Publications by authors named "Firman"

The effective implementation of the European Green Deal is based on closing cycles by means of reusing products and extending their durability, especially for steel products in the construction industry. The Life Cycle Assessment gives an opportunity to determine the potential impact caused on the environment by building structures and it is used mainly at the early design stage. At the same time, there are significant gaps when it comes to predicting properties of steel products at the last stage of the life cycle of existing buildings in the End of Life Stage (C1-C4) phases and especially D-Benefits and Loads Beyond the System Boundary.

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Rare diseases affect 1-in-10 people in the United States and despite increased genetic testing, up to half never receive a diagnosis. Even when using advanced genome sequencing platforms to discover variants, if there is no connection between the variants found in the patient's genome and their phenotypes in the literature, then the patient will remain undiagnosed. When a direct variant-phenotype connection is not known, putting a patient's information in the larger context of phenotype relationships and protein-protein interactions may provide an opportunity to find an indirect explanation.

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Introduction: Households are increasingly studied in population health research as an important context for understanding health and social behaviours and outcomes. Identifying household units of analysis in routinely collected data rather than traditional surveys requires innovative and standardised tools, which do not currently exist.

Objectives: To design a utility that identifies households at a point in time from pseudonymised Unique Property Reference Numbers (UPRNs) known as Residential Anonymised Linkage Fields (RALFs) assigned to general practitioner (GP) patient addresses in electronic health records (EHRs) in north east London (NEL).

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Article Synopsis
  • A mixed methods evaluation was conducted to assess a digital call-and-recall tool aimed at improving the timely receipt and equity of MMR and DTaP/IPV vaccinations in North East London, focusing on children eligible from January 2019 to January 2024.
  • The findings showed a 5.3% increase in timely first MMR vaccinations (from 77.7% to 81.8%), while DTaP/IPV saw a smaller increase of 0.9%. However, no significant change in inequality was observed.
  • Users found the tool helpful for recall but noted challenges such as staff dynamics and unrealistic national targets that hindered its consistent application; further support is needed to maintain improvements.
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Improving regulatory confidence and acceptance of in silico toxicology methods for chemical risk assessment requires assessment of associated uncertainties. Therefore, there is a need to identify and systematically categorize sources of uncertainty relevant to the methods and their predictions. In the present study, we analyzed studies that have characterized sources of uncertainty across commonly applied in silico toxicology methods.

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The Cramer classification scheme has emerged as one of the most extensively-adopted predictive toxicology tools, owing in part to its employment for chemical categorisation within threshold of toxicological concern evaluation. The characteristics of several of its rules have contributed to inconsistencies with respect to degree of hazard attributed to common (particularly food-relevant) substances. This investigation examines these discrepancies, and their origins, raising awareness of such issues amongst users seeking to apply and/or adapt the rule-set.

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Article Synopsis
  • - This study developed a method to analyze both implicit and explicit uncertainties in Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationship (QSAR) modeling, specifically using neurotoxicity as a case study.
  • - Through text content analysis, the researchers identified various uncertainty sources, revealing that most uncertainties were expressed implicitly, particularly in 13 out of 20 categories, with explicit uncertainties noted in only three.
  • - Key concerns highlighted included Mechanistic plausibility, Model relevance, and Model performance, indicating significant areas where uncertainty exists; the findings underscore the need for researchers to consider the broader QSAR literature in their analyses.
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Background: Online mental health communities (OMHCs) are an effective and accessible channel to give and receive social support for individuals with mental and emotional issues. However, a key challenge on these platforms is finding suitable partners to interact with given that mechanisms to match users are currently underdeveloped or highly naive.

Objective: In this study, we collaborated with one of the world's largest OMHCs; our contribution is to show the application of agent-based modeling for the design of online community matching algorithms.

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Article Synopsis
  • Alkuraya-Kučinskas syndrome (AKS) is a rare genetic disorder caused by mutations in the BLTP1 gene, leading to various serious developmental issues such as brain malformations, joint contractures, and clubfeet.
  • A case study highlights two new mutations associated with AKS, showcasing severe anomalies in a fetus, including hydrops and brainstem kink, alongside a literature review of 19 other cases that provides insights into common prenatal features.
  • The review indicates that many AKS cases present significant symptoms like joint contractures, brain issues, and facial abnormalities, stressing the importance of genetic testing for diagnosis when such features are observed in a fetus.
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First-week survival and egg hatchability are lower in chicks from younger broiler breeder hen flocks. Creatine is a naturally occurring compound synthesised from the amino acid arginine or obtained from the diet and is important in the storage and transport of energy. Previous research found an improvement in the hatch rate but no posthatch performance improvements when fertile eggs from young breeder hens were injected with creatine monohydrate (CrM) on embryonic day 14.

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Diisopentyl phthalate (DiPeP) is primarily used as a plasticizer or additive within the production of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), and has many additional industrial applications. Its metabolites were recently found in urinary samples of pregnant women; thus, this substance is of concern as relates to human exposure. Depending upon the nature of the alcohol used in its synthesis, DiPeP may exist either as a mixture consisting of several branched positional isomers, or as a single defined structure.

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Background: Geographical terrains of Indonesia pose a major hindrance to transportation. The difficulty of transportation affects the provision of acute time-dependent therapy such as percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Also, Indonesia's aging population would have a significant impact on the prevalence of acute coronary syndrome in the next decade.

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Introduction: Cricothyrotomy (CTM) is currently recommended as the preferred method due to its ease, speed, and safety in life-threatening airway emergencies where standard tracheal intubation and mask ventilation fail.

Material And Methods: This retrospective study analyzed 33 cases of "can't intubate, can't oxygenate or ventilate" (CICOV): 12 of percutaneous dilatational tracheostomy (PDT) and 21 of CTM. The CTM group was younger (median age 44) and mainly consisted of trauma patients.

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Background: Routine monitoring of Body Mass Index (BMI) in general practice, and via national surveillance programmes, is essential for the identification, prevention, and management of unhealthy childhood weight. We examined and compared the presence and representativeness of children and young people's (CYPs) BMI recorded in two routinely collected administrative datasets: general practice electronic health records (GP-BMI) and the Child Measurement Programme for Wales (CMP-BMI), which measures height and weight in 4-5-year-old school children. We also assessed the feasibility of combining GP-BMI and CMP-BMI data for longitudinal analyses.

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Objective: The 2022 Australian winter was the first time that COVID-19, influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) were circulating in the population together, after two winters of physical distancing, quarantine and borders closed to international travellers. We developed a novel surveillance system to estimate the incidence of COVID-19, influenza and RSV in three regions of Queensland, Australia.

Design: We implemented a longitudinal testing-based sentinel surveillance programme.

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Background/objectives: We identified household members from electronic health records linked to National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP) data to estimate the likelihood of obesity among children living with an older child with obesity.

Methods: We included 126 829 NCMP participants in four London boroughs and assigned households from encrypted Unique Property Reference Numbers for 115 466 (91.0%).

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Snakebite pain can be challenging to control. We describe our experience managing intolerable pain after conventional treatment failed. A 35-year-old man, presented after a viper snakebite, suffering from intolerable pain in the affected extremity.

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The first step in the hazard or risk assessment of chemicals should be to formulate the problem through a systematic and iterative process aimed at identifying and defining factors critical to the assessment. However, no general agreement exists on what components an in silico toxicology problem formulation (PF) should include. The present work aims to develop a PF framework relevant to the application of in silico models for chemical toxicity prediction.

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Objective: To assess whether there is a higher incidence of musculoskeletal consultations in general practice among children with obesity.

Design: Longitudinal SETTING: 285 north-east London general practitioners (GPs).

Participants: 63 418 (50.

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Coronary artery disease (CAD) remains a significant global health concern with considerable high morbidity and mortality and its development is influenced by various genetic and environmental factors. Proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9) is a vital regulator of low-density lipoprotein receptor (LDLR) metabolism, directly impacting serum cholesterol levels. However, its role in development of CAD is not fully understood.

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Brush cytology is a sampling technique extensively used for mucosal surfaces, particularly to identify malignancies. A sample is obtained by rubbing the brush bristles over the stricture or lesion several times until cells are trapped. Brush cytology detection rate varies, with malignancy confirmed in 15-65% of cases of adenocarcinoma-associated biliary strictures and 44-80% of cases of cholangiocarcinoma.

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Adverse outcome pathways (AOPs) were introduced in modern toxicology to provide evidence-based representations of the events and processes involved in the progression of toxicological effects across varying levels of the biological organisation to better facilitate the safety assessment of chemicals. AOPs offer an opportunity to address knowledge gaps and help to identify novel therapeutic targets. They also aid in the selection and development of existing and new in vitro and in silico test methods for hazard identification and risk assessment of chemical compounds.

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Estimating the total thermal capacity for phase change material (PCM) as heat storage material is extremely important to set the proper operational parameter of the latent storage tank (LST) unit. However, estimating the total thermal capacity for solid-liquid PCM is relatively complex due to temperature-dependent properties for each phase. Thus, predicting the state of charge (SoC) indicator for the LST unit is technically complex.

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