Valid olfactory impairment tests can help identify mild cognitive impairment: an updated meta-analysis

BackgroundOlfactory testing is emerging as a potentially effective screening method for identifying mild cognitive impairment in the elderly population.ObjectiveOlfactory impairment is comorbid with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in older adults but is not well-documented in subdomains of either olfactory or subtypes of cognitive impairments in older adults. This meta-analysis was aimed at synthesizing the differentiated relationships with updated studies.MethodsA systematic search was conducted in seven databases from their availability to April 2023. A total of 38 publications were included, including 3,828 MCI patients and 8,160 healthy older adults. Two investigators independently performed the literature review, quality assessment, and data extraction. The meta-analyses were conducted with Stata to estimate the average effects and causes of the heterogeneity.ResultsCompared to normal adults, MCI patients had severe impairments in olfactory function and severe deficits in specific domains of odor identification and discrimination. Olfactory impairment was more severe in patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment than in patients with non-amnestic MCI. Diverse test instruments of olfactory function caused large heterogeneity in effect sizes.ConclusionValid olfactory tests can be complementary tools for accurate screening of MCI in older adults

Gene function prediction based on the Gene Ontology hierarchical structure.

The information of the Gene Ontology annotation is helpful in the explanation of life science phenomena, and can provide great support for the research of the biomedical field. The use of the Gene Ontology is gradually affecting the way people store and understand bioinformatic data. To facilitate the prediction of gene functions with the aid of text mining methods and existing resources, we transform it into a multi-label top-down classification problem and develop a method that uses the hierarchical relationships in the Gene Ontology structure to relieve the quantitative imbalance of positive and negative training samples. Meanwhile the method enhances the discriminating ability of classifiers by retaining and highlighting the key training samples. Additionally, the top-down classifier based on a tree structure takes the relationship of target classes into consideration and thus solves the incompatibility between the classification results and the Gene Ontology structure. Our experiment on the Gene Ontology annotation corpus achieves an F-value performance of 50.7% (precision: 52.7% recall: 48.9%). The experimental results demonstrate that when the size of training set is small, it can be expanded via topological propagation of associated documents between the parent and child nodes in the tree structure. The top-down classification model applies to the set of texts in an ontology structure or with a hierarchical relationship

Mobile health applications in self-management of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis of their efficacy

Abstract Background Mobile health applications are increasingly used in patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) to improve their self-management, nonetheless, without firm evidence of their efficacy. This meta-analysis was aimed to assess the efficacy of mobile health applications in supporting self-management as an intervention to reduce hospital admission rates and average days of hospitalization, etc. Methods PubMed, Web of Science (SCI), Cochrane Library, and Embase were searched for relevant articles published before November 14th, 2017. A total of 6 reports with randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were finally included in this meta-analysis. Results Patients using mobile phone applications may have a lower risk for hospital admissions than those in the usual care group (risk ratio (RR) = 0.73, 95% CI [0.52, 1.04]). However, there was no significant difference in reducing the average days of hospitalization. Conclusion Self-management with mobile phone applications could reduce hospital admissions of patients with COPD

What Type of Transitional Care Effectively Reduced Mortality and Improved ADL of Stroke Patients? A Meta-Analysis

Stroke is a major cause of disability and mortality worldwide; yet; prior to this study; there had been no sufficient evidence to support the effectiveness of various transitional care interventions (TCI) on the disability and mortality of stroke survivors. This meta-analysis aimed to assess the effectiveness of TCI in reducing mortality and improving the activities of daily life (ADL) of stroke patients. PubMed; Web of Science; OVID; EMBASE; CINAHL; and Sino-Med were searched for articles published before November 2016. Thirty-one randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were identified in the study. This analysis showed that the total effect of TCI on reducing mortality was limited (Risk Ratio (RR) = 0.86; 95% Confidence Interval (CI): 0.75–0.98); that only home-visiting programs could reduce mortality rates (RR = 0.34; 95% CI: 0.17–0.67) compared with usual care; and that the best intervention was led by a multidisciplinary team (MT) ≤3 months (RR = 0.19; 95% CI: 0.05–0.71). In addition; home-visiting programs also produced ADL benefit (RR = 0.56; 95% CI: 0.31–0.81). Overall; there was a statistically significant difference in improving patients’ independence between TCI and usual care (RR = 1.12; 95% CI: 1.02–1.23). However; none of the interventions was effective when they were differentiated in the analysis. It is the conclusion of this study that home-visiting programs; especially those led by MTs; should receive the greatest consideration by healthcare systems or providers for implementing TCI to stroke survivors

A Supplementary Lighting System for Plant Growth with Lighting-Emitting Diode Based on DT TS&IC

In order to achieve quantitative supplementary lighting at different stages of plant growth, design a lighting system with LED that can provide different light quality. The system monitor illumination of light quality with specific wavelength in real-time, ambient temperature, the amount of light that plant really need, and control the brightness of red, blue LED lights by pulse width modulation (PWM) signal. The system can be used for different plants at different growth stages under different environments with different demand in light quantity and quality , with accurate, intelligent, low-power features. The system prevents plants from suffering light deficiency or excess, improve energy efficiency

A Supplementary Lighting System for Plant Growth with Lighting-Emitting Diode Based on DT TS&IC

In order to achieve quantitative supplementary lighting at different stages of plant growth, design a lighting system with LED that can provide different light quality. The system monitor illumination of light quality with specific wavelength in real-time, ambient temperature, the amount of light that plant really need, and control the brightness of red, blue LED lights by pulse width modulation (PWM) signal. The system can be used for different plants at different growth stages under different environments with different demand in light quantity and quality , with accurate, intelligent, low-power features. The system prevents plants from suffering light deficiency or excess, improve energy efficiency

Increasing luminous efficiency of led by joint dimming mode with adjustable peak current

Luminous efficiency and color temperature of LED chip are affected by current and temperature. PWM dimming mode only works at two kinds of current levels-rated current and zero current. It has smaller effect on color temperature compared with linear dimming mode, but it will reduce the luminous efficiency of lamps. Linear dimming mode has higher luminous efficiency by comparison. The two dimming modes above cannot keep color temperature stable and Luminous efficiency high. Therefore, the paper designed a joint dimming mode by integrating advantages of the two modes. The dimming method not only adjusts peak current, but also changes the duty cycle of dimming signals. The injected average current is kept stable by reducing peak current and increasing the duty cycle. The decreased luminous efficiency by the raise of temperature was made up for. Then according to the mathematical model of total flux and current, the author calculates the mathematical mode of flux affected by temperature. It proves the fact that adjusting peak current slightly can compensates for the reduced luminous efficiency affected by temperature through theoretical calculation. In addition, the final peak current after calculation can contribute to the adjustment parameter of joint dimming modes

Increasing luminous efficiency of led by joint dimming mode with adjustable peak current

Luminous efficiency and color temperature of LED chip are affected by current and temperature. PWM dimming mode only works at two kinds of current levels-rated current and zero current. It has smaller effect on color temperature compared with linear dimming mode, but it will reduce the luminous efficiency of lamps. Linear dimming mode has higher luminous efficiency by comparison. The two dimming modes above cannot keep color temperature stable and Luminous efficiency high. Therefore, the paper designed a joint dimming mode by integrating advantages of the two modes. The dimming method not only adjusts peak current, but also changes the duty cycle of dimming signals. The injected average current is kept stable by reducing peak current and increasing the duty cycle. The decreased luminous efficiency by the raise of temperature was made up for. Then according to the mathematical model of total flux and current, the author calculates the mathematical mode of flux affected by temperature. It proves the fact that adjusting peak current slightly can compensates for the reduced luminous efficiency affected by temperature through theoretical calculation. In addition, the final peak current after calculation can contribute to the adjustment parameter of joint dimming modes

Improving clinical judgment by simulation: a randomized trial and validation of the Lasater clinical judgment rubric in Chinese

Abstract Background The development and assessment of clinical judgment ability are essential in nursing education. The Lasater Clinical Judgment Rubric (LCJR) was shown to be valid in evaluating nursing students’ learning outcomes and skills in western cultures but has not been validated in mainland China. This study aimed to compare a simulation-teaching model with a traditional teaching method in enhancing the clinical judgment ability of nursing undergraduate students and to validate the Chinese version of the Lasater Clinical Judgment Rubric (C-LCJR). Methods Four classes of nursing students (n = 157) at Hubei University of Chinese Medicine, China, were randomly assigned to two control and two experimental classes. The experimental classes were taught using simulation teaching with standardized patients, while the control classes were taught using traditional teaching methods. At the end of the experiment, students in both kinds of classes evaluated their clinical judgment using the C-LCJR. Teachers also rated the students but without knowing who had received the simulation teaching. Confirmatory factor analysis and a Multiple Indicators Multiple Causes (MIMIC) model with Bayesian estimation was fit to the rating data to investigate measurement properties and experimental effects. Results Compared to the control classes, students in the experimental classes performed better in all subdomains of C-LCJR (noticing, interpreting, responding, and reflecting). The measurement properties of the C-LCJR were found to be satisfactory with high factor loadings and reliabilities and no bias from age, gender, and raters. Conclusions The simulation teaching model is more effective than the traditional (non-simulation-based) teaching method in improving clinical judgment of Chinese nursing students. The C-LCJR is a valid and reliable instrument for measuring clinical judgment in nursing students in China