Machine learning models for abstract screening task - A systematic literature review application for health economics and outcome research.

OBJECTIVE: Systematic literature reviews (SLRs) are critical for life-science research. However, the manual selection and retrieval of relevant publications can be a time-consuming process. This study aims to (1) develop two disease-specific annotated corpora, one for human papillomavirus (HPV) associated diseases and the other for pneumococcal-associated pediatric diseases (PAPD), and (2) optimize machine- and deep-learning models to facilitate automation of the SLR abstract screening. METHODS: This study constructed two disease-specific SLR screening corpora for HPV and PAPD, which contained citation metadata and corresponding abstracts. Performance was evaluated using precision, recall, accuracy, and F1-score of multiple combinations of machine- and deep-learning algorithms and features such as keywords and MeSH terms. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: The HPV corpus contained 1697 entries, with 538 relevant and 1159 irrelevant articles. The PAPD corpus included 2865 entries, with 711 relevant and 2154 irrelevant articles. Adding additional features beyond title and abstract improved the performance (measured in Accuracy) of machine learning models by 3% for HPV corpus and 2% for PAPD corpus. Transformer-based deep learning models that consistently outperformed conventional machine learning algorithms, highlighting the strength of domain-specific pre-trained language models for SLR abstract screening. This study provides a foundation for the development of more intelligent SLR systems.

Inequality in urban green space benefits: Combining street greenery and park greenery.

In this paper, we measured the amount of urban green space (UGS), defined here as park greenery and street greenery, in the Guangzhou Beltway region using remote sensing image data and the green view index (GVI) based on human visual images. We also evaluated the benefits of UGS comprehensively considering park greenery and street greenery within the Guangzhou Beltway region. We then calculated the urban green space score (UGSS) by assessing the amount of street greenery and park greenery and then juxtaposing the score with the population distribution of the region. The results show inequities in the spatial distribution of UGSS values within the Guangzhou Beltway region. The benefit score of street greenery is low. The service area of parks can't cover the whole study area. The comprehensive benefit score of UGS is composed of two parts, the park greenery score and the street greenery score, but the spatial distribution of UGSS values remains uneven. The UGS benefits enjoyed by one-half of the population of the study area are low, and the UGSS values of the more densely populated areas are not high.

Review and Quality Assessment of Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses on the Management of Pediatric Inguinal Hernias: A Descriptive Study.

INTRODUCTION: Research quality in pediatric surgery has been challenged by multiple factors, including the low incidence of some congenital pathologies and rare event rates. With the rapid increase of pediatric surgical literature, there is a need for systematic reviews to synthesize evidence. It is important to assess the quality of these systematic reviews. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to examine the reporting of systematic reviews and meta-analyses, using inguinal hernia repair as an index diagnosis. METHODS: MEDLINE, Embase, and CINAHL databases were searched for systematic reviews and/or meta-analyses of interventions on inguinal hernia in the pediatric population. The quality reporting was assessed using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) and A MeaSurement Tool to Assess Systematic Reviews (AMSTAR) 2 tools. RESULTS: Of 1449 unique reports, 21 studies were included (15 meta-analyses and six systematic reviews). Median percent reported items for PRISMA and AMSTAR 2 were 72.2% and 70.5%, respectively. The least reported items in PRISMA were protocol registration (27.6%), synthesis of results (13.0%), and a risk of bias across studies (20.6%). For AMSTAR 2, the least reported items were reporting of source of funding (14.3%), appropriate methods for statistical combination of results (25.0%), and pre-establishment of protocol (28.6%). All critical items were completely or partially fulfilled in 5/21 (23.8%) of the studies and completely absent in 1/21 (4.8%) studies. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study highlight relatively good reporting quality, yet a poor methodological quality of systematic reviews/meta-analyses in the pediatric surgery literature on inguinal hernia management.

American Board of Orthodontics (ABO) Discrepancy Index and peer assessment rating (PAR) index with models versus photographs.

BACKGROUND: The objectives of this study were to determine whether rating systems, such as the Peer Assessment Rating (PAR) and the American Board of Orthodontics Objective Grading System (ABO-OGS) can be applied to intraoral photographs. METHODS: Models and photographs of 50 cases were graded by 4 raters, and a 20% repeat of randomized cases was completed 2 weeks later. Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) were used to assess inter- and intra-rater agreements, as well as the level of agreement between the ratings on models and photographs. RESULTS: The intra- and inter-rater agreements were considered good to excellent. The paired mean difference (model minus photo) for the PAR index and the ABO Discrepancy Index as a total was 2.405 and 1.156, respectively. Overjet was the subdomain that produced the highest differences between photos and models. The ABO- Discrepancy Index method on photographs was more reliable than the PAR index when grading pre-treatment and more-severe malocclusions. CONCLUSIONS: Both methods can be used, but the choice depends on the purpose of the evaluation, and on consideration of the weaknesses and strengths of each relating to its use on photographs.

The prediction of fluctuation in the order-driven financial market.

Risk prediction is one of the important issues that draws much attention from academia and industry. And the fluctuation-absolute value of the change of price, is one of the indexes of risk. In this paper, we focus on the relationship between fluctuation and order volume. Based on the observation that the price would move when the volume of order changes, the prediction of price fluctuation can be converted into the prediction of order volume. Modelling the trader's behaviours-order placement and order cancellation, we propose an order-based fluctuation prediction model. And our model outperforms better than baseline in OKCoin and BTC-e datasets.

Mapping the literature of health care management: an update.

OBJECTIVE: This study aims to identify the core journals cited in the health care management literature and to determine their coverage in the foremost bibliographic databases used by the discipline. METHODS: Using the methodology outlined by the Medical Library Association's Nursing and Allied Health Resource Section (NAHRS) protocol for "Mapping the Literature of Nursing and Allied Health Professions," this study updates an earlier study published in 2007. Cited references from articles published in a three-year range (2016-2018) were collected from five health care management journals. Using Bradford's Law of Scattering, cited journal titles were tabulated and ranked according to the number of times cited. Eleven databases were used to determine coverage of the most highly cited journal titles for all source journals, as well as for a subset of practitioner-oriented journals. RESULTS: The most highly cited sources were journals, followed by government documents, Internet resources, books, and miscellaneous resources. The databases with the most complete coverage of Zone 1 and 2 were Scopus, Web of Science Core Collection, and PubMed, while the worst performing databases were Health Business Elite, ABI/Inform, and Business Source Complete. CONCLUSIONS: The literature of health care management has expanded rapidly in the last decade, with cumulative citations increasing by 76.6% and the number of cited journal titles increasing by nearly 70% since the original study. Coverage of the core journals in popular databases remains high, although specialized health care management and business databases did not perform as well as general or biomedical databases.

Health research funding and its output in Pakistan

Background:Health research is very important for formulating evidence-based policies.Aims:To assess the health research funding and its output in the last 5 fiscal years (2013/14 to 2018) in Pakistan.Methods:Information about health research funding was retrieved from 3 major local agencies, the Higher Education Commission, the Pakistan Science Foundation and the Pakistan Health Research Council. Details of funding from international donors were retrieved and the number of publications was estimated from Pubmed and Pakmedinet.Results:A total of 1261.6 million Pakistan rupees (Rs) (US$ 8.4 million) was spent on health research in the last 5 fiscal years, the majority from local donors (P < 0.02). Overall funding increased from Rs 104.7 million in 2013–2014 to Rs 349.8 million 2017–2018. In publications data, 24 796 original articles were published, including 16 137 Medline and 8659 non-Medline indexed. Overall there was a gradual increase in the number of publications per year, statistically significant for Medline indexed journals. Research funding had a strong correlation (Cronbach α=0.88) with publications.Conclusion:Health research funding directly affects health research output. The funding on health research should be considered an investment rather than expenditure.

Pindex: Private multi-linked index for encrypted document retrieval.

Cryptographic cloud storage is used to make optimal use of the cloud storage infrastructure to outsource sensitive and mission-critical data. The continuous growth of encrypted data outsourced to cloud storage requires continuous updating. Attacks like file-injection are reported to compromise confidentiality of the user as a consequence of information leakage during update. It is required that dynamic schemes provide forward privacy guarantees. Updates should not leak information to the untrusted server regarding the previously issued queries. Therefore, the challenge is to design an efficient searchable encryption scheme with dynamic updates and forward privacy guarantees. In this paper, a novel private multi-linked dynamic index for encrypted document retrieval namely Pindex is proposed. The multi-linked dynamic index is constructed using probabilistic homomorphic encryption mechanism and secret orthogonal vectors. Full security proofs for correctness and forward privacy in the random oracle model is provided. Experiments on real world Enron dataset demonstrates that our construction is practical and efficient. The security and performance analysis of Pindex shows that the dynamic multi-linked index guarantees forward privacy without significant loss of efficiency.

The Salzmann Index and discrepancy index correlation: Determining a threshold discrepancy index score for Medicaid approval.

INTRODUCTION: This study aimed to compare patients' Salzmann Index scores for those who applied for Medicaid orthodontic coverage in Pennsylvania with their corresponding American Board of Orthodontics discrepancy index (DI) scores to assess if there is a correlation between Salzmann and DI scores. In addition, a threshold DI score was calculated that would correspond to Medicaid coverage approval. The study intended to answer the following questions: is there a correlation of 0.7 or greater between a patient's Salzmann Index and their DI? If so, is there a particular DI score that can be used as the minimum score for approving Medicaid orthodontic coverage in the state of Pennsylvania? METHODS: Salzmann Index scores, DI scores, and approval and disapproval results for Medicaid orthodontic coverage were obtained from 104 subjects aged between 10 and 17 years. A linear regression model was generated to assess if there was a correlation between the Salzmann scores and DI scores. If a correlation coefficient of 0.7 or greater were found, a threshold Salzmann Index score would be determined for subjects who were approved for Medicaid orthodontic coverage. The threshold Salzmann score would be used in the linear regression formula to find the corresponding DI score, which would be designated as the threshold DI score for approval for Medicaid orthodontic coverage in the state of Pennsylvania. RESULTS: A Pearson correlation of 0.453 was calculated between the 104 Salzmann scores and DI scores, demonstrating a moderate correlation. With the correlation coefficient being lower than 0.7, binary logistic regressions were calculated to assess the predictability between a given Salzmann score and approval and disapproval for Medicaid orthodontic coverage. The Salzmann score had an overall 68.3% success in predicting Medicaid orthodontic coverage approval/disapproval. Of the 58 subjects that were approved for Medicaid orthodontic coverage, 46.6% had Salzmann scores equal to or greater than 25. Of the 46 subjects that were disapproved for Medicaid orthodontic coverage, 78.3% had Salzmann scores equal to or less than 24. CONCLUSIONS: With the lack of high prediction rates seen from the results of the regression models, the current system of Medicaid does not appear to show consistency for assessing the need for orthodontic treatment coverage. Multiple insurance companies that participate under Medicaid require a Salzmann score of 25 or greater for approval; however, the results show the Salzmann score is arbitrary in terms of approval and disapproval. There appear to be underlying factors apart from the Salzmann score that the Pennsylvania Medicaid system uses to justify whether a patient was approved or denied for coverage.

Analysis of carbon emission performance and regional differences in China's eight economic regions: Based on the super-efficiency SBM model and the Theil index.

China's carbon emission performance has significant regional heterogeneity. Identified the sources of carbon emission performance differences and the influence of various driving factors in China's eight economic regions accurately is the premise for realizing China's carbon emission reduction goals. Based on the provincial panel data from 2005 to 2017, the super-efficiency SBM model and Malmquist model are constructed in this paper to measure regional carbon emission performance's static and dynamic changes. After that, the Theil index is used to distinguish the impact of inter-regional and intra-regional differences on different regions' carbon emissions performance. Finally, by introducing the Tobit model, the effect of various driving factors on carbon emission performance differences is analyzed quantitatively. The results show that: (1) There are significant differences in different regions' carbon emission performance, but the overall carbon emission performance presents an upward fluctuation trend. Malmquist index decomposition results show substantial differences in technology progress index and technology efficiency index in different regions, leading to significant carbon emission performance differences. (2) Overall, inter-regional differences contribute the most to the overall carbon emission performance, up to more than 80%. Among them, the inter-regional and intra-regional differences in ERMRYR contributed significantly. (3) Through Tobit regression analysis, it is found that residents' living standards, urbanization level, ecological development degree, and industrial structure positively affect carbon emission performance. On the contrary, energy intensity presents an apparent negative correlation on carbon emission performance. Therefore, to improve the carbon emission performance, we should put forward targeted suggestions according to the characteristics of different regional development stages, regional carbon emission differences, and influencing driving factors.

Index tracking strategy based on mixed-frequency financial data.

To obtain market average return, investment managers need to construct index tracking portfolio to replicate target index. Currently, most literatures use financial data that has homogenous frequency when constructing the index tracking portfolio. To make up for this limitation, we propose a methodology based on mixed-frequency financial data, called FACTOR-MIDAS-POET model. The proposed model can utilize the intraday return data, daily risk factors data and monthly or quarterly macro economy data, simultaneously. Meanwhile, the out-of-sample analysis demonstrates that our model can improve the tracking accuracy.

A Review of UK-based National and International Scientific Meeting Published Abstracts in Response to the Draft NICE Aortic Aneurysm Guidelines.

BACKGROUND: UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) draft clinical guidelines (CG) (2018) regarding aortic aneurysm repair were disputed internationally. We aim to appraise the academic response to the draft CG in terms of quantity and scientific quality by reviewing published conference abstracts from three major national and international, UK meetings. METHODS: Abstracts related to aortic practice from The Vascular Societies Annual Scientific Meeting, British Society for Endovascular Therapy (BSET) & Charing Cross (CX) meetings from 2019 were reviewed for methodology, sample size, data collection period, scientific quality and conclusions that supported or conflicted the draft guideline. RESULTS: A total of 549 abstracts were identified from VSGBI, BSET and CX abstract books of which, 226 (41.2%) were related to aortic practices. Of these, 115 (50.9%) were related to EVAR. Twenty-two of these abstracts (19.1%) were identified as having findings relevant to the draft guidelines. Eighteen (15.7%) were identified as findings that potentially conflict the draft CG and 4 (3.5%) that could support the initial recommendations. Six abstracts (5.2%) made direct reference to or challenged the draft CG. The median data collection period was 4 years. The median sample size was 102 patients. In general, scientific quality was poor, with 82% of selected abstracts were graded at level 2b. CONCLUSION: We have demonstrated a concerted response to the draft NICE clinical guidelines relating to the treatment of abdominal aortic aneurysms at three large scientific meetings. As a result of which and other factors, significant changes were made to the finalized NG156. There is still paucity in evidence regarding the long-term safety and cost-effectiveness of EVAR.

From Presentation to Publication: Where did Abstracts at the 2017 Academic Surgical Congress End up? A Three-Year Analysis.

INTRODUCTION: Medical school and residency programs encourage increased research, and thousands of abstracts are submitted to conferences annually. This study sought to determine the rate of publication of oral presentations from the 2017 Academic Surgical Congress (ASC) and assess factors that influence the likelihood of publication. METHODS: Abstracts selected for oral, plenary, and QuickShot presentations at the 2017 ASC were evaluated for publication status. Publication status, including date of publication and journal title, the academic rank of first and senior authors, and the type of study were collected. Senior author funding status, as well as source and amount of funding, were cataloged. These variables were noted at 16 mo and then later at 34 mo after the conference. RESULTS: Of the 360 oral and plenary presentations, 41.4% (n = 149) and 70.5% were published at 16 and then 34 mo, respectively. At 16 mo, Basic science, Clinical outcomes, and Education had publication rates of 31.7%, 51.1%, and 57.7%. At 34 mo, they were 76.1%, 69.1%, and 60.06%. QuickShot presentations had a publication rate of 17%, 69%, and 14% for Basic Science, Clinical Outcomes, and Education, respectively. At 16 mo, abstracts with senior authors with an academic rank of Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, and Professor had publication rates of 43.3% (22), 49.4% (39), and 41.8% (37), respectively (P = 0.697). At 34 mo, publication rates for senior authors was 21.8% (53), 32.9% (80), and 45.2% (110) for Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, and Professor, respectively (P= < 0.01). Quick shot presentations had publication rates of 14%, 26%, and 49% for Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, and Professor, respectively. 191 (53.2%) senior authors had funding, of which 125 (66.8%) were from the National Institute of Health. 61% of abstracts with a funded senior author went on to be published, whereas 38.9% of abstracts with an unfunded senior author were published. The presence of funding continued to have a positive association with publication (P < 0.01 versus P < 0.01) at 16 and 34 mo postconference. In QuickShot presentations, 88% of abstracts with a funded senior author went on to be published. Of Quick shot presentations without funding, 100% were published. CONCLUSIONS: There was an increase in publication rate from 16 to 34 mo after the 2017 ASC conference for oral presentations. At longer follow-up, the academic rank of the senior author and the funded abstracts were associated with abstracts achieving publication, whereas the academic rank of the first author, presentation type, and funding source was not. Funding was significantly associated with the Presentation Type at the conference and the Journal Impact Factor of the manuscript, whereas abstract type was not. QuickShot presentations did not fare as well regarding publication status; at approximately 3 y, the publication rate was 43%.

Relatório final do projeto indexação da produção em saúde do Ipea à base de dados Literatura Latino-Americana e do Caribe em Ciências da Saúde

O projeto Indexação da produção em saúde do Ipea à base de dados Literatura Latino-Americana e do Caribe em Ciências da Saúde (Lilacs) foi proposto com os seguintes objetivos: i) indexar os documentos publicados pelo Ipea que podem ser enquadrados na área de conhecimento das ciências da saúde à base de dados Lilacs; ii) ampliar a disseminação da informação em saúde produzida pelo instituto; e iii) possibilitar que o conhecimento produzido nesta área seja mais conhecido e utilizado na formulação, implementação e análise de políticas públicas, assim como no debate setorial sobre os desafios do desenvolvimento social brasileiro no mesmo âmbito.

Poster Abstracts - Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy Nexus 2020.

The AMCP NEXUS 2020 VIRTUAL will be held online the week of October 19, 2020. The AMCP abstracts program provides a forum through which authors can share their insights and outcomes of advanced managed care practice. For NEXUS 2020 VIRTUAL, abstract posters are scheduled to be presented Wednesday, October 21, from 1:00 pm EDT to 2:30 pm EDT. At that time, poster presenters will be available for live chats and will also share additional information about their research at https://plan.core-apps.com/amcp2020. Professional abstracts that have been reviewed are published in the Journal of Managed Care & Specialty Pharmacy's (JMCP) Poster Abstracts supplement.

National Institutes of Health Research Plan on Rehabilitation: Analysis and Progress.

OBJECTIVE: To summarize the progress toward the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Research Plan on Rehabilitation goals and the methods by which tracking occurred. DESIGN: Each grant award was manually coded by NIH staff for research plan goals, type of science categories (eg, basic, applied, infrastructure, etc), and if applicable, training, and then validated by NIH institute and center (IC) experts. Data for years 2015 through 2017 were used to develop a coding algorithm to automatically code grants in 2018 for validation by NIH IC experts. Additional data for all years (2015-2018) were also analyzed to track changes and progress. SETTING: The research utilized administrative data from NIH Reporter and internal NIH databases. PARTICIPANTS: The data sample included research grants and programs funded from fiscal years 2015 through 2018. The year 2015 was considered a baseline year as the research plan was published in 2016. INTERVENTIONS: Not applicable. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The primary outcome measures were substantial growth in NIH funding and numbers of awards for rehabilitation research, across most research plan goals and types of science, as well as validation of an automatic algorithm for coding grants. RESULTS: Number of grants, funding dollars, funding mechanisms, patent data, scientific influence and translational science, research plan goals, and type of science categories were tracked across years (2015-2018). Algorithm validation is presented for 2018 data. CONCLUSIONS: NIH advanced the goals stated in the Research Plan on Rehabilitation, but gap areas remain. Though funding in this portfolio is growing, continued focus and participation by the field is needed to advance rehabilitation science.