Climate change, population ageing and public spending: Evidence on individual preferences

Economic theory, as well as empirical research, suggest that elderly people prefer public spending on policies yielding short-term benefits. This might be bad news for policies aimed at combating climate change: while the unavoidable costs of these policies arise today, the expected benefits occur in the distant future. Drawing on data from over 12,000 households and using the ordered logit and the generalized ordered logit model, we analyze whether attitudes towards climate change and climate policies, as well as public spending preferences, differ with respect to age. Our estimates show that elderly people are less concerned about climate change, but more concerned about other global challenges. Furthermore, they are less likely to support climate-friendly policies, such as the subsidization of renewables, and allocate less public resources to environmental policies. Thus, our results suggest that the ongoing demographic change in industrialized countries may undermine climate policies

An anatomical investigation of the stem and leaf of the South African species of Lycium L. (Solanaceae)

The anatomy of the leaf and stem of the eleven South African Lycium L. species is described and discussed. Owing to poor differentiation between palisade and spongy parenchyma the leaves are considered to be isobilateral. The most important diagnostic characteristic of the leaves is the trichomes. Short-stalked glandular trichomes with either globular or elongated heads are found on all the species and long-stalked glandular trichomes on L. pilifolium C.H. Wr. and L. hirsutum Dun. only. A non-glandular multicellular hair type is present on L. hirsutum only. Another less important diagnostic characteristic is the presence or absence of collenchyma on the adaxial and/or abaxial side of the main vascular bundle.No anatomical differences were found between the stems of the species examined. The vascular bundles are bicollateral with a well developed monofacial internal cambium. Phloem fibres are absent. Trichomes, similar to those present on the leaves, occur on the young stems

Locking of accessible information and implications for the security of quantum cryptography

The unconditional security of a quantum key distribution protocol is often defined in terms of the accessible information, that is, the maximum mutual information between the distributed key S and the outcome of an optimal measurement on the adversary's (quantum) system. We show that, even if this quantity is small, certain parts of the key S might still be completely insecure when S is used in applications, such as for one-time pad encryption. This flaw is due to a locking property of the accessible information: one additional (physical) bit of information might increase the accessible information by more than one bit.Comment: 5 pages; minor change

Diagnostic errors in clinical FDG-PET/CT

Purpose: To determine the frequency, types, and determinants of diagnostic errors in clinical FDG-PET/CT, based on addenda to the original report. Materials and Methods: This retrospective study included 4,099 consecutive clinical FDG-PET/CT scans with corresponding reports that were made at a tertiary care center in an 18-month period. FDG-PET/CT reports were scrutinized for the presence of an addendum enclosing a diagnostic error. Results: 90 of 4,099 FDG-PET/CT reports (2.2%) contained an addendum enclosing a diagnostic error. The distribution of perceptual and cognitive errors among these 90 diagnostic errors was 54 (60.0%)/36 (40.0%). On multivariate logistic regression analysis, only low-dose FDG-PET/CT combined with concomitantly acquired and interpreted full-dose contrast-enhanced CT remained as significantly and independently associated with the presence of a diagnostic error, relative to low-dose FDG-PET/CT without concomitantly acquired and interpreted full-dose contrast-enhanced CT (odds ratio: 2.79 [95% confidence interval: 1.61-4.851, P <0.001). Patient age, gender, hospital status, indication for FDG-PET/CT scanning, single vs. double reading (i.e. two medical imaging specialists), reader experience, and reading by a nuclear medicine physician only vs. reading by both a nuclear medicine physician and a radiologist, were not significantly and independently associated with the presence of a diagnostic error. Conclusion: Diagnostic errors in clinical FDG-PET/CT based on addenda to the original report are relatively infrequent, though certainly non-negligible. Perceptual errors are slightly more frequent than cognitive errors. The availability of a concomitantly acquired and interpreted full-dose contrast-enhanced CT seems to increase diagnostic error rate. These data can be used for quality improvement and benchmarking purposes