bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The diagnosis of tuberculous meningitis in adults and adolescents: protocol for a systematic review and individual patient data meta-analysis to inform a multivariable prediction model
Authors: Boyles Tom , Stadelman Anna , Ellis Jayne P. , Cresswell Fiona V. , Lutje Vittoria , Wasserman Sean , Tiffin Nicki , Wilkinson Robert 
Published: January 2021

Background: Tuberculous meningitis (TBM) is the most lethal and disabling form of tuberculosis. Delayed diagnosis and treatment, which is a risk factor for poor outcome, is caused in part by lack of availability of diagnostic tests that are both rapid and accurate. Several attempts have been made to develop clinical scoring systems to fill this gap, but none have performed sufficiently well to be broadly implemented. We aim to identify and validate a set of clinical predictors that accurately classify TBM using individual patient data (IPD) from published studies. Methods: We will perform a systematic review and obtain IPD from studies published from the year 1990 which undertook diagnostic testing for TBM in adolescents or adults using at least one of, microscopy for acid-fast bacilli, commercial nucleic acid amplification test for Mycobacterium tuberculosis or mycobacterial culture of cerebrospinal fluid. Clinical data that have previously been shown to be associated with TBM, and can inform the final diagnosis, will be requested. The data-set will be divided into training and test/validation data-sets for model building. A predictive logistic model will be built using a training set with patients with definite TBM and no TBM. Should it be warranted, factor analysis may be employed, depending on evidence for multicollinearity or the case for including latent variables in the model. Discussion: We will systematically identify and extract key clinical parameters associated with TBM from published studies and use a ‘big data’ approach to develop and validate a clinical prediction model with enhanced generalisability. The final model will be made available through a smartphone application. Further work will be external validation of the model and test of efficacy in a randomised controlled trial.
Alleviating Drug Shortages: The Role of Mandated Reporting Induced Operational Transparency
Authors: Lee Junghee , Lee Hyun Seok (Huck) , Shin Hyoduk , Krishnan Vish 
Published: January 2021

The ongoing shortage of pharmaceutical drugs critically threatens public health. With increasing industry consolidation, operational disruptions at a firm can lead to a nationwide shortage of life-saving drugs. In 2012, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration mandated all manufacturers to report any manufacturing interruption that can potentially cause shortages. The goal of the mandate was to mitigate drug shortages by enhancing operational transparency in the pharmaceutical industry. Subsequently, other countries such as Canada have also begun mandating reporting of interruptions to alleviate drug shortages. We leverage the policy changes in the United States and Canada to understand the impact of mandated reporting induced operational transparency on alleviating the extent of drug shortages. Using the data on time-to-recovery for individual drug-shortage incident and annual-days-of-shortage for each drug, we find that the new policy alleviates drug shortages, but its effectiveness is contingent upon the prevailing level of competition in the product category. Although the intervention is not as impactful under a monopoly, the mandate is most effective under a duopoly, and its impact wanes as competition intensifies. In the absence of the mandate-induced transparency, competition does not necessarily alleviate shortages, but with the regulation, competition can relieve drug shortages. Our results potentially offer healthcare providers and policymakers the impetus to alleviate drug shortages by mandating interruption reporting and improving operational transparency. This paper was accepted by Charles Corbett, operations management.
Effect of PTH treatment on bone healing in insufficiency fractures of the pelvis: a systematic review
Authors: Bovbjerg Pernille , Høgh Ditte , Froberg Lonnie , Schmal Hagen , Kassem Moustapha 
Published: January 2021

The aging of our society is associated with an increasing number of insufficiency fractures of the pelvis and the current standard of care is pain control and early mobilization. The aim of this study was to explore whether parathyroid hormone (PTH) treatment can support bone healing in these patients. We conducted a systematic review searching the databases PubMed, Embase and Cochrane. Our primary outcome was fracture healing, secondary outcome measures comprised pain, mobility and patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs). Eight articles were included in the qualitative synthesis, of which two were included in a meta-analysis. However, only three studies were comparative including one randomized controlled trial. Fracture healing and reported pain were assessed after eight weeks, and were significantly improved in the group being treated with PTH (p < 0.01) in the meta-analysis. All articles described a positive effect for PTH on fracture healing and pain. Our systematic review indicates that there is a positive effect of PTH treatment on healing and pain in patients with insufficiency fracture in the pelvic ring, but further research is necessary. Cite this article: EFORT Open Rev 2021;6:9-14. DOI: 10.1302/2058-5241.6.200029
Humeral shaft fractures
Authors: Gallusser Nicolas , Barimani Bardia , Vauclair Frédéric 
Published: January 2021

Humeral shaft fractures are relatively common, representing approximately 1% to 5% of all fractures. Conservative management is the treatment of choice for most humeral shaft fractures and offers functional results and union rates that are not inferior to surgical management. Age and oblique fractures of the proximal third are risk factors for nonunion. Surgical indication threshold should be lower in patients older than 55 years presenting with this type of fracture. Functional outcomes and union rates after plating and intramedullary nailing are comparable, but the likelihood of shoulder complications is higher with intramedullary nailing. There is no advantage to early exploration of the radial nerve even in secondary radial nerve palsy. Cite this article: EFORT Open Rev 2021;6:24-34. DOI: 10.1302/2058-5241.6.200033
Full endoscopic surgery for thoracic pathology: an assessment of supportive evidence
Authors: Gibson Rory D. S. , Wagner Ralf , Gibson J. N. Alastair 
Published: January 2021

In the last five years, surgeons have applied endoscopic transforaminal surgical techniques mastered in the lumbar spine to the treatment of thoracic pathology. The aim of this systematic review was to collate the available literature to determine the place and efficacy of full endoscopic approaches used in the treatment of thoracic disc prolapse and stenosis. An electronic literature search of PubMed, Embase, the Cochrane database and Google Scholar was performed as suggested by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-analysis statements. Included were any full-text articles referring to full endoscopic thoracic surgical procedures in any language. We identified 17 patient series, one cohort study and 13 case reports with single or of up to three patients. Although the majority included disc pathology, 11 papers related cord compression in a proportion of cases to ossification of the ligamentum flavum or posterior longitudinal ligament. Two studies described the treatment of discitis and one reported the use of endoscopy for tumour resection. Where reported, excellent or good outcomes were achieved for full endoscopic procedures in a mean of 81% of patients (range 46–100%) with a complication rate of 8% (range 0–15%), comparing favourably with rates reported after open discectomy (anterior, posterolateral and thoracoscopic) or by endoscopic tubular assisted approaches. Twenty-one of the 31 author groups reported use of local anaesthesia plus sedation rather than general anaesthesia, providing ‘self-neuromonitoring’ by allowing patients to respond to cord and/or nerve stimuli.Cite this article: EFORT Open Rev 2021;6:50-60. DOI: 10.1302/2058-5241.6.200080
High-resolution coded aperture optimization for super-resolved compressive x-ray cone-beam computed tomography
Authors: Mojica Edson , Correa Claudia V. , Arguello Henry 
Published: January 2021

Compressive x-ray cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) approaches rely on coded apertures (CA) along multiple view angles to block a portion of the x-ray energy traveling towards the detectors. Previous work has shown that designing CA patterns yields improved images. Most designs, however, are focused on multi-shot fan-beam (FB) systems, handling a 1:1 ratio between CA features and detector elements. In consequence, image resolution is subject to the detector pixel size. Moreover, CA optimization for computed tomography involves strong binarization assumptions, impractical data rearrangements, or computationally expensive tasks such as singular value decomposition (SVD). Instead of using higher-resolution CA distributions in a multi-slice system with a more dense detector array, this work presents a method for designing the CA patterns in a compressive CBCT system under a super-resolution configuration, i.e., high-resolution CA patterns are designed to obtain high-resolution images from lower-resolution projections. The proposed method takes advantage of the Gershgorin theorem since its algebraic interpretation relates the circle radii with the eigenvalue bounds, whose minimization improves the condition of the system matrix. Simulations with medical data sets show that the proposed design attains high-resolution images from lower-resolution detectors in a single-shot CBCT scenario. Besides, image quality is improved in up to 5 dB of peak signal-to-noise compared to random CA patterns for different super-resolution factors. Moreover, reconstructions from Monte Carlo simulated projections show up to 3 dB improvements. Further, for the analyzed cases, the computational load of the proposed approach is up to three orders of magnitude lower than that of SVD-based methods.
Switchable and spacing tunable dual-wavelength spatiotemporal mode-locked fiber laser
Authors: Long Jin-Gan , Gao Yu-Xin , Lin Wei , Wu Jia-Wen , Lin Xu-Bin , Hong Wei-Yi , Cui Hu , Luo Zhi-Chao , Xu Wen-Cheng , Luo Ai-Ping 
Published: January 2021

We report a switchable and spacing tunable dual-wavelength spatiotemporal mode-locked (STML) laser based on the multimode interference filtering effect in an all-fiber linear cavity. The dual-wavelength STML operations combined with different pulse patterns are achieved. By adjusting the polarization controllers, the dual-wavelength STML pulses can be switched to single wavelength operation, which is tunable up to 35 nm under certain pump powers. Moreover, the dual-wavelength spacing can also be tuned from 8 nm to 22 nm. The obtained results contribute to understanding and exploring the spatiotemporal characteristics operating in the multi-wavelength regime of STML fiber lasers. All-fiber STML lasers with lasing wavelength tunability and flexibility may have applications in the fields of optical communications and optical measurements.
Efficient frequency conversion based on resonant four-wave mixing
Authors: Cheng Chin-Yao , Liu Zi-Yu , Hu Pi-Sheng , Wang Tsai-Ni , Chien Chung-Yu , Lin Jia-Kang , Juo Jz-Yuan , Shiu Jiun-Shiuan , Yu Ite A. , Chen Ying-Cheng , Chen Yong-Fan 
Published: January 2021

Efficient frequency conversion of photons has important applications in optical quantum technology because the frequency range suitable for photon manipulation and communication usually varies widely. Recently, an efficient frequency conversion system using a double-

Λ

four-wave mixing (FWM) process based on electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) has attracted considerable attention because of its potential to achieve a nearly 100% conversion efficiency (CE). To obtain such a high CE, the spontaneous emission loss in this resonant-type FWM system must be suppressed considerably. A simple solution is to arrange the applied laser fields in a backward configuration. However, the phase mismatch due to this configuration can cause a significant decrease in CE. Here, we demonstrate that the phase mismatch can be effectively compensated by introducing the phase shift obtained by two-photon detuning. Under optimal conditions, we observe a wavelength conversion from 780 to 795 nm with a maximum CE of

91.2
%
±
0.6
%

by using this backward FWM system at an optical depth of 130 in cold

87

Rb

atoms. The current work represents an important step toward achieving low-loss, high-fidelity quantum frequency conversion based on EIT.
Continuous chirped-wave phase-sensitive optical time domain reflectometry
Authors: Jiang Jialin , Wang Zinan , Wang Zitan , Qiu Zijie , Liu Chunye , Rao Yunjiang 
Published: January 2021

This Letter proposes a novel phase-sensitive optical time domain reflectometry (

Φ

-OTDR) with continuous chirped-wave (CCW), which can make full use of both time and frequency domain resources. The principle and benefits of CCW

Φ

-OTDR are elaborated. With the merit of CCW

Φ

-OTDR, 1.042 MHz sensing bandwidth and

5

p

ε

/

H
z

strain sensitivity are achieved along a 1013 m fiber with 4.4 m spatial resolution. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first time that a

Φ

-OTDR achieves megahertz sensing bandwidth with metric spatial resolution, and without limiting the frequency feature of the disturbance. The good performance in long-range sensing is also verified over a 49.7 km fiber. More than that, the digital domain flexibility of the proposed scheme can be used to optimize the measured acoustic signal according to its feature and the practical needs.
Adverse fetal and neonatal outcomes in pregnancies with confirmed Zika Virus infection in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: A cohort study
Authors: Souza Juliana P. , Méio Maria Dalva B. B. , de Andrade Laura Medeiros , Figueiredo Mirza R. , Gomes Junior Saint Clair , Pereira Junior Jose Paulo , Brickley Elizabeth , Lopes Moreira Maria Elisabeth 
Published: January 2021

Objective
To analyze adverse fetal and neonatal outcomes of Zika virus infection by the timing of infection during pregnancy. Method: Cohort study of 190 pregnancies with 193 offspring with a positive RT-PCR test for Zika virus (March/2016 to April/2017).

Results
Death or defects related to congenital Zika virus infection were identified in 37.3% of fetuses and newborns, and microcephaly in 21.4% of the newborns. The proportion of small for gestational age newborns was 21.9%. Maternal symptoms in the first trimester were significantly associated with the birth of newborns with microcephaly/cerebral atrophy, small for gestational age and with the deaths (one abortion, one stillbirth and the two neonatal deaths). Maternal infection during the second trimester was further associated with asymptomatic newborns at birth. The study showed that 58.5% of the offspring with microcephaly and / or cortical atrophy were small for gestational age, with an evident decrease in symptomatic offspring without microcephaly, 24.1%, and with only 9.1% in the asymptomatic group.

Conclusion
This study showed that the earlier the symptoms appear during gestation, the more severe the endpoints. We found a higher percentage of small for gestational age newborns exposed to Zika virus early in gestation. We also found a group of apparently asymptomatic newborns with proven Zika infection, which highlights the importance of follow up studies in this population.
Frequency of depressive symptoms in Syrian refugees and Turkish maintenance hemodialysis patients during COVID-19 pandemic
Authors: Sevinc Mustafa , Hasbal Nuri Baris , Sakaci Tamer , Basturk Taner , Ahbap Elbis , Ortaboz Mustafa , Mazi Emrah Erkan , Pirdogan Efruz , Ling Jonathan , Unsal Abdulkadir 
Published: January 2021

IntroductionPneumonia of unknown cause was detected on 30 December 2019 in China. It was categorized as an outbreak and named as COVID-19 by the World Health Organization. The pandemic affects all people, but patient groups such as hemodialysis (HD) patients have been particularly affected. We do not know if refugees suffered more during the outbreak. In this study, we compared depressive symptom frequency between Syrian refugee HD patients and Turkish ones.MethodsThe study had a single-center, cross-sectional design. Demographic and clinical data were collected retrospectively from patients’ files containing details about past medical history, demographic variables and laboratory values. Validated Turkish and Arabic forms of Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) were used to assess depressive symptoms. BDI scores were compared according to nationality, demographic features and clinical data. A BDI score more than 14 was accepted as suspicion of depression.Results119 patients were enrolled in the study. After the exclusion of 22 patients, 75 Turkish and 22 Syrian patients were included for further analysis. The median BDI (interquartile range) score for Turkish and Syrian patients were 12 (7–23) and 19.5 (12.7–25.2), respectively (p = 0.03). Suspicion of depression was present at 42.7% of Turkish, and 72.7% of Syrian HD patients (p = 0.013). Regarding all patients, phosphorus level, Kt/V, and nationality were significantly different between patients with and without suspicion of depression (p = 0.023, 0.039, 0.013, respectively).ConclusionSyrian patients had higher BDI scores and more depressive symptoms than Turkish patients. Additional national measures for better integration and more mental support to Syrian HD patients are needed.
Development and validation of an instrument in job evaluation factors of physicians in public hospitals in Beijing, China
Authors: Zhang Dan , Liao Meixia , Wang Pusheng , Chiu Herng-Chia 
Published: January 2021

Background
Job evaluation has been widely used to establish a foundation for internal equity and other human resource functions. The United Kingdom adopts the National Health Service (NHS) Job Evaluation scheme to determine the pay bands for most NHS staff and ensure equal pay for work of equal value. The challenges of recruiting and retaining physicians in Chinese public hospitals have heightened the need for a reliable job evaluation system to ensure the equality of physician compensation. The aim of this study was to construct job evaluation factors of physicians in Chinese public hospitals based on the NHS Job Evaluation scheme and to examine the reliability and validity of the established system.

Methods
Questionnaire surveys and statistical analyses were used to determine the job evaluation factors for physicians. The preliminary screening of the evaluation factors was based on a literature review, focused interviews with physicians and the Delphi method. Based on the results of preliminary screening, a questionnaire with 25 factors was designed to survey physicians regarding the importance of each factor in physician job evaluation. After the pretest, final questionnaire data were collected from 900 physicians by adopting a stratified sampling from 6 tertiary public hospitals in Beijing. A principal component analysis was used for factor extraction and structural validity analysis. The reliability was determined using Cronbach’s alpha.

Results
The results of the principal component analysis showed that the 25 physician job evaluation factors were grouped into the 5 dimensions of Task Characteristics, Knowledge, Responsibility, Effort/Environment, and Skills. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficients of the five dimensions ranged from 0.841 to 0.909, which indicated a high level of reliability. The result of the factor analysis indicated fair structural validity. The content validity was established by building onto the NHS Job Evaluation scheme and other well-established job evaluation systems.

Conclusions
Our study indicates that the Chinese version of physician job evaluation is an instrument with fair reliability and validity, which fully reflects the characteristics of physicians in Chinese public hospitals. This system can provide an important basis for developing a physician compensation plan and ensuring internal equity in healthcare organizations.
The winding road to health: A systematic scoping review on the effect of geographical accessibility to health care on infectious diseases in low- and middle-income countries
Authors: Hierink Fleur , Okiro Emelda A. , Flahault Antoine , Ray Nicolas 
Published: January 2021

Background
Geographical accessibility to healthcare is an important component of infectious disease dynamics. Timely access to health facilities can prevent disease progression and enables disease notification through surveillance systems. The importance of accounting for physical accessibility in response to infectious diseases is increasingly recognized. Yet, there is no comprehensive review of the literature available on infectious diseases in relation to geographical accessibility to care. Therefore, we aimed at evaluating the current state of knowledge on the effect of geographical accessibility to health care on infectious diseases in low- and middle-income countries.

Methods and findings
A search strategy was developed and conducted on Web of Science and PubMed on 4 March 2019. New publications were checked until May 28, 2020. All publication dates were eligible. Data was charted into a tabular format and descriptive data analyses were carried out to identify geographical regions, infectious diseases, and measures of physical accessibility among other factors. Search queries in PubMed and Web of Science yielded 560 unique publications. After title and abstract screening 99 articles were read in full detail, from which 64 articles were selected, including 10 manually. Results of the included publications could be broadly categorized into three groups: (1) decreased spatial accessibility to health care was associated with a higher infectious disease burden, (2) decreased accessibility was associated to lower disease reporting, minimizing true understanding of disease distribution, and (3) the occurrence of an infectious disease outbreak negatively impacted health care accessibility in affected regions. In the majority of studies, poor geographical accessibility to health care was associated with higher disease incidence, more severe health outcomes, higher mortality, and lower disease reporting. No difference was seen between countries or infectious diseases.

Conclusions
Currently, policy-makers and scientists rely on data collected through passive surveillance systems, introducing uncertainty on disease estimates for remote communities. Our results highlight the need for increasing integration of geographical accessibility measures in disease risk modelling, allowing more realistic disease estimates and enhancing our understanding of true disease burden. Additionally, disease risk estimates could be used in turn to optimize the allocation of health services in the prevention and detection of infectious diseases.
Optimal Convergence Rates for Goal-Oriented FEM with Quadratic Goal Functional
Authors: Becker Roland , Innerberger Michael , Praetorius Dirk 
Published: January 2021

Abstract
We consider a linear elliptic PDE and a quadratic goal functional.
The goal-oriented adaptive FEM algorithm (GOAFEM) solves the primal as well as a dual problem, where the goal functional is always linearized around the discrete primal solution at hand.
We show that the marking strategy proposed in [M. Feischl, D. Praetorius and K. G. van der Zee, An abstract analysis of optimal goal-oriented adaptivity, SIAM J. Numer. Anal.
54 (2016), 3, 1423–1448] for a linear goal functional is also optimal for quadratic goal functionals, i.e., GOAFEM leads to linear convergence with optimal convergence rates.