The goal of relative survival methodology is to compare the survival experience of a cohort with that of the background population. Most often an additive excess hazard model is employed, which assumes that each person's hazard is a sum of 2 components--the population hazard obtained from life tables and an excess hazard attributable to the specific condition. Usually covariate effects on the e...

electric power industry have always try to provide reliable electricity to customers and at the same time decrease system costs. high voltage circuit-breakers are an essential part of the power network. this study has developed a maintenance and replacement scheduling model for high voltage circuit- breakers that minimize maintenance costs while maintaining the acceptable reliability. this mode...

OBJECTIVE The present study investigates the relationship between BMI and all-cause mortality among middle-aged and older adults with or without pre-existing diseases. DESIGN A population-based cohort study. SETTING The Taiwan Longitudinal Study on Aging is a nationwide prospective cohort study comprising a representative random sample of middle-aged and older adults. The study period was 1...

The aim of this study was to explore if estimates of renal function could explain variability of (123)I-metaiodobenzylguanidine ((123)I-MIBG) assessed myocardial sympathetic activity. Furthermore estimates of renal function were compared to (123)I-MIBG as predictors of cardiac death in chronic heart failure (CHF). Semi-quantitative parameters of (123)I-MIBG myocardial uptake and washout were ca...

Karrison et al. (1) retrospectively studied 1547 patients with breast cancer operated on during the period from 1945 through mid-1987 to evaluate the limit of breast cancer dormancy. In the report, the authors stated that they “did not see evidence for a second peak in the hazard curve as reported by Demicheli et al.” (2) and drew evidence for tumor dormancy from the elevation of mortality rate...

Background: The Multi state Markov models have extensively application with categorization of laboratory marker of CD4 cells for evaluation of HIV disease progression. These models with different states result in different effects of covariates and prediction of HIV disease trend. The main purpose of this study was comparison of four and five states models with the three- state in order to sele...

BACKGROUND We sought to determine whether treadmill exercise time may be of value as an initial prognostic screening tool in ambulatory patients with impaired systolic function who are referred for cardiopulmonary exercise testing. METHODS AND RESULTS We studied 2231 adult systolic heart failure patients (27% of whom were women) who underwent cardiopulmonary stress testing using a modified Na...