In 1975, 50-year-old Americans could expect to live slightly longer than most of their Western European counterparts. By 2005, American life expectancy had fallen behind that of most Western European countries. We find that this growing longevity gap is primarily due to real declines in the health of near-elderly Americans, relative to their Western European peers. We use a microsimulation appr...

The transition from the industrial age and the growing impact of the global economy on human life which has led to rapid expansion of western urban design culture in countries like Iran, are among the reasons why nowadays there is only a memory left in our minds of our traditional cities. "Urban identity" is one of the most important and most controversial issues among urban designers and other...

The demographic transition is a process which involves the movement from high birth and death rates to low values and from high population growth rates to a relatively stable dynamic of population. If in the countries of Western Europe this pattern can be seen easily, the question is how the demographic transition phenomenon manifests in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Specialized ...

The global incidence of colorectal cancer (CRC) is one million per year with a high annual mortality of more than 500 000.1 It accounts for a substantial public health burden and is the leading cause of years of potential life lost.2 It is becoming more common in many western nations and there is evidence that it increasingly affects Asian populations, including that of Hong Kong.3 Locally, the...

OBJECTIVES To compare countries in western Europe with respect to class differences in mortality from specific causes of death and to assess the contributions these causes make to class differences in total mortality. DESIGN Comparison of cause of death in manual and non-manual classes, using data on mortality from national studies. SETTING Eleven western European countries in the period 19...

The design and implementation team of computer automation systems for the Polish power industry faced many difficult problems connected with the lack of experience in this domain in the country. Another kind of problems was implied by different levels of information and communication technology in that country and in well developed ones. The differences were generated by both internal (importat...

Although the incidence of gastric cancer has been declining in most industrialized countries over the past two decades, it still remains the second leading cause of cancer related deaths worldwide [1]. The incidence is highest in Japan, Korea, China, Latin America and Eastern Europe. In western countries like the United States, the incidence is lower, with 21,000 new cases diagnosed each year [...

Over the last decade, a number of western government agencies and international organisations have increasingly turned their attention to fragility and failure of state institutions as a major international policy challenge in the fields of security and development assistance. The concepts of “fragile” and “failed states” are now widely used in diplomatic negotiations on global security, peacek...

While researchers in many western countries have documented the nature of psychological distress that is commonly present among individuals living with HIV, there has been virtually no research on the same topic among other high prevalence areas of the world, particularly in countries like Kenya. This study sought to document the nature of psychological distress among 397 individuals living wit...