BackgroundIndividuals with pre-diabetes and diabetes have increased risks of developing macro-vascular complications including heart disease and stroke; which are the leading causes of death globally. The objective of this study was to estimate the prevalence of pre-diabetes and diabetes, and to investigate their predictors among adults ≥18 years in Florida.MethodsData covering the time period January-December 2013, were obtained from Florida’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS). Survey design of the study was declared using SVYSET statement of STATA 13.1. Descriptive analyses were performed to estimate the prevalence of pre-diabetes and diabetes. Predictors of pre-diabetes and diabetes were investigated using multinomial logistic regression model. Model goodness-of-fit was evaluated using both the multinomial goodness-of-fit test proposed by Fagerland, Hosmer, and Bofin, as well as, the Hosmer-Lemeshow’s goodness of fit test.ResultsThere were approximately 2,983 (7.3%) and 5,189 (12.1%) adults in Florida diagnosed with pre-diabetes and diabetes, respectively. Over half of the study respondents were white, married and over the age of 45 years while 36.4% reported being physically inactive, overweight (36.4%) or obese (26.4%), hypertensive (34.6%), hypercholesteremic (40.3%), and 26% were arthritic. Based on the final multivariable multinomial model, only being overweight (Relative Risk Ratio [RRR] = 1.85, 95% Confidence Interval [95% CI] = 1.41, 2.42), obese (RRR = 3.41, 95% CI = 2.61, 4.45), hypertensive (RRR = 1.69, 95% CI = 1.33, 2.15), hypercholesterolemic (RRR = 1.94, 95% CI = 1.55, 2.43), and arthritic (RRR = 1.24, 95% CI = 1.00, 1.55) had significant associations with pre-diabetes. However, more predictors had significant associations with diabetes and the strengths of associations tended to be higher than for the association with pre-diabetes. For instance, the relative risk ratios for the association between diabetes and being overweight (RRR = 2.00, 95% CI = 1.55, 2.57), or obese (RRR = 4.04, 95% CI = 3.22, 5.07), hypertensive (RRR = 2.66, 95% CI = 2.08, 3.41), hypercholesterolemic (RRR = 1.98, 95% CI = 1.61, 2.45) and arthritic (RRR = 1.28, 95% CI = 1.04, 1.58) were all further away from the null than their associations with pre-diabetes. Moreover, a number of variables such as age, income level, sex, and level of physical activity had significant association with diabetes but not pre-diabetes. The risk of diabetes increased with increasing age, lower income, in males, and with physical inactivity. Insufficient physical activity had no significant association with the risk of diabetes or pre-diabetes.ConclusionsThere is evidence of differences in the strength of association of the predictors across levels of diabetes status (pre-diabetes and diabetes) among adults ≥18 years in Florida. It is important to monitor populations at high risk for pre-diabetes and diabetes, so as to help guide health programming decisions and resource allocations to control the condition.

No abstract

a b s t r a c tBridgman-grown cadmium zinc telluride (CdZnTe or CZT) and cadmium manganese telluride (CdMnTe or CMT) crystals often have Te inclusions that limit their performances as X-ray-and gamma-raydetectors. We present here the results of post-growth thermal annealing aimed at reducing and eliminating Te inclusions in them. In a 2D analysis, we observed that the sizes of the Te inclusions declined to 92% during a 60-h annealing of CZT at 510 1C under Cd vapor. Further, tellurium inclusions were eliminated completely in CMT samples annealed at 570 1C in Cd vapor for 26 h, whilst their electrical resistivity fell by an order of 10 2 . During the temperature-gradient annealing of CMT at 730 1C and an 18 1C/cm temperature gradient for 18 h in a vacuum of 10 À 5 mbar, we observed the diffusion of Te from the sample, so causing a reduction in size of the Te inclusions. For CZT samples annealed at 700 1C in a 10 1C/cm temperature gradient, we observed the migration of Te inclusions from a lowtemperature region to a high one at 0.022 μm/s. During the temperature-gradient annealing of CZT in a vacuum of 10 À 5 mbar at 570 1C and 30 1C/cm for 18 h, some Te inclusions moved toward the hightemperature side of the wafer, while other inclusions of the same size, i.e., 10 mm in diameter, remained in the same position. These results show that the migration, diffusion, and reaction of Te with Cd in the matrix of CZT-and CMT-wafers are complex phenomena that depend on the conditions in local regions, such as composition and structure, as well as on the annealing conditions.

Mechanically polishing cadmium zinc telluride (CdZnTe) wafers for x-ray and gamma-ray detectors often is inadequate in removing surface defects caused by cutting them from the ingots. Fabrication-induced defects, such as surface roughness, dangling bonds, and nonstoichiometric surfaces, often are reduced through polishing and etching the surface. In our earlier studies of mechanical polishing with alumina powder, etching with hydrogen bromide in hydrogen peroxide solution, and chemomechanical polishing with bromine-methanolethylene glycol solution, we found that the chemomechanical polishing process produced the least surface leakage current. In this research, we focused on using two chemicals to chemomechanically polish CdZnTe wafers after mechanical polishing, viz. bromine-methanol-ethylene glycol (BME) solution, and hydrogen bromide (HBr) in a hydrogen peroxide and ethylene-glycol solution. We used x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), current-voltage (I-V) measurements, and Am-241 spectral response measurements to characterize and compare the effects of each solution. The results show that the HBr-based solution produced lower leakage current than the BME solution. Results from using the same chemomechanical polishing solution on two samples confirmed that the surface treatment affects the measured bulk current (a combination of bulk and surface currents). XPS results indicate that the tellurium oxide to tellurium peak ratios for the mechanical polishing process were reduced significantly by chemomechanical polishing using the BME solution (78.9% for Te 3d 5/2 O 2 and 76.7% for Te 3d 3/2 O 2 ) compared with the HBr-based solution (27.6% for Te 3d 5/2 O 2 and 35.8% for Te 3d 3/2 O 2 ). Spectral response measurements showed that the 59.5-keV peak of Am-241 remained under the same channel number for all three CdZnTe samples. While the BME-based solution gave a better performance of 7.15% full-width at halfmaximum (FWHM) compared with 7.59% FWHM for the HBr-based solution, the latter showed a smaller variation in performance of 0.39% FWHM over 7 days compared with 0.69% for the BME-based solution.

Surface damages occur in Cadmium zinc telluride (CdZnTe) wafers for radiation detection devices during dicing and polishing. This often results in increased leakage current that limits the performance of the detector. An effective method of removing the surface damage and thus reducing the leakage current is through the use of chemical treatments. The effects discussed in this study include: chemical polishing with a mixture of hydrogen bromide solution followed by passivation with ammonium fluoride in a hydrogen peroxide solution. The effects on the current-voltage measurements and the spectral response were monitored over a 2-week period. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) was also obtained to observe the formation of chemical species on treated surfaces. The resistivity of the treated CdZnTe samples is on the order of 10 10 ohm-cm. The current in the I-V measurements increased rapidly immediately following the chemical polishing and surface passivation, and decreased steadily afterwards. The spectral response showed that the 59.5-keV peak of Am-241 was stable in the same position over the test period.