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Data curation for a hospital-based cancer registry heavily relies on the labor-intensive manual abstraction process by cancer registrars to identify cancer-related information from free-text electronic health records. To streamline this process, a natural language processing system incorporating a hybrid of deep learning-based and rule-based approaches for identifying lung cancer registry-related concepts, along with a symbolic expert system that generates registry coding based on weighted rules, was developed. The system is integrated with the hospital information system at a medical center to provide cancer registrars with a patient journey visualization platform. The embedded system offers a comprehensive view of patient reports annotated with significant registry concepts to facilitate the manual coding process and elevate overall quality. Extensive evaluations, including comparisons with state-of-the-art methods, were conducted using a lung cancer dataset comprising 1428 patients from the medical center. The experimental results illustrate the effectiveness of the developed system, consistently achieving F1-scores of 0.85 and 1.00 across 30 coding items. Registrar feedback highlights the system’s reliability as a tool for assisting and auditing the abstraction. By presenting key registry items along the timeline of a patient’s reports with accurate code predictions, the system improves the quality of registrar outcomes and reduces the labor resources and time required for data abstraction. Our study highlights advancements in cancer registry coding practices, demonstrating that the proposed hybrid weighted neural-symbolic cancer registry system is reliable and efficient for assisting cancer registrars in the coding workflow and contributing to clinical outcomes.

Objectives: This case-control study aimed to investigate the predictors of return to work (RTW) following work-related major forearm, wrist or hand injury at the preparation stage of return to work. Material and Methods: A total of 80 clients were recruited and divided into 2 groups depending on their readiness of RTW. The groups were compared with each other with regard to their demographics, compensation status, hand injury severity, health perception, and time off work (TOW) using correlation coefficient. Predictors of RTW were measured by logistic regression analysis. Results: There were no significant differences in demographics and the severity of hand injury between 2 groups. Self-perceived physical functioning (p = 0.04), vitality (p = 0.01), mental health (p = 0.03) and TOW (p = 0.001) were significantly different between Action group and Preparation group. With binary logistic regression analysis, self-perceived vitality (odds ratio (OR) = 1.041) and TOW (OR = 0.996) were shown to be strongly predictive of RTW at the preparation stage of return to work. Conclusions: This study has shown that shorter TOW and better self-perceived vitality could predict early readiness for RTW after major work-related forearm, wrist or hand injury.

Background: Depressive symptom prevalence among long-term care facility (LTCF) residents is increasing. Accordingly, this study examined psychological service needs, their utilization and influencing factors, and discrepancies between needs and utilization. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study. Residents of 13 community-based LTCFs in Northern Taiwan answered a structured questionnaire covering demographics, health status, psychological service needs, and service utilization. Results: Participants were 117 residents with an average age of 80.2 and a mean of 3.4 diseases; 79.5% had severe disabilities and 77.8% showed depressive tendencies. Except for pain care, needs for all services exceeded utilization, with the highest discrepancy observed for psychological assessment (Mean: -2.12, SD: 1.33). Depressive symptoms were a significant predictor of this discrepancy (R²: 27.9%, β: -0.51, t: -6.64, p < 0.001). Conclusion: Psychological needs and service use assessment should be included in LTCF routines to reduce depressive symptoms and improve quality of life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A method to create high concentrations of (N-V)(super -) centers in nanodiamonds with a proto beam is reported and the utility of this material for biological applications is demonstrated. Optical images of the fluorescent nanodiamonds (FND) are obtained with a laser scanning confocal fluorescence microscope, and the corresponding spectra are acquired with a spectral analyzer and no evidence of photobleacing is found for FND.

Objectives: This case-control study aimed to investigate the predictors of return to work (RTW) following work-related major forearm, wrist or hand injury at the preparation stage of return to work.Material and Methods: A total of 80 clients were recruited and divided into 2 groups depending on their readiness of RTW. The groups were compared with each other with regard to their demographics, compensation status, hand injury severity, health perception, and time off work (TOW) using correlation coefficient. Predictors of RTW were measured by logistic regression analysis.Results: There were no significant differences in demographics and the severity of hand injury between 2 groups. Self-perceived physical functioning (p = 0.04), vitality (p = 0.01), mental health (p = 0.03) and TOW (p = 0.001) were significantly different between Action group and Preparation group. With binary logistic regression analysis, self-perceived vitality (odds ratio (OR) = 1.041) and TOW (OR = 0.996) were shown to be strongly predictive of RTW at the preparation stage of return to work.Conclusions: This study has shown that shorter TOW and better self-perceived vitality could predict early readiness for RTW after major work-related forearm, wrist or hand injury. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study of bright fluorescent nanodiamonds. Semiconductor quantum dots are finding increasing applications in modern biotechnology. Nanosized diamond powders are interesting alternatives. The materials are chemically inert. These can be surface-functionalized easily with carboxyl groups and their derivatives for specific or nonspecific binding with nucleic acids and proteins. FND translocation through the cell's membrane is indicated by the observation of the bright red spots inside the reddish envelope.