bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Disease burden of cardiovascular conditions complicating pregnancy in Sri Lanka: a protocol
Authors: Hettiarachchi Ayesh , Lokunarangoda Niroshan , Agampodi Thilini , Agampodi Suneth
Published: March 2022

Background

Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are the commonest indirect medical cause of maternal deaths worldwide, both in high-income and low and middle-income countries. To minimize the effects of CVD in pregnancy, proper risk assessment and appropriate referral is required. In Sri Lanka, cardiovascular disease complicating pregnancy is a significant cause of maternal mortality, second only to postpartum hemorrhage. Screening for CVD in pregnancy in Sri Lanka is limited to a routine clinical assessment. Evidence-based guidelines are yet to be developed, and this deficit may have resulted in a substantial underestimation of the CVD burden. This study aims to determine the burden of CVD in early pregnancy and develop a risk prediction model to be used in field pregnancy clinics in Sri Lanka to reduce CVD effects in pregnancy.

Methods

A prospective cohort study was carried out in the Anuradhapura district, Sri Lanka. Following registration to the antenatal care, pregnant women fulfilling the eligibility criteria were invited to attend a special clinic at their relevant Medical Officer of Health (MOH) area. Risk assessment was done through history and a clinical examination, and suspected/probable cases were referred for an echocardiogram by a consultant cardiologist. All the recruited participants in the first trimester were prospectively followed up and screened again between 24–28 weeks of the period of amenorrhoea (POA). Antenatal ward admissions with CVD complicating pregnancy will be extracted, and a telephone interview will be carried out between 6–12 weeks after the expected delivery date to cover postpartum morbidities. 

Discussion

This proposed study will be the largest of its kind carried out in the local setting. The study's findings will be beneficial for policymakers to develop guidelines to reduce maternal cardiovascular disease morbidities and mortalities in Sri Lanka.
Case Report: Glans penile necrosis in a patient with SARS-CoV-2 and leprosy infection
Authors: Ismy Jufriady , Khalilullah Said Alfin , Bahagianto Aditya Fajar
Published: March 2022

Background: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection was firstly identified in China and has been declared a global pandemic. Several serious extrapulmonary manifestations due to SARS-CoV-2 infection have also been reported and associated with hypercoagulability thrombotic vasculopathy. In addition, cases of Mycobacterium-leprae infection have also been known associated with blood coagulation abnormality.

Methods: Here, we report a 56-year-old male with coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) with concomitant leprosy infection with manifestation of glans penile necrosis, presented to the emergency department with acute penile pain. This case is unique because no occlusion blood flow to the penile was observed in the radiographic imaging. We described the potential pathophysiology in this case through a literature review.

Results: The patient received treatment according to the COVID-19 protocol and was given low molecular weight heparin (LMWH) therapy for 4 days. During the follow up, the clinical and functional condition of the penis showed significant improvement.

Conclusions: Microthrombus involvement, platelet abnormalities and impaired hemostasis due to SARS-CoV-2 and leprosy co-infection are the hypothesis in this case report.
Treaty on Open Skies in a regional context: The implications of the US and the Russia’s decisions to withdraw from the treaty for the security of South Caucasus and Georgia
Authors: Suwara Ewa M.
Published: March 2022

The Treaty on Open Skies has been an important legal instrument contributing to global arms control in recent years. Signed in 1992, the Treaty on Open Skies allows the monitoring and collection of data on military potential through observation flights over one another’s territories, thus becoming a confidence-building and transparency measure among its signatories. The recent decisions by the US and Russia to withdraw from this agreement impact the security situation globally and regionally. They reflect a gradual erosion of the architecture of arms control that has been introduced since the end of the Cold War. Georgia remains the only state in the South Caucasus to be a signatory to this Treaty. It is also the only state in the region to remain (since 2008) in a conflict with Russia. While striving to join the EU and NATO, it lies on the land of strategic importance to Russia and other regional and global players.

The main objective of this publication is to discuss the importance of the Treaty on Open Skies, considering its specificity from a regional perspective, and to assess the implications of the withdrawals of the US and Russia from the Treaty on security in Georgia and in the South Caucasus. Using a descriptive approach and legal-political analysis, the author discusses the creation, functioning, and causes of the breakdown of this legal-institutional system, while looking at its importance for global arms control and security related consequences it may trigger for the region.

A closer look at the South Caucasus highlights the author’s belief in the Treaty’s critical role in the region and the importance of preserving its existence.
A Nested Cross Decomposition Algorithm for Power System Capacity Expansion with Multiscale Uncertainties
Authors: Huang Zhouchun , Zheng Qipeng P. , Liu Andrew L.
Published: March 2022

Modern electric power systems have witnessed rapidly increasing penetration of renewable energy, storage, electrical vehicles, and various demand response resources. The electric infrastructure planning is thus facing more challenges as a result of the variability and uncertainties arising from the diverse new resources. This study aims to develop a multistage and multiscale stochastic mixed integer programming (MM-SMIP) model to capture both the coarse-temporal-scale uncertainties, such as investment cost and long-run demand stochasticity, and fine-temporal-scale uncertainties, such as hourly renewable energy output and electricity demand uncertainties, for the power system capacity expansion problem. To be applied to a real power system, the resulting model will lead to extremely large-scale mixed integer programming problems, which suffer not only the well-known curse of dimensionality but also computational difficulties with a vast number of integer variables at each stage. In addressing such challenges associated with the MM-SMIP model, we propose a nested cross decomposition algorithm that consists of two layers of decomposition—that is, the Dantzig–Wolfe decomposition and L-shaped decomposition. The algorithm exhibits promising computational performance under our numerical study and is especially amenable to parallel computing, which will also be demonstrated through the computational results.
Mixing It Up: Operational Impact of Hospitalist Caseload and Case-Mix
Authors: Kamalahmadi Masoud , Bretthauer Kurt M. , Helm Jonathan E. , Mills Alex F. , Coe Edwin C. , Judy-Malcolm Alisa , Kara Areeba , Pan Julian
Published: March 2022

Hospitalists are medical doctors that specialize in the care of hospitalized patients, a role that until recently belonged to primary care physicians. We develop an operational model of hospitalist-patient interactions with rounding and responding service modes, optimizing hospitalist caseload and case-mix to achieve the maximal reduction in patient length of stay (LOS). We show that hospitalists are effective at reducing LOS for patients with complex conditions, corroborating intuitive reasoning. However, the optimal hospitalist case-mix also includes “simple” patients with few interventions and short LOS, as they can effectively reduce discharge delays. This actionable insight is particularly salient for small community hospitals with simple, short-stay patients, where hospitalists may be undervalued due to the prevailing belief that they are primarily effective for complex patients. We conduct a comparative case study of a small community hospital and a large academic hospital, drawing a stark contrast between the two in terms of ideal caseload and patient coverage. Despite the fact that the academic hospital treats higher complexity patients, hospitalists at the community hospital should actually have a lower caseload than hospitalists at the academic hospital due to shorter stays in the community hospital. We find that both hospitals are understaffed but for different reasons: the academic hospital needs to staff more hospitalists to reduce the current caseload of its hospitalists, whereas the community hospital needs to staff more hospitalists to expand its hospitalist coverage to more patients. We estimate that these hospitals can save on average $1.5 million annually by implementing the optimal staffing policies.

This paper was accepted by Stefan Scholtes, healthcare management.

Funding: This work was supported by a PSC-CUNY Award, jointly funded by The Professional Staff Congress and The City University of New York.

Supplemental Material: The e-companion and data files are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2022.4342 .
Vertical Integration and Foreclosure: Evidence from Production Network Data
Authors: Boehm Johannes , Sonntag Jan
Published: March 2022

This paper studies the prevalence of potential anticompetitive effects of vertical mergers using a novel data set on U.S. and international buyer-seller relationships and across a large range of industries. We find that relationships are more likely to break when suppliers vertically integrate with one of the buyers’ competitors than when they vertically integrate with an unrelated firm. This relationship holds for both domestic and cross-border mergers and for domestic and international relationships. It also holds when instrumenting mergers using exogenous downward pressure on the supplier’s stock prices, suggesting that reverse causality is unlikely to explain the result. In contrast, the relationship vanishes when using rumored or announced but not completed integration events. Firms experience a substantial drop in sales when one of their suppliers integrates with one of their competitors. This sales drop is mitigated if the firm has alternative suppliers in place. These findings are consistent with anticompetitive effects of vertical mergers, such as vertical foreclosure, rising input costs for rivals, or self-foreclosure.

This paper was accepted by Joshua Gans, business strategy.

Funding: This work was supported by a Banque de France/Sciences Po Partnership.

Supplemental Material: The data files and online appendices are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2022.4363 .
Queueing Network Controls via Deep Reinforcement Learning
Authors: Dai J. G. , Gluzman Mark
Published: March 2022

Novel advanced policy gradient (APG) methods, such as trust region policy optimization and proximal policy optimization (PPO), have become the dominant reinforcement learning algorithms because of their ease of implementation and good practical performance. A conventional setup for notoriously difficult queueing network control problems is a Markov decision problem (MDP) that has three features: infinite state space, unbounded costs, and long-run average cost objective. We extend the theoretical framework of these APG methods for such MDP problems. The resulting PPO algorithm is tested on a parallel-server system and large-size multiclass queueing networks. The algorithm consistently generates control policies that outperform state-of-art heuristics in literature in a variety of load conditions from light to heavy traffic. These policies are demonstrated to be near optimal when the optimal policy can be computed. A key to the successes of our PPO algorithm is the use of three variance reduction techniques in estimating the relative value function via sampling. First, we use a discounted relative value function as an approximation of the relative value function. Second, we propose regenerative simulation to estimate the discounted relative value function. Finally, we incorporate the approximating martingale-process method into the regenerative estimator.
Albinism in a wild Caribbean night monkey (Aotus griseimembra) in a fragmented landscape in Colombia
Authors: Montilla Sebastián O. , Link Andrés
Published: March 2022

El albinismo es el resultado de la ausencia completa de melanina producto de mutaciones en los genes OCA y TYR.  Esta condición ha sido considerada rara en especies de primates y podría afectar la sobrevivencia y las interacciones intraespecificas de los individuos.  El objetivo de esta nota es reportar el albinismo de un individuo silvestre del mono nocturno caribeño (Aotus griseimembra) en un paisaje fragmentado en Santander, Colombia.  Durante 2020 y 2021 visitamos el dormidero de un grupo social del mono nocturno caribeño que habita un pequeño fragmento de bosque rodeado por pastizales destinados a ganadería y cultivos de palma.  Dentro del grupo social registramos a un individuo juvenil de sexo desconocido con evidente albinismo, el cual comparte su dormidero con 3 individuos más con coloración normal.  A diferencia de especies diurnas, los registros de individuos albinos en primates nocturnos son escasos y han sido nulos para los monos nocturnos del Nuevo Mundo (Aotus spp.), por lo tanto, es probable que, en estas especies de hábitos nocturnos, el albinismo imponga retos adicionales de sobrevivencia.  Es necesario obtener datos ecológicos y genéticos que permitan entender los orígenes e implicaciones del albinismo en el mono nocturno caribeño.
A Bibliometric Review on Realistic Mathematics Education in Scopus Database Between 1972-2019
Authors: Phan Tinh Thi , Do Thi Trinh , Trinh Thanh Hai , Tran Trung , Duong Huu Tong , Trinh Thi Phuong Thao , Do Bao Chau , Nguyen Tien-Trung
Published: March 2022

Despite receiving increasing attention from mathematics education scholars, there has not yet been any overall understanding of the current state of realistic mathematics education (RME). To address this gap, this study aims to provide a review of 288 studies on realistic mathematics education from the Scopus database between 1972 and 2019. Using descriptive and bibliometric analyses, this study addresses four research issues as follows: (i) the total volume, growth trajectory, and geographic distribution; (ii) the most influencing authors and research groups; (iii) the most influencing sources (i.e., journals, books, conferences); and (iv) the most important topics. Several implications for not only mathematics education scholars but also other stakeholders, including policymakers, school managers, mathematics teachers, may not be considered in this study.
Physics-driven learning of Wasserstein GAN for density reconstruction in dynamic tomography
Authors: Huang Zhishen , Klasky Marc , Wilcox Trevor , Ravishankar Saiprasad
Published: March 2022

Object density reconstruction from projections containing scattered radiation and noise is of critical importance in many applications. Existing scatter correction and density reconstruction methods may not provide the high accuracy needed in many applications and can break down in the presence of unmodeled or anomalous scatter and other experimental artifacts. Incorporating machine-learning models could prove beneficial for accurate density reconstruction, particularly in dynamic imaging, where the time evolution of the density fields could be captured by partial differential equations or by learning from hydrodynamics simulations. In this work, we demonstrate the ability of learned deep neural networks to perform artifact removal in noisy density reconstructions, where the noise is imperfectly characterized. We use a Wasserstein generative adversarial network (WGAN), where the generator serves as a denoiser that removes artifacts in densities obtained from traditional reconstruction algorithms. We train the networks from large density time-series datasets, with noise simulated according to parametric random distributions that may mimic noise in experiments. The WGAN is trained with noisy density frames as generator inputs, to match the generator outputs to the distribution of clean densities (time series) from simulations. A supervised loss is also included in the training, which leads to an improved density restoration performance. In addition, we employ physics-based constraints such as mass conservation during the network training and application to further enable highly accurate density reconstructions. Our preliminary numerical results show that the models trained in our frameworks can remove significant portions of unknown noise in density time-series data.
Origin of the frequency-sensitive super-collimation phenomenon from the geometry of band dispersion surface for two-dimensional photonic crystals
Authors: Zhang Meng , Huang JunMing , Jiang XunYa
Published: March 2022

Frequency-sensitive super-collimation (FSSC) is a novel dispersion phenomenon of photonic crystals (PhCs) that can realize the beam collimating propagation with very high frequency sensitivity. In order to deeply investigate the origin and the stability of FSSC phenomenon in a wide parameter space, we study the geometry of dispersion surface in detail. Four features for the special geometry of dispersion surface with FSSC are found for rectangular PhCs. The special geometry supports the stability of FSSC in a wide range of parameter space. Two-parameter modulation (TPM) method, in which the aspect ratio β and the dielectric constant of rods ɛ
r
of rectangular lattice are chosen as the key parameters, is used to analyze the geometry of dispersion surface from the frequency changes at the high-symmetry points. Step by step, the origin of such geometry is revealed and the evolving process can be explained by the field distribution changes of Bloch modes at the high-symmetry points. Furthermore, we show that the geometry not only can be used to explain the origin and the stability of FSSC, but also can help us to find other FSSC phenomenons. Theoretically, we believe the geometry of dispersion surface and the TPM can be widely used on the studies of complex dispersion properties of PhCs. The FSSCs found in this work with higher sensitivity or higher stability can help us to design new on-chip PhC devices.
Childhood factors associated with suicidal ideation among South African youth: A 28-year longitudinal study of the Birth to Twenty Plus cohort
Authors: Orri Massimiliano , Ahun Marilyn N. , Naicker Sara , Besharati Sahba , Richter Linda M.
Published: March 2022

Background

Although early life factors are associated with increased suicide risk in youth, there is a dearth of research on these associations for individuals growing up in disadvantaged socioeconomic contexts, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). We documented the association between individual, familial, and environmental factors in childhood with suicidal ideation among South African youth.

Methods and findings

We used data from 2,020 participants in the Birth to Twenty Plus (Bt20+) study, a South African cohort following children born in Soweto, Johannesburg from birth (1990) to age 28 years (2018). Suicidal ideation was self-reported at ages 14, 17, 22, and 28 years, and the primary outcome of interest was suicidal ideation reported at any age. We assessed individual, familial, and socioeconomic characteristics at childbirth and during infancy, adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) between ages 5 and 13 years, and externalizing and internalizing problems between 5 and 10 years. We estimated odds ratios (ORs) of suicidal ideation for individuals exposed to selected childhood factors using logistic regression. Lifetime suicidal ideation was reported by 469 (23.2%) participants, with a 1.7:1 female/male ratio. Suicidal ideation rates peaked at age 17 and decreased thereafter. Socioeconomic adversity, low birth weight, higher birth order (i.e., increase in the order of birth in the family: first, second, third, fourth, or later born child), ACEs, and childhood externalizing problems were associated with suicidal ideation, differently patterned among males and females. Socioeconomic adversity (OR 1.13, CI 1.01 to 1.27, P = 0.031) was significantly associated with suicidal ideation among males only, while birth weight (OR 1.20, CI 1.02 to 1.41, P = 0.03), ACEs (OR 1.11, CI 1.01 to 1.21, P = 0.030), and higher birth order (OR 1.15, CI 1.07 to 1.243, P < 0.001) were significantly associated with suicidal ideation among females only. Externalizing problems in childhood were significantly associated with suicidal ideation among both males (OR 1.23, 1.08 to 1.40, P = 0.002) and females (OR 1.16, CI 1.03 to 1.30, P = 0.011). Main limitations of the study are the high attrition rate (62% of the original sample was included in this analysis) and the heterogeneity in the measurements of suicidal ideation.

Conclusions

In this study from South Africa, we observed that early life social and environmental adversities as well as childhood externalizing problems are associated with increased risk of suicidal ideation during adolescence and early adulthood.
The natural history of ataxia-telangiectasia (A-T): A systematic review
Authors: Petley Emily , Yule Alexander , Alexander Shaun , Ojha Shalini , Whitehouse William P.
Published: March 2022

Background

Ataxia-telangiectasia is an autosomal recessive, multi-system, and life-shortening disease caused by mutations in the ataxia-telangiectasia mutated gene. Although widely reported, there are no studies that give a comprehensive picture of this intriguing condition.

Objectives

Understand the natural history of ataxia-telangiectasia (A-T), as reported in scientific literature.

Search methods

107 search terms were identified and divided into 17 searches. Each search was performed in PubMed, Ovid SP (MEDLINE) 1946-present, OVID EMBASE 1980 –present, Web of Science core collection, Elsevier Scopus, and Cochrane Library.

Selection criteria

All human studies that report any aspect of A-T.

Data collection and analysis

Search results were de-duplicated, data extracted (including author, publication year, country of origin, study design, population, participant characteristics, and clinical features). Quality of case-control and cohort studies was assessed by the Newcastle-Ottawa tool. Findings are reported descriptively and where possible data collated to report median (interquartile range, range) of outcomes of interest.

Main results

1314 cases reported 2134 presenting symptoms. The most common presenting symptom was abnormal gait (1160 cases; 188 studies) followed by recurrent infections in classical ataxia-telangiectasia and movement disorders in variant ataxia-telangiectasia. 687 cases reported 752 causes of death among which malignancy was the most frequently reported cause. Median (IQR, range) age of death (n = 294) was 14 years 0 months (10 years 0 months to 23 years 3 months, 1 year 3 months to 76 years 0 months).

Conclusions

This review demonstrates the multi-system involvement in A-T, confirms that neurological symptoms are the most frequent presenting features in classical A-T but variants have diverse manifestations. We found that most individuals with A-T have life limited to teenage or early adulthood. Predominance of case reports, and case series demonstrate the lack of robust evidence to determine the natural history of A-T. We recommend population-based studies to fill this evidence gap.
Community pharmacists’ attitudes toward practice-based research and their perceived utilization of scientific evidence
Authors: Alefishat Eman , Jarab Anan S. , Muflih Suhaib , Aqeel Abdel Wahab
Published: March 2022

Background

Enhancing the contribution of practicing pharmacists into scientific evidence via practice-based research (PBR) is crucial in maintaining high-quality clinical practice and healthcare delivery. Involving community pharmacists in PBR can potentially can also help break barriers to the utilization of the current best evidence in everyday pharmacy practice. The impact of pharmacists’ attitude towards PBR on their utilization of current best evidence in pharmacy practice is understudied.

Objectives

The aim of the study was to investigate the impact of community pharmacists’ attitudes toward PBR on their utilization of current best evidence, barriers for conducting PBR in clinical practice were also investigated.

Methods

In this cross-sectional study, 169 community pharmacists working across Jordan filled a questionnaire to assess their attitudes towards PBR, barriers to PBR, and their utilization of the current best evidence in clinical practice.

Results

Pharmacists in this study showed a positive attitude toward PBR (attitude mean score >3.5). A positive attitude towards PBR was associated with high utilization of the best current scientific evidence. We also investigated several barriers to PBR and their association with utilization those included; the lack of perceived benefits, lack of institutional support, and lack of self-engagements of community pharmacists to PBR. The lack of perceived benefit was found to be negatively associated with pharmacists’ utilization of the current best scientific evidence.

Conclusion

In this study, pharmacists’ utilization of current best evidence was found to be significantly impacted by their attitude toward PBR. The current study findings highlight the importance of supporting, promoting, and facilitating PBR among community pharmacists which can potentially enhance their utilization of the current best evidence in their everyday pharmacy practice.
Horizontal target size perturbations during grasping movements are described by subsequent size perception and saccade amplitude
Authors: Sanz Diez Pablo , Bosco Annalisa , Fattori Patrizia , Wahl Siegfried
Published: March 2022

Perception and action are essential in our day-to-day interactions with the environment. Despite the dual-stream theory of action and perception, it is now accepted that action and perception processes interact with each other. However, little is known about the impact of unpredicted changes of target size during grasping actions on perception. We assessed whether size perception and saccade amplitude were affected before and after grasping a target that changed its horizontal size during the action execution under the presence or absence of tactile feedback. We have tested twenty-one participants in 4 blocks of 30 trials. Blocks were divided into two experimental tactile feedback paradigms: tactile and non-tactile. Trials consisted of 3 sequential phases: pre-grasping size perception, grasping, and post-grasping size perception. During pre- and post-phases, participants executed a saccade towards a horizontal bar and performed a manual size estimation of the bar size. During grasping phase, participants were asked to execute a saccade towards the bar and to make a grasping action towards the screen. While grasping, 3 horizontal size perturbation conditions were applied: non-perturbation, shortening, and lengthening. 30% of the trials presented perturbation, meaning a symmetrically shortened or lengthened by 33% of the original size. Participants’ hand and eye positions were assessed by a motion capture system and a mobile eye-tracker, respectively. After grasping, in both tactile and non-tactile feedback paradigms, size estimation was significantly reduced in lengthening (p = 0.002) and non-perturbation (p<0.001), whereas shortening did not induce significant adjustments (p = 0.86). After grasping, saccade amplitude became significantly longer in shortening (p<0.001) and significantly shorter in lengthening (p<0.001). Non-perturbation condition did not display adjustments (p = 0.95). Tactile feedback did not generate changes in the collected perceptual responses, but horizontal size perturbations did so, suggesting that all relevant target information used in the movement can be extracted from the post-action target perception.
Radiation exposure and clinical outcome in patients undergoing percutaneous intradiscal ozone therapy for disc herniation: Fluoroscopic versus conventional CT guidance
Authors: Somma Francesco , D’Agostino Vincenzo , Negro Alberto , Piscitelli Valeria , Tamburrini Stefania , Sicignano Carmine , Fasano Fabrizio , Peluso Silvio , Villa Alessandro , Pace Gianvito , Sarti Giuseppe , La Tessa Giuseppe Maria Ernesto , Pezzullo Giovanna , Gatta Gianluca , Caranci Ferdinando
Published: March 2022

Purpose

To compare technical success, clinical success, complications and radiation dose for percutaneous intradiscal ozone therapy in patients with lumbar disc herniation using fluoroscopic guidance versus conventional computed tomography (CT) guidance.

Materials and methods

Between March 2018and March 2021, 124consecutive percutaneous intradiscal ozone therapies wereperformedon111 patients with low back pain (LBP) and/or sciatic pain due to lumbar disc herniation, using fluoroscopic or conventional CT guidance, respectively in 53 and 58 herniated lumbar discs, with at least 1-month follow up. Dose area product (DAP) and dose length product (DLP) were recorded respectively for fluoroscopy and CT, and converted to effective dose (ED).

Results

Fluoroscopic and CT groups were similar in terms of patient age (p-value 0.39), patient weight (p-value 0.49) and pre-procedure Oswestry Disability Index (ODI, p-value 0.94). Technical success was achieved in all cases. Clinical success was obtained in 83.02% (44/53) patients in fluoroscopic group and 79.31% (46/58) in CT group. Mean DAP was 11.63Gy*cm2(range 5.42–21.61). Mean DLP was 632.49mGy-cm (range 151.51–1699). ED was significantly lower in the fluoroscopic group compared toCT group (0.34 vs. 5.53mSv, p = 0.0119). No major complication was registered. Minor complications were observed in 4 cases (2 in fluoroscopic group; 2 in CT group).

Conclusions

Compared to conventional CT guidance, fluoroscopic guidance for percutaneous intradiscal ozone therapy in patients with lumbar disc herniation shows similar technical and clinical success rates, with lower radiation dose. This technique helps sparing dose exposure to patients.
Preliminary investigations for the development of a virtual reality-based English-language communication program: Using the Delphi method
Authors: Kim Jihyo , Park Seong Man , Joo Meeran , Park Jongtae , Lee Young-Lim , Jang Jong-Hwa , Cardoso Walcir
Published: March 2022

The purpose of this study was to gather opinions from experts via the Delphi method to inform the future development of a virtual reality based English language communication program for university level students in Korea. The participants, who consisted of a panel of experts and professors who majored in English language and multimedia education, completed three Delphi surveys based on Context, Input, Process, and Product evaluation, which is referred to as CIPP. In the first Delphi survey, the participants answered multiple choice questions and open-ended questions related to four areas relevant to the development of a virtual reality based program. Based on their answers, a second Delphi survey was designed to determine the participants’ level of agreement with the appropriateness of the questions related to the four areas. In the third Delphi survey, participants were shown the results (mean, standard deviation, median, interquartile range, consensus chart, and convergence degree) and were asked to confirm or modify their answers based on the other participants’ answers. According to the analysis of the Delphi survey results, need for the development of a virtual reality based English language communication program was suggested, and recommendations were made regarding the content and application of the program.
Filling the GAP: Integrating a gambling addiction program into a shelter setting for people experiencing poverty and homelessness
Authors: Matheson Flora I. , Hamilton-Wright Sarah , Hahmann Tara , McLuhan Arthur , Tacchini Guido , Wendaferew Aklilu , Dastoori Parisa
Published: March 2022

The burden of harm from problem gambling weighs heavily on those experiencing poverty and homelessness, yet most problem gambling prevention and treatment services are not designed to address the complex needs and challenges of this population. To redress this service gap, a multi-service agency within a shelter setting in a large urban centre developed and implemented a population-tailored, person-centred, evidence-informed gambling addiction program for its clients. The purpose of this article is to report on qualitative findings from an early evaluation of the program, the first designed to address problem gambling for people experiencing poverty and/or homelessness and delivered within a shelter service agency. Three themes emerged which were related to three program outcome categories. These included increasing awareness of gambling harms and reducing gambling behaviour; reorienting relationships with money; and, seeking, securing, and stabilizing shelter. The data suggest that problem gambling treatment within the context of poverty and homelessness benefits from an approach and setting that meets the unique needs of this community. The introduction of gambling treatment into this multi-service delivery model addressed the complex needs of the service users through integrated and person-centered approaches to care that responded to client needs, fostered therapeutic relationships, reduced experiences of discrimination and stigma, and enhanced recovery. In developing the Gambling Addiction Program, the agency drew on evidence-based approaches to problem gambling treatment and extensive experience working with the target population. Within a short timeframe, the program supported participants in the process of recovery, enhancing their understanding and control of their gambling selves, behaviours, and harms. This project demonstrates that gambling within the context of poverty requires a unique treatment space and approach.
Medication reconciliation on discharge in a tertiary care Riyadh Hospital: An observational study
Authors: Alanazi Ahmed S. , Awwad Sameh , Khan Tahir M. , Asdaq Syed Mohammed Basheeruddin , Mohzari Yahya , Alanazi Foz , Alrashed Ahmed , Alamri Abdulhakeem S. , Alsanie Walaa F. , Alhomrani Majid , AlMotairi Mohammed
Published: March 2022

The purpose of this study was to assess the frequency and characteristics of discharge medication discrepancies as identified by pharmacists during discharge medication reconciliation. We also attempted to identify the factors that influence the occurrence of drug discrepancies during medication reconciliation. From June to December 2019, a prospective study was performed at the cardiac center of King Fahad Medical City (KFMC), a tertiary care hospital in Riyadh. The information from discharge prescriptions as compared to the medication administration record (MAR), medication history in the cortex system, and the patient home medication list collected from the medication reconciliation form on admission. The study included all adult patients discharged from KFMC’s cardiac center. These participants comprised 776 patients, 64.6 percent of whom were men and 35.4 percent of whom were women. Medication discrepancies were encountered in 180 patients (23.2%) out of 776 patients. In regards to the number of discharged medications, 651(83.9%) patients had ≥ 5 medications. Around, 174 (73.4%) discrepancies were intentional, and 63 (26.6%) were unintentional discrepancies. The risk of unintentional medication discrepancy was increased with an increasing number of medications (P-value = 0.008). One out of every four cardiac patients discharged from our hospital had at least one medication discrepancy. The number of drugs taken and the number of discrepancies was found to be related. Necessary steps should be taken to reduce these discrepancies and improve the standard of care.
Validation of an online application to identify potential immune-related adverse events associated with immune checkpoint inhibitors based on the patient’s symptoms
Authors: Osawa Takahiro , Abe Takashige , Kikuchi Hiroshi , Matsumoto Ryuji , Murai Sachiyo , Nakao Takafumi , Tanaka Shinji , Watanabe Ayu , Shinohara Nobuo
Published: March 2022

Background

Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) are increasingly being used to treat malignancies. Some patients experience immune-related adverse events (irAEs), which may affect any organ/tissue. IrAEs are occasionally fatal and usually have nonspecific symptoms. We developed a three-step application (https://irae-search.com/) to provide healthcare professionals with information on the diagnosis, treatment options, and published reports for 38 categories of irAEs encountered in clinical practice.

Methods

IrAEs reported in ≥5 cases were identified from articles published between October 2018 and August 2020 by searching Japanese (SELIMIC, JAPIC-Q Service, and JMED Plus) and international (MEDLINE, EMBASE, Derwent Drug File) databases. The cases’ symptoms were entered into the application to identify irAEs, which were verified using the reported diagnosis, to evaluate the application’s sensitivity and specificity.

Results

Overall, 1209 cases (1067 reports) were analyzed. The three most common categories of irAEs were pituitary or adrenal disorders (14% of cases), skin disorders (13%), and diabetes mellitus (10%). The top three primary diseases were lung cancer (364 cases), melanoma (286 cases), and renal cell carcinoma (218 cases). The average sensitivity was 90.8% (range 44.4%–100.0%) initially, and improved to 94.8% (range 83.3%–100.0%) after incorporating the symptoms reported in published cases into the application’s logic for two irAE categories. The average specificity was 79.3% (range 59.1% [thyroid disorders]–98.2% [arthritis]).

Conclusion

irAE Search is an easy-to-use application designed to help healthcare professionals identify potential irAEs in ICI-treated patients in a timely manner to facilitate prompt management/treatment. The application showed high sensitivity and moderate-to-high specificity for detecting irAEs.
Does economic policy uncertainty undermine stability of agricultural imports? Evidence from China
Authors: Zhang Zhaohua , Brizmohun Roshini , Li Gang , Wang Ping
Published: March 2022

China is the world’s largest importer of agricultural products. Stability of agricultural imports directly affects domestic food availability, and hence influences national food security. This study is important to gauge effects of uncertainty resulting from global and domestic economic policy changes on the stability component of food security in China. Though many studies have explored the determinants and consequences of Chinese agricultural trade, research focusing on stability of agricultural imports is lacking. To fill the gap, this study calculates duration length and survival probability of China’s agri-food imports, and estimates effects of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) on the stability. Results show that trade duration of the agri-food imports is 12.07 months in China. However, 51.69% of disrupted trade relationships would resume after 2 months and 92.68% of temporarily interrupted trade relationships return to the market after 12 months. Empirical estimations show that global EPU has a larger impact on the stability of agricultural imports than Chinese EPU. Although Chinese EPU has heterogeneous effects on imports of different agri-food products in China, global EPU does not. Stabilized domestic food price and improved domestic agricultural productivity would improve stability of the imports significantly. The study concludes that China’s agricultural imports are less dynamic than previous studies claimed. However, EPU significantly erodes the trade stability. To offset negative effects of EPU on the stability, government should pay more attention on stabilizing domestic food price volatility and increasing food productivity, and therefore improve food security in China.
Disposição dos usuários do transporte público a caminhar para obter um serviço mais frequente: aplicação de best-worst e preferência declarada
Authors: Larranaga Ana Margarita , Arellana Julián , Garzón Luis , Jansson Almeida Bárbara , Trichês Lucchesi Shanna
Published: March 2022

O objetivo do estudo é analisar a disposição a caminhar dos usuários para obter um serviço com maior frequência. Dados best-worst, preferência declarada (PD) e atitudinais foram coletados em Porto Alegre e estimados modelos híbridos de escolha discreta simultâneos. Os modelos permitiram a combinação dos modelos clássicos de escolha discreta com equações estruturais. O estudo contribui em: quantificação do trade off entre estes atributos, inclusão de características atitudinais e urbanas, contexto do estudo e nova abordagem metodológica através da utilização de best-worst para seleção de atributos da pesquisa PD. Os resultados mostraram que os usuários estão dispostos a caminhar 520m para reduzir 10 minutos o tempo de espera, 375m para reduzir a lotação do veículo 50%, 98m para aumentar o número de policiais em 1 unidade e 100m para incrementar a qualidade do pavimento das calçadas. Os usuários estão dispostos a esperar 7,2 minutos para reduzir a lotação do veículo em 50%.
Modelagem probabilística do tempo de resposta de motoristas em interseções semaforizadas no VISSIM
Authors: Barbosa Fontes Diego , Macêdo de Araújo Alessandro , Mendonça de Castro Neto Manoel
Published: March 2022

O principal objetivo deste trabalho foi implementar, no microssimulador VISSIM, um modelo probabilístico para o tempo de resposta dos motoristas de uma aproximação semaforizada e avaliar os efeitos dessa modelagem no desempenho do tráfego. A partir de dados de uma interseção semaforizada localizada na cidade de Fortaleza foram realizadas análises estatísticas do tempo de resposta por posição do veículo na fila, por faixa de tráfego, por tipo de veículo e por movimento. Essas análises embasaram a modelagem do tempo de resposta pela distribuição de probabilidade encontrada, a log-normal, a qual foi implementada no VISSIM por meio de algoritmo externo de programação desenvolvido em Python. Para avaliar a importância dessa implementação, foram comparados os resultados de atraso médio, de tamanho de fila médio e de capacidade com os resultados das simulações realizadas com a modelagem default do VISSIM. As simulações realizadas com o modelo probabilístico do tempo de resposta resultaram em maiores atrasos e tamanhos de fila e em menores capacidades do que as obtidas com a modelagem default do software.
Scale-attentional U-Net for the segmentation of the median nerve in ultrasound images
Authors: Kim Beom Suk , Yu Minhyeong , Kim Sunwoo , Yoon Joon Shik , Baek Seungjun
Published: March 2022

Purpose: The aim of this study was to develop a neural network that accurately and effectively segments the median nerve in ultrasound (US) images.Methods: In total, 1,305 images of the median nerve of 123 normal subjects were used to train and evaluate the model. Four datasets from two measurement regions (wrist and forearm) of the nerve and two US machines were used. The neural network was designed for high accuracy by combining information at multiple scales, as well as for high efficiency to prevent overfitting. The model was designed in two parts (cascaded and factorized convolutions), followed by selfattention over scale and channel features. The precision, recall, dice similarity coefficient (DSC), and Hausdorff distance (HD) were used as performance metrics. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) was also assessed.Results: In the wrist datasets, the proposed network achieved 92.7% and 90.3% precision, 92.4% and 89.8% recall, DSCs of 92.3% and 89.7%, HDs of 5.158 and 4.966, and AUCs of 0.9755 and 0.9399 on two machines. In the forearm datasets, 79.3% and 87.8% precision, 76.0% and 85.0% recall, DSCs of 76.1% and 85.8%, HDs of 5.206 and 4.527, and AUCs of 0.8846 and 0.9150 were achieved. In all datasets, the model developed herein achieved better performance in terms of DSC than previous U-Net-based systems.Conclusion: The proposed neural network yields accurate segmentation results to assist clinicians in identifying the median nerve.
Collection and Services of Government Libraries in Delhi
Authors: Mahawariya Kimi , Yadav Meera
Published: March 2022

The present study aims to find out the collection development and management, library services, library staff, library budget, and ICT technology in the selected six libraries of the central government ministries viz. Ministry of Law and Justice, Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs and Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution that are situated in Delhi by way of collecting their qualitative and quantitative data on aforesaid parameters which could be directly related to their overall development. There are various studies on various types of government libraries however no study on ministerial libraries of the government of India has been done before. The research was designed through a structured questionnaire that aimed at collecting information about the overall collection, management, and functions of the libraries and subsequently, the librarians or heads of selected libraries alongwith their staff were approached for collection of the data specific to the structured questionnaire. Findings of the study show that these libraries are lacking professional skilled staff as well as the unavailability of adequate ICT components. Furthermore, there is a lack of proper information services which is hindering their overall development. Since these libraries are special libraries in nature and consists of a rare and useful collection related to their respective Ministry, hence, evaluation and study of these libraries to know their developmental status will be helpful to the library users.
Bibliometric Analysis of Latent Dirichlet Allocation
Authors: Garg Mohit , Rangra Priya
Published: March 2022

Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) has emerged as an important algorithm in big data analysis that finds the group of topics in the text data. It posits that each text document consists of a group of topics, and each topic is a mixture of words related to it. With the emergence of a plethora of text data, the LDA has become a popular algorithm for topic modeling among researchers from different domains. Therefore, it is essential to understand the trends of LDA researches. Bibliometric techniques are established methods to study the research progress of a topic. In this study, bibliographic data of 18715 publications that have cited the LDA were extracted from the Scopus database. The software R and Vosviewer were used to carry out the analysis. The analysis revealed that research interest in LDA had grown exponentially. The results showed that most authors preferred “Book Series” followed by “Conference Proceedings” as the publication venue. The majority of the institutions and authors were from the USA, followed by China. The co-occurrence analysis of keywords indicated that text mining and machine learning were dominant topics in LDA research with significant interest in social media. This study attempts to provide a comprehensive analysis and intellectual structure of LDA compared to previous studies.