Whether cirrhotic patients with
Streptococcus bovis
bacteremia have an increased risk of colorectal neoplasm is uncertain. A multicentric retrospective cohort study was conducted investigating ...associations between
S. bovis
biotype and species, cirrhosis, and colorectal neoplasm. Out of 779 patients with
S. bovis
bacteremia, 69 (8.7%) had cirrhosis. No differences were found in the prevalence of colorectal neoplasm between cirrhotic and non-cirrhotic patients undergoing colonoscopy. Among cirrhotic patients, prevalence of colorectal neoplasms was higher in
S. bovis
biotype I (
S. gallolyticus
) bacteremia (80%) than in
S. bovis
biotype II (33.3%;
p
< 0.007). In conclusion, risk of colorectal neoplasm is high among cirrhotic patients with
S. gallolyticus
bacteremia.
Background
A novel tool to measure healthy ageing was developed by the ATHLOS consortium (Ageing Trajectories of Health-Longitudinal Opportunities and Synergies). ATHLOS Healthy Ageing Scale, ...constructed using harmonized data from 16 independent ageing cohorts, was designed to contribute to worldwide research on healthy ageing. The aim of the analysis was to assess the relation between ATHLOS Healthy Ageing Scale and all-cause mortality in Central European populations.
Methods
Participants of the Polish and Czech HAPIEE cohorts (baseline age 45-69 years) were followed for 14 years. ATHLOS Healthy Ageing Scale was based on over 40 health indicators related to intrinsic capacity and functional ability. Cox proportional hazards models were used to determine the relationship between the ATHLOS Healthy Ageing Scale scores and all-cause mortality.
Results
As many as 9,922 Polish and 8,518 Czech participants had non-missing data on the ATHLOS Healthy Ageing Scale score and mortality (1828 and 1700 deaths, respectively). After adjustment for age, dose-response associations with mortality in both genders and countries were found (HR for lowest vs. highest quintile of the ATHLOS Healthy Ageing Scale: 2.98 and 1.96 in Czech and Polish women and 2.83 and 2.66 in Czech and Polish men, respectively). Only modest attenuation was observed when additionally adjusted for education, economic activity, smoking and self-rated health.
Conclusions
The ATHLOS Healthy Ageing Scale was found to be a good predictor of all-cause mortality in urban populations of Poland and Czechia. This composite indicator seems to be an important contributor to a better assessment of healthy ageing.
Key messages
Independent inverse associations between ATHLOS Healthy Ageing Scale and all-cause mortality were found in both men and women in urban population samples from Central and Eastern Europe.
Given its predictive validity for all-cause mortality, this novel tool may substantially contribute to a better assessment of healthy ageing.
Multifractal properties of 30 min wind data series recorded at six locations in Cadiz (Southern Spain) have been studied in this work with the aim of obtaining detailed information for a range of ...time scales. Wind speed records have been validated, applying various quality control tests as a pre-requisite before their use, improving the reliability of the results due to the identification of incorrect values which have been discarded in the analysis. The scaling of the wind speed moments has been analysed and empirical moments scaling exponent functions K(q) have been obtained. Although the same critical moment (qcrit) has been obtained for all the places, some differences appear in other multifractal parameters like γmax and the value of K(0). These differences have been related to the presence of extreme events and zero data values in the data series analysed, respectively.
Preventive healthcare is a crucial pillar of health as it contributes to staying healthy and having immediate treatment when needed. Mining knowledge from longitudinal studies has the potential to ...significantly contribute to the improvement of preventive healthcare. Unfortunately, data originated from such studies are characterized by high complexity, huge volume, and a plethora of missing values. Machine Learning, Data Mining and Data Imputation models are utilized a part of solving these challenges, respectively. Toward this direction, we focus on the development of a complete methodology for the ATHLOS Project - funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program, which aims to achieve a better interpretation of the impact of aging on health.
The inherent complexity of the provided dataset lies in the fact that the project includes 15 independent European and international longitudinal studies of aging. In this work, we mainly focus on the HealthStatus (HS) score, an index that estimates the human status of health, aiming to examine the effect of various data imputation models to the prediction power of classification and regression models. Our results are promising, indicating the critical importance of data imputation in enhancing preventive medicine's crucial role.
Mental health at work: WHO guidelines Malik, Aiysha; Ayuso‐Mateos, José Luis; Baranyi, Gergő ...
World psychiatry,
June 2023, Letnik:
22, Številka:
2
Journal Article
The Outcomes of Depression International Network (ODIN) trial evaluated the effect of two psychological interventions for the treatment of depression in primary care. Only about half of the patients ...in the treatment arm complied with the offer of treatment, prompting the question:'what was the effect of treatment in those patients who actually received it?'
To illustrate the estimation of the effect of receipt of treatment in a randomised controlled trial subject to non-compliance and loss to follow-up.
We estimated the complier average causal effect (CACE) of treatment.
In the ODIN trial the effect of receipt of psychological intervention (an average of about 4 points on the Beck Depression Inventory) is about twice that of offering it.
The statistical analysis of the results of a clinical trial subject to non-compliance to allocated treatment is now reasonably straightforward through estimation of a CACE and investigators should be encouraged to present the results of analyses of this type as a routine component of a trial report.
Legumes offer the opportunity to reduce the nitrogen (N) fertilizer requirements of the crop rotation but the capacity of the subsequent crop to recover the N provided by the legume determines the ...fertilizer saving. Therefore, breeding for genotypes capable of take up N under different limiting conditions is essential for understanding crop performance and optimizing fertilization. The objective of this work was to test the ability of four wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) genotypes with different drought-tolerance (Cellule, Apache, Allez-y, and Nogal) to take up N from the precedent legume under different water scenarios. Two field experiments with pea–wheat and barley–wheat crop rotations, two irrigations levels, and three N treatments were conducted in central Spain over 3 years. The biomass, N uptake, and nitrogen nutrition index (NNI) were determined at flowering, and the grain yield (GY), grain N concentration (GNC), and N output at harvest. The precedent legume crops enabled a reduction in N fertilizer, but its effect depended on the genotype and climate conditions. The drought-tolerant genotypes (Apache and Cellule) had the highest NNI, biomass, GY, and N output under low water and N inputs, whereas Allez-y and Nogal obtained better performance under non-limiting conditions. Therefore, this study confirms differences between wheat genotypes, with different root system, in N uptake from the precedent legume in a crop rotation under different water levels and highlights the potential of NNI to assess wheat N status.
•Barley-wheat and pea-wheat rotations under various water × nitrogen levels.•Study of four bread wheat genotypes with different drought-tolerance.•Drought-tolerant genotypes present higher capacity to take up N.•Nitrogen nutrition index (NNI) identified differences in N take up capability.•Identification of genotype nitrogen translocation performance should be improved.
Remote sensing is a valuable tool for reducing the environmental impact of agricultural practices by detecting crop nitrogen (N) and water status for site-specific N fertilization and irrigation. The ...interaction between N and water status may produce confounding effects in the acquired spectral reflectance, making it difficult to separate crop deficiencies. The objective of this study was to evaluate the potential of visible and infrared hyperspectral and thermal imaging sensors for N and water status assessment with reduced confounding effects. A winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) field experiment combining four N and two irrigation levels was conducted in Central Spain over 2 years. The Nitrogen Nutrition Index (NNI) was monitored (mid stem elongation, final stem elongation, flowering stage) and the crop water status was measured with a leaf porometer at flowering. Two hyperspectral sensors covering the visible and near infrared regions (400–850 nm) and part of the short-wave infrared (950–1750 nm) together with a thermal camera were installed on-board an aircraft to acquire images 300 m above the experiment. In addition, canopy reflectance (400−1000 nm) was measured with a handheld spectroradiometer at ground level. The relationship between the ground-based determination of N and water status with indicators based on remote sensors was analyzed. The planar domain Canopy Chlorophyll Content Index (CCCI) reduced soil background noise and correlated with the NNI in all cases (R2 > 0.44; P < 0.001). Reliable assessment of water status was achieved by using the Water Deficit Index (WDI), which is calculated using the Vegetation Index-Temperature trapezoid. The CCCI distinguished between N levels reducing the confounding effect of the water status, in contrast to the WDI which was mostly affected by the water status. Combining the CCCI and WDI to assess the crop NNI reduced the root mean square error to 0.109, suggesting that the combination of spectral and thermal information could improve the adjustment of N fertilization and irrigation to crop requirements. However, the approach must be validated in other cultivars and environments before making N fertilization and irrigation recommendations.
PDF
