Recommendation systems for literature in a digital world

Denne masteroppgaven tar for seg anbefaling av litteratur. Den går grundig igjennom de anbefalingsmetodene som finnes på området. Innholdsbaserte, kollaborative, demografiske, kunnskapsbaserte, kontekstuelle, sosiale og hybride metoder. Oppgaven kartlegger litteratur som anbefalingsdomene og bøker som gjentander som skal anbefales. Deretter drøftes metodene innholdsbaserte og kollaborative anbefalingsmetoder med reelle data fra det norske nettstedet Bokelskere.no. Formålet med denne diskusjonen er å få oversikt over hvilke konsekvenser de forskjellige metodene får for anbefalingssystemet. Dette er et sosialt nettsted for litteraturinteresserte og brukes som et case i forbindelse med oppgaven. Arbeidet med oppgaven kan sees på som et mulighetstudium for å kartlegge hvilke valg som må tas ved utvikling av anbefalingssystemer for litteratur, med fokus på den tekniske siden.This master thesis addresses the recommendation of literature. It thoroughly reviews the recommendation methods that are available in this area. Content-based, Collaborative-based, Demographic, Knowledge-based, Contextual, Social, and Hybrid methods. The master thesis provide an summary of the literature domain and how books can be recommended. Content-based and Collaborative recommendation methods are discussed thoroughly using real data from the Norwegian site Bokelskere.no. This is a social site for literature enthusiasts and is used as a case study in this thesis. The thesis can be viewed as a feasibility study to identify the choices that must be taken in the development of recommendation systems literature, focusing on the technical possibilities.Master i bibliotek- og informasjonsvitenska

Early life growth and associations with lung function and bronchial hyperresponsiveness at 11-years of age

Low birthweight and being born small-for-gestational age (SGA) are linked to asthma and impaired lung function. Particularly, poor intrauterine growth followed by rapid catch-up growth during childhood may predispose for respiratory disease. Bronchial hyperresponsiveness (BHR) is an essential feature of asthma, but how foetal and early childhood growth are associated with BHR is less studied. Our hypothesis was that children born SGA or with accelerated early life growth have increased BHR and altered lung function at 11-years of age. We studied the associations between SGA and early childhood growth with lung function and BHR at 11-years of age in a subgroup of 468 children from the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study (MoBa), and included data from the Medical Birth Registry of Norway (MBRN). Weight at 6 months of age was positively associated with forced vital capacity (adjusted Beta: 0.121; 95% Confidence interval: 0.023, 0.219) and negatively associated with the ratio of forced expiratory flow in first second/forced vital capacity (−0.204; −0.317, −0.091) at 11-years of age. Similar patterns were found for weight at 36 months and for change in weight from birth to 6 months of age. SGA or other various variables of early childhood growth were not associated with BHR at 11-years of age. Early life growth was associated with an obstructive lung function pattern, but not with BHR in 11-year old children. Foetal growth restriction or weight gain during early childhood do not seem to be important risk factors for subsequent BHR in children.acceptedVersio

Project SoL-A Community-Based, Multi-Component Health Promotion Intervention to Improve Healthy Eating and Physical Activity Practices among Danish Families with Young Children Part 2:Evaluation

Project SoL is implemented over a period of four years with the aim to promote healthy eating and physical activity among children aged 3–8 years by targeting the families in a Danish municipality based on the multi-component, supersetting strategy. Interventions are implemented in childcare centres, schools and supermarkets in three local communities as well as in local mass media and social media during a 19 months period in the Municipality of Bornholm. The matching Municipality of Odsherred serves as a control site based on its similarity to Bornholm regarding several socio-demographic and health indicators. The present paper gives an account of the design used for the summative and formative evaluation based on a realistic evaluation and a mixed methods approach combining qualitative and quantitative methods. Summative studies are conducted on changes of health behaviours among the involved families and within the municipalities in general, changes in community awareness of the project, changes in purchase patterns, changes in overweight and obesity among the targeted children and changes in knowledge and preferences among children due to sensory education workshops. The formative research comprises studies on children’s perceptions of health, perceptions of staff at supermarkets and media professionals on their roles in supporting the health promotion agenda, and motivations and barriers of community stakeholders to engage in health promotion at community level. The paper discusses operational issues and lessons learnt related to studying complex community interventions, cross-disciplinarily, interfaces between practice and research and research capacity strengthening; and suggests areas for future research. The development and implementation of the intervention and its theoretical foundation is described in a separate paper

Analysis artefacts of the INS-IGF2 fusion transcript

BACKGROUND: In gene expression analysis, overlapping genes, splice variants, and fusion transcripts are potential sources of data analysis artefacts, depending on how the observed intensity is assigned to one, or more genes. We here exemplify this by an in-depth analysis of the INS-IGF2 fusion transcript, which has recently been reported to be among the highest expressed transcripts in human pancreatic beta cells and its protein indicated as a novel autoantigen in Type 1 Diabetes. RESULTS: Through RNA sequencing and variant specific qPCR analyses we demonstrate that the true abundance of INS-IGF2 is >20,000 fold lower than INS in human beta cells, and we suggest an explanation to the nature of the artefacts which have previously led to overestimation of the gene expression level in selected studies. We reinvestigated the previous reported findings of detection of INS-IGF2 using antibodies both in Western blotting and immunohistochemistry. We found that the one available commercial antibody (BO1P) raised against recombinant INS-IGF2 show strong cross-reaction to native proinsulin, and we did not detect INS-IGF2 protein in the human beta cell line EndoC-βH1. Furthermore, using highly sensitive proteomics analysis we could not demonstrate INS-IGF2 protein in samples of human islets nor in EndoC-βH1. CONCLUSIONS: Sequence features, such as fusion transcripts spanning multiple genes can lead to unexpected results in gene expression analysis, and care must be taken in generating and interpreting the results. For the specific case of INS-IGF2 we conclude that the abundance of the fusion transcript/protein is exceedingly lower than previously reported, and that current immuno-reagents available for detecting INS-IGF2 protein have a strong cross-reaction to native human proinsulin. Finally, we were unable to detect INS-IGF2 protein by proteomics analysis. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12867-015-0042-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Impact of socioeconomic position on initiation of SGLT-2 inhibitors or GLP-1 receptor agonists in patients with type 2 diabetes – a Danish nationwide observational study

BACKGROUND: Low socioeconomic position may affect initiation of sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors (SGLT-2i) and glucacon-like-peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RA) among patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D). We examined the association between socioeconomic position and initiation of SGLT-2i or GLP-1RA in patients with T2D at time of first intensification of antidiabetic treatment. METHODS: Through nationwide registers, we identified all Danish patients on metformin who initiated second-line add-on therapy between December 10, 2012, and December 31, 2020. For each time period (2012-2014, 2015-2017, and 2018-2020), we used multivariable multinomial logistic regression to associate disposable income, as proxy for socioeconomic position, with the probability of initiating a specific second-line treatment at time of first intensification. We reported probabilities standardised to the distribution of demographics and comorbidities of patients included in the last period (2018-2020). FINDINGS: We included 48915 patients (median age 62 years; 61·7% men). In each time period, high-income patients were more often men and had less comorbidities as compared with low income-patients. In each time period, the standardised probability of initiating a SGLT-2i or a GLP-1RA was significantly higher in the highest income group compared with the lowest: 11·4% vs. 9·5% (probability ratio [PR] 1·21, 95 % confidence interval [CI] 1·01-1·44) in 2012-2014; 22·6% vs. 19.6% (PR 1·15, CI 1·05-1·27) in 2015-2017; and 65·8% vs. 54·8% (PR 1·20, CI 1·16-1·24) in 2018-2020. The differences by income were consistent across multiple subgroups. INTERPRETATION: Despite a universal healthcare system, low socioeconomic position was consistently associated with a lower probability of initiating a SGLT-2i or a GLP-1RA. These disparities may widen the future socioeconomic gap in cardiovascular outcomes. FUNDING: The work was funded by unrestricted grants from ‘Region Sjaelland Den Sundhedsvidenskabelige Forskningsfond’ and ‘Murermester Lauritz Peter Christensen og hustru Kirsten Sigrid Christensens Fond’

Integrated care for older multimorbid heart failure patients:protocol for the ESCAPE randomized trial and cohort study

ESCAPE Evaluation of a patient-centred biopsychosocial blended collaborative care pathway for the treatment of multimorbid elderly patients. Therapeutic Area Healthcare interventions for the management of older patients with multiple morbidities. Aims Multi-morbidity treatment is an increasing challenge for healthcare systems in ageing societies. This comprehensive cohort study with embedded randomized controlled trial tests an integrated biopsychosocial care model for multimorbid elderly patients. Hypothesis A holistic, patient-centred pro-active 9-month intervention based on the blended collaborative care (BCC) approach and enhanced by information and communication technologies can improve health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and disease outcomes as compared with usual care at 9 months. Methods Across six European countries, ESCAPE is recruiting patients with heart failure, mental distress/disorder plus ≥2 medical co-morbidities into an observational cohort study. Within the cohort study, 300 patients will be included in a randomized controlled assessor-blinded two-arm parallel group interventional clinical trial (RCT). In the intervention, trained care managers (CMs) regularly support patients and informal carers in managing their multiple health problems. Supervised by a clinical specialist team, CMs remotely support patients in implementing the treatment plan—customized to the patients' individual needs and preferences—into their daily lives and liaise with patients' healthcare providers. An eHealth platform with an integrated patient registry guides the intervention and helps to empower patients and informal carers. HRQoL measured with the EQ-5D-5L as primary endpoint, and secondary outcomes, that is, medical and patient-reported outcomes, healthcare costs, cost-effectiveness, and informal carer burden, will be assessed at 9 and ≥18 months. Conclusions If proven effective, the ESCAPE BCC intervention can be implemented in routine care for older patients with multiple morbidities across the participating countries and beyond