Age Demographics of Subjects Enrolled in Global, Interventional Phase 3 Melanoma Clinical Trials

Background Melanoma is a skin cancer with a rising worldwide incidence of just over 280,000 individuals with the greatest burden of illness in European, New Zealander, and Australian populations. Patients are diagnosed with melanoma with the mean and median ages being 65 and 59 years old, respectively. Phase 3 trials not only provide a wide representation of the target population but also study the efficacy for a certain intervention. Objective The objective of this literature review is to analyze patient demographics of phase 3 trials for melanoma and identify if there is a true disparity between the clinical trial age demographics and the natural epidemiological age demographics. Data Sources The authors conducted a search on clinicaltrials.gov, a publicly available resource that lists clinical trials and their data. The reported mean and median ages for each trial were extracted after determining if each trial meets our inclusion criteria. Weighted mean and median ages were calculated using an online calculator. Data Summary Data from 35 trials were evaluated with 30 trials reporting a weighted mean age of 55.85 years and 5 trials reporting a weighted median age of 55.14 years. Conclusion Based on the results, melanoma clinical trials enroll patients who are younger than the epidemiological mean and median ages. Due to this underrepresentation of the elderly patients with melanoma, clinical trials may provide limited application for the use of their results.

Social impact bonds: Financing grassroots sports

This paper aims to analyze the foreign experience of using social impact bonds (SIB) and formulate proposals for the application of this tool in financing projects aimed at developing mass sports and increasing physical activity on a national scale. The scientific novelty of the article is confirmed by the limited application of such a mechanism in Russia and its insufficient study. This research aims to fill this academic and applied gap. The author uses the methods of deconstruction and aspect analysis. The article analyzes in detail the foreign experience of using social impact bonds, reveals the advantages and disadvantages of this model. In the absence of SIB sports projects, the model of social impact bonds is considered through the example of a New York City-based program aimed at reducing the recidivism rate among young people. This example allowed the author to describe the interaction scheme for all participants and stakeholders and to illustrate related advantages and disadvantages. In the future, this model can be introduced into Russian practice and used as a model for launching a similar project in the field of grassroots sports. The analysis of successful projects implemented abroad allowed the author to substantiate the possibility of using social impact bonds in financing programs aimed at increasing population levels of physical activity. A system of target indicators is proposed, including such a metric as social return on investment (SROI). The author describes in detail the methodology for calculating SROI and provides examples of calculating this indicator for mass sports projects. The author concludes that the advantages of SIB prevail over the disadvantages and about the high potential of this tool. Further research in this area can be aimed at clarifying the methodology for calculating the SROI for sport interventions promoting physical activity at the population level and evaluating specific projects in the field.

MAKING MANAGEMENT DECISIONS OF THE ELECTRIC POWER SYSTEM USING THE PARACONSISTENCY LOGICAL MODEL OF THE EXPERT SYSTEM (PESPAL2V)

This article describes an expert system that is designed and developed for a certain and limited application of human knowledge. Equipped with an information base, it is able to make decisions based on reasonable knowledge. At the same time, the algorithms from which the computational program of the expert system consist, represent knowledge from the area they should analyze and help solve problems.

Perception and implementation status of enhanced recovery after surgery

Background: The enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) program that is being implemented in Korea is difficult to investigate because it is not a standardized protocol with a unified content, and it instead differs according to the details for each hospital. Herein, the author would like to introduce and analyze the results of a recently conducted large-scale survey on the current status and perception of the ERAS program in Korea among large domestic hospitals.Current Concepts: Surveys of domestic general surgeons in 2019 and hepatobiliary-pancreatic surgeons in 2020 both showed lower-than-expected response rates of less than 50% in questions related to perception and clinical implementation of the ERAS program. Thus, implementation of ERAS items related to the limited application of preoperative fasting and surgical drain insertion and active nutritional support before and after surgery remains low.Discussion and Conclusion: For surgeons in Korea, the implementation of ERAS programs and perception levels were low. In this regard, it is necessary to improve awareness through systematic education and promotion of the ERAS program, and supplementation of related multidisciplinary professional manpower and financial resources is essential to facilitate practical implementation of ERAS programs in clinical practice.

Intelligent Reading Recognition Method of Pointer Meter Based on Deep Learning in Real Environment

The accurate reading of pointer meter is a crucial task in complex environments such as substations, military and aerospace. The current recognition algorithm is mainly used to identify the same type and non-tilt meter, which has limited application in real environment. This paper proposes a novel end-to-end intelligent reading method of pointer meter based on deep learning, which locates the meter and extracts the pointer simultaneously without any prior information. Especially, the pointer is directly and precisely extracted using the designed semi-pointer detection method without any handcrafted features designed in advance, which avoids the accumulated error caused by preprocessing. Based on the extracted panel object, including semi-pointer, panel center and scale characters, the indicated value of the pointer is obtained by a local angle method, which can achieve better performance than the traditional angle method by referring to the neighboring scale lines of the pointer. Experimental results demonstrate that the method is faster and more effective than some common methods. It is worth noting that this study has the advantage of being able to recognize pointer meters in complex environments such as tilt, rotation, blur and illumination. It is acceptable for the actual application requirements in real environment with a recognition accuracy of 99.20% and the average reference error of 0.34%.

The criminalisation of intentionally harmful digital communications - Encouraging the responsible use of cyberspace or an offence of unnecessarily limited application?

<p>The Harmful Digital Communications Bill has recently been reported back from the Justice and Electoral Select Committee. The Bill seeks to deter, prevent and mitigate the harm caused to individuals through digital communications and to provide victims of harmful digital communications with a quick and efficient means of redress. In addition to modernising existing legislation and establishing a new civil enforcement regime, the Bill controversially introduces a new criminal offence of posting a harmful communication with the intent that the communication causes harm to a victim. Surprisingly, the offence differs significantly from comparable legislation abroad where neither a mens rea standard of intent is present nor a requirement that a victim must suffer serious emotional distress in order for an offender to be liable. This paper critiques the likely application of the offence and ultimately concludes that in light of differing legislation abroad and cases which have arisen since the enactment of the Communications Act in the United Kingdom, that the mens rea standard should be modified to include subjective recklessness, and the requirement that an intended victim must suffer actual harm should be removed.</p>

The criminalisation of intentionally harmful digital communications - Encouraging the responsible use of cyberspace or an offence of unnecessarily limited application?

<p>The Harmful Digital Communications Bill has recently been reported back from the Justice and Electoral Select Committee. The Bill seeks to deter, prevent and mitigate the harm caused to individuals through digital communications and to provide victims of harmful digital communications with a quick and efficient means of redress. In addition to modernising existing legislation and establishing a new civil enforcement regime, the Bill controversially introduces a new criminal offence of posting a harmful communication with the intent that the communication causes harm to a victim. Surprisingly, the offence differs significantly from comparable legislation abroad where neither a mens rea standard of intent is present nor a requirement that a victim must suffer serious emotional distress in order for an offender to be liable. This paper critiques the likely application of the offence and ultimately concludes that in light of differing legislation abroad and cases which have arisen since the enactment of the Communications Act in the United Kingdom, that the mens rea standard should be modified to include subjective recklessness, and the requirement that an intended victim must suffer actual harm should be removed.</p>

Lanthanide-Based Metal–Organic Frameworks Solidified by Gelatin-Methacryloyl Hydrogels For Improving the Accuracy of Localization and Excision of Small Pulmonary Nodules

The localization of invisible and impalpable small pulmonary nodules has become an important concern during surgery, since current widely used techniques for localization, such as hookwires, microcoils, and indocyanine green (ICG), have a number of limitations. For example, hookwires and microcoils may cause complications because of their invasive features, while ICG undergoes rapid diffusion after injection and has limited application in the localization of deep-seated lesions. In contrast, lanthanide-based metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) have been proven as potential fluorescent agents because of their prominent luminescent characteristics, including large Stokes shifts, high quantum yields, long decay lifetimes, and undisturbed emissive energies. In addition, lanthanides, such as Eu, can efficiently absorb X-rays for CT imaging. In this study, we synthesized Eu-UiO-67-bpy (UiO = University of Oslo, bpy = 2,2'-bipyridyl) as a fluorescent dye with a gelatin-methacryloyl (GelMA) hydrogel as a liquid carrier. The prepared complex exhibits constant fluorescence emission owing to the luminescent characteristics of Eu and the stable structure of UiO-67-bpy with restricted fluorescence diffusion attributed to the photocured GelMA. Furthermore, the hydrogel provides stiffness to make the injection site tactile and improve the accuracy of localization and excision. Finally, our complex enables fluorescence-CT dual-modal imaging of the localization site.

The Participation of Small Museums in Visitor Research

<p>Visitor research appears to be a practice which currently has limited application in New Zealand, especially within small museums. There are challenges in undertaking such research, which have led to an emphasis placed upon collecting visitation numbers. Visitor research is a practice which can be used by museums for a range of purposes, such as improving exhibitions, future planning, or for funding bids. In this way, promoting a range of visitor research methods can enhance the overall value of data gathered. Using Museums Aotearoa’s National Visitor Survey as a starting point, this research explores the needs of small museums with regard to visitor research, and also looks into the ways in which these needs might be met. Seven face-to-face interviews were conducted with key people in small museums and galleries. Diversity within the research sample ensured opportunities for comparison, building a picture of differences and similarities in their perceptions of visitor research. The interview responses generated themes around current and ideal practice, funding and management, and community value and involvement. Many reasons emerged as to why small museums and galleries do not carry out visitor research. Shortages of money and staff were two of the main barriers identified. These and other limitations, such as a lack of experience with implementation and analysis, need to be addressed before an institution can seriously undertake valuable visitor research. The findings suggest that within this group of small museums and galleries there is generally a limited understanding about visitor research and the usefulness of the collected data, often restricting practice. There are a number of benefits which would result from access to experts to educate and support visitor research practice. However, there is also the need for funding, possibly in the form of “start up” grants. If more visitor research was undertaken using such support mechanisms, it could ultimately improve the operation of small museums, by creating benchmarks for reporting and potentially increasing funding.</p>