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This article examines parent and child characteristics that are associated with utilization of funds authorized under Part C of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Child age and the presence of parent service needs are among the variables that influence how much early intervention service is available for infants and toddlers with developmental delays and disabilities, as authorized by the Individual Family Service Plan (IFSP). Higher levels of child need were associated with a larger number of services authorized, and greater amounts of unspent funds. It appears that children of high needs parents are less likely to use additional services their children need. These findings are interpreted to suggest that family and child characteristics that promote larger authorizations for Part C services may also limit their ability to utilize all of the services identified in the IFSP. In addition, this study found that contrary to expectations, the home environment was not superior to specialty and clinic settings on parent involvement in early intervention activities.

Public health efforts to prevent tobacco use among young people have typically attempted to change individual behaviour. More recently, it has become evident that macro-level behaviour change strategies which impact on the wider social environment are more effective in changing behaviour. In most states, retailer compliance laws restrict the sale and distribution of tobacco products to minor consumers. Indiana's Tobacco Retailer Inspection Program (TRIP), a state government programme, was established to put environmental controls in place by restricting youth access to tobacco products. TRIP involved conducting random, unannounced tobacco retailer outlet inspections, with violators being fined, and compliant retailers rewarded. This study examines the associations among retailer inspections, retailer compliance and access to tobacco by youthful consumers. Inspection data from 2001 to 2003 were analysed using chi-square statistics and analysis of variance. Findings indicate that randomly selected retail outlet inspections are associated with increased sales restrictions to youth. The researchers conclude that strong tobacco sales regulations and enforcement will reduce illegal sales of tobacco products to minors.

This article synthesizes discussions that occurred among a consortium of professionals who were responsible for the evaluations of Part H (now Part C) programs in various states. The consortium was part of the Federal Interagency Coordinating Council's Subcommittee on Service Integration and Continuity of Services. This paper highlights issues emerging from state level evaluations in the context of 6 different areas: measures, outcomes, service integration, eligibility, funding models, and cost effectiveness. Part C originally was conceived to provide additional services to children and families who qualified under state definitions and to assist in system reform efforts through service integration strategies. The consortium addressed these purposes within the context of evaluation plans and data collected by states conducting state level evaluations. This paper synthesizes the consortium deliberations and suggests issues that need to be addressed in the evaluation planning process.

This article responds to two commentaries by Guralnick (1993) and Telzrow (1993) published in the October 1993 issue of Early Education and Development. The commentaries addressed the six longitudinal, comparative studies from the Early Intervention Research Institute's (EIRI's) investigations of the effects and costs of early intervention for children with disabilities. In this response to their thoughtful critique, we clarify details of our research design and procedures that may have been unclear. We also discuss the specificity and consistency with contemporary developmental/ecological issues raised by Guralnick We contend that the interventions investigated address important questions about age at start, intensity, and parent involvement with which today's service providers contend. We give our opinion on how the results of these studies should be interpreted, and emphasize their implications for other second-generation early intervention research.

This study investigated the use of a resource cost methodology to obtain reliable and current estimates of the cost of early intervention services for children, aged birth through five, with disabilities. In addition to providing cost estimates for 11 different early intervention programs, the study investigated the sources of variation in cost across programs. The factors that had the greatest influence on cost were program duration and frequency of service, staff-child ratio, geographic location, and volunteer resources. Results are discussed in light of the impact of those variables on cost and in light of the contribution of cost analysis to policy making.

Little is known about the relative cost-effectiveness of the many different types of early intervention services provided to medically fragile infants and their families. This study compared two intensities of services for such infants and their families: (a) a coordinated and comprehensive system of early intervention services initiated prior to discharge from the NICU and designed to transition infants to community-based services were compared with the effects of services (high intensity); and (b) a more traditional hospital follow-up consisting of medical checkups and referrals following discharge (low intensity). High-intensity services resulted in five times more community-based early intervention hours for families and infants when compared with low-intensity services. Annual costs of the high-intensity group were approximately triple the costs of the low-intensity group ($10,814 versus $3,032 per child per year), but there were only a few statistically significant differences on measures of child a...

This paper examines the extent to which individual contributions to public television are explained by the size of the audience which receives the individual station's television signal. It also incorporates the effects of income on contributions to public television in order to assess the combined effects of income and group size on contributions to public goods.

Results of experiments conducted to determine the dependence of the ultrasonic machining rate, V, in Ketos tool‐steel on the peak‐to‐peak amplitude, PPA, of the vibrating tool‐tip, on the frequency of vibration, f, of the tool‐tip, on the geometric weight mean diameter, rw, of the abrasive particles used in the make‐up of the slurry, and on the ratio, ma/mc, of the mass of abrasive to the mass of water vehicle used in compounding the slurry, are given. It is shown that the quotient V/rw PPA f is a constant of the ultrasonic machining process within the range under investigation, and that with its aid the contribution to the machining rate of a single abrasive particle can be calculated. On the basis of this investigation a possible model of the ultrasonic machining process is presented.

An electronically driven and controlled magnetostrictive transducer is used in conjunction with a suspended abrasive to machine hard, brittle materials such as ceramics and the carbide metals. The transducer has been constructed especially to supply high amplitude vibrations at the surface being machined. Data taken indicate that certain compromises must be made relative to cutting speed and tool wear. The effects of other variables such as vibration amplitude and abrasive size have been optimized for machining tungsten carbide, but no conclusions have yet been reached regarding the mechanism of ultrasonic machining.