Promoting Public Health In The Context Of The “Obesity Epidemic”: False Starts And Promising New Directions

In the battle to combat obesity rates in the United States, several misconceptions have dominated policy initiatives. We address those misconceptions, including the notion that restrictive diets lead to long-term weight loss, that stigmatizing obesity is an effective strategy for promoting weight reduction, and that weight and physical health should be considered synonymous with one another. In offering correctives to each of these points, we draw on psychological science to suggest new policies that could be enacted at both the local and national levels. Instead of policies that rely solely on individual willpower, which is susceptible to failure, we recommend those that make use of environmental changes to reduce the amount of willpower necessary to achieve healthy behavior. Ultimately, the most effective policies will promote health rather than any arbitrary level of weight

The application of the ventilation equations to cleanrooms - Part 2: Decay of contamination

This article is the second of a three-part series that investigates the application of the ventilation equations to designing and testing cleanrooms. This part is concerned with the decay equation. The recovery test, described in ISO 14644-3 (2005) is discussed, and improvements recommended. The application of the decay equation to the ‘clean up’ requirement given in the EU GGMP (2008) is also discussed. Finally, a method is considered that calculates the time needed for airborne contamination in cleanroom areas to decay to acceptable concentrations

Decay of airborne contamination and ventilation effectiveness of cleanrooms

This article reports an investigation into the ability of the air supply in non-unidirectional cleanrooms to aid recovery from episodes of airborne contamination, and minimise airborne contamination at important locations. The ISO 14644-3 (2005) recovery test, which measures the rate of decay of test particles, was assessed and a reinterpretation of the test results suggested. This allowed air change effectiveness indexes to be calculated and used to evaluate the ventilation effectiveness of the cleanroom’s air supply. Air change effectiveness indexes were measured in various designs of cleanrooms, and reasons for deviations in the value of the indexes investigated

CAPTIVE SUPPLY TRENDS AND IMPACTS SINCE THE ADVENT OF MANDATORY PRICE REPORTING

Captive supplies have been a contentious issue in the livestock industry for fifteen years and the subject of both theoretical and empirical research. In 2001, mandatory price reporting was implemented. One objective by its proponents was to increase the amount of information available on captive supplies. This paper examines data now available as a result of mandatory price reporting to determine what additional information is available compared to previously. Second, several models were specified and estimated to determine the impacts captive supplies had on fed cattle prices in the two years following implementation of mandatory price reporting. Models showed mixed results. There was a consistent negative effect on cash market prices from formula priced trades; generally a positive impact from negotiated trades and packer owned trades on cash market prices; and mixed but often a positive impact from forward contract trades on cash market prices.Livestock Production/Industries, Marketing,

A review and meta analysis of health state utility values in breast cancer

Background and purpose: Health-related quality of life is an important issue in the treatment of breast cancer, and health-state utilities are essential for cost-utility analysis. This paper identifies and summarises published utilities for common health-related quality of life outcomes for breast cancer, considers the impact of variation in study designs used, and pools utilities for some breast cancer health states. Data sources and study selection: 13 databases were searched using key words relating to breast cancer and utility measurement. Articles were included if specified empirical methods for deriving utility values were used and details of the method, including number of respondents, were given. Articles were excluded if values were based on expert opinion or were not unique. Data extraction and synthesis: The authors identified 49 articles which met their inclusion criteria, providing 476 unique utilities for breast cancer health states. Where possible, mean utility estimates were pooled using ordinary least squares with utilities clustered within study group and weighted by both number of respondents and inverse of the variance of each utility. Regressions included controls for disease state, utility assessment method and other features of study design. Results: Utility values found in the review are summarised for six categories: 1) screening related states, 2) preventative states, 3) adverse events in breast cancer and its treatment, 4) non-specific breast cancer, 5) metastatic breast cancer states and 6) early breast cancer states. Pooled utility values for the latter two categories are estimated, showing base state utility values of between 0.668 and 0.782 for early breast cancer and 0.721 and 0.806 metastatic breast cancer depending upon which model is used. Utilities were found to vary significantly by valuation method, and who conducted the valuation. Conclusions: A large number of utility values for breast cancer are available in the literature; the states that these refer to are often complex, making pooling of values problematic