Use of ticagrelor and the risks of pneumonia and pneumonia-specific death in patients with non-acute coronary syndrome conditions: a population-based cohort study

Previous studies have shown that ticagrelor reduced risk of pneumonia in patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) compared to clopidogrel, however, its effect in patients with non-ACS cardiovascular diseases remains uncertain. The aim was to investigate the effect of ticagrelor on pneumonia and pneumonia-specific death compared to clopidogrel in non-ACS patients in Hong Kong. This was a population-based cohort study. We included consecutive patients using ticagrelor or clopidogrel admitted for non-ACS conditions in Hong Kong public hospitals from March 2012 to September 2019. Patients using both drugs were excluded. The outcomes of interest were incident pneumonia, all-cause death, and pneumonia-specific death. Multivariable survival analysis models were used to estimate the effects [hazard ratio (HR) and 95% confidence interval (CI)]. Propensity score matching, adjustment and weighting were performed as sensitivity analyses. In total, 90,154 patients were included (mean age 70.66 years, males 61.7%). The majority of them (97.2%) used clopidogrel. Ticagrelor was associated with a lower risk of incident pneumonia [0.59 (0.46–0.75)], all-cause death [0.83 (0.73–0.93)] and pneumonia-specific death [0.49 (0.36–0.67)]. Sensitivity analyses yielded similar results. Ticagrelor was associated with lower risk of all-cause death, pneumonia-specific death, and incident pneumonia in patients with non-ACS cardiovascular conditions, consistent with previous evidence in patients with ACS. This additional effect of anti-pneumonia should be considered when choosing a proper P2Y12 inhibitor for patients with high risk of pneumonia.

Most Findings Obtained With Untimed Visual Illusions Are Confounded

Visual illusions have been studied extensively, but their time course has not. Here we show, in a sample of more than 550 people, that unrestricted presentation times—as opposed to presentations lasting only a single second—weaken the Ebbinghaus illusion, strengthen lightness contrast with double increments, and do not alter lightness contrast with double decrements. When presentation time is unrestricted, these illusions are affected in the same way (decrease, increase, no change) by how long observers look at them. Our results imply that differences in illusion magnitude between individuals or groups are confounded with differences in inspection time, no matter whether stimuli are evaluated in matching, adjustment, or untimed comparison tasks. We offer an explanation for why these three illusions progress differently, and we spell out how our findings challenge theories of lightness, theories of global-local processing, and the interpretation of all research that has investigated visual illusions, or used them as tools, without considering inspection time.

Front-line daratumumab-VTd versus standard-of-care in ASCT-eligible multiple myeloma: matching-adjusted indirect comparison

Aim: To compare daratumumab plus standard-of-care (SoC; bortezomib/thalidomide/dexamethasone [VTd]) and VTd alone with other SoC for transplant-eligible newly diagnosed multiple myeloma. Patients & methods: We conducted an unanchored matching-adjusted indirect comparison of progression-free and overall survival (PFS/OS) with D-VTd/VTd versus bortezomib/lenalidomide/dexamethasone (VRd), bortezomib/cyclophosphamide/dexamethasone (VCd) and bortezomib/dexamethasone (Vd). Results: After matching adjustment, significant improvements in PFS were estimated for D-VTd versus VRd (hazard ratio [HR]: 0.47 [95% CI: 0.33–0.69]), VCd (HR: 0.35 [95% CI: 0.21–0.58]) and Vd (HR: 0.42 [95% CI: 0.28–0.63]). OS was significantly longer with D-VTd versus VRd (HR: 0.31 [95% CI: 0.16–0.57]), VCd (HR: 0.35 [95% CI: 0.14–0.86]) and Vd (HR: 0.38 [95% CI: 0.18–0.77]). No significant PFS/OS differences were seen for VTd versus other SoC. Conclusion: This analysis supports front-line daratumumab for transplant-eligible newly diagnosed multiple myeloma.

Comparison of Nusinersen and Evrysdi in the Treatment of Spinal Muscular Atrophy

Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) is a genetic neuromuscular disease that commonly affects children, and usually worsens with age that often leads to permanent disability and death for many of the SMA patients. Recently, two drugs are developed to improving the quality of life of SMA sufferers: Evrysdi and Nusinersen. This study is identified by a systematic literature review to compare two treatments. The comparison attempts to focus on mechanism, administration and clinical trials. The trials include the ENDEAR study for Nusinersen, and the FIREFISH study for Evrysdi. Due to the different baselines of two trials, matching-adjusted indirect comparison (MAIC) is used to “weighted” baseline characteristics to match each other across all the studies. Each of the trials highlighted the effectiveness for comparison. Both Nusinersen and Evrysdi have had a major and positive impact on improving the quality of life of SMA, and both therapies have been shown to be highly effective. Moreover, the indirect comparison with Matching Adjustment Indirect Comparison shows that Risdiplam is more effective as compared to Nusinersen. Nonetheless, the comparison is still inaccurate due to lack of real-world evidence from patients.

String Matching Untuk Penyesuaian Dosen Pembimbing Dengan Algoritma Boyer Moore

String matcing is a technique of reading in this computer just as humans do from left to right or from right to left in several languages the faster someone reads more information is obtained. Adaptation of supervisors is important for academics and has been applied throughout the academic. However, if there are many students, it will certainly make it difficult for academics, the reason why it is necessary to adjust the supervisor so that the lecturers' research field can really be applied to students so that the supervisors provide guidance to students to gain broader knowledge due to the field of study. Besides that, the facilities are generally used so far using manuals requires a new information system for academics so as not to drain the mind and energy The adjustment of the thesis supervisor is designed to facilitate the academic, students and lecturers to be faster. The algorithm used in this system is to use the function of pulling information using string matching. Boyer more algorithm is reading a text from many texts and taking the bottom line or key of the text as information points. If later the adjustment of supervisors processes large data and is used continuously, this system really facilitates the academic parties to be integrated by utilizing fast and smart data, so that it only needs to develop the existing academic information system. Keywords: String Matching, Adjustment of Lecturers, Counselors, Boyer Moore Algorithms.

Matching-adjusted indirect comparison of benralizumab versus interleukin-5 inhibitors for the treatment of severe asthma: a systematic review

Benralizumab is an interleukin-5 receptor α-directed cytolytic monoclonal antibody that directly depletes eosinophils. Its relative efficacy versus other IL-5-targeted treatments for patients with severe, uncontrolled asthma is not yet fully characterised.We performed a matching-adjusted indirect comparison (MAIC) of benralizumab versus mepolizumab and reslizumab. Trials were selected through systematic review and evaluation of trial methods. Benralizumab patient-level data were weighted to match treatment-effect-modifying patient characteristics of comparator trials before indirect efficacy comparisons.After matching adjustment, benralizumab and mepolizumab reduced exacerbations versus placebo by 52% and 49%, respectively (rate ratio [RR] 0.94, 95% CI 0.78–1.13; n=1524) and reduced the rate of exacerbations requiring hospitalisation/emergency department visit by 52% and 52%, respectively (RR 1.00, 95% CI 0.57–1.75; n=1524). Benralizumab and mepolizumab similarly improved pre-bronchodilator forced expiratory volume in 1 s at 32 weeks (difference 0.03 L, 95% CI −0.06–0.12; n=1443). Benralizumab and reslizumab patient populations were too dissimilar to generate a sufficient effective sample size to produce a reliable estimate for MAIC.MAIC is a robust way to indirectly compare treatment efficacies from trials with heterogeneous patient populations. When baseline patient characteristics were matched across asthma trials, benralizumab and mepolizumab yielded similar efficacy.

Comparing Solvency II and Life and General Insurance Capital approaches to capital determination of a life portfolio in the presence of stress scenarios

The European-centric Solvency II and Australian-centric Life and General Insurance Capital regimes are two examples of risk-based approaches to capital determination and risk management for life insurers. Both consist of a three-pillar structure covering capital, risk management and disclosure requirements. We apply the capital requirements of each regime to three synthetic sets of insurance policies, including a risk, annuity and combined portfolios, and consider the impact on capital arising from three separate and relatively severe stress events. Results highlight the relatively capital intensive nature of annuities, the differences between different capital regimes, the significance of solvency II’s matching adjustment and the robustness of each regime to both pandemic and economic stresses. Results also highlight the nature of diversification benefits from within each capital regime, on overall capital requirements.

Study on the Line Overload Harmonization and Optimization Control

The line overload is discussed and the coordination and optimization model of preventive and emergency control is proposed in this paper. It combines with the sensitivity’s concept and reverse phase equivalent matching adjustment principle, takes into account the severity of the accident probability and consequences, and introduces the important factor of the corresponding accident; adjust automatically according to the influence degree of the accident to the power grid. Getting reasonable coordination optimization strategies to ensure the safety and economy of the system is effective and verified by this paper.

Research on a Comprehensive Evaluation Method for Multidrop Overload Control

Power flow shift being one of the main reasons that cause a large-scale blackout of power system, it is important to get the power flow shift under control at the beginning of the failure. In view of multidrop overload which frequently occurs in power outage, a comprehensive evaluation method is proposed to control the power flow shift. This method synthetically considers the control nodes' ability to eliminate the overload of the transmission in combination with PCA in which nodes' sensitivity of branch is selected as the evaluation index, divides them into two types (nodes that increase the power output to branch and others that decrease the power output to branch) and then obtains the control nodes' operation sequence. Additionally, a reverse equal matching adjustment is used to realize the control over multidrop overload. Typical numerical example is used to verify the effectiveness of the comprehensive evaluation method.