Job changes, hours changes, and the path of labour supply adjustment

This paper uses the first twelve waves of the British Household Panel Survey covering the period 1991-2002 to investigate single women’s labour supply changes in response to three tax and benefit policy reforms that occurred in the 1990s. We find evidence of small labour supply effects for two of such reforms. A third reform in 1999 instead led to a significant increase in single mothers’ hours of work. This increase was primarily driven by women who changed job, suggesting that labour supply adjustments within a job are harder than across jobs. The presence of hours inflexibility within jobs and labour supply adjustments through job mobility are strongly confirmed when we look at hours changes by stated labour supply preferences. Finally, we find little overall effect on wages

Structure and electronic properties of the quasi-one-dimensional Ba₂Co₁₋ₓZnₓS₃ series

This work focuses on the structure and physical properties of the solid solution Ba₂Co₁₋ₓZnₓS₃ (0 ≤ x ≤ 1), a family of quasi-one-dimensional sulfides with end members Ba₂CoS₃ and Ba₂ZnS₃. The structure of selected compounds with increasing Zn²⁺ content has been analysed using, neutron diffraction, TEM and EXAFS and the physical properties via magnetic susceptibility and resistivity measurements. The progressive substitution of the non-magnetic Zn²⁺ cation for Co²⁺ rapidly destroys the antiferromagnetic transition present at 46 K in the quasi one-dimensional Ba₂CoS₃, leading to paramagnetic behaviour down to the lowest investigated temperature (5K) for compounds with x > 0.25. For compounds with x ≥ 0.4, a pure CW regime is recovered around 300 K, yielding effective moments consistent with the g factor of the tetrahedrally coordinated Co²⁺ previously determined for Ba₂CoS₃. The Zn²⁺/Co²⁺ substitution also removes the metallic-like behaviour of Ba₂CoS₃ causing an increase in the value of the resistivity with all the Ba₂Co₁₋ₓZnₓS₃ compounds showing semiconducting behaviour. The negative magnetoresistance of Ba₂CoS₃ is improved by the Zn²⁺/Co²⁺ substitution, with values of – 6% for Ba₂Co₀.₇₅Zn₀.₂₅S₃, – 9% for Ba₂Co₀.₅Zn₀.₅S₃ and – 8% for Ba₂Co₀.₂₅Zn₀.₇₅S₃. However, there does not seem to be a correlation between the values of the resistivity and the magnetoresistance and the content of Zn²⁺, leading to the hypothesis that transport properties may be linked more closely to extrinsic properties

Anatomy of Welfare Reform Evaluation:Announcement and Implementation Effects

This paper formulates a simple model of female labor force decisions which embeds an in-work benefit reform and explicitly allows for announcement and implementation effects. We explore several mechanisms through which women can respond to the announcement of a reform that increases in-work benefits, including sources of intertemporal substitution, human capital accumulation, and labor market frictions. Using the model's insights and information of the precise timing of the announcement and implementation of a major UK in-work benefit reform, we estimate its effects on single mothers' behavior. We find large and positive announcement effects on employment decisions. We show that this finding is consistent with the presence of frictions in the labor market. The impact evaluations of this reform which ignore such effects produce implementation effect estimates that are biased downwards by 15 to 35 percent

Economic analysis of bedside ultrasonography (US) implementation in an Internal Medicine department

The economic crisis, the growing healthcare demand, and Defensive Medicine wastefulness, strongly recommend the restructuring of the entire medical network. New health technology, such as bedside ultrasonography, might successfully integrate the clinical approach optimizing the use of limited resources, especially in a person-oriented vision of medicine. Bedside ultrasonography is a safe and reliable technique, with worldwide expanding employment in various clinical settings, being considered as "the stethoscope of the 21st century". However, at present, bedside ultrasonography lacks economic analysis. We performed a Cost-Benefit Analysis "ex ante", with a break-even point computing, of bedside ultrasonography implementation in an Internal Medicine department in the mid-term. Number and kind estimation of bedside ultrasonographic studies were obtained by a retrospective study, whose data results were applied to the next 3-year period (foresight study). All 1980 foreseen bedside examinations, with prevailing multiorgan ultrasonographic studies, were considered to calculate direct and indirect costs, while specific and generic revenues were considered only after the first semester. Physician professional training, equipment purchase and working time represented the main fixed and variable cost items. DRG increase/appropriateness, hospitalization stay shortening and reduction of traditional ultrasonography examination requests mainly impacted on calculated revenues. The break-even point, i.e. the volume of activity at which revenues exactly equal total incurred costs, was calculated to be 734 US examinations, corresponding to € 81,998 and the time considered necessary to reach it resulting 406 days. Our economic analysis clearly shows that bedside ultrasonography implementation in clinical daily management of an Internal Medicine department can produce consistent savings, or economic profit according to managerial choices (i.e., considering public or private targets), other than evident medical benefits

Gender effect on the Relation between Diabetes and Hospitalization for Heart Failure

Aims: Cardiovascular risk among diabetic patients is at least twice as much the one for nondiabetic individuals and even greater when diabetic women are considered. Heart failure (HF) is a common unfavorable outcome of cardiovascular disease in diabetes. However, since the comparison among sexes of heart failure prevalence in diabetic patients remains limited, this study is aimed at expanding the information about this point. Methods: We have evaluated the association between diabetes and HF by reviewing the medical records of all subjects discharged from the Internal Medicine and Cardiology Units of all hospitals in the Tuscany region, Italy, during the period January 2002 through December 2008. In particular we sought concomitance of ICD-9-CM codes for diabetes and HF. Results: Patients discharged by Internal Medicine were on average older, more represented by women, and had a lesser number of individuals coded as diabetic (p < 0.05 for all). Relative risk for HF (95 % CI) was signifi cantly higher in patients with diabetes, irrespective of gender 1.39 (1.36– 1.41) in males; 1.40 (1.37–1.42) in females. When the diabetes-HF association was analyzed according to decades of age, a “horse-shoe” pattern was apparent with an increased risk in 40–59 years old in female patients discharged by Internal Medicine. Conclusions: Although there is not a diff erence in the overall HF risk between hospitalized male and female diabetic patients, women have an excess risk at perimenopausal ag

Innovative Thermal Management Concepts and Material Solutions for Future Space Vehicles

When entering a planetary atmosphere, space vehicles are exposed to extreme thermal loads. To protect the vehicle’s interior, a thermal protection system is required. Future aerospace transportation demands solutions that exceed the performance of current systems and up-to-date material limits. Therefore, new and disruptive solutions must be envisaged to meet those extreme conditions. In the search of new solutions for sharp leading edges of future hypersonic reentry or transport vehicles, the THOR project, composed of eight European organizations (industries, research centers, and universities) and one Japanese Agency (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), is actively working on definition, design, implementation, and simulation of new passive and active thermal management solutions and their verification in relevant environments (high-enthalpy facilities). This paper provides an overview of the recent developments on the four concepts that are targeted in the project, applying different physical methodologies: 1) passive cooling using highly conductive carbon-based fibers, 2) passive cooling with intensive internal radiative exchange, 3) active cooling based on convection heat transfer using a ceramic sandwich/thermal protection system with ceramic foams/lattices, and 4) active transpiration cooling of external surfaces. Details on these thermal management concepts, requirements from end users, and test configurations, as well as results from experimental and numerical verification, are given

Optimized intermolecular potential for nitriles based on Anisotropic United Atoms model

An extension of the Anisotropic United Atoms intermolecular potential model is proposed for nitriles. The electrostatic part of the intermolecular potential is calculated using atomic charges obtained by a simple Mulliken population analysis. The repulsion-dispersion interaction parameters for methyl and methylene groups are taken from transferable AUA4 literature parameters [Ungerer et al., J. Chem. Phys., 2000, 112, 5499]. Non-bonding Lennard-Jones intermolecular potential parameters are regressed for the carbon and nitrogen atoms of the nitrile group (–C≡N) from experimental vapor-liquid equilibrium data of acetonitrile. Gibbs Ensemble Monte Carlo simulations and experimental data agreement is very good for acetonitrile, and better than previous molecular potential proposed by Hloucha et al. [J. Chem. Phys., 2000, 113, 5401]. The transferability of the resulting potential is then successfully tested, without any further readjustment, to predict vapor-liquid phase equilibrium of propionitrile and n-butyronitrile

Clinical Manifestations and Case Management of Ebola Haemorrhagic Fever caused by a newly identified virus strain, Bundibugyo, Uganda, 2007-2008

A confirmed Ebola haemorrhagic fever (EHF) outbreak in Bundibugyo, Uganda, November 2007-February 2008, was caused by a putative new species (Bundibugyo ebolavirus). It included 93 putative cases, 56 laboratory-confirmed cases, and 37 deaths (CFR = 25%). Study objectives are to describe clinical manifestations and case management for 26 hospitalised laboratory-confirmed EHF patients. Clinical findings are congruous with previously reported EHF infections. The most frequently experienced symptoms were non-bloody diarrhoea (81%), severe headache (81%), and asthenia (77%). Seven patients reported or were observed with haemorrhagic symptoms, six of whom died. Ebola care remains difficult due to the resource-poor setting of outbreaks and the infection-control procedures required. However, quality data collection is essential to evaluate case definitions and therapeutic interventions, and needs improvement in future epidemics. Organizations usually involved in EHF case management have a particular responsibility in this respect