Health Status, Insurance, and Expenditures in the Transition from Work to Retirement

This paper analyzes the dynamics of health insurance coverage, health expenditures, and health status in the decade expanding from 1992 to 2002, for a cohort of older Americans. We follow 13,594 individuals interviewed in Waves 1 to 6 of the Health and Retirement Study, most of whom were born between 1930 and 1940, as they transition from work into retirement. Although this “depression cohort” is by and large fairly well prepared for retirement in terms of pension coverage and savings, we identify significant gaps in their health insurance coverage, especially among the most disadvantaged members of this cohort. We find that government health insurance programs—particularly Medicare and Medicaid—significantly reduce the number of individuals who are uninsured and the risks of large out of pocket health care costs. However, prior to retirement large numbers of these respondents were uninsured, nearly 18% at the first survey in 1992. Moreover, a much larger share, about 55% of this cohort, are transitorily uninsured, that is, they experience one or more spells, lasting from several months to several years, without health insurance coverage. We also identify a much smaller group of persistently uninsured individuals, and show that this group has significantly less wealth, and higher rates of poverty, unemployment, and health problems, disability, and higher mortality rates than the rest of the members of the cohort under study. We provide evidence that lack of health insurance coverage is correlated with reduced utilization of health care services; for example, respondents with no health insurance visit the doctor one fourth as often as those with private insurance and are also more likely to report declines in health status. We also analyze the components of out of pocket health care costs, and show that prescription drug costs constituted a rapidly rising share of the overall cost of health care during the period of analysis.

Classical limit for the scattering of Dirac particles in a magnetic field

We present a relativistic quantum calculation at first order in perturbation theory of the differential cross section for a Dirac particle scattered by a solenoidal magnetic field. The resulting cross section is symmetric in the scattering angle as those obtained by Aharonov and Bohm (AB) in the string limit and by Landau and Lifshitz (LL) for the non relativistic case. We show that taking pr_0\|sin(\theta/2)|/\hbar<<1 in our expression of the differential cross section it reduces to the one reported by AB, and if additionally we assume \theta << 1 our result becomes the one obtained by LL. However, these limits are explicitly singular in \hbar as opposed to our initial result. We analyze the singular behavior in \hbar and show that the perturbative Planck's limit (\hbar -> 0) is consistent, contrarily to those of the AB and LL expressions. We also discuss the scattering in a uniform and constant magnetic field, which resembles some features of QCD

The Rare Decay D^0 -> gamma gamma

We present a calculation of the rare decay mode D^0 -> gamma gamma, in which the long distance contributions are expected to be dominant. Using the Heavy Quark Chiral Perturbation Theory Lagrangian with a strong g coupling as recently determined by CLEO from the D^* -> D pi width, we consider both the anomaly contribution which relates to the annihilation part of the weak Lagrangian and the one-loop pi, K diagrams. The loop contributions which are proportional to g and contain the a_1 Wilson coefficient are found to dominate the decay amplitude, which turns out to be mainly parity violating. The branching ratio is then calculated to be (1.0+-0.5)x10^(-8). Observation of an order of magnitude larger branching ratio could be indicative of new physics.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures, additional reference and several remarks added, results unchange

Neutral Higgs bosons in the MNMSSM with explicit CP violation

Within the framework of the minimal non-minimal supersymmetric standard model (MNMSSM) with tadpole terms, CP violation effects in the Higgs sector are investigated at the one-loop level, where the radiative corrections from the loops of the quark and squarks of the third generation are taken into account. Assuming that the squark masses are not degenerate, the radiative corrections due to the stop and sbottom quarks give rise to CP phases, which trigger the CP violation explicitly in the Higgs sector of the MNMSSM. The masses, the branching ratios for dominant decay channels, and the total decay widths of the five neutral Higgs bosons in the MNMSSM are calculated in the presence of the explicit CP violation. The dependence of these quantities on the CP phases is quite recognizable, for given parameter values.Comment: 25 pages, 8 figure

Higgs Boson Masses in the Complex NMSSM at One-Loop Level

The Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Extension of the Standard Model (NMSSM) with a Higgs sector containing five neutral and two charged Higgs bosons allows for a rich phenomenology. In addition, the plethora of parameters provides many sources of CP violation. In contrast to the Minimal Supersymmetric Extension, CP violation in the Higgs sector is already possible at tree-level. For a reliable understanding and interpretation of the experimental results of the Higgs boson search, and for a proper distinction of Higgs sectors provided by the Standard Model or possible extensions, the Higgs boson masses have to be known as precisely as possible including higher-order corrections. In this paper we calculate the one-loop corrections to the neutral Higgs boson masses in the complex NMSSM in a Feynman diagrammatic approach adopting a mixed renormalization scheme based on on-shell and $\bar{DR}$ conditions. We study various scenarios where we allow for tree-level CP-violating phases in the Higgs sector and where we also study radiatively induced CP violation due to a non-vanishing phase of the trilinear coupling $A_t$ in the stop sector. The effects on the Higgs boson phenomenology are found to be significant. We furthermore estimate the theoretical error due to unknown higher-order corrections by both varying the renormalization scheme of the top and bottom quark masses and by adopting different renormalization scales. The residual theoretical error can be estimated to about 10%

Nitrogen budget of Short Rotation forests amended with digestate in highly permeable soils

Bioenergy crops are a promising option for integrating fossil fuels and achieving European environmental targets. Among these, Short Rotation Forestry (SRF) crops and biogas plants have been considered an opportunity for sustainable agricultural development due to their environmental benefits. In this case study, an N balance was performed by comparing an SRF Platanus hispanica plantation with a permanent meadow, both located in an area with highly permeable soils, using two different amounts of organic fertilization (digestate) for each system (0, 170 and 340 kg-N ha&minus;1 y&minus;1). The results obtained indicate that, in the presence of highly permeable soils, the SRF is not effective in retaining N during the initial stage of growth, despite the use of a suitable application rate of digestate. Higher N leaching rates occurred in SRF crops compared to permanent meadows. Moreover, the N potential removal rate did not vary proportionally with the applied dose of digestate. To avoid N leaching excess, the annual applied N should be not only within 170 kg-N ha&minus;1 y&minus;1 (Nitrate Directive legal limits for nitrate vulnerable zone) but should also follow precise and accurate distribution practices, like: controlled grassing between the tree rows and soil&rsquo;s minimum tillage immediately after the digestate spreading

Conductive Polymer Coatings Control Reaction Selectivity in All-Iron Redox Flow Batteries

Aqueous all-iron redox flow batteries are an attractive and economic technology for grid-scale energy storage owing to their use of abundant and environmentally benign iron as the redox active material and water as solvent. However, the battery operation is challenged by the plating/stripping reactions of iron and the competing hydrogen evolution reaction at the negative electrode, which hinder performance and durability. Here, the reaction selectivity of the negative electrode is tailored by introducing conductive polymer coatings onto porous carbonaceous electrodes. Two conductive polymers, poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) and poly(pyrrole) (PPy) are conformally coated with the dopant poly(4-styrenesulfonate) (PSS) and the resulting electrochemistry is studied on model electroanalytical platforms and redox flow batteries. Both polymers decrease the hydrogen evolution current on rotating disc electrodes, with PPy/PSS strongly inhibiting the reaction at high overpotentials. In full all-iron redox flow cells, PPy/PSS coating extends cyclability and significantly reduces hydrogen evolution, while PEDOT/PSS coating improves the round-trip efficiency, possibly acting as a redox shuttle for the iron stripping reaction. These findings motivate broader investigation and implementation of conductive polymers to engineer reaction selectivity for flow batteries and other electrochemical technologies.</p

Erratum: Genetic characterization of grape (Vitis vinifera L.) germplasm from Southeast Anatolia by SSR markers

Vitis 50 (3), 99-106 (2011

Erratum

Genetic characterization of grape (Vitis vinifera L.) germplasm from Southeast Anatolia by SSR markersVitis 50 (3), 99-106 (2011