This article discusses significant changes of Japanese occupational pensions since the early 2000s. Our analysis shows that these schemes have been key components of policies to promote private welfare provision and have been highly compatible with human capital investment strategies that are based on long-term employment relationships of regular workers. However, since the 1990s, occupational ...

Glycosylphosphatidylinositol-specific phospholipase D (GPI-PLD) is abundant in serum and associates with high density lipoproteins (HDL). We have characterized the distribution of GPI-PLD among lipoproteins in human plasma. Apolipoprotein (apo)-specific lipoproteins containing apoB (Lp[B]), apoA-I and A-II (Lp[A-I, A-II]), or apoA-I only (Lp[A-I]) were isolated using dextran sulfate and immunoa...

Eddington is a space mission for extrasolar planet finding and for asteroseismic observations. It has been selected by ESA as an F2/F3 reserve mission with a potential implementation in 2008-13. Here we describe Eddington’s capabilities to detect extrasolar planets, with an emphasis on the detection of habitable planets. Simulations covering the instrumental capabilities of Eddington and the st...

We review some apsects of the search for extrasolar planets around small-mass short-period eclipsing binaries, including lessons from the extensive search around CM Draconis (over 1,000 hours), and the extention of the search to small eclipsing binaries in the crowded field Baade’s Window 3 (BW3) in the Galactic plane. In addition to being of intrinsic interest to planet formation studies, due ...

often considered the prototypical generalized seizure, is actually a fast-spreading localized event. In a similar vein, Leite et al. (2) propose a novel method for linkage of EEG and fMRI signals in network analysis by describing in their report a “transfer function” between these divergent measures. They perform independent component analysis of EEG and extract metrics that express models of E...

12. Ximeri M, Galanopoulos A, Klaus M, Parcharidou A, Giannikou K, Psyllaki M, et al. Effect of lenalidomide therapy on hematopoiesis of patients with myelodysplastic syndromes associated with chromosome 5q deletion. Haematologica. 2010;95(3):406-14. 13. Bartlett JB, Dredge K, Dalgleish AG. The evolution of thalidomide and its IMiD derivatives as anticancer agents. Nat Rev Cancer. 2004;4(4):314...

s). 2008;112:Abstract 1181. 3. Nafa K, Bessler M, Deeg HJ, Luzzatto L. New somatic mutation in the PIG-A gene emerges at relapse of paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria. Blood. 1998;92:3422-3427. 4. Hillmen P, Young NS, Schubert J, et al. The complement inhibitor eculizumab in paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria. N Engl J Med. 2006;355:1233-1243. 5. Brodsky RA, Young NS, Antonioli E, et al. Mult...

The European Journal of Ageing enters the new decade with its seventh volume. By now, the Journal has built up a substantial readership, a wide network of reviewers, and receives a growing stream of submissions from many countries in Europe as well as from many other parts of the world. We as editors are grateful for the active efforts of all contributors. The year 2010 also marks an important ...

Age-related diseases and functional decline put health care systems at a challenge. It is still unclear, whether a compression or extension of morbidity or some sort of balance is likely to be expected. Probably, different scenarios may either coexist or change depending upon both the type of health outcome (particular diseases, multi-morbidity and disability) and contextual factors (socioecono...