bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and atrial fibrillation; A Mendelian randomization study using UK-Biobank data
Authors: Katsoulis Michail , Denaxas Spiros , Patel Riyaz , Hemingway Harry 
Published: April 2017

ABSTRACTObjectivesWe used data from UK-Biobank that were linked with Hospital Episode Statistics and Office for National Statistics to assess the relationship between low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and atrial fibrillation (AF). In this study, we applied Mendelian randomization in order to find out whether there is a causal effect of LDL-C to AF.
ApproachWe used data from the UK Biobank (~500,000 subjects) which is linked with electronic health records. At baseline (2006-2010), participants from across the UK took part in this project. They have undergone measures, provided blood, urine and saliva samples for future analysis, detailed information about themselves and agreed to have their health followed. Information in relation to the development of atrial fibrillation was derived from a) the enrollment of the participants (self-reported events), b) their hospitalization before and after their recruitment to UK-Biobank (confirmed events from Hospital Episode Statistics) and c) the death certificates [confirmed events from Office for National Statistics]. We also used genetic data from the analyses of the participants’ blood sample that have been stored. We used Mendelian randomization to capture the effect of LDL-C to AF. As instruments, we used a genetic predisposition risk score (GPRs) for LDL-C, which was created as a weighted sum of the 18 most significant SNPs related to LDL-C, as there were documented in Global Lipid Consortium, in 18 out of 22 chromosomes. We ran a logistic regression model, using AF as outcome and GPRs as exposure.
ResultsOur final sample consisted of 144,092 individuals, for which we have valid information for their genetic data. The AF cases in this sample were 3207, most of which were identified from Hospital Episode Statistics (hospitalization of the participants). From the Mendelian randomization study, from our preliminary results, we found a weak positive relationship between GPRs and AF, when we did not adjust for any covariate [OR per one unit increase of GPRs=1.08, 95% CI= (0.95-1.22)] and results remained practically the same when we adjusted for age and sex [OR=1.09, 95% CI= (0.96-1.24 )].
ConclusionWe observed a weak positive association between LDL-C and AF in this study. This is the first Mendelian randomization approach that focuses on this relationship. More Mendelian randomization studies should be performed in order to identify the causal effect of LDL-C to AF. The use of electronic health records will facilitate the conduction of similar studies.
Supporting Multidisciplinary Analytic Skills: An Innovative Training Platform for Capacity Building
Authors: Greenwood Ann , Reitsma Maxine 
Published: April 2017

ABSTRACTObjectivesTo serve the emerging multidisciplinary skills and capacity building needs of Population Health Researchers within a rapidly diversifying field.
Population Health Research is inherently interdisciplinary, multifaceted and firmly rooted in the evolving connections between place, time and related socioeconomic processes. To excel in this rapidly diversifying field, individuals require a broad range of multidisciplinary skills. Supporting the development of these skills through innovative training platforms is one key way to build capacity for emerging 21 Century researchers and health professionals.
ApproachEstablishment of an innovative research training platform that supports skill development in a timely, collaborative and practiced based environment.
The growing importance of data analytics and spatial thinking as it pertains to the worlds growing health concerns, be they social, physical or environmental – demands approaches that serve real time and remotely accessed, exploratory and highly collaborative research environments. A case example will be provided concerning a tri-party training platform that is serving the multidisciplinary skill requirements of new and mid-career population health professionals. Designed in collaboration with a tri-university research platform, the innovative, practice-based training environment both mirrors and supports many of the day to day skill development needs of health and social science researchers.
ResultsThe multidisciplinary focus of this specialized training platform is successfully addressing the skill development needs of a diverse cross section of health research professionals.
Trainees are bringing a wealth of experience and knowledge to share with their online colleagues, supporting a rich, practice based education and skills development environment. Those enrolled in the program possess backgrounds ranging from Population and Public Health, Epidemiology, Statistics and Sociology to Medicine to Psychology, Geography, Biostatistics and International Health.
ConclusionProviding timely, practical, hands-on analytic skills training is critical to building the capacity of new and mid-career researchers and health professionals.
Direct application of these new skills is an essential outcome and best measure of success. We are listening to our trainees and learning as we grow.Read what trainees are saying about our certificate courses.https://www.popdata.bc.ca/etu/testimonials/PHDA
Increasing research capacity with ICES Data & Analytic Services (DAS)
Authors: Ishiguro Lisa , Saskin Refik , Victor J. Charles 
Published: April 2017

ABSTRACTBackgroundThe Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) is a not-for-profit organization that conducts research to evaluate health care delivery and outcomes. Established in 1992, ICES houses a vast and secure array of linkable, coded health-related data on more than 13 million Ontarians, including health services data, health care provider data, registries and population-based health surveys. ICES has a reputation for generating strong evidence-based knowledge to inform policy and practice, however the use of the data was restricted to ICES’ purposes. In March 2014, ICES launched the Data & Analytic Services (DAS) platform with the primary objective of increasing access to its data to publicly-funded researchers, health care providers and administrators, policymakers and students.
MethodDAS provides access to highly de-identified, risk-reduced datasets created from ICES’ data holdings; analytic support; and complete data analysis and report writing services. DAS also enables the importation of external data for linkage to ICES’ data holdings. Research objectives and methodology are led by the requestor and ICES analysts rely on their subject matter expertise to direct the deliverables.
ResultsSince launch, over 200 requests from Canada, United States and United Kingdom have been adjudicated, of which 187 have been deemed feasible and eligible. Over the same period of time, ICES as an organization had over 700 active projects of which 348 were initiated, an increase in capacity of 26%. Though Toronto-based researchers represent the majority of the requests (62%), there have been requests from outside Ontario interested in comparing aspects of Ontario’s healthcare to their home province. Research topics have varied and include assessments of health care provision by sector, disease prevalence and treatment, and statistical methods. An unexpected outcome of increasing access has been the large interest from small physician groups and knowledge users who are not typically involved in research for academic purposes. Access to ICES’ data holdings provides an opportunity to examine a larger cohort of patients who share the same characteristics as their clinic patients or group. Furthermore, by enabling remote access to the data, DAS is able to leverage the capabilities of ICES’ data holdings and increase research capacity in a short period of time.
ConclusionIn making one of the most comprehensively linked health administrative data repositories in the world widely available to the broader research and healthcare community, DAS engages investigators involved in front-line care, stimulates new avenues of research and fosters collaboration that was previously unachievable.
Real world persistence, adherence and switch-over across anticoagulants in atrial fibrillation-a national population-based study.
Authors: Banerjee Amitava , Burnell Jane , Sutton Chris 
Published: April 2017

ABSTRACTBackgroundThe choice of oral anticoagulant(OAC) for stroke prevention in patients with atrial fibrillation(AF) is now between warfarin and four non-vitamin K anticoagulants(NOACs):dabigatran, rivaroxaban, apixaban and edoxaban. Although discontinuation rates were reported in clinical trials of the NOACs, real-world persistence, adherence and cross-over between therapies are unknown.
MethodsPrescription data for OACs in adults with AF between April 2011 and December 2015 were analysed from a representative national primary care database in England(The Health Improvement Network, THIN). Edoxaban was approved for use in the UK in September 2015 and therefore insufficient numbers of prescriptions were available for analysis. Persistence(estimated by gap between prescriptions) and adherence(proportion of days covered, PDC) for OACs were assessed in individuals with AF newly treated with dabigatran, rivaroxaban, apixaban or warfarin with at least 365 days follow-up after the prescription date. For each NOAC, the proportion of cross-over to another OAC was analysed.
ResultsAmong 4,354,740 individuals, 118,056 with AF were identified, of which 82,795 had available prescription data for OACs. Of these patients, 78,447 had at least 12 months data: warfarin (n=67781), dabigatran (n=2540), rivaroxaban (n=5666) and apixaban (n=2460). At 1 year, the crude persistence rates were 88.7% (95% CI 88.4-88.9) for warfarin, 59.1% (57.2-61.0) for dabigatran, 64.7% (63.4-65.9) for rivaroxaban and 67.0% (65.1-68.9) for apixaban. Persistence was significantly lower than in the clinical trials and was lower for NOACs than warfarin.
The adherence rates (PDC>80%) were 87.5% (CI 87.3,87.6) for warfarin, 83.5% (CI 82.3,84.8) for dabigatran, 84.1% (CI 83.1,85.1) for rivaroxaban and 83.6% (CI 81.6,85.5) for apixaban. The proportion of NOAC users crossing over to another NOAC and to warfarin were 12.1% and 7.3% for dabigatran, 3.4% and 3.4% for rivaroxaban, and 1.9% and 1.5% for apixaban respectively.
ConclusionsIn a large English population, NOACs exhibited lower persistence rates than in clinical trials, warranting further analyses of side effect profile and acceptability of OACs. Routinely collected data can be used to measure real-world persistence and adherence which are important in future studies of comparative effectiveness.
Is Cancer Diagnosis Following Emergency Admission Due to Patient Delay or Systems Failure: New Insights from a Comprehensive Primary Care Dataset
Authors: Yule Michael , Adam Rosalind , Murchie Peter 
Published: April 2017

ABSTRACT
ObjectivesA significant proportion (13.9-21.8%) of cancers are diagnosed during emergency admissions to hospital. Patients who are diagnosed in this way have poorer outcomes. Cancer type, increasing age, and deprivation have shown to be associated with cancer diagnosis as an emergency. The role of primary care consulting behaviour prior to emergency presentation with a new cancer diagnosis is unclear and therefore the principle aim of the present study was to investigate this.
ApproachAll GP practices in the North East of Scotland were invited to participate. 2015 patients with a diagnosis of either colorectal, upper GI, prostate, lung, breast and melanoma were randomly selected from participating practices. A dataset was created that contained routinely collected data from primary care records from these patients. This information was consolidated with information from the NHS Grampian Cancer Care pathway database. Those diagnosed by screening were removed, leaving 1803 patients. The main characteristic examined was whether or not the patient had seen a GP with relevant symptoms in the 2 years before the consultation that resulted in their diagnosis or referral. Chi squared analysis and univariate linear regression analysis was performed on each characteristic to examine the association of independent variables with each outcome. Multivariate linear regression was then carried out across the characteristics.
Results362 (20.1%) of new cancer diagnosis were by emergency. Only 16.2% (n=260) of patients who saw their GP prior to their admission were diagnosed by emergency. 54.5% (n=97) of patients who had not seen their GP prior to diagnosis were emergency diagnoses. 20.7% (n=75) of patients diagnosed by emergency admission had been referred by their GP at the time of diagnosis and were awaiting their appointment with secondary care. Patients who had been seen in primary care before their cancer diagnosis were significantly less likely to have their cancer diagnosed by emergency admission (p<0.0001).
ConclusionPatients who present to their GP with symptoms of cancer are much less likely to be diagnosed as a result of an emergency admission. It is therefore postulated that GPs are adequately referring patients with cancer for further investigation and diagnosis. However around a fifth of patients overall are still being diagnosed through emergency admission to hospital, and in the majority of cases this is because they are not presenting themselves to primary care. In order to rectify this we suggest that greater awareness about cancer symptoms amongst the public is necessary.
Furthering the idea of proportionate governance in British Columbia
Authors: Mcgrail Kim 
Published: April 2017

ABSTRACT
ObjectiveIn British Columbia today, every request for access to data for research purposes is subject to the same time-consuming and intensive review. This presents challenges for timeliness of reviews and scalability as the current process is equally labour intensive for a simple request for limited data, and a request where there is intent to contact. This approach also undermines the public’s interest in supporting research that has potential public value.
Building on the work of SHIP, we have developed a proportionate risk review framework that is intended to make access decisions transparent, expand the potential users of data beyond university-based researchers, and enable a broader range of inquiry. Adding to this external goals, this presentation will describe the use of this framework for internal audit purposes.
ApproachSix proposed core principles of review are science, approach, data, people, environment, and interest, with a spectrum of risk for each ranging from low to very high. The principles and spectrum of risk create a grid, which represents all the possible scenarios under which access to data may be sought and provides a visual means of rating and assessing applications. A significant challenge for the implementation of the framework is identifying consensus on what constitutes ‘low risk’ and ‘high risk’ and mapping risk profiles to a clear review process. This will be pursued using deliberative engagement approaches to public consultation.
ResultsIn the meantime, in order to build understanding of and support for the framework with data stewards, we have employed it to track and monitor service provision to requesting researchers. We identified both “quick” and “slow” projects as examples of researcher experience with data access. Retrospectively, we mapped those projects to the framework to show their levels of risk. We identified the length of time taken at each stage of the request process, from developing an application to receipt of data. We used the proportionate risk framework and information on speed of approval to generate discussion about what factors of review are most concerning to data stewards. Through this we have the ability to institute new policies and come closer to implementing a formal proportionate review process.
ConclusionThe proportionate risk review framework is a flexible tool that can be used to help internal processes as well as improving transparency in the data access process more generally.
Patrones fenotípicos de resistencia en pseudomonas aeruginosa de muestras clínicas a nivel de Sudamérica
Authors: Bolaños Carlos , Iannacone José 
Published: April 2017

Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Migula 1895 es un bacilo Gram negativo, no esporulado, aeróbico estricto, además presenta diversos mecanismos de resistencia, donde las betalactamasas son la principal causa de resistencia para los antibióticos betalactámicos. Esta bacteria posee una resistencia intrínseca a diversos betalactámicos, debido a que poseen una enzima AMPC cromosómico inducible, pero también presenta una resistencia adquirida del tipo betalactamasa de espectro extendido (BLEE), carbapenemasas del tipo Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenmasa (KPC) y metalobetalactamasas (MBL). En este trabajo se presenta una revisión sobre los patrones fenotípicos de resistencia en P. aeruginosa con énfasis en la información conocida para 10 países de Sudamérica durante los años 2003 hasta octubre del 2014, los cuales son un problema mundial a nivel hospitalario que llevan a fracasos terapéuticos al no ser reportados oportunamente, generándose cepas de P. aeruginosa multidrogorresistentes. En Sudamérica, Brasil fue el país que mayor aportó al análisis con 28,6% de los estudios encontrados. Argentina y Colombia fueron los países donde se encontraron los cuatros patrones fenotípicos de resistencia: AMPC desreprimido (AMPCd), BLEE y las carbapenemasas KPC, MBL. Las MBL y BLEE fueron las de mayor prevalencia encontrada con un 21,9% y 18,5% respectivamente en Sudamérica. En el periodo 2007-2010 fue donde se encontraron los cuatro patrones fenotípicos de resistencia AMPCd, BLEE, KPC, MBL de P. aeruginosa con una prevalencia de 3,4%, 14,1%, 12,6%, 23,1% respectivamente; además el método más usado fue el doble disco difusión para la detección de BLEE y MBL. Se debe resaltar que en los países de Bolivia, Ecuador, Paraguay y Uruguay no se encontraron registros para el análisis de los cuatro patrones fenotípicos de resistencia.Palabras claves: Antibióticos, betalactamasas, carbapenemasas, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, resistencia bacteriana, Sudamérica.
Representation zeta functions of self-similar branched groups
Authors: Bartholdi Laurent 
Published: April 2017

We compute the numbers of irreducible linear representations of self-similar branched groups, by expressing these numbers as the coëfficients

r_n

of a Dirichlet series

\sum r_n n^{-s}

.

We show that this Dirichlet series has a positive abscissa of convergence and satisfies a functional equation thanks to which it can be analytically continued (through root singularities) to the right half-plane.
We compute the abscissa of convergence and the functional equation for some prominent examples of branched groups, such as the Grigorchuk and Gupta–Sidki groups.
Condiciones de las prácticas profesionales en medios de comunicación: un estudio empírico
Authors: García-Borrego Manuel , Roses Campos Sergio , Farias Batlle Pedro 
Published: April 2017

El artículo describe las condiciones en que los estudiantes de Periodismo realizan prácticas en medios de comunicación y examina su grado de satisfacción hacia estas. Metodología. Se condujo una encuesta al total de becarios de diarios, radios y agencias de la ciudad de Málaga en 2015. Los datos se sometieron a análisis estadístico. Resultados. El 85% de los becarios afirma sobrepasar el horario del convenio. La carga de trabajo se equipara a la de profesionales séniors en los becarios más experimentados. Pese a las condiciones, la satisfacción con las prácticas es alta. Aumenta cuando perciben que la empresa valora que prolonguen la jornada; sin embargo, disminuye a medida que los becarios acumulan experiencia. Conclusiones. La discusión cuestiona el papel formativo de las prácticas y apunta que el comportamiento y actitudes de los estudiantes podrían explicarse a partir de sus expectativas de inserción laboral en el medio.
Annual and semiannual cycles of midlatitude near-surface temperature and tropospheric baroclinicity: reanalysis data and AOGCM simulations
Authors: Lembo Valerio , Bordi Isabella , Speranza Antonio 
Published: April 2017

Abstract. Seasonal variability in near-surface air temperature and baroclinicity from the ECMWF ERA-Interim (ERAI) reanalysis and six coupled atmosphere–ocean general circulation models (AOGCMs) participating in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 3 and 5 (CMIP3 and CMIP5) are examined. In particular, the annual and semiannual cycles of hemispherically averaged fields are studied using spectral analysis. The aim is to assess the ability of coupled general circulation models to properly reproduce the observed amplitude and phase of these cycles, and investigate the relationship between near-surface temperature and baroclinicity (coherency and relative phase) in such frequency bands. The overall results of power spectra agree in displaying a statistically significant peak at the annual frequency in the zonally averaged fields of both hemispheres. The semiannual peak, instead, shows less power and in the NH seems to have a more regional character, as is observed in the North Pacific Ocean region. Results of bivariate analysis for such a region and Southern Hemisphere midlatitudes show some discrepancies between ERAI and model data, as well as among models, especially for the semiannual frequency. Specifically, (i) the coherency at the annual and semiannual frequency observed in the reanalysis data is well represented by models in both hemispheres, and (ii) at the annual frequency, estimates of the relative phase between near-surface temperature and baroclinicity are bounded between about ±15° around an average value of 220° (i.e., approximately 1-month phase shift), while at the semiannual frequency model phases show a wider dispersion in both hemispheres with larger errors in the estimates, denoting increased uncertainty and some disagreement among models. The most recent CMIP climate models (CMIP5) show several improvements when compared with CMIP3, but a degree of discrepancy still persists though masked by the large errors characterizing the semiannual frequency. These findings contribute to better characterizing the cyclic response of current global atmosphere–ocean models to the external (solar) forcing that is of interest for seasonal forecasts.