Will the Public's Health Fall Victim to the Home Foreclosure Epidemic?

Gary Bennett and colleagues discuss the ways in which the dramatic rise in home foreclosures, particularly in the US, may have health consequences

An Overview of Three Promising Mechanical, Optical, and Biochemical Engineering Approaches to Improve Selective Photothermolysis of Refractory Port Wine Stains

During the last three decades, several laser systems, ancillary technologies, and treatment modalities have been developed for the treatment of port wine stains (PWSs). However, approximately half of the PWS patient population responds suboptimally to laser treatment. Consequently, novel treatment modalities and therapeutic techniques/strategies are required to improve PWS treatment efficacy. This overview therefore focuses on three distinct experimental approaches for the optimization of PWS laser treatment. The approaches are addressed from the perspective of mechanical engineering (the use of local hypobaric pressure to induce vasodilation in the laser-irradiated dermal microcirculation), optical engineering (laser-speckle imaging of post-treatment flow in laser-treated PWS skin), and biochemical engineering (light- and heat-activatable liposomal drug delivery systems to enhance the extent of post-irradiation vascular occlusion)

Savings selectivity bias, subjective expectations and stock market participation

Studies of household stock market participation report low participation rates. The explanations cited are that the fixed costs associated with participation and high risk aversion discourage households from buying stocks. However, the low participation rate findings are unchallenged. We argue that because prior studies fail to recognize that not all households save, there exists a selection bias when estimating the household participation rate. After correcting for this selection bias, as well as accounting for the influence of subjective expectations on market participation, we show that the unconditional probability of participating in the stock market would increase twofold.