Anthropometric Measurement of Patients Admitted to an Intensive Care Unit

Background Visual estimation is the usual method that many healthcare professional use to estimate the body weight of patients in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), but this method has been shown to be significantly inaccurate. This study aimed to explores the feasibility of using fibula length to estimate the acute body weight of patients admitted to an ICU. Methods The study collected all ICU records in which patient’s body weight was estimated by the equation: Males: 153.1 – (0.26 x age) – 11 + (1.05 x fibular length) Females: 153.1 – (0.26 x age) – 22 + (1.05 x fibular length). The body weight(BW) then estimated by: BW= 20 x [estimated body height (in metres)]2. The degree of agreement between the estimated body weight by anthropometric measurement methods and the actual recorded body weight in the patient’s medical record within the four weeks immediately before ICU admission were assessed by the Bland-Altman plot. Results Paired sample t-tests showed there were statistically significant differences between the patient’s estimated and actual height and weight (p-value = 0.0001 for both). Conclusions The study found the use of fibula length alone had a similar percentage of bias when compared with visual estimation by healthcare professionals to estimate the actual body weight of the patients admitted to ICU.published_or_final_versio

Resonant Cooper-Pair Tunneling: Counting Statistics and Frequency-Dependent Current Noise

We discuss the counting statistics and current noise associated with the double Josephson quasiparticle resonance point in a superconducting single electron transistor. The counting statistics are in general phase-dependent, despite the fact that the average current has no dependence on phase. Focusing on parameter regimes where the counting statistics have no phase-dependence, we use a general relation first derived by MacDonald in 1948 to obtain the full frequency-dependent shot noise directly from the counting statistics, without any further approximations. We comment on problems posed by the phase-dependence of the counting statistics for the finite-frequency noise.Comment: 13 pages, 2 figures; to appear in the proceedings of the NATO ASI "New Directions in Mesoscopic Physics", Erice, 200

ABCD Neurocognitive Prediction Challenge 2019: Predicting individual residual fluid intelligence scores from cortical grey matter morphology

We predicted residual fluid intelligence scores from T1-weighted MRI data available as part of the ABCD NP Challenge 2019, using morphological similarity of grey-matter regions across the cortex. Individual structural covariance networks (SCN) were abstracted into graph-theory metrics averaged over nodes across the brain and in data-driven communities/modules. Metrics included degree, path length, clustering coefficient, centrality, rich club coefficient, and small-worldness. These features derived from the training set were used to build various regression models for predicting residual fluid intelligence scores, with performance evaluated both using cross-validation within the training set and using the held-out validation set. Our predictions on the test set were generated with a support vector regression model trained on the training set. We found minimal improvement over predicting a zero residual fluid intelligence score across the sample population, implying that structural covariance networks calculated from T1-weighted MR imaging data provide little information about residual fluid intelligence.Comment: 8 pages plus references, 3 figures, 2 tables. Submission to the ABCD Neurocognitive Prediction Challenge at MICCAI 201

Prognostication of serial post-intensity-modulated radiation therapy undetectable plasma EBV DNA for nasopharyngeal carcinoma

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Insecticidal Activity of the Essential Oils from Different Plants Against Three Stored-Product Insects

This study was conducted to determine the insecticidal activity of essential oils from oregano, Origanum onites L. (Lamiales: Lamiaceae), savory, Satureja thymbra L. (Lamiales: Lamiaceae), and myrtle, Myrtus communis L. (Rosales: Myrtaceae) against three stored-product insects. Essential oils from three species of plants were obtained by Clevenger-type water distillation. The major compounds in these essential oils were identified using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and their insecticidal activity was tested against adults of the Mediterranean flour moth Ephestia kuehniella Zeller (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae), the Indian meal moth Plodia interpunctella Hübner (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) and the bean weevil Acanthoscelides obtectus Say (Coleoptera: Bruchidae). While the major compound found in oregano and savory was carvacrol, the main constituent of the myrtle was linalool. Among the tested insects, A. obtectus was the most tolerant species against the essential oils. However, the insecticidal activity of the myrtle oil was more pronounced than other oils tested against A. obtectus adults. The essential oils of oregano and savory were highly effective against P. interpunctella and E. kuehniella, with 100% mortality obtained after 24 h at 9 and 25 µl/l air for P. interpunctella and E. kuehniella, respectively. LC50 and LC99 values of each essential oil were estimated for each insect species

Are adolescents with high socioeconomic status more likely to engage in alcohol and illicit drug use in early adulthood?

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Previous literature has shown a divergence by age in the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and substance use: adolescents with low SES are more likely to engage in substance use, as are adults with high SES. However, there is growing evidence that adolescents with high SES are also at high risk for substance abuse. The objective of this study is to examine this relationship longitudinally, that is, whether wealthier adolescents are more likely than those with lower SES to engage in substance use in early adulthood.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The study analyzed data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health (AddHealth), a longitudinal, nationally-representative survey of secondary school students in the United States. Logistic regression models were analyzed examining the relationship between adolescent SES (measured by parental education and income) and substance use in adulthood, controlling for substance use in adolescence and other covariates.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Higher parental education is associated with higher rates of binge drinking, marijuana and cocaine use in early adulthood. Higher parental income is associated with higher rates of binge drinking and marijuana use. No statistically significant results are found for crystal methamphetamine or other drug use. Results are not sensitive to the inclusion of college attendance by young adulthood as a sensitivity analysis. However, when stratifying by race, results are consistent for white non-Hispanics, but no statistically significant results are found for non-whites. This may be a reflection of the smaller sample size of non-whites, but may also reflect that these trends are driven primarily by white non-Hispanics.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Previous research shows numerous problems associated with substance use in young adults, including problems in school, decreased employment, increases in convictions of driving under the influence (DUI) and accidental deaths. Much of the previous literature is focused on lower SES populations. Therefore, it is possible that teachers, parents and school administrators in wealthier schools may not perceive as great to address substance abuse treatment in their schools. This study can inform teachers, parents, school administrators and program officials of the need for addressing drug abuse prevention activities to this population of students.</p