CALL FOR PAPERS：INTERNATIONAL FORUM FOR PUBLIC HEALTH, SHANGHAI 2007

Healthy growth for everyone in the great family of the people in the world is definitely one of the most important goals for the progress and prosperity of human society. And the means for improving quality of life as well as prolonging the life span is mainly embodied in the science of public health. At the same time, along with the course of progress human beings are confronted with more and more unprecedented challenges and health problems such as the sudden appearance of emerging and reemerging infectious diseases, high incidence of noninfectious chronic diseases, food safety, and environmental pollution as well as publems brought about by city expanding and aging population, and more. People are realizing that public health involves not merely personal health, but many aspects of human society, even psychology.     

METHODS FOR CONTROLLING SOME HAZARDS

Respiratory hazards—can be of two general types: air contamination or oxygen deficiency. When an air contaminant such as asbestos dust is present, the actual concentration must be measured. With asbestos, as with many other types of air contaminants, engineering controls should be applied first to correct the problem.     

S-PLUS FOR WINDOWS统计软件包简介

S-PLUS（或S＋）是由前美国贝尔实验室（AT＆T Bell Labs）（现为Lucent Technologies）创始,用S语言研发而成,专用于数据探索、数据统计和编程建模、并提供丰富的面向对象设计环境进行交互式开发、数据挖掘功能的软件包.     

IS THE MEDICAL LOSS RATIO A GOOD TARGET MEASURE FOR REGULATION IN THE INDIVIDUAL MARKET FOR HEALTH INSURANCE?

Effective January 1, 2011, individual market health insurers must meet a minimum medical loss ratio (MLR) of 80%. This law aims to encourage ‘productive’ forms of competition by increasing the proportion of premium dollars spent on clinical benefits. To date, very little is known about the performance of firms in the individual health insurance market, including how MLRs are related to insurer and market characteristics. The MLR comprises one component of the price–cost margin, a traditional gauge of market power; the other component is percent of premiums spent on administrative expenses. We use data from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (2001–2009) to evaluate whether the MLR is a good target measure for regulation by comparing the two components of the price–cost margin between markets that are more competitive versus those that are not, accounting for firm and market characteristics. We find that insurers with monopoly power have lower MLRs. Moreover, we find no evidence suggesting that insurers' administrative expenses are lower in more concentrated insurance markets. Thus, our results are largely consistent with the interpretation that the MLR could serve as a target measure of market power in regulating the individual market for health insurance but with notable limited ability to capture product and firm heterogeneity. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

MODELS FOR DIAGNOSING CHEST PAIN: IS CART HELPFUL?

The use of classification and regression tree (CART) methodology is explored for the diagnosis of patients complaining of anterior chest pain. The results are compared with those previously obtained using correspondence analysis and independent Bayes classification. The technique is shown to be of potential value for identifying important indicators and cutpoints for continuous variables, although the overall classification performance was rather disappointing. Suggestions are made for extensions to the methodology to make it more suitable for clinical practice. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

LABOR CAMP SANITATION—A BASIS FOR EDUCATION AND CITIZENSHIP

Labor camps in California have proved a new and substantial basis for citizenship on the part of a class heretofore scarcely considered in the problem of government. With camps having proper sanitation the lower type of labor and the agitator are eliminated. Campers of today aid the inspectors by giving notice of bad sanitary conditions.     

INTERNATIONAL FORUM FOR PUBLIC HEALTH, SHANGHAI 2007 Second announcement

Conference Time and Venue 1.Registration Time Dec 11,2007;Scientific Program Dec 12-14,2007 2.Venue Skyway Landis Hotel,Shanghai Address:15 Dapu Road,Luwan District,Shanghai;Zip Code:200023; Tel:86-21-33189988,Fax:86-21-53010000;Homepage:http://www.skywaylandis.com