Plos One
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Little is known about how people learn to take into account others' opinions in joint decisions. To address this question, we combined computational and empirical approaches. Human dyads made individual and joint visual perceptual decision and rated their confidence in those decisions (data previously published). ⋯ Behaviourally, dyad members' confidence increased progressively and verbal interaction accelerated this escalation. The success of the model in drawing collective benefit from dyad members was inversely related to confidence escalation rate. The findings show an automated learning agent can, in principle, combine individual opinions and achieve collective benefit but the same agent cannot discount the escalation suggesting that one cognitive component of collective decision making in human may involve discounting of overconfidence arising from interactions.
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Burn wounds are severely stressful events that can have a significant impact on the mental health of patients. However, the impact of burns on individuals with different personality traits can be different. The present study aimed to investigate the impact of dispositional optimism on the subjective well-being of burn patients, and mainly focused on the confirmation of the mediator role of psychological resilience. 410 burn patients from five general hospitals in Xi'an accomplished the revised Life Orientation Test, Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, and Subjective Well-Being (SWB) scale. ⋯ Structural equation modelling indicated that psychological resilience partially mediated the relationship between dispositional optimism and SWB. The current findings extended prior reports and shed some light on how dispositional optimism influenced SWB. Limitations of the study were considered and suggestions for future studies were also discussed.
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Transfusion of allogeneic blood is still common in orthopedic surgery. This analysis evaluates from the perspective of a German hospital the potential cost savings of Epoetin alfa (EPO) compared to predonated autologous blood transfusions or to a nobloodconservationstrategy (allogeneic blood transfusion strategy)during elective hip and knee replacement surgery. ⋯ EPO might become an attractive blood conservation strategy for anemic patients at reasonable costs due to the reduction in allogeneic blood transfusions, in the modeled incidence of transfusion-associated pneumonia andthe prolongedlength of stay.
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A 2011 report from the National Lung Screening Trial indicates that three annual low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) screenings for lung cancer reduced lung cancer mortality by 20% compared to chest X-ray among older individuals at high risk for lung cancer. Discussion has shifted from clinical proof to financial feasibility. The goal of this study was to determine whether LDCT screening for lung cancer in a commercially-insured population (aged 50-64) at high risk for lung cancer is cost-effective and to quantify the additional benefits of incorporating smoking cessation interventions in a lung cancer screening program. ⋯ The findings of this study indicate that repeat annual lung cancer screening in a high risk cohort of adults aged 50-64 is highly cost-effective. Offering smoking cessation interventions with the annual screening program improved the cost-effectiveness of lung cancer screening between 20% and 45%. The cost-utility ratios estimated in this study were in line with other accepted cancer screening interventions and support inclusion of annual LDCT screening for lung cancer in a high risk population in clinical recommendations.
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This study aimed to develop the artificial neural network (ANN) and multivariable logistic regression (LR) analyses for prediction modeling of cardiovascular autonomic (CA) dysfunction in the general population, and compare the prediction models using the two approaches. ⋯ The prediction models for CA dysfunction were developed using ANN and LR. ANN and LR are two effective tools for developing prediction models based on our dataset.