Scandinavian long-term care financing

In this paper, we compare and analyse the systems for financing long-term care for older people in the Scandinavian countries – Denmark, Norway and Sweden. The three countries share common political traditions of local autonomy and universalism, and these common roots are very apparent when the financing of long-term care is concerned. Nevertheless, the Scandinavian systems for long- term care (LTC) exhibit some important deviations from the idealized “universal welfare state” to which these countries are normally ascribed. For example, user charges tend to be strongly dependent on earnings, which is incoherent with the general norm of flat-rate public services. Also, there is significant regional variation in the level of services provided, which is in direct contrast with the universalist ambitions. Overall, the Scandinavian countries distinguish themselves through their very high reliance on public spending in long-term care. It is unclear to what extent the Scandinavian model for financing of long term care will be sustainable as demographic change progresses in the next few decades.long term care; financing; welfare state; Scandinavia

Enhanced electron correlations in FeSb2_2

FeSb$_2$ has been recently identified as a new model system for studying many-body renormalizations in a $d$-electron based narrow gap semiconducting system, strongly resembling FeSi. The electron-electron correlations in FeSb$_2$ manifest themselves in a wide variety of physical properties including electrical and thermal transport, optical conductivity, magnetic susceptibility, specific heat and so on. We review some of the properties that form a set of experimental evidences revealing the crucial role of correlation effects in FeSb$_2$. The metallic state derived from slight Te doping in FeSb$_2$, which has large quasiparticle mass, will also be introduced.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures; submitted to Annalen der Physi

Highly Dispersive Electron Relaxation and Colossal Thermoelectricity in the Correlated Semiconductor FeSb2_2

We show that the colossal thermoelectric power, $S(T)$, observed in the correlated semiconductor FeSb$_2$ below 30\,K is accompanied by a huge Nernst coefficient $\nu(T)$ and magnetoresistance MR$(T)$. Markedly, the latter two quantities are enhanced in a strikingly similar manner. While in the same temperature range, $S(T)$ of the reference compound FeAs$_2$, which has a seven-times larger energy gap, amounts to nearly half of that of FeSb$_2$, its $\nu(T)$ and MR$(T)$ are intrinsically different to FeSb$_2$: they are smaller by two orders of magnitude and have no common features. With the charge transport of FeAs$_2$ successfully captured by the density functional theory, we emphasize a significantly dispersive electron-relaxation time $\tau(\epsilon_k)$ due to electron-electron correlations to be at the heart of the peculiar thermoelectricity and magnetoresistance of FeSb$_2$.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure

Role of p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase isoforms in murine skin inflammation induced by 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol 13-acetate

p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase plays a pivotal role in skin inflammation. The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of the various p38 isoforms. p38 beta/delta-knockout-C57BL/6 mice were generated, studied in a 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol 13-acetate (TPA)-induced skin inflammation model and compared with wild-type mice. The inflammatory response was determined by ear thickness, myeloperoxidase activity and histology. mRNA and protein expression of interleukin (IL)-1 beta and IL-6 was determined by quantitative real-time reverse transcription PCR and enzyme-linked immunoassay. In both groups application of TPA resulted in a significant increase in inflammation, and pretreatment with the p38 alpha/beta inhibitor, SB202190 resulted in a significant inhibition. A significantly slower onset but prolonged duration of the response was seen in p38 beta/delta knockout mice. This was paralleled by a significant, but transient, lower IL-1 beta and IL-6 protein expression in p38 beta/delta knockout mice. Although the p38 alpha isoform is important, our data also demonstrate an important role of the p38 beta and/or delta isoforms in the regulation of TPA-induced skin inflammation.</p

A Helium-Surface Interaction Potential of Bi2_2Te3_3(111) from Ultrahigh-Resolution Spin-Echo Measurements

We have determined an atom-surface interaction potential for the He$-$Bi$_2$Te$_3$(111) system by analysing ultrahigh resolution measurements of selective adsorption resonances. The experimental measurements were obtained using $^3$He spin-echo spectrometry. Following an initial free-particle model analysis, we use elastic close-coupling calculations to obtain a three-dimensional potential. The three-dimensional potential is then further refined based on the experimental data set, giving rise to an optimised potential which fully reproduces the experimental data. Based on this analysis, the He$-$Bi$_2$Te$_3$(111) interaction potential can be described by a corrugated Morse potential with a well depth $D=(6.22\pm0.05)~\mathrm{meV}$, a stiffness $\kappa =(0.92\pm0.01)~\mathrm{\AA}^{-1}$ and a surface electronic corrugation of $(9.6\pm0.2)$% of the lattice constant. The improved uncertainties of the atom-surface interaction potential should also enable the use in inelastic close-coupled calculations in order to eventually study the temperature dependence and the line width of selective adsorption resonances

Hosts of avian brood parasites have evolved egg signatures with elevated information content.

Hosts of brood-parasitic birds must distinguish their own eggs from parasitic mimics, or pay the cost of mistakenly raising a foreign chick. Egg discrimination is easier when different host females of the same species each lay visually distinctive eggs (egg 'signatures'), which helps to foil mimicry by parasites. Here, we ask whether brood parasitism is associated with lower levels of correlation between different egg traits in hosts, making individual host signatures more distinctive and informative. We used entropy as an index of the potential information content encoded by nine aspects of colour, pattern and luminance of eggs of different species in two African bird families (Cisticolidae parasitized by cuckoo finches Anomalospiza imberbis, and Ploceidae by diederik cuckoos Chrysococcyx caprius). Parasitized species showed consistently higher entropy in egg traits than did related, unparasitized species. Decomposing entropy into two variation components revealed that this was mainly driven by parasitized species having lower levels of correlation between different egg traits, rather than higher overall levels of variation in each individual egg trait. This suggests that irrespective of the constraints that might operate on individual egg traits, hosts can further improve their defensive 'signatures' by arranging suites of egg traits into unpredictable combinations.EMC was supported by the Pomona College-Downing College Student Exchange Scholarship, MS by a BBSRC David Phillips Research Fellowship (BB/G022887/1), and CNS by a Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship, a BBSRC David Phillips Research Fellowship (BB/J014109/1), and the DST-NRF Centre of Excellence at the Percy FitzPatrick Institute.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Royal Society Publishing via http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2015.059