Neighbourhoods and self rated health: a comparison of public sector employees in London and Helsinki

Study objective: Mortality and morbidity vary across neighbourhoods and larger residential areas. Effects of area deprivation on health may vary across countries, because of greater spatial separation of people occupying high and low socioeconomic positions and differences in the provision of local services and facilities. Neighbourhood variations in health and the contribution of residents' characteristics and neighbourhood indicators were compared in London and Helsinki, two settings where inequality and welfare policies differ.Design: Data from two cohorts were used to investigate associations between self rated health and neighbourhood indicators using a multilevel approach.Setting: London and Helsinki.Participants: From the Whitehall II study (London, aged 39-63) and the Helsinki health study (aged 40-60).Main results: Socioeconomic segregation was higher in London than in Helsinki. Age and sex adjusted differences in self rated health between neighbourhoods were also greater in London. Independent of individual socioeconomic position, neighbourhood unemployment, proportion of residents in manual occupations, and proportion of single households were associated with health. In pooled data, residence in a neighbourhood with highest unemployment was associated with an odds ratio of less than good self rated health of 1.51 (95% CI 1.30 to 1.75). High rates of single parenthood were associated with health in London but not in Helsinki.Conclusions: Neighbourhood socioeconomic context was associated with health in both countries, with some evidence of greater neighbourhood effects in London. Greater socioeconomic segregation in London may have emergent effects at the neighbourhood level. Local and national social policies may reduce, or restrict, inequality and segregation between areas

Building health: an epidemiological study of "sick building syndrome" in the Whitehall II study

Objectives: Sick building syndrome (SBS) is described as a group of symptoms attributed to the physical environment of specific buildings. Isolating particular environmental features responsible for the symptoms has proved difficult. This study explores the role and significance of the physical and psychosocial work environment in explaining SBS. Methods: Cross sectional data on the physical environment of a selection of buildings were added to individual data from the Whitehall II study—an ongoing health survey of office based civil servants. A self-report questionnaire was used to capture 10 symptoms of the SBS and psychosocial work stress. In total, 4052 participants aged 42–62 years working in 44 buildings were included in this study. Results: No significant relation was found between most aspects of the physical work environment and symptom prevalence, adjusted for age, sex, and employment grade. Positive (non-significant) relations were found only with airborne bacteria, inhalable dust, dry bulb temperature, relative humidity, and having some control over the local physical environment. Greater effects were found with features of the psychosocial work environment including high job demands and low support. Only psychosocial work characteristics and control over the physical environment were independently associated with symptoms in the multivariate analysis. Conclusions: The physical environment of office buildings appears to be less important than features of the psychosocial work environment in explaining differences in the prevalence of symptoms

How to measure the spreading width for decay of superdeformed nuclei

A new expression for the branching ratio for the decay via the E1 process in the normal-deformed band of superdeformed nuclei is given within a simple two-level model. Using this expression, the spreading or tunneling width Gamma^downarrow for superdeformed decay can be expressed entirely in terms of experimentally known quantities. We show how to determine the tunneling matrix element V from the measured value of Gamma^downarrow and a statistical model of the energy levels. The accuracy of the two-level approximation is verified by considering the effects of the other normal-deformed states.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Designing Dental Student Portfolios to Assess Performance

The purpose of this poster is to share a project developed by Marquette University’s liaisons to the American Dental Education Association’s Commission on Change and Innovation in Dental Education with others interested in learning about the use of portfolios to assess the quality of student performance in dental school. Sample components from the pilot portfolios will be integrated into the poster to provide participants with a view from portfolio design to completion. Portfolios are becoming a more common method of assessing the quality of student performance in health professions education. Portfolios can assist in documenting evidence of specific competencies at the student level and also serve as a longitudinal measure of a student’s development

Application of Single-Station Sigma and Site-Response Characterization in a Probabilistic Seismic-Hazard Analysis for a New Nuclear Site

Aleatory variability in ground-motion prediction, represented by the standard deviation (sigma) of a ground-motion prediction equation, exerts a very strong influence on the results of probabilistic seismic-hazard analysis (PSHA). This is especially so at the low annual exceedance frequencies considered for nuclear facilities; in these cases, even small reductions in sigma can have a marked effect on the hazard estimates. Proper separation and quantification of aleatory variability and epistemic uncertainty can lead to defensible reductions in sigma. One such approach is the single-station sigma concept, which removes that part of sigma corresponding to repeatable site-specific effects. However, the site-to-site component must then be constrained by site-specific measurements or else modeled as epistemic uncertainty and incorporated into the modeling of site effects. The practical application of the single-station sigma concept, including the characterization of the dynamic properties of the site and the incorporation of site-response effects into the hazard calculations, is illustrated for a PSHA conducted at a rock site under consideration for the potential construction of a nuclear power plant.Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineerin

Circadian and Ultradian Rhythms of Free Glucocorticoid Hormone Are Highly Synchronized between the Blood, the Subcutaneous Tissue, and the Brain

Total glucocorticoid hormone levels in plasma of various species, including humans, follow a circadian rhythm that is made up from an underlying series of hormone pulses. In blood most of the glucocorticoid is bound to corticosteroid-binding globulin and albumin, resulting in low levels of free hormone. Although only the free fraction is biologically active, surprisingly little is known about the rhythms of free glucocorticoid hormones. We used single-probe microdialysis to measure directly the free corticosterone levels in the blood of freely behaving rats. Free corticosterone in the blood shows a distinct circadian and ultradian rhythm with a pulse frequency of approximately one pulse per hour together with an increase in hormone levels and pulse height toward the active phase of the light/dark cycle. Similar rhythms were also evident in the subcutaneous tissue, demonstrating that free corticosterone rhythms are transferred from the blood into peripheral target tissues. Furthermore, in a dual-probe microdialysis study, we demonstrated that the circadian and ultradian rhythms of free corticosterone in the blood and the subcutaneous tissue were highly synchronized. Moreover, free corticosterone rhythms were also synchronous between the blood and the hippocampus. These data demonstrate for the first time an ultradian rhythm of free corticosterone in the blood that translates into synchronized rhythms of free glucocorticoid hormone in peripheral and central tissues. The maintenance of ultradian rhythms across tissue barriers in both the periphery and the brain has important implications for research into aberrant biological rhythms in disease and for the development of improved protocols for glucocorticoid therapy

Reactivity of dolomitizing fluids and Mg source evaluation of fault-controlled dolomitization at the Benicàssim outcrop analogue (Maestrat Basin, E Spain)

Peer reviewedPostprin

Stability of Metal Nanowires at Ultrahigh Current Densities

We develop a generalized grand canonical potential for the ballistic nonequilibrium electron distribution in a metal nanowire with a finite applied bias voltage. Coulomb interactions are treated in the self-consistent Hartree approximation, in order to ensure gauge invariance. Using this formalism, we investigate the stability and cohesive properties of metallic nanocylinders at ultrahigh current densities. A linear stability analysis shows that metal nanowires with certain {\em magic conductance values} can support current densities up to 10^11 A/cm^2, which would vaporize a macroscopic piece of metal. This finding is consistent with experimental studies of gold nanowires. Interestingly, our analysis also reveals the existence of reentrant stability zones--geometries that are stable only under an applied bias.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures, version published in PR