An improved time of flight gamma-ray telescope to monitor diffuse gamma-ray in the energy range 5 MeV - 50 MeV

A time of flight measuring device is the basic triggering system of most of medium and high energy gamma-ray telescopes. A simple gamma-ray telescope has been built in order to check in flight conditions the functioning of an advanced time of flight system. The technical ratings of the system are described. This telescope has been flown twice with stratospheric balloons, its axis being oriented at various Zenital directions. Flight results are presented for diffuse gamma-rays, atmospheric secondaries, and various causes of noise in the 5 MeV-50 MeV energy range

La réforme des retraites de 1993 : quel impact sur l'équivalent patrimonial des droits à retraite ?

Depuis 1993, la France a enregistré plusieurs réformes de son système de retraites, visant avant tout à en assurer la soutenabilité. Cette contribution a pour objectif d’évaluer l’impact de la réforme de 1993 sur l’équivalent patrimonial des droits individuels à la retraite (EPDR), c\u27est-à-dire la somme actuarielle probable des pensions à recevoir, de la date de liquidation des droits jusqu’au décès. Plus précisément, nous mesurons l’impact de cette réforme sur l’EPDR des mono-pensionnés du régime général, à l’aide des données de l’Echantillon Interrégimes de Retraités 2008. Parmi les mesures phares de la réforme de 1993 figure l’augmentation progressive de la durée de cotisation nécessaire pour obtenir une retraite à taux plein au régime général. Cette augmentation est susceptible d’engendrer deux effets opposés : un effet de report de l’âge de liquidation pour conserver un EPDR adéquat pour ses vieux jours (voire l’augmenter) ou un effet de décote, si l’assuré-e ne souhaite, ou ne peut, pas prolonger son activité et subit donc une décote sur sa pension, et partant sur son EPDR. Pour tester les effets nets de la réforme de 1993 sur l’EPDR, nous procédons à des estimations économétriques en différences premières et en doubles différences, ainsi qu’à des estimations par quantiles pour mesurer les impacts le long de la distribution de l’EPDR. Nos estimations montrent des résultats différents selon que les individus partent avant ou après 2004, date d’entrée en vigueur de la réforme. Ainsi, toutes choses égales par ailleurs, un départ en retraite avant 2004 plutôt que postérieurement, augmente l’EPDR des retraités concernés. Toutefois, l’interaction avec les autres variables nuance cette conclusion. D’une part, reporter son départ en retraite réduit l’EPDR moyen d’environ 20% : le report permet d’accumuler des droits supplémentaires, mais sur une période réduite. D’autre part, l’effet de la décote est négatif, mais son intensité est réduite quand les retraités reportent leur départ. En outre, comme les générations 1934-1943 ont subi conjointement les réformes de 1993 et 2003, nos estimations en double différence permettent d’isoler l’effet « pur » de la réforme de 1993 : lorsque les affiliés ont subi une décote, sans avoir reporté leur départ en retraite pour l’atténuer, la liquidation des droits aux conditions de 2003 par rapport aux conditions de 1993 est la plus défavorable. Enfin, les estimations par quantiles montrent que ces effets s’intensifient dans la première moitié de la distribution, et s’atténuent au-delà

Pension Wealth in France: An Assessment on Panel Data

This contribution proposes a measure of pension wealth in the French public PAYG schemes (first and second pillar schemes) and of its distribution among the population of retirees in 2008 using the Echantillon Inter régimes de Retraités (EIR) panel data. We show that aggregate pension wealth amounts to around 4765 billion Euros assuming a 2 percent discount rate. There are significant differences in the amount of individual’s pension wealth between the pension schemes of the private and public sector. Moreover, there is more inequality in the distribution of pension wealth among private sector retirees than public sectorones

Que valent les engagements des régimes de retraite envers les retraités en France ?

Using the "Echantillon Inter régimes des Retraités" (EIR) 2008 and 2012 panel data, we calculate retirees\u27 pension wealth (consumed and residual) at an aggregated level, and provide in-depth results by type of pension scheme and by managing organism. We put an emphasis on direct pensions already perceived by retirees and to be paid in the future, without taking into account current contributors\u27 future retirement. We find that the overall pension wealth is not very sensitive to the discount rate, but this result does not hold if we concentrate on the future pension wealth. From this point of view, it must be noted that some of the organisms have a high proportion of pension still to be paid. Moreover, whatever the type of pension wealth calculated, the results show a rapid increase from 2008 to 2012 (except for the basic scheme of farmers). Finally, spread indicators and Gini index of pension wealth are relatively higher than those found in the distribution of labor income by other studies. We find that there are more inequalities in the private sector than in the public, particularly in the private sector for complementary pension schemes

Ecosystem carbon 7 dioxide fluxes after disturbance in forests of North America

Disturbances are important for renewal of North American forests. Here we summarize more than 180 site years of eddy covariance measurements of carbon dioxide flux made at forest chronosequences in North America. The disturbances included stand-replacing fire (Alaska, Arizona, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan) and harvest (British Columbia, Florida, New Brunswick, Oregon, Quebec, Saskatchewan, and Wisconsin) events, insect infestations (gypsy moth, forest tent caterpillar, and mountain pine beetle), Hurricane Wilma, and silvicultural thinning (Arizona, California, and New Brunswick). Net ecosystem production (NEP) showed a carbon loss from all ecosystems following a stand-replacing disturbance, becoming a carbon sink by 20 years for all ecosystems and by 10 years for most. Maximum carbon losses following disturbance (g C m−2y−1) ranged from 1270 in Florida to 200 in boreal ecosystems. Similarly, for forests less than 100 years old, maximum uptake (g C m−2y−1) was 1180 in Florida mangroves and 210 in boreal ecosystems. More temperate forests had intermediate fluxes. Boreal ecosystems were relatively time invariant after 20 years, whereas western ecosystems tended to increase in carbon gain over time. This was driven mostly by gross photosynthetic production (GPP) because total ecosystem respiration (ER) and heterotrophic respiration were relatively invariant with age. GPP/ER was as low as 0.2 immediately following stand-replacing disturbance reaching a constant value of 1.2 after 20 years. NEP following insect defoliations and silvicultural thinning showed lesser changes than stand-replacing events, with decreases in the year of disturbance followed by rapid recovery. NEP decreased in a mangrove ecosystem following Hurricane Wilma because of a decrease in GPP and an increase in ER

Psychotic features, particularly mood incongruence, as a hallmark of severity of bipolar I disorder.

The occurrence of psychotic features within mood episodes in patients with bipolar I disorder (BD I) has been associated in some studies with a more severe clinical and socio-professional profile. In contrast, other studies establishing the associations of psychotic features in BD I, and in particular of mood-congruent (MC) and mood-incongruent (MI) features, with clinical characteristics have yielded contradictory results. However, many pre-existing studies have been affected by serious methodological limitations. Using a sample of thoroughly assessed patients with BD I our aims were to: (1) establish the proportion of those with MI and MC features, and (2) compare BD I patients with and without psychotic features as well as those with MI to those with MC features on a wide array of socio-demographic and clinical characteristics including course, psychiatric comorbidity and treatment. A sample of 162 treated patients with BD I (60.5% female, mean age = 41.4 (s.d: 10.2) years) was recruited within a large family study of mood disorders. Clinical, course and treatment characteristics relied on information elicited through direct diagnostic interviews, family history reports and medical records. (1) A total of 96 patients (59.3%) had experienced psychotic features over their lifetime. Among them, 44.8% revealed MI features at least once in their lives. (2) Patients with psychotic features were much less likely to be professionally active, revealed alcohol abuse more frequently and used health care, particularly inpatient treatment, more frequently than those without psychotic features. Within patients with psychotic symptoms, those with MI features showed more clinical severity in terms of a higher likelihood of reporting hallucinations, suicidal attempts and comorbid cannabis dependence. Our data provide additional support for both the distinction between BD-I with and without psychotic features as well as the distinction between MI and MC psychotic features. The more severe course of patients with psychotic features, and particularly those with MI psychotic features, highlights the need for thorough psychopathological evaluations to assess the presence of these symptoms to install appropriate treatment

Between supply and demand: the limits to participatory development in South Africa

Much of the focus in the literature on participatory development has been on the demand side and on the extent to which citizens succeed in pressuring the state to deliver basic services. Less attention has been focused on the supply side of participatory development, namely on how state institutions give effect to development policies. Post-Apartheid South Africa is replete with policies and legislation supporting participatory processes and yet in practice this has seldom lived up to the ideals espoused. This article examines the delivery of public housing in poor communities in three municipalities in South Africa and argues that there is a mismatch between how the formulators of policy understand participation and how it is interpreted by beneficiary communities and local officials. It concludes that considerably more attention needs to be focused on why officials fail to translate national policies into action if participatory democracy is to attain any legitimacy in the population at large.Web of Scienc

On Passion and Sports Fans:A Look at Football

The purpose of the present research was to test the applicability of the Dualistic Model of Passion (Vallerand et al., 2003) to being a sport (football) fan. The model posits that passion is a strong inclination toward an activity that individuals like (or even love), that they value, and in which they invest time and energy. Furthermore, two types of passion are proposed: harmonious and obsessive passion. While obsessive passion entails an uncontrollable urge to engage in the passionate activity, harmonious passion entails a sense of volition while engaging in the activity. Finally, the model posits that harmonious passion leads to more adaptive outcomes than obsessive passion. Three studies provided support for this dualistic conceptualization of passion. Study 1 showed that harmonious passion was positively associated with adaptive behaviours (e.g., celebrate the team’s victory), while obsessive passion was rather positively associated with maladaptive behaviours (e.g., to risk losing one’s employment to go to the team’s game). Study 2 used a short Passion Scale and showed that harmonious passion was positively related to the positive affective life of fans during the 2006 FIFA World Cup, psychological health (self-esteem and life satisfaction), and public displays of adaptive behaviours (e.g., celebrating one’s team victory in the streets), while obsessive passion was predictive of maladaptive affective life (e.g., hating opposing team’s fans) and behaviours (e.g., mocking the opposing team’s fans). Finally, Study 3 examined the role of obsessive passion as a predictor of partner’s conflict that in turn undermined partner’s relationship satisfaction. Overall, the present results provided support for the Dualistic Model of Passion. The conceptual and applied implications of the findings are discussed

Reproducibility of Ba/Ca variations recorded by northeast Pacific bamboo corals

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2017. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Paleoceanography 32 (2017): 966–979, doi:10.1002/2017PA003178.Trace elemental ratios preserved in the calcitic skeleton of bamboo corals have been shown to serve as archives of past ocean conditions. The concentration of dissolved barium (BaSW), a bioactive nutrientlike element, is linked to biogeochemical processes such as the cycling and export of nutrients. Recent work has calibrated bamboo coral Ba/Ca, a new BaSW proxy, using corals spanning the oxygen minimum zone beneath the California Current System. However, it was previously unclear whether Ba/Cacoral records were internally reproducible. Here we investigate the accuracy of using laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry for Ba/Cacoral analyses and test the internal reproducibility of Ba/Ca among replicate radial transects in the calcite of nine bamboo corals collected from the Gulf of Alaska (643–720 m) and the California margin (870–2054 m). Data from replicate Ba/Ca transects were aligned using visible growth bands to account for nonconcentric growth; smoothed data were reproducible within ~4% for eight corals (n = 3 radii/coral). This intracoral reproducibility further validates using bamboo coral Ba/Ca for BaSW reconstructions. Sections of the Ba/Ca records that were potentially influenced by noncarbonate bound Ba phases occurred in regions where elevated Mg/Ca or Pb/Ca and coincided with anomalous regions on photomicrographs. After removing these regions of the records, increased Ba/Cacoral variability was evident in corals between ~800 and 1500 m. These findings support additional proxy validation to understand BaSW variability on interannual timescales, which could lead to new insights into deep sea biogeochemistry over the past several centuries.NSF Grant Number: OCE-1420984; NOAA/OE Grant Number: NA16RP2637; MIT-WHOI Joint Program; American Geophysical Union Travel Grant; UC Davis President's Undergraduate Fellowship; Bowdoin College Gibbons Summer Research Fellowship2018-03-1

Aggravation of Respiratory Disturbances by the Use of an Occlusal Splint in Apneic Patients: A Pilot Study

I n clinical dentistry and sleep medicine, the use of mandibular advancement devices (MAD) is a recognized management strategy for two respiratory disturbances during sleep: snoring and sleep apnea. 1,2 In sleep medicine, snoring and sleep apnea are classified under "obstructive sleep apnea and hypopnea syndrome" (OSAHS)