Artificial Intelligence and Medicine

The introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) has resulted in numerous technological advancements in the medical profession and a radical transformation of the old medical model. Artificial intelligence in medicine consists mostly of machine learning, deep learning, expert systems, intelligent robotics, the internet of medical things, and other prevalent and new AI technology. The primary applications of AI in the medical industry are intelligent screening, intelligent diagnosis, risk prediction, and supplemental treatment. Presently, medical AI has achieved significant advances, and big data quality management, new technology empowerment innovation, multi-domain knowledge integration, and personalized medical decision-making will exhibit greater growth potential in the clinical arena

Why does rabies still plague India in the 21st century?

In a rapidly changing world, responsive and scientifically sound surveillance systems are needed in order to better understand, and possibly predict outbreaks and spread of zoonotic infectious diseases. Unfortunately in India, most efforts towards strengthening response to zoonoses have mainly focused on improving technical and laboratory capacity. Surveillance and the collection of field data have either been neglected or at best patchily implemented

Wastelands of the Mind: The Identity Crisis of India’s Savanna Grasslands

The idea that wastelands are unproductive continues to be pervasive and is used by various agencies to gain control over marginal landscapes and remake them for productive purposes with dire results

Conservation Prioritization of Semi-Arid Savannas in India: A Multi-Scale Landscape Approach

The semi-arid savanna grasslands of peninsular India are unique habitats that support a vast proportion of Indiaís agropastoralist community. They are also home to critically endangered species such as the Great Indian bustard and other endangered and endemic species such as the Indian wolf (Canis lupus pallipes) and blackbuck antelope (Antilope cervicapra). Unfortunately, savanna grasslands have not received the attention of conservationists or policy makers, resulting in a lack of protection for both the endangered and endemic wildlife as well as the habitat. Given the high human-dependence on these biomes, traditional conservation measures such as large protected areas are not feasible. The management and conservation of these fragmented and human-dominated regions requires delineation of high-priority areas which are most likely to persist in the long-term

Intraguild interactions between native and domestic carnivores in central India

Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on March 17, 2010).The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file.Thesis advisor: Dr. Matthew E. Gompper.Vita.Ph. D. University of Missouri--Columbia 2008.I determined various factors affecting the resource selection and spatial ecology of the Indian fox Vulpes bengalensis, a small canid endemic to the Indian subcontinent. I collected radiotelemetry data from 32 Indian foxes in the Great Indian Bustard Sanctuary, Maharashtra, India and assessed resource selection based on landcover characteristics. Indian foxes chose for grassland habitats at the scale of both landscape and home-range level and avoided human-dominated areas such as agricultural lands. Indian foxes also share the landscape with free-ranging dogs, which occur at higher densities than foxes due to human subsidies. Dogs can compete with carnivores either as exploitative, interference or apparent competitors. Dogs and foxes do not compete for similar food resources because dogs are mainly dependent on human-derived food whereas foxes mainly consumed wild caught food such as rodents, insects and fruit. However, dogs may act as a mid-sized carnivore on the landscape and thus there may be interference competition between dogs and foxes. I experimentally examined if the presence of dogs may deter foxes from accessing rich food sources. I found that when a caged dog was present at a food source, foxes reduced food consumption and increased vigilance behavior resulting in a foraging-vigilance tradeoff. The presence of dogs also negatively affected fox space use patterns at the landscape level indicating that because of the presence of dogs, foxes may avoid habitats such as agricultural fields and fallow lands that may hold higher prey densities. Dogs can occur at high densities in rural areas in India and extend the edge of anthropogenic disturbance, especially for small carnivores, beyond the borders of human settlements.Includes bibliographical references

The Effects of Changes in the Hospital Nursing Workforce and Practice Environment on the Outcomes of Surgical Oncology Patients: A Two-Stage Panel Study

ABSTRACT THE EFFECTS OF CHANGES IN THE HOSPITAL NURSING WORKFORCE AND PRACTICE ENVIRONMENT ON THE OUTCOMES OF SURGICAL ONCOLOGY PATIENTS: A TWO-STAGE PANEL STUDY Jill M. Vanak Eileen T. Lake Prior research has documented that a better educated nursing workforce, higher nurse staffing levels, and better nurse practice environments are significantly associated with improved quality of care and lower patient mortality in multiple patient populations. Most prior research has used cross-sectional data to analyze associations between variables at a single time point. Little research has addressed whether changes in hospital nursing characteristics over time are associated with changes in outcomes. This two-stage panel study, in which cross-sectional samples of patients and nurses in acute care hospitals in Pennsylvania were compared at two time points, provides evidence of the relationship between changes in hospital nursing characteristics and patient outcomes. The objective of this study was to examine the effects of changes in hospital-level proportion of baccalaureate-prepared nurses, nurse staffing, and the nurse practice environment on changes in rates of failure-to-rescue and 30-day mortality in a surgical oncologic patient population between two points in time. The study was a two-stage panel designed secondary analysis that examined the effect of changes between 1999 and 2006 in nursing characteristics in 135 hospitals on changes in risk-adjusted mortality and failure-to-rescue of 29, 356 adult oncology patients admitted for primary surgical intervention for the purposes of disease management. The study combined information about nursing characteristics from nurse surveys with patient characteristics and outcomes derived from a state cancer registry and hospital discharge abstracts and hospital characteristics drawn from administrative databases. Multivariate regression modeling was employed to jointly assess the effect of changes in the organization of nursing within an institution on outcomes, controlling for both patient and hospital characteristics. The overall mean percentage of nurses with a baccalaureate degree across hospitals did not change significantly between 1999 and 2006. The mean number of patients per nurse across all hospitals was 5.81 in 1999 and 5.76 in 2006, a non-significant change, with the vast majority of hospitals decreasing or increasing the average number of patients per nurse by less than one patient. Nurse-reported practice environment scores increased significantly during the study period. A number of hospitals had increases in level of nurse education, nurse staffing, and rating of the practice environment over the period, while many others had decreases. Some of the changes in both directions were sizable. Improvement in nurse staffing was associated with reductions in failure-to-rescue and mortality rates. The addition of one patient to the nurse\u27s average workload resulted in an average increase of 4.34 deaths for every 1,000 patients. For the subset of patients with complications, the addition of one patient to the nurse\u27s average workload resulted in an average increase of 13.47 deaths for every 1,000 patients. When controlling for patient characteristics, with every 10% increase in the proportion of nurses with a baccalaureate degree, hospitals had an average reduction of 5.07 deaths for every 1,000 patients. This association was not significant in models that controlled for hospital characteristics. Investments in hospital nursing features including increasing the proportion of baccalaureate-prepared nurses and lowering patient-to-nurse ratios within hospitals may contribute to improvement in outcomes of surgical oncology patients

The street is no place for dogs: swinging wildly between wanton killing of dogs and extreme ‘pro-life’ interventions, India has never framed a rational, scientifically valid dog ownership or population control strategy

Everyday, India wakes up to horrific stories of attacks on people by street dogs and equally horrific acts of cruelty towards dogs. There is extreme polarisation on this issue between the advocates of human rights versus animal rights. The lack of a critical and scientific analysis is glaring

Barking up the wrong tree: the agency in charge of controlling street dogs is completely ineffective

India has a serious free-ranging dog problem, and if animal welfare organisations are to be believed, it is only a matter of time before the street dog population is brought under control. But in truth, several of these organisations are haphazardly managed, their strategy to control the population of dogs and control the spread of rabies is devoid of science or logic, and some even misappropriate public funds. This has led to the current lose-lose situation for both people and animals

Do Dogs Threaten People’s Right to Safety in Public Spaces?

Many people are terrified of dogs. When a dog approaches them, they fly into panic and hysteria. They don’t know a dog’s body language and can’t tell the difference between a friendly canine from an agitated one. To them, all dogs are scary at all times. Their extreme reaction may be amusing to people who know canines. But this raises the question: Don’t people who fear dogs have a right to safety in public spaces

Author Correction: Demographic characteristics of free-roaming dogs (FRD) in rural and urban India following a photographic sight-resight survey

Correction to: Scientific Reports https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-52992-y, published online 12 November 201