Who is coming in? Evaluation of physician performance within multi-physician emergency departments.

Background: This study aimed to examine how physician performance metrics are affected by the speed of other attendings (co-attendings) concurrently staffing the ED.

Methods: A retrospective study was conducted using patient data from two EDs between January-2018 and February-2020. Machine learning was used to predict patient length of stay (LOS) conditional on being assigned a physician of average speed, using patient- and departmental-level variables.

Humor as a window into generative AI bias.

A preregistered audit of 600 images by generative AI across 150 different prompts explores the link between humor and discrimination in consumer-facing AI solutions. When ChatGPT updates images to make them "funnier", the prevalence of stereotyped groups changes. While stereotyped groups for politically sensitive traits (i.

Enhancing mass vaccination programs with queueing theory and spatial optimization.

Background: Mass vaccination is a cornerstone of public health emergency preparedness and response. However, injudicious placement of vaccination sites can lead to the formation of long waiting lines or , which discourages individuals from waiting to be vaccinated and may thus jeopardize the achievement of public health targets. Queueing theory offers a framework for modeling queue formation at vaccination sites and its effect on vaccine uptake.

On the Limits of Anonymization for Promoting Diversity in Organizations.

Anonymization of job applicant resumes is a recommended strategy to increase diversity in organizations, but large-scale tests have shown mixed results. We consider decision-makers' social dominance orientation (SDO), a measure of anti-egalitarianism/endorsement of group-based hierarchy, to illustrate the limits of anonymization. Across four pre-registered studies ( = 3,150), we show that (a) lower SDO individuals are less likely to hire individuals from underrepresented groups when job materials are anonymized and (b) they are more likely to opt into using anonymization.

Integration of Imaging-based and Sequencing-based Spatial Omics Mapping on the Same Tissue Section via DBiTplus.

Spatially mapping the transcriptome and proteome in the same tissue section can significantly advance our understanding of heterogeneous cellular processes and connect cell type to function. Here, we present Deterministic Barcoding in Tissue sequencing plus (DBiTplus), an integrative multi-modality spatial omics approach that combines sequencing-based spatial transcriptomics and image-based spatial protein profiling on the same tissue section to enable both single-cell resolution cell typing and genome-scale interrogation of biological pathways. DBiTplus begins with reverse transcription for cDNA synthesis, microfluidic delivery of DNA oligos for spatial barcoding, retrieval of barcoded cDNA using RNaseH, an enzyme that selectively degrades RNA in an RNA-DNA hybrid, preserving the intact tissue section for high-plex protein imaging with CODEX.

Doubly robust estimation under covariate-induced dependent left truncation.

In prevalent cohort studies with follow-up, the time-to-event outcome is subject to left truncation leading to selection bias. For estimation of the distribution of the time to event, conventional methods adjusting for left truncation tend to rely on the quasi-independence assumption that the truncation time and the event time are independent on the observed region. This assumption is violated when there is dependence between the truncation time and the event time, possibly induced by measured covariates.

Biocompatibility Analysis of the Silver-Coated Microporous Titanium Implants Manufactured with 3D-Printing Technology.

3D-printed microporous titanium scaffolds enjoy good biointegration with the residuum's soft and bone tissues, and they promote excellent biomechanical properties in attached prostheses. Implant-associated infection, however, remains a major clinical challenge. Silver-based implant coatings can potentially reduce bacterial growth and inhibit biofilm formation, thereby reducing the risk of periprosthetic infections.

Research Priorities for Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response: An Interdisciplinary Delphi Study.

Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR) is a multisensory experience most often associated with feelings of relaxation and altered consciousness, elicited by stimuli which include whispering, repetitive movements, and close personal attention. Since 2015, ASMR research has grown rapidly, spanning disciplines from neuroscience to media studies but lacking a collaborative or interdisciplinary approach. To build a cohesive and connected structure for ASMR research moving forwards, a modified Delphi study was conducted with ASMR experts, practitioners, community members, and researchers from various disciplines.

A qualitative study of perceptions of the care pathway for familial hypercholesterolemia: screening, diagnosis, treatment, and family cascade screening.

Background: Familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) is an autosomal dominant genetic condition that carries increased risk for premature atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, cardiovascular events, and death. Due to low uptake of evidence-based practices, up to 80% of FH patients remain undiagnosed and most are undertreated. This project aimed to understand patient and clinician perceptions across the care pathway of evidence-based diagnosis and treatment of FH, to inform implementation strategy design for two clinical trials seeking to increase evidence-based care.

Integration of Imaging-based and Sequencing-based Spatial Omics Mapping on the Same Tissue Section via DBiTplus.

Spatially mapping the transcriptome and proteome in the same tissue section can significantly advance our understanding of heterogeneous cellular processes and connect cell type to function. Here, we present Deterministic Barcoding in Tissue sequencing plus (DBiTplus), an integrative multi-modality spatial omics approach that combines sequencing-based spatial transcriptomics and image-based spatial protein profiling on the same tissue section to enable both single-cell resolution cell typing and genome-scale interrogation of biological pathways. DBiTplus begins with reverse transcription for cDNA synthesis, microfluidic delivery of DNA oligos for spatial barcoding, retrieval of barcoded cDNA using RNaseH, an enzyme that selectively degrades RNA in an RNA-DNA hybrid, preserving the intact tissue section for high-plex protein imaging with CODEX.

Recovery of biological signals lost in single-cell batch integration with CellANOVA.

Data integration to align cells across batches has become a cornerstone of single-cell data analysis, critically affecting downstream results. Currently, there are no guidelines for when the biological differences between samples are separable from batch effects. Here we show that current paradigms for single-cell data integration remove biologically meaningful variation and introduce distortion.

Measuring hospital inpatient Procedure Access Inequality in the United States.

Geographic disparities in access to inpatient procedures are a significant issue within the US healthcare system. This study introduces the Procedure Access Inequality (PAI) index, a standardized metric to quantify these disparities while adjusting for disease prevalence. Using data from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project State Inpatient Databases, we analyzed inpatient procedure data from 18 states between 2016 and 2019.

An Automated Approach to Causal Inference in Discrete Settings.

Applied research conditions often make it impossible to point-identify causal estimands without untenable assumptions. -bounds on the range of possible solutions-is a principled alternative, but the difficulty of deriving bounds in idiosyncratic settings has restricted its application. We present a general, automated numerical approach to causal inference in discrete settings.

Does a single dose of testosterone increase willingness to compete, confidence, and risk-taking in men? Evidence from two randomised placebo-controlled experiments.

The sex steroid hormone testosterone regulates aggression and display of dominance in non-human animals. According to the Challenge Hypothesis, these effects arise from context-sensitive testosterone increases that facilitate inter-male competitions over resources, status, and mates. A growing body of literature documents similar testosterone effects on behaviors related to competition and risk-taking in humans, though the findings have been mixed.

Double Negative Control Inference in Test-Negative Design Studies of Vaccine Effectiveness.

The test-negative design (TND) has become a standard approach to evaluate vaccine effectiveness against the risk of acquiring infectious diseases in real-world settings, such as Influenza, Rotavirus, Dengue fever, and more recently COVID-19. In a TND study, individuals who experience symptoms and seek care are recruited and tested for the infectious disease which defines cases and controls. Despite TND's potential to reduce unobserved differences, in healthcare seeking behavior (HSB) between vaccinated and unvaccinated subjects, it remains subject to various potential biases.

Wisdom of the silicon crowd: LLM ensemble prediction capabilities rival human crowd accuracy.

Human forecasting accuracy improves through the "wisdom of the crowd" effect, in which aggregated predictions tend to outperform individual ones. Past research suggests that individual large language models (LLMs) tend to underperform compared to human crowd aggregates. We simulate a wisdom of the crowd effect with LLMs.

A randomized controlled trial of gamification to increase physical activity among black and Hispanic breast and prostate cancer survivors: Rationale and design of the ALLSTAR clinical trial.

Background: Survivors of breast and prostate cancer, especially those that are Black and/or Hispanic, are at high risk for cardiovascular events. Physical activity can reduce the risk of cardiovascular events in cancer survivors, but Black and Hispanic people are less likely to engage in routine physical activity. Concepts from behavioral economics have been used to design scalable, low-touch gamification interventions that increase physical activity in individuals at high risk for cardiovascular events, but the effectiveness of these strategies in Black and Hispanic survivors of breast and prostate cancer is uncertain.