Introduction
Because patients and patient organizations want to strengthen their role in the care pathway and drug evaluation and in order to improve pharmacovigilance activities, European competent ...authorities implemented regulations to allow direct reporting of adverse drug reactions related to medicinal products by patients in 2012.
Objectives
To describe evolution and analyze determinants of patient reporting activity in France in order to assess patient involvement in pharmacovigilance.
Method
Using the French national pharmacovigilance database, univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to compare the characteristics of adverse drug reaction (ADR) reports from patients and healthcare professionals (HCP) between 2011 and 2020. The relationship between regional patient ADR report activity and regional care provision and socio-professional characteristics was analyzed using the principal component analysis.
Results
A significant and higher increase in ADR reports over time from patients (
r
= 0.89,
p
< 0.001) compared to HCP (
r
= 0.27,
p
= 0.002) has been observed. Patient ADR report activities compared to HCP concerned more women (80% vs. 55%,
p
< 0.001), younger age classes (
p
< 0.001), reporting through web portal (83% vs. 17%,
p
< 0.001), and less serious events (26% vs. 63%,
p
< 0.001). In the principal component analysis, regional patient reporting activity was related to socio-professional categories, age classes, and densities of hospital beds and physicians.
Conclusion
Our results confirm an increasing involvement of patients in ADR report activities. The determinants of patient reporting activities are not only related to drug and medical factors but also to social factors. Digital tools may also play a role in health democracy in pharmacovigilance.
A cross-sectional survey was undertaken with the European Union (EU) Member States and Norway and Iceland to describe seasonal influenza immunisation in the 2006-7 season, in particular to identify ...country-specific recommendations for risk groups, obtain vaccine uptake information and allow comparison with global recommendations. A standardised questionnaire was completed electronically by each country's project gatekeeper. Of the 29 countries surveyed, 28 recommended seasonal influenza vaccination for older age groups (22 for those aged > 65 years), and in one country vaccine was recommended for all age groups. All countries recommended vaccinating patients with chronic pulmonary and cardiovascular diseases and most countries advised to immunise patients with haematologic or metabolic disorders (n=28), immunologic disorders (n=27) and renal disease (n=27), as well as residents of long-term care facilities (n=24). Most countries recommended vaccination for staff in hospitals (n=25), long-term care facilities (n=25) and outpatient clinics (n=23), and one-third had such recommendations for workers in essential (n=10), military (n=10) and veterinary services (n=10) and poultry industry (n=13). Eight countries recommended vaccine for pregnant women; and five advised to vaccinate children (with age limits ranging from 6 months to 5 years). Twenty countries measured influenza vaccine uptake among those aged > 65 years (range 1.8%-82.1%), seven reported uptake in healthcare workers (range 14%-48%) and seven assessed coverage in persons with underlying medical conditions (range 27.6%-75.2%). The data provided by this study can assist EU states to assess and compare their influenza vaccination programme performance with other countries. The information provides a comprehensive overview of policies and programmes and their outcomes and can be used to inform joint discussions on how the national policies in the EU might be standardised in the future to achieve optimal coverage. Annual surveys could be used to monitor changes in these national policies.
This paper describes the acceleration tests performed at the Catania LNS Laboratory on a 3 GHz linac module of the side coupled type, which boosts the proton energy of a beam extracted from a ...cyclotron from 62 to 72 MeV. The output proton energy was measured with two devices: a NaI(Tl) crystal and a bending magnet. The experimental spectra are in good agreement with the calculated ones. From their shape it is obtained that (18A-3.0)% of the transmitted protons fall in a A-2 MeV interval centered around 72 MeV. This result is in good agreement with the 20% value derived from the simulation of the acceleration process. The measured energy of the accelerated protons was used to check that the shunt impedance of the structure is equal to the computed one within 3%. This was the first time that a 3 GHz structure has been used to accelerate protons, and the results of the tests have demonstrated that a high frequency linac can be used as a cyclotron booster.
In this paper, we present the current state of the art in semantic data modeling of multimedia data. Semantic conceptualization can be performed at several levels of information granularity, leading ...to multilevel indexing and searching mechanisms. Various models at different levels of granularity are compared. At the finest level of granularity, multimedia data can be indexed based on image contents, such as identification of objects and faces. At a coarser level of granularity, indexing of multimedia data can be focused on events and episodes, which are higher level abstractions. In light of the above, we also examine modeling and indexing techniques of multimedia documents.
LIBO is a proton accelerator that operates at
3
GHz
, the same frequency as the one adopted in the about 7500 electron linacs used for radiotherapy all over the world. Such a high frequency was ...chosen to obtain a large gradient (on average more than
10
MV/m
), and thus a short linac (about
15
m
) to boost the energy of the protons, extracted at about
60
MeV
from a cyclotron, up to the
200
MeV
needed for the treatment of deep-seated tumours.
This paper describes the design study of the full
3
GHz
Side Coupled Linac (modular structure, nine modules) and the construction and tests of the LIBO prototype (first module), which was built to accelerate protons from 62 to
74
MeV
with an RF peak power of
4.4
MW
. The items discussed are the beam dynamics parameters of the module (longitudinal and transverse acceptances), the constructional elements and procedures, the accuracies of the various mechanical elements, the cooling system, the RF tuning, the RF measurement and the RF power tests. These tests showed that, after a short conditioning time, the gradient in each of the four tanks of the module could reach
28.5
MV/m
, much larger than the nominal project value
(15.8
MV/m)
. The last section of the paper describes the successful acceleration tests performed at the Laboratori Nazionali del Sud of INFN in Catania with a solid-state
3
GHz
modulator lent by IBA.
In May 2003, the 56th World Health Assembly (WHA) recommended influenza vaccination for all people at high risk defined as the elderly and persons with underlying diseases 1. The WHA countries, ...including all European Union (EU) Member States, also committed to the goal of attaining vaccination coverage of the elderly population of at least 50% by 2006 and 75% by 2010 and to having mechanisms for monitoring the uptake 1. To date there has been no published survey on how successful European countries have been in implementing this WHA resolution.
Emerging multimedia technologies will allow users to store, retrieve, share and manipulate complex information in order to build exciting multimedia applications. Key challenges in the development of ...multimedia database systems include: content analysis of images and video data; knowledge-based representation of multimedia data; semantic modeling of events of interest and management of spatio-temporal metadata; facilities to retrieve multimedia data containing contents of interest to users; and design and development of high-performance multimedia database servers for networked environments. Multimedia systems must exhibit high degrees of robustness, efficiency and reliability for deployment in real-world environments.
Ophryotrocha labronica is a gonochoristic polychaete worm whose sex determining mechanism and sex ratio control are supposed to be polygenic. From a lab population, whose sex ratio (i.e., proportion ...of males) was 0.5, the estimate of sex ratio heritability by offspring‐father regression was 0.54 ± 0.15 and by offspring‐mother regression was not significantly different from 0. Estimate of sex ratio repeatability between successive broods of a pair was 0.64 ± 0.33. Since female parents do not contribute in any way to the variability of sex ratio, sex ratio variation seems to be largely a paternal character. On the basis of these estimates we advance the hypothesis that in this species sex is determined by a multilocus genetic system, allowing the combined effects of a female major sex gene (which could give rise to a form of female heterogamety) and masculinizing modifiers. The hypothesis that the male sex has the least canalised sexual differentiation is supported by the observation that some old males developed oocytes.
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