The Effect Of Cytochalasin B Dosage On The Survival And Ploidy Of Crassostrea Virginica (Gmelin) Larvae

Survival and ploidy of D-stage oyster larvae (Crassostrea virginica) were determined following the rearing of embryos exposed to CB dosages of 0.5 mg/L, 0.25 mg/L, and 0.125 mg/L for 10 minutes, with 0.05% DMSO and ambient seawater as controls. The experiment was replicated three times on the same day with the same procedures and partially stripping the same male oysters; different females were used for each replicate. CB dosage treatments began when 50% of the eggs reached PBI (24-31 min). Embryos were reared for 48 h at ambient temperature and salinity. Resulting triploid percentages were 13% +/- 6.7% (0.125 mgCB/L), 61.8% +/- 6.2% (0.75 mgCB/L). and 68.2% +/- 14.1% (0.5 mgCB/L). No significant difference (P less than or equal to 0.05) in mean survival was found between the three CB treatments. Significant differences in mean survival between the three replicates implies variability because of different sources of eggs

Unemployment and retirement and ill-health: a cross-sectional analysis across European countries

Objective To determine the associations between different measures of health and labor market position across ten European countries. Methods We studied 11,462 participants of the Survey on Health and Ageing in Europe (SHARE) who were 50–64 years old. Logistic regression was used to calculate the associations between health and other determinants and being retired, unemployed, or a homemaker. Results A large variation across European countries was observed for the proportion of persons 50–65 years with paid employment, varying among men from 42% in Austria to 75% in Sweden and among women from 22% in Italy to 69% in Sweden. Among employed workers 18% reported a poor health, whereas this proportion was 37% in retirees, 39% in unemployed persons, and 35% in homemakers. A perceived poor health was strongly associated with non-participating in labor force in most European countries. A lower education, being single, physical inactivity and a high body mass index were associated with withdrawal from the labor force. Long-term illnesses such as depression, stroke, diabetes, chronic lung disease, and musculoskeletal disease were significantly more common among those persons not having paid employment. Conclusion In many European countries a poor health, chronic diseases, and lifestyle factors were associated with being out of the labor market. The results of this study suggest that in social policies to encourage employment among older persons the role of ill-health and its influencing factors needs to be incorporated

Determinants of cardiovascular disease and other non-communicable diseases in Central and Eastern Europe: Rationale and design of the HAPIEE study

BACKGROUND: Over the last five decades, a wide gap in mortality opened between western and eastern Europe; this gap increased further after the dramatic fluctuations in mortality in the former Soviet Union (FSU) in the 1990s. Recent rapid increases in mortality among lower socioeconomic groups in eastern Europe suggests that socioeconomic factors are powerful determinants of mortality in these populations but the more proximal factors linking the social conditions with health remain unclear. The HAPIEE (Health, Alcohol and Psychosocial factors In Eastern Europe) study is a prospective cohort study designed to investigate the effect of classical and non-conventional risk factors and social and psychosocial factors on cardiovascular and other non-communicable diseases in eastern Europe and the FSU. The main hypotheses of the HAPIEE study relate to the role of alcohol, nutrition and psychosocial factors. METHODS AND DESIGN: The HAPIEE study comprises four cohorts in Russia, Poland, the Czech Republic and Lithuania; each consists of a random sample of men and women aged 45–69 years old at baseline, stratified by gender and 5 year age groups, and selected from population registers. The total planned sample size is 36,500 individuals. Baseline information from the Czech Republic, Russia and Poland was collected in 2002–2005 and includes data on health, lifestyle, diet (food frequency), socioeconomic circumstances and psychosocial factors. A short examination included measurement of anthropometric parameters, blood pressure, lung function and cognitive function, and a fasting venous blood sample. Re-examination of the cohorts in 2006–2008 focuses on healthy ageing and economic well-being using face-to-face computer assisted personal interviews. Recruitment of the Lithuanian cohort is ongoing, with baseline and re-examination data being collected simultaneously. All cohorts are being followed up for mortality and non-fatal cardiovascular events. DISCUSSION: The HAPIEE study will provide important new insights into social, behavioural and biological factors influencing mortality and cardiovascular risk in the region

Wellbeing and chronic lung disease incidence: The Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe

Judith A. Okely and Catharine R. Gale are members of the University of Edinburgh Centre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology, part of the cross council Lifelong Health and Wellbeing Initiative (MR/K026992/1). Funding from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and Medical Research Council (MRC) is gratefully acknowledged

Ageing and Financial Stability

Abstract: Although the precise details are subject to major uncertainty, it seems likely that the process of population ageing will involve major shifts in financing, which may give rise to financial turbulence and systemic risk. The locus and scale of these effects will also depend on the predominant approach to retirement income provision. It is argued that the financial-stability risks arising from continuing with unsustainable pay-as-you-go systems would be more threatening than those arising from funding. Fiscal crises can have incalculable consequences for private financial markets, while pension funding involves more an adaptation by regulatory authorities to a more securitised and institutionalised financial system, that is likely to develop in any case. Concerning policy, for social security, the key issue is reform, so that the fiscal difficulties and their consequences for financial stability foreshadowed above do not arise. For institutional investors involved in funding, policy issues arising include the need for prudent person asset regulation, absence of guarantees generating moral hazard and international diversification of institutional portfolios, so that they are less dependent on the performance of the domestic economy than would otherwise be the case. Banks would not be immune to the side-effects of the various patterns ageing will generate, and an awareness of such risks as well a