Interestingness measures and strategies for mining multi-ontology multi-level association rules from gene ontology annotations for the discovery of new GO relationships

The Gene Ontology (GO), a set of three sub-ontologies, is one of the most popular bio-ontologies used for describing gene product characteristics. GO annotation data containing terms from multiple sub-ontologies and at different levels in the ontologies is an important source of implicit relationships between terms from the three sub-ontologies. Data mining techniques such as association rule mining that are tailored to mine from multiple ontologies at multiple levels of abstraction are required for effective knowledge discovery from GO annotation data. We present a data mining approach, Multi-ontology data mining at All Levels (MOAL) that uses the structure and relationships of the GO to mine multi-ontology multi-level association rules. We introduce two interestingness measures: Multi-ontology Support (MOSupport) and Multi-ontology Confidence (MOConfidence) customized to evaluate multi-ontology multi-level association rules. We also describe a variety of post-processing strategies for pruning uninteresting rules. We use publicly available GO annotation data to demonstrate our methods with respect to two applications (1) the discovery of co-annotation suggestions and (2) the discovery of new cross-ontology relationships.     

Medication use and dry eye symptoms: A large,hypothesis-free,population-based study in the Netherlands

PurposeTo date, population-based studies reporting associations between dry eye disease and medications were hypothesis-driven, did not take into account underlying comorbidities, and did not investigate individual drugs. The purpose of this study was to clarify the association of dry eye symptoms with medication classes and individual drugs, using a hypothesis-free approach.Methods79,606 participants (age 20–97 years, 59.2% female) from the population-based Lifelines cohort in the Netherlands were cross-sectionally assessed for dry eye symptoms using the Womens’ Health Study dry eye questionnaire. All medications used were coded with the ATC classification system. Logistic regression was used to assess the risk of the 59 most-used therapeutic/pharmacological subgroups and the 99 most-used individual drugs (all n > 200) on dry eye symptoms, correcting for age, sex, body mass index, and 48 comorbidities associated with dry eye.ResultsThirty-eight (64%) medication subgroups and fifty-two (53%) individual drugs were associated with dry eye symptoms (P < 0.05), after correction for age and sex only. A multivariable model correcting for comorbidities revealed highly significant associations between dry eye symptoms and drugs for peptic ulcer (particularly proton pump inhibitors (PPIs)), antiglaucoma and anticholinergic medications.ConclusionsThis study underlines that medication use is highly informative of risk of dry eye symptoms. Correction for underlying comorbidities is critical to avoid confounding effects. This study confirms suggested associations between medications and dry eye symptoms at a population level and shows several new associations. The novel link between PPIs and dry eye symptoms deserves particular attention given how commonly they are prescribed.     

The objective CORE score allows early rule out in acute chest pain patients

Abstract

Objectives. Chest pain is a common complaint in the emergency department (ED), and it is a challenge to identify low-risk chest pain patients eligible for early discharge. We aimed to develop a simple objective decision rule to exclude 30-day major adverse cardiac events (MACE) in ED chest pain patients.

Design. We analyzed prospectively included patients presenting with chest pain. Low risk patients were identified with the clinical objective rule-out evaluation (CORE). CORE was based on high sensitivity cardiac troponin T (hs-cTnT) tests at ED presentation (0?h) and 2?h later together with a simplified risk score consisting of four objective variables: age ≥65 years and a history of arterial disease, hypertension or diabetes. For the patient to be classified as low risk in the CORE rule, hs-cTnT had to be ≤14?ng/L both at 0 and 2?h, and the sum of the risk score had to be 0. The primary outcome was MACE within 30 days.

Results. Among the 751 patients in the final analysis, 90 (11.9%) had a MACE. CORE identified 248 (33%) of patients as low risk with a sensitivity of 98.9% (CI 93.1–99.9) and a negative predictive value of 99.6% (95% CI 97.4–100) for 30-day MACE. Adding the ED physician’s interpretation of the ECG to CORE did not improve diagnostic performance.

Conclusion. A simple objective decision rule (CORE) identified one-third of all patients as having a very low 30-day risk of MACE. These patients may potentially be discharged without additional investigations for acute coronary syndrome.     

Socio-demographic and clinical correlates of subjective quality of life among Nigerian outpatients with schizophrenia

This study aimed to measure the subjective quality of life (QOL) of Nigerian outpatients with schizophrenia and to examine its socio-demographic as well as clinical determinants. A total of 313 outpatients with schizophrenia participated in the study. Data were collected on socio-demographics, outpatient clinic attendance, perceived social support, perceived satisfaction with hospital care, medication adherence, illness severity and QOL. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to determine the amount of variance in the QOL domain scores explained by socio-demographic and clinical variables. Employment status, perceived social support, satisfaction with outpatient care, antipsychotic medication dose, Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) scores and medication adherence had significant relationships with all the QOL domains. Average monthly allowance and outpatient clinic default were significantly associated with all QOL domains except social relationship. Socio-demographic and clinical factors explained only a modest part (29.4%) of the variance in the QOL scores. It is likely that unmeasured ‘internalised’ determinants contribute in a much larger sense to the variation in subjective QOL.     

Nonhuman primates as models for the discovery and development of radiation countermeasures

Introduction: Despite significant scientific advances over the past six decades toward the development of safe and effective radiation countermeasures for humans using animal models, only two pharmaceutical agents have been approved by United States Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) for hematopoietic acute radiation syndrome (H-ARS). Additional research efforts are needed to further develop large animal models for improving the prediction of clinical safety and effectiveness of radiation countermeasures for ARS and delayed effects of acute radiation exposure (DEARE) in humans.

Area covered: The authors review the suitability of animal models for the development of radiation countermeasures for ARS following the FDA Animal Rule with a special focus on nonhuman primate (NHP) models of ARS. There are seven centers in the United States currently conducting studies with irradiated NHPs, with the majority of studies being conducted with rhesus monkeys.

Expert opinion: The NHP model is considered the gold standard animal model for drug development and approval by the FDA. The lack of suitable substitutes for NHP models for predicting response in humans serves as a bottleneck for the development of radiation countermeasures. Additional large animal models need to be characterized to support the development and FDA-approval of new radiation countermeasures.     

Apriori算法在医疗设备健康管理中的研究与应用

目的医院在实施医疗设备精细化健康管理中,管理系统会产生大量的日志数据,如何高效利用这些数据,不仅可以为医疗设备的健康状态进行及时的监控,而且为潜在的隐患提供支持。方法通过收集血动力工作站、肺功能仪、彩色多普勒超声诊断仪等医疗设备的运行日志,建立事件日志数据库,分别利用Apriori算法和Apriori优化算法挖掘医疗设备运行时状态的关联规则。结果 Apriori优化算法的功能和性能优于Apriori算法。结论 Apriori优化算法可以为医疗设备健康管理提供良好的决策支持。     

行为干预联合针对性宣教对心肌梗死PCI术患者服药依从性、认知程度及再狭窄发生率的影响

目的：探讨行为干预联合针对性宣教对心肌梗死PCI术患者服药依从性、认知程度及再狭窄发生率的影响。方法选取我院2014年9月至2015年7月期间收治的经确诊为心肌梗死的患者92例,随机分为观察组和对照组,每组46例,对照组给予术前准备、PCI术后及急性心肌梗死的常规护理,观察组在对照组基础上进行行为干预联合针对性宣教护理,比较两组服药依从性、认知程度及再狭窄发生率。结果两组12个月随访成功率均为100%。出院后3个月服药依从性比较无明显差异（P＞0.05）;观察组出院后6个月、12个月服药依从性明显高于对照组(P＜0.05)。观察组病情认知程度评分显著高于对照组,再狭窄发生率4.35%明显低于对照组17.39%(P＜0.05)。结论行为干预联合针对性宣教护理可明显提高心肌梗死PCI术患者服药依从性、认知程度,降低再狭窄发生率。