Monash University

About: Monash University is a education organization based out in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Poison control. The organization has 35920 authors who have published 100681 publications receiving 3027002 citations.

Exchange rate pass-through

Abstract: . The resilience of trade balances of the major industrialized economies to changes in their exchange rates has evoked interest in the exchange rate pass-through relationship. So far, there has not been a comprehensive survey of this literature. The paper aims to fill this gap in two ways. First, it pieces together the theoretical literature on exchange rate pass-through. Second, it provides a critical survey of the empirical literature on exchange rate pass-through. Emphasis is placed on the data and methodology employed in previous work. This is done in order to guide future work in this growing area of research.

Lenalidomide and dexamethasone in transplant-ineligible patients with myeloma

Abstract: Background The combination melphalan–prednisone–thalidomide (MPT) is considered a standard therapy for patients with myeloma who are ineligible for stem-cell transplantation. However, emerging data on the use of lenalidomide and low-dose dexamethasone warrant a prospective comparison of the two approaches. Methods We randomly assigned 1623 patients to lenalidomide and dexamethasone in 28-day cycles until disease progression (535 patients), to the same combination for 72 weeks (18 cycles; 541 patients), or to MPT for 72 weeks (547 patients). The primary end point was progression-free survival with continuous lenalidomide–dexamethasone versus MPT. Results The median progression-free survival was 25.5 months with continuous lenalidomide–dexamethasone, 20.7 months with 18 cycles of lenalidomide–dexamethasone, and 21.2 months with MPT (hazard ratio for the risk of progression or death, 0.72 for continuous lenalidomide–dexamethasone vs. MPT and 0.70 for continuous lenalidomide–dexamethasone vs. 18 cycles of len...

Determination of Number of Clusters in K-Means Clustering and Application in Colour Image Segmentation

Abstract: The main disadvantage of the k-means algorithm is that the number of clusters, K, must be supplied as a parameter. In this paper we present a simple validity measure based on the intra-cluster and inter-cluster distance measures which allows the number of clusters to be determined automatically. The basic procedure involves producing all the segmented images for 2 clusters up to Kmax clusters, where Kmax represents an upper limit on the number of clusters. Then our validity measure is calculated to determine which is the best clustering by finding the minimum value for our measure. The validity measure is tested for synthetic images for which the number of clusters in known, and is also implemented for natural images.

Polymer-free Drug-Coated Coronary Stents in Patients at High Bleeding Risk

Abstract: BACKGROUND Patients at high risk for bleeding who undergo percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) often receive bare-metal stents followed by 1 month of dual antiplatelet therapy. We studied a polymer-free and carrier-free drug-coated stent that transfers umirolimus (also known as biolimus A9), a highly lipophilic sirolimus analogue, into the vessel wall over a period of 1 month. METHODS In a randomized, double-blind trial, we compared the drug-coated stent with a very similar bare-metal stent in patients with a high risk of bleeding who underwent PCI. All patients received 1 month of dual antiplatelet therapy. The primary safety end point, tested for both noninferiority and superiority, was a composite of cardiac death, myocardial infarction, or stent thrombosis. The primary efficacy end point was clinically driven target-lesion revascularization. RESULTS We enrolled 2466 patients. At 390 days, the primary safety end point had occurred in 112 patients (9.4%) in the drug-coated–stent group and in 154 patients (12.9%) in the bare-metal–stent group (risk difference, −3.6 percentage points; 95% confi dence interval [CI], −6.1 to −1.0; hazard ratio, 0.71; 95% CI, 0.56 to 0.91; P<0.001 for noninferiority and P = 0.005 for superiority). During the same time period, clinically driven target-lesion revascularization was needed in 59 patients (5.1%) in the drug-coated–stent group and in 113 patients (9.8%) in the bare-metal–stent group (risk difference, −4.8 percentage points; 95% CI, −6.9 to −2.6; hazard ratio, 0.50; 95% CI, 0.37 to 0.69; P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS Among patients at high risk for bleeding who underwent PCI, a polymer-free umirolimus-coated stent was superior to a bare-metal stent with respect to the primary safety and efficacy end points when used with a 1-month course of dual antiplatelet therapy. (Funded by Biosensors Europe; LEADERS FREE ClinicalTrials .gov number, NCT01623180.)