Body Mass Index and Employment-Based Health Insurance

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Obese workers incur greater health care costs than normal weight workers. Possibly viewed by employers as an increased financial risk, they may be at a disadvantage in procuring employment that provides health insurance. This study aims to evaluate the association between body mass index [BMI, weight in kilograms divided by the square of height in meters] of employees and their likelihood of holding jobs that include employment-based health insurance [EBHI].</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We used the 2004 Household Components of the nationally representative Medical Expenditure Panel Survey. We utilized logistic regression models with provision of EBHI as the dependent variable in this descriptive analysis. The key independent variable was BMI, with adjustments for the domains of demographics, social-economic status, workplace/job characteristics, and health behavior/status. BMI was classified as normal weight (18.5–24.9), overweight (25.0–29.9), or obese (≥ 30.0). There were 11,833 eligible respondents in the analysis.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Among employed adults, obese workers [adjusted probability (AP) = 0.62, (0.60, 0.65)] (<it>P </it>= 0.005) were more likely to be employed in jobs with EBHI than their normal weight counterparts [AP = 0.57, (0.55, 0.60)]. Overweight workers were also more likely to hold jobs with EBHI than normal weight workers, but the difference did not reach statistical significance [AP = 0.61 (0.58, 0.63)] (<it>P </it>= 0.052). There were no interaction effects between BMI and gender or age.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>In this nationally representative sample, we detected an association between workers' increasing BMI and their likelihood of being employed in positions that include EBHI. These findings suggest that obese workers are more likely to have EBHI than other workers.</p

ICAR: endoscopic skull‐base surgery

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Pan-cancer analysis of whole genomes

Cancer is driven by genetic change, and the advent of massively parallel sequencing has enabled systematic documentation of this variation at the whole-genome scale(1-3). Here we report the integrative analysis of 2,658 whole-cancer genomes and their matching normal tissues across 38 tumour types from the Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium of the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). We describe the generation of the PCAWG resource, facilitated by international data sharing using compute clouds. On average, cancer genomes contained 4-5 driver mutations when combining coding and non-coding genomic elements; however, in around 5% of cases no drivers were identified, suggesting that cancer driver discovery is not yet complete. Chromothripsis, in which many clustered structural variants arise in a single catastrophic event, is frequently an early event in tumour evolution; in acral melanoma, for example, these events precede most somatic point mutations and affect several cancer-associated genes simultaneously. Cancers with abnormal telomere maintenance often originate from tissues with low replicative activity and show several mechanisms of preventing telomere attrition to critical levels. Common and rare germline variants affect patterns of somatic mutation, including point mutations, structural variants and somatic retrotransposition. A collection of papers from the PCAWG Consortium describes non-coding mutations that drive cancer beyond those in the TERT promoter(4); identifies new signatures of mutational processes that cause base substitutions, small insertions and deletions and structural variation(5,6); analyses timings and patterns of tumour evolution(7); describes the diverse transcriptional consequences of somatic mutation on splicing, expression levels, fusion genes and promoter activity(8,9); and evaluates a range of more-specialized features of cancer genomes(8,10-18).Peer reviewe

Activity and thermal stability of Rh-based catalytic system for an advanced modern TWC

The catalytic activity and thermal durability of Rh supported on a variety of metal oxides for removing NO in the three-way catalyst (TWC) converter have been investigated under realistic gasoline engine exhaust conditions. Among the Rh/metal oxide catalysts examined, the Rh/ZrO2 catalyst has the best thermal durability. The catalytic activity and thermal stability of the Rh/ZrO2 catalysts have shown strong dependence on the ZrO2 support employed, with the ZrO2 prepared by the sol-gel (SG) and precipitation (P) methods exhibiting the most favorable catalytic performance. The improved TWC performance and thermal stability of the Rh/ZrO2 (SG and P) catalysts compared to other Rh/ZrO2 catalysts are mainly due to the structural difference in the underlying ZrO2 supports. Both ZrO2 (P) and ZrO2 (SG) contain the tetragonal as well as the monoclinic phase of ZrO2, whereas the others are primarily in the monoclinic phase. Deactivation of the Rh/ZrO2 upon thermal aging is mainly caused by the loss of the active metal surface area of Rh due to sintering and/or burial of Rh into the sublattice of ZrO2. The strong interaction of Rh with the tetragonal phase of ZrO2 appears to prevent the burial of Rh into ZrO2 lattice during the thermal aging. A series of comparative kinetic experiments revealed that the Rh/ZrO2 (SG and P) catalysts among other Rh/metal oxide catalysts produce the least amount of harmful NH3, which can be subsequently oxidized to hazardous NOx over the Pd-based oxidation catalyst co-existing in the TWC converter. A dual-brick monolith system washcoated with Rh/ZrO2 (P) and Pd/Al2O3 in the front and the rear bricks, respectively, has shown superior thermal durability over monolith configurations investigated in the present study. (c) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.X112323sciescopu

Ultra low temperature CO and HC oxidation over Cu-based mixed oxides for future automotive applications

Advanced combustion technologies offer significant improvement in fuel economy as well as lower NO engine out emissions due to the nature of low temperature combustion; however, the lower exhaust temperature has been a major concern in the removal of hydrocarbon and CO emissions under the future emission regulation. In the present study, we discovered that cerium zirconium mixed oxide containing copper (CZCu) was more active for CO and heavy HC (i.e. C8H10, and C12H26) oxidation at below 130 degrees C than a platinum group metal (PGM)-based alumina catalyst under simulated diesel exhausts including NO and H2O. The CZCu catalyst, however, was relatively inactive for the oxidation of light HC such as C3H6. The CZCu catalyst suffered from significant deactivation upon hydrothermal aging at 750 degrees C, and XRD and DRIFTS suggest that the deactivation could be due to the particle size growth of CuO retarding the formation of carbonyl on Cu upon the hydrothermal treatment. However, with smart integration of CZCu catalyst into the PGM-based catalyst the hybrid catalyst system provides opportunities for cost-effective as well as better performing aftertreatment systems for advanced fuel efficient engines. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.X111010sciescopu

Combination of photocatalysis and HC/SCR for improved activity and durability of DeNOx catalysts

A photocatalytic HC/SCR system has been developed and its high deNOx performance (54.0-98.6% NOx conversion) at low temperatures (150-250 degrees C) demonstrated by using a representative diesel fuel hydrocarbon (dodecane) as the reductant over a hybrid SCR system of a photocatalytic reactor (PCR) and a dual-bed HC/SCR reactor. The PCR generates highly active oxidants such as O-3 and NO2 from O-2 and NO in the feed stream, followed by the subsequent formation of highly efficient reductants such as oxygenated hydrocarbon (OHC), NH3, and organo-nitrogen compounds. These reductants are the key components for enhancing the low temperature deNOx performance of the dual-bed HC/SCR system containing Ag/Al2O3 and CuCoY in the front and rear bed of the reactor, respectively. The OHCs are particularly effective for both NOx reduction and NH3 formation over the Ag/Al2O3 catalyst, while NH3 and organo-nitrogen compounds are effective for NOx reduction over the CuCoY catalyst. The hybrid HC/SCR system assisted by photocatalysis has shown an overall deNOx performance comparable to that of the NH3/SCR, demonstrating its potential as a promising alternative to the current urea/SCR and LNT technologies. Superior durability of HC/SCR catalysts against coking by HCs has also been demonstrated by a PCR-assisted regeneration scheme for deactivating catalysts.X111412sciescopu

In-Situ Synchrotron X-ray Scattering Studies of the Thermally-Induced Self-Assembly of High-Performance Aromatic Copolyesters

In-situ synchrotron small-angle X-ray scattering measurements and quantitative data analysis were used to investigate isothermal self-assembly in a series of high-performance poly(1,4-cyclohexyldimethylene-co-ethylene terephthalate)s (PCETs) enriched with 1,4-cyclohexanedimethanol (CHDM). Interestingly, the bulky CHDM units, which assumed a kinked chair conformation, formed lamellar crystals. The self-assembly process was governed by a nucleation and growth mechanism that depended on the degree of supercooling. Isothermal self-assembly occurred through a four-regime process. The structural evolution was driven mainly by a primary crystallization process, which contributed to crystal layer thickening, and in part by a secondary crystallization process during the later stages, which did not contribute to crystal layer thickness, to produce a lamellar structure. In addition to the primary crystals, highly imperfect small secondary crystals distinct from the lamellar crystals were observed to form. The secondary crystals formed only in the amorphous phases, including in the amorphous layer of the lamellar structure. Surprisingly, the minor ethylene glycol (EG) units tended to be excluded from the primary lamellar crystals.ungraded110sciescopu

Hydrotalcite as a Support for NOx Trap Catalyst

Hydrotalcite (HT)-based catalysts have been developed to improve NOx storage-reduction (NSR) activity, particularly at low temperature during the cold start period of automotive engines. The content of noble metals, including Pt and Pd, has been optimized and the effect of the K precursors on NSR activity has been extensively examined by a knowledge-based combinatorial approach using colorimetric assay. The optimum noble metal ratio was determined to be 0.5Pt/0.5Pd or 0.25Pt/0.75Pd. Pd is a more effective metal for the high performance of NSR catalyst than Pt, particularly for reducing NOx from the catalyst at 200 A degrees C. Both CH3COOK and KNO3 are the best K precursor in view of the NSR performance at both low (200 A degrees C) and high temperatures (350 A degrees C). HT-based catalysts reveal excellent deNOx performance compared to Al2O3-based catalysts, mainly due to their superior redox property.X111816sciescopu

The alteration of the performance of field-aged Pd-based TWCs towards CO and C3H6 oxidation

The deactivation of a three-way catalyst (TWC) included in warm-up catalytic converters (WCC) employed in passenger vehicles has been examined with respect to the catalyst field mileage by drivers. By a sweep test (ST) under the A/F oscillation of 1 Hz simulating the actual operation of a gasoline engine, the gradual deactivation of CO oxidation activity under rich condition over the Pd TWCs customer-aged was clearly observed with respect to the catalyst mileage, while the oxidation activity of C3H6 had been hardly altered. No proportional dependence of the deactivation of the CO and C3H6 oxidation activity on the catalyst mileage, however, was determined by both a steady-state sweep test (st-ST) and a light-off test (LOT) without A/F perturbation, although the initial deactivation of both reactions by both test modes was apparent. The sintering of noble metal (NM) itself might not be the only cause for the deactivation of TWC with respect to the catalyst aging mileage. The gradual alteration of the oxygen storage capacity (OSC) of TWC. mainly due to the degradation of the oxygen storage components and the weakness of the Pd-Ce interaction, is also the cause for TWC deactivation, particularly for the CO oxidation reaction under rich condition. No deactivation of the oxidation reaction of C3H6 by ST, regardless of the catalyst mileages is likely due to the strong oxidative capability of I&apos;d toward hydrocarbons. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.X115051sciescopu