Largest Excesses Research Articles

Disease-Specific Health Disparities: A Targeted Review Focusing on Race and Ethnicity.

Background: Wide disparities in health status exist in the United States across race and ethnicity, broadly driven by social determinants of health—most notably race and ethnic group differences in income, education, and occupational status. However, disparities in disease frequency or severity remain underappreciated for many individual diseases whose distribution in the population varies. Such information is not readily accessible, nor emphasized in treatment guidelines or reviews used by practitioners. Specifically, a summary on disease-specific evidence of disparities from population-based studies is lacking. Our goal was to summarize the published evidence for specific disease disparities in the United States so that this knowledge becomes more widely available “at the bedside”. We hope this summary stimulates health equity research at the disease level so that these disparities can be addressed effectively. Methods: A targeted literature review of disorders in Pfizer’s current pipeline was conducted. The 38 diseases included metabolic disorders, cancers, inflammatory conditions, dermatologic disorders, rare diseases, and infectious targets of vaccines under development. Online searches in Ovid and Google were performed to identify sources focused on differences in disease rates and severity between non-Hispanic Whites and Black/African Americans, and between non-Hispanic Whites and Hispanics. As a model for how this might be accomplished for all disorders, disparities in disease rates and disease severity were scored to make the results of our review most readily accessible. After primary review of each condition by one author, another undertook an independent review. Differences between reviewers were resolved through discussion. Results: For Black/African Americans, 29 of the 38 disorders revealed a robust excess in incidence, prevalence, or severity. After sickle cell anemia, the largest excesses in frequency were identified for multiple myeloma and hidradenitis suppurativa. For Hispanics, there was evidence of disparity in 19 diseases. Most notable were metabolic disorders, including non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). Conclusions: This review summarized recent disease-specific evidence of disparities based on race and ethnicity across multiple diseases, to inform clinicians and health equity research. Our findings may be well known to researchers and specialists in their respective fields but may not be common knowledge to health care providers or public health and policy institutions. Our hope is that this effort spurs research into the causes of the many disease disparities that exist in the United States.

X-ray/UV/optical variability of NGC 4593 with Swift: reprocessing of X-rays by an extended reprocessor

We report the results of intensive X-ray, UV, and optical monitoring of the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 4593 with Swift. There is no intrinsic flux-related spectral change in any variable component with small apparent variations being due to contamination by a constant hard (reflection) component in the X-rays and the red host galaxy in the UV/optical. Relative to the shortest wavelength band, UVW2, the lags of the other UV/optical bands mostly agree with the predictions of reprocessing of high energy emission by an accretion disc. The U-band lag is, however, larger than expected, probably because of reprocessed Balmer continuum emission from the distant broad line region (BLR). The UVW2 band is well correlated with the X-rays but lags by ∼6× more than expected if the UVW2 results only from reprocessing of X-rays by the disc. However, if the light curves are filtered to remove variations on time-scales >5 d, the lag approaches the expectation from disc reprocessing. memecho analysis shows that direct X-rays can be the driver of most of the UV/optical variations if the response functions have tails up to 10 d, from BLR reprocessing, together with strong peaks at short lag (<1 d) from disc reprocessing. For the 5 AGN monitored so far, the observed UVW2 to V-band lags are |$\rm{\, \stackrel{\lt }{_\sim }}2$| of disc reprocessing expectations and vary little between AGN. However, the X-ray to UVW2 lags greatly exceed disc reprocessing expectations and differ between AGN. The two most absorbed AGN have the largest excesses, so absorption and scattering may affect these lags, but there is no simple relationship between excess and absorption.

The extent and cost of corruption in transport infrastructure. New evidence from Europe

Transport infrastructure provision from roads to waterways involves large amounts of public funds in very complex projects. It is hardly a surprise that all across Europe, but especially in high corruption risk countries, it is a primary target of corrupt elites. This article provides a state-of-the-art review of the literature on the cost of corruption and estimates the level of corruption risks and associated costs in European infrastructure development and maintenance in 2009–2014 using novel data on over 40,000 government contracts. Two forms of corruption costs are investigated in the empirical section: (1) distorting spending structure and project design, and (2) inflating prices. Findings indicate that corruption steers infrastructure spending towards high value as opposed to small value investment projects. It also inflates prices by 30–35% on average with largest excesses in high corruption risk regions. Contrary to perceptions, corruption risks in infrastructure are decoupled to a considerable extent from the national corruption environment. Source data and risk scores are made downloadable at digiwhist.eu/resources/data.

In situ survey of graphite in unequilibrated chondrites: Morphologies, C, N, O, and H isotopic ratios

We performed in situ morphological and isotopic studies of graphite in the primitive chondrites Khohar (L3), Mezˆ-Madaras (L3), Inman (L3), Grady (H3), Acfer 182 (CH3), Acfer 207 (CH3), Acfer 214 (CH3), and St. Marks (EH5). Various graphite morphologies were identified, including book, veins, fibrous, fine-grained, spherulitic, and granular graphite, and cliftonite. SIMS measurements of H, C, N, and O isotopic compositions of the graphites revealed large variations in the isotopic ratios of these four elements. The δ 15 N and δ 13 C values show significant variations among the different graphite types without displaying any strict correlation between the isotopic composition and morphology. In the Khohar vein graphites, large 15 N excesses are found, with δ 15 Nmax ∼+955‰, confirming previous results. Excesses in 15 N are also detected in fine-grained graphites in chondrites of the CH clan, Acfer 182, Acfer 207, and Acfer 214, with δ 15 N ranging up to +440‰. The 15 N excesses are attributed to ion-molecule reactions at low temperatures in the interstellar molecular cloud (IMC) from which the solar system formed, though the largest excesses seem to be incompatible with the results of some recent calculation. Significant variations in the carbon isotopic ratios are detected between graphite from different chondrite groups, with a tendency for a systematic increase in δ 13 C from ordinary to enstatite to carbonaceous chondrites. These variations are interpreted as being due to small- and large-scale carbon isotopic variations in the solar nebula.

THE EGALITARIAN NON-k-AVERAGED CONTRIBUTION (ENkAC-) VALUE FOR TU-GAMES

This paper deals in a unified way with the solution concepts for transferable utility games known as the Centre of the Imputation Set value (CIS-value), the Egalitarian Non-Pairwise-Averaged Contribution value (ENPAC-value) and the Egalitarian Non-Separable Contribution value (ENSC-value). These solutions are regarded as the egalitarian division of the surplus of the overall profits after each participant is conceded to get his individual contribution specified in a respective manner. We offer two interesting individual contributions (lower- and upper-k-averaged contribution) based on coalitions of size k(k ∈ {1,…,n-1}) and introduce a new solution concept called the Egalitarian Non-k-Averaged Contribution value ( EN k AC -value). CIS-, ENPAC- and ENSC-value are the same as EN 1 AC -, EN n-2 AC - and EN n-1 AC -value respectively. It turns out that the lower- and the upper-k-averaged contribution form a lower- and an upper-bound of the Core respectively. The Shapley value is the centre of gravity of n-1 points; EN 1 AC -,…, EN n-1 AC -value. EN k AC -value of the dual game is equal to EN n-k AC -value of the original game. We provide a sufficient condition on the transferable utility game to guarantee that the EN k AC -value coincides with the well-known solution called prenucleolus. The condition requires that the largest excesses at the EN k AC -value are attained at the k-person coalitions, whereas the excesses of k-person coalitions at the EN k AC -value do not differ.

Broad-band 20-micron photometry of 76 stars.

view Abstract Citations (75) References (23) Co-Reads Similar Papers Volume Content Graphics Metrics Export Citation NASA/ADS Broad-band 20-micron photometry of 76 stars. Morrison, D. ; Simon, T. Abstract Photometry in the 16- to 28- spectral band, made at Mauna Kea Observatory in 1971-1973, is presented for 76 stars, with a precision in most cases of 0.05 mag. The sample contains stars of classes B through M, as well as several carbon and S stars; most are Mira, semiregular, or irregular variables. The five primary standards and their 20- magnitudes are a Tau (-3.23), a Ori (-5.74), a Boo (-3.32), a Her (-4.26), and P Peg (-2.74). Observations of stars presumed to have black- body spectra, including a CMa, confirm the calibration adopted in a previous paper. An unexpected excess of 0.3 mag observed for a Lyr is tentatively attributed to chromospheric emission. Most stars were observed over several months, and 16 (all Mira variables) showed variations (up to 0.9 mag) at this wavelength. We present light curves for variables o Cet, R Cnc, S CrB, and R Aqr, and also for one Mira that did not vary, R Leo. A comparison of 20- magnitudes for these 76 stars with published data at 8.5 and 11 tL shows a strong correlation between brightness at 11 and 20 , with supergiants, including several Lc variables, having the largest excesses at both wavelengths. Subject headings:circumstellar shells - infrared sources - late-type stars - long-period variables - photometry Publication: The Astrophysical Journal Pub Date: November 1973 DOI: 10.1086/152488 Bibcode: 1973ApJ...186..193M full text sources ADS | data products SIMBAD (76)

Observations of Infrared Radiation from Cool Stars

view Abstract Citations (149) References (15) Co-Reads Similar Papers Volume Content Graphics Metrics Export Citation NASA/ADS Observations of Infrared Radiation from Cool Stars Gillett, F. C. ; Merrill, K. M. ; Stein, W. A. Abstract Four-color infrared photometry at 3.5, 4.9, 8.4, and 11.0 p has been carried out on more than 100 cool carbon stars, S stars, and M stars. The data show excess infrared emission from most of these objects. The largest excesses at = 11 p occur for M supergiants. The photometric data indicate that the spectra of radiation from solid particles radiating in the atmospheres of carbon stars are different from the spectra of radiation from particles radiating in the atmospheres of M stars. It is suggested that this difference is due to differences in the chemical composition of solid particles between carbon-rich stars (probably graphite) and M stars (probably silicates). Molecular absorptions in the 3-p region (probably due to H2O, HCN, or C,H5) and in the S-p region (probably due to CO or CN) have also been observed in several of the stars. The shape of the observed photometric spectra in the 3-S-p range is dependent on variability class. Publication: The Astrophysical Journal Pub Date: February 1971 DOI: 10.1086/150818 Bibcode: 1971ApJ...164...83G full text sources ADS | data products SIMBAD (96)