Cost-effectiveness analysis of darbepoetin after switch from epoetin-beta in patients on hemodialysis: an Italian single-center retrospective study

2006 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-62
Author(s):  
Mario Eandi ◽  
Nicola Giotta ◽  
Roberto Russo ◽  
Maria Michela Gianino

Darbepoetin (DARB), a human erythropoietin with improved pharmacological parameters (longer half life and a dose-response relationship independent from the route of administration) is a new treatment option for chronic nephropathy-induced anemia that in many Italian dialysis centers is substituting older erythropoietins, mainly due to greater ease of use. At current prices and at the theoretical and recommended 200:1 dose conversion factor, DARB pharmaceutical cost ranges from –9% to +17% of EPO cost. In this monocentric study, real drug consumption and related actual costs of a pre-switch semester with EPO were analysed and compared to the first two post-switch semesters with DARB therapy. Furthermore, erythropoetic response was recorded and related to drug exposition levels, in order to establish a real life EPO:DARB dose conversion factor. In this experience, the conversion factor was estimated in at least 250-280:1, depending on the method adopted for the estimation. The initial dose, chosen on the basis of the recommended conversion factor, induced an excessive erythropoietic response, which was generally followed by a dose reduction and successive titration to target desired Hb levels, generating the spiraliform dose-response curve associated with delayed feed-back mechanisms. The pharmacoeconomical analysis, conducted in the perspective of the public health service, indicated that the choice of substituting DARB for EPO in the treatment of chronic kidney failure-associated anemia is univocally convenient, the former being less costly and more effective.

2010 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 60-65
Author(s):  
Francine Wenhardt

Abstract The speech-language pathologist (SLP) working in the public schools has a wide variety of tasks. Educational preparation is not all that is needed to be an effective school-based SLP. As a SLP currently working in the capacity of a program coordinator, the author describes the skills required to fulfill the job requirements and responsibilities of the SLP in the school setting and advises the new graduate regarding the interview process and beginning a career in the public schools.


Author(s):  
Vito Tanzi

This book deals with practical or real life aspects of public finance. It focuses on the growth in the activities of governments, in a world that expects more than in the past from governments. The book focuses on the growing complexity in both the work of the private market and that of the public sector. It stresses that part of the growing complexity is due to the more ambitious role that governments tried to play today, while part is due to choices made by governments, so that complexity may be partly avoidable. This was important in the different pursuit of social welfare by different countries. Complexity has increased opportunities for abuses, for rent seeking, and for mistakes in policies. It may also have increased the attraction of populist policies that claim to offer magical or easy solutions to problems. A major conclusion of the book is that the objective of simplicity in laws and in policies should be given more importance by both economists and governments.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Néill O’dwyer ◽  
Emin Zerman ◽  
Gareth W. Young ◽  
Aljosa Smolic ◽  
Siobhán Dunne ◽  
...  

Cross-reality technologies are quickly establishing themselves as commonplace platforms for presenting objects of historical, scientific, artistic, and cultural interest to the public. In this space, augmented reality (AR) is notably successful in delivering cultural heritage applications, including architectural and environmental heritage reconstruction, exhibition data management and representation, storytelling, and exhibition curation. Generally, it has been observed that the nature of information delivery in applications created for narrating exhibitions tends to be informative and formal. Here we report on the assessment of a pilot scene for a prototype AR application that attempts to break this mold by employing a humorous and playful mode of communication. This bespoke AR experience harnessed the cutting-edge live-action capture technique of volumetric video to create a digital tour guide that playfully embellished the museological experience of the museum visitors. This applied research article consists of measuring, presenting, and discussing the appeal, interest, and ease of use of this ludic AR storytelling strategy mediated via AR technology in a cultural heritage context.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 5284
Author(s):  
Timothy Van Renterghem ◽  
Francesco Aletta ◽  
Dick Botteldooren

The deployment of measures to mitigate sound during propagation outdoors is most often a compromise between the acoustic design, practical limitations, and visual preferences regarding the landscape. The current study of a raised berm next to a highway shows a number of common issues like the impact of the limited length of the noise shielding device, initially non-dominant sounds becoming noticeable, local drops in efficiency when the barrier is not fully continuous, and overall limited abatement efficiencies. Detailed assessments of both the objective and subjective effect of the intervention, both before and after the intervention was deployed, using the same methodology, showed that especially the more noise sensitive persons benefit from the noise abatement. Reducing the highest exposure levels did not result anymore in a different perception compared to more noise insensitive persons. People do react to spatial variation in exposure and abatement efficiency. Although level reductions might not be excessive in many real-life complex multi-source situations, they do improve the perception of the acoustic environment in the public space.


Publika ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 199-214
Author(s):  
Kholilah Danarratoe Kharima ◽  
Eva Hany Fanida

Penggunaan teknologi saat ini dibutuhkan dalam bidang pelayanan publik. Seiring dengan bertambahnya kebutuhan masyarakat maka pemerintah sebagai penyedia layanan publik terus melakukan pembaruan terhadap perubahan pelayanan yang diberikan agar memudahkan masyarakat dalam mendapatkan layanan informasi. Salah satu penerapan e-government oleh Dinas Perhubungan Kota Surabaya adalah inovasi aplikasi TransportasiKu yang bertujuan untuk memberikan layanan informasi terkait lalu lintas dan transportasi umum yang ada di Surabaya secara terkini, praktis, lebih cepat dengan satu aplikasi yang memuat semua informasi melalui genggaman smartphone. Penelitian ini menganalisa menggunakan indikator measuring the quality of e-government from the user prespective (Kozák, 2018) dengan enam indikator yaitu ease of use, content and appearance of the information, reliability, citizen support, trust/security, support in completing forms. Penelitian ini menggunakan jenis penelitian deskriptif dengan metode kualitatif, teknik pengumpulan data wawancara, observasi, dokumentasi dan teknik analisa data yaitu pengumpulan data, reduksi data, penyajian data dan penarikan kesimpulan/verifikasi. Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa aplikasi ini mendapat respon yang cukup baik dari masyarakat sebagai pengguna karena dapat memberikan layanan informasi yang dibutuhkan namun masih ada juga gangguan dalam penggunaannya. Indikator pertama, kemudahan penggunaan dirasa para pengguna sangat mudah digunakan untuk setiap saat. Indikator kedua, isi dan tampilan informasi yang dihadirkan sederhana dan lengkap. Indikator ketiga keandalan, pada aplikasi ini server yang digunakan masih kurang cukup. Indikator keempat dukungan masyarakat untuk halaman bantuan tidak tersedia hanya ada kolom komentar. Indikator kelima kepercayaan/keamanan, tidak menyertakan informasi pribadi sehingga aman. Indikator keenam dukungan dalam pengisian, formulir aplikasi ini berbasis informasi tanpa perlu pengisian formulir data para penggunanya. Kata Kunci : Pelayanan Publik, Inovasi, E-Government, TransportasiKu   The use of technology is currently needed in the field of public services. Along with the increasing needs of the community, the government as a public service provider continues to make updates to changes in the services provided to make it easier for the public to get information services. One of the applications of e-government by the Surabaya City Department of Transportation is the TransportationKu application innovation which aims to provide information services related to traffic and public transportation in Surabaya in an up-to-date, practical, faster way with one application that contains all information through the grip of a smartphone. This study analyzes using indicators measuring the quality of e-government from the user perspective (Kozák, 2018) with six indicators, namely ease of use, content and appearance of the information, reliability, citizen support, trust/security, support in completing forms. This research uses descriptive research with qualitative methods, interview data collection techniques, observation, documentation and data analysis techniques, namely data collection, data reduction, data presentation and conclusion / verification. The results of this study indicate that this application has received a fairly good response from the public as a user because it can provide the information services needed, but there are still disturbances in its use. The first indicator, ease of use, is felt by users to be very easy to use at any time. The second indicator, the content and display of the information presented is simple and complete. The third indicator is reliability, in this application the server used is still insufficient. The fourth indicator of community support for the help page is not available, only a comment column. The fifth indicator is trust / security, does not include personal information so it is safe. The sixth indicator of support in filling in this application form is information-based without the need to fill out user data forms. Keywords: Public Service, Innovation, E-Government, TransportasiKu


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 291-311
Author(s):  
(Gwen) Kuan-ying Kuo

In early 2020, the unforeseen COVID-19 has brought the art world to its knees, particularly the contemporary art scene needs viewers and feedback to survive. Artists require new channels connecting them with their audiences, while artists’ work needs to be seen and appreciated by the public to sustain its value. In the face of social distancing restrictions and limited visitors, however, many international exhibitions are forced to cancel or postponed. With less to no patronage, will the global pandemic bring the end of the art world? As the global pandemic has forced most social and cultural events moving online, the art biennials are no exception. This article examines the art biennial, the Olympics of the art world, to rediscover the meaning of ‘art’ before and after COVID-19. Integrating virtual presentation and digital campaign between the Taipei Biennial and the Shanghai Biennale, the first running art biennials across the Taiwan Strait, this article analyses and presents the art world’s potential shifts in the post-pandemic future.


2001 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 329-338 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tetsuo ISHIKAWA ◽  
Shinji TOKONAMI ◽  
Hidenori YONEHARA ◽  
Kumiko FUKUTSU ◽  
Yuji YAMADA

2014 ◽  
Vol 556-562 ◽  
pp. 6286-6289
Author(s):  
Nian Li ◽  
Li Yin ◽  
Qing Xi Peng

The Internet has experienced profound changes. Large amount of user-generated-contents provide valuable information to the public. Customers usually express their opinion in online shopping. After they finish the reviews, they give an overall rating to the product or service. In this paper, we focus on the review rating prediction problem. Previous studies usually regard this problem as a regression problem. We take a new machine learning method to solve the problem. Learning to rank method has been exploited to tackle the prediction. After feature selection, the maximum entropy classifier has been employed to solve the multi-classification problem. The real life dataset has been crawled to verify the proposed method. Empirical studies demonstrate the proposed method outperform the baseline methods.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-44
Author(s):  
Maria Hellenikapoulos ◽  
Intiyas Utami

The high level and trend of corruption in Indonesia Province could hinder the goal of Sustainable Development Goals point 16. This study aims to identify disclosures of integrity through websites and classify the Indonesia Provinces into 3 categories, namely high, medium, and low based on the integrity disclosure index using institutional theory. The data is based on content analysis to analyze practices through disclosure of integrity on 34 Indonesian Province websites using the Integrity Framework Disclosure Index instrument. The findings indicate that Indonesia has disclosed 775 items (48%). The items of vision, mission, and integrity report are the biggest disclosed items among other items that show Indonesia’s effort to create a “good image” in the public eyes. Several Provinces are in the moderate category because of a strategic issue in the field of education. Local governments still have to review the increase in integrity disclosure on websites and their real-life implementation to improve integrity and fight corruption in Indonesia.


Author(s):  
E R Komi ◽  
J R Roberts ◽  
S J Rothberg

Three types of thin, flexible force sensor were studied under a variety of loading conditions to determine their suitability for measuring grip force. Static accuracy, hysteresis, repeatability, and drift errors were established, the effects of shear force and surface curvature were considered, and dynamic accuracy and drift were measured. Novel tests were developed to consider dynamic accuracy and sensitivity to shear loadings. Additionally, three sensors were evaluated in a real-life gripping scenario, measuring grip force during a golf shot. Comments are made on sensor performance, ease of use, and durability.


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