BACKGROUND: Pharmaceutical expenditures (PE) are increasing worldwide raising concerns about sustainability. However, the current price index provides an incomplete picture of this trend due to the rapid introduction of new drugs on the market.OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to decompose PE into their components and investigate the development in Sweden from 1990 to 2022.METHODS: The PE index

Air pollution is a global challenge impacting the lives of millions of people, especially in low-income countries. Improving air quality is linked to several of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The state of particulate matter (PM) pollution in Ethiopia and the importance of a national ambient air quality monitoring program are discussed. The contributions of NASA’s upcoming

Some common Christmas plants are presented with emphasis on Botany and their connection to Christmas. The plants dis- cussed are Picea abies, Euphorbia pulcherrima, Helleborus niger, Viscum album, Ilex aquifo- lium, Schlumbergera sp., Hippeastrum × hortorum, Hyacinthus orientalis, Lycopodium s.l., and Cladonia stellaris.Some common Christmas plants are presented with emphasis on Botany and their connection to Christmas. The plants dis- cussed are Picea abies, Euphorbia pulcherrima, Helleborus niger, Viscum album, Ilex aquifo- lium, Schlumbergera sp., Hippeastrum × hor- torum, Hyacinthus orientalis, Lycopodium s.l., and Cladonia stellaris.

In this symposium piece, I reply to the diverse and wide-ranging set of objections to my book (The Open Future: Why Future Contingents are All False) set forth by MacFarlane, Green, Wasserman, and Bigg & Miller.

Summary: We wanted to determine if there are any associations between birth factors and adult fracture risk. For women only, shorter birth length was associated with lower relative fracture risk. For women and men, individuals who were long at birth as well as tall in adulthood had a substantially higher relative fracture risk. Purpose: We aimed to examine associations between birth anthropometry

This letter presents and analyzes an adaptive data-driven controller that learns the optimal processing rate in a multi-unit processing network in the presence of disturbances. We formulate an optimization problem of linear cost, linear dynamics for the processing network model and an affine constraint on the dispatcher policy. A data-driven linear equation is constructed, based on which the onlin

Molecular blood biomarkers are lacking for high-grade (HG) gastroenteropancreatic (GEP) neuroendocrine neoplasms (NEN). To histologically distinguish between neuroendocrine carcinoma (NEC), neuroendocrine tumors G3 (NET G3), adenocarcinoma and MINEN is often challenging. The mRNA-based NETest has diagnostic, prognostic and predictive value in neuroendocrine tumors G1-2 but has not been studied in

Background and aim: It is crucial to identify a diabetes diagnosis early. Create a predictive model utilizing machine learning (ML) to identify new cases of diabetes in primary health care (PHC). Methods: A case-control study utilizing data on PHC visits for sex-, age, and PHC-matched controls. Stochastic gradient boosting was used to construct a model for predicting cases of diabetes based on dia

Osteoarthritis is one of the most common musculoskeletal diseases and increases the risk of severe cardiovascular disease, like heart attack and stroke. In some individuals, osteoarthritis and cardiovascular disease will co-occur. This co-occurrence might be due to shared risk factors, for example high age, lifestyle factors and/or a shared genetic liability for the two diseases. Here, we show tha

Background: A decline in episodic memory is one of the earliest cognitive characteristics of Alzheimer disease and memory tests are heavily featured in cognitive composite endpoints that are used to demonstrate treatment efficacy. Assessments of episodic memory can take many forms including free recall, associate learning, and paragraph or story recall. Plasma biomarkers of Alzheimer disease are n

According to Ruth Chang (2002, 2022), incommensurability in hard cases cannot be cases of vagueness. This is because vagueness, unlike hard cases, can always be resolved by arbitrary stipulation, leaving no resolutional remainder or substantive disagreement. Contrary to this, I argue that Chang’s argument fails because proponents of the vagueness view are in no way necessarily committed to the cla

We discuss the striking similarities between Friedrich Nietzsche's and Wilfrid Sellars's respective philosophies of mind. Drawing especially on recent Nietzsche scholarship by Riccardi and Katsafanas, we argue that the Nietzschean picture of consciousness is essentially the same as Sellars's view of conceptually structured thought. In particular, we argue that both consider structured thinking to

Background: Up-to-date estimates of stroke burden and attributable risks and their trends at global, regional, and national levels are essential for evidence-based health care, prevention, and resource allocation planning. We aimed to provide such estimates for the period 1990–2021. Methods: We estimated incidence, prevalence, death, and disability-adjusted life-year (DALY) counts and age-standard

Infusion pump-based therapies are an effective treatment option for patients with advanced Parkinson´s disease. Achieving monotherapy with infusion-based therapies could simplify the treatment regimen, provide better medication adherence, reduce adverse events and drug interactions. This review presents the literature data on the efficacy, safety, and achievability of monotherapy with all availabl

Objective: We wanted to determine if higher compliance with American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) exercise prescription guidelines influences exercise outcomes in knee osteoarthritis (OA). Methods: We conducted a systematic review. We searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, MEDLINE, and Embase up to January 4, 2024, for randomized controlled trials evaluating resistance a

Objective. Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Score based on C-reactive protein (ASDAS-CRP) is recommended over ASDAS based on erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ASDAS-ESR) to assess disease activity in axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA). Although ASDAS-CRP and ASDAS-ESR are not interchangeable, the same disease activity cut-offs are used for both. We aimed to estimate optimal ASDAS-ESR values corr