Senior Status Research Articles

Does the Chief Justice Make Partisan Appointments to Special Courts and Panels?

The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court has the exclusive and independent power to appoint federal judges to various special courts and panels, including the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), the court that oversees all domestic surveillance for national security, including domestic data collection by the National Security Agency (NSA). This article examines the propensity of Chief Justices to appoint co-partisan judges to these panels. Such appointments may serve to produce decisions and policies that align with the Chief Justice's preferences. I use computational simulations to model the appointment decisions made by Chief Justices. I find that there is less than a 1 percent chance that a neutral Chief Justice would appoint as many Republicans to the FISC as have been appointed in the last 36 years. I further show that the Chief Justice is not selecting appointees on other observable judicial characteristics, such as age, experience, gender, senior status, or caseload. These results have important implications for the creation of judicial institutions, the internal politics of the judiciary, legislative delegation, and the powers and oversight of the national security state.

The Equitability of Full-Price Policies for Senior Citizens: A Reprise

The purposes of this article are to (i) review the current data relative to the economic status of seniors, (ii) analyze the appropriateness of the alternative age definitions of a senior used by park and recreation departments, (iii) identify reasons for resilience of senior discounts, and (iv) offer strategies for eroding them.The compelling reason for revisiting this issue is the growing emergence of seniors from being a relatively small fringe target market for leisure agencies to evolving as a central focus for their services. This shift reflects their increase in numbers, longer period of retirement, increased financial resources, and political influence. Their emergence makes the removal of senior discounts an increasingly important element in optimizing an agency’s revenue potential. Senior incomes come from four main sources: Social Security, earnings, private pensions, and interest from assets. All of these four sources have grown in recent decades. As a result, federal measures of poverty consistently show that those over 65 years of age on average are less likely to be officially classified as poor than those in any other age group Traditionally, 65 was the age at which people were defined as senior citizens. Examination of per capita median incomes and net assets among age cohorts suggests the rational age for senior discounts should be 75. However, rather than raise the eligibility age, many agencies have succumbed to political pressures and lowered it to 62, 60, 55, or 50. Despite these favorable changes in the financial status of seniors, it is still common for agencies to offer them substantial discounts. Three factors account for this: empathy, political influence, and emotional arguments. It is suggested that the most effective strategy for eroding or removing these discounts is to reframe the context in which they are viewed. Three primary ways in which this can be done are discussed: providing detailed financial information, comparing an agency’s discounts with those offered by other leisure service providers, and shifting seniors’ participation to off-peak times.

Some aspects of health status of the Gypsy population in Slovakia.

Population of the Gypsy people living currently in Slovakia reaches approximately 400,000 people which represents 7.5% of the total Slovak population. The age structure of the Gypsy population is of a considerably progressive type with a high number of children and very low number of old people. This is due to the high natality and high mortality of Gypsies, whose health status is worse than the health status of the majority population. Gypsy people represent an important "old-new" risk group in case of tuberculosis and a more frequent occurrence of other transmitted diseases is observed in them while a higher incidence of genetically conditioned diseases has been confirmed, as well. As for children, a higher frequency of infectious diseases, injuries, intoxications and burns can be found as a result of their environmental conditions. A high level of infant mortality of the Gypsy children is a very negative phenomenon. We can state that the lifestyle of the Gypsy population is unhealthy, characterized by bad dietary habits, drinking alcohol, frequent smoking already in a very young age, higher weight and lower physical activity. All findings confirm that the Gypsy population is threatened by cardiovascular diseases at younger age already. Due to a more difficult approach to the health care, part of the Gypsies consult the physician only when in a serious health state. Health status of the Gypsy seniors has been reported only at minimum due to their low representation in population. Typical feature of this ethnic is, that they take care of their seniors. To prove this, during the author´s twenty seven-year practice he met just three old Gypsy women in social institutions. It is very difficult to address problems related to the Gypsy population; this task requires engagement of all spheres of our society, in particular of the Gypsies themselves, including their organizations (Ref. 50).

Helping Your Facility Adjust to a Rainbow World

Helping Your Facility Adjust to a Rainbow World

Voluntary Subordination of Official Sector Debt: The City of Edinburgh, 1838

Inspired by a proposal by Lee Buchheit and Mitu Gulati to try to help improve the debt tribulations currently afflicting Greece, and assisted by a serendipitous find (I was rather looking for ancient pari passu clauses in sovereign debt documentation; which I found), I analyze a historical case of gaining the favour of private creditors to a sovereign entity through the voluntary subordination of an official sector creditor to said sovereign debtor. In the early 19th century, Edinburgh was in financial distress owing lots of money to both private and public lenders and having troubles meeting those obligations. Obtaining further new funding was of the essence. A debt restructuring that would be both tough and amicable on creditors was thus required. After long and fruitless negotiations, the key to an agreement came from the UK Government, who agreed to grant the creditors preferred senior rights over certain revenues and properties backing secured claims on the city. Such voluntary governmental subordination did the trick. Thus, we see that the notion of enticing creditors into the desired actions through the sweetener of super senior status was already appreciated and put in practice almost two centuries before Greece embarked on its latest debt odyssey.

Vitamin A and cognitive processes

Vitamin A and its derivatives, the retinoids, essential for human health, modulate several physiological processes through their interactions with the nuclear retinoic acid receptors (RARs) and retinoid X receptors (RXRs). They are involved in the modulation of cerebral plasticity including hippocampal neurogenesis and synaptic plasticity, known to underlie cognitive processes. Interestingly, retinoic acid (RA) hyposignaling, which contributes to the deterioration of hippocampal plasticity and function during aging, can be reversed by vitamin A supplementation or RA treatment. However, it is still not clear how vitamin A status modulates plasticity and memory. It is commonly accepted that RA, by binding to its specific nuclear receptors, regulates gene expression, including the expression of plasticity-related genes. Moreover, recent studies suggest that vitamin A could participate in the maintenance of neurobiological functions indirectly, through the glucocorticoid pathway. Here, we present data supporting the importance of vitamin A status in the maintenance of memory processes, and the contribution of naturally occurring RA hyposignaling during aging to the etiology of cognitive decline. We propose that vitamin A supplementation or RA treatment could be a potent way to prevent age-related cognitive impairments by maintaining normal vitamin A and glucocorticoid (GC) status in seniors.

The Impact of a Home-Delivered Meal Program on Nutritional Risk, Dietary Intake, Food Security, Loneliness, and Social Well-Being

Maintaining independence and continuing to live at home is one solution to manage the rising health care costs of aging populations in the United States; furthermore, seniors are at risk of malnutrition and food insecurity. Home-delivered meal programs are a tool to address food, nutrition, and well-being concerns of this population. Few studies have identified outcomes from these programs; this pilot study reviews the nutritional status, dietary intake, well-being, loneliness, and food security levels of seniors participating in a Meals on Wheels delivery service. Clients, new to the meal program, participated in pre- and postphone interviews, and 51 seniors completed the study. The survey was composed of five scales or questionnaires, and statistical analyses were conducted using SPSS. Improvements across all five measures were statistically significant after participating two months in the home-delivered meal program. Implications for further research, practice, and the Older Americans Act are discussed.

Family meal frequency, weight status and healthy management in children, young adults and seniors. A study in Sardinia, Italy

Objective: To examine family meal frequency, and weight management as a protective factor throughout life. Participants: Selected by city and by town in Sardinia (Italy), the 522 participants were divided into 162 children (7–11 years), 187 young adults (19–30 years), and 173 seniors (65–90 years). Method: Chi-square analyses were used to compare the frequency of family meals, weight (self-reported and perceived) and healthy management (physical activity, dieting, perceived appetite) between age groups. In addition, multinomial regression analyses were carried out to find associations, with age group as the dependent variable and frequency of family meal, weight status, and healthy management categories as independent variables, adjusted for moderating effects. Results: Significant associations with age variables were observed in mealtime frequency (skipping breakfast and mid-morning snack in adults and lunch in children and seniors), in decreasing self-reported normal weight with age and increasing perceived overweight with age, and in physical activity, dieting and perceived appetite. Conclusions and Implications: The results suggest the protective nature of family meals for adults and seniors, and identify significant associations (and some differences) between age groups. Discrepancies suggest the importance of education about body weight awareness throughout life.

De Scribe a Hugo: la condition de l'auteur (1815-1870)

Jacques Boncompain's account of the establishment and early history of three literary and artistic professional associations in a key period of the French nineteenth century casts light on a number of less well-known aspects of French literary history. Boncompain studies the condition de l'auteur through the prism of the Société des auteurs et compositeurs dramatiques (SACD), the Société des gens de lettres (SGDL), and the Société des auteurs, compositeurs et éditeurs de musique (SACEM). Owing to its senior status, and the author's position as a leading light of the association, it is the SACD that receives the greatest attention, and the work's main focus is on the history of the theatre. Boncompain situates his account within the context of the political, social, and cultural changes under the four regimes he covers, allowing him to deal with the popularization of the theatre (the rise of the café-concert, for example, is often alluded to) and the growth of the market in all types of literature over the period. He covers to varying degrees such matters as intellectual property and the legislation surrounding it, censorship, and the associations' establishment of benevolent funds, and he incorporates into his narrative relevant historical incidents such as the assassination of the duc de Berry and the Fieschi incident, with their effects on the censorship regime. All this notwithstanding, there is less detail than one would expect on the changes in the market for literature, and, although censorship is covered to some degree, the absence, for example, of any reference to the trials of Baudelaire or Flaubert is surprising. Of the two authors named in the book's title, Scribe is more fully and perhaps more sympathetically covered; Hugo is presented as a less altruistic rival, somewhat eclipsed during the Second Empire, under which Scribe prospered politically. Indeed, Boncompain openly presents Napoleon III's regime, which he sees as largely benevolent towards authors, as deserving of sympathetic reassessment. The sheer detail of the bureaucracy and politicking within the professional associations (especially the SACD, to whose archives Boncompain had extensive access) is at times overwhelming, and the reader may sympathize with the Goncourts' observation that ‘[c]’est décidément plus difficile de distribuer une pièce que de former un ministère' (quoted on p. 225). Conversely, Boncompain is at his most engaging when presenting telling anecdotes or informative details: his account of the status of the claque during the period and his brief sketch of the historical fortunes of French drama in England are good examples. Perhaps inevitably in such a substantial work, there are a number of editorial issues — not only typographical errors, but occasional sentences mangled beyond intelligibility, and certain of Boncompain's stylistic tics (notably his overuse of the infinitif de narration) and outright grammatical mistakes can be distracting. However, in its scale, its ambition, and the thoroughness of its research, this is a significant scholarly contribution, albeit most appropriate to a rather specialist market.

Oral health conditions of older people: Focus on the Balkan countries

Oral health plays a pivotal role in general health, especially in older people. Oral diseases may affect the development of systemic conditions, such as diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease, stroke and hypertension. The most important oral health conditions that have been recorded in dental literature for older population include tooth loss, dental caries, periodontal diseases, xerostomia (dry mouth) and oral cancer. Edentulism influences social life, either causing aesthetic problems or affecting functional abilities, such as speaking, chewing and eating. Dental caries in older people is similar to that in people in their thirties. Socio-economic status and living area play a key role in the development of dental caries. In addition, the accumulation of several risk factors, such as plaque or systemic diseases, acts synergistically in the onset of periodontal disease in seniors. Furthermore, older people, mainly due to their medications, exhibit a reduced amount of saliva. Xerostomia causes difficulties in chewing, speaking and swallowing, and it has a substantial impact on older people's lives. The prevalence of oral cancer is 1-10 per 100,000 patients, and several factors (smoking, alcohol, education, economic status) play crucial role. Limited data exists today that evaluates oral health conditions of seniors in the Balkan countries. Aging and socio-economic status of seniors in the Balkans are significantly associated with oral health problems.

Masculinity and Organized Resistance in Domestic Service in Colonial Dar es Salaam, 1919–1961

AbstractThis article analyzes the relationship between masculinity and domestic service by exploring how servants resisted the changing culture and realities of their work in colonial Dar es Salaam, the capital of British colonial Tanganyika. Domestic servants formed nearly half the working class in the city, and ninety-seven percent of servants were African men. Considered during the early decades of colonialism to be a well-paid, skilled, and respectable occupation, domestic service transformed in the 1940s and 1950s, due to the World War II economic crisis, soaring urban population, and introduction of new labor regulations. The primary threats to servants’ masculinity during the latter half of the colonial era were the growing limitations the occupation placed on men's abilities to achieve the financial and social capital required to achieve senior status and respect within their families and the African community. In response to rising exploitation and declining wages, servants formed Tanganyika's first African labor union.

Status rodzinny i nieformalne nierodzinne sieci wsparcia a zamieszkiwanie w instytucjach opiekuńczych

The majority of countries, including Poland, face a phenomenon of population ageing. Therefore, providing care for elderly persons becomes a crucial challenge for the societies. A decline in the care-giving potential of families and the rapid increase of numbers of seniors create a need for development of institutional assistance for the elderly. The population of seniors is heterogeneous. Thus, there are different reasons for providing public assistance, and different paths of accessing institutional assistance.
 The aim of the article is to present the family status of seniors, who wait for a place in a residential care, and their non-familial, informal support networks. To achieve this objective we conduct a survey among 221 social workers who assist seniors and their families through the admittance process for residential care in Łódź – a city with advanced ageing (22.3% of people aged 60+).

Collaborator recommendation in interdisciplinary computer science using degrees of collaborative forces, temporal evolution of research interest, and comparative seniority status

Currently, the research in computer science has been exponentially expanded beyond its own fields into the other research fields such as medical science, business, and social science in forms of collaborative researches. This collaborative researches stimulate a new recommending algorithm for determining a potential research collaborator under the interdisciplinary environment. Unlike other research fields, the research problems in computer science can be transformed to other known and solvable problems. In this paper, a new hybrid algorithm based on dynamic collaboration over time was proposed for recommending an appropriate collaborator. Besides considering only three basic factors concerning social proximity, friendship, and complementarity skill as employed by others’, three new additional factors related to research interest, up-to-date publication data, and seniority of researcher are involved in our analysis. A set of new measures for all six recommending factors were proposed. The experiments were conducted with real bibliographic data within six continuous years of publication and over six topics in computer science. Our results were significantly higher than the results of the other methods at 90% confidence level.

Modern Leadership in Singaporean and Thai Organizational Contexts

This study compares leadership traits among leaders from Singaporean and Thai organizations. It also investigates leadership styles in different cultural settings with a focus on organizational change. Data was collected by means of a series of structured in-depth interviews with leaders from a Singaporean multi-national corporation in the retail sector and leaders from a public organization in Thailand. Comparative analysis elicited the key categories of organizational culture, leadership styles and change strategies. The study demonstrates differences and similarities among Thai and Singaporean leaders with regard to leadership behaviours. Being direct, strong and knowledgeable are important for leaders who lead organization in the process of change in Thailand. Singaporean leaders, on the other hand, need to be flexible, decisive and approachable when changes are introduced to the organization. Thai staff may show unusually high deference (greng jai) towards those of senior status in the organization. Singaporean staff, however, may prefer to have an open discussion with their senior in the process of change. The results also imply, in order that organizational transition in Singaporean and Thai contexts occur as smoothly as possible, all aspects of change must be shared with staff of all levels and open for discussion.

Self-reported attitudes and behaviours of medical students in Pakistan regarding academic misconduct: a cross-sectional study.

BackgroundHonesty and integrity are key attributes of an ethically competent physician. However, academic misconduct, which includes but is not limited to plagiarism, cheating, and falsifying documentation, is common in medical colleges across the world. The purpose of this study is to describe differences in the self-reported attitudes and behaviours of medical students regarding academic misconduct depending on gender, year of study and type of medical institution in Pakistan.MethodsA cross sectional study was conducted with medical students from one private and one public sector medical college. A pre-coded questionnaire about attitudes and behaviours regarding plagiarism, lying, cheating and falsifying documentation was completed anonymously by the students.ResultsA total of 465 medical students filled the questionnaire. 53% of private medical college students reported that they recognize copying an assignment verbatim and listing sources as references as wrong compared to 35% of public medical college students. 26% of private medical college students self-report this behaviour as compared to 42% of public medical college students. 22% of private versus 15% of public medical college students and 21% of students in clinical years compared to 17% in basic science years admit to submitting a fake medical certificate to justify an absence. 87% of students at a private medical college believe that cheating in an examination is wrong as compared to 66% of public medical college students and 24% self-report this behaviour in the former group as compared to 41% in the latter. 63% of clinical year students identify cheating as wrong compared to 89% of their junior colleagues. 71% of male versus 84% of female respondents believe that cheating is wrong and 42% of males compared to 23% of females admit to cheating.ConclusionsThere are significant differences in medical students’ attitudes and behaviours towards plagiarism, lying, cheating and stealing by gender, seniority status and type of institution. The ability to identify acts of academic misconduct does not deter students from engaging in the behaviour themselves, as evidenced by self-reporting.

Health status of a low socioeconomic elderly population that participates in a community senior meal program (1026.4)

The elderly population is one of the most vulnerable populations in terms of health. One of the most related factors to poor health in the elderly is low socioeconomic status. Those with the poorest health status are individuals with high poverty rates. Food insecurity, limited access to medical care, and decreased physical activity contribute to the low health status in the elderly. Those with low socioeconomic status put this vulnerable population at even higher risk of being either over or under nourished. The objective of this study was to conduct an initial assessment of health in a lower socioeconomic elderly population. 93 elderly individuals who participate in a San Diego senior meal program were assessed. Average body mass index (BMI) was 28 indicating overweight status and percent ideal body weight was 130%. 64.5% were considered clinically overweight or obese, and 3.5% underweight. Mean body fat was higher than normal ranges: 31% in male participants and 37% in female participants. 37.5% of participants reported <30 min daily exercise. Physical activity showed an inverse relationship with BMI value (P=0.07). Seniors reporting higher body fat was strongly correlated with high BMI (P<0.01). Data raises awareness of nutritional/health status of vulnerable seniors living in poverty. Further studies are needed to establish the role of food choice on nutritional status changes.

Predictors of appendiceal perforation in an equal access system

BackgroundDiscrepancies in socioeconomic factors have been associated with higher rates of perforated appendicitis. As an equal-access health care system theoretically removes these barriers, we aimed to determine if remaining differences in demographics, education, and pay result in disparate outcomes in the rate of perforated appendicitis. Materials and methodsAll patients undergoing appendectomy for acute appendicitis (November 2004–October 2009) at a tertiary care equal access institution were categorized by demographics and perioperative data. Rank of the sponsor was used as a surrogate for economic status. A multivariate logistic regression model was performed to determine patient and clinical characteristics associated with perforated appendicitis. ResultsA total of 680 patients (mean age 30 ± 16 y; 37% female) were included. The majority were Caucasian (56.4% [n = 384]; African Americans 5.6% [n = 38]; Asians 1.9% [n = 13]; and other 48.9% [n = 245]) and enlisted (87.2%). Overall, 6.4% presented with perforation, with rates of 6.6%, 5.8%, and 6.7% (P = 0.96) for officers, enlisted soldiers, and contractors, respectively. There was no difference in perforation when stratified by junior or senior status for either officers or enlisted (9.3% junior versus 4.40% senior officers, P = 0.273; 6.60% junior versus 5.50% senior enlisted, P = 0.369). On multivariate analysis, parameters such as leukocytosis and temperature, as well as race and rank were not associated with perforation (P = 0.7). Only age had a correlation, with individuals aged 66–75 y having higher perforation rates (odds ratio, 1.04; 95% confidence interval, 1.02–1.05; P < 0.001). ConclusionsIn an equal-access health care system, older age, not socioeconomic factors, correlated with increased appendiceal perforation rates.

Factors Affecting Lodging Career Success: An Analysis of Management Philosophies

This research investigates the impact of lodging professionals' management philosophy practices on career success. The study assesses the practice of management philosophies and examines if these practices differ among respondent groups, as well as explores the influence of practiced philosophies on career success. Findings indicate that differences exist among respondents based on age, property affiliations, and position. Moreover, executives who instill in employees customer-centeredness and engage in open sharing of information with employees experience relatively high monetary success. However, results suggest that lodging professionals' practices of these management philosophies are not rewarded until reaching senior status.

Examining the Economic Status of Seniors Entering Retirement

This paper deals with the problem of population ageing in selected countries of the European Union. The aim was to outline and compare certain indicators and conditions that might vary according to the specific social system of each country. The paper is primarily focused on a group of seniors and the problem of old age pension and early retirement. Juniors are used for completion and better illustration of differences.

New Measures of Judges’ Caseload for the Federal District Courts, 1964–2012

AbstractOver the past 30 years many observers of the federal courts have expressed concern over mounting dockets, arguing that the taxing workloads for federal judges could have a variety of negative consequences, including difficulties in judicial recruitment and retention. However, assessing the plausibility of those and similar claims requires the use of appropriate measures of judges’ workload. We introduce scholars and practitioners to new measures of caseload for the district courts available from 1964 through 2012. We detail the methodology for constructing our measures and then assess changes in caseload over time, both within and across courts. We argue that, in most cases, the preferred measure of caseload incorporates weighted filings and accounts for the service of senior status judges and vacancies. We conclude by pointing scholars toward additional research avenues that can be undertaken with our publicly available data.