4,408 research outputs found
Effectiveness and cost effectiveness of pharmacist input at the ward level: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Background Pharmacists play important role in ensuring timely care delivery at the ward level. The optimal level of pharmacist input, however, is not clearly defined. Objective To systematically review the evidence that assessed the outcomes of ward pharmacist input for people admitted with acute or emergent illness. Methods The protocol and search strategies were developed with input from clinicians. Medline, EMBASE, Centre for Reviews and Dissemination, The Cochrane Library, NHS Economic Evaluations, Health Technology Assessment and Health Economic Evaluations databases were searched. Inclusion criteria specified the population as adults and young people (age >16 years) who are admitted to hospital with suspected or confirmed acute or emergent illness. Only randomised controlled trials (RCTs) published in English were eligible for inclusion in the effectiveness review. Economic studies were limited to full economic evaluations and comparative cost analysis. Included studies were quality-assessed. Data were extracted, summarised. and meta-analysed, where appropriate. Results Eighteen RCTs and 7 economic studies were included. The RCTs were from USA (n=3), Sweden (n=2), Belgium (n=2), China (n=2), Australia (n=2), Denmark (n=2), Northern Ireland, Norway, Canada, UK and Netherlands. The economic studies were from UK (n=2), Sweden (n=2), Belgium and Netherlands. The results showed that regular pharmacist input was most cost effective. It reduced length-of-stay (mean= -1.74 days [95% CI: -2.76, -0.72], and increased patient and/or carer satisfaction (Relative Risk (RR) =1.49 [1.09, 2.03] at discharge). At £20,000 per quality-adjusted life-year (QALY)-gained cost-effectiveness threshold, it was either cost-saving or cost-effective (Incremental Cost Effectiveness Ratio (ICER) =£632/ QALY-gained). No evidence was found for 7-day pharmacist presence. Conclusions Pharmacist inclusion in the ward multidisciplinary team improves patient safety and satisfaction and is cost-effective when regularly provided throughout the ward stay. Research is needed to determine whether the provision of 7-day service is cost-effective.Peer reviewe
Amicable pairs and aliquot cycles for elliptic curves
An amicable pair for an elliptic curve E/Q is a pair of primes (p,q) of good
reduction for E satisfying #E(F_p) = q and #E(F_q) = p. In this paper we study
elliptic amicable pairs and analogously defined longer elliptic aliquot cycles.
We show that there exist elliptic curves with arbitrarily long aliqout cycles,
but that CM elliptic curves (with j not 0) have no aliqout cycles of length
greater than two. We give conjectural formulas for the frequency of amicable
pairs. For CM curves, the derivation of precise conjectural formulas involves a
detailed analysis of the values of the Grossencharacter evaluated at a prime
ideal P in End(E) having the property that #E(F_P) is prime. This is especially
intricate for the family of curves with j = 0.Comment: 53 page
A retrospective study on the impact of comorbid depression or anxiety on healthcare resource use and costs among diabetic neuropathy patients
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Diabetic neuropathy (DN) is a common complication of diabetes that has significant economic burden, especially for patients with comorbid depression or anxiety. This study examines and quantifies factors associated with healthcare costs among patients diagnosed with diabetic neuropathy (DN) with or without a comorbid diagnosis of depression or anxiety (DA) using retrospective administrative claims data. No study has examined the differences in economic outcomes depending on the presence of comorbid DA disorders.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Over-age-18 individuals with 1+ diagnosis of DN in 2005 were selected. The first observed DN claim was considered the "index date." All individuals had a 12-month pre-index and follow-up period. For both under-age-65 commercially insured and over-age-65 individuals with employer-sponsored Medicare supplemental insurance, we constructed 2 subgroups for individuals with DA (DN-DA) or without (DN-only). Patients' clinical characteristics over pre-index period were compared. Multivariate regressions were performed to assess whether DN-DA patients had higher utilization of healthcare resources and costs than DN-only patients, controlling for demographic and clinical characteristics.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We identified 16,831 DN-only and 1,699 DN-DA patients in the Medicare supplemental cohort, as well as 17,205 and 3,105 in the commercially insured. DN-DA patients had higher prevalence of diabetes-related comorbidities for cardiovascular disease, cerebrovascular/peripheral vascular disease, nephropathy, obesity, and hypoglycemic events than DN-only patients (all p < 0.05). Controlling for differences in demographic and clinical characteristics, DN-DA patients had 26,718 vs. 10,389 (p < 0.05) more total costs among commercially insured (19,386). Factors associated with increased costs included insurance type, geographical region, diabetes-related comorbidities, and insulin therapy.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These findings indicate that the healthcare costs were significantly higher for DN patients with depression or anxiety relative to those without such comorbid disorders.</p
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In-sample forecasting: A brief review and new algorithms
Statistical methods often distinguish between in-sample and out-of-sample approaches. In particular this is the case when time is involved. Then often time series methods are proposed that extrapolate past patterns into the future via complicated recursion formulas. Standard statistical inference is on the other hand concerned with estimating parameters within the given sample. This review paper is about a statistical methodology, where all parameters are estimated in-sample while producing a forecast out-of-sample without recursion or extrapolation. A new super-simulation algorithm ensures a faster implementation of the simplest and perhaps most important version of in-sample forecasting
The reliability of the AIC method in Cosmological Model Selection
The Akaike information criterion (AIC) has been used as a statistical
criterion to compare the appropriateness of different dark energy candidate
models underlying a particular data set. Under suitable conditions, the AIC is
an indirect estimate of the Kullback-Leibler divergence D(T//A) of a candidate
model A with respect to the truth T. Thus, a dark energy model with a smaller
AIC is ranked as a better model, since it has a smaller Kullback-Leibler
discrepancy with T. In this paper, we explore the impact of statistical errors
in estimating the AIC during model comparison. Using a parametric bootstrap
technique, we study the distribution of AIC differences between a set of
candidate models due to different realizations of noise in the data and show
that the shape and spread of this distribution can be quite varied. We also
study the rate of success of the AIC procedure for different values of a
threshold parameter popularly used in the literature. For plausible choices of
true dark energy models, our studies suggest that investigating such
distributions of AIC differences in addition to the threshold is useful in
correctly interpreting comparisons of dark energy models using the AIC
technique.Comment: Figures and further discussions of the results were added, and the
version matches the version published in MNRA
Evaluating the Impact of an Integrated Urban Design of Transport Infrastructure and Public Space on Human Behavior and Environmental Quality: A Case Study in Beijing
Urban transport infrastructure can result in the physical, psychological and environmental separation of neighborhoods, public spaces and pedestrian networks, leading to negative impacts on citizens’ daily commutes, social activities and the quality of the ecosystem. An integrated design of transport infrastructure and public space is beneficial for mediating these negative impacts. In this paper, we propose an integrated methodology, which combines urban design, computational scenario evaluation and decision-making processes, based on a conceptual model of human and ecological needs-driven planning. To evaluate the impacts of the road network and public space design on individual outdoor activities, travel behavior and air pollution, an agent-based model is demonstrated. This model is then applied to a case study in Beijing, leading to hourly traffic volume maps and car-related air pollution heat maps of a baseline road network-public space design
Temporal networks of face-to-face human interactions
The ever increasing adoption of mobile technologies and ubiquitous services
allows to sense human behavior at unprecedented levels of details and scale.
Wearable sensors are opening up a new window on human mobility and proximity at
the finest resolution of face-to-face proximity. As a consequence, empirical
data describing social and behavioral networks are acquiring a longitudinal
dimension that brings forth new challenges for analysis and modeling. Here we
review recent work on the representation and analysis of temporal networks of
face-to-face human proximity, based on large-scale datasets collected in the
context of the SocioPatterns collaboration. We show that the raw behavioral
data can be studied at various levels of coarse-graining, which turn out to be
complementary to one another, with each level exposing different features of
the underlying system. We briefly review a generative model of temporal contact
networks that reproduces some statistical observables. Then, we shift our focus
from surface statistical features to dynamical processes on empirical temporal
networks. We discuss how simple dynamical processes can be used as probes to
expose important features of the interaction patterns, such as burstiness and
causal constraints. We show that simulating dynamical processes on empirical
temporal networks can unveil differences between datasets that would otherwise
look statistically similar. Moreover, we argue that, due to the temporal
heterogeneity of human dynamics, in order to investigate the temporal
properties of spreading processes it may be necessary to abandon the notion of
wall-clock time in favour of an intrinsic notion of time for each individual
node, defined in terms of its activity level. We conclude highlighting several
open research questions raised by the nature of the data at hand.Comment: Chapter of the book "Temporal Networks", Springer, 2013. Series:
Understanding Complex Systems. Holme, Petter; Saram\"aki, Jari (Eds.
Thermopower of the Correlated Narrow Gap Semiconductor FeSi and Comparison to RuSi
Iron based narrow gap semiconductors such as FeSi, FeSb2, or FeGa3 have
received a lot of attention because they exhibit a large thermopower, as well
as striking similarities to heavy fermion Kondo insulators. Many proposals have
been advanced, however, lacking quantitative methodologies applied to this
problem, a consensus remained elusive to date. Here, we employ realistic
many-body calculations to elucidate the impact of electronic correlation
effects on FeSi. Our methodology accounts for all substantial anomalies
observed in FeSi: the metallization, the lack of conservation of spectral
weight in optical spectroscopy, and the Curie susceptibility. In particular we
find a very good agreement for the anomalous thermoelectric power. Validated by
this congruence with experiment, we further discuss a new physical picture of
the microscopic nature of the insulator-to-metal crossover. Indeed, we find the
suppression of the Seebeck coefficient to be driven by correlation induced
incoherence. Finally, we compare FeSi to its iso-structural and iso-electronic
homologue RuSi, and predict that partially substituted Fe(1-x)Ru(x)Si will
exhibit an increased thermopower at intermediate temperatures.Comment: 14 pages. Proceedings of the Hvar 2011 Workshop on 'New materials for
thermoelectric applications: theory and experiment
A multilevel analysis on the relationship between neighbourhood poverty and public hospital utilization: is the high Indigenous morbidity avoidable?
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The estimated life expectancy at birth for Indigenous Australians is 10-11 years less than the general Australian population. The mean family income for Indigenous people is also significantly lower than for non-Indigenous people. In this paper we examine poverty or socioeconomic disadvantage as an explanation for the Indigenous health gap in hospital morbidity in Australia.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We utilised a cross-sectional and ecological design using the Northern Territory public hospitalisation data from 1 July 2004 to 30 June 2008 and socio-economic indexes for areas (SEIFA) from the 2006 census. Multilevel logistic regression models were used to estimate odds ratios and confidence intervals. Both total and potentially avoidable hospitalisations were investigated.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>This study indicated that lifting SEIFA scores for family income and education/occupation by two quintile categories for low socio-economic Indigenous groups was sufficient to overcome the excess hospital utilisation among the Indigenous population compared with the non-Indigenous population. The results support a reframing of the Indigenous health gap as being a consequence of poverty and not simplistically of ethnicity.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Socio-economic disadvantage is a likely explanation for a substantial proportion of the hospital morbidity gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations. Efforts to improve Indigenous health outcomes should recognise poverty as an underlying determinant of the health gap.</p
Novel prokaryotic expression of thioredoxin-fused insulinoma associated protein tyrosine phosphatase 2 (IA-2), its characterization and immunodiagnostic application
Background
The insulinoma associated protein tyrosine phosphatase 2 (IA-2) is one of the immunodominant autoantigens involved in the autoimmune attack to the beta-cell in Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus. In this work we have developed a complete and original process for the production and recovery of the properly folded intracellular domain of IA-2 fused to thioredoxin (TrxIA-2ic) in Escherichia coli GI698 and GI724 strains. We have also carried out the biochemical and immunochemical characterization of TrxIA-2icand design variants of non-radiometric immunoassays for the efficient detection of IA-2 autoantibodies (IA-2A).
Results
The main findings can be summarized in the following statements: i) TrxIA-2ic expression after 3 h of induction on GI724 strain yielded ≈ 10 mg of highly pure TrxIA-2ic/L of culture medium by a single step purification by affinity chromatography, ii) the molecular weight of TrxIA-2ic (55,358 Da) could be estimated by SDS-PAGE, size exclusion chromatography and mass spectrometry, iii) TrxIA-2ic was properly identified by western blot and mass spectrometric analysis of proteolytic digestions (63.25 % total coverage), iv) excellent immunochemical behavior of properly folded full TrxIA-2ic was legitimized by inhibition or displacement of [35S]IA-2 binding from IA-2A present in Argentinian Type 1 Diabetic patients, v) great stability over time was found under proper storage conditions and vi) low cost and environmentally harmless ELISA methods for IA-2A assessment were developed, with colorimetric or chemiluminescent detection.
Conclusions
E. coli GI724 strain emerged as a handy source of recombinant IA-2ic, achieving high levels of expression as a thioredoxin fusion protein, adequately validated and applicable to the development of innovative and cost-effective immunoassays for IA-2A detection in most laboratories.Fil: Guerra, Luciano Lucas. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Estudios de la Inmunidad Humoral Prof. Ricardo A. Margni. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Instituto de Estudios de la Inmunidad Humoral Prof. Ricardo A. Margni; ArgentinaFil: Faccinetti, Natalia Ines. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Estudios de la Inmunidad Humoral Prof. Ricardo A. Margni. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Instituto de Estudios de la Inmunidad Humoral Prof. Ricardo A. Margni; ArgentinaFil: Trabucchi, Aldana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Estudios de la Inmunidad Humoral Prof. Ricardo A. Margni. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Instituto de Estudios de la Inmunidad Humoral Prof. Ricardo A. Margni; ArgentinaFil: Rovitto, Bruno David. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Estudios de la Inmunidad Humoral Prof. Ricardo A. Margni. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Instituto de Estudios de la Inmunidad Humoral Prof. Ricardo A. Margni; ArgentinaFil: Sabljic, Adriana Victoria. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Estudios de la Inmunidad Humoral Prof. Ricardo A. Margni. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Instituto de Estudios de la Inmunidad Humoral Prof. Ricardo A. Margni; ArgentinaFil: Poskus, Edgardo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Estudios de la Inmunidad Humoral Prof. Ricardo A. Margni. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Instituto de Estudios de la Inmunidad Humoral Prof. Ricardo A. Margni; ArgentinaFil: Iacono, Ruben Francisco. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Estudios de la Inmunidad Humoral Prof. Ricardo A. Margni. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Instituto de Estudios de la Inmunidad Humoral Prof. Ricardo A. Margni; ArgentinaFil: Valdez, Silvina Noemi. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Estudios de la Inmunidad Humoral Prof. Ricardo A. Margni. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Instituto de Estudios de la Inmunidad Humoral Prof. Ricardo A. Margni; Argentin
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