Health inequalities after austerity in Greece.

Since the beginning of economic crisis, Greece has been experiencing unprecedented levels of unemployment and profound cuts to public budgets. Health and welfare sectors were subject to severe austerity measures, which have endangered provision of as well as access to services, potentially widening health inequality gap. European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions data show that the proportion of individuals on low incomes reporting unmet medical need due to cost doubled from 7 % in 2008 to 13.9 % in 2013, while the relative gap in access to care between the richest and poorest population groups increased almost ten-fold. In addition, austerity cuts have affected other vulnerable groups, such as undocumented migrants and injecting drug users. Steps have been taken in attempt to mitigate the impact of the austerity, however addressing the growing health inequality gap will require persistent effort of the country's leadership for years to come

The Study of Wishful Thinking Phenomenon in Patients with Personality Disorders

AbstractIn the article the problem of cognitive activity is discussed. It is associated with a decreased sensitivity to contradictions. The authors suggest the interpretation of the phenomenon of “wishful thinking”. This phenomenon can be observed among patients with personality disorders. For this purpose the method of “Contradictory statements” has been developed, which consists of proverbs and aphorisms on the subject of morality and human behavior regulation. In order to eliminate the influence of the general factor of intellectual development, in conjunction with established methodology tested the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale. The study results have shown that patients with histrionic (hysterical) personality disorder tend to ignore the contradictions in their judgments. One of the operational aspects of “wishful thinking” phenomenon associated with decreased sensitivity to contradictions and considered as specific cognitive style of patients with HPD

A Zero-Parameter Extension of General Relativity with Varying Cosmological Constant

We provide a new extension of general relativity (GR) which has the remarkable property of being more constrained than GR plus a cosmological constant, having one less free parameter. This is implemented by allowing the cosmological constant to have a consistent space-time variation, through coding its dynamics in the torsion tensor. We demonstrate this mechanism by adding a `quasi-topological' term to the Einstein action, which naturally realizes a dynamical torsion with an automatic satisfaction of the Bianchi identities. Moreover, variation of the action with respect to this dynamical $\Lambda$ fixes it in terms of other variables, thus providing a scenario with less freedom than general relativity with a cosmological constant. Once matter is introduced, at least in the homogeneous and isotropic reduction, $\Lambda$ is uniquely determined by the field content of the model. We make an explicit construction using the Palatini formulation of GR and describe the striking properties of this new theory. We also highlight some possible extensions to the theory. A companion paper [1] explores the Friedmann--Robertson--Walker reduction for cosmology, and future work will study Solar System tests of the theory.Comment: Companion paper to arXiv:1905.10382. Minor updates to match published versio

The cosmology of minimal varying Lambda theories

Inserting a varying Lambda in Einstein's field equations can be made consistent with the Bianchi identities by allowing for torsion, without the need to add scalar field degrees of freedom. In the minimal such theory, Lambda is totally free and undetermined by the field equations in the absence of matter. Inclusion of matter ties Lambda algebraically to it, at least when homogeneity and isotropy are assumed, i.e. when there is no Weyl curvature. We show that Lambda is proportional to the matter density, with a proportionality constant depending on the equation of state. Unfortunately, the proportionality constant becomes infinite for pure radiation, ruling out the minimal theory prima facie despite of its novel internal consistency. It is possible to generalize the theory still without the addition of kinetic terms, leading to a new algebraically-enforced proportionality between Lambda and the matter density. Lambda and radiation may now coexist in a form consistent with Big Bang Nucleosynthesis, though this places strict constraints on the single free parameter of the theory, $\theta$. In the matter epoch Lambda behaves just like a dark matter component. Its density is proportional to the baryonic and/or dark matter, and its presence and gravitational effects would need to be included in accounting for the necessary dark matter in our Universe. This is a companion paper to Ref. [1] where the underlying gravitational theory is developed in detail.Comment: Companion paper to arXiv:1905.10380. Minor updates to match published versio

Millimeter Wave Signals Detection by Means of Monocrystal Hexagonal Ferrite Ellipsoid

Stable nonlinear resonance effects (SNLREs) have been already studied in crystallographically isotropic ferrogarnet ferrite resonators (FR), employed as microwave detectors in the frequency range of 300 MHz to 30 GHz. Application of prospective hexagonal monocrystal ferrites with large field of crystallographic magnetic anisotropy leads to the possibility of a gyromagnetic converter (GC) design for mm waveband (from 30 to 200 GHz) without massive external magnets. This paper deals with the analysis of a more general case with taking into account both crystallographic and form anisotropy as well as the arbitrary orientation of the main crystallographic axis with respect to the constant field of external magnetization