Plos One
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Bone metastasis is one of the most frequent diseases in prostate cancer; scintigraphy imaging is particularly important for the clinical diagnosis of bone metastasis. Up to date, minimal research has been conducted regarding the application of machine learning with emphasis on modern efficient convolutional neural networks (CNNs) algorithms, for the diagnosis of prostate cancer metastasis from bone scintigraphy images. The advantageous and outstanding capabilities of deep learning, machine learning's groundbreaking technological advancement, have not yet been fully investigated regarding their application in computer-aided diagnosis systems in the field of medical image analysis, such as the problem of bone metastasis classification in whole-body scans. ⋯ The achieved classification testing accuracy is 97.38%, whereas the average sensitivity is approximately 95.8%. Finally, the best-performing CNN method is compared to other popular and well-known CNN architectures used for medical imaging, like VGG16, ResNet50, GoogleNet and MobileNet. The classification results show that the proposed CNN-based approach outperforms the popular CNN methods in nuclear medicine for metastatic prostate cancer diagnosis in bones.
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Postoperative serum concentration of C-reactive protein (CRP) is one of the objective quantitative indices integrating the effects of preoperative and intraoperative variables. Higher levels of CRP after gastrointestinal surgery are associated with major postoperative complications. To develop a model for predicting CRP levels on postoperative day (POD) 1 in surgical patients both with and without serious conditions and comorbidities, we modified the previous formula for prediction of CRP levels on POD1, and assessed the accuracy of our modified predictive formula for CRP levels. ⋯ CRP levels predicted using duration of surgery, mean NR, and preoperative CRP levels are likely identical to measured CRP levels on POD1, being associated with major complications after gastrointestinal surgery.
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A profession in danger: Stakeholders' perspectives on supporting the pharmacy profession in Lebanon.
Lebanon boosts one of the highest pharmacists to population ratios globally (20.3/10,000). Yet, workforce analysis elicited serious concerns with the distribution, practice environments and regulation of Lebanese pharmacists. Recent workforce data shows that the profession has been majorly destabilized with hundreds of pharmacists closing their pharmacies or losing their employment. Proper planning for the future of the pharmacy profession in Lebanon necessitates a deeper understanding of the current challenges and the necessary policy and practice recommendations. The aim of this study is to examine stakeholders' perspectives on the current pharmacist workforce challenges and the necessary measures to support the profession. ⋯ The poor pharmacy workforce planning and regulation is significantly weakening the pharmacy profession in Lebanon. A concerted effort between the various stakeholders is necessary to enhance workforce planning, regulate supply, optimize the integration of pharmacists into work sectors of need, and improve the financial and professional wellbeing of pharmacists in Lebanon.
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In June 2017, the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) announced a requirement that authors reporting the results of clinical trials to journals that follow ICMJE recommendations must include an individual participant data (IPD) sharing statement with manuscripts submitted after 01 July 2018. Additionally, all new clinical trials for which enrollment began on or after 01 January 2019 must include a data sharing statement in the trial's publicly posted registration. This study sought to understand whether IPD sharing statements of clinical trials first registered on ClinicalTrials.gov before 01 January 2019 reflected comprehension of the expectations and a willingness to share. ⋯ The vast majority of trials included in this study did not indicate an intent to share IPD (n = 1,928; 94.5%). Among the trials that did commit to sharing IPD (n = 112, 5.5%), significant variability existed in the content and structure of IPD sharing statements. The results of this study suggest that successful compliance with the IPD sharing statement requirements of the ICMJE will require further clarification, enhanced education, and outreach to investigators.
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Effective communication of accurate information through social media constitutes an important component of public health interventions in modern time, when traditional public health approaches such as contact tracing, quarantine and isolation are among the few options for the containing the disease spread in the population. The success of control of COVID-19 outbreak started from Wuhan, the capital city of Hubei Province of China relies heavily on the resilience of residents to follow public health interventions which induce substantial interruption of social-economic activities, and evidence shows that opinion leaders have been playing significant roles in the propagation of epidemic information and public health policy and implementations. ⋯ The parameterized model can be used to nearcast the information propagation trend, and the model-based sensitivity analysis can help to explore important factors for the roles of opinion leaders.