet modest when compared to overall city levels of air pollution and GHG emissions. We conclude that in order to be effective, green infrastructure-based efforts to offset urban pollution at the municipal level have to be coordinated with territorial policies at broader spatial scales.

A qualitative study of junior high school principals' and school food service directors' experiences with the Texas school nutrition policy.

Science.gov (United States)

Roberts, Stephen M; Pobocik, Rebecca S; Deek, Rima; Besgrove, Ashley; Prostine, Becky A

2009-01-01

The objective of this study was to learn about the experiences of principals and school food service directors with the Texas Public School Nutrition Policy. Semistructured qualitative interviews were conducted to gain first hand reactions to the new nutrition policy. Data were gathered from Texas middle schools. Principals and food service directors from 24 schools randomly selected from 10 Texas Education regions were interviewed. Participants were interviewed about their reactions to the implementation of the Texas School Nutrition Policy. Two researchers, using thematic analysis, independently analyzed each interview. Differences in coding were reconciled and themes were generated. The themes that surfaced included resistance to the policy, policy development process, communication, government role, parental role, food rewards, fund raising, and leadership. Resistance to the policy was not extreme. In the future a wider array of school personnel who are affected by school food regulations should be included in the development of new policies. It is critical to communicate with all concerned parties about the policy.

Transformative Empowerment in the Lagos State Civil Service: A Gender Policy Discourse

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Felicia A.D. Oyekanmi

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Transformation means positive change to new values and direction. This research is concerned with the relationship between empowerment processes that are transformatory and gender equality in the workplace. Its scope includes integrating a transformatory view into women’s and men’s consciousness and autonomy over their career, education and health. This research adopted a case-study approach by using the Ministries of Education, Health, Establishment, Training and Pensions and the Civil Service Commission in Lagos State, employing a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods as its empirical research methodology. The field work was carried out in Lagos State in the months of June and July, 2014 while the interview was in July and August, 2014. This study demonstrated that gender-blind policies disempower women and perpetuate gender inequalities in the Lagos State Civil Service. Further, it shows that the manifestation of transformatory empowerment is jeopardised by women and men's compliance with the existing expectations and inaction to bring about changes in policies and practices that are detrimental to the attainment of gender equality in the work place.

QUANTIFYING BARRIERS TO TRADE IN SERVICES THROUGHCOMMERCIAL PRESENCE: SELECTED SERVICES IN MALAYSIA

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Nirwan Noh

2012-07-01

Full Text Available The services sector in Malaysia is slowlyliberalising in terms of equityownership. However, trade and investment barriers in the services sector aredifficult to measure since it is not easily quantifiable. Previous studies weremainly macro-level, multi-country cross-sectional assessments while there are nocountry level studies over time. This paper has two objectives. The first is tomeasure barriers to trade in services carried out through commercial presence(Mode 3 in Malaysia in several industries over time. The second objective is toassess the policy implications of the measurement obtained.Based on availabledata, the industries covered in this study include communications, construction,distribution, higher education, financial, healthcare, tourism and transportationand logistics services from 2001-2010.This assessment is important asMalaysiahopes to attract more foreign direct investment (FDI intoitsservices sector.Information is gathered throughsurveys, focus group discussions andcontentanalysis ofsecondary sources.Restrictive policies on FDI aretransformed intoanindex to measure the extent of liberalisation for each subsector.Based on theindex, it can be seen that theliberalisationprocessis still slow. To facilitatefurther progress inliberalising the services sector, it is important toliberalisebarriersbeyond mere equityownership.

Internationalisation of information services for publishers' open access policies: the DINI multilingual integration layer

Science.gov (United States)

Scholze, Frank

2008-01-01

It is essential for the strategy of open access self-archiving that scientific authors are given comprehensive information on publisher copyright policies. DINI, the German Initiative for Networked Information, has developed a German (and potentially multilingual) interface to the English SHERPA/RoMEO service to provide additional information on German publishers' open access policies. As a next step, this interface was enhanced to an integration layer combining different sources on publisher copyright policies. This integration layer can be used in many different contexts. Together with the SHERPA/RoMEO team, DINI aims to build an international support structure for open access information. PMID:18662383

Market Regulators of Service Spheres Innovative Development as a Tool of Regional Socio-Economic Policy

OpenAIRE

Pugacheva, Anna S.; Filippova, Viktoriya P.; Kon, Andrei Y.; Dorzhieva, Lyudmila B.; Silchenok, Igor S.; Pugacheva, Natalya B.; Lunev, Alexander N.; Mustafina, Alfiya A.

2016-01-01

The relevance of the study is conditioned by the innovative development of service spheres as the reduction of territorial social and economic differentiation to the level, due to objective differences of the regions and to balance of their revenue base and expenditure commitments. The service sector is one of the most dynamic and growing segments of regional markets and one of the characteristics of effective socio-economic policy in the region. Innovative development of service spheres as a...

A case study of the counterpart technical support policy to improve rural health services in Beijing

Science.gov (United States)

2012-01-01

Background There is, globally, an often observed inequality in the health services available in urban and rural areas. One strategy to overcome the inequality is to require urban doctors to spend time in rural hospitals. This approach was adopted by the Beijing Municipality (population of 20.19 million) to improve rural health services, but the approach has never been systematically evaluated. Methods Drawing upon 1.6 million cases from 24 participating hospitals in Beijing (13 urban and 11 rural hospitals) from before and after the implementation of the policy, changes in the rural–urban hospital performance gap were examined. Hospital performance was assessed using changes in six indices over-time: Diagnosis Related Groups quantity, case-mix index (CMI), cost expenditure index (CEI), time expenditure index (TEI), and mortality rates of low- and high-risk diseases. Results Significant reductions in rural–urban gaps were observed in DRGs quantity and mortality rates for both high- and low-risk diseases. These results signify improvements of rural hospitals in terms of medical safety, and capacity to treat emergency cases and more diverse illnesses. No changes in the rural–urban gap in CMI were observed. Post-implementation, cost and time efficiencies worsened for the rural hospitals but improved for urban hospitals, leading to a widening rural–urban gap in hospital efficiency. Conclusions The strategy for reducing urban–rural gaps in health services adopted, by the Beijing Municipality shows some promise. Gains were not consistent, however, across all performance indicators, and further improvements will need to be tried and evaluated. PMID:23272703

Ecosystem services science, practice, and policy: Perspectives from ACES, A Community on Ecosystem Services

Science.gov (United States)

Shapiro, Carl D.; Arthaud, Greg; Casey, Frank; Hogan, Dianna M.

2015-01-01

Ecosystem services are at a crossroad. The natural capital needed to produce them is diminishing (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005). At the same time, the science relating to their identification, production, and valuation is advancing. Examples of ecosystem services applications are abundant in the literature. In addition, the concept of ecosystem services and its applications are attracting attention and are becoming more visible. The concept of ecosystem services, however, is still not routinely applied to many natural resource management decisions.

Requirements of health policy and services journals for authors to disclose financial and non-financial conflicts of interest: a cross-sectional study.

Science.gov (United States)

Khamis, Assem M; Hakoum, Maram B; Bou-Karroum, Lama; Habib, Joseph R; Ali, Ahmed; Guyatt, Gordon; El-Jardali, Fadi; Akl, Elie A

2017-09-19

The requirements of the health policy and services journals for authors to report their financial and non-financial conflicts of interest (COI) are unclear. The present article aims to assess the requirements of health policy and services journals for authors to disclose their financial and non-financial COIs. This is a cross-sectional study of journals listed by the Web of Science under the category of 'Health Policy and Services'. We reviewed the 'Instructions for Authors' on the journals' websites and then simulated the submission of a manuscript to obtain any additional relevant information made available during that step. We abstracted data in duplicate and independently using a standardised form. Out of 72 eligible journals, 67 (93%) had a COI policy. A minority of policies described how the disclosed COIs of authors would impact the editorial process (34%). None of the policies had clear-cut criteria for rejection based on the content of the disclosure. Approximately a fifth of policies (21%) explicitly stated that inaccurate or incomplete disclosures might lead to manuscript rejection or retraction. No policy described whether the journal would verify the accuracy or completeness of authors' disclosed COIs. Most journals' policies (93%) required the disclosure of at least one form of financial COI. While the majority asked for specification of source of payment (71%), a minority asked for the amount (18%). Overall, 81% of policies explicitly required disclosure of non-financial COIs. A majority of health policy and services journal policies required the disclosure of authors' financial and non-financial COIs, but few required details on disclosed COIs. Health policy journals should provide specific definitions and instructions for disclosing non-financial COIs. A framework providing clear typology and operational definitions of the different types of COIs will facilitate both their disclosure by authors and reviewers and their assessment and management by

Shifting spatial priorities for ecosystem services in Europe following land use change

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Verhagen, Willem; van Teeffelen, Astrid J.A.; Verburg, Peter H.

2018-01-01

Policy objectives to maintain ecosystem services are increasingly set. Methods to identify priority areas for ecosystem services can assist in the implementation of such policy objectives. While land use change is an important driver of changes in ecosystem services over time, most prioritization

Changes in alcohol policies and practices in bars and restaurants after completion of manager-focused responsible service training.

Science.gov (United States)

Lenk, Kathleen M; Erickson, Darin J; Nelson, Toben F; Horvath, Keith J; Nederhoff, Dawn M; Hunt, Shanda L; Ecklund, Alexandra M; Toomey, Traci L

2018-03-01

Irresponsible and illegal serving practices at bars and restaurants, such as sales to obviously intoxicated patrons, can lead to various public health harms. Training managers of bars and restaurants in the development and promotion of responsible alcohol policies may help prevent risky and illegal alcohol serving practices. We implemented a training program for managers of bars/restaurants designed to establish and promote responsible beverage service policies/practices. The program included online and in-person components. Bars/restaurants were randomised to intervention (n = 171) and control (n = 163) groups. To assess changes in policies/practices, we surveyed managers prior to and at 1 and 6 months post-training. Logistic regression models assessed changes in policies/practices across time points. The proportion in the intervention group that had written alcohol policies increased from 62% to 95% by 6 months post-training while the control group increased from 65% to 79% (P managers in the intervention group reported they had communicated to their staff how to cut off intoxicated patrons, a significant increase from baseline (37%) and from the change observed in the control group (43%-56%). Prevalence of other policies/practices also increased post-training but differences between intervention and control groups were not statistically significant. Our training program appears to have led to implementation of some policies/practices. Additional studies are needed to determine how training can be combined with other strategies to further improve establishment policies and ultimately reduce alcohol-related harms. © 2017 Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and other Drugs.

Timely Health Service Utilization of Older Foster Youth by Insurance Type.

Science.gov (United States)

Day, Angelique; Curtis, Amy; Paul, Rajib; Allotey, Prince Addo; Crosby, Shantel

2016-01-01

To evaluate the impact of a policy change for older foster care youth from a fee-for-service (FFS) Medicaid program to health maintenance organization (HMO) providers on the timeliness of first well-child visits (health care physicals). A three-year retrospective study using linked administrative data collected by the Michigan Departments of Human Services and Community Health of 1,657 youth, ages 10-20 years, who were in foster care during the 2009-2012 study period was used to examine the odds of receiving a timely well-child visit within the recommended 30-day time frame controlling for race, age, days from foster care entry to Medicaid enrollment, and number of foster care placements. Youth entering foster care during the HMO period were more likely to receive a timely well-child visit than those in the FFS period (odds ratio, 2.46; 95% confidence interval, 1.84-3.29; p foster care during the FFS period to 29 days for the HMO period. Among the other factors examined, more than 14 days to Medicaid enrollment, being non-Hispanic black and having five or more placements were negatively associated with receipt of a timely first well-child visit. Those youth who entered foster care during the HMO period had significantly greater odds of receiving a timely first well-child visit; however, disparities in access to preventive health care remain a concern for minority foster care youth, those who experience delayed Medicaid enrollment and those who experienced multiple placements. Copyright © 2016 Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Time Trends and Policy Gaps: The Case of Alcohol Misuse Among Adolescents in Lebanon.

Science.gov (United States)

Ghandour, Lilian; Afifi, Rima; Fares, Sonia; El Salibi, Noura; Rady, Alissar

2015-01-01

Monitoring studies are crucial for informing and reforming local policies. Using the Lebanon 2005 and 2011 Global School-based Student Health Surveys (GSHS), alcohol time trends were described, policy gaps were identified, and harm reduction policy recommendations were made. In 2005 and 2011, 100 (n = 5109 students) and 44 (n = 2784 students) middle schools were surveyed, respectively. Self-reported cross-sectional data on alcohol use among 7-9th graders in private and public schools was collected including 30-day prevalence, lifetime drunkenness, alcohol-related problems, and sources of alcohol. In 2011, the majority (87%) had alcohol before turning 14. Between 2005 and 2011, past 30-day alcohol use had increased by 40% and lifetime drunkenness by 50% in the total sample (122% among females with a narrowing in the gender gap). Drinking was regular for more than a third of the past 30-day drinkers (drank two or more drinks on the days they drank). Male adolescents were more likely to obtain alcohol from "stores" or "through their friends" whereas females' main source was their "family." One in twenty reported experiencing alcohol-related problems (e.g., getting into fights with family/friends and skipping school). Conclusion/Importance: Evidence-informed policy implications include enforcing a minimum legal drinking age, regulating alcohol advertising, and marketing particularly those targeting youth and women, and ensuring the availability of youth-friendly services. Public messages to increase awareness among all stakeholders including youth, their parents, and larger community are also needed.

Colombian ancillary services and international connections: Current weaknesses and policy challenges

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Carvajal, S.X.; Serrano, J.; Arango, S.

2013-01-01

Ancillary services are required to maintain the unity, stability, and quality of power systems. In Colombia these services are required to operate the national power system and the international connections with the neighboring countries. The system is influenced by factors ranging from system's topology to social and political aspects, such as the large number of terrorist attacks. In light of these particularities, we consider Colombia as a learning lab for ancillary services in the region. Colombia's power system relies on three ancillary services for its operation, namely frequency regulation, voltage control, and blackstart service. From 2010 Special Protection Systems were also added. In this paper we first analyze the technical aspects, operational restrictions, financial management, and the most relevant regulatory conditions of these ancillary services of the SIN. We also take into consideration the main regulatory characteristics and statistical data related to energy exchanges that have taken place between Colombia and Venezuela and Ecuador. Thereafter, we depict the main weaknesses and policy challenges that Colombia must address in order to increase the effectiveness and coverage of ancillary services in both the SIN and in the international interconnections. Finally, we propose new market oriented regulations to encourage investments and new tools for international connections. - Highlights: ► Blackout of 2007 forces Colombian regulator to improve security of power system. ► Four ancillary services are currently used for secure operation of Colombian system. ► Special Protection Systems service added in 2010. ► Frequency control is the only remunerated service in Colombia. ► Legislation should exist for remuneration of voltage control and black start services.

FEATURES OF MARKETING POLICY OF THE COMPANIES IN THE MARKET OF CONSULTING SERVICES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Timur A. Tultaev

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Dynamic development of the market of consulting services against progressing competitive fight promoted strengthening of a role of marketing in the activity of the consultant companies. The given article is devoted to the analysis of marketing policy and features of its application in consulting business.

Policy Framework for Covering Preventive Services Without Cost Sharing: Saving Lives and Saving Money?

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Stephanie C; Pearson, Steven D

2016-08-01

The US Affordable Care Act mandates that private insurers cover a list of preventive services without cost sharing. The list is determined by 4 expert committees that evaluate the overall health effect of preventive services. We analyzed the process by which the expert committees develop their recommendations. Each committee uses different criteria to evaluate preventive services and none of the committees consider cost systematically. We propose that the existing committees adopt consistent evidence review methodologies and expand the scope of preventive services reviewed and that a separate advisory committee be established to integrate economic considerations into the final selection of free preventive services. The comprehensive framework and associated criteria are intended to help policy makers in the future develop a more evidence-based, consistent, and ethically sound approach.

Evidence-based policy versus morality policy: the case of syringe access programs.

Science.gov (United States)

de Saxe Zerden, Lisa; O'Quinn, Erin; Davis, Corey

2015-01-01

Evidence-based practice (EBP) combines proven interventions with clinical experience, ethics, and client preferences to inform treatment and services. Although EBP is integrated into most aspects of social work and public health, at times EBP is at odds with social policy. In this article the authors explore the paradox of evidence-based policy using syringe access programs (SAP) as a case example, and review methods of bridging the gap between the emphasis on EBP and lack of evidence informing SAP policy. Analysis includes the overuse of morality policy and examines historical and current theories why this paradox exists. Action steps are highlighted for creating effective policy and opportunities for public health change. Strategies on reframing the problem and shifting target population focus to garner support for evidence-based policy change are included. This interdisciplinary understanding of the way in which these factors converge is a critical first step in moving beyond morality-based policy toward evidence-based policy.

Pricing for Efficiency, Equity, and Simplicity: A Model Policy for an Interlibrary Courier Service.

Science.gov (United States)

Gassler, Robert Scott

1985-01-01

Presents an example of a pricing policy for any interlibrary courier service which (1) calculates fixed, travelling, and stopping costs; (2) charges by how often the courier stops at each participating library; and (3) uses any subsidies for costs libraries cannot control. (CDD)

Estimated time spent on preventive services by primary care physicians

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gradison Margaret

2008-12-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Delivery of preventive health services in primary care is lacking. One of the main barriers is lack of time. We estimated the amount of time primary care physicians spend on important preventive health services. Methods We analyzed a large dataset of primary care (family and internal medicine visits using the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (2001–4; analyses were conducted 2007–8. Multiple linear regression was used to estimate the amount of time spent delivering each preventive service, controlling for demographic covariates. Results Preventive visits were longer than chronic care visits (M = 22.4, SD = 11.8, M = 18.9, SD = 9.2, respectively. New patients required more time from physicians. Services on which physicians spent relatively more time were prostate specific antigen (PSA, cholesterol, Papanicolaou (Pap smear, mammography, exercise counseling, and blood pressure. Physicians spent less time than recommended on two "A" rated ("good evidence" services, tobacco cessation and Pap smear (in preventive visits, and one "B" rated ("at least fair evidence" service, nutrition counseling. Physicians spent substantial time on two services that have an "I" rating ("inconclusive evidence of effectiveness", PSA and exercise counseling. Conclusion Even with limited time, physicians address many of the "A" rated services adequately. However, they may be spending less time than recommended for important services, especially smoking cessation, Pap smear, and nutrition counseling. Future research is needed to understand how physicians decide how to allocate their time to address preventive health.

Single Mothers' Experiences with Pregnancy and Child Rearing in Korea: Discrepancy between Social Services/Policies and Single Mothers' Needs.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Jung-Eun; Lee, Jin Yong; Lee, Sang Hyung

2018-05-10

This study aims to explore single mothers’ experiences with social services/policies for their independent living and to identify gaps between these experiences and the needs of single mothers. A focus group discussion was performed to collect data. Seven single mothers discussed their experiences in significant periods of their lives: pregnancy, childbirth, and parenting. Findings from the qualitative thematic analysis show discrepancies between the direction of social services/policies and single mothers’ needs, in terms of difficulties in healthcare, childcare, housing, employment, and income security. To the single mothers in this study, the social safety net is not inclusive, compared to that which is available to two-parent families or adoptive families. It is necessary to intervene in current blind spots of services/policies for single mothers, and to provide a social safety net to strengthen single mothers’ self-reliance and their children’s social security in the long term.

15 CFR 200.115 - Description of services and list of fees, incorporation by reference.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... COMMERCE MEASUREMENT SERVICES POLICIES, SERVICES, PROCEDURES, AND FEES § 200.115 Description of services.... Department of Commerce. (4) Federal Depository Libraries. (c) Revisions of SP 250 will be issued from time to... concerning policies, procedures, services, and fees may be obtained by writing the Office of Measurement...

25 CFR 20.102 - What is the Bureau's policy in providing financial assistance and social services under this part?

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

..., DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR HUMAN SERVICES FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE AND SOCIAL SERVICES PROGRAMS Definitions... this part to eligible Indians when comparable financial assistance or social services are either not... 25 Indians 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false What is the Bureau's policy in providing financial...

Freshwater Ecosystem Services in Mining Regions: Modelling Options for Policy Development Support

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Daniel Mercado-Garcia

2018-04-01

Full Text Available The ecosystem services (ES approach offers an integrated perspective of social-ecological systems, suitable for holistic assessments of mining impacts. Yet for ES models to be policy-relevant, methodological consensus in mining contexts is needed. We review articles assessing ES in mining areas focusing on freshwater components and policy support potential. Twenty-six articles were analysed concerning (i methodological complexity (data types, number of parameters, processes and ecosystem–human integration level and (ii potential applicability for policy development (communication of uncertainties, scenario simulation, stakeholder participation and management recommendations. Articles illustrate mining impacts on ES through valuation exercises mostly. However, the lack of ground- and surface-water measurements, as well as insufficient representation of the connectivity among soil, water and humans, leave room for improvements. Inclusion of mining-specific environmental stressors models, increasing resolution of topographies, determination of baseline ES patterns and inclusion of multi-stakeholder perspectives are advantageous for policy support. We argue that achieving more holistic assessments exhorts practitioners to aim for high social-ecological connectivity using mechanistic models where possible and using inductive methods only where necessary. Due to data constraints, cause–effect networks might be the most feasible and best solution. Thus, a policy-oriented framework is proposed, in which data science is directed to environmental modelling for analysis of mining impacts on water ES.

Run-time verification of behavioural conformance for conversational web services

OpenAIRE

Dranidis, Dimitris; Ramollari, Ervin; Kourtesis, Dimitrios

2009-01-01

Web services exposing run-time behaviour that deviates from their behavioural specifications represent a major threat to the sustainability of a service-oriented ecosystem. It is therefore critical to verify the behavioural conformance of services during run-time. This paper discusses a novel approach for run-time verification of Web services. It proposes the utilisation of Stream X-machines for constructing formal behavioural specifications of Web services which can be exploited for verifyin...

Mental health services for black and minority ethnic elders in the United Kingdom: a systematic review of innovative practice with service provision and policy implications.

Science.gov (United States)

Bhattacharyya, Sarmishtha; Benbow, Susan Mary

2013-03-01

The proportion of older people from black and minority ethnic (BME) groups in the United Kingdom (UK) is increasing steadily as the population ages. The numbers with dementia, depression, and other mental health problems are predicted to increase. Government policy documents have highlighted gaps in services for BME elders and/or the need to develop culturally appropriate services, in order to prevent people from BME communities from becoming socially excluded and finding services hard to access. This paper reviews published examples of innovative services and key learning points from them. A search was carried out on Pubmed, Medline, and Google Scholar for service developments aimed at BME elders in the UK. Sixteen relevant papers and reports were identified and were analysed to identify learning points and implications for clinical practice and policy. Commissioning issues included were forward planning for continuing funding and mainstreaming versus specialist services. Provider management issues included were employing staff from the communities of interest, partnership, and removing language barriers. Provider service issues included were education for service provider staff on the needs of BME elders, making available information in relevant languages, building on carers' and users' experiences, and addressing the needs of both groups. A model for structuring understanding of the underutilisation of services by BME elders is suggested. The main emphasis in future should be to ensure that learning is shared, disseminated, and applied to the benefit of all communities across the whole of the UK and elsewhere. Person-centred care is beneficial to all service users.

Local variability in long-term care services: local autonomy, exogenous influences and policy spillovers.

Science.gov (United States)

Fernandez, José-Luis; Forder, Julien

2015-03-01

In many countries, public responsibility over the funding and provision of long-term care services is held at the local level. In such systems, long-term care provision is often characterised by significant local variability. Using a panel dataset of local authorities over the period 2002-2012, the paper investigates the underlying causes of variation in gross social care expenditure for older people in England. The analysis distinguishes between factors outside the direct control of policy makers, local preferences and local policy spillovers. The results indicate that local demand and supply factors, and to a much lesser extent local political preferences and spatial policy spillovers, explain a large majority of the observed variation in expenditure. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Design of price incentives for adjunct policy goals in formula funding for hospitals and health services

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Duckett Stephen J

2008-04-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Hospital policy involves multiple objectives: efficiency of service delivery, pursuit of high quality care, promoting access. Funding policy based on hospital casemix has traditionally been considered to be only about promoting efficiency. Discussion Formula-based funding policy can be (and has been used to pursue a range of policy objectives, not only efficiency. These are termed 'adjunct' goals. Strategies to incorporate adjunct goals into funding design must, implicitly or explicitly, address key decision choices outlined in this paper. Summary Policy must be clear and explicit about the behaviour to be rewarded; incentives must be designed so that all facilities with an opportunity to improve have an opportunity to benefit; the reward structure is stable and meaningful; and the funder monitors performance and gaming.

Implications of State Policy Changes on Mental Health Service Models for Students with Disabilities

Science.gov (United States)

Lawson, Janelle E.; Cmar, Jennifer L.

2016-01-01

For over 25 years, students with disabilities in California received educationally related mental health services through interagency collaboration between school districts and county mental health agencies. After a major change in state policy that eliminated state-mandated interagency collaboration, school districts in California are now solely…

Waiting-time approximations in multi-queue systems with cyclic service

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Boxma, O.J.; Meister, B.W.

1987-01-01

This study is devoted to mean waiting-time approximations in a single-server multi-queue model with cyclic service and zero switching times of the server between consecutive queues. Two different service disciplines are considered: exhaustive service and (ordinary cyclic) nonexhaustive service. For

A scoping study: children, policy and cultural shifts in homelessness services in South Australia: are children still falling through the gaps?

Science.gov (United States)

Parry, Yvonne Karen; Grant, Julian; Burke, Lynette

2016-09-01

Homeless families are the fastest growing segment of the homelessness population. Homelessness services are often the first to know when children are at risk of disengagement with health, welfare and education services. Changes to Australian policy to explicitly attend to the needs of children are attempts to address the complexity of, and provide better outcomes for, homeless children. There are mounting levels of evidence describing some of the needs of children who are homeless. Using the scoping study methodological framework, this review of academic and grey literature identified the extent to which service providers provide for the needs of homeless children. The literature search was conducted from September 2012 to April 2013 using ProQuest, Science Direct, Sage and OVID databases. Therefore, the objectives of this scoping study were to: (i) identify the specific needs of children in homelessness; (ii) describe recent changes in policy relating to care for children in homelessness services; (iii) explore the evidence on how service providers can enact care for children in homelessness services; (iv) identify the types of practice changes that are needed to optimise outcomes for children; and (v) identify the gaps in service delivery. This article describes the Australian policy changes and explores the potential impact of subsequent sector reforms on the internal practices in front-line homelessness services, in order to overcome structural and systemic barriers, and promote opportunities for children in homeless families. This scoping study literature review contributes to the understanding of the impact of policy change on front-line staff and suggests possible practice changes and future research options. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Privacy, Time Consistent Optimal Labour Income Taxation and Education Policy

OpenAIRE

Konrad, Kai A.

1999-01-01

Incomplete information is a commitment device for time consistency problems. In the context of time consistent labour income taxation privacy reduces welfare losses and increases the effectiveness of public education as a second best policy.

Paucity of qualitative research in general medical and health services and policy research journals: analysis of publication rates.

Science.gov (United States)

Gagliardi, Anna R; Dobrow, Mark J

2011-10-12

Qualitative research has the potential to inform and improve health care decisions but a study based on one year of publications suggests that it is not published in prominent health care journals. A more detailed, longitudinal analysis of its availability is needed. The purpose of this study was to identify, count and compare the number of qualitative and non-qualitative research studies published in high impact health care journals, and explore trends in these data over the last decade. A bibliometric approach was used to identify and quantify qualitative articles published in 20 top general medical and health services and policy research journals from 1999 to 2008. Eligible journals were selected based on performance in four different ranking systems reported in the 2008 ISI Journal Citation Reports. Qualitative and non-qualitative research published in these journals were identified by searching MEDLINE, and validated by hand-searching tables of contents for four journals. The total number of qualitative research articles published during 1999 to 2008 in ten general medical journals ranged from 0 to 41, and in ten health services and policy research journals from 0 to 39. Over this period the percentage of empirical research articles that were qualitative ranged from 0% to 0.6% for the general medical journals, and 0% to 6.4% for the health services and policy research journals. This analysis suggests that qualitative research it is rarely published in high impact general medical and health services and policy research journals. The factors that contribute to this persistent marginalization need to be better understood.

76 FR 70454 - HIT Policy Committee's Workgroup Meetings; Notice of Meetings

Science.gov (United States)

2011-11-14

... DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES HIT Policy Committee's Workgroup Meetings; Notice of... be open to the public via dial-in access only. Name of Committees: HIT Policy Committee's Workgroups... certification criteria are needed. Date and Time: The HIT Policy Committee Workgroups will hold the following...

Migrants' access to healthcare services within the European Union: a content analysis of policy documents in Ireland, Portugal and Spain.

Science.gov (United States)

Ledoux, Céline; Pilot, Eva; Diaz, Esperanza; Krafft, Thomas

2018-06-15

The current migration flow into Europe is leading to a growing ethnically diverse population in many European countries. Now more than ever, those populations have different healthcare needs, languages, traditions, and previous level of care. This higher level of diversity is likely to increase health inequalities that might challenge healthcare systems if not addressed. In this context, this study aims at reviewing the policy framework for migrants' access to healthcare in Spain, Portugal and Ireland, countries with a long history of immigration, to identify lessons to be learned for policies on migrants' health. A content analysis of official policy documents was undertaken and the conceptual framework developed by Mladowsky was adapted to classify the actions indicated in the policies. The content analysis revealed that the policy aim for all three analysed countries is the improvement of the health status of the immigrant population based on equity and equality principles. The main strategies are the adaptation of services through actions targeting patients and providers, such as the implementation of cultural mediators and trainings for health professionals. The three countries propose a great range of policies aiming at improving access to healthcare services for immigrants that can inspire other European countries currently welcoming refugees. Developing inclusive policies, however does not necessarily mean they will be implemented or felt on the ground. Inclusive policies are indeed under threat due to the economic and social crises and due to the respective nationalistic attitudes towards integration. The European Union is challenged to take a more proactive leadership and ensure that countries effectively implement inclusive actions to improve migrant's access to health services.

Product policy - the main component of the marketing mix in the Romanian health services.

Science.gov (United States)

Coculescu, B I; Purcarea, V L; Coculescu, E C

2016-01-01

The objectives of the reforms in the EU healthcare systems are based on the implementation of the marketing concept in the health systems, which are, among other things: • efficient management of the financial resources and control costs of the rendered health services; • increased satisfaction of the clients of health care services; • broad accessibility to health services; • effective implementation of modern technologies; • rational stimulation of medical services consumption; • achievement of a fair and neutral competition between the public/ private providers and health insurance companies; • introduction of performance criteria in order to increase the incomes of the medical staff and hierarchy in hospitals; • implementation of modern management methods in health services management; • decentralization of the public healthcare system. Product policy in the medical system of healthcare - the most important component of the marketing mix - is the attitude that addresses a medical organization to the volume, structure, and diversity of services subject to their own activities in relation to the requirements of the services market and the competitive actions of other medical institutions.

A Time Scheduling Model of Logistics Service Supply Chain Based on the Customer Order Decoupling Point: A Perspective from the Constant Service Operation Time

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Yi; Xu, Haitao; Liu, Xiaoyan; Wang, Yijia; Liang, Zhicheng

2014-01-01

In mass customization logistics service, reasonable scheduling of the logistics service supply chain (LSSC), especially time scheduling, is benefit to increase its competitiveness. Therefore, the effect of a customer order decoupling point (CODP) on the time scheduling performance should be considered. To minimize the total order operation cost of the LSSC, minimize the difference between the expected and actual time of completing the service orders, and maximize the satisfaction of functional logistics service providers, this study establishes an LSSC time scheduling model based on the CODP. Matlab 7.8 software is used in the numerical analysis for a specific example. Results show that the order completion time of the LSSC can be delayed or be ahead of schedule but cannot be infinitely advanced or infinitely delayed. Obtaining the optimal comprehensive performance can be effective if the expected order completion time is appropriately delayed. The increase in supply chain comprehensive performance caused by the increase in the relationship coefficient of logistics service integrator (LSI) is limited. The relative concern degree of LSI on cost and service delivery punctuality leads to not only changes in CODP but also to those in the scheduling performance of the LSSC. PMID:24715818

A time scheduling model of logistics service supply chain based on the customer order decoupling point: a perspective from the constant service operation time.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Weihua; Yang, Yi; Xu, Haitao; Liu, Xiaoyan; Wang, Yijia; Liang, Zhicheng

2014-01-01

In mass customization logistics service, reasonable scheduling of the logistics service supply chain (LSSC), especially time scheduling, is benefit to increase its competitiveness. Therefore, the effect of a customer order decoupling point (CODP) on the time scheduling performance should be considered. To minimize the total order operation cost of the LSSC, minimize the difference between the expected and actual time of completing the service orders, and maximize the satisfaction of functional logistics service providers, this study establishes an LSSC time scheduling model based on the CODP. Matlab 7.8 software is used in the numerical analysis for a specific example. Results show that the order completion time of the LSSC can be delayed or be ahead of schedule but cannot be infinitely advanced or infinitely delayed. Obtaining the optimal comprehensive performance can be effective if the expected order completion time is appropriately delayed. The increase in supply chain comprehensive performance caused by the increase in the relationship coefficient of logistics service integrator (LSI) is limited. The relative concern degree of LSI on cost and service delivery punctuality leads to not only changes in CODP but also to those in the scheduling performance of the LSSC.

Forest biodiversity and the delivery of ecosystem goods and services: translating science into policy

Science.gov (United States)

Ian Thompson; Kimiko Okabe; Jason Tylianakis; Pushpam Kumar; Eckehard G. Brockerhoff; Nancy Schellhorn; John A. Parrotta; Robert Nasi

2011-01-01

Biodiversity is integral to almost all ecosystem processes, with some species playing key functional roles that are essential for maintaining the value of ecosystems to humans. However, many ecosystem services remain nonvalued, and decisionmakers rarely consider biodiversity in policy development, in part because the relationships between biodiversity and the provision...

New phone-in time service

Science.gov (United States)

If you want to know the precise time—in fact, the most precise time available—call 1-900-410-TIME. This will connect you with the U.S. Naval Observatory's Master Clock in Washington, D.C., keeper of the national time standard, where a voice announcement will give you the time accurate to within one billionth of a second per day.The new service, useful for the synchronization of clocks and communication satellites as well as other applications, is being made available to the military and scientific communities and to the general public. A constant ticking in the background of the recorded phone announcement allows scientific users to synchronize their equipment.

Do smoke-free environment policies reduce smoking on hospital grounds? Evaluation of a smoke-free health service policy at two Sydney hospitals.

Science.gov (United States)

Poder, Natasha; Carroll, Therese; Wallace, Cate; Hua, Myna

2012-05-01

To evaluate the compliance of hospital staff, inpatients and visitors with Sydney South West Area Health Service's Smoke-free Environment Policy. Six sites were observed at two Sydney hospitals 2 weeks before implementation of the policy and at 2 weeks, 6 months, 12 months, 18 months and 2 years after implementation. There was an overall significant 36% (P≤0.05) reduction in observed smoking incidents on hospital grounds 2 years after implementation. Two years after implementation, observed smoking incidents reduced by 44% (P≤0.05) in staff, 37% (P≤0.05) in visitors and remained unchanged among inpatients. The Smoke-free Environment Policy was effective in reducing visitors and staff observed smoking on hospital grounds, but had little effect on inpatients' smoking. Identifying strategies to effectively manage nicotine addiction and promote cessation amongst hospital inpatients remains a key priority.

Health service planning contributes to policy dialogue around strengthening district health systems: an example from DR Congo 2008-2013.

Science.gov (United States)

Rajan, Dheepa; Kalambay, Hyppolite; Mossoko, Mathias; Kwete, Dieudonné; Bulakali, Joseph; Lokonga, Jean-Pierre; Porignon, Denis; Schmets, Gerard

2014-10-31

This case study from DR Congo demonstrates how rational operational planning based on a health systems strengthening strategy (HSSS) can contribute to policy dialogue over several years. It explores the operationalization of a national strategy at district level by elucidating a normative model district resource plan which details the resources and costs of providing an essential health services package at district level. This paper then points to concrete examples of how the results of this exercise were used for Ministry of Health (MoH) decision-making over a time period of 5 years. DR Congo's HSSS and its accompanying essential health services package were taken as a base to construct a normative model health district comprising of 10 Health Centres (HC) and 1 District Hospital (DH). The normative model health district represents a standard set by the Ministry of Health for providing essential primary health care services. The minimum operating budget necessary to run a normative model health district is $17.91 per inhabitant per year, of which $11.86 is for the district hospital and $6.05 for the health centre. The Ministry of Health has employed the results of this exercise in 4 principal ways: 1.Advocacy and negotiation instrument; 2. Instrument to align donors; 3. Field planning; 4. Costing database to extract data from when necessary. The above results have been key in the policy dialogue on affordability of the essential health services package in DR Congo. It has allowed the MoH to provide transparent information on financing needs around the HSSS; it continues to help the MoH negotiate with the Ministry of Finance and bring partner support behind the HSSS.

Factors associated with early childhood education and care service implementation of healthy eating and physical activity policies and practices in Australia: a cross-sectional study.

Science.gov (United States)

Wolfenden, Luke; Finch, Meghan; Nathan, Nicole; Weaver, Natasha; Wiggers, John; Yoong, Sze Lin; Jones, Jannah; Dodds, Pennie; Wyse, Rebecca; Sutherland, Rachel; Gillham, Karen

2015-09-01

Many early childhood education and care (ECEC) services fail to implement recommended policies and practices supportive of healthy eating and physical activity. The purpose of this study was to assess whether certain theoretically-based factors are associated with implementation of healthy eating and physical activity policies and practices in a sample of ECEC services. A cross-sectional survey was conducted with Service Managers of ECEC services. The survey assessed the operational characteristics, policy, and practice implementation, and 13 factors were suggested by Damschroder's Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research to impede or promote implementation. Logistic regression analyses found a significant association between implementation factor score and full implementation (OR 1.38; 95% CI 1.18-1.61; p = <0.01), indicating that for every one point increase in implementation score, ECEC services were 38 % more likely to be fully implementing the policies and practices. The findings highlight the opportunities for improving implementation of obesity prevention interventions in this setting by developing interventions that address such factors.

Trends in the utilization of dental outpatient services affected by the expansion of health care benefits in South Korea to include scaling: a 6-year interrupted time-series study.

Science.gov (United States)

Park, Hee-Jung; Lee, Jun Hyup; Park, Sujin; Kim, Tae-Il

2018-02-01

This study utilized a strong quasi-experimental design to test the hypothesis that the implementation of a policy to expand dental care services resulted in an increase in the usage of dental outpatient services. A total of 45,650,000 subjects with diagnoses of gingivitis or advanced periodontitis who received dental scaling were selected and examined, utilizing National Health Insurance claims data from July 2010 through November 2015. We performed a segmented regression analysis of the interrupted time-series to analyze the time-series trend in dental costs before and after the policy implementation, and assessed immediate changes in dental costs. After the policy change was implemented, a statistically significant 18% increase occurred in the observed total dental cost per patient, after adjustment for age, sex, and residence area. In addition, the dental costs of outpatient gingivitis treatment increased immediately by almost 47%, compared with a 15% increase in treatment costs for advanced periodontitis outpatients. This policy effect appears to be sustainable. The introduction of the new policy positively impacted the immediate and long-term outpatient utilization of dental scaling treatment in South Korea. While the policy was intended to entice patients to prevent periodontal disease, thus benefiting the insurance system, our results showed that the policy also increased treatment accessibility for potential periodontal disease patients and may improve long-term periodontal health in the South Korean population.

Role of Department of Defense Policies in Identifying Traumatic Brain Injuries Among Deployed US Service Members, 2001-2016.

Science.gov (United States)

Agimi, Yll; Regasa, Lemma Ebssa; Ivins, Brian; Malik, Saafan; Helmick, Katherine; Marion, Donald

2018-05-01

To examine the role of Department of Defense policies in identifying theater-sustained traumatic brain injuries (TBIs). We conducted a retrospective study of 48 172 US military service members who sustained their first lifetime TBIs between 2001 and 2016 while deployed to Afghanistan or Iraq. We used multivariable negative binomial models to examine the changes in TBI incidence rates following the introduction of Department of Defense policies. Two Army policies encouraging TBI reporting were associated with an increase of 251% and 97% in TBIs identified following their implementation, respectively. Among airmen, the introduction of TBI-specific screening questions to the Post-Deployment Health Assessment was associated with a 78% increase in reported TBIs. The 2010 Department of Defense Directive Type Memorandum 09-033 was associated with another increase of 80% in the likelihood of being identified with a TBI among soldiers, a 51% increase among sailors, and a 124% increase among Marines. Department of Defense and service-specific policies introduced between 2006 and 2013 significantly increased the number of battlefield TBIs identified, successfully improving the longstanding problem of underreporting of TBIs.

Congestion Service Facilities Location Problem with Promise of Response Time

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dandan Hu

2013-01-01

Full Text Available In many services, promise of specific response time is advertised as a commitment by the service providers for the customer satisfaction. Congestion on service facilities could delay the delivery of the services and hurts the overall satisfaction. In this paper, congestion service facilities location problem with promise of response time is studied, and a mixed integer nonlinear programming model is presented with budget constrained. The facilities are modeled as M/M/c queues. The decision variables of the model are the locations of the service facilities and the number of servers at each facility. The objective function is to maximize the demands served within specific response time promised by the service provider. To solve this problem, we propose an algorithm that combines greedy and genetic algorithms. In order to verify the proposed algorithm, a lot of computational experiments are tested. And the results demonstrate that response time has a significant impact on location decision.

41 CFR 302-15.70 - What governing policies must we establish for the allowance for property management services?

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 41 Public Contracts and Property Management 4 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false What governing policies must we establish for the allowance for property management services? 302-15.70 Section 302-15.70... TRANSACTION ALLOWANCES 15-ALLOWANCE FOR PROPERTY MANAGEMENT SERVICES Agency Responsibilities § 302-15.70 What...

Paucity of qualitative research in general medical and health services and policy research journals: analysis of publication rates

Science.gov (United States)

2011-01-01

Background Qualitative research has the potential to inform and improve health care decisions but a study based on one year of publications suggests that it is not published in prominent health care journals. A more detailed, longitudinal analysis of its availability is needed. The purpose of this study was to identify, count and compare the number of qualitative and non-qualitative research studies published in high impact health care journals, and explore trends in these data over the last decade. Methods A bibliometric approach was used to identify and quantify qualitative articles published in 20 top general medical and health services and policy research journals from 1999 to 2008. Eligible journals were selected based on performance in four different ranking systems reported in the 2008 ISI Journal Citation Reports. Qualitative and non-qualitative research published in these journals were identified by searching MEDLINE, and validated by hand-searching tables of contents for four journals. Results The total number of qualitative research articles published during 1999 to 2008 in ten general medical journals ranged from 0 to 41, and in ten health services and policy research journals from 0 to 39. Over this period the percentage of empirical research articles that were qualitative ranged from 0% to 0.6% for the general medical journals, and 0% to 6.4% for the health services and policy research journals. Conclusions This analysis suggests that qualitative research it is rarely published in high impact general medical and health services and policy research journals. The factors that contribute to this persistent marginalization need to be better understood. PMID:21992238

Conflicts of Interest in Clinical Guidelines: Update of U.S. Preventive Services Task Force Policies and Procedures.

Science.gov (United States)

Ngo-Metzger, Quyen; Moyer, Virginia; Grossman, David; Ebell, Mark; Woo, Meghan; Miller, Therese; Brummer, Tana; Chowdhury, Joya; Kato, Elisabeth; Siu, Albert; Phillips, William; Davidson, Karina; Phipps, Maureen; Bibbins-Domingo, Kirsten

2018-01-01

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) provides independent, objective, and scientifically rigorous recommendations for clinical preventive services. A primary concern is to avoid even the appearance of members having special interests that might influence their ability to judge evidence and formulate unbiased recommendations. The conflicts of interest policy for the USPSTF is described, as is the formal process by which best practices were incorporated to update the policy. The USPSTF performed a literature review, conducted key informant interviews, and reviewed conflicts of interest policies of ten similar organizations. Important findings included transparency and public accessibility; full disclosure of financial relationships; disclosure of non-financial relationships (that create the potential for bias and compromise a member's objective judgment); disclosure of family members' conflicts of interests; and establishment of appropriate reporting periods. Controversies in best practices include the threshold of financial disclosures, ease of access to conflicts of interest policies and declarations, vague definition of non-financial biases, and request for family members' conflicts of interests (particularly those that are non-financial in nature). The USPSTF conflicts of interest policy includes disclosures for immediate family members, a clear non-financial conflicts of interest definition, long look-back period and application of the policy to prospective members. Conflicts of interest is solicited from all members every 4 months, formally reviewed, adjudicated, and made publicly available. The USPSTF conflicts of interest policy is publicly available as part of the USPSTF Procedure Manual. A continuous improvement process can be applied to conflicts of interest policies to enhance public trust in members of panels, such as the USPSTF, that produce clinical guidelines and recommendations. Copyright © 2018 American Journal of Preventive Medicine

Professional Veterinary Programs' Perceptions and Experiences Pertaining to Emotional Support Animals and Service Animals, and Recommendations for Policy Development.

Science.gov (United States)

Schoenfeld-Tacher, Regina M; Kogan, Lori R

Given the unique nature of programs in professional veterinary medicine (PVM), the increasing numbers of students requesting accommodations for emotional support animals (ESAs) in higher education settings is of growing interest to student affairs and administrative staff in PVM settings. Since the legislation pertaining to this type of support animal differs from the laws governing disability service animals, colleges and universities now need to develop new policies and guidelines. Representatives from a sample of 28 PVM programs completed a survey about the prevalence of student requests for ESAs and service animals. PVM associate deans for academic affairs also reported their perceptions of this issue and the challenges these requests might pose within veterinary teaching laboratories and patient treatment areas. Responses indicated that approximately one third of PVM programs have received requests for ESAs (32.1%) in the last 2 years, 17.9% have had requests for psychiatric service animals, and 17.9% for other types of service animals. Despite this, most associate deans reported not having or not being aware of university or college policies pertaining to these issues. Most associate deans are interested in learning more about this topic. This paper provides general recommendations for establishing university or PVM program policies.

Sojourn times in the M/G/1 FB queue with light-tailed service times.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Mandjes, M.R.H.; Nuijens, M.F.M.

2005-01-01

ABSTRACT The asymptotic decay rate of the sojourn time of a customer in the stationary M/G/1 queue under the Foreground-Background (FB) service discipline is studied. The FB discipline gives service to those customers that have received the least service so far. We prove that for lighttailed service

Beware of Data Gaps in Home Care Research: The Streetlight Effect and Its Implications for Policy Making on Long-Term Services and Supports

Science.gov (United States)

Newquist, Deborah D.; DeLiema, Marguerite; Wilber, Kathleen H.

2016-01-01

Policy initiatives increasingly seek greater use of home- and community-based services for older persons and those with chronic care needs, yet large gaps persist in our knowledge of home care, an indispensable component of long-term services and supports. Unrecognized data gaps, including the scope of home care provided by private hire and nonmedical providers, can distort knowledge and poorly inform long-term services and supports policy. The purpose of this article is to examine these gaps by describing the universe of formal home care services and provider types in relationship to major national sources. Findings reveal four distinct home care sectors and that the majority of formal home care is provided in the sectors that are understudied. We discuss the policy implications of data gaps and conclude with recommendations on where to expand and refine home care research. PMID:26062611

42 CFR 93.105 - Time limitations.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... 42 Public Health 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Time limitations. 93.105 Section 93.105 Public Health PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES HEALTH ASSESSMENTS AND HEALTH EFFECTS STUDIES OF HAZARDOUS SUBSTANCES RELEASES AND FACILITIES PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE POLICIES ON RESEARCH...

KNOWLEDGE ASSETS IN SERVICES ACROSS INDUSTRIES AND ACROSS TIME

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Erickson, G. Scott

2015-05-01

Full Text Available This paper explores the question of whether knowledge assets are more developed in services industries than in non-services. The concept of the “knowledge economy” has always gone hand-in-hand with growth in the percentage of the economy represented by services. Two multi-year, multi-industry datasets are used to directly compare the knowledge asset levels in service industry firms against those in non-service industry firms. Service industries do, indeed, reflect higher levels of intellectual capital in recent years, but did not do so a decade ago. Further, there is considerable evidence of changes in specific service and non-service industries over the time period, adding details to the finding that knowledge development is not static but does vary over time and circumstance. These results open up a number of promising research directions that could lead to a better understanding of the nature of these differing circumstances and how better strategic choices might be made regarding investments in knowledge management.

Developing eHealth policies for greater equity in Kenya | IDRC ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

2018-01-29

Jan 29, 2018 ... Developing eHealth policies will increase access to care for rural populations ... regions of the country, home to the people most in need of services, ... Were health services available in a timely and affordable manner to those ...

42 CFR 50.503 - Policy.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... 42 Public Health 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Policy. 50.503 Section 50.503 Public Health PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES GRANTS POLICIES OF GENERAL APPLICABILITY Maximum Allowable Cost for Drugs § 50.503 Policy. It is the policy of the Secretary that program funds which are...

Optimal post-warranty maintenance policy with repair time threshold for minimal repair

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Park, Minjae; Mun Jung, Ki; Park, Dong Ho

2013-01-01

In this paper, we consider a renewable minimal repair–replacement warranty policy and propose an optimal maintenance model after the warranty is expired. Such model adopts the repair time threshold during the warranty period and follows with a certain type of system maintenance policy during the post-warranty period. As for the criteria for optimality, we utilize the expected cost rate per unit time during the life cycle of the system, which has been frequently used in many existing maintenance models. Based on the cost structure defined for each failure of the system, we formulate the expected cost rate during the life cycle of the system, assuming that a renewable minimal repair–replacement warranty policy with the repair time threshold is provided to the user during the warranty period. Once the warranty is expired, the maintenance of the system is the user's sole responsibility. The life cycle of the system is defined on the perspective of the user and the expected cost rate per unit time is derived in this context. We obtain the optimal maintenance policy during the maintenance period following the expiration of the warranty period by minimizing such a cost rate. Numerical examples using actual failure data are presented to exemplify the applicability of the methodologies proposed in this paper.

Positioning navigation and timing service applications in cyber physical systems

Science.gov (United States)

Qu, Yi; Wu, Xiaojing; Zeng, Lingchuan

2017-10-01

The positioning navigation and timing (PNT) architecture was discussed in detail, whose history, evolvement, current status and future plan were presented, main technologies were listed, advantages and limitations of most technologies were compared, novel approaches were introduced, and future capacities were sketched. The concept of cyber-physical system (CPS) was described and their primary features were interpreted. Then the three-layer architecture of CPS was illustrated. Next CPS requirements on PNT services were analyzed, including requirements on position reference and time reference, requirements on temporal-spatial error monitor, requirements on dynamic services, real-time services, autonomous services, security services and standard services. Finally challenges faced by PNT applications in CPS were concluded. The conclusion was expected to facilitate PNT applications in CPS, and furthermore to provide references to the design and implementation of both architectures.

5 CFR 842.407 - Proration of annuity for part-time service.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 5 Administrative Personnel 2 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Proration of annuity for part-time... Proration of annuity for part-time service. The annuity of an employee whose service includes part-time... pay for full-time service. This amount is then multiplied by the proration factor. The result is the...

Upgradation and modernization of eye banking services: Integrating tradition with innovative policies and current best practices.

Science.gov (United States)

Tandon, Radhika; Singh, Archita; Gupta, Noopur; Vanathi, M; Gupta, Vivek

2017-02-01

The purpose of this study is to review the history and evolution of the National Eye Bank (NEB) and analyze the impact over the years and report the outcome of the invested resources. Review of archival material, records, project reports, policy and procedures' manuals, and publications was done. Descriptive and analytical processing of data obtained was undertaken. Parameters evaluated included total collection, transplantation, utilization rates of donor cornea, changing trends over time in terms of numbers and duration of recipients waiting, impactful research translated into changes in standard operating protocols, new facilities, and subsequent effects on numbers or quality assurance measures and overview of major achievements. Periodic situational analysis with contextual relevance and interpretation of outcomes was done pertaining to national goals and international standards. The NEB and cornea services have played a key leadership role in furthering the development of eye banking and corneal transplantation services. The contribution extends beyond routine patient care to education, training, generation of resources, advocacy, and policymaking. In quantifiable terms, the overall performance has steadily increased over the years. Major contributions include training of doctors, eye bank staff and corneal surgeons, introduction of innovative techniques for corneal transplantation, setting of national standards for eye banking and provision of preservation media, customized corneal, and ocular surface cell replacement therapy in collaboration with other departments and institutes. The eye banking and corneal transplantation facilities have evolved with time providing quality services, modernized as appropriate with updated knowledge and incorporating technological advances supported by the systematic evidence-based approach.

Analyzing the effect of gain time on soft task scheduling policies in real-time systems

OpenAIRE

Búrdalo Rapa, Luis Antonio; Terrasa Barrena, Andrés Martín; Espinosa Minguet, Agustín Rafael; García Fornes, Ana María

2012-01-01

In hard real-time systems, gain time is defined as the difference between the Worst Case Execution Time (WCET) of a hard task and its actual processor consumption at runtime. This paper presents the results of an empirical study about how the presence of a significant amount of gain time in a hard real-time system questions the advantages of using the most representative scheduling algorithms or policies for aperiodic or soft tasks in fixed-priority preemptive systems. The work presented here...

Beware of Data Gaps in Home Care Research: The Streetlight Effect and Its Implications for Policy Making on Long-Term Services and Supports.

Science.gov (United States)

Newquist, Deborah D; DeLiema, Marguerite; Wilber, Kathleen H

2015-10-01

Policy initiatives increasingly seek greater use of home- and community-based services for older persons and those with chronic care needs, yet large gaps persist in our knowledge of home care, an indispensable component of long-term services and supports. Unrecognized data gaps, including the scope of home care provided by private hire and nonmedical providers, can distort knowledge and poorly inform long-term services and supports policy. The purpose of this article is to examine these gaps by describing the universe of formal home care services and provider types in relationship to major national sources. Findings reveal four distinct home care sectors and that the majority of formal home care is provided in the sectors that are understudied. We discuss the policy implications of data gaps and conclude with recommendations on where to expand and refine home care research. © The Author(s) 2015.

A new preparedness policy for EMS logistics.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Seokcheon

2017-03-01

Response time in emergency medical services (EMS) is defined as the interval for an ambulance to arrive the scene after receipt of a 911 call. When several ambulances are available upon the receipt of a new call, a decision of selecting an ambulance has to be made in an effort to reduce response time. Dispatching the closest unit available is commonly used in practice; however, recently the Preparedness policy was designed that is in a simplistic form yet being capable of securing a long-term efficiency. This research aims to improve the Preparedness policy, resolving several critical issues inherent in the current form of the policy. The new Preparedness policy incorporates a new metric of preparedness based on the notion of centrality and involves a tuning parameter, weight on preparedness, which has to be appropriately chosen according to operational scenario. Computational experiment shows that the new policy significantly improves the former policy robustly in various scenarios.

A two-station queue with dependent preparation and service times

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Vlasiou, M.; Adan, I.J.B.F.; Boxma, O.J.

2009-01-01

We discuss a single-server multi-station alternating queue where the preparation times and the service times are auto- and cross-correlated. We examine two cases. In the first case, preparation and service times depend on a common discrete time Markov chain. In the second case, we assume that the

Optimizing capital and time expenditures for drilling service operations

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zazovskiy, F Ya; Soltysyak, T I

1980-01-01

The operational efficiency of drilling services operations management are examined. The structure of time expenditure is analyzed for repair operations according to equipment type employed by the Ivano-Frankovsk Drilling Management under the Ukrneft' enterprise during 1977. The results of this analysis are weighed against a series of service operations carried out at industrial enterprises and connected with technical disruptions. Some of the cases examined include service competion operations outside of the industrial units when technical processes are disrupted only for the change of equipment which has outlived its usefulness and is no longer in series production. First of all, time expended for repair work can be reduced to zero during the drilling of shallow wells which do not require extensive drilling time. The actual savings, both in time and money, as far as repair work is concerned, hinges on the actual time factor for total oil depetion. An equation is provided for optimal time expenditure necessary for repair work and equipment replacement. An actual example is given from the Dolinsk UBR (Drillin Management) under the Ukrneft' enterprise where time spent on actual service operations has appeared to be less than the optimal figure cited in the above material. This is possible because of increased capital expenditures.

76 FR 55914 - HIT Policy Committee's Workgroup Meetings; Notice of Meetings

Science.gov (United States)

2011-09-09

... DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES HIT Policy Committee's Workgroup Meetings; Notice of... be open to the public via dial-in access only. Name of Committees: HIT Policy Committee's Workgroups... standards, implementation specifications, and certification criteria are needed. Date and Time: The HIT...

76 FR 46297 - HIT Policy Committee's Workgroup Meetings; Notice of Meetings

Science.gov (United States)

2011-08-02

... DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES HIT Policy Committee's Workgroup Meetings; Notice of... be open to the public via dial-in access only. Name of Committees: HIT Policy Committee's Workgroups... standards, implementation specifications, and certification criteria are needed. Date and Time: The HIT...

76 FR 22399 - HIT Policy Committee's Workgroup Meetings; Notice of Meetings

Science.gov (United States)

2011-04-21

... DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES HIT Policy Committee's Workgroup Meetings; Notice of... be open to the public via dial-in access only. Name of Committees: HIT Policy Committee's Workgroups... standards, implementation specifications, and certification criteria are needed. Date and Time: The HIT...

76 FR 28784 - HIT Policy Committee's Workgroup Meetings; Notice of Meetings

Science.gov (United States)

2011-05-18

... DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES HIT Policy Committee's Workgroup Meetings; Notice of... be open to the public via dial-in access only. Name of Committees: HIT Policy Committee's Workgroups... standards, implementation specifications, and certification criteria are needed. Date and Time: The HIT...

76 FR 14974 - HIT Policy Committee's Workgroup Meetings; Notice of Meetings

Science.gov (United States)

2011-03-18

... DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES HIT Policy Committee's Workgroup Meetings; Notice of... be open to the public via dial-in access only. Name of Committees: HIT Policy Committee's Workgroups... standards, implementation specifications, and certification criteria are needed. Date and Time: The HIT...

76 FR 50735 - HIT Policy Committee's Workgroup Meetings; Notice of Meetings

Science.gov (United States)

2011-08-16

... DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES HIT Policy Committee's Workgroup Meetings; Notice of... be open to the public via dial-in access only. Name of Committees: HIT Policy Committee's Workgroups... standards, implementation specifications, and certification criteria are needed. Date and Time: The HIT...

Trends in the utilization of dental outpatient services affected by the expansion of health care benefits in South Korea to include scaling: a 6-year interrupted time-series study

Science.gov (United States)

2018-01-01

Purpose This study utilized a strong quasi-experimental design to test the hypothesis that the implementation of a policy to expand dental care services resulted in an increase in the usage of dental outpatient services. Methods A total of 45,650,000 subjects with diagnoses of gingivitis or advanced periodontitis who received dental scaling were selected and examined, utilizing National Health Insurance claims data from July 2010 through November 2015. We performed a segmented regression analysis of the interrupted time-series to analyze the time-series trend in dental costs before and after the policy implementation, and assessed immediate changes in dental costs. Results After the policy change was implemented, a statistically significant 18% increase occurred in the observed total dental cost per patient, after adjustment for age, sex, and residence area. In addition, the dental costs of outpatient gingivitis treatment increased immediately by almost 47%, compared with a 15% increase in treatment costs for advanced periodontitis outpatients. This policy effect appears to be sustainable. Conclusions The introduction of the new policy positively impacted the immediate and long-term outpatient utilization of dental scaling treatment in South Korea. While the policy was intended to entice patients to prevent periodontal disease, thus benefiting the insurance system, our results showed that the policy also increased treatment accessibility for potential periodontal disease patients and may improve long-term periodontal health in the South Korean population. PMID:29535886

Interactive, open source, travel time scenario modelling: tools to facilitate participation in health service access analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Fisher, Rohan; Lassa, Jonatan

2017-04-18

Modelling travel time to services has become a common public health tool for planning service provision but the usefulness of these analyses is constrained by the availability of accurate input data and limitations inherent in the assumptions and parameterisation. This is particularly an issue in the developing world where access to basic data is limited and travel is often complex and multi-modal. Improving the accuracy and relevance in this context requires greater accessibility to, and flexibility in, travel time modelling tools to facilitate the incorporation of local knowledge and the rapid exploration of multiple travel scenarios. The aim of this work was to develop simple open source, adaptable, interactive travel time modelling tools to allow greater access to and participation in service access analysis. Described are three interconnected applications designed to reduce some of the barriers to the more wide-spread use of GIS analysis of service access and allow for complex spatial and temporal variations in service availability. These applications are an open source GIS tool-kit and two geo-simulation models. The development of these tools was guided by health service issues from a developing world context but they present a general approach to enabling greater access to and flexibility in health access modelling. The tools demonstrate a method that substantially simplifies the process for conducting travel time assessments and demonstrate a dynamic, interactive approach in an open source GIS format. In addition this paper provides examples from empirical experience where these tools have informed better policy and planning. Travel and health service access is complex and cannot be reduced to a few static modeled outputs. The approaches described in this paper use a unique set of tools to explore this complexity, promote discussion and build understanding with the goal of producing better planning outcomes. The accessible, flexible, interactive and

State-age-dependent maintenance policies for deteriorating systems with Erlang sojourn time distributions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yeh, R.H.

1997-01-01

This paper investigates state-age-dependent maintenance policies for multistate deteriorating systems with Erlang sojourn time distributions. Since Erlang distributions are serial combinations of exponential phases, the deteriorating process can be modeled by a multi-phase Markovian model and hence easily analyzed. Based on the Markovian model, the optimal phase-dependent inspection and replacement policy can be obtained by using a policy improvement algorithm. However, since phases are fictitious and can not be identified by inspections, two procedures are developed to construct state-age-dependent policies based on the optimal phase-dependent policy. The properties of the constructed state-age-dependent policies are further investigated and the performance of the policy is evaluated through a numerical example

Forming Social Partnership Policy in Vocational Training of Service Sector Specialists in Germany and Austria

Science.gov (United States)

Kredenets, Nadiya

2016-01-01

The article deals with the problem of forming social partnership policy in vocational training of service sector specialists in Germany and Austria. The foreign and domestic pedagogical experience in establishing an effective system of social partnership in vocational education has been analyzed. The author has considered main factors of social…

Train Dwell Time Models for Rail Passenger Service

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

San Hor Peay

2016-01-01

Full Text Available In recent years, more studies had been conducted about train dwell time as it is a key parameter of rail system performance and reliability. This paper draws an overview of train dwell time models for rail passenger service from various continents, namely Asia, North America, Europe and Australia. The factors affecting train dwell time are identified and analysed across some rail network operators. The dwell time models developed by various researches are also discussed and reviewed. Finally, the contributions from the outcomes of these models are briefly addressed. In conclusion, this paper suggests that there is a need to further study the factors with strong influence upon dwell time to improve the quality of the train services.

Implementation of a guideline for local health policy making by regional health services: exploring determinants of use by a web survey

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kuunders, T.J.M.; Jacobs, M.A.M.; Goor, I.A.M. van de; Bon-Martens, M.J.H. van; Oers, H.A.M. van; Paulussen, T.G.W.M.

2017-01-01

Background. Previous evaluation showed insufficient use of a national guideline for integrated local health policy by Regional Health Services (RHS) in the Netherlands. The guideline focuses on five health topics and includes five checklists to support integrated municipal health policies. This

Enabling Real-time Water Decision Support Services Using Model as a Service

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, T.; Minsker, B. S.; Lee, J. S.; Salas, F. R.; Maidment, D. R.; David, C. H.

2014-12-01

Through application of computational methods and an integrated information system, data and river modeling services can help researchers and decision makers more rapidly understand river conditions under alternative scenarios. To enable this capability, workflows (i.e., analysis and model steps) are created and published as Web services delivered through an internet browser, including model inputs, a published workflow service, and visualized outputs. The RAPID model, which is a river routing model developed at University of Texas Austin for parallel computation of river discharge, has been implemented as a workflow and published as a Web application. This allows non-technical users to remotely execute the model and visualize results as a service through a simple Web interface. The model service and Web application has been prototyped in the San Antonio and Guadalupe River Basin in Texas, with input from university and agency partners. In the future, optimization model workflows will be developed to link with the RAPID model workflow to provide real-time water allocation decision support services.

Pharmacies as providers of expanded health services for people who inject drugs: a review of laws, policies, and barriers in six countries.

Science.gov (United States)

Hammett, Theodore M; Phan, Son; Gaggin, Julia; Case, Patricia; Zaller, Nicholas; Lutnick, Alexandra; Kral, Alex H; Fedorova, Ekaterina V; Heimer, Robert; Small, Will; Pollini, Robin; Beletsky, Leo; Latkin, Carl; Des Jarlais, Don C

2014-06-17

People who inject drugs (PWID) are underserved by health providers but pharmacies may be their most accessible care settings. Studies in the U.S., Russia, Vietnam, China, Canada and Mexico employed a three-level (macro-, meso-, and micro-) model to assess feasibility of expanded pharmacy services for PWID. Studies employed qualitative and quantitative interviews, review of legal and policy documents, and information on the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of key stakeholders. Studies produced a mixed assessment of feasibility. Provision of information and referrals by pharmacies is permissible in all study sites and sale and safe disposal of needles/syringes by pharmacies is legal in almost all sites, although needle/syringe sales face challenges related to attitudes and practices of pharmacists, police, and other actors. Pharmacy provision of HIV testing, hepatitis vaccination, opioid substitution treatment, provision of naloxone for drug overdose, and abscess treatment, face more serious legal and policy barriers. Challenges to expanded services for drug users in pharmacies exist at all three levels, especially the macro-level characterized by legal barriers and persistent stigmatization of PWID. Where deficiencies in laws, policies, and community attitudes block implementation, stakeholders should advocate for needed legal and policy changes and work to address community stigma and resistance. Laws and policies are only as good as their implementation, so attention is also needed to meso- and micro- levels. Policies, attitudes, and practices of police departments and pharmacy chains as well as knowledge, attitudes, and practices of individual PWID, individual pharmacies, and police officers should support rather than undermine positive laws and expanded services. Despite the challenges, pharmacies remain potentially important venues for delivering health services to PWID.

The Relationship between Sun Protection Policy and Associated Practices in a National Sample of Early Childhood Services in Australia

Science.gov (United States)

Ettridge, Kerry A.; Bowden, Jacqueline A.; Rayner, Joanne M.; Wilson, Carlene J.

2011-01-01

Limiting exposure to sunlight during childhood can significantly reduce the risk of skin cancer. This was the first national study to assess the sun protection policies and practices of early childhood services across Australia. It also examined the key predictors of services' sun protection practices. In 2007, 1017 respondents completed a…

Have Postwar Fiscal Stimulus Policies Met the “Timely, Targeted, and Temporary” Principle?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jason E. Taylor

2017-06-01

Full Text Available President Barack Obama noted that fiscal stimulus polices should follow three T’s—timely, targeted, and temporary. This paper examines the government’s fiscal response to eleven postwar recessions in light of the three T’s. We find that the record is mixed at best. On average it took 10.9 months before a recession’s start and the first major countercyclical fiscal policy action. Additionally, in half of the eight recessions in which fiscal policy was attempted, the level of real per capita government spending was nearly three times its trend level four years after the recession was over—i.e. the stimulus was not temporary. Finally, with respect to targeted, while some countercyclical policies have been designed to help sectors that were particularly harmed during a recession, we find many cases whereby recessions provided politicians an avenue in which to implement policies that were part of their long-run reform agenda rather than being carefully targeted countercyclical fiscal policy.

39 CFR 601.100 - Purchasing policy.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 39 Postal Service 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Purchasing policy. 601.100 Section 601.100 Postal Service UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE PROCUREMENT SYSTEM FOR THE U.S. POSTAL SERVICE: INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS OTHER THAN PATENTS PURCHASING OF PROPERTY AND SERVICES § 601.100 Purchasing policy. The Postal...

Sojourn times in the M/G/1 FB queue with light-tailed service times

NARCIS (Netherlands)

M.R.H. Mandjes (Michel); M. Nuyens

2004-01-01

textabstractThe asymptotic decay rate of the sojourn time of a customer in the stationary M/G/1 queue under the Foreground-Background (FB) service discipline is studied. The FB discipline gives service to those customers that have received the least service so far. We prove that for light-tailed

Implementation of a guideline for local health policy making by regional health services : Exploring determinants of use by a web survey

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kuunders, T.J.M.; Jacobs, M.A.M.; Paulussen, T.G.W.M.; van de Goor, L.A.M.; van Bon, M.J.H.; van Oers, J.A.M.

Background Previous evaluation showed insufficient use of a national guideline for integrated local health policy by Regional Health Services (RHS) in the Netherlands. The guideline focuses on five health topics and includes five checklists to support integrated municipal health policies. This study

The Implementation of Minimum Service Standards (MMS on Public Service for Health Services Sector in Bondowoso, Indonesia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Untung Kuzairi

2018-04-01

Full Text Available One of heatlh policies implemented by the hospital is the minimum service standards (MSS. MSS is a benchmark of hospital service quality in providing services to the public. Talking about health service quality problem, it was found out as the field fact that the achievement of MSS indicator in General Hospital of Dr. H. Koesnadi Bondowoso, Indonesia in 2016 still did not fulfill target of standard hospital service (type B and  minimum service standard (MSS of hospital. This fact shows that the quality of health services in general hospital of  dr. H. Koesnadi Bondowoso is still low. So, this research aims to describe the policy implementation of minimum service standard and to analyze the obstacles in the implementation of MSS policy at general hospital of  dr. H. Koesnadi Bondowoso. So, this research would discuss the policy implementation of minimum service standards by using Edward III concept as a tool to analyze it. This research employed qualitative research with phenomenological approach. The results showed that the implementation of MSS policy of dr. H. Koesnadi Bondowoso general hospital still did not run well. This was due to several factors  such as communication, bureaucratic structure, sources, dispositions (attitude and leadership in sectoral ego control. Sectoral ego can be shaped from educational background of specialist doctors who still adhered seniority and lack of individual role of implementor in building interpersonal communication and conflict management.

TimeSet: A computer program that accesses five atomic time services on two continents

Science.gov (United States)

Petrakis, P. L.

1993-01-01

TimeSet is a shareware program for accessing digital time services by telephone. At its initial release, it was capable of capturing time signals only from the U.S. Naval Observatory to set a computer's clock. Later the ability to synchronize with the National Institute of Standards and Technology was added. Now, in Version 7.10, TimeSet is able to access three additional telephone time services in Europe - in Sweden, Austria, and Italy - making a total of five official services addressable by the program. A companion program, TimeGen, allows yet another source of telephone time data strings for callers equipped with TimeSet version 7.10. TimeGen synthesizes UTC time data strings in the Naval Observatory's format from an accurately set and maintained DOS computer clock, and transmits them to callers. This allows an unlimited number of 'freelance' time generating stations to be created. Timesetting from TimeGen is made feasible by the advent of Becker's RighTime, a shareware program that learns the drift characteristics of a computer's clock and continuously applies a correction to keep it accurate, and also brings .01 second resolution to the DOS clock. With clock regulation by RighTime and periodic update calls by the TimeGen station to an official time source via TimeSet, TimeGen offers the same degree of accuracy within the resolution of the computer clock as any official atomic time source.

Government policy and access to natural gas service in Canada

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Plourde, A.; Ryan, D.L.

1995-01-01

As part of the Canadian energy policy between the mid-1970's to the mid-1980's, consumers were encouraged to use fuels alternative to oil. The first set of policy issues involved measures to provide consumers with incentives to switch to non-oil-burning equipment, whereas the second set of. policy papers emphasized the expansion of the natural gas distribution system. More than $1 billion have been spent on the gas pipeline expansion project. Consequences of program expenditures in each province were examined. With the exception of Manitoba, it was found that annual net pipeline additions were higher during the program period, indicating that the program policies induced these activities to occur sooner than if the policies were not in place. Kilometres of gas pipeline per individual constructed was highest in Quebec, where construction proceeded mainly between the more densely populated centres. In contrast, in Saskatchewan and Alberta, the program encouraged natural gas pipeline construction in rural areas with lower populations. Without the program, these areas may not have had access to natural gas for a very long time. It was concluded that, in this, and some other instances, public investment had the effect of accelerating developments, or encouraging the completion of projects that otherwise would not have been undertaken. It was suggested that in the future decision-makers consider the costs of changes in activity patterns prior to designing such programs. 2 figs., 1 table

Dynamic call center routing policies using call waiting and agent idle times

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Chan, W.; Koole, G.M.; L'Ecuyer, P.

2014-01-01

We study call routing policies for call centers with multiple call types and multiple agent groups. We introduce new weight-based routing policies where each pair (call type, agent group) is given a matching priority defined as an affine combination of the longest waiting time for that call type and

An assessment of market and policy barriers for demand response providing ancillary services in U.S. electricity markets

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cappers, Peter; MacDonald, Jason; Goldman, Charles; Ma, Ookie

2013-01-01

An impact of increased variable renewable generation is the need for balancing authorities to procure more ancillary services. While demand response resources are technically capable of providing these services, current experience across the U.S. illustrates they are relatively minor players in most regions. Accessing demand response resources for ancillary services may require a number of changes to policies and common practices at multiple levels. Regional reliability councils must first define ancillary services such that demand response resources may provide them. Once the opportunity exists, balancing authorities define and promulgate rules that set the infrastructure investments and performance attributes of a resource wishing to provide such services. These rules also dictate expected revenue streams which reveal the cost effectiveness of these resources. The regulatory compact between utility and state regulators, along with other statutes and decisions by state policymakers, may impact the interest of demand response program providers to pursue these resources as ancillary service providers. This paper identifies within these broad categories specific market and policy barriers to demand response providing ancillary services in different wholesale and retail environments, with emphasis on smaller customers who must be aggregated through a program provider to meet minimum size requirements for wholesale transactions. - Highlights: • We identify barriers keeping demand response from providing ancillary services. • Institutional, financial and program provider business model barriers exist. • Product definitions and rules do not always accommodate demand response well. • Expected revenues are uncertain and may not exceed required investments costs. • Regulatory compact and state statutes limit opportunities for program providers

European Policies of Digital Terrestrial Television. Antecedents, Characterization and Alternatives

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lic. María Trinidad García Leiva

2006-01-01

Full Text Available DTT is one of the existing platforms that can deliver audiovisual content and digital services. Such profile is precisely what includes it in the European Union’s agenda to ensure access to the benefits of Information Society (IS and presents it as the natural successor for the role of offering universal television services once switch-off has taken place. In 1993, a new phase in the history of the European audiovisual policy began, characterized by the concern around the IS and the Convergence. In this context, a positioning regarding digital television arose, conditioning the European policies related to the digitalization of the terrestrial nets in a polarized and subordinated sense. To the study of these DTT policies is devoted this article, which defends the need of its democratization to reach a more efficient terrestrial television service, enabling at the same time, a digital platform that could offer IS services to the whole population.

10 CFR 1009.3 - Policy.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 10 Energy 4 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Policy. 1009.3 Section 1009.3 Energy DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY (GENERAL PROVISIONS) GENERAL POLICY FOR PRICING AND CHARGING FOR MATERIALS AND SERVICES SOLD BY DOE § 1009.3 Policy. (a) The Department's price or charge for materials and services sold to persons and...

32 CFR 96.4 - Policy.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... OF CRIMINAL HISTORY RECORD INFORMATION BY THE MILITARY SERVICES § 96.4 Policy. Section 503 of title... 32 National Defense 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Policy. 96.4 Section 96.4 National Defense... campaigns to obtain enlistments. It is the policy of the Department of Defense that the Military Services...

Gender, the Labour Market, the Workplace and Policy in Children's Services: Parent, Staff and Student Attitudes

Science.gov (United States)

Lyons, Michael; Quinn, Andrea; Sumsion, Jennifer

2005-01-01

This paper reports the attitudes of parents, staff and teacher education students towards the employment of men in the children's services "industry". The attitudinal survey questions were grouped around four distinct issues: gender roles, labour market behaviour, workplace behaviour and policy. Surprisingly, all three stakeholder groups…

THE ANALYSIS OF THE CURRENT STATE OF HOUSING AND COMMUNAL SERVICES AND TARIFF POLICY IN THE REPUBLIC OF DAGHESTAN

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M. M. Shabanova

2014-01-01

Full Text Available In article the condition of housing and communal services in the Republic of Daghestan is considered, the main problems, characteristic for the present stage of development of this sphere are revealed, the priority directions of improvement of tariff policy and management of development of housing and communal services are defined. 

The Public Health Service guidelines. Governing research involving human subjects: An analysis of the policy-making process

Science.gov (United States)

Frankel, M. S.

1972-01-01

The policy making process which led to development of the Public Health Service Guidelines governing research involving human subjects is outlined. Part 1 examines the evolution of PHS Guidelines, tracing (1) evolution of thought and legal interpretation regarding research using human subjects; (2) initial involvement of the Federal government; (3) development of the government's research program; (4) the social-political environment in which formal government policy was developed; and (5) various policy statements issued by the government. Part 2 analyzes the process by which PHS Guidelines were developed and examines the values and other underlying factors which contributed to their development. It was concluded that the evolution of the Guidelines is best understood within the context of a mixed-scanning strategy. In such a strategy, policy makers make fundamental decisions regarding the basic direction of policy and subsequent decisions are made incrementally and within the contexts set by the original fundamental decisions.

Monetary-Fiscal-Trade Policy and Economic Growth in Pakistan: Time Series Empirical Investigation

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Syed Tehseen Jawaid

2011-01-01

Full Text Available This study empirically examines the effect of monetary, fiscal and trade policy on economic growth in Pakistan using annual time series data from 1981 to 2009. Money supply, government expenditure and trade openness are used as proxies of monetary, fiscal and trade policy respectively. Cointegration and error correction model indicate the existence of positive significant long run and short run relationship of monetary and fiscal policy with economic growth. Result also indicates that monetary policy is more effective than fiscal policy in Pakistan. In contrast, trade policy has insignificant effect on economic growth both in the short run and in the long run. In light of the findings, it is suggested that the policy makers should focus more on monetary policy in order to ensure economic growth in the country. It is also recommended that further research should be conducted to find out such components of exports and imports which lead to the ineffectiveness of trade policy to enhance economic growth in Pakistan.

Personnel Retention Policy and Force Quality: Twice-Passed Staff Sergeants

Science.gov (United States)

2015-06-01

61 Figure 20. Impact of Policy Changes on Average TIG . For Staff Sergeants, average TIG is reduced from 4.4 years to 3.8 years...with a 2P non-retention policy. Sergeants (E5) experience the only other significant reduction in average TIG , which goes from 3.2 years in the base...Warehouse TFRS Total Force Retention System TIG Time in Grade TIS Time in Service VSP Voluntary Separations Pay xxiii EXECUTIVE SUMMARY In

Determination of service standard time for liquid waste parameter in certification institution

Science.gov (United States)

Sembiring, M. T.; Kusumawaty, D.

2018-02-01

Baristand Industry Medan is a technical implementation unit under the Industrial and Research and Development Agency, the Ministry of Industry. One of the services often used in Baristand Industry Medan is liquid waste testing service. The company set the standard of service 9 working days for testing services. At 2015, 89.66% on testing services liquid waste does not meet the specified standard of services company. The purpose of this research is to specify the standard time of each parameter in testing services liquid waste. The method used is the stopwatch time study. There are 45 test parameters in liquid waste laboratory. The measurement of the time done 4 samples per test parameters using the stopwatch. From the measurement results obtained standard time that the standard Minimum Service test of liquid waste is 13 working days if there is testing E. coli.

A Simple Model of Service Trade with Time Zone Differences

OpenAIRE

Kikuchi, Toru; Iwasa, Kazumichi

2008-01-01

This note proposes a two-country monopolistic competition model of service trade that captures the role of time zone differences as a determinant of trade patterns. It is shown that the utilization of time zone differences induces drastic change in trade patterns: Due to taking advantage of time zone differences, service firms learve larger countries for smaller countries.

Support given to lecturers when providing mobile centric services in teaching and learning: a policy analysis perspective

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Chipangura, B

2015-05-01

Full Text Available The objective of this study is to examine the status of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) policies in supporting lecturers when providing mobile centric services to students. The research was undertaken as a single case study within the Open...

Part-time employment in Jordan as a nursing policy solution.

Science.gov (United States)

Al-Motlaq, M; Azar, N; Squires, A

2017-03-01

Explore the potential of a part-time work option for nurses as a strategy for managing domestic markets in Jordan by examining perceptions of working nurses and nursing students in the context of current social and cultural variables. Unemployment among Jordanian nurses has become a reality in recent years. However, labor markets literature in nursing rarely studies what kind of policy responses should occur during a surplus of nurses. A cross-sectional design structured the study. The perceptions of nurses and students were measured through a questionnaire developed specifically for the purpose of this exploratory study. Both nurses (n = 51) and students (n = 56) supported the introduction of the new suggested part-time option. However, students were more willing to start working or transfer into part-time work, take payment on hourly basis, and support colleagues to transfer into part-time work. Different solutions were also suggested by participants. The results were useful for providing the foundational data to further study the viability of a part-time work option for Jordanian nurses. The results show how optimistic current and future Jordanian nurses are regarding this employment option. For countries that may need to diversify their employment models due to excess supply of nurses and to address gender imbalances, this work may help inform policy development. Both employed and unemployed nurses will benefit if health care managers consider its application. The flexibility of this option may help improve the quality of life of many nurses. The results of this study provide nursing leaders and managers with foundational evidence that may be applicable in the Jordanian health sector. Although further studies are recommended, nursing leaders and policy makers should consider such a solution. © 2016 International Council of Nurses.

Legislative and policy frameworks for basic services: A South African comparative study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hlako Choma

2015-12-01

Full Text Available It is common course that equitable access to water and sanitation must be accordingly and primarily regarded as criteria for the realization of other several human rights, such as the right to life, dignity, health, food, adequate standard of living and education. Access to safe drinking water and sanitation is essential to the enjoyment of safety and environment that is not hazardous to human health. The lack of water and sanitation does not only hinder access to other available rights, but also magnifies the vulnerability of women, girls and people with disabilities. Water and sanitation services are of outmost important to the health and wellbeing of all people. South Africa is operating under one of the most outstanding legislative and policy frameworks for basic services in the world, including the Constitutional right of access to sufficient water and right to basic sanitation.

Public Spending on Health Service and Policy Research in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States: A Modest Proposal

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vidhi Thakkar

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Health services and policy research (HSPR represent a multidisciplinary field which integrates knowledge from health economics, health policy, health technology assessment, epidemiology, political science among other fields, to evaluate decisions in health service delivery. Health service decisions are informed by evidence at the clinical, organizational, and policy level, levels with distinct, managerial drivers. HSPR has an evolving discourse spanning knowledge translation, linkage and exchange between research and decision-maker partners and more recently, implementation science and learning health systems. Local context is important for HSPR and is important in advancing health reform practice. The amounts and configuration of national investment in this field remain important considerations which reflect priority investment areas. The priorities set within this field or research may have greater or lesser effects and promise with respect to modernizing health services in pursuit of better value and better population outcomes. Within Canada an asset map for HSPR was published by the national HSPR research institute. Having estimated publiclyfunded research spending in Canada, we sought identify best available comparable estimates from the United States and the United Kingdom. Investments from industry and charitable organizations were not included in these numbers. This commentary explores spending by the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom on HSPR as a fraction of total public spending on health and the importance of these respective investments in advancing health service performance. Proposals are offered on the merits of common nomenclature and accounting for areas of investigation in pursuit of some comparable way of assessing priority HSPR investments and suggestions for earmarking such investments to total investment in health services spending.

12 CFR 4.63 - Policy.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 12 Banks and Banking 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Policy. 4.63 Section 4.63 Banks and Banking...; Contracting for Goods and Services § 4.63 Policy. The OCC's policy is to ensure that MWOBs and IDOBs have the... into for goods and services, whether generated by the headquarters office in Washington, DC, or any...

Timing and utilization of antenatal care services in Liberia: Understanding the pre-Ebola epidemic context.

Science.gov (United States)

Luginaah, Isaac N; Kangmennaang, Joseph; Fallah, Mosoka; Dahn, Bernice; Kateh, Francis; Nyenswah, Tolbert

2016-07-01

In Liberia, 75% of those who died from 2014 Ebola epidemic were women and the effects of this gruelling epidemic were more severely felt by pregnant women. This immediately raised fears about the long-term impacts of the epidemic on maternal and child health. As part of a larger study, this paper uses Andersen's behavioural model of health care utilization and Goffman's stigma theory to explain the timing and utilization of maternal health services before the outbreak of the Ebola epidemic as a background to the potential long-term effects on maternal health. We conducted survival and multiple regression analysis using the 2007 (N = 3524) and 2013 (N = 5127) Liberia's Demographic and Health Survey (LDHS) data. Our sample consisted of women of reproductive age (15-49 years) that had given birth in the last five years preceding the survey year. The findings show that from 2007 to 2013, there was an overall improvement in the timing of first antenatal care (ANC) visits (TR = 0.92, p delivery with skilled birth attendants. The results also show county and regional disparities in the utilization of ANC services with South Eastern A region emerging as a relatively vulnerable place. Also, access to ANC services defined by distance to a health facility strongly predicted utilization. We argue that the Ebola epidemic likely eroded many of the previous gains in maternal health care, and may have left a lingering negative effect on the access and utilization of maternal health services in the long-term. The study makes relevant policy recommendations. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Associations Between Waiting Times, Service Times, and Patient Satisfaction in an Endocrinology Outpatient Department: A Time Study and Questionnaire Survey.

Science.gov (United States)

Xie, Zhenzhen; Or, Calvin

2017-01-01

The issue of long patient waits has attracted increasing public attention due to the negative effects of waiting on patients' satisfaction with health care. The present study examined the associations between actual waiting time, perceived acceptability of waiting time, actual service time, perceived acceptability of service time, actual visit duration, and the level of patient satisfaction with care. We conducted a cross-sectional time study and questionnaire survey of endocrinology outpatients visiting a major teaching hospital in China. Our results show that actual waiting time was negatively associated with patient satisfaction regarding several aspects of the care they received. Also, patients who were less satisfied with the sociocultural atmosphere and the identity-oriented approach to their care tended to perceive the amounts of time they spent waiting and receiving care as less acceptable. It is not always possible to prevent dissatisfaction with waiting, or to actually reduce waiting times by increasing resources such as increased staffing. However, several improvements in care services can be considered. Our suggestions include providing clearer, more transparent information to keep patients informed about the health care services that they may receive, and the health care professionals who are responsible for those services. We also suggest that care providers are encouraged to continue to show empathy and respect for patients, that patients are provided with private areas where they can talk with health professionals and no one can overhear, and that hospital staff treat the family members or friends who accompany patients in a courteous and friendly way.

Modeling the impact of integrating HIV and outpatient health services on patient waiting times in an urban health clinic in Zambia.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sarang Deo

Full Text Available Rapid scale up of HIV treatment programs in sub-Saharan Africa has refueled the long-standing health policy debate regarding the merits and drawbacks of vertical and integrated system. Recent pilots of integrating outpatient and HIV services have shown an improvement in some patient outcomes but deterioration in waiting times, which can lead to worse health outcomes in the long run.A pilot intervention involving integration of outpatient and HIV services in an urban primary care facility in Lusaka, Zambia was studied. Data on waiting time of patients during two seven-day periods before and six months after the integration were collected using a time and motion study. Statistical tests were conducted to investigate whether the two observation periods differed in operational details such as staffing, patient arrival rates, mix of patients etc. A discrete event simulation model was constructed to facilitate a fair comparison of waiting times before and after integration. The simulation model was also used to develop alternative configurations of integration and to estimate the resulting waiting times.Comparison of raw data showed that waiting times increased by 32% and 36% after integration for OPD and ART patients respectively (p<0.01. Using simulation modeling, we found that a large portion of this increase could be explained by changes in operational conditions before and after integration such as reduced staff availability (p<0.01 and longer breaks between consecutive patients (p<0.05. Controlling for these differences, integration of services, per se, would have resulted in a significant decrease in waiting times for OPD and a moderate decrease for HIV services.Integrating health services has the potential of reducing waiting times due to more efficient use of resources. However, one needs to ensure that other operational factors such as staff availability are not adversely affected due to integration.

Reproductive health in eight navies: a comparative report on education, prevention services, and policies on pregnancy, maternity/paternity leaves, and childcare.

Science.gov (United States)

Fjord, Lakshmi; Ames, Genevieve

2009-03-01

As occupational cultures, navies are remarkable for an ability to achieve far-reaching cultural and behavioral effects by both sweeping and incremental policy changes. Therefore, navy policies for reproductive health education and services, childcare, and maternity and paternity leaves have potential to be at the vanguard of gender parity efforts to successfully integrate women into once male-only occupations. This article provides summaries of reproductive health education programs, pregnancy prevention services, and policies currently in effect in eight navies where women work alongside male peers as sailors and officers. Our objective is to bring together comparative data that is hard to find by other means, which may prove useful to researchers, policy-makers, and naval personnel. Project methodology involved questionnaires sent to naval attaches stationed in embassies in Washington, DC, who referred sections to their appropriate departments. The results are quotations from completed questionnaires and policies sent from the navies of Germany, Latvia, the Netherlands, Norway, South Africa, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Policies under review include sexual conduct, pregnancy, and maternity and paternity leaves. We also report the latest available statistical data regarding women in these navies, such as numbers of women, percentages of navy women vs. total military women, and dates of women's inclusion as naval personnel.

Data Resources for Conducting Health Services and Policy Research.

Science.gov (United States)

Blewett, Lynn A; Call, Kathleen Thiede; Turner, Joanna; Hest, Robert

2018-04-01

Rich federal data resources provide essential data inputs for monitoring the health and health care of the US population and are essential for conducting health services policy research. The six household surveys we document in this article cover a broad array of health topics, including health insurance coverage (American Community Survey, Current Population Survey), health conditions and behaviors (National Health Interview Survey, Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System), health care utilization and spending (Medical Expenditure Panel Survey), and longitudinal data on public program participation (SIPP). New federal activities are linking federal surveys with administrative data to reduce duplication and response burden. In the private sector, vendors are aggregating data from medical records and claims to enhance our understanding of treatment, quality, and outcomes of medical care. Federal agencies must continue to innovate to meet the continuous challenges of scarce resources, pressures for more granular data, and new multimode data collection methodologies.

Cloud-Hosted Real-time Data Services for the Geosciences (CHORDS)

Science.gov (United States)

Daniels, M. D.; Graves, S. J.; Vernon, F.; Kerkez, B.; Chandra, C. V.; Keiser, K.; Martin, C.

2014-12-01

Cloud-Hosted Real-time Data Services for the Geosciences (CHORDS) Access, utilization and management of real-time data continue to be challenging for decision makers, as well as researchers in several scientific fields. This presentation will highlight infrastructure aimed at addressing some of the gaps in handling real-time data, particularly in increasing accessibility of these data to the scientific community through cloud services. The Cloud-Hosted Real-time Data Services for the Geosciences (CHORDS) system addresses the ever-increasing importance of real-time scientific data, particularly in mission critical scenarios, where informed decisions must be made rapidly. Advances in the distribution of real-time data are leading many new transient phenomena in space-time to be observed, however real-time decision-making is infeasible in many cases that require streaming scientific data as these data are locked down and sent only to proprietary in-house tools or displays. This lack of accessibility to the broader scientific community prohibits algorithm development and workflows initiated by these data streams. As part of NSF's EarthCube initiative, CHORDS proposes to make real-time data available to the academic community via cloud services. The CHORDS infrastructure will enhance the role of real-time data within the geosciences, specifically expanding the potential of streaming data sources in enabling adaptive experimentation and real-time hypothesis testing. Adherence to community data and metadata standards will promote the integration of CHORDS real-time data with existing standards-compliant analysis, visualization and modeling tools.

The impact of health system governance and policy processes on health services in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Science.gov (United States)

Tawfik-Shukor, Ali; Khoshnaw, Hiro

2010-06-08

Relative to the amount of global attention and media coverage since the first and second Gulf Wars, very little has been published in the health services research literature regarding the state of health services in Iraq, and particularly on the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan. Building on findings from a field visit, this paper describes the state of health services in Kurdistan, analyzes their underlying governance structures and policy processes, and their overall impact on the quality, accessibility and cost of the health system, while stressing the importance of reinvesting in public health and community-based primary care. Very little validated, research-based data exists relating to the state of population health and health services in Kurdistan. What little evidence exists, points to a region experiencing an epidemiological polarization, with different segments of the population experiencing rapidly-diverging rates of morbidity and mortality related to different etiological patterns of communicable, non-communicable, acute and chronic illness and disease. Simply put, the rural poor suffer from malnutrition and cholera, while the urban middle and upper classes deal with issues of obesity and Type 2 diabetes. The inequity is exacerbated by a poorly governed, fragmented, unregulated, specialized and heavily privatized system, that not only leads to poor quality of care and catastrophic health expenditures, but also threatens the economic and political stability of the region. There is an urgent need to revisit and clearly define the core values and goals of a future health system, and to develop an inclusive governance and policy framework for change, towards a more equitable and effective primary care-based health system, with attention to broader social determinants of health and salutogenesis. This paper not only frames the situation in Kurdistan in terms of a human rights or special political issue of a minority population, but provides important

The impact of health system governance and policy processes on health services in Iraqi Kurdistan

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Khoshnaw Hiro

2010-06-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Relative to the amount of global attention and media coverage since the first and second Gulf Wars, very little has been published in the health services research literature regarding the state of health services in Iraq, and particularly on the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan. Building on findings from a field visit, this paper describes the state of health services in Kurdistan, analyzes their underlying governance structures and policy processes, and their overall impact on the quality, accessibility and cost of the health system, while stressing the importance of reinvesting in public health and community-based primary care. Discussion Very little validated, research-based data exists relating to the state of population health and health services in Kurdistan. What little evidence exists, points to a region experiencing an epidemiological polarization, with different segments of the population experiencing rapidly-diverging rates of morbidity and mortality related to different etiological patterns of communicable, non-communicable, acute and chronic illness and disease. Simply put, the rural poor suffer from malnutrition and cholera, while the urban middle and upper classes deal with issues of obesity and Type 2 diabetes. The inequity is exacerbated by a poorly governed, fragmented, unregulated, specialized and heavily privatized system, that not only leads to poor quality of care and catastrophic health expenditures, but also threatens the economic and political stability of the region. There is an urgent need to revisit and clearly define the core values and goals of a future health system, and to develop an inclusive governance and policy framework for change, towards a more equitable and effective primary care-based health system, with attention to broader social determinants of health and salutogenesis. Summary This paper not only frames the situation in Kurdistan in terms of a human rights or special political

A Load Time Policy Checker for Open Multi-Application Smart Cards

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Dragoni, Nicola; Lostal, Eduardo; Gadyatskaya, Olga

2011-01-01

, traditional approaches for information flow analysis are not suitable. We suggest the Security-by-Contract approach for loading time application certification on the card, that will enable the stakeholders with the means to ensure the compliance of every update of the card with their security policy. We...... describe an extension of the card security architecture to deal with verification for different types of updates and present a Java Card prototype implementation of the Policy Checker with performance measurements....

An Adaptive Time-Spread Multiple-Access Policy for Wireless Sensor Networks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Konstantinos Oikonomou

2007-05-01

Full Text Available Sensor networks require a simple and efficient medium access control policy achieving high system throughput with no or limited control overhead in order to increase the network lifetime by minimizing the energy consumed during transmission attempts. Time-spread multiple-access (TSMA policies that have been proposed for ad hoc network environments, can also be employed in sensor networks, since no control overhead is introduced. However, they do not take advantage of any cross-layer information in order to exploit the idiosyncrasies of the particular sensor network environment such as the presence of typically static nodes and a common destination for the forwarded data. An adaptive probabilistic TSMA-based policy, that is proposed and analyzed in this paper, exploits these idiosyncrasies and achieves higher system throughput than the existing TSMA-based policies without any need for extra control overhead. As it is analytically shown in this paper, the proposed policy always outperforms the existing TSMA-based policies, if certain parameter values are properly set; the analysis also provides for these proper values. It is also shown that the proposed policy is characterized by a certain convergence period and that high system throughput is achieved for long convergence periods. The claims and expectations of the provided analysis are supported by simulation results presented in this paper.

Ecosystem service value assessment in temporal and spatial scales in Dalian, China: implications for urban development policy

Science.gov (United States)

Xin, Z.; Chen, X.; Fu, G.; Li, C.

2017-12-01

Landscapes differ in their capacities to provide ecosystem good and services, which are the benefits humans obtain from nature. Valuation of ecosystem services is recognized as one effective way for improving the recognition and implementation for disposition of land resource and ecosystem protection. In this content, this study aims to reveal the changes in provision of ecosystem services induced by land use changes in both temporal and spatial scales in Dalian, China. Land use changes were firstly characterized based on Landsat TM images from 1984 to 2013. Results showed a severe increase in urban area, with an average increasing rate of 39.5%. Dry land occupied the largest portion of the total area which is mainly developed on the expenses of forest loss; meanwhile, policies of water-saving irrigation has promoted a conversion of paddy fields to dry land. Other categories including water, wetland, brush grass and salting were found to have relative small contrition to the total area. Assigning ecosystem service value (ESV) coefficient to each land use category, changes in ESV of the study area were assessed. Results indicated that the total ESV decreased by 21 billion from 1984 to 2013. Forest, dry land and water are the primary contributors. As for ecosystem functions, the regulation service is the most prominent which contributed to 60% of the total ESV, followed by support, supply and culture services. In addition, ESV changes were found to have a spatial variability, which shows a maximum decreasing rate in the central city, and a highest net value in the surrounding islands. The changes and distributions in land use pattern and ESV were further linked with the local city landscape planning, which has provided implications on city landscape policy making for sustaining the provision of ecosystem services and achieving sustainable development goals.

Provider Behavior Under Global Budgeting and Policy Responses

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chao-Kai Chang MD, PhD

2015-08-01

Full Text Available Third-party payer systems are consistently associated with health care cost escalation. Taiwan’s single-payer, universal coverage National Health Insurance (NHI adopted global budgeting (GB to achieve cost control. This study captures ophthalmologists’ response to GB, specifically service volume changes and service substitution between low-revenue and high-revenue services following GB implementation, the subsequent Bureau of NHI policy response, and the policy impact. De-identified eye clinic claims data for the years 2000, 2005, and 2007 were analyzed to study the changes in Simple Claim Form (SCF claims versus Special Case Claims (SCCs. The 3 study years represent the pre-GB period, post-GB but prior to region-wise service cap implementation period, and the post-service cap period, respectively. Repeated measures multilevel regression analysis was used to study the changes adjusting for clinic characteristics and competition within each health care market. SCF service volume (low-revenue, fixed-price patient visits remained constant throughout the study period, but SCCs (covering services involving variable provider effort and resource use with flexibility for discretionary billing increased in 2005 with no further change in 2007. The latter is attributable to a 30% cap negotiated by the NHI Bureau with the ophthalmology association and enforced by the association. This study demonstrates that GB deployed with ongoing monitoring and timely policy responses that are designed in collaboration with professional stakeholders can contain costs in a health insurance–financed health care system.

Restructuring health services in Canada: challenges for policy makers, planners and managers in the eighties.

Science.gov (United States)

Crichton, A

1985-11-01

Is downsizing the latest jargon word applied to rationalization, a new concept or a different manifestation of a long term trend in health services management? At present, Canada is struggling to implement feasible reductions of expansionary pressures in the health care system. While provincial governments tend to see the issue as one of controlling chronic excess demand, federal government is still concerned to ensure free access to care on an equitable basis. Thus the problems of downsizing can be expressed by the provinces in terms of an ideological struggle with an unfeeling central government which does not understand their problems; although all know they are really about the feasibility of continuing to provide a service to meet demand. The present economic recession enables provincial governments to appeal to their voters for supporting a new way. Earlier, the appeal was to consumers to become involved in health service organization management and this policy succeeded, to a degree, where there were fluorishing grass roots communities; albeit that the service continued to be driven by professionals. Now the appeal is to taxpayers for their strong support in cost cutting. This has been more successful. Provincial governments are now permitted to 'touch the untouchables', that is to downsize the medical profession and previously sacrosanct health care institutions. They also are exploring the feasibility of introducing a two-tier system which would provide basic care for everyone and extra care for those able to pay, thus side-stepping federal conditions. By reorganizing support in this way, provincial governments have extended the range of policy choices, and two types of planning, the rational and the political, have now become combined into strategic management activity.

Composition of web services using Markov decision processes and dynamic programming.

Science.gov (United States)

Uc-Cetina, Víctor; Moo-Mena, Francisco; Hernandez-Ucan, Rafael

2015-01-01

We propose a Markov decision process model for solving the Web service composition (WSC) problem. Iterative policy evaluation, value iteration, and policy iteration algorithms are used to experimentally validate our approach, with artificial and real data. The experimental results show the reliability of the model and the methods employed, with policy iteration being the best one in terms of the minimum number of iterations needed to estimate an optimal policy, with the highest Quality of Service attributes. Our experimental work shows how the solution of a WSC problem involving a set of 100,000 individual Web services and where a valid composition requiring the selection of 1,000 services from the available set can be computed in the worst case in less than 200 seconds, using an Intel Core i5 computer with 6 GB RAM. Moreover, a real WSC problem involving only 7 individual Web services requires less than 0.08 seconds, using the same computational power. Finally, a comparison with two popular reinforcement learning algorithms, sarsa and Q-learning, shows that these algorithms require one or two orders of magnitude and more time than policy iteration, iterative policy evaluation, and value iteration to handle WSC problems of the same complexity.

Leadership development in the English National Health Service: A counter narrative to inform policy.

Science.gov (United States)

Hewison, Alistair; Morrell, Kevin

2014-04-01

To examine the current approach to leadership development in the English National Health Service (NHS) and consider its implications for nursing. To stimulate debate about the nature of leadership development in a range of health care settings. Good leadership is central to the provision of high quality nursing care. This has focussed attention on the leadership development of nurses and other health care staff. It has been a key policy concern in the English NHS of late and fostered the growth of leadership development programmes founded on competency based approaches. This is a policy review informed by the concept of episteme. Relevant policy documents and related literature. Using Foucault's concept of episteme, leadership development policy is examined in context and a 'counter narrative' developed to demonstrate that current approaches are rooted in competency based accounts which constitute a limited, yet dominant narrative. Leadership takes many forms and varies hugely according to task and context. Acknowledging this in the form of a counter narrative offers a contribution to more constructive policy development in the English NHS and more widely. A more nuanced debate about leadership development and greater diversity in the provision of development programmes and activities is required. Leadership development has been advocated as being crucial to the advancement of nursing. Detailed analysis of its nature and function is essential if it is to meet the needs of nurse leaders. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Mental Health Services in South Africa: Taking stock | Lund | African ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Mental Health Services in South Africa: Taking stock. ... This provides an opportunity to take stock of our mental health services. At primary care level key challenges include- training and ... on evaluating interventions. With current policy commitment, the time to act and invest in evidence-based mental health services is now.

42 CFR 93.100 - General policy.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... 42 Public Health 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false General policy. 93.100 Section 93.100 Public Health PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES HEALTH ASSESSMENTS AND HEALTH EFFECTS STUDIES OF HAZARDOUS SUBSTANCES RELEASES AND FACILITIES PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE POLICIES ON RESEARCH...

Spreading the rooftop revolution: What policies enable solar-as-a-service?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Overholm, Harald

2015-01-01

Firms using third-party-ownership (TPO) business models transform solar rooftop installations into a simple service. TPO firms sign long-term agreements with building owners or users to install, finance and manage locally sited solar panels. Customers simply buy solar electricity. The business model can increase total PV market demand by removing central barriers to PV adoption including technology risk, financing needs, and learning costs. TPO is now the dominant US model for residential solar and attempts to use the business model are underway in Europe and Asia. This study discusses how policy makers can enable emergence of solar TPO business models in new markets, a theme novel to extant literature. The paper is based on a comprehensive study of the US solar TPO ecosystem including 50 interviews with key market actors. A downside to the TPO model is potential lock-out of innovative solar technology. Crucial policy actions to enable TPO emergence in new markets are to ensure the legality of the TPO model and to facilitate solar self-consumption (the ability of customers to offset grid electricity costs by using locally generated solar electricity). -- Highlights: •Solar third-party ownership (TPO) firms can boost solar rooftop growth. •5 in-depth cases of US TPO firms and their ecosystem of partners are analyzed. •Policy options to enable solar TPO emergence in new markets are suggested. •Avoiding prohibitive rules and facilitating solar self-consumption are key measures. •Lock-out of new and innovative solar technology is a downside to the TPO model

Public Policy Instruments and Their Impact: From Analogue to Electronic Government in the Bus Services of São Paulo

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marcos Lopes Campos

2018-04-01

Full Text Available This article deals with the relations between public policy instruments and production practices of objects related to government action. It demonstrates that the materiality of the instruments built to make a public policy object legible to its operators has independent effects on the relations among private operators, bureaucrats, and the public sector. Based on the bus service provision policies in the city of São Paulo between the 1980s and the 2000s, it shows that transportation policies are structured around the dilemmas and conflicts associated with the production of reports and databases. This article suggests that everyday practices and instruments, especially those associated with the documentation of operational performance, are key dimensions to understand the limits and potential of both state capacities and the regulation of companies’ profits. Because of its materiality, documentation practices and document pathways, operate as devices and artifacts which structure opacities, asymmetries of information, and power struggles between the state bureaucrats and private companies in the construction of service legibility. This article concludes that the transition from the governance through analogue instruments to the governance through electronic instruments is characterized by more transparency and greater regulatory potential over the private sector.

An analysis on the impact of logistics on customer service

OpenAIRE

Querin, Francesco; Göbl, Martin

2017-01-01

What is the connection between Logistics, customer service and customer Satisfaction levels? What are the role and importance of a Company’s Logistics policies on the overall Customer Experience? What is a generally acceptable response time from a Customer Service?

Creating an innovative youth mental health service in the United Kingdom: The Norfolk Youth Service.

Science.gov (United States)

Wilson, Jon; Clarke, Tim; Lower, Rebecca; Ugochukwu, Uju; Maxwell, Sarah; Hodgekins, Jo; Wheeler, Karen; Goff, Andy; Mack, Robert; Horne, Rebecca; Fowler, David

2017-08-04

Young people attempting to access mental health services in the United Kingdom often find traditional models of care outdated, rigid, inaccessible and unappealing. Policy recommendations, research and service user opinion suggest that reform is needed to reflect the changing needs of young people. There is significant motivation in the United Kingdom to transform mental health services for young people, and this paper aims to describe the rationale, development and implementation of a novel youth mental health service in the United Kingdom, the Norfolk Youth Service. The Norfolk Youth Service model is described as a service model case study. The service rationale, national and local drivers, principles, aims, model, research priorities and future directions are reported. The Norfolk Youth Service is an innovative example of mental health transformation in the United Kingdom, comprising a pragmatic, assertive and "youth-friendly" service for young people aged 14 to 25 that transcends traditional service boundaries. The service was developed in collaboration with young people and partnership agencies and is based on an engaging and inclusive ethos. The service is a social-recovery oriented, evidence-based and aims to satisfy recent policy guidance. The redesign and transformation of youth mental health services in the United Kingdom is long overdue. The Norfolk Youth Service represents an example of reform that aims to meet the developmental and transitional needs of young people at the same time as remaining youth-oriented. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.

Children's Participation in Decision-Making in the Philippines: Understanding the Attitudes of Policy-Makers and Service Providers

Science.gov (United States)

Bessell, Sharon

2009-01-01

This article explores the ideas about children's participation in decision-making held by government officials and non-government representatives engaged in promoting children's participation in the Philippines. It suggests that the ideas that policy-makers and service deliverers hold about children's participation are heterogeneous, diverse and…

The impact of scheduling on service reliability : Trip-time determination and holding points in long-headway services

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Van Oort, N.; Boterman, J.W.; Van Nes, R.

2012-01-01

This paper presents research on optimizing service reliability of longheadway services in urban public transport. Setting the driving time, and thus the departure time at stops, is an important decision when optimizing reliability in urban public transport. The choice of the percentile out of

The optimal time path of clean energy R&D policy when patents have finite lifetime

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Gerlagh, R.; Kverndokk, S.; Rosendahl, K.E.

We study the optimal time path for clean energy innovation policy. In a model with emission reduction through clean energy deployment, and with R&D increasing the overall productivity of clean energy, we describe optimal R&D policies jointly with emission pricing policies. We find that while

Vector Autoregressions with Parsimoniously Time Varying Parameters and an Application to Monetary Policy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Callot, Laurent; Kristensen, Johannes Tang

the monetary policy response to inflation and business cycle fluctuations in the US by estimating a parsimoniously time varying parameter Taylor rule.We document substantial changes in the policy response of the Fed in the 1970s and 1980s, and since 2007, but also document the stability of this response...

Emergence of a rehabilitation medicine model for low vision service delivery, policy, and funding.

Science.gov (United States)

Stelmack, Joan

2005-05-01

A rehabilitation medicine model for low vision rehabilitation is emerging. There have been many challenges to reaching consensus on the roles of each discipline (optometry, ophthalmology, occupational therapy, and vision rehabilitation professionals) in the service delivery model and finding a place in the reimbursement system for all the providers. The history of low vision, legislation associated with Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services coverage for vision rehabilitation, and research on the effectiveness of low vision service delivery are reviewed. Vision rehabilitation is now covered by Medicare under Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation codes by some Medicare carriers, yet reimbursement is not available for low vision devices or refraction. Also, the role of vision rehabilitation professionals (rehabilitation teachers, orientation and mobility specialists, and low vision therapists) in the model needs to be determined. In a recent systematic review of the scientific literature on the effectiveness of low vision services contracted by the Agency for Health Care Quality Research, no clinical trials were found. The literature consists primarily of longitudinal case studies, which provide weak support for third-party funding for vision rehabilitative services. Providers need to reach consensus on medical necessity, treatment plans, and protocols. Research on low vision outcomes is needed to develop an evidence base to guide clinical practice, policy, and funding decisions.

Computing a constrained control policy for a single-server queueing system

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Larsen, Christian

We consider a single-server queueing system designed to serve homogeneous jobs. The jobs arrive to the system after a Poisson process and all processing times are deterministic. There is a set-up cost for starting up production and a holding cost rate is incurred for each job present. Also......, there is a service cost per job, which is a convex function of the service time. The control policy specifies when the server is on or off. It also specifies the state-dependent processing times. In order to avoid a very detailed control policy (which could be hard to implement) we will only allow the server to use...... n different processing times. Hence, we must subdivide the infinite state space into n disjoint sets and for each set decide which processing time to use. We show how to derive a mathematical expression for the long-run average cost per time unit. We also present an algorithm to find the optimal...

An Investigation into Customer Service Policies and Practices within the Scottish College Library Sector: A Comparison between the Customer Service Exemplars from the Retail Sector with Current Scottish College Library Practice

Science.gov (United States)

Paterson, Neil

2011-01-01

The aim of this research project was to investigate the customer care methods within the Scottish college library sector. The researcher sought to compare examples of the customer care and service policies and practices from the sector with exemplars of good customer service from the retail sector. A qualitative, grounded theory approach was…

The M/G/1 queue with heavy-tailed service time distribution

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Boxma, O.J.; Cohen, J.W.

1998-01-01

In modern teletraffic applications of queueing theory, service time distributions B(t) with a heavy tail occur, i.e., 1-B(t)~Ct-v for t¿8 with v>1. For such service time distributions, not much explicit information is available concerning the tail probabilities of the corresponding waiting time

Directory Enabled Policy Based Networking; TOPICAL

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

KELIIAA, CURTIS M.

2001-01-01

This report presents a discussion of directory-enabled policy-based networking with an emphasis on its role as the foundation for securely scalable enterprise networks. A directory service provides the object-oriented logical environment for interactive cyber-policy implementation. Cyber-policy implementation includes security, network management, operational process and quality of service policies. The leading network-technology vendors have invested in these technologies for secure universal connectivity that transverses Internet, extranet and intranet boundaries. Industry standards are established that provide the fundamental guidelines for directory deployment scalable to global networks. The integration of policy-based networking with directory-service technologies provides for intelligent management of the enterprise network environment as an end-to-end system of related clients, services and resources. This architecture allows logical policies to protect data, manage security and provision critical network services permitting a proactive defense-in-depth cyber-security posture. Enterprise networking imposes the consideration of supporting multiple computing platforms, sites and business-operation models. An industry-standards based approach combined with principled systems engineering in the deployment of these technologies allows these issues to be successfully addressed. This discussion is focused on a directory-based policy architecture for the heterogeneous enterprise network-computing environment and does not propose specific vendor solutions. This document is written to present practical design methodology and provide an understanding of the risks, complexities and most important, the benefits of directory-enabled policy-based networking

The GMOS cyber(e)-infrastructure: advanced services for supporting science and policy.

Science.gov (United States)

Cinnirella, S; D'Amore, F; Bencardino, M; Sprovieri, F; Pirrone, N

2014-03-01

The need for coordinated, systematized and catalogued databases on mercury in the environment is of paramount importance as improved information can help the assessment of the effectiveness of measures established to phase out and ban mercury. Long-term monitoring sites have been established in a number of regions and countries for the measurement of mercury in ambient air and wet deposition. Long term measurements of mercury concentration in biota also produced a huge amount of information, but such initiatives are far from being within a global, systematic and interoperable approach. To address these weaknesses the on-going Global Mercury Observation System (GMOS) project ( www.gmos.eu ) established a coordinated global observation system for mercury as well it retrieved historical data ( www.gmos.eu/sdi ). To manage such large amount of information a technological infrastructure was planned. This high-performance back-end resource associated with sophisticated client applications enables data storage, computing services, telecommunications networks and all services necessary to support the activity. This paper reports the architecture definition of the GMOS Cyber(e)-Infrastructure and the services developed to support science and policy, including the United Nation Environmental Program. It finally describes new possibilities in data analysis and data management through client applications.

5 CFR 831.703 - Computation of annuities for part-time service.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 5 Administrative Personnel 2 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Computation of annuities for part-time... part-time service. (a) Purpose. The computational method in this section shall be used to determine the annuity for an employee who has part-time service on or after April 7, 1986. (b) Definitions. In this...

Community/hospital indicators in South African public sector mental health services.

Science.gov (United States)

Lund, Crick; Flisher, Alan J

2003-12-01

The need to balance resources between community and hospital-based mental health services in the post-deinstitutionalisation era has been well-documented. However, few indicators have been developed to monitor the relationship between community and hospital services, in either developed or developing countries. There is a particular need for such indicators in the South African context, with its history of inequitable services based in custodial institutions under apartheid, and a new policy that proposes the development of more equitable community-based care. Indicators are needed to measure the distribution of resources and the relative utilisation of community and hospital-based services during the reform process. These indicators are potentially useful for assessing the implementation of policy objectives over time. To develop and document community/hospital indicators in public sector mental health services in South Africa. A questionnaire was distributed to provincial mental health coordinators requesting numbers of full-time equivalent (FTE) staff who provide mental health care at all service levels, annual patient admissions to hospitals and annual patient attendances at ambulatory care facilities. The information was supplemented by consultations with mental health coordinators in each of the 9 provinces. Population data were obtained from preliminary findings of the 1996 census. The community/hospital indicator measuring staff distribution was defined as the ratio of staff employed in community settings to all staff, expressed as a percentage. The community/hospital indicator measuring patient service utilisation was defined as the ratio of the annual ambulatory care attendance rate per 100,000 population to the sum of this rate and the annual hospital admission rate per 100,000 population, expressed as a percentage. Of psychiatric public sector staff, 25% are located in community settings in South Africa (provincial range: 11-70%). If hospital outpatient

A generalized Web Service response time metric to support collaborative and corroborative Web Service monitoring

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Makitla, I

2015-12-01

Full Text Available In this paper, we describe the development of a generalized metric for computing response time of a web service. Such a generalized metric would help to develop consensus with regards to the meanings of contracted Quality of Service (QoS) parameters...

A multimodal logistics service network design with time windows and environmental concerns.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Dezhi; He, Runzhong; Li, Shuangyan; Wang, Zhongwei

2017-01-01

The design of a multimodal logistics service network with customer service time windows and environmental costs is an important and challenging issue. Accordingly, this work established a model to minimize the total cost of multimodal logistics service network design with time windows and environmental concerns. The proposed model incorporates CO2 emission costs to determine the optimal transportation mode combinations and investment selections for transfer nodes, which consider transport cost, transport time, carbon emission, and logistics service time window constraints. Furthermore, genetic and heuristic algorithms are proposed to set up the abovementioned optimal model. A numerical example is provided to validate the model and the abovementioned two algorithms. Then, comparisons of the performance of the two algorithms are provided. Finally, this work investigates the effects of the logistics service time windows and CO2 emission taxes on the optimal solution. Several important management insights are obtained.

Domestic water service delivery indicators and frameworks for monitoring, evaluation, policy and planning: a review.

Science.gov (United States)

Kayser, Georgia L; Moriarty, Patrick; Fonseca, Catarina; Bartram, Jamie

2013-10-11

Monitoring of water services informs policy and planning for national governments and the international community. Currently, the international monitoring system measures the type of drinking water source that households use. There have been calls for improved monitoring systems over several decades, some advocating use of multiple indicators. We review the literature on water service indicators and frameworks with a view to informing debate on their relevance to national and international monitoring. We describe the evidence concerning the relevance of each identified indicator to public health, economic development and human rights. We analyze the benefits and challenges of using these indicators separately and combined in an index as tools for planning, monitoring, and evaluating water services. We find substantial evidence on the importance of each commonly recommended indicator--service type, safety, quantity, accessibility, reliability or continuity of service, equity, and affordability. Several frameworks have been proposed that give structure to the relationships among individual indicators and some combine multiple indicator scores into a single index but few have been rigorously tested. More research is needed to understand if employing a composite metric of indicators is advantageous and how each indicator might be scored and scaled.

Domestic Water Service Delivery Indicators and Frameworks for Monitoring, Evaluation, Policy and Planning: A Review

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jamie Bartram

2013-10-01

Full Text Available Monitoring of water services informs policy and planning for national governments and the international community. Currently, the international monitoring system measures the type of drinking water source that households use. There have been calls for improved monitoring systems over several decades, some advocating use of multiple indicators. We review the literature on water service indicators and frameworks with a view to informing debate on their relevance to national and international monitoring. We describe the evidence concerning the relevance of each identified indicator to public health, economic development and human rights. We analyze the benefits and challenges of using these indicators separately and combined in an index as tools for planning, monitoring, and evaluating water services. We find substantial evidence on the importance of each commonly recommended indicator—service type, safety, quantity, accessibility, reliability or continuity of service, equity, and affordability. Several frameworks have been proposed that give structure to the relationships among individual indicators and some combine multiple indicator scores into a single index but few have been rigorously tested. More research is needed to understand if employing a composite metric of indicators is advantageous and how each indicator might be scored and scaled.

Renewable Energy Policies in a Time of Transition

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Murdock, Hannah E.; Adib, Rana; Lins, Christine; Guerra, Flavia; Misra, Archita; Murdock, Hannah E.; Vickery, Louise; Collier, Ute; Le Feuvre, Pharoah; Bianco, Emanuele; Mueller, Simon; Philibert, Cedric; Schmidt, Oliver; Kvarnstroem, Oskar; Collier, Ute; Hungerford, Zoe; Frankl, Paolo; Bianco, Emanuele; Hawila, Diala; Ferroukhi, Rabia; Hawila, Diala; Renner, Michael; Nagpal, Divyam; Cox, Sadie; Esterly, Sean; Priesmann, Caspar; Taylor, Hadley; Breitschopf, Barbara; Van Rooijen, Sascha

2018-01-01

Spurred by innovation, increased competition, and policy support in a growing number of countries, renewable energy technologies have achieved massive technological advances and sharp cost reductions. Renewables have come to the forefront of the global energy transition, with nearly every country adopting a renewable energy target. Yet progress has been uneven in different countries and sectors. Technology and financial risks still hamper the expansion of renewables into new markets. As the power sector develops further, the increased adoption of variable renewables like solar and wind requires more flexible systems. Compared to power generation, the regulatory framework for end-use sectors lags behind. This report, prepared jointly by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21. Century (REN21), identifies key barriers and highlights policy options to boost renewable energy deployment. After reviewing current policies and targets worldwide, it examines sector-specific policies for heating and cooling, transport and power, as well as measures for integrating variable renewables. An updated policy classification and terminology list can serve as a global reference for renewable energy policy instruments. Among the key findings: Renewable energy policies must focus on end-use sectors, not just power generation; The use of renewables for heating and cooling requires greater policy attention, including dedicated targets, technology mandates, financial incentives, generation-based incentives, and carbon or energy taxes; Policies in the transport sector require further development, including integrated policies to de-carbonise energy carriers and fuels, vehicles and infrastructure; Policies in the power sector must also evolve further to address new challenges. Measures are needed to support the integration of variable renewable energy, taking into account the specific

Market policy as an innovative element of marketing in the Romanian healthcare services - an approach focused on the patient.

Science.gov (United States)

Coculescu, B I; Coculescu, E C; Radu, A; Petrescu, L; Purcărea, V L

2015-01-01

The orientation towards one of the marketing policies with a major impact in organizations providing healthcare services, requires a careful analysis of the needs and aspirations of customers, targeting those patients whose needs the service organization can achieve through the existing resources at the respective health facility, finding the most effective way of achieving benefits associated with reduced costs to maximizing profits, placing the offers for medical services required by the patients on the market, as well as promptly reacting and acting to the changes of health services market which is constantly evolving through a flexible organizing and functioning structure, connected to the financial needs of the patients.

Demographic Differences in District-Level Policies Related to School Mental Health and Social Services--United States, 2012

Science.gov (United States)

Demissie, Zewditu; Brener, Nancy

2017-01-01

Background: Mental health conditions among youth are a major concern. Schools can play an important role in supporting students affected by these conditions. This study examined district-level school health policies related to mental health and social services to determine if they varied by district demographic characteristics. Methods: The School…

A descriptive retrospective study of time consumption in home care services: how do employees use their working time?

Science.gov (United States)

Holm, Solrun G; Angelsen, Ragnhild O

2014-09-26

Home care services in Norway are provided for free, and municipalities are responsible for their provision to all those in need of them, in accordance with the Act on Municipal Health and Care Services. The costs of home care services are increasing. Many municipalities are now working to find the best cost-effective solutions to ensure that home care services are of sufficient quality but still affordable. This paper describes how nurses and health workers spend their working time, with a hypothesis that driving time and time required to document details of the care given are underestimated in weekly planning schedules. This article sets out a descriptive retrospective study of day-schedules and driving routes for staff working in home care services. Data were analyzed using GIS. The driving time was between 18% and 26% of working time in municipality A, and between 21% and 23% in municipality B. Visiting time varied between 44% and 62% in municipality A, and 40% and 56% in municipality B. Other tasks, including the legally-required documentation of the care given, varied between 19% and 32% in municipality A and 21% and 38% in municipality B. Overall, 22% of the driving routes in municipality A, and 14% in municipality B, took more time than expected. In municipality A, 22% of the day-schedules underestimated overtime; this figure was 14% in municipality B. In home care services, time taken for driving and to write statutory documentation seems to have been underestimated. Better planning and organization of driving routes would reduce driving time and allow more time for other necessary work.

Solution scanning as a key policy tool: identifying management interventions to help maintain and enhance regulating ecosystem services

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

William J. Sutherland

2014-06-01

Full Text Available The major task of policy makers and practitioners when confronted with a resource management problem is to decide on the potential solution(s to adopt from a range of available options. However, this process is unlikely to be successful and cost effective without access to an independently verified and comprehensive available list of options. There is currently burgeoning interest in ecosystem services and quantitative assessments of their importance and value. Recognition of the value of ecosystem services to human well-being represents an increasingly important argument for protecting and restoring the natural environment, alongside the moral and ethical justifications for conservation. As well as understanding the benefits of ecosystem services, it is also important to synthesize the practical interventions that are capable of maintaining and/or enhancing these services. Apart from pest regulation, pollination, and global climate regulation, this type of exercise has attracted relatively little attention. Through a systematic consultation exercise, we identify a candidate list of 296 possible interventions across the main regulating services of air quality regulation, climate regulation, water flow regulation, erosion regulation, water purification and waste treatment, disease regulation, pest regulation, pollination and natural hazard regulation. The range of interventions differs greatly between habitats and services depending upon the ease of manipulation and the level of research intensity. Some interventions have the potential to deliver benefits across a range of regulating services, especially those that reduce soil loss and maintain forest cover. Synthesis and applications: Solution scanning is important for questioning existing knowledge and identifying the range of options available to researchers and practitioners, as well as serving as the necessary basis for assessing cost effectiveness and guiding implementation strategies. We

Off-Policy Reinforcement Learning: Optimal Operational Control for Two-Time-Scale Industrial Processes.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Jinna; Kiumarsi, Bahare; Chai, Tianyou; Lewis, Frank L; Fan, Jialu

2017-12-01

Industrial flow lines are composed of unit processes operating on a fast time scale and performance measurements known as operational indices measured at a slower time scale. This paper presents a model-free optimal solution to a class of two time-scale industrial processes using off-policy reinforcement learning (RL). First, the lower-layer unit process control loop with a fast sampling period and the upper-layer operational index dynamics at a slow time scale are modeled. Second, a general optimal operational control problem is formulated to optimally prescribe the set-points for the unit industrial process. Then, a zero-sum game off-policy RL algorithm is developed to find the optimal set-points by using data measured in real-time. Finally, a simulation experiment is employed for an industrial flotation process to show the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Assessment of policy and access to HIV prevention, care, and treatment services for men who have sex with men and for sex workers in Burkina Faso and Togo.

Science.gov (United States)

Duvall, Sandra; Irani, Laili; Compaoré, Cyrille; Sanon, Patrice; Bassonon, Dieudonne; Anato, Simplice; Agounke, Jeannine; Hodo, Ama; Kugbe, Yves; Chaold, Gertrude; Nigobora, Berry; MacInnis, Ron

2015-03-01

In Burkina Faso and Togo, key populations of men who have sex with men (MSM) and sex workers (SW) have a disproportionately higher HIV prevalence. This study analyzed the 2 countries' policies impacting MSM and SW; to what extent the policies and programs have been implemented; and the role of the enabling environment, country leadership, and donor support. The Health Policy Project's Policy Assessment and Advocacy Decision Model methodology was used to analyze policy and program documents related to key populations, conduct key informant interviews, and hold stakeholder meetings to validate the findings. Several policy barriers restrict MSM/SW from accessing services. Laws criminalizing MSM/SW, particularly anti-solicitation laws, result in harassment and arrests of even nonsoliciting MSM/SW. Policy gaps exist, including few MSM/SW-supportive policies and HIV prevention measures, e.g., lubricant not included in the essential medicines list. The needs of key populations are generally not met due to policy gaps around MSM/SW participation in decision-making and funding allocation for MSM/SW-specific programming. Misaligned policies, eg, contradictory informed consent laws and protocols, and uneven policy implementation, such as stockouts of sexually transmitted infection kits, HIV testing materials, and antiretrovirals, undermine evidence-based policies. Even in the presence of a supportive donor and political community, public stigma and discrimination (S&D) create a hostile enabling environment. Policies are needed to address S&D, particularly health care provider and law enforcement training, and to authorize, fund, guide, and monitor services for key populations. MSM/SW participation and development of operational guidelines can improve policy implementation and service uptake.

Issues affecting therapist workforce and service delivery in the disability sector in rural and remote New South Wales, Australia: perspectives of policy-makers, managers and senior therapists.

Science.gov (United States)

Veitch, Craig; Dew, Angela; Bulkeley, Kim; Lincoln, Michelle; Bundy, Anita; Gallego, Gisselle; Griffiths, Scott

2012-01-01

The disability sector encompasses a broad range of conditions and needs, including children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, people with acquired disabilities, and irreversible physical injuries. Allied health professionals (therapists), in the disability sector, work within government and funded or charitable non-government agencies, schools, communities, and private practice. This article reports the findings of a qualitative study of therapist workforce and service delivery in the disability sector in rural and remote New South Wales (NSW), Australia. The aim was to investigate issues of importance to policy-makers, managers and therapists providing services to people with disabilities in rural and remote areas. The project gathered information via semi-structured interviews with individuals and small groups. Head office and regional office policy-makers, along with managers and senior therapists in western NSW were invited to participate. Participants included 12 policy-makers, 28 managers and 10 senior therapists from NSW government agencies and non-government organisations (NGOs) involved in providing services and support to people with disabilities in the region. Information was synthesised prior to using constant comparative analysis within and across data sets to identify issues. Five broad themes resonated across participants' roles, locations and service settings: (1) challenges to implementing policy in rural and remote NSW; (2) the impact of geographic distribution of workforce and clients; (3) workforce issues - recruitment, support, workloads, retention; (4) equity and access issues for rural clients; and (5) the important role of the NGO sector in rural service delivery and support. Although commitment to providing best practice services was universal, policy-related information transfer between organisations and employees was inconsistent. Participants raised some workforce and service delivery issues that are similar to

THE INFLUENCE OF WAITING TIME SATISFACTION ON CUSTOMER LOYALTY TOWARDS MULTI-STAGE SERVICES IN A FULL-SERVICE RESTAURANT: EVIDENCE FROM INDIA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. Mittal

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Research shows waiting time in services is an important source of service evaluation by the customer. In fact, time is one component of the total 'cost' that the customer bears and cost is a core component of the perceived cost-benefit equation that the customer uses to evaluate her or his sustained patronage of a particular service. In most services, customers consider waiting as a waste of time. However, from the customer perspective, in the case of a full-service restaurant, waiting is expected and sometimes desirable also. Prior research, mainly in the west, suggests that when customers think that a wait for service is too long, they become less satisfied with overall service quality. Based on a research setting in a full-scale restaurant in India, this paper seeks answers to two research questions: First, what are the determinants of overall waiting-time satisfaction and second, what is the influence of waiting-time satisfaction on customer loyalty.

Monitoring the impact of decentralised chronic care services on patient travel time in rural Africa--methods and results in Northern Malawi.

Science.gov (United States)

Houben, Rein M G J; Van Boeckel, Thomas P; Mwinuka, Venance; Mzumara, Peter; Branson, Keith; Linard, Catherine; Chimbwandira, Frank; French, Neil; Glynn, Judith R; Crampin, Amelia C

2012-11-15

Decentralised health services form a key part of chronic care strategies in resource-limited settings by reducing the distance between patient and clinic and thereby the time and costs involved in travelling. However, few tools exist to evaluate the impact of decentralisation on patient travel time or what proportion of patients attend their nearest clinic. Here we develop methods to monitor changes in travel time, using data from the antiretroviral therapy (ART) roll-out in a rural district in North Malawi. Clinic position was combined with GPS information on the home village of patients accessing ART services in Karonga District (North Malawi) between July 2005 and July 2009. Potential travel time was estimated as the travel time for an individual attending their nearest clinic, and estimated actual travel time as the time to the clinic attended. This allowed us to calculate changes in potential and actual travel time as new clinics opened and track the proportion and origin of patients not accessing their nearest clinic. The model showed how the opening of further ART clinics in Karonga District reduced median potential travel time from 83 to 43 minutes, and median actual travel time fell from 83 to 47 minutes. The proportion of patients not attending their nearest clinic increased from 6% when two clinics were open, to 12% with four open. Integrating GPS information with patient data shows the impact of decentralisation on travel time and clinic choice to inform policy and research questions. In our case study, travel time decreased, accompanied by an increased uptake of services. However, the model also identified an increasing proportion of ART patients did not attend their nearest clinic.

Continuity and change in local immigrant policies in times of austerity.

Science.gov (United States)

Schiller, Maria; Hackett, Sarah

2018-01-01

European cities are increasingly being recognised for the role they play in devising and implementing their own migration, integration and diversity policies. Yet very little is known about the local dimension of immigrant policymaking in crisis contexts. This introductory piece offers a rationale for analysing city-level immigrant policies in times of crisis and the salience of using crisis as a metaphor for the state of things, and outlines key scholarly works, debates, concepts and theories. It provides a range of historical and contemporary examples and considerations, and introduces an empirical city case study that is published as part of this mini-symposium. It argues that a crisis lens leads to a systematic understanding of local-level immigrant policymaking in recent and contemporary Western Europe. The mini-symposium's focus and findings should be relevant to both on-going academic and policy debates.

Evidence for Policy Making: Health Services Access and Regional Disparities in Kerman

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Mina Anjomshoa

2013-12-01

Full Text Available Background and purpose: Health indices, regarding to their role in the development of society, are one of the most important indices at national level. Success of national development programs is largely dependent on the establishment of appropriate goals at the health sector, among which access to healthcare facilities is an essential requirement. The aim of this study was to examine the disparities in health services access across the Kerman province. Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional study. Study sample included the cities of Kerman province, ranked based on 15 health indices. Data was collected from statistical yearbook. The indices were weighted using Shannon entropy, then using the TOPSIS technique and the result were classified into three categories in terms of the level of development across towns. Results: The findings showed distinct regional disparities in health services across Kerman province and the significant difference was observed between the cities in terms of development. Shannon entropy introduced the number of pharmacologist per 10 thousand people as the most important indicator and the number of rural active health center per 1000 people as the less important indicator. According to TOPSIS, Kerman town (0.719 and Fahraj (0.1151 ranked the first and last in terms of access to health services respectively. Conclusion: There are significant differences between cities of Kerman province in terms of access to health care facilities and services. Therefore, it is recommended that officials and policy-makers determine resource allocation priorities according to the degree of development for a balanced and equitable distribution of health care facilities.

The influence of waiting time satisfaction on customer loyalty towards multi-stage services in a full-service restaurant: evidence from India

OpenAIRE

MITTAL A.

2016-01-01

Research shows waiting time in services is an important source of service evaluation by the customer. In fact, time is one component of the total 'cost' that the customer bears and cost is a core component of the perceived cost-benefit equation that the customer uses to evaluate her or his sustained patronage of a particular service. In most services, customers consider waiting as a waste of time. However, from the customer perspective, in the case of a full-service restaurant, waiting is exp...

Analysis of distributed-generation photovoltaic deployment, installation time and cost, market barriers, and policies in China

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang, Fang; Deng, Hao; Margolis, Robert; Su, Jun

2015-01-01

Beginning in 2013, China's photovoltaic (PV) market-development strategy witnessed a series of policy changes aimed at making distributed-generation PV (DG PV) development an equal priority with large-scale PV development. This article reviews the DG PV policy changes since 2013 and examines their effect on China's domestic DG PV market. Based on a 2014 survey of DG PV market and policy participants, we present cost and time breakdowns for installing DG PV projects in China, and we identify the main barriers to DG PV installation. We also use a cash flow model to determine the relative economic attractiveness of DG PV in several eastern provinces in China. The main factors constraining DG PV deployment in China include financial barriers resulting from the structure of the self-consumption feed-in tariff (FIT), ambivalence about DG PV within grid companies, complicated ownership structures for buildings/rooftops/businesses, and the inherent time lag in policy implementation from the central government to provincial and local governments. We conclude with policy implications and suggestions in the context of DG PV policy changes the Chinese government implemented in September 2014. -- Highlights: •We review China's distributed PV market development and policy changes since 2013. •We present cost and time requirements for installing distributed PV in China. •We conduct IRR analysis of distributed PV under different policy frameworks. •We identify barriers to China's distributed PV, especially feed-in tariff barriers

Sojourn time tails in the single server queue with heavy-tailed service times

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Boxma, O.J.; Denisov, D.E.

2009-01-01

We consider the GI/GI/1 queue with regularly varying service requirement distribution of index -a. It is well known that, in the M/G/1 FCFS queue, the sojourn time distribution is also regularly varying, of index 1 - a, whereas in the case of LCFS or Processor Sharing, the sojourn time distribution

76 FR 27649 - HIV/AIDS Bureau Policy Notice 11-01 (Replaces Policy Notice 99-02)

Science.gov (United States)

2011-05-12

... Bureau Policy Notice 11-01 (Replaces Policy Notice 99- 02) AGENCY: Health Resources and Services.../AIDS Bureau (HAB) Policy Notice 99-02 established policies for the use of Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program... and short-term or emergency housing needs. Amendment 1 to Policy Notice 99-02, effective March 27...

A Call to Service for America’s Youth

Science.gov (United States)

2011-03-24

the most common disqualifiers for military service.2 On another occasion, while on a visit to Fort Jackson, South Carolina, First Lady Michelle... Dutch settlers employed similar policy supported by law in their colonies in New York, at the time known as New Amsterdam.16 The colonial policy was...Fitzpatrick, Vol. 26, p. 289. 2 Sheryl Gay Stolberg, ―Childhood Obesity Battle Is Taken Up by First Lady ,‖ New York Times, February 9, 2010. 3

A k-out-of-n reliability system with an unreliable server and phase type repairs and services: the (N,T policy

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Srinivas R. Chakravarthy

2001-01-01

Full Text Available In this paper we study a k-out-of-n reliability system in which a single unreliable server maintains n identical components. The reliability system is studied under the (N,T policy. An idle server takes a vacation for a random amount of time T and then attends to any failed component waiting in line upon completion of the vacation. The vacationing server is recalled instantaneously upon the failure of the Nth component. The failure times of the components are assumed to follow an exponential distribution. The server is subject to failure with failure times exponentially distributed. Repair times of the component, fixing times of the server, and vacationing times of the server are assumed to be of phase type. Using matrix-analytic methods we perform steady state analysis of this model. Time spent by a failed component in service, total time in the repair facility, vacation time of the server, non-vacation time of the server, and time until failure of the system are all shown to be of phase type. Several performance measures are evaluated. Illustrative numerical examples are presented.

Time, costs and farmers’ perceptions: The case of livestock service delivery in tamilnadu

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G kathiravan

2011-10-01

Full Text Available A study was undertaken in southern peninsular State of India, the Tamil Nadu State, (i to ascertain the time costs of animal health care and bovine breeding services, and (ii to comprehend the perceptions of farmers on the livestock services rendered by different service providers. The districts of the state were categorized as 'Livestock Developed' (LD and 'Livestock Under Developed' (LUD based on initial base line developed. Travel, waiting and service time were among the primary non-price factors that affected service quality. Average travel time was highest for visiting the public veterinary centre in both LUD (23.05 min. and LD (21.32 min. districts. Waiting time with regard to veterinarians providing home services in LUD districts was highest (23.01 min., followed by public veterinary centre services at LUD districts (22.35 min., home services by para-veterinarians (22.01 min. and public veterinary centre services at LD districts (20.10 min.. Both travel and waiting time were much higher in case of breeding services compared to curative services, which could be due to the fact that the farmers preferred Artificial Insemination (AI over its close substitute, the natural service. However, the service time was relatively less in case of insemination services vis-à-vis curative services both in LUD and LD districts. The quality perceptions of farmers on livestock services revealed that the home services rendered by veterinarians as the best one (0.83, followed by private veterinary clinics (0.75, home services by para-veterinarians (0.74, public veterinary centres (0.64 and co-operative veterinary centres (0.48. [Vet. World 2011; 4(5.000: 209-212

Real-time GIS data model and sensor web service platform for environmental data management.

Science.gov (United States)

Gong, Jianya; Geng, Jing; Chen, Zeqiang

2015-01-09

Effective environmental data management is meaningful for human health. In the past, environmental data management involved developing a specific environmental data management system, but this method often lacks real-time data retrieving and sharing/interoperating capability. With the development of information technology, a Geospatial Service Web method is proposed that can be employed for environmental data management. The purpose of this study is to determine a method to realize environmental data management under the Geospatial Service Web framework. A real-time GIS (Geographic Information System) data model and a Sensor Web service platform to realize environmental data management under the Geospatial Service Web framework are proposed in this study. The real-time GIS data model manages real-time data. The Sensor Web service platform is applied to support the realization of the real-time GIS data model based on the Sensor Web technologies. To support the realization of the proposed real-time GIS data model, a Sensor Web service platform is implemented. Real-time environmental data, such as meteorological data, air quality data, soil moisture data, soil temperature data, and landslide data, are managed in the Sensor Web service platform. In addition, two use cases of real-time air quality monitoring and real-time soil moisture monitoring based on the real-time GIS data model in the Sensor Web service platform are realized and demonstrated. The total time efficiency of the two experiments is 3.7 s and 9.2 s. The experimental results show that the method integrating real-time GIS data model and Sensor Web Service Platform is an effective way to manage environmental data under the Geospatial Service Web framework.

Shipment Consolidation Policy under Uncertainty of Customer Order for Sustainable Supply Chain Management

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Kyunghoon Kang

2017-09-01

Full Text Available With increasing concern over the environment, shipment consolidation has become one of a main initiative to reduce CO2 emissions and transportation cost among the logistics service providers. Increased delivery time caused by shipment consolidation may lead to customer’s order cancellation. Thus, order cancellation should be considered as a factor in order uncertainty to determine the optimal shipment consolidation policy. We develop mathematical models for quantity-based and time-based policies and obtain optimality properties for the models. Efficient algorithms using optimal properties are provided to compute the optimal parameters for ordering and shipment decisions. To compare the performances of the quantity-based policy with the time-based policy, extensive numerical experiments are conducted, and the total cost is compared.

A research on EU trade policy system

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Qi Sitong

2017-08-01

Full Text Available The EU is the world’s largest trade group, occupying an important position in the world trade in goods and services, especially in the field of service trade. The EU trade in services exports and imports are higher than the United States and Japan, and the EU is the world’s largest capital output and input group, and the world’s largest foreign aid providers. With the deepening of the European integration process, Europe’s position in the world economy and trade is on the rise. Therefore, the EU’s trade policy has increasingly become the focus of attention. From the vertical point of view, research directions can be divided into trade in goods policy, trade in services policy, international direct investment policy, trade-related intellectual property policy four field. In this paper, the four vertical areas are illustrated as the focus of the study.

Has the free maternal health policy eliminated out of pocket payments for maternal health services? Views of women, health providers and insurance managers in Northern Ghana.

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Philip Ayizem Dalinjong

Full Text Available The free maternal health policy was implemented in Ghana in 2008 under the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS. The policy sought to eliminate out of pocket (OOP payments and enhance the utilisation of maternal health services. It is unclear whether the policy had altered OOP payments for services. The study explored views on costs and actual OOP payments during pregnancy. The source of funding for payments was also explored.A convergent parallel mixed methods design, involving quantitative and qualitative data collection approaches. The study was set in the Kassena-Nankana municipality, a rural area in Ghana. Women (n = 406 who utilised services during pregnancy were surveyed. Also, 10 focus groups discussions (FGDs were held with women who used services during pregnancy as well as 28 in-depth interviews (IDIs with midwives/nurses (n = 25 and insurance managers/directors (n = 3. The survey was analysed using descriptive statistics, focussing on costs from the women's perspective. Qualitative data were audio recorded, transcribed and translated verbatim into English where necessary. The transcripts were read and coded into themes and sub-themes.The NHIS did not cover all expenses in relation to maternal health services. The overall mean for OOP cost during pregnancy was GH¢17.50 (US$8.60. Both FGDs and IDIs showed that women especially paid for drugs and ultrasound scan services. Sixty-five percent of the women used savings, whilst twenty-two percent sold assets to meet the OOP cost. Some women were unable to afford payments due to poverty and had to forgo treatment. Participants called for payments to be eliminated and for the NHIS to absorb the cost of emergency referrals. All participants admitted the benefits of the policy.Women needed to make payments despite the policy. Measures should be put in place to eliminate payments to enable all women to receive services and promote universal health coverage.

Joint inventory control and pricing in a service-inventory system

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Marand, Ata Jalili; Li, Hongyan Jenny; Thorstenson, Anders

2017-01-01

This study addresses joint inventory control and pricing decisions for a service-inventory system. In such a system both an on-hand inventory item and a positive service time are required to fulfill customer demands. The service-inventory system also captures main features of the classical...... inventory systems with a positive processing time, e.g., make-to-order systems. In this study, the service-inventory system is modeled as an M/M/1 queue in which the customer arrival rate is price dependent. The inventory of an individual item is continuously reviewed under an (r,Q) policy....... The replenishment lead times of the inventory are exponentially distributed. Furthermore, customers arriving during stock-out periods are lost. The stochastic customer inter-arrival times, service times, and inventory replenishment lead times cause the high complexity of the problem and the difficulty in solving it...

Sojourn time tails in the single server queue with heavy-tailed service times

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Boxma, O.J.; Denisov, D.E.

2011-01-01

We consider the GI/GI/1 queue with regularly varying service requirement distribution of index -a. It is well known that, in the M/G/1 FCFS queue, the sojourn time distribution is also regularly varying, of index 1-a, whereas in the case of LCFS or Processor Sharing, the sojourn time distribution is

Demand-based provision of housing, welfare and care services to elderly clients: from policy to daily practice through operations management.

Science.gov (United States)

de Blok, Carolien; Meijboom, Bert; Luijkx, Katrien; Schols, Jos

2009-03-01

Practical implementation of notions such as patient-orientation, client-centredness, and demand-driven care is far from straightforward in care and service supply to elderly clients living independently. This paper aims to provide preliminary insights into how it is possible to bridge the gap between policy intent, which reflects an increasing client orientation, and actual practice of care and service provision. Differences in personal objectives and characteristics generate different sets of needs among elderly clients that must have an appropriate response in the daily routines of care and service providers. From a study of the available literature and by conceptual reasoning, we identify several important operational implications of client-oriented care and service provision. To deal with these implications the authors turn to the field of operations management. This field has deepened the understanding of translating an organisation's policy into daily activities and working methods. More specifically, we elaborate on the concept of modularity, which stems from the field of operations management. With respect to elderly people who live independently, this concept, among others, seems to be particularly useful in providing options and variation in individual care and service packages. Based on our line of reasoning, we propose that modularity provides possibilities to enhance the provision of demand-based care and services. Furthermore, our findings offer direction on how organisations in housing, welfare and care can be guided in translating demand-based care to their operational processes.

Previous utilization of service does not improve timely booking in ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Previous utilization of service does not improve timely booking in antenatal care: Cross sectional study ... Journal Home > Vol 24, No 3 (2010) > ... Results: Past experience on antenatal care service utilization did not come out as a predictor for ...

The impact of nurse practitioner services on cost, quality of care, satisfaction and waiting times in the emergency department: a systematic review.

Science.gov (United States)

Jennings, Natasha; Clifford, Stuart; Fox, Amanda R; O'Connell, Jane; Gardner, Glenn

2015-01-01

evidence base for emergency nurse practitioner service to guide healthcare leaders, policy makers and clinicians in reform of emergency service provision. The findings suggest that further high quality research is required for comparative measures of clinical and service effectiveness of emergency nurse practitioner service. In the context of increased health service demand and the need to provide timely and effective care to patients, such measures will assist in evidence based health service planning. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Trade in health services.

Science.gov (United States)

Chanda, Rupa

2002-01-01

In light of the increasing globalization of the health sector, this article examines ways in which health services can be traded, using the mode-wise characterization of trade defined in the General Agreement on Trade in Services. The trade modes include cross- border delivery of health services via physical and electronic means, and cross-border movement of consumers, professionals, and capital. An examination of the positive and negative implications of trade in health services for equity, efficiency, quality, and access to health care indicates that health services trade has brought mixed benefits and that there is a clear role for policy measures to mitigate the adverse consequences and facilitate the gains. Some policy measures and priority areas for action are outlined, including steps to address the "brain drain"; increasing investment in the health sector and prioritizing this investment better; and promoting linkages between private and public health care services to ensure equity. Data collection, measures, and studies on health services trade all need to be improved, to assess better the magnitude and potential implications of this trade. In this context, the potential costs and benefits of trade in health services are shaped by the underlying structural conditions and existing regulatory, policy, and infrastructure in the health sector. Thus, appropriate policies and safeguard measures are required to take advantage of globalization in health services. PMID:11953795

Market policy as an innovative element of marketing in the Romanian healthcare services – an approach focused on the patient

Science.gov (United States)

Coculescu, BI; Coculescu, EC; Radu, A; Petrescu, L; Purcărea, VL

2015-01-01

The orientation towards one of the marketing policies with a major impact in organizations providing healthcare services, requires a careful analysis of the needs and aspirations of customers, targeting those patients whose needs the service organization can achieve through the existing resources at the respective health facility, finding the most effective way of achieving benefits associated with reduced costs to maximizing profits, placing the offers for medical services required by the patients on the market, as well as promptly reacting and acting to the changes of health services market which is constantly evolving through a flexible organizing and functioning structure, connected to the financial needs of the patients. PMID:26664466

Framing scenarios of binational water policy with a tool to visualize, quantify and valuate changes in ecosystem services

Science.gov (United States)

Norman, Laura M.; Villarreal, Miguel L.; Niraula, Rewati; Meixner, Thomas; Frisvold, George; Labiosa, William

2013-01-01

In the Santa Cruz Watershed, located on the Arizona-Sonora portion of the U.S.-Mexico border, an international wastewater treatment plant treats wastewater from cities on both sides of the border, before discharging it into the river in Arizona. These artificial flows often subsidize important perennial surface water ecosystems in the region. An explicit understanding of the benefits of maintaining instream flow for present and future generations requires the ability to assess and understand the important trade-offs implicit in water-resource management decisions. In this paper, we outline an approach for modeling and visualizing impacts of management decisions in terms of rare terrestrial and aquatic wildlife, vegetation, surface water, groundwater recharge, real-estate values and socio-environmental vulnerable communities. We identify and quantify ecosystem services and model the potential reduction in effluent discharge to the U.S. that is under scrutiny by binational water policy makers and of concern to stakeholders. Results of service provisioning are presented, and implications for policy makers and resource managers are discussed. This paper presents a robust ecosystem services assessment of multiple scenarios of watershed management as a means to discern eco-hydrological responses and consider their potential values for future generations living in the borderlands.

Impact of pharmaceutical policy interventions on utilization of antipsychotic medicines in Finland and Portugal in times of economic recession: interrupted time series analyses.

Science.gov (United States)

Leopold, Christine; Zhang, Fang; Mantel-Teeuwisse, Aukje K; Vogler, Sabine; Valkova, Silvia; Ross-Degnan, Dennis; Wagner, Anita K

2014-07-25

To analyze the impacts of pharmaceutical sector policies implemented to contain country spending during the economic recession--a reference price system in Finland and a mix of policies including changes in reimbursement rates, a generic promotion campaign and discounts granted to the public payer in Portugal - on utilization of, as a proxy for access to, antipsychotic medicines. We obtained monthly IMS Health sales data in standard units of antipsychotic medicines in Portugal and Finland for the period January 2007 to December 2011. We used an interrupted time series design to estimate changes in overall use and generic market shares by comparing pre-policy and post-policy levels and trends. Both countries' policy approaches were associated with slight, likely unintended, decreases in overall use of antipsychotic medicines and with increases in generic market shares of major antipsychotic products. In Finland, quetiapine and risperidone generic market shares increased substantially (estimates one year post-policy compared to before, quetiapine: 6.80% [3.92%, 9.68%]; risperidone: 11.13% [6.79%, 15.48%]. The policy interventions in Portugal resulted in a substantially increased generic market share for amisulpride (estimate one year post-policy compared to before: 22.95% [21.01%, 24.90%]; generic risperidone already dominated the market prior to the policy interventions. Different policy approaches to contain pharmaceutical expenditures in times of the economic recession in Finland and Portugal had intended--increased use of generics--and likely unintended--slightly decreased overall sales, possibly consistent with decreased access to needed medicines--impacts. These findings highlight the importance of monitoring and evaluating the effects of pharmaceutical policy interventions on use of medicines and health outcomes.

The MX/G/1 queue with queue length dependent service times

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bong Dae Choi

2001-01-01

Full Text Available We deal with the MX/G/1 queue where service times depend on the queue length at the service initiation. By using Markov renewal theory, we derive the queue length distribution at departure epochs. We also obtain the transient queue length distribution at time t and its limiting distribution and the virtual waiting time distribution. The numerical results for transient mean queue length and queue length distributions are given.

The U.S. Forest Service and its responsibilities under the national environmental policy act: a work design problem

Science.gov (United States)

Matthew Auer; Kenneth Richards; David N. Seesholtz; Burnell Fischer; Christian Freitag; Joshua. Grice

2011-01-01

The U.S. Forest Service’s responsibilities under the National Environmental Policy Act entail a wide range of activities including scoping, scientific analysis, social and economic analysis, managing public input and involvement, media relations, regulatory analysis, and litigation. These myriad duties raise several important organizational and management questions....

The experiences of survivors and trauma counselling service providers in northern Uganda: Implications for mental health policy and legislation.

Science.gov (United States)

Liebling, H; Davidson, L; Akello, G F; Ochola, G

Previous research in northern Uganda found high levels of trauma-related difficulties amongst the conflict-affected population. There is international evidence that psychological therapy can reduce depression, as one of the psychological effects of trauma, but very limited literature regarding the experiences of trauma counselling in Sub-Saharan Africa. The current British Academy and Leverhulme-funded research investigated the experiences of service users and providers of trauma services in Kitgum and Gulu, northern Uganda. It also examined their implications for mental health policy and legislation. A decision was made to utilise qualitative methodology to highlight the in-depth experiences of participants. The researcher's carried out interviews with 10 women and 10 men survivors attending trauma services in Kitgum and Gulu. The researchers also interviewed 15 key informants in Kitgum, Gulu and Kampala including trauma counselling service providers, ministers, cultural leaders and mental health professionals. The authors report the findings of the research based on thematic analysis of the interviews. Themes included the experiences of survivors, bearing witness and instilling hope, constraints to service provision, stigma and abuse, holistic approach, service providers doing their best, specialist populations, limited understanding, training and skills development, gaps in service provision and mental health policy and legislation. The interviews resulted in a clear indication that counselling and medication was valued by service users, and that service providers felt the treatments that were provided improved depression, and increased empowerment and engagement in social activities. However, the authors argue that there was a limit to the benefits that could be achieved without using the holistic approach that the survivors requested. Thus, in cases of trauma arising from conflict, there is a clear need for the state to ensure reparation and/or justice for the

Inclusion and Human Rights in Health Policies: Comparative and Benchmarking Analysis of 51 Policies from Malawi, Sudan, South Africa and Namibia

Science.gov (United States)

MacLachlan, Malcolm; Amin, Mutamad; Mannan, Hasheem; El Tayeb, Shahla; Bedri, Nafisa; Swartz, Leslie; Munthali, Alister; Van Rooy, Gert; McVeigh, Joanne

2012-01-01

While many health services strive to be equitable, accessible and inclusive, peoples’ right to health often goes unrealized, particularly among vulnerable groups. The extent to which health policies explicitly seek to achieve such goals sets the policy context in which services are delivered and evaluated. An analytical framework was developed – EquiFrame – to evaluate 1) the extent to which 21 Core Concepts of human rights were addressed in policy documents, and 2) coverage of 12 Vulnerable Groups who might benefit from such policies. Using this framework, analysis of 51 policies across Malawi, Namibia, South Africa and Sudan, confirmed the relevance of all Core Concepts and Vulnerable Groups. Further, our analysis highlighted some very strong policies, serious shortcomings in others as well as country-specific patterns. If social inclusion and human rights do not underpin policy formation, it is unlikely they will be inculcated in service delivery. EquiFrame facilitates policy analysis and benchmarking, and provides a means for evaluating policy revision and development. PMID:22649488

Inclusion and human rights in health policies: comparative and benchmarking analysis of 51 policies from Malawi, Sudan, South Africa and Namibia.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Malcolm MacLachlan

Full Text Available While many health services strive to be equitable, accessible and inclusive, peoples' right to health often goes unrealized, particularly among vulnerable groups. The extent to which health policies explicitly seek to achieve such goals sets the policy context in which services are delivered and evaluated. An analytical framework was developed--EquiFrame--to evaluate 1 the extent to which 21 Core Concepts of human rights were addressed in policy documents, and 2 coverage of 12 Vulnerable Groups who might benefit from such policies. Using this framework, analysis of 51 policies across Malawi, Namibia, South Africa and Sudan, confirmed the relevance of all Core Concepts and Vulnerable Groups. Further, our analysis highlighted some very strong policies, serious shortcomings in others as well as country-specific patterns. If social inclusion and human rights do not underpin policy formation, it is unlikely they will be inculcated in service delivery. EquiFrame facilitates policy analysis and benchmarking, and provides a means for evaluating policy revision and development.

Can trained lay providers perform HIV testing services? A review of national HIV testing policies.

Science.gov (United States)

Flynn, David E; Johnson, Cheryl; Sands, Anita; Wong, Vincent; Figueroa, Carmen; Baggaley, Rachel

2017-01-04

Only an estimated 54% of people living with HIV are aware of their status. Despite progress scaling up HIV testing services (HTS), a testing gap remains. Delivery of HTS by lay providers may help close this testing gap, while also increasing uptake and acceptability of HIV testing among key populations and other priority groups. 50 National HIV testing policies were collated from WHO country intelligence databases, contacts and testing program websites. Data regarding lay provider use for HTS was extracted and collated. Our search had no geographical or language restrictions. This data was then compared with reported data from the Global AIDS Response Progress Reporting (GARPR) from July 2015. Forty-two percent of countries permit lay providers to perform HIV testing and 56% permit lay providers to administer pre-and post-test counseling. Comparative analysis with GARPR found that less than half (46%) of reported data from countries were consistent with their corresponding national HIV testing policy. Given the low uptake of lay provider use globally and their proven use in increasing HIV testing, countries should consider revising policies to support lay provider testing using rapid diagnostic tests.

Inside and Outside the Policy Consensus: Science in a Time of Policy Upheaval in Congress

Science.gov (United States)

McCurdy, K. M.

2011-12-01

crossfire as coalitions attempted to forge a consensus to create their vision of a prosperous future. Small government actually means that R&D is not a proper function of government, so scientists must be on the program chopping block, and discrediting your opponents is a time honored means of eliminating political competition. The policy phase boundary is marked by deviations from Congress handing routine matters over to the low-conflict, low-public-attention bureaucratic decision-making arena. The recent severe budget cuts to the USGS and NSF research funding were high-conflict events held in the glare of TV camera lights and marked by charges that scientists are perpetrating a hoax or lying. Climate science suddenly was thrown into electoral politics instead of the routine give and take of bureaucratic decision-making. Knowing the terrain in Congress will help scientists know when a policy phase transition is occurring. This will allow scientists to better plan presentations. Style will be different if a presentation is made to collaborators rather than those who may use what is said to harm rather than help bring federal resources to a project.

Dynamic virtual machine allocation policy in cloud computing complying with service level agreement using CloudSim

Science.gov (United States)

Aneri, Parikh; Sumathy, S.

2017-11-01

Cloud computing provides services over the internet and provides application resources and data to the users based on their demand. Base of the Cloud Computing is consumer provider model. Cloud provider provides resources which consumer can access using cloud computing model in order to build their application based on their demand. Cloud data center is a bulk of resources on shared pool architecture for cloud user to access. Virtualization is the heart of the Cloud computing model, it provides virtual machine as per application specific configuration and those applications are free to choose their own configuration. On one hand, there is huge number of resources and on other hand it has to serve huge number of requests effectively. Therefore, resource allocation policy and scheduling policy play very important role in allocation and managing resources in this cloud computing model. This paper proposes the load balancing policy using Hungarian algorithm. Hungarian Algorithm provides dynamic load balancing policy with a monitor component. Monitor component helps to increase cloud resource utilization by managing the Hungarian algorithm by monitoring its state and altering its state based on artificial intelligent. CloudSim used in this proposal is an extensible toolkit and it simulates cloud computing environment.

Quality & timely delivery of products and services

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Scott, K.; Shabbir, K.

2015-01-01

This paper discusses quality and timely delivery of services. The approach is to support our customers, to ensure quality, schedule and cost predictability with no compromise to safety, to avoid optimistic project schedules and conservative cost estimates. It is important to maintain a strategic focus in helping to improve the customer's assets and improve the methodology to improve assets.

OpenDOAR Policy tools and applications

CERN Document Server

CERN. Geneva; Van de Sompel, Herbert

2007-01-01

OpenDOAR conducted a survey of the world's repositories that showed 2/3 as having unusable or missing policies for content re-use and other issues. Such policies are essential for service providers to be able to develop innovative services that use the full potential of open access. OpenDOAR has developed a set of policy generator tools for repository administrators and is contacting administrators to advocate policy development. It is hoped that one outcome from this work will be some standardisation of policies in vocabulary and intent. Other developments include an OpenDOAR API. This presentation looks at the way that the tools and API have been developed and the implcations for their use.

OpenDOAR Policy tools and applications

CERN Multimedia

CERN. Geneva

2007-01-01

OpenDOAR conducted a survey of the world's repositories that showed 2/3 as having unusable or missing policies for content re-use and other issues. Such policies are essential for service providers to be able to develop innovative services that use the full potential of open access. OpenDOAR has developed a set of policy generator tools for repository administrators and is contacting administrators to advocate policy development. It is hoped that one outcome from this work will be some standardisation of policies in vocabulary and intent. Other developments include an OpenDOAR API. This presentation looks at the way that the tools and API have been developed and the implcations for their use. View Bill Hubbard's biography

An analysis of policy levers used to implement mental health reform in Australia 1992-2012.

Science.gov (United States)

Grace, Francesca C; Meurk, Carla S; Head, Brian W; Hall, Wayne D; Carstensen, Georgia; Harris, Meredith G; Whiteford, Harvey A

2015-10-24

Over the past two decades, mental health reform in Australia has received unprecedented government attention. This study explored how five policy levers (organisation, regulation, community education, finance and payment) were used by the Australian Federal Government to implement mental health reforms. Australian Government publications, including the four mental health plans (published in 1992, 1998, 2003 and 2008) were analysed according to policy levers used to drive reform across five priority areas: [1] human rights and community attitudes; [2] responding to community need; [3] service structures; [4] service quality and effectiveness; and [5] resources and service access. Policy levers were applied in varying ways; with two or three levers often concurrently used to implement a single initiative or strategy. For example, changes to service structures were achieved using various combinations of all five levers. Attempts to improve service quality and effectiveness were instead made through a single lever-regulation. The use of some levers changed over time, including a move away from prescriptive, legislative use of regulation, towards a greater focus on monitoring service standards and consumer outcomes. Patterns in the application of policy levers across the National Mental Health Strategy, as identified in this analysis, represent a novel way of conceptualising the history of mental health reform in Australia. An improved understanding of the strategic targeting and appropriate utilisation of policy levers may assist in the delivery and evaluation of evidence-based mental health reform in the future.

Equilibrium arrival times to queues with general service times and non-linear utility functions

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Breinbjerg, Jesper

2017-01-01

by a general utility function which is decreasing in the waiting time and service completion time of each customer. Applications of such queueing games range from people choosing when to arrive at a grand opening sale to travellers choosing when to line up at the gate when boarding an airplane. We develop...

Flow time analysis of load management late arrival discrete time queueing system with dual service rate using hypo geometrical distribution

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shah, S.A.; Shah, W.; Shaikh, F.K.

2012-01-01

Flow time analysis is a powerful concept to analyze the flow time of any arriving customer in any system at any instant. A load management mechanism can be employed very effectively in any queueing system by utilizing a system which provides probability of dual service rate. In this paper, we develop and demonstrate the flow and service processes transition diagram to determine the flow time of a customer in a load management late arrival state dependent finite discrete time queueing system with dual service rate where customers are hypo geometrically distributed. We compute the probability mass function of each starting state and total probability mass function. The obtained analytical results are validated with simulation results for varying values of arrival and service probabilities. (author)

Shaping innovation in health care: A content analysis of innovation policies in the English NHS, 1948-2015.

Science.gov (United States)

Farchi, Tomas; Salge, Torsten-Oliver

2017-11-01

Governments around the world seek to design policies that enhance the innovative capacity of public service. Hence, identifying the underlying meanings attributed to innovation concepts in public policies is critical, as these very understandings inform not only the policy discourses, but also the overall institutional landscape regulating innovation activities. This paper examines such fundamental definitional aspects in the specific context of the National Health Service in England. For this purpose, it traces the evolution of the innovation concept in policy discourse based on the analysis of 21 key policy documents published or commissioned by the English Department of Health between 1948 and 2015. Systematic analysis of these texts reveals that policymakers' conception of healthcare innovation broadened considerably over time. English health innovation policy initially focused on basic biomedical research. Subsequently, it entered a transitional period, zeroing in on science- and technology-based innovation. Finally, this focus gradually shifted to a broader conception of innovation translating into health, economic, and service design benefits. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Health seeking behaviour and health service utilization in Pakistan: challenging the policy makers.

Science.gov (United States)

Shaikh, Babar T; Hatcher, Juanita

2005-03-01

There is a growing literature on health seeking behaviours and the determinants of health services utilization especially in the context of developing countries. However, very few focused studies have been seen in Pakistan in this regard. This paper presents an extensive literature review of the situation in developing countries and relates the similar factors responsible for shaping up of a health seeking behaviour and health service utilization in Pakistan. The factors determining the health behaviours may be seen in various contexts: physical, socio-economic, cultural and political. Therefore, the utilization of a health care system, public or private, formal or non-formal, may depend on socio-demographic factors, social structures, level of education, cultural beliefs and practices, gender discrimination, status of women, economic and political systems environmental conditions, and the disease pattern and health care system itself. Policy makers need to understand the drivers of health seeking behaviour of the population in an increasingly pluralistic health care system. Also a more concerted effort is required for designing behavioural health promotion campaigns through inter-sectoral collaboration focusing more on disadvantaged segments of the population.

Does providing more services increase the primary hospitals' revenue? An assessment of national essential medicine policy based on 2,675 counties in China.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fei Chen

Full Text Available To understand whether the increased outpatient service provision (OSP brings in enough additional income (excluding income from essential medicine for primary hospitals (INCOME to compensate for reduced costs of medicine.The two outcomes, annual OSP and INCOME for the period of 2008-2012, were collected from 34,506 primary hospitals in 2,675 counties in 31 provinces in China by the national surveillance system. The data had a four-level hierarchical structure; time points were nested within primary hospital, hospitals within county, and counties within province. We fitted bivariate five-level random effects regression models to examine correlations between OSP and INCOME in terms of their mean values and dose-response effects of the essential medicine policy (EMP. We adjusted for the effects of time period and selected hospital resources.The estimated correlation coefficients between the two outcomes' mean values were strongly positive among provinces (r = 0.910, moderately positive among counties (r = 0.380, and none among hospitals (r = 0.002 and time (r = 0.007. The correlation between their policy effects was weakly positive among provinces (r = 0.234, but none at the county and hospital levels. However, there were markedly negative correlation coefficients between the mean and policy effects at -0.328 for OSP and -0.541 for INCOME at the hospital level.There was no evidence to suggest an association between the two outcomes in terms of their mean values and dose-response effects of EMP at the hospital level. This indicated that increased OSP did not bring enough additional INCOME. Sustainable mechanisms to compensate primary hospitals are needed.

The construction of legitimacy in European nature policy: expertise and participation in the service of cost-effectiveness

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Turnhout, E.; Behagel, J.H.; Ferranti, F.; Beunen, R.

2015-01-01

In environmental governance, the European Union draws on norms of effectiveness, decentralisation, and participation to ensure that its policies and regulations are considered legitimate. This article analyses how the construction of legitimacy in European nature policy has changed over time.

On the best learning algorithm for web services response time prediction

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Madsen, Henrik; Albu, Razvan-Daniel; Popentiu-Vladicescu, Florin

2013-01-01

In this article we will examine the effect of different learning algorithms, while training the MLP (Multilayer Perceptron) with the intention of predicting web services response time. Web services do not necessitate a user interface. This may seem contradictory to most people's concept of what...... an application is. A Web service is better imagined as an application "segment," or better as a program enabler. Performance is an important quality aspect of Web services because of their distributed nature. Predicting the response of web services during their operation is very important....

Quality & timely delivery of products and services

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Scott, K.; Shabbir, K. [WorleyParsons, Toronto, ON (Canada)

2015-07-01

This paper discusses quality and timely delivery of services. The approach is to support our customers, to ensure quality, schedule and cost predictability with no compromise to safety, to avoid optimistic project schedules and conservative cost estimates. It is important to maintain a strategic focus in helping to improve the customer's assets and improve the methodology to improve assets.

Market and policy barriers for demand response providing ancillary services in U.S. markets

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cappers, Peter [Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); MacDonald, Jason [Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Goldman, Charles [Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

2013-03-01

This study provides an examination of various market and policy barriers to demand response providing ancillary services in both ISO/RTO and non-ISO/RTO regions, especially at the program provider level. It is useful to classify barriers in order to create a holistic understanding and identify parties that could be responsible for their removal. This study develops a typology of barriers focusing on smaller customers that must rely on a program provider (i.e., electric investor owned utility or IOU, ARC) to create an aggregated DR resource in order to bring ancillary services to the balancing authority. The barriers were identified through examinations of regulatory structures, market environments, and product offerings; and discussions with industry stakeholders and regulators. In order to help illustrate the differences in barriers among various wholesale market designs and their constituent retail environments, four regions were chosen to use as case studies: Colorado, Texas, Wisconsin, and New Jersey.

Toward Coordinated Robust Allocation of Reserve Policies for a Cell-based Power System

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hu, Junjie; Heussen, Kai; Claessens, Bert

2016-01-01

Conventional regulation reserves have fixed participation factors and are thus not well suited to utilize differentiated capabilities of ancillary service providers. This study applies linear decision rules-based (LDR) control policies, which effectively adapt the present participation factor...... in dependence of the imbalance signal of previous time steps. The LDR-policies are centrally computed using a robust optimization approach which takes into account both the covariances of historic imbalance signals and the operational flexibility of ancillary service providers. The concept is then extended...... to the cooperation of multiple cells. Two illustrating examples are presented to show the functioning of the proposed LDR method....

A fuzzy multi-objective model for capacity allocation and pricing policy of provider in data communication service with different QoS levels

Science.gov (United States)

Pan, Wei; Wang, Xianjia; Zhong, Yong-guang; Yu, Lean; Jie, Cao; Ran, Lun; Qiao, Han; Wang, Shouyang; Xu, Xianhao

2012-06-01

Data communication service has an important influence on e-commerce. The key challenge for the users is, ultimately, to select a suitable provider. However, in this article, we do not focus on this aspect but the viewpoint and decision-making of providers for order allocation and pricing policy when orders exceed service capacity. It is a multiple criteria decision-making problem such as profit and cancellation ratio. Meanwhile, we know realistic situations in which much of the input information is uncertain. Thus, it becomes very complex in a real-life environment. In this situation, fuzzy sets theory is the best tool for solving this problem. Our fuzzy model is formulated in such a way as to simultaneously consider the imprecision of information, price sensitive demand, stochastic variables, cancellation fee and the general membership function. For solving the problem, a new fuzzy programming is developed. Finally, a numerical example is presented to illustrate the proposed method. The results show that it is effective for determining the suitable order set and pricing policy of provider in data communication service with different quality of service (QoS) levels.

Nutrition Services and Foods and Beverages Available at School: Results from the School Health Policies and Programs Study 2006

Science.gov (United States)

O'Toole, Terrence P.; Anderson, Susan; Miller, Clare; Guthrie, Joanne

2007-01-01

Background: Schools are in a unique position to promote healthy dietary behaviors and help ensure appropriate nutrient intake. This article describes the characteristics of both school nutrition services and the foods and beverages sold outside of the school meals program in the United States, including state- and district-level policies and…

41 CFR 60-20.3 - Job policies and practices.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

..., under the employer's leave policy the female employee would qualify for leave, then childbearing must be considered by the employer to be a justification for leave of absence for female employees for a reasonable period of time. For example, if the female employee meets the equally applied minimum length of service...

Making health policy: networks in research and policy after 1945.

Science.gov (United States)

Berridge, Virginia

2005-01-01

Science and policy in health and medicine have interacted in new ways in Britain since 1945. The relationship between research and policy has a history. The changing role of social medicine, the rise of health services research and "customer contractor" policies in government have been important. The relationship between research and policy has been analysed by different schools of thought. This chapter categorises them as several groups: "evidence-based", "journalism", "sociology of scientific knowledge" and "science policy studies". The chapters in the book illuminate aspects of these changing relationships. The role of chronic disease epidemiology, of new networks in public health, of media-focussed activism, and of health technology and its advocates have been more important than political interest.

The Role of the Access Services Manager in the Virtual Library

Science.gov (United States)

Jetton, Lora Lennertz; Bailey, Alberta S.

2010-01-01

This article updates a previous article published in 1992 that described the role of the access services manager in policy formation. Since that time, the access services department and mission has matured and evolved to a prominent position within the library organization. Technological changes and innovation in the marketplace of wired and…

Incoherent policies on universal coverage of health insurance and promotion of international trade in health services in Thailand.

Science.gov (United States)

Pachanee, Cha-aim; Wibulpolprasert, Suwit

2006-07-01

The Thai government has implemented universal coverage of health insurance since October 2001. Universal access to antiretroviral (ARV) drugs has also been included since October 2003. These two policies have greatly increased the demand for health services and human resources for health, particularly among public health care providers. After the 1997 economic crisis, private health care providers, with the support of the government, embarked on new marketing strategies targeted at attracting foreign patients. Consequently, increasing numbers of foreign patients are visiting Thailand to seek medical care. In addition, the economic recovery since 2001 has greatly increased the demand for private health services among the Thai population. The increasing demand and much higher financial incentives from urban private providers have attracted health personnel, particularly medical doctors, from rural public health care facilities. Responding to this increasing demand and internal brain drain, in mid-2004 the Thai government approved the increased production of medical doctors by 10,678 in the following 15 years. Many additional financial incentives have also been applied. However, the immediate shortage of human resources needs to be addressed competently and urgently. Equity in health care access under this situation of competing demands from dual track policies is a challenge to policy makers and analysts. This paper summarizes the situation and trends as well as the responses by the Thai government. Both supply and demand side responses are described, and some solutions to restore equity in health care access are proposed.

The ecosystem services agenda: bridging the worlds of natural science and economics, conservation and development, and public and private policy

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Braat, L.C.; Groot, de R.S.

2012-01-01

The Ecosystem Services Journal starts in 2012 with a formidable basis in the reports and books from the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment and TEEB projects. Following a half-century history of growing awareness and associated scientific based policy development a bridging concept with natural and

Integrating ecosystem services into national Forest Service policy and operations

Science.gov (United States)

Robert Deal; Lisa Fong; Erin Phelps; Emily Weidner; Jonas Epstein; Tommie Herbert; Mary Snieckus; Nikola Smith; Tania Ellersick; Greg Arthaud

2017-01-01

The ecosystem services concept describes the many benefits people receive from nature. It highlights the importance of managing public and private lands sustainably to ensure these benefits continue into the future, and it closely aligns with the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) mission to “sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of the Nation’s forests and...

A changing landscape: mapping provider organisations for community nursing services in England.

Science.gov (United States)

Spilsbury, Karen; Pender, Sue

2015-01-01

To scope the provision of community nursing services in England after implementation of the Transforming Community Services Programme. Over the past decade, significant UK policy initiatives have shaped the structure, organisation and responsibilities of community nursing services. Understanding these organisational changes is important in the context of organisations seeking to deliver 'care closer to home'. A systematic mapping exercise to scope and categorise community nursing service organisation provider models. There are 102 provider organisations representing a range of organisational models. Two-thirds of these organisations have structurally integrated with another NHS Trust. Smaller numbers reorganised to form community trusts or community interest companies. Only a few services have been tendered to an accredited willing provider while a small number have yet to establish their new service model. Local discretion appears to have dominated the choice of organisational form. National policies have driven the reorganisation of community nursing services and we have been able to describe, for the first time, these 'transformed' structures and organisations. Providing detail of these 'new' models of service provision, and where these have been introduced, is new information for nurse managers, policy makers and organisational leaders, as well as researchers. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Changes in ecosystem service values in Zhoushan Island using remote sensing time series data

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Xiaoping; Qin, Yanpei; Lv, Ying; Zhen, Guangwei; Gong, Fang; Li, Chaokui

2017-10-01

The largest inhabited island, Zhoushan Island, is the center of economy, culture, shipping, and fishing in the Zhoushan Archipelago New Area. Its coastal wetland and tidal flats offer significant ecological services including floodwater storage, wildlife habitat, and buffers against tidal surges. Yet, large-scale land reclamation and new land development may dramatically change ecosystem services. In this research, we assess changes in ecosystem service values in Zhoushan Island during 1990-2000-2011. Three LANDSAT TM and/or ETM data sets were used to determine the spatial pattern of land use, and previously published value coefficients were used to calculate the ecosystem service values delivered by each land category. The results show that total value of ecosystem services in Zhoushan Island declined by 11% from 2920.07 billion Yuan to 2609.77 billion Yuan per year between 1990 and 2011. This decrease is largely attributable to the 51% loss of tidal flats. The combined ecosystem service values of woodland, paddy land and tidal flats were over 90% of the total values. The result indicates that future land-use policy should pay attention to the conservation of these ecosystems over uncontrolled reclamation and coastal industrial development, and that further coastal reclamation should be on rigorous environmental impact analyses.

Decommissioning policy in Sweden

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bergman, C.; Boge, R.; Snihs, J.O.

1987-01-01

In Sweden the nuclear power program is, according to a parliamentary decision, limited to twelve power producing reactors. The last reactor shall be taken out of service no later than the year 2010. As a result of the Chernobyl accident the program for taking the reactors out of service will be accelerated. This report is the first approach by the Swedish authorities to formulate a decommissioning policy. It is not the final policy document but it discusses the principal questions from the special Swedish viewpoint. (orig.)

Decommissioning policy in Sweden

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bergman, C.; Boge, R.; Snihs, J.O.

1987-01-01

In Sweden the nuclear power program is, according to a parliamentary decision, limited to twelve power producing reactors. The last reactor shall be taken out of service no later than the year 2010. As a result of the Chernobyl accident the program for taking the reactors out of service will be accelerated. The first approach by the Swedish authorities to formulate a decommissioning policy is discussed. It is not the final policy document but it discusses the principal questions from the special Swedish viewpoint

Economic and Time-Sensitive Issues Surrounding CCS: A Policy Analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Maddali, Vijay; Tularam, Gurudeo Anand; Glynn, Patrick

2015-08-04

Are the existing global policies on combating global warming via the carbon capture and storage (CCS) method significant enough to curtail the temperature rise on time? We argue that it is already too late to have any reliance on CCS. The current status of CCS is that it is plagued by technical uncertainties, infrastructure, financial, and regulatory issues. The technology is far from maturity and, hence, commercialization. Simulations conducted in this work suggest that the relevance of CCS is completely defied if the annual emission growth rate is in excess of 2% between the years of 2015 and 2040. At such a growth rate, the annual emissions reduction between 2040 and 2100 will need to be in the vicinity of 5.5% by the year 2100. Considering an average annual emissions growth rate of 2.5% over the past decade, it seems unlikely that the emissions could be contained to a 2% growth level. CCS in its current shape and form is at odds with the economics of its implementation and the time in hand with which to play a significant role in a carbon mitigation strategy. There is an urgent need to rethink policies and strategies to combat global warming to at least some degree.

In the Arid Zone: Drying out Educational Resources for English Language Learners through Policy and Practice

Science.gov (United States)

DaSilva Iddings, Ana Christina; Combs, Mary Carol; Moll, Luis

2012-01-01

This article presents a variety of issues related to the effects of restrictive language and educational policies that ultimately limits important resources for English language learners (i.e., services, funding, time, and information). The authors spotlight the state of Arizona as an unfortunate case of language control through policies, which…

Using wavelets to decompose the time frequency effects of monetary policy

Science.gov (United States)

Aguiar-Conraria, Luís; Azevedo, Nuno; Soares, Maria Joana

2008-05-01

Central banks have different objectives in the short and long run. Governments operate simultaneously at different timescales. Many economic processes are the result of the actions of several agents, who have different term objectives. Therefore, a macroeconomic time series is a combination of components operating on different frequencies. Several questions about economic time series are connected to the understanding of the behavior of key variables at different frequencies over time, but this type of information is difficult to uncover using pure time-domain or pure frequency-domain methods. To our knowledge, for the first time in an economic setup, we use cross-wavelet tools to show that the relation between monetary policy variables and macroeconomic variables has changed and evolved with time. These changes are not homogeneous across the different frequencies.

The Scope of the Common Commercial Policy after Lisbon: The Daiichi Sankyo and Conditional Access Services Grand Chamber Judgments

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ankersmit, L.J.

2014-01-01

This case note discusses two important recent judgments rendered by the ECJ on the scope of the Common Commercial Policy. In Daiichi Sankyo (Case C-414/11), the Court overturned its previous case law on TRIPs in light of the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty. In Conditional Access Services (Case

Policy development and challenges of global mental health: a systematic review of published studies of national-level mental health policies.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, Wei; Yu, Yu; Yang, Mei; Chen, Lizhang; Xiao, Shuiyuan

2018-05-18

Mental health policy can be an essential and powerful tool to improve a population's mental health. However, around one third of countries do not possess a mental health policy, and there are large disparities in population coverage rates between high- and low-income countries. The goal of this study is to identify the transition and implementation challenges of mental health policies in both high-income countries (HICs) as well as middle- and low-income countries (MLICs). PubMed, Cochrane Library and Campbell Library were searched from inception to 31 December 2017, for studies on implemented mental health policies at the national level. Abstracts and the main texts of papers were double screened, and extracted data were analysed through thematic synthesis. A total of 93 papers were included in this study, covering 24 HICs, 28 MLICs and 5 regions. Studies on mental health policies, especially those of MLICs, kept increasing, but MLICs were still underrepresented in terms of publication quantity and study frequency. Based on the included studies, nine policy domains were summarized: service organizing, service provision, service quality, human resources, legislation and human rights, advocacy, administration, surveillance and research, and financing and budgeting. HICs incrementally enriched their policy content in all domains over centuries of development; following HICs' experience, mental health policies in MLICs have boomed since the 1990s and quickly extended to all domains. Implementation problems in HICs were mainly related to service organizing and service provision; for MLICs, more severe implementation problems converged on financing and budgeting, administration and human resources. Mental health policy developments in both HICs and MLICs present a process of diversification and enrichment. In terms of implementation, MLICs are faced with more and greater challenges than HICs, especially in funding, human resources and administration. Therefore, future

FIRST TIME ONLINE LEARNERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF SUPPORT SERVICES PROVIDED

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stephanie HUNTE

2012-04-01

Full Text Available The number of online continuous education and training initiatives continues to increase in Caribbean Small Island Developing States (SIDS and by extension, the number of adult learners who are unfamiliar with the peculiarities of the online teaching and learning environment. The extent to which these learners can derive maximum benefit from these initiatives depends on the rate at which they can adapt to the new circumstances and, as a result, function effectively in this type of teaching and learning environment. To this end, while supporting learners is recognized as a critical success factor little has been explored or documented specific to the Caribbean-SIDS context. The purpose of this study therefore was to describe the support services provided first time online learners in the context of Caribbean-SIDS and examine what if any benefit learners derived from them through their perceptions of these services. The findings reveal that participants’ overall perception of the support services was high. They also reveal that although participants’ awareness of ongoing support services was variable, their rating of the need for and importance of this type of support was also high. The findings suggest that providing support for first time online learners in the context of Caribbean SIDS positively impacts their performance in the online teaching and learning environment.

Innovation in Health Policy Education: Project-Based Service Learning at a Distance for Graduate Midwifery Students.

Science.gov (United States)

Van Hoover, Cheri

2015-01-01

Core competencies for midwifery practice include an understanding of systems of health care delivery and advocacy for legislation and policy initiatives that promote quality in health care. Today's rapidly changing health care environment, due in part to the implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, mandates that midwives possess greater literacy in health policy and comfort with political action than ever before. Frequently disinterested in politics and intimidated by the policymaking process, student midwives lack the foundational knowledge and practical skills needed to meet this professional obligation. The Midwifery Institute of Philadelphia University graduate program educates both student nurse-midwives and student midwives in health policy using an innovative, project-based service-learning approach featuring real-world collaborative experiences. This novel teaching style is ideally suited for instruction at a distance because of the diversity of experience brought to the virtual classroom by students in widely disparate geopolitical locations. As students accomplish measurable objectives within their individually developed projects and reflect with classmates about their experiences, they feel empowered to effect change and report lower perceived barriers to future political engagement. © 2015 by the American College of Nurse-Midwives.

Victims’ insecurity and criminal policy: The role of victim’s support services

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zarafonitou Christina

2014-06-01

Full Text Available Cet article met au point la nécessité de l’établissement des procédures, des services et des institutions d’aide aux victimes de crimes. L’accent est donné à l’importance des facteurs préventifs de criminalité et de protection des victimes pour l’application d’une politique criminelle rationnelle. La dernière ne peut pas être matérialisée si des attitudes punitives et vindicatives prévalaient. Le rôle régulateur de l’État se rend aussi compte ainsi que le rôle du partenariat entre le gouvernement central et les institutions décentralisées des communautés locales. This paper focuses on the necessity for establishing procedures, services and institutions for the support of crime victims, emphasising the importance of such factors for prevention and victim protection, as well as for the planning and implementation of a rational criminal policy. The latter cannot be practically realised if exaggerated attitudes of punitiveness and vengefulness prevail. The regulating role of the state is taken into consideration, as well as the importance of the partnership between central government and decentralised institutions of local communities.

Facility-level, state, and financial factors associated with changes in the provision of smoking cessation services in US substance abuse treatment facilities: Results from the National Survey of Substance Abuse Treatment Services 2006 to 2012.

Science.gov (United States)

Cohn, Amy; Elmasry, Hoda; Niaura, Ray

2017-06-01

Cigarette smoking is common among patients in substance abuse treatment. Tobacco control programs have advocated for integrated tobacco dependence treatment into behavioral healthcare, including within substance abuse treatment facilities (SATFs) to reduce the public health burden of tobacco use. This study used data from seven waves (2006 to 2012) of the National Survey of Substance Abuse Treatment Services (n=94,145) to examine state and annual changes in the provision of smoking cessation services within US SATFs and whether changes over time could be explained by facility-level (private vs public ownership, receipt of earmarks, facility admissions, acceptance of government insurance) and state-level factors (cigarette tax per pack, smoke free policies, and percent of CDC recommended tobacco prevention spending). Results showed that the prevalence of SATFs offering smoking cessation services increased over time, from 13% to 65%. The amount of tax per cigarette pack, accepting government insurance, government (vs private) ownership, facility admissions, and CDC recommended tobacco prevention spending (per state) were the strongest correlates of the provision of smoking cessation programs in SATFs. Facilities that received earmarks were less likely to provide cessation services. Adult smoking prevalence and state-level smoke free policies were not significant correlates of the provision of smoking cessation services over time. Policies aimed at increasing the distribution of tax revenues to cessation services in SATFs may offset tobacco-related burden among those with substance abuse problems. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Modeling and Simulation of Bus Dispatching Policy for Timed Transfers on Signalized Networks

Science.gov (United States)

Cho, Hsun-Jung; Lin, Guey-Shii

2007-12-01

The major work of this study is to formulate the system cost functions and to integrate the bus dispatching policy with signal control. The integrated model mainly includes the flow dispersion model for links, signal control model for nodes, and dispatching control model for transfer terminals. All such models are inter-related for transfer operations in one-center transit network. The integrated model that combines dispatching policies with flexible signal control modes can be applied to assess the effectiveness of transfer operations. It is found that, if bus arrival information is reliable, an early dispatching decision made at the mean bus arrival times is preferable. The costs for coordinated operations with slack times are relatively low at the optimal common headway when applying adaptive route control. Based on such findings, a threshold function of bus headway for justifying an adaptive signal route control under various time values of auto drivers is developed.

Public policy alienation of public service workers : A conceptual framework

NARCIS (Netherlands)

L.G. Tummers (Lars); V.J.J.M. Bekkers (Victor); A.J. Steijn (Bram)

2007-01-01

textabstractNowadays, many public professionals face identification problems towards public policies they have to implement; that is, they experience policy alienation. This is troublesome, as for a proper implementation a minimal level of identification with the public policy is required. We use

7 CFR 1962.2 - Policy.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) RURAL HOUSING SERVICE, RURAL BUSINESS-COOPERATIVE... REGULATIONS (CONTINUED) PERSONAL PROPERTY Servicing and Liquidation of Chattel Security § 1962.2 Policy. Chattel security, EO property and note only loans will be serviced to accomplish the loan objectives and...

Replenishment policy for an inventory model under inflation

Science.gov (United States)

Singh, Vikramjeet; Saxena, Seema; Singh, Pushpinder; Mishra, Nitin Kumar

2017-07-01

The purpose of replenishment is to keep the flow of inventory in the system. To determine an optimal replenishment policy is a great challenge in developing an inventory model. Inflation is defined as the rate at which the prices of goods and services are rising over a time period. The cost parameters are affected by the rate of inflation. High rate of inflation affects the organizations financial conditions. Based on the above backdrop the present paper proposes the retailers replenishment policy for deteriorating items with different cycle lengths under inflation. The shortages are partially backlogged. At last numerical examples validate the results.

Historical dynamics in ecosystem service bundles.

Science.gov (United States)

Renard, Delphine; Rhemtulla, Jeanine M; Bennett, Elena M

2015-10-27

Managing multiple ecosystem services (ES), including addressing trade-offs between services and preventing ecological surprises, is among the most pressing areas for sustainability research. These challenges require ES research to go beyond the currently common approach of snapshot studies limited to one or two services at a single point in time. We used a spatiotemporal approach to examine changes in nine ES and their relationships from 1971 to 2006 across 131 municipalities in a mixed-use landscape in Quebec, Canada. We show how an approach that incorporates time and space can improve our understanding of ES dynamics. We found an increase in the provision of most services through time; however, provision of ES was not uniformly enhanced at all locations. Instead, each municipality specialized in providing a bundle (set of positively correlated ES) dominated by just a few services. The trajectory of bundle formation was related to changes in agricultural policy and global trends; local biophysical and socioeconomic characteristics explained the bundles' increasing spatial clustering. Relationships between services varied through time, with some provisioning and cultural services shifting from a trade-off or no relationship in 1971 to an apparent synergistic relationship by 2006. By implementing a spatiotemporal perspective on multiple services, we provide clear evidence of the dynamic nature of ES interactions and contribute to identifying processes and drivers behind these changing relationships. Our study raises questions about using snapshots of ES provision at a single point in time to build our understanding of ES relationships in complex and dynamic social-ecological systems.

The role of network bridging organisations in compensation payments for agri-environmental services under the EU Common Agricultural Policy.

Science.gov (United States)

Dedeurwaerdere, Tom; Polard, Audrey; Melindi-Ghidi, Paolo

2015-11-01

Compensation payments to farmers for the provision of agri-environmental services are a well-established policy scheme under the EU Common Agricultural Policy. However, in spite of the success in most EU countries in the uptake of the programme by farmers, the impact of the scheme on the long term commitment of farmers to change their practices remains poorly documented. To explore this issue, this paper presents the results of structured field interviews and a quantitative survey in the Walloon Region of Belgium. The main finding of this study is that farmers who have periodic contacts with network bridging organisations that foster cooperation and social learning in the agri-environmental landscapes show a higher commitment to change. This effect is observed both for farmers with high and low concern for biodiversity depletion. Support for network bridging organisations is foreseen under the EU Leader programme and the EU regulation 1306/2013, which could open-up interesting opportunities for enhancing the effectiveness of the current payment scheme for agri-environmental services.

Policy Gradient SMDP for Resource Allocation and Routing in Integrated Services Networks

Science.gov (United States)

Vien, Ngo Anh; Viet, Nguyen Hoang; Lee, Seunggwan; Chung, Taechoong

In this paper, we solve the call admission control (CAC) and routing problem in an integrated network that handles several classes of calls of different values and with different resource requirements. The problem of maximizing the average reward (or cost) of admitted calls per unit time is naturally formulated as a semi-Markov Decision Process (SMDP) problem, but is too complex to allow for an exact solution. Thus in this paper, a policy gradient algorithm, together with a decomposition approach, is proposed to find the dynamic (state-dependent) optimal CAC and routing policy among a parameterized policy space. To implement that gradient algorithm, we approximate the gradient of the average reward. Then, we present a simulation-based algorithm to estimate the approximate gradient of the average reward (called GSMDP algorithm), using only a single sample path of the underlying Markov chain for the SMDP of CAC and routing problem. The algorithm enhances performance in terms of convergence speed, rejection probability, robustness to the changing arrival statistics and an overall received average revenue. The experimental simulations will compare our method's performance with other existing methods and show the robustness of our method.

Work-life balance and family friendly policies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Janine Chapman

2013-12-01

Full Text Available This paper presents Australian and international research on work-life interaction. We review the work-life policies and practices that are likely to have the greatest impact on work-life outcomes, specifically reducing the negative impact of work on other life domains (work-life interference, and enhancing the positive effect (work-life facilitation. The review addresses four policy areas common in work-life studies of the general workforce: employee-centered flexible work practices; working hours (e.g. access to part-time work; paid and unpaid leave (e.g. parental leave; and access to childcare. It then considers the work-life literature related to two specific industries – the Australian public sector, and health and social services – to identify work-life issues and practices specific to each industry. We then conclude with a general discussion of challenges associated with the policy-practice gap, focusing particularly on work intensification and the role of organisational culture as the catalyst for policy uptake and effectiveness.

Law-based arguments and messages to advocate for later school start time policies in the United States.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Clark J; Nolan, Dennis M; Lockley, Steven W; Pattison, Brent

2017-12-01

The increasing scientific evidence that early school start times are harmful to the health and safety of teenagers has generated much recent debate about changing school start times policies for adolescent students. Although efforts to promote and implement such changes have proliferated in the United States in recent years, they have rarely been supported by law-based arguments and messages that leverage the existing legal infrastructure regulating public education and child welfare in the United States. Furthermore, the legal bases to support or resist such changes have not been explored in detail to date. This article provides an overview of how law-based arguments and messages can be constructed and applied to advocate for later school start time policies in US public secondary schools. The legal infrastructure impacting school start time policies in the United States is briefly reviewed, including descriptions of how government regulates education, what legal obligations school officials have concerning their students' welfare, and what laws and public policies currently exist that address adolescent sleep health and safety. On the basis of this legal infrastructure, some hypothetical examples of law-based arguments and messages that could be applied to various types of advocacy activities (eg, litigation, legislative and administrative advocacy, media and public outreach) to promote later school start times are discussed. Particular consideration is given to hypothetical arguments and messages aimed at emphasizing the consistency of later school start time policies with existing child welfare law and practices, legal responsibilities of school officials and governmental authorities, and societal values and norms. Copyright © 2017 National Sleep Foundation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Time-Aware Service Ranking Prediction in the Internet of Things Environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Yuze; Huang, Jiwei; Cheng, Bo; He, Shuqing; Chen, Junliang

2017-04-27

With the rapid development of the Internet of things (IoT), building IoT systems with high quality of service (QoS) has become an urgent requirement in both academia and industry. During the procedures of building IoT systems, QoS-aware service selection is an important concern, which requires the ranking of a set of functionally similar services according to their QoS values. In reality, however, it is quite expensive and even impractical to evaluate all geographically-dispersed IoT services at a single client to obtain such a ranking. Nevertheless, distributed measurement and ranking aggregation have to deal with the high dynamics of QoS values and the inconsistency of partial rankings. To address these challenges, we propose a time-aware service ranking prediction approach named TSRPred for obtaining the global ranking from the collection of partial rankings. Specifically, a pairwise comparison model is constructed to describe the relationships between different services, where the partial rankings are obtained by time series forecasting on QoS values. The comparisons of IoT services are formulated by random walks, and thus, the global ranking can be obtained by sorting the steady-state probabilities of the underlying Markov chain. Finally, the efficacy of TSRPred is validated by simulation experiments based on large-scale real-world datasets.

Time-Aware Service Ranking Prediction in the Internet of Things Environment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yuze Huang

2017-04-01

Full Text Available With the rapid development of the Internet of things (IoT, building IoT systems with high quality of service (QoS has become an urgent requirement in both academia and industry. During the procedures of building IoT systems, QoS-aware service selection is an important concern, which requires the ranking of a set of functionally similar services according to their QoS values. In reality, however, it is quite expensive and even impractical to evaluate all geographically-dispersed IoT services at a single client to obtain such a ranking. Nevertheless, distributed measurement and ranking aggregation have to deal with the high dynamics of QoS values and the inconsistency of partial rankings. To address these challenges, we propose a time-aware service ranking prediction approach named TSRPred for obtaining the global ranking from the collection of partial rankings. Specifically, a pairwise comparison model is constructed to describe the relationships between different services, where the partial rankings are obtained by time series forecasting on QoS values. The comparisons of IoT services are formulated by random walks, and thus, the global ranking can be obtained by sorting the steady-state probabilities of the underlying Markov chain. Finally, the efficacy of TSRPred is validated by simulation experiments based on large-scale real-world datasets.

[The Marketing of Healthcare Services in ENT-Clinics].

Science.gov (United States)

Teschner, M; Lenarz, T

2016-07-01

The provision of healthcare services in Germany is based on fundamental principles of solidarity and is highly regulated. The question arises which conditions exist for marketing for healthcare services in ENT-clinics in Germany. The marketing options will be elicited using environmentally analytical considerations. The objectives can be achieved using measures derived from external instruments (service policy, pricing policy, distribution policy or communications policy) or from an internal instrument (human resources policy). The policy environment is particularly influenced by the regulatory framework, which particularly restricts the scope for both the pricing and communications policies. All measures must, however, reflect ethical frameworks, which are regarded as the fundamental premise underlying healthcare services and may be at odds with economic factors. Scope for flexibility in pricing exists only within the secondary healthcare market, and even there only to a limited extent. The significance of price in the marketing of healthcare services is thus very low. If marketing activities are to succeed, a market analysis must be carried out exploring the relevant factors for each individual provider. However, the essential precondition for the marketing of healthcare services is trust. The marketing of healthcare services differs from that of business management-oriented enterprises in other branches of economy. In the future the importance of marketing activities will increase. © Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.

A survey of georgia adult protective service staff: implications for older adult injury prevention and policy.

Science.gov (United States)

Strasser, Sheryl M; Kerr, Judith; King, Patricia S; Payne, Brian; Beddington, Sarah; Pendrick, Danielle; Leyda, Elizabeth; McCarty, Frances

2011-07-01

The aging population is a rapidly growing demographic. Isolation and limited autonomy render many of the elderly vulnerable to abuse, neglect and exploitation. As the population grows, so does the need for Adult Protective Services (APS). This study was conducted to examine current knowledge of older adult protection laws in Georgia among APS staff and to identify training opportunities to better prepare the APS workforce in case detection and intervention. The Georgia State University Institute of Public Health faculty developed a primary survey in partnership with the Georgia Division of Aging Services' leadership to identify key training priority issues for APS caseworkers and investigators. A 47-item electronic questionnaire was delivered to all APS employees via work-issued email accounts. We conducted descriptive analyses, t-tests and chi-square analyses to determine APS employees' baseline knowledge of Georgia's elder abuse policies, laws and practices, as well as examine associations of age, ethnicity, and educational attainment with knowledge. We used a p-value of 0.05 and 95% confidence intervals to determine statistical significance of analyses performed. Ninety-two out of 175 APS staff responded to the survey (53% response rate). The majority of respondents were Caucasian (56%) women (92%). For over half the survey items, paired sample t-tests revealed significant differences between what APS staff reported as known and what APS staff members indicated they needed to know more about in terms of elder abuse and current policies. Chi-square tests revealed that non-Caucasians significantly preferred video conferencing as a training format (44% compared to 18%), [χ(2)(1) = 7.102, p < .008], whereas Caucasians preferred asynchronous online learning formats (55% compared to 28%) [χ(2)(1) =5.951, p < .015]. Results from this study provide the Georgia Division of Aging with insight into specific policy areas that are not well understood by APS staff

A Web Policy Primer.

Science.gov (United States)

Levine, Elliott

2001-01-01

Sound technology policies can spell the difference between an effective website and an online nightmare. An effective web development policy addresses six key areas: roles and responsibilities, content/educational value, privacy and safety, adherence to copyright laws, technical standards, and use of commercial sites and services. (MLH)

25 CFR 23.3 - Policy.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... AFFAIRS, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR HUMAN SERVICES INDIAN CHILD WELFARE ACT Purpose, Definitions, and Policy § 23.3 Policy. In enacting the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978, Pub. L. 95-608, the Congress has declared that it is the policy of this Nation to protect the best interests of Indian children and to...

Phase Two European Energy Policy Project. European energy and climate policy - Time for something new

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Helm, Dieter

2014-01-01

During 2014, European energy and climate change policy has moved centre stage. The annexation of Crimea and the destabilization of Eastern Ukraine have raised tensions with Russia to levels not seen since the Cold War. The EU has responded with an energy security plan, and sanctions. Developments elsewhere have further complicated matters. In the Middle East, the rapid advances of ISIS (now called the Islamic State), the internal conflicts in Libya, the war in Gaza, and the continuing negotiations with Iran on nuclear matters suggest that early optimism about the 'Arab Spring' was at best misplaced, and chronic instability has returned. In the US, the energy revolution continues to change the geopolitics of oil and gas, with the early skepticism about the scale of the changes and the shift towards North American energy independence giving way to recognition that the changes are permanent and profound - for both global energy markets and Europe. The full implications of the end of the commodity super-cycle are both profound for European energy policy and very poorly understood. Commodity prices have tumbled, with oil prices falling below $80 a barrel. On climate change, there is almost certainly not going to be a continuation of the Kyoto style international framework after the Paris conference in December 2015. Chinese emissions per head have now exceeded those of the Europeans, and it is at last being recognized that the climate change problem is one in which China, not the EU, is centre stage. China has announced that it does not intend to cap its carbon emissions until after 2030, by which time they may peak anyway - from a very much higher base after another decade and a half of increases. The Paris conference will see a series of 'pledges' and 'commitments' very much on the pattern of the Copenhagen Accord, not the credible, enforceable legally binding measures that had been proposed at the Durban Conference of the Parties in 2011

7 CFR 1709.2 Policy. - [Reserved

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 11 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false [Reserved] 1709.2 Policy. Section 1709.2 Policy. Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) RURAL UTILITIES SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE ASSISTANCE TO HIGH ENERGY COST COMMUNITIES General Requirements § 1709.2 Policy. [Reserved] ...

[Planning by service organisation priorities. The process of preparing strategic service-organisation plans].

Science.gov (United States)

Sampietro-Colom, Laura; Costa, Dolors; Busqué, Anna; Lacasa, Carme

2008-12-01

Strategic planning designs the general setting and the strategic principles of a healthcare system, as well as the general guidelines that govern the development of a health system. Strategic service-organisation plans deal with translating healthcare policies into service policies and respond, principally, to the need for services; these give rise to problems that require a solution. They are developed in line with advances in scientific knowledge, the implementation and current characteristics of the healthcare services and the evolution in the competences of professional teams. There are five stages for their development: identification of health/service requirements; prioritisation of needs in health/services; definition of and agreement on service organisation models (care model and service portfolio); the preparation of and agreement on territorial action plans; introduction and evaluation. A conceptual framework is presented along with practical applications carried out in Catalonia.

Health services analysis as a tool for evidence-based policy decisions: the case of the Ministry of Health and Social Security in Mexico.

Science.gov (United States)

Kroeger, Axel; Hernandez, Juan Manuel

2003-12-01

To describe the strengths and weaknesses of two Mexican health care providers for poor populations [Ministry of Health (MoH) and Social Security (SS)] in order to facilitate policy decisions about the future of the two systems. In four Mexican states we conducted (i) a household interview survey in 10 724 households; (ii) a user satisfaction survey in 1319 households; (iii) a satisfaction survey of 236 health workers; (iv) in-depth interviews with 190 health workers; (v) 188 focus-group discussions with different population groups; (vi) a document analysis. Both systems serve populations with similar characteristics of poverty. The availability of resources was better in the MoH system; SS care was better concerning process indicators (family planning, antenatal care; in-service delivery of drugs, staff productivity, user satisfaction and staff motivation), efficiency and effectiveness (reduction of morbidity and mortality). Possible explanatory factors for the better performance of the SS system were strong supervision, regular communication, joint data analysis and annual population surveys. Better service organization makes a difference regarding efficiency and effectiveness. Policy-makers, deciding on which kind of health services are best for the poor, should take into account health services' analyses.

State policy and teen childbearing: a review of research studies.

Science.gov (United States)

Beltz, Martha A; Sacks, Vanessa H; Moore, Kristin A; Terzian, Mary

2015-02-01

Teen childbearing is affected by many individual, family, and community factors; however, another potential influence is state policy. Rigorous studies of the relationship between state policy and teen birth rates are few in number but represent a body of knowledge that can inform policy and practice. This article reviews research assessing associations between state-level policies and teen birth rates, focusing on five policy areas: access to family planning, education, sex education, public assistance, and access to abortion services. Overall, several studies have found that measures related to access to and use of family planning services and contraceptives are related to lower state-level teen birth rates. These include adolescent enrollment in clinics, minors' access to contraception, conscience laws, family planning expenditures, and Medicaid waivers. Other studies, although largely cross-sectional analyses, have concluded that policies and practices to expand or improve public education are also associated with lower teen birth rates. These include expenditures on education, teacher-to-student ratios, and graduation requirements. However, the evidence regarding the role of public assistance, abortion access, and sex education policies in reducing teen birth rates is mixed and inconclusive. These conclusions must be viewed as tentative because of the limited number of rigorous studies that examine the relationship between state policy and teen birth rates over time. Many specific policies have only been analyzed by a single study, and few findings are based on recent data. As such, more research is needed to strengthen our understanding of the role of state policies in teen birth rates. Copyright © 2015 Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Staff immunisation: policy and practice in child care.

Science.gov (United States)

Spokes, Paula J; Ferson, Mark J; Ressler, Kelly-Anne

2011-08-01

The aims of this study were to determine the level of knowledge among child-care centre directors regarding the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) recommendations for the immunisation of child-care workers, the extent to which this knowledge was translated into practice and any organisational barriers to the development and implementation of staff immunisation policy. A cross-sectional survey, conducted in August 2006, in which a postal questionnaire was sent to a random sample of 784 NSW child-care centres. Centre directors were asked to complete the questionnaire on immunisation knowledge, policy and practice for the centre. A multivariate logistic-regression model was used to identify factors independently associated with centres with an immunisation policy for staff and centres that offered to pay all or part of the cost of vaccination of staff. Directors from 437 centres participated in the study for a response rate of 56%. Of these, 49% were aware of the NHMRC recommendations, and 57% had a staff immunisation policy in place. In the logistic regression model, centres with a written immunisation policy for staff were more likely to be aware of the NHMRC guidelines and offer long day care services. Centres that offered to pay all or part of the cost of immunisation for staff were more likely to be aware of the NHMRC guidelines, offer other child-care services and not operate for profit. Barriers to staff immunisation were related to the implementation of policy and included cost, time and access to information. The level of awareness of specific staff immunisation recommendations was relatively low. The transition of knowledge to policy was encouraging, although implementation of policies requires further commitment. © 2011 The Authors. Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health © 2011 Paediatrics and Child Health Division (Royal Australasian College of Physicians).

Queueing systems with constant service time and evaluation of M/D/1,k

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Iversen, Villy Bæk

1997-01-01

Systems with constant service times have the particular property that the customers leave the servers in the same order in which they areaccepted for service. Probabilitites of integral waiting times can be expressed by the state probabilities, and non-integral waiting timescan be expressed...

LHCb: A Policy System for Grid Management and Monitoring

CERN Multimedia

Stagni, F; Sapunov, M

2010-01-01

Organizations using a Grid computing model are faced with non-traditional administrative challenges: the heterogeneous nature of the underlying resources requires professionals acting as Grid Administrators. Members of a Virtual Organization (VO) can use a mask composed by services exposed b y local resources. In an ideal world, the more services in a mask, the better. In the real world, the less faulty services, the better: experienced Grid administrators apply procedures for adding and removing services, based on their status, as it is reported by an ever-growing set of monitoring tools. When a procedure is agreed and well-exercised, a formal policy could be derived. For this reason, using the DIRAC framework in the LHCb collaboration, we developed a policy system that can enforce management and operational policies, in a VO-specific fashion. A single policy makes an assessment on the status of a subject, relative to one or more monitoring information. Subjects of the policies are monitored entities of an e...

Evaluation of caregiver-friendly workplace policy (CFWPs) interventions on the health of full-time caregiver employees (CEs): implementation and cost-benefit analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Williams, Allison M; Tompa, Emile; Lero, Donna S; Fast, Janet; Yazdani, Amin; Zeytinoglu, Isik U

2017-09-20

Current Canadian evidence illustrating the health benefits and cost-effectiveness of caregiver-friendly workplace policies is needed if Canadian employers are to adopt and integrate caregiver-friendly workplace policies into their employment practices. The goal of this three-year, three study research project is to provide such evidence for the auto manufacturing and educational services sectors. The research questions being addressed are: What are the impacts for employers (economic) and workers (health) of caregiver-friendly workplace policy intervention(s) for full-time caregiver-employees? What are the impacts for employers, workers and society of the caregiver-friendly workplace policy intervention(s) in each participating workplace? What contextual factors impact the successful implementation of caregiver-friendly workplace policy intervention(s)? Using a pre-post-test comparative case study design, Study A will determine the effectiveness of newly implemented caregiver-friendly workplace policy intervention(s) across two workplaces to determine impacts on caregiver-employee health. A quasi-experimental pre-post design will allow the caregiver-friendly workplace policy intervention(s) to be tested with respect to potential impacts on health, and specifically on caregiver employee mental, psychosocial, and physical health. Framed within a comparative case study design, Study B will utilize cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness analysis approaches to evaluate the economic impacts of the caregiver-friendly workplace policy intervention(s) for each of the two participating workplaces. Framed within a comparative case study design, Study C will undertake an implementation analysis of the caregiver-friendly workplace policy intervention(s) in each participating workplace in order to determine: the degree of support for the intervention(s) (reflected in the workplace culture); how sex and gender are implicated; co-workers' responses to the chosen intervention(s), and

[Provide comprehensive service for state policy].

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, X

1991-04-01

In recent years, Chinese insurance companies introduced family planning (FP) insurance series. These schemes originated from the "one child" and life insurance and accident insurance of the early 1980s, which were established in response to the need that came with the "one child" policy. In order to help relieve the difficulties of rural FP work, the People's Insurance Corporation extended these programs to a series of schemes. These schemes included e.g., and old age security program for the families with 1 daughter only, old age security for families with an only child, and the program for FP workers' personal safety. The purpose of these schemes was to guarantee security in old age for families with few children, to ensure compensation if accident occurs during delivery or as a result of birth control operations; and compensation for FP workers for physical assaults they encountered. As FP organizations have been directly involved in advertising the insurance programs, there has been support from local governments with human and financial resources, and these insurance programs have been expanding every year. The payment of the policy has been either entirely or partially borne by the employers of the insured. In the process of the development of the insurance program, some problems have occurred. 1st, competition between FP organizations and insurance companies have evolved in sponsoring the program for its profit. 2nd, some media reports have confused the payment of premiums with the compulsory levy of undue fees, which in a way, hindered the expansion of program enrollment. 3rd, some local administrations are short of funds to pay for the insurance premiums. 4th, the accrued income from the premiums is lower than the expected sum of the principle and interest if the same funds were deposited in a bank at current interest rate. Therefore, some schemes lack appeal. FP series insurance is a longer term program which will have an important impact on the

A policy system for Grid Management and Monitoring

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stagni, Federico; Santinelli, Roberto

2011-01-01

Organizations using a Grid computing model are faced with non-traditional administrative challenges: the heterogeneous nature of the underlying resources requires professionals acting as Grid Administrators. Members of a Virtual Organization (VO) can use a subset of available resources and services in the grid infrastructure and in an ideal world, the more resources are exploited the better. In the real world, the less faulty services, the better: experienced Grid administrators apply procedures for adding and removing services, based on their status, as it is reported by an ever-growing set of monitoring tools. When a procedure is agreed and well-exercised, a formal policy could be derived. For this reason, using the DIRAC framework in the LHCb collaboration, we developed a policy system that can enforce management and operational policies, in a VO-specific fashion. A single policy makes an assessment on the status of a subject, relative to one or more monitoring information. Subjects of the policies are monitored entities of an established Grid ontology. The status of a same entity is evaluated against a number of policies, whose results are then combined by a Policy Decision Point. Such results are enforced in a Policy Enforcing Point, which provides plug-ins for actions, like raising alarms, sending notifications, automatic addition and removal of services and resources from the Grid mask. Policy results are shown in the web portal, and site-specific views are provided also. This innovative system provides advantages in terms of procedures automation, information aggregation and problem solving.

A policy system for Grid Management and Monitoring

Science.gov (United States)

Stagni, Federico; Santinelli, Roberto; LHCb Collaboration

2011-12-01

Organizations using a Grid computing model are faced with non-traditional administrative challenges: the heterogeneous nature of the underlying resources requires professionals acting as Grid Administrators. Members of a Virtual Organization (VO) can use a subset of available resources and services in the grid infrastructure and in an ideal world, the more resoures are exploited the better. In the real world, the less faulty services, the better: experienced Grid administrators apply procedures for adding and removing services, based on their status, as it is reported by an ever-growing set of monitoring tools. When a procedure is agreed and well-exercised, a formal policy could be derived. For this reason, using the DIRAC framework in the LHCb collaboration, we developed a policy system that can enforce management and operational policies, in a VO-specific fashion. A single policy makes an assessment on the status of a subject, relative to one or more monitoring information. Subjects of the policies are monitored entities of an established Grid ontology. The status of a same entity is evaluated against a number of policies, whose results are then combined by a Policy Decision Point. Such results are enforced in a Policy Enforcing Point, which provides plug-ins for actions, like raising alarms, sending notifications, automatic addition and removal of services and resources from the Grid mask. Policy results are shown in the web portal, and site-specific views are provided also. This innovative system provides advantages in terms of procedures automation, information aggregation and problem solving.

Use of queue modelling in the analysis of elective patient treatment governed by a maximum waiting time policy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kozlowski, Dawid; Worthington, Dave

2015-01-01

chain and discrete event simulation models, to provide an insightful analysis of the public hospital performance under the policy rules. The aim of this paper is to support the enhancement of the quality of elective patient care, to be brought about by better understanding of the policy implications...... on the utilization of public hospital resources. This paper illustrates the use of a queue modelling approach in the analysis of elective patient treatment governed by the maximum waiting time policy. Drawing upon the combined strengths of analytic and simulation approaches we develop both continuous-time Markov...

7 CFR 989.54 - Marketing policy.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 8 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Marketing policy. 989.54 Section 989.54 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) AGRICULTURAL MARKETING SERVICE (Marketing Agreements... CALIFORNIA Order Regulating Handling Marketing Policy § 989.54 Marketing policy. (a) Trade demand. On or...

7 CFR 993.41 - Marketing policy.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 8 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Marketing policy. 993.41 Section 993.41 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) AGRICULTURAL MARKETING SERVICE (Marketing Agreements... Order Regulating Handling Marketing Policy § 993.41 Marketing policy. (a) On or before the first Tuesday...

Market and Policy Barriers for Demand Response Providing Ancillary Services in U.S. Markets

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cappers, Peter [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); MacDonald, Jason [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Goldman, Charles [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

2013-03-01

In this study, we attempt to provide a comprehensive examination of various market and policy barriers to demand response providing ancillary services in both ISO/RTO and non-ISO/RTO regions, especially at the program provider level. It is useful to classify barriers in order to create a holistic understanding and identify parties that could be responsible for their removal. This study develops a typology of barriers focusing on smaller customers that must rely on a program provider (i.e., electric investor owned utility or IOU, ARC) to create an aggregated DR resource in order to bring ancillary services to the balancing authority.ii The barriers were identified through examinations of regulatory structures, market environments, and product offerings; and discussions with industry stakeholders and regulators. In order to help illustrate the differences in barriers among various wholesale market designs and their constituent retail environments, four regions were chosen to use as case studies: Colorado, Texas, Wisconsin, and New Jersey. We highlight the experience in each area as it relates to the identified barriers.

Long-Term Impacts of China’s New Commercial Harvest Exclusion Policy on Ecosystem Services and Biodiversity in the Temperate Forests of Northeast China

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kai Liu

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Temperate forests in Northeast China have been severely exploited by timber harvesting in the last century. To reverse this trend, China implemented the Classified Forest Management policy in the Natural Forest Conservation Program in 1998 to protect forests from excessive harvesting. However, the policy was unable to meet the 2020 commitment of increasing growing stock (set in the Kyoto Protocol because of high-intensity harvesting. Accordingly, China banned all commercial harvesting in Northeast China in 2014. In this study, we investigated the long-term impacts of the no commercial harvest (NCH policy on ecosystem services and biodiversity using a forest landscape model, LANDIS PRO 7.0, in the temperate forests of the Small Khingan Mountains, Northeast China. We designed three management scenarios: The H scenario (the Classified Forest Management policy used in the past, the NCH scenario (the current Commercial Harvest Exclusion policy, and the LT scenario (mitigation management, i.e., light thinning. We compared total aboveground forest biomass, biomass by tree species, abundance of old-growth forests, and diversity of tree species and age class in three scenarios from 2010 to 2100. We found that compared with the H scenario, the NCH scenario increased aboveground forest biomass, abundance of old-growth forests, and biomass of most timber species over time; however, it decreased the biomass of rare and protected tree species and biodiversity. We found that the LT scenario increased the biomass of rare and protected tree species and biodiversity in comparison with the NCH scenario, while it maintained aboveground forest biomass and abundance of old-growth forests at a high level (slightly less than the NCH scenario. We concluded there was trade-off between carbon storage and biodiversity. We also concluded that light thinning treatment was able to regulate the trade-off and alleviate the negative effects associated with the NCH policy. Our

Evaluation of caregiver-friendly workplace policy (CFWPs) interventions on the health of full-time caregiver employees (CEs): implementation and cost-benefit analysis

OpenAIRE

Williams, Allison M.; Tompa, Emile; Lero, Donna S.; Fast, Janet; Yazdani, Amin; Zeytinoglu, Isik U.

2017-01-01

Background Current Canadian evidence illustrating the health benefits and cost-effectiveness of caregiver-friendly workplace policies is needed if Canadian employers are to adopt and integrate caregiver-friendly workplace policies into their employment practices. The goal of this three-year, three study research project is to provide such evidence for the auto manufacturing and educational services sectors. The research questions being addressed are: What are the impacts for employers (econom...

Convergence of service, policy, and science toward consumer-driven mental health care.

Science.gov (United States)

Carroll, Christopher D; Manderscheid, Ronald W; Daniels, Allen S; Compagni, Amelia

2006-12-01

A common theme is emerging in sentinel reports on the United States health care system. Consumer relevance and demands on service systems and practices are influencing how mental health care is delivered and how systems will be shaped in the future. The present report seeks to assemble a confluence of consumer-driven themes from noteworthy reports on the state of the mental health system in the U.S. It also explores innovative efforts, promising practices, collaborative efforts, as well as identification of barriers to consumer-directed care, with possible solutions. The report reviews the relevant public mental health policy and data used in published work. The findings indicate an increasing public and private interest in promoting consumer-driven care, even though historical systems of care predominate, and often create, barriers to wide-spread redesign of a consumer-centered mental health care system. Innovative consumer-driven practices are increasing as quality, choice, and self-determination become integral parts of a redesigned U.S. mental health care system. The use of consumer-driven approaches in mental health is limited at best. These programs challenge industry norms and traditional practices. Limitations include the need for additional and thorough evaluations of effectiveness (cost and clinical) and replicability of consumer-directed programs. Consumer-driven services indicate that mental health consumers are expecting to be more participative in their mental health care. This expectation will influence how traditional mental health services and providers become more consumer-centric and meet the demand. Public and private interest in consumer-driven health care range from creating cost-conscious consumers to individualized control of recovery. The health care sector should seek to invest more resources in the provision of consumer-driven health care programs. The results of this study have implications and are informative for other countries where

42 CFR 50.403 - What is the policy basis for these procedures?

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... 42 Public Health 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false What is the policy basis for these procedures? 50.403 Section 50.403 Public Health PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES GRANTS POLICIES OF GENERAL APPLICABILITY Public Health Service Grant Appeals Procedure § 50.403 What is the policy...

Supporting the Academic Majority: Policies and Practices Related to Part-Time Faculty's Job Satisfaction

Science.gov (United States)

Eagan, M. Kevin, Jr.; Jaeger, Audrey J.; Grantham, Ashley

2015-01-01

The academic workforce in higher education has shifted in the last several decades from consisting of mostly full-time, tenure-track faculty to one comprised predominantly of contingent, non-tenure-track faculty. This substantial shift toward part-time academic labor has not corresponded with institutions implementing more supportive policies and…

Services, systems, and policies affecting mobility device users' community mobility: A scoping review: Services, systèmes et politiques influençant la mobilité dans la communauté des utilisateurs d'aides à la mobilité : examen de la portée.

Science.gov (United States)

Jónasdóttir, Sigrún Kristín; Polgar, Jan Miller

2018-04-01

Opportunities to travel from one place to another in the community, or community mobility, are especially important for mobility device users' ability to participate fully in society. However, contextual challenges to such mobility exist. This study summarizes the literature on existing community mobility barriers and facilitators of mobility device users created by services, systems, and policies as defined by the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF). Arksey and O'Malley's approach for scoping studies was used for the review. The extraction chart was organized following the ICF, and frequency counts were used to report the data. The findings suggest that certain factors, such as transportation, open-space planning, and architecture and construction, influence community mobility opportunities. However, little attention has been paid to services, systems, and policies in the research literature, limiting the knowledge on the subject. Further research is needed to examine the relationship between specific services, systems, and policies and mobility device users' mobility within their communities.

Exploring interactions between payment for hydrologic service policies, landowner decisions, and ecohydrology in a Mexican cloud forest watershed: Is there a disconnect between the policy and the resource?

Science.gov (United States)

Asbjornsen, H.; Geissert, D.; Gomez-Tagle, A.; Holwerda, F.; Manson, R.; Perez-Maqueo, O.; Munoz-Villers, L.; Scullion, J.

2013-05-01

Payment for hydrologic service (PHS) programs are increasingly being used as a means to incentivize watershed protection by compensating upstream 'water producers' with payments made by downstream 'water consumers'. However, the effectiveness of PHS programs in achieving their target goals is often poorly understood. Here, we draw from insights obtained from socioeconomic and ecohydrological research in Veracruz, Mexico to explore interactions between PHS policies, landowner decisions, and hydrologic services. GIS analysis of land-cover changes during 2003-2009 combined with interviews of PHS participants indicated that despite lower deforestation rates on properties receiving PES payments, other factors were likely to have a greater influence on land use decisions than PHS payments per se, including opportunity costs and personal conservation ethic. The interviews also highlighted a general lack of trust and cooperation between the citizen participants and government administrators, which was reflected in the relatively low level of knowledge of the PHS programs' regulations and goals, the role of forests in protecting water resources, and a low level of co-financing by the private sector. An important premise of PHS programs is that protecting existing forest cover (and planting trees) will enhance water supply, especially in upland cloud forests that are due to their perceived role as water producers. Measurements of climate, steamflow, canopy fog interception, plant transpiration, soil water dynamics, and hydrologic flow paths were collected over a 3-year period to assess stand water balance and streamflow response under four different land covers: mature cloud forest, pasture, regenerating cloud forest, pine reforestation. Results suggested relatively minor additional inputs of fog to increasing streamflow in cloud forest watersheds, while conversion of forest to pasture did not markedly decrease dry season flows, but did increase annual flows due to lower

Preconception care policy, guidelines, recommendations and services across six European countries: Belgium (Flanders), Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

Science.gov (United States)

Shawe, Jill; Delbaere, Ilse; Ekstrand, Maria; Hegaard, Hanne Kristine; Larsson, Margareta; Mastroiacovo, Pierpaolo; Stern, Jenny; Steegers, Eric; Stephenson, Judith; Tydén, Tanja

2015-04-01

Preconception care is important for the screening, prevention and management of risk factors that affect pregnancy outcomes. We aimed to investigate pre-pregnancy care policies, guidelines, recommendations and services in six European countries. In 2013, an electronic search and investigation was undertaken of preconception policy, guidelines, recommendations and services available to healthcare professionals and the general public in six European countries: Belgium (Flanders), Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Findings were compared within five categories: Governmental policy and legislation; Professional bodies and organisations; Healthcare providers; Charitable organisations; Web-based public information and internet sites. All countries had preconception recommendations for women with chronic diseases, such as diabetes and epilepsy. Recommendations for healthy women and men were fragmented and inconsistent. Preconception guidance was often included in antenatal and pregnancy guidelines. Differences between countries were seen with regard to nutritional and lifestyle advice particularly in relation to fish, caffeine and alcohol consumption, and vitamin supplementation. Current guidelines are heterogeneous. Collaborative research across Europe is required in order to develop evidence-based guidelines for preconception health and care. There is a need to establish a clear strategy for promoting advice and guidance within the European childbearing population.

Contextualising renal patient routines: Everyday space-time contexts, health service access, and wellbeing.

Science.gov (United States)

McQuoid, Julia; Jowsey, Tanisha; Talaulikar, Girish

2017-06-01

Stable routines are key to successful illness self-management for the growing number of people living with chronic illness around the world. Yet, the influence of chronically ill individuals' everyday contexts in supporting routines is poorly understood. This paper takes a space-time geographical approach to explore the everyday space-time contexts and routines of individuals with chronic kidney disease (CKD). We ask: what is the relationship between renal patients' space-time contexts and their ability to establish and maintain stable routines, and, what role does health service access play in this regard? We draw from a qualitative case study of 26 individuals with CKD in Australia. Data comprised self-reported two day participant diaries and semi-structured interviews. Thematic analysis of interview transcripts was guided by an inductive-deductive approach. We examined the embeddedness of routines within the space-time contexts of participants' everyday lives. We found that participants' everyday space-time contexts were highly complex, especially for those receiving dialysis and/or employed, making routines difficult to establish and vulnerable to disruption. Health service access helped shape participants' everyday space-time contexts, meaning that incidences of unpredictability in accessing health services set-off 'ripple effects' within participants' space-time contexts, disrupting routines and making everyday life negotiation more difficult. The ability to absorb ripple effects from unpredictable health services without disrupting routines varied by space-time context. Implications of these findings for the deployment of the concept of routine in health research, the framing of patient success in self-managing illness, and health services design are discussed. In conclusion, efforts to understand and support individuals in establishing and maintaining routines that support health and wellbeing can benefit from approaches that contextualise and de

Evaluating the impact of a novel restricted reimbursement policy for quinolone antibiotics: A time series analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Manns Braden

2012-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Publicly-funded drug plans often use prior authorization policies to limit drug prescribing. To guide physician prescribing of a class of antibiotics with broad antimicrobial activity (quinolone antibiotics in accordance with new prescribing guidelines, Alberta’s provincial health ministry implemented a new mechanism for formulary restriction entitled the optional special authorization (OSA program. We conducted an observational study to determine the impact of this new formulary restriction policy on antimicrobial prescription rates as well as any clinical consequences. Methods Quinolone antibiotic use, and adherence with quinolone prescribing guidelines, was assessed before and after implementation of the OSA program in patients with common outpatient infections using an administrative data cohort and a chart review cohort, respectively. At the same time this policy was implemented to limit quinolone prescribing, two new quinolone antibiotics were added to the formulary. Using administrative data, we analysed a total of 397,534 unique index visits with regard to overall antibiotic utilization, and through chart review, we analysed 1681 charts of patients with infections of interest to determine the indications for quinolone usage. Results Using segmented regression models adjusting for age, sex and physician enrollment in the OSA program, there was no statistically significant change in the monthly rate of all quinolone use (−3.5 (95% CI −5.5, 1.4 prescriptions per 1000 index visits following implementation of the OSA program (p = 0.74. There was a significant level change in the rate of quinolone antibiotic use for urinary tract infection (−33.6 (95% CI: -23.8, -43.4 prescriptions and upper respiratory tract infection (−16.1 (95%CI: -11.6, -20.6 prescriptions per 1000 index visits. Among quinolone prescriptions identified on chart review, 42.5% and 58.5% were consistent with formulary guidelines before and

Beyond physical access: a qualitative analysis into the barriers to policy implementation and service provision experienced by persons with disabilities living in a rural context.

Science.gov (United States)

Neille, Joanne; Penn, Claire

2015-01-01

Persons with disabilities make up approximately 15% of the world's population, with vulnerable communities disproportionately affected by the incidence of disability. Research reflects that persons with disabilities are vulnerable to stigma and discrimination, social isolation, and have physical barriers to accessing support services, all of which serve to perpetuate a sense of uncertainty and vulnerability within their lives. Recently a number of policies and models of intervention have been introduced intended to protect the rights of those affected by disability, yet limited research has been conducted into the lived experiences of persons with disabilities, particularly in rural contexts. This implies that little is known about the impact of the rural context on the lived experience of disability and the ways in which context impacts on the implementation of policies and practices. The current study employed a qualitative design underpinned by the principles of narrative inquiry and participant observation. Thirty adults with a variety of congenital and acquired disabilities (15 men and 15 women, ranging in age from 19 to 83 years) living in 12 rural communities in the Mpumalanga Province of South Africa were recruited through snowball sampling. Data collection comprised a combination of narrative inquiry and participant observation. Narratives were collected in SiSwati with the assistance of a SiSwati-speaking research mediator and were transcribed and translated into English. Data were analysed inductively according to the principles of thematic analysis. Findings confirmed that the experience of living with a disability in a rural area is associated with discrimination, social exclusion, and isolation and barriers to accessing services, underpinned by numerous context-specific experiences, including mortality rates, exposure to numerous and repeated forms of violence across the lifespan, and corruption and lack of transparency in the implementation of

Local authorities in the context of energy and climate policy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Comodi, Gabriele; Cioccolanti, Luca; Polonara, Fabio; Brandoni, Caterina

2012-01-01

Several measures to boost the energy system towards a low-carbon future can be planned and implemented by local authorities, such as energy-saving initiatives in public buildings and lighting, information campaigns, and renewable energy pilot projects. This work analyzes the public administration's role in energy and climate policies by assessing carbon-lowering measures for properties and services managed directly by local governments in central Italy. Both short- and long-term schemes were considered in the analysis of local authority energy strategies. The MARKAL-TIMES energy model was applied to long-term energy planning to assess the effect of low-carbon initiatives on public-sector energy consumption up to 2030. Two energy scenarios were built, i.e. a Business As Usual (BAU) scenario based on current or soon-to-be-adopted national policies, and an Exemplary Public Scenario (EPS) including some further virtuous local policies suggested by local authorities. Our results show that a 20% primary energy reduction can be achieved with respect to the baseline year by means of short-term energy policies (5-year time span), while a primary energy saving of about 30% can be reached with longer-term energy policies (25-year time span), even after taking the increase in energy demand into account. This work goes to show the part that local governments can play in energy policy and their contribution to the achievement of climate goals. - Highlights: ► Assessment of Local Administration (LA) role in energy and climate policy. ► Analysis of both short-term and long-term carbon lowering measures. ► Use of MARKAL-TIMES model generator for long-term energy analysis. ► 20% primary energy reduction can be reached with short-term energy policies. ► 30% primary energy reduction can be reached with longer-term energy policies.

Performances and recent evolutions of EMSC Real Time Information services

Science.gov (United States)

Mazet-Roux, G.; Godey, S.; Bossu, R.

2009-04-01

The EMSC (http://www.emsc-csem.org) operates Real Time Earthquake Information services for the public and the scientific community which aim at providing rapid and reliable information on the seismic-ity of the Euro-Mediterranean region and on significant earthquakes worldwide. These services are based on parametric data rapidly provided by 66 seismological networks which are automatically merged and processed at EMSC. A web page which is updated every minute displays a list and a map of the latest earthquakes as well as additional information like location maps, moment tensors solutions or past regional seismicity. Since 2004, the performances and the popularity of these services have dramatically increased. The number of messages received from the contributors and the number of published events have been multiplied by 2 since 2004 and by 1.6 since 2005 respectively. The web traffic and the numbers of users of the Earthquake Notification Service (ENS) have been multiplied by 15 and 7 respectively. In terms of performances of the ENS, the median dissemination time for Euro-Med events is minutes in 2008. In order to further improve its performances and especially the speed and robustness of the reception of real time data, EMSC has recently implemented a software named QWIDS (Quake Watch Information Distribution System) which provides a quick and robust data exchange system through permanent TCP connections. At the difference with emails that can sometimes be delayed or lost, QWIDS is an actual real time communication system that ensures the data delivery. In terms of hardware, EMSC imple-mented a high availability, dynamic load balancing, redundant and scalable web servers infrastructure, composed of two SUN T2000 and one F5 BIG-IP switch. This will allow coping with constantly increas-ing web traffic and the occurrence of huge peaks of traffic after widely felt earthquakes.

7 CFR 983.47 - Marketing policy.