Using the Family Self‐Sufficiency Program to Help Families with Housing Assistance Improve Earnings,Credit Score,and Debt Levels: A Quasi‐Experimental Analysis

HUD's Family Self‐Sufficiency (FSS) program aims to help housing assistance recipients increase their earnings and build savings to make progress toward economic security. This study examines an asset‐building nonprofit's innovative financial coaching‐based approach to FSS that adds an additional focus on helping clients build assets and financial capability. We use a quasi‐experimental approach to estimate the program's impact on earnings and cash assistance receipt and analyze credit and debt outcomes against a benchmark group. The findings show substantial, significant gains in households' earnings and significant decreases in receipt of some cash benefits. Participants also saw increases in credit score, and success in paying down credit card and derogatory debt. Our results indicate that FSS can be an effective platform for helping participants in subsidized housing make real progress toward economic security and financial health.     

Short reports

The aim of the study was to evaluate a hospital-based injury recording system on hip fracture registration in elderly persons aged + 65 years from 1994 through 2008, and to examine the agreement between the number of validated fractures and the number of fractures reported to the Norwegian Patient Registry using three different sources: (1) Medical records, (2) Patient administrative system and (3) The hospital's hip fracture record to the Norwegian Patient Registry from 2002 through 2008. The injury recording system included 582 hip fracture events and 535 (92%) were confirmed through the medical records. Reasons for non-verification were different coding failures. Searching the patient administrative system using ICD codes identified 16 hip fractures not included in the fracture registry between 2002 through 2008. The total number was the same as the number of hip fractures reported to the Norwegian Patient Registry using ICD codes alone for identification. The conclusion is that on well-defined diagnosis like hip fractures, local fracture registries may obtain a high degree of reliability if different sources are available for quality control. Well-functioning patient administrative systems may be used to study numbers of hip fractures.     

Oral history and information technology: Human voices of assessment

Dramatic advances in technology for acquiring, managing, and sharing information promise to reshape the workplace by eliciting new behaviors and introducing new organizational patterns. For academic medical centers, the integration of information technology into programs of education, research, and patient care is essential for increased organizational effectiveness.

At Baylor College of Medicine, we have developed information‐sharing and management tools, collectively called the Virtual Notebook System (VNS). The VNS is a multiuser, workstation‐based hypermedia system that serves as a technologically extended analog of the laboratory notebook used in biomedical research. We are deploying the VNS in scientific groups at Baylor, and are applying oral history techniques to assess its impact.

This article shows how oral history captures the “human voices”; of Baylor's experience and helps us understand the effects of information technology on the processes of biomedical research.     

Fascinating China Sceneries in Blockbuster Films

It feels good to watch a well-made film with touching plot and enchanting scenes,and only better to see in real the impressive images it leaves in your head.Ihis issue of This Is China will take you to the beautiful places where beloved films Avatar;Kong Fu Panda,Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon,and Hero were shot.Zhanngjiajie National Forest Park-AvatarThe Zhangjiajie National Forest Park is located in Zhangjiajie City in northern Hunan Province in the People's Republic of China,covering an area of 4,810 hectares.It was recognized as the country's first national forest park in 1982,and listed as a UNESCO Global Geopark in 2004.     

Have the frills really left the European airline industry?

The emergence of low‐cost scheduled carriers in European aviation has attracted attention from business and leisure travellers as well as from established carriers. This paper examines low‐cost carriers in terms of their operating features and considers implications for European transport markets. Relevant aspects of the operating environment of European airlines are examined. An analysis of the USA situation in relation to low‐cost carriers is also provided. It is suggested that further research into the development of budget air travel in Europe needs to be undertaken. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.