Socio-economic inequalities in reported depression in Spain : a decomposition approach

Recent evidence questions some conventional view on the existence of income-related inequalities in depression suggesting in turn that other determinants might be in place, such as activity status and educational attainment. Evidence of socio-economic inequalities is especially relevant in countries such as Spain that have a limited coverage of mental health care and are regionally heterogeneous. This paper aims at measuring and explaining the degree of socio-economic inequality in reported depression in Spain. We employ linear probability models to estimate the concentration index and its decomposition drawing from 2003 edition of the Spanish National Health Survey, the most recent representative health survey in Spain. Our findings point towards the existence of avoidable inequalities in the prevalence of reported depression. However, besides ¿pure income effects¿ explaining 37% of inequality, economic activity status (28%), education (15%) and demographics (15%) play also a key encompassing role. Although high income implies higher resources to invest and cure (mental) illness, environmental factors influencing in peoples perceived social status act as indirect path as explaining the prevalence of depression. Finally, we find evidence of a gender effect, gender social-economic inequality in income is mainly avoidable.

Topics, techniques and applications in urban and regional science in the nineties: a bibliometric analysis

The current state of regional and urban science has been much discussed and a number of studies have speculated on possible future trends in the development of the discipline. However, there has been little empirical analysis of current publication patterns in regional and urban journals. This paper studies the kinds of topics, techniques and data used in articles published in nine top international journals during the 1990s with the aim of identifying current trends in this research field

Comment on "Kinetics of spinodal decomposition in the ising model with vacancy diffusion"

In a recent paper [Phys. Rev. B 50, 3477 (1994)], P. Fratzl and O. Penrose present the results of the Monte Carlo simulation of the spinodal decomposition problem (phase separation) using the vacancy dynamics mechanism. They observe that the t1/3 growth regime is reached faster than when using the standard Kawasaki dynamics. In this Comment we provide a simple explanation for the phenomenon based on the role of interface diffusion, which they claim is irrelevant for the observed behavior.

Generalized Schmidt decomposition and classification of three-quantum-bit states

We prove for any pure three-quantum-bit state the existence of local bases which allow one to build a set of five orthogonal product states in terms of which the state can be written in a unique form. This leads to a canonical form which generalizes the two-quantum-bit Schmidt decomposition. It is uniquely characterized by the five entanglement parameters. It leads to a complete classification of the three-quantum-bit states. It shows that the right outcome of an adequate local measurement always erases all entanglement between the other two parties.

Design of Optical Systems With Extended Depth of Field: an Educational Approach to Wavefront Coding Techniques

A practical activity designed to introduce wavefront coding techniques as a method to extend the depth of field in optical systems is presented. The activity is suitable for advanced undergraduate students since it combines different topics in optical engineering such as optical system design, aberration theory, Fourier optics, and digital image processing. This paper provides the theoretical background and technical information for performing the experiment. The proposed activity requires students able to develop a wide range of skills since they are expected to deal with optical components, including spatial light modulators, and develop scripts to perform some calculations.

Surface characterization techniques for determining the root-mean-square roughness and power spectral densities of optical components

Surface topography and light scattering were measured on 15 samples ranging from those having smooth surfaces to others with ground surfaces. The measurement techniques included an atomic force microscope, mechanical and optical profilers, confocal laser scanning microscope, angle-resolved scattering, and total scattering. The samples included polished and ground fused silica, silicon carbide, sapphire, electroplated gold, and diamond-turned brass. The measurement instruments and techniques had different surface spatial wavelength band limits, so the measured roughnesses were not directly comparable. Two-dimensional power spectral density (PSD) functions were calculated from the digitized measurement data, and we obtained rms roughnesses by integrating areas under the PSD curves between fixed upper and lower band limits. In this way, roughnesses measured with different instruments and techniques could be directly compared. Although smaller differences between measurement techniques remained in the calculated roughnesses, these could be explained mostly by surface topographical features such as isolated particles that affected the instruments in different ways.

Invariant decomposition of the retarded electromagnetic field.

The integral representation of the electromagnetic two-form, defined on Minkowski space-time, is studied from a new point of view. The aim of the paper is to obtain an invariant criteria in order to define the radiative field. This criteria generalizes the well-known structureless charge case. We begin with the curvature two-form, because its field equations incorporate the motion of the sources. The gauge theory methods (connection one-forms) are not suited because their field equations do not incorporate the motion of the sources. We obtain an integral solution of the Maxwell equations in the case of a flow of charges in irrotational motion. This solution induces us to propose a new method of solving the problem of the nature of the retarded radiative field. This method is based on a projection tensor operator which, being local, is suited to being implemented on general relativity. We propose the field equations for the pair {electromagnetic field, projection tensor J. These field equations are an algebraic differential first-order system of oneforms, which verifies automatically the integrability conditions.

Socio-economic inequalities in reported depression in Spain : a decomposition approach

Recent evidence questions some conventional view on the existence of income-related inequalities in depression suggesting in turn that other determinants might be in place, such as activity status and educational attainment. Evidence of socio-economic inequalities is especially relevant in countries such as Spain that have a limited coverage of mental health care and are regionally heterogeneous. This paper aims at measuring and explaining the degree of socio-economic inequality in reported depression in Spain. We employ linear probability models to estimate the concentration index and its decomposition drawing from 2003 edition of the Spanish National Health Survey, the most recent representative health survey in Spain. Our findings point towards the existence of avoidable inequalities in the prevalence of reported depression. However, besides ¿pure income effects¿ explaining 37% of inequality, economic activity status (28%), education (15%) and demographics (15%) play also a key encompassing role. Although high income implies higher resources to invest and cure (mental) illness, environmental factors influencing in peoples perceived social status act as indirect path as explaining the prevalence of depression. Finally, we find evidence of a gender effect, gender social-economic inequality in income is mainly avoidable.

Analcime crystallization and compositional profiles - Comparing approaches to detect post-depositional alterations in archaeological pottery

The approaches of comparative studies and profile measurements, often used in order to detect post-depositional alterations of ceramics, have been applied simultaneously to two sets of Roman pottery, both of which include altered individuals. As analytical techniques, Neutron Activation Analysis and X-Ray Diffraction have been used. Both approaches lead to substantially different results. This shows that they detect different levels of alteration and should complement each other rather than being used exclusively. For the special process of a glassy phase decomposition followed by a crystallization of the Na-zeolite analcime, the results suggest that it changes high-fired calcareous pottery rapidly, and so fundamentally that the results of various archaeometric techniques can be severely disturbed.

Decomposition of Ruppia cirrhosa (Petagna) Grande in the sediment of a coastal lagoon

The decomposition process of Ruppia cirrhosa was studied in a Mediterranean coastal lagoon in the Delta of the River Ebro (NE Spain). Leaves and shoots of Ruppia were enclosed in 1 mm-mesh and 100 pm-mesh litter bags to ascertain the effect of detritivores, macroinvertebrates, and bacteria and fungi, respectively. Changes in biomass and carbon, and, nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations in the detritus were studied at the sediment-water interface and in the sediment. Significant differences in biomass decay were observed between the two bag types. Significant differences in decomposition were observed between the two experimental conditions studied using 100 pm-mesh bags. These differences were not significant when using the 1 mm-mesh bags. The carbon content in the detritus remained constant during the decomposition process. The percentage of nitrogen increased progressively from an initial 2.4 % to 3 %. The percentage of phosphorus decreased rapidly during the first two days of decomposition from an initial 0.26 % to 0.17 %. This loss is greater in the sediment than in the water column or at the sediment-water interface. From these results we deduce that the activity of microorganisms seems to be more important in the sediment than in the water-sediment interface, and that grazing by macroinvertebrates has less importance in the sediment than in the water column.

Metal complexation by electroanalytical techniques: hard- and soft-modelling approaches

En la investigació de la complexació de metalls mitjançant eines electroanalítiques són emprades dues aproximacions generals. La primera, anomenada de modelatge dur (hardmodelling), es basa en la formulació d'un model fisicoquímic conjunt per als processos electròdic i de complexació i en la resolució analítica o numèrica del model. Posteriorment, l'ajust dels paràmetres del model a les dades experimentals donarà la informació desitjada sobre el procés de complexació. La segona aproximació, anomenada de modelatge tou (soft-modelling), es basa en la identificació d'un model de complexació a partir de l'anàlisi numèrica i estadística de les dades, sense cap assumpció prèvia d'un model. Aquesta aproximació, que ha estat extensivament emprada amb dades espectroscòpiques, ho ha estat poquíssim amb dades electroquímiques. En aquest article tractem de la formulació d'un model (hard-modelling) per a la complexació de metalls en sistemes amb mescles de lligands, incloent-hi lligands macromoleculars, i de l'aplicació d

Choosing among techniques for quantifying single-case intervention effectiveness

If single case experimental designs are to be used to establish guidelines for evidence-based interventions in clinical and educational settings, numerical values that reflect treatment effect sizes are required. The present study compares four recently developed procedures for quantifying the magnitude of intervention effect using data with known characteristics. Monte Carlo methods were used to generate AB designs data with potential confounding variables (serial dependence, linear and curvilinear trend, and heteroscedasticity between phases) and two types of treatment effect (level and slope change). The results suggest that data features are important for choosing the appropriate procedure and, thus, inspecting the graphed data visually is a necessary initial stage. In the presence of serial dependence or a change in data variability, the Nonoverlap of All Pairs (NAP) and the Slope and Level Change (SLC) were the only techniques of the four examined that performed adequately. Introducing a data correction step in NAP renders it unaffected by linear trend, as is also the case for the Percentage of Nonoverlapping Corrected Data and SLC. The performance of these techniques indicates that professionals" judgments concerning treatment effectiveness can be readily complemented by both visual and statistical analyses. A flowchart to guide selection of techniques according to the data characteristics identified by visual inspection is provided.

Transmission electron microscopy in cell biology: sample preparation techniques and image information

Transmission electron microscopy is a proven technique in the field of cell biology and a very useful tool in biomedical research. Innovation and improvements in equipment together with the introduction of new technology have allowed us to improve our knowledge of biological tissues, to visualizestructures better and both to identify and to locate molecules. Of all the types ofmicroscopy exploited to date, electron microscopy is the one with the mostadvantageous resolution limit and therefore it is a very efficient technique fordeciphering the cell architecture and relating it to function. This chapter aims toprovide an overview of the most important techniques that we can apply to abiological sample, tissue or cells, to observe it with an electron microscope, fromthe most conventional to the latest generation. Processes and concepts aredefined, and the advantages and disadvantages of each technique are assessedalong with the image and information that we can obtain by using each one ofthem.

Handbook of instrumental techniques for materials, chemical and biosciences research

This Handbook contains a collection of articles describing instrumental techniques used for Materials, Chemical and Biosciences research that are available at the Scientific and Technological Centers of theUniversity of Barcelona (CCiTUB). The CCiTUB are a group of facilities of the UB that provide both the research community and industry with ready access to a wide range of major instrumentation.Together with the latest equipment and technology, the CCiTUB provide expertise in addressing the methodological research needs of the user community and they also collaborate in R+D+i Projectswith industry. CCiTUB specialists include technical and Ph.D.-level professional staff members who are actively engaged in methodological research. Detailed information on the centers’ resources andactivities can be found at the CCiTUB website www.ccit.ub.edu ...

Advanced light microscopy techniques

This article summarizes the basic principles of light microscopy, with examples of applications in biomedicine that illustrate the capabilities of thetechnique.