Throwing Foreign Aid at HIV/AIDS in Developing Countries: Missing the Target?

We assess empirically whether foreign official development assistance (ODA) has been effective in alleviating HIV/AIDS epidemics, which figures prominently among the Millennium Development Goals. We employ a difference-in-difference-in-differences approach to identify the treatment effect of ODA specifically meant to fight sexually transmitted diseases on HIV/AIDS-related outcome variables. We do not find that ODA has prevented new infections. The results regarding the medical care of infected people are mixed: evidence on significant treatment effects on AIDS-related deaths exists for the major bilateral source of ODA, the United States, in sharp contrast to ODA from multilateral organizations.     

Flows of Air Pollution,Ill Health and Welfare

We provide a theoretical framework for measuring welfare when pollution influences economic growth by impairing health and driving up defensive medical expenditures. We demonstrate the usefulness of our framework in practice by applying it to data from Swedish valuation studies designed according to the accounting principles suggested here. We estimate that the negative health effects of nitrogen dioxide emissions amount to 0.6% of GDP in Sweden. We also show that a corrective Pigouvian tax should internalize the direct disutility, reduced labor productivity, and increased healthcare expenditures caused by pollution. According to our calculations, harmful health impacts alone (excluding ecosystem effects) justify 65% of the current Swedish tax on nitrogen dioxide.      

手术治疗老年急腹症患者的临床疗效

目的：探讨手术治疗老年急腹症患者的临床疗效。方法选取2012年6月至2014年6月海门市人民医院收治的老年急腹症患者224例,按随机数字表法将其分为观察组和对照组,各112例。对照组患者采用常规开腹手术方式,观察组患者以腹腔镜手术方式进行治疗,比较两组患者的临床疗效。结果观察组患者的手术时间明显短于对照组,术中出血量少于对照组,差异均有统计学意义（均P＜0.05）;观察组患者的治疗满意率为96.4%,明显高于对照组的80.4%,差异有统计学意义（P＜0.05）。结论对老年急腹症进行急诊手术可得到较好的临床效果,但腹腔镜手术对患者所造成痛苦较小,可明显提高手术质量。     

The impact of the SARS outbreak on Taiwanese hotel stock performance: An event-study approach

The severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2003 weakened the Taiwanese economy. The tourism industry suffered the most, experiencing the highest stock price decline (approximately 29 percent) within a month of the SARS outbreak. This research examined the effect of the SARS epidemic on Taiwanese hotel stock price movements using an event-study approach. Seven publicly traded hotel companies experienced steep declines in earnings and stock price during the SARS outbreak period. On and after the day of the SARS outbreak, Taiwanese hotel stocks showed significantly negative cumulative mean abnormal returns, indicating a significant impact of the SARS outbreak on hotel stock performance. Empirical findings could be used to prepare businesses for the similar epidemics, such as a deadly bird-flu epidemic.     

Real-world annualized healthcare utilization and expenditures among insured US patients with acute intermittent porphyria (AIP) treated with hemin

Abstract

Background and aims: Patients with acute intermittent porphyria (AIP) may suffer from acute non-specific attacks that often result in hospitalizations or emergency room (ER) visits. Prior to the recent approval of givosiran (November 2019), hemin was the only FDA-approved therapy for AIP attacks in the US. Our aim was to estimate the annual healthcare utilization and expenditures for AIP patients treated with hemin using real-world data.

Methods: Patients with ≥1 hemin claim and confirmed AIP diagnosis – 1 inpatient claim or 2 outpatient claims ≥30 d apart for AIP (2015–2017) or acute porphyria (prior to 2015) – were identified in MarketScan administrative claims dataset between 2007 and 2017. Continuous enrolment for ≥6 months from confirmed diagnosis was required. A secondary analysis (“active disease population”) limited the sample to adult patients with ≥3 attacks or 10 months of prophylactic use of hemin within a 12-month pre-index period. AIP-related care was defined by hemin use during an attack (daily glucose and/or hemin use) or prophylaxis (non-attack hemin use). Outcomes were annualized and expenditures were inflated to 2017.

Results: Across 10 years, patients with a confirmed AIP diagnosis (N?=?8,877) and ≥1 hemin claim (N?=?164) were restricted by ≥6 months continuous follow-up (N?=?139). AIP patients were mostly female (N?=?112; 81%), had median age of 40 and 3 years average follow-up. Annualized average total expenditures for AIP-related care were $113,477. Annualized average all-cause (any diagnosis) hospitalizations were statistically significantly lower for patients treated with hemin prophylaxis vs. acute treatment (1.0 vs. 2.1; p?<?.001). In the secondary analysis (N?=?27), annualized average total expenditures for AIP-related care were higher ($187,480).

Conclusions: For AIP patients treated with hemin, patients treated for acute attacks may use a greater number of resources compared to patients treated prophylactically.     

Exploring the causal relationship between hospital length of stay and re-hospitalization among Japanese AMI patients

We explore the causal relationship between hospital length of stay (LOS) and re-hospitalization for Acute Myocardial Infarction (AMI) patients in Japan, where the average LOS is the longest among OECD countries. Using chart-based data, we address the endogeneity between LOS and re-hospitalization probability by using an exogenous variation based on Rokuyo (the six basic labels allocated to each day), which is found to be irrelevant to admission day but relevant to discharge day. While we do find a significant and positive association between LOS and re-hospitalization probability in the OLS estimation, we do not find a significant relationship once LOS is instrumented by Rokuyo in various instrumental variable estimations. This implies that additional stay that was induced owing to patient’s choice of preferred Rokuyo at discharge has no effect on re-hospitalization probability.     

TDP联合季德胜蛇药治疗急性痛风性关节炎

目的:研究TDP治疗器联合季德胜蛇药对急性痛风性关节炎发作的治疗效果。方法:选择急性痛风性关节炎发作患者60例,随机分为治疗组30例,对照组30例。治疗组予以TDP治疗器联合季德胜蛇药照射治疗;对照组予秋水仙碱口服治疗。根据治疗前后症状和实验室检查判定疗效。结果:治疗组总有效率91.2%,对照组总有效率57.1%,2组比较差异有统计学意义(P相似文献   

油墨对丰年虾的急性毒性研究

目的:以丰年虾无节幼体(Artemia salinaL.)为模式生物对12种油墨的急性毒性进行了评价。方法:用96孔板浸渍法将在人工海水中孵化的丰年虾暴露在油墨溶液中,设置重铬酸钾作为阳性参照物,24h后显微镜下观察并记录丰年虾死亡数,SPSS18.0软件分析计算受试物的LC50值及95%的置信区间。结果:12种不同颜色的油墨LC50值介于6.48~36.11g/L,重铬酸钾LC50值为18.63 mg/L。油墨毒性顺序由大到小依次为红色>浅粉色>粉红色>紫色>绿色>棕色>蓝色>黄色>黑色>天蓝色>黄绿色>橙色。结论:12种油墨对丰年虾无节幼体的效应低于参照物重铬酸钾,表现出较低的毒性效应。     

Are employees more committed and willing to accept critical assignments during a crisis? A study of organizational commitment,professional commitment and willingness to care during the SARS outbreak in Taiwan

Few researches were involved in investigating the factors of commitment affecting employees' willingness to take critical assignment during a crisis. The severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) event provided as a good arena for crisis research. The study focused on the impact of crisis on the employees' willingness to accept critical assignments and the influencing factors of their willingness. This empirical study of willingness is captured by comparing the nurses' willingness to take care of SARS patients during and after 2 years of SARS outbreak and investigating organizational commitment (OC) and professional commitment (PC) as the determinants of their willingness to care under SARS outbreak. Registered nurses were surveyed during (2003) and after (2005) the SARS outbreak. The results showed that crisis does not affect a change on employees' willingness to accept critical assigned jobs. However, the nurses had higher level of desire to stay at the job and lower level of professional identification during the SARS crisis. The determinants of the nurses' willingness to care for SARS patients with pooling data were organizational identification, and particularly willingness to work in extra efforts. To enhance employees' willingness to accept critical assignments during a crisis, improving their level of OC and PC is a direction for the management to work on.     

胸腹部穿刺辅助控制装置

胸腹部脏器疾病,比如肝癌等在临床上常见的恶性肿瘤,影像学检查一般能发现病灶,有时却难以明确定性,对进一步确定治疗方案带来困难。CT导引下经皮肝脏穿刺可获得病理学诊断,对指导临床选择治疗方案、随访及预测预后等均有重要意义,近年来在肝部疾病的鉴别诊断和治疗中应用越来越广泛。然而在实际的穿刺过程中,常常由于病人的呼吸导致胸腹部内脏的活动,致使穿刺失败或者是重复穿刺加重病人的痛苦。本设计针对这一问题,以呼吸活动为切入点,寻求解决方案。呼吸活动的外在表现是胸腹部压力的变化,本设计的主要思想是利用STC89C52单片机为核心制作一个装置,第一步利用一个气体压力传感器MPS2108通过包裹在病人腹部的气囊采集压力信号,第二步将该信号在LM324放大器上进行放大,第三步再送到ADC0804进行A/D转换后变为数字信号,最终在数码管上显示出来,定位时在数码管上取一个值,等到穿刺时让病人有意识的呼吸,直到压力传感器感受相同的压力,数码管显示相同的值时,由于内脏的位置大体相似,这时再穿刺时可以提高穿刺的成功率,减少重复穿刺现象的发生,减轻病人的痛苦。