Maternal full-time employment and overweight children: Parametric, semi-parametric, and non-parametric assessment

We use the matched mother-child data from the 2000 wave of the US National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 79 (NLSY79) to assess the impact of full-time working mothers on children’s body mass index (BMI) and the likelihood of becoming overweight. Parametric, semi-parametric and non-parametric methods are employed to correct the bias of selection on observables and unobservables. Pros and cons of various methods are discussed and specification tests are conducted. In general, we find that a mother’s full-time employment does have some impact on her children’s BMI and likelihood of becoming overweight across models and inference procedures.This paper was publised in Journal of Econometrics 152 (2009) 61-69

Betel nut chewing and incidence of newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes mellitus in Taiwan.

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Betel nut chewing is associated with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in a recent prevalence study in Taiwan. The present study further investigated its link with the incidence of newly diagnosed T2DM during the years 1992-1996.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Population-based datasets of a sample of 93,484 out of 256,036 diabetic patients from 66 medical settings using the National Health Insurance scheme covering > 96% of the population, published population prevalence of betel nut chewing and the governmental census of national population were used for calculation of odds ratios, incidence rates and incidence rate ratios between chewers and never-chewers in the male population for the year 1992 to 1996.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Ever chewers among the diabetic patients were younger, more obese and had higher prevalence of parental diabetes than never-chewers (all <it>p </it>values < 0.001). Odds ratios for T2DM for ever chewers vs. never-chewers in the age of < 40, 40-49, 50-59, 60-69 and ≥70 years were 1.06 (0.92-1.23), 1.60 (1.45-1.76), 2.12 (1.88-2.39), 3.58 (3.10-4.13) and 7.14 (5.47-9.31), respectively. In 1996, incidence rates (per 100,000 population) in the respective age groups were 19.1, 251.5, 567.3, 721.7 and 971.4 for never-chewers; and were 30.2, 520.9, 2566.9, 11672.8 and 630.3 for ever chewers. The respective incidence rate ratios were 1.58, 2.07, 4.52, 16.17 and 0.65. The age-specific incidence rates and rate ratios were relatively consistent from 1992 to 1996. The differences in obesity and parental diabetes between ever chewers and never-chewers were mostly not statistically significant after age stratification, suggesting the link could not be attributed to these two factors.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Chewing betel nut is associated with newly diagnosed T2DM, supporting the suggestion that the habit is diabetogenic.</p

A Possible Detection of Occultation by a Proto-planetary Clump in GM Cephei

GM Cep in the young (~4 Myr) open cluster Trumpler 37 has been known to be an abrupt variable and to have a circumstellar disk with very active accretion. Our monitoring observations in 2009-2011 revealed the star to show sporadic flare events, each with brightening of < 0.5 mag lasting for days. These brightening events, associated with a color change toward the blue, should originate from an increased accretion activity. Moreover, the star also underwent a brightness drop of ~1 mag lasting for about a month, during which the star became bluer when fainter. Such brightness drops seem to have a recurrence time scale of a year, as evidenced in our data and the photometric behavior of GM Cep over a century. Between consecutive drops, the star brightened gradually by about 1 mag and became blue at peak luminosity. We propose that the drop is caused by obscuration of the central star by an orbiting dust concentration. The UX Orionis type of activity in GM Cep therefore exemplifies the disk inhomogeneity process in transition between grain coagulation and planetesimal formation in a young circumstellar disk.Comment: In submission to the Astrophysical Journal, 4 figure

Complete genome sequence of Mycobacterium phlei type strain RIVM601174

Item does not contain fulltextMycobacterium phlei is a rapidly growing nontuberculous Mycobacterium species that is typically nonpathogenic, with few reported cases of human disease. Here we report the whole genome sequence of M. phlei type strain RIVM601174.1 juni 201

A Quaternary ZnCdSeTe Nanotip Photodetector

The authors report the growth of needle-like high density quaternary Zn0.87Cd0.13Se0.98Te0.02nanotips on oxidized Si(100) substrate. It was found that average length and average diameter of the nanotips were 1.3 μm and 91 nm, respectively. It was also found that the as-grown ZnCdSeTe nanotips exhibit mixture of cubic zinc-blende and hexagonal wurtzite structures. Furthermore, it was found that the operation speeds of the fabricated ZnCdSeTe nanotip photodetector were fast with turn-on and turn-off time constants both less than 2 s