The timing of disability insurance application: a choice-based semiparametric hazard model

We use a choice-based subsample of Social Security Disability Insurance applicants from the 1978 Social Security Survey of Disability and Work to test the importance of policy variables on the timing of application for disability insurance benefits following the onset of a work limiting health condition. We correct for choice-based sampling by extending the Manski-Lerman (1977) correction to the likelihood function of our continuous time hazard model defined with semiparametric unmeasured heterogeneity and find that this correction significantly affects the results. We find that economic variables-the size of the disability benefit, expected wage earnings and accommodation-matter.Insurance ; Social security

The Importance of Employer Accommodation on the Job Duration of Workers with Disabilities: A Hazard Model Approach

In line with policies long in place in Western Europe, United States disability policy is now attempting to intervene directly in the labor market to increase the employment of people with disabilities. Beginning in July, 1992, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 required employers to provide reasonable accommodation to workers with disabilities. Here we use a continuous time hazard model on retrospective data from the 1978 Social Security Survey of Disability and Work to estimate the effect of employer accommodation on the subsequent job tenure of workers who suffer a work limiting health impairment. We show that the risk of leaving one\u27s employer is significantly influenced both by accommodation and by the Social Security Disability Insurance replacement rate. Accommodation appears to be as important as a worker\u27s expected replacement rate in influencing his risk of job exit

New Lymphogranuloma Venereum Chlamydia trachomatis Variant, Amsterdam

We retrospectively conducted a study of men who have sex with men who visited the Amsterdam, the Netherlands, sexually transmitted diseases clinic from January 2002 to December 2003 and had rectal Chlamydia trachomatis infections. We found that symptomatic (73%) as well as asymptomatic (43%) patients were infected with a new C. trachomatis LGV variant

Modeling Application for Disability Insurance as a Retirement Decision: A Hazard Model Approach Using Choice-Based Sampling

This paper models the decision to apply for Social Security Disability Insurance Benefitsas a special case of a more general dynamic retirement decision model. It uses a multi-state, continuous-time hazard to test the effect of policy variables on the speed at which workers applyfor benefits following the onset of a work limitation. Policy variables are found to matter. A higher expected replacement rate increases the risk of application. This effect is significant in asmall sample of the general population and in a sample which also includes a weighted choice-based sample of disability insurance applicants

SARS Coronavirus Detection Methods

Using clinical samples from patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome, we showed that the sensitivities of a quantitative reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction (80% for fecal samples and 25% for urine samples) were higher than those of the polyclonal (50% and 5%) and monoclonal (35% and 8%) antibody-based nucleocapsid antigen capture enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays

Quasars and their host galaxies

This review attempts to describe developments in the fields of quasar and quasar host galaxies in the past five. In this time period, the Sloan and 2dF quasar surveys have added several tens of thousands of quasars, with Sloan quasars being found to z>6. Obscured, or partially obscured quasars have begun to be found in significant numbers. Black hole mass estimates for quasars, and our confidence in them, have improved significantly, allowing a start on relating quasar properties such as radio jet power to fundamental parameters of the quasar such as black hole mass and accretion rate. Quasar host galaxy studies have allowed us to find and characterize the host galaxies of quasars to z>2. Despite these developments, many questions remain unresolved, in particular the origin of the close relationship between black hole mass and galaxy bulge mass/velocity dispersion seen in local galaxies.Comment: Review article, to appear in Astrophysics Update

Children with Respiratory Disease Associated with Metapneumovirus in Hong Kong

Human metapneumovirus (HMPV) is a newly discovered pathogen thought to be associated with respiratory disease. We report the results of a study of 587 children hospitalized with respiratory infection over a 13-month period. HMPV was detected in the nasopharyngeal aspirates from 32 (5.5%) children by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. HMPV infection was associated with clinical diagnoses of pneumonia (36%), asthma exacerbation (23%), or acute bronchiolitis (10%). When compared to those with respiratory syncytial virus infection, children with HMPV infection were older, and wheezing was more likely to represent asthma exacerbation rather than acute bronchiolitis. HMPV viral activity peaked during the spring-summer period in Hong Kong. Phylogenetically, all HMPV virus strains from Hong Kong belonged to one of the two genetic lineages previously described. HMPV contributed to 441.6 hospital admissions per 100,000 population <6 years of age

Turbulent Compressible Convection with Rotation - Penetration above a Convection Zone

We perform Large eddy simulations of turbulent compressible convection in stellar-type convection zones by solving the Navi\'{e}r-Stokes equations in three dimensions. We estimate the extent of penetration into the stable layer above a stellar-type convection zone by varying the rotation rate ({\boldmath$\rm\Omega$}), the inclination of the rotation vector ($\theta$) and the relative stability ($S$) of the upper stable layer. The computational domain is a rectangular box in an f-plane configuration and is divided into two regions of unstable and stable stratification with the stable layer placed above the convectively unstable layer. Several models have been computed and the penetration distance into the stable layer above the convection zone is estimated by determining the position where time averaged kinetic energy flux has the first zero in the upper stable layer. The vertical grid spacing in all the model is non-uniform, and is less in the upper region so that the flows are better resolved in the region of interest. We find that the penetration distance increases as the rotation rate increases for the case when the rotation vector is aligned with the vertical axis. However, with the increase in the stability of the upper stable layer, the upward penetration distance decreases. Since we are not able to afford computations with finer resolution for all the models, we compute a number of models to see the effect of increased resolution on the upward penetration. In addition, we estimate the upper limit on the upward convective penetration from stellar convective cores.Comment: Accepted for Publication in Asttrophysics & Space Scienc

A global database of lake surface temperatures collected by in situ and satellite methods from 1985–2009

Peer reviewe