695915 research outputs found
Sort by
Out of Pocket Expenses in Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
No full textBackgroundDespite anecdotal evidence that the out of pocket costs of OCD can be substantial in some cases, there is no evidence on how many people they affect, or the magnitude of these costs. AimsThis paper explores the type and quantity of out of pocket expenses reported by a large sample of adults with OCD. MethodsData on out of pocket expenses were collected from participants taking part in the OCTET multi-centre randomised controlled trial. Participants were aged 18+, meeting DSM-IV criteria for OCD, and scoring 16+ on the Yale Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale. Individual-level resource use data including a description and estimated cost of out of pocket expenses were measured using an adapted version of the Adult Service Use Schedule (AD-SUS): a questionnaire used to collect data on resource use.ResultsForty-five percent (208/465) reported out of pocket expenses due to their OCD. The mean cost of out of pocket expenses was £19.19 per week (SD £27.56 SD), range £0.06 to £224.00.ConclusionsFuture economic evaluations involving participants with OCD should include out of pocket expenses, but careful consideration of alternative approaches to the collection and costing of this data is needed.<br/
On the Entropy Cost of Making Solvates
No full textWe present a simple way of estimating the entropy cost of solvate formation in crystals. The entropy penalty of making solvates can be as low as <1 kJ/mol or as high as >9 kJ/mol and is entirely dependent on the nature of the liquid component and the temperature of solvate formation. A link is found between a low entropy cost and a higher likelihood for a solvent to make solvates
Combined associations of a polygenic risk score and classical risk factors with breast cancer risk
No full textWe evaluated the joint associations between a new 313-variant PRS (PRS313) and questionnaire-based breast cancer risk factors for women of European ancestry, using 72,284 cases and 80,354 controls from the Breast Cancer Association Consortium. Interactions were evaluated using standard logistic regression, and a newly developed case-only method, for breast cancer risk overall and by estrogen receptor status. After accounting for multiple testing, we did not find evidence that per-standard deviation PRS313 odds ratio differed across strata defined by individual risk factors. Goodness-of-fit tests did not reject the assumption of a multiplicative model between PRS313 and each risk factor. Variation in projected absolute lifetime risk of breast cancer associated with classical risk factors was greater for women with higher genetic risk (PRS313 and family history), and on average 17.5% higher in the highest vs lowest deciles of genetic risk. These findings have implications for risk prevention for women at increased risk of breast cancer
Efficient Verified Implementation of Introsort and Pdqsort
No full textSorting algorithms are an important part of most standard libraries, and both, their correctness and efficiency is crucial for many applications.As generic sorting algorithm, the GNU C++ Standard Library implements the introsort algorithm, a combination of quicksort, heapsort, and insertion sort. The Boost C++ Libraries implement pdqsort, an extension of introsort that achieves linear runtime on inputs with certain patterns. We verify introsort and pdqsort in the Isabelle LLVM verification framework, closely following the state-of-the-art implementations from GNU and Boost. On an extensive benchmark set, our verified implementations perform on par with the originals
Adjuvant chemotherapy in biliary tract cancer: state of the art and future perspectives
No full textPurpose of review: Biliary tract cancers (BTCs) have a poor prognosis; most patients present with advanced disease and, even after surgical resection for early-stage disease local and distant relapses are frequent. Involved resection margins and lymph node involvement are the most relevant known adverse prognostic factors. Historically clinicians have made clinical decisions based on data from institutional series and uncontrolled studies, with their inherent limitations. In this review, data from recently-reported prospective randomized trials are reviewed and clinical implications discussed. Recent findings: Results from prospective randomized phase III trials (namely BILCAP, PRODIGE-12 and BCAT) are reviewed: none of the studies met their primary endpoint by intention-to-treat analysis. However, following a per-protocol sensitivity analysis of the BILCAP study, adjuvant capecitabine (for six months) showed a clinically-relevant improvement in overall survival and provides reference data for future clinical trials. Summary: Adjuvant chemotherapy with capecitabine should be considered following curative resection of BTC. Identification of benefit in anatomical subgroups is ongoing and future trials should also consider the implication of molecular subtypes of BTC (for prognostic impact and on-target therapeutic options).<br/
Incorporation of Active Power Ancillary Services into VSC-HVDC Connected Energy Sources
No full textThis paper investigates the interaction between frequency containment services (FCS) and power oscillation damping (POD) ancillary services installed in a Voltage Source Converter High Voltage DC (VSC-HVDC) line. In VSC-HVDC systems, ancillary services can be installed to maintain appropriate levels of power system stability. Both FCS and POD controllers are typically installed in the active power control loop separately. The modulation signals generated by these two ancillary services both affect the active power injected by the converter. When operating a VSC with FCS and POD ancillary services the resultant combination of the modulation signals in the active power loop may result in reduced performance. The results in this study show that performance of controllers reduces when both ancillary services are activated, particularly in low-inertia systems. Modifications to the control structures of both controllers that improve their performance under various disturbances are proposed
Characterising the Quality of Behaviour Driven Specifications
No full textBehaviour-Driven Development (BDD) is an agile testingtechnique that enables software requirements to be specied as exampleinteractions with the system, using structured natural language. While(in theory) being readable by non-technical stakeholders, the examplescan also be executed against the code base to identify behaviours thatare not yet correctly implemented. Writing good BDD suites, however, ischallenging. A typical suite can contain hundreds of individual scenarios,that must correctly specify the system as a whole as well as individually.Despite much discussion amongst practitioners and in the blogosphere,as yet no formal denition of what makes for a high quality BSS suitehas been given. To shed light on this, we surveyed BDD practitioners,asking for their opinions on the quality criteria that are important forBDD suites. We proposed, and asked for opinions on, four quality principles,and gave practitioners the option to add more principles of theirown. This paper reports on the results of the survey, and presents anapproach to dening BDD suite quality
Clinical and neuroradiological characterisation of spinal lesions in adults with Neurofibromatosis Type 1
No full textNeurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) manifests itself in many ways in the spine. This study aims to report the types of spinal lesions, clinical and demographic data in a large cohort from a complex NF1 centre. The characteristics of those with spinal neurofibromatosis, where neurofibromas are present on every spinal nerve root were sought for comparison with the wider group of NF1 patients. This is a retrospective review of MDT minutes of 303 patients from a UK NF1 centre and the largest reported series of NF1 patients based on radiological data. Prevalence of each symptom and lesion was calculated and statistically significant associations were established. The most reported findings were cutaneous lesions (44.9%) and neurological deficit (27.4%). 28.4% had dural ectasia, 52.5% had some form of spinal deformity. 57.8% had spinal nerve root tumours, the most common of which were at C2. The most progressive lesions were spinal nerve root tumours (29.1%). The only statistically significant association found was between dural ectasia and spinal deformity (P < 0.003), where dural ectasia is associated with a 32.6% increase in spinal deformity incidence. This is the largest descriptive study of spinal lesions in NF1. Spinal tumours and spinal deformity are prevalent in NF1. The predilection of spinal tumours for flexible spinal regions suggests that repetitive movement might be an important factor in pathogenesis. Physicians and patients should be alert to the observation that although many spinal neurofibromatosis patients display no neurological deficit, they often have significant lesions which require monitoring and sometimes surgery
Modelling of epidemics by the lattice Boltzmann method
No full textIn this paper, we demonstrate that the lattice Boltzmann method can be successfully adopted to investigate the dynamics of epidemics. Numerical simulations prove the excellent accuracy properties of the approach that recovers the solution of the popular SIR model. Because spatial effects are naturally accounted for in the lattice Boltzmann formulation, the present scheme appears to be more competitive than traditional solution procedures. Interestingly, it allows us to simulate scenarios characterized by selective lockdown configurations
How can better monitoring, reporting and evaluation standards advance behavioural public policy?
No full textBehavioural public policy interventions have been implemented across the world, targeting citizens, professionals, politicians, and policy makers. This article examines poor quality reporting of interventions and methods in some behavioural public policy research. We undertake a review of existing reporting standards to assess their suitability for the behavioural public policy context. Our findings reveal that the adoption of standards can improve the reliability and reproducibility of research; provide a more robust evidence base from which to generalise findings; and convince sceptics of the value of behavioural public policy research. We conclude that use of the Template for Intervention Description and Replication (TiDieR) checklist and the Behaviour Change Technique Taxonomy (BCTTv1) would add rigour to intervention reporting. We argue there is a need for a combined tool to guide the design and reporting of randomised controlled trials, incorporating elements from the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) checklist and other sources.<br/