773 research outputs found
PCV15 Comparison Of Apixaban, Dabigatran, Rivaroxaban, And Edoxaban In The Acute Treatment And Prevention Of Venous Thromboembolism: Systematic Review And Network Meta-Analysis
Assessment-schedule matching in unanchored indirect treatment comparisons of progression-free survival in cancer studies
Background
The timing of efficacy-related clinical events recorded at scheduled study visits in clinical trials are interval censored, with the interval duration pre-determined by the study protocol. Events may happen any time during that interval but can only be detected during a planned or unplanned visit. Disease progression in oncology is a notable example where the time to an event is affected by the schedule of visits within a study. This can become a source of bias when studies with varying assessment schedules are used in unanchored comparisons using methods such as matching-adjusted indirect comparisons.
Objective
We illustrate assessment-time bias (ATB) in a simulation study based on data from a recent study in second-line treatment for locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma, and present a method to adjust for differences in assessment schedule when comparing progression-free survival (PFS) against a competing treatment.
Methods
A multi-state model for death and progression was used to generate simulated death and progression times, from which PFS times were derived. PFS data were also generated for a hypothetical comparator treatment by applying a constant hazard ratio (HR) to the baseline treatment. Simulated PFS times for the two treatments were then aligned to different assessment schedules so that progression events were only observed at set visit times, and the data were analysed to assess the bias and standard error of estimates of HRs between two treatments with and without assessment-schedule matching (ASM).
Results
ATB is highly affected by the rate of the event at the first assessment time; in our examples, the bias ranged from 3 to 11% as the event rate increased. The proposed method relies on individual-level data from a study and attempts to adjust the timing of progression events to the comparator’s schedule by shifting them forward or backward without altering the patients’ actual follow-up time. The method removed the bias almost completely in all scenarios without affecting the precision of estimates of comparative effectiveness.
Conclusions
Considering the increasing use of unanchored comparative analyses for novel cancer treatments based on single-arm studies, the proposed method offers a relatively simple means of improving the accuracy of relative benefits of treatments on progression times
Meson-Baryon Form Factors in Chiral Colour Dielectric Model
The renormalised form factors for pseudoscalar meson-baryon coupling are
computed in chiral colour dielectric model. This has been done by rearranging
the Lippmann-Schwinger series for the meson baryon scattering matrix so that it
can be expressed as a baryon pole term with renormalized form factors and
baryon masses and the rest of the terms which arise from the crossed diagrams.
Thus we are able to obtain an integral equation for the renormalized
meson-baryon form factors in terms of the bare form factors as well as an
expression for the meson self energy. This integral equation is solved and
renormalized meson baryon form factors and renormalized baryon masses are
computed. The parameters of the model are adjusted to obtain a best fit to the
physical baryon masses. The calculations show that the renormalized form
factors are energy-dependent and differ from the bare form factors primarily at
momentum transfers smaller than 1 GeV. At nucleon mass, the change in the form
factors is about 10% at zero momentum transfer. The computed form factors are
soft with the equivalent monopole cut-off mass of about 500 MeV. The
renormalized coupling constants are obtained by comparing the chiral colour
dielectric model interaction Hamiltonian with the standard form of
meson-nucleon interaction Hamiltonian. The ratio of and
coupling constants is found to be about 2.15. This value is very close to the
experimental value.Comment: 16 pages, 7 postscript figure
Luminescence properties of Ti-doped gem-grade zirconia powders
A detailed investigation on luminescence properties of gem-grade zirconia (NFC) as a function of Ti doping is presented. The effect of various parameters such as Ti concentration, environment of heat treatment and temperature was studied in detail and the optimum conditions for producing zirconia with luminescence properties comparable to standard material determined
Axial Vector Coupling Constant in Chiral Colour Dielectric Model
The axial vector coupling constants of the decay processes of neutron
and hyperon are calculated in SU(3) chiral colour dielectric model (CCDM).
Using these axial coupling constants of neutron and hyperon, in CCDM we
calculate the integrals of the spin dependent structure functions for proton
and neutron. Our result is similar to the results obtained by MIT bag and
Cloudy bag models.Comment: 9 pages, Latex file, no figure, to appear in Phys. Rev.
Chiral Symmetry and the Nucleon's Vector Strangeness Form Factors
The nucleon's strange-quark vector current form factors are studied from the
perspective of chiral symmetry. It is argued that chiral perturbation theory
cannot yield a prediction for the strangeness radius and magnetic moment.
Arrival at definite predictions requires the introduction of additional,
model-dependent assumptions which go beyond the framework of chiral
perturbation theory. A variety of such model predictions is surveyed, and the
credibility of each is evaluated. The most plausible prediction appears in a
model where the unknown chiral counterterms are identified with -channel
vector meson exchange amplitudes. The corresponding prediction for the mean
square Dirac strangeness radius is fm, which
would be observable in up-coming semileptonic determinations of the nucleon's
strangeness form factors.Comment: LaTex 31 pages, four figures available from authors
Working Group Report: Heavy-Ion Physics and Quark-Gluon Plasma
This is the report of Heavy Ion Physics and Quark-Gluon Plasma at WHEPP-09
which was part of Working Group-4. Discussion and work on some aspects of
Quark-Gluon Plasma believed to have created in heavy-ion collisions and in
early universe are reported.Comment: 20 pages, 6 eps figures, Heavy-ion physics and QGP activity report in
"IX Workshop on High Energy Physics Phenomenology (WHEPP-09)" held in
Institute of Physics, Bhubaneswar, India, during January 3-14, 2006. To be
published in PRAMANA - Journal of Physics (Indian Academy of Science
Interferometry of Direct Photons in Central 280Pb+208Pb Collisions at 158A GeV
Two-particle correlations of direct photons were measured in central
208Pb+208Pb collisions at 158 AGeV. The invariant interferometric radii were
extracted for 100<K_T<300 MeV/c and compared to radii extracted from charged
pion correlations. The yield of soft direct photons, K_T<300 MeV/c, was
extracted from the correlation strength and compared to theoretical
calculations.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Independent Field Audit of Individual Household Latrine (IHHL) in Charutar Region of Gujarat, India
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