Metabolic Demands of ElliptiGO Cycling Compared to Running

ElliptiGO cycling is a new form of exercise; the metabolic demands, however, have not been investigated. In a cross-over design, 17 runners completed 5×3 min stages while either cycling on a stationary ElliptiGO or running on a treadmill during which HR, RPE, and expired gases were collected using a portable metabolic analyzer. Subjects increased one gear or 1 mph every 3 min during cycling or running respectively. A 10 min recovery between modes of exercise was given. For each testing intensity, metabolic demand (VO2), HR, and VE was significantly higher during running (p \u3c 0.05), however the RPE for each intensity was similar (p \u3e 0.05). There was a linear relationship between speed and VO2 but the relationship for running had a steeper slope compared to the ElliptiGO. As a result, the ElliptiGO speed that was equivalent to the VO2 of each running speed increased at a greater rate. When matched for VO2, the HR, VE, and RPE were actually higher for ElliptiGO compared to running

Early versus later response to treatment in patients with community-acquired pneumonia: analysis of the REACH study

Background: Key goals in the treatment of CAP include early response to treatment and achievement of clinical stability. The US FDA recommends early response endpoints (72 hours after initiation of treatment) in clinical trials for the treatment of community-acquired bacterial pneumonia. REACH (REtrospective Study to Assess the Clinical Management of Patients With Moderate-to-Severe Complicated Skin and Soft Tissue Infections [cSSTI] or CAP in the Hospital Setting) was a retrospective observational study, providing current data on the clinical management and resource burden of CAP in real-life settings in European hospitals. This analysis reviews the characteristics and outcomes of patients showing early positive response to treatment (time to clinical stability [TCS] ≤ 4 days, as assessed by Halm's criteria) compared with patients with later positive response [TCS] > 4 days). Methods: Patients were adults, hospitalized with CAP (2010-2011) and requiring in-hospital treatment with intravenous antibiotics. Results: Of the 2039 patients included in REACH, 585 (28.7%) had TCS assessed by Halm's criteria: 332 (56.8%) showed early response (median 3.0 days), and 253 (43.2%) showed later response to treatment (median 7.0 days). Use of Halm's criteria varied across participating countries, ranging from 0% (Belgium) to 49.1% (UK). Patient characteristics and relevant medical history were similar between the two groups. There were no notable differences in initial antibiotic therapy between groups, except that more early responders had been treated with amoxicillin-clavulanate and amoxicillin monotherapy (22.6%; 7.5%, respectively) than later responders (5.9%; 1.2%, respectively). Initial treatment modification and re-infection or recurrences were less frequent in early responders compared with later responders (14.2% and 3.3% vs. 34.8% and 5.9%, respectively). Early responders had a shorter duration of hospitalization (mean 9.4 +/- SD 7.0; median 8.0 days vs. mean 15.6 +/- SD 10.5; median 12.0 days, respectively), lower rate of ICU admission (3.3% vs. 21.3%) and shorter duration of ICU stay (mean 6.2 +/- SD 5.7; median 4.0 days vs. mean 10.4 +/- SD 10.1; median 8.0 days, respectively) compared with later responders. Mortality was low in both groups. Conclusions: Achieving early clinical stabilization in CAP (≤ 4 days) is associated with improved outcomes, lower requirement for initial treatment modification or readmission and lower resource use, compared with a later response

Current management of patients hospitalized with community-acquired pneumonia across Europe: outcomes from REACH

Background: Data describing real-life management and treatment of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) in Europe are limited. REACH (http://NCT01293435 webcite) was a retrospective, observational study collecting data on the management of EU patients hospitalized with CAP. The purpose of this study was to understand patient and disease characteristics in patients hospitalized with CAP and to review current clinical practices and outcomes. Methods: Patients were aged ≥18 years, hospitalized with CAP between March 2010 and February 2011, and requiring in-hospital treatment with intravenous antibiotics. An electronic Case Report Form was used to collect patient, disease and treatment variables, including type of CAP, medical history, treatment setting, antibiotics administered and clinical outcomes. Results: Patients (N = 2,039) were recruited from 128 centres in ten EU countries (Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Turkey, UK). The majority of patients were aged ≥65 years (56.4%) and had CAP only (78.8%). Initial antibiotic treatment modification occurred in 28.9% of patients and was more likely in certain groups (patients with comorbidities; more severely ill patients; patients with healthcare-associated pneumonia, immunosuppression or recurrent episodes of CAP). Streamlining (de-escalation) of therapy occurred in 5.1% of patients. Mean length of hospital stay was 12.6 days and overall mortality was 7.2%. Conclusion: These data provide a current overview of clinical practice in patients with CAP in EU hospitals, revealing high rates of initial antibiotic treatment modification. The findings may precipitate reassessment of optimal management regimens for hospitalized CAP patients

Current management of patients hospitalized with community-acquired pneumonia across Europe: outcomes from REACH

Background: Data describing real-life management and treatment of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) in Europe are limited. REACH (NCT01293435) was a retrospective, observational study collecting data on the management of EU patients hospitalized with CAP. The purpose of this study was to understand patient and disease characteristics in patients hospitalized with CAP and to review current clinical practices and outcomes. Methods: Patients were aged >= 18 years, hospitalized with CAP between March 2010 and February 2011, and requiring in-hospital treatment with intravenous antibiotics. An electronic Case Report Form was used to collect patient, disease and treatment variables, including type of CAP, medical history, treatment setting, antibiotics administered and clinical outcomes. Results: Patients (N = 2,039) were recruited from 128 centres in ten EU countries (Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Turkey, UK). The majority of patients were aged >= 65 years (56.4\%) and had CAP only (78.8\%). Initial antibiotic treatment modification occurred in 28.9\% of patients and was more likely in certain groups (patients with comorbidities; more severely ill patients; patients with healthcare-associated pneumonia, immunosuppression or recurrent episodes of CAP). Streamlining (de-escalation) of therapy occurred in 5.1\% of patients. Mean length of hospital stay was 12.6 days and overall mortality was 7.2\%. Conclusion: These data provide a current overview of clinical practice in patients with CAP in EU hospitals, revealing high rates of initial antibiotic treatment modification. The findings may precipitate reassessment of optimal management regimens for hospitalized CAP patients

The High-Mass End of the Red Sequence at z~0.55 from SDSS-III/BOSS: completeness, bimodality and luminosity function

We have developed an analytical method based on forward-modeling techniques to characterize the high-mass end of the red sequence (RS) galaxy population at redshift $z\sim0.55$, from the DR10 BOSS CMASS spectroscopic sample, which comprises $\sim600,000$ galaxies. The method, which follows an unbinned maximum likelihood approach, allows the deconvolution of the intrinsic CMASS colour-colour-magnitude distributions from photometric errors and selection effects. This procedure requires modeling the covariance matrix for the i-band magnitude, g-r colour and r-i colour using Stripe 82 multi-epoch data. Our results indicate that the error-deconvolved intrinsic RS distribution is consistent, within the photometric uncertainties, with a single point ($<0.05~{\rm{mag}}$) in the colour-colour plane at fixed magnitude, for a narrow redshift slice. We have computed the high-mass end ($^{0.55}M_i \lesssim -22$) of the $^{0.55}i$-band RS Luminosity Function (RS LF) in several redshift slices within the redshift range $0.52<z<0.63$. In this narrow redshift range, the evolution of the RS LF is consistent, within the uncertainties in the modeling, with a passively-evolving model with $\Phi_* = (7.248 \pm 0.204) \times10^{-4}$ Mpc$^{-3}$ mag$^{-1}$, fading at a rate of $1.5\pm0.4$ mag per unit redshift. We report RS completeness as a function of magnitude and redshift in the CMASS sample, which will facilitate a variety of galaxy-evolution and clustering studies using BOSS. Our forward-modeling method lays the foundations for future studies using other dark-energy surveys like eBOSS or DESI, which are affected by the same type of photometric blurring/selection effects.Comment: 27 pages, 20 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

The clustering of galaxies in the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey : cosmological implications of the full shape of the clustering wedges in the data release 10 and 11 galaxy samples

We explore the cosmological implications of the angle-averaged correlation function, ξ(s), and the clustering wedges, ξ⊥(s) and ξ∥(s), of the LOWZ and CMASS galaxy samples from Data Releases 10 and 11 of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III (SDSS-III) Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey. Our results show no significant evidence for a deviation from the standard Λ cold dark matter model. The combination of the information from our clustering measurements with recent data from the cosmic microwave background is sufficient to constrain the curvature of the Universe to Ωk = 0.0010 ± 0.0029, the total neutrino mass to ∑mν < 0.23 eV (95 per cent confidence level), the effective number of relativistic species to Neff = 3.31 ± 0.27 and the dark energy equation of state to wDE = −1.051 ± 0.076. These limits are further improved by adding information from Type Ia supernovae and baryon acoustic oscillations from other samples. In particular, this data set combination is completely consistent with a time-independent dark energy equation of state, in which case we find wDE = −1.024 ± 0.052. We explore the constraints on the growth rate of cosmic structures assuming f(z) = Ωm(z)γ and obtain γ = 0.69 ± 0.15, consistent with the predictions of general relativity of γ = 0.55.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Growth of solid conical structures during multistage drying of sessile poly(ethylene oxide) droplets

Sessile droplets of aqueous poly(ethylene oxide) solution, with average molecular weight of 100 kDa, are monitored during evaporative drying at ambient conditions over a range of initial concentrations $c_0$. For all droplets with $c_0 \geq 3$, central conical structures, which can be hollow and nearly 50% taller than the initial droplet, are formed during a growth stage. Although the formation of superficially similar structures has been explained for glass-forming polymers using a skin-buckling model which predicts the droplet to have constant surface area during the growth stage (L. Pauchard and C. Allain, Europhys. Lett., 2003, 62, 897-903), we demonstrate that this model is not applicable here as the surface area is shown to increase during growth for all $c_0$. We interpret our experimental data using a proposed drying and deposition process comprising the four stages: pinned drying; receding contact line; bootstrap growth, during which the liquid droplet is lifted upon freshly-precipitated solid; and late drying. Additional predictions of our model, including a criterion for predicting whether a conical structure will form, compare favourably with observations. We discuss how the specific chemical and physical properties of PEO, in particular its amphiphilic nature, its tendency to form crystalline spherulites rather than an amorphous glass at high concentrations and its anomalous surface tension values for MW = 100 kDa may be critical to the observed drying process.Comment: 19 pages, 9 figures, Phys.Chem.Chem.Phys (accepted

Major adverse cardiovascular events of enzalutamide versus abiraterone in prostate cancer: a retrospective cohort study.

Background While the cardiovascular risks of androgen receptor pathway inhibitors have been studied, they were seldom compared directly. This study compares the risks of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) between enzalutamide and abiraterone among prostate cancer (PCa) patients. Methods Adult PCa patients receiving either enzalutamide or abiraterone in addition to androgen deprivation therapy in Hong Kong between 1 December 1999 and 31 March 2021 were identified in this retrospective cohort study. Patients who switched between enzalutamide and abiraterone, initiated abiraterone used without steroids, or experienced prior cardiac events were excluded. Patients were followed-up until 30 September 2021. The primary outcomes were MACE, a composite of stroke, myocardial infarction (MI), Heart failure (HF), or all-cause mortality and a composite of adverse cardiovascular events (CACE) not including all-cause mortality. The secondary outcomes were individual components of MACE. Inverse probability treatment weighting was used to balance covariates between treatment groups. Results In total, 1015 patients were analyzed (456 enzalutamide users and 559 abiraterone users; mean age 70.6 ± 8.8 years old) over a median follow-up duration of 11.3 (IQR: 5.3–21.3) months. Enzalutamide users had significantly lower risks of 4P-MACE (weighted hazard ratio (wHR) 0.71 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.59–0.86], p < 0.001) and CACE (wHR 0.63 [95% CI: 0.42–0.96], p = 0.031), which remained consistent in multivariable analysis. Such an association may be stronger in patients aged ≥65 years or without diabetes mellitus and was independent of bilateral orchidectomy. Enzalutamide users also had significantly lower risks of MI (wHR 0.57 [95% CI: 0.33–0.97], p = 0.040) and all-cause mortality (wHR 0.71 [95% CI: 0.59–0.85], p < 0.001). Conclusion Enzalutamide was associated with lower cardiovascular risks than abiraterone in PCa patients