Sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of eating disorder patients treated in the specialized residential settings in Belgium

Introduction Epidemiologic information on sociodemographic and clinical characteristics in eating disorders in Western European countries are scarce. Purpose In this study, we report demographic and clinical characteristics of eating disorder (ED) patients undergoing treatment in five specialized ED centers in Flanders (Belgium). Method Data from 642 ED patients were collected by means of a structured questionnaire. Results Data show that 93.8% of patients are female, with an average age of 22.6 years. The largest subgroup in our sample suffers from anorexia nervosa, namely 52.8%. Bulimia nervosa (BN), binge eating disorder (BED) and eating disorder not otherwise specified (EDNOS) account for 17.7%, 10.7% and 18.8% of the sample, respectively. Mean age of onset was 17 years. Mean duration of illness was 5.6 years, but 20.2% of patients had their illness for over 8 years. Anorexia nervosa patients of the restricting type (AN-R) have the shortest duration of illness. BED patients stood out because they were older on average, more often in a relationship and more often in ambulatory treatment. 70% of patients over 20 years old completed higher education, but one-third of this group was unemployed and/or disabled. Remarkably, ED patients grow more up in intact families compared to the general population. Conclusions Epidemiology of ED patients in treatment in Flanders (Belgium) seems to resemble worldwide findings. The long duration of illness, the common evolution towards chronicity and the early work impairment underline the severe personal and societal impact of ED and call to the need for early detection and treatment of these patients

Automated detection and classification of nuclei in immunohistochemical stainings for Fuchs' endothelial corneal dystrophy

Fuchs’ endothelial corneal dystrophy (FECD) is a degenerative disease that affects the elderly population, and which lacks a unifying pathogenic theory and tangible drug targets. Immunohistochemical stainings can be used to identify proteins involved in the pathogenesis of FECD. We introduce a method for the automatic quantification of the ratio of stained cells starting from full high-resolution cornea images. First, the endothelium is extracted using entropy information in a low-resolution resampling. Then, within the endothelium, we heuristically detect and classify nuclei based on their size, color, and the color of the surrounding cytoplasm. This method achieves comparable results to manual evaluation in a set of corneas of patients with and without FECD.status: publishe

Assessing the relative importance of health and conformation traits in the cavalier king Charles spaniel.

peer reviewedBACKGROUND: The selection of a future breeding dog is a complicated task, in which disease characteristics and different traits have to be combined and weighed against one another. Truncation selection, that is the exclusion of affected animals, may be very inefficient when selecting on a large number of traits, and may result in a reduction of the genetic diversity in a population or breed. Selection could be facilitated by the use of a selection index that combines multiple traits or breeding values into one score. This however requires a consideration of their relative value according to their economic weight, which is difficult to express in monetary units for health traits. The use of a choice experiment to derive non-market values might be a solution to this problem. This is a pilot study to assess the potential use of choice experiments to ascertain the public preference and relative importance attached to health- and conformation traits in the selection of a Cavalier King Charles spaniel. The focus was on two prevalent disorders, mitral valve disease and syringomyelia, and on several important conformation traits such as muzzle length and eye shape. Based on available prior information, a Bayesian D-optimal design approach was used to develop a choice experiment and the resulting choice sets. RESULTS: Every participant (breeder or owner) in the choice experiment was presented with a total of 17 choice sets, in which at most four traits could vary to reduce the cognitive burden. A total of 114 respondents participated in the choice experiment and results showed that respondents (breeders/owners) current attitudes were directed towards health (syringomyelia and mitral valve disease), followed by eye shape and level of inbreeding. CONCLUSIONS: This approach identifies the value breeders and owners attach to certain traits in the breeding objective. The resulting relative weights, represented as the logworths obtained from the choice experiment, could be an alternative to economic weights. They could be implemented as a weight when breeding values are available, but more study on this topic will be necessary. A challenge in this approach is to scale up the experiment with additional traits. Moreover, for other traits, the genetic parameters and correlations should be known first, in order to include them in the health selection index as well

Automated detection and classification of nuclei in immunohistochemical stainings for Fuchs\u27 endothelial corneal dystrophy

Fuchs’ endothelial corneal dystrophy (FECD) is a degenerative disease that affects the elderly population, and which lacks a unifying pathogenic theory and tangible drug targets. Immunohistochemical stainings can be used to identify proteins involved in the pathogenesis of FECD. We introduce a method for the automatic quantification of the ratio of stained cells starting from full high-resolution cornea images. First, the endothelium is extracted using entropy information in a low-resolution resampling. Then, within the endothelium, we heuristically detect and classify nuclei based on their size, color, and the color of the surrounding cytoplasm. This method achieves comparable results to manual evaluation in a set of corneas of patients with and without FECD

INTEGRATING CONSOLIDATION OPTIONS IN A NEW CONCEPTUAL FREIGHT TRANSPORTATION FRAMEWORK

ABSTRACT In a growing globalised context and consumption economy freight transport is of crucial importance. Being able to understand the drivers of freight flows makes it possible to forecast freight flows in the future and to calculate the impact of different policies on freight traffic. This will put policymakers in the position to get a better insight in the way the transport of goods comes about. Still, freight demand modelling is lacking behind on the efforts made in passenger transport models. For this the development of a comprehensive and reliable freight transport model is essential. In this paper a conceptual freight transportation framework is proposed. Special attention is paid to the different consolidation options of a forwarder

The development and application of a new tool to assess the adequacy of the content and timing of antenatal care

Abstract Background: Current measures of antenatal care use are limited to initiation of care and number of visits. This study aimed to describe the development and application of a tool to assess the adequacy of the content and timing of antenatal care. Methods: The Content and Timing of care in Pregnancy (CTP) tool was developed based on clinical relevance for ongoing antenatal care and recommendations in national and international guidelines. The tool reflects minimal care recommended in every pregnancy, regardless of parity or risk status. CTP measures timing of initiation of care, content of care (number of blood pressure readings, blood tests and ultrasound scans) and whether the interventions were received at an appropriate time. Antenatal care trajectories for 333 pregnant women were then described using a standard tool (the APNCU index), that measures the quantity of care only, and the new CTP tool. Both tools categorise care into 4 categories, from ‘Inadequate’ (both tools) to ‘Adequate plus’ (APNCU) or ‘Appropriate’ (CTP). Participants recorded the timing and content of their antenatal care prospectively using diaries. Analysis included an examination of similarities and differences in categorisation of care episodes between the tools. Results: According to the CTP tool, the care trajectory of 10,2% of the women was classified as inadequate, 8,4% as intermediate, 36% as sufficient and 45,3% as appropriate. The assessment of quality of care differed significantly between the two tools. Seventeen care trajectories classified as ‘Adequate’ or ‘Adequate plus’ by the APNCU were deemed ‘Inadequate’ by the CTP. This suggests that, despite a high number of visits, these women did not receive the minimal recommended content and timing of care. Conclusions: The CTP tool provides a more detailed assessment of the adequacy of antenatal care than the current standard index. However, guidelines for the content of antenatal care vary, and the tool does not at the moment grade over-use of interventions as ‘Inappropriate’. Further work needs to be done to refine the content items prior to larger scale testing of the impact of the new measure