Born at the Right Time: A History of the Baby Boom Generation. By Doug Owram (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1996. xiv plus 392pp. $34.95)

This article presents an intellectual and social history of the concept of the baby boom. Researchers first invented the notion of a population bulge in the mid-twentieth-century United States to explain birth rates that were higher than predicted by their theories of a mature population and economy. As the children born during this “baby boom” entered schools in the 1950s, they were drawn into a pre-existing conversation about an educational emergency that confirmed researchers’ suspicions that the bulge would spread crisis over time throughout all of the nation's age-graded institutions. New sociological and demographic explanations of the bulge subsequently merged with heightened talk of generational conflict during the 1960s and 1970s to define, with journalistic help in 1980, the “baby boom generation” and the “baby boomer.” Crisis talk has pursued the boomers into the present, mobilized most effectively by opponents of the welfare state.

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Baby boom generation at the retirement onset

Stanovnistvo ◽

10.2298/stnv1002075s ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 48 (2) ◽

pp. 75-91 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Jelena Stojilkovic

Keyword(s):

Baby Boomers ◽

Baby Boom ◽

Demographic Data ◽

Sudden Increase ◽

Working Population ◽

Economic Activities ◽

Baby Boom Generation ◽

Age Pyramid ◽

Female Baby ◽

The Right

Sudden increase in the number of live births after the Second World War due to an increase in fertility rates has led to the formation of cohorts with specific characteristics or baby boom generation. This generation is unique in the history of the demographic phenomenon that has affected and affects the functioning of many segments of society. The aim of this paper is to assess structure of baby boomers who are few years away from retirement, using demographic data. Impact of baby boomer age structure of current and future retirees is described with a graphical display of current and projected age pyramid of baby boomers. Demographic pattern that women live longer than men is evident in the projected pyramid. In addition, the number of baby boomers will lead to a "younger" old population. The imbalance in the number of men and women pensioners, as well as older cohorts of women and female baby boomers was analyzed. As a result, an increasing trend of women's age pensioners who are members of the baby boom generation was clearly observed, which is opposite to the older cohort of women who often were family pensioners. Different circumstances and conditions in which female boomers lived and worked will form a new "pension model" because they will gain their benefits as well as men, for the first time in significant number, unlike their mothers, which gained the right to retire after they become widows. Number of women age pensioners is getting greater comparing to men, as the result of changes in the economic activities of women in the last half of the 20th century. When baby boomers retire and exit the working population, this will create a vacuum, because the numerically smaller generations will enter working population, while the sudden and very shortly, the number of population older than 60 or 65 will increase, most of them will likely to acquire the right to a pension. It is undeniable that baby boomers had impact on demographic structure, but also on society as a whole. They have been extremely important factor of development of our country during their working career, they are healthier then previous generation and many of them possess the knowledge and experience gained by the years, so rigid prediction of future changes that will produce the retirement of this generation has no excuses. Retired baby boom generation will perhaps lead to new, better way of life in old age.

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Z-line degradation and phagocytosis of sarcomeric fragments in myonecrosis

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100077529 ◽

1983 ◽

Vol 41 ◽

pp. 790-791

Author(s):

Melinda L. Estes ◽

Samuel M. Chou

Keyword(s):

Vastus Lateralis ◽

Inflammatory Myopathy ◽

Muscle Disease ◽

White Female ◽

Inflammatory Cell Infiltrate ◽

Limb Weakness ◽

Muscle Diseases ◽

History Of ◽

The Right ◽

Mononuclear Inflammatory Cell

Many muscle diseases show common pathological features although their etiology is different. In primary muscle diseases a characteristic finding is myofiber necrosis. The mechanism of myonecrosis is unknown. Polymyositis is a primary muscle disease characterized by acute and subacute degeneration as well as regeneration of muscle fibers coupled with an inflammatory infiltrate. We present a case of polymyositis with unusual ultrastructural features indicative of the basic pathogenetic process involved in myonecrosis.The patient is a 63-year-old white female with a one history of proximal limb weakness, weight loss and fatigue. Examination revealed mild proximal weakness and diminished deep tendon reflexes. Her creatine kinase was 1800 mU/ml (normal < 140 mU/ml) and electromyography was consistent with an inflammatory myopathy which was verified by light microscopy on biopsy muscle. Ultrastructural study of necrotizing myofiber, from the right vastus lateralis, showed: (1) degradation of the Z-lines with preservation of the adjacent Abands including M-lines and H-bands, (Fig. 1), (2) fracture of the sarcomeres at the I-bands with disappearance of the Z-lines, (Fig. 2), (3) fragmented sarcomeres without I-bands, engulfed by invading phagocytes, (Fig. 3, a & b ), and (4) mononuclear inflammatory cell infiltrate in the endomysium.

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