Integrating housing wealth into the social safety net : the elderly in Moscow

The elderly in Russia have often been among those least able to cope with all the changes that have taken place during the transition. Unlike the situation prior to reform-when pensions were stable-they now face considerable uncertainty. If they have not been in poverty, many have been close to it. While the elderly have experienced difficulties, they have also been the beneficiaries of a very large transfer of wealth. In Russia, as in most transition economies, housing was privatized, under giveaway terms. As a result, although many elderly households have low incomes, based on their wealth, their deprivation would appear to be less serious. Unfortunately, in the absence of a developed financial system, it is difficult to use this wealth without selling it. In Russia, all households, not just the elderly, have not been able to borrow. The existence of such large unencumbered wealth holdings by lower income elderly households creates an opportunity to provide what might be termed"housing safety net insurance"at low public cost. More than reducing the incidence of poverty, such schemes could allow also many of the elderly to be able to move out of poverty and into middle income status. The authors explain why many of the elderly in the former Soviet Union (FSU), not just in Russia, are likely to have so much housing wealth. Then they discuss how financial instruments could access this wealth. The authors also discuss the empirical situation of the elderly in Moscow, illustrating the potential demand for such products. Finally, they suggest that the results for Moscow are likely to be similar in many other FSU countries because these countries also have elderly populations who also own a great deal of unencumbered housing wealth.Environmental Economics&Policies,Public Health Promotion,Payment Systems&Infrastructure,Banks&Banking Reform,Health Economics&Finance,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Banks&Banking Reform,Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Health Economics&Finance

A Study to Compare the Effectiveness of Teletechnet Distance Education with Traditional Classroom Education Among Old Dominion University Industrial Technology Graduates 1998-2000

The following hypothesis guided this research: 1. Among Old Dominion University Industrial Technology majors, there was no significant difference in academic achievement between those students who had been taught by conventional means and those that had used Teletechnet distance education

Towards a Java Subtyping Operad

The subtyping relation in Java exhibits self-similarity. The self-similarity in Java subtyping is interesting and intricate due to the existence of wildcard types and, accordingly, the existence of three subtyping rules for generic types: covariant subtyping, contravariant subtyping and invariant subtyping. Supporting bounded type variables also adds to the complexity of the subtyping relation in Java and in other generic nominally-typed OO languages such as C# and Scala. In this paper we explore defining an operad to model the construction of the subtyping relation in Java and in similar generic nominally-typed OO programming languages. Operads, from category theory, are frequently used to model self-similar phenomena. The Java subtyping operad, we hope, will shed more light on understanding the type systems of generic nominally-typed OO languages.Comment: 13 page

Third crime unlucky

This is a contemporary mystery novel set in the Eastern Cape. A town’s airstrip, situated between the golf club and the military base, acts as host to the local flying club and an active skydiving school. An amateur investigator uses unorthodox methods and the help of friends to find the cause of aeroplane fires and sabotage. His investigations lead him via geological research and insurance reports into contact with members of the aviation, property development and military fields

Geologic studies to identify the source for high levels of radium and barium in Illinois ground-water supplies: a preliminary report

Analyses of water from municipal wells in Illinois by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency showed that more than 300 wells exceeded the upper limit, 3 picocuries/liter (U.S. Public Health Service, 1962), for gross alpha radiation in drinking water. More than 30 wells exceeded the upper limit, 1 milligram/liter (U.S. Public Health Service, 1962), for barium in drinking water. High levels of radiation in ground water were more extensive in areal distribution than the high levels of barium. All of the affected wells were finished in bedrock, primarily in rocks of the Cambrian and Ordovician Systems of northern Illinois. The geologic settings in which the high levels of radiation and barium were documented indicated that the problem was not restricted to Illinois.The source of the radiation in ground water was thought to be the natural occurrence of the radioactive elements.uranium-238 and thorium-232 in the aquifer rocks. Analyses of a limited number of rock samples indicated that uranium and thorium concentrations were highest in fine-grained sediments in the aquifer systems; the highest concentration was in shales that confine the aquifer.The occurrence of natural radioisotopes in ground water was thought to be complex, involving source rocks, ground water chemistry, and the hydraulic stress placed on the aquifer.Chemical analyses of rock samples indicated that high concentrations of barium were widespread in rocks of the Cambrian and Ordovician Systems. The concentration of barium in ground water was controlled by solubility equilibria reactions with sulfate ion. A map showing sulfate ion concentration in the Cambrian-Ordovician Aquifer could be used to delimit regions where barium might occur at concentrations exceeding 1 milligram/liter.U.S. Department of the InteriorU.S. Geological Surve

The Evolution of State Supreme Courts

Part I of this Article describes in broad quantitative terms the changing relationship between the caseload of supreme courts and the population of the states in which these courts sit. Part II examines the various means states used to control supreme court caseloads, the political problems involved, and the types of courts that have resulted. Part III presents evidence that changes in court organization in response to caseload pressure are accompanied by changes in the kinds of cases state supreme courts hear, the style of their opinions, and the results of the cases

Coevolution of the Tlx homeobox gene with medusa development (Cnidaria: Medusozoa)

Cnidarians display a wide diversity of life cycles. Among the main cnidarian clades, only Medusozoa possesses a swimming life cycle stage called the medusa, alternating with a benthic polyp stage. The medusa stage was repeatedly lost during medusozoan evolution, notably in the most diverse medusozoan class, Hydrozoa. Here, we show that the presence of the homeobox gene Tlx in Cnidaria is correlated with the presence of the medusa stage, the gene having been lost in clades that ancestrally lack a medusa (anthozoans, endocnidozoans) and in medusozoans that secondarily lost the medusa stage. Our characterization of Tlx expression indicate an upregulation of Tlx during medusa development in three distantly related medusozoans, and spatially restricted expression patterns in developing medusae in two distantly related species, the hydrozoan Podocoryna carnea and the scyphozoan Pelagia noctiluca. These results suggest that Tlx plays a key role in medusa development and that the loss of this gene is likely linked to the repeated loss of the medusa life cycle stage in the evolution of Hydrozoa