Full vs. no information best choice game with finite horizon

Let us consider two companies A and B. Both of them are interested in buying a set of some goods. The company A is a big corporation and it knows the actual value of the good on the market and is able to observe the previous values of them. The company B has no information about the actual value of the good but it can compare the actual position of the good on the market with the previous position of the good offered. Both of the players want to choose the very best object overall. The recall is not allowed. The number of the objects is fixed and finite. One can think about these two types of buyers a business customer vs. an individual customer. The mathematical model of the competition between them is presented and the solution is defined and constructed.Comment: Submitted to: Stochastic Operations Research in Business and Industry (eds. by Tadashi Dohi, Katsunori Ano and Shoji Kasahara), World Scientific Publishe

Duration problem: basic concept and some extensions

We consider a sequence of independent random variables with the known distribution observed sequentially. The observation $n$ is assumed to be a value of one order statistics such as s:n-th, where 1 is less than s is less than n. It the instances following the $n$th observation it may remain of the s:m or it will be the value of the order statistics r:m (of m> n observations). Changing the rank of the observation, along with expanding a set of observations there is a random phenomenon that is difficult to predict. From practical reasons it is of great interest. Among others, we pose the question of the moment in which the observation appears and whose rank will not change significantly until the end of sampling of a certain size. We also attempt to answer which observation should be kept to have the "good quality observation" as long as possible. This last question was analysed by Ferguson, Hardwick and Tamaki (1991) in the abstract form which they called the problem of duration. This article gives a systematical presentation of the known duration models and a new modifications. We collect results from different papers on the duration of the extremal observation in the no-information (denoted as rank based) case and the full-information case. In the case of non-extremal observation duration models the most appealing are various settings related to the two extremal order statistics. In the no-information case it will be the maximizing duration of owning the relatively best or the second best object. The idea was formulated and the problem was solved by Szajowski and Tamaki (2006). The full-information duration problem with special requirement was presented by Kurushima and Ano (2010)

Assessing the Health Needs of Chinese Older Adults: Findings from a Community-Based Participatory Research Study in Chicago's Chinatown

The objective of this study is to examine the cultural views of healthy aging, knowledge and barriers to services, and perception of health sciences research among community-dwelling Chinese older adults in Chicago's Chinatown. This qualitative study is guided by the Precede-Proceed conceptual model with community-based participatory research design. Data analysis is based on eight focus group interviews with Chinese older (age 60+) adults (n = 78). We used a grounded theory framework to systematically guide the thematic structure of our data. Findings show participants described cultural conception of health in terms of physical function, psychological well-being, social support, and cognitive function. The availability, affordability, and cultural barriers towards health care services were major negative enabling factors that inhibit participants from fulfilling health needs. Perception and knowledge of health sciences research were also discussed. This study has implications for the delivery of culturally appropriate health care services to the Chinese aging population

Predictors of Aspiration Pneumonia in Nursing Home Residents

Aspiration pneumonia is a serious problem for the elderly institutionalized person, often requiring transfer to a hospital and a lengthy stay there. It is associated with a high mortality rate and is very costly to the health care system. The current study sought to determine the key predictors of aspiration pneumonia in a nursing home population with the hope that health care providers could identify those residents at highest risk and focus more efforts on prevention of this serious disease. A cross-sectional, retrospective analysis was done, using the Minimum Data Set (MDS) nursing home assessment data for three states (New York, Mississippi, Maine) from 1993 to 1994 ( N = 102,842). Nursing home residents were aged 65+. Standardized MDS summary scales and their component items were used, including: the Activities of Daily Living (ADL) scale, the cognitive performance scale (CPS), and the Resource Utilization Groups (RUGs). Results of these analyses showed the prevalence of pneumonia among this population was 3% ( n = 3118). Results from the logistic regression models indicated 18 significant predictors of aspiration pneumonia. The strongest to weakest predictors of pneumonia were, respectively, suctioning use, COPD, CHF, presence of feeding tube, bedfast, high case mix index, delirium, weight loss, swallowing problems, urinary tract infections, mechanically altered diet, dependence for eating, bed mobility, locomotion, number of medications, and age, while both CVA and tracheotomy care were inversely predictive of pneumonia. The emergence of these significant predictors suggested a different pathogenesis of pneumonia in the elderly nursing home resident from the acute care patient or the outpatient. Nursing home residents have chronic medical conditions that gradually lead to “decompensation” in functional status, nutritional status, and pulmonary clearance. Dysphagia and aspiration are common complications of their medical conditions and may slowly worsen as their status deteriorates. Alternatively, a sudden adverse event may dramatically increase the amount aspirated or the ability to resist infection and lead to sudden decompensation. Clinical staff must identify residents with dysphagia and aspiration and work to prevent decline in functional status in all residents. They must be aware of the dangers of adverse events that lead to sudden inactivity or illness and increase the risk of aspiration pneumonia. Prevention of this disease whenever possible will reduce costs, improve health outcomes, and improve our quality of care.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/42428/1/20170298.pd

Recent trends in cost‐related medication nonadherence among stroke survivors in the United States

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/97244/1/ana23823.pd

Incidence, risk factors, and outcomes of second neoplasms in patients with acute promyelocytic leukemia:the PETHEMA-PALG experience

The most important challenges in acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) is preventing early death and reducing long-term events, such as second neoplasms (s-NPLs). We performed a retrospective analysis of 2670 unselected APL patients, treated with PETHEMA “chemotherapy based” and “chemotherapy free” protocols. Only de novo APL patients who achieved complete remission (CR) and completed the three consolidation cycles were enrolled into the analysis. Out of 2670 APL patients, there were 118 (4.4%) who developed s-NPLs with the median latency period (between first CR and diagnosis of s-NPL) of 48.0 months (range 2.8–231.1): 43.3 (range: 2.8–113.9) for s-MDS/AML and 61.7 (range: 7.1–231.1) for solid tumour. The 5-year CI of all s-NPLs was of 4.43% and 10 years of 7.92%. Among s-NPLs, there were 58 cases of s-MDS/AML, 3 cases of other hematological neoplasms, 57 solid tumours and 1 non-identified neoplasm. The most frequent solid tumour was colorectal, lung and breast cancer. Overall, the 2-year OS from diagnosis of s-NPLs was 40.6%, with a median OS of 11.1 months. Multivariate analysis identified age of 35 years (hazard ratio = 0.2584; p &lt; 0.0001) as an independent prognostic factor for s-NPLs. There were no significant differences in CI of s-NPLs at 5 years between chemotherapy-based vs chemotherapy-free regimens (hazard ratio = 1.09; p = 0.932). Larger series with longer follow-up are required to confirm the potential impact of ATO+ATRA regimens to reduce the incidence of s-NPLs after front-line therapy for APL.</p

Dietary Fat Intake and the Risk of Depression: The SUN Project

Emerging evidence relates some nutritional factors to depression risk. However, there is a scarcity of longitudinal assessments on this relationship

Healthy dietary indices and risk of depressive outcomes : a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies

With depression being the psychiatric disorder incurring the largest societal costs in developed countries, there is a need to gather evidence on the role of nutrition in depression, to help develop recommendations and guide future psychiatric health care. The aim of this systematic review was to synthesize the link between diet quality, measured using a range of predefined indices, and depressive outcomes. Medline, Embase and PsychInfo were searched up to 31st May 2018 for studies that examined adherence to a healthy diet in relation to depressive symptoms or clinical depression. Where possible, estimates were pooled using random effect meta-analysis with stratification by observational study design and dietary score. A total of 20 longitudinal and 21 cross-sectional studies were included. These studies utilized an array of dietary measures, including: different measures of adherence to the Mediterranean diet, the Healthy Eating Index (HEI) and Alternative HEI (AHEI), the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension, and the Dietary Inflammatory Index. The most compelling evidence was found for the Mediterranean diet and incident depression, with a combined relative risk estimate of highest vs. lowest adherence category from four longitudinal studies of 0.67 (95% CI 0.55-0.82). A lower Dietary Inflammatory Index was also associated with lower depression incidence in four longitudinal studies (relative risk 0.76; 95% CI: 0.63-0.92). There were fewer longitudinal studies using other indices, but they and cross-sectional evidence also suggest an inverse association between healthy diet and depression (e.g., relative risk 0.65; 95% CI 0.50-0.84 for HEI/AHEI). To conclude, adhering to a healthy diet, in particular a traditional Mediterranean diet, or avoiding a pro-inflammatory diet appears to confer some protection against depression in observational studies. This provides a reasonable evidence base to assess the role of dietary interventions to prevent depression.Peer reviewe