Mortality transition and differential incentives for early retirement.

Many studies specify human mortality patterns parametrically, with a parameter change affecting mortality rates at different ages simultaneously. Motivated by the stylized fact that a mortality decline affects primarily younger people in the early phase of mortalitytransition but mainly older people in the later phase, we study how a mortality change at an arbitrary age affects optimal retirement age. Using the Volterra derivative for a functional, we show that mortality reductions at older ages delay retirement unambiguously, but that mortality reductions at younger ages may lead to earlierretirement due to a substantial increase in the individualʼs expected lifetime human wealth.incentive for early retirement; lifetime human wealth effect; years-to-consume effect; mortality decline;

Impact assessment of agricultural research in West Africa: An application of the propensity score matching methodology

Ex-post evaluation of agricultural research is aimed to empirically provide evidence of past investments’ effectiveness. This paper is intended to measure the immediate impact of livestock research activities on cattle farmers’ knowledge about trypanosomosis and its curative and preventive control strategies. According to the quasi-experimental design of the intervention, it is shown that its impact will be adequately estimated by propensity score matching (PSM). Based on data collected according to a knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) questionnaire in the region of Kénédougou that is common to Mali and Burkina Faso, results indicate a significant gain in farmers’ know-how due to participation in livestock research activities

Bulk matter physics and its future at the Large Hadron Collider

Measurements at low transverse momentum will be performed at the LHC for studying particle production mechanisms in $pp$ and heavy-ion collisions. Some of the experimental capabilities for bulk matter physics are presented, focusing on tracking elements and particle identification. In order to anticipate the study of baryon production for both colliding systems at multi-TeV energies, measurements for identified species and recent model extrapolations are discussed. Several mechanisms are expected to compete for hadro-production in the low momentum region. For this reason, experimental observables that could be used for investigating multi-parton interactions and help understanding the "underlying event" content in the first $pp$ collisions at the LHC are also mentioned.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures. To appear in the proceedings of Hot Quarks 2008, Estes Park, Colorado, 18-23 August 200

The STAR Silicon Strip Detector (SSD)

The STAR Silicon Strip Detector (SSD) completes the three layers of the Silicon Vertex Tracker (SVT) to make an inner tracking system located inside the Time Projection Chamber (TPC). This additional fourth layer provides two dimensional hit position and energy loss measurements for charged particles, improving the extrapolation of TPC tracks through SVT hits. To match the high multiplicity of central Au+Au collisions at RHIC the double sided silicon strip technology was chosen which makes the SSD a half million channels detector. Dedicated electronics have been designed for both readout and control. Also a novel technique of bonding, the Tape Automated Bonding (TAB), was used to fullfill the large number of bounds to be done. All aspects of the SSD are shortly described here and test performances of produced detection modules as well as simulated results on hit reconstruction are given.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures, 1 tabl

Ontology-driven development of web services to support district energy applications

Current urban and district energy management systems lack a common semantic referential for effectively interrelating intelligent sensing, data models and energy models with visualization, analysis and decision support tools. This paper describes the structure, as well as the rationale that led to this structure, of an ontology that captures the real-world concepts of a district energy system, such as a district heating and cooling system. This ontology (called eedistrict ontology) is intended to support knowledge provision that can play the role of an intermediate layer between high-level energy management software applications and local monitoring and control software components. In order to achieve that goal, the authors propose to encapsulate queries to the ontology in a scalable web service, which will facilitate the development of interfaces for third-party applications. Considering the size of the ee-district ontology once populated with data from a specific district case study, this could prove to be a repetitive and time-consuming task for the software developer. This paper therefore assesses the feasibility of ontology-driven automation of web service development that is to be a core element in the deployment of heterogeneous district-wide energy management software

Investigation of memory, executive functions, and anatomic correlates in asymptomatic FMR1 premutation carriers

AbstractFragile X–associated tremor/ataxia syndrome (FXTAS) is a late-onset movement disorder associated with FMR1 premutation alleles. Asymptomatic premutation (aPM) carriers have preserved cognitive functions, but they present subtle executive deficits. Current efforts are focusing on the identification of specific cognitive markers that can detect aPM carriers at higher risk of developing FXTAS. This study aims at evaluating verbal memory and executive functions as early markers of disease progression while exploring associated brain structure changes using diffusion tensor imaging. We assessed 30 aPM men and 38 intrafamilial controls. The groups perform similarly in the executive domain except for decreased performance in motor planning in aPM carriers. In the memory domain, aPM carriers present a significant decrease in verbal encoding and retrieval. Retrieval is associated with microstructural changes of the white matter (WM) of the left hippocampal fimbria. Encoding is associated with changes in the WM under the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, a region implicated in relational memory encoding. These associations were found in the aPM group only and did not show age-related decline. This may be interpreted as a neurodevelopmental effect of the premutation, and longitudinal studies are required to better understand these mechanisms

THERMUS -- A Thermal Model Package for ROOT

THERMUS is a package of C++ classes and functions allowing statistical-thermal model analyses of particle production in relativistic heavy-ion collisions to be performed within the ROOT framework of analysis. Calculations are possible within three statistical ensembles; a grand-canonical treatment of the conserved charges B, S and Q, a fully canonical treatment of the conserved charges, and a mixed-canonical ensemble combining a canonical treatment of strangeness with a grand-canonical treatment of baryon number and electric charge. THERMUS allows for the assignment of decay chains and detector efficiencies specific to each particle yield, which enables sensible fitting of model parameters to experimental data.Comment: to be published in Computer Physics Communication

A Geological Itinerary Through the Southern Apennine Thrust-Belt (Basilicata—Southern Italy)

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