In West Africa, farmers face challenges to innovate and change their practices toward more sustainable cropping systems. Farmer Field Schools (FFS), an advisory service based on participatory principles, aim support farmers’ innovation. This study investigates innovation by characterizing trajectories of in agricultural after they participated FFS. Two contrasting types FFS for family the cotto...

BACKGROUND Our aim was to compare access to effective care among elderly Medicare patients in a Staff Model and Group Model HMO and in Fee-for-Service (FFS) care. METHODS We used a retrospective cohort study design, using claims and automated medical record data to compare achievement on quality indicators for elderly Medicare recipients. Secondary data were collected from 1) HMO data sets an...

This study is to evaluate the efficacy of additional concurrent chemotherapy for intermediate risk (stage II and T3N0M0) NPC patients treated with intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT).440 patients with intermediate risk NPC were studied retrospectively, including 128 patients treated with IMRT alone [radiotherapy group (RT group)] and 312 paitents treated with IMRT plus concurrent chemothera...

OBJECTIVES To compute a benchmark for tracking readmission rates among patients enrolled in Medicare's private comprehensive Medicare Advantage (MA) plans and to develop preliminary comparisons with the fee-for-service (FFS) readmission rates. STUDY DESIGN Descriptive data presentation with analytic discussion. METHODS We computed a benchmark for rehospitalization rates among MA patients us...

OBJECTIVE To compare the clinical quality of care between Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) and Medicare Advantage (MA) programs. METHODS We compared 11 Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS) quality measures nationwide for MA managed care plans and the FFS program in 2006 and 2007. We adjusted FFS measures to match the geographic distribution of MA. RESULTS Medicare Advanta...

In this article, case-mix-adjusted outcomes of home health care are found to be superior for Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) patients relative to Medicare health maintenance organization (HMO) patients. The superior outcomes for FFS patients were accompanied by higher utilization and cost of home health services, suggesting a volume-outcome (or dose-response) relationship that was further substa...

Since its inception, the Medicare Program has allowed for the participation of private health plans, but the relationship of private plans to the government-sponsored fee-for-service (FFS) plan has been the subject of debate. Increased payments to private plans, the introduction of regional preferred provider organizations (PPOs), and a mandated demonstration of price competition that includes ...

We propose a new A-film-enhanced fringe field switching (A-FFS) liquid crystal display whose required dΔn value is only λ/4, which is one-half of a conventional FFS. Fast response time can be achieved by either decreasing the cell gap (d) or choosing a low birefringence (Δn) and low-viscosity liquid crystal. The effect of dΔn mismatch between A-film and FFS cell on contrast ratio is analysed. B...

Using the Diagnostic Cost Group (DCG) model developed from a national sample, we examine biased selection among one fee-for-service (FFS) plan, one preferred provider organization, and several health maintenance organizations (HMOs) in Massachusetts. The proportions of enrollees in low-risk groups are higher in the HMO plans and lower in the FFS plan. The average age in the FFS plan is 9 years ...

We design three different layouts of DFFs in a 28 nm thin-BOX FD-SOI process to compare their radiation hardness. We measure them by alpha-particle irradiation. Experimental results show that the soft-error probability of two-fingered inverters is 2.6x higher than that of one-fingered one at 0.4 V when DATA and CLK are 1 and 0 respectively. We also measure the relationship between process varia...