Association between disability measures and healthcare costs after initial treatment for acute stroke

<p><b>Background and Purpose:</b> The distribution of 3-month modified Rankin scale (mRS) scores has been used as an outcome measure in acute stroke trials. We hypothesized that hospitalization and institutional care home stays within the first 90 days after stroke should be closely related to 90-day mRS, that each higher mRS category will reflect incremental cost, and that resource use may be less clearly linked to the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) or Barthel index.</p> <p><b>Methods:</b> We examined resource use data from the GAIN International trial comparing 90-day mRS with total length of stay in hospital or other institutions during the first 90 days. We repeated analyses using NIHSS and Barthel index scores. Relationships were examined by analysis of variance (ANOVA) with Bonferroni contrasts of adjacent score categories. Estimated costs were based on published Scottish figures.</p> <p><b>Results:</b> We had full data from 1717 patients. Length of stay was strongly associated with final mRS (P<0.0001). Each mRS increment from 0 to 1–2 to 3–4 was significant (mean length of stay: 17, 25, 44, 58, 79 days; P<0.0005). Ninety-five percent confidence limits for estimated costs (£) rose incrementally: 2493 to 3412, 3369 to 4479, 5784 to 7008, 7300 to 8512, 10 095 to 11 141, 11 772 to 13 560, and 2623 to 3321 for mRS 0 to 5 and dead, respectively. Weaker relationships existed with Barthel and NIHSS.</p> <p><b>Conclusions:</b> Each mRS category reflects different average length of hospital and institutional stay. Associated costs are meaningfully different across the full range of mRS outcomes. Analysis of the full distribution of mRS scores is appropriate for interpretation of treatment effects after acute stroke and more informative than Barthel or NIHSS end points.</p&gt

Convection and Shear Flow in TC Development and Intensification

Award # N0001412WX2084

Performance Analysis of Dual Unipolar/Bipolar Spectral Code in Optical CDMA Systems

This study analyzes and calculates dual unipolar and bipolar coded configurations of spectral-amplitude-coding opticalcode division multiple access (SAC-OCDMA) systems by using simulation methods. The important feature of theSAC-OCDMA systems is that multiple access interference (MAI) can be eliminated by code sequences of a fixed inphasecross-correlation value. This property can be effectively canceled multiple access interference by using balancedetection schemes. This study uses Walsh-Hadamard codes as signature codes for the unipolar and bipolar schemes.The coder and decoder structures are based on optical filters of fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs). The simulation results ofunipolar/bipolar coding structures are first presented by commercial simulation obtained using OptiSystem software.The simulation results show that the bit error rate (BER) through use of the bipolar coding method is superior to theunipolar scheme, especially when the received effect power is large. When the system needs good performance totransmit multimedia data, we can use bipolar scheme in the network. If the users only transmit voice data, the unipolarmethod can be employed. The eye diagram also shows that the bipolar encoding structure exhibits a wider openingthan the unipolar encoding structure. The flexible implementation of codewords assigns and integratable hardwaredesigns for the scheme with FBGs to realize dual coding OCDMA system is proposed

In My Shoes Can wearing an age-suit increase person-centred practices for the hospitalised older adult?

Abstract presented at the 11th International Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics Asia/Oceania Regional Congress, 23-27 October 2019, Taipei, Taiwa

Chinese Consumer Engagement with eWOM Websites and Assessing the Credibility of Content for Tourism to European Countries

Electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) is regarded as the key source of tourism information search for consumers and thus has become the marketing communication focus for tourism service industry. This research targeted Chinese tourists as the research objectives since Chinese outbound tourism has grown rapidly within these few years. Within the European tourism context, this research explores factors for eWOM engagement and determinants that affect eWOM credibility, and examines within the same context whether credibility affects consumers’ tourism product purchasing decision making. An online survey was conducted to investigate eWOM engagement variables: self-enhancement, social benefit, advice seeking, concern for others, and helping the company; and eWOM credibility evaluation determinants: argument strength and review with photos. Results of eWOM engagement factor analysis shows that self-enhancement is the prominent factor for Chinese consumers to engage in eWOM. In addition, results also suggest that both argument strength and reviews with photos have positive effects on eWOM credibility evaluation. Moreover, the outcome indicates the higher credibility will positively affect consumers’ purchasing decision making

Fast simultaneous detection of K-RAS mutations in colorectal cancer

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p><it>RAS </it>genes acquire the most common somatic gain-of-function mutations in human cancer, and almost all of these mutations are located at codons 12, 13, 61, and 146.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We present a method for detecting these <it>K-RAS </it>hotspot mutations in 228 cases of colorectal cancer. The protocol is based on the multiplex amplification of exons 2, 3 and 4 in a single tube, followed by primer extension of the PCR products using various sizes of primers to detect base changes at codons 12, 13, 61 and 146. We compared the clinicopathological data of colorectal cancer patients with the <it>K-RAS </it>mutation status.</p> <p>Results</p> <p><it>K-RAS </it>mutation occurred in 36% (83/228) of our colorectal cancer cases. Univariate analysis revealed a significant association between <it>K-RAS </it>mutation at codon 12 of exon 2 and poor 5-year survival (p = 0.023) and lymph node involvement (p = 0.048). Also, <it>K-RAS </it>mutation at codon 13 of exon 2 correlates with the size of the tumor (p = 0.03). Multivariate analysis adjusted for tumor size, histologic grade, and lymph node metastasis also indicated <it>K-RAS </it>mutations at codon 12 and 13 of exon 2 correlate significantly with overall survival (p = 0.002 and 0.025). No association was observed between codon 61 and 146 and clinicopathological features.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We demonstrated a simple and fast way to identify <it>K-RAS </it>mutation.</p

The Simplest Little Higgs

We show that the SU(3) little Higgs model has a region of parameter space in which electroweak symmetry breaking is natural and in which corrections to precision electroweak observables are sufficiently small. The model is anomaly free, generates a Higgs mass near 150 GeV, and predicts new gauge bosons and fermions at 1 TeV.Comment: 13 pages + appendix, typos corrected, version to appear in JHE

Diagnostic Accuracy of Delirium Assessment Tools in Critical Ill Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Abstract presented at The Australian and New Zealand Society for Geriatric Medicine Annual Scientific Meeting, 13-15 May 2019, Adelaide, Australi

Little Technicolor

Inspired by the AdS/CFT correspondence, we show that any G/H symmetry breaking pattern can be described by a simple two-site moose diagram. This construction trivially reproduces the CCWZ prescription in the context of Hidden Local Symmetry. We interpret this moose in a novel way to show that many little Higgs theories can emerge from ordinary chiral symmetry breaking in scaled-up QCD. We apply this reasoning to the simple group little Higgs to see that the same low energy degrees of freedom can arise from a variety of UV complete theories. We also show how models of holographic composite Higgs bosons can turn into brane-localized little technicolor theories by "integrating in" the IR brane.Comment: 26 pages, 2 figures; v2: references added; v3: added section on vacuum alignment to match JHEP versio

Kaluza-Klein Structure Associated With Fat Brane

It is known that the imposition of orbifold boundary conditions on background scalar field can give rise to a non-trivial vacuum expectation value (VEV) along extra dimensions, which in turn generates fat branes and associated unconventional Kaluza-Klein (KK) towers of fermions. We study the structure of these KK towers in the limit of one large extra dimension and show that normalizable (bound) states of massless and massive fermions can exist at both orbifold fixed points. Closer look however indicates that orbifold boundary conditions act to suppress at least half of bound KK modes, while periodic boundary conditions tend to drive the high-lying modes to the conventional structure. By investigating the scattering of fermions on branes, we analytically compute masses and wavefunctions of KK spectra in the presence of these boundary conditions up to one-loop level. Implication of KK-number non-conservation couplings on the Coulomb potential is also examined.Comment: RevTex4, 29 pages, 7 ps figures, new references adde