Sex-differences in COVID-19 diagnosis, risk factors and disease comorbidities: a large US-based cohort study

Introduction: Morbidity and mortality from COVID-19 are higher among men, however, underlying pathways remain controversial. We aim to investigate sex-gender differences in COVID-19 in a large US-based cohort, namely COVID-19 Research Database. More specifically, the objectives are to explore the socio-economic characteristics of COVID-19 male and female patients and to examine potential sex differences in lifestyle factors and disease comorbidities among diagnosed patients. Methods: This is a retrospective cohort study contrasting male vs. female patients with test-confirmed COVID-19. The study used Healthjump electronic medical records (e.g., demographics, encounters, medical history, and vitals) extracted from January 2020 to December 2021 (N = 62,310). Results: Significant sociodemographic and comorbidity differences were observed between males and females (p < 0.05). For example, a significantly higher proportion of males (vs. females) were aged ≥70-year-old (17.04 vs. 15.01%) and smokers (11.04 vs. 9.24%, p < 0.0001). In addition, multiple logistic regression showed that hypertension and diabetes were significantly more frequent in males [adjusted odds ratio (ORa) = 66.19 and ORa = 22.90]. Conclusions: Understanding the differences in outcomes between male and female patients will inform gender equity responsive approach to COVID-19 and enhance the effectiveness of clinical practice, health policy and interventions

Examining the feasibility and acceptability of valuing the Arabic version of SF-6D in a Lebanese population

Objectives: The SF-6D is a preference-based measure of health developed to generate utility values from the SF-36. The aim of this pilot study was to examine the feasibility and acceptability of using the standard gamble (SG) technique to generate preference-based values for the Arabic version of SF-6D in a Lebanese population. Methods: The SF-6D was translated into Arabic using forward and backward translations. Forty-nine states defined by the SF-6D were selected using an orthogonal design and grouped into seven sets. A gender-occupation stratified sample of 126 Lebanese adults from the American University of Beirut were recruited to value seven states and the pits using SG. The sample size is appropriate for a pilot study, but smaller than the sample required for a full valuation study. Both interviewers and interviewees reported their understanding and effort levels in the SG tasks. Mean and individual level multivariate regression models were fitted to estimate preference weights for all SF-6D states. The models were compared with those estimated in the UK. Results: Interviewers reported few problems in completing SG tasks (0.8% with a lot of problems) and good respondent understanding (5.6% with little effort and concentration), and 25% of respondents reported the SG task was difficult. A total of 992 SG valuations were useable for econometric modeling. There was no significant change in the test–retest values from 21 subjects. The mean absolute errors in the mean and individual level models were 0.036 and 0.050, respectively, both of which were lower than the UK results. The random effects model adequately predicts the SG values, with the worst state having a value of 0.322 compared to 0.271 in the UK. Conclusion: This pilot confirmed that it was feasible and acceptable to generate preference values with the SG method for the Arabic SF-6D in a Lebanese population. However, further work is needed to extend this to a more representative population, and to explore why no utility values below zero were observed

Statistical Model Checking: Past, Present, and Future

International audienceStatistical Model Checking (SMC) is a compromise between verification and testing where executions of the systems are monitored until an algorithm from statistics can produce an estimate for the system to satisfy a given property. The objective of this introduction is to summarizes SMC as well as a series of challenges for which contributors at Isola propose a solution. Contributions include new SMC toolsets, new flexible SMC algorithms for larger classes of systems, and new applications

On the Runtime Enforcement of Timed Properties

International audienceRuntime enforcement refers to the theories, techniques, and tools for enforcing correct behavior of systems at runtime. We are interested in such behaviors described by specifications that feature timing constraints formalized in what is generally referred to as timed properties. This tutorial presents a gentle introduction to runtime enforcement (of timed properties). First, we present a taxonomy of the main principles and concepts involved in runtime enforcement. Then, we give a brief overview of a line of research on theoretical runtime enforcement where timed properties are described by timed automata and feature uncontrollable events. Then, we mention some tools capable of runtime enforcement, and we present the TiPEX tool dedicated to timed properties. Finally, we present some open challenges and avenues for future work. Runtime Enforcement (RE) is a discipline of computer science concerned with enforcing the expected behavior of a system at runtime. Runtime enforcement extends the traditional runtime verification [12-14, 42, 43] problem by dealing with the situations where the system deviates from its expected behavior. While runtime verification monitors are execution observers, runtime enforcers are execution modifiers. Foundations for runtime enforcement were pioneered by Schneider in [98] and by Rinard in [95] for the specific case of real-time systems. There are several tutorials and overviews on runtime enforcement for untimed systems [39, 47, 59], but none on the enforcement of timed properties (for real-time systems). In this tutorial, we focus on runtime enforcing behavior described by a timed property. Timed properties account for physical time. They allow expressing constraints on the time that should elapse between (sequences of) events, which is useful for real-time systems when specifying timing constraints between statements, their scheduling policies, the completion of tasks, etc [5, 7, 88, 101, 102]. This tutorial comprises four stages: 1. the presentation of a taxonomy of concepts and principles in RE (Sec. 1); 2. the presentation of a framework for the RE of timed properties where specifications are described by timed automata (preliminary concepts are recalled in Sec. 2, the framework is overviewed in Sec. 3, and presented in more details in Sec. 4); 3. the demonstration of the TiPEX [82] tool implementing the framework (Sec. 5); 4. the description of some avenues for future work (Sec. 6)