Category: Nevin Manimala

Anal Chem. 2022 Apr 12. doi: 10.1021/acs.analchem.1c05224. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Preprocessing of liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) raw data facilitates downstream statistical and biological data analyses. In the case of targeted LC-MS data, consistent recognition of chromatographic peaks is a main challenge, in particular, for low abundant signals. Fully automatic preprocessing is faster than manual peak review and does not depend on the individual operator. Here, we present the R package automRm for fully automatic preprocessing of LC-MS data recorded in MRM mode. Using machine learning (ML) for detection of chromatographic peaks and quality control of reported results enables the automatic recognition of complex patterns in raw data. In addition, this approach renders automRm generally applicable to a wide range of analytical methods including hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC), which is known for sample-to-sample variations in peak shape and retention time. We demonstrate the impact of the choice of training data set, of the applied ML algorithm, and of individual peak characteristics on automRm’s ability to correctly report chromatographic peaks. Next, we show that automRm can replicate results obtained by manual peak review on published data. Moreover, automRm outperforms alternative software solutions regarding the variation in peak integration among replicate measurements and the number of correctly reported peaks when applied to a HILIC-MS data set. The R package is freely available from gitlab (https://gitlab.gwdg.de/joerg.buescher/automrm).

PMID:35412809 | DOI:10.1021/acs.analchem.1c05224

Phytother Res. 2022 Apr 12. doi: 10.1002/ptr.7410. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Previous studies on the effect of Brassica vegetables on blood glucose and lipid profile have reported inconclusive findings. Due to the high prevalence of glucose and lipid metabolism disorders and their importance as predictors of chronic diseases, the present meta-analysis was performed to clarify the effect of Brassica vegetables on blood glucose and lipid profile. A systematic search of the databases of PubMed, Scopus, and Cochran Library was performed up to October 2020. All randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that examined the effect of Brassica vegetables on blood glucose and lipid profile were included in the study. The search results were limited to English-language publications. Finally, nine RCTs, including 548 participants, were selected for the present study. Pooled analysis indicated a significant reduction in total cholesterol (TC) (SMD = -0.28, 95%CI: 0.48 to 0.08; p = 0.005) following Brassica vegetables consumption. Overall, Brassica vegetables had no significant impact on serum levels of triglycerides, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, fasting blood sugar, and glycated hemoglobin. Consumption of Brassica vegetables had a statistically significant effect on TC concentration. However, further high-quality studies are needed to firmly establish the clinical efficacy of these plants.

PMID:35412701 | DOI:10.1002/ptr.7410

Support Care Cancer. 2022 Apr 12. doi: 10.1007/s00520-022-07039-w. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: The study aimed to develop a web-based education program among cancer patients undergoing treatment with systemic chemotherapy and to evaluate the efficacy of the program on symptom control, quality of life, self-efficacy, and depression.

METHODS: A web-based education program was prepared in line with patient needs, evidence-based guidelines, and expert opinions and tested with 10 cancer patients. The single-blind, randomized controlled study was conducted at a medical oncology unit of a university hospital. Pretests were applied to 60 cancer patients undergoing treatment with systemic chemotherapy, and the patients (intervention: 30, control: 30) were randomized. The intervention group used a web-based education program for 3 months, and they were allowed to communicate with researchers 24/7 via the website. The efficacy of a web-based education program at baseline and after 12 weeks was evaluated. The CONSORT 2010 guideline was performed.

RESULTS: In the first phase results of the study, it was found that most of the patients with cancer wanted to receive education about symptom management and the side effects of the treatment. Expert opinions on the developed website were found to be compatible with each other (Kendall’s Wa = 0.233, p = 0.008). According to the randomized controlled study results, patients who received web-based education reported significantly fewer symptoms (p = 0.026) and better quality of life (p = 0.001), but there was no statistically significant difference in the self-efficacy and depression levels during the 3-month follow-up period (p˃0.05). The most frequently visited links in the web-based education program by the patients with cancer were the management of chemotherapy-related symptoms (62.6%).

CONCLUSION: A web-based education program was found to be efficacy in remote symptom management and improving the quality of life of cancer patients.

TRIAL REGISTRATION: www.

CLINICALTRIALS: gov , NCT05076916 (October 12, 2021, retrospectively registered).

PMID:35412076 | DOI:10.1007/s00520-022-07039-w

Support Care Cancer. 2022 Apr 12. doi: 10.1007/s00520-022-07049-8. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: This study examines the body image distress among patients with head and neck cancer (HNC) visiting a tertiary care hospital for follow-ups.

DESIGN: A cross-sectional survey purposively enrolled 170 head and neck cancer (HNC) patients who had undergone cancer surgery at a newly established tertiary care hospital, North India.

METHODS: A structured pre-tested socio-demographic and clinical profile checklist and the Derriford Appearance Scale-24 (DAS-24) were used to collect information. An appropriate descriptive and inferential statistic was applied to compute the findings.

RESULTS: The median age of the participants was 46.0 years, and 80% of the participants were unemployed. The mean body image distress score was 57.95 (SD = 10.3, 47-66.75, range 42-77). The body image distress shows a significant association with age (p < .001), gender (p = 0.003), and working status (p = 0.032) of the HNC patients. Multilinear regression reported gender as an independent predictor (95% CI: 0.615-8.646, p = 0.025) for body image distress in HNC patients.

CONCLUSIONS: HNC patients reported substantial body image distress due to changes in body appearance. Female patients who had undergone surgery at young age reported higher body image distress. Recommending cosmetic surgery and nurse-led psychosocial nursing intervention on routine follow-ups are other potential strategies to improve facial appearance to overcome the negative impact of body image.

PMID:35412075 | DOI:10.1007/s00520-022-07049-8

World J Surg. 2022 Apr 12. doi: 10.1007/s00268-022-06530-z. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: A majority of the 2 billion children lacking access to safe, timely and affordable surgical care reside in low-and middle-income countries. A barrier to tackling this issue is the paucity of information regarding children’s journey to surgical care. We aimed to explore children’s journeys and its implications on accessing general paediatric surgical care at Muhimbili National Hospital (MNH), a tertiary centre in Tanzania.

METHODS: A prospective observational cohort study was undertaken at MNH, recruiting patients undergoing elective and emergency surgeries. Data on socio-demographic, clinical, symptoms onset and 30-days post-operative were collected. Descriptive statistics and Mann-Whitney, Kruskal-Wallis and Fisher’s exact tests were used for data analysis.

RESULT: We recruited 154 children with a median age of 36 months. The majority were referred from regional hospitals due to a lack of paediatric surgery expertise. The time taken to seeking care was significantly greater in those who self-referred (p = 0.0186). Of these participants, 68.4 and 31.1% were able to reach a referring health facility and MNH, respectively, within 2 h of deciding to seek care. Overall insurance coverage was 75.32%. The median out of pocket expenditure for receiving care was $69.00. The incidence of surgical site infection was 10.2%, and only 2 patients died.

CONCLUSION: Although there have been significant efforts to improve access to safe, timely and affordable surgical care, there is still a need to strengthen children’s surgical care system. Investing in regional hospitals may be an effective approach to improve access to children surgical care.

PMID:35412059 | DOI:10.1007/s00268-022-06530-z

Wien Klin Wochenschr. 2022 Apr 12. doi: 10.1007/s00508-022-02013-2. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: This study aims to investigate the impact of the lockdowns during the COVID-19 (Corona-Virus-Disease 19) pandemic in Austria on work-related accidents in the year 2020. Apart from the lockdowns, multiple work-related measures were introduced in 2020, such as the new law on short-term work and regulation on accidents during home-office. Their combined effects on work-related accidents are unknown and a secondary parameter of this study.

METHODS: Daily data on the number of accepted and rejected cases of work-related accidents from the Allgemeine Unfallversicherungsanstalt were obtained for the years 2019 and 2020. Based on data provided by the World Health Organization and government publications, the beginning and end dates of national hard and soft lockdown periods were derived. From this database, a difference-in-differences regression analysis on the absolute number of daily work-related accidents was conducted.

RESULTS: On average 272.3 work-related accidents per day were registered in 2019 and 199.4 in 2020, a statistically significant reduction of 72.9 accidents per day and total decrease of 26,164 less accidents compared to 2019. Both lockdowns had a statistically highly significant effect on work-related accidents: The hard lockdown reduced the average number of daily registered work-related accidents by 40%. The light lockdown phases reduced this number by an average of 51%. Weekends and holidays had the greatest impact on work-related accidents with a reduction of 69% and 73%, respectively.

CONCLUSION: Both lockdown qualities during the COVID-19 pandemic in Austria led to a significant reduction in work-related accidents for their duration. These findings merit further investigation with more detailed data on sectors and injury-quality.

PMID:35412051 | DOI:10.1007/s00508-022-02013-2

ANZ J Surg. 2022 Apr 12. doi: 10.1111/ans.17689. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Obesity is associated with the development of knee osteoarthritis (OA). The aim of this study was to examine the incidence of obesity in patients undergoing knee replacement (KR) for OA in Australia compared to the incidence of obesity in the general population.

METHODS: A cohort study was conducted, comparing data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) 2017-2018 National Health Survey with data from the National Joint Replacement Registry. The distribution of patients who underwent KR from July 2017 to June 2018 by BMI category was compared to the distribution of the general population, in age and gender sub-groups.

RESULTS: During the study period, 35.6% of Australian adults were overweight and 31.3% were obese. Of the 56 217 patients who underwent primary KR for OA, 31.9% were overweight and 57.7% were obese. The relative risk of undergoing KR for OA increased with increasing BMI category. Class 1, 2 and 3 obese females aged 55-64 years were 4.7, 8.4 and 17.3 times more likely to undergo KR than their normal weight counterparts, respectively. Males in the same age and BMI categories were 3.4, 4.5 and 5.8 times more likely to undergo KR, respectively. Class 3 obese patients underwent KR 7 years younger, on average, than normal weight individuals.

CONCLUSION: Obesity is associated with an increased risk of undergoing KR, and at a younger age, particularly for females. There is an urgent need for a societal level approach to address the prevalence of obesity, to reduce the burden of obesity related KR.

PMID:35412005 | DOI:10.1111/ans.17689

Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken). 2022 Apr 12. doi: 10.1002/acr.24894. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: Little is known regarding the reactogenicity and related SARS-CoV-2 vaccine response in patients with chronic inflammatory disease (CID). Our objective was to characterize the adverse event (AE) profile of CID patients following SARS-CoV-2 vaccination and understand the relationship between reactogenicity and immunogenicity of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines.

METHODS: CID patients and healthy controls eligible to receive mRNA SARS-CoV-2 vaccines participated in 3 study visits (pre-vaccine, after dose 1, after dose 2) where blood and clinical data were collected. Assessment of AEs were solicited within 7 days of receiving each dose. Serum anti-SARS-CoV-2 spike IgG⁺ antibody titers were quantified following vaccination. Statistical analysis was performed utilizing mixed models and tobit regressions, adjusting for covariates.

RESULTS: 441 participants (322 CID patients and 119 controls) were included. Compared to controls, CID patients reported greater symptom severity after dose 1 (p=0.0001), including more myalgia and fatigue (p<0.05). For immunogenicity, a higher symptom severity after dose 1 and higher number of symptoms after dose 2 was associated with higher antibody titers (p<0.05). Each increase of one symptom was associated with 15.1% increase in antibody titer. Symptom association was strongest with site pain after dose 1 (105%, p=0.03) and fatigue after dose 2 (113%, p=0.004).

CONCLUSIONS: CID patients have a distinct reactogenicity profile following SARS-CoV-2 vaccination compared to controls. Furthermore, there is an association between increased reactogenicity and increased vaccine response. This finding may speak to the more variable immunogenicity in CID patients and may be an important indicator of vaccine response to the novel SARS-CoV-2 vaccines.

PMID:35412029 | DOI:10.1002/acr.24894

Microsc Res Tech. 2022 Apr 12. doi: 10.1002/jemt.24118. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Pollen grains of 58 wetland species of angiosperms belonging to 17 families, growing in different wetlands of Sub-Himalayan biodiversity hotspots, Northern Bengal and lower Gangetic plains, India were investigated during a 4-year span of 2015-2019. Freshly collected anthers were processed through the acetolysis method and the obtained pollen grains were accurately studied under LM and SEM and properly photographed. Different attributes viz. shape, size, aperture type and exine ornamentation of pollen grains served as consistent features were used for authentic identification of the studied species. To study the phylogeny of pollen grains, characters like polarity, symmetry, aperture and exine sculpturing were found most significant for species segregation. Investigated pollen grains were mostly prolate-spheroidal, spheroidal or triangular, rarely prolate or elongated, exine psilate, granulate, reticulate or microechinate type. Most of the observable aperture of pollen grains of studied species were colporate, colpate and porate, while ulcerate and inaperturate grains were also observed in the studied aquatic members of the families Cyperaceae and Potamogetonaceae. All the gathered data were further statistically analyzed through ANOVA, PCA and Pearson Correlation Matrix to understand the interrelationship among the species. The permanent slides of identified pollen grains were deposited at the herbarium of North Bengal University [NBU] for future references.

PMID:35411986 | DOI:10.1002/jemt.24118

Cogn Sci. 2022 Apr;46(4):e13124. doi: 10.1111/cogs.13124.

ABSTRACT

Chunking mechanisms are central to several cognitive processes and notably to the acquisition of visuo-motor sequences. Individuals segment sequences into chunks of items to perform visuo-motor tasks more fluidly, rapidly, and accurately. However, the exact dynamics of chunking processes in the case of extended practice remain unclear. Using an operant conditioning device, 18 Guinea baboons (Papio papio) produced a fixed sequence of nine movements during 1000 trials by pointing to a moving target on a touch screen. Response times analyses revealed a specific chunking pattern of the sequence for each baboon. More importantly, we found that these patterns evolved during the course of the experiment, with chunks becoming progressively fewer and longer. We identified two chunk reorganization mechanisms: the recombination of preexisting chunks and the concatenation of two distinct chunks into a single one. These results provide new evidence on chunking mechanisms in sequence learning and challenge current models of associative and statistical learning.

PMID:35411975 | DOI:10.1111/cogs.13124