Cardiovascular Diseases and the Risk of Venous Thromboembolism: A Hospital-based Case-control Study

BackgroundThe effects of various cardiovascular diseases on the risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE) are not well defined. To gather more information, we performed a hospital-based case-control study to evaluate the effects of major cardiovascular diseases on the risk of VTE.MethodsWe identified all incident cases of VTE needing hospitalization and anticoagulant therapy between January 1990 and December 2002 in a large tertiary hospital. Each case was matched with up to 4 controls, randomly selected from inpatients who were not hospitalized due to any of the exposures, on age, sex, calendar time and veteran/nonveteran status.ResultsThis study comprised 173 cases of VTE and 546 matched controls. The adjusted odds ratio (OR) of VTE was significant among patients with peripheral atherosclerotic diseases (OR 7.1, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.4-34.4), and nondebilitating cerebrovascular diseases (OR 2.5, 95% CI 1.4-4.7). Other independent risk factors for VTE included a body mass index ≥ 25.0kg/m2 current estrogen use, a history of hyperlipidemia and varicose veins.ConclusionPeripheral atherosclerotic disease and nondebilitating cerebrovascular disease are important risk factors for VTE. Patients with these diseases should therefore be frequently evaluated for the possible coexistence of VTE and, if appropriate, should be given prophylaxis. Failure to take into account the potential confounding effects of these diseases may also result in an erroneous estimate of the effect of drug exposures on the risk of idiopathic VTE

FFTPL: An Analytic Placement Algorithm Using Fast Fourier Transform for Density Equalization

We propose a flat nonlinear placement algorithm FFTPL using fast Fourier transform for density equalization. The placement instance is modeled as an electrostatic system with the analogy of density cost to the potential energy. A well-defined Poisson's equation is proposed for gradient and cost computation. Our placer outperforms state-of-the-art placers with better solution quality and efficiency

Participant Network Patterns in Enhancing Online Community Interactivity

Social media is having an increasing impact on businesses. In particular, the explosive growth of online brand communities has attracted organizations and marketers’ attentions. However, despite the increasing importance of online community for marketing, it is noticed that relatively few of them are successful in attracting community members and enhancing interactivity. In this study, we argue that it is necessary to have a comprehensive understanding regarding how the community members participate in the communal context and interact with each other, and thereby the community interactivity can be continued. To this end, we collected a large amount of data from an online discussion forum where we found that the participants were highly interactive across the discussion topics, thus forming robust communities. Currently, the data analysis pertaining to this study is work in progress, but we will be in a position to offer more in-depth analysis of the rich findings that the research has generated by the time of the conference

COMPARISON OF STATIC BALANCE MEASURES WITH HEIGHT AND WEIGHT ADJUSTMENTS BETWEEN TAEKWONDO AND HANDBALL PLAYERS

This study aimed to compare the static balance of taekwondo athletes and handball players. Considering the body size might affect the sway during static balance testing as the inverted pendulum model demonstrated. The static balance of the subjects was evaluated by the Bidex Balance System. The results showed that the APSI, MLSI and OSI of taekwondo athletes were significantly lower than those of the handball players. Moreover, the three stability indices of the two groups of athletes were significantly correlated with height and weight, but not age. The data showed that body size were positively related to the sway in the static balance testing. The taekwondo athletes were lighter than the handball players in average, nevertheless, lower height-and-weight adjusted stability indices of the taekwondo athletes were found

Development of a short and universal learning self-efficacy scale for clinical skills

Background Learning self-efficacy, defined as learners’ confidence in their capability to learn specific subjects, is crucial for the enhancement of academic progress, because it is positively correlated with academic achievements and effective learning strategy use. In this study, we developed a universal scale called the Learning Self-Efficacy Scale (L-SES) for Clinical Skills for undergraduate medical students and validated it through item analysis and content validity index (CVI) calculation. Design The L-SES was developed based on the framework of Bloom’s taxonomy, and the questions were generated through expert consensus and CVI calculation. A pilot version of the L-SES was administered to 235 medical students attending a basic clinical skills course. The collected data were then examined through item analysis. Results The first draft of the L-SES comprised 15 questions. After expert consensus and CVI calculation, 3 questions were eliminated; hence, the pilot version comprised 12 questions. The CVI values of the 12 questions were between .88 and 1, indicating high content validity. Moreover, the item analysis indicated that the quality of L-SES reached the qualified threshold. The results showed that the L-SES scores were unaffected by gender (t = −0.049; 95% confidence interval [−.115, .109], p > .05). Conclusion The L-SES is a short, well-developed scale that can serve as a generic assessment tool for measuring medical students’ learning self-efficacy for clinical skills. Moreover, the L-SES is unaffected by gender differences. However, additional analyses in relevant educational settings are needed

Intra-abdominal abscess caused by toothpick injury

SummaryWe present the case of a 42-year-old female who presented to our emergency department (ED) complaining of epigastric pain for four days. She had been seen in the outpatient department and ED previously for evaluation, but continued to experience epigastric pain with fever. Emergency panendoscopy was performed and a toothpick was discovered impacted in the duodenal bulb. The gastroenterologist was unable to remove the toothpick endoscopically. Computed tomography of the abdomen revealed a long and straight hyperdense foreign body, and intra-abdominal abscess formation. An emergency laparotomy was performed. The patient recovered gradually and was discharged 11 days later. She could not remember when she swallowed the wooden toothpick, but guessed that it was while out drinking. There is an old wives’ tale in Taiwan that putting a toothpick in the cup while drinking beer reduces the likelihood of abdominal distention from the carbonation of the beer