Efficacy of Unsupervised Self-Collected Mid-Turbinate FLOQSwabs for the Diagnosis of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)

Context: The Global Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic has resulted in explosive patterns of transmission in most countries. Nasopharyngeal swabs were the specimen’s collection tools recommended for the diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 infection, and for monitoring infection outbreaks in communities. Our objective was to report the quality and efficacy of unsupervised self-collected mid turbinate “dry FLOQSwabs” (MT FLOQSwabs) (56380CS01, Copan). There were 111 specimens collected for the study: 36 by health care personnel, from themselves, to verify the quality and efficacy of mid-turbinate swabs; 75 to compare and assess the diagnostic performance, among health care personnel, of nasopharyngeal swabs and self-collected mid-turbinate FLOQSwabs. A collection of 51 specimens was enrolled to define the efficacy of the Testami program (validation). Our analyses demonstrate that self-collected mid-turbinate dry swabs ensure an accuracy of 97.3%, as compared to the standard nasopharyngeal swabs collected by health care workers. Furthermore, the mid-turbinate FLOQSwabs can be stored without medium for six days at room temperature without affecting the molecular diagnosis of the SARS-CoV-2 virus infection. Self-collection of diagnostic specimens at home could offer an avenue to increase testing availability for SARS-CoV-2 infection without asking people to travel to a clinic or a laboratory, thus reducing people’s exposure to infection. Our findings demonstrate that unsupervised self-collection swabs, transported dry, are sensitive, practical and easy-to-use tools and should be considered for diagnosis of SARS-COV-2 and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) surveillance.

Feedback on the benefits of remote patient control in Automated Peritoneal Dialysis in a French peritoneal dialysis center.

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the growing role of telemedicine in home dialysis treatments. Since the appearance of a connected automated peritoneal dialysis (APD) machine (Claria Sharesource Baxter® machine), we have systematically offered this solution to our patients treated with APD. Over the past two years, we have treated 35 patients with connected APD, of which 20 are still under the technique (aged 50 to 87) and represent 54% of the patients on peritoneal dialysis. A questionnaire on five subjects (perception of switching to the connected machine, stress, safety, everyday life, and vacations) was also given to them and showed that 80% of the patients had no stress related to the telemonitoring, while 18 out of 20 patients (90%) felt safe. In 2020, we received 74 phone calls during on-call phone duty, including 42 calls for the 20 patients on connected APD, one all for a patient on normal APD, and 32 calls for 16 patients on continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD). Handling errors concerned 42.85% of the calls, system errors concerned 4.76%, program validation concerned 7.14%, and connection problems concerned 9.52%. We were thus able to correct several problems remotely, such as drainage problems, weight gain, blood pressure imbalance, poor compliance, and connection problems. Thanks to the platform, we are notified daily of a possible problem. This saves the nurses time and allows them to deal with other issues. The way we educate patients and assist private nurses has not changed. Indeed, only the connection to the network as well as the entry of the weight and arterial pressure were added, and the disposables remained the same. Night or day, or in times of a health crisis, we can provide a rapid and targeted response to the patients’ questions, thanks to the platform.

Development and Psychometric Assessment of Lapse Management Program and Educational Content After Quitting in Patients with Substance Use Disorders

Background: Despite advances in the treatment of substance abuse disorders, some clients experience lapse and relapse after treatment. As a stage before relapse, the lapse is a major challenge in the treatment of addiction. Objectives: This study attempted to develop and psychometrically assess a lapse management program and its educational content after quitting in patients with substance use disorders. Methods: This study was performed in two parts. In the first part, the program and its educational content were designed, and in the second part, it was validated using the opinions of 10 experts in two phases. For program validation, face validity and content validity were used both qualitatively and quantitatively. Results: The lapse management program and its educational content were designed based on self-awareness skills in eight sessions. The validation results showed that the minimum and maximum CVR values for each component of the program were calculated as 0.8 and 1, respectively. Also, the minimum and maximum CVI values were 0.86 and 1, respectively. Moreover, the average content validity index for the entire program was 0.94. Conclusions: The results showed that the lapse management program and its educational content had a good face and content validity for recovering clients and enjoyed the necessary validity for educational, clinical, and research applications.

On the Utilization of Reversible Colour Transforms for Lossless 2-D Data Compression

Reversible Colour Transforms (RCTs) in conjunction with Bi-level Burrows–Wheeler Compression Algorithm (BBWCA) allows for high-level lossless image compression as demonstrated in this study. The RCTs transformation results in exceedingly coordinated image information among the neighbouring pixels as compared to the RGB colour space. This aids the Burrows–Wheeler Transform (BWT) based compression scheme and achieves compression ratios of high degree at the subsequent steps of the program. Validation has been done by comparing the proposed scheme across a range of benchmarks schemes and the performance of the proposed scheme is above par the other schemes. The proposed compression outperforms the techniques exclusively developed for 2-D electrocardiogram (EEG), RASTER map and Color Filter Array (CFA) image compression. The proposed system shows no dependency over parameters like image size, its type or the medium in which it is captured. A comprehensive analysis of the proposed scheme concludes that it achieves a significant increase in compression and depicts comparable complexity similar to the various benchmark schemes.

INVESTMENT PROGRAM OF POWER GRID COM PANIES: CHECK ALL CAN NOT BE SELECTED

Starting in 2017, the carrying out of technological and price audit of investment programs (projects of investment programs) and reports on their implementation has been secured as the necessary measures for the electric grid companies of Russia in the framework of approval procedures and approval of investment programs and oversee their implementation.Realization of technological and price audit requires to review large set of information in short period of time, which is limited by investment program validation procedures. Forming representative sample (which describes general population accurately) as an object of analysis could increase audit efficiency. The approach shown in the article is based on mathematical methods of analysis.On the example of the project of the investment program of PJSC "MOESK" the authors made an attempt to apply the described technique. This technique made it possible to perform the main task - the formation of a sample of investment projects, which allows without loss of quality and complexity of the investment program materials to preserve the validity and objectivity of the formed conclusion based on the results of technological and price audit.