Establishment of trimester-specific reference intervals for thyroid stimulating hormone and free thyroxine during pregnancy in southwest China by indirect method

Objective A series of physiological changes in thyroid function occur during pregnancy and differ from those non-pregnant women. This study aimed to establish the pregnancy-specific reference intervals of TSH and FT4 using an indirect method based on the healthy pregnant women from southwest China population. Methods Thyroid function test results which available on the Laboratory Information System (LIS) were collected from the pregnancies who visited the Obstetric Clinic or the Department of Gynecology between 1 January 2015, and 30 December 2020. We grouped the data by trimesters to establish the reference intervals (RIs) based on the clinical consensus of different levels of TSH and FT4 at different weeks of gestation. All arrangements were referenced to the document CLSI EP28-A3C. Results A total of 33,040 thyroid function test results of pregnant women, aged 31 (28,33) years were statistical analyzed. Estimated RIs for TSH and FT4 in the first, second and third trimesters corresponding to the 2.5th and 97.5th percentiles in TPOAb negative were 0.02–5.23, 0.03–5.24, 0.37–5.68 mIU/L, 11.66–20.69, 10.1–18.59, 9.85–16.86pmol/L, respectively. Conclusion This study provides trimester-specific RIs for TSH and FT4 among healthy pregnant women in southwest China which guides clinicians to diagnosis and screen for thyroid disorders in this region.

Experimental Study on Electrical Resistivity Characteristics of Saturated Sand Mixes with Bentonite Slurry

Bentonite slurry is widely used in underground and geotechnical engineering because of its strong ability of wall protection. Slurry penetration, which is of great significance for the soil stability, is difficult to observe directly during the soil and slurry interaction. Slurry penetration would change the electrical resistivity of soil, which provides an indirect method to monitor the degree of slurry penetration. This paper aimed to investigate the electrical resistivity characteristics of soil-bentonite mixtures. Several test groups with different material components were carried out. The effects of some factors including water environment, CMC (carboxymethyl cellulose) contents, soil particle gradation, and electrode distance on the electrical resistivity of slurry-soil mixtures were studied and the relationship between soil electrical resistivity and slurry concentration was established. The results in this paper can provide references for the application of the electrical method on slurry penetration.

Variation of boundary layer heights and eddy diffusivities over dry and moist convective regions of monsoon trough during different phases of monsoon

Temperature, wind, and humidity data at 6 levels over meteorological towers at Kharagpur and Jodhpur and fast data at Jodhpur (Sonic anemometer at 4m and Gill anemometer 15 m) and Kharagpur (Sonic anemometer at 8m and Gill anemometer at 15m) were analysed. Diurnal variation of boundary layer heights and eddy diffusivity coefficient of moment, heat and moisture at dry convective region Jodhpur (26° N, 73°E) and moist convective region Kharagpur (22.3°N, 87.2°E) of monsoon trough during onset of monsoon, mid-monsoon and end-monsoon phases of the Indian southwest monsoon are studied using micro meteorological tower data. Boundary layer height is computed by eddy correlation (direct method) and profile method {indirect method). Indirect method underestimates the boundary layer height.

Reference ranges of T lymphocyte subsets by single-platform among healthy population in southwest China

Background Appropriate reference ranges of T lymphocyte subsets are essential for immune status evaluation of patients with immunological diseases. We aim to establish the age- and sex-related reference intervals of T lymphocyte subsets by single-platform for the southwest China population using the indirect method with the data resulting from 53,822 cases of periodic health examination individuals in the Laboratory Information System (LIS) of West China Hospital from 2018 to 2020. Methods We used the Box-Cox conversion combined with the Tukey method to normalize the data and eliminate the outliers, and the nonparametric method to estimate the 95% distribution reference intervals. Results We initially established the reference ranges of T lymphocyte subsets by single-platform among healthy population in southwest China by indirect method (See text for details). Using the standard normal deviate test (z-test) suggested by Harris and Boyd according to CLSI EP28-A3C, which is more scientific, we found the reference ranges of T lymphocyte subsets should be differentiated by ages and genders since the reference ranges of T lymphocyte subsets by single-platform in different ages and genders are significantly different. Conclusions We further demonstrated the absolute count of CD3 + T cell, CD3 + CD4 + T cell, CD3 + CD8 + T cell decreased with aging, which is more marked in men and CD3 + CD8 + T cell count, and the obtained reference intervals were superior to the reference intervals derived from the reagent specification currently in use.

FORMING THE ACCOUNTING POLICY OF HEALTH CARE INSTITUTIONS IN THE NEW CONDITIONS OF THEIR REFORMS

Inconsistencies of the accounting policy in business enterprise health care institutions with the legal and regulatory requirements, and the imperatives for forming the accounting policy of medical institutions in the new conditions of their reforms are determined by exploring their accounting procedures. The specifics of payment of value added tax by medical institutions are analyzed. Scientific-medical recommendations on accounting policy improvements with respect to the accounting of liabilities, including value added tax, are substantiated. The essential characteristic of the definition «related party» is given in keeping with the standards of accounting and tax law, accounting of transactions with related parties, with providing recommendations on the accounting of related parties. Methodical provisions on the accounting policy of incomes, stocks and expenses, pertaining to the classification and evaluation of incomes from medical services are specified. The structure of management report compiled by business entities, including medical institutions, is specified, with demonstrating that the process involved in the compilation of report is conditional on the accounting data and judgement of the management personnel, realized through the accounting policy. Based on an analytical review of methods for the compilation of report on monetary flows generated by operational activities (direct and indirect method), it is proposed that medical institutions should use indirect method as more informative one for users of financial reporting. The necessity to form information about incomes, expenses, financial results, assets and liabilities of reporting segments and its disclosure in the financial reporting is demonstrated. Recommendations on organization of an effective system for internal control of health care institutions are developed, with outlining the main areas of its organizational support in view of preventing risky events. The procedure for forming information required for the compilation of reports on management, monetary flows, and reports by segments, which is supposed by comply with all the essential aspects of a selected conceptual framework of financial reporting is shown. Keywords: accounting policy, heath care institution, financial reporting, control. JEL Classіfіcatіon M41, M48, I18 Formulas: 0; fig.: 0; tabl.: 4; bibl.: 18.

An Indirect Approach Based on Long Short-Term Memory Networks to Estimate Groundwater Table Depth Anomalies Across Europe With an Application for Drought Analysis

The lack of high-quality continental-scale groundwater table depth observations necessitates developing an indirect method to produce reliable estimation for water table depth anomalies (wtda) over Europe to facilitate European groundwater management under drought conditions. Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) networks are a deep learning technology to exploit long-short-term dependencies in the input-output relationship, which have been observed in the response of groundwater dynamics to atmospheric and land surface processes. Here, we introduced different input variables including precipitation anomalies (pra), which is the most common proxy of wtda, for the networks to arrive at improved wtda estimates at individual pixels over Europe in various experiments. All input and target data involved in this study were obtained from the simulated TSMP-G2A data set. We performed wavelet coherence analysis to gain a comprehensive understanding of the contributions of different input variable combinations to wtda estimates. Based on the different experiments, we derived an indirect method utilizing LSTM networks with pra and soil moisture anomaly (θa) as input, which achieved the optimal network performance. The regional medians of test R2 scores and RMSEs obtained by the method in the areas with wtd ≤ 3.0 m were 76–95% and 0.17–0.30, respectively, constituting a 20–66% increase in median R2 and a 0.19–0.30 decrease in median RMSEs compared to the LSTM networks only with pra as input. Our results show that introducing θa significantly improved the performance of the trained networks to predict wtda, indicating the substantial contribution of θa to explain groundwater anomalies. Also, the European wtda map reproduced by the method had good agreement with that derived from the TSMP-G2A data set with respect to drought severity, successfully detecting ~41% of strong drought events (wtda ≥ 1.5) and ~29% of extreme drought events (wtda ≥ 2) in August 2015. The study emphasizes the importance to combine soil moisture information with precipitation information in quantifying or predicting groundwater anomalies. In the future, the indirect method derived in this study can be transferred to real-time monitoring of groundwater drought at the continental scale using remotely sensed soil moisture and precipitation observations or respective information from weather prediction models.