Abstract Background Fluoropyrimidines, including 5-fluorouracil and capecitabine, are the most common chemotherapeutic agents for colorectal carcinoma. Although previous studies have suggested varying degrees of cardiotoxicity with these drugs, there is a notable lack large-scale investigations appropriate control groups. This study aimed to evaluate cardiovascular outcome among carcinoma patients treated fluoropyrimidines. Methods A retrospective propensity score- matched cohort was...

Rationale: Patients with asthma were advised to avoid coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and comply medication during the COVID-19 pandemic. Respiratory tract infection is a common cause of exacerbations. There has not been evidence suggesting link between exacerbation, especially in places dramatic responses control universal masking aggressive social distancing. Objectives: To assess number for admissions exacerbations January April 2020 Hong Kong reference admission past 5 years. Methods:...

ABSTRACT Spatiotemporal causal inference methods are needed to detect the effect of interventions on indirectly measured epidemiological outcomes that go beyond studying spatiotemporal correlations. Chronic wasting disease (CWD) causes neurological degeneration and eventual death white‐tailed deer ( Odocoileus virginianus ) in Wisconsin. Targeted culling involves removing after traditional hunting seasons areas with high CWD prevalence. The evaluation effects targeted spread growth is an...

Introduction: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) has been reported to have significant healthcare and economic burdens worldwide. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, there changes in epidemiology of various chronic diseases. The burden severe acute exacerbation COPD (AECOPD) factors affecting should be assessed post-pandemic era. Methods: A territory-wide study was conducted Hong Kong AECOPD from 2022 2024, identify associated with an increase direct costs related AECOPD. Adult patients...

To compare the incidence and severity of invasive pneumococcal diseases (IPDs), pneumonia all-cause during COVID-19 pandemic period with universal masking social distancing that previous 5 years.Retrospective observational study on IPDs, between January 2015-December 2019 March 2020-March 2021. January-February 2020 was excluded from analysis as it treated a transitional normal time pandemic.Episode-based data by retrieval hospitalisation records Hospital Authority's territory-wide...

Influenza A viruses are one of the most significant viral groups globally with substantial impacts on human, domestic animal and wildlife health. Wild birds natural reservoirs for these viruses, active surveillance within wild bird populations provides critical information about evolution forming basis risk assessments countermeasure development. Unfortunately, programs often resource-intensive, thus, enhancing increased efficiency is paramount. Machine learning, a branch artificial...

Abstract Background Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) led to pandemic that affected almost all countries in the world. Many have implemented border restriction as a public health measure limit local outbreak. However, there is inadequate scientific data support such practice, especially presence of an established transmission disease. Objective To apply metapopulation Susceptible-Exposed-Infectious-Recovered (SEIR) model with inspected migration investigate effect outbreak coronavirus...

Healthcare-seeking behavior changed during the COVID-19 pandemic and might alter epidemiology of pleural empyema. In this study, incidence, etiology outcomes patients admitted for empyema in Hong Kong pre-COVID-19 (January 2015-December 2019) post-COVID-19 2020-June 2022) periods were compared. Overall, Streptococcus pneumoniae was predominant organism <18-year-old patients, while anginosus, anaerobes polymicrobial infections more frequent adults. period, a marked decline incidence children...

COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted tuberculosis (TB) services in many countries, but the impacts on sites of involvement, drug susceptibility, smear positivity and clinical outcomes, outcomes co-infection with influenza remain unclear.

This paper develops a composite likelihood-based approach for multiple changepoint estimation in multivariate time series. We derive criterion based on pairwise likelihood and minimum description length estimating the number locations of changepoints performing model selection each segment. The can be consistently estimated under mild conditions computation conducted efficiently with pruned dynamic programming algorithm. Simulation studies real data examples demonstrate statistical...

Abstract Background Amiodarone is one of the most commonly used anti-arrhythmic agents. pulmonary toxicity a potentially fatal adverse effect associated with amiodarone use. Previous studies on epidemiology and risk factors for showed diverse results. Methods A multicenter retrospective cohort study was conducted to identify clinic-epidemiologic markers development prediction rule. Patients taking who were managed in 3 centres Hong Kong from 2005 2015 included this study. Penalized logistic...

Although stage I non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) typically carries a good prognosis following complete resection, early disease recurrence can occur. An accurate survival prediction model would help refine follow-up strategy and personalize future adjuvant therapy. We developed post-operative based on readily available clinical information for patients with adenocarcinoma.We retrospectively studied the disease-free (DFS) of 408 pathologically confirmed low-risk adenocarcinoma who...

This article develops a unified and computationally efficient method for change-point estimation along the time dimension in nonstationary spatio-temporal process. By modeling process as piecewise stationary process, we consider simultaneous of number locations change-points, model parameters each segment. A composite likelihood-based criterion is developed parameter estimation. Under framework increasing domain asymptotics, theoretical results including consistency distribution estimators...

The American Dream-the perception that upward social mobility depends on effort-is a central cultural ethos in the United States. belief is not unique to Americans, and groups across world endorse it varying degrees. current study aims examine cross-cultural trends perceived test possible mechanisms may explain changes mobility. Using dataset of over 1.4 million participants 167 countries from 2005 2019, we comprehensively document variations Citizens Bhutan, Qatar, Uzbekistan reported...

This study investigated the status of spontaneous otoacoustic emissions (SOAEs) on cochlear function in a cohort male/female participants with wide age range. It examined whether there was correlation between presence SOAEs and measurements transient evoked (TEOAEs), distortion product (DPOAEs), extended high-frequency (EHF) hearing thresholds.463 (222 male, 241 female; range 20-59 years) pure-tone thresholds ≤25 dB HL for octave frequencies 500-8000 Hz were included study, divided into...

Abstract There are a range of approaches to compare differences between or among optimum nitrogen (N) fertilizer rates resulting from different management practices; however, this goal lacks statistical standardization. To provide the rigor needed give clear recommendations for greater less N need based on specific practices, we propose bootstrapping approach that resamples residuals with replacement. While is not new data processing in agronomic fields, an example how conduct...

Extreme weather events associated with climate change have caused significant damages. In particular, hail storms damage millions of properties in the U.S. and result billion-dollar insured losses each year recent decade. To facilitate insurance claims management operations companies, we construct a hierarchical dependence model, which accommodates complex within between outcomes interests including propensity filing claim, time to report claim amount. The storm-specific property-specific...