The welfare effects of nonlinear health dynamics

We generate a continuous measure of health to estimate a non-parametric model of health dynamics, showing that adverse health shocks are highly persistent when suffered by people in poor health. Canonical models cannot account for this pattern. We incorporate this health dynamic into a life-cycle model of consumption, savings, and labor force participation. After estimating the model parameters, we simulate the effects of health shocks on economic outcomes. We find that bad health shocks have long-term adverse economic effects that are more extreme for those in poor health. Furthermore, bad health shocks also increase the disparity of asset accumulation among this group of people. A canonical model of health dynamics would not reveal these effects

Photochromic polyurethanes showing a strong change of transparency and refractive index

Photochromic polymers have been studied as rewritable systems for optical elements with tunable transparency in the visible and refractive index in the NIR. Six diarylethene monomers have been synthesized to give thin films of photochromic polyurethanes. The absorption properties of the monomers in solution and of the corresponding polymeric films have been evaluated showing that a transparency contrast in the visible spectrum of the order of 103can be obtained by a suitable choice of the chemical structure and illumination wavelength. The change in the refractive index in the NIR have been determined by ellipsometry showing changes larger than 10-2. A trend of this variation with the absorption properties has been also highlighted. Fresnel lenses working on the basis of both a change of the transparency and the refractive index (amplitude and phase) have been demonstrated

Poverty, growth, inequality and pro-poor factors: new evidence from macro data

Does economic growth reduce poverty? If so, by how much? How economic inequality affects poverty? Does the responsiveness of poverty to growth and inequality depend on initial poverty and inequality? How do pro-poor policies influence the poverty-growth-inequality nexus? This paper provides novel quantitative answers to such questions. In particular, the System Generalised Method of Moments estimator is employed to estimate the intertwined relation between poverty, growth, inequality and pro-poor policies on an original unbalanced panel dataset, built from World Bank – PovcalNet data, which comprises 109 developing countries, observed between 1981 and 2008. Our main results are in line with the existing literature. First, we find that the poverty elasticities to growth and inequality are, respectively, around -2% and 2%. Second, the poverty elasticity to growth is higher the more favorable the initial conditions (i.e. -0.89% and -2.5% for, respectively, high and low initial poverty and inequality). Third, the poverty elasticity to inequality is higher in relatively richer and more equal countries (i.e. 2.6%) than in poorer and more unequal countries (i.e. 0.39%). And, finally, we show that human capital, as measured as health and education, facilitates the effect of economic growth on poverty reduction (i.e. poverty elasticity of -0.89% and -2.5% for, respectively, high and low infant mortality). Our analysis suggests that, in designing policy reduction strategies, policy makers should carefully take into considerations initial poverty and inequality as well as how income is distributed. Moreover, as for the fundamental importance of pro-poor policies, and human capital in particular, economic policies should go beyond the mere growth stimulus

The effect of work disability on the intention to retire of older workers

In this paper, we analyze the effect of work disability on the desire to retire as soon as possible of older workers. We exploit objective health indicators and anchoring vignettes to develop work disability measures enhancing the comparability across individuals of work disability self-assessments. Our results show that, even once controlling for individual fixed-effects, individuals experiencing work limiting health problems are found to have a stronger propensity to retire. The role of work disability in determining retirement intentions varies with earnings and job characteristics

Internalizing and externalizing symptoms in children during the COVID-19 pandemic: a systematic mixed studies review

Introduction: Given the vulnerability of children during the COVID-19 pandemic, paying close attention to their wellbeing at the time is warranted. The present protocol-based systematic mixed-studies review examines papers published during 2020–2022, focusing on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on children's internalizing/externalizing symptoms and the determinants thereof. Method: PROSPERO: CRD42022385284. Five databases were searched and the PRISMA diagram was applied. The inclusion criteria were: papers published in English in peer-reviewed journals; papers published between January 2020 and October 2022 involving children aged 5–13 years; qualitative, quantitative, and mixed studies. The standardized Mixed Method Appraisal Tool protocol was used to appraise the quality of the studies. Results: Thirty-four studies involving 40,976 participants in total were analyzed. Their principal characteristics were tabulated. The results showed that children's internalizing/externalizing symptoms increased during the pandemic, largely as a result of disengagement from play activities and excessive use of the internet. Girls showed more internalizing symptoms and boys more externalizing symptoms. Distress was the strongest parental factor mediating children's internalizing/externalizing symptoms. The quality of the studies was appraised as low (n = 12), medium (n = 12), and high (n = 10). Conclusion: Gender-based interventions should be designed for children and parents. The studies reviewed were cross-sectional, so long-term patterns and outcomes could not be predicted. Future researchers might consider a longitudinal approach to determine the long-term effects of the pandemic on children's internalizing and externalizing symptoms

New insight into zinc oxide doped with iron and its exploitation to pollutants abatement

This study aims to investigate how the photocatalytic efficiency of zinc oxide can be improved by introducing doping species into its crystal lattice. New materials based on zinc oxide doped with iron, have been synthesized using different methods, characterized and tested toward the abatement of selected organic molecules. The different synthetic strategies followed comprised sol-gel, precipitation and hydrothermal processes, in order to identify which one is capable of guaranteeing the best photocatalytic performances.The photoactivity of the new semiconductors was firstly tested using phenol as a model molecule subjected to irradiation under UV-A light. Phenol abatement is particularly favoured when using ZnO prepared via hydrothermal method and doped with iron at 0.5%. These materials were then tested toward the elimination of ketoprofen, an emerging pollutant substance, from water and real wastewater. Ketoprofen and its transformation products are completely abated within 30 min in pure water or in 1 h in wastewater

COLOMBOS v3.0: leveraging gene expression compendia for cross-species analyses

open13siCOLOMBOS is a database that integrates publicly available transcriptomics data for several prokaryotic model organisms. Compared to the previous version it has more than doubled in size, both in terms of species and data available. The manually curated condition annotation has been overhauled as well, giving more complete information about samples' experimental conditions and their differences. Functionality-wise cross-species analyses now enable users to analyse expression data for all species simultaneously, and identify candidate genes with evolutionary conserved expression behaviour. All the expression-based query tools have undergone a substantial improvement, overcoming the limit of enforced co-expression data retrieval and instead enabling the return of more complex patterns of expression behaviour. COLOMBOS is freely available through a web application at http://colombos.net/. The complete database is also accessible via REST API or downloadable as tab-delimited text files.openMoretto, Marco; Sonego, Paolo; Dierckxsens, Nicolas; Brilli, Matteo; Bianco, Luca; Ledezma-Tejeida, Daniela; Gama-Castro, Socorro; Galardini, Marco; Romualdi, Chiara; Laukens, Kris; Collado-Vides, Julio; Meysman, Pieter; Engelen, KristofMoretto, Marco; Sonego, Paolo; Dierckxsens, Nicolas; Brilli, Matteo; Bianco, Luca; Ledezma Tejeida, Daniela; Gama Castro, Socorro; Galardini, Marco; Romualdi, Chiara; Laukens, Kris; Collado Vides, Julio; Meysman, Pieter; Engelen, Kristo