Risk profiles and one-year outcomes of patients with newly diagnosed atrial fibrillation in India: Insights from the GARFIELD-AF Registry.

BACKGROUND: The Global Anticoagulant Registry in the FIELD-Atrial Fibrillation (GARFIELD-AF) is an ongoing prospective noninterventional registry, which is providing important information on the baseline characteristics, treatment patterns, and 1-year outcomes in patients with newly diagnosed non-valvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF). This report describes data from Indian patients recruited in this registry. METHODS AND RESULTS: A total of 52,014 patients with newly diagnosed AF were enrolled globally; of these, 1388 patients were recruited from 26 sites within India (2012-2016). In India, the mean age was 65.8 years at diagnosis of NVAF. Hypertension was the most prevalent risk factor for AF, present in 68.5% of patients from India and in 76.3% of patients globally (P < 0.001). Diabetes and coronary artery disease (CAD) were prevalent in 36.2% and 28.1% of patients as compared with global prevalence of 22.2% and 21.6%, respectively (P < 0.001 for both). Antiplatelet therapy was the most common antithrombotic treatment in India. With increasing stroke risk, however, patients were more likely to receive oral anticoagulant therapy [mainly vitamin K antagonist (VKA)], but average international normalized ratio (INR) was lower among Indian patients [median INR value 1.6 (interquartile range {IQR}: 1.3-2.3) versus 2.3 (IQR 1.8-2.8) (P < 0.001)]. Compared with other countries, patients from India had markedly higher rates of all-cause mortality [7.68 per 100 person-years (95% confidence interval 6.32-9.35) vs 4.34 (4.16-4.53), P < 0.0001], while rates of stroke/systemic embolism and major bleeding were lower after 1 year of follow-up. CONCLUSION: Compared to previously published registries from India, the GARFIELD-AF registry describes clinical profiles and outcomes in Indian patients with AF of a different etiology. The registry data show that compared to the rest of the world, Indian AF patients are younger in age and have more diabetes and CAD. Patients with a higher stroke risk are more likely to receive anticoagulation therapy with VKA but are underdosed compared with the global average in the GARFIELD-AF. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION-URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT01090362

OMFP : an approach for online mass flow prediction in CFB boilers

Fuel feeding and inhomogeneity of fuel typically cause process fluctuations in the circulating fluidized bed (CFB) boilers. If control systems fail to compensate the fluctuations, the whole plant will suffer from fluctuations that are reinforced by the closed-loop controls. Accurate estimates of fuel consumption among other factors are needed for control systems operation. In this paper we address a problem of online mass flow prediction. Particularly, we consider the problems of (1) constructing the ground truth, (2) handling noise and abrupt concept drift, and (3) learning an accurate predictor. Last but not least we emphasize the importance of having the domain knowledge concerning the considered case. We demonstrate the performance of OMPF using real data sets collected from the experimental CFB boiler

Radon and cancers other than lung cancer in underground miners: a collaborative analysis of 11 studies

Background: Exposure to the radioactive gas radon and its progeny (222Rn and its radioactive decay products) has recently been linked to a variety of cancers other than lung cancer ingeographic correlation studies of domestic radon exposure and in individual cohorts of occupationally exposed miners.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; Purpose: This study was designed to characterize further the risks for cancers other than lung cancer (i.e., non-lung cancers) from atmospheric radon.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; Methods: Mortality from non-lung cancer was examined in a collaborative analysis of data from 11 cohorts of underground miners in which radon-related excesses of lung cancer had been established. The study included 64 209 men who were employed in the mines for 6.4 years on average, received average cumulative exposures of 155 working-level months (WLM), and were followed for 16.9 years on average.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; Results: For all non-lung cancers combined, mortality was close to that expected from mortality rates in the areas surrounding the mines (ration of observed to expected deaths (O/E) = 1.01; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.95–1.07, based on 1179 deaths), and mortality did not increase with increasing cumulative exposure. Among 28 individual cancer categories, statistically significant increases in mortality for cancers of the stomach (O/E = 1.33; 95% CI = 1.16–1.52) and liver (O/E = 1.73; 95% CI = 1.29–2.28) and statistically significant decreases for cancers of the tongue and mouth (O/E = 0.52; 95% CI = 0.26–0.93), pharynx (O/E = 0.5; 95% CI = 0.16–0.66), and colon (O/E = 0.77; 95% CI = 0.63–0.95) were observed. For leukemia, mortality was increased in the period less than 10 years since starting work (O/E = 1.93; 95% CI = 1.19–2.95) but not subsequently. For none of these diseases was mortality significantly related to cumulative exposure. Among the remaining individual categories of non-lung cancer, mortality was related to cumulative exposure only for cancer of the pancreas (excess relative risk per WLM = 0.07%; 95% CI = 0.01–0.12) and, in the period less than 10 years since the start of employment, for other and unspecified cancers (excess relative risk per WLM = 0.22%; 95% CI = 0.08–0.37).&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; Conclusions: The increases in mortality from stomach and liver cancers and leukemia are unlikely to have been caused by radon, since they are unrelated to cumulative exposure. The association between cumulative exposure and pancreatic cancer seems likely to be a chance finding, while the association between cumulative exposure and other and unspecified cancers was caused by deaths certified as due to carcinomatosis (widespread disseminated cancer throughout the body) that were likely to have been due to lung cancers. This study, therefore, provides considerable evidence that high concentrations of radon in air do not cause a material risk of mortality from cancers other than lung cancer.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; Implications: Protection standards for radon should continue to be based on consideration of the lung cancer risk alone.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt