Opportunity analysis of newborn screening programs

There exist congenital diseases that reduce newborns' potential opportunities. This reduction is sometimes alleviated if the congenital disease is early detected thanks to a newborn screening program. We propose an outcome measurement of newborn screening programs based on the opportunity gains they offer. We show that, under plausible assumptions, the ranking of the available screening programs for a particular disease, according to this new outcome measurement, do not depend on the metric of opportunity. We also apply our model to the current debate about choosing between a selective or a universal newborn hearing screening program to detect congenital hearing impairment.opportunities, potential success, screening programs

ECONOMIC EVALUATION OF NEWBORN HEARING SCREENING PROCEDURES

In the past few years, there has been a growing interest in the medical literature about the study of the different existing screening procedures to detect hearing impairment in infants and young children. However, concerning their economic evaluation, there are some important aspects, such as indirect costs, which are not considered by that literature. Here, we present an economic evaluation of these screening procedures, using utility theory, to measure benefits of a health care program, i.e. a cost-utility analysis. The analysis is presented from different points of view, depending on the cost we would like to compute. If we only consider direct costs, then targeted procedures, based on high risk criteria are preferred. On the other hand, if indirect costs, such as special education, and disability allowances were computed, then cost-utility analysis would advocate for the implementation of universal screening procedures.Economic Evaluation; Cost Utility Analysis; Cost-Sensitivity Ratios;

National Trends on Agricultural Crops Production: Cluster Analysis

Staring from descriptive data on crop production and cultivated area at national level during on fifteen years, the aim of this study is to reveal the trends on crops cultivation. The cluster analysis reveals linkages between crops classes as well as between different crops, which can be partly assigned to crops rotation. Time series analysis reveals dramatically reducing of production of some crops, such as flax, hemp, and sugar beet, and increasing of production, such at sunflower, and increasing of productivity, such at potatoes and field vegetables

CONSIDERATIONS ON ENGLISH-ROMANIAN/ROMANIAN-ENGLISH LEGAL DICTIONARIES AND GLOSSARIES

Our study is meant to point out the main methodology used by authors in creating the English-Romanian/Romanian-English legal dictionaries/glossaries which exist on the book market in our country. The research worker who is interested in studying the content and structure of such dictionaries immediately notices the small number of these books on the Romanian market in comparison with, for example, the economic ones. At the same time, the research workers and also the users of legal dictionaries quite easily identify the frequent scarcity and the simple structure of the entries included by lexicographers. Our study will analyze the criteria used by the authors of these dictionaries for selecting the terms included in their books, as well as the structure of the selected entries (phonetic script, contextualization, identification of uncountable/countable nouns, indication of special plural forms, such as the foreign plural, references made to synonyms for disambiguation etc.). Finally, the aim of our paper is to offer several suggestions for improving the quality of these indispensable linguistic instruments (dictionaries and glossaries) and for encouraging lexicographers to invest energy in creating better and well-conceived specialized legal dictionaries and glossaries.English-Romanian/Romanian-English legal dictionaries and glossaries, entry structure, contextualization, entry selection criteria, book market.

On the Adjudication of Conflicting Claims: An Experimental Study

This paper reports an experimental study on three well-known solutions for problems of adjudicating conflicting claims: the constrained equal awards, the proportional, and the constrained equal losses rules. We first let subjects play three games designed such that the unique equilibrium allocation coincides with the recommendation of one of these three rules. In addition, we let subjects play an additional game, that has the property that all (and only) strategy profiles in which players coordinate on the same rule constitute a strict Nash equilibrium. While in the first three games subjects’ play easily converges to the unique equilibrium rule, in the last game the proportional rule overwhelmingly prevails as a coordination device, especially when we frame the game as an hypothetical bankruptcy situation. We also administered a questionnaire to a different group of students, asking them to act as impartial arbitrators to solve (among others) the same problems played in the lab. Also in this case, respondents were sensitive to the framing of the questions, but the proportional rule was selected by the vast majority of respondents.Claims problems, Proportional rule, Experimental Economics

Guadecitabine, in combination with Cyclophosphamide, promotes anti- cancer immunity in BALB/c mice bearing 4T1 mouse mammary carcinoma

Background: The extremely high mortality rate of patients diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer makes it one of the deadliest forms of cancer. Due to the heterogenous nature of tumors, complete clearance is not achieved and clonal selection occurs resulting in tumor cells evading the immune system. I aim to design a therapeutic intervention that is able to elicit an effective immune response against the tumor and instill immunological memory to eradicate primary and metastatic lesions. I hypothesize that the combination of Guad and Cyp will synergize and promote anticancer immunity via increased expression of neo-tumor antigens and depletion of MDSCs and T-regs. Methods: Guadecitabine (Guad), is a second-generation DNA methyltransferase inhibitor (DMNTi) that has been reported to increase antigenicity and deplete myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSC’s). Cyclophosphamide (Cyp) is a chemotherapy that has been shown to deplete regulatory T-cells (T-regs). Both MDSD’s and T-regs suppress antitumor immunity. BALB/c mice were challenged with 4T1 tumor cells subcutaneously in the mammary fat pad region. 4T1-bearing mice were administered low-dose Guad and Cyp for ten consecutive days. Tumor growth curves, tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) were measured and MDSC’s and T- regs levels were assessed by flow cytometry. Results: Results from this experiment showed significant synergy between Guad and Cyp with both drugs reducing the tumor size over monotherapy. Conclusions: Further analysis of the data along with future experiments will elucidate if this synergy is driven by the depletion of MDSC’s and T-regs alone or the increase in tumor antigenicity inducing increased numbers of TILs.https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/gradposters/1078/thumbnail.jp

Evaluation of Ingenol mebutate efficacy for the treatment of actinic keratosis with Antera 3D camera

OBJECTIVE: Cumulative exposure of the skin to ultraviolet radiation promotes mutation in keratinocytes and their abnormal growth led to the formation of scaly lesions, called actinic keratoses (AKs). Its incidence is growing at an emerging rate, becoming a worldwide problem especially for occupational ultraviolet (UV) rays exposure. Detectable lesions are often associated with field changes, where the surrounding skin is altered and subclinical lesions may be present. Thus, a field-directed therapy, such as topical treatment, should be preferred for the prevention of invasive cancer development. A retrospective analysis was made, evaluating the efficacy of ingenol-mebutate gel, using a novel device the 3D in vivo optical skin Imaging (Antera 3D, Miravex, Ireland). PATIENTS AND METHODS: We included all patients with multiple non-hypertrophic Aks, to whom it was prescribed ingenol-mebutate gel, applied at the dosages of 0.015 for lesions in the scalp/face (for 3 consecutive days) and at the dosage of 0.05% for lesions in the trunk and/or extremities (for 2 consecutive days). RESULTS: A reduction of the lesions and of median hemoglobin levels, after a follow-up of 60 days, was observed in 100% of patients. CONCLUSIONS: Ingenol mebutate gel, the last topical molecule appeared in the Italian market showed its efficacy using Antera 3D also in terms of hemoglobin reduction. Therefore, this camera could be considered an useful tool for the identification of the area to be treated and for therapeutic follow-up

A CONCISE PRESENTATION OF THE FIRST LITERARY MAGANIZES PUBLISHED BY WOMEN WRITERS IN ROMANIA BETWEEN 1878 - 1947

In its early days Romanian feminine writing was influenced by the ideals of emancipation that animated the female population of our country. These ideals were shared and spread not only by feminist supporters, though this happened to a large extent, but also by outstanding men of letters (Eugen Lovinescu, Garabet-Ibraileanu and Tudor Vianu and others), who were receptive to the changing status of women in their contemporary society and encouraged it as such. The present paper focuses on what we are going to call “early feminine writing in Romania”, whereby we understand the early days of literature created by women in this country. Our goal is to identify the literary publications that gathered for the first time in Romania women writers who paid a particular interest in literature. Thus, our paper has a documentary value: it presents the main Romanian literary publications edited by the first women writers in our country, the aesthetic ideals promoted and shared by these magazines and the contribution brought by female authors to the wakening and shaping of the taste for writing and for literature amidst Romanian women in general

A new outcome measure for cost-utility analyses of screening programs

We show that, under some plausible assumptions, the gain in QALYs a screening program offers is a positive linear transformation of the program's sensitivity level. This result simplifies considerably the cost-utility analysis of mutually exclusive screening programs.