A demographic perspective on human wellbeing: Concepts, measurement and population heterogeneity

This introduction to the 2021 special issue of the Vienna Yearbook of PopulationResearch explores demographic perspectives on human wellbeing across time andspace. While the idea of relating demographic parameters to wellbeing has beenaround for a while, a more concrete research agenda on this topic has only recentlygained momentum. Reviewing the research presented in this volume, we show howexisting theoretical concepts and methodological tools in demography can be usedto make substantial advances in the study of wellbeing. We also touch upon themany challenges researchers face in defining and measuring wellbeing, with themost important debate being about whether the focus should be on objective orsubjective measures. The studies discussed here define wellbeing as health andmortality; as income, education or other resources; as happiness or life satisfaction;or as a combination thereof. They cover wellbeing in historical and contemporarypopulations in high- and low-income countries, and also point out important barriersto research on wellbeing, including the lack of good quality data in many regions.Finally, we highlight the value of considering population heterogeneities when studying wellbeing in order to identify population subgroups who are likely to fallbehind, which can have important policy implications

Improving the light collection efficiency of silicon photomultipliers through the use of metalenses

Metalenses are optical devices that implement nanostructures as phase shifters to focus incident light. Their compactness and simple fabrication make them a potential cost-effective solution for increasing light collection efficiency in particle detectors with limited photosensitive area coverage. Here we report on the characterization and performance of metalenses in increasing the light collection efficiency of silicon photomultipliers (SiPM) of various sizes using an LED of 630 nm, and find a six to seven-fold increase in signal for a 1.3×1.3 mm² SiPM when coupled with a 10-mm-diameter metalens manufactured using deep ultraviolet stepper lithography. Such improvements could be valuable for future generations of particle detectors, particularly those employed in rare-event searches such as dark matter and neutrinoless double beta decay

Socioeconomic environment and survival in patients after ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI): a longitudinal study for the City of Vienna

Objectives: This study investigates the relationship between socioeconomic environment (SEE) and survival after ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) separately for women and men in the City of Vienna, Austria. Design: Hospital-based observational data of STEMI patients are linked with district-level information on SEE and the mortality register, enabling survival analyses with a 19-year follow-up (2000-2018). Setting: The analysis is set at the main tertiary care hospital of the City of Vienna. On weekends, it is the only hospital in charge of treating STEMIs and thus provides representative data for the Viennese population. Participants: The study comprises a total of 1481 patients with STEMI, including women and men aged 24-94 years. Primary and secondary outcome measures: Primary outcome measures are age at STEMI and age at death. We further distinguish between deaths from coronary artery disease (CAD), deaths from acute coronary syndrome (ACS), and other causes of death. SEE is proxied via mean individual gross income from employment in each municipal district. Results: Results are based on Kaplan-Meier survival probability estimates, Cox proportional hazard regressions and competing risk models, always using age as the time scale. Descriptive findings suggest a socioeconomic gradient in the age at death after STEMI. This finding is, however, not supported by the regression results. Female patients with STEMI have better survival outcomes, but only for deaths related to CAD (HR: 0.668, 95% CIs 0.452 to 0.985) and other causes of deaths (HR: 0.627, 95% CIs 0.444 to 0.884), and not for deaths from the more acute ACS. Conclusions: Additional research is necessary to further disentangle the interaction between SEE and age at STEMI, as our findings suggest that individuals from poorer districts have STEMI at younger ages, which indicates vulnerability in regard to health conditions in these neighbourhoods

A Microsatellite Guided Insight into the Genetic Status of Adi, an Isolated Hunting-Gathering Tribe of Northeast India

Tibeto-Burman populations of India provide an insight into the peopling of India and aid in understanding their genetic relationship with populations of East, South and Southeast Asia. The study investigates the genetic status of one such Tibeto-Burman group, Adi of Arunachal Pradesh based on 15 autosomal microsatellite markers. Further the study examines, based on 9 common microsatellite loci, the genetic relationship of Adi with 16 other Tibeto-Burman speakers of India and 28 neighboring populations of East and Southeast Asia. Overall, the results support the recent formation of the Adi sub-tribes from a putative ancestral group and reveal that geographic contiguity is a major influencing factor of the genetic affinity among the Tibeto-Burman populations of India

Salt Dependence of the Tribological Properties of a Surface-Grafted Weak Polycation in Aqueous Solution

The nanoscopic adhesive and frictional behaviour of end-grafted poly[2-(dimethyl amino)ethyl methacrylate] (PDMAEMA) films (brushes) in contact with gold- or PDMAEMA-coated atomic force microscope tips in potassium halide solutions with different concentrations up to 300 mM is a strong function of salt concentration. The conformation of the polymers in the brush layer is sensitive to salt concentration, which leads to large changes in adhesive forces and the contact mechanics at the tip–sample contact, with swollen brushes (which occur at low salt concentrations) yielding large areas of contact and friction–load plots that fit JKR behaviour, while collapsed brushes (which occur at high salt concentrations) yield sliding dominated by ploughing, with conformations in between fitting DMT mechanics. The relative effect of the different anions follows the Hofmeister series, with I − collapsing the brushes more than Br − and Cl − for the same salt concentration

Providing a computing environment for a high energy physics workshop

Although computing facilities have been provided at conferences and workshops remote from the host institution for some years, the equipment provided has rarely been capable of providing for much more than simple editing and electronic mail. This report documents the effort involved in providing a local computing facility with world-wide networking capability for a physics workshop so that we and others can benefit from the knowledge gained through the experience