The SES health gradient on both sides of the Atlantic

In this paper we investigate the size of health differences that exist among men in England and the United States and how those differences vary by Socio-Economic Status (SES) in both countries. Three SES measures are emphasized - education, household income, and household wealth - and the health outcomes investigated span multiple dimensions as well. International comparisons have played a central part of the recent debate involving the 'SES health gradient' with some authors citing cross-country differences in levels of income equality and mortality as among the most compelling evidence that unequal societies have negative impacts on individual health outcomes. In spite of the analytical advantages of making such international comparisons, until recently good micro data measuring both SES and health in comparable ways have not been available for both countries. Fortunately, that problem has been remedied with the fielding of two surveys - the Health and Retirement Survey (HRS) and the English Longitudinal Survey of Aging (ELSA). In order to facilitate the type of research represented in this paper, both the health and SES measures in ELSA and HRS were purposely constructed to be as directly comparable as possible. Our analysis presents data on some of the most salient issues regarding the social health gradient in health and the manner in which this health gradient differs for men across the two countries in question. There are a several key findings. First, looking across a wide variety of diagnosed diseases, average health status among mature men is much worse in America compared to England, confirming non-gender specific findings we reported in earlier research. Second, there exists a steep negative health gradient for men in both countries where men at the bottom of the economic hierarchy are in much worse health than those at the top. This social health gradient exists whether education, income, or financial wealth is used as the marker of SES. While the negative social gradient in male health characterizes men in both countries, it appears to be steeper in the United States. These central conclusions are maintained even after controlling for a standard set of behavioral risk factors such as smoking, drinking, and obesity and are equally true using either biological measures of disease or individual self-reports. In contrast to these disease based measures of health, the health of American men appears to be superior to the health of English men when self-reported subjective general health status is used as the measure of health status. This apparent contradiction does not result from differences in co-morbidity, emotional health, or ability to function all of which still point to mature American men being less healthy than their English counterparts. The contradiction most likely stems instead from different thresholds used by Americans and English when evaluation their health status on subjective scales. For the same 'objective' health status, Americans are much more likely to say that their health is good than are the English. Finally, we present preliminary data that indicates that feedbacks from new health events to household income are also one of the reasons that underlie the strength of the income gradient with health in England. Previous research has demonstrated its importance as one of the underlying causes in the United States and these results suggest that that conclusion should most likely be extended to England as well although further research is required on this topic

Does Maternal Methadone Dose Correlate with Severity of Intrauterine Growth Restriction in Infants with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome?

Introduction : Previous studies demonstrate a relationship between maternal opioid use during pregnancy and smaller head circumference of infants with neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS). The goal of this study is to correlate maternal methadone dose and severity of growth restriction in infants with NAS admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Methods: This is a retrospective analysis of infants (≥35 weeks gestation) exposed to in utero methadone, born between August 2006 and May 2018, and admitted to a Philadelphia NICU for medical therapy for NAS. Growth parameters (birth weight, birth length, and birth head circumference) were compared between infants exposed various doses of methadone. The groups were compared using ANOVA, Post-Hoc Tukey, Chi-square and extended Fisher exact tests. Results: A total of 686 infants met the study criteria; 109 in the High dose group, 359 in the Intermediate dose group, and 218 in the Low dose group. There was no significant difference in the use of other drugs or smoking during the pregnancy. Infants exposed to higher doses of methadone displayed significantly smaller head circumferences and lengths at birth. The mean birth weight was similar between the three groups. Discussion: There may be a danger in prescribing high doses of methadone to pregnant mothers, as they may hinder the growth of the infant. We need to conduct more studies investigating how low head circumference and length affect long term developmental outcomes. These findings may help guide physicians toward the optimum dose of methadone for mothers

Compression properties of polymeric syntactic foam composites under cyclic loading

Syntactic foams are composite materials frequently used in applications requiring the properties of low density and high damage tolerance. In the present work, polymer-based syntactic foams were studied under cyclic compression in order to investigate their compressibility, recoverability, energy dissipation and damage tolerance. These syntactic foams were manufactured by adding hollow polymer microspheres of various sizes and wall thicknesses into a polyurethane matrix. The associated loading and unloading curves during cyclic testing were recorded, revealing the viscoelastic nature of the materials. SEM images of the samples were obtained in order to study potential damage mechanisms during compression. It was observed that these syntactic foams exhibit high elastic recovery and energy dissipation over a wide range of compressional strains and the addition of polymer microspheres mitigate the damage under compressional loading.Comment: 25 pages, 13 figure

Asymmetric synthesis of tri- and tetrasubstituted trifluoromethyl dihydropyranones from alpha-aroyloxyaldehydes via NHC redox catalysis

We thank the Royal Society for a University Research Fellowship (A.D.S.), and the European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) ERC Grant Agreement No. 279850 (A.T.D.).The asymmetric synthesis of tri- and tetrasubstituted trifluoromethyl dihydropyranones via an NHC-catalyzed redox process, introducing methyl, benzyl, and aryl substituents to the C(5) position, is presented. Their substrate-controlled derivatization into δ-lactones and cyclic hemiacetals containing stereogenic trifluoromethyl groups is also described.PostprintPeer reviewe

Photometry of two unusual A supergiant systems in the Small Magellanic Cloud

We present multiwavelength broadband photometry and V, I time resolved photometry for two variable bright stars in the SMC, OGLE004336.91-732637.7 (SMC-SC3) and OGLE004633.76-731204.3 (SMC-SC4). The light curves span 12 years and show long-term periodicities (SMC-SC3) and modulated eclipses (SMC-SC4) that are discussed in terms of wide-orbit intermediate mass interacting binaries and associated envelopes. SMC-SC3 shows a primary period of 238.1 days along with a complicated waveform suggesting ellipsoidal variablity influenced by an eccentric orbit. This star also shows a secondary variability with an unstable periodicity that has a mean value of 15.3 days. We suggest this could be associated with nonradial pulsations.Comment: To be published in Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (PASP)

Toward improved streamflow forecasts: Value of semidistributed modeling

The focus of this study is to assess the performance improvements of semidistributed applications of the U.S. National Weather Service Sacramento Soil Moisture Accounting model on a watershed using radar-based remotely sensed precipitation data. Specifically, performance comparisons are made within an automated multicriteria calibration framework to evaluate the benefit of "spatial distribution" of the model input (precipitation), structural components (soil moisture and streamflow routing computations), and surface characteristics (parameters). A comparison of these results is made with those obtained through manual calibration. Results indicate that for the study watershed, there are performance improvements associated with semidistributed model applications when the watershed is partitioned into three subwatersheds; however, no additional benefit is gained from increasing the number of subwatersheds from three to eight. Improvements in model performance are demonstrably related to the spatial distribution of the model input and streamflow routing. Surprisingly, there is no improvement associated with the distribution of the surface characteristics (model parameters)