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The absence of or poorly functioning risk pooling mechanisms and high amounts of out-of-pocket payments for health care expose households to financial risks associated with major illnesses or accidents. The aim of this article is to analyse the extent to which out-of-pocket health spending impoverishes households in Albania. The study augments existing evidence by analysing the dynamics of such payments over different years and the weight that informal payments have in the total out-of-pocket health spending. The data used in the study come from the Albania Living Standards Measurement Survey (ALSMS) for 2002, 2005 and 2008. We measure headcount catastrophic payments using different thresholds and the decomposition of indicators by expenditure quintiles to better understand their effects. We find that out-of-pocket and informal payments have increased in real value throughout the years. Even though their catastrophic effect has gone down (due also to declining trends in absolute poverty), the effect for the poorest expenditure quintiles remains high. Out-of-pocket payments deepen the poverty headcount and also enlarge the poverty gap and again the effect is larger for the poorest quintiles. Future policy interventions should provide better protection mechanisms for the poor by providing exemption criteria or subsidized transport. They should also seek to address the widespread informal payments in the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a growing interest in the physics of surface flashover between the interface of atmosphere and vacuum in some high-power systems. More specifically, the quantitative role of vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) radiation for the photoionization leading to a streamer development during the initial stages of a breakdown is unknown. This paper describes an experimental setup used to measure the VUV radiation emitted from atmospheric flashover as well as time-resolved imaging of the flashover event. A pulser providing the voltage to the gap was designed with special considerations in mind, including long lifetime, low noise, and high reproducibility. This enabled the study of the flashover in various background gases with an emphasis on spectroscopic measurements. The calculated spectra are compared with the measured spectra, and it is found that atomic oxygen and nitrogen are responsible for most of the VUV production in an air breakdown at atmospheric pressure in the wavelength range of 115–180 nm. Time-resolved spectroscopy reveals that the VUV radiation is emitted during the initial stages while the streamers are developing. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Increasing participation in effective health risk-pooling arrangements in developing countries is an essential component of the package of policies designed to protect vulnerable households from the impoverishing consequences of health shocks. People who are poor, those at high risk and self-employed/informally employed workers are three groups that raise particular issues in the formulation of health risk-pooling policy. In this paper, policy options for extending risk-pooling in developing countries are discussed, with particular attention to the merits and disadvantages of overcoming the shortcomings of payroll-tax-financed insurance through a greater role for general tax financing in the health sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revue Internationale de Securite Sociale is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista Internacional de Seguridad Social is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Internationale Revue für Soziale Sicherheit is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The aim of this study was to investigate a conventional battery of tests capable of assessing the presence of the component and extent of the lesions in patients with unilateral spatial neglect. Ninety-four patients who had unilateral spatial neglect with a stroke in right hemisphere were assessed on 12 traditional neglect batteries 4 weeks after the onset. Computerized tomography was also performed to investigate the possible anatomical relationships with each neglect battery. Factor analysis showed that the tests loaded significantly on five factors. There are not only visual scanning factors but also factors of imaging, visual judgement, visual cognition and effectiveness from left hemisphere in the unilateral spatial neglect. There are high correlations between each neuropsychological test and neglect batteries. Furthermore, lesions in the paraventricular white matter were associated with clock and person drawing tasks. Lesions in the occipital lobe were associated with reading, explaining and visual counting tasks. Lesions in the temporal lobe and the posterior limb of the internal capsule were associated with line bisection tasks. It is suggested that it is possible that there are some different components in unilateral spatial neglect. Failure in some tasks may predict different lesions in terms which include localization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ultrasonometry is increasingly used to assess bone characteristics. A group of 1412 women with a mean age of 57 years attended a screening examination in a Japanese city. Seventy-four percent of participants were postmenopausal. Broadband ultrasound attenuation (BUA), speed of sound (SOS), and Stiffness index (SI) of the calcaneus were measured; subjects also completed a questionnaire examining lifestyle factors; anthropometric data were recorded. Analysis showed that the strongest predictors of decreased BUA, SOS, and SI were increased age and menopausal status. Higher body mass index and current participation in exercise or sports were significant predictors of increased BUA, SOS, and SI in a multivariate model. Higher calcium intake predicted increased BUA (P = 0.004) and missing meals predicted a lower SOS (P = 0.019). This study suggests that dietary factors as well as physical activity influence bone characteristics assessed by QUS. QUS may be a suitable technique to assess the effect of lifestyle changes on bone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to report the preliminary findings of a traditional battery of tests and our original battery capable of assessing the presence of components and extent of lesions in patients with unilateral spatial neglect. Thirty patients who had unilateral spatial neglect with a stroke in the right hemisphere were assessed for unilateral spatial neglect on exploratory-motor (E-M) tasks, visual-counting (V-C) tasks, and traditional neglect batteries at least 4 weeks after the onset. Other neuropsychological tests and computed tomography were also performed to investigate the relationship with neglect. A factor analysis showed that our tasks loaded significantly on three factors. E-M neglect was found in 16 patients, and V-C neglect in 22 patients with unilateral spatial neglect. There were high correlations between E-M neglect and motor paralysis, word fluency, backward digit span and motor impersistence. There were high correlations between V-C neglect and visual-field defect, line bisection, line cancellation and figure copying. Lesions in the frontal lobe, caudate, insula, and anterior portion of the paraventricular white matter were commonly associated with E-M neglect. Lesions in the occipital lobe were also associated with V-C neglect. We suggest that unilateral neglect is not a single phenomenon, but rather involves several different components. We propose that E-M and V-C tasks are useful methods for evaluating the extent of lesions in patients with unilateral spatial neglect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Invites physicians to the annual meeting of the American College of Physicians in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.