Background & aims: Accurate diagnosis of sarcopenia requires evaluation of muscle quality, which refers to the amount of fat infiltration in muscle tissue. In this study, we aim to investigate whether we can independently predict mortality risk in transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) patients, using automatic deep learning algorithms to assess muscle quality on procedural computed tomography (CT) scans. Methods: This study included 1199 patients with severe aortic stenosis who underwent transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) between January 2010 and January 2020. A procedural CT scan was performed as part of the preprocedural-TAVI evaluation, and the scans were analyzed using deep-learning-based software to automatically determine skeletal muscle density (SMD) and intermuscular adipose tissue (IMAT). The association of SMD and IMAT with all-cause mortality was analyzed using a Cox regression model, adjusted for other known mortality predictors, including muscle mass. Results: The mean age of the participants was 80 ± 7 years, 53% were female. The median observation time was 1084 days, and the overall mortality rate was 39%. We found that the lowest tertile of muscle quality, as determined by SMD, was associated with an increased risk of mortality (HR 1.40 [95%CI: 1.15–1.70], p < 0.01). Similarly, low muscle quality as defined by high IMAT in the lowest tertile was also associated with increased mortality risk (HR 1.24 [95%CI: 1.01–1.52], p = 0.04). Conclusions: Our findings suggest that deep learning-assessed low muscle quality, as indicated by fat infiltration in muscle tissue, is a practical, useful and independent predictor of mortality after TAVI.
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Research on follow-up outcomes of systemic interventions for family members with an intellectual disability is scarce. In this study, short-term and long-term follow-up outcomes of multisystemic therapy for adolescents with antisocial or delinquent behaviour and an intellectual disability (MST-ID) are reported. In addition, the role of parental intellectual disability was examined. Outcomes of 55 families who had received MST-ID were assessed at the end of treatment and at 6-month, 12-month and 18-month follow-up. Parental intellectual disability was used as a predictor of treatment outcomes. Missing data were handled using multiple imputation. Rule-breaking behaviour of adolescents declined during treatment and stabilized until 18 months post-treatment. The presence or absence of parental intellectual disability did not predict treatment outcomes. This study was the first to report long-term outcomes of MST-ID. The intervention achieved similar results in families with and without parents with an intellectual disability.
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Background: Modern modeling techniques may potentially provide more accurate predictions of dichotomous outcomes than classical techniques. Objective: In this study, we aimed to examine the predictive performance of eight modeling techniques to predict mortality by frailty. Methods: We performed a longitudinal study with a 7-year follow-up. The sample consisted of 479 Dutch community-dwelling people, aged 75 years and older. Frailty was assessed with the Tilburg Frailty Indicator (TFI), a self-report questionnaire. This questionnaire consists of eight physical, four psychological, and three social frailty components. The municipality of Roosendaal, a city in the Netherlands, provided the mortality dates. We compared modeling techniques, such as support vector machine (SVM), neural network (NN), random forest, and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator, as well as classical techniques, such as logistic regression, two Bayesian networks, and recursive partitioning (RP). The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) indicated the performance of the models. The models were validated using bootstrapping. Results: We found that the NN model had the best validated performance (AUROC=0.812), followed by the SVM model (AUROC=0.705). The other models had validated AUROC values below 0.700. The RP model had the lowest validated AUROC (0.605). The NN model had the highest optimism (0.156). The predictor variable “difficulty in walking” was important for all models. Conclusions: Because of the high optimism of the NN model, we prefer the SVM model for predicting mortality among community-dwelling older people using the TFI, with the addition of “gender” and “age” variables. External validation is a necessary step before applying the prediction models in a new setting.
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Het DIEET project onderzocht hoe de eerstelijns diëtetiek effectief en toekomstbestendig zou kunnen zijn: meetbaar en stuurbaar. In het project is onderzocht wat de succes- en faalfactoren zijn in het handelen van de diëtist tijdens het eerste consult met een patiënt. Door observaties van 605 consulten bij 237 diëtistenpraktijken in heel Nederland zijn potentiele predictoren in kaart gebracht. Op basis van deze predictoren (zoals bijv. een directieve houding van de dietist tijdens het consult) en het vaststellen van een effectieve behandeling na 9 maanden is een model ontwikkeld. Het model bleek echter minder eenvoudig dan gedacht, en de verklaring daarvoor is eigenlijk wel eenvoudig: diëtetiek is MAATWERK. Zo bleek bijvoorbeeld dat bij oudere mannen de directieve houding van de diëtist wel samen gaat met een effectieve behandeling, bij jonge vrouwen werkt motivational interviewing beter. Dit is voor de diëtetiek (en volgens onze voorzichtige inschatting ook andere beroepsgroepen) volstrekt unieke informatie. Deze resultaten hebben we nog een keer kwalitatief met de Stuurgroep van het RAAK-MKB project DIEET besproken en unaniem besloten dat de impact van dit product (model) voor de praktijk heel groot is. Deze nieuwe inzichten zullen ook verwerkt worden in de nieuwe druk van het boek (landelijk lesmateriaal diëtetiek opleidingen) dat is ontwikkeld (Neelemaat F, Ozturk H, Weijs P. Kritisch Redeneren in de Diëtetiek; bol.com). Het ontwikkelde model bleek door het maatwerk fors ingewikkelder dan vooraf ingeschat. Dit model kan echter in een web-based applicatie worden ingebouwd en de predictoren kunnen worden ingevoerd. Met deze applicatie kan bij elke diëtetiek (paramedische) stage en bij elke diëtist professional een scan worden gedaan op effectief handelen. Bij de studenten zal een relatie worden gelegd met het stagecijfer en bij de professionals met de effectieve behandeling na 9 maanden. Implementatie van de webbased applicatie in de eerstelijns diëtetiek praktijk zal meteen breed worden ingezet. Echter onderdeel van deze aanvraag is een interventie en controle groep, waarbij de interventie groep wel feedback krijgt op basis van de score en de controle groep niet. De snelle feedback (na het consult en niet pas na 9 maanden) is namelijk de sleutel tot succes. Top-up subsidie is nodig om voor het bestaande model een web-based tool te ontwikkelen en ontsluiting naar onderwijs en beroepspraktijk te bevorderen. Om in de toekomst goed gebruik van de tool door professionals, onderzoekers, studenten en docenten mogelijk te maken, is een geïntegreerde web-versie van de tool wenselijk waarin nieuwe updates eenvoudig kunnen worden doorgevoerd. Tot slot kan met Top-up de tool beter ontsloten worden voor de praktijk en voor inzet in het onderwijs door het maken van enkele goede casus beschrijvingen en het presenteren van de tool door middel van bijvoorbeeld workshops. Door Top-Up op deze manier in te zetten krijgt de doorwerking van de resultaten van het RAAK-project een flinke extra impuls.
De reclassering wil voorkomen dat hun cliënten opnieuw in de fout gaan. De werkalliantie tussen reclasseringswerker en cliënt speelt hierbij een belangrijke rol. Wat is de relatie tussen de kwaliteit van de werkalliantie en terugval in crimineel gedrag? Dit onderzoek is een voortzetting van het project ‘De werkalliantie in (semi-) gedwongen kader effectief versterkt’
Performance feedback is an important mechanism of adaptation in learning theories, as it provides one of the motivations for organizations to learn (Pettit, Crossan, and Vera 2017). Embedded in the behavioral theory of the firm, organizational learning from performance feedback predicts the probability for organizations to change with an emphasis on organizational aspirations, which serve as a threshold against which absolute performance is evaluated (Cyert and March 1963; Greve 2003). It postulates that performance becomes a ‘problem’, or the trigger to search for alternative procedures, strategies, products and behaviors, when performance is below that threshold. This search is known as problemistic search. Missing from this body of research, is empirically grounded understanding if the characteristics of performance feedback over time matter for the triggering function of the feedback. I explore this gap. This investigation adds temporality as a dimension of the performance feedback concept guided by a worldview of ongoing change and flux where conditions and choices are not given, but made relevant by actors and enacted upon (Tsoukas and Chia 2002). The general aim of the study is to complement the current knowledge of performance feedback as a trigger for problemistic search with an explicit process temporal approach. The main question guiding this project is how temporal patterns of performance feedback influence organizational change, which I answer in four chapters, each zooming into one sub-question.First, I focus on the temporal order of performance feedback by examining performance feedback and change sequences organizations go through. In this section time is under study and the goal is to explore how feedback patterns have evolved over time, just as the change states organizations pass through. Second, I focus on the plurality of performance feedback by investigating performance feedback from multiple aspiration levels (i.e. multiple qualitatively different metrics and multiple reference points) and how over time clusters of performance feedback sequences have evolved. Next, I look into the rate and scope of change relative to performance feedback sequences and add an element of signal strength to the feedback. In the last chapter, time is a predictor (in the sequences), and, it is under study (in the timing of responses). I focus on the timing of organizational responses in relation to performance feedback sequences of multiple metrics and reference points.In sum, all chapters are guided by the timing problem of performance feedback, meaning that performance feedback does not come ‘available’ at a single point in time. Similarly to stones with unequal weight dropped in the river, performance feedback with different strength comes available at multiple points in time and it is plausible that sometimes it is considered by decision-makers as problematic and sometimes it is not, because of the sequence it is part of. Overall, the investigation is grounded in the general principles of organizational learning from performance feedback, and the concept of time as duration, sequences and timing, with a focus on specification of when things happen. The context of the study is universities of applied sciences and hotels in The Netherlands. Project partner: Tilburg University, School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Department of Organization Studies
