Effects of sex, age, and visits on receipt of preventive healthcare services: a secondary analysis of national data

BACKGROUND: Sex and age may exert a combined influence on receipt of preventive services with differences due to number of ambulatory care visits. METHODS: We used nationally representative data to determine weighted percentages and adjusted odds ratios of men and women stratified by age group who received selected preventive services. The presence of interaction between sex and age group was tested using adjusted models and retested after adding number of visits. RESULTS: Men were less likely than women to have received blood pressure screening (aOR 0.44;0.40–0.50), cholesterol screening (aOR 0.72;0.65–0.79), tobacco cessation counseling (aOR 0.66;0.55–0.78), and checkups (aOR 0.53;0.49–0.57). In younger age groups, men were particularly less likely than women to have received these services. In adjusted models, this observed interaction between sex and age group persisted only for blood pressure measurement (p = .016) and routine checkups (p < .001). When adjusting for number of visits, the interaction of age on receipt of blood pressure checks was mitigated but men were still overall less likely to receive the service. CONCLUSION: Men are significantly less likely than women to receive certain preventive services, and younger men even more so. Some of this discrepancy is secondary to a difference in number of ambulatory care visits

Depth, Highness and DNR Degrees

A sequence is Bennett deep [5] if every recursive approximation of the Kolmogorov complexity of its initial segments from above satisfies that the difference between the approximation and the actual value of the Kolmogorov complexity of the initial segments dominates every constant function. We study for different lower bounds r of this difference between approximation and actual value of the initial segment complexity, which properties the corresponding r(n)-deep sets have. We prove that for r(n) = εn, depth coincides with highness on the Turing degrees. For smaller choices of r, i.e., r is any recursive order function, we show that depth implies either highness or diagonally-non-recursiveness (DNR). In particular, for left-r.e. sets, order depth already implies highness. As a corollary, we obtain that weakly-useful sets are either high or DNR. We prove that not all deep sets are high by constructing a low order-deep set. Bennett's depth is defined using prefix-free Kolmogorov complexity. We show that if one replaces prefix-free by plain Kolmogorov complexity in Bennett's depth definition, one obtains a notion which no longer satisfies the slow growth law (which stipulates that no shallow set truth-table computes a deep set); however, under this notion, random sets are not deep (at the unbounded recursive order magnitude). We improve Bennett's result that recursive sets are shallow by proving all K-trivial sets are shallow; our result is close to optimal. For Bennett's depth, the magnitude of compression improvement has to be achieved almost everywhere on the set. Bennett observed that relaxing to infinitely often is meaningless because every recursive set is infinitely often deep. We propose an alternative infinitely often depth notion that doesn't suffer this limitation (called i.o. depth).We show that every hyperimmune degree contains a i.o. deep set of magnitude εn, and construct a π01- class where every member is an i.o. deep set of magnitude εn. We prove that every non-recursive, non-DNR hyperimmune-free set is i.o. deep of constant magnitude, and that every nonrecursive many-one degree contains such a set

Effects of Health Insurance on Perceived Quality of Care Among Latinos in the United States

There is suggestive evidence that lower rates of health insurance coverage increases the gaps in quality and access to care among Latinos as compared with non-Latino whites. In order to examine these potential disparities, we assessed the effects of insurance coverage and multiple covariates on perceived quality of care. To assess the distribution of perceived quality of care received in a national Latino population sample, and the role of insurance in different patient subgroups. Telephone interviews conducted between 2007 and 2008 using the Pew Hispanic Center/Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Latino Health Surveys (Waves 1 and 2). Randomly selected Latino adults aged ≥18 years living in the United States. Pearson χ2 tests identified associations among various demographic variables by quality of care ratings (poor, fair, good, excellent) for the insured and uninsured (Wave 1: N = 3545). Subgroup analyses were conducted among Wave 2 participants reporting chronic conditions (N = 1067). Bivariate and multivariate analyses were conducted to estimate the effects of insurance, demographic variables and consumer characteristics on quality of care. Insurance availability had an odds ratio of 1.47 (95% CI, 1.22–1.76) net of confounders in predicting perceived quality of care among Latinos. The largest gap in rates of excellent/good ratings occurred among the insured with eight or more doctor visits compared to the uninsured (76.2% vs. 54.6%, P &lt; .05). Future research can gain additional insights by examining the impact of health insurance on processes of care with a refined focus on specific transactions between consumers and providers’ support staff and physicians guided by the principles of patient-centered care

Structural Correlates of Taste and Smell Loss in Encephalitis Disseminata

BACKGROUND: Olfactory dysfunction in MS patients is reported in the literature. MRI of the olfactory bulb (OB) is discussed as a promising new testing method for measuring olfactory function (OF). Aim of this study was to explore reasons for and optimize the detection of olfactory dysfunction in MS patients with MRI. MATERIALS AND METHODS: OB and olfactory brain volume was assessed within 34 MS patients by manual segmentation. Olfactory function was tested using the Threshold-Discrimination-Identification-Test (TDI), gustatory function was tested using Taste Strips (TST). RESULTS: 41% of the MS patients displayed olfactory dysfunction (8% of the control group), 16% displayed gustatory dysfunction (5% of the control group). There was a correlation between the OB volume and the number and volume of MS lesions in the olfactory brain. Olfactory brain volume correlated with the volume of lesions in the olfactory brain and the EDSS score. The TST score correlated with the number and volume of lesions in the olfactory brain. CONCLUSION: The correlation between a higher number and volume of MS lesions with a decreased OB and olfactory brain volume could help to explain olfactory dysfunction

Heterogeneity in Health Insurance Coverage Among US Latino Adults

We sought to determine the differences in observed and unobserved factors affecting rates of health insurance coverage between US Latino adults and US Latino adults of Mexican ancestry. Our hypothesis was that Latinos of Mexican ancestry have worse health insurance coverage than their non-Mexican Latino counterparts. The National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) database from 1999–2007 consists of 33,847 Latinos. We compared Latinos of Mexican ancestry to non-Mexican Latinos in the initial descriptive analysis of health insurance coverage. Disparities in health insurance coverage across Latino categories were later analyzed in a multivariable logistic regression framework, which adjusts for confounding variables. The Blinder-Oaxaca technique was applied to parse out differences in health insurance coverage into observed and unobserved components. US Latinos of Mexican ancestry consistently had lower rates of health insurance coverage than did US non-Mexican Latinos. Approximately 65% of these disparities can be attributed to differences in observed characteristics of the Mexican ancestry population in the US (e.g., age, sex, income, employment status, education, citizenship, language and health condition). The remaining disparities may be attributed to unobserved heterogeneity that may include unobserved employment-related information (e.g., type of employment and firm size) and behavioral and idiosyncratic factors (e.g., risk aversion and cultural differences). This study confirmed that Latinos of Mexican ancestry were less likely to have health insurance than were non-Mexican Latinos. Moreover, while differences in observed socioeconomic and demographic factors accounted for most of these disparities, the share of unobserved heterogeneity accounted for 35% of these differences

Principles of Glomerular Organization in the Human Olfactory Bulb – Implications for Odor Processing

Olfactory sensory neurons (OSN) in mice express only 1 of a possible 1,100 odor receptors (OR) and axons from OSNs expressing the same odor receptor converge into ∼2 of the 1,800 glomeruli in each olfactory bulb (OB) in mice; this yields a convergence ratio that approximates 2∶1, 2 glomeruli/OR. Because humans express only 350 intact ORs, we examined human OBs to determine if the glomerular convergence ratio of 2∶1 established in mice was applicable to humans. Unexpectedly, the average number of human OB glomeruli is >5,500 yielding a convergence ratio of ∼16∶1. The data suggest that the initial coding of odor information in the human OB may differ from the models developed for rodents and that recruitment of additional glomeruli for subpopulations of ORs may contribute to more robust odor representation

Effects of aversive odour presentation on inhibitory control in the Stroop colour-word interference task

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Due to the unique neural projections of the olfactory system, odours have the ability to directly influence affective processes. Furthermore, it has been shown that emotional states can influence various non-emotional cognitive tasks, such as memory and planning. However, the link between emotional and cognitive processes is still not fully understood. The present study used the olfactory pathway to induce a negative emotional state in humans to investigate its effect on inhibitory control performance in a standard, single-trial manual Stroop colour-word interference task. An unpleasant (H₂S) and an emotionally neutral (Eugenol) odorant were presented in two separate experimental runs, both in blocks alternating with ambient air, to 25 healthy volunteers, while they performed the cognitive task.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Presentation of the unpleasant odorant reduced Stroop interference by reducing the reaction times for incongruent stimuli, while the presentation of the neutral odorant had no effect on task performance.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The odour-induced negative emotional state appears to facilitate cognitive processing in the task used in the present study, possibly by increasing the amount of cognitive control that is being exerted. This stands in contrast to other findings that showed impaired cognitive performance under odour-induced negative emotional states, but is consistent with models of mood-congruent processing.</p

TESS Hunt for Young and Maturing Exoplanets (THYME). III. A Two-planet System in the 400 Myr Ursa Major Group

Exoplanets can evolve significantly between birth and maturity as their atmospheres, orbits, and structures are shaped by their environment. Young planets ($<$1 Gyr) offer the opportunity to probe these sculpting processes. However, most of the known young planets orbit prohibitively faint stars. We present the discovery of two planets transiting HD 63433 (TOI 1726, TIC 130181866), a young Sun-like ($M_*=0.99\pm0.03$) star. Through kinematics, lithium abundance, and rotation, we confirm that HD 63433 is a member of the Ursa Major moving group ($\tau=414\pm23$ Myr). Based on the TESS light curve and updated stellar parameters, the planet radii are $2.15\pm0.10R_\oplus$ and $2.67\pm0.12R_\oplus$, the orbital periods are 7.11 and 20.55 days, and the orbital eccentricities are lower than abut 0.2. Using HARPS-N velocities, we measure the Rossiter-McLaughlin signal of the inner planet, demonstrating the orbit is prograde. Since the host star is bright (V=6.9), both planets are amenable to transmission spectroscopy, radial velocity measurements of their masses, and more precise determination of the stellar obliquity. This system is therefore poised to play an important role in our understanding of planetary system evolution in the first billion years after formation

Biocatalytic Synthesis of Polymers of Precisely Defined Structures

The fabrication of functional nanoscale devices requires the construction of complex architectures at length scales characteristic of atoms and molecules. Currently microlithography and micro-machining of macroscopic objects are the preferred methods for construction of small devices, but these methods are limited to the micron scale. An intriguing approach to nanoscale fabrication involves the association of individual molecular components into the desired architectures by supramolecular assembly. This process requires the precise specification of intermolecular interactions, which in turn requires precise control of molecular structure