Anatomical and biomechanical traits of broiler chickens across ontogeny. Part II. Body segment inertial properties and muscle architecture of the pelvic limb

In broiler chickens, genetic success for desired production traits is often shadowed by welfare concerns related to musculoskeletal health. Whilst these concerns are clear, a viable solution is still elusive. Part of the solution lies in knowing how anatomical changes in afflicted body systems that occur across ontogeny influence standing and moving. Here, to demonstrate these changes we quantify the segment inertial properties of the whole body, trunk (legs removed) and the right pelvic limb segments of five broilers at three different age groups across development. We also consider how muscle architecture (mass, fascicle length and other properties related to mechanics) changes for selected muscles of the pelvic limb. All broilers used had no observed lameness, but we document the limb pathologies identified post mortem, since these two factors do not always correlate, as shown here. The most common leg disorders, including bacterial chondronecrosis with osteomyelitis and rotational and angular deformities of the lower limb, were observed in chickens at all developmental stages. Whole limb morphology is not uniform relative to body size, with broilers obtaining large thighs and feet between four and six weeks of age. This implies that the energetic cost of swinging the limbs is markedly increased across this growth period, perhaps contributing to reduced activity levels. Hindlimb bone length does not change during this period, which may be advantageous for increased stability despite the increased energetic costs. Increased pectoral muscle growth appears to move the centre of mass cranio-dorsally in the last two weeks of growth. This has direct consequences for locomotion (potentially greater limb muscle stresses during standing and moving). Our study is the first to measure these changes in the musculoskeletal system across growth in chickens, and reveals how artificially selected changes of the morphology of the pectoral apparatus may cause deficits in locomotion

Supplier selection activities in the service sector: A case study in Nigeria

This paper presents the results of the supplier selection process conducted by a Nigerian service sector organization. One organization was used as a case study whereby data collection involved an action research approach; the data was then subject to statistical analysis via the SPSS Statistics software package. In total, 185 potential suppliers were assessed. Several statistically significant differences were also found between those suppliers that met the minimum requirements and those that did not as well as between organizations that offered products and organizations that offered services

PAS3-HSID: a Dynamic Bio-Inspired Approach for Real-Time Hot Spot Identification in Data Streams

© 2019, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature. Hot spot identification is a very relevant problem in a wide variety of areas such as health care, energy or transportation. A hot spot is defined as a region of high likelihood of occurrence of a particular event. To identify hot spots, location data for those events is required, which is typically collected by telematics devices. These sensors are constantly gathering information, generating very large volumes of data. Current state-of-the-art solutions are capable of identifying hot spots from big static batches of data by means of variations of clustering or instance selection techniques that pre-process the original input data, providing the most relevant locations. However, these approaches neglect to address changes in hot spots over time. This paper presents a dynamic bio-inspired approach to detect hot spots in big data streams. This computational intelligence method is designed and applied to the transportation sector as a case study to identify incidents in the roads caused by heavy goods vehicles. We adapt an immune-based algorithm to account for the temporary aspect of hot spots inspired by the idea of pheromones, which is then subsequently implemented using Apache Spark Streaming. Experimental results on real datasets with up to 4.5 million data points—provided by a telematics company—show that the algorithm is capable of quickly processing large streaming batches of data, as well as successfully adapting over time to detect hot spots. The outcome of this method is twofold, both reducing data storage requirements and demonstrating resilience to sudden changes in the input data (concept drift)

The impact of changing provider remuneration on clinical activity and quality of care: evaluation of a pilot NHS contract in Northern Ireland

Objectives A pilot NHS dental contract was introduced in Northern Ireland between 2015 and 2016, which involved changing the method for paying general dental practitioners working in the NHS from Fee-For-Service (FFS) to capitation-based payments, providing an opportunity for a robust evaluation. We investigated the impact of a change in payment methods on clinical activity and the quality of care provided. Design A difference-in-difference (DiD) evaluation was applied to clinical activity data from pilot NHS dental practices in Northern Ireland compared to matched control NHS practices, and applied to a questionnaire survey of patient-rated outcomes of health outcomes and care quality. We estimated the impact on access to care, treatment activity levels, practice finances and patient-rated outcomes of care of a change from FFS to a capitation-based system for one year, as well as the impact of a reversion back to FFS at the end of the pilot period. Results The monthly number of registered patients in the pilot practices increased more than the control practices during the capitation period, by 1.5 registrations per 1,000 registered patients. The monthly reductions in the volumes of all treatments in the pilot practices during the capitation period was much larger than the control practices, with 175 fewer treatment items. All measures rapidly returned to baseline levels following reversion from capitation back to FFS. NHS income per month increased in pilot practices, by £5,920 per month (calculated on FFS item cost basis) more than controls in the capitation period. The analysis of patient questionnaires suggest found that patients notices differences only in waiting times, skill-mix and number of radiographs, but not on other measures of healthcare process and quality. Conclusion General dental practitioners working in the NHS respond rapidly and consistently to changes in provider payment methods. A move from FFS to a capitation-based system had little impact on access to care, but did produce large reductions in clinical activity and patient charge income. Patients noticed little change in the service they received. This shows that changes in remuneration contracts have the potential to meet policy goals, such as meeting the expectations of patients within a predictable cost envelope. However, it is unlikely that all policy goals can be met simply by changing payment methods. Therefore, work is also needed to identify and evaluate interventions that can complement changes in remuneration to achieve desirable outcomes

PAS3-HSID: a Dynamic Bio-Inspired Approach for Real-Time Hot Spot Identification in Data Streams

http://dx.doi.org/10.5902/2236130814684http://dx.doi.org/10.5902/2236130814684O gerenciamento de resíduos municipais é um tema que vem se tornando cada vez mais importante no contexto das preocupações mundiais dos governos, e teve um considerável desenvolvimento nas últimas décadas. Tanto os países desenvolvidos como os “em desenvolvimento” emitiram normativas legais restritivas, visando otimizar seus planos de tratamento e destinação final destes resíduos. O objetivo principal do trabalho é investigar a real situação deste cenário no Brasil e nos países desenvolvidos, demonstrando os resultados obtidos e traçando um paralelo comparativo e critico. São transcritos e analisados os dados obtidos, em cada fase de uma Gestão Integrada de Resíduos Sólidos Urbanos – GIRSU. Conclusões importantes são relatadas, tais como, o alto nível de investimento dos países desenvolvidos em relação às campanhas de conscientização para implantação de uma efetiva GIRSU, assim como contrastes marcantes entre os índices de reciclagem no Brasil e neste bloco diferenciado de países, ou seja, 2% e 20%, respectivamente, no montante dos resíduos totais gerados. A avaliação final é de que o diferencial esta nas ações políticas de incentivo econômico destes países desenvolvidos, em termos de subsídios, se comparados com o caso brasileiro

The SSVEP-Based BCI Text Input System Using Entropy Encoding Algorithm

The so-called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or motor neuron disease (MND) is a neurodegenerative disease with various causes. It is characterized by muscle spasticity, rapidly progressive weakness due to muscle atrophy, and difficulty in speaking, swallowing, and breathing. The severe disabled always have a common problem that is about communication except physical malfunctions. The steady-state visually evoked potential based brain computer interfaces (BCI), which apply visual stimulus, are very suitable to play the role of communication interface for patients with neuromuscular impairments. In this study, the entropy encoding algorithm is proposed to encode the letters of multilevel selection interface for BCI text input systems. According to the appearance frequency of each letter, the entropy encoding algorithm is proposed to construct a variable-length tree for the letter arrangement of multilevel selection interface. Then, the Gaussian mixture models are applied to recognize electrical activity of the brain. According to the recognition results, the multilevel selection interface guides the subject to spell and type the words. The experimental results showed that the proposed approach outperforms the baseline system, which does not consider the appearance frequency of each letter. Hence, the proposed approach is able to ease text input interface for patients with neuromuscular impairments

A computationally efficient, high-dimensional multiple changepoint procedure with application to global terrorism incidence

Detecting changepoints in datasets with many variates is a data science challenge of increasing importance. Motivated by the problem of detecting changes in the incidence of terrorism from a global terrorism database, we propose a novel approach to multiple changepoint detection in multivariate time series. Our method, which we call SUBSET, is a model-based approach which uses a penalised likelihood to detect changes for a wide class of parametric settings. We provide theory that guides the choice of penalties to use for SUBSET, and that shows it has high power to detect changes regardless of whether only a few variates or many variates change. Empirical results show that SUBSET out-performs many existing approaches for detecting changes in mean in Gaussian data; additionally, unlike these alternative methods, it can be easily extended to non-Gaussian settings such as are appropriate for modelling counts of terrorist events

'Can you recommend any good STI apps?' A review of content, accuracy and comprehensiveness of current mobile medical applications for STIs and related genital infections.

OBJECTIVE: Seeking sexual health information online is common, and provision of mobile medical applications (apps) for STIs is increasing. Young people, inherently at higher risk of STIs, are avid users of technology, and apps could be appealing sources of information. We undertook a comprehensive review of content and accuracy of apps for people seeking information about STIs. METHODS: Search of Google Play and iTunes stores using general and specific search terms for apps regarding STIs and genital infections (except HIV), testing, diagnosis and management, 10 September 2014 to 16 September 2014. We assessed eligible apps against (1) 19 modified Health on The Net (HON) Foundation principles; and (2) comprehensiveness and accuracy of information on STIs/genital infections, and their diagnosis and management, compared with corresponding National Health Service STI information webpage content. RESULTS: 144/6642 apps were eligible. 57 were excluded after downloading. 87 were analysed. Only 29% of apps met ≥6 HON criteria. Content was highly variable: 34/87 (39%) covered one or two infections; 40 (46%) covered multiple STIs; 5 (6%) focused on accessing STI testing. 13 (15%) were fully, 46 (53%) mostly and 28 (32%) partially accurate. 25 (29%) contained ≥1 piece of potentially harmful information. Apps available on both iOS and Android were more accurate than single-platform apps. Only one app provided fully accurate and comprehensive information on chlamydia. CONCLUSIONS: Marked variation in content, quality and accuracy of available apps combined with the nearly one-third containing potentially harmful information risks undermining potential benefits of an e-Health approach to sexual health and well-being

Using the eSexual Health Clinic to access chlamydia treatment and care via the internet: a qualitative interview study.

OBJECTIVE: We developed the eSexual Health Clinic (eSHC), an innovative, complex clinical and public health intervention, embedded within a specialist sexual health service. Patients with genital chlamydia access their results online and are offered medical management via an automated online clinical consultation, leading to antibiotic collection from community pharmacy. A telephone helpline, staffed by Sexual Health Advisers, is available to support patients and direct them to conventional services if appropriate. We sought to understand how patients used this ehealth intervention. METHODS: Within exploratory studies of the eSHC (2014-2015), we conducted in-depth interviews with a purposive sample of 36 patients diagnosed with chlamydia, who had chosen to use the eSHC (age 18-35, 20 female, 16 male). Thematic analysis was conducted. RESULTS: Participants described choosing to use this ehealth intervention to obtain treatment rapidly, conveniently and privately, within busy lifestyles that hindered clinic access. They described completing the online consultation promptly, discreetly and with ease. The information provided online was considered comprehensive, reassuring and helpful, but some overlooked it in their haste to obtain treatment. Participants generally described being able to collect treatment from pharmacies discreetly and promptly, but for some, poor awareness of the eSHC by pharmacy staff undermined their ability to do this. Those unsuitable for remote management, who were directed to clinic, described frustration and concern about health implications and clinic attendance. However, the helpline was a highly valued source of information, assistance and support. CONCLUSION: The eSHC is a promising adjunct to traditional care. Its users have high expectations for convenience, speed and privacy, which may be compromised when transitioning from online to face-to-face elements of the eSHC. Managing expectations and improving implementation of the pharmacy process, could improve their experiences. Positive views on the helpline provide further support for embedding this ehealth intervention within a specialist clinical service