Cause of Death estimation from Verbal Autopsies: Is the Open Response redundant or synergistic?

Civil registration and vital statistics systems capture birth and death events to compile vital statistics and to provide legal rights to citizens. Vital statistics are a key factor in promoting public health policies and the health of the population. Medical certification of cause of death is the preferred source of cause of death information. However, two thirds of all deaths worldwide are not captured in routine mortality information systems and their cause of death is unknown. Verbal autopsy is an interim solution for estimating the cause of death distribution at the population level in the absence of medical certification. A Verbal Autopsy (VA) consists of an interview with the relative or the caregiver of the deceased. The VA includes both Closed Questions (CQs) with structured answer options, and an Open Response (OR) consisting of a free narrative of the events expressed in natural language and without any pre-determined structure. There are a number of automated systems to analyze the CQs to obtain cause specific mortality fractions with limited performance. We hypothesize that the incorporation of the text provided by the OR might convey relevant information to discern the CoD. The experimental layout compares existing Computer Coding Verbal Autopsy methods such as Tariff 2.0 with other approaches well suited to the processing of structured inputs as is the case of the CQs. Next, alternative approaches based on language models are employed to analyze the OR. Finally, we propose a new method with a bi-modal input that combines the CQs and the OR. Empirical results corroborated that the CoD prediction capability of the Tariff 2.0 algorithm is outperformed by our method taking into account the valuable information conveyed by the OR. As an added value, with this work we made available the software to enable the reproducibility of the results attained with a version implemented in R to make the comparison with Tariff 2.0 evident.This work was partially funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (DOTT-HEALTH/PAT-MED PID2019-106942RB-C31); by both Antidote PCI2020-120717-2 and Lotu TED2021-130398B-C22 funded by the MCIN/AEI / 10.13039/501100011033 and by the European Union NextGenerationEU/ PRTR; by the Basque Government (IXA IT-1570-22); and by Misiones Euskampus 2.0 (EXTEPA)

Influence of Common Reducing Agents on Technological Parameters of Dry-Fermented Sausages with Low Fat Content

The production of dry-fermented sausages currently presents several challenges to be addressed: nutrition, health, sensory traits and technology are among the main issues that concern consumers and the meat industry. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of different reducing agents commonly used in the manufacture of dry-fermented sausages (salchichon type) with low fat content on the technological characteristics of the product. Four different reducing agents (ascorbic acid, a starter culture, sodium ascorbate and glucono-delta-lactone) were added to the meat batter to assess their impact on the physico-chemical traits, instrumental color, residual nitrates and nitrites and lipid oxidation of this meat product. High nitrate values were observed during both ripening and storage periods. All batches presented lipid oxidation values below the threshold that indicates meat rancidity. Adjustments of the original lean:fat proportion must be carried out on this low fat content sausage to obtain profitable results. Starter culture and sodium ascorbate have shown the best reducing and antioxidant activities among the additives studied. Once we have the technical design of the product, the next step will be oriented to identify the sensory characteristics in order to find a gap in the market

Aportaciones de las técnicas de aprendizaje automático a la clasificación de partes de alta hospitalarios reales en castellano

Hospitals attached to the Spanish Ministry of Health are currently using the International Classification of Diseases 9 Clinical Modification (ICD9-CM) to classify health discharge records. Nowadays, this work is manually done by experts. This paper tackles the automatic classification of real Discharge Records in Spanish following the ICD9-CM standard. The challenge is that the Discharge Records are written in spontaneous language. We explore several machine learning techniques to deal with the classification problem. Random Forest resulted in the most competitive one, achieving an F-measure of 0.876.La red de hospitales que configuran el sistema español de sanidad utiliza la Clasificación Internacional de Enfermedades Modificación Clínica (ICD9-CM) para codificar partes de alta hospitalaria. Hoy en día, este trabajo lo realizan a mano los expertos. Este artículo aborda la problemática de clasificar automáticamente partes reales de alta hospitalaria escritos en español teniendo en cuenta el estándar ICD9-CM. El desafío radica en que los partes hospitalarios están escritos con lenguaje espontáneo. Hemos experimentado con varios sistemas de aprendizaje automático para solventar este problema de clasificación. El algoritmo Random Forest es el más competitivo de los probados, obtiene un F-measure de 0.876.This work was partially supported by the European Commission (SEP-210087649), the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (TIN2012-38584-C06-02) and the Industry of the Basque Government (IT344-10)

Proyecto de transferencia tecnológica Deteami: tecnologías de procesamiento del lenguaje natural para la ayuda en farmacia y en farmacovigilancia

The goal of the Deteami project is to develop tools that make clinicians aware of adverse drug reactions stated in electronic health records of the clinical digital history. The records produced in hospitals are a valuable though nearly unexplored source of information among others due to the fact that are tough to get due to privacy and confidentiality restrictions. To leverage the clinicians work of reading and analyzing the health records looking for information about the health of the patients, in this project we explore the records automatically, identify among others disorder and drug entities, and infer medical information, in this case, adverse drug reactions. In this project a research-framework was settled with the Galdakao-Usansolo and Basurto Hospitals from Osakidetza (the Basque Health System). Osakidetza provided both the texts and the final user feedback, as well as, specialists that annotate the corpora, an in this way, we obtained a gold-standard.El objetivo del proyecto Deteami es el desarrollo de herramientas para ayudar al personal clínico a identificar reacciones adversas a medicamentos en informes médicos electrónicos de la historia clínica digital. Los informes que se generan en los hospitales son una valiosa fuente de información aún no debidamente explotada debido principalmente a restricciones de privacidad y confidencialidad. Con el objetivo de aliviar el trabajo del personal clínico que se dedica a leer y analizar los informes médicos buscando información sobre la salud de los pacientes, en este proyecto analizamos automáticamente los informes, identificamos entre otras entidades que describen enfermedades y medicamentos, y finalmente, inferimos información médica; en este caso, reacciones adversas a medicamentos. En este proyecto hemos establecido un marco de colaboración con los hospitales de Galdakao-Usansolo y Basurto pertenecientes a Osakidetza (Servicio Vasco de Salud). Osakidetza participa mediante la provisión de los textos y retroalimentando el trabajo técnico con su experiencia, así como expertos que anotan el corpus para la obtención del gold-standard.This work was partially supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (EXTRECM: TIN2013-46616-C2-1-R, TADEEP: TIN2015-70214-P) and the Basque Government (DETEAMI: Ministry of Health 2014111003, IXA Research Group of type A (2010-2015), ELKAROLA: KK-2015/00098)

Lifetime mental health problems in Adult Lower Secondary Education: a student survey

Background/Objective: Adult Lower Secondary Education is an education program for basic qualifications for the labor market. Our study aimed to compare lifetime mental health problems between current Adult Lower Secondary Education students and higher Vocational Education students, as the former constitutes a highly distinct and understudied group. Methods: Findings were based on a cross-sectional self-report survey. Lifetime relative odds of occurrence of mental disorders [i.e., psychiatric disorders typically diagnosed in adults, learning difficulties or deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)] were compared between Adult Lower Secondary Education students (n = 134) and Vocational Education students (n = 149). Results: While the frequency of mental health problems was high in both groups, psychiatric disorders typically diagnosed in adults were more common in Adult Lower Secondary Education students than among other students. Vocational Education students reported higher rates of ADHD. Conclusion: There is a need for additional psychological resources for Adult Lower Secondary Education students, an educational level that is the last path for many to acquire a basic degree

Buenas prácticas en la adquisición de talento sector de bebidas no alcohólicas

El trabajo de investigación realizado aborda el tópico de las buenas prácticas en la Adquisición de Talento en el sector de Bebidas No Alcohólicas, enfocado en las principales empresas de dicho sector. Actualmente, en la era digital, el reclutamiento ha pasado a segundo término, ya que las principales empresas a nivel nacional e internacional consideran que la clave para encontrar a las personas ideales para su organización está en el proceso llamado ―Adquisición de Talento‖, conformado por sus cuatro subprocesos, que son: (a) planeación, (b) reclutamiento, (c) selección, y (d) socialización. La Adquisición de Talento incluye el reclutamiento, pero va más allá, ya que tiene una visión integral a largo plazo, es estratégica, alineada al negocio, se preocupa de la experiencia de los usuarios que participan en el proceso creando relaciones a largo plazo, y cuenta con data e indicadores para tomar decisiones informadas y acertadas que agreguen valor a la organización. En la investigación, se utilizó un enfoque cualitativo y entrevistas a profundidad realizadas a gerentes y jefes del área de Capital Humano de empresas líderes en el sector de Bebidas No Alcohólicas, las cuales fueron el instrumento utilizado para la recolección de datos. La estrategia de análisis utilizada fue el método del caso, así como el procesamiento y análisis de datos, los cuales se realizaron a través del software Atlas.ti. Los resultados de la investigación permitieron identificar buenas prácticas en la Adquisición de Talento, como programas de atracción y desarrollo de talento para los jóvenes millennials, el modelo por competencias, la importancia de la marca empleadora que permite a la empresa atraer al talento que requiere, y herramientas como nine box, entre otras. Asimismo, describe los indicadores más adecuados para medir la gestión de la Adquisición de Talento y sus respectivos subprocesos.The research work carried out addresses the topic of good practices in the Talent Acquisition in the non-alcoholic beverages sector, focused on the main companies in the sector. Currently, in the digital age, recruitment has gone down to second place, since the main companies at a national and international level consider that the key to finding the ideal people for their organization is in the process called ―Acquisition of Talent‖, formed for its four subprocesses, which are: (a) planning, (b) recruitment, (c) selection, and (d) socialization. The Acquisition of Talent includes the recruitment, but it goes further, since it has a long-term integral vision, it is strategic, it is aligned to the business, it cares about the experience of the users that participate in the process creating long-term relationships, and It has data and indicators to make informed and accurate decisions that add value to the organization. In the research, a qualitative approach and in-depth interviews were carried out with managers and heads of the Human Capital area of leading companies in the Non-Alcoholic Beverages sector, which were the instrument used for data collection. The analysis strategy used was the case method, as well as the data processing and analysis, which were carried out using the Atlas.ti software. The results of the research allowed us to identify good practices in Talent Acquisition, such as talent attraction and development programs for young millennials, the competency model, the importance of the employer brand that allows the company to attract the talent it needs, and tools like nine box, among others. It also describes the most appropriate indicators to measure the management of the Talent Acquisition and their respective subprocesses.Tesi

Formación de callos de Persea americana Mill. cultivar Catalina a partir de segmentos de hojas de plantas in vitro

The importance of establishing protocols for the regeneration of fruit-trees through out the organogenesis and the somatic embryogenesis is based on the possibility to use them in the propagation of the species or in programs of genetic improvement. Specifically the Catalina cultivar is very coveted in Cuba, however it has not been introduced in vitro. The present work had the objective of forming callus starting from leaves of in vitro plants from avocado tree of the Catalina cultivar. The phase of multiplication of the in vitro plants was carried out in temporary immersion systems in order to favour the expansion of the leaves. Erlenmeyers 1.0l were used In the TIS and immersions every four and eight hours with a minute of duration were carried out. The effect of the Picloram, the 6 BAP and the 2,4-D on leaves of in vitro plants for the formation of callus was studied. The plants with more quality were obtained when immersions every 8 hours were carried out. It was also possible to form callus using sections of leaves of in vitro plants as explants in a culture medium with 0.1 Picloram mgl-1.Key words: in vitro plant leaves, temporary immersion systemLa importancia de establecer protocolos para la regeneración de árboles frutales a través de la organogénesis y la embriogénesis somática está dada por la posibilidad de utilizarlos en la propagación masiva de la especie o en programas de mejoramiento genético. Específicamente en el caso del Aguacatero el cultivar Catalina es muy codiciado en Cuba, sin embargo no ha sido introducido en el cultivo in vitro. Con el objetivo de formar callos de aguacatero cultivar Catalina se emplearon hojas de plantas in vitro que se habían multiplicado en sistemas de inmersión temporal (SIT) para favorecer la expansión de los limbos foliares. En los SIT se emplearon Erlenmeyers de 1 litro y se realizaron inmersiones cada cuatro y ocho horas con un minuto de duración. Para la formación de callos se estudió el efecto del Picloram, el 6 BAP y el 2,4-D. Las plantas de mayor calidad se obtuvieron al realizar en los SIT inmersiones cada 8h. Fue posible formar callos utilizando como explantes secciones de hojas de plantas in vitro en un medio de cultivo con 0.1 mgl-1 de Picloram.Palabras clave: limbos foliares, plantas in vitro, sistema de inmersión tempora

Agrupaciones para la extracción de entidades clínicas

Health records are a valuable source of clinical knowledge and Natural Language Processing techniques have previously been applied to the text in health records for a number of applications. Often, a first step in clinical text processing is clinical entity recognition; identifying, for example, drugs, disorders, and body parts in clinical text. However, most of this work has focused on records in English. Therefore, this work aims to improve clinical entity recognition for languages other than English by comparing the same methods on two different languages, specifically by employing ensemble methods. Models were created for Spanish and Swedish health records using SVM, Perceptron, and CRF and four different feature sets, including unsupervised features. Finally, the models were combined in ensembles. Weighted voting was applied according to the models individual F-scores. In conclusion, the ensembles improved the overall performance for Spanish and the precision for Swedish.Los informes médicos son una valiosa fuente de conocimiento clínico. Las técnicas de Procesamiento del Lenguaje Natural han sido aplicadas al procesamiento de informes médicos para diversas aplicaciones. Generalmente un primer paso es la detección de entidades médicas: identificar medicamentos, enfermedades y partes del cuerpo. Sin embargo, la mayoría de los trabajos se han desarrollado para informes en Inglés. El objetivo de este trabajo es mejorar el reconocimiento de entidades médicas para otras lenguas diferentes a Inglés, comparando los mismos métodos en dos lenguas y utilizando agrupaciones de modelos. Los modelos han sido creados para informes médicos en Español y Sueco utilizando SVM, Perceptron, CRF y cuatro conjuntos diferentes de atributos, incluyendo atributos no supervisados. Para el modelo combinado se ha aplicado votación ponderada teniendo en cuenta la F-measure individual. En conclusión, el modelo combinado mejora el rendimiento general y para posibles mejoras debemos investigar métodos más sofisticados de agrupación.This work has been partially funded by the Spanish ministry (PROSAMED: TIN2016-77820-C3-1-R, TADEEP: TIN2015-70214-P), the Basque Government (DETEAMI: 2014111003), the University of the Basque Country UPV-EHU (MOV17/14) and the Nordic Center of Excellence in Health-Related e-Sciences (NIASC)

Disseny i aplicació d'una plataforma digital per a la millora dels aprenentatges de l'alumnat

La finalitat del projecte ha estat la creació d'una plataforma multimèdia, que mitjançant l'estratègia didàctica del cas permetés optimitzar el seguiment dels aprenentatges de l'alumnat, millorar els materials de docència i promoure l'autoresponsabilitat i l'autoaprenentatge. Per a això, s'ha seguit una metodologia de treball en quatre etapes: 1. Definició del perfil de competències del psicòleg organitzacional. 2. Establiment dels nivells de competència per assignatura. 3. Utilització del cas com a estratègia didàctica. 4. Confecció d'una eina multimèdia d'aprenentatge que conté un simulador d'organitzacions i empreses (e.OS d'aprenentatge) i un gestor de continguts (CMS, de l'anglès Content Management System).La finalidad del proyecto ha sido la creación de una plataforma multimedia, que mediante la estrategia didáctica del caso permitiera optimizar el seguimiento de los aprendizajes del alumnado, mejorar los materiales de docencia y promover la auto-responsabilidad y el autoaprendizaje. Para eso, se ha seguido una metodología de trabajo en cuatro etapas: 1. Definición del perfil de competencias del psicólogo organizacional. 2. Establecimiento de los niveles de competencia por asignatura. 3. Utilización del caso como estrategia didáctica. 4. Confección de una herramienta multimedia de aprendizaje que contiene un simulador de organizaciones y empresas (e.OS de aprendizaje) y un gestor de contenidos (CMS, del inglés Content Management System).The purpose of the project was to create a multimedia platform, which by means of the strategy teaching of the case would enable monitoring of students' learning to be optimised, teaching materials to be improved and which would self-promote independent responsibility and independent learning. To that end, a four-stage working methodology was followed: 1. Definition of the skills profile of the organisational psychologist. 2. Establishment of the skills levels by course. 3. Use of the case as a teaching strategy. 4. Production of a multimedia learning tool that contains an organisation and business simulator (Learning e.OS) and a CMS (Content Management System)