Patient-reported outcomes (PROs) are a distinctive method of evaluating patient response to health care or treatment. This systematic review aimed to analyse the impact of PROs in patients on direct oral anticoagulant (DOAC) treatment, prescribed for any indication (e.g. venous thromboembolism treatment or atrial fibrillation) using controlled trials (CT) and real-world observational studies (OS).Methods: A systematic search of articles was conducted according to PRISMA guidelines using databases, with the last update in November 2018. The Cochrane Collaboration tool for assessing bias in randomized CTs and the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale adapted for cross-sectional studies were used. Outcomes evaluated were related to health-related quality of life (HRQoL), satisfaction, adherence and compliance.Results: Twenty-one original studies (6 CT, 15 OS) were included. HRQoL was assessed by 6 (1 CT, 5 OS) studies and reported that HRQoL scores were similar in patients on DOACs and warfarin. Patients prescribed DOACs presented higher HRQoL scores which were attributed to lack of intense monitoring required compared with warfarin but this was not statistically significant. The majority of studies (5 CT, 9 OS) investigated patient-reported satisfaction, indicating greater satisfaction with DOACs with significantly lower burden and increased benefit scores for patients on DOACs. Patient-reported expectations, compliance and adherence were similar for patients on DOACs and warfarin. Conclusion:Patients appear to prefer treatment with DOACs vs warfarin. This is shown by the higher quality of life, satisfaction and adherence described in the studies. However, heterogeneity in the analysed studies does not allow firm conclusions.

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In numerous application areas, when the response variable is continuous, positively skewed, and well fitted to the inverse Gaussian distribution, the inverse Gaussian regression model (IGRM) is an effective approach in such scenarios. The problem of multicollinearity is very common in several application areas like chemometrics, biology, finance, and so forth. The effects of multicollinearity can be reduced using the ridge estimator. This research proposes new ridge estimators to address the issue of multicollinearity in the IGRM. The performance of the new estimators is compared with the maximum likelihood estimator and some other existing estimators. The mean square error is used as a performance evaluation criterion. A Monte Carlo simulation study is conducted to assess the performance of the new ridge estimators based on the minimum mean square error criterion. The Monte Carlo simulation results show that the performance of the proposed estimators is better than the available methods. The comparison of proposed ridge estimators is also evaluated using two real chemometrics applications. The results of Monte Carlo simulation and real applications confirmed the superiority of the proposed ridge estimators to other competitor methods.

Direct-acting oral anticoagulants (DOACs) are replacing conventional VKA (vitamin K antagonist, i.e., warfarin) for various indications where a therapeutic anticoagulant effect is desired. We evaluated the prescribing patterns of the DOACs and warfarin, cost implications of the increasing DOACs prescribing, and deduce the reporting of serious and fatal events, during 2009–2019 in primary care England. Prescriptions and fatal or serious adverse events reporting data, between 2009 and 2019 were analysed, using linear regression to examine the trends in prescriptions, costs, and serious and fatal events reporting. We also compared the prescribing trends of four direct-acting oral anticoagulants and warfarin, normalised to per 1000 clinical commissioning group (CCG) patient population for the year 2019 to better understand the regional differences in DOACs prescribing. The overall use of any DOACs (as a proportion of total anticoagulants) increased from 16% in 2015 to 62% in 2019 with an average increase of 87% (95% CI 83.1, 90.5) per year. The reporting of serious and fatal events associated with DOACs decreased by 6% (95% CI 12.5, − 0.1) per year. Apixaban is by far the most prescribed with an average drug cost increasing to 156% (95% CI 140, 172) per year. In England, the lowest anticoagulant prescribing region was Greater London whereas the highest prescribing regions were Yorkshire and Humber for DOACs and the East Midlands for warfarin. Interestingly, Lancashire, Merseyside, and Cheshire showed a higher usage for warfarin over DOACs. The differing prescription patterns could be a result of changes in national guidelines and increasing population. Nevertheless, DOACs appear to make an increasing contribution to total anticoagulant prescription items and costs.

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Field experiments were conducted at two locations in order to formulate phosphorus and potassium fertilizer recommendations of groundnut (Arachis hypogea) based on Mitscherlich-Bray equation. The treatments comprised four levels of phosphorus (0, 30, 60, and 90 kg phosphorus pentoxide (P 2 O 5 ) ha −1 ) and three levels of potassium (0, 30, and 60 kg potassium oxide (K 2 O) ha −1 ) in all possible combinations. Theoretical maximum yield of groundnut was calculated by plotting log y (pod yield) versus 1/x (amount of nutrients applied). Fertilizer recommendation for various soil fertility levels and yield target were developed, and their validities were tested by conducting two field verification trials on the same soil. The results showed that although general recommended fertilizer dose resulted in highest yield of groundnut at both the locations, but value cost ratio and rate of increase in income were lowest with this fertilizer treatment, and 90% of maximum yield treatment was superior in terms of economics of fertilizer and risk factor.