How «personal» is the «personal Health Record»? Technology and patient empowerment in the care of Diabetes

This paper explores the role and meaning of medical information against the backdrop of new digital tools that allow for new forms of data management and sharing within the healthcare management network. The research investigates data management practices by parents of children with Type 1 diabetes as they are enabled by a Personal Health Record to become stewards of their own medical information. The underlying assumption of this and similar technologies is that they would support patient-provided collaboration and reduce the information gap between clinical encounters. Drawing on a qualitative research design, the authors analyze data management and sharing practices among patients and healthcare providers before and after the introduction of a digital logbook for diabetes management in the pediatric department of a hospital in northern Italy. The paper reveals how patients interpreted their new roles in terms of restricting access to their information, rather than facilitating its dissemination, to preserve their own competence and independent management of the information regarding their ≪PersonalGt; diseases

Pessimistic Rescaling and Distribution Shift of Boosting Models for Impression-Aware Online Advertising Recommendation

In this paper, we provide an overview of the approach we used as team Gabibboost for the ACM RecSys Challenge 2023, organized by ShareChat and Moj. The challenge focused on predicting user activity in the online advertising setting based on impression data, in particular, predicting whether a user would install an advertised application using a high-dimensional anonymized feature vector. Our proposed solution is based on an ensemble model that combines the strengths of several machine learning sub-models, including CatBoost, LightGBM, HistGradientBoosting, and two hybrid models. Our proposal is able to harness the strengths of our models through a distribution shift postprocessing and fine-Tune the final prediction via a custom build pessimistic rescaling function. The final ensemble model allowed us to rank 1st on the academic leaderboard and 9th overall

A nested-PCR with an Internal Amplification Control for the detection and differentiation of Bartonella henselae and B. clarridgeiae: An examination of cats in Trinidad

BACKGROUND: Bartonella species are bacterial blood parasites of animals capable of causing disease in both animals and man. Cat-Scratch Disease (CSD) in humans is caused mainly by Bartonella henselae and is acquired from the cat, which serves as a reservoir for the bacteria. A second species, B. clarridgeiae is also implicated in the disease. Diagnosis of Bartonellosis by culture requires a week or more of incubation on enriched media containing blood, and recovery is often complicated by faster growing contaminating bacteria and fungi. PCR has been explored as an alternative to culture for both the detection and species identification of Bartonella, however sensitivity problems have been reported and false negative reactions due to blood inhibitors have not generally been addressed in test design. METHODS: A novel, nested-PCR was designed for the detection of Bartonella henselae and B. clarridgeiae based on the strategy of targeting species-specific size differences in the 16S-23S rDNA intergenic regions. An Internal Amplification Control was used for detecting PCR inhibition. The nested-PCR was utilized in a study on 103 blood samples from pet and stray cats in Trinidad. RESULTS: None of the samples were positive by primary PCR, but the Nested-PCR detected Bartonella in 32/103 (31%) cats where 16 were infected with only B. henselae, 13 with only B. clarridgeiae and 3 with both species. Of 22 stray cats housed at an animal shelter, 13 (59%) were positive for either or both species, supporting the reported increased incidence of Bartonella among feral cats. CONCLUSION: The usefulness of a single PCR for the detection of Bartonella henselae and B. clarridgeiae in the blood of cats is questionable. A nested-PCR offers increased sensitivity over a primary PCR and should be evaluated with currently used methods for the routine detection and speciation of Bartonella henselae and B. clarridgeiae. In Trinidad, B. henselae and B. clarridgeiae are the predominant species in cats and infection appears highest with stray cats, however B. clarridgeiae may be present at levels similar to that of B. henselae in the pet population

Evaluation design of the Social Engagement Framework for Addressing the Chronic-disease-challenge (SEFAC)

Background: The Social Engagement Framework for Addressing the Chronic-disease-challenge (SEFAC) project intends to empower citizens at risk of or with type 2 diabetes (T2DM) and/or cardiovascular disease (CVD) to selfmanage their chronic conditions through the SEFAC intervention. The intervention combines the concepts of mindfulness, social engagement and information and communication technology support, in order to reduce the burden of citizens with chronic conditions and to increase the sustainability of the health system in four European countries. Methods: A prospective cohort study with a 6-month pre-post design will be conducted in four European countries: Croatia, Italy, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. A total of 360 community-dwelling citizens ≥50 years of age will be recruited; 200 citizens at risk of T2DM and/or CVD in the next 10 years (50 participants in each country) and 160 citizens with T2DM and/or CVD (40 participants in each country). Effects of the intervention in terms of selfmanagement, healthy lifestyle behavior, social support, stress, depression, sleep and fatigue, adherence to medications and health-related quality of life will be assessed. In addition, a preliminary cost-effectiveness analysis will be performed from a societal and healthcare perspective. Discussion: The SEFAC project will further elucidate whether the SEFAC intervention is feasible and (cost-) effective among citizens at risk of and suffering from T2DM and/or CVD in different settings. Trial registration: ISRCTN registry number is ISRCTN11248135

Hormone-diversity fit: Collective testosterone moderates the effect of diversity on group performance

Prior research has found inconsistent effects of diversity on group performance. Past moderators of the diversity-performance connection have primarily focused on psychological factors and group dynamics, however hormonal moderators related to status attainment motivation have been overlooked. Integrating the diversity, status and hormone literatures, we predicted that groups collectively high in testosterone, which is associated with heightened status drive, would perform optimally when group diversity was low. In contrast, we predicted that groups collectively low in testosterone, which should be less oriented towards status competitions and more oriented toward cooperation, would take advantage of group diversity. Analysis of 74 groups engaged in a group decision-making exercise provided support for our hypotheses. The findings suggest that diversity is beneficial for performance only if group-level testosterone is low but has a negative performance effect if group-level testosterone is high. Too much collective testosterone maximizes the pains and minimizes the gains from diversity