Interactions between financial incentives and health in the early retirement decision

We present a theory of the relation between health and retirement that generates testable predictions regarding the interaction of health, wealth and financial incentives in retirement decisions. The theory predicts (i) that wealthier individuals (compared to poorer individuals) are more likely to retire for health reasons (affordability proposition), and (ii) that health problems make older workers more responsive to financial incentives encouraging retirement (reinforcement proposition). We test these predictions using administrative data on older employees in the Dutch healthcare sector for whom we link adverse health events, proxied by unanticipated hospitalizations, to information on retirement decisions and actual incentives from administrative records of the pension funds. Exploiting unexpected health shocks and quasi-exogenous variation in financial incentives for retirement due to reforms, we account for the endogeneity of health and financial incentives. Making use of the actual individual pension rights diminishes downward bias in estimates of the effect of pension incentives. We find support for our affordability and reinforcement propositions. Both propositions require the benefits function to be convex, as in our data. Our theory and empirical findings highlight the importance of assessing financial incentives for their potential reinforcement of health shocks and point to the possibility that differences in responses to financial incentives and health shocks across countries may relate to whether the benefit function is concave or convex

Syngas production from the reforming of typical biogas compositions in an inert porous media reactor

Syngas production by inert porous media combustion of rich biogas–air mixtures was studied experimentally, focusing on carbon dioxide utilization and process efficiency. Different gas mixtures of natural gas and carbon dioxide, which simulated a typical biogas composition of 100:0, 70:30, 55:45, and 40:60 (CH4:CO2), were comparatively analyzed considering combustion waves temperatures and velocities, and chemical concentrations products, at high equivalence ratios of f = 1.5 and f = 2.0. Different CO2 concentrations on biogas composition showed higher H2 productions than on pure methane (100:0), mainly due to CO2 reforming reactions. Also, syngas production, hydrogen yields, and process efficiency by means of biogas filtration combustion were higher than under methane filtration combustion. Results of the thermochemical conversion of biogas show an alternative and promising non-catalytic technique to CO2 utilization

An additional set of phages to characterize epidemic methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus strains from Spain (1989-92).

In recent years, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) isolates in Spain have increased dramatically; in 1986 there were only 1.2% MRSA amongst all nosocomial Staphylococcus aureus (SA) isolates, by 1989 this percentage had risen to 44% in some hospital causing a very serious epidemic situation in the country. We have characterized these isolates by direct, reverse and Fisk phage typing and we have also looked for an additional local set of phages to help us to differentiate these strains. We have been able to differentiate an epidemic strain from other MRSA strains which cause sporadic hospital outbreaks, and we have also distinguished between some variants of the epidemic strain.This research has been supported by a grant from the Fondo de Investigaciones Sanitarias de la Seguridad Social (FISS), Ministerio de Sanidad y Consumo, Spain; No. 93/0144.S

Interrelación iconográfica de Thetys y Thalassa en los mosaicos hispanorromanos

Se recogen dos mosaicos de Jaén que han sido identificados tradicionalmente con la imagen de la diosa Thetys saliendo del mar. Tras el análisis de las series de imágenes musivas de la propia diosa Thetys y de la personificación del mar, Thalassa, se determina que en los pavimentos hispanos existe una interrelación iconográfica de ambos personajes y por lo tanto el eslabon de las simbiosis.Nous reprenons deux mosaïques de Jaén qui ont été traditionnellment identifiées comme l’image de la déesse Thétys sortant de la mer. Après analyse des nombreuses séries d’images de la déesse Thétys et de la personnification de la mer, Thalassa, on détermine que dans les pavements espagnols, il existe une corrélation iconographique entre les deux personnages et par conséquent un lien entre eux.</p

Assessment by laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy of penetration depth in limestones of four nano-biocides based on silver/titanium nanoparticles

[Abstract]: Four biocidal treatments based on nanoparticles were designed and their penetration depths were char- acterized by laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) technique. This kind of biocidal nanoparticles are being studied to be employed in historic buildings and stone monuments due to their capability to inhibit the growth of biofoulings. The effectiveness of the treatment is related to the penetration depth of the nanoparticles in the limestone pore. For this reason, LIBS depth profiling was used in this work to characterize the diffusion of the nanoparticles in the limestone matrix and to compare the penetration depth of the different treatments. Four different nano-biocides based on silver/titanium dioxide nanopar- ticles were analysed by LIBS in limestone from Novelda quarry (Alicante, Spain). This limestone has been widely employed in both historical and contemporary buildings in Spain. The positive detection of the emission line of Ag at 338.289 nm was examined in the depth-related emission spectra as evidence of the presence of the silver nanoparticles and derived nanocomposites in the limestone matrix. The LIBS depth-profiles that were generated, showed a decrease of the Ag net signal with depth due to the diffusion of the nanoparticles in the limestone. Furthermore, the comparison of the in-depth sequences of spectra, and of the Ag depth profiles evidenced penetration differences between the nano-biocides which were explained by differences in the hydrodynamic diameter of the nanoparti- cles that would affect their diffusion in the limestone pore. The results of this assessment demonstrate the capability and potential of LIBS technique for the in-depth characterization of the nanoparticles and for the comparison of the effectiveness of nanoparticles biocidal treatments based on their penetration in the stone matrix