Empowering Natural Language Interfaces to Databases with Aggregations

A Natural Language Interface to Database (NLIDB) refers to a database interface that translates a question asked in natural language into a structured query. Aggregation questions express aggregation functions, such as count, sum, average, minimum and maximum, and optionally a group by clause and a having clause. NLIDBs deliver good results for standard questions but usually do not deal with aggregation questions. The main contribution of this article is a generic module, called GLAMORISE (GeneraL Aggregation MOdule using a RelatIonal databaSE), that extends NLIDBs to cope with aggregation questions. GLAMORISE covers aggregations with ambiguities, timescale differences, aggregations in multiple attributes, the use of superlative adjectives, basic recognition of measurement units, and aggregations in attributes with compound names.

Quality of Life of Children and Adolescents with Multiple Sclerosis—A Literature Review of the Quantitative Evidence

Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic disease of the central nervous system that also develops in patients under 18 years of age. The disease negatively affects the quality of life (QoL) of children and adolescents. We conducted a literature review. The aim of the review was to identify the QoL of pediatric patients with MS and assess the factors determining their QoL. Methods: We analyzed studies published between 2000 and 2020 in PubMed, Scopus, Science Direct, Web of Science, and EBSCO databases. Results: In all, 17 studies were included in the review. The most common tool in assessing QoL was the generic module PedsQL. The range of mean/median global score of QoL was 53.8–81.7. The worst QoL was dominantly reported in the school and emotional spheres, on the contrary, the disease’s least determined area of QoL was the social and physical dimension. In particular, disability and fatigue were important predictors of QoL. Conclusions: MS negatively affects the school and emotional spheres in particular, so it is important to pay greater attention to these spheres of life of MS patients. As the review studies pay insufficient attention to the analysis of positive factors and their impact on the QoL of MS patients, research should integrate these phenomena. The use of MS-targeted tools in future research in the pediatric MS population is also appropriate.

Assessing Health-Related Quality of Life in Chinese Children and Adolescents With Cancer: Validation of the DISABKIDS Chronic Generic Module (DCGM-37)

Background: With the slightly increasing of cancer incidence rate and the decreasing of cancer mortality, there is an increasing need for a valid and culturally adapted tool to measure health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in children with cancer. This study validated the DISABKIDS Chronic Generic Module (DCGM-37) in Chinese children and adolescents with cancer.Methods: The DCGM-37 was translated and culturally adapted according to the guidelines from its copyright holders. In total, 140 children and adolescents with cancer and their guardians were included in this cross-sectional study. Internal consistency and test-retest reliability were evaluated. Convergent validity was examined using Pearson correlation between the DCGM-37 and the PedsQL 4.0 Generic Core Scale. Dimensionality was clarified using exploratory factor analysis. Discriminant validity was evaluated by comparing DCGM-37 scores across gender, age, family income, and clinical characteristics.Results: Internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha 0.91) and test-retest reliability proved good (ICC 0.87, 95%CI 0.73-0.94). Strong correlations between the DCGM-37 and the PedsQL 4.0 (r= 0.83) support good convergent validity. Six factors explained 51.94% of the total variances. Children with leukemia scored higher than those with sarcoma in all subscales (effect size ranged from 0.39 to 0.83), especially the “social exclusion” subscales (effect size 0.83). Small to moderate differences (effect size ranged from 0.38 to 0.58) were observed across gender, age, and family income. Neither floor nor ceiling effect was observed.Conclusion: The DCGM-37 is reliable and valid for measuring HRQoL in Chinese children and adolescents with cancer.

A Novel Solution for the Aggregation Problem in Natural Language Interface to Databases (NLIDB)

Natural Language Interface to Databases (NLIDB) systems usually do not deal with aggregations, which can be of two types: aggregation functions (such as count, sum, average, minimum, and maximum) and grouping functions (GROUP BY). This paper addresses the creation of a generic module, to be used in NLIDB systems, that allows such systems to perform queries with aggregations, on the condition that the query results the NLIDB returns are or can be transformed into tables. The paper covers aggregations with specificities, such as ambiguities, timescale differences, aggregations in multiple attributes, the use of superlative adjectives, basic unit measure recognition, and aggregations in attributes with compound names.

PP67 Validity Of A Questionnaire Assessing Patient Medication Experiences

Introduction:The Patient Experiences and Satisfaction with Medications (PESaM) questionnaire was recently developed. It consists of two disease-specific modules for evaluating drug treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome (aHUS): (i) a generic module applicable to any medication, and (ii) a patient expectations module. This study assessed the validity and reliability of the generic module in a large sample of patients in the Netherlands.Methods:In 2017, the PESaM-questionnaire was sent out to IPF patients on pirfenidone or nintedanib, aHUS patients receiving eculizumab, and patients using advagraf after kidney transplantation. The generic module consists of 16 items related to the domains effectiveness, side-effects and ease of use, and assesses patient experiences regarding the impact of the medication on daily life and health, and satisfaction. Mean scores for each domain were calculated using a scoring algorithm. Content validity, construct validity, and reliability were assessed using recommended methods.Results:Patients (n=188) completed the generic module of whom 48 percent used pirfenidone, 36 percent nintedanib, 11 percent advagraf, and 5 percent eculizumab. Content validity was established. Expected associations between patient experiences, satisfaction, and quality of life (QoL) were generally confirmed, demonstrating construct validity. For example, a moderate to strong positive association was found between patient experiences and satisfaction with side-effects (correlation coefficient 0.625, p < 0.05), and low (positive) associations were found between patient experiences and QoL. Importantly, the PESaM-questionnaire was able to discriminate between patients using different medications. Intraclass correlation coefficients, for test-retest reliability, ranged between good and excellent for most domains.Conclusions:The PESaM questionnaire is a promising tool to provide scientific evidence regarding the patient's perspective in health technology assessments and reimbursement decision-making regarding (expensive) medications, but can also support shared decision-making and appropriate use of medication at the individual patient level. Further research will assess the questionnaire's responsiveness and generalizability of results to other patient populations.

GENERIC MODULE FOR COLLECTING DATA IN SMART CITIES

The Future Internet brings new technologies to the common life of people, such as Internet of Things, Cloud Computing or Big Data. All this technologies have change the way people communicate and also the way the devices interact with the context, giving rise to new paradigms, as the case of smart cities. Currently, the mobile devices represent one of main sources of information for new applications that take into account the user context, such as apps for mobility, health, of security. Several platforms have been proposed that consider the development of Future Internet applications, however, no generic modules can be found that implement the collection of context data from smartphones. In this research work we present a generic module to collect data from different sensors of the mobile devices and also to send, in a standard manner, this data to the Open FIWARE Cloud to be stored or analyzed by software tools. The proposed module enables the human-as-a-sensor approach for FIWARE Platform.

NeatSeq-Flow: A Lightweight High Throughput Sequencing Workflow Platform for Non-Programmers and Programmers alike

Nowadays, it has become almost a necessity for many biologists to execute bioinformatics workflows (WFs) as part of their research. However, most WF-management software packages require for their operation at least some programming expertise. Here we describe NeatSeq-Flow, a platform that enables users with no programming knowledge to design and execute complex high throughput sequencing WFs. This is achieved by using a compendium of pre-built modules as well as a generic module, both do not require programming expertise. Nonetheless, NeatSeq-Flow retains the flexibility to generate sophisticated WF modules using templates and only basic Python programming abilities. NeatSeq-Flow is designed to enable easy sharing of WFs and modules by conceptually separating modules, WF design, sample information and execution. Moreover, NeatSeq-Flow works hand in hand with CONDA environments for easy installation of the WF’s analysis programs in one go. NeatSeq-Flow enables efficient WF execution on computer clusters by parallelizing on both samples and WF steps. NeatSeq-Flow operates by shell-script generation; thus it allows full transparency of the WF process. NeatSeq-Flow offers real-time WF execution monitoring, detailed documentation and self-sustaining WF backups for reproducibility. All of these features make NeatSeq-Flow an easy-to-use WF platform while not compromising for flexibility, reproducibility, transparency and efficiency.Availabilityhttp://neatseq-flow.readthedocs.io/en/latest/[email protected]