A cost-effectiveness analysis of revaccination and catch-up strategies with the 23-valent pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine (PPV23) in older adults in Japan

Objective: In Japan, the National Immunization Program (NIP) includes PPV23 as the primary vaccination for adults and catch-up cohorts. The Japanese Association for Infectious Diseases recommends revaccination for older adults who received primary vaccination ≥5 years earlier. The cost-effectiveness of adding revaccination and/or continuing catch-up vaccination in the NIP was evaluated from the public payer perspective in Japan.

Methods: The Markov model included five health states: no pneumococcal disease, invasive pneumococcal diseases (IPD), non-bacteremic pneumococcal pneumonia (NBPP), post-meningitis sequelae, and death. Cohorts of adults aged 65–95 were followed until age 100 or death: 2014 cohort (aged 65–95, vaccinated: 2014); 2019 cohort (aged 65: 2019); and 2019 catch-up cohort (aged 70–100: 2019, unvaccinated: 2014). Strategies included: (1) vaccinate 2014 and 2019 cohorts; (2) vaccinate 2014 and 2019 cohorts and revaccinate both; (3) strategy 1 and vaccinate 2019 catch-up cohort; (4) strategy 2 and vaccinate 2019 catch-up cohort; and (5) strategy 4 and revaccinate 2019 catch-up cohort. Parameters were retrieved from global and Japanese sources, costs and QALYs discounted at 2%, and incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs) estimated.

Results: Strategy 1 had the highest number of IPD and NBPP cases, and strategy 5 the lowest. Strategies 3–5 dominated strategy 1 and strategy 2 was cost-effective compared to strategy 1 (ICER: ¥1,622,153 per QALY gained). At a willingness-to-pay threshold of ¥5 million per QALY gained, strategy 2 was cost-effective and strategies 3–5 were cost-saving compared to strategy 1.

Conclusions: Strategies including revaccination, catch-up, or both were cost-effective or cost-saving in comparison to no revaccination and no catch-up. Results can inform future vaccine policies and programs in Japan.     

新冠肺炎疫情对中小微外贸企业的影响及对策

突如其来的新冠肺炎对全球经济造成了很大的影响,我国对外贸易当然更是无法幸免。但总体而言,笔者认为,短期影响虽然十分严重,但正在逐步消弭;中期影响需要认真对待,损失基本可控;长期影响更加深刻,但是依然可以化解——我国以及我省对外经济贸易总体向好的态势有望保持。然而,面广量大的中小微外贸企业原本就身体单薄,这场突如其来的疫情,无疑又是雪上加霜,日子更加艰难,亟待关注与帮扶。     

疫情背景下的中小微企业金融纾困模式

针对新冠病毒肺炎疫情,本课题组对中小微企业的生存压力进行调研,发现85%中小微企业现金流不足支持3个月;各级政府、金融机构的救助政策反应迅速、积极,但惠及效率有待提高;企业现金流救助需要发挥政府平台和产业链群形成的产业平台的作用,助推金融精准纾困中小微企业。建议政府部门短期积极利用两大平台资源,优化中央、地方政府专项纾困基金和支持性贷款、金融扶持资金和优惠贷款的管理模式;中期建立专项中小微企业发展的扶持基金和就业援助计划,推动中小微企业转型升级。     

Relevance of Fundraising Charities’ Content-Marketing Objectives: Perceptions of Donors,Fundraisers, and Their Consultants

Many fundraising charities invest heavily in content marketing, often using consultants to direct their content-marketing efforts. Thus it is vital to establish whether certain key aims of content marketing suggested by literature in the field actually match the aspects of content marketing deemed most important by charity donors. This paper examines the significance attached by samples of charities, donors, and content-marketing consultancies to four possible major objectives of content marketing—the attainment of high–search-engine-results-page rankings, image enhancement through impression management, the stimulation of public perceptions of organizational transparency, and the creation of messages that “go viral.” Several major differences in perceptions emerged among the three groups, with substantial implications for how fundraising charities should manage their content-marketing programs and activities. Charity managements need to consider carefully and critically the possible returns on large-scale expenditures intended to pursue the putative aims of content marketing that are routinely advocated by practitioner and academic literature.     

The impact of SARS on China's human resources: implications for the labour market and level of unemployment in the service sector in Beijing,Guangzhou and Shanghai

In this paper, we examine the effects of SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) on China's human resources, its labour-market and its level of employment and unemployment, looking specifically at what was one of its economically most vulnerable points, the hotel industry. The paper hypothesizes that the greatest impact would be on human resources in the service-industries and on particular sub-sectors, such as employment in hotels, located in three main cities in the PRC, in Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai, catering to both overseas as well as domestic tourism. It tentatively concludes that the almost dramatic demand and supply ‘shocks’ may have directly affected both the demand for and the supply of labour in the sub-sector, with discernable employment consequences.     

病毒性心肌炎患者血清 SOD 与心肌炎特异性标志物的相关性研究

为探讨病毒性心肌炎患儿超氧化物歧化酶（ SOD）与心肌炎特异性标志物的相关性及其临床意义，将48例小儿病毒性心肌炎患者作为实验组，以48例健康儿童作为对照组，检测实验组和对照组血清中心肌肌钙蛋白（ cTnT）、超敏C反应蛋白（ HS-CRP）、肌酸激酶同工酶（ CK -MB）和 SOD，评价其相关性。结果为：实验组cTnT、HS-CRP和CK-MB水平明显高于对照组（P＜0．05），SOD 的活性明显低于对照组（P＜0．01）；治疗3周后 cTnT、HS -CRP 和 CK -MB 水平明显降低（P ＜0．05）， SOD的活性明显升高（P＜0．01），与cTnT、HS-CRP和CK-MB 水平呈负相关（P＜0．05）。 SOD、cT-nT、HS-CRP、CK-MB均参与了病毒性心肌炎的发病过程。     

Economic assessment of doripenem versus imipenem in the treatment of ventilator-associated pneumonia

Abstract

Background: Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP), the most common nosocomial infection in critically ill patients, is associated with significantly longer duration of mechanical ventilation, and increased mortality, hospital days, and health-care costs. A previously published prospective, randomized study established the noninferiority of intravenous (IV) doripenem versus IV imipenem/cilastatin (‘imipenem‘) for VAP. This study compares the economic outcomes of IV therapy with doripenem versus imipenem as first-line treatment for VAP.

Methods: A decision-analytic model of inpatient care and outcomes for VAP was used to estimate costs associated with VAP treatment. The model calculates total hospital costs, comprising costs of initial and concomitant therapy, and costs associated with mechanical ventilation, intensive care unit stays, and total days in hospital.

Results: Total treatment costs for doripenem were $10,630 lower than for imipenem ($71,259 vs. 81,889), driven primarily by differences in costs of mechanical ventilation ($45,224 for doripenem, $57,348 for imipenem). Probabilistic sensitivity analyses found doripenem consistently cost saving versus imipenem in 1,000 simulations. Study limitations include use of a simple model to represent a complex disease process and reliance on trial data that may not reflect real-world care and outcomes.

Conclusions: Doripenem is a cost saving first-line treatment for VAP versus imipenem while providing an equivalent rate of cure.     

The effect of national culture on marketing web sites

This paper explores the effect of national culture on marketing web sites. To discuss how the different cultural values on different marketing model, Chi-square analysis has been conducted. It indicates that there are some differences between China and US Its results describe the importance of national culture in marketing web sites tor every enterprise.     

Risk markers of severe psychological violence against women: a WorldSAFE multi-country study

This study was an attempt to determine the prevalence and significant risk factors associated with severe psychological violence in 6 WorldSAFE sites. The respondents were 3975 women aged 15–49 years and residing in selected urban areas in Chile, Egypt, the Philippines and India. Using a standard instrument translated locally, psychological violence was measured using items indicating the following domains: verbal abuse, fear and separation. A woman who had experienced severe psychological violence had admitted that she had experienced any of the above-mentioned behaviors ‘3 or more times’ in her lifetime (lifetime prevalence) or with her current partner during the past 12 months (current prevalence). The results showed a lifetime prevalence of severe psychological violence ranging from 10.5% of women in Egypt to about 50% in Chile and Trivandrum, India. Verbal abuse was most common among the different behavioral indicators. A woman's mental health status and partner alcohol use were found to be the common significant risk factors. Recommendations were made to facilitate efforts to address severe psychological violence in developing countries.