Evidence Communication Rules for Policy (ECR-P) critical appraisal tool.

Background: Scientific papers increasingly put forward scientific-based policy recommendations (SPRs) as a means of closing the circle of science, policy and practice. Assessing the quality of such SPRs is crucial, especially within the context of a systematic review. Here, we present ECR-P (Evidence Communication Rules for Policy)-a critical appraisal tool that we have developed, which can be used in assessing not only the quality of SPRs but also the quality of their evidence base and how effectively these have both been communicated.

Evaluation of deprescribing services in frail patients: a systematic review.

Background: Deprescribing, a process of dose reduction or withdrawal of inappropriate medication that no longer has benefit, is a proposed intervention in the care of older adults living with frailty.

Objective/aim: To evaluate the safety, effectiveness, and clinical impact of deprescribing services in frail patients.

Methods: A systematic literature search was performed in November 2023 using Scopus, CINAHL PLUS (EBSCO), MEDLINE (OVID and EMBASE), and Cochrane Library.

Drug utilisation study in hospitalised chronic kidney disease patients, using World Health Organisation prescribing indicators: an observational study.

Background: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is associated with comorbidities and altered pharmacokinetics, making appropriate prescribing, and monitoring necessary to minimise drug-related problems (DRPs). Therefore, this study aimed to describe the drug-utilisation pattern in hospitalised CKD patients.

Methods: An observational study was conducted in hospitalised adult (≥18 years old) CKD patients in the UK using WHO prescribing indicators, from November 2021 to April 2022 in a large teaching hospital in England from admission until discharge.

Recent methodological advances in federated learning for healthcare.

For healthcare datasets, it is often impossible to combine data samples from multiple sites due to ethical, privacy, or logistical concerns. Federated learning allows for the utilization of powerful machine learning algorithms without requiring the pooling of data. Healthcare data have many simultaneous challenges, such as highly siloed data, class imbalance, missing data, distribution shifts, and non-standardized variables, that require new methodologies to address.

Sedation modality in acute respiratory distress syndrome: does method of sedation affect length of stay, outcomes, or adverse events? A systematic review.

Introduction: Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a life-threatening, diffuse inflammatory pulmonary condition characterised by the Berlin criteria. Incidence of ARDS is estimated at 2.5-19% globally with high mortality and morbidity.

Common methodological pitfalls in ICI pneumonitis risk prediction studies.

Background: Pneumonitis is one of the most common adverse events induced by the use of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI), accounting for a 20% of all ICI-associated deaths. Despite numerous efforts to identify risk factors and develop predictive models, there is no clinically deployed risk prediction model for patient risk stratification or for guiding subsequent monitoring. We believe this is due to systemic suboptimal approaches in study designs and methodologies in the literature.

The impact of imputation quality on machine learning classifiers for datasets with missing values.

Background: Classifying samples in incomplete datasets is a common aim for machine learning practitioners, but is non-trivial. Missing data is found in most real-world datasets and these missing values are typically imputed using established methods, followed by classification of the now complete samples. The focus of the machine learning researcher is to optimise the classifier's performance.

Effectiveness of international border control measures during the COVID-19 pandemic: a narrative synthesis of published systematic reviews.

The effectiveness of international border control measures during the COVID-19 pandemic is not well understood. Using a narrative synthesis approach to published systematic reviews, we synthesized the evidence from both modelling and observational studies on the effects of border control measures on domestic transmission of the virus. We find that symptomatic screening measures were not particularly effective, but that diagnostic-based screening methods were more effective at identifying infected travellers.

A pipeline to further enhance quality, integrity and reusability of the NCCID clinical data.

The National COVID-19 Chest Imaging Database (NCCID) is a centralized UK database of thoracic imaging and corresponding clinical data. It is made available by the National Health Service Artificial Intelligence (NHS AI) Lab to support the development of machine learning tools focused on Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). A bespoke cleaning pipeline for NCCID, developed by the NHSx, was introduced in 2021.

Effect of pelleting on the enzymatic digestibility of corn stover.

Pelleting of lignocellulosic biomass to improve its transportation, storage and handling impacts subsequent processing and conversion. This work reports the role of high moisture pelleting in the enzymatic digestibility of corn stover prior to pretreatment, together with associated substrate characteristics. Pelleting increases the digestibility of unpretreated corn stover, from 8.

On Krylov methods for large-scale CBCT reconstruction.

Krylov subspace methods are a powerful family of iterative solvers for linear systems of equations, which are commonly used for inverse problems due to their intrinsic regularization properties. Moreover, these methods are naturally suited to solve large-scale problems, as they only require matrix-vector products with the system matrix (and its adjoint) to compute approximate solutions, and they display a very fast convergence. Even if this class of methods has been widely researched and studied in the numerical linear algebra community, its use in applied medical physics and applied engineering is still very limited.

COVID-19 infection, admission and death and the impact of corticosteroids among people with rare autoimmune rheumatic disease during the second wave of COVID-19 in England: results from the RECORDER Project.

Objectives: To calculate the rates of COVID-19 infection and COVID-19-related death among people with rare autoimmune rheumatic diseases (RAIRD) during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in England, and describe the impact of corticosteroids on outcomes.

Methods: Hospital Episode Statistics data were used to identify people alive on 1 August 2020 with ICD-10 codes for RAIRD from the whole population of England. Linked national health records were used to calculate rates and rate ratios of COVID-19 infection and death up to 30 April 2021.

The incidence of Kawasaki disease using hospital admissions data for England 2006-2021.

Objective: To describe the incidence of Kawasaki Disease (kDa) between 2006 and 2021 in England.

Methods: We identified all cases in hospital episode statistics with an ICD-10 diagnostic code M303 (for kDa) between 1 April 2006 and 31 March 2021. We validated 83 diagnoses using hospital medical records and found >97% accuracy.

Screening method for Enzyme-based liquefaction of corn stover pellets at high solids.

Liquefaction of high solid loadings of unpretreated corn stover pellets has been demonstrated with rheology of the resulting slurries enabling mixing and movement within biorefinery bioreactors. However, some forms of pelleted stover do not readily liquefy, so it is important to screen out lots of unsuitable pellets before processing is initiated. This work reports a laboratory assay that rapidly assesses whether pellets have the potential for enzyme-based liquefaction at high solids loadings.

An immunologically active, adipose-derived extracellular matrix biomaterial for soft tissue reconstruction: concept to clinical trial.

Soft tissue reconstruction remains an intractable clinical challenge as current surgical options and synthetic implants may produce inadequate outcomes. Soft tissue deficits may be surgically reconstructed using autologous adipose tissue, but these procedures can lead to donor site morbidity, require multiple procedures, and have highly variable outcomes. To address this clinical need, we developed an "off-the-shelf" adipose extracellular matrix (ECM) biomaterial from allograft human tissue (Acellular Adipose Tissue, AAT).

COVID-19 infection, admission and death among people with rare autoimmune rheumatic disease in England: results from the RECORDER project.

Objectives: To calculate the rates of COVID-19 infection and COVID-19-related death among people with rare autoimmune rheumatic diseases (RAIRD) during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in England compared with the general population.

Methods: We used Hospital Episode Statistics to identify all people alive on 1 March 2020 with ICD-10 codes for RAIRD from the whole population of England. We used linked national health records (demographic, death certificate, admissions and PCR testing data) to calculate rates of COVID-19 infection and death up to 31 July 2020.

New strategy for liquefying corn stover pellets.

The movement of solid material into and between unit operations within a biorefinery is a bottleneck in reaching design capacity, with formation of biomass slurries needed to introduce feedstock. Corn stover slurries have been achieved from dilute acid, pretreated materials resulting in slurry concentrations of up to about 150 g/L, above which flowability is compromised. We report a new strategy to liquefy corn stover at higher solids concentration (300 g/L) by initially cooking it with the enzyme mimetic maleic acid at 40 mM and 150 °C.

A validation study of the identification of haemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis in England using population-based health data.

We assessed the validity of coded healthcare data to identify cases of haemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH). Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) identified 127 cases within five hospital Trusts 2013-2018 using ICD-10 codes D76.1, D76.

Hospital pharmacy response to COVID-19 at two UK teaching hospitals: a departmental review of actions implemented to inform future strategy.

Objectives: To determine the views of pharmacy staff on a departmental response to wave 1 of the UK COVID-19 pandemic in order to inform a strategy for a second wave at two large UK National Health Service (NHS) hospitals.

Methods: This study was undertaken at two large teaching hospitals in the UK. Pharmacy staff attended local departmental focus groups.

Risk of death among people with rare autoimmune diseases compared with the general population in England during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic.

Objectives: To quantify the risk of death among people with rare autoimmune rheumatic diseases (RAIRD) during the UK 2020 COVID-19 pandemic compared with the general population, and compared with their pre-COVID risk.

Methods: We conducted a cohort study in Hospital Episode Statistics for England from 2003 onwards, and linked data from the NHS Personal Demographics Service. We used ONS published data for general population mortality rates.

A systematic review of the evidence base for the Lightning Process.

Background: The Lightning Process (LP), a mind-body training programme, has been applied to a range of health problems and disorders. Studies and surveys report a range of outcomes creating a lack of clarity about the efficacy of the intervention.

Objective: This systematic review evaluates the methodological quality of existing studies on the LP and collates and reviews its reported efficacy.

Aβ-induced vulnerability propagates via the brain's default mode network.

The link between brain amyloid-β (Aβ), metabolism, and dementia symptoms remains a pressing question in Alzheimer's disease. Here, using positron emission tomography ([F]florbetapir tracer for Aβ and [F]FDG tracer for glucose metabolism) with a novel analytical framework, we found that Aβ aggregation within the brain's default mode network leads to regional hypometabolism in distant but functionally connected brain regions. Moreover, we found that an interaction between this hypometabolism with overlapping Aβ aggregation is associated with subsequent cognitive decline.

Publisher Correction: Accurate autocorrelation modeling substantially improves fMRI reliability.

The original HTML version of this Article had an incorrect Published online date of 25 December 2019; it should have been 21 March 2019. This has been corrected in the HTML version of the Article. The PDF version was correct from the time of publication.

Accurate autocorrelation modeling substantially improves fMRI reliability.

Given the recent controversies in some neuroimaging statistical methods, we compare the most frequently used functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) analysis packages: AFNI, FSL and SPM, with regard to temporal autocorrelation modeling. This process, sometimes known as pre-whitening, is conducted in virtually all task fMRI studies. Here, we employ eleven datasets containing 980 scans corresponding to different fMRI protocols and subject populations.

The Use of Tumescent Technique in Mastectomy and Related Complications: A Meta-Analysis.

Background: Postoperative skin necrosis in surgical patients is costly to hospitals and health care providers. Tumescent dissection technique is commonly used in mastectomy and immediate breast reconstruction, as it helps reduce blood loss; however, it may increase the risk of mastectomy skin flap necrosis. In this context, the authors have conducted a systematic review of the literature to perform a meta-analysis of the relationship between tumescent technique in mastectomy with or without breast reconstruction and complication rates.