Quality of life assessment in elderly patients with aggressive non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma treated with anthracycline-containing regimens. Report of a prospective study by the Intergruppo Italiano Linfomi

Background and Objectives. The aim of this study was to evaluate quality of life (QOL) in a group of elderly patients ( > 65 years) with aggressive non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) treated with chemotherapy regimens containing anthracyclines. Design and Methods. QOL was evaluated in a population of elderly patients with aggressive NHL enrolled in a phase III clinical trial run by the Intergruppo Italiano Linfomi (11L) from 1996 to 1999 to compare two different anthracycline-containing regimens (mini-CEOP vs P-VEBEC). The EORTC-QLQ-C30 questionnaire, which has already been validated in oncology, was used. The questionnaire was administered at the time of diagnosis, half way through the chemotherapy and at the time of restaging. Results. Ninety-one patients completed pre-therapy and post-therapy questionnaires and they are the subject of this report. Baseline QOL assessment showed a strong correlation of poor values of QOL with anemia and high risk according to the International Prognostic Index (IPI). At the end of treatment no functional scales showed worse values. A significant improvement was observed for pain (p = 0.003), appetite (p = 0.006), sleep (p = 0.015) and global health (p = 0.027). Considering only the 50 patients who achieved a complete remission (CR), an improvement was also recorded for emotional state (p = 0.10), role (P = 0.05), constipation (p = 0.04) and global QOL (p = 0.05). Interpretation and Conclusions. The EORTC-QLQ-C30 is feasible even in a population of elderly patients, in whom it had never been tested before. The improvement of QOL at the end of the treatment demonstrated that the symptoms of the disease have a greater negative influence on the patient's life than do the side effects of the therapy

Quantifying Privacy: A Novel Entropy-Based Measure of Disclosure Risk

It is well recognised that data mining and statistical analysis pose a serious treat to privacy. This is true for financial, medical, criminal and marketing research. Numerous techniques have been proposed to protect privacy, including restriction and data modification. Recently proposed privacy models such as differential privacy and k-anonymity received a lot of attention and for the latter there are now several improvements of the original scheme, each removing some security shortcomings of the previous one. However, the challenge lies in evaluating and comparing privacy provided by various techniques. In this paper we propose a novel entropy based security measure that can be applied to any generalisation, restriction or data modification technique. We use our measure to empirically evaluate and compare a few popular methods, namely query restriction, sampling and noise addition.Comment: 20 pages, 4 figure

Mediterranean Sea level variations: Analysis of the satellite altimetric data, 1992–2008

International audienceSixteen years of satellite radar altimeter data are analyzed to investigate the sea-level variation (SLV) of the Mediterranean Sea. The time evolution of the overall mean sea level of the Mediterranean Sea follows its own regional dynamics. The geographical distribution of the seasonal signal (annual and semi-annual) indicates that the major features of the Mediterranean Sea circulation are driving the highest seasonal variability, and that an eastward propagation exists between the western and eastern basins. While in previous studies the trend of SLV has been modeled as linear, in this study with a longer record of observations we found that a quadratic acceleration term is statistically significant for practically the whole basin, especially in those regions where the trend provides a significant contribution to the SLV. The inclusion of the quadratic acceleration term accounts better for the Mediterranean SLV trend, as the residual low frequency SLV in wintertime is highly correlated with NAO at zero time lag in almost the whole basin. The residual high-frequency signal variability, on the other hand, can be explained by mesoscale phenomena, such as eddies and gyres. Our comprehensive analysis of the Mediterranean SLV provides source observations for monitoring and understanding of both regular and transient phenomena

Demanda de competencias digitales al Contador Público: Una mirada desde la Educación Superior

This article is part of a research project whose scope ranges from university education to professional training and develops questions related to the incidence of generational diversity, technological advances, and the demands of new organizational realities. Here we are concerned with analyzing the Digital Transformation (DT) that the profession is going through, the effects of identifying the new attitudinal competencies and technological capacities that the current and future labor field requires; redefine the role of the professional in the field of organizations and its link with educational careers. This tour is based on bibliographic research, academic-scientific productions presented at Congresses, and the analysis of digital audio strategies implemented in the dictation of signatures that we have in charge of the Accountant Career. We intend to contribute to theoretical reflection and our teaching practice.Este artículo se inscribe en el marco de un proyecto de investigación cuyo alcance abarca desde la formación universitaria hasta el ejercicio profesional, y desarrolla interrogantes relativos a la incidencia de la diversidad generacional, los avances tecnológicos y los requerimientos de las nuevas realidades organizacionales. Aquí nos ocupamos de analizar la Transformación Digital (TD) que atraviesa la profesión, a los efectos de identificar las nuevas competencias actitudinales y capacidades tecnológicas requeridas por el campo laboral actual y a futuro; redefiniendo el rol del profesional en el ámbito de las organizaciones y su vinculación con las trayectorias educativas. El presente recorrido está basado en investigaciones bibliográficas, producciones académico-científicas presentadas en Congresos, y el análisis de estrategias digitales áulicas implementadas en el dictado de asignaturas que tenemos a cargo en la Carrera de Contador. Pretendemos realizar un aporte a partir de la reflexión teórica y desde nuestra práctica docent

The Water Cycle of the Baltic Sea Region From GRACE/GRACE-FO Missions and ERA5 Data

The water cycle of the Baltic Sea has been estimated from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) and the GRACE Follow-On satellite time-variable gravity measurements, and precipitation and evaporation from ERA5 atmospheric reanalysis data for the periods 06/2002 to 06/2017 and 06/2018 to 11/2021. On average, the Baltic Sea evaporates 199 ± 3 km3/year, which is overcompensated with 256 ± 6 km3/year of precipitation and 476 ± 17 km3/year of water from land. This surplus of freshwater inflow produces a salty water net outflow from the Baltic Sea of 515 ± 27 km3/year, which increases to 668 ± 32 km3/year when the Kattegat and Skagerrak straits are included. In general, the balance among the fluxes is not reached instantaneously, and all of them present seasonal variability. The Baltic net outflow reaches an annual minimum of 221 ± 79 km3/year in September and a maximum of 814 ± 94 km3/year in May, mainly driven by the freshwater contribution from land. On the interannual scale, the annual mean of the Baltic net outflow can vary up to 470 km3/year from year to year. This variability is not directly related to the North Atlantic Oscillation during wintertime, although the latter is well correlated with net precipitation in both continental drainage basins and the Baltic Sea.</jats:p