Kansas City to Close Nearly Half Its Schools – NYTimes.com
I haven’t been posting any Scary Charts recently because there are too many of them.
Then I came across this article in the NYT.
Scary Thought of the Day
COBRA Update – 3/11/10
CTE = Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy
NFL Brain Collector Shows Violence in Slices of Gray Matter – Bloomberg.com
Healthy tau helps strengthen the neurons in the brain, like steel reinforcements in a concrete bridge. Repetitive trauma can lead to a change in tau, making it clump like tangles of yarn. The more tangles, the more the communication between cells is hampered. Functions such as memory and anger control can disappear; dementia and death can follow.
CTE is a unique pathological condition, according to Stern. The postmortem diagnosis of Alzheimer’s requires the presence of deformed tau and another protein, beta amyloid. The diagnosis of CTE requires only the presence of deformed tau.
Byetta – Watch That Kidney Function
From April 2005 to October 2008, FDA received 78 reports of altered kidney function in patients treated with Byetta. Some of the patients had pre-existing kidney disease and other risk factors for developing kidney problems. Acute renal failure occurred in 62 patients and renal insufficiency in 16 patients.
Remote Work – Who Are Those Guys?
What are the Top 10 nations for online workers? / The Christian Science Monitor – CSMonitor.com
And the fastest-growing major economy for freelance work?
The United States. “We’re seeing a huge number of Americans come online,” says Brian Goler, vice president of marketing for oDesk. “More and more people are working this way.”
Perhaps they have to because of the economic downturn. Perhaps they want to.
Outsourcing v. Permanent Hires
Calculated Risk: Diffusion Index and Temporary Help
The thinking is that before companies hire permanent employees following a recession, employers will first increase the hours worked of current employees and also hire temporary employees. Since the number of temporary workers increased sharply, some people think this might be signaling the beginning of an employment recovery.
However, there has been some evidence of a shift by employers to more temporary workers, and the saying may become “We are all temporary now!”, so use this increase with caution. For more, including some cautionary comments from a BLS economist on using temporary help, see Tom Abate’s article in the San Francisco Chronicle.
The problem, of course, is the fact that temps and perma-temps are the first to be terminated at the beginning of a business cycle downturn and the first to be hired when the cycle turns back upwards. If you’re a temp, that is. Read the entire SF Chronicle article. It’s a good, short read.
(Remote) Underwriting Position in Australia
I found the following on LinkedIn:
Senior Life Underwriter required for Melbourne. Overseas applicants are of specific interest especially from the UK. Relocation package available. Contact Ken Roberts at Darwin Rhodes in Sydney.
Not a “remote” position as in telecommuting. Relocation is available though.
Proximal PAD BAD
A proximal location significantly increases the risk of poor outcomes in peripheral arterial disease (PAD), independent of risk factors and comorbidities, a review of records on 400 patients showed.
Proximal (aortoiliac) involvement tripled the risk of cardiovascular events compared with distal disease. The findings contrast with evidence of poorer limb prognosis in patients with distal PAD, according to an article published online in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
Another Reason Why I Drink Coffee
Drinking just one cup of coffee a day — either regular or decaffeinated — was associated with a 30% reduced risk of stroke, a large, prospective study showed.
HbgA1c – Not Just For DM Anymore
Newer Blood Test Predicts Diabetes, Heart Disease – BusinessWeek
For the current study, Selvin and her colleagues measured A1C from more than 11,000 stored blood samples from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study, which began in 1990. None of the study volunteers had diabetes or cardiovascular disease at the time the blood samples were taken.
The researchers then compared the A1C levels to fasting blood sugar levels and to the 15 years of overall health follow-up information gathered for the previous study.
During that time, 2,251 people were diagnosed with diabetes, nearly 1,200 were diagnosed with heart disease and 358 people had an ischemic (non-bleeding) stroke, according to the study.
As expected, the researchers found that elevated A1C levels were associated with an increased risk of being diagnosed with diabetes. Those with an A1C of less than 5 percent had a 48 percent reduced risk of diabetes, while people whose A1Cs were between 5 and 5.5 percent had a normal risk of diabetes. From there, however, the risk quickly went up. Those with an A1C of 5.5 to 6 percent had an 86 percent increased risk of diabetes. For those between 6 and 6.5 percent, the risk more than quadrupled. For people with levels above 6.5 percent, the odds of being diagnosed were more than 16 times higher than for someone with levels under 5.5 percent. These results were similar to those for fasting glucose levels, the study authors noted.
Where fasting glucose and A1C differed greatly, however, was in the prediction of future heart disease and stroke risk. While fasting glucose failed to predict future risk, the study found that A1C levels accurately did so.
People with A1Cs under 5.5 percent had an average risk of heart disease and stroke, but for people with an A1C between 5.5 and 6 percent, the risk went up 23 percent. For those with an A1C between 6 and 6.5 percent, the risk of cardiovascular disease jumped to 78 percent. When A1C went over 6.5 percent, the risk of cardiovascular disease went up nearly twofold.
Results of the study are published in the March 4 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
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