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Angeli L, Caetano CP, Franco N, Abrams S, Coletti P, Van Nieuwenhuyse I, Pop S, Hens N. Who acquires infection from whom? A sensitivity analysis of transmission dynamics during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic in Belgium. J Theor Biol 2024; 581:111721. [PMID: 38218529 DOI: 10.1016/j.jtbi.2024.111721] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/03/2023] [Revised: 12/23/2023] [Accepted: 12/28/2023] [Indexed: 01/15/2024]
Abstract
Age-related heterogeneity in a host population, whether due to how individuals mix and contact each other, the nature of host-pathogen interactions defining epidemiological parameters, or demographics, is crucial in studying infectious disease dynamics. Compartmental models represent a popular approach to address the problem, dividing the population of interest into a discrete and finite number of states depending on, for example, individuals' age and stage of infection. We study the corresponding linearised system whose operator, in the context of a discrete-time model, equates to a square matrix known as the next generation matrix. Performing formal perturbation analysis of the entries of the aforementioned matrix, we derive indices to quantify the age-specific variation of its dominant eigenvalue (i.e., the reproduction number) and explore the relevant epidemiological information we can derive from the eigenstructure of the matrix. The resulting method enables the assessment of the impact of age-related population heterogeneity on virus transmission. In particular, starting from an age-structured SEIR model, we demonstrate the use of this approach for COVID-19 dynamics in Belgium. We analyse the early stages of the SARS-CoV-2 spread, with particular attention to the pre-pandemic framework and the lockdown lifting phase initiated as of May 2020. Our results, influenced by our assumption on age-specific susceptibility and infectiousness, support the hypothesis that transmission was only influenced to a small extent by children in the age group [0,18) and adults over 60 years of age during the early phases of the pandemic and up to the end of July 2020.
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Affiliation(s)
- Leonardo Angeli
- Interuniversity Institute for Biostatistics and Statistical Bioinformatics (I-BioStat), Hasselt University, Hasselt, Belgium; Data Science Institute (DSI), Hasselt University, Hasselt, Belgium.
| | - Constantino Pereira Caetano
- Departamento de Epidemiologia, Instituto Nacional de Saúde Doutor Ricardo Jorge, Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal; Center for Computational and Stochastic Mathematics, Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal
| | - Nicolas Franco
- Interuniversity Institute for Biostatistics and Statistical Bioinformatics (I-BioStat), Hasselt University, Hasselt, Belgium; Namur Institute for Complex Systems (naXys) and Department of Mathematics, University of Namur, Namur, Belgium
| | - Steven Abrams
- Interuniversity Institute for Biostatistics and Statistical Bioinformatics (I-BioStat), Hasselt University, Hasselt, Belgium; Data Science Institute (DSI), Hasselt University, Hasselt, Belgium; Global Health Institute (GHI), Department of Family Medicine and Population Health, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium
| | - Pietro Coletti
- Interuniversity Institute for Biostatistics and Statistical Bioinformatics (I-BioStat), Hasselt University, Hasselt, Belgium; Data Science Institute (DSI), Hasselt University, Hasselt, Belgium
| | - Inneke Van Nieuwenhuyse
- Data Science Institute (DSI), Hasselt University, Hasselt, Belgium; Computational Mathematics, Hasselt University, Hasselt, Belgium
| | - Sorin Pop
- Data Science Institute (DSI), Hasselt University, Hasselt, Belgium
| | - Niel Hens
- Interuniversity Institute for Biostatistics and Statistical Bioinformatics (I-BioStat), Hasselt University, Hasselt, Belgium; Data Science Institute (DSI), Hasselt University, Hasselt, Belgium; Centre for Health Economics Research and Modelling Infectious Diseases, Vaxinfectio, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium
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Huang CH, Wu HH, Lee YC, Van Nieuwenhuyse I, Lin MC, Wu CF. Patient safety in Work Environments: Perceptions of Pediatric Healthcare Providers in Taiwan. J Pediatr Nurs 2020; 53:6-13. [PMID: 32299035 DOI: 10.1016/j.pedn.2020.03.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/03/2020] [Revised: 03/08/2020] [Accepted: 03/09/2020] [Indexed: 12/30/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Extensive research on the link between the organizational characteristics of the work environment and patient safety in a healthcare organization has been conducted; yet, only a few studies have concentrated on care providers in a pediatric unit. OBJECTIVES To determine the correlation between different work environment factors impacting patient safety in a pediatric care unit from the perspective of registered nurses working in these units. DESIGN Cross-sectional design. DATA SOURCES AND METHODS The study was conducted with 155 registered nurses from a pediatric unit in a medical center in Taiwan with the Chinese version of the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire (SAQ) 2014-2017. RESULTS Teamwork climate, higher job satisfaction, and better working conditions are linked to positive perceptions of patient safety culture. Emotional exhaustion is negatively related to most dimensions of patient safety. CONCLUSION Teamwork climate, job satisfaction, working conditions, and emotional exhaustion were identified as critical factors impacting the patient safety climate. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING OR HEALTH POLICY Investments to improve teamwork climate, job satisfaction, and working conditions and reduce emotional exhaustion may have a positive effect on patient safety in pediatric care units.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chih-Hsuan Huang
- School of Business Administration, Hubei University of Economics, Wuhan City, China; Institute of Wuhan Studies, Jianghan University, Wuhan City, China; Institute for Development of Cross-Strait Small and Medium Enterprise, Wuhan City, China
| | - Hsin-Hung Wu
- Department of Business Administration, National Changhua University of Education, Changhua City, Taiwan; Department of M-Commerce and Multimedia Applications, Asia University, Taichung City, Taiwan; Faculty of Education, State University of Malang, Malang, East Java, Indonesia
| | - Yii-Ching Lee
- Department of Health Business Administration, Hung Kuang University, Taichung City, Taiwan; School of Health Policy and Management, Chung Shan Medical University, Taichung City, Taiwan
| | | | - Meng-Chen Lin
- School of Business Administration, Hubei University of Economics, Wuhan City, China
| | - Cheng-Feng Wu
- School of Business Administration, Hubei University of Economics, Wuhan City, China; Institute for Development of Cross-Strait Small and Medium Enterprise, Wuhan City, China; Research Center of Hubei Logistics Development, Hubei University of Economics, Wuhan City, China.
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Carmen R, Yom-Tov GB, Van Nieuwenhuyse I, Foubert B, Ofran Y. The role of specialized hospital units in infection and mortality risk reduction among patients with hematological cancers. PLoS One 2019; 14:e0211694. [PMID: 30893320 PMCID: PMC6426175 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0211694] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/07/2018] [Accepted: 01/18/2019] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
MOTIVATION Patients with hematological malignancies are susceptible to life-threatening infections after chemotherapy. The current study aimed to evaluate whether management of such patients in dedicated inpatient and emergency wards could provide superior infection prevention and outcome. METHODS We have developed an approach allowing to retrieve infection-related information from unstructured electronic medical records of a tertiary center. Data on 2,330 adults receiving 13,529 chemotherapy treatments for hematological malignancies were identified and assessed. Infection and mortality hazard rates were calculated with multivariate models. Patients were randomly divided into 80:20 training and validation cohorts. To develop patient-tailored risk-prediction models, several machine-learning methods were compared using area under the curve (AUC). RESULTS Of the tested algorithms, the probit model was found to most accurately predict the evaluated hazards and was implemented in an online calculator. The infection-prediction model identified risk factors for infection based on patient characteristics, treatment and history. Observation of patients with a high predicted infection risk in general wards appeared to increase their infection hazard (p = 0.009) compared to similar patients observed in hematology units. The mortality-risk model demonstrated that for infection events starting at home, admission through hematology services was associated with a lower mortality hazard compared to admission through the general emergency department (p = 0.007). Both models show that dedicated hematological facilities and emergency services improve patient outcome post-chemotherapy. The calculated numbers needed to treat were 30.27 and 31.08 for the dedicated emergency and observation facilities, respectively. Infection hazard risks were found to be non-monotonic in time. CONCLUSIONS The accuracy of the proposed mortality and infection risk-prediction models was high, with the AUC of 0.74 and 0.83, respectively. Our results demonstrate that temporal assessment of patient risks is feasible. This may enable physicians to move from one-point decision-making to a continuous dynamic observation, allowing a more flexible and patient-tailored admission policy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Raïsa Carmen
- Department of Decision Sciences and Information Management, Faculty of Business and Economics, KU Leuven, Brussels Campus, Brussel, Belgium
| | - Galit B. Yom-Tov
- Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management, Technion, Haifa, Israel
| | | | - Bram Foubert
- Department of Marketing and Supply Chain Management, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands
| | - Yishai Ofran
- Department of Hematology and Bone Marrow Transplantation, Rambam Health Care Campus and Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion, Haifa, Israel
- * E-mail:
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Yang S, Shi W, Chen X, Leng K, Van Nieuwenhuyse I. Research on complex dynamic behavior control of supply chain finance nonlinear system based on fractional differential operators. Chaos 2019; 29:013134. [PMID: 30709114 DOI: 10.1063/1.5085316] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/11/2018] [Accepted: 12/27/2018] [Indexed: 06/09/2023]
Abstract
Supply chain management is a kind of behavior for enterprises to create core competitiveness in a complex competitive environment, especially for supply chain finance, which is a typical complex system with dynamic, open, and emergent non-linear characteristics in structure, environment, and behavior. For fractional order non-linear multi-agent systems, the event trigger control protocol is studied, and an event based on the threshold function of decreasing time is designed. According to the properties of the fractional linear differential equations, the consistency criterion is obtained, and the Zeno phenomenon is effectively avoided. Chaos exists in fractional-order electronic oscillators with order lower than 4th order, and the lowest order of chaos in the fractional-order system is only 2.3 orders. The research shows that under the appropriate parameter adjustment, chaos exists in the fractional-order vanderPol oscillator with order less than 4th order, and the lowest order of chaos in the fractional-order system is 2.7.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shenyan Yang
- School of Business Administration, Hubei University of Economics, Wuhan 430205, China
| | - Wen Shi
- Business School, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China
| | - Xiangjun Chen
- School of Business Administration, Hubei University of Economics, Wuhan 430205, China
| | - Kaijun Leng
- School of Business Administration, Hubei University of Economics, Wuhan 430205, China
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