Books on the topic 'Claims database'

Cervical radicular pain is a common reason for patients in pain to seek care from a pain physician. Differing from low back pain and lumbar radiculopathy, cervical radicular pain is often not related to disc protrusion alone but, rather, a combination of disc and degenerative pathologies, such as uncovertebral hypertrophy and spondylosis. Likewise, the natural history is quite favorable if no treatments are applied, mandating greater safety for the treatments applied. Indeed, the most recent American Society of Anesthesiologists closed claims database report suggests that adverse occurrences from procedural therapies for cervical radicular pain are increasing. This chapter broadly discusses the anatomy, pathophysiology, and various approaches to treatment of these disorders.

The quality of data collected in official spatial databases is crucial in making strategic decisions as well as in the implementation of planning and design works. Awareness of the level of the quality of these data is also important for individual users of official spatial data. The author presents methods and models of description and evaluation of the quality of spatial data collected in public registers. Data describing the space in the highest degree of detail, which are collected in three databases: land and buildings registry (EGiB), geodetic registry of the land infrastructure network (GESUT) and in database of topographic objects (BDOT500) were analyzed. The results of the research concerned selected aspects of activities in terms of the spatial data quality. These activities include: the assessment of the accuracy of data collected in official spatial databases; determination of the uncertainty of the area of registry parcels, analysis of the risk of damage to the underground infrastructure network due to the quality of spatial data, construction of the quality model of data collected in official databases and visualization of the phenomenon of uncertainty in spatial data. The evaluation of the accuracy of data collected in official, large-scale spatial databases was based on a representative sample of data. The test sample was a set of deviations of coordinates with three variables dX, dY and Dl – deviations from the X and Y coordinates and the length of the point offset vector of the test sample in relation to its position recognized as a faultless. The compatibility of empirical data accuracy distributions with models (theoretical distributions of random variables) was investigated and also the accuracy of the spatial data has been assessed by means of the methods resistant to the outliers. In the process of determination of the accuracy of spatial data collected in public registers, the author’s solution was used – resistant method of the relative frequency. Weight functions, which modify (to varying degree) the sizes of the vectors Dl – the lengths of the points offset vector of the test sample in relation to their position recognized as a faultless were proposed. From the scope of the uncertainty of estimation of the area of registry parcels the impact of the errors of the geodetic network points was determined (points of reference and of the higher class networks) and the effect of the correlation between the coordinates of the same point on the accuracy of the determined plot area. The scope of the correction was determined (in EGiB database) of the plots area, calculated on the basis of re-measurements, performed using equivalent techniques (in terms of accuracy). The analysis of the risk of damage to the underground infrastructure network due to the low quality of spatial data is another research topic presented in the paper. Three main factors have been identified that influence the value of this risk: incompleteness of spatial data sets and insufficient accuracy of determination of the horizontal and vertical position of underground infrastructure. A method for estimation of the project risk has been developed (quantitative and qualitative) and the author’s risk estimation technique, based on the idea of fuzzy logic was proposed. Maps (2D and 3D) of the risk of damage to the underground infrastructure network were developed in the form of large-scale thematic maps, presenting the design risk in qualitative and quantitative form. The data quality model is a set of rules used to describe the quality of these data sets. The model that has been proposed defines a standardized approach for assessing and reporting the quality of EGiB, GESUT and BDOT500 spatial data bases. Quantitative and qualitative rules (automatic, office and field) of data sets control were defined. The minimum sample size and the number of eligible nonconformities in random samples were determined. The data quality elements were described using the following descriptors: range, measure, result, and type and unit of value. Data quality studies were performed according to the users needs. The values of impact weights were determined by the hierarchical analytical process method (AHP). The harmonization of conceptual models of EGiB, GESUT and BDOT500 databases with BDOT10k database was analysed too. It was found that the downloading and supplying of the information in BDOT10k creation and update processes from the analyzed registers are limited. An effective approach to providing spatial data sets users with information concerning data uncertainty are cartographic visualization techniques. Based on the author’s own experience and research works on the quality of official spatial database data examination, the set of methods for visualization of the uncertainty of data bases EGiB, GESUT and BDOT500 was defined. This set includes visualization techniques designed to present three types of uncertainty: location, attribute values and time. Uncertainty of the position was defined (for surface, line, and point objects) using several (three to five) visual variables. Uncertainty of attribute values and time uncertainty, describing (for example) completeness or timeliness of sets, are presented by means of three graphical variables. The research problems presented in the paper are of cognitive and application importance. They indicate on the possibility of effective evaluation of the quality of spatial data collected in public registers and may be an important element of the expert system.

War and Chance analyzes the logic, psychology, and politics of assessing uncertainty in international affairs. It explains how the most important kinds of uncertainty in international politics are inherently subjective, and yet how scholars, practitioners, and pundits can still debate these issues in clear and structured ways. Altogether, the book shows how foreign policy analysts can assess uncertainty in a manner that is theoretically coherent, empirically meaningful, politically defensible, practically useful, and sometimes logically necessary for making sound choices. Each of these claims contradicts widespread skepticism about the value of probabilistic reasoning in international politics, and shows how placing greater emphasis on assessing uncertainty can improve nearly any kind of foreign policy analysis or decision. The book substantiates this argument by examining critical episodes in the history of U.S. national security policy, such as strategic planning in Vietnam, assessments of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction programs, and the search for Osama bin Laden. The book also draws on a diverse range of quantitative evidence, including a database containing nearly one million geopolitical forecasts and experimental studies involving hundreds of national security professionals.

It is difficult to understand the form, management, markets, and ultimately the services produced by PSFs without analysis of the characteristics of knowledge and learning in such organizations. This chapter highlights how three fundamental lines of research about PSFs are intimately related to the key characteristics of knowledge and learning in such organizations: (a) organizational form, management, and governance, (b) the roles and effects of knowledge networking via databases versus knowing in practice through communities, and (c) the jurisdiction of a firm and claims about exclusive rights over a market. These areas of research are all contested domains in terms of optimum modes of organizing and trajectories of change due to the ambiguous and heterogeneous nature of knowledge. The chapter frames key future research questions which relate primarily to the constant dynamics that define both the nature of knowledge in PSFs, and their influence on questions of organization and management.

Managed futures strategies provide investors with a dynamic exposure to commodities. Among other ways of investing in them, commodity trading advisors (CTAs) have become synonymous with this asset class, as they provide professional money management services using derivatives markets either in a pooled or individual setting. Most managed futures strategies display trend-following and momentum-type systematic trading features, which result in adopting a long-short portfolio approach. This chapter explains the characteristics and the growth of this commodity investing industry and provides an extensive literature review. Much of the literature finds that managed futures investing through CTAs provides excellent diversification benefits and performs well, especially in crisis times. Conversely, the non-uniformity of the databases and indices used in these studies lead to several biases. Some recent studies that directly address these shortcomings question the performance persistence of CTAs after fees.

Abstract How can we explain global migration from the perspective of sending states and migrants? The Migration-Development Regime introduces a novel analytical framework to answer this question in India, the world’s largest emigrant exporter and largest remittance-receiving country. Drawing on archives, a new database of transnational migrant organizations, and unique interviews with poor and elite emigrants, recruiters, and government officials, this book exposes how the Indian state, as well as poor and elite emigrants, have long forged and legitimized class inequalities within India through their management of international emigration. Since the 1800s, the Indian state has sometimes forbidden and sometimes promoted emigration. And Indian emigrants have sometimes brought material and sometimes ideological inflows to India. But throughout, the Indian state has differentially used poor and elite emigrants to accelerate domestic economic growth and retain political legitimacy by imposing different regulations, acquiring different benefits, and making different pacts with different classes of emigrants. At the same time, poor and elite emigrants since the 1900s have differentially resisted and reshaped Indian emigration practices and development agendas. By taking this long and class-based view, this book recasts contemporary migration not simply as a problematic function of “neoliberalism” or as a development panacea for sending countries, but as a dynamic historical process that sending states and migrants have long tried to manage. In doing so, it redefines the primary problems of migration, exposes the material and ideological impact that migration has on sending-state development, and isolates what is truly novel about contemporary migration.

The magnitude, nature, causes, and consequences of population movements between rural and urban sectors of developing countries are examined. The prior literature is reviewed and is found to be limited in key dimensions. Evidence presented from a new database encompasses nationally representative data on seventy-five developing countries. Several measures of migration propensities are derived for the separate countries. The situation in each country is documented, both in historical context and following the time of enumeration. Rural-urban migrants enjoy major gains; those who do not move forego substantial, potential gains. Barriers to migrating are very real for disadvantaged groups. Migration among ethnolinguistic communities is a pervasive theme; the context in which each group lives is detailed. Upward mobility in incomes in towns is affirmed, and the departure of adults from rural homes raises the living standards of the family left behind, but consequent separation of married couples is endemic to particular societies. Reclassification of rural areas as urban is shown to be more important than net rural-urban moves in incremental urbanization and rural-urban moves are less permanent than normally portrayed. A contention of symmetry between rural-urban and urban-rural migration propensities is rejected, and indications that these twin movements result in sorting of labor by skills are not supported. Moreover, step and onward migration are not as common as popularly claimed. Previously neglected topics studied include autonomous migration by women, child migration, and networks at origin. Policies to limit rural-urban migration are questioned, and as climate change continues, planning for managed urban growth is vital.

The adoption of new technologies in instruction will change the nature of instruction itself. There are four broad categories of the potential benefits of technology in higher education: off-loading; enhanced resources; enriched conventional class lecture/discussion; and outreach through distance education. Other college and university administrators have seen technology as either a money-saving or money-making tool for their institutions. The technologies most commonly associated with pedagogy include desktop software, internet-mediated communications, World Wide Web pages, distance education courseware, internet access to statistical databases, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), cellphone and personal digital assistant applications, and classroom response systems (CRS). There has been a modest and somewhat sporadic literature on teaching with technology in international studies, much of which follows the development of new technologies, such as personal computers, the World Wide Web, and courseware development. The three major themes in the scholarship on technology in teaching and learning in international studies include technology-based enthusiasm/experimentation, comparative studies, and skepticism. However, some of the challenges to scholarship in teaching and learning with technology: the use of technology has become so pervasive, accepted, and easy that few teacher-scholars bother to write in scholarly journals about the act; weak structure of incentives for studying the use of technology in teaching and learning; and technological instability and discontinuity. Nevertheless, there are some technologies and trends that may appear in the future international relations course. These include podcasting, Real Simple Syndication (RSS) Feeds, Twittering, and Wikipeda and Google Books.