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Alcohol Consumption and Risk of Liver Cirrhosis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
To systematically summarize the risk relationship between different levels of alcohol consumption and incidence of liver cirrhosis.
MEDLINE and Embase were searched up to March 6, 2019, to identify case-control and cohort studies with sex-specific results and more than 2 categories of drinking in relation to the incidence of liver cirrhosis. Study characteristics were extracted and random-effects meta-analyses and meta-regressions were conducted.
A total of 7 cohort studies and 2 case-control studies met the inclusion criteria, providing data from 2,629,272 participants with 5,505 cases of liver cirrhosis. There was no increased risk for occasional drinkers. Consumption of one drink per day in comparison to long-term abstainers showed an increased risk for liver cirrhosis in women, but not in men. The risk for women was consistently higher compared to men. Drinking ≥5 drinks per day was associated with a substantially increased risk in both women (relative risk [RR] = 12.44, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 6.65-23.27 for 5-6 drinks, and RR = 24.58, 95% CI: 14.77-40.90 for ≥7 drinks) and men (RR = 3.80, 95% CI: 0.85-17.02, and RR = 6.93, 95% CI: 1.07-44.99, respectively). Heterogeneity across studies indicated an additional impact of other risk factors.
Alcohol is a major risk factor for liver cirrhosis with risk increasing exponentially. Women may be at higher risk compared to men even with little alcohol consumption. More high-quality research is necessary to elucidate the role of other risk factors, such as genetic vulnerability, body weight, metabolic risk factors, and drinking patterns over the life course. High alcohol consumption should be avoided, and people drinking at high levels should receive interventions to reduce their intake.
Journal Article
Indoor Pedestrian Localization Using iBeacon and Improved Kalman Filter
The reliable and accurate indoor pedestrian positioning is one of the biggest challenges for location-based systems and applications. Most pedestrian positioning systems have drift error and large bias due to low-cost inertial sensors and random motions of human being, as well as unpredictable and time-varying radio-frequency (RF) signals used for position determination. To solve this problem, many indoor positioning approaches that integrate the user’s motion estimated by dead reckoning (DR) method and the location data obtained by RSS fingerprinting through Bayesian filter, such as the Kalman filter (KF), unscented Kalman filter (UKF), and particle filter (PF), have recently been proposed to achieve higher positioning accuracy in indoor environments. Among Bayesian filtering methods, PF is the most popular integrating approach and can provide the best localization performance. However, since PF uses a large number of particles for the high performance, it can lead to considerable computational cost. This paper presents an indoor positioning system implemented on a smartphone, which uses simple dead reckoning (DR), RSS fingerprinting using iBeacon and machine learning scheme, and improved KF. The core of the system is the enhanced KF called a sigma-point Kalman particle filter (SKPF), which localize the user leveraging both the unscented transform of UKF and the weighting method of PF. The SKPF algorithm proposed in this study is used to provide the enhanced positioning accuracy by fusing positional data obtained from both DR and fingerprinting with uncertainty. The SKPF algorithm can achieve better positioning accuracy than KF and UKF and comparable performance compared to PF, and it can provide higher computational efficiency compared with PF. iBeacon in our positioning system is used for energy-efficient localization and RSS fingerprinting. We aim to design the localization scheme that can realize the high positioning accuracy, computational efficiency, and energy efficiency through the SKPF and iBeacon indoors. Empirical experiments in real environments show that the use of the SKPF algorithm and iBeacon in our indoor localization scheme can achieve very satisfactory performance in terms of localization accuracy, computational cost, and energy efficiency.
Journal Article
Conviction Narrative Theory and the Theory of Narrative Thought
Conviction Narrative Theory bears a close resemblance to the Theory of Narrative Thought, although the two were designed to address different questions. In this commentary, we detail some of the more pronounced similarities and differences and suggest that resolving the latter could produce a third theory of narrative cognition that is superior to either of these two.
Journal Article
Anatomical analysis of the abdominal aorta in a South African sample: influence of age and sex
PurposeThe anatomy of the abdominal aorta (AA) varies with age and sex; however, limited studies exist from South Africa. Given the increased incidence of endovascular treatment of the AA, reference values are relevant for interventionalists for improving the safety of endovascular procedures. Therefore, the study aimed to determine the lengths, diameters and tortuosity of the AA and their association with age and sex in a South African sample.MethodsAfter ethical approval, 97 computed tomography angiography (CTA) scans from an adult sample (54 male and 43 female), mean age 48.5 ± 17.2 years were analysed. The aortic length was measured from the origin of the coeliac trunk to the bifurcation point of the AA. The lumen diameters of the aorta were measured at three landmarks. Tortuosity of the AA was quantified with the tortuosity index and its prevalence was determined.ResultsThe AA was longer in males and showed a significant weak positive correlation with age. The mean diameters of the AA were larger in males and had a significant strong positive correlation with age in both sexes (p < .001). There was a strong positive correlation between age and tortuosity in both sexes (p < .001). The prevalence of a tortuous c-shaped-curve phenotype was 8.2%, with a 7:1 male-to-female ratio.ConclusionThe dimensions and tortuosity differed between sexes and varied significantly with age. These findings may contribute towards reference values in the South African setting, inform patient selection and complement decision-making of endovascular treatment strategies.
Journal Article
The Psalms and economic justice
Economic justice is a global issue; and in many areas of the world, it is a life-or-death issue. It is well known that the biblical prophets address economic inequities, poverty, and oppression; but the book of Psalms has not been viewed as a resource for promoting economic justice. The purpose of this article is to examine relevant texts in the Psalter that speak to a theology of economic justice. The objective is to construct an initial framework for talking about the Psalms and economics in the context of today’s church. Texts from the Psalms that mention the poor, the weak, the orphan, the widow, the alien are identified and examined exegetically and theologically. These texts are classified and outlined logically according to the following topics that emerged from the texts themselves: the poor and the covenant community, the nature of poverty in the psalter, God’s vindication of the poor, worship and justice, and the psalter’s encouragement of the poor. Results of the research showed that God created Israel to be a community of justice and equity; therefore, God acts on behalf of the poor, and God makes the worshipping community accountable to care for the poor. The study concluded further that privileged leaders who wield power in the community are responsible to care for the disadvantaged members of the community who lack the resources to fend for themselves. The Psalms also encourage the poor to cry out to God whenever they experience oppression and injustice. Potential implications of this article were offered that challenge modern individualism and the theology of private spirituality that is detached from concrete communal ethics.ContributionThis article contributed to a biblical theology of economic justice. It demonstrated that the book of Psalms challenges God’s people to engage in redemptive activities that minister to the poor and to the marginalised.
Journal Article