Direct Financial Support Research Articles

Action Research Using a Chinese Career Model Based on the Wisdom of Classic of Changes and its Applications

To challenge the Taiwan Ministry of Education's (TMOE) dominant enforcement of a person-environment fit model, the Chinese Career Research Center incorporated yin-yang alternation principles from the Classic of Changes ( I Ching, Yi Jing or 易經) to develop the model of career development touching the sky yet grounded (TSG) and corresponding practice guidelines, a career website (CCN), and four career service projects. Using Lewin's (1946) cyclical-spiral process of action research, CCN and TSG service projects were promoted to complement the TMOE's fit model, and feedback was utilised to revise our TSG model and its applications. Yin-yang alternation principles and the four stages of chien (the creative) from the Classic of Changes were applied to develop social action strategies. Social change was indicated by counsellors’ and students’ changes in their career views, as well as the TMOE's direct financial support for TSG service projects. This progress is encouraging for whoever is interested in developing culture-inclusive indigenous psychology with practical outcomes.

Industry-sponsored research in plastic surgery: implications and considerations.

Industry-sponsored research in plastic surgery: implications and considerations.

Comparative analysis of three sperm DNA damage assays and sperm nuclear protein content in couples undergoing assisted reproduction treatment

Is there an association between sperm DNA damage, measured by three different assays, sperm nuclear protein content and clinical outcomes in assisted reproduction treatment (ART)? Sperm DNA damage measured by terminal deoxynucleotidyltransferase-mediated dUTP nick-end labelling (TUNEL) and the Comet assay were significantly associated with ART outcomes in our single institution study. Abnormal protamine expression is known to be associated with sperm DNA damage and male infertility. A number of studies have shown a significant relationship between sperm DNA damage and ART outcomes. To date, there are no large studies providing direct comparisons of DNA damage tests within the same study population. Thus, the prognostic value for each method remains unknown. Cross-sectional study of 238 men from infertile couples undergoing ART at the University Center for Reproductive Medicine, Utah, USA, between April 2011 and March 2013. Sperm from men undergoing ART were tested for DNA damage using the alkaline Comet assay, TUNEL and flow cytometric chromatin evaluation (FCCE) assays. Histone retention was analysed using the aniline blue staining method, whereas protamine content (proteins P1 and P2) and ratio were analysed using acid urea gel electrophoresis. The prognostic value of each sperm DNA test to predict clinical pregnancy was calculated. Histone retention was associated with sperm DNA damage (P < 0.001), reduced embryo quality (P = 0.005) and clinical pregnancies (P < 0.001). The mean percentage of sperm with DNA damage was significantly higher in sperm from non-pregnant couples compared with that from pregnant couples, as measured by TUNEL assay (15.04 ± 1.16% versus 8.79 ± 0.56%; P < 0.001) and alkaline Comet assay (72.79 ± 2.49% versus 55.86 ± 2.29%; P < 0.001). There was no association between clinical pregnancies and DNA fragmentation index measured by FCCE (12.97 ± 1.46 versus 14.93 ± 1.65; P = 0.379). Of the protamine parameters analysed, only the P1/P2 ratio was associated with sperm count (P = 0.013), men's age (P = 0.037), maturity (P = 0.049) and blastocyst quality (P = 0.012). Histone retention and sperm DNA damage measured by Comet and TUNEL assays were associated with fertilization rate (P < 0.05), embryo quality (P < 0.05) and implantation rate (P < 0.05). A potential drawback of this study is that it is cross-sectional. Generally in such studies there is more than one variable that could cause the effect. Analysing sperm is one part of the equation; there are also a number of female factors that have the potential to influence ART outcomes. Therefore, given the large and well-established role of female factors in infertility, normal sperm DNA integrity and protamination do not necessarily ensure clinical pregnancy in ART. Thus, female factors can reduce the prognostic value of sperm DNA tests. Further, our use of native semen instead of prepared sperm may have iatrogenically increased the DNA damage. Alteration in sperm nuclear protein affects sperm DNA integrity. Further, with the current dataset, TUNEL and Comet assays appeared more predictive of ART success than FCCE. No personal or direct financial support has been received for any of this work. The authors declare no competing interests. N/A.

The West’s aid dilemma and the Chinese solution?

There are currently two contrasting approaches towards aid policy in Africa: that followed by the West is well known for its conditionality and selectivity and focus on direct financial support, while the approach adopted by China eschews conditionality and concentrates on infrastructure building. The Chinese approach has been criticized for its failure to create direct employment and because, it is argued, its unconditionality hampers good governance in Africa. However, this paper argues that the West faces a dilemma in that governance and its improvements are endogenous to the economic development of a country. Making aid conditional upon governance therefore unduly penalizes countries at the bottom. The Chinese approach, in contrast, avoids this dilemma by directly targeting constraints to development; it may therefore be more effective in generating long-run growth, which may in turn foster good governance.

A Study On Balasahyoga Programme- A Holistic Approach To Suuport Hiv Affected Children Families- A Critical Analysis

HIV and AIDS significantly erode the quality of life of affected individuals. The damage is even more significant for children as the epidemic strikes at family support structures and creates new and growing vulnerabilities. A multipronged approach to improve the overall quality of life of children affected by AIDS and their families by facilitating access to superior services. In the need of hour a comprehensive package of services should address the needs in the areas of health, education, psychosocial support, nutrition, and safety nets. The efforts in ensuring a comprehensive package of services for Children affected by AIDS and their caregivers should bring significant changes in the lives in terms of their access to CTX drug, increased enrollment in school, access to double rations through anganwadi centers, received community based counseling, increased registrations to the PDS , receiving direct and indirect financial support from the government and nongovernmental organizations should help them to overcome food insecurity levels.

Support for Sister-Affiliated Ministries During Challenging Times: Understanding a Foundation Initiative in Two Regions

Keywords: Foundation initiative, Catholic sisters, capacity buildingIntroductionCatholic sisters have established schools, hospitals, and social service ministries that have served hundreds of thousands of people over past 200 years (Leadership Conference for Women Religious, 2010). Due natural aging of Catholic sisters and a decline in new vocations, however, there is an accelerating loss of sisters and their ministries nationwide (Gautier & Cidade, 2010). Although this loss is itself a concern, a more important impact is experienced by beneficiaries of ministries, especially those who have few alternatives sister-affiliated social services. Because these ministries fill an important gap in social safety net for vulnerable populations, disappearance of ministry-directed efforts has begun draw attention of foundations (Wittberg, 2000).In 2001 Saint Ann Foundation (now Sisters of Charity Foundation of Cleveland) conducted a research study on ministries of women religious across Kentucky, Tennessee, and South Carolina and identified three challenges facing sisters and their ministries: (1) an aging and declining number of sisters in ministry; (2) an increase in underlying needs ministries were addressing; and (3) paucity of plans in place for transitioning ministry leadership or sustaining ministry services (Csank, 2002). To address these challenges foundation embarked upon a Collaboration for Ministry Initiative (CMI), with a goal of building collaborative capacity within and among ministries by providing grants, training and technical assistance, and opportunities for networking. Over time, Cleveland initiative narrowed focus on northeast Ohio.In 2003 Sisters of Charity Foundation of South Carolina conducted a study of Catholic sisters in that state and reached similar conclusions regarding fewer sisters, their imperiled ministries, and need for collaborative capacity building (Csank, 2004). In 2004 CMI expanded South Carolina and efforts began across both regions build collaborative capacity of sister-affiliated ministries in an effort sustain positive impact on beneficiaries.Capacity-Building ContextThe notion of building capacity within and in support of sisters' ministries links closely broader domain of capacity building in nonprofit sector. Nonprofit capacity building has been focus of extensive study, and numerous definitions have been offered for capacity building in literature (Light, 2004). McPhee and Bare (2001) define capacity building as the ability of nonprofit organizations fulfill their missions in an effective manner. Gronbjerg and Cheney (2007) note seven operationalized dimensions of capacity building articulated in literature: financial resources, marketing, networking and advocacy, information technology, human resources, planning and programs, and operations and governance. At its core, capacity building essentially involves ability to secure outside resources and attain scale (Glickman & Servon, 1998, p. 502).In terms of strategies address capacity building, De Vita, Fleming, and Twombly (2001) propose three main types of activities: 1) assessment inside and outside of organization; 2) interventions using management consultation, training, and/or technical assistance; and 3) direct financial support for core operating support, specific grants, and working capital. Yet others have suggested that capacity building should go beyond finding ways increase nonprofits' financial-resource base include such things as developing a broad vision and assessing how organization can meet community's needs (Boris, 2001). Overall, nonprofit capacity-building literature provides good conceptual definitions and some guidance on identifying strategies and models for building nonprofit capacity (Fischer, 2004). …

Improving the Health of the Nation: HRSA's Mission to Achieve Health Equity

Mary Wakefield, PhD, RNa Improving the health status of the United States is predicated on reducing and eventually eliminating health disparities and achieving health equity. Meaningfully addressing health disparities is complex work and involves considering what are, at times, seemingly unrelated factors. Recognizing this challenge, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) recently hosted an inter-professional summit titled Nursing in 3D: Workforce Diversity, Health Disparities, and Social Determinants of Health. The speakers included experts in nursing, health workforce, epidemiology, and public health who presented recent findings on complex connections among workforce diversity, health disparities, and social determinants of health. The interplay of these factors is not a new focus for HRSA; in fact, the basis for some of the meeting’s agenda was drawn from an earlier HRSA report titled “The Rationale for Diversity in the Health Professions: A Review of the Evidence.”1 The report shows that patients are best served by providers who are knowledgeable and conversant in the background and culture of the patients for whom they care. Through these and many other related efforts, HRSA has engaged a sharp focus on eliminating disparities in health outcomes and enhancing health equity across the populations served by our programs. An essential element in this effort is building a culturally and linguistically diverse health workforce by increasing both minority participation in the health professions and the cultural competency of all health professionals. Increased diversity among health professionals leads to improved patient satisfaction, patient-clinician communication, and access to care for racial/ethnic minority patients.2 Consequently, for many of HRSA’s health professions training grants, the agency requires grant applicants (generally health professions schools) to identify in their applications innovative programs and institutional strategies to effectively develop and retain a diverse and culturally competent workforce. Such strategies often include supporting activities to recruit diverse students and provide cultural competency training. During academic year 2011–2012, 46% of graduates and individuals who completed training and received direct financial support through one of HRSA’s Title VII or Title VIII programs were from underrepresented minority groups and/or disadvantaged backgrounds.3 HRSA is evaluating these strategies and incentives to identify and expand on

Sustainability impact assessment using integrated meta-modelling: Simulating the reduction of direct support under the EU common agricultural policy (CAP)

Assessing the impact of macro-level policy driven land use changes on regional sustainability is an important task that can facilitate complex decision making processes of introducing reforms. The research work demonstrates the ability of Sustainability Impact Assessment Tool (SIAT), a meta-model, in conducting ex ante spatially explicit cross sectoral impact assessments of changes in common agricultural policy (CAP). The meta-model is able to appraise impacts of CAP amendments on land use and their repercussions on multiple indicators of sustainability. The presented study comprehensively analyses the possible impacts of discontinuing direct financial support to farmers under CAP. The simulations of the meta-model are able to reveal the land use changes both at EU and regional levels as well as to bring forth the subsequent changes in a number of indicators representing the regional sustainability (for five case study regions). In a nutshell, the simulations indicate that a reduction in direct support brings in general, a decrease in farmed area, an increase in forested land, less fluctuation in natural vegetation coverage, increase in abandoned arable land area and negligible changes in built-up area despite regionally diverging land use trends. The simulated changes in sustainability indicators for the study regions in consequence to these land use changes show that the discontinuation of subsidies evokes responses that are in general climate friendly (reduction in methane and N2O emissions, diminishing energy use and reduction in global warming potential), economically beneficial (increase in gross value of agriculture) and socially desired (decrease in unemployment rate) as well as environmentally harmful (increase in pesticide use). Even though the appraisals of diversity indicators such as forest deadwood and farmland birds are not conclusive for all regions, the changes are positive for the former indicator and slightly negative for the latter in general. The trade-offs among these regional sustainability indicators using their directional associations are also presented for a comprehensive assessment of the impacts.

Focus: European wages and collective bargaining under pressue

Across Europe there is increasing direct political intervention into collective bargaining INTERNATIONAL union rights Page 17 Volume 20 Issue 4 2013 TORSTEN MÜLLER is Senior Researcher and MAGDALENA BERNACIAK is Researcher with the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) in Brussels the country-specific recommendations issued in the framework of the European Semester; since these recommendations were formulated for the first time in 2011 they have been applied to 12 EU Member States. The second being the bilateral agreements concluded by national governments either with the International Monetary Fund (‘IMF’) and the European Union (‘EU’) or with the European Commission, the European Central Bank (‘ECB’) and the IMF (collectively known as the Troika). In these ‘Memoranda of Understand-ing’, or ‘Stand-by Arrangements’, national governments commit themselves to carry out the required reforms in return for direct financial support. The third instrument involves the purchase of state bonds by the ECB in exchange for policy reforms. The formal distinctions among these three intervention instruments notwithstanding, the general policy intention remains the same, namely , the implementation of substantial labour market reforms. These, as a rule, include the demand for moderate wage developments and the decentralisation of the collective bargaining system. Decentralisation and dismantling of multiemployer collective bargaining Even though the current crisis has reinforced the decentralisation of wage-setting and collective bargaining institutions throughout Europe, this process was most pronounced in the countries subject to direct political intervention by the Troika and the IMF/EU. Figure 1 provides an overview of the procedural changes to the collective bargaining systems undertaken in these so-called ‘programme countries’ in return for financial support. Two of them, Romania and Ireland, saw a complete breakdown of national-level collective bargaining structures that had been in place before the crisis. In the case of Ireland, the employers withdrew from the social partnership agreement at the end of 2009, which after 22 years of crosssectoral wage coordination brought the return to company-level bargaining. In Romania, national cross-sectoral collective bargaining was abolished in 2011 by the Social Dialogue Act, implemented unilaterally by the government. Since at the same time the Act re-organised branch-level bargaining structures and introduced stricter criteria for the representativeness of social partner organisations as a precondition for negotiations, the bargaining process virtually came to a standstill. In effect, the collective bargaining coverage rate has gone down from 90 percent to an estimated 20 percent. In Greece, Portugal and Spain, sectoral bargaining structures have formally remained intact, but they have been hollowed out by legal T he neoliberal reform policies pursued by European and national policy-makers to come to terms with the crisis have far-reaching implications on collective bargaining throughout Europe – both in terms of bargaining outcomes and procedures. In a nutshell, their impact manifests itself in three ways: first, in the continuing pressure for moderate wage developments ; second, in the growing decentralisation of collective bargaining processes; and third, in the increasing direct political intervention into collective bargaining in order to ensure the effective implementation of the policies of wage moderation and decentralisation. Before we look at each of these processes in more detail, it is worthwhile to examine the role of wages within the reform policies. The policies of wage restraint and decentralisation of collective bargaining are part of the broader strategy of the IMF and the political elites in the EU to solve what they view as being first and foremost a debt and cost competitiveness crisis. As a consequence , their crisis management is heavily based on austerity policies which aim to reduce public expenditure and to consolidate state budgets, and on the pursuit of so-called ‘structural reforms’ designed to improve national competitiveness. In both approaches, wages play a crucial role as an adjustment variable. In the case of austerity policy , cuts and freezes of public sector wages, alongside the abolition or reduction of fringe benefits for public sector employees, have been part and parcel of governments’ efforts to reduce public spending. The neoliberal structural reforms in the field of collective bargaining are based on the assumption that macroeconomic imbalances between surplus and deficit countries are attributable primarily to differing developments of wages and unit wage costs...

The Magnitude and Nature of Unfunded Published Cardiovascular Research

The aim of this study was to determine the extent, type (e.g., staff, equipment), and sources of funding for published cardiovascular research. Important cardiovascular research is often performed without direct financial support. The degree to which medical research is conducted on an unfunded basis remains uncertain. We sent an electronic survey (Survey Monkey) to 938 corresponding authors who published papers in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology from 2007 through 2009. The data sought included the authors' characteristics (e.g., age, institution, type of research), funding, sources of funding, and types of support for their research. The response rate was 41% (388 of 938). The percentage of authors who were fully funded was 26%, 44.1% were partially funded, and those without any direct funding amounted to 30%. Most funding came from government (41.8%) and industry (35.1%), whereas institutional, foundation, association, philanthropy, and other grants contributed the remaining 23.1%. Funded authors received supplies (43.6%), staff (41.5%), and salary (39.7%) to a greater extent than equipment (27.3%) or administrative (24.7%) support. Significantly fewer authors 40 years of age or younger (24.3%) were partially funded relative to authors older than 40 years of age (≥ 47%) (p = 0.001). Significantly fewer authors from a community hospital (0%), from Europe (16.7%), or conducting interventional (7.3%) or heart rhythm (11.5%) studies were fully funded (all p < 0.05). Although only a trend, clinical investigators were more likely to be unfunded (35.7%) relative to basic/basic and clinical investigators (19.1%) (p = 0.001). Those significantly more likely to be fully funded were authors from the United States (35.3%) relative to non-American authors (≤ 28.6%) (p = 0.006). In addition, authors received more funding working in a government or VA hospital (45.9%) than nongovernment hospitals (≤ 27.1%) (p = 0.001). The authors who were 50 years of age or older, from the United States, had PhD degrees, doing basic as well as clinical research, or studying genetics/genomics had significantly more sources of funding and types of support (all p < 0.05). Considerable published cardiovascular research is currently being conducted without direct financial support. This is particularly true for young clinical investigators. The inability to accommodate this investigation in the medical enterprise might substantially diminish the amount of new knowledge coming forth.

Firm-sponsored general education and mobility frictions: Evidence from hospital sponsorship of nursing schools and faculty

This study asks why hospitals provide direct financial support to nursing schools and faculty. This support is striking because nursing education is clearly general, clearly paid by the firm, and information asymmetries appear minimal. Using AHA and survey data, I find hospitals employing a greater share of their MSA's registered nurses are more likely to provide direct financial support to nursing schools and faculty, net of size and other institutional controls. Given the institutional context, I interpret this result as unusually specific evidence that technologically general skill training may be made de facto-specific by imperfect and costly mobility.

Can area-based regeneration programmes ever work? Evidence from England's New Deal for Communities Programme

The New Deal for Communities (NDC) Programme is one of the most intensive area-based initiatives (ABIs) ever launched in England. Between 1998 and 2011, 39 Partnerships were charged with improving conditions in relation to six outcomes within deprived neighbourhoods, each accommodating around 9800 people. The evaluation of the Programme points to only modest net change for NDC areas and their residents, much of which reflects improving attitudes towards the area, rather than for the people-related outcomes of health, education and worklessness. The Programme's architecture was based on four key principles each of which impacted on change. Community engagement reaped fewer benefits, and proved more problematic, than had been anticipated; working with other delivery agencies was complex, providing less in the way the way of direct financial support than was true for other English ABIs; central government impacted on change through an initial over-emphasis on spending annual financial allocations combined with a later marginalisation of ABIs; and outcome change at the neighbourhood level is anyway largely beyond the control of local regeneration schemes. Nevertheless, there are reasons why area-based regeneration schemes might be pursued, including evidence that individuals benefit from local interventions, even if such effects are difficult to measure.

The West’s Aid Dilemma and the Chinese Solution?

There are currently two contrasting approaches towards aid policy in Africa: that followed by the West is well known for its conditionality, selectivity and focus on direct financial support, while the approach adopted by China eschews conditionality and concentrates on infrastructure building. The Chinese approach has been criticised for its failure to create direct employment and because, it is argued, its unconditionality hampers good governance in Africa. However, this paper argues that the West faces a dilemma, in that governance and its improvements are endogenous to the economic development of a country. Making aid conditional upon governance therefore unduly penalises countries at the bottom. The Chinese approach, in contrast, avoids this dilemma by directly targeting constraints to development; it may therefore be more effective in generating long-run growth, which may in turn foster good governance.

Abstract 16997: The Magnitude and Nature of Unfunded Published Cardiovascular Research

Objectives: To determine the extent, type (staff, equipment, etc), and sources of funding for published cardiovascular research. Background: Important cardiovascular research is often performed without direct financial support. The degree to which medical research is performed on an unfunded basis remains uncertain. Methods: We sent an electronic survey (Survey Monkey) to 938 authors who published papers in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology in 2007-2009. The data sought included the authors’ characteristics (age, institution, type of research, etc), funding, sources of funding, and types of support for their research. Results: The response rate was 41% (388/938). The percentage of authors who were fully funded was 26%, partially funded 44.1%, and those without any direct funding amounted to 29.9%. Most funding came from government (41.8%) and industry (35.1%), whereas institutional, foundation, association, philanthropy, and other grants contributed the remaining. More authors received supplies (43.6%), staff (41.5%), and salary (39.7%) than equipment (27.3%) or administrative (24.7%) support. Significantly fewer authors age 40 years or younger (24.3%) were partially funded (p&lt;.05). Significantly fewer authors from a community hospital (0%), from Europe (16.7%), or performing interventional (7.3%) or heart rhythm (11.5%) studies were fully funded (p&lt;.05). Although only a trend, clinical investigators were more likely to be unfunded (35.7%). Those significantly more likely to be fully funded were authors from the United States (35.3%) and working in a government or VA hospital (45.9%) (p&lt;.05). The authors who were 50 years of age or older, from the United States, had PhD degrees, doing basic as well as clinical research, or studying genetics/genomics had significantly more sources of funding and types of support (p&lt;0.05). Conclusion: Considerable published cardiovascular research is currently being performed without direct financial support. This is particularly true for young clinical investigators. The inability to accommodate this investigation in the medical enterprise would substantially diminish the amount of new knowledge coming forth.

Foreign Direct Investment and Unemployment: VAR Analysis for Poland in the Years 1995-2009

1. Introduction Globalization process has completely changed the problem of capital availability in contemporary economy. It has brought diverse consequences for development of all economies. Global financial of the years 2008-2010 has proved that under some unfavorable conditions capital flows and international financial interconnections between countries can lead to serious destabilization of their real economies (Thalassinos, 2008). Even though the had started in highly developed countries and had touched them very hard, in many cases the real crisis victims were the developing economies. On the other hand, globalization and the availability of international capital can be a source of great opportunity for developing countries. First of all, developing economics can benefit from foreign capital. Foreign investment, especially foreign direct investment (FDI) can help in upgrading technological level of their economies, thus it can help to benefit from convergence process and to modernize a country. It is often believed that FDI can help to solve many serious economic and social problems. For example, it is commonly stated that FDI usually bring strong positive results for labour market of a beneficiary as it results in decreasing the level of unemployment. As a result in case of political process and political decision making this argument is very often used as justification for significant government direct financial support for international investors that plan their investments in a given country. Transnational corporation often directly influence government policy to lobby for a more favorable policy mix in the area of regulations, taxation or other form of direct and indirect support by utilizing their influence as potential large employers (see more: Whyman, 2006). Thus, the question about relations between foreign direct investment and unemployment makes very important and interesting scientific problem for en economist. It is also crucial for forming development policies. The aim of this paper is to investigate interrelationships among FDI and unemployment in Poland in the years 1995-2009. The organization of the paper is as follows: the fallowing section gives some theory and literature review of international researches for highly developed and developing countries. The second section has strictly empirical character with short explanation of methodology and presentation of VAR model. Finally the paper ends up with concluding remarks. 2. Theoretical background and literature review The influence of FDI on labour markets conditions has been extensively studied in recent years. These studies have had strictly theoretical but also empirical character. However, there are still many controversies on interrelations between FDI inflow and employment. Different theoretical models and empirical investigations for different countries or periods show often inconsistent results. This discussion and controversies signal that the effects of FDI on labour markets can change from one country to another. These effects can depend on the country features and specific forms of investment. For example in principle, it is accepted that positive employment effects are usually much higher if the FDI has the form of greenfield project. On the other hand when the foreign capital inflow takes the form of buyouts of privatized enterprises, it usually can have minor or even negative influence on employment (Hisarciklilar et all, 2009, p. 9) Among strictly theoretical works in the field one can point at work of Fung et all, where a three sector endogenous growth model is used to investigate effects of foreign direct investment on the dynamics of urban unemployment, labour and capital income and national welfare in Harris-Todaro economy. This model shows very complicated interrelations between destination of foreign direct investment, intersectoral mobility of capital, elastisities of substitution, factor investments of final good production, growth rate and welfare effects (Fung et all, 1999, pp. …

Firm-Sponsored General Education and Mobility Frictions: Evidence from Hospital Sponsorship of Nursing Schools and Faculty

This study asks why hospitals provide direct financial support to nursing schools and faculty. This support is striking because nursing education is clearly general, clearly paid by the firm, and information asymmetries appear minimal. Using AHA and survey data, I find hospitals employing a greater share of their MSA’s registered nurses are more likely to provide direct financial support to nursing schools and faculty, net of size and other institutional controls. Given the institutional context, I interpret this result as unusually-specific evidence that technologically-general skill training may be made de facto-specific by imperfect and costly mobility.

Impact of the Car Scrapping Scheme on Consumer Behaviour and Aggregate Consumption

The American financial crisis, which started in 2007, triggered subsequently a global economic decline. To boost the decreasing national economies, many countries introduced various stipulating measures. The automotive industry has been among the numerous fields, which were affected by the decline. The proclaimed importance of this industry led to the introduction of a new economic tool to support the short-term consumption, usually referred to as the car scrapping scheme. This scheme stands for a special incentive to purchase a new car. Usually, the incentive is introduced in the form of a direct financial support or an ex-post tax relief, and is conditioned by scrapping the applicant's old car. The microeconomic analysis of consumer behaviour proved that the car scrapping scheme can mitigate the maximum decline of the aggregate consumption, thanks to the shift of the consumption line and of the map of the indifference curves. However, the car scrapping scheme has many other impacts, whose research should be elaborated.

Renewable Hydrogen From the Zn/ZnO Solar Thermochemical Cycle: A Cost and Policy Analysis

Flexible energy carriers are a crucial element of our energy portfolio. In a future in which a significant fraction of our energy comes from renewable sources, renewably produced fuels will be vital. The zinc/zinc-oxide thermochemical redox cycle is one approach for producing hydrogen using solar energy. This paper explores the level of carbon taxation necessary to make the cycle competitive with hydrogen production via methane reforming. In addition, the time frame for economic viability is assessed through the use of experience curves under minimal input, midrange, and aggressive incentive policy scenarios. Prior work projects that hydrogen produced by the zinc/zinc-oxide cycle will cost between $5.02/kg and $14.75/kg, compared with $2.40–3.60/kg for steam methane reforming. Overcoming this cost difference would require a carbon tax of ($119–987)/tCO2, which is significantly higher than is likely to be implemented in most countries. For the technology to become cost competitive, incentive policies that lead to early implementation of solar hydrogen plants will be necessary to allow the experience effect to draw down the price. Under such policies, a learning curve analysis suggests that hydrogen produced via the Zn/ZnO cycle could become economically viable between 2032 and 2069, depending on how aggressively the policies encourage the emerging technology. Thus, the Zn/ZnO cycle has the potential to be economically viable by midcentury if incentive policies—such as direct financial support, purchase guarantees, low interest rate loans, and tax breaks—are used to support initial projects.

Free Clinics in the United States

Since an increasing proportion of the US population is without health insurance, a network of free clinics has gradually developed to provide care for the uninsured. Despite widespread concern about the uninsured and the viability of the safety net, free clinics have been overlooked and poorly studied, leaving old assumptions and beliefs largely unchallenged. As a result, policy discussions have been forestalled and potentially fruitful collaborations between free clinics and other safety net providers have been hindered. The objective of this study is to describe the attributes of free clinics and measure their contribution to the safety net. National mail survey of all known free clinics in the United States. The main outcome measures were organizational structures, operations, revenue sources, patient profiles, services, and staffing. The study represents the first census of free clinics in 40 years and garnered a 75.9% response rate. Overall, 1007 free clinics operated in 49 states and the District of Columbia. Annually, these clinics provided care for 1.8 million individuals, accounting for 3.5 million medical and dental visits. The mean operating budget was $287,810. Overall, 58.7% received no government revenue. Clinics were open a mean of 18 hours per week and generally provided chronic disease management (73.2%), physical examinations (81.4%), urgent/acute care (62.3%), and medications (86.5%). Free clinics operate largely outside of the safety net system. However, they have become an established and meaningful contributor to it. Policymakers should consider integrating the free clinic network with other safety net providers or providing direct financial support.

SU‐GG‐T‐200: Comparison of a Novel Transmission Detector to a Standard Measurement Technique for Patient IMRT Quality Assurance

Purpose: A new measurement‐based, pre‐treatment IMRT composite quality assurance (QA) procedure was compared to a standard QA method. The standard QA method consisted of delivering the treatment to a cuboidal IMRT phantom containing dose measuring media. This standard measurement employed Gaf‐chromic film sheets for relative dosimetry and an ion chamber for absolute dosimetry. The new method examined here used a novel transmission detector measurement (IBA Dosimetry) designed for in vivo patient dosimetry. However, before in vivo application, we compare to our standard QA method, which is the focus of this work. Method and Materials: Treatment plans for ten previously‐treated, head and neck IMRT patients were used. All treatment plans were QA'd with the standard method at the treatment beam angles. Measurements with the transmission detector (an array of 1600 IC's) were also performed at the treatment beam angles. The COMPASS software (IBA Dosimetry) converts these 2D‐array measurements to incident fluence, and then forward calculates dose in a patient model (ie. CT data). In this work the patient model was a cuboidal shaped solid‐water IMRT phantom (MedTec). Absolute doses were compared using isocentre location for the COMPASS/planning system, and a low dose gradient point location for the IC/planning system comparison (near isocentre, but not necessarily due to alignment needs during measurement). Results: On average, the standard QA method results for absolute dosimetry were different by 1.4±1.8% compared to the planning system (measured above planning system). On average the transmission detector based QA method results for absolute dosimetry were different by 0.3±1.6% compared to the planning system (measured above planning system). Conclusion: QA results using the COMPASS software with the transmission detector were comparable to the standard QA method.Conflict of Interest: CancerCare Manitoba has a collaborative research agreement with IBA Dosimetry, although there is not direct financial support.