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Sample records for statistically significant age

  1. Statistically significant faunal differences among Middle Ordovician age, Chickamauga Group bryozoan bioherms, central Alabama

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    Crow, C.J.

    1985-01-01

    Middle Ordovician age Chickamauga Group carbonates crop out along the Birmingham and Murphrees Valley anticlines in central Alabama. The macrofossil contents on exposed surfaces of seven bioherms have been counted to determine their various paleontologic characteristics. Twelve groups of organisms are present in these bioherms. Dominant organisms include bryozoans, algae, brachiopods, sponges, pelmatozoans, stromatoporoids and corals. Minor accessory fauna include predators, scavengers and grazers such as gastropods, ostracods, trilobites, cephalopods and pelecypods. Vertical and horizontal niche zonation has been detected for some of the bioherm dwelling fauna. No one bioherm of those studied exhibits all 12 groups of organisms; rather, individual bioherms display various subsets of the total diversity. Statistical treatment (G-test) of the diversity data indicates a lack of statistical homogeneity of the bioherms, both within and between localities. Between-locality population heterogeneity can be ascribed to differences in biologic responses to such gross environmental factors as water depth and clarity, and energy levels. At any one locality, gross aspects of the paleoenvironments are assumed to have been more uniform. Significant differences among bioherms at any one locality may have resulted from patchy distribution of species populations, differential preservation and other factors.

  2. Statistical significance of cis-regulatory modules

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    Smith Andrew D

    2007-01-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background It is becoming increasingly important for researchers to be able to scan through large genomic regions for transcription factor binding sites or clusters of binding sites forming cis-regulatory modules. Correspondingly, there has been a push to develop algorithms for the rapid detection and assessment of cis-regulatory modules. While various algorithms for this purpose have been introduced, most are not well suited for rapid, genome scale scanning. Results We introduce methods designed for the detection and statistical evaluation of cis-regulatory modules, modeled as either clusters of individual binding sites or as combinations of sites with constrained organization. In order to determine the statistical significance of module sites, we first need a method to determine the statistical significance of single transcription factor binding site matches. We introduce a straightforward method of estimating the statistical significance of single site matches using a database of known promoters to produce data structures that can be used to estimate p-values for binding site matches. We next introduce a technique to calculate the statistical significance of the arrangement of binding sites within a module using a max-gap model. If the module scanned for has defined organizational parameters, the probability of the module is corrected to account for organizational constraints. The statistical significance of single site matches and the architecture of sites within the module can be combined to provide an overall estimation of statistical significance of cis-regulatory module sites. Conclusion The methods introduced in this paper allow for the detection and statistical evaluation of single transcription factor binding sites and cis-regulatory modules. The features described are implemented in the Search Tool for Occurrences of Regulatory Motifs (STORM and MODSTORM software.

  3. Sibling Competition & Growth Tradeoffs. Biological vs. Statistical Significance.

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    Kramer, Karen L; Veile, Amanda; Otárola-Castillo, Erik

    2016-01-01

    Early childhood growth has many downstream effects on future health and reproduction and is an important measure of offspring quality. While a tradeoff between family size and child growth outcomes is theoretically predicted in high-fertility societies, empirical evidence is mixed. This is often attributed to phenotypic variation in parental condition. However, inconsistent study results may also arise because family size confounds the potentially differential effects that older and younger siblings can have on young children's growth. Additionally, inconsistent results might reflect that the biological significance associated with different growth trajectories is poorly understood. This paper addresses these concerns by tracking children's monthly gains in height and weight from weaning to age five in a high fertility Maya community. We predict that: 1) as an aggregate measure family size will not have a major impact on child growth during the post weaning period; 2) competition from young siblings will negatively impact child growth during the post weaning period; 3) however because of their economic value, older siblings will have a negligible effect on young children's growth. Accounting for parental condition, we use linear mixed models to evaluate the effects that family size, younger and older siblings have on children's growth. Congruent with our expectations, it is younger siblings who have the most detrimental effect on children's growth. While we find statistical evidence of a quantity/quality tradeoff effect, the biological significance of these results is negligible in early childhood. Our findings help to resolve why quantity/quality studies have had inconsistent results by showing that sibling competition varies with sibling age composition, not just family size, and that biological significance is distinct from statistical significance.

  4. Sibling Competition & Growth Tradeoffs. Biological vs. Statistical Significance.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Karen L Kramer

    Full Text Available Early childhood growth has many downstream effects on future health and reproduction and is an important measure of offspring quality. While a tradeoff between family size and child growth outcomes is theoretically predicted in high-fertility societies, empirical evidence is mixed. This is often attributed to phenotypic variation in parental condition. However, inconsistent study results may also arise because family size confounds the potentially differential effects that older and younger siblings can have on young children's growth. Additionally, inconsistent results might reflect that the biological significance associated with different growth trajectories is poorly understood. This paper addresses these concerns by tracking children's monthly gains in height and weight from weaning to age five in a high fertility Maya community. We predict that: 1 as an aggregate measure family size will not have a major impact on child growth during the post weaning period; 2 competition from young siblings will negatively impact child growth during the post weaning period; 3 however because of their economic value, older siblings will have a negligible effect on young children's growth. Accounting for parental condition, we use linear mixed models to evaluate the effects that family size, younger and older siblings have on children's growth. Congruent with our expectations, it is younger siblings who have the most detrimental effect on children's growth. While we find statistical evidence of a quantity/quality tradeoff effect, the biological significance of these results is negligible in early childhood. Our findings help to resolve why quantity/quality studies have had inconsistent results by showing that sibling competition varies with sibling age composition, not just family size, and that biological significance is distinct from statistical significance.

  5. Statistical inference for template aging

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    Schuckers, Michael E.

    2006-04-01

    A change in classification error rates for a biometric device is often referred to as template aging. Here we offer two methods for determining whether the effect of time is statistically significant. The first of these is the use of a generalized linear model to determine if these error rates change linearly over time. This approach generalizes previous work assessing the impact of covariates using generalized linear models. The second approach uses of likelihood ratio tests methodology. The focus here is on statistical methods for estimation not the underlying cause of the change in error rates over time. These methodologies are applied to data from the National Institutes of Standards and Technology Biometric Score Set Release 1. The results of these applications are discussed.

  6. The thresholds for statistical and clinical significance

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jakobsen, Janus Christian; Gluud, Christian; Winkel, Per

    2014-01-01

    BACKGROUND: Thresholds for statistical significance are insufficiently demonstrated by 95% confidence intervals or P-values when assessing results from randomised clinical trials. First, a P-value only shows the probability of getting a result assuming that the null hypothesis is true and does...... not reflect the probability of getting a result assuming an alternative hypothesis to the null hypothesis is true. Second, a confidence interval or a P-value showing significance may be caused by multiplicity. Third, statistical significance does not necessarily result in clinical significance. Therefore...... of the probability that a given trial result is compatible with a 'null' effect (corresponding to the P-value) divided by the probability that the trial result is compatible with the intervention effect hypothesised in the sample size calculation; (3) adjust the confidence intervals and the statistical significance...

  7. The insignificance of statistical significance testing

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    Johnson, Douglas H.

    1999-01-01

    Despite their use in scientific journals such as The Journal of Wildlife Management, statistical hypothesis tests add very little value to the products of research. Indeed, they frequently confuse the interpretation of data. This paper describes how statistical hypothesis tests are often viewed, and then contrasts that interpretation with the correct one. I discuss the arbitrariness of P-values, conclusions that the null hypothesis is true, power analysis, and distinctions between statistical and biological significance. Statistical hypothesis testing, in which the null hypothesis about the properties of a population is almost always known a priori to be false, is contrasted with scientific hypothesis testing, which examines a credible null hypothesis about phenomena in nature. More meaningful alternatives are briefly outlined, including estimation and confidence intervals for determining the importance of factors, decision theory for guiding actions in the face of uncertainty, and Bayesian approaches to hypothesis testing and other statistical practices.

  8. Significance levels for studies with correlated test statistics.

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    Shi, Jianxin; Levinson, Douglas F; Whittemore, Alice S

    2008-07-01

    When testing large numbers of null hypotheses, one needs to assess the evidence against the global null hypothesis that none of the hypotheses is false. Such evidence typically is based on the test statistic of the largest magnitude, whose statistical significance is evaluated by permuting the sample units to simulate its null distribution. Efron (2007) has noted that correlation among the test statistics can induce substantial interstudy variation in the shapes of their histograms, which may cause misleading tail counts. Here, we show that permutation-based estimates of the overall significance level also can be misleading when the test statistics are correlated. We propose that such estimates be conditioned on a simple measure of the spread of the observed histogram, and we provide a method for obtaining conditional significance levels. We justify this conditioning using the conditionality principle described by Cox and Hinkley (1974). Application of the method to gene expression data illustrates the circumstances when conditional significance levels are needed.

  9. Caveats for using statistical significance tests in research assessments

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Schneider, Jesper Wiborg

    2013-01-01

    controversial and numerous criticisms have been leveled against their use. Based on examples from articles by proponents of the use statistical significance tests in research assessments, we address some of the numerous problems with such tests. The issues specifically discussed are the ritual practice......This article raises concerns about the advantages of using statistical significance tests in research assessments as has recently been suggested in the debate about proper normalization procedures for citation indicators by Opthof and Leydesdorff (2010). Statistical significance tests are highly...... argue that applying statistical significance tests and mechanically adhering to their results are highly problematic and detrimental to critical thinking. We claim that the use of such tests do not provide any advantages in relation to deciding whether differences between citation indicators...

  10. Statistically significant relational data mining :

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    Berry, Jonathan W.; Leung, Vitus Joseph; Phillips, Cynthia Ann; Pinar, Ali; Robinson, David Gerald; Berger-Wolf, Tanya; Bhowmick, Sanjukta; Casleton, Emily; Kaiser, Mark; Nordman, Daniel J.; Wilson, Alyson G.

    2014-02-01

    This report summarizes the work performed under the project (3z(BStatitically significant relational data mining.(3y (BThe goal of the project was to add more statistical rigor to the fairly ad hoc area of data mining on graphs. Our goal was to develop better algorithms and better ways to evaluate algorithm quality. We concetrated on algorithms for community detection, approximate pattern matching, and graph similarity measures. Approximate pattern matching involves finding an instance of a relatively small pattern, expressed with tolerance, in a large graph of data observed with uncertainty. This report gathers the abstracts and references for the eight refereed publications that have appeared as part of this work. We then archive three pieces of research that have not yet been published. The first is theoretical and experimental evidence that a popular statistical measure for comparison of community assignments favors over-resolved communities over approximations to a ground truth. The second are statistically motivated methods for measuring the quality of an approximate match of a small pattern in a large graph. The third is a new probabilistic random graph model. Statisticians favor these models for graph analysis. The new local structure graph model overcomes some of the issues with popular models such as exponential random graph models and latent variable models.

  11. Common pitfalls in statistical analysis: "P" values, statistical significance and confidence intervals

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Priya Ranganathan

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available In the second part of a series on pitfalls in statistical analysis, we look at various ways in which a statistically significant study result can be expressed. We debunk some of the myths regarding the ′P′ value, explain the importance of ′confidence intervals′ and clarify the importance of including both values in a paper

  12. Statistical ecology comes of age

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    Gimenez, Olivier; Buckland, Stephen T.; Morgan, Byron J. T.; Bez, Nicolas; Bertrand, Sophie; Choquet, Rémi; Dray, Stéphane; Etienne, Marie-Pierre; Fewster, Rachel; Gosselin, Frédéric; Mérigot, Bastien; Monestiez, Pascal; Morales, Juan M.; Mortier, Frédéric; Munoz, François; Ovaskainen, Otso; Pavoine, Sandrine; Pradel, Roger; Schurr, Frank M.; Thomas, Len; Thuiller, Wilfried; Trenkel, Verena; de Valpine, Perry; Rexstad, Eric

    2014-01-01

    The desire to predict the consequences of global environmental change has been the driver towards more realistic models embracing the variability and uncertainties inherent in ecology. Statistical ecology has gelled over the past decade as a discipline that moves away from describing patterns towards modelling the ecological processes that generate these patterns. Following the fourth International Statistical Ecology Conference (1–4 July 2014) in Montpellier, France, we analyse current trends in statistical ecology. Important advances in the analysis of individual movement, and in the modelling of population dynamics and species distributions, are made possible by the increasing use of hierarchical and hidden process models. Exciting research perspectives include the development of methods to interpret citizen science data and of efficient, flexible computational algorithms for model fitting. Statistical ecology has come of age: it now provides a general and mathematically rigorous framework linking ecological theory and empirical data. PMID:25540151

  13. Statistical ecology comes of age.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gimenez, Olivier; Buckland, Stephen T; Morgan, Byron J T; Bez, Nicolas; Bertrand, Sophie; Choquet, Rémi; Dray, Stéphane; Etienne, Marie-Pierre; Fewster, Rachel; Gosselin, Frédéric; Mérigot, Bastien; Monestiez, Pascal; Morales, Juan M; Mortier, Frédéric; Munoz, François; Ovaskainen, Otso; Pavoine, Sandrine; Pradel, Roger; Schurr, Frank M; Thomas, Len; Thuiller, Wilfried; Trenkel, Verena; de Valpine, Perry; Rexstad, Eric

    2014-12-01

    The desire to predict the consequences of global environmental change has been the driver towards more realistic models embracing the variability and uncertainties inherent in ecology. Statistical ecology has gelled over the past decade as a discipline that moves away from describing patterns towards modelling the ecological processes that generate these patterns. Following the fourth International Statistical Ecology Conference (1-4 July 2014) in Montpellier, France, we analyse current trends in statistical ecology. Important advances in the analysis of individual movement, and in the modelling of population dynamics and species distributions, are made possible by the increasing use of hierarchical and hidden process models. Exciting research perspectives include the development of methods to interpret citizen science data and of efficient, flexible computational algorithms for model fitting. Statistical ecology has come of age: it now provides a general and mathematically rigorous framework linking ecological theory and empirical data.

  14. Health significance and statistical uncertainty. The value of P-value.

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    Consonni, Dario; Bertazzi, Pier Alberto

    2017-10-27

    The P-value is widely used as a summary statistics of scientific results. Unfortunately, there is a widespread tendency to dichotomize its value in "P0.05" ("statistically not significant"), with the former implying a "positive" result and the latter a "negative" one. To show the unsuitability of such an approach when evaluating the effects of environmental and occupational risk factors. We provide examples of distorted use of P-value and of the negative consequences for science and public health of such a black-and-white vision. The rigid interpretation of P-value as a dichotomy favors the confusion between health relevance and statistical significance, discourages thoughtful thinking, and distorts attention from what really matters, the health significance. A much better way to express and communicate scientific results involves reporting effect estimates (e.g., risks, risks ratios or risk differences) and their confidence intervals (CI), which summarize and convey both health significance and statistical uncertainty. Unfortunately, many researchers do not usually consider the whole interval of CI but only examine if it includes the null-value, therefore degrading this procedure to the same P-value dichotomy (statistical significance or not). In reporting statistical results of scientific research present effects estimates with their confidence intervals and do not qualify the P-value as "significant" or "not significant".

  15. Aging Affects Adaptation to Sound-Level Statistics in Human Auditory Cortex.

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    Herrmann, Björn; Maess, Burkhard; Johnsrude, Ingrid S

    2018-02-21

    Optimal perception requires efficient and adaptive neural processing of sensory input. Neurons in nonhuman mammals adapt to the statistical properties of acoustic feature distributions such that they become sensitive to sounds that are most likely to occur in the environment. However, whether human auditory responses adapt to stimulus statistical distributions and how aging affects adaptation to stimulus statistics is unknown. We used MEG to study how exposure to different distributions of sound levels affects adaptation in auditory cortex of younger (mean: 25 years; n = 19) and older (mean: 64 years; n = 20) adults (male and female). Participants passively listened to two sound-level distributions with different modes (either 15 or 45 dB sensation level). In a control block with long interstimulus intervals, allowing neural populations to recover from adaptation, neural response magnitudes were similar between younger and older adults. Critically, both age groups demonstrated adaptation to sound-level stimulus statistics, but adaptation was altered for older compared with younger people: in the older group, neural responses continued to be sensitive to sound level under conditions in which responses were fully adapted in the younger group. The lack of full adaptation to the statistics of the sensory environment may be a physiological mechanism underlying the known difficulty that older adults have with filtering out irrelevant sensory information. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Behavior requires efficient processing of acoustic stimulation. Animal work suggests that neurons accomplish efficient processing by adjusting their response sensitivity depending on statistical properties of the acoustic environment. Little is known about the extent to which this adaptation to stimulus statistics generalizes to humans, particularly to older humans. We used MEG to investigate how aging influences adaptation to sound-level statistics. Listeners were presented with sounds drawn from

  16. Common pitfalls in statistical analysis: “P” values, statistical significance and confidence intervals

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    Ranganathan, Priya; Pramesh, C. S.; Buyse, Marc

    2015-01-01

    In the second part of a series on pitfalls in statistical analysis, we look at various ways in which a statistically significant study result can be expressed. We debunk some of the myths regarding the ‘P’ value, explain the importance of ‘confidence intervals’ and clarify the importance of including both values in a paper PMID:25878958

  17. Significance of specificity of Tinetti B-POMA test and fall risk factor in third age of life.

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    Avdić, Dijana; Pecar, Dzemal

    2006-02-01

    As for the third age, psychophysical abilities of humans gradually decrease, while the ability of adaptation to endogenous and exogenous burdens is going down. In 1987, "Harada" et al. (1) have found out that 9.5 million persons in USA have difficulties running daily activities, while 59% of them (which is 5.6 million) are older than 65 years in age. The study has encompassed 77 questioned persons of both sexes with their average age 71.73 +/- 5.63 (scope of 65-90 years in age), chosen by random sampling. Each patient has been questioned in his/her own home and familiar to great extent with the methodology and aims of the questionnaire. Percentage of questioned women was 64.94% (50 patients) while the percentage for men was 35.06% (27 patients). As for the value of risk factor score achieved conducting the questionnaire and B-POMA test, there are statistically significant differences between men and women, as well as between patients who fell and those who never did. As for the way of life (alone or in the community), there are no significant statistical differences. Average results gained through B-POMA test in this study are statistically significantly higher in men and patients who did not provide data about falling, while there was no statistically significant difference in the way of life. In relation to the percentage of maximum number of positive answers to particular questions, regarding gender, way of life and the data about falling, there were no statistically significant differences between the value of B-POMA test and the risk factor score (the questionnaire).

  18. Understanding the Sampling Distribution and Its Use in Testing Statistical Significance.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Breunig, Nancy A.

    Despite the increasing criticism of statistical significance testing by researchers, particularly in the publication of the 1994 American Psychological Association's style manual, statistical significance test results are still popular in journal articles. For this reason, it remains important to understand the logic of inferential statistics. A…

  19. Statistical models for thermal ageing of steel materials in nuclear power plants

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Persoz, M.

    1996-01-01

    Some category of steel materials in nuclear power plants may be subjected to thermal ageing, whose extent depends on the steel chemical composition and the ageing parameters, i.e. temperature and duration. This ageing affects the 'impact strength' of the materials, which is a mechanical property. In order to assess the residual lifetime of these components, a probabilistic study has been launched, which takes into account the scatter over the input parameters of the mechanical model. Predictive formulae for estimating the impact strength of aged materials are important input data of the model. A data base has been created with impact strength results obtained from an ageing program in laboratory and statistical treatments have been undertaken. Two kinds of model have been developed, with non linear regression methods (PROC NLIN, available in SAS/STAT). The first one, using a hyperbolic tangent function, is partly based on physical considerations, and the second one, of an exponential type, is purely statistically built. The difficulties consist in selecting the significant parameters and attributing initial values to the coefficients, which is a requirement of the NLIN procedure. This global statistical analysis has led to general models that are unction of the chemical variables and the ageing parameters. These models are as precise (if not more) as local models that had been developed earlier for some specific values of ageing temperature and ageing duration. This paper describes the data and the methodology used to build the models and analyses the results given by the SAS system. (author)

  20. Swiss solar power statistics 2007 - Significant expansion

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hostettler, T.

    2008-01-01

    This article presents and discusses the 2007 statistics for solar power in Switzerland. A significant number of new installations is noted as is the high production figures from newer installations. The basics behind the compilation of the Swiss solar power statistics are briefly reviewed and an overview for the period 1989 to 2007 is presented which includes figures on the number of photovoltaic plant in service and installed peak power. Typical production figures in kilowatt-hours (kWh) per installed kilowatt-peak power (kWp) are presented and discussed for installations of various sizes. Increased production after inverter replacement in older installations is noted. Finally, the general political situation in Switzerland as far as solar power is concerned are briefly discussed as are international developments.

  1. Test for the statistical significance of differences between ROC curves

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Metz, C.E.; Kronman, H.B.

    1979-01-01

    A test for the statistical significance of observed differences between two measured Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curves has been designed and evaluated. The set of observer response data for each ROC curve is assumed to be independent and to arise from a ROC curve having a form which, in the absence of statistical fluctuations in the response data, graphs as a straight line on double normal-deviate axes. To test the significance of an apparent difference between two measured ROC curves, maximum likelihood estimates of the two parameters of each curve and the associated parameter variances and covariance are calculated from the corresponding set of observer response data. An approximate Chi-square statistic with two degrees of freedom is then constructed from the differences between the parameters estimated for each ROC curve and from the variances and covariances of these estimates. This statistic is known to be truly Chi-square distributed only in the limit of large numbers of trials in the observer performance experiments. Performance of the statistic for data arising from a limited number of experimental trials was evaluated. Independent sets of rating scale data arising from the same underlying ROC curve were paired, and the fraction of differences found (falsely) significant was compared to the significance level, α, used with the test. Although test performance was found to be somewhat dependent on both the number of trials in the data and the position of the underlying ROC curve in the ROC space, the results for various significance levels showed the test to be reliable under practical experimental conditions

  2. The significance of age and sex for the absence of immune response to hepatitis B vaccination

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    Rosić Ilija

    2008-01-01

    Full Text Available INTRODUCTION Seroepidemiological investigations after the administration of hepatitis B vaccine have shown that even 15% of vaccinated healthy persons do not generate immune response to the vaccines currently in use. OBJECTIVE The aim of the research is to test the immunogenicity of hepatitis B vaccine in different age groups on the adult vaccinated population sample in Serbia. METHOD The tested general population sample consisted of 154 adult subjects. Immunization was done using the recombinant fungal vaccine obtained by genetic engineering (Euvax B vaccine, manufacturer LG, distributor Sanofi Pasteur. All tested subjects in the research received 1 ml of hepatitis B vaccine administered intramuscularly into the deltoid muscle by 0, 1, 6 schedule. RESULTS In the tested sample, 3.13% of persons aged up to 29 years, 6.25% aged 30-35 year and 19.23% of the tested persons aged 40 years and older had no immune response. The relative risk of “no response" findings was twice higher in the group aged 30-39 as compared to the population aged up to 29 years. The detected risk was six times higher for the population of 40 years and older in comparison to the population aged up to 29 years. Also, the relative risk of “no response" findings for the population of 40 years and older was more than three times higher than for the group aged 30-39. Absent immune response in relation to sex was found to be higher in male subjects. CONCLUSION The rates of “no response" finding was the following: 3.13% in the group aged up to 29 years, 6.25% in the group aged 30-39, as well as in the group aged 40 years and older (19.23%. Immune response in relation to age groups was statistically significantly different (p<0.001, while there was a statistically significant correlation (C=0.473; p<0.001 between the age of the subjects and the immune response. In relation to sex, the “no response" finding was found to be increased in the males, but without any statistically

  3. On detection and assessment of statistical significance of Genomic Islands

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    Chaudhuri Probal

    2008-04-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Many of the available methods for detecting Genomic Islands (GIs in prokaryotic genomes use markers such as transposons, proximal tRNAs, flanking repeats etc., or they use other supervised techniques requiring training datasets. Most of these methods are primarily based on the biases in GC content or codon and amino acid usage of the islands. However, these methods either do not use any formal statistical test of significance or use statistical tests for which the critical values and the P-values are not adequately justified. We propose a method, which is unsupervised in nature and uses Monte-Carlo statistical tests based on randomly selected segments of a chromosome. Such tests are supported by precise statistical distribution theory, and consequently, the resulting P-values are quite reliable for making the decision. Results Our algorithm (named Design-Island, an acronym for Detection of Statistically Significant Genomic Island runs in two phases. Some 'putative GIs' are identified in the first phase, and those are refined into smaller segments containing horizontally acquired genes in the refinement phase. This method is applied to Salmonella typhi CT18 genome leading to the discovery of several new pathogenicity, antibiotic resistance and metabolic islands that were missed by earlier methods. Many of these islands contain mobile genetic elements like phage-mediated genes, transposons, integrase and IS elements confirming their horizontal acquirement. Conclusion The proposed method is based on statistical tests supported by precise distribution theory and reliable P-values along with a technique for visualizing statistically significant islands. The performance of our method is better than many other well known methods in terms of their sensitivity and accuracy, and in terms of specificity, it is comparable to other methods.

  4. Increasing the statistical significance of entanglement detection in experiments.

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    Jungnitsch, Bastian; Niekamp, Sönke; Kleinmann, Matthias; Gühne, Otfried; Lu, He; Gao, Wei-Bo; Chen, Yu-Ao; Chen, Zeng-Bing; Pan, Jian-Wei

    2010-05-28

    Entanglement is often verified by a violation of an inequality like a Bell inequality or an entanglement witness. Considerable effort has been devoted to the optimization of such inequalities in order to obtain a high violation. We demonstrate theoretically and experimentally that such an optimization does not necessarily lead to a better entanglement test, if the statistical error is taken into account. Theoretically, we show for different error models that reducing the violation of an inequality can improve the significance. Experimentally, we observe this phenomenon in a four-photon experiment, testing the Mermin and Ardehali inequality for different levels of noise. Furthermore, we provide a way to develop entanglement tests with high statistical significance.

  5. Testing the Difference of Correlated Agreement Coefficients for Statistical Significance

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    Gwet, Kilem L.

    2016-01-01

    This article addresses the problem of testing the difference between two correlated agreement coefficients for statistical significance. A number of authors have proposed methods for testing the difference between two correlated kappa coefficients, which require either the use of resampling methods or the use of advanced statistical modeling…

  6. Statistical Significance for Hierarchical Clustering

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kimes, Patrick K.; Liu, Yufeng; Hayes, D. Neil; Marron, J. S.

    2017-01-01

    Summary Cluster analysis has proved to be an invaluable tool for the exploratory and unsupervised analysis of high dimensional datasets. Among methods for clustering, hierarchical approaches have enjoyed substantial popularity in genomics and other fields for their ability to simultaneously uncover multiple layers of clustering structure. A critical and challenging question in cluster analysis is whether the identified clusters represent important underlying structure or are artifacts of natural sampling variation. Few approaches have been proposed for addressing this problem in the context of hierarchical clustering, for which the problem is further complicated by the natural tree structure of the partition, and the multiplicity of tests required to parse the layers of nested clusters. In this paper, we propose a Monte Carlo based approach for testing statistical significance in hierarchical clustering which addresses these issues. The approach is implemented as a sequential testing procedure guaranteeing control of the family-wise error rate. Theoretical justification is provided for our approach, and its power to detect true clustering structure is illustrated through several simulation studies and applications to two cancer gene expression datasets. PMID:28099990

  7. Theoretical statistics of zero-age cataclysmic variables

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Politano, M.J.

    1988-01-01

    The distribution of the white dwarf masses, the distribution of the mass ratios and the distribution of the orbital periods in cataclysmic variables which are forming at the present time are calculated. These systems are referred to as zero-age cataclysmic variables. The results show that 60% of the systems being formed contain helium white dwarfs and 40% contain carbon-oxygen white dwarfs. The mean dwarf mass in those systems containing helium white dwarfs is 0.34. The mean white dwarf mass in those systems containing carbon-oxygen white dwarfs is 0.75. The orbital period distribution identifies four main classes of zero-age cataclysmic variables: (1) short-period systems containing helium white dwarfs, (2) systems containing carbon-oxygen white dwarfs whose secondaries are convectively stable against rapid mass transfer to the white dwarf, (3) systems containing carbon-oxygen white dwarfs whose secondaries are radiatively stable against rapid mass transfer to the white dwarf and (4) long period systems with evolved secondaries. The white dwarf mass distribution in zero-age cataclysmic variables has direct application to the calculation of the frequency of outburst in classical novae as a function of the mass of the white dwarf. The method developed in this thesis to calculate the distributions of the orbital parameters in zero-age cataclysmic variables can be used to calculate theoretical statistics of any class of binary systems. This method provides a theoretical framework from which to investigate the statistical properties and the evolution of the orbital parameters of binary systems

  8. Statistical significance of trends in monthly heavy precipitation over the US

    KAUST Repository

    Mahajan, Salil

    2011-05-11

    Trends in monthly heavy precipitation, defined by a return period of one year, are assessed for statistical significance in observations and Global Climate Model (GCM) simulations over the contiguous United States using Monte Carlo non-parametric and parametric bootstrapping techniques. The results from the two Monte Carlo approaches are found to be similar to each other, and also to the traditional non-parametric Kendall\\'s τ test, implying the robustness of the approach. Two different observational data-sets are employed to test for trends in monthly heavy precipitation and are found to exhibit consistent results. Both data-sets demonstrate upward trends, one of which is found to be statistically significant at the 95% confidence level. Upward trends similar to observations are observed in some climate model simulations of the twentieth century, but their statistical significance is marginal. For projections of the twenty-first century, a statistically significant upwards trend is observed in most of the climate models analyzed. The change in the simulated precipitation variance appears to be more important in the twenty-first century projections than changes in the mean precipitation. Stochastic fluctuations of the climate-system are found to be dominate monthly heavy precipitation as some GCM simulations show a downwards trend even in the twenty-first century projections when the greenhouse gas forcings are strong. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.

  9. Increasing the statistical significance of entanglement detection in experiments

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Jungnitsch, Bastian; Niekamp, Soenke; Kleinmann, Matthias; Guehne, Otfried [Institut fuer Quantenoptik und Quanteninformation, Innsbruck (Austria); Lu, He; Gao, Wei-Bo; Chen, Zeng-Bing [Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale and Department of Modern Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei (China); Chen, Yu-Ao; Pan, Jian-Wei [Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale and Department of Modern Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei (China); Physikalisches Institut, Universitaet Heidelberg (Germany)

    2010-07-01

    Entanglement is often verified by a violation of an inequality like a Bell inequality or an entanglement witness. Considerable effort has been devoted to the optimization of such inequalities in order to obtain a high violation. We demonstrate theoretically and experimentally that such an optimization does not necessarily lead to a better entanglement test, if the statistical error is taken into account. Theoretically, we show for different error models that reducing the violation of an inequality can improve the significance. We show this to be the case for an error model in which the variance of an observable is interpreted as its error and for the standard error model in photonic experiments. Specifically, we demonstrate that the Mermin inequality yields a Bell test which is statistically more significant than the Ardehali inequality in the case of a photonic four-qubit state that is close to a GHZ state. Experimentally, we observe this phenomenon in a four-photon experiment, testing the above inequalities for different levels of noise.

  10. Reporting effect sizes as a supplement to statistical significance ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The purpose of the article is to review the statistical significance reporting practices in reading instruction studies and to provide guidelines for when to calculate and report effect sizes in educational research. A review of six readily accessible (online) and accredited journals publishing research on reading instruction ...

  11. Your Chi-Square Test Is Statistically Significant: Now What?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sharpe, Donald

    2015-01-01

    Applied researchers have employed chi-square tests for more than one hundred years. This paper addresses the question of how one should follow a statistically significant chi-square test result in order to determine the source of that result. Four approaches were evaluated: calculating residuals, comparing cells, ransacking, and partitioning. Data…

  12. Confidence intervals permit, but don't guarantee, better inference than statistical significance testing

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Melissa Coulson

    2010-07-01

    Full Text Available A statistically significant result, and a non-significant result may differ little, although significance status may tempt an interpretation of difference. Two studies are reported that compared interpretation of such results presented using null hypothesis significance testing (NHST, or confidence intervals (CIs. Authors of articles published in psychology, behavioural neuroscience, and medical journals were asked, via email, to interpret two fictitious studies that found similar results, one statistically significant, and the other non-significant. Responses from 330 authors varied greatly, but interpretation was generally poor, whether results were presented as CIs or using NHST. However, when interpreting CIs respondents who mentioned NHST were 60% likely to conclude, unjustifiably, the two results conflicted, whereas those who interpreted CIs without reference to NHST were 95% likely to conclude, justifiably, the two results were consistent. Findings were generally similar for all three disciplines. An email survey of academic psychologists confirmed that CIs elicit better interpretations if NHST is not invoked. Improved statistical inference can result from encouragement of meta-analytic thinking and use of CIs but, for full benefit, such highly desirable statistical reform requires also that researchers interpret CIs without recourse to NHST.

  13. Testing statistical significance scores of sequence comparison methods with structure similarity

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Leunissen Jack AM

    2006-10-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background In the past years the Smith-Waterman sequence comparison algorithm has gained popularity due to improved implementations and rapidly increasing computing power. However, the quality and sensitivity of a database search is not only determined by the algorithm but also by the statistical significance testing for an alignment. The e-value is the most commonly used statistical validation method for sequence database searching. The CluSTr database and the Protein World database have been created using an alternative statistical significance test: a Z-score based on Monte-Carlo statistics. Several papers have described the superiority of the Z-score as compared to the e-value, using simulated data. We were interested if this could be validated when applied to existing, evolutionary related protein sequences. Results All experiments are performed on the ASTRAL SCOP database. The Smith-Waterman sequence comparison algorithm with both e-value and Z-score statistics is evaluated, using ROC, CVE and AP measures. The BLAST and FASTA algorithms are used as reference. We find that two out of three Smith-Waterman implementations with e-value are better at predicting structural similarities between proteins than the Smith-Waterman implementation with Z-score. SSEARCH especially has very high scores. Conclusion The compute intensive Z-score does not have a clear advantage over the e-value. The Smith-Waterman implementations give generally better results than their heuristic counterparts. We recommend using the SSEARCH algorithm combined with e-values for pairwise sequence comparisons.

  14. Statistic analyses of the color experience according to the age of the observer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hunjet, Anica; Parac-Osterman, Durdica; Vucaj, Edita

    2013-04-01

    Psychological experience of color is a real state of the communication between the environment and color, and it will depend on the source of the light, angle of the view, and particular on the observer and his health condition. Hering's theory or a theory of the opponent processes supposes that cones, which are situated in the retina of the eye, are not sensible on the three chromatic domains (areas, fields, zones) (red, green and purple-blue), but they produce a signal based on the principle of the opposed pairs of colors. A reason of this theory depends on the fact that certain disorders of the color eyesight, which include blindness to certain colors, cause blindness to pairs of opponent colors. This paper presents a demonstration of the experience of blue and yellow tone according to the age of the observer. For the testing of the statistically significant differences in the omission in the color experience according to the color of the background we use following statistical tests: Mann-Whitnney U Test, Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA and Median test. It was proven that the differences are statistically significant in the elderly persons (older than 35 years).

  15. Statistical significance versus clinical relevance.

    Science.gov (United States)

    van Rijn, Marieke H C; Bech, Anneke; Bouyer, Jean; van den Brand, Jan A J G

    2017-04-01

    In March this year, the American Statistical Association (ASA) posted a statement on the correct use of P-values, in response to a growing concern that the P-value is commonly misused and misinterpreted. We aim to translate these warnings given by the ASA into a language more easily understood by clinicians and researchers without a deep background in statistics. Moreover, we intend to illustrate the limitations of P-values, even when used and interpreted correctly, and bring more attention to the clinical relevance of study findings using two recently reported studies as examples. We argue that P-values are often misinterpreted. A common mistake is saying that P < 0.05 means that the null hypothesis is false, and P ≥0.05 means that the null hypothesis is true. The correct interpretation of a P-value of 0.05 is that if the null hypothesis were indeed true, a similar or more extreme result would occur 5% of the times upon repeating the study in a similar sample. In other words, the P-value informs about the likelihood of the data given the null hypothesis and not the other way around. A possible alternative related to the P-value is the confidence interval (CI). It provides more information on the magnitude of an effect and the imprecision with which that effect was estimated. However, there is no magic bullet to replace P-values and stop erroneous interpretation of scientific results. Scientists and readers alike should make themselves familiar with the correct, nuanced interpretation of statistical tests, P-values and CIs. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of ERA-EDTA. All rights reserved.

  16. Statistical significance of epidemiological data. Seminar: Evaluation of epidemiological studies

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Weber, K.H.

    1993-01-01

    In stochastic damages, the numbers of events, e.g. the persons who are affected by or have died of cancer, and thus the relative frequencies (incidence or mortality) are binomially distributed random variables. Their statistical fluctuations can be characterized by confidence intervals. For epidemiologic questions, especially for the analysis of stochastic damages in the low dose range, the following issues are interesting: - Is a sample (a group of persons) with a definite observed damage frequency part of the whole population? - Is an observed frequency difference between two groups of persons random or statistically significant? - Is an observed increase or decrease of the frequencies with increasing dose random or statistically significant and how large is the regression coefficient (= risk coefficient) in this case? These problems can be solved by sttistical tests. So-called distribution-free tests and tests which are not bound to the supposition of normal distribution are of particular interest, such as: - χ 2 -independence test (test in contingency tables); - Fisher-Yates-test; - trend test according to Cochran; - rank correlation test given by Spearman. These tests are explained in terms of selected epidemiologic data, e.g. of leukaemia clusters, of the cancer mortality of the Japanese A-bomb survivors especially in the low dose range as well as on the sample of the cancer mortality in the high background area in Yangjiang (China). (orig.) [de

  17. Statistical Significance and Effect Size: Two Sides of a Coin.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fan, Xitao

    This paper suggests that statistical significance testing and effect size are two sides of the same coin; they complement each other, but do not substitute for one another. Good research practice requires that both should be taken into consideration to make sound quantitative decisions. A Monte Carlo simulation experiment was conducted, and a…

  18. Publication of statistically significant research findings in prosthodontics & implant dentistry in the context of other dental specialties.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Papageorgiou, Spyridon N; Kloukos, Dimitrios; Petridis, Haralampos; Pandis, Nikolaos

    2015-10-01

    To assess the hypothesis that there is excessive reporting of statistically significant studies published in prosthodontic and implantology journals, which could indicate selective publication. The last 30 issues of 9 journals in prosthodontics and implant dentistry were hand-searched for articles with statistical analyses. The percentages of significant and non-significant results were tabulated by parameter of interest. Univariable/multivariable logistic regression analyses were applied to identify possible predictors of reporting statistically significance findings. The results of this study were compared with similar studies in dentistry with random-effects meta-analyses. From the 2323 included studies 71% of them reported statistically significant results, with the significant results ranging from 47% to 86%. Multivariable modeling identified that geographical area and involvement of statistician were predictors of statistically significant results. Compared to interventional studies, the odds that in vitro and observational studies would report statistically significant results was increased by 1.20 times (OR: 2.20, 95% CI: 1.66-2.92) and 0.35 times (OR: 1.35, 95% CI: 1.05-1.73), respectively. The probability of statistically significant results from randomized controlled trials was significantly lower compared to various study designs (difference: 30%, 95% CI: 11-49%). Likewise the probability of statistically significant results in prosthodontics and implant dentistry was lower compared to other dental specialties, but this result did not reach statistical significant (P>0.05). The majority of studies identified in the fields of prosthodontics and implant dentistry presented statistically significant results. The same trend existed in publications of other specialties in dentistry. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  19. Significant Statistics: Viewed with a Contextual Lens

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tait-McCutcheon, Sandi

    2010-01-01

    This paper examines the pedagogical and organisational changes three lead teachers made to their statistics teaching and learning programs. The lead teachers posed the research question: What would the effect of contextually integrating statistical investigations and literacies into other curriculum areas be on student achievement? By finding the…

  20. Demonstration of statistical approaches to identify component's ageing by operational data analysis-A case study for the ageing PSA network

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rodionov, Andrei; Atwood, Corwin L.; Kirchsteiger, Christian; Patrik, Milan

    2008-01-01

    The paper presents some results of a case study on 'Demonstration of statistical approaches to identify the component's ageing by operational data analysis', which was done in the frame of the EC JRC Ageing PSA Network. Several techniques: visual evaluation, nonparametric and parametric hypothesis tests, were proposed and applied in order to demonstrate the capacity, advantages and limitations of statistical approaches to identify the component's ageing by operational data analysis. Engineering considerations are out of the scope of the present study

  1. Audiometric changes with age in Hiroshima: a statistical study

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hollingsworth, J W; Ishii, Goro

    1960-10-01

    Audiometry observations were analyzed for 290 irradiated survivors of the 1945 atomic bomb in Hiroshima and in 293 nonirradiated subjects. The study was undertaken in order to determine the age changes in audiology in irradiated and nonirradiated subjects as well as to investigate the pattern of hearing levels in a Japanese population for comparison with patterns in Caucasians. The following statistical observations were made. Correlation between hearing levels for right and left ear. Correlation between hearing levels at various cycles. Changes in hearing levels by age and sex. The relation between age and decibel loss was not linear and correlation ratios with age were 0.45 to 0.72. Audiometry seems to be of some value as one of a battery of tests of physiologic aging designed for detection of irradiation induced nonspecific aging acceleration. In this relatively small sample, no differences in hearing acuity were detected in the atomic bomb survivors as compared with the control sample. 6 references, 3 figures, 9 tables.

  2. "What If" Analyses: Ways to Interpret Statistical Significance Test Results Using EXCEL or "R"

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ozturk, Elif

    2012-01-01

    The present paper aims to review two motivations to conduct "what if" analyses using Excel and "R" to understand the statistical significance tests through the sample size context. "What if" analyses can be used to teach students what statistical significance tests really do and in applied research either prospectively to estimate what sample size…

  3. Fake Statistically Valid Isotopic Ages in Impact Crater Geochronology

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jourdan, F.; Schmieder, M.; McWilliams, M. M.; Buchner, E.

    2009-05-01

    Precise dating of impact structures is crucial in several fundamental aspects, such as correlating effects on the bio- and geosphere caused by these catastrophic processes. Among the 176 listed impact structures [1], only 25 have a stated age precision better than ± 2%. Statistical investigation of these 25 ages showed that 11 ages are accurate, 12 are at best ambiguous, and 2 are not well characterized [2]. In this study, we show that even with statistically valid isotope ages, the age of an impact can be "missed" by several hundred millions of years. We present a new 40Ar/39Ar plateau age of 444 ± 4 Ma for the Acraman structure (real age ˜590 Ma [3]) and four plateau ages ranging from 81.07 ± 0.76 Ma to 74.6 ± 1.5 Ma for the Brent structure (estimated real age ˜453 Ma [4]). In addition, we discuss a 40Ar/39Ar plateau age of 994 ± 11, recently obtained by [5] on the Dhala structure (real age ˜2.0 Ga [5]). Despite careful sample preparations (single grain handpicking and HF leaching, in order to remove alteration phases), these results are much younger than the impact ages. Petrographic observations show that Acraman and Dhala grain separates all have an orange color and show evidence of alteration. This suggests that these ages are the results of hydrothermal events that triggered intensive 40Ar* loss and crystallization of secondary phases. More intriguing are the Brent samples (glassy melt rocks obtained from a drill core) that appeared very fresh under the microscope. The Brent glass might be a Cretaceous pseudotachylite generated by a late adjustment of the structure and/or by a local earthquake. Because we know the approximate age of the craters with stratigraphic evidences, these outliers are easy to identify. However, this is a red flag for any uncritical interpretation of isotopic ages (including e.g., 40Ar/39Ar, U/Pb, or U-Th/He [6]). In this paper, we encourage a multi-technique approach (i.e., isotopic, stratigraphic, paleogeographic [7,8]) and

  4. Statistical vs. Economic Significance in Economics and Econometrics: Further comments on McCloskey & Ziliak

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Engsted, Tom

    I comment on the controversy between McCloskey & Ziliak and Hoover & Siegler on statistical versus economic significance, in the March 2008 issue of the Journal of Economic Methodology. I argue that while McCloskey & Ziliak are right in emphasizing 'real error', i.e. non-sampling error that cannot...... be eliminated through specification testing, they fail to acknowledge those areas in economics, e.g. rational expectations macroeconomics and asset pricing, where researchers clearly distinguish between statistical and economic significance and where statistical testing plays a relatively minor role in model...

  5. The aging population in the twenty-first century: statistics for health policy

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Gilford, Dorothy M

    1988-01-01

    ... on Statistics for an Aging Population Sam Shapiro, Chair Committee on National Statistics Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education National Research Council NATIONAL ACADEMY PRESS Washington, D.C. 1988 Copyrightoriginal retained, the be not from cannot book, paper original however, for version formatting, authoritative...

  6. Distinguishing between statistical significance and practical/clinical meaningfulness using statistical inference.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wilkinson, Michael

    2014-03-01

    Decisions about support for predictions of theories in light of data are made using statistical inference. The dominant approach in sport and exercise science is the Neyman-Pearson (N-P) significance-testing approach. When applied correctly it provides a reliable procedure for making dichotomous decisions for accepting or rejecting zero-effect null hypotheses with known and controlled long-run error rates. Type I and type II error rates must be specified in advance and the latter controlled by conducting an a priori sample size calculation. The N-P approach does not provide the probability of hypotheses or indicate the strength of support for hypotheses in light of data, yet many scientists believe it does. Outcomes of analyses allow conclusions only about the existence of non-zero effects, and provide no information about the likely size of true effects or their practical/clinical value. Bayesian inference can show how much support data provide for different hypotheses, and how personal convictions should be altered in light of data, but the approach is complicated by formulating probability distributions about prior subjective estimates of population effects. A pragmatic solution is magnitude-based inference, which allows scientists to estimate the true magnitude of population effects and how likely they are to exceed an effect magnitude of practical/clinical importance, thereby integrating elements of subjective Bayesian-style thinking. While this approach is gaining acceptance, progress might be hastened if scientists appreciate the shortcomings of traditional N-P null hypothesis significance testing.

  7. Codon Deviation Coefficient: a novel measure for estimating codon usage bias and its statistical significance

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zhang Zhang

    2012-03-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Genetic mutation, selective pressure for translational efficiency and accuracy, level of gene expression, and protein function through natural selection are all believed to lead to codon usage bias (CUB. Therefore, informative measurement of CUB is of fundamental importance to making inferences regarding gene function and genome evolution. However, extant measures of CUB have not fully accounted for the quantitative effect of background nucleotide composition and have not statistically evaluated the significance of CUB in sequence analysis. Results Here we propose a novel measure--Codon Deviation Coefficient (CDC--that provides an informative measurement of CUB and its statistical significance without requiring any prior knowledge. Unlike previous measures, CDC estimates CUB by accounting for background nucleotide compositions tailored to codon positions and adopts the bootstrapping to assess the statistical significance of CUB for any given sequence. We evaluate CDC by examining its effectiveness on simulated sequences and empirical data and show that CDC outperforms extant measures by achieving a more informative estimation of CUB and its statistical significance. Conclusions As validated by both simulated and empirical data, CDC provides a highly informative quantification of CUB and its statistical significance, useful for determining comparative magnitudes and patterns of biased codon usage for genes or genomes with diverse sequence compositions.

  8. Statistics Refresher for Molecular Imaging Technologists, Part 2: Accuracy of Interpretation, Significance, and Variance.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Farrell, Mary Beth

    2018-06-01

    This article is the second part of a continuing education series reviewing basic statistics that nuclear medicine and molecular imaging technologists should understand. In this article, the statistics for evaluating interpretation accuracy, significance, and variance are discussed. Throughout the article, actual statistics are pulled from the published literature. We begin by explaining 2 methods for quantifying interpretive accuracy: interreader and intrareader reliability. Agreement among readers can be expressed simply as a percentage. However, the Cohen κ-statistic is a more robust measure of agreement that accounts for chance. The higher the κ-statistic is, the higher is the agreement between readers. When 3 or more readers are being compared, the Fleiss κ-statistic is used. Significance testing determines whether the difference between 2 conditions or interventions is meaningful. Statistical significance is usually expressed using a number called a probability ( P ) value. Calculation of P value is beyond the scope of this review. However, knowing how to interpret P values is important for understanding the scientific literature. Generally, a P value of less than 0.05 is considered significant and indicates that the results of the experiment are due to more than just chance. Variance, standard deviation (SD), confidence interval, and standard error (SE) explain the dispersion of data around a mean of a sample drawn from a population. SD is commonly reported in the literature. A small SD indicates that there is not much variation in the sample data. Many biologic measurements fall into what is referred to as a normal distribution taking the shape of a bell curve. In a normal distribution, 68% of the data will fall within 1 SD, 95% will fall within 2 SDs, and 99.7% will fall within 3 SDs. Confidence interval defines the range of possible values within which the population parameter is likely to lie and gives an idea of the precision of the statistic being

  9. Systematic reviews of anesthesiologic interventions reported as statistically significant

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Imberger, Georgina; Gluud, Christian; Boylan, John

    2015-01-01

    statistically significant meta-analyses of anesthesiologic interventions, we used TSA to estimate power and imprecision in the context of sparse data and repeated updates. METHODS: We conducted a search to identify all systematic reviews with meta-analyses that investigated an intervention that may......: From 11,870 titles, we found 682 systematic reviews that investigated anesthesiologic interventions. In the 50 sampled meta-analyses, the median number of trials included was 8 (interquartile range [IQR], 5-14), the median number of participants was 964 (IQR, 523-1736), and the median number...

  10. Using the Bootstrap Method for a Statistical Significance Test of Differences between Summary Histograms

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xu, Kuan-Man

    2006-01-01

    A new method is proposed to compare statistical differences between summary histograms, which are the histograms summed over a large ensemble of individual histograms. It consists of choosing a distance statistic for measuring the difference between summary histograms and using a bootstrap procedure to calculate the statistical significance level. Bootstrapping is an approach to statistical inference that makes few assumptions about the underlying probability distribution that describes the data. Three distance statistics are compared in this study. They are the Euclidean distance, the Jeffries-Matusita distance and the Kuiper distance. The data used in testing the bootstrap method are satellite measurements of cloud systems called cloud objects. Each cloud object is defined as a contiguous region/patch composed of individual footprints or fields of view. A histogram of measured values over footprints is generated for each parameter of each cloud object and then summary histograms are accumulated over all individual histograms in a given cloud-object size category. The results of statistical hypothesis tests using all three distances as test statistics are generally similar, indicating the validity of the proposed method. The Euclidean distance is determined to be most suitable after comparing the statistical tests of several parameters with distinct probability distributions among three cloud-object size categories. Impacts on the statistical significance levels resulting from differences in the total lengths of satellite footprint data between two size categories are also discussed.

  11. P-Value, a true test of statistical significance? a cautionary note ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    While it's not the intention of the founders of significance testing and hypothesis testing to have the two ideas intertwined as if they are complementary, the inconvenient marriage of the two practices into one coherent, convenient, incontrovertible and misinterpreted practice has dotted our standard statistics textbooks and ...

  12. Codon Deviation Coefficient: A novel measure for estimating codon usage bias and its statistical significance

    KAUST Repository

    Zhang, Zhang

    2012-03-22

    Background: Genetic mutation, selective pressure for translational efficiency and accuracy, level of gene expression, and protein function through natural selection are all believed to lead to codon usage bias (CUB). Therefore, informative measurement of CUB is of fundamental importance to making inferences regarding gene function and genome evolution. However, extant measures of CUB have not fully accounted for the quantitative effect of background nucleotide composition and have not statistically evaluated the significance of CUB in sequence analysis.Results: Here we propose a novel measure--Codon Deviation Coefficient (CDC)--that provides an informative measurement of CUB and its statistical significance without requiring any prior knowledge. Unlike previous measures, CDC estimates CUB by accounting for background nucleotide compositions tailored to codon positions and adopts the bootstrapping to assess the statistical significance of CUB for any given sequence. We evaluate CDC by examining its effectiveness on simulated sequences and empirical data and show that CDC outperforms extant measures by achieving a more informative estimation of CUB and its statistical significance.Conclusions: As validated by both simulated and empirical data, CDC provides a highly informative quantification of CUB and its statistical significance, useful for determining comparative magnitudes and patterns of biased codon usage for genes or genomes with diverse sequence compositions. 2012 Zhang et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

  13. Evolutionary significance of ageing in the wild.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kowald, Axel; Kirkwood, Thomas B L

    2015-11-01

    Human lifespan has risen dramatically over the last 150 years, leading to a significant increase in the fraction of aged people in the population. Until recently it was believed that this contrasted strongly with the situation in wild populations of animals, where the likelihood of encountering demonstrably senescent individuals was believed to be negligible. Over the recent years, however, a series of field studies has appeared that shows ageing can also be observed for many species in the wild. We discuss here the relevance of this finding for the different evolutionary theories of ageing, since it has been claimed that ageing in the wild is incompatible with the so-called non-adaptive (non-programmed) theories, i.e. those in which ageing is presumed not to offer a direct selection benefit. We show that a certain proportion of aged individuals in the population is fully compatible with the antagonistic pleiotropy and the disposable soma theories, while it is difficult to reconcile with the mutation accumulation theory. We also quantify the costs of ageing using life history data from recent field studies and a range of possible metrics. We discuss the merits and problems of the different metrics and also introduce a new metric, yearly death toll, that aims directly at quantifying the deaths caused by the ageing process. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  14. Interpreting Statistical Significance Test Results: A Proposed New "What If" Method.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kieffer, Kevin M.; Thompson, Bruce

    As the 1994 publication manual of the American Psychological Association emphasized, "p" values are affected by sample size. As a result, it can be helpful to interpret the results of statistical significant tests in a sample size context by conducting so-called "what if" analyses. However, these methods can be inaccurate…

  15. Measuring individual significant change on the Beck Depression Inventory-II through IRT-based statistics.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Brouwer, D.; Meijer, R.R.; Zevalkink, D.J.

    2013-01-01

    Several researchers have emphasized that item response theory (IRT)-based methods should be preferred over classical approaches in measuring change for individual patients. In the present study we discuss and evaluate the use of IRT-based statistics to measure statistical significant individual

  16. Estimation of glandular content rate and statistical analysis of the influence of age group and compressed breast thickness on the estimated value

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ohmori, Naoki; Ashida, Kenji; Fujita, Osamu

    2003-01-01

    Because the glandular content rate is an important factor in evaluating breast cancer detection and average glandular dose, it is important in mammography research to estimate and analyze this rate. The purpose of this study was to obtain a formula for statistical estimation of the glandular content rate, to clarify statistically the influence of age group and compressed breast thickness (CBT) on estimating the glandular content rate, and to show statistically the general relation between glandular content rate and the factors of age and CBT. The subjects were 740 Japanese women aged 20-91 years (mean±SD: 48.3±12.8 years) who had undergone mammography. In our study, the glandular content rate was statistically estimated from age group, mAs-value, and CBT when subjects underwent mammography, from a phantom simulation, and from MR images of the breast. In addition, multivariate analysis was carried to examine statistically the influence of age group and CBT on glandular content rate. The mean glandular content rate as estimated by age group was as follows: 35.6% for those in their 20s, 33.4% in the 30s, 27.5% in the 40s, 23.8% in the 50s, and 21.8% in those 60 and over. The rate for the subjects as a whole was 27.1%. This study indicated that overestimation occurred if the estimated value of the glandular content rate was not corrected in the 3D-measurement by MRI. In addition, this study showed that the statistical influence on glandular content rate was significantly larger for CBT than age. (author)

  17. Strategies for Testing Statistical and Practical Significance in Detecting DIF with Logistic Regression Models

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fidalgo, Angel M.; Alavi, Seyed Mohammad; Amirian, Seyed Mohammad Reza

    2014-01-01

    This study examines three controversial aspects in differential item functioning (DIF) detection by logistic regression (LR) models: first, the relative effectiveness of different analytical strategies for detecting DIF; second, the suitability of the Wald statistic for determining the statistical significance of the parameters of interest; and…

  18. Thresholds for statistical and clinical significance in systematic reviews with meta-analytic methods

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jakobsen, Janus Christian; Wetterslev, Jorn; Winkel, Per

    2014-01-01

    BACKGROUND: Thresholds for statistical significance when assessing meta-analysis results are being insufficiently demonstrated by traditional 95% confidence intervals and P-values. Assessment of intervention effects in systematic reviews with meta-analysis deserves greater rigour. METHODS......: Methodologies for assessing statistical and clinical significance of intervention effects in systematic reviews were considered. Balancing simplicity and comprehensiveness, an operational procedure was developed, based mainly on The Cochrane Collaboration methodology and the Grading of Recommendations...... Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) guidelines. RESULTS: We propose an eight-step procedure for better validation of meta-analytic results in systematic reviews (1) Obtain the 95% confidence intervals and the P-values from both fixed-effect and random-effects meta-analyses and report the most...

  19. OSL Age Determination of the Hearths in a Bronze Age Dwelling Site by using Bayesian Statistics

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kim, Myung Jin; Yang, Hye Jin; Hong, Duk Geun

    2011-01-01

    OSL dating for three hearths having the sequence of use and discard in No. 29 and 29-1 dwelling sites at Sogol cultural site was carried out. Resulting from the deconvolution of natural CW-OSL decay curve and thermal zeroing test, it was turned out that OSL signal was entirely composed of the heat- and light-sensitive fast component with high photoionization cross-section and all quartz OSL signals were thermally bleached under 300 .deg. C which is the minimum temperature related to heating and cooking in Bronze age. After dose recovery test and plateau test, paleodose of each hearth sample was evaluated by using SAR method, and OSL age was determined from the ratio of paleodose to annual dose rate. For the purpose of the precision improvement of OSL age, Bayesian statistics was applied to each hearth's age and the archaeological sequence information. Finally, it could be concluded to the accurate use period of each hearth from the resultant OSL ages

  20. OSL Age Determination of the Hearths in a Bronze Age Dwelling Site by using Bayesian Statistics

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kim, Myung Jin [Neosiskorea Co. Ltd., Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Yang, Hye Jin [Baekje Cultural Properties Research Institute, Gongju (Korea, Republic of); Hong, Duk Geun [Kangwon National University, Chuncheon (Korea, Republic of)

    2011-06-15

    OSL dating for three hearths having the sequence of use and discard in No. 29 and 29-1 dwelling sites at Sogol cultural site was carried out. Resulting from the deconvolution of natural CW-OSL decay curve and thermal zeroing test, it was turned out that OSL signal was entirely composed of the heat- and light-sensitive fast component with high photoionization cross-section and all quartz OSL signals were thermally bleached under 300 .deg. C which is the minimum temperature related to heating and cooking in Bronze age. After dose recovery test and plateau test, paleodose of each hearth sample was evaluated by using SAR method, and OSL age was determined from the ratio of paleodose to annual dose rate. For the purpose of the precision improvement of OSL age, Bayesian statistics was applied to each hearth's age and the archaeological sequence information. Finally, it could be concluded to the accurate use period of each hearth from the resultant OSL ages.

  1. Statistics in the Computer Age

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Tjur, Tue

    2011-01-01

    It is a trivial observation that the computers have changed the way statistics is practiced. But has it also changed the theory of statistics and the way we teach it? I think yes—even if the changes appear to be surprisingly small in some contexts. This is an attempt to give a more detailed answer...

  2. Manipulation of Ovarian Function Significantly Influenced Sarcopenia in Postreproductive-Age Mice

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rhett L. Peterson

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Previously, transplantation of ovaries from young cycling mice into old postreproductive-age mice increased life span. We anticipated that the same factors that increased life span could also influence health span. Female CBA/J mice received new (60 d ovaries at 12 and 17 months of age and were evaluated at 16 and 25 months of age, respectively. There were no significant differences in body weight among any age or treatment group. The percentage of fat mass was significantly increased at 13 and 16 months of age but was reduced by ovarian transplantation in 16-month-old mice. The percentages of lean body mass and total body water were significantly reduced in 13-month-old control mice but were restored in 16- and 25-month-old recipient mice by ovarian transplantation to the levels found in six-month-old control mice. In summary, we have shown that skeletal muscle mass, which is negatively influenced by aging, can be positively influenced or restored by reestablishment of active ovarian function in aged female mice. These findings provide strong incentive for further investigation of the positive influence of young ovaries on restoration of health in postreproductive females.

  3. Intensive inpatient treatment for bulimia nervosa: Statistical and clinical significance of symptom changes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Diedrich, Alice; Schlegl, Sandra; Greetfeld, Martin; Fumi, Markus; Voderholzer, Ulrich

    2018-03-01

    This study examines the statistical and clinical significance of symptom changes during an intensive inpatient treatment program with a strong psychotherapeutic focus for individuals with severe bulimia nervosa. 295 consecutively admitted bulimic patients were administered the Structured Interview for Anorexic and Bulimic Syndromes-Self-Rating (SIAB-S), the Eating Disorder Inventory-2 (EDI-2), the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI), and the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) at treatment intake and discharge. Results indicated statistically significant symptom reductions with large effect sizes regarding severity of binge eating and compensatory behavior (SIAB-S), overall eating disorder symptom severity (EDI-2), overall psychopathology (BSI), and depressive symptom severity (BDI-II) even when controlling for antidepressant medication. The majority of patients showed either reliable (EDI-2: 33.7%, BSI: 34.8%, BDI-II: 18.1%) or even clinically significant symptom changes (EDI-2: 43.2%, BSI: 33.9%, BDI-II: 56.9%). Patients with clinically significant improvement were less distressed at intake and less likely to suffer from a comorbid borderline personality disorder when compared with those who did not improve to a clinically significant extent. Findings indicate that intensive psychotherapeutic inpatient treatment may be effective in about 75% of severely affected bulimic patients. For the remaining non-responding patients, inpatient treatment might be improved through an even stronger focus on the reduction of comorbid borderline personality traits.

  4. Recent Literature on Whether Statistical Significance Tests Should or Should Not Be Banned.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Deegear, James

    This paper summarizes the literature regarding statistical significant testing with an emphasis on recent literature in various discipline and literature exploring why researchers have demonstrably failed to be influenced by the American Psychological Association publication manual's encouragement to report effect sizes. Also considered are…

  5. Cross-population validation of statistical distance as a measure of physiological dysregulation during aging.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cohen, Alan A; Milot, Emmanuel; Li, Qing; Legault, Véronique; Fried, Linda P; Ferrucci, Luigi

    2014-09-01

    Measuring physiological dysregulation during aging could be a key tool both to understand underlying aging mechanisms and to predict clinical outcomes in patients. However, most existing indices are either circular or hard to interpret biologically. Recently, we showed that statistical distance of 14 common blood biomarkers (a measure of how strange an individual's biomarker profile is) was associated with age and mortality in the WHAS II data set, validating its use as a measure of physiological dysregulation. Here, we extend the analyses to other data sets (WHAS I and InCHIANTI) to assess the stability of the measure across populations. We found that the statistical criteria used to determine the original 14 biomarkers produced diverging results across populations; in other words, had we started with a different data set, we would have chosen a different set of markers. Nonetheless, the same 14 markers (or the subset of 12 available for InCHIANTI) produced highly similar predictions of age and mortality. We include analyses of all combinatorial subsets of the markers and show that results do not depend much on biomarker choice or data set, but that more markers produce a stronger signal. We conclude that statistical distance as a measure of physiological dysregulation is stable across populations in Europe and North America. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  6. Organizational downsizing and age discrimination litigation: the influence of personnel practices and statistical evidence on litigation outcomes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wingate, Peter H; Thornton, George C; McIntyre, Kelly S; Frame, Jennifer H

    2003-02-01

    The present study examined relationships between reduction-in-force (RIF) personnel practices, presentation of statistical evidence, and litigation outcomes. Policy capturing methods were utilized to analyze the components of 115 federal district court opinions involving age discrimination disparate treatment allegations and organizational downsizing. Univariate analyses revealed meaningful links between RIF personnel practices, use of statistical evidence, and judicial verdict. The defendant organization was awarded summary judgment in 73% of the claims included in the study. Judicial decisions in favor of the defendant organization were found to be significantly related to such variables as formal performance appraisal systems, termination decision review within the organization, methods of employee assessment and selection for termination, and the presence of a concrete layoff policy. The use of statistical evidence in ADEA disparate treatment litigation was investigated and found to be a potentially persuasive type of indirect evidence. Legal, personnel, and evidentiary ramifications are reviewed, and a framework of downsizing mechanics emphasizing legal defensibility is presented.

  7. Cloud-based solution to identify statistically significant MS peaks differentiating sample categories.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ji, Jun; Ling, Jeffrey; Jiang, Helen; Wen, Qiaojun; Whitin, John C; Tian, Lu; Cohen, Harvey J; Ling, Xuefeng B

    2013-03-23

    Mass spectrometry (MS) has evolved to become the primary high throughput tool for proteomics based biomarker discovery. Until now, multiple challenges in protein MS data analysis remain: large-scale and complex data set management; MS peak identification, indexing; and high dimensional peak differential analysis with the concurrent statistical tests based false discovery rate (FDR). "Turnkey" solutions are needed for biomarker investigations to rapidly process MS data sets to identify statistically significant peaks for subsequent validation. Here we present an efficient and effective solution, which provides experimental biologists easy access to "cloud" computing capabilities to analyze MS data. The web portal can be accessed at http://transmed.stanford.edu/ssa/. Presented web application supplies large scale MS data online uploading and analysis with a simple user interface. This bioinformatic tool will facilitate the discovery of the potential protein biomarkers using MS.

  8. Improved statistical power with a sparse shape model in detecting an aging effect in the hippocampus and amygdala

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chung, Moo K.; Kim, Seung-Goo; Schaefer, Stacey M.; van Reekum, Carien M.; Peschke-Schmitz, Lara; Sutterer, Matthew J.; Davidson, Richard J.

    2014-03-01

    The sparse regression framework has been widely used in medical image processing and analysis. However, it has been rarely used in anatomical studies. We present a sparse shape modeling framework using the Laplace- Beltrami (LB) eigenfunctions of the underlying shape and show its improvement of statistical power. Tradition- ally, the LB-eigenfunctions are used as a basis for intrinsically representing surface shapes as a form of Fourier descriptors. To reduce high frequency noise, only the first few terms are used in the expansion and higher frequency terms are simply thrown away. However, some lower frequency terms may not necessarily contribute significantly in reconstructing the surfaces. Motivated by this idea, we present a LB-based method to filter out only the significant eigenfunctions by imposing a sparse penalty. For dense anatomical data such as deformation fields on a surface mesh, the sparse regression behaves like a smoothing process, which will reduce the error of incorrectly detecting false negatives. Hence the statistical power improves. The sparse shape model is then applied in investigating the influence of age on amygdala and hippocampus shapes in the normal population. The advantage of the LB sparse framework is demonstrated by showing the increased statistical power.

  9. Power, effects, confidence, and significance: an investigation of statistical practices in nursing research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gaskin, Cadeyrn J; Happell, Brenda

    2014-05-01

    improvement. Most importantly, researchers should abandon the misleading practice of interpreting the results from inferential tests based solely on whether they are statistically significant (or not) and, instead, focus on reporting and interpreting effect sizes, confidence intervals, and significance levels. Nursing researchers also need to conduct and report a priori power analyses, and to address the issue of Type I experiment-wise error inflation in their studies. Crown Copyright © 2013. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  10. Aging and the statistical learning of grammatical form classes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schwab, Jessica F; Schuler, Kathryn D; Stillman, Chelsea M; Newport, Elissa L; Howard, James H; Howard, Darlene V

    2016-08-01

    Language learners must place unfamiliar words into categories, often with few explicit indicators about when and how that word can be used grammatically. Reeder, Newport, and Aslin (2013) showed that college students can learn grammatical form classes from an artificial language by relying solely on distributional information (i.e., contextual cues in the input). Here, 2 experiments revealed that healthy older adults also show such statistical learning, though they are poorer than young at distinguishing grammatical from ungrammatical strings. This finding expands knowledge of which aspects of learning vary with aging, with potential implications for second language learning in late adulthood. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

  11. Examining reproducibility in psychology : A hybrid method for combining a statistically significant original study and a replication

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Van Aert, R.C.M.; Van Assen, M.A.L.M.

    2018-01-01

    The unrealistically high rate of positive results within psychology has increased the attention to replication research. However, researchers who conduct a replication and want to statistically combine the results of their replication with a statistically significant original study encounter

  12. A tutorial on hunting statistical significance by chasing N

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Denes Szucs

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available There is increasing concern about the replicability of studies in psychology and cognitive neuroscience. Hidden data dredging (also called p-hacking is a major contributor to this crisis because it substantially increases Type I error resulting in a much larger proportion of false positive findings than the usually expected 5%. In order to build better intuition to avoid, detect and criticise some typical problems, here I systematically illustrate the large impact of some easy to implement and so, perhaps frequent data dredging techniques on boosting false positive findings. I illustrate several forms of two special cases of data dredging. First, researchers may violate the data collection stopping rules of null hypothesis significance testing by repeatedly checking for statistical significance with various numbers of participants. Second, researchers may group participants post-hoc along potential but unplanned independent grouping variables. The first approach 'hacks' the number of participants in studies, the second approach ‘hacks’ the number of variables in the analysis. I demonstrate the high amount of false positive findings generated by these techniques with data from true null distributions. I also illustrate that it is extremely easy to introduce strong bias into data by very mild selection and re-testing. Similar, usually undocumented data dredging steps can easily lead to having 20-50%, or more false positives.

  13. Age most significant predictor of requiring enteral feeding in head-and-neck cancer patients

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sachdev, Sean; Refaat, Tamer; Bacchus, Ian D; Sathiaseelan, Vythialinga; Mittal, Bharat B

    2015-01-01

    A significant number of patients treated for head and neck squamous cell cancer (HNSCC) undergo enteral tube feeding. Data suggest that avoiding enteral feeding can prevent long-term tube dependence and disuse of the swallowing mechanism which has been linked to complications such as prolonged dysphagia and esophageal constriction. We examined detailed dosimetric and clinical parameters to better identify those at risk of requiring enteral feeding. One hundred patients with advanced stage HNSCC were retrospectively analyzed after intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) to a median dose of 70 Gy (range: 60-75 Gy) with concurrent chemotherapy in nearly all cases (97%). Patients with significant weight loss (>10%) in the setting of severely reduced oral intake were referred for placement of a percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) tube. Detailed DVH parameters were collected for several structures. Univariate and multivariate analyses using logistic regression were used to determine clinical and dosimetric factors associated with needing enteral feeding. Dichotomous outcomes were tested using Fisher’s exact test and continuous variables between groups using the Wilcoxon rank-sum test. Thirty-three percent of patients required placement of an enteral feeding tube. The median time to tube placement was 25 days from start of treatment, after a median dose of 38 Gy. On univariate analysis, age (p = 0.0008), the DFH (Docetaxel/5-FU/Hydroxyurea) chemotherapy regimen (p = .042) and b.i.d treatment (P = 0.040) (used in limited cases on protocol) predicted need for enteral feeding. On multivariate analysis, age remained the single statistically significant factor (p = 0.003) regardless of other clinical features (e.g. BMI) and all radiation planning parameters. For patients 60 or older compared to younger adults, the odds ratio for needing enteral feeding was 4.188 (p = 0.0019). Older age was found to be the most significant risk factor for needing enteral feeding in

  14. A critical discussion of null hypothesis significance testing and statistical power analysis within psychological research

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jones, Allan; Sommerlund, Bo

    2007-01-01

    The uses of null hypothesis significance testing (NHST) and statistical power analysis within psychological research are critically discussed. The article looks at the problems of relying solely on NHST when dealing with small and large sample sizes. The use of power-analysis in estimating...... the potential error introduced by small and large samples is advocated. Power analysis is not recommended as a replacement to NHST but as an additional source of information about the phenomena under investigation. Moreover, the importance of conceptual analysis in relation to statistical analysis of hypothesis...

  15. Statistical method for determining ages of globular clusters by fitting isochrones

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Flannery, B.P.; Johnson, B.C.

    1982-01-01

    We describe a statistical procedure to compare models of stellar evolution and atmospheres with color-magnitude diagrams of globular clusters. The isochrone depends on five parameters: m-M, age, [Fe/H], Y, and α, but in practice we can only determine m-M and age for an assumed composition. The technique allows us to determine parameters of the model, their uncertainty, and to assess goodness of fit. We test the method, and evaluate the effect of assumptions on an extensive set of Monte Carlo simulations. We apply the method to extensive observations of NGC 6752 and M5, and to smaller data sets for the clusters M3, M5, M15, and M92. We determine age and m-M for two assumed values of helium Y = (0.2, 0.3), and three values of metallicity with a spread in [Fe/H] of +- 0.3 dex. These result in a spread in age of 5-8 Gyr (1 Gyr = 10 9 yr), and a spread in m-M of 0.5 mag. The mean age is generally younger by 2-3 Gyr than previous estimates. Likely uncertainty associated with an individual fit can be small as 0.4 Gyr. Most importantly, we find that two uncalibratable sources of systematic error make the results suspect. These are uncertainty in the stellar temperatures induced by choice of mixing length, and known errors in stellar atmospheres. These effects could reduce age estimates by an additional 5 Gyr. We conclude that observations do not preclude ages as young as 10 Gyr for globular clusters

  16. Statistical significance estimation of a signal within the GooFit framework on GPUs

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cristella Leonardo

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available In order to test the computing capabilities of GPUs with respect to traditional CPU cores a high-statistics toy Monte Carlo technique has been implemented both in ROOT/RooFit and GooFit frameworks with the purpose to estimate the statistical significance of the structure observed by CMS close to the kinematical boundary of the J/ψϕ invariant mass in the three-body decay B+ → J/ψϕK+. GooFit is a data analysis open tool under development that interfaces ROOT/RooFit to CUDA platform on nVidia GPU. The optimized GooFit application running on GPUs hosted by servers in the Bari Tier2 provides striking speed-up performances with respect to the RooFit application parallelised on multiple CPUs by means of PROOF-Lite tool. The considerable resulting speed-up, evident when comparing concurrent GooFit processes allowed by CUDA Multi Process Service and a RooFit/PROOF-Lite process with multiple CPU workers, is presented and discussed in detail. By means of GooFit it has also been possible to explore the behaviour of a likelihood ratio test statistic in different situations in which the Wilks Theorem may or may not apply because its regularity conditions are not satisfied.

  17. Is statistical significance clinically important?--A guide to judge the clinical relevance of study findings

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Sierevelt, Inger N.; van Oldenrijk, Jakob; Poolman, Rudolf W.

    2007-01-01

    In this paper we describe several issues that influence the reporting of statistical significance in relation to clinical importance, since misinterpretation of p values is a common issue in orthopaedic literature. Orthopaedic research is tormented by the risks of false-positive (type I error) and

  18. Age related neuromuscular changes in sEMG of m. Tibialis Anterior using higher order statistics (Gaussianity & linearity test).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Siddiqi, Ariba; Arjunan, Sridhar P; Kumar, Dinesh K

    2016-08-01

    Age-associated changes in the surface electromyogram (sEMG) of Tibialis Anterior (TA) muscle can be attributable to neuromuscular alterations that precede strength loss. We have used our sEMG model of the Tibialis Anterior to interpret the age-related changes and compared with the experimental sEMG. Eighteen young (20-30 years) and 18 older (60-85 years) performed isometric dorsiflexion at 6 different percentage levels of maximum voluntary contractions (MVC), and their sEMG from the TA muscle was recorded. Six different age-related changes in the neuromuscular system were simulated using the sEMG model at the same MVCs as the experiment. The maximal power of the spectrum, Gaussianity and Linearity Test Statistics were computed from the simulated and experimental sEMG. A correlation analysis at α=0.05 was performed between the simulated and experimental age-related change in the sEMG features. The results show the loss in motor units was distinguished by the Gaussianity and Linearity test statistics; while the maximal power of the PSD distinguished between the muscular factors. The simulated condition of 40% loss of motor units with halved the number of fast fibers best correlated with the age-related change observed in the experimental sEMG higher order statistical features. The simulated aging condition found by this study corresponds with the moderate motor unit remodelling and negligible strength loss reported in literature for the cohorts aged 60-70 years.

  19. Age and gender effects on normal regional cerebral blood flow studied using two different voxel-based statistical analyses

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pirson, A.S.; George, J.; Krug, B.; Vander Borght, T.; Van Laere, K.; Jamart, J.; D'Asseler, Y.; Minoshima, S.

    2009-01-01

    Fully automated analysis programs have been applied more and more to aid for the reading of regional cerebral blood flow SPECT study. They are increasingly based on the comparison of the patient study with a normal database. In this study, we evaluate the ability of Three-Dimensional Stereotactic Surface Projection (3 D-S.S.P.) to isolate effects of age and gender in a previously studied normal population. The results were also compared with those obtained using Statistical Parametric Mapping (S.P.M.99). Methods Eighty-nine 99m Tc-E.C.D.-SPECT studies performed in carefully screened healthy volunteers (46 females, 43 males; age 20 - 81 years) were analysed using 3 D-S.S.P.. A multivariate analysis based on the general linear model was performed with regions as intra-subject factor, gender as inter-subject factor and age as co-variate. Results Both age and gender had a significant interaction effect with regional tracer uptake. An age-related decline (p < 0.001) was found in the anterior cingulate gyrus, left frontal association cortex and left insula. Bilateral occipital association and left primary visual cortical uptake showed a significant relative increase with age (p < 0.001). Concerning the gender effect, women showed higher uptake (p < 0.01) in the parietal and right sensorimotor cortices. An age by gender interaction (p < 0.01) was only found in the left medial frontal cortex. The results were consistent with those obtained with S.P.M.99. Conclusion 3 D-S.S.P. analysis of normal r.C.B.F. variability is consistent with the literature and other automated voxel-based techniques, which highlight the effects of both age and gender. (authors)

  20. Statistical significance of theoretical predictions: A new dimension in nuclear structure theories (I)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    DUDEK, J; SZPAK, B; FORNAL, B; PORQUET, M-G

    2011-01-01

    In this and the follow-up article we briefly discuss what we believe represents one of the most serious problems in contemporary nuclear structure: the question of statistical significance of parametrizations of nuclear microscopic Hamiltonians and the implied predictive power of the underlying theories. In the present Part I, we introduce the main lines of reasoning of the so-called Inverse Problem Theory, an important sub-field in the contemporary Applied Mathematics, here illustrated on the example of the Nuclear Mean-Field Approach.

  1. A New Form of Nondestructive Strength-Estimating Statistical Models Accounting for Uncertainty of Model and Aging Effect of Concrete

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hong, Kee Jeung; Kim, Jee Sang

    2009-01-01

    As concrete ages, the surrounding environment is expected to have growing influences on the concrete. As all the impacts of the environment cannot be considered in the strength-estimating model of a nondestructive concrete test, the increase in concrete age leads to growing uncertainty in the strength-estimating model. Therefore, the variation of the model error increases. It is necessary to include those impacts in the probability model of concrete strength attained from the nondestructive tests so as to build a more accurate reliability model for structural performance evaluation. This paper reviews and categorizes the existing strength-estimating statistical models of nondestructive concrete test, and suggests a new form of the strength-estimating statistical models to properly reflect the model uncertainty due to aging of the concrete. This new form of the statistical models will lay foundation for more accurate structural performance evaluation.

  2. Statistical Significance of the Contribution of Variables to the PCA Solution: An Alternative Permutation Strategy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Linting, Marielle; van Os, Bart Jan; Meulman, Jacqueline J.

    2011-01-01

    In this paper, the statistical significance of the contribution of variables to the principal components in principal components analysis (PCA) is assessed nonparametrically by the use of permutation tests. We compare a new strategy to a strategy used in previous research consisting of permuting the columns (variables) of a data matrix…

  3. A Note on Comparing the Power of Test Statistics at Low Significance Levels.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Morris, Nathan; Elston, Robert

    2011-01-01

    It is an obvious fact that the power of a test statistic is dependent upon the significance (alpha) level at which the test is performed. It is perhaps a less obvious fact that the relative performance of two statistics in terms of power is also a function of the alpha level. Through numerous personal discussions, we have noted that even some competent statisticians have the mistaken intuition that relative power comparisons at traditional levels such as α = 0.05 will be roughly similar to relative power comparisons at very low levels, such as the level α = 5 × 10 -8 , which is commonly used in genome-wide association studies. In this brief note, we demonstrate that this notion is in fact quite wrong, especially with respect to comparing tests with differing degrees of freedom. In fact, at very low alpha levels the cost of additional degrees of freedom is often comparatively low. Thus we recommend that statisticians exercise caution when interpreting the results of power comparison studies which use alpha levels that will not be used in practice.

  4. ClusterSignificance: A bioconductor package facilitating statistical analysis of class cluster separations in dimensionality reduced data

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Serviss, Jason T.; Gådin, Jesper R.; Eriksson, Per

    2017-01-01

    , e.g. genes in a specific pathway, alone can separate samples into these established classes. Despite this, the evaluation of class separations is often subjective and performed via visualization. Here we present the ClusterSignificance package; a set of tools designed to assess the statistical...... significance of class separations downstream of dimensionality reduction algorithms. In addition, we demonstrate the design and utility of the ClusterSignificance package and utilize it to determine the importance of long non-coding RNA expression in the identity of multiple hematological malignancies....

  5. Clinical significance of changes of serum osteocalcin (BGP) levels in subjects of different age-groups

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jiang Lihua; Zhang Jin; Han Cuihua; Ouyang Qiaohong

    2006-01-01

    Objective: To investigate the changes of serum BGP levels in different age-groups. Methods: Serum BGP levels were determined with RIA in 306 subjects of different age-groups. Results: The serum BGP levels were highest in subjects of the pre-adolescent group (age5-15, n=60, vs other groups, all P 50, n=80, P<0.001). Levels in the middle age group were the lowest and were significantly lower than those in the old age group (P<0.001). No sex related differences were observed in the pre-adolescent and middle age groups, but in the youth group, serum BGP levels were significantly higher in the males than those in the females (P<0.05). However, in the old age group, the reverse was true i.e. values being significantly higher in the females (vs males, P<0.01). Conclusion: Serum BGP levels varied greatly among the different age groups. (authors)

  6. Statistical significance versus clinical importance: trials on exercise therapy for chronic low back pain as example.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van Tulder, M.W.; Malmivaara, A.; Hayden, J.; Koes, B.

    2007-01-01

    STUDY DESIGN. Critical appraisal of the literature. OBJECIVES. The objective of this study was to assess if results of back pain trials are statistically significant and clinically important. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA. There seems to be a discrepancy between conclusions reported by authors and

  7. Accelerated aging effects on surface hardness and roughness of lingual retainer adhesives.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ramoglu, Sabri Ilhan; Usumez, Serdar; Buyukyilmaz, Tamer

    2008-01-01

    To test the null hypothesis that accelerated aging has no effect on the surface microhardness and roughness of two light-cured lingual retainer adhesives. Ten samples of light-cured materials, Transbond Lingual Retainer (3M Unitek) and Light Cure Retainer (Reliance) were cured with a halogen light for 40 seconds. Vickers hardness and surface roughness were measured before and after accelerated aging of 300 hours in a weathering tester. Differences between mean values were analyzed for statistical significance using a t-test. The level of statistical significance was set at P statistically significant (P statistically significant (P .05). Accelerated aging significantly increased the surface microhardness of both light-cured retainer adhesives tested. It also significantly increased the surface roughness of the Transbond Lingual Retainer.

  8. Efficacy of Varicocele Repair in Different Age Groups.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yazdani, Mohammad; Hadi, Mazaher; Abbasi, Homayoun; Nourimahdavi, Kia; Khalighinejad, Pooyan; Mirsattari, Arash; Hadi, Ali

    2015-08-01

    To compare semen parameters and spouse pregnancy rates after varicocele repair in 2 age groups. Mean changes in spermatozoa concentration, motility, and morphology after varicocele repair in 83 patients were compared between patients aged 30 years or younger (group 1) and those older than 30 years (group 2). Spouse pregnancy rates were compared between the 2 age groups. The mean sperm concentration increased significantly in both groups (P group 1 and from 47.2% to 53.2% in group 2 one year after varicocele repair. The increase in motility was statistically significant for both groups (P groups (P = .01). The percentage of sperm with abnormal morphology decreased significantly in both groups 12 months postoperatively (from 62.7% to 59.6% in group 1 and from 61.3% to 58% in group 2; P = .03). However, there was no statistically significant difference in the improvement in sperm morphology between the 2 groups (P >.05). The pregnancy rates in the patients' spouses were 51.1% and 44.7% in groups 1 and 2, respectively. This difference was not statistically significant (P = .9). There was no statistically significant difference in semen parameter improvement and spouse pregnancy rates after varicocelectomy in the 2 age groups. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  9. Statistical analysis of biomechanical properties of the adult skull and age-related structural changes by sex in a Japanese forensic sample.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Torimitsu, Suguru; Nishida, Yoshifumi; Takano, Tachio; Koizumi, Yoshinori; Makino, Yohsuke; Yajima, Daisuke; Hayakawa, Mutsumi; Inokuchi, Go; Motomura, Ayumi; Chiba, Fumiko; Otsuka, Katsura; Kobayashi, Kazuhiro; Odo, Yuriko; Iwase, Hirotaro

    2014-01-01

    The purpose of this research was to investigate the biomechanical properties of the adult human skull and the structural changes that occur with age in both sexes. The heads of 94 Japanese cadavers (54 male cadavers, 40 female cadavers) autopsied in our department were used in this research. A total of 376 cranial samples, four from each skull, were collected. Sample fracture load was measured by a bending test. A statistically significant negative correlation between the sample fracture load and cadaver age was found. This indicates that the stiffness of cranial bones in Japanese individuals decreases with age, and the risk of skull fracture thus probably increases with age. Prior to the bending test, the sample mass, the sample thickness, the ratio of the sample thickness to cadaver stature (ST/CS), and the sample density were measured and calculated. Significant negative correlations between cadaver age and sample thickness, ST/CS, and the sample density were observed only among the female samples. Computerized tomographic (CT) images of 358 cranial samples were available. The computed tomography value (CT value) of cancellous bone which refers to a quantitative scale for describing radiodensity, cancellous bone thickness and cortical bone thickness were measured and calculated. Significant negative correlation between cadaver age and the CT value or cortical bone thickness was observed only among the female samples. These findings suggest that the skull is substantially affected by decreased bone metabolism resulting from osteoporosis. Therefore, osteoporosis prevention and treatment may increase cranial stiffness and reinforce the skull structure, leading to a decrease in the risk of skull fractures. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  10. Confounding and Statistical Significance of Indirect Effects: Childhood Adversity, Education, Smoking, and Anxious and Depressive Symptomatology

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mashhood Ahmed Sheikh

    2017-08-01

    Full Text Available The life course perspective, the risky families model, and stress-and-coping models provide the rationale for assessing the role of smoking as a mediator in the association between childhood adversity and anxious and depressive symptomatology (ADS in adulthood. However, no previous study has assessed the independent mediating role of smoking in the association between childhood adversity and ADS in adulthood. Moreover, the importance of mediator-response confounding variables has rarely been demonstrated empirically in social and psychiatric epidemiology. The aim of this paper was to (i assess the mediating role of smoking in adulthood in the association between childhood adversity and ADS in adulthood, and (ii assess the change in estimates due to different mediator-response confounding factors (education, alcohol intake, and social support. The present analysis used data collected from 1994 to 2008 within the framework of the Tromsø Study (N = 4,530, a representative prospective cohort study of men and women. Seven childhood adversities (low mother's education, low father's education, low financial conditions, exposure to passive smoke, psychological abuse, physical abuse, and substance abuse distress were used to create a childhood adversity score. Smoking status was measured at a mean age of 54.7 years (Tromsø IV, and ADS in adulthood was measured at a mean age of 61.7 years (Tromsø V. Mediation analysis was used to assess the indirect effect and the proportion of mediated effect (% of childhood adversity on ADS in adulthood via smoking in adulthood. The test-retest reliability of smoking was good (Kappa: 0.67, 95% CI: 0.63; 0.71 in this sample. Childhood adversity was associated with a 10% increased risk of smoking in adulthood (Relative risk: 1.10, 95% CI: 1.03; 1.18, and both childhood adversity and smoking in adulthood were associated with greater levels of ADS in adulthood (p < 0.001. Smoking in adulthood did not significantly

  11. Indirectional statistics and the significance of an asymmetry discovered by Birch

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kendall, D.G.; Young, G.A.

    1984-01-01

    Birch (1982, Nature, 298, 451) reported an apparent 'statistical asymmetry of the Universe'. The authors here develop 'indirectional analysis' as a technique for investigating statistical effects of this kind and conclude that the reported effect (whatever may be its origin) is strongly supported by the observations. The estimated pole of the asymmetry is at RA 13h 30m, Dec. -37deg. The angular error in its estimation is unlikely to exceed 20-30deg. (author)

  12. Clinical significance of bone age estimation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Heinrich, U.E.

    1986-01-01

    Skeletal development is an important maturity indicator during childhood. In clinical practice determination of skeletal age is helpful for the diagnosis of disorders of growth and development. Most hormones have specific effects on skeletal maturation. Thus, different disease states (growth disorders, disorders of pubertal development, chornic disorders of the bowels, kidneys, heart etc.) are characterized by retardation or acceleration of skeletal maturation. Therapeutic effects as well as side effects of hormones can be monitored by skeletal age determination. Typical disharmonic patterns in the appearance of bone centres of hand and wrist have been found in certain disorders of development. (orig.) [de

  13. Primary and secondary cases in Escherichia coli O157 outbreaks: a statistical analysis.

    LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

    Snedeker, Kate G

    2009-01-01

    BACKGROUND: Within outbreaks of Escherichia coli O157 (E. coli O157), at least 10-15% of cases are thought to have been acquired by secondary transmission. However, there has been little systematic quantification or characterisation of secondary outbreak cases worldwide. The aim of this study was to characterise secondary outbreak cases, estimate the overall proportion of outbreak cases that were the result of secondary transmission and to analyse the relationships between primary and secondary outbreak cases by mode of transmission, country and median age. METHODS: Published data was obtained from 90 confirmed Escherichia coli O157 outbreaks in Great Britain, Ireland, Scandinavia, Canada, the United States and Japan, and the outbreaks were described in terms of modes of primary and secondary transmission, country, case numbers and median case age. Outbreaks were tested for statistically significant differences in the number of ill, confirmed, primary and secondary cases (analysis of variance and Kruskal-Wallis) and in the rate of secondary cases between these variables (Generalised Linear Models). RESULTS: The outbreaks had a median of 13.5 confirmed cases, and mean proportion of 0.195 secondary cases. There were statistically significant differences in the numbers of ill, confirmed, primary and secondary cases between modes of primary transmission (p < 0.021), and in primary and secondary cases between median age categories (p < 0.039) and modes of secondary transmission (p < 0.001).Secondary case rates differed statistically significantly between modes of secondary and primary transmission and median age categories (all p < 0.001), but not between countries (p = 0.23). Statistically significantly higher rates of secondary transmission were found in outbreaks with a median age <6 years and those with secondary transmission via person to person spread in nurseries. No statistically significant interactions were found between country, mode of transmission and age

  14. Rapid Classification and Identification of Multiple Microorganisms with Accurate Statistical Significance via High-Resolution Tandem Mass Spectrometry.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alves, Gelio; Wang, Guanghui; Ogurtsov, Aleksey Y; Drake, Steven K; Gucek, Marjan; Sacks, David B; Yu, Yi-Kuo

    2018-06-05

    Rapid and accurate identification and classification of microorganisms is of paramount importance to public health and safety. With the advance of mass spectrometry (MS) technology, the speed of identification can be greatly improved. However, the increasing number of microbes sequenced is complicating correct microbial identification even in a simple sample due to the large number of candidates present. To properly untwine candidate microbes in samples containing one or more microbes, one needs to go beyond apparent morphology or simple "fingerprinting"; to correctly prioritize the candidate microbes, one needs to have accurate statistical significance in microbial identification. We meet these challenges by using peptide-centric representations of microbes to better separate them and by augmenting our earlier analysis method that yields accurate statistical significance. Here, we present an updated analysis workflow that uses tandem MS (MS/MS) spectra for microbial identification or classification. We have demonstrated, using 226 MS/MS publicly available data files (each containing from 2500 to nearly 100,000 MS/MS spectra) and 4000 additional MS/MS data files, that the updated workflow can correctly identify multiple microbes at the genus and often the species level for samples containing more than one microbe. We have also shown that the proposed workflow computes accurate statistical significances, i.e., E values for identified peptides and unified E values for identified microbes. Our updated analysis workflow MiCId, a freely available software for Microorganism Classification and Identification, is available for download at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/CBBresearch/Yu/downloads.html . Graphical Abstract ᅟ.

  15. Assessing Statistically Significant Heavy-Metal Concentrations in Abandoned Mine Areas via Hot Spot Analysis of Portable XRF Data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Sung-Min; Choi, Yosoon

    2017-06-18

    To develop appropriate measures to prevent soil contamination in abandoned mining areas, an understanding of the spatial variation of the potentially toxic trace elements (PTEs) in the soil is necessary. For the purpose of effective soil sampling, this study uses hot spot analysis, which calculates a z -score based on the Getis-Ord Gi* statistic to identify a statistically significant hot spot sample. To constitute a statistically significant hot spot, a feature with a high value should also be surrounded by other features with high values. Using relatively cost- and time-effective portable X-ray fluorescence (PXRF) analysis, sufficient input data are acquired from the Busan abandoned mine and used for hot spot analysis. To calibrate the PXRF data, which have a relatively low accuracy, the PXRF analysis data are transformed using the inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES) data. The transformed PXRF data of the Busan abandoned mine are classified into four groups according to their normalized content and z -scores: high content with a high z -score (HH), high content with a low z -score (HL), low content with a high z -score (LH), and low content with a low z -score (LL). The HL and LH cases may be due to measurement errors. Additional or complementary surveys are required for the areas surrounding these suspect samples or for significant hot spot areas. The soil sampling is conducted according to a four-phase procedure in which the hot spot analysis and proposed group classification method are employed to support the development of a sampling plan for the following phase. Overall, 30, 50, 80, and 100 samples are investigated and analyzed in phases 1-4, respectively. The method implemented in this case study may be utilized in the field for the assessment of statistically significant soil contamination and the identification of areas for which an additional survey is required.

  16. Assessing Statistically Significant Heavy-Metal Concentrations in Abandoned Mine Areas via Hot Spot Analysis of Portable XRF Data

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sung-Min Kim

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available To develop appropriate measures to prevent soil contamination in abandoned mining areas, an understanding of the spatial variation of the potentially toxic trace elements (PTEs in the soil is necessary. For the purpose of effective soil sampling, this study uses hot spot analysis, which calculates a z-score based on the Getis-Ord Gi* statistic to identify a statistically significant hot spot sample. To constitute a statistically significant hot spot, a feature with a high value should also be surrounded by other features with high values. Using relatively cost- and time-effective portable X-ray fluorescence (PXRF analysis, sufficient input data are acquired from the Busan abandoned mine and used for hot spot analysis. To calibrate the PXRF data, which have a relatively low accuracy, the PXRF analysis data are transformed using the inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES data. The transformed PXRF data of the Busan abandoned mine are classified into four groups according to their normalized content and z-scores: high content with a high z-score (HH, high content with a low z-score (HL, low content with a high z-score (LH, and low content with a low z-score (LL. The HL and LH cases may be due to measurement errors. Additional or complementary surveys are required for the areas surrounding these suspect samples or for significant hot spot areas. The soil sampling is conducted according to a four-phase procedure in which the hot spot analysis and proposed group classification method are employed to support the development of a sampling plan for the following phase. Overall, 30, 50, 80, and 100 samples are investigated and analyzed in phases 1–4, respectively. The method implemented in this case study may be utilized in the field for the assessment of statistically significant soil contamination and the identification of areas for which an additional survey is required.

  17. L-carnitine significantly decreased aging of rat adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mobarak, Halimeh; Fathi, Ezzatollah; Farahzadi, Raheleh; Zarghami, Nosratollah; Javanmardi, Sara

    2017-03-01

    Mesenchymal stem cells are undifferentiated cells that have the ability to divide continuously and tissue regeneration potential during the transplantation. Aging and loss of cell survival, is one of the main problems in cell therapy. Since the production of free radicals in the aging process is effective, the use of antioxidant compounds can help in scavenging free radicals and prevent the aging of cells. The aim of this study is evaluate the effects of L-carnitine (LC) on proliferation and aging of rat adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cells (rADSC). rADSCs were isolated from inguinal region of 5 male Rattus rats. Oil red-O, alizarin red-S and toluidine blue staining were performed to evaluate the adipogenic, osteogenic and chondrogenic differentiation of rADSCs, respectively. Flow cytometric analysis was done for investigating the cell surface markers. The methyl thiazol tetrazolium (MTT) method was used to determine the cell proliferation of rADSCs following exposure to different concentrations of LC. rADSCs aging was evaluated by beta-galactosidase staining. The results showed significant proliferation of rADSCs 48 h after treatment with concentrations of 0.2 mM LC. In addition, in the presence of 0.2 mM LC, rADSCs appeared to be growing faster than control group and 0.2 mM LC supplementation could significantly decrease the population doubling time and aging of rADSCs. It seems that LC would be a good antioxidant to improve lifespan of rADSCs due to the decrease in aging.

  18. Prevalence of significant bacteriuria among symptomatic and ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 16.0 (SPSS, Inc., Chicago, Ill). Results: A total of 100 consenting participants were recruited into the study. The mean age was: 23.42 ± 8.31 years and a range of 14‑50 years. Only 9% (9/100) had significant bacteriuria while 44.4% (4/9) ...

  19. Detecting Statistically Significant Communities of Triangle Motifs in Undirected Networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    2016-04-26

    Systems, Statistics & Management Science, University of Alabama, USA. 1 DISTRIBUTION A: Distribution approved for public release. Contents 1 Summary 5...13 5 Application to Real Networks 18 5.1 2012 FBS Football Schedule Network... football schedule network. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 14 Stem plot of degree-ordered vertices versus the degree for college football

  20. Statistical significant changes in ground thermal conditions of alpine Austria during the last decade

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kellerer-Pirklbauer, Andreas

    2016-04-01

    Longer data series (e.g. >10 a) of ground temperatures in alpine regions are helpful to improve the understanding regarding the effects of present climate change on distribution and thermal characteristics of seasonal frost- and permafrost-affected areas. Beginning in 2004 - and more intensively since 2006 - a permafrost and seasonal frost monitoring network was established in Central and Eastern Austria by the University of Graz. This network consists of c.60 ground temperature (surface and near-surface) monitoring sites which are located at 1922-3002 m a.s.l., at latitude 46°55'-47°22'N and at longitude 12°44'-14°41'E. These data allow conclusions about general ground thermal conditions, potential permafrost occurrence, trend during the observation period, and regional pattern of changes. Calculations and analyses of several different temperature-related parameters were accomplished. At an annual scale a region-wide statistical significant warming during the observation period was revealed by e.g. an increase in mean annual temperature values (mean, maximum) or the significant lowering of the surface frost number (F+). At a seasonal scale no significant trend of any temperature-related parameter was in most cases revealed for spring (MAM) and autumn (SON). Winter (DJF) shows only a weak warming. In contrast, the summer (JJA) season reveals in general a significant warming as confirmed by several different temperature-related parameters such as e.g. mean seasonal temperature, number of thawing degree days, number of freezing degree days, or days without night frost. On a monthly basis August shows the statistically most robust and strongest warming of all months, although regional differences occur. Despite the fact that the general ground temperature warming during the last decade is confirmed by the field data in the study region, complications in trend analyses arise by temperature anomalies (e.g. warm winter 2006/07) or substantial variations in the winter

  1. Effect of age and sex on warfarin dosing

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Khoury G

    2014-07-01

    Full Text Available Ghada Khoury,1 Marwan Sheikh-Taha2 1School of Pharmacy, 2Department of Pharmacy Practice, Lebanese American University, Byblos, Lebanon Objective: We examined the potential effect of sex and age on warfarin dosing in ambulatory adult patients. Methods: We conducted a retrospective chart review of patients attending an anticoagulation clinic. We included patients anticoagulated with warfarin for atrial fibrillation or venous thromboembolism who had a therapeutic international normalized ratio of 2–3 for 2 consecutive months. We excluded patients who had been on any drug that is known to have a major interaction with warfarin, smokers, and heavy alcohol consumers. Out of 340 screened medical records, 96 met the predetermined inclusion criteria. The primary outcome assessed was warfarin total weekly dose (TWD. Results: There was a statistically significant difference in the TWD among the ages (P<0.01; older patients required lower doses. However there was no statistically significant difference in the TWD between sexes (P=0.281. Conclusion: Age was found to have a significant effect on warfarin dosing. Even though women did require a lower TWD than men, this observation was not statistically significant. Keywords: warfarin, INR, anticoagulation, vitamin K antagonists, age

  2. Modeling Age-Friendly Environment, Active Aging, and Social Connectedness in an Emerging Asian Economy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ming-Ming Lai

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper empirically tested eight key features of WHO guidelines to age-friendly community by surveying 211 informal caregivers and 402 self-care adults (aged 45 to 85 and above in Malaysia. We examined the associations of these eight features with active aging and social connectedness through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. A structural model with satisfactory goodness-of-fit indices (CMIN/df = 1.11, RMSEA = 0.02, NFI = 0.97, TLI = 1.00, CFI = 1.00, and GFI = 0.96 indicates that transportation and housing, community support and health services, and outdoor spaces and buildings are statistically significant in creating an age-friendly environment. We found a statistically significant positive relationship between an age-friendly environment and active aging. This relationship is mediated by social connectedness. The results indicate that built environments such as accessible public transportations and housing, affordable and accessible healthcare services, and elderly friendly outdoor spaces and buildings have to be put into place before social environment in building an age-friendly environment. Otherwise, the structural barriers would hinder social interactions for the aged. The removal of the environmental barriers and improved public transportation services provide short-term solutions to meet the varied and growing needs of the older population.

  3. Conducting tests for statistically significant differences using forest inventory data

    Science.gov (United States)

    James A. Westfall; Scott A. Pugh; John W. Coulston

    2013-01-01

    Many forest inventory and monitoring programs are based on a sample of ground plots from which estimates of forest resources are derived. In addition to evaluating metrics such as number of trees or amount of cubic wood volume, it is often desirable to make comparisons between resource attributes. To properly conduct statistical tests for differences, it is imperative...

  4. Intraocular pressure asymmetry is not a clinically-significant feature when using the PULSAIR non-contact tonometer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pointer, J S

    1997-11-01

    This report describes the results of a retrospective analysis of intraocular pressure (i.o.p.) values recorded from the right (R) and left (L) eyes of middle-aged and elderly at-risk but assumed non-glaucomatous subjects. The tensions had been measured using the Keeler PULSAIR non-contact tonometer (NCT) in the course of routine optometric practice when individuals attended for a sight test. These bilateral IOP data were collated on the basis of each subject's gender, (male/female), age (40-59 years/60+ years) and the time of the tonometry assessment (a.m./p.m.). Wherever possible material was equi-partitioned across these three bipartite variables producing balanced data groupings. Pair-wise testing of R versus L absolute values of pneumo-applanation pressures across any of the balanced data groupings failed to reveal a statistically-significant difference between the paired IOP distributions. There was a consistent but small relative IOP asymmetry (L > R) in these data. Further analysis indicated that this asymmetry only attained borderline statistical significance with respect to subject's age: neither gender nor the time of assessment were statistically significant features, and there were no statistically-significant interactions between any of the three variables. In conclusion, provided that the manufacturer's operating instructions are adhered to, IOP asymmetry is not a clinically-significant feature when using the PULSAIR NCT on a clinical population at risk of developing glaucoma.

  5. A statistical method for estimating rates of soil development and ages of geologic deposits: A design for soil-chronosequence studies

    Science.gov (United States)

    Switzer, P.; Harden, J.W.; Mark, R.K.

    1988-01-01

    A statistical method for estimating rates of soil development in a given region based on calibration from a series of dated soils is used to estimate ages of soils in the same region that are not dated directly. The method is designed specifically to account for sampling procedures and uncertainties that are inherent in soil studies. Soil variation and measurement error, uncertainties in calibration dates and their relation to the age of the soil, and the limited number of dated soils are all considered. Maximum likelihood (ML) is employed to estimate a parametric linear calibration curve, relating soil development to time or age on suitably transformed scales. Soil variation on a geomorphic surface of a certain age is characterized by replicate sampling of soils on each surface; such variation is assumed to have a Gaussian distribution. The age of a geomorphic surface is described by older and younger bounds. This technique allows age uncertainty to be characterized by either a Gaussian distribution or by a triangular distribution using minimum, best-estimate, and maximum ages. The calibration curve is taken to be linear after suitable (in certain cases logarithmic) transformations, if required, of the soil parameter and age variables. Soil variability, measurement error, and departures from linearity are described in a combined fashion using Gaussian distributions with variances particular to each sampled geomorphic surface and the number of sample replicates. Uncertainty in age of a geomorphic surface used for calibration is described using three parameters by one of two methods. In the first method, upper and lower ages are specified together with a coverage probability; this specification is converted to a Gaussian distribution with the appropriate mean and variance. In the second method, "absolute" older and younger ages are specified together with a most probable age; this specification is converted to an asymmetric triangular distribution with mode at the

  6. Effect of Age on Pentacam Keratoconus Indices

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maged Maher Salib Roshdy

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Purpose. To assess the effect of age on elevation and pachymetric Pentacam keratoconus (KC detection indices, and the need to adjust normative values accordingly. Methods. In a retrospective study, 95 eyes of myopic normal subjects without KC were evaluated using the OCULUS Pentacam, with an age range of 17.4 to 46.8 years. Subjects were categorised into three groups according to their age: the first included those younger than 21 years (19 eyes, the second was for the age range of 21–40 years (65 eyes, and the third comprised subjects older than 40 years (11 eyes. Results. There were statistically significant differences among the three groups regarding many elevation indices: AE from BFS, PE from BFS, and PE minus AE from BFS (P=0.003, 0.010, and <0.001, resp., and pachymetric indices: PPI avg, PPI max, ART avg, ART max, and diagonal decentration of the thinnest point (P=<0.001, 0.024, 0.003, 0.026, and 0.026, resp.. On comparing subjects below 21 years to those above 40 years, there was a statistically significant decrease of both PE from BFS and PE minus AE (P=0.005 and <0.001, resp. and statistically significant increase in AE from BFS (P=0.001. Conclusions. Age is an important determinant of elevation indices, significantly altering their normative values. The use of the more robust pachymetry, rather than elevation, indices is recommended in subjects below 21 or above 40 years of age.

  7. Color stability and degree of cure of direct composite restoratives after accelerated aging.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sarafianou, Aspasia; Iosifidou, Soultana; Papadopoulos, Triantafillos; Eliades, George

    2007-01-01

    This study evaluated the color changes and amount of remaining C = C bonds (%RDB) in three dental composites after hydrothermal- and photoaging. The materials tested were Estelite sigma, Filtek Supreme and Tetric Ceram. Specimens were fabricated from each material and subjected to L* a* b* colorimetry and FTIR spectroscopy before and after aging. Statistical evaluation of the deltaL,* deltaa,* deltab,* deltaE and %deltaRDB data was performed by one-way ANOVA and Tukey's test. The %RDB data before and after aging were statistically analyzed using two-way ANOVA and Student-Newman-Keuls test. In all cases an alpha = 0.05 significance level was used. No statistically significant differences were found in deltaL*, deltaa*, deltaE and %deltaRDB among the materials tested. Tetric Ceram demonstrated a significant difference in deltab*. All the materials showed visually perceptible (deltaE >1) but clinically acceptable values (deltaE statistically significant differences in %RDB were noticed before and after aging (p statistically significantly different among all the groups tested. No correlation was found between deltaE and %deltaRDB.

  8. The distribution of P-values in medical research articles suggested selective reporting associated with statistical significance.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Perneger, Thomas V; Combescure, Christophe

    2017-07-01

    Published P-values provide a window into the global enterprise of medical research. The aim of this study was to use the distribution of published P-values to estimate the relative frequencies of null and alternative hypotheses and to seek irregularities suggestive of publication bias. This cross-sectional study included P-values published in 120 medical research articles in 2016 (30 each from the BMJ, JAMA, Lancet, and New England Journal of Medicine). The observed distribution of P-values was compared with expected distributions under the null hypothesis (i.e., uniform between 0 and 1) and the alternative hypothesis (strictly decreasing from 0 to 1). P-values were categorized according to conventional levels of statistical significance and in one-percent intervals. Among 4,158 recorded P-values, 26.1% were highly significant (P values values equal to 1, and (3) about twice as many P-values less than 0.05 compared with those more than 0.05. The latter finding was seen in both randomized trials and observational studies, and in most types of analyses, excepting heterogeneity tests and interaction tests. Under plausible assumptions, we estimate that about half of the tested hypotheses were null and the other half were alternative. This analysis suggests that statistical tests published in medical journals are not a random sample of null and alternative hypotheses but that selective reporting is prevalent. In particular, significant results are about twice as likely to be reported as nonsignificant results. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  9. Cervical vertebral maturation and dental age in coeliac patients.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Costacurta, M; Condò, R; Sicuro, L; Perugia, C; Docimo, R

    2011-07-01

    The aim of the study was to evaluate the cervical vertebral maturation and dental age, in group of patients with coelic disease (CD), in comparison with a control group of healthy subjects. At the Paediatric Dentistry Unit of PTV Hospital, "Tor Vergata" University of Rome, 120 female patients, age range 12.0-12.9 years were recruited. Among them, 60 subjects (Group 1) were affected by CD, while the control group (Group 2) consisted of 60 healthy subjects, sex and age-matched. The Group 1 was subdivided, according to the period of CD diagnosis, in Group A (early diagnosis) and Group B (late diagnosis). The skeletal age was determined by assessing the cervical vertebral maturation, while the dental age has been determined using the method codified by Demirjiyan. STATISTICS.: The analyses were performed using the SPSS software (version 16; SPSS Inc., Chicago IL, USA). In all the assessments a significant level of alpha = 0.05 was considered. There are no statistically significant differences between Group 1 and Group 2 as for chronological age (p=0.122). Instead, from the assessment of skeletal-dental age, there are statistically significant differences between Group 1 - Group 2 (pcervical vertebral maturity can be assessed with a low cost, non invasive, easy to perform exam carried out through the routine radiographic examinations such as orthopanoramic and lateral teleradiography.

  10. Gender and Age Variations in the Self-Image of Jamaican Adolescents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smith, Delores E.; Muenchen, Robert A.

    1995-01-01

    Investigated the relationships among gender, age, and self-image of adolescents attending three secondary schools in Jamaica. Results revealed statistically significant effects for both gender and age. Gender significantly influenced morals, while age differences affected six other dimensions. Some results contradicted past research. (RJM)

  11. Statistical Anxiety and Attitudes Towards Statistics: Development of a Comprehensive Danish Instrument

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nielsen, Tine; Kreiner, Svend

    Short abstract Motivated by experiencing with students’ psychological barriers for learning statistics we modified and extended the Statistical Anxiety Rating Scale (STARS) to develop a contemporary Danish measure of attitudes and relationship to statistics for use with higher education students...... with evidence of DIF in all cases: One TCA-item functioned differentially relative to age, one WS-item functioned differentially relative to statistics course (first or second), and two IA-items functioned differentially relative to statistics course and academic discipline (sociology, public health...

  12. Clinical significance of intramammary arterial calcifications in diabetic women

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Milošević Zorica

    2004-01-01

    Full Text Available Background. It is well known that intramammary arterial calcifications diagnosed by mammography as a part of generalized diabetic macroangiopathy may be an indirect sign of diabetes mellitus. Hence, the aim of this study was to determine the incidence of intramammary arterial calcifications, the patient’s age when the calcifications occur, as well as to observe the influence of diabetic polineuropathy, type, and the duration of diabetes on the onset of calcifications, in comparison with nondiabetic women. Methods. Mammographic findings of 113 diabetic female patients (21 with type 1 diabetes and 92 with type 2, as well as of 208 nondiabetic women (the control group were analyzed in the prospective study. The data about the type of diabetes, its duration, and polineuropathy were obtained using the questionnaire. Statistical differences were determined by Mann-Whitney test. Results. Intramammary arterial calcifications were identified in 33.3% of the women with type 1 diabetes, in 40.2% with type 2, and in 8.2% of the women from the control group, respectively. The differences comparing the women with type 1, as well as type 2 diabetes and the controls were statistically significant (p=0.0001. Women with intramammary arterial calcifications and type 1 diabetes were younger comparing to the control group (median age 52 years, comparing to 67 years of age, p=0.001, while there was no statistically significant difference in age between the women with calcifications and type 2 diabetes (61 years of age in relation to the control group (p=0.176. The incidence of polineuropathy in diabetic women was higher in the group with intramammary arterial calcifications (52.3% in comparison to the group without calcifications (26.1%, (p=0.005. The association between intramammary arterial calcifications and the duration of diabetes was not found. Conclusion. The obtained results supported the theory that intramammary arterial calcifications, detected by

  13. 76 FR 60112 - Culturally Significant Objects Imported for Exhibition Determinations: “Byzantium and Islam: Age...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-09-28

    ... DEPARTMENT OF STATE [Public Notice 7615] Culturally Significant Objects Imported for Exhibition Determinations: ``Byzantium and Islam: Age of Transition (7th-9th Century)'' SUMMARY: Notice is hereby given of... included in the exhibition ``Byzantium and Islam: Age of Transition (7th-9th Century),'' imported from...

  14. Bayesian estimation of isotopic age differences

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Curl, R.L.

    1988-01-01

    Isotopic dating is subject to uncertainties arising from counting statistics and experimental errors. These uncertainties are additive when an isotopic age difference is calculated. If large, they can lead to no significant age difference by classical statistics. In many cases, relative ages are known because of stratigraphic order or other clues. Such information can be used to establish a Bayes estimate of age difference which will include prior knowledge of age order. Age measurement errors are assumed to be log-normal and a noninformative but constrained bivariate prior for two true ages in known order is adopted. True-age ratio is distributed as a truncated log-normal variate. Its expected value gives an age-ratio estimate, and its variance provides credible intervals. Bayesian estimates of ages are different and in correct order even if measured ages are identical or reversed in order. For example, age measurements on two samples might both yield 100 ka with coefficients of variation of 0.2. Bayesian estimates are 22.7 ka for age difference with a 75% credible interval of [4.4, 43.7] ka

  15. Application of statistical shape analysis for the estimation of bone and forensic age using the shapes of the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th cervical vertebrae in a young Japanese population.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rhee, Chang-Hoon; Shin, Sang Min; Choi, Yong-Seok; Yamaguchi, Tetsutaro; Maki, Koutaro; Kim, Yong-Il; Kim, Seong-Sik; Park, Soo-Byung; Son, Woo-Sung

    2015-12-01

    From computed tomographic images, the dentocentral synchondrosis can be identified in the second cervical vertebra. This can demarcate the border between the odontoid process and the body of the 2nd cervical vertebra and serve as a good model for the prediction of bone and forensic age. Nevertheless, until now, there has been no application of the 2nd cervical vertebra based on the dentocentral synchondrosis. In this study, statistical shape analysis was used to build bone and forensic age estimation regression models. Following the principles of statistical shape analysis and principal components analysis, we used cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) to evaluate a Japanese population (35 males and 45 females, from 5 to 19 years old). The narrowest prediction intervals among the multivariate regression models were 19.63 for bone age and 2.99 for forensic age. There was no significant difference between form space and shape space in the bone and forensic age estimation models. However, for gender comparison, the bone and forensic age estimation models for males had the higher explanatory power. This study derived an improved objective and quantitative method for bone and forensic age estimation based on only the 2nd, 3rd and 4th cervical vertebral shapes. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  16. 2017 Annual Disability Statistics Supplement

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lauer, E. A; Houtenville, A. J.

    2018-01-01

    The "Annual Disability Statistics Supplement" is a companion report to the "Annual Disability Statistics Compendium." The "Supplement" presents statistics on the same topics as the "Compendium," with additional categorizations by demographic characteristics including age, gender and race/ethnicity. In…

  17. Characterization of Chinese liquor aroma components during aging process and liquor age discrimination using gas chromatography combined with multivariable statistics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xu, M. L.; Yu, Y.; Ramaswamy, H. S.; Zhu, S. M.

    2017-01-01

    Chinese liquor aroma components were characterized during the aging process using gas chromatography (GC). Principal component and cluster analysis (PCA, CA) were used to discriminate the Chinese liquor age which has a great economic value. Of a total of 21 major aroma components identified and quantified, 13 components which included several acids, alcohols, esters, aldehydes and furans decreased significantly in the first year of aging, maintained the same levels (p > 0.05) for next three years and decreased again (p counterfeit and defective products.

  18. Echotomographic characteristics of kidney in different age groups of our population

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gašić Miloš

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Introduction: Aging is a continuous process, which leaves its mark on all tissues, organs and organ systems. The aging process causes a number of functional and morphological and structural changes in the kidneys. Objective: The aim of our study was to analyze echotomographic changes in the size of the renal parenchyma and renal sinus during the aging process. Method: The study was conducted on 62 subjects in the service of the radiological diagnostics of CHC Dr Dragisa Mišović in Belgrade. All subjects included in this study were neither anamnestically nor echotomographically positive for any of kidney diseases. Subjects were assorted in three age groups. Group I (20-39 years - 21 subjects, group II (40-59 years - 21 subjects, and group III (60-79 years - 20 subjects. Results: During aging process dimensions of the renal parenchyma decrease. Dimensions of the renal parenchyma exhibit statistically significant difference (p<0.05 between the first and third age group for both kidneys, but difference between the first and second age group is significant only for the right kidney (p<0,05. Dimensions (length and width, of the renal sinuses tend to increase during the aging process, with difference between the first and third age group that is statistically significant for both kidneys (p<0.05. Difference in width of the sinuses for both kidneys is statistically significant only between the second and third age group. Conclusion: During aging process size of the renal sinus increases at the expense of renal parenchyma, and parenchyma-pyelon index decreases.

  19. Perceived Statistical Knowledge Level and Self-Reported Statistical Practice Among Academic Psychologists

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Laura Badenes-Ribera

    2018-06-01

    Full Text Available Introduction: Publications arguing against the null hypothesis significance testing (NHST procedure and in favor of good statistical practices have increased. The most frequently mentioned alternatives to NHST are effect size statistics (ES, confidence intervals (CIs, and meta-analyses. A recent survey conducted in Spain found that academic psychologists have poor knowledge about effect size statistics, confidence intervals, and graphic displays for meta-analyses, which might lead to a misinterpretation of the results. In addition, it also found that, although the use of ES is becoming generalized, the same thing is not true for CIs. Finally, academics with greater knowledge about ES statistics presented a profile closer to good statistical practice and research design. Our main purpose was to analyze the extension of these results to a different geographical area through a replication study.Methods: For this purpose, we elaborated an on-line survey that included the same items as the original research, and we asked academic psychologists to indicate their level of knowledge about ES, their CIs, and meta-analyses, and how they use them. The sample consisted of 159 Italian academic psychologists (54.09% women, mean age of 47.65 years. The mean number of years in the position of professor was 12.90 (SD = 10.21.Results: As in the original research, the results showed that, although the use of effect size estimates is becoming generalized, an under-reporting of CIs for ES persists. The most frequent ES statistics mentioned were Cohen's d and R2/η2, which can have outliers or show non-normality or violate statistical assumptions. In addition, academics showed poor knowledge about meta-analytic displays (e.g., forest plot and funnel plot and quality checklists for studies. Finally, academics with higher-level knowledge about ES statistics seem to have a profile closer to good statistical practices.Conclusions: Changing statistical practice is not

  20. Sigsearch: a new term for post hoc unplanned search for statistically significant relationships with the intent to create publishable findings.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hashim, Muhammad Jawad

    2010-09-01

    Post-hoc secondary data analysis with no prespecified hypotheses has been discouraged by textbook authors and journal editors alike. Unfortunately no single term describes this phenomenon succinctly. I would like to coin the term "sigsearch" to define this practice and bring it within the teaching lexicon of statistics courses. Sigsearch would include any unplanned, post-hoc search for statistical significance using multiple comparisons of subgroups. It would also include data analysis with outcomes other than the prespecified primary outcome measure of a study as well as secondary data analyses of earlier research.

  1. Radiosensitivity of different aged human lymphocytes following electron irradiation in vitro

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Joksic, G.; Nikolic, M.; Spasojevic-Tisma, V.

    1997-01-01

    Cytochalasin B-blocking micronucleus test and chromosomal aberration analysis were used in this study to estimate the yield of individual variability in radiation response of different aged human lymphocytes. Both analyses were performed in three groups of adults, aged 18-65 years, on two sampling times, following irradiation by therapeutical dose of 2 G in vitro. No statistically significant difference in the induced yield of exchange aberrations between individuals under consideration was found. The yield of total aberration data showed greater variability and was statistically significant in the oldest group against two other adult groups. Regarding to fixation times no statistically significant differences in the induced yield of chromosomal aberration (exchanges as well as total aberrations) were observed. The study has shown a slight increase in spontaneously occurring micronuclei with age. Almost equal mean number of radiation induced micronuclei was observed in the groups of adult aged 18-20 and 45-55 years. The highest mean number was observed in the oldest group. Evident variation in number of radiation induced micronuclei among individuals from the same age group was observed. The results of micronuclei assay for for all individuals under consideration show statistically significant difference in the yield of radiation-induced micronuclei regarding the second fixation time. This study has shown that cytochalasin-B blocking micronucleus test is more sensitive assay than chromosomal aberration analysis for the estimation of individual radiosensitivity. (author)

  2. High levels of cynical distrust partly predict premature mortality in middle-aged to ageing men.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Šmigelskas, Kastytis; Joffė, Roza; Jonynienė, Jolita; Julkunen, Juhani; Kauhanen, Jussi

    2017-08-01

    The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of cynical distrust on mortality in middle-aged and aging men. The analysis is based on Kuopio Ischemic Heart Disease study, follow-up from 1984 to 2011. Sample consisted of 2682 men, aged 42-61 years at baseline. Data on mortality was provided by the National Death Registry, causes of death were classified by the National Center of Statistics of Finland. Cynical distrust was measured at baseline using Cynical Distrust Scale. Survival analyses were conducted using Cox regression models. In crude estimates after 28 years of follow-up, high cynical distrust was associated with 1.5-1.7 higher hazards for earlier death compared to low cynical distrust. Adjusted for conventional risk factors, high cynical distrust was significantly associated regarding CVD-free men and CVD mortality, while non-CVD mortality in study sample was consistently but not significantly associated. The risk effects were more expressed after 12-20 years rather than in earlier or later follow-up. To conclude, high cynical distrust associates with increased risk of CVD mortality in CVD-free men. The associations with non-CVD mortality are weaker and not reach statistical significance.

  3. Intelligent system for statistically significant expertise knowledge on the basis of the model of self-organizing nonequilibrium dissipative system

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    E. A. Tatokchin

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Development of the modern educational technologies caused by broad introduction of comput-er testing and development of distant forms of education does necessary revision of methods of an examination of pupils. In work it was shown, need transition to mathematical criteria, exami-nations of knowledge which are deprived of subjectivity. In article the review of the problems arising at realization of this task and are offered approaches for its decision. The greatest atten-tion is paid to discussion of a problem of objective transformation of rated estimates of the ex-pert on to the scale estimates of the student. In general, the discussion this question is was con-cluded that the solution to this problem lies in the creation of specialized intellectual systems. The basis for constructing intelligent system laid the mathematical model of self-organizing nonequilibrium dissipative system, which is a group of students. This article assumes that the dissipative system is provided by the constant influx of new test items of the expert and non-equilibrium – individual psychological characteristics of students in the group. As a result, the system must self-organize themselves into stable patterns. This patern will allow for, relying on large amounts of data, get a statistically significant assessment of student. To justify the pro-posed approach in the work presents the data of the statistical analysis of the results of testing a large sample of students (> 90. Conclusions from this statistical analysis allowed to develop intelligent system statistically significant examination of student performance. It is based on data clustering algorithm (k-mean for the three key parameters. It is shown that this approach allows you to create of the dynamics and objective expertise evaluation.

  4. The Importance of Integrating Clinical Relevance and Statistical Significance in the Assessment of Quality of Care--Illustrated Using the Swedish Stroke Register.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anita Lindmark

    Full Text Available When profiling hospital performance, quality inicators are commonly evaluated through hospital-specific adjusted means with confidence intervals. When identifying deviations from a norm, large hospitals can have statistically significant results even for clinically irrelevant deviations while important deviations in small hospitals can remain undiscovered. We have used data from the Swedish Stroke Register (Riksstroke to illustrate the properties of a benchmarking method that integrates considerations of both clinical relevance and level of statistical significance.The performance measure used was case-mix adjusted risk of death or dependency in activities of daily living within 3 months after stroke. A hospital was labeled as having outlying performance if its case-mix adjusted risk exceeded a benchmark value with a specified statistical confidence level. The benchmark was expressed relative to the population risk and should reflect the clinically relevant deviation that is to be detected. A simulation study based on Riksstroke patient data from 2008-2009 was performed to investigate the effect of the choice of the statistical confidence level and benchmark value on the diagnostic properties of the method.Simulations were based on 18,309 patients in 76 hospitals. The widely used setting, comparing 95% confidence intervals to the national average, resulted in low sensitivity (0.252 and high specificity (0.991. There were large variations in sensitivity and specificity for different requirements of statistical confidence. Lowering statistical confidence improved sensitivity with a relatively smaller loss of specificity. Variations due to different benchmark values were smaller, especially for sensitivity. This allows the choice of a clinically relevant benchmark to be driven by clinical factors without major concerns about sufficiently reliable evidence.The study emphasizes the importance of combining clinical relevance and level of statistical

  5. The Importance of Integrating Clinical Relevance and Statistical Significance in the Assessment of Quality of Care--Illustrated Using the Swedish Stroke Register.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lindmark, Anita; van Rompaye, Bart; Goetghebeur, Els; Glader, Eva-Lotta; Eriksson, Marie

    2016-01-01

    When profiling hospital performance, quality inicators are commonly evaluated through hospital-specific adjusted means with confidence intervals. When identifying deviations from a norm, large hospitals can have statistically significant results even for clinically irrelevant deviations while important deviations in small hospitals can remain undiscovered. We have used data from the Swedish Stroke Register (Riksstroke) to illustrate the properties of a benchmarking method that integrates considerations of both clinical relevance and level of statistical significance. The performance measure used was case-mix adjusted risk of death or dependency in activities of daily living within 3 months after stroke. A hospital was labeled as having outlying performance if its case-mix adjusted risk exceeded a benchmark value with a specified statistical confidence level. The benchmark was expressed relative to the population risk and should reflect the clinically relevant deviation that is to be detected. A simulation study based on Riksstroke patient data from 2008-2009 was performed to investigate the effect of the choice of the statistical confidence level and benchmark value on the diagnostic properties of the method. Simulations were based on 18,309 patients in 76 hospitals. The widely used setting, comparing 95% confidence intervals to the national average, resulted in low sensitivity (0.252) and high specificity (0.991). There were large variations in sensitivity and specificity for different requirements of statistical confidence. Lowering statistical confidence improved sensitivity with a relatively smaller loss of specificity. Variations due to different benchmark values were smaller, especially for sensitivity. This allows the choice of a clinically relevant benchmark to be driven by clinical factors without major concerns about sufficiently reliable evidence. The study emphasizes the importance of combining clinical relevance and level of statistical confidence when

  6. Dental and Skeletal Maturity- A Biological Indicator of Chronologic Age

    Science.gov (United States)

    Saha, Sonali; Yadav, Gunjan; Tripathi, Abhay Mani; Grover, Kavita

    2014-01-01

    Introduction: Precise evaluation of the developmental stage of a child is not only an integral part of both diagnosis and treatment of paediatric patients; it is also essential in Forensic Medicine and Dentistry. Physiologic age can be estimated by somatic, sexual, skeletal and dental maturity. Aim: Investigate the relationship between the dental age (DA) and skeletal age (SA) of children and comparing it with the chronological age (CA). Materials and Methods: The dental age estimation methods of Schour and Massler (S&M), and Demirjian and Goldstien (D&G) and skeletal assessment methods of Greulich and Pyle (G&P), and Tanner et al., (TW2) were used to analyze the orthopantomograms and hand-wrist radiographs respectively of 150 healthy subjects within the age range of 5-15 y and compared with the Chronological Age. Statistical Analysis: Data collected was statistically analysed using the SPSS version 15.0 Statistical Analysis Software. For all tests p-value of <0.05 were considered statistically significance. Results: Dental age estimation techniques were found comparable and equally reliable as the skeletal age estimation methods. Strong correlations between dental and skeletal maturation were demonstrated. PMID:25386525

  7. Clinical significance of determination of blood gastro-intestinal hormones levels in small for gestational age newborns

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rong Lijun; Chen Yongsheng

    2007-01-01

    Objective: To investigate the changes of plasma motilin, plasma somatostatin and serum gastrin levels after beginning oral feeding in 68 small for gestational age neonates (pre-term 36, full-term 32). Methods: Blood levels of somatostatin (SS), motilin and gastrin were determined with RIA before beginning of oral feeding and on 7 th day after birth in 68 small for gestational age neonates and 30 controls. Results: The blood levels of motilin and gastrin before feeding and on 7 th day in the small for gestational age neonates were significantly lower than those in the controls, while the SS levels were significantly higher. The serum levels of the hormones rose gradually after birth and on 7 th day were all significantly higher than those before feeding respectively (P th day levels were positively correlated with gestational age, original levels before feeding and early feeding. For gastrin, the levels were also positively correlated with the amount of feeding. In this study, early oral feeding was practiced in all the neonates without any adverse effect. Conclusion: Although the blood levels of gastro-intestinal hormones were lower in small for gestational age newborns, early oral feeding was practiced in all the neonates with no adverse effect observed and more rapid elevation of the hormone levels. Therefore, early oral feeding should be encouraged. (authors)

  8. Estimates of statistical significance for comparison of individual positions in multiple sequence alignments

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sadreyev Ruslan I

    2004-08-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Profile-based analysis of multiple sequence alignments (MSA allows for accurate comparison of protein families. Here, we address the problems of detecting statistically confident dissimilarities between (1 MSA position and a set of predicted residue frequencies, and (2 between two MSA positions. These problems are important for (i evaluation and optimization of methods predicting residue occurrence at protein positions; (ii detection of potentially misaligned regions in automatically produced alignments and their further refinement; and (iii detection of sites that determine functional or structural specificity in two related families. Results For problems (1 and (2, we propose analytical estimates of P-value and apply them to the detection of significant positional dissimilarities in various experimental situations. (a We compare structure-based predictions of residue propensities at a protein position to the actual residue frequencies in the MSA of homologs. (b We evaluate our method by the ability to detect erroneous position matches produced by an automatic sequence aligner. (c We compare MSA positions that correspond to residues aligned by automatic structure aligners. (d We compare MSA positions that are aligned by high-quality manual superposition of structures. Detected dissimilarities reveal shortcomings of the automatic methods for residue frequency prediction and alignment construction. For the high-quality structural alignments, the dissimilarities suggest sites of potential functional or structural importance. Conclusion The proposed computational method is of significant potential value for the analysis of protein families.

  9. Neutral dynamics with environmental noise: Age-size statistics and species lifetimes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kessler, David; Suweis, Samir; Formentin, Marco; Shnerb, Nadav M.

    2015-08-01

    Neutral dynamics, where taxa are assumed to be demographically equivalent and their abundance is governed solely by the stochasticity of the underlying birth-death process, has proved itself as an important minimal model that accounts for many empirical datasets in genetics and ecology. However, the restriction of the model to demographic [O (√{N }) ] noise yields relatively slow dynamics that appears to be in conflict with both short-term and long-term characteristics of the observed systems. Here we analyze two of these problems—age-size relationships and species extinction time—in the framework of a neutral theory with both demographic and environmental stochasticity. It turns out that environmentally induced variations of the demographic rates control the long-term dynamics and modify dramatically the predictions of the neutral theory with demographic noise only, yielding much better agreement with empirical data. We consider two prototypes of "zero mean" environmental noise, one which is balanced with regard to the arithmetic abundance, another balanced in the logarithmic (fitness) space, study their species lifetime statistics, and discuss their relevance to realistic models of community dynamics.

  10. Test the Overall Significance of p-values by Using Joint Tail Probability of Ordered p-values as Test Statistic

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Fang, Yongxiang; Wit, Ernst

    2008-01-01

    Fisher’s combined probability test is the most commonly used method to test the overall significance of a set independent p-values. However, it is very obviously that Fisher’s statistic is more sensitive to smaller p-values than to larger p-value and a small p-value may overrule the other p-values

  11. Facial anthropometric differences among gender, ethnicity, and age groups.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhuang, Ziqing; Landsittel, Douglas; Benson, Stacey; Roberge, Raymond; Shaffer, Ronald

    2010-06-01

    The impact of race/ethnicity upon facial anthropometric data in the US workforce, on the development of personal protective equipment, has not been investigated to any significant degree. The proliferation of minority populations in the US workforce has increased the need to investigate differences in facial dimensions among these workers. The objective of this study was to determine the face shape and size differences among race and age groups from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health survey of 3997 US civilian workers. Survey participants were divided into two gender groups, four racial/ethnic groups, and three age groups. Measurements of height, weight, neck circumference, and 18 facial dimensions were collected using traditional anthropometric techniques. A multivariate analysis of the data was performed using Principal Component Analysis. An exploratory analysis to determine the effect of different demographic factors had on anthropometric features was assessed via a linear model. The 21 anthropometric measurements, body mass index, and the first and second principal component scores were dependent variables, while gender, ethnicity, age, occupation, weight, and height served as independent variables. Gender significantly contributes to size for 19 of 24 dependent variables. African-Americans have statistically shorter, wider, and shallower noses than Caucasians. Hispanic workers have 14 facial features that are significantly larger than Caucasians, while their nose protrusion, height, and head length are significantly shorter. The other ethnic group was composed primarily of Asian subjects and has statistically different dimensions from Caucasians for 16 anthropometric values. Nineteen anthropometric values for subjects at least 45 years of age are statistically different from those measured for subjects between 18 and 29 years of age. Workers employed in manufacturing, fire fighting, healthcare, law enforcement, and other occupational

  12. Estimation of Correlation between Chronological Age, Skeletal Age and Dental Age in Children- A Cross-sectional Study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Macha, Madhulika; Lamba, Bharti; Avula, Jogendra Sai Sankar; Muthineni, Sridhar; Margana, Pratap Gowd Jai Shankar; Chitoori, Prasad

    2017-09-01

    In the modern era, identification and determination of age is imperative for diversity of reasons that include disputed birth records, premature delivery, legal issues and for validation of birth certificate for school admissions, adoption, marriage, job and immigration. Several growth assessment parameters like bone age, dental age and the combination of both have been applied for different population with variable outcomes. It has been well documented that the chronological age does not necessarily correlate with the maturational status of a child. Hence, efforts were made to determine a child's developmental age by using dental age (calcification of teeth) and skeletal age (skeletal maturation). The present study was aimed to correlate the chronological age, dental age and skeletal age in children from Southeastern region of Andhra Pradesh, India. Out of the total 900 screened children, only 100 subjects between age groups of 6-14 years with a mean age of 11.3±2.63 for males and 10.77±2.24 for females were selected for the study. Dental age was calculated by Demirjian method and skeletal age by modified Middle Phalanx of left hand third finger (MP3) method. Pearson's and Spearman's correlation tests were done to estimate the correlation between chronological, dental and skeletal ages among study population. There was a significant positive correlation between chronological age, dental age and all stages of MP3 among males. Similar results were observed in females, except for a non-significant moderate correlation between chronological age and dental age in the H stage of the MP3 region. The results of the present study revealed correlation with statistical significance (p<0.05) between chronological, dental and skeletal ages among all the subjects (48 males and 52 females) and females attained maturity earlier than males in the present study population.

  13. Influence of hearing age and understanding verbal instructions in children with cochlear implants

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Đoković Sanja

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Hearing age is defined as a period of using any amplification. Most researches indicate that hearing age influences the developmental rate of auditory and speech-language abilities in deaf children, especially when cochlear implantation was performed before the age of three. This research is aimed at analyzing the influence of hearing age on understanding verbal instructions in children with cochlear implants. The sample consists of 23 children with cochlear implants and 21 children with normal hearing, aged between 4 and 10. Hearing age of children with cochlear implants was between 2 and 7 years. Token Test with toys, adapted for children with hearing impairments, was used to analyze understanding verbal instructions. The results indicate that there are statistically significant differences between children with cochlear implants and children with normal hearing, aged between 4 and 7, on all subtests and the total score regardless of the hearing age (sub1 p<0.001, sub2 p<0.000, sub3 p<0.001, total score p<0.000. No statistically significant differences were determined on any of the subtests in children aged between 7.1 and 10, regardless of the hearing age. Comparative results analysis within the experimental group of children with different hearing age indicates that the difference in understanding verbal instructions between these two groups is not statistically significant.

  14. Concrete component aging and its significance relative to life extension of nuclear power plants

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Naus, D.J.

    1986-09-01

    The objectives of this study are to (1) expand upon the work that was initiated in the first two Electric Power Research Institute studies relative to longevity and life extension considerations of safety-related concrete components in light-water reactor (LWR) facilities and (2) provide background that will logically lead to subsequent development of a methodology for assessing and predicting the effects of aging on the performance of concrete-based materials and components. These objectives are consistent with Nuclear Plant Aging Research (NPAR) Program goals: (1) to identify and characterize aging and service wear effects that, if unchecked, could cause degradation of structures, components, and systems and, thereby, impair plant safety; (2) to identify methods of inspection, surveillance, and monitoring or of evaluating residual life of structures, components, and systems that will ensure timely detection of significant aging effects before loss of safety function; and (3) to evaluate the effectiveness of storage, maintenance, repair, and replacement practices in mitigating the rate and extent of degradation caused by aging and service wear

  15. Statistical Estimation of the Age of the Universe

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Petersen, Jørgen Holm

    The Hubble constant enters big bang cosmology by quantifying the expansion rate of the universe. It is shown that the standard technique for estimation of Hubble's constant is statistically inconsistent and results in a systematically too low value. An alternative, consistent estimator of Hubble...

  16. Statistical determination of significant curved I-girder bridge seismic response parameters

    Science.gov (United States)

    Seo, Junwon

    2013-06-01

    Curved steel bridges are commonly used at interchanges in transportation networks and more of these structures continue to be designed and built in the United States. Though the use of these bridges continues to increase in locations that experience high seismicity, the effects of curvature and other parameters on their seismic behaviors have been neglected in current risk assessment tools. These tools can evaluate the seismic vulnerability of a transportation network using fragility curves. One critical component of fragility curve development for curved steel bridges is the completion of sensitivity analyses that help identify influential parameters related to their seismic response. In this study, an accessible inventory of existing curved steel girder bridges located primarily in the Mid-Atlantic United States (MAUS) was used to establish statistical characteristics used as inputs for a seismic sensitivity study. Critical seismic response quantities were captured using 3D nonlinear finite element models. Influential parameters from these quantities were identified using statistical tools that incorporate experimental Plackett-Burman Design (PBD), which included Pareto optimal plots and prediction profiler techniques. The findings revealed that the potential variation in the influential parameters included number of spans, radius of curvature, maximum span length, girder spacing, and cross-frame spacing. These parameters showed varying levels of influence on the critical bridge response.

  17. Medical Statistics – Mathematics or Oracle? Farewell Lecture

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gaus, Wilhelm

    2005-06-01

    Full Text Available Certainty is rare in medicine. This is a direct consequence of the individuality of each and every human being and the reason why we need medical statistics. However, statistics have their pitfalls, too. Fig. 1 shows that the suicide rate peaks in youth, while in Fig. 2 the rate is highest in midlife and Fig. 3 in old age. Which of these contradictory messages is right? After an introduction to the principles of statistical testing, this lecture examines the probability with which statistical test results are correct. For this purpose the level of significance and the power of the test are compared with the sensitivity and specificity of a diagnostic procedure. The probability of obtaining correct statistical test results is the same as that for the positive and negative correctness of a diagnostic procedure and therefore depends on prevalence. The focus then shifts to the problem of multiple statistical testing. The lecture demonstrates that for each data set of reasonable size at least one test result proves to be significant - even if the data set is produced by a random number generator. It is extremely important that a hypothesis is generated independently from the data used for its testing. These considerations enable us to understand the gradation of "lame excuses, lies and statistics" and the difference between pure truth and the full truth. Finally, two historical oracles are cited.

  18. Measurement non-invariance of DSM-IV narcissistic personality disorder criteria across age and sex in a population-based sample of Norwegian twins.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kubarych, Thomas S; Aggen, Steven H; Kendler, Kenneth S; Torgersen, Sven; Reichborn-Kjennerud, Ted; Neale, Michael C

    2010-09-01

    We investigated measurement non-invariance of DSM-IV narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) criteria across age and sex in a population-based cohort sample of 2794 Norwegian twins. Age had a statistically significant effect on the factor mean for NPD. Sex had a statistically significant effect on the factor mean and variance. Controlling for these factor level effects, item-level analysis indicated that the criteria were functioning differently across age and sex. After correcting for measurement differences at the item level, the latent factor mean effect for age was no longer statistically significant. The mean difference for sex remained statistically significant after correcting for item threshold effects. The results indicate that DSM-IV NPD criteria perform differently in males and females and across age. Differences in diagnostic rates across groups may not be valid without correcting for measurement non-invariance.

  19. Correlation and clinical significance between glomerular filtration rate and age in living-related kidney donors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zhao Xiuyi; Shao Yahui; Wang Yanming; Zhang Aimin; Hao Junwen; Tian Jun; Sun Ben; Han Jiankui

    2010-01-01

    Objective: To quantitatively investigate the effect of age on the glomerular filtration rate (GFR) in living-related kidney donors. to analyze the clinical value and the dependence of GFR on age and to provide an objective basis for the selection of the living kidney donor. Methods: One hundred and sixty-one living-related kidney donors were divided into four age groups, namely 20-29 years (n=52), 30-39 years (n=44), 40-49 years (n=38) and ≥50 years (n=27). On the other hand, the total donors were divided into the groups older than 55 years (n=24) and younger than 55 years (n=137). To quantify GFR in all the subjects using the 99 Tc m -diethylenetriamine pentaacetic acid ( 99 Tc m -DTPA) renography according to standard procedure and to evaluate the effects of age on renal function. Results: The total GFR in living-related kidney donors was calculated as (89.55±12.87) ml·min -1 ·(1.73 m 2 ) -1 . The GFR in the first to the four age groups were (88.27±12.29) ml·min -1 ·(1.73 m 2 ) -1 , (91.85±14.51) ml·min -1 ·(1.73 m 2 ) -1 , (98.25±11.26) ml·min -1 ·(1.73 m 2 ) -1 and (88.24±13.20) ml·min -1 ·(1.73 m 2 ) -1 . The difference of GFR were not significant between the four age groups (F=2.09, P=0.10). The GFR in the donors older than 55 years and younger than 55 years were (88.57±13.14) ml·min -1 ·(1.73 m 2 ) -1 and (89.44±10.34) ml·min -1 ·(1.73 m 2 ) -1 , there no significant difference in GFR between the two groups (F=1.31, P=0.25). When relating GFR to age in all the living-related kidney donors, there was no significant correlation (r=-0.033, P=0.69). No serious complications occurred after living kidney transplantation, serum creatinine values and blood urea nitrogen recovered to the normal levels in a short period, hepatic and renal functions were normal. Conclusion: This study indicated that the GFR values were not correlated with the change of age in living-related kidney donors, and the results were helpful for the selection of living

  20. Radiation and aging

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kishikawa, Masao; Ikeyama, Mika; Iseki, Masachika; Shinkai, Kiyoto; Nishimori, Issei; Kondo, Hisayoshi; Fujii, Hideharu.

    1986-01-01

    Dorsal root ganglia (DRG) specimens were obtained from 3 women aged in their 6th decade and 5 men in their 8th decade, who were exposed to A-bomb at ≤ 3,000 m from the hypocenter in Nagasaki, and were analyzed for the frequency of DRG neurons with lipofuscin (LP), neuromelanin (NM), and eosinophilic granule (EG). The neurons for the men in the A-bomb group showed an increase of LP and a decrease of NM compared with those in age- and sex-matched control group, with significant differences (p < 0.05 and p < 0.01). The frequency of neurons with EG tended to be slightly higher for the men in the A-bomb group than in the control group; however, this was not statistically significant. For the women, there was a tendency toward a higher frequency of neurons with LP in the A-bomb group than in the control group, although no statistically significant difference emerged from this limited material. Regarding NM and EG for the women, DRG neurons showed no significant difference between the groups. Both men and women showed similar trends for the frequency of DRG neurons without pigments; no significant difference was observed between the groups. Regarding the sum of DRG neurons with large amounts of LP and with mixed LP and EG, the frequency of neurons was significantly higher for the men in the A-bomb group than in the control group, although this was not significant for the women. (Namekawa, K.)

  1. An Exploration of the Perceived Usefulness of the Introductory Statistics Course and Students’ Intentions to Further Engage in Statistics

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rossi Hassad

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Students� attitude, including perceived usefulness, is generally associated with academic success. The related research in statistics education has focused almost exclusively on the role of attitude in explaining and predicting academic learning outcomes, hence there is a paucity of research evidence on how attitude (particularly perceived usefulness impacts students� intentions to use and stay engaged in statistics beyond the introductory course. This study explored the relationship between college students� perception of the usefulness of an introductory statistics course, their beliefs about where statistics will be most useful, and their intentions to take another statistics course. A cross-sectional study of 106 students was conducted. The mean rating for usefulness was 4.7 (out of 7, with no statistically significant differences based on gender and age. Sixty-four percent reported that they would consider taking another statistics course, and this subgroup rated the course as more useful (p = .01. The majority (67% reported that statistics would be most useful for either graduate school or research, whereas 14% indicated their job, and 19% were undecided. The �undecided� students had the lowest mean rating for usefulness of the course (p = .001. Addressing data, in the context of real-world problem-solving and decision-making, could facilitate students to better appreciate the usefulness and practicality of statistics. Qualitative research methods could help to elucidate these findings.

  2. Statistical behavior and geological significance of the geochemical distribution of trace elements in the Cretaceous volcanics Cordoba and San Luis, Argentina

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Daziano, C.

    2010-01-01

    Statistical analysis of trace elements in volcanics research s, allowed to distinguish two independent populations with the same geochemical environment. For each component they have variable index of homogeneity resulting in dissimilar average values that reveal geochemical intra telluric phenomena. On the other hand the inhomogeneities observed in these rocks - as reflected in its petrochemical characters - could be exacerbated especially at so remote and dispersed location of their pitches, their relations with the enclosing rocks for the ranges of compositional variation, due differences relative ages

  3. Childhood-compared to adolescent-onset bipolar disorder has more statistically significant clinical correlates.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Holtzman, Jessica N; Miller, Shefali; Hooshmand, Farnaz; Wang, Po W; Chang, Kiki D; Hill, Shelley J; Rasgon, Natalie L; Ketter, Terence A

    2015-07-01

    The strengths and limitations of considering childhood-and adolescent-onset bipolar disorder (BD) separately versus together remain to be established. We assessed this issue. BD patients referred to the Stanford Bipolar Disorder Clinic during 2000-2011 were assessed with the Systematic Treatment Enhancement Program for BD Affective Disorders Evaluation. Patients with childhood- and adolescent-onset were compared to those with adult-onset for 7 unfavorable bipolar illness characteristics with replicated associations with early-onset patients. Among 502 BD outpatients, those with childhood- (adolescent- (13-18 years, N=218) onset had significantly higher rates for 4/7 unfavorable illness characteristics, including lifetime comorbid anxiety disorder, at least ten lifetime mood episodes, lifetime alcohol use disorder, and prior suicide attempt, than those with adult-onset (>18 years, N=174). Childhood- but not adolescent-onset BD patients also had significantly higher rates of first-degree relative with mood disorder, lifetime substance use disorder, and rapid cycling in the prior year. Patients with pooled childhood/adolescent - compared to adult-onset had significantly higher rates for 5/7 of these unfavorable illness characteristics, while patients with childhood- compared to adolescent-onset had significantly higher rates for 4/7 of these unfavorable illness characteristics. Caucasian, insured, suburban, low substance abuse, American specialty clinic-referred sample limits generalizability. Onset age is based on retrospective recall. Childhood- compared to adolescent-onset BD was more robustly related to unfavorable bipolar illness characteristics, so pooling these groups attenuated such relationships. Further study is warranted to determine the extent to which adolescent-onset BD represents an intermediate phenotype between childhood- and adult-onset BD. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  4. Automated Analysis of 123I-beta-CIT SPECT Images with Statistical Probabilistic Anatomical Mapping

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Eo, Jae Seon; Lee, Hoyoung; Lee, Jae Sung; Kim, Yu Kyung; Jeon, Bumseok; Lee, Dong Soo

    2014-01-01

    Population-based statistical probabilistic anatomical maps have been used to generate probabilistic volumes of interest for analyzing perfusion and metabolic brain imaging. We investigated the feasibility of automated analysis for dopamine transporter images using this technique and evaluated striatal binding potentials in Parkinson's disease and Wilson's disease. We analyzed 2β-Carbomethoxy-3β-(4- 123 I-iodophenyl)tropane ( 123 I-beta-CIT) SPECT images acquired from 26 people with Parkinson's disease (M:F=11:15,mean age=49±12 years), 9 people with Wilson's disease (M: F=6:3, mean age=26±11 years) and 17 normal controls (M:F=5:12, mean age=39±16 years). A SPECT template was created using striatal statistical probabilistic map images. All images were spatially normalized onto the template, and probability-weighted regional counts in striatal structures were estimated. The binding potential was calculated using the ratio of specific and nonspecific binding activities at equilibrium. Voxel-based comparisons between groups were also performed using statistical parametric mapping. Qualitative assessment showed that spatial normalizations of the SPECT images were successful for all images. The striatal binding potentials of participants with Parkinson's disease and Wilson's disease were significantly lower than those of normal controls. Statistical parametric mapping analysis found statistically significant differences only in striatal regions in both disease groups compared to controls. We successfully evaluated the regional 123 I-beta-CIT distribution using the SPECT template and probabilistic map data automatically. This procedure allows an objective and quantitative comparison of the binding potential, which in this case showed a significantly decreased binding potential in the striata of patients with Parkinson's disease or Wilson's disease

  5. The Relative Age Effect On The Selection In The Slovakia National Football Teams

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mikulič Martin

    2015-11-01

    Full Text Available The focus of this research was to determine the relative age effect (RAE on selection in the Slovakia national football teams. A factor that may have a significant impact on the quality of players chosen for the national teams or may result in a poor selection of players for the elite teams. Anthropometric and cognitive acceleration of players born in the first months of the calendar year concerning the overall context of the competition for placement in the national teams may be considered as a significant advantage. The aim of this research was to examine, determine and verify the presence of relative age effect in the selection of football players for the Slovakia national teams starting with the under 16 age category (U-16 through to the A - senior national football team. We presumed that the elite teams under this review and study consisted predominantly of players born in the first quarter of the calendar year, while also presuming that relative age effect receded with the increasing age category. Our survey sample U16 consisted of 79 players, U17 consisted of 47 players, U18 consisted of 58 players, U19 consisted of 71 players, U21 consisted of 52 players and A - senior national team consisted of 302 Slovakia national football players. The information obtained from the Slovak Football Association has been processed by the application of statistical methods and statistical significance test (T-test. Our research confirmed the presence of relative age effect in the U-16, U-17 and U-18 teams under our investigation (p≤0.01. In the U19 and U21 age categories, statistical significance has not been confirmed. As for the senior national team, statistically significant difference has been found in relation to players born in the last quarter of the year as opposed to players born in the first three months of the year (p≤0.01. Our results have shown that with the increasing age, the relative age effect fades and vanishes in full in the

  6. Radiocarbon ages of upper quaternary deposit in central Nepal and their geomorphological significance

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yamanaka, Hidetsugu

    1982-01-01

    The author visited Nepal from October, 1980, to February, 1981, investigated the geomorphology and upper Quaternary geology in Central Nepal, and collected a number of samples for radiocarbon dating. After returning to his university, he dated ten samples by himself. In Nepal, radiocarbon age has been scarcely reported as yet, besides in Kathmandu valley. Therefore, the author's ten data of the age are very important for the late Quaternary chronological study of Nepal Himalayas. In this paper, the author describes sampling localities and horizons, dating results and their geomorphological significance. These ten samples included Pokhara valley, Marsyandi Kohla, Modi Khola, Madi Khola and Muktinath samples. Some conclusion was derived as for the geomorphological development in central Nepal: The last Himalayan glacial age had already ended before 9,000 yr BP (years before A.D. 1950); In the Midland region, from 4,300 to 600 yr BP, some large-scale mudflows broke out nearly contemporaneously in the upper valleys, and they flowed down torrentially and catastrophically to deposit in the middle course of rivers. But the cause of vast quantity of material suddenly brought down from the Great Himalayas has been still left unexplained. The conclusion like this also was able to be applied to the middle Marsyandi Khola and the Pokhara valley. The wide-spread schema that the river was aggraded in the glacial age and degraded in the interglacial age may not be applicable to the rivers in the Midland region of Nepal Himalayas. (Wakatsuki, Y.)

  7. Size of the thrombus in acute deep vein thrombosis and the significance of patients' age and sex.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kierkegaard, A

    1981-01-01

    To determine the significance of patients' age and sex on the size of the thrombus in acute deep vein thrombosis, 420 consecutive phlebograms with acute deep vein thrombosis were studied. A significant correlation between the size of the thrombus and increasing age of the patient as well as the sex of male was noted. It is concluded that older patients and men often are at a high risk of pulmonary embolism at the time of diagnosis.

  8. Statistically significant dependence of the Xaa-Pro peptide bond conformation on secondary structure and amino acid sequence

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Leitner Dietmar

    2005-04-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background A reliable prediction of the Xaa-Pro peptide bond conformation would be a useful tool for many protein structure calculation methods. We have analyzed the Protein Data Bank and show that the combined use of sequential and structural information has a predictive value for the assessment of the cis versus trans peptide bond conformation of Xaa-Pro within proteins. For the analysis of the data sets different statistical methods such as the calculation of the Chou-Fasman parameters and occurrence matrices were used. Furthermore we analyzed the relationship between the relative solvent accessibility and the relative occurrence of prolines in the cis and in the trans conformation. Results One of the main results of the statistical investigations is the ranking of the secondary structure and sequence information with respect to the prediction of the Xaa-Pro peptide bond conformation. We observed a significant impact of secondary structure information on the occurrence of the Xaa-Pro peptide bond conformation, while the sequence information of amino acids neighboring proline is of little predictive value for the conformation of this bond. Conclusion In this work, we present an extensive analysis of the occurrence of the cis and trans proline conformation in proteins. Based on the data set, we derived patterns and rules for a possible prediction of the proline conformation. Upon adoption of the Chou-Fasman parameters, we are able to derive statistically relevant correlations between the secondary structure of amino acid fragments and the Xaa-Pro peptide bond conformation.

  9. Epigenetic age analysis of children who seem to evade aging.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Walker, Richard F; Liu, Jia Sophie; Peters, Brock A; Ritz, Beate R; Wu, Timothy; Ophoff, Roel A; Horvath, Steve

    2015-05-01

    We previously reported the unusual case of a teenage girl stricken with multifocal developmental dysfunctions whose physical development was dramatically delayed resulting in her appearing to be a toddler or at best a preschooler, even unto the occasion of her death at the age of 20 years. Her life-long physician felt that the disorder was unique in the world and that future treatments for age-related diseases might emerge from its study. The objectives of our research were to determine if other such cases exist, and if so, whether aging is actually slowed. Of seven children characterized by dramatically slow developmental rates, five also had associated disorders displayed by the first case. All of the identified subjects were female. To objectively measure the age of blood tissue from these subjects, we used a highly accurate biomarker of aging known as "epigenetic clock" based on DNA methylation levels. No statistically significant differences in chronological and epigenetic ages were detected in any of the newly discovered cases.

  10. RISK FACTORS AND CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF PRECHOROIDAL CLEFT IN NEOVASCULAR AGE-RELATED MACULAR DEGENERATION.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Jong Min; Kang, Se Woong; Son, Dae Yong; Bae, Kunho

    2017-11-01

    To investigate the risk factors associated with prechoroidal cleft occurrence after treatment for neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) and to elucidate its clinical significance. Two hundred thirty-four subjects who were treated for neovascular age-related macular degeneration were assessed to identify prechoroidal cleft on optical coherence tomography. Clinical variables were compared between patients manifesting a cleft (cleft group) and patients who did not (control group). Prechoroidal cleft was detected in 29 of 234 patients (8.1%). Although the baseline visual acuity was not different between the 2 groups, logMAR visual acuity at final visit was 0.89 ± 0.74 (with approximate Snellen equivalent of 20/160) in the cleft group and 0.65 ± 0.69 (with approximate Snellen equivalent of 20/100) in controls (P age-related macular degeneration (P age-related macular degeneration, and a submacular hemorrhage treated by pneumatic displacement were the independent risk factors for development of prechoroidal cleft. Eyes with a cleft, especially clefts that develop early, generally had worse prognoses than eyes without clefts.

  11. CONFIDENCE LEVELS AND/VS. STATISTICAL HYPOTHESIS TESTING IN STATISTICAL ANALYSIS. CASE STUDY

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    ILEANA BRUDIU

    2009-05-01

    Full Text Available Estimated parameters with confidence intervals and testing statistical assumptions used in statistical analysis to obtain conclusions on research from a sample extracted from the population. Paper to the case study presented aims to highlight the importance of volume of sample taken in the study and how this reflects on the results obtained when using confidence intervals and testing for pregnant. If statistical testing hypotheses not only give an answer "yes" or "no" to some questions of statistical estimation using statistical confidence intervals provides more information than a test statistic, show high degree of uncertainty arising from small samples and findings build in the "marginally significant" or "almost significant (p very close to 0.05.

  12. Reports on Cancer - Cancer Statistics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Interactive tools for access to statistics for a cancer site by gender, race, ethnicity, calendar year, age, state, county, stage, and histology. Statistics include incidence, mortality, prevalence, cost, risk factors, behaviors, tobacco use, and policies and are presented as graphs, tables, or maps.

  13. Age-related changes in the testes and prostate of the Beagle dog

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lowseth, L.A.; Gerlach, R.F.; Gillett, N.A.; Muggenburg, B.A.

    1988-01-01

    Age-related changes in the histologic morphology of the Beagle dog prostate and testes must be separated from those changes that may result from the testing of experimental compounds. The prostate and testes of healthy age-matched Beagle dogs 3 to 14 yr of age were obtained. Serum to evaluate testosterone levels was also obtained from each dog at the time of euthanasia. Tissue sections from the prostate and testes were examined by light microscopy for both qualitative and quantitative morphologic assessment. A statistically significant increase in prostatic weight with increased age was noted. Significant morphometric findings in the prostate included a decrease in the relative percent of epithelial cells and an increase in the relative lumen size of glandular acini with increased age. The absolute volume of prostate interstitial tissue and inflammation showed a statistically significant increase with age. Stereological analysis of the testes showed a decrease in the relative percent epithelium with increasing age. No distinct age-related trend could be detected in serum testosterone levels. Serum testosterone levels did not correlate with the morphologic age-related changes observed in the testes or prostate. (author)

  14. Comparative study of millennials' (age 20-34 years) grip and lateral pinch with the norms.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fain, Elizabeth; Weatherford, Cara

    Cross-sectional research design. Clinical practice continues to use normative data for grip and pinch measurements that were established in 1985. There is no updated norms despite different hand usage patterns in today's society. Measuring and comparing grip and pinch strengths with normative data is a valid method to determine hand function. This research was implemented to compare the grip and pinch measurements obtained from healthy millennials to the established norms and to describe hand usage patterns for millennials. Grip and lateral pinch measurements were obtained from a sample of 237 healthy millennials (ages 20-34 years). Strength scores were statistically lower that older normative data in all millennial grip strengths, with the exception of the women in the age group of 30-34 years. Specifically, this statistically significant trend was observed in all male grip strengths, as well as in women in the age group of 20-24 years (bilateral grip) and 25-29 years (right grip). However, the lateral pinch data reflected was similar to the older norms with variances of 0.5-1 kg. Current data reflect statistically significant differences from the norms for all male grip measurements, as well as for women in the age group of 20-24 years (bilateral grip) and 25-29 years (right grip). No statistical significance was observed in the independent-sample t tests for the lateral pinch in men of all age groups. Statistical significance was noted for lateral pinch for female age groups for the left hand (20-24 years) and for bilateral lateral pinches (30-34 years). IV. Copyright © 2016 Hanley & Belfus. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  15. Relationship between perceptual learning in speech and statistical learning in younger and older adults

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Thordis Marisa Neger

    2014-09-01

    Full Text Available Within a few sentences, listeners learn to understand severely degraded speech such as noise-vocoded speech. However, individuals vary in the amount of such perceptual learning and it is unclear what underlies these differences. The present study investigates whether perceptual learning in speech relates to statistical learning, as sensitivity to probabilistic information may aid identification of relevant cues in novel speech input. If statistical learning and perceptual learning (partly draw on the same general mechanisms, then statistical learning in a non-auditory modality using non-linguistic sequences should predict adaptation to degraded speech.In the present study, 73 older adults (aged over 60 years and 60 younger adults (aged between 18 and 30 years performed a visual artificial grammar learning task and were presented with sixty meaningful noise-vocoded sentences in an auditory recall task. Within age groups, sentence recognition performance over exposure was analyzed as a function of statistical learning performance, and other variables that may predict learning (i.e., hearing, vocabulary, attention switching control, working memory and processing speed. Younger and older adults showed similar amounts of perceptual learning, but only younger adults showed significant statistical learning. In older adults, improvement in understanding noise-vocoded speech was constrained by age. In younger adults, amount of adaptation was associated with lexical knowledge and with statistical learning ability. Thus, individual differences in general cognitive abilities explain listeners' variability in adapting to noise-vocoded speech. Results suggest that perceptual and statistical learning share mechanisms of implicit regularity detection, but that the ability to detect statistical regularities is impaired in older adults if visual sequences are presented quickly.

  16. Significance of categorization and the modeling of age related factors for radiation protection

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Matsuoka, Osamu

    1987-01-01

    It is proposed that the categorization and modelling are necessary with regard to age related factors of radionuclide metabolism for the radiation protection of the public. In order to utilize the age related information as a model for life time risk estimate of public, it is necessary to generalize and simplify it according to the categorized model patterns. Since the patterns of age related changes in various parameters of radionuclide metabolism seem to be rather simple, it is possible to categorize them into eleven types of model patterns. Among these models, five are selected as positively significant models to be considered. Examples are shown as to the fitting of representative parameters of both physiological and metabolic parameter of radionuclides into the proposed model. The range of deviation from adult standard value is also analyzed for each model. The fitting of each parameter to categorized models, and its comparative consideration provide the effective information as to the physiological basis of radionuclide metabolism. Discussions are made on the problems encountered in the application of available age related information to radiation protection of the public, i.e. distribution of categorized parameter, period of life covered, range of deviation from adult value, implication to other dosimetric and pathological models and to the final estimation. 5 refs.; 3 figs.; 4 tabs

  17. Relation of Age at Menarche to Physical Activity

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Egreta Peja

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available The aim of this study is to determine whether regular physical activity during early puberty is influential in preventing early menarche. This cross sectional study was carried out on 102 post-menarcheal girls aged 11–20 (14.79±0.33. 51 of them were already engaged in competitive sport activities prior to the onset of menstruation (group 1, while the others got engaged in such activities after the onset of menstruation (group 2. All participants provided the year and the month of their first menstrual period. First, we estimated the equality of dispersion between the two groups, by conducting Two Samples for Variances F-test. Second, because no homogeneity of variances between groups was found, they were compared by using Two Samples Assuming Unequal Variances t-test. The difference between groups is statistically significant, as the t statistics (=2.883 is greater than both critical t statistics (one-tail=1.664 two-tail=1.990 and the p value less than 0.05 in both cases (one-tail=0.002 two-tail=0.005. None of the girls in the first group starts to menstruate before 11 years of age and 90% of them are menstruating by age 14, with a median age of 12.95±0.35 years. Age of menarche is lower in the second group with a median age of 12.25±0.31 years, thus approximately 8 months lower than median age for the first group. 11.76% of the girls in the second group start to menstruate before 11 years of age and 90% of them are menstruating by age 13. It is rather, the decline in early matures among those engaged in regular physical activity prior to the onset of menses, that makes the statistically significant correlation between physical activity and age at menarche practically meaningful. Relatively early matures (<11 years have been found to be slightly shorter but up to 5.5 kg heavier in adulthood than are late matures. In addition, a relatively young age at menarche has been associated with an increased risk for breast cancer and spontaneous

  18. Clinical significance of the corpus callosum in cerebral palsy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lee, Eun Ja; Kim, Ji Chang; Kim, Jong Chul; And Others

    2000-01-01

    To evaluate, using magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, the clinal significance of the corpus callosum by measuring the size of various portions of the corpus callosum in children with cerebral palsy, and in paired controls. Fifty-two children (30 boys and 22 girls aged between six and 96 (median, 19) months) in whom cerebral palsy was clinically diagnosed underwent MR imaging. There were 23 term patients and 29 preterm, and the control group was selected by age and sex matching. Clinal subtypes of cerebral palsy were classified as hemiplegia (n=14), spastic diplegia (n=22), or spastic quadriplegia (n=16), and according to the severity of motor palsy, the condition was also classified as mild (n=26), moderate (n=13), or severe (n=13). In addition to the length and height of the corpus callosum, the thickness of its genu, body, transitional zone and splenium, as seen on midsagittal T1-weighted MR images, were also measured. Differences in the measured values of the two groups were statistically analysed and differences in the size of the corpus callosum according to the clinical severity and subtypes of cerebral palsy, and gestational age, were also assessed. Except for height, the measured values of the corpus callosum in patients with cerebral palsy were significantly less than those of the control group (p less than 0.05). Its size decreased according to the severity of motor palsy. Compared with term patients, the corpus callosum in preterm patients was considerably smaller (p less than 0.05). There was statistically significant correlation between the severity of motor palsy and the size of the corpus callosum. Quantitative evaluation of the corpus callosum might be a good indicator of neurologic prognosis, and a sensitive marker for assessing the extent of brain injury

  19. Clinical significance of the corpus callosum in cerebral palsy

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Lee, Eun Ja; Kim, Ji Chang [The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Kim, Jong Chul [School of Medicine, Chungnam National University, Taejon (Korea, Republic of); And Others

    2000-10-01

    To evaluate, using magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, the clinal significance of the corpus callosum by measuring the size of various portions of the corpus callosum in children with cerebral palsy, and in paired controls. Fifty-two children (30 boys and 22 girls aged between six and 96 (median, 19) months) in whom cerebral palsy was clinically diagnosed underwent MR imaging. There were 23 term patients and 29 preterm, and the control group was selected by age and sex matching. Clinal subtypes of cerebral palsy were classified as hemiplegia (n=14), spastic diplegia (n=22), or spastic quadriplegia (n=16), and according to the severity of motor palsy, the condition was also classified as mild (n=26), moderate (n=13), or severe (n=13). In addition to the length and height of the corpus callosum, the thickness of its genu, body, transitional zone and splenium, as seen on midsagittal T1-weighted MR images, were also measured. Differences in the measured values of the two groups were statistically analysed and differences in the size of the corpus callosum according to the clinical severity and subtypes of cerebral palsy, and gestational age, were also assessed. Except for height, the measured values of the corpus callosum in patients with cerebral palsy were significantly less than those of the control group (p less than 0.05). Its size decreased according to the severity of motor palsy. Compared with term patients, the corpus callosum in preterm patients was considerably smaller (p less than 0.05). There was statistically significant correlation between the severity of motor palsy and the size of the corpus callosum. Quantitative evaluation of the corpus callosum might be a good indicator of neurologic prognosis, and a sensitive marker for assessing the extent of brain injury.

  20. Height for age z score and cognitive function are associated with Academic performance among school children aged 8-11 years old.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Haile, Demewoz; Nigatu, Dabere; Gashaw, Ketema; Demelash, Habtamu

    2016-01-01

    Academic achievement of school age children can be affected by several factors such as nutritional status, demographics, and socioeconomic factors. Though evidence about the magnitude of malnutrition is well established in Ethiopia, there is a paucity of evidence about the association of nutritional status with academic performance among the nation's school age children. Hence, this study aimed to determine how nutritional status and cognitive function are associated with academic performance of school children in Goba town, South East Ethiopia. An institution based cross-sectional study was conducted among 131 school age students from primary schools in Goba town enrolled during the 2013/2014 academic year. The nutritional status of students was assessed by anthropometric measurement, while the cognitive assessment was measured by the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (KABC-II) and Ravens colored progressive matrices (Raven's CPM) tests. The academic performance of the school children was measured by collecting the preceding semester academic result from the school record. Descriptive statistics, bivariate and multivariable linear regression were used in the statistical analysis. This study found a statistically significant positive association between all cognitive test scores and average academic performance except for number recall (p = 0.12) and hand movements (p = 0.08). The correlation between all cognitive test scores and mathematics score was found positive and statistically significant (p academic subjects among school age children (ß = 0.53; 95 % CI: 0.11-0.95). A single unit change of age resulted 3.23 unit change in average score of all academic subjects among school age children (ß = 3.23; 95 % CI: 1.20-5.27). Nutritional status (height for age Z score) and wealth could be modifiable factors to improve academic performance of school age children. Moreover, interventions to improve nutrition for mothers and children may be

  1. Safety significance of component ageing, exemplary for MOV, based on French and German operating experience

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Morlent, O. [CEA Fontenay-aux-Roses, 92 (France). Inst. de Protection et de Surete Nucleaire; Michel, F. [Gesellschaft fuer Anlagen- und Reaktorsicherheit (GRS) mbH, Garching (Germany)

    2001-07-01

    An outline is given of how IPSN and GRS assess the effects of physical ageing on the safety of French and German Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs) on the basis of the available knowledge and how investigations are carried out. The presentation is focused exemplary on a preliminary study illustrating approaches for the evaluation of the ageing behaviour of active components, the motor-operated valves (MOV). The results so far seems to demonstrate that the developed methodological approaches are suitable to obtain qualitative evidence with regard to the ageing behaviour of technical facilities such as MOV. The evaluation of the operating experience with French 900 MWe plants seems to reveal, for MOV of one system, a trend similar to some international findings about ageing-related events with increasing operating time; this trend will have to be confirmed. For the German NPPs so far, there appears to be no significant increase of ageing-related events concerning MOV as the plants get older. Future work on ageing scheduled at IPSN and GRS includes further cooperation on this issue, too; a deep analysis is necessary to explain the reasons of such apparent differences before any conclusion. (authors)

  2. Safety significance of component ageing, exemplary for MOV, based on French and German operating experience

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Morlent, O.

    2001-01-01

    An outline is given of how IPSN and GRS assess the effects of physical ageing on the safety of French and German Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs) on the basis of the available knowledge and how investigations are carried out. The presentation is focused exemplary on a preliminary study illustrating approaches for the evaluation of the ageing behaviour of active components, the motor-operated valves (MOV). The results so far seems to demonstrate that the developed methodological approaches are suitable to obtain qualitative evidence with regard to the ageing behaviour of technical facilities such as MOV. The evaluation of the operating experience with French 900 MWe plants seems to reveal, for MOV of one system, a trend similar to some international findings about ageing-related events with increasing operating time; this trend will have to be confirmed. For the German NPPs so far, there appears to be no significant increase of ageing-related events concerning MOV as the plants get older. Future work on ageing scheduled at IPSN and GRS includes further cooperation on this issue, too; a deep analysis is necessary to explain the reasons of such apparent differences before any conclusion. (authors)

  3. Middle age has a significant impact on gene expression during skin wound healing in male mice.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yanai, Hagai; Lumenta, David Benjamin; Vierlinger, Klemens; Hofner, Manuela; Kitzinger, Hugo-Benito; Kamolz, Lars-Peter; Nöhammer, Christa; Chilosi, Marco; Fraifeld, Vadim E

    2016-08-01

    The vast majority of research on the impact of age on skin wound healing (WH) compares old animals to young ones. The middle age is often ignored in biogerontological research despite the fact that many functions that decline in an age-dependent manner have starting points in mid-life. With this in mind, we examined gene expression patterns during skin WH in late middle-aged versus young adult male mice, using the head and back punch models. The rationale behind this study was that the impact of age would first be detectable at the transcriptional level. We pinpointed several pathways which were over-activated in the middle-aged mice, both in the intact skin and during WH. Among them were various metabolic, immune-inflammatory and growth-promoting pathways. These transcriptional changes were much more pronounced in the head than in the back. In summary, the middle age has a significant impact on gene expression in intact and healing skin. It seems that the head punch model is more sensitive to the effect of age than the back model, and we suggest that it should be more widely applied in aging research on wound healing.

  4. Arcuate foramen and its clinical significance

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cakmark, O.; Gurdal, E.; Cavdar, S.; Ekinci, G.; Yildiz, E.

    2005-01-01

    The present study determines the degree of ossification of the posterior atlanto-occipital membrane in dry bone, plane lateral cervical spine radiographs and computer tomography (CT). The average length, width and the area of the arcuate foramen were measured on dry bone and on cervical CT. Further, age, gender and complaints of the patients of shoulder and arm pain, neck pain, headache, vertigo, and lacrimation in relation to the presence of bony complete or incomplete arcuate foramen were evaluated. From February 2004 to January 2005 60 dry atlases were obtained from the Anatomy Department, University of Marmara, Istanbul, Turkey and 416 lateral cervical spine radiographs were obtained from the Radiology department for neurological and orthopedic evaluations. Each complete arcuate foramen was calculated with the aid of Clemex Vision PE demo version computer program. Among the 60 dry atlases examined 7 (11.7%) had complete and 2 (3.3 %) had incomplete bony bridge formation. Of the 416 plane lateral cervical spine radiographs examined, 30 (7.2%) had complete and 26 (6.25%) had incomplete bony bridge formation. Of the 30 complete arcuate foramen 24 (80%) were females and 6 (20%) were males. The frequency of having a complete arcuate foramen in females was 8.45%, and in males it was 4.55%. Further, of the 26 incomplete arcuate foramen 20 (76.9%) were females and 6 (23.1%) were males. The frequency of having an incomplete arcuate foramen in females was 7%, and in males was 4.55%. The statistical evaluations showed that patients with complete arcuate foramen had significant complaints of shoulder-arm pain (p=0.0072), neck pain (p=0.0072) and vertigo (p=0.0598) compared to patients with incomplete arcuate foramen. The patients with complete arcuate foramen had a headache ratio of 12:30 and this ratio was 2:26 in patients with incomplete arcuate foramen and the difference between complete and incomplete arcuate foramen was statistically significant (p=0.0062). Further

  5. Neuronal Function in Male Sprague Dawley Rats During Normal Ageing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Idowu, A J; Olatunji-Bello, I I; Olagunju, J A

    2017-03-06

    During normal ageing, there are physiological changes especially in high energy demanding tissues including the brain and skeletal muscles. Ageing may disrupt homeostasis and allow tissue vulnerability to disease. To establish an appropriate animal model which is readily available and will be useful to test therapeutic strategies during normal ageing, we applied behavioral approaches to study age-related changes in memory and motor function as a basis for neuronal function in ageing in male Sprague Dawley rats. 3 months, n=5; 6 months, n=5 and 18 months, n=5 male Sprague Dawley Rats were tested using the Novel Object Recognition Task (NORT) and the Elevated plus Maze (EPM) Test. Data was analyzed by ANOVA and the Newman-Keuls post hoc test. The results showed an age-related gradual decline in exploratory behavior and locomotor activity with increasing age in 3 months, 6 months and 18 months old rats, although the values were not statistically significant, but grooming activity significantly increased with increasing age. Importantly, we established a novel finding that the minimum distance from the novel object was statistically significant between 3 months and 18 months old rats and this may be an index for age-related memory impairment in the NORT. Altogether, we conclude that the male Sprague Dawley rat show age-related changes in neuronal function and may be a useful model for carrying out investigations into the mechanisms involved in normal ageing.

  6. The adipokine leptin increases skeletal muscle mass and significantly alters skeletal muscle miRNA expression profile in aged mice

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hamrick, Mark W.; Herberg, Samuel; Arounleut, Phonepasong; He, Hong-Zhi; Shiver, Austin; Qi, Rui-Qun; Zhou, Li; Isales, Carlos M.

    2010-01-01

    Research highlights: → Aging is associated with muscle atrophy and loss of muscle mass, known as the sarcopenia of aging. → We demonstrate that age-related muscle atrophy is associated with marked changes in miRNA expression in muscle. → Treating aged mice with the adipokine leptin significantly increased muscle mass and the expression of miRNAs involved in muscle repair. → Recombinant leptin therapy may therefore be a novel approach for treating age-related muscle atrophy. -- Abstract: Age-associated loss of muscle mass, or sarcopenia, contributes directly to frailty and an increased risk of falls and fractures among the elderly. Aged mice and elderly adults both show decreased muscle mass as well as relatively low levels of the fat-derived hormone leptin. Here we demonstrate that loss of muscle mass and myofiber size with aging in mice is associated with significant changes in the expression of specific miRNAs. Aging altered the expression of 57 miRNAs in mouse skeletal muscle, and many of these miRNAs are now reported to be associated specifically with age-related muscle atrophy. These include miR-221, previously identified in studies of myogenesis and muscle development as playing a role in the proliferation and terminal differentiation of myogenic precursors. We also treated aged mice with recombinant leptin, to determine whether leptin therapy could improve muscle mass and alter the miRNA expression profile of aging skeletal muscle. Leptin treatment significantly increased hindlimb muscle mass and extensor digitorum longus fiber size in aged mice. Furthermore, the expression of 37 miRNAs was altered in muscles of leptin-treated mice. In particular, leptin treatment increased the expression of miR-31 and miR-223, miRNAs known to be elevated during muscle regeneration and repair. These findings suggest that aging in skeletal muscle is associated with marked changes in the expression of specific miRNAs, and that nutrient-related hormones such as leptin

  7. The adipokine leptin increases skeletal muscle mass and significantly alters skeletal muscle miRNA expression profile in aged mice

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hamrick, Mark W., E-mail: mhamrick@mail.mcg.edu [Department of Cellular Biology and Anatomy, Institute of Molecular Medicine and Genetics, Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, GA (United States); Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Institute of Molecular Medicine and Genetics, Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, GA (United States); Herberg, Samuel; Arounleut, Phonepasong [Department of Cellular Biology and Anatomy, Institute of Molecular Medicine and Genetics, Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, GA (United States); Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Institute of Molecular Medicine and Genetics, Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, GA (United States); He, Hong-Zhi [Henry Ford Immunology Program, Henry Ford Health System, Detroit, MI (United States); Department of Dermatology, Henry Ford Health System, Detroit, MI (United States); Shiver, Austin [Department of Cellular Biology and Anatomy, Institute of Molecular Medicine and Genetics, Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, GA (United States); Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Institute of Molecular Medicine and Genetics, Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, GA (United States); Qi, Rui-Qun [Henry Ford Immunology Program, Henry Ford Health System, Detroit, MI (United States); Department of Dermatology, Henry Ford Health System, Detroit, MI (United States); Zhou, Li [Henry Ford Immunology Program, Henry Ford Health System, Detroit, MI (United States); Department of Dermatology, Henry Ford Health System, Detroit, MI (United States); Department of Internal Medicine, Henry Ford Health System, Detroit, MI (United States); Isales, Carlos M. [Department of Cellular Biology and Anatomy, Institute of Molecular Medicine and Genetics, Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, GA (United States); Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Institute of Molecular Medicine and Genetics, Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, GA (United States); others, and

    2010-09-24

    Research highlights: {yields} Aging is associated with muscle atrophy and loss of muscle mass, known as the sarcopenia of aging. {yields} We demonstrate that age-related muscle atrophy is associated with marked changes in miRNA expression in muscle. {yields} Treating aged mice with the adipokine leptin significantly increased muscle mass and the expression of miRNAs involved in muscle repair. {yields} Recombinant leptin therapy may therefore be a novel approach for treating age-related muscle atrophy. -- Abstract: Age-associated loss of muscle mass, or sarcopenia, contributes directly to frailty and an increased risk of falls and fractures among the elderly. Aged mice and elderly adults both show decreased muscle mass as well as relatively low levels of the fat-derived hormone leptin. Here we demonstrate that loss of muscle mass and myofiber size with aging in mice is associated with significant changes in the expression of specific miRNAs. Aging altered the expression of 57 miRNAs in mouse skeletal muscle, and many of these miRNAs are now reported to be associated specifically with age-related muscle atrophy. These include miR-221, previously identified in studies of myogenesis and muscle development as playing a role in the proliferation and terminal differentiation of myogenic precursors. We also treated aged mice with recombinant leptin, to determine whether leptin therapy could improve muscle mass and alter the miRNA expression profile of aging skeletal muscle. Leptin treatment significantly increased hindlimb muscle mass and extensor digitorum longus fiber size in aged mice. Furthermore, the expression of 37 miRNAs was altered in muscles of leptin-treated mice. In particular, leptin treatment increased the expression of miR-31 and miR-223, miRNAs known to be elevated during muscle regeneration and repair. These findings suggest that aging in skeletal muscle is associated with marked changes in the expression of specific miRNAs, and that nutrient

  8. The influence of hen age on fatty acid composition of commercial eggs

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tina Lešić

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available The aim of this study was to investigate the nutritional composition of commercial eggs from Lohman Brown hens through fat and fatty acid content analysis, as well as to evaluate the effect of hen age on the above parameters. Egg samples (n=108 were collected every two weeks from 21- to 55- week old hens during the 2015/2016 autumn/winter period. The results revealed significant differences in fatty acid composition dependent on hen age (p 0.05. The total polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA content was statistically significantly higher in eggs laid by 55- week old hens as compared to those laid by 21- week old hens. The n-6/n-3 and PUFA/SFA ratios were more favourable in the elder hens. In general, the results revealed hen ageing-based variations in fatty acid composition of their eggs, in particular in the representation of linoleic (LA, alpha-linolenic (ALA and arachidonic acid (AA, for which statistically significant hen age-based differences were found.

  9. The acoustical significance of age-dependent ear elongation

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Christensen, Flemming

    2015-01-01

    , corresponding to what is reported in the literature. For female ears, virtually no acoustical effect was found. For male ears directional dependent effects in the range up to 5 dB on average was found for certain directions and frequencies. Implications on age dependent hearing loss (presbycusis...

  10. Age at menarche and its socioeconomic determinants among female students in an urban area in Bangladesh.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Islam, Md Serajul; Hussain, Md Altaf; Islam, Saimul; Mahumud, Rashidul Alam; Biswas, Tuhin; Islam, Sheikh Mohammed Shariful

    2017-06-01

    This cross-sectional study aimed to determine the age at menarche and its socioeconomic determinants among urban female students (n=680) in Bangladesh. The mean age of the respondents was 14±1.43years. Majority of the respondents were unmarried (98.4%). The mean age at menarche was 11.6±3.6years, median 12years. Almost one-third (35.7%) of the participants had menarche at the age of 12years. There was no statistically significant difference between age at menarche before and after 12years with the socio-economic characteristics, except education (p=<0.001). In the multivariate model, only higher education was statistically significant predictor of age at menarche. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  11. Cortical 11C-PIB Uptake is Associated with Age, APOE Genotype, and Gender in "Healthy Aging"

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Scheinin, Noora M; Wikman, Kristina; Jula, Antti

    2014-01-01

    with the amyloid tracer 11C-PIB, in 64 cognitively healthy subjects (54-89 years). In addition to PET, magnetic resonance imaging, neuropsychological testing, and APOE genotyping was performed. The results were assessed with a statistical general linear model as well as with Statistical Parametric Mapping (SPM......). Results: The effects of age (p gender (p = 0.001) on composite cortical 11C-PIB uptake were all significant. The effect of educational level was non-significant (p = 0.37). No significant interactions were found between any of the factors. Cortical 11C....... In this sample of cognitively healthy elderly individuals, men exhibited higher 11C-PIB uptake than women. Possible gender differences in Aβ accumulation have not been addressed in detail in previous studies, and deeper evaluation in the future is warranted....

  12. Determining coding CpG islands by identifying regions significant for pattern statistics on Markov chains.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Singer, Meromit; Engström, Alexander; Schönhuth, Alexander; Pachter, Lior

    2011-09-23

    Recent experimental and computational work confirms that CpGs can be unmethylated inside coding exons, thereby showing that codons may be subjected to both genomic and epigenomic constraint. It is therefore of interest to identify coding CpG islands (CCGIs) that are regions inside exons enriched for CpGs. The difficulty in identifying such islands is that coding exons exhibit sequence biases determined by codon usage and constraints that must be taken into account. We present a method for finding CCGIs that showcases a novel approach we have developed for identifying regions of interest that are significant (with respect to a Markov chain) for the counts of any pattern. Our method begins with the exact computation of tail probabilities for the number of CpGs in all regions contained in coding exons, and then applies a greedy algorithm for selecting islands from among the regions. We show that the greedy algorithm provably optimizes a biologically motivated criterion for selecting islands while controlling the false discovery rate. We applied this approach to the human genome (hg18) and annotated CpG islands in coding exons. The statistical criterion we apply to evaluating islands reduces the number of false positives in existing annotations, while our approach to defining islands reveals significant numbers of undiscovered CCGIs in coding exons. Many of these appear to be examples of functional epigenetic specialization in coding exons.

  13. Clinical significance of AGE-RAGE axis in colorectal cancer: associations with glyoxalase-I, adiponectin receptor expression and prognosis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sakellariou, Stratigoula; Fragkou, Paraskevi; Levidou, Georgia; Gargalionis, Antonios N.; Piperi, Christina; Dalagiorgou, Georgia; Adamopoulos, Christos; Saetta, Angelica; Agrogiannis, George; Theohari, Irini; Sougioultzis, Stavros; Tsioli, Panagiota; Karavokyros, Ioannis; Tsavaris, Nikolaos; Kostakis, Ioannis D.; Zizi-Serbetzoglou, Adamantia; Vandoros, Gerasimos P.; Patsouris, Efstratios; Korkolopoulou, Penelope

    2016-01-01

    Advanced glycation end products (AGEs) and their receptor RAGE emerge as important pathogenic contributors in colorectal carcinogenesis. However, their relationship to the detoxification enzyme Glyoxalase (GLO)-I and Adiponectin receptors (AdipoR1, AdipoR2) in colorectal carcinoma (CRC) is currently understudied. In the present study, we investigated the expression levels of the above molecules in CRC compared to adjacent non-tumoral tissue and their potential correlation with clinicopathological characteristics and patients’ survival. We analyzed the immunohistochemical expression of AGE, RAGE, GLO-1, AdipoR1 and AdipoR2 in 133 primary CRC cases, focusing on GLO-I. The tumour MSI status was further assessed in mucinous carcinomas. Western immunoblotting was employed for validation of immunohistochemical data in normal and tumoral tissues as well in three CRC cell lines. An independent set of 55 patients was also used to validate the results of univariate survival analysis regarding GLO-I. CRC tissue showed higher intensity of both AGE and RAGE expression compared with normal colonic mucosa which was negative for GLO-I in most cases (78 %). Western immunoblotting confirmed AGE, RAGE and GLO-I overexpression in tumoral tissue. GLO-I expression was directly related to RAGE and inversely related to AGE immunolabeling. There was a trend towards higher expression of all markers (except for RAGE) in the subgroup of mucinous carcinomas which, although of borderline significance, seemed to be more prominent for AdipoR1 and AGE. Additionally, AGE, AdipoR1 and Adipo R2 expression was related to tumor grade, whereas GLO-1 and AdipoR1 to T-category. In survival analysis, AdipoR2 and GLO-I overexpression predicted shortened survival in the entire cohort and in early stage cases, an effect which for GLO-I was reproduced in the validation cohort. Moreover, GLO-I emerged as an independent prognosticator of adverse significance in the patients’ cohort. We herein provide novel

  14. The association between major depression prevalence and sex becomes weaker with age.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Patten, Scott B; Williams, Jeanne V A; Lavorato, Dina H; Wang, Jian Li; Bulloch, Andrew G M; Sajobi, Tolulope

    2016-02-01

    Women have a higher prevalence of major depressive episodes (MDE) than men, and the annual prevalence of MDE declines with age. Age by sex interactions may occur (a weakening of the sex effect with age), but are easily overlooked since individual studies lack statistical power to detect interactions. The objective of this study was to evaluate age by sex interactions in MDE prevalence. In Canada, a series of 10 national surveys conducted between 1996 and 2013 assessed MDE prevalence in respondents over the age of 14. Treating age as a continuous variable, binomial and linear regression was used to model age by sex interactions in each survey. To increase power, the survey-specific interaction coefficients were then pooled using meta-analytic methods. The estimated interaction terms were homogeneous. In the binomial regression model I (2) was 31.2 % and was not statistically significant (Q statistic = 13.1, df = 9, p = 0.159). The pooled estimate (-0.004) was significant (z = 3.13, p = 0.002), indicating that the effect of sex became weaker with increasing age. This resulted in near disappearance of the sex difference in the 75+ age group. This finding was also supported by an examination of age- and sex-specific estimates pooled across the surveys. The association of MDE prevalence with sex becomes weaker with age. The interaction may reflect biological effect modification. Investigators should test for, and consider inclusion of age by sex interactions in epidemiological analyses of MDE prevalence.

  15. SIGNIFICANCE OF EARLY-AGE LEARNING OF MATHEMATICAL SKILLS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sead Rešić

    2011-12-01

    Full Text Available It is a fact that only hereditary, i.e. genetic factors are not sufficient for development of a child’s brain; on the contrary, a child needs external stimuli expressed through touch, speech, images, which lead to the conclusion that immediate and extended surroundings shape the brain, meaning that the external stimuli, stronger or weaker, mutually connect the brain cells and neurons. Questions regarding the development of mathematical manner of thinking are mostly based on the natural process of learning, however, this paper deals with deeper set of problems, which are not only difficult to resolve but possibly there is no resolution. Namely, a question is posed what is the appropriate age when a child is ready and able to solve certain mathematical problems or notice mathematical principles, that is, whether they are actually exist clearly defined age boundaries based on which a conclusion could be made about the time and individual is ready to solve mathematical problems of a concrete difficulty level or to notice mathematical laws.

  16. Computed tomographic features of the feline brain change with advancing age?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Viviam R. Babicsak

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available Abstract: A better understanding of normal or expected encephalic changes with increasing age in cats is needed as a growing number of these animals is attended in veterinary clinics, and imaging data referring to normal age-associated changes are extremely scarce in the literature. The objective of this study was to identify age-related changes in feline brain using CT imaging. Fifteen non-brachycephalic healthy cats with age between 1 to 6 years (adult group and others over 12 years (geriatric group were submitted to CT scan of the brain. Statistically significant differences were found between the groups for the ability to identify the left lateral ventricle and for falx cerebri calcification, both identified in a greater number of cats of the geriatric group. A significantly higher mean width of the third ventricle was also detected in geriatric animals. There were no statistically significant differences between lateral ventricular dimensions and encephalic parenchymal attenuation on pre and post-contrast CT phases. The results of the present study show an increase in the incidence of falx cerebri calcification and a third ventricular dilatation with advancing age in cats. Future researches using MRI scanners and a greater quantity of cats are needed in order to identify supplementary age-related changes.

  17. Active transport among Czech school-aged children

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jan Pavelka

    2012-09-01

    Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Active transport is a very important factor for increasing the level of physical activity in children, which is significant for both their health and positive physical behaviour in adult age. OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to establish the proportion of Czech children aged 11 to 15 who select active transport to and from school and, at the same time, describe socio-economic and socio-demographic factors influencing active transport to and from school among children. METHODS: To establish the socio-demographic factors affecting active transport, data of a national representative sample of 11 to 15 year-old elementary school children in the Czech Republic (n = 4,425. Research data collection was performed within an international research study called Health Behaviour in School Aged Children in June 2010. Statistical processing of the results was made using a logistic regression analysis in the statistical programme IBM SPSS v 20. RESULTS: Active transport to and from school is opted for in the Czech Republic by approximately 2/3 of children aged 11 to 15. Differences between genders are not statistically significant; most children opting for active transport are aged 11 (69%. An important factor increasing the probability of active transport as much as 16 times is whether a child's place of residence is in the same municipality as the school. Other factors influencing this choice include BMI, time spent using a computer or a privateroom in a family. A significant factor determining active transport by children is safety; safe road crossing, opportunity to leave a bicycle safely at school, no fear of being assaulted on the way or provision of school lockers where children can leave their items. CONCLUSIONS: Active transport plays an important role in increasing the overall level of physical activity in children. Promotion of active transport should focus on children who spend more time using a computer; attention should also be

  18. Metastatic breast cancer - age has a significant effect on survival ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The data on 217 elderly (aged ≥ 65 years) and 209 middleaged postmenopausal patients with metastatic breast cancer treated in the Department of Medical Oncology, University of Pretoria, from 1976 to 1985 were analysed to determine the effect of age on survival. When considered as a group, the elderly have a more ...

  19. Ageing of significant to safety structure elements of nuclear power plants

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Maksimovas, G.; Ramanauskiene, A.; Ziliukas, A.

    1999-01-01

    The paper analyzes the ageing problems of structure elements in nuclear power plants. The standard documents and principal parts of the ageing evaluation program are presented. The ageing evaluation model is being worked out and degradation mechanisms of different atomic reactor materials are being compared. (author)

  20. Statistical aspects of fish stock assessment

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Berg, Casper Willestofte

    for stock assessment by application of state-of-the-art statistical methodology. The main contributions are presented in the form of six research papers. The major part of the thesis deals with age-structured assessment models, which is the most common approach. Conversion from length to age distributions...... statistical aspects of fish stocks assessment, which includes topics such as time series analysis, generalized additive models (GAMs), and non-linear state-space/mixed models capable of handling missing data and a high number of latent states and parameters. The aim is to improve the existing methods...

  1. Statistical significance approximation in local trend analysis of high-throughput time-series data using the theory of Markov chains.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xia, Li C; Ai, Dongmei; Cram, Jacob A; Liang, Xiaoyi; Fuhrman, Jed A; Sun, Fengzhu

    2015-09-21

    Local trend (i.e. shape) analysis of time series data reveals co-changing patterns in dynamics of biological systems. However, slow permutation procedures to evaluate the statistical significance of local trend scores have limited its applications to high-throughput time series data analysis, e.g., data from the next generation sequencing technology based studies. By extending the theories for the tail probability of the range of sum of Markovian random variables, we propose formulae for approximating the statistical significance of local trend scores. Using simulations and real data, we show that the approximate p-value is close to that obtained using a large number of permutations (starting at time points >20 with no delay and >30 with delay of at most three time steps) in that the non-zero decimals of the p-values obtained by the approximation and the permutations are mostly the same when the approximate p-value is less than 0.05. In addition, the approximate p-value is slightly larger than that based on permutations making hypothesis testing based on the approximate p-value conservative. The approximation enables efficient calculation of p-values for pairwise local trend analysis, making large scale all-versus-all comparisons possible. We also propose a hybrid approach by integrating the approximation and permutations to obtain accurate p-values for significantly associated pairs. We further demonstrate its use with the analysis of the Polymouth Marine Laboratory (PML) microbial community time series from high-throughput sequencing data and found interesting organism co-occurrence dynamic patterns. The software tool is integrated into the eLSA software package that now provides accelerated local trend and similarity analysis pipelines for time series data. The package is freely available from the eLSA website: http://bitbucket.org/charade/elsa.

  2. Age and gender effects on normal regional cerebral blood flow studied using two different voxel-based statistical analyses; Effets de l'age et du genre sur la perfusion cerebrale regionale etudiee par deux methodes d'analyse statistique voxel-par-voxel

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Pirson, A.S.; George, J.; Krug, B.; Vander Borght, T. [Universite Catholique de Louvain, Service de Medecine Nucleaire, Cliniques Universitaires de Mont-Godinne, Yvoir (Belgium); Van Laere, K. [Leuven Univ. Hospital, Nuclear Medicine Div. (Belgium); Jamart, J. [Universite Catholique de Louvain, Dept. de Biostatistiques, Cliniques Universitaires de Mont-Godinne, Yvoir (Belgium); D' Asseler, Y. [Ghent Univ., Medical Signal and Image Processing Dept. (MEDISIP), Faculty of applied sciences (Belgium); Minoshima, S. [Washington Univ., Dept. of Radiology, Seattle (United States)

    2009-10-15

    Fully automated analysis programs have been applied more and more to aid for the reading of regional cerebral blood flow SPECT study. They are increasingly based on the comparison of the patient study with a normal database. In this study, we evaluate the ability of Three-Dimensional Stereotactic Surface Projection (3 D-S.S.P.) to isolate effects of age and gender in a previously studied normal population. The results were also compared with those obtained using Statistical Parametric Mapping (S.P.M.99). Methods Eighty-nine {sup 99m}Tc-E.C.D.-SPECT studies performed in carefully screened healthy volunteers (46 females, 43 males; age 20 - 81 years) were analysed using 3 D-S.S.P.. A multivariate analysis based on the general linear model was performed with regions as intra-subject factor, gender as inter-subject factor and age as co-variate. Results Both age and gender had a significant interaction effect with regional tracer uptake. An age-related decline (p < 0.001) was found in the anterior cingulate gyrus, left frontal association cortex and left insula. Bilateral occipital association and left primary visual cortical uptake showed a significant relative increase with age (p < 0.001). Concerning the gender effect, women showed higher uptake (p < 0.01) in the parietal and right sensorimotor cortices. An age by gender interaction (p < 0.01) was only found in the left medial frontal cortex. The results were consistent with those obtained with S.P.M.99. Conclusion 3 D-S.S.P. analysis of normal r.C.B.F. variability is consistent with the literature and other automated voxel-based techniques, which highlight the effects of both age and gender. (authors)

  3. Test the Overall Significance of p-values by Using Joint Tail Probability of Ordered p-values as Test Statistic

    OpenAIRE

    Fang, Yongxiang; Wit, Ernst

    2008-01-01

    Fisher’s combined probability test is the most commonly used method to test the overall significance of a set independent p-values. However, it is very obviously that Fisher’s statistic is more sensitive to smaller p-values than to larger p-value and a small p-value may overrule the other p-values and decide the test result. This is, in some cases, viewed as a flaw. In order to overcome this flaw and improve the power of the test, the joint tail probability of a set p-values is proposed as a ...

  4. Attitudes toward statistics in medical postgraduates: measuring, evaluating and monitoring.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Yuhai; Shang, Lei; Wang, Rui; Zhao, Qinbo; Li, Chanjuan; Xu, Yongyong; Su, Haixia

    2012-11-23

    In medical training, statistics is considered a very difficult course to learn and teach. Current studies have found that students' attitudes toward statistics can influence their learning process. Measuring, evaluating and monitoring the changes of students' attitudes toward statistics are important. Few studies have focused on the attitudes of postgraduates, especially medical postgraduates. Our purpose was to understand current attitudes regarding statistics held by medical postgraduates and explore their effects on students' achievement. We also wanted to explore the influencing factors and the sources of these attitudes and monitor their changes after a systematic statistics course. A total of 539 medical postgraduates enrolled in a systematic statistics course completed the pre-form of the Survey of Attitudes Toward Statistics -28 scale, and 83 postgraduates were selected randomly from among them to complete the post-form scale after the course. Most medical postgraduates held positive attitudes toward statistics, but they thought statistics was a very difficult subject. The attitudes mainly came from experiences in a former statistical or mathematical class. Age, level of statistical education, research experience, specialty and mathematics basis may influence postgraduate attitudes toward statistics. There were significant positive correlations between course achievement and attitudes toward statistics. In general, student attitudes showed negative changes after completing a statistics course. The importance of student attitudes toward statistics must be recognized in medical postgraduate training. To make sure all students have a positive learning environment, statistics teachers should measure their students' attitudes and monitor their change of status during a course. Some necessary assistance should be offered for those students who develop negative attitudes.

  5. Age-Associated Changes in the Spectral and Statistical Parameters of Surface Electromyogram of Tibialis Anterior.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Siddiqi, Ariba; Arjunan, Sridhar Poosapadi; Kumar, Dinesh Kant

    2016-01-01

    Age-related neuromuscular change of Tibialis Anterior (TA) is a leading cause of muscle strength decline among the elderly. This study has established the baseline for age-associated changes in sEMG of TA at different levels of voluntary contraction. We have investigated the use of Gaussianity and maximal power of the power spectral density (PSD) as suitable features to identify age-associated changes in the surface electromyogram (sEMG). Eighteen younger (20-30 years) and 18 older (60-85 years) cohorts completed two trials of isometric dorsiflexion at four different force levels between 10% and 50% of the maximal voluntary contraction. Gaussianity and maximal power of the PSD of sEMG were determined. Results show a significant increase in sEMG's maximal power of the PSD and Gaussianity with increase in force for both cohorts. It was also observed that older cohorts had higher maximal power of the PSD and lower Gaussianity. These age-related differences observed in the PSD and Gaussianity could be due to motor unit remodelling. This can be useful for noninvasive tracking of age-associated neuromuscular changes.

  6. [Causes of death in children and adolescents aged 1-19 in poland in the light of international statistics since 2000].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mazur, Joanna; Malinowska-Cieślik, Marta; Oblacińska, Anna

    2017-01-01

    Analyses of children and young people mortality continue to be an important component of health monitoring of this population. Such analyses provide the basis to assess the overall trends, the structure of the causes of death over longer periods, and the differences between Poland and other countries. The purpose of the current study is to present the current status and the direction of changes since 2000 with regard to the level and underlying causes of mortality in children and adolescents aged 1-19 years in Poland on the background of statistics for leading European countries. Interactive databases available online: the National Demographic Database provided by the Central Statistical Office and the International WHO-MDB Database were used. Poland, constantly belonging to Eur-B category, was compared with the combined group of 27 leading countries, classified as a very low total mortality group (Eur-A) according to WHO. Linear trends of overall and cause-specific mortality in 2000-2013 were estimated. The causes of death have been presented according to the main classes of the 10th revision of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-10). External and other causes were adopted as the two principal categories. In 2015, 1471 deaths of persons aged 1-19 were recorded in Poland (19.9 per 100 000, 25.4 and 14.2 for boys and girls, respectively). Changes in children and adolescents mortality by age have a non-linear nature (U-shaped), and the lowest level is recorded at the age of 5-9 years. According to 2014 data, 50.2% of deaths of children and adolescents aged 1-19 years occurred due to external causes, including non-intentional and intentional ones. This percentage increased from 18.4% in the 1-4 age group to 68.6% at the age of 15-19 years. Apart from external causes, the dominating causes of death are malignant neoplasms, congenital defects, or nervous system and respiratory system diseases. The ranking of those

  7. Evidence of the relative age effect in football in Australia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    van den Honert, Robin

    2012-01-01

    The birth date distributions of elite male and female footballers in Australia, from junior youth (age 14 and upwards) to senior (professional) players, were examined. A statistically significant relative age effect was found among junior male players, reducing in effect with increasing age. An inter-year relative age effect that became apparent among the players at national level in the Under-17 and Under-20 age groups, due to the timing of the respective World Cups for those age groups, was also identified. It is conjectured that this might lead to players born in certain years having a curtailed pathway in the elite game, leading to drop-out among this very elite group. In the case of women elite players, no significant relative age effect was found among youth players, possibly due to less fierce competition for places, although a significant effect was found to exist at senior elite level.

  8. Orthopantomographic evaluation of canine and first premolar using Demirjian's stages in central India: new approach to forensic age estimation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pathak, Hrishikesh V; Dixit, Pradeep; Shrigiriwar, Manish; Bardale, Rajesh

    2012-07-01

    Teeth development is widely used for age estimation in forensic science. The aims of this study were as follows: first, to establish Indian data on canine and first premolar development for age estimation and second, to investigate population differences in teeth development. Orthopantomograms of 340 Indian children aged between 5 and 14 years were analyzed. Demirjian's stages were recorded for the developmental evaluation of canine and first premolar and for further descriptive statistical analysis. A two-way ANOVA was performed to test the significance of difference in teeth development by sex and stage. A one-way ANOVA was performed to investigate population differences in teeth development. Results showed statistically significant differences in teeth development by sex and stage. Accordingly, teeth development was earlier in girls. No statistically significant differences were observed in timings of Demirjian's stages among different populations. In conclusion, the findings of this study could be used for age estimation of Indian children. © 2012 American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

  9. The significance of 'facilitator as a change agent'--organisational learning culture in aged care home settings.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Grealish, Laurie; Henderson, Amanda; Quero, Fritz; Phillips, Roslyn; Surawski, May

    2015-04-01

    To explore the impact of an educational programme focused on social behaviours and relationships on organisational learning culture in the residential aged care context. The number of aged care homes will continue to rise as the frail older elderly live longer, requiring more formal care and support. As with other small- to medium-sized health services, aged care homes are faced with the challenge of continuous development of the workforce and depend upon registered nurses to lead staff development. A mixed-method evaluation research design was used to determine the impact of an educational programme focused on social aspects of learning on organisational learning culture. One hundred and fifty-nine (pre) and 143 (post) participants from three aged care homes completed the Clinical Learning Organisational Culture survey, and three participant-researcher registered nurse clinical educators provided regular journal entries for review. While each site received the same educational programme over a six-month period, the change in organisational learning culture at each site was notably different. Two aged care homes had significant improvements in affiliation, one in accomplishment and one in recognition. The educators' journals differed in the types of learning observed and interventions undertaken, with Eucalyptus focused on organisational change, Grevillea focused on group (student) change and the Wattle focused on individual or situational change. Clinical educator activities appear to have a significant effect on organisational learning culture, with a focus on the organisational level having the greatest positive effect on learning culture and on individual or situational level having a limited effect. Clinical educator facilitation that is focused on organisational rather than individual interests may offer a key to improving organisational learning culture. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  10. Age and sex differences in game-related statistics which discriminate winners from losers in elite basketball games

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Haruhiko Madarame

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available Abstract AIMS To advance knowledge of long-term development of basketball players, this study investigated age and sex differences in game-related statistics which discriminate winners from losers in World Basketball Championships held after the 2010 rule change. METHODS A total of 935 games from six categories (under-17, under-19 and open age for both men and women were analyzed. All games were classified into three types (balanced, unbalanced and very unbalanced according to point differential by a k-means cluster analysis. A discriminant analysis was performed to identify game-related statistics which discriminate winners from losers in each game type. An absolute value of a structural coefficient (SC equal to or above 0.30 was considered relevant for the discrimination. RESULTS In balanced games, assists discriminated winners from losers in open games (men, |SC| = 0.32; women, |SC| = 0.34, whereas successful free throws did so in under-17 games (men, |SC| = 0.30; women, |SC| = 0.31. Successful 2-point field goals discriminated winners from losers only in women’s games (under-19, |SC| = 0.38; open, |SC| = 0.36. CONCLUSION There were three novel findings in balanced games: 1 successful free throws but not assists discriminated winners from losers in under-17 games; 2 successful 2-point field goals discriminated winners from losers in women’s games but not in men’s games; and 3 discriminating power of successful 3-point field goals was extremely small in women’s games. These results may be related to the new rules for the shot clock and the 3-point distance.

  11. Dynamic drawing characteristics of preschool and younger school age children

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cvetković Andrijana

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available The main objective of this research is to determine developmental characteristics of dynamic drawings of preschool and younger school age children. The sample consists of 90 typical developed children, aged between 6 and 9. The sample includes 47 (52.2% girls and 43 (47.8% boys from preschool institutions and elementary schools in Pirot and Belgrade. Action representation in dynamic drawings was evaluated using three types of drawings: a man who runs, a man shooting a ball and a man lifting a ball from the floor. We determined that a very small number of the respondents reaches the highest level of graphical representation of figures in motion, and that girl’s achievements are better than boy’s achievements. However, this result is on the border of statistical significance (p=0.052. Also, there is a statistically significant trend of progress to higher levels of action representation (p=0.000 with the increase in chronological age of the respondents.

  12. Record Statistics and Dynamics

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Sibani, Paolo; Jensen, Henrik J.

    2009-01-01

    with independent random increments. The term record dynamics covers the rather new idea that records may, in special situations, have measurable dynamical consequences. The approach applies to the aging dynamics of glasses and other systems with multiple metastable states. The basic idea is that record sizes...... fluctuations of e. g. the energy are able to push the system past some sort of ‘edge of stability’, inducing irreversible configurational changes, whose statistics then closely follows the statistics of record fluctuations....

  13. Intima-media thickness of carotid artery in middle-aged and old-aged people with different age and sex at nanchang city by ultrasound

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wang Qian; Chen Tian; Fan Ping; Yang Zhijie; Zhang Guoqiang; Liu Wei

    2010-01-01

    normal group were taken as the reference value of the middle-aged people at different age and with different sex in Nanchang city. The value of IMT in this study is little lower than the values reported by literatures in China. Age is the major dangerous factor causing the carotid atherosclerosis. Other many dangerous factors are closely related with carotid atherosclerosis, but sex is not statistically significant to cause carotid atherosclerosis. (authors)

  14. Effects of radiation on aging in atomic bomb survivors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Okajima, Shunzo; Miyajima, Junko; Ichimaru, Michito

    1980-01-01

    Effect of radiation on aging was studied for 122 female a-bomb survivors exposed to more than 100 rad. Correlations of grades of external appearances, Physiological functions, and hematological features with age and radiation were investigated. Several parameters were used for multiple regression analysis, including hair loss, skin elasticity, grip strength, blood pressure, potassium content etc. The comparison of the estimated age of the exposed group and unexposed one showed no statistically significant difference. (Nakanishi, T.)

  15. Statistical study of the reproductive hormones in relation to age and PCOS for patients undergoing in vitro investigation in Khartoum

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Abdelgadir, O. M.

    2002-09-01

    In this study 587 Sudanese woman were studied those women were referred to gynecological clinics a infertile cases. Hormonal investigations were done for them, prolactin, (PRL). Female stimulating hormones (FSH) luotulizing hormones (LH) level were analyzed at Sudan Atomic Energy Commission (SAEC), (RIA ) lab, with the radioimmunoassay (RIA) method. The objective of this study was to find the relation between age versus hyperprolicinemia and (PCOS) polycystic ovary syndrome. Statistical analysis was done with the (SPSS) computer program. The result was 39.2% of the total patient 587 were high prolactin level hyper prolactin >370 mu/I which 10% of them were in the age between 25-30 years old. Age between 30-35 years old was found to be high frequency complain high FSH levels (>8 mu/ I) 29.1% of the patients. Found to be of high LH/FSH. Ratio which clear indication of polycystic ovary syndrome. (PCOS). (Author)

  16. Child Sustained Attention in Preschool-Age Children

    Science.gov (United States)

    DiCarlo, Cynthia F.; Baumgartner, Jennifer J.; Ota, Carrie; Geary, Kelly

    2016-01-01

    This study examined the mean duration of child attention across three teaching conditions (child choice, adult choice, or adult presentation) of 63 preschool-age children. A repeated-measures ANOVA was used to compare the means across the three teaching conditions, indicating a statistically significant difference between the teaching conditions.…

  17. Is there a clinically significant seasonal component to hospital admissions for atrial fibrillation?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Moineddin Rahim

    2004-03-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Atrial fibrillation is a common cardiac dysrhythmia, particularly in the elderly. Recent studies have indicated a statistically significant seasonal component to atrial fibrillation hospitalizations. Methods We conducted a retrospective population cohort study using time series analysis to evaluate seasonal patterns of atrial fibrillation hospitalizations for the province of Ontario for the years 1988 to 2001. Five different series methods were used to analyze the data, including spectral analysis, X11, R-Squared, autocorrelation function and monthly aggregation. Results This study found evidence of weak seasonality, most apparent at aggregate levels including both ages and sexes. There was dramatic increase in hospitalizations for atrial fibrillation over the years studied and an age dependent increase in rates per 100,000. Overall, the magnitude of seasonal difference between peak and trough months is in the order of 1.4 admissions per 100,000 population. The peaks for hospitalizations were predominantly in April, and the troughs in August. Conclusions Our study confirms statistical evidence of seasonality for atrial fibrillation hospitalizations. This effect is small in absolute terms and likely not significant for policy or etiological research purposes.

  18. Female scarcity reduces women's marital ages and increases variance in men's marital ages.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kruger, Daniel J; Fitzgerald, Carey J; Peterson, Tom

    2010-08-05

    When women are scarce in a population relative to men, they have greater bargaining power in romantic relationships and thus may be able to secure male commitment at earlier ages. Male motivation for long-term relationship commitment may also be higher, in conjunction with the motivation to secure a prospective partner before another male retains her. However, men may also need to acquire greater social status and resources to be considered marriageable. This could increase the variance in male marital age, as well as the average male marital age. We calculated the Operational Sex Ratio, and means, medians, and standard deviations in marital ages for women and men for the 50 largest Metropolitan Statistical Areas in the United States with 2000 U.S Census data. As predicted, where women are scarce they marry earlier on average. However, there was no significant relationship with mean male marital ages. The variance in male marital age increased with higher female scarcity, contrasting with a non-significant inverse trend for female marital age variation. These findings advance the understanding of the relationship between the OSR and marital patterns. We believe that these results are best accounted for by sex specific attributes of reproductive value and associated mate selection criteria, demonstrating the power of an evolutionary framework for understanding human relationships and demographic patterns.

  19. Female Scarcity Reduces Women's Marital Ages and Increases Variance in Men's Marital Ages

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Daniel J. Kruger

    2010-07-01

    Full Text Available When women are scarce in a population relative to men, they have greater bargaining power in romantic relationships and thus may be able to secure male commitment at earlier ages. Male motivation for long-term relationship commitment may also be higher, in conjunction with the motivation to secure a prospective partner before another male retains her. However, men may also need to acquire greater social status and resources to be considered marriageable. This could increase the variance in male marital age, as well as the average male marital age. We calculated the Operational Sex Ratio, and means, medians, and standard deviations in marital ages for women and men for the 50 largest Metropolitan Statistical Areas in the United States with 2000 U.S Census data. As predicted, where women are scarce they marry earlier on average. However, there was no significant relationship with mean male marital ages. The variance in male marital age increased with higher female scarcity, contrasting with a non-significant inverse trend for female marital age variation. These findings advance the understanding of the relationship between the OSR and marital patterns. We believe that these results are best accounted for by sex specific attributes of reproductive value and associated mate selection criteria, demonstrating the power of an evolutionary framework for understanding human relationships and demographic patterns.

  20. Health-related Quality of Life and Mental Health in the Process of Active and Passive Ageing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dajak, Lidija; Mastilica, Miroslav; Orešković, Stjepan; Vuletić, Gorka

    2016-12-01

    To analyse the differences in the self-estimate of life quality depending on the ageing type - passive, active. Life-quality linked to health was measured with an SF-36 survey, which gives multi-dimensional criteria of health and life-quality. SF-36 survey represents a theoretically based and empirically proven operationalization of two overal health concepts, which are body and mental health, and its two general manifestations, functioning, and welfare. 200 examinees in total, aged from 55 to 92, were included in the research. Divided by sex, in the research participated 148 women and 52 men. Depending on the ageing way, the examinees were divided into 2 categories: passive ageing (n=100), active ageing (n=100), and for these groups a detailed result analysis was done. Statistical analysis includes descriptive statistics, Hi-square test, Spearman's correlation coefficient, and Mann-Whitney U test. In all dimensions of health, examinees from the category Active ageing achieve higher scores, which indicates better health and better functioning. Between the groups, a statistically significant difference was determined, on the following dimensions: Overall health, Pains, Energy and vitality, Social operations, and Limits due to emotional difficulties. With the Hi-square test, it was determined that there are differences between the groups. The biggest difference can be seen in the reply categories related to health deterioration (χ 2 =10.391; df=4; p=0.034). Examinees from the Active ageing group mention significantly less that their health has gotten worse compared to the previous year (26% of the active ones state that their health is somewhat worse, and only 2% that their health is significantly worse, compared to the passive ones where 36% state that their health is worse, and 9% that it's much worse compared to the year before). Tested was the difference between arithmetic middles on the issue of mental health based on the ageing type (p>0.05), and the results

  1. Impulse oscillometry at preschool age is a strong predictor of lung function by flow-volume spirometry in adolescence.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lauhkonen, Eero; Riikonen, Riikka; Törmänen, Sari; Koponen, Petri; Nuolivirta, Kirsi; Helminen, Merja; Toikka, Jyri; Korppi, Matti

    2018-05-01

    The transition from early childhood wheezing to persistent asthma is linked to lung function impairment over time. Little is known how the methods used to study lung function at different ages correlate longitudinally. Sixty-four children with a history of hospitalization for bronchiolitis before 6 months of age were prospectively studied with impulse oscillometry (IOS) at the mean age of 6.3 years and these preschool IOS results were compared with flow-volume spirometry (FVS) measurements at mean age of 11.4 years. The baseline respiratory system resistance at 5 Hz (Rrs5) showed a modest statistically significant correlation with all baseline FVS parameters except FVC. The post-bronchodilator (post-BD) Rrs5 showed a modest statistically significant correlation with post-BD FEV 1 and FEV 1 /FVC. The bronchodilator-induced decrease in Rrs5 showed a modest statistically significant correlation with the percent increase in FEV 1 . Baseline and post-BD respiratory reactance at 5 Hz (Xrs5) showed a modest statistically significant correlation with baseline and post-BD FVS parameters except post-BD FEV 1 /FVC, respectively, and post-BD Xrs5 showed a strong correlation with post-BD FVC (ρ = 0.61) and post-BD FEV 1 (ρ = 0.59). In adjusted linear regression, preschool Xrs5 remained as a statistically significant independent predictor of FVS parameters in adolescence; the one-unit decrease in the Z-score of preschool post-BD Xrs5 predicted 9.6% lower post-BD FEV 1 , 9.3% lower post-BD FVC, and 9.7% lower post-BD MEF 50 when expressed as %-predicted parameters. Persistent post-BD small airway impairment in children with a history of bronchiolitis detected with IOS at preschool age predicted FVS results measured in early adolescence. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  2. The third molar as an age marker in adolescents: new approach to age evaluation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rozkovcova, Eva; Dostalova, Tatjana; Markova, Marie; Broukal, Zdenek

    2012-09-01

    Adolescence is a relatively short period between childhood and adulthood. It is very difficult to determine adulthood based on biological indicators. The third molar may be considered a potential age marker for the period between the ages of 16-21. Our study evaluated a set of 1700 panoramic radiographs of individuals aged between 5 and 21 years. Results confirmed the statistically significant difference in the course of third molars development. The mean deviation for individuals with one third molar agenesis is -0.98 years, for individuals with two third molars agenesis -1.89 years, and with three molars agenesis -3.28 years. Thus, the extent of the deviation is directly proportional to the number of unformed third molars. The calculation of age according to the mean of stages of all third molars could lead to the underestimation of age. No intergender differences were found. Age determination using third molars could be used for forensic purposes. © 2012 American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

  3. After statistics reform : Should we still teach significance testing?

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    A. Hak (Tony)

    2014-01-01

    textabstractIn the longer term null hypothesis significance testing (NHST) will disappear because p- values are not informative and not replicable. Should we continue to teach in the future the procedures of then abolished routines (i.e., NHST)? Three arguments are discussed for not teaching NHST in

  4. Statistical averaging of marine magnetic anomalies and the aging of oceanic crust.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Blakely, R.J.

    1983-01-01

    Visual comparison of Mesozoic and Cenozoic magnetic anomalies in the North Pacific suggests that older anomalies contain less short-wavelength information than younger anomalies in this area. To test this observation, magnetic profiles from the North Pacific are examined from crust of three ages: 0-2.1, 29.3-33.1, and 64.9-70.3Ma. For each time period, at least nine profiles were analyzed by 1) calculating the power density spectrum of each profile, 2) averaging the spectra together, and 3) computing a 'recording filter' for each time period by assuming a hypothetical seafloor model. The model assumes that the top of the source is acoustic basement, the source thickness is 0.5km, and the time scale of geomagnetic reversals is according to Ness et al. (1980). The calculated power density spectra of the three recording filters are complex in shape but show an increase of attenuation of short-wavelength information as the crust ages. These results are interpreted using a multilayer model for marine magnetic anomalies in which the upper layer, corresponding to pillow basalt of seismic layer 2A, acts as a source of noise to the magnetic anomalies. As the ocean crust ages, this noisy contribution by the pillow basalts becomes less significant to the anomalies. Consequently, magnetic sources below layer 2A must be faithful recorders of geomagnetic reversals.-AuthorPacific power density spectrum

  5. Sources of Variation in the Age Composition of Sandeel Landings

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kvist, Trine; Gislason, Hannes; Thyregod, Poul

    2001-01-01

    in the samples is significantly lower in the start and end of the fishing season. This suggests that the older sandeel are available to the fishery for a shorter time period that the 1-group. Significant differences are found in the age composition between the four laboratories involved in the age determination......The variation of the age composition of the landings of lesser sandeel in the Danish industrial fishery in the North Sea over the period From 1984-1993 is analysed by continuation-ratio logits and generalised linear models. The analysis takes the multinomial characteristics of the age composition....... Although the variation between ICES statistical rectangles is substantial there is a significant difference between the age composition in the northern and southern part of the North Sea. However, only one of the three finer geographical stratifications proposed to improve the assessment results...

  6. A statistical skull geometry model for children 0-3 years old.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zhigang Li

    Full Text Available Head injury is the leading cause of fatality and long-term disability for children. Pediatric heads change rapidly in both size and shape during growth, especially for children under 3 years old (YO. To accurately assess the head injury risks for children, it is necessary to understand the geometry of the pediatric head and how morphologic features influence injury causation within the 0-3 YO population. In this study, head CT scans from fifty-six 0-3 YO children were used to develop a statistical model of pediatric skull geometry. Geometric features important for injury prediction, including skull size and shape, skull thickness and suture width, along with their variations among the sample population, were quantified through a series of image and statistical analyses. The size and shape of the pediatric skull change significantly with age and head circumference. The skull thickness and suture width vary with age, head circumference and location, which will have important effects on skull stiffness and injury prediction. The statistical geometry model developed in this study can provide a geometrical basis for future development of child anthropomorphic test devices and pediatric head finite element models.

  7. A statistical skull geometry model for children 0-3 years old.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Zhigang; Park, Byoung-Keon; Liu, Weiguo; Zhang, Jinhuan; Reed, Matthew P; Rupp, Jonathan D; Hoff, Carrie N; Hu, Jingwen

    2015-01-01

    Head injury is the leading cause of fatality and long-term disability for children. Pediatric heads change rapidly in both size and shape during growth, especially for children under 3 years old (YO). To accurately assess the head injury risks for children, it is necessary to understand the geometry of the pediatric head and how morphologic features influence injury causation within the 0-3 YO population. In this study, head CT scans from fifty-six 0-3 YO children were used to develop a statistical model of pediatric skull geometry. Geometric features important for injury prediction, including skull size and shape, skull thickness and suture width, along with their variations among the sample population, were quantified through a series of image and statistical analyses. The size and shape of the pediatric skull change significantly with age and head circumference. The skull thickness and suture width vary with age, head circumference and location, which will have important effects on skull stiffness and injury prediction. The statistical geometry model developed in this study can provide a geometrical basis for future development of child anthropomorphic test devices and pediatric head finite element models.

  8. Age as a risk factor for suicide

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kocić Sanja S.

    2008-01-01

    Full Text Available Background/Aim. World Health Organization (WHO in its plan for health policy until the year 2010, has taken reduction of risk factors of suicide as its 12th aim. Because of the fact that the problem of suicide is also significant health problem in our society, the aim of this study was to examine the influence of life period as a risk factor for suicide in the area of the town of Kragujevac. Methods. In total 211 persons, both sexes, aged between 17 and 91 years, from the area of the town of Kragujevac, who had been committed a suicide during the period from 1996 to 2005, were included in a retrospective study. This study included the analysis of: conditions prior to suicide, locations of suicide, motives for suicide, the ways of committing suicide. For statistical analysis χ2 test and univariante regression model were used. Results. Average rate of suicide, in analyzed period, moved from 8.7 to 27 with a mean value of 14.6± 6.9. Suicide rates were the lowest in the age group from 15 to 24 years and the highest in the age group above 65 years (p < 0.05. Among the presuicidal conditions, within any age groups the presence of mental disease dominated as a factor for suicide, but within the oldest one in which organic diseases prevailed as a factor for suicide (p < 0.05. Statistically significant fact is that a house (flat was the main location for committing suicide in any age groups. Motives for suicide were significantly different within the groups and they were mostly unknown. Committing suicide by hanging was the most frequent way of suicide among any age groups. Univariant regression analysis failed to show any impact of age on the analyzed factors. Conclusion. Because of the fact that an average rate of suicide in elderly increases it is obligatory to primarily determine risk factors for suicide among people more than 65 years of age. Physicians should play the most important role in that.

  9. Assessment of age at death by microscopy

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Lynnerup, Niels; Frohlich, Bruno; Thomsen, Jørgen L

    2006-01-01

    The microscopic method of age at death determination was introduced by Kerley in 1965 [E.R. Kerley, The microscopic determination of age in human bone, Am. J. Phys. Anthropol, 23 (1965) 149-163.]. However, even though the method has been revised several times, there remain some fundamental issues...... the regions of interest, as well as for dealing with border phenomena, and we only counted secondary osteons. Our results show a statistically significant increase in the median number of osteons per area unit with increasing age at death. However, this was after exclusion of one outlier. This result...

  10. Age-Associated Changes in the Spectral and Statistical Parameters of Surface Electromyogram of Tibialis Anterior

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ariba Siddiqi

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Age-related neuromuscular change of Tibialis Anterior (TA is a leading cause of muscle strength decline among the elderly. This study has established the baseline for age-associated changes in sEMG of TA at different levels of voluntary contraction. We have investigated the use of Gaussianity and maximal power of the power spectral density (PSD as suitable features to identify age-associated changes in the surface electromyogram (sEMG. Eighteen younger (20–30 years and 18 older (60–85 years cohorts completed two trials of isometric dorsiflexion at four different force levels between 10% and 50% of the maximal voluntary contraction. Gaussianity and maximal power of the PSD of sEMG were determined. Results show a significant increase in sEMG’s maximal power of the PSD and Gaussianity with increase in force for both cohorts. It was also observed that older cohorts had higher maximal power of the PSD and lower Gaussianity. These age-related differences observed in the PSD and Gaussianity could be due to motor unit remodelling. This can be useful for noninvasive tracking of age-associated neuromuscular changes.

  11. Worry, Intolerance of Uncertainty, and Statistics Anxiety

    Science.gov (United States)

    Williams, Amanda S.

    2013-01-01

    Statistics anxiety is a problem for most graduate students. This study investigates the relationship between intolerance of uncertainty, worry, and statistics anxiety. Intolerance of uncertainty was significantly related to worry, and worry was significantly related to three types of statistics anxiety. Six types of statistics anxiety were…

  12. Reducing statistics anxiety and enhancing statistics learning achievement: effectiveness of a one-minute strategy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chiou, Chei-Chang; Wang, Yu-Min; Lee, Li-Tze

    2014-08-01

    Statistical knowledge is widely used in academia; however, statistics teachers struggle with the issue of how to reduce students' statistics anxiety and enhance students' statistics learning. This study assesses the effectiveness of a "one-minute paper strategy" in reducing students' statistics-related anxiety and in improving students' statistics-related achievement. Participants were 77 undergraduates from two classes enrolled in applied statistics courses. An experiment was implemented according to a pretest/posttest comparison group design. The quasi-experimental design showed that the one-minute paper strategy significantly reduced students' statistics anxiety and improved students' statistics learning achievement. The strategy was a better instructional tool than the textbook exercise for reducing students' statistics anxiety and improving students' statistics achievement.

  13. Evaluation of significantly modified water bodies in Vojvodina by using multivariate statistical techniques

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vujović Svetlana R.

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper illustrates the utility of multivariate statistical techniques for analysis and interpretation of water quality data sets and identification of pollution sources/factors with a view to get better information about the water quality and design of monitoring network for effective management of water resources. Multivariate statistical techniques, such as factor analysis (FA/principal component analysis (PCA and cluster analysis (CA, were applied for the evaluation of variations and for the interpretation of a water quality data set of the natural water bodies obtained during 2010 year of monitoring of 13 parameters at 33 different sites. FA/PCA attempts to explain the correlations between the observations in terms of the underlying factors, which are not directly observable. Factor analysis is applied to physico-chemical parameters of natural water bodies with the aim classification and data summation as well as segmentation of heterogeneous data sets into smaller homogeneous subsets. Factor loadings were categorized as strong and moderate corresponding to the absolute loading values of >0.75, 0.75-0.50, respectively. Four principal factors were obtained with Eigenvalues >1 summing more than 78 % of the total variance in the water data sets, which is adequate to give good prior information regarding data structure. Each factor that is significantly related to specific variables represents a different dimension of water quality. The first factor F1 accounting for 28 % of the total variance and represents the hydrochemical dimension of water quality. The second factor F2 accounting for 18% of the total variance and may be taken factor of water eutrophication. The third factor F3 accounting 17 % of the total variance and represents the influence of point sources of pollution on water quality. The fourth factor F4 accounting 13 % of the total variance and may be taken as an ecological dimension of water quality. Cluster analysis (CA is an

  14. Mortality from ischaemic heart disease by country, region, and age: statistics from World Health Organisation and United Nations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Finegold, Judith A; Asaria, Perviz; Francis, Darrel P

    2013-09-30

    Ischaemic heart disease (IHD) is the leading cause of death worldwide. The World Health Organisation (WHO) collects mortality data coded using the International Statistical Classification of Diseases (ICD) code. We analysed IHD deaths world-wide between 1995 and 2009 and used the UN population database to calculate age-specific and directly and indirectly age-standardised IHD mortality rates by country and region. IHD is the single largest cause of death worldwide, causing 7,249,000 deaths in 2008, 12.7% of total global mortality. There is more than 20-fold variation in IHD mortality rates between countries. Highest IHD mortality rates are in Eastern Europe and Central Asian countries; lowest rates in high income countries. For the working-age population, IHD mortality rates are markedly higher in low-and-middle income countries than in high income countries. Over the last 25 years, age-standardised IHD mortality has fallen by more than half in high income countries, but the trend is flat or increasing in some low-and-middle income countries. Low-and-middle income countries now account for more than 80% of global IHD deaths. The global burden of IHD deaths has shifted to low-and-middle income countries as lifestyles approach those of high income countries. In high income countries, population ageing maintains IHD as the leading cause of death. Nevertheless, the progressive decline in age-standardised IHD mortality in high income countries shows that increasing IHD mortality is not inevitable. The 20-fold mortality difference between countries, and the temporal trends, may hold vital clues for handling IHD epidemic which is migratory, and still burgeoning. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  15. Efficacy of a composite biological age score to predict ten-year survival among Kansas and Nebraska Mennonites.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Uttley, M; Crawford, M H

    1994-02-01

    In 1980 and 1981 Mennonite descendants of a group of Russian immigrants participated in a multidisciplinary study of biological aging. The Mennonites live in Goessel, Kansas, and Henderson, Nebraska. In 1991 the survival status of the participants was documented by each church secretary. Data are available for 1009 individuals, 177 of whom are now deceased. They ranged from 20 to 95 years in age when the data were collected. Biological ages were computed using a stepwise multiple regression procedure based on 38 variables previously identified as being related to survival, with chronological age as the dependent variable. Standardized residuals place participants in either a predicted-younger or a predicted-older group. The independence of the variables biological age and survival status is tested with the chi-square statistic. The significance of biological age differences between surviving and deceased Mennonites is determined by t test values. The two statistics provide consistent results. Predicted age group classification and survival status are related. The group of deceased participants is generally predicted to be older than the group of surviving participants, although neither statistic is significant for all subgroups of Mennonites. In most cases, however, individuals in the predicted-older groups are at a relatively higher risk of dying compared with those in the predicted-younger groups, although the increased risk is not always significant.

  16. Testing earthquake prediction algorithms: Statistically significant advance prediction of the largest earthquakes in the Circum-Pacific, 1992-1997

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kossobokov, V.G.; Romashkova, L.L.; Keilis-Borok, V. I.; Healy, J.H.

    1999-01-01

    Algorithms M8 and MSc (i.e., the Mendocino Scenario) were used in a real-time intermediate-term research prediction of the strongest earthquakes in the Circum-Pacific seismic belt. Predictions are made by M8 first. Then, the areas of alarm are reduced by MSc at the cost that some earthquakes are missed in the second approximation of prediction. In 1992-1997, five earthquakes of magnitude 8 and above occurred in the test area: all of them were predicted by M8 and MSc identified correctly the locations of four of them. The space-time volume of the alarms is 36% and 18%, correspondingly, when estimated with a normalized product measure of empirical distribution of epicenters and uniform time. The statistical significance of the achieved results is beyond 99% both for M8 and MSc. For magnitude 7.5 + , 10 out of 19 earthquakes were predicted by M8 in 40% and five were predicted by M8-MSc in 13% of the total volume considered. This implies a significance level of 81% for M8 and 92% for M8-MSc. The lower significance levels might result from a global change in seismic regime in 1993-1996, when the rate of the largest events has doubled and all of them become exclusively normal or reversed faults. The predictions are fully reproducible; the algorithms M8 and MSc in complete formal definitions were published before we started our experiment [Keilis-Borok, V.I., Kossobokov, V.G., 1990. Premonitory activation of seismic flow: Algorithm M8, Phys. Earth and Planet. Inter. 61, 73-83; Kossobokov, V.G., Keilis-Borok, V.I., Smith, S.W., 1990. Localization of intermediate-term earthquake prediction, J. Geophys. Res., 95, 19763-19772; Healy, J.H., Kossobokov, V.G., Dewey, J.W., 1992. A test to evaluate the earthquake prediction algorithm, M8. U.S. Geol. Surv. OFR 92-401]. M8 is available from the IASPEI Software Library [Healy, J.H., Keilis-Borok, V.I., Lee, W.H.K. (Eds.), 1997. Algorithms for Earthquake Statistics and Prediction, Vol. 6. IASPEI Software Library]. ?? 1999 Elsevier

  17. Attitudes toward statistics in medical postgraduates: measuring, evaluating and monitoring

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-01-01

    Background In medical training, statistics is considered a very difficult course to learn and teach. Current studies have found that students’ attitudes toward statistics can influence their learning process. Measuring, evaluating and monitoring the changes of students’ attitudes toward statistics are important. Few studies have focused on the attitudes of postgraduates, especially medical postgraduates. Our purpose was to understand current attitudes regarding statistics held by medical postgraduates and explore their effects on students’ achievement. We also wanted to explore the influencing factors and the sources of these attitudes and monitor their changes after a systematic statistics course. Methods A total of 539 medical postgraduates enrolled in a systematic statistics course completed the pre-form of the Survey of Attitudes Toward Statistics −28 scale, and 83 postgraduates were selected randomly from among them to complete the post-form scale after the course. Results Most medical postgraduates held positive attitudes toward statistics, but they thought statistics was a very difficult subject. The attitudes mainly came from experiences in a former statistical or mathematical class. Age, level of statistical education, research experience, specialty and mathematics basis may influence postgraduate attitudes toward statistics. There were significant positive correlations between course achievement and attitudes toward statistics. In general, student attitudes showed negative changes after completing a statistics course. Conclusions The importance of student attitudes toward statistics must be recognized in medical postgraduate training. To make sure all students have a positive learning environment, statistics teachers should measure their students’ attitudes and monitor their change of status during a course. Some necessary assistance should be offered for those students who develop negative attitudes. PMID:23173770

  18. Perceptions of competence: age moderates views of healthy aging and Alzheimer's disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Berry, Jane M; Williams, Helen L; Thomas, Kevin D; Blair, Jamie

    2015-01-01

    BACKGROUND/STUDY CONTEXT: Older adults have more complex and differentiated views of aging than do younger adults, but less is known about age-related perceptions of Alzheimer's disease. This study investigated age-related perceptions of competence of an older adult labeled as "in good health" (healthy) or "has Alzheimer's disease" (AD), using a person-perception paradigm. It was predicted that older adults would provide more differentiated assessments of the two targets than would younger adults. Younger (n=86; 18-36 years) and older (n=66; 61-95 years) adults rated activities of daily living (ADL), instrumental activities of daily living (IADL), and memory abilities of a female target aged 75 years, described as healthy or with AD. Data on anxiety about aging, knowledge of and experience with aging and AD, knowledge of memory aging, and positive and negative biases toward aging and AD were also collected. Older adults perceived the healthy target as more capable of cognitively effortful activities (e.g., managing finances) and as possessing better memory abilities than the AD target. As predicted, these differences were greater than differences between targets perceived by younger adults. The interaction effect remained significant after statistically controlling for relevant variables, including education and gender. Additionally, exploratory analyses revealed that older adults held less positively biased views of AD than younger adults, but negatively biased views were equivalent between age groups. The results demonstrate that mere labels of "healthy" and "Alzheimer's disease" produce significant and subtle age differences in perceived competencies of older adults, and that biases towards AD vary by age group and valence. Our findings extend the person-perception paradigm to an integrative analysis of aging and AD, are consistent with models of adult development, and complement current research and theory on stereotypes of aging. Future directions for research

  19. Correlation analysis of electronic products with myopia in preschool and school aged children

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Li-Li Sun

    2016-02-01

    Full Text Available AIM: To explore the influence of electronic products on myopia in preschool and school aged children, and the development regularities of myopia, to formulate reasonable guidelines for using eyes healthily, and lay a solid foundation for the prevention and control work. METHODS: This retrospective analysis enrolled 900 3~12 years old children from outpatients department, and all of them were established individualized archives, recording: uncorrected visual acuity, optometry, slit lamp, ophthalmoscopy, strabismus inspection results; recording eye usage condition on TVs, computers, mobile phones, iPad, homework, extra-curricular books. Statistical analyze the refractive status of each age group, the use of electronic products of different age groups and their correlation with refractive status. RESULTS: The number of preschool children with normal uncorrected visual acuity was more than that of early school-age children, and the difference was statistically significant(PP>0.05; the number of children aged 7~12(early school aged childrenwith myopia was more than that of children aged 3~6(preschool childrenand the difference was statistically significant(PCONCLUSION: For preschool children, it is necessary to conduct early screening, health guidance, the establishment of personalized medical records and one-to-one personalized guidance; it is also needed to avoid the arduous learning task with the stacking usage of eyes, to fight for myopia and to control the development of myopia. Therefore, to reduce the use of electronic products has become a topic worthy of further study.

  20. Brain age and other bodily 'ages': implications for neuropsychiatry.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cole, James H; Marioni, Riccardo E; Harris, Sarah E; Deary, Ian J

    2018-06-11

    As our brains age, we tend to experience cognitive decline and are at greater risk of neurodegenerative disease and dementia. Symptoms of chronic neuropsychiatric diseases are also exacerbated during ageing. However, the ageing process does not affect people uniformly; nor, in fact, does the ageing process appear to be uniform even within an individual. Here, we outline recent neuroimaging research into brain ageing and the use of other bodily ageing biomarkers, including telomere length, the epigenetic clock, and grip strength. Some of these techniques, using statistical approaches, have the ability to predict chronological age in healthy people. Moreover, they are now being applied to neurological and psychiatric disease groups to provide insights into how these diseases interact with the ageing process and to deliver individualised predictions about future brain and body health. We discuss the importance of integrating different types of biological measurements, from both the brain and the rest of the body, to build more comprehensive models of the biological ageing process. Finally, we propose seven steps for the field of brain-ageing research to take in coming years. This will help us reach the long-term goal of developing clinically applicable statistical models of biological processes to measure, track and predict brain and body health in ageing and disease.

  1. [OVARIAN RESERVE AND EFFECTIVENESS OF IVF IN WOMEN OF VARIOUS AGE GROUPS].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sayadyan, A; Totoyan, E

    2017-01-01

    The purpose of this study is a comparative assessment of ovarian reserve parameters and the effect of these indices on the features of follicle and oogenesis in women of different age groups. A retrospective analysis of IVF results was conducted in 101 patients aged 21 to 49 years. All patients were divided into 4 groups according to age: I group up to 30 y.o. - 45 women, II group - 31-35 y.o - 14 women, III group - 36-40 y.o. - 26 women, IV Group - 41 or more - 16 women. A low ovarian reserve was found in the majority (84,6%) of women in group III and in all women in group IV. It was found that the lowest total dose of rFSH / hMG was used in women aged 21-30 years and 31-35 years, and in women in the age range of 36-40 years, the consumption of drugs was significantly higher and tended to further increase in the age group 41 аnd more years. A large consumption of rFSH/hMG is necessary to overcome the growing FSH level in the process of aging of the reproductive system and the reduced AMH level. However, at the same time, compared age groups had significant differences in the number of oocytes and embryos obtained. With age, a significant reduction in the number of mature oocytes and embryos obtained after follicle puncture and fertilization has been identified. The most promising in terms of pregnancy were the I and II groups. With age, the frequency of pregnancy decreased. The number of pregnancies was statistically lower in the III age group compared to groups I and II. In the IV group, no cases of pregnancy were recorded. Thus, it can be concluded that age is a statistically significant factor affecting the success of infertility treatment by IVF.

  2. Annual summary of vital statistics: 2005.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hamilton, Brady E; Miniño, Arialdi M; Martin, Joyce A; Kochanek, Kenneth D; Strobino, Donna M; Guyer, Bernard

    2007-02-01

    The general fertility rate in 2005 was 66.7 births per 1000 women aged 15 to 44 years, the highest level since 1993. The birth rate for teen mothers (aged 15 to 19 years) declined by 2% between 2004 and 2005, falling to 40.4 births per 1000 women, the lowest ever recorded in the 65 years for which there are consistent data. The birth rates for women > or = 30 years of age rose in 2005 to levels not seen in almost 40 years. Childbearing by unmarried women also increased to historic record levels for the United States in 2005. The cesarean-delivery rate rose by 4% in 2005 to 30.2% of all births, another record high. The preterm birth rate continued to rise (to 12.7% in 2005), as did the rate for low birth weight births (8.2%). The infant mortality rate was 6.79 infant deaths per 1000 live births in 2004, not statistically different from the rate in 2003. Pronounced differences in infant mortality rates by race and Hispanic origin continue, with non-Hispanic black newborns more than twice as likely as non-Hispanic white and Hispanic infants to die within 1 year of birth. The expectation of life at birth reached a record high in 2004 of 77.8 years for all gender and race groups combined. Death rates in the United States continued to decline, with death rates decreasing for 9 of the 15 leading causes. The crude death rate for children aged 1 to 19 years did not decrease significantly between 2003 and 2004. Of the 10 leading causes of death for 2004 in this age group, only the rates for influenza and pneumonia showed a significant decrease. The death rates increased for intentional self-harm (suicide), whereas rates for other causes did not change significantly for children. A large proportion of childhood deaths continue to occur as a result of preventable injuries.

  3. New Korean reference for birth weight by gestational age and sex: data from the Korean Statistical Information Service (2008-2012).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lim, Jung Sub; Lim, Se Won; Ahn, Ju Hyun; Song, Bong Sub; Shim, Kye Shik; Hwang, Il Tae

    2014-09-01

    To construct new Korean reference curves for birth weight by sex and gestational age using contemporary Korean birth weight data and to compare them with the Lubchenco and the 2010 United States (US) intrauterine growth curves. Data of 2,336,727 newborns by the Korean Statistical Information Service (2008-2012) were used. Smoothed percentile curves were created by the Lambda Mu Sigma method using subsample of singleton. The new Korean reference curves were compared with the Lubchenco and the 2010 US intrauterine growth curves. Reference of the 3rd, 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th, 90th, and 97th percentiles birth weight by gestational age were made using 2,249,804 (male, 1,159,070) singleton newborns with gestational age 23-43 weeks. Separate birth weight curves were constructed for male and female. The Korean reference curves are similar to the 2010 US intrauterine growth curves. However, the cutoff values for small for gestational age (reference curves for birth weight show a different pattern from the Lubchenco curves, which were made from white neonates more than 60 years ago. Further research on short-term and long-term health outcomes of small for gestational age babies based on the new Korean reference data is needed.

  4. A novel complete-case analysis to determine statistical significance between treatments in an intention-to-treat population of randomized clinical trials involving missing data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Wei; Ding, Jinhui

    2018-04-01

    The application of the principle of the intention-to-treat (ITT) to the analysis of clinical trials is challenged in the presence of missing outcome data. The consequences of stopping an assigned treatment in a withdrawn subject are unknown. It is difficult to make a single assumption about missing mechanisms for all clinical trials because there are complicated reactions in the human body to drugs due to the presence of complex biological networks, leading to data missing randomly or non-randomly. Currently there is no statistical method that can tell whether a difference between two treatments in the ITT population of a randomized clinical trial with missing data is significant at a pre-specified level. Making no assumptions about the missing mechanisms, we propose a generalized complete-case (GCC) analysis based on the data of completers. An evaluation of the impact of missing data on the ITT analysis reveals that a statistically significant GCC result implies a significant treatment effect in the ITT population at a pre-specified significance level unless, relative to the comparator, the test drug is poisonous to the non-completers as documented in their medical records. Applications of the GCC analysis are illustrated using literature data, and its properties and limits are discussed.

  5. Suicidal Attempt in Bipolar Disorder:Low Significance of Comorbidity with Opioid Dependence

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Morteza Naserbakht

    2009-04-01

    Full Text Available "nObjectives: The relationship between suicidal attempt and opioid use disorder in patients with bipolar disorder (BD is unknown. This study aimed at shedding some light on this issue. "nMethod:178 inpatients aged 18-65 with BD type I with or without opioid use disorders were face-to-face interviewed through the Persian Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV axis I disorders (SCID-I,  the Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF scale, and a questionnaire including demographic and some clinical factors. "nResults:Gender was the only demographic factor with a statistical significant difference between suicidal and non-suicidal bipolar patients. Also, comorbidity with anxiety disorders and the type of index and current mood episodes were significantly different between the two groups (p<0.05. But after using a logistic regression analysis, the only statistical significant different factors (p<0.05 between the two groups were gender, comorbidity with anxiety disorders, and GAF.  "nConclusion:Opioid dependence comorbidity can not be considered as a risk factor for suicidal attempt in patients with BD.

  6. Crystalline lens paradoxes revisited: significance of age-related restructuring of the GRIN.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sheil, Conor J; Goncharov, Alexander V

    2017-09-01

    The accommodating volume-constant age-dependent optical (AVOCADO) model of the crystalline lens is used to explore the age-related changes in ocular power and spherical aberration. The additional parameter m in the GRIN lens model allows decoupling of the axial and radial GRIN profiles, and is used to stabilise the age-related change in ocular power. Data for age-related changes in ocular geometry and lens parameter P in the axial GRIN profile were taken from published experimental data. In our age-dependent eye model, the ocular refractive power shows behaviour similar to the previously unexplained "lens paradox". Furthermore, ocular spherical aberration agrees with the data average, in contrast to the proposed "spherical aberration paradox". The additional flexibility afforded by parameter m , which controls the ratio of the axial and radial GRIN profile exponents, has allowed us to study the restructuring of the lens GRIN medium with age, resulting in a new interpretation of the origin of the power and spherical aberration paradoxes. Our findings also contradict the conceptual idea that the ageing eye is similar to the accommodating eye.

  7. Interpretation of risk significance of passive component aging using probabilistic structural analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Phillips, J.H.; Atwood, C.L.

    1993-01-01

    The probabilistic risk assessments (PRAs) being developed at most nuclear power plants to calculate the risk of core damage generally focus on the possible failure of active components. Except as initiating events, the possible failure of passive components is given little consideration. The NRC is sponsoring a project at INEL to investigate the risk significance of passive components as they age. For this project, we developed a technique to calculate the failure probability of passive components over time, and demonstrated the technique by applying it to a weld in the auxiliary feedwater (AFW) system. A decreasing yearly rupture rate for this weld was calculated instead of the increasing rupture rate trend one might expect. We attribute this result to infant mortality; that is, most of those initial flaws that will eventually lead to rupture will do so early in life. This means that although each weld in a population may be wearing out, the population as a whole can exhibit a decreasing rupture rate. This observation has implications for passive components in commercial nuclear plants and other facilities where aging is a concern. For the population of passive components that exhibit a decreasing failure rate, risk increase is not a concern. The next step of the work is to identify the attributes that contribute to this decreasing rate, and to determine any attributes that would contribute to an increasing failure rate and thus to an increased risk

  8. The Association of Statin Use with Age-Related Macular Degeneration Progression: The Age-Related Eye Disease Study 2 Report Number 9.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Al-Holou, Shaza N; Tucker, William R; Agrón, Elvira; Clemons, Traci E; Cukras, Catherine; Ferris, Frederick L; Chew, Emily Y

    2015-12-01

    To evaluate the association of statin use with progression of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Preplanned, prospective cohort study within a controlled clinical trial of oral supplementation for age-related eye diseases. Age-Related Eye Disease Study 2 (AREDS2) participants, aged 50 to 85 years. Factors, including age, gender, smoking status, aspirin use, and history of diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, angina, and stroke-all known to be associated with statin use-were included in a logistic regression model to estimate propensity scores for each participant. Age-adjusted proportional hazards regression models, with and without propensity score matching, were performed to evaluate the association of statin use with progression to late AMD. Analyses adjusting for the competing risk of death were also performed. Baseline and annual stereoscopic fundus photographs were assessed centrally by masked graders for the development of late AMD, either neovascular AMD or geographic atrophy (GA). Of the 3791 participants (2462 with bilateral large drusen and 1329 with unilateral late AMD at baseline), 1659 (43.8%) were statin users. The overall analysis, with no matching of propensity scores and no adjustment for death as a competing risk, showed that statin use was not associated with progression to late AMD (hazard ratio [HR], 1.08; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.83-1.41; P = 0.56). When matched for propensity scores and adjusted for death as a competing risk, the result was not statistically significant (HR, 0.81; 95% CI, 0.55-1.20; P = 0.29). Furthermore, subgroup analyses of persons with or without late AMD at baseline and the various components of late AMD (neovascular AMD, central GA, or any GA) also showed no statistically significant association of statin use with progression to AMD. Statin use was not statistically significantly associated with progression to late AMD in the AREDS2 participants, and these findings are consistent with findings in the

  9. The Association of Statin Use with Age-Related Macular Degeneration Progression The Age-Related Eye Disease Study 2 Report Number 9

    Science.gov (United States)

    Al-Holou, Shaza N.; Tucker, William R.; Agrón, Elvira; Clemons, Traci E.; Cukras, Catherine; Ferris, Frederick L.; Chew, Emily Y.

    2015-01-01

    Objective/purpose To evaluate the association of statin use with progression of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Design Preplanned, prospective cohort study within a controlled clinical trial of oral supplementation for age-related eye diseases. Subjects Age-Related Eye Disease Study 2 participants, aged 50 to 85 years. Methods Factors, including age, gender, smoking status, aspirin use, and history of diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, angina, and stroke, all known to be associated with statin use, were included in a logistic regression model to estimate propensity scores for each participant. Age-adjusted proportional hazards regression models, with and without propensity score matching, were performed to evaluate the association of statin use with progression to late AMD. Analyses were also performed adjusting for the competing risk of death. Main Outcome Measures Baseline and annual stereoscopic fundus photographs were assessed centrally by masked graders for the development of late AMD, either neovascular AMD or geographic atrophy (GA). Results Of the 3791 participants (2462 with bilateral large drusen and 1329 with unilateral late AMD at baseline), 1659 (43.8%) were statin users. The overall analysis, with no matching of propensity scores and no adjustment for death as a competing risk, showed that statin use was not associated with progression to late AMD (hazard ratios [HR] of 1.08, 95% confidence intervals [CI] of 0.83–1.41, P=0.56). When matched for propensity scores and adjusted for death as a competing risk, the result was not statistically significant with HR: 0.81, 95% CI: 0.55–1.20, P=0.29. Further subgroup analyses of persons with or without late AMD at baseline to the various components of late AMD (neovascular, central geographic atrophy, or any geographic atrophy) also showed no statistically significant association of statin use with progression to AMD. Conclusions Statin use was not statistically significantly associated with the

  10. Psychosocial factors for influencing healthy aging in adults in Korea.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Han, KyungHun; Lee, YunJung; Gu, JaSung; Oh, Hee; Han, JongHee; Kim, KwuyBun

    2015-03-07

    Healthy aging includes physical, psychological, social, and spiritual well-being in later years. The purpose of this study is to identify the psychosocial factors influencing healthy aging and examining their socio-demographic characteristics. Perceived health status, depression, self-esteem, self-achievement, ego-integrity, participation in leisure activities, and loneliness were identified as influential factors in healthy aging. 171 Korean adults aged between 45 and 77 years-old participated in the study. Self-reporting questionnaires were used, followed by descriptive statistics and multiple regressions as inferential statistical analyses. There were significant differences between participants' general characteristics: age, education, religion, housing, hobby, and economic status. The factors related to healthy aging had positive correlation with perceived health status, self-esteem, self-achievements, and leisure activities, and negative correlation with depression and loneliness. The factors influencing healthy aging were depression, leisure activities, perceived health status, ego integrity, and self-achievements. These factors were able to explain 51.9%. According to the results, depression is the factor with the greatest influence on healthy aging. Perceived health status, ego integrity, self-achievement, self-esteem, participation of leisure activities were also influential on healthy aging as beneficial factors.

  11. Major aging-associated RNA expressions change at two distinct age-positions

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Gheorghe, M.; Snoeck, M.; Emmerich, M.; Back, T.; Goeman, J.J.; Raz, V.

    2014-01-01

    BACKGROUND: Genome-wide expression profiles are altered during biological aging and can describe molecular regulation of tissue degeneration. Age-regulated mRNA expression trends from cross-sectional studies could describe how aging progresses. We developed a novel statistical methodology to

  12. Mesenteric Lymphadenopathy in Childhood Epidemic Aseptic Meningitis: Sonographic Features and Clinical Significance

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mun, Sung Hee; Park, Young Chan; Lee, Young Hwan

    2006-01-01

    To evaluate the sonographic features of mesenteric lymphadenopathy in childhood epidemic aseptic meningitis and to assess their clinical significance. Thirty-three patients (25 male, 8 female: mean age, 8.6 years) with a diagnosis of aseptic meningitis were prospectively evaluated with abdominal ultrasonography for the presence of enlarged mesenteric nodes. The size and number of enlarged mesenteric lymph nodes were analyzed in relationship with the patient's age, between the patients with abdominal pain or diarrhea (16 cases, 48%) and asymptomatic patients (17 cases, 52%). Mesenteric lymphadenopathy was seen in 31 patients (94%), all 16 symptomatic and 15 of the 17 asymptomatic patients. The number of enlarged nodes was most prevalent between 6-10, seen in 16 patients (52%) and the largest node ranged in size from 4 to 8 mm. Among the 31 patients with mesenteric lymphadenopathy, the mean size of the largest node was statistically different between the symptomatic (6.0 mm) and asymptomatic (5.0 mm) groups (p = 0.021). The number of enlarged nodes and the patient's age were not statistically different between the two groups. Mesenteric lymphadenopathy was seen in almost all cases of childhood epidemic aseptic meningitis, and may be related to the mesenteric lymphadenitis caused by enterovirus

  13. Mesenteric Lymphadenopathy in Childhood Epidemic Aseptic Meningitis: Sonographic Features and Clinical Significance

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Mun, Sung Hee; Park, Young Chan; Lee, Young Hwan [Catholic University of Daegu, College of Medicine, Daegu (Korea, Republic of)

    2006-09-15

    To evaluate the sonographic features of mesenteric lymphadenopathy in childhood epidemic aseptic meningitis and to assess their clinical significance. Thirty-three patients (25 male, 8 female: mean age, 8.6 years) with a diagnosis of aseptic meningitis were prospectively evaluated with abdominal ultrasonography for the presence of enlarged mesenteric nodes. The size and number of enlarged mesenteric lymph nodes were analyzed in relationship with the patient's age, between the patients with abdominal pain or diarrhea (16 cases, 48%) and asymptomatic patients (17 cases, 52%). Mesenteric lymphadenopathy was seen in 31 patients (94%), all 16 symptomatic and 15 of the 17 asymptomatic patients. The number of enlarged nodes was most prevalent between 6-10, seen in 16 patients (52%) and the largest node ranged in size from 4 to 8 mm. Among the 31 patients with mesenteric lymphadenopathy, the mean size of the largest node was statistically different between the symptomatic (6.0 mm) and asymptomatic (5.0 mm) groups (p = 0.021). The number of enlarged nodes and the patient's age were not statistically different between the two groups. Mesenteric lymphadenopathy was seen in almost all cases of childhood epidemic aseptic meningitis, and may be related to the mesenteric lymphadenitis caused by enterovirus

  14. Physical-chemical evaluation of wines subjected to gamma irradiation for aging

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Harder, Marcia N.C.; Perina, Vanessa C.S.; Silva, Lucia A.C.S.; Arthur, Valter; Franco, Camilo F.O.; Pires, Juliana A.; Scanholato, Mariana; Bortoleto, Gisele G.; Germek, Hermas A.

    2011-01-01

    Wine is a beverage made from the fermentation of sugars contained in grapes or grape juice, using yeast. Wines can be classified according to the amount of sugar they contain: dry, soft or sweet. Depending on the need for aging, they may be classified as young or aged. Modern methods of aging use gamma irradiation. There are several reasons for this type of procedure in wines, among them are: sterilization of the wort, changes in sensory characteristics of the wine, and accelerated aging. In this study, samples of soft red wine were obtained in the city of Sao Pedro in the local market, all bottles being of the same batch. The samples and the control were directly irradiated with gamma irradiation in polyethylene bags with doses of 1 KGy and 3 KGy, at a rate of 0.396 kGy/h. The evaluation parameters were tartaric acid, brix, pH, alcohol content and color. For statistical purposes, the Tukey test at 5% significance level was used. From the results obtained, it may be concluded that only the 3 KGy dose showed a statistically significant difference for the parameters shown, indicating that from this dose of radiation upwards there is a significant influence on the evaluation parameters. (author)

  15. The Study of Second Higher Education through Mathematical Statistics

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Olga V. Kremer

    2014-05-01

    Full Text Available The article deals with the statistic reasons, age and wages of people who get the second higher education. People opt for the second higher education mostly due to many economical and physiological factors. According to our research, the age is a key motivator for the second higher education. Based on statistical data the portrait of a second higher education student was drawn.

  16. Season of birth and the risk of hip fracture in danish men and women aged 65+

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Abrahamsen, Bo; Heitmann, Berit L; Eiken, Pia Agnete

    2012-01-01

    calculated fracture rates and relative risks. The analysis covered 541,109 men and 691,522 women. In women, we observed a small but statistically significant difference between fracture rates by season of birth for all age intervals expect the youngest (age 65-69). A similar pattern was seen in men...... an epidemiological analysis of hip fracture rates as a function of season of birth, age, and sex. We retrieved information on all hip fractures in the 9-year period between 1997 and 2005 in all men and women aged 65-95, excluded hip fractures that occurred in current and recent prednisolone users, and subsequently......, but this was only statistically significant in the two oldest age groups (age 85-89 and 90-95). These findings suggest that vitamin D availability in the first and second trimester of intrauterine life could have a small but lasting impact on bone health and the risk of osteoporotic fractures. Further studies...

  17. Incidence and significance of pleural effusion after hepatoma surgery

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Song, Jae Uoo; Im, Jung Gi; Ahn, Joong Mo; Kim, Seung Cheol; Kim, Sam Soo; Kim, Seung Hoon; Yeon, Kyung Mo

    1994-01-01

    We performed this study to evaluate the clinical significance and temporal changes of pleural effusion developed after the resection of hepatoma. We reviewed retrospectively follow-up chest radiographs of 97 patients who had undergone operation for hepatoma and had no radiologically demonstrable postoperative complications. The duration of pleural effusion was classified into five groups and the amount of pleural effusion at one week after operation was graded into four groups. Statistical significance of the relationship between the duration, amount of pleural effusion and five factors, which are location and size of tumor, age of the patients, methods of operation, and preoperative liver function, was studied respectively. Pleural effusion was developed in 63.9% (62/97) and the mean duration was 2.5 weeks. In 92% (52/56), pleural effusion disappeared spontaneously within four weeks. Patients who had hepatoma in upper portion of the right lobe developed more frequent pleural effusion which persisted longer, and was larger in amount at one week after operation(p<0.05). There were no statistically significant differences between pleural effusion and the other four factors. Pleural effusion following hepatoma surgery should not be regarded as a sign of post-operative complication, as it invariably disappears spontaneously within four weeks. Development of pleural effusion is considered to be caused by local irritation and disturbance of lymphatic flow at the diaphragm

  18. Significance of Specificity of Tinetti B-poma Test and Fall Risk Factor in Third Age of Life

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dijana Avdić

    2006-02-01

    Full Text Available As for the third age, psychophysical abilities of humans gradually decrease, while the ability of adaptation to endogenous and exogenous burdens is going down. In 1987, "Harada" et al. (1 have found out that 9.5 million persons in USA have difficulties running daily activities, while 59% of them (which is 5.6 million are older than 65 years in age. The study has encompassed 77 questioned persons of both sexes with their average age 71.73 +/- 5.63 (scope of 65-90 years in age, chosen by random sampling. Each patient has been questioned in his/her own home and familiar to great extent with the methodology and aims of the questionnaire. Percentage of questioned women was 64.94% (50 patients while the percentage for men was 35.06% (27 patients. As for the value of risk factor score achieved conducting the questionnaire and B-POMA test, there are statistically significant differences between men and women, as well as between patients who fell and those who never did. As for the way of life (alone or in the community, there are no significant statistical differences. Average results gained through B-POMA test in this study are statistically significantly higher in men and patients who did not provide data about falling, while there was no statistically significant difference in the way of life. In relation to the percentage of maximum number of positive answers to particular questions, regarding gender, way of life and the data about falling, there were no statistically significant differences between the value of B-POMA test and the risk factor score (the questionnaire.

  19. THE INFLUENCE OF AGE HENS ON THE INTENSITY LOAD CAPACITY FROM DIFFERENT WEIGHT GROUPS EGGS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tatjana Pandurević

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available The aim of this study was to determine the effect of age of hens on the intensity of load from different weight groups eggs. This paper presents the correlation connection, meaning and significance of differences connection for two weight classes (M - 53 to 63g and L – 63g to 73g, which make up the largest part of the total number of eggs produced during the entire production cycle, as well as for all of the eggs produced, as compared to age-laying hens. Between age and intensity of load to 53 weeks of age hens (SN53/34, there is a strong positive, medium and slight correlation coefficients determined and phenotypic correlation are statistically confirmed at the level of P 0.05. Between the age of hens and intensity of load hardest groups (classes eggs (L there is a complete and very strong connections and established correlation coefficients were statistically significant at P <0.001.

  20. Age-related changes in factor VII proteolysis in vivo.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ofosu, F A; Craven, S; Dewar, L; Anvari, N; Andrew, M; Blajchman, M A

    1996-08-01

    Previous studies have reported that pre-operative plasmas of patients over the age of 40 years who developed post-operative deep vein thrombosis (DVT) had approximately twice the amount of proteolysed factor VII found in plasmas of patients in whom prophylaxis with heparin or low M(r) heparin was successful. These and other studies also reported higher concentrations of thrombin-antithrombin III in pre- and post-operative plasmas of patients who developed post-operative thrombosis than in plasmas of patients in whom prophylaxis was successful. Whether the extent of factor VII proteolysis seen in the patients who developed post-operative DVT is related to the severity of their disease or age is not known. This report investigated age-related changes in the concentrations of total factor VII protein, factor VII zymogen, factor VIIa, tissue factor pathway inhibitor, thrombin-antithrombin III, and prothrombin fragment 1 + 2 in normal plasmas and the relationships between these parameters. With the exception of thrombin-antithrombin III, statistically significant increases in the concentrations of these parameters with age were found. Additionally, the differences between the concentrations of total factor VII protein and factor VII zymogen, an index factor VII proteolysis in vivo, were statistically significant only for individuals over age 40. Using linear regression analysis, a significant correlation was found to exist between the concentrations of plasma factor VIIa and prothrombin fragment 1 + 2. Since factor VIIa-tissue factor probably initiates coagulation in vivo, we hypothesize that the elevated plasma factor VIIa (reflecting a less tightly regulated tissue factor activity and therefore increased thrombin production in vivo) accounts for the high risk for post-operative thrombosis seen in individuals over the age of 40.

  1. Influence of age on community health worker's knowledge and ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Influence of age on community health worker's knowledge and service provision for maternal, newborn, and child health in Morogoro region, Tanzania. ... However there was a statistically significant difference (p<0.05) in marital status, education levels, use of English language, number of dependants, and income from ...

  2. Multidimensionality of Longitudinal Data: Unlocking the Age-Happiness Puzzle

    OpenAIRE

    Ning Li

    2014-01-01

    In social and economic analysis of longitudinal data, the socio-economic variables that are statistically significant in pooled data regressions sometimes become insignificant after individual fixed effects are controlled for. This phenomenon has been observed in the analysis of the relationship between age and happiness. The discrepancy in results between regressions with and without controlling for individual fixed effects is sometimes known as a mystery in the research of age and happiness...

  3. Teaching statistics to social science students: Making it valuable ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    In this age of rapid information expansion and technology, statistics is playing an ever increasing role in education, particularly also in the training of social scientists. Statistics enables the social scientist to obtain a quantitative awareness of socioeconomic phenomena hence is essential in their training. Statistics, however ...

  4. The influence of daily stress and resilience on successful ageing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Byun, J; Jung, D

    2016-09-01

    The aim of this study was to identify the effects of daily stress and resilience on successful ageing among community-dwelling older adults. Ageing can be a positive experience if there is good adaptation to ageing processes. Positive ageing needs to be a basis of nursing care, health promotion and education within community settings. Data were collected in March and April of 2014 from 262 older adults living in Seoul and Jeju, South Korea. We used a four-part survey consisting of demographic data, daily stress, resilience and successful ageing scales, in total 91 items. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, t-test, one-way ANOVA, Tukey HSD test, Pearson's correlation coefficient and hierarchical multiple regression analysis to identify the influence of variables on successful ageing. Successful ageing had a significant negative correlation with daily stress and a positive correlation with resilience. Daily stress had a negative correlation with resilience. Findings of hierarchical multiple regression analysis indicated that resilience and subjective economic status had an effect on successful ageing. Furthermore, these variables accounted for 41.6% of the variance in successful ageing. Data were collected in only two cities of Korea based on convenience sampling. The findings of the study suggest that daily stress and resilience have a statistically significant relationship with successful ageing. Furthermore, resilience is an important influential factor and a much-needed personal characteristic for one's successful ageing. Nurses can advocate joining with health and social policy makers to implement policies on healthy ageing, including evaluation of stress, education programmes and implementation of self-help groups to enhance resilience in older people. © 2016 International Council of Nurses.

  5. Gene expression markers of age-related inflammation in two human cohorts.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pilling, Luke C; Joehanes, Roby; Melzer, David; Harries, Lorna W; Henley, William; Dupuis, Josée; Lin, Honghuang; Mitchell, Marcus; Hernandez, Dena; Ying, Sai-Xia; Lunetta, Kathryn L; Benjamin, Emelia J; Singleton, Andrew; Levy, Daniel; Munson, Peter; Murabito, Joanne M; Ferrucci, Luigi

    2015-10-01

    Chronically elevated circulating inflammatory markers are common in older persons but mechanisms are unclear. Many blood transcripts (>800 genes) are associated with interleukin-6 protein levels (IL6) independent of age. We aimed to identify gene transcripts statistically mediating, as drivers or responders, the increasing levels of IL6 protein in blood at older ages. Blood derived in-vivo RNA from the Framingham Heart Study (FHS, n=2422, ages 40-92 yrs) and InCHIANTI study (n=694, ages 30-104 yrs), with Affymetrix and Illumina expression arrays respectively (>17,000 genes tested), were tested for statistical mediation of the age-IL6 association using resampling techniques, adjusted for confounders and multiple testing. In FHS, IL6 expression was not associated with IL6 protein levels in blood. 102 genes (0.6% of 17,324 expressed) statistically mediated the age-IL6 association of which 25 replicated in InCHIANTI (including 5 of the 10 largest effect genes). The largest effect gene (SLC4A10, coding for NCBE, a sodium bicarbonate transporter) mediated 19% (adjusted CI 8.9 to 34.1%) and replicated by PCR in InCHIANTI (n=194, 35.6% mediated, p=0.01). Other replicated mediators included PRF1 (perforin, a cytolytic protein in cytotoxic T lymphocytes and NK cells) and IL1B (Interleukin 1 beta): few other cytokines were significant mediators. This transcriptome-wide study on human blood identified a small distinct set of genes that statistically mediate the age-IL6 association. Findings are robust across two cohorts and different expression technologies. Raised IL6 levels may not derive from circulating white cells in age related inflammation. Published by Elsevier Inc.

  6. Karl pearson the scientific life in a statistical age

    CERN Document Server

    Porter, Theodore M

    2010-01-01

    Karl Pearson, founder of modern statistics, came to this field by way of passionate early studies of philosophy and cultural history as well as ether physics and graphical geometry. His faith in science grew out of a deeply moral quest, reflected also in his socialism and his efforts to find a new basis for relations between men and women. This biography recounts Pearson's extraordinary intellectual adventure and sheds new light on the inner life of science. Theodore Porter's intensely personal portrait of Pearson extends from religious crisis and sexual tensions to metaphysical and even m

  7. Statistical Literacy in the Data Science Workplace

    Science.gov (United States)

    Grant, Robert

    2017-01-01

    Statistical literacy, the ability to understand and make use of statistical information including methods, has particular relevance in the age of data science, when complex analyses are undertaken by teams from diverse backgrounds. Not only is it essential to communicate to the consumers of information but also within the team. Writing from the…

  8. [Quantitative and qualitative changes in the sex chromatin of diabetic women of different ages].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kaiumov, E G; Dmitrieva, E N

    1975-01-01

    There was revealed a statistically significant reduction in the frequency of occurrence of sex chromatine (SC) in the patients (female) suffering from diabetes mellitus aged from 15 to 65 years before the treatment in comparison with the healthy women. After the compensation of the carbohydrate metabolism there was noted its further reduction in the patients aged from 25 to 65 years. In 15-65-year women who contracted diabetes mellitus there was an increase in the circular form of the SC bodies looking like thickenings of the nuclear membrane; SC bodies of round shape enlarged as well in women aged from 25 to 65 years. Oval, triangular and semicircular forms decreased in all the age groups. After the compensation of the carbohydrate metabolism the content of the SC bodies of various shapes remained the same as at the beginning of the disease without returning to the normal level. The area of the SC bodies enlargement was statistically significant in women who fell ill with diabetes mellitus.

  9. Evaluating statistical and clinical significance of intervention effects in single-case experimental designs: an SPSS method to analyze univariate data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maric, Marija; de Haan, Else; Hogendoorn, Sanne M; Wolters, Lidewij H; Huizenga, Hilde M

    2015-03-01

    Single-case experimental designs are useful methods in clinical research practice to investigate individual client progress. Their proliferation might have been hampered by methodological challenges such as the difficulty applying existing statistical procedures. In this article, we describe a data-analytic method to analyze univariate (i.e., one symptom) single-case data using the common package SPSS. This method can help the clinical researcher to investigate whether an intervention works as compared with a baseline period or another intervention type, and to determine whether symptom improvement is clinically significant. First, we describe the statistical method in a conceptual way and show how it can be implemented in SPSS. Simulation studies were performed to determine the number of observation points required per intervention phase. Second, to illustrate this method and its implications, we present a case study of an adolescent with anxiety disorders treated with cognitive-behavioral therapy techniques in an outpatient psychotherapy clinic, whose symptoms were regularly assessed before each session. We provide a description of the data analyses and results of this case study. Finally, we discuss the advantages and shortcomings of the proposed method. Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

  10. Performance studies of GooFit on GPUs vs RooFit on CPUs while estimating the statistical significance of a new physical signal

    Science.gov (United States)

    Di Florio, Adriano

    2017-10-01

    In order to test the computing capabilities of GPUs with respect to traditional CPU cores a high-statistics toy Monte Carlo technique has been implemented both in ROOT/RooFit and GooFit frameworks with the purpose to estimate the statistical significance of the structure observed by CMS close to the kinematical boundary of the J/ψϕ invariant mass in the three-body decay B + → J/ψϕK +. GooFit is a data analysis open tool under development that interfaces ROOT/RooFit to CUDA platform on nVidia GPU. The optimized GooFit application running on GPUs hosted by servers in the Bari Tier2 provides striking speed-up performances with respect to the RooFit application parallelised on multiple CPUs by means of PROOF-Lite tool. The considerable resulting speed-up, evident when comparing concurrent GooFit processes allowed by CUDA Multi Process Service and a RooFit/PROOF-Lite process with multiple CPU workers, is presented and discussed in detail. By means of GooFit it has also been possible to explore the behaviour of a likelihood ratio test statistic in different situations in which the Wilks Theorem may or may not apply because its regularity conditions are not satisfied.

  11. Is hypertension in adult age related to unemployment at a young age? Results from the Northern Swedish Cohort.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nygren, Karina; Gong, Weidan; Hammarström, Anne

    2015-02-01

    The aim of this study was to analyse the relationship between early unemployment (ages 16-21 years) and adult hypertension after controlling for earlier hypertension, unemployment in adult life, risk factors for hypertension and confounders. A cohort of 927 (86.6% of the original cohort) 9th grade school-leavers was followed from 1981 until 2008. Data were collected through questionnaires, health examinations, and national registers. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression were used as primary statistical methods. At ages 21 and 43, hypertension was significantly more prevalent among men than women (p Unemployment between the ages of 16 and 21 was related to hypertension at age 43 among women but not men. The odds ratio (OR) was persistently high (OR 3.16 [95% confidence interval 1.45-6.89]) after controlling for late unemployment, hypertension at age 16, risk factors for hypertension and confounders. There was no significant relationship between exposure to early unemployment and hypertension at age 21 for women or men. From a public health perspective, youth unemployment is a societal problem in need of more attention and intervention in order to prevent long-term adverse health outcomes. © 2014 the Nordic Societies of Public Health.

  12. Pregnancy Outcome of Multiparous Women Aged over 40 Years

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ates, Seda; Batmaz, Gonca; Sevket, Osman; Molla, Taner; Dane, Cem; Dane, Banu

    2013-01-01

    Objective. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of maternal age on prenatal and obstetric outcome in multiparaous women. Materials and Methods. A retrospective case control study was conducted, including women aged 40 years and over (study group, n = 97) who delivered at 20 week's gestation or beyond and women aged 20–29 years (control group, n = 97). Results. The mean age of women in the study group was 41.2 ± 1.7 years versus 25.4 ± 2.3 years in the control group. Advanced maternal age was associated with a significantly higher rate of hypertension, diabetes mellitus, fetal complication, and 5-minute Apgar scores <7 (P < 0.05). Caeserean section rate, incidence of placental abruption, preterm delivery, and neonatal intensive care unit admission were more common in the older group, but the differences were not statistically significant. Conclusions. Advanced maternal age is related to maternal and neonatal complications. PMID:25954770

  13. Age and gender-related differences in mitral cells of olfactory bulb

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Haq, I.H.; Tahir, M.

    2008-01-01

    To investigate the age and gender-related differences in mitral cells of the human cadaveric olfactory bulbs. Sixty olfactory bulbs, 30 each from male and female (age 20-76 years) human cadavers divided into six groups of age and gender-wise were collected from the mortuary of the King Edward Medical University, Lahore. Mitral cells were counted and their diameter was calculated from 10 micro m thick cresyl violet stained histological sections. Statistical analysis was done using ANOVA for age-related differences and independent t-test for gender-related differences. There was significant reduction in the number of mitral cells and diameter of their nuclei with age. There was significant decrease in the number of mitral cells in males, between groups I and II (p < 0.001); II and III (p < 0.001); and I and III (p < 0.001); statistically significant decrease also occurred in females, between groups IV and V (p < 0.001); V and VI (p < 0.001); and IV and VI (p < 0.001). In most cases, the distance between individual mitral cells was seen to be much greater than in younger group. In group VI, few mitral cells were observed in the cell layer. There was also significant decrease in the diameter of mitral cell nuclei in males, between groups I and III (p < 0.001); and II and III (p < 0.010); in females, between groups IV and VI (p < 0.001); and V and VI (p < 0.001). No gender-related differences were observed. The number of mitral cells and diameter of their nuclei decreased with advancing age. (author)

  14. THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MOTOR COMPETENCE AND PHYSICAL FITNESS IS WEAKER IN THE 15-16 YR. ADOLESCENT AGE GROUP THAN IN YOUNGER AGE GROUPS (4-5 YR. AND 11-12 YR.).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Haga, Monika; Gísladóttír, Thórdís; Sigmundsson, Hermundur

    2015-12-01

    Developing motor competence and physical fitness can affect the maintenance of a sufficient level of physical activity in children and adolescents. This study assesses the relationship between motor competence and physical fitness from childhood through early adolescence. A cross-sectional sample of 194 participants from 4 to 16 years old were divided into three groups; 4-6 yr. (n=42, M age=5.2, SD 0.6), 11-12 yr. (n=58, M age=12.4, SD=0.3), and 15-16 yr. (n=94, M age=15.9, SD=0.4). To assess motor competence, each child completed the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (MABC). To measure physical fitness, three tasks (strength, speed, and endurance) were selected from the Test of Physical Fitness (TPF). To analyze the significance of the difference between the correlation coefficient in the three age groups (samples) (4-6, 11-12, and 15-16 yr.), Fischer r-to-z transformation was used. The correlation (Pearson's) between motor competence and physical fitness in the age groups was statistically higher for the youngest age groups (4-6 and 11-12 yr.) and the adolescent group (age 15-16). The differences between the two youngest age groups were not statistically significant. The results demonstrate that the correlation between motor competence and physical fitness decreases with age.

  15. Identifying clusters of active transportation using spatial scan statistics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huang, Lan; Stinchcomb, David G; Pickle, Linda W; Dill, Jennifer; Berrigan, David

    2009-08-01

    There is an intense interest in the possibility that neighborhood characteristics influence active transportation such as walking or biking. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how a spatial cluster identification method can evaluate the geographic variation of active transportation and identify neighborhoods with unusually high/low levels of active transportation. Self-reported walking/biking prevalence, demographic characteristics, street connectivity variables, and neighborhood socioeconomic data were collected from respondents to the 2001 California Health Interview Survey (CHIS; N=10,688) in Los Angeles County (LAC) and San Diego County (SDC). Spatial scan statistics were used to identify clusters of high or low prevalence (with and without age-adjustment) and the quantity of time spent walking and biking. The data, a subset from the 2001 CHIS, were analyzed in 2007-2008. Geographic clusters of significantly high or low prevalence of walking and biking were detected in LAC and SDC. Structural variables such as street connectivity and shorter block lengths are consistently associated with higher levels of active transportation, but associations between active transportation and socioeconomic variables at the individual and neighborhood levels are mixed. Only one cluster with less time spent walking and biking among walkers/bikers was detected in LAC, and this was of borderline significance. Age-adjustment affects the clustering pattern of walking/biking prevalence in LAC, but not in SDC. The use of spatial scan statistics to identify significant clustering of health behaviors such as active transportation adds to the more traditional regression analysis that examines associations between behavior and environmental factors by identifying specific geographic areas with unusual levels of the behavior independent of predefined administrative units.

  16. Assessment of genetically significant doses to the Sofia population from natural gamma background

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Vasilev, G.; Khristova, M.

    1977-01-01

    Genetically significant dose to the population of Sofia city was assessed within a program covering larger urban communities in the country. Measurements were made of gamma background exposure rates in the gonadal region. Gonad doses were estimated using a screening factor of 0.73. Based on statistical data for total number of inhabitants and number of people of reproductive age, and on the mean annual gonad doses derived, calculations were made of genetically significant dose to the Sofia population. Base-line data were thus provided for an assessment of extra radiation dose resulting from occupational radiation exposure. (author)

  17. Fitness prospects: effects of age, sex and recruitment age on reproductive value in a long-lived seabird.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, He; Rebke, Maren; Becker, Peter H; Bouwhuis, Sandra

    2015-01-01

    Reproductive value is an integrated measure of survival and reproduction fundamental to understanding life-history evolution and population dynamics, but little is known about intraspecific variation in reproductive value and factors explaining such variation, if any. By applying generalized additive mixed models to longitudinal individual-based data of the common tern Sterna hirundo, we estimated age-specific annual survival probability, breeding probability and reproductive performance, based on which we calculated age-specific reproductive values. We investigated effects of sex and recruitment age (RA) on each trait. We found age effects on all traits, with survival and breeding probability declining with age, while reproductive performance first improved with age before levelling off. We only found a very small, marginally significant, sex effect on survival probability, but evidence for decreasing age-specific breeding probability and reproductive performance with RA. As a result, males had slightly lower age-specific reproductive values than females, while birds of both sexes that recruited at the earliest ages of 2 and 3 years (i.e. 54% of the tern population) had somewhat higher fitness prospects than birds recruiting at later ages. While the RA effects on breeding probability and reproductive performance were statistically significant, these effects were not large enough to translate to significant effects on reproductive value. Age-specific reproductive values provided evidence for senescence, which came with fitness costs in a range of 17-21% for the sex-RA groups. Our study suggests that intraspecific variation in reproductive value may exist, but that, in the common tern, the differences are small. © 2014 The Authors. Journal of Animal Ecology © 2014 British Ecological Society.

  18. Improving Statistical Literacy in Schools in Australia

    OpenAIRE

    Trewin, Dennis

    2005-01-01

    We live in the information age. Statistical thinking is a life skill that all Australian children should have. The Statistical Society of Australia (SSAI) and the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) have been working on a strategy to ensure Australian school children acquire a sufficient understanding and appreciation of how data can be acquired and used so they can make informed judgements in their daily lives, as children and then as adults. There is another motive for our work i...

  19. Robust statistical methods for significance evaluation and applications in cancer driver detection and biomarker discovery

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Madsen, Tobias

    2017-01-01

    In the present thesis I develop, implement and apply statistical methods for detecting genomic elements implicated in cancer development and progression. This is done in two separate bodies of work. The first uses the somatic mutation burden to distinguish cancer driver mutations from passenger m...

  20. Disposal rate in different age groups of Karan Fries (Crossbred) males in organized herd.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Panmei, Achun; Gupta, A K; Shivahre, P R; Bhakat, M; Singh, K Mahesh

    2015-02-01

    The present study was carried out to analyze the disposal rate in different age groups of Karan Fries (KF) males in National Dairy Research Institute herd. Records on 1740 KF crossbred bulls born during the period 1997-2012 were collected with an objective to ascertain the effect of genetic and non-genetic (Period of birth and season of birth) factors on the disposal pattern of KF males. The percent of animals disposed from the herd due to mortality and culling was calculated by proportion using descriptive statistics. The data were subjected to Chi-square test to test the difference due to different factors. Overall disposal rate for the different age groups of 0-1 m, 1-2 m, 2-3 m, 3-6 m, 6-18 m, 18 m-3 year and 3-5 year were calculated as 17.9, 16.3, 14.2, 25.8, 49.0, 37.6 and 51.65%, respectively. In the age groups, 3-6 m, 6-18 m and 3-5 year, effect of periods of birth were found to be statistically significant (page group except in 3-5 year age group. Differences in overall disposal rate due to genetic group were statistically significant (page groups. Overview of the results indicated that higher overall disposal rate in age group of 1 month was due to mortality while, in the age groups of >1 month, culling was the primary cause.

  1. GxE Interactions Between FOXO Genotypes and Tea Drinking Significantly Affect Cognitive Disability at Advanced Ages in China

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Zeng, Yi; Chen, Huashuai; Ni, Ting

    2015-01-01

    Logistic regression analysis based on data from 822 Han Chinese oldest old aged 92+ demonstrated that interactions between carrying FOXO1A-266 or FOXO3-310 or FOXO3-292 and tea drinking at around age 60 or at present time were significantly associated with lower risk of cognitive disability...... at advanced ages. Associations between tea drinking and reduced cognitive disability were much stronger among carriers of the genotypes of FOXO1A-266 or FOXO3-310 or FOXO3-292 compared with noncarriers, and it was reconfirmed by analysis of three-way interactions across FOXO genotypes, tea drinking at around...... age 60, and at present time. Based on prior findings from animal and human cell models, we postulate that intake of tea compounds may activate FOXO gene expression, which in turn may positively affect cognitive function in the oldest old population. Our empirical findings imply that the health...

  2. The effects of cigarette smoking on prostate-specific antigen in two different age groups.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Koc, Gokhan; Akgul, Korhan; Yilmaz, Yuksel; Dirik, Alper; Un, Sitki

    2013-01-01

    We investigate the effects of cigarette smoking on prostate-specific antigen (PSA) using 2 different age groups. The study was carried out between January 2007 and October 2011 with men; the 2 sets of age groups were: 25 to 35 years and 50 to 70 years old. The participants were divided into 4 groups. Of the 25 to 35 age range, smokers were Group 1, and non-smokers were Group 2; of the 50 to 70 age range, smokers were Group 3 and non-smokers Group 4. In addition, for the 50 to 70 age group, the International Prostate Symptom Score was completed, digital rectal examination was performed, and transabdominal prostate volume was measured. We wanted to see whether prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels showed a difference between the 2 age groups. There were 114 patients in Group 1, 82 in Group 2, 90 in Group 3, and 102 in Group 4. The mean PSA level was 0.7 ± 0.28 ng/mL for Group 1, and 0.6 ± 0.27 ng/mL for Group 2 (p = 0.27), and there was no statistically significant difference between the 2 groups. The mean PSA was 2.5 ± 1.8 ng/mL for Group 3, and 2.1 ± 2.0 ng/mL (p = 0.59) for Group 4, and there was no statistically significant difference between the these 2 age groups. Cigarette smoking effects various hormone levels. Different from previous studies, the PSA level was higher in smokers compared to nonsmokers, although it was not statistically significant. Our study is limited by the small numbers in our study groups and the lack of PSA velocity data.

  3. Deceleration in maturation of bone during adolescent age in achondroplasia - a retrospective study using RUS scoring system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lee, Suk-Ha; Modi, Hitesh N.; Suh, Seung Woo; Song, Hae-Ryong; Hazra, Sunit; Modi, Chetna

    2009-01-01

    Knowledge of bone age in achondroplasia is required for the prediction of adult height, timings of limb lengthening, and epiphysiodesis procedures. The purpose of this investigation was to determine the differences in skeletal age in achondroplasia and a control population with the Tanner-Whitehouse 3 method using the RUS score and to determine the right age for the interventional procedure for limb lengthening procedure or deformity correction in these patients. Left hand radiographs of 34 patients (age range, 5-18 years) with achondroplasia were evaluated for skeletal age using the RUS scoring system, which were compared with the left hand radiographs of 41 patients (age range, 5-18 years) without achondroplasia measuring skeletal age. The difference in chronological age and RUS bone age were evaluated statistically according to gender and age group. In the achondroplasia group, chronological age were 10.5±4.3 years for males and 10.1±3.6 years for females and RUS bone age were 9.2±4.0 years for males and 8.9±3.4 years for females, which showed statistically significantly difference (males p=0.0003 and females p 10 years in the study group, while 0.1±1.1 for 10 years in the control group, which also showed >statistically significant difference ( 10 years p 10 years in achondroplasia patients compared to nonachondroplasia patients. We recommend the use of the Tanner-Whitehouse 3 method especially the radius, ulna, short bone score to measure the skeletal age and to wait for a longer time before interventional procedures in achondroplasia patients. (orig.)

  4. [Clinical Significance of HBV Detection in NHL Patients].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Tian-Ling; Zhang, Juan; Lv, Cheng-Xiu; Hu, Tian-Yu; Li, Qing

    2018-04-01

    To analyze the relation of HBV infection with clinical characteristics and prognosis in NHL patients, so as to explore the significance of HBV detection. Sixty-eight NHL patients from December 2013 to December 2016 were enrolled in NHL group and 136 patients with other malignancies were chosen in control group, the detectable rate of HBV was compared between 2 groups. The correlation of HBV infection with sex, age, stage, cell origin, expression of P53 and BCL-2 in NHL patients was analyzed. The prognosis-related factors in NHL patients were also analyzed. The infection rate of HBV in NHL group was 51.47%(35/68), that in control group was 15.44% (21/136), and the difference was statistically significant(χ 2 =27.768,PHBV infection correlated with cell origins and expression of BCL-2 in NHL patients(PHBV infection (P>0.05), while the prognosis was significantly related with stage, expression of P53 and BCL-2(PHBV infection correlates with BCL-2 expression level of NHL patients, and shows influence on the prognosis of patients.

  5. Correlation among periodontal health status, maternal age and pre-term low birth weight.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Capasso, Francesca; Vozza, Iole; Capuccio, Veronica; Vestri, Anna Rita; Polimeni, Antonella; Ottolenghi, Livia

    2016-08-01

    To assess correlations between periodontal status, maternal age and adverse pregnancy outcomes, such as pre-term and low birth weight in a sample of pregnant women. Study population was represented by outpatient pregnant women, gestational age > 26 weeks. Medical history questionnaires were administered to all participants who underwent clinical evaluation; clinical obstetric outcome records were collected after delivery. A questionnaire was administered regarding personal information, socio-economic status, oral hygiene habits, and oral health conditions. A clinical oral examination was performed to collect Simplified Oral Hygiene Index (OHI-S) and Community Periodontal Index (CPI). Pregnancy outcome records included: delivery week, kind and causes of delivery, any relevant complications, and birth weight. Descriptive statistics were used to depict the data from the questionnaire while the relationship between delivery week, birth weight, maternal age and periodontal status was evaluated through multivariate tests of significance. 88 pregnant women were enrolled in the study. The results showed a statistically significant correlation (Pperiodontal disease and adverse pregnancy outcomes. No statistical correlation was found among pre-term and low birth weight, smoking, ethnicity and educational level of mothers. The results highlight the importance of including a routine oral and periodontal health examination in pregnant women older than 40 years of age. The correlation between periodontal status and adverse pregnancy outcomes in older mothers indicates the need for routine oral health examination and periodontal status assessment and care in pregnant women older than 40 years of age.

  6. Functional abilities and cognitive decline in adult and aging intellectual disabilities. Psychometric validation of an Italian version of the Alzheimer's Functional Assessment Tool (AFAST): analysis of its clinical significance with linear statistics and artificial neural networks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    De Vreese, L P; Gomiero, T; Uberti, M; De Bastiani, E; Weger, E; Mantesso, U; Marangoni, A

    2015-04-01

    (a) A psychometric validation of an Italian version of the Alzheimer's Functional Assessment Tool scale (AFAST-I), designed for informant-based assessment of the degree of impairment and of assistance required in seven basic daily activities in adult/elderly people with intellectual disabilities (ID) and (suspected) dementia; (b) a pilot analysis of its clinical significance with traditional statistical procedures and with an artificial neural network. AFAST-I was administered to the professional caregivers of 61 adults/seniors with ID with a mean age (± SD) of 53.4 (± 7.7) years (36% with Down syndrome). Internal consistency (Cronbach's α coefficient), inter/intra-rater reliabilities (intra-class coefficients, ICC) and concurrent, convergent and discriminant validity (Pearson's r coefficients) were computed. Clinical significance was probed by analysing the relationships among AFAST-I scores and the Sum of Cognitive Scores (SCS) and the Sum of Social Scores (SOS) of the Dementia Questionnaire for Persons with Intellectual Disabilities (DMR-I) after standardisation of their raw scores in equivalent scores (ES). An adaptive artificial system (AutoContractive Maps, AutoCM) was applied to all the variables recorded in the study sample, aimed at uncovering which variable occupies a central position and supports the entire network made up of the remaining variables interconnected among themselves with different weights. AFAST-I shows a high level of internal homogeneity with a Cronbach's α coefficient of 0.92. Inter-rater and intra-rater reliabilities were also excellent with ICC correlations of 0.96 and 0.93, respectively. The results of the analyses of the different AFAST-I validities all go in the expected direction: concurrent validity (r=-0.87 with ADL); convergent validity (r=0.63 with SCS; r=0.61 with SOS); discriminant validity (r=0.21 with the frequency of occurrence of dementia-related Behavioral Excesses of the Assessment for Adults with Developmental

  7. Relationship between the morphological variation of sella turcica with age and gender: A digital radiographic study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Talkad Subbaiah Mahesh Kumar

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Introduction: Sella turcica is a saddle-shaped concavity located in the middle cranial fossa of the skull. The exact dimensions of sella turcica are an important consideration in the diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of diseases related to the pituitary gland and brain. The sella turcica size and morphology is different from person to person. Thus, obtaining any data in this regard will be a great help in detecting abnormalities within this anatomic area. Aim: The objective of this study was to find out the correlation between the morphological variations of sella turcica with age and gender. Materials and Methods: Study sample consisted of 311 cephalograms of patients with age ranging 6–40 years. The contour of the sella turcica was traced and the linear measurements – length, depth, and diameter of sella turcica – were measured according to Silverman. Results: Morphology of sella turcica appeared to be normal shape in 27.3% of the study population followed by combination (26.7%, irregular (15.8%, pyramidal (10.6%, bridge (10%, oblique anterior wall (5.5%, and double contour (4.2%. Gender-wise comparison of the linear measurement was not statistically significant. Among the linear measurement, the parameter depth and diameter were statistically significant (P < 0.001 when correlated with age. On comparison of shape of sella turcica with linear measurements, the parameter length was statistically significant (P < 0.001. Conclusion: There is no significant relationship between the linear measurements and gender. There exists a significant relationship between the mean depth and mean diameter with age. That is, as age increases, the depth and diameter increase. There is a significant relationship between the length and the different shapes of sella turcica.

  8. Aging Educational Program to Reduce Ageism: Intergenerational Approach

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shima Sum

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available Introduction: Ageing brings different experiences for individuals. Any individual learn about ageing from childhood whatever formal or informal. No matter they learn, what and how they learn is important. This study aimed to assess impact of an educational program on ageism in those people lower 20 years of age. Methods: This interventional study was conducted among school and university students of Babol city, Mazandaran province, Iran. Study was carried out in two stages. First 373 participants (187 school students and 186 university undergraduate students under age of 20 who recruited form Babol department of education and Babol University of Medical Sciences went under study of assessing attitudes toward ageing. In the second stage, courses on lifespan human development were delivered in 10 workshops for 151 people. Sampling method was stratified randomly from different age groups.  Workshops consisted of lecturing, discussion, watching movie, reading pamphlets and having conversations with experienced older adults. Data was gathered by a questionnaire consisting of demographic characteristics and The Fraboni Scale of Ageism. Results: The mean of ageism score among school and university students were 49.93 ± 9.25 and 46.96 ± 7.64 respectively. There was statistically significant difference between two groups in ageism scores (p = 0.001 so that ageism was higher among school students However after implementation of education program, ageism score reduced for all 151 students from 46.92 ± 7.82 to 45.85 ± 7.79 which was statistically significant (p = 0.001. Conclusion: Educational program to reduce ageism is beneficial and could reduce the level of ageism. Suggestions for educators to combat ageism are provided.

  9. Significance evaluation in factor graphs

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Madsen, Tobias; Hobolth, Asger; Jensen, Jens Ledet

    2017-01-01

    in genomics and the multiple-testing issues accompanying them, accurate significance evaluation is of great importance. We here address the problem of evaluating statistical significance of observations from factor graph models. Results Two novel numerical approximations for evaluation of statistical...... significance are presented. First a method using importance sampling. Second a saddlepoint approximation based method. We develop algorithms to efficiently compute the approximations and compare them to naive sampling and the normal approximation. The individual merits of the methods are analysed both from....... Conclusions The applicability of saddlepoint approximation and importance sampling is demonstrated on known models in the factor graph framework. Using the two methods we can substantially improve computational cost without compromising accuracy. This contribution allows analyses of large datasets...

  10. Age of diagnosis of congenital hearing loss: Private v. public healthcare sector.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Butler, I R T; Ceronio, D; Swart, T; Joubert, G

    2015-11-01

    The age of diagnosis of congenital hearing loss is one of the most important determinants of communication outcome. A previous study by the lead author had evaluated the performance of the public health services in Bloemfontein, South Africa (SA), in this regard. This study aimed to examine whether the private health services in the same city were any better. To determine whether the age of diagnosis of congenital hearing loss (CHL) in children seen in the private healthcare sector in Bloemfontein, Free State Province, SA, was lower than that in the public healthcare system in the same city. A comparative study design was utilised and a retrospective database review conducted. Data obtained from this study in the private healthcare sector were compared with data from a previous study in the public healthcare sector using the same study design. Forty-eight children aged private healthcare sector during the study period; 33/47 (70.2%) did not undergo hearing screening at birth. The median age of diagnosis of DHI in the private healthcare sector was 2.24 years, and this was statistically significantly lower than the median age of diagnosis of 3.71 years in the public healthcare sector (pprivate healthcare sector was 3.01 years in children who were not screened at birth, and 1.25 years in those who were screened at birth. This difference was statistically significant (pprivate healthcare sector who were not screened at birth (median 3.01 years) with that in children in the public healthcare sector (median 3.71 years). This difference was statistically significant (pprivate healthcare sector than in the public healthcare sector. With the social and economic benefits of early intervention in cases of DHI well established internationally, SA healthcare providers in both the public and private sectors need to develop screening, diagnostic and (re)habilitation services for children with hearing impairment.

  11. A cross-sectional analysis of age and sex patterns in grip strength, tooth loss, near vision and hearing levels in Chinese aged 50-74 years

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Wu, Yili; Pang, Zengchang; Zhang, Dongfeng

    2012-01-01

    -sectional sample of 2006 individuals. The data exhibited high quality with a low missing rate of under 5% in any age groups for each variable. Effects of age and sex on the changes in the four health variables were assessed using multiple regression models with age and sex interactions included. Upon the highly......-related decline in women than in men but neither the overall sex difference nor age-sex interaction reached statistical significance. For hearing function, while no sex difference was found at middle frequency, women had better sensitivity at high frequency and men were more sensitive at low frequency...

  12. Prognostic significance of MCM 2 and Ki-67 in neuroblastic tumors in children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lewandowska, Magdalena; Taran, Katarzyna; Sitkiewicz, Anna; Andrzejewska, Ewa

    2015-12-02

    Neuroblastic tumors can be characterized by three features: spontaneous regression, maturation and aggressive proliferation. The most common and routinely used method of assessing tumor cell proliferation is to determine the Ki-67 index in the tumor tissue. Despite numerous studies, neuroblastoma biology is not fully understood, which makes treatment results unsatisfactory. MCM 2 is a potential prognostic factor in the neuroblastoma group. The study is based on retrospective analysis of 35 patients treated for neuroblastic tumors in the Department of Pediatric Surgery and Oncology of the Medical University of Lodz, during the period 2001-2011. The material comprised tissues of 16 tumors excised during the operation and 19 biopsy specimens. Immunohistochemical examinations were performed with immunoperoxidase using mouse monoclonal anti-MCM 2 and anti-Ki-67 antibodies. We observed that MCM 2 expression ranged from 2% to 98% and the Ki-67 index ranged from 0 to 95%. There was a statistically significant correlation between expression of MCM 2 and the value of the Ki-67 index and a correlation close to statistical significance between expression of MCM 2 and unfavorable histopathology. There was no statistical relationship between expression of MCM 2 and age over 1 year and N-myc amplification. The presented research shows that MCM 2 may have prognostic significance in neuroblastic pediatric tumors and as a potential prognostic factor could be the starting point of new individualized therapy.

  13. Gender and Age Related Effects While Watching TV Advertisements: An EEG Study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cartocci, Giulia; Cherubino, Patrizia; Rossi, Dario; Modica, Enrica; Maglione, Anton Giulio; di Flumeri, Gianluca; Babiloni, Fabio

    2016-01-01

    The aim of the present paper is to show how the variation of the EEG frontal cortical asymmetry is related to the general appreciation perceived during the observation of TV advertisements, in particular considering the influence of the gender and age on it. In particular, we investigated the influence of the gender on the perception of a car advertisement (Experiment 1) and the influence of the factor age on a chewing gum commercial (Experiment 2). Experiment 1 results showed statistically significant higher approach values for the men group throughout the commercial. Results from Experiment 2 showed significant lower values by older adults for the spot, containing scenes not very enjoyed by them. In both studies, there was no statistical significant difference in the scene relative to the product offering between the experimental populations, suggesting the absence in our study of a bias towards the specific product in the evaluated populations. These evidences state the importance of the creativity in advertising, in order to attract the target population.

  14. Statistical analysis of data from accelerated ageing tests of PES UF membranes

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Zondervan, Edwin; Zwijnenburg, Arie; Roffel, Brian

    2007-01-01

    In this research, membrane life-time was evaluated by means of accelerated ageing experiments. A pressure pulse unit was used to perform the ageing experiments in an accelerated way. An experimental design has been set up and four ageing factors were varied at two levels. The four ageing factors

  15. A Statistical Test of Correlations and Periodicities in the Geological Records

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yabushita, S.

    1997-09-01

    Matsumoto & Kubotani argued that there is a positive and statistically significant correlation between cratering and mass extinction. This argument is critically examined by adopting a method of Ertel used by Matsumoto & Kubotani but by applying it more directly to the extinction and cratering records. It is shown that on the null-hypothesis of random distribution of crater ages, the observed correlation has a probability of occurrence of 13%. However, when large craters are excluded whose ages agree with the times of peaks of extinction rate of marine fauna, one obtains a negative correlation. This result strongly indicates that mass extinction are not due to accumulation of impacts but due to isolated gigantic impacts.

  16. Clinical Significance of Immuno phenotypic Markers in Pediatric T-cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    SIDHOM, I.; SHAABAN, Kh.; SOLIMAN, S.; HAMDY, N.; YASSIN, D.; SALEM, Sh.; HASSANEIN, H.; MANSOUR, M.T.; EZZAT, S.; EL-ANWAR, W.

    2008-01-01

    Background: Cell-marker profiling has led to conflicting conclusions about its prognostic significance in T-ALL. Aim: To investigate the prevalence of the expression of CD34, CD10 and myeloid associated antigens (CD13/ CD33) in childhood T-ALL and to relate their presence to initial clinical and biologic features and early response to therapy. Patients and Methods: This study included 67 consecutive patients with newly diagnosed T-ALL recruited from the Children's Cancer Hospital in Egypt during the time period from July 2007 to June 2008. Immuno phenotypic markers and minimal residual disease (MRD) were studied by five-color flow cytometry. Results: The frequency of CD34 was 34.9%, CD10 33.3%, while CD13/CD33 was 18.8%. No significant association was encountered between CD34, CD10 or myeloid antigen positivity and the presenting clinical features as age, sex, TLC and CNS leukemia. Only CD10+ expression had significant association with initial CNS involvement (p=0.039). CD34 and CD13/CD33 expression was significantly associated with T-cell maturation stages (p<0.05). No relationship was observed for age, TLC, gender, NCI risk or CNS involvement with early response to therapy illustrated by BM as well as MRD day 15 and day 42. CD34+, CD13/CD33+ and early T-cell stage had high MRD levels on day 15 that was statistically highly significant (p<0.01), but CD10+ had statistically significant lower MRD level on day 15 (p=0.049). However, only CD34 retained its significance at an MRD cut-off level of 0.01%. Conclusion: CD34, CD10, CD13/CD33 expression, as well as T-cell maturation stages, may have prognostic significance in pediatric T-ALL as they have a significant impact on early clearance of leukemic cells detected by MRD day 15.

  17. Breast Cancer Epidemiology of the Working-Age Female Population Reveals Significant Implications for the South Korean Economy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Park, Jeong Hyun; Lee, Se Kyung; Lee, Jeong Eon; Kim, Seok Won; Nam, Seok Jin; Kim, Ji-Yeon; Ahn, Jin-Seok; Park, Won; Yu, Jonghan; Park, Yeon Hee

    2018-03-01

    In this study, we aimed to evaluate the economic loss due to the diagnosis of breast cancer within the female South Korean working-age population. A population-based cost analysis was performed for cancer-related diagnoses between 1999 and 2014, using respective public government funded databases. Among the five most common cancers, breast cancer mortality was strongly associated with the growth in gross domestic product between 1999 and 2014 (R=0.98). In the female population, breast cancer represented the greatest productivity loss among all cancers, which was a consequence of the peak in the incidence of breast cancer during mid-working age in the working-age population, in addition to being the most common and fastest growing cancer among South Korean women. Our study shows that breast cancer not only represents a significant disease burden for individual patients, but also contributes a real, nonnegligible loss in productivity in the South Korean economy.

  18. Assessing attitudes towards statistics among medical students: psychometric properties of the Serbian version of the Survey of Attitudes Towards Statistics (SATS.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dejana Stanisavljevic

    Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Medical statistics has become important and relevant for future doctors, enabling them to practice evidence based medicine. Recent studies report that students' attitudes towards statistics play an important role in their statistics achievements. The aim of the study was to test the psychometric properties of the Serbian version of the Survey of Attitudes Towards Statistics (SATS in order to acquire a valid instrument to measure attitudes inside the Serbian educational context. METHODS: The validation study was performed on a cohort of 417 medical students who were enrolled in an obligatory introductory statistics course. The SATS adaptation was based on an internationally accepted methodology for translation and cultural adaptation. Psychometric properties of the Serbian version of the SATS were analyzed through the examination of factorial structure and internal consistency. RESULTS: Most medical students held positive attitudes towards statistics. The average total SATS score was above neutral (4.3±0.8, and varied from 1.9 to 6.2. Confirmatory factor analysis validated the six-factor structure of the questionnaire (Affect, Cognitive Competence, Value, Difficulty, Interest and Effort. Values for fit indices TLI (0.940 and CFI (0.961 were above the cut-off of ≥0.90. The RMSEA value of 0.064 (0.051-0.078 was below the suggested value of ≤0.08. Cronbach's alpha of the entire scale was 0.90, indicating scale reliability. In a multivariate regression model, self-rating of ability in mathematics and current grade point average were significantly associated with the total SATS score after adjusting for age and gender. CONCLUSION: Present study provided the evidence for the appropriate metric properties of the Serbian version of SATS. Confirmatory factor analysis validated the six-factor structure of the scale. The SATS might be reliable and a valid instrument for identifying medical students' attitudes towards statistics in the

  19. Assessing attitudes towards statistics among medical students: psychometric properties of the Serbian version of the Survey of Attitudes Towards Statistics (SATS).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stanisavljevic, Dejana; Trajkovic, Goran; Marinkovic, Jelena; Bukumiric, Zoran; Cirkovic, Andja; Milic, Natasa

    2014-01-01

    Medical statistics has become important and relevant for future doctors, enabling them to practice evidence based medicine. Recent studies report that students' attitudes towards statistics play an important role in their statistics achievements. The aim of the study was to test the psychometric properties of the Serbian version of the Survey of Attitudes Towards Statistics (SATS) in order to acquire a valid instrument to measure attitudes inside the Serbian educational context. The validation study was performed on a cohort of 417 medical students who were enrolled in an obligatory introductory statistics course. The SATS adaptation was based on an internationally accepted methodology for translation and cultural adaptation. Psychometric properties of the Serbian version of the SATS were analyzed through the examination of factorial structure and internal consistency. Most medical students held positive attitudes towards statistics. The average total SATS score was above neutral (4.3±0.8), and varied from 1.9 to 6.2. Confirmatory factor analysis validated the six-factor structure of the questionnaire (Affect, Cognitive Competence, Value, Difficulty, Interest and Effort). Values for fit indices TLI (0.940) and CFI (0.961) were above the cut-off of ≥0.90. The RMSEA value of 0.064 (0.051-0.078) was below the suggested value of ≤0.08. Cronbach's alpha of the entire scale was 0.90, indicating scale reliability. In a multivariate regression model, self-rating of ability in mathematics and current grade point average were significantly associated with the total SATS score after adjusting for age and gender. Present study provided the evidence for the appropriate metric properties of the Serbian version of SATS. Confirmatory factor analysis validated the six-factor structure of the scale. The SATS might be reliable and a valid instrument for identifying medical students' attitudes towards statistics in the Serbian educational context.

  20. Glomerulogenesis: Can it predict the gestational age? A study of 176 fetuses

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Panduranga Chikkannaiah

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Background: Accurate assessment of gestational age of fetuses is essential from both clinical and medico-legal point of view. Crown-rump length, crown-heel length, foot length, and the weight of the fetus are the commonly used parameters for fetal age assessment. However, this estimate often lacks accuracy and sometimes is necessary to combine other data. An analysis of the embryological development of nephrons in the kidney can assist in this determination. Objective : To correlate the gestational age with the histological study of sequential development of nephrons in fetal kidney. Materials and Methods: This study included 176 fetuses delivered between June 2009 and June 2011 and aged from 12 to 40 weeks. The number of glomerular generations counted in hematoxylin and eosin-stained microscopic sections of the kidneys were correlated with the reported period of gestation based on obstetrical methods. Regression analysis was used to determine the statistical significance of the correlation. Results: A high degree of statistically significant correlation was observed between the period of gestation and the number of glomerular generations (P value < 0.0001. Conclusion: The histological assessment of the number of glomerular generations in kidney can be used as a reliable method of estimating fetal age.

  1. Assessment of bone age in prepubertal healthy Korean children: Comparison among the Korean standard bone age chart, Greulich-Pyle method, and Tanner-Whitehouse method

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kim Jeong Rye; Lee, Young Seok; Yu, Jee Suk

    2015-01-01

    To compare the reliability of the Greulich-Pyle (GP) method, Tanner-Whitehouse 3 (TW3) method and Korean standard bone age chart (KS) in the evaluation of bone age of prepubertal healthy Korean children. Left hand-wrist radiographs of 212 prepubertal healthy Korean children aged 7 to 12 years, obtained for the evaluation of the traumatic injury in emergency department, were analyzed by two observers. Bone age was estimated using the GP method, TW3 method and KS, and was calculated in months. The correlation between bone age measured by each method and chronological age of each child was analyzed using Pearson correlation coefficient, scatterplot. The three methods were compared using one-way analysis of variance. Significant correlations were found between chronological age and bone age estimated by all three methods in whole group and in each gender (R2 ranged from 0.87 to 0.9, p < 0.01). Although bone age estimated by KS was slightly closer to chronological age than those estimated by the GP and TW3 methods, the difference between three methods was not statistically significant (p > 0.01). The KS, GP, and TW3 methods show good reliability in the evaluation of bone age of prepubertal healthy Korean children without significant difference between them. Any are useful for evaluation of bone age in prepubertal healthy Korean children.

  2. Age-Related Patterns of Physical and Physiological Characteristics in Adolescent Wrestlers

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Erkan Demirkan

    2015-03-01

    Full Text Available The aim of the study was to examine the physical and physiological differences as dependent on age of young wrestlers. One hundred and twenty-six 15 – 17 year old wrestlers volunteered as subjects in the present study. The physical and physiological profiles included body weight, height, body mass index, flexibility, anaerobic power, aerobic endurance, strength, speed, and body composition. The statistically significant (p<0.05 results are as follows: Age group 17 (AG 17 had significantly higher leg and arm anaerobic power and capacity (leg power: 952±216 Watt (W; arm power: 684±194 W and leg capacity: 489±101 W; arm capacity: 354±88 respectively as compared to the AG15 with (leg power: 718±279 Watt (W; arm power: 458±149 W and leg capacity: 376±132 W; arm capacity: 247±86 W respectively. AG17 wrestlers were significantly faster than AG 15 (4.29±.25 second - 4.53±.30 second respectively. AG 15 wrestlers had significantly lower right and left hand grip strength (right: 36.4±10.7 kg, left: 34.9±10 kg than AG 16 (right: 43.9±8.4kg, left: 42.5±7.8 kg and AG17 wrestlers (right: 46.6±8.7kg, left: 46.4±8.3 kg. In conclusion The results of this study suggest that height, body weight, fat free mass, arms – legs anaerobic power and capacity, speeds and hand grip strengths were increased both in one age range and in two ages range together with age progression, but it was clearly seen statistical differences in two ages range.

  3. Reassessing the NTCTCS Staging Systems for Differentiated Thyroid Cancer, Including Age at Diagnosis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McLeod, Donald S A; Jonklaas, Jacqueline; Brierley, James D; Ain, Kenneth B; Cooper, David S; Fein, Henry G; Haugen, Bryan R; Ladenson, Paul W; Magner, James; Ross, Douglas S; Skarulis, Monica C; Steward, David L; Xing, Mingzhao; Litofsky, Danielle R; Maxon, Harry R; Sherman, Steven I

    2015-10-01

    Thyroid cancer is unique for having age as a staging variable. Recently, the commonly used age cut-point of 45 years has been questioned. This study assessed alternate staging systems on the outcome of overall survival, and compared these with current National Thyroid Cancer Treatment Cooperative Study (NTCTCS) staging systems for papillary and follicular thyroid cancer. A total of 4721 patients with differentiated thyroid cancer were assessed. Five potential alternate staging systems were generated at age cut-points in five-year increments from 35 to 70 years, and tested for model discrimination (Harrell's C-statistic) and calibration (R(2)). The best five models for papillary and follicular cancer were further tested with bootstrap resampling and significance testing for discrimination. The best five alternate papillary cancer systems had age cut-points of 45-50 years, with the highest scoring model using 50 years. No significant difference in C-statistic was found between the best alternate and current NTCTCS systems (p = 0.200). The best five alternate follicular cancer systems had age cut-points of 50-55 years, with the highest scoring model using 50 years. All five best alternate staging systems performed better compared with the current system (p = 0.003-0.035). There was no significant difference in discrimination between the best alternate system (cut-point age 50 years) and the best system of cut-point age 45 years (p = 0.197). No alternate papillary cancer systems assessed were significantly better than the current system. New alternate staging systems for follicular cancer appear to be better than the current NTCTCS system, although they require external validation.

  4. Reassessing the NTCTCS Staging Systems for Differentiated Thyroid Cancer, Including Age at Diagnosis

    Science.gov (United States)

    McLeod, Donald S.A.; Jonklaas, Jacqueline; Brierley, James D.; Ain, Kenneth B.; Cooper, David S.; Fein, Henry G.; Haugen, Bryan R.; Ladenson, Paul W.; Magner, James; Ross, Douglas S.; Skarulis, Monica C.; Steward, David L.; Xing, Mingzhao; Litofsky, Danielle R.; Maxon, Harry R.

    2015-01-01

    Background: Thyroid cancer is unique for having age as a staging variable. Recently, the commonly used age cut-point of 45 years has been questioned. Objective: This study assessed alternate staging systems on the outcome of overall survival, and compared these with current National Thyroid Cancer Treatment Cooperative Study (NTCTCS) staging systems for papillary and follicular thyroid cancer. Methods: A total of 4721 patients with differentiated thyroid cancer were assessed. Five potential alternate staging systems were generated at age cut-points in five-year increments from 35 to 70 years, and tested for model discrimination (Harrell's C-statistic) and calibration (R2). The best five models for papillary and follicular cancer were further tested with bootstrap resampling and significance testing for discrimination. Results: The best five alternate papillary cancer systems had age cut-points of 45–50 years, with the highest scoring model using 50 years. No significant difference in C-statistic was found between the best alternate and current NTCTCS systems (p = 0.200). The best five alternate follicular cancer systems had age cut-points of 50–55 years, with the highest scoring model using 50 years. All five best alternate staging systems performed better compared with the current system (p = 0.003–0.035). There was no significant difference in discrimination between the best alternate system (cut-point age 50 years) and the best system of cut-point age 45 years (p = 0.197). Conclusions: No alternate papillary cancer systems assessed were significantly better than the current system. New alternate staging systems for follicular cancer appear to be better than the current NTCTCS system, although they require external validation. PMID:26203804

  5. Elemental, microstructural, and mechanical characterization of high gold orthodontic brackets after intraoral aging.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hersche, Sepp; Sifakakis, Iosif; Zinelis, Spiros; Eliades, Theodore

    2017-02-01

    The purpose of the present study was to investigate the elemental composition, the microstructure, and the selected mechanical properties of high gold orthodontic brackets after intraoral aging. Thirty Incognito™ (3M Unitek, Bad Essen, Germany) lingual brackets were studied, 15 brackets as received (control group) and 15 brackets retrieved from different patients after orthodontic treatment. The surface of the wing area was examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Backscattered electron imaging (BEI) was performed, and the elemental composition was determined by X-ray EDS analysis (EDX). After appropriate metallographic preparation, the mechanical properties tested were Martens hardness (HM), indentation modulus (EIT), elastic index (ηIT), and Vickers hardness (HV). These properties were determined employing instrumented indentation testing (IIT) with a Vickers indenter. The results were statistically analyzed by unpaired t-test (α=0.05). There were no statistically significant differences evidenced in surface morphology and elemental content between the control and the experimental group. These two groups of brackets showed no statistically significant difference in surface morphology. Moreover, the mean values of HM, EIT, ηIT, and HV did not reach statistical significance between the groups (p>0.05). Under the limitations of this study, it may be concluded that the surface elemental content and microstructure as well as the evaluated mechanical properties of the Incognito™ lingual brackets remain unaffected by intraoral aging.

  6. Statistical lamb wave localization based on extreme value theory

    Science.gov (United States)

    Harley, Joel B.

    2018-04-01

    Guided wave localization methods based on delay-and-sum imaging, matched field processing, and other techniques have been designed and researched to create images that locate and describe structural damage. The maximum value of these images typically represent an estimated damage location. Yet, it is often unclear if this maximum value, or any other value in the image, is a statistically significant indicator of damage. Furthermore, there are currently few, if any, approaches to assess the statistical significance of guided wave localization images. As a result, we present statistical delay-and-sum and statistical matched field processing localization methods to create statistically significant images of damage. Our framework uses constant rate of false alarm statistics and extreme value theory to detect damage with little prior information. We demonstrate our methods with in situ guided wave data from an aluminum plate to detect two 0.75 cm diameter holes. Our results show an expected improvement in statistical significance as the number of sensors increase. With seventeen sensors, both methods successfully detect damage with statistical significance.

  7. Statistical parametric mapping of Tc-99m HMPAO SPECT cerebral perfusion in the normal elderly

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Turlakow, A.; Scott, A.M.; Berlangieri, S.U.; Sonkila, C.; Wardill, T.D.; Crowley, K.; Abbott, D.; Egan, G.F.; McKay, W.J.; Hughes, A.

    1998-01-01

    Full text: The clinical value of Tc-99m HMPAO SPECT cerebral blood flow studies in cognitive and neuropsychiatric disorders has been well described. Currently, interpretation of these studies relies on qualitative or semi- quantitative techniques. The aim of our study is to generate statistical measures of regional cerebral perfusion in the normal elderly using statistical parametric mapping (Friston et al, Wellcome Department of Cognitive Neurology, London, UK) in order to facilitate the objective analysis of cerebral blood flow studies in patient groups. A cohort of 20 healthy, elderly volunteers, aged 68 to 81 years, was prospectively selected on the basis of normal physical examination and neuropsychological testing. Subjects with risk factors, or a history of cognitive impairment were excluded from our study group. All volunteers underwent SPECT cerebral blood flow imaging, 30 minutes following the administration of 370 MBq Tc-99m HMPAO, on a Trionix Triad XLT triple-headed scanner (Trionix Research Laboratory Twinsburg, OH) using high resolution, fan-beam collimators resulting in a system resolution of 10 mm full width at half-maximum (FWHM). The SPECT cerebral blood flow studies were analysed using statistical parametric mapping (SPM) software specifically developed for the routine statistical analysis of functional neuroimaging data. The SPECT images were coregistered with each individual's T1-weighted MR volume brain scan and spatially normalized to standardised Talairach space. Using SPM, these data were analyzed for differences in interhemispheric regional cerebral blood flow. Significant asymmetry of cerebral perfusion was detected in the pre-central gyrus at the 95th percentile. In conclusion, the interpretation of cerebral blood flow studies in the elderly should take into account the statistically significant asymmetry in interhemispheric pre-central cortical blood flow. In the future, clinical studies will be compared to statistical data sets in age

  8. Statistical parametric mapping of Tc-99m HMPAO SPECT cerebral perfusion in the normal elderly

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Turlakow, A.; Scott, A.M.; Berlangieri, S.U.; Sonkila, C.; Wardill, T.D.; Crowley, K.; Abbott, D.; Egan, G.F.; McKay, W.J.; Hughes, A. [Austin and Repatriation Medical Centre, Heidelberg, VIC (Australia). Departments of Nuclear Medicine and Centre for PET Neurology and Clinical Neuropsychology

    1998-06-01

    Full text: The clinical value of Tc-99m HMPAO SPECT cerebral blood flow studies in cognitive and neuropsychiatric disorders has been well described. Currently, interpretation of these studies relies on qualitative or semi- quantitative techniques. The aim of our study is to generate statistical measures of regional cerebral perfusion in the normal elderly using statistical parametric mapping (Friston et al, Wellcome Department of Cognitive Neurology, London, UK) in order to facilitate the objective analysis of cerebral blood flow studies in patient groups. A cohort of 20 healthy, elderly volunteers, aged 68 to 81 years, was prospectively selected on the basis of normal physical examination and neuropsychological testing. Subjects with risk factors, or a history of cognitive impairment were excluded from our study group. All volunteers underwent SPECT cerebral blood flow imaging, 30 minutes following the administration of 370 MBq Tc-99m HMPAO, on a Trionix Triad XLT triple-headed scanner (Trionix Research Laboratory Twinsburg, OH) using high resolution, fan-beam collimators resulting in a system resolution of 10 mm full width at half-maximum (FWHM). The SPECT cerebral blood flow studies were analysed using statistical parametric mapping (SPM) software specifically developed for the routine statistical analysis of functional neuroimaging data. The SPECT images were coregistered with each individual`s T1-weighted MR volume brain scan and spatially normalized to standardised Talairach space. Using SPM, these data were analyzed for differences in interhemispheric regional cerebral blood flow. Significant asymmetry of cerebral perfusion was detected in the pre-central gyrus at the 95th percentile. In conclusion, the interpretation of cerebral blood flow studies in the elderly should take into account the statistically significant asymmetry in interhemispheric pre-central cortical blood flow. In the future, clinical studies will be compared to statistical data sets in age

  9. FEATURES OF THE CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF POLYMORPHIC VARIANTS OF ENOS AND AGTR2 GENES IN PATIENTS WITH CAD

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. L. Khokhlov

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Coronary heart disease (CHD is a major cause of mortality. Morphological substrate of CHD in most cases is atherosclerosis, which is based on structural genes polymorphism eNOS and AGTR2. The aim of the study was to study the prevalence of eNOS and AGTR2 genes in patients with coronary artery disease and the association of these genes with coronary heart disease. The study involved 187 patients aged 36 to 86 years (62,2±11,2 with different forms of CHD: stable and unstable angina, myocardial infarction and 45 people without CHD. Determination of gene polymorphisms was performed by real-time PCR analyzer of nucleic acids IQ 5 Bio-Rad. Statistical analysis was performed using Statistica 10.0. The study revealed a significant difference between the incidence of homozygous AA allelic variant gene AGTR2 group of patients with myocardial infarction and the comparison group; polymorphic variant AA AGTR2 gene is associated with earlier onset of coronary artery disease; It found that carriers of the polymorphic variant gene GA AGTR2 beginning statistically CHD occurred significantly later than in carriers of alleles GG and AA; age CHD debut TT allele carriers of the eNOS gene is associated with an earlier onset of the disease and statistically significantly different from the age of first CHD in carriers of alleles of polymorphic variants of GG and GT; revealed a positive correlation between the polymorphic allele AGTR2 gene with the presence of arterial hypertension in patients with coronary artery disease; It determined that the T allele carriers of the polymorphic gene eNOS is associated more early onset of hypertension, found the association of the polymorphic allele gene AGTR2 the need to use higher doses of ACE inhibitor — perindopril.

  10. Renal hemodynamic changes with aging: a preliminary study using CT perfusion in the healthy elderly.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhao, Hong; Gong, Jingshan; Wang, Yan; Zhang, Zuoquan; Qin, Peixin

    2010-01-01

    To investigate renal blood flow perfusion parameter changes associated with aging using multislice spiral computed tomography (CT). This prospective study was approved by the institute's ethics committee for clinical study and written informed consent was obtained from all subjects. Forty-two consecutive patients who underwent abdominal CT without obvious renal abnormality at plain scanning were enrolled in this study. The renal perfusion scan was carried out using 16-slice spiral CT. The Pearson correlation coefficient was used to examine the correlation between perfusion parameter changes with aging. In both the cortex and medulla, blood flow (BF) and blood volume (BV) were negatively correlated with age, while time-to-peak (TTP) value and mean transit time (MTT) showed a positive correlation with age. Changes in BF, TTP, and MTT were found to have a statistically significant correlation with age in both the cortex and medulla, while the correlation between BV and age showed no statistical significance. It is feasible to assess renal hemodynamics changes with aging in the elderly using the current clinically available CT perfusion imaging technology in vivo. It may be helpful in the management of aged patients to familiarize with the renal hemodynamics changes in clinical work-up. Copyright 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  11. Influence of the Self-Perception of Old Age on the Effect of a Healthy Aging Program.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mendoza-Núñez, Víctor Manuel; Sarmiento-Salmorán, Elia; Marín-Cortés, Regulo; Martínez-Maldonado, María de la Luz; Ruiz-Ramos, Mirna

    2018-05-07

    It has been shown that health programs are useful for the prevention and control of chronic diseases in community-dwelling older people; however, a negative self-perception of old age could have an effect on the results. Therefore, our aim was to evaluate the effect of a healthy aging program linked to self-perception of old age in Mexican community-dwelling older people. A pre-test/post-test single-group design study was conducted in a convenience sample of 64 older people who undertook the entire healthy aging program workshop (five months’ duration). We measured self-perception of old age, efficacy of self-care, blood glucose concentration, anthropometric measures, and blood pressure before and after the workshop. A statistically significant decrease in blood glucose concentration was observed (baseline 136 ± 50 vs. post-intervention, 124 ± 45 ± 29 mg/dL, p self-perception, we found that this difference was only maintained in the subgroup of older adults with a positive self-perception of old age. Our findings suggest that the self-perception of old age influences the effect of healthy aging programs on the health of community-dwelling older people.

  12. Executive and intellectual functioning in school-aged children with specific language impairment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kuusisto, Marika A; Nieminen, Pirkko E; Helminen, Mika T; Kleemola, Leenamaija

    2017-03-01

    Earlier research and clinical practice show that specific language impairment (SLI) is often associated with nonverbal cognitive deficits and weakened skills in executive functions (EFs). Executive deficits may have a remarkable influence on a child's everyday activities in the home and school environments. However, research information is still limited on EFs in school-aged children with SLI, mostly conducted among English- and Dutch-speaking children. To study whether there are differences in EFs between Finnish-speaking children with SLI and typically developing (TD) peers at school age. EFs are compared between the groups with and without controlling for nonverbal intelligence. Parents and teachers of children with SLI (n = 22) and age- and gender-matched TD peers (n = 22) completed The Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Functions (BRIEF). The mean age of the children was 8,2 years. BRIEF ratings of parents and teachers were compared between the children with SLI and with TD peers by paired analysis using conditional logistic regression models with and without controlling for nonverbal IQ. Intellectual functioning was assessed with the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children. Children with SLI had weaker scores in all parent and teacher BRIEF scales compared with TD peers. Statistically significant differences between the groups were found in BRIEF scales Shift, Emotional Control, Initiate, Working Memory, Plan/Organize and Monitor. Differences between the groups were statistically significant also in intellectual functioning. On BRIEF scales some group differences remained statistically significant after controlling for nonverbal IQ. This study provides additional evidence that also Finnish-speaking school-aged children with SLI are at risk of having deficits in EFs in daily life. EFs have been proposed to have an impact on developmental outcomes later in life. In clinical practice it is important to pay attention to EFs in school-aged children with SLI

  13. Educational inequalities in smoking among Japanese adults aged 25-94 years: Nationally representative sex- and age-specific statistics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tabuchi, Takahiro; Kondo, Naoki

    2017-04-01

    Few studies have investigated differences in age- and gender-specific educational gradients in tobacco smoking among the whole range of adult age groups. We examined educational inequality in smoking among Japanese adults aged 25-94 years. Using a large nationally representative sample (167,925 men and 186,588 women) in 2010, prevalence of current smoking and heavy smoking among daily smokers and their inequalities attributable to educational attainment were analyzed according to sex and age groups. Among men aged 25-34 years, junior high school graduates had the highest current smoking prevalence at 68.4% (95% confidence interval [CI], 66.0%-70.6%), and graduate school graduates had the lowest at 19.4% (95% CI, 17.2%-21.9%). High school graduates had the second highest current smoking prevalence (e.g., 55.9%; 95% CI, 54.9%-56.8% in men aged 25-34 years). Among men aged 75-94 years, the difference in current smoking across educational categories was small. A similar but steeper educational gradient in current smoking was observed among women. Among women aged 25-34 years, junior high school graduates had the highest current smoking prevalence at 49.3% (95% CI, 46.3%-52.3%), and graduate school graduates had the lowest at 4.8% (95% CI, 2.9%-7.4%). Compared with older age groups, such as 65-94 years, younger age groups, such as 25-54 years, had higher estimates of inequality indicators for educational inequality in both current and heavy smoking in both sexes. Educational inequalities in current and heavy smoking were apparent and large in the young population compared with older generations. The current study provides basic data on educational inequalities in smoking among Japanese adults. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  14. Intravitreal bevacizumab (Avastin) for neovascular age-related macular degeneration in treatment-naive patients

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Pedersen, Karen Bjerg; Sjølie, Anne Katrin; Møller, Flemming

    2008-01-01

    Abstract. Purpose: To report the effects of intravitreal bevacizumab (Avastin((R))) in treatment-naive patients with exudative age-related macular degeneration (ARMD) assessed by visual acuity (VA), optical coherence tomography (OCT) and contrast sensitivity. Methods: A prospective, uncontrolled...... was not statistically significant. Mean macular thickness decreased significantly from baseline to all follow-up examinations (P Macular thickness improved significantly at all time...

  15. Evidence of aging effects on certain safety-related components: summary and analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1995-09-01

    In response to interest shown by the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA), Principal Working Group I (PWG- 1) of the Committee on the Safety of Nuclear Installations (CSNI) conducted a generic study on the effects of aging of active components in nuclear power plants. Representatives from France, Sweden, Finland, Japan, the United States, and the United Kingdom participated in the study by submitting reports documenting aging studies performed in their countries. This report consists of summaries of those reports, along with a comparison of the various statistical analysis methods used in the studies. The studies indicate that with some exceptions, active components generally do not present a significant aging problem in nuclear power plants. Design criteria and effective preventative maintenance programs, including timely replacement of components, are effective in mitigating potential aging problems. However, aging studies (such as qualitative and statistical analyses of failure modes and maintenance data) are an important part of efforts to identify and solve potential aging problems. Solving these problems typically includes such strategies as replacing suspect components with improved components, and implementing improved maintenance programs

  16. THE EFFECT OF AGE ON THE COMPOSITION OF BLOOD OF ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Brooks, Davis & Graham (1960) and Larson & Touch- berry (1959), working on the serum of dairy cattle. They found a statistically significant positive correlation between age and serum proteins. These results confirm the signi- ficantly higher values found in this experiment for old. Afrikaner cows in comparison with those of ...

  17. Record statistics of financial time series and geometric random walks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sabir, Behlool; Santhanam, M S

    2014-09-01

    The study of record statistics of correlated series in physics, such as random walks, is gaining momentum, and several analytical results have been obtained in the past few years. In this work, we study the record statistics of correlated empirical data for which random walk models have relevance. We obtain results for the records statistics of select stock market data and the geometric random walk, primarily through simulations. We show that the distribution of the age of records is a power law with the exponent α lying in the range 1.5≤α≤1.8. Further, the longest record ages follow the Fréchet distribution of extreme value theory. The records statistics of geometric random walk series is in good agreement with that obtained from empirical stock data.

  18. Aging effect on plasma metabolites and hormones concentrations in riding horses

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    K. Kawasumi

    2015-11-01

    Full Text Available Age effects on plasma metabolites, hormone concentrations, and enzyme activities related to energy metabolism were investigated in 20 riding horses. Animals were divided into two groups: Young (3-8 years and aged (11-18 years. They were clinically healthy, and not obese. Plasma adiponectin (ADN concentrations in aged horses were significantly lower than those in young horses (mean±SE, 6.5±1.3 μg mL-1 vs, 10.9±1.7 μg mL-1, Mann-Whitney U test, respectively; P=0.0233. Plasma non-esterified fatty acid levels and Insulin and malondialdehyde concentrations in aged group tended to increase compared to those in young group although there were not significant differences statistically. In aged group, malate dehydrogenase/lactate dehydrogenase (M/L ratio, which is considered an energy metabolic indicator, did not change significantly compared to that in young group. Present data suggest that aging may negatively affect nutrition metabolism, but not induce remarkable changes in M/L ratio in riding horses.

  19. Age Difference in Research Course Satisfaction in a Blended Ed.D. Program: A Moderated Mediation Model of the Effects of Internet Self-Efficacy and Statistics Anxiety

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Lu; Haque, M. D.

    2017-01-01

    This study identified the moderated mediation relationship among age, Internet self-efficacy, and statistics anxiety on student satisfaction after controlling for demographics and technology experiences in research methods courses in a blended professional doctoral program. One hundred and thirty-one students in a three-year Ed.D. Program…

  20. The developmental trajectory of children's auditory and visual statistical learning abilities: modality-based differences in the effect of age.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Raviv, Limor; Arnon, Inbal

    2017-09-12

    Infants, children and adults are capable of extracting recurring patterns from their environment through statistical learning (SL), an implicit learning mechanism that is considered to have an important role in language acquisition. Research over the past 20 years has shown that SL is present from very early infancy and found in a variety of tasks and across modalities (e.g., auditory, visual), raising questions on the domain generality of SL. However, while SL is well established for infants and adults, only little is known about its developmental trajectory during childhood, leaving two important questions unanswered: (1) Is SL an early-maturing capacity that is fully developed in infancy, or does it improve with age like other cognitive capacities (e.g., memory)? and (2) Will SL have similar developmental trajectories across modalities? Only few studies have looked at SL across development, with conflicting results: some find age-related improvements while others do not. Importantly, no study to date has examined auditory SL across childhood, nor compared it to visual SL to see if there are modality-based differences in the developmental trajectory of SL abilities. We addressed these issues by conducting a large-scale study of children's performance on matching auditory and visual SL tasks across a wide age range (5-12y). Results show modality-based differences in the development of SL abilities: while children's learning in the visual domain improved with age, learning in the auditory domain did not change in the tested age range. We examine these findings in light of previous studies and discuss their implications for modality-based differences in SL and for the role of auditory SL in language acquisition. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kg35hoF0pw. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  1. The significance of Good Chair as part of children’s school and home environment in the preventive treatment of body statistics distortions

    OpenAIRE

    Mirosław Mrozkowiak; Hanna Żukowska

    2015-01-01

    Mrozkowiak Mirosław, Żukowska Hanna. Znaczenie Dobrego Krzesła, jako elementu szkolnego i domowego środowiska ucznia, w profilaktyce zaburzeń statyki postawy ciała = The significance of Good Chair as part of children’s school and home environment in the preventive treatment of body statistics distortions. Journal of Education, Health and Sport. 2015;5(7):179-215. ISSN 2391-8306. DOI 10.5281/zenodo.19832 http://ojs.ukw.edu.pl/index.php/johs/article/view/2015%3B5%287%29%3A179-215 https:...

  2. Effects of different surface treatments and accelerated artificial aging on the bond strength of composite resin repairs

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marco Aurélio Veiga de Melo

    2011-12-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of the present study was to assess the bond strength of composite resin repairs subjected to different surface treatments and accelerated artificial aging. 192 cylindrical samples (CSs were prepared and divided into 24 groups (n = 8. Half of the CSs were stored in water for 24 h, and the other half were subjected to C-UV accelerated aging for non-metallic specimens. The treatments were phosphoric acid + silane + adhesive (PSA; phosphoric acid + adhesive (PA; diamond bur + phosphoric acid + silane + adhesive (DPSA; diamond bur + phosphoric acid + adhesive (DPA; air abrasion + phosphoric acid + silane + adhesive (APSA; and air abrasion + phosphoric acid + adhesive (APA. The repair was performed and the specimens were again aged as described above. A control group (n = 8 was established and did not receive any type of aging or surface treatment. The specimens were loaded to failure in shear mode with a crosshead speed of 0.5 mm/min until fracture. Data were analyzed by one-way ANOVA/Tukey's test (p < 0.05. No statistically significant differences were found among DPSA, DPA, APSA, APA, and the control group. The aged PSA and PA achieved low bonding values and were statistically different from the control group, whereas the non-aged PSA and PA presented no statistically significant difference from the control group. Repairs with the proposed surface treatments were viable on both recent and aged restorations; however, phosphoric acid + adhesive alone were effective only on recent restorations.

  3. Divergent Significance of Bone Mineral Density Changes in Aging Depending on Sites and Sex Revealed through Separate Analyses of Bone Mineral Content and Area

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yasumoto Matsui

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Bone mineral density (aBMD is equivalent to bone mineral content (BMC divided by area. We rechecked the significance of aBMD changes in aging by examining BMC and area separately. Subjects were 1167 community-dwelling Japanese men and women, aged 40–79 years. ABMDs of femoral neck and lumbar spine were assessed by DXA twice, at 6-year intervals. The change rates of BMC and area, as well as aBMD, were calculated and described separately by the age stratum and by sex. In the femoral neck region, aBMDs were significantly decreased in all age strata by an increase in area as well as BMC loss in the same pattern in both sexes. In the lumbar spine region, aBMDs decreased until the age of 60 in women, caused by the significant BMC decrease accompanying the small area change. Very differently in men, aBMDs increased after their 50s due to BMC increase, accompanied by an area increase. Separate analyses of BMC and area change revealed that the significance of aBMD changes in aging was very divergent among sites and between sexes. This may explain in part the dissociation of aBMD change and bone strength, suggesting that we should be more cautious when interpreting the meaning of aBMD change.

  4. Can a significance test be genuinely Bayesian?

    OpenAIRE

    Pereira, Carlos A. de B.; Stern, Julio Michael; Wechsler, Sergio

    2008-01-01

    The Full Bayesian Significance Test, FBST, is extensively reviewed. Its test statistic, a genuine Bayesian measure of evidence, is discussed in detail. Its behavior in some problems of statistical inference like testing for independence in contingency tables is discussed.

  5. Age-related contrast enhancement study of normal bone marrow in lumbar spinal MR imaging

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kim, Young A; Ha, Doo Hoe

    1999-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to evaluate the degree of contrast enhancement of normal bone marrow in L-spine relating to aging and to determine the range of contrast enhancement in normal bone marrow. We analyzed a total of 120 patients (20 per decade) who had undergone lumbar spinal MRI and who ranged in age from the 2nd decade to more than the 7th. Bone marrow revealed no abnormal pathology. Sagittal T1-weighted spin echo sequences were obtained before and after gadolinium administration. For each sequence, a region of interest was drawn within the L1 vertebral body from the midsagittal slice. Signal intensity (SI) values of each sequence were ascertained and the percentage increase in SI was calculated. After contrast enhancement, lumbar MRI revealed no statistically significant in the percentage increase in SI of normal bone marrow in relation to aging. Most patients (99%) however showed an SI increase of between 10% and 49%. In only four, none of whom were aged over 40, was this increase above 50%. Lumbar MRI, revealed no statistically significant difference in percentage increase in SI in normal bone marrow relating to aging, but when the increase is above 50% in a patient aged over 40, bone marrow pathology should be further investigated

  6. Maternal and Neonatal Birth Factors Affecting the Age of ASD Diagnosis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Darcy-Mahoney, Ashley; Minter, Bonnie; Higgins, Melinda; Guo, Ying; Zauche, Lauren Head; Hirst, Jessica

    2016-12-01

    Early diagnosis of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) enables early intervention that improves long term functioning of children with ASD but is often delayed until age of school entry. Few studies have identified factors that affect timely diagnosis. This study addressed how maternal education, race, age, marital status as well as neonatal birth factors affect the age at which a child is diagnosed with ASD. This study involved a retrospective analysis of 664 records of children treated at one of the largest autism treatment centers in the United States from March 1, 2009 to December 30, 2010. Logistic regression and Cox proportional hazards regression were used to identify maternal and neonatal factors associated with age of diagnosis. Infant gender, maternal race, marital status, and maternal age were identified as significant factors for predicting the age of ASD diagnosis. In the Cox proportional hazards regression model, only maternal race and marital status were included. Median survival age till diagnosis of children born to married mothers was 53.4 months compared to 57.8 months and 63.7 months of children born to single and divorced or widowed mothers respectively. Median survival age till diagnosis for children of African American mothers was 53.8 months compared to 57.2 months for children of Caucasian mothers. No statistically significant difference of timing of ASD diagnosis was found for children of varying gestational age. Children born to older or married mothers and mothers of minority races were more likely to have an earlier ASD diagnosis. No statistically significant differences in timing of ASD diagnosis were found for children born at varying gestational ages. Identification of these factors has the potential to inform public health outreach aimed at promoting timely ASD diagnosis. This work could enhance clinical practice for timelier diagnoses of ASD by supporting parents and clinicians around the world in identifying risk factors beyond gender

  7. Expression and prognostic significance of lysozyme in male breast cancer

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Serra, Carlos; Baltasar, Aniceto; Medrano, Justo; Vizoso, Francisco; Alonso, Lorena; Rodríguez, Juan C; González, Luis O; Fernández, María; Lamelas, María L; Sánchez, Luis M; García-Muñiz, José L

    2002-01-01

    Lysozyme, one of the major protein components of human milk that is also synthesized by a significant percentage of breast carcinomas, is associated with lesions that have a favorable outcome in female breast cancer. Here we evaluate the expression and prognostic value of lysozyme in male breast cancer (MBC). Lysozyme expression was examined by immunohistochemical methods in a series of 60 MBC tissue sections and in 15 patients with gynecomastia. Staining was quantified using the HSCORE (histological score) system, which considers both the intensity and the percentage of cells staining at each intensity. Prognostic value of lysozyme was retrospectively evaluated by multivariate analysis taking into account conventional prognostic factors. Lysozyme immunostaining was negative in all cases of gynecomastia. A total of 27 of 60 MBC sections (45%) stained positively for this protein, but there were clear differences among them with regard to the intensity and percentage of stained cells. Statistical analysis showed that lysozyme HSCORE values in relation to age, tumor size, nodal status, histological grade, estrogen receptor status, metastasis and histological type did not increase the statistical significance. Univariate analysis confirmed that both nodal involvement and lysozyme values were significant predictors of short-term relapse-free survival. Multivariate analysis, according to Cox's regression model, also showed that nodal status and lysozyme levels were significant independent indicators of short-term relapse-free survival. Tumor expression of lysozyme is associated with lesions that have an unfavorable outcome in male breast cancer. This milk protein may be a new prognostic factor in patients with breast cancer

  8. Measurement of brain atrophy of aging using x-ray computed tomography

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Takeda, Shumpei; Matsuzawa, Taiju

    1984-01-01

    We measured brain volume of 1,045 subjects with no brain damage using x-ray computed tomography and investigated brain atrophy of aging. Severity of brain atrophy was estimated by brain atrophy index (BAI): BAI (%)=100 (%)x(cerebrospinal fluid space volume/cranial cavity volume). Atrophy of the brain began with statistical significance in the forties in both sexes. In males 40-49 years of age the mean BAI was 1.0% greater (p<0.001) and the S.D. of BAI was 1.1% greater (p<0.001) than those in their thirties. In females of 40-49 years the mean BAI was 0.5% greater (p<0.001) than that in their thirties, but there was no statistical significance between the two S.D.'s of both decades. The BAI increased exponentially with the increasing age from thirties in both sexes. Correlation coefficients were 0.702 (p< 0.001, n=471) in males and 0.721 (p<0.001, n=480) in females. From the regression coefficients it was calculated that the BAI was doubled in 19.4 years in males and 17.4 years in females after thirties. (author)

  9. On the Statistical Dependency of Identity Theft on Demographics

    Science.gov (United States)

    di Crescenzo, Giovanni

    An improved understanding of the identity theft problem is widely agreed to be necessary to succeed in counter-theft efforts in legislative, financial and research institutions. In this paper we report on a statistical study about the existence of relationships between identity theft and area demographics in the US. The identity theft data chosen was the number of citizen complaints to the Federal Trade Commission in a large number of US municipalities. The list of demographics used for any such municipality included: estimated population, median resident age, estimated median household income, percentage of citizens with a high school or higher degree, percentage of unemployed residents, percentage of married residents, percentage of foreign born residents, percentage of residents living in poverty, density of law enforcement employees, crime index, and political orientation according to the 2004 presidential election. Our study findings, based on linear regression techniques, include statistically significant relationships between the number of identity theft complaints and a non-trivial subset of these demographics.

  10. Comparison of the Lea Symbols and HOTV charts for preschool vision screening from age 3 to 4.5 years old

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ya-Hui Zhang

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available AIM: To evaluate the applicability and the development of the normal visual acuity from age 3 to 3.5 years using Lea Symbols and HOTV charts.METHODS: It was a survey research study. Totally, 133 preschoolers(266 eyesbetween 3 to 4.5 years old recruited from two kid-gardens in Guangzhou were tested with both the Lea Symbols chart and the HOTV chart. Outcome measures were monocular logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution(logMARvisual acuity and inter-eye acuity difference in logMAR units for each test. RESULTS: The testability rates of the two charts were high(96.24% vs 92.48%, respectively, but difference was not statistically significant(P>0.05. The difference between the two kind of monocular vision was not statistically significant(the right eye: t=0.517, P=0.606; the left eye: t=-0.618, P=0.538. There was no significant difference between different eye(Lea Symbols chart: t=0.638, P=0.525; HOTV chart: t=-0.897, P=0.372. The visual acuities of the boys were better than those of the girls, but the difference was not statistically significant(P>0.05. The results which came from visual acuities with the two charts for the corresponding age groups(3-year-old group, 3.5-year-old group, 4-year-old group, 4.5-year-old groupindicated that the visual acuities of the preschoolers were improving with increasing age, but the difference among the visual acuities with the Lea Symbols chart was not statistically significant(the right eye: F=2.662, P=0.052; the left eye: F=1.850, P=0.143. However the difference among the visual acuities with the HOTV chart was statistically significant(the right eye: F=4.518, P=0.005; the left eye: F=3.893, P=0.011.CONCLUSION: Both Lea Symbols and HOTV chars are accepted and appropriate for preschool vision screening from 3 to 4.5 years old. The monocular visual acuity of preschoolers from age 3 to 4.5 years could be assessed was similar using the two charts. There is no correlation between visual acuity and different eye

  11. The German Birth Order Register - order-specific data generated from perinatal statistics and statistics on out-of-hospital births 2001-2008

    OpenAIRE

    Michaela Kreyenfeld; Rembrandt D. Scholz; Frederik Peters; Ines Wlosnewski

    2010-01-01

    Until 2008, Germany’s vital statistics did not include information on the biological order of each birth. This resulted in a dearth of important demographic indicators, such as the mean age at first birth and the level of childlessness. Researchers have tried to fill this gap by generating order-specific birth rates from survey data, and by combining survey data with vital statistics. This paper takes a different approach by using hospital statistics on births to generate birth order-specific...

  12. Age estimation in the living

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Tangmose, Sara; Thevissen, Patrick; Lynnerup, Niels

    2015-01-01

    A radiographic assessment of third molar development is essential for differentiating between juveniles and adolescents in forensic age estimations. As the developmental stages of third molars are highly correlated, age estimates based on a combination of a full set of third molar scores...... are statistically complicated. Transition analysis (TA) is a statistical method developed for estimating age at death in skeletons, which combines several correlated developmental traits into one age estimate including a 95% prediction interval. The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of TA...... in the living on a full set of third molar scores. A cross sectional sample of 854 panoramic radiographs, homogenously distributed by sex and age (15.0-24.0 years), were randomly split in two; a reference sample for obtaining age estimates including a 95% prediction interval according to TA; and a validation...

  13. Correlation of the size of undescended testis with its location in various age groups

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Taqvi, S R.H.; Akhtar, J; Batool, T; Farhat, M [National Inst. of child Health, Karachi (Pakistan). Dept. of Peadiatrics; Tabassum, R [National Inst. of Child Health, Karachi (Pakistan). Dept. of Radiology

    2006-09-15

    To assess the correlation of the size of undescended testis with its location in children of various age groups, per- operatively. Children presenting with undescended testis at surgical outpatient were recruited. Physical examination and relevant investigations (haemoglobin, ultrasound for location and size of testes) were performed. Patients were divided randomly into three age groups, group I (8 months - 2.5 years), group II (2.6 - 8 years), group III (8.1-13 years). At orchiopexy location and size of undescended testis were noted. Patients were further sub-divided into groups according to peroperative location of undescended testis, group A (intra-abdominal), group B (intra-canalicular), group C (distal to superficial inguinal ring - pubic). Where no testis was found, a separate group D was assigned. The size of undescended testis at different locations in various age groups was compared with reference to normal descended testicular size in the respective age group, for statistical significance. ANOVA test was used for intergroup comparison for the size of undescended testis and Student t- test was applied for comparison with reference to normal values of the size of testis. A total of 102 patients with undescended testis were included in the study. The total number of 107 testicular units were assessed. Group I had 28, group II, 41 and group III, 38 testes. There were 24 intra-abdominal, 68 intra-canalicular and 12 pubic in location. In 3 cases, no testis was found at exploration. We found no statistically significant difference amongst groups (p-value=0.090) between the size of the undescended testis at different peroperative locations. The size of undescended testis grew with the age as undescended testis of larger size were found in older age group as compared to younger age group. By applying Student t-test, we did not find statistically significant difference in relation to the size of undescended testis in various age groups in comparison to the

  14. Correlation of the size of undescended testis with its location in various age groups

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Taqvi, S.R.H.; Akhtar, J.; Batool, T.; Farhat, M.; Tabassum, R.

    2006-01-01

    To assess the correlation of the size of undescended testis with its location in children of various age groups, per- operatively. Children presenting with undescended testis at surgical outpatient were recruited. Physical examination and relevant investigations (haemoglobin, ultrasound for location and size of testes) were performed. Patients were divided randomly into three age groups, group I (8 months - 2.5 years), group II (2.6 - 8 years), group III (8.1-13 years). At orchiopexy location and size of undescended testis were noted. Patients were further sub-divided into groups according to peroperative location of undescended testis, group A (intra-abdominal), group B (intra-canalicular), group C (distal to superficial inguinal ring - pubic). Where no testis was found, a separate group D was assigned. The size of undescended testis at different locations in various age groups was compared with reference to normal descended testicular size in the respective age group, for statistical significance. ANOVA test was used for intergroup comparison for the size of undescended testis and Student t- test was applied for comparison with reference to normal values of the size of testis. A total of 102 patients with undescended testis were included in the study. The total number of 107 testicular units were assessed. Group I had 28, group II, 41 and group III, 38 testes. There were 24 intra-abdominal, 68 intra-canalicular and 12 pubic in location. In 3 cases, no testis was found at exploration. We found no statistically significant difference amongst groups (p-value=0.090) between the size of the undescended testis at different peroperative locations. The size of undescended testis grew with the age as undescended testis of larger size were found in older age group as compared to younger age group. By applying Student t-test, we did not find statistically significant difference in relation to the size of undescended testis in various age groups in comparison to the

  15. [Hematologic indices in different age wistar rats, receiving a balanced semi-synthetic vivary diet].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mustafina, O K; Trushina, É N; Shumakova, E A; Arianova, E A; Tyshko, N V; Pashorina, V A

    2013-01-01

    This paper presents the results of research of hematologic parameters of male Wistar rats 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 months age, which received a balanced semisynthetic diet. Studies were carried out at the Hematology analyzer Coulter AC TTM 5 diff OV (Beckman Coulter, USA) with the program, specially developed for the study of rats' blood. According to the results of research, was found a statistically significant increased of the number of red blood cells; the concentration of hemoglobin and hematocrit in animals 2-6 months compared with rats, 1 month age. With age, there is a decrease of the mean corpuscular volume and the mean corpuscular hemoglobin. The number of white blood cells in rats of 2-4 months age are significantly higher than in rats of 1 and 6 months age. The number of neutrophils and eosinophils in rats of to the 2 month are of is lover than once in rats of 1 month age, and increases values in animals of 6 months age. The number of lymphocytes has the highest value in the rat of 2-3 months age and the minimum value is that in animals of 6 months age. With increasing of the age of the animals the reduction of contents of monocytes was noted. The content of platelets and the platelet crit in the blood of rats 6 months age is statistically greater than those in 1-month age animals. The average volume of platelet is the stable index, with age does not change.

  16. Age-related Differences in White Matter Integrity in Healthy Human Brain: Evidence from Structural Mri and Diffusion Tensor Imaging

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rishu Rathee

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available The aim is to investigate the relationship between microstructural white matter (WM diffusivity indices and macrostructural WM volume (WMV among healthy individuals (20–85 years. Whole-brain diffusion measures were calculated from diffusion tensor imaging using FMRIB software library while WMV was estimated through voxel-based morphometry, and voxel-based analysis was carried out using tract-based spatial statistics. Our results revealed that mean diffusivity, axial diffusivity, and radial diffusivity had shown good correlation with WMV but not for fractional anisotropy (FA. Voxel-wise tract-based spatial statistics analysis for FA showed a significant decrease in four regions for middle-aged group compared to young-aged group, in 22 regions for old-aged group compared to middle-aged group, and in 26 regions for old-aged group compared to young-aged group ( P < 0.05. We found significantly lower WMV, FA, and mean diffusivity values in females than males and inverted-U trend for FA in males. We conclude differential age- and gender-related changes for structural WMV and WM diffusion indices.

  17. Age as a determinant of nutritional status: A cross sectional study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gariballa Salah

    2005-10-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Undenutrition is known to be prevalent and largely unrecognised in older patients; however, aberrations in indicators of nutritional status may simply reflect effects of age and/or functional disability. Objective The aim of this study was to measure the effect, if any of age on nutritional status in older patients. Design 445 randomly selected hospitalised patients consented to nutritional status assessment derived from anthropometric, haematological, and biochemical data within 72 hours of admission. Nutritional status was compared between those age Results Body weight, body mass index, mid-upper arm circumference, haemoglobin, serum albumin and plasma ascorbic acid were all significantly lower in people aged ≥ 75 years compared with those 3, red-cell folate and vitamin B12 concentrations were lower in those aged ≥ 75 years, differences were not statistically significant. After adjusting for disability and co-morbidity in a multivariate analysis, age alone had a significant and independent effect on important anthropometric and biochemical nutritional assessment variables. Conclusion Increasing age is independently associated with poor nutritional status. This may partly explain the poor clinical outcome in older patients.

  18. Dental anomalies and dental age assessment in treated children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Khojastepour, L; Zareifar, S; Ebrahimi, M

    2014-01-01

    This cross sectional study was performed to evaluate dental ages and incidence of dental anomalies in children treated for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). A total of 25 ALL patient who passed at least 2 years of chemotherapy and 25 healthy sex and age matched children were evaluated. Dental age as well as dental anomalies in shape, size, number, and structure was recorded based on their panoramic radiographies which were taken for dental purposes. The number of dental anomalies significantly increased in ALL treated children. Seven ALL cases (28%) in compression to only one (4%) in control group had at least one dental anomaly. However, there was neither statistically significant differences between the mean of dental (p=0.32) and chronologic age (p=0.12) in both groups, nor between dental age of cases and control group (p=0.62).The age at the onset of treatment as well as treatment durations has not affected dental age and the incidence of dental anomalies significantly (pdental anomaly. Dental age, maturity, and development process however seems to be independent from chemotherapy.

  19. The prognostic significance of parapharyngeal tumour involvement in nasopharyngeal carcinoma

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Teo, P.Y.; Lee, W.; Yu, P.

    1996-01-01

    From 1984 to 1989, 903 treatment-naive non-disseminated nasopharyngeal carcinomas (NPCs) were given primary radical radiotherapy. All patients had computed tomographic and endoscopic evaluation of the primary tumour. Potentially significant parameters were analysed by both univariate and multivariate methods for independent significance. In the whole group of patients, the male sex, skull base and cranial nerve(s) involvement, advanced Ho N-level, presence of fixed or partially fixed nodes and nodes contralateral to the side of the bulk of the nasopharyngeal primary, significantly determined survival and distant metastasis rates, whereas skull base and cranial nerve involvement, advanced age and male sex significantly worsened local control. However in the Ho T2No subgroup, parapharyngeal tumour involvement was the most significant prognosticator that determined distant metastasis and survival rates in the absence of the overriding prognosticators of skull base infiltration, cranial nerve(s) palsy, and cervical nodal metastasis. The local tumour control of the Ho T2No was adversely affected by the presence of oropharyngeal tumour extension. The administration of booster radiotherapy (20 Gy) after conventional radiotherapy (60-62.5 Gy) in tumours with parapharyngeal involvement has led to an improvement in local control, short of statistical significance

  20. Deceleration in maturation of bone during adolescent age in achondroplasia - a retrospective study using RUS scoring system

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Lee, Suk-Ha [Konkuk University Hospital, Department of Orthopedics, Seoul (Korea); Modi, Hitesh N.; Suh, Seung Woo [Korea University Guro Hospital, Scoliosis Research Institute, Department of Orthopedics, Seoul (Korea); Song, Hae-Ryong; Hazra, Sunit; Modi, Chetna [Korea University Guro Hospital, Rare Disease Institute, Department of Orthopedics, Seoul (Korea)

    2009-02-15

    Knowledge of bone age in achondroplasia is required for the prediction of adult height, timings of limb lengthening, and epiphysiodesis procedures. The purpose of this investigation was to determine the differences in skeletal age in achondroplasia and a control population with the Tanner-Whitehouse 3 method using the RUS score and to determine the right age for the interventional procedure for limb lengthening procedure or deformity correction in these patients. Left hand radiographs of 34 patients (age range, 5-18 years) with achondroplasia were evaluated for skeletal age using the RUS scoring system, which were compared with the left hand radiographs of 41 patients (age range, 5-18 years) without achondroplasia measuring skeletal age. The difference in chronological age and RUS bone age were evaluated statistically according to gender and age group. In the achondroplasia group, chronological age were 10.5{+-}4.3 years for males and 10.1{+-}3.6 years for females and RUS bone age were 9.2{+-}4.0 years for males and 8.9{+-}3.4 years for females, which showed statistically significantly difference (males p=0.0003 and females p < 0.0001), while in the control group, chronological age were 11.1{+-}2.9 years for males and 10.7{+-}3.4 years for females and RUS bone age were 11.2{+-}3.4 years for males and 10.7{+-}3.3 years for females, which did not show statistically significantly difference (males p=0.54 and females p=0.76). Our finding suggested a delay of 1.4 years for males and 1.2 years for females in the maturation of bone in achondroplasia patients. Difference between chronological age and RUS bone age was 0.9{+-}1.1 for <10 years and 1.6{+-}0.9 for >10 years in the study group, while 0.1{+-}1.1 for <10 years and -0.2 {+-} 0.6 for >10 years in the control group, which also showed >statistically significant difference (<10 years p=0.04 and >10 years p<0.0001). These differences indicate that there was a delay in the maturation of bones by 1 year in the group <10

  1. Statistics for experimentalists

    CERN Document Server

    Cooper, B E

    2014-01-01

    Statistics for Experimentalists aims to provide experimental scientists with a working knowledge of statistical methods and search approaches to the analysis of data. The book first elaborates on probability and continuous probability distributions. Discussions focus on properties of continuous random variables and normal variables, independence of two random variables, central moments of a continuous distribution, prediction from a normal distribution, binomial probabilities, and multiplication of probabilities and independence. The text then examines estimation and tests of significance. Topics include estimators and estimates, expected values, minimum variance linear unbiased estimators, sufficient estimators, methods of maximum likelihood and least squares, and the test of significance method. The manuscript ponders on distribution-free tests, Poisson process and counting problems, correlation and function fitting, balanced incomplete randomized block designs and the analysis of covariance, and experiment...

  2. Gender and Age Related Effects While Watching TV Advertisements: An EEG Study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Giulia Cartocci

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available The aim of the present paper is to show how the variation of the EEG frontal cortical asymmetry is related to the general appreciation perceived during the observation of TV advertisements, in particular considering the influence of the gender and age on it. In particular, we investigated the influence of the gender on the perception of a car advertisement (Experiment 1 and the influence of the factor age on a chewing gum commercial (Experiment 2. Experiment 1 results showed statistically significant higher approach values for the men group throughout the commercial. Results from Experiment 2 showed significant lower values by older adults for the spot, containing scenes not very enjoyed by them. In both studies, there was no statistical significant difference in the scene relative to the product offering between the experimental populations, suggesting the absence in our study of a bias towards the specific product in the evaluated populations. These evidences state the importance of the creativity in advertising, in order to attract the target population.

  3. Aging obviates sex-specific physiological responses to exercise.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Deschenes, Michael R; Taylor, Jessica L; Mangis, Katherine A

    2013-01-01

    Both sex and aging have been shown to affect physiological responses to exercise. The aim of the present investigation was to determine whether aging impacted the sex-specific nature of physiological responses to exercise commonly noted among young adults. Ten aged men (69.0 ± 1.7 years; mean ± SE) and 10 aged women (71.6 ± 1.3 years) reporting similar levels of habitual physical activity performed a 30-min exercise session at 60-65% of their predetermined peak oxygen uptake. Cardiovascular, thermoregulatory, and metabolic variables were assessed before exercise, at the 15th and 30th min of exercise, and at 5 and 15 min into a passive postexercise recovery period. Variables of interest were statistically analyzed via two-way analysis of variance with repeated measures; significance was set at P physiological variable of interest were identified, but not once was a significant effect of group (i.e., sex) detected. Exercise-induced physiological responses to prolonged, moderate intensity exercise were similar among aged men and aged women. This evidence that the sexually dimorphic nature of physiological responses to exercise is obviated with age should be taken into account when prescribing health-related exercise training programs for older individuals. Copyright © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  4. Interaction between FOXO1A-209 Genotype and Tea Drinking is Significantly Associated with Reduced Mortality at Advanced Ages

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Zeng, Yi; Chen, Huashuai; Ni, Ting

    2016-01-01

    Based on the genotypic/phenotypic data from Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (CLHLS) and Cox proportional hazard model, the present study demonstrates that interactions between carrying FOXO1A-209 genotypes and tea drinking are significantly associated with lower risk of mortality...... at advanced ages. Such significant association is replicated in two independent Han Chinese CLHLS cohorts (p =0.028-0.048 in the discovery and replication cohorts, and p =0.003-0.016 in the combined dataset). We found the associations between tea drinking and reduced mortality are much stronger among carriers...... of the FOXO1A-209 genotype compared to non-carriers, and drinking tea is associated with a reversal of the negative effects of carrying FOXO1A-209 minor alleles, that is, from a substantially increased mortality risk to substantially reduced mortality risk at advanced ages. The impacts are considerably...

  5. Perception of aging and ageism among women in Qatar.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Musaiger, Abdulrahman O; D'Souza, Reshma; Al-Roomi, Khaldoon

    2013-01-01

    The objective of this study was to find out the perceptions of age and aging among women in Qatar. Respondents consisted of 250 women aged between 20 and 70 years, selected from those attending the health centers in Doha city, the capital of Qatar. They were interviewed using a pretested validated questionnaire, and data were collected through direct face-to-face interviews using the incidental sampling method. It was found that physical appearance and mental alertness were the most important criteria for defining aging in men and women. A statistically significant association was found between age of respondents and physical criteria for aging such as hair color (p age of women studied. Both positive (socializing factors, independence, housework, retirement, and geriatric care) and negative stereotyping (care for self, learning capabilities, irritability, and worries) with regard to aging were evident among the Qatari women. In general, Qatari women had several positive attitudes toward aging. Such attitudes could be utilized in any health promotion for elderly people.

  6. On two methods of statistical image analysis

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Missimer, J; Knorr, U; Maguire, RP; Herzog, H; Seitz, RJ; Tellman, L; Leenders, K.L.

    1999-01-01

    The computerized brain atlas (CBA) and statistical parametric mapping (SPM) are two procedures for voxel-based statistical evaluation of PET activation studies. Each includes spatial standardization of image volumes, computation of a statistic, and evaluation of its significance. In addition,

  7. Variations with time and age in the relative risks of solid cancer incidence after radiation exposure

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Little, M.P.; Muirhead, C.R.; de Vathaire, F.; Charles, M.W.

    1997-01-01

    The Japanese atomic bomb survivor cancer incidence dataset and data on five groups exposed to radiation for medical reasons in childhood are analysed and evidence found for a reduction in the radiation-induced relative risk of cancers other than leukaemia with increasing time since exposure and age at exposure. The rate of the reductions in relative risk with time since exposure are not significantly different for those exposed in childhood and for those exposed in adulthood, if adjustment is made for the effects on the relative risk of age at exposure. For those irradiated in childhood, there is a statistically significant annual reduction of 5.8% (95% Cl 2.8, 8.9) in excess relative risk, and there are no strong indications of inter-cohort heterogeniety in the speed of reduction of relative risk. After adjustment for the effects of age at exposure, there is a significant annual reduction of 3.6% (95% Cl 1.6, 5.6) in excess relative risk in all age-at-exposure groups. There are significant reductions of 5.2% (95% Cl 3.7, 6.8) in excess relative risk per year of age at exposure. There are statistically significant (P = 0.04) interactions between the exponential adjustments to the excess relative risk for age at exposure and time since exposure in the Japanese data, but no indications (P = 0.38) of such interactions when powers of time since exposure and attained age are used to adjust the excess relative risk, so that the fit of the model with power adjustments is to be preferred to that of the model with exponential adjustments. (author)

  8. Effect of accelerated aging on the microhardness and color stability of flexible resins for dentures

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marcelo Coelho Goiato

    2010-03-01

    Full Text Available Acrylic resins have been widely used due to their acceptable esthetics and desirable characteristics such as easy handling, good thermal conductivity, low permeability to oral fluids and color stability. Flexible resins were introduced on the market as an alternative to the use of conventional acrylic resins in the construction of complete and partial removable dentures. Although these resins present advantages in terms of esthetics and comfort, studies assessing chromatic and microhardness alterations of these materials are still scarce in the related literature. The aim of this study was to evaluate the chromatic and microhardness alterations of two commercial brands of flexible resins in comparison to the conventional resin Triplex when submitted to accelerated aging. The resins were manipulated according to manufacturers' instructions and inserted into a silicone matrix to obtain 21 specimens divided into 3 groups: Triplex, Ppflex and Valplast. Triplex presented the highest microhardness value (p < 0.05 for all the aging periods, which was significantly different from that of the other resins, followed by the values of Valplast and Ppflex. Comparison between the flexible resins (Ppflex and Valplast revealed a statistically significant difference (p < 0.05 as regards color. The flexible resin Ppflex and the conventional resin Triplex presented no statistically significant difference (p < 0.05 as regards aging. The accelerated aging significantly increased the microhardness values of the resins, with the highest values being observed for Triplex. Valplast presented the greatest chromatic alteration after accelerated aging.

  9. Variation in SPC/STC Ratio as an Indicator of Age: A Computer-aided Forensic Odontology

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Priyanka Debta

    2010-01-01

    Results: Pearson correlation between SPC/STC ratio with different age group was found to be statistically significant. So, measurement of amount of secondary dentin seems to be reliable and rapid method in forensic odontology.

  10. Renal thorium and uranium excretion in non-exposed subjects: influence of age and gender

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Werner, E.; Roth, P.; Wendler, I.; Schramel, P.

    1998-01-01

    The excretion of 238 U and 232 Th was investigated by ICP-MS in a group of 30 males (mean age 41 ± 18 years, range 7 to 73 years) and 33 females (43 ± 21 years, 11 to 84 years). For the thorium excretion, the geometric mean is 34 μBq/day (SD 1.90) for the whole group, 40 μBq/day (SD 2.01) for the males and 30 μBq/day (SD 1.78) for the females. The difference between the males and females is statistically insignificant. A certain increase in the excretion was observed with increasing age but the correlation coefficient of the linear relationship is statistically insignificant. For uranium, the geometric means (SD) for the whole group, the male subgroup, and the female subgroup, in μBq/day, are 237 (2.50), 287 (2.09), and 200 (2.81). The difference between the two subgroups is statistically insignificant. The excretion increases slightly with age; the correlation coefficient of the linear relationship is statistically significant. The day-to-day fluctuations in the excretion of both Th and U are considerable. (P.A.)

  11. Statistical analysis of aging trend of mechanical properties in ethylene propylene rubber-insulated safety-related cables sampled from containments (Denryoko Chuo Kenkyusho Hokoku, December 2013 issue)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fuse, Norikazu; Kanegami, Masaki; Misaka, Hideki; Homma, Hiroya; Okamoto, Tatsuki

    2013-01-01

    As for polymeric insulations used in nuclear power plant safety cables, it is known that the present prediction model sometimes estimates the service life conservatively. In order to sophisticate the model to reflect to the aging in containments, disconnections between the prediction and realities are needed to be clarified. In the present paper, statistical analysis has been carried out on various aging status of insulations removed from domestic containments. Aging in operational environment is found to be slower than the one expected from acceleration aging test results. Temperature dependence of estimated lifetime on Arrhenius plot also suggests that elementary chemical reaction dominant under the two aging conditions is different, which results in apparent difference in activation energies and pre-exponential factors. Following two kinds of issues are found necessary to be clarified for the model sophistication; temperature change in predominant degradation chemical processes, and the effect of low oxygen concentration environment in boiling water reactor type containment. (author)

  12. Drug safety data mining with a tree-based scan statistic.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kulldorff, Martin; Dashevsky, Inna; Avery, Taliser R; Chan, Arnold K; Davis, Robert L; Graham, David; Platt, Richard; Andrade, Susan E; Boudreau, Denise; Gunter, Margaret J; Herrinton, Lisa J; Pawloski, Pamala A; Raebel, Marsha A; Roblin, Douglas; Brown, Jeffrey S

    2013-05-01

    In post-marketing drug safety surveillance, data mining can potentially detect rare but serious adverse events. Assessing an entire collection of drug-event pairs is traditionally performed on a predefined level of granularity. It is unknown a priori whether a drug causes a very specific or a set of related adverse events, such as mitral valve disorders, all valve disorders, or different types of heart disease. This methodological paper evaluates the tree-based scan statistic data mining method to enhance drug safety surveillance. We use a three-million-member electronic health records database from the HMO Research Network. Using the tree-based scan statistic, we assess the safety of selected antifungal and diabetes drugs, simultaneously evaluating overlapping diagnosis groups at different granularity levels, adjusting for multiple testing. Expected and observed adverse event counts were adjusted for age, sex, and health plan, producing a log likelihood ratio test statistic. Out of 732 evaluated disease groupings, 24 were statistically significant, divided among 10 non-overlapping disease categories. Five of the 10 signals are known adverse effects, four are likely due to confounding by indication, while one may warrant further investigation. The tree-based scan statistic can be successfully applied as a data mining tool in drug safety surveillance using observational data. The total number of statistical signals was modest and does not imply a causal relationship. Rather, data mining results should be used to generate candidate drug-event pairs for rigorous epidemiological studies to evaluate the individual and comparative safety profiles of drugs. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  13. Sugar maple height-diameter and age-diameter relationships in an uneven-aged northern hardwood stand

    Science.gov (United States)

    Laura S. Kenefic; R.D. Nyland

    1999-01-01

    Sugar maple (Acer saccharum Marsh.) height-diameter and age-diameter relationships are explored in a balanced uneven-aged northern hardwood stand in central New York. Results show that although both height and age vary considerably with diameter, these relationships can be described by statistically valid equations. The age-diameter relationship...

  14. Statistics Using Just One Formula

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rosenthal, Jeffrey S.

    2018-01-01

    This article advocates that introductory statistics be taught by basing all calculations on a single simple margin-of-error formula and deriving all of the standard introductory statistical concepts (confidence intervals, significance tests, comparisons of means and proportions, etc) from that one formula. It is argued that this approach will…

  15. Statistics Anxiety among Postgraduate Students

    Science.gov (United States)

    Koh, Denise; Zawi, Mohd Khairi

    2014-01-01

    Most postgraduate programmes, that have research components, require students to take at least one course of research statistics. Not all postgraduate programmes are science based, there are a significant number of postgraduate students who are from the social sciences that will be taking statistics courses, as they try to complete their…

  16. Seminal characteristics and sexual behavior in men of different age groups: is there an aging effect?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zavos, Panayiotis M; Kaskar, Khalied; Correa, Juan R; Sikka, Suresh C

    2006-05-01

    To assess the seminal characteristics as well as the sexual behavior of men of various age groups to establish the presence of an aging effect on those characteristics. Semen samples were collected from men (n = 792) undergoing in vitro fertilization or intrauterine insemination in cases of female factor infertility only. Samples were collected using a seminal collection device at intercourse and evaluated manually according to World Health Organization (WHO) standards. Men were divided into four groups according to their ages: (i) 20-30, (ii) 31-40, (iii) 41-50 and (iv) 51-60 years, and their seminal characteristics and responses to a sexual behavior questionnaire were compared. The data showed statistically significant differences in the seminal characteristics tested, most notably in the sperm concentration, motility, grade of motility, hypo-osmotic swelling and normal sperm morphology. Furthermore, the decline in normal sperm morphology with age was more pronounced when using strict criteria rather than WHO standards. There were also differences in total sperm count, total motile sperm and total functional sperm fraction (assessed by both WHO and strict criteria). Significant differences were also observed in the sexual behavior patterns in older men in terms of the number of years they have been trying to conceive, sexual frequency and sexual satisfaction. The data clearly illustrate an aging effect on semen characteristics and sexual behavior in men as they age. It is suggested that the aging effect be taken into consideration when proposing normal standard values for semen characteristics in routine semen analysis as outlined by WHO standards.

  17. Bias correction of nutritional status estimates when reported age is used for calculating WHO indicators in children under five years of age.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Quezada, Amado D; García-Guerra, Armando; Escobar, Leticia

    2016-06-01

    To assess the performance of a simple correction method for nutritional status estimates in children under five years of age when exact age is not available from the data. The proposed method was based on the assumption of symmetry of age distributions within a given month of age and validated in a large population-based survey sample of Mexican preschool children. The main distributional assumption was consistent with the data. All prevalence estimates derived from the correction method showed no statistically significant bias. In contrast, failing to correct attained age resulted in an underestimation of stunting in general and an overestimation of overweight or obesity among the youngest. The proposed method performed remarkably well in terms of bias correction of estimates and could be easily applied in situations in which either birth or interview dates are not available from the data.

  18. Effect of pulse-wave factors in Middle Aged Women by Mountain Cultivated Ginseng Pharmacopuncture Original Articles

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Park Sang Wook

    2011-03-01

    Full Text Available Objectives: The aim of this experiment is to know about Effect of pulse-wave factors in Middle Aged Women by Mountain Cultivated Ginseng Pharmacopuncture. Methods: First 20 Middle Aged women are diagnosed by pulse diagnosis, and then Mountain Cultivated Ginseng Pharmacopuncture(1 injection 20cc were injected. 30 minutes later, pulse diagnosis again performed. As a result, method of one-group pretest-posttes design were used for evaluation. Results: T(Total pulse cycle time statistically significant increased on both left and right chon, kwan,cheok. T4 time statistically significant increased on both left and right chon, kwan, cheok. T4-T1/T indexs except left cheokmaek, Right cheokmaek observation area decreased significantly in four sites.Wm(indicating high pressure retention time indexs increased significantly in the five sites were observed except right chon maek. Conclusions: Effect of pulse-wave factors in Middle Aged Women by Mountain Cultivated Ginseng Pharmacopuncture increased T, T4, Wm and decreased T4-T1/T indexs. The results of this experiment,Mountain Cultivated Ginseng Pharmacopuncture induced to increase the Pulse-wave's stability and strength.

  19. Comparison of Age of Thelarche between Obese and Normal Girls

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yunitasari

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available Background: Childhood obesity has become a major concern in recent years. The increasing childhood obesity prevalence may occur as the result of food consumption with high content of calories, fat, cholesterol and the lack of physical activity. Obesity in children will also affect their pubertal development. Puberty is a period in which maturation of the reproductive function is achieved.In girls, the initial sign of puberty is thelarche, defined as the appearance of breast bud underneath the areola.The onset of puberty depends on many factors, one of them is nutritional status especially obesity. This study was conducted to compare the age of thelarche between obese and normal girls. Methods: An analytical study using cross sectional method was conducted. This study was held in Bandung, West Java, Indonesia, during the period of SeptemberOctober 2013. Data were obtained from 3 elementary schools, selected by multistage random sampling.The total subject was 46. Data were analyzed using the Mann-Whitney and chi-square test. Results: Thelarche occurred at age 9 years 4 months in the obese group compared to 11 years 2 months in the normal group. The analysis using Mann-Whitney test showed the difference was statistically significant (p<0.001. Based on age group, 42% obese girls attained thelarche between ages 89 years, while 63% girls in the normal group attained thelarche between ages 1112 years. The analysis using chi- square test showed that the difference was statistically significant (p<0.001. Conclusions: Thelarche occurs earlier in obese girls compared to normal girls.

  20. Significance of Ubiad1 for Epidermal Keratinocytes Involves More Than CoQ10 Synthesis: Implications for Skin Aging

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Florian Labarrade

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available The significance of Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10 as an anti-oxidant barrier of the skin, as well as a key component in anti-aging strategies for skin care products, has been firmly established. Biosynthesis of CoQ10 in the mitochondria is well known, but there is only limited information on the non-mitochondrial synthesis of CoQ10 in the skin. Recent findings in zebrafish identified that a tumor suppressor, Ubiad1, is also a key enzyme in the non-mitochondrial synthesis of CoQ10. The purpose of this study was to investigate expression of Ubiad1 in human skin, and its implication in the skin’s cutaneous response to oxidative stress. We observed Ubiad1 localization in the epidermis, particularly a subcellular localization in the Golgi apparatus. Ubiad1 modulation by a pentapeptide was associated with an observed reduction in ROS/RNS stresses (−44%/−19% respectively, lipid peroxidation (−25% and preservation of membrane fluidity under stress conditions. Electron microscopy of keratinocytes revealed a significant degree of stimulation of the Golgi complex, as well as significantly improved mitochondrial morphology. Given the importance of CoQ10 in mitigating the visible signs of skin aging, our findings identify Ubiad1 as an essential component of the defensive barriers of the epidermis.

  1. AGEING POPULATION: COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS AMONG EUROPEAN UNION STATES

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Laura DIACONU (MAXIM

    2015-03-01

    Full Text Available The aging population is a global phenomenon, which has affected almost all the EU states. The consequences are very important since it affects the socio-economic environment usually on the long run. Some of them could consist in increasing the public expenditure on pensions, social security and health services, which will raise the overall burden on the working population. Sometimes, a significant reduction of the labour force will even diminish the growth rate of an economy. Considering these aspects, the present paper intends to analyse the demographic situation from the EU states, the factors that have generated it and to identify the possible future trends. To determine the evolution of the ageing population phenomenon, we have analysed some demographic indicators included in various statistical reports and databases, such as the fertility rate, the median age, the percentage of population over a certain age and the age dependency ratio.

  2. Educational inequalities in smoking among Japanese adults aged 25–94 years: Nationally representative sex- and age-specific statistics

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Takahiro Tabuchi

    2017-04-01

    Full Text Available Background: Few studies have investigated differences in age- and gender-specific educational gradients in tobacco smoking among the whole range of adult age groups. We examined educational inequality in smoking among Japanese adults aged 25–94 years. Methods: Using a large nationally representative sample (167,925 men and 186,588 women in 2010, prevalence of current smoking and heavy smoking among daily smokers and their inequalities attributable to educational attainment were analyzed according to sex and age groups. Results: Among men aged 25–34 years, junior high school graduates had the highest current smoking prevalence at 68.4% (95% confidence interval [CI], 66.0%–70.6%, and graduate school graduates had the lowest at 19.4% (95% CI, 17.2%–21.9%. High school graduates had the second highest current smoking prevalence (e.g., 55.9%; 95% CI, 54.9%–56.8% in men aged 25–34 years. Among men aged 75–94 years, the difference in current smoking across educational categories was small. A similar but steeper educational gradient in current smoking was observed among women. Among women aged 25–34 years, junior high school graduates had the highest current smoking prevalence at 49.3% (95% CI, 46.3%–52.3%, and graduate school graduates had the lowest at 4.8% (95% CI, 2.9%–7.4%. Compared with older age groups, such as 65–94 years, younger age groups, such as 25–54 years, had higher estimates of inequality indicators for educational inequality in both current and heavy smoking in both sexes. Conclusions: Educational inequalities in current and heavy smoking were apparent and large in the young population compared with older generations. The current study provides basic data on educational inequalities in smoking among Japanese adults.

  3. The role of diabetes and aging in the determinism of hypertension and the related cerebrovascular complications.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Malaguarnera, Michele; Vacante, Marco; Frazzetto, Paola Mariangela; Motta, Massimo

    2012-01-01

    Epidemiological studies carried out on a large sample (3191 elderly and 640 centenarians) with identical criteria and applying the actual diagnostic standards, have evidenced a high, statistically significant prevalence of diabetes mellitus type 2 (DMT2) (18.84%) in the elderly, as compared to the centenarians (7.50%). This aspect is correlated with the major frequency of maturity onset diabetes in elderly (MODE), compared to the centenarians, correlated also to the mortality of diabetes mellitus (DM) of long duration. The DMT2 and the aging interact in the determinism of vascular alterations, i.e., of the hypertension, and related cardio-cerebrovascular complications. The most frequently occurring hypertension in both the elderly and centenarians was always the systolic-isolated one. The prevalence of hypertension and acute myocardial infarction (AMI) was statistically significantly higher in diabetics, compared to the normoglycemic patients, in both the elderly and the centenarians. In addition, in a group of 914 elderly patients, being diabetics or normoglycemic at the start of the studies, but having neither AMI nor stroke at the baseline studies, after 5 years, these complications were more prevalent, significantly in statistical terms, in the diabetic subjects, compared to the normoglycemic ones. The increase of life-span causes an increase of the age when the aging phenomena appear, resulting in that the equal-age elderly people today are of better clinical conditions, compared to the previous periods. The increased life span with a consequent progressive aging of the population causes a worse general clinical state of the elderly population, characterized by polypathologies, frailty, and appearance of cognitive deficits or incapabilities for performing manual or instrumental activities. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  4. Youth sexuality and youth age at first sexual intercourse in Edo ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    ... significant (p>0.05), using the chi-square statistic. Finally, it is advocated that such information is important to stakeholders for helping the youth who would certainly not be able to face the challenges of adulthood when they engage in early sexual activity. Keywords: Youth, Sexuality, Age, Sexual Intercourse, Edo Central ...

  5. Age and growth of redeye round herring Etrumeus whiteheadi off the ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Replicate age estimates obtained from sagittal otoliths were collected with slight bias and relatively high precision. A von Bertalanffy model describing growth of the combined sexes, including juveniles, was Lt = 20.41(1 − e−0.41(t − 1.92)). Kimura's likelihood ratio test revealed no statistically significant differences between ...

  6. Age-related differences in metabolites in the posterior cingulate cortex and hippocampus of normal ageing brain: A 1H-MRS study

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Reyngoudt, Harmen; Claeys, Tom; Vlerick, Leslie; Verleden, Stijn; Acou, Marjan; Deblaere, Karel; De Deene, Yves; Audenaert, Kurt; Goethals, Ingeborg; Achten, Eric

    2012-01-01

    Objective: To study age-related metabolic changes in N-acetylaspartate (NAA), total creatine (tCr), choline (Cho) and myo-inositol (Ins). Materials and methods: Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy ( 1 H-MRS) was performed in the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) and the left hippocampus (HC) of 90 healthy subjects (42 women and 48 men aged 18–76 years, mean ± SD, 48.4 ± 16.8 years). Both metabolite ratios and absolute metabolite concentrations were evaluated. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) and linear regression were used for statistical analysis. Results: Metabolite ratios Ins/tCr and Ins/H 2 O were found significantly increased with age in the PCC (P 2 O was only observed in the PCC (P 1 H-MRS results in these specific brain regions can be important to differentiate normal ageing from age-related pathologies such as mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer's disease.

  7. Tract-based spatial statistics analysis of diffusion-tensor imaging data in pediatric- and adult-onset multiple sclerosis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aliotta, Rachel; Cox, Jennifer L; Donohue, Katelyn; Weinstock-Guttman, Bianca; Yeh, E Ann; Polak, Paul; Dwyer, Michael G; Zivadinov, Robert

    2014-01-01

    White matter (WM) microstructure may vary significantly in pediatric-onset (PO) and adult-onset (AO) patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), a difference that could be explained by the effects of an inherent plasticity in the affected pediatric brains early in the disease, and a phenomenon that does not occur later in life. This hypothesis would support the observation that disease progression is much slower in POMS compared to AOMS patients. To examine WM microstructure in the brain of adults with POMS and AOMS, using tract based spatial statistics (TBSS) analysis of diffusion-tensor imaging (DTI). Adults with relapsing-remitting (RR) POMS, who were diagnosed before age of 18 years (n = 16), were compared with age-matched (AOA, n = 23) and disease duration-matched (AOD, n = 22) RR patients who developed MS after the age of 18 years. Scans were analyzed using the FSL software package (Oxford, UK) and statistics were performed using TBSS to evaluate WM microstructure between groups based on the mean fractional anisotropy (FA) values obtained from the DTI. Widespread cortical and deep WM area differences characterized by increased FA values were seen in the AOAMS compared with POMS group (P < 0.05, TFCE corrected). Significantly increased FA values of posterior WM areas were detected in the AODMS compared with POMS group (P < 0.05, TFCE corrected). Increased FA values in WM areas of the AOMS compared with the POMS patients suggest that diffuse WM microstructure changes are more attributable to age of onset than a simple function of disease duration and age. Copyright © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  8. Effect of age and blood collection site on the metabolic profile of ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Different collection site did not affect the examined parameters, but some statistically significant differences were observed between the age groups. However, all the parameters agreed with the data reported in the literature and contribute to our knowledge of the metabolic profile of ostriches. South African Journal of Animal ...

  9. General practitioners' knowledge of ageing and attitudes towards older people in China.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Yanni; Xiao, Lily Dongxia; Ullah, Shahid; Deng, Lanlan

    2015-06-01

    To explore general practitioners (GPs)knowledge of ageing, attitudes towards older people and factors affecting their knowledge and attitudes in a Chinese context. Four hundred GPs were surveyed using the Chinese version of the Aging Semantic Differential (CASD) and the Chinese version of the Facts on Aging Quiz (CFAQ1) scale. The CASD scores indicated that GPs had a neutral attitude towards older people. The CFAQ1 scores indicated a low level of knowledge about ageing. GPs' awareness of the mental and social facts of ageing was poorer compared to that of physical facts. Male GPs had a significantly higher negative bias score than female GPs. No other variables had a statistically significant influence on knowledge and attitudes. The findings suggest the need for education interventions for GPs regarding knowledge of ageing and also provide evidence to guide future development of continuing medical programs for this group of medical doctors. © 2013 ACOTA.

  10. Statistical Reporting Errors and Collaboration on Statistical Analyses in Psychological Science.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Veldkamp, Coosje L S; Nuijten, Michèle B; Dominguez-Alvarez, Linda; van Assen, Marcel A L M; Wicherts, Jelte M

    2014-01-01

    Statistical analysis is error prone. A best practice for researchers using statistics would therefore be to share data among co-authors, allowing double-checking of executed tasks just as co-pilots do in aviation. To document the extent to which this 'co-piloting' currently occurs in psychology, we surveyed the authors of 697 articles published in six top psychology journals and asked them whether they had collaborated on four aspects of analyzing data and reporting results, and whether the described data had been shared between the authors. We acquired responses for 49.6% of the articles and found that co-piloting on statistical analysis and reporting results is quite uncommon among psychologists, while data sharing among co-authors seems reasonably but not completely standard. We then used an automated procedure to study the prevalence of statistical reporting errors in the articles in our sample and examined the relationship between reporting errors and co-piloting. Overall, 63% of the articles contained at least one p-value that was inconsistent with the reported test statistic and the accompanying degrees of freedom, and 20% of the articles contained at least one p-value that was inconsistent to such a degree that it may have affected decisions about statistical significance. Overall, the probability that a given p-value was inconsistent was over 10%. Co-piloting was not found to be associated with reporting errors.

  11. Age at implantation and auditory memory in cochlear implanted children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mikic, B; Miric, D; Nikolic-Mikic, M; Ostojic, S; Asanovic, M

    2014-05-01

    Early cochlear implantation, before the age of 3 years, provides the best outcome regarding listening, speech, cognition an memory due to maximal central nervous system plasticity. Intensive postoperative training improves not only auditory performance and language, but affects auditory memory as well. The aim of this study was to discover if the age at implantation affects auditory memory function in cochlear implanted children. A total of 50 cochlear implanted children aged 4 to 8 years were enrolled in this study: early implanted (1-3y) n = 27 and late implanted (4-6y) n = 23. Two types of memory tests were used: Immediate Verbal Memory Test and Forward and Backward Digit Span Test. Early implanted children performed better on both verbal and numeric tasks of auditory memory. The difference was statistically significant, especially on the complex tasks. Early cochlear implantation, before the age of 3 years, significantly improve auditory memory and contribute to better cognitive and education outcomes.

  12. Gender and age do not influence the ability to work.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Padula, Rosimeire Simprini; da Silva Valente, Luciana do Socorro; de Moraes, Mônica Vasconcelos; Chiavegato, Luciana Dias; Cabral, Cristina Maria Nunes

    2012-01-01

    Work capacity is related to physical, environmental and psychosocial factors and is influenced by individual characteristics and occupations. The aim of this study was to evaluated the relationship between work capacity, gender and age. 360 people employed at an institution of higher education of both genders and similar age were asked to participate in this study. The ability to work was analyzed using Work Ability Index (WAI). Descriptive statistical, Pearson correlations and ANOVA test was applied. Of these, 197 workers who participated in the study completed and returned the questionnaire. The results show there weren't any significant differences between work ability in relation to gender and age, but we observed an increase variability of responses for WAI score in older workers. No significant differences in the perception of the ability of work between men and women..

  13. Age-related incidence of pulmonary embolism and additional pathologic findings detected by computed tomography pulmonary angiography

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Groth, M., E-mail: groth.michael@googlemail.com [Center for Radiology and Endoscopy, Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Martinistr. 52, 20246 Hamburg (Germany); Henes, F.O., E-mail: f.henes@uke.uni-hamburg.de [Center for Radiology and Endoscopy, Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Martinistr. 52, 20246 Hamburg (Germany); Mayer, U., E-mail: mayer@uke.uni-hamburg.de [Emergency Department, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Martinistr. 52, 20246 Hamburg (Germany); Regier, M., E-mail: m.regier@uke.uni-hamburg.de [Center for Radiology and Endoscopy, Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Martinistr. 52, 20246 Hamburg (Germany); Adam, G., E-mail: g.adam@uke.uni-hamburg.de [Center for Radiology and Endoscopy, Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Martinistr. 52, 20246 Hamburg (Germany); Begemann, P.G.C., E-mail: p.begemann@me.com [Center for Radiology and Endoscopy, Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Martinistr. 52, 20246 Hamburg (Germany)

    2012-08-15

    Objective: To compare the incidence of pulmonary embolism (PE) and additional pathologic findings (APF) detected by computed tomography pulmonary angiography (CTPA) according to different age-groups. Materials and methods: 1353 consecutive CTPA cases for suspected PE were retrospectively reviewed. Patients were divided into seven age groups: {<=}29, 30-39, 40-49, 50-59, 60-69, 70-79 and {>=}80 years. Differences between the groups were tested using Fisher's exact or chi-square test. A p-value < 0.0024 indicated statistical significance when Bonferroni correction was used. Results: Incidence rates of PE ranged from 11.4% to 25.4% in different age groups. The three main APF were pleural effusion, pneumonia and pulmonary nodules. No significant difference was found between the incidences of PE in different age groups. Furthermore, APF in different age groups revealed no significant differences (all p-values > 0.0024). Conclusion: The incidences of PE and APF detected by CTPA reveal no significant differences between various age groups.

  14. Age at menarche, age at menopause and duration of fertility as risk factors for osteoporosis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sioka, C; Fotopoulos, A; Georgiou, A; Xourgia, X; Papadopoulos, A; Kalef-Ezra, J A

    2010-02-01

    To investigate the relationship of osteopenia and osteoporosis in apparently healthy postmenopausal patients with age at menarche, age at menopause and duration of fertility. One hundred and twenty-four apparently healthy Greek postmenopausal women underwent spinal and hip X-ray absorptiometry scans. Among them, 47 were classified as normal (control group), 52 as osteopenic, and 25 as having osteoporosis. These groups were compared according to their age at menarche (three subgroups of 10-12, 13 and 14-16 years old), at menopause (three subgroups of 40-45, 46-50 and > or = 51 years old) and duration of fertility (four subgroups of 40 and 41-45 years). The groups were not found to differ statistically according to age and age at menarche. However, decreased bone mineral density was found in patients with duration of fertility not exceeding 30 years (p = 0.034) and age at menopause less than 45 years (p = 0.034). No association was found between bone mineral density in Greek postmenopausal women and either number of live births or lactation. In postmenopausal females, the cumulative exposure to endogenous estrogens, measured as years of menstruation, seems to be a significant protective factor against the development of postmenopausal osteoporosis. Age at menopause between 40 and 45 years, but not age at menarche, correlated with low bone mineral density in postmenopausal females.

  15. Confidence Intervals: From tests of statistical significance to confidence intervals, range hypotheses and substantial effects

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dominic Beaulieu-Prévost

    2006-03-01

    Full Text Available For the last 50 years of research in quantitative social sciences, the empirical evaluation of scientific hypotheses has been based on the rejection or not of the null hypothesis. However, more than 300 articles demonstrated that this method was problematic. In summary, null hypothesis testing (NHT is unfalsifiable, its results depend directly on sample size and the null hypothesis is both improbable and not plausible. Consequently, alternatives to NHT such as confidence intervals (CI and measures of effect size are starting to be used in scientific publications. The purpose of this article is, first, to provide the conceptual tools necessary to implement an approach based on confidence intervals, and second, to briefly demonstrate why such an approach is an interesting alternative to an approach based on NHT. As demonstrated in the article, the proposed CI approach avoids most problems related to a NHT approach and can often improve the scientific and contextual relevance of the statistical interpretations by testing range hypotheses instead of a point hypothesis and by defining the minimal value of a substantial effect. The main advantage of such a CI approach is that it replaces the notion of statistical power by an easily interpretable three-value logic (probable presence of a substantial effect, probable absence of a substantial effect and probabilistic undetermination. The demonstration includes a complete example.

  16. Correlation of matrix metalloproteinases-1 and -3 with patient age and grade of lumbar disc herniation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zigouris, Andreas; Batistatou, Anna; Alexiou, George A; Pachatouridis, Dimitrios; Mihos, Evaggelos; Drosos, Dimitrios; Fotakopoulos, George; Doukas, Michail; Voulgaris, Spyridon; Kyritsis, Athanasios P

    2011-02-01

    The authors studied the histological alterations and the expression of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-1 and MMP-3 in disc specimens of patients who had undergone operations for lumbar disc herniation. Forty-three lumbar disc specimens were evaluated histopathologically for degenerative changes and immunohistochemical expression of MMP-1 and MMP-3. The observed degenerative changes provided a degenerative score that was applied in each patient. Sections of disc immunostained for MMP-1 and MMP-3 were evaluated semiquantitatively. Patients were categorized in 3 age groups: 60 years of age. The expression of MMP-1 and MMP-3 were correlated to patient's age, degenerative score, and grade of lumbar disc herniation. There was no statistically significant difference in the degenerative score between the age groups. Degenerative changes were more pronounced in greater grades of herniation (p correlation between MMP-1 and MMP-3 expression and both degenerative score and herniation grade. For the group of patients 30-60 years of age, there was no significant difference between MMP-1 expression and degenerative score, but the correlation between MMP-1 expression and grade of herniation was significant. There was a significant correlation between MMP-3 expression and both degenerative score and herniation grade. Regarding the patients > 60 years of age, there was a significant correlation between MMP-1 and MMP-3 expression and both degenerative score and herniation grade. There was a significantly lower expression of both MMP-1 and MMP-3 in the group correlation was found in MMP-1 and MMP-3 expression between the groups of patients who were 30-60 and > 60 years of age. Interestingly, in age groups > 30 years, there were no statistically significant differences between the expression of MMP-1 and MMP-3, whereas in patients correlated to the age of the patients and the grade of herniation. An important finding in this study is the differential expression of MMP-1 and MMP-3

  17. Statistics 101 for Radiologists.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Anvari, Arash; Halpern, Elkan F; Samir, Anthony E

    2015-10-01

    Diagnostic tests have wide clinical applications, including screening, diagnosis, measuring treatment effect, and determining prognosis. Interpreting diagnostic test results requires an understanding of key statistical concepts used to evaluate test efficacy. This review explains descriptive statistics and discusses probability, including mutually exclusive and independent events and conditional probability. In the inferential statistics section, a statistical perspective on study design is provided, together with an explanation of how to select appropriate statistical tests. Key concepts in recruiting study samples are discussed, including representativeness and random sampling. Variable types are defined, including predictor, outcome, and covariate variables, and the relationship of these variables to one another. In the hypothesis testing section, we explain how to determine if observed differences between groups are likely to be due to chance. We explain type I and II errors, statistical significance, and study power, followed by an explanation of effect sizes and how confidence intervals can be used to generalize observed effect sizes to the larger population. Statistical tests are explained in four categories: t tests and analysis of variance, proportion analysis tests, nonparametric tests, and regression techniques. We discuss sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, receiver operating characteristic analysis, and likelihood ratios. Measures of reliability and agreement, including κ statistics, intraclass correlation coefficients, and Bland-Altman graphs and analysis, are introduced. © RSNA, 2015.

  18. Preventing statistical errors in scientific journals.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Nuijten, M.B.

    2016-01-01

    There is evidence for a high prevalence of statistical reporting errors in psychology and other scientific fields. These errors display a systematic preference for statistically significant results, distorting the scientific literature. There are several possible causes for this systematic error

  19. Basics of statistical physics

    CERN Document Server

    Müller-Kirsten, Harald J W

    2013-01-01

    Statistics links microscopic and macroscopic phenomena, and requires for this reason a large number of microscopic elements like atoms. The results are values of maximum probability or of averaging. This introduction to statistical physics concentrates on the basic principles, and attempts to explain these in simple terms supplemented by numerous examples. These basic principles include the difference between classical and quantum statistics, a priori probabilities as related to degeneracies, the vital aspect of indistinguishability as compared with distinguishability in classical physics, the differences between conserved and non-conserved elements, the different ways of counting arrangements in the three statistics (Maxwell-Boltzmann, Fermi-Dirac, Bose-Einstein), the difference between maximization of the number of arrangements of elements, and averaging in the Darwin-Fowler method. Significant applications to solids, radiation and electrons in metals are treated in separate chapters, as well as Bose-Eins...

  20. Age-related quantitative and qualitative changes in decision making ability.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Isella, Valeria; Mapelli, Cristina; Morielli, Nadia; Pelati, Oriana; Franceschi, Massimo; Appollonio, Ildebrando Marco

    2008-01-01

    The "frontal aging hypothesis" predicts that brain senescence affects predominantly the prefrontal regions. Preliminary evidence has recently been gathered in favour of an age-related change in a typically frontal process, i.e. decision making, using the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), but overall findings have been conflicting. Following the traditional scoring method, coupled with a qualitative analysis, in the present study we compared IGT performance of 40 young (mean age: 27.9+/-4.7) and 40 old (mean age: 65.4+/-8.6) healthy adults and of 18 patients affected by frontal lobe dementia of mild severity (mean age: 65.1+/-7.4, mean MMSE score: 24.1+/-3.9). Quantitative findings support the notion that decision making ability declines with age; moreover, it approximates the impairment observed in executive dysfunction due to neurodegeneration. Results of the qualitative analysis did not reach statistical significance for the motivational and learning decision making components considered, but approached significance for the attentional component for elderly versus young normals, suggesting a possible decrease in the ability to maintain sustained attention during complex and prolonged tasks as the putative deficit underlying impaired decision making in normal aging.

  1. Prevalence of Unique Pediatric Pathologies Encountered by Paramedic Students Across Age Groups.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ernest, Eric V; Brazelton, Tom B; Carhart, Elliot D; Studnek, Jonathan R; Tritt, Patricia L; Philip, Genghis A; Burnett, Aaron M

    2016-08-01

    Introduction Traditionally, Emergency Medical Services (EMS) educators have divided the pediatric population into age groups to assist in targeting their clinical and didactic curriculum. Currently, the accrediting body for paramedic training programs requires student exposure to pediatric patients based entirely on age without specifying exposure to specific pathologies within each age stratification. Identifying which pathologies are most common within the different pediatric age groups would allow educators to design curriculum targeting the most prevalent pathologies in each age group and incorporating the physiologic and psychological developmental milestones commonly seen at that age. Hypothesis It was hypothesized that there are unique clusterings of pathologies, represented by paramedic student primary impressions, that are found in different age groups which can be used to target provider education. This is a retrospective review of prospectively collected data documented by paramedic students in the Fisdap (Field Internship Student Data Acquisition Project; Saint Paul, Minnesota USA) database over a one-year period. For the purposes of this study, pediatric patients were defined arbitrarily as those between the ages of 0-16 years. All paramedic student primary impressions recorded in Fisdap for patients aged 0-16 years were abstracted. Primary impression by age was calculated and graphed. The frequency of primary impression was then assessed for significance of trend by age with an alpha ≤.05 considered significant. The following primary impressions showed clinically and statistically significant variability in prevalence among different pediatric age groups: respiratory distress, medical-other, abdominal pain, seizure, overdose/poisoning, behavioral, and cardiac. In patients less than 13 years old, respiratory and other-medical were the most common two primary impressions and both decreased with age. In patients 5-16 years old, the prevalence of

  2. Hispanics/Latinos & Cardiovascular Disease: Statistical Fact Sheet

    Science.gov (United States)

    Statistical Fact Sheet 2013 Update Hispanics/Latinos & Cardiovascular Diseases Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) (ICD/10 codes I00-I99, Q20-Q28) (ICD/9 codes 390-459, 745-747)  Among Mexican-American adults age 20 ...

  3. Renyi statistics in equilibrium statistical mechanics

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Parvan, A.S.; Biro, T.S.

    2010-01-01

    The Renyi statistics in the canonical and microcanonical ensembles is examined both in general and in particular for the ideal gas. In the microcanonical ensemble the Renyi statistics is equivalent to the Boltzmann-Gibbs statistics. By the exact analytical results for the ideal gas, it is shown that in the canonical ensemble, taking the thermodynamic limit, the Renyi statistics is also equivalent to the Boltzmann-Gibbs statistics. Furthermore it satisfies the requirements of the equilibrium thermodynamics, i.e. the thermodynamical potential of the statistical ensemble is a homogeneous function of first degree of its extensive variables of state. We conclude that the Renyi statistics arrives at the same thermodynamical relations, as those stemming from the Boltzmann-Gibbs statistics in this limit.

  4. Risk factors for Staphylococcus aureus nasal colonization in Danish middle-aged and elderly twins

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Andersen, P S; Larsen, Lisbeth Aagaard; Fowler, V G

    2013-01-01

    on S. aureus carriage in Danish middle-aged and elderly twins, which indicated no significant heritability that could account for the observed S. aureus carriage. In the present study, we performed a questionnaire-based study of S. aureus colonization on the same cohort of 2,196 Danish middle......-aged and elderly twins to identify specific risk factors for S. aureus nasal colonization, including analyzing the paired twins (n = 478) that were discordant for S. aureus colonization. We found associations between risk factors and S. aureus nasal colonization among middle-aged and elderly twins, including age......, male gender, psoriasis, and atopic diseases. Also, present living on a farm is clearly associated with S. aureus colonization, while smoking had a borderline statistically significant protective effect....

  5. A Reanalysis of Curvature in the Dose Response for Cancer and Modifications by Age at Exposure Following Radiation Therapy for Benign Disease

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Little, Mark P., E-mail: mark.little@nih.gov [Radiation Epidemiology Branch, National Cancer Institute, Rockville, Maryland (United States); Stovall, Marilyn; Smith, Susan A. [Department of Radiation Physics, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas (United States); Kleinerman, Ruth A. [Radiation Epidemiology Branch, National Cancer Institute, Rockville, Maryland (United States)

    2013-02-01

    Purpose: To assess the shape of the dose response for various cancer endpoints and modifiers by age and time. Methods and Materials: Reanalysis of the US peptic ulcer data testing for heterogeneity of radiogenic risk by cancer endpoint (stomach, pancreas, lung, leukemia, all other). Results: There are statistically significant (P<.05) excess risks for all cancer and for lung cancer and borderline statistically significant risks for stomach cancer (P=.07), and leukemia (P=.06), with excess relative risks Gy{sup -1} of 0.024 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.011, 0.039), 0.559 (95% CI 0.221, 1.021), 0.042 (95% CI -0.002, 0.119), and 1.087 (95% CI -0.018, 4.925), respectively. There is statistically significant (P=.007) excess risk of pancreatic cancer when adjusted for dose-response curvature. General downward curvature is apparent in the dose response, statistically significant (P<.05) for all cancers, pancreatic cancer, and all other cancers (ie, other than stomach, pancreas, lung, leukemia). There are indications of reduction in relative risk with increasing age at exposure (for all cancers, pancreatic cancer), but no evidence for quadratic variations in relative risk with age at exposure. If a linear-exponential dose response is used, there is no significant heterogeneity in the dose response among the 5 endpoints considered or in the speed of variation of relative risk with age at exposure. The risks are generally consistent with those observed in the Japanese atomic bomb survivors and in groups of nuclear workers. Conclusions: There are excess risks for various malignancies in this data set. Generally there is a marked downward curvature in the dose response and significant reduction in relative risk with increasing age at exposure. The consistency of risks with those observed in the Japanese atomic bomb survivors and in groups of nuclear workers implies that there may be little sparing effect of fractionation of dose or low-dose-rate exposure.

  6. Long-term prognostic significance of homocysteine in middle-aged and elderly

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Petersen, Julie Falkenberg; Larsen, Bjørn Strøjer; Sabbah, Muhammad

    2016-01-01

    OBJECTIVE: We investigated the association among increased levels of plasma homocysteine (Hcy), all-cause mortality, and cardiovascular events. METHODS: Hcy was measured in 670 middle-aged and elderly subjects with no previous manifest cardiovascular disease. The follow-up period was 15 years...

  7. Study on spontaneous bursts of high voltage slow wave activities in electroencephalograms of the aged

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yoshida, Ryoichi; Otomo, Eiichi

    1985-01-01

    100 EEGs with bursts of high voltage slow wave activities (bursts) were found in 1150 of aged subjects sixty years and over. In these cases computerized cranial tomography (CT) examinations were carried out within 60 days of EEG recordings and CT findings (bursts CTs) were compared with those of 100 cases without bursts (control CTs). Another 100 consecutive CTs of cases with matched the age and the disease were used as the control. The results were as follows: 1) In bursts CTs, the incidence of normal findings was only 7%, while it was 18% in control CTs. The difference was statistically significant (p<0.001). 2) Brain atrophy was remarkable in bursts CTs. In bursts CT, the incidence of brain atrophy showed more than minor degree was 89%, while it was 64% in control CTs. The difference was statistically significant (p<0.001). 3) The incidences of periventricular lucency (PVL), enlargement of the inferior and posterior horn of the lateral ventricle, basal ganglia calcification observed on CT were significantly higher (55%, 39%, 12%) in bursts CTs than in control CTs (p<0.01, p<0.01, p<0.05). 4) The incidence of focal lesions was lower in bursts CTs than in control CTs. In paticular, large lesions were recognized in only 3% of bursts CTs, whereas those were noted in 15% of control CTs. The difference was statistically significant (p<0.01). 5) Small lesions were recognized in 21% of neurological normal patients with bursts, while they were found in 5% of these of control CTs. 6) Frontal and thalamic lesions were found more frequently in bursts CTs (26%, 13%) than in control CTs (21%, 8%), but the difference was not statistically significant. 7) The correlation between the side showing high voltage of bursts and the side with lesions observed on CT was good. In this way, it may be conceivable that appearance of bursts is not due to only focal lesions but results from generalized brain disfunction, such as aging and others. (author)

  8. CT evaluation of cerebellar atrophy with aging in healthy persons

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nishimiya, Jin

    1988-01-01

    In a retrospective analysis of CT scans available from 2,102 neurologically normal persons, dilatations of the cerebellar vermis fissures (CVF), cerebellar hemispheric fissures (CHF), subarachnoid space (SAS) around the cerebellum and the fourth ventricle (FV) were examined according the age groups of persons younger than one year, one to four, five to nine, 10 to 19, 20 to 29, 30 to 39, 40 to 49, 50 to 59, 60 to 69, and 70 years and older. An dilatation of both the CVF and CHF was associated with aging, with statistically significant differences among age groups of persons older than 20 years. This was especially noted in age groups of 60 years or older. There was a significant enlargement in the SAS around the cerebellum in age groups 60 years or more compared with age groups less than 60 years. For age groups of persons 20 years or older, both the FV transverse width and the radio of the FV transverse width to the inside diameter of the posterior fossa (PF) increased with aging. This was significant in age groups 60 years or older. For age groups younger than 10 years, however, there was inverse correlation between the ratio of the FV transverse width to the PF inside diameter and aging. Plotted curve of the ratio of the FV to the PF was U-shaped with smallest value in persons in their twenties. Since changes in the FV might reflect the volume of the cerebellar medullary substance, the cerebellar medullary substance should increase up to the age of 20. (Namekawa, K.)

  9. Four stimulants of the central nervous system: effects on short-term memory in young versus aged monkeys.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bartus, R T

    1979-07-01

    Aged Rhesus monkeys and young control monkeys were tested in a delayed-response procedure to assess the effects of central-nervous-system (CNS) stimulants on short-term memory (STM). Previous research had established that the aged monkeys showed specific impairments of STM in this procedure. Four different CNS stimulants (methylphenidate, magnesium pemoline, a pentylenetetrazole/niacin mixture, and caffeine) were chosen for evaluation on the basis of their relevancy to current geriatric-psychopharmacologic research. Four different doses of each of the four CNS stimulants were given to each monkey, counter-balanced for possible order effects. Methylphenidate and caffeine impaired the performance of both age groups in this non-human primate cognitive task, even at relatively low dose levels. Magnesium pemoline produced fewer adverse effects and some evidence of improving STM in the aged monkeys, although not within the levels of statistical significance. The pentylenetetrazole/niacin mixture produced a three-way interaction involving age, dose and retention interval. This reflected the fact that although no definite effects were noted under the zero-sec control condition, statistically significant age-related deficits did occur in the STM-dependent retention interval as the dose varied. The data demonstrate that, of these four CNS stimulants, none radily improves (and often may impair) performance of tasks requiring STM. Thus the results of this study offer little support for the hypothesis that general CNS stimulation may constitute significant therapy for cognitive impairments associated with advanced age.

  10. Thermal significance of potassium feldspar K-Ar ages inferred from /sup 40/Ar//sup 39/Ar age spectrum results

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Harrison, T.M.; McDougall, I. (Australian National Univ., Canberra. Research School of Earth Sciences)

    1982-10-01

    /sup 40/Ar//sup 39/Ar age spectrum analyses of three microcline separates from the Separation Point Batholith, northwest Nelson, New Zealand, which cooled slowly through the temperature zone of partial radiogenic /sup 40/Ar accumulation are characterized by a linear age increase over the first 65 percent of gas release with the lowest ages corresponding to the time that the samples cooled below about 100/sup 0/C. The last 35 percent of /sup 39/Ar released from the microclines yields plateau ages which reflect the different bulk mineral ages, and correspond to cooling temperatures between about 130 to 160/sup 0/C. Theoretical calculations confirm the likelihood of diffusion gradients in feldspars cooling at rates =< 5/sup 0/C-Ma/sup -1/. Diffusion parameters calculated from the /sup 39/Ar release yield an activation energy, E = 28.8 +- 1.9 kcal-mol/sup -1/, and a frequency factor/grain size parameter, D/sub 0//l/sup 2/ = 5.6sub(-3.9)sup(+14) sec/sup -1/. This Arrhenius relationship corresponds to a closure temperature of 132 +- 13/sup 0/C which is very similar to the independently estimated temperature. From the observed diffusion compensation correlation, this D/sub 0//l/sup 2/ implies an average diffusion half-width of about 3 ..mu..m, similar to the half-width of the perthite lamellae in the feldspars. The results are discussed.

  11. Bias correction of nutritional status estimates when reported age is used for calculating WHO indicators in children under five years of age

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Amado D Quezada

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available Objective.To assess the performance of a simple correction method for nutritional status estimates in children under five years of age when exact age is not available from the data. Materials and methods. The proposed method was ba- sed on the assumption of symmetry of age distributions within a given month of age and validated in a large population-based survey sample of Mexican preschool children. Results. The main distributional assumption was consistent with the data. All prevalence estimates derived from the correction method showed no statistically significant bias. In contrast, failing to correct attained age resulted in an underestimation of stunting in general and an overestimation of overweight or obesity among the youngest. Conclusions. The proposed method performed remarkably well in terms of bias correction of estimates and could be easily applied in situations in which either birth or interview dates are not available from the data.

  12. Electrocardiographic findings related to aging

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ueda, Shoichi; Yano, Katsuhiko

    1962-12-12

    More than 3000 electrocardiographic tracings for the ABCC-JNIH Adult Health Study Sample were studied to detect any specific abnormalities or nonspecific age changes in relation to possible radiation effects upon the cardiovascular system. The 4 comparison groups were studied with respect to the prevalence of electrocardiographic abnormalities and an electrocardiographic aging index which was defined to evaluate physiological change with age. Statistically significant differences were observed in the following aspects: In males aged 50 to 59, the prevalence of major electrocardiographic abnormalities was highest in the group located nearest the hypocenter. This was not observed in other age groups. In females, the prevalence of QRS high voltage was highest in Group 2 but low in Group 1. This trend was consistent in all age groups. These findings were not fully accounted for by differences in blood pressure, heart size, body weight or serum cholesterol values. In the age trend curve of the electrocardiographic aging index, a difference was observed among comparison groups in both sexes. This difference in electrocardiographic aging index is mainly attributed to T/sub I/ amplitude for males and R/sub II/ amplitude and QRS axis for females. Interpretation of these findings is rather difficult since very little has been known about radiation effects upon the cardiovascular system in humans. Further intensive studies are desired on the basis of the clues suggested in this report. 16 references, 3 figures, 31 tables.

  13. Diagnosing Human Papillomavirus and Human Papillomavirus Type 16 By Real-Time PCR in Patient Undergone to Colposcopy and Significance of the Diagnosis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sibel Özdaş

    2013-06-01

    Full Text Available Objective: It is aimed to determine presence of HPV and HPV 16 by Real-Time PCR in cervical smears obtained from patients during colposcopic examination who had referred to outpatient clinic of Gynecology and Obstetrics Department due to various complaints and to examine interrelation between positive test results and clinical data. Method: Sixty patients were included in the study who were referred to outpatient clinic due to vary complaints and who had been decided to undergo to colposcopic examination. DNA was obtained from each smear sample by phenol-chloroform-isoamylalcohol method. L1 region was replicated in amplification process using MY09/MY11 primers. Products for Nested Real time PCR were studied in Ligth Cycler equipment by GP5+/GP6+ primers and Cyanine-5 labeled HPV 16 DNA specific probe. Real time PCR products were undergone melting curve analysis by LigthCycler software version 3.5.3. HPV DNA positivity and HPV 16 positivity were determined at 78-82°C and 68°C, respectively. Results: No statistically significant difference could be detected between HPV positivity, HPV 16 in and types other than HPV 16 control group and patients with positive test result as a consequence of colposcopic examination. Again, no statistically significant difference could be detected between HPV positivity and status of parity, result of PAP test, marital status and age of patient. Conclusion: No statistically significant difference could be detected between HPV positivity, HPV 16 in and types other than HPV 16 control group and patients with positive test result as a consequence of colposcopic examination. Again, no statistically difference could be detected between HPV positivity and result of PAP smear test, marital status, age of patient and smoking but statistically significant difference could be detected between types other than HPV 16 and status of parity (respectively; χ2=0.821, p=0.365; χ2=0.752, p=0.564; χ2=0.364, p=0.834; χ2= 6.835, p

  14. Age group analysis of psychological, physical and functional deterioration in patients hospitalized for pneumonia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Martín-Salvador, Adelina; Torres-Sánchez, Irene; Sáez-Roca, Germán; López-Torres, Isabel; Rodríguez-Alzueta, Elisabeth; Valenza, Marie Carmen

    2015-10-01

    Hospital admissions due to pneumonia range from 1.1 to 4 per 1,000 patients and this figure increases with age. Hospitalization causes a decline in functional status. Physical impairment impedes recovery and constitutes a higher risk of disability and mortality in elderly people. The objective of this study is to assess the impact of hospital stay in patients with pneumonia related with age. A total of 116 patients with pneumonia were included in this study, and divided into two age groups:psychological and emotional profile were evaluated. Pneumonia severity, nutritional status, independence and comorbidities were also assessed. Statistical analyses revealed significant differences between both age groups in pneumonia severity and comorbidities. Significant improvements between admission and discharge were found in lung function in both groups (pgroup. Hospitalization leads to a significant physical impairment in patients admitted for pneumonia. This deterioration increases with age. Copyright © 2014 SEPAR. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.

  15. A higher score on the Aging Males' Symptoms scale is associated with insulin resistance in middle-aged men.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hamanoue, Nobuya; Tanabe, Makito; Tanaka, Tomoko; Akehi, Yuko; Murakami, Junji; Nomiyama, Takashi; Yanase, Toshihiko

    2017-05-30

    An age-associated androgen decrease and its pathological conditions are defined as late-onset hypogonadism (LOH). Among the various symptoms associated with LOH, a visceral fat increase is strongly associated with relatively low levels of testosterone. However, few studies have investigated the relationship between the Aging Males' Symptoms (AMS) scores and metabolic abnormalities. Thus, we aimed to clarify this relationship by investigating the relationship between AMS scores and various markers in blood. During routine health examinations in 241 middle-aged males (52.7±7.5 years of age, mean±SD), 150 males (62.2%) displayed higher AMS values than normal. No statistical association was observed between total AMS scores and any testosterone value. All mental, physical and sexual AMS subscales were significantly positively correlated with insulin levels and HOMA-IR. Only sexual subscale scores were significantly inversely associated with free or bioavailable testosterone level. Males with insulin resistance (HOMA-IR≥2.5) demonstrated significantly higher AMS scores than those with normal insulin sensitivity (HOMA-IRinsulin and HOMA-IR values. Interestingly, univariate and multivariate analyses revealed that HOMA-IR≥2.5 was a significant predictor for detection of moderately severe AMS values (AMS≥37), whereas AMS≥37 was not a predictor of metabolic syndrome by International Diabetes Federation (IDF) criterion. In conclusion, almost 60% of healthy male subjects displayed abnormal AMS scores. AMS values were not associated with testosterone values but rather were related to insulin resistance, particularly in subjects with moderately severe AMS values. Insulin resistance-related general unwellness might be reflected by AMS values.

  16. Empirical Tryout of a New Statistic for Detecting Temporally Inconsistent Responders.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kerry, Matthew J

    2018-01-01

    Statistical screening of self-report data is often advised to support the quality of analyzed responses - For example, reduction of insufficient effort responding (IER). One recently introduced index based on Mahalanobis's D for detecting outliers in cross-sectional designs replaces centered scores with difference scores between repeated-measure items: Termed person temporal consistency ( D 2 ptc ). Although the adapted D 2 ptc index demonstrated usefulness in simulation datasets, it has not been applied to empirical data. The current study addresses D 2 ptc 's low uptake by critically appraising its performance across three empirical applications. Independent samples were selected to represent a range of scenarios commonly encountered by organizational researchers. First, in Sample 1, a repeat-measure of future time perspective (FTP) inexperienced working adults (age >40-years; n = 620) indicated that temporal inconsistency was significantly related to respondent age and item reverse-scoring. Second, in repeat-measure of team efficacy aggregations, D 2 ptc successfully detected team-level inconsistency across repeat-performance cycles. Thirdly, the usefulness of the D 2 ptc was examined in an experimental study dataset of subjective life expectancy indicated significantly more stable responding in experimental conditions compared to controls. The empirical findings support D 2 ptc 's flexible and useful application to distinct study designs. Discussion centers on current limitations and further extensions that may be of value to psychologists screening self-report data for strengthening response quality and meaningfulness of inferences from repeated-measures self-reports. Taken together, the findings support the usefulness of the newly devised statistic for detecting IER and other extreme response patterns.

  17. Statistics anxiety among undergraduate students in the faculty of ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The purpose of the study was to determine the level of statistics anxiety among undergraduate students, and whether the level of influenced by factor e.g gender and age. A sample of 100 third year students who enrolled for basic statistics in the University of Calabar was used for the study. A series of t-tests revealed that the ...

  18. Investigating spousal concordance of diabetes through statistical analysis and data mining.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jong-Yi Wang

    Full Text Available Spousal clustering of diabetes merits attention. Whether old-age vulnerability or a shared family environment determines the concordance of diabetes is also uncertain. This study investigated the spousal concordance of diabetes and compared the risk of diabetes concordance between couples and noncouples by using nationally representative data.A total of 22,572 individuals identified from the 2002-2013 National Health Insurance Research Database of Taiwan constituted 5,643 couples and 5,643 noncouples through 1:1 dual propensity score matching (PSM. Factors associated with concordance in both spouses with diabetes were analyzed at the individual level. The risk of diabetes concordance between couples and noncouples was compared at the couple level. Logistic regression was the main statistical method. Statistical data were analyzed using SAS 9.4. C&RT and Apriori of data mining conducted in IBM SPSS Modeler 13 served as a supplement to statistics.High odds of the spousal concordance of diabetes were associated with old age, middle levels of urbanization, and high comorbidities (all P < 0.05. The dual PSM analysis revealed that the risk of diabetes concordance was significantly higher in couples (5.19% than in noncouples (0.09%; OR = 61.743, P < 0.0001.A high concordance rate of diabetes in couples may indicate the influences of assortative mating and shared environment. Diabetes in a spouse implicates its risk in the partner. Family-based diabetes care that emphasizes the screening of couples at risk of diabetes by using the identified risk factors is suggested in prospective clinical practice interventions.

  19. Thyroid Autoimmunity and Behçet’s Disease: Is There a Significant Association?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Filiz Cebeci

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Background. Behcet’s disease (BD could be regarded as an autoimmune disease in many aspects. Autoimmune thyroid disease (ATD is frequently accompanied by other various autoimmune diseases. Nevertheless, there is not still enough data showing the association between BD and ATD. In addition, no controlled study is present in the PubMed, which evaluates thyroidal autoimmunity using antithyroid peroxidase antibody in a large series of patients with BD. Methods. We aimed to investigate the frequency of ATD in patients with BD. The study included 124 patients with BD and 99 age- and sex-matched healthy volunteers. Results. Autoimmune thyroiditis was noted in 21 cases (16.9% with BD. In the control group, 22 cases (22.22% were diagnosed as autoimmune thyroiditis. There was no difference between the groups in respect to thyroid autoantibodies (. There were no statistically significant differences between baseline TSH levels of the BD patients and of the controls (. Statistically, the mean serum free T4 levels of the patients with BD were higher than those of the controls (. Conclusions. No association could be found between BD and ATD. Therefore, it is not of significance to investigate thyroid autoimmunity in BD.

  20. Statistics: a Bayesian perspective

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Berry, Donald A

    1996-01-01

    ...: it is the only introductory textbook based on Bayesian ideas, it combines concepts and methods, it presents statistics as a means of integrating data into the significant process, it develops ideas...

  1. Gestational Age at First Antenatal Care Visit in Malawi.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mkandawire, Paul

    2015-11-01

    This paper examines the gestational age at first antenatal care (ANC) visit and factors associated with timely initiation of ANC in Malawi in a context where maternal and child health services are generally provided for free. Lognormal survival models are applied to Demographic and Health Survey data from a nationally representative sample of women (n = 13,588) of child-bearing age. The findings of this study show that less than 30 % of pregnant women initiate ANC within the World Health Organization recommended gestational timeframe of 16 weeks or earlier. The hazard analysis shows a gradient in the initiation of ANC by maternal education level, with least educated mothers most likely to delay their first ANC visit. However, after adjusting for variables capturing intimate partner violence in the multivariate models, the effect of maternal education attenuated and lost statistical significance. Other significant predictors of gestational age at first ANC include media exposure, perceived distance from health facility, age, and birth order. The findings of the study link domestic violence directly with the gestational age at which mothers initiate ANC, suggesting that gender-based violence may operate through delayed initiation of ANC to undermine maternal and child health outcomes.

  2. Altered glucose metabolism in juvenile myoclonic epilepsy: a PET study with statistical parametric mapping

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lim, G. C.; Kim, J. H.; Kang, J. G.; Kim, J. S.; Yeo, J. S.; Lee, S. A.; Moon, D. H

    2004-01-01

    Juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (JME) is a hereditary, age-dependent epilepsy syndrome, characterized by myoclonic jerks on awakening and generalized tonic-clonic seizures. Although there have been considerable studies on the mechanism to elucidate pathogenesis of JME, the accurate pathogenesis of JME remains obscure. The aim of this study was to investigate alterations of cerebral glucose metabolism in patients with JME. We studied 16 JME patients (Mean age: 22 yrs, M/F: 9/7) with brain FDG-PET and simultaneous EEG recording. On the basis of the number of generalized spike-and-wave (GSW) discharges on the 30 min EEG recording after the injection of FDG (370MBq), we classified patients into two groups (patients in group A had 10 or more GSW and group B. 9 or less). We applied the automated and objective technique of statistical parametric mapping (SPM) to the analysis of FDG-PET to determine the significant hyper- and hypometabolic regions compared with those of 19 age matched normal control subjects. We found significant hypermetabolic regions in bilateral thalamus and central portion of upper brainstem in 16 patients with JME at a statistical threshold of uncorrected P < 0.05. These changes were also shown in group A (n=8), but not in group B (n=8). Additionally, we found significant hypometabolism in bilateral, widespread cortical regions in 16 patients with JME at a threshold of uncorrected P < 0.01. Similar hypometabolic patterns were also observed in both group A and group B, being more prominent in group A. This study provides evidence for the key role of the thalamus and brainstem reticular activating system in generating spontaneous GSW discharge, which is considered as a fundamental pathogenesis underlying JME. This study also suggests that patients with JME might suffer from subtle abnormalities of cognitive and executive cortical functions

  3. Altered glucose metabolism in juvenile myoclonic epilepsy: a PET study with statistical parametric mapping

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Lim, G. C.; Kim, J. H.; Kang, J. G.; Kim, J. S.; Yeo, J. S.; Lee, S. A.; Moon, D. H [Asan Medical Center, Seoul (Korea, Republic of)

    2004-07-01

    Juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (JME) is a hereditary, age-dependent epilepsy syndrome, characterized by myoclonic jerks on awakening and generalized tonic-clonic seizures. Although there have been considerable studies on the mechanism to elucidate pathogenesis of JME, the accurate pathogenesis of JME remains obscure. The aim of this study was to investigate alterations of cerebral glucose metabolism in patients with JME. We studied 16 JME patients (Mean age: 22 yrs, M/F: 9/7) with brain FDG-PET and simultaneous EEG recording. On the basis of the number of generalized spike-and-wave (GSW) discharges on the 30 min EEG recording after the injection of FDG (370MBq), we classified patients into two groups (patients in group A had 10 or more GSW and group B. 9 or less). We applied the automated and objective technique of statistical parametric mapping (SPM) to the analysis of FDG-PET to determine the significant hyper- and hypometabolic regions compared with those of 19 age matched normal control subjects. We found significant hypermetabolic regions in bilateral thalamus and central portion of upper brainstem in 16 patients with JME at a statistical threshold of uncorrected P < 0.05. These changes were also shown in group A (n=8), but not in group B (n=8). Additionally, we found significant hypometabolism in bilateral, widespread cortical regions in 16 patients with JME at a threshold of uncorrected P < 0.01. Similar hypometabolic patterns were also observed in both group A and group B, being more prominent in group A. This study provides evidence for the key role of the thalamus and brainstem reticular activating system in generating spontaneous GSW discharge, which is considered as a fundamental pathogenesis underlying JME. This study also suggests that patients with JME might suffer from subtle abnormalities of cognitive and executive cortical functions.

  4. Statistical Analysis and Evaluation of the Depth of the Ruts on Lithuanian State Significance Roads

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Erinijus Getautis

    2011-04-01

    Full Text Available The aim of this work is to gather information about the national flexible pavement roads ruts depth, to determine its statistical dispersijon index and to determine their validity for needed requirements. Analysis of scientific works of ruts apearance in the asphalt and their influence for driving is presented in this work. Dynamical models of ruts in asphalt are presented in the work as well. Experimental outcome data of rut depth dispersijon in the national highway of Lithuania Vilnius – Kaunas is prepared. Conclusions are formulated and presented. Article in Lithuanian

  5. Perceived age change after aesthetic facial surgical procedures quantifying outcomes of aging face surgery.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chauhan, Nitin; Warner, Jeremy P; Adamson, Peter A

    2012-01-01

    To quantify the degree of perceived age change after aesthetic facial surgical procedures to provide an objective measure of surgical success. Sixty patients undergoing various aging face surgical procedures were randomly chosen for analysis. Preoperative and postoperative photographs were evaluated. Raters were presented with photographs in a random assortment and were asked to estimate the age of the patient. Perceived age difference was defined as the difference between the chronological age and the estimated age, and the change in this value after surgery was the chief outcome of interest. Statistical models were designed to account for any effects of interrater differences, preoperative chronological age, rater group, photograph order, or surgical procedure performed. Our patient population was divided into the following 3 groups based on the surgical procedure performed: group 1 (face- and neck-lift [22 patients]), group 2 (face- and neck-lift and upper and lower blepharoplasty [17 patients]), and group 3 (face- and neck-lift, upper and lower blepharoplasty, and forehead-lift [21 patients]). Adjusted means demonstrated that patient ages were estimated to be 1.7 years younger than their chronological age before surgery and 8.9 years younger than their chronological age after surgery. The effect was less substantial for group 1 patients and was most dramatic for group 3 patients, who had undergone all 3 aging face surgical procedures. Our study is novel in that it quantifies the degree of perceived age change after aging face surgical procedures and demonstrates a significant and consistent reduction in perceived age after aesthetic facial surgery. This effect is more substantial when the number of surgical procedures is increased, an effect unrelated to the preoperative age of a patient and unaffected by other variables that we investigated. The ability to perceive age correctly is accurate and consistent.

  6. [Aging reduces contents of endogenous CO, cAMP and cGMP in rat penile tissues].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Qin, Wen-Bo; Wang, Shu-Qiu; Li, Ming; Kang, Yu-Ming; Gui, Shi-Liang; Chi, Bao-Jin

    2009-02-01

    To explore the relationship of aging with the changes of endogenous carbon monoxide (CO), cGMP and cAMP contents in the penile tissues of rats. Twenty-four male rats were equally divided into an 8-month, a 16-month and a 24-month group, and their penile erection was detected by injecting apomorphine, their penile cavernous body harvested, and the contents of CO, cAPM and cGMP detected by improved dual wavelength spectrophotometry. The contents of CO, cAPM and cGMP were reduced with the increase of age, with statistically significant differences between the three age groups (P < 0.01). Aging significantly decreased the contents of CO, cAMP and cGMP in the penile tissues of the rats, which suggests that aging might play an important role in erectile dysfunction.

  7. Audiology patient fall statistics and risk factors compared to non-audiology patients.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Criter, Robin E; Honaker, Julie A

    2016-10-01

    To compare fall statistics (e.g. incidence, prevalence), fall risks, and characteristics of patients who seek hearing healthcare from an audiologist to individuals who have not sought such services. Case-control study. Two groups of community-dwelling older adult patients: 25 audiology patients aged 60 years or older (M age: 69.2 years, SD: 4.5, range: 61-77) and a control group (gender- and age-matched ±2 years) of 25 non-audiology patients (M age: 69.6, SD: 4.7, range: 60-77). Annual incidence of falls (most recent 12 months) was higher in audiology patients (68.0%) than non-audiology patients (28.0%; p = .005). Audiology patients reported a higher incidence of multiple recent falls (p =.025) and more chronic health conditions (p = .028) than non-audiology patients. Significantly more audiology patients fall on an annual basis than non-audiology patients, suggesting that falls are a pervasive issue in general hearing clinics. Further action on the part of healthcare professionals providing audiologic services may be necessary to identify individuals at risk for falling.

  8. Images of Aging in Institutionalized and Non-Institutionalized Elderly People

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marlene Lopes

    2012-07-01

    Full Text Available Aim: The aim of this study was to assess and compare images and stereotypes of aging in institutionalized and non-institutionalized elderly people. This is a descriptive study using a survey. Method: The instruments used were a sociodemographic questionnaire and the ImAges scale. A total of 120 elderly people, aged between 65 and 99 years, participated in this study. Results: Statistically significant differences were found, for the scale’s three factors, between institutionalized and non-institutionalized older adults. In the factor “dependence, sadness and old-fashioned”, the institutionalized participants presented a higher number of negative images and stereotypes (M = 51.8; DP = 6.01 than the non-institutionalized participants (M = 49.0; DP = 7.85, these differences were significant (t(118 = -2.16; p < 0.05. In the “maturity, activity and affectivity” factor, there were also significant differences (t(118 = 2.04; p < 0.05, the non-institutionalized participants present higher rates of positive images and stereotypes (M = 20.2; DP = 3.28, when compared to institutionalized participants (M = 19.0; DP = 3.310. Conclusion: The results suggested that institutionalized older adults presented more negative aging images than non-institutionalized.

  9. Quantitative analysis of the renal aging in rats. Stereological study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Melchioretto, Eduardo Felippe; Zeni, Marcelo; Veronez, Djanira Aparecida da Luz; Martins, Eduardo Lopes; Fraga, Rogério de

    2016-05-01

    To evaluate the renal function and the renal histological alterations through the stereology and morphometrics in rats submitted to the natural process of aging. Seventy two Wistar rats, divided in six groups. Each group was sacrificed in a different age: 3, 6, 9, 12, 18 and 24 months. It was performed right nephrectomy, stereological and morphometric analysis of the renal tissue (renal volume and weight, density of volume (Vv[glom]) and numerical density (Nv[glom]) of the renal glomeruli and average glomerular volume (Vol[glom])) and also it was evaluated the renal function for the dosage of serum creatinine and urea. There was significant decrease of the renal function in the oldest rats. The renal volume presented gradual increase during the development of the rats with the biggest values registered in the group of animals at 12 months of age and significant progressive decrease in older animals. Vv[glom] presented statistically significant gradual reduction between the groups and the Nv[glom] also decreased significantly. The renal function proved to be inferior in senile rats when compared to the young rats. The morphometric and stereological analysis evidenced renal atrophy, gradual reduction of the volume density and numerical density of the renal glomeruli associated to the aging process.

  10. Work-life balance: Does age matter?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Richert-Kaźmierska, Anita; Stankiewicz, Katarzyna

    2016-11-22

    Work-life balance is a priority of EU policies but at the same time demographic change affects the labour market. Employers have to deal with the ageing of their employees and adjust human resource management to maintain their competitiveness. The purpose of the article is to answer research questions: whether the age of workers determines their assessment of the work-life balance, and whether there is a relationship between the worker's age and their assessment of the activities undertaken by their employer to provide them with work-life balance. The article is based on the results of surveys conducted among 500 employees of the SME sector from Finland, Lithuania and Sweden. The results identified a statistically significant difference: employees representing older age groups are more likely to indicate the maintenance of WLB; older workers more frequently do not agree that all workers have equal opportunities to benefit from flexible solutions aimed at ensuring the maintenance of WLB. The results can be the inspiration for the decisions and actions of employers in the field of personnel management and for creating workplace conditions encouraging senior workers to continue working, even upon becoming entitled to old-age pension.

  11. Vine water deficit impacts aging bouquet in fine red Bordeaux wine

    Science.gov (United States)

    Picard, Magali; van Leeuwen, Cornelis; Guyon, François; Gaillard, Laetitia; de Revel, Gilles; Marchand, Stéphanie

    2017-08-01

    The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of vine water status on bouquet typicality, revealed after aging, and the perception of three aromatic notes (mint, truffle, and undergrowth) in bottled fine red Bordeaux wines. To address the issue of the role of vine water deficit in the overall quality of fine aged wines, a large set of wines from four Bordeaux appellations were subjected to sensory analysis. As vine water status can be characterized by carbon isotope discrimination (δ13C), this ratio was quantified for each wine studied. Statistical analyses combining δ13C and sensory data highlighted that δ13C values discriminated effectively between the most- and least-typical wines. In addition, Principal Component Analysis revealed correlations between δ13C values and truffle, undergrowth, and mint aromatic notes, three characteristics of the red Bordeaux wine aging bouquet. These correlations were confirmed to be significant using a Spearman statistical test. This study highlighted for the first time that vine water deficit positively relates to the perception of aging bouquet typicality, as well as the expression of its key aromatic nuances.

  12. Vine Water Deficit Impacts Aging Bouquet in Fine Red Bordeaux Wine

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Magali Picard

    2017-08-01

    Full Text Available The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of vine water status on bouquet typicality, revealed after aging, and the perception of three aromatic notes (mint, truffle, and undergrowth in bottled fine red Bordeaux wines. To address the issue of the role of vine water deficit in the overall quality of fine aged wines, a large set of wines from four Bordeaux appellations were subjected to sensory analysis. As vine water status can be characterized by carbon isotope discrimination (δ13C, this ratio was quantified for each wine studied. Statistical analyses combining δ13C and sensory data highlighted that δ13C-values discriminated effectively between the most- and least-typical wines. In addition, Principal Component Analysis (PCA revealed correlations between δ13C-values and truffle, undergrowth, and mint aromatic notes, three characteristics of the red Bordeaux wine aging bouquet. These correlations were confirmed to be significant using a Spearman statistical test. This study highlighted for the first time that vine water deficit positively relates to the perception of aging bouquet typicality, as well as the expression of its key aromatic nuances.

  13. Significant differences in parameters of glucose metabolism in children of hypertensive and normotensive parents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gryko, Anna; Głowińska-Olszewska, Barbara; Płudowska, Katarzyna; Smithson, W Henry; Owłasiuk, Anna; Żelazowska-Rutkowska, Beata; Wojtkielewicz, Katarzyna; Milewski, Robert; Chlabicz, Sławomir

    2017-01-01

    In the recent years, alterations in the carbohydrate metabolism, including insulin resistance, are considered as risk factors in the development of hypertension and its complications in young age. Hypertension is associated with significant cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. The onset of pathology responsible for the development of hypertension, as well as levels of biomarkers specific for early stages of atherosclerosis are poorly understood. To compare a group of children whose parents have a history of hypertension (study group) with a group of children with normotensive parents (reference group), with consideration of typical risk factors for atherosclerosis, parameters of lipid and carbohydrate metabolism, anthropometric data and new biomarkers of early cardiovascular disease (hsCRP, adiponectin, sICAM-1). The study population consists of 84 children. Of these, 40 children (mean age 13.6±2.7 years) had a parental history of hypertension, and 44 aged 13.1±3.7 yrs were children of normotensive parents. Anthropometric measurements were taken, and measurements of blood pressure, lipid profile, glucose and insulin levels were carried out. The insulin resistance index (HOMA IR) was calculated. Levels of hsCRP, soluble cell adhesion molecules (sICAM) and adiponectin were measured. There were no statistically significant differences in anthropometric parameters (body mass, SDS BMI, skin folds) between groups. Values of systolic blood pressure were statistically significantly higher in the study group (Me 108 vs. 100 mmHg, p= 0.031), as were glycaemia (Me 80 vs. 67 mg/dl pchildren of hypertensive parents) (Me 1.68 vs. 0.80 mmol/l × mU/l, p=0.007). Lower adiponectin levels (Me 13959.45 vs. 16822 ng/ml, p=0.020) were found in children with a family history of hypertension. No significant differences were found in the levels of sICAM, hsCRP, and parameters of lipid metabolism. Family history of hypertension is correlated with higher values of systolic blood

  14. High Resolution Topography of Age-Related Changes in Non-Rapid Eye Movement Sleep Electroencephalography.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kate E Sprecher

    Full Text Available Sleeping brain activity reflects brain anatomy and physiology. The aim of this study was to use high density (256 channel electroencephalography (EEG during sleep to characterize topographic changes in sleep EEG power across normal aging, with high spatial resolution. Sleep was evaluated in 92 healthy adults aged 18-65 years old using full polysomnography and high density EEG. After artifact removal, spectral power density was calculated for standard frequency bands for all channels, averaged across the NREM periods of the first 3 sleep cycles. To quantify topographic changes with age, maps were generated of the Pearson's coefficient of the correlation between power and age at each electrode. Significant correlations were determined by statistical non-parametric mapping. Absolute slow wave power declined significantly with increasing age across the entire scalp, whereas declines in theta and sigma power were significant only in frontal regions. Power in fast spindle frequencies declined significantly with increasing age frontally, whereas absolute power of slow spindle frequencies showed no significant change with age. When EEG power was normalized across the scalp, a left centro-parietal region showed significantly less age-related decline in power than the rest of the scalp. This partial preservation was particularly significant in the slow wave and sigma bands. The effect of age on sleep EEG varies substantially by region and frequency band. This non-uniformity should inform the design of future investigations of aging and sleep. This study provides normative data on the effect of age on sleep EEG topography, and provides a basis from which to explore the mechanisms of normal aging as well as neurodegenerative disorders for which age is a risk factor.

  15. Understanding Statistics - Cancer Statistics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Annual reports of U.S. cancer statistics including new cases, deaths, trends, survival, prevalence, lifetime risk, and progress toward Healthy People targets, plus statistical summaries for a number of common cancer types.

  16. Funding source and primary outcome changes in clinical trials registered on ClinicalTrials.gov are associated with the reporting of a statistically significant primary outcome: a cross-sectional study [v2; ref status: indexed, http://f1000r.es/5bj

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sreeram V Ramagopalan

    2015-04-01

    Full Text Available Background: We and others have shown a significant proportion of interventional trials registered on ClinicalTrials.gov have their primary outcomes altered after the listed study start and completion dates. The objectives of this study were to investigate whether changes made to primary outcomes are associated with the likelihood of reporting a statistically significant primary outcome on ClinicalTrials.gov. Methods: A cross-sectional analysis of all interventional clinical trials registered on ClinicalTrials.gov as of 20 November 2014 was performed. The main outcome was any change made to the initially listed primary outcome and the time of the change in relation to the trial start and end date. Findings: 13,238 completed interventional trials were registered with ClinicalTrials.gov that also had study results posted on the website. 2555 (19.3% had one or more statistically significant primary outcomes. Statistical analysis showed that registration year, funding source and primary outcome change after trial completion were associated with reporting a statistically significant primary outcome. Conclusions: Funding source and primary outcome change after trial completion are associated with a statistically significant primary outcome report on clinicaltrials.gov.

  17. Gender and age variations in the self-image of Jamaican adolescents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smith, D E; Muenchen, R A

    1995-01-01

    The purpose of the study was to investigate the relationships among gender, age, and self-image of adolescents attending three secondary schools in Jamaica. The relatively few studies that have been done regarding self-perceptions of these youth are not only dated but have utilized a unidimensional conceptualization of the self. The Offer Self-Image Questionnaire which employs a multidimensional construct of the self was administered to a sample of 174 Jamaican adolescents ranging in age from 14 to 18 years (M = 15.90 years, SD = 1.21). Results revealed statistically significant effects for both gender and age. Gender was found to be significant on one self-image dimension: Morals, while age differences were evident on six dimensions: Social Relationships, Morals, Sexual Attitudes, Mastery of the External World, Vocational and Educational Goals, and Emotional Health. The results in some instances were contrary to those of past research. Discussion focused on cultural socialization and other factors affecting youth in Jamaican society.

  18. Reduction in mean cerebral blood flow measurements using 99mTc-ECD-SPECT during normal aging

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kawahata, Nobuya; Daitoh, Nobuyuki; Shirai, Fumie; Hara, Shigeru

    1997-01-01

    Mean cerebral blood flow (mCBF) was measured by SPECT using the 99m Tc-ECD-Patlak-Plot method in a selected group of 61 normal non-hospitalized subjects aged 51 to 91 years. The mCBF values showed 48.4±4.7 ml/100 g/min in aged 50-59 years group, 49.9±5.9 ml/100 g/min in aged 60-69 years group, 46.4 ±6.5 ml/100 g/min in aged 70-79 group, 38.0±3.7 ml/100 g/min in aged 80-89 years group, 38.9 ml/100 g/min in aged 90-99 years group. There was a statistically significant reduction of mCBF with advancing age (R=-0.41; p=0.001). Women have significantly higher mCBF values than men up to aged 70 years group. In this study, there was no significant laterality in the mCBF between right and left hemispheres in all decade groups. The history of hypertension, alcohol consumption, and cigarette smoking failed to show significant difference in the mCBF values. The present study shows that normal aging is associated with mCBF reduction. (author)

  19. [Determinants of active aging according to quality of life and gender].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Campos, Ana Cristina Viana; Ferreira e Ferreira, Efigenia; Vargas, Andréa Maria Duarte

    2015-07-01

    The scope of this study was to construct an indicator of active aging and assess its association with quality of life and possible determinants according to gender. The AGEQOL (Aging, Gender and Quality of Life) study was used to interview 2052 individuals aged 60 years and older residing in Sete Lagoas in the State of Minas Gerais. The association between active aging, quality of life and possible determinants was performed by multiple logistic regression with a 5% level of statistical significance separately for each gender. Most men were in the active aging group (58%), and 51.8% of women were in the normal aging group (p active aging. Women with higher incomes, who did not suffer falls and engaged in community participation, had a better chance of belonging to the active aging group. The conclusion drawn is that quality of life and participation in groups are the main determinants of active aging, and the other factors associated with active aging are different for each gender.

  20. Statistical analysis and data management

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anon.

    1981-01-01

    This report provides an overview of the history of the WIPP Biology Program. The recommendations of the American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS) for the WIPP biology program are summarized. The data sets available for statistical analyses and problems associated with these data sets are also summarized. Biological studies base maps are presented. A statistical model is presented to evaluate any correlation between climatological data and small mammal captures. No statistically significant relationship between variance in small mammal captures on Dr. Gennaro's 90m x 90m grid and precipitation records from the Duval Potash Mine were found

  1. Dental caries prevalence in children up to 36 months of age attending daycare centers in municipalities with different water fluoride content

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ana Valéria Pagliari Tiano

    2009-02-01

    Full Text Available This study determined the prevalence of cavitated caries lesions (CCL and early childhood caries (ECC, and the contribution of some variables in children up to 36 months of age attending daycare centers in municipalities with different fluoride levels in the water supply: AFC (adequate fluoride content and LFC (low fluoride content. After approval of the Ethics Committee, the parents were interviewed. The children were clinically examined using the same codes and criteria established by the WHO (World Health Organization and the ADA (American Dental Association. Fisher's exact test (p<0.05 was applied for statistical analysis of data. The dmft indices calculated in the LFC and AFC municipalities were 0.57 and 0.68, respectively. Considering all children examined, 17.6% presented CCL and 33.8% ECC. The economic classification, mother's education level and duration of breastfeeding were considered statistically significant with regards to CCL prevalence. The age group, duration of the habit of drinking milk before bedtime and age at which oral hygiene started were considered statistically significant with regards to ECC prevalence.

  2. Aging in Colombia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    María Lourdes SANTOS PÉREZ

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available Using data from statistical sources and official reports, we propose a critical approach to aging in Colombia, specifically from the point of view of public policy in progress or in planning. Our main hypothesis is that these measures refuse comprehensive treatment of the ageing in terms of needs and rights promoting a pure welfare system which, instead, contributes to reinforce a collective imagination of a dependent and impoverished old age, with «fatal» consequences that sustain and reproduce the socioeconomic system.

  3. Peripheral arterial volume distensibility: significant differences with age and blood pressure measured using an applied external pressure

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zheng, Dingchang; Murray, Alan

    2011-01-01

    A new arterial distensibility measurement technique was assessed in 100 healthy normotensive subjects. Arterial transmural pressures on the whole right arm were reduced with a 50 cm long cuff inflated to 10, 20, 30 and 40 mmHg. The electrocardiogram, and finger and ear photoplethysmograms were recorded simultaneously. Arm pulse propagation time, pulse wave velocity (PWV) and arterial volume distensibility were determined. With a 40 mmHg reduction in transmural pressure, arm pulse propagation time increased from 61 to 83 ms, PWV decreased from 12 to 8 m s −1 and arterial distensibility increased from 0.102% to 0.232% per mmHg (all P < 0.0001). At all cuff pressures, arterial distensibility was significantly related to resting mean arterial pressure (MAP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP) and age, and for systolic blood pressure at 30 and 40 mmHg (all P < 0.05). At 40 mmHg cuff pressure, arterial distensibility fell by 54% for a MAP increase from 75 to 105 mmHg, 57% for a DBP increase from 60 to 90 mmHg and 47% for an age increase from 20 to 70 years. These changes were more than double than those without cuff pressure. Our technique showed that systemic volume distensibility of the peripheral arm artery reduced with age, with a greater effect at higher external and lower transmural pressures

  4. PRAME Gene Expression in Acute Leukemia and Its Clinical Significance

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ding, Kai; Wang, Xiao-ming; Fu, Rong; Ruan, Er-bao; Liu, Hui; Shao, Zong-hong

    2012-01-01

    To investigate the expression of the preferentially expressed antigen of melanoma (PRAME) gene in acute leukemia and its clinical significance. The level of expressed PRAME mRNA in bone marrow mononuclear cells from 34 patients with acute leukemia (AL) and in 12 bone marrow samples from healthy volunteers was measured via RT-PCR. Correlation analyses between PRAME gene expression and the clinical characteristics (gender, age, white blood count, immunophenotype of leukemia, percentage of blast cells, and karyotype) of the patients were performed. The PRAME gene was expressed in 38.2% of all 34 patients, in 40.7% of the patients with acute myelogenous leukemia (AML, n=27), and in 28.6% of the patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL, n=7), but was not expressed in the healthy volunteers. The difference in the expression levels between AML and ALL patients was statistically significant. The rate of gene expression was 80% in M 3 , 33.3% in M 2 , and 28.6% in M 5 . Gene expression was also found to be correlated with CD15 and CD33 expression and abnormal karyotype, but not with age, gender, white blood count or percentage of blast cells. The PRAME gene is highly expressed in acute leukemia and could be a useful marker to monitor minimal residual disease. This gene is also a candidate target for the immunotherapy of acute leukemia

  5. Rate of transformation and normal range about cardiac size and cardiothoracic ratio according to patient position and age at chest radiography of Korean adult man

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Joo, Young Cheol [Dept. of Radiology, Samsung Medical Center, Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Lim, Cheong Hwan; Jung, Hong Ryang [Dept. of Radiological Science, Hanseo University, Seosan (Korea, Republic of); Kim, Yun Min [Dept. of Radiotechnology, Wonkwang Health Science University, Iksan (Korea, Republic of); Hong, Dong Hee [Dept. of Radiological Science, Far East University, Eumseong (Korea, Republic of)

    2017-06-15

    Purpose of this study is present the normal range of cardiac size and cardiothoracic ratio according to patient position(chest PA and AP) and age of Korean adult male on digital chest X - ray, And to propose a mutually compatible conversion rate. 1,024 males were eligible for this study, among 1,300 normal chest patients who underwent chest PA and low-dose CT examinations on the same day at the 'S' Hospital Health Examination Center in Seoul From January to December 2014. CS and CTR were measured by Danzer (1919). The mean difference between CS and CTR was statistically significant (p<0.01) in Chest PA (CS 135.48 mm, CTR 43.99%) and Chest AP image (CS 155.96 mm, CTR 51.75%). There was no statistically significant difference between left and right heart in chest PA and AP images(p>0.05). CS showed statistically significant difference between Chest PA (p>0. 05) and Chest AP (p<0.05). The thorax size and CTR were statistically significant (p<0.01) in both age and chest PA and AP. Result of this study, On Chest AP image CS was magnified 15%, CTR was magnified 17% compare with Chest PA image. CS and CTR were about 10% difference by changing posture at all ages.

  6. Clinically significant bleeding in incurable cancer patients: effectiveness of hemostatic radiotherapy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cihoric, Nikola; Crowe, Susanne; Eychmüller, Steffen; Aebersold, Daniel M; Ghadjar, Pirus

    2012-01-01

    This study was performed to evaluate the outcome after hemostatic radiotherapy (RT) of significant bleeding in incurable cancer patients. Patients treated by hemostatic RT between November 2006 and February 2010 were retrospectively analyzed. Bleeding was assessed according to the World Health Organization (WHO) scale (grade 0 = no bleeding, 1 = petechial bleeding, 2 = clinically significant bleeding, 3 = bleeding requiring transfusion, 4 = bleeding associated with fatality). The primary endpoint was bleeding at the end of RT. Key secondary endpoints included overall survival (OS) and acute toxicity. The bleeding score before and after RT were compared using the Wilcoxon signed rank test. Time to event endpoints were estimated using the Kaplan Meier method. Overall 62 patients were analyzed including 1 patient whose benign cause of bleeding was pseudomyxoma peritonei. Median age was 66 (range, 37–93) years. Before RT, bleeding was graded as 2 and 3 in 24 (39%) and 38 (61%) patients, respectively. A median dose of 20 (range, 5–45) Gy of hemostatic RT was applied to the bleeding site. At the end of RT, there was a statistically significant difference in bleeding (p < 0.001); it was graded as 0 (n = 39), 1 (n = 12), 2 (n = 6), 3 (n = 4) and 4 (n = 1). With a median follow-up of 19.3 (range, 0.3-19.3) months, the 6-month OS rate was 43%. Forty patients died (65%); 5 due to bleeding. No grade 3 or above acute toxicity was observed. Hemostatic RT seems to be a safe and effective treatment for clinically and statistically significantly reducing bleeding in incurable cancer patients

  7. [Big data in official statistics].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zwick, Markus

    2015-08-01

    The concept of "big data" stands to change the face of official statistics over the coming years, having an impact on almost all aspects of data production. The tasks of future statisticians will not necessarily be to produce new data, but rather to identify and make use of existing data to adequately describe social and economic phenomena. Until big data can be used correctly in official statistics, a lot of questions need to be answered and problems solved: the quality of data, data protection, privacy, and the sustainable availability are some of the more pressing issues to be addressed. The essential skills of official statisticians will undoubtedly change, and this implies a number of challenges to be faced by statistical education systems, in universities, and inside the statistical offices. The national statistical offices of the European Union have concluded a concrete strategy for exploring the possibilities of big data for official statistics, by means of the Big Data Roadmap and Action Plan 1.0. This is an important first step and will have a significant influence on implementing the concept of big data inside the statistical offices of Germany.

  8. The Impact of Supplemental Antioxidants on Visual Function in Nonadvanced Age-Related Macular Degeneration: A Head-to-Head Randomized Clinical Trial.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Akuffo, Kwadwo Owusu; Beatty, Stephen; Peto, Tunde; Stack, Jim; Stringham, Jim; Kelly, David; Leung, Irene; Corcoran, Laura; Nolan, John M

    2017-10-01

    The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of supplemental macular carotenoids (including versus not including meso-zeaxanthin) in combination with coantioxidants on visual function in patients with nonadvanced age-related macular degeneration. In this study, 121 participants were randomly assigned to group 1 (Age-Related Eye Disease Study 2 formulation with a low dose [25 mg] of zinc and an addition of 10 mg meso-zeaxanthin; n = 60) or group 2 (Age-Related Eye Disease Study 2 formulation with a low dose [25 mg] of zinc; n = 61). Visual function was assessed using best-corrected visual acuity, contrast sensitivity (CS), glare disability, retinal straylight, photostress recovery time, reading performance, and the National Eye Institute Visual Function Questionnaire-25. Macular pigment was measured using customized heterochromatic flicker photometry. There was a statistically significant improvement in the primary outcome measure (letter CS at 6 cycles per degree [6 cpd]) over time (P = 0.013), and this observed improvement was statistically comparable between interventions (P = 0.881). Statistically significant improvements in several secondary outcome visual function measures (letter CS at 1.2 and 2.4 cpd; mesopic and photopic CS at all spatial frequencies; mesopic glare disability at 1.5, 3, and 6 cpd; photopic glare disability at 1.5, 3, 6, and 12 cpd; photostress recovery time; retinal straylight; mean and maximum reading speed) were also observed over time (P 0.05, for all). Statistically significant increases in macular pigment at all eccentricities were observed over time (P 0.05). Antioxidant supplementation in patients with nonadvanced age-related macular degeneration results in significant increases in macular pigment and improvements in CS and other measures of visual function. (Clinical trial, http://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN13894787).

  9. Age-related effects on the disposition and dosimetry of inhaled 239Pu or 144Ce in immature or aged beagle dogs

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Guilmette, R.A.; Boecker, B.B.; Muggenburg, B.A.; Hahn, F.F.; McClellan, R.O.

    1987-01-01

    Immature (90 days of age), young adult (18 months of age), and aged (8-10.5 years of age) male and female beagle dogs received a single brief pernasal inhalation exposure to an aerosol of 144 Ce in an insoluble fused aluminosilicate matrix or 239 PuO 2 . These isotopes were selected to represent low- and high-LET emitters, respectively. No age-related differences in the retention of Pu in the lungs of dogs have been observed, nor have there been any detectable differences in the uptake and retention of Pu in the tracheobronchial lymph nodes. Age-related effects have been seen in the uptake of Pu in the skeleton, with the amount of Pu being greatest in the skeleton of immature dogs. For the dogs exposed to the 144 Ce aerosol, there was a statistically significant difference in the retention of 144 Ce in the lungs of immature dogs compared to young adults. Increased uptake of 144 Ce in the immature dog skeleton was also noted. 14 refs.; 4 figs

  10. Determination of Age-Dependent Reference Ranges for Coagulation Tests Performed Using Destiny Plus.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arslan, Fatma Demet; Serdar, Muhittin; Merve Ari, Elif; Onur Oztan, Mustafa; Hikmet Kozcu, Sureyya; Tarhan, Huseyin; Cakmak, Ozgur; Zeytinli, Merve; Yasar Ellidag, Hamit

    2016-06-01

    In order to apply the right treatment for hemostatic disorders in pediatric patients, laboratory data should be interpreted with age-appropriate reference ranges. The purpose of this study was to determining age-dependent reference range values for prothrombin time (PT), activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT), fibrinogen tests, and D-dimer tests. A total of 320 volunteers were included in the study with the following ages: 1 month - 1 year (n = 52), 2 - 5 years (n = 50), 6 - 10 years (n = 48), 11 - 17 years (n = 38), and 18 - 65 years (n = 132). Each volunteer completed a survey to exclude hemostatic system disorder. Using a nonparametric method, the lower and upper limits, including 95% distribution and 90% confidence intervals, were calculated. No statistically significant differences were found between PT and aPTT values in the groups consisting of children. Thus, the reference ranges were separated into child and adult age groups. PT and aPTT values were significantly higher in the children than in the adults. Fibrinogen values in the 6 - 10 age group and the adult age group were significantly higher than in the other groups. D-dimer levels were significantly lower in those aged 2 - 17; thus, a separate reference range was established. These results support other findings related to developmental hemostasis, confirming that adult and pediatric age groups should be evaluated using different reference ranges.

  11. The significance of employee biographics in explaining employability attributes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jo-Anne Botha

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available Background: Employability is the capacity of employees to acquire transferable competencies and individual capacities that enable them to adapt to, be innovative in and steer their own careers in a dynamic work environment. It is clear that employers would thus look for employees who are capable of proactive adjustment and action-oriented behaviours. Aim: The aim of the study was to determine whether significant differences exist in the employability attributes of individuals from different gender, race and age groups and if so, how should such a diverse workforce should be managed. Setting: This study was conducted at a distance education institution. The sample of respondents consisted of adult learners who are pursuing further distance learning studies in the economic and management sciences field in South Africa. Methods: Correlational and inferential statistical analyses were used. A stratified random sample of 1102 mainly black and female adult learners participated in the study. Results: The employability attributes framework identified three categories of employability: interpersonal, intrapersonal and career attributes. The research indicated that significant differences exist between gender, race and age groups with regard to employability. Male and female participants differed significantly with regard to entrepreneurial orientation, proactivity and career resilience. The various race groups differed considerably regarding cultural competence and sociability of individuals. Participants older than 50 years scored the highest on self-efficacy. Conclusion and implications: The findings of this research could ensure that previously disadvantaged individuals are not further marginalised because of a lack of employability attributes and that the required employability attributes can be cultivated to ensure advancement and success in the work place.

  12. [Pro Familia statistics for 1974].

    Science.gov (United States)

    1975-09-01

    Statistics for 1974 for the West German family planning organization Pro Familia are reported. 56 offices are now operating, and 23,726 clients were seen. Men were seen more frequently than previously. 10,000 telephone calls were also handled. 16-25 year olds were increasingly represented in the clientele, as were unmarried persons of all ages. 1,242 patients were referred to physicians or clinics for clinical diagnosis.

  13. Analysis of the microstructure and mechanical performance of composite resins after accelerated artificial aging.

    Science.gov (United States)

    De Oliveira Daltoé, M; Lepri, C Penazzo; Wiezel, J Guilherme G; Tornavoi, D Cremonezzi; Agnelli, J A Marcondes; Reis, A Cândido Dos

    2013-03-01

    Researches that assess the behavior of dental materials are important for scientific and industrial development especially when they are tested under conditions that simulate the oral environment, so this work analyzed the compressive strength and microstructure of three composite resins subjected to accelerated artificial aging (AAA). Three composites resins of 3M (P90, P60 and Z100) were analyzed and were obtained 16 specimens for each type (N.=48). Half of each type were subjected to UV-C system AAA and then were analyzed the surfaces of three aged specimens and three not aged of each type through the scanning electron microscope (SEM). After, eight specimens of each resin, aged and not aged, were subjected to compression test. After statistical analysis of compressive strength values, it was found that there was difference between groups (α aged P60 presented lower values of compressive strength statistically significant when compared to the not subject to the AAA. For the other composite resins, there was no difference, regardless of aging, a fact confirmed by SEM. The results showed that the AAA influenced the compressive strength of the resin aged P60; confirmed by surface analysis by SEM, which showed greater structural disarrangement on surface material.

  14. Reliability of third molar development for age estimation in Gujarati population: A comparative study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gandhi, Neha; Jain, Sandeep; Kumar, Manish; Rupakar, Pratik; Choyal, Kanaram; Prajapati, Seema

    2015-01-01

    Age assessment may be a crucial step in postmortem profiling leading to confirmative identification. In children, Demirjian's method based on eight developmental stages was developed to determine maturity scores as a function of age and polynomial functions to determine age as a function of score. Of this study was to evaluate the reliability of age estimation using Demirjian's eight teeth method following the French maturity scores and Indian-specific formula from developmental stages of third molar with the help of orthopantomograms using the Demirjian method. Dental panoramic tomograms from 30 subjects each of known chronological age and sex were collected and were evaluated according to Demirjian's criteria. Age calculations were performed using Demirjian's formula and Indian formula. Statistical analysis used was Chi-square test and ANOVA test and the P values obtained were statistically significant. There was an average underestimation of age with both Indian and Demirjian's formulas. The mean absolute error was lower using Indian formula hence it can be applied for age estimation in present Gujarati population. Also, females were ahead of achieving dental maturity than males thus completion of dental development is attained earlier in females. Greater accuracy can be obtained if population-specific formulas considering the ethnic and environmental variation are derived performing the regression analysis.

  15. Early cretaceous zircon SHRIMP U-Pb age of the trachyte and its significances of the Gan-Hang belt

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Liu Feiyu; Wu Jianhua; Liu Shuai

    2009-01-01

    The Shixi basin was located at Gan-Hang tectonic volcanic uranium deposit of rock-magma belt which belong to a part of the Mesozoic volcanic rocks in the northeastern of China. The appearance of the trachyte in Shixi basin have the majoy elements characteristic of the shoshonite series volcanic rocks. To determine the geological age of trachyte have very important significance on the geodynamics research and the study on the cause of uranium mineralization. The zircons of the trachyte have clear ring and high Th/U ratio which belong to the typical magmatic zircons. The zircon SHRIMP U-Pb dating resules show that 14points' age range is very smaller is 132-144 Ma and the weighted average age is (137.00±0.94)Ma which represents the diagenetic age of volcanic rocks. Accronding to the latest International Stratigraphic Chart the boundary of Jurassic and Cretaceous is (145.4±4.0)Ma. So the trachyte of Shixi Group belong to early Cretaceous. The large-scale acidic volcanic activity occurred in the Early Cretaceous in Southeastern China, and the Volcanic uranium deposit of Gan-Hang tectonic belt relate to Alkali metasomatism Uranium mineralization also occurred in the Early Cretaceous (120-130 Ma). The determined of trachyte in Shixi Group in the Early Cretaceous show that the acidic volcanic activity have connection with magma activity and the early Uranium mineralization consistent with the Alkali magma activity. (authors)

  16. Radiation therapy and patient age in the survival from early-stage breast cancer

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Joslyn, Sue A.

    1999-01-01

    Purpose: To analyze the use of radiation therapy following local excision of invasive localized breast cancer and subsequent survival by 5-year age category. Methods: Data for 27,399 women diagnosed with localized stage of breast cancer and treated with local excision surgery from 1983 through 1992 were collected and provided by the national Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) program. Use of radiation therapy was analyzed by race, ethnic background, geographic location, and age at diagnosis. Survival for women treated with local excision plus radiation therapy was compared to that of women treated with local excision alone for each 5-year age category. Results: Subjects in older age groups were significantly less likely (p < 0.001) to receive radiation following local excision compared to younger age groups. Statistically significant survival advantages were conferred on women receiving radiation therapy in each 5-year age category from age 35 to 84 years (ranging from p = 0.02 to p < 0.0001). Conclusion: While the use of radiation therapy following local excision of early-stage breast tumors drops significantly in older age groups, women aged 35-84 years receiving radiation therapy had significant reductions in mortality. These results did not appear to be influenced by the presence of mortal comorbid conditions. These results strongly suggest the need to consider carefully patient characteristics other than age in deciding the course of treatment for early-stage breast cancer

  17. National Statistical Commission and Indian Official Statistics*

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    IAS Admin

    a good collection of official statistics of that time. With more .... statistical agencies and institutions to provide details of statistical activities .... ing several training programmes. .... ful completion of Indian Statistical Service examinations, the.

  18. A novel statistical approach shows evidence for multi-system physiological dysregulation during aging.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cohen, Alan A; Milot, Emmanuel; Yong, Jian; Seplaki, Christopher L; Fülöp, Tamàs; Bandeen-Roche, Karen; Fried, Linda P

    2013-03-01

    Previous studies have identified many biomarkers that are associated with aging and related outcomes, but the relevance of these markers for underlying processes and their relationship to hypothesized systemic dysregulation is not clear. We address this gap by presenting a novel method for measuring dysregulation via the joint distribution of multiple biomarkers and assessing associations of dysregulation with age and mortality. Using longitudinal data from the Women's Health and Aging Study, we selected a 14-marker subset from 63 blood measures: those that diverged from the baseline population mean with age. For the 14 markers and all combinatorial sub-subsets we calculated a multivariate distance called the Mahalanobis distance (MHBD) for all observations, indicating how "strange" each individual's biomarker profile was relative to the baseline population mean. In most models, MHBD correlated positively with age, MHBD increased within individuals over time, and higher MHBD predicted higher risk of subsequent mortality. Predictive power increased as more variables were incorporated into the calculation of MHBD. Biomarkers from multiple systems were implicated. These results support hypotheses of simultaneous dysregulation in multiple systems and confirm the need for longitudinal, multivariate approaches to understanding biomarkers in aging. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  19. Official Statistics and Statistics Education: Bridging the Gap

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gal Iddo

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available This article aims to challenge official statistics providers and statistics educators to ponder on how to help non-specialist adult users of statistics develop those aspects of statistical literacy that pertain to official statistics. We first document the gap in the literature in terms of the conceptual basis and educational materials needed for such an undertaking. We then review skills and competencies that may help adults to make sense of statistical information in areas of importance to society. Based on this review, we identify six elements related to official statistics about which non-specialist adult users should possess knowledge in order to be considered literate in official statistics: (1 the system of official statistics and its work principles; (2 the nature of statistics about society; (3 indicators; (4 statistical techniques and big ideas; (5 research methods and data sources; and (6 awareness and skills for citizens’ access to statistical reports. Based on this ad hoc typology, we discuss directions that official statistics providers, in cooperation with statistics educators, could take in order to (1 advance the conceptualization of skills needed to understand official statistics, and (2 expand educational activities and services, specifically by developing a collaborative digital textbook and a modular online course, to improve public capacity for understanding of official statistics.

  20. Impact of age on the false negative rate of human papillomavirus DNA test in patients with atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance

    OpenAIRE

    Won, Kyu-Hee; Lee, Jae Yeon; Cho, Hye-Yon; Suh, Dong Hoon; No, Jae Hong; Kim, Yong-Beom

    2015-01-01

    Objective Human papillomavirus (HPV) test was incorporated into the triage of lesser abnormal cervical cytologies: atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance (ASCUS) or low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (LSIL). This study aimed to evaluate the impact of age on the efficacy of HPV testing in patients with lesser abnormal cervical cytologies. Methods A total of 439 patients with ASCUS or LSIL were included. The association between age groups and the diagnostic performances of ...

  1. Impact of seasonal variation, age and smoking status on human semen parameters: The Massachusetts General Hospital experience

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Zuying; Godfrey-Bailey, Linda; Schiff, Isaac; Hauser, Russ

    2004-01-01

    Background To investigate the relationship of human semen parameters with season, age and smoking status. Methods The present study used data from subjects recruited into an ongoing cross-sectional study on the relationship between environmental agents and semen characteristics. Our population consisted of 306 patients who presented to the Vincent Memorial Andrology Laboratory of Massachusetts General Hospital for semen evaluation. Sperm concentration and motility were measured with computer aided sperm analysis (CASA). Sperm morphology was scored using Tygerberg Kruger strict criteria. Regression analyses were used to investigate the relationships between semen parameters and season, age and smoking status, adjusting for abstinence interval. Results Sperm concentration in the spring was significantly higher than in winter, fall and summer (p seasons. There were no statistically significant relationships between semen parameters and smoking status, though current smokers tended to have lower sperm concentration. We also did not find a statistically significant relationship between age and semen parameters. Conclusions We found seasonal variations in sperm concentration and suggestive evidence of seasonal variation in sperm motility and percent sperm with normal morphology. Although smoking status was not a significant predictor of semen parameters, this may have been due to the small number of current smokers in the study. PMID:15507127

  2. Effect of Oil Application, Age, Diet, and Pigmentation on the Tensile Strength and Breaking Point of Hair.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kavitha, S; Natarajan, Karthika; Thilagavathi, G; Srinivas, C R

    2016-01-01

    Hair strength depends on various factors such as nutrition, environmental factors, sunlight, oiling, aging, conditioner, etc. To compare the tensile strength and breaking point of the hair shaft between (1) vegetarian and nonvegetarian. (2) Those who regularly apply and those who do not apply oil. (3) Pigmented and nonpigmented hair, (4) childhood and elderly. Hair fibers were mounted in tensile strength testing machine Zwick/Roell Z010 and gradual force was administered. The elongation of hair fiber in mm and the maximum force required to break the hair strand were recorded for each fiber. Elasticity of the children's hair was more than the elasticity of adult ( P = 0.05) although tensile strength in children hair was not statistically significant (>0.05). Similarly, the tensile strength was more among those who regularly consumed nonvegetarian food but the difference was not statistically significant ( P > 0.05). There was no statistically significant difference in other groups ( P > 0.05). Elasticity in children hair is statistically more than elderly hair although there is no significant change in tensile strength.

  3. Reduction in mean cerebral blood flow measurements using {sup 99m}Tc-ECD-SPECT during normal aging

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kawahata, Nobuya; Daitoh, Nobuyuki; Shirai, Fumie; Hara, Shigeru [Narita Memorial Hospital, Toyohashi, Aichi (Japan)

    1997-10-01

    Mean cerebral blood flow (mCBF) was measured by SPECT using the {sup 99m}Tc-ECD-Patlak-Plot method in a selected group of 61 normal non-hospitalized subjects aged 51 to 91 years. The mCBF values showed 48.4{+-}4.7 ml/100 g/min in aged 50-59 years group, 49.9{+-}5.9 ml/100 g/min in aged 60-69 years group, 46.4 {+-}6.5 ml/100 g/min in aged 70-79 group, 38.0{+-}3.7 ml/100 g/min in aged 80-89 years group, 38.9 ml/100 g/min in aged 90-99 years group. There was a statistically significant reduction of mCBF with advancing age (R=-0.41; p=0.001). Women have significantly higher mCBF values than men up to aged 70 years group. In this study, there was no significant laterality in the mCBF between right and left hemispheres in all decade groups. The history of hypertension, alcohol consumption, and cigarette smoking failed to show significant difference in the mCBF values. The present study shows that normal aging is associated with mCBF reduction. (author)

  4. Significant calendar period deviations in testicular germ cell tumors indicate that postnatal exposures are etiologically relevant.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Speaks, Crystal; McGlynn, Katherine A; Cook, Michael B

    2012-10-01

    The current working model of type II testicular germ cell tumor (TGCT) pathogenesis states that carcinoma in situ arises during embryogenesis, is a necessary precursor, and always progresses to cancer. An implicit condition of this model is that only in utero exposures affect the development of TGCT in later life. In an age-period-cohort analysis, this working model contends an absence of calendar period deviations. We tested this contention using data from the SEER registries of the United States. We assessed age-period-cohort models of TGCTs, seminomas, and nonseminomas for the period 1973-2008. Analyses were restricted to whites diagnosed at ages 15-74 years. We tested whether calendar period deviations were significant in TGCT incidence trends adjusted for age deviations and cohort effects. This analysis included 32,250 TGCTs (18,475 seminomas and 13,775 nonseminomas). Seminoma incidence trends have increased with an average annual percentage change in log-linear rates (net drift) of 1.25 %, relative to just 0.14 % for nonseminoma. In more recent time periods, TGCT incidence trends have plateaued and then undergone a slight decrease. Calendar period deviations were highly statistically significant in models of TGCT (p = 1.24(-9)) and seminoma (p = 3.99(-14)), after adjustment for age deviations and cohort effects; results for nonseminoma (p = 0.02) indicated that the effects of calendar period were much more muted. Calendar period deviations play a significant role in incidence trends of TGCT, which indicates that postnatal exposures are etiologically relevant.

  5. Clinical significance of atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance in detecting preinvasive cervical lesions in post- menopausal Turkish women.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tokmak, Aytekin; Guzel, Ali Irfan; Ozgu, Emre; Oz, Murat; Akbay, Serap; Erkaya, Salim; Gungor, Tayfun

    2014-01-01

    To evaluate the clinical significance of atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance (ASCUS) in PAP test in post-menopausal women and compare with reproductive age women. A total of 367 patients who referred to our gynecologic oncology clinic were included to the study between September 2012 and August 2013. Data for 164 post-menopausal (group 1) and 203 pre-menopausal (group 2) women with ASCUS cytology were evaluated retrospectively. Immediate colposcopy and endocervical curettage was performed for both groups and conization for all women with a result suggestive of CIN2-3. Histopathological results and demographic features of patients were compared between the two groups. Mean age of the patients was 54.6±6.5 years in group 1 and 38±6.6 years in group 2. Some 14 (8.5%) of post- menopausal women and 36 (17.7%) of pre-menopausal women were current smokers (p=011). Totals of 38 (23.2%) post-menopausal and 64 (31.5%) pre-menopausal women were assessed for HPV-DNA. High risk HPV was detected in 7 (4.3%) and 21 (10.3%), respectively (p=0.029). Final histopathological results recorded were normal cervix, low grade cervical intra-epithelial neoplasia (CIN 1), and high grade cervical intra-epithelial neoplasia (CIN2-3). In group 1 results were 84.8%, 12.2% and 1.8%, respectively, and in group 2 were 71.9%, 23.2% and 4.9%. There were no cases of micro invasive or invasive cervical carcinoma in either group. Two cases were detected as endometrial carcinoma in the menopausal group (1.2%). In current study we found that preinvasive lesions were statistically significantly higher in pre-menopausal women than post- menopausal women with ASCUS. Cervicitis was more common in menopausal women. Therefore, we think that in case of ASCUS in a post-menopausal woman there is no need for radical management.

  6. Physical activity, quality of life and medication in aging: differences between age and gender

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lilian Teresa Bucken Gobbi

    2009-04-01

    Full Text Available Studies have shown an inverse relationship between physical activity level (PAL, quality of life (QoL and use of medications in the elderly. The objective of this study was to analyze possible relationships and differences between PAL, QoL and use of medications in the elderly. A total of 192 subjects (≥ 60 years were selected by stratified random sampling according to census sector. The following assessment instruments were used: a Modified Baecke Questionnaire for older adults, b Medical Outcomes Study – 36-Item Short Form Health Survey, and c Sociodemographic and Health Factors Questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and parametric and nonparametric tests were used (p < 0.05. a With respect to chronological age, significant differences between groups were only observed for PAL, with G1 (60-69 years being more active than the other groups. b With respect to gender irrespective of age, analysis showed a difference in QoL and in the number of medications, with men reporting better perceived QoL and using fewer medications. c With respect to gender but considering chronological age, differences in PAL, QoL and medication use were observed between genders for specific age groups. In conclusion, in the elderly a PAL is low, declines even more during advanced age and is higher in men than in women during the first decade of old age, and b men report better perceived QoL and use fewer medications than women.

  7. CHANGES IN COPING STRATEGY IN THE SCHOOL AGE CHILDREN

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. A. Alieva

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available The objective of the study: to investigate the changes in preferable coping-strategies during treatment of the school-age children in a TB sanatorium. 77 patients (children and adolescents were enrolled into the study, they all had rehabilitation due to respiratory tuberculosis. All patients were divided into two groups: 8-12 years old (17 boys and 13 girls and 13-17 years old (24 boys and 23 girls. Coping strategies in the school-age children were investigated twice: at admission and discharge from the sanatorium, using a questionnaire adapted by N.A. Sirota and V.N. Yaltonsky and modified by R. M. Granovskaya and I.M. Nikolskaya. Analysis of the structure of the responses identified a group of patients who were oriented in the direction from the problem. This group presented a lower number of scores of the problem solution scale and a higher number of scores in the scales of avoidance, denial, fantasy formation. The other group of patients, focused in the direction towards the problem, characterized by a higher number of scores of the scales of problem solution and communication and a lower number of scores for the scales of denial and fantasy formation. Statistically significant changes were observed in the scale assessing communication (p = 0.03; there was a statistically significant reduction in the scores reflecting avoidance and denial (p < 0.001. There were no significant changes in the other scores. 

  8. State of the art report on aging reliability analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Choi, Sun Yeong; Yang, Joon Eon; Han, Sang Hoon; Ha, Jae Joo

    2002-03-01

    The goal of this report is to describe the state of the art on aging analysis methods to calculate the effects of component aging quantitatively. In this report, we described some aging analysis methods which calculate the increase of Core Damage Frequency (CDF) due to aging by including the influence of aging into PSA. We also described several research topics required for aging analysis for components of domestic NPPs. We have described a statistical model and reliability physics model which calculate the effect of aging quantitatively by using PSA method. It is expected that the practical use of the reliability-physics model will be increased though the process with the reliability-physics model is more complicated than statistical model

  9. Effect of chemical disinfectants and accelerated aging on maxillofacial silicone elastomers: An In vitro Study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anna Serene Babu

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Context: Maxillofacial prostheses need frequent refabrication due to degradation of color and deterioration of physical properties of the elastomer. Aims: This study attempted to evaluate the change in color stability, Shore A hardness, and surface roughness of two maxillofacial silicones, A-2186 and Cosmesil M511, when submitted to chemical disinfection and accelerated aging. Settings and Design: This was a comparative in vitro study. Subjects and Methods: The materials included two silicone elastomers – A-2186 and Cosmesil M511 (Factor II Incorporated – functional intrinsic red pigment and three disinfectants – Fittydent tablet, chlorhexidine gluconate 4%, and neutral soap. The specimens in each group of elastomer were evaluated initially for color, hardness, and surface roughness, which were further divided into subgroups and subjected to disinfection and accelerated aging. The evaluation of color was performed with the help of an ultraviolet reflectance spectrophotometer. Shore A hardness was evaluated using a durometer and surface roughness, with a digital roughness tester followed by scanning electron microscopy analysis. Statistical Analysis Used: Analysis of variance and Tukey's multiple comparison test were used for statistical analysis. Results: Accelerated aging caused a significant decrease in color, increase in Shore A hardness, and variation in surface roughness in both silicone elastomer groups. Chemical disinfection presented significant changes in color and surface roughness whereas no significant effect on Shore hardness, irrespective of the disinfectant used. Conclusions: The maxillofacial silicone elastomers presented deterioration in color, hardening, and significant variations in surface roughness when subjected to chemical disinfection and accelerated aging, which provides a valid baseline for future research.

  10. Investigation of mechanical properties of modern dental composites after artificial aging for one year.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hahnel, Sebastian; Henrich, Anne; Bürgers, Ralf; Handel, Gerhard; Rosentritt, Martin

    2010-01-01

    This in vitro study investigated the aging behavior of dental composites with regard to surface roughness (SR), Vickers hardness (VH) and flexural strength (FS), and the study elucidated the impact of artificial aging parameters. One hundred and sixty-five rectangular specimens were prepared from five composites (Filtek Supreme XT, Filtek Silorane, CeramX, Quixfil, experimental ormocer) and subjected to various artificial aging protocols (storage in distilled water/ethanol/artificial saliva for 7, 90 and 365 days; thermal cycling, 2 x 3000 cycles 5/55 degrees C). SR, VH and FS were determined at baseline and after each aging treatment. Means and standard deviations were calculated; statistical analysis was performed using three-way ANOVA and the Tukey-Kramer multiple comparison test (alpha=.05). The results showed a significant influence in the composite and aging duration on mechanical parameters; the aging medium did not have a significant influence on VH and FS, but there was a significant influence on SR. The highest overall VH was found for theexperimental ormocer; Filtek Silorane yielded the lowest values. For FS, the significantly highest values were found for Filtek Silorane, and the lowest values were found for the experimental ormocer. Prolonged aging periods (90 or 365 days) or thermal cycling led to significant decreases in both VH and FS and significant increases in SR. The findings of the current study indicate that composites differ significantly for SR and its mechanical properties with regard to FS and VH, as well as in aging behavior. Generally, artificial aging leads to a significant decrease in mechanical properties, which underlines the relevance of continuous improvement of dental composites.

  11. Demirjian's method in the estimation of age: A study on human third molars.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lewis, Amitha J; Boaz, Karen; Nagesh, K R; Srikant, N; Gupta, Neha; Nandita, K P; Manaktala, Nidhi

    2015-01-01

    The primary aim of the following study is to estimate the chronological age based on the stages of third molar development following the eight stages (A to H) method of Demirjian et al. (along with two modifications-Orhan) and secondary aim is to compare third molar development with sex and age. The sample consisted of 115 orthopantomograms from South Indian subjects with known chronological age and gender. Multiple regression analysis was performed with chronological age as the dependable variable and third molar root development as independent variable. All the statistical analysis was performed using the SPSS 11.0 package (IBM ® Corporation). Statistically no significant differences were found in third molar development between males and females. Depending on the available number of wisdom teeth in an individual, R (2) varied for males from 0.21 to 0.48 and for females from 0.16 to 0.38. New equations were derived for estimating the chronological age. The chronological age of a South Indian individual between 14 and 22 years may be estimated based on the regression formulae. However, additional studies with a larger study population must be conducted to meet the need for population-based information on third molar development.

  12. Balance in children born prematurely currently aged 6–7

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dziuba Ewa

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available Study aim: Premature birth is one of the major problems of obstetrics, leading to numerous complications that are associated with prematurity, for instance balance disorders. The aim of the study was to assess the impact of premature birth on the ability to maintain balance in children commencing their school education. Material and methods: The study included children aged 6-7 years. The study group consisted of 59 children (31 girls and 28 boys, mean age 6.38 ± SD 0.73 born prematurely between 24 and 35 weeks of gestation. The control group consisted of 61 children (28 girls and 33 boys, mean age 6.42 ± 0.58 born at term. The research utilized standardized test tools - one-leg open-eyed and closed-eyed standing test, one-leg jumping test - and an original questionnaire survey. Results: The children born at term achieved better results in the majority of tests. The comparison of girls and boys born pre­maturely and at term showed no statistically significant difference between them in terms of dynamic balance, static balance or total balance control. The comparison of the tests performed on the right and left lower limb in prematurely born children showed no statistically significant differences. Conclusion: Premature birth affects the ability to maintain body balance. The results of the study indicate the need to develop coordination skills that shape body balance in prematurely born children.

  13. The Age-Related Association of Movement in Irish Adolescent Youth

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Diarmuid Lester

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available (1 Background: Research has shown that post-primary Irish youth are insufficiently active and fail to reach a level of proficiency across basic movement skills. The purpose of the current research was to gather cross-sectional baseline data on Irish adolescent youth, specifically the prevalence of movement skills and patterns, in order to generate an overall perspective of movement within the first three years (Junior Certificate level of post-primary education. (2 Methods: Data were collected on adolescents (N = 181; mean age: 14.42 ± 0.98 years, attending two, mixed-gender schools. Data collection included 10 fundamental movement skills (FMS and the seven tests within the Functional Movement Screen (FMS™. The data set was analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS version 20.0 for Windows. (3 Results: Overall, levels of actual mastery within fundamental and functional movement were low. There were statistically significant age-related differences observed, with a progressive decline as age increased in both the object control (p = 0.002 FMS sub-domain, and the in-line lunge (p = 0.048 test of the FMS™. (4 Conclusion: In summary, we found emerging evidence that school year group is significantly associated with mastery of movement skills and patterns. Results from the current study suggest that developing a specifically tailored movement-oriented intervention would be a strategic step towards improving the low levels of adolescent fundamental and functional movement proficiency.

  14. Serious fighting-related injuries produce a significant reduction in intelligence.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schwartz, Joseph A; Beaver, Kevin M

    2013-10-01

    Fighting-related injuries are common among adolescents within the United States, but how such injuries relate to subsequent cognitive functioning remains unclear. In particular, the long-term effect of fighting-related injuries suffered during important developmental periods, such as adolescence, on subsequent cognitive functioning has been overlooked by previous studies. The purpose of this study is to examine the association between sustaining serious fighting-related injuries and changes in verbal intelligence (IQ) over a 5- to 6-year time period. Longitudinal multivariate statistical models were used to analyze data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health collected between 1994 and 2002 and analyzed in 2013. Even a single fighting-related injury resulted in a significant reduction in IQ over time even after controlling for age, race, sex, and changes in socioeconomic status (SES) over the study period. Additionally, females experienced a significantly greater reduction in IQ from each fighting-related injury than males. Fighting-related injuries have a significant impact on subsequent cognitive functioning and intelligence. The implications for future policies and research are discussed in more detail. Copyright © 2013 Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  15. A Reanalysis of Curvature in the Dose Response for Cancer and Modifications by Age at Exposure Following Radiation Therapy for Benign Disease

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Little, Mark P.; Stovall, Marilyn; Smith, Susan A.; Kleinerman, Ruth A.

    2013-01-01

    Purpose: To assess the shape of the dose response for various cancer endpoints and modifiers by age and time. Methods and Materials: Reanalysis of the US peptic ulcer data testing for heterogeneity of radiogenic risk by cancer endpoint (stomach, pancreas, lung, leukemia, all other). Results: There are statistically significant (P −1 of 0.024 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.011, 0.039), 0.559 (95% CI 0.221, 1.021), 0.042 (95% CI −0.002, 0.119), and 1.087 (95% CI −0.018, 4.925), respectively. There is statistically significant (P=.007) excess risk of pancreatic cancer when adjusted for dose-response curvature. General downward curvature is apparent in the dose response, statistically significant (P<.05) for all cancers, pancreatic cancer, and all other cancers (ie, other than stomach, pancreas, lung, leukemia). There are indications of reduction in relative risk with increasing age at exposure (for all cancers, pancreatic cancer), but no evidence for quadratic variations in relative risk with age at exposure. If a linear-exponential dose response is used, there is no significant heterogeneity in the dose response among the 5 endpoints considered or in the speed of variation of relative risk with age at exposure. The risks are generally consistent with those observed in the Japanese atomic bomb survivors and in groups of nuclear workers. Conclusions: There are excess risks for various malignancies in this data set. Generally there is a marked downward curvature in the dose response and significant reduction in relative risk with increasing age at exposure. The consistency of risks with those observed in the Japanese atomic bomb survivors and in groups of nuclear workers implies that there may be little sparing effect of fractionation of dose or low-dose-rate exposure.

  16. Effect of production system and flock age on eggshell and egg internal quality measurements.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Samiullah, Sami; Omar, Amal Saleh; Roberts, Juliet; Chousalkar, Kapil

    2017-01-01

    Egg quality was measured in eggs from different flocks that were reared together and then allocated to different production systems. Eggs were processed for measurements of eggshell and egg internal quality variables, scoring of ultrastructural mammillary layer features, completeness of cuticle cover, and protoporphyrin IX (PP IX) quantification. There was a significant main effect (P egg weight, and egg internal quality and significant effects of flock age on most measurements. The mammillary layer ultrastructural variables showed no clear relationship with production system and flock age. However, there was a significant interaction between production system and flock age for mammillary cap, early and late fusions. Cuticle cover ([Formula: see text]), was significantly higher in barn eggs (19.20), followed by free range (17.57), and cage eggs (15.99). Completeness of cuticle cover was significantly higher in eggs from the 44 week old flock than for 64 week and 73 week old flocks. For eggshells with cuticle intact, there was a significant main effect of both production system and flock age, and significant interaction between the two, for shell reflectivity, L*a*b* values and amount of PP IX. For PP IX, when this difference was calculated for the cuticle alone, there were no statistically significant differences. In 1 g of shell with and without cuticle, there was more PP IX in cage eggs (9.49 × 10 -8 , 7.90 × 10 -8  mM) followed by free range (8.24 × 10 -8 , 6.90 × 10 -8  mM), and barn eggs (8.64 × 10 -8 , 7.28 × 10 -8  mM). Similar trends were recorded for the amount of PP IX in 1 g of cuticle, but the difference was not statistically significant. The amount of PP IX decreased significantly with increasing flock age. Comparing the cage and barn production systems at 68 week of flock age, there was no difference for the amount of PP IX in shell with or without cuticle, or in the cuticle alone. Eggs from the cage production system were darker in color

  17. Development of free statistical software enabling researchers to calculate confidence levels, clinical significance curves and risk-benefit contours

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shakespeare, T.P.; Mukherjee, R.K.; Gebski, V.J.

    2003-01-01

    Confidence levels, clinical significance curves, and risk-benefit contours are tools improving analysis of clinical studies and minimizing misinterpretation of published results, however no software has been available for their calculation. The objective was to develop software to help clinicians utilize these tools. Excel 2000 spreadsheets were designed using only built-in functions, without macros. The workbook was protected and encrypted so that users can modify only input cells. The workbook has 4 spreadsheets for use in studies comparing two patient groups. Sheet 1 comprises instructions and graphic examples for use. Sheet 2 allows the user to input the main study results (e.g. survival rates) into a 2-by-2 table. Confidence intervals (95%), p-value and the confidence level for Treatment A being better than Treatment B are automatically generated. An additional input cell allows the user to determine the confidence associated with a specified level of benefit. For example if the user wishes to know the confidence that Treatment A is at least 10% better than B, 10% is entered. Sheet 2 automatically displays clinical significance curves, graphically illustrating confidence levels for all possible benefits of one treatment over the other. Sheet 3 allows input of toxicity data, and calculates the confidence that one treatment is more toxic than the other. It also determines the confidence that the relative toxicity of the most effective arm does not exceed user-defined tolerability. Sheet 4 automatically calculates risk-benefit contours, displaying the confidence associated with a specified scenario of minimum benefit and maximum risk of one treatment arm over the other. The spreadsheet is freely downloadable at www.ontumor.com/professional/statistics.htm A simple, self-explanatory, freely available spreadsheet calculator was developed using Excel 2000. The incorporated decision-making tools can be used for data analysis and improve the reporting of results of any

  18. Speed-strength abilities and morphological characteristics of basketball players aged 10 and 11

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Đorđević Alen

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available The aim of this study was to identify several morphological characteristics and speed-strength abilities in basketball players aged 10 and 11, and to determine possible differences between them, connected with their age. The research was conducted on a sample of 84 young basketball players aged 10 (N=46 and 11 (N=38. The following motor variables were measured: shoulder explosiveness (throwing the ball from basketball position, leg explosiveness (vertical jump, speed strength of the trunk (sit up exercises in 10 seconds, stamina in speed strength of the trunk (sit up exercises in 30 seconds, the speed of changing the direction of moving (agility T-test, acceleration (running for 5 and 20 meters. The following morphological variables were also measured: body height, body mass, percentage of body fat and percentage of muscle tissue. Eleven-year-olds achieved better results than the ten-year-olds in all categories. Statistically significant differences (p<0.01 between the two groups of subjects were found in body height, percentage of muscle tissue in the body, shoulder explosiveness, as well as in the speed of changing the direction of moving. Differences in body mass and ability for acceleration were found on the level of statistical significance (p<0.05.

  19. Significance of family and peer support for metabolic control of type 1 diabetes in adolescents

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Đurović Dušanka

    2009-01-01

    Full Text Available The aim of the paper was to explore the significance of family and peer support for metabolic control of Type 1 diabetes in adolescents. Metabolic control refers to maintenance of acceptable blood glucose level thus diminishing risk for chronic complications. It involves regular insulin shots, measuring blood glucose and keeping diary, as the daily based self-control. Regular visits to endocrinologist and screening for chronic complications are compulsory. The sample comprised 79 adolescents age 10-17 years with diagnose of Type 1 diabetes and properly treated at the institute. The sample was divided in two groups - with good (N=40 and poor (N=39 metabolic control. A criterium for good metabolic control was glycosilated hemoglobin less than 7,6%. Social support was measured by Social Support Scale consisting of two parts - the first for estimation of registered family support (based upon modified Perceived Social Support Family Scale and the second for estimation of registered friends' support (modified Perceived Social Support Friend Scale. Adolescents with good metabolic control referred statistically more significant social support in the family, unlike the group with poor metabolic control. Considering peer social support, there was no statistically significant difference. Positive family history for diabetes also appeared to be directly linked to good metabolic control.

  20. Statistical Learning in Specific Language Impairment and Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Meta-Analysis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rita Obeid

    2016-08-01

    Full Text Available Impairments in statistical learning might be a common deficit among individuals with Specific Language Impairment (SLI and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD. Using meta-analysis, we examined statistical learning in SLI (14 studies, 15 comparisons and ASD (13 studies, 20 comparisons to evaluate this hypothesis. Effect sizes were examined as a function of diagnosis across multiple statistical learning tasks (Serial Reaction Time, Contextual Cueing, Artificial Grammar Learning, Speech Stream, Observational Learning, Probabilistic Classification. Individuals with SLI showed deficits in statistical learning relative to age-matched controls g = .47, 95% CI [.28, .66], p < .001. In contrast, statistical learning was intact in individuals with ASD relative to controls, g = –.13, 95% CI [–.34, .08], p = .22. Effect sizes did not vary as a function of task modality or participant age. Our findings inform debates about overlapping social-communicative difficulties in children with SLI and ASD by suggesting distinct underlying mechanisms. In line with the procedural deficit hypothesis (Ullman & Pierpont, 2005, impaired statistical learning may account for phonological and syntactic difficulties associated with SLI. In contrast, impaired statistical learning fails to account for the social-pragmatic difficulties associated with ASD.

  1. Relationship between the thickness of the renal cortex and age: study with CT measurement

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Xu Yufeng; Tang Guangjian

    2004-01-01

    Objective: To study the relationship between the renal cortical thickness and age, and to establish the range of the normal renal cortex thickness by using CT measurement in different age groups so as to obtain a best age-related and practicable method for clinical measurement. Methods: (1) the accuracy of measuring renal cortical thickness by CT was evaluated: 18 kidney resected due to renal neoplasm were studied and the cortical thickness of the normal part of these specimens was assessed. The difference between the renal cortical thickness of specimens and preoperative measurements of renal cortex of the same patient by contrast enhanced CT was analyzed statistically. (2) 120 patients without history of renal disease or long term usage of potentially renal toxic drugs or history of hypertension were examined by CT with indication (s) other than renal disease. All the patients were divided into 20-40, 41-60, and 61-80 year-old groups. The renal cortical and parenchymal thickness and renal size were measured in three CT sections. The difference of the measurements among the three groups and their relationship to age was analyzed statistically. Results: There was no significant difference between the renal cortical thickness measured by enhanced spiral CT and measured in renal specimens (t=0.80, P=0.43). The renal cortical thickness in three groups was 0.73 cm, 0.65 cm, and 0.53 cm, respectively, and the differences among the three groups were significant (F=93.430, P 0.05). Conclusion: The measurement of the renal cortical thickness with enhanced spiral CT was reliable and was a sensitive method in investigating the morphologic changes of the kidney. The renal cortical thickness of normal kidney diminishes with age, but the change of the ratio of thickness of renal cortex to renal parenchyma with age was not significant

  2. Influence of pigments and opacifiers on color stability of an artificially aged facial silicone.

    Science.gov (United States)

    dos Santos, Daniela Micheline; Goiato, Marcelo Coelho; Moreno, Amália; Pesqueira, Aldiéris Alves; Haddad, Marcela Filiè

    2011-04-01

    The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of two pigments (ceramic powder and oil paint) and one opacifier (barium sulfate) on the color stability of MDX4-4210 facial silicone submitted to accelerated aging. Sixty specimens of silicone were fabricated and divided into six groups--colorless (G1), colorless with opacifier (G2), ceramic (G3), ceramic with opacifier (G4), oil (G5), oil with opacifier (G6). All replicas were submitted to accelerated aging for 1008 hours. The evaluations of chromatic alteration through visual analysis and reflection spectrophotometry were carried out initially and after 252, 504, and 1008 hours of aging. The results were submitted to ANOVA and Tukey's test at 5% level of significance. All groups exhibited chromatic alteration (ΔE > 0); however, this color alteration was not perceptible through visual analysis of the color. The pigmented groups with opacifier presented the lowest ΔE values, with a statistical difference from the other groups. For the groups without opacifier, the group pigmented with oil paint exhibited the lowest ΔE values in the different aging periods, with a statistical difference. Accelerated aging generated significant chromatic alterations in all groups after 252 hours, except for the colorless and oil groups, both with opacifier (G2 and G6). The opacifier protects facial silicones against color degradation, and oil paint is a stable pigment even without addition of opacifier. © 2010 by The American College of Prosthodontists.

  3. Comparing calculated free testosterone with total testosterone for screening and diagnosing late-onset hypogonadism in aged males: A cross-sectional study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Zhangshun; Liu, Jie; Shi, Xiaohong; Wang, Lihong; Yang, Yan; Tao, Minfang; Fu, Qiang

    2017-09-01

    The aim of this study is to compare calculated free testosterone (cFT) and total testosterone (T) in predicting late-onset hypogonadism (LOH) in middle-aged and elderly males. We surveyed a random sample of 608 males between the ages of 45 and 87 years from Shanghai, China. The Aging Male Symptoms (AMS) questionnaire and the Androgen Deficiency in Aging Male (ADAM) questionnaire were completed by the subjects. Testosterone (T), sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG), albumin, and other blood biochemical indexes were measured in 332 males. The corresponding cFT was obtained using the Vermeulen formula and the correlations between T and cFT were analyzed by SPSS statistical software. Among the 332 males who underwent biochemical evaluation, 289 males (87.0%) was positively screened by the ADAM questionnaire and 232 males (69.9%) by the AMS questionnaire. As suggested by linear regression, cFT exhibited a negative correlation with age in both ADAM+ and AMS+ group, whereas T did not appear to have significant correlation with age. Besides, there were statistically significant differences in cFT (Pmales. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  4. Effect of artificial aging and surface treatment on bond strengths to dental zirconia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Perdigão, J; Fernandes, S D; Pinto, A M; Oliveira, F A

    2013-01-01

    The objective of this project was to study the influence of artificial aging and surface treatment on the microtensile bond strengths (μTBS) between zirconia and a phosphate monomer-based self-adhesive cement. Thirty zirconia disks (IPS e.max ZirCAD, Ivoclar Vivadent) were randomly assigned to two aging regimens: AR, used as received, which served as a control, and AG, artificial aging to simulate low-temperature degradation. Subsequently, the disks of each aging regimen were assigned to three surface treatments: NT, no surface treatment; CO, surface silicatization with CoJet sand (3M ESPE); and ZP, zirconia surface treated with Z-Prime Plus (Bisco Inc). Thirty discs were made of Filtek Z250 (3M ESPE) composite resin and luted to the zirconia discs using RelyX Unicem (3M ESPE). The specimens were sectioned with a diamond blade in X and Y directions to obtain bonded beams with a cross-section of 1.0 ± 0.2 mm. The beams were tested in tensile mode in a universal testing machine at a speed of 0.5 mm/min to measure μTBS. Selected beams were selected for fractographic analysis under the SEM. Statistical analysis was carried out with two-way analysis of variance and Dunnett T3 post hoc test at a significance level of 95%. The mean μTBS for the three AR subgroups (AR-NT, AR-CO, and AR-ZP) were significantly higher than those of the corresponding AG groups (p<0.0001). Both AR-CO and AR-ZP resulted in statistically significant higher mean bond strengths than the group AR-NT (p<0.006 and p<0.0001, respectively). Both AG-CO and AG-ZP resulted in statistically significant higher mean bond strengths than the group AG-NT (both at p<0.0001). Overall, AG decreased mean μTBS. Under the SEM, mixed failures showed residual cement attached to the zirconia side of the beams. CO resulted in a characteristic roughness of the zirconia surface. AR-ZP was the only group for which the amount of residual cement occupied at least 50% of the interface in mixed failures.

  5. Dietary inulin intake and age can significantly affect intestinal absorption of calcium and magnesium in rats: a stable isotope approach

    Science.gov (United States)

    Coudray, Charles; Rambeau, Mathieu; Feillet-Coudray, Christine; Tressol, Jean Claude; Demigne, Christian; Gueux, Elyett; Mazur, Andrzej; Rayssiguier, Yves

    2005-01-01

    Background previous studies have shown that non-digestible inulin-type fructan intake can increase intestinal mineral absorption in both humans and animals. However, this stimulatory effect on intestinal absorption may depend on experimental conditions such as duration of fermentable fiber intake, mineral diet levels and animals' physiological status, in particular their age. Objectives the aim of this study was to determine the effect of inulin intake on Ca and Mg absorption in rats at different age stages. Methods eighty male Wistar rats of four different ages (2, 5, 10 and 20 months) were randomized into either a control group or a group receiving 3.75% inulin in their diet for 4 days and then 7.5% inulin for three weeks. The animals were fed fresh food and water ad libitum for the duration of the experiment. Intestinal absorption of Ca and Mg was determined by fecal monitoring using stable isotopic tracers. Ca and Mg status was also assessed. Results absorption of Ca and Mg was significantly lower in the aged rats (10 and 20 mo) than in the young and adult rat groups. As expected, inulin intake increased Ca and Mg absorption in all four rat groups. However, inulin had a numerically greater effect on Ca absorption in aged rats than in younger rats whereas its effect on Mg absorption remained similar across all four rat age groups. Conclusion the extent of the stimulatory effect of inulin on absorption of Ca may differ according to animal ages. Further studies are required to explore this effect over longer inulin intake periods, and to confirm these results in humans. PMID:16253138

  6. Review of the Statistical Techniques in Medical Sciences | Okeh ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    ... medical researcher in selecting the appropriate statistical techniques. Of course, all statistical techniques have certain underlying assumptions, which must be checked before the technique is applied. Keywords: Variable, Prospective Studies, Retrospective Studies, Statistical significance. Bio-Research Vol. 6 (1) 2008: pp.

  7. 77 FR 4858 - Culturally Significant Objects Imported for Exhibition Determinations: “Byzantium and Islam: Age...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-01-31

    ... Determinations: ``Byzantium and Islam: Age of Transition (7th-9th Century)'' AGENCY: Department of State. ACTION... to the exhibition ``Byzantium and Islam: Age of Transition (7th-9th Century). The referenced notice... objects to be included in the exhibition ``Byzantium and Islam: Age of Transition (7th-9th Century...

  8. AGE DIFFERENCES IN MEASURES OF FUNCTIONAL MOVEMENT AND PERFORMANCE IN HIGHLY YOUTH BASKETBALL PLAYERS.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gonzalo-Skok, Oliver; Serna, Jorge; Rhea, Matthew R; Marín, Pedro J

    2017-10-01

    There is a lack of information about the influence of age on functional movement tests (FMT) and performance tests as well as in their relationships in young basketball players. The purpose of the present study was to determine the variations in FMT and jump and/or sprint performance scores between age groups (U-14 vs. U-16) in Highly-trained young basketball players. The second purpose was to investigate the relationship between FMT for lower body and jump and/or sprint performance in highly-trained young (U-14 and U-16) male basketball players. Descriptive study. Thirty elite young (U-14 to U-16) male basketball players performed several FMT (weight-bearing dorsiflexion test [WB-DF] and a modified Star Excursion Balance test [SEBT]) and performance including unilateral and bilateral countermovement jumps, unilateral horizontal jumping, linear sprinting and performance tests. All anthropometric and performance tests showed a statistically significant advantage (pjump with left leg (p=0.127). Five out of the eight FMT performed showed a statistically significant advantage (pjump and/or sprint performance test between age groups (U-16 vs U-14). The findings of this study support the idea that the age of the player should be considered when interpreting FMT scores, which could have implications when implementing the FMT for injury risk prediction. 2b.

  9. An Investigation of Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms in Women Aged 40 and Over.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sever, Neziha; Oskay, Umran

    2017-01-01

    The objective of this study was to determine lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) and associated risk factors in women aged 40 years and over. The study was carried out with a total of 312 women. The data were collected between 1 January 2009 and 30 July 2010. As research instruments, an interview form of 19 questions that questioned personal characteristics and was developed by researchers, and the Bristol Female Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms (BFLUTS) Questionnaire evaluating lower urinary tract symptoms were used. Linear regression analysis was used to detect associated risk factors. The rates of urgency, urinary incontinence, nocturia, and frequency symptoms were 61.5, 52.2, 18.9, and 25%, respectively. BFLUTS total scores increased with age, but the present study has detected no statistically significant differences (P > 0.05). BFLUTS scores of the women demonstrated statistically significant differences according to several risk factors including menopause status (P = 0.03), presence of chronic illness (P = 0.000), medicine use (P = 0.000), recurrent urinary tract infections (P = 0.000), body mass index (BMI) (P = 0.004), delivery number (P = 0.005) and chronic constipation (P = 0.002). Multiple linear regression analysis determined that frequent urinary tract infections, presence of chronic illness, chronic constipation, BMI and number of deliveries were significantly related to LUTS development. The most common LUTS was urgency in women aged 40 years and older. Recurrent urinary tract infection was determined as the most significant risk factor for LUTS, followed by chronic illness, chronic constipation, higher BMI and parity. © 2015 Wiley Publishing Asia Pty Ltd.

  10. Age groups related glioblastoma study based on radiomics approach.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Zeju; Wang, Yuanyuan; Yu, Jinhua; Guo, Yi; Zhang, Qi

    2017-12-01

    Glioblastoma is the most aggressive malignant brain tumor with poor prognosis. Radiomics is a newly emerging and promising technique to reveal the complex relationships between high-throughput medical image features and deep information of disease including pathology, biomarkers and genomics. An approach was developed to investigate the internal relationship between magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) features and the age-related origins of glioblastomas based on a quantitative radiomics method. A fully automatic image segmentation method was applied to segment the tumor regions from three dimensional MRI images. 555 features were then extracted from the image data. By analyzing large numbers of quantitative image features, some predictive and prognostic information could be obtained by the radiomics approach. 96 patients diagnosed with glioblastoma pathologically have been divided into two age groups (age groups (T test, p age difference (T test, p= .006). In conclusion, glioblastoma in different age groups present different radiomics-feature patterns with statistical significance, which indicates that glioblastoma in different age groups should have different pathologic, protein, or genic origins.

  11. The determinants of health among the population aged 50 and over: evidence from Croatia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sime Smolic

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available The aim of this paper is to explore the association between demographic, socio-economic and physical health variables and self-assessed health (SAH of people aged 50 years and over in Croatia. Cross-sectional data was collected in 2012 in the survey “The Economics of Ageing in Croatiaˮ that was based on the SHARE (Survey of Health Ageing and Retirement in Europe study. Altogether 761 individuals aged 50 and over were included in the working sample that has been used in statistical analysis. Data were analysed in an ordered logistic regression model. The results show that females were more likely to report a higher category of SAH than males. Higher educational level was a statistically significant predictor of higher SAH, when controlled for other variables. This study, unlike other studies in Croatia, introduces a set of physical health variables as the determinants of health. Our results suggest that people aged 50 and over with fewer limitations, health related symptoms and diagnosed chronic conditions were more likely to report higher levels of SAH. These findings could be beneficial to policymakers in their efforts to improve health among elderly in Croatia.

  12. Statistical Dependence of Pipe Breaks on Explanatory Variables

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Patricia Gómez-Martínez

    2017-02-01

    Full Text Available Aging infrastructure is the main challenge currently faced by water suppliers. Estimation of assets lifetime requires reliable criteria to plan assets repair and renewal strategies. To do so, pipe break prediction is one of the most important inputs. This paper analyzes the statistical dependence of pipe breaks on explanatory variables, determining their optimal combination and quantifying their influence on failure prediction accuracy. A large set of registered data from Madrid water supply network, managed by Canal de Isabel II, has been filtered, classified and studied. Several statistical Bayesian models have been built and validated from the available information with a technique that combines reference periods of time as well as geographical location. Statistical models of increasing complexity are built from zero up to five explanatory variables following two approaches: a set of independent variables or a combination of two joint variables plus an additional number of independent variables. With the aim of finding the variable combination that provides the most accurate prediction, models are compared following an objective validation procedure based on the model skill to predict the number of pipe breaks in a large set of geographical locations. As expected, model performance improves as the number of explanatory variables increases. However, the rate of improvement is not constant. Performance metrics improve significantly up to three variables, but the tendency is softened for higher order models, especially in trunk mains where performance is reduced. Slight differences are found between trunk mains and distribution lines when selecting the most influent variables and models.

  13. Quantitative evaluation of hyaline articular cartilage T2 maps of knee and determine the relationship of cartilage T2 values with age, gender, articular changes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cağlar, E; Şahin, G; Oğur, T; Aktaş, E

    2014-11-01

    To identify changes in knee joint cartilage transverse relaxation values depending on the patient's age and gender and to investigate the relationship between knee joint pathologies and the transverse relaxation time. Knee MRI images of 107 symptomatic patients with various pathologic knee conditions were analyzed retrospectively. T2 values were measured at patellar cartilage, posteromedial and posterolateral femoral cartilage adjacent to the central horn of posterior meniscus. 963 measurements were done for 107 knees MRI. Relationship of T2 values with seven features including subarticular bone marrow edema, subarticular cysts, marginal osteophytes, anterior-posterior cruciate and collateral ligament tears, posterior medial and posterior lateral meniscal tears, synovial thickening and effusion were analyzed. T2 values in all three compartments were evaluated according to age and gender. A T2 value increase correlated with age was present in all three compartments measured in the subgroup with no knee joint pathology and in all patient groups. According to the ROC curve, an increase showing a statistically significant difference was present in the patient group aged over 40 compared to the patient group aged 40 and below in all patient groups. There is a statistically difference at T2 values with and without subarticular cysts, marginal osteophytes, synovial thickening and effusion. T2 relaxation time showed a statistically significant increase in the patients with a medial meniscus tear compared to those without a tear and no statistically significant difference was found in T2 relaxation times of patients with and without a posterior lateral meniscus tear. T2 cartilage mapping on MRI provides opportunity to exhibit biochemical and structural changes related with cartilage extracellular matrix without using invasive diagnostic methods.

  14. Spectral and cross-spectral analysis of uneven time series with the smoothed Lomb-Scargle periodogram and Monte Carlo evaluation of statistical significance

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pardo-Igúzquiza, Eulogio; Rodríguez-Tovar, Francisco J.

    2012-12-01

    Many spectral analysis techniques have been designed assuming sequences taken with a constant sampling interval. However, there are empirical time series in the geosciences (sediment cores, fossil abundance data, isotope analysis, …) that do not follow regular sampling because of missing data, gapped data, random sampling or incomplete sequences, among other reasons. In general, interpolating an uneven series in order to obtain a succession with a constant sampling interval alters the spectral content of the series. In such cases it is preferable to follow an approach that works with the uneven data directly, avoiding the need for an explicit interpolation step. The Lomb-Scargle periodogram is a popular choice in such circumstances, as there are programs available in the public domain for its computation. One new computer program for spectral analysis improves the standard Lomb-Scargle periodogram approach in two ways: (1) It explicitly adjusts the statistical significance to any bias introduced by variance reduction smoothing, and (2) it uses a permutation test to evaluate confidence levels, which is better suited than parametric methods when neighbouring frequencies are highly correlated. Another novel program for cross-spectral analysis offers the advantage of estimating the Lomb-Scargle cross-periodogram of two uneven time series defined on the same interval, and it evaluates the confidence levels of the estimated cross-spectra by a non-parametric computer intensive permutation test. Thus, the cross-spectrum, the squared coherence spectrum, the phase spectrum, and the Monte Carlo statistical significance of the cross-spectrum and the squared-coherence spectrum can be obtained. Both of the programs are written in ANSI Fortran 77, in view of its simplicity and compatibility. The program code is of public domain, provided on the website of the journal (http://www.iamg.org/index.php/publisher/articleview/frmArticleID/112/). Different examples (with simulated and

  15. Age-Related Differences of Maximum Phonation Time in Patients after Cardiac Surgery

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kazuhiro P. Izawa

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available Background and aims: Maximum phonation time (MPT, which is related to respiratory function, is widely used to evaluate maximum vocal capabilities, because its use is non-invasive, quick, and inexpensive. We aimed to examine differences in MPT by age, following recovery phase II cardiac rehabilitation (CR. Methods: This longitudinal observational study assessed 50 consecutive cardiac patients who were divided into the middle-aged group (<65 years, n = 29 and older-aged group (≥65 years, n = 21. MPTs were measured at 1 and 3 months after cardiac surgery, and were compared. Results: The duration of MPT increased more significantly from month 1 to month 3 in the middle-aged group (19.2 ± 7.8 to 27.1 ± 11.6 s, p < 0.001 than in the older-aged group (12.6 ± 3.5 to 17.9 ± 6.0 s, p < 0.001. However, no statistically significant difference occurred in the % change of MPT from 1 month to 3 months after cardiac surgery between the middle-aged group and older-aged group, respectively (41.1% vs. 42.1%. In addition, there were no significant interactions of MPT in the two groups for 1 versus 3 months (F = 1.65, p = 0.20. Conclusion: Following phase II, CR improved MPT for all cardiac surgery patients.

  16. Age-Related Differences of Maximum Phonation Time in Patients after Cardiac Surgery.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Izawa, Kazuhiro P; Kasahara, Yusuke; Hiraki, Koji; Hirano, Yasuyuki; Watanabe, Satoshi

    2017-12-21

    Background and aims: Maximum phonation time (MPT), which is related to respiratory function, is widely used to evaluate maximum vocal capabilities, because its use is non-invasive, quick, and inexpensive. We aimed to examine differences in MPT by age, following recovery phase II cardiac rehabilitation (CR). Methods: This longitudinal observational study assessed 50 consecutive cardiac patients who were divided into the middle-aged group (<65 years, n = 29) and older-aged group (≥65 years, n = 21). MPTs were measured at 1 and 3 months after cardiac surgery, and were compared. Results: The duration of MPT increased more significantly from month 1 to month 3 in the middle-aged group (19.2 ± 7.8 to 27.1 ± 11.6 s, p < 0.001) than in the older-aged group (12.6 ± 3.5 to 17.9 ± 6.0 s, p < 0.001). However, no statistically significant difference occurred in the % change of MPT from 1 month to 3 months after cardiac surgery between the middle-aged group and older-aged group, respectively (41.1% vs. 42.1%). In addition, there were no significant interactions of MPT in the two groups for 1 versus 3 months (F = 1.65, p = 0.20). Conclusion: Following phase II, CR improved MPT for all cardiac surgery patients.

  17. Ultrasonographic assessment of skin structure according to age

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Diana Crisan

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Background: High-frequency ultrasound is a noninvasive tool that offers characteristic markers, quantifying the cutaneous changes of the physiological senescence process. Aims: The aim was to assess the changes in skin thickness, dermal density and echogenicity, as part of the ageing process, with different age intervals. Methods : The study was performed on 160 patients, aged 40.4 ± 21.2, divided into four age categories: <20, 21-40, 41-60, 61-80. Ultrasonographic images (Dermascan device were taken from three sites: dorsal forearm (DF, medial arm (MA, zygomatic area (ZA. We assessed the thickness of epidermis and dermis (mm, number of low, medium, high echogenicity pixels, the ratio between the echogenicity of the upper and lower dermis (LEPs/LEPi, and SLEB (subepidermal low echogenicity band. The statistical analysis was performed using SPSS 15.00. A P value <0.05 was considered significant. Results: On all examined sites, it was found that the dermal thickness increases in the 21 to 40 year interval (P<0.0001. After the 21 to 40 year interval, the number of low echogenic pixels increases significantly, especially on photoexposed sites. High-echogenic pixels follow the same pattern on all examined sites: they increase in the 21 to 40 year interval and decrease in the 3rd and 4th age category. The LEPs/LEPi ratio increases significantly with age, at all sites (P<0.05, due to an increase of hypoechogenic pixels in the upper dermis. Conclusions: High-frequency ultrasound is a noninvasive "histological" tool that can assess the cutaneous structure and age-related changes. It offers imagistic markers, comparable to the histological parameters and also characteristic ultrasonographic markers. Histology remains the gold standard for the investigation of the integumentary system.

  18. Statistical characterization and segmentation of drusen in fundus images.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Santos-Villalobos, H; Karnowski, T P; Aykac, D; Giancardo, L; Li, Y; Nichols, T; Tobin, K W; Chaum, E

    2011-01-01

    Age related Macular Degeneration (AMD) is a disease of the retina associated with aging. AMD progression in patients is characterized by drusen, pigmentation changes, and geographic atrophy, which can be seen using fundus imagery. The level of AMD is characterized by standard scaling methods, which can be somewhat subjective in practice. In this work we propose a statistical image processing approach to segment drusen with the ultimate goal of characterizing the AMD progression in a data set of longitudinal images. The method characterizes retinal structures with a statistical model of the colors in the retina image. When comparing the segmentation results of the method between longitudinal images with known AMD progression and those without, the method detects progression in our longitudinal data set with an area under the receiver operating characteristics curve of 0.99.

  19. Statistical Characterization and Segmentation of Drusen in Fundus Images

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Santos-Villalobos, Hector J [ORNL; Karnowski, Thomas Paul [ORNL; Aykac, Deniz [ORNL; Giancardo, Luca [ORNL; Li, Yaquin [University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK); Nichols, Trent L [ORNL; Tobin Jr, Kenneth William [ORNL; Chaum, Edward [University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK)

    2011-01-01

    Age related Macular Degeneration (AMD) is a disease of the retina associated with aging. AMD progression in patients is characterized by drusen, pigmentation changes, and geographic atrophy, which can be seen using fundus imagery. The level of AMD is characterized by standard scaling methods, which can be somewhat subjective in practice. In this work we propose a statistical image processing approach to segment drusen with the ultimate goal of characterizing the AMD progression in a data set of longitudinal images. The method characterizes retinal structures with a statistical model of the colors in the retina image. When comparing the segmentation results of the method between longitudinal images with known AMD progression and those without, the method detects progression in our longitudinal data set with an area under the receiver operating characteristics curve of 0.99.

  20. Postmortem aging can significantly enhance water-holding capacity of broiler pectoralis major muscle measured by the salt-induced swelling/centrifuge method

    Science.gov (United States)

    Water-holding capacity (WHC) is one of the most important functional properties of fresh meat and can be significantly affected by postmortem muscle changes. Two experiments were carried out to evaluate the effects of postmortem aging on WHC of broiler pectoralis (p.) major muscle indicated with % s...

  1. [Statistical (Poisson) motor unit number estimation. Methodological aspects and normal results in the extensor digitorum brevis muscle of healthy subjects].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Murga Oporto, L; Menéndez-de León, C; Bauzano Poley, E; Núñez-Castaín, M J

    Among the differents techniques for motor unit number estimation (MUNE) there is the statistical one (Poisson), in which the activation of motor units is carried out by electrical stimulation and the estimation performed by means of a statistical analysis based on the Poisson s distribution. The study was undertaken in order to realize an approximation to the MUNE Poisson technique showing a coprehensible view of its methodology and also to obtain normal results in the extensor digitorum brevis muscle (EDB) from a healthy population. One hundred fourteen normal volunteers with age ranging from 10 to 88 years were studied using the MUNE software contained in a Viking IV system. The normal subjects were divided into two age groups (10 59 and 60 88 years). The EDB MUNE from all them was 184 49. Both, the MUNE and the amplitude of the compound muscle action potential (CMAP) were significantly lower in the older age group (page than CMAP amplitude ( 0.5002 and 0.4142, respectively pphisiology of the motor unit. The value of MUNE correlates better with the neuromuscular aging process than CMAP amplitude does.

  2. Differences between self-assessment and external rating of voice with regard to sex characteristics, age, and attractiveness.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sandmann, Katja; am Zehnhoff-Dinnesen, Antoinette; Schmidt, Claus-Michael; Rosslau, Ken; Lang-Roth, Ruth; Burgmer, Markus; Knief, Arne; Matulat, Peter; Vauth, Melanie; Deuster, Dirk

    2014-01-01

    This study investigates differences between the self-assessment and external rating of a person's voice with regard to sex characteristics, age, and attractiveness of the voice and mean fundamental frequency (F0). Cross-sectional study. A group of 47 participants with a balanced sex distribution was recruited and the following data were collected: videostroboscopy, voice range profile, F0, self-assessment questionnaire (attractiveness, masculinity or femininity of voice, and appearance), Voice Handicap Index, and questionnaires to determine levels of depression and quality of life. External rating was performed by four experts and four laymen. In both sexes, fair to moderate significant correlations between the self-assessment of masculinity (men)/femininity (women) of voice and masculinity/femininity of appearance could be found, but not between the self-assessment of attractiveness of voice and appearance. In men, a statistically significant correlation was found between external ratings and self-assessment of attractiveness and, with the exception of the female rating group, of masculinity. In women, self-assessment of femininity and attractiveness of voice did not correlate to a statistically significant extent with the evaluation of the external rater. Additionally, the statistical correlation between estimated and real ages was high. Although the objective parameters of age and gender identification could be rated with a high degree of accuracy, subjective parameters showed significant differences between self-assessment and external rating, in particular in rating women's voices. Taking these findings into account in treatments for modifying voice could impede successful interventions. As one consequence, we recommend summarizing target agreements in detail before the treatment. Copyright © 2014 The Voice Foundation. Published by Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.

  3. Molecular Diagnostics of Ageing and Tackling Age-related Disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Timmons, James A

    2017-01-01

    As average life expectancy increases there is a greater focus on health-span and, in particular, how to treat or prevent chronic age-associated diseases. Therapies which were able to control 'biological age' with the aim of postponing chronic and costly diseases of old age require an entirely new approach to drug development. Molecular technologies and machine-learning methods have already yielded diagnostics that help guide cancer treatment and cardiovascular procedures. Discovery of valid and clinically informative diagnostics of human biological age (combined with disease-specific biomarkers) has the potential to alter current drug-discovery strategies, aid clinical trial recruitment and maximize healthy ageing. I will review some basic principles that govern the development of 'ageing' diagnostics, how such assays could be used during the drug-discovery or development process. Important logistical and statistical considerations are illustrated by reviewing recent biomarker activity in the field of Alzheimer's disease, as dementia represents the most pressing of priorities for the pharmaceutical industry, as well as the chronic disease in humans most associated with age. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  4. Brain SPECT of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS): SPM analysis of two age groups

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Barnden, L.; Casse, R.; Kwiatek, R.; Kitchener, M.; DelFante, P.; Burnet, R.; Behin-Ain, S.; Unger, S.

    2002-01-01

    Full text: Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is a complex disorder characterised by profound fatigue and neuropsychiatric dysfunction. Previous studies with cerebral perfusion SPECT (rCBF) scans were performed with inhomogeneous patient populations and were not analysed with Statistical Parametric Mapping (SPM). We have used SPM to study subjects with moderate CFS based on the Fukuda criteria, who were not on medication and not depressed, compared to age matched control subjects. An apparent bimodal age distribution has been observed in CFS. Subjects were therefore divided into two age groups: 16-35 or under 35 (17 CFS, 11 control) and 36-61 or over 35 (15 CFS, 15 control). HMPAO brain SPECT was acquired on a 3-head camera. After lower window scatter subtraction, reconstruction with attenuation correction (mu=0.15/cm) and editing of facial activity, scans were spatially normalised (affine + 2x3x2 nonlinear) to SPM's anatomical space. SPM statistical analysis yielded the location, amplitude and corrected p-value of significant focal rCBF deficits. They were: for under 35, left lateral temporal lobe (13%, 0.004), the left insular region (15%, 0.006) and the right lentiform nucleus (15%, 0.01); and for over 35 the left lentiform nucleus (18%, 0.01). Counts at the most significant voxel in the under 35 age group permitted separation of the CFS and control groups with sensitivity 94% and specificity 100%. We are acquiring more controls to better define the age and sex dependence of rCBF in CFS. Analysis of associated clinical variables will be used to investigate the observed differences between the two age groups. Copyright (2002) The Australian and New Zealand Society of Nuclear Medicine Inc

  5. The study of regional cerebral glucose metabolic change in human being normal aging process by using PET scanner

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Si Mingjue; Huang Gang

    2008-01-01

    Objective: With the technique development, PET has been more and more applied in brain function research. The aim of this study was to investigate the tendency of regional cerebral glucose metabolism changes in human being normal aging process by using 18 F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) PET/CT and statistical parametric mapping (SPM) software. Methods: 18 F-FDG PET/CT brain imaging data acquired from 252 healthy normal subjects (age ranging: 21 to 88 years old) were divided into 6 groups according to their age: 21-30, 31-40, 41-50, 51-60, 61-70, 71-88. All 5 groups with age ≥31 years old were compared to the control group of 21-30 years old, and pixel-by-pixel t-statistic analysis was applied using the SPM2. The hypo-metabolic areas were identified by MNI space utility (MSU) software and the voxel value of each brain areas were calculated (P 60 years old showed significant metabolic decreases with aging mainly involved bilateral frontal lobe (pre-motto cortex, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, frontal pole), temporal lobe (temporal pole), insula, anterior cingulate cortex and cerebellum. The most significant metabolic decrease area with aging was the frontal lobe , followed by the anterior cingulate cortex, temporal lobe, insula and cerebellum at predominance right hemisphere (P<0.0001). Parietal lobe, parahippocampal gyrus, basal ganglia and thalamus remain metabolically unchanged with advancing aging. Conclusions: Cerebral metabolic function decrease with normal aging shows an inconstant and unsymmetrical process. The regional cerebral metabolic decrease much more significantly in older than 60 years old healthy volunteers, mainly involving bilateral frontal lobe, temporal lobe, insula, anterior cingulate cortex and cerebellum at right predominance hemisphere. (authors)

  6. Prognostic Value of Geriatric Conditions Beyond Age After Acute Coronary Syndrome.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sanchis, Juan; Ruiz, Vicente; Bonanad, Clara; Valero, Ernesto; Ruescas-Nicolau, Maria Arantzazu; Ezzatvar, Yasmin; Sastre, Clara; García-Blas, Sergio; Mollar, Anna; Bertomeu-González, Vicente; Miñana, Gema; Núñez, Julio

    2017-06-01

    The aim of the present study was to investigate the prognostic value of geriatric conditions beyond age after acute coronary syndrome. This was a prospective cohort design including 342 patients (from October 1, 2010, to February 1, 2012) hospitalized for acute coronary syndrome, older than 65 years, in whom 5 geriatric conditions were evaluated at discharge: frailty (Fried and Green scales), comorbidity (Charlson and simple comorbidity indexes), cognitive impairment (Pfeiffer test), physical disability (Barthel index), and instrumental disability (Lawton-Brody scale). The primary end point was all-cause mortality. The median follow-up for the entire population was 4.7 years (range, 3-2178 days). A total of 156 patients (46%) died. Among the geriatric conditions, frailty (Green score, per point; hazard ratio, 1.11; 95% CI, 1.02-1.20; P=.01) and comorbidity (Charlson index, per point; hazard ratio, 1.18; 95% CI, 1.0-1.40; P=.05) were the independent predictors. The introduction of age in a basic model using well-established prognostic clinical variables resulted in an increase in discrimination accuracy (C-statistic=.716-.744; P=.05), though the addition of frailty and comorbidity provided a nonsignificant further increase (C-statistic=.759; P=.36). Likewise, the addition of age to the clinical model led to a significant risk reclassification (continuous net reclassification improvement, 0.46; 95% CI, 0.21-0.67; and integrated discrimination improvement, 0.04; 95% CI, 0.01-0.09). However, the addition of frailty and comorbidity provided a further significant risk reclassification in comparison to the clinical model with age (continuous net reclassification improvement, 0.40; 95% CI, 0.16-0.65; and integrated discrimination improvement, 0.04; 95% CI, 0.01-0.10). In conclusion, frailty and comorbidity are mortality predictors that significantly reclassify risk beyond age after acute coronary syndrome. Copyright © 2017 Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and

  7. [Suicide in Luxembourg: a statistical study].

    Science.gov (United States)

    1983-01-01

    A review of the situation concerning suicide in Luxembourg is presented. The existing laws are first described, and some methodological questions are summarized. A statistical analysis of suicide in the country is then presented. Data are included on trends over time, 1881-1982; and on variations in suicide by sex, age, marital status, religion, nationality, and occupation and standard of living. A bibliography is also provided.

  8. The Storm of the Century! Promoting Student Enthusiasm for Applied Statistics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fawcett, Lee; Newman, Keith

    2017-01-01

    This article describes a hands-on activity that has been used with students aged 12-18 years to promote the study of Statistics. We believe there is evidence to suggest an increase in student enthusiasm for Statistics at school, within the Mathematics curriculum, but also within other subjects such as Geography. We also believe that the use of…

  9. Statistical thermodynamics

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lim, Gyeong Hui

    2008-03-01

    This book consists of 15 chapters, which are basic conception and meaning of statistical thermodynamics, Maxwell-Boltzmann's statistics, ensemble, thermodynamics function and fluctuation, statistical dynamics with independent particle system, ideal molecular system, chemical equilibrium and chemical reaction rate in ideal gas mixture, classical statistical thermodynamics, ideal lattice model, lattice statistics and nonideal lattice model, imperfect gas theory on liquid, theory on solution, statistical thermodynamics of interface, statistical thermodynamics of a high molecule system and quantum statistics

  10. Menstrual Disorders from Puberty to Early Adult Age: A Cross-Sectional Survey

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Krupa Hitesh Shah

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available Introduction: A female encounters various menstrual disorders from puberty to menopause. We evaluated menstrual disturbances in post-menarche age and young adult age. Aim: To know the prevalence and impact of menstrual abnormalities at early adolescent and young adult age and to evaluate course of disorders identified at early adolescent age. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional survey was carried out through self-administered questionnaire on 367 consented students at Melaka Manipal Medical College at Manipal, during December 2015- April 2016. Data were analysed by Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS 16.0 software. Results: Prevalence and pattern of menstrual disorders at early adolescent and at young adult age were noted. The mean age of menarche was 12.1 ±1.1 years. Menorrhagia was the most frequent (14.7% and 11.7% and polymenorrhea (7.6 % and 6% was least frequent menstrual disorder at adolescent age and young adult age respectively. Resolution of pubertal menstrual disorders was observed in all disorders, but noticed highest in oligomenorrhea (91%, (p-value <0.05. Prevalence of menstrual related disorder like dysmenorrhea was 88.7% at adolescent age and 67.6% at the young adult age. It was statistically significant reduction. Hindrance in academic performance and social behavior was noted more at young adult age, which was in 23.9% and 46.7% respectively (p-value <0.05. Conclusion: The most prevalent menstrual abnormality was menorrhagia at the early adolescent and the young adult age. Associated the most prevalent menstrual related symptoms were dysmenorrhea at early adolescent age, and premenstrual symptom at the young adult age. The study demonstrates the natural course (decreasing prevalence of all menstrual disorders from early adolescent to young adult age.

  11. Mortality variation across Australia: descriptive data for states and territories, and statistical divisions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wilkinson, D; Hiller, J; Moss, J; Ryan, P; Worsley, T

    2000-06-01

    To describe variation in all cause and selected cause-specific mortality rates across Australia. Mortality and population data for 1997 were obtained from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. All cause and selected cause-specific mortality rates were calculated and directly standardised to the 1997 Australian population in 5-year age groups. Selected major causes of death included cancer, coronary artery disease, cerebrovascular disease, diabetes, accidents and suicide. Rates are reported by statistical division, and State and Territory. All cause age-standardised mortality was 6.98 per 1000 in 1997 and this varied 2-fold from a low in the statistical division of Pilbara, Western Australia (5.78, 95% confidence interval 5.06-6.56), to a high in Northern Territory--excluding Darwin (11.30, 10.67-11.98). Similar mortality variation (all p killers. Larger variation (all p suicide (0.6-3.8 per 10,000). Less marked variation was observed when analysed by State and Territory, but Northern Territory consistently has the highest age-standardised mortality rates. Analysed by statistical division, substantial mortality gradients exist across Australia, suggesting an inequitable distribution of the determinants of health. Further research is required to better understand this heterogeneity.

  12. Age- and Sex-Associated Changes in Cerebral Glucose Metabolism in Normal Healthy Subjects: Statistical Parametric Mapping Analysis of F-18 Fluorodeoxyglucose Brain Positron Emission Tomography

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kim, In-Ju; Kim, Seong-Jang; Kim, Yong-Ki

    2009-01-01

    Background: The age- and sex-associated changes of brain development are unclear and controversial. Several previous studies showed conflicting results of a specific pattern of cerebral glucose metabolism or no differences of cerebral glucose metabolism in association with normal aging process and sex. Purpose: To investigate the effects of age and sex on changes in cerebral glucose metabolism in healthy subjects using fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose (F-18 FDG) brain positron emission tomography (PET) and statistical parametric mapping (SPM) analysis. Material and Methods: Seventy-eight healthy subjects (32 males, mean age 46.6±18.2 years; 46 females, mean age 40.6±19.8 years) underwent F-18 FDG brain PET. Using SPM, age- and sex-associated changes in cerebral glucose metabolism were investigated. Results: In males, a negative correlation existed in several gray matter areas, including the right temporopolar (Brodmann area [BA] 38), right orbitofrontal (BA 47), left orbitofrontal gyrus (BA 10), left dorsolateral frontal gyrus (BA 8), and left insula (BA 13) areas. A positive relationship existed in the left claustrum and left thalamus. In females, negative changes existed in the left caudate body, left temporopolar area (BA 38), right orbitofrontal gyri (BA 47 and BA 10), and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (BA 46). A positive association was demonstrated in the left subthalamic nucleus and the left superior frontal gyrus. In white matter, an age-associated decrease in FDG uptake in males was shown in the left insula, and increased FDG uptake was found in the left corpus callosum. The female group had an age-associated negative correlation of FDG uptake only in the right corpus callosum. Conclusion: Using SPM, we found not only similar areas of brain, but also sex-specific cerebral areas of age-associated changes of FDG uptake

  13. Age- and Sex-Associated Changes in Cerebral Glucose Metabolism in Normal Healthy Subjects: Statistical Parametric Mapping Analysis of F-18 Fluorodeoxyglucose Brain Positron Emission Tomography

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kim, In-Ju; Kim, Seong-Jang; Kim, Yong-Ki (Dept. of Nuclear Medicine, Pusan National Univ. Hospital, Busan (Korea); Medical Research Institute, Pusan National Univ., Busan (Korea)). e-mail: growthkim@daum.net/growthkim@pusan.ac.kr)

    2009-12-15

    Background: The age- and sex-associated changes of brain development are unclear and controversial. Several previous studies showed conflicting results of a specific pattern of cerebral glucose metabolism or no differences of cerebral glucose metabolism in association with normal aging process and sex. Purpose: To investigate the effects of age and sex on changes in cerebral glucose metabolism in healthy subjects using fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose (F-18 FDG) brain positron emission tomography (PET) and statistical parametric mapping (SPM) analysis. Material and Methods: Seventy-eight healthy subjects (32 males, mean age 46.6+-18.2 years; 46 females, mean age 40.6+-19.8 years) underwent F-18 FDG brain PET. Using SPM, age- and sex-associated changes in cerebral glucose metabolism were investigated. Results: In males, a negative correlation existed in several gray matter areas, including the right temporopolar (Brodmann area [BA] 38), right orbitofrontal (BA 47), left orbitofrontal gyrus (BA 10), left dorsolateral frontal gyrus (BA 8), and left insula (BA 13) areas. A positive relationship existed in the left claustrum and left thalamus. In females, negative changes existed in the left caudate body, left temporopolar area (BA 38), right orbitofrontal gyri (BA 47 and BA 10), and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (BA 46). A positive association was demonstrated in the left subthalamic nucleus and the left superior frontal gyrus. In white matter, an age-associated decrease in FDG uptake in males was shown in the left insula, and increased FDG uptake was found in the left corpus callosum. The female group had an age-associated negative correlation of FDG uptake only in the right corpus callosum. Conclusion: Using SPM, we found not only similar areas of brain, but also sex-specific cerebral areas of age-associated changes of FDG uptake

  14. Western Saudi adolescent age estimation utilising third molar development.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alshihri, Amin M; Kruger, Estie; Tennant, Marc

    2014-07-01

    The aim of this study was to establish reference data on third molar morphology/development for age estimation in Western Saudi adolescents, between ages 14 and 23 years of old. The orthopantomograms of 130 individuals (males and females), were examined, and the stage of third molar development were evaluated. Mean ages, standard deviations, and percentile distributions are presented for each stage of development. The mean estimated age for all participants (n = 130) was 219.7 months, and this differed significantly (P age (226.5 months). Deviations of predicted age from real age showed 28.5% of all participants had their age estimated within 1 year (±12 months) of their chronological age. Most (43%) had their age underestimated by more than 12 months and the remaining 28.5% had their age overestimated by more than 12 months of their chronological age. Differences in left-right symmetry information of third molars were detected and were higher in the maxilla (92%) than in the mandible (82%). For all molars reaching stage "H" most individuals (males and females) were over the age 18 years of old. Males reach the developmental stages earlier than females. Third molar tooth development can be reliably used to generate mean age and the estimated age range for an individual of unknown chronological age. Further studies with large populations are needed for better statistical results.

  15. Etiology of Burn Injuries Among 0-6 Aged Children in One University Hospital Burn Unit, Bursa, Turkey

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Neriman Akansel

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Background; Children whose verbal communications are not fully developed are the ones at risk for burn injuries. Causes of burn injuries vary among different age groups and scald injuries are the common cause of burn injuries among children. The majority of burns result from contact with thermal agents such as flame, hot surfaces, or hot liquids.Aim: The aim of this study was to determine etiologic factors of the burn injured children Methods: Data were collected for burn injured children treated in Uludag University Medical Hospital Burn Unit between January 2001 – December 2008. Patients’ demographic variables, etiology of burn injury, TBSA(total body surface area, degree of the burn injury, duration of hospitalization was detected from medical records of the hospitalized patients.Results: The mean age of the children was 2.5±1.5 (median=2. Although 4.6 % of burned patients were under one year of age, most of the children (67.8% were between 1-3 years. All of the patients were burned as a result of accident and house environment was the place where the burn incident occurred. Burn injuries occurredmostly during summer (29.9% and spring (28.7%. Scald injuries (75.3% were mostly seen burn injury types all among other burn injuries.Conclusions: Lack of supervision and observation are usually the most common causes of burn injuries in children. Statistical differences were found among age groups according to their burn etiology (p<0.05. An effect of TBSA on patient survival was statistically significant (p<0.000 and also statistically significant results were seen among age groups according to their TBSA’s (p<0.005.

  16. Reference data on reaction time and aging using the Nintendo Wii Balance Board: A cross-sectional study of 354 subjects from 20 to 99 years of age.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Blomkvist, Andreas W; Eika, Fredrik; Rahbek, Martin T; Eikhof, Karin D; Hansen, Mette D; Søndergaard, Malene; Ryg, Jesper; Andersen, Stig; Jørgensen, Martin G

    2017-01-01

    Falls among older adults is one of the major public health challenges facing the rapidly changing demography. The valid assessment of reaction time (RT) and other well-documented risk factors for falls are mainly restricted to specialized clinics due to the equipment needed. The Nintendo Wii Balance Board has the potential to be a multi-modal test and intervention instrument for these risk factors, however, reference data are lacking. To provide RT reference data and to characterize the age-related changes in RT measured by the Nintendo Wii Balance Board. Healthy participants were recruited at various locations and their RT in hands and feet were tested by six assessors using the Nintendo Wii Balance Board. Reference data were analysed and presented in age-groups, while the age-related change in RT was tested and characterized with linear regression models. 354 participants between 20 and 99 years of age were tested. For both hands and feet, mean RT and its variation increased with age. There was a statistically significant non-linear increase in RT with age. The averaged difference between male and female was significant, with males being faster than females for both hands and feet. The averaged difference between dominant and non-dominant side was non-significant. This study reported reference data with percentiles for a new promising method for reliably testing RT. The RT data were consistent with previously known effects of age and gender on RT.

  17. Reference data on reaction time and aging using the Nintendo Wii Balance Board: A cross-sectional study of 354 subjects from 20 to 99 years of age.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Andreas W Blomkvist

    Full Text Available Falls among older adults is one of the major public health challenges facing the rapidly changing demography. The valid assessment of reaction time (RT and other well-documented risk factors for falls are mainly restricted to specialized clinics due to the equipment needed. The Nintendo Wii Balance Board has the potential to be a multi-modal test and intervention instrument for these risk factors, however, reference data are lacking.To provide RT reference data and to characterize the age-related changes in RT measured by the Nintendo Wii Balance Board.Healthy participants were recruited at various locations and their RT in hands and feet were tested by six assessors using the Nintendo Wii Balance Board. Reference data were analysed and presented in age-groups, while the age-related change in RT was tested and characterized with linear regression models.354 participants between 20 and 99 years of age were tested. For both hands and feet, mean RT and its variation increased with age. There was a statistically significant non-linear increase in RT with age. The averaged difference between male and female was significant, with males being faster than females for both hands and feet. The averaged difference between dominant and non-dominant side was non-significant.This study reported reference data with percentiles for a new promising method for reliably testing RT. The RT data were consistent with previously known effects of age and gender on RT.

  18. Correlation of Cognitive Abilities Level, Age and Ranks in Judo

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kraček Stanislav

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available The aim of this paper is to ascertain the correlation between selected cognitive abilities, age and performance of judokas according to ranking. The study group consisted of judokas in the age group 18 ± 2.4 years. The Stroop Color-Word Test - Victoria Version (VST was the instrument used to determine the level of cognitive abilities. The data obtained were measured by the Pearson Correlation (r correlation test. The results of the study show an associative relationship of indirect correlation (p < 0.01 between age and all of the three categories of the Stroop test. This is an indirect correlation, so the higher the age, the lower the time (better performance of the probands in the Stroop test. There was no statistically significant correlation between performance in the categories of the Stroop test and rankings. The outcomes show that the level of selected cognitive abilities depends on age, but the level of the selected cognitive abilities does not affect the ranking of the judokas.

  19. Age at immigration and crime in Stockholm using sibling comparisons.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Beckley, Amber L

    2015-09-01

    Past Swedish research has shown that immigrants arriving in the receiving country at an older age are less likely to commit crime than immigrants arriving at a younger age. Segmented assimilation theory argues that the family and neighborhood may be important factors affecting how age at immigration and crime are related to one another. This study used population-based register data on foreign-background males from Stockholm to test the effect of age at immigration on crime. Potential confounding from the family and neighborhood was addressed using variables and modeling strategies. Initial results, using variables to control for confounding, showed that people who immigrated around age 4 were the most likely to be suspected of a crime. When controlling for unmeasured family characteristics, it seemed that a later age at immigration was tied to a lower likelihood of crime, which does not corroborate past research findings. The effect of age at immigration, however, was not statistically significant. The results imply that future research on entire families may be a worthwhile endeavor. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  20. Efficacy of adjunctive mitomycin C in transcanalicular diode laser dacryocystorhinostomy in different age groups.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kar, Taner; Yildirim, Yildiray; Topal, Tuncay; Çolakoğlu, Kadir; Ünal, Melih Hamdi

    2016-01-01

    To evaluate the efficacy of adjunctive mitomycin C (MMC) in transcanalicular multidiode laser dacryocystorhinostomy (TCL-DCR) in different age groups. Ninety-six eyes of 96 patients who underwent TCL-DCR for the treatment of nasolacrimal duct obstruction were included in this retrospective, comparative study. Patients were divided into 4 groups based on age and intraoperative use of MMC: group 1, TCL-DCR without MMC in the 20- to 44-year age group; group 2, TCL-DCR with MMC in the 20- to 44-year age group; group 3, TCL-DCR without MMC in the 45- to 76-year age group; group 4, TCL-DCR with MMC in the 45- to 76-year age group. The postoperative evaluation consisted of calculating and comparing the success rates between groups. Success rates at the final visit were 50% for group 1, 66.66% for group 2, 79.16% for group 3, and 84.61% for group 4. The differences between group 1 and group 4, and group 1 and group 3, were significant (p = 0.01 and p = 0.038, respectively). Logistic regression showed that age group had significant effect on success rate (p = 0.013). However, use of MMC had no significant effect on success rate (p = 0.23). The success rates of the TCL-DCR with MMC application were found to be higher than those of TCL-DCR without MMC in different age groups. However, the differences did not reach statistical significance. In addition, our study demonstrated that age may be a significant factor influencing the surgical outcome of TCL-DCR.

  1. Feasibility of microcoria optometry in screening for ametropia in school-age children

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    Zhe Su

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available AIM:To discuss the feasibility of microcoria optometry in screening for children ametropia. METHODS: Totally 217 school-age children were selected, included 94 first-grade students(6~8 years oldand 123 fourth-grade students(9~12 years old. Refractive diopter was measured with automatic refractor RM-8000 to evaluate the accuracy of micocoria optometry in screening ametropia. RESULTS: After cycloplegia, both the mean sphere diopter and cylinder diopter in grade one students changed significantly(PPP>0.05in grade four students. Different refractive type: before and after mydriasis spherical myopia, spherical equivalent difference was 0.263±0.618 and 0.216±0.653D, with statistical significance(PP=0.000. The lenticular difference between the two groups were not statistically different(P>0.05. Choosing small pupil computer optometry for ≤-1.00D, ≥-0.50D child myopia or hyperopia could get more accurate value of diagnostic cutoffs, Youden index was 0.672 and 0.580.CONCLUSION: Microcoria optometry can be as a effective method of screening of children with ametropia, but if for optometry, school-age children must accept mydriasis.

  2. Age-Related Grade Inflation Expectancies in a University Environment

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    Donald A. Loffredo

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Grade inflation is a recognized problem in higher education in the United States. Age, gender, and ethnic differences in discrepancies between student reports of their expected grade in each course and their expectations for general university grading practices were explored in a survey of 166 (mostly female participants at a small upper-division university. Results revealed that while a small minority of students agreed that grading systems in college should only include A or B grades, a large majority of students expected A or B grades. Thus, student discrepancies between their expectations for grading systems and their expected class grades were in line with expectations that they should receive inflated grades. Results also revealed statistically significant age differences in grade expectation with students older than the age of 55 expecting lower grades relative to their younger counterparts.

  3. Sex and age related differences in postmyelographic adverse reactions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Maly, P.

    1989-01-01

    Differences in frequency of postmyelographic adverse reactions were analyzed with respect to sex and age in a prospective study including 1026 patients injected with metrizamide and 739 injected with iohexol. Regardless of the type of contrast medium or myelography, all types of adverse reactions were 1.4-3.8 times as frequent in women as in men. Most of the differences were statistically significant. Headache was more frequent, while vomiting and dizziness were less frequent in both women and men aged 26-50 years compared with those over 50 years of age. Dizziness and increased low back pain were consistently reported spontaneously by the patients less frequently than emerged via formal interview. The large differences between the sexes suggest that further research on contrast media toxicity would be best performed with separation of the data by gender. (orig.)

  4. The postgraduate students’ (masters, PhD metaphors about education of statistic

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Colak Serap

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Statistics is an important part of our life when it comes to economy, education, sport, politics and research. Research is a primary job for the ones pursuing academic career and statistics is one of the basic components of a research. Metaphor is used as an equivalent to figurative expression (‘mecaz’ in Turkish language. Study group is composed of 19 females (age 27.7 and 40 males (age 30.85 - 59 students in total. Demographic information of participants was collected. Participants were provided with questionnaire in order to assess their metaphorical creation whereby they were asked to fill in the sentence - “statistics is like/ similar to …, because…” - with metaphor. The study has collected total of 59 metaphors in 6 categories. The most created metaphor is in ‘discovering/ revealing’ category. 42.5% of Master’s students and 25% of PhD students are in this category. Metaphors created by graduate students are representing their views about statistics course and hence their view about importance of research. The category ‘discovering/ revealing’, the one with the most created metaphor of this study, is the main concept of science. Consequently, good knowledge of statistics is needed for graduate students to conduct research.

  5. Persuasiveness of Statistics and Patients’ and Mothers’ Narratives in Human Papillomavirus Vaccine Recommendation Messages: A Randomized Controlled Study in Japan

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tsuyoshi Okuhara

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available BackgroundThe human papillomavirus (HPV vaccination percentage among age-eligible girls in Japan is only in the single digits. This signals the need for effective vaccine communication tactics. This study aimed to examine the influence of statistical data and narrative HPV vaccination recommendation massages on recipients’ vaccination intentions.MethodsThis randomized controlled study covered 1,432 mothers who had daughters aged 12–16 years. It compared message persuasiveness among four conditions: statistical messages only; narrative messages of a patient who experienced cervical cancer, in addition to statistical messages; narrative messages of a mother whose daughter experienced cervical cancer, in addition to statistical messages; and a control. Vaccination intentions to have one’s daughter(s receive the HPV vaccine before and after reading intervention materials were assessed. Statistical analysis was conducted using analysis of variance with Tukey’s test or Games–Howell post hoc test, and analysis of covariance with Bonferroni correction.ResultsVaccination intentions after intervention in the three intervention conditions were higher than the control condition (p < 0.001. A mother’s narrative messages in addition to statistical messages increased HPV vaccination intention the most of all tested intervention conditions. A significant difference in the estimated means of intention with the covariate adjustment for baseline value (i.e., intention before intervention was found between a mother’s narrative messages in addition to statistical messages and statistical messages only (p = 0.040.DiscussionMothers’ narrative messages may be persuasive when targeting mothers for promoting HPV vaccination. This may be because mothers can easily relate to and identify with communications from other mothers. However, for effective HPV vaccine communication, further studies are needed to understand more about persuasive

  6. [Statistics for statistics?--Thoughts about psychological tools].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Berger, Uwe; Stöbel-Richter, Yve

    2007-12-01

    Statistical methods take a prominent place among psychologists' educational programs. Being known as difficult to understand and heavy to learn, students fear of these contents. Those, who do not aspire after a research carrier at the university, will forget the drilled contents fast. Furthermore, because it does not apply for the work with patients and other target groups at a first glance, the methodological education as a whole was often questioned. For many psychological practitioners the statistical education makes only sense by enforcing respect against other professions, namely physicians. For the own business, statistics is rarely taken seriously as a professional tool. The reason seems to be clear: Statistics treats numbers, while psychotherapy treats subjects. So, does statistics ends in itself? With this article, we try to answer the question, if and how statistical methods were represented within the psychotherapeutical and psychological research. Therefore, we analyzed 46 Originals of a complete volume of the journal Psychotherapy, Psychosomatics, Psychological Medicine (PPmP). Within the volume, 28 different analyse methods were applied, from which 89 per cent were directly based upon statistics. To be able to write and critically read Originals as a backbone of research, presumes a high degree of statistical education. To ignore statistics means to ignore research and at least to reveal the own professional work to arbitrariness.

  7. Effect of in vitro aging on the flexural strength and probability to fracture of Y-TZP zirconia ceramics for all-ceramic restorations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Siarampi, Eleni; Kontonasaki, Eleana; Andrikopoulos, Konstantinos S; Kantiranis, Nikolaos; Voyiatzis, George A; Zorba, Triantafillia; Paraskevopoulos, Konstantinos M; Koidis, Petros

    2014-12-01

    Dental zirconia restorations should present long-term clinical survival and be in service within the oral environment for many years. However, low temperature degradation could affect their mechanical properties and survival. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of in vitro aging on the flexural strength of yttrium-stabilized (Y-TZP) zirconia ceramics for ceramic restorations. One hundred twenty bar-shaped specimens were prepared from two ceramics (ZENO Zr (WI) and IPS e.max(®) ZirCAD (IV)), and loaded until fracture according to ISO 6872. The specimens from each ceramic (nx=60) were divided in three groups (control, aged for 5h, aged for 10h). One-way ANOVA was used to assess statistically significant differences among flexural strength values (Pceramics, however statistically significant was for the WI group (Pceramics presented a t→m phase transformation, with the m-phase increasing from 4 to 5% at 5h to around 15% after 10h. The significant reduction of the flexural strength after 10h of in vitro aging, suggests high fracture probability for one of the zirconia ceramics tested. Copyright © 2014 Academy of Dental Materials. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  8. Predictors of Bone Mineral Density in African-American and Caucasian College Aged Women

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Andrea K. Johnson

    2015-03-01

    Full Text Available Background: Research regarding risk factors and prevalence of low bone min-eral density (BMD among African-American and Caucasian college-aged wom-en are limited. The objective of this cross-sectional study was to determine if selected predictors of BMD in African-American and Caucasian college-aged women differ by race.Methods: A total of 101 local African-American (n=50 and Caucasian (n=51 females, ages 18 to 30 years, were in this study. All data were collected in the Bone Density and Body Composition Laboratory. BMD was measured using DXA technology. Race, family history of osteoporosis, BMI, current physical activity, osteoporosis knowledge, length of time on oral contraceptives, age at menarche and calcium intake were included in the multiple regression analyses with spinal and femoral BMD as dependent variables.Results: Overall, 38.6% had low spinal BMD and 7.9% had low femoral BMD. BMI (β=0.073, R2 = .148, P = .001, 95% CI [0.030, 0.116] and current physical activity (β=0.071, R2 = .148, P = .017, 95% CI [0.013, 0.129] were the only variables that were statistically significant in predicting spinal BMD. BMI (β=0.056, R2 = .13, P = .010, 95% CI [0.014, 0.098] and current physical activ-ity (β=0.078, R2 = .13, P = .007, 95% CI [0.022, 0.134] were also the only varia-bles that were statistically significant in predicting femoral BMD. Race was not a significant predictor of spinal or femoral BMD.Conclusion: It is imperative for both African-American and Caucasian women to engage in osteoporosis-preventive behaviors.

  9. Physical activity, quality of life and medication in aging: differences between age and gender

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Émerson Sebastião

    2009-01-01

    Full Text Available http://dx.doi.org/10.5007/1980-0037.2009v11n2p210   Studies have shown an inverse relationship between physical activity level (PAL, quality of life (QoL and use of medications in the elderly. The objective of this study was to analyze possible relationships and differences between PAL, QoL and use of medications in the elderly. A total of 192 subjects (≥ 60 years were selected by stratified random sampling according to census sector. The following assessment instruments were used: a Modified Baecke Questionnaire for older adults, b Medical Outcomes Study – 36-Item Short Form Health Survey, and c Sociodemographic and Health Factors Questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and parametric and nonparametric tests were used (p < 0.05. a With respect to chronological age, significant differences between groups were only observed for PAL, with G1 (60-69 years being more active than the other groups. b With respect to gender irrespective of age, analysis showed a difference in QoL and in the number of medications, with men reporting better perceived QoL and using fewer medications. c With respect to gender but considering chronological age, differences in PAL, QoL and medication use were observed between genders for specific age groups. In conclusion, in the elderly a PAL is low, declines even more during advanced age and is higher in men than in women during the first decade of old age, and b men report better perceived QoL and use fewer medications than women.

  10. SM-ND Age and REE Systematics of Larkman Nunatek 06319: Closed System Fractional Crystallization of a Shergottite Magma

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shafer, J. T.; Brandon, A. D.; Lapen T. J.; Righter, M.; Peslier, A. H.

    2010-01-01

    Sm-Nd isotopic data were collected on mineral separates and bulk rock powders of LAR 06319, yielding an age of 180+/-13 Ma (2(sigma)). This age is concordant with the Lu-Hf age (197+/-29 Ma, [1]) determined in conjunction with these data and the Sm-Nd age (190+/-26 Ma) of Shih et al., 2009 [2]. The Sm-Nd data form at statistically significant isochron (Fig. 1) that is controlled largely by leachate-residue pairs (samples with the R suffix are residues after leaching in cold 2N HCl for 10 minutes).

  11. On a curvature-statistics theorem

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Calixto, M; Aldaya, V

    2008-01-01

    The spin-statistics theorem in quantum field theory relates the spin of a particle to the statistics obeyed by that particle. Here we investigate an interesting correspondence or connection between curvature (κ = ±1) and quantum statistics (Fermi-Dirac and Bose-Einstein, respectively). The interrelation between both concepts is established through vacuum coherent configurations of zero modes in quantum field theory on the compact O(3) and noncompact O(2; 1) (spatial) isometry subgroups of de Sitter and Anti de Sitter spaces, respectively. The high frequency limit, is retrieved as a (zero curvature) group contraction to the Newton-Hooke (harmonic oscillator) group. We also make some comments on the physical significance of the vacuum energy density and the cosmological constant problem.

  12. On a curvature-statistics theorem

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Calixto, M [Departamento de Matematica Aplicada y Estadistica, Universidad Politecnica de Cartagena, Paseo Alfonso XIII 56, 30203 Cartagena (Spain); Aldaya, V [Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia, Apartado Postal 3004, 18080 Granada (Spain)], E-mail: Manuel.Calixto@upct.es

    2008-08-15

    The spin-statistics theorem in quantum field theory relates the spin of a particle to the statistics obeyed by that particle. Here we investigate an interesting correspondence or connection between curvature ({kappa} = {+-}1) and quantum statistics (Fermi-Dirac and Bose-Einstein, respectively). The interrelation between both concepts is established through vacuum coherent configurations of zero modes in quantum field theory on the compact O(3) and noncompact O(2; 1) (spatial) isometry subgroups of de Sitter and Anti de Sitter spaces, respectively. The high frequency limit, is retrieved as a (zero curvature) group contraction to the Newton-Hooke (harmonic oscillator) group. We also make some comments on the physical significance of the vacuum energy density and the cosmological constant problem.

  13. The Relationship of Age, Body Mass Index, and Individual Habit to Bone Mineral Density in Adults

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Park, Soung Ock; Lee, In Ja; Shin, Gwi Soon

    2008-01-01

    We studied the change of bone mineral density (BMD) by age, body mass index (BMI), coffee, carbonated drink, alcohol, smoking, and exercise in adults who checked in health center. The number of study subjects was total 268 persons (women of 136 persons and men of 132 persons). The BMD was determined in lumbar spine and femoral neck by dual energy x-ray absorptiometry. And we got some results as below : 1. In women, mean body height was , mean body weight was 155.8±6.0 cm, and mean BMI was 56.8±7.9 kg. In men, mean body height was 169.1±6.0 cm, mean body weight was 69.0±9.5 kg, and mean BMI was 24.1±2.7 kg/m 2 . 2. BMD decreased as age increased, and the age was the most determinant factor for BMD (p<0.01). Women's BMD decreased rapidly in the groups aged ≥50s, while men's BMD decreased gradually with age. In addition, for both sex, lower BMD was measured in lumbar spine than in femoral neck. 3. BMD increased in high BMI, and BMD with BMI increased distinctly in the group aged 50s. But their relationship was not significant. 4. In view of the distribution by three BMD categories, women's BMD was mostly normal in the groups aged ≥40s but the rate of osteopenia and osteoporosis was similar in the group aged 50s, and the rate of osteoporosis was the highest in the groups aged 60s and 70s. Men's BMD was mostly normal through all groups except the group aged 70s. 5. Coffee and carbonated drink were not influenced in BMD. But alcohol-drinking group showed higher BMD than non-drinking group, and alcohol was statistically significant determinant for BMD (p<0.05). Smoking and exercise were not statistically significant determinant of BMD.

  14. The Relationship of Age, Body Mass Index, and Individual Habit to Bone Mineral Density in Adults

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Park, Soung Ock; Lee, In Ja; Shin, Gwi Soon [Dept. of Radiologic Techology, Dongnam Health College, Suwon (Korea, Republic of)

    2008-12-15

    We studied the change of bone mineral density (BMD) by age, body mass index (BMI), coffee, carbonated drink, alcohol, smoking, and exercise in adults who checked in health center. The number of study subjects was total 268 persons (women of 136 persons and men of 132 persons). The BMD was determined in lumbar spine and femoral neck by dual energy x-ray absorptiometry. And we got some results as below : 1. In women, mean body height was , mean body weight was 155.8{+-}6.0 cm, and mean BMI was 56.8{+-}7.9 kg. In men, mean body height was 169.1{+-}6.0 cm, mean body weight was 69.0{+-}9.5 kg, and mean BMI was 24.1{+-}2.7 kg/m{sup 2}. 2. BMD decreased as age increased, and the age was the most determinant factor for BMD (p<0.01). Women's BMD decreased rapidly in the groups aged {>=}50s, while men's BMD decreased gradually with age. In addition, for both sex, lower BMD was measured in lumbar spine than in femoral neck. 3. BMD increased in high BMI, and BMD with BMI increased distinctly in the group aged 50s. But their relationship was not significant. 4. In view of the distribution by three BMD categories, women's BMD was mostly normal in the groups aged {>=}40s but the rate of osteopenia and osteoporosis was similar in the group aged 50s, and the rate of osteoporosis was the highest in the groups aged 60s and 70s. Men's BMD was mostly normal through all groups except the group aged 70s. 5. Coffee and carbonated drink were not influenced in BMD. But alcohol-drinking group showed higher BMD than non-drinking group, and alcohol was statistically significant determinant for BMD (p<0.05). Smoking and exercise were not statistically significant determinant of BMD.

  15. [Incidence of long (short) PR interval in electrocardiogram among healthy people in Changsha and its clinical significance].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Liping; Lin, Ping; Xu, Yi; Wu, Lijia; Zou, Runmei; Xie, Zhenwu; Wang, Cheng

    2016-04-01

    To analyze the incidence of long (short) PR interval in electrocardiogram among healthy people in Changsha and the clinical significance.
 Twelve-lead body surface electrocardiogram was taken to measure the heart rates and PR intervals from 4 025 healthy individuals (age range from 6 min after birth to 83 years old) who performed physical examination from Jan, 1993 to Dec, 2012 in the Second Xiangya Hospital, Central South University. Statistics were analyzed by SPSS 16.0.
 The total incidence of short PR interval was 19.65% (791/4 025). The age group from birth to 13 years old had a higher incidence than the other age groups (χ2=432, PPR intervals was 3.58% (144/4 025). The 1 year-old group had the highest incidence (6.74%), which decreased with the increase of age. The lowest incidence of long PR intervals occurred in the age group from 14-17 years old, which gradually increased after 50 years old. There were no significant differences in long (short) PR intervals between the gender (P>0.05).
 The incidence of long (short) PR intervals varies in different age groups of healthy people. The incidences of long (short) PR intervals in children before 10 years old are higher than those in adults, especially the short PR intervals, as a result of the heart rate affected by childhood autonomic nervous function and the change in atrial volume with age. Adults have long (short) PR interval should be regularly followed-up to prevent cardiovascular events.

  16. Cognitive impairment in schizophrenia across age groups: a case-control study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mosiołek, Anna; Gierus, Jacek; Koweszko, Tytus; Szulc, Agata

    2016-02-24

    The potential dynamics of cognitive impairment in schizophrenia is discussed in the literature of the field. Recent publications suggest modest changes in level of cognitive impairment after first psychotic episode. Present article attempts to explore cognitive differences between patients and controls across age groups and differences between age groups in clinical group. One hundred and twenty-eight hospitalized patients with schizophrenia (64 women and 64 men) and 68 individuals from the control group (32 women and 32 men) aged 18-55 years were examined. The patients were divided into age groups (18-25, 26-35, 36-45, 46-55). Both groups were examined using Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test, Rey Osterrieth Complex Figure Test, Trail Making Test (A and B), Stroop Test, verbal fluency test and Wechsler digit span. Patients with schizophrenia obtained significantly lower scores versus the control group in regard to all the measured cognitive functions (Mann-Whitney U; p age groups, however, statistically important impairment in executive functions (WCST) were present only in "older" groups. Patients with schizophrenia obtained less favourable results than the control group in all age groups. Deficits regarding executive functions do not seem to be at a significant level among the youngest group, whereas they are more noticeable in the group of 46-55-year-olds. Executive functions are significantly lowered in the group aged 36-45 in comparison to the "younger" groups. The level of cognitive functions shows a mild exacerbation in connection with age, whereas cognitive rigidity proved to be related to the number of years spent without hospital treatment.

  17. Relationship of age, prostate-specific antigen, and prostate volume in Indonesian men with benign prostatic hyperplasia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Putra, Ida Bagus O W; Hamid, Agus R A H; Mochtar, Chaidir A; Umbas, Rainy

    2016-06-01

    To investigate the relationship between age, prostate specific antigen (PSA), and prostate volume (PV) in Indonesian men with histologically proven benign prostatic hyperplasia. Data were generated from our BPH database from June 1994 until December 2013. Subjects were men with a minimum age of 40 years with chief complaint of LUTS or urinary retention, diagnosed with BPH. All patients underwent TRUS-guided prostate biopsy. Patients with PSA level >10 ng/mL were excluded from the study to exclude the possibility of occult prostate cancer. PV was measured with TRUS. Appropriate statistical tests were employed for data analysis. In all, 1638 patients were enrolled in our study. There was a statistically significant difference in PSA (P = 0.03) and PV (P Prostate volume was significantly correlated with PSA. Even though the results were weaker, these results are consistent with results in other sets of population. The results vary between different countries and thus, ethnicities. Indonesia is a populous a sociocultural and ethnically diverse country. Therefore, aside from PSA, age, and PV, when investigating men with BPH, ethnicity may also need to be taken into account.

  18. Testing statistical hypotheses of equivalence

    CERN Document Server

    Wellek, Stefan

    2010-01-01

    Equivalence testing has grown significantly in importance over the last two decades, especially as its relevance to a variety of applications has become understood. Yet published work on the general methodology remains scattered in specialists' journals, and for the most part, it focuses on the relatively narrow topic of bioequivalence assessment.With a far broader perspective, Testing Statistical Hypotheses of Equivalence provides the first comprehensive treatment of statistical equivalence testing. The author addresses a spectrum of specific, two-sided equivalence testing problems, from the

  19. Trace element correlations with age and sex in human fingernails

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chaudhary, K.

    1995-01-01

    Concentrations of 17 elements in fingernails of 92 control individuals with ages ranging from 4 months to 93 years living in a relatively non-industrial environment were determined by instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA). Statistical analysis demonstrated several different patterns of trace element correlation with age and sex. Bromine, Co, Cr, Fe, Na and Sb were found to be negatively correlated (p.<0.05) with age, while Zn was positively correlated (p.<0.05). Silver, Au, Se, and Zn concentrations were found to be higher in females than in males. Males had higher concentrations of Na and K than females. Significant interelement correlations were also observed. The age and sex variations observed should prove to be useful in proper interpretation of elemental imbalances associated with degenerative neurological diseases, especially in view of recent reports that markers for AD have been detected in external tissue. (author). 22 refs., 4 tabs

  20. An Analysis of the Influence of Selected Genetic and Hormonal Factors on the Occurrence of Depressive Symptoms in Late-Reproductive-Age Women

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anna Jurczak

    2015-03-01

    Full Text Available Background: The aim of this study was to analyze the influence of genetic and hormonal factors on incidences of depressive symptoms in late-reproductive-age women. Methods: The study was performed using the Beck Depression Inventory, the PCR, and genetic tests of 347 healthy late-reproductive-age Polish women. Results: The relationship between the level of anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH and depressive symptoms was not statistically significant (p > 0.05. Increases in age and FSH levels were accompanied by a decrease in AMH level in a significant way (p < 0.05. There were no statistically significant relationships between the distribution of genotypes and the frequency of alleles of the investigated polymorphisms and depressive symptoms according to the Beck Depression Inventory. Conclusions: (1 The presence of the s/s genotype of the 5-HTTLPR polymorphism in the serotonin transporter promoter region and the 3/3 genotype of the 30-bp VNTR polymorphism in the monoamine oxidase A promoter region does not contribute to the development of depressive symptoms in late-reproductive-age women. (2 A relationship between the level of anti-Müllerian hormone and depressive symptoms was not confirmed in the group of healthy late-reproductive-age women. (3 AMH level correlates negatively with FSH level and age, which confirms that AMH can be regarded as a factor reflecting the ovarian reserve.