4,603 research outputs found
How Much Might Universal Health Insurance Reduce Socioeconomic Disparities in Health? A Comparison of the US and Canada
A strong association between lower socioeconomic status (SES) and worse health-- the SES-health gradient-- has been documented in many countries, but little work has compared the size of the gradient across countries. We compare the size of the income gradient in self-reported health in the US and Canada. We find that being below median income raises the likelihood that a middle aged person is in poor or fair health by about 15 percentage points in the U.S., compared to less than 8 percentage points in Canada. We also find that the 7 percentage point gradient difference between the two countries is reduced by about 4 percentage points after age 65, the age at which the virtually all U.S. citizens receive basic health insurance through Medicare. Income disparities in the probability that an individual lacks a usual source of care are also significantly larger in the US than in Canada before the age of 65, but about the same after 65. Our results are therefore consistent with the availability of universal health insurance in the U.S, or at least some other difference that occurs around the age of 65 in one country but not the other, narrowing SES differences in health between the US and Canada.
Operation of high power converters in parallel
High power converters that are used in space power subsystems are limited in power handling capability due to component and thermal limitations. For applications, such as Space Station Freedom, where multi-kilowatts of power must be delivered to user loads, parallel operation of converters becomes an attractive option when considering overall power subsystem topologies. TRW developed three different unequal power sharing approaches for parallel operation of converters. These approaches, known as droop, master-slave, and proportional adjustment, are discussed and test results are presented
Space shuttle abort separation pressure investigation. Volume 2, Part B: Orbiter data at Mach 5
For abstract, see
Axial Multicentric Osteosarcoma in an English Cocker Spaniel
No abstract available
Effect of gaseous and solid simulated jet plumes on an 040A space shuttle launch configuration at m=1.6 to 2.2
The effect of plume-induced flow separation and aspiration effects due to operation of both orbiter and the solid rocket motors on a 0.019-scale model of the launch configuration of the Space Shuttle Vehicle is determined. Longitudinal and lateral-directional stability data were obtained at Mach numbers of 1.6, 2.0, and 2.2 with and without the engines operating. The plumes exiting from the engines were simulated by a cold-gas jet supplied by an auxiliary 200-atm air supply system and solid-body plume simulators. The aerodynamic effects produced by these two simulation procedures are compared. The parameters most significantly affected by the jet plumes are pitching moment, elevon control effectiveness, axial force, and orbiter wing loads. The solid rocket motor (SRM) plumes have the largest effect on the aerodynamic characteristics. The effect of the orbiter plumes in combination with the SRM plumes is also significant. Variations in the nozzle design parameters and configuration changes can reduce the jet plume-induced aerodynamic effects
Mirror symmetry breaking as a problem in dynamical critical phenomena
The critical properties of the Frank model of spontaneous chiral synthesis
are discussed by applying results from the field theoretic renormalization
group (RG). The long time and long wavelength features of this microscopic
reaction scheme belong to the same universality class as multi-colored directed
percolation processes. Thus, the following RG fixed points (FP) govern the
critical dynamics of the Frank model for d<4: one unstable FP that corresponds
to complete decoupling between the two enantiomers, a saddle-point that
corresponds to symmetric interspecies coupling, and two stable FPs that
individually correspond to unidirectional couplings between the two chiral
molecules. These latter two FPs are associated with the breakdown of mirror or
chiral symmetry. In this simplified model of molecular synthesis, homochirality
is a natural consequence of the intrinsic reaction noise in the critical
regime, which corresponds to extremely dilute chemical systems.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figure
A Spectroscopic Survey of the Fields of 28 Strong Gravitational Lenses: Implications for
Strong gravitational lensing provides an independent measurement of the
Hubble parameter (). One remaining systematic is a bias from the
additional mass due to a galaxy group at the lens redshift or along the
sightline. We quantify this bias for more than 20 strong lenses that have
well-sampled sightline mass distributions, focusing on the convergence
and shear . In 23% of these fields, a lens group contributes a 1%
convergence bias; in 57%, there is a similarly significant line-of-sight group.
For the nine time delay lens systems, is overestimated by 11%
on average when groups are ignored. In 67% of fields with total
0.01, line-of-sight groups contribute more convergence than
do lens groups, indicating that the lens group is not the only important mass.
Lens environment affects the ratio of four (quad) to two (double) image
systems; all seven quads have lens groups while only three of 10 doubles do,
and the highest convergences due to lens groups are in quads. We calibrate the
- relation: with a rms scatter of 0.34 dex.
Shear, which, unlike convergence, can be measured directly from lensed images,
can be a poor predictor of ; for 19% of our fields, is
. Thus, accurate cosmology using strong gravitational lenses
requires precise measurement and correction for all significant structures in
each lens field.Comment: 34 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in Ap
A cryogenic axial-centrifugal compressor for superfluid helium refrigeration
CERN's new project, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), will use superfluid helium as coolant for its high-field superconducting magnets and therefore require large capacity refrigeration at 1.8 K. This may only be achieved by subatmospheric compression of gaseous helium at cryogenic temperature. To stimulate development of this technology, CERN has procured from industry prototype Cold Compressor Units (CCU). This unit is based on a cryogenic axial-centrifugal compressor, running on ceramic ball bearings and driven by a variable-frequency electrical motor operating under low-pressure helium at ambient temperature. The machine has been commissioned and is now in operation. After describing basic constructional features of the compressor, we report on measured performance
Bias in the journal impact factor
The ISI journal impact factor (JIF) is based on a sample that may represent
half the whole-of-life citations to some journals, but a small fraction (<10%)
of the citations accruing to other journals. This disproportionate sampling
means that the JIF provides a misleading indication of the true impact of
journals, biased in favour of journals that have a rapid rather than a
prolonged impact. Many journals exhibit a consistent pattern of citation
accrual from year to year, so it may be possible to adjust the JIF to provide a
more reliable indication of a journal's impact.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures; one reference correcte
Operational Experience with a Cryogenic Axial-Centrifugal Compressor
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), presently under construction at CERN, requires large refrigeration capacity at 1.8 K. Compression of gaseous helium at cryogenic temperatures is therefore inevitable. Together with subcontractors, Linde Kryotechnik has developed a prototype machine. This unit is based on a cryogenic axial-centrifugal compressor, running on ceramic ball bearings and driven by a variable-frequency electrical motor operating at ambient temperature. Integrated in a test facility for superconducting magnets the machine has been commissioned without major problems and successfully gone through the acceptance test in autumn 1995. Subsequent steps were initiated to improve efficiency of this prototype. This paper describes operating experience gained so far and reports on measured performance prior to and after constructional modifications
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