Civil conflict and human capital accumulation: The long-term effects of political violence in Perú

This paper provides empirical evidence of the persistent effect of exposure to political violence on humancapital accumulation. I exploit the variation in conflict location and birth cohorts to identify the longandshort-term effects of the civil war on educational attainment. Conditional on being exposed toviolence, the average person accumulates 0.31 less years of education as an adult. In the short-term,the effects are stronger than in the long-run; these results hold when comparing children within thesame household. Further, exposure to violence during early childhood leads to permanent losses. I alsoexplore the potential causal mechanisms.

Long-term swimming exercise does not modulate the Akt-dependent endothelial nitric oxide synthase phosphorylation in healthy mice.

Molecular mechanisms by which exercise exerts cardiovascular benefits are poorly understood. Exercise-induced increase of endothelial NO synthase (eNOS) phosphorylation through the protein kinase Akt has been shown to be a key mechanism underlying the beneficial effect of exercise in coronary artery disease patients. We examined whether this protective pathway might also be activated in long-term-exercised healthy mice. C57BL/6 wild-type mice swam for 24 weeks. A group of sedentary animals were used as controls. Aortic levels of total protein kinase Akt (protein kinase B), phosphorylated Akt at ser473 (p-Akt), total eNOS, phosphorylated eNOS at Ser1177 (p-eNOS), and PECAM-1 (platelet endothelial cell adhesion molecule-1) were assessed by Western blotting. Protein expressions of Akt, p-Akt, eNOS, p-eNOS, and PECAM-1 were not modulated by 24 weeks of exercise. The Akt-dependent eNOS phosphorylation did not seem to be a primary molecular adaptation in response to long-term exercise in healthy mice.

Long-Term Care Insurance Companies, September 2007

The companies on this list have been approved to sell long-term-care insurance in the State of Iowa. Customer service numbers are listed for each company. Please open pdf for the numbers.

The impact of interest-rate subsidies on long-term household debt: Evidence from a large program

The responsiveness of long-term household debt to the interest rate is acrucial parameter for assessing the effectiveness of public policies aimedat promoting specific types of saving. This paper estimates the effect ofa reform of Credito Bonificado, a large program in Portugal that subsidizedmortgage interest rates, on long-term household debt. The reform establisheda ceiling in the price of the house that could be financed through theprogram, and provides plausibly exogenous variation in incentives. Usinga unique dataset of matched household survey data and administrative recordsof debt, we document a large decrease in the probability of signing a newloan after the removal of the subsidy.

The long term effects of legalizing divorce on children

We estimate the effect of divorce legalization on the long-term well-being ofchildren. Our identification strategy relies on exploiting the different timing of divorcelegalization across European countries. Using European Community Household Paneldata, we compare the adult outcomes of cohorts who were raised in an environmentwhere divorce was banned with cohorts raised after divorce was legalized in the samecountry. We also have control countries where all cohorts were exposed (or notexposed) to divorce as children, thus leading to a difference-in-differences approach. Wefind that women who grew up under legal divorce have lower earnings and income aswell as worse health as adults compared with women who grew up under illegal divorce.These effects are not found for men. We find no effects of divorce legalization onchildren s family formation or dissolution patterns.

Office of the State Long-Term Care Ombudsman Annual Report 2004, January 2005.

The State Long-Term Care Ombudsman program operates as a unit within the Office of Elder Rights at Iowa Department of Elder Affairs. Duties of all long-term care ombudsmen are mandated by the Older Americans Act. This office serves people living in nursing facilities, residential care facilities, elder group homes and assisted living programs. Iowa’s State Long-Term Care Ombudsman’s Office has gone through many changes this past year ranging from staff changes to increase in jurisdiction area. Jeanne Yordi is now the State Long-Term Care Ombudsman, joining this promotion, will be three additional Long-Term Care Ombudsmen to the unit. With additional staff this office hopes to create more public awareness; however, cases and complaints are top priority as this office may begin to fulfill the mandates of the Older Americans Act.

Office of the State Long-Term Care Ombudsman Annual Report 2007, January 2008.

The State Long-Term Care Ombudsman program operates as a unit within the Office of Elder Rights at Iowa Department of Elder Affairs. Duties of all long-term care ombudsmen are mandated by the Older Americans Act. This office serves people living in nursing facilities, residential care facilities, elder group homes and assisted living programs. With the addition of 2 ombudsmen, regional offices were closed and 7 local programs were established in 2007. Local long-term care ombudsmen are becoming more aware of issues that need to be addressed, yet as evidenced by the tables included in this report, the increase in work load has been phenomenal, and is reaching the point of being unmanageable with the current staff.

Office of the State Long-Term Care Ombudsman Annual Report 2006, January 2007

The State Long-Term Care Ombudsman program operates as a unit within the Office of Elder Rights at Iowa Department of Elder Affairs. Duties of all long-term care ombudsmen are mandated by the Older Americans Act. This office serves people living in nursing facilities, residential care facilities, elder group homes and assisted living programs. With an increasing number of complaints for federal fiscal year 2006 this office continues to struggle with fulfilling all of the mandates of the Older Americans Act. Complaint investigations and working with residents and families remain the priority.

Office of the State Long-Term Care Ombudsman Annual Report 2005, January 2006.

The State Long-Term Care Ombudsman program operates as a unit within the Office of Elder Rights at Iowa Department of Elder Affairs. Duties of all long-term care ombudsmen are mandated by the Older Americans Act. This office serves people living in nursing facilities, residential care facilities, elder group homes and assisted living programs. Cases and complaints remain to be this office’s top priority. Facility closures take a tremendous amount of time, and with 1 Long-Term Care Ombudsman per 10,500 beds this office struggles to meet all of the mandates of the Older Americans Act.

Hiring and firing costs, adverse selection and long-term unemployment

In this paper, we present a matching model with adverse selection that explains why flows into and out of unemployment are much lower in Europe compared to North America, while employment-to-employment flows are similar in the two continents. In the model,firms use discretion in terms of whom to fire and, thus, low quality workers are more likely to be dismissed than high quality workers. Moreover, as hiring and firing costs increase, firms find it more costly to hire a bad worker and, thus, they prefer to hire out of the pool of employed job seekers rather than out of the pool of the unemployed, who are more likely to turn out to be 'lemons'. We use microdata for Spain and the U.S. and find that the ratio of the job finding probability of the unemployed to the job finding probability of employed job seekers was smaller in Spain than in the U.S. Furthermore, using U.S. data, we find that the discrimination of the unemployed increased over the 1980's in those states that raised firing costs by introducing exceptions to the employment-at-will doctrine.

Long term debt with hidden borrowing

We consider borrowers with the opportunity to raise funds from a competitive baking sector,that shares information about borrowers, and an alternative hidden lender. We highlight thatthe presence of the hidden lender restricts the contracts that can be obtained from the banking sector and that in equilibrium some borrowers obtain funds from both the banking sector and the (inefficient) hidden lender simultaneously. We further show that as the inefficiency of the hidden lender increases, total welfare decreases. By extending the model to examine a partially hidden lender, we further highlight the key role of information.

Bilateral Uveal Pigmented Alterations With Remarkable Evolution: Long Term Follow-Up in a Case of Possible Bilateral Diffuse Uveal Melanocytic Proliferation

Purpose: to describe a case of probable bilateral diffuse uveal melanocytic proliferation (BDUMP) with scleral involvement, free from systemic malignancies and cataract. Methods: fifty months of follow up with recurrent complete ophthalmological examinations, including fundus photography, fluorescein/indocyanine green angiography (FA) and optical coherence tomography (OCT). Investigations also included an electroretinography (ERG) and histological examination of scleral biopsy. Extraocular malignancies were repeatedly searched. Results: the patient was a 61 year-old Italian man with chronic hepatitis type C. At first visit his best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) was 20/32 in OS and 20/25 in OD. Funduscopy showed multiple patch-shaped pigmented alterations involving macular region and mid retinal periphery. FA showed corresponding areas of late-phase hyperfluorescent pinpoints (figure 1a, OS) and intemediate-phase hypocyanescence (figure 1b, OS), with subtle serous neurosensory retinal detachment confirmed by OCT. Photopic and scotopic ERG tested normal. Systemic prednisone was administered for one month without any improvement. After ten months round pigmentary lesions appeared also in superior scleral surface of both eyes. Biopsy allowed to disclose slightly pigmented spindle cells. BCVA worsened for further 10 months, with enlargement of FA alteration areas but lenses still clear. After 30 months spontaneous coalescence and atrophy of retinal lesions started, paralleled by progressive visual recovery. At the end of our follow up BCVA was 20/25 in OU while scleral pigmentary lesions remained unchanged. Conclusions: we report the case of a patient with main features of BDUMP and some unusual findings. Although not all classical diagnostic criteria were fulfilled, the presence of scleral pigmented lesions and spontaneous visual recovery may enlarge clinical spectrum of the disease.

Serum procalcitonin as a marker of post-cardiac arrest syndrome and long-term neurological recovery, but not of early-onset infections, in comatose post-anoxic patients treated with therapeutic hypothermia.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the relationship of early serum procalcitonin (PCT) levels with the severity of post-cardiac arrest syndrome (PCAS), long-term neurological recovery and the risk of early-onset infections in patients with coma after cardiac arrest (CA) treated with therapeutic hypothermia (TH). METHODS: A prospective cohort of adult comatose CA patients treated with TH (33°C, for 24h) admitted to the medical/surgical intensive care unit, Lausanne University Hospital, was studied. Serum PCT was measured early after CA, at two time-points (days 1 and 2). The SOFA score was used to quantify the severity of PCAS. Diagnosis of early-onset infections (within the first 7 days of ICU stay) was made after review of clinical, radiological and microbiological data. Neurological recovery at 3 months was assessed with Cerebral Performance Categories (CPC), and was dichotomized as favorable (CPC 1-2) vs. unfavorable (CPC 3-5). RESULTS: From December 2009 to April 2012, 100 patients (median age 64 [interquartile range 55-73] years, median time from collapse to ROSC 20 [11-30]min) were studied. Peak PCT correlated with SOFA score at day 1 (Spearman's R=0.44, p<0.0001) and was associated with neurological recovery at 3 months (peak PCT 1.08 [0.35-4.45]ng/ml in patients with CPC 1-2 vs. 3.07 [0.89-9.99] ng/ml in those with CPC 3-5, p=0.01). Peak PCT did not differ significantly between patients with early-onset vs. no infections (2.14 [0.49-6.74] vs. 1.53 [0.46-5.38]ng/ml, p=0.49). CONCLUSIONS: Early elevations of serum PCT levels correlate with the severity of PCAS and are associated with worse neurological recovery after CA and TH. In contrast, elevated serum PCT did not correlate with early-onset infections in this setting.

Long-term expansion of transplantable human fetal liver hematopoietic stem cells

Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), with their dual ability for self-renewal and multilineage differentiation, constitute an essential component of hematopoietic transplantations. Human fetal liver (FL) represents a promising alternative HSC source, and we previously reported simple culture conditions allowing long-term expansion of FL hematopoietic progenitors. In the present study, we used the nonobese diabetic/severe combined immunodeficiency (NOD/SCID) mouse xenotransplantation assay to confirm that human FL is rich in NOD/SCID-repopulating cells (SRCs) and to show that these culture conditions repeatedly maintained short- and long-term SRCs from various FL samples for at least 28 days. Quantitative limited dilution analysis in NOD/SCID mice demonstrated for the first time that a 10- to over a 100-fold net expansion of FL SRCs could be achieved after 28 days of culture. The efficiency of this culture system may lead to an increase in the use of FL as a source of HSCs for transplantation in adult patients, as previously demonstrated with umbilical cord blood under different culture conditions.