Measuring Differences in the Effect of Social Resource Factors on the Health of Elderly Canadian Men and Women

It is well-documented that differences in the exposure to social resources play a significant role in influencing gender inequalities in health in old age. It is less clear in the literature if social factors have a differential impact on the health of older men and women. This paper examines gender differences in the patterns of social predictors of health among elderly persons. Using data from the 1998-1999 Canadian National Population Health Survey, the findings show that differences in socio-economic, lifestyle, and psychosocial resources contribute to variation in the health status of elderly persons in terms of self-rated health and functional and chronic health. Many of these predictors of health, however, differ in their effect on health between elderly males and females. The impact of age and exercise on health is larger for older women compared to older men, yet income, smoking, level of social support, and distress have a greater effect on health for older men than they do for older women. These gender differences have important policy implications for health-care promotion and delivery services. Health policy needs to reflect the underlying social determinants of health, and their differential influence on the health of elderly men and women.Gender, Morbidity, Disability, Self-rated Health, Psychosocial, Lifestyle, Old age, Canada, NPHS

Gender Differences in the Influence of Economic, Lifestyle, and Psychosocial Factors on Later-life Health

This paper examines the differential impact of social forces on the health of men and women aged 65+ using data from the 1994-1995 National Population Health Survey. Multiple regression analysis is used to estimate gender differences in the influence of socio-economic, lifestyle, and psychosocial factors on both self-rated health and overall functional health. Some key findings are: 1) the relationship between income and health is significant for older women, but not for older men, while the opposite occurs for education; 2) having an acceptable body weight is positively associated with health for elderly women only; and 3) stress-related factors are generally much stronger determinants of health for older women. These findings shed light on the processes of healthy aging for men and women.health; aging; gender differences; NPHS

Cost-of-Living Adjustment Clauses in Union Contracts

Our paper seeks to provide an explanation for why the prevalence of COLA provisions and their characteristics vary widely across U.S. industries. We develop models of optimal risk sharing between a firm and union that allows us to investigate the determinants of a number of characteristics of union contracts. These include the presence of wage indexation, the degree of wage indexation if it exists, the magnitude of deferred noncontingent (on the price level) wage increases, the duration of labor contracts and the trade-off between temporary layoffs and wage indexation. Preliminary empirical tests of some of the implications of the model are conducted using industry data on both the prevalence of COLA provisions and layoff rates, and using contract level data on the characteristics of COLA provisions and contract duration. One key finding is that the level of unemployment insurance benefits appears to simultaneously influence the level of layoffs and the extent of COLA coverage.

Consistency of pacing and metabolic responses during 2000-m rowing ergometry

PURPOSE: This study investigated the pacing strategy adopted and the consistency of performance and related physiological parameters across three 2000-m rowing-ergometer tests. METHODS: Fourteen male well-trained rowers took part in the study. Each participant performed three 2000-m rowing-ergometer tests interspersed by 3-7 d. Throughout the trials, respiratory exchange and heart rate were recorded and power output and stroke rate were analyzed over each 500 m of the test. At the completion of the trial, assessments of blood lactate and rating of perceived exertion were measured. RESULTS: Ergometer performance was unchanged across the 3 trials; however, pacing strategy changed from trial 1, which featured a higher starting power output and more progressive decrease in power, to trials 2 and 3, which were characterized by a more conservative start and an end spurt with increased power output during the final 500 m. Mean typical error (TE; %) across the three 2000-m trials was 2.4%, and variability was low to moderate for all assessed physiological variables (TE range = 1.4-5.1%) with the exception of peak lactate (TE = 11.5%). CONCLUSIONS: Performance and physiological responses during 2000-m rowing ergometry were found to be consistent over 3 trials. The variations observed in pacing strategy between trial 1 and trials 2 and 3 suggest that a habituation trial is required before an intervention study and that participants move from a positive to a reverse-J-shaped strategy, which may partly explain conflicting reports in the pacing strategy exhibited during 2000-m rowing-ergometer trials

Flight test evaluation of a separate surface attitude command control system on a Beech 99 airplane

A joint NASA/university/industry program was conducted to flight evaluate a potentially low cost separate surface implementation of attitude command in a Beech 99 airplane. Saturation of the separate surfaces was the primary cause of many problems during development. Six experienced professional pilots who made simulated instrument flight evaluations experienced improvements in airplane handling qualities in the presence of turbulence and a reduction in pilot workload. For ride quality, quantitative data show that the attitude command control system results in all cases of airplane motion being removed from the uncomfortable ride region

Singular values of some modular functions

We study the properties of special values of the modular functions obtained from Weierstrass P-function at imaginary quadratic points.Comment: 19 pages,corrected typo

Morphological and histological description of small metoposaurids from Petrified Forest National Park, AZ, USA and the taxonomy of Apachesaurus

Metoposaurids are Late Triassic temnospondyls that are abundant components of freshwater deposi- tional settings. Although metoposaurids are represented by hundreds of specimens in collections around the world, the vast majority pertain to large-bodied, relatively mature individuals, and as a result, the early stages of ontogeny are still poorly characterised. Small-bodied metoposaurids from North America have traditionally been assigned to Apachesaurus gregorii, interpreted as a diminutive taxon, but this interpretation has not been rigorously tested. Here we provide a morphological description of two new small-bodied metoposaurid specimens from Petrified Forest National Park, AZ, USA. Both provide various anatomical details that improve our understanding of small-bodied metoposaurids and their taxonomic placement within Metoposauridae. Furthermore, we perform a histological analysis on associated intercentra of these specimens, which indicates that these are relatively immature individuals. These findings support the growing consensus that Apachesaurus is a juvenile metoposaurid, thereby providing additional data regarding the early stages of metoposaurid ontogeny and evidence of the persistence of large-bodied forms into the late Norian. Accordingly, these findings merit a reevaluation of the taxonomic validity and diagnosis of the taxon and of the previous interpretations of its paleobiology

Quantitative Assessment of Robotic Swarm Coverage

This paper studies a generally applicable, sensitive, and intuitive error metric for the assessment of robotic swarm density controller performance. Inspired by vortex blob numerical methods, it overcomes the shortcomings of a common strategy based on discretization, and unifies other continuous notions of coverage. We present two benchmarks against which to compare the error metric value of a given swarm configuration: non-trivial bounds on the error metric, and the probability density function of the error metric when robot positions are sampled at random from the target swarm distribution. We give rigorous results that this probability density function of the error metric obeys a central limit theorem, allowing for more efficient numerical approximation. For both of these benchmarks, we present supporting theory, computation methodology, examples, and MATLAB implementation code.Comment: Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics (ICINCO), Porto, Portugal, 29--31 July 2018. 11 pages, 4 figure

The effects of substrates, products and other ligands on the susceptibility of inositol monophosphatase to proteolysis by endoprotease lys-C

AbstractInositol monophosphatase is cleaved by endoprotease lys-C at a single site (Lys36—Ser37). The rate of proteolysis is greatly reduced in the presence of substrate (D,L-Ins(I)P) and Mg2+, and less so in the presence of Pi and Mg2+, consistent with protection of the susceptible bond in the E—P or E·Pi states of the enzyme. Potentiation by Li+ of the protection afforded by a substrate analogue, 1S-phosphoryloxy-2R,4S-dihydroxycyclohexane, and Mg2+ supports the idea that Li+ binds to the E—P state