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What are the benefit and harms of tumor necrosis factor inhibitors in seronegative rheumatoid arthritis patients who are inadequate responders to conventional synthetic DMARDs?
Background: Ambulatory oxygen therapy is prescribed for patients with chronic lung diseases who experience exertional hypoxemia. However, available devices may not adequately meet user requirements, and their performance characteristics are heterogeneous. Objective: This study aims to identify devices available for delivery of ambulatory oxygen therapy, the technologies that they use to generate o
Epidemiology has achieved substantial methodological refinement in recent decades, yet its social resonance has not always kept pace. This essay reflects on tendencies within influential sectors of the field toward methodological sophistication that, while yielding genuine intellectual advances, can unintentionally distance epidemiology from its civic and historical roots. By privileging what is a
Many studies compare health averages between groups such as neighbourhoods or social categories. Averages are simple but can be misleading, since individuals within the same group often differ widely. We present MAIHDA (Multilevel Analysis of Individual Heterogeneity and Discriminatory Accuracy) as a general framework to study how context structures health differences. MAIHDA is not a new statisti
Atrial fibrillation (AF) is increasingly diagnosed early, close to its first occurrence due to: (i) increased public awareness with self-screening; (ii) health care initiatives including population screening and opportunistic case finding; and (iii) increased use and surveillance of implantable cardiac devices. At its onset, AF is often low burden, and cardiovascular co-morbidities may be absent o
The aim of this international meta-analysis was to quantify the predictive value of BMI for incident fracture and relationship of this risk with age, sex, follow-up time, and BMD. A total of 1667922 men and women from 32 countries (63 cohorts), followed for a total of 16.0 million person-years were studied. 293325 had FN BMD measured (2.2 million person-years follow-up). An extended Poisson model
Summary: In this meta-analysis of international cohorts, current smoking is confirmed as a significant BMD-independent predictor of future fracture with a stronger relationship in men than in women. A causative and reversible effect of smoking on fracture risk is suggested by past smoking having a significantly lower risk than current smoking. Purpose: In this meta-analysis of international cohort
Background and purpose: Molecularly targeted cancer therapies challenge conventional health economic evaluation frameworks that are structured around tumour-specific indications, comparators, and trial designs. Existing models often rely on pooled estimates from heterogeneous early-phase evidence or single-indication analyses, creating uncertainty for reimbursement decision-makers. We propose a co
Background: Cohort studies often use simple models, for example, completers-only or aggregated scores, to assess changes in imaging outcomes. With more data available, this introduces selection bias. Integrated analyses allow scores from multiple reading rounds; therefore, we assessed their effect on the change estimates’ precision compared with the completers-only analysis. Second, we compared ch
Objective: Priority areas for emergency care research are emerging and becoming ever more important. The objectives of this scoping review were to (1) provide a comprehensive overview of published emergency care priority-setting studies by collating and comparing priority-setting methodology and (2) describe the resulting research priorities identified. Methods: The Joanna Briggs Institute methodo
This thesis work concerns studies of two rare-earth-ions, praseodymium (Pr3+) and europium (Eu3+), doped into a yttrium orthosilicate (Y2SiO5) crystal for applications in quantum computing. The nuclear spin levels of these ions can have very long coherence times, up to several hours. Coherence can also be effectively transferred between the optical and hyperfine levels. These systems, therefore, h
The term hybrid immunity is used to denote the immunological status of vaccinated individuals with a history of natural infection. Reports of new SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern motivate continuous rethought and renewal of COVID-19 vaccination programs. We used a naturalistic case-control study design to compare the effectiveness of the BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine to hybrid immunity 180 days post-vaccina
When developing products, engineering designers often face the problem that their candidate for a technical solution, ranging from a concept to a detailed design, needs to be analyzed by a design analyst before it is approved or rejected and the engineering designer can continue his/her activities within the product development process. If engineering designers have to send every solution candidat
The burden of depression and anxiety disorders is greater in women, and female sex hormones have been shown to affect mood. Psychological side effects of hormonal contraception (HC) are also a common complaint in the clinic, but few previous studies have investigated this subject. We therefore wanted to investigate whether use of HC was associated with adverse psychological health outcomes, and wh
Childhood vaccination with the 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV13) was introduced in Cambodia in January 2015. Baseline data regarding circulating serotypes are scarce. All microbiology laboratories in Cambodia were contacted for identification of stored isolates of Streptococcus pneumoniae from clinical specimens taken before the introduction of PCV13. Available isolates were serotyp
When doped into solid state transparent crystals, rare-earth ions can have optically excited states with milliseconds coherence time and up to six hours coherence time for hyperfine levels after being cooled down to liquid helium temperature. This long coherence property makes them unique as solid state material and attractive for quantum information applications.The rare-earth ions have narrow ho
Objectives: The aim was to investigate if there is an interaction between sitting time and leisure time physical activity on blood pressure and if there are age differences and sex differences in this respect. Methods: Linear regression analysis on cross-sectional data was performed in more than 45 000 men and women from two Swedish cohort studies, EpiHealth (45-75 years) and LifeGene (18-45 years
Glycans are biologically important structures synthesised by glycosyltransferase (GT) enzymes. Disruptive genetic null variants in GT genes can lead to serious illness but benign phenotypes are also seen, including antigenic differences on the red blood cell (RBC) surface, giving rise to blood groups. To characterise known and potential carbohydrate blood group antigens without a known underlying
Due to the high specific surface area, packed bed reactors are widely used in real engineering applications. The flow distribution, which is highly dependent on the packing structure, can be vital for the heat/mass transfer and reaction performances. This makes the study of the flow distribution in packed beds quite important. In the present paper, an equivalent network model based on the Voronoi
