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Behind the curve: econometric estimation and sectoral decomposition of the Japanese Beveridge curve's evolution around the COVID-19 pandemic
Get PDFAbstract This paper examines the Japanese Beveridge curve in order to identify a possible structural break prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and uncover its potential causes. We utilize two levels of analysis. First, the relationship for the period January 2000–June 2024 is estimated by means of a vector error correction model, through which we detect a structural break at the end of 2019. Second, we use disaggregated vacancy and unemployment data to analyze the Beveridge curves for subgroups at the occupational, industrial, and contractual levels and carry out an extensive mismatch analysis. We argue that the asymmetric evolution of the different segments of the market, together with tight market conditions, is at the root of the modification in the responsiveness of vacancies to unemployment recorded from the end of 2019. More specifically, the change originated in the services-related sector, which recorded extremely tight market conditions since 2018, leading firms to reduce vacancies without any significant impact on the sector-level unemployment rate. This trend was subsequently compounded by the measures introduced by the government in 2020 in order to support employment during the COVID-19 pandemic
Multinational transfusion practices and outcomes in haematology patients admitted to the intensive care unit.
Get PDFBACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The number of critically ill patients with haematological conditions is increasing, yet transfusion practices in this population remain poorly defined. This study aimed to compare transfusion strategies in critically ill patients with versus without haematological conditions. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: This international, prospective observational substudy of the International Point Prevalence Study of Intensive Care Unit [ICU] Transfusion Practices (InPUT) evaluated transfusion use in ICU patients with and without haematological conditions, including benign or malignant diseases or a history of stem cell transplantation. Outcomes included use of red blood cells (RBCs), platelets, plasma, haemostatic interventions, transfusion indications and thresholds. RESULTS: Of 3643 ICU patients, 131 (3.6%) had a haematological condition. These patients were more likely to receive RBC (odds ratio [OR] 1.58, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.09-2.29) and platelet transfusions (OR 8.32, 95% CI 5.09-13.6), primarily due to low haemoglobin rather than physiological triggers. Platelet thresholds were lower (median 23 × 109/L vs. 64 × 109/L) compared to non-haematology patients. Both platelet and plasma transfusions were more frequently administered prophylactically rather than for active bleeding. Haemostatic interventions were more often used in haematology patients, at higher doses and typically without viscoelastic testing. Transfused haematology patients had higher 28-day mortality and longer ICU stays. CONCLUSION: ICU patients with haematological conditions receive transfusions differently, particularly regarding platelet and plasma use. These findings underscore the need for prospective studies to define optimal transfusion thresholds in this growing and vulnerable patient population, although the study's limited sample size and lack of diagnostic granularity may affect interpretation
VAGNN: Advancing the Generalization of Graph Neural Networks
No full textThis paper introduces Virtual Adjacency Graph Neural Network (VAGNN). Compared to existing Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) that employ fixed schemes to construct neighborhoods for information aggregation, VAGNN leverages a virtual adjacency matrix to optimize neighborhoods by selectively excluding 1-hop neighbors while incorporating high-hop local neighbors and global nodes. Also, VAGNN allows for the selection of different attention mechanisms for aggregation and the incorporation of supplementary information into attention weights. The linear computational complexity of VAGNN makes it scalable for handling large graphs. Experimental evaluations on diverse real-world datasets validate the generalization and scalability capabilities of VAGNN. Parameter sensitivity analysis also reveals the importance of carefully balancing the inclusion of local and global information in VAGNN. This work lays the foundation for further exploration in developing more efficient techniques for virtual adjacency matrix construction and weighted aggregation functions, opening up possibilities for the design of more robust GNNs in the future
Integrated Care Coordination for Managing Chronic Conditions: Views of Health Staff on the Implementation of a Program Using an Algorithm to Identify People at Higher Risk of Hospitalisation in Sydney, Australia.
Get PDFBACKGROUND: Integrated care interventions can improve patient outcomes and reduce the burden on acute health services, but need a strong evidence base to ensure their effectiveness. Understanding the meso and macro context in which care is delivered and determining whether patient needs are met are essential to successful implementation. Care coordination in New South Wales (NSW), Australia has evolved over time to meet the needs of an ageing population with chronic health conditions and multi-morbidity with the aim of reducing potentially preventable hospitalisations. OBJECTIVE: To examine how an integrated care coordination program was understood and implemented at state, district and clinician levels in NSW. The Integrated Care for People with Chronic Conditions (ICPCC) program was implemented statewide, however local implementation varied. Patients who were suitable for integrated care coordination were identified via a hospitalisation risk prediction algorithm and/or referrals from health professionals. METHODS: Understanding and implementation of ICPCC were assessed via interviews and a focus group with a range of health staff. Qualitative data were analysed using NVivo software and normalisation process theory. RESULTS: There was a strong sense of program coherence from management, clinicians and referrers. They viewed ICPCC as effective in coordinating care for patients at risk of hospitalisation and incorporating self-management at home. All health staff interviewed understood the program purpose and necessity, including the importance of achieving patient and systemic goals. Networking, linking services and program promotion were important, as was reporting on benefits. While the algorithm effectively identified previously hospitalised patients, it did not identify all suitable patients in the community with an increasing risk of requiring acute health care intervention. Referrals from health professionals familiar with patient needs and complexity were an important additional mechanism for patient selection. CONCLUSIONS: There was a shared sense of coherence and understanding of the ICPCC program among health staff at the three levels of implementation within NSW. The program played an important role in assisting patients with a range of chronic conditions to access and benefit from integrated care coordination, while increasing their capacity to self-manage at home. Program intake via hospitalisation risk prediction algorithm plus referrals from health professionals familiar with patient needs and complexity can effectively identify those who may benefit from integrated care coordination
State-wide analysis of trends and patterns of emergency department presentations of violence against women in New South Wales, Australia 2015-2022: a data linkage study.
Get PDFOBJECTIVES: To describe the features and rates of emergency department (ED) presentations identified as related to violence against women (VAW) and of confirmed cases of family domestic violence (FDV) inpatient admissions and to compare these across geographic locations in New South Wales (NSW) Australia. DESIGN: A retrospective data linkage study. SETTING: Routinely collected public hospital data from approximately 180 designated public hospital EDs in NSW, Australia. PARTICIPANTS: Cases were included if female, aged ≥15 years, presenting to any NSW ED between 2015 and 2022 and with one or more criteria indicating VAW, leading to 21 219 cases being included. PRIMARY OUTCOMES: The age-standardised rate of VAW ED presentations per year and confirmed FDV inpatient admissions within metropolitan and non-metropolitan areas in NSW, Australia. RESULTS: Women presenting with VAW were more likely to be aged 25-44 years (n=9705, 45.7%), with almost 20% of presentations from women who identified as Indigenous (n=4153, 19.6%). Indigenous presentations were greater in non-metropolitan areas (n=2675, 30.9%) compared with metropolitan areas (n=1478, 11.8%). Indigenous women in NSW represent only 4.2% of the estimated residential population. VAW presentation rates by age group varied over time, a gradual increase being seen in the 65-84 year-old age group who experienced 45 VAW presentations per year in 2015 to 79 presentations per year in 2022 with an annual rate of change of 7.3%. CONCLUSION: VAW accounts for a substantial burden of ED presentations across NSW; the greatest impact on women aged 25-44 years and Indigenous women, particularly in non-metropolitan areas. Rising presentations among older women further highlight the need for strengthened ED screening and referral pathways and for targeted resource allocation to address inequities in family, domestic and sexual violence
The ‘canary of the estuary’, the contribution of Sydney rock oyster aquaculture to understanding and protecting Australian estuarine health
Get PDFContext: The Sydney rock oyster (Saccostrea glomerata) is an iconic Australian native species of great commercial and ecological significance, that has been farmed in New South Wales for over 150 years. Aim: To highlight the role of S. glomerata industry in safeguarding Australia’s estuaries. Method: Literature review. Key results: S. glomerata, more than any other species, has served to highlight emerging threats to estuaries, ranging from viral and bacterial contamination to chemical pollution, and climate change. Their use as biomonitors and in bioassays for pollutants (metals, PAHs, PFAS and pesticides) has been instrumental in identifying and quantifying potential threats. The oyster industry provides one of NSW’s largest and longest-running monitoring programs for estuarine environmental conditions. Currently, S. glomerata is at the forefront of remediation efforts, leading legislative change in environmental protection, and using ecoengineering, reef restoration and selective breeding programs to bolster oyster resilience. Conclusions: Even though the community has long recognised the intrinsic link between oyster health and estuarine well-being and works with industry to advocate for estuarine ecosystem conservation and the species present, the contribution the industry makes is underestimated. Implications: Amid debate over aquaculture expansion, greater consideration of the positives arising from culture activities is warranted
-Cylindrical Symbolic Response, a Standalone and Synergistic Biomarker for Epilepsy Diagnosis on EEG Modality.
No full textMisdiagnosis of Epilepsy in an interictal state is a serious global concern. Erroneously prescribing anti-epileptic drugs (AEDs) to healthy individuals can eventually induce epilepsy. Additionally, challenges such as non-stationarity, homogeneity, and heterogeneity are prevalent within and across the subjects while collecting electroencephalogram (EEG) data for Epilepsy diagnosis and ictal-interictal classification. Another limitation is the variability of the steps in the preprocessing pipeline, such as filtering and normalization, manifesting differently across subjects, within-subjects, and across different datasets and classes. This is attributed to artifact inclusion. To address these research gaps, we propose a novel data acquisition pipeline and an EEG dataset of 140 subjects (70 each of healthy control and an interictal epileptic class), as per International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) guidelines. We propose a computational biomarker namely, -cylindrical-based symbolic response (CSR) vector that contributes features similar to Interictal Epileptiform Discharges (IEDs), and are robust to preprocessing. This biomarker uses eigenvalues, eigenvectors, and eigen directions along with the fusion of features of FFT and DWT to address the issue of homogeneity between epileptic patients (interictal state) and healthy controls, serving both as a standalone and synergistic feature. The proposed approach demonstrated an improvement of 38.54% and 40.29% test precision over the Siena and BIOMED datasets, respectively, compared to the combination of baseline feature fusion. Furthermore, owing to the simplicity and synergy, the proposed method can be seamlessly integrated into the clinical setting to bridge the gap between AI and cognitive neuroscience for translation towards clinical practice applications
Evaluating oxidative stress targeting treatments in in vitro models of placental stress relevant to preeclampsia.
Get PDFBACKGROUND: Preeclampsia is a complex pregnancy disorder characterized by the new onset of hypertension and organ dysfunction, often leading to significant maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality. Placental dysfunction is a hallmark feature of preeclampsia, which is often caused by inappropriate trophoblast cell function in association with oxidative stress, inflammation and/or pathological hypoxia. This study explores the role of oxidative stress in trophoblast cell-based models mimicking the preeclamptic placenta and evaluates potential therapeutic strategies targeting these mechanisms. METHODS: Uric acid (UA) and malondialdehyde (MDA) concentrations were measured in human plasma from women with preeclampsia (n = 24) or normotensive controls (n = 14) using colorimetric assays. Custom-made first trimester trophoblast cell line, ACH-3P, was exposed to various preeclampsia-like stimuli including hypoxia mimetic (dimethyloxalylglycine or DMOG, 1 mM), inflammation (tumour necrosis factor or TNF-α, 10 ng/mL) or mitochondria dysfunction agent, (Rhodamine-6G or Rho-6G, 1 μg/mL), ± aspirin (0.5 mM), metformin (0.5 mM), AD-01 (100 nM) or resveratrol (15 µM), for 48 h. Following treatments, UA/MDA, proliferation (MTT), wound scratch and cytometric bead, assays, were performed. RESULTS: Overall, MDA plasma concentration was increased in the preeclampsia group compared to healthy controls (p < 0.001) whereas UA showed a trend towards an increase (p = 0.06); when adjusted for differences in gestational age at blood sampling, MDA remained (p < 0.001) whereas UA became (p = 0.03) significantly correlated with preeclampsia. Our 2D first trimester trophoblast cell-based in vitro model of placental stress as observed in preeclampsia, mimicked the increase in UA concentration following treatment with DMOG (p < 0.0001), TNF-α (p < 0.05) or Rho-6G (p < 0.001) whereas MDA cell concentration increased only in the presence of DMOG (p < 0.0001) or Rho-6G (p < 0.001). Metformin was able to abrogate DMOG- (p < 0.01), Rho-6G- (p < 0.0001) or TNF-α- (p < 0.01) induced increase in UA, or DMOG- (p < 0.0001) or TNF-α- (p < 0.05)induced increase in MDA. AD-01 abrogated UA or MDA increase in the presence of TNF-α (p < 0.001) or Rho-6G (p < 0.001)/DMOG (p < 0.0001), respectively. The preeclampsia-like stimuli also mimicked adverse impact on trophoblast cell proliferation, migration and inflammation, most of which were restored with either aspirin, metformin, resveratrol, or AD-01 (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Our 2D in vitro models recapitulate the response of the first trimester trophoblast cells to preeclampsia-like stresses, modelling inappropriate placental development, and demonstrate therapeutic potential of repurposed treatments
Transformer-based hybrid systems to combat BCI illiteracy.
Get PDFThis study addresses the challenge of enhancing Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs), focusing on low Signal-to-Noise Ratios and "BCI illiteracy" often affecting up to 20% of users. Transformer-based models show promise but remain underexplored. Three experiments were conducted. Experiment A assessed the performance of architectures combining Convolutional and Transformer Blocks for binary Motor Imagery (MI) classification. Experiment B introduced a hybrid system, refining both block types and adding a Noise Focus Block to infuse Stochastic Noise, enhancing multi-class classification robustness. Experiment C evaluated the emerging architectures on 106 subjects, focusing on robustness across weak and strong learners. In Experiment A, the best networks achieved a validation accuracy of 0.914 and a loss of 0.146 (p=0.000967, F=12.675). In Experiment B, the proposed architecture improved multi-class MI classification to 84.5% on Dataset II, significantly improving performance for BCI-illiterate users. Experiment C showed a Kappa >83%, reduced standard deviation, and a highest validation accuracy of 88.69% across all individuals. The hybrid integration of Transformers, CNNs, and Noise-Resonance-based layers significantly enhances classification performance, particularly for weak BCI learners. Further research is recommended to optimize hybrid system architectures and hyperparameter settings to overcome current limitations in BCI performance
Spatiotemporal distribution of cyclone-induced casualties in coastal Bangladesh (1970–2021): a comprehensive assessment
Get PDFBangladesh is highly vulnerable due to tropical cyclones, which frequently cause severe damages and fatalities in coastal regions of Bangladesh. This study investigates 41 major cyclonic storms from 1970 to 2021 to assess the spatial and temporal distribution of cyclone related fatalities in coastal Bangladesh. A total of 502,083 deaths and 111,885 injuries were recorded, with Chattogram, Patuakhali and Barishal districts experiencing the highest death rates. Notably, Sandwip upazila in Chattgram and Mirzaganj upazila in Patuakhali district had the highest mortality rates. Data were sourced primarily from newspapers and analyzed using ArcGIS at district and upazila levels. The findings illustrated significant spatial variations in cyclone impact, highlighting areas most at risk. The study highlights the importance of GIS based analysis in identifying vulnerable zones for targeted mitigation efforts. Public awareness, early warning systems, and disaster resilience strategies are essential for reducing cyclone related fatalities. Future research should focus on standardized data collection, catastrophe risk models, and spatiotemporal analysis to improve cyclone prediction and resilience planning
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