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Cost Eff Resour Alloc 2022 Jun 25;20(1):27. Epub 2022 Jun 25.

Department of Ophthalmology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, Heilongjiang, China.

Background And Aims: The misconception of the purpose of strabismus treatment has, on the one hand, affected the motivation of strabismus patients to seek care and, on the other hand, has resulted in strabismus not being covered by health insurance, both of which interact to limit the motivation of strabismus patients and also impose a financial burden on strabismus patients. Previous studies on the cost of strabismus had only addressed the cost utility and functional and psychosocial benefits of strabismus surgery. The aim of this study was to estimate the direct medical expenditure incurred for strabismus surgery and analyze the trend for the period 2014-2019 using the data collected by local eye hospitals in northeast China. Read More

Environ Sci Pollut Res Int 2022 Jun 25. Epub 2022 Jun 25.

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Assiut University, Assiut, 71516, Egypt.

In the reported study, a dynamic analytical model is developed to propose the energy, exergy, environmental impact, and economic analyses of the water heating system at Jaipur (India) with an evacuated tube compound parabolic concentrator field of a total area of 81 m. Consequently, the model is used to perform parametric studies to report the effect of operating and meteorological parameters on the productivity and performance of the system. Moreover, the system's performance, environmental impact, and economic aspects have been investigated and compared under different meteorological conditions at four different Rajasthan (India) locations using TMY2 weather data files. Read More

J Med Imaging Radiat Sci 2022 Jul;53(3S)

Conference Publication Co-Chair.

Ann Thorac Surg 2022 Jun 22. Epub 2022 Jun 22.

Division of Thoracic Surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston MA.

Background: Sampling ≥10 lymph nodes during lobectomy for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is a current surveillance metric and potential quality metric of American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer. We sought to determine guideline adherence and its relationship to hospital lobectomy volume within the Society of Thoracic Surgeons General Thoracic Surgery Database (STS-GTSD).

Methods: Participant-centers providing elective lobectomy for NSCLC within the STS-GTSD (2012-2019) were divided into tertiles according to annual volume. Read More

Sci Total Environ 2022 Jun 22;842:156787. Epub 2022 Jun 22.

Faculty of Oceanography and Geography, University of Gdansk, Gdansk, Poland.

Despite varved sediments being widely used for paleolimnological studies, little information is available about how climate and meteorological signals are recorded in varves at sub-seasonal to annual scale. We investigate links between meteorological and limnological conditions and their influence on biochemical varve formation and preservation of sub-seasonal climate signals in the sediments. Our study site is postglacial Lake Żabińskie located in NE Poland, in which thick and complex varved sediments have been studied for the last decade. Read More

Sci Total Environ 2022 Jun 22:156867. Epub 2022 Jun 22.

State Key Laboratory of Environmental Criteria and Risk Assessment, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing 100012, China.

Random forest (RF) and MaxEnt models are shallow machine learning approaches that perform well in predicting species' potential distributions. RF models can produce robust results with the default automatic configuration in most cases, but it is necessary for MaxEnt to optimize the model settings to improve the performance, and the predictive performance difference between optimized MaxEnt and RF is uncertain. To explore this issue, the potential distribution of the endangered amphibian Quasipaa boulengeri in China was predicted using optimized MaxEnt and RF models. Read More

Sci Total Environ 2022 Jun 22:156875. Epub 2022 Jun 22.

Institute of Meteorological Development and Planning, China Meteorological Administration, Beijing 100081, China.

In this study, a liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (HPLC-ESI-MS/MS) was used to develop a rapid method to detect carbohydrates (one anhydrosugar, five sugars, and four sugar alcohols) and monoterpene secondary organic aerosol (SOA) tracers in the atmosphere, successfully applied to 139 atmospheric aerosol samples in Nanjing in 2019. Anhydrosugar (levoglucosan) is the most abundant carbohydrate in the atmospheric environment, with an annual mean concentration of 103.96 ng m. Read More

Drug Alcohol Depend 2022 Jun 11;237:109533. Epub 2022 Jun 11.

National Drug & Alcohol Research Centre, UNSW Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia; School of Psychology, University of Tasmania, Hobart, TAS 7000, Australia.

Background: Supply of alcohol to adolescents is associated with increased alcohol consumption and harms including alcohol use disorder (AUD). We aimed to identify: (1) trajectories of alcohol supply to adolescents; (2) sociodemographic characteristics associated with supply trajectory; (3) patterns of alcohol consumption by supply trajectory; and (4) supply trajectory associations with adverse alcohol outcomes.

Methods: We used Australian longitudinal survey data (N = 1813) to model latent trajectories of parent and peer alcohol supply over five annual follow-ups (Waves 2-6; M 13. Read More

J Environ Manage 2022 Jun 22;318:115415. Epub 2022 Jun 22.

Bureau of Environmental Services, The City of Portland, USA.

Green infrastructure (GI) has been gaining increasing attention due to its efficiency in controlling and purifying urban stormwater runoff, creating environmental amenities, and biodiversity conservation. Nevertheless, the existing knowledge of people's preferences for GI is not yet sufficient for evidence-based policymaking for enhancing GI. This study analyzes citizens' perceptions of the relative importance of six GI practices and estimates their willingness to pay (WTP) to enhance them. Read More

Maturitas 2022 Jun 9;164:9-14. Epub 2022 Jun 9.

Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, University of Calgary, 4th floor, North Tower, Foothills Hospital, 1403-29 Street NW, Calgary, Alberta T2N 2T9, Canada; Department of Community Health Sciences, University of Calgary, 3D10, 3280 Hospital Drive NW, Calgary, Alberta T2N 4Z6, Canada.

Objective: To document the risk of new-onset symptomatic pelvic organ prolapse (POP) among perimenopausal women and examine whether occupational lifting and/or pushing is a risk factor in the development of POP over a 10-year follow-up window.

Study Design: Secondary analysis of prospective, longitudinal data from the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN) cohort study.

Main Outcome Measures: We analyzed women with current employment at the start of SWAN who were followed annually during mid-life. Read More

J Epidemiol Glob Health 2022 Jun 25. Epub 2022 Jun 25.

School of Public Health, Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, 200025, China.

Digestive tract cancers are the common cause of cancer deaths in both China and worldwide. This study aimed to describe the burden, recent trends and lifetime risks in the incidence and mortality of digestive tract cancers in an urban district of Shanghai, China. Our study extracted data on stomach, colon, rectum and liver cancers diagnosed in Changning District between 2010 and 2019 from the Shanghai Cancer Registry. Read More

Osteoporos Int 2022 Jun 25. Epub 2022 Jun 25.

Department of Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery, Division of Orthopaedics, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Martinistrasse 52, 20246, Hamburg, Germany.

This study examined the effects of denosumab compared to bisphosphonates and vitamin D alone on muscle performance in patients with low BMD. While grip force improved in both the denosumab and bisphosphonate group, a superior increase in chair rising test force was observed in the denosumab group.

Introduction: The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of the anti-resorptive agent denosumab (Dmab) on upper and lower limb muscle performance compared to bisphosphonate (BP) treatment and vitamin D supplementation alone (i. Read More

Ecol Appl 2022 Jun 25:e2700. Epub 2022 Jun 25.

U. S. Geological Survey, Wetland and Aquatic Research Center, Lafayette, Louisiana, USA.

Tidal freshwater forested wetlands (TFFW) provide critical ecosystem services including essential habitat for a variety of wildlife species and significant carbon sinks for atmospheric carbon dioxide. However, large uncertainties remain concerning the impacts of climate change on the magnitude and variability of carbon fluxes and storage across a range of TFFW. In this study, we developed a process-driven Tidal Freshwater Wetlands DeNitrification-DeComposition model (TFW-DNDC) that has integrated new features, such as soil salinity effects on plant productivity and soil organic matter decomposition to explore carbon dynamics in TFFW in response to drought-induced saltwater intrusion. Read More

Acta Ophthalmol 2022 Jun 25. Epub 2022 Jun 25.

Department of Biomedical Data Sciences, Unit Medical Decision Making, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands.

Purpose: Evaluate possibilities to reduce the number of infants screened for retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) and investigate costs and number of infants detected of current and alternative screening strategies in the Netherlands.

Methods: Prospective population-based study including clinical data from all infants born in 2017 and referred for ROP screening (NEDROP-2 study). Cost and effects of screening strategies were evaluated that differed on the criteria gestational age (GA), birth weight (BW) and presence of one or more specific risk factor(s) (RF): mechanical ventilation, sepsis, necrotizing enterocolitis, postnatal corticoids and/or hypotension treated with inotropic agents. Read More

J Environ Manage 2022 Sep 8;317:115458. Epub 2022 Jun 8.

Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Ewha Womans University, Seoul, 003760, Republic of Korea.

Here, we used a novel approach to analyze the trends in the concentrations of six national criteria air pollutants, carbon monoxide (CO), sulfur dioxide (SO), nitrogen dioxide (NO), PM, PM, and surface ozone (O), between 2001 and 2018, and the factors affecting the concentrations of CO and SO at the district level in South Korea (Korea) between 2011 and 2016. We considered four factors affecting the concentrations of CO and SO: (1) concentration-to-emission ratio, (2) air pollutant-to-CO emission ratio, (3) carbon intensity, and (4) area-weighted energy supply. We found that the most influencing factors determining the concentrations of CO and SO in Korea were the air pollutant-to-CO emission ratio and the concentration-to-emission ratio. Read More

Arthritis Res Ther 2022 Jun 24;24(1):153. Epub 2022 Jun 24.

Knowledge Engineering Institute, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.

Background: Very few data are available on predictors of minimal disease activity (MDA) in patients with recent-onset psoriatic arthritis (PsA). Such data are crucial, since the therapeutic measures used to change the adverse course of PsA are more likely to succeed if we intervene early. In the present study, we used predictive models based on machine learning to detect variables associated with achieving MDA in patients with recent-onset PsA. Read More

BMC Med Res Methodol 2022 Jun 24;22(1):177. Epub 2022 Jun 24.

Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine (MC5723), 401 Quarry Road, Stanford, CA, 94305-5723, USA.

Background: Accurate measurement of trajectories in longitudinal studies, considered the gold standard method for tracking functional growth during adolescence, decline in aging, and change after head injury, is subject to confounding by testing experience.

Methods: We measured change in cognitive and motor abilities over four test sessions (baseline and three annual assessments) in 154 male and 165 female participants (baseline age 12-21 years) from the National Consortium on Alcohol and NeuroDevelopment in Adolescence (NCANDA) study. At each of the four test sessions, these participants were given a test battery using computerized administration and traditional pencil and paper tests that yielded accuracy and speed measures for multiple component cognitive (Abstraction, Attention, Emotion, Episodic memory, Working memory, and General Ability) and motor (Ataxia and Speed) functions. Read More

Environ Sci Pollut Res Int 2022 Jun 24. Epub 2022 Jun 24.

Department of Business Administration, ILMA University, Karachi, Pakistan.

Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) pillars help determine the business organizations' sustainable business practices. Considering the same, this research examines the association between firm characteristics, governance mechanisms, and ESG for a sample of 564 firms from fifteen developed economies. For empirical analysis, ordinary least square, fixed effect, and random effect estimations techniques were applied using annual data from 2010 to 2019. Read More

Environ Sci Pollut Res Int 2022 Jun 24. Epub 2022 Jun 24.

College of Geography and Environmental Science, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou, 730070, China.

The development of urbanization has changed the original land cover and exacerbated the urban heat island effect, seriously affecting the sustainable development of the ecological environment. Research on urban heat island characteristics and land cover changes in five major urban agglomerations in China to provide a reference for preventing thermal environmental risks and urban agglomeration construction planning. This paper estimates the surface urban heat island intensity (SUHII) of the five major urban agglomerations in China from 2003 to 2019 based on Google Earth Engine (GEE) through the urban-rural dichotomy, analyzes their trends through the Sen + M-K trend analysis method, and combines the detrending rate matrix to analyze the impact of land cover type shift on urban heat island change. Read More

Neuropsychopharmacology 2022 Jun 24. Epub 2022 Jun 24.

Evid Based Dent 2022 Jun 24;23(2):84. Epub 2022 Jun 24.

Department of Dental Materials and Prosthodontics, School of Dentistry of Ribeirão Preto, University of São Paulo, Ribeirao Preto, Brazil.

Data sources PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences Literature, Brazilian Bibliography in Dentistry and Cochrane Library. The grey literature was searched using the System for Information on Grey Literature in Europe database. Abstracts from the Annual Session of the International Association for Dental Research and its regional subgroups (1990-2020) were searched. Read More

Evid Based Dent 2022 Jun 24;23(2):70-71. Epub 2022 Jun 24.

PHD Student of Epidemiology, Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran.

Data sources Medline, Embase, CENTRAL, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature and Scopus databases were searched (until July 31 2019). They searched the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform and ClinicalTrials.gov databases for completed and ongoing trials, as well as ProQuest, Google Scholar (first 100 hits) and the OpenGrey database for those unpublished. Read More

Gynecol Oncol 2022 Jun 21. Epub 2022 Jun 21.

Unit of Virus, Lifestyle and Genes, Danish Cancer Society Research Center, Copenhagen, Denmark; Department of Gynecology, Rigshospitalet, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Electronic address:

Objective: A substantial proportion of vulvar cancers are caused by high-risk human papillomavirus (hrHPV), but hrHPV prevalence in vulvar cancer has mainly been investigated in smaller studies which did not evaluate time trends. Our aim was to assess hrHPV prevalence in >1300 Danish vulvar cancers diagnosed during 1990-2017, including changes in hrHPV prevalence over time.

Methods: In a nationwide pathology register, we identified women diagnosed with vulvar cancer at thirteen hospitals from all Danish regions. Read More

Lancet Digit Health 2022 Jul;4(7):e507-e519

Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology and Neuroradiology, University-Hospital Essen, Essen, Germany.

Background: We propose a decision-referral approach for integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into the breast-cancer screening pathway, whereby the algorithm makes predictions on the basis of its quantification of uncertainty. Algorithmic assessments with high certainty are done automatically, whereas assessments with lower certainty are referred to the radiologist. This two-part AI system can triage normal mammography exams and provide post-hoc cancer detection to maintain a high degree of sensitivity. Read More

J Vasc Nurs 2022 Jun 17;40(2):92-99. Epub 2022 Feb 17.

Vascular Research Unit, Department of Surgery, Viborg Regional Hospital, Viborg, Denmark; Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.

Objectives: To explore patients' perspectives on living with an abdominal aorta aneurysm (AAA) to obtain understanding of how to address their needs by changes in infrastructures in AAA surveillance.

Background: In outpatient care, patients with AAA are offered surveillance by annual or biannual ultrasound scans to monitor AAA progression. When AAA exceeds 50 mm in women and 55 mm in men, surgical interventions are recommended to prevent rupture. Read More

Sci Total Environ 2022 Jun 21:156791. Epub 2022 Jun 21.

Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Texas at El Paso, 500 West University Avenue, El Paso, TX 79968, USA. Electronic address:

Although chronic air pollution has been found to disproportionately distributed with respect to race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status in the US, previous research on social disparities in air pollution exposure has not focused on persons with disabilities (PwDs). This gap is addressed here by conducting the first national-scale study of the relationship between outdoor exposure to fine particulate matter (PM) and disability status in the continental US. Census tract-level data on average annual PM concentrations (2011-2015) were linked with relevant variables from the 2015 American Community Survey five-year estimates. Read More

Sci Total Environ 2022 Jun 21:156855. Epub 2022 Jun 21.

Department of Environmental Health, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, United States of America; Department of Epidemiology, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, United States of America.

Background: Few studies have simultaneously examined the effect of long-term exposure to air pollution and ambient temperature on the rate of hospital admissions with cardiovascular and respiratory disease using causal inference methods.

Methods: We used a variation of a difference-in-difference (DID) approach to assess the effects of long-term exposure to warm-season temperature, cold-season temperature, NO, O, and PM on the rate of hospital admissions for cardiovascular disease (CVD), myocardial infarction (MI), ischemic stroke, and respiratory diseases from 2001 to 2016 among Medicare beneficiaries who use fee-for-service programs. We computed the rate of admissions by zip code and year. Read More

Environ Int 2022 Jun 15;166:107350. Epub 2022 Jun 15.

School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia. Electronic address:

Background: Long-term exposure to PM is proved to be linked with mortality. However, limited studies have estimated the PM related loss of life expectancy (LLE) and its changing trends. How much life expectancy would be improved if PM pollution is reduced to the new WHO air quality guideline (AQG) level is unclear. Read More

Water Res 2022 Jun 10;221:118718. Epub 2022 Jun 10.

Laboratoire LIENSs, UMR 7266, La Rochelle Université, Bâtiment ILE, 2 Rue Olympe de Gouges, La Rochelle, France.

Wetlands, especially marshes, support many services such as carbon catchment control or water purification led by primary producers such as phytoplankton and microphytobenthos (PB). The impact of the sedimentary compartment, as source and sink of essential nutrients for the water column, is often neglected in the study of their dynamics and water purification capacity of the systems. This work compared monthly (between February 2020 and April 2021) the benthic and pelagic primary producers' dynamics in two anthropised freshwater marshes (Marans and Genouillé), with the simultaneous follow-up of physico-chemical parameters of the water column and nutrient fluxes at the sediment-water (SWI) interface. Read More

Meat Sci 2022 Jun 16;192:108894. Epub 2022 Jun 16.

Ghent University, Department of Agricultural Economics, Coupure links 653, B-9000 Gent, Belgium. Electronic address:

Against the backdrop of meat production and consumption being increasingly contested, this paper presents a narrative descriptive review of (reductions in) meat consumption in the Netherlands and Belgium with a focus on trends during the period 2010-2020. Based on household panel purchasing data and supply balance sheet data as proxies, our analysis shows that meat consumption in the Netherlands is relatively stable, based on supply balance sheet data, despite an estimated annual decrease of around 250 g per capita per year based on household panel purchasing data. Meanwhile, household purchasing panel data for Belgium show a more steady and stronger decline with an annual decrease of slightly >1 kg per capita per year over the past decade, as well as more fluctuations based on supply balance sheet data. Read More