Search

As an important task in digital preventive healthcare management, especially in the secondary prevention stage, active medication stocking refers to the process of preparing necessary medications in advance according to the predicted disease progression of patients. However, predicting preventive or even life-saving medicine for each patient is a non-trivial task. Existing models usually overlook the implicit hierarchical relation between patient's predicted diseases and medications, and mainly focus on single tasks (medication recommendation or disease prediction). To tackle this limitation, we propose a relation augmented hierarchical multi-task learning framework, named RAHM. which is capable of learning multi-level relation-aware patient representation for reasonable medication stocking. Specifically, the framework first leverages the underlying structural relations of Electronic Health Record (EHR) data to learn the low-level patient visit representation. Then, it uses a regular LSTM to encode the historical temporal disease information for disease-level patient representation learning. Further, a relation-aware LSTM (R-LSTM) is proposed to handle the relations between diseases and medication in longitudinal patient records, which can better integrate the historical information into the medication-level patient representation. In the learning process, two pseudo residual structures are introduced to mitigate the error propagation and preserve the valuable relation information of EHRs. To validate our method, extensive experiments have been conducted based on the real-world clinical dataset. The results demonstrate a consistent superiority of our framework over several baselines in suggesting reasonable stock medication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel bismuth-based zero-dimensional organic-inorganic hybrid material (C 6 H 5 CH 2 NH 3) 2 (CH 3 CH 3 NH 2) 3 Bi 2 Br 11 was synthesized by a hydrothermal method. The crystal structure, intermolecular interactions, chemical groups, chemical bond characterization, optical and thermal stability of the sample were systematically investigated by single crystal X-ray diffraction, powder X-ray diffraction, Hirshfeld surface analysis, field scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectrometer, Raman spectra, thermogravimetric analysis, and Ultraviolet–visible diffuse reflectance spectra. The results indicated that the (C 6 H 5 CH 2 NH 3) 2 (CH 3 CH 3 NH 2) 3 Bi 2 Br 11 crystal displayed a triclinic crystal system with a P-1 space group at room temperature with a = 8.5290(4) Å, b = 14.2484(10) Å, c = 18.9386(10) Å, α = 94.418(5) °, β = 102.260(4) °, γ = 106.595(5) °, V = 2131.9(2) Å3, Z = 2, R 1 = 0.0936, w R 2 = 0.1536. The compound displayed typical zero-dimensional consisting of two benzylamine organic [C 6 H 5 CH 2 NH 3 ]+ cations, three dimethylamine organic [CH 3 CH 3 NH 2 ]+ cations and a corner-sharing dimer unit [Bi 2 Br 11 ]5–. Infrared and Raman vibrational study indicates the presence of [CH 3 CH 3 NH 2 ]+. The 2D fingerprint plot of Hirshfeld surface analysis shows that H⋯Br/Br⋯H (56.8 %) and H⋯H (31.4 %) are major contributions to the intermolecular contact of (C 6 H 5 CH 2 NH 3) 2 (CH 3 CH 3 NH 2) 3 Bi 2 Br 11. The sample presented relatively perfect thermal stability up to 240 °C and a wide band gap of about 2.75 eV. It provides some reference value for exploring organic-inorganic hybrid materials with low toxicity and high thermal stability. The physical image of (C 6 H 5 CH 2 NH 3) 2 (CH 3 CH 3 NH 2) 3 Bi 2 Br 11 single crystal prepared by hydrothermal method and its crystal structure, Hirshfeld surface, thermal stability and optics analyses. [Display omitted] • Structure and morphology of (C 6 H 5 CH 2 NH 3) 2 (CH 3 CH 3 NH 2) 3 Bi 2 Br 11 were studied. • Synthesis mechanism of (C 6 H 5 CH 2 NH 3) 2 (CH 3 CH 3 NH 2) 3 Bi 2 Br 11 single crystal was studied. • Optical property and stability of (C 6 H 5 CH 2 NH 3) 2 (CH 3 CH 3 NH 2) 3 Bi 2 Br 11 were investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Temperature and gas composition control is essential for maintaining the fresh flavor and quality of perishable fruits. This study presented a design of consolidated cold and modified atmosphere package (MAP) system for fresh fruits by showing the potential benefits of a low-tech and low-cost approach to cold chain adoption. The effectiveness of insulated expanded polystyrene (EPS) box installed with phase change materials (PCM) and equipped with MAP on maintaining quality of fresh strawberries was reported. Real-time changes of gas composition, temperature and relative humidity inside packages, weight loss, total soluble solids, color, texture, respiration rate, electrical conductivity, and general appearance of strawberries were determined during the storage in successive harvests of Dec 2017 and Apr 2018. Loss of fruit weight and electrical conductivity were higher in the control strawberries comparing with packaged fruits. The consolidated package system had significant effect on maintaining firmness, color, total soluble solids, global appearance, respiration rate of strawberries for all attributes. Results of this study confirmed that this innovative approach to cold chain design had the potential use in express delivery of strawberry fruits when the ambient temperatures were not well controlled. • Implementation of a cold package system for fruit supply chains. • Cold and modified atmosphere package with low-tech and low-cost. • A simple cold package for fruit supply under ambient temperatures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The particle size of maize flour has a significant effect on its functional and physicochemical properties. In this study, maize grits were ground for various time intervals (3.5, 4, 5, 6, 10 and 14 min), and grinding effects on compositional, functional and physicochemical properties of maize flour were evaluated by using rapid visco analyzer (RVA), differential scanning calorimeter (DSC), sodium dodecyl sulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and other chemical methods. The results showed that grinding could effectively pulverize the flour particles. As particle size decreases, the damaged starch and amylose content, gelatinization degree, hydration capacity, water solubility index and water absorption index were significantly ( P < 0.05) increased. Grinding caused reduction in trough viscosity, final viscosity and peak time and an increase in peak viscosity and breakdown of maize flours. The starch isolated from different time treated maize flour exhibited a decrease in transition gelatinization temperature ( T o , T p and T c ) and gelatinization enthalpy, whereas grinding treatments have no effects on protein content and protein primary structure of maize flour. Grinding treatment changes in the damaged granules and particle size distribution are responsible for the different maize flour properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]