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Transfusion Medicine and Hemotherapy :... Aug 2023An increasing shortage of donor blood is expected, considering the demographic change in Germany. Due to the short shelf life and varying daily fluctuations in...
INTRODUCTION
An increasing shortage of donor blood is expected, considering the demographic change in Germany. Due to the short shelf life and varying daily fluctuations in consumption, the storage of platelet concentrates (PCs) becomes challenging. This emphasizes the need for reliable prediction of needed PCs for the blood bank inventories. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate multimodal data from multiple source systems within a hospital to predict the number of platelet transfusions in 3 days on a per-patient level.
METHODS
Data were collected from 25,190 (42% female and 58% male) patients between 2017 and 2021. For each patient, the number of received PCs, platelet count blood tests, drugs causing thrombocytopenia, acute platelet diseases, procedures, age, gender, and the period of a patient's hospital stay were collected. Two models were trained on samples using a sliding window of 7 days as input and a day 3 target. The model predicts whether a patient will be transfused 3 days in the future. The model was trained with an excessive hyperparameter search using patient-level repeated 5-fold cross-validation to optimize the average macro F2-score.
RESULTS
The trained models were tested on 5,022 unique patients. The best-performing model has a specificity of 0.99, a sensitivity of 0.37, an area under the precision-recall curve score of 0.45, an MCC score of 0.43, and an F1-score of 0.43. However, the model does not generalize well for cases when the need for a platelet transfusion is recognized.
CONCLUSION
A patient AI-based platelet forecast could improve logistics management and reduce blood product waste. In this study, we build the first model to predict patient individual platelet demand. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to introduce this approach. Our model predicts the need for platelet units for 3 days in the future. While sensitivity underperforms, specificity performs reliably. The model may be of clinical use as a pretest for potential patients needing a platelet transfusion within the next 3 days. As sensitivity needs to be improved, further studies should introduce deep learning and wider patient characterization to the methodological multimodal, multisource data approach. Furthermore, a hospital-wide consumption of PCs could be derived from individual predictions.
PubMed: 37767277
DOI: 10.1159/000528428 -
Toxins Sep 2023The farming of shellfish plays an important role in providing sustainable economic growth in coastal, rural communities in Scotland and acts as an anchor industry,...
The farming of shellfish plays an important role in providing sustainable economic growth in coastal, rural communities in Scotland and acts as an anchor industry, supporting a range of ancillary jobs in the processing, distribution and exporting industries. The Scottish Government is encouraging shellfish farmers to double their economic contribution by 2030. These farmers face numerous challenges to reach this goal, among which is the problem caused by toxin-producing microplankton that can contaminate their shellfish, leading to harvesting site closure and the recall of product. Food Standards Scotland, a non-ministerial department of the Scottish Government, carries out a monitoring programme for both the toxin-producing microplankton and the toxins in shellfish flesh, with farms being closed when official thresholds for any toxin are breached. The farm remains closed until testing for the problematic toxin alone, often diarrhetic shellfish toxin (DST), shows the site to have dropped below the regulatory threshold. While this programme has proved to be robust, questions remain regarding the other toxins that may be present at a closed site. In this study, we tested archival material collected during site closures but only tested for DSTs as part of the official control monitoring. We found the presence of amnesic shellfish toxin (AST) in low concentrations in the majority of sites tested. In one case, the level of AST breached the official threshold. This finding has implications for AST monitoring programmes around Europe.
Topics: Marine Toxins; Shellfish; Diatoms; Seafood; Aquaculture
PubMed: 37755980
DOI: 10.3390/toxins15090554 -
Analytical Chemistry Oct 2023A "chemical linearization" approach was applied to synthetic peptide macrocycles to enable their de novo sequencing from mixtures using nanoliquid chromatography-tandem...
A "chemical linearization" approach was applied to synthetic peptide macrocycles to enable their de novo sequencing from mixtures using nanoliquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (nLC-MS/MS). This approach─previously applied to individual macrocycles but not to mixtures─involves cleavage of the peptide backbone at a defined position to give a product capable of generating sequence-determining fragment ions. Here, we first established the compatibility of "chemical linearization" by Edman degradation with a prominent macrocycle scaffold based on -Cys peptides cross-linked with the -xylene linker, which are of major significance in therapeutics discovery. Then, using macrocycle libraries of known sequence composition, the ability to recover accurate de novo assignments to linearized products was critically tested using performance metrics unique to mixtures. Significantly, we show that linearized macrocycles can be sequenced with lower recall compared to linear peptides but with similar accuracy, which establishes the potential of using "chemical linearization" with synthetic libraries and selection procedures that yield compound mixtures. Sodiated precursor ions were identified as a significant source of high-scoring but inaccurate assignments, with potential implications for improving automated de novo sequencing more generally.
PubMed: 37724843
DOI: 10.1021/acs.analchem.3c01742 -
Journal of Medical Internet Research Sep 2023The innovative method of sentiment analysis based on an emotional lexicon shows prominent advantages in capturing emotional information, such as individual attitudes,...
BACKGROUND
The innovative method of sentiment analysis based on an emotional lexicon shows prominent advantages in capturing emotional information, such as individual attitudes, experiences, and needs, which provides a new perspective and method for emotion recognition and management for patients with breast cancer (BC). However, at present, sentiment analysis in the field of BC is limited, and there is no emotional lexicon for this field. Therefore, it is necessary to construct an emotional lexicon that conforms to the characteristics of patients with BC so as to provide a new tool for accurate identification and analysis of the patients' emotions and a new method for their personalized emotion management.
OBJECTIVE
This study aimed to construct an emotional lexicon of patients with BC.
METHODS
Emotional words were obtained by merging the words in 2 general sentiment lexicons, the Chinese Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (C-LIWC) and HowNet, and the words in text corpora acquired from patients with BC via Weibo, semistructured interviews, and expressive writing. The lexicon was constructed using manual annotation and classification under the guidance of Russell's valence-arousal space. Ekman's basic emotional categories, Lazarus' cognitive appraisal theory of emotion, and a qualitative text analysis based on the text corpora of patients with BC were combined to determine the fine-grained emotional categories of the lexicon we constructed. Precision, recall, and the F1-score were used to evaluate the lexicon's performance.
RESULTS
The text corpora collected from patients in different stages of BC included 150 written materials, 17 interviews, and 6689 original posts and comments from Weibo, with a total of 1,923,593 Chinese characters. The emotional lexicon of patients with BC contained 9357 words and covered 8 fine-grained emotional categories: joy, anger, sadness, fear, disgust, surprise, somatic symptoms, and BC terminology. Experimental results showed that precision, recall, and the F1-score of positive emotional words were 98.42%, 99.73%, and 99.07%, respectively, and those of negative emotional words were 99.73%, 98.38%, and 99.05%, respectively, which all significantly outperformed the C-LIWC and HowNet.
CONCLUSIONS
The emotional lexicon with fine-grained emotional categories conforms to the characteristics of patients with BC. Its performance related to identifying and classifying domain-specific emotional words in BC is better compared to the C-LIWC and HowNet. This lexicon not only provides a new tool for sentiment analysis in the field of BC but also provides a new perspective for recognizing the specific emotional state and needs of patients with BC and formulating tailored emotional management plans.
Topics: Humans; Female; Breast Neoplasms; Sentiment Analysis; Emotions; Fear; Sadness
PubMed: 37698914
DOI: 10.2196/44897 -
Journal of Clinical Medicine Aug 2023The aim of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of extra virgin olive (EVO) oil and fruity oil for the treatment of gingivitis.
OBJECTIVES
The aim of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of extra virgin olive (EVO) oil and fruity oil for the treatment of gingivitis.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
A sample of 75 patients over 18 years of age with gingivitis induced by plaque bacteria was divided into three groups: study group A, with extra virgin olive oil; study group B, with fruity oil; and control group C. In the two study groups, EVO oil was administered as a mouthwash to patients with gingival inflammation. The protocol included a daily application of the product for 30 days, with three recalls 15 days apart. Clinical parameters of plaque formation and gingivitis, including plaque index (PI) and bleeding index (BI), were assessed at each recall and scored on a specific periodontal chart. The control group received no mouthwash treatment in addition to normal daily oral hygiene procedures, and the same clinical parameters as the study group were evaluated. Data were evaluated using SPSS 27.0 software for Windows (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). Then, the pre- and post-treatment values of the groups were compared using Student's -test, setting < 0.05 as the significance level.
RESULTS
Comparison of the three groups showed that extra-virgin olive oil was an adjuvant in the treatment of gingival inflammation, improving PI and BI. In group A, the mean plaque index showed a 48% reduction, and the bleeding index showed a 64% reduction after 30 days. In group B, the mean plaque index showed a 35% reduction and a bleeding index reduction of 43% after 30 days.
CONCLUSIONS
The collected data showed significant improvements in the formation of bacterial plaque and gingivitis. The exact mechanism of such treatment is still to be elucidated. As a result of this, further studies with a different sample of patients than those used and a comparison with other products need to be addressed to verify and demonstrate the antibacterial and anti-inflammatory effects of the components of this natural product.
PubMed: 37629298
DOI: 10.3390/jcm12165256 -
PloS One 2023Product-harm crises have detrimental effects on firm's sales, reputation, and financial value, requiring crisis managers to promptly adopt appropriate response...
Product-harm crises have detrimental effects on firm's sales, reputation, and financial value, requiring crisis managers to promptly adopt appropriate response strategies to mitigate these impacts. Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT) guides managers to align responsibility attribution with response strategies. Using Chinese listed firms' product-harm crises sample from 2015 to 2021, this study analyzes the stock market's reaction to different response strategies. The event study method reveals that a passive strategy is more effective during the disclosure stage, and accept+no recall and deny+recall are conforming strategies during the initial response stage. Additionally, firms with a crisis history should assume greater responsibility when developing response strategies for product-harm crises, as crisis history amplifies negative effects. The results provide recommendations to help managers formulate appropriate strategies.
Topics: Commerce; Disclosure; Social Perception; Product Recalls and Withdrawals; Consumer Product Safety; Private Sector; Public Opinion; Truth Disclosure; China
PubMed: 37616251
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0290548 -
Frontiers in Nutrition 2023Dietary assessment is important for understanding nutritional status. Traditional methods of monitoring food intake through self-report such as diet diaries, 24-hour...
INTRODUCTION
Dietary assessment is important for understanding nutritional status. Traditional methods of monitoring food intake through self-report such as diet diaries, 24-hour dietary recall, and food frequency questionnaires may be subject to errors and can be time-consuming for the user.
METHODS
This paper presents a semi-automatic dietary assessment tool we developed - a desktop application called Image to Nutrients (I2N) - to process sensor-detected eating events and images captured during these eating events by a wearable sensor. I2N has the capacity to offer multiple food and nutrient databases (e.g., USDA-SR, FNDDS, USDA Global Branded Food Products Database) for annotating eating episodes and food items. I2N estimates energy intake, nutritional content, and the amount consumed. The components of I2N are three-fold: 1) sensor-guided image review, 2) annotation of food images for nutritional analysis, and 3) access to multiple food databases. Two studies were used to evaluate the feasibility and usefulness of I2N: 1) a US-based study with 30 participants and a total of 60 days of data and 2) a Ghana-based study with 41 participants and a total of 41 days of data).
RESULTS
In both studies, a total of 314 eating episodes were annotated using at least three food databases. Using I2N's sensor-guided image review, the number of images that needed to be reviewed was reduced by 93% and 85% for the two studies, respectively, compared to reviewing all the images.
DISCUSSION
I2N is a unique tool that allows for simultaneous viewing of food images, sensor-guided image review, and access to multiple databases in one tool, making nutritional analysis of food images efficient. The tool is flexible, allowing for nutritional analysis of images if sensor signals aren't available.
PubMed: 37575335
DOI: 10.3389/fnut.2023.1191962 -
Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) Jul 2023Moving target detection (MTD) is a crucial task in computer vision applications. In this paper, we investigate the problem of detecting moving targets in infrared (IR)...
Moving target detection (MTD) is a crucial task in computer vision applications. In this paper, we investigate the problem of detecting moving targets in infrared (IR) surveillance video sequences captured using a steady camera in a maritime setting. For this purpose, we employ robust principal component analysis (RPCA), which is an improvement of principal component analysis (PCA) that separates an input matrix into the following two matrices: a low-rank matrix that is representative, in our case study, of the slowly changing background, and a sparse matrix that is representative of the foreground. RPCA is usually implemented in a non-causal batch form. To pursue a real-time application, we tested an online implementation, which, unfortunately, was affected by the presence of the target in the scene during the initialization phase. Therefore, we improved the robustness by implementing a saliency-based strategy. The advantages offered by the resulting technique, which we called "saliency-aided online moving window RPCA" (S-OMW-RPCA) are the following: RPCA is implemented online; along with the temporal features exploited by RPCA, the spatial features are also taken into consideration by using a saliency filter; the results are robust against the condition of the scene during the initialization. Finally, we compare the performance of the proposed technique in terms of precision, recall, and execution time with that of an online RPCA, thus, showing the effectiveness of the saliency-based approach.
PubMed: 37514626
DOI: 10.3390/s23146334 -
BMC Public Health Jul 2023This report describes two L. monocytogenes outbreak investigations that occurred in March and September of 2018 and that linked illness to a food premises located in an...
BACKGROUND
This report describes two L. monocytogenes outbreak investigations that occurred in March and September of 2018 and that linked illness to a food premises located in an Ontario cancer centre. The cancer centre serves patients from across the province.
METHODS
In Ontario, local public health agencies follow up with all reported laboratory-confirmed cases of listeriosis to identify possible sources of disease acquisition and to carry out investigations, including at suspected food premises. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is notified of any Listeria-positive food product collected in relation to a case. The CFIA traces Listeria-positive product through the food distribution system to identify the contamination source and ensure the implicated manufacturing facility implements corrective measures.
RESULTS
Outbreaks one and two each involved three outbreak-confirmed listeriosis cases. All six cases were considered genetically related by whole genome sequencing (WGS). In both outbreaks, outbreak-confirmed cases reported consuming meals at a food premises located in a cancer centre (food premises A) before illness onset. Various open deli meat samples and, in outbreak two, environmental swabs (primarily from the meat slicer) collected from food premises A were genetically related to the outbreak-confirmed cases. Food premises A closed as a result of the investigations.
CONCLUSIONS
When procuring on-site food premises, healthcare facilities and institutions serving individuals with immuno-compromising conditions should consider the potential health risk of foods available to their patient population.
Topics: Humans; Listeria monocytogenes; Foodborne Diseases; Food Microbiology; Neoplasms; Listeriosis; Disease Outbreaks; Ontario
PubMed: 37507665
DOI: 10.1186/s12889-023-16371-7 -
HIV/AIDS (Auckland, N.Z.) 2023Poor adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART) causes drug resistance, treatment failure and death. Studies conducted among children below 15 years were limited in...
BACKGROUND
Poor adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART) causes drug resistance, treatment failure and death. Studies conducted among children below 15 years were limited in Ethiopia in general and in the study area. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the status of children's adherence to ART and associated factors in the study area.
METHODS
We conducted a facility-based cross-sectional study from April 1 to May 10, 2020 by including 282 children <15 years. All children who received ART for at least one month and attend ART clinic during data collection period were consecutively recruited. Face-to-face interview was conducted using a standardized questionnaire. Both bivariate and multivariate logistic regression were performed. Adherence and exposure variables (i.e., sociodemographic and reason for missing) were measured by the caregivers/children's report of a one-month recall of missed doses.
RESULTS
Among 282 caregivers included with their children, 226 (80.2%) were females (mean age = 38.6 and SD = 12.35) and half (50%) of children were females. Two hundred forty six (87.2%) children were aged between 5-14 years (mean age = 8.5 and SD = 2.64), and 87.2% were adhered (≥95%) to ART in the month prior to the interview. Children whose caregivers were residing in urban were 3.3 (95% CI: 1.17, 9.63) times more adherent to ART than their counterparties. Children whose caregivers were biological parents were 2.37 (95% CI: 1.59, 3.3) times more adherent than children with non-biological parents. Children with knowledgeable caregivers about ART were 4.5 (95% CI: 1.79, 9.8) times more adherent to ART.
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Children's adherence to ART in our study area was sub optimal. Biological caregivers, residing in urban and being knowledgeable about ART facilitate adherence to ART. Adherence counseling targeting non-biological parents and for those who come from rural areas were recommended.
PubMed: 37497118
DOI: 10.2147/HIV.S407105