Health state utility data in Cystic Fibrosis: A systematic review

Introduction: Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a life-limiting, hereditable condition, with the highest prevalence in Europe. CF treatments have led to improvements in clinical symptoms, disease management and decelerated disease progression. However, little is known about the health state utility (HSU) associated with CF disease states, adverse events, and changes in disease severity. Although HSU data have contributed to existing health economic modelling studies, a lack of such data have been highlighted. This systematic review aims to provide a summary of HSU-related research in CF and highlight related research gaps. Methods: Online searches were performed in six databases and studies in any of the following categories were included: (1) estimation of HSUs in CF; (2) mapping studies between patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) and HSUs; (3) economic evaluations on the management of CF that report primary HSU data; and (4) any CF clinical trial that reported HSU as an outcome. Results: A total of 17 studies were reviewed, of which 12 provided HSU values for specific CF populations. The remaining five articles provided HSU data that were broken down by CF relevant health states, including lung transplantations, pulmonary exacerbation (PEx) events and forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV 1). Conclusion: Current HSU data in CF are limited and there is considerable scope for further research, both in providing HSU values for CF and in investigating methods for HSU elicitation/evaluation in CF populations

A note on compact gradient Yamabe solitons

We will give a simple proof that the metric of any compact Yamabe gradient soliton (M,g) is a metric of constant scalar curvature when the dimension of the manifold n>2.Comment: 3 page

Planck-Scale Physics and the Peccei-Quinn Mechanism

Global-symmetry violating higher-dimension operators, expected to be induced by Planck-scale physics, in general drastically alter the properties of the axion field associated with the Peccei-Quinn solution to the strong-CP problem, and render this solution unnatural. The particle physics and cosmology associated with other global symmetries can also be significantly changed.Comment: 10p

The Horton Site (41CP16) on Big Cypress Creek in the East Texas Pineywoods

The Horton site (41CP16) is primarily a Late Paleoindian (ca. 10,000 years B.P.) to ancestral Caddo site (ca. post-A.D. 800), although there is a small mid-19th-early 20th century component as well. This site is on an upland slope (320-350 ft. amsl) that once overlooked the Big Cypress Creek floodplain; the channel of the creek was ca. 100 m north from the site. The site is currently under the waters of Lake Bob Sandlin. Robert L. Turner, Jr. surface collected the site during the 1950s and 1960s, and the study of this substantial artifact assemblage is the subject of this article. Dick Ping Hsu recorded the Horton site in September 1968 during the survey for then proposed Titus County Reservoir. He noted that the site was on the top of a hill, at 350 ft. amsl, and was marked by flakes and pottery sherds. When the site was re-visited and re-recorded by Southern Methodist University (SMU) in 1974 it was partially covered in pine and oak trees, as well as pecan and sweetgum. Part of the site also had an orchard and a cultivated field. Site size was estimated by SMU crews at 60 x 30 m, but Turner estimated the size of the site as approximately 1 acre. Other investigations besides Turner’s at the Horton site include previously mentioned surface collections by Hsu and Sullivan prior to the construction of Lake Bob Sandlin, and by a private collector (David Laden) (Thurmond 1990:52). These collections indicated that the Horton site had a Late Paleoindian component marked by San Patrice, Dalton, and Plainview points, lithic debris from local ferruginous, quartzite, and petrified wood, as well as a ca. post-A.D. 800 Caddo component with plain and decorated sherds (red- and brown-slipped, incised, punctated, and engraved). Thurmond suggests the Caddo component dates to the Middle Caddo period (ca. A.D. 1200-1450)