Predicting length of stay (LOS) in a hospital post-sugery

Dissertation presented as the partial requirement for obtaining a Master's degree in Information Management, specialization in Knowledge Management and Business IntelligenceThe amount of time a patient stays in the hospital after a surgery has been an issue that hospital management faces, a longer stay in the recovery room involves a high cost to the hospital and consumes a lot of hospital resources, manpower and equipment. The amount of time is difficult to predict precisely since there are many external and internal factors that account for a longer or shorter stay and it is difficult for a team to consider all these factors and make this estimation manually. With the advancement of machine learning methods and models this prediction can be made automatically. The aim of this study was to create a predicting model that look at the patient data and the procedure data and predicts the amount of time the patient will stay after the surgery to make the current prediction of the length of stay by the hospital more accurate and compliment the current surgery scheduling and discharge system. To achieve the objective, a data mining approach was implemented. Python Language was used, with particular emphasis on Scikit-Learn, pandas and Seaborn packages. Tables from a relational database were processed and extracted to build a dataset. Exploratory data analysis was performed, and several model configurations were tested. The main differences that separate the models are outlier treatment, sampling techniques, feature scalers, feature engineering and type of algorithm – Linear Regression, Decision Trees Regressor, Multilayer Perceptron Regressor, Random Forest Regressor, Light Gradient Boosting Machine Regressor and Gradient Boosting Regressor. A total of 32993 hospital episodes were observed on this study. Out of these, 2006 were eliminated due to some data anomalies, namely, values that were wrong or impossible. The data was split in training and test data. Several model configurations were tested. The main differences that separate the models are outlier treatment, feature scalers, feature engineering and the type of algorithm. The best performing model had a score of 0.73 R2 which was obtained by using the Light Gradient Boosting Machine Regressor Algorithm using outlier removal, Robust Scaling and using all the features in the dataset

How to define the success of physiotherapy in chronic low back pain patients?

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A caminho da fase preparatória da criação de um Core Set para a obesidade infantojuvenil: revisão sistemática da literatura

O trabalho apresentado prende-se na necessidade de criação de Core Sets específicos para Crianças e Jovens, sendo que o objetivo deste representa a proposta de criação do mesmo, direcionado para a população infantojuvenil com Obesidade. Deste modo, desenvolveu-se uma Revisão Sistemática, parte integrante da 1ª fase da criação de um Core Set (CS). Para este efeito, foram recolhidos 570 artigos das bases de dadosMEDLINE/PubMed, ScienceDirect, b-on, PEDro, PROSPERO, dos quais 187 representam a amostra final de estudos incluídos, na qual a faixa etária da população está compreendida entre os 2 e os 19 anos, com Índice de Massa Corporal (IMC)≥ao percentil de 95 para a idade e género, publicados em Inglês no máximo há 10 anos. Dos 187 artigos, foram levantadas 1856 necessidades, das quais se ligaram 963 conceitos àClassificação Internacional da Funcionalidade e Incapacidade de Crianças e Jovens (CIF-CJ), identificando-se desta forma 109 categorias. Destas obteve-se 11,92% de categorias com saturação no domínio das Funções e Estruturas; 6,42% nas Atividades e Participação e 8,26% nos Fatores Contextuais, o que se traduz no total de 29 categorias possíveis de integração num futuroCS

Contributos para a construção de um texto foneticamente equilibrado para o português-europeu.

Objectivo: o objectivo deste estudo consiste na criação de um Texto Foneticamente Equilibrado para o Português-Europeu (PE) designado “O Sol”. Método: quatro sujeitos da região de Setúbal, entre [21-49] anos (dois do sexo feminino e dois do masculino) leram em voz alta o texto “O Sol”. As gravações realizadas com Olympus (VN- 240PC e VN- 2100PC com microfones integrados) serviram para a contabilização dos fonemas produzidos. Os procedimentos foram: 1) a comparação entre as frequências relativas dos fonemas do “O Sol” e as frequências relativas descritas no PF_fone, através do coeficiente de correlação de Pearson e do teste de Mann-Whitney; 2) a comparação entre a transcrição larga e a estreita, verificando-se os fenómenos de coarticulação; e 3) a análise dos formatos silábicos. Resultados: a análise estatística demonstrou que as frequências relativas de ocorrência dos fonemas do texto “O Sol” têm uma correlação forte com as do PF_fone (r = 0,924). As medianas das frequências relativas de ocorrência dos fonemas do texto foram significativamente iguais às do PF_fone (p<.05). Conclusão: o texto “O Sol” está próximo de um texto foneticamente equilibrado ideal, uma vez que se verificaram os pressupostos pré-definidos. Fonologicamente, apresenta os formatos silábicos mais frequentes no PE, verificou-se ainda uma diminuição na frequência relativa de fonemas na transcrição estreita, devido a fenómenos de coarticulação. Futuros trabalhos incidirão no aumento da amostra

Multidrug-resistant Escherichia coli and Salmonella spp. in pigs slaughtered for human consumption, a potential source for Humans?

Objective: To assess the role of pig reservoir as potential transmission vehicle of Salmonella spp. and E. coli to humans, in order to understand the epidemiology and population structure of these zoonotic agents in Portugal.This work was developed within the scope of the strategic project “ResisCampyOH”, supported by FMV-ULHT in 2022-2023.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Are Food Producing animals a source of multidrug-resistant E. coli and Salmonella spp.?

Objectives: To assess the role of food-producing animals as potential transmission vehicles of Salmonella spp. and E. coli to Humans, in order to understand the epidemiology and population structure of these zoonotic agents in Portugal.Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Lusófona University, Research projects_ 2022_ ResisCampyOHN/

Effect of the matrix system in the delivery and in vitro bioactivity of microencapsulated Oregano essential oil

The effect of encapsulating matrix on retention, protection and delivery of Oregano essential oil (EO) was studied. EO was encapsulated in rice starch porous spheres, inulin and gelatine/sucrose capsules by spray drying. Gelatine/sucrose matrix was also dried by freeze drying. Experimental designs were applied to test the effect of bonding agents and solids content for rice starch and drying temperature and solids content for inulin and gelatine/sucrose systems. The ratio of gelatine/sucrose was also tested. EO was identified (confocal laser scanning microscopy and FT-IR) in all tested matrices and the release profiles,antioxidant activity and antimicrobial activity of encapsulates evaluated. Results showed that the three tested materials are able to encapsulate Oregano EO. Higher diffusion coefficients were obtained for starch microcapsules (about 1013 m2/s) followed by spray-dried gelatine/sucrose systems (about 1015 m2/s) and inulin microcapsules (about 1016 m2/s). Gelatine/sucrose microparticles exhibit high antioxidant and antimicrobial activity while inulin and rice starch microencapsulates ensure higher stability.Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) - PTDC/AGR/ALI/67194/2006, SFRH/BPD/44200/2008, QREN – POPH – Tipologia 4.1

Identification of clusters of asthma control: A preliminary analysis of the inspirers studies

This work was funded by ERDF (European Regional Development Fund) through the operations: POCI- -01-0145-FEDER-029130 (“mINSPIRERS—mHealth to measure and improve adherence to medication in chronic obstructive respiratory diseases - generalisation and evaluation of gamification, peer support and advanced image processing technologies”) co-funded by the COMPETE2020 (Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização), Portugal 2020 and by Portuguese Funds through FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia).© 2020, Sociedade Portuguesa de Alergologia e Imunologia Clinica. All rights reserved. Aims: To identify distinct asthma control clusters based on Control of Allergic Rhinitis and Asthma Test (CARAT) and to compare patients’ characteristics among these clusters. Methods: Adults and adolescents (≥13 years) with persistent asthma were recruited at 29 Portuguese hospital outpatient clinics, in the context of two observational studies of the INSPIRERS project. Demographic and clinical characteristics, adherence to inhaled medication, beliefs about inhaled medication, anxiety and depression, quality of life, and asthma control (CARAT, >24 good control) were collected. Hierarchical cluster analysis was performed using CARAT total score (CARAT-T). Results: 410 patients (68% adults), with a median (percentile 25–percentile 75) age of 28 (16-46) years, were analysed. Three clusters were identified [mean CARAT-T (min-max)]: cluster 1 [27(24-30)], cluster 2 [19(14-23)] and cluster 3 [10(2-13)]. Patients in cluster 1 (34%) were characterised by better asthma control, better quality of life, higher inhaler adherence and use of a single inhaler. Patients in clusters 2 (50%) and 3 (16%) had uncontrolled asthma, lower inhaler adherence, more symptoms of anxiety and depression and more than half had at least one exacerbation in the previous year. Further-more, patients in cluster 3 were predominantly female, had more unscheduled medical visits and more anxiety symp-toms, perceived a higher necessity of their prescribed inhalers but also higher levels of concern about taking these inhalers. There were no differences in age, body mass index, lung function, smoking status, hospital admissions or specialist physician follow-up time among the three clusters. Conclusion: An unsupervised method based on CARAT--T, identified 3 clusters of patients with distinct, clinically meaningful characteristics. The cluster with better asthma control had a cut-off similar to the established in the validation study of CARAT and an additional cut-off seems to distinguish more severe disease. Further research is necessary to validate the asthma control clusters identified.publishersversionpublishe

SARS-CoV-2 introductions and early dynamics of the epidemic in Portugal

Genomic surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 in Portugal was rapidly implemented by the National Institute of Health in the early stages of the COVID-19 epidemic, in collaboration with more than 50 laboratories distributed nationwide. Methods By applying recent phylodynamic models that allow integration of individual-based travel history, we reconstructed and characterized the spatio-temporal dynamics of SARSCoV-2 introductions and early dissemination in Portugal. Results We detected at least 277 independent SARS-CoV-2 introductions, mostly from European countries (namely the United Kingdom, Spain, France, Italy, and Switzerland), which were consistent with the countries with the highest connectivity with Portugal. Although most introductions were estimated to have occurred during early March 2020, it is likely that SARS-CoV-2 was silently circulating in Portugal throughout February, before the first cases were confirmed. Conclusions Here we conclude that the earlier implementation of measures could have minimized the number of introductions and subsequent virus expansion in Portugal. This study lays the foundation for genomic epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2 in Portugal, and highlights the need for systematic and geographically-representative genomic surveillance.We gratefully acknowledge to Sara Hill and Nuno Faria (University of Oxford) and Joshua Quick and Nick Loman (University of Birmingham) for kindly providing us with the initial sets of Artic Network primers for NGS; Rafael Mamede (MRamirez team, IMM, Lisbon) for developing and sharing a bioinformatics script for sequence curation (https://github.com/rfm-targa/BioinfUtils); Philippe Lemey (KU Leuven) for providing guidance on the implementation of the phylodynamic models; Joshua L. Cherry (National Center for Biotechnology Information, National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health) for providing guidance with the subsampling strategies; and all authors, originating and submitting laboratories who have contributed genome data on GISAID (https://www.gisaid.org/) on which part of this research is based. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not reflect the view of the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Health and Human Services, or the United States government. This study is co-funded by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia and Agência de Investigação Clínica e Inovação Biomédica (234_596874175) on behalf of the Research 4 COVID-19 call. Some infrastructural resources used in this study come from the GenomePT project (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-022184), supported by COMPETE 2020 - Operational Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalisation (POCI), Lisboa Portugal Regional Operational Programme (Lisboa2020), Algarve Portugal Regional Operational Programme (CRESC Algarve2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), and by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

MAMMALS IN PORTUGAL : A data set of terrestrial, volant, and marine mammal occurrences in P ortugal

Mammals are threatened worldwide, with 26% of all species being includedin the IUCN threatened categories. This overall pattern is primarily associatedwith habitat loss or degradation, and human persecution for terrestrial mam-mals, and pollution, open net fishing, climate change, and prey depletion formarine mammals. Mammals play a key role in maintaining ecosystems func-tionality and resilience, and therefore information on their distribution is cru-cial to delineate and support conservation actions. MAMMALS INPORTUGAL is a publicly available data set compiling unpublishedgeoreferenced occurrence records of 92 terrestrial, volant, and marine mam-mals in mainland Portugal and archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira thatincludes 105,026 data entries between 1873 and 2021 (72% of the data occur-ring in 2000 and 2021). The methods used to collect the data were: live obser-vations/captures (43%), sign surveys (35%), camera trapping (16%),bioacoustics surveys (4%) and radiotracking, and inquiries that represent lessthan 1% of the records. The data set includes 13 types of records: (1) burrowsjsoil moundsjtunnel, (2) capture, (3) colony, (4) dead animaljhairjskullsjjaws, (5) genetic confirmation, (6) inquiries, (7) observation of live animal (8),observation in shelters, (9) photo trappingjvideo, (10) predators dietjpelletsjpine cones/nuts, (11) scatjtrackjditch, (12) telemetry and (13) vocalizationjecholocation. The spatial uncertainty of most records ranges between 0 and100 m (76%). Rodentia (n=31,573) has the highest number of records followedby Chiroptera (n=18,857), Carnivora (n=18,594), Lagomorpha (n=17,496),Cetartiodactyla (n=11,568) and Eulipotyphla (n=7008). The data setincludes records of species classified by the IUCN as threatened(e.g.,Oryctolagus cuniculus[n=12,159],Monachus monachus[n=1,512],andLynx pardinus[n=197]). We believe that this data set may stimulate thepublication of other European countries data sets that would certainly contrib-ute to ecology and conservation-related research, and therefore assisting onthe development of more accurate and tailored conservation managementstrategies for each species. There are no copyright restrictions; please cite thisdata paper when the data are used in publications.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio