Economic evaluation among Chinese patients with nosocomial pneumonia caused by methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus and treated with linezolid or vancomycin: a secondary,post-hoc analysis based on a Phase 4 clinical trial study

Objective:

To assess cost-effectiveness of linezolid vs vancomycin in treating nosocomial pneumonia caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA-NP) in China and the impact of renal failure on healthcare resource utilization (HCRU) and costs.

Methods:

Cost-effectiveness analysis was conducted based on data from the ZEPHyR trial, with efficacy measured by treatment success and costs calculated from HCRU. Confidence intervals (CI) for cost, efficacy and incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICER) were calculated by non-parametric bootstrap. Chi-square test was used for renal failure rate and t-test for HCRU/cost comparisons. Impact of renal failure was assessed using regression model.

Results:

Data from 448 patients (1:1 linezolid:vancomycin) were analyzed. More patients treated with linezolid achieved success (55% [95% CI?=?48–62%]) than with vancomycin (45% [38–52%]). Treatment cost were ¥79,551 (95% CI?=?¥72,421–¥86,680) for linezolid vs ¥77,587 (¥70,656–¥84,519) for vancomycin in Beijing, ¥90,995 (¥82,598–¥99,393) vs ¥89,448 (¥81,295–¥97,601) in Guangzhou, ¥82,383 (¥74,956–¥89,810) vs ¥80,799 (¥73,545–¥88,054) in Nanjing and ¥59,413 (¥54,366–¥64,460) vs ¥57,804 (¥52,613–¥62,996) in Xi’an. Per successful treatment, the ICER of linezolid over vancomycin were ¥19,719

(?¥143,553 to ¥320,980) (Beijing), ¥15,532 (?¥185,411 to ¥349,693) (Guangzhou), ¥15,904 (?¥161,935 to ¥314,987) (Nanjing) and ¥16,145 (?¥100,738 to ¥234,412) (Xi’an). From simulations, the majority of linezolid cases had greater efficacy and higher costs and more than one third had greater efficacy and lower costs. More vancomycin patients developed renal failure (15% vs 4%, p?<?0.001). Patients with renal failure had higher cost (Nanjng: ¥100,449 (SD?=?¥65,080) vs ¥74,944 (SD?=?¥49,632), p?=?0.002).

Conclusion:

Linezolid was more cost-effective than vancomycin in treating MRSA-NP from a Chinese payer’s perspective, and associated with less renal failure, HCRU and cost.     

浅议结构性黄土边坡渐进性破坏研究现状与不足

结构性黄土边坡渐进性破坏是工程中经常遇到的自然灾害之一,结合已有文献对边坡渐进性破坏的研究现状,总结目前结构性黄土边坡渐进性破坏分析方法的不足和拟研究的方向,以期能指导工程研究和进一步应用。     

Market Failure and Japanese Farmland Rents

Since the early 1950s, Japanese farmland rents have been regulated and a consensus emerged that rent control led to market failure. Hypothesising a rent‐formation model where rents are determined by prices, this paper estimates a threshold autoregressive model which integrates three tests of market failure, namely, inefficiency, bias and asymmetry. There are four results. First, a long‐run relationship exists between rents and prices, and the Japanese farmland rental market is efficient. Second, the rent‐price elasticity is unity and the market is unbiased. Third, rents are Granger‐caused by prices which supports the rent‐formation model. Fourth, asymmetry exists where more rapid error‐correction occurs immediately after policy reform when rent growth exceeds price growth by 3.6% or more, and rent control has benefitted tenants.     

Take the money or run? Investors' ethical reputation and entrepreneurs' willingness to partner

Drawing on the multi-principal–agent perspective, this research models the influence of venture capitalists' reputation for ethical behavior on entrepreneurs' willingness to partner decisions. We test our model using a two-study design. Study one, a conjoint experiment, revealed that explicit knowledge of past unethical behavior negatively affects entrepreneurs' willingness to partner. Interaction effects revealed that factors previously shown to influence the entrepreneurs' evaluations—investor value-add and investment track record—become largely contingent upon and often subjugated by investors' ethical reputation. Study two, a traditional between-subjects scenario experiment, revealed that when entrepreneurs develop their own perceptions about the ethicality of an investor's prior behaviors, the ethical dimension remains highly influential. Further, we find that as the consequences of rejecting funding become more severe (e.g., possible bankruptcy), entrepreneurs become increasingly willing to partner with unethical investors. We also find that high fear of failure entrepreneurs are less willing to partner with unethical investors than their low fear of failure counterparts.     

Finance company failure in New Zealand during 2006–2009: Predictable failures?

Over 31 finance companies (non-bank deposit takers) failed in New Zealand over the 2006–2009 period. With an estimated loss of over NZ$3 billion, there was public outcry and a parliamentary inquiry into the causes of the failures, but few have asked if this was a predictable event. We find that failed finance companies have lower capital adequacy, inferior asset quality, more loans falling due, higher earnings and lower cash flows. Furthermore, failed companies have a longer audit lag and some trustees appear to have a greater percentage of failed firms than others. Our logistic model can successfully classify failure one year before for 88.7% of companies. Our logistic model (neural network) can also correctly classify up to 87.5% (83.3%) of a holdout sample. Our results are of interest to regulators and practitioners, as we show that publicly available data could distinguish between failed and non-failed finance companies.     

中国古代改革的成败得失

全面深化改革要有胆有识,能够紧紧抓住关键点。从历史汲取改革智慧,极为必要。本文选择了四个中国古代全面改革案例,从正反两个方面,方向、策略、人事三个维度,分析其中的经验和教训,以期古为今用。     

公共产品背景下政府发展学前教育的经济分析

现实中政府广泛地为社会提供基本的、均等的学前教育服务,从应然的角度来说,其依据并不是基于准公共产品,而是着眼于保障人权的社会公平,维护社会稳定和谐与缩小竞争起点差距的机会公正;从实然的角度来看,作为个体或家庭消费品的学前教育应交由市场发挥基础性作用;从非竞争性、非排他性以及正外部性的角度来看,学前教育并非完全为公共产品,而是具备私人产品部分属性,市场可作为资源配置的天然平台。     

Dynamic prediction of hedge fund survival in crisis-prone financial markets

This study focuses on dynamic changes in survival probabilities over the lifetimes of hedge funds. To model such probabilities, a mixed Cox proportional hazards (CPH) model-specifically, a survival/hazard model with time-varying covariates and fixed covariates- is employed. Resulting dynamic survival probabilities show that the mixed CPH model provides significantly higher accuracy in predicting hedge fund failure than other models in the literature, including fixed covariate CPH models and discrete logit models. Our results are useful to investors and regulators of hedge funds in crisis-prone financial markets.     

从福利经济学视角看公益创投对社会福利的影响

公益创投是一种新型的公益资本投入方式,其对象一般为初创期或中小型的公益组织。除了资金支持,它还强调管理和技术支持,通过与被投资者建立长期的合作伙伴关系,达到促进能力建设和公益模式创新的目的。其实质是通过引发资源配置的调整,从而影响社会福利的变化。通过运用序数效用论等相关经济理论分析公益创投在不同情况下对社会福利的影响,从而总结出其中的影响因素———投入来源和资源配置合理程度。此外,公益创投在福利事业发展、收入再分配调节及就业机会创造等方面也引致社会福利。     

自律监管产生的必然性及在中国证券市场的例证分析

第二种市场失灵是指市场不仅在提供公共物品上存在着失灵,在提供私人物品时,市场也有一些功能缺陷.第二种政府失灵是指政府不仅在从事竞争性私人物品的生产中存在着失灵,在公共事务方面也有失灵之处.第二种意义上的政府失灵和市场失灵需要自律组织介入.中国股票市场存在第二种政府失灵与第二种市场失灵,因此对于投资者权益保护而言,自律监...