Yoxas/statistical_literacy huggingface dataset:
It was anticipated that recruitment to the Cavernous malformations: A Randomised Effectiveness (CARE) pilot randomised trial would be challenging. The trial compared medical management and surgery (neurosurgical resection or stereotactic radiosurgery) with medical management alone, for people with symptomatic cerebral cavernous malformation (ISRCTN41647111). Previous trials comparing surgical and medical management for intracranial vascular malformations failed to recruit to target. A QuinteT Recruitment Intervention was integrated during trial accrual, September 2021-April 2023 inclusive, to improve informed consent and recruitment. The QuinteT Recruitment Intervention combined iterative collection and analysis of quantitative data (28 trial site screening logs recording numbers/proportions screened, eligible, approached and randomised) and qualitative data (79 audio-recorded recruitment discussions, 19 interviews with healthcare professionals, 11 interviews with patients, 2 investigator workshops, and observations of study meetings, all subject to thematic, content or conversation analysis). We triangulated quantitative and qualitative data to identify barriers and facilitators to recruitment and how and why these arose. Working with the chief investigators and trial management group, we addressed barriers and facilitators with corresponding actions to improve informed consent and recruitment. Barriers identified included how usual care practices made equipoise challenging, multi-disciplinary teams sometimes overrode recruiter equipoise and logistical issues rendered symptomatic cavernoma diagnosis and assessment for stereotactic radiosurgery challenging. Facilitators identified included the preparedness of some neurosurgeons' to offer surgery to people otherwise offered medical management alone, multi-disciplinary team equipoise, and effective information provision presenting participation as a solution to equipoise regarding management. Actions, before and during recruitment, to improve inclusivity of site screening, approach and effectiveness of information provision resulted in 72 participants recruited following a 5-month extension, exceeding the target of 60 participants. QuinteT Recruitment Intervention insights revealed barriers and facilitators, enabling identification of remedial actions. Recruitment to a definitive trial would benefit from further training/support to encourage clinicians to be comfortable approaching patients to whom medical management is usually offered, and broadening the pool of neurosurgeons and multi-disciplinary team members prepared to offer surgery, particularly stereotactic radiosurgery. National Institute for Health and Care Research.
It was apparent from the early phase of the SARS-CoV-2 virus (COVID-19) pandemic that a multi-system syndrome can develop in the weeks following a COVID-19 infection, now referred to as Long COVID. Given that people living with diabetes are at increased risk of hospital admission/poor outcomes following COVID-19 infection we hypothesised that they may also be more susceptible to developing Long COVID. We describe here the prevalence of Long COVID in people living with diabetes when compared to matched controls in a Northwest UK population. This was a retrospective cohort study of people who had a recorded diagnosis of type 1 diabetes (T1D) or type 2 diabetes (T2D) who were alive on 1st January 2020 and who had a proven COVID-19 infection. We used electronic health record data from the Greater Manchester Care Record collected from 1st January 2020 to 16th September 2023, we determined the prevalence of Long COVID in people with T1D and T2D vs matched individuals without diabetes (non-DM). There were 3087 T1D individuals with 14,077 non-diabetes controls and 3087 T2D individuals with 14,077 non-diabetes controls and 29,700 T2D individuals vs 119,951 controls. For T1D, there was a lower proportion of Long COVID diagnosis and/or referral to a Long COVID service at 0.33% vs 0.48% for matched controls. The prevalence of Long COVID In T2D individuals was 0.53% vs 1:3 matched controls 0.54%. For T2D, there were differences by sex in the prevalence of Long COVID in comparison with 1:3 matched controls. For Long COVID between males with T2D and their matched controls, the prevalence was lower in matched controls at 0.46%.vs 0.54% (0.008). When considering the prevalence of LC between females with T2D and their matched controls, the prevalence was higher in matched controls at 0.61% vs 0.53% (0.007). The prevalence of Long COVID in males with T2D vs females was not different. T2D patients at older vs younger age were at reduced risk of developing Long COVID (OR 0.994 [95% CI) [0.989, 0.999]). For females there was a minor increase of risk (OR 1.179, 95% CI [1.002, 1.387]). Presence of a higher body mass index (BMI) was also associated an increased risk of developing Long COVID (OR 1.013, 95% CI [1.001, 1.026]). The estimated general population prevalence of Long COVID based on general practice coding (not self-reported) of this diagnosis was 0.5% of people with a prior acute COVID-19 diagnosis. Recorded Long COVID was more prevalent in men with T2D than in matched non-T2D controls with the opposite seen for T2D women, with recorded Long COVID rates being similar for T2D men and women. Younger age, female sex and higher BMI were all associated with a greater likelihood of developing Long COVID when taken as individual variables. There remains an imperative for continuing awareness of Long COVID as a differential diagnosis for multi-system symptomatic presentation in the context of a previous acute COVID-19 infection. The time of co-author RW was supported by the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration Greater Manchester (NIHR200174) and the NIHR Manchester Biomedical Research Centre (NIHR203308).
It was in 1995 when a strategy was devised to reduce under-five mortality in countries with a prevalence of child mortality above 40/1000 live births. This strategy is called "Integrated Management of Childhood Illness" (IMCI). Improvement in the skills of healthcare workers (HCWs) depends on the IMCI training received by them. To make IMCI training more effective and scale up, a global technical consultation committee in Geneva recommended implementing an innovative training approach in 2014: the distance learning IMCI (dIMCI). This study was conducted to observe qualitatively the practices of IMCI-trained HCWs at their respective workplaces. This qualitative hermeneutic study was conducted through non-probability criterion sampling in the district Abbottabad of Pakistan on all 26 basic health units trained in IMCI (either standard or distance learning) from December 9, 2019, to March 9, 2020. Data collection was done by qualitatively observing consultations and interactions of caretakers of under-five children at basic health units. Inductive thematic analysis was used. This qualitative exploration was underpinned by Hans Georg Gadamer's philosophy of hermeneutics. Four themes emerged from the observation notes. These themes are gratification after consultation, altercation for medication, non-observance of protocol, and methodical consultation. Improvement in the skills of HCWs in the form of IMCI training, either through distance learning or the common eleven-day standard method, can improve caretakers' satisfaction. However, awareness at the community level is needed for better compliance.
It wasaimed herein to investigate coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in cancer patients and compare hematological and solid organ cancer patients in terms of the course and outcome of this disease. Data from cancer patients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 infection were analyzed retrospectively. Risk factors for poor prognosis and the effect of vaccination on the clinical outcomes of the patients were evaluated. A total of 403 cancer patients who were diagnosed with COVID-19 between March 1st, 2021, and November 30th, 2022, were included, of whom 329 (81.6%) had solid and 74 (18.4%) had hematological cancers. Hospitalization and intensive care unit (ICU) admission rates were significantly higher in the hematological cancer patients compared to the solid organ cancer patients (73.0% vs. 35.9%, p< 0.001 and 25.7% vs. 14.0%, p= 0.013, respectively). The COVID-19-related case fatality rate (CFR) was defined as 15.4%, and it was higher in the hematologicalcancer patientsthan inthe solid organ cancer patients (23.0% vs. 13.7%, p= 0.045) and was higher in patients with metastatic/advanced disease compared to the other cancer stages (p< 0.001). In the solid organ cancergroup, hospitalization, ICU admission, and the COVID-19 CFR were higher in patients with respiratory and genitourinary cancers (p< 0.001). A total of 288 (71.8%) patients had receivedCOVID-19 vaccination; 164 (56.94%) had≤2 doses and 124 (43.06%) had≥3 doses. The hospitalization rate was higher in patients with ≤2 doses of vaccine compared to those with ≥3 doses (48.2% vs. 29.8%,p= 0.002). Patients with COVID-19-related death had higher levels of leucocyte, neutrophil, D-dimer, troponin, C-reactive protein (CRP), procalcitonin, and ferritin and lower levels of lymphocyte than the survivors. In the logistic regression analysis,the risk of COVID-19-related mortality was higher in the hematological cancer patients(OR:1.726), those who were male (OR:1.757), and with the Pre-Delta/Delta variants (OR:1.817). This study revealed that there is an increased risk of COVID-19-related serious events (hospitalization, ICU admission, or death) in patients with hematological cancerscompared with those who have solid organ cancers. It wasalso shown that receiving ≥3 doses of COVID-19 vaccine is more protective against severe illness and the need for hospitalization than ≤2 doses.
Italy implemented two-dose universal varicella vaccination (UVV) regionally from 2003 to 2013 and nationally from 2017 onwards. Our objective was to analyze regional disparities in varicella outcomes resulting from disparities in vaccine coverage rates (VCRs) projected over a 50-year time-horizon (2020-2070). A previously published dynamic transmission model was updated to quantify the potential public health impact of the UVV program in Italy at the national and regional levels. Four 2-dose vaccine strategies utilizing monovalent (V) and quadrivalent (MMRV) vaccines were evaluated for each region: (A) MMRV-MSD/MMRV-MSD, (B) MMRV-GSK/MMRV-GSK, (C) V-MSD/MMRV-MSD, and (D) V-GSK/MMRV-GSK. Costs were reported in 2022 Euros. Costs and quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) were discounted 3% annually. Under strategy A, the three regions with the lowest first-dose VCR reported increased varicella cases (+ 34.3%), hospitalizations (+ 20.0%), QALYs lost (+ 5.9%), payer costs (+ 22.2%), and societal costs (+ 14.6%) over the 50-year time-horizon compared to the three regions with highest first-dose VCR. Regions with low first-dose VCR were more sensitive to changes in VCR than high first-dose VCR regions. Results with respect to second-dose VCR were qualitatively similar, although smaller in magnitude. Results were similar across all vaccine strategies.
Iterative algorithms such as maximum likelihood-expectation maximization (ML-EM) become the standard for the reconstruction in emission computed tomography. However, such algorithms are sensitive to noise artifacts so that the reconstruction begins to degrade when the number of iterations reaches a certain value. In this paper, we have investigated a new iterative algorithm for penalized-likelihood image reconstruction that uses the fuzzy nonlinear anisotropic diffusion (AD) as a penalty function. The proposed algorithm does not suffer from the same problem as that of ML-EM algorithm, and it converges to a low noisy solution even if the iteration number is high. The fuzzy reasoning instead of a nonnegative monotonically decreasing function was used to calculate the diffusion coefficients which control the whole diffusion. Thus, the diffusion strength is controlled by fuzzy rules expressed in a linguistic form. The proposed method makes use of the advantages of fuzzy set theory in dealing with uncertain problems and nonlinear AD techniques in removing the noise as well as preserving the edges. Quantitative analysis shows that the proposed reconstruction algorithm is suitable to produce better reconstructed images when compared with ML-EM, ordered subsets EM (OS-EM), Gaussian-MAP, MRP, TV-EM reconstructed images.
ITree is an intuitive web tool for the manual, semi-automatic, and automatic induction of decision trees. It enables interactive modifications of tree structures and incorporates Relative Expression Analysis for detecting complex patterns in high-throughput molecular data. This makes ITree a versatile tool for both research and education in biomedical data analysis. The tool allows users to instantly see the effects of modifications on decision trees, with updates to predictions and statistics displayed in real time, facilitating a deeper understanding of data classification processes. Available online at https://itree.wi.pb.edu.pl. Source code and documentation are hosted on GitHub at https://github.com/hsokolowski/iTree and in supplement.
Job satisfaction and willingness to stay are critical for workforce stability in a challenging healthcare environment. This study examined how relational coordination, a key factor in teamwork and communication, influences outcomes among healthcare professionals in a bilingual, culturally mixed region of Italy. This cross-sectional survey included general practitioners, hospital physicians, nurses, and administrators from the South Tyrol Health Service, using the 'Relational Coordination Survey' and additional measures of job satisfaction and willingness to stay. The analytical methods used included descriptive statistics, correlations, and regression analyses. This study applied path analysis, including mediation and moderation techniques, to investigate the roles of relational coordination and job satisfaction in influencing the willingness to stay. It employs Conditional Process Analysis with the PROCESS macro in SPSS, focusing on models for moderated mediation analysis. The results indicated a critical influence of relational coordination on both job satisfaction and willingness to stay among the 525 healthcare professionals. Job satisfaction varied by health district and years of service, with midcareer professionals being the least satisfied. The findings highlight the central role of relational coordination in job satisfaction and willingness to stay and confirm that low job satisfaction increases turnover intentions. Relational coordination directly enhanced job satisfaction and willingness to stay, while also serving as a mediating factor that amplifies the impact of job satisfaction on retention intentions. This study reinforces the need for strong teamwork and communication to stabilize the healthcare workforce. Targeted interventions aimed at improving relational coordination could significantly enhance job satisfaction and retention among healthcare professionals, particularly in culturally diverse settings such as South Tyrol.
Job satisfaction has been described to be an important for individuals as well as for the society in general. However, several factors were introduced to be crucial for job satisfaction; one of the more influenced factors in satisfaction experiences is individual personality. The present study aim is to identify the relationship between the five major traits of personality and job satisfaction with virtual education among teachers of students with learning difficulties. The research is a descriptive quantitative design. The research population consists of 94 male and female teachers who are involved in primary and intermediate public schools in Saudi Arabia. Data were then exposed to the analysis, namely, descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation, and Mann-Whitney U test to obtain the answers to the research questions at the level of <0.05. Based on the results, the most common personality trait among the study sample is conscientiousness, while neuroticism was the least common among the five traits. It was also found that there are differences between males and females in all dimensions of job satisfaction with virtual education (satisfaction with the nature of work - the relationship with colleagues and bosses - the relationship with parents) and the overall score in favor of females, except for the dimension of the relationship with colleagues and superiors, where males and females are equal. The average score of the personality types and job satisfaction is moderate. Job satisfaction has a significant relationship with personality types. In addition, partial significant differences were found among the study variables. Given the importance of identifying teachers' personality in the workplace, reducing psychological and work factors effects in the educational environment among teachers can be helpful to enhance their job satisfaction. The study therefor, enumerated implications and recommendations based on the findings.
Job satisfaction, loving pedagogy, and teachers' professional success, as three major emotional-psychological variables, have gradually gained its momentum in educational settings. The relationship among them has remained unknown. To address the existing gap, the current study set out to investigate the relationship among Chinese Ideological and Political (IAP) teachers' job satisfaction, loving pedagogy, and their professional success. This non-experimental study employed three questionnaires adopted from and validated by prior studies. To carry out the study, an electronic survey created through Wenjuanxing, a computer program for conducting an online survey in China, was employed and convenience sampling technique was used. One thousand one hundred and eighty-nine Chinese IAP teachers with different majors, various academic degrees, and diversified teaching experiences voluntarily took part in the present study. With statistical analysis carried out by AMOS 23.0, the results of the study showed that job satisfaction and loving pedagogy could jointly predict 46.8 of the variance of teachers' professional success. Both variables were the significant predictors of professional success, while loving pedagogy was a better predictor, solely explaining 39.4 of teacher success's variance. Based on the findings, some pedagogical implications for educational institutions, administrators, and IAP teachers were discussed in the article. Future research directions and limitations were also mentioned.
Johannes Müller was indisputably the most versatile and brilliant physiologist in the mid-nineteenth century. Müller was born in Koblenz in 1801 as the eldest of five children. He received an excellent education in mathematics and the ancient languages and was thus able to read with ease the writings of Aristotle in the original.He served a year with the Pioneers after graduating from high school in 1818. In 1819 he enrolled at the University of Bonn. In 1821, while still a student, he was awarded the scientific university prize for his work on foetal respiration. Müller received his doctorate at the university of Bonn in 1822. He moved to Berlin, where he continued to attend lectures by the anatomist Karl Asmund Rudolphi.He obtained his habilitation in physiology and comparative anatomy in 1824. After his years in Bonn, he accepted a chair at the University of Berlin in 1833 as Rudolphi's successor. His famous "Handbuch der Physiologie" (1833-1840) was published in Berlin. Müller's main areas of interest were physiology, human anatomy, comparative anatomy and anatomical pathology.Müller has numerous publications in addition to his famous book on physiology. He and his distinguished students (Emil du Bois-Reymond, Ernst Haeckel, Hermann von Helmholtz, Friedrich Gustav Jakob Henle, Carl Ludwig, Theodor Schwann and Rudolf Virchow amongst others) made the Berlin Physiological Institute world famous. The natural-philosophical approach to medicine that was still dominant at the beginning of the 19th century was increasingly replaced by a scientifically oriented methodology by Müller.
Joint distribution between two or more variables could be influenced by the outcome of a conditioning variable. In this paper, we propose a flexible Wald-type statistic to test for such influence. The test is based on a conditioned multivariate Kendall's tau nonparametric estimator. The asymptotic properties of the test statistic are established under different null hypotheses to be tested for, such as conditional independence or testing for constant conditional dependence. Two simulation studies are presented: The first shows that the estimator proposed and the bandwidth selection procedure perform well. The second presents different bivariate and multivariate models to check the size and power of the test and runs comparisons with previous proposals when appropriate. The results support the contention that the test is accurate even in complex situations and that its computational cost is low. As an empirical application, we study the dependence between some pillars of European Regional Competitiveness when conditioned on the quality of regional institutions. We find interesting results, such as weaker links between innovation and higher education in regions with lower institutional quality. The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11749-022-00806-1.
Joint replacement is successful for end-stage osteopathy, with obesity linked to evaluated risk. But the impact of obesity on self-reported health and exercise capacity among joint replacement patients remains complex and requires investigation. This study utilizes data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) to examine the relationship between obesity severity, demographic factors, medical comorbidities, and self-reported health status. The relationship between general health status and BMI was analyzed using multivariable regression, and further illustrated using a restricted cubic spline. Additionally, a bibliometric analysis and systemic review was done to frame the research within the broader context of existing knowledge and demographic specifics. Analysis of NHANES data involving 327 joint replacement patients yielded intriguing insights. The difference in self-reported health between BMI groups did not achieve conventional statistical significance (P=0.06), and multivariable analysis showed that even severely obese patients did not exhibit significantly elevated risk of poor/fair self-reported health compared to normal weight subjects. Among severely obese individuals (BMI>40), 40.63% still rated their health positively. However, stratified analyses indicated that obesity correlated with negative health reports across gender, age, and education strata. Notably, physical functioning emerged as a robust predictor of self-reported health, with those reporting no walking difficulties having significantly lower odds of poor/fair health (Odds Ratio=0.37, P=0.01). The study highlights the need for healthcare providers to consider individual physical abilities and comorbidities alongside obesity severity when discussing treatment options with joint replacement patients. It supports tailored interventions and informed shared decision-making. Future research could explore effective weight management strategies for obese individuals undergoing joint replacement.