Tag: pubmed

Am J Public Health. 2025 May;115(5):673-677. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2025.308031.

NO ABSTRACT

PMID:40203261 | DOI:10.2105/AJPH.2025.308031

Am J Public Health. 2025 May;115(5):689-692. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2025.308009.

ABSTRACT

Increasing numbers of individuals experiencing unsheltered homelessness and substance use disorder are living in tent encampments in cities across the United States. In response, the City of Boston, Massachusetts employed a public health approach comprising four implementation components: centralized leadership with cross-agency collaboration, creation of low-threshold spaces, person-centered engagement, and stakeholder-driven long-term planning. These steps led to the equitable transition of unsheltered individuals into harm reduction spaces and formed the foundation for future planning and encampment response in the city. (Am J Public Health. 2025;115(5):689-692. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2025.308009).

PMID:40203250 | DOI:10.2105/AJPH.2025.308009

Annu Rev Biomed Data Sci. 2025 Apr 9. doi: 10.1146/annurev-biodatasci-103123-095750. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

The increasing accumulation of medical data brings the hope of data-driven medical decision-making, but data’s increasing complexity-as text or images in electronic health records-calls for complex models, such as machine learning. Here, we review how machine learning can be used to inform decisions for individualized interventions, a causal question. Going from prediction to causal effects is challenging, as no individual is seen as both treated and not. We detail how some data can support some causal claims and how to build causal estimators with machine learning. Beyond variable selection to adjust for confounding bias, we cover the broader notions of study design that make or break causal inference. As the problems span across diverse scientific communities, we use didactic yet statistically precise formulations to bridge machine learning to epidemiology.

PMID:40203240 | DOI:10.1146/annurev-biodatasci-103123-095750

Annu Rev Biomed Data Sci. 2025 Apr 9. doi: 10.1146/annurev-biodatasci-090624-022951. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

In recent decades, there has been an explosion of data streams spanning the entire spectrum of biomedicine, opening novel opportunities to tackle biological and medical research questions, increasing our ability to provide effective and efficient health care. In parallel, augmented computational power has allowed the development and deployment of quantitative approaches at unprecedented scales. To effectively take advantage of this progress, it is important to invest in the training of a new generation of biomedical data scientists. Designing a graduate curriculum in the backdrop of a rapidly changing landscape of data, methods, and computing power demands flexibility and openness to adaptation. At the same time, we strive to ensure that the students acquire foundational competencies that might fuel productive and evolving careers, without being constrained to and defined by a niche trendy topic. We offer here a view of graduate training in biomedical data science from the standpoint of our experience at Stanford University. We conclude with a series of open challenges, the answers to which we believe will shape training in biomedical data science.

PMID:40203230 | DOI:10.1146/annurev-biodatasci-090624-022951

PLOS Glob Public Health. 2025 Apr 9;5(4):e0004394. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgph.0004394. eCollection 2025.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: The retention of under-5 mortality (U5M) in various ramifications has dire policy implications. The varying impacts of this inequality is very important and has been researched in many rural-urban settings. In spite of many studies that have examined rural-urban inequalities, very little has been researched with respect to low middle-income countries. In this study, we utilized an innovative statistical method to examine and explain the socio-economic determinants and rural-urban differences of mortality in some selected low- and middle-income (LMIC) countries.

METHODS: Using secondary data from the Demographic Health Survey (DHS), we utilized a Fairlie decomposition analysis to enumerate the differences amongst under-5 populations across 59 low-middle income countries in four continents. Death of any child within 0 – 59 months of life was our dependent variable while some selected individual and neighborhood factors constituted the explanatory variables.

RESULTS: Study findings revealed significant pro-rural and pro-non-rural inequities across the 59 countries. Pro-rural inequities were more commonly found in the African regions. Except for the Maldives, pro-non-rural inequities were largely associated in the remaining four continents. Some factors, unemployed status, ever married or single status, female household head, insurance cover, unimproved water sources, clean fuel were associated with a higher risk of Under-5 mortality.

CONCLUSION: The results from this study are pertinent to health system reforms needed to tackle the menace of under-5 mortalities in LMICs and worldwide. Consolidation of existing maternal and child health programs supported by a resolute and firm re-evaluation of political will considerably help to control the surge of U5MR in the countries studied.

PMID:40203228 | DOI:10.1371/journal.pgph.0004394

PLoS One. 2025 Apr 9;20(4):e0315149. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0315149. eCollection 2025.

ABSTRACT

This study aims to determine the waiting time and the forms of access to specialized health services in public hospitals in Ecuador. A representative sample of 32 hospitals under the Ministry of Public Health was considered, with 26 selected by accessibility convenience. Data will be collected using a structured questionnaire. Patients will be asked about the number of days they waited for their medical appointments and the method used to schedule their appointments. The study distinguishes between standardized access, based on Ecuador’s formal referral and counter-referral system, and non-standardized access methods, such as personal connections or hospital staff involvement. The data of this protocol are registered and publicly accessible at: https://dx.doi.org/10.17504/protocols.io.261ge5z7wg47/v1. We expect to identify a correlation between waiting times and the type of access to specialized medical services, with non-standardized access potentially leading to shorter waiting times. This research may highlight disparities in the system and suggest areas for improvement in equity and efficiency within the healthcare referral process. To do so, a structured survey will be used. Since a construct is not needed to determine the waiting time or the forms of access, it was not necessary to validate the instrument. However, we did validate the understanding of the questions and the response options in several places in the country. According to the results of the validation of the instrument, pollsters will be instructed to inform users about the meaning of the question on ethnic identification, which was difficult to understand in the country’s coastal areas.

PMID:40203222 | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0315149

J Hosp Palliat Nurs. 2025 Apr 7. doi: 10.1097/NJH.0000000000001117. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Providing ethical, timely, and goal-concordant care for critical patients who are incapacitated with no evident advance directives or surrogates (INEADS) can pose challenges to nursing staff and other care team members and may delay or alter care trajectories. In a nested case-control study, we aimed to determine whether critical care patients who are INEADS have different hospitalization timelines, consultative services, and discharge dispositions relative to matched control subjects. Data were obtained from the publicly accessible Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care III database of 23 904 adult critical care hospitalizations in a Boston, Massachusetts, hospital from 2001 to 2012. Using natural language processing and verifying by manual chart review, we identified 40 patients in this cohort who were INEADS and matched them 1:1 with control subjects based on age, sex, and comorbidity index. Average length of hospitalization was 11 days for patients and 9 days for control subjects; average time until code status documentation was 8 days for patients and 6 days for control subjects, and average time until documentation of social work involvement was 9 days for patients and 2 days for control subjects. Although these differences were not statistically significant, procedures to support timely ethical decision-making for patients who are INEADS require attention.

PMID:40203195 | DOI:10.1097/NJH.0000000000001117

Chaos. 2025 Apr 1;35(4):043110. doi: 10.1063/5.0259937.

ABSTRACT

Analytical solutions of space-time fractional partial differential equations (fPDEs) are crucial for understanding dynamics features in complex systems and their applications. In this paper, fractional sub-equation neural networks (fSENNs) are first proposed to construct exact solutions of space-time fPDEs. The fSENNs embed the solutions of the fractional Riccati equation into neural networks (NNs). The NNs are a multi-layer computational models that are composed of weights and activation functions between neurons in the input, hidden, and output layers. In fSENNs, every neuron of the first hidden layer is assigned to the solutions of the fractional Riccati equation. In this way, the new trial functions are obtained. The exact solutions of space-time fPDEs can be obtained by fSENNs. In order to verify the rationality of this method, space-time fractional telegraph equation, space-time fractional Fisher equation, and space-time fractional CKdV-mKdV equation are investigated, and generalized fractional hyperbolic function solutions, generalized fractional trigonometric function solutions, and generalized fractional rational solutions are obtained. Since the fractional sub-equation is applied to the NNs model for the first time, more and new solutions can be obtained in this paper. The dynamic characteristics of some solutions corresponding to waves have been demonstrated through some diagrams.

PMID:40198253 | DOI:10.1063/5.0259937

Chaos. 2025 Apr 1;35(4):043118. doi: 10.1063/5.0264243.

ABSTRACT

Understanding how cooperation evolves in multi-subpopulation is crucial for addressing social challenges. While previous studies show that payoff-neutral subpopulations in structured populations can enhance cooperation, the role of broader inter-subpopulation relationships remains unclear. We extend this framework to include generalized relationships-competition, mutualism, and parasitism-modeled by inter-subpopulation payoffs α and β. Within subpopulations, individuals play the prisoner’s dilemma, while inter-subpopulation interactions yield payoffs based on α and β. Evolutionary analysis and simulations reveal that, in fully connected networks, generalized relationships yield outcomes almost indistinguishable from the payoff-neutral scenario (α=0,β=0). However, in structured populations, these relationships introduce additional pathways for sustaining cooperation beyond those observed under payoff neutrality. When the network structure alone can support cooperation, only mutualistic relationships (α>0,β>0) enable the full dominance of cooperative strategies. Conversely, when the network structure alone cannot maintain cooperation, competitive (α<0,β<0) or parasitic (α>0,β<0) relationships allow cooperation to persist or even achieve complete dominance, whereas mutualism offers only limited support. These findings provide deeper insights into how diverse inter-subpopulation relationships shape the evolution of cooperation in multi-subpopulation social systems.

PMID:40198246 | DOI:10.1063/5.0264243

Chaos. 2025 Apr 1;35(4):043114. doi: 10.1063/5.0248658.

ABSTRACT

Due to their relevance to geophysical systems, the investigation of multiscale systems through the lens of statistical mechanics has gained popularity in recent years. The aim of our work is the characterization of the nonequilibrium properties of the well-known two-scales Lorenz96 model, a dynamical system much used for testing ideas in geophysics, by studying either higher-order correlation functions or response to external perturbations of the energy. These tools in both equilibrium (inviscid) or non-equilibrium (viscous) systems provide clear evidence of their suitability for detecting time-reversal symmetry breaking and for characterizing transport properties also in this class of models. In particular, we characterize how localized energy perturbations are transported between the different scales, highlighting that perturbations of synoptic variables greatly impact advective variables but perturbations of the latter have a practically negligible effect on synoptic scales. Finally, we show that responses of global observables to finite size perturbations strongly depend on the perturbation protocol. This prevents the physical understanding of the system from observations of the relaxation process alone, a fact often overlooked.

PMID:40198243 | DOI:10.1063/5.0248658