An Equilibrium Model of Health Insurance Provision and Wage Determination

We investigate the e_ect of employer-provided health insurance on job mobility rates and economic welfare. In particular, we develop and estimate an equilibrium model of wage and health insurance determination that yields implications that are empirically observed. Namely, not all jobs provide health insurance and jobs with insurance pay higher wages than those without insurance. Using data from the 1990 to 1993 panels of the Survey of Income and Program Participation, we find that jobs that do provide health insurance last almost five times longer than jobs that do not. While this implies that the mobility rate for jobs without insurance is significantly higher than the mobility rate for jobs with insurance, this di_erence is welfare enhancing since jobs with health insurance are more productive jobs. Furthermore, simulations reveal that decreasing the health insurance premium paid by employers increases the steady state health insurance coverage rate, decreases the unemployment rate, but may or may not lead to productivity gains in the economy.HEALTH INSURANCE; EQUILIBRIUM MODELS; WAGE BARGAINING; JOB MOBILITY

A Catalog of Architectural Tactics for Cyber-Foraging

Mobile devices have become for many the preferred way of interacting with the Internet, social media and the enterprise. However, mobile devices still do not have the computing power or battery life that will allow them to perform effectively over long periods of time or for executing applications that require extensive communication or computation, or low latency. Cyber-foraging is a technique enabling mobile devices to extend their computing power and storage by offloading computation or data to more powerful servers located in the cloud or in single-hop proximity. This paper presents a catalog of architectural tactics for cyber-foraging that was derived from the results of a systematic literature review on architectures for cyber-foraging systems. Elements of the architectures identified in the primary studies were codified in the form of Architectural Tactics for Cyber-Foraging. These tactics will help architects extend their design reasoning towards cyber-foraging as a way to support the mobile applications of the present and the future

Identification of hydroxyapatite spherules provides new insight into subretinal pigment epithelial deposit formation in the aging eye.

Accumulation of protein- and lipid-containing deposits external to the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) is common in the aging eye, and has long been viewed as the hallmark of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). The cause for the accumulation and retention of molecules in the sub-RPE space, however, remains an enigma. Here, we present fluorescence microscopy and X-ray diffraction evidence for the formation of small (0.5-20 μm in diameter), hollow, hydroxyapatite (HAP) spherules in Bruch's membrane in human eyes. These spherules are distinct in form, placement, and staining from the well-known calcification of the elastin layer of the aging Bruch's membrane. Secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) imaging confirmed the presence of calcium phosphate in the spherules and identified cholesterol enrichment in their core. Using HAP-selective fluorescent dyes, we show that all types of sub-RPE deposits in the macula, as well as in the periphery, contain numerous HAP spherules. Immunohistochemical labeling for proteins characteristic of sub-RPE deposits, such as complement factor H, vitronectin, and amyloid beta, revealed that HAP spherules were coated with these proteins. HAP spherules were also found outside the sub-RPE deposits, ready to bind proteins at the RPE/choroid interface. Based on these results, we propose a novel mechanism for the growth, and possibly even the formation, of sub-RPE deposits, namely, that the deposit growth and formation begin with the deposition of insoluble HAP shells around naturally occurring, cholesterol-containing extracellular lipid droplets at the RPE/choroid interface; proteins and lipids then attach to these shells, initiating or supporting the growth of sub-RPE deposits

The long noncoding RNA, treRNA, decreases DNA damage and is associated with poor response to chemotherapy in chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

The study of long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) is an emerging area of cancer research, in part due to their ability to serve as disease biomarkers. However, few studies have investigated lncRNAs in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). We have identified one particular lncRNA, treRNA, which is overexpressed in CLL B-cells. We measured transcript expression in 144 CLL patient samples and separated samples into high or low expression of treRNA relative to the overall median. We found that high expression of treRNA is significantly associated with shorter time to treatment. High treRNA also correlates with poor prognostic indicators such as unmutated IGHV and high ZAP70 protein expression. We validated these initial findings in samples collected in a clinical trial comparing the nucleoside analog fludarabine alone or in combination with the alkylating agent cyclophosphamide in untreated CLL samples collected prior to starting therapy (E2997). High expression of treRNA was independently prognostic for shorter progression free survival in patients receiving fludarabine plus cyclophosphamide. Given these results, in order to study the role of treRNA in DNA damage response we generated a model cell line system where treRNA was over-expressed in the human B-CLL cell line OSU-CLL. Relative to the vector control line, there was less cell death in OSU-CLL over-expressing treRNA after exposure to fludarabine and mafosfamide, due in part to a reduction in DNA damage. Therefore, we suggest that treRNA is a novel biomarker in CLL associated with aggressive disease and poor response to chemotherapy through enhanced protection against cytotoxic mediated DNA damage

Cold temperature disinfestation of bagged flour

We conducted studies using a commercial freezer maintained at -17.8°C to determine the time needed to kill Tribolium castaneum eggs in a pallet of flour. Each bag weighed 22.7 kg, and there were 5 bags in each of 10 layers. The dimensions of the pallet were 109-cm wide by 132-cm long by 123-cm tall, and the weight of the stacked pallet was approximately 1152 kg. We conducted tests for nine internal goal temperatures of -12, -10, -8, -6, -4, -2, 0, 4 and 8°C. Internal temperatures in the most central location of the flour pallet reached: -11.0, -9.4, -6.9, -5.0, -3.5, -1.6, -0.1, 3.3, and 5.6°C and were achieved after 11.0, 9.1, 8.9, 7.2, 6.7, 5.8, 5.5, 5.2, and 4.2 days, respectively. For treatments where the goal temperature for the center bag ranged from -12 to 4°C, egg mortality was 100% in bags located in both the periphery and in the center of the pallet. When the temperature goal for the center bag was 8°C, 7 ± 2.5% of the eggs survived in bags located near the center of the pallet. Our data showed that temperatures that follow the dynamic temperature curve that takes place over 24.2 days (cool down and warm up for the 0°C temperature goal) resulted in 100% mortality of T. castaneum eggs. The reason for the difference in mortality for a static compared to a dynamic temperature treatment may be due to the fact that the dynamic temperature treatment occurs over a much longer duration. The fact that the treatment only required 5.5 days in the freezer before it could be shipped makes it a practical method to disinfest pallets of flour, especially because the bags do not need to be removed from the pallet and no chemicals are used

Sterol 3β-glucosyltransferase biocatalysts with a range of selectivities, including selectivity for testosterone

The main objectives of this work were to characterise a range of purified recombinant sterol 3β-glucosyltransferases and show that rational sampling of the diversity that exists within sterol 3β-glucosyltransferase sequence space can result in a range of enzyme selectivities. In our study the catalytically active domain of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae 3β-glucosyltransferase was used to mine putative sterol 3β-glucosyltransferases from the databases. Selected diverse sequences were expressed in and purified from Escherichia coli and shown to have different selectivities for the 3β-hydroxysteroids ergosterol and cholesterol. Surprisingly, three enzymes were also selective for testosterone, a 17β-hydroxysteroid. This study therefore reports for the first time sterol 3β-glucosyltransferases with selectivity for both 3β- and 17β-hydroxysteroids and is also the first report of recombinant 3β-glucosyltransferases with selectivity for steroids with a hydroxyl group at positions other than C-3. These enzymes could therefore find utility in the pharmaceutical industry for the green synthesis of a range of glycosylated compounds of medicinal interest

A New Type of Electron Nuclear-Spin Interaction from Resistively Detected NMR in the Fractional Quantum Hall Effect Regime

Two dimensional electron gases in narrow GaAs quantum wells show huge longitudinal resistance (HLR) values at certain fractional filling factors. Applying an RF field with frequencies corresponding to the nuclear spin splittings of {69}Ga, {71}Ga and {75}As leads to a substantial decreases of the HLR establishing a novel type of resistively detected NMR. These resonances are split into four sub lines each. Neither the number of sub lines nor the size of the splitting can be explained by established interaction mechanisms.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure