Parametric Model Based on Imputations Techniques for Partly Interval Censored Data

The term 'survival analysis' has been used in a broad sense to describe collection of statistical procedures for data analysis. In this case, outcome variable of interest is time until an event occurs where the time to failure of a specific experimental unit might be censored which can be right, left, interval, and Partly Interval Censored data (PIC). In this paper, analysis of this model was conducted based on parametric Cox model via PIC data. Moreover, several imputation techniques were used, which are: midpoint, left & right point, random, mean, and median. Maximum likelihood estimate was considered to obtain the estimated survival function. These estimations were then compared with the existing model, such as: Turnbull and Cox model based on clinical trial data (breast cancer data), for which it showed the validity of the proposed model. Result of data set indicated that the parametric of Cox model proved to be more superior in terms of estimation of survival functions, likelihood ratio tests, and their P-values. Moreover, based on imputation techniques; the midpoint, random, mean, and median showed better results with respect to the estimation of survival function. Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.Scopu

Clinical And Toxicological Aspects Associated With Paracetamol Poisoning And Predictors Of Its Outcomes

Paracetamol is a common source of poisoning, and early identification of patients with more severe poisoning is the key to improving outcomes. Many aspects of paracetamol toxicity and treatment remain poorly understood. To improve knowledge about paracetamol poisoning, the current 5-year, hospital-based study was carried out with the following primary objectives (1) to determine the pattern of paracetamol poisoning among patients who were admitted to Hospital Pulau Pinang (HPP); and (2) to identify indicators of poor prognosis at first hospital presentation for improving clinical care and determining intervention targets for prevention, early detection, diagnosis and treatment. This is an observational retrospective cohort study of hospital admissions for acute paracetamol poisoning between 1 January 2004 and 31 December 2008. Overall, 305 patients met the inclusion criteria. Gastrointestinal (GI) manifestations were common in patients who reported ingestion of ≥ 8 g of paracetamol, and whose latency was longer than 8 hours; and both of these factors were identified as strong independent predictors of the presence of GI manifestations, especially nausea/vomiting. The presence of GI symptoms was a significant marker of poor outcomes and increased hospital stays. Additionally, hypokalaemia is highly associated with paracetamol poisoning. Specific clinical characteristics upon first presentation to the hospital, such as vomiting, psychiatric illness, and reported paracetamol dose ingested, can be used to identify patients at increased risk for hypokalaemia. Importantly, long hospital stays were significantly less frequent when IV-NAC therapy was administered within 8 hours of paracetamol ingestion (p = 0.006)

Visual feature extraction from dermoscopic colour images for classification of melanocytic skin lesions

The early diagnosis of Melanoma is a challenging task for dermatologists, because of the characteristic similarities of Melanoma with other skin lesions such as typical moles and dysplastic nevi. Aims: This work aims to help both experienced and non-experienced dermatologists in the early detection of cutaneous Melanoma through the development of a computational helping tool based on the “ABCD” rule of dermoscopy. Moreover, it aims to decrease the need for invasive biopsy procedure for each tested abnormal skin lesion. Methods: This is accomplished through the utilization of MATLAB programming language to build a feature extraction tool for the assessment of lesion asymmetry, borders irregularity, and colors variation in the tested lesion. Results: The helping tool obtained a sensitivity of 81.48%, a specificity of 52.83% and accuracy of 62.50% in the assessment of the Asymmetry Index. A new metric for the borders irregularity index was built. Finally, for the Colors Variation Index algorithm a sensitivity of 51.37%, a specificity of 61.51% and accuracy of 57.80% was achieved. Conclusions: This work created a computational tool based on the ABCD-rule, which is helpful for both experienced and non-experienced dermatologists in the early discrimination of Melanoma than other types of skin lesions and to eliminate the need of the biopsy procedure. A new metric for the Borders Irregularity Index was established depending on the number of inflection points in the lesion’s borders

The Impact Of Preventive Medications And Factors Related To Acute Ischemic Stroke On Outcomes : Multimodal Preventive Medication Approach

Acute ischemic stroke is a global health problem and is among the leading causes of morbidity and mortality. As prevention is considered the mainstay of management for acute ischemic stroke, knowledge should be highlighted regarding the scientific evidence behind the use of preventive medications and their impact on patients’ outcomes. The objective of the study is to evaluate the impact of the previous use of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor (ACEI), antiplatelet and statin, either alone or in combinations on reducing in-hospital mortality rates, improving functional status at discharge and reducing complications after ischemic stroke. In addition, the independent factors associated with the occurrence of these ischemic stroke outcomes have been investigated. An observational retrospective cohort design was used for all acute ischemic stroke patients admitted to Hospital Pulau Pinang during the period from January 1st 2008 to June 30th 2009. Data included socio-demographic characteristics, clinical characteristics, and previous medication classes, with particular attention being paid to antiplatelets, ACEIs and statins. Impact of the previous use of these medications on ischemic stroke outcomes included: the in-hospital mortality rate, a good functional status as defined by the Barthel Index (BI) > 75, and post-stroke complications, was evaluated after controlling for other variables (i.e. socio-demographic, clinical characteristics, risk factors and other medications) that might have confounded the effects of these preventive medications on ischemic stroke outcomes

The Arab world's contribution to solid waste literature: a bibliometric analysis

BACKGROUND: Environmental and health-related effects of solid waste material are considered worldwide problems. The aim of this study was to assess the volume and impact of Arab scientific output published in journals indexed in the Science Citation Index (SCI) on solid waste. METHODS: We included all the documents within the SCI whose topic was solid waste from all previous years up to 31 December 2012. In this bibliometric analysis we sought to evaluate research that originated from Arab countries in the field of solid waste, as well as its relative growth rate, collaborative measures, productivity at the institutional level, and the most prolific journals. RESULTS: A total of 382 (2.35 % of the overall global research output in the field of solid waste) documents were retrieved from the Arab countries. The annual number of documents published in the past three decades (1982–2012) indicated that research productivity demonstrated a noticeable rise during the last decade. The highest number of articles associated with solid waste was that of Egypt (22.8 %), followed by Tunisia (19.6), and Jordan (13.4 %). the total number of citations over the analysed years at the date of data collection was 4,097, with an average of 10.7 citations per document. The h-index of the citing articles was 31. Environmental science was the most researched topic, represented by 175 (45.8 %) articles. Waste Management was the top active journal. The study recognized 139 (36.4 %) documents from collaborations with 25 non-Arab countries. Arab authors mainly collaborated with countries in Europe (22.5 %), especially France, followed by countries in the Americas (9.4 %), especially the USA. The most productive institution was the American University of Beirut, Lebanon, with 6.3 % of total publications. CONCLUSIONS: Despite the expected increase in solid waste production from Arab world, research activity about solid waste is still low. Governments must invest more in solid waste research to avoid future unexpected problems. Finally, since solid waste is a multidisciplinary science, research teams in engineering, health, toxicology, environment, geology and others must be formulated to produce research in solid waste from different scientific aspects

Osteoporosis is a neglected health priority in Arab World: a comparative bibliometric analysis

Osteoporosis is an important health problem with serious consequences. Evaluation of osteoporosis scientific output from Arab countries has not been explored and there are few internationally published reports on research activity about osteoporosis. The main objectives of this study were to analyze the research output originating from Arab countries and 3 Middle Eastern non-Arab countries, particularly Israel, Turkey and Iran in the field of osteoporosis. Original scientific articles or reviews published from the 21 Arab countries, Israel, Turkey and Iran about “osteoporosis” were screened using the ISI Web of Science database. The time frame for the result was up to year 2012. The total number of original and review research articles published globally about osteoporosis was 43,571. The leading country in osteoporosis research was United States of America (14,734; 33.82%). Worldwide, Turkey ranked 16th while Israel and Iran ranked 24th and 31st respectively. Among Arab countries, Egypt and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia came on positions 41 and 45 respectively. A total of 426 documents about “osteoporosis” were published from Arab countries which represents 0.98% of the global research output. Research about osteoporosis from Arab countries was very low until 2002 and then increased steadily. The total number of citations for osteoporosis documents from the Arab world was 5551 with an average citation of 13.03 per document and an h- index of 35. Thirty (7.04%) documents published from Arab countries about osteoporosis were published in Saudi Medical Journal. Egypt, with a total publication of 117 (27.47%) ranked first among the Arab countries in research about osteoporosis while American University in Beirut was the most productive institution with a total of 47 (11.03%) documents. Compared with other non-Arab countries in the Middle East, the research productivity from the Arab countries was lesser than that from Turkey and Israel but higher than that from Iran. The present data showed low research productivity in osteoporosis field in Arab countries. Research output can be improved by investing in more international and national collaborative research projects in the field of osteoporosis

Performance evaluation of LTE scheduling techniques for heterogeneous traffic and different mobility scenarios

In this paper five scheduling algorithms were investigated and their performance was evaluated in terms of Fairness Index, Peak Throughput, Average Throughput and Edge Cell User Throughput. A system level MATLAB simulator was used. The simulation takes into account different types of traffic for several mobility scenarios and propagation channel models. Results indicate that the scheduling algorithms showed some quality in certain parameter of evaluation but lack in other terms. While some scheduling algorithm take the moderate path but still be lacking especially in Edge Cell User Throughput necessitating the use of Relays or femtocells