Proof firm downsizing and diagnosis-specific disability pensioning in Norway

<br>Background: We wanted to investigate if firm downsizing is related to an increased rate of disability pensions among the former employed, especially for those with musculoskeletal and psychiatric diagnoses, and for those having to leave the firm.</br> <br>Methods: Statistics Norway provided a linked file with demographic information and all social security grants from the National Insurance Administration for 1992–2004 for all inhabitants in Norway. Our sample was aged 30–55 years in 1995, being alive, employed and not having a disability pension at the end of 2000. Downsizing was defined as percent change in number of employed per firm from 1995 to end 2000. Employment data were missing for 25.6% of the sample.</br> <br>Results: Disability pension rates in the next four years were 25% higher for those experiencing a 30-59% downsizing than for those not experiencing a reduction of the workforce. 1-29% and 60-100% downsizing did not have this effect. Stayers following down-sizing had higher disability pension rates than leavers. What we have called complex musculoskeletal and psychiatric diagnoses were relatively most common.</br> <br>Conclusion: Moderate downsizing is followed by a significant increase in disability pension rates in the following four years, often with complex musculoskeletal and psychiatric diagnoses.</br&gt

Disability Pension Rates Among Immigrants in Norway

Immigrants from low-income countries are more likely than ethnic Norwegians to receive disability pensions. In a previous study in Oslo, we showed that occupational position probably accounted for all of this difference. The present article presents a study of the total population, with data on education and age at receipt of pension. Census and social security data for all persons living in Norway from 1992 to 2003 were used to identify new disability pensions to those aged 30–55 years and eligible in 1992, comprising 15.9% females and 11.4% males. Age-adjusted relative risk was 2.03 (95% CI 1.97–2.08) for non-Western males and 1.30 (1.26–1.36) for non-Western females compared with Westerners, and more than three times higher for males from North Africa/the Middle East. Education did not explain any of the risk differences, but when adjusting for age at pension receipt the differences disappeared completely. This is probably due to their being in predominantly unskilled occupations where there is also a low pension age among ethnic Norwegians

Crossing borders of material science – a new approach of aerogel preparation for electron microscopy

A new method for the embedding and preparation of organic aerogels for electron mciroscopic Analysis like Crosssectioning, Lamella preparation, FIB-Tomography and Transmissio Electron Microscop

Treatment-free remission in chronic myeloid leukemia patients treated front-line with nilotinib: 10-year followup of the GIMEMA CML 0307 study

We report the final analysis, with a 10-year follow-up, of the phase II study GIMEMA CML 0307 (NCT 00481052), which enrolled 73 adult patients (median age 51 years; range, 18-83) with newly diagnosed chronic-phase chronic myeloid leukemia to investigate the efficacy and the toxicity of front-line treatment with nilotinib. The initial dose was 400 mg twice daily; the dose was reduced to 300 mg twice daily as soon as this dose was approved and registered. The 10-year overall survival and progression-free survival were 94.5%. At the last contact, 36 (49.3%) patients were continuing nilotinib (22 patients at 300 mg twice daily, 14 at lower doses), 18 (24.7%) patients were in treatment-free remission, 14 (19.2%) were receiving other tyrosine-kinase inhibitors and four (5.5%) patients have died. The rates of major and deep molecular responses by 10 years were 96% and 83%, respectively. The median times to major and deep molecular response were 6 and 18 months, respectively. After a median duration of nilotinib treatment of 88 months, 24 (32.9%) patients discontinued nilotinib while in stable deep molecular response. In these patients, the 2-year estimated treatment-free survival was 72.6%. The overall treatment-free remission rate, calculated on all enrolled patients, was 24.7% (18/73 patients). Seventeen patients (23.3%), at a median age of 69 years, had at least one arterial obstructive event. In conclusion, the use of nilotinib front-line in chronic phase chronic myeloid leukemia can induce a stable treatment-free remission in a relevant number of patients, although cardiovascular toxicity remains of concern

Unemployment and disability pension-an 18-year follow-up study of a 40-year-old population in a Norwegian county

<p>© 2012 Støver et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.</p><p>This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.</p

Rotation of nilotinib and imatinib for first-line treatment of chronic phase chronic myeloid leukemia.

he introduction of second-generation tyrosine-kinase inhibitors (TKIs) has generated a lively debate on the choice of first-line TKI in chronic phase, chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). Despite the TKIs have different efficacy and toxicity profiles, the planned use of two TKIs has never been investigated. We report on a phase 2 study that was designed to evaluate efficacy and safety of a treatment alternating nilotinib and imatinib, in newly diagnosed BCR-ABL1 positive, chronic phase, CML patients. One hundred twenty-three patients were enrolled. Median age was 56 years. The probabilities of achieving a complete cytogenetic response, a major molecular response, and a deep molecular response (MR 4.0) by 2 years were 93%, 87%, and 61%, respectively. The 5-year overall survival and progression-free survival were 89%. Response rates and survival are in the range of those reported with nilotinib alone. Moreover, we observed a relatively low rate of cardiovascular adverse events (5%). These data show that the different efficacy and toxicity profiles of TKIs could be favorably exploited by alternating their us

Portuguese and Brazilian stock market integration : a non-linear and detrended approach

Besides the historical heritage that Portugal and Brazil share, the last two decades have also shown an increase in some economic indicators, such as the percentage of imports/exports and foreign direct investment. In order to take advantage of all the benefits, the countries should increase economic integration, stock market integration being one of the possibilities. In this context, this paper analyses stock market integration between these two countries, using non-linear methodologies: detrended fluctuation analysis, detrended cross-correlation analysis and detrended moving-average cross-correlation analysis. Using the main stock indexes, and splitting the sample in six different periods, the main conclusion is that integration between these two countries increased over time. However, since 2013, the integration pattern has decreased, with the economic crisis both countries suffered being the main factor.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

FDG–PET. A possible prognostic factor in head and neck cancer

Previous studies have shown that high uptake of 18F-fluoro-2-deoxy-glucose in head and neck cancer, as determined by the standardized uptake value on positron emission tomography scan, was associated with poor survival. The aim of this study was to confirm the association and to establish whether a high standardized uptake value had prognostic significance. Seventy-three consecutive patients with newly diagnosed squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck underwent a positron emission tomography study before treatment. Age, gender, performance status tumour grade, stage, maximal tumour diameter and standardized uptake value were analyzed for their possible association with survival. The median standardized uptake value for all primary tumours was 7.16 (90% range 2.30 to 18.60). In univariate survival analysis the cumulative survival was decreased as the stage, tumour diameter and standardized uptake value increased. An standardized uptake value of 10 was taken as a cut-off for high and low uptake tumours. When these two groups were compared, an standardized uptake value >10 predicted for significantly worse outcome (P=0.003). Multivariate analysis demonstrated that an standardized uptake value >10 provided prognostic information independent of the tumour stage and diameter (P=0.002). We conclude that high FDG uptake (standardized uptake value>10) on positron emission tomography is an important marker for poor outcome in primary squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck. Standardized uptake value may be useful in distinguishing those tumours with a more aggressive biological nature and hence identifying patients that require intensive treatment protocols including hyperfractionated radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy

Critical values of facet joint angulation and tropism in the development of lumbar degenerative spondylolisthesis: an international, large-scale multicenter study by the AOSpine Asia Pacific Research Collaboration Consortium

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