Article
Biochemical Research Methods
Sebastian Stammler, Tobias Kussel, Phillipp Schoppmann, Florian Stampe, Galina Tremper, Stefan Katzenbeisser, Kay Hamacher, Martin Lablans
Summary: This study proposes a privacy-preserving record linkage technique that allows linking different datasets without leaking personally identifiable information. The method is applicable in various contexts, including the medical field, and ensures secure linkage of records.
Article
Oncology
Uwe Guth, Christoph Junker, Bernice Simone Elger, Constanze Elfgen, Giacomo Montagna, Andres R. Schneeberger
Summary: This study examined the relationship between assisted suicide (AS) and conventional suicide (CS) over a 20-year period in Switzerland. The findings suggest that the increasing rates of AS among cancer patients did not lead to a significant reduction in CS cases. Thus, the hypothesis that AS can prevent CS is not supported.
Article
Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
U. Gueth, C. Junker, S. McMillan, C. Elfgen, A. R. Schneeberger
Summary: This study evaluated the development of assisted suicide in Switzerland over a 20-year period and found an increase in cases that did not meet the criterion of being near the end of life, indicating a potential slippery slope argument.
Article
Psychology, Clinical
R. Cunningham, A. Milner, S. Gibb, V Rijnberg, G. Disney, A. M. Kavanagh
Summary: Through a longitudinal study, it was found that unemployment is significantly associated with suicide and self-harm, even among individuals without prior mental health issues.
PSYCHOLOGICAL MEDICINE
(2022)
Article
Computer Science, Interdisciplinary Applications
Ahmed Soliman, Sanguthevar Rajasekaran
Summary: Record linkage is a critical problem in various domains such as biomedical informatics, requiring efficient clustering and linking of records in datasets to improve work efficiency.
JOURNAL OF BIOMEDICAL INFORMATICS
(2022)
Article
Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
Graham Grove, Melanie Lovell, Megan Best
Summary: This paper explores the perspectives of Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism on euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide (EPAS). All four major religions oppose EPAS based on their belief in external morality and the hope for a better afterlife that transcends current suffering. Considering the global significance of these religions, lawmakers should take these views into account and respect conscientious objection.
JOURNAL OF RELIGION & HEALTH
(2022)
Article
Green & Sustainable Science & Technology
Robin Lines, Dimitrios Bormpoudakis, Panteleimon Xofis, Joseph Tzanopoulos
Summary: Linking wildlife areas with corridors is crucial to reduce population isolation. High-resolution land cover maps and species data can help assess potential connectivity effectively.
Article
Medicine, Research & Experimental
Tobias Kussel, Torben Brenner, Galina Tremper, Josef Schepers, Martin Lablans, Kay Hamacher
Summary: MainSEL is a secure and privacy-preserving record linkage framework that enables statistical feasibility estimations for medical research, especially in the field of rare diseases. It achieves practical runtimes, improved security guarantees, and easy deployment in clinical IT environments. Real-world testing has shown its wide applicability and usefulness for medical researchers.
JOURNAL OF TRANSLATIONAL MEDICINE
(2022)
Article
Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
Helen A. Blake, Linda D. Sharples, Katie Harron, Jan H. van der Meulen, Kate Walker
Summary: The study compares the pairwise and spine linkage approaches using real-world data, and finds that the spine linkage method can be an efficient alternative with little difference compared to the pairwise linkage approach.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EPIDEMIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Psychiatry
Eva Kowalinski, Tiziana Ziltener, Sarah Staub, Julian Moeller, Manuel Trachsel, Andres R. Schneeberger, Irina Franke, Undine E. Lang, Christian G. Huber
Summary: This study aims to contribute to the discussion of physician-assisted dying (PAD) among the mentally ill and provide insight into the current situation in Switzerland. The study will assess opinions on PAD in mental and somatic illness using case vignettes, and evaluate attitudes towards ethical guidelines and stigmatization of mentally ill individuals.
FRONTIERS IN PSYCHIATRY
(2022)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
David Lopez Lopez, Nuno Mendes, Daniel V. Oliveira, Lucrecia J. Calderon Valdiviezo, Marta Domenech-Rodriguez
Summary: This paper evaluates different numerical approaches for the structural analysis of tile vaults and discusses their effectiveness in capturing the structural behavior of this type of structure. Experimental research was conducted for model calibration, and two different modeling approaches for masonry were used in the numerical assessment. The results showed that the calibrated models based on the Finite Element Method (FEM) matched well with the experimental results in terms of damage pattern and load capacity.
Article
Transportation Science & Technology
Fotios A. Katsigiannis, Konstantinos G. Zografos, Jamie Fairbrother
Summary: A new tri-objective slot allocation model (TOSAM) has been proposed, considering total schedule displacement, maximum schedule displacement, and demand-based fairness. Computational results suggest that systematically considering interactions among objectives at different levels of the slot hierarchy results in improved overall schedule-wide slot scheduling performance.
TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH PART C-EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES
(2021)
Article
Engineering, Civil
Thiago Sobral, Teresa Galvao, Jose Borges
Summary: The work focuses on the analysis of origin-destination matrices to understand the movement of people within cities. It emphasizes the importance of stakeholders analyzing mobility flows from spatio-temporal perspectives appropriate to their context. While data from sensors and Intelligent Transportation Systems are useful for this purpose, integrating such data can be complex due to heterogeneous representations of spatio-temporal attributes and granularities. Most related works do not address the intrinsic issue of data heterogeneity.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INTELLIGENT TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS
(2021)
Article
Psychiatry
Maxwell Levis, Joshua Levy, Vincent Dufort, Glenn T. Gobbel, Bradley V. Watts, Brian Shiner
Summary: This study utilized natural language processing to analyze a large EMR note corpus and develop a data-driven suicide risk prediction model. The NLP-derived model demonstrated strong predictive accuracy and compared positively to other leading prediction methods.
PSYCHIATRY RESEARCH
(2022)
Article
Psychiatry
Joseph Osafo, Winifred Asare-Doku, Charity S. S. Akotia
Summary: Religion plays a complex role in a suicide crisis, both eliciting empathy towards suicidal persons and condemning them. While religion has been shown to promote better health and wellbeing, little attention has been given to its role in recovery after a suicide attempt. This study explores how religion facilitates recovery among suicide attempt survivors.
Article
Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
Antonella Mazzei, Garyfallos Konstantinoudis, Christian Kreis, Manuel Diezi, Roland A. Ammann, Marcel Zwahlen, Claudia Kuehni, Ben D. Spycher
Summary: The study indicates a potential increased risk of childhood cancers, particularly leukemia, among children living near petrol stations. A meta-analysis suggests an elevated risk for childhood leukemia, especially during the years 2000-2015 when exposure assessment was more precise.
INTERNATIONAL ARCHIVES OF OCCUPATIONAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH
(2022)
Article
Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
Daniela Anker, Cristian Carmeli, Marcel Zwahlen, Nicolas Rodondi, Valerie Santschi, Yves Henchoz, Christina Wolfson, Arnaud Chiolero
Summary: A study found that there is no strong relationship between blood pressure and transitions in frailty states among older adults. This suggests that there is no well-defined optimal blood pressure level to prevent frailty in this population.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EPIDEMIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Obstetrics & Gynecology
Vera Ruth Mitter, Pascale Fasel, Claudia Berlin, Sofia Amylidi-Mohr, Beatrice Mosimann, Marcel Zwahlen, Michael von Wolff, Alexandra Sabrina Kohl Schwartz
Summary: This study compared the perinatal outcomes of stimulated and unstimulated IVF babies with all children born in Switzerland, and found that stimulated IVF babies had higher risks of low birthweight and being small for gestational age, while unstimulated IVF babies had no significant increased risks compared to all Swiss children.
REPRODUCTIVE BIOMEDICINE ONLINE
(2022)
Article
Medicine, General & Internal
Nicolas Waespe, Sven Strebel, Tiago Nava, Chakradhara Rao S. Uppugunduri, Denis Marino, Veneranda Mattiello, Maria Otth, Fabienne Gumy-Pause, Andre O. Von Bueren, Frederic Baleydier, Luzius Mader, Adrian Spoerri, Claudia E. Kuehni, Marc Ansari
Summary: The GECCOS study aims to identify germline genetic variants associated with acute and late complications of childhood cancer. This study will contribute to the understanding of childhood cancer-related health conditions and potentially improve individualized treatment and follow-up care.
Review
Medicine, General & Internal
Anja Maria Raab, Gabi Mueller, Simone Elsig, Simon C. Gandevia, Marcel Zwahlen, Maria T. E. Hopman, Roger Hilfiker
Summary: This systematic review provides an objective synthesis of the evidence on the incidence of pneumonia in patients with spinal cord injury (SCI). The review found large heterogeneity in the reporting of incidence, highlighting the need for caution when interpreting results. Further large-scale longitudinal studies with standardized reporting are required to investigate risk factors and focus on pneumonia prevention in ICU settings and patients with complete tetraplegia.
JOURNAL OF CLINICAL MEDICINE
(2022)
Letter
Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
Vanja Piezzi, Andrew Atkinson, Philipp Jent, Nicolas Troillet, Marcel Zwahlen, Andreas Widmer, Jonas Marschall
INFECTION CONTROL AND HOSPITAL EPIDEMIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
A. Atkinson, B. Ellenberger, V Piezzi, T. Kaspar, O. Endrich, A. B. Leichtle, M. Zwahlen, J. Marschall
Summary: This study aimed to analyze the transmission of vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) in a hospital and the effectiveness of infection control measures. The results showed significant variations in prevalence between departments and floors, with sporadic spatial and temporal clustering during the outbreak. The introduction of new infection control measures led to a decrease in prevalence.
JOURNAL OF HOSPITAL INFECTION
(2022)
Article
Cardiac & Cardiovascular Systems
Felice Gragnano, Marcel Zwahlen, Pascal Vranckx, Dik Heg, Kurt Schmidlin, Christian Hamm, Philippe Gabriel Steg, Giuseppe Gargiulo, Eugene P. McFadden, Yoshinobu Onuma, Ply Chichareon, Edouard Benit, Helge Mollmann, Luc Janssens, Sergio Leonardi, Aleksander Zurakowski, Alessio Arrivi, Robert Jan van Geuns, Kurt Huber, Ton Slagboom, Paolo Calabro, Patrick W. Serruys, Peter Juni, Marco Valgimigli, Stephan Windecker
Summary: The reanalysis of the GLOBAL LEADERS trial showed that ticagrelor plus aspirin for 1 month followed by ticagrelor monotherapy was not superior to 1-year standard dual antiplatelet therapy followed by aspirin alone at 2 years after coronary stenting in patients who complied with the study protocol.
JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION
(2022)
Article
Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
Remi Schneider, Lamprini Syrogiannouli, Sarah Bissig, Tamara Scharf, Jean -Luc Bulliard, Cyril Ducros, Cinzia Del Giovane, Kali Tal, Marcel Zwahlen, Kevin Selby, Reto Auer
Summary: Recent recommendations suggest that the type of colorectal cancer (CRC) screening in Switzerland has changed, with an increase in overall testing rates in most regions. The rise in colonoscopy rate is mainly driven by screening reasons. However, the coverage is still below the target set by European guidelines, and organized screening programs could play a role in increasing the testing rate.
PREVENTIVE MEDICINE REPORTS
(2022)
Article
Oncology
Cedric Nesti, Konstantin Braeutigam, Marta Benavent, Laura Bernal, Hessa Boharoon, Johan Botling, Antonin Bouroumeau, Iva Brcic, Maximilian Brunner, Guillaume Cadiot, Maria Camara, Emanuel Christ, Thomas Clerici, Ashley K. Clift, Hamish Clouston, Lorenzo Cobianchi, Jaroslaw B. Cwikla, Kosmas Daskalakis, Andrea Frilling, Rocio Garcia-Carbonero, Simona Grozinsky-Glasberg, Jorge Hernando, Valerie Hervieu, Johannes Hofland, Pernille Holmager, Frediano Inzani, Henning Jann, Paula Jimenez-Fonseca, Enes Kacmaz, Daniel Kaemmerer, Gregory Kaltsas, Branislav Klimacek, Ulrich Knigge, Agnieszka Kolasinska-Cwikla, Walter Kolb, Beata Kos-Kudla, Catarina Alisa Kunze, Stefania Landolfi, Stefano La Rosa, Carlos Lopez Lopez, Kerstin Lorenz, Maurice Matter, Peter Mazal, Claudia Mestre-Alagarda, Patricia Morales del Burgo, Els J. M. Nieveen van Dijkum, Kira Oleinikov, Lorenzo A. Orci, Francesco Panzuto, Marianne Pavel, Marine Perrier, Henrik Mikael Reims, Guido Rindi, Anja Rinke, Maria Rinzivillo, Xavier Sagaert, Ilker Satiroglu, Andreas Selberherr, Alexander R. Siebenhuener, Margot E. T. Tesselaar, Michael J. Thalhammer, Espen Thiis-Evensen, Christos Toumpanakis, Timon Vandamme, Jose G. van den Berg, Alessandro Vanoli, Marie-Louise F. van Velthuysen, Chris Verslype, Stephan A. Vorburger, Alessandro Lugli, John Ramage, Marcel Zwahlen, Aurel Perren, Reto M. Kaderli
Summary: This study investigated whether patients with 1-2 cm appendiceal neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) need to undergo right-sided hemicolectomy, and found that right-sided hemicolectomy is not necessary after appendectomy for appendiceal NETs. Furthermore, it was found that regional lymph node metastases of appendiceal NETs are clinically irrelevant and additional postoperative exclusion of metastases and histopathological evaluation of risk factors is not supported. These findings should inform the development of treatment guidelines.
Article
Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
Di Long, Johan P. Mackenbach, Silvia Klokgieters, Ramune Kalediene, Patrick Deboosere, Pekka Martikainen, Kristian Heggebo, Mall Leinsalu, Matthias Bopp, Henrik Bronnum-Hansen, Giuseppe Costa, Terje Eikemo, Wilma J. Nusselder
Summary: Studies have shown important changes in educational inequalities in mortality over time, but it is unknown whether a birth cohort perspective paints the same picture. This study compares changes in inequalities in mortality between a period and cohort perspective and explores mortality trends among low-educated and high-educated birth cohorts.
JOURNAL OF EPIDEMIOLOGY AND COMMUNITY HEALTH
(2023)
Article
Health Care Sciences & Services
Salvatore Vaccarella, Damien Georges, Freddie Bray, Ophira Ginsburg, Hadrien Charvat, Pekka Martikainen, Henrik Bronnum-Hansen, Patrick Deboosere, Matthias Bopp, Mall Leinsalu, Barbara Artnik, Valentina Lorenzoni, Esther De Vries, Michael Marmot, Paolo Vineis, Johan Mackenbach, Wilma Nusselder
Summary: This study collected and analyzed whole-of-population cancer-specific mortality data by education level and sex across 18 countries in Europe during 1990-2015. The results showed that lower-educated individuals have higher mortality rates for almost all types of cancer compared to their more highly-educated counterparts. The magnitude of inequalities varied greatly by country and over time, and lung cancer was the largest contributor to overall cancer mortality inequalities. These findings highlight the importance of addressing socioeconomic inequalities in cancer in Europe.
LANCET REGIONAL HEALTH-EUROPE
(2023)
Review
Clinical Neurology
Stevan Stojic, Beatrice Minder, Gabriela Boehl, Tania Rivero, Marcel Zwahlen, Armin Gemperli, Marija Glisic
Summary: This study analyzed the methodological quality of spinal cord injury (SCI) research using systematic reviews and meta-analyses (SRMA) methodology. The results showed that SRMA methodology has been widely used in SCI research, but some articles had poor methodological quality and did not fully adhere to methodological and reporting guidelines.
JOURNAL OF SPINAL CORD MEDICINE
(2023)
Article
Medicine, General & Internal
Radoslaw Panczak, Claudia Berlin, Marieke Voorpostel, Marcel Zwahlen, Matthias Egger
Summary: Researchers created a new index based on the latest census data in Switzerland and compared it with the old index. The study found that the Swiss-SEP index accurately measures the socioeconomic status of neighborhoods and is important for studying epidemiology and public health in Switzerland.
SWISS MEDICAL WEEKLY
(2023)
Article
Oncology
Tinei Shamu, Eliane Rohner, Eric Chokunonga, Adrian Spoerri, Ardele Mandiriri, Cleophas Chimbetete, Matthias Egger, Julia Bohlius, Margaret Borok
Summary: PLWH are at increased risk of developing cancer, with under-ascertainment of cancer diagnoses at ART clinics. Using probabilistic record linkage, this study in Harare found that cancer incidence increased with age and decreased with higher CD4 cell counts at ART initiation. The most common cancers were infection-related types, emphasizing the importance of early HIV treatment and cancer prevention strategies.