36 research outputs found

    Prevalence, associated factors and outcomes of pressure injuries in adult intensive care unit patients: the DecubICUs study

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    Funder: European Society of Intensive Care Medicine; doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100013347Funder: Flemish Society for Critical Care NursesAbstract: Purpose: Intensive care unit (ICU) patients are particularly susceptible to developing pressure injuries. Epidemiologic data is however unavailable. We aimed to provide an international picture of the extent of pressure injuries and factors associated with ICU-acquired pressure injuries in adult ICU patients. Methods: International 1-day point-prevalence study; follow-up for outcome assessment until hospital discharge (maximum 12 weeks). Factors associated with ICU-acquired pressure injury and hospital mortality were assessed by generalised linear mixed-effects regression analysis. Results: Data from 13,254 patients in 1117 ICUs (90 countries) revealed 6747 pressure injuries; 3997 (59.2%) were ICU-acquired. Overall prevalence was 26.6% (95% confidence interval [CI] 25.9–27.3). ICU-acquired prevalence was 16.2% (95% CI 15.6–16.8). Sacrum (37%) and heels (19.5%) were most affected. Factors independently associated with ICU-acquired pressure injuries were older age, male sex, being underweight, emergency surgery, higher Simplified Acute Physiology Score II, Braden score 3 days, comorbidities (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, immunodeficiency), organ support (renal replacement, mechanical ventilation on ICU admission), and being in a low or lower-middle income-economy. Gradually increasing associations with mortality were identified for increasing severity of pressure injury: stage I (odds ratio [OR] 1.5; 95% CI 1.2–1.8), stage II (OR 1.6; 95% CI 1.4–1.9), and stage III or worse (OR 2.8; 95% CI 2.3–3.3). Conclusion: Pressure injuries are common in adult ICU patients. ICU-acquired pressure injuries are associated with mainly intrinsic factors and mortality. Optimal care standards, increased awareness, appropriate resource allocation, and further research into optimal prevention are pivotal to tackle this important patient safety threat

    Design Optimization of Structural Parameters for Highly Sensitive Photonic Crystal Label-Free Biosensors

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    The effects of structural design parameters on the performance of nano-replicated photonic crystal (PC) label-free biosensors were examined by the analysis of simulated reflection spectra of PC structures. The grating pitch, duty, scaled grating height and scaled TiO2 layer thickness were selected as the design factors to optimize the PC structure. The peak wavelength value (PWV), full width at half maximum of the peak, figure of merit for the bulk and surface sensitivities, and surface/bulk sensitivity ratio were also selected as the responses to optimize the PC label-free biosensor performance. A parametric study showed that the grating pitch was the dominant factor for PWV, and that it had low interaction effects with other scaled design factors. Therefore, we can isolate the effect of grating pitch using scaled design factors. For the design of PC-label free biosensor, one should consider that: (1) the PWV can be measured by the reflection peak measurement instruments, (2) the grating pitch and duty can be manufactured using conventional lithography systems, and (3) the optimum design is less sensitive to the grating height and TiO2 layer thickness variations in the fabrication process. In this paper, we suggested a design guide for highly sensitive PC biosensor in which one select the grating pitch and duty based on the limitations of the lithography and measurement system, and conduct a multi objective optimization of the grating height and TiO2 layer thickness for maximizing performance and minimizing the influence of parameter variation. Through multi-objective optimization of a PC structure with a fixed grating height of 550 nm and a duty of 50%, we obtained a surface FOM of 66.18 RIU−1 and an S/B ratio of 34.8%, with a grating height of 117 nm and TiO2 height of 210 nm

    Maximising 3D printed supercapacitor capacitance through convolutional neural network guided Bayesian optimisation

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    A convolutional neural network (CNN) guided Bayesian optimisation framework is introduced to strategically maximise the surface to volume ratio of 3D printed lattice supercapacitors. We applied Bayesian optimisation on printing parameters to exploit regions where uniform and narrow lines are printed. A line shape classifying CNN model guided the optimiser’s search space to straight-line printed regions, minimising optimisation time and cost. An automatic scoring method allowed each iteration to be conducted within two minutes with accurate and precise measurements. The optimisation process has been demonstrated with graphene oxide (GO) and poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):polystyrene sulphonate (PEDOT:PSS) inks. The results were compared to the parameters that follow the conventional methodologies of direct ink writing (DIW) 3D printing. For each printed line of GO and PEDOT:PSS inks, irregularities decreased by 61.8% and 18.9% and average widths decreased by 39.0% and 28.6%. PEDOT:PSS lattice supercapacitor printed using optimised result showed a 151.0% increase in specific capacitance

    Analysis of Connection Times in Bipartite Network Data: Development of the Bayesian Latent Space Accumulator Model with Applications to Assessment Data

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    Conventional social network analysis typically focuses on analyzing the structure of the connections between pairs of nodes in a sample dataset. However, the process and the consequences of how long it takes pairs of nodes to be connected, i.e., node connection times, on the network structure have been understudied in the literature. In this article, we propose a novel statistical approach, so-called the Bayesian latent space accumulator model, for modeling connection times and their influence on the structure of connections. We focus on a special type of bipartite network composed of respondents and test items, where connection outcomes are binary and mutually exclusive. To model connection times for each connection outcome, we leverage ideas from the competing risk modeling approach and embed latent spaces into the competing risk models to capture heterogeneous dependence structures of connection times across connection outcome types. The proposed approach is applied and illustrated with two real data examples
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