Using K-Means Clustering to Identify Physician Clusters by Electronic Health Record Burden and Efficiency.

Objectives: Electronic health records (EHRs) have transformed the way modern medicine is practiced, but they remain a major source of documentation burden among physicians. This study aims to use data from Signal, a tool provided by the Epic EHR, to analyze physician metadata in the Montefiore Health System via cluster analysis to assess EHR burden and efficiency. Methods: Data were obtained for a one-month period (July 2020) representing a return to normal operation post-telemedicine implementation. Six metrics from Signal were used to phenotype physicians: time on unscheduled days, pajama time, time outside of 7 AM to 7 PM, turnaround time, proficiency score, and visits closed the same day. k-Means clustering was employed to group physicians, and the clusters were assessed overall and by sex and specialty. Results: Our results demonstrate the partitioning of physicians into a higher-efficiency, lower-time outside of scheduled hours (TOSH) cluster and a lower-efficiency, higher-TOSH cluster even when stratified by sex and specialty. Intra-cluster comparisons showed general homogeneity of physician metrics with the exception of the higher-efficiency, lower-TOSH cluster when stratified by sex. Conclusions: Taken together, the clusters uniquely reflect the EHR efficiency-burden of the Montefiore Health System. Applying k-means clustering to readily available EHR data allows for a scalable, efficient, and adaptable approach of assessing physician EHR burden and efficiency, allowing health systems to examine documentation trends and target wellness interventions.

A conserved HOTAIRM1-HOXA1 regulatory axis contributes early to neuronal differentiation.

HOTAIRM1 is unlike most long non-coding RNAs in that its sequence is highly conserved across mammals. Such evolutionary conservation points to it having a role in key cellular processes. We previously reported that HOTAIRM1 is required to curb premature activation of downstream HOXA genes in a cell model recapitulating their sequential induction during development. We found that it regulates 3' HOXA gene expression by a mechanism involving epigenetic and three-dimensional chromatin changes. Here we show that HOTAIRM1 participates in proper progression through the early stages of neuronal differentiation. We found that it can associate with the HOXA1 transcription factor and contributes to its downstream transcriptional program. Particularly, HOTAIRM1 affects the NANOG/POU5F1/SOX2 core pluripotency network maintaining an undifferentiated cell state. HOXA1 depletion similarly perturbed expression of these pluripotent factors, suggesting that HOTAIRM1 is a modulator of this transcription factor pathway. Also, given that binding of HOTAIRM1 to HOXA1 was observed in different cell types and species, our results point to this ribonucleoprotein complex as an integral part of a conserved HOTAIRM1-HOXA1 regulatory axis modulating the transition from a pluripotent to a differentiated neuronal state.

Association between respiratory disease and stress urinary incontinence: An analysis of the 2015-2020 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

INTRODUCTION: There is a logical association between chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or asthma with stress urinary incontinence (SUI), given the propensity for coughing which increases intra-abdominal pressure. However, there are few studies examining the association between COPD or asthma and specifically SUI. We aimed to utilize the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) data from 2015 to 2020 to measure the association between respiratory diseases like COPD and asthma with SUI. METHODS: Data was collected from NHANES, a database representative of the United States population. Participants were included if they were female, older than 20 years, and completed the incontinence survey question. Self-reported history of asthma and COPD diagnosis from a physician, as well as history of incontinence associated with activities such as coughing, lifting, or exercise, were collected. Characteristics of participants were compared using χ2 and Student t-tests. Multivariable logistic regression was performed using a multimodel approach to adjust for sociodemographic and health-related covariates. RESULTS: A total of 9059 women were included in this study. 42.13% reported an episode of SUI in the past year, 6.29% had a COPD diagnosis, and 11.86% had an asthma diagnosis. In the unadjusted analysis, participants with COPD were more likely to report SUI (odds ratio [OR] 3.42, 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.13-5.49, p < 0.001); this association persisted on multivariable analysis (OR 2.87, 95% CI 1.46-5.60, p = 0.003). There was no significant association between asthma and SUI in the unadjusted (OR 1.15, 95% CI 0.96-1.38, p = 0.14) or adjusted model (OR 1.18, 95% CI 0.86-1.60, p = 0.30). CONCLUSION: Although a strong association between COPD and SUI was observed, an analogous one was not found between asthma and SUI. Chronic cough may be more difficult to control with treatment or more common in those with COPD than asthma, explaining this difference. Future research should continue to explore drivers for SUI in large populations to dispel or affirm historically assumed SUI risk factors.

Influence of caregiver input and language experience on the production of coda laterals by English-Malay bilingual preschoolers in multi-accent Singapore.

Linguistic input in multi-lingual/-cultural contexts is highly variable. We examined the production of English and Malay laterals by fourteen early bilingual preschoolers in Singapore who were exposed to several allophones of coda laterals: Malay caregivers use predominantly clear-l in English and Malay, but their English coda laterals can also be l-less (vocalised/deleted) and in formal contexts, velarised. Contrastingly, the English coda laterals of the Chinese majority are typically l-less. Findings show that English coda laterals were overall more likely to be l-less than Malay laterals like their caregivers', but English coda laterals produced by children with close Chinese peer(s) were more likely to be l-less than those without. All children produced English coda clear-l, demonstrating the transmission of an ethnic marker that had emerged from long-term contact. In diverse settings, variation is intrinsic to the acquisition process, and input properties and language experience are important considerations in predicting language outcomes.

Variation in quality of maternal input and development of coda stops in English-speaking children in Singapore.

This study examines the effects of input quality on early phonological acquisition by investigating whether interadult variation in specific phonetic properties in the input is reflected in the production of their children. We analysed the English coda stop release patterns in the spontaneous speech of fourteen mothers and compared them with the spontaneous production of their preschool children. The analysis revealed a very strong positive input-production relationship; mothers who released coda stops to a lesser degree also had children who tended to not release their stops, and the same was true for mothers who released their stops to a higher degree. The findings suggest that young children are sensitive to acoustic properties that are subphonemic, and these properties are also reflected in their production, showing the importance of considering input quality when investigating child production.

Structural Determinants for Substrate Selectivity in Guanine Deaminase Enzymes of the Amidohydrolase Superfamily.

Guanine deaminase is a metabolic enzyme, found in all forms of life, which catalyzes the conversion of guanine to xanthine. Despite the availability of several crystal structures, the molecular determinants of substrate orientation and mechanism remain to be elucidated for the amidohydrolase family of guanine deaminase enzymes. Here, we report the crystal structures of Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae guanine deaminase enzymes (EcGuaD and Gud1, respectively), both members of the amidohydrolase superfamily. EcGuaD and Gud1 retain the overall TIM barrel tertiary structure conserved among amidohydrolase enzymes. Both proteins also possess a single zinc cation with trigonal bipyrimidal coordination geometry within their active sites. We also determined a liganded structure of Gud1 bound to the product, xanthine. Analysis of this structure, along with kinetic data of native and site-directed mutants of EcGuaD, identifies several key residues that are responsible for substrate recognition and catalysis. In addition, after a small library of compounds had been screened, two guanine derivatives, 8-azaguanine and 1-methylguanine, were identified as EcGuaD substrates. Interestingly, both EcGuaD and Gud1 also exhibit secondary ammeline deaminase activity. Overall, this work details key structural features of substrate recognition and catalysis of the amidohydrolase family of guanine deaminase enzymes in support of our long-term goal to engineer these enzymes with altered activity and substrate specificity.

Semantic Cues Modulate Children's and Adults' Processing of Audio-Visual Face Mask Speech.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, questions have been raised about the impact of face masks on communication in classroom settings. However, it is unclear to what extent visual obstruction of the speaker's mouth or changes to the acoustic signal lead to speech processing difficulties, and whether these effects can be mitigated by semantic predictability, i.e., the availability of contextual information. The present study investigated the acoustic and visual effects of face masks on speech intelligibility and processing speed under varying semantic predictability. Twenty-six children (aged 8-12) and twenty-six adults performed an internet-based cued shadowing task, in which they had to repeat aloud the last word of sentences presented in audio-visual format. The results showed that children and adults made more mistakes and responded more slowly when listening to face mask speech compared to speech produced without a face mask. Adults were only significantly affected by face mask speech when both the acoustic and the visual signal were degraded. While acoustic mask effects were similar for children, removal of visual speech cues through the face mask affected children to a lesser degree. However, high semantic predictability reduced audio-visual mask effects, leading to full compensation of the acoustically degraded mask speech in the adult group. Even though children did not fully compensate for face mask speech with high semantic predictability, overall, they still profited from semantic cues in all conditions. Therefore, in classroom settings, strategies that increase contextual information such as building on students' prior knowledge, using keywords, and providing visual aids, are likely to help overcome any adverse face mask effects.