Has the relation between income inequality and life expectancy disappeared? Evidence from Italy and top industrialised countries

Objective: To investigate the relation between income inequality and life expectancy in Italy and across wealthy nations.Design and setting: Measure correlation between income inequality and life expectancy at birth within Italy and across the top 21 wealthy countries. Pearson correlation coefficients were calculated to study these relations. Multivariate linear regression was used to measure the association between income inequality and life expectancy at birth adjusting for per capita income, education, and/or per capita gross domestic product.Data sources: Data on the Gini coefficient ( income inequality), life expectancy at birth, per capita income, and educational attainment for Italy came from the surveys on Italian household on income and wealth 1995-2000 and the National Institute of Statistics information system. Data for industrialised nations were taken from the United Nations Development Program's human development indicators database 2003.Results: In Italy, income inequality (beta = -0.433; p 0.05). In cross national analyses, income inequality had a strong negative correlation with life expectancy at birth (r =-0.864; p < 0.001).Conclusions: In Italy, a country where health care and education are universally available, and with a strong social safety net, income inequality had an independent and more powerful effect on life expectancy at birth than did per capita income and educational attainment. Italy had a moderately high degree of income inequality and an average life expectancy compared with other wealthy countries. The cross national analyses showed that the relation between income inequality and population health has not disappeared

The Effects of Statistical Multiplicity of Infection on Virus Quantification and Infectivity Assays

Many biological assays are employed in virology to quantify parameters of interest. Two such classes of assays, virus quantification assays (VQA) and infectivity assays (IA), aim to estimate the number of viruses present in a solution, and the ability of a viral strain to successfully infect a host cell, respectively. VQAs operate at extremely dilute concentrations and results can be subject to stochastic variability in virus-cell interactions. At the other extreme, high viral particle concentrations are used in IAs, resulting in large numbers of viruses infecting each cell, enough for measurable change in total transcription activity. Furthermore, host cells can be infected at any concentration regime by multiple particles, resulting in a statistical multiplicity of infection (SMOI) and yielding potentially significant variability in the assay signal and parameter estimates. We develop probabilistic models for SMOI at low and high viral particle concentration limits and apply them to the plaque (VQA), endpoint dilution (VQA), and luciferase reporter (IA) assays. A web-based tool implementing our models and analysis is also developed and presented. We test our proposed new methods for inferring experimental parameters from data using numerical simulations and show improvement on existing procedures in all limits.Comment: 19 pages, 11 figures, 1 tabl

On black holes in heterotic braneworlds

We explore the problem of braneworld black holes in the heterotic braneworld scenario of Lukas, Ovrut, Stelle and Waldram (LOSW). We show that black string solutions are unstable, and demonstrate some unusual asymptotics in the linearized metric. We also solve the fully coupled brane and bulk Einstein equations, finding an exact, though singular, solution which corresponds to a brane black hole in which the branes spike apart at the Schwarzschild radius.Comment: 20 pages, 3 figure

Students preferences for teaching and exam delivery modes in accounting education post COVID 19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has sparked a revolution in the delivery of modules in higher education. This paper aims to answer the research question: What are the preferences of undergraduate accounting and finance students regarding teaching delivery and exam modes following the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown? Specifically, we focus on campus, online synchronous, and hybrid synchronous teaching delivery and exam modes. To address this research question, we conducted an online questionnaire surveying students at a U. K. university. Our data show that modules involving calculations, such as financial accounting, are preferred to be taught on campus, whereas theoretical modules like business law are preferred to be taught online. Additionally, the data reveal reasons for these preferences, including community learning, isolation, concentration, and access to recordings. This research contributes valuable insights into optimising accounting education. We advocate for flexibility in both teaching and exam delivery within accounting education, recognising the diverse needs of students

Novel Method of Measuring Electron Positron Colliding Beam Parameters

Through the simultaneous measurement of the transverse size as a function of longitudinal position, and the longitudinal distribution of luminosity, we are able to measure the $\beta_y^\ast$ (vertical envelope function at the collision point), vertical emittance, and bunch length of colliding beams at the Cornell Electron-positron Storage Ring (CESR). This measurement is possible due to the significant ``hourglass'' effect at CESR and the excellent tracking resolution of the CLEO detector.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures, submitted to NIM

A paediatric telecardiology service for district hospitals in south-east England: an observational study.

The attached article is a Publisher version of the final published version which may be accessed at the link below. Copyright © 2010 BMJ Publishing Group Ltd & Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. All rights reservedOBJECTIVES: To compare caseloads of new patients assessed by paediatric cardiologists face-to-face or during teleconferences, and assess NHS costs for the alternative referral arrangements. DESIGN: Prospective cohort study over 15 months. SETTING: Four district hospitals in south-east England and a London paediatric cardiology centre. PATIENTS: Babies and children. INTERVENTION: A telecardiology service introduced alongside outreach clinics. MEASUREMENTS: Clinical outcomes and mean NHS costs per patient. RESULTS: 266 new patients were studied: 75 had teleconsultations (19 of 42 newborns and 56 of 224 infants and children). Teleconsultation patients generally were younger (49% being under 1 year compared with 32% seen personally (p = 0.025)) and their symptoms were not as severe. A cardiac intervention was undertaken immediately or planned for five telemedicine patients (7%) and 30 conventional patients (16%). However, similar proportions of patients were discharged after being assessed (32% telemedicine and 39% conventional). During scheduled teleconferences the mean duration of time per patient in sessions involving real-time echocardiography was 14.4 min, and 8.5 min in sessions where pre-recorded videos were transmitted. Mean cost comparisons for telemedicine and face-to-face patients over 14-day and 6-month follow-up showed the telecardiology service to be cost-neutral for the three hospitals with infrequently-held outreach clinics (1519 UK pounds vs 1724 UK pounds respectively after 14 days). CONCLUSION: Paediatric cardiology centres with small cadres of specialists are under pressure to cope with ever-expanding caseloads of new patients with suspected anomalies. Innovative use of telecardiology alongside conventional outreach services should suitably, and economically, enhance access to these specialists.The Department of Health and the Charitable Funds Committee of the Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Trust funded the project

Detection of small-scale folds at a solar wind reconnection exhaust

Observations of reconnection in the solar wind over the last few years appear to indicate that the majority of large-scale reconnecting current sheets are roughly planar, and that reconnection itself is quasi-steady. Most studies of solar wind exhausts have used spacecraft with large separations and relatively low time cadence ion measurements. Here we present multipoint Cluster observations of a reconnection exhaust and the associated current sheet at ACE and Wind, enabling it to be studied on multiple length scales and at high time resolution. While analysis shows that on large scales the current sheet is planar, detailed measurements using the four closely spaced Cluster spacecraft show that the trailing edge of the reconnection jet is nonplanar with folds orthogonal to the reconnection plane, with length scales of approximately 230 ion inertial lengths. Our findings thus suggest that while solar wind current sheets undergoing reconnection may be planar on large scales, they may also exhibit complex smaller-scale structure. Such structure is difficult to observe and has rarely been detected because exhausts are rapidly convected past the spacecraft in a single cut; there is therefore a limited set of spacecraft trajectories through the exhaust which would allow the nonplanar features to be intercepted. We consider how such nonplanar reconnection current sheets can form and the processes which may have generated the 3-D structure that was observed

Transition towards health promoting hospitals: adapting a global framework to Pakistan.

The World Health Organization encourages hospitals to become Health Promoting Hospitals (HPH) but adapting this concept to Pakistan has not been investigated. We explore perceptions of healthcare stakeholders about strategies and a priority action-plan to encourage HPHs in Pakistan. We conducted a qualitative study in 2007 where key-informant interviews and focus group discussions were held with healthcare stakeholders in Karachi. Thematic analysis was done and emerging themes were categorized. The HPH core components were perceived as the standard framework , however more emphasis was placed on priority actions as to satisfy basic needs of Patients, staff and the community. This included basic facilities of comfort, health, hygiene, safety, security and emotional support. A change in the traditional mindset from cure to care and identification of key personnel, awareness-raising and cooperation would strengthen advocacy efforts for HPH in Pakistan