Evacetrapib and Cardiovascular Outcomes in High-Risk Vascular Disease

BACKGROUND: The cholesteryl ester transfer protein inhibitor evacetrapib substantially raises the high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol level, reduces the low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol level, and enhances cellular cholesterol efflux capacity. We sought to determine the effect of evacetrapib on major adverse cardiovascular outcomes in patients with high-risk vascular disease. METHODS: In a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase 3 trial, we enrolled 12,092 patients who had at least one of the following conditions: an acute coronary syndrome within the previous 30 to 365 days, cerebrovascular atherosclerotic disease, peripheral vascular arterial disease, or diabetes mellitus with coronary artery disease. Patients were randomly assigned to receive either evacetrapib at a dose of 130 mg or matching placebo, administered daily, in addition to standard medical therapy. The primary efficacy end point was the first occurrence of any component of the composite of death from cardiovascular causes, myocardial infarction, stroke, coronary revascularization, or hospitalization for unstable angina. RESULTS: At 3 months, a 31.1% decrease in the mean LDL cholesterol level was observed with evacetrapib versus a 6.0% increase with placebo, and a 133.2% increase in the mean HDL cholesterol level was seen with evacetrapib versus a 1.6% increase with placebo. After 1363 of the planned 1670 primary end-point events had occurred, the data and safety monitoring board recommended that the trial be terminated early because of a lack of efficacy. After a median of 26 months of evacetrapib or placebo, a primary end-point event occurred in 12.9% of the patients in the evacetrapib group and in 12.8% of those in the placebo group (hazard ratio, 1.01; 95% confidence interval, 0.91 to 1.11; P=0.91). CONCLUSIONS: Although the cholesteryl ester transfer protein inhibitor evacetrapib had favorable effects on established lipid biomarkers, treatment with evacetrapib did not result in a lower rate of cardiovascular events than placebo among patients with high-risk vascular disease. (Funded by Eli Lilly; ACCELERATE ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT01687998 .)

Agritourism Farms - Evaluation of Their Websites Quality and Web 2.0

Based on surveys carried out in 2009 and 2012 it can be suggested that the web presentations of agritourism farms are virtually unchanged. The quality of the web pages for the same farms is statistically higher only for the criterion of “Content – structure” of websites. It can be assumed that in 2012 farmers devoted more attention to the structure of information that is presented on their own websites. Farms that have their own domain name show statistically significantly higher quality websites. Generally, it can be said that the website presentations of agritourism farms do not use the new approaches to the internet technologies as much as they could. For this reason, an approach has been proposed for upgrading the www presentations of lesser quality by means of the WCMS WordPress. It is recommended to use the Web 2.0 technologies, e.g. integrate through the mashup technologies the associated information sources into the websites (links to social networks and weather forecasts or the RSS sources in a given region). This paper was elaborated within the framework of the solution VZ MSM 6046070906 „Economics sources of Czech agriculture and their efficient use in the context of m ultifunctional agri-food systems“

Three years of atmospheric concentrations of nitrated and oxygenated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and oxygen heterocycles at a central European background site

Nitrated and oxygenated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (NPAHs, OPAHs) are abundant in the atmosphere and contribute significantly to the health risk associated with inhalation of polluted air. Despite the health hazard they pose, NPAHs and OPAHs were rarely included in monitoring. The aim of this study is to provide the first multi-year temporal trends of the concentrations, composition pattern and fate of NPAHs and OPAHs in air from a site representative of background air quality conditions in central Europe. Samples were collected every second week at a rural background site in the Czech Republic during 2015–2017. Concentrations ranged from 1.3 to 160 pg m−3 for Σ17NPAHs, from 32 to 2600 pg m−3 for Σ10OPAHs and from 5.1 to 4300 pg m−3 for Σ2O-heterocycles. The average particulate mass fraction (θ) ranged from 0.01 ± 0.02 (2-nitronaphthalene) to 0.83 ± 0.22 (1-nitropyrene) for individual NPAHs and from <0.01 ± 0.01 (dibenzofuran) to 0.96 ± 0.08 (6H-benzo (c,d)pyren-6-one) for individual OPAHs and O-heterocycles. The multiyear variations showed downward trends for a number of targeted compounds. This suggests that on-going emission reductions of PAHs are effective also for co-emitted NPAHs and OPAHs