background: sufficient intake of fruits and vegetables has been associated with a reduced risk of chronic diseases and body weight management but the exact mechanism is unknown. the world health organisation and food and agriculture of the united nation reports recommend adults to consume at least five servings of fruits and vegetables per day excluding starchy vegetables. this review focuses o...

We evaluate the effects of state policy design features on SCHIP take-up rates and on the degree to which SCHIP benefits crowd out private benefits. The results indicate overall program take-up rates of approximately 10 percent. However, there is considerable heterogeneity across states, suggesting a potential role of inter-state variation in policy design. We find that several design mechanism...

In 1971, 44 percent of workers who had been currently entitled to social security disability insurance (DI) benefits for 1 year or more also received benefits from at least one other source. Their average disability insurance benefit was higher than that of persons who received only DI benefits. On the average, total benefits to those receiving multiple benefits were double the amounts paid to ...

BACKGROUND Disease has become one of the key causes of falling into poverty in rural China. The poor households are even more likely to suffer. The New Cooperative Medical Scheme (NCMS) has been implemented to provide rural residents financial protection against health risks. This study aims to assess the effect of the NCMS on alleviating health payment-induced poverty in the Shaanxi Province o...

Understanding how sterile worker castes in social insects first evolved is one of the supreme puzzles in social evolution. Here, we show that in the bee tribe Allodapini, the earliest societies did not entail a foraging worker caste, but instead comprised females sharing a nest with supersedure of dominance. Subordinates delayed foraging until they became reproductively active, whereupon they p...

The Special Needs Plan (SNP), a new type of Medicare Advantage plan created by the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 (MMA), targets one of three special-needs populations--including beneficiaries who qualify both for Medicare and Medicaid benefits ("dual eligibles"), the focus of this issue brief. It identifies the key issues that underlie one of the MMA's central goals for dual eligible SNPs-...

C. W. W. Pirk, P. Neumann, and F. L. W. Ratnieks Lehrstuhl für Verhaltensphysiologie und Soziobiologie, Zoologie II, Biozentrum, Universität Würzburg, Am Hubland, 97074 Würzburg, Germany, Department of Zoology and Entomology, Rhodes University, Grahamstown 6140, South Africa, Institut für Zoologie/Molekulare Ökologie, Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, Kröllwitzer Str. 44, D-06099 Hall...

Blood transfusion is a common intervention in the hospital setting, and its benefits may not be clear but it has associated risks. Despite this, transfusion consent may not be obtained satisfactorily. We assessed transfusion consent effectiveness by comparing information given by residents with information understood by patients who receive transfusions. Medicine department residents who obtain...