Compensation Highlights in Trade, Transportation, and Utilities Industries

[Excerpt] This issue of BEYOND THE NUMBERS takes a look at wages and employee benefits (nonwage compensation that supports the well-being of workers and their families) for workers in the trade, transportation, and utilities industries. The benefits reviewed in this issue are: paid leave (coverage of one or more of paid holidays, paid vacation, paid sick leave, and paid personal leave); insurance (healthcare, life, and disability), and retirement and savings (defined contribution and defined benefit). The data presented are the annual rate of change in total employer compensation costs (wages plus benefits); the employer costs per hour for total compensation; and the rate of employee access to paid leave, healthcare, and retirement benefits

Access to Dependent Care Reimbursement Accounts and Workplace-Funded Childcare

The U.S. labor force includes many working mothers and working fathers with dependents and children in their care. These families often enlist help, such as daycare or eldercare, to balance family and work responsibilities. But many families find it challenging to pay for the high costs of care for dependents and children. That’s where benefits such as dependent care reimbursement accounts and workplace-funded childcare can prove helpful to working families. This issue of Beyond the Numbers takes a look at dependent care reimbursement accounts and workplace-funded childcare, and the rate of worker access to each of these benefits. The data show the employee access rates in 2014 for selected occupational and establishment characteristics for state and local government workers and for private industry workers

Advanced Crew Escape Suits (ACES): Particle Impact Test

NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) requested NASA JSC White Sands Test Facility to assist in determining the effects of impaired anodization on aluminum parts in advanced crew escape suits (ACES). Initial investigation indicated poor anodization could lead to an increased risk of particle impact ignition, and a lack of data was prevalent for particle impact of bare (unanodized) aluminum; therefore, particle impact tests were performed. A total of 179 subsonic and 60 supersonic tests were performed with no ignition of the aluminum targets. Based on the resulting test data, WSTF found no increased particle impact hazard was present in the ACES equipment

Effects of the Zanzibar School-Based Deworming Program on Iron Status of Children.

We evaluated the effects of the Zanzibar school-based deworming program on the iron status of primary school children. Parasitologic and nutritional assessments were carried out at baseline, 6 mo, and 12 mo in 4 nonprogram schools (n = 1002), 4 schools in which students received twice-yearly deworming (n = 952), and 4 schools in which students received thrice-yearly deworming (n = 970) with 500 mg generic mebendazole. Schools were randomly selected for evaluation and allocated to program groups. Relative to no treatment, thrice-yearly deworming caused significant decreases in protoporphyrin concentrations and both deworming regimens caused marginally significant increases in serum ferritin concentrations. The average annual changes in protoporphyrin concentrations were -5.9 and -23.5 micromol/mol heme in the control and thrice-yearly deworming groups, respectively (P < 0.001). The average changes in ferritin concentration were 2.8 and 4.5 microg/L, respectively (P = 0.07). Deworming had no effect on annual hemoglobin change or prevalence of anemia. However, the relative risk of severe anemia (hemoglobin < 70 g/L) was 0.77 (95% confidence limits: 0.39, 1.51) in the twice-yearly deworming group and 0.45 (0.19, 1.08) in the thrice-yearly deworming group. The effects on prevalence of high protoporphyrin values and incidence of moderate-to-severe anemia (hemoglobin < 90 g/L) were significantly greater in children with > 2000 hookworm eggs/g feces at baseline. We estimate that this deworming program prevented 1260 cases of moderate-to-severe anemia and 276 cases of severe anemia in a population of 30,000 schoolchildren in 1 y. Where hookworm is heavily endemic, deworming programs can improve iron status and prevent moderate and severe anemia, but deworming may be needed at least twice yearly

RNA splicing at human immunodeficiency virus type 1 3 ' splice site A2 is regulated by binding of hnRNP A/B proteins to an exonic splicing silencer element

The synthesis of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) mRNAs is a complex process by which more than 30 different mRNA species are produced by alternative splicing of a single primary RNA transcript. HIV-1 splice sites are used with significantly different efficiencies, resulting in different levels of mRNA species in infected cells. Splicing of Tat mRNA, which is present at relatively low levels in infected cells, is repressed by the presence of exonic splicing silencers (ESS) within the two tat coding exons (ESS2 and ESS3). These ESS elements contain the consensus sequence PyUAG. Here we show that the efficiency of splicing at 3 ' splice site A2, which is used to generate Vpr mRNA, is also regulated by the presence of an ESS (ESSV), which has sequence homology to ESS2 and ESS3. Mutagenesis of the three PyUAG motifs within ESSV increases splicing at splice site A2, resulting in increased Vpr mRNA levels and reduced skipping of the noncoding exon flanked by A2 and D3. The increase in Vpr mRNA levels and the reduced skipping also occur when splice site D3 is mutated toward the consensus sequence. By in vitro splicing assays, we show that ESSV represses splicing when placed downstream of a heterologous splice site. A1, A1(B), A2, and B1 hnRNPs preferentially bind to ESSV RNA compared to ESSV mutant RNA. Each of these proteins, when added back to HeLa cell nuclear extracts depleted of ESSV-binding factors, is able to restore splicing repression. The results suggest that coordinate repression of HIV-1 RNA splicing is mediated by members of the hnRNP A/B protein family

Bioethics: Health Case Law and Ethics

This book provides a rich body of materials for courses in bioethics and law. Primary legal sources, including judicial opinions, statutes, regulations and institutional policies, will give students insight into the strategies used by courts, legislatures, agencies and health care providers in addressing bioethics issues. The book also draws from interdisciplinary research in medicine, ethics, and law to provide students diverse critiques of legal and public policy issues in bioethics. Materials in this text are tightly edited and designed to create high quality and focused classroom discussion, and, the text includes classroom tested problems that will engage students more deeply on each issue.Bioethics: Health Care Law and Ethics begins with accessible introductory material on how to do ethics analysis. It then provides separate chapters on Reproduction and Birth (including current issues relating to abortion and contraception and issues related to assisted reproductive technologies); Legal, Social, and Ethical Issues in Genetics; Life and Death Decision-making; Regulation of Research Involving Human Subjects; Distributive Justice and Organ Transplantation; and Current Controversies in Public Health (including issues related to immunization practice).https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/law_facbookdisplay/1009/thumbnail.jp

Liability and Quality Issues in Health Care

Copyright page and Table of Contents only.https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/law_facbookdisplay/1008/thumbnail.jp

Teacher\u27s Manual to Accompany Health Law: Cases, Materials and Problems

Copyright page and Table of Contents only.https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/law_facbookdisplay/1014/thumbnail.jp

International Encyclopaedia of Medical Laws (Supplement 14 United States of America)

Relating to the practice of medicine in the large sense, this subset of the IEL covers national and international medical law. Each national monograph contains, besides a general introduction, a description for the country in question of: the law related to the medical profession, such as access to the medical profession, illegal practice of medicine and control over the practice of medicine; the physician-patient relationship (the rights and duties of physicians and patients) and specific issues such as abortion and euthanasia; and, the national law dealing with the physician in relation to his colleagues, to other health care providers and the health care system.https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/law_facbookdisplay/1027/thumbnail.jp

The Law of Health Care Organization and Finance

Copyright page and Table of Contents only.https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/law_facbookdisplay/1011/thumbnail.jp