Computer -generated holograms (CGHs) are used in a number of important optical technology application areas such as holographic optical elements, optical processing and computing, optical testing, image and information display, beam forming, and beam scanning. Many different CGH fabrication devices (e.g., laser beam scanners, electron beam writers) and facilities have been developed and are in ...

The concept of “school climate” has been defined in a wide variety of ways in the education research literature over the last thirty years. It has been equated with “the ecology of the school,” “a safe and healthy school setting,” “classroom participation structures,” a “caring school environment,” and the “culture of the school.” In recent years, school “climate” has been equated with “persona...

BACKGROUND Acute care facilities are connected via patient sharing, forming a network. However, patient sharing extends beyond this immediate network to include sharing with long-term care facilities. The extent of long-term care facility patient sharing on the acute care facility network is unknown. The objective of this study was to characterize and determine the extent and pattern of patient...

Governmental facilities for such services as education, health, and transportation are often small, of poor quality, and overcrowded, even when the costs are spread among all taxpayers. We also find that governments may subsidize private facilities providing the same services, or may charge admission fees at public facilities. We explain these phenomena with a model which considers two types of...

The burgeoning of slums in the developing world poses an urgent environmental threat due to insanitary conditions and rampant disposal of wastewater. To assess the potential environmental impacts, domestic wastewater from Ghana's biggest urban slum Old Fadama was characterised throughout the dry and wet seasons. The study drew on a comprehensive assessment of the general sanitary conditions in ...

Long-term exposure to ambient air pollution increases disease risk in older adults. Nursing facilities located near major roadways potentially expose older adults to traffic pollution. No studies, however, have described the association between nursing facilities and traffic pollution. We obtained data on facility- and census-tract-level characteristics of 15,706 U.S. facilities from the Medica...

BACKGROUND In Uganda and elsewhere, the private sector provides an increasing and significant proportion of maternal and child health services. However, little is known whether private care results in better quality services and improved outcomes compared to the public sector, especially regarding care at the time of birth. OBJECTIVE To describe the characteristics of care-seekers and assess ...

Sports and sports facilities development have improved rapidly over the past years in Malaysia. However, such improvements are inadequate compared to the overall development of sports at international level. Through preliminary interview with the managers, it was learnt that the sports facilities are underutilised and people do not use them. In addition, an increase in the amount of public mone...

In Bangladesh, the burden of diarrheal diseases is significant among children <5 years old. The objective of this study is to capture the prevalence of and health care-seeking behavior for childhood diarrheal diseases (CDDs) and to identify the factors associated with CDDs at a population level in Bangladesh. We use a logistic regression approach to model careseeking based on individual charact...

BACKGROUND The objective was to determine the economic burden, as well as the impact on HRQOL for people with HIV/AIDS in Spain in 2003. METHODS A cross-sectional study of 572 people with HIV were recruited from outpatient clinics in the Canary Islands, Spain. Demographic, health resources utilization, indirect costs and quality of life data were collected through medical records and question...