Food insecurity in veteran households: findings from nationally representative data

OBJECTIVE: The present study is the first to use nationally representative data to compare rates of food insecurity among households with veterans of the US Armed Forces and non-veteran households. DESIGN: We used data from the 2005-2013 waves of the Current Population Survey - Food Security Supplement to identify rates of food insecurity and very low food security in veteran and non-veteran households. We estimated the odds and probability of food insecurity in veteran and non-veteran households in uncontrolled and controlled models. We replicated these results after separating veteran households by their most recent period of service. We weighted models to create nationally representative estimates. SETTING: Nationally representative data from the 2005-2013 waves of the Current Population Survey - Food Security Supplement. SUBJECTS: US households (n 388 680). RESULTS: Uncontrolled models found much lower rates of food insecurity (8·4 %) and very low food security (3·3 %) among veteran households than in non-veteran households (14·4 % and 5·4 %, respectively), with particularly low rates among households with older veterans. After adjustment, average rates of food insecurity and very low food security were not significantly different for veteran households. However, the probability of food insecurity was significantly higher among some recent veterans and significantly lower for those who served during the Vietnam War. CONCLUSIONS: Although adjusting eliminated many differences between veteran and non-veteran households, veterans who served from 1975 and onwards may be at higher risk for food insecurity and should be the recipients of targeted outreach to improve nutritional outcomes

Break in the VHE spectrum of PG 1553+113: new upper limit on its redshift?

PG 1553+113 is a known BL Lac object, newly detected in the GeV-TeV energy range by H.E.S.S and MAGIC. The redshift of this source is unknown and a lower limit of $z > 0.09$ was recently estimated. The very high energy (VHE) spectrum of PG 1553+113 is attenuated due to the absorption by the low energy photon field of the extragalactic background light (EBL). Here we correct the combined H.E.S.S and MAGIC spectrum of PG 1553+113 for this absorption assuming a minimum density of the evolving EBL. We use an argument that the intrinsic photon index cannot be harder than $\Gamma = 1.5$ and derive an upper limit on the redshift of $z < 0.69$. Moreover, we find that a redshift above $z = 0.42$ implies a possible break of the intrinsic spectrum at about 200 GeV. Assuming that such a break is absent, we derive a much stronger upper limit of $z < 0.42$. Alternatively, this break might be attributed to an additional emission component in the jet of PG 1553+113. This would be the first evidence for a second component is detected in the VHE spectrum of a blazar.Comment: revised version submitted to Ap

Cloning of the cellular receptor for amphotropic murine retroviruses reveals homology to that for gibbon ape leukemia virus

The host and tissue specificity of retrovirus infection is largely determined by specific cellular receptors that mediate virus entry. Genes encoding these receptors are widely distributed in the genome, and the receptors identified to date show no sequence similarity. We have identified the cellular receptor for amphotropic murine retroviruses, Ram-1, by screening a rat cDNA expression library introduced into amphotropic virus-resistant hamster cells. The 656-amino acid receptor is homologous to the gibbon ape leukemia virus receptor at both hydrophobic termini but is highly divergent in the central hydrophilic region. Both receptors appear to be integral membrane proteins having multiple membrane-spanning regions. Identification of this family of receptors will help define the evolutionary relationship between retroviruses and their cellular receptors

On Limitations to the achievable path following performance for linear multivariable plants

In this paper, we consider a problem termed “path following”. This differs from the common problem of reference tracking, in that here we can adjust the speed at which we traverse the reference trajectory. We are interested in ascertaining the degree to which we can track a given trajectory, and in characterizing the class of paths for which we can generate an appropriate temporal specification so that the path can be tracked arbitrarily well in an L2 sense.We give various bounds on the achievable performance, as well as tight results in special cases. In addition, we give a numerical procedure based on convex optimization for computing the achievable performance. The results demonstrate that there are situations where arbitrarily good L2 performance may be achieved even though the origin is not in the convex hull of the positive limit set of the path to be followed

On Limitations to the achievable path following performance for linear multivariable plants

In this paper, we consider a problem termed “path following”. This differs from the common problem of reference tracking, in that here we can adjust the speed at which we traverse the reference trajectory. We are interested in ascertaining the degree to which we can track a given trajectory, and in characterizing the class of paths for which we can generate an appropriate temporal specification so that the path can be tracked arbitrarily well in an L2 sense.We give various bounds on the achievable performance, as well as tight results in special cases. In addition, we give a numerical procedure based on convex optimization for computing the achievable performance. The results demonstrate that there are situations where arbitrarily good L2 performance may be achieved even though the origin is not in the convex hull of the positive limit set of the path to be followed

Absolute energy-resolved measurements of the H-+H→H2+e- associative detachment reaction using a merged-beam apparatus

Using a merged-beam configuration, we have performed absolute measurements for the associative detachment reaction H-+H→H2+e-. Our energy-resolved measurements for this process remove a long-standing discrepancy between theory and experiment for this fundamental reaction. In particular, we find excellent agreement with theoretical results which previously seemed to be ruled out by earlier experiments performed using a flowing afterglow technique

Sex differences in plasma clozapine and norclozapine concentrations in clinical practice and in relation to body mass index and plasma glucose concentrations: a retrospective survey

Background Clozapine is widely prescribed and, although effective, can cause weight gain and dysglycemia. The dysmetabolic effects of clozapine are thought to be more prevalent in women with this gender on average attaining 17 % higher plasma clozapine concentrations than men. Methods We investigated the relationship between dose, body mass index (BMI), plasma glucose concentration, and plasma clozapine and N-desmethylclozapine (norclozapine) concentrations in 100 individuals with a severe enduring mental illness. Results Mean (10th/90th percentile) plasma clozapine concentrations were higher for women [0.49 (0.27–0.79) mg/L] compared with men [0.44 (0.26–0.70) mg/L] (F = 2.2; p = 0.035). There was no significant gender difference in the prescribed clozapine dose. BMI was significantly higher in women [mean (95 % CI) = 34.5 (26.0–45.3)] for females compared with 32.5 (25.2–41.0) for males. Overall, BMI increased by 0.7 kg/m 2 over a mean follow-up period of 210 days. A lower proportion, 41 % of women had a fasting blood glucose ≤6.0 mmol/L (&#60;6.0 mmol/L is defined by the International Diabetes Federation as normal glucose handling), compared with 88 % of men (χ2  = 18.6, p &#60; 0.0001). Conclusions We have shown that mean BMI and blood glucose concentrations are higher in women prescribed clozapine than in men. Women also tended to attain higher plasma clozapine concentrations than men. The higher BMI and blood glucose in women may relate to higher tissue exposure to clozapine, as a consequence of sex differences in drug metabolism

Approximating Tverberg Points in Linear Time for Any Fixed Dimension

Let P be a d-dimensional n-point set. A Tverberg-partition of P is a partition of P into r sets P_1, ..., P_r such that the convex hulls conv(P_1), ..., conv(P_r) have non-empty intersection. A point in the intersection of the conv(P_i)'s is called a Tverberg point of depth r for P. A classic result by Tverberg implies that there always exists a Tverberg partition of size n/(d+1), but it is not known how to find such a partition in polynomial time. Therefore, approximate solutions are of interest. We describe a deterministic algorithm that finds a Tverberg partition of size n/4(d+1)^3 in time d^{O(log d)} n. This means that for every fixed dimension we can compute an approximate Tverberg point (and hence also an approximate centerpoint) in linear time. Our algorithm is obtained by combining a novel lifting approach with a recent result by Miller and Sheehy (2010).Comment: 14 pages, 2 figures. A preliminary version appeared in SoCG 2012. This version removes an incorrect example at the end of Section 3.