Quality Checks Research Articles

Understanding professional development challenges of Chinese public health professionals: association and prediction analyses with data validity screening.

Little is known about the public health professionals engaged in educating and training new or future researchers in public health. Research in this direction identifies their issues, concerns, challenges, and needs. This study focused on the professional development challenges of Chinese public health professionals. Snowball sampling was utilized. A total of 265 public health professionals participated. An instrument of 6 dimensions (burnout, sleep issue, mood issue, friends' support, exercise, and challenges) was developed, revised, and administered online. Two different approaches, the conventional and data screening approaches, were applied. The former started with item quality analyses, whereas the latter began with data quality checks. The chi-square tests of associations and logistic regressions were performed on both approaches. 19.25% of the participants were detected and deleted as careless respondents. Using both approaches, six professional development challenges except one ("Multidisciplinary learning") were significantly associated with various demographic features. The two approaches produced different models though they converged sometimes. The latent variables of exercise predicted professional development challenges more frequently than other latent variables. Regarding correct classification rates, results from the data screening approach were comparable to those from the conventional approach. The latent variables of exercise, such as "Exercise effects," "Expectations of exercise," and "Belief in exercise," might be understudied. More research is necessary for professional development challenges using exercise as a multidimensional construct. Based on the current study, screening and deleting careless responses in survey research is necessary.

Towards a Quality Assurance and Quality Control Mechanism for Species List Building

Catalogue of Life (COL) brings together the efforts and contributions of taxonomists from around the world, and addresses the needs of researchers, policy-makers, environmental managers and the wider public for a consistent, up-to-date and authoritative listing of all the world’s known species. The names that science gives to species are fundamental tools that allow us to refer to these units of biodiversity. Knowing the name for a species unlocks everything that has been learned about its biology, distribution and relevance to humans. Every day, taxonomists continue to publish new scientific names and refine our understanding of the world’s species. Over the past 10 years, game-changing progress has been made with the Catalogue of Life and its authoritative taxonomic name indexing services. Major steps were made towards content completion (over 2.1 million species out of all described 2.4 million are now documented and validated through COL (Bánki et al. 2023). The COL data infrastructure and services were rebuilt in collaboration with the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). This resulted in the GBIF-COL ChecklistBank, an open global repository for publishing and sharing taxonomic and nomenclatural datasets (> 48,000 datasets, including over 160 Global Species Databases). The data managing/editing process underlying the integration of data into a single checklist (index) could be more transparent with clearly documented protocols and procedures, and is today far too time consuming. In the ChecklistBank infrastructure, there are thousands of data sources at our disposal and we need a powerful, semi-automated, community-expertise based, quality assurance process to warrant the best possible product for users of taxonomic checklists. COL aspires to document, with as much detail as possible, the current quality control and quality assurance processes as they relate to activities that occur at the following levels: 1) data providers, 2) pipeline and data conversions, 3) ChecklistBank infrastructure, and 4) checklist output. Ideally, this should happen throughout the consortium of partners that help the taxonomic community with mobilising and editing authoritative taxonomic data, including initiatives like Atlas of Living Australia, Catalogue of Life China, EDIT Platform for Cybertaxonomy, Integrated Taxonomic Information System, Freshwater Animal Diversity Assessment, TaxonWorks / Species Files, World Flora Online / Rhakhis, World Register of Marine Species / LifeWatch Aphia. In recent years more attention has been given to the principles of creating an authoritative list of the world's species (Garnett et al. 2020). COL has developed and adopted new criteria for the inclusion of taxonomic data sources in the COL Checklist (Hobern et al. 2021). And ChecklistBank, certainly provides more avenues for (automated) quality checks and procedures. But to guarantee the highest confidence in data, we are in need of a transparent and consistent data quality assurance and data quality control mechanism from the creation of taxonomic data, to data publishing, to the delivery into taxonomic data products and the global list of known species. We will present the current status of quality control and quality assurance processes in Catalogue of Life, and discuss what should constitute a quality control and quality assurance mechanism for species list building.

Integrated variant allele frequency analysis pipeline and R package: easyVAF.

Somatic sequence variants are associated with cancer diagnosis, prognostic stratification, and treatment response. Variant allele frequency (VAF), the percentage of sequence reads with a specific DNA variant over the read depth at that locus, has been used as a metric to quantify mutation rates in these applications. VAF has the potential for feature detection by reflecting changes in tumor clonal composition across treatments or time points. Although there are several packages, including Genome Analysis Toolkit and VarScan, designed for variant calling and rare mutation identification, there is no readily available package for comparing VAFs among and between groups to identify loci of interest. To this end, we have developed the R package easyVAF, which includes parametric and nonparametric tests to compare VAFs among multiple groups. It is accompanied by an interactive R Shiny app. With easyVAF, the investigator has the option between three statistical tests to maximize power while maintaining an acceptable type I error rate. This paper presents our proposed pipeline for VAF analysis, from quality checking to group comparison. We evaluate our method in a wide range of simulated scenarios and show that choosing the appropriate test to limit the type I error rate is critical. For situations where data is sparse, we recommend comparing VAFs with the beta-binomial likelihood ratio test over Fisher's exact test and Pearson's χ2 test.

Modelling Research Expeditions in Wikidata: Best Practice for Standardisation and Contextualisation

Expeditions and other collecting events are a major source of objects in natural history museums (e.g., Mesibov 2021). Historically, these trips were often transdisciplinary: biological and Earth science specimens were collected at the same time as ethnological or anthropological objects. As a result, specimens and other material gathered during the same expedition, as well as the related data and metadata, are often distributed across multiple institutions. Many expeditions were driven by colonial agendas, aiming to discover new resources to exploit, and their findings were seldom shared with the source countries and local people. Understanding these expeditions illuminates the colonial origins of museum collections, and contributes to recognizing and addressing their impacts (e.g., Das and Lowe 2018, Ashby and Machin 2021). Research expeditions continue to contribute to natural history collections. There is a need to link historical or contemporary research expeditions to other entities, requiring the unambiguous labelling (and persistent identifiers) of such events. Stable identifiers for expeditions plus the sharing of metadata and descriptions in a wide range of languages will facilitate access to scattered information about the event, the institutions housing specimens and objects, the participants and the locations visited, and assist with the linking of distributed material and related research data. However, structured data for scientific expeditions are currently lacking. While identifier systems have been created for many entities over the last few decades, there is no dedicated identifier for research expeditions and similar events. Several studies have shown the importance of people identifiers for linking collection data (e.g., Groom et al. 2022), and we argue the same is true for expeditions. Wikidata is a multilingual community-curated knowledge base containing data structured in a human- and machine-readable format. It allows easy creation, updating and enriching of items on expeditions, and provides stable identifiers for them that can be used in collection management systems. Expeditions can be linked to participants and other agents, regions, localities, objects, archival material, maps, publications, field notebooks, documentary footage and art works resulting from the expeditions, thus making historical information more easily accessible and assisting with the acknowledgment of any imperial or colonial impact that may have resulted from the expedition. Expeditions in Wikidata can be hierarchical, e.g., linking a series of related events or under an umbrella project together providing a machine-readable way to harvest all project data. Wikidata also can provide links between present day countries and historical names for locations (e.g., former colonial names). Expeditions published as Linked Open Data make datasets more FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable), and are also useful in data transcription and validation processes. Visualisation of itinerary data and travel routes also facilitate data quality checks. An informal working group of people interested in the topic was formed to discuss standards and share best practices and recommendations regarding terminology, data modelling and contextualisation. Building upon previous work (e.g., Bauer et al. 2022, von Mering et al. 2022, Leachman 2023), we aim to work towards the enrichment, linking and standardisation of data about research expeditions. If the Wikidata identifiers of these expeditions and participants are added to the records of the corresponding entities in the collection management system, institutions can link from their own collection metadata to the relations made in Wikidata, including to collections in other institutions. The participants of the expedition can be further linked to specimens gathered during the expedition with the use of tools, such as Bionomia, which can facilitate data round-tripping between these collections and specimen records, the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) and Wikidata (Shorthouse 2020). Other initiatives such as the Distributed System of Scientific Collections (DiSSCo) are also interested in incorporating these identifiers as links and annotations.

Repeatability of Pulse Oximetry Measurements in Children During Triage in 2 Ugandan Hospitals.

In low- and middle-income countries, health workers use pulse oximeters for intermittent spot measurements of oxygen saturation (SpO2). However, the accuracy and reliability of pulse oximeters for spot measurements have not been determined. We evaluated the repeatability of spot measurements and the ideal observation time to guide recommendations during spot check measurements. Two 1-minute measurements were taken for the 3,903 subjects enrolled in the study conducted April 2020-January 2022 in Uganda, collecting 1 Hz SpO2 and signal quality index (SQI) data. The repeatability between the 2 measurements was assessed using an intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), calculated using a median of all seconds of non-zero SpO2 values for each recording (any quality, Q1) and again with a quality filter only using seconds with SQI 90% or higher (good quality, Q2). The ICC was also recalculated for both conditions of Q1 and Q2 using the initial 5 seconds, then the initial 10 seconds, and continuing with 5-second increments up to the full 60 seconds. Lastly, the whole minute ICC was calculated with good quality (Q2), including only records where both measurements had a mean SQI of more than 70% (Q3). The repeatability ICC with condition Q1 was 0.591 (95% confidence interval [CI]=0.570, 0.611). Using only the first 5 seconds of each measurement reduced the repeatability to 0.200 (95% CI=0.169, 0.230). Filtering with Q2, the whole-minute ICC was 0.855 (95% CI=0.847, 0.864). The ICC did not improve beyond the first 35 seconds. For Q3, the repeatability rose to 0.908 (95% CI=0.901, 0.914). Training guidelines must emphasize the importance of signal quality and duration of measurement, targeting a minimum of 35 seconds of adequate-quality, stable data. In addition, the design of new devices should incorporate user prompts and force quality checks to encourage more accurate pulse oximetry measurements.

Vitamin E and Pioglitazone: A Comprehensive Systematic Review of Their Efficacy in Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease.

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is becoming increasingly prevalent worldwide, especially in people with obesity, dyslipidemia, type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), and metabolic syndrome. Weight loss and dietary modifications are established first-line treatments for NAFLD. Currently, there is no approved drug for NAFLD; however, pioglitazone and vitamin E have shown some beneficial effects. This systematic review covers the comparative efficacies of vitamin E, pioglitazone, and vitamin E plus pioglitazone. As of December 2022, the sources for prior literature review included PubMed, PubMed Central, and Medline. We included studies assessing the efficacy of pioglitazone, vitamin E, andvitamin E plus pioglitazone in improving liver histology, liver markers, and lipid profile when compared to other interventions in patients with NAFLD/non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). Review materials include randomized control trials (RCTs), traditional reviews, systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and observational studies on human participants published within the last five years in the English language. Studies on animals, pediatric populations, and with insufficient data were excluded from the review. Two authors scanned and filtered articles independently and later performed quality checks. A third reviewer resolved any conflicts. The risk of bias was assessed using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses 2020 guidelines for systematic reviews, the Cochrane Risk of Bias Tool for RCTs, and the Scale for the Assessment of Narrative Review Articles for Traditional Reviews. A total of 21 articles were shortlisted. The results showed that pioglitazone and vitamin E are effective in reducing steatosis, inflammation, and ballooning, reducing liver markers, but there seem to be conflicting data on fibrosis resolution. Pioglitazone decreases triglycerides and increases high-density lipoproteins. One study has suggested that pioglitazone has superior efficacy to vitamin E in fibrosis reduction and vitamin E plus pioglitazone has superior efficacy than pioglitazone alone for NASH resolution. However, these conclusions require further validation through extensive analysis and additional research. In conclusion, diabetic patients with NAFLD can be given pioglitazone, and non-diabetic patients with NAFLD can be given vitamin E.

Non-invasive harvesting of conjunctival cells for whole transcriptome sequencing

The purpose of this study was to determine the feasibility of using a non-invasive technique, the EYEPRIM™ conjunctival cell impression device, to harvest sufficient RNA from conjunctival cells for the whole-transcriptome sequencing. Conjunctival cells from 40 participants were collected using an EYEPRIM™ conjunctival cell impression device. RNA was extracted from the samples, followed by library construction and transcriptome sequencing. Quality checks were performed for each technical step of the experiment, and the feasibility of this procedure was examined. RNA of sufficient yield and quality was successfully extracted following additional disruption and homogenization of the conjunctival cells and collection of two impression samples per eye. Successful library preparation and RNA sequencing were performed, with all 40 samples passing the various quality checks used for each step. In conclusion, harvesting cells from the ocular surface using an impression cytology device yields good quality and sufficient mRNA for whole transcriptome sequencing to study diseases of the eye. This technique provides a convenient alternative to using post-mortem tissues or surgical excisions.

Sustainable purchase intentions towards organic food during Covid-19 pandemic: an exploratory study on Indian consumers

PurposeThis study aims to determine the factors influencing consumers’ organic food purchase intention during Covid-19 and how Covid-19 impacted these factors. Understanding these factors will assist marketers in making strategic decisions on how to market their products during a crisis.Design/methodology/approachThis study used a quantitative approach. Data were collected online from 278 organic food consumers based in India. The partial least squares-path modelling method was used for data analysis.FindingsThe results revealed that Covid-19 has substantially impacted consumers' health consciousness, environmental concern, availability, price and intention to buy organic food. This study also revealed that health consciousness, environmental concerns and availability of organic food affect consumers’ purchase intention even during the Covid-19. However, it has been found that price consciousness does not influence consumers’ purchase intention during Covid-19.Practical implicationsMarketers should come up with innovative promotional strategies. Providing information related to quality checks on packages, expanding online sales channels, boosting promotional activities and emphasising the long-term benefits of organic food items should be the go-to marketing strategy of organic food.Originality/valueThe study adds value to the extant literature by examining consumers' purchase intention towards organic food using more customised and thorough constructs that appear to be more practical during the challenging times of Covid-19 and whose findings are not restricted by some pre-established theoretical assumptions.

Reading order during bilingual quality checking of translations: An issue in search of studies

This paper investigates three questions about the order in which the source text and the translation are read during bilingual quality checking of translations. How do translators behave with respect to reading order during self-revision, other-revision and post-editing? What reasons do translators give for using one or the other order? Is one order better in terms of error detection? Reading order is of interest not only because one order may yield more error detection but also because the two orders may differ cognitively. The few existing eye-tracking, interview and survey studies on reading order are summarized and commented on. They suggest, first, that it is unclear whether reading order affects error detection. Second, that post-editors mostly look at the machine translation output first, but for self- and other-revisers, practices are mixed. Third, that as translators leave their student days behind and gain experience, about half abandon source-first as their default reading order during other-revision. Also considered are two articles involving order in other fields: metaphor studies and second language acquisition.

The impact of adopting customization policy and sustainability for improving consumer service in a dual-channel retailing

In recent decades sustainability and dual-route retailing have been adopted by many big industries. Companies are now bound to maintain such strategies that fulfill the sustainable goals developed by the United Nations. Industries face a huge penalty if carbon emissions exceed a certain boundary. Moreover, factories should maintain sufficient flow in retail chains and product quality. This paper demonstrates 3-pillar sustainability in dual channel retailing, empowering firms to integrate the financial-economic pillar with the non-financial (environmental, social, and ethical) pillar. The core product is made available through the traditional channel and customized products are through online channels. The model is enabling the customers with customization provisions where they can influence the products. Thus, as a novel approach, the article incorporates a presumed threshold limit on the product's (standard and customized) selling price difference. Due to customization, a new product is developed which needs extensive quality checks. The study introduces an investment in checking the quality of the customized product which reduces the probability of customization defects exponentially. Additionally, current research adapts the carbon emission cost, penalties charged to a firm for overshooting the limit, and social costs in a smart supply chain. It also exemplifies that production is directly proportional to financial investments in meeting sustainability objectives. The numerical analysis reflects that as production increases, penalty costs decrease at a significant rate but after reaching optimal production penalty cost again starts to increase. It is observed that the downfall of penalty is 20% more for the single-channel than dual. Adaptation of the customization policy makes the retailing strategy more cost-effective. The model exemplifies that it is more economical to adopt dual-channel retailing compared to single-channel as there is approximately a 14.0625% reduction in total cost in dual-channel retailing. Moreover, an 80% improved quality is observed with a financial investment, which improves consumer satisfaction.

Design and testing of automatic downpipe equipment for deep grain piles

China is a large grain storage country, and at this stage, the effective storage capacity of the country has exceeded 900 million tonnes. Grain is subject to localized high temperatures, pests, and other abnormalities during storage. Therefore, regular quality checks need to be carried out on the grain, and cuttings are the first step in carrying out grain quality checks. The current domestic cutting equipment suffers from low cutting efficiency and high manual labor intensity, so the need to develop new cutting equipment is imminent. In response to the current problems with domestic cuttings equipment, this work has developed a deep grain pile automatic down tube equipment, which is driven by compressed air and is capable of completing cuttings within a ten-meter depth range in grain silos. Compared with traditional cutting equipment, this equipment greatly improves the efficiency of cutting samples, reduces manual labor intensity, provides new ideas for the development of automation of cutting equipment, and has a broad market.

The Gaia-ESO Survey: Homogenisation of stellar parameters and elemental abundances

The Gaia-ESO Survey is a public spectroscopic survey that targeted ≳105 stars covering all major components of the Milky Way from the end of 2011 to 2018, delivering its final public release in May 2022. Unlike other spectroscopic surveys, Gaia-ESO is the only survey that observed stars across all spectral types with dedicated, specialised analyses: from O (Teff ~ 30 000–52 000 K) all the way to K-M (≳3500 K). The physics throughout these stellar regimes varies significantly, which has previously prohibited any detailed comparisons between stars of significantly different types. In the final data release (internal data release 6) of the Gaia-ESO Survey, we provide the final database containing a large number of products, such as radial velocities, stellar parameters and elemental abundances, rotational velocity, and also, for example, activity and accretion indicators in young stars and membership probability in star clusters for more than 114 000 stars. The spectral analysis is coordinated by a number of working groups (WGs) within the survey, each specialised in one or more of the various stellar samples. Common targets are analysed across WGs to allow for comparisons (and calibrations) amongst instrumental setups and spectral types. Here we describe the procedures employed to ensure all survey results are placed on a common scale in order to arrive at a single set of recommended results for use by all survey collaborators. We also present some general quality and consistency checks performed on the entirety of the survey results.

Quality assuring an outsourced ambulatory electrocardiogram pathway

Abstract Funding Acknowledgements Type of funding sources: None. Introduction The rising demand for arrhythmia care has led to the use of outsourced ambulatory electrocardiogram (ECG) pathways to maintain timely service delivery and meet diagnostic targets. Since COVID-19, our ambulatory ECG service operates primarily through external third-party providers, using the remote (postal) model, where monitors are dispatched to patients for self-application. This pathway was activated to comply with social distancing restrictions and has now been integrated into our diagnostic model of care. A quality assurance (QA) process was introduced to ensure compliance with our internal ECG reporting practice and escalation protocols. Purpose To quality assure our outsourced ambulatory ECG reports and pathways against internal practices and protocols. Methods We audited our QA records on outsourced services from 1st January 2022 - 31st December 2022. During this period, a total of 4317 patients were provided with an ambulatory ECG monitor via the remote service. We conducted regular (~every 2-3 months) retrospective random sampling of ambulatory ECG reports (~10%) for inclusion in QA. Our QA framework consists of a series of quality and consistency checks related to clinical information, report content, and adherence to escalation protocols (table 1). QA reports are fed back to our providers at quarterly meetings to ensure improved service quality. To obtain the requisite data, a variety of sources were cross-referenced. These included our QA reports, outsourced databases, third-party provider platforms, and our patient information system. Results Over a 12-month period, a total of 459 reports were quality assured. Ambulatory ECG reports were checked for clinical information, report content, supporting ECG evidence and amendment requests (table 1). A compliance rate of 99% was achieved. There were few cases (1%) where a request was made to the provider to amend the report or include additional information, namely ECG strips to clarify the findings. We also quality checked compliance to our escalation protocols: appropriate RAG (red, amber, green) rating and action, timely notification to clinicians, and adequate documentation. The reviewed ambulatory ECG reports were RAG rated as: Red 23 (5%), Amber 189 (40%), Green-Amber 142 (30%), Green 117 (25%). These were carried out with 99% accuracy. Activation of the appropriate escalation protocols and timely clinician notification achieved 100% compliance, including 23 red-flagged reports requiring immediate action. Conclusion The outsourced ambulatory ECG pathway had a very high rate of compliance with internal ECG reporting practice and escalation protocols. Our QA framework ensures we work in collaboration with our external partners to continually provide high-quality ECG diagnostics. We believe undertaking internal quality checks is a vital part of using outsourced service providers.

Genetic differentiation among Aedes aegypti populations from different eco-geographical zones of India.

The present study explicitly evaluated the genetic structure of Aedes aegypti Linn, the vector of dengue, chikungunya, and Zika viruses, across different geo-climatic zones of India and also elucidated the impact of ecological and topographic factors. After data quality checks and removal of samples with excess null alleles, the final analysis was performed on 589 individual samples using 10 microsatellite markers. Overall findings of this study suggested that, Ae. aegypti populations are highly diverse with moderate genetic differentiation between them. Around half of the populations (13 out of 22) formed two genetic clusters roughly associated with geographical regions. The remaining nine populations shared genetic ancestries with either one or both of the clusters. A significant relationship between genetic and geographic distance was observed, indicating isolation by distance. However, spatial autocorrelation analysis predicted the signs of long-distance admixture. Post-hoc environmental association analysis showed that 52.7% of genetic variations were explained by a combination of climatic and topographic factors, with latitude and temperature being the best predictors. This study indicated that though overall genetic differentiation among Ae. aegypti populations across India is moderate (Fst = 0.099), the differences between the populations are developing due to the factors associated with geographic locations. This study improves the understanding of the Ae. aegypti population structure in India that may assist in predicting mosquito movements across the geo-climatic zones, enabling effective control strategies and assessing the risk of disease transmission.

Photonics Scanning Pentaprism System for the Integrated Inspection of Large-Aperture Telescopes.

To improve their spatial resolution and detection capabilities, future ground-based optical telescopes will have a size of 30 m, and the aperture of space telescopes will be increased to 10 m. Such large optical systems necessitate the development of large integrated testing equipment. In this study, spectrum and system alignment measurements and wavefront quality checking were performed using the sub-aperture detection method and a fiber-connected Photonics Scanning Pentaprism (PSP). First, the system was aligned using an optical truss, ensuring that the optical axis was properly positioned. Second, using a sub-aperture light beam though the entrance pupil, light spots were formed on the focal plane and transmitted to the spectrometer via fibers to obtain the corresponding spectral components. Then, by taking measurements at different system positions, a full-aperture spectrum response could be reached. Lastly, by photon-integrated interference on the focal plane, intensity interference fringes could be projected at the entrance pupil of the system. And the wavefront quality of the system could be verified by observing the fringe deformation. The measurement accuracy of the optical axis of the system is better than 2 mrad. The spectral measurement accuracy was better than 5%, and the wavefront measurement accuracy surpassed 0.1 wavelengths (1 wavelength = 633 nm). This study effectively enhanced the detection and in situ calibration capabilities of large telescope systems, ensuring that the performance requirements can be met in the design of future telescopes.

A Systematic Investigation and Suggested Remedies for a Defective Marketed Solid Dosage Form.

An ideal tablet should be of high quality and devoid of flaws. Tablet defects can lead to therapeutic failure and reduce the patient compliance in case of clinical perspective whereas it also imparts financial burden, loss of production time and reputation of the company. The research was carried out to investigate and find out the possible root causes of the broken tablet within the intact blister. Oral dosage forms were visually inspected in a hospital pharmacy in the Udupi district, using a validated checklist. A powdered uncoated Fluconazole tablet was found within the intact blister pocket of 1’s pack. A case study was formulated comprising of the dosage form, generic name, therapeutic category, probable root causes, defects, category of complaint, probable root causes and remediation and clinical significance. This unique outcome of the work can be used to train the health professionals which will further help them in avoiding such defects and defective products reaching the patients. Such defects can be bypassed by giving effective training to the staff using real-life case studies, taking corrective and preventive actions and conducting adequate in-process quality checks before releasing the products into the market. The use of such case studies will be effective in learning better and developing their skills in problem-solving and decision-making in ambiguous/complex situations.

The Use of Radio and Telemedicine by TMAS Centers in Provision of Medical Care to Seafarers: A Systematic Review.

Objective: From medicine via radio to telemedicine, personalized medical care at sea has improved significantly over the years. Currently, very little research has been conducted on telemedicine services and tools at sea. This study aims to review real-time case studies of seafarers' personalized treatment via telemedical devices published in medical journals. Methods: A literature search was conducted using three libraries such as PubMed (Medline), Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), BioMed Central, and Google Scholar. The Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) were used for information retrieval and document selection was conducted based on the guidelines of preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) 2020 flowchart. Selected articles were subjected to quality checks using the Newcastle-Ottawa scale (NOS). Results: The literature search produced 785 papers and documents. The selection was conducted in three stages such as selection, screening, and inclusion. After applying predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria, only three articles on real-time medical assistance with telemedical tools were identified. It is reported that medical attention is delivered to seafarers in real time thanks to advancements in telemedicine, satellite technology, and video conferencing. Conclusions: By improving the quality of medical care and reducing response times for medical emergencies at sea, lives have been saved. There are still several gaps despite these advancements. Medical assistance at sea should therefore be improved to address many of the still unsolved issues.

Association Between the Use of Systemic Steroids and Ocular Hypertension as a Side Effect in Pediatric Population: A Systematic Review.

Steroids are commonly used in children for the treatment of various medical conditions. However, systemic steroids can lead to the development of ocular hypertension (OHT), an increase in intraocular pressure. Limited literature is available on the systemic route of steroid administration in children and the development of this side effect. For literature writing and review, a thorough research was conducted across various platforms, such as PubMed, PubMed Central (PMC), Medline, and Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR). After all the screening processes and quality checks, 12 articles were finalized for review writing. The aim was to explore if OHT development is a common side effect developed in children on systemic steroid use for various medical conditions and if any particular risk factors were present among children that lead to its development. The results indicate that OHT is a common side effect of systemic steroid use in children. Children may or may not present with the symptoms of raised intraocular pressure. The development of OHT occurs within one month of the beginning of the steroid treatment in most of the reviewed studies. Several risk factors associated with developing this side effect were also found. In conclusion, systemic steroid use in children leads to the development of OHT. Awareness among healthcare professionals regarding this potential association is necessary. This information can be used to develop guidelines for serial ocular examinations in children on prolonged systemic steroid use.

An evaluation of truncated birth histories for the rapid measurement of fertility and child survival

BackgroundFull birth histories (FBHs) are a key tool for estimating fertility and child mortality in low- and middle-income countries, but they are lengthy to collect. This is not desirable, especially for rapid turnaround surveys that ought to be short (e.g., mobile phone surveys). To reduce the length of the interview, some surveys resort to truncated birth histories (TBHs), where questions are asked only on recent births.MethodsWe used 32 Malaria Indicator Surveys that included TBHs from 18 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Each set of TBHs was paired and compared to an overlapping set of FBHs (typically from a standard Demographic and Health Survey). We conducted a variety of data checks, including a comparison of the proportion of children reported in the reference period and a comparison of the fertility and mortality estimates.ResultsFertility and mortality estimates from TBHs are lower than those based on FBHs. These differences are driven by the omission of events and the displacement of births backward and out of the reference period.ConclusionsTBHs are prone to misreporting errors that will bias both fertility and mortality estimates. While we find a few significant associations between outcomes measured and interviewer’s characteristics, data quality markers correlate more consistently with respondent attributes, suggesting that truncation creates confusion among mothers being interviewed. Rigorous data quality checks should be put in place when collecting data through this instrument in future surveys.

Exploring the Preferences of the Australian Public for Antibiotic Treatments: A Discrete Choice Experiment.

Identify Australian public preferences for antibiotic treatments in the context of antibiotic stewardship. A discrete choice experiment (DCE) was conducted in Australia to investigate the importance of seven attributes associated with antibiotic treatments and related stewardship practices: contribution to antimicrobial resistance (AMR), treatment duration, side effects, days needed to recover, days before taking antibiotics, treatment failure and out-of-pocket costs. The DCE data were analysed using conditional logit, mixed logit and latent class conditional logit models. The relative importance of each attribute was calculated. A total of 1882 respondents completed the survey; the main study sample consist of 1658 respondents (mean age 48 years) who passed quality checks. All seven attributes significantly influenced respondents' preferences for antibiotic treatments. Based on the designed attribute levels in the DCE, on average, out-of-pocket costs (32.8%) and contribution to antibiotic resistance (30.3%) were the most important attributes, followed by side effects (12.9%). Days before starting medication was least important (3.9%). Three latent classes were identified. Class 1 (including respondents who were more likely to be older and more health literate; 24.5%) gave contribution to antibiotic resistance greater importance in treatment preferences. Class 2 (including respondents more likely to report poorer health; 25.2%) gave out-of-pocket costs greater importance. The remaining (50.4%), who were generally healthier, perceived side effects as the most important attribute. Despite concerted public awareness raising campaigns, our results suggest that several factors may influence the preferences of Australians when considering antibiotic use. However, for those more likely to be aware of the need to preserve antibiotics, out-of-pocket costs and limiting the contribution to antibiotic resistance are the dominant influence. Delays in starting treatment were not important for any latent class, suggesting public tolerance for this measure. These results could help inform strategies to promote prudent antibiotic stewardship.