Subjective health assessments and active labor market participation of older men: evidence from a semiparametric binary choice model with nonadditive correlated individual-specific effects

We use panel data from the U. S. Health and Retirement Study, 1992-2002, to estimate the effect of self-assessed health limitations on the active labor market participation of older men. Self-assessments of health are likely to be endogenous to labor supply due to justification bias and individual-specific heterogeneity in subjective evaluations. We address both concerns. We propose a semiparametric binary choice procedure that incorporates nonadditive correlated individual-specific effects. Our estimation strategy identifies and estimates the average partial effects of health and functioning on labor market participation. The results indicate that poor health plays a major role in labor market exit decisions.

Sulfur speciation and stable isotope trends of water-soluble sulfates in mine tailings profiles

Sulfur speciation and the sources of water-soluble sulfate in three oxidizing sulfidic mine tailings impoundments were investigated by selective dissolution and stable isotopes. The studied tailings impoundments-Piuquenes, Cauquenes, and Salvador No. 1-formed from the exploitation of the Rio Blanco/La Andina, El Teniente, and El Salvador Chilean porphyry copper deposits, which are located in Alpine, Mediterranean, and hyperarid climates, respectively. The water-soluble sulfate may originate from dissolution of primary ore sulfates (e.g., gypsum, anhydrite, jarosite) or from oxidation of sulfide minerals exposed to aerobic conditions during mining activity. With increasing aridity and decreasing pyrite content of the tailings, the sulfur speciation in the unsaturated oxidation zones showed a trend from dominantly Fe(Ill) oxyhydroxide fixed sulfate (e.g., jarosite and schwertmannite) in Piuquenes toward increasing presence of water-soluble sulfate at Cauquenes and Salvador No. 1. In the saturated primary zones, sulfate is predominantly present in water-soluble form (mainly as anhydrite and/or gypsum). In the unsaturated zone at Piuquenes and Cauquenes,the delta(34)S(S04) values ranged from +0.5 parts per thousand to +2.0 parts per thousand and from -0.4 parts per thousand to +1.4 parts per thousand Vienna Canyon Diablo Troilite (V-CDT), respectively, indicating a major sulfate source from pyrite oxidation (delta(34)S(pyrite) -1.1 parts per thousand and -0.9 parts per thousand). In the saturated zone at Piuquenes and Cauquenes, the values ranged from -0.8%. to +0.3 parts per thousand and from +2.2 parts per thousand to +3.9 parts per thousand, respectively. At Cauquenes the 34 S enrichment in the saturated zone toward depth indicates the increasing contribution of isotopically heavy dissolved sulfate from primary anhydrite (similar to+10.9%o). At El Salvador No. 1, the delta(34)S(SO4) average value is -0.9 parts per thousand, suggesting dissolution of supergene sulfate minerals (jarosite, alunite, gypsum) with a delta(34)S similar to -0.7 parts per thousand as the most probable sulfate source. The gradual decrease Of delta(18)O(S04) values from the surface to the oxidation front in the tailings impoundments at Piuquenes (from -4.5 parts per thousand to -8.6 parts per thousand Vienna Standard Mean Ocean Water, V-SMOW) and at Cauquenes (from -1.3 parts per thousand to -3.5 parts per thousand) indicates the increasing importance of ferric iron as the main electron acceptor in the oxidation of pyrite. The different delta(18)O(SO4) values between the tailings impoundments studied here reflect the local climates.

Psychiatrie [Trends in psychiatry]

New data confirm that antidepressants have a global protective effect on the risk of suicide even if they very moderately and transiently increase suicide attempts, particularly in young people. We also present recent data about the following topics. (1) The main results of the STAR*D study, an outpatient study about depression treatment following a very complex algorithm. Nearly all the head to head comparisons between treatments showed a lack of significant difference, and the rates of clinical remission for patients non responders to their first two treatments were low. (2) The reintroduction of sertindole, an atypical antipsychotic: cardiac monitoring is necessary, but should not prevent its use as a second line drug. (3) The potential efficacy of dawn simulation and high density negative air ionization in seasonal depression.

Lung cancer mortality in European men: Trends and predictions.

Lung cancer mortality in men from the European Union (EU) peaked in the late 1980s at an age-standardised (world standard population) rate over 53/100,000 and declined subsequently to reach 44/100,000 in the early 2000s. To provide a comprehensive picture of recent trends in male lung cancer mortality in Europe, we analyzed available data from the World Health Organization up to 2009 and predicted future rates to 2015. Lung cancer mortality rates in EU men continued to fall over recent years, to reach a value of 41.1/100,000 in 2005-2009. The fall was similar at all-ages and in middle-aged men (less than 2% per year over most recent years), but was appreciably larger in young men (aged 20-44years, over 5% per year). A favourable trend is thus likely to be maintained in the foreseeable future, although the predicted overall EU rate in 2015 is still over 35/100,000, i.e., higher than the US rate in 2007 (33.7/100,000). Over most recent calendar years, overall male lung cancer rates were around 35-40/100,000 in western Europe, as compared to over 50/100,000 in central and eastern Europe. Within western Europe, lung cancer rates were lower in northern countries such as Sweden, but also Finland and the UK (below 30/100,000), where the tobacco-related epidemic started earlier and rates have long been declining, whereas mortality was high in Belgium (51.6), France (42.3), the Netherlands and Spain (around 43.0), where the epidemic started later but is persisting. Widespread measures for smoking control and cessation in middle-aged European men, i.e., in the generations where smoking prevalence used to be high, would lead to appreciable reductions in male lung cancer mortality in the near future. This is particularly urgent in central and eastern European countries.

Ophtalmologie. Nouvelles tendances dans la chirurgie de la cataracte [Ophthalmology. New trends in cataract surgery].

Cataract surgery is the most frequent surgery performed in the world. Modernization of cataract surgery is a continuous process and recent technological progress have enlarged the spectrum of treatable refractive errors, improved safety of surgery, speed of visual recovery and reduction of complications rate. Thus, during the last years, refractive intraocular lenses such as toric and multifocal IOLS have been introduced in practice, as well as torsional phacoemulsification and corneal microincision. For endophthalmitis prophylaxis, modern management includes intracameral injection of antibiotics. The future of cataract surgery is probably to replace phacoemulsification surgery by laser surgery, which is safer and more reproducible.

Trends in hospital discharges, management and in-hospital mortality from acute myocardial infarction in Switzerland between 1998 and 2008.

BACKGROUND: Since the late nineties, no study has assessed the trends in management and in-hospital outcome of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in Switzerland. Our objective was to fill this gap. METHODS: Swiss hospital discharge database for years 1998 to 2008. AMI was defined as a primary discharge diagnosis code I21 according to the ICD10 classification. Invasive treatments and overall in-hospital mortality were assessed. RESULTS: Overall, 102,729 hospital discharges with a diagnosis of AMI were analyzed. The percentage of hospitalizations with a stay in an Intensive Care Unit decreased from 38.0% in 1998 to 36.2% in 2008 (p for trend < 0.001). Percutaneous revascularizations increased from 6.0% to 39.9% (p for trend < 0.001). Bare stents rose from 1.3% to 16.6% (p for trend < 0.001). Drug eluting stents appeared in 2004 and increased to 23.5% in 2008 (p for trend < 0.001). Coronary artery bypass graft increased from 1.0% to 3.0% (p for trend < 0.001). Circulatory assistance increased from 0.2% to 1.7% (p for trend < 0.001). Among patients managed in a single hospital (not transferred), seven-day and total in-hospital mortality decreased from 8.0% to 7.0% (p for trend < 0.01) and from 11.2% to 10.1%, respectively. These changes were no longer significant after multivariate adjustment for age, gender, region, revascularization procedures and transfer type. After multivariate adjustment, differing trends in revascularization procedures and in in-hospital mortality were found according to the geographical region considered. CONCLUSION: In Switzerland, a steep rise in hospital discharges and in revascularization procedures for AMI occurred between 1998 and 2008. The increase in revascularization procedures could explain the decrease in in-hospital mortality rates.

Abortion trends 1990-1999 in a Swiss region and determinants of abortion recurrence.

OBJECTIVE: To assess age- and nationality-specific trends in abortion rates over the last decade, and to describe women's characteristics, identifying risk factors for repeated abortion. METHODS: From 1990-1999, the Health Department of Canton Vaud (Switzerland) received 13'857 abortion requests from residents aged 14-49. Population data were obtained to compute rates. RESULTS: Both the number of abortions (1400 annually) as well as their rate (8.9 per thousand women [95% confidence interval (CI) 7.3-10.5]) were stable over the decade in question. The rate of abortion for foreign women, especially from ex-Yugoslavia and Africa, was twice that for Swiss women. Half of the requests came from single women, 43% had a low education level, and half were childless. The main reason for requesting termination of pregnancy was psychosocial (93%). The mean gestational age was 7.7 weeks (SD +/- 2.3), but 96% of requests were submitted before 12 weeks. Sixty-three percent of women reported that they had used no contraception, 36% the condom and 17% the pill. Among requests, the adjusted risk of repeated abortion (22% of abortion candidates) was greater among divorced/separated/widowed women (odds ratio [OR] 1.9 [95% CI 1.5-2.4]), unemployed women (OR 1.8 [95% CI 1.5-2.1]), and those who had not attended university (OR 1.6 [95% CI 1.1-2.2]). CONCLUSIONS: Although Swiss law only permitted abortion under strict conditions, this procedure was widely available in Vaud, which nevertheless has one of the lowest rates worldwide. Efforts must be intensified to ensure universal access to family planning services, especially for foreign women and adolescents. Professionals should also target "repeaters" to provide personalised counselling.

Entrepreneur's Overconfidence, Private Benefits and the Market Performance of the Firm

Many firms around the world are managed and partially owned by entrepreneurs. These entrepreneurs hold under diversified portfolios and, therefore, bear idiosyncratic risk in addition to systematic risk. To compensate the additional risk borne, they extract private benefits. In this paper, we analyse how an entrepreneur's overconfidence affects the market performance of the firm, through the channel of private benefits. We show that two dimensions of overconfidence, namely overestimation of future cash-flows and underestimation of idiosyncratic risk (called miscalibration), have opposite effects on the private benefits extracted by the entrepreneur. As a consequence, firms managed and partially owned by overconfident entrepreneurs can deliver overperformance or underperformance, depending on the prevalence of overestimation or miscalibration of the beliefs of the entrepreneur.

Chirurgie [Trends in surgery]

More than the number of real novelties, trends and preliminary results characterise the annual development in surgery. The wealth and diversity of topics to be covered require arbitrary choices, therefore not necessarily complete. The constant development of choledocolithiasis management, dominated by minimal invasive technology, treatments of unusual nature of two frequent proctological conditions, fistulae and haemorrhoids, the increasing importance of metabolic bariatric surgery, as well as the strict rules of effective melanoma treatment, represent as many directions in which the operating procedure, although unseen, continue to gain quality and security.