Search

This document reflects on the 14-year tenure of the authors as editors of the Urban Affairs Review (UAR) journal. The document highlights the journal's focus on various urban issues, including governance, sustainability, environmental justice, race, ethnicity, poverty, economic development, and fiscal architecture. It emphasizes the importance of interdisciplinary and multi-scalar approaches to understanding urban dynamics and acknowledges the challenges posed by the centralization of government authority and the nationalization of politics. The document also discusses the measurement of journal impact and the editorial responsibilities of promoting emergent ideas and responding to disruptive events. Overall, the authors express gratitude for their role as journal editors and the impact they have had on the urban scholarly community. [Extracted from the article]

This article discusses the impact of human-caused climate change on tree mortality and biome shifts. Research conducted in the Sahel region of Africa found that temperature and rainfall were the main factors contributing to tree mortality, with one in every five trees dying from 1954 to 1989. Climate change has also caused biome shifts in various ecosystems worldwide. The article emphasizes the need to reduce carbon pollution and take action at all levels to address climate change. It also highlights the negative environmental impacts of excessive material consumption and the importance of adopting sustainable practices. The Paris Agreement and policies promoting renewable energy and greenhouse gas reductions are mentioned as steps towards halting climate change. The article concludes by emphasizing the importance of individual actions in minimizing material consumption and living simply to protect the environment. The given text provides a list of references and citations from various sources related to climate change, environmental impact, and related topics, which can be valuable for library patrons conducting research on these subjects. [Extracted from the article]

Do investment incentives influence private firms' location decisions? Whereas prior research emphasizes tax incentives, we focus on incentives that require real-time government spending including job training and infrastructure. Real incentives influence where firms invest by resolving costly information asymmetries, and are subject to budget constraints that give rise to political targeting. This paper evaluates how real incentives shape the location decisions of foreign firms, investors who suffer from acute information asymmetries. We leverage features of the Great Recession and the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act stimulus, which temporarily increased states' fiscal capacity to fund real incentives. During the narrow stimulus spending window, states that received more federal Medicaid stimulus—instrumented with the exogenous component of the Act's funding formula—attracted more foreign direct investment (FDI) and increased state spending on real incentives. The stimulus window approximately coincides with FDI's temporary geographic expansion into US counties that lacked a history of these investments. On average, these counties had narrow vote margins in the prior gubernatorial election and garnered more state real incentive spending. These correlates are pronounced in counties with idle industrial capacity and in states whose governors sought re-election. Tax incentives had no effect on FDI. These findings have important implications for the efficacy of investment incentives and the political economy of industrial policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given varied insurance acceptances and differing pay between insurances, our objective was to examine the number of California physicians enrolled in Medicare and Medicaid (Medi-Cal), stratified by specialty and graduation year. Medi-Cal and Medicare providers were extracted from publicly available databases (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and California Health and Human Services) and were subsequently merged into one dataset using National Provider Identifier. From there, we stratified physicians by specialty and graduation year. We found that emergency medicine, radiology, pathology, anesthesiology, general surgery, and internal medicine had the highest percent of Medi-Cal-accepting physicians, whereas dermatology, psychiatry, physical medicine & rehabilitation, and plastic & reconstructive surgery physicians had the lowest. There also appears to be an inverse relationship between acceptance of Medi-Cal and earlier year of graduation (P < 0.05). This study demonstrated striking variability in Medi-Cal acceptance based upon physician years in practice and specialty. Older, experienced physicians, as well as physicians of certain specialties, are less likely to accept Medi-Cal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nurse managers and medical directors play integral roles in ensuring the delivery of high-quality care. Nurse managers oversee day-to-day operations, coordinating staffing, patient care, and resource allocation. They are responsible for fostering a supportive environment for nursing staff while upholding standards of excellence in patient care. Medical directors bring their clinical expertise and leadership, guiding treatment protocols and ensuring adherence to best practices. Together, nurse managers and medical directors form a dynamic partnership in which collaboration is paramount. By synergizing their respective strengths, nurse managers and medical directors can optimize patient outcomes, streamline processes, and drive continuous improvement initiatives. Effective communication and mutual respect are foundational to this collaboration because they work hand-in-hand to navigate complex medical challenges and uphold standards of excellence. In this symbiotic relationship, the ultimate goal is to produce quality care that enhances patient well-being and satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the impact of broadband expansion on rural firms in the United States. It acknowledges the historical disparities in broadband availability between rural and urban areas and discusses the government's efforts to improve infrastructure. The article examines how broadband access affects local economies and innovation networks, and predicts changes in rural firms' innovative activities with improved access. It also discusses the benefits and challenges of broadband access for rural businesses, including increased competition. The article emphasizes the importance of policy support for rural innovation and suggests programs to educate rural business owners on utilizing broadband effectively. Overall, the article highlights the potential benefits of broadband access for rural firms and calls for further research and policy formulation to support rural growth. [Extracted from the article]

The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act incentivized the adoption of electronic health records (EHRs). Health systems looked to leverage technology to assist in serving populations in health professional shortage areas. Qualitative research points to EHR usability as a source of health inequities in rural settings, making the challenges of EHR usage a subject of interest. Pennsylvania offers a model for investigating rural health infrastructure with it having the third largest rural population in the United States. This study analyzed the adoption of Electronic Prescribing in the 67 Pennsylvania (PA) counties. Physician adoption and usage data for PA and the United States were compared using a t-test to establish a basis for comparison. PA counties were categorized using the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)'s Rural-Urban Commuting Areas (RUCAs) system. Surescript use percentages were plotted against the RUCA scores of each PA county to create a polynomial regression model. PA office-based physicians, on average, utilize e-prescription tools at the same rate as the national average with 59% of practices utilizing Surescripts as of 2013. There was no significant correlation between Surescript usage and the rural/urban classification of counties in Pennsylvania (R-squared value of 0.06). Pennsylvania was able to adopt health information technology (HIT) infrastructure at the same rate as the national average. Rural and metropolitan definitions do not correlate to meaningful use of HIT, thus usability of HIT cannot be tied to health outcomes. Future studies looking at specific forms of HIT and their ability to decrease the burden of administrative work for clinicians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the United States, the years following the Great Recession were pivotal to the advancement of sustainability solutions to current climate and inequality crises. Despite marked gains in renewables and energy efficiencies following the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), crises and warnings from the IPCC continue to grow direr. Drawing on James Jasper's players and arenas strategic perspective, we examine how the context for sustainability action has shifted since ARRA. Much of the context appears favorable. External pressure from climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic, and social unrest intensified the need and resources to act. Market conditions for renewable and efficient energy greatly improved, and public support for government investments increased. Despite the coexistence of many positive trends, a countervailing context exists, including a legacy of inaction, greenwashing, and recalcitrance, which is thwarting the speed in which change is happening. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) are integral to the U.S. healthcare safety net and uniquely situated in disadvantaged neighborhoods. The 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) invested $2 billion in FQHC stimulus during the Great Recession; but it remains unknown whether this investment was associated with extended benefits for disadvantaged neighborhoods. Methods: We used a propensity-score matched longitudinal design (2008–2012) to examine whether the 2009 ARRA FQHC investment was associated with local jobs and establishments recovery in FQHC neighborhoods. Job change data were obtained from the Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics (LEHD) survey and calculated as an annual rate per 1,000 population. Establishment change data were obtained from the National Neighborhood Data Archive (NaNDA) and calculated as an annual rate per 10,000 population. Establishment data included 4 establishment types: healthcare services, eating/drinking places, retail establishments, and grocery stores. Fixed effects were used to compare annual rates of jobs and establishments recovery between ARRA-funded FQHC census tracts and a matched control group. Results: Of 50,381 tracts, 2,223 contained ≥ 1 FQHC that received ARRA funding. A higher proportion of FQHC tracts had an extreme poverty designation (11.6% vs. 5.4%), high unemployment rate (45.4% vs. 30.3%), and > 50% minority racial/ethnic composition (48.1% vs. 36.3%). On average, jobs grew at an annual rate of 3.84 jobs per 1,000 population (95% CI: 3.62,4.06). In propensity-score weighted models, jobs in ARRA-funded tracts grew at a higher annual rate of 4.34 per 1,000 (95% CI: 2.56,6.12) relative to those with similar social vulnerability. We observed persistent decline in non-healthcare establishments (-1.35 per 10,000; 95% CI: -1.68,-1.02); but did not observe decline in healthcare establishments. Conclusions: Direct funding to HCs may be an effective strategy to support healthcare establishments and some jobs recovery in disadvantaged neighborhoods during recession, reinforcing the important multidimensional roles HCs play in these communities. However, HCs may benefit from additional investments that target upstream determinants of health to mitigate uneven recovery and neighborhood decline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems are often configured to address challenges and improve patient safety for persons with Parkinson's disease (PWP). For example, EHR systems can help identify Parkinson's disease (PD) patients across the hospital by flagging a patient's diagnosis in their chart, preventing errors in medication and dosing through the use of clinical decision support, and supplementing staff education through care plans that provide step-by-step road maps for disease-based care of a specific patient population. However, most EHR-based solutions are locally developed and, thus, difficult to scale widely or apply uniformly across hospital systems. In 2020, the Parkinson's Foundation, a national and international leader in PD research, education, and advocacy, and Epic, a leading EHR vendor with more than 35% market share in the United States, launched a partnership to reduce risks to hospitalized PWP using standardized EHR-based solutions. This article discusses that project which included leadership from physician informaticists, movement disorders specialists, hospital quality officers, the Parkinson's Foundation and members of the Parkinson's community. We describe the best practice solutions developed through this project. We highlight those that are currently available as standard defaults or options within the Epic EHR, discuss the successes and limitations of these solutions, and consider opportunities for scalability in environments beyond a single EHR vendor. The Parkinson's Foundation and Epic launched a partnership to develop best practice solutions in the Epic EHR system to improve safety for PWP in the hospital. The goal of the partnership was to create the EHR tools that will have the greatest impact on outcomes for hospitalized PWP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building energy codes are essential tools for achieving energy efficiency in buildings. However, the full energy savings potential of these codes can only be realized if buildings are constructed in compliance with them. Therefore, evaluating building energy code compliance is crucial in bridging the gap between the energy efficiency requirements set by energy codes and the actualized energy savings achieved. An energy code compliance evaluation serves as a mechanism to assess construction practices, evaluate the effectiveness of code enforcement, identify gaps in compliance, and guide strategies for improvement through training and education. Conducting code compliance evaluation activities involves field studies that require careful design and significant resources. Historically, more emphasis has been placed on developing and adopting building energy codes, while efforts to evaluate compliance have been relatively limited and lacking consistent approaches. The passage of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), which mandated that states create plans for achieving 90% compliance within eight years, stimulated the need for an energy code compliance evaluation. As a result, federal, state, and local governments, and utilities have invested in the development of methodologies and tools for code compliance evaluation studies. This paper reviews the code compliance evaluation studies conducted in the United States over the past three decades. It describes and compares the methodologies and metrics used to assess building energy code compliance, summarizes the general elements and steps involved in the evaluation process, and discusses common issues in these studies. Over time, code compliance evaluation methodologies have evolved from isolated development within individual states, regions, and utilities, to widely accepted protocols applicable across different states and local jurisdictions. There has been a transition in compliance metrics, shifting from historical compliance rates to energy-consumption-oriented approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the labour market effects of the Broadband Initiatives Program (BIP), a programme authorized by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to promote broadband deployment, mainly in rural areas. The BIP is one of the largest USDA broadband programmes implemented to date, providing more than $3.4 billion in grants and loans in FY 2010. We investigate the impacts of BIP investments on employment outcomes in BIP‐recipient Census tracts compared to similar tracts outside of BIP project service areas between the inception of the programme in 2010 and 2019. We use a quasi‐experimental research design that combines difference‐in‐difference regression with propensity score matching estimation to identify the causal effect of the BIP investments on employment outcomes. We find that the BIP investments had a positive overall effect on employment growth that increased over time. The subsidized investments had a greater effect on employment in startups than in incumbent businesses, in the goods‐producing sector and the information and communications technology sector than other sectors, and a greater effect in micropolitan census tracts than tracts located in metropolitan areas or in small town and remote rural locations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The USDA Forest Service received $5.447 billion in funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law of 2021, providing substantial funding to support implementation of the agency's 2022 Wildfire Crisis Strategy between fiscal years 2022 and 2026. This article examines how the agency might enhance local job creation and equity while conducting wildfire risk reduction and ecosystem restoration under the strategy using these funds. It does this by drawing on five key findings from a socioeconomic assessment of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) that are applicable today. The ARRA provided the Forest Service with $1.15 billion for wildfire, restoration, and infrastructure projects to foster job creation in counties most affected by the economic recession of 2007–2009. In addition to insights from the ARRA, we highlight the importance of considering job quality, the meaning of equity in local job creation, and characteristics of today's forest management businesses and workforces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many health institutions that have adopted electronic health record systems (EHRs) eventually decide to switch to a different one. Cordasco et al. interviewed primary care providers, primary care nurses, and specialty providers involved in referrals following VA's EHR transition. Through stakeholder engagement, Cogan et al. build on these past findings in describing a new and thoughtful research agenda for EHR transitions, taking into account health system priorities and the need to be proactive in optimizing the success of implementation. [Extracted from the article]

Late last year, the Department of Health and Humans Services (HHS) published a 260‐page Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on changes to 42 CFR Part 2, a regulation which protects the confidentiality of treatment records for alcohol and drug use disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the hidden developmental state (HDS) from a cultural perspective, exploring the values and vocabularies of motive among technology experts, managers and government officials involved in state-led innovation. We consider the rollout of smart meters in Washington State, an endeavor primarily funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). Mobilizing evidence from 70 key informant interviews, we develop two related arguments. First, despite its 'hiddenness', the ARRA provided cash injections that shifted utility business models and electricity markets from fossil fuels infrastructure and toward renewable technologies by funding projects rather than organizations. The funding structure enabled engineers and managers to bypass conventional industry gatekeepers. Second, this shift was conditioned by a traditional 'business case' discourse, which functioned as a rhetorical lubricant, legitimating risky innovation and disguising individual and organizational values that run against established norms. A concluding discussion highlights the implications for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An editorial is presented on addressing the quality of nursing home care. Topics include delineating a framework and general principles for improving the quality of care in nursing homes; and Committee's vision where residents of nursing homes receiving care in a safe environment honoring the values and preferences, addressing goals of care, and promoting equity.

The article focuses on ongoing efforts for the creation of a "broadband serviceable location fabric" (BSLF), which is a dataset of all locations or structures where broadband could be provided. It mentions explore and analyze preliminary BSLF data for the state of Oklahoma and, as a result, highlight several important takeaways that should be considered as the availability of BSLF data is expanded nationwide.

Purpose: Buprenorphine is an effective medication treatment for opioid use disorder (MOUD) but access is difficult for patients, especially in rural locations. To improve access, legislation, including the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (2016) and the Substance Use Disorder Prevention that Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment for Patients and Communities (SUPPORT) Act (2018), extended the ability to get a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) waiver to prescribe buprenorphine to treat opioid use disorder (OUD) to numerous types of clinicians. This study updates the distribution of waivered clinicians as of July 2020 and notes regional and geographic differences. Methods: Using the July 2020 Drug Enforcement Administration list of providers with a waiver to prescribe buprenorphine to treat OUD, we assigned waivered clinicians to counties in one of four geographic categories. We calculated the number of counties in each category that did not have a waivered clinician, available treatment slots, and the county provider to population ratios. Findings: The number of DEA‐waivered clinicians more than doubled between December 2017 and July 2020 from 37,869 to 98,344. The availability of a clinician with a DEA waiver to provide MOUD has increased across all geographic categories. Nearly two‐thirds of all rural counties (63.1%) had at least one clinician with a DEA waiver but more than half of small and remote rural counties lacked one. There were also significant differences in access by the US Census Division. Conclusions: Overall, MOUD access has improved, but small rural communities still experience treatment disparities and there is significant regional variation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines school finance patterns in New Jersey over the four years following the Great Recession, a period encompassing a severe economic downturn, an influx of federal stimulus funding, and the funding's eventual depletion. It mentions that the authors find that school districts' funding and expenditure levels saw sharp reductions from pre-recession trends over the 2009-12 period.

Rural public libraries have been relatively understudied when compared to public libraries as a whole. Data are available to show that rural libraries lag behind their urban and suburban counterparts in technology service offerings, but the full meaning and effect of such disparities is unclear. The authors combine data from the Public Library Technology and Access Study with data from smaller studies to provide greater insight to these issues. By filtering these data through the digital inclusion framework, it becomes clear that disparities between rural and nonrural libraries are not merely a problem of weaker technological infrastructure. Instead, rural libraries cannot reach their full customer service potential because of lower staffing (but not lower staff dedication) and funding mechanisms that rely primarily on local monies. The authors suggest possible solutions to these disparities while also discussing the barriers that must be overcome before such solutions can be implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]