Health Status, Health Care and Inequality: Canada vs. the U.S.

Does Canada's publicly funded, single payer health care system deliver better health outcomes and distribute health resources more equitably than the multi-payer heavily private U.S. system? We show that the efficacy of health care systems cannot be usefully evaluated by comparisons of infant mortality and life expectancy. We analyze several alternative measures of health status using JCUSH (The Joint Canada/U.S. Survey of Health) and other surveys. We find a somewhat higher incidence of chronic health conditions in the U.S. than in Canada but somewhat greater U.S. access to treatment for these conditions. Moreover, a significantly higher percentage of U.S. women and men are screened for major forms of cancer. Although health status, measured in various ways is similar in both countries, mortality/incidence ratios for various cancers tend to be higher in Canada. The need to ration resources in Canada, where care is delivered "free", ultimately leads to long waits. In the U.S., costs are more often a source of unmet needs. We also find that Canada has no more abolished the tendency for health status to improve with income than have other countries. Indeed, the health-income gradient is slightly steeper in Canada than it is in the U.S.

What Do Wage Differentials Tell Us about Labor Market Discrimination?

We examine the extent to which non-discriminatory factors can explain observed wage gaps between racial and ethnic minorities and whites, and between women and men. In general we find that differences in productivity-related factors account for most of the between group wage differences in the year 2000. Determinants of wage gaps differ by group. Differences in schooling and in skills developed in the home and in school, as measured by test scores, are of central importance in explaining black/white and Hispanic/white wage gaps among both women and men. Immigrant assimilation is an additional factor for Asians and workers from Central and South America. The sources of the gender gap are quite different, however. Gender differences in schooling and cognitive skills as measured by the AFQT are quite small and explain little of the pay gap. Instead the gender gap largely stems from choices made by women and men concerning the amount of time and energy devoted to a career, as reflected in years of work experience, utilization of part-time work, and other workplace and job characteristics.

The stability of an air-maintained cavity behind a stationary object in flowing water

In studies made in the Free Surface Water Tunnel of a projectile running in an air-maintained cavity, the experimental relation between air entrainment rate and cavitation number was determined. The entrainment-rate coefficient CQ = Q/V0d^2, where Q is the air rate in cfs, V0 the free-stream velocity, and d the disk nose diameter, was plotted against cavitation parameter, K = (p0 - pk)/q0 where p0 is the free-stream pressure at the disk center line, pk the cavity pressure, and q0 the free-stream dynamic pressure. This experimental relationship for one single disc is shown for three different velocities in Fig. 1. The curves are similar in shape and each has a minimum value of entrainment coefficient which is designated by CQ^* at a value of K as designated as K^*

What is going on?

This article considers the context of the special edition on homicide and how the articles within it link to modern investigations and existing knowledge

Multiwavelength Monitoring of the Dwarf Seyfert 1 Galaxy NGC 4395. IV. The Variable UV Absorption Lines

We report the detection of variable UV absorption lines in NGC 4395, based on UV observations with the HST STIS carried out in April and July, 2004, as part of a reverberation-mapping campaign. Low-ionization lines of O I, N I, Si II, C II, and Fe II, are present in the low-state spectra (April 2004) at a velocity v_shift=-250 km/s (system A_l), and additional high-ionization lines of C IV and N V appear in the high-state spectra (July 2004) at v_shift=-250 km/s (system A_h) and at v_shift=-840 km/s (system B). The absence of absorption from the low metastable levels of Si II implies a density <~10^3 cm^(-3) for system A_l, indicating a location outside the narrow line region (NLR). System A_h is peculiar as only N V absorption is clearly detected. A high N V/C IV absorption ratio is expected for a high metallicity absorber, but this is excluded here as the metallicity of the host galaxy and of the nuclear gas is significantly subsolar. A simple acceptable model for systems A_h and B is an absorber located between the broad line region (BLR) and the NLR, which absorbs only the continuum and the BLR. At the low-state the strong narrow emission lines of C IV and N V dominate the spectrum, making the absorption invisible. At the high-state the absorbed continuum and BLR emission dominate the spectrum. Thus, the change in the observed absorption does not reflect a change in the absorber, but rather a change in the continuum and BLR emission from behind the absorber, relative to the emission from the NLR in front of the absorber. Studies of the absorption line variability in highly variable objects can thus break the degeneracy in the absorber distance determination inherent to single epoch studies.Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journa

Theology at the coal-face of hospitalisation - the development and evaluation of a postgraduate certificate in Healthcare Chaplaincy

Healthcare chaplaincy is working towards recognition as a registered health profession. An accredited programme of professional education is part of that process. The University of Glasgow supported by NHS Education for Scotland have developed a programme of professional education for healthcare chaplains that is integrated into an MSc. (MedSci) in healthcare. This article outlines the commissioning, development and evaluation of a postgraduate certificate in healthcare chaplaincy by students, clinical mentors and experienced healthcare chaplains. It also highlights an innovative approach to practice development in spiritual and religious care in healthcare

Superorbital Period in the High Mass X-ray Binary 2S 0114+650

We report the detection of a superorbital period in the high-mass X-ray binary 2S 0114+650. Analyses of data from the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) All-Sky Monitor (ASM) from 1996 January 5 to 2004 August 25 reveal a superorbital period of 30.7 +/- 0.1 d, in addition to confirming the previously reported neutron star spin period of 2.7 h and the binary orbital period of 11.6 d. It is unclear if the superorbital period can be ascribed to the precession of a warped accretion disc in the system.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, submitted to MNRAS 27th January 2005. Manuscript expanded to include discussion of evolution of periods, and hardness ratio variability. Number of figures increased from 5 to 9. Accepted for publication 19th December 200