Background Modern antiviral treatments have high cure rates against the hepatitis C virus however, the high cost associated with branded medicines and diagnostic tests, have resulted in poor access for many low-income patients residing in low-and-middle-income countries. Objective This study aimed to evaluate the role of a patient assistance programme and generic medicines in improving access to treatment of low-income hepatitis C patients in a low-and-middle-income country. Setting A major teaching public hospital in Islamabad, Pakistan. Methods Hepatitis C patients who presented and enrolled for the patient assistance programme during 12 months (1st July 2015 and 30th June 2016) were included. Demography, prescription characteristics, the total costs of Hepatitis C treatment, medicine cost supported by the programme, out-of-pocket cost borne by the patient and average cost effectiveness ratio per sustained virologic response were calculated and compared for different generic and branded regimens. Main outcoand widens access to hepatitis C treatment in low-and middle-income countries. However, substantial out-of-pocket costs of the treatment presents an important barrier for service access. NU7026 cost There is a scope to widen such financial assistance programme to offer other costs attributed to patients, specifically for diagnosis, to widen service use in low-and-middle-income countries.Measures of availability and accessibility are often used separately or interchangeably to assess gambling exposure. This study examined the advantages of assessing gambling exposure using availability, accessibility, and a composite measure. Logistic and poisson regression analyses were used to determine the relative importance of these measures in predicting problem gambling using data from the 2008 and 2009 Social and Economic Impacts of Gambling in Alberta (SEIGA) surveys. The composite measure of gambling exposure predicted both the risk and severity of problem gambling better than the availability or accessibility measures alone. These results demonstrate that individual differences in problem gambling are better predicted by a composite measure of exposure.This study aimed to investigate the effect of graphene oxide (GO)-hydroxyapatite (HA)-sodium alginate (SA) composite application in the field of bone tissue engineering. Four scaffold groups were established (SA-HA, SA-HA-0.8%GO, SA-HA-1.0%GO and SA-HA-1.2%GO) and mixed with bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs). Hydrogel viscosity was measured at room temperature, and after freeze-drying and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) to detect substance crystallinity, the printability of each hydrogel type was measured with a printing grid. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to observe the internal microstructure of the scaffolds and to evaluate the growth and proliferation of cells on the scaffold. A hollow cylinder was printed to compare the forming effect of the hydrogel bioinks, and cell-hydrogel composites were implanted under the skin of nude mice to observe the effect of the hydrogels on osteogenesis in vivo. Increased GO concentrations led to reduced scaffold degradation rates, increased viscosity, increased printability, increased mechanical properties, increased scaffold porosity and increased cell proliferation rates. In vivo experiments showed that hematoxylin and eosin (HE) staining, Alizarin red staining, alkaline phosphatase staining and collagen type I immunohistochemical staining increased as the implantation time increased. These results demonstrate that GO composites have high printability as bioinks and can be used for bioprinting of bone by altering the ratio of the different components.Evolutionary principles are rarely considered in clinical oncology. We here aimed to test the feasibility and effects of a dietary and physical activity intervention based on evolutionary considerations in an oncological setting. A total of 13 breast cancer patients referred to our clinic for curative radiotherapy were recruited for this pilot study. The women were supposed to undertake a "Paleolithic lifestyle" (PL) intervention consisting of a Paleolithic diet and daily outdoor activity of at least 30 min duration while undergoing radiotherapy. Body composition was measured weekly by bioimpedance analysis. Blood parameters were assessed before, during, and at the end of radiotherapy. A control group on an unspecified standard diet (SD) was assigned by propensity score matching. A total of eleven patients completed the study. The majority of patients (64%) reported feeling good or very good during the intervention. The intervention group experienced an average decrease of 0.4 kg body weight (p  less then  0.001) and 0.34 kg (p  less then  0.001) fat mass per week, but fat-free and skeletal muscle mass were not significantly affected. Vitamin D levels increased slightly from 23.8 (11-37.3) ng/ml to 25.1 (22.6-41.6) ng/ml (p = 0.053). β-hydroxybutyrate levels were significantly increased and triglycerides and free T3 hormone levels significantly reduced by the PL intervention. This pilot study shows that adoption of a PL intervention during curative radiotherapy of breast cancer patients is feasible and able to reduce fat mass. Daily outdoor activity could eliminate vitamin D deficiency (vitamin D  less then  20 ng/ml). Future studies are needed to confirm these findings. Cerebrovascular disease (CVD) is considered a major risk factor for fatal outcome in COVID-19. We aimed to evaluate the possible association between computed tomography (CT) signs of chronic CVD and mortality in infected patients. We performed a double-blind retrospective evaluation of the cerebral CT scans of 83 COVID-19 patients looking for CT signs of chronic CVD. We developed a rapid visual score, named CVD-CT, which summarized the possible presence of parietal calcifications and dolichosis, with or without ectasia, of intracranial arteries, areas of chronic infarction and leukoaraiosis. Statistical analysis was carried out with weighted Cohen's K test for inter-reader agreement and logistic regression to evaluate the association of in-hospital mortality with CVD-CT, chest X-ray (CXR) severity score (Radiographic Assessment of Lung Edema-RALE) for radiological assessment of pulmonary disease, sex and age. CVD-CT (odds ratio 1.6, 95% C.I. 1.2-2.1, p = 0.001) was associated with increased risk of mortality.