Time-dependent Predictive Values of Prognostic Biomarkers with Failure Time Outcome.

In a prospective cohort study, information on clinical parameters, tests and molecular markers is often collected. Such information is useful to predict patient prognosis and to select patients for targeted therapy. We propose a new graphical approach, the positive predictive value (PPV) curve, to quantify the predictive accuracy of prognostic markers measured on a continuous scale with censored failure time outcome. The proposed method highlights the need to consider both predictive values and the marker distribution in the population when evaluating a marker, and it provides a common scale for comparing different markers. We consider both semiparametric and nonparametric based estimating procedures. In addition, we provide asymptotic distribution theory and resampling based procedures for making statistical inference. We illustrate our approach with numerical studies and datasets from the Seattle Heart Failure Study

Extremal Optimization of Graph Partitioning at the Percolation Threshold

The benefits of a recently proposed method to approximate hard optimization problems are demonstrated on the graph partitioning problem. The performance of this new method, called Extremal Optimization, is compared to Simulated Annealing in extensive numerical simulations. While generally a complex (NP-hard) problem, the optimization of the graph partitions is particularly difficult for sparse graphs with average connectivities near the percolation threshold. At this threshold, the relative error of Simulated Annealing for large graphs is found to diverge relative to Extremal Optimization at equalized runtime. On the other hand, Extremal Optimization, based on the extremal dynamics of self-organized critical systems, reproduces known results about optimal partitions at this critical point quite well.Comment: 7 pages, RevTex, 9 ps-figures included, as to appear in Journal of Physics

A quark model framework for the study of nuclear medium effects

A quark-model framework for studying nuclear medium effects on nucleon resonances is described and applied here to pion photoproduction on the deuteron, which is the simplest composite nucleon system and serves as a first test case. Pion photoproduction on nuclei is discussed within a chiral constituent quark model in which the quark degrees of freedom are explicitly introduced through an effective chiral Lagrangian for the quark-pseudoscalar-meson coupling. The advantage of this model is that a complete set of nucleon resonances can be systematically included with a limited number of parameters. Also, the systematic description of the nucleon and its resonances at quark level allows us to self-consistently relate the nuclear medium's influence on the baryon properties to the intrinsic dynamic aspects of the baryons. As the simplest composite nucleus, the deuteron represents the first application of this effective theory for meson photoproduction on light nuclei. The influence of the medium on the transition operators for a free nucleon is investigated in the Delta resonance region. No evidence is found for a change of the Delta properties in the pion photoproduction reaction on the deuteron since the nuclear medium here involves just one other nucleon and the low binding energy implies low nuclear density. However, we show that the reaction mechanism is in principle sensitive to changes of Delta properties that would be produced by the denser nuclear medium of heavier nuclei through the modification of the quark model parameters.Comment: Revtex, 8 pages, 4 figure

The association between employment and the health of people with intellectual disabilities:a systematic review

Background:  There is strong evidence indicating that paid employment is generally good for the physical and mental health of the general population. This systematic review considers the association between employment and the health of people with intellectual disabilities.  Methods:  Studies published from 1990 to 2018 were identified via electronic literature databases, email requests and cross-citations. Identified studies were reviewed narratively.  Results: Twelve studies were identified. Studies were generally consistent in reporting an association between being in paid employment and better physical or mental health status.  Conclusions: This review supports the view that the well-established association between employment and better health is similar for adults with and without intellectual disabilities. However, evidence establishing causality is lacking and further research to determine specific health benefits attributable to employment for people with intellectual disabilities and the causal pathways that operate is required

Optimasi micro frontend website untuk meningkatkan load times: teknik, tantangan, dan best practice

In recent years, there has been an increasing popularity of the micro frontend architecture due to its implementation by large companies such as IKEA, Starbucks, and Amazon. Due to its  characteristics that similar to microservices, this architecture started to be implemented by various companies to improve their developer experience. However, this architecture has some issues, one of which is the performance of page load time. The objective of this research is to find and determine the best practices for optimizing the page load time of micro frontend applications and to identify the challenge involved. The research is conducted by implementing optimization techniques such as code splitting, lazy loading, tree shaking, minification, and utility modules to micro frontend website. After that, the website is tested with a sample size of 200 which determined by using Lemeshow formula. The research is conducted in both local and server environments using the Google Chrome browser and used "fully loaded" metric. The research use a simple Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) application consisting of five micro frontends built with React, Vue, and Angular frameworks. The experimental results show that implementing all of the optimization techniques on all micro frontends can improve the application's page load time performance by 31.79% in the local and 47.5% in the server environment.Dalam beberapa tahun terakhir, terjadi peningkatan popularitas dari arsitektur micro frontend dikarenakan mulai diimplementasikan oleh perusahaan besar seperti IKEA, Starbucks, dan Amazon. Karakteristiknya yang menyerupai microservice membuat arsitektur ini mulai banyak diterapkan untuk meningkatkan developer experience. Namun, arsitektur ini memiliki beberapa masalah, salah satunya adalah performa page load time yang rendah. Tujuan dari dilakukannya penelitian ini adalah untuk menentukan bagaimana best practice dalam mengoptimasi performa page load time dari aplikasi micro frontend. Penelitian dilakukan dengan mengimplementasikan teknik optimasi seperti code splitting, lazy loading, tree shaking, minification, dan utility module kepada setiap micro frontend yang dimiliki oleh suatu website, kemudian dilakukan pengujian sebanyak 200 kali yang didapatkan menggunakan formula Lemeshow di local dan server environment menggunakan browser Google Chrome dengan metrik fully loaded, yaitu ukuran waktu yang dibutuhkan suatu website untuk memuat seluruh resources yang digunakan oleh website tersebut. Penelitian dilakukan pada aplikasi Enterprise Resources Planning (ERP) yang terdiri dari lima micro frontend dengan framework React, Vue, dan Angular. Hasil eksperimen yang dilakukan menunjukkan bahwa mengimplementasikan setiap teknik optimasi pada seluruh micro frontend dapat meningkatkan performa page load time aplikasi sebesar 31,79% pada local dan 47,5% pada server environment

A systematic review of the evidence on home care reablement services

Objective To determine whether publically funded ‘reablement services’ have any effect on patient health or use of services. Design Systematic review of randomised controlled trials and non-randomized studies in which reablement interventions were compared to no care or usual care in people referred to public funded personal care services. Data sources included: Cochrane central register of controlled trials, EPOC register of studies, trials registers, Medline, Embase, and Cinhal. Searches were from 2000 up to end February 2015. Setting Not applicable. Participants Investigators’ definition of the target population for reablement interventions. Main outcome measures Use of publically-funded personal care services and dependence in personal activities of daily living (PADL). Results We found no studies fulfilling our inclusion criteria that assessed the effectiveness of reablement interventions. We did note the lack of an agreed understanding of the nature of reablement. Conclusions Reablement is an ill-defined intervention targeted towards an ill-defined and potentially highly heterogeneous population/ patient group. There is no evidence to suggest it is effective at either of its goals, increasing personal independence or reducing use of personal care services

Journey to work:exploring difficulties, solutions and the impact of aging

A study was conducted in the UK, as part of the New Dynamics of Ageing Working Late project, of the journey to work among 1215 older workers (age groups 45-49, 50-55, 56-60 and 60 + ). The aim was to identify problems or concerns that they might have with their commute, strategies that have been adopted to address them, and the role that employers can play to assist them. Follow-up interviews with 36 employees identified many strategies for assisting with the problems of journeys to work, ranging from car share and using public transport to flexible working and working some days from home. Further interviews with a sample of 12 mainly larger companies showed that employers feel a responsibility for their workers’ commute, with some offering schemes to assist them, such as adjusting work shift timings to facilitate easier parking. The research suggests that the journey to work presents difficulties for a significant minority of those aged over 45, including issues with cost, stress, health, fatigue and journey time. It may be possible to reduce the impact of these difficulties on employee decisions to change jobs or retire by assisting them to adopt mitigating strategies. It does not appear that the likelihood of experiencing a problem with the journey to work increases as the employee approaches retirement; therefore, any mitigating strategy is likely to help employees of all ages. These strategies have been disseminated to a wider audience through an online resource at www.workinglate.org

Tackling health inequalities: moving theory to action

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licens