Geographical Variation in Medication Prescriptions: A Multiregional Drug-Utilization Study

Background: Studies have emphasized the importance of geographical factors and general practitioner (GP) characteristics in influencing drug prescriptions. Objectives: To: (i) ascertain the prevalence rate (PR) of use of drugs in six therapeutic categories used for chronic conditions; (ii) assess how geographical characteristics and GP characteristics may influence drug prescribing. Methods: This study is part of the EDU.RE.DRUG Project, a national collaborative project founded by Italian Medicine Agency (AIFA). Cross-sectional analyses were undertaken employing the pharmacy-claim databases of four local health units (LHUs) located in two Italian regions: Lombardy and Campania. Six drug categories were evaluated: proton-pump inhibitors; antibiotics; respiratory-system drugs; statins; agents acting on the renin 12angiotensin system; psychoanaleptic drugs. The PR was estimated according to drug categories at the LHU level. A linear multivariate regression analysis was undertaken to evaluate the association between the PR and geographical area, age and sex of GPs, number of patients, and percentage of patients aged >65 per GP. Results: LHUs in Campania showed a PR that was significantly higher than that in Lombardy. Antibiotics showed the highest PR in all the LHUs assessed, ranging from 32.5% in Lecco (Lombardy) to 59.7% in Naples-2 (Campania). Multivariate linear regression analysis confirmed the association of the PR with geographical area for all drug categories. Being located in Campania increased the possibility of receiving a drug prescription from the categories considered, with estimates more marked for antibiotics, proton-pump-inhibitors, and respiratory-system drugs. Conclusions: This study provides information about the PR of medications used for treating common and costly conditions in Italy and highlighted a significant geographical variation. These insights could help to develop area-specific strategies to optimize prescribing behavior

Non-local charges on AdS_5 x S^5 and PP-waves

We show the existence of an infinite set of non-local classically conserved charges on the Green-Schwarz closed superstring in a pp-wave background. We find that these charges agree with the Penrose limit of non-local classically conserved charges recently found for the $AdS_5 \times S^5$ Green-Schwarz superstring. The charges constructed in this paper could help to understand the role played by these on the full $AdS_5 \times S^5$ background.Comment: 20 pages. JHEP. v2:references adde

Classical/quantum integrability in AdS/CFT

We discuss the AdS/CFT duality from the perspective of integrable systems and establish a direct relationship between the dimension of single trace local operators composed of two types of scalar fields in N=4 super Yang-Mills and the energy of their dual semiclassical string states in AdS(5) X S(5). The anomalous dimensions can be computed using a set of Bethe equations, which for ``long'' operators reduces to a Riemann-Hilbert problem. We develop a unified approach to the long wavelength Bethe equations, the classical ferromagnet and the classical string solutions in the SU(2) sector and present a general solution, governed by complex curves endowed with meromorphic differentials with integer periods. Using this solution we compute the anomalous dimensions of these long operators up to two loops and demonstrate that they agree with string-theory predictions.Comment: 49 pages, 5 figures, LaTeX; v2: complete proof of the two-loop equivalence between the sigma model and the gauge theory is added. References added; v4,v5,v6: misprints correcte

Profile of micronucleus frequencies and DNA damage in different species of fish in a eutrophic tropical lake

Lake Paranoá is a tropical reservoir for the City of Brasilia, which became eutrophic due to inadequate sewage treatment associated with intensive population growth. At present, two wastewater treatment plants are capable of processing up to 95% of the domestic sewage, thereby successfully reducing eutrophization. We evaluated both genotoxic and cytotoxic parameters in several fish species (Geophagus brasiliensis, Cichla temensis, Hoplias malabaricus, Astyanax bimaculatus lacustres, Oreochromis niloticus, Cyprinus carpio and Steindachnerina insculpita) by using the micronucleus (MN) test, the comet assay and nuclear abnormality assessment in peripheral erythrocytes. The highest frequencies of MN were found in Cichla temensis and Hoplias malabaricus, which were statistically significant when compared to the other species. However, Steindachnerina insculpita (a detritivorous and lake-floor feeder species) showed the highest index of DNA damage in the comet assay, followed by C. temensis (piscivorous). Nuclear abnormalities, such as binucleated, blebbed, lobed and notched cells, were used as evidence of cytotoxicity. Oreochromis niloticus followed by Hoplias malaricus, ominivorous/detritivotous and piscivorous species, respectively, presented the highest frequency of nuclear abnormalities, especially notched cells, while the herbivorous Astyanax bimaculatus lacustres showed the lowest frequency compared to the other species studied. Thus, for biomonitoring aquatic genotoxins under field conditions, the food web should also be considered

Evanescent wave transport and shot noise in graphene: ballistic regime and effect of disorder

We have investigated electrical transport and shot noise in graphene field effect devices. In large width over length ratio $W/L$ graphene strips, we have measured shot noise at low frequency ($f$ = 600--850 MHz) in the temperature range of 4.2--30 K. We observe a minimum conductivity of $\frac{4e^{2}}{\pi h}$ and a finite and gate dependent Fano factor reaching the universal value of 1/3 at the Dirac point, i.e. where the density of states vanishes. These findings are in good agreement with the theory describing that transport at the Dirac point should occur via evanescent waves in perfect graphene samples with large $W/L$. Moreover, we show and discuss how disorder and non-parallel leads affect both conductivity and shot noise.Comment: Extended version (19 pages, 10 figures) of Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 196802 (2008). Additional data on the effect of disorder and non-parallel leads. Submitted for publication in Journal of Low Temperature Physics for the Proceedings of the International Symposium on Quantum Phenomena and Devices at Low Temperatures (ULTI 2008), Espoo, Finlan

Search for black holes and other new phenomena in high-multiplicity final states in proton-proton collisions at root s=13 TeV

Peer reviewe

Track A Basic Science

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/138319/1/jia218438.pd

Long-range Angular Correlations On The Near And Away Side In P-pb Collisions At √snn=5.02 Tev

7191/Mar294