Structural social support and cardiovascular disease risk factors in Hispanic/Latino adults with diabetes: results from the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos (HCHS/SOL)

Objective(s): Cross-sectional and longitudinal studies have yielded inconsistent findings on the associations of social support networks with cardiovascular health in Hispanic/Latino adults with diabetes. We examined the cross-sectional associations of structural social support and traditional cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors in a diverse sample of Hispanic/Latino adults with diabetes. Research Design and Methods: This analysis included 2994 adult participants ages 18–74 with diabetes from the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos (HCHS/SOL–2008–2011). Select items from the Social Network Inventory (SNI) were used to assess indices of structural social support, i.e. network size (number of children, parents, and in-laws) and frequency of familial contact. Standardized methods were used to measure abdominal obesity, BMI, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, and smoking status. Multivariate regression was used to examine associations of structural support with individual CVD risk factors with demographics, acculturation, physical health, and psychological ill-being (depressive symptoms and anxiety) included as covariates. Results: There were no significant cross-sectional associations of structural support indices with abdominal obesity, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, or smoking status. There was a marginally significant (OR: 1.05; 95%CI 0.99–1.11) trend toward higher odds of obesity in participants reporting a larger family unit (including children, parents, and in-laws) and those with closer ties with extended family relatives (OR: 1.04; 95%CI 0.99–1.09). Conclusions: Structural social support was marginally associated with higher odds of obesity in Hispanic/Latino adults with diabetes. Alternate forms of social support (e.g. healthcare professionals, friends, peers) should be further explored as potential markers of cardiac risk in Hispanics/Latinos with diabetes

Heterogeneous Impatience in a Continuous-Time Model

In a continuous-time economy with complete markets, we study how the heterogeneity in the individual consumers' risk tolerance and impatience affects the representative consumer's risk tolerance and impatience. We derive some formulas, which indicate that the representative consumer's impatience decrease over time, and whether his risk tolerance increases or decreases over time depends on the sign of some weighted covariance between the individual consumers' cautiousness (derivative of risk tolerance with respect to own consumptions) and impatience. These results are then used to show that the short rate tends to decrease over time and the market price of risk is volatile in some special cases of heterogeneous economies

Accessibility of Disabled People: The Case of Kayseri Light-Rail System

In this paper, we consider the problem where an agent wishes to complete a single computational task, but lacks the required resources. Instead, it must contract self-interested service providers, who are able to flexibly manipulate the quality of service they deliver, in order to maximise their own utility. We extend an existing model to allow for multiple such service providers to be contracted for the same task, and derive optimal task procurement mechanisms in the setting where the agent has full knowledge of the cost functions of these service providers (considering both simultaneous and sequential procurement). We then extend these results to the incomplete information setting where the agent must elicit cost information from the service providers, and we characterise a family of incentive-compatible and individually-rational mechanisms. We show empirically that sequential procurement always generates greater utility for the agent compared to simultaneous procurement, and that over a range of settings, contracting multiple providers is preferable to contracting just one

Hypopomus Gill: nova apomorfia e notas sobre suas relações filogenéticas (Teleostei, Gymnotiformes, Rhamphichthyoidea) Hypopomus Gill: new apomorphy and notes on its phylogenetic relationships (Teleostei, Gymnotioformes, Rhamphichthoidea)

O monofiletismo de Hypopomus Gill, 1864 é corroborado pela presença de canto da boca curvo para cima, homoplasticamente também em Steatogenys Boulenger, 1898. Sua sinonímia com Parupygus Hoedeman, 1962 é corroborada. Três de sete apomorfias previamente atribuídas para definir o monofiletismo de Hypopomidae são refutadas (região posterior do paresfenóide estreita, depressão na face dorsal do basi-hial e opérculo trapezoidal) e outras quatro são propostas para unir Hypopomus a Rhamphichthyidae (mandíbula incluída; alongamento anterior do dentário; cartilagem palatina alongada e processo ascendente do mesopterigóide curvo para trás). Assim, estudos mais elaborados são necessários para avaliar a posição filogenética do gênero.<br>The monophyly of Hypopomus Gill, 1864 is corroborated, on the basis of the presence of mouth corner upturned, homoplastically also in Steatogenys Boulenger, 1898. Its synonymy with Parupygus Hoedeman, 1962 is corroborated. Three of seven synapomorphies attributed to the monophyly of Hypopomidae are refuted (posterior region of parasphenoid narrow, depression on the dorsal surface of bashyal and trapezoidal opercle) and four other are presented to unite Hypopomus to Rhamphichthyidae (lower jaw included; anterior elongation of dentary; elongation of palatine cartilage and ascending process of mesopterygoid backward curved). Thus, further studies are necessary to assess the phylogenetic position of the genus