How will labour markets adapt to population ageing? The demographic shift to be experienced over coming decades requires some sort of adjustment in working lives to balance…
Abstract
Purpose
How will labour markets adapt to population ageing? The demographic shift to be experienced over coming decades requires some sort of adjustment in working lives to balance increased longevity. But where in the lifecycle should this adjustment take place? It often seems to be assumed that ever‐longer working lives are the only answer: the purpose of this article is to query this assumption and to suggest that there should be a balance of employment and other uses of time across the entire lifecycle.
Design/methodology/approach
The article analyses the impact of increased economic activity on the dependency ratio and it identifies plausible upper bounds to employment objectives by age and gender using international comparative data.
Findings
Increased employment for over‐65s is likely to have limited impact on age dependency ratio: bigger impacts would be expected from the 55‐65 age group and younger women.
Originality/value
The article brings comparative evidence to bear on labour market implications of population ageing.
Details
Keywords
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has been studied as a neurodevelopmental disorder since Leo Kanner's early observations of abnormal head circumference in autistic children. In the…
Abstract
Purpose
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has been studied as a neurodevelopmental disorder since Leo Kanner's early observations of abnormal head circumference in autistic children. In the past few years, there has been much progress made in elucidating the anatomical and functional abnormalities in ASD. This paper aims to summarise the extant research.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper provides a summary of relevant research findings in the neuroimaging of autism for the past 12 month period. Papers were identified using the Medline search terms: autism; ASD (functional); magnetic resonance imaging (MRI); neuroimaging; diffusion tensor imaging (DTI); and endophenotype.
Findings
Relatively recent techniques such as functional MRI and DTI have furthered the initial work derived from early histological and structural imaging studies. Even newer techniques, such as DTI tractography and support vector machine analysis, and other computer‐based learning methods have allowed us to move beyond regional variations in grey and white matter volume and study ASD as a disorder of connectivity, and of regional cerebral function and neural circuitry. Brain regions and neural circuits that are implicated in the core symptoms of ASD (deficits in social reciprocity, language and communication, and restricted and stereotyped interests) have been repeatedly shown to be abnormal in those individuals.
Originality/value
This paper aims to provide a background for clinicians to the current research and focuses on developments in the field of neuroimaging of ASD from the past year, which have generated further insights into the neurobiology of ASD.