Epidemiologic Perspectives and Innovations This is an RSS file. You can use it to subscribe to this data in your favourite RSS reader or to display this data on your own website or blog.

Efficiency of private and public primary health facilities accredited by the National Health Insurance Authority in Ghana
This study sought to explore efficiency levels of NHIS-accredited private and public health facilities; ascertain factors that account for differences in efficiency and determine the association between quality care and efficiency levels. Methods: The study is a cross-sectional survey of NHIS-accredited primary health facilities (n = 64) in two regions in southern Ghana. Data Envelopment Analysis was used to estimate technical efficiency of sampled health facilities while Tobit regression was employed to predict factors associated with efficiency levels. Spearman correlation test was performed to determine the associatio...
Source: Epidemiologic Perspectives and Innovations - December 26, 2015 Category: Epidemiology Authors: Robert AlhassanEdward Nketiah-AmponsahJames AkaziliNicole SpiekerDaniel ArhinfulTobias F Rinke de Wit Source Type: research

Diabetes care among urban women in Soweto, South Africa: a qualitative study
Conclusions: Effective diabetes education and management in the clinical setting will require systematic changes to healthcare. Inconsistencies across public and private health systems with regards to diabetes counseling, drug availability, quality of care, and patient wait times indicate patients will forego a clinical visit in lieu of diabetes self-care. For example, structural barriers in the public health system undermine medication adherence. With a stronger national emphasis in healthcare on diabetes counseling and management such systemic issues should be reshaped to ensure patients have access to essential medicati...
Source: Epidemiologic Perspectives and Innovations - December 26, 2015 Category: Epidemiology Authors: Emily MendenhallShane Norris Source Type: research

Biomass accessibility analysis using electron tomography
Conclusion: Image-based measures provide useful information about how much pretreatments are able to increase biomass surface accessibility to a wide range of catalyst sizes. We find a strong dependence on probe size when measuring surface accessibility, with a substantial decrease in biomass surface accessibility to probe sizes above 5–10 nm radius compared to smaller probes. (Source: Epidemiologic Perspectives and Innovations)
Source: Epidemiologic Perspectives and Innovations - December 25, 2015 Category: Epidemiology Authors: Jacob HinklePeter CiesielskiKenny GruchallaKristin MunchBryon Donohoe Source Type: research

Fenoldopam to prevent acute kidney injury after major surgery—a systematic review and meta-analysis
Conclusions: In this analysis, peri-operative treatment with fenoldopam was associated with a significant reduction in post-operative AKI but it had no impact on renal replacement therapy or hospital mortality. Equipoise remains for further large trials in this area since the studies were conducted in three types of surgery, the majority of studies were rated at high risk of bias and the criteria for AKI varied between trials. (Source: Epidemiologic Perspectives and Innovations)
Source: Epidemiologic Perspectives and Innovations - December 25, 2015 Category: Epidemiology Authors: Michael GilliesVivek KakarRobert ParkerPatrick HonoréMarlies Ostermann Source Type: research

Discovery, genotyping and characterization of structural variation and novel sequence at single nucleotide resolution from de novo genome assemblies on a population scale
AsmVar is a new tool to discover, genotype and characterize different forms of structural variants and novel sequence in population-scale de novo assemblies at single nucleotide resolution. (Source: Epidemiologic Perspectives and Innovations)
Source: Epidemiologic Perspectives and Innovations - December 24, 2015 Category: Epidemiology Authors: Siyang LiuShujia HuangJunhua RaoWeijian YeThe Genome Denmark ConsortiumIIAnders KroghJun Wang Source Type: research

Comparison of non-radiographic axial spondyloarthritis and ankylosing spondylitis patients – baseline characteristics, treatment adherence, and development of clinical variables during three years of anti-TNF therapy in clinical practice
Conclusions: With the exception of constantly lower CRP levels in the nr-axSpA group, three years anti-TNF therapy resulted in similar clinical outcomes and treatment adherence in nr-axSpA and AS patients, thus strengthening the hypothesis that these diagnoses represent different aspects/phases of the same disease. (Source: Epidemiologic Perspectives and Innovations)
Source: Epidemiologic Perspectives and Innovations - December 24, 2015 Category: Epidemiology Authors: Johan WallmanMeliha KapetanovicIngemar PeterssonPierre GeborekLars Kristensen Source Type: research

Maternal post-natal tobacco use and current parental tobacco use is associated with higher body mass index in children and adolescents: an international cross-sectional study
Background: We investigated whether maternal smoking in the first year of life or any current parental smoking is associated with childhood or adolescent body mass index (BMI). Methods: Secondary analysis of data from a multi-centre, multi-country, cross-sectional study (ISAAC Phase Three). Parents/guardians of children aged 6–7 years completed questionnaires about their children’s current height and weight, whether their mother smoked in the first year of the child’s life and current smoking habits of both parents. Adolescents aged 13–14 years completed questionnaires about their height, weight and current parenta...
Source: Epidemiologic Perspectives and Innovations - December 24, 2015 Category: Epidemiology Authors: Irene BraithwaiteAlistair StewartRobert HancoxRichard BeasleyRinki MurphyEdwin Mitchellthe ISAAC Phase Three Study Group Source Type: research

Neurogranin and YKL-40: independent markers of synaptic degeneration and neuroinflammation in Alzheimer’s disease
IntroductionNeuroinflammation and synaptic degeneration are major neuropathological hallmarks in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Neurogranin and YKL-40 in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) are newly discovered markers indicating synaptic damage and microglial activation, respectively. Methods: CSF samples from 95 individuals including 39 patients with AD dementia (AD-D), 13 with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) due to AD (MCI-AD), 29 with MCI not due to AD (MCI-o) and 14 patients with non-AD dementias (non-AD-D) were analyzed for neurogranin and YKL-40. Results: Patients with dementia or MCI due to AD showed elevated levels of CSF neur...
Source: Epidemiologic Perspectives and Innovations - December 24, 2015 Category: Epidemiology Authors: Konstantin HellwigHlin KvartsbergErik PorteliusUlf AndreassonTimo ObersteinPiotr LewczukKaj BlennowJohannes KornhuberJuan MalerHenrik ZetterbergPhilipp Spitzer Source Type: research

Socio-cultural and economic factors influencing adolescents’ resilience against the threat of teenage pregnancy: a cross-sectional survey in Accra, Ghana
This study examined the competencies of adolescent girls to either proactively prevent teenage pregnancy or reactively cope effectively with it. Methods: A cross-sectional survey approach was used to interview 820 adolescent girls aged 15–19 years in Accra, Ghana. The main focus of the study was to examine how social capital (various kinds of valued relations with significant others), economic capital (command over economic resources, mainly cash and assets), cultural capital (personal dispositions and habits; knowledge and tradition stored in material forms and institutionalized) and symbolic capital (honour, recognitio...
Source: Epidemiologic Perspectives and Innovations - December 23, 2015 Category: Epidemiology Authors: Collins K AhorluConstanze PfeifferBrigit Obrist Source Type: research

Anti-inflammatory effects of Hwang-Heuk-San, a traditional Korean herbal formulation, on lipopolysaccharide-stimulated murine macrophages
Conclusions: These results suggest that HHS may offer therapeutic potential for treating inflammatory diseases accompanied by macrophage activation. (Source: Epidemiologic Perspectives and Innovations)
Source: Epidemiologic Perspectives and Innovations - December 23, 2015 Category: Epidemiology Authors: Hye KangSu HongKyung-Hwa KangCheol ParkYung Choi Source Type: research

Impact of a hospice rapid response service on preferred place of death, and costs
Conclusions: Use of the RRS was associated with increased likelihood of dying in the preferred place. The RRS is cost neutral.Trial registrationCurrent controlled trials ISRCTN32119670, 22 June 2012. (Source: Epidemiologic Perspectives and Innovations)
Source: Epidemiologic Perspectives and Innovations - December 23, 2015 Category: Epidemiology Authors: Heather GageLaura HoldsworthCaragh FlanneryPeter WilliamsClaire Butler Source Type: research

The effect of morphometric atlas selection on multi-atlas-based automatic brachial plexus segmentation
PurposeThe present study aimed to measure the effect of a morphometric atlas selection strategy on the accuracy of multi-atlas-based BP autosegmentation using the commercially available software package ADMIRE® and to determine the optimal number of selected atlases to use. Autosegmentation accuracy was measured by comparing all generated automatic BP segmentations with anatomically validated gold standard segmentations that were developed using cadavers.Materials and methodsTwelve cadaver computed tomography (CT) atlases were included in the study. One atlas was selected as a patient in ADMIRE®, and multi-atlas-based BP...
Source: Epidemiologic Perspectives and Innovations - December 23, 2015 Category: Epidemiology Authors: Joris Van de VeldeJohan WoutersTom VercauterenWerner De GersemEric AchtenWilfried De NeveTom Van Hoof Source Type: research

Prospects and recommendations for risk mapping to improve strategies for effective malaria vector control interventions in Latin America
With malaria control in Latin America firmly established in most countries and a growing number of these countries in the pre-elimination phase, malaria elimination appears feasible. A review of the literature indicates that malaria elimination in this region will be difficult without locally tailored strategies for vector control, which depend on more research on vector ecology, genetics and behavioural responses to environmental changes, such as those caused by land cover alterations, and human population movements. An essential way to bridge the knowledge gap and improve vector control is through risk mapping. Malaria r...
Source: Epidemiologic Perspectives and Innovations - December 23, 2015 Category: Epidemiology Authors: Temitope AlimiDouglas FullerMartha QuinonesRui-De XueSocrates HerreraMyriam Arevalo-HerreraJill UlrichWhitney QuallsJohn Beier Source Type: research

Analysis of the interaction between host factor Sam68 and viral elements during foot-and-mouth disease virus infections
Conclusion: We have found that Sam68 is a specific binding partner for FMDV non-structural proteins 3C pro and 3D pol and showed that mutations at RAAA motifs in IRES domains 3 and 4 cause a decrease in Sam68 affinity to these RNA elements and rendered the mutant RNA non-viable. Interestingly, in FMDV infected cells re-localized Sam68 was transiently detected along with SG markers in the cytoplasm. These results support the importance of Sam68 as a host factor co-opted by FMDV during infection and demonstrate that Sam68 interact with both, ...
Source: Epidemiologic Perspectives and Innovations - December 23, 2015 Category: Epidemiology Authors: Devendra RaiPaul LawrenceAnna KlocElizabeth SchaferElizabeth Rieder Source Type: research

Second-line chemotherapy in advanced biliary cancer progressed to first-line platinum-gemcitabine combination: a multicenter survey and pooled analysis with published data
Conclusions: The current analysis highlights the limited value of second-line chemotherapy after a first-line GP combination in aBTC. While waiting for effective biologic agents in this setting, ongoing randomized trials will identify the optimal second-line chemotherapy regimen and validate prognostic factors for individual patient management. (Source: Epidemiologic Perspectives and Innovations)
Source: Epidemiologic Perspectives and Innovations - December 23, 2015 Category: Epidemiology Authors: Lorenzo FornaroCaterina VivaldiStefano CeredaFrancesco LeoneGiuseppe AprileSara LonardiNicola SilvestrisDaniele SantiniMichele MilellaChiara CaparelloGianna MusettiniGiulia PasquiniAlfredo FalconeGiovanni BrandiIsabella SperdutiEnrico Vasileon behalf of t Source Type: research