Area Residents (area + resident)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Unemployment Duration in Non-Metropolitan Labor Markets

GROWTH AND CHANGE, Issue 2 2001
Bradford F. Mills
Non-metropolitan areas of the U.S have experienced significant structural economic changes in recent decades. These changes have raised concerns that some non-metropolitan workers may face significant costs to employment displacements associated with economic adjustments. This paper explores the roles that linkages to metropolitan labor markets, area labor market conditions, and individual attributes play in determining the rates of exit from unemployment to employment among non-metropolitan area residents. Adjacency to a metropolitan area is found to significantly increase transition rates from unemployment to employment among displaced non-metropolitan workers, but local economic conditions are found to have relatively weak or insignificant effects on transition rates. Also, lack of post-high school education and minority status both significantly reduce rates of exit from unemployment in non-metropolitan areas following employmentdisplacement. [source]


The Euro and International Capital Markets

INTERNATIONAL FINANCE, Issue 1 2000
Carsten Detken
Long before the introduction of the euro there was an active debate among researchers, policy-makers and financial market participants over how the new European money would change the relative roles of currencies in the international monetary and financial system. A widely held view was that the euro's use in international capital markets would be the key element. Therefore, this paper provides a broad empirical examination of the major currencies' roles in international capital markets, with a special emphasis on the first year of the euro. A contribution is made as to how to measure these roles, both from the viewpoint of international financing and from that of international investment activities. Time series of these new measures are presented, including euro aggregates calculated up to six years back in time. The data allow for the identification of changes in the role of the euro during 1999 compared to the aggregate of euro predecessor currencies, net of intra-euro area assets/liabilities, since the start of stage 2 of EMU in 1994. A number of key factors determining the currency distribution of international portfolio investments, such as relative market liquidity and relative risk characteristics of assets, are also examined empirically. It turns out that for almost all important market segments for which data are available, the euro immediately became the second most widely used currency for international financing and investment. For the flow of international bond and note issuance it even slightly overtook the US dollar in the second half of 1999. The data also suggest that most of this early supply of euro bonds by non-euro area residents, clearly exceeding the euro-predecessor currency aggregate, is actually absorbed by euro area residents and not by outside investors so far. [source]


Are Spells of Unemployment Longer in Nonmetropolitan Areas?

JOURNAL OF REGIONAL SCIENCE, Issue 4 2000
Nonparametric, Semiparametric Evidence
I use nonparametric and semiparametric proportional hazard models to examine whether individuals resident in nonmetropolitan areas experience lower per period rates of exit from unemployment following job loss than metropolitan area residents. Results show that between 1989 and 1993 per period cumulative rates of exit from unemployment were slightly higher in nonmetropolitan areas, mainly due to nonmetropolitan–metropolitan differences in individual characteristics and local economic conditions. Employment density is found to have a positive association with rates of exit of unemployment in metropolitan areas but not in nonmetropolitan areas. [source]


Epidemiologic research on man-made disasters: Strategies and implications of cohort definition for World Trade Center worker and volunteer surveillance program

MOUNT SINAI JOURNAL OF MEDICINE: A JOURNAL OF PERSONALIZED AND TRANSLATIONAL MEDICINE, Issue 2 2008
David A. Savitz PhD
Abstract Studies of long-term health consequences of disasters face unique methodologic challenges. The authors focused on studies of the health of cleanup and recovery workers, who are often poorly enumerated at the outset and difficult to follow over time. Comparison of the experience at the World Trade Center disaster with 4 past incidents of chemical and radiation releases at Seveso, Italy; Bhopal, India; Chernobyl, Ukraine; and Three Mile Island, USA, provided useful contrasts. Each event had methodologic advantages and disadvantages that depended on the nature of the disaster and the availability of records on area residents, and the emergency-response and cleanup protocol. The World Trade Center Worker Monitoring Program has well-defined eligibility criteria but lacks information on the universe of eligible workers to characterize response proportions or the potential for distortion of reported health effects. Nonparticipation may result from lack of interest, lack of awareness of the program, availability of another source of medical care, medical conditions precluding participation, inability to take time off from work, moving out of the area, death, or shift from initially ineligible to eligible status. Some of these considerations suggest selective participation by the sickest individuals, whereas others favor participation by the healthiest. The greatest concern with the validity of inferences regarding elevated health risks relative to external populations is the potential for selective enrollment among those who are affected. If there were a large pool of nonparticipating workers and those who suffered ill health were most motivated to enroll, the rates of disease among participants would be substantially higher than among all those eligible for the program. Future disaster follow-up studies would benefit substantially by having access to accurate estimates of the number of workers and information on the individuals who contributed to the cleanup and recovery effort. Mt Sinai J Med 75:77,87, 2008© 2008 Mount Sinai School of Medicine [source]


How the psychiatrists of a mental health department managed their patients before an attempted suicide

PSYCHIATRY AND CLINICAL NEUROSCIENCES, Issue 6 2009
Paolo Scocco md
Aims:, The aim of this survey was to describe patients in care at a large mental health department in northern Italy who attempted suicide, and the clinical management adopted by their psychiatrists before the event. Methods:, Data collection was based on a questionnaire administered to the reference psychiatrists. Results:, Over a period of 12 months, 166 catchment area residents attempted suicide. Sixty-six (40%) had contacted the mental health department in the previous two years and completed data were obtained on 63. Twenty-nine (46%) suffered from mood, 26 (41%) from personality and 11 (18%) from schizophrenic disorders. Thirty-four attempts occurred within one year of psychiatric ward discharge, mostly in the first quarter. The reference psychiatrists reported that, at the last evaluation, 38 of 63 patients (60%) presented no change in clinical conditions, and 41 of 63 (68%) were considered at no immediate risk of suicide. Most of the attempted suicides in question (45, 72%) were judged to be unpreventable. In the two logistic regression analyses carried out, no independent variables were able to statistically significantly explain the variance in judged suicidal risk or the preventability of the index attempted suicide. Conclusions:, According to the psychiatrists' descriptions of their last contact with the patients, most attempted suicides have not been preceded by a change in clinical conditions. Moreover, psychiatrists, irrespective of their age and gender, and of patient diagnosis, frequently judged the attempts to have been unpreventable. [source]


The effect of fever, febrile illnesses, and heat exposures on the risk of neural tube defects in a Texas-Mexico border population

BIRTH DEFECTS RESEARCH, Issue 10 2004
Lucina Suarez
Abstract BACKGROUND Hyperthermia produces neural tube defects (NTDs) in a variety of animal species. Elevated maternal body temperatures may also place the developing human embryo at risk. We examined the relation between maternal hyperthermia and the development of NTDs in a high-risk Mexican-American population. METHODS Case-women were Mexican-American women with NTD-affected pregnancies who resided and delivered in any of the 14 Texas counties bordering Mexico, during 1995,2000. Control-women were randomly selected from study area residents delivering normal live births, frequency-matched to cases by hospital and year. Information on maternal fevers, febrile illnesses, exposures to heat generated from external sources, and hyperthermia-inducing activities was gathered through in-person interviews, conducted about six weeks postpartum. RESULTS The risk effect (OR) associated with maternal fever in the first trimester, compared to no fever, was 2.9 (95% CI, 1.5,5.7). Women taking fever-reducing medications showed a lower risk effect (OR, 2.4; 95% CI, 1.0,5.6) than those who did not (OR, 3.8; 95% CI, 1.4,10.9). First-trimester maternal exposures to heat devices such as hot tubs, saunas, or electric blankets were associated with an OR of 3.6 (95% CI, 1.1,15.9). Small insignificant effects were observed for activities such as cooking in a hot kitchen (OR, 1.6; 95% CI, 1.0,2.6) and working or exercising in the sun (OR, 1.4; 95% CI, 0.9,2.2). CONCLUSIONS Maternal hyperthermia increases the risk for NTD-affected offspring. Women intending to become pregnant should avoid intense heat exposures, carefully monitor and manage their febrile illnesses, and routinely consume folic acid supplements. Birth Defects Research (Part A), 2004. © 2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]


Prevalence of dementia and cognitive impairment in Southeastern Spain: the Ariadna study

ACTA NEUROLOGICA SCANDINAVICA, Issue 5 2009
D. Gavrila
Objectives ,,, To estimate the prevalence of amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI), cognitive impairment, no dementia (CIND) and dementia in a general elderly population and to examine the associated socio-demographic factors. Methods ,,, The Ariadna study is a population-based cross-sectional study of cognitive function involving 1074 individuals aged 65,96 years from the Murcia Region of southeastern Spain. Prevalence, adjusted odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated. Results ,,, The overall prevalence was 8.7% (95% CI 7.1,10.5) for aMCI, 14.5% (95% CI 12.4,16.8) for CIND and 5.5% (95% CI 4.3,7.1) for dementia. Dementia was associated with age (OR 1.13 95% CI 1.09,1.18 for a 1-year increase in age). Illiterate subjects were more likely to present aMCI (OR 2.59; 95% CI 1.09,6.14) and dementia (OR 4.09; 95% CI 1.28,13.08) than subjects with secondary or higher education. Rural area residents (OR 2.13, 95% CI 1.07,4.24) and women (OR 1.53, 95% CI 1.06,2.22) were more likely to have CIND. Conclusion ,,, The prevalence of dementia was low, despite a high prevalence of aMCI and CIND. Dementia was strongly associated with age and education. CIND was associated with living in a rural area and with female sex, while aMCI was associated with illiteracy. [source]