Results Of Measures Research Articles

Biennial Changes in the Characteristics of Patients with Methamphetamine Use Disorder in Japan from 2000 to 2020

ABSTRACT Methamphetamine is an illegal drug with the greatest burdens in Japan. Social and medical measures to combat methamphetamine dependence have been implemented, but no reports on changes in the characteristics of methamphetamine use disorder patients have been conducted. We aimed to describe these changes, and provide information on the results of social and medical measures. We concatenated cross-sectional surveys from 2000 to 2020 and analyzed biennial changes. Twenty-year data from 2000 to 2018 were age-weighted according to the age structure in 2020. We performed Cochran-Armitage trend tests for crude and age-weighted changes in patient variables. There was an increase in the number of patients with methamphetamine use disorder undergoing treatment and those with a history of drug-related arrests. Patients who achieved 1-year abstinence increased, and those diagnosed with psychotic disorders decreased. Patients with a history of non-drug-related arrests and without revealing their source of methamphetamine decreased. The ages of the patient population increased, and patients with a history of benzodiazepine misuse increased. Social measures linking methamphetamine users to psychiatric care may increase the number of patients who undergo treatment.

Evaluation of the Rationality of Antibiotic Therapy of Nosocomial Infections in Resuscitation and Intensive Care Patients with COVID-19: a Retrospective Analysis

The overall incidence of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) in patients with COVID-19 is lower than 15%. However, in critical COVID-19 patients, the incidence of HAIs may reach 50%, and the mortality rate may exceed 50%. This makes effective antibiotic therapy in this category of patients extremely important. The aim of the study was to assess the rationality of antibiotic therapy in critically ill COVID-19 patients with HAIs, as well as analyse the timeliness and sufficiency of microbiological and laboratory diagnostic testing in these patients. Materials and methods: the study comprised a retrospective analysis of medical records of the patients with COVID-19 complicated by HAIs who had been admitted to an intensive care unit of Moscow City Clinical Hospital 4 from 27.04.2020 to 01.11.2020. Antibacterial therapy was analysed in accordance with the principles set forth in the Strategy for the Control of Antimicrobial Therapy (antimicrobial stewardship) and the current Interim Guidelines on the Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Novel Coronavirus Infection (COVID-19) of the Russian Ministry of Health. Statistical significance was evaluated using Student’s unpaired t -test. The qualitative comparison of independent groups was made using the χ2 test. Results: HAIs developed in 138 (20.8%) of 664 patients admitted to the intensive care unit. The authors considered empirical antibiotic therapy irrational in 53.6% of these cases (74/138 patients) due to nonconformity to the current clinical recommendations. Empirical antimicrobial therapy was rational in 68.6% of survivors and 33.3% of non-survivors ( p < 0.001). It was corrected based on the results of microbiological testing in 56.9% of survivors and 30.2% of non-survivors ( p = 0.005). Procalcitonin levels, as a marker of bacterial infection, were determined in 74.5% survivors and 48.3% of non-survivors ( p = 0.003). Conclusions: Antibiotic therapy was rational in less than 50% of critically ill COVID-19 patients with HAIs. Having demonstrated a significant mortality decrease in the category of studied patients with rational antibiotic therapy, the study suggests that it is necessary to follow the current recommendations more carefully. The success of therapy also largely depends on its timely correction based on the results of HAI pathogen identification and other diagnostic measures, in particular, procalcitonin biomarker tests.

Sleep Quality and Aging: A Systematic Review on Healthy Older People, Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer's Disease.

Aging is characterized by changes in the structure and quality of sleep. When the alterations in sleep become substantial, they can generate or accelerate cognitive decline, even in the absence of overt pathology. In fact, impaired sleep represents one of the earliest symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). This systematic review aimed to analyze the studies on sleep quality in aging, also considering mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and AD. The review process was conducted according to the PRISMA statement. A total of 71 studies were included, and the whole sample had a mean age that ranged from 58.3 to 93.7 years (62.8–93.7 healthy participants and 61.8–86.7 pathological populations). Of these selected studies, 33 adopt subjective measurements, 31 adopt objective measures, and 10 studies used both. Pathological aging showed a worse impoverishment of sleep than older adults, in both subjective and objective measurements. The most common aspect compromised in AD and MCI were REM sleep, sleep efficiency, sleep latency, and sleep duration. These results underline that sleep alterations are associated with cognitive impairment. In conclusion, the frequency and severity of sleep disturbance appear to follow the evolution of cognitive impairment. The overall results of objective measures seem more consistent than those highlighted by subjective measurements.

Re-examining age-related loyalty for low-involvement purchasing

PurposePrevious research on age-related loyalty is sparse, contradictory and suffers from methodological limitations and criticisms. This study aims to apply two methodological advances to fresh purchasing data to give a much clearer picture of age-related differences in brand loyalty.Design/methodology/approachAn online brand choice survey (n = 1,862) is used to examine age-related loyalty within three low-involvement categories in New Zealand. The polarisation index (φ) is adopted as the measure of loyalty to control for confounding influences present in prior research. Results for chronological age are validated through comparison with results for measures of cognitive, biological and sociological age, as well as household life cycle.FindingsContrary to prior research, age-related differences in loyalty are detected in two of the three low-involvement categories studied. The third category does not show detectable loyalty for any age group. Although differences in brand loyalty are broadly present across all age measures, no alternative measure outperforms chronological age in detecting variations in age-related loyalty.Research limitations/implicationsTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first evidence that age-related brand loyalty is present in low-involvement categories. However, effects are small and easily obscured by confounding factors. More research is needed to determine how results vary by category.Practical implicationsDespite showing minor differences in loyalty, older consumers still purchase from a wide portfolio of brands and so should not be ignored by marketers. Future research can investigate loyalty for older consumers by adopting the method of analysing differences in polarisation (φ) for chronological age groups.Originality/valuePrevious contradictory findings and methodological concerns about measurement of age-related loyalty are resolved through use of the polarisation index (φ) as a measure of loyalty and by confirmation that chronological age performs as well as any other age measure.

Safety assessment of coordinated signalized intersections in a connected vehicle environment: a microsimulation approach

In this study, the safety impact of the coupled implementation of signal coordination and connected vehicles (CVs) is examined in a microsimulation environment created in VISSIM. The Surrogate Safety Assessment Model (SSAM) was implemented to generate results of surrogate safety measures. The findings provided evidence that CVs can improve the safety performance at all market penetration rates (MPRs) of CVs in terms of all performance metrics. In addition, further safety improvements were achieved at higher CV MPRs. It was observed that coordinated signals had lower likelihoods of experiencing collisions compared to uncoordinated signals. Specifically, coordinated signals showed significantly higher time-to-collision (TTC) and post-encroachment time (PET) values when compared to uncoordinated signals at the 100% CV MPR only. Moreover, the impact of CV technologies on reducing the total number of conflicts (TNC) would be stronger than that of traffic signal coordination alone while both would lead to reductions in the TNC.

ЦЕРЕБРОКАРДІАЛЬНИЙ СИНДРОМ ПРИ ІШЕМІЧНОМУ ІНСУЛЬТІ

Cerebrocardial syndrome is a complex of cardiac disorders that occur against the background of damage to the central nervous system and most often develop as a result of cerebral stroke. The article presents a description of a clinical case of cerebrocardial syndrome in a patient with ischemic stroke, the results of diagnostic measures, the dynamics of the electrocardiogram. The clinical significance of cerebrocardial syndrome is that it can cause diagnostic errors and overdiagnosis of cardiac pathology in situations where it does not exist, and, accordingly, lead to improper treatment. An individual approach to the assessment of cardiac disorders in patients with cerebral stroke and regular changes in the neuroendocrine, immune systems, hemostasis system will provide for a timely diagnosis of cerebrocardial syndrome, optimization of treatment and improved prognosis.

Is walking maintained following discharge from prosthetic rehabilitation?

PURPOSE: To determine if people who walked with a lower limb prosthesis on discharge from rehabilitation continued to 20 weeks after discharge. MATERIALS AND METHODS: An observational cohort study design. People with major lower extremity amputation (LEA) who were discharged from rehabilitation using a prosthesis to walk and were due for prosthetic review appointment (20 weeks following discharge) during the period of data collection were eligible to be included. The primary outcome was the continuation of walking with a lower limb prosthesis at this time point (T2). Secondary outcome measures were: Timed Up and Go (TUG), Two Minute Walk Test (2MWT), SIGAM score, Locomotor Capability Index-5 (LCI-5), and Orthotic Prosthetic User Survey- Quality of Life (OPUS-QOL). Secondary outcomes were assessed at time of discharge from rehabilitation (T1) and repeated at T2. Statistical analysis was carried out comparing the results of the secondary outcome measures at T1 and T2. RESULTS: 22/28 participants were still walking with their prostheses at T2. Five of the six who abandoned walking with their prostheses did so because of issues with the skin on their residuum or contralateral foot. Participants who continued to walk with their prostheses demonstrated a statistically significant improvement in TUG (5.01 seconds, p < 0.01) and 2MWT (11.35 metres, p < 0.01) between the two time points. No statistically significant difference was found in LCI-5 or OPUS QOL scores between the two time points. CONCLUSION: Most participants continued to walk with their prosthesis and experienced further improvements in their exercise tolerance and decrease in their risk of falls after discharge.

Measurement, modeling, reduction of decision-theoretic multigranulation fuzzy rough sets based on three-way decisions

Variable precision multigranulation fuzzy rough sets (VP-MFRSs) use two direct integrations: the multigranulation maximum and minimum. Their optimistic and pessimistic models facilitate uncertainty informatization but also imply a potential limitation of extremes. This study improves VP-MFRSs for extension and balance, and thus, decision-theoretic multigranulation fuzzy rough sets (DT-MFRSs) are proposed by systematically fusing the multigranulation maximum and minimum. For DT-MFRSs, their tri-level analysis of measurement, modeling, and reduction is deeply acquired via three-way decisions. First, maximum and minimum membership degrees are linearly combined, and the weight parameter guides a generalized multigranulation membership degree. This adjustable measure motivates DT-MFRSs with positive, negative, and boundary regions, while attitude-preference values of 1, 0, and 0.5 respectively produce optimistic, pessimistic, and compromised models. Then, nonmonotonicity and uncertainty of membership degrees and model regions are determined, and these fundamental characteristics induce new reduction criteria of region preservations. Also, three-way attribute reducts are proposed by preserving positive, negative, and positive–negative regions, and their systematic relationships are obtained. Finally, tri-level results of measures, models, and reducts are validated by table examples and data experiments. In this study, DT-MFRSs extend and improve VP-MFRSs via systematic fusion of membership measurement, and contain optimistic, pessimistic, compromised models, etc., thereby exhibiting extended diversity and applied robustness. Their three-way attribute reduction also perfects uncertainty optimization.

Future Climate Projections Using SDSM and LARS-WG Downscaling Methods for CMIP5 GCMs over the Transboundary Jhelum River Basin of the Himalayas Region

Climate change is one of the leading issues affecting river basins due to its direct impacts on the cryosphere and hydrosphere. General circulation models (GCMs) are widely applied tools to assess climate change but the coarse spatial resolution of GCMs limit their direct application for local studies. This study selected five CMIP5 GCMs (CCSM4, HadCM3, GFDL-CM3, MRI-CGCM3 and CanESM2) for performance evaluation ranked by Nash–Sutcliffe coefficient (NSE) and Kling–Gupta Efficiency (KGE). CCSM4 and HadCM3 large-scale predictors were favored based on ranks (0.71 and 0.68, respectively) for statistical downscaling techniques to downscale the climatic indicators Tmax, Tmin and precipitation. The performance of two downscaling techniques, Statistical Downscaling Methods (SDSM) and Long Ashton Research Station Weather Generator (LARS-WG), were examined using the Mean Absolute Error (MAE), Root Mean Square Error (RMSE), bias, NSE and KGE with weights (Wi) for the validation period. The results of statistical measures proved SDSM more efficient (0.67) in comparison to the LARS-WG (0.51) for the validation time for the Jhelum River basin. The findings revealed that the SDSM simulation for Tmax and Tmin are more comparable to the reference data for the validation period except simulation of extreme events by precipitation. The 21st century climatic projections exhibited a significant rise in Tmax (2.37–4.66 °C), Tmin (2.47–4.52 °C) and precipitation (7.4–11.54%) for RCP-4.5 and RCP-8.5, respectively. Overall, the results depicted that winter and pre-monsoon seasons were potentially most affected in terms of warming and precipitation, which has the potential to alter the cryosphere and runoff of the Jhelum River basin.

The Value and Challenges of Implementing Patient Centered Measures in a Psychiatric Hospital Setting

Background: Measuring and interpreting outcome is challenging in mental health services than in some other areas of health care. Objectives: The aims of this study were to (1) explore results of Patient-Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) and Patient-Reported Experience Measures (PREMs) in psychiatric hospital settings, (2) describe the relation between generic PROMs (measure of well-being) and specific PROMs (disorder-specific symptom assessments), (3) describe the congruence between patients and clinicians evaluation of the care experience (based on Patients reported experience measures and Clinician reported experience measures). Methods: A total of 269 consecutive patients participated in this study. Results: (1) Subjective experience of well-being (outcome) improved after hospitalisation (+15%, avg). High satisfaction with subjective experience of care (85%, avg). (2) Significant correlation between patients’ assessment of subjective well-being (generic PROMs) and clinical improvement (specific PROMs) (p <0.007). (3) Significant correlation between patient and clinician experience of care (p= 0.002). Conclusions: One of the first French studies on the use of standardised PROMs and PREMs in psychiatric hospital settings. Results suggest that subjective well-being measures complement the assessment of the patient’s clinical symptoms and social functioning. The effectiveness of care depends on the consideration of these three dimensions. The use of core patient-reported measures, as part of systematic measurement and performance monitoring in mental health care, provides valuable input to the clinicians’ practice.DisclosureNo significant relationships.

Анализ результатов проведенных геолого-технических мероприятий и их влияние на компонентоотдачу

The article considers the results of carrying out geological and technical measures on the wells of the Astrakhan gas condensate field. The main objectives of this study are to establish the relationship between the tectonic structure of the AGCF and the porosity and reservoir properties of the reservoir rocks that make up this field, as well as the description of oil and gas potential based on the lithological and stratigraphic features of the field. The results 
 of the calculation of the economic efficiency of the results of geological and technical measures are given. At the field in different periods of operation, various technologies were used to increase the productivity of wells. Geological and technical measures were carried out at the AGCF wells using a set of coiled tubing during development after drilling and during the development after a workover of wells from the machine at the wells of the existing well stock. Based on the results of the subsoil user's assessment, it was found that for all wells, as a result of geological and technical measures, a positive effect was obtained, expressed in an increase in production rate at the same working pressure. The results of the hydrochloric acid treatment were summed up; the average increase in production rate for complex treatments is indicated; the final average increase in debit is indicated. The efficiency of the hydrochloric acid treatment carried out for the first time is emphasized; the average increase in production rate based on the results of hydrochloric acid treatments is indicated. Conclusions were drawn about the reservoir properties of reservoir rocks of the field and the degree of homogeneity of the lithological composition, on the basis of which information was obtained on the economic efficiency of the experiments, the use of which is possible only after the development of modern technologies for influencing the reservoir.

Bank Loan Prediction Using Machine Learning

Bank Loan endorsement is a vital process for banking associations. The framework endorsed or reject the advance applications. Recuperation of credit is a significant contributing boundary in the fiscal summaries of a bank. Foreseeing the chance of re-installment of credit by the customer is extremely challenging. As of late numerous analysts dealt with advance endorsement forecast frameworks. In the System Machine Learning (ML) strategies are exceptionally valuable in anticipating results for enormous measure of information. In this paper two machine learning algorithms, Support Vector Machine (SVM) and Random Forest (RF) are applied to predict the loan approval of customers.

Analyzing the Impact of Lockdown in Controlling COVID-19 Spread and Future Prediction

COVID-19 outbreaks are the critical challenge to the administrative units of all worldwide nations. India is also more concerned about monitoring the virus’s spread to control its growth rate by stringent behaviour. The present COVID-19 situation has huge impact in India, and the results of various preventive measures are discussed in this paper. This research presents different trends and patterns of data sources of States that suffered from the second wave of COVID-19 in India until 3rd July 2021. The data sources were collected from the Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. This work reacts particularly to many research activities to discover the lockdown effects to control the virus through traditional methods to recover and safeguard the pandemic. The second wave caused more losses in the economy than the first wave and increased the death rate. To avoid this, various methods were developed to find infected cases during the regulated national lockdown, but the infected cases still harmed unregulated incidents. The COVID-19 forecasts were made on 3rd July 2021, using exponential simulation. This paper deals with the methods to control the second wave giving various analyses reports showing the impact of lockdown effects. This highly helps to safeguard from the spread of the future pandemic.

State Policy in the Field of Scientific Activity Management in Turkey

The article evaluates the scientific and technical policy of Turkey over the past two decades. National trends in research and development (R & D) expenditures, publication products, and patent data were examined for the implications of science and technology policies between 2000 and 2020. The article also provides some conclusions about the results of policy measures in terms of R & D costs and publication output.

A Nearly Neutral Model of Molecular Signatures of Natural Selection after Change in Population Size.

The nearly neutral theory is a common framework to describe natural selection at the molecular level. This theory emphasizes the importance of slightly deleterious mutations by recognizing their ability to segregate and eventually get fixed due to genetic drift in spite of the presence of purifying selection. As genetic drift is stronger in smaller than in larger populations, a correlation between population size and molecular measures of natural selection is expected within the nearly neutral theory. However, this hypothesis was originally formulated under equilibrium conditions. As most natural populations are not in equilibrium, testing the relationship empirically may lead to confounded outcomes. Demographic nonequilibria, for instance following a change in population size, are common scenarios that are expected to push the selection–drift relationship off equilibrium. By explicitly modeling the effects of a change in population size on allele frequency trajectories in the Poisson random field framework, we obtain analytical solutions of the nonstationary allele frequency spectrum. This enables us to derive exact results of measures of natural selection and effective population size in a demographic nonequilibrium. The study of their time-dependent relationship reveals a substantial deviation from the equilibrium selection–drift balance after a change in population size. Moreover, we show that the deviation is sensitive to the combination of different measures. These results therefore constitute relevant tools for empirical studies to choose suitable measures for investigating the selection–drift relationship in natural populations. Additionally, our new modeling approach extends existing population genetics theory and can serve as foundation for methodological developments.

Investigating the safety performance of the new continuous green T-partial cloverleaf A interchange

This study proposes and investigates the safety performance of a new innovative interchange design, called the continuous green T-partial cloverleaf A (CGT-parclo A). The CGT-parclo A was compared with various other conventional and unconventional service interchange designs. To address the objectives of this research, a simulation modeling network was built using VISSIM microsimulation software coupled with Econolite’s external ASC/3 Software-in-the-Loop signal controller. The Federal Highway Administration’s Surrogate Safety Assessment Model was employed to produce results of surrogate safety measures. Moreover, analyses of variance were conducted to examine the statistical significance of the results. The findings indicate that the CGT-parclo A is the best form of parclo A interchanges, with the potential to reduce the likelihood of crashes as well as their frequencies and severities. Specifically, the CGT-parclo A reduced the crossing conflicts, rear-end conflicts, lane change conflicts, and the total number of conflicts by ranges of 6.4% to 43.7%, 4.8% to 19.7%, 1.2% to 30.0%, and 7.6% to 28.1%, respectively.

Context-specificity to reduce bias in self-assessments: Comparing teachers’ scenario-based self-assessment and objective assessment of technological knowledge

Previous research has focused on self-assessments rather than objective assessments for assessing teachers’ technological knowledge (TK). Notwithstanding, empirical studies have failed to show stable relationships between self-assessments and objective assessments. In this study, we investigate the extent to which scenario-based self-assessments of (student) teachers’ (N = 75) TK can serve as anchors by helping them to identify the relevant skills that are required in concrete and authentic situations and might be therefore effective to bring the results of objective and subjective measures closer together using a path analytical model. Overall, the results suggest that scenario-based self-assessment is promising for the approximation of the results of objective assessment measures, especially for operational technical skills.

Projective Limit Techniques for the Infinite Dimensional Moment Problem

We deal with the following general version of the classical moment problem: when can a linear functional on a unital commutative real algebra A be represented as an integral with respect to a Radon measure on the character space X(A) of A equipped with the Borel sigma -algebra generated by the weak topology? We approach this problem by constructing X(A) as a projective limit of the character spaces of all finitely generated unital subalgebras of A. Using some fundamental results for measures on projective limits of measurable spaces, we determine a criterion for the existence of an integral representation of a linear functional on A with respect to a measure on the cylinder sigma -algebra on X(A) (resp. a Radon measure on the Borel sigma -algebra on X(A)) provided that for any finitely generated unital subalgebra of A the corresponding moment problem is solvable. We also investigate how to localize the support of representing measures for linear functionals on A. These results allow us to establish infinite dimensional analogues of the classical Riesz-Haviland and Nussbaum theorems as well as a representation theorem for linear functionals non-negative on a “partially Archimedean” quadratic module of A. Our results in particular apply to the case when A is the algebra of polynomials in infinitely many variables or the symmetric tensor algebra of a real infinite dimensional vector space, providing a unified setting which enables comparisons between some recent results for these instances of the moment problem.

THEORETICAL AND METHODOLOGICAL REASONING OF THE SET OF COMPONENTS OF FINANCIAL AND ECONOMIC SECURITY OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC SYSTEMS

Based on the scientific views of scientists and practitioners identified the main purpose of the concept of financial and economic security of socio-economic systems, including higher education institutions. The urgency of ensuring the financial and economic security of domestic higher education institutions is primarily due to the following factors: maintaining financially effective resilience to external and internal stimuli and threats; improving the efficiency of management; ensuring the optimal number of of teaching staff; minimizing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and military aggression by the Russian Federation; the need to protect the information space of participants in the educational process; ensuring a high level of qualification of scientific, pedagogical and support staff; increasing the competition of graduates of higher education institutions. The authors present their own views on the separation of components of financial and economic security of higher education institutions that are responsible for various areas of operation and their constituent objects, such as: intellectual and personnel, technical and technological, financial and investment, material and technical, information and communication, regulatory, educational and methodical, socio-cultural, security, energy, economic areas. In the article the authors formed tasks, criteria and indicators, objects and subjects, measures and principles of provision, components of evaluation and built an algorithm to increase the level of financial and economic security of socio-economic systems, on the example of higher education institutions. The algorithm presented by the authors contains 5 adjustment tools (feedbacks): adjusting the structure of negative factors in determining their structure and their distribution according to subjective and objective criteria; adjustment of the developed preventive measures during their development and implementation; adjustment after analysis of the functional results of the implemented measures; adjustments in assessing the economic efficiency of the implemented measures; maintaining a sufficient level of financial and economic security to adapt to changes in the internal and external environment of higher education institution.

COVID-19 Concern and Stress in Bangladesh: Perceived Social Support as a Predictor or Protector

The insidious coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) has been a global public health concern affecting almost everyone physically and/or psychologically. The psychological consequences like concern about COVID-19 and increased perceived stress are primarily results of preventive measures like social distancing, lockdown, etc. The present study examined whether perceived social support predicts stress or lessens the effect between concern and stress during social distancing. More specifically, we tested whether (a) the greater social support is associated with lesser perceived stress, and (b) the greater an individual perceives social support, the weaker will be the concern-to-stress relationship (a prediction from buffering hypothesis). We utilized the data from the Bangladeshi respondents (n = 204, 54% males) as part of the COVIDiSTRESS global survey. The three-step hierarchical regression analysis revealed social support as a predictor of stress along with coronavirus concerns rather than protector. The findings have implications for professionals (in providing psychological support to vulnerable people), policymakers (in implementing steps in the future that would less impact on perceived social support), and future researchers (in solving the ultimate role of social support to the association between fear and stress).