bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The value of the ethnographic approach to research issues in palliative care
Authors: Reigada Carla , Sapeta Paula , Centeno Carlos 
Published: September 2019

Purpose of review
Qualitative research in the field of palliative care allows for a crucial study of the final stage of life from a social point of view and cultural perspective. This review evaluates the advantages and challenges of applying an ethnographic approach to palliative care research.

Recent findings
Thirteen ethnographic articles on organization or quality of care, decision-making, delirium, death, and the process of dying, were reviewed. Most studies use interviews, participant observation, and field notes as their primary data collection techniques. In ethnographic research, cultural issues, relationships and interactions of a group, the meanings and perceptions of the participants, the communication process, and the use of language in a particular and natural context were analyzed. Data collection and information analysis took an average of 14 months in the included studies.

Summary
The ethnographic method, applied with rigor, is valuable in the analysis of a real phenomenon if the particular context in which the study developed is well defined. With an ethnographic approach, researchers can uncover cultural nuances that evidence different realities.
Measuring the success of interventions for caregivers: a focussed systematic review
Authors: Drummond Maria , Johnston Bridget , Quinn Terence J. 
Published: September 2019

Purpose of review
The selection and application of outcome measures are fundamental steps in the research process because they inform decisions around intervention efficacy. We aimed to describe the outcomes used in trials of supportive interventions for adult caregivers of people with three exemplar life-limiting conditions: heart failure, dementia or stroke.

Recent findings
We performed a focussed review of 134 published trials that included interventions designed to improve caregivers’ health and wellbeing and/or ability to function in their caring role. We extracted and categorized all caregiver outcomes described in the studies. We identified inconsistency in the outcomes measured; frequent use of bespoke and adapted tools (29% of outcomes were bespoke), and a lack of clarity in outcome priorities (the mean number of outcomes per trial was four [range: 1–11]). Outcome scales that purport to measure the psychological impact of the caring role were the most popular tools in all three caregiver groups.

Summary
Outcomes used in trials related to adult caregivers are characterized by inconsistencies in outcome measure selection and assessment. This heterogeneity complicates comparisons of treatments and attempts to pool data.
What information and resources do carers require pre and post bereavement in the acute hospital setting? A rapid review
Authors: Jackson Brenda , McPeake Joanne , Johnston Bridget 
Published: September 2019

Purpose of review:
This mixed-method, rapid review of published research from 2014 to 2019 aims to explore the experiences of pre and postbereaved carers, and the information that they receive in the acute hospital setting. The quality of articles was evaluated using a standardized quality matrix. The techniques of conceptual analysis and idea mapping were used to create a structured synthesis of the findings.

Recent findings:
From the initial search of 432 articles, ten studies met the inclusion criteria for this review. These studies generated data from 42 patients, 1968 family/carers and 139 healthcare staff. Themes that were generated from a synthesis of the included articles were clear and timely communication, workforce provision and environment.

Summary:
This review has highlighted the need for improvements in information provision for carers as part of end of life care. Furthermore, the need for specific staff education and training to enable staff to confidently communicate with dying patients and their relatives in the acute setting is also warranted. Understanding and addressing gaps in knowledge and practice are essential to develop strategies in this complex area. Simple strategies can be implemented to improve the care of carers both pre and post bereavement in acute care.
CX3CR1 as a Respiratory Syncytial Virus Receptor in Pediatric Human Lung
Authors: Anderson Christopher S. , Chu Chin-Yi , Wang Qian , Mereness Jared A. , Ren Yue , Donlon Kathy , Bhattacharya Soumyaroop , Misra Ravi S. , Walsh Edward E. , Pryhuber Gloria S. , Mariani Thomas J. 
Published: September 2019

AbstractBACKGROUNDData on the host factors that contribute to infection of young children by Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) are limited. The human chemokine receptor, CX3CR1, has recently been implicated as an RSV receptor. Here we evaluate a role for CX3CR1 in pediatric lung RSV infections.METHODSCX3CR1 transcript levels in the upper and lower pediatric airways were assessed. Tissue localization and cell specific expression was confirmed using in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry. The role of CX3CR1 in RSV infection was also investigated using a novel physiological model of pediatric epithelial cells.RESULTSLow levels of CX3CR1 transcript were often, but not always, expressed in both upper (62%) and lower airways (36%) of pediatric subjects. CX3CR1 transcript and protein expression was detected in epithelial cells of normal human pediatric lung tissues. CX3CR1 expression was readily detected on primary cultures of differentiated pediatric/infant human lung epithelial cells. RSV demonstrated preferential infection of CX3CR1 positive cells, and blocking CX3CR1/RSV interaction significantly decreased viral load.CONCLUSIONCX3CR1 is present in the airways of pediatric subjects where it may serve as a receptor for RSV infection. Furthermore, CX3CR1 appears to play a mechanistic role in mediating viral infection of pediatric airway epithelial cells in vitro.
Reactions to an Online Demonstration of the Effect of Increased Fruit and Vegetable Consumption on Appearance: Survey
Authors: Cairns Patrick , Ozakinci Gozde , Perrett David Ian 
Published: September 2019

AbstractBackgroundInadequate fruit and vegetable consumption causes a considerable disease burden and premature mortality. Despite considerable public health promotion of a healthy diet the average consumption is still below recommended levels. Fruit and vegetable consumption influences human skin colour, increasing red/yellow/orange pigment in the skin. Given that this colour is deemed attractive and healthy-looking, the appearance benefit may provide motivation to eat more fruit and vegetables. Such appearance motivation could be particularly effective in young individuals who currently eat least fruit and vegetables.ObjectivesTo assess how widely the impact of diet on skin colour is known within the UK. To compare the strength of motivation to eat fruit and vegetables based on health and appearance benefits and to compare the effect of different UK demographics on motivation.MethodsFour groups of UK residents (N = 200 each group) were recruited through the Prolific online platform. Groups comprised younger (aged 18-24) and older adults (aged 40-60) of low and high self-reported socioeconomic status (1-5 and 6-10 on a 10-point rating scale). Facial images simulating the skin colour associated with low and high fruit and vegetable diets were shown to participants. Questionnaires were used to assess (1) background knowledge of the health and skin colour effects of dietary fruit and vegetables; (2) the specific motivational impact of the skin colour illustration and (3) the relative importance of motivation to consume fruit and vegetables arising from health and skin colour appearance benefits.Results(1) 61% of all participants were unaware of the dietary–skin colour association. (2) 57% of participants found the simple demonstration of the dietary impact on skin colour positively motivating to eat more fruit and vegetables. The visual demonstration was equally motivating for participants of high and low self-reported socioeconomic status (P= .63) and different ethnic backgrounds (White N = 453, Black N = 182, Asian N = 87,P= .22). Health benefits from a diet high in fruit and vegetables were regarded as more motivating than skin colour appearance benefits. The appearance benefits of a high fruit and vegetable diet (compared to the health benefits) were relatively more important for the younger participants (Mann-Whitney U = 96,263,P< .001) and for women (N = 489) than for men (N = 310, U = 83,763,P= .01).ConclusionsThese findings indicate that promotion of the skin colour effects of diets high in fruit and vegetables could provide additional motivation for a healthier diet. Our study indicates the wide appeal of appearance benefits from dietary fruit and vegetable (across ethnicity and socioeconomic status) and particularly amongst young adults where inadequate diet is most prevalent.
Dose-dependent degeneration of non-cancerous brain tissue in post-radiotherapy patients: A diffusion tensor imaging study
Authors: David Szabolcs , Mesri Hamed Y. , Bodiut Victor A. , Nagtegaal Steven H. J. , Elhalawani Hesham , de Luca Alberto , Philippens Marielle E. P. , Viergever Max A. , Mohamed Abdallah S. R. , Ding Yao , Chung Caroline , Fuller Clifton D. , Verhoeff Joost J. C. , Leemans Alexander 
Published: September 2019

AbstractBackground and purposeRadiation-induced changes in brain tissue may relate to post-radiotherapy (RT) cognitive decline. Our aim is to investigate changes of the brain microstructural properties after exposure to radiation during clinical protocols of RT using diffusion MRI (dMRI).Methods and MaterialsThe susceptibility of tissue changes to radiation was investigated in a clinically heterogenic cohort (age, pathology, tumor location, type of surgery) consisting of 121 scans of 18 patients (10 females). The imaging dataset included 18 planning CTs and 103 dMRI scans (range 2-14, median = 6 per patient) assessing pre-operative, post-operative pre-RT and post-RT states. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) metrics were estimated from all scans for a region-of-interest based linear relation analysis between mean dose and change in DTI metrics, while partial volume effects were regressed out.ResultsThe largest regional dose dependency with mean diffusivity appear in the white matter of the frontal pole in the left hemisphere by an increase of 2.61 %/(Gy x year). Full brain-wise, pooled results for white matter show fractional anisotropy to decrease by 0.85 %/(30Gy x year); mean diffusivity increase by 9.17 %/(30Gy x year); axial diffusivity increase by 7.30%/(30Gy x year) and radial diffusivity increases by 10.63%/(30Gy x year).ConclusionsWhite matter is susceptible to radiation with some regional variability where diffusivity metrics demonstrate the largest relative sensitivity. This suggests that dMRI is a promising tool in assessing microstructural changes after RT, which can help in understanding treatment-induced cognitive decline.
Checklists to Detect Potential Predatory Biomedical Journals: A Systematic Review
Authors: Cukier Samantha , Helal Lucas , Rice Danielle B , Pupkaite Justina , Ahmadzai Nadera , Wilson Mitchell , Skidmore Becky , Lalu Manoj , Moher David 
Published: September 2019

ABSTRACTBackgroundWe believe there is a large number of checklists to help authors detect predatory journals. It is uncertain whether these checklists contain similar content.PurposePerform a systematic review to identify checklists to detect potential predatory journals and to examine their content and measurement properties.Data SourcesMEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO, ERIC, Web of Science and Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts (January 2012 to November 2018), university library websites (January 2019), YouTube (January 2019).Study SelectionOriginal checklists used to detect potential predatory journals published in English, French or Portuguese, with instructions in point form, bullet form, tabular format or listed items, not including lists or guidance on recognizing “legitimate” or “trustworthy” journals.Data ExtractionPairs of reviewers independently extracted study data and assessed checklist quality and a third reviewer resolved conflicts.Data SynthesisOf 1528 records screened, 93 met our inclusion criteria. The majority of included checklists were in English (n = 90, 97%), could be completed in fewer than five minutes (n = 68, 73%), had an average of 11 items, which were not weighted (n = 91, 98%), did not include qualitative guidance (n = 78, 84%) or quantitative guidance (n = 91, 98%), were not evidence-based (n = 90, 97%) and covered a mean of four (of six) thematic categories. Only three met our criteria for being evidence-based.LimitationsLimited languages and years of publication, searching other media.ConclusionsThere is a plethora of published checklists that may overwhelm authors looking to efficiently guard against publishing in predatory journals. The similarity in checklists could lead to the creation of evidence-based tools serving authors from all disciplines.Funding SourceThis project received no specific funding. David Moher is supported by a University Research Chair (University of Ottawa). Danielle Rice is supported by a Canadian Institutes of Health Research Health Systems Impact Fellowship; Lucas Helal is supported by Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - Brasil (CAPES) - Finance Code 001, PDSE - 88881.189100/2018 - 01. Manoj Lalu is supported by The Ottawa Hospital Anesthesia Alternate Funds Association.
Deep-learning-based Prediction of Late Age-Related Macular Degeneration Progression
Authors: Yan Qi , Weeks Daniel E. , Xin Hongyi , Swaroop Anand , Chew Emily Y. , Huang Heng , Ding Ying , Chen Wei 
Published: September 2019

ABSTRACTBoth genetic and environmental factors influence the etiology of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a leading cause of blindness. AMD severity is primarily measured by fundus images and recently developed machine learning methods can successfully predict AMD progression using image data. However, none of these methods have utilized both genetic and image data for predicting AMD progression. Here we jointly used genotypes and fundus images to predict an eye as having progressed to late AMD with a modified deep convolutional neural network (CNN). In total, we used 31,262 fundus images and 52 AMD-associated genetic variants from 1,351 subjects from the Age-Related Eye Disease Study (AREDS) with disease severity phenotypes and fundus images available at baseline and follow-up visits over a period of 12 years. Our results showed that fundus images coupled with genotypes could predict late AMD progression with an averaged area under the curve (AUC) value of 0.85 (95%CI: 0.83-0.86). The results using fundus images alone showed an averaged AUC of 0.81 (95%CI: 0.80-0.83). We implemented our model in a cloud-based application for individual risk assessment.
A Hybrid Machine Learning Framework to Predict Early Risk of Mortality in Paralytic Ileus Patients using Electronic Health Records
Authors: Ahmad Fahad Shabbir , Ali Liaqat , Raza-Ul-Mustafa  , Khattak Hasan Ali , Chan Bukhari Syed Ahmad 
Published: September 2019

AbstractBackground and ObjectiveParalytic Ileus (PI) is the pseudo-obstruction of the intestine secondary to intestinal muscle paralysis. PI is caused by several reasons such as overuse of medications, spinal injuries, inflammation, abdominal surgery, etc. We have developed an early mortality prediction framework that can help intensivist, surgeons and other medical professionals to optimize clinical management for PI patients in terms of optimal treatment strategy and resource planning.MethodsWe used publicly available ICU database called MIMIC III v1.4, extracted patients that had paralytic ileus as primary diagnosis over the age of 18 years old. We developed FLAIM Framework a two-phase model (Phase I: Statistical testing and Phase II: Machine Learning application) that was compare to traditional methods of machine learning. We used five different machine learning algorithms to test the validity of our Framework. We evaluated the effectiveness of the proposed framework by comparing accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curves, and area under the curve (AUC) for each model.ResultsThe highest improvement in AUC of 7.78% was observed due to application of the proposed FLAIM method. Additionally, almost for all the machine learning models, improvement in accuracy was also observed. With the FLAIM framework, we recorded an accuracy of 81.30% and AUC of 81.38% under support vector machine (with RBF kernel) model in predicting mortality during a hospital stay for the PI patientsDiscussionOur results show promising clinical outcome prediction and application for individual patients admitted to the ICU with paralytic ileus after the first 24 hours of admission.
Intention to learn modulates the impact of reward and punishment on sequence learning
Authors: Steel Adam , Baker Chris I. , Stagg Charlotte J. 
Published: September 2019

AbstractIn real-world settings, learning is often characterised as intentional: learners are aware of the goal during the learning process, and the goal of learning is readily dissociable from the awareness of what is learned. Recent evidence has shown that reward and punishment (collectively referred to as valenced feedback) are important factors that influence performance during learning. Presently, however, studies investigating the impact of valenced feedback on skill learning have only considered unintentional learning, and therefore the interaction between intentionality and valenced feedback has not been systematically examined. The present study investigated how reward and punishment impact behavioural performance when participants are instructed to learn in a goal-directed fashion (i.e. intentionally) rather than unintentionally. In Experiment 1, participants performed the serial response time task with reward, punishment, or control feedback and were instructed to ignore the presence of the sequence, i.e., learn unintentionally. Experiment 2 followed the same design, but participants were instructed to intentionally learn the sequence. We found that punishment was significantly beneficial to performance during learning only when participants learned unintentionally, and we observed no effect of punishment when participants learned intentionally. Thus, the impact of feedback on performance may be influenced by goal of the learner.
Optoretinography: optical measurements of human cone and rod photoreceptor responses to light
Authors: Azimipour Mehdi , Valente Denise , Vienola Kari V. , Werner John S. , Zawadzki Robert J. , Jonnal Ravi S. 
Published: September 2019

AbstractRods contribute crucially to human vision and their dysfunction precedes cones’ in several retinal diseases. Here we describe light-evoked, functional responses of human rods and cones, measured noninvasively using adaptive optics optical coherence tomography.
An improved demand curve for analysis of food or drug consumption in animal experiments
Authors: Newman Mark , Ferrario Carrie R. 
Published: September 2019

AbstractThe incorporation of microeconomics concepts into studies using preclinincal self-administration procedures has provided critical insights into the factors that influence consumption of a wide range of food and drug reinforcers. In particular, the fitting of demand curves to consumption data provides a powerful analytic tool for computing objective metrics of behavior that can be compared across a wide range of reward types and experimental settings. The results of these analyses depend crucially on the mathematical form used to fit the data. The most common choice is an exponential form proposed by Hursh and Silberberg, which is widely used and has provided fundamental insights into relationships between cost and consumption, but it also has some disadvantages. In this paper we first briefly review the use of demand curves to quantify the motivating effects of food and drugs, then we describe the current methodology and highlight some potential issues that arise in its application. To address these issues, we propose a new mathematical framework for the analysis of consumption data, including a new functional form for the demand curve. We show that this proposed form gives good fits to data on a range of reinforcers across different animals and different experimental protocols, while allowing for straightforward calculation of key metrics of demand, including preferred consumption level, maximum response, price at maximum response, and price elasticity of demand. We provide software implementing our entire analysis pipeline, including data fits, data visualization, and the calculation of demand metrics.
An integrative assessment of aquatic ecosystem services based on guideline thresholds
Authors: S-Gelais Nicolas F. , Lapierre Jean-François , Siron Robert , Maranger Roxane 
Published: September 2019

AbstractEcologists typically associate water quality with trophic status where oligotrophic ecosystems have excellent water quality and presumably provide more aquatic ecosystem services. However water quality is perceived differently among worldviews. Aquatic ecosystem service provisioning to the public health and agriculture sectors is determined using specific guidelines. But are these guidelines related to trophic status? Here, we developed an integrative ecosystem service framework using guideline thresholds for drinking, swimming, irrigation, suitability for livestock and aquatic wildlife in canadian rivers of varying trophic status. Drinkability was the most sensitive ecosystem service, met in 37% of cases, whereas livestock was the least, provided in 99%. Trophic status is a fair proxy for ecosystem services limited by fecal contamination as nutrients are related to human and animal populations, but not to those limited by metals. Using quantitative thresholds to assess the safe provisioning of multiple ecosystem services provides clear guidance for supporting resource management.In a nutshellWater quality is a commonly used term in management, but the metrics that determine whether a river can safely provide various aquatic ecosystem services differ among worldviews.We propose an integrative approach based on guideline thresholds to evaluate the frequency with which rivers are drinkable, swimmable, suitable for irrigation, livestock, and aquatic wildlife and compared this suitability with trophic status.Trophic status is a fair proxy for ecosystem services limited by fecal contamination, but not for those limited by metals.Using and developing more guideline thresholds provides a concrete way to assess ecosystem service provisioning that could help serve management.