Effect of CGM in the HbA1c and Coefficient of Variation of glucose in a pediatric sample

Aim of the study: Previous studies have found no significant improvements in glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), while using Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM), with children and adolescents. The aim of this paper is to measure the change in HbA1c, and the Coefficient of Variation in glucose levels, when using CGM, once the effect of other relevant variables, such as gender, actual age, the years the patient has had diabetes, use of an insulin pump, the presence of autoimmune disease, other associated pathologies, and weekly hours of exercise, are controlled for. Methods: This is a retrospective study that uses a linear regression model. Data was collected from Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus (T1DM), children diagnosed between 2003 and 2017 in the Pediatric Unit for Diabetes in Zaragoza, Spain. We used a linear regression and the method of estimation is Ordinary Least Squares. Results: Results show that the use of CGM decreased the HbA1c value by 3.5% and the Coefficient of Variation by 14%. Conclusions: The implication of these results is that this device helped in the management of diabetes, although more research is needed to distinguish between different devices in terms of their efficacy

Digitisation of a modular plug and play 3D printed continuous flow system for chemical synthesis

We describe the development of a digital modular 3D printed continuous flow system to carry out both classical and photochemical synthesis that uses a novel PC based software interface for communication. Using this system, we describe how we were able to both control and monitor reaction conditions at the same time. The system integrates in-line sensors via a simple cassette based system that is analogous to a retro-games console enabling hot-swapping of modules by a user. A PC-interface platform was created to automate both its functional control, including the injection of solvents, and the visualization of sensor-reported data. The utility of the system was demonstrated by performing a series of reactions highlighting the importance that precise control of solvent flow rate and accurate reporting of reaction temperatures can have on standardization and reproducibility and that the system can be easily modified to allow for scale-up synthesis

Learning Users’ Interests in a Market-Based Recommender System

Recommender systems are widely used to cope with the problem of information overload and, consequently, many recommendation methods have been developed. However, no one technique is best for all users in all situations. To combat this, we have previously developed a market-based recommender system that allows multiple agents (each representing a different recommendation method or system) to compete with one another to present their best recommendations to the user. Our marketplace thus coordinates multiple recommender agents and ensures only the best recommendations are presented. To do this effectively, however, each agent needs to learn the users’ interests and adapt its recommending behaviour accordingly. To this end, in this paper, we develop a reinforcement learning and Boltzmann exploration strategy that the recommender agents can use for these tasks. We then demonstrate that this strategy helps the agents to effectively obtain information about the users’ interests which, in turn, speeds up the market convergence and enables the system to rapidly highlight the best recommendations

Disparities in the Burden of HIV/AIDS in Canada

Background We aimed to characterize changes in patterns of new HIV diagnoses, HIV-related mortality, and HAART use in Canada from 1995 to 2008. Methods Data on new HIV diagnoses were obtained from Health Canada, HIV-related mortality statistics were obtained from Statistics Canada, and information on the number of people on HAART was obtained from the single antiretroviral distribution site in British Columbia (BC), and the Intercontinental Marketing Services Health for Ontario and Quebec. Trends of new HIV-positive tests were assessed using Spearman rank correlations and the association between the number of individuals on HAART and new HIV diagnoses were estimated using generalized estimating equations (GEE). Results A total of 34,502 new HIV diagnoses were observed. Rates of death in BC are higher than those in Ontario and Quebec with the rate being 2.03 versus 1.06 and 1.21 per 100,000 population, respectively. The number of HIV infected individuals on HAART increased from 5,091 in 1996 to 20,481 in 2008 in the three provinces (4 fold increase). BC was the only province with a statistically significant decrease (trend test p<0.0001) in the rate of new HIV diagnoses from 18.05 to 7.94 new diagnoses per 100,000 population. Our analysis showed that for each 10% increment in HAART coverage the rate of new HIV diagnoses decreased by 8% (95% CI: 2.4%, 13.3%) Interpretation Except for British Columbia, the number of new HIV diagnoses per year has remained relatively stable across Canada over the study period. The decline in the rate of new HIV diagnoses per year may be in part attributed to the greater expansion of HAART coverage in this province

A novel algorithm for dynamic student profile adaptation based on learning styles

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.E-learning recommendation systems are used to enhance student performance and knowledge by providing tailor- made services based on the students’ preferences and learning styles, which are typically stored in student profiles. For such systems to remain effective, the profiles need to be able to adapt and reflect the students’ changing behaviour. In this paper, we introduce new algorithms that are designed to track student learning behaviour patterns, capture their learning styles, and maintain dynamic student profiles within a recommendation system (RS). This paper also proposes a new method to extract features that characterise student behaviour to identify students’ learning styles with respect to the Felder-Silverman learning style model (FSLSM). In order to test the efficiency of the proposed algorithm, we present a series of experiments that use a dataset of real students to demonstrate how our proposed algorithm can effectively model a dynamic student profile and adapt to different student learning behaviour. The results revealed that the students could effectively increase their learning efficiency and quality for the courses when the learning styles are identified, and proper recommendations are made by using our method

The Effect of Expanded Antiretroviral Treatment Strategies on the HIV Epidemic among Men Who Have Sex with Men in San Francisco

Modeling of expanding antiretroviral treatment to all HIV infected adults already in care in San Francisco predicts reductions in new HIV infections at 5 years of 59% among men who have sex with men (MSM). Addition of annual HIV testing for MSM to universal treatment decreases new infections by 76%

β decay of semi-magic 130Cd: Revision and extension of the level scheme of 130 In

A. Jungclaus et al.; 8 págs.; 5 figs.; 3 tabs.The β decay of the semi-magic nucleus Cd130 has been studied at the RIBF facility at the RIKEN Nishina Center. The high statistics of the present experiment allowed for a revision of the established level scheme of In130 and the observation of additional β feeding to high-lying core-excited states in In130. The experimental results are compared to shell-model calculations employing a model space consisting of the full major N=50-82 neutron and Z=28-50 proton shells and the NA-14 interaction, and good agreement is found. ©2016 American Physical SocietyWe thank the staff of the RIKEN Nishina Center accelerator complex for providing stable beams with high intensities to the experiment. We acknowledge the EUROBALL Owners Committee for the loan of germanium detectors and the PreSpec Collaboration for the readout electronics of the cluster detectors. This work was supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación under contract FPA2011-29854-C04 and the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad under Contract No. FPA2014-57196-C5- 4-P, the Generalitat Valenciana (Spain) under Grant No. PROMETEO/2010/101, the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (MEST) (NRF-2014S1A2A2028636, 2016K1A3A7A09005579), the Priority Centers Research Program in Korea (2009-0093817), OTKA Contract No. K-100835, JSPS KAKENHI (Grant No. 25247045), the European Commission through the Marie Curie Actions call FP7-PEOPLE-2011-IEF under Contract No. 300096, the US Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Physics, under Contract No.DE-AC02-06CH11357, the STFC (UK), the “RIKEN foreign research program,” the German BMBF (No. 05P12RDCIA, No. 05P12RDNUP, and No. 05P12PKFNE), HIC for FAIR, the DFG cluster of excellence “Origin and Structure of the Universe,” and DFG (Contract No. KR2326/2-1).Peer Reviewe

First observation of γ rays emitted from excited states south-east of Sn132: The πg−19/2⊗νf7/2 multiplet of In83132

A. Jungclaus et al. ; 6 págs.; 4 figs. ; Rapid CommunicationsFor the first time, the γ decay of excited states has been observed in a nucleus situated in the quadrant south-east of doubly magic Sn132, a region in which experimental information so far is limited to ground-state properties. Six γ rays with energies of 50, 86, 103, 227, 357, and 602 keV were observed following the β-delayed neutron emission from Cd85133, populated in the projectile fission of a U238 beam at the Radioactive Isotope Beam Factory at RIKEN within the EURICA project. The new experimental information is compared to the results of a modern realistic shell-model calculation, the first one in this region very far from stability, focusing in particular on the π0g9/2-1 - ν1f7/2 particle-hole multiplet in In83132. In addition, theoretical estimates based on a scaling of the two-body matrix elements for the πh11/2-1 - νg9/2 analog multiplet in Tl127208, one major proton and one major neutron shell above, are presented. ©2016 American Physical SocietyWe thank the staff of the RIKEN Nishina Center accelerator complex for providing stable beams with high intensities to the experiment. We acknowledge the EUROBALL Owners Committee for the loan of germanium detectors and the PreSpec Collaboration for the readout electronics of the cluster detectors. This work was supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación under Contract No. FPA2011-29854-C04 and the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad under Contract No. FPA2014-57196-C5- 4-P, the Generalitat Valenciana (Spain) under Grant No. PROMETEO/2010/101, the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (MEST) (No. NRF-2012R1A1A1041763), the Priority Centers Research Program in Korea (2009-0093817), OTKA Contract No. K-100835, JSPS KAKENHI (Grant No. 25247045), the European Commission through the Marie Curie Actions call PEOPLE-2011FP7-IEF under Contract No. 300096 and the German BMBF (No. 05P12RDCIA and No. 05P12RDNUP), and Helmholtz International Center for FAIR.Peer Reviewe

Application and Validation of Case-Finding Algorithms for Identifying Individuals with Human Immunodeficiency Virus from Administrative Data in British Columbia, Canada

Objective To define a population-level cohort of individuals infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in the province of British Columbia from available registries and administrative datasets using a validated case-finding algorithm. Methods Individuals were identified for possible cohort inclusion from the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS (CfE) drug treatment program (antiretroviral therapy) and laboratory testing datasets (plasma viral load (pVL) and CD4 diagnostic test results), the BC Centre for Disease Control (CDC) provincial HIV surveillance database (positive HIV tests), as well as databases held by the BC Ministry of Health (MoH); the Discharge Abstract Database (hospitalizations), the Medical Services Plan (physician billing) and PharmaNet databases (additional HIV-related medications). A validated case-finding algorithm was applied to distinguish true HIV cases from those likely to have been misclassified. The sensitivity of the algorithms was assessed as the proportion of confirmed cases (those with records in the CfE, CDC and MoH databases) positively identified by each algorithm. A priori hypotheses were generated and tested to verify excluded cases. Results A total of 25,673 individuals were identified as having at least one HIV-related health record. Among 9,454 unconfirmed cases, the selected case-finding algorithm identified 849 individuals believed to be HIV-positive. The sensitivity of this algorithm among confirmed cases was 88%. Those excluded from the cohort were more likely to be female (44.4% vs. 22.5%; p<0.01), had a lower mortality rate (2.18 per 100 person years (100PY) vs. 3.14/100PY; p<0.01), and had lower median rates of health service utilization (days of medications dispensed: 9745/100PY vs. 10266/100PY; p<0.01; days of inpatient care: 29/100PY vs. 98/100PY; p<0.01; physician billings: 602/100PY vs. 2,056/100PY; p<0.01). Conclusions The application of validated case-finding algorithms and subsequent hypothesis testing provided a strong framework for defining a population-level cohort of HIV infected people in BC using administrative databases

HIV Serostatus and Having Access to a Physician for Regular Hepatitis C Virus Care Among People Who Inject Drugs

Background: People who inject drugs (PWID) and who are living with HIV and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection are vulnerable to a range of health-related harms, including liver cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma, and death. There is limited evidence describing how HIV serostatus shapes access to a physician for regular HCV care among PWID