Digitalization of an Industrial Process for Bearing Production.

The developments in sensing, actuation, and algorithms, both in terms of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and data treatment, have open up a wide range of possibilities for improving the quality of the production systems in diverse industrial fields. The present paper describes the automatizing process performed in a production line for high-quality bearings. The actuation considered new sensing elements at the machine level and the treatment of the information, fusing the different sources in order to detect quality defects in the grinding process (waviness, burns) and monitoring the state of the tool.

Exploring the substitution of cannabis for alcohol and other drugs among a large convenience sample of people who use cannabis.

Background: The substitution of cannabis for alcohol and other drugs has been conceptualised in a harm reduction framework as where cannabis is used to reduce the negative side-effects, addiction potential, and social stigma of other drugs. There is currently mixed evidence with recent reviews suggesting cannabis co-use patterns may vary by age and ethnicity. Yet few studies have had large enough samples to examine this demographic variation in detail.

Estimating the alcohol-related burden of child maltreatment among Māori in Aotearoa, New Zealand.

Introduction: To assesses the alcohol-related burden of child maltreatment among Māori in Aotearoa New Zealand. We compared the risk of child maltreatment among Māori (0-17 years) exposed to parents with alcohol-related hospitalisation or mental health/addiction service use. We also conducted a sensitivity analysis to estimate the number of cases of maltreatment that could be attributed to alcohol among Māori.

Quantifying alcohol-attributable disability-adjusted life years to others than the drinker in Aotearoa/New Zealand: A modelling study based on administrative data.

Background And Aims: Quantifying the health burden of alcohol has largely focused upon harm to drinkers, which is an underestimate. There is a growing literature on alcohol's harm to others (HTO), but it lacks the systematic transfer of HTO into a comparative risk assessment framework. This study calculated disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) for fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD), interpersonal violence and traffic injury due to another's drinking.

Exploring Differences in Daily Vaping of Nicotine and Cannabis among People Who Use Drugs in New Zealand.

Little is known about daily vaping of different substances, particularly cannabis. To explore daily vaping of cannabis and nicotine products in a sample of people who use drugs in New Zealand. The online New Zealand Drug Trends convenience survey ( = 23,500) was promoted to those aged 16+ a targeted Facebook™ campaign, with 9,042 reporting vaping in the past six months.

Benchmarking alcohol policy based on stringency and impact: The International Alcohol Control (IAC) policy index.

This study developed a measurement tool to assess stringency and 'on-the-ground' impact of four key alcohol policy domains to create an alcohol policy index suitable for benchmarking alcohol policy and assessing change over time in middle- and high-income countries. It involved a collaboration between researchers in 12 diverse countries: New Zealand; Australia; England; Scotland; Netherlands; Vietnam; Thailand; South Africa; Turkey; Chile; Saint Kitts and Nevis and Mongolia. Data on the four most effective alcohol policy domains (availability, pricing policy, alcohol marketing, drink driving) were used to create an alcohol policy index based on their association with alcohol per capita consumption (APC) of commercial (recorded) alcohol.

Foetal alcohol spectrum disorder in Aotearoa, New Zealand: Estimates of prevalence and indications of inequity.

Introduction: Foetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) is 100% caused by alcohol. The lifelong disability caused by prenatal alcohol exposure cannot be reversed. Lack of reliable national prevalence estimates of FASD is common internationally and true of Aotearoa, New Zealand.

Estimating child maltreatment cases that could be alcohol-attributable in New Zealand.

Aims: Children are an important group harmed by others' alcohol consumption. This study (1) compared the risk of occurrence of child maltreatment among children exposed versus not exposed to parents with an alcohol-attributable hospitalization or service use for mental health/addiction and (2) conducted sensitivity analyses to estimate the cases of child maltreatment that could be attributable to alcohol under two different conditions in New Zealand.

Design: A cohort study conducted among children 0-17 years and their parents (years 2000-2017) using the Statistics New Zealand Integrated Data Infrastructure.

Effective alcohol policies and lifetime abstinence: An analysis of the International Alcohol Control policy index.

Introduction: Alcohol abstinence remains common among adults globally, although low and middle-income countries are experiencing declines in abstention. The effect of alcohol policies on lifetime abstinence is poorly understood. The International Alcohol Control (IAC) policy index was developed to benchmark and monitor the uptake of effective alcohol policies and has shown strong associations with alcohol per capita consumption and drinking patterns.

Predictors of using social media to purchase drugs in New Zealand: Findings from a large-scale online survey.

Background: There are increasing reports of social media being used to buy and sell illegal drugs internationally. Studies of social media drug markets to date have largely involved general explorations of social media drug transactions in select countries. Social media drug markets may operate differently for different drug types and in different country contexts.

Changes in the incidence of assault after restrictions on late-night alcohol sales in New Zealand: evaluation of a natural experiment using hospitalization and police data.

Aims: To estimate the effect of national restrictions on late-night availability of alcohol on alcohol-related assault at a population level as indicated by (1) change in hospitalizations for weekend assaults and (2) change in the proportion of assaults documented by police that occur at night.

Design: Evaluation of a natural experiment, involving: (1) pre-post comparisons of age-specific incidence rates, adjusted for seasonality and background trend using Poisson regression; and (2) interrupted time-series analyses, using seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average (SARIMA) models of national data with no control site.

Setting: New Zealand.

Online alcohol delivery is associated with heavier drinking during the first New Zealand COVID-19 pandemic restrictions.

Introduction: This paper aimed to assess purchasing and drinking behaviour during the first COVID-19 pandemic restrictions in New Zealand.

Method: A convenience sample was collected via Facebook from 2173 New Zealanders 18+ years during pandemic restrictions April/May 2020. Measures included: the quantity typically consumed during a drinking occasion and heavier drinking (6+ drinks on a typical occasion) in the past week; place of purchase including online alcohol delivery.

Determinants of the retail price of illegal drugs in New Zealand.

Introduction: New Zealand has a number of unusual geographical features that may influence the price of illegal drugs including international isolation, numerous rural communities, and two separate islands (North and South Islands).

Aims: (1) Collect data on the prices of different drug types from all regions of New Zealand; (2) Identify independent predictors of the reported prices.

Method: An online drug survey was promoted via a targeted Facebook™ campaign.

A restrictive alcohol social supply law change is associated with less supply to friends under 18 years.

Introduction And Aims: This study aimed to assess the early impacts of a 2013 law change to restrict the social supply of alcohol to under 18s in New Zealand by assessing changes in social suppliers' behaviour.

Design And Methods: National surveys of drinkers aged 16-65 years were collected before (2013) and after (2015) the law change. Suppliers were asked: to whom they supplied alcohol, how often and how much; if the supplier thought the alcohol they provided would be shared; whether the supplier had permission to supply from parent/guardian, and if they supervised their supply.

Determinants of high availability of methamphetamine, cannabis, LSD and ecstasy in New Zealand: Are drug dealers promoting methamphetamine rather than cannabis?

Background: Small towns in New Zealand have reported high availability of methamphetamine, and conversely a shortage of cannabis. Stakeholders have suggested drug dealers are purposely promoting methamphetamine rather than cannabis.

Aims: (1) To compare the availability of methamphetamine and cannabis in different size communities; (2) Identify determinants of the high availability of methamphetamine, including low availability of cannabis.

Socio-economic disadvantage is associated with heavier drinking in high but not middle-income countries participating in the International Alcohol Control Study.

Introduction And Aims: To investigate if socio-economic disadvantage, at the individual- and country-level, is associated with heavier drinking in some middle- and high-income countries.

Design And Methods: Surveys of drinkers were undertaken in some high- and middle-income countries. Participating countries were Australia, England, New Zealand, Scotland (high-income) and Peru, Thailand and Vietnam (middle-income).

Gastroenterology - Evolution of specialty choice in recent years.

Introduction: Gastroenterology is one of the medical specialties offered to residency training candidates each year. This project analyzes the data associated with the choice of a Gastroenterology residency program in recent years.

Material And Methods: Data related to specialty selection were obtained from official reports with regard to the allocation of residency places by the Spanish Ministry of Health, Social Services and Equality.

Bayesian bivariate survival analysis using the power variance function copula.

Copula models have become increasingly popular for modelling the dependence structure in multivariate survival data. The two-parameter Archimedean family of Power Variance Function (PVF) copulas includes the Clayton, Positive Stable (Gumbel) and Inverse Gaussian copulas as special or limiting cases, thus offers a unified approach to fitting these important copulas. Two-stage frequentist procedures for estimating the marginal distributions and the PVF copula have been suggested by Andersen (Lifetime Data Anal 11:333-350, 2005), Massonnet et al.

Bayesian semiparametric analysis of recurrent failure time data using copulas.

The analysis of recurrent event data is of particular importance in medical statistics where patients suffering from chronic diseases often present with multiple recurring relapses or cancer patients experience several tumor recurrences. Whereas individual subjects can be assumed to be independent, the times between events of one subject are neither independent nor identically distributed. Apart from the marginal approach by Wei et al.

Differential immune gene expression profiles in susceptible and resistant full-sibling families of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) challenged with infectious pancreatic necrosis virus (IPNV).

This study aims to identify at the expression level the immune-related genes associated with IPN-susceptible and resistant phenotypes in Atlantic salmon full-sibling families. We have analyzed thirty full-sibling families infected by immersion with IPNV and then classified as resistant or susceptible using a multivariate survival analysis based on a gamma-Cox frailty model and the Kaplan-Meier mortality curves. In four families within each group head kidneys were pooled for real-time PCR and one-color salmon-specific oligonucleotide microarray (21K) analysis at day 1 and 5 post-infection.

Detection of influent virulence and resistance genes in microarray data through quasi likelihood modeling.

Publicly available genomic data are a great source of biological knowledge that can be extracted when appropriate data analysis is used. Predicting the biological function of genes is of interest to understand molecular mechanisms of virulence and resistance in pathogens and hosts and is important for drug discovery and disease control. This is commonly done by searching for similar gene expression behavior.

Factors associated with variability in length of sick leave because of acute low back pain in Chile.

Background Context: Acute low back pain (LBP) is a frequent cause of physician visits and sick leave. Patients with longer sick leave account for most costs associated with LBP. Most research on risk factors for prolonged sick leave because of LBP has been done in Anglo-Saxon or Northern European populations with occupational LBP.