In recent years workplace smoking policies have become increasingly prevalent and restrictive. Using data from two large-scale national surveys, we investigate whether these policies reduce smoking. Our estimates suggest that workplace bans reduce smoking prevalence by 5 percentage points and daily consumption among smokers by 10 percent. Although workers with better health habits are more likely to work at firms with smoking bans, estimates from systems of equations indicate that these results are not subject to an omitted variables bias. The rapid increase in bans can explain all of the recent drop in smoking among workers relative to nonworkers.

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In the early 2000s, NASA made substantial progress in the development of solar sail propulsion systems for use in robotic science and exploration of the solar system. Two different 20-m solar sail systems were produced and they successfully completed functional vacuum testing in NASA Glenn Research Center's (GRC's) Space Power Facility at Plum Brook Station, Ohio. The sails were designed and developed by ATK Space Systems and L'Garde, respectively. The sail systems consist of a central structure with four deployable booms that support the sails. These sail designs are robust enough for deployment in a one-atmosphere, one-gravity environment and were scalable to much larger solar sails-perhaps as large as 150 m on a side. Computation modeling and analytical simulations were also performed to assess the scalability of the technology to the large sizes required to implement the first generation of missions using solar sails. Life and space environmental effects testing of sail and component materials were also conducted.NASA terminated funding for solar sails and other advanced space propulsion technologies shortly after these ground demonstrations were completed. In order to capitalize on the $30M investment made in solar sail technology to that point, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) funded the NanoSail-D, a subscale solar sail system designed for possible small spacecraft applications. The NanoSail-D mission flew on board the illfated Falcon-1 Rocket launched August 2, 2008, and due to the failure of that rocket, never achieved orbit. The NanoSail-D flight spare will be flown in the Fall of 2010. This paper will summarize NASA's investment in solar sail technology to-date and discuss future opprortunities. INTRODUCTIONSolar sail propulsion uses sunlight to propel vehicles through space by reflecting solar photons from a large, mirror-like sail made of a lightweight, reflective material. The continuous photonic pressure provides propellantless thrust to hover indefinitely at points in-space or conduct orbital maneuver plane changes more efficiently than conventional chemical propulsion. Eventually, it might propel a space vehicle to tremendous speeds-theoretically much faster than any present-day propulsion system. Because the Sun supplies the necessary propulsive energy, solar sails also require no onboard propellant, thus reducing payload mass.First generation sails will vary in size from 100-200 m, depending on mission destination, and will typically be 3-axis stabilized. They will be compacted and stowed for launch. Once deployed, ultra-lightweight trusses will support the sails. Solar sails are composed of flat, smooth material covered with a reflective coating and supported by lightweight structures attached to a central hub. Near-term sails will likely use aluminized Mylar or CP1™. Both are proven materials previously flown in space. More robust sails might use a meshwork of interlocking carbon fibers.

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SDespite the presence of anecdotal evidence linking regional economic growth and the presence of quality universities in such areas as the Silicon Valley in California and Route 128 in Boston, there have been few systematic studies of the relationship between universities and local economies. In this paper we examined the relationship between four measures of the quality or extent of activities of colleges and universities in an area and various measures of the local labor market activity, including employment, income and migration.We could not reject the hypothesis that there is no relationship between our measures of university activity and the overall employment rate in an SMSA.We did, however, find evidence that colleges and universities affect the composition of employment in an SMSA. The probability of being employed as a scientist or engineer and the probability of being employed in a high-tech industry were both found to increase with the amount of R&D funding at local universities. The probability of being employed in a high-tech industry was also found to be positively related to the number of graduates from local universities. We also found evidence that employment growth rates and earnings are higher in areas with good universities. Finally, the data can not reject the hypothesis that net migration is unrelated to universities.

Although the Medicaid program is partially controlled by the federal government, there is considerable latitude in the ability of states to set eligibility requirements and the types of services available to recipients. This research examines the impact of different state Medicaid programs on the decision to enter the labor force and the number of hours worked by female heads of households. A pooled cross-section data set constructed from the 1988 through 1993 Current Population Survey March Supplements is used to test if different benefit levels across states impact labor supply behavior. This study adds to the existing Medicaid literature by incorporating new benefit measures and explicitly controlling for state random and fixed effects. OLS results support the prediction that Medicaid expenditures reduce labor supply, but controlling for state fixed or random effects alters the effect of both the AFDC and Medicaid programs on both the decision to participate as well as the number of hours worked of female heads of households. We also consider the effects of policy endogeneity on these estimates using instruments for state welfare generosity and find evidence that estimates of the effect of welfare on labor supply are sensitive to the failure to control for time-varying policy endogeneity.

The need for virtual education for nursing staff has dramatically increased because of social distancing measures after the coronavirus disease pandemic. Emergency departments in particular need to educate staff on caring for patients with coronavirus disease while concurrently continuing to ensure education related to core topic areas such as pediatric assessment and stabilization. Unfortunately, many nurse educators are currently unable to provide traditional in-person education and training to their nursing staff. Our inter-professional team aimed to address this through the rapid development and implementation of an emergency nursing telesimulation curriculum. This curriculum focused on the nursing assessment and initial stabilization of a child presenting to the emergency department in status epilepticus. This article describes the rapid development and implementation of a pediatric emergency nursing telesimulation. Our objectives in this article are (1) to describe the rapid creation of this curriculum using Kern’s framework, (2) to describe the implementation of a fully online simulation-based pediatric emergency training intervention for nurse learners, and (3) to report learners’ satisfaction with and feedback on this intervention.

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