760 Prevalence of eligibility criteria for prolonged dual antithrombotic therapy in patients with PEGASUS and COMPASS phenotypes: insights from the start-antiplatelet registry

Aims After 1 year of dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) for acute coronary syndrome (ACS), clinicians face the dilemma of choosing between prolonged DAPT with aspirin and ticagrelor 60 mg twice daily (PEGASUS strategy) or aspirin and rivaroxaban 2.5 mg twice daily (COMPASS strategy). In recent years, there has been a widespread discussion about the optimal duration of DAPT and the best combination of drugs. To analyse the prevalence and clinical implications of the eligibility criteria for prolonged dual antithrombotic therapy with ticagrelor 60 mg twice daily and/or rivaroxaban 2.5 mg twice daily in a contemporary real-world ACS registry. Methods and results Patients from the START-ANTIPLATELET registry (NCT02219984) were stratified according to the eligibility criteria of the PEGASUS and COMPASS studies to investigate the proportion of patients eligible for prolonged dual antithrombotic therapy at discharge and after 1-year of DAPT. Net adverse clinical events (NACE), defined as all-cause death, myocardial infarction, stroke, and major bleeding, at 1 year were also evaluated and compared among groups. 1844 were considered for the analysis at baseline. Out of 849 event-free patients continually receiving dual antiplatelet therapy for at least 1 year, 577 (68%) and 583 (68.7%) met at least one eligibility criterion for ticagrelor and rivaroxaban, respectively. In the PEGASUS-like patients, age was the most common criterion (71% of cases). The presence ≥2 cardiovascular risk factors was the most common eligibility criterion in the COMPASS-like patients (80.8%). At 1-year follow-up, 211 (11.4%) and 119 (6.5%) patients experienced NACE and MACE, respectively. The incidence of NACEs was higher in the PEGASUS-only group (15.4% vs. 8.4%; P = 0.008) and numerically higher in the COMPASS-only group (10.9% vs. 8.4%; P = 0.299). Conclusions In a contemporary real-world ACS cohort, approximately two-thirds of patients that complete 1-year DAPT met the eligibility criteria for ticagrelor 60 mg twice daily or rivaroxaban 2.5 mg twice daily, showing a higher risk of NACEs.

THE PROBLEMS OF DETERMINING THE ADMINISTRATIVE AND LEGAL STATUS OF EMPLOYEES OCCUPYING POLITICAL POSITIONS IN THE EXECUTIVE AUTHORITIES

The article analyzes the opinions presented in scientific sources regarding the definition of political positions in the executive branch and the administrative and legal status of employees holding these positions. Instead, the specifics of the implementation of the administrative-legal status of employees holding political positions in the executive branch are studied in administrative science piece by piece. Particular attention is paid to the fact that administrative law consistently and persistently considers all aspects of the acquisition and implementation of the administrative and legal status of civil servants and employees of local self-government bodies. A terminological distinction is made between the terms «professionalism» and «qualifications». Professionalism means that a position in the executive branch is associated with a specific profession. For a candidate applying for the relevant position, additional requirements are imposed regarding his professional abilities. On the other hand, professionalism means that the person applying for the position must be qualified enough to carry out their duties effectively. Thus, “professionalism” is characteristic of all employees holding administrative positions in the system of executive bodies, and “professionalism”, in our opinion, is a common criterion for all categories of civil servants. It is proposed to highlight the following features of the civil service performed by persons holding political positions in executive bodies: 1) provides for the constitutional and legal procedure for entering and passing political service (constitutional and legal status of employees holding political positions); 2) the powers assigned to political positions in executive bodies require the availability of appropriate administrative and legal forms and mechanisms for their implementation (administrative and legal status of employees holding political positions); 3) employees holding political positions are not subject to disciplinary responsibility, and therefore the structure of their administrative and legal status does not provide for legal responsibility; 4) the professionalism of political figures in the system of executive authorities is manifested in a harmonious combination of their political and administrative activities.

Performance of SMEs: Literature synthesis of contingency models

The fundamental issue of performance of SMEs has been intensively analyzed by academia mainly through performance models. Performance models are largely focused on predicting failure and have intrinsic limitations. The present literature synthesis proposes an alternative perspective from seemingly unconnected empirical studies, which share the performance of SMEs as a common criterion: contingency models. Such perspective emphasizes the positive facet of SMEs results and complements the current academic standard of prediction models. This study performed integration and conceptual classification of 99 articles cataloged as contingency models and published by reputed journals from 1999 to 2019. The evidence from the integrated empirical literature revealed an ample and diverse set of supported variables that explain a positive economic outcome in small ventures. The analysis and classification of the articles derived 7 sections, 24 categories and 131 supported variables, which are intended to help improve the scholarly and professional analysis of SME performance due to the inherent viability of the integrated articles, proving a benign economic output. This view contradicts the current paradigm of performance models, which is insufficient to predict or explain how to improve SMEs results. The integrated elements developed by this study can work as a framework for the academic research of SMEs performance, and practical guidance for SMEs’ managers. This synthesis sets an agenda for further academic research in the field of SME performance, specifically in the areas of methodology, operationalization of performance, and empirical research.

Minimizing the infected peak utilizing a single lockdown: a technical result regarding equal peaks

Due to the usage of social distancing as a means to control the spread of the novel coronavirus disease COVID-19, there has been a large amount of research into the dynamics of epidemiological models with time-varying transmission rates. Such studies attempt to capture population responses to differing levels of social distancing, and are used for designing policies which both inhibit disease spread but also allow for limited economic activity. One common criterion utilized for the recent pandemic is the peak of the infected population, a measure of the strain placed upon the health care system; protocols which reduce this peak are commonly said to `flatten the curve." In this work, we consider a very specialized distancing mandate, which consists of one period of fixed length of distancing, and addresses the question of optimal initiation time. We prove rigorously that this time is characterized by an equal peaks phenomenon: the optimal protocol will experience a rebound in the infected peak after distancing is relaxed, which is equal in size to the peak when distancing is commenced. In the case of a non-perfect lockdown (i.e. disease transmission is not completely suppressed), explicit formulas for the initiation time cannot be computed, but implicit relations are provided which can be pre-computed given the current state of the epidemic. Expected extensions to more general distancing policies are also hypothesized, which suggest designs for the optimal timing of non-overlapping lockdowns.

Erosive Pustular Dermatosis of the Scalp: Clinicopathological Correlation Leading to a Definition of Diagnostic Criteria

Introduction. Erosive pustular dermatosis of the scalp (EPDS) is frequently misdiagnosed as epithelial tumor or trauma. To the authors’ knowledge, no international guidelines or consistent recommendations for treatment of EPDS exist, and histological findings often are labeled as nonspecific. Objective. This study aimed to identify clinical and histological characteristics unique to EPDS to aid diagnosis. Materials and Methods. The biopsies of 21 patients (age range, 73–90 years) with EPDS and who were diagnosed and treated at the Department of Dermatology at University of Leipzig Medical Center and the Asklepios Medical Center, Weißenfels, Germany, were reevaluated by dermatopathologists. Results were correlated with the clinical findings and course. Results. Erosive pustular dermatosis of the scalp was observed in elderly patients with androgenetic alopecia and field cancerization of the capillitium; most patients had multiple comorbidities. Therapy used to treat actinic keratosis lesions (eg, imiquimod, ingenol mebutate), photodynamic therapy, cryotherapy, trauma, and surgery all were found to have predisposed for or led to EPDS. Erosive pustular dermatosis of the scalp presented clinically as exophytic crusts and pus overlying shiny granulation tissue. Histopathological findings demonstrated an ulcerated epidermis and dermal infiltrates dominated by lymphocytes together with a multitude of plasma cells. Plasma cells were found in all 21 biopsies and represented a common criterion for the correct diagnosis. The erosive lesions healed well within weeks after therapy with topical steroids. Conclusions. Chronic, poorly healing lesions with crusts and pus over shiny granulation tissue on the scalp are suggestive of EPDS, which should be confirmed by biopsy. Histological clues to a diagnosis of EPDS include dermal infiltrates of plasma cells and lymphocytes. The topical application of high-potency steroids showed great effectiveness in the present study.

Delving Into Thermoeconomics: A Brief Theoretical Comparison of Thermoeconomic Approaches for Simple Cooling Systems

Thermoeconomics combines the concepts of economics and thermodynamics to assess the cost formation process of thermal systems. It has great applicability in the allocation, optimization and diagnosis of product costs. However, some aspects need to be gathered and solved, to have common criteria for its implementation. That is precisely what happens with dissipative components, which are part of cooling systems being so that different criteria are given to evaluate their impact in the cost distribution. In this paper, the state of art regarding the application of thermoeconomics in simple cooling systems is briefly evaluated, by giving the main characteristic of each approach, resolving that there is no a common criterion on the subject of the treatment of dissipative equipment and, therefore, neither on the costs accounting. Therefore, this work compiles and compares the different thermoeconomics methodologies. Consequently, it aims to serve as a tool for the appropriate selection of the thermoeconomics methodology for the analysis of real cooling systems.

Senti-BAS: A BERT-based model with sentiment computing for happiness research (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Happiness becomes a rising topic that we all care about recently. It can be described in various forms. For the text content, it is an interesting subject that we can do research on happiness by utilizing natural language processing (NLP) methods. OBJECTIVE As an abstract and complicated emotion, there is no common criterion to measure and describe happiness. Therefore, researchers are creating different models to study and measure happiness. METHODS In this paper, we present a deep-learning based model called Senti-BAS (BERT embedded Bi-LSTM with self-Attention mechanism along with the Sentiment computing). RESULTS Given a sentence that describes how a person felt happiness recently, the model can classify the happiness scenario in the sentence with two topics: was it controlled by the author (label ‘agency’), and was it involving other people (label ‘social’). Besides language models, we employ the label information through sentiment computing based on lexicon. CONCLUSIONS The model performs with a high accuracy on both ‘agency’ and ‘social’ labels, and we also make comparisons with several popular embedding models like Elmo, GPT. Depending on our work, we can study the happiness at a more fine-grained level.

Sustainable development of single-industry towns in Russia

The modern practice of defining administrative-industrial territories has formed the concept of «single-industry towns». Currently, there are many definitions of this phenomenon; however, the common criterion for classifying a town as a single-industry town is that its socio-economic development depends on the activities of one city-forming enterprise or several enterprises in the technological structure that operate within a single production and technological process. Such dependence for settlements with narrow specialization has a negative impact during the crisis situation at the enterprise or its liquidation. The negative consequences include a sharp increase in unemployment (including hidden one), aggravation of social problems, acceleration of population outflow to more developed cities/regions of the region/country, sharply reduced revenues to the local budget, which leads to the impossibility of independent development of the settlement. The problems of single-industry towns in the periods of economic crises are pronounced. Results. This paper has defined the criteria of single-industry towns, approaches to the identification of single-industry towns. In addition, the models and factors contributing to the sustainable socio-economic development of single-industry towns and domestic experience in the modernization of single-industry town settlements are identified.

Privacy-Preserving Two-Party Computation of Parameters of a Fuzzy Linear Regression

Purpose: describe two-party computation of fuzzy linear regression with horizontal partitioning of data, while maintaining data confidentiality. Methods: the computation is designed using a transformational approach. The optimization problems of each of the two participants are transformed and combined into a common problem. The solution to this problem can be found by one of the participants. Results: A protocol is proposed that allows two users to obtain a fuzzy linear regression model based on the combined data. Each of the users has a set of data about the results of observations, containing the values of the explanatory variables and the values of the response variable. The data structure is shared: both users use the same set of explanatory variables and a common criterion. Regression coefficients are searched for as symmetric triangular fuzzy numbers by solving the corresponding linear programming problem. It is assumed that both users are semihonest (honest but curious, or passive and curious), i.e. they execute the protocol, but can try to extract information about the source data of the partner by applying arbitrary processing methods to the received data that are not provided for by the protocol. The protocol describes the transformed linear programming problem. The solution of this problem can be found by one of the users. The number of observations of each user is known to both users. The observation data remains confidential. The correctness of the protocol is proved and its security is justified. Keywords: fuzzy numbers, collaborative solution of a linear programming problem, two-way computation, transformational approach, cloud computing, federated machine learning.

Interpretative Discretion of Judiciary and the Well-Being of the Child

<p>The well-being of the child is a common criterion in many Polish normative regulations pertaining to different branches of law. It is both a tool for the law-making and the executive bodies, employed to direct the law-applying bodies towards ensuring full protection of the child. This article is focused on analysing interpretative judicial discretion with respect to the well-being of the child as manifested in the judicial decisions of the Supreme Court and in the judgements of the Supreme Administrative Court and Constitutional Tribunal. In the course of the research, the author undertakes to determine the essence of interpretative judicial discretion in cases predominantly focused on establishing the current and postulated situation of the child with a view to ensuring the most favourable ruling for the same.</p>