Transacting With Texts

This chapter presents an applied model for supporting preschool children's executive function, skills that serve as protective factors against risks associated with poverty, using Rosenblatt's transactional theory. The authors posit pedagogy that elicits children's responses to an author's/illustrator's picturebook whereby preschool readers' responses are mediated by the teacher through reflective discussion. Children are encouraged to reflect upon literary characters' motivations, behaviors, and problem solving. A demonstration case analysis shows how this model is implemented in a diverse and inclusive university laboratory preschool program where approximately half the children are served through Head Start, a federal program for children living in poverty. Given the preschool years are an especially sensitive period for acquisition of executive function skills, the authors assert that supporting young children's transactions with and interpretations of a text is the type of transactional strategy that has potential for narrowing the opportunity gap.

Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment Outcomes

This chapter identifies some of the main barriers and available supports that allow students with disabilities to participate in vocational rehabilitation (VR) transition programs. VR is a US federal program that attempts (as one of its goals) to introduce students with disabilities to employment experiences while they are still in school. The program uses access to paid internships and vocational counseling among several other components as key mechanisms to pursue its objectives. The chapter describes how the program is introduced from a best-practices perspective and proposes a conceptual model that highlights the individual, organizational, and contextual factors affecting employment outcomes for youth with disabilities. It also introduces the concept of entrepreneurship as another way to support the transition of high school youth with disabilities and discuss the implications of VR programs and supports on the employment outcomes of youth with disabilities.

Peculiarities of administration of medications to patients with circulatory system diseases within the framework of the federal program of preferential provision of medicines

Objective: to analyse of medicines prescriptions for federal beneficiaries with circulatory system diseases and to identify the main trends in the implementation of the federal program for the provision of necessary medicines in the Samara Region in 2014–2017.Material and methods. The authors reviewed the nomenclature of medicines used to treat circulatory system diseases (CSDs) and distributed to the population of the Samara Region as part of the federal program for the provision of necessary medicines for the period from 2014 to 2017. The methods of comparative, retrospective, logical, graphical and content analysis, the method of data grouping according to Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical classification and methods of descriptive statistics were used.Results. In 2014–2017 the share of financial costs for the purchase of medicines in the total budget of the federal program for the provision of necessary medicines in the Samara Region did not exceed 6%. Still, in physical terms (in terms of the number of packages) the share of medicines of this pharmacotherapeutic group in the federal program for the provision of necessary medicines averaged about 25%. Nomenclature of medicines of the analyzed group prescribed to federal beneficiaries in 2014–2017 ranged from 90 to 107 nomenclature items. The number of international nonproprietary names (INN) decreased from 51 in 2014 to 36 in 2017. During the period under review, there was a decrease in the acquisition cost of medicines for the treatment of circulatory system diseases and the weighted average cost of one package (by 63% and 53%, respectively).Conclusion. Perindopril-containing medicines occupied the maximum consumption volumes in monetary terms. There was a decrease in the average cost of one package in 2017, which may be associated with the replacement of original medicines with generics and a concomitant reduction in the number of INN within the subgroup.

Tabulating HOLC Area Description Sheet Data

In the 1930s, the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) oversaw a massive federal program that graded thousands of urban neighborhoods. The precise aims of this infamous program are still disputed, but the grading criteria were almost certainly devised to convey the level of risk each area posed to property investors. The Digital Scholarship Lab at the University of Richmond has graciously digitized the maps and field notes produced by the HOLC and have made them freely available to the public. While these “redlining” maps have received considerable academic and media attention, the field notes used to assign risk grades—available for most cities in their “area description sheets”—remain virtually unusable for most multi-city analyses. Addressing this problem, I convert three of the most consequential variables from the description sheets for 129 cities into an accessible and analyzable tabular format. These include the average building age, Black population percentage, and “foreign-born” population percentage. In addition, I organize the description sheets into three semi-compatible tables, assisting future researchers incorporate other HOLC field note variables into their projects.

Empowering Indigenous Communities Through a Participatory, Culturally Responsive Evaluation of a Federal Program for Older Americans

This article describes our experience of conducting a 5-year, culturally responsive evaluation of a federal program with Indigenous communities. It describes how we adapted tenets from “participatory evaluation models” to ensure cultural relevance and empowerment. We provide recommendations for evaluators engaged in similar efforts. The evaluation included stakeholder engagement through a Steering Committee and an Evaluation Working Group in designing and implementing the evaluation. That engagement facilitated attention to Indigenous cultural values in developing a program logic model and medicine wheel and in gathering local perspectives through storytelling to facilitate understanding of community traditions. Our ongoing assessment of program grantees’ needs shaped our approach to evaluation capacity building and development of a diverse array of experiential learning opportunities and user-friendly tools and resources. We present practical strategies from lessons learned during the evaluation design and implementation phases of our project that might be useful for other evaluators.

Program and Project Approaches to Solving Large-Scale Environmental Problems

The article discusses the federal program “Ecology of the Angara-Yenisei region (AYR)”. The description of the systemic synthesis of different approaches to the assessment of the program of restoration and preservation of the natural complex of the Yenisei, as the skeletal basis of the ecological-assimilation potential of AEP is given. The necessity of taking into account the uncertainty factor when evaluating large-scale environmental projects is substantiated. Purpose of the study. Show that the effects of large-scale projects affect the very scenario of economic development, in this regard, it is incorrect to use the primitive integration of an alternative (strategy) into the same scenario, it is shown that it is necessary to evaluate the “project – scenario” relationship. Materials and methods. The authors propose to use three levels of assessment for evaluating large-scale projects: macro level, meso level and micro level. This classification allows you to gradually reduce the level of uncertainty. The information obtained at the previous level of assessment is the source for the lower level. Results. At the first stage, the judgments of the experts were processed using computer products developed at the IEIE. At the second step, the National Project “Ecology of Russia” was analyzed, consisting of 11 federal projects, and a mathematical model was developed for the multicriteria problem of optimal cost management of the project, taking into account the uncertainty factor. The result of the third step was the creation of a hybrid model for assessing large-scale environmental projects from a logical-heuristic model based on expert information and an economic-mathematical model. Analogs of such models, created with the participation of the authors, work in the evaluation of large-scale railway projects. This refers to a family of semi-dynamic optimization models, which have been tested to varying degrees in solving meso-level problems, both in planned and market economies. Moreover, on the basis of one of the versions of this family, a medical-ecological-economic model was developed, and with its help, a scenario analysis of the development of the subjects of the Asian part of Russia was carried out. Conclusion. The article provides a brief description of the functionality and the need to use the appropriate mathematical and software tools as the stages of large-scale projects progress from concept to implementation.

Dynamics of Stroke Incidence and Mortality Indicators over Eight-Year Period in the Territories Included into the Federal Program of Reorganization of Care for Patients with Stroke

Background. Stroke is a severe medical, social and economic burden for all countries of the world. The leading indicators characterizing the “epidemiological picture” of stroke are the incidence and mortality rates from stroke.Aims. Analyze the dynamics of stroke incidence and mortality rates in the regions of Russia that were included in the federal program for reorganizing care for patients with stroke for the period from 2009 to 2016.Material and methods. The study was based on the data of the territorial-population register for seven study areas in the regions of Russia that were included in the federal program for reorganizing care for patients with stroke (Republic of Bashkortostan, Sverdlovsk region, Republic of Tatarstan, Sakhalin region, Stavropol Territory, Ivanovo Region and Irkutsk Region). The age of the examined persons was 25 years and older.Results. In the period from 2009 to 2016, in the studied territories, there was a consistent stable decrease in the value of the stroke incidence rate. Stroke mortality rates fluctuated with a single increase in 2012. When comparing the average incidence of stroke and mortality from it between 2009 and 2016, we discovered a statistically significant decrease in the incidence of stroke – by 1.4 times and in the rate of mortality from stroke – by 2.3 times. According to the results of the cluster analysis, we revealed a significant conformity (similarity) of mortality rates between regions by 2016 and the absence of monotony (stability) of the rate of stroke incidence.Conclusion. In all the regions under study, an almost systematic annual decrease in the incidence and mortality rates from stroke among the adult population was revealed in seven studied territories. The results of cluster analysis of the “picture” of stroke incidence and mortality from it also demonstrate a positive trend by 2016 in all studied territories. Only one of the studied territories – the Republic of Tatarstan – despite the presence of a positive dynamics of stroke incidence over an eight-year period, in 2016 belonged to the rank with a high integral incidence rate.

Impacts of Performance Pay for Hospitals: The Readmissions Reduction Program

US policy increasingly ties payments for providers to performance on quality measures, though little empirical evidence guides the design of such incentives. I deploy administrative data to study a large federal program that penalizes hospitals with high readmissions rates. Using policy-driven variation in the penalty incentive across hospitals for identification, I find that hospital responses to the penalty account for two-thirds of the observed decrease in readmissions over this period, as well as a decrease in heart attack mortality. Quality improvement accounts for about one-half of the decrease in readmissions; the remainder is explained by selective admission of returning patients. (JEL G22, H51, I11, I12, I13, I18)

VALUATION OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF IMPLEMENTED STATE PROJECTS TO INCREASE THE LEVEL OF ACTIVITY IN THE FIELD OF PHYSICAL CULTURE AND SPORTS AMONG CITIZENS OF THE COUNTRY

The development of physical culture and sports involves significant financial costs. The state is interested in promoting a healthy lifestyle among the population, since physical activity has a positive impact on health and increases life expectancy. The most relevant today are innovations related to information technologies. However, their implementation requires large financial expenses. The study assessed the existing planning within the framework of the Federal program "Sport-norm of life" as one of the indicators of measures taken by the state to increase physical activity among the population. The results of the study showed that the tasks set are insufficient for a full-fledged modernization of the sphere of physical culture and sports. The main problem is the lack of funding. It was found that in modern conditions, athletes need to use expensive innovative equipment in the implementation of their activities, which will contribute to faster achievement of results. The assessment of the situation showed that the state is trying to improve the health of citizens of the country. Draft laws are being introduced that plan activities aimed at increasing the availability of sports for everyone, increasing the number of followers of a healthy lifestyle, and creating additional motivation for people. To achieve the intended results, certain amounts of investment are allocated, which are distributed among the tasks. However, this money is not enough for the implementation of major projects, including ideas related to the development and implementation of innovative sports technologies.

Federal program of resettlement from the Far North regions

This article examines the main aspects of social partnership between government and business in order to support the social stability of the northern regions of Russia. The main provisions of federal resettlement programs from the Far North regions are considered.