Introduction: Social security and the challenge of demographic change

From 29 November to 4 December 2010, the International Social Security Association (ISSA) will meet in Cape Town, Republic of South Africa, to mark the event of the ISSA World Social Security Forum. The Forum provides a unique opportunity for decision-makers from all regions to share knowledge, recognize good practices and discuss key policy challenges as these relate to the design and delivery of national social security programmes. One key policy challenge identified by the ISSA's worldwide membership is demographic change. For this important reason, among the events planned for the Cape Town Forum, a plenary will focus specifically on demography. To coincide with the preparations for the World Forum, and to complement the wider and longer-term endeavours of the ISSA to promote knowledge sharing, the International Social Security Review has chosen to produce this double special issue on "Social security and the challenge of demographic change". The expectation is that this set of papers will make a contribution to supporting social security policy-makers, practitioners, analysts and researchers in all countries as they work towards developing and implementing tailored policy responses to the multifaceted challenge of demographic change.social security, demographic change, demography, policy

Gout and risk of chronic kidney disease and nephrolithiasis meta-analysis of observational studies

ntroduction To determine the prevalence of chronic kidney disease and nephrolithiasis in people with gout, and the association between gout and prevalent or incident chronic kidney disease and nephrolithiasis. Methods Systematic review and meta-analysis of epidemiological studies. Data sources; MEDLINE, EMBASE and CINAHL databases, hand-searched reference lists, citation history and contact with authors. Eligibility criteria: cohort, case–control or cross-sectional studies which examined the occurrence of chronic kidney disease or nephrolithiasis amongst adults with gout (with or without a non-gout comparator group) in primary care or general population samples. Prevalence and risk estimate meta-analyses were performed using a random-effects model. Results Seventeen studies were included in the meta-analysis (chronic kidney disease n = 7, nephrolithiasis n = 8, both n = 2). Pooled prevalence estimates of chronic kidney disease stage ≥3 and self-reported lifetime nephrolithiasis in people with gout were 24% (95% confidence interval 19% to 28%) and 14% (95% CI 12% to 17%) respectively. Gout was associated with both chronic kidney disease (pooled adjusted odds ratio 2.41, 95% confidence interval 1.86 to 3.11) and self-reported lifetime nephrolithiasis (1.77, 1.43 to 2.19). Conclusions Chronic kidney disease and nephrolithiasis are commonly found amongst patients with gout. Gout is independently associated with both chronic kidney disease and nephrolithiasis. Patients with gout should be actively screened for chronic kidney disease and its consequences

Research core drilling in the Manson impact structure, Iowa

The Manson impact structure (MIS) has a diameter of 35 km and is the largest confirmed impact structure in the United States. The MIS has yielded a Ar-40/Ar-39 age of 65.7 Ma on microcline from its central peak, an age that is indistinguishable from the age of the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary. In the summer of 1991 the Iowa Geological Survey Bureau and U.S. Geological Survey initiated a research core drilling project on the MIS. The first core was beneath 55 m of glacial drift. The core penetrated a 6-m layered sequence of shale and siltstone and 42 m of Cretaceous shale-dominated sedimentary clast breccia. Below this breccia, the core encountered two crystalline rock clast breccia units. The upper unit is 53 m thick, with a glassy matrix displaying various degrees of devitrification. The upper half of this unit is dominated by the glassy matrix, with shock-deformed mineral grains (especially quartz) the most common clast. The glassy-matrix unit grades downward into the basal unit in the core, a crystalline rock breccia with a sandy matrix, the matrix dominated by igneous and metamorphic rock fragments or disaggregated grains from those rocks. The unit is about 45 m thick, and grains display abundant shock deformation features. Preliminary interpretations suggest that the crystalline rock breccias are the transient crater floor, lifted up with the central peak. The sedimentary clast breccia probably represents a postimpact debris flow from the crater rim, and the uppermost layered unit probably represents a large block associated with the flow. The second core (M-2) was drilled near the center of the crater moat in an area where an early crater model suggested the presence of postimpact lake sediments. The core encountered 39 m of sedimentary clast breccia, similar to that in the M-1 core. Beneath the breccia, 120 m of poorly consolidated, mildly deformed, and sheared siltstone, shale, and sandstone was encountered. The basal unit in the core was another sequence of sedimentary clast breccia. The two sedimentary clast units, like the lithologically similar unit in the M-1 core, probably formed as debris flows from the crater rim. The middle, nonbrecciated interval is probably a large, intact block of Upper Cretaceous strata transported from the crater rim with the debris flow. Alternatively, the sequence may represent the elusive postimpact lake sequence

Statistical analysis of C/NOFS planar Langmuir probe data

The planar Langmuir probe (PLP) onboard the Communication/Navigation Outage Forecasting System (C/NOFS) satellite has been monitoring ionospheric plasma densities and their irregularities with high resolution almost seamlessly since May 2008. Considering the recent changes in status of the C/NOFS mission, it may be interesting to summarize some statistical results from these measurements. PLP data from 2 different years (1 October 2008–30 September 2009 and 1 January 2012–31 December 2012) were selected for analysis. The first data set corresponds to solar minimum conditions and the second one is as close to solar maximum conditions of solar cycle 24 as possible at the time of the analysis. The results from the analysis show how the values of the standard deviation of the ion density which are greater than specified thresholds are statistically distributed as functions of several combinations of the following geophysical parameters: (i) solar activity, (ii) altitude range, (iii) longitude sector, (iv) local time interval, (v) geomagnetic latitude interval, and (vi) season