Inequality in health care utilization in Germany? Theoretical and empirical evidence for specialist consultation

Aim: In view of increasing concern about a two-class system in the German health care sector, this study investigates the relevance of health insurance schemes and other socioeconomic characteristics to the level of specialist health care provision. Subjects and Methods: Referring to Ronald M. Andersen’s model of health care utilization and more content-based approaches, we implement a negative binomial hurdle regression to estimate the number of specialist visits within the last 12 months. Our data source is the German sample of the first wave of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) in 2004. Results: The results show that men’s number of specialist visits is markedly sensitive to predisposing and enabling factors, whereas women’s health care utilization depends less on such socioeconomic characteristics. With reference to previous findings concerning general practitioner consultation, the assumption of a bipolar health care system providing general practitioner care primarily to the statutory insured and specialist care to the privately insured is supported empirically as to men. Education, which is considered to be highly correlated with health lifestyles, has a positive effect on medical health care. Every additional year of education increases by about 10% the probability of men seeking specialist consultation. Furthermore, the results indicate an unfavorable situation for the self-employed concerning health care because of their specific employment situation and health insurance coverage. Discussion: The research results suggest the existence of relevant differences in the amount of specialist consultation according to health insurance and other socioeconomic features. Further research could concentrate on the question of whether these inequalities in utilization levels indicate overprovision or underprovision of ambulant health care. Moreover, we recommend longitudinal research that is particularly suited to detangle age and cohort effects

Cavity cooling of an optically levitated nanoparticle

The ability to trap and to manipulate individual atoms is at the heart of current implementations of quantum simulations, quantum computing, and long-distance quantum communication. Controlling the motion of larger particles opens up yet new avenues for quantum science, both for the study of fundamental quantum phenomena in the context of matter wave interference, and for new sensing and transduction applications in the context of quantum optomechanics. Specifically, it has been suggested that cavity cooling of a single nanoparticle in high vacuum allows for the generation of quantum states of motion in a room-temperature environment as well as for unprecedented force sensitivity. Here, we take the first steps into this regime. We demonstrate cavity cooling of an optically levitated nanoparticle consisting of approximately 10e9 atoms. The particle is trapped at modest vacuum levels of a few millibar in the standing-wave field of an optical cavity and is cooled through coherent scattering into the modes of the same cavity. We estimate that our cooling rates are sufficient for ground-state cooling, provided that optical trapping at a vacuum level of 10e-7 millibar can be realized in the future, e.g., by employing additional active-feedback schemes to stabilize the optical trap in three dimensions. This paves the way for a new light-matter interface enabling room-temperature quantum experiments with mesoscopic mechanical systems.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figure

Cavity cooling of a levitated nanosphere by coherent scattering

We report three-dimensional cooling of a levitated nanoparticle inside an optical cavity. The cooling mechanism is provided by cavity-enhanced coherent scattering off an optical tweezer. The observed 3D dynamics and cooling rates are as theoretically expected from the presence of both linear and quadratic terms in the interaction between the particle motion and the cavity field. By achieving nanometer-level control over the particle location we optimize the position-dependent coupling and demonstrate axial cooling by two orders of magnitude at background pressures as high as $6\times10^{-2}$ mbar. We also estimate a significant ($> 40$ dB) suppression of laser phase noise, and hence of residual heating, which is a specific feature of the coherent scattering scheme. The observed performance implies that quantum ground state cavity cooling of levitated nanoparticles can be achieved for background pressures below $10^{-7}$ mbar

Die Bedeutung von Kindern für den weiblichen Karriereverlauf. Karriereeinbußen aufgrund von Mutterschaft?

Vor dem Hintergrund einer in den letzten Dekaden gestiegenen Erwerbspräferenz und -beteiligung von Frauen mit Kindern ist die Vereinbarkeit von Beruf und Familie in der Mitte des weiblichen Lebenslaufs eine zentrale gesellschaftliche Herausforderung für Deutschland geworden. Der Beitrag untersucht inwieweit Unterschiede in der Statusmobilität von Frauen beim Wiedereinstieg in den Arbeitsmarkt nach der Geburt des ersten Kindes durch ihr individuelles Humankapital, die Verteilung der Arbeitsmarktressourcen im Haushalt und die subjektive Wichtigkeit beruflichen Erfolgs erklärt werden können.Against the backdrop of a rise in mothers’ preference for work and participation in the labor market in recent decades, the reconciliation of work and family in the middle of the female life course has become a central societal challenge in Germany. The paper examines how differences in women’s career mobility in the course of re-entering the labor market after first childbirth can be explained by their individual human capital, the distribution of labor market resources in the household and the subjective importance of professional success

Nonequilibrium control of thermal and mechanical changes in a levitated system

Fluctuation theorems are fundamental extensions of the second law of thermodynamics for small nonequilibrium systems. While work and heat are equally important forms of energy exchange, fluctuation relations have not been experimentally assessed for the generic situation of simultaneous mechanical and thermal changes. Thermal driving is indeed generally slow and more difficult to realize than mechanical driving. We here use feedback cooling techniques to implement fast and controlled temperature variations of an underdamped levitated microparticle that are one order of magnitude faster than the equilibration time. Combining mechanical and thermal control, we verify the validity of a fluctuation theorem that accounts for both contributions, well beyond the range of linear response theory. Our system allows the investigation of general far-from-equilibrium processes in microscopic systems that involve fast mechanical and thermal changes at the same time