New nodules at incidence low-dose CT lung cancer screening

Longkanker is met 1,6 miljoen sterfgevallen per jaar wereldwijd de belangrijkste kankergerelateerde doodsoorzaak. Een vroege diagnose is essentieel voor overleving en de 5-jaars overlevingscijfers variëren van 12 tot 100%, afhankelijk van het stadium van longkanker. Tijdens longkankerscreening met laaggedoseerde computertomografie (CT) ondergaan hoogrisico (ex-)rokers in regelmatige tijdsintervallen een CT scan van de long om te evalueren of een vlekje (“nodule”) op de long te zien is. Deze vorm van screening wordt al toegepast in de Verenigde Staten. In Europa wordt gewacht op de eindresultaten van de Nederlands-Belgische longkanker screeningsstudie (NELSON). Dit proefschrift is gebaseerd op de NELSON-studie en is gericht op nieuwe nodules die tijdens de screeningsrondes ontstaan en niet aanwezig waren tijdens de allereerste CT scan van een deelnemer. Het doel is om goedaardige en kwaadaardige nieuwe nodules zo nauwkeurig mogelijk te onderscheiden om een zo vroeg mogelijke longkanker diagnose mogelijk te maken. In dit proefschrift werd gevonden dat nieuwe nodules regelmatig worden aangetroffen tijdens CT longkankerscreening en dat deze nodules een hoge longkankerkans hebben, zelfs als ze klein zijn. Daarom werd een geoptimaliseerde beslissingsstrategie ontwikkeld, die een vroege detectie van longkanker in nieuwe nodules mogelijk maakt. Het juiste beleid voor nieuw gedetecteerde nodules tijdens een lopend longkankerscreeningsprogramma is de sleutel tot het succes van de screening, aangezien dat uiteindelijk de meeste longkankers zullen worden gevonden in nieuwe nodules

Mr. and Mrs. Mondale, 20 October 1977

Copy printed invitation from Vice President & Mrs. Mondale to dinner honoring Hubert H. Humphrey on 20 October 1977. Attached: RSVP card and envelope. Originals removed to VIP Restricted Access location.https://egrove.olemiss.edu/joecorr_h/1028/thumbnail.jp

Environmental justice and the SDGs: from synergies to gaps and contradictions

Through their synergies, trade-offs, and contradictions, the sustainable development goals (SDGs) have the potential to lead to environmental justices and injustices. Yet, environmental justice (EJ), and social justice more broadly, are not currently embedded within the language and spirit of the SDGs. We part from the premise that “many ‘environmental’ problems are, by their very nature, problems of justice” (Lele, Wiley Interdiscip Rev Water 4:e1224, 2017). We review progress in EJ frameworks in recent years, arguing for the need to move beyond a focus on the four principles of mainstream EJ (distribution, procedure, recognition, and capabilities) towards a more intersectional decolonial approach to environmental justice that recognises the indispensability of both humans and non-humans. EJ frameworks, and the SDGs should recognise power dynamics, complex interactions among injustices, and listens to the different ‘senses of justice’ and desires of theorists, activists, and other stakeholder from the Global South. We analyze how EJ frameworks are, or fail to be, incorporated in the SDGs with a focus on the food–water–health nexus (SDG2, 3, 6); climate-energy (SDG7, 13), conservation (SDG14, 15); and poverty and inequality (SDG1, 10). We call attention to the ‘elephant in the room’—the failure to go beyond GDP but instead include economic growth as a goal (SDG8). We argue that sustainable degrowth and intersectional decolonial environmental justices would create better conditions for the transformative changes needed to reach the broader aim of the SDGs: to leave no one behind

Semi-automated procedure for windowing time series and computing Fourier amplitude spectra (FAS) for the NGA-West2 database

This document introduces and describes the data processing methods developed for computing Fourier amplitude spectra (FAS) in the NGA-West2 project. The products of this study can be used to estimate high-frequency attenuation, kappa (κ), to estimate site amplification through empirical spectral ratios, as well as to aid in the development of ground-motion models (GMMs) based on FAS. To accommodate different potential user objectives, we selected five time windows in the acceleration time series (noise, P-wave, S-wave, coda, and the entire record) for which we compute the FAS. The processing starts with the time-aligned, instrument-corrected, tapered, and filtered acceleration time series. The proposed window selection method is developed through trial and error, and tested against a range of ground motions with different magnitudes and hypocentral distances from different regions. This document summarizes the steps for window selection and FAS computation, and describes the output data format. This report will be accompanied by the final products of the PEER NGA-West2 Project, namely, the published report describing the database [Ancheta et al. 2013] and the flatfile, which can be downloaded in excel format at: http://peer.berkeley.edu/ngawest2/databases/

Convergence of gut microbiotas in the adaptive radiations of African cichlid fishes

Ecoevolutionary dynamics of the gut microbiota at the macroscale level, that is, in across-species comparisons, are largely driven by ecological variables and host genotype. The repeated explosive radiations of African cichlid fishes in distinct lakes, following a dietary diversification in a context of reduced genetic diversity, provide a natural setup to explore convergence, divergence and repeatability in patterns of microbiota dynamics as a function of the host diet, phylogeny and environment. Here we characterized by 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing the gut microbiota of 29 cichlid species from two distinct lakes/radiations (Tanganyika and Barombi Mbo) and across a broad dietary and phylogenetic range. Within each lake, a significant deviation between a carnivorous and herbivorous lifestyle was found. Herbivore species were characterized by an increased bacterial taxonomic and functional diversity and converged in key compositional and functional community aspects. Despite a significant lake effect on the microbiota structure, this process has occurred with remarkable parallels in the two lakes. A metabolic signature most likely explains this trend, as indicated by a significant enrichment in herbivores/omnivores of bacterial taxa and functions associated with fiber degradation and detoxification of plant chemical compounds. Overall, compositional and functional aspects of the gut microbiota individually and altogether validate and predict main cichlid dietary habits, suggesting a fundamental role of gut bacteria in cichlid niche expansion and adaptation

Trabajo remoto y productividad laboral en los trabajadores de una institución administradora de fondos de aseguramiento en salud, año 2022

El presente estudio, nace de la aplicación del trabajo remoto en plena pandemia por covid19, la problemática surge al querer indagar si es productividad laboral entre los trabajadores institución administradora de fondos de aseguramiento en salud en el año 2022 fue del todo eficiente y de esta idea se plantea objetivo general comprobar si existe relación entre el trabajo remoto y la productividad laboral. La investigación es tipo básica, de nivel descriptivo correlacional, diseño transversal y enfoque cuantitativo. Los datos se obtuvieron mediante dos cuestionarios de 22 y 18 preguntas que están relacionadas con las dos variables de estudio. La muestra utilizada corresponde a 159 trabajadores de la institución. Los valores obtenidos en la confiabilidad de los instrumentos fueron 0.865 para el trabajo remoto y 0.947 para la productividad laboral. Finalmente los datos obtenidos mediante la prueba de chi cuadrado de Pearson entregaron valores menores al 5%, con lo cual se dio por rechazada las hipótesis nulas y tomar las hipótesis alternas como correcta

Famous Last Words

What would your professor have to say at their \u27last lecture\u27? Would they give advice? Would they reminisce? Would they talk about academics? Would they talk about spirituality? Come to the Fairfield University \u27Last Lecture\u27 series and find out. Find out more about your professors. Find out what makes them tick.https://digitalcommons.fairfield.edu/bennettcenter-posters/1307/thumbnail.jp

A methodology for the estimation of kappa (κ) for large datasets. Example application to rock sites in the NGA-East database

This report reviews four of the main approaches (two band-limited and two broadband) currently used for estimating the site κ0: the acceleration slope (AS) above the corner frequency, the displacement slope (DS) below the corner frequency, the broadband (BB) fit of the spectrum, and the response spectral shape (RESP) template. Using these four methods, estimates of κ0 for rock sites in Central Eastern North America (CENA) in the shallow crustal dataset from NGAEast are computed for distances less than 100 km. Using all of the data within 100 km, the mean κ0 values are 8 msec for the AS approach and 27 msec for the DS approach. These mean values include negative κ estimates for some sites. If the negative κ values are removed, then the mean values are 25 msec and 42 msec, respectively. Stacking all spectra together led to mean κ0 values of 7 and 29 msec, respectively. Overall, the DS approach yields 2–3 times higher values than the AS, which agrees with previous observations, but the uncertainty of the estimates in each case is large. The AS approach seems consistent for magnitudes down to M3 but not below. There is large within-station variability of κ that may be related to differences in distance, Q, complexity along the path, or particular source characteristics, such as higher or lower stress drop. The station-to-station differences may be due to site-related factors. Because most sites have been assigned Vs30 = 2000 m/sec, it is not possible to correlate variations in κ0 with rock stiffness. Based on the available profile, the individual spectra are corrected for crustal amplification and only affect results below 15 Hz. Since the AS and DS approaches are applied over different frequency ranges, we find that only the DS results are sensitive to the amplification correction. More detailed knowledge of individual near-surface profiles may have effects on AS results, too. Although κ is considered to be caused solely by damping in the shallow crust, measurement techniques often cannot separate the effects of damping and amplification, and yield the net effect of both phenomena. The two broadband approaches, BB and RESP, yield similar results. The mean κ0_BB is 5±0.5 msec across all NEHRP class A sites. The κ0_RESP for the two events examined is 5 and 6 msec. From literature, the average value of κ0 in CENA is 6 ± 2 msec. This typical value is similar to the broadband estimates of this study and to the mean κAS when all available recordings are used along with all flags. When only recordings with down-going FAS slope are selected from the dataset, the mean value of κAS increases by a factor of 2–3. To evaluate the scaling of high-frequency ground motion with κ, we analyze residuals from ground motion prediction equations (GMPEs) versus κ estimates. Using the κ values from the AS approach, the average trend of the ln(PSA) residuals for hard-rock data do not show the expected strong dependence on κ, but when using κ values from the DS approach, there is a stronger correlation of the residuals, i.e., a κ that is more consistent with the commonly used analytically based scaling. The κDS estimates may better reflect the damping in the shallow crust, while the κAS estimates may reflect a net effect of damping and amplification that has not been decoupled. The κDS estimates are higher than the κAS estimates, so the expected effect on the high-frequency ground motion is smaller than that expected for the κAS estimates. An empirical hard-rock site factor model is developed that represents the combined Vs-κ0 site factor relative to a 760 m/sec reference-site condition. At low frequencies ( 10 Hz), the residuals do not show the strong increase in the site factors as seen in the analytical model results. A second hard-rock dataset from British Columbia, Canada, is also used. This BC hard-rock residuals show an increase in the 15–50 Hz range that is consistent with the analytical κ0 scaling for a hard-rock κ0 of about 0.015 sec. The variability of the PSA residuals is also used to evaluate the κ0 scaling for hard-rock sites from analytical modeling. The scatter in existing κ0 values found in literature is disproportionately large compared to the observed variability in high-frequency ground motions. We compared the predicted ground-motion variability based on analytical modeling to the observed variability in our residuals. While the hard-rock sites are more variable at high frequencies due to the additional κ0 variability, this additional variability is much less than the variability predicted by the analytical modeling using the variability from κ0-Vs30 correlations. This is consistent with weaker κ0 scaling compared to that predicted by the analytical modelling seen in the mean residuals

Electronic Health Records and Population Health Research

Adoption of electronic health records (EHRs) by clinical practices and hospitals in the US has increased substantially since 2009, and offers opportunities for population health researchers to access rich structured and unstructured clinical data on large, diverse, and geographically distributed populations. However, because EHRs are intended for clinical and administrative use, the data must be curated for effective use in research. We describe EHRs, examine their use in population health research, and compare the strengths and limitations of these applications to traditional epidemiologic methods. To date, EHR data have primarily been used to validate prior findings, to study specific diseases and population subgroups, to examine environmental and social factors and stigmatized conditions, to develop and implement predictive models, and to evaluate natural experiments. Although primary data collection may provide more reliable data and better population retention, EHR-based studies are less expensive and require less time to complete. In addition, large patient samples that can be readily identified from EHR data enable researchers to evaluate simultaneously multiple risk factors and/or outcomes while maintaining study power. In addition to current advantages, improved capture of social, behavioral, environmental, and genetic data, and use of natural language processing, clinical biobanks, and personal sensing via smartphone should further enable EHR researchers to understand complex diseases with multifactorial etiologies. Integrating emerging technologies with clinical care could lead to innovative approaches to precision public health, reduce health care spending on individuals, and directly improve population health

Squeezing Kappa (κ) out of the transportable array: A strategy for using bandlimited data in regions of sparse seismicity

The κ parameter (Anderson and Hough, 1984), and namely its site-specific component (κ0), is important for predicting and simulating high-frequency ground motion. We develop a framework for estimating κ0 and addressing uncertainties under the challenging conditions often imposed in practice: 1. Low seismicity (limited, poor-quality, distant records); 2. Limited-bandwidth data from the Transportable Array (maximum usable frequency 16 Hz); 3. Low magnitudes (ML1.2-3.4) and large uncertainty in stress drop (corner frequency). We cannot resolve stress drop within the bandwidth, so we propose an approach that only requires upper and lower bounds on its regional values to estimate κ0. To address uncertainties, we combine three measurement approaches (acceleration spectrum slope, AS; displacement spectrum slope, DS; broadband spectral fit, BB). We also examine the effect of crustal amplification, and find that neglecting it can affect κ0 by up to 35%. DS estimates greatly exceed AS estimates. We propose a reason behind this bias, related to the residual effect of the corner frequency on κAS and κDS. For our region, we estimate a frequency-independent mean S-wave Q of 900±300 at 9-16 Hz, and an ensemble mean κ0 over all sites of 0.033±0.014 s. This value is similar to the native κ0 of the NGA-West2 ground motion prediction equations, indicating that these do not need to be adjusted for κ0 for use in Southern Arizona. We find that stress drop values in this region may be higher compared to estimates of previous studies, possibly due to trade-offs between stress drop and κ0. For this dataset, the within-approach uncertainty is much larger than the between-approach uncertainty, and it cannot be reduced if the data quality is not improved. The challenges discussed here will be relevant in studies of κ for other regions with band-limited data, e.g., any region where data come primarily from the TA