Can We Avoid a Sick Fiscal Future? The Non-Sustainability of Health-Care Spending with an Aging Population

Funding for Canadian public health care has long relied on a “pay-as-you-go” funding model: for the most part, government pays for health costs each year from taxes collected in that fiscal year with effectively nothing put aside for projected rising health-care costs in the future. But the future of Canadian public health care is going to get more expensive as the relatively large cohort of baby boomers reaches retirement age. As they exit the work force, and enter the ages at which Canadians use the health-care system more, a smaller population of younger workers is going to be left paying the growing health-care costs of older Canadians. If Canadians intend to preserve a publicly funded medicare system that offers a similar level of service in the future as it does today, under the pay-as-you-go model, eventually peak taxes for Canadians born after 1988 will end up twice as high as the peak taxes that the oldest baby boomers paid. The “payas-you-go” model has become like a Ponzi scheme, where those who got in early enough make out nicely, while those who arrive late stand to suffer a serious financial blow. This should concern both Canadians who value a comprehensive public health system as well as Canadians who value competitive tax rates: There is no reason to be certain that future taxpayers will blithely accept having their taxes substantially increased to finance health care for another, older generation that did not pay for a significant portion of its own health care. If the burden proves too high for the taxpaying public to accept, that could well jeopardize Canada’s health-care system as we know it. If Canadians intend to preserve their iconic public health system, and are unprepared to unjustly overburden future generations with the tax bill left by their parents and grandparents, provincial governments must make strong and rapid efforts to reform the health system. They must find more cost-efficient ways of managing medicine, including new approaches to eldercare, chronic disease prevention and better health promotion. If policymakers respond in time with a workable strategy and adequate effort, the substantial financial health-care liability currently faced by future generations may not be eliminated entirely, but it can still be reduced dramatically

Does the Survey Mode Affect the Association Between Subjective Well-being and its Determinants? An Experimental Comparison Between Face-to-Face and Web Mode

Subjective well-being research increasingly uses web surveys to understand how subjective well-being indicators are related to other concepts of interest. Although we know that mean scores on these indicators may differ between modes, we know little about whether a move to web will influence the conclusions we draw about our conceptual models. This study uses data from a unique mixed-mode survey collected in Croatia and Germany as part of the Generations and Gender Programme to examine whether the relationships between a range of subjective well-being indicators and a set of objective and subjective determinants differ between respondents answering these questions in face-to-face or web mode. Although respondents report lower subjective well-being in web than in face-to-face mode, the relationships between these variables and a range of objective and subjective indicators are relatively stable across modes. This suggests that substantive conclusions about antecedents of subjective well-being do not depend on whether data are collected via a face-to-face interview or through web survey

Quantum Theory of the Smectic Metal State in Stripe Phases

We present a theory of the electron smectic fixed point of the stripe phases of doped layered Mott insulators. We show that in the presence of a spin gap three phases generally arise: (a) a smectic superconductor, (b) an insulating stripe crystal and (c) a smectic metal. The latter phase is a stable two-dimensional anisotropic non-Fermi liquid. In the abscence of a spin gap there is also a more conventional Fermi-liquid-like phase. The smectic superconductor and smectic metal phases may have already been seen in Nd-doped LSCO.Comment: Brookhaven national Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, UCLA and University of Pennsylania; 4 pages, 2 figures, both figures are new. We have corrected the formuals for scaling dimensions (eq. 4) and the discussion that follows from it. The figures have been redrwa

A polymer tandem solar cell with 10.6% power conversion efficiency.

An effective way to improve polymer solar cell efficiency is to use a tandem structure, as a broader part of the spectrum of solar radiation is used and the thermalization loss of photon energy is minimized. In the past, the lack of high-performance low-bandgap polymers was the major limiting factor for achieving high-performance tandem solar cell. Here we report the development of a high-performance low bandgap polymer (bandgap <1.4 eV), poly[2,7-(5,5-bis-(3,7-dimethyloctyl)-5H-dithieno[3,2-b:2',3'-d]pyran)-alt-4,7-(5,6-difluoro-2,1,3-benzothia diazole)] with a bandgap of 1.38 eV, high mobility, deep highest occupied molecular orbital. As a result, a single-junction device shows high external quantum efficiency of >60% and spectral response that extends to 900 nm, with a power conversion efficiency of 7.9%. The polymer enables a solution processed tandem solar cell with certified 10.6% power conversion efficiency under standard reporting conditions (25 °C, 1,000 Wm(-2), IEC 60904-3 global), which is the first certified polymer solar cell efficiency over 10%

The potential for vaccines against scour worms of small ruminants

This review addresses the research landscape regarding vaccines against scour worms, particularly Trichostrongylus spp. and Teladorsagia circumcincta. The inability of past research to deliver scour-worm vaccines with reliable and reproducible efficacy has been due in part to gaps in knowledge concerning: (i) host-parasite interactions leading to development of type-2 immunity, (ii) definition of an optimal suite of parasite antigens, and (iii) rational formulation and administration to induce protective immunity against gastrointestinal nematodes (GIN) at the site of infestation. Recent ‘omics’ developments enable more systematic analyses. GIN genomes are reaching completion, facilitating “reverse vaccinology” approaches that have been used successfully for the Rhipicephalus australis vaccine for cattle tick, while methods for gene silencing and editing in GIN enable identification and validation of potential vaccine antigens. We envisage that any efficacious scour worm vaccine(s) would be adopted similarly to “Barbervax™” within integrated parasite management schemes. Vaccines would therefore effectively parallel the use of resistant animals, and reduce the frequency of drenching and pasture contamination. These aspects of integration, efficacy and operation require updated models and validation in the field. The conclusion of this review outlines an approach to facilitate an integrated research program

Evaluating interviewer manipulation in the new round of the Generations and Gender Survey

BACKGROUND Past research has criticized the quality of the Generations and Gender Survey retrospective fertility and partnership histories. For example, fatigue and learning effects were deemed responsible for distortions in the Generations and Gender Survey in Germany. OBJECTIVE We assess the quality of the Generations and Gender Survey for Belarus (GGS-BL) in 2017 to assess whether the new centralized fieldwork system and monitoring procedures are effective in preventing distortions in life history data. METHODS We conduct a range of analyses to find evidence of fatigue and learning effects on the part of both interviewers and respondents. Multilevel models, comparison of crucial indicators with other sources, and descriptive analysis of item-nonresponse are used. RESULTS In a preliminary analysis, we find no evidence of severe distortions. An in-depth analysis into interviewer and respondent effects reveals some small signs of possible manipulation. However, when assessing the impact of anomalous interviewers on the indicators more likely to be affected, we find no evidence of harm to data quality. CONCLUSION The new data collection procedure adopted by the Generations and Gender Survey seems to be effective in preventing detectable manipulation and fabrication. Furthermore, we dismiss the hypothesis that fatigue and learning effects are a source of bias in the collection of life history data. CONTRIBUTION This paper delivers three key messages: (1) the Generations and Gender Survey for Belarus is a reliable source for retrospective histories, (2) in-field checks are an effective tool to prevent fabrication, and (3) extensive use of inexperienced interviewers does not seem to harm data quality when adequate monitoring and monitoring is in place

Instrumentation for the High Ice Water Content (HIWC) Flight Campaigns

To Identify, Develop/Modify, and Qualify Cloud Physics Instrumentation for High Ice Water Content Characterization Flight Campaigns

Evaluating the quality of sampling frames used in European cross-national surveys

This report addresses the quality of the population registers which are currently being used as sampling frames in countries participating in the four cross-European surveys cooperating in SERISS: the European Social Survey (ESS), the European Values Study (EVS), the Gender and Generations Program (GGP), and the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). It summarizes what efforts have been undertaken by register authorities to improve and update the registers and presents an inventory of the main problems encountered in the field by survey sampling experts. In addition, it discusses the quality of alternative methods of sampling and possible improvements. Finally, the report reflects on how the major problems in sampling frames affect survey research and how they could be tackled to jointly improve sampling practice

Grandparenthood in China and Western Europe

Grandparenthood is a fascinating research area that not only brings together three generations and multiple roles in different life domains, but also echoes social contexts across historical times and places. Comparative research on grandparenthood, however, rarely includes non-western countries. This article seeks to answer the question of how grandparenthood differs between Western Europe and China by using comparable representative surveys of older adults. We extend the literatu