Tag: pubmed

PLoS One. 2022 Apr 11;17(4):e0265071. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0265071. eCollection 2022.

ABSTRACT

In Ethiopia, soil degradation is one of the major causes of low and declining agricultural productivity. As a result of this challenge, the country has been battling to adopt conservation practices. The main objective of this study was to assess farmers’ adoption decisions of soil and water conservation (SWC) practices. For the survey, 304 farmers were selected from farming communities in Lege-Lafto Watershed, South Wollo,Ethiopia. Information were gathered using a household survey, and through focus group discussions, key informant interviews, and field observation. A binary logistic regression model and descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data. The results indicated that about 64% of the farmers adopted soil and water conservation practices in the study area. The findings depicted that soil bund, stone bund, stone-faced soil bund, loose stone and brush-wood check dams, hillside terrace, and bund stabilized with vegetation are practiced in the watershed. The analysis result revealed adoption of soil and water conservation practices is significantly and positively influenced by the perception of farmers on erosion problems and SWC practices, family labour, educational level, and membership in local institutions. However, distance from residence to the nearest market and farmland, off-farm activities, and the ratio of cultivable land to family size influenced the adoption of SWC practices negatively. Therefore, improving farmers’ educational status, and strengthening local institutions are vital for sustainable land management practices in the country.

PMID:35404967 | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0265071

PLoS One. 2022 Apr 11;17(4):e0266750. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0266750. eCollection 2022.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: Cardiovascular conditions were shown to be predictive of clinical deterioration in hospitalised patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Whether this also holds for outpatients managed in primary care is yet unknown. The aim of this study was to determine the incremental value of cardiovascular vulnerability in predicting the risk of hospital referral in primary care COVID-19 outpatients.

DESIGN: Analysis of anonymised routine care data extracted from electronic medical records from three large Dutch primary care registries.

SETTING: Primary care.

PARTICIPANTS: Consecutive adult patients seen in primary care for COVID-19 symptoms in the ‘first wave’ of COVID-19 infections (March 1 2020 to June 1 2020) and in the ‘second wave’ (June 1 2020 to April 15 2021) in the Netherlands.

OUTCOME MEASURES: A multivariable logistic regression model was fitted to predict hospital referral within 90 days after first COVID-19 consultation in primary care. Data from the ‘first wave’ was used for derivation (n = 5,475 patients). Age, sex, the interaction between age and sex, and the number of cardiovascular conditions and/or diabetes (0, 1, or ≥2) were pre-specified as candidate predictors. This full model was (i) compared to a simple model including only age and sex and its interaction, and (ii) externally validated in COVID-19 patients during the ‘second wave’ (n = 16,693).

RESULTS: The full model performed better than the simple model (likelihood ratio test p<0.001). Older male patients with multiple cardiovascular conditions and/or diabetes had the highest predicted risk of hospital referral, reaching risks above 15-20%, whereas on average this risk was 5.1%. The temporally validated c-statistic was 0.747 (95%CI 0.729-0.764) and the model showed good calibration upon validation.

CONCLUSIONS: For patients with COVID-19 symptoms managed in primary care, the risk of hospital referral was on average 5.1%. Older, male and cardiovascular vulnerable COVID-19 patients are more at risk for hospital referral.

PMID:35404964 | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0266750

PLoS One. 2022 Apr 11;17(4):e0266496. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0266496. eCollection 2022.

ABSTRACT

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most frequent cancers worldwide. Our aim was to evaluate the availability of results of interventional studies studying CRC. We searched the ClinicalTrials.gov registry for all interventional studies on CRC management in adults completed or terminated between 01/01/2013 and 01/01/2020. To identify results, we searched for results posted on the ClinicalTrials.gov registry and/or published in a full-text article. Our primary outcome was the proportion of CRC interventional studies with available results (i.e. posted on the ClinicalTrials.gov registry and/or published in a full-text article). Secondary outcomes were 1) median time between primary completion and earliest date of results availability, 2) the cumulative percentage of interventional studies with results available over time 3) the cumulative percentage of interventional studies with results posted on the ClinicalTrials.gov registry over time and 4) the percentage of results available in open access. We identified 763 eligible interventional studies in ClinicalTrials.gov, which included 679 198 patients. Of these, 286 (37%) trials, including 270 845 (40%) patients, did not have any results available. Median time for results availability was 32.6 months (IQ 16.1-unreached). The cumulative percentage of interventional studies with available results was 17% at 12 months, 39% at 24 months and 55% at 36 months. Results were more likely available for trials that were randomized, completed, had one trial site in the United States, and with mixed funding. The cumulative percentage of interventional studies with results posted on ClinicalTrials.gov was 2% at 12 months. Results were available in open access for 420 (420/477 = 88%) trials. Our results highlight an important waste in research for interventional studies studying CRC.

PMID:35404939 | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0266496

PLoS One. 2022 Apr 11;17(4):e0265609. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0265609. eCollection 2022.

ABSTRACT

We estimate the lifetime attributable risk (LAR) of lung cancer incidence in symptomatic Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) patients receiving enhanced Coronary Computed Tomography Angiography (CCTA) and the unenhanced Computed Tomography Calcium Scoring (CTCS) examination. Retrospective analysis has been made of CCTA and CTCS data collected for 87 confirmed CAD adult patients. Patient effective dose (E) and organ doses (ODs) were calculated using CT-EXPO. Statistical correlation and the differences between E and ODs in enhanced CCTA and unenhanced CTCS were calculated using the Pearson coefficient and Wilcoxon unpaired t-test. Following BEIR VII report guidance, organ-specific LARs for the cohort were estimated using the organ-equivalent dose-to-risk conversion factor for numbers of cases per 100,000 patients exposed to low doses of 0.1 Gy. Significant statistical difference (p<0.0001) is found between E obtained for CTCS and that of CCTA. The scan length was found to be greater in CCTA (17.5 ± 2.9 cm) compared to that for CTCS (15 ± 2 cm). More elevated values of dose were noted for the esophagus (4.2 ± 2.15 mSv) and thymus (9.6 ± 2.54 mSv) for both CTCS and CCTA. CTCS organ doses were lower than that of CCTA. Per 100,000 patients, female cumulative doses are seen to give rise to greater lung cancer LARs compared to that for males, albeit with risk varying significantly, noticeably greater for females, younger patients and combined CCTA and CTCS scans. While scan parameters and tube-modulation methods clearly contribute to patient dose, mAs offers by far the greater contribution.

PMID:35404962 | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0265609

PLoS Comput Biol. 2022 Apr 11;18(4):e1010004. doi: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1010004. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

We find that epidemic resurgence, defined as an upswing in the effective reproduction number (R) of the contagion from subcritical to supercritical values, is fundamentally difficult to detect in real time. Inherent latencies in pathogen transmission, coupled with smaller and intrinsically noisier case incidence across periods of subcritical spread, mean that resurgence cannot be reliably detected without significant delays of the order of the generation time of the disease, even when case reporting is perfect. In contrast, epidemic suppression (where R falls from supercritical to subcritical values) may be ascertained 5-10 times faster due to the naturally larger incidence at which control actions are generally applied. We prove that these innate limits on detecting resurgence only worsen when spatial or demographic heterogeneities are incorporated. Consequently, we argue that resurgence is more effectively handled proactively, potentially at the expense of false alarms. Timely responses to recrudescent infections or emerging variants of concern are more likely to be possible when policy is informed by a greater quality and diversity of surveillance data than by further optimisation of the statistical models used to process routine outbreak data.

PMID:35404936 | DOI:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1010004

PLoS Genet. 2022 Apr 11;18(4):e1010134. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1010134. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

The inference of positive selection in genomes is a problem of great interest in evolutionary genomics. By identifying putative regions of the genome that contain adaptive mutations, we are able to learn about the biology of organisms and their evolutionary history. Here we introduce a composite likelihood method that identifies recently completed or ongoing positive selection by searching for extreme distortions in the spatial distribution of the haplotype frequency spectrum along the genome relative to the genome-wide expectation taken as neutrality. Furthermore, the method simultaneously infers two parameters of the sweep: the number of sweeping haplotypes and the “width” of the sweep, which is related to the strength and timing of selection. We demonstrate that this method outperforms the leading haplotype-based selection statistics, though strong signals in low-recombination regions merit extra scrutiny. As a positive control, we apply it to two well-studied human populations from the 1000 Genomes Project and examine haplotype frequency spectrum patterns at the LCT and MHC loci. We also apply it to a data set of brown rats sampled in NYC and identify genes related to olfactory perception. To facilitate use of this method, we have implemented it in user-friendly open source software.

PMID:35404934 | DOI:10.1371/journal.pgen.1010134

PLoS One. 2022 Apr 11;17(4):e0261972. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0261972. eCollection 2022.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Tuberculosis is among the leading causes of death among infectious diseases. Regions with a high incidence of tuberculosis, such as sub-Saharan Africa, are disproportionately burdened by stillbirth and other pregnancy complications. Active tuberculosis increases the risk of pregnancy complications, but the association between latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) and pregnancy outcomes is unknown. We explored the effect of latent tuberculosis infection on the risk of stillbirth in women attending antenatal care clinics in Ethiopia, a country with >170 000 annual cases of active tuberculosis.

METHOD: Pregnant women were enrolled from antenatal care at three health facilities in Adama, Ethiopia, during 2015-2018, with assessment for previous and current active tuberculosis and testing for LTBI using QuantiFERON-TB-GOLD-PLUS. Proportions of stillbirth (≥ 20 weeks of gestation) and neonatal death (< 29 days of birth) were compared with respect to categories of maternal tuberculosis infection (tuberculosis-uninfected, LTBI, previous-, and current active tuberculosis). Multivariable logistic regression was performed for stillbirth.

RESULTS: Among 1463 participants enrolled, the median age was 25 years, 10.2% were HIV-positive, 34.6% were primigravidae, and the median gestational age at inclusion was 18 weeks. Four (0.3%) were diagnosed with active tuberculosis during pregnancy, 68 (4.6%) reported previous treatment for active tuberculosis, 470 (32.1%) had LTBI, and 921 (63.0%) were tuberculosis-uninfected. Stillbirth was more frequent in participants with LTBI compared to tuberculosis-uninfected participants, although not reaching statistical significance (19/470, 4.0% vs 25/921, 2.7%, adjusted [for age, gravidity and HIV serostatus] odds ratio 1.38, 95% confidence interval 0.73-2.57, p = 0.30). Rates of neonatal death (5/470, 1.1% vs 10/921, 1.1%) were similar between these categories.

CONCLUSION: Latent tuberculosis infection was not significantly associated with stillbirth or neonatal death in this cohort. Studies based on larger cohorts and with details on causes of stillbirth, as well as other pregnancy outcomes, are needed to further investigate this issue.

PMID:35404930 | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0261972

PLoS Comput Biol. 2022 Apr 11;18(4):e1010051. doi: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1010051. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Understanding of the pairing statistics in solutions populated by a large number of distinct solute species with mutual interactions is a challenging topic, relevant in modeling the complexity of real biological systems. Here we describe, both experimentally and theoretically, the formation of duplexes in a solution of random-sequence DNA (rsDNA) oligomers of length L = 8, 12, 20 nucleotides. rsDNA solutions are formed by 4L distinct molecular species, leading to a variety of pairing motifs that depend on sequence complementarity and range from strongly bound, fully paired defectless helices to weakly interacting mismatched duplexes. Experiments and theory coherently combine revealing a hybridization statistics characterized by a prevalence of partially defected duplexes, with a distribution of type and number of pairing errors that depends on temperature. We find that despite the enormous multitude of inter-strand interactions, defectless duplexes are formed, involving a fraction up to 15% of the rsDNA chains at the lowest temperatures. Experiments and theory are limited here to equilibrium conditions.

PMID:35404933 | DOI:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1010051

Gac Med Mex. 2022;158(1):3-10. doi: 10.24875/GMM.M22000633.

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION: The population living in conditions of poorness has a heavier pathological burden than social strata with better economic possibilities.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the influence of socioeconomic and demographic factors on COVID-19 morbidity, mortality and lethality in municipalities and states of Mexico.

METHODS: Morbidity, mortality and lethality associated with COVID-19 were analyzed according to the human development index and its indicators, and type of population. Descriptive statistical analyses, correlations between developmental variables and morbidity, mortality and lethality, association tests and hierarchical groupings were carried out.

RESULTS: Positive correlations were observed between morbidity and mortality and the human development index; COVID-19 fatality increased as the values of said index decreased. There was a significantly higher risk of elevated mortality in localities with moderate and low development, and in those with less than 49,999 inhabitants. The main factors associated with fatality were lack of access to health services, income vulnerability and social deprivation.

CONCLUSIONS: The evidence generated should lead to decisions aimed at improving the quality of life of the population with social deprivations and vulnerabilities, which needs to be protected against the consequences of current COVID-19 pandemic.

PMID:35404927 | DOI:10.24875/GMM.M22000633

Gac Med Mex. 2022;158(1):16-22. doi: 10.24875/GMM.M22000635.

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION: In the care of patients with medically unexplained physical symptoms (MUPS) it is important what they think about their symptoms.

OBJECTIVE: To validate the psychometric properties of a symptom attribution scale in patients with MUPS and to verify its reliability.

METHODS: A non-probabilistic sample of 400 male and female adult patients were interviewed in the outpatient services of a family medicine hospital, 200 with MUPS and 200 with a defined organic pathology. Each group was diagnosed with defined criteria, and a scale with content and construct validity was applied by means of principal component analysis with varimax rotation.

RESULTS: The scale was made up of 12 items with two factors, one of symptom psychosocial attribution and other with organic attribution. The psychosocial-origin factor showed a variance of 49.7%. The goodness-of-fit test demonstrated that the correlation matrix was adequate, and Bartlett’s sphericity test indicated statistical significance (p < 0.0001); Cronbach’s alpha was 0.841.

CONCLUSION: The scale showed acceptable construct validity and good reliability and stability. The implications of these results for future measurement research are discussed.

PMID:35404921 | DOI:10.24875/GMM.M22000635