Does cost sharing really reduce inappropriate prescriptions?

This paper explores different empirical strategies to examine the effect of cost sharing for prescription drugs in some dimensions of medication-related quality, namely the probability of inappropriate prescription drug use among United States seniors. Using data from 1996 to 2005, we explore various specifications that correct for sample selection, endogeneity¸ and unobserved heterogeneity. We find a small, but measurable, negative price elasticity for inappropriate drug use with respect to self-reported average out-of-pocket costs for all drugs consumed. That is, user fees reduce the use of potentially inappropriate medications, however the elasticity of cost sharing is lower than that of drugs in general and the price elasticity is relatively close to zero, suggesting that any quality improvements from co-payments are small

Studies on the function of reticulo-endothelial system, I. Effects of the R. E. S. blocking with India ink on the haema-topoiesis and the production of serum antibody

For the purpose to reveal the role of R.E.S. for hemopoiesis and antibody formation, the R.E.S. of rabbits were severely blocked by the repeated intravenous injection of a vast amount of India ink, reaching 200 to 250 cc in total and the development of anemia and antibody formation by challenging egg albumin were observed while referring to the histologic changes in bone marrow, spleen and lymph nodes. The results were as follows: 1. The repeated intravenous injection of a vast amount of carbon particles induced a severe anemia. The anemia was always normo- or hyperchromic, showing not any disturbance in iron metabolism or hemoglobin formation. The data suggested that anemia is due to the arrest of reproduction of erythroblast or differentiation of the stem cells to erythroblasts, but not due to inhibition of the iron metabolism. 2. R.E.S. had no relation to the proliferation or the differentiation of granulocytes. 3. The functions of R.E.S. related to erythropoiesis and lymphopoiesis are affected by blocking independently of its phagocytic potency. In spite of a severe anemia, the phagocytic potency of R.E.S. could never be lowered and liver and spleen grew much larger in size and weight, showing that the phagocytic ability of R.E.S. is extremely resistant against such a blocking. 4. The serum antibody titer proved to be at the normal level, and no change of the antibody production in spite of heavy blocking of R.E.S. with India ink.</p

Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning: A Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies

A systematic search of the research literature from 1996 through July 2008 identified more than a thousand empirical studies of online learning. Analysts screened these studies to find those that (a) contrasted an online to a face-to-face condition, (b) measured student learning outcomes, (c) used a rigorous research design, and (d) provided adequate information to calculate an effect size. As a result of this screening, 51 independent effects were identified that could be subjected to meta-analysis. The meta-analysis found that, on average, students in online learning conditions performed better than those receiving face-to-face instruction. The difference between student outcomes for online and face-to-face classes—measured as the difference between treatment and control means, divided by the pooled standard deviation—was larger in those studies contrasting conditions that blended elements of online and face-to-face instruction with conditions taught entirely face-to-face. Analysts noted that these blended conditions often included additional learning time and instructional elements not received by students in control conditions. This finding suggests that the positive effects associated with blended learning should not be attributed to the media, per se. An unexpected finding was the small number of rigorous published studies contrasting online and face-to-face learning conditions for K–12 students. In light of this small corpus, caution is required in generalizing to the K–12 population because the results are derived for the most part from studies in other settings (e.g., medical training, higher education)

Modularity of Convergence and Strong Convergence in Infinitary Rewriting

Properties of Term Rewriting Systems are called modular iff they are preserved under (and reflected by) disjoint union, i.e. when combining two Term Rewriting Systems with disjoint signatures. Convergence is the property of Infinitary Term Rewriting Systems that all reduction sequences converge to a limit. Strong Convergence requires in addition that redex positions in a reduction sequence move arbitrarily deep. In this paper it is shown that both Convergence and Strong Convergence are modular properties of non-collapsing Infinitary Term Rewriting Systems, provided (for convergence) that the term metrics are granular. This generalises known modularity results beyond metric \infty