Trends in mortality by labour market position around retirement ages in three European countries with different welfare regimes

<p>Objectives: In the face of economic downturn and increasing life expectancy, many industrial nations are adopting a policy of postponing the retirement age. However, questions still remain around the consequence of working longer into old age. We examine mortality by work status around retirement ages in countries with different welfare regimes; Finland (social democratic), Turin (Italy; conservative), and England and Wales (liberal).</p> <p>Methods: Death rates and rate ratios (RRs) (reference rates = ‘in-work’), 1970 s–2000 s, were estimated for those aged 45–64 years using the England and Wales longitudinal study, Turin longitudinal study, and the Finnish linked register study.</p> <p>Results: Mortality of the not-in-work was consistently higher than the in-work. Death rates for the not-in-work were lowest in Turin and highest in Finland. Rate ratios were smallest in Turin (RR men 1972–76 1.73; 2002–06 1.63; women 1.22; 1.68) and largest in Finland (RR men 1991–95 3.03; 2001–05 3.80; women 3.62; 4.11). Unlike RRs for men, RRs for women increased in every country (greatest in Finland).</p> <p>Conclusions: These findings signal that overall, employment in later life is associated with lower mortality, regardless of welfare regime.</p&gt

The Analysis of Multijet Events Produced at High Energy Hadron Colliders

We define and discuss a set of (4N - 4) parameters that can be used to analyse events in which N jets have been produced in high energy hadron-hadron collisions. These multijet variables are the multijet mass and (4N - 5) independent dimensionless parameters. To illustrate the use of the variables QCD predictions are presented for events with up to five jets produced at the Fermilab Tevatron Proton-Antiproton Collider. These QCD predictions are compared with the predictions of a model in which multijet events uniformly populate the N-body phase-space

SENSE: A comparison of photon detection efficiency and optical crosstalk of various SiPM devices

This paper describes a comparison of photon detection efficiency and optical crosstalk measurements performed by three partners: Geneva University, Catania Observatory and Nagoya University. The measurements were compared for three different SiPM devices with different active areas: from 9 $mm^2$ up to 93.6 $mm^2$ produced by Hamamatsu. The objective of this work is to establish the measurements and analysis procedures for calculating the main SiPM parameters and their precision. This work was done in the scope of SENSE project which aims to build roadmap for the last developments in field of sensors for low light level detection

Topological properties of a non-Hermitian quasi-one-dimensional chain with a flat band

We investigate the spectral properties of a non-Hermitian quasi-one-dimensional lattice in two possible dimerization configurations. Specifically, we focus on a non-Hermitian diamond chain that presents a zero-energy flat band. The flat band originates from wave interference and results in eigenstates with a finite contribution only on two sites of the unit cell. To achieve the non-Hermitian characteristics, we introduce non-reciprocal intrasite hopping terms in the chain. This leads to the accumulation of eigenstates on the boundary of the system, known as the non-Hermitian skin effect. Despite this accumulation of eigenstates, for one of the two possible configurations, we can characterize the presence of non-trivial edge states at zero energy by a real-space topological invariant known as the biorthogonal polarization. We show that this invariant, evaluated using the destructive interference method, characterizes the non-trivial phase of the non-Hermitian diamond chain. For the other possible non-Hermitian configuration, we find that there is a finite quantum metric associated with the flat band. Additionally, we observe the skin effect despite having the system a purely real or imaginary spectrum. For both configurations, we show that two non- Hermitian diamond chains can be mapped into two models of the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger chains, either non-Hermitian and Hermitian, in the presence of a flat band. This mapping allows us to draw valuable insights into the behavior and properties of these systems.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figure

Arabidopsis mutants reveal that short- and long-term thermotolerance have different requirements for trienoic fatty acids

The photosynthetic thylakoid has the highest level of lipid unsaturation of any membrane. In Arabidopsis thaliana plants grown at 22°C, approximately 70% of the thylakoid fatty acids are trienoic – they have three double bonds. In Arabidopsis, and other species, the levels of trienoic fatty acids decline substantially at higher temperatures. Several genetic studies indicate that reduced unsaturation improves photosynthetic function and plant survival at high temperatures. Here, these studies are extended using the Arabidopsis triple mutant, fad3-2 fad7-2 fad8 that contains no detectable trienoic fatty acids. In the short-term, fluorescence analyses and electron-transport assays indicated that photosynthetic functions in this mutant are more thermotolerant than the wild type. However, long-term photosynthesis, growth, and survival of plants were all compromised in the triple mutant at high temperature. The fad3-2 fad7-2 fad8 mutant is deficient in jasmonate synthesis and this hormone has been shown to mediate some aspects of thermotolerance; however, additional experiments demonstrated that a lack of jasmonate was not a major factor in the death of triple-mutant plants at high temperature. The results indicate that long-term thermotolerance requires a basal level of trienoic fatty acids. Thus, the success of genetic and molecular approaches to increase thermotolerance by reducing membrane unsaturation will be limited by countervailing effects that compromise essential plant functions at elevated temperatures

Suicide death and hospital-treated suicidal behaviour in asylum seekers in the Netherlands: a national registry-based study

Several suicide and suicidal behaviour risk factors are highly prevalent in asylum seekers, but there is little insight into the suicide death rate and the suicidal behaviour incidence in this population. The main objective of this study is to assess the burden of suicide and hospital-treated non-fatal suicidal behaviour in asylum seekers in the Netherlands and to identify factors that could guide prevention. We obtained data on cases of suicide and suicidal behaviour from all asylum seeker reception centres in the Netherlands (period 2002-2007, age 15+). The suicide death rates in this population and in subgroups by sex, age and region of origin were compared with the rate in the Dutch population; the rates of hospital-treated suicidal behaviour were compared with that in the population of The Hague using indirect age group standardization. The study included 35 suicide deaths and 290 cases of hospital-treated suicidal behaviour. The suicide death rate and the incidence of hospital-treated suicidal behaviour differed between subgroups by sex and region of origin. For male asylum seekers, the suicide death rate was higher than that of the Dutch population (N = 32; RR = 2.0, 95%CI 1.37-2.83). No difference was found between suicide mortality in female asylum seekers and in the female general population of the Netherlands (N = 3; RR = 0.73; 95%CI 0.15-2.07). The incidence of hospital-treated suicidal behaviour was high in comparison with the population of The Hague for males and females from Europe and the Middle East/South West Asia, and low for males and females from Africa. Health professionals knew about mental health problems prior to the suicidal behaviour for 80% of the hospital-treated suicidal behaviour cases in asylum seekers. In this study the suicide death rate was higher in male asylum seekers than in males in the reference population. The incidence of hospital-treated suicidal behaviour was higher in several subgroups of asylum seekers than that in the reference population. We conclude that measures to prevent suicide and suicidal behaviour among asylum seekers in the Netherlands are indicate

Contribution of main causes of death to social inequalities in mortality in the whole population of Scania, Sweden

BACKGROUND: To more efficiently reduce social inequalities in mortality, it is important to establish which causes of death contribute the most to socioeconomic mortality differentials. Few studies have investigated which diseases contribute to existing socioeconomic mortality differences in specific age groups and none were in samples of the whole population, where selection bias is minimized. The aim of the present study was to determine which causes of death contribute the most to social inequalities in mortality in each age group in the whole population of Scania, Sweden. METHODS: Data from LOMAS (Longitudinal Multilevel Analysis in Skåne) were used to estimate 12-year follow-up mortality rates across levels of socioeconomic position (SEP) and workforce participation in 975,938 men and women aged 0 to 80 years, during 1991–2002. RESULTS: The results generally showed increasing absolute mortality differences between those holding manual and non-manual occupations with increasing age, while there were inverted u-shaped associations when using relative inequality measures. Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) contributed to 52% of the male socioeconomic difference in overall mortality, cancer to 18%, external causes to 4% and psychiatric disorders to 3%. The corresponding contributions in women were 55%, 21%, 2% and 3%. Additionally, those outside the workforce (i.e., students, housewives, disability pensioners, and the unemployed) showed a strongly increased risk of future mortality in all age groups compared to those inside the workforce. Even though coronary heart disease (CHD) played a major contributing role to the mortality differences seen, stroke and other types of cardiovascular diseases also made substantial contributions. Furthermore, while the most common types of cancers made substantial contributions to the socioeconomic mortality differences, in some age groups more than half of the differences in cancer mortality could be attributed to rarer cancers. CONCLUSION: CHD made a major contribution to the socioeconomic differences in overall mortality. However, there were also important contributions from diseases with less well understood mechanistic links with SEP such as stroke and less-common cancers. Thus, an increased understanding of the mechanisms connecting SEP with more rare causes of disease might be important to be able to more successfully intervene on socioeconomic differences in health

Association between smoke-free legislation in hospitality venues and smoking behavior of young people:A systematic review

Introduction: While evaluations of indoor smoke-free legislation have demonstrated major public health benefits among adults, their impact on the smoking behavior of young people remains unclear. Therefore, we performed a systematic review of the association between smoke-free legislation in hospitality venues and smoking behavior of young people. Aims and Methods: A systematic search was conducted in PubMed, Scopus, and Embase in June 2020. We searched for studies that assessed the association of any form of smoke-free legislation in any hospitality venue (eg, bar and restaurant) with a smoking behavior outcome (eg, initiation and current smoking) among young people (aged 10-24 years). Results: Our search yielded 572 articles of which 31 were screened based on full-text and 9 were included in the analysis. All studies were published between 2005 and 2016. The majority of studies used a quasi-experimental design. Four studies evaluated smoke-free legislation in hospitality venues specifically. Two studies reported that comprehensive, but not weaker, smoke-free legislation decreases progression to established smoking. Two other studies provided mixed results on which level of comprehensiveness of legislation would be effective, and which smoking outcomes would be affected. Five studies evaluated legislation that also included other workplaces. Out of these five studies, three studies found significant decreases in current smoking, smoking frequency, and/or smoking quantity, whereas two other studies did not. Conclusions: Most of the studies found that smoke-free legislation in hospitality venues is associated with a decrease in smoking behavior among young people. Their results indicate the need for comprehensive smoke-free legislation without exemptions. Implications: This is the first systematic review to provide insight into the relationship between smoke-free legislation in hospitality venues and smoking behavior of young people. Our findings show that there is a need for comprehensive smoke-free legislation without exemptions (such as designated smoking areas)