Thesis advisor: Peter Gottschalk / Thesis advisor: Thomas McGuire / Thesis advisor: Donald Cox / Does managed care send expectant mothers to hospitals they would choose even if their choice of hospital was not limited? I find that Medicaid managed care patients are redirected to hospitals that enrollees of more generous insurance payers with the same personal characteristics do not go to. However, Medicare managed care enrollees do not face an increased risk of having a cesarean delivery at the hospital they attend, which is interpreted as evidence that they are redirected to high quality hospitals. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2003. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Economics.

Site-based management (SBM) in schools can trace its roots back to two phenomena, citizen's movements in large cities such as New York in the late 1960s and decentralization efforts of business in the 1970s. Both were done in the belief that achieving a better result can be done 11 through decisions made by the people closest to the process. Site-based management programs are diverse. Some stress one aspect, the restructuring of the school administration and program to affect achievement. Other schools stress a second aspect, the empowerment of teachers and stakeholders to make administrative decisions. Whichever emphasis chosen, several changes must occur for school management to move from the central office to the local school. These changes are evolutionary, taking 10-15 years. An evaluation study in a northern rural Utah school that has been involved with site-based management since 1990 allows for a context to understand the changes that might occur, namely, (a) the relinquishment of central school district authority; (b) the assumption of authority by the local school; ( c) the assumption of accountability for student achievement; ( d) the development of sensitivity between school and community; and (e) the development of consensus among school stakeholders. An instrument was developed for the evaluation, the Site-Based Management Progress Check. The instrument used items covering the agents and activities that would be present as these five changes occur. Additionally, the largest portion of the progress check was based on the goals in the school. As respondents showed more agreement concerning which goals were chosen and achieved, an inference was made that greater progress had occurred toward the team activity necessary for local school management. The data were provided by 100% of the lower-elementary teachers; upper-elementary teachers, however, were poorly represented, restricting data generalizability. The study indicated that, despite its 7-year involvement with site-based management, the school was still at an early stage of development with no change in district authority and no use of stakeholder groups to monitor goals. The school did have a wide base of teacher leadership. Slow progress seems to be related to lack of knowledge of SBM processes.

This thesis reports the results of studies set up to investigate formative assessment in the context of a computer managed learning (CML) practice test. The studies sought to determine whether taking the practice test affects performance on later CML assessed tests for first year university students and to determine the characteristics of the most effective CML practice test. The study was carried out in the context of CML testing at Curtin University of Technology. Because data were collected in a real testing environment, the research questions were addressed using a series of small studies, each focusing on a one-semester unit for first year students. Those students who sat a practice test improved their performance from the practice to the assessed test. Further, they outperformed the non practice test group on the assessed test. The effect was statistically significant in eleven of the twelve studies where CML test results were investigated. Student ability, anxiety level, and sex did not affect test performance or choice to sit the practice test. Students preferred to be given the correct answer for an incorrect response and to have a practice test that was the same length as the assessed test but students continued to show improved performance regardless of these conditions. They reported that they used the feedback in a variety of ways including identifying important areas of content, identifying their own error areas and as a motivator for further study. The findings suggest that using the CML system as a formative assessment tool improves student performance on summative assessment. The practice test is contributing to improved performance, however this improvement cannot be attributed to a single factor. In those cases where the practice test only partially covers the content of the assessed test, the improvement is seen on that common part, however when ++ / there was no overlap of content the group who did the practice test still performed better on the assessed test than the group who did not. This suggests that a contributing factor may be familiarity either with the CML system, items or test type. It is also possible that the beneficial effect was due to prior exposure to the CML system and that only one test is required for this purpose.This research has implications for current teaching practices because the acceptance of a practice test provides feedback to both students and lecturers prior to the assessed test. The optimal practice test c covers the same content as the assessed test with the same number of items and provides the correct answer for a item answered incorrectly. The key recommendation for use of the CML system is the provision of a practice test for formative purposes, for the use of both lecturers and students. Lecturers need to encourage student participation not just on an initial practice test but on all practice tests provided. Students need to be encouraged to review their error summary, as is the current practice in the CML Laboratory. Lecturers need to make more use of the feedback provided by the tests, in terms of content coverage, revision and consolidation of work, and quality of test items.

The investment management industry has proven to be a fertile ground for theoretical and empirical research over the past forty years, particularly in relation to the nature and quantification of risk. However, the dominance of the U.S. industry has meant that much of the academic research has focused on the U.S. market. This thesis investigates aspects of investment risk using alternative data to that used in much of the prior published research. This thesis contains an extensive analysis of aspects of risk related to both the demand side and the supply side of the managed funds market in Australia. Among the demand side characteristics, attitudes towards risk and their impact on asset allocation decisions will be an important determinant of investors' financial well-being, particularly in retirement. Accordingly, the first part of the thesis examines the financial risk tolerance of investors, exploring the relationship between subjective financial risk tolerance and a range of demographic characteristics that are widely used as a basis for heuristically derived estimates of investors' attitudes towards financial risk. The second part of the thesis contains an analysis of the supply side of the industry, focusing on risk-shifting behavior by investment fund managers. Since the time when performance and risk-shifting behavior of fund managers was first put under the spotlight 40 years ago, it is possible to identify an evolving strand in the research where performance assessment is examined within the framework of the principal-agent literature. One focus that has emerged in this literature is the adaption of the tournament model to the analysis of investment manager behavior, wherein it is hypothesized that fund managers who were interim losers were likely to increase fund volatility in the latter part of the assessment period to a greater extent than interim winners. Against this background, the second part of the thesis examines risk-shifting behavior by Australian fund managers. Both the ability of fund managers to time the market and the applicability of the tournament model of funds management to a segment of the Australian

This study aims to identify conceptions of the body, as well as "rational" treatment among primary care practitioners (PCPs) and emergency medicine practitioners (EMPs) dealing with managed care plans. I conducted ethnographic study throughout 1996, and interviewed six PCPs and four EMPs. In the course of my interviews, I discovered that EMPs' and PCPs' perceived meaning and power in regards to treatment of their patients has been increasingly resituated by the power of scientific discourse as utilized by technocrats (such as consumer, provider, and insurance organizations who formulate managed care plans). Technocrats have developed scientific measurements to monitor physicians' performances, quantifiably or scientifically. Technocrats conceptualize ideal treatment as a cost effective care. They guide PCPs to supervise ideal treatment of the managed care delivery networks, providing care without referring patients to specialists and administrating to hospitals. Consequently, PCPs' power to pursue the newly conceptualized ideal treatment influences other arenas of specialty, such as EMPs. On the other hand, EMPs develop preferred treatment which is formulated through their medical school education and clinical experiences. The preferred treatment is associated with time because EMPs have to treat acute conditions of their patients within a limited amount of time. However, EMPs sometimes cannot complete their preferred treatment because they have to send their patient back to the patients' contracted PCPs in order to save health care expenditure. Technocrats implemented the engineering concept of quality control, and the concept is incorporated into the principle of managed care plans, and preventive medicine. As a result, the managed care plan networks become like production lines of large manufacturing factories, and PCPs work as laborers to maintain the bodies of enrollees in healthy conditions. / Graduation date: 1998

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Rhode Island, 2005. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 113-116).

Because of an ever-increasing threat of foreign animal disease outbreaks in the United States, there is a desire to develop strategies to prevent the occurrence of a foreign animal disease and control an outbreak if it does occur. Infectious disease models have been developed and are being used to determine reasonable mitigation strategies. However, little information is available concerning premises characteristics and movement of animals in extensively managed livestock areas. Hence adaptation of these models to areas where there is low livestock density is not easy. We collected empirical data, via mail out surveys, from an extensively managed livestock area. This will aid in improving the results of infectious disease models in these areas. In contrast to the intensively managed livestock that have previously been modeled, this study has shown that in areas of low livestock density, multiple livestock types often are managed on the same premises. Direct contacts, facilitated through the planned movement of animals, appear to have a greater seasonality in extensively managed areas as compared to intensively managed areas. Furthermore, wildlife contacts are likely and of potential importance. The results of this study add to the knowledge base used to model the spread of infectious disease in extensively managed livestock populations. Seasonal changes in animal densities and contact rates may impact the results of the models. Additionally, the effect of multiple livestock types on premises should be considered when the expected spread of disease is modeled in extensive livestock areas.

Thesis (M.P.A.)--Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, 1997. / Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 45-06, page: 2943. Abstract precedes thesis as 1 preliminary leaf. Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 66-67).

The twentieth century shift from the industrial society to the knowledge society must be met by a transition in management of human capital. This thesis seeks to design an implementation method based on goal-setting theory and other team based work designs that can be deployed by anyone in the company. The model accounts for the two largest barriers to successful implementation, management and labor unions. The new model is strengthened by a bottoms-up approach, on-the-job development of teaming skills, and inclusion of the labor union at the earliest stage possible. / text

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