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Frontiers in Veterinary Science 2023Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is a highly contagious viral disease that is endemic in East Africa. FMD virus infection incurs significant control costs and reduces animal...
INTRODUCTION
Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is a highly contagious viral disease that is endemic in East Africa. FMD virus infection incurs significant control costs and reduces animal productivity through weight loss, lowered milk yield, and potentially death but how household's respond to these losses may differentially affect household income and food consumption.
METHODOLOGY
To address this, we use unique data from a FMD outbreak to assess how household production and consumption activities change from before to during the outbreak. Data came from a 2018 survey of 254 households in selected Tanzanian wards and sub-counties in Uganda. The data includes household recall of before and during an outbreak in the past year on livestock and livestock product sales, milk and beef consumption, as well as related changes in market prices. We apply both difference-in-difference and change in difference ordinary least squares regressions with fixed effects to evaluate the impact of FMD on household production and consumption.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
We find that households reported the largest reductions in livestock and livestock product sales, followed by reduced milk consumption and animal market prices. The changes in household income from livestock sales appears to be driven by FMD virus infection within the household herd while changes in market prices of substitute protein sources are primary associated with changes in milk and beef consumption. The role of widespread market price effects across both infected and uninfected herds and countries, tends to suggest that stabilizing prices will likely have a large impact on household nutritional security and income generation. We also propose that promoting diversity in market activity may mitigate differing impacts on households in FMD endemic regions.
PubMed: 37342624
DOI: 10.3389/fvets.2023.1156458 -
BMC Medical Ethics Jun 2023The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates goods accounting for 20% of US consumers' total expenditure. The agency's potential susceptibility to corporate...
BACKGROUND
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates goods accounting for 20% of US consumers' total expenditure. The agency's potential susceptibility to corporate lobbying and political influence may adversely affect the its abilities to fulfill its duties as a vital federal agency. This study assesses whether the FDA's product recall classifications in recall scenarios are influenced by firms' lobbying activities.
METHODS
The universe of all FDA recalls between 2012 and 2019 is obtained from the FDA's website. Firm names are matched to federal-level lobbying data obtained from the Center for Responsive Politics - a non-profit and nonpartisan organization that tracks lobbying expenditures and campaign contributions. Analyses are conducted using ordinary-least-squares regressions, in which the dependent variable is recall classification and independent variables are three different measures of firms' lobbying activities in the one year prior to the recall.
RESULTS
Firms that engage in lobbying appear more likely to receive favourable classifications from the FDA. When examining the above results by product type, we find that classification of food recalls seems to be subject to lobbying influence, but the same does not appear to be true for drug and device recalls. Evidence is consistent with the conjecture that the distinction between medical and food firms may be a result of medical firms targeting lobbying efforts at FDA approvals, rather than recalls.
CONCLUSIONS
Between 2012 and 2019, the FDA's product recall classifications seem to be significantly influenced by firms' lobbying activities. Lobbying firms appear to have received more favorable (i.e., less severe) recall classifications compared to non-lobbying firms.
Topics: Humans; United States; Pharmaceutical Preparations; Lobbying; Politics; United States Food and Drug Administration
PubMed: 37340417
DOI: 10.1186/s12910-023-00921-0 -
Foods (Basel, Switzerland) Jun 2023To assess and predict the food safety risk of benzopyrene (BaP) in edible oils in China, this study collected national sampling data of edible oils from 20 Chinese...
To assess and predict the food safety risk of benzopyrene (BaP) in edible oils in China, this study collected national sampling data of edible oils from 20 Chinese provinces and their prefectures in 2019, and constructed a risk assessment model of BaP in edible oils with consumption data. Initially, the k-means algorithm was used for risk classification; then the data were pre-processed and trained to predict the data using the Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) and the eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) models, respectively, and finally, the two models were combined using the inverse error method. To test the effectiveness of the prediction model, this study experimentally validated the model according to five evaluation metrics: root mean square error (RMSE), mean absolute error (MAE), precision, recall, and F1 score. The variable-weight combined LSTM-XGBoost prediction model proposed in this paper achieved a precision of 94.62%, and the F1 score value reached 95.16%, which is significantly better than other neural network models; the results demonstrate that the prediction model has certain stability and feasibility. Overall, the combined model used in this study not only improves the accuracy but also enhances the practicality, real-time capabilities, and expandability of the model.
PubMed: 37297485
DOI: 10.3390/foods12112241 -
Epidemiology and Infection Jun 2023A Canadian outbreak investigation was initiated in January 2022 after a cluster of cases of Shiga-toxin-producing (STEC) O157 was identified through whole genome...
A Canadian outbreak investigation was initiated in January 2022 after a cluster of cases of Shiga-toxin-producing (STEC) O157 was identified through whole genome sequencing (WGS). Exposure information was collected through case interviews. Traceback investigations were conducted, and samples from case homes, retail, and the manufacturer were tested for STEC O157. Fourteen cases were identified in two provinces in Western Canada, with isolates related by 0-5 whole genome multi-locus sequence typing allele differences. Symptom onset dates ranged from 11 December 2021 to 7 January 2022. The median age of cases was 29.5 (range 0-61); 64% were female. No hospitalisations or deaths were reported. Of 11 cases with information available on fermented vegetable exposures, 91% (10/11) reported consuming Kimchi Brand A during their exposure period. The traceback investigation identified Manufacturer A in Western Canada as the producer. One open and one closed sample of Kimchi Brand A tested positive for STEC O157, with isolates considered genetically related by WGS to the outbreak strain. Napa cabbage within the kimchi product was hypothesised as the most likely source of contamination. This paper summarises the investigation into this STEC O157 outbreak associated with kimchi, the first reported outside of East Asia.
Topics: Humans; Female; Male; Escherichia coli O157; Escherichia coli Infections; Multilocus Sequence Typing; Canada; Shiga-Toxigenic Escherichia coli; Disease Outbreaks; Fermented Foods
PubMed: 37288513
DOI: 10.1017/S0950268823000882 -
Frontiers in Public Health 2023This study aimed to conduct a process evaluation of a salt substitute trial conducted in Peru.
OBJECTIVE
This study aimed to conduct a process evaluation of a salt substitute trial conducted in Peru.
METHODS
Through semi-structured interviews of intervention participants, we documented and analyzed process evaluation variables as defined by the Medical Research Council Framework. This study was a stepped wedge trial conducted in Tumbes, Peru in 2014. The intervention was a community-wide replacement of regular salt (100% sodium) with "Salt Liz" (75% sodium and 25% potassium) using social marketing strategies to promote the adoption and continued use of the salt substitute in daily life. The components of the social marketing campaign included entertainment educational activities and local product promoters (""). Another component of the intervention was the Salt Liz spoon to help guide the amount of salt that families should consume. The process evaluation variables measured were the context, mechanism of action, and implementation outcomes (acceptability, fidelity and adoption, perceptions, and feedback).
RESULTS
In total, 60 women were interviewed, 20 with hypertension and 40 without hypertension. Regarding context, common characteristics across the four villages included residents who primarily ate their meals at home and women who were responsible for household food preparation. As the mechanism of action, most participants did not notice a difference in the flavor between regular salt and Salt Liz; those that did notice a difference took around 2 weeks to become accustomed to the taste of the salt substitute. In terms of implementation outcomes, the Salt Liz was accepted by villagers and factors explaining this acceptability included that it was perceived as a "high quality" salt and as having a positive effect on one's health. Participants recognized that the Salt Liz is healthier than regular salt and that it can help prevent or control hypertension. However, most participants could not accurately recall how the compositions of the Salt Liz and regular salt differed and the role they play in hypertension. Although the use of the Salt Liz was far-reaching at the community level, the use of the Salt Liz spoon was poor. Educational entertainment activities were well-received, and most participants enjoyed them despite not always being active participants but rather sideline observers.
CONCLUSION
This process evaluation identifies key intervention components that enabled a successful trial. Seeking and incorporating feedback from the target population helps deepen the understanding of contextual factors that influence an intervention's success. Furthermore, feedback received can aid the development of the intervention product. Some factors that can be improved for future interventions are acknowledged.
CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION
NCT01960972.
Topics: Humans; Female; Peru; Social Marketing; Sodium Chloride, Dietary; Hypertension; Sodium
PubMed: 37275501
DOI: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1068624 -
Journal of Ethnopharmacology Oct 2023Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) prescriptions are a product of the Chinese medical theory's distinct thinking and clinical experience. TCM practitioners treat...
ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) prescriptions are a product of the Chinese medical theory's distinct thinking and clinical experience. TCM practitioners treat diseases by enhancing the efficacy of TCM prescriptions and reducing their poisonous effects. Some TCM herb recommendation methods have been provided for curing the given symptoms to generate a group of herbs according to the TCM principles. However, they ignored the symptoms' semantic characteristics and herbs' different effects on symptoms.
AIM OF THE STUDY
We aim to recommend TCM herbs by considering symptoms' semantic information and the strength of different herbs in curing symptoms.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
We propose a herb recommendation model named Multi-Graph Residual Attention Network and Semantic Knowledge Fusion (SMRGAT) to address these problems. Concretely, it uses a multi-head attention mechanism to focus on herbs' different effects on symptoms. Meanwhile, it augments entities' features with a residual network structure while incorporating symptoms' semantic information and external knowledge of herbs. We will verify the effect of SMRGAT on the existing public datasets and the datasets that we have collected and cleaned.
RESULTS
Compared with the current best TCM herb recommendation model, on the public dataset, SMRGAT were increased by 15.11%, 20.60%, and 18.25% in Precision@5, Recall@5, and F1 - score@5, respectively; on ours, respectively increased by 9.72%, 9.03%, 9.24%.
CONCLUSIONS
Our experimental results on two datasets indicate that SMRGAT is capable of recommending herbs with greater precision and outperforms several comparison methods. It can provide a basis for assisting TCM clinical prescriptions.
Topics: Humans; Semantics; Medicine, Chinese Traditional; Language; Traditional Medicine Practitioners; Drugs, Chinese Herbal
PubMed: 37257707
DOI: 10.1016/j.jep.2023.116693 -
Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry Jul 2023Bear bile powder (BBP) is a valuable animal-derived product with a huge adulteration problem on market. It is a crucially important task to identify BBP and its...
Bear bile powder (BBP) is a valuable animal-derived product with a huge adulteration problem on market. It is a crucially important task to identify BBP and its counterfeit. Electronic sensory technologies are the inheritance and development of traditional empirical identification. Considering that each drug has its own specific odor and taste characteristics, electronic tongue (E-tongue), electronic nose (E-nose) and GC-MS were used to evaluate the aroma and taste of BBP and its common counterfeit. Two active components of BBP, namely tauroursodeoxycholic acid (TUDCA) and taurochenodeoxycholic acid (TCDCA) were measured and linked with the electronic sensory data. The results showed that bitterness was the main flavor of TUDCA in BBP, saltiness and umami were the main flavor of TCDCA. The volatiles detected by E-nose and GC-MS were mainly aldehydes, ketones, alcohols, hydrocarbons, carboxylic acids, heterocyclic, lipids, and amines, mainly earthy, musty, coffee, bitter almond, burnt, pungent odor descriptions. Four different machine learning algorithms (backpropagation neural network, support vector machine, K-nearest neighbor, and random forest) were used to identify BBP and its counterfeit, and the regression performance of these four algorithms was also evaluated. For qualitative identification, the algorithm of random forest has shown the best performance, with 100% accuracy, precision, recall and F1-score. Also, the random forest algorithm has the best R and the lowest RMSE in terms of quantitative prediction.
Topics: Animals; Electronic Nose; Ursidae; Powders; Bile; Tongue
PubMed: 37199792
DOI: 10.1007/s00216-023-04740-5 -
The Journal of Medicine Access 2023Pharmaceutical drug recall is a relentless issue that is composed of multidimensional criteria. The distinct criteria that contributed to drug recalls have been...
BACKGROUND
Pharmaceutical drug recall is a relentless issue that is composed of multidimensional criteria. The distinct criteria that contributed to drug recalls have been identified in previous literature; however, there is limited information regarding the causal relationships between each criterion. Highlighting key influential aspects and criteria of pharmaceutical drug recall is critical in addressing this ongoing issue and promoting patient safety.
OBJECTIVE
The objective of this study is as follows: (1) identify critical criteria of pharmaceutical drug recalls for improvements, (2) determine the interrelationships among the criteria, and (3) define the causal relationships of pharmaceutical drug recall and provide theoretical insights and practice recommendations to minimize risks associated with pharmaceutical recalls and maximize patient safety.
DESIGN
This study proposes five aspects and 42 criteria to identify the impact of pharmaceutical drug recalls on patient safety by evaluating the interrelationships between the criteria by employing the fuzzy decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory method.
METHODS
A group of 11 professionals across the pharmaceutical industry, hospitals, ambulatory care, regulatory authority, and community care settings were selected for interviews.
RESULTS
Risk control is the influencing aspect of pharmaceutical drug recalls that has the most substantial impact on risk assessment and risk review; it generates medium effects on risk communication and technology. Risk assessment, risk communication, and risk review demonstrated comparative weak interrelationships, while risk communication exhibits a weak unidirectional effect on risk review. Finally, risk assessment exerts a weak influence on technology application and development. Product contamination, product subpotent or superpotent, injury to patients, product not sterile or impure, and system detectability of hazards have the strongest influence in the causal group of pharmaceutical drug recalls.
CONCLUSION
The study shows that risk control drives risk assessment and risk review in the pharmaceutical industry manufacturing process. To achieve patient safety, this study suggests focusing on risk control strategies, as this aspect displays the most substantial effect on influencing other critical risk management aspects such as risk assessment and risk review.
PubMed: 37197446
DOI: 10.1177/27550834231170075 -
JAMA Internal Medicine Jul 2023
Topics: Humans; United States; Medical Device Recalls; Risk Factors; United States Food and Drug Administration; Device Approval; Product Surveillance, Postmarketing
PubMed: 37184854
DOI: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2023.0727 -
Foods (Basel, Switzerland) Apr 2023Heavy metal contamination in wheat not only endangers human health, but also causes crop quality degradation, leads to economic losses and affects social stability....
Heavy metal contamination in wheat not only endangers human health, but also causes crop quality degradation, leads to economic losses and affects social stability. Therefore, this paper proposes a Pyraformer-based model to predict the safety risk level of Chinese wheat contaminated with heavy metals. First, based on the heavy metal sampling data of wheat and the dietary consumption data of residents, a wheat risk level dataset was constructed using the risk evaluation method; a data-driven approach was used to classify the dataset into risk levels using the K-Means++ clustering algorithm; and, finally, on the constructed dataset, Pyraformer was used to predict the risk assessment indicator and, thus, the risk level. In this paper, the proposed model was compared to the constructed dataset, and for the dataset with the lowest risk level, the precision and recall of this model still reached more than 90%, which was 25.38-4.15% and 18.42-5.26% higher, respectively. The model proposed in this paper provides a technical means for hierarchical management and early warning of heavy metal contamination of wheat in China, and also provides a scientific basis for dynamic monitoring and integrated prevention of heavy metal contamination of wheat in farmland.
PubMed: 37174381
DOI: 10.3390/foods12091843