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Previous research suggests that intuitively appealing, yet uninformative unclaimed prize information is capable of biasing gambling-related judgments when people compare scratch cards that vary in the number of unclaimed prizes. However, it is unknown if the mere presence of unclaimed prize information alters a game's attractiveness. Using an online crowdsourcing platform, we recruited 402 U.S. residents to participate in an online study. In a within-subjects design, participants made four gambling-related judgments (likelihood of winning, excitement to play, urge to gamble, and hypothetical card purchasing) for scratch cards presented with and without unclaimed prize information. Compared to cards presented without unclaimed prize information, those with unclaimed prize information were judged as more likely to win, produced more excitement to play, a greater urge to gamble, and were chosen more often during a hypothetical purchasing task. Therefore, unclaimed prize information increases the appeal of scratch card games, and may be an important aspect of the scratch card gambling environment to consider from a harm reduction perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Postmarketing safety surveillance studies address two actionable questions: (1) Is the test product riskier than a standard? (2) Is the risk associated with the test product within some tolerable margin by comparison to the standard? Established techniques, not commonly applied to the setting of such complementary one-sided hypotheses, lead to useful conclusions in practice. For two-group studies, a search over possible one-sided binomial test results yields sample sizes that guarantee that the confidence bounds exclude one or the other of the hypotheses. With continuous monitoring, simple curtailment reduces the sample size. Point and interval estimates follow from the binomial distribution of events at the end of the study or from component negative binomials for crossing a bound of simple curtailment with continuous monitoring and earlier stopping. An asymptotic derivation corresponds to the problem of constructing a confidence interval that is smaller than the distance between the parameter values for tolerable excess and the absence of excess risk. Studies with guaranteed rejection of one of the pair of complementary hypotheses are somewhat larger than corresponding studies of a single hypothesis under usual power requirements, but the increase may be tolerable in return for certainty that there will be an actionable conclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For an integer b ⩾ 2 and a set S ⊂ { 0 , ... , b − 1 } , we define the Kempner set K (S , b) to be the set of all nonnegative integers whose base-b digital expansions contain only digits from S. These well-studied sparse sets provide a rich setting for additive number theory, and in this article we study various questions relating to the appearance of arithmetic progressions in these sets. In particular, for all b we determine exactly the maximal length of an arithmetic progression that omits a base-b digit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Animal studies on refractory ceramic fiber (RCF) have led to the suggestion that RCF might resemble asbestos in carcinogenicity. Human data are available to test this hypothesis. Methods: We compared the occurrence of lung cancer and mesothelioma in 605 men engaged in the manufacture of RCF and followed since 1987 to cancer rates that would have been anticipated if airborne RCF were carcinogenic to the same degree as are crocidolite, amosite or chrysotile asbestos. We integrated the results of workplace exposure monitoring with mortality follow-up using formulas presented by Hodgson and Darnton (2000) to estimate hypothesized risks under different asbestos scenarios. Results: During 15,281 person-years of observation, there were 12 deaths from lung cancer. General population rates predicted 11.8 cases expected for an observed/expected (O/E) ratio of 1.0. Anticipated numbers of deaths from lung cancer under hypotheses of carcinogenicity similar to that of amphiboles and chrysotile were 62 and 17, allowing for rejection of amphibole-like effects ( p < 10−5) but not chrysotile-like carcinogenicity ( p = 0.15). There were no cases of mesothelioma, as compared to 4.9 anticipated under a crocidolite-like hypothesis ( p = 0.007 to reject), 1.0 for amosite ( p = 0.38) and 0.05 for chrysotile ( p = 0.95). Conclusion: There was no increase in lung cancer or mesothelioma in these workers exposed to RCF. If the cohort had the same exposure to crocidolite asbestos the number of lung cancer and mesothelioma cases would have been significantly greater than observed. The data do not yet permit a similar conclusion with respect to chrysotile asbestos. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Refractory ceramic fiber (RCF) is an energy-efficient, high-temperature insulation, used principally in industrial furnaces, heaters, and reactors. Prior to the 1980s, there were few publications dealing with the potential health effects of this material. However, with the advent of higher energy costs and the need for thermally efficient high-temperature insulating materials, production of RCF grew rapidly, as did interest in its potential health effects. This article provides a comprehensive and integrated review of the toxicology (in vitro and in vivo), epidemiology, and risk analysis literature of RCF. Based on the available literature, we conclude that an occupational exposure of 0.5 fibers per cubic centimeter (cm[sup 3]) [8-h time-weighted average (8-h TWA)] results in an occupational health risk no greater than 9.1 x 10[sup -5]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The African population in South Africa is undergoing relatively rapid transition in lifestyle, with increasing proneness to western diseases. At the Medical University of Southern Africa (MEDUNSA), the majority of the African students come from homes where mainly cereal‐based diets are eaten. They are now exposed to ‘western’ foods. To throw light on the subsequent changes, between 1989 and 1993, 383 third year students underwent a practical course on nutritional assessment, which included determinations of anthropometry, 3 days’ estimated dietary intake record, and serum lipid analysis. Results indicated that their dietary risk levels for western diseases were now approaching the high levels prevailing in white populations. While the likelihood of influencing African students to meaningfully conform to a ‘prudent’ diet and lifestyle is remote, every endeavour must be made to fully inform them of the benefits likely to follow. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In all populations, developed and developing, in young and old, rural and urban, obesity is increasing. Costs of treatments are enormous, and level of success dishearteningly low; moreover, long‐term benefits from weight reduction are limited. In Africa, when rural populations lived traditionally there was very little gain in weight with age. However, with transitional changes occurring, as in South Africa, especially in urban dwellers, obesity has become common, affecting nearly half of African women. However, the usual metabolic and other sequelae of obesity appear less noxious than such in white women. Outwardly, the outlook for the reduction of obesity in African women appears hopeless, since such populations now seek to emulate in all respects the life‐style of the white population. The primary public health motivation in African populations, as in western populations, should be to lessen excessive weight gain during growth and thereafter. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Most primitive and emerging populations obtain their calcium, largely or almost wholly, from vegetable sources. Of these, edible leaves (wild and cultivated), in certain contexts, are very important. To throw light on the availability of the calcium content, five common types of cooked edible leaves or “spinaches”, all having low concentrations of oxalic acid, were fed in amounts containing about 200 mg calcium, to groups of South African Negro children. Urinary calcium excretions, accruing over 6 hour periods, were determined. The mean amounts of calcium excreted were of the same order and similar to that resulting from consumption of a volume of milk containing 200 mg calcium. Using the methodology described, it was confirmed that the calcium in Swiss Chard “spinach”, (Spinacia oleracea) with its high oxalic acid content, is poorly absorbed. Nevertheless, it is inferred that the calcium contained in leaves of “spinaches” commonly consumed is available for utilization, a finding in agreement with observations on South African Negroes with respect to the satisfactory composition, dimensions, and other related indices of bone which reflect calcium status. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]