Shows
On the Evidence137 | Increasing the Resilience of African Smallholder FarmersOn the latest episode of Mathematica’s On the Evidence podcast, Dr. Agnes Kalibata reflects on her career as a scientist and as the former president of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), an African-led organization that seeks to create an environment where Africa can sustainably feed itself. It does so by focusing on scaling agricultural innovations that help smallholder farmers achieve increased incomes, better livelihoods, and improved food security.
Kalibata’s 10-year term as AGRA president ended earlier this year. She spoke with Mathematica President and Chief Executive Officer Paul Decker last December. Mathematica supports AGRA’s impl...2025-06-2536 minOn the Evidence135 | It’s the Evidence, Stupid: GAO’s Report on Evidence-Based Policymaking and What Comes NextThis episode features audio from an in-person roundtable discussion at the 2024 Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management Fall Research Conference. The roundtable focused on the five-year anniversary of the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act (Evidence Act) and a recent report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) on federal agencies' ability to assess their capacity to collect and use evidence. The panelists also discussed what needs to happen next to further strengthen the use of evidence in the federal government.
The roundtable featured remarks from Erika Rissi, Nick Hart, Melinda Buntin, Rachel Snyderman, and Paul Decker.
Rissi is the chief...2025-01-1152 minOn the Evidence134 | Modernizing State Public Health Data Policies and PracticesIn the same way a doctor uses data to diagnose and treat a patient, states’ public health agencies use data to measure and address health in their communities. In the United States, states have the autonomy to decide their own data policies, which influences the amount, quality, and timeliness of public health data they produce. On the heels of the worst global pandemic in a century—and at a time when technology is significantly changing the way that information flows to public health agencies—a new report from the Pew Charitable Trusts offers a first-of-its-kind glimpse into the patchwork of state...2024-12-1856 minOn the Evidence132 | Embedding Data and Innovation Across California State GovernmentThe latest episode of Mathematica’s On the Evidence podcast features Jeffery Marino, the director of California’s Office of Data and Innovation (ODI). For the podcast, Mathematica’s President and Chief Executive Officer Paul Decker spoke with Marino about ODI’s CalAcademy for training state employees in areas such as plain language and human-centered design, California Governor Gavin Newsom’s executive order on generative artificial intelligence, facilitating interagency data sharing agreements, and data-driven storytelling about government’s impact in people’s lives.
They also discussed Marino’s career trajectory: he majored in English literature in college, became a data journalist, and...2024-11-2154 minOn the Evidence131 | How Expanded Tax Credits Benefited Family Well-BeingThe latest episode of Mathematica’s On the Evidence podcast features an interview with Katherine Michelmore, an associate professor of public policy at the University of Michigan’s Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy and the 24th recipient of the David N. Kershaw Award and Prize.
Michelmore’s research has focused on temporary expansions of tax credits during the COVID-19 pandemic, which is part of a growing body of evidence informing state and federal policy proposals to make permanent some or all of those changes.
On the episode, Michelmore talks about her experiences interacting with the media and policymakers about...2024-11-0639 minOn the Evidence130 | The Evidence-Based Benefits of Employee OwnershipIn honor of Employee Ownership Month in October, Mathematica’s On the Evidence podcast features a special episode with Paul Decker, Mathematica’s president and chief executive officer, and Jim Bonham, the president and chief executive officer of The ESOP Association. On the episode, Decker and Bonham discuss the Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) as an evidence-based tool that benefits employees, consumers, and communities across the nation.
An ESOP is a retirement vehicle for employees that many companies use to increase employee engagement and retain talent over time. As Decker and Bonham discuss on the episode, an ESOP can be more...2024-10-2455 minOn the Evidence129 | How Evaluation Can Support Housing Justice and Community ChangeA new episode of Mathematica’s On the Evidence podcast explores recent research that experimented with a new approach to equitable data collection that also equips individuals and their organizations with new skills and resources. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation contracted with Mathematica and its partner UBUNTU Research and Evaluation to learn how grassroots organizations in the housing justice movement had used grant funds for community power building.
Through a fellowship program established by Mathematica and UBUNTU, researchers provided training in evaluation to fellows selected from staff at grassroots organizations while learning from those staff about the impact of the fo...2024-10-0929 minOn the Evidence128 | How Better Data Interoperability Can Improve Care Delivered To PatientsThe latest episode of Mathematica’s On the Evidence podcast focuses on the potential for health data interoperability to improve people’s health and well-being. Improved data interoperability is part of a broader push in the public and private sectors to use digital technology to make greater volumes of data available faster, at lower cost, and in higher-quality formats. These advances would make data easier to access, especially when needed to prevent or address urgent problems. In health care, the digital transformation in data could keep people healthier by improving the speed and quality of care patients receive.
The episode feat...2024-09-2548 minOn the Evidence127 | Ensuring Evidence Use in Public Policy with Brookings Institution Pres. Cecilia RouseCecilia Rouse is the former dean of the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and the current president of the Brookings Institution. For the first two years of the Biden administration, she was the chair of the Council of Economic Advisers—the first Black American to chair the council in its 75-year history. In August, she joined Mathematica’s On the Evidence podcast for a conversation with Mathematica’s President and Chief Executive Officer Paul Decker about leadership, the use of evidence in public policy, and the role of research organizations in improving public well-being.
During the interview, Rouse talks...2024-09-1247 minOn the Evidence124 | AcademyHealth’s New CEO on AI, Climate Change, and Other Topics of Health Services ResearchOur guest for this episode of Mathematica’s On the Evidence podcast is Dr. Aaron Carroll, a pediatrician, health researcher, and science communicator who recently assumed the post of president and chief executive officer at AcademyHealth, the leading national organization for convening and sharing information across health services researchers, policymakers, and health care practitioners.
On the Evidence spoke with Carroll ahead of his organization’s Health Datapalooza conference in mid-September. This year, the event is focused on data-driven solutions that address critical public health challenges. The conference’s theme reflects a collaboration between AcademyHealth and the Centers for Disease Control and Pr...2024-07-3152 minOn the Evidence123 | Validating Natural Climate Solutions with Better DataIn the United States, conversations about solutions to climate change often revolve around reducing fossil fuel emissions from human activities. But many believe regenerative agricultural practices and other nature-based solutions—which use soil and plants and try to either prevent or capture emissions—should complement policies and programs to reduce emissions from vehicles and power plants. As the nature-based climate solutions mature, public and private organizations that invest in them will need ways to measure their impact.
In an interview with Mathematica’s On the Evidence podcast, Dr. Jenny Soong, a soil biogeochemist within Mathematica’s interdisciplinary climate practice, explains how bett...2024-07-1830 minOn the Evidence122 | Reflecting on Juneteenth and Our Collective Equity JourneyThe latest episode of Mathematica’s On the Evidence podcast coincides with June 19, which is celebrated by many around the United States as Juneteenth, a federal holiday commemorating the end of slavery in this country. Recently, one way staff at Mathematica have honored this important moment in U.S. history is by joining together in person and virtually on June 18th to read aloud and discuss a speech by Frederick Douglass titled “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”
Douglass gave the speech in front of a predominately white abolitionist audience about 11 years before President Abraham Lincoln issued the Em...2024-06-1919 minOn the Evidence121 | NORC and Mathematica CEOs on the Future of Data and EvidenceWithin the past few years, organizations that help improve public well-being by providing data-driven insights have witnessed significant changes. From a digital transformation hastened by big data and artificial intelligence (AI) to the globalization of evidence-based solutions for problems that transcend borders, changes in technology, society, and culture are challenging leaders to rethink how their organizations operate. On the latest episode of Mathematica’s On the Evidence podcast, NORC at the University of Chicago President and Chief Executive Officer Dan Gaylin joined Mathematica President and Chief Executive Officer Paul Decker for a wide-ranging discussion about leadership, AI, globalization, the COVID-19 pa...2024-06-051h 31On the Evidence120 | Improving Health through Responsible Use of AIThis episode of Mathematica’s On the Evidence podcast features a discussion about how various parties within the health care ecosystem can responsibly use artificial intelligence (AI) to improve patient health. The conversation comes amid increasing interest in the applications of AI in daily life and one month after Mathematica announced the launch of its Health Data Innovation Lab, a digital operational hub for government agencies, foundations, medical centers, and other health organizations to collaborate with data scientists and health policy experts.
The episode draws from a recent webinar moderated by Noland Joiner, the chief technology officer of health care at...2024-05-2258 minOn the Evidence118 | Moving from Evidence Generation to Evidence Use in President Biden's 2025 BudgetIn March, when the Biden administration released its budget request for fiscal year 2025, it not only offered a blueprint for the president’s policymaking agenda—it also provided the latest indication of how the White House and federal agencies are going beyond evidence generation to use evidence as a guide in making program investments that can improve Americans’ lives. For this episode of Mathematica’s On the Evidence podcast, Nichole Dunn, the vice president of federal policy at Results for America, joins the show to discuss evidence-based policy in the president’s budget as well as larger trends in federal and state...2024-04-1735 minOn the Evidence117 | Moody’s Mark Zandi on Being a Voice for Data-Driven Decisions in Public PolicyThe latest episode of On the Evidence features Mark Zandi, the chief economist at Moody’s Analytics. On the episode, Zandi speaks with Paul Decker, Mathematica’s president and chief executive officer, about comprehensive immigration reform, artificial intelligence, labor shortages, remote work, the merits of pursuing a nonacademic career in economic research, and how Zandi seeks to influence politically charged policy debates with data and credibility. Zandi is the author of two books related to the Great Recession and hosts the Inside Economics podcast.
A video version of the episode as well as a full transcript is available at https://math...2024-04-031h 01On the Evidence116 | Applying AI to Improve Health Policy ResearchThe latest episode of On the Evidence features an interview with Mathematica’s Ngan MacDonald about the applications of artificial intelligence (AI) for improving health care through data analytics. MacDonald recently joined Mathematica as the company’s director of health data innovations, where she leads a team of data scientists that help public and private health organizations use their data to deliver meaningful and effective insights. In addition to her role at Mathematica, MacDonald is also the chief of data operations for the Institute for Artificial Intelligence in Medicine at Northwestern University.
On the episode, MacDonald discusses the potential benefits of A...2024-03-2036 minOn the Evidence115 | Improving the Impact of Social Programs Through Better EvaluationA new episode of Mathematica’s On the Evidence podcast explores the idea that a more comprehensive approach to evaluation, including study of a program’s design and implementation, maximizes a program’s chances of success. The episode draws from a convening in January at Mathematica’s D.C. office at which experts from the federal government, philanthropy, academia, and research organizations discussed insights from the Oxford Handbook on Program Design and Implementation Evaluation, edited by Mathematica’s Anu Rangarajan.
The episode features Rangarajan as well as seven other speakers who expand upon the idea that a more comprehensive approach to evaluat...2024-03-0622 minOn the Evidence114 | How Virtual and Group Tutoring Could Address Learning LossThe COVID-19 pandemic is no longer a public health emergency, but its harmful effects on the U.S. education system still linger. Nationwide standardized test scores show that average student achievement in core subjects, such as math and reading, remains below pre-pandemic levels. Over the past four years, a growing number of schools have used temporary federal pandemic relief funds to implement high-dosage tutoring, an evidence-based strategy shown to increase student learning. Education agencies have less than a year to use their remaining funds, underscoring the need for other effective tutoring approaches that can serve more students at a lower...2024-02-2157 minOn the Evidence112 | Lessons for States Interested in Hospital Global BudgetingThis episode of Mathematica’s On the Evidence podcast explores lessons from Maryland, with glimpses from Vermont and Pennsylvania, that could help other states decide whether and how to adopt hospital global budgeting. The guests for this episode are Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, who was the secretary of the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene when the state adopted hospital global budgeting; Thomas Mullen, who led a Baltimore-area hospital system when Maryland adopted the new payment model; and Dr. Sule Gerovich, a senior fellow at Mathematica who supported Vermont, Pennsylvania, and Maryland in developing hospital global budgets.
Full transcript of th...2024-01-2534 minOn the Evidence110 | Our Listeners on the Most Important Developments in Evidence and Well-Being in 2023For the final episode of 2023, Mathematica’s On the Evidence podcast asked friends of the show to send short voice notes about important developments in evidence and well-being this year that will continue to matter in 2024. More than a dozen listeners and former guests responded to our call, highlighting significant milestones in health care, early childhood education, economic opportunity, climate change, disability policy, gender equality, and government agencies’ growing capacity to generate evidence that can improve programs’ effectiveness in the United States and abroad. On the episode, host J.B. Wogan discusses the year-in-review submissions with the show’s producer, Rick Sto...2023-12-2028 minOn the Evidence109, Part 2 | Improving Health Equity by Transforming Public Health Data SystemsEarly in the COVID-19 pandemic, inconsistent data collection and reporting made it difficult for U.S. public health agencies to respond to the disease's inequitable impacts. Demographic and socioeconomic factors, such as age, race, ethnicity, gender, income, and disability status, were particularly challenging to capture. The same data issues would later impede agencies’ ability to prioritize vaccinations for the people most impacted by the pandemic. Even though COVID-19 is no longer a global public health emergency, the underlying data problems remain.
“What’s at stake is saving lives,” says Alonzo Plough, chief science officer and vice president of research, evaluation, and lear...2023-12-131h 08On the Evidence109, Part 1 | Improving Health Equity by Transforming Public Health Data SystemsEarly in the COVID-19 pandemic, inconsistent data collection and reporting made it difficult for U.S. public health agencies to respond to the disease's inequitable impacts. Demographic and socioeconomic factors, such as age, race, ethnicity, gender, income, and disability status, were particularly challenging to capture. The same data issues would later impede agencies’ ability to prioritize vaccinations for the people most impacted by the pandemic. Even though COVID-19 is no longer a global public health emergency, the underlying data problems remain.
“What’s at stake is saving lives,” says Alonzo Plough, chief science officer and vice president of research, evaluation, and lear...2023-12-1327 minOn the Evidence108 | How Artificial Intelligence Can Advance Health EquityIn September 2023, Mathematica and Congressman Don Beyer’s office hosted an event on Capitol Hill to discuss artificial intelligence (AI) and its implications for health equity. This episode of On the Evidence features audio from the September event, anchored by Victoria Knight, a health care policy reporter for Axios, who interviewed Congressman Beyer and moderated a subsequent panel with Ellie Graeden, Jen Roberts, Ngan MacDonald, and Deliya Wesley.
• Beyer represents the 8th Congressional District of Virginia and is a vice chair of both the bipartisan Congressional AI Caucus and an AI working group recently formed by the New Democrat Coalition.
• Graede...2023-11-2958 min
Measure Success PodcastHow to use evidence-backed decision-making to adapt and grow as a company, with Mathematica COO Lisa SchwartzAs leaders, we hear about the importance of making strategic choices based on “the data.” But what if that’s not the whole story? What if there was a way to look deeper past the numbers, glean better insights, and use a more analytical approach to drive better decisions and organizational growth? What if this shift in thinking was the key to adaptation — which is now more important than ever? Our guest this week is someone who can teach us how to think that way. As a Chief Operating Officer, Lisa Schwartz pinpoint changes in Mathemati...2023-11-0738 minOn the Evidence105 | How Colorado Committed to Supporting Teacher Diversity and Why it Matters to StudentsTeacher recruitment and retention challenges have increased since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. But even before that, students of diverse backgrounds have historically not seen themselves reflected in the adults in their classrooms and schools. Why does this matter? Students of color do better in school when they have teachers who share similar identities. For example, Black students with at least one Black teacher in grades K-3 are 13 percent more likely to graduate high school and 19 percent more likely to enroll in college than their same-race same-school peers. And all students benefit from diversity of the teacher workforce: teachers...2023-10-1151 minOn the Evidence101 | Using Data to Advance Equitable Outcomes from Pre-K through the WorkforceThe COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated pre-existing inequities that changed how individuals engage with pre-K programs, schools, colleges, employers, and the world at large. Early evidence suggests the pandemic took a toll on student learning, educational attainment, employment, and physical and mental well-being, especially in communities of color and communities experiencing poverty. In recognition of the fact that better data infrastructure will be needed to shift the systems that currently produce inequitable outcomes, a growing number of states are working to modernize statewide longitudinal data systems to understand the experiences and outcomes of individuals seamlessly across pre-K, K–12, postsecondary, and workforce systems.
Th...2023-08-1656 min
On the Evidence100 | Robert Shea on the Federal Government’s Progress in Using EvidenceIn May 2023, Mathematica hosted a convening on Capitol Hill about embedding evidence in federal decision making, with a focus on the legacy of the nearly five-year-old Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act, also known as the Evidence Act. One of the attendees that day was Robert Shea, an expert on performance improvement in government who served on the bipartisan U.S. Commission on Evidence-Based Policymaking, a group whose recommendations informed the Evidence Act. Shea is the chief executive officer for GovNavigators, a government management consulting firm, where he hosts a podcast called The GovNavigators Show. His career has also included posts...2023-08-0227 minOn the Evidence99 | Understanding Why More Eligible Kids Got Free Meals During Pandemic SummersLeading up to the COVID-19 pandemic, only about one in every seven students served by the National School Lunch Program also participated in free summer meals programs provided by the federal Food and Nutrition Service. The low ratio of students accessing meals in the summer compared to the school year has been dubbed the “summer food gap.” Policymakers and anti-hunger advocates have long worried that millions of children from households with low incomes aren’t getting enough to eat when school is out of session, posing risks to children’s health, learning, and overall well-being.
This episode of On the Evidence...2023-07-2039 minOn the Evidence98 | Developing Education Programs to Prevent Violence and Crime in Latin America and the CaribbeanThis episode of Mathematica’s On the Evidence podcast focuses on how research informs funding strategies to tackle an urgent social challenge. A couple of years ago, Mathematica reviewed evidence from across the world on whether education programs can prevent or mitigate violence and crime. USAID commissioned the report to help develop effective strategies for leveraging the education sector to address violence and crime in Latin America and the Caribbean. Although Mathematica’s researchers identified almost two dozen promising programs in the review, they also noted the need for further research. For example, few of the studies show causal impacts or p...2023-07-0642 min
The Stephen Wolfram PodcastCelebrating 35 Years of Mathematica [June 23, 2023] (Part 2)Stephen Wolfram celebrates 35 years of Mathematica, originally launched on June 23, 1988, starting with a look at V1 of Mathematica on a Mac SE/30. The live demonstration (part 1) is followed by a discussion (part 2) covering the development and timeless nature of Mathematica, as well as answering viewer questions. Watch the original livestream on YouTube: https://youtu.be/HxWg8exJxNY2023-07-012h 17On the Evidence97 | Building on the Evidence ActIn late May 2023, Mathematica coordinated with Congressman Derek Kilmer’s office to host a discussion on Capitol Hill about the impact of the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act (Evidence Act) and how to further embed the use of data and evidence in federal decision making. This episode of On the Evidence features edited audio from the event with remarks from Kilmer and his House colleague, Rep. William Timmons, in addition to a panel discussion with experts from government, think tanks, research organizations, and academia.
Kilmer represents Washington State’s Sixth District and was one of the Evidence Act’s original co-spo...2023-06-2150 minOn the Evidence96 | Addressing Fragmented Health CareThe fragmentation of outpatient health care drives up the cost of care and worsens the quality of care that patients receive, posing a risk to patients’ health. On this episode of Mathematica’s On the Evidence podcast, guests James Lee of the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation, Knitasha Washington of ATW Health Solutions, Bob Phillips of the Center for Professionalism and Value in Health Care, and Lori Timmins of Mathematica discuss recent research on the nature of the problem and federal initiatives that have sought to address it.
A full transcript of the episode is available at https://www.mathematica.org...2023-06-071h 03On the Evidence93 | Inside Arizona’s Investment in Evidence-Based Foster Care PreventionOn this episode, we discuss the Family First Prevention Services Act in the context of one state’s efforts to build evidence for a parent education program thought to prevent child abuse and neglect.
Katherine Guffey, Meg Dygert, and Allon Kalisher discuss a parent education program in Arizona that Mathematica evaluated, the Family First law, and the long-term implications of the law’s provisions around prevention services and evidence of effectiveness. Guffey is the executive consultant to the director of the Arizona Department of Child Safety. Dygert is the senior policy associate for child and family well-being at the American Publ...2023-04-2643 minOn the Evidence92 | Evidence-Based Policy in President Biden's 2024 BudgetIn the president’s proposed budget for the 2024 fiscal year, the Biden White House outlines a spending plan that would expand health care insurance coverage for more Americans, extend free school meals to more children, and provide financial assistance for child care to more families. The budget includes more than a dozen references to evidence and calls for taking evidence-based or evidence-informed approaches to criminal justice, foster care prevention services, and registered apprenticeship programs. To understand what the president’s budget might mean for the future of evidence-based policymaking, Mathematica’s Mike Burns spoke with Caitlin Emma and Nichole Dunn for th...2023-04-1237 minOn the Evidence91 | Solutions for Preventing Heart Attacks, Improving Patient Health, and Reducing Health SpendingEvery year, Mathematica publishes dozens of new papers and reports, some of which surface fresh insights about how public agencies and private organizations can be more effective at improving public well-being. For the 91st episode of Mathematica’s On the Evidence podcast, we’re launching an occasional series focused on examples of solutions that recent research suggests are effective.
All three solutions in this episode involve financial incentives that seek to reduce health care costs while improving the quality of care patients receive. One seeks to reduce the incidence of heart attacks, strokes, or other events related to cardiovascular disease. Anot...2023-03-3012 min
velocplumeloc[ebook] download free Illustrating Finance Policy with Mathematica (Quantitative Perspectives on Behavioral Economics and Finance) Read OnlineDownload Illustrating Finance Policy with Mathematica (Quantitative Perspectives on Behavioral Economics and Finance) Full Edition,Full Version,Full Book by Nicholas L. GeorgakopoulosReading Now at : https://happyreadingebook.club/?book=B07FLJPSBCORDOWNLOAD EBOOK NOW![PDF] Download [ebook] download free Illustrating Finance Policy with Mathematica (Quantitative Perspectives on Behavioral Economics and Finance) Read Online Ebook | READ ONLINE Download [ebook] download free Illustrating Finance Policy with Mathematica (Quantitative Perspectives on Behavioral Economics and Finance) Read Online read ebook online PDF EPUB KINDLE Download [ebook] download free...2023-03-3000 minOn the Evidence90 | Supporting Families Through Equity-Infused Program ChangeOn this episode, guests Tosin Shenbanjo, Julie Sanon, and Allison Holmes discuss a cross-sector partnership in Memphis, Tennessee, that infused equity into a local nonprofit’s two-generation strategy for alleviating poverty and supporting families. Sanon is the chief operating officer at Agape Child & Family Services in Memphis. Holmes is a senior research associate at the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Shenbanjo is a researcher at Mathematica. They share lessons from a collaboration between Agape, Casey, and Mathematica to implement equity-infused rapid-cycle learning at Agape, with the goal of improving the effectiveness of the nonprofit’s programs that serve children and families.
A fu...2023-03-151h 05On the Evidence89 | Teacher Coaching: A Solution to Learning Loss and Teacher Burnout?On the latest episode of Mathematica’s On the Evidence podcast, we look at a potential solution to two concerns in K–12 education during the pandemic: student learning loss and teacher burnout. The conversation builds on a national study from Mathematica and the Institute of Education Sciences on a form of individualized, video-based teacher coaching, which improved student achievement. Our guests for this episode include a teacher (Nicole Minor), a teacher coach (Michelle Schmidt), and a Mathematica researcher who studied the impacts of teacher coaching (Jeffrey Max).
Find the full transcript here: https://www.mathematica.org/blogs/video-based-coaching-offers-potential-solution-to-student-learning-loss-and-teacher-burnout
Read a pres...2023-03-0150 min
jordaig soundbookDownload In #PDF Foundations of Fluid Mechanics with Applications Problem Solving Using Mathematica(r) Full Book by Evgenii V. VorozhtsovDownload Foundations of Fluid Mechanics with Applications: Problem Solving Using Mathematica(r) Full Edition,Full Version,Full Book by Evgenii V. Vorozhtsov Reading Now at : https://happyreadingebook.club/?book=0817639950 OR DOWNLOAD EBOOK NOW! [PDF] Download Download In #PDF Foundations of Fluid Mechanics with Applications: Problem Solving Using Mathematica(r) Full Book Ebook | READ ONLINE Download Download In #PDF Foundations of Fluid Mechanics with Applications: Problem Solving Using Mathematica(r) Full Book read ebook online PDF EPUB KINDLE Download Download In #PDF Foundations of Fluid Mechanics with Applications: Problem...2023-02-1600 minOn the Evidence88 | Helping Job Seekers with Low Incomes During Recessions and RecoveriesThe latest episode of Mathematica’s On the Evidence podcast looks at proven ways to help job seekers with low incomes during economic recessions and recoveries. Guests Tyreese Nicolas, Kimberly Clum, and Alex Stanczyk share insights from the Pathways to Work Evidence Clearinghouse, a publicly available website about interventions designed to help job seekers with low incomes. They also discuss what the evidence says about the effectiveness of these interventions.
Nicolas served as an assistant director of employment services at the Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance for four years and recently became the Deputy Commissioner of Family Access and Engagement in...2023-02-1537 minOn the Evidence87 | A Conversation with Mathematica’s 2022 Summer FellowsEvery year, early-career scholars join Mathematica for a summer to work on independent research related to improving public well-being. As prospective applicants weigh whether to submit an application by the Feb. 28 deadline for the 2023 Summer Fellowship program, Mathematica’s On the Evidence podcast spoke with last year’s fellows (Jennifer Kirk, Katherine Engel, and Adrienne Jones) about their experience working with Mathematica staff, the policy implications of their research, why they’re interested in applied research, and what they plan to do after defending their dissertations.
Learn more about the Mathematica Summer Fellowship, which is accepting applications for 2023 fellows through the en...2023-02-0144 minOn the Evidence86 | The Present & Future of Computational Social SciencePrinceton professor Matthew Salganik’s book, Bit by Bit, explores the merging worlds of computer science and social science for timely, policy relevant research in the 21st century. In the book, he shows how traditional research techniques in the social sciences can sometimes be combined with digital tools and big data to generate high-quality evidence on a larger scale, in less time, and at a much lower cost. On the five-year anniversary of his book’s release, Salganik, who is also a member of Mathematica’s Board of Directors, spoke with On the Evidence about the book’s legacy and the evol...2023-01-1858 minOn the Evidence85 | Human Services Agencies Pursue Environmental JusticeOn the latest episode of Mathematica’s On the Evidence podcast, guests Michael A. Becketts, Tracy Wareing Evans, Shavana Howard, and Matt Stagner make the case for state and local human services agencies to play a central role in the response to climate change.
Becketts is the director of the Fairfax County Department of Family Services; Wareing Evans is the President and Chief Executive Officer at American Public Human Services Association; Howard is an assistant secretary for the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services; and Stagner is a vice president at Mathematica.
They explain how the field of human se...2023-01-0553 minOn the Evidence84 | Advancing Equity and Addressing the Climate Crisis in 2022, the Year of Evidence for ActionFor the final episode of 2022, we continue our annual tradition of inviting guests to reflect on Mathematica’s work with its partners in advancing equity, addressing the climate crisis, improving public well-being, and the role that evidence played in it. This year’s guests are Nancy Murray, Jill Constantine, and Chris Trenholm, who oversee Mathematica’s International, Human Services, and Health business units, respectively. On the episode, they discuss the following topics:
• Where they see signs of progress in the use of evidence
• The increasingly important role of evidence in understanding and addressing inequities
• Reasons to be optimistic about the growing use...2022-12-1653 minOn the Evidence83, Pt. 2 | Abigail Aiken on Using Research to Inform Abortion, Reproductive Health PolicyThe latest episode of Mathematica’s On the Evidence podcast features Abigail Aiken, the 22nd recipient of the David N. Kershaw Award and Prize.
In Part 1, as part of her acceptance speech at the Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management’s fall research conference, Aiken shares details about her personal and professional journey as a researcher in the area of evidence-based reproductive health policy. Listen to Part 1 here: https://soundcloud.com/ontheevidence/informing-reproductive-health-policies-with-timely-evidence-episode-83-part-1
A full transcript of the episode is available here: mathematica.org/blogs/abigail-aiken-on-using-research-to-inform-abortion-reproductive-health-policy
In Part 2, Aiken talks with On the Evidence host J.B. Wogan about how...2022-12-0832 minOn the Evidence83, Pt. 1 | Abigail Aiken on Using Research to Inform Abortion, Reproductive Health PolicyThe latest episode of Mathematica’s On the Evidence podcast features Abigail Aiken, the 22nd recipient of the David N. Kershaw Award and Prize.
In Part 1, as part of her acceptance speech at the Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management’s fall research conference, Aiken shares details about her personal and professional journey as a researcher in the area of evidence-based reproductive health policy.
A full transcript of the episode is available here: mathematica.org/blogs/abigail-aiken-on-using-research-to-inform-abortion-reproductive-health-policy
In Part 2, Aiken talks with On the Evidence host J.B. Wogan about how she ensures that her research informs the policy debate, even...2022-12-0844 minOn the Evidence82 | Confronting the Climate Crisis with Data and EvidenceClimate change represents the single most significant policy challenge in the 21st century. It is a multifaceted and global threat to society that affects a range of concerns, from the environment and food security to health and economic inequality. Recognizing the urgency of the threat, Mathematica recently established a climate change practice to help develop innovative and sustainable solutions that meet ambitious reduction goals for carbon dioxide emissions while helping vulnerable communities become more resilient.
On this episode of Mathematica’s On the Evidence podcast, Tulika Narayan, the company’s vice president for climate change, talks about how data and evid...2022-11-0929 minOn the Evidence81 | Addressing the Health Risks Posed by Extreme HeatOn this episode of On the Evidence, Don Berwick of the National Academy of Medicine’s Climate Collaborative, Tom DiLiberto of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and Aparna Keshaviah of Mathematica explore the risks that climate change and extreme heat pose to human health and how data can help inform solutions.
A full transcript of the episode is available here: https://www.mathematica.org/blogs/addressing-the-harmful-effects-of-climate-change-on-extreme-heat-and-human-health
Learn more about ClimaWATCH, an interactive online tool that can support communities seeking to understand and adapt to the local effects of heat waves on their residents’ health: https://mathematica.org/publications/climawatch-tool
Lear...2022-10-2047 minOn the Evidence80 | Lessons from Contact Tracing During the PandemicThis episode of On the Evidence explores lessons from contact tracing for COVID-19 that should inform current and future efforts to rebuild the public health field, particularly its workforce, after the public health emergency ends.
This episode features the following guests:
• Elinor Higgins, a policy associate at the National Academy for State Health Policy
• Shelley Fiscus, a pediatrician and senior policy consultant at the National Academy for State Health Policy
• Rachel Brash, a strategist in the Mayor’s Office of Employment Development who helped oversee the Baltimore Health Corps Initiative
• Shan-Tia Danielle, who worked as a contact tracer and led a team of...2022-10-0548 minOn the Evidence79 | Using Data Transparency to Control Hospital CostsOn this episode of On the Evidence, guests Gloria Sachdev of the Employers’ Forum of Indiana, Maureen Hensley-Quinn of the National Academy for State Health Policy, and Evelyn Li and Guru Rasukonda of Mathematica discuss the value of new online tools for making sense of large sets of hospital cost and pricing data being made available in response to new federal regulations.
A full transcript of the episode is available here: https://www.mathematica.org/blogs/using-data-transparency-to-control-hospital-costs
Explore Sage Transparency, a free online tool developed by the Employers’ Forum of Indiana and Mathematica. The tool draws on data from the RAND...2022-09-2151 minOn the Evidence78 | Addressing the Cash Cliff in Safety Net Programs: Lessons from a National DemonstrationAcross many safety net programs, workers with low income and their families face the threat of a sudden and unexpected loss of benefits if their earnings increase too much, sometimes resulting in a net decrease in overall income. Policymakers have long worried that the phenomenon, often described as the cash or benefits cliff, discourages work and reinforces dependence on public assistance. Over the past decade, the Social Security Administration has launched two national demonstrations intended to mitigate this so-called cash cliff effect in the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program.
The latest episode of On the Evidence explores the results...2022-06-2956 minOn the Evidence77 | Addressing a Primary Care Workforce CrisisThe latest episode of On the Evidence, the Mathematica podcast, explores the primary care workforce crisis, a complex and long-standing problem that was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Guests Sue Lin, Luci Leykum, Julie Schilz, and Diane Rittenhouse discuss recent research on the nature of the problem as well as evidence-based solutions for strengthening primary care.
Lin is the deputy office director of the Office of Quality Improvement within the Bureau of Primary Health Care at the Health Resources and Services Administration.
Leykum is a professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at the Dell Medical School at the University...2022-06-0857 minOn the Evidence76 | The Costs of Untreated Maternal Mental Health ConditionsIn honor of Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week, Mathematica’s podcast, On the Evidence, explores recent research on the societal costs of perinatal mood and anxiety disorders. These disorders—which can include depression, suicidal thoughts, and panic attacks—affect women and birthing people during pregnancy and the postpartum period. Although these disorders are common, they often go undiagnosed and untreated, which can negatively affect the long-term physical, emotional, and developmental health of the birthing parent and child.
On this episode, Mathematica’s Kara Zivin, The Commonwealth Fund’s Laurie Zephyrin, and Texans Care for Children’s Adriana Kohler discuss the societal cos...2022-05-0453 minOn the Evidence75 | Human Services Adapted During the Pandemic. What Will Stick?The COVID-19 pandemic prompted human services agencies to rethink how they engage with clients and how they address persistent stress and trauma experienced by their own staff.
On this episode of On the Evidence, Mathematica’s J.B. Wogan and Diana McCallum discuss how human services agencies have adapted during the pandemic. The episode also includes insights from Kataney Couamin and Andrea Barnum, who work at local agencies providing workforce services, as well as Mathematica’s Jonathan McCay and The Adjacent Possible’s Michelle Derr, who have provided research and evaluation technical assistance to state, tribal, and local agencies that admini...2022-04-2744 minOn the Evidence74 | Globalizing Evidence-Based Solutions for an Interdependent WorldAs the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change demonstrate, in an increasingly interdependent world, communities across the globe face shared challenges and need shared solutions. In the latest episode of On the Evidence, Adam Coyne, Chris Boyd, and Respichius Deogratias Mitti discuss the changing role of data and evidence in supporting decisions to improve well-being in a more interconnected world.
Coyne oversaw international research at Mathematica for most of the past two years and currently serves as the company’s chief growth officer. Boyd is the managing director of EDI Global, a data collection and research organization focused on East Africa th...2022-03-1644 minOn the Evidence73 | Ensuring Equity as Wastewater Testing for COVID-19 Matures in the United StatesSewage has proven to be a valuable source of real-time SARS-CoV-2 data during the COVID-19 pandemic, giving public officials insights into the health of their community without relying on individuals getting tested. But as wastewater monitoring expands, local officials and their research partners are increasingly interested in how wastewater testing might also advance or hinder equity.
On this episode of On the Evidence, guests Dr. Na’Taki Osborne Jelks, Dr. Otakuye Conroy-Ben, and Aparna Keshaviah discuss the challenges of and opportunities for ensuring an equitable approach to wastewater monitoring and the importance of representation from historic Black neighborhoods, Indigenous communities, an...2022-03-0244 minOn the Evidence72 | Bayesian Methods Could Provide the Key to Answering Which Policies Work Best for WhomOn this episode of On the Evidence, Mathematica’s Mariel Finucane and John Deke join Tim Day of the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation to discuss the application of evidence-informed Bayesian methods that not only confirm whether a policy or program works, but for whom.
Learn more about Mathematica's work using evidence-based Bayesian methods in applied policy research: https://mathematica.org/features/bayesian-methods
Read a brief about using a Bayesian framework for interpreting findings from impact evaluations prepared by Mariel Finucane and John Deke for the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation at the Administration for Children and Families: mathematica.or...2022-02-161h 08On the Evidence71 | The Role of Evidence in Local Spending of Pandemic Fiscal Relief FundsLast year’s American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) was the largest one-time federal investment in state, local, and Tribal governments in the past century, and it included $350 billion meant for governments to respond to and recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. State, local, and Tribal governments have wide latitude in how they can spend the money, including the use of evaluation and data management tools that can improve the efficacy of public health and economic assistance programs.
On the latest episode of On the Evidence, guests Zachary Markovits, Candace Miller, and Christy McFarland discuss the role that data and evidence are pl...2022-02-0254 minOn the Evidence70 | Preventing Cardiovascular Disease and Promoting Equity in Higher EdOn this episode of On the Evidence, Temitope Ojo and Katlyn Lee Milless discuss their experience with the Mathematica Summer Fellowship in 2021. Ojo is a doctoral candidate at the NYU School of Global Public Health. Her research focuses on implementation science as well as the prevention and management of cardiovascular disease and other non-communicable diseases in a global setting.
Milless is a doctoral candidate in basic and applied social psychology at the Graduate Center of The City University of New York. Her research takes a psychological approach to understanding how to promote gender and racial equity in education spaces, particularly...2022-01-1942 minOn the Evidence69 | Understanding the Equity and Justice Dimensions of Energy Policy DecisionsIn her research, Sanya Carley examines the effects of energy policies, including their equity and justice implications.
In a new episode of On the Evidence, Carley discusses her increased interest in understanding the human element of energy policy decisions: Who makes policy decisions, who benefits from those decisions, and who does not.
Carley is a professor at the Paul O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University, where she directs the Master of Public Affairs (MPA) Program and O'Neill Online MPA Program. In the fall of 2021, she was selected to be the 21st recipient of the David N...2022-01-0536 minOn the Evidence68 | Reflecting on Evidence and Insights in 2021 and the Year AheadBetween a pandemic, an uneven economic recovery, ongoing concerns about societal inequities, and increasingly troubling signs of climate change’s impacts, decision makers in 2021 faced an acute need for timely and reliable evidence about what works to address a range of health and social challenges. In this episode of On the Evidence, Mathematica’s Adam Coyne, Jill Constantine, and Chris Trenholm reflect on the role that evidence played in responding to pressing challenges in the past year and preview how evidence may help address problems in the year ahead.
Coyne, Constantine, and Trenholm are the general managers of Mathematica’s Intern...2021-12-161h 08On the Evidence67 | Advancing Racial Equity in Fatherhood ProgramsThe latest episode of On the Evidence focuses on the ways that racism and inequity within human services programs affect fathers and families, and how adopting a more inclusive father engagement strategy can benefit children, fathers, and their families.
Today, federal and state governments, as well as foundations and nonprofits, are emphasizing the importance of understanding the role of racism in American institutions and policies. In partnership with the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Mathematica has been gathering information on what works in engaging fathers...2021-12-0145 minOn the Evidence66 | Removing Barriers to Child Care for Parents in Education and Training ProgramsIn the United States, education and training programs are available to help adults with low incomes secure better jobs and earn higher wages. But, of an estimated 21 million parents with low incomes nationwide, only about 1 in 10 participated in such programs. One reason the participation rate isn’t higher? Inadequate supply of affordable and convenient child care options.
The lack of child is a major barrier for parents with low incomes who want to engage in training, acquire new skills, increase their earnings, and advance their careers. In 2016 the U.S. Department of Labor launched a five-year federal grant program called th...2021-11-2328 minOn the Evidence65 | Learning from Foundations' Push to Advance Equity through EvidenceAlthough researchers play an important role in making progress on equitable research, they are one part of a broader ecosystem of people and organizations who make research possible and use research findings to change policies, programs, and practices to improve people’s lives. On this episode of On the Evidence, we focus on the role of funders, particularly those in the philanthropic sector, as early proponents and adopters of culturally responsive and equitable research in social programs. Our guests for this episode are Mindelyn Anderson and Kimberlin Butler.
Anderson is a sociologist who has studied social inequality and stratification, race an...2021-11-0449 minOn the Evidence64 | Lessons from a National Health Initiative that Helps Address Social NeedsOn this episode of On the Evidence, we focus on a national initiative aimed at addressing social needs like housing or food insecurity that affect a person's health. Specifically, we discuss a screening tool for health-related social needs. The screening tool stems from the Accountable Health Communities Model, a nationwide initiative funded by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Innovation Center. Mathematica developed, on CMS’s behalf, a guide to help health care providers administer the screening tool.
Our guests for this episode are Natalia Barolín from CMS; Maureen Kirkwood and Rafael Castañon of Health Net of West...2021-10-2749 minOn the Evidence63 | Inside an Initiative to Diversify the Field of Computational Social ScienceOn this episode of On the Evidence, we focus on a creative initiative designed to build a more diverse pipeline of researchers who use methods and tools from data science and social science. Earlier this year, Howard University and Mathematica sponsored a free, two-week training for graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and beginning faculty in the fields of data science and social science. The training was part of a broader instructional program held at 20 sites across the globe called the Summer Institutes in Computational Social Science (SICSS). The Howard-Mathematica SICSS was unique in that it was the first site to be...2021-10-1333 minOn the Evidence62 | Improving the College and Career Readiness of High School Students with DisabilitiesOn this episode of On the Evidence, we focus on a demonstration in Vermont evaluated by Mathematica intended to help high school students with disabilities transition to college and the workforce.
In 2016, the Rehabilitation Services Administration, part of the U.S. Department of Education, awarded grants to state vocational rehabilitation agencies to build on the body of knowledge about what works to help young people transition from high school to adulthood. States had to identify and demonstrate evidence-based practices for providing work-based learning experiences in integrated settings. Mathematica evaluated the resulting demonstration in Vermont called Linking Learning to Careers.
On...2021-09-2243 minOn the Evidence61 | Anita Summers on a Pioneering Career in Economics and Public Policy ResearchOur guest for this episode of On the Evidence is Anita Summers, a former member of Mathematica's Board of Directors and a pioneer in the fields of economics and public policy research. Summer's career includes research posts with the National Bureau of Economic Research, Standard Oil, and the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. During her time at the Federal Reserve, she developed expertise in urban economic development and education. Summers has held a variety of academic appointments, including as a professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where she started the first public policy department in a...2021-09-0847 minOn the Evidence60 | Lessons from a Successful Medicare Program Integrity DemonstrationAlmost seven years ago, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) launched an initiative to test a possible solution to improper use of ambulance rides, long cited as a major source of waste and abuse in the Medicare program. The idea was pretty simple: Require companies that provide patients with repetitive, scheduled, non-emergent ambulance transport (RSNAT) for certain types of health care, such as dialysis or cancer treatments, to get prior authorization from CMS before providing service and submitting a claim for payment.
Mathematica evaluated impacts of the initiative, which was implemented in the District of Columbia and eight states...2021-08-1735 minOn the Evidence59 | Lessons from Southwest Detroit's Efforts to Support Informal Child CareFive years ago, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, in partnership with the Kresge Foundation, launched Hope Starts Here, a community-focused, citywide initiative aimed at ensuring that all children in Detroit are prepared for kindergarten by increasing access to high quality early care and education.
As part of the citywide initiative, Mathematica, with financial support from the Kellogg Foundation, worked to implement promising strategies to enhance the quality of informal child care, which is defined as unlicensed care provided by family, friends, and neighbors. Outside of care provided by a parent, informal child care is the most common form of care...2021-08-1131 minOn the Evidence58 | Learning from an Early Childhood Nonprofit that Serves FathersAll over the country, federally funded Head Start programs promote the school readiness of young children ages birth through five from families with low incomes. These programs provide early education and a range of comprehensive services at no cost to the family. Although Head Start programs have historically empowered parents to be involved in their children’s learning and development, it’s been more common for mothers to be the focus of those efforts. Realizing the important role that fathers play in their children’s development and the family’s well-being, Head Start is increasingly working to engage fathers in program...2021-06-2340 minOn the Evidence57| Your Contact Tracing Workforce Can Drive Equity and Mitigate Infectious Disease RisksContact tracing is an important public health tool for containing the spread of disease, including COVID-19. But contact tracers are effective only if they can persuade people to answer questions about recent whereabouts and who else might have been exposed. Contact tracers are more likely to be successful in their outreach if they and the people they are contacting have similar backgrounds. Currently, no one collects and reports information on the composition of the COVID-19 workforce in communities across the country, making it difficult to know whether the workforce could be more effective with focused recruitment strategies. However, a partnership...2021-05-1238 minOn the Evidence56 | How Fatherhood Programs Supported Dads During the PandemicIn partnership with the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Mathematica has been gathering information on what works in engaging fathers across a wide range of human services programs, with the goal of helping fathers and families thrive. The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted many of the typical ways organizations support fathers and their families, but it has also provided motivation to be creative, to adapt, and to experiment with digital services that have certain advantages in helping fathers meet their goals over traditional in-person services.
On...2021-04-2824 minOn the Evidence55 | A Conversation about Diversity, Equity, and JusticeOn this episode of On the Evidence, guests Patricia A. King, LaVerne H. Council, and Akira Bell discuss diversity in evidence-based public policy and how it relates to issues of inclusion and justice. They are all members of Mathematica's Board of Directors who recently helped develop the company's aspirational vision that by 2035, "Mathematica is shaping an equitable and just world in which evidence drives decisions for global impact." They bring unique perspectives as Black women who are leaders in the fields of law, medicine, and technology.
Patricia is a professor emerita at Georgetown Law. LaVerne is a founder and the...2021-04-2150 minOn the Evidence54 | The Value and Feasibility of COVID-19 Testing in K-12 SchoolsIn late March, the Biden administration announced that it was investing $10 billion to ramp up COVID-19 screening testing to help schools reopen. The expansion of screening tests in schools follows a February report from Mathematica that drew lessons from the experiences of six pilot sites that implemented COVID-19 testing in schools. These pilot programs—in Central Falls, Rhode Island; Los Angeles, California; Tulsa, Oklahoma; New Orleans, Louisiana; Louisville, Kentucky; and Washington, DC—were conducted with support from the Rockefeller Foundation, the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy, and Johns Hopkins University. The report provided insights about the acceptability, feasibility, and effectiveness of a...2021-03-3144 minOn the Evidence53 | Using Evidence to Guide Employment Assistance Strategies during and after the PandemicMarch 2021 marks the one-year anniversary of the World Health Organization officially declaring the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. The disease we’ve come to know as COVID-19 has now infected more than 28 million Americans and led to at least half a million deaths in the United States. COVID-19 has also incurred serious damage to the nation’s economy. In February, the number of unemployed persons was 10 million, up from 5.7 million a year earlier.
On this episode of On the Evidence, guests George Putnam, Dana Rotz, and Naihobe Gonzalez discuss the current distressed economy and evidence-based ideas about how to help workers who...2021-03-1040 minOn the Evidence52 | Supporting Economic Mobility Through Coaching and NavigationNearly a year after COVID-19 took root in the United States, Americans are still dealing with the pandemic’s economic fallout. In January 2021, more than 10 million Americans were unemployed, up from roughly 5.8 million a year earlier. On this episode of On the Evidence, four guests discuss an increasingly popular approach for helping people find jobs and achieve other, related goals that provide economic security, such as getting a GED, buying a car, and improving a credit score. The approach combines two related services called coaching and navigation.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation partnered with Mathematica to better understand what coaching an...2021-02-2427 minOn the Evidence51 | Modeling the Spread of COVID-19 on College CampusesOn this episode of On the Evidence, guests Ravi Goyal and Natasha Martin share lessons from using an agent-based model to predict the spread of COVID-19 in a university setting. Goyal is a senior statistician at Mathematica who has an expertise in epidemic modeling. Martin is an infectious disease economic modeler and an associate professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases and Global Public Health at the University of California San Diego. They recently collaborated on a project that estimated the potential impact of masking, social distancing, and regular testing on the spread of COVID-19 at UC San Diego.
Learn...2021-01-2739 minOn the Evidence50 | Reflecting on 2020, Previewing 2021Between a pandemic, an economic recession, and heightened awareness about social injustice, 2020 presented no shortage of urgent health and social challenges that required immediate responses based on emerging data and research. In this episode of On the Evidence, Mathematica’s Adam Coyne, Jill Constantine, and Chris Trenholm reflect on how Mathematica and its partners rose to meet those challenges.
Coyne, Constantine, and Trenholm are the general managers of Mathematica’s international, human services, and health business units, respectively. The episode features short interviews with each of them as they share some of Mathematica’s most memorable work from the past year...2021-01-1344 minOn the Evidence49 | A One-Stop Shop for Information about State Approaches to COVID-19 Contact TracingIn early spring, states were scrambling to learn from one another how to scale up contact tracing for COVID-19. Staff at Mathematica and the National Academy of State Health Policy (NASHP) recognized that states needed a single place to find accurate, up-to-date publicly available information about the decisions that other states were making in response to the pandemic.
To help states as they develop and refine their approaches to contact tracing, NASHP and Mathematica partnered to create and maintain a central repository that reflects publicly available information about how states approach this work. NASHP hosts an interactive map and table...2020-12-0923 minOn the Evidence48 | Maternal Health Care in India during and after the PandemicFor more than two decades, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation supported evidence-based programs in India that promote reproductive health and rights. As the foundation phased out its grantmaking related to population and reproductive health, it partnered with Mathematica to conduct a cumulative review of its efforts to improve maternal health in India.
The foundation’s maternal health quality of care strategy in India sought to improve the trajectory of health for women, children, and their families. Although the country had already made considerable progress in expanding access to maternal health services and, in the process, driving down th...2020-11-2536 minOn the Evidence47 | Investing in Education for Success in the Long RunIn his research, Kirabo Jackson, an economist at Northwestern University, has explored the causal relationship between school spending and student outcomes. His work has also shed light on the role that teachers and schools play in helping students acquire skills and succeed in the long run.
Jackson is the 20th winner of the David N. Kershaw Award and Prize, established to recognize young professionals under the age of 40 who have made distinguished contributions to the field of public policy. David Kershaw, for whom the award is named, was a founder and the first president of Mathematica. In the spring of 1979...2020-11-1133 minOn the Evidence40 | Two Lifelong Friends Explore Their Shared Past and Racial DifferencesIn early June, as communities across the country organized protests against racism in all its forms, Mathematica released a statement denouncing social injustice and affirming that black lives matter. This episode provides insight behind why Mathematica's CEO wanted to make that statement. It's also about how the events in late May and early June prompted two lifelong friends to talk about race in ways they hadn’t before.
The guests for this episode are Paul Decker and Chris Williams. Decker is the president and CEO of Mathematica. Williams is the founder of OnPacePlus and the chief of ophthalmology at Crozer-Chester Me...2020-07-2955 minOn the Evidence38 | Health Policy Research, Racism, and a PandemicBefore March 2020, a search for the keyword “coronavirus” would have turned up zero results on Mathematica’s website. Now the word and its sibling, COVID-19, appear in more than two dozen pages about contact tracing, wastewater testing, disease modeling, workforce planning, and more.
Owing to the wide-ranging effects of the novel coronavirus, Mathematica’s experts have sprung into action to understand its implications for primary care, child protective services, behavioral health, remote learning in K-12 education, surging unemployment among workers with disabilities, and food insecurity among children who no longer have access to daily school meals. Although the pandemic is touching...2020-07-0126 minOn the Evidence37 | Addressing Structural Racism in Policy ResearchIn early 2019, the Urban Institute published a brief about addressing structural racism through research and policy analysis. The paper summarizes lessons, promising practices, and recommendations previously discussed in a roundtable with 23 research groups. At the time of publication, the paper’s authors did not know that communities across the country would soon be organizing protests against structural racism in the wake of a recent string of high-profile incidents in which people of color were killed by law enforcement, occurring during a pandemic that disproportionately harms Black and Latinx Americans.
Nevertheless, the brief might find new readers in the policy research fi...2020-06-1930 minOn the Evidence35 | Oakland’s Life Coaching Strategy to Address Youth ViolenceOn this episode of On the Evidence, we discuss life coaching, a violence reduction strategy being used by the city of Oakland, California, to help young people who have been involved with the juvenile justice system. Mathematica studied youth life coaching as part of a larger evaluation of Oakland Unite, a city initiative that supports community-based violence prevention programs.
We interviewed the following guests:
Peter Kim, manager of Oakland Unite
Naihobe Gonzalez, senior researcher at Mathematica
Kentrell Killens, a former life coach with Oakland Unite
Anayeli Vega Gonzalez, a participant in the life coaching program
Another life coach participant who...2020-05-1327 minOn the Evidence33 | Culturally Responsive Education During the COVID-19 PandemicAs schools close in order to contain the spread of COVID-19, some students are in a better position to continue learning from home than others. Even when students aren’t grappling with the fallout of a pandemic, they face disparities in their educational experiences and opportunities due to their differences in family income, differences in racial, ethnic, or other important demographic characteristics, and differences in access to technology. Some state and local education leaders are proactively adopting culturally responsive practices to dismantle social and institutional barriers that inhibit student success.
For this episode of On the Evidence, a principal and an...2020-04-081h 02On the Evidence32 | Can Algorithms Be Fair, Transparent, and Protect Children?As technology improves organizations’ ability to collect, manage, and analyze data, it’s becoming easier to inform public policy decisions today in a range of areas, from health care to criminal justice, based on estimated risks in the future. On this episode of On the Evidence, I talk with three researchers who work with child welfare agencies in the United States to use algorithms—or, what they call predictive risk models—to inform decisions by case managers and their supervisors.
My guests are Rhema Vaithianathan, Emily Putnam-Hornstein, and Beth Weigensberg.
Vaithianathan is a professor of economics and director of the Centre f...2020-03-2543 minOn the Evidence30 | Customized Employment for Workers with DisabilitiesSince the early 2000s, federal policy has encouraged customized employment strategies to help people with significant disabilities secure paid jobs. Through customized employment, the relationship between the job seeker and employer is personalized so that the needs of both are met through negotiation of the worker’s job duties and flexible work arrangements. About eight years ago, the nonprofit SourceAmerica launched a new program called Pathways to Careers that combined several types of customized employment strategies, such as an assessment of program participants’ strengths (called Discovery), paid internships and work experiences, and post-employment career support. Pathways started with a pilot site...2020-02-2629 minOn the Evidence28 | What the Next Generation of Policy Researchers Is StudyingEvery summer, Mathematica welcomes a handful of doctoral students to spend 12 weeks at one of our nine office locations, working on an independent research project that intersects with one or more of Mathematica's focus areas. On this episode of On the Evidence, we feature six short interviews with the 2019 summer fellows about the research questions they pursued and what they have learned so far. In most cases, the fellows are joined by a mentor from Mathematica.
Find more information about Mathematica's summer fellowship program here: https://www.mathematica.org/career-opportunities/summer-fellowships
What factors influence individuals' long-term care decisions?
Guests: Selena...2020-01-291h 18On the Evidence27 | Child Food Insecurity and Home Delivered Food BoxesThe federal government funds a variety of national nutrition programs to combat hunger among children and families, and yet roughly 37 million Americans were food insecure in 2018, and 6 million of them were children, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
In some parts of the country, food insecurity is made worse by a lack of accessible and affordable options. That is, if you live in a rural area with limited public transportation and no major supermarkets nearby, you may rely on smaller retailers with limited produce, higher prices, and lower quality food compared with a larger store that is...2020-01-0826 minOn the Evidence25 | Soda Taxes in U.S. CitiesSince 2015, a handful of U.S. cities have begun taxing soda and other sugar-sweetened beverages. With funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, economists from Mathematica, the University of Iowa, and Cornell University studied the impacts of those taxes on purchases, consumption, prices, and product availability. The project was the first to publish results on changes in children's consumption in U.S. cities with a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages. It was also the first to publish results on impacts from Oakland's beverage tax.
For this episode of On the Evidence, we spoke with Dave Jones, an associate director in the...2019-12-1839 minOn the Evidence20 | Opioid Use by Disability Insurance ApplicantsSince 2007, the Social Security Administration has collected data on medication use among applicants for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI). The administration can then use the medication data to identify opioid use among SSDI applicants. But the data set is so large and the data themselves are unstructured, with the majority of applicants reporting drug names in open-ended text fields, so the agency couldn't use the information to inform policy and programs.
On this episode of On the Evidence, we talk with April Yanyuan Wu, a researcher at Mathematica, who used supervised machine learning to uncover new insights based on those...2019-11-0920 minOn the Evidence17 | Embracing the Emotional Aspects of Policy ResearchAs social scientists set out to investigate public policy questions, it is vital that they take into account the history of issues and the way people’s emotions will shape interpretations and responses to research findings. That’s the message that Mathematica’s Matt Stagner hopes to convey in his presidential address at a fall research conference hosted by the Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management (APPAM) in Denver.
On the Evidence interviewed Stagner about his upcoming address, his work on child welfare, and his reflections on the field of public policy research. This interview is part of a series of epi...2019-10-3021 min
On the Evidence8 | To Help Philadelphia’s Workforce, This Nonprofit Had to Take a Look at Itself FirstA few years ago, staff at Philadelphia Works, the city’s Workforce Development Board, decided that they wanted an outsider’s perspective to assess their workforce system and to assist them with more effectively helping residents. They partnered with Mathematica to study and address issues keeping them from providing the most effective services in the most efficient way possible.
In this episode of On the Evidence, we take a look at early efforts to redesign and streamline the daily operations of the city’s workforce system, starting with a cash assistance program for work-ready adults called the Employment, Advancement and Retent...2019-05-2228 min
On the EvidenceMathematica Launches New Podcast: On the EvidenceThe show will investigate and promote the use of data and evidence to address social challenges through conversations with pioneers in their fields.
Find condensed Q&As based on each episode here: https://www.mathematica-mpr.com/on-the-evidence-podcast2019-02-0602 min
On the EvidenceInnovations in care coordination and supports for people with disabilitiesIn this episode of Mathematica’s “Policy in Perspective” podcast, listen to Mathematica Senior Fellows, James Verdier and Carol Irvin, discuss policy challenges and innovations in providing coordinated care and community supports to people with disabilities and frail older adults. This work supports the contributions of Mathematica’s Center for Studying Disability Policy to the evidence on today’s most critical issues in disability policy.2017-02-2210 min
Gov Innovator PodcastMaking rigorous program evaluation easier with RCT-YES software: An interview with Peter Schochet, Fellow, Mathematica Policy Research – Episode #137Public leaders — whether they’re helping run a state agency, a school system, a hospital, a set of Head Start centers or any other organization — are likely to implement changes over time, whether it’s adjusting programs or adding new services. Maybe it’s a new curriculum for students in a school district or new intake procedure for patients in a hospital. Whatever the change, how can those leaders determine if the change is actually effective?
Our focus today is new software, called RCT-YES, designed to help public leaders (and the researchers who work with them) answer that question. It was funde...2016-08-1910 min
Mathematik, Informatik und Statistik - Open Access LMU - Teil 01/03Symbolic Maximum Likelihood Estimation with MathematicaMathematica is a symbolic programming language that empowers the user to undertake complicated algebraic tasks. One such task is the derivation of maximum likelihood estimators, demonstrably an important topic in statistics at both the research and expository level. In this paper, a Mathematica package is provided that contains a function entitled SuperLog. This function utilises pattern-matching code that enhances Mathematica's ability to simplify expressions involving the natural logarithm of a product of algebraic terms. This enhancement to Mathematica's functionality can be of particular benefit for maximum likelihood estimation.1999-01-0100 min