ECONOMIC BURDEN OF SALMONELLA INFECTIONS IN THE UNITED STATES

The aim of this study is to evaluate medical expenditures and lost productivity associated with burden of Salmonella infections. We used laboratory confirmed number of Salmonella cases and corresponding multipliers to estimate the burden of illness using the method adopted by Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network (FoodNet) at Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The medical costs estimates are retrospective analysis of reimbursement records from MarketScan data. We identified patients with a diagnosis of salmonellosis using ICD-9 CM codes from the MarketScan 1993-2001 databases. Productivity loss from the nonfatal cases of Salmonella was calculated using the distributions of lost workdays and household services due to the illness. Statistical value of life approach was used to estimate the costs due to premature deaths. We also compared the costs for the gastrointestinal salmonellosis to the cost for the invasive salmonellosis. Confidence intervals around the cost estimates were calculated using a Monte Carlo simulation technique. Estimated average economic burden due to Salmonella was $210 per outpatient,$5,797 per inpatient with gastrointestinal infection, $16,441 per impatient with invasive infection and$4.63 million per premature death. Total economic buren due to Salmonella in the United States was estimated at $2.8 billion (95$1.6 to $5.3 billion) annually, which is approximately$2,472 per case of Salmonella infection. The cost estimate is largely driven by the number of premature deaths followed by average cost of hospitalization. Defining the risk factors for fatal outcomes may help target treatment and preventive strategies.Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Bio-Lubricants production from fish oil residue by transesterification with trimethylolpropane

The fatty acid ethyl esters mixture, a fish oil residue obtained after the extraction of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty esters, has been converted into mixtures of mono-, di-, and triesters of trimethylolpropane by transesterification at 100-140¿°C under vacuum with sodium ethoxide as catalyst. This method has shown to be more efficient than the enzymatic transesterification using commercially available lipases. The crude reaction mixture (84% conversion of ethyl esters), enriched in trimethylolpropane triesters (96% selectivity) was characterized and its properties compared with those of the starting ethyl esters mixture and the trimethylolpropane esters obtained from vegetal sources

Synchronous vs Asynchronous Chain Motion in α-Synuclein Contact Dynamics

α-Synuclein (α-syn) is an intrinsically unstructured 140-residue neuronal protein of uncertain function that is implicated in the etiology of Parkinson’s disease. Tertiary contact formation rate constants in α-syn, determined from diffusion-limited electron-transfer kinetics measurements, are poorly approximated by simple random polymer theory. One source of the discrepancy between theory and experiment may be that interior-loop formation rates are not well approximated by end-to-end contact dynamics models. We have addressed this issue with Monte Carlo simulations to model asynchronous and synchronous motion of contacting sites in a random polymer. These simulations suggest that a dynamical drag effect may slow interior-loop formation rates by about a factor of 2 in comparison to end-to-end loops of comparable size. The additional deviations from random coil behavior in α-syn likely arise from clustering of hydrophobic residues in the disordered polypeptide

Nutrient effects in consumer demand systems: evidence from panel data

Preprin

Conductance Distributions in Random Resistor Networks: Self Averaging and Disorder Lengths

The self averaging properties of conductance $g$ are explored in random resistor networks with a broad distribution of bond strengths P(g)\simg^{\mu-1}. Distributions of equivalent conductances are estimated numerically on hierarchical lattices as a function of size $L$ and distribution tail parameter $\mu$. For networks above the percolation threshold, convergence to a Gaussian basin is always the case, except in the limit $\mu$ --> 0. A {\it disorder length} $\xi_D$ is identified beyond which the system is effectively homogeneous. This length diverges as $\xi_D \sim |\mu|^{-\nu}$ ($\nu$ is the regular percolation correlation length exponent) as $\mu$-->0. This suggest that exactly the same critical behavior can be induced by geometrical disorder and bu strong bond disorder with the bond occupation probability $p$$\mu$. Only lattices at the percolation threshold have renormalized probability distribution in a {\it Levy-like} basin. At the threshold the disorder length diverges at a vritical tail strength $\mu_c$ as $|\mu-\mu_c|^{-z}$, with $z=3.2\pm 0.1$, a new exponent. Critical path analysis is used in a generalized form to give form to give the macroscopic conductance for lattice above $p_c$.Comment: 16 pages plain TeX file, 6 figures available upon request.IBC-1603-01

A 1.8 v Gm-C Highly Tunable Low Pass Filter for Sensing Applications

This paper presents a fully integrated, first-order Low Pass Filter with 2-tuning points giving a wide versatility to the filter. It allows for a fine/thick tuning with a cutoff frequency that spans over several orders of magnitude, from 220 mHz to 39.1 kHz. The Gm-C filter proposed is designed in a 180 nm CMOS technology with a total power consumption of 1.08 µW for a 1.8 V power supply and a dynamic range up to 73 dB. The proposed filter is a very competitive solution compared with previously reported works, meeting the requirements for portable on chip sensor interfaces based on impedance spectroscopy and biosignal front-end interfaces

Direct measurement of the 14N(p,g)15O S-factor

We have measured the 14N(p,g)15O excitation function for energies in the range E_p = 155--524 keV. Fits of these data using R-matrix theory yield a value for the S-factor at zero energy of 1.64(17) keV b, which is significantly smaller than the result of a previous direct measurement. The corresponding reduction in the stellar reaction rate for 14N(p,g)15O has a number of interesting consequences, including an impact on estimates for the age of the Galaxy derived from globular clusters.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Let