Benefit Index Research Articles

Apremilast treatment of plaque psoriasis (PsO) after systemic therapy in Spanish clinical practice: Data from the APPROPRIATE study

AbstractBackgroundDespite the proven efficacy and safety of apremilast to treat plaque psoriasis (PsO), data regarding its real‐world use and patient‐perceived benefits are limited.ObjectivesDescribe apremilast use, persistence and tolerability, and its patient‐perceived benefits and effectiveness in patients with PsO in Spanish clinical practice.MethodsObservational, prospective, multicenter study including patients with moderate‐to‐severe PsO initiating apremilast 3 months (±4 weeks) before enrolment, after at least one conventional systemic therapy and no biologics. Prospective data were collected 3 (at enrolment), 6 and 12 months (±4 weeks) after apremilast initiation. Primary outcome was a Patient Benefit Index (PBI) score ≥1 (minimum clinically relevant benefit) at 6 months.ResultsOf 153 patients enroled, 119 were included in the analysis; mean (standard deviation [SD]) age, 52.8 (15.2) years. At apremilast initiation, mean (SD) Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI) and Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI) were 8.3 (4.9) and 10.5 (6.8), respectively. Most patients (81%) had comorbidities; PsO manifestations included scalp (47% of patients), palmoplantar (26%), nails (24%) and genitals (11%). Over three‐quarters (86%) of patients were continuing apremilast at Month 6, with most (91%) achieving a PBI ≥ 1% and 43% achieving a PBI ≥ 3; two‐thirds (68%) were continuing apremilast at Month 12, with 91% and 42% achieving a PBI ≥ 1 and ≥3, respectively. Mean (SD) pruritus scores decreased from 54.5 (32.1) at apremilast initiation to 23.4 (27.0) at Month 12; 57%, 69% and 69% of patients achieved a DLQI 0‒1, PASI < 3 and BSA < 3, respectively. Adverse events were consistent with the known safety profile.ConclusionsPatients initiating apremilast after conventional systemic therapy in Spanish clinical practice had moderate PsO at bothersome/visible locations and impaired quality of life. Most patients remained on apremilast for 12 months, with improved patient‐reported outcomes and skin involvement, and almost all patients reported some clinical benefit. Apremilast was well tolerated without new safety signals.

The Needs of Patients with Psoriasis and Benefits of Apremilast in French Clinical Practice: Results from the Observational REALIZE Study.

Real-world data on the needs of patients with psoriasis and patient-perceived benefits of apremilast are limited. We report such data from France. The multicenter, observational REALIZE study was conducted in real-life clinical practice in France and enrolled patients with moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis who had initiated apremilast per French reimbursement criteria in the 4weeks preceding enrollment (September 2018-June 2020). Physician assessments and patient-reported outcomes (PROs) were collected at enrollment, 6months, and 12months. PROs included the Patient Benefit Index for skin diseases (PBI-S), Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI), and 9-item Treatment Satisfaction Questionnaire for Medication (TSQM-9). The primary outcome was PBI-S ≥ 1 (minimum clinically relevant benefit) at month 6. Of 379 enrolled patients who received ≥ 1 dose of apremilast, most [n = 270 (71.2%)] remained on apremilast at 6months and over half [n = 200 (52.8%)] persisted at 12months. Patients reported the following treatment goals as most important (≥ 70% reported goal as "very important" in the Patient Needs Questionnaire): get better skin quickly, regain disease control, be healed of skin alterations, and have confidence in the therapy. Most patients persisting on apremilast achieved a PBI-S ≥ 1 at months6 and 12 (91.6% and 93.8%, respectively). Mean (SD) DLQI decreased from 11.75 (6.69) at enrollment to 5.17 (5.35) and 4.18 (4.39) at months6 and 12, respectively. Most patients (72.3%) reported moderate-to-severe pruritus at enrollment and no/mild pruritus at months6 and 12 (78.8% and 85.9%, respectively). Mean (SD) TSQM-9 Global Satisfaction scores were 68.4 (23.3) and 71.7 (21.5) at months6 and 12, respectively. Apremilast was well tolerated; no new safety signals were identified. REALIZE provides insights regarding the needs of patients with psoriasis and the patient-perceived benefits of apremilast. Patients who persisted on apremilast reported improvements in quality of life, high treatment satisfaction, and clinically relevant benefits. NCT03757013.

Bayesian Index Models for Heterogeneous Treatment Effects on a Binary Outcome.

This paper develops a Bayesian model with a flexible link function connecting a binary treatment response to a linear combination of covariates and a treatment indicator and the interaction between the two. Generalized linear models allowing data-driven link functions are often called "single-index models" and are among popular semi-parametric modeling methods. In this paper, we focus on modeling heterogeneous treatment effects, with the goal of developing a treatment benefit index (TBI) incorporating prior information from historical data. The model makes inference on a composite moderator of treatment effects, summarizing the effect of the predictors within a single variable through a linear projection of the predictors. This treatment benefit index can be useful for stratifying patients according to their predicted treatment benefit levels and can be especially useful for precision health applications. The proposed method is applied to a COVID-19 treatment study.

Coordinated development of regional resources, environment, and economic growth under the background of low-carbon economy

IntroductionAt present, the rapid growth of social and economic development has also brought great challenges to the development of regional resources and environment. With the deepening of the concept of sustainable development, the coordinated development of regional resources, environment and economic growth has attracted more and more attention. The coordinated development of resources, environment and economic growth is not only the engine of industrial growth, but also the accelerator to promote industrial transfer and optimal allocation of resources, which has injected a strong impetus into social development. However, with the continuous upgrading of the industrial structure, environmental pollution, unbalanced economic development, resource shortage and other problems have gradually emerged in various important development areas.MethodsIn order to effectively solve this dilemma, this paper takes the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region (BTH) as an example, based on the analysis of the current situation of the economic and environmental development of BTH region and the influencing factors, combined with the background of low-carbon economy (LCE), effectively studies the coordinated development of its resources, environment and economic growth. In order to verify the effectiveness of low-carbon economic development, this paper, based on the actual development data of BTH region, tests the three dimensions of economic benefit index, environmental benefit index and emission reduction efficiency index.ResultsThe results show that the average environmental benefit index of 13 cities in the BTH region after the implementation of the target is about 0.457. The average benefit index before the implementation of the target was about 0.449.DiscussionFrom the final results of the test, it can be seen that the development of low-carbon economy has strong feasibility for promoting the coordinated development of regional resources, environment and economic growth.

Multi-objective and two-stage optimization study of integrated energy systems considering P2G and integrated demand responses

To explore the influencing factors of the integrated benefit (IB) index of integrated energy systems (IESs) and the best energy supply mode, we constructed a two-stage optimization model for planning allocation and operation scheduling. First, according to the structural characteristics of the energy demand load combined with the operation characteristics of each piece of equipment in the IES, a refined capacity allocation constraint model was constructed. Second, an IB optimization model with economic, environmental, and energy benefits as the optimization objectives was established. Then, by analogy with the price-based demand response (PBDR) and incentive-based demand response (IBDR) of the power system, an integrated demand response (IDR) model covering cooling, heating, electricity and gas was constructed. Finally, a citizen service center in Hebei Province, China, was used as a simulated example. The scientific capacity allocation of each device of the IES improved the economic efficiency by 14.8%. Compared with the traditional operation mode, the economic benefits of the multi-objective optimization (MOO) operation mode were increased by 2.97% and 3.42%, respectively. After further introducing the IDR, IB increased to 20.55 and 20.46%, and the effect of IBDR was better.

Impact of daily use of emollient ‘plus’ on corticosteroid consumption in patients with atopic dermatitis: An open, randomized controlled study

Emollients are the baseline treatment for mild or moderate atopic dermatitis (AD) to improve the epidermal barrier and provide anti-irritant and anti-pruritic effects. Emollient 'plus' can influence the skin microbiome of atopic eczema patients. To evaluate the benefits of using Emollient 'plus' to reduce corticosteroid consumption. In an open, single-centre, randomized, controlled study, patients with mild to moderate AD (Severity scoring of AD [SCORAD] score 20-30) were randomized 1:1 to apply the Emollient 'plus' twice daily for 28 days or to continue with their usual classical emollient (Control group). In addition, each patient received topical corticosteroids to use when necessary and according to the dermatologist's prescription. Assessments included SCORAD, PO-SCORAD, local SCORAD, quality of life questionnaires, and tolerability. A total of 119 patients were included in the PP population with a mean age of 26.50 ± 17.5 years old (min-max 3-71 years). Between baseline and day 28, the mean amount of corticosteroid used was lower for the Emollient 'plus' versus Control group (6.03 vs. 9.16 g; p=0.041) and corticosteroid was applied on fewer days (37.5% vs. 46.9% of days; p=0.0256) with fewer applications per day (0.55 vs. 0.71 applications per day; p=0.0203). Similar improvements were observed in both groups for SCORAD, PO-SCORAD, local SCORAD, skin sensation score, AD burden scale, patient benefit index >1, as well as subject and investigator efficacy and tolerability questionnaire assessments. Between baseline and day 28, there was significant corticosteroid-sparing in the Emollient 'plus' group compared to the Control group in quantity, number of applications per day and number of days of use, whilst efficacy was maintained with no significant differences between the two groups for all clinical evaluations, as well as for tolerability.

Cost-effectiveness and Quality of Specialized and Routine Care in a German Cohort of Patients with Chronic Pruritus

Chronic pruritus is a prevalent interdisciplinary symptom with a strong influence on health-related quality of life. Patients need extensive diagnostics and long-term treatment. This retrospective and prospective cohort study compared routine and university-based specialized care in terms of cost-effectiveness and patient benefit. Direct medical and non-medical costs and patient-reported outcomes (PRO; pruritus intensity, quality of life, treatment needs and benefits) were assessed. Data analyses were conducted using descriptive methods and non-parametric statistical tests. A total of 300 adult patients (54.3% female) participated in the study. Six months after the treatment start in a specialized German pruritus care unit, the total costs were significantly reduced (mean total costs 686 € vs 433 € per patient per half year (total cohort); p < 0.001; mean out-of-pocket costs 198 € vs 124 € per half year (total cohort), p < 0.001). Pruritus intensity (numerical rating scale 5.3 vs 3.7, p < 0.001), quality of life (Dermatology Life Quality Index 8.9 vs 5.7, p < 0.001) and patient benefit (Patient Benefit Index Pruritus 1.2 vs 2.1, p < 0.001) improved significantly (total cohort). The results of this study show, that treatment of chronic pruritus patients in a specialized itch centre leads to an improvement in patient benefit and reduces the economic burden at the same time.

Multiobjective Optimization of Copper Coil Blanking Based on Niche Genetic Algorithm

The shear process of small batch and multivariety copper strip processing enterprises are the bottleneck of production, which often faces the contradiction between working efficiency (less tool changing) and yield (reducing geometric waste). The high yield of copper strip embryo is the core index of high yield and high benefit for enterprise. Less tool changing is a key step for high efficiency and fast product delivery in shear station. In this paper, we took the cutting production of the production management system as a research example in Hubei Lean High Precision Copper Strip Company when the system is developing. We used the penalty function to deal with the length floating constraint. Then, we established a multiobjective optimization model with the roll weight and the number of tool changing as the weights, which were calculated by an integrated weighting method. Three algorithms, namely, adaptive particle swarm optimization, niche genetic algorithm based on crowding, and niche genetic algorithm based on seed retention (NGA), were used to solve the problem. Through production examples, it was concluded that the solution solved by NGA has the highest utilization rate of the coil when the number of tool changing was as little as possible. This paper provides a new solution combining the efficiency and benefit for shear process in finished product delivery of copper strip processing enterprises.

Vegetation ecological benefits index (VEBI): a 3D spatial model for evaluating the ecological benefits of vegetation

ABSTRACT Urban population explosion may increase ecological environment discomfort, thereby affecting negatively humans’ mental and physical performance. Therefore, it is important to detect and monitor vegetation and predict its ecological benefits. The complex composition of urban environment ground objects, such as steel roofs, plastic courts, and building shadows, significantly interferes with vegetation detection and monitoring. The optimized hyperspectral image-based vegetation index (OHSVI) constructed in this study effectively solves this problem. However, it is difficult to accurately predict the ecological benefits of vegetation based on the two-dimensional vegetation information extracted based on remote sensing images; this is related to the three-dimensional (3D) structure of vegetation and the 3D pattern of buildings. Therefore, we first proposed the vegetation ecological benefits index (VEBI) based on the 3D structure of vegetation to reveal how vegetation acts on its 3D surroundings. The method was tested in a playground, an academic building, and a parking space. The results showed that the vegetation extraction accuracy of the OHSVI exceeded 93%, which is better than that of the existing indices. Our findings suggest that VEBI may be efficient in predicting 3D vegetation ecological benefits combined with remote sensing and lidar datasets.

Farm size limits agriculture's poverty reduction potential in Eastern India even with irrigation-led intensification.

Millions of people living in the Eastern Gangetic Plains (EGP) of India engage in agriculture to support their livelihoods yet are income poor, and food and climate insecure. To address these challenges, policymakers and development programs invest in irrigation-led agricultural intensification. However, the evidence for agricultural intensification to lift farmers' incomes above the poverty line remains largely anecdotal. The main objective of this study is to use a large household survey (n=15,572; rice: 8244, wheat: 7328; 2017/18) to assess the link between agricultural intensification and personal daily incomes from farming (FPDI) in the rice-wheat systems of the EGP - the dominant cropping system of the region. We use the Intensification Benefit Index (IBI), a measure that relates farm size and household size to FPDI, to assess how daily incomes from rice-wheat production change with irrigation-led intensification across the EGP. Relative to the international poverty line of 1.90 Purchasing Power Parity (PPP)$ day-1 and accounting for variations in HH size in the analysis, we found that small farm sizes limit the potential for agricultural intensification from irrigation to transform the poverty status of households in the bottom three quartiles of the IBI. The estimated median FPDI of households with intensified systems in the bottom three quartiles is only 0.51 PPP$ day-1 (a 0.15 PPP$ gain). The median FPDI increases to 2.10 PPP$ day-1 for households in the upper quartile of the IBI distribution (a 0.30 PPP$ gain). Irrigation-led agricultural intensification of rice-wheat systems in the EGP may provide substantial benefits for resilience to climatic change and food security but achieving meaningful poverty reduction will require complementary investments. Transforming the poverty status of most smallholder farmers in the EGP requires diversified portfolios of rural on- and off-farm income-generating opportunities. While bolstering food- and climate security, agronomic intervention programs should consider smallholders' limited monetary incentives to invest in intensification. Irrigation-led agricultural intensification programs and policies should explicitly account for the heterogeneity in household resources, irrigation levels, and degree of dependence on agricultural income.

Measuring the impact of zero-cases studies in evidence synthesis practice using the harms index and benefits index (Hi-Bi)

ObjectivesIn evidence synthesis practice, dealing with studies with no cases in both arms has been a tough problem, for which there is no consensus in the research community. In this study, we propose a method to measure the potential impact of studies with no cases for meta-analysis results which we define as harms index (Hi) and benefits index (Bi) as an alternative solution for deciding how to deal with such studies.MethodsHi and Bi are defined by the minimal number of cases added to the treatment arm (Hi) or control arm (Bi) of studies with no cases in a meta-analysis that lead to a change of the direction of the estimates or its statistical significance. Both exact and approximating methods are available to calculate Hi and Bi. We developed the “hibi” module in Stata so that researchers can easily implement the method. A real-world investigation of meta-analyses from Cochrane reviews was employed to evaluate the proposed method.ResultsBased on Hi and Bi, our results suggested that 21.53% (Hi) to 26.55% (Bi) of Cochrane meta-analyses may be potentially impacted by studies with no cases, for which studies with no cases could not be excluded from the synthesis. The approximating method shows excellent specificity (100%) for both Hi and Bi, moderate sensitivity (68.25%) for Bi, and high sensitivity (80.61%) for Hi compared to the exact method.ConclusionsThe proposed method is practical and useful for systematic reviewers to measure whether studies with no cases impact the results of meta-analyses and may act as an alternative solution for review authors to decide whether to include studies with no events for the synthesis or not.

Apremilast Use in Severe Psoriasis: Real-World Data from Central and Eastern Europe.

The broad and sustained efficacy of apremilast for psoriasis has been demonstrated in randomized and real-world observational studies. Data from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) are lacking. Moreover, apremilast use in this region is limited by country-specific reimbursement criteria. This is the first study to report data on the real-world use of apremilast in the region. APPRECIATE (NCT02740218) was an observational, retrospective, cross-sectional study assessing psoriasis patients 6 (± 1) months after apremilast treatment initiation. The study aimed to describe the characteristics of patients with psoriasis receiving apremilast, estimate treatment outcomes, including Psoriasis Area Severity Index (PASI), Body Surface Area (BSA), and Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI), and assess dermatologists' and patients' perspectives on treatment using questionnaires including the Patient Benefit Index (PBI). Adverse event reports were taken from the medical records. Fifty patients (Croatia: 25; Czech Republic: 20; Slovenia: 5) were enrolled. In patients continuing apremilast at 6 (± 1) months, mean (± SD) PASI score was reduced from 16.2 ± 8.7 points at treatment initiation to 3.1 ± 5.2 at 6 (± 1) months; BSA from 11.9% ± 10.3% to 0.8% ± 0.9%; DLQI from 13.7 ± 7.4 points to 1.6 ± 3.2. PASI 75 was reached by 81% of patients. Physicians reported that the overall treatment success fulfilled their expectations in more than two thirds of patients (68%). At least three-quarters of patients reported apremilast had a quite or very high benefit on the needs they identified as being most important. Apremilast was well tolerated; no serious or fatal adverse events were identified. Apremilast was effective in reducing skin involvement and improving quality of life in CEE patients having severe disease. Treatment satisfaction among physicians and patients was very high. These data add to the growing body of evidence showing consistent effectiveness of apremilast across the continuum of psoriasis disease severity and manifestations. ClinicalTrials.gov identifier, NCT02740218.

Actual directions for increasing the income of the population and reducing social stratification

Within the framework of this scientific work, the goal was to study modern approaches used in the field of impact on increasing the income of individuals and reducing social differentiation between individual groups and classes. To measure the dynamics of changes in the phenomena under consideration, the authors analyzed the average per capita nominal income of society in the period from 2011 to 2022. The authors studied the data concerning real incomes, which made it possible to conduct a comparative analysis between nominal and real incomes. Within the framework of the presented work, political aspects in the field of reducing the level of social differentiation were considered. The basis was the data obtained in the calculation of key indicators of social differentiation, namely the Gini coefficient, the Lorenz curve and the decile coefficient. Data for Russia were compared with data for other countries to determine its place in the global structure in terms of social stratification. The authors identified key problems that become barriers to reducing the level of social differentiation, among which the slow growth of the minimum wage, low pensions, as well as consistently high coefficients, reflecting high social stratification, are highlighted, which was confirmed by the results of the author's analysis. A particularly important problem was the concealment of high incomes, which significantly weakens the state social policy. As key areas for reducing the level of social differentiation, the authors proposed the development of a mechanism of interbudgetary transfers to stimulate the development of the region's own economic potential, support for the economic potential of backward territories, as well as indexation of social benefits and wages.

The analysis of enterprise economic benefit evaluation model based on network marketing

The comprehensive evaluation of enterprise economic benefits is the core content of enterprise diagnosis and has been the focus of domestic and foreign enterprise management circles. In thorough statistical evaluation, establishing a set of scientific and economic benefit index systems and evaluation methods is of great significance. This paper briefly introduces the design principles of the economic benefit evaluation index, analyzes the shortcomings and improvement measures of the current enterprise economic benefit evaluation system in China, and puts forward the indexes that should be added on the basis of the current index system. At the same time, the main methods for comprehensive evaluation of enterprise economic benefits are also proposed.

Transit Benefit Index: A Comprehensive Index for Capturing Externalities in Transit Planning

This research provides a methodology for estimating the total societal benefit generated from substituting private vehicle trips with public transportation trips. The external costs of private and public transportation were estimated using a base case travel demand model and then a mode shift was simulated to calculate the effects of shifting one full transit unit (e.g., bus) of demand from a private to public mode. This shift was performed for all origin–destination (O-D) pairs in a region to find the O-D pairs that resulted in the greatest net benefit. These benefits were then normalized using the total automobile vehicle kilometers traveled removed from the network to generate a “transit benefit index.” This methodology was applied to a case study of the city of Bogotá, Colombia. A total of 102 scenarios were simulated: a 2 in base case, and 10 total sensitivity analyses, each including two transit provision alternatives. The results were contrasted with the cost of a new transit unit—a new bus in this case—revealing that the total economic benefit derived from 1 year of increased transit ridership was larger than the financial cost of a new bus to the transit operator. These results suggest that the City of Bogotá should consider further subsidies to transit fares to increase ridership and mitigate externalities.

Patient-reported well-being in value-based care using tildrakizumab in a real-world setting: protocol of a multinational, phase IV, 1-cohort prospective observational study (the POSITIVE study)

IntroductionPsoriasis is a chronic inflammatory skin disease that negatively impacts the quality of life of patients and their families. However, the most commonly used decision-making tools in psoriasis, Psoriasis Area...

Analysis of Influencing Factors of Economic Benefits of Metaverse Digital Collections

In recent years, the metaverse industry has gradually expanded, and the economic benefits brought by the metaverse blockchain industry, including digital collections, have become more obvious. For this economic benefit, the researchers took the Opensea platform, which is representative of digital collections, as an example. They took the economic benefit index of the platform as an explanatory variable, comprehensively used the multiple regression model to analyze and test, and used the stepwise regression method to adjust and correct the model. The analysis results show that the economic benefit index of digital collections shows a clear proportional relationship with the number of NFT digital collections sold and the scale of people’s consumption. From the perspective of economics, some economic law problems of the digital collection industry are explained, and some conclusions are made for the development of the digital collection industry and suggestions are given for reference.

Evaluation of the efficiency of state forestry investment in China from the perspective of carbon sequestration: A case study in 20 provinces

In this study, data envelopment analysis (DEA) is performed to evaluate the efficiency of governmental forest investment in carbon sequestration based on data from the seventh forest investigation and forest carbon storage estimated by Li & Lei for 2004–2008. Then, DEA is performed to evaluate comprehensive efficiency using data from areas of afforestation and natural reserves as indices of carbon benefit. For 20 provinces analysed in this study, employment in the forest industry is used as an index of social benefit, and forestry production is used as an index of economic benefit. These provinces include Inner Mongolia, Liaoning, Jilin, Heilongjiang, Zhejiang, Anhui, Fujian, Jiangxi, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Guangdong, Guangxi, Chongqing, Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan, Shanxi, Gansu, and Xinjiang. Next, the elements that influence the efficiencies in the spatial error model (SEM) and spatial lag model (SLM) are evaluated. The results show that carbon sequestration efficiency differs for different output indices. The comprehensive efficiencies of the provinces in East China and South-central China are superior to those of the provinces in Northeast, North, Southeast and Northwest China. Both efficiencies are affected by adjacent provinces, though comprehensive efficiency is influenced the most. The level of technique and management is the most important element influencing the carbon sequestration efficiency and comprehensive efficiency. The influencing elements of carbon sequestration show that workers who have been laid off negatively impact the efficiency of governmental investment. Afforestation investment and wildlife and natural reserve investment have the greatest influence on carbon sequestration efficiency. An evaluation of comprehensive influential elements shows that the primary industry of forestry has a greater influence on efficiency than revenue from forest parks, although the government advocates for industrial transformation. Social investment influences comprehensive efficiency. The lack of social investment in provinces with undeveloped economies reduces forestry development.

Transformer maintenance decision based on condition monitoring and fuzzy probability hybrid reliability assessment

Equipment maintenance decision is a very critical technology in power grid asset management. The traditional maintenance decision focuses on the analysis of the operation performance of the equipment itself, but lacks the analysis and description of the fuzziness of power equipment outage parameters. Therefore, this paper establishes the reliability assessment model based on equipment health condition monitoring, which makes the maintenance decision transition from equipment level to system level, and the fuzzy mathematics theory is introduced to establish a model describing the fuzziness of equipment failure rate parameter to make system reliability assessment and equipment maintenance decision scheme. Firstly, this paper proposes a fuzzy failure rate model of power transformer based on condition monitoring. Then the fuzzy parameters are combined with the conventional probabilistic reliability assessment method to establish the fuzzy probability hybrid reliability assessment model of the transmission system, and the fuzzy maintenance reliability benefit index is defined and deduced. Finally, a maintenance strategy of transformer based on fuzzy probability hybrid reliability assessment and fuzzy set theory is proposed, and the case study is carried out on a regional power grid in East China. The results show that the proposed model provides an improved maintenance strategy of power equipment.

Introduction of a Specific Dermatological Rehabilitation Programme for Patients with Chronic Pruritus: A Pilot Study.

Chronic pruritus is a common symptom, associated with several severe medical conditions, great psychological burden, and reduced quality of life. It also poses socio-economic challenges concerning patients' work loss and healthcare costs. In Germany, medical rehabilitation programmes represent an integral part of the medical care of patients with chronic inflammatory skin diseases. However, such programmes play only a rudimentary role in the treatment of other dermatological diseases, such as dermatological oncology, genetic skin diseases, and chronic pruritus. Therefore, a specific antipruritic dermatological rehabilitation programme was developed in cooperation between the Department of Dermatology of the Medical Rehabilitation Center Bad Bentheim and the Center for Chronic Pruritus of the University Hospital of Muenster, Germany. This prospective study compared short-term patient-reported outcomes (n = 121) at the beginning and end of the rehabilitation programme. The majority of subjects had chronic pruritus on primary diseased, inflamed skin. Significant improvements in pruritus intensity (p ≤ 0.001), quality of life (p ≤ 0.001), anxiety symptoms (p ≤ 0.001) and depression (p ≤ 0.001), as well as an overall patient-relevant benefit (Patient Benefit Index 2.6 ± 1.06) and treatment-related patients' satisfaction, were shown. This suggests that implementation of this standardized rehabilitation programme for treatment of patients with chronic pruritus was successful.