Introduction: Urolithiasis is the third most common and painful disease in the globe, afflicting both men and women. The accumulation of a few minerals and crystalline elements in the renal calculi ...and urinary bladder are during the process of metabolism. The study's goals were to determine the frequency of risk variables for urinary stone patients. Methods: Across-sectional study had on urinary stone disease in Thanjavur and the surrounding areas. The study included 102 cases, 79 urinary stone patients, and 23 normal patients that all lived in the same area. Results: A total of 102 participants between the ages of 20 - 70 were studied. Thirty-eight percentages of urinary stone patients were over 60 years old. In this study, men accounted for 63 %. It was discovered that kidney stone patients were more prevalent in the age groups 41-70 (77%) and <40 (23%), which was statistically significant (15.5±20.51; p=0.01). Patients with lower education levels (56%) and patients from lower-income areas were found. The non-veg food intake status showed a higher proportion of kidney stone patients with control (68% vs. 13%), which was statistically significant (36.06±28.5; p = 0.005). Conclusion: This study confirms that the urinary stone formation may be due to the various environmental factors. The significant associated with the risk factors between control and urinary stone patients were found. The high burdens of urinary stone formation were observed and their associations of socio-demographic behavioral risk factor and the results have been discussed.
The incidence of atrial fibrillation (AF) has increased significantly over the last decades. Population height is changing in many countries. Height is an important risk factor for AF. The aim of the ...present study was to assess the role of changes in population height in the increased risk of AF.
The Copenhagen City Heart Study comprises 18 852 randomly selected men and women aged 20-93 years, studied in four separate cross-sectional surveys in 1976-78, 1981-83, 1991-94, and 2001-03, including physical examination, electrocardiogram (ECG), and standard questionnaires. Hospitalization and mortality data were collected from public registers. Prevalent AF was determined from ECGs and incident AF from register diagnoses. During follow-up, age-standardized prevalence of AF increased significantly from 1.35% to 2.11% in men and from 0.67% to 1.07% in women (P < 0.001). Incident AF increased four-fold in both men and women hazard ratio (HR) 4.16, 95% confidence interval (CI) 3.27-5.29; P < 0.001. In multivariable Fine and Gray subdistribution hazards regression analyses, height was consistently an important risk factor for incident AF with HRs between 1.35 (95% CI 1.10-1.66; P = 0.004) and 1.65 (95% CI 1.40-1.93; P < 0.001). Population height increased with 3.3 cm for men and 2.1 cm for women, and population attributable risks for height was 20-30%.
Height is a powerful risk factor for AF. Adult height is attained at age 20, while AF incidence occurs 50 years later. Given a causal relationship between height and AF incidence, increased population height in Denmark will contribute to an increase in AF occurrence for at least 25 more years.
•Rates of 1st voluntary psychiatric hospitalization decreased between 2001 and 2014.•Rates of 1st involuntary psychiatric hospitalization (IPH) were higher since 2011.•Ethiopian immigrants had higher ...rates of IPH.•This may reflect low SES and culture gap, which increase their vulnerability.•Minority status and immigration are not necessarily a risk factor for IPH.
Since 2000, the Israeli mental health system has undergone a reduction in hospital beds, initiation of community-based rehabilitation, and transfer of governmental services to health maintenance organizations. This study examined trends, predictors and outcomes of involuntary psychiatric hospitalizations (IPH), in particular for immigrants. All first psychiatric hospitalizations of adults, 2001–2018, in the National Psychiatric Case Registry were used. Involuntary and voluntary hospitalizations were analyzed by demographic and clinical characteristics, and age-adjusted rates calculated over time. Multivariate logistic regression models were used to investigate IPH predictors and first IPH as a risk factor for one-year suicide after last discharge, and a Cox multivariate regression model to examine its risk for all-cause mortality. Among 73,904 persons in the study, age-adjusted rates of IPH were higher between 2011 and 2015 and then decreased slightly until 2018. Ethiopian immigrants had the highest risk for IPH, immigrants from the former Soviet Union a lower risk, and that of Arabs was not significantly different, from non-immigrant Jews. IPH was not significantly associated with one-year suicide or all-cause mortality. These findings demonstrate the vulnerability of Ethiopian immigrants, typical of disadvantaged immigrants having a cultural gap with the host country and highlight the importance of expanding community mental health services.
Pancreatic cancer is projected to become the leading cause of cancer deaths by 2050. The risk for pancreatic cancer may be reduced by up to 27% by modifying lifestyle risk factors, most notably ...tobacco smoking. Based on analysis of more than 2 million unselected individuals from general population, this article quantified the risk of pancreatic cancer in relation to lifelong tobacco smoking and alcohol consumption status, both alone and in combination. It also provided a state-of-the-art review of animal studies on the effect of tobacco smoke and alcohol on genetically engineered mouse models of pancreatic precursor lesions, as well as the role of immune microenvironment in pancreatic carcinogenesis activated by tobacco and alcohol.
Spectral methods include a family of algorithms related to the eigenvectors of certain data-generated matrices. In this work, we are interested in studying the geometric landscape of the ...eigendecomposition problem in various spectral methods. In particular, we first extend known results regarding the landscape at critical points to larger regions near the critical points in a special case of finding the leading eigenvector of a symmetric matrix. For a more general eigendecomposition problem, inspired by recent findings on the connection between the landscapes of empirical risk and population risk, we then build a novel connection between the landscape of an eigendecomposition problem that uses random measurements and the one that uses the true data matrix. We also apply our theory to a variety of low-rank matrix optimization problems and conduct a series of simulations to illustrate our theoretical findings.
Emerging public health challenges of Shiga toxin (stx)–producing Escherichia coli (STEC) include the occurrence of more frequent or severe disease and risk factors shifts associated with changes, ...often interconnected, in the pathogen, the population, and the environment. In 3 outbreaks with heightened severity attributed to enhanced pathogen virulence, including the acquisition of an stx2 phage in 1 outbreak, population and environmental factors likely contributed significantly to disease outcomes. Evolving population risk factors that are associated with more severe disease include consumption of fresh produce, contact with STEC-contaminated environments, demographics, socioeconomic status, and immunity. Risks of increasing STEC environmental pollution are related to continued intensification of agriculture and super-shedder cattle. Mitigation strategies include surveillance and research on emerging STEC, development of effective communications and public education strategies, and improved policies and interventions to mitigate risks, including those related to the contamination of produce and the environment, using a "One Health" approach.
Unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) are one of the fastest-growing sectors in the aviation industry. Concerns have also been raised regarding the potential risks posed by unmanned aircrafts (UAs), ...commonly known as drones, which are expected to operate at low-altitude. Unlike high-altitude airspaces, operating UA in low-altitude airspaces requires consideration of their impact on a variety of existing environmental factors, including people and buildings. Several studies have attempted to identify accessible airspaces by considering the impact of drone operations on people or buildings. However, existing studies are insufficient to comprehensively reflect these effects. In this study, we propose a data-centric framework for a comprehensive assessment of airspaces for drone operations in urban environments. The population risk and airspace availability were defined and measured to reflect complex urban environments using high-resolution datasets. Our comprehensive airspace assessment employed quadrant and Pareto ranking analyses. We identified feasible airspaces using quadrant analysis and accessible airspaces with limited resources using Pareto ranking analysis. Our framework can be incorporated into UAS traffic management (UTM) operations, because it configures dynamic airspaces based on high-resolution urban datasets, even in complex urban areas.
Dipetalogaster maxima is a primary vector of Chagas disease in the Cape region of Baja California Sur, Mexico. The geographic distribution of D. maxima is limited to this small region of the Baja ...California Peninsula in Mexico. Our study aimed to construct the ecological niche models (ENMs) of this understudied vector species and the parasite responsible for Chagas disease (Trypanosoma cruzi). We modelled the ecological niches of both species under current and future climate change projections in 2050 using four Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs): RCP 2.6, RCP 4.5, RCP 6.0, and RCP 8.5. We also assessed the human population at risk of exposure to D. maxima bites, the hypothesis of ecological niche equivalency and similarity between D. maxima and T. cruzi, and finally the abundance centroid hypothesis. The ENM predicted a higher overlap between both species in the Western and Southern coastal regions of the Baja California Peninsula. The climate change scenarios predicted a Northern shift in the ecological niche of both species. Our findings suggested that the highly tourist destination of Los Cabos is a high‐risk zone for Chagas disease circulation. Overall, the study provides valuable data to vector surveillance and control programs.
Significant overlaps between Dipetalogaster maxima and Trypanosoma cruzi in the Western and Southern coastal regions of Baja California Sur, Mexico.
Northern shifts in the distributional potential of D. maxima and T. cruzi under climate change.
Possible transmission of Chagas disease in popular tourist destinations of Los Cabos in Mexico.
Electronic medical record (EMR) data present many opportunities for population health research. The use of EMR data for population risk models can be impeded by the high proportion of missingness in ...key patient variables. Common approaches like complete case analysis and multiple imputation may not be appropriate for some population health initiatives that require a single, complete analytic data set. In this study, we demonstrate a sequential hot-deck imputation (HDI) procedure to address missingness in a set of cardiometabolic measures in an EMR data set. We assessed the performance of sequential HDI within the individual variables and a commonly used composite risk score. A data set of cardiometabolic measures based on EMR data from 2 large urban hospitals was used to create a benchmark data set with simulated missingness. Sequential HDI was applied, and the resulting data were used to calculate atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease risk scores. The performance of the imputation approach was assessed using a set of metrics to evaluate the distribution and validity of the imputed data. Of the 567,841 patients, 65% had at least 1 missing cardiometabolic measure. Sequential HDI resulted in the distribution of variables and risk scores that reflected those in the simulated data while retaining correlation. When stratified by age and sex, risk scores were plausible and captured patterns expected in the general population. The use of sequential HDI was shown to be a suitable approach to multivariate missingness in EMR data. Sequential HDI could benefit population health research by providing a straightforward, computationally nonintensive approach to missing EMR data that results in a single analytic data set.
PDF
