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Public Health Nutrition Jun 2021To present an overview of how artificial intelligence (AI) could be used to regulate eating and dietary behaviours, exercise behaviours and weight loss. (Review)
Review
OBJECTIVE
To present an overview of how artificial intelligence (AI) could be used to regulate eating and dietary behaviours, exercise behaviours and weight loss.
DESIGN
A scoping review of global literature published from inception to 15 December 2020 was conducted according to Arksey and O'Malley's five-step framework. Eight databases (CINAHL, Cochrane-Central, Embase, IEEE Xplore, PsycINFO, PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science) were searched. Included studies were independently screened for eligibility by two reviewers with good interrater reliability (k = 0·96).
RESULTS
Sixty-six out of 5573 potential studies were included, representing more than 2031 participants. Three tenets of self-regulation were identified - self-monitoring (n 66, 100 %), optimisation of goal setting (n 10, 15·2 %) and self-control (n 10, 15·2 %). Articles were also categorised into three AI applications, namely machine perception (n 50), predictive analytics only (n 6) and real-time analytics with personalised micro-interventions (n 10). Machine perception focused on recognising food items, eating behaviours, physical activities and estimating energy balance. Predictive analytics focused on predicting weight loss, intervention adherence, dietary lapses and emotional eating. Studies on the last theme focused on evaluating AI-assisted weight management interventions that instantaneously collected behavioural data, optimised prediction models for behavioural lapse events and enhance behavioural self-control through adaptive and personalised nudges/prompts. Only six studies reported average weight losses (2·4-4·7 %) of which two were statistically significant.
CONCLUSION
The use of AI for weight loss is still undeveloped. Based on the current study findings, we proposed a framework on the applicability of AI for weight loss but cautioned its contingency upon engagement and contextualisation.
Topics: Adult; Artificial Intelligence; Diet; Exercise; Humans; Reproducibility of Results; Weight Loss
PubMed: 33592164
DOI: 10.1017/S1368980021000598 -
Current Opinion in Obstetrics &... Oct 2016Many women choosing to have surgery for pelvic organ prolapse also choose to undergo continence surgery. This review focuses on available evidence that clinicians may... (Review)
Review
PURPOSE OF REVIEW
Many women choosing to have surgery for pelvic organ prolapse also choose to undergo continence surgery. This review focuses on available evidence that clinicians may use to counsel patients when choosing whether to perform continence surgery and how predictive analytic tools improve this decision-making process.
RECENT FINDINGS
Midurethral sling, Burch cystourethropexy and bladder neck sling are highly effective for the surgical treatment of stress urinary incontinence. Trials demonstrate that continence surgery may be routinely performed to reduce the risk of postoperative incontinence in women undergoing surgery for pelvic organ prolapse with or without preoperative stress urinary incontinence. Although these procedures are effective and well tolerated on average, media concerns, regulatory warnings and litigation reinforce the need for a balanced discussion regarding efficacy and potential adverse events directed at the individual patient during the preoperative visit. Advances in predictive analytics allow surgeons to quantitate individual risk using algorithms that tailor estimates for the individual patient and facilitate shared understanding of risks and benefits. These models are less prone to cognitive biases and frequently outperform experienced clinicians.
SUMMARY
This review discusses how predictive analytic tools can be used to improve decisions about continence surgery in the woman planning to undergo prolapse surgery.
Topics: Aged; Female; Gynecologic Surgical Procedures; Humans; Hysterectomy; Middle Aged; Pelvic Organ Prolapse; Postoperative Complications; Risk; Suburethral Slings; Surgical Mesh; Urinary Incontinence; Urinary Incontinence, Stress; Urologic Surgical Procedures
PubMed: 27495276
DOI: 10.1097/GCO.0000000000000308 -
JMIR Formative Research Nov 2023There has been a growth surge in the use of social media among individuals today. The widespread adoption of these platforms, coupled with their engaging features,...
BACKGROUND
There has been a growth surge in the use of social media among individuals today. The widespread adoption of these platforms, coupled with their engaging features, presents a unique opportunity for the dissemination of health advocacy information. Social media is known as a powerful tool used to share health policy and advocacy efforts and disseminate health information to digital community members and networks. Yet, there is still a gap in the full exploitation of this powerful instrument, among health care professionals, for health advocacy campaigns.
OBJECTIVE
This paper aims to describe the process of mobilizing social media platforms such as Twitter (rebranded to X Corp in 2023) for health advocacy of the digital community. Additionally, it aims to share the lessons and insights gained during this digital health advocacy engagement process.
METHODS
We performed a comprehensive review of Twitter analytical data to examine the impact of our social media posts. We then consolidated these analytic reports with our meeting logs to describe our systematic, iterative, and collaborative design process to implement social media efforts and generate key lessons learned.
RESULTS
Our review of monthly Twitter analytical reports and regular team meeting logs revealed several themes for successful and less successful practices in relation to our social media-based health advocacy efforts. The successful practices noted by the team included using personable, picture-based tweets; using a series of posts on a particular topic rather than an isolated post; leveraging team members' and partners' collaborations in shared posts; incorporating hashtags in tweets; using a balanced mix of texts and graphics in posts; using inclusive (nondestigmatizing) languages in tweeted posts; and use of polls to share tweets. Among the many lessons learned, we also experienced limitations including a lack of comprehensive statistics on Twitter usage for health care-related purposes such as health advocacy and limits in collating the estimates of the actual impact made on the intended digital community members by our posts.
CONCLUSIONS
Twitter has been successfully used in promoting health advocacy content, and the social media team aims to explore other social media platforms that have a wider reach than Twitter. We will continue making necessary adjustments in strategies, techniques, and styles to engage the audience as we expand onto new platforms like Instagram and TikTok for health advocacy promotions.
PubMed: 37962914
DOI: 10.2196/51752 -
International Journal of Molecular... Jun 2023DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) are the most lethal DNA damages which lead to severe genome instability. Phosphorylation is one of the most important protein... (Review)
Review
DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) are the most lethal DNA damages which lead to severe genome instability. Phosphorylation is one of the most important protein post-translation modifications involved in DSBs repair regulation. Kinases and phosphatases play coordinating roles in DSB repair by phosphorylating and dephosphorylating various proteins. Recent research has shed light on the importance of maintaining a balance between kinase and phosphatase activities in DSB repair. The interplay between kinases and phosphatases plays an important role in regulating DNA-repair processes, and alterations in their activity can lead to genomic instability and disease. Therefore, study on the function of kinases and phosphatases in DSBs repair is essential for understanding their roles in cancer development and therapeutics. In this review, we summarize the current knowledge of kinases and phosphatases in DSBs repair regulation and highlight the advancements in the development of cancer therapies targeting kinases or phosphatases in DSBs repair pathways. In conclusion, understanding the balance of kinase and phosphatase activities in DSBs repair provides opportunities for the development of novel cancer therapeutics.
Topics: Humans; DNA Breaks, Double-Stranded; Protein Kinases; Phosphoric Monoester Hydrolases; DNA Repair; Neoplasms; DNA
PubMed: 37373360
DOI: 10.3390/ijms241210212 -
Nature Communications Mar 2020The biological fitness of microbes is largely determined by the rate with which they replicate their biomass composition. Mathematical models that maximize this balanced...
The biological fitness of microbes is largely determined by the rate with which they replicate their biomass composition. Mathematical models that maximize this balanced growth rate while accounting for mass conservation, reaction kinetics, and limits on dry mass per volume are inevitably non-linear. Here, we develop a general theory for such models, termed Growth Balance Analysis (GBA), which provides explicit expressions for protein concentrations, fluxes, and growth rates. These variables are functions of the concentrations of cellular components, for which we calculate marginal fitness costs and benefits that are related to metabolic control coefficients. At maximal growth rate, the net benefits of all concentrations are equal. Based solely on physicochemical constraints, GBA unveils fundamental quantitative principles of cellular resource allocation and growth; it accurately predicts the relationship between growth rates and ribosome concentrations in E. coli and yeast and between growth rate and dry mass density in E. coli.
Topics: Cell Proliferation; Computer Simulation; Escherichia coli; Kinetics; Metabolic Networks and Pathways; Models, Biological; Ribosomes
PubMed: 32144263
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-14751-w -
Genetics Jul 2022Multigene families-immunity genes or sensory receptors, for instance-are often subject to diversifying selection. Allelic diversity may be favored not only through...
Multigene families-immunity genes or sensory receptors, for instance-are often subject to diversifying selection. Allelic diversity may be favored not only through balancing or frequency-dependent selection at individual loci but also by associating different alleles in multicopy gene families. Using a combination of analytical calculations and simulations, we explored a population genetic model of epistatic selection and unequal recombination, where a trade-off exists between the benefit of allelic diversity and the cost of copy abundance. Starting from the neutral case, where we showed that gene copy number is Gamma distributed at equilibrium, we derived also the mean and shape of the limiting distribution under selection. Considering a more general model, which includes variable population size and population substructure, we explored by simulations mean fitness and some summary statistics of the copy number distribution. We determined the relative effects of selection, recombination, and demographic parameters in maintaining allelic diversity and shaping the mean fitness of a population. One way to control the variance of copy number is by lowering the rate of unequal recombination. Indeed, when encoding recombination by a rate modifier locus, we observe exactly this prediction. Finally, we analyzed the empirical copy number distribution of 3 genes in human and estimated recombination and selection parameters of our model.
Topics: Alleles; Humans; Models, Genetic; Recombination, Genetic; Selection, Genetic
PubMed: 35460227
DOI: 10.1093/genetics/iyac052 -
Implementation Science Communications Jun 2021Qualitative methods are critical for implementation science as they generate opportunities to examine complexity and include a diversity of perspectives. However, it can...
Qualitative methods are critical for implementation science as they generate opportunities to examine complexity and include a diversity of perspectives. However, it can be a challenge to identify the approach that will provide the best fit for achieving a given set of practice-driven research needs. After all, implementation scientists must find a balance between speed and rigor, reliance on existing frameworks and new discoveries, and inclusion of insider and outsider perspectives. This paper offers guidance on taking a pragmatic approach to analysis, which entails strategically combining and borrowing from established qualitative approaches to meet a study's needs, typically with guidance from an existing framework and with explicit research and practice change goals.Section 1 offers a series of practical questions to guide the development of a pragmatic analytic approach. These include examining the balance of inductive and deductive procedures, the extent to which insider or outsider perspectives are privileged, study requirements related to data and products that support scientific advancement and practice change, and strategic resource allocation. This is followed by an introduction to three approaches commonly considered for implementation science projects: grounded theory, framework analysis, and interpretive phenomenological analysis, highlighting core analytic procedures that may be borrowed for a pragmatic approach. Section 2 addresses opportunities to ensure and communicate rigor of pragmatic analytic approaches. Section 3 provides an illustrative example from the team's work, highlighting how a pragmatic analytic approach was designed and executed and the diversity of research and practice products generated.As qualitative inquiry gains prominence in implementation science, it is critical to take advantage of qualitative methods' diversity and flexibility. This paper furthers the conversation regarding how to strategically mix and match components of established qualitative approaches to meet the analytic needs of implementation science projects, thereby supporting high-impact research and improved opportunities to create practice change.
PubMed: 34187595
DOI: 10.1186/s43058-021-00174-1 -
Trials Jul 2022Improving the functional outcome following total knee arthroplasty (TKA) by using different alignment techniques remains controversial. The surgical techniques and... (Randomized Controlled Trial)
Randomized Controlled Trial
A prospective randomised controlled trial of mechanical axis with soft tissue release balancing vs functional alignment with bony resection balancing in total knee replacement-a study using Stryker Mako robotic arm-assisted technology.
BACKGROUND
Improving the functional outcome following total knee arthroplasty (TKA) by using different alignment techniques remains controversial. The surgical techniques and technologies used so far to obtain these alignments have all suffered from inaccuracies. The use of robotic technology to plan and execute the bony resection provides increased accuracy for these various alignment techniques and may determine which will deliver superior function. Functional alignment (FA) is a newer surgical technique that aims to position the prosthesis with respect to each patients' specific bony anatomy whilst minimising disruption to the soft tissue envelope. This trial aims to compare the patient and surgical outcomes of FA to the current gold standard surgical technique, mechanical alignment (MA), under randomised and blinded conditions.
METHODS
Patients with symptomatic knee osteoarthritis will be prospectively recruited. Following informed consent, 240 patients will be randomised to either a MA surgical technique (the control group) or a FA surgical technique (the intervention group) at a ratio of 4:1 using a random number generator. All patients will undergo computer tomography (CT) based robotic arm-assisted surgery to execute planned implant positioning and alignment with high levels of accuracy. The primary outcome is the forgotten joint score (FJS) at 2 years post-operation. Secondary outcome measures include patient reported outcome measures of post-operative rehabilitation, pain, function and satisfaction, as well as limb alignment, implant revisions and adverse events. Intention-to-treat and per-protocol population analysis will also be conducted. Standardisation of the surgical system and care pathways will minimise variation and assist in both patient and physiotherapist blinding. Ethical approval was obtained from the Northern B Health and Disability Ethics Committee (20/NTB/10).
DISCUSSION
Currently, MA remains the gold standard in knee replacement due to proven outcomes and excellent long-term survivorship. There are many alternative alignment techniques in the literature, all with the goal of improving patient outcomes. This study is unique in that it leverages an advanced analytics tool to assist the surgeon in achieving balance. Both alignment techniques will be executed with high precision using the CT-based robotic arm-assisted surgery system which will minimise surgical variation. This trial design will help determine if FA delivers superior outcomes for patients.
TRIAL REGISTRATION
Australia and New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ANZCTR), ACTRN12620000009910 . Registered on 9 January 2020.
CLINICALTRIALS
gov, NCT04600583 . Registered on 29 September 2020.
Topics: Arthroplasty, Replacement, Knee; Humans; Knee Joint; Osteoarthritis, Knee; Prospective Studies; Robotic Surgical Procedures
PubMed: 35858944
DOI: 10.1186/s13063-022-06494-4 -
Journal of Orthopaedic Research :... Jan 2022Attitudes, priorities, and perceptions of exercise directly influence exercise behaviors. Despite the benefits of exercise-based activities for future health, little is...
Attitudes, priorities, and perceptions of exercise directly influence exercise behaviors. Despite the benefits of exercise-based activities for future health, little is known about how youth who experience an ACL injury view exercise-based activity beyond the immediate recovery period. A qualitative (interpretative description) approach with one-to-one semistructured interviews was used to probe the current attitudes, priorities, and perceptions of exercise-therapy, physical activity, and sport participation with a purposive sample of youth from an ongoing inception cohort study who experienced an ACL tear or reconstruction in the past 12-24 months. Analyses followed an inductive approach guided by an analytic interpretative description process. Reflexive journaling, memoing, and a detailed audit trail promoted data trustworthiness. A patient-partner was involved throughout. Ten youth (six women, four men), 15-19 years of age, and a median of 20-months (16-26) from injury were interviewed. Three overarching themes were identified. 'Balancing physical activity and future knee health' highlighted ongoing negotiations between what were perceived to be competing priorities for return-to-sport and future knee health. 'Reframing the value of exercise-therapy and physical activity' reflected the importance of reshaping attitudes toward exercise as positive and was linked to exercise adherence. 'Overcoming unforeseen exercise challenges' encompassed persisting psychological and physical challenges perceived to limit exercise-based activities. Clinical significance: reframing exercise-based activities in a positive light and leveraging motivation for return-to-sport and life-long knee health may be important strategies for encouraging ongoing exercise therapy and physical activity following a youth ACL injury.
Topics: Adolescent; Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injuries; Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction; Athletic Injuries; Attitude; Cohort Studies; Female; Humans; Male; Return to Sport
PubMed: 33951223
DOI: 10.1002/jor.25064 -
Bulletin of Mathematical Biology Jun 2022We study the relative importance of two key control measures for epidemic spreading: endogenous social self-distancing and exogenous imposed quarantine. We use the...
We study the relative importance of two key control measures for epidemic spreading: endogenous social self-distancing and exogenous imposed quarantine. We use the framework of adaptive networks, moment-closure, and ordinary differential equations to introduce new model types of susceptible-infected-recovered (SIR) dynamics. First, we compare computationally expensive, adaptive network simulations with their corresponding computationally efficient ODE equivalents and find excellent agreement. Second, we discover that there exists a critical curve in parameter space for the epidemic threshold, which suggests a mutual compensation effect between the two mitigation strategies: as long as social distancing and quarantine measures are both sufficiently strong, large outbreaks are prevented. Third, we study the total number of infected and the maximum peak during large outbreaks using a combination of analytical estimates and numerical simulations. Also for large outbreaks we find a similar compensation mechanism as for the epidemic threshold. This means that if there is little incentive for social distancing in a population, drastic quarantining is required, and vice versa. Both pure scenarios are unrealistic in practice. The new models show that only a combination of measures is likely to succeed to control epidemic spreading. Fourth, we analytically compute an upper bound for the total number of infected on adaptive networks, using integral estimates in combination with a moment-closure approximation on the level of an observable. Our method allows us to elegantly and quickly check and cross-validate various conjectures about the relevance of different network control measures. In this sense it becomes possible to adapt also other models rapidly to new epidemic challenges.
Topics: Disease Outbreaks; Epidemics; Mathematical Concepts; Models, Biological; Quarantine
PubMed: 35771291
DOI: 10.1007/s11538-022-01033-3