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Sample records for univariate analysis shows

  1. [A SAS marco program for batch processing of univariate Cox regression analysis for great database].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Rendong; Xiong, Jie; Peng, Yangqin; Peng, Xiaoning; Zeng, Xiaomin

    2015-02-01

    To realize batch processing of univariate Cox regression analysis for great database by SAS marco program. We wrote a SAS macro program, which can filter, integrate, and export P values to Excel by SAS9.2. The program was used for screening survival correlated RNA molecules of ovarian cancer. A SAS marco program could finish the batch processing of univariate Cox regression analysis, the selection and export of the results. The SAS macro program has potential applications in reducing the workload of statistical analysis and providing a basis for batch processing of univariate Cox regression analysis.

  2. VC-dimension of univariate decision trees.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yildiz, Olcay Taner

    2015-02-01

    In this paper, we give and prove the lower bounds of the Vapnik-Chervonenkis (VC)-dimension of the univariate decision tree hypothesis class. The VC-dimension of the univariate decision tree depends on the VC-dimension values of its subtrees and the number of inputs. Via a search algorithm that calculates the VC-dimension of univariate decision trees exhaustively, we show that our VC-dimension bounds are tight for simple trees. To verify that the VC-dimension bounds are useful, we also use them to get VC-generalization bounds for complexity control using structural risk minimization in decision trees, i.e., pruning. Our simulation results show that structural risk minimization pruning using the VC-dimension bounds finds trees that are more accurate as those pruned using cross validation.

  3. Handbook of univariate and multivariate data analysis with IBM SPSS

    CERN Document Server

    Ho, Robert

    2013-01-01

    Using the same accessible, hands-on approach as its best-selling predecessor, the Handbook of Univariate and Multivariate Data Analysis with IBM SPSS, Second Edition explains how to apply statistical tests to experimental findings, identify the assumptions underlying the tests, and interpret the findings. This second edition now covers more topics and has been updated with the SPSS statistical package for Windows.New to the Second EditionThree new chapters on multiple discriminant analysis, logistic regression, and canonical correlationNew section on how to deal with missing dataCoverage of te

  4. Decoding auditory spatial and emotional information encoding using multivariate versus univariate techniques.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kryklywy, James H; Macpherson, Ewan A; Mitchell, Derek G V

    2018-04-01

    Emotion can have diverse effects on behaviour and perception, modulating function in some circumstances, and sometimes having little effect. Recently, it was identified that part of the heterogeneity of emotional effects could be due to a dissociable representation of emotion in dual pathway models of sensory processing. Our previous fMRI experiment using traditional univariate analyses showed that emotion modulated processing in the auditory 'what' but not 'where' processing pathway. The current study aims to further investigate this dissociation using a more recently emerging multi-voxel pattern analysis searchlight approach. While undergoing fMRI, participants localized sounds of varying emotional content. A searchlight multi-voxel pattern analysis was conducted to identify activity patterns predictive of sound location and/or emotion. Relative to the prior univariate analysis, MVPA indicated larger overlapping spatial and emotional representations of sound within early secondary regions associated with auditory localization. However, consistent with the univariate analysis, these two dimensions were increasingly segregated in late secondary and tertiary regions of the auditory processing streams. These results, while complimentary to our original univariate analyses, highlight the utility of multiple analytic approaches for neuroimaging, particularly for neural processes with known representations dependent on population coding.

  5. What do differences between multi-voxel and univariate analysis mean? How subject-, voxel-, and trial-level variance impact fMRI analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Davis, Tyler; LaRocque, Karen F; Mumford, Jeanette A; Norman, Kenneth A; Wagner, Anthony D; Poldrack, Russell A

    2014-08-15

    Multi-voxel pattern analysis (MVPA) has led to major changes in how fMRI data are analyzed and interpreted. Many studies now report both MVPA results and results from standard univariate voxel-wise analysis, often with the goal of drawing different conclusions from each. Because MVPA results can be sensitive to latent multidimensional representations and processes whereas univariate voxel-wise analysis cannot, one conclusion that is often drawn when MVPA and univariate results differ is that the activation patterns underlying MVPA results contain a multidimensional code. In the current study, we conducted simulations to formally test this assumption. Our findings reveal that MVPA tests are sensitive to the magnitude of voxel-level variability in the effect of a condition within subjects, even when the same linear relationship is coded in all voxels. We also find that MVPA is insensitive to subject-level variability in mean activation across an ROI, which is the primary variance component of interest in many standard univariate tests. Together, these results illustrate that differences between MVPA and univariate tests do not afford conclusions about the nature or dimensionality of the neural code. Instead, targeted tests of the informational content and/or dimensionality of activation patterns are critical for drawing strong conclusions about the representational codes that are indicated by significant MVPA results. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  6. A Guideline to Univariate Statistical Analysis for LC/MS-Based Untargeted Metabolomics-Derived Data

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maria Vinaixa

    2012-10-01

    Full Text Available Several metabolomic software programs provide methods for peak picking, retention time alignment and quantification of metabolite features in LC/MS-based metabolomics. Statistical analysis, however, is needed in order to discover those features significantly altered between samples. By comparing the retention time and MS/MS data of a model compound to that from the altered feature of interest in the research sample, metabolites can be then unequivocally identified. This paper reports on a comprehensive overview of a workflow for statistical analysis to rank relevant metabolite features that will be selected for further MS/MS experiments. We focus on univariate data analysis applied in parallel on all detected features. Characteristics and challenges of this analysis are discussed and illustrated using four different real LC/MS untargeted metabolomic datasets. We demonstrate the influence of considering or violating mathematical assumptions on which univariate statistical test rely, using high-dimensional LC/MS datasets. Issues in data analysis such as determination of sample size, analytical variation, assumption of normality and homocedasticity, or correction for multiple testing are discussed and illustrated in the context of our four untargeted LC/MS working examples.

  7. Univariate and multivariate analysis on processing tomato quality under different mulches

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Carmen Moreno

    2014-04-01

    Full Text Available The use of eco-friendly mulch materials as alternatives to the standard polyethylene (PE has become increasingly prevalent worldwide. Consequently, a comparison of mulch materials from different origins is necessary to evaluate their feasibility. Several researchers have compared the effects of mulch materials on each crop variable through univariate analysis (ANOVA. However, it is important to focus on the effect of these materials on fruit quality, because this factor decisively influences the acceptance of the final product by consumers and the industrial sector. This study aimed to analyze the information supplied by a randomized complete block experiment combined over two seasons, a principal component analysis (PCA and a cluster analysis (CA when studying the effects of mulch materials on the quality of processing tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.. The study focused on the variability in the quality measurements and on the determination of mulch materials with a similar response to them. A comparison of the results from both types of analysis yielded complementary information. ANOVA showed the similarity of certain materials. However, considering the totality of the variables analyzed, the final interpretation was slightly complicated. PCA indicated that the juice color, the fruit firmness and the soluble solid content were the most influential factors in the total variability of a set of 12 juice and fruit variables, and CA allowed us to establish four categories of treatment: plastics (polyethylene - PE, oxo- and biodegradable materials, papers, manual weeding and barley (Hordeum vulgare L. straw. Oxobiodegradable and PE were most closely related based on CA.

  8. The pathways for intelligible speech: multivariate and univariate perspectives.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Evans, S; Kyong, J S; Rosen, S; Golestani, N; Warren, J E; McGettigan, C; Mourão-Miranda, J; Wise, R J S; Scott, S K

    2014-09-01

    An anterior pathway, concerned with extracting meaning from sound, has been identified in nonhuman primates. An analogous pathway has been suggested in humans, but controversy exists concerning the degree of lateralization and the precise location where responses to intelligible speech emerge. We have demonstrated that the left anterior superior temporal sulcus (STS) responds preferentially to intelligible speech (Scott SK, Blank CC, Rosen S, Wise RJS. 2000. Identification of a pathway for intelligible speech in the left temporal lobe. Brain. 123:2400-2406.). A functional magnetic resonance imaging study in Cerebral Cortex used equivalent stimuli and univariate and multivariate analyses to argue for the greater importance of bilateral posterior when compared with the left anterior STS in responding to intelligible speech (Okada K, Rong F, Venezia J, Matchin W, Hsieh IH, Saberi K, Serences JT,Hickok G. 2010. Hierarchical organization of human auditory cortex: evidence from acoustic invariance in the response to intelligible speech. 20: 2486-2495.). Here, we also replicate our original study, demonstrating that the left anterior STS exhibits the strongest univariate response and, in decoding using the bilateral temporal cortex, contains the most informative voxels showing an increased response to intelligible speech. In contrast, in classifications using local "searchlights" and a whole brain analysis, we find greater classification accuracy in posterior rather than anterior temporal regions. Thus, we show that the precise nature of the multivariate analysis used will emphasize different response profiles associated with complex sound to speech processing. © The Author 2013. Published by Oxford University Press.

  9. Univariate normalization of bispectrum using Hölder's inequality.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shahbazi, Forooz; Ewald, Arne; Nolte, Guido

    2014-08-15

    Considering that many biological systems including the brain are complex non-linear systems, suitable methods capable of detecting these non-linearities are required to study the dynamical properties of these systems. One of these tools is the third order cummulant or cross-bispectrum, which is a measure of interfrequency interactions between three signals. For convenient interpretation, interaction measures are most commonly normalized to be independent of constant scales of the signals such that its absolute values are bounded by one, with this limit reflecting perfect coupling. Although many different normalization factors for cross-bispectra were suggested in the literature these either do not lead to bounded measures or are themselves dependent on the coupling and not only on the scale of the signals. In this paper we suggest a normalization factor which is univariate, i.e., dependent only on the amplitude of each signal and not on the interactions between signals. Using a generalization of Hölder's inequality it is proven that the absolute value of this univariate bicoherence is bounded by zero and one. We compared three widely used normalizations to the univariate normalization concerning the significance of bicoherence values gained from resampling tests. Bicoherence values are calculated from real EEG data recorded in an eyes closed experiment from 10 subjects. The results show slightly more significant values for the univariate normalization but in general, the differences are very small or even vanishing in some subjects. Therefore, we conclude that the normalization factor does not play an important role in the bicoherence values with regard to statistical power, although a univariate normalization is the only normalization factor which fulfills all the required conditions of a proper normalization. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  10. Univariate characterization of the German business cycle 1955-1994

    OpenAIRE

    Weihs, Claus; Garczarek, Ursula

    2002-01-01

    We present a descriptive analysis of stylized facts for the German business cycle. We demonstrate that simple ad-hoc instructions for identifying univariate rules characterizing the German business cycle 1955-1994 lead to an error rate comparable to standard multivariate methods.

  11. Univariate/multivariate genome-wide association scans using data from families and unrelated samples.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lei Zhang

    2009-08-01

    Full Text Available As genome-wide association studies (GWAS are becoming more popular, two approaches, among others, could be considered in order to improve statistical power for identifying genes contributing subtle to moderate effects to human diseases. The first approach is to increase sample size, which could be achieved by combining both unrelated and familial subjects together. The second approach is to jointly analyze multiple correlated traits. In this study, by extending generalized estimating equations (GEEs, we propose a simple approach for performing univariate or multivariate association tests for the combined data of unrelated subjects and nuclear families. In particular, we correct for population stratification by integrating principal component analysis and transmission disequilibrium test strategies. The proposed method allows for multiple siblings as well as missing parental information. Simulation studies show that the proposed test has improved power compared to two popular methods, EIGENSTRAT and FBAT, by analyzing the combined data, while correcting for population stratification. In addition, joint analysis of bivariate traits has improved power over univariate analysis when pleiotropic effects are present. Application to the Genetic Analysis Workshop 16 (GAW16 data sets attests to the feasibility and applicability of the proposed method.

  12. Evaluation of droplet size distributions using univariate and multivariate approaches.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gaunø, Mette Høg; Larsen, Crilles Casper; Vilhelmsen, Thomas; Møller-Sonnergaard, Jørn; Wittendorff, Jørgen; Rantanen, Jukka

    2013-01-01

    Pharmaceutically relevant material characteristics are often analyzed based on univariate descriptors instead of utilizing the whole information available in the full distribution. One example is droplet size distribution, which is often described by the median droplet size and the width of the distribution. The current study was aiming to compare univariate and multivariate approach in evaluating droplet size distributions. As a model system, the atomization of a coating solution from a two-fluid nozzle was investigated. The effect of three process parameters (concentration of ethyl cellulose in ethanol, atomizing air pressure, and flow rate of coating solution) on the droplet size and droplet size distribution using a full mixed factorial design was used. The droplet size produced by a two-fluid nozzle was measured by laser diffraction and reported as volume based size distribution. Investigation of loading and score plots from principal component analysis (PCA) revealed additional information on the droplet size distributions and it was possible to identify univariate statistics (volume median droplet size), which were similar, however, originating from varying droplet size distributions. The multivariate data analysis was proven to be an efficient tool for evaluating the full information contained in a distribution.

  13. Univariate and multivariate skewness and kurtosis for measuring nonnormality: Prevalence, influence and estimation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cain, Meghan K; Zhang, Zhiyong; Yuan, Ke-Hai

    2017-10-01

    Nonnormality of univariate data has been extensively examined previously (Blanca et al., Methodology: European Journal of Research Methods for the Behavioral and Social Sciences, 9(2), 78-84, 2013; Miceeri, Psychological Bulletin, 105(1), 156, 1989). However, less is known of the potential nonnormality of multivariate data although multivariate analysis is commonly used in psychological and educational research. Using univariate and multivariate skewness and kurtosis as measures of nonnormality, this study examined 1,567 univariate distriubtions and 254 multivariate distributions collected from authors of articles published in Psychological Science and the American Education Research Journal. We found that 74 % of univariate distributions and 68 % multivariate distributions deviated from normal distributions. In a simulation study using typical values of skewness and kurtosis that we collected, we found that the resulting type I error rates were 17 % in a t-test and 30 % in a factor analysis under some conditions. Hence, we argue that it is time to routinely report skewness and kurtosis along with other summary statistics such as means and variances. To facilitate future report of skewness and kurtosis, we provide a tutorial on how to compute univariate and multivariate skewness and kurtosis by SAS, SPSS, R and a newly developed Web application.

  14. Forecasting electricity spot-prices using linear univariate time-series models

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cuaresma, Jesus Crespo; Hlouskova, Jaroslava; Kossmeier, Stephan; Obersteiner, Michael

    2004-01-01

    This paper studies the forecasting abilities of a battery of univariate models on hourly electricity spot prices, using data from the Leipzig Power Exchange. The specifications studied include autoregressive models, autoregressive-moving average models and unobserved component models. The results show that specifications, where each hour of the day is modelled separately present uniformly better forecasting properties than specifications for the whole time-series, and that the inclusion of simple probabilistic processes for the arrival of extreme price events can lead to improvements in the forecasting abilities of univariate models for electricity spot prices. (Author)

  15. Comparison of multivariate and univariate statistical process control and monitoring methods

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Leger, R.P.; Garland, WM.J.; Macgregor, J.F.

    1996-01-01

    Work in recent years has lead to the development of multivariate process monitoring schemes which use Principal Component Analysis (PCA). This research compares the performance of a univariate scheme and a multivariate PCA scheme used for monitoring a simple process with 11 measured variables. The multivariate PCA scheme was able to adequately represent the process using two principal components. This resulted in a PCA monitoring scheme which used two charts as opposed to 11 charts for the univariate scheme and therefore had distinct advantages in terms of both data representation, presentation, and fault diagnosis capabilities. (author)

  16. New Riemannian Priors on the Univariate Normal Model

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Salem Said

    2014-07-01

    Full Text Available The current paper introduces new prior distributions on the univariate normal model, with the aim of applying them to the classification of univariate normal populations. These new prior distributions are entirely based on the Riemannian geometry of the univariate normal model, so that they can be thought of as “Riemannian priors”. Precisely, if {pθ ; θ ∈ Θ} is any parametrization of the univariate normal model, the paper considers prior distributions G( θ - , γ with hyperparameters θ - ∈ Θ and γ > 0, whose density with respect to Riemannian volume is proportional to exp(−d2(θ, θ - /2γ2, where d2(θ, θ - is the square of Rao’s Riemannian distance. The distributions G( θ - , γ are termed Gaussian distributions on the univariate normal model. The motivation for considering a distribution G( θ - , γ is that this distribution gives a geometric representation of a class or cluster of univariate normal populations. Indeed, G( θ - , γ has a unique mode θ - (precisely, θ - is the unique Riemannian center of mass of G( θ - , γ, as shown in the paper, and its dispersion away from θ - is given by γ.  Therefore, one thinks of members of the class represented by G( θ - , γ as being centered around θ - and  lying within a typical  distance determined by γ. The paper defines rigorously the Gaussian distributions G( θ - , γ and describes an algorithm for computing maximum likelihood estimates of their hyperparameters. Based on this algorithm and on the Laplace approximation, it describes how the distributions G( θ - , γ can be used as prior distributions for Bayesian classification of large univariate normal populations. In a concrete application to texture image classification, it is shown that  this  leads  to  an  improvement  in  performance  over  the  use  of  conjugate  priors.

  17. Evaluation of droplet size distributions using univariate and multivariate approaches

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Gauno, M.H.; Larsen, C.C.; Vilhelmsen, T.

    2013-01-01

    of the distribution. The current study was aiming to compare univariate and multivariate approach in evaluating droplet size distributions. As a model system, the atomization of a coating solution from a two-fluid nozzle was investigated. The effect of three process parameters (concentration of ethyl cellulose...... in ethanol, atomizing air pressure, and flow rate of coating solution) on the droplet size and droplet size distribution using a full mixed factorial design was used. The droplet size produced by a two-fluid nozzle was measured by laser diffraction and reported as volume based size distribution....... Investigation of loading and score plots from principal component analysis (PCA) revealed additional information on the droplet size distributions and it was possible to identify univariate statistics (volume median droplet size), which were similar, however, originating from varying droplet size distributions...

  18. Comparison of univariate and multivariate calibration for the determination of micronutrients in pellets of plant materials by laser induced breakdown spectrometry

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Batista Braga, Jez Willian; Trevizan, Lilian Cristina; Nunes, Lidiane Cristina; Aparecida Rufini, Iolanda; Santos, Dario; Krug, Francisco Jose

    2010-01-01

    The application of laser induced breakdown spectrometry (LIBS) aiming the direct analysis of plant materials is a great challenge that still needs efforts for its development and validation. In this way, a series of experimental approaches has been carried out in order to show that LIBS can be used as an alternative method to wet acid digestions based methods for analysis of agricultural and environmental samples. The large amount of information provided by LIBS spectra for these complex samples increases the difficulties for selecting the most appropriated wavelengths for each analyte. Some applications have suggested that improvements in both accuracy and precision can be achieved by the application of multivariate calibration in LIBS data when compared to the univariate regression developed with line emission intensities. In the present work, the performance of univariate and multivariate calibration, based on partial least squares regression (PLSR), was compared for analysis of pellets of plant materials made from an appropriate mixture of cryogenically ground samples with cellulose as the binding agent. The development of a specific PLSR model for each analyte and the selection of spectral regions containing only lines of the analyte of interest were the best conditions for the analysis. In this particular application, these models showed a similar performance, but PLSR seemed to be more robust due to a lower occurrence of outliers in comparison to the univariate method. Data suggests that efforts dealing with sample presentation and fitness of standards for LIBS analysis must be done in order to fulfill the boundary conditions for matrix independent development and validation.

  19. Univariate decision tree induction using maximum margin classification

    OpenAIRE

    Yıldız, Olcay Taner

    2012-01-01

    In many pattern recognition applications, first decision trees are used due to their simplicity and easily interpretable nature. In this paper, we propose a new decision tree learning algorithm called univariate margin tree where, for each continuous attribute, the best split is found using convex optimization. Our simulation results on 47 data sets show that the novel margin tree classifier performs at least as good as C4.5 and linear discriminant tree (LDT) with a similar time complexity. F...

  20. Stress assessment based on EEG univariate features and functional connectivity measures.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alonso, J F; Romero, S; Ballester, M R; Antonijoan, R M; Mañanas, M A

    2015-07-01

    The biological response to stress originates in the brain but involves different biochemical and physiological effects. Many common clinical methods to assess stress are based on the presence of specific hormones and on features extracted from different signals, including electrocardiogram, blood pressure, skin temperature, or galvanic skin response. The aim of this paper was to assess stress using EEG-based variables obtained from univariate analysis and functional connectivity evaluation. Two different stressors, the Stroop test and sleep deprivation, were applied to 30 volunteers to find common EEG patterns related to stress effects. Results showed a decrease of the high alpha power (11 to 12 Hz), an increase in the high beta band (23 to 36 Hz, considered a busy brain indicator), and a decrease in the approximate entropy. Moreover, connectivity showed that the high beta coherence and the interhemispheric nonlinear couplings, measured by the cross mutual information function, increased significantly for both stressors, suggesting that useful stress indexes may be obtained from EEG-based features.

  1. A comparison of bivariate and univariate QTL mapping in livestock populations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sorensen Daniel

    2003-11-01

    Full Text Available Abstract This study presents a multivariate, variance component-based QTL mapping model implemented via restricted maximum likelihood (REML. The method was applied to investigate bivariate and univariate QTL mapping analyses, using simulated data. Specifically, we report results on the statistical power to detect a QTL and on the precision of parameter estimates using univariate and bivariate approaches. The model and methodology were also applied to study the effectiveness of partitioning the overall genetic correlation between two traits into a component due to many genes of small effect, and one due to the QTL. It is shown that when the QTL has a pleiotropic effect on two traits, a bivariate analysis leads to a higher statistical power of detecting the QTL and to a more precise estimate of the QTL's map position, in particular in the case when the QTL has a small effect on the trait. The increase in power is most marked in cases where the contributions of the QTL and of the polygenic components to the genetic correlation have opposite signs. The bivariate REML analysis can successfully partition the two components contributing to the genetic correlation between traits.

  2. Comparison of spectrum normalization techniques for univariate ...

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy; univariate study; normalization models; stainless steel; standard error of prediction. Abstract. Analytical performance of six different spectrum normalization techniques, namelyinternal normalization, normalization with total light, normalization with background along with their ...

  3. Univaried models in the series of temperature of the air

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Leon Aristizabal Gloria esperanza

    2000-01-01

    The theoretical framework for the study of the air's temperature time series is the theory of stochastic processes, particularly those known as ARIMA, that make it possible to carry out a univaried analysis. ARIMA models are built in order to explain the structure of the monthly temperatures corresponding to the mean, the absolute maximum, absolute minimum, maximum mean and minimum mean temperatures, for four stations in Colombia. By means of those models, the possible evolution of the latter variables is estimated with predictive aims in mind. The application and utility of the models is discussed

  4. Comparison between the univariate and multivariate analysis on the partial characterization of the endoglucanase produced in the solid state fermentation by Aspergillus oryzae ATCC 10124.

    Science.gov (United States)

    de Brito, Aila Riany; Santos Reis, Nadabe Dos; Silva, Tatielle Pereira; Ferreira Bonomo, Renata Cristina; Trovatti Uetanabaro, Ana Paula; de Assis, Sandra Aparecida; da Silva, Erik Galvão Paranhos; Aguiar-Oliveira, Elizama; Oliveira, Julieta Rangel; Franco, Marcelo

    2017-11-26

    Endoglucanase production by Aspergillus oryzae ATCC 10124 cultivated in rice husks or peanut shells was optimized by experimental design as a function of humidity, time, and temperature. The optimum temperature for the endoglucanase activity was estimated by a univariate analysis (one factor at the time) as 50°C (rice husks) and 60°C (peanut shells), however, by a multivariate analysis (synergism of factors), it was determined a different temperature (56°C) for endoglucanase from peanut shells. For the optimum pH, values determined by univariate and multivariate analysis were 5 and 5.2 (rice husk) and 5 and 7.6 (peanut shells). In addition, the best half-lives were observed at 50°C as 22.8 hr (rice husks) and 7.3 hr (peanut shells), also, 80% of residual activities was obtained between 30 and 50°C for both substrates, and the pH stability was improved at 5-7 (rice hulls) and 6-9 (peanut shells). Both endoglucanases obtained presented different characteristics as a result of the versatility of fungi in different substrates.

  5. Trend and forecasting rate of cancer deaths at a public university hospital using univariate modeling

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ismail, A.; Hassan, Noor I.

    2013-09-01

    Cancer is one of the principal causes of death in Malaysia. This study was performed to determine the pattern of rate of cancer deaths at a public hospital in Malaysia over an 11 year period from year 2001 to 2011, to determine the best fitted model of forecasting the rate of cancer deaths using Univariate Modeling and to forecast the rates for the next two years (2012 to 2013). The medical records of the death of patients with cancer admitted at this Hospital over 11 year's period were reviewed, with a total of 663 cases. The cancers were classified according to 10th Revision International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10). Data collected include socio-demographic background of patients such as registration number, age, gender, ethnicity, ward and diagnosis. Data entry and analysis was accomplished using SPSS 19.0 and Minitab 16.0. The five Univariate Models used were Naïve with Trend Model, Average Percent Change Model (ACPM), Single Exponential Smoothing, Double Exponential Smoothing and Holt's Method. The overall 11 years rate of cancer deaths showed that at this hospital, Malay patients have the highest percentage (88.10%) compared to other ethnic groups with males (51.30%) higher than females. Lung and breast cancer have the most number of cancer deaths among gender. About 29.60% of the patients who died due to cancer were aged 61 years old and above. The best Univariate Model used for forecasting the rate of cancer deaths is Single Exponential Smoothing Technique with alpha of 0.10. The forecast for the rate of cancer deaths shows a horizontally or flat value. The forecasted mortality trend remains at 6.84% from January 2012 to December 2013. All the government and private sectors and non-governmental organizations need to highlight issues on cancer especially lung and breast cancers to the public through campaigns using mass media, media electronics, posters and pamphlets in the attempt to decrease the rate of cancer deaths in Malaysia.

  6. A comparison of multivariate and univariate time series approaches to modelling and forecasting emergency department demand in Western Australia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aboagye-Sarfo, Patrick; Mai, Qun; Sanfilippo, Frank M; Preen, David B; Stewart, Louise M; Fatovich, Daniel M

    2015-10-01

    To develop multivariate vector-ARMA (VARMA) forecast models for predicting emergency department (ED) demand in Western Australia (WA) and compare them to the benchmark univariate autoregressive moving average (ARMA) and Winters' models. Seven-year monthly WA state-wide public hospital ED presentation data from 2006/07 to 2012/13 were modelled. Graphical and VARMA modelling methods were used for descriptive analysis and model fitting. The VARMA models were compared to the benchmark univariate ARMA and Winters' models to determine their accuracy to predict ED demand. The best models were evaluated by using error correction methods for accuracy. Descriptive analysis of all the dependent variables showed an increasing pattern of ED use with seasonal trends over time. The VARMA models provided a more precise and accurate forecast with smaller confidence intervals and better measures of accuracy in predicting ED demand in WA than the ARMA and Winters' method. VARMA models are a reliable forecasting method to predict ED demand for strategic planning and resource allocation. While the ARMA models are a closely competing alternative, they under-estimated future ED demand. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  7. Regression Is a Univariate General Linear Model Subsuming Other Parametric Methods as Special Cases.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vidal, Sherry

    Although the concept of the general linear model (GLM) has existed since the 1960s, other univariate analyses such as the t-test and the analysis of variance models have remained popular. The GLM produces an equation that minimizes the mean differences of independent variables as they are related to a dependent variable. From a computer printout…

  8. Comparison of different Methods for Univariate Time Series Imputation in R

    OpenAIRE

    Moritz, Steffen; Sardá, Alexis; Bartz-Beielstein, Thomas; Zaefferer, Martin; Stork, Jörg

    2015-01-01

    Missing values in datasets are a well-known problem and there are quite a lot of R packages offering imputation functions. But while imputation in general is well covered within R, it is hard to find functions for imputation of univariate time series. The problem is, most standard imputation techniques can not be applied directly. Most algorithms rely on inter-attribute correlations, while univariate time series imputation needs to employ time dependencies. This paper provides an overview of ...

  9. A comparison between univariate probabilistic and multivariate (logistic regression) methods for landslide susceptibility analysis: the example of the Febbraro valley (Northern Alps, Italy)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rossi, M.; Apuani, T.; Felletti, F.

    2009-04-01

    The aim of this paper is to compare the results of two statistical methods for landslide susceptibility analysis: 1) univariate probabilistic method based on landslide susceptibility index, 2) multivariate method (logistic regression). The study area is the Febbraro valley, located in the central Italian Alps, where different types of metamorphic rocks croup out. On the eastern part of the studied basin a quaternary cover represented by colluvial and secondarily, by glacial deposits, is dominant. In this study 110 earth flows, mainly located toward NE portion of the catchment, were analyzed. They involve only the colluvial deposits and their extension mainly ranges from 36 to 3173 m2. Both statistical methods require to establish a spatial database, in which each landslide is described by several parameters that can be assigned using a main scarp central point of landslide. The spatial database is constructed using a Geographical Information System (GIS). Each landslide is described by several parameters corresponding to the value of main scarp central point of the landslide. Based on bibliographic review a total of 15 predisposing factors were utilized. The width of the intervals, in which the maps of the predisposing factors have to be reclassified, has been defined assuming constant intervals to: elevation (100 m), slope (5 °), solar radiation (0.1 MJ/cm2/year), profile curvature (1.2 1/m), tangential curvature (2.2 1/m), drainage density (0.5), lineament density (0.00126). For the other parameters have been used the results of the probability-probability plots analysis and the statistical indexes of landslides site. In particular slope length (0 ÷ 2, 2 ÷ 5, 5 ÷ 10, 10 ÷ 20, 20 ÷ 35, 35 ÷ 260), accumulation flow (0 ÷ 1, 1 ÷ 2, 2 ÷ 5, 5 ÷ 12, 12 ÷ 60, 60 ÷27265), Topographic Wetness Index 0 ÷ 0.74, 0.74 ÷ 1.94, 1.94 ÷ 2.62, 2.62 ÷ 3.48, 3.48 ÷ 6,00, 6.00 ÷ 9.44), Stream Power Index (0 ÷ 0.64, 0.64 ÷ 1.28, 1.28 ÷ 1.81, 1.81 ÷ 4.20, 4.20 ÷ 9

  10. Validated univariate and multivariate spectrophotometric methods for the determination of pharmaceuticals mixture in complex wastewater

    Science.gov (United States)

    Riad, Safaa M.; Salem, Hesham; Elbalkiny, Heba T.; Khattab, Fatma I.

    2015-04-01

    Five, accurate, precise, and sensitive univariate and multivariate spectrophotometric methods were developed for the simultaneous determination of a ternary mixture containing Trimethoprim (TMP), Sulphamethoxazole (SMZ) and Oxytetracycline (OTC) in waste water samples collected from different cites either production wastewater or livestock wastewater after their solid phase extraction using OASIS HLB cartridges. In univariate methods OTC was determined at its λmax 355.7 nm (0D), while (TMP) and (SMZ) were determined by three different univariate methods. Method (A) is based on successive spectrophotometric resolution technique (SSRT). The technique starts with the ratio subtraction method followed by ratio difference method for determination of TMP and SMZ. Method (B) is successive derivative ratio technique (SDR). Method (C) is mean centering of the ratio spectra (MCR). The developed multivariate methods are principle component regression (PCR) and partial least squares (PLS). The specificity of the developed methods is investigated by analyzing laboratory prepared mixtures containing different ratios of the three drugs. The obtained results are statistically compared with those obtained by the official methods, showing no significant difference with respect to accuracy and precision at p = 0.05.

  11. Combinatorial bounds on the α-divergence of univariate mixture models

    KAUST Repository

    Nielsen, Frank; Sun, Ke

    2017-01-01

    We derive lower- and upper-bounds of α-divergence between univariate mixture models with components in the exponential family. Three pairs of bounds are presented in order with increasing quality and increasing computational cost. They are verified

  12. Nuisance forecasting. Univariate modelling and very-short-term forecasting of winter smog episodes; Immissionsprognose. Univariate Modellierung und Kuerzestfristvorhersage von Wintersmogsituationen

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Schlink, U.

    1996-12-31

    The work evaluates specifically the nuisance data provided by the measuring station in the centre of Leipig during the period from 1980 to 1993, with the aim to develop an algorithm for making very short-term forecasts of excessive nuisances. Forecasting was to be univariate, i.e., based exclusively on the half-hourly readings of SO{sub 2} concentrations taken in the past. As shown by Fourier analysis, there exist three main and mutually independent spectral regions: the high-frequency sector (period < 12 hours) of unstable irregularities, the seasonal sector with the periods of 24 and 12 hours, and the low-frequency sector (period > 24 hours). After breaking the measuring series up into components, the low-frequency sector is termed trend component, or trend for short. For obtaining the components, a Kalman filter is used. It was found that smog episodes are most adequately described by the trend component. This is therefore more closely investigated. The phase representation then shows characteristic trajectories of the trends. (orig./KW) [Deutsch] In der vorliegende Arbeit wurden speziell die Immissionsdaten der Messstation Leipzig-Mitte des Zeitraumes 1980-1993 mit dem Ziel der Erstellung eines Algorithmus fuer die Kuerzestfristprognose von Ueberschreitungssituationen untersucht. Die Prognosestellung sollte allein anhand der in der Vergangenheit registrierten Halbstundenwerte der SO{sub 2}-Konzentration, also univariat erfolgen. Wie die Fourieranalyse zeigt, gibt es drei wesentliche und voneinander unabhaengige Spektralbereiche: Den hochfrequenten Bereich (Periode <12 Stunden) der instabilen Irregularitaeten, den saisonalen Anteil mit den Perioden von 24 und 12 Stunden und den niedrigfrequenten Bereich (Periode >24 Stunden). Letzterer wird nach einer Zerlegung der Messreihe in Komponenten als Trendkomponente (oder kurz Trend) bezeichnet. Fuer die Komponentenzerlegung wird ein Kalman-Filter verwendet. Es stellt sich heraus, dass Smogepisoden am deutlichsten

  13. Acceleration techniques in the univariate Lipschitz global optimization

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sergeyev, Yaroslav D.; Kvasov, Dmitri E.; Mukhametzhanov, Marat S.; De Franco, Angela

    2016-10-01

    Univariate box-constrained Lipschitz global optimization problems are considered in this contribution. Geometric and information statistical approaches are presented. The novel powerful local tuning and local improvement techniques are described in the contribution as well as the traditional ways to estimate the Lipschitz constant. The advantages of the presented local tuning and local improvement techniques are demonstrated using the operational characteristics approach for comparing deterministic global optimization algorithms on the class of 100 widely used test functions.

  14. QRS complex detection based on continuous density hidden Markov models using univariate observations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sotelo, S.; Arenas, W.; Altuve, M.

    2018-04-01

    In the electrocardiogram (ECG), the detection of QRS complexes is a fundamental step in the ECG signal processing chain since it allows the determination of other characteristics waves of the ECG and provides information about heart rate variability. In this work, an automatic QRS complex detector based on continuous density hidden Markov models (HMM) is proposed. HMM were trained using univariate observation sequences taken either from QRS complexes or their derivatives. The detection approach is based on the log-likelihood comparison of the observation sequence with a fixed threshold. A sliding window was used to obtain the observation sequence to be evaluated by the model. The threshold was optimized by receiver operating characteristic curves. Sensitivity (Sen), specificity (Spc) and F1 score were used to evaluate the detection performance. The approach was validated using ECG recordings from the MIT-BIH Arrhythmia database. A 6-fold cross-validation shows that the best detection performance was achieved with 2 states HMM trained with QRS complexes sequences (Sen = 0.668, Spc = 0.360 and F1 = 0.309). We concluded that these univariate sequences provide enough information to characterize the QRS complex dynamics from HMM. Future works are directed to the use of multivariate observations to increase the detection performance.

  15. Effect Sizes for Research Univariate and Multivariate Applications

    CERN Document Server

    Grissom, Robert J

    2011-01-01

    Noted for its comprehensive coverage, this greatly expanded new edition now covers the use of univariate and multivariate effect sizes. Many measures and estimators are reviewed along with their application, interpretation, and limitations. Noted for its practical approach, the book features numerous examples using real data for a variety of variables and designs, to help readers apply the material to their own data. Tips on the use of SPSS, SAS, R, and S-Plus are provided. The book's broad disciplinary appeal results from its inclusion of a variety of examples from psychology, medicine, educa

  16. Visual classification of very fine-grained sediments: Evaluation through univariate and multivariate statistics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hohn, M. Ed; Nuhfer, E.B.; Vinopal, R.J.; Klanderman, D.S.

    1980-01-01

    Classifying very fine-grained rocks through fabric elements provides information about depositional environments, but is subject to the biases of visual taxonomy. To evaluate the statistical significance of an empirical classification of very fine-grained rocks, samples from Devonian shales in four cored wells in West Virginia and Virginia were measured for 15 variables: quartz, illite, pyrite and expandable clays determined by X-ray diffraction; total sulfur, organic content, inorganic carbon, matrix density, bulk density, porosity, silt, as well as density, sonic travel time, resistivity, and ??-ray response measured from well logs. The four lithologic types comprised: (1) sharply banded shale, (2) thinly laminated shale, (3) lenticularly laminated shale, and (4) nonbanded shale. Univariate and multivariate analyses of variance showed that the lithologic classification reflects significant differences for the variables measured, difference that can be detected independently of stratigraphic effects. Little-known statistical methods found useful in this work included: the multivariate analysis of variance with more than one effect, simultaneous plotting of samples and variables on canonical variates, and the use of parametric ANOVA and MANOVA on ranked data. ?? 1980 Plenum Publishing Corporation.

  17. Combinatorial bounds on the α-divergence of univariate mixture models

    KAUST Repository

    Nielsen, Frank

    2017-06-20

    We derive lower- and upper-bounds of α-divergence between univariate mixture models with components in the exponential family. Three pairs of bounds are presented in order with increasing quality and increasing computational cost. They are verified empirically through simulated Gaussian mixture models. The presented methodology generalizes to other divergence families relying on Hellinger-type integrals.

  18. Characteristics of genomic signatures derived using univariate methods and mechanistically anchored functional descriptors for predicting drug- and xenobiotic-induced nephrotoxicity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shi, Weiwei; Bugrim, Andrej; Nikolsky, Yuri; Nikolskya, Tatiana; Brennan, Richard J

    2008-01-01

    ABSTRACT The ideal toxicity biomarker is composed of the properties of prediction (is detected prior to traditional pathological signs of injury), accuracy (high sensitivity and specificity), and mechanistic relationships to the endpoint measured (biological relevance). Gene expression-based toxicity biomarkers ("signatures") have shown good predictive power and accuracy, but are difficult to interpret biologically. We have compared different statistical methods of feature selection with knowledge-based approaches, using GeneGo's database of canonical pathway maps, to generate gene sets for the classification of renal tubule toxicity. The gene set selection algorithms include four univariate analyses: t-statistics, fold-change, B-statistics, and RankProd, and their combination and overlap for the identification of differentially expressed probes. Enrichment analysis following the results of the four univariate analyses, Hotelling T-square test, and, finally out-of-bag selection, a variant of cross-validation, were used to identify canonical pathway maps-sets of genes coordinately involved in key biological processes-with classification power. Differentially expressed genes identified by the different statistical univariate analyses all generated reasonably performing classifiers of tubule toxicity. Maps identified by enrichment analysis or Hotelling T-square had lower classification power, but highlighted perturbed lipid homeostasis as a common discriminator of nephrotoxic treatments. The out-of-bag method yielded the best functionally integrated classifier. The map "ephrins signaling" performed comparably to a classifier derived using sparse linear programming, a machine learning algorithm, and represents a signaling network specifically involved in renal tubule development and integrity. Such functional descriptors of toxicity promise to better integrate predictive toxicogenomics with mechanistic analysis, facilitating the interpretation and risk assessment of

  19. An exercise in model validation: Comparing univariate statistics and Monte Carlo-based multivariate statistics

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Weathers, J.B.; Luck, R.; Weathers, J.W.

    2009-01-01

    The complexity of mathematical models used by practicing engineers is increasing due to the growing availability of sophisticated mathematical modeling tools and ever-improving computational power. For this reason, the need to define a well-structured process for validating these models against experimental results has become a pressing issue in the engineering community. This validation process is partially characterized by the uncertainties associated with the modeling effort as well as the experimental results. The net impact of the uncertainties on the validation effort is assessed through the 'noise level of the validation procedure', which can be defined as an estimate of the 95% confidence uncertainty bounds for the comparison error between actual experimental results and model-based predictions of the same quantities of interest. Although general descriptions associated with the construction of the noise level using multivariate statistics exists in the literature, a detailed procedure outlining how to account for the systematic and random uncertainties is not available. In this paper, the methodology used to derive the covariance matrix associated with the multivariate normal pdf based on random and systematic uncertainties is examined, and a procedure used to estimate this covariance matrix using Monte Carlo analysis is presented. The covariance matrices are then used to construct approximate 95% confidence constant probability contours associated with comparison error results for a practical example. In addition, the example is used to show the drawbacks of using a first-order sensitivity analysis when nonlinear local sensitivity coefficients exist. Finally, the example is used to show the connection between the noise level of the validation exercise calculated using multivariate and univariate statistics.

  20. An exercise in model validation: Comparing univariate statistics and Monte Carlo-based multivariate statistics

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Weathers, J.B. [Shock, Noise, and Vibration Group, Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding, P.O. Box 149, Pascagoula, MS 39568 (United States)], E-mail: James.Weathers@ngc.com; Luck, R. [Department of Mechanical Engineering, Mississippi State University, 210 Carpenter Engineering Building, P.O. Box ME, Mississippi State, MS 39762-5925 (United States)], E-mail: Luck@me.msstate.edu; Weathers, J.W. [Structural Analysis Group, Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding, P.O. Box 149, Pascagoula, MS 39568 (United States)], E-mail: Jeffrey.Weathers@ngc.com

    2009-11-15

    The complexity of mathematical models used by practicing engineers is increasing due to the growing availability of sophisticated mathematical modeling tools and ever-improving computational power. For this reason, the need to define a well-structured process for validating these models against experimental results has become a pressing issue in the engineering community. This validation process is partially characterized by the uncertainties associated with the modeling effort as well as the experimental results. The net impact of the uncertainties on the validation effort is assessed through the 'noise level of the validation procedure', which can be defined as an estimate of the 95% confidence uncertainty bounds for the comparison error between actual experimental results and model-based predictions of the same quantities of interest. Although general descriptions associated with the construction of the noise level using multivariate statistics exists in the literature, a detailed procedure outlining how to account for the systematic and random uncertainties is not available. In this paper, the methodology used to derive the covariance matrix associated with the multivariate normal pdf based on random and systematic uncertainties is examined, and a procedure used to estimate this covariance matrix using Monte Carlo analysis is presented. The covariance matrices are then used to construct approximate 95% confidence constant probability contours associated with comparison error results for a practical example. In addition, the example is used to show the drawbacks of using a first-order sensitivity analysis when nonlinear local sensitivity coefficients exist. Finally, the example is used to show the connection between the noise level of the validation exercise calculated using multivariate and univariate statistics.

  1. Which DTW Method Applied to Marine Univariate Time Series Imputation

    OpenAIRE

    Phan , Thi-Thu-Hong; Caillault , Émilie; Lefebvre , Alain; Bigand , André

    2017-01-01

    International audience; Missing data are ubiquitous in any domains of applied sciences. Processing datasets containing missing values can lead to a loss of efficiency and unreliable results, especially for large missing sub-sequence(s). Therefore, the aim of this paper is to build a framework for filling missing values in univariate time series and to perform a comparison of different similarity metrics used for the imputation task. This allows to suggest the most suitable methods for the imp...

  2. Evaluation of in-line Raman data for end-point determination of a coating process: Comparison of Science-Based Calibration, PLS-regression and univariate data analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barimani, Shirin; Kleinebudde, Peter

    2017-10-01

    A multivariate analysis method, Science-Based Calibration (SBC), was used for the first time for endpoint determination of a tablet coating process using Raman data. Two types of tablet cores, placebo and caffeine cores, received a coating suspension comprising a polyvinyl alcohol-polyethylene glycol graft-copolymer and titanium dioxide to a maximum coating thickness of 80µm. Raman spectroscopy was used as in-line PAT tool. The spectra were acquired every minute and correlated to the amount of applied aqueous coating suspension. SBC was compared to another well-known multivariate analysis method, Partial Least Squares-regression (PLS) and a simpler approach, Univariate Data Analysis (UVDA). All developed calibration models had coefficient of determination values (R 2 ) higher than 0.99. The coating endpoints could be predicted with root mean square errors (RMSEP) less than 3.1% of the applied coating suspensions. Compared to PLS and UVDA, SBC proved to be an alternative multivariate calibration method with high predictive power. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  3. Men and women show similar survival outcome in stage IV breast cancer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, San-Gang; Zhang, Wen-Wen; Liao, Xu-Lin; Sun, Jia-Yuan; Li, Feng-Yan; Su, Jing-Jun; He, Zhen-Yu

    2017-08-01

    To evaluate the clinicopathological features, patterns of distant metastases, and survival outcome between stage IV male breast cancer (MBC) and female breast cancer (FBC). Patients diagnosed with stage IV MBC and FBC between 2010 and 2013 were included using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results program. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses were used to analyze risk factors for overall survival (OS). A total of 4997 patients were identified, including 60 MBC and 4937 FBC. Compared with FBC, patients with MBC were associated with a significantly higher rate of estrogen receptor-positive, progesterone receptor-positive, unmarried, lung metastases, and a lower frequency of liver metastases. Univariate and multivariate analyses showed no significant difference in OS between MBC and FBC. In the propensity score-matched population, there was also no difference in survival between MBC and FBC. Multivariate analysis of MBC showed that OS was longer for patients aged 50-69 years and with estrogen receptor-positive disease. There was no significant difference in survival outcome between stage IV MBC and FBC, but significant differences in clinicopathological features and patterns of metastases between the genders. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  4. The Use of Univariate and Multivariate Analyses in the Geochemical Exploration, Ravanj Lead Mine, Delijan, Iran

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mostafa Nejadhadad

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available A geochemical exploration program was applied to recognize the anomalous geochemical haloes at the Ravanj lead mine, Delijan, Iran. Sampling of unweathered rocks were undertaken across rock exposures on a 10 × 10 meter grid (n = 302 as well as the accessible parts of underground mine A (n = 42. First, the threshold values of all elements were determined using the cut-off values used in the exploratory data analysis (EDA method. Then, for further studies, elements with lognormal distributions (Pb, Zn, Ag, As, Cd, Co, Cu, Sb, S, Sr, Th, Ba, Bi, Fe, Ni and Mn were selected. Robustness against outliers is achieved by application of central log ratio transformation to address the closure problems with compositional data prior to principle components analysis (PCA. Results of these analyses show that, in the Ravanj deposit, Pb mineralization is characterized by a Pb-Ba-Ag-Sb ± Zn ± Cd association. The supra-mineralization haloes are characterized by barite and tetrahedrite in a Ba- Th- Ag- Cu- Sb- As- Sr association and sub-mineralization haloes are comprised of pyrite and tetrahedrite, probably reflecting a Fe-Cu-As-Bi-Ni-Co-Mo-Mn association. Using univariate and multivariate geostatistical analyses (e.g., EDA and robust PCA, four anomalies were detected and mapped in Block A of the Ravanj deposit. Anomalies 1 and 2 are around the ancient orebodies. Anomaly 3 is located in a thin bedded limestone-shale intercalation unit that does not show significant mineralization. Drilling of the fourth anomaly suggested a low grade, non-economic Pb mineralization.

  5. Cellulose I crystallinity determination using FT-Raman spectroscopy : univariate and multivariate methods

    Science.gov (United States)

    Umesh P. Agarwal; Richard S. Reiner; Sally A. Ralph

    2010-01-01

    Two new methods based on FT–Raman spectroscopy, one simple, based on band intensity ratio, and the other using a partial least squares (PLS) regression model, are proposed to determine cellulose I crystallinity. In the simple method, crystallinity in cellulose I samples was determined based on univariate regression that was first developed using the Raman band...

  6. Modeling the potential risk factors of bovine viral diarrhea prevalence in Egypt using univariable and multivariable logistic regression analyses

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Abdelfattah M. Selim

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available Aim: The present cross-sectional study was conducted to determine the seroprevalence and potential risk factors associated with Bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV disease in cattle and buffaloes in Egypt, to model the potential risk factors associated with the disease using logistic regression (LR models, and to fit the best predictive model for the current data. Materials and Methods: A total of 740 blood samples were collected within November 2012-March 2013 from animals aged between 6 months and 3 years. The potential risk factors studied were species, age, sex, and herd location. All serum samples were examined with indirect ELIZA test for antibody detection. Data were analyzed with different statistical approaches such as Chi-square test, odds ratios (OR, univariable, and multivariable LR models. Results: Results revealed a non-significant association between being seropositive with BVDV and all risk factors, except for species of animal. Seroprevalence percentages were 40% and 23% for cattle and buffaloes, respectively. OR for all categories were close to one with the highest OR for cattle relative to buffaloes, which was 2.237. Likelihood ratio tests showed a significant drop of the -2LL from univariable LR to multivariable LR models. Conclusion: There was an evidence of high seroprevalence of BVDV among cattle as compared with buffaloes with the possibility of infection in different age groups of animals. In addition, multivariable LR model was proved to provide more information for association and prediction purposes relative to univariable LR models and Chi-square tests if we have more than one predictor.

  7. Forecasting electric vehicles sales with univariate and multivariate time series models: The case of China.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Yong; Zhong, Miner; Geng, Nana; Jiang, Yunjian

    2017-01-01

    The market demand for electric vehicles (EVs) has increased in recent years. Suitable models are necessary to understand and forecast EV sales. This study presents a singular spectrum analysis (SSA) as a univariate time-series model and vector autoregressive model (VAR) as a multivariate model. Empirical results suggest that SSA satisfactorily indicates the evolving trend and provides reasonable results. The VAR model, which comprised exogenous parameters related to the market on a monthly basis, can significantly improve the prediction accuracy. The EV sales in China, which are categorized into battery and plug-in EVs, are predicted in both short term (up to December 2017) and long term (up to 2020), as statistical proofs of the growth of the Chinese EV industry.

  8. Robust assignment of cancer subtypes from expression data using a uni-variate gene expression average as classifier

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lauss, Martin; Frigyesi, Attila; Ryden, Tobias; Höglund, Mattias

    2010-01-01

    Genome wide gene expression data is a rich source for the identification of gene signatures suitable for clinical purposes and a number of statistical algorithms have been described for both identification and evaluation of such signatures. Some employed algorithms are fairly complex and hence sensitive to over-fitting whereas others are more simple and straight forward. Here we present a new type of simple algorithm based on ROC analysis and the use of metagenes that we believe will be a good complement to existing algorithms. The basis for the proposed approach is the use of metagenes, instead of collections of individual genes, and a feature selection using AUC values obtained by ROC analysis. Each gene in a data set is assigned an AUC value relative to the tumor class under investigation and the genes are ranked according to these values. Metagenes are then formed by calculating the mean expression level for an increasing number of ranked genes, and the metagene expression value that optimally discriminates tumor classes in the training set is used for classification of new samples. The performance of the metagene is then evaluated using LOOCV and balanced accuracies. We show that the simple uni-variate gene expression average algorithm performs as well as several alternative algorithms such as discriminant analysis and the more complex approaches such as SVM and neural networks. The R package rocc is freely available at http://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/rocc/index.html

  9. Influence of microclimatic ammonia levels on productive performance of different broilers' breeds estimated with univariate and multivariate approaches.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Soliman, Essam S; Moawed, Sherif A; Hassan, Rania A

    2017-08-01

    Birds litter contains unutilized nitrogen in the form of uric acid that is converted into ammonia; a fact that does not only affect poultry performance but also has a negative effect on people's health around the farm and contributes in the environmental degradation. The influence of microclimatic ammonia emissions on Ross and Hubbard broilers reared in different housing systems at two consecutive seasons (fall and winter) was evaluated using a discriminant function analysis to differentiate between Ross and Hubbard breeds. A total number of 400 air samples were collected and analyzed for ammonia levels during the experimental period. Data were analyzed using univariate and multivariate statistical methods. Ammonia levels were significantly higher (p0.05) were found between the two farms in body weight, body weight gain, feed intake, feed conversion ratio, and performance index (PI) of broilers. Body weight; weight gain and PI had increased values (pbroiler breed. Ammonia emissions were positively (although weekly) correlated with the ambient relative humidity (r=0.383; p0.05). Test of significance of discriminant function analysis did not show a classification based on the studied traits suggesting that they cannot been used as predictor variables. The percentage of correct classification was 52% and it was improved after deletion of highly correlated traits to 57%. The study revealed that broiler's growth was negatively affected by increased microclimatic ammonia concentrations and recommended the analysis of broilers' growth performance parameters data using multivariate discriminant function analysis.

  10. [Retrospective statistical analysis of clinical factors of recurrence in chronic subdural hematoma: correlation between univariate and multivariate analysis].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Takayama, Motoharu; Terui, Keita; Oiwa, Yoshitsugu

    2012-10-01

    Chronic subdural hematoma is common in elderly individuals and surgical procedures are simple. The recurrence rate of chronic subdural hematoma, however, varies from 9.2 to 26.5% after surgery. The authors studied factors of the recurrence using univariate and multivariate analyses in patients with chronic subdural hematoma We retrospectively reviewed 239 consecutive cases of chronic subdural hematoma who received burr-hole surgery with irrigation and closed-system drainage. We analyzed the relationships between recurrence of chronic subdural hematoma and factors such as sex, age, laterality, bleeding tendency, other complicated diseases, density on CT, volume of the hematoma, residual air in the hematoma cavity, use of artificial cerebrospinal fluid. Twenty-one patients (8.8%) experienced a recurrence of chronic subdural hematoma. Multiple logistic regression found that the recurrence rate was higher in patients with a large volume of the residual air, and was lower in patients using artificial cerebrospinal fluid. No statistical differences were found in bleeding tendency. Techniques to reduce the air in the hematoma cavity are important for good outcome in surgery of chronic subdural hematoma. Also, the use of artificial cerebrospinal fluid reduces recurrence of chronic subdural hematoma. The surgical procedures can be the same for patients with bleeding tendencies.

  11. Lower bounds on the run time of the univariate marginal distribution algorithm on OneMax

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Krejca, Martin S.; Witt, Carsten

    2017-01-01

    The Univariate Marginal Distribution Algorithm (UMDA), a popular estimation of distribution algorithm, is studied from a run time perspective. On the classical OneMax benchmark function, a lower bound of Ω(μ√n + n log n), where μ is the population size, on its expected run time is proved...... values maintained by the algorithm, including carefully designed potential functions. These techniques may prove useful in advancing the field of run time analysis for estimation of distribution algorithms in general........ This is the first direct lower bound on the run time of the UMDA. It is stronger than the bounds that follow from general black-box complexity theory and is matched by the run time of many evolutionary algorithms. The results are obtained through advanced analyses of the stochastic change of the frequencies of bit...

  12. Univariate and multiple linear regression analyses for 23 single nucleotide polymorphisms in 14 genes predisposing to chronic glomerular diseases and IgA nephropathy in Han Chinese.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Hui; Sui, Weiguo; Xue, Wen; Wu, Junyong; Chen, Jiejing; Dai, Yong

    2014-09-01

    Immunoglobulin A nephropathy (IgAN) is a complex trait regulated by the interaction among multiple physiologic regulatory systems and probably involving numerous genes, which leads to inconsistent findings in genetic studies. One possibility of failure to replicate some single-locus results is that the underlying genetics of IgAN nephropathy is based on multiple genes with minor effects. To learn the association between 23 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 14 genes predisposing to chronic glomerular diseases and IgAN in Han males, the 23 SNPs genotypes of 21 Han males were detected and analyzed with a BaiO gene chip, and their associations were analyzed with univariate analysis and multiple linear regression analysis. Analysis showed that CTLA4 rs231726 and CR2 rs1048971 revealed a significant association with IgAN. These findings support the multi-gene nature of the etiology of IgAN and propose a potential gene-gene interactive model for future studies.

  13. Influence of microclimatic ammonia levels on productive performance of different broilers’ breeds estimated with univariate and multivariate approaches

    Science.gov (United States)

    Soliman, Essam S.; Moawed, Sherif A.; Hassan, Rania A.

    2017-01-01

    Background and Aim: Birds litter contains unutilized nitrogen in the form of uric acid that is converted into ammonia; a fact that does not only affect poultry performance but also has a negative effect on people’s health around the farm and contributes in the environmental degradation. The influence of microclimatic ammonia emissions on Ross and Hubbard broilers reared in different housing systems at two consecutive seasons (fall and winter) was evaluated using a discriminant function analysis to differentiate between Ross and Hubbard breeds. Materials and Methods: A total number of 400 air samples were collected and analyzed for ammonia levels during the experimental period. Data were analyzed using univariate and multivariate statistical methods. Results: Ammonia levels were significantly higher (p0.05) were found between the two farms in body weight, body weight gain, feed intake, feed conversion ratio, and performance index (PI) of broilers. Body weight; weight gain and PI had increased values (pbroiler breed. Ammonia emissions were positively (although weekly) correlated with the ambient relative humidity (r=0.383; p0.05). Test of significance of discriminant function analysis did not show a classification based on the studied traits suggesting that they cannot been used as predictor variables. The percentage of correct classification was 52% and it was improved after deletion of highly correlated traits to 57%. Conclusion: The study revealed that broiler’s growth was negatively affected by increased microclimatic ammonia concentrations and recommended the analysis of broilers’ growth performance parameters data using multivariate discriminant function analysis. PMID:28919677

  14. Wind Speed Prediction Using a Univariate ARIMA Model and a Multivariate NARX Model

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Erasmo Cadenas

    2016-02-01

    Full Text Available Two on step ahead wind speed forecasting models were compared. A univariate model was developed using a linear autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA. This method’s performance is well studied for a large number of prediction problems. The other is a multivariate model developed using a nonlinear autoregressive exogenous artificial neural network (NARX. This uses the variables: barometric pressure, air temperature, wind direction and solar radiation or relative humidity, as well as delayed wind speed. Both models were developed from two databases from two sites: an hourly average measurements database from La Mata, Oaxaca, Mexico, and a ten minute average measurements database from Metepec, Hidalgo, Mexico. The main objective was to compare the impact of the various meteorological variables on the performance of the multivariate model of wind speed prediction with respect to the high performance univariate linear model. The NARX model gave better results with improvements on the ARIMA model of between 5.5% and 10. 6% for the hourly database and of between 2.3% and 12.8% for the ten minute database for mean absolute error and mean squared error, respectively.

  15. R package imputeTestbench to compare imputations methods for univariate time series

    OpenAIRE

    Bokde, Neeraj; Kulat, Kishore; Beck, Marcus W; Asencio-Cortés, Gualberto

    2016-01-01

    This paper describes the R package imputeTestbench that provides a testbench for comparing imputation methods for missing data in univariate time series. The imputeTestbench package can be used to simulate the amount and type of missing data in a complete dataset and compare filled data using different imputation methods. The user has the option to simulate missing data by removing observations completely at random or in blocks of different sizes. Several default imputation methods are includ...

  16. Study of Ecotype and Sowing Date Interaction in Cumin (Cuminum cyminum L. using Different Univariate Stability Parameters

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    J Ghanbari

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available Introduction Cumin is one of the most important medicinal plants in Iran and today, it is in the second level of popularity between spices in the world after black pepper. Cumin is an aromatic plant used as flavoring and seasoning agent in foods. Cumin seeds have been found to possess significant biological and have been used for treatment of toothache, dyspepsia, diarrhoea, epilepsy and jaundice. Knowledge of GEI is advantageous to have a cultivar that gives consistently high yield in a broad range of environments and to increase efficiency of breeding program and selection of best genotypes. A genotype that has stable trait expression across environments contributes little to GEI and its performance should be more predictable from the main several statistical methods have been proposed for stability analysis, with the aim of explaining the information contained in the GEI. Regression technique was proposed by Finlay and Wilkinson (1963 and was improved by Eberhart and Russell (1966. Generally, genotype stability was estimated by the slope of and deviation from the regression line for each of the genotypes. This is a popular method in stability analysis and has been applied in many crops. Non-parametric methods (rank mean (R, standard deviation rank (SDR and yield index ratio (YIR, environmental variance (S2i and genotypic variation coefficient (CVi Wricke's ecovalence and Shukla's stability variance (Shukla, 1972 have been used to determine genotype-by-environment interaction in many studies. This study was aimed to evaluate the ecotype × sowing date interaction in cumin and to evaluation of genotypic response of cumin to different sowing dates using univariate stability parameters. Materials and Methods In order to study of ecotype × sowing date interaction, different cumin ecotypes: Semnan, Fars, Yazd, Golestan, Khorasan-Razavi, Khorasan-Shomali, Khorasan-Jonoubi, Isfahan and Kerman in 5 different sowing dates (26th December, 10th January

  17. In situ calibration using univariate analyses based on the onboard ChemCam targets: first prediction of Martian rock and soil compositions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fabre, C.; Cousin, A.; Wiens, R.C.; Ollila, A.; Gasnault, O.; Maurice, S.; Sautter, V.; Forni, O.; Lasue, J.; Tokar, R.; Vaniman, D.; Melikechi, N.

    2014-01-01

    Curiosity rover landed on August 6th, 2012 in Gale Crater, Mars and it possesses unique analytical capabilities to investigate the chemistry and mineralogy of the Martian soil. In particular, the LIBS technique is being used for the first time on another planet with the ChemCam instrument, and more than 75,000 spectra have been returned in the first year on Mars. Curiosity carries body-mounted calibration targets specially designed for the ChemCam instrument, some of which are homgeneous glasses and others that are fine-grained glass-ceramics. We present direct calibrations, using these onboard standards to infer elements and element ratios by ratioing relative peak areas. As the laser spot size is around 300 μm, the LIBS technique provides measurements of the silicate glass compositions representing homogeneous material and measurements of the ceramic targets that are comparable to fine-grained rock or soil. The laser energy and the auto-focus are controlled for all sequences used for calibration. The univariate calibration curves present relatively to very good correlation coefficients with low RSDs for major and ratio calibrations. Trace element calibration curves (Li, Sr, and Mn), down to several ppm, can be used as a rapid tool to draw attention to remarkable rocks and soils along the traverse. First comparisons to alpha-particle X-ray spectroscopy (APXS) data, on selected targets, show good agreement for most elements and for Mg# and Al/Si estimates. SiO 2 estimates using univariate cannot be yet used. Na 2 O and K 2 O estimates are relevant for high alkali contents, but probably under estimated due to the CCCT initial compositions. Very good results for CaO and Al 2 O 3 estimates and satisfactory results for FeO are obtained. - Highlights: • In situ LIBS univariate calibrations are done using the Curiosity onboard standards. • Major and minor element contents can be rapidly obtained. • Trace element contents can be used as a rapid tool along the

  18. MULTIVARIANT AND UNIVARIANT INTERGROUP DIFFERENCES IN THE INVESTIGATED SPECIFIC MOTOR SPACE BETWEEN RESPONDENTS JUNIORS AND SENIORS MEMBERS OF THE MACEDONIAN NATIONAL KARATE TEAM

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kеnan Аsani

    2013-07-01

    Full Text Available The aim is to establish intergroup multivariant and univariant investigated differences in specific motor space between respondents juniors and seniors members of the Macedonian karate team. The sample of 30 male karate respondents covers juniors on 16,17 and seniors over 18 years.In the research were applied 20 specific motor tests. Based on Graph 1 where it is presented multivariant analysis of variance Manova and Anova can be noted that respondents juniors and seniors, although not belonging to the same population are not different in multivariant understudied area.W. lambda of .19, Rao-wool R - Approximation of 1.91 degrees of freedom df 1 = 20 and df 2 = 9 provides the level of significance of p =, 16. Based on univariant analysis for each variable separately can be seen that has been around intergroup statistically significant difference in seven SMAEGERI (kick in the sack with favoritism leg mae geri for 10 sec., SMAVASI (kick in the sack with favoritism foot mavashi geri by 10 sec., SUSIRO (kick in the sack with favoritism leg ushiro geri for 10 sec., SKIZAME (kick in the sack with favoritism hand kizame cuki for 10 sec., STAPNSR (taping with foot in sagital plane for 15 sec. SUDMNR (hitting a moving target with weaker hand and SUDMPN (hitting a moving target with favoritism foot of twenty applied manifest variables. There are no intergroup differences in multivariant investigated specific - motor space among the respondents juniors and seniors members of the Macedonian karate team. Based on univariant analysis for each variable separately can be seen that has been around intergroup statistically significant difference in seven SMAEGERI (kick in the sack with favoritism leg mae geri for 10 sec., SMAVASI (kick in the sack with favoritism foot mavashi geri by 10 sec., SUSIRO (kick in the sack with favoritism leg ushiro geri for 10 sec., SKIZAME (kick in the sack with favoritism hand kizame cuki for 10 sec., STAPNSR (taping with foot in

  19. In situ calibration using univariate analyses based on the onboard ChemCam targets: first prediction of Martian rock and soil compositions

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Fabre, C. [GeoRessources lab, Université de Lorraine, Nancy (France); Cousin, A.; Wiens, R.C. [Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM (United States); Ollila, A. [University of NM, Albuquerque (United States); Gasnault, O.; Maurice, S. [IRAP, Toulouse (France); Sautter, V. [Museum National d' Histoire Naturelle, Paris (France); Forni, O.; Lasue, J. [IRAP, Toulouse (France); Tokar, R.; Vaniman, D. [Planetary Science Institute, Tucson, AZ (United States); Melikechi, N. [Delaware State University (United States)

    2014-09-01

    Curiosity rover landed on August 6th, 2012 in Gale Crater, Mars and it possesses unique analytical capabilities to investigate the chemistry and mineralogy of the Martian soil. In particular, the LIBS technique is being used for the first time on another planet with the ChemCam instrument, and more than 75,000 spectra have been returned in the first year on Mars. Curiosity carries body-mounted calibration targets specially designed for the ChemCam instrument, some of which are homgeneous glasses and others that are fine-grained glass-ceramics. We present direct calibrations, using these onboard standards to infer elements and element ratios by ratioing relative peak areas. As the laser spot size is around 300 μm, the LIBS technique provides measurements of the silicate glass compositions representing homogeneous material and measurements of the ceramic targets that are comparable to fine-grained rock or soil. The laser energy and the auto-focus are controlled for all sequences used for calibration. The univariate calibration curves present relatively to very good correlation coefficients with low RSDs for major and ratio calibrations. Trace element calibration curves (Li, Sr, and Mn), down to several ppm, can be used as a rapid tool to draw attention to remarkable rocks and soils along the traverse. First comparisons to alpha-particle X-ray spectroscopy (APXS) data, on selected targets, show good agreement for most elements and for Mg# and Al/Si estimates. SiO{sub 2} estimates using univariate cannot be yet used. Na{sub 2}O and K{sub 2}O estimates are relevant for high alkali contents, but probably under estimated due to the CCCT initial compositions. Very good results for CaO and Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} estimates and satisfactory results for FeO are obtained. - Highlights: • In situ LIBS univariate calibrations are done using the Curiosity onboard standards. • Major and minor element contents can be rapidly obtained. • Trace element contents can be used as a

  20. The issue of multiple univariate comparisons in the context of neuroelectric brain mapping: an application in a neuromarketing experiment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vecchiato, G; De Vico Fallani, F; Astolfi, L; Toppi, J; Cincotti, F; Mattia, D; Salinari, S; Babiloni, F

    2010-08-30

    This paper presents some considerations about the use of adequate statistical techniques in the framework of the neuroelectromagnetic brain mapping. With the use of advanced EEG/MEG recording setup involving hundred of sensors, the issue of the protection against the type I errors that could occur during the execution of hundred of univariate statistical tests, has gained interest. In the present experiment, we investigated the EEG signals from a mannequin acting as an experimental subject. Data have been collected while performing a neuromarketing experiment and analyzed with state of the art computational tools adopted in specialized literature. Results showed that electric data from the mannequin's head presents statistical significant differences in power spectra during the visualization of a commercial advertising when compared to the power spectra gathered during a documentary, when no adjustments were made on the alpha level of the multiple univariate tests performed. The use of the Bonferroni or Bonferroni-Holm adjustments returned correctly no differences between the signals gathered from the mannequin in the two experimental conditions. An partial sample of recently published literature on different neuroscience journals suggested that at least the 30% of the papers do not use statistical protection for the type I errors. While the occurrence of type I errors could be easily managed with appropriate statistical techniques, the use of such techniques is still not so largely adopted in the literature. Copyright (c) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  1. Automatic Image Segmentation Using Active Contours with Univariate Marginal Distribution

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    I. Cruz-Aceves

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents a novel automatic image segmentation method based on the theory of active contour models and estimation of distribution algorithms. The proposed method uses the univariate marginal distribution model to infer statistical dependencies between the control points on different active contours. These contours have been generated through an alignment process of reference shape priors, in order to increase the exploration and exploitation capabilities regarding different interactive segmentation techniques. This proposed method is applied in the segmentation of the hollow core in microscopic images of photonic crystal fibers and it is also used to segment the human heart and ventricular areas from datasets of computed tomography and magnetic resonance images, respectively. Moreover, to evaluate the performance of the medical image segmentations compared to regions outlined by experts, a set of similarity measures has been adopted. The experimental results suggest that the proposed image segmentation method outperforms the traditional active contour model and the interactive Tseng method in terms of segmentation accuracy and stability.

  2. A Java-based fMRI processing pipeline evaluation system for assessment of univariate general linear model and multivariate canonical variate analysis-based pipelines.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Jing; Liang, Lichen; Anderson, Jon R; Gatewood, Lael; Rottenberg, David A; Strother, Stephen C

    2008-01-01

    As functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) becomes widely used, the demands for evaluation of fMRI processing pipelines and validation of fMRI analysis results is increasing rapidly. The current NPAIRS package, an IDL-based fMRI processing pipeline evaluation framework, lacks system interoperability and the ability to evaluate general linear model (GLM)-based pipelines using prediction metrics. Thus, it can not fully evaluate fMRI analytical software modules such as FSL.FEAT and NPAIRS.GLM. In order to overcome these limitations, a Java-based fMRI processing pipeline evaluation system was developed. It integrated YALE (a machine learning environment) into Fiswidgets (a fMRI software environment) to obtain system interoperability and applied an algorithm to measure GLM prediction accuracy. The results demonstrated that the system can evaluate fMRI processing pipelines with univariate GLM and multivariate canonical variates analysis (CVA)-based models on real fMRI data based on prediction accuracy (classification accuracy) and statistical parametric image (SPI) reproducibility. In addition, a preliminary study was performed where four fMRI processing pipelines with GLM and CVA modules such as FSL.FEAT and NPAIRS.CVA were evaluated with the system. The results indicated that (1) the system can compare different fMRI processing pipelines with heterogeneous models (NPAIRS.GLM, NPAIRS.CVA and FSL.FEAT) and rank their performance by automatic performance scoring, and (2) the rank of pipeline performance is highly dependent on the preprocessing operations. These results suggest that the system will be of value for the comparison, validation, standardization and optimization of functional neuroimaging software packages and fMRI processing pipelines.

  3. Univariate and multivariate forecasting of hourly solar radiation with artificial intelligence techniques

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Sfetsos, A. [7 Pirsou Str., Athens (Greece); Coonick, A.H. [Imperial Coll. of Science Technology and Medicine, Dept. of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, London (United Kingdom)

    2000-07-01

    This paper introduces a new approach for the forecasting of mean hourly global solar radiation received by a horizontal surface. In addition to the traditional linear methods, several artificial-intelligence-based techniques are studied. These include linear, feed-forward, recurrent Elman and Radial Basis neural networks alongside the adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference scheme. The problem is examined initially for the univariate case, and is extended to include additional meteorological parameters in the process of estimating the optimum model. The results indicate that the developed artificial intelligence models predict the solar radiation time series more effectively compared to the conventional procedures based on the clearness index. The forecasting ability of some models can be further enhanced with the use of additional meteorological parameters. (Author)

  4. Analysis of Medication Errors in Simulated Pediatric Resuscitation by Residents

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Evelyn Porter

    2014-07-01

    Full Text Available Introduction: The objective of our study was to estimate the incidence of prescribing medication errors specifically made by a trainee and identify factors associated with these errors during the simulated resuscitation of a critically ill child. Methods: The results of the simulated resuscitation are described. We analyzed data from the simulated resuscitation for the occurrence of a prescribing medication error. We compared univariate analysis of each variable to medication error rate and performed a separate multiple logistic regression analysis on the significant univariate variables to assess the association between the selected variables. Results: We reviewed 49 simulated resuscitations . The final medication error rate for the simulation was 26.5% (95% CI 13.7% - 39.3%. On univariate analysis, statistically significant findings for decreased prescribing medication error rates included senior residents in charge, presence of a pharmacist, sleeping greater than 8 hours prior to the simulation, and a visual analog scale score showing more confidence in caring for critically ill children. Multiple logistic regression analysis using the above significant variables showed only the presence of a pharmacist to remain significantly associated with decreased medication error, odds ratio of 0.09 (95% CI 0.01 - 0.64. Conclusion: Our results indicate that the presence of a clinical pharmacist during the resuscitation of a critically ill child reduces the medication errors made by resident physician trainees.

  5. Monitoring endemic livestock diseases using laboratory diagnostic data: A simulation study to evaluate the performance of univariate process monitoring control algorithms.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lopes Antunes, Ana Carolina; Dórea, Fernanda; Halasa, Tariq; Toft, Nils

    2016-05-01

    Surveillance systems are critical for accurate, timely monitoring and effective disease control. In this study, we investigated the performance of univariate process monitoring control algorithms in detecting changes in seroprevalence for endemic diseases. We also assessed the effect of sample size (number of sentinel herds tested in the surveillance system) on the performance of the algorithms. Three univariate process monitoring control algorithms were compared: Shewart p Chart(1) (PSHEW), Cumulative Sum(2) (CUSUM) and Exponentially Weighted Moving Average(3) (EWMA). Increases in seroprevalence were simulated from 0.10 to 0.15 and 0.20 over 4, 8, 24, 52 and 104 weeks. Each epidemic scenario was run with 2000 iterations. The cumulative sensitivity(4) (CumSe) and timeliness were used to evaluate the algorithms' performance with a 1% false alarm rate. Using these performance evaluation criteria, it was possible to assess the accuracy and timeliness of the surveillance system working in real-time. The results showed that EWMA and PSHEW had higher CumSe (when compared with the CUSUM) from week 1 until the end of the period for all simulated scenarios. Changes in seroprevalence from 0.10 to 0.20 were more easily detected (higher CumSe) than changes from 0.10 to 0.15 for all three algorithms. Similar results were found with EWMA and PSHEW, based on the median time to detection. Changes in the seroprevalence were detected later with CUSUM, compared to EWMA and PSHEW for the different scenarios. Increasing the sample size 10 fold halved the time to detection (CumSe=1), whereas increasing the sample size 100 fold reduced the time to detection by a factor of 6. This study investigated the performance of three univariate process monitoring control algorithms in monitoring endemic diseases. It was shown that automated systems based on these detection methods identified changes in seroprevalence at different times. Increasing the number of tested herds would lead to faster

  6. Evaluation of the efficiency of continuous wavelet transform as processing and preprocessing algorithm for resolution of overlapped signals in univariate and multivariate regression analyses; an application to ternary and quaternary mixtures

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hegazy, Maha A.; Lotfy, Hayam M.; Mowaka, Shereen; Mohamed, Ekram Hany

    2016-07-01

    Wavelets have been adapted for a vast number of signal-processing applications due to the amount of information that can be extracted from a signal. In this work, a comparative study on the efficiency of continuous wavelet transform (CWT) as a signal processing tool in univariate regression and a pre-processing tool in multivariate analysis using partial least square (CWT-PLS) was conducted. These were applied to complex spectral signals of ternary and quaternary mixtures. CWT-PLS method succeeded in the simultaneous determination of a quaternary mixture of drotaverine (DRO), caffeine (CAF), paracetamol (PAR) and p-aminophenol (PAP, the major impurity of paracetamol). While, the univariate CWT failed to simultaneously determine the quaternary mixture components and was able to determine only PAR and PAP, the ternary mixtures of DRO, CAF, and PAR and CAF, PAR, and PAP. During the calculations of CWT, different wavelet families were tested. The univariate CWT method was validated according to the ICH guidelines. While for the development of the CWT-PLS model a calibration set was prepared by means of an orthogonal experimental design and their absorption spectra were recorded and processed by CWT. The CWT-PLS model was constructed by regression between the wavelet coefficients and concentration matrices and validation was performed by both cross validation and external validation sets. Both methods were successfully applied for determination of the studied drugs in pharmaceutical formulations.

  7. Investigating univariate temporal patterns for intrinsic connectivity networks based on complexity and low-frequency oscillation: a test-retest reliability study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, X; Jiao, Y; Tang, T; Wang, H; Lu, Z

    2013-12-19

    Intrinsic connectivity networks (ICNs) are composed of spatial components and time courses. The spatial components of ICNs were discovered with moderate-to-high reliability. So far as we know, few studies focused on the reliability of the temporal patterns for ICNs based their individual time courses. The goals of this study were twofold: to investigate the test-retest reliability of temporal patterns for ICNs, and to analyze these informative univariate metrics. Additionally, a correlation analysis was performed to enhance interpretability. Our study included three datasets: (a) short- and long-term scans, (b) multi-band echo-planar imaging (mEPI), and (c) eyes open or closed. Using dual regression, we obtained the time courses of ICNs for each subject. To produce temporal patterns for ICNs, we applied two categories of univariate metrics: network-wise complexity and network-wise low-frequency oscillation. Furthermore, we validated the test-retest reliability for each metric. The network-wise temporal patterns for most ICNs (especially for default mode network, DMN) exhibited moderate-to-high reliability and reproducibility under different scan conditions. Network-wise complexity for DMN exhibited fair reliability (ICC<0.5) based on eyes-closed sessions. Specially, our results supported that mEPI could be a useful method with high reliability and reproducibility. In addition, these temporal patterns were with physiological meanings, and certain temporal patterns were correlated to the node strength of the corresponding ICN. Overall, network-wise temporal patterns of ICNs were reliable and informative and could be complementary to spatial patterns of ICNs for further study. Copyright © 2013 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  8. Multivariate refined composite multiscale entropy analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Humeau-Heurtier, Anne

    2016-01-01

    Multiscale entropy (MSE) has become a prevailing method to quantify signals complexity. MSE relies on sample entropy. However, MSE may yield imprecise complexity estimation at large scales, because sample entropy does not give precise estimation of entropy when short signals are processed. A refined composite multiscale entropy (RCMSE) has therefore recently been proposed. Nevertheless, RCMSE is for univariate signals only. The simultaneous analysis of multi-channel (multivariate) data often over-performs studies based on univariate signals. We therefore introduce an extension of RCMSE to multivariate data. Applications of multivariate RCMSE to simulated processes reveal its better performances over the standard multivariate MSE. - Highlights: • Multiscale entropy quantifies data complexity but may be inaccurate at large scale. • A refined composite multiscale entropy (RCMSE) has therefore recently been proposed. • Nevertheless, RCMSE is adapted to univariate time series only. • We herein introduce an extension of RCMSE to multivariate data. • It shows better performances than the standard multivariate multiscale entropy.

  9. Application of Raman Spectroscopy and Univariate Modelling As a Process Analytical Technology for Cell Therapy Bioprocessing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baradez, Marc-Olivier; Biziato, Daniela; Hassan, Enas; Marshall, Damian

    2018-01-01

    Cell therapies offer unquestionable promises for the treatment, and in some cases even the cure, of complex diseases. As we start to see more of these therapies gaining market authorization, attention is turning to the bioprocesses used for their manufacture, in particular the challenge of gaining higher levels of process control to help regulate cell behavior, manage process variability, and deliver product of a consistent quality. Many processes already incorporate the measurement of key markers such as nutrient consumption, metabolite production, and cell concentration, but these are often performed off-line and only at set time points in the process. Having the ability to monitor these markers in real-time using in-line sensors would offer significant advantages, allowing faster decision-making and a finer level of process control. In this study, we use Raman spectroscopy as an in-line optical sensor for bioprocess monitoring of an autologous T-cell immunotherapy model produced in a stirred tank bioreactor system. Using reference datasets generated on a standard bioanalyzer, we develop chemometric models from the Raman spectra for glucose, glutamine, lactate, and ammonia. These chemometric models can accurately monitor donor-specific increases in nutrient consumption and metabolite production as the primary T-cell transition from a recovery phase and begin proliferating. Using a univariate modeling approach, we then show how changes in peak intensity within the Raman spectra can be correlated with cell concentration and viability. These models, which act as surrogate markers, can be used to monitor cell behavior including cell proliferation rates, proliferative capacity, and transition of the cells to a quiescent phenotype. Finally, using the univariate models, we also demonstrate how Raman spectroscopy can be applied for real-time monitoring. The ability to measure these key parameters using an in-line Raman optical sensor makes it possible to have immediate

  10. Application of Raman Spectroscopy and Univariate Modelling As a Process Analytical Technology for Cell Therapy Bioprocessing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baradez, Marc-Olivier; Biziato, Daniela; Hassan, Enas; Marshall, Damian

    2018-01-01

    Cell therapies offer unquestionable promises for the treatment, and in some cases even the cure, of complex diseases. As we start to see more of these therapies gaining market authorization, attention is turning to the bioprocesses used for their manufacture, in particular the challenge of gaining higher levels of process control to help regulate cell behavior, manage process variability, and deliver product of a consistent quality. Many processes already incorporate the measurement of key markers such as nutrient consumption, metabolite production, and cell concentration, but these are often performed off-line and only at set time points in the process. Having the ability to monitor these markers in real-time using in-line sensors would offer significant advantages, allowing faster decision-making and a finer level of process control. In this study, we use Raman spectroscopy as an in-line optical sensor for bioprocess monitoring of an autologous T-cell immunotherapy model produced in a stirred tank bioreactor system. Using reference datasets generated on a standard bioanalyzer, we develop chemometric models from the Raman spectra for glucose, glutamine, lactate, and ammonia. These chemometric models can accurately monitor donor-specific increases in nutrient consumption and metabolite production as the primary T-cell transition from a recovery phase and begin proliferating. Using a univariate modeling approach, we then show how changes in peak intensity within the Raman spectra can be correlated with cell concentration and viability. These models, which act as surrogate markers, can be used to monitor cell behavior including cell proliferation rates, proliferative capacity, and transition of the cells to a quiescent phenotype. Finally, using the univariate models, we also demonstrate how Raman spectroscopy can be applied for real-time monitoring. The ability to measure these key parameters using an in-line Raman optical sensor makes it possible to have immediate

  11. Application of Raman Spectroscopy and Univariate Modelling As a Process Analytical Technology for Cell Therapy Bioprocessing

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marc-Olivier Baradez

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available Cell therapies offer unquestionable promises for the treatment, and in some cases even the cure, of complex diseases. As we start to see more of these therapies gaining market authorization, attention is turning to the bioprocesses used for their manufacture, in particular the challenge of gaining higher levels of process control to help regulate cell behavior, manage process variability, and deliver product of a consistent quality. Many processes already incorporate the measurement of key markers such as nutrient consumption, metabolite production, and cell concentration, but these are often performed off-line and only at set time points in the process. Having the ability to monitor these markers in real-time using in-line sensors would offer significant advantages, allowing faster decision-making and a finer level of process control. In this study, we use Raman spectroscopy as an in-line optical sensor for bioprocess monitoring of an autologous T-cell immunotherapy model produced in a stirred tank bioreactor system. Using reference datasets generated on a standard bioanalyzer, we develop chemometric models from the Raman spectra for glucose, glutamine, lactate, and ammonia. These chemometric models can accurately monitor donor-specific increases in nutrient consumption and metabolite production as the primary T-cell transition from a recovery phase and begin proliferating. Using a univariate modeling approach, we then show how changes in peak intensity within the Raman spectra can be correlated with cell concentration and viability. These models, which act as surrogate markers, can be used to monitor cell behavior including cell proliferation rates, proliferative capacity, and transition of the cells to a quiescent phenotype. Finally, using the univariate models, we also demonstrate how Raman spectroscopy can be applied for real-time monitoring. The ability to measure these key parameters using an in-line Raman optical sensor makes it possible

  12. Univariate time series modeling and an application to future claims amount in SOCSO's invalidity pension scheme

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chek, Mohd Zaki Awang; Ahmad, Abu Bakar; Ridzwan, Ahmad Nur Azam Ahmad; Jelas, Imran Md.; Jamal, Nur Faezah; Ismail, Isma Liana; Zulkifli, Faiz; Noor, Syamsul Ikram Mohd

    2012-09-01

    The main objective of this study is to forecast the future claims amount of Invalidity Pension Scheme (IPS). All data were derived from SOCSO annual reports from year 1972 - 2010. These claims consist of all claims amount from 7 benefits offered by SOCSO such as Invalidity Pension, Invalidity Grant, Survivors Pension, Constant Attendance Allowance, Rehabilitation, Funeral and Education. Prediction of future claims of Invalidity Pension Scheme will be made using Univariate Forecasting Models to predict the future claims among workforce in Malaysia.

  13. Univariate Lp and ɭ p Averaging, 0 < p < 1, in Polynomial Time by Utilization of Statistical Structure

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    John E. Lavery

    2012-10-01

    Full Text Available We present evidence that one can calculate generically combinatorially expensive Lp and lp averages, 0 < p < 1, in polynomial time by restricting the data to come from a wide class of statistical distributions. Our approach differs from the approaches in the previous literature, which are based on a priori sparsity requirements or on accepting a local minimum as a replacement for a global minimum. The functionals by which Lp averages are calculated are not convex but are radially monotonic and the functionals by which lp averages are calculated are nearly so, which are the keys to solvability in polynomial time. Analytical results for symmetric, radially monotonic univariate distributions are presented. An algorithm for univariate lp averaging is presented. Computational results for a Gaussian distribution, a class of symmetric heavy-tailed distributions and a class of asymmetric heavy-tailed distributions are presented. Many phenomena in human-based areas are increasingly known to be represented by data that have large numbers of outliers and belong to very heavy-tailed distributions. When tails of distributions are so heavy that even medians (L1 and l1 averages do not exist, one needs to consider using lp minimization principles with 0 < p < 1.

  14. Pleiotropy analysis of quantitative traits at gene level by multivariate functional linear models.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Yifan; Liu, Aiyi; Mills, James L; Boehnke, Michael; Wilson, Alexander F; Bailey-Wilson, Joan E; Xiong, Momiao; Wu, Colin O; Fan, Ruzong

    2015-05-01

    In genetics, pleiotropy describes the genetic effect of a single gene on multiple phenotypic traits. A common approach is to analyze the phenotypic traits separately using univariate analyses and combine the test results through multiple comparisons. This approach may lead to low power. Multivariate functional linear models are developed to connect genetic variant data to multiple quantitative traits adjusting for covariates for a unified analysis. Three types of approximate F-distribution tests based on Pillai-Bartlett trace, Hotelling-Lawley trace, and Wilks's Lambda are introduced to test for association between multiple quantitative traits and multiple genetic variants in one genetic region. The approximate F-distribution tests provide much more significant results than those of F-tests of univariate analysis and optimal sequence kernel association test (SKAT-O). Extensive simulations were performed to evaluate the false positive rates and power performance of the proposed models and tests. We show that the approximate F-distribution tests control the type I error rates very well. Overall, simultaneous analysis of multiple traits can increase power performance compared to an individual test of each trait. The proposed methods were applied to analyze (1) four lipid traits in eight European cohorts, and (2) three biochemical traits in the Trinity Students Study. The approximate F-distribution tests provide much more significant results than those of F-tests of univariate analysis and SKAT-O for the three biochemical traits. The approximate F-distribution tests of the proposed functional linear models are more sensitive than those of the traditional multivariate linear models that in turn are more sensitive than SKAT-O in the univariate case. The analysis of the four lipid traits and the three biochemical traits detects more association than SKAT-O in the univariate case. © 2015 WILEY PERIODICALS, INC.

  15. Detection of biomarkers for Hepatocellular Carcinoma using a hybrid univariate gene selection methods

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Abdel Samee Nagwan M

    2012-08-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Discovering new biomarkers has a great role in improving early diagnosis of Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC. The experimental determination of biomarkers needs a lot of time and money. This motivates this work to use in-silico prediction of biomarkers to reduce the number of experiments required for detecting new ones. This is achieved by extracting the most representative genes in microarrays of HCC. Results In this work, we provide a method for extracting the differential expressed genes, up regulated ones, that can be considered candidate biomarkers in high throughput microarrays of HCC. We examine the power of several gene selection methods (such as Pearson’s correlation coefficient, Cosine coefficient, Euclidean distance, Mutual information and Entropy with different estimators in selecting informative genes. A biological interpretation of the highly ranked genes is done using KEGG (Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathways, ENTREZ and DAVID (Database for Annotation, Visualization, and Integrated Discovery databases. The top ten genes selected using Pearson’s correlation coefficient and Cosine coefficient contained six genes that have been implicated in cancer (often multiple cancers genesis in previous studies. A fewer number of genes were obtained by the other methods (4 genes using Mutual information, 3genes using Euclidean distance and only one gene using Entropy. A better result was obtained by the utilization of a hybrid approach based on intersecting the highly ranked genes in the output of all investigated methods. This hybrid combination yielded seven genes (2 genes for HCC and 5 genes in different types of cancer in the top ten genes of the list of intersected genes. Conclusions To strengthen the effectiveness of the univariate selection methods, we propose a hybrid approach by intersecting several of these methods in a cascaded manner. This approach surpasses all of univariate selection methods when

  16. Univariate and Bivariate Empirical Mode Decomposition for Postural Stability Analysis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jacques Duchêne

    2008-05-01

    Full Text Available The aim of this paper was to compare empirical mode decomposition (EMD and two new extended methods of  EMD named complex empirical mode decomposition (complex-EMD and bivariate empirical mode decomposition (bivariate-EMD. All methods were used to analyze stabilogram center of pressure (COP time series. The two new methods are suitable to be applied to complex time series to extract complex intrinsic mode functions (IMFs before the Hilbert transform is subsequently applied on the IMFs. The trace of the analytic IMF in the complex plane has a circular form, with each IMF having its own rotation frequency. The area of the circle and the average rotation frequency of IMFs represent efficient indicators of the postural stability status of subjects. Experimental results show the effectiveness of these indicators to identify differences in standing posture between groups.

  17. Guaranteed Bounds on Information-Theoretic Measures of Univariate Mixtures Using Piecewise Log-Sum-Exp Inequalities

    KAUST Repository

    Nielsen, Frank

    2016-12-09

    Information-theoreticmeasures, such as the entropy, the cross-entropy and the Kullback-Leibler divergence between two mixture models, are core primitives in many signal processing tasks. Since the Kullback-Leibler divergence of mixtures provably does not admit a closed-form formula, it is in practice either estimated using costly Monte Carlo stochastic integration, approximated or bounded using various techniques. We present a fast and generic method that builds algorithmically closed-form lower and upper bounds on the entropy, the cross-entropy, the Kullback-Leibler and the α-divergences of mixtures. We illustrate the versatile method by reporting our experiments for approximating the Kullback-Leibler and the α-divergences between univariate exponential mixtures, Gaussian mixtures, Rayleigh mixtures and Gamma mixtures.

  18. Importance Performance Analysis as a Trade Show Performance Evaluation and Benchmarking Tool

    OpenAIRE

    Tafesse, Wondwesen; Skallerud, Kåre; Korneliussen, Tor

    2010-01-01

    Author's accepted version (post-print). The purpose of this study is to introduce importance performance analysis as a trade show performance evaluation and benchmarking tool. Importance performance analysis considers exhibitors’ performance expectation and perceived performance in unison to evaluate and benchmark trade show performance. The present study uses data obtained from exhibitors of an international trade show to demonstrate how importance performance analysis can be used to eval...

  19. Bivariate Rainfall and Runoff Analysis Using Shannon Entropy Theory

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rahimi, A.; Zhang, L.

    2012-12-01

    Rainfall-Runoff analysis is the key component for many hydrological and hydraulic designs in which the dependence of rainfall and runoff needs to be studied. It is known that the convenient bivariate distribution are often unable to model the rainfall-runoff variables due to that they either have constraints on the range of the dependence or fixed form for the marginal distributions. Thus, this paper presents an approach to derive the entropy-based joint rainfall-runoff distribution using Shannon entropy theory. The distribution derived can model the full range of dependence and allow different specified marginals. The modeling and estimation can be proceeded as: (i) univariate analysis of marginal distributions which includes two steps, (a) using the nonparametric statistics approach to detect modes and underlying probability density, and (b) fitting the appropriate parametric probability density functions; (ii) define the constraints based on the univariate analysis and the dependence structure; (iii) derive and validate the entropy-based joint distribution. As to validate the method, the rainfall-runoff data are collected from the small agricultural experimental watersheds located in semi-arid region near Riesel (Waco), Texas, maintained by the USDA. The results of unviariate analysis show that the rainfall variables follow the gamma distribution, whereas the runoff variables have mixed structure and follow the mixed-gamma distribution. With this information, the entropy-based joint distribution is derived using the first moments, the first moments of logarithm transformed rainfall and runoff, and the covariance between rainfall and runoff. The results of entropy-based joint distribution indicate: (1) the joint distribution derived successfully preserves the dependence between rainfall and runoff, and (2) the K-S goodness of fit statistical tests confirm the marginal distributions re-derived reveal the underlying univariate probability densities which further

  20. Effects of univariate and multivariate regression on the accuracy of hydrogen quantification with laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ytsma, Cai R.; Dyar, M. Darby

    2018-01-01

    Hydrogen (H) is a critical element to measure on the surface of Mars because its presence in mineral structures is indicative of past hydrous conditions. The Curiosity rover uses the laser-induced breakdown spectrometer (LIBS) on the ChemCam instrument to analyze rocks for their H emission signal at 656.6 nm, from which H can be quantified. Previous LIBS calibrations for H used small data sets measured on standards and/or manufactured mixtures of hydrous minerals and rocks and applied univariate regression to spectra normalized in a variety of ways. However, matrix effects common to LIBS make these calibrations of limited usefulness when applied to the broad range of compositions on the Martian surface. In this study, 198 naturally-occurring hydrous geological samples covering a broad range of bulk compositions with directly-measured H content are used to create more robust prediction models for measuring H in LIBS data acquired under Mars conditions. Both univariate and multivariate prediction models, including partial least square (PLS) and the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (Lasso), are compared using several different methods for normalization of H peak intensities. Data from the ChemLIBS Mars-analog spectrometer at Mount Holyoke College are compared against spectra from the same samples acquired using a ChemCam-like instrument at Los Alamos National Laboratory and the ChemCam instrument on Mars. Results show that all current normalization and data preprocessing variations for quantifying H result in models with statistically indistinguishable prediction errors (accuracies) ca. ± 1.5 weight percent (wt%) H2O, limiting the applications of LIBS in these implementations for geological studies. This error is too large to allow distinctions among the most common hydrous phases (basalts, amphiboles, micas) to be made, though some clays (e.g., chlorites with ≈ 12 wt% H2O, smectites with 15-20 wt% H2O) and hydrated phases (e.g., gypsum with ≈ 20

  1. Segmentation of Coronary Angiograms Using Gabor Filters and Boltzmann Univariate Marginal Distribution Algorithm

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fernando Cervantes-Sanchez

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents a novel method for improving the training step of the single-scale Gabor filters by using the Boltzmann univariate marginal distribution algorithm (BUMDA in X-ray angiograms. Since the single-scale Gabor filters (SSG are governed by three parameters, the optimal selection of the SSG parameters is highly desirable in order to maximize the detection performance of coronary arteries while reducing the computational time. To obtain the best set of parameters for the SSG, the area (Az under the receiver operating characteristic curve is used as fitness function. Moreover, to classify vessel and nonvessel pixels from the Gabor filter response, the interclass variance thresholding method has been adopted. The experimental results using the proposed method obtained the highest detection rate with Az=0.9502 over a training set of 40 images and Az=0.9583 with a test set of 40 images. In addition, the experimental results of vessel segmentation provided an accuracy of 0.944 with the test set of angiograms.

  2. Reciprocal Benefits of Mass-Univariate and Multivariate Modeling in Brain Mapping: Applications to Event-Related Functional MRI, H215O-, and FDG-PET

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    James R. Moeller

    2006-01-01

    Full Text Available In brain mapping studies of sensory, cognitive, and motor operations, specific waveforms of dynamic neural activity are predicted based on theoretical models of human information processing. For example in event-related functional MRI (fMRI, the general linear model (GLM is employed in mass-univariate analyses to identify the regions whose dynamic activity closely matches the expected waveforms. By comparison multivariate analyses based on PCA or ICA provide greater flexibility in detecting spatiotemporal properties of experimental data that may strongly support alternative neuroscientific explanations. We investigated conjoint multivariate and mass-univariate analyses that combine the capabilities to (1 verify activation of neural machinery we already understand and (2 discover reliable signatures of new neural machinery. We examined combinations of GLM and PCA that recover latent neural signals (waveforms and footprints with greater accuracy than either method alone. Comparative results are illustrated with analyses of real fMRI data, adding to Monte Carlo simulation support.

  3. Individual patient data meta-analysis shows no association between the SNP rs1800469 in TGFB and late radiotherapy toxicity

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Barnett, Gillian C.; Elliott, Rebecca M.; Alsner, Jan; Andreassen, Christian N.; Abdelhay, Osama; Burnet, Neil G.; Chang-Claude, Jenny; Coles, Charlotte E.; Gutiérrez-Enríquez, Sara; Fuentes-Raspall, Maria J.; Alonso-Muñoz, Maria C.; Kerns, Sarah; Raabe, Annette; Symonds, R. Paul; Seibold, Petra; Talbot, Chris J.; Wenz, Frederik; Wilkinson, Jennifer; Yarnold, John; Dunning, Alison M.

    2012-01-01

    Background and purpose: Reported associations between risk of radiation-induced normal tissue injury and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in TGFB1, encoding the pro-fibrotic cytokine transforming growth factor-beta 1 (TGF-β1), remain controversial. To overcome publication bias, the international Radiogenomics Consortium collected and analysed individual patient level data from both published and unpublished studies. Materials and methods: TGFB1 SNP rs1800469 c.-1347T>C (previously known as C-509T) genotype, treatment-related data, and clinically-assessed fibrosis (measured at least 2 years after therapy) were available in 2782 participants from 11 cohorts. All received adjuvant breast radiotherapy. Associations between late fibrosis or overall toxicity, reported by STAT (Standardised Total Average Toxicity) score, and rs1800469 genotype were assessed. Results: No statistically significant associations between either fibrosis or overall toxicity and rs1800469 genotype were observed with univariate or multivariate regression analysis. The multivariate odds ratio (OR), obtained from meta-analysis, for an increase in late fibrosis grade with each additional rare allele of rs1800469 was 0.98 (95% Confidence Interval (CI) 0.85–1.11). This CI is sufficiently narrow to rule out any clinically relevant effect on toxicity risk in carriers vs. non-carriers with a high probability. Conclusion: This meta-analysis has not confirmed previous reports of association between fibrosis or overall toxicity and rs1800469 genotype in breast cancer patients. It has demonstrated successful collaboration within the Radiogenomics Consortium.

  4. A Course in Time Series Analysis

    CERN Document Server

    Peña, Daniel; Tsay, Ruey S

    2011-01-01

    New statistical methods and future directions of research in time series A Course in Time Series Analysis demonstrates how to build time series models for univariate and multivariate time series data. It brings together material previously available only in the professional literature and presents a unified view of the most advanced procedures available for time series model building. The authors begin with basic concepts in univariate time series, providing an up-to-date presentation of ARIMA models, including the Kalman filter, outlier analysis, automatic methods for building ARIMA models, a

  5. Migraineurs without aura show microstructural abnormalities in the cerebellum and frontal lobe.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Granziera, C; Romascano, D; Daducci, A; Roche, A; Vincent, M; Krueger, G; Hadjikhani, N

    2013-12-01

    The involvement of the cerebellum in migraine pathophysiology is not well understood. We used a biparametric approach at high-field MRI (3 T) to assess the structural integrity of the cerebellum in 15 migraineurs with aura (MWA), 23 migraineurs without aura (MWoA), and 20 healthy controls (HC). High-resolution T1 relaxation maps were acquired together with magnetization transfer images in order to probe microstructural and myelin integrity. Clusterwise analysis was performed on T1 and magnetization transfer ratio (MTR) maps of the cerebellum of MWA, MWoA, and HC using an ANOVA and a non-parametric clusterwise permutation F test, with age and gender as covariates and correction for familywise error rate. In addition, mean MTR and T1 in frontal regions known to be highly connected to the cerebellum were computed. Clusterwise comparison among groups showed a cluster of lower MTR in the right Crus I of MWoA patients vs. HC and MWA subjects (p = 0.04). Univariate and bivariate analysis on T1 and MTR contrasts showed that MWoA patients had longer T1 and lower MTR in the right and left pars orbitalis compared to MWA (p < 0.01 and 0.05, respectively), but no differences were found with HC. Lower MTR and longer T1 point at a loss of macromolecules and/or micro-edema in Crus I and pars orbitalis in MWoA patients vs. HC and vs. MWA. The pathophysiological implications of these findings are discussed in light of recent literature.

  6. Real-time prediction of extreme ambient carbon monoxide concentrations due to vehicular exhaust emissions using univariate linear stochastic models

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sharma, P.; Khare, M.

    2000-01-01

    Historical data of the time-series of carbon monoxide (CO) concentration was analysed using Box-Jenkins modelling approach. Univariate Linear Stochastic Models (ULSMs) were developed to examine the degree of prediction possible for situations where only a limited data set, restricted only to the past record of pollutant data are available. The developed models can be used to provide short-term, real-time forecast of extreme CO concentrations for an Air Quality Control Region (AQCR), comprising a major traffic intersection in a Central Business District of Delhi City, India. (author)

  7. metaCCA: summary statistics-based multivariate meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies using canonical correlation analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cichonska, Anna; Rousu, Juho; Marttinen, Pekka; Kangas, Antti J; Soininen, Pasi; Lehtimäki, Terho; Raitakari, Olli T; Järvelin, Marjo-Riitta; Salomaa, Veikko; Ala-Korpela, Mika; Ripatti, Samuli; Pirinen, Matti

    2016-07-01

    A dominant approach to genetic association studies is to perform univariate tests between genotype-phenotype pairs. However, analyzing related traits together increases statistical power, and certain complex associations become detectable only when several variants are tested jointly. Currently, modest sample sizes of individual cohorts, and restricted availability of individual-level genotype-phenotype data across the cohorts limit conducting multivariate tests. We introduce metaCCA, a computational framework for summary statistics-based analysis of a single or multiple studies that allows multivariate representation of both genotype and phenotype. It extends the statistical technique of canonical correlation analysis to the setting where original individual-level records are not available, and employs a covariance shrinkage algorithm to achieve robustness.Multivariate meta-analysis of two Finnish studies of nuclear magnetic resonance metabolomics by metaCCA, using standard univariate output from the program SNPTEST, shows an excellent agreement with the pooled individual-level analysis of original data. Motivated by strong multivariate signals in the lipid genes tested, we envision that multivariate association testing using metaCCA has a great potential to provide novel insights from already published summary statistics from high-throughput phenotyping technologies. Code is available at https://github.com/aalto-ics-kepaco anna.cichonska@helsinki.fi or matti.pirinen@helsinki.fi Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press.

  8. Gastric cancers of Western European and African patients show different patterns of genomic instability

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mulder Chris JJ

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Infection with H. pylori is important in the etiology of gastric cancer. Gastric cancer is infrequent in Africa, despite high frequencies of H. pylori infection, referred to as the African enigma. Variation in environmental and host factors influencing gastric cancer risk between different populations have been reported but little is known about the biological differences between gastric cancers from different geographic locations. We aim to study genomic instability patterns of gastric cancers obtained from patients from United Kingdom (UK and South Africa (SA, in an attempt to support the African enigma hypothesis at the biological level. Methods DNA was isolated from 67 gastric adenocarcinomas, 33 UK patients, 9 Caucasian SA patients and 25 native SA patients. Microsatellite instability and chromosomal instability were analyzed by PCR and microarray comparative genomic hybridization, respectively. Data was analyzed by supervised univariate and multivariate analyses as well as unsupervised hierarchical cluster analysis. Results Tumors from Caucasian and native SA patients showed significantly more microsatellite instable tumors (p Conclusions Gastric cancers from SA and UK patients show differences in genetic instability patterns, indicating possible different biological mechanisms in patients from different geographical origin. This is of future clinical relevance for stratification of gastric cancer therapy.

  9. Multivariate analysis with LISREL

    CERN Document Server

    Jöreskog, Karl G; Y Wallentin, Fan

    2016-01-01

    This book traces the theory and methodology of multivariate statistical analysis and shows how it can be conducted in practice using the LISREL computer program. It presents not only the typical uses of LISREL, such as confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation models, but also several other multivariate analysis topics, including regression (univariate, multivariate, censored, logistic, and probit), generalized linear models, multilevel analysis, and principal component analysis. It provides numerous examples from several disciplines and discusses and interprets the results, illustrated with sections of output from the LISREL program, in the context of the example. The book is intended for masters and PhD students and researchers in the social, behavioral, economic and many other sciences who require a basic understanding of multivariate statistical theory and methods for their analysis of multivariate data. It can also be used as a textbook on various topics of multivariate statistical analysis.

  10. 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.

  11. Prognostic and survival analysis of 837 Chinese colorectal cancer patients.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yuan, Ying; Li, Mo-Dan; Hu, Han-Guang; Dong, Cai-Xia; Chen, Jia-Qi; Li, Xiao-Fen; Li, Jing-Jing; Shen, Hong

    2013-05-07

    To develop a prognostic model to predict survival of patients with colorectal cancer (CRC). Survival data of 837 CRC patients undergoing surgery between 1996 and 2006 were collected and analyzed by univariate analysis and Cox proportional hazard regression model to reveal the prognostic factors for CRC. All data were recorded using a standard data form and analyzed using SPSS version 18.0 (SPSS, Chicago, IL, United States). Survival curves were calculated by the Kaplan-Meier method. The log rank test was used to assess differences in survival. Univariate hazard ratios and significant and independent predictors of disease-specific survival and were identified by Cox proportional hazard analysis. The stepwise procedure was set to a threshold of 0.05. Statistical significance was defined as P analysis suggested age, preoperative obstruction, serum carcinoembryonic antigen level at diagnosis, status of resection, tumor size, histological grade, pathological type, lymphovascular invasion, invasion of adjacent organs, and tumor node metastasis (TNM) staging were positive prognostic factors (P analysis showed a significant statistical difference in 3-year survival among these groups: LNR1, 73%; LNR2, 55%; and LNR3, 42% (P analysis results showed that histological grade, depth of bowel wall invasion, and number of metastatic lymph nodes were the most important prognostic factors for CRC if we did not consider the interaction of the TNM staging system (P < 0.05). When the TNM staging was taken into account, histological grade lost its statistical significance, while the specific TNM staging system showed a statistically significant difference (P < 0.0001). The overall survival of CRC patients has improved between 1996 and 2006. LNR is a powerful factor for estimating the survival of stage III CRC patients.

  12. a meta-analysis

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    Chrissa G. Tsiara

    2018-03-13

    Mar 13, 2018 ... a meta-analysis of case–control studies was conducted. Univariate and ...... recent hepatitis C virus: potential benefit for ribavirin use in. HCV/HIV ... C/G polymorphism in breast pathologies and in HIV-infected patients.

  13. Who uses nursing theory? A univariate descriptive analysis of five years' research articles.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bond, A Elaine; Eshah, Nidal Farid; Bani-Khaled, Mohammed; Hamad, Atef Omar; Habashneh, Samira; Kataua', Hussein; al-Jarrah, Imad; Abu Kamal, Andaleeb; Hamdan, Falastine Rafic; Maabreh, Roqia

    2011-06-01

    Since the early 1950s, nursing leaders have worked diligently to build the Scientific Discipline of Nursing, integrating Theory, Research and Practice. Recently, the role of theory has again come into question, with some scientists claiming nurses are not using theory to guide their research, with which to improve practice. The purposes of this descriptive study were to determine: (i) Were nursing scientists' research articles in leading nursing journals based on theory? (ii) If so, were the theories nursing theories or borrowed theories? (iii) Were the theories integrated into the studies, or were they used as organizing frameworks? Research articles from seven top ISI journals were analysed, excluding regularly featured columns, meta-analyses, secondary analysis, case studies and literature reviews. The authors used King's dynamic Interacting system and Goal Attainment Theory as an organizing framework. They developed consensus on how to identify the integration of theory, searching the Title, Abstract, Aims, Methods, Discussion and Conclusion sections of each research article, whether quantitative or qualitative. Of 2857 articles published in the seven journals from 2002 to, and including, 2006, 2184 (76%) were research articles. Of the 837 (38%) authors who used theories, 460 (55%) used nursing theories, 377 (45%) used other theories: 776 (93%) of those who used theory integrated it into their studies, including qualitative studies, while 51 (7%) reported they used theory as an organizing framework for their studies. Closer analysis revealed theory principles were implicitly implied, even in research reports that did not explicitly report theory usage. Increasing numbers of nursing research articles (though not percentagewise) continue to be guided by theory, and not always by nursing theory. Newer nursing research methods may not explicitly state the use of nursing theory, though it is implicitly implied. © 2010 The Authors. Scandinavian Journal of Caring

  14. Improving the performance of univariate control charts for abnormal detection and classification

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yiakopoulos, Christos; Koutsoudaki, Maria; Gryllias, Konstantinos; Antoniadis, Ioannis

    2017-03-01

    Bearing failures in rotating machinery can cause machine breakdown and economical loss, if no effective actions are taken on time. Therefore, it is of prime importance to detect accurately the presence of faults, especially at their early stage, to prevent sequent damage and reduce costly downtime. The machinery fault diagnosis follows a roadmap of data acquisition, feature extraction and diagnostic decision making, in which mechanical vibration fault feature extraction is the foundation and the key to obtain an accurate diagnostic result. A challenge in this area is the selection of the most sensitive features for various types of fault, especially when the characteristics of failures are difficult to be extracted. Thus, a plethora of complex data-driven fault diagnosis methods are fed by prominent features, which are extracted and reduced through traditional or modern algorithms. Since most of the available datasets are captured during normal operating conditions, the last decade a number of novelty detection methods, able to work when only normal data are available, have been developed. In this study, a hybrid method combining univariate control charts and a feature extraction scheme is introduced focusing towards an abnormal change detection and classification, under the assumption that measurements under normal operating conditions of the machinery are available. The feature extraction method integrates the morphological operators and the Morlet wavelets. The effectiveness of the proposed methodology is validated on two different experimental cases with bearing faults, demonstrating that the proposed approach can improve the fault detection and classification performance of conventional control charts.

  15. Impact of BCL2 and p53 on postmastectomy radiotherapy response in high-risk breast cancer. A subgroup analysis of DBCG82 b&c

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kyndi, Marianne; Sørensen, Flemming Brandt; Knudsen, Helle

    2008-01-01

    -Meier probability plots showed a significantly improved overall survival after PMRT for the BCL2 positive subgroup, whereas practically no survival improvement was seen after PMRT for the BCL2 negative subgroup. In multivariate analysis of OS, however, no significant interaction was found between BCL2......PURPOSE: To examine p53 and BCL2 expression in high-risk breast cancer patients randomized to postmastectomy radiotherapy (PMRT). PATIENTS AND METHODS: The present analysis included 1 000 of 3 083 high-risk breast cancer patients randomly assigned to PMRT in the DBCG82 b&c studies. Tissue...... tests, Kaplan-Meier probability plots, Log-rank test, and Cox univariate and multivariate regression analyses. RESULTS: p53 accumulation was not significantly associated with increased overall mortality, DM or LRR probability in univariate or multivariate Cox regression analyses. Kaplan...

  16. Impact of BCL2 and p53 on postmastectomy radiotherapy response in high-risk breast cancer. A subgroup analysis of DBCG82 b

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kyndi, M.; Sorensen, F.B.; Alsner, J.

    2008-01-01

    -Meier probability plots showed a significantly improved overall survival after PMRT for the BCL2 positive subgroup, whereas practically no survival improvement was seen after PMRT for the BCL2 negative subgroup. In multivariate analysis of OS, however, no significant interaction was found between BCL2......Purpose. To examine p53 and BCL2 expression in high-risk breast cancer patients randomized to postmastectomy radiotherapy (PMRT). Patients and methods. The present analysis included 1000 of 3 083 high-risk breast cancer patients randomly assigned to PMRT in the DBCG82 b&c studies. Tissue microarray......, Kaplan-Meier probability plots, Log-rank test, and Cox univariate and multivariate regression analyses. Results. p53 accumulation was not significantly associated with increased overall mortality, DM or LRR probability in univariate or multivariate Cox regression analyses. Kaplan-Meier probability plots...

  17. Uncertainty Visualization Using Copula-Based Analysis in Mixed Distribution Models.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hazarika, Subhashis; Biswas, Ayan; Shen, Han-Wei

    2018-01-01

    Distributions are often used to model uncertainty in many scientific datasets. To preserve the correlation among the spatially sampled grid locations in the dataset, various standard multivariate distribution models have been proposed in visualization literature. These models treat each grid location as a univariate random variable which models the uncertainty at that location. Standard multivariate distributions (both parametric and nonparametric) assume that all the univariate marginals are of the same type/family of distribution. But in reality, different grid locations show different statistical behavior which may not be modeled best by the same type of distribution. In this paper, we propose a new multivariate uncertainty modeling strategy to address the needs of uncertainty modeling in scientific datasets. Our proposed method is based on a statistically sound multivariate technique called Copula, which makes it possible to separate the process of estimating the univariate marginals and the process of modeling dependency, unlike the standard multivariate distributions. The modeling flexibility offered by our proposed method makes it possible to design distribution fields which can have different types of distribution (Gaussian, Histogram, KDE etc.) at the grid locations, while maintaining the correlation structure at the same time. Depending on the results of various standard statistical tests, we can choose an optimal distribution representation at each location, resulting in a more cost efficient modeling without significantly sacrificing on the analysis quality. To demonstrate the efficacy of our proposed modeling strategy, we extract and visualize uncertain features like isocontours and vortices in various real world datasets. We also study various modeling criterion to help users in the task of univariate model selection.

  18. Fat stigmatization in television shows and movies: a content analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Himes, Susan M; Thompson, J Kevin

    2007-03-01

    To examine the phenomenon of fat stigmatization messages presented in television shows and movies, a content analysis was used to quantify and categorize fat-specific commentary and humor. Fat stigmatization vignettes were identified using a targeted sampling procedure, and 135 scenes were excised from movies and television shows. The material was coded by trained raters. Reliability indices were uniformly high for the seven categories (percentage agreement ranged from 0.90 to 0.98; kappas ranged from 0.66 to 0.94). Results indicated that fat stigmatization commentary and fat humor were often verbal, directed toward another person, and often presented directly in the presence of the overweight target. Results also indicated that male characters were three times more likely to engage in fat stigmatization commentary or fat humor than female characters. To our knowledge, these findings provide the first information regarding the specific gender, age, and types of fat stigmatization that occur frequently in movies and television shows. The stimuli should prove useful in future research examining the role of individual difference factors (e.g., BMI) in the reaction to viewing such vignettes.

  19. Comparative study of the efficiency of computed univariate and multivariate methods for the estimation of the binary mixture of clotrimazole and dexamethasone using two different spectral regions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fayez, Yasmin Mohammed; Tawakkol, Shereen Mostafa; Fahmy, Nesma Mahmoud; Lotfy, Hayam Mahmoud; Shehata, Mostafa Abdel-Aty

    2018-04-01

    Three methods of analysis are conducted that need computational procedures by the Matlab® software. The first is the univariate mean centering method which eliminates the interfering signal of the one component at a selected wave length leaving the amplitude measured to represent the component of interest only. The other two multivariate methods named PLS and PCR depend on a large number of variables that lead to extraction of the maximum amount of information required to determine the component of interest in the presence of the other. Good accurate and precise results are obtained from the three methods for determining clotrimazole in the linearity range 1-12 μg/mL and 75-550 μg/mL with dexamethasone acetate 2-20 μg/mL in synthetic mixtures and pharmaceutical formulation using two different spectral regions 205-240 nm and 233-278 nm. The results obtained are compared statistically to each other and to the official methods.

  20. Meta-Analysis in Stata Using Gllamm

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bagos, Pantelis G.

    2015-01-01

    There are several user-written programs for performing meta-analysis in Stata (Stata Statistical Software: College Station, TX: Stata Corp LP). These include metan, metareg, mvmeta, and glst. However, there are several cases for which these programs do not suffice. For instance, there is no software for performing univariate meta-analysis with…

  1. Resective surgical approach shows a high performance in the management of advanced cases of bisphosphonate-related osteonecrosis of the jaws: a retrospective survey of 347 cases.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Graziani, Filippo; Vescovi, Paolo; Campisi, Giuseppina; Favia, Gianfranco; Gabriele, Mario; Gaeta, Giovanni Maria; Gennai, Stefano; Goia, Franco; Miccoli, Mario; Peluso, Franco; Scoletta, Matteo; Solazzo, Luigi; Colella, Giuseppe

    2012-11-01

    The aim of this study was to evaluate the results of the surgical treatment of bisphosphonate-related osteonecrosis of the jaw (BRONJ) in a large cohort. A retrospective cohort multicenter study was designed. Patients were enrolled if they were diagnosed with BRONJ and received operative treatment. Data on demographic, health status, perioperative, and surgical factors were collected retrospectively. The primary outcome variable was a change in BRONJ staging (improvement, worsening, or no change). Interventions were grouped by local debridement and resective surgery. Data were collected for other variables as cofactors. Univariate analysis and logistic regressions were then performed. Of the 347 BRONJ-affected subjects, 59% showed improvement, 30% showed no change, and 11% showed worsening. Improvement was observed in 49% of cases treated with local debridement and 68% of cases treated with resective surgery. Multivariate analysis indicated that maxillary location, resective surgery, and no additional corticosteroid treatment were associated with a positive outcome. Surgical treatment of BRONJ appeared to be more effective when resective procedures were performed. Nonetheless, other factors, such as the absence of symptoms and the types of drug administration, should be taken into account before clinical decisions are made. Copyright © 2012 American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  2. A comparison of two follow-up analyses after multiple analysis of variance, analysis of variance, and descriptive discriminant analysis: A case study of the program effects on education-abroad programs

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alvin H. Yu; Garry. Chick

    2010-01-01

    This study compared the utility of two different post-hoc tests after detecting significant differences within factors on multiple dependent variables using multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). We compared the univariate F test (the Scheffé method) to descriptive discriminant analysis (DDA) using an educational-tour survey of university study-...

  3. The discriminatory analysis about factors correlative with the early hypothyroidism after 131I therapy for hyperthyroidism

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Xiong Lingjing; Liang Changhua; Deng Haoyu; Li Xinhui; Hu Shuo

    2002-01-01

    Objective: To explore the factors correlative with the early hypothyroidism after 131 I therapy for Graves' hyperthyroidism so as to cure it and decrease the early hypothyroidism occurring and prevent it from becoming irreversible hypothyroidism. Methods: Logistic regression discriminatory analysis by introducing multiple factors from group data and forward stepwise selection of 11 independent variables of 240 hyperthyroidism patients from clinical data and 1 dependent variable from follow-up data after 131 I therapy was conducted. Univariate analysis of each observed factor was performed, too. Results: (1)The results of multivariate analysis showed that the age of patients, the weight of thyroid, the suffering situation, the curve of 131 I absorption rate and the giving 131 I dosage/g thyroid tissue were correlated to early hypothyroidism. The results of univariate analysis showed that the weight of thyroid, the highest absorption of 131 I, the total treatment dosage of 131 I were correlated to early hypothyroidism. (2) The logistic regression equation was statistically significant. (3) The positive and negative predicting accuracy of the early hypothyroidism occurring was 64.08 %, 78.83 %, respectively, the overall predicting accuracy was 72.50%. Conclusions: The dosage of 131 I for treatment of hyperthyroid is the key factor according to the five correlative factors which are relating to the early hypothyroidism and the discriminatory classification. Enhanced follow-up and in time supplement of thyroid hormone are important measures for preventing the early hypothyroidism from becoming irreversible hypothyroidism

  4. Comparison of spectrum normalization techniques for univariate ...

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    2016-02-29

    Feb 29, 2016 ... 1Fuel Chemistry Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai 400 085, India. 2Department of ... their three-point smoothing methods were studied using LIBS for quantification of Cr, Mn and Ni ... nique for the qualitative and quantitative analysis of the samples. .... SEP is a type of mean square error.

  5. Analysis on risk factors for post-stroke emotional incontinence

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xiao-chun ZHANG

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Objective To investigate the occurrence rate and related risk factors for post-stroke emotional incontinence (PSEI. Methods The clinical data [sex, age, body mass index (BMI, education, marital status, medical history (hypertension, heart disease, diabetes, hyperlipemia, smoking and drinking and family history of stroke] of 162 stroke patients were recorded. Serum homocysteine (Hcy level was examined. Head CT and/or MRI were used to indicate stroke subtype, site of lesion and number of lesion. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Fifth Edition (DSM-Ⅴ Chinese version and Hamilton Depression Rating Scale-17 Items (HAMD-17 were used to evaluate the degree of depression. House diagnostic standard was used to diagnose PSEI. Univariate and multivariate backward Logistic regression analysis was used to screen related risk factor for PSEI. Spearman rank correlation analysis was used to discuss the correlation between PSEI and post-stroke depression (PSD. Results Among 162 stroke patients, 12 cases were diagnosed as PSEI (7.41% . The ratio of age < 60 years in PSEI group was significantly higher than non-PSEI group (P = 0.045. The ratio of smoking in PSEI group was significantly lower than non-PSEI group (P = 0.036. Univariate and multivariate backward Logistic regression analysis showed age < 60 years was independent risk factor for PSEI (OR = 4.000, 95%CI: 1.149-13.924; P = 0.029. Ten cases were combined with PSD in 12 PSEI patients, and the co-morbidity rate of PSEI and PSD was83.33%. Spearman rank correlation analysis showed PSEI was positively related to PSD (rs = 0.305, P = 0.000. Conclusions PSEI is common affective disorder in stroke patients, which easily happens in patients under 60 years of age. DOI: 10.3969/j.issn.1672-6731.2017.12.010

  6. Multivariate two-part statistics for analysis of correlated mass spectrometry data from multiple biological specimens.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Taylor, Sandra L; Ruhaak, L Renee; Weiss, Robert H; Kelly, Karen; Kim, Kyoungmi

    2017-01-01

    High through-put mass spectrometry (MS) is now being used to profile small molecular compounds across multiple biological sample types from the same subjects with the goal of leveraging information across biospecimens. Multivariate statistical methods that combine information from all biospecimens could be more powerful than the usual univariate analyses. However, missing values are common in MS data and imputation can impact between-biospecimen correlation and multivariate analysis results. We propose two multivariate two-part statistics that accommodate missing values and combine data from all biospecimens to identify differentially regulated compounds. Statistical significance is determined using a multivariate permutation null distribution. Relative to univariate tests, the multivariate procedures detected more significant compounds in three biological datasets. In a simulation study, we showed that multi-biospecimen testing procedures were more powerful than single-biospecimen methods when compounds are differentially regulated in multiple biospecimens but univariate methods can be more powerful if compounds are differentially regulated in only one biospecimen. We provide R functions to implement and illustrate our method as supplementary information CONTACT: sltaylor@ucdavis.eduSupplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  7. Prevalence of gestational diabetes mellitus in Europe: A meta-analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Eades, Claire E; Cameron, Dawn M; Evans, Josie M M

    2017-07-01

    Estimates of the prevalence of gestational diabetes vary widely. It is important to have a clear understanding of the prevalence of this condition to be able to plan interventions and health care provision. This paper describes a meta-analysis of primary research data reporting the prevalence of gestational diabetes mellitus in the general pregnant population of developed countries in Europe. Four electronic databases were systematically searched in May 2016. English language articles reporting gestational diabetes mellitus prevalence using universal screening in general pregnant population samples from developed countries in Europe were included. All papers identified by the search were screened by one author, and then half screened independently by a second author and half by a third author. Data were extracted by one author. Values for the measures of interest were combined using a random effects model and analysis of the effects of moderator variables was carried out. A total of 3258 abstracts were screened, with 40 studies included in the review. Overall prevalence of gestational diabetes mellitus was 5.4% (3.8-7.8). Maternal age, year of data collection, country, area of Europe, week of gestation at testing, and diagnostic criteria were found to have a significant univariate effect on GDM prevalence, and area, week of gestation at testing and year of data collection remained statistically significant in multivariate analysis. Quality category was significant in multivariate but not univariate analysis. This meta-analysis shows prevalence of GDM that is at the upper end of previous estimates in Europe. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  8. Prognostic impact of the level of nodal involvement: retrospective analysis of patients with advanced oral squamous cell carcinoma.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Murakami, R; Nakayama, H; Semba, A; Hiraki, A; Nagata, M; Kawahara, K; Shiraishi, S; Hirai, T; Uozumi, H; Yamashita, Y

    2017-01-01

    We retrospectively evaluated the prognostic impact of the level of nodal involvement in patients with advanced oral squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). Between 2005 and 2010, 105 patients with clinical stage III or IV oral SCC had chemoradiotherapy preoperatively. Clinical (cN) and pathological nodal (pN) involvement was primarily at levels Ib and II. We defined nodal involvement at levels Ia and III-V as anterior and inferior extensions, respectively, and recorded such findings as extensive. With respect to pretreatment variables (age, clinical stage, clinical findings of the primary tumour, and nodal findings), univariate analysis showed that extensive cN was the only significant factor for overall survival (hazard ratio [HR], 3.27; 95% CI 1.50 to 7.13; p=0.001). Univariate analysis showed that all pN findings, including the nodal classification (invaded nodes, multiple, and contralateral) and extensive involvement were significant, and multivariate analysis confirmed that extensive pN (HR 4.71; 95% CI 1.85 to 11.97; p=0.001) and multiple pN (HR 2.59; 95% CI 1.10 to 6.09; p=0.029) were independent predictors of overall survival. Assessment based on the level of invaded neck nodes may be a better predictor of survival than the current nodal classification. Copyright © 2016 The British Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  9. Preoperative C-reactive protein as a prognostic predictor for upper tract urothelial carcinoma: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Luo, You; Fu, Sheng Jun; She, Dong Li; Xiong, H U; Yang, L I

    2015-07-01

    Upper tract urothelial carcinoma (UTUC) is a relatively rare and highly aggressive tumor. However, the prognosis of UTUC is rarely predicted accurately due to the lack of reliable biomarkers. C-reactive protein (CRP) has been found to be correlated with several types of cancer. In this study, we performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to determine the association between CRP levels and prognosis in UTUC. A computerized search was conducted through PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, the Cochrane Library and CBM databases to identify clinical studies that have evaluated the association between preoperative CRP levels and prognosis of UTUC. The prognostic outcomes included recurrence-free survival (RFS), cancer-specific survival (CSS) and overall survival (OS). We extracted and synthesized corresponding hazard ratios (HRs) and confidence intervals (CIs) using Review Manager 5.3 software. We identified 7 retrospective cohort studies including a total of 1,919 patients and analyzed these studies using univariate and multivariate models. Our meta-analysis results revealed that RFS and CSS were significantly different between patients with elevated CRP levels and those with low CRP levels (P<0.0001 and P<0.00001, respectively); however, that was not the case for OS (P=0.22) in the multivariate or the univariate model. The pooled HR of RFS was 2.90 (95% CI: 1.87-4.51, P<0.00001) in the univariate analysis and 1.57 (95% CI: 1.26-1.97, P<0.0001) in the multivariate analysis. The pooled HRs of CSS were 2.78 (95% CI: 1.75-4.43, P<0.0001) and 1.64 (95% CI: 1.32-2.03, P<0.00001) in the univariate and multivariate analysis, respectively. However, the pooled HRs of OS were not significant in the univariate [1.24 (95% CI: 0.72-2.15, P=0.43)] or the multivariate analysis [1.24 (95% CI: 0.88-1.75, P=0.22)]. In conclusion, our meta-analysis results suggested that CRP level may be a prognostic predictor in UTUC.

  10. PyMVPA: A python toolbox for multivariate pattern analysis of fMRI data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hanke, Michael; Halchenko, Yaroslav O; Sederberg, Per B; Hanson, Stephen José; Haxby, James V; Pollmann, Stefan

    2009-01-01

    Decoding patterns of neural activity onto cognitive states is one of the central goals of functional brain imaging. Standard univariate fMRI analysis methods, which correlate cognitive and perceptual function with the blood oxygenation-level dependent (BOLD) signal, have proven successful in identifying anatomical regions based on signal increases during cognitive and perceptual tasks. Recently, researchers have begun to explore new multivariate techniques that have proven to be more flexible, more reliable, and more sensitive than standard univariate analysis. Drawing on the field of statistical learning theory, these new classifier-based analysis techniques possess explanatory power that could provide new insights into the functional properties of the brain. However, unlike the wealth of software packages for univariate analyses, there are few packages that facilitate multivariate pattern classification analyses of fMRI data. Here we introduce a Python-based, cross-platform, and open-source software toolbox, called PyMVPA, for the application of classifier-based analysis techniques to fMRI datasets. PyMVPA makes use of Python's ability to access libraries written in a large variety of programming languages and computing environments to interface with the wealth of existing machine learning packages. We present the framework in this paper and provide illustrative examples on its usage, features, and programmability.

  11. Outcome predictors in the management of intramedullary classic ependymoma: An integrative survival analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Yinqing; Cai, Ranze; Wang, Rui; Wang, Chunhua; Chen, Chunmei

    2018-06-01

    This is a retrospective study.The aim of this study was to illustrate the survival outcomes of patients with classic ependymoma (CE) and identify potential prognostic factors.CE is the most common category of spinal ependymomas, but few published studies have discussed predictors of the survival outcome.A Boolean search of the PubMed, Embase, and OVID databases was conducted by 2 investigators independently. The objects were intramedullary grade II ependymoma according to 2007 WHO classification. Univariate Kaplan-Meier analysis and Log-Rank tests were performed to identify variables associated with progression-free survival (PFS) or overall survival (OS). Multivariate Cox regression was performed to assess hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs). Statistical analysis was performed by SPSS version 23.0 (IBM Corp.) with statistical significance defined as P analysis showed that patients who had undergone total resection (TR) had better PFS and OS than those with subtotal resection (STR) and biopsy (P = .002, P = .004, respectively). Within either univariate or multivariate analysis (P = .000, P = .07, respectively), histological type was an independent prognostic factor for PFS of CE [papillary type: HR 0.002, 95% CI (0.000-0.073), P = .001, tanycytic type: HR 0.010, 95% CI (0.000-0.218), P = .003].It was the first integrative analysis of CE to elucidate the correlation between kinds of factors and prognostic outcomes. Definite histological type and safely TR were foundation of CE's management. 4.

  12. The use of principal components and univariate charts to control multivariate processes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marcela A. G. Machado

    2008-04-01

    Full Text Available In this article, we evaluate the performance of the T² chart based on the principal components (PC X chart and the simultaneous univariate control charts based on the original variables (SU charts or based on the principal components (SUPC charts. The main reason to consider the PC chart lies on the dimensionality reduction. However, depending on the disturbance and on the way the original variables are related, the chart is very slow in signaling, except when all variables are negatively correlated and the principal component is wisely selected. Comparing the SU , the SUPC and the T² charts we conclude that the SU X charts (SUPC charts have a better overall performance when the variables are positively (negatively correlated. We also develop the expression to obtain the power of two S² charts designed for monitoring the covariance matrix. These joint S² charts are, in the majority of the cases, more efficient than the generalized variance chart.Neste artigo, avaliamos o desempenho do gráfico de T² baseado em componentes principais (gráfico PC e dos gráficos de controle simultâneos univariados baseados nas variáveis originais (gráfico SU X ou baseados em componentes principais (gráfico SUPC. A principal razão para o uso do gráfico PC é a redução de dimensionalidade. Entretanto, dependendo da perturbação e da correlação entre as variáveis originais, o gráfico é lento em sinalizar, exceto quando todas as variáveis são negativamente correlacionadas e a componente principal é adequadamente escolhida. Comparando os gráficos SU X, SUPC e T² concluímos que o gráfico SU X (gráfico SUPC tem um melhor desempenho global quando as variáveis são positivamente (negativamente correlacionadas. Desenvolvemos também uma expressão para obter o poder de detecção de dois gráficos de S² projetados para controlar a matriz de covariâncias. Os gráficos conjuntos de S² são, na maioria dos casos, mais eficientes que o gr

  13. [Analysis of the risk factors of acute respiratory distress syndrome of Berlin new definition in patients with sepsis in emergency department].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Qiao, Liang; Liu, Zhi

    2015-07-01

    To discuss the risk factors of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in patients with sepsis in emergency department. 312 patients with sepsis admitted to Department of Emergency of China Medical University Affiliated First Hospital were retrospectively analyzed, and they were divided into two groups according to development of ARDS, which was defined according to the Berlin new definition. The age, gender, vital signs, laboratory results, underlying disease, the mortality in emergency department sepsis (MEDS) score and lung injury prediction score (LIPS) were collected. Univariate analysis was done for each parameter. Statistical significance results were evaluated by multivariate logistic regression analysis. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was plotted to analyze the predictive value of the parameter for ARDS. The incidence of sepsis-related ARDS was 11.2% (35/312). Within 35 cases of ARDS, there were 10 cases of mild ARDS, 18 cases of moderate ARDS, and 7 cases of severe ARDS. Univariate analysis showed that age (t=-2.134, P=0.035), oxygenation index (t=-4.245, P=0.001), arterial lactate (Lac, t=6.245, Pemergency department, which may be a reference for the early clinical diagnosis of ARDS.

  14. Panel data analysis using EViews

    CERN Document Server

    Agung, I Gusti Ngurah

    2013-01-01

    A comprehensive and accessible guide to panel data analysis using EViews software This book explores the use of EViews software in creating panel data analysis using appropriate empirical models and real datasets. Guidance is given on developing alternative descriptive statistical summaries for evaluation and providing policy analysis based on pool panel data. Various alternative models based on panel data are explored, including univariate general linear models, fixed effect models and causal models, and guidance on the advantages and disadvantages of each one is given. Panel Data Analysis

  15. Will initiatives to promote hydroelectricity consumption be effective? Evidence from univariate and panel LM unit root tests with structural breaks

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lean, Hooi Hooi; Smyth, Russell

    2014-01-01

    This paper examines whether initiatives to promote hydroelectricity consumption are likely to be effective by applying univariate and panel Lagrange Multiplier (LM) unit root tests to hydroelectricity consumption in 55 countries over the period 1965–2011. We find that for the panel, as well as about four-fifths of individual countries, that hydroelectricity consumption is stationary. This result implies that shocks to hydroelectricity consumption in most countries will only result in temporary deviations from the long-run growth path. An important consequence of this finding is that initiatives designed to have permanent positive effects on hydroelectricity consumption, such as large-scale dam construction, are unlikely to be effective in increasing the share of hydroelectricity, relative to consumption of fossil fuels. - Highlights: • Applies unit root tests to hydroelectricity consumption. • Hydroelectricity consumption is stationary. • Shocks to hydroelectricity consumption result in temporary deviations from the long-run growth path

  16. Analysis of risk factors for non-anastomotic biliary stricture following liver transplantation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    WU Xiaofeng

    2013-06-01

    Full Text Available ObjectiveTo investigate the risk factors for non-anastomotic biliary stricture (NABS following liver transplantation. MethodsA retrospective analysis was performed on 175 patients who underwent liver transplantation from January 2004 to December 2010 to analyze the risk factors for NABS, which included sex, age, primary disease, blood type, T-tube placement, acute rejection, biliary tract infection, cytomegalovirus infection, Child-Pugh score, cold ischemia time, warm ischemia time, duration of anhepatic phase, and mean hepatic artery blood flow within one week after operation. These patients were divided into early group, who underwent operation from January 2004 to December 2006, and late group, who underwent operation from January 2007 to December 2010; each group was further divided into two subgroups according to whether they developed NABS. The risk factors for NABS were determined by univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses. ResultsThe univariate logistic regression analysis showed that the risk factors for NABS were biliary tract infection, T-tube placement, and acute rejection in the early group (P<0.05 and that acute rejection was the risk factor in the late group (P=0003. The multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that acute rejection was significantly associated with NABS in the early group (P=0.014. ConclusionThe risk factors for NABS following liver transplantation from January 2004 to December 2006; biliary tract infection and T-tube placement could be prevented by perioperative interventions, thus reducing the incidence of NABS. The incidence of acute rejection was reduced from January 2007 to December 2010, but it was still significantly associated with NABS.

  17. Evaluation of genetic diversity among soybean (Glycine max) genotypes using univariate and multivariate analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oliveira, M M; Sousa, L B; Reis, M C; Silva Junior, E G; Cardoso, D B O; Hamawaki, O T; Nogueira, A P O

    2017-05-31

    The genetic diversity study has paramount importance in breeding programs; hence, it allows selection and choice of the parental genetic divergence, which have the agronomic traits desired by the breeder. This study aimed to characterize the genetic divergence between 24 soybean genotypes through their agronomic traits, using multivariate clustering methods to select the potential genitors for the promising hybrid combinations. Six agronomic traits evaluated were number of days to flowering and maturity, plant height at flowering and maturity, insertion height of the first pod, and yield. The genetic divergence evaluated by multivariate analysis that esteemed first the Mahalanobis' generalized distance (D 2 ), then the clustering using Tocher's optimization methods, and then the unweighted pair group method with arithmetic average (UPGMA). Tocher's optimization method and the UPGMA agreed with the groups' constitution between each other, the formation of eight distinct groups according Tocher's method and seven distinct groups using UPGMA. The trait number of days for flowering (45.66%) was the most efficient to explain dissimilarity between genotypes, and must be one of the main traits considered by the breeder in the moment of genitors choice in soybean-breeding programs. The genetic variability allowed the identification of dissimilar genotypes and with superior performances. The hybridizations UFU 18 x UFUS CARAJÁS, UFU 15 x UFU 13, and UFU 13 x UFUS CARAJÁS are promising to obtain superior segregating populations, which enable the development of more productive genotypes.

  18. Multivariate Meta-Analysis Using Individual Participant Data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Riley, R. D.; Price, M. J.; Jackson, D.; Wardle, M.; Gueyffier, F.; Wang, J.; Staessen, J. A.; White, I. R.

    2015-01-01

    When combining results across related studies, a multivariate meta-analysis allows the joint synthesis of correlated effect estimates from multiple outcomes. Joint synthesis can improve efficiency over separate univariate syntheses, may reduce selective outcome reporting biases, and enables joint inferences across the outcomes. A common issue is…

  19. Objective Bayesian Analysis of Skew- t Distributions

    KAUST Repository

    BRANCO, MARCIA D'ELIA; GENTON, MARC G.; LISEO, BRUNERO

    2012-01-01

    We study the Jeffreys prior and its properties for the shape parameter of univariate skew-t distributions with linear and nonlinear Student's t skewing functions. In both cases, we show that the resulting priors for the shape parameter are symmetric

  20. Analysis of association of clinical aspects and IL1B tagSNPs with severe preeclampsia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leme Galvão, Larissa Paes; Menezes, Filipe Emanuel; Mendonca, Caio; Barreto, Ikaro; Alvim-Pereira, Claudia; Alvim-Pereira, Fabiano; Gurgel, Ricardo

    2016-01-01

    This study investigates the association between IL1B genotypes using a tag SNP (single polymorphism) approach, maternal and environmental factors in Brazilian women with severe preeclampsia. A case-control study with a total of 456 patients (169 preeclamptic women and 287 controls) was conducted in the two reference maternity hospitals of Sergipe state, Northeast Brazil. A questionnaire was administered and DNA was extracted to genotype the population for four tag SNPs of the IL1Beta: rs 1143643, rs 1143633, rs 1143634 and rs 1143630. Haplotype association analysis and p-values were calculated using the THESIAS test. Odds ratio (OR) estimation, confidence interval (CI) and multivariate logistic regression were performed. High pregestational body mass index (pre-BMI), first gestation, cesarean section, more than six medical visits, low level of consciousness on admission and TC and TT genotype in rs1143630 of IL1Beta showed association with the preeclamptic group in univariate analysis. After multivariate logistic regression pre-BMI, first gestation and low level of consciousness on admission remained associated. We identified an association between clinical variables and preeclampsia. Univariate analysis suggested that inflammatory process-related genes, such as IL1B, may be involved and should be targeted in further studies. The identification of the genetic background involved in preeclampsia host response modulation is mandatory in order to understand the preeclampsia process.

  1. Transforming Parent-Child Interaction in Family Routines: Longitudinal Analysis with Families of Children with Developmental Disabilities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lucyshyn, Joseph M; Fossett, Brenda; Bakeman, Roger; Cheremshynski, Christy; Miller, Lynn; Lohrmann, Sharon; Binnendyk, Lauren; Khan, Sophia; Chinn, Stephen; Kwon, Samantha; Irvin, Larry K

    2015-12-01

    The efficacy and consequential validity of an ecological approach to behavioral intervention with families of children with developmental disabilities was examined. The approach aimed to transform coercive into constructive parent-child interaction in family routines. Ten families participated, including 10 mothers and fathers and 10 children 3-8 years old with developmental disabilities. Thirty-six family routines were selected (2 to 4 per family). Dependent measures included child problem behavior, routine steps completed, and coercive and constructive parent-child interaction. For each family, a single case, multiple baseline design was employed with three phases: baseline, intervention, and follow-up. Visual analysis evaluated the functional relation between intervention and improvements in child behavior and routine participation. Nonparametric tests across families evaluated the statistical significance of these improvements. Sequential analyses within families and univariate analyses across families examined changes from baseline to intervention in the percentage and odds ratio of coercive and constructive parent-child interaction. Multiple baseline results documented functional or basic effects for 8 of 10 families. Nonparametric tests showed these changes to be significant. Follow-up showed durability at 11 to 24 months postintervention. Sequential analyses documented the transformation of coercive into constructive processes for 9 of 10 families. Univariate analyses across families showed significant improvements in 2- and 4-step coercive and constructive processes but not in odds ratio. Results offer evidence of the efficacy of the approach and consequential validity of the ecological unit of analysis, parent-child interaction in family routines. Future studies should improve efficiency, and outcomes for families experiencing family systems challenges.

  2. Clinical Characteristics and Predictors of Outcome for Onconeural Antibody-Associated Disorders: A Retrospective Analysis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shaohua Liao

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available ObjectiveTo describe and analyze the clinical characteristics, laboratory data, management, and outcome of patients with onconeural antibody-associated disorders (OAAD and identify predictors for poor outcome.MethodsThis was a retrospective review of all patients with potential OAAD, who were hospitalized in Jinan General Hospital between September 2009 and July 2017. We clarified the diagnosis, collected comprehensive information and categorized patients into three groups: paraneoplastic neurological disorders (PNDs, autoimmune encephalitis (AE, and possible OAAD. Within the three groups, we analyzed a range of clinical and laboratory parameters and used univariate and multivariate regression analysis to identify predictors for poor outcome [modified Rankin Scale (mRS = 3–6].ResultsFrom 158 patients, we identified 70 who fulfilled the criteria for OAAD, including 44 men (62.9% and 26 women (37.1%. There were 38 patients (54.3% in the PNDs group, 14 patients (20% in the AE group, and 18 patients (25.7% in the possible OAAD group. After the last follow-up, 14 (36.8%, 9 (64.2%, and 12 (66.7% had a good outcome (mRS = 0–2. However, 6 (15.8%, 2 (14.3%, and 3 (16.7% died, respectively. Univariate analysis showed that duration prior to the hospital (p = 0.0224 and urinary incontinence/retention (p = 0.0043 were associated with poor outcome (mRS = 3–6. After multivariate regression analysis, urinary incontinence/retention (p = 0.0388 and an immunocompromised state (p = 0.0247 remained as significant factors for poor outcome.ConclusionUrinary incontinence/retention and an immunocompromised state represent significant predictors of a worse prognosis for patients with OAAD. By contrast, cerebrospinal fluid analysis showed that serum autoantibodies and tumor markers, the function of crucial organs, electrophysiology, and radiological findings were not associated with a poor outcome.

  3. A Pilot Study of Reasons and Risk Factors for "No-Shows" in a Pediatric Neurology Clinic.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guzek, Lindsay M; Fadel, William F; Golomb, Meredith R

    2015-09-01

    Missed clinic appointments lead to decreased patient access, worse patient outcomes, and increased healthcare costs. The goal of this pilot study was to identify reasons for and risk factors associated with missed pediatric neurology outpatient appointments ("no-shows"). This was a prospective cohort study of patients scheduled for 1 week of clinic. Data on patient clinical and demographic information were collected by record review; data on reasons for missed appointments were collected by phone interviews. Univariate and multivariate analyses were conducted using chi-square tests and multiple logistic regression to assess risk factors for missed appointments. Fifty-nine (25%) of 236 scheduled patients were no-shows. Scheduling conflicts (25.9%) and forgetting (20.4%) were the most common reasons for missed appointments. When controlling for confounding factors in the logistic regression, Medicaid (odds ratio 2.36), distance from clinic, and time since appointment was scheduled were associated with missed appointments. Further work in this area is needed. © The Author(s) 2014.

  4. A comparisonof lymphocytic thyroiditis with papillary thyroid carcinoma showing suspicious ultrasonographic findings in a background of heterogeneous parenchyma

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Nam, Sang Yu; Shin, Jung Hee; Ko, Eun Young; Hahn, Soo Yeon [Dept. of Radiology, Samsung Medicine Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul (Korea, Republic of)

    2015-01-15

    The aim of this study was to compare ultrasonographic features in patients with lymphocytic thyroiditis (LT) and papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) having suspicious thyroid nodule(s) in a background of heterogeneous parenchyma and to determine the clinical and radiological predictors of malignancy. We reviewed the cases of 100 patients who underwent ultrasonography between April 2011 and October 2012, and showed suspicious thyroid nodule(s) in a background of heterogeneous parenchyma. Eight patients who did not undergo ultrasonography-guided fineneedle aspiration cytology (FNAC) and 34 cases of follow-up ultrasonography after initial FNAC were excluded. We compared the benign and malignant nodules in terms of their clinical and radiological factors. For the 58 nodules including 31 LTs (53.4%) and 27 PTCs (46.6%), the mean tumor sizes of the two groups were 0.96 cm for LT and 0.97 cm for PTC. A univariate analysis revealed that PTCs were more frequent in patients younger than 45 years and having microcalcifications than was LT. An independent predictor of PTC after adjustment was an age of <45 years. LT mimics malignancy in a background of heterogeneous parenchyma on ultrasonography. A young age of <45 years is the most important predictor of malignancy in this condition.

  5. Historical and future drought in Bangladesh using copula-based bivariate regional frequency analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mortuza, Md Rubayet; Moges, Edom; Demissie, Yonas; Li, Hong-Yi

    2018-02-01

    The study aims at regional and probabilistic evaluation of bivariate drought characteristics to assess both the past and future drought duration and severity in Bangladesh. The procedures involve applying (1) standardized precipitation index to identify drought duration and severity, (2) regional frequency analysis to determine the appropriate marginal distributions for both duration and severity, (3) copula model to estimate the joint probability distribution of drought duration and severity, and (4) precipitation projections from multiple climate models to assess future drought trends. Since drought duration and severity in Bangladesh are often strongly correlated and do not follow same marginal distributions, the joint and conditional return periods of droughts are characterized using the copula-based joint distribution. The country is divided into three homogeneous regions using Fuzzy clustering and multivariate discordancy and homogeneity measures. For given severity and duration values, the joint return periods for a drought to exceed both values are on average 45% larger, while to exceed either value are 40% less than the return periods from the univariate frequency analysis, which treats drought duration and severity independently. These suggest that compared to the bivariate drought frequency analysis, the standard univariate frequency analysis under/overestimate the frequency and severity of droughts depending on how their duration and severity are related. Overall, more frequent and severe droughts are observed in the west side of the country. Future drought trend based on four climate models and two scenarios showed the possibility of less frequent drought in the future (2020-2100) than in the past (1961-2010).

  6. Meta-Analysis of Effect Sizes Reported at Multiple Time Points Using General Linear Mixed Model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Musekiwa, Alfred; Manda, Samuel O. M.; Mwambi, Henry G.; Chen, Ding-Geng

    2016-01-01

    Meta-analysis of longitudinal studies combines effect sizes measured at pre-determined time points. The most common approach involves performing separate univariate meta-analyses at individual time points. This simplistic approach ignores dependence between longitudinal effect sizes, which might result in less precise parameter estimates. In this paper, we show how to conduct a meta-analysis of longitudinal effect sizes where we contrast different covariance structures for dependence between effect sizes, both within and between studies. We propose new combinations of covariance structures for the dependence between effect size and utilize a practical example involving meta-analysis of 17 trials comparing postoperative treatments for a type of cancer, where survival is measured at 6, 12, 18 and 24 months post randomization. Although the results from this particular data set show the benefit of accounting for within-study serial correlation between effect sizes, simulations are required to confirm these results. PMID:27798661

  7. Elements of nonlinear time series analysis and forecasting

    CERN Document Server

    De Gooijer, Jan G

    2017-01-01

    This book provides an overview of the current state-of-the-art of nonlinear time series analysis, richly illustrated with examples, pseudocode algorithms and real-world applications. Avoiding a “theorem-proof” format, it shows concrete applications on a variety of empirical time series. The book can be used in graduate courses in nonlinear time series and at the same time also includes interesting material for more advanced readers. Though it is largely self-contained, readers require an understanding of basic linear time series concepts, Markov chains and Monte Carlo simulation methods. The book covers time-domain and frequency-domain methods for the analysis of both univariate and multivariate (vector) time series. It makes a clear distinction between parametric models on the one hand, and semi- and nonparametric models/methods on the other. This offers the reader the option of concentrating exclusively on one of these nonlinear time series analysis methods. To make the book as user friendly as possible...

  8. Survival benefit of radiotherapy to patients with small cell esophagus carcinoma: an analysis of Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Song, Yaqi; Wang, Wanwei; Tao, Guangzhou; Zhu, Weiguo; Zhou, Xilei; Pan, Peng

    2016-03-29

    Small cell esophageal carcinoma (SCEC) is a rare malignant tumor. So far, few studies are found to research the effect of radiotherapy (RT) to it. This study is designed to explore the prognostic factors, and analyze survival benefit of RT to patients with SCEC. Patients with SCEC were more likely to be in female, older, higher disease stage than those with non-small cell esophageal carcinoma. RT was used in more than 50% SCEC patients. RT tended be reduced as the disease stage raise in SCEC. Univariate and multivariate analysis showed that age, year, disease stage, and RT were the prognostic factors of survival (P 0.05) and nearly 30% risks of death in distant stage (P > 0.05). SCEC patients between 1973 and 2012 were searched from the Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) data. Clinical factors including age, year, sex, race, stage, surgery, and RT were summarized. Univariate and multivariate analysis were performed to explore the independent prognostic factors of SCEC. Cox regression survival analysis was performed to evaluate the effect of RT to SCEC based on different stages. Stage, age, year, and RT are independent prognostic factors of SCEC. Survival benefit of RT exists in any disease stage, but is only statistically significant in localized stage of SCEC.

  9. Relationship between climatic variables and the variation in bulk tank milk composition using canonical correlation analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stürmer, Morgana; Busanello, Marcos; Velho, João Pedro; Heck, Vanessa Isabel; Haygert-Velho, Ione Maria Pereira

    2018-06-04

    A number of studies have addressed the relations between climatic variables and milk composition, but these works used univariate statistical approaches. In our study, we used a multivariate approach (canonical correlation) to study the impact of climatic variables on milk composition, price, and monthly milk production at a dairy farm using bulk tank milk data. Data on milk composition, price, and monthly milk production were obtained from a dairy company that purchased the milk from the farm, while climatic variable data were obtained from the National Institute of Meteorology (INMET). The data are from January 2014 to December 2016. Univariate correlation analysis and canonical correlation analysis were performed. Few correlations between the climatic variables and milk composition were found using a univariate approach. However, using canonical correlation analysis, we found a strong and significant correlation (r c  = 0.95, p value = 0.0029). Lactose, ambient temperature measures (mean, minimum, and maximum), and temperature-humidity index (THI) were found to be the most important variables for the canonical correlation. Our study indicated that 10.2% of the variation in milk composition, pricing, and monthly milk production can be explained by climatic variables. Ambient temperature variables, together with THI, seem to have the most influence on variation in milk composition.

  10. Handbook of univariate and multivariate data analysis and interpretation with SPSS

    CERN Document Server

    Ho, Robert

    2006-01-01

    Many statistics texts tend to focus more on the theory and mathematics underlying statistical tests than on their applications and interpretation. This can leave readers with little understanding of how to apply statistical tests or how to interpret their findings. While the SPSS statistical software has done much to alleviate the frustrations of social science professionals and students who must analyze data, they still face daunting challenges in selecting the proper tests, executing the tests, and interpreting the test results.With emphasis firmly on such practical matters, this handbook se

  11. A Quantitative Analysis of the Extrinsic and Intrinsic Turnover Factors of Relational Database Support Professionals

    Science.gov (United States)

    Takusi, Gabriel Samuto

    2010-01-01

    This quantitative analysis explored the intrinsic and extrinsic turnover factors of relational database support specialists. Two hundred and nine relational database support specialists were surveyed for this research. The research was conducted based on Hackman and Oldham's (1980) Job Diagnostic Survey. Regression analysis and a univariate ANOVA…

  12. Fast Detection of Copper Content in Rice by Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy with Uni- and Multivariate Analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ye, Lanhan; Song, Kunlin; Shen, Tingting

    2018-01-01

    Fast detection of heavy metals is very important for ensuring the quality and safety of crops. Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS), coupled with uni- and multivariate analysis, was applied for quantitative analysis of copper in three kinds of rice (Jiangsu rice, regular rice, and Simiao rice). For univariate analysis, three pre-processing methods were applied to reduce fluctuations, including background normalization, the internal standard method, and the standard normal variate (SNV). Linear regression models showed a strong correlation between spectral intensity and Cu content, with an R2 more than 0.97. The limit of detection (LOD) was around 5 ppm, lower than the tolerance limit of copper in foods. For multivariate analysis, partial least squares regression (PLSR) showed its advantage in extracting effective information for prediction, and its sensitivity reached 1.95 ppm, while support vector machine regression (SVMR) performed better in both calibration and prediction sets, where Rc2 and Rp2 reached 0.9979 and 0.9879, respectively. This study showed that LIBS could be considered as a constructive tool for the quantification of copper contamination in rice. PMID:29495445

  13. Proteome Analysis of the Plant Pathogenic Fungus Monilinia laxa Showing Host Specificity

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Olja Bregar

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Brown rot fungus Monilinia laxa (Aderh. & Ruhl. Honey is an important plant pathogen in stone and pome fruits in Europe. We applied a proteomic approach in a study of M. laxa isolates obtained from apples and apricots in order to show the host specifity of the isolates and to analyse differentially expressed proteins in terms of host specifity, fungal pathogenicity and identification of candidate proteins for diagnostic marker development. Extracted mycelium proteins were separated by 2-D electrophoresis (2-DE and visualized by Coomassie staining in a non-linear pH range of 3–11 and Mr of 14–116 kDa. We set up a 2-DE reference map of M. laxa, resolving up to 800 protein spots, and used it for image analysis. The average technical coefficient of variance (13 % demonstrated a high reproducibility of protein extraction and 2-D polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (2-DE PAGE, and the average biological coefficient of variance (23 % enabled differential proteomic analysis of the isolates. Multivariate statistical analysis (principal component analysis discriminated isolates from two different hosts, providing new data that support the existence of a M. laxa specialized form f. sp. mali, which infects only apples. A total of 50 differentially expressed proteins were further analyzed by LC-MS/MS, yielding 41 positive identifications. The identified mycelial proteins were functionally classified into 6 groups: amino acid and protein metabolism, energy production, carbohydrate metabolism, stress response, fatty acid metabolism and other proteins. Some proteins expressed only in apple isolates have been described as virulence factors in other fungi. The acetolactate synthase was almost 11-fold more abundant in apple-specific isolates than in apricot isolates and it might be implicated in M. laxa host specificity. Ten proteins identified only in apple isolates are potential candidates for the development of M. laxa host-specific diagnostic markers.

  14. Cement Leakage in Percutaneous Vertebral Augmentation for Osteoporotic Vertebral Compression Fractures: Analysis of Risk Factors.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xie, Weixing; Jin, Daxiang; Ma, Hui; Ding, Jinyong; Xu, Jixi; Zhang, Shuncong; Liang, De

    2016-05-01

    The risk factors for cement leakage were retrospectively reviewed in 192 patients who underwent percutaneous vertebral augmentation (PVA). To discuss the factors related to the cement leakage in PVA procedure for the treatment of osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures. PVA is widely applied for the treatment of osteoporotic vertebral fractures. Cement leakage is a major complication of this procedure. The risk factors for cement leakage were controversial. A retrospective review of 192 patients who underwent PVA was conducted. The following data were recorded: age, sex, bone density, number of fractured vertebrae before surgery, number of treated vertebrae, severity of the treated vertebrae, operative approach, volume of injected bone cement, preoperative vertebral compression ratio, preoperative local kyphosis angle, intraosseous clefts, preoperative vertebral cortical bone defect, and ratio and type of cement leakage. To study the correlation between each factor and cement leakage ratio, bivariate regression analysis was employed to perform univariate analysis, whereas multivariate linear regression analysis was employed to perform multivariate analysis. The study included 192 patients (282 treated vertebrae), and cement leakage occurred in 100 vertebrae (35.46%). The vertebrae with preoperative cortical bone defects generally exhibited higher cement leakage ratio, and the leakage is typically type C. Vertebrae with intact cortical bones before the procedure tend to experience type S leakage. Univariate analysis showed that patient age, bone density, number of fractured vertebrae before surgery, and vertebral cortical bone were associated with cement leakage ratio (Pcement leakage are bone density and vertebral cortical bone defect, with standardized partial regression coefficients of -0.085 and 0.144, respectively. High bone density and vertebral cortical bone defect are independent risk factors associated with bone cement leakage.

  15. A multivariate analysis of biophysical parameters of tallgrass prairie among land management practices and years

    Science.gov (United States)

    Griffith, J.A.; Price, K.P.; Martinko, E.A.

    2001-01-01

    Six treatments of eastern Kansas tallgrass prairie - native prairie, hayed, mowed, grazed, burned and untreated - were studied to examine the biophysical effects of land management practices on grasslands. On each treatment, measurements of plant biomass, leaf area index, plant cover, leaf moisture and soil moisture were collected. In addition, measurements were taken of the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), which is derived from spectral reflectance measurements. Measurements were taken in mid-June, mid-July and late summer of 1990 and 1991. Multivariate analysis of variance was used to determine whether there were differences in the set of variables among treatments and years. Follow-up tests included univariate t-tests to determine which variables were contributing to any significant difference. Results showed a significant difference (p treatments in the composite of parameters during each of the months sampled. In most treatment types, there was a significant difference between years within each month. The univariate tests showed, however, that only some variables, primarily soil moisture, were contributing to this difference. We conclude that biomass and % plant cover show the best potential to serve as long-term indicators of grassland condition as they generally were sensitive to effects of different land management practices but not to yearly change in weather conditions. NDVI was insensitive to precipitation differences between years in July for most treatments, but was not in the native prairie. Choice of sampling time is important for these parameters to serve effectively as indicators.

  16. Time series analysis in the social sciences the fundamentals

    CERN Document Server

    Shin, Youseop

    2017-01-01

    Times Series Analysis in the Social Sciences is a practical and highly readable introduction written exclusively for students and researchers whose mathematical background is limited to basic algebra. The book focuses on fundamental elements of time series analysis that social scientists need to understand so they can employ time series analysis for their research and practice. Through step-by-step explanations and using monthly violent crime rates as case studies, this book explains univariate time series from the preliminary visual analysis through the modeling of seasonality, trends, and re

  17. Statistical Analysis of Research Data | Center for Cancer Research

    Science.gov (United States)

    Recent advances in cancer biology have resulted in the need for increased statistical analysis of research data. The Statistical Analysis of Research Data (SARD) course will be held on April 5-6, 2018 from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. at the National Institutes of Health's Natcher Conference Center, Balcony C on the Bethesda Campus. SARD is designed to provide an overview on the general principles of statistical analysis of research data.  The first day will feature univariate data analysis, including descriptive statistics, probability distributions, one- and two-sample inferential statistics.

  18. Appearance matters: neural correlates of food choice and packaging aesthetics.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Laura N Van der Laan

    Full Text Available Neuro-imaging holds great potential for predicting choice behavior from brain responses. In this study we used both traditional mass-univariate and state-of-the-art multivariate pattern analysis to establish which brain regions respond to preferred packages and to what extent neural activation patterns can predict realistic low-involvement consumer choices. More specifically, this was assessed in the context of package-induced binary food choices. Mass-univariate analyses showed that several regions, among which the bilateral striatum, were more strongly activated in response to preferred food packages. Food choices could be predicted with an accuracy of up to 61.2% by activation patterns in brain regions previously found to be involved in healthy food choices (superior frontal gyrus and visual processing (middle occipital gyrus. In conclusion, this study shows that mass-univariate analysis can detect small package-induced differences in product preference and that MVPA can successfully predict realistic low-involvement consumer choices from functional MRI data.

  19. Is the prognostic significance of O6-methylguanine- DNA methyltransferase promoter methylation equally important in glioblastomas of patients from different continents? A systematic review with meta-analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Meng, Wei; Jiang, Yangyang; Ma, Jie

    2017-01-01

    O6-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase (MGMT) is an independent predictor of therapeutic response and potential prognosis in patients with glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). However, its significance of clinical prognosis in different continents still needs to be explored. To explore the effects of MGMT promoter methylation on both progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) among GBM patients from different continents, a systematic review of published studies was conducted. A total of 5103 patients from 53 studies were involved in the systematic review and the total percentage of MGMT promoter methylation was 45.53%. Of these studies, 16 studies performed univariate analyses and 17 performed multivariate analyses of MGMT promoter methylation on PFS. The pooled hazard ratio (HR) estimated for PFS was 0.55 (95% CI 0.50, 0.60) by univariate analysis and 0.43 (95% CI 0.38, 0.48) by multivariate analysis. The effect of MGMT promoter methylation on OS was explored in 30 studies by univariate analysis and in 30 studies by multivariate analysis. The combined HR was 0.48 (95% CI 0.44, 0.52) and 0.42 (95% CI 0.38, 0.45), respectively. In each subgroup divided by areas, the prognostic significance still remained highly significant. The proportion of methylation in each group was in inverse proportion to the corresponding HR in the univariate and multivariate analyses of PFS. However, from the perspective of OS, compared with data from Europe and the US, higher methylation rates in Asia did not bring better returns.

  20. Objective Bayesian Analysis of Skew- t Distributions

    KAUST Repository

    BRANCO, MARCIA D'ELIA

    2012-02-27

    We study the Jeffreys prior and its properties for the shape parameter of univariate skew-t distributions with linear and nonlinear Student\\'s t skewing functions. In both cases, we show that the resulting priors for the shape parameter are symmetric around zero and proper. Moreover, we propose a Student\\'s t approximation of the Jeffreys prior that makes an objective Bayesian analysis easy to perform. We carry out a Monte Carlo simulation study that demonstrates an overall better behaviour of the maximum a posteriori estimator compared with the maximum likelihood estimator. We also compare the frequentist coverage of the credible intervals based on the Jeffreys prior and its approximation and show that they are similar. We further discuss location-scale models under scale mixtures of skew-normal distributions and show some conditions for the existence of the posterior distribution and its moments. Finally, we present three numerical examples to illustrate the implications of our results on inference for skew-t distributions. © 2012 Board of the Foundation of the Scandinavian Journal of Statistics.

  1. Flood risk analysis for flood control and sediment transportation in sandy regions: A case study in the Loess Plateau, China

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guo, Aijun; Chang, Jianxia; Wang, Yimin; Huang, Qiang; Zhou, Shuai

    2018-05-01

    Traditional flood risk analysis focuses on the probability of flood events exceeding the design flood of downstream hydraulic structures while neglecting the influence of sedimentation in river channels on regional flood control systems. This work advances traditional flood risk analysis by proposing a univariate and copula-based bivariate hydrological risk framework which incorporates both flood control and sediment transport. In developing the framework, the conditional probabilities of different flood events under various extreme precipitation scenarios are estimated by exploiting the copula-based model. Moreover, a Monte Carlo-based algorithm is designed to quantify the sampling uncertainty associated with univariate and bivariate hydrological risk analyses. Two catchments located on the Loess plateau are selected as study regions: the upper catchments of the Xianyang and Huaxian stations (denoted as UCX and UCH, respectively). The univariate and bivariate return periods, risk and reliability in the context of uncertainty for the purposes of flood control and sediment transport are assessed for the study regions. The results indicate that sedimentation triggers higher risks of damaging the safety of local flood control systems compared with the event that AMF exceeds the design flood of downstream hydraulic structures in the UCX and UCH. Moreover, there is considerable sampling uncertainty affecting the univariate and bivariate hydrologic risk evaluation, which greatly challenges measures of future flood mitigation. In addition, results also confirm that the developed framework can estimate conditional probabilities associated with different flood events under various extreme precipitation scenarios aiming for flood control and sediment transport. The proposed hydrological risk framework offers a promising technical reference for flood risk analysis in sandy regions worldwide.

  2. Developing a univariate approach to phase-I monitoring of fuzzy quality profiles

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kazem Noghondarian

    2012-10-01

    Full Text Available In many real-world applications, the quality of a process or a particular product can be characterized by a functional relationship called profile. A profile builds the relationships between a response quality characteristic and one or more explanatory variables. Monitoring the quality of a profile is implemented to understand and to verify the stability of this functional relationship over time. In some real applications, a fuzzy linear regression model can represent the profile adequately where the response quality characteristic is fuzzy. The purpose of this paper is to develop an approach for monitoring process/product profiles in fuzzy environment. A model in fuzzy linear regression is developed to construct the quality profiles by using linear programming and then fuzzy individuals and moving-range (I-MR control charts are developed to monitor both intercept and slope of fuzzy profiles to achieve an in-control process. A case study in customer satisfaction is presented to show the application of our approach and to express the sensitivity analysis of parameters for building a fuzzy profile.

  3. Analysis of Prognostic Factors in 541 Female Patients with Advanced Non-small Cell Lung Cancer

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Meina WU

    2011-03-01

    Full Text Available Background and objective As there is a sharp increase in the incidence of lung cancer in women in recent years, it has brought broad concerns with its unique clinical and epidemiological characteristics and better prognosis. The aim of this study is to analyze the clinical data of women with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC retrospectively to explore the prognostic factors. Methods Clinical data of 541 female patients with advanced NSCLC were collected and followed up till death. The primary endpoint is overall survival (OS. SPSS 11.0 statistical analysis software was used for univariate and multivariate analysis. Results The mean age is 59 years (20 years-86 years, adenocarcinoma account for 80.2% (434/541. The median OS was 15 months (95%CI: 13.87-16.13, and 1, 2, 5-year survival rates were 58.8%, 23.7% and 3.20% respectively. Univariate analysis showed that clinical stage, ECOG score, weight loss, clinical symptoms, liver/bone/brain metastasis and received more than one chemotherapy regimen, good response to the first-line chemotherapy, EGFR-TKI targeted therapy and radiotherapy treatment were significantly correlated with the OS and survival rate (P < 0.05. Combined with multivariate analysis, weight loss before treatment, ECOG score, received EGFR-TKI targeted therapy and response to first-line chemotherapy were independent prognostic factor for survival (P < 0.05. Conclusion There is a higher percentage of adenocarcinoma in female NSCLC. Weight loss before treatment, ECOG score, EGFR-TKI targeted therapy and response to first-line chemotherapy may become independent prognostic factors for survival of female patients with advanced NSCLC.

  4. Fast Detection of Copper Content in Rice by Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy with Uni- and Multivariate Analysis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fei Liu

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available Fast detection of heavy metals is very important for ensuring the quality and safety of crops. Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS, coupled with uni- and multivariate analysis, was applied for quantitative analysis of copper in three kinds of rice (Jiangsu rice, regular rice, and Simiao rice. For univariate analysis, three pre-processing methods were applied to reduce fluctuations, including background normalization, the internal standard method, and the standard normal variate (SNV. Linear regression models showed a strong correlation between spectral intensity and Cu content, with an R 2 more than 0.97. The limit of detection (LOD was around 5 ppm, lower than the tolerance limit of copper in foods. For multivariate analysis, partial least squares regression (PLSR showed its advantage in extracting effective information for prediction, and its sensitivity reached 1.95 ppm, while support vector machine regression (SVMR performed better in both calibration and prediction sets, where R c 2 and R p 2 reached 0.9979 and 0.9879, respectively. This study showed that LIBS could be considered as a constructive tool for the quantification of copper contamination in rice.

  5. Multivariate Meta-Analysis of Genetic Association Studies: A Simulation Study.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Binod Neupane

    Full Text Available In a meta-analysis with multiple end points of interests that are correlated between or within studies, multivariate approach to meta-analysis has a potential to produce more precise estimates of effects by exploiting the correlation structure between end points. However, under random-effects assumption the multivariate estimation is more complex (as it involves estimation of more parameters simultaneously than univariate estimation, and sometimes can produce unrealistic parameter estimates. Usefulness of multivariate approach to meta-analysis of the effects of a genetic variant on two or more correlated traits is not well understood in the area of genetic association studies. In such studies, genetic variants are expected to roughly maintain Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium within studies, and also their effects on complex traits are generally very small to modest and could be heterogeneous across studies for genuine reasons. We carried out extensive simulation to explore the comparative performance of multivariate approach with most commonly used univariate inverse-variance weighted approach under random-effects assumption in various realistic meta-analytic scenarios of genetic association studies of correlated end points. We evaluated the performance with respect to relative mean bias percentage, and root mean square error (RMSE of the estimate and coverage probability of corresponding 95% confidence interval of the effect for each end point. Our simulation results suggest that multivariate approach performs similarly or better than univariate method when correlations between end points within or between studies are at least moderate and between-study variation is similar or larger than average within-study variation for meta-analyses of 10 or more genetic studies. Multivariate approach produces estimates with smaller bias and RMSE especially for the end point that has randomly or informatively missing summary data in some individual studies, when

  6. Liver volume, intrahepatic fat and body weight in the course of a lifestyle interventional study. Analysis with quantitative MR-based methods

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bongers, M.N.; Stefan, N.; Fritsche, A.; Haering, H.U.; Nikolaou, K.; Schick, F.; Machann, J.

    2015-01-01

    The aim of this study was to investigate potential associations between changes in liver volume, the amount of intrahepatic lipids (IHL) and body weight during lifestyle interventions. In a prospective study 150 patients with an increased risk for developing type 2 diabetes mellitus were included who followed a caloric restriction diet for 6 months. In the retrospective analysis 18 women and 9 men (age range 22-71 years) with an average body mass index (BMI) of 32 kg/m 2 were enrolled. The liver volume was determined at the beginning and after 6 months by three-dimensional magnetic resonance imaging (3D-MRI, echo gradient, opposed-phase) and IHLs were quantified by volume-selective MR spectroscopy in single voxel stimulated echo acquisition mode (STEAM). Univariable and multivariable correlation analyses between changes of liver volume (Δliver volume), intrahepatic lipids (ΔIHL) and body weight (ΔBW) were performed. Univariable correlation analysis in the whole study cohort showed associations between ΔIHL and ΔBW (r = 0.69; p < 0.0001), ΔIHL and Δliver volume (r = 0.66; p = 0.0002) as well as ΔBW and Δliver volume (r = 0.5; p = 0.0073). Multivariable correlation analysis revealed that changes of liver volume are primarily determined by changes in IHL independent of changes in body weight (β = 0.0272; 95 % CI: 0.0155-0.034; p < 0.0001). Changes of liver volume during lifestyle interventions are independent of changes of body weight primarily determined by changes of IHL. These results show the reversibility of augmented liver volume in steatosis if it is possible to reduce IHLs during lifestyle interventions. (orig.) [de

  7. Disability in physical education textbooks: an analysis of image content.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Táboas-Pais, María Inés; Rey-Cao, Ana

    2012-10-01

    The aim of this paper is to show how images of disability are portrayed in physical education textbooks for secondary schools in Spain. The sample was composed of 3,316 images published in 36 textbooks by 10 publishing houses. A content analysis was carried out using a coding scheme based on categories employed in other similar studies and adapted to the requirements of this study with additional categories. The variables were camera angle, gender, type of physical activity, field of practice, space, and level. Univariate and bivariate descriptive analyses were also carried out. The Pearson chi-square statistic was used to identify associations between the variables. Results showed a noticeable imbalance between people with disabilities and people without disabilities, and women with disabilities were less frequently represented than men with disabilities. People with disabilities were depicted as participating in a very limited variety of segregated, competitive, and elite sports activities.

  8. Aortic and Hepatic Contrast Enhancement During Hepatic-Arterial and Portal Venous Phase Computed Tomography Scanning: Multivariate Linear Regression Analysis Using Age, Sex, Total Body Weight, Height, and Cardiac Output.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Masuda, Takanori; Nakaura, Takeshi; Funama, Yoshinori; Higaki, Toru; Kiguchi, Masao; Imada, Naoyuki; Sato, Tomoyasu; Awai, Kazuo

    We evaluated the effect of the age, sex, total body weight (TBW), height (HT) and cardiac output (CO) of patients on aortic and hepatic contrast enhancement during hepatic-arterial phase (HAP) and portal venous phase (PVP) computed tomography (CT) scanning. This prospective study received institutional review board approval; prior informed consent to participate was obtained from all 168 patients. All were examined using our routine protocol; the contrast material was 600 mg/kg iodine. Cardiac output was measured with a portable electrical velocimeter within 5 minutes of starting the CT scan. We calculated contrast enhancement (per gram of iodine: [INCREMENT]HU/gI) of the abdominal aorta during the HAP and of the liver parenchyma during the PVP. We performed univariate and multivariate linear regression analysis between all patient characteristics and the [INCREMENT]HU/gI of aortic- and liver parenchymal enhancement. Univariate linear regression analysis demonstrated statistically significant correlations between the [INCREMENT]HU/gI and the age, sex, TBW, HT, and CO (all P linear regression analysis showed that only the TBW and CO were of independent predictive value (P linear regression analysis only the TBW and CO were significantly correlated with aortic and liver parenchymal enhancement; the age, sex, and HT were not. The CO was the only independent factor affecting aortic and liver parenchymal enhancement at hepatic CT when the protocol was adjusted for the TBW.

  9. 3D spatially-adaptive canonical correlation analysis: Local and global methods.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Zhengshi; Zhuang, Xiaowei; Sreenivasan, Karthik; Mishra, Virendra; Curran, Tim; Byrd, Richard; Nandy, Rajesh; Cordes, Dietmar

    2018-04-01

    Local spatially-adaptive canonical correlation analysis (local CCA) with spatial constraints has been introduced to fMRI multivariate analysis for improved modeling of activation patterns. However, current algorithms require complicated spatial constraints that have only been applied to 2D local neighborhoods because the computational time would be exponentially increased if the same method is applied to 3D spatial neighborhoods. In this study, an efficient and accurate line search sequential quadratic programming (SQP) algorithm has been developed to efficiently solve the 3D local CCA problem with spatial constraints. In addition, a spatially-adaptive kernel CCA (KCCA) method is proposed to increase accuracy of fMRI activation maps. With oriented 3D spatial filters anisotropic shapes can be estimated during the KCCA analysis of fMRI time courses. These filters are orientation-adaptive leading to rotational invariance to better match arbitrary oriented fMRI activation patterns, resulting in improved sensitivity of activation detection while significantly reducing spatial blurring artifacts. The kernel method in its basic form does not require any spatial constraints and analyzes the whole-brain fMRI time series to construct an activation map. Finally, we have developed a penalized kernel CCA model that involves spatial low-pass filter constraints to increase the specificity of the method. The kernel CCA methods are compared with the standard univariate method and with two different local CCA methods that were solved by the SQP algorithm. Results show that SQP is the most efficient algorithm to solve the local constrained CCA problem, and the proposed kernel CCA methods outperformed univariate and local CCA methods in detecting activations for both simulated and real fMRI episodic memory data. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  10. Combined optimal-pathlengths method for near-infrared spectroscopy analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Liu Rong; Xu Kexin; Lu Yanhui; Sun Huili

    2004-01-01

    Near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy is a rapid, reagent-less and nondestructive analytical technique, which is being increasingly employed for quantitative application in chemistry, pharmaceutics and food industry, and for the optical analysis of biological tissue. The performance of NIR technology greatly depends on the abilities to control and acquire data from the instrument and to calibrate and analyse data. Optical pathlength is a key parameter of the NIR instrument, which has been thoroughly discussed in univariate quantitative analysis in the presence of photometric errors. Although multiple wavelengths can provide more chemical information, it is difficult to determine a single pathlength that is suitable for each wavelength region. A theoretical investigation of a selection procedure for multiple pathlengths, called the combined optimal-pathlengths (COP) method, is identified in this paper and an extensive comparison with the single pathlength method is also performed on simulated and experimental NIR spectral data sets. The results obtained show that the COP method can greatly improve the prediction accuracy in NIR spectroscopy quantitative analysis

  11. Prognostic value of PINP, bone alkaline phosphatase, CTX-I, and YKL-40 in patients with metastatic prostate carcinoma

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Brasso, Klaus; Christensen, Ib Jarle; Johansen, Julia S.

    2006-01-01

    %, BAP (55%), CTX-I (33%), and YKL-40 (43%). Univariate analysis showed an association to survival: PINP (HR = 1.6, P 4, P 4, P = 0.004). In multivariate Cox analysis performance status, WHO grade, Soloway score, PINP...

  12. Applied quantitative analysis in the social sciences

    CERN Document Server

    Petscher, Yaacov; Compton, Donald L

    2013-01-01

    To say that complex data analyses are ubiquitous in the education and social sciences might be an understatement. Funding agencies and peer-review journals alike require that researchers use the most appropriate models and methods for explaining phenomena. Univariate and multivariate data structures often require the application of more rigorous methods than basic correlational or analysis of variance models. Additionally, though a vast set of resources may exist on how to run analysis, difficulties may be encountered when explicit direction is not provided as to how one should run a model

  13. A kernel version of spatial factor analysis

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nielsen, Allan Aasbjerg

    2009-01-01

    . Schölkopf et al. introduce kernel PCA. Shawe-Taylor and Cristianini is an excellent reference for kernel methods in general. Bishop and Press et al. describe kernel methods among many other subjects. Nielsen and Canty use kernel PCA to detect change in univariate airborne digital camera images. The kernel...... version of PCA handles nonlinearities by implicitly transforming data into high (even infinite) dimensional feature space via the kernel function and then performing a linear analysis in that space. In this paper we shall apply kernel versions of PCA, maximum autocorrelation factor (MAF) analysis...

  14. Multivariate meta-analysis: Potential and promise

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jackson, Dan; Riley, Richard; White, Ian R

    2011-01-01

    The multivariate random effects model is a generalization of the standard univariate model. Multivariate meta-analysis is becoming more commonly used and the techniques and related computer software, although continually under development, are now in place. In order to raise awareness of the multivariate methods, and discuss their advantages and disadvantages, we organized a one day ‘Multivariate meta-analysis’ event at the Royal Statistical Society. In addition to disseminating the most recent developments, we also received an abundance of comments, concerns, insights, critiques and encouragement. This article provides a balanced account of the day's discourse. By giving others the opportunity to respond to our assessment, we hope to ensure that the various view points and opinions are aired before multivariate meta-analysis simply becomes another widely used de facto method without any proper consideration of it by the medical statistics community. We describe the areas of application that multivariate meta-analysis has found, the methods available, the difficulties typically encountered and the arguments for and against the multivariate methods, using four representative but contrasting examples. We conclude that the multivariate methods can be useful, and in particular can provide estimates with better statistical properties, but also that these benefits come at the price of making more assumptions which do not result in better inference in every case. Although there is evidence that multivariate meta-analysis has considerable potential, it must be even more carefully applied than its univariate counterpart in practice. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. PMID:21268052

  15. Statistical Analysis Of Reconnaissance Geochemical Data From ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    , Co, Mo, Hg, Sb, Tl, Sc, Cr, Ni, La, W, V, U, Th, Bi, Sr and Ga in 56 stream sediment samples collected from Orle drainage system were subjected to univariate and multivariate statistical analyses. The univariate methods used include ...

  16. Estimating an Effect Size in One-Way Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Steyn, H. S., Jr.; Ellis, S. M.

    2009-01-01

    When two or more univariate population means are compared, the proportion of variation in the dependent variable accounted for by population group membership is eta-squared. This effect size can be generalized by using multivariate measures of association, based on the multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) statistics, to establish whether…

  17. Retropubic radical prostatectomy: Clinicopathological observations and outcome analysis of 428 consecutive patients

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jagdeesh N Kulkarni

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available Aim : We report the outcome analysis of retropubic radical prostatectomy (RRP performed in 428 patients in terms of pathological findings, complications, and survival. Materials and Methods : Systematically recorded case reports forms of consecutive 428 RRPs done over a 14-year period were analyzed using the SPSS 14 software. Secondary analysis was done to evaluate era specific (pre and post 2002 changes in clinical features and survivals. Results : Seven-year overall survival (OAS, cancer-specific survival (CSS, and event-free survival (EFS was 83.2%, 82.8%, and 69.8% respectively in our series. Era-specific survival showed higher CSS post 2002, and there was an increase in presentation with organ-confined disease. Univariate and multivariate analysis showed statistically significant impact on era specific outcome. With the improvement in techniques decrease in complications rate and increase in quality of life was noted. Conclusions : Our series spanning over decade demonstrates that RRP is viable option to offer cure to organ-confined carcinoma prostate. Further, there is evidence of stage migration and improvements in outcome in post 2002 patients. Although our series is modest in number, the success rates and outcome data matches those reported in the literature.

  18. Development of a Univariate Membrane-Based Mid-Infrared Method for Protein Quantitation and Total Lipid Content Analysis of Biological Samples

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ivona Strug

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Biological samples present a range of complexities from homogeneous purified protein to multicomponent mixtures. Accurate qualification of such samples is paramount to downstream applications. We describe the development of an MIR spectroscopy-based analytical method offering simultaneous protein quantitation (0.25–5 mg/mL and analysis of total lipid or detergent species, as well as the identification of other biomolecules present in biological samples. The method utilizes a hydrophilic PTFE membrane engineered for presentation of aqueous samples in a dried format compatible with fast infrared analysis. Unlike classical quantification techniques, the reported method is amino acid sequence independent and thus applicable to complex samples of unknown composition. By comparison to existing platforms, this MIR-based method enables direct quantification using minimal sample volume (2 µL; it is well-suited where repeat access and limited sample size are critical parameters. Further, accurate results can be derived without specialized training or knowledge of IR spectroscopy. Overall, the simplified application and analysis system provides a more cost-effective alternative to high-throughput IR systems for research laboratories with minimal throughput demands. In summary, the MIR-based system provides a viable alternative to current protein quantitation methods; it also uniquely offers simultaneous qualification of other components, notably lipids and detergents.

  19. Univariate and Cross Tabulation Analysis of Construction Accidents in the Aegean Region

    OpenAIRE

    BARADAN, Selim; AKBOĞA, Özge; ÇETİNKAYA, Ufuk; USMEN, Mümtaz A.

    2016-01-01

    It is crucial toinvestigate case studies and analyze accident statistics to establish safetyand health culture in the construction industry, which exhibits high fatalityrates. However, it is difficult to find reliable and accurate constructionaccidents data in Turkeydue to inadequate accident reporting and recordkeeping system, which hindersstatistical safety research. Therefore, an independent database was generatedby using inspection reports in this research study. Data mining was performed...

  20. Average-case analysis of numerical problems

    CERN Document Server

    2000-01-01

    The average-case analysis of numerical problems is the counterpart of the more traditional worst-case approach. The analysis of average error and cost leads to new insight on numerical problems as well as to new algorithms. The book provides a survey of results that were mainly obtained during the last 10 years and also contains new results. The problems under consideration include approximation/optimal recovery and numerical integration of univariate and multivariate functions as well as zero-finding and global optimization. Background material, e.g. on reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces and random fields, is provided.

  1. Serial Expression Analysis: a web tool for the analysis of serial gene expression data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nueda, Maria José; Carbonell, José; Medina, Ignacio; Dopazo, Joaquín; Conesa, Ana

    2010-01-01

    Serial transcriptomics experiments investigate the dynamics of gene expression changes associated with a quantitative variable such as time or dosage. The statistical analysis of these data implies the study of global and gene-specific expression trends, the identification of significant serial changes, the comparison of expression profiles and the assessment of transcriptional changes in terms of cellular processes. We have created the SEA (Serial Expression Analysis) suite to provide a complete web-based resource for the analysis of serial transcriptomics data. SEA offers five different algorithms based on univariate, multivariate and functional profiling strategies framed within a user-friendly interface and a project-oriented architecture to facilitate the analysis of serial gene expression data sets from different perspectives. SEA is available at sea.bioinfo.cipf.es. PMID:20525784

  2. Which factors enhance positive drug reimbursement recommendation in Scotland? A retrospective analysis 2006-2013.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Charokopou, Mata; Majer, Istvan M; Raad, Johan de; Broekhuizen, Stefan; Postma, Maarten; Heeg, Bart

    2015-03-01

    To identify the factors that influence the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) in deciding whether to accept pharmaceutical technologies for use within the Scottish health care system. A database of SMC submissions between 2006 and 2013 was created, containing a range of clinical, economic, and other factors extracted from published health technology assessment reports. A binomial outcome variable was used, defined as the decision to "accept for use" or "not recommend" a technology. Univariate and multivariate analyses were conducted to assess the impact by means of odds ratios (ORs) of the submitted evidence on the recommendation decision. Out of 463 applications, 265 were accepted for use (57%) and 198 (43%) were not recommended for use within National Health Service Scotland. Univariate analyses showed that 13 variables significantly affected the SMC decision. Of these 13 variables, 7 variables were shown to have a meaningful impact in the multivariate analysis. Four of these concerned the outcome of cost-effectiveness analyses; the fact that a submission was supported by a cost-minimization analysis was the strongest positive variable (OR = 10.30) and a submission showing a product not being cost-effective (i.e., incremental cost-effectiveness ratio above £30,000/quality-adjusted life-year gained) was the strongest negative predictor (OR = 0.47). The other variables concerned whether the submission was related to a product indicated for a nervous system disease (OR = 0.41), whether it was indicated for nonchronic use (OR = 1.66), and whether the submission was performed by a big company (OR = 2.83). This study demonstrated that the outcome of cost-effectiveness analyses is an important factor affecting the SMC's reimbursement recommendation decision. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Inc.

  3. Analysis of spectra from portable handheld gamma-ray spectrometry for terrain comparative assessment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dias, Flávio; Lima, Marco; Sanjurjo-Sánchez, Jorge; Alves, Carlos

    2016-01-01

    Geological characteristics can have impacts on societal development by, e.g., geotechnical issues and radiological hazard levels. Due to urban sprawl, there is an increasing need for detailed geological assessment. In this work are analysed data from portable handheld gamma-ray spectra (K, eU and eTh) obtained in granitic and Silurian metaclastic outcrops as well as in an profile, roughly N–S, on soil covered terrains transecting a mapped contact between these rock types (the profile's northern extremity is at locations mapped as granite). Estimations from gamma-ray spectra were studied by univariate and multivariate analyses. K, eU and eTh values were higher on granite in relation to Silurian metaclastic rocks. The northern extremity of the profile showed clearly higher contents of eTh and this contrast was supported by univariate statistical tools (normality plot and Wilk–Shapiro test; boxplots). A ternary plot with the contribution of the elements to gamma-ray absorbed dose showed the separation of granite from Silurian metaclastic rocks with the former being nearer the eTh vertex. The points in the northern extremity of the profile are nearer the eTh vertex than the other points on the profile. These visual suggestions were supported by hierarchical cluster analysis, which was able to differentiate between granite and metaclastic outcrops and separate portions of the profile located on different terrains. Portable gamma-ray spectrometry showed, hence, the potential to distinguish granite and metaclastic terrains at a scale useful for engineering works. These results can also be useful for a first comparative zoning of radiological hazards (which are higher for granite). - Highlights: • Contents of K, eU and eTh were estimated by portable gamma-ray spectra. • Spectra were acquired on a profile across a soil covered granite/metaclastic contact. • Spectra were also collected on granite and Silurian metaclastic outcrops. • Obtained estimations were

  4. What marketing scholars should know about time series analysis : time series applications in marketing

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Horváth, Csilla; Kornelis, Marcel; Leeflang, Peter S.H.

    2002-01-01

    In this review, we give a comprehensive summary of time series techniques in marketing, and discuss a variety of time series analysis (TSA) techniques and models. We classify them in the sets (i) univariate TSA, (ii) multivariate TSA, and (iii) multiple TSA. We provide relevant marketing

  5. Analysis of risk factors for rebleeding after splenectomy and pericardial devascularization in treatment of portal hypertension due to liver cirrhosis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    ZHANG Lei

    2015-03-01

    Full Text Available ObjectiveTo investigate the possible risk factors for rebleeding after splenectomy and pericardial devascularization in the treatment of portal hypertension due to liver cirrhosis, and to provide a certain basis for reducing the incidence of digestive tract re-hemorrhage for these patients. MethodsA retrospective analysis was performed on 238 cirrhotic patients with portal hypertension who underwent splenectomy and pericardial devascularization in the First Hospital of Lanzhou University from December 2003 to December 2013. These patients were divided into postoperative rebleeding group (n=32 and non-bleeding group (n=206. Univariate analysis (t test or chi-square test and multivariate logistic regression analysis were performed to investigate the risk factors for rebleeding after splenectomy and pericardial devascularization. ResultsOf the 32 patients with postoperative rebleeding, 17 had esophagogastric variceal bleeding, 11 had bleeding due to portal hypertensive gastropathy, and 4 had stress ulcer bleeding. The univariate analysis showed that there were significant differences between the two groups in the following factors: Child-Pugh classification of liver function, degree of liver cirrhosis evaluated intraoperatively, pathological changes of the gastric mucosa, platelet count, prothrombin time (PT, activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT, and presence of diabetes (all P<0.05. The multivariate logistic regression analysis suggested that the significant independent influential factors for postoperative rebleeding were presence of diabetes, Child-Pugh classification of liver function, degree of liver cirrhosis evaluated intraoperatively, diffuse lesion of the gastric mucosa, PT, and APTT. ConclusionFor cirrhotic patients with portal hypertension, the appropriate methods for managing these risk factors are of great clinical significance for preventing rebleeding after splenectomy and pericardial devascularization.

  6. The Impact of Multiple Endpoint Dependency on "Q" and "I"[superscript 2] in Meta-Analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thompson, Christopher Glen; Becker, Betsy Jane

    2014-01-01

    A common assumption in meta-analysis is that effect sizes are independent. When correlated effect sizes are analyzed using traditional univariate techniques, this assumption is violated. This research assesses the impact of dependence arising from treatment-control studies with multiple endpoints on homogeneity measures "Q" and…

  7. Exploring laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy for nuclear materials analysis and in-situ applications

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Martin, Madhavi Z.; Allman, Steve; Brice, Deanne J.; Martin, Rodger C.; Andre, Nicolas O.

    2012-01-01

    Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) has been used to determine the limits of detection of strontium (Sr) and cesium (Cs), common nuclear fission products. Additionally, detection limits were determined for cerium (Ce), often used as a surrogate for radioactive plutonium in laboratory studies. Results were obtained using a laboratory instrument with a Nd:YAG laser at fundamental wavelength of 1064 nm, frequency doubled to 532 nm with energy of 50 mJ/pulse. The data was compared for different concentrations of Sr and Ce dispersed in a CaCO 3 (white) and carbon (black) matrix. We have addressed the sampling errors, limits of detection, reproducibility, and accuracy of measurements as they relate to multivariate analysis in pellets that were doped with the different elements at various concentrations. These results demonstrate that LIBS technique is inherently well suited for in situ analysis of nuclear materials in hot cells. Three key advantages are evident: (1) small samples (mg) can be evaluated; (2) nuclear materials can be analyzed with minimal sample preparation; and (3) samples can be remotely analyzed very rapidly (ms-seconds). Our studies also show that the methods can be made quantitative. Very robust multivariate models have been used to provide quantitative measurement and statistical evaluation of complex materials derived from our previous research on wood and soil samples. - Highlights: ► Did the detection of strontium, cerium, and cesium in CaCO 3 and graphite matrices. ► The detection of these elements was performed in a systematic manner. ► Univariate calibration curves were used to determine strontium detection. ► Univariate and multivariate statistical analysis built improved statistical models. ► Limits of detection are comparable or better in case of cerium and cesium.

  8. Prognostic factors for long-term outcome after percutaneous thermal ablation for hepatocellular carcinoma: a survival analysis of 137 consecutive patients

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Xu, H.-X. [Department of Medical Ultrasonics, First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou (China); Lu, M.-D. [Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou (China); Xie, X.-Y. [Department of Medical Ultrasonics, First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou (China); Yin, X.-Y. [Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou (China); Kuang, M. [Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou (China); Chen, J.-W. [Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou (China); Xu, Z.-F. [Department of Medical Ultrasonics, First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou (China); Liu, G.-J. [Department of Medical Ultrasonics, First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou (China)

    2005-09-01

    AIM: To identify prognostic factors for long-term outcome for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) after percutaneous microwave or radiofrequency ablation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In total, 137 consecutive patients with HCC underwent microwave or radiofrequency ablation with curative intent; 16 possible prognostic factors were evaluated for their association with overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) using univariate and multivariate analysis. RESULTS: The median OS and DFS were 27.0 months and 8.2 months, respectively. OS rates for all patients at 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 years were 73.9%, 52.1%, 42.8%, 26.2% and 20.1%, respectively. DFS rates at 1, 2, 3 and 4 years were 38.1%, 21.9%, 18.8%, and 14.1%, respectively. Pretreatment serum alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) >200 ng/ml, pretreatment serum albumin {<=}35 g/dl, liver function Child's class C and incomplete ablation were found to be significant predictors for OS by univariate analysis. Using multivariate analysis, incomplete ablation was identified to be the most significant independent predictor for OS. Other independent predictors for OS were serum albumin level, serum AFP level and Child-Pugh classification. Recurrence after hepatectomy and prothrombin time >14 s were identified to be significant predictors for DFS by univariate analysis, and the former was the only independent predictor for DFS by multivariate analysis. CONCLUSION: Prognosis for patients with HCC after thermal ablation with curative intent was determined by treatment response to ablation, pretreatment serum AFP, and liver function reserve. Tumour response to treatment was the most predictive factor for long-term survival and was related to tumour size, thus careful selection of patients for ablation therapy is recommended.

  9. Prognostic factors for long-term outcome after percutaneous thermal ablation for hepatocellular carcinoma: a survival analysis of 137 consecutive patients

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Xu, H.-X.; Lu, M.-D.; Xie, X.-Y.; Yin, X.-Y.; Kuang, M.; Chen, J.-W.; Xu, Z.-F.; Liu, G.-J.

    2005-01-01

    AIM: To identify prognostic factors for long-term outcome for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) after percutaneous microwave or radiofrequency ablation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In total, 137 consecutive patients with HCC underwent microwave or radiofrequency ablation with curative intent; 16 possible prognostic factors were evaluated for their association with overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) using univariate and multivariate analysis. RESULTS: The median OS and DFS were 27.0 months and 8.2 months, respectively. OS rates for all patients at 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 years were 73.9%, 52.1%, 42.8%, 26.2% and 20.1%, respectively. DFS rates at 1, 2, 3 and 4 years were 38.1%, 21.9%, 18.8%, and 14.1%, respectively. Pretreatment serum alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) >200 ng/ml, pretreatment serum albumin ≤35 g/dl, liver function Child's class C and incomplete ablation were found to be significant predictors for OS by univariate analysis. Using multivariate analysis, incomplete ablation was identified to be the most significant independent predictor for OS. Other independent predictors for OS were serum albumin level, serum AFP level and Child-Pugh classification. Recurrence after hepatectomy and prothrombin time >14 s were identified to be significant predictors for DFS by univariate analysis, and the former was the only independent predictor for DFS by multivariate analysis. CONCLUSION: Prognosis for patients with HCC after thermal ablation with curative intent was determined by treatment response to ablation, pretreatment serum AFP, and liver function reserve. Tumour response to treatment was the most predictive factor for long-term survival and was related to tumour size, thus careful selection of patients for ablation therapy is recommended

  10. Do patients with very few brain metastases from breast cancer benefit from whole-brain radiotherapy in addition to radiosurgery?

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rades, Dirk; Huttenlocher, Stefan; Hornung, Dagmar; Blanck, Oliver; Schild, Steven E; Fischer, Dorothea

    2014-01-01

    An important issue in palliative radiation oncology is the whether whole-brain radiotherapy should be added to radiosurgery when treating a limited number of brain metastases. To optimize personalized treatment of cancer patients with brain metastases, the value of whole-brain radiotherapy should be described separately for each tumor entity. This study investigated the role of whole-brain radiotherapy added to radiosurgery in breast cancer patients. Fifty-eight patients with 1–3 brain metastases from breast cancer were included in this retrospective study. Of these patients, 30 were treated with radiosurgery alone and 28 with radiosurgery plus whole-brain radiotherapy. Both groups were compared for local control of the irradiated metastases, freedom from new brain metastases and survival. Furthermore, eight additional factors were analyzed including dose of radiosurgery, age at radiotherapy, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance score, number of brain metastases, maximum diameter of all brain metastases, site of brain metastases, extra-cranial metastases and the time from breast cancer diagnosis to radiotherapy. The treatment regimen had no significant impact on local control in the univariate analysis (p = 0.59). Age ≤59 years showed a trend towards improved local control on univariate (p = 0.066) and multivariate analysis (p = 0.07). On univariate analysis, radiosurgery plus whole-brain radiotherapy (p = 0.040) and ECOG 0–1 (p = 0.012) showed positive associations with freedom from new brain metastases. Both treatment regimen (p = 0.039) and performance status (p = 0.028) maintained significance on multivariate analysis. ECOG 0–1 was positively correlated with survival on univariate analysis (p < 0.001); age ≤59 years showed a strong trend (p = 0.054). On multivariate analysis, performance status (p < 0.001) and age (p = 0.041) were significant. In breast cancer patients with few brain metastases, radiosurgery plus whole

  11. Prognostic factors in children and adolescents with acute myeloid leukemia (excluding children with Down syndrome and acute promyelocytic leukemia): univariate and recursive partitioning analysis of patients treated on Pediatric Oncology Group (POG) Study 8821.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chang, M; Raimondi, S C; Ravindranath, Y; Carroll, A J; Camitta, B; Gresik, M V; Steuber, C P; Weinstein, H

    2000-07-01

    The purpose of the paper was to define clinical or biological features associated with the risk for treatment failure for children with acute myeloid leukemia. Data from 560 children and adolescents with newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia who entered the Pediatric Oncology Group Study 8821 from June 1988 to March 1993 were analyzed by univariate and recursive partitioning methods. Children with Down syndrome or acute promyelocytic leukemia were excluded from the study. Factors examined included age, number of leukocytes, sex, FAB morphologic subtype, cytogenetic findings, and extramedullary disease at the time of diagnosis. The overall event-free survival (EFS) rate at 4 years was 32.7% (s.e. = 2.2%). Age > or =2 years, fewer than 50 x 10(9)/I leukocytes, and t(8;21) or inv(16), and normal chromosomes were associated with higher rates of EFS (P value = 0.003, 0.049, 0.0003, 0.031, respectively), whereas the M5 subtype of AML (P value = 0.0003) and chromosome abnormalities other than t(8;21) and inv(16) were associated with lower rates of EFS (P value = 0.0001). Recursive partitioning analysis defined three groups of patients with widely varied prognoses: female patients with t(8;21), inv(16), or a normal karyotype (n = 89) had the best prognosis (4-year EFS = 55.1%, s.e. = 5.7%); male patients with t(8;21), inv(16) or normal chromosomes (n = 106) had an intermediate prognosis (4-year EFS = 38.1%, s.e. = 5.3%); patients with chromosome abnormalities other than t(8;21) and inv(16) (n = 233) had the worst prognosis (4-year EFS = 27.0%, s.e. = 3.2%). One hundred and thirty-two patients (24%) could not be grouped because of missing cytogenetic data, mainly due to inadequate marrow samples. The results suggest that pediatric patients with acute myeloid leukemia can be categorized into three potential risk groups for prognosis and that differences in sex and chromosomal abnormalities are associated with differences in estimates of EFS. These results are tentative and

  12. Association of Body Mass Index and Serum Adipocytokines with ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Results: Univariate analysis showed that EMR exposure, age at presentation >30 years, nulliparity, artificial lactation and increased BMI were significantly associated with breast cancer risk (p30 years (p= 0.02) ...

  13. Analysis of Factors Related to Hypopituitarism in Patients with Nonsellar Intracranial Tumor.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lu, Song-Song; Gu, Jian-Jun; Luo, Xiao-Hong; Zhang, Jian-He; Wang, Shou-Sen

    2017-09-01

    Previous studies have suggested that postoperative hypopituitarism in patients with nonsellar intracranial tumors is caused by traumatic surgery. However, with development of minimally invasive and precise neurosurgical techniques, the degree of injury to brain tissue has been reduced significantly, especially for parenchymal tumors. Therefore, understanding preexisting hypopituitarism and related risk factors can improve perioperative management for patients with nonsellar intracranial tumors. Chart data were collected retrospectively from 83 patients with nonsellar intracranial tumors admitted to our hospital from May 2014 to April 2015. Pituitary function of each subject was determined based on results of preoperative serum pituitary hormone analysis. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression methods were used to analyze relationships between preoperative hypopituitarism and factors including age, sex, history of hypertension and secondary epilepsy, course of disease, tumor mass effect, site of tumor, intracranial pressure (ICP), cerebrospinal fluid content, and pituitary morphology. A total of 30 patients (36.14%) presented with preoperative hypopituitarism in either 1 axis or multiple axes; 23 (27.71%) were affected in 1 axis, and 7 (8.43%) were affected in multiple axes. Univariate analysis showed that risk factors for preoperative hypopituitarism in patients with a nonsellar intracranial tumor include an acute or subacute course (≤3 months), intracranial hypertension (ICP >200 mm H 2 O), and mass effect (P hypopituitarism in patients with nonsellar intracranial tumors (P hypopituitarism is high in patients with nonsellar intracranial tumors. The occurrence of hypopituitarism is correlated with factors including an acute or subacute course (≤3 months), intracranial hypertension (ICP >200 mm H 2 O), and mass effect (P hypopituitarism. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  14. Longitudinal categorical data analysis

    CERN Document Server

    Sutradhar, Brajendra C

    2014-01-01

    This is the first book in longitudinal categorical data analysis with parametric correlation models developed based on dynamic relationships among repeated categorical responses. This book is a natural generalization of the longitudinal binary data analysis to the multinomial data setup with more than two categories. Thus, unlike the existing books on cross-sectional categorical data analysis using log linear models, this book uses multinomial probability models both in cross-sectional and longitudinal setups. A theoretical foundation is provided for the analysis of univariate multinomial responses, by developing models systematically for the cases with no covariates as well as categorical covariates, both in cross-sectional and longitudinal setups. In the longitudinal setup, both stationary and non-stationary covariates are considered. These models have also been extended to the bivariate multinomial setup along with suitable covariates. For the inferences, the book uses the generalized quasi-likelihood as w...

  15. Proteomic Analysis Shows Constitutive Secretion of MIF and p53-associated Activity of COX-2−/− Lung Fibroblasts

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mandar Dave

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available The differential expression of two closelyassociated cyclooxygenase isozymes, COX-1 and COX-2, exhibited functions beyond eicosanoid metabolism. We hypothesized that COX-1 or COX-2 knockout lung fibroblasts may display altered protein profiles which may allow us to further differentiate the functional roles of these isozymes at the molecular level. Proteomic analysis shows constitutive production of macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF in lung fibroblasts derived from COX-2−/− but not wild-type (WT or COX-1−/− mice. MIF was spontaneously released in high levels into the extracellular milieu of COX2−/− fibroblasts seemingly from the preformed intracellular stores, with no change in the basal gene expression of MIF. The secretion and regulation of MIF in COX-2−/− was “prostaglandin-independent.” GO analysis showed that concurrent with upregulation of MIF, there is a significant surge in expression of genes related to fibroblast growth, FK506 binding proteins, and isomerase activity in COX-2−/− cells. Furthermore, COX-2−/− fibroblasts also exhibit a significant increase in transcriptional activity of various regulators, antagonists, and co-modulators of p53, as well as in the expression of oncogenes and related transcripts. Integrative Oncogenomics Cancer Browser (IntroGen analysis shows downregulation of COX-2 and amplification of MIF and/or p53 activity during development of glioblastomas, ependymoma, and colon adenomas. These data indicate the functional role of the MIF-COX-p53 axis in inflammation and cancer at the genomic and proteomic levels in COX-2-ablated cells. This systematic analysis not only shows the proinflammatory state but also unveils a molecular signature of a pro-oncogenic state of COX-1 in COX-2 ablated cells.

  16. Does mental health staffing level affect antipsychotic prescribing? Analysis of Italian national statistics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Starace, Fabrizio; Mungai, Francesco; Barbui, Corrado

    2018-01-01

    In mental healthcare, one area of major concern identified by health information systems is variability in antipsychotic prescribing. While most studies have investigated patient- and prescriber-related factors as possible reasons for such variability, no studies have investigated facility-level characteristics. The present study ascertained whether staffing level is associated with antipsychotic prescribing in community mental healthcare. A cross-sectional analysis of data extracted from the Italian national mental health information system was carried out. For each Italian region, it collects data on the availability and use of mental health facilities. The rate of individuals exposed to antipsychotic drugs was tested for evidence of association with the rate of mental health staff availability by means of univariate and multivariate analyses. In Italy there were on average nearly 60 mental health professionals per 100,000 inhabitants, with wide regional variations (range 21 to 100). The average rate of individuals prescribed antipsychotic drugs was 2.33%, with wide regional variations (1.04% to 4.01%). Univariate analysis showed that the rate of individuals prescribed antipsychotic drugs was inversely associated with the rate of mental health professionals available in Italian regions (Kendall's tau -0.438, p = 0.006), with lower rates of antipsychotic prescriptions in regions with higher rates of mental health professionals. After adjustment for possible confounders, the total availability of mental health professionals was still inversely associated with the rate of individuals exposed to antipsychotic drugs. The evidence that staffing level was inversely associated with antipsychotic prescribing indicates that any actions aimed at decreasing variability in antipsychotic prescribing need to take into account aspects related to the organization of the mental health system.

  17. Clinical analysis of urinary tract infection in patients undergoing transurethral resection of the prostate.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Y-H; Li, G-Q; Guo, S-M; Che, Y-N; Wang, X; Cheng, F-T

    2017-10-01

    To analyze the related influencing factors of urinary tract infection in patients undergoing transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP). A total of 343 patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia admitted to this hospital from January 2013 to December 2016, were selected and treated by TURP. Patients were divided into infection group and non-infection group according to the occurrence of urinary tract infection after operation. The possible influencing factors were collected to perform univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis. There were 53 cases with urinary tract infection after operation among 343 patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia, accounting for 15.5%. The univariate analysis displayed that the occurrence of urinary tract infection in patients undergoing TURP was closely associated with patient's age ≥ 65 years old, complicated diabetes, catheterization for urinary retention before operation, no use of antibiotics before operation and postoperative indwelling catheter duration ≥ 5 d (p urinary tract infection in patients receiving TURP (p urinary tract infection after TURP, while preoperative prophylactic utilization of anti-infective drugs can reduce the occurrence of postoperative urinary tract infection.

  18. Handbook of Time Series Analysis Recent Theoretical Developments and Applications

    CERN Document Server

    Schelter, Björn; Timmer, Jens

    2006-01-01

    This handbook provides an up-to-date survey of current research topics and applications of time series analysis methods written by leading experts in their fields. It covers recent developments in univariate as well as bivariate and multivariate time series analysis techniques ranging from physics' to life sciences' applications. Each chapter comprises both methodological aspects and applications to real world complex systems, such as the human brain or Earth's climate. Covering an exceptionally broad spectrum of topics, beginners, experts and practitioners who seek to understand the latest de

  19. Natural radionuclides in effluents release by a deactivated uranium mine

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Pereira, Wagner S.; Kelecom, Alphonse; Silva, Ademir X.; Lopes, José M.; Pinto, Carlos E.C.; Py Júnior, Delcy A.; Antunes, Marcos M., E-mail: pereiraws@gmail.com, E-mail: caerjbr@gmail.com, E-mail: wspereira@inb.gov.br, E-mail: delcy@inb.gov.br, E-mail: Antunes@inb.gov.br, E-mail: lararapls@hotmail.com, E-mail: Ademir@nuclear.ufrj.br, E-mail: marqueslopes@yahoo.com.br [Universidade Veiga de Almeida (UVA), Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil); Indústrias Nucleares do Brasil (COMAP.N/FCN/INB), Resende RJ (Brazil). Fábrica de Combustível Nuclear. Coordenação de Meio Ambiente e Proteção Radiológica Ambiental; Universidade Federal Fluminense (LARARA-PLS/UFF), Niterói, RJ (Brazil). Laboratório de Radiobiologia e Radiometria; Coordenacao de Pos-Graduacao e Pesquisa de Engenharia (COPPE/UFRJ), Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil). Programa de Engenharia Nuclear

    2017-07-01

    The Ore Treatment Unit (OTU) is a mine and deactivated uranium plant in the city of Caldas, Minas Gerais, Brazil. This facility possesses three points of release of liquid effluents containing radionuclides: point 014, 025 and 076. At these points, the values of activity concentrations (AC) of the radionuclides U{sub nat}, {sup 226}Ra, {sup 210}Pb, {sup 232}Th and {sup 228}Ra were analyzed in 2012. The evaluation of point 014 by univariate statistics pointed four groups. [U{sub nat} > {sup 228}Ra > ({sup 226}Ra = {sup 210}Pb) >{sup 232}Th]. The multivariate statistics separated the radionuclides into two groups: [(U{sub nat} and {sup 232}Th) and ({sup 226}Ra, {sup 228}Ra and {sup 210}Pb)]. At point 025, the univariate statistics described three groups: [Un{sub at} > ({sup 228}Ra = {sup 210}Pb) > ({sup 226}Ra = {sup 232}Th)] and the multivariate analysis also described three but different groups: [(U{sub nat} and {sup 228}Ra), ({sup 226}Ra and {sup 210}Pb) and {sup 232}Th]. In turn, point 076 showed another behavior. The univariate analysis showed only two groups: [(U{sub nat}) > ({sup 226}Ra, {sup 228}Ra, {sup 210}Pb, {sup 232}Th)]. Differently, the multivariate statistics defined three groups: [(U{sub nat} and {sup 232}Th), ({sup 226}Ra and {sup 228}Ra) and {sup 210}Pb].Thus, statistical analysis showed that each point has releases of effluents with different characteristics. Both the behaviors of releases, based on multivariate statistics, and of the AC magnitudes, based on the univariate statistics, are different between the points. The only common features were the greater magnitude of uranium and the smaller magnitude of thorium. (author)

  20. Risk Factors for Neovascular Glaucoma After Proton Beam Therapy of Uveal Melanoma: A Detailed Analysis of Tumor and Dose–Volume Parameters

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mishra, Kavita K.; Daftari, Inder K.; Weinberg, Vivian; Cole, Tia; Quivey, Jeanne M.; Castro, Joseph R.; Phillips, Theodore L.; Char, Devron H.

    2013-01-01

    Purpose: To determine neovascular glaucoma (NVG) incidence and identify contributing tumor and dosing factors in uveal melanoma patients treated with proton beam radiation therapy (PBRT). Methods and Materials: A total of 704 PBRT patients treated by a single surgeon (DHC) for uveal melanoma (1996-2010) were reviewed for NVG in our prospectively maintained database. All patients received 56 GyE in 4 fractions. Median follow-up was 58.3 months. Analyses included the Kaplan-Meier method to estimate NVG distributions, univariate log–rank tests, and Cox's proportional hazards multivariate analysis using likelihood ratio tests to identify independent risk factors of NVG among patient, tumor, and dose–volume histogram parameters. Results: The 5-year PBRT NVG rate was 12.7% (95% confidence interval [CI] 10.2%-15.9%). The 5-year rate of enucleation due to NVG was 4.9% (95% CI 3.4%-7.2%). Univariately, the NVG rate increased significantly with larger tumor diameter (P 30% of the lens or ciliary body received ≥50% dose (≥28 GyE), there was a higher probability of NVG (P 0%-30% vs >30%) (P=.01), and optic nerve length treated to ≥90% Dose (≤1 mm vs >1 mm) (P=.02). Conclusions: Our current PBRT patients experience a low rate of NVG and resultant enucleation compared with historical data. The present analysis shows that tumor height, diameter, and anterior as well as posterior critical structure dose–volume parameters may be used to predict NVG risk

  1. Conventional Versus Automated Implantation of Loose Seeds in Prostate Brachytherapy: Analysis of Dosimetric and Clinical Results

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Genebes, Caroline; Filleron, Thomas; Graff, Pierre; Jonca, Frédéric; Huyghe, Eric; Thoulouzan, Matthieu; Soulie, Michel; Malavaud, Bernard; Aziza, Richard; Brun, Thomas; Delannes, Martine; Bachaud, Jean-Marc

    2013-01-01

    Purpose: To review the clinical outcome of I-125 permanent prostate brachytherapy (PPB) for low-risk and intermediate-risk prostate cancer and to compare 2 techniques of loose-seed implantation. Methods and Materials: 574 consecutive patients underwent I-125 PPB for low-risk and intermediate-risk prostate cancer between 2000 and 2008. Two successive techniques were used: conventional implantation from 2000 to 2004 and automated implantation (Nucletron, FIRST system) from 2004 to 2008. Dosimetric and biochemical recurrence-free (bNED) survival results were reported and compared for the 2 techniques. Univariate and multivariate analysis researched independent predictors for bNED survival. Results: 419 (73%) and 155 (27%) patients with low-risk and intermediate-risk disease, respectively, were treated (median follow-up time, 69.3 months). The 60-month bNED survival rates were 95.2% and 85.7%, respectively, for patients with low-risk and intermediate-risk disease (P=.04). In univariate analysis, patients treated with automated implantation had worse bNED survival rates than did those treated with conventional implantation (P<.0001). By day 30, patients treated with automated implantation showed lower values of dose delivered to 90% of prostate volume (D90) and volume of prostate receiving 100% of prescribed dose (V100). In multivariate analysis, implantation technique, Gleason score, and V100 on day 30 were independent predictors of recurrence-free status. Grade 3 urethritis and urinary incontinence were observed in 2.6% and 1.6% of the cohort, respectively, with no significant differences between the 2 techniques. No grade 3 proctitis was observed. Conclusion: Satisfactory 60-month bNED survival rates (93.1%) and acceptable toxicity (grade 3 urethritis <3%) were achieved by loose-seed implantation. Automated implantation was associated with worse dosimetric and bNED survival outcomes

  2. Conventional Versus Automated Implantation of Loose Seeds in Prostate Brachytherapy: Analysis of Dosimetric and Clinical Results

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Genebes, Caroline, E-mail: genebes.caroline@claudiusregaud.fr [Radiation Oncology Department, Institut Claudius Regaud, Toulouse (France); Filleron, Thomas; Graff, Pierre [Radiation Oncology Department, Institut Claudius Regaud, Toulouse (France); Jonca, Frédéric [Department of Urology, Clinique Ambroise Paré, Toulouse (France); Huyghe, Eric; Thoulouzan, Matthieu; Soulie, Michel; Malavaud, Bernard [Department of Urology and Andrology, CHU Rangueil, Toulouse (France); Aziza, Richard; Brun, Thomas; Delannes, Martine; Bachaud, Jean-Marc [Radiation Oncology Department, Institut Claudius Regaud, Toulouse (France)

    2013-11-15

    Purpose: To review the clinical outcome of I-125 permanent prostate brachytherapy (PPB) for low-risk and intermediate-risk prostate cancer and to compare 2 techniques of loose-seed implantation. Methods and Materials: 574 consecutive patients underwent I-125 PPB for low-risk and intermediate-risk prostate cancer between 2000 and 2008. Two successive techniques were used: conventional implantation from 2000 to 2004 and automated implantation (Nucletron, FIRST system) from 2004 to 2008. Dosimetric and biochemical recurrence-free (bNED) survival results were reported and compared for the 2 techniques. Univariate and multivariate analysis researched independent predictors for bNED survival. Results: 419 (73%) and 155 (27%) patients with low-risk and intermediate-risk disease, respectively, were treated (median follow-up time, 69.3 months). The 60-month bNED survival rates were 95.2% and 85.7%, respectively, for patients with low-risk and intermediate-risk disease (P=.04). In univariate analysis, patients treated with automated implantation had worse bNED survival rates than did those treated with conventional implantation (P<.0001). By day 30, patients treated with automated implantation showed lower values of dose delivered to 90% of prostate volume (D90) and volume of prostate receiving 100% of prescribed dose (V100). In multivariate analysis, implantation technique, Gleason score, and V100 on day 30 were independent predictors of recurrence-free status. Grade 3 urethritis and urinary incontinence were observed in 2.6% and 1.6% of the cohort, respectively, with no significant differences between the 2 techniques. No grade 3 proctitis was observed. Conclusion: Satisfactory 60-month bNED survival rates (93.1%) and acceptable toxicity (grade 3 urethritis <3%) were achieved by loose-seed implantation. Automated implantation was associated with worse dosimetric and bNED survival outcomes.

  3. Advertising Discourse Analysis of FES stores: Killing Love, Cowards Show

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cristian Venegas Ahumada

    2013-08-01

    Full Text Available The objective is to analyze the structural and photographic discourse of the Autumn-Winter campaign 2008 of FES stores for young people. This was done by a semiotic theory and a critical-structural methodology of discourse. An analysis of 4 advertising photographs was done, and at once an analysis of the discourse “FES says no to violence against Women”, which explains the campaign’s target. The result is: The discourse was subjected to production condition (society of control and makes advertising a way to homogenize subjectivity of masses to consume. Recognition conditions demonstrate that this advertising discourse of symbolic violence means a type of violation of Men and Women Rights. An action like this requires commitment of Psychology in order to promote the social humanizing change, by means of university teaching and professional tasks.

  4. Metabolomic differentiation of maca (Lepidium meyenii) accessions cultivated under different conditions using NMR and chemometric analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhao, Jianping; Avula, Bharathi; Chan, Michael; Clément, Céline; Kreuzer, Michael; Khan, Ikhlas A

    2012-01-01

    To gain insights on the effects of color type, cultivation history, and growing site on the composition alterations of maca (Lepidium meyenii Walpers) hypocotyls, NMR profiling combined with chemometric analysis was applied to investigate the metabolite variability in different maca accessions. Maca hypocotyls with different colors (yellow, pink, violet, and lead-colored) cultivated at different geographic sites and different areas were examined for differences in metabolite expression. Differentiations of the maca accessions grown under the different cultivation conditions were determined by principle component analyses (PCAs) which were performed on the datasets derived from their ¹H NMR spectra. A total of 16 metabolites were identified by NMR analysis, and the changes in metabolite levels in relation to the color types and growing conditions of maca hypocotyls were evaluated using univariate statistical analysis. In addition, the changes of the correlation pattern among the metabolites identified in the maca accessions planted at the two different sites were examined. The results from both multivariate and univariate analysis indicated that the planting site was the major determining factor with regards to metabolite variations in maca hypocotyls, while the color of maca accession seems to be of minor importance in this respect. © Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.

  5. Multivariate survival analysis and competing risks

    CERN Document Server

    Crowder, Martin J

    2012-01-01

    Multivariate Survival Analysis and Competing Risks introduces univariate survival analysis and extends it to the multivariate case. It covers competing risks and counting processes and provides many real-world examples, exercises, and R code. The text discusses survival data, survival distributions, frailty models, parametric methods, multivariate data and distributions, copulas, continuous failure, parametric likelihood inference, and non- and semi-parametric methods. There are many books covering survival analysis, but very few that cover the multivariate case in any depth. Written for a graduate-level audience in statistics/biostatistics, this book includes practical exercises and R code for the examples. The author is renowned for his clear writing style, and this book continues that trend. It is an excellent reference for graduate students and researchers looking for grounding in this burgeoning field of research.

  6. Cost effectiveness analysis of immunotherapy in patients with grass pollen allergic rhinoconjunctivitis in Germany.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Westerhout, K Y; Verheggen, B G; Schreder, C H; Augustin, M

    2012-01-01

    An economic evaluation was conducted to assess the outcomes and costs as well as cost-effectiveness of the following grass-pollen immunotherapies: OA (Oralair; Stallergenes S.A., Antony, France) vs GRZ (Grazax; ALK-Abelló, Hørsholm, Denmark), and ALD (Alk Depot SQ; ALK-Abelló) (immunotherapy agents alongside symptomatic medication) and symptomatic treatment alone for grass pollen allergic rhinoconjunctivitis. The costs and outcomes of 3-year treatment were assessed for a period of 9 years using a Markov model. Treatment efficacy was estimated using an indirect comparison of available clinical trials with placebo as a common comparator. Estimates for immunotherapy discontinuation, occurrence of asthma, health state utilities, drug costs, resource use, and healthcare costs were derived from published sources. The analysis was conducted from the insurant's perspective including public and private health insurance payments and co-payments by insurants. Outcomes were reported as quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) and symptom-free days. The uncertainty around incremental model results was tested by means of extensive deterministic univariate and probabilistic multivariate sensitivity analyses. In the base case analysis the model predicted a cost-utility ratio of OA vs symptomatic treatment of €14,728 per QALY; incremental costs were €1356 (95%CI: €1230; €1484) and incremental QALYs 0.092 (95%CI: 0.052; 0.140). OA was the dominant strategy compared to GRZ and ALD, with estimated incremental costs of -€1142 (95%CI: -€1255; -€1038) and -€54 (95%CI: -€188; €85) and incremental QALYs of 0.015 (95%CI: -0.025; 0.056) and 0.027 (95%CI: -0.022; 0.075), respectively. At a willingness-to-pay threshold of €20,000, the probability of OA being the most cost-effective treatment was predicted to be 79%. Univariate sensitivity analyses show that incremental outcomes were moderately sensitive to changes in efficacy estimates. The main study limitation was the

  7. Self-confidence in financial analysis: a study of younger and older male professional analysts.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Webster, R L; Ellis, T S

    2001-06-01

    Measures of reported self-confidence in performing financial analysis by 59 professional male analysts, 31 born between 1946 and 1964 and 28 born between 1965 and 1976, were investigated and reported. Self-confidence in one's ability is important in the securities industry because it affects recommendations and decisions to buy, sell, and hold securities. The respondents analyzed a set of multiyear corporate financial statements and reported their self-confidence in six separate financial areas. Data from the 59 male financial analysts were tallied and analyzed using both univariate and multivariate statistical tests. Rated self-confidence was not significantly different for the younger and the older men. These results are not consistent with a similar prior study of female analysts in which younger women showed significantly higher self-confidence than older women.

  8. #13ReasonsWhy Health Professionals and Educators are Tweeting: A Systematic Analysis of Uses and Perceptions of Show Content and Learning Outcomes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Walker, Kimberly K; Burns, Kelli

    2018-04-27

    This study is a content analysis of health professionals' and educators' tweets about a popular Netflix show that depicts teen suicide: 13 Reasons Why. A content analysis of 740 tweets was conducted to determine the main themes associated with professionals' and educators' tweets about the show, as well as the valence of the tweets. Additionally, a thematic analysis of linked content in tweets (n = 178) was conducted to explore additional content shared about the show and modeling outcomes. Results indicated the largest percentage of tweets was related to social learning, particularly about outcomes that could occur from viewing the show. The valence of the tweets about outcomes was more positive than negative. However, linked materials commonly circulated in tweets signified greater concern with unintended learning outcomes. Some of the linked content included media guidelines for reporting on suicide with recommendations that entertainment producers follow the guidelines. This study emphasizes the importance of including social learning objectives in future typologies of Twitter uses and demonstrates the importance of examining linked content in Twitter studies.

  9. Mediating the effect of self-care management intervention in type 2 diabetes: A meta-analysis of 47 randomised controlled trials

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Minet, Lisbeth; Møller, Sine; Vach, Werner

    2010-01-01

    OBJECTIVE: To perform a meta-analysis assessing the effects of self-care management interventions in improving glycaemic control in type 2 diabetes by analysing the impact of different study characteristics on the effect size. METHODS: A literature search in eight scientific databases up...... to November 2007 included original studies of randomised controlled trials involving adult patients diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and evaluating a self-care management intervention. RESULTS: The 47 included studies yielded 7677 participants. The analysis showed a 0.36% (95% CI 0.21-0.51) improvement...... in glycaemic control in people who received self-care management treatment. In the univariate meta-regression sample size (effect size 0.42%, p=0.007) and follow-up period (effect size 0.49%, p=0.017) were identified to have significant effect on the effect size in favour of small studies and short follow...

  10. Impact of BCL2 and p53 on postmastectomy radiotherapy response in high-risk breast cancer. A subgroup analysis of DBCG82 b and c

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kyndi, M.; Alsner, J.; Nielsen, H.M.; Overgaard, J.; Soerensen, F.B.; Knudsen, H.; Overgaard, M.

    2008-01-01

    Purpose. To examine p53 and BCL2 expression in high-risk breast cancer patients randomized to postmastectomy radiotherapy (PMRT). Patients and methods. The present analysis included 1 000 of 3 083 high-risk breast cancer patients randomly assigned to PMRT in the DBCG82 b and c studies. Tissue microarray sections were stained with immunohistochemistry for p53 and BCL2. Median potential follow-up was 17 years. Clinical endpoints were locoregional recurrence (LRR), distant metastases (DM), overall mortality, and overall survival (OS). Statistical analyses included Kappa statistics, χ2 or exact tests, Kaplan-Meier probability plots, Log-rank test, and Cox univariate and multivariate regression analyses. Results. p53 accumulation was not significantly associated with increased overall mortality, DM or LRR probability in univariate or multivariate Cox regression analyses. Kaplan-Meier probability plots showed reduced OS and improved DM and LRR probabilities after PMRT within subgroups of both p53 negative and p53 positive patients. Negative BCL2 expression was significantly associated with increased overall mortality, DM and LRR probability in multivariate Cox regression analyses. Kaplan-Meier probability plots showed a significantly improved overall survival after PMRT for the BCL2 positive subgroup, whereas practically no survival improvement was seen after PMRT for the BCL2 negative subgroup. In multivariate analysis of OS, however, no significant interaction was found between BCL2 and randomization status. Significant reductions in LRR probability after PMRT were recorded within both the BCL2 positive and BCL2 negative subgroups. Conclusion. p53 was not associated with survival after radiotherapy in high-risk breast cancer, but BCL2 might be

  11. Exact analysis of discrete data

    CERN Document Server

    Hirji, Karim F

    2005-01-01

    Researchers in fields ranging from biology and medicine to the social sciences, law, and economics regularly encounter variables that are discrete or categorical in nature. While there is no dearth of books on the analysis and interpretation of such data, these generally focus on large sample methods. When sample sizes are not large or the data are otherwise sparse, exact methods--methods not based on asymptotic theory--are more accurate and therefore preferable.This book introduces the statistical theory, analysis methods, and computation techniques for exact analysis of discrete data. After reviewing the relevant discrete distributions, the author develops the exact methods from the ground up in a conceptually integrated manner. The topics covered range from univariate discrete data analysis, a single and several 2 x 2 tables, a single and several 2 x K tables, incidence density and inverse sampling designs, unmatched and matched case -control studies, paired binary and trinomial response models, and Markov...

  12. Heterogeneity of Glucose Metabolism in Esophageal Cancer Measured by Fractal Analysis of Fluorodeoxyglucose Positron Emission Tomography Image: Correlation between Metabolic Heterogeneity and Survival.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tochigi, Toru; Shuto, Kiyohiko; Kono, Tsuguaki; Ohira, Gaku; Tohma, Takayuki; Gunji, Hisashi; Hayano, Koichi; Narushima, Kazuo; Fujishiro, Takeshi; Hanaoka, Toshiharu; Akutsu, Yasunori; Okazumi, Shinichi; Matsubara, Hisahiro

    2017-01-01

    Intratumoral heterogeneity is a well-recognized characteristic feature of cancer. The purpose of this study is to assess the heterogeneity of the intratumoral glucose metabolism using fractal analysis, and evaluate its prognostic value in patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) studies of 79 patients who received curative surgery were evaluated. FDG-PET images were analyzed using fractal analysis software, where differential box-counting method was employed to calculate the fractal dimension (FD) of the tumor lesion. Maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) and FD were compared with overall survival (OS). The median SUVmax and FD of ESCCs in this cohort were 13.8 and 1.95, respectively. In univariate analysis performed using Cox's proportional hazard model, T stage and FD showed significant associations with OS (p = 0.04, p heterogeneity measured by fractal analysis can be a novel imaging biomarker for survival in patients with ESCC. © 2016 S. Karger AG, Basel.

  13. Genomic analysis of codon usage shows influence of mutation pressure, natural selection, and host features on Marburg virus evolution.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nasrullah, Izza; Butt, Azeem M; Tahir, Shifa; Idrees, Muhammad; Tong, Yigang

    2015-08-26

    The Marburg virus (MARV) has a negative-sense single-stranded RNA genome, belongs to the family Filoviridae, and is responsible for several outbreaks of highly fatal hemorrhagic fever. Codon usage patterns of viruses reflect a series of evolutionary changes that enable viruses to shape their survival rates and fitness toward the external environment and, most importantly, their hosts. To understand the evolution of MARV at the codon level, we report a comprehensive analysis of synonymous codon usage patterns in MARV genomes. Multiple codon analysis approaches and statistical methods were performed to determine overall codon usage patterns, biases in codon usage, and influence of various factors, including mutation pressure, natural selection, and its two hosts, Homo sapiens and Rousettus aegyptiacus. Nucleotide composition and relative synonymous codon usage (RSCU) analysis revealed that MARV shows mutation bias and prefers U- and A-ended codons to code amino acids. Effective number of codons analysis indicated that overall codon usage among MARV genomes is slightly biased. The Parity Rule 2 plot analysis showed that GC and AU nucleotides were not used proportionally which accounts for the presence of natural selection. Codon usage patterns of MARV were also found to be influenced by its hosts. This indicates that MARV have evolved codon usage patterns that are specific to both of its hosts. Moreover, selection pressure from R. aegyptiacus on the MARV RSCU patterns was found to be dominant compared with that from H. sapiens. Overall, mutation pressure was found to be the most important and dominant force that shapes codon usage patterns in MARV. To our knowledge, this is the first detailed codon usage analysis of MARV and extends our understanding of the mechanisms that contribute to codon usage and evolution of MARV.

  14. Factor analysis shows association between family activity environment and children's health behaviour.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hendrie, Gilly A; Coveney, John; Cox, David N

    2011-12-01

    To characterise the family activity environment in a questionnaire format, assess the questionnaire's reliability and describe its predictive ability by examining the relationships between the family activity environment and children's health behaviours - physical activity, screen time and fruit and vegetable intake. This paper describes the creation of a tool, based on previously validated scales, adapted from the food domain. Data are from 106 children and their parents (Adelaide, South Australia). Factor analysis was used to characterise factors within the family activity environment. Pearson-Product Moment correlations between the family environment and child outcomes, controlling for demographic variation, were examined. Three factors described the family activity environment - parental activity involvement, opportunity for role modelling and parental support for physical activity - and explained 37.6% of the variance. Controlling for demographic factors, the scale was significantly correlated with children's health behaviour - physical activity (r=0.27), screen time (r=-0.24) and fruit and vegetable intake (r=0.34). The family activity environment questionnaire shows high internal consistency and moderate predictive ability. This study has built on previous research by taking a more comprehensive approach to measuring the family activity environment. This research suggests the family activity environment should be considered in family-based health promotion interventions. © 2011 The Authors. ANZJPH © 2011 Public Health Association of Australia.

  15. Neural network analysis in pharmacogenetics of mood disorders

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Serretti Alessandro

    2004-12-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background The increasing number of available genotypes for genetic studies in humans requires more advanced techniques of analysis. We previously reported significant univariate associations between gene polymorphisms and antidepressant response in mood disorders. However the combined analysis of multiple gene polymorphisms and clinical variables requires the use of non linear methods. Methods In the present study we tested a neural network strategy for a combined analysis of two gene polymorphisms. A Multi Layer Perceptron model showed the best performance and was therefore selected over the other networks. One hundred and twenty one depressed inpatients treated with fluvoxamine in the context of previously reported pharmacogenetic studies were included. The polymorphism in the transcriptional control region upstream of the 5HTT coding sequence (SERTPR and in the Tryptophan Hydroxylase (TPH gene were analysed simultaneously. Results A multi layer perceptron network composed by 1 hidden layer with 7 nodes was chosen. 77.5 % of responders and 51.2% of non responders were correctly classified (ROC area = 0.731 – empirical p value = 0.0082. Finally, we performed a comparison with traditional techniques. A discriminant function analysis correctly classified 34.1 % of responders and 68.1 % of non responders (F = 8.16 p = 0.0005. Conclusions Overall, our findings suggest that neural networks may be a valid technique for the analysis of gene polymorphisms in pharmacogenetic studies. The complex interactions modelled through NN may be eventually applied at the clinical level for the individualized therapy.

  16. Radiographic analysis of odontogenic cysts showing displacement of the mandibular canal

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cho, Bong Hae

    2003-01-01

    To assess the radiographic findings of odontogenic cysts showing displacement of the mandibular canal using computed tomographic (CT) and panoramic images. CT and panoramic images of 63 odontogenic cysts (27 dentigerous, 16 odontogenic keratocysts, and 20 radicular cysts) were analyzed to evaluate the following parameters: the dimension and shape of the cysts, and the effect of the cysts on the mandibular canal and cortical plates. Of the 63 cysts examined in the study, 35 (55.6%) showed inferior displacement of the mandibular canal and 46 (73.0%) showed perforation of the canal. There were statistically significant differenced between CT and panoramic images in depicting displacement and perforation of the mandibular canal. Cortical expansion was seen in 46 cases (73.0%) and cortical perforation in 23 cases (36.5%). The radicular cysts showed cortical expansion and perforation less frequently than the other cyst groups. Large cysts of mandible should be evaluated by multiplanar CT images in order to detect the mandibular canal and cortical bone involvement.

  17. A Novel and Effective Multivariate Method for Compositional Analysis using Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wang, W; Qi, H; Ayhan, B; Kwan, C; Vance, S

    2014-01-01

    Compositional analysis is important to interrogate spectral samples for direct analysis of materials in agriculture, environment and archaeology, etc. In this paper, multi-variate analysis (MVA) techniques are coupled with laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) to estimate quantitative elemental compositions and determine the type of the sample. In particular, we present a new multivariate analysis method for composition analysis, referred to as s pectral unmixing . The LIBS spectrum of a testing sample is considered as a linear mixture with more than one constituent signatures that correspond to various chemical elements. The signature library is derived from regression analysis using training samples or is manually set up with the information from an elemental LIBS spectral database. A calibration step is used to make all the signatures in library to be homogeneous with the testing sample so as to avoid inhomogeneous signatures that might be caused by different sampling conditions. To demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed method, we compare it with the traditional partial least squares (PLS) method and the univariate method using a standard soil data set with elemental concentration measured a priori. The experimental results show that the proposed method holds great potential for reliable and effective elemental concentration estimation

  18. Multi-criteria evaluation of CMIP5 GCMs for climate change impact analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ahmadalipour, Ali; Rana, Arun; Moradkhani, Hamid; Sharma, Ashish

    2017-04-01

    Climate change is expected to have severe impacts on global hydrological cycle along with food-water-energy nexus. Currently, there are many climate models used in predicting important climatic variables. Though there have been advances in the field, there are still many problems to be resolved related to reliability, uncertainty, and computing needs, among many others. In the present work, we have analyzed performance of 20 different global climate models (GCMs) from Climate Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) dataset over the Columbia River Basin (CRB) in the Pacific Northwest USA. We demonstrate a statistical multicriteria approach, using univariate and multivariate techniques, for selecting suitable GCMs to be used for climate change impact analysis in the region. Univariate methods includes mean, standard deviation, coefficient of variation, relative change (variability), Mann-Kendall test, and Kolmogorov-Smirnov test (KS-test); whereas multivariate methods used were principal component analysis (PCA), singular value decomposition (SVD), canonical correlation analysis (CCA), and cluster analysis. The analysis is performed on raw GCM data, i.e., before bias correction, for precipitation and temperature climatic variables for all the 20 models to capture the reliability and nature of the particular model at regional scale. The analysis is based on spatially averaged datasets of GCMs and observation for the period of 1970 to 2000. Ranking is provided to each of the GCMs based on the performance evaluated against gridded observational data on various temporal scales (daily, monthly, and seasonal). Results have provided insight into each of the methods and various statistical properties addressed by them employed in ranking GCMs. Further; evaluation was also performed for raw GCM simulations against different sets of gridded observational dataset in the area.

  19. DCE-MRI texture analysis with tumor subregion partitioning for predicting Ki-67 status of estrogen receptor-positive breast cancers

    KAUST Repository

    Fan, Ming

    2017-12-08

    Breast tumor heterogeneity is related to risk factors that lead to worse prognosis, yet such heterogeneity has not been well studied.To predict the Ki-67 status of estrogen receptor (ER)-positive breast cancer patients via analysis of tumor heterogeneity with subgroup identification based on patterns of dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI).Retrospective study.Seventy-seven breast cancer patients with ER-positive breast cancer were investigated, of whom 51 had low Ki-67 expression.T1 -weighted 3.0T DCE-MR images.Each tumor was partitioned into multiple subregions using three methods based on patterns of dynamic enhancement: 1) time to peak (TTP), 2) peak enhancement rate (PER), and 3) kinetic pattern clustering (KPC). In each tumor subregion, 18 texture features were computed.Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed using a leave-one-out-based cross-validation (LOOCV) method. The partitioning results were compared with the same feature extraction methods across the whole tumor.In the univariate analysis, the best-performing feature was the texture statistic of sum variance in the tumor subregion with early TTP for differentiating between patients with high and low Ki-67 expression (area under the receiver operating characteristic curves, AUC = 0.748). Multivariate analysis showed that features from the tumor subregion associated with early TTP yielded the highest performance (AUC = 0.807) among the subregions for predicting the Ki-67 status. Among all regions, the tumor area with high PER at a precontrast MR image achieved the highest performance (AUC = 0.722), while the subregion that exhibited the highest overall enhancement rate based on KPC had an AUC of 0.731. These three models based on intratumoral texture analysis significantly (P < 0.01) outperformed the model using features from the whole tumor (AUC = 0.59).Texture analysis of intratumoral heterogeneity has the potential to serve as a valuable

  20. Propensity score analysis of recurrence for neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio in colorectal cancer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Balde, Alpha I; Fang, Suzhen; He, Linyun; Cai, Zhai; Han, Shuai; Wang, Weiwei; Li, Zhou; Kang, Liang

    2017-11-01

    The perioperative serum neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) has been proposed to predict adverse prognosis in colorectal cancer (CRC). However, its interpretation remains unclear. The present study aimed to clarify the prognostic value of NLR in predicting survival among CRC patients. A single-centre, retrospective, propensity score-matched study of adenocarcinoma patients who underwent D3 lymphadenectomy via laparoscopic or open surgery between 2010 and 2016 was conducted. A cutoff of 3.5 was used based on the receiver operating characteristic curve. To overcome selection biases, we performed a 1:1 match using six covariates. The high-preoperative NLR group had a higher recurrence rate than the low group (P analysis showed that increased NLR (P analysis showed that N2 (hazard ratio [HR], 2.492; P = 0.008) was an adverse prognostic factor for RFS. Univariate analysis for overall survival (OS) revealed that high perioperative NLR (P = 0.001), N1 (P = 0.01), N2 (P analysis showed that M1 (HR, 3.973; P < 0.001) and N2 (HR, 2.381; P = 0.013) were highly adverse factors for OS. Clinical assessments performed during a 21.14 (±16.20)-mo follow-up revealed that OS (P = 0.001) and RFS (P < 0.001) were worse in the high-perioperative group than in the low group between the matched groups. An elevated preoperative NLR is a strong predictor of worse RFS and OS in CRC patients. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  1. A multi-centre cohort study shows no association between experienced violence and labour dystocia in nulliparous women at term

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-01-01

    Background Although both labour dystocia and domestic violence during pregnancy are associated with adverse maternal and fetal outcome, evidence in support of a possible association between experiences of domestic violence and labour dystocia is sparse. The aim of this study was to investigate whether self-reported history of violence or experienced violence during pregnancy is associated with increased risk of labour dystocia in nulliparous women at term. Methods A population-based multi-centre cohort study. A self-administrated questionnaire collected at 37 weeks of gestation from nine obstetric departments in Denmark. The total cohort comprised 2652 nulliparous women, among whom 985 (37.1%) met the protocol criteria for dystocia. Results Among the total cohort, 940 (35.4%) women reported experience of violence, and among these, 66 (2.5%) women reported exposure to violence during their first pregnancy. Further, 39.5% (n = 26) of those had never been exposed to violence before. Univariate logistic regression analysis showed no association between history of violence or experienced violence during pregnancy and labour dystocia at term, crude OR 0.91, 95% CI (0.77-1.08), OR 0.90, 95% CI (0.54-1.50), respectively. However, violence exposed women consuming alcoholic beverages during late pregnancy had increased odds of labour dystocia, crude OR 1.45, 95% CI (1.07-1.96). Conclusions Our findings indicate that nulliparous women who have a history of violence or experienced violence during pregnancy do not appear to have a higher risk of labour dystocia at term, according to the definition of labour dystocia in this study. Additional research on this topic would be beneficial, including further evaluation of the criteria for labour dystocia. PMID:21338523

  2. A multi-centre cohort study shows no association between experienced violence and labour dystocia in nulliparous women at term.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Finnbogadóttir, Hafrún; Dejin-Karlsson, Elisabeth; Dykes, Anna-Karin

    2011-02-21

    Although both labour dystocia and domestic violence during pregnancy are associated with adverse maternal and fetal outcome, evidence in support of a possible association between experiences of domestic violence and labour dystocia is sparse. The aim of this study was to investigate whether self-reported history of violence or experienced violence during pregnancy is associated with increased risk of labour dystocia in nulliparous women at term. A population-based multi-centre cohort study. A self-administrated questionnaire collected at 37 weeks of gestation from nine obstetric departments in Denmark. The total cohort comprised 2652 nulliparous women, among whom 985 (37.1%) met the protocol criteria for dystocia. Among the total cohort, 940 (35.4%) women reported experience of violence, and among these, 66 (2.5%) women reported exposure to violence during their first pregnancy. Further, 39.5% (n = 26) of those had never been exposed to violence before. Univariate logistic regression analysis showed no association between history of violence or experienced violence during pregnancy and labour dystocia at term, crude OR 0.91, 95% CI (0.77-1.08), OR 0.90, 95% CI (0.54-1.50), respectively. However, violence exposed women consuming alcoholic beverages during late pregnancy had increased odds of labour dystocia, crude OR 1.45, 95% CI (1.07-1.96). Our findings indicate that nulliparous women who have a history of violence or experienced violence during pregnancy do not appear to have a higher risk of labour dystocia at term, according to the definition of labour dystocia in this study. Additional research on this topic would be beneficial, including further evaluation of the criteria for labour dystocia.

  3. C-reactive protein gene polymorphisms and myocardial infarction risk: a meta-analysis and meta-regression.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhu, Yanbin; Liu, Tongku; He, Haitao; Sun, Yuqing; Zhuo, Fengling

    2013-12-01

    C-reactive protein (CRP), the classic acute-phase protein, plays an important role in the etiology of myocardial infarction (MI). Emerging evidence has shown that the common polymorphisms in the CRP gene may influence an individual's susceptibility to MI; but individually published studies showed inconclusive results. This meta-analysis aimed to derive a more precise estimation of the associations between CRP gene polymorphisms and MI risk. A literature search of PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and China BioMedicine (CBM) databases was conducted on articles published before June 1st, 2013. Crude odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated. Nine case-control studies were included with a total of 2992 MI patients and 4711 healthy controls. The meta-analysis results indicated that CRP rs3093059 (T>C) polymorphism was associated with decreased risk of MI, especially among Asian populations. However, similar associations were not observed in CRP rs1800947 (G>C) and rs2794521 (G>A) polymorphisms (all p>0.05) among both Asian and Caucasian populations. Univariate and multivariate meta-regression analyses showed that ethnicity may be a major source of heterogeneity. No publication bias was detected in this meta-analysis. In conclusion, the current meta-analysis indicates that CRP rs3093059 (T>C) polymorphism may be associated with decreased risk of MI, especially among Asian populations.

  4. Logistic regression analysis of prognostic factors in 106 acute-on-chronic liver failure patients with hepatic encephalopathy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    CUI Yanping

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available ObjectiveTo analyze the prognostic factors in acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF patients with hepatic encephalopathy (HE and to explore the risk factors for prognosis. MethodsA retrospective analysis was performed on 106 ACLF patients with HE who were hospitalized in our hospital from January 2010 to July 2013. The patients were divided into improved group and deteriorated group. The univariate indicators including age, sex, laboratory indicators [total bilirubin (TBil, albumin (Alb, alanine aminotransferase (ALT, aspartate amino-transferase (AST, and prothrombin time activity (PTA], the stage of HE, complications [persistent hyponatremia, digestive tract bleeding, hepatorenal syndrome (HRS, ascites, infection, and spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP], and plasma exchange were analyzed by chi-square test or t-test. Indicators with statistical significance were subsequently analyzed by binary logistic regression. ResultsUnivariate analysis showed that ALT (P=0.009, PTA (P=0.043, the stage of HE (P=0.000, and HRS (P=0.003 were significantly different between the two groups, whereas differences in age, sex, TBil, Alb, AST, persistent hyponatremia, digestive tract bleeding, ascites, infection, SBP, and plasma exchange were not statistically significant (P>0.05. Binary logistic regression demonstrated that PTA (b=-0097, P=0.025, OR=0.908, HRS (b=2.279, P=0.007, OR=9.764, and the stage of HE (b=1873, P=0.000, OR=6.510 were prognostic factors in ACLF patients with HE. ConclusionThe stage of HE, HRS, and PTA are independent influential factors for the prognosis in ACLF patients with HE. Reduced PTA, advanced HE stage, and the presence of HRS indicate worse prognosis.

  5. From root to fruit: RNA-Seq analysis shows that arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis may affect tomato fruit metabolism.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zouari, Inès; Salvioli, Alessandra; Chialva, Matteo; Novero, Mara; Miozzi, Laura; Tenore, Gian Carlo; Bagnaresi, Paolo; Bonfante, Paola

    2014-03-21

    Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) establishes a beneficial symbiosis with arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi. The formation of the mycorrhizal association in the roots leads to plant-wide modulation of gene expression. To understand the systemic effect of the fungal symbiosis on the tomato fruit, we used RNA-Seq to perform global transcriptome profiling on Moneymaker tomato fruits at the turning ripening stage. Fruits were collected at 55 days after flowering, from plants colonized with Funneliformis mosseae and from control plants, which were fertilized to avoid responses related to nutrient deficiency. Transcriptome analysis identified 712 genes that are differentially expressed in fruits from mycorrhizal and control plants. Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment analysis of these genes showed 81 overrepresented functional GO classes. Up-regulated GO classes include photosynthesis, stress response, transport, amino acid synthesis and carbohydrate metabolism functions, suggesting a general impact of fungal symbiosis on primary metabolisms and, particularly, on mineral nutrition. Down-regulated GO classes include cell wall, metabolism and ethylene response pathways. Quantitative RT-PCR validated the RNA-Seq results for 12 genes out of 14 when tested at three fruit ripening stages, mature green, breaker and turning. Quantification of fruit nutraceutical and mineral contents produced values consistent with the expression changes observed by RNA-Seq analysis. This RNA-Seq profiling produced a novel data set that explores the intersection of mycorrhization and fruit development. We found that the fruits of mycorrhizal plants show two transcriptomic "signatures": genes characteristic of a climacteric fleshy fruit, and genes characteristic of mycorrhizal status, like phosphate and sulphate transporters. Moreover, mycorrhizal plants under low nutrient conditions produce fruits with a nutrient content similar to those from non-mycorrhizal plants under high nutrient conditions

  6. Quantitative Analysis of "1"8F-Fluorodeoxyglucose Positron Emission Tomography Identifies Novel Prognostic Imaging Biomarkers in Locally Advanced Pancreatic Cancer Patients Treated With Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cui, Yi; Song, Jie; Pollom, Erqi; Alagappan, Muthuraman; Shirato, Hiroki; Chang, Daniel T.; Koong, Albert C.; Li, Ruijiang

    2016-01-01

    Purpose: To identify prognostic biomarkers in pancreatic cancer using high-throughput quantitative image analysis. Methods and Materials: In this institutional review board–approved study, we retrospectively analyzed images and outcomes for 139 locally advanced pancreatic cancer patients treated with stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT). The overall population was split into a training cohort (n=90) and a validation cohort (n=49) according to the time of treatment. We extracted quantitative imaging characteristics from pre-SBRT "1"8F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography, including statistical, morphologic, and texture features. A Cox proportional hazard regression model was built to predict overall survival (OS) in the training cohort using 162 robust image features. To avoid over-fitting, we applied the elastic net to obtain a sparse set of image features, whose linear combination constitutes a prognostic imaging signature. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses were used to evaluate the association with OS, and concordance index (CI) was used to evaluate the survival prediction accuracy. Results: The prognostic imaging signature included 7 features characterizing different tumor phenotypes, including shape, intensity, and texture. On the validation cohort, univariate analysis showed that this prognostic signature was significantly associated with OS (P=.002, hazard ratio 2.74), which improved upon conventional imaging predictors including tumor volume, maximum standardized uptake value, and total legion glycolysis (P=.018-.028, hazard ratio 1.51-1.57). On multivariate analysis, the proposed signature was the only significant prognostic index (P=.037, hazard ratio 3.72) when adjusted for conventional imaging and clinical factors (P=.123-.870, hazard ratio 0.53-1.30). In terms of CI, the proposed signature scored 0.66 and was significantly better than competing prognostic indices (CI 0.48-0.64, Wilcoxon rank sum test P<1e-6

  7. Quantitative Analysis of {sup 18}F-Fluorodeoxyglucose Positron Emission Tomography Identifies Novel Prognostic Imaging Biomarkers in Locally Advanced Pancreatic Cancer Patients Treated With Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Cui, Yi [Department of Radiation Oncology, Stanford University, Palo Alto, California (United States); Global Institution for Collaborative Research and Education, Hokkaido University, Sapporo (Japan); Song, Jie; Pollom, Erqi; Alagappan, Muthuraman [Department of Radiation Oncology, Stanford University, Palo Alto, California (United States); Shirato, Hiroki [Global Institution for Collaborative Research and Education, Hokkaido University, Sapporo (Japan); Chang, Daniel T.; Koong, Albert C. [Department of Radiation Oncology, Stanford University, Palo Alto, California (United States); Stanford Cancer Institute, Stanford, California (United States); Li, Ruijiang, E-mail: rli2@stanford.edu [Department of Radiation Oncology, Stanford University, Palo Alto, California (United States); Global Institution for Collaborative Research and Education, Hokkaido University, Sapporo (Japan); Stanford Cancer Institute, Stanford, California (United States)

    2016-09-01

    Purpose: To identify prognostic biomarkers in pancreatic cancer using high-throughput quantitative image analysis. Methods and Materials: In this institutional review board–approved study, we retrospectively analyzed images and outcomes for 139 locally advanced pancreatic cancer patients treated with stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT). The overall population was split into a training cohort (n=90) and a validation cohort (n=49) according to the time of treatment. We extracted quantitative imaging characteristics from pre-SBRT {sup 18}F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography, including statistical, morphologic, and texture features. A Cox proportional hazard regression model was built to predict overall survival (OS) in the training cohort using 162 robust image features. To avoid over-fitting, we applied the elastic net to obtain a sparse set of image features, whose linear combination constitutes a prognostic imaging signature. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses were used to evaluate the association with OS, and concordance index (CI) was used to evaluate the survival prediction accuracy. Results: The prognostic imaging signature included 7 features characterizing different tumor phenotypes, including shape, intensity, and texture. On the validation cohort, univariate analysis showed that this prognostic signature was significantly associated with OS (P=.002, hazard ratio 2.74), which improved upon conventional imaging predictors including tumor volume, maximum standardized uptake value, and total legion glycolysis (P=.018-.028, hazard ratio 1.51-1.57). On multivariate analysis, the proposed signature was the only significant prognostic index (P=.037, hazard ratio 3.72) when adjusted for conventional imaging and clinical factors (P=.123-.870, hazard ratio 0.53-1.30). In terms of CI, the proposed signature scored 0.66 and was significantly better than competing prognostic indices (CI 0.48-0.64, Wilcoxon rank sum test P<1e-6

  8. Tomato Fruits Show Wide Phenomic Diversity but Fruit Developmental Genes Show Low Genomic Diversity.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vijee Mohan

    Full Text Available Domestication of tomato has resulted in large diversity in fruit phenotypes. An intensive phenotyping of 127 tomato accessions from 20 countries revealed extensive morphological diversity in fruit traits. The diversity in fruit traits clustered the accessions into nine classes and identified certain promising lines having desirable traits pertaining to total soluble salts (TSS, carotenoids, ripening index, weight and shape. Factor analysis of the morphometric data from Tomato Analyzer showed that the fruit shape is a complex trait shared by several factors. The 100% variance between round and flat fruit shapes was explained by one discriminant function having a canonical correlation of 0.874 by stepwise discriminant analysis. A set of 10 genes (ACS2, COP1, CYC-B, RIN, MSH2, NAC-NOR, PHOT1, PHYA, PHYB and PSY1 involved in various plant developmental processes were screened for SNP polymorphism by EcoTILLING. The genetic diversity in these genes revealed a total of 36 non-synonymous and 18 synonymous changes leading to the identification of 28 haplotypes. The average frequency of polymorphism across the genes was 0.038/Kb. Significant negative Tajima'D statistic in two of the genes, ACS2 and PHOT1 indicated the presence of rare alleles in low frequency. Our study indicates that while there is low polymorphic diversity in the genes regulating plant development, the population shows wider phenotype diversity. Nonetheless, morphological and genetic diversity of the present collection can be further exploited as potential resources in future.

  9. Recruitment Methods and Show Rates to a Prostate Cancer Early Detection Program for High-Risk Men: A Comprehensive Analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Giri, Veda N.; Coups, Elliot J.; Ruth, Karen; Goplerud, Julia; Raysor, Susan; Kim, Taylor Y.; Bagden, Loretta; Mastalski, Kathleen; Zakrzewski, Debra; Leimkuhler, Suzanne; Watkins-Bruner, Deborah

    2009-01-01

    Purpose Men with a family history (FH) of prostate cancer (PCA) and African American (AA) men are at higher risk for PCA. Recruitment and retention of these high-risk men into early detection programs has been challenging. We report a comprehensive analysis on recruitment methods, show rates, and participant factors from the Prostate Cancer Risk Assessment Program (PRAP), which is a prospective, longitudinal PCA screening study. Materials and Methods Men 35–69 years are eligible if they have a FH of PCA, are AA, or have a BRCA1/2 mutation. Recruitment methods were analyzed with respect to participant demographics and show to the first PRAP appointment using standard statistical methods Results Out of 707 men recruited, 64.9% showed to the initial PRAP appointment. More individuals were recruited via radio than from referral or other methods (χ2 = 298.13, p < .0001). Men recruited via radio were more likely to be AA (p<0.001), less educated (p=0.003), not married or partnered (p=0.007), and have no FH of PCA (p<0.001). Men recruited via referrals had higher incomes (p=0.007). Men recruited via referral were more likely to attend their initial PRAP visit than those recruited by radio or other methods (χ2 = 27.08, p < .0001). Conclusions This comprehensive analysis finds that radio leads to higher recruitment of AA men with lower socioeconomic status. However, these are the high-risk men that have lower show rates for PCA screening. Targeted motivational measures need to be studied to improve show rates for PCA risk assessment for these high-risk men. PMID:19758657

  10. Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis: Data-driven Textural Analysis of Extent of Fibrosis at Baseline and 15-Month Follow-up.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Humphries, Stephen M; Yagihashi, Kunihiro; Huckleberry, Jason; Rho, Byung-Hak; Schroeder, Joyce D; Strand, Matthew; Schwarz, Marvin I; Flaherty, Kevin R; Kazerooni, Ella A; van Beek, Edwin J R; Lynch, David A

    2017-10-01

    Purpose To evaluate associations between pulmonary function and both quantitative analysis and visual assessment of thin-section computed tomography (CT) images at baseline and at 15-month follow-up in subjects with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). Materials and Methods This retrospective analysis of preexisting anonymized data, collected prospectively between 2007 and 2013 in a HIPAA-compliant study, was exempt from additional institutional review board approval. The extent of lung fibrosis at baseline inspiratory chest CT in 280 subjects enrolled in the IPF Network was evaluated. Visual analysis was performed by using a semiquantitative scoring system. Computer-based quantitative analysis included CT histogram-based measurements and a data-driven textural analysis (DTA). Follow-up CT images in 72 of these subjects were also analyzed. Univariate comparisons were performed by using Spearman rank correlation. Multivariate and longitudinal analyses were performed by using a linear mixed model approach, in which models were compared by using asymptotic χ 2 tests. Results At baseline, all CT-derived measures showed moderate significant correlation (P pulmonary function. At follow-up CT, changes in DTA scores showed significant correlation with changes in both forced vital capacity percentage predicted (ρ = -0.41, P pulmonary function (P fibrosis at CT yields an index of severity that correlates with visual assessment and functional change in subjects with IPF. © RSNA, 2017.

  11. Mars approach for global sensitivity analysis of differential equation models with applications to dynamics of influenza infection.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Yeonok; Wu, Hulin

    2012-01-01

    Differential equation models are widely used for the study of natural phenomena in many fields. The study usually involves unknown factors such as initial conditions and/or parameters. It is important to investigate the impact of unknown factors (parameters and initial conditions) on model outputs in order to better understand the system the model represents. Apportioning the uncertainty (variation) of output variables of a model according to the input factors is referred to as sensitivity analysis. In this paper, we focus on the global sensitivity analysis of ordinary differential equation (ODE) models over a time period using the multivariate adaptive regression spline (MARS) as a meta model based on the concept of the variance of conditional expectation (VCE). We suggest to evaluate the VCE analytically using the MARS model structure of univariate tensor-product functions which is more computationally efficient. Our simulation studies show that the MARS model approach performs very well and helps to significantly reduce the computational cost. We present an application example of sensitivity analysis of ODE models for influenza infection to further illustrate the usefulness of the proposed method.

  12. A consistent framework for Horton regression statistics that leads to a modified Hack's law

    Science.gov (United States)

    Furey, P.R.; Troutman, B.M.

    2008-01-01

    A statistical framework is introduced that resolves important problems with the interpretation and use of traditional Horton regression statistics. The framework is based on a univariate regression model that leads to an alternative expression for Horton ratio, connects Horton regression statistics to distributional simple scaling, and improves the accuracy in estimating Horton plot parameters. The model is used to examine data for drainage area A and mainstream length L from two groups of basins located in different physiographic settings. Results show that confidence intervals for the Horton plot regression statistics are quite wide. Nonetheless, an analysis of covariance shows that regression intercepts, but not regression slopes, can be used to distinguish between basin groups. The univariate model is generalized to include n > 1 dependent variables. For the case where the dependent variables represent ln A and ln L, the generalized model performs somewhat better at distinguishing between basin groups than two separate univariate models. The generalized model leads to a modification of Hack's law where L depends on both A and Strahler order ??. Data show that ?? plays a statistically significant role in the modified Hack's law expression. ?? 2008 Elsevier B.V.

  13. Adaptive Analysis of Functional MRI Data

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Friman, Ola

    2003-01-01

    Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) is a recently developed neuro-imaging technique with capacity to map neural activity with high spatial precision. To locate active brain areas, the method utilizes local blood oxygenation changes which are reflected as small intensity changes in a special type of MR images. The ability to non-invasively map brain functions provides new opportunities to unravel the mysteries and advance the understanding of the human brain, as well as to perform pre-surgical examinations in order to optimize surgical interventions. This dissertation introduces new approaches for the analysis of fMRI data. The detection of active brain areas is a challenging problem due to high noise levels and artifacts present in the data. A fundamental tool in the developed methods is Canonical Correlation Analysis (CCA). CCA is used in two novel ways. First as a method with the ability to fully exploit the spatio-temporal nature of fMRI data for detecting active brain areas. Established analysis approaches mainly focus on the temporal dimension of the data and they are for this reason commonly referred to as being mass-univariate. The new CCA detection method encompasses and generalizes the traditional mass-univariate methods and can in this terminology be viewed as a mass-multivariate approach. The concept of spatial basis functions is introduced as a spatial counterpart of the temporal basis functions already in use in fMRI analysis. The spatial basis functions implicitly perform an adaptive spatial filtering of the fMRI images, which significantly improves detection performance. It is also shown how prior information can be incorporated into the analysis by imposing constraints on the temporal and spatial models and a constrained version of CCA is devised to this end. A general Principal Component Analysis technique for generating and constraining temporal and spatial subspace models is proposed to be used in combination with the constrained CCA

  14. Multivariate Analysis of the Predictors of Survival for Patients with Hepatocellular Carcinoma Undergoing Transarterial Chemoembolization: Focusing on Superselective Chemoembolization

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ji, Suk Kyeong; Cho, Yun Ku; Ahn, Yong Sik; Kim, Mi Young; Park, Yoon Ok; Kim, Jae Kyun; Kim, Wan Tae

    2008-01-01

    While the prognostic factors of survival for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) who underwent transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) are well known, the clinical significance of performing selective TACE for HCC patients has not been clearly documented. We tried to analyze the potential factors of disease-free survival for these patients, including the performance of selective TACE. A total of 151 patients with HCC who underwent TACE were retrospectively analyzed for their disease-free survival (a median follow- up of 23 months, range: 1-88 months). Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed for 20 potential factors by using the Cox proportional hazard model, including 19 baseline factors and one procedure-related factor (conventional versus selective TACE). The parameters that proved to be significant on the univariate analysis were subsequently tested with the multivariate model. Conventional or selective TACE was performed for 40 and 111 patients, respectively. Univariate and multivariate analyses revealed that tumor multiplicity, venous tumor thrombosis and selective TACE were the only three independent significant prognostic factors of disease-free survival (p = 0.002, 0.015 and 0.019, respectively). In our study, selective TACE was a favorable prognostic factor for the disease-free survival of patients with HCC who underwent TACE

  15. HIV-1 phylogenetic analysis shows HIV-1 transits through the meninges to brain and peripheral tissues.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lamers, Susanna L; Gray, Rebecca R; Salemi, Marco; Huysentruyt, Leanne C; McGrath, Michael S

    2011-01-01

    Brain infection by the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) has been investigated in many reports with a variety of conclusions concerning the time of entry and degree of viral compartmentalization. To address these diverse findings, we sequenced HIV-1 gp120 clones from a wide range of brain, peripheral and meningeal tissues from five patients who died from several HIV-1 associated disease pathologies. High-resolution phylogenetic analysis confirmed previous studies that showed a significant degree of compartmentalization in brain and peripheral tissue subpopulations. Some intermixing between the HIV-1 subpopulations was evident, especially in patients that died from pathologies other than HIV-associated dementia. Interestingly, the major tissue harboring virus from both the brain and peripheral tissues was the meninges. These results show that (1) HIV-1 is clearly capable of migrating out of the brain, (2) the meninges are the most likely primary transport tissues, and (3) infected brain macrophages comprise an important HIV reservoir during highly active antiretroviral therapy. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  16. Natural radionuclides in effluents release by a deactivated uranium mine

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pereira, Wagner S.; Kelecom, Alphonse; Silva, Ademir X.; Lopes, José M.; Pinto, Carlos E.C.; Py Júnior, Delcy A.; Antunes, Marcos M.; Indústrias Nucleares do Brasil; Universidade Federal Fluminense; Coordenacao de Pos-Graduacao e Pesquisa de Engenharia

    2017-01-01

    The Ore Treatment Unit (OTU) is a mine and deactivated uranium plant in the city of Caldas, Minas Gerais, Brazil. This facility possesses three points of release of liquid effluents containing radionuclides: point 014, 025 and 076. At these points, the values of activity concentrations (AC) of the radionuclides U_n_a_t, "2"2"6Ra, "2"1"0Pb, "2"3"2Th and "2"2"8Ra were analyzed in 2012. The evaluation of point 014 by univariate statistics pointed four groups. [U_n_a_t > "2"2"8Ra > ("2"2"6Ra = "2"1"0Pb) >"2"3"2Th]. The multivariate statistics separated the radionuclides into two groups: [(U_n_a_t and "2"3"2Th) and ("2"2"6Ra, "2"2"8Ra and "2"1"0Pb)]. At point 025, the univariate statistics described three groups: [Un_a_t > ("2"2"8Ra = "2"1"0Pb) > ("2"2"6Ra = "2"3"2Th)] and the multivariate analysis also described three but different groups: [(U_n_a_t and "2"2"8Ra), ("2"2"6Ra and "2"1"0Pb) and "2"3"2Th]. In turn, point 076 showed another behavior. The univariate analysis showed only two groups: [(U_n_a_t) > ("2"2"6Ra, "2"2"8Ra, "2"1"0Pb, "2"3"2Th)]. Differently, the multivariate statistics defined three groups: [(U_n_a_t and "2"3"2Th), ("2"2"6Ra and "2"2"8Ra) and "2"1"0Pb].Thus, statistical analysis showed that each point has releases of effluents with different characteristics. Both the behaviors of releases, based on multivariate statistics, and of the AC magnitudes, based on the univariate statistics, are different between the points. The only common features were the greater magnitude of uranium and the smaller magnitude of thorium. (author)

  17. Using structural equation modeling for network meta-analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tu, Yu-Kang; Wu, Yun-Chun

    2017-07-14

    Network meta-analysis overcomes the limitations of traditional pair-wise meta-analysis by incorporating all available evidence into a general statistical framework for simultaneous comparisons of several treatments. Currently, network meta-analyses are undertaken either within the Bayesian hierarchical linear models or frequentist generalized linear mixed models. Structural equation modeling (SEM) is a statistical method originally developed for modeling causal relations among observed and latent variables. As random effect is explicitly modeled as a latent variable in SEM, it is very flexible for analysts to specify complex random effect structure and to make linear and nonlinear constraints on parameters. The aim of this article is to show how to undertake a network meta-analysis within the statistical framework of SEM. We used an example dataset to demonstrate the standard fixed and random effect network meta-analysis models can be easily implemented in SEM. It contains results of 26 studies that directly compared three treatment groups A, B and C for prevention of first bleeding in patients with liver cirrhosis. We also showed that a new approach to network meta-analysis based on the technique of unrestricted weighted least squares (UWLS) method can also be undertaken using SEM. For both the fixed and random effect network meta-analysis, SEM yielded similar coefficients and confidence intervals to those reported in the previous literature. The point estimates of two UWLS models were identical to those in the fixed effect model but the confidence intervals were greater. This is consistent with results from the traditional pairwise meta-analyses. Comparing to UWLS model with common variance adjusted factor, UWLS model with unique variance adjusted factor has greater confidence intervals when the heterogeneity was larger in the pairwise comparison. The UWLS model with unique variance adjusted factor reflects the difference in heterogeneity within each comparison

  18. A cost analysis of implementing a behavioral weight loss intervention in community mental health settings: Results from the ACHIEVE trial.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Janssen, Ellen M; Jerome, Gerald J; Dalcin, Arlene T; Gennusa, Joseph V; Goldsholl, Stacy; Frick, Kevin D; Wang, Nae-Yuh; Appel, Lawrence J; Daumit, Gail L

    2017-06-01

    In the ACHIEVE randomized controlled trial, an 18-month behavioral intervention accomplished weight loss in persons with serious mental illness who attended community psychiatric rehabilitation programs. This analysis estimates costs for delivering the intervention during the study. It also estimates expected costs to implement the intervention more widely in a range of community mental health programs. Using empirical data, costs were calculated from the perspective of a community psychiatric rehabilitation program delivering the intervention. Personnel and travel costs were calculated using time sheet data. Rent and supply costs were calculated using rent per square foot and intervention records. A univariate sensitivity analysis and an expert-informed sensitivity analysis were conducted. With 144 participants receiving the intervention and a mean weight loss of 3.4 kg, costs of $95 per participant per month and $501 per kilogram lost in the trial were calculated. In univariate sensitivity analysis, costs ranged from $402 to $725 per kilogram lost. Through expert-informed sensitivity analysis, it was estimated that rehabilitation programs could implement the intervention for $68 to $85 per client per month. Costs of implementing the ACHIEVE intervention were in the range of other intensive behavioral weight loss interventions. Wider implementation of efficacious lifestyle interventions in community mental health settings will require adequate funding mechanisms. © 2017 The Obesity Society.

  19. Correlation analysis and prognostic impact of 18F-FDG PET and excision repair cross-complementation group 1 (ERCC-1) expression in non-small cell lung cancer

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jeong, Yong Hyu; Lee, Choong Kun; Jo, Kwan Hyeong; Hwang, Sang Hyun; Cha, Jong Tae; Lee, Jeong Won; Yun, Mi Jin; Cho, Arthur

    2015-01-01

    The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between [ 18 ]-2-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose (FDG) uptake and excision repair cross-complementation group 1 (ERCC-1) expression and to evaluate the prognostic effect of these two factors in resectable non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. We retrospectively reviewed 212 patients with resectable NSCLC who underwent FDG positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) scan for cancer staging and ERCC-1 expression analysis between January 2008 to December 2011. All patients were then followed-up for survival analysis. Semiquantitative evaluation of ERCC-1 was performed with the H-scoring system and was correlated with maximum standardized uptake value (SUV max ) of NSCLC. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to evaluate for FDG uptake and ERCC-1 expression predicting overall survival. In 212 patients (139 male, median age 68 ± 9.11), 112 patients had ERCC-positive tumors and 100 patients had ERCC-negative tumors. There was no significant difference in SUV max between ERCC-1-positive tumors (8.02 ±5.40) and ERCC-1-negative tumors (7.57 ± 6.56, p = 0.584). All patients were followed-up for a median of 40.5 months (95 % confidence interval [CI], 38.5–42.2 months). Univariate analysis and multivariate analysis for all patients showed that both ERCC-1 expression (hazard ratio [HR], 2.78; 95 % CI, 1.20–6.47) and FDG uptake (HR, 4.50; 95 % CI, 2.07–9.77) independently predicted overall survival. We have found no statistical correlation between FDG uptake and ERCC-1 expression in NSCLC. However, both higher FDG uptake and positive ERCC-1 expression are independent predictive markers of prognosis, suggesting that both should be obtained during patient workup

  20. Ischemic risk stratification by means of multivariate analysis of the heart rate variability

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Valencia, José F; Vallverdú, Montserrat; Caminal, Pere; Porta, Alberto; Voss, Andreas; Schroeder, Rico; Vázquez, Rafael; Bayés de Luna, Antonio

    2013-01-01

    In this work, a univariate and multivariate statistical analysis of indexes derived from heart rate variability (HRV) was conducted to stratify patients with ischemic dilated cardiomyopathy (IDC) in cardiac risk groups. Indexes conditional entropy, refined multiscale entropy (RMSE), detrended fluctuation analysis, time and frequency analysis, were applied to the RR interval series (beat-to-beat series), for single and multiscale complexity analysis of the HRV in IDC patients. Also, clinical parameters were considered. Two different end-points after a follow-up of three years were considered: (i) analysis A, with 151 survivor patients as a low risk group and 13 patients that suffered sudden cardiac death as a high risk group; (ii) analysis B, with 192 survivor patients as a low risk group and 30 patients that suffered cardiac mortality as a high risk group. A univariate and multivariate linear discriminant analysis was used as a statistical technique for classifying patients in risk groups. Sensitivity (Sen) and specificity (Spe) were calculated as diagnostic criteria in order to evaluate the performance of the indexes and their linear combinations. Sen and Spe values of 80.0% and 72.9%, respectively, were obtained during daytime by combining one clinical parameter and one index from RMSE, and during nighttime Sen = 80% and Spe = 73.4% were attained by combining one clinical factor and two indexes from RMSE. In particular, relatively long time scales were more relevant for classifying patients into risk groups during nighttime, while during daytime shorter scales performed better. The results suggest that the left atrial size, indexed to body surface and RMSE indexes are those that allow enhanced classification of ischemic patients in their respective risk groups, confirming that a single measurement is not enough to fully characterize ischemic risk patients and the clinical relevance of HRV complexity measures. (paper)

  1. Multivariate stochastic analysis for Monthly hydrological time series at Cuyahoga River Basin

    Science.gov (United States)

    zhang, L.

    2011-12-01

    Copula has become a very powerful statistic and stochastic methodology in case of the multivariate analysis in Environmental and Water resources Engineering. In recent years, the popular one-parameter Archimedean copulas, e.g. Gumbel-Houggard copula, Cook-Johnson copula, Frank copula, the meta-elliptical copula, e.g. Gaussian Copula, Student-T copula, etc. have been applied in multivariate hydrological analyses, e.g. multivariate rainfall (rainfall intensity, duration and depth), flood (peak discharge, duration and volume), and drought analyses (drought length, mean and minimum SPI values, and drought mean areal extent). Copula has also been applied in the flood frequency analysis at the confluences of river systems by taking into account the dependence among upstream gauge stations rather than by using the hydrological routing technique. In most of the studies above, the annual time series have been considered as stationary signal which the time series have been assumed as independent identically distributed (i.i.d.) random variables. But in reality, hydrological time series, especially the daily and monthly hydrological time series, cannot be considered as i.i.d. random variables due to the periodicity existed in the data structure. Also, the stationary assumption is also under question due to the Climate Change and Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) change in the fast years. To this end, it is necessary to revaluate the classic approach for the study of hydrological time series by relaxing the stationary assumption by the use of nonstationary approach. Also as to the study of the dependence structure for the hydrological time series, the assumption of same type of univariate distribution also needs to be relaxed by adopting the copula theory. In this paper, the univariate monthly hydrological time series will be studied through the nonstationary time series analysis approach. The dependence structure of the multivariate monthly hydrological time series will be

  2. Metabolic tumor volume measured by F 18 FDG PET/CT can further stratify the prognosis of patients with stage IV Non Small Cell Lung Cancer

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Yoo, Su Woong; Kim, Ja Hae; Chong, Ar I; Kwon, Seong Young; Min, Jung Joon; Song, Ho Chun; Bom, Hee Seung [Chonnam National Univ. Hwasun Hospital, Gwangju (Korea, Republic of)

    2012-12-15

    This study aimed to further stratify prognostic factors in patients with stage IV non small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) by measuring their metabolic tumor volume (MTV) using F 18 fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT). The subjects of this retrospective study were 57 patients with stage IV NSCLC. MTV, total lesion glycolysis (TLG), and maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) were measured on F 18 FDG PET/CT in both the primary lung lesion as well as metastatic lesions in torso. Optimal cutoff values of PET parameters were mea measured by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve anal analysis. Kaplan Meier survival (PET). The univariate and multivariate cox proportional hazards models were used to select the significant prognostic factors. Univariate analysis showed that both MTV and TLG of primary lung lesion (MTV lung and TLG lung) were significant factors for prediction of PFS ( <0.001 =0.038, respectively). Patients showing lower values of MTV lung and TLG lung than the cutoff values had significantly longer mean PFS than those with higher values. hazard ratios (95% confidence interval) of MTV lung and TLG lung measured by univariate analysis were 6.4 (2.5 16.3) and 2.4 (1.0 5.5), respectively. multivariate analysis revealed that MTV lung was the only significant factor for prediction of prognosis. Hazard ratio was 13,5 (1.6 111.1, =0,016). patients with stage IV NSCLC could be further stratified into subgroups of significantly better and worse prognosis by MTV of primary lung lesion.

  3. Metabolic tumor volume measured by F 18 FDG PET/CT can further stratify the prognosis of patients with stage IV Non Small Cell Lung Cancer

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yoo, Su Woong; Kim, Ja Hae; Chong, Ar I; Kwon, Seong Young; Min, Jung Joon; Song, Ho Chun; Bom, Hee Seung

    2012-01-01

    This study aimed to further stratify prognostic factors in patients with stage IV non small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) by measuring their metabolic tumor volume (MTV) using F 18 fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT). The subjects of this retrospective study were 57 patients with stage IV NSCLC. MTV, total lesion glycolysis (TLG), and maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) were measured on F 18 FDG PET/CT in both the primary lung lesion as well as metastatic lesions in torso. Optimal cutoff values of PET parameters were mea measured by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve anal analysis. Kaplan Meier survival (PET). The univariate and multivariate cox proportional hazards models were used to select the significant prognostic factors. Univariate analysis showed that both MTV and TLG of primary lung lesion (MTV lung and TLG lung) were significant factors for prediction of PFS ( <0.001 =0.038, respectively). Patients showing lower values of MTV lung and TLG lung than the cutoff values had significantly longer mean PFS than those with higher values. hazard ratios (95% confidence interval) of MTV lung and TLG lung measured by univariate analysis were 6.4 (2.5 16.3) and 2.4 (1.0 5.5), respectively. multivariate analysis revealed that MTV lung was the only significant factor for prediction of prognosis. Hazard ratio was 13,5 (1.6 111.1, =0,016). patients with stage IV NSCLC could be further stratified into subgroups of significantly better and worse prognosis by MTV of primary lung lesion

  4. Dioscorea alata tuber proteome analysis shows over thirty dioscorin isoforms and novel tuber proteins.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sharma, Shruti; Gupta, Ravi; Deswal, Renu

    2017-05-01

    In Dioscorea, dioscorin (31 kDa) is the major storage protein constituting 85% of the total tuber proteins. An integrated proteomic and biochemical approach was used to understand the physiological role of dioscorin in the two contrasting growth stages (germinating and mature tuber). HPLC analysis showed 3 fold reduction in mannitol and 12.88 and 1.24 fold increase in sucrose and maltose in the germinating tuber. A 1.8 and 3 fold increase in sucrose phosphate synthase and mannitol dehydrogenase activity respectively was observed in the germinating tuber while a 2 fold higher invertase probably lowers the sucrose accumulation in the mature tuber. SDS-PAGE and 2-D maps of the mature and germinating tubers confirmed depletion (more than 50%) of dioscorin on germination. Dioscorin was purified using ion exchange and gel filtration chromatography with 43.32 fold purification and 38.16 yield. Out of a trail of 35 spots at 31 kDa only 12 spots (identified as dioscorin isoforms) were present in the 2D gel of the purified fraction. To search for other tuber proteins besides dioscorin, the unbound fractions of DEAE column were analysed by 2DGE. DREB 1A, caffeic acid 3-O-methyltransferase and Rab-1 small GTP binding protein were identified perhaps for the first time in the Dioscorea proteome. The interactome analysis revealed these to be involved in oxidative stress, carotenoid synthesis and vesicular transport. This is perhaps the first attempt to identify tuber proteome (although limited) and to understand the physiological significance of these proteins. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

  5. FT-IR-cPAS—New Photoacoustic Measurement Technique for Analysis of Hot Gases: A Case Study on VOCs

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hirschmann, Christian Bernd; Koivikko, Niina Susanna; Raittila, Jussi; Tenhunen, Jussi; Ojala, Satu; Rahkamaa-Tolonen, Katariina; Marbach, Ralf; Hirschmann, Sarah; Keiski, Riitta Liisa

    2011-01-01

    This article describes a new photoacoustic FT-IR system capable of operating at elevated temperatures. The key hardware component is an optical-readout cantilever microphone that can work up to 200 °C. All parts in contact with the sample gas were put into a heated oven, incl. the photoacoustic cell. The sensitivity of the built photoacoustic system was tested by measuring 18 different VOCs. At 100 ppm gas concentration, the univariate signal to noise ratios (1σ, measurement time 25.5 min, at highest peak, optical resolution 8 cm−1) of the spectra varied from minimally 19 for o-xylene up to 329 for butyl acetate. The sensitivity can be improved by multivariate analyses over broad wavelength ranges, which effectively co-adds the univariate sensitivities achievable at individual wavelengths. The multivariate limit of detection (3σ, 8.5 min, full useful wavelength range), i.e., the best possible inverse analytical sensitivity achievable at optimum calibration, was calculated using the SBC method and varied from 2.60 ppm for dichloromethane to 0.33 ppm for butyl acetate. Depending on the shape of the spectra, which often only contain a few sharp peaks, the multivariate analysis improved the analytical sensitivity by 2.2 to 9.2 times compared to the univariate case. Selectivity and multi component ability were tested by a SBC calibration including 5 VOCs and water. The average cross selectivities turned out to be less than 2% and the resulting inverse analytical sensitivities of the 5 interfering VOCs was increased by maximum factor of 2.2 compared to the single component sensitivities. Water subtraction using SBC gave the true analyte concentration with a variation coefficient of 3%, although the sample spectra (methyl ethyl ketone, 200 ppm) contained water from 1,400 to 100k ppm and for subtraction only one water spectra (10k ppm) was used. The developed device shows significant improvement to the current state-of-the-art measurement methods used in industrial

  6. STATCAT, Statistical Analysis of Parametric and Non-Parametric Data

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    David, Hugh

    1990-01-01

    1 - Description of program or function: A suite of 26 programs designed to facilitate the appropriate statistical analysis and data handling of parametric and non-parametric data, using classical and modern univariate and multivariate methods. 2 - Method of solution: Data is read entry by entry, using a choice of input formats, and the resultant data bank is checked for out-of- range, rare, extreme or missing data. The completed STATCAT data bank can be treated by a variety of descriptive and inferential statistical methods, and modified, using other standard programs as required

  7. Evaluation de la surdite professionnelle dans un departement du ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Of all ONIHL patients, 26,5% had tinnitus and 3,5% had complaints related to balance disorders. ONIHL was sensorineural, bilateral and symmetrical in 93% of cases. Univariate analysis showed no significant association between hearing loss, age, occupational exposure to noise and occupational group. Conclusion : To ...

  8. Correlation analysis and prognostic impact of {sup 18}F-FDG PET and excision repair cross-complementation group 1 (ERCC-1) expression in non-small cell lung cancer

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Jeong, Yong Hyu; Lee, Choong Kun; Jo, Kwan Hyeong; Hwang, Sang Hyun; Cha, Jong Tae; Lee, Jeong Won; Yun, Mi Jin; Cho, Arthur [Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul (Korea, Republic of)

    2015-06-15

    The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between [{sup 18}]-2-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose (FDG) uptake and excision repair cross-complementation group 1 (ERCC-1) expression and to evaluate the prognostic effect of these two factors in resectable non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. We retrospectively reviewed 212 patients with resectable NSCLC who underwent FDG positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) scan for cancer staging and ERCC-1 expression analysis between January 2008 to December 2011. All patients were then followed-up for survival analysis. Semiquantitative evaluation of ERCC-1 was performed with the H-scoring system and was correlated with maximum standardized uptake value (SUV{sub max}) of NSCLC. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to evaluate for FDG uptake and ERCC-1 expression predicting overall survival. In 212 patients (139 male, median age 68 ± 9.11), 112 patients had ERCC-positive tumors and 100 patients had ERCC-negative tumors. There was no significant difference in SUV{sub max} between ERCC-1-positive tumors (8.02 ±5.40) and ERCC-1-negative tumors (7.57 ± 6.56, p = 0.584). All patients were followed-up for a median of 40.5 months (95 % confidence interval [CI], 38.5–42.2 months). Univariate analysis and multivariate analysis for all patients showed that both ERCC-1 expression (hazard ratio [HR], 2.78; 95 % CI, 1.20–6.47) and FDG uptake (HR, 4.50; 95 % CI, 2.07–9.77) independently predicted overall survival. We have found no statistical correlation between FDG uptake and ERCC-1 expression in NSCLC. However, both higher FDG uptake and positive ERCC-1 expression are independent predictive markers of prognosis, suggesting that both should be obtained during patient workup.

  9. A multi-centre cohort study shows no association between experienced violence and labour dystocia in nulliparous women at term

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dykes Anna-Karin

    2011-02-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Although both labour dystocia and domestic violence during pregnancy are associated with adverse maternal and fetal outcome, evidence in support of a possible association between experiences of domestic violence and labour dystocia is sparse. The aim of this study was to investigate whether self-reported history of violence or experienced violence during pregnancy is associated with increased risk of labour dystocia in nulliparous women at term. Methods A population-based multi-centre cohort study. A self-administrated questionnaire collected at 37 weeks of gestation from nine obstetric departments in Denmark. The total cohort comprised 2652 nulliparous women, among whom 985 (37.1% met the protocol criteria for dystocia. Results Among the total cohort, 940 (35.4% women reported experience of violence, and among these, 66 (2.5% women reported exposure to violence during their first pregnancy. Further, 39.5% (n = 26 of those had never been exposed to violence before. Univariate logistic regression analysis showed no association between history of violence or experienced violence during pregnancy and labour dystocia at term, crude OR 0.91, 95% CI (0.77-1.08, OR 0.90, 95% CI (0.54-1.50, respectively. However, violence exposed women consuming alcoholic beverages during late pregnancy had increased odds of labour dystocia, crude OR 1.45, 95% CI (1.07-1.96. Conclusions Our findings indicate that nulliparous women who have a history of violence or experienced violence during pregnancy do not appear to have a higher risk of labour dystocia at term, according to the definition of labour dystocia in this study. Additional research on this topic would be beneficial, including further evaluation of the criteria for labour dystocia.

  10. Post hoc analysis of plasma amino acid profiles: towards a specific pattern in autism spectrum disorder and intellectual disability.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Delaye, Jean-Baptiste; Patin, Franck; Lagrue, Emmanuelle; Le Tilly, Olivier; Bruno, Clement; Vuillaume, Marie-Laure; Raynaud, Martine; Benz-De Bretagne, Isabelle; Laumonnier, Frederic; Vourc'h, Patrick; Andres, Christian; Blasco, Helene

    2018-01-01

    Objectives Autism spectrum disorders and intellectual disability present a challenge for therapeutic and dietary management. We performed a re-analysis of plasma amino acid chromatography of children with autism spectrum disorders ( n = 22) or intellectual disability ( n = 29) to search for a metabolic signature that can distinguish individuals with these disorders from controls ( n = 30). Methods We performed univariate and multivariate analyses using different machine learning strategies, from the raw data of the amino acid chromatography. Finally, we analysed the metabolic pathways associated with discriminant biomarkers. Results Multivariate analysis revealed models to discriminate patients with autism spectrum disorders or intellectual disability and controls from plasma amino acid profiles ( P intellectual disability patients shared similar differences relative to controls, including lower glutamate ( P intellectual disability revealed the involvement of urea, 3-methyl-histidine and histidine metabolism. Biosigner analysis and univariate analysis confirmed the role of 3-methylhistidine ( P = 0.004), histidine ( P = 0.003), urea ( P = 0.0006) and lysine ( P = 0.002). Conclusions We revealed discriminant metabolic patterns between autism spectrum disorders, intellectual disability and controls. Amino acids known to play a role in neurotransmission were discriminant in the models comparing autism spectrum disorders or intellectual disability to controls, and histidine and b-alanine metabolism was specifically highlighted in the model.

  11. Virological success after 12 and 24 months of antiretroviral therapy in sub-Saharan Africa: Comparing results of trials, cohorts and cross-sectional studies using a systematic review and meta-analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Taieb, Fabien; Madec, Yoann; Cournil, Amandine; Delaporte, Eric

    2017-01-01

    UNAIDS recently defined the 90-90-90 target as a way to end the HIV epidemic. However, the proportion of virological success following antiretroviral therapy (ART) may not be as high as the anticipated 90%, and may in fact be highly heterogeneous. We aimed to describe the proportion of virological success in sub-Saharan Africa and to identify factors associated with the proportion of virological success. We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis focusing on the proportion of patients in sub-Saharan Africa who demonstrate virological success at 12 and 24 months since ART initiation, as well as at 6 and 36 months, where possible. Programme factors associated with the proportion of virological success were identified using meta-regression. Analyses were conducted using both on-treatment (OT) and intention-to-treat (ITT) approaches. Eighty-five articles were included in the meta-analysis, corresponding to 125 independent study populations. Using an on-treatment approach, the proportions (95% confidence interval (CI)) of virological success at 12 (n = 64) and at 24 (n = 32) months since ART initiation were 87.7% (81.3-91.0) and 83.7% (79.8-87.6), respectively. Univariate analysis indicated that the proportion of virological success was not different by study design. Multivariate analysis at 24 months showed that the proportion of virological success was significantly larger in studies conducted in public sector sites than in other sites (p = 0.045). Using an ITT approach, the proportions (95% CI) of virological success at 12 (n = 50) and at 24 (n = 20) months were 65.4% (61.8-69.1) and 56.8% (51.3-62.4), respectively. At 12 months, multivariate analysis showed that the proportion of success was significantly lower in cohort studies than in trials (63.0% vs. 71.1%; p = 0.017). At 24 months, univariate analysis demonstrated that the proportion of success was also lower in cohorts. Regardless of the time following ART initiation, and of the threshold, proportions

  12. UniFIeD Univariate Frequency-based Imputation for Time Series Data

    OpenAIRE

    Friese, Martina; Stork, Jörg; Ramos Guerra, Ricardo; Bartz-Beielstein, Thomas; Thaker, Soham; Flasch, Oliver; Zaefferer, Martin

    2013-01-01

    This paper introduces UniFIeD, a new data preprocessing method for time series. UniFIeD can cope with large intervals of missing data. A scalable test function generator, which allows the simulation of time series with different gap sizes, is presented additionally. An experimental study demonstrates that (i) UniFIeD shows a significant better performance than simple imputation methods and (ii) UniFIeD is able to handle situations, where advanced imputation methods fail. The results are indep...

  13. Selecting predictors for discriminant analysis of species performance: an example from an amphibious softwater plant.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vanderhaeghe, F; Smolders, A J P; Roelofs, J G M; Hoffmann, M

    2012-03-01

    Selecting an appropriate variable subset in linear multivariate methods is an important methodological issue for ecologists. Interest often exists in obtaining general predictive capacity or in finding causal inferences from predictor variables. Because of a lack of solid knowledge on a studied phenomenon, scientists explore predictor variables in order to find the most meaningful (i.e. discriminating) ones. As an example, we modelled the response of the amphibious softwater plant Eleocharis multicaulis using canonical discriminant function analysis. We asked how variables can be selected through comparison of several methods: univariate Pearson chi-square screening, principal components analysis (PCA) and step-wise analysis, as well as combinations of some methods. We expected PCA to perform best. The selected methods were evaluated through fit and stability of the resulting discriminant functions and through correlations between these functions and the predictor variables. The chi-square subset, at P < 0.05, followed by a step-wise sub-selection, gave the best results. In contrast to expectations, PCA performed poorly, as so did step-wise analysis. The different chi-square subset methods all yielded ecologically meaningful variables, while probable noise variables were also selected by PCA and step-wise analysis. We advise against the simple use of PCA or step-wise discriminant analysis to obtain an ecologically meaningful variable subset; the former because it does not take into account the response variable, the latter because noise variables are likely to be selected. We suggest that univariate screening techniques are a worthwhile alternative for variable selection in ecology. © 2011 German Botanical Society and The Royal Botanical Society of the Netherlands.

  14. Genome-wide analysis of adolescent psychotic-like experiences shows genetic overlap with psychiatric disorders.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pain, Oliver; Dudbridge, Frank; Cardno, Alastair G; Freeman, Daniel; Lu, Yi; Lundstrom, Sebastian; Lichtenstein, Paul; Ronald, Angelica

    2018-03-31

    This study aimed to test for overlap in genetic influences between psychotic-like experience traits shown by adolescents in the community, and clinically-recognized psychiatric disorders in adulthood, specifically schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depression. The full spectra of psychotic-like experience domains, both in terms of their severity and type (positive, cognitive, and negative), were assessed using self- and parent-ratings in three European community samples aged 15-19 years (Final N incl. siblings = 6,297-10,098). A mega-genome-wide association study (mega-GWAS) for each psychotic-like experience domain was performed. Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)-heritability of each psychotic-like experience domain was estimated using genomic-relatedness-based restricted maximum-likelihood (GREML) and linkage disequilibrium- (LD-) score regression. Genetic overlap between specific psychotic-like experience domains and schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depression was assessed using polygenic risk score (PRS) and LD-score regression. GREML returned SNP-heritability estimates of 3-9% for psychotic-like experience trait domains, with higher estimates for less skewed traits (Anhedonia, Cognitive Disorganization) than for more skewed traits (Paranoia and Hallucinations, Parent-rated Negative Symptoms). Mega-GWAS analysis identified one genome-wide significant association for Anhedonia within IDO2 but which did not replicate in an independent sample. PRS analysis revealed that the schizophrenia PRS significantly predicted all adolescent psychotic-like experience trait domains (Paranoia and Hallucinations only in non-zero scorers). The major depression PRS significantly predicted Anhedonia and Parent-rated Negative Symptoms in adolescence. Psychotic-like experiences during adolescence in the community show additive genetic effects and partly share genetic influences with clinically-recognized psychiatric disorders, specifically schizophrenia and

  15. [Risk factors for elevated serum total bile acid in preterm infants].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Song, Yan-Ting; Wang, Yong-Qin; Zhao, Yue-Hua; Zhu, Hai-Ling; Liu, Qian; Zhang, Xiao; Gao, Yi-Wen; Zhang, Wei-Ye; Sang, Yu-Tong

    2018-03-01

    To study the risk factors for elevated serum total bile acid (TBA) in preterm infants. A retrospective analysis was performed for the clinical data of 216 preterm infants who were admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit. According to the presence or absence of elevated TBA (TBA >24.8 μmol/L), the preterm infants were divided into elevated TBA group with 53 infants and non-elevated TBA group with 163 infants. A univariate analysis and an unconditional multivariate logistic regression analysis were used to investigate the risk factors for elevated TBA. The univariate analysis showed that there were significant differences between the elevated TBA group and the non-elevated TBA group in gestational age at birth, birth weight, proportion of small-for-gestational-age infants, proportion of infants undergoing ventilator-assisted ventilation, fasting time, parenteral nutrition time, and incidence of neonatal respiratory failure and sepsis (PTBA in preterm infants. Low birth weight and neonatal sepsis may lead to elevated TBA in preterm infants.

  16. The prognostic role of mTOR and p-mTOR for survival in non-small cell lung cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lei Li

    Full Text Available The mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR and phosphorylated mTOR (p-mTOR are potential prognostic markers and therapeutic targets for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC. However, the association between mTOR/p-mTOR expression and NSCLC patients' prognosis remains controversial. Thus, a meta-analysis of existing studies evaluating the prognostic role of mTOR/p-mTOR expression for NSCLC was conducted.A systemically literature search was performed via Pubmed, Embase, Medline as well as CNKI (China National Knowledge Infrastructure. Studies were included that reported the hazard ratio (HR and 95%CI for the association between mTOR/p-mTOR expression and NSCLC patients' survival. Random-effects model was used to pool HRs.Ten eligible studies were included in this meta-analysis, with 4 about m-TOR and 7 about p-mTOR. For mTOR, the pooled HR of overall survival (OS was 1.00 (95%CI 0.5 to 1.99 by univariate analysis and 1.22 (95%CI 0.53 to 2.82 by multivariate analysis. For p-mTOR, the pooled HR was 1.39 (95%CI 0.97 to 1.98 by univariate analysis and 1.42 (95%CI 0.56 to 3.60 by multivariate analysis.The results indicated that no statistically significant association was found between mTOR/p-mTOR expression and NSCLC patients' prognosis.

  17. Development and validation of a method for the determination of regulated fragrance allergens by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography and Parallel Factor Analysis 2.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pérez-Outeiral, Jessica; Elcoroaristizabal, Saioa; Amigo, Jose Manuel; Vidal, Maider

    2017-12-01

    This work presents the development and validation of a multivariate method for quantitation of 6 potentially allergenic substances (PAS) related to fragrances by ultrasound-assisted emulsification microextraction coupled with HPLC-DAD and PARAFAC2 in the presence of other 18 PAS. The objective is the extension of a previously proposed univariate method to be able to determine the 24 PAS currently considered as allergens. The suitability of the multivariate approach for the qualitative and quantitative analysis of the analytes is discussed through datasets of increasing complexity, comprising the assessment and validation of the method performance. PARAFAC2 showed to adequately model the data facing up different instrumental and chemical issues, such as co-elution profiles, overlapping spectra, unknown interfering compounds, retention time shifts and baseline drifts. Satisfactory quality parameters of the model performance were obtained (R 2 ≥0.94), as well as meaningful chromatographic and spectral profiles (r≥0.97). Moreover, low errors of prediction in external validation standards (below 15% in most cases) as well as acceptable quantification errors in real spiked samples (recoveries from 82 to 119%) confirmed the suitability of PARAFAC2 for resolution and quantification of the PAS. The combination of the previously proposed univariate approach, for the well-resolved peaks, with the developed multivariate method allows the determination of the 24 regulated PAS. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  18. Towards quantitative laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy analysis of soil samples

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bousquet, B.; Sirven, J.-B.; Canioni, L.

    2007-01-01

    A quantitative analysis of chromium in soil samples is presented. Different emission lines related to chromium are studied in order to select the best one for quantitative features. Important matrix effects are demonstrated from one soil to the other, preventing any prediction of concentration in different soils on the basis of a univariate calibration curve. Finally, a classification of the LIBS data based on a series of Principal Component Analyses (PCA) is applied to a reduced dataset of selected spectral lines related to the major chemical elements in the soils. LIBS data of heterogeneous soils appear to be widely dispersed, which leads to a reconsideration of the sampling step in the analysis process

  19. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopic imaging and multivariate regression for prediction of proteoglycan content of articular cartilage.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lassi Rieppo

    Full Text Available Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR spectroscopic imaging has been earlier applied for the spatial estimation of the collagen and the proteoglycan (PG contents of articular cartilage (AC. However, earlier studies have been limited to the use of univariate analysis techniques. Current analysis methods lack the needed specificity for collagen and PGs. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the suitability of partial least squares regression (PLSR and principal component regression (PCR methods for the analysis of the PG content of AC. Multivariate regression models were compared with earlier used univariate methods and tested with a sample material consisting of healthy and enzymatically degraded steer AC. Chondroitinase ABC enzyme was used to increase the variation in PG content levels as compared to intact AC. Digital densitometric measurements of Safranin O-stained sections provided the reference for PG content. The results showed that multivariate regression models predict PG content of AC significantly better than earlier used absorbance spectrum (i.e. the area of carbohydrate region with or without amide I normalization or second derivative spectrum univariate parameters. Increased molecular specificity favours the use of multivariate regression models, but they require more knowledge of chemometric analysis and extended laboratory resources for gathering reference data for establishing the models. When true molecular specificity is required, the multivariate models should be used.

  20. Systems level analysis of systemic sclerosis shows a network of immune and profibrotic pathways connected with genetic polymorphisms.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    J Matthew Mahoney

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Systemic sclerosis (SSc is a rare systemic autoimmune disease characterized by skin and organ fibrosis. The pathogenesis of SSc and its progression are poorly understood. The SSc intrinsic gene expression subsets (inflammatory, fibroproliferative, normal-like, and limited are observed in multiple clinical cohorts of patients with SSc. Analysis of longitudinal skin biopsies suggests that a patient's subset assignment is stable over 6-12 months. Genetically, SSc is multi-factorial with many genetic risk loci for SSc generally and for specific clinical manifestations. Here we identify the genes consistently associated with the intrinsic subsets across three independent cohorts, show the relationship between these genes using a gene-gene interaction network, and place the genetic risk loci in the context of the intrinsic subsets. To identify gene expression modules common to three independent datasets from three different clinical centers, we developed a consensus clustering procedure based on mutual information of partitions, an information theory concept, and performed a meta-analysis of these genome-wide gene expression datasets. We created a gene-gene interaction network of the conserved molecular features across the intrinsic subsets and analyzed their connections with SSc-associated genetic polymorphisms. The network is composed of distinct, but interconnected, components related to interferon activation, M2 macrophages, adaptive immunity, extracellular matrix remodeling, and cell proliferation. The network shows extensive connections between the inflammatory- and fibroproliferative-specific genes. The network also shows connections between these subset-specific genes and 30 SSc-associated polymorphic genes including STAT4, BLK, IRF7, NOTCH4, PLAUR, CSK, IRAK1, and several human leukocyte antigen (HLA genes. Our analyses suggest that the gene expression changes underlying the SSc subsets may be long-lived, but mechanistically interconnected

  1. Prospective Analysis of Surgical Bone Margins After Partial Foot Amputation in Diabetic Patients Admitted With Moderate to Severe Foot Infections.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schmidt, Brian M; McHugh, Jonathan B; Patel, Rajiv M; Wrobel, James S

    2018-04-01

    Osteomyelitis is common in diabetic foot infections and medical management can lead to poor outcomes. Surgical management involves sending histopathologic and microbiologic specimens which guides future intervention. We examined the effect of obtainment of surgical margins in patients undergoing forefoot amputations to identify patient characteristics associated with outcomes. Secondary aims included evaluating interobserver reliability of histopathologic data at both the distal-to and proximal-to surgical bone margin. Data were prospectively collected on 72 individuals and was pooled for analysis. Standardized method to retrieve intraoperative bone margins was established. A univariate analysis was performed. Negative outcomes, including major lower extremity amputation, wound dehiscence, reulceration, reamputation, or death were recorded. Viable proximal margins were obtained in 63 out of 72 cases (87.5%). Strong interobserver reliability of histopathology was recorded. Univariate analysis demonstrated preoperative platelets, albumin, probe-to-bone testing, absolute toe pressures, smaller wound surface area were associated with obtaining viable margins. Residual osteomyelitis resulted in readmission 2.6 times more often and more postoperative complications. Certain patients were significantly different in the viable margin group versus dirty margin group. High interobserver reliability was demonstrated. Obtainment of viable margins resulted in reduced rates of readmission and negative outcomes. Prognostic, Level I: Prospective.

  2. Urine proteome analysis in Dent's disease shows high selective changes potentially involved in chronic renal damage.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Santucci, Laura; Candiano, Giovanni; Anglani, Franca; Bruschi, Maurizio; Tosetto, Enrica; Cremasco, Daniela; Murer, Luisa; D'Ambrosio, Chiara; Scaloni, Andrea; Petretto, Andrea; Caridi, Gianluca; Rossi, Roberta; Bonanni, Alice; Ghiggeri, Gian Marco

    2016-01-01

    Definition of the urinary protein composition would represent a potential tool for diagnosis in many clinical conditions. The use of new proteomic technologies allows detection of genetic and post-trasductional variants that increase sensitivity of the approach but complicates comparison within a heterogeneous patient population. Overall, this limits research of urinary biomarkers. Studying monogenic diseases are useful models to address this issue since genetic variability is reduced among first- and second-degree relatives of the same family. We applied this concept to Dent's disease, a monogenic condition characterised by low-molecular-weight proteinuria that is inherited following an X-linked trait. Results are presented here on a combined proteomic approach (LC-mass spectrometry, Western blot and zymograms for proteases and inhibitors) to characterise urine proteins in a large family (18 members, 6 hemizygous patients, 6 carrier females, and 6 normals) with Dent's diseases due to the 1070G>T mutation of the CLCN5. Gene ontology analysis on more than 1000 proteins showed that several clusters of proteins characterised urine of affected patients compared to carrier females and normal subjects: proteins involved in extracellular matrix remodelling were the major group. Specific analysis on metalloproteases and their inhibitors underscored unexpected mechanisms potentially involved in renal fibrosis. Studying with new-generation techniques for proteomic analysis of the members of a large family with Dent's disease sharing the same molecular defect allowed highly repetitive results that justify conclusions. Identification in urine of proteins actively involved in interstitial matrix remodelling poses the question of active anti-fibrotic drugs in Dent's patients. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  3. CASAS: Cancer Survival Analysis Suite, a web based application.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rupji, Manali; Zhang, Xinyan; Kowalski, Jeanne

    2017-01-01

    We present CASAS, a shiny R based tool for interactive survival analysis and visualization of results. The tool provides a web-based one stop shop to perform the following types of survival analysis:  quantile, landmark and competing risks, in addition to standard survival analysis.  The interface makes it easy to perform such survival analyses and obtain results using the interactive Kaplan-Meier and cumulative incidence plots.  Univariate analysis can be performed on one or several user specified variable(s) simultaneously, the results of which are displayed in a single table that includes log rank p-values and hazard ratios along with their significance. For several quantile survival analyses from multiple cancer types, a single summary grid is constructed. The CASAS package has been implemented in R and is available via http://shinygispa.winship.emory.edu/CASAS/. The developmental repository is available at https://github.com/manalirupji/CASAS/.

  4. Prognostic Value of microRNA-9 in Various Cancers: a Meta-analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Yunyuan; Zhou, Jun; Sun, Meiling; Sun, Guirong; Cao, Yongxian; Zhang, Haiping; Tian, Runhua; Zhou, Lan; Duan, Liang; Chen, Xian; Lun, Limin

    2017-07-01

    Recently, there are more and more evidences from studies have revealed the association between microRNA-9 (miR-9) expression and outcome in multiple cancers, but inconsistent results have also been reported. It is necessary to rationalize a meta analysis of all available data to clarify the prognostic role of miR-9. Eligible studies were selected through multiple search strategies and the quality was assessed by MOOSE. Data was extracted from studies according to the key statistics index. All analyses were performed using STATA software. Twenty studies were selected in the meta-analysis to evaluate the prognostic role of miR-9 in multiple tumors. MiR-9 expression level was an independent prognostic biomarker for OS in tumor patients using multivariate and univariate analyses. High expression levels of miR-9 was demonstrated to associated with poor overall survival (OS) (HR = 2.23, 95 % CI: 1.56-3.17, P analysis showed that residence region (China and Japan), sample size, cancer type (solid or leukemia), follow-up months and analysis method (qPCR) did not alter the predictive value of miR-9 on OS in various cancers. Furthermore, no significant associations were detected for miR-9 expression and lymph node metastasis or distant metastasis. The present results suggest that promoted miR-9 expression is associated with poor OS in patients with general cancers.

  5. Show-Bix &

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    2014-01-01

    The anti-reenactment 'Show-Bix &' consists of 5 dias projectors, a dial phone, quintophonic sound, and interactive elements. A responsive interface will enable the Dias projectors to show copies of original dias slides from the Show-Bix piece ”March på Stedet”, 265 images in total. The copies are...

  6. Sex Differences in Relationship between Stress Responses and Lifestyle in Japanese Workers

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Akiko Suzuki

    2014-03-01

    Conclusion: This study showed that stress responses were related to lifestyle among women but not among men. Among women, stress responses were related to sleeping for shorter periods, whereas they were related to working long hours among men. In addition, stress responses were related to eating at night in the univariate analysis, although this relationship was not seen in the multivariate analysis, in either sex.

  7. Multivariate analysis of prognostic factors for idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss in children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chung, Jae Ho; Cho, Seok Hyun; Jeong, Jin Hyeok; Park, Chul Won; Lee, Seung Hwan

    2015-09-01

    To evaluate clinical characteristics and possible associated factors of idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss (ISSNHL) in children using univariate and multivariate analyses. A retrospective case series with comparisons. From January 2007 to December 2013, medical records of 37 pediatric ISSNHL patients were reviewed to assess hearing recovery rate and examine factors associated with prognosis (gender; side of hearing loss; opposite side hearing loss; treatment onset; presence of vertigo, tinnitus, and ear fullness; initial hearing threshold), using univariate and multivariate analysis, and compare them with 276 adult ISSNHL patients. Pediatric patients comprised only 6.6% of pediatric/adult cases of ISSNHL, and those below 10 years old were only 0.7%. The overall recovery rates (complete and partial) of the pediatric and adult patients were 57.4% and 47.2%, respectively. The complete recovery rate of the pediatric group (46.6%) was higher than that of the adult group (30.8%, P = .040). According to multivariate analysis, absence of tinnitus, later onset of treatment, and higher hearing threshold at initial presentation were associated with a poor prognosis in pediatric ISSNHL. The recovery rate of ISSNHL in pediatric patients is higher than in adults, and the presence of tinnitus and earlier treatment onset is associated with favorable outcomes. 4. © 2015 The American Laryngological, Rhinological and Otological Society, Inc.

  8. The prognostic value of time parameters in adjuvant radiotherapy of head and neck cancer. A retrospective analysis of 138 patients

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dietl, B.; Schaefer, C.; Koelbl, O.

    2005-01-01

    Purpose: to answer the question, how the parameters waiting time, radiation treatment time and overall treatment time (OTT) influenced the endpoints overall (OS), event-free (EFS) and local recurrence-free survival (LRFS) in patients with locally advanced head-and-neck cancer, who had received postoperative radiotherapy. Patients and methods: 138 patients were included into a retrospective analysis from 10/1993 to 05/2000. Besides the time parameters waiting time, radiation treatment time and OTT, tumor- and therapy-related parameters (T-, N-, R-status, grading, tumor site, surgical technique, and postoperative hemoglobin < 12 g/dl) with potential impact on the endpoints were investigated in the univariate analysis (Kaplan-Meier log-rank test). Individual parameters with a significant impact (p = 0.05) were subjected to a multivariate Cox regression analysis. Results: besides a postoperative hemoglobin value < 12 g/dl, in the univariate analysis an OTT ≥ 105 days negatively influenced all endpoints, as well as a radiation treatment time ≥ 60 days. On multivariate Cox regression analysis, postoperative hemoglobin < 12 g/dl and an OTT ≥ 105 days were identified as independent negative prognostic factors for all endpoints. Conclusion: the waiting time should be managed according to the ASARA (as short as reasonably achievable) recommendation, radiation treatment should not be protracted exceeding an overall treatment of 105 days. Generally, time parameters should be routinely included in the standard tumor documentation, thus facilitating further evaluation of these prognostically relevant factors. (orig.)

  9. Multivariate Methods for Meta-Analysis of Genetic Association Studies.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dimou, Niki L; Pantavou, Katerina G; Braliou, Georgia G; Bagos, Pantelis G

    2018-01-01

    Multivariate meta-analysis of genetic association studies and genome-wide association studies has received a remarkable attention as it improves the precision of the analysis. Here, we review, summarize and present in a unified framework methods for multivariate meta-analysis of genetic association studies and genome-wide association studies. Starting with the statistical methods used for robust analysis and genetic model selection, we present in brief univariate methods for meta-analysis and we then scrutinize multivariate methodologies. Multivariate models of meta-analysis for a single gene-disease association studies, including models for haplotype association studies, multiple linked polymorphisms and multiple outcomes are discussed. The popular Mendelian randomization approach and special cases of meta-analysis addressing issues such as the assumption of the mode of inheritance, deviation from Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium and gene-environment interactions are also presented. All available methods are enriched with practical applications and methodologies that could be developed in the future are discussed. Links for all available software implementing multivariate meta-analysis methods are also provided.

  10. Predictive factors for complete removal in soft tissue sarcomas: a retrospective analysis in a series of 592 cases.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sastre-Garau, X; Coindre, J M; Leroyer, A; Terrier, P; Ollivier, L; Stöckle, E; Bonichon, F; Collin, F; Le Doussal, V; Contesso, G; Vilain, M O; Jacquemier, J; Nguyen, B B

    1997-07-01

    In order to specify the indications for conservative surgery and preoperative therapeutic approaches of soft tissues sarcomas (STS), we looked for the clinico-pathological parameters associated with the failure to obtain a complete removal (CRm) of the tumor. We retrospectively analyzed a series of 592 cases of primary non-metastatic STS. Surgery was performed in 495 cases as a primary treatment and in 88 cases after chemo- or radiotherapy. Nine patients were treated by chemotherapy-radiotherapy. In a univariate analysis, 20 parameters were tested for their association with CRm. A multivariate analysis was then used to define the independent parameters linked to the achievement of a CRm. In the univariate analysis, 15 parameters were found to be linked to the achievement of a CRm. Three of them proved to be independent in the multivariate analysis: T in the TNM classification, tumor location, and tumor necrosis. By the combination of these risk factors, four groups of patients were defined, with respective rates of CRm of 97% (no factor), 95% (one factor), 70% (two factors), and 48% (three factors). The achievement of a CRm after surgery of STS depends not only on the accessibility of the lesion, but also on tumor aggressiveness, a reflection of which is necrosis. The detection of necrosis by imaging procedures may thus help predicting the resectability of tumors and defining the indications for neoadjuvant therapies, likely to broaden the use of conservative surgery.

  11. Analysis of prognostic factors in stage IIB-IVA cervical carcinoma treated with radiation therapy: value of computed tomography

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ogino, Ichiro; Okamoto, Naoyuki; Andoh, Kazuo; Kitamura, Tatsuo; Okajima, Hiroyuki; Matsubara, Sho

    1997-01-01

    Purpose: To define the influence of the tumor size measured by computed tomography (CT) and lymph node involvement detected by CT in patients treated with radiation therapy for Stage IIB-IVA carcinoma of intact uterine cervix. Methods and Materials: This was a retrospective analysis of 233 patients with uterine cervical cancer managed with both external irradiation and high-dose-rate intracavitary brachytherapy (HDR-ICR) at Kanagawa Cancer Center. The results were analyzed for the end points of absolute survival (AS), disease-free survival (DFS), pelvic control (PC), and central control (CC). The parameters of stage, CT-measured anterior-posterior (AP) cervix size, and CT-detected lymph node metastases were evaluated using univariate and multivariate analysis. Results: The stage, AP cervix size, and lymph node involvement were significant pretreatment factors in univariate analysis with respect to AS, DFS, PC, and CC. Multivariate analysis confirmed that significant risk was associated with certain prognostic parameters. Those in terms of AS, in order of decreasing significance, were lymph node involvement, AP cervix size, age, and total HDR-ICR dose. When DFS was studied, lymph node involvement and AP cervix size were demonstrated to have a significant effect. Stage and lymph node involvement significantly affected PC. Conclusion: Because the International Federation of Gynecological Obstetrics staging system fails to incorporate important prognostic information about tumor volume and lymph node involvement, CT-detected lymph node metastases as well as CT-measured cervix size should be determined as complementary additional prognostic measures

  12. Exploring emergency department 4-hour target performance and cancelled elective operations: a regression analysis of routinely collected and openly reported NHS trust data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Keogh, Brad; Culliford, David; Guerrero-Ludueña, Richard; Monks, Thomas

    2018-05-24

    To quantify the effect of intrahospital patient flow on emergency department (ED) performance targets and indicate if the expectations set by the National Health Service (NHS) England 5-year forward review are realistic in returning emergency services to previous performance levels. Linear regression analysis of routinely reported trust activity and performance data using a series of cross-sectional studies. NHS trusts in England submitting routine nationally reported measures to NHS England. 142 acute non-specialist trusts operating in England between 2012 and 2016. The primary outcome measures were proportion of 4-hour waiting time breaches and cancelled elective operations. Univariate and multivariate linear regression models were used to show relationships between the outcome measures and various measures of trust activity including empty day beds, empty night beds, day bed to night bed ratio, ED conversion ratio and delayed transfers of care. Univariate regression results using the outcome of 4-hour breaches showed clear relationships with empty night beds and ED conversion ratio between 2012 and 2016. The day bed to night bed ratio showed an increasing ability to explain variation in performance between 2015 and 2016. Delayed transfers of care showed little evidence of an association. Multivariate model results indicated that the ability of patient flow variables to explain 4-hour target performance had reduced between 2012 and 2016 (19% to 12%), and had increased in explaining cancelled elective operations (7% to 17%). The flow of patients through trusts is shown to influence ED performance; however, performance has become less explainable by intratrust patient flow between 2012 and 2016. Some commonly stated explanatory factors such as delayed transfers of care showed limited evidence of being related. The results indicate some of the measures proposed by NHS England to reduce pressure on EDs may not have the desired impact on returning services to previous

  13. FUNSTAT and statistical image representations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Parzen, E.

    1983-01-01

    General ideas of functional statistical inference analysis of one sample and two samples, univariate and bivariate are outlined. ONESAM program is applied to analyze the univariate probability distributions of multi-spectral image data.

  14. Cross-Sectional Analysis of Neurocognitive Function, Retinopathy, and Retinal Thinning by Spectral-Domain Optical Coherence Tomography in Sickle Cell Patients.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oltra, Erica Z; Chow, Clement C; Wubben, Thomas; Lim, Jennifer I; Chau, Felix Y; Moss, Heather E

    2016-01-01

    The purpose was to examine the relationship between neurocognitive function and two distinct forms of retinopathy in sickle cell disease. Patients with sickle cell disease (n = 44, age range: 19-56 years, 70% female) were prospectively recruited for this cross-sectional study. Retinopathy was characterized by: (1) Presence of focal retinal thinning on spectral domain optical coherence tomography and (2) determination of the sickle retinopathy stage on funduscopic exam based on Goldberg classification. Neurocognitive function was assessed using the Philadelphia Brief Assessment of Cognition (PBAC), a validated test of cognition. Univariate and multivariate analyses for PBAC score outcomes were performed. Retinal thinning and retinopathy stage were primary variables of interest and age, gender, genotype, education, and history of stroke were covariates. Univariate analysis revealed associations with total PBAC score and age (P = 0.049), history of stroke (P = 0.04), and genotype (P retinopathy stage were not associated with each other in this sample. Neither the presence of focal retinal thinning nor degree of retinopathy was associated with total PBAC score in univariate or multivariate analyses. We find an association between lower cognitive function and older age, history of stroke and sickle cell genotype SS in patients with sickle cell disease. Our data do not provide evidence to support an association between cognitive function and retinopathy in sickle cell patients.

  15. Comportamento agressivo em shows musicais: analisando notícias de jornal impresso

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Carlos Eduardo Pimentel

    2011-08-01

    Full Text Available This paper reports a content analysis of the newspaper articles dealing with aggressive behavior in music shows. This analysis permits an understanding of the characteristics of these situations, the aggressive behaviors in shows, and the way in which the print media treat the subject. Despite of the newspapers’ influence on public opinion formation, that is, the transmission of attitudes and behavior repertoires, this kind of analysis is rarely reported in Brazilian social psychological literature. Some 31 newspaper articles were content analyzed as to aggressive behavior during music shows. Results indicate that aggressive behaviors occur in shows of most varied musical styles. Results are discussed on the basis of social cognitive theory.

  16. Analysis of the Role of PET/CT SUVmax in Prognosis and Its Correlation with 
Clinicopathological Characteristics in Resectable Lung Squamous Cell Carcinoma

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hongliang REN

    2016-04-01

    Full Text Available Background and objective Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in men and women in the world, more than one-half of cases are diagnosed at a advanced stage, and the overall 5-year survival rate for lung cancer is 18%. Lung cancer is divided into non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC and small cell lung carcinoma (SCLC. Approximately 80%-85% of cases are NSCLC which includes three main types: adenocarcinoma (40%, squamous cell carcinoma (SCC (20%-30%, and large cell carcinoma (10%. Although therapies that target driver mutations in adenocarcinomas are showing some promise, they are proving ineffective in smoking-related SCC. We need pay more attention to the diagnosis and treatment of SCC. 18F-FDG positron emission tomography (PET/computed tomography (CT has emerged as an accurate staging modality in lung cancer diagnosis. The aim of this study is to investigate the role of maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax on PET-CT in prognosis and its correlation with clinicopathological characteristics in resectable SCC. Methods One hundred and eighty-two resectable SCC patients who underwent PET/CT imaging between May 2005 and October 2014 were enrolled into this retrospectively study. All the enrolled patients had underwent pulmonary resection with mediastinal lymph node dissection without preoperative chemotherapy or radiotherapy. Survival outcomes were analyzed using the Kaplan-Meier method and multivariate Cox proportional hazards model. Correlation between SUVmax and clinicopathological factors was analysed using Pearson correlation analysis and Spearman rank correlation analysis. Results The patients were divided into two groups on the basis of SUVmax 13.0 as cutoff value, and patients with SUVmax more than 13.0 had shorter median overall survival than patients less than 13.0 in univariate analysis (56 months vs 87 months; P=0.022. There was remarkable correlation between SUVmax and gender, tumor size, tumor-node-metastasis (TNM stage

  17. Retrospective Analysis of Patient Presentations at the Sydney (Australia) Royal Easter Show from 2012 to 2014.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Crabtree, Nathan; Mo, Shirley; Ong, Leon; Jegathees, Thuvarahan; Wei, Daniel; Fahey, David; Liu, Jia Jenny

    2017-04-01

    Introduction Comprehensive studies on the relationship between patient demographics and subsequent treatment and disposition at a single mass-gathering event are lacking. The Sydney Royal Easter Show (SRES; Sydney Olympic Park, New South Wales, Australia) is an annual, 14-day, agricultural mass-gathering event occurring around the Easter weekend, attracting more than 800,000 patrons per year. In this study, patient records from the SRES were analyzed to examine relationships between weather, crowd size, day of week, and demographics on treatment and disposition. This information would help to predict factors affecting patient treatment and disposition to guide ongoing training of first responders and to evaluate the appropriateness of staffing skills mix at future events. Hypothesis Patient demographics, environmental factors, and attendance would influence the nature and severity of presentations at the SRES, which would influence staffing requirements. A retrospective analysis of 4,141 patient record forms was performed for patients who presented to St John Ambulance (Australian Capital Territory, Australia) at the SRES between 2012 and 2014 inclusive. Presentation type was classified using a previously published minimum data set. Data on weather and crowd size were obtained from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia) and the SRES, respectively. Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS v22 (IBM; Armonk, New York USA). Between 2012 to 2014, over 2.5 million people attended the SRES with 4,141 patients treated onsite. As expected, the majority of presentations were injuries (49%) and illnesses (46%). Although patient demographics and presentation types did not change over time, the duration of treatment increased. A higher proportion of patients were discharged to hospital or home compared to the proportion of patients discharged back to the event. Patients from rural/regional locations (accounting for 15% of all patients) were

  18. Sexual difference of human hyoid bones. Quantitative analysis of CT three-dimensional image

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Terashima, Yoshiharu; Izumi, Masahiro; Hanamura, Hajime; Takada, Yasushi

    2007-01-01

    We investigated sexual differences in hyoid bones of 50 dissected Japanese cadavers: 26 males (aged 52 to 101, averaged 81.9 years) and 24 females (aged 61 to 94, averaged 83.6 years). All extracted hyoid bones were scanned by multi-slice CT. Length of body, distance between bilateral greater horns, length of greater horns, distance between bilateral lesser horns, and length of lesser horns were measured on CT three-dimensional image, and were analyzed by univariate and multivariate statistics. t-tests showed significant sexual differences in all the dimensions; being about 20% longer in males than in females. In principal component analysis using five hyoid dimensions, factor 1, expressing the overall size of the bone, fairly separated each sex, but factors 2 and 3, expressing the shape, did not. Discriminant analysis by a stepwise model, using all the eight dimensions, classified sex rightly (88.6% of the bone) by a function of two dimensions: length of body and distance between bilateral tips of lesser horns. In conclusion, a sexual difference of the hyoid bone was evident in size rather than in shape. (author)

  19. Preliminary Toxicity Analysis of 3-Dimensional Conformal Radiation Therapy Versus Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy on the High-Dose Arm of the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group 0126 Prostate Cancer Trial

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Michalski, Jeff M., E-mail: jmichalski@radonc.wustl.edu [Department of Radiation Oncology Washington University Medical Center, St. Louis, Missouri (United States); Yan, Yan [Radiation Therapy Oncology Group Statistical Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (United States); Watkins-Bruner, Deborah [Emory University School of Nursing, Atlanta, Georgia (United States); Bosch, Walter R. [Department of Radiation Oncology Washington University Medical Center, St. Louis, Missouri (United States); Winter, Kathryn [Radiation Therapy Oncology Group Statistical Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (United States); Galvin, James M. [Department of Radiation Oncology Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (United States); Bahary, Jean-Paul [Department of Radiation Oncology Centre Hospitalier de l' Université de Montréal-Notre Dame, Montreal, QC (Canada); Morton, Gerard C. [Department of Radiation Oncology Toronto-Sunnybrook Regional Cancer Centre, Toronto, ON (Canada); Parliament, Matthew B. [Department of Oncology Cross Cancer Institute, Edmonton, AB (Canada); Sandler, Howard M. [Department of Radiation Oncology Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, California (United States)

    2013-12-01

    Purpose: To give a preliminary report of clinical and treatment factors associated with toxicity in men receiving high-dose radiation therapy (RT) on a phase 3 dose-escalation trial. Methods and Materials: The trial was initiated with 3-dimensional conformal RT (3D-CRT) and amended after 1 year to allow intensity modulated RT (IMRT). Patients treated with 3D-CRT received 55.8 Gy to a planning target volume that included the prostate and seminal vesicles, then 23.4 Gy to prostate only. The IMRT patients were treated to the prostate and proximal seminal vesicles to 79.2 Gy. Common Toxicity Criteria, version 2.0, and Radiation Therapy Oncology Group/European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer late morbidity scores were used for acute and late effects. Results: Of 763 patients randomized to the 79.2-Gy arm of Radiation Therapy Oncology Group 0126 protocol, 748 were eligible and evaluable: 491 and 257 were treated with 3D-CRT and IMRT, respectively. For both bladder and rectum, the volumes receiving 65, 70, and 75 Gy were significantly lower with IMRT (all P<.0001). For grade (G) 2+ acute gastrointestinal/genitourinary (GI/GU) toxicity, both univariate and multivariate analyses showed a statistically significant decrease in G2+ acute collective GI/GU toxicity for IMRT. There were no significant differences with 3D-CRT or IMRT for acute or late G2+ or 3+ GU toxicities. Univariate analysis showed a statistically significant decrease in late G2+ GI toxicity for IMRT (P=.039). On multivariate analysis, IMRT showed a 26% reduction in G2+ late GI toxicity (P=.099). Acute G2+ toxicity was associated with late G3+ toxicity (P=.005). With dose–volume histogram data in the multivariate analysis, RT modality was not significant, whereas white race (P=.001) and rectal V70 ≥15% were associated with G2+ rectal toxicity (P=.034). Conclusions: Intensity modulated RT is associated with a significant reduction in acute G2+ GI/GU toxicity. There is a trend for a

  20. Increased risk for complications following removal of hardware in patients with liver disease, pilon or pelvic fractures: A regression analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brown, Bryan D; Steinert, Justin N; Stelzer, John W; Yoon, Richard S; Langford, Joshua R; Koval, Kenneth J

    2017-12-01

    Indications for removing orthopedic hardware on an elective basis varies widely. Although viewed as a relatively benign procedure, there is a lack of data regarding overall complication rates after fracture fixation. The purpose of this study is to determine the overall short-term complication rate for elective removal of orthopedic hardware after fracture fixation and to identify associated risk factors. Adult patients indicated for elective hardware removal after fracture fixation between July 2012 and July 2016 were screened for inclusion. Inclusion criteria included patients with hardware related pain and/or impaired cosmesis with complete medical and radiographic records and at least 3-month follow-up. Exclusion criteria were those patients indicated for hardware removal for a diagnosis of malunion, non-union, and/or infection. Data collected included patient age, gender, anatomic location of hardware removed, body mass index, ASA score, and comorbidities. Overall complications, as well as complications requiring revision surgery were recorded. Statistical analysis was performed with SPSS 20.0, and included univariate and multivariate regression analysis. 391 patients (418 procedures) were included for analysis. Overall complication rates were 8.4%, with a 3.6% revision surgery rate. Univariate regression analysis revealed that patients who had liver disease were at significant risk for complication (p=0.001) and revision surgery (p=0.036). Multivariate regression analysis showed that: 1) patients who had liver disease were at significant risk of overall complication (p=0.001) and revision surgery (p=0.039); 2) Removal of hardware following fixation for a pilon had significantly increased risk for complication (p=0.012), but not revision surgery (p=0.43); and 3) Removal of hardware for pelvic fixation had a significantly increased risk for revision surgery (p=0.017). Removal of hardware following fracture fixation is not a risk-free procedure. Patients with

  1. Prognostic value of the neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio in lung cancer: A meta-analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yin, Yongmei; Wang, Jun; Wang, Xuedong; Gu, Lan; Pei, Hao; Kuai, Shougang; Zhang, Yingying; Shang, Zhongbo

    2015-07-01

    Recently, a series of studies explored the correlation between the neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio and the prognosis of lung cancer. However, the current opinion regarding the prognostic role of the neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio in lung cancer is inconsistent. We performed a meta-analysis of published articles to investigate the prognostic value of the neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio in lung cancer. The hazard ratio (HR) and its 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated. An elevated neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio predicted worse overall survival, with a pooled HR of 1.243 (95%CI: 1.106-1.397; P(heterogeneity)=0.001) from multivariate studies and 1.867 (95%CI: 1.487-2.344; P(heterogeneity)=0.047) from univariate studies. Subgroup analysis showed that a high neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio yielded worse overall survival in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) (HR=1.192, 95%CI: 1.061-1.399; P(heterogeneity)=0.003) as well as small cell lung cancer (SCLC) (HR=1.550, 95% CI: 1.156-2.077; P(heterogeneity)=0.625) in multivariate studies. The synthesized evidence from this meta-analysis of published articles demonstrated that an elevated neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio was a predictor of poor overall survival in patients with lung cancer.

  2. Power analysis for multivariate and repeated measures designs: a flexible approach using the SPSS MANOVA procedure.

    Science.gov (United States)

    D'Amico, E J; Neilands, T B; Zambarano, R

    2001-11-01

    Although power analysis is an important component in the planning and implementation of research designs, it is often ignored. Computer programs for performing power analysis are available, but most have limitations, particularly for complex multivariate designs. An SPSS procedure is presented that can be used for calculating power for univariate, multivariate, and repeated measures models with and without time-varying and time-constant covariates. Three examples provide a framework for calculating power via this method: an ANCOVA, a MANOVA, and a repeated measures ANOVA with two or more groups. The benefits and limitations of this procedure are discussed.

  3. Using MetaboAnalyst 3.0 for Comprehensive Metabolomics Data Analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xia, Jianguo; Wishart, David S

    2016-09-07

    MetaboAnalyst (http://www.metaboanalyst.ca) is a comprehensive Web application for metabolomic data analysis and interpretation. MetaboAnalyst handles most of the common metabolomic data types from most kinds of metabolomics platforms (MS and NMR) for most kinds of metabolomics experiments (targeted, untargeted, quantitative). In addition to providing a variety of data processing and normalization procedures, MetaboAnalyst also supports a number of data analysis and data visualization tasks using a range of univariate, multivariate methods such as PCA (principal component analysis), PLS-DA (partial least squares discriminant analysis), heatmap clustering and machine learning methods. MetaboAnalyst also offers a variety of tools for metabolomic data interpretation including MSEA (metabolite set enrichment analysis), MetPA (metabolite pathway analysis), and biomarker selection via ROC (receiver operating characteristic) curve analysis, as well as time series and power analysis. This unit provides an overview of the main functional modules and the general workflow of the latest version of MetaboAnalyst (MetaboAnalyst 3.0), followed by eight detailed protocols. © 2016 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

  4. Online Italian fandoms of American TV shows

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    Eleonora Benecchi

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available The Internet has changed media fandom in two main ways: it helps fans connect with each other despite physical distance, leading to the formation of international fan communities; and it helps fans connect with the creators of the TV show, deepening the relationship between TV producers and international fandoms. To assess whether Italian fan communities active online are indeed part of transnational online communities and whether the Internet has actually altered their relationship with the creators of the original text they are devoted to, qualitative analysis and narrative interviews of 26 Italian fans of American TV shows were conducted to explore the fan-producer relationship. Results indicated that the online Italian fans surveyed preferred to stay local, rather than using geography-leveling online tools. Further, the sampled Italian fans' relationships with the show runners were mediated or even absent.

  5. A comparison of univariate and multivariate methods for analyzing clinal variation in an invasive species

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Edwards, K.R.; Bastlová, D.; Edwards-Jonášová, Magda; Květ, J.

    2011-01-01

    Roč. 674, č. 1 (2011), s. 119-131 ISSN 0018-8158 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z60870520 Keywords : common garden * life history traits * local adaptation * principal components analysis * purple loosestrife * redundancy analysis Subject RIV: EH - Ecology, Behaviour Impact factor: 1.784, year: 2011 http://www.springerlink.com/content/71r10n3367m98jxl/

  6. Category Selectivity of Human Visual Cortex in Perception of Rubin Face–Vase Illusion

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    Xiaogang Wang

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available When viewing the Rubin face–vase illusion, our conscious perception spontaneously alternates between the face and the vase; this illusion has been widely used to explore bistable perception. Previous functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI studies have studied the neural mechanisms underlying bistable perception through univariate and multivariate pattern analyses; however, no studies have investigated the issue of category selectivity. Here, we used fMRI to investigate the neural mechanisms underlying the Rubin face–vase illusion by introducing univariate amplitude and multivariate pattern analyses. The results from the amplitude analysis suggested that the activity in the fusiform face area was likely related to the subjective face perception. Furthermore, the pattern analysis results showed that the early visual cortex (EVC and the face-selective cortex could discriminate the activity patterns of the face and vase perceptions. However, further analysis of the activity patterns showed that only the face-selective cortex contains the face information. These findings indicated that although the EVC and face-selective cortex activities could discriminate the visual information, only the activity and activity pattern in the face-selective areas contained the category information of face perception in the Rubin face–vase illusion.

  7. Prevalence of premenstrual syndrome in Iran: A systematic review and meta-analysis

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    Mehdi Ranjbaran

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available Background: Premenstrual syndrome (PMS is a common disorder characterized by physical, mental and behavioral changes in the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle in the reproductive age women. Objective: The present study aimed to determine the overall prevalence of PMS in Iran by a systematic review and meta-analysis study. Materials and Methods: In this systematic review and meta-analysis, we searched international databases included ISI Web of Knowledge, PubMed/Medline, Scopus, Google Scholar, and also local databases including Iranmedex, Scientific Information Database, and Magiran for articles in English and Persian language published up to September 2016. We carried out data analysis with Stata version 11. We examined heterogeneity in the results of studies through I2 statistics and Chi-square based Q test. Also, we investigated the effects of potential heterogeneity factors in the prevalence of PMS by meta-regression. Results: We studied a total of 9147 reproductive-age women from 24 articles which entered to meta-analysis. Based on the result of random effect model, we estimated the overall prevalence of PMS 70.8% [95% CI: 63.8-77.7]. The results of subgroup analysis revealed that prevalence of PMS was 80.4% (95% CI; 66.9-93.9 among high school students, 68.9% (95% CI; 59.2-78.6 among university students, and 54.9% (95% CI; 51.6-58.2 in general population. Univariate meta-regression model showed that prevalence of PMS was decreased by increasing the age of subjects but this was not statistically significant (p=0.155. Conclusion: Our finding showed that PMS was prevalent in Iranian reproductive age women especially among high school students. More epidemiological research for determining factors that affect PMS prevalence seems essential.

  8. Lymphatic vessel invasion detected by the endothelial lymphatic marker D2-40 (podoplanin is predictive of regional lymph node status and an independent prognostic factor in patients with resected esophageal cancer

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jerzy Laudański

    2011-04-01

    Full Text Available The discovery of markers to lymphatic endothelial cells and the development of novel antibodies to these markers have brought increasing attention to the lymphatics and progress in the understanding of lymphangiogenesis and cancer metastasis. In this study, we investigate the presence of lymphatic vessel invasion (LVI detected by D2-40 immunohistochemical staining in resected esophageal cancer and correlated with clinicopathologic data and patient survival. Sixty nine patients, who had a primary resection of esophageal cancer, were analyzed by univariate and multivariate logistic regression, and univariate and multivariate survival analysis. The total rate of LVI was 72% (50/69. Positive LVI was significantly correlated with lymph node metastasis (p < 0.001, tumor size (p < 0.001, histological grading (p = 0.017, tumor depth (p = 0.001, and stage (p < 0.001. Multivariate logistic analysis identified LVI (p = 0.036 as a predictor of regional lymph node metastasis. On univariate survival analysis, patients with LVI had a significantly shorter disease-free survival, cancer-specific survival and overall survival. Multivariate analysis proved that LVI diagnosed by D2-40 is an independent prognostic factor of both disease-free survival (p = 0.04 and overall survival (p = 0.032 in resected esophageal cancer. These results show that LVI assessment identifies patients at high risk for regional lymph node metastasis and that LVI is an independent prognostic factor in patients with esophageal cancer. (Folia Histochemica et Cytobiologica 2011; Vol. 49, No. 1, pp. 90–97

  9. School violence: An analysis from different interaction contexts

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rosa María Varela Garay

    2013-04-01

    Full Text Available The aim of the current study was to analyze the differences between adolescents scoring high and low on school violence in the following areas: individual (self-esteem, loneliness, satisfaction with life, and empathy; family (family climate, communication with father and mother; academic (classroom climate, attitudes toward authority, and sociometric status; and community (community involvement, community participation, social support from formal systems, and social support from informal systems. Differences in these relationships between boys and girls scoring high on school violence were also examined. Participants in the study were 1723 adolescents, aged 12 to 18 years old, in four secondary schools. Multivariate and univariate analysis of variance were performed. Results showed that adolescents with high levels of school violence scored higher on loneliness, depressive symptomatology, offensive and avoidance communication with father and mother, family conflict, and attitude towards transgression, as compared to adolescents with low levels of school violence. Furthermore, girls scoring high on school violence reported higher scores on academic self-esteem, empathy, and sociometric status, and lower scores on open communication with father and community participation, as compared to boys scoring high in school violence. Finally, these results and their practical implications are discussed.

  10. The Last Gender Picture Show to Closure Buffy the Vampire Slayer

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sven Grampp

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available This work presents in (and especially on one detail what it means to practice gender analysis as formal image analysis in the context of television shows. The chosen example for that is the closing scene of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” (USA 1997-2003. This television show engages in a highly self-reflexive manner with common pop cultural representations of gender, which becomes particularly prevalent and radically condensed in the series finale.

  11. Does uneven geographic distribution of urologists effect bladder and prostate cancers mortality? National health insurance data in Korea from 2007-2011.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Jae Heon; Sun, Hwa Yeon; Kim, Hyun Jung; Ko, Young Myoung; Chun, Dong-Il; Park, Jae Young

    2017-09-12

    The relationship between distribution of urologists and mortality of bladder and prostate cancers has not been clearly established. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between uneven distribution of urologists and urologic cancer specific mortality at country level. Data from the National Health Insurance Service and National Statistical Office in Korea from 2007 to 2011 were analyzed in this ecological study. Univariate and multivariable regression analyses were performed to determine risk factors for age standardized mortality rates (ASMR) of bladder and prostate cancers. Linear regression analysis showed a markedly ( p ASMRs for either bladder cancer or prostate cancer. Univariate analysis after adjusting for time showed that country area, urologist density, and income were significant factors affecting bladder cancer incidence ( p ASMR of bladder cancer, urologist density was not related to ASMR of bladder cancer or prostate cancer. Although there was a marked difference in urologist density between metropolitan and non-metropolitan areas for these years analyzed, mortality rates of bladder and prostate cancers were not significantly affected by country area or urologist density.

  12. Does uneven geographic distribution of urologists effect bladder and prostate cancers mortality? National health insurance data in Korea from 2007–2011

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Jae Heon; Sun, Hwa Yeon; Kim, Hyun Jung; Ko, Young Myoung; Chun, Dong-Il; Park, Jae Young

    2017-01-01

    The relationship between distribution of urologists and mortality of bladder and prostate cancers has not been clearly established. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between uneven distribution of urologists and urologic cancer specific mortality at country level. Data from the National Health Insurance Service and National Statistical Office in Korea from 2007 to 2011 were analyzed in this ecological study. Univariate and multivariable regression analyses were performed to determine risk factors for age standardized mortality rates (ASMR) of bladder and prostate cancers. Linear regression analysis showed a markedly (p ASMRs for either bladder cancer or prostate cancer. Univariate analysis after adjusting for time showed that country area, urologist density, and income were significant factors affecting bladder cancer incidence (p ASMR of bladder cancer, urologist density was not related to ASMR of bladder cancer or prostate cancer. Although there was a marked difference in urologist density between metropolitan and non-metropolitan areas for these years analyzed, mortality rates of bladder and prostate cancers were not significantly affected by country area or urologist density. PMID:29029431

  13. Statistical analysis of Thematic Mapper Simulator data for the geobotanical discrimination of rock types in southwest Oregon

    Science.gov (United States)

    Morrissey, L. A.; Weinstock, K. J.; Mouat, D. A.; Card, D. H.

    1984-01-01

    An evaluation of Thematic Mapper Simulator (TMS) data for the geobotanical discrimination of rock types based on vegetative cover characteristics is addressed in this research. A methodology for accomplishing this evaluation utilizing univariate and multivariate techniques is presented. TMS data acquired with a Daedalus DEI-1260 multispectral scanner were integrated with vegetation and geologic information for subsequent statistical analyses, which included a chi-square test, an analysis of variance, stepwise discriminant analysis, and Duncan's multiple range test. Results indicate that ultramafic rock types are spectrally separable from nonultramafics based on vegetative cover through the use of statistical analyses.

  14. Grab That Mike: communicative issues in French Talk Show "Grab That Mike": questões comunicativas em um "Talk Show" Francês

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ludwina Van Son

    2004-12-01

    Full Text Available In this analysis we have chosen a recent French talk show to illustrate how communication is turned into some new kind of "ideology"nowadays: in other words, you have to communicate if you consider yourself a citizen of today's world. The main characteristic of issue-centered talk shows being the destabilization of the implicit rules and participation framework, we observe how the so-called democratic right to express ourselves is (misused by the talk show host to secure the dynamics of the show. In order to reveal the host's manipulations, we have examined the verbal interactions between host and guests on the following issues: topic choice, turn-taking mechanisms and identity construction of the talk show's guests. In the perspective that this kind of talk show presents itself as a public space where direct democracy can be exercised, the analysis of the discursive strategies of the talk show host reveals the impact of a mediatic participation framework.Para a presente análise escolhemos um "talk show" francês recente para ilustrar como a comunicação se transforma em um novo tipo de ideologia: em outras palavras, você deve se comunicar se você se considera um cidadão do mundo de hoje. Sendo a principal característica do talk show a desestabilização das regras implícitas e o framework de participação, observamos como o tal direito democrático de expressão é interpretado pelo apresentador para manter a dinâmica do programa. Para revelar suas manipulações, examinamos as interações verbais entre apresentador e convidados nos seguintes temas: escolha do tópico, mecanismos de tomada de turno e construção de identidade dos convidados. É nessa perspectiva que este tipo de programa se apresenta como um espaço público onde a democracia direta pode ser exercitada; a análise das estratégias discursivas do apresentador do talk show revela o impacto de um framework de participação mediada.

  15. Impact of tumour volume on prediction of progression-free survival in sinonasal cancer

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hennersdorf, Florian; Mauz, Paul-Stefan; Adam, Patrick; Welz, Stefan; Sievert, Anne; Ernemann, Ulrike; Bisdas, Sotirios

    2015-01-01

    The present study aimed to analyse potential prognostic factors, with emphasis on tumour volume, in determining progression free survival (PFS) for malignancies of the nasal cavity and the paranasal sinuses. Retrospective analysis of 106 patients with primary sinonasal malignancies treated and followed-up between March 2006 and October 2012. Possible predictive parameters for PFS were entered into univariate and multivariate Cox regression analysis. Kaplan-Meier curve analysis included age, sex, baseline tumour volume (based on MR imaging), histology type, TNM stage and prognostic groups according to the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) classification. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis concerning the predictive value of tumour volume for recurrence was also conducted. The main histological subgroup consisted of epithelial tumours (77%). The majority of the patients (68%) showed advanced tumour burden (AJCC stage III–IV). Lymph node involvement was present in 18 cases. The mean tumour volume was 26.6 ± 21.2 cm 3 . The median PFS for all patients was 24.9 months (range: 2.5–84.5 months). The ROC curve analysis for the tumour volume showed 58.1% sensitivity and 75.4% specificity for predicting recurrence. Tumour volume, AJCC staging, T- and N- stage were significant predictors in the univariate analysis. Positive lymph node status and tumour volume remained significant and independent predictors in the multivariate analysis. Radiological tumour volume proofed to be a statistically reliable predictor of PFS. In the multivariate analysis, T-, N- and overall AJCC staging did not show significant prognostic value

  16. Global morphological analysis of marine viruses shows minimal regional variation and dominance of non-tailed viruses.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brum, Jennifer R; Schenck, Ryan O; Sullivan, Matthew B

    2013-09-01

    Viruses influence oceanic ecosystems by causing mortality of microorganisms, altering nutrient and organic matter flux via lysis and auxiliary metabolic gene expression and changing the trajectory of microbial evolution through horizontal gene transfer. Limited host range and differing genetic potential of individual virus types mean that investigations into the types of viruses that exist in the ocean and their spatial distribution throughout the world's oceans are critical to understanding the global impacts of marine viruses. Here we evaluate viral morphological characteristics (morphotype, capsid diameter and tail length) using a quantitative transmission electron microscopy (qTEM) method across six of the world's oceans and seas sampled through the Tara Oceans Expedition. Extensive experimental validation of the qTEM method shows that neither sample preservation nor preparation significantly alters natural viral morphological characteristics. The global sampling analysis demonstrated that morphological characteristics did not vary consistently with depth (surface versus deep chlorophyll maximum waters) or oceanic region. Instead, temperature, salinity and oxygen concentration, but not chlorophyll a concentration, were more explanatory in evaluating differences in viral assemblage morphological characteristics. Surprisingly, given that the majority of cultivated bacterial viruses are tailed, non-tailed viruses appear to numerically dominate the upper oceans as they comprised 51-92% of the viral particles observed. Together, these results document global marine viral morphological characteristics, show that their minimal variability is more explained by environmental conditions than geography and suggest that non-tailed viruses might represent the most ecologically important targets for future research.

  17. [Spatial point pattern analysis of main trees and flowering Fargesia qinlingensis in Abies fargesii forests in Mt Taibai of the Qinling Mountains, China].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Guo Chun; Song, Hua Dong; Li, Qi; Bu, Shu Hai

    2017-11-01

    In Abies fargesii forests of the giant panda's habitats in Mt. Taibai, the spatial distribution patterns and interspecific associations of main tree species and their spatial associations with the understory flowering Fargesia qinlingensis were analyzed at multiple scales by univariate and bivaria-te O-ring function in point pattern analysis. The results showed that in the A. fargesii forest, the number of A. fargesii was largest but its population structure was in decline. The population of Betula platyphylla was relatively young, with a stable population structure, while the population of B. albo-sinensis declined. The three populations showed aggregated distributions at small scales and gradually showed random distributions with increasing spatial scales. Spatial associations among tree species were mainly showed at small scales and gradually became not spatially associated with increasing scale. A. fargesii and B. platyphylla were positively associated with flowering F. qinlingensis at large and medium scales, whereas B. albo-sinensis showed negatively associated with flowering F. qinlingensis at large and medium scales. The interaction between trees and F. qinlingensis in the habitats of giant panda promoted the dynamic succession and development of forests, which changed the environment of giant panda's habitats in Qinling.

  18. Prognostic significance of pretherapeutic and therapeutic factors in patients with advanced cancer of the uterine cervix treated with radical radiotherapy alone

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Karolewski, K.; Korzeniowski, S.; Urbanski, K.; Kojs, Z. [Centre of Oncology, Maia Sklodowska-Curie Memorial Inst., Krakow (Poland); Sokolowski, A. [Dept. of Statistics, Cracow Univ. of Economics (Poland)

    1999-11-01

    The prognostic importance of various pretherapeutic and therapeutic factors was analysed in a group of 413 cervical cancer patients with stage IIB (183 pts) and IIIB (230 pts) treated with radical radiotherapy, which consisted of external irradiation and intracavitary brachytherapy. Univariate analysis of pretherapeutic factors revealed the prognostic significance of patient age, history of abortion, stage, haemoglobin and hematocrit levels. Five-year overall survival rate in stage IIB patients was 51% in stage IIIB 40% and the respective rates for local control at each stage were 61%, and 46%. Univariate analysis of therapeutic factors showed that survival and local control rates increased with the dose, but a significant difference was found only in the case of a paracentral (point A) dose. In a multivariate analysis only patient age, abortions, and clinical stage appeared to have a significant and independent impact on survival. Linear regression analysis results indicated that prolongation of treatment time between 33 and 108 days caused a loss of local control of 0.36% per day. (orig.)

  19. Bayesian analysis of repairable systems showing a bounded failure intensity

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Guida, Maurizio; Pulcini, Gianpaolo

    2006-01-01

    The failure pattern of repairable mechanical equipment subject to deterioration phenomena sometimes shows a finite bound for the increasing failure intensity. A non-homogeneous Poisson process with bounded increasing failure intensity is then illustrated and its characteristics are discussed. A Bayesian procedure, based on prior information on model-free quantities, is developed in order to allow technical information on the failure process to be incorporated into the inferential procedure and to improve the inference accuracy. Posterior estimation of the model-free quantities and of other quantities of interest (such as the optimal replacement interval) is provided, as well as prediction on the waiting time to the next failure and on the number of failures in a future time interval is given. Finally, numerical examples are given to illustrate the proposed inferential procedure

  20. Prognostic factors for patients with hepatitis B virus-related acute-on-chronic liver failure

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    LI Ying

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available ObjectiveTo investigate the prognostic factors for patients with hepatitis B virus-related acute-on-chronic liver failure, and to provide a basis for clinical diagnosis and treatment. MethodsA total of 172 patients with hepatitis B virus (HBV-related acute-on-chronic liver failure who were admitted to The First Hospital of Jilin University from January 1, 2006 to January 1, 2016 and had complete medical records and follow-up data were enrolled, and a retrospective analysis was performed for their clinical data and laboratory markers to determine prognostic factors. The independent-samples t test was used for comparison of continuous data between groups, the chi-square test was used for comparison of categorical data between groups, and a multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed for the indices determined to be statistically significant by the univariate analysis to screen out independent risk factors for the prognosis of patients with HBV-related acute-on-chronic liver failure. ResultsThe multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed for the indices determined to be statistically significant by the univariate analysis, and the results showed that the prognostic factors were total bilirubin (TBil, prothrombin time activity (PTA, Na+, total cholesterol (TC, Child-Turcotte-Pugh (CTP score, age ≥50 years, the presence of liver cirrhosis, bilirubin-enzyme separation, and complications. The multivariate regression analysis was performed for the complications determined to affect prognosis by the univariate analysis, and the results showed that the complications as risk factors were hepatic encephalopathy, hepatorenal syndrome, and infection. ConclusionTBil, PTA, Na+, TC, CTP score, age ≥50 years, the presence of liver cirrhosis, bilirubin-enzyme separation, and complications are independent risk factors for the prognosis of patients with HBV-related acute-on-chronic liver failure. Liver failure patients with hepatic

  1. Comparison of Prediction Model for Cardiovascular Autonomic Dysfunction Using Artificial Neural Network and Logistic Regression Analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zeng, Fangfang; Li, Zhongtao; Yu, Xiaoling; Zhou, Linuo

    2013-01-01

    Background This study aimed to develop the artificial neural network (ANN) and multivariable logistic regression (LR) analyses for prediction modeling of cardiovascular autonomic (CA) dysfunction in the general population, and compare the prediction models using the two approaches. Methods and Materials We analyzed a previous dataset based on a Chinese population sample consisting of 2,092 individuals aged 30–80 years. The prediction models were derived from an exploratory set using ANN and LR analysis, and were tested in the validation set. Performances of these prediction models were then compared. Results Univariate analysis indicated that 14 risk factors showed statistically significant association with the prevalence of CA dysfunction (P<0.05). The mean area under the receiver-operating curve was 0.758 (95% CI 0.724–0.793) for LR and 0.762 (95% CI 0.732–0.793) for ANN analysis, but noninferiority result was found (P<0.001). The similar results were found in comparisons of sensitivity, specificity, and predictive values in the prediction models between the LR and ANN analyses. Conclusion The prediction models for CA dysfunction were developed using ANN and LR. ANN and LR are two effective tools for developing prediction models based on our dataset. PMID:23940593

  2. Comparison of Imputation Methods for Handling Missing Categorical Data with Univariate Pattern|| Una comparación de métodos de imputación de variables categóricas con patrón univariado

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Torres Munguía, Juan Armando

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available This paper examines the sample proportions estimates in the presence of univariate missing categorical data. A database about smoking habits (2011 National Addiction Survey of Mexico was used to create simulated yet realistic datasets at rates 5% and 15% of missingness, each for MCAR, MAR and MNAR mechanisms. Then the performance of six methods for addressing missingness is evaluated: listwise, mode imputation, random imputation, hot-deck, imputation by polytomous regression and random forests. Results showed that the most effective methods for dealing with missing categorical data in most of the scenarios assessed in this paper were hot-deck and polytomous regression approaches. || El presente estudio examina la estimación de proporciones muestrales en la presencia de valores faltantes en una variable categórica. Se utiliza una encuesta de consumo de tabaco (Encuesta Nacional de Adicciones de México 2011 para crear bases de datos simuladas pero reales con 5% y 15% de valores perdidos para cada mecanismo de no respuesta MCAR, MAR y MNAR. Se evalúa el desempeño de seis métodos para tratar la falta de respuesta: listwise, imputación de moda, imputación aleatoria, hot-deck, imputación por regresión politómica y árboles de clasificación. Los resultados de las simulaciones indican que los métodos más efectivos para el tratamiento de la no respuesta en variables categóricas, bajo los escenarios simulados, son hot-deck y la regresión politómica.

  3. Root Cause Analysis of Gastroduodenal Ulceration After Yttrium-90 Radioembolization

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Lam, Marnix G. E. H. [Stanford University School of Medicine, Division of Interventional Radiology (United States); Banerjee, Subhas [Stanford University School of Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology (United States); Louie, John D.; Abdelmaksoud, Mohamed H. K. [Stanford University School of Medicine, Division of Interventional Radiology (United States); Iagaru, Andrei H. [Stanford University School of Medicine, Division of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (United States); Ennen, Rebecca E.; Sze, Daniel Y., E-mail: dansze@stanford.edu [Stanford University School of Medicine, Division of Interventional Radiology (United States)

    2013-12-15

    IntroductionA root cause analysis was performed on the occurrence of gastroduodenal ulceration after hepatic radioembolization (RE). We aimed to identify the risk factors in the treated population and to determine the specific mechanism of nontarget RE in individual cases. Methods: The records of 247 consecutive patients treated with yttrium-90 RE for primary (n = 90) or metastatic (n = 157) liver cancer using either resin (n = 181) or glass (n = 66) microspheres were reviewed. All patients who developed a biopsy-proven microsphere-induced gastroduodenal ulcer were identified. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed on baseline parameters and procedural data to determine possible risk factors in the total population. Individual cases were analyzed to ascertain the specific cause, including identification of the culprit vessel(s) leading to extrahepatic deposition of the microspheres. Results: Eight patients (3.2 %) developed a gastroduodenal ulcer. Stasis during injection was the strongest independent risk factor (p = 0.004), followed by distal origin of the gastroduodenal artery (p = 0.004), young age (p = 0.040), and proximal injection of the microspheres (p = 0.043). Prolonged administrations, pain during administration, whole liver treatment, and use of resin microspheres also showed interrelated trends in multivariate analysis. Retrospective review of intraprocedural and postprocedural imaging showed a probable or possible culprit vessel, each a tiny complex collateral vessel, in seven patients. Conclusion: Proximal administrations and those resulting in stasis of flow presented increased risk for gastroduodenal ulceration. Patients who had undergone bevacizumab therapy were at high risk for developing stasis.

  4. Root Cause Analysis of Gastroduodenal Ulceration After Yttrium-90 Radioembolization

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lam, Marnix G. E. H.; Banerjee, Subhas; Louie, John D.; Abdelmaksoud, Mohamed H. K.; Iagaru, Andrei H.; Ennen, Rebecca E.; Sze, Daniel Y.

    2013-01-01

    IntroductionA root cause analysis was performed on the occurrence of gastroduodenal ulceration after hepatic radioembolization (RE). We aimed to identify the risk factors in the treated population and to determine the specific mechanism of nontarget RE in individual cases. Methods: The records of 247 consecutive patients treated with yttrium-90 RE for primary (n = 90) or metastatic (n = 157) liver cancer using either resin (n = 181) or glass (n = 66) microspheres were reviewed. All patients who developed a biopsy-proven microsphere-induced gastroduodenal ulcer were identified. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed on baseline parameters and procedural data to determine possible risk factors in the total population. Individual cases were analyzed to ascertain the specific cause, including identification of the culprit vessel(s) leading to extrahepatic deposition of the microspheres. Results: Eight patients (3.2 %) developed a gastroduodenal ulcer. Stasis during injection was the strongest independent risk factor (p = 0.004), followed by distal origin of the gastroduodenal artery (p = 0.004), young age (p = 0.040), and proximal injection of the microspheres (p = 0.043). Prolonged administrations, pain during administration, whole liver treatment, and use of resin microspheres also showed interrelated trends in multivariate analysis. Retrospective review of intraprocedural and postprocedural imaging showed a probable or possible culprit vessel, each a tiny complex collateral vessel, in seven patients. Conclusion: Proximal administrations and those resulting in stasis of flow presented increased risk for gastroduodenal ulceration. Patients who had undergone bevacizumab therapy were at high risk for developing stasis

  5. The study of gastronomic tourism in Cordoba and the association of the cuisine. An econometric analysis

    OpenAIRE

    Millán Vázquez de la Torre, Genoveva; Hernández Rojas, Ricardo; Navajas Romero, Virginia

    2016-01-01

    Purpose – As the city aspires to declare itself as a quality dinning destination, this paper aims to provide some guidelines to achieve that goal. Design – The paper aims to appraise as to what extent the gastronomic product supply of Córdoba can be considered a high quality and differentiated one, which may serve as a basis for tourism product development. Methodology – we use a univariate and bivariate analysis in order to describe the socioeconomic variables to explain the variety of...

  6. Principal Feature Analysis: A Multivariate Feature Selection Method for fMRI Data

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lijun Wang

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Brain decoding with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI requires analysis of complex, multivariate data. Multivoxel pattern analysis (MVPA has been widely used in recent years. MVPA treats the activation of multiple voxels from fMRI data as a pattern and decodes brain states using pattern classification methods. Feature selection is a critical procedure of MVPA because it decides which features will be included in the classification analysis of fMRI data, thereby improving the performance of the classifier. Features can be selected by limiting the analysis to specific anatomical regions or by computing univariate (voxel-wise or multivariate statistics. However, these methods either discard some informative features or select features with redundant information. This paper introduces the principal feature analysis as a novel multivariate feature selection method for fMRI data processing. This multivariate approach aims to remove features with redundant information, thereby selecting fewer features, while retaining the most information.

  7. Marmosets, Raree shows and Pulcinelle: an Analysis and Edition of a Hitherto-Unpublished Carnival Play by Antonio de Zamora

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fernando Plata

    2013-05-01

    Full Text Available This paper is an analyisis, annotation and edition of the Mojiganga del mundinovo (‘The raree show, a carnival play’ by Antonio de Zamora. The play was performed in 1698 Madrid by the troupe of Carlos Vallejo, along with the sacramental one-act play El templo vivo de Dios (‘The living temple of God’. The hitherto unpublished text is based on the only two extant manuscripts, located in archives in Madrid. Despite the play’s title, my analysis argues that the novelty in this play is not so much the raree show, a contraption popularized four decades earlier in Golden Age theater, as the marmosets. The death of two marmosets and the ensuing desolation of their owner, Ms. Estupenda, both trigger the play and provide it with a plot. The marmosets, too, point to a changing mentality in late 17th-century society, regarding the possession among ladies of marmosets and other monkeys as pets.

  8. An investigation into the inputs controlling predictions from a diffuse phosphorus loss model for the UK; the Phosphorus Indicators Tool (PIT).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Shuming; Brazier, Richard; Heathwaite, Louise

    2005-05-15

    A simple catchment scale model simulating diffuse phosphorus (P) loss from agricultural land to water, the Phosphorus Indicators Tool (PIT), has been developed. Previous research has shown that this model worked well in simulating the average annual P lost from two catchments: Windermere and Windrush, but it was not known which drivers in the model had the greatest control on predicted P delivery to water from agricultural land. In order to simulate the P export from each catchment source via each hydrological pathway specified individually, 108 coefficients are used in the model code. A univariate sensitivity analysis was conducted to evaluate which coefficient exerted the greatest control on the model output. Results from the univariate analysis suggest that the model is sensitive to a number of coefficients, but importantly, not all of the coefficients that were varied in the sensitivity analysis, altered the model output. The PIT model has been calibrated by optimizing results from the univariate analysis against observed data in the Windermere catchment. The simulated results from model calibration fit the observed data well, at the 95% level. This paper describes the methodology developed for the univariate analysis and evaluates the model calibration procedure against observed data from the Windermere catchment.

  9. Regionalization of Drought across South Korea Using Multivariate Methods

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Muhammad Azam

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available Topographic and hydro-climatic features of South Korea are highly heterogeneous and able to influence the drought phenomena in the region. The complex topographical and hydro-climatic features of South Korea need a statistically accurate method to find homogeneous regions. Regionalization of drought in a bivariate framework has scarcely been applied in South Korea before. Hierarchical Classification on Principal Components (HCPC algorithm together with Principal Component Analysis (PCA method and cluster validation indices were investigated and used for the regionalization of drought across the South Korean region. Statistical homogeneity and discordancy of the region was tested on univariate and bivariate frameworks. HCPC indicate that South Korea should be divided into four regions which are closer to being homogeneous. Univariate and bivariate homogeneity and discordancy tests showed the significant difference in their results due to the inability of univariate homogeneity and discordancy measures to consider the joint behavior of duration and severity. Regionalization of drought for SPI time scale of 1, 3, 6, 12, and 24 months showed significant variation in discordancy and homogeneity of the region with the change in SPI time scale. The results of this study can be used as basic data required to establish a drought mitigation plan on regional scales.

  10. Meta-analysis of diffusion tensor imaging studies shows altered fractional anisotropy occurring in distinct brain areas in association with depression.

    LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

    Murphy, Melissa L

    2011-09-01

    Fractional anisotropy anomalies occurring in the white matter tracts in the brains of depressed patients may reflect microstructural changes underlying the pathophysiology of this disorder. We conducted a meta-analysis of fractional anisotropy abnormalities occurring in major depressive disorder using voxel-based diffusion tensor imaging studies. Using the Embase, PubMed and Google Scholar databases, 89 relevant data sets were identified, of which 7 (including 188 patients with major depressive disorder and 221 healthy controls) met our inclusion criteria. Authors were contacted to retrieve any additional data required. Coordinates were extracted from clusters of significant white matter fractional anisotropy differences between patients and controls. Relevant demographic, clinical and methodological variables were extracted from each study or obtained directly from authors. The meta-analysis was carried out using Signed Differential Mapping. Patients with depression showed decreased white matter fractional anisotropy values in the superior longitudinal fasciculus and increased fractional anisotropy values in the fronto-occipital fasciculus compared to controls. Using quartile and jackknife sensitivity analysis, we found that reduced fractional anisotropy in the left superior longitudinal fasciculus was very stable, with increases in the right fronto-occipital fasciculus driven by just one study. In conclusion, our meta-analysis revealed a significant reduction in fractional anisotropy values in the left superior longitudinal fasciculus, which may ultimately play an important role in the pathology of depression.

  11. Risk Factors for Neovascular Glaucoma After Proton Beam Therapy of Uveal Melanoma: A Detailed Analysis of Tumor and Dose–Volume Parameters

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Mishra, Kavita K., E-mail: kmishra@radonc.ucsf.edu [Department of Radiation Oncology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California (United States); Daftari, Inder K.; Weinberg, Vivian [Department of Radiation Oncology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California (United States); Cole, Tia [The Tumori Foundation, San Francisco, California (United States); Quivey, Jeanne M.; Castro, Joseph R.; Phillips, Theodore L. [Department of Radiation Oncology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California (United States); Char, Devron H. [The Tumori Foundation, San Francisco, California (United States)

    2013-10-01

    Purpose: To determine neovascular glaucoma (NVG) incidence and identify contributing tumor and dosing factors in uveal melanoma patients treated with proton beam radiation therapy (PBRT). Methods and Materials: A total of 704 PBRT patients treated by a single surgeon (DHC) for uveal melanoma (1996-2010) were reviewed for NVG in our prospectively maintained database. All patients received 56 GyE in 4 fractions. Median follow-up was 58.3 months. Analyses included the Kaplan-Meier method to estimate NVG distributions, univariate log–rank tests, and Cox's proportional hazards multivariate analysis using likelihood ratio tests to identify independent risk factors of NVG among patient, tumor, and dose–volume histogram parameters. Results: The 5-year PBRT NVG rate was 12.7% (95% confidence interval [CI] 10.2%-15.9%). The 5-year rate of enucleation due to NVG was 4.9% (95% CI 3.4%-7.2%). Univariately, the NVG rate increased significantly with larger tumor diameter (P<.0001), greater height (P<.0001), higher T stage (P<.0001), and closer proximity to the disc (P=.002). Dose–volume histogram analysis revealed that if >30% of the lens or ciliary body received ≥50% dose (≥28 GyE), there was a higher probability of NVG (P<.0001 for both). Furthermore, if 100% of the disc or macula received ≥28 GyE, the NVG rate was higher (P<.0001 and P=.03, respectively). If both anterior and posterior doses were above specified cut points, NVG risk was highest (P<.0001). Multivariate analysis confirmed significant independent risk factors to include tumor height (P<.0001), age (P<.0001), %disc treated to ≥50% Dose (<100% vs 100%) (P=.0007), larger tumor diameter (P=.01), %lens treated to ≥90% Dose (0 vs >0%-30% vs >30%) (P=.01), and optic nerve length treated to ≥90% Dose (≤1 mm vs >1 mm) (P=.02). Conclusions: Our current PBRT patients experience a low rate of NVG and resultant enucleation compared with historical data. The present analysis shows that tumor height

  12. Sensory and instrumental texture assessment of roasted pistachio nut/kernel by partial least square (PLS) regression analysis: effect of roasting conditions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mohammadi Moghaddam, Toktam; Razavi, Seyed M A; Taghizadeh, Masoud; Sazgarnia, Ameneh

    2016-01-01

    Roasting is an important step in the processing of pistachio nuts. The effect of hot air roasting temperature (90, 120 and 150 °C), time (20, 35 and 50 min) and air velocity (0.5, 1.5 and 2.5 m/s) on textural and sensory characteristics of pistachio nuts and kernels were investigated. The results showed that increasing the roasting temperature decreased the fracture force (82-25.54 N), instrumental hardness (82.76-37.59 N), apparent modulus of elasticity (47-21.22 N/s), compressive energy (280.73-101.18 N.s) and increased amount of bitterness (1-2.5) and the hardness score (6-8.40) of pistachio kernels. Higher roasting time improved the flavor of samples. The results of the consumer test showed that the roasted pistachio kernels have good acceptability for flavor (score 5.83-8.40), color (score 7.20-8.40) and hardness (score 6-8.40) acceptance. Moreover, Partial Least Square (PLS) analysis of instrumental and sensory data provided important information for the correlation of objective and subjective properties. The univariate analysis showed that over 93.87 % of the variation in sensory hardness and almost 87 % of the variation in sensory acceptability could be explained by instrumental texture properties.

  13. Heritability and environmental effects for self-reported periods with stuttering: A twin study from Denmark

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Fagnani, Corrado; Fibiger, Steen; Skytthe, Axel

    2011-01-01

    Genetic influence for stuttering was studied based on adult self-reporting. Using nation-wide questionnaire answers from 33,317 Danish twins, a univariate biometric analysis based on the liability threshold model was performed in order to estimate the heritability of stuttering. The self......-reported incidences for stuttering were from less than 4% for females to near 9% for males. Both probandwise concordance rate and tetrachoric correlation were substantially higher for monozygotic compared to dizygotic pairs, indicating substantial genetic influence on individual liability. Univariate biometric...... analyses showed that additive genetic and unique environmental factors best explained the observed concordance patterns. Heritability estimates for males/females were 0.84/0.81. Moderate unique environmental effects were also found. Genetic influence for stuttering was studied based on adult self...

  14. Sensitivity Analysis in Sequential Decision Models.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Qiushi; Ayer, Turgay; Chhatwal, Jagpreet

    2017-02-01

    Sequential decision problems are frequently encountered in medical decision making, which are commonly solved using Markov decision processes (MDPs). Modeling guidelines recommend conducting sensitivity analyses in decision-analytic models to assess the robustness of the model results against the uncertainty in model parameters. However, standard methods of conducting sensitivity analyses cannot be directly applied to sequential decision problems because this would require evaluating all possible decision sequences, typically in the order of trillions, which is not practically feasible. As a result, most MDP-based modeling studies do not examine confidence in their recommended policies. In this study, we provide an approach to estimate uncertainty and confidence in the results of sequential decision models. First, we provide a probabilistic univariate method to identify the most sensitive parameters in MDPs. Second, we present a probabilistic multivariate approach to estimate the overall confidence in the recommended optimal policy considering joint uncertainty in the model parameters. We provide a graphical representation, which we call a policy acceptability curve, to summarize the confidence in the optimal policy by incorporating stakeholders' willingness to accept the base case policy. For a cost-effectiveness analysis, we provide an approach to construct a cost-effectiveness acceptability frontier, which shows the most cost-effective policy as well as the confidence in that for a given willingness to pay threshold. We demonstrate our approach using a simple MDP case study. We developed a method to conduct sensitivity analysis in sequential decision models, which could increase the credibility of these models among stakeholders.

  15. Maternal depressive symptoms and early childhood cognitive development: a meta-analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Y; Kaaya, S; Chai, J; McCoy, D C; Surkan, P J; Black, M M; Sutter-Dallay, A-L; Verdoux, H; Smith-Fawzi, M C

    2017-03-01

    Previous findings have been mixed regarding the relationship between maternal depressive symptoms and child cognitive development. The objective of this study was to systematically review relevant literature and to perform a meta-analysis. Three electronic databases (PubMed, EMBASE, PsycINFO) were searched. Initial screening was conducted independently by two reviewers. Studies selected for detailed review were read in full and included based on a set of criteria. Data from selected studies were abstracted onto a standardized form. Meta-analysis using the inverse variance approach and random-effects models was conducted. The univariate analysis of 14 studies revealed that maternal depressive symptoms are related to lower cognitive scores among children aged ⩽56 months (Cohen's d = -0.25, 95% CI -0.39 to -0.12). The synthesis of studies controlling for confounding variables showed that the mean cognitive score for children 6-8 weeks post-partum whose mothers had high depressive symptoms during the first few weeks postpartum was approximately 4.2 units lower on the Mental Developmental Index (MDI) of the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development (BSID) compared with children with non-symptomatic mothers (B̂ = -4.17, 95% CI -8.01 to -0.32). The results indicated that maternal depressive symptoms are related to lower cognitive scores in early infancy, after adjusting for confounding factors. An integrated approach for supporting child cognitive development may include program efforts that promote maternal mental health in addition to family economic wellbeing, responsive caregiving, and child nutrition.

  16. Risk factors for granuloma formation in children induced by tracheobronchial foreign bodies.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huang, Zhenghua; Zhou, Ai; Zhang, Jianya; Xie, Lisheng; Li, Qi

    2015-12-01

    The aim of this study was to analyze the risk factors for granuloma formation caused by plant-based tracheobronchial foreign bodies in children, and investigate the underlying pathogenesis. In this retrospective analysis of 153 cases with tracheobronchial foreign bodies (peanuts and watermelon seeds), 35 cases of granuloma formation as granulation group (G), and 118 cases of no granuloma formation as non-granulation group (NG) were studied. Clinical data pertaining to sex (S), age (A), foreign body surface smoothness (SF), foreign body shape (SH), foreign body oil release state (O), the location of foreign bodies (L), and foreign body retention time (T) were collected for statistical analysis. Univariate analysis showed no significant difference between the two groups (G and NG) with respect to S, A, SH and L. Significant factors based on univariate analysis included SF, O and T. Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that SF and T were independent risk factors associated with development of granuloma. SF, O and T had relationship with the granuloma formation. Local trauma caused by an irregular and sharp foreign body, and extended period of time represent the main factors causing granuloma formation. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  17. Wavelets analysis for differentiating solid, non-macroscopic fat containing, enhancing renal masses: a pilot study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Varghese, Bino; Hwang, Darryl; Mohamed, Passant; Cen, Steven; Deng, Christopher; Chang, Michael; Duddalwar, Vinay

    2017-11-01

    Purpose: To evaluate potential use of wavelets analysis in discriminating benign and malignant renal masses (RM) Materials and Methods: Regions of interest of the whole lesion were manually segmented and co-registered from multiphase CT acquisitions of 144 patients (98 malignant RM: renal cell carcinoma (RCC) and 46 benign RM: oncocytoma, lipid-poor angiomyolipoma). Here, the Haar wavelet was used to analyze the grayscale images of the largest segmented tumor in the axial direction. Six metrics (energy, entropy, homogeneity, contrast, standard deviation (SD) and variance) derived from 3-levels of image decomposition in 3 directions (horizontal, vertical and diagonal) respectively, were used to quantify tumor texture. Independent t-test or Wilcoxon rank sum test depending on data normality were used as exploratory univariate analysis. Stepwise logistic regression and receiver operator characteristics (ROC) curve analysis were used to select predictors and assess prediction accuracy, respectively. Results: Consistently, 5 out of 6 wavelet-based texture measures (except homogeneity) were higher for malignant tumors compared to benign, when accounting for individual texture direction. Homogeneity was consistently lower in malignant than benign tumors irrespective of direction. SD and variance measured in the diagonal direction on the corticomedullary phase showed significant (p<0.05) difference between benign versus malignant tumors. The multivariate model with variance (3 directions) and SD (vertical direction) extracted from the excretory and pre-contrast phase, respectively showed an area under the ROC curve (AUC) of 0.78 (p < 0.05) in discriminating malignant from benign. Conclusion: Wavelet analysis is a valuable texture evaluation tool to add to a radiomics platforms geared at reliably characterizing and stratifying renal masses.

  18. Outcome and CT differentiation of gallbladder neuroendocrine tumours from adenocarcinomas

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kim, Tae-Hyung [Seoul National University Hospital, Department of Radiology, Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Kim, Se Hyung [Seoul National University Hospital, Department of Radiology, Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Seoul National University Hospital and Seoul National University College of Medicine, Department of Radiology, Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Seoul National University College of Medicine, Department of Radiology, Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Lee, Kyoung Boon [Seoul National University Hospital, Department of Pathology, Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Han, Joon Koo [Seoul National University Hospital, Department of Radiology, Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Seoul National University College of Medicine, Department of Radiology, Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Seoul National University Medical Research Center, Institute of Radiation Medicine, Seoul (Korea, Republic of)

    2017-02-15

    To retrospectively investigate clinical outcome and differential CT features of gallbladder (GB) neuroendocrine tumours (NETs) from adenocarcinomas (ADCs). Nineteen patients with poorly-differentiated (PD) NETs and 19 patients with PD ADCs were enrolled. Clinical outcome was compared by the Kaplan-Meier method. We assessed qualitative and quantitative CT features to identify significant differential CT features of PD NETs from ADCs using univariate and multivariate analyses. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was used for quantitative CT features. PD NETs showed poorer prognosis with significantly shorter median survival days than ADCs (363 vs. 590 days, P = 0.03). On univariate analysis, NETs more frequently manifested as GB-replacing type and showed well-defined margins accompanied with intact overlying mucosa. On multivariate analysis, well-defined margin was the sole significant CT differentiator (odds ratio = 27.817, P = 0.045). Maximum size of hepatic and lymph node (LN) metastases was significantly larger in NETs (11.0 cm and 4.62 cm) than ADCs (2.40 cm and 2.41 cm). Areas under ROC curves for tumour-to-mucosa ratio, maximum size of hepatic and LN metastasis were 0.772, 0.932 and 0.919, respectively (P < 0.05). GB PD NETs show poorer prognosis than ADCs. Well-defined margin, larger hepatic and LN metastases are useful CT differentiators of GB NETs from ADCs. (orig.)

  19. Bayesian linear regression with skew-symmetric error distributions with applications to survival analysis

    KAUST Repository

    Rubio, Francisco J.

    2016-02-09

    We study Bayesian linear regression models with skew-symmetric scale mixtures of normal error distributions. These kinds of models can be used to capture departures from the usual assumption of normality of the errors in terms of heavy tails and asymmetry. We propose a general noninformative prior structure for these regression models and show that the corresponding posterior distribution is proper under mild conditions. We extend these propriety results to cases where the response variables are censored. The latter scenario is of interest in the context of accelerated failure time models, which are relevant in survival analysis. We present a simulation study that demonstrates good frequentist properties of the posterior credible intervals associated with the proposed priors. This study also sheds some light on the trade-off between increased model flexibility and the risk of over-fitting. We illustrate the performance of the proposed models with real data. Although we focus on models with univariate response variables, we also present some extensions to the multivariate case in the Supporting Information.

  20. Categorical speech processing in Broca's area: an fMRI study using multivariate pattern-based analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Yune-Sang; Turkeltaub, Peter; Granger, Richard; Raizada, Rajeev D S

    2012-03-14

    Although much effort has been directed toward understanding the neural basis of speech processing, the neural processes involved in the categorical perception of speech have been relatively less studied, and many questions remain open. In this functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, we probed the cortical regions mediating categorical speech perception using an advanced brain-mapping technique, whole-brain multivariate pattern-based analysis (MVPA). Normal healthy human subjects (native English speakers) were scanned while they listened to 10 consonant-vowel syllables along the /ba/-/da/ continuum. Outside of the scanner, individuals' own category boundaries were measured to divide the fMRI data into /ba/ and /da/ conditions per subject. The whole-brain MVPA revealed that Broca's area and the left pre-supplementary motor area evoked distinct neural activity patterns between the two perceptual categories (/ba/ vs /da/). Broca's area was also found when the same analysis was applied to another dataset (Raizada and Poldrack, 2007), which previously yielded the supramarginal gyrus using a univariate adaptation-fMRI paradigm. The consistent MVPA findings from two independent datasets strongly indicate that Broca's area participates in categorical speech perception, with a possible role of translating speech signals into articulatory codes. The difference in results between univariate and multivariate pattern-based analyses of the same data suggest that processes in different cortical areas along the dorsal speech perception stream are distributed on different spatial scales.

  1. Clinical and Biological Predictors of Plasma Levels of Soluble RAGE in Critically Ill Patients: Secondary Analysis of a Prospective Multicenter Observational Study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Thibaut Pranal

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Rationale. Although soluble forms of the receptor for advanced glycation end products (RAGE have been recently proposed as biomarkers in multiple acute or chronic diseases, few studies evaluated the influence of usual clinical and biological parameters, or of patient characteristics and comorbidities, on circulating levels of soluble RAGE in the intensive care unit (ICU setting. Objectives. To determine, among clinical and biological parameters that are usually recorded upon ICU admission, which variables, if any, could be associated with plasma levels of soluble RAGE. Methods. Data for this ancillary study were prospectively obtained from adult patients with at least one ARDS risk factor upon ICU admission enrolled in a large multicenter observational study. At ICU admission, plasma levels of total soluble RAGE (sRAGE and endogenous secretory (esRAGE were measured by duplicate ELISA and baseline patient characteristics, comorbidities, and usual clinical and biological indices were recorded. After univariate analyses, significant variables were used in multivariate, multidimensional analyses. Measurements and Main Results. 294 patients were included in this ancillary study, among whom 62% were admitted for medical reasons, including septic shock (11%, coma (11%, and pneumonia (6%. Although some variables were associated with plasma levels of RAGE soluble forms in univariate analysis, multidimensional analyses showed no significant association between admission parameters and baseline plasma sRAGE or esRAGE. Conclusions. We found no obvious association between circulating levels of soluble RAGE and clinical and biological indices that are usually recorded upon ICU admission. This trial is registered with NCT02070536.

  2. [Analysis of prognostic factors after radical resection in 628 patients with stage II or III colon cancer].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Qin, Qiong; Yang, Lin; Zhou, Ai-ping; Sun, Yong-kun; Song, Yan; DU, Feng; Wang, Jin-wan

    2013-03-01

    To analyze the clinicopathologic factors related to recurrence and metastasis of stage II or III colon cancer after radical resection. The clinical and pathological data of 628 patients with stage II or III colon cancer after radical resection from Jan. 2005 to Dec. 2008 in our hospital were retrospectively reviewed and analyzed. The overall recurrence and metastasis rate was 28.5% (179/628). The 5-year disease-free survival (DFS) rate was 70.3% and 5-year overall survival (OS) rate was 78.5%. Univariate analysis showed that age, smoking intensity, depth of tumor invasion, lymph node metastasis, TNM stage, gross classification, histological differentiation, blood vessel tumor embolus, tumor gross pathology, multiple primary tumors, preoperative and postoperative serum concentration of CEA and CA19-9, and the regimen of adjuvant chemotherapy were correlated to recurrence and metastasis of colon cancer after radical resection. Multivariate analysis showed that regional lymph node metastasis, TNM stage, the regimen of postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy, and preoperative serum concentration of CEA and CA19-9 were independent factors affecting the prognosis of colon cancer patients. Regional lymph node metastasis, TNM stage, elevated preoperative serum concentration of CEA and CA19-9, the regimen of postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy with single fluorouracil type drug are independent risk factors of recurrence and metastasis in patients with stage II-III colon cancer after radical resection.

  3. Do Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme Inhibitors Reduce the Risk of Symptomatic Radiation Pneumonitis in Patients With Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer After Definitive Radiation Therapy? Analysis of a Single-Institution Database

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Wang, Hongmei [Department of Radiation Oncology, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, P.R. of China (China); Liao, Zhongxing, E-mail: zliao@mdanderson.org [Department of Radiation Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas (United States); Zhuang, Yan; Xu, Ting; Nguyen, Quynh-Nhu; Levy, Lawrence B.; O' Reilly, Michael [Department of Radiation Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas (United States); Gold, Kathryn A. [Department of Thoracic Medical Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas (United States); Gomez, Daniel R. [Department of Radiation Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas (United States)

    2013-12-01

    Purpose: Preclinical studies have suggested that angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs) can mitigate radiation-induced lung injury. We sought here to investigate possible associations between ACEI use and the risk of symptomatic radiation pneumonitis (RP) among patients undergoing radiation therapy (RT) for non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods and Materials: We retrospectively identified patients who received definitive radiation therapy for stages I to III NSCLC between 2004 and 2010 at a single tertiary cancer center. Patients must have received a radiation dose of at least 60 Gy for a single primary lung tumor and have had imaging and dosimetric data available for analysis. RP was quantified according to Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events, version 3.0. A Cox proportional hazard model was used to assess potential associations between ACEI use and risk of symptomatic RP. Results: Of 413 patients analyzed, 65 were using ACEIs during RT. In univariate analysis, the rate of RP grade ≥2 seemed lower in ACEI users than in nonusers (34% vs 46%), but this apparent difference was not statistically significant (P=.06). In multivariate analysis of all patients, ACEI use was not associated with the risk of symptomatic RP (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.66; P=.07) after adjustment for sex, smoking status, mean lung dose (MLD), and concurrent carboplatin and paclitaxel chemotherapy. Subgroup analysis showed that ACEI use did have a protective effect from RP grade ≥2 among patients who received a low (≤20-Gy) MLD (P<.01) or were male (P=.04). Conclusions: A trend toward reduction in symptomatic RP among patients taking ACEIs during RT for NSCLC was not statistically significant on univariate or multivariate analyses, although certain subgroups may benefit from use (ie, male patients and those receiving low MLD). The evidence at this point is insufficient to establish whether the use of ACEIs does or does not reduce the risk of RP.

  4. Classification d'images RSO polarimétriques à haute résolution spatiale sur site urbain.

    OpenAIRE

    Soheili Majd , Maryam

    2014-01-01

    In this research, our aim is to assess the potential of a one single look high spatial resolution polarimetric radar image for the classification of urban areas. For that purpose, we concentrate on classes corresponding to different kinds of roofs, objects and ground surfaces.At first, we propose a uni-variate statistical analysis of polarimetric and texture attributes, that can be used in a classification algorithm. We perform a statistical analysis of descriptors and show that the Fisher di...

  5. Plasma catecholamine level and portal venous pressure as guides to prognosis in patients with cirrhosis

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Tage-Jensen, U; Henriksen, Jens Henrik; Christensen, E

    1988-01-01

    clinical and biochemical variables and survival. Forty-seven (58%) of the patients died during the follow-up period. Univariate analysis showed that plasma noradrenaline and adrenaline concentrations, portal pressure, indocyanine green clearance, serum sodium, bilirubin, and albumin concentrations......, and the presence of ascites or cardiovascular disease were of significant prognostic value. In a multivariate analysis (Cox regression model), plasma noradrenaline concentration, portal pressure, serum bilirubin concentration, and the presence of ascites and cardiovascular disease remained significant independent...

  6. Can Automated Facial Expression Analysis Show Differences Between Autism and Typical Functioning?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Borsos, Zsófia; Gyori, Miklos

    2017-01-01

    Exploratory analyses of emotional expressions using a commercially available facial expression recognition software are reported, from the context of a serious game for screening purposes. Our results are based on a comparative analysis of two matched groups of kindergarten-age children (high-functioning children with autism spectrum condition: n=13; typically developing children: n=13). Results indicate that this technology has the potential to identify autism-specific emotion expression features, and may play a role in affective diagnostic and assistive technologies.

  7. Parametric statistical change point analysis

    CERN Document Server

    Chen, Jie

    2000-01-01

    This work is an in-depth study of the change point problem from a general point of view and a further examination of change point analysis of the most commonly used statistical models Change point problems are encountered in such disciplines as economics, finance, medicine, psychology, signal processing, and geology, to mention only several The exposition is clear and systematic, with a great deal of introductory material included Different models are presented in each chapter, including gamma and exponential models, rarely examined thus far in the literature Other models covered in detail are the multivariate normal, univariate normal, regression, and discrete models Extensive examples throughout the text emphasize key concepts and different methodologies are used, namely the likelihood ratio criterion, and the Bayesian and information criterion approaches A comprehensive bibliography and two indices complete the study

  8. Preeclampsia and Retinopathy of Prematurity in Very-Low-Birth-Weight Infants: A Population-Based Study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huang, Hsin-Chung; Yang, Hwai-I; Chou, Hung-Chieh; Chen, Chien-Yi; Hsieh, Wu-Shiun; Tsou, Kuo-Inn; Tsao, Po-Nien

    2015-01-01

    Preeclampsia and retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) are associated with impaired angiogenesis. Previous studies on the relationship between preeclampsia and ROP have produced conflicting results. The goal of this study was to evaluate the association between maternal preeclampsia and ROP using a large population-based cohort of very-low-birth-weight (VLBW) infants from 21 neonatal departments registered in the database of the Premature Baby Foundation of Taiwan. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was used to estimate the adjusted odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for preeclampsia with reference to ROP and severe ROP. A total of 5,718 VLBW infants (844 cases with maternal preeclampsia) were included for analysis. The overall incidences of mild and severe ROP were 36.0% and 12.2%, respectively. Univariable analysis showed lower GA and lower birth weight, vaginal delivery, non-SGA, RDS, PDA, sepsis, transfusion, and absence of maternal preeclampsia to be associated with mild and severe ROP development. However, OR (95% CI) adjusted for the variables that were significant according to univariable analysis showed the risks of developing any-stage ROP and severe ROP for maternal preeclampsia to be 1.00 (0.84-1.20) and 0.89 (0.63-1.25), respectively. The results remained unchanged in stratified analyses according to SGA status. Our data showed that maternal preeclampsia was not associated with the subsequent development of any stage or severe ROP in VLBW infants.

  9. Preeclampsia and Retinopathy of Prematurity in Very-Low-Birth-Weight Infants: A Population-Based Study.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hsin-Chung Huang

    Full Text Available Preeclampsia and retinopathy of prematurity (ROP are associated with impaired angiogenesis. Previous studies on the relationship between preeclampsia and ROP have produced conflicting results. The goal of this study was to evaluate the association between maternal preeclampsia and ROP using a large population-based cohort of very-low-birth-weight (VLBW infants from 21 neonatal departments registered in the database of the Premature Baby Foundation of Taiwan. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was used to estimate the adjusted odds ratios (OR and 95% confidence intervals (CI for preeclampsia with reference to ROP and severe ROP. A total of 5,718 VLBW infants (844 cases with maternal preeclampsia were included for analysis. The overall incidences of mild and severe ROP were 36.0% and 12.2%, respectively. Univariable analysis showed lower GA and lower birth weight, vaginal delivery, non-SGA, RDS, PDA, sepsis, transfusion, and absence of maternal preeclampsia to be associated with mild and severe ROP development. However, OR (95% CI adjusted for the variables that were significant according to univariable analysis showed the risks of developing any-stage ROP and severe ROP for maternal preeclampsia to be 1.00 (0.84-1.20 and 0.89 (0.63-1.25, respectively. The results remained unchanged in stratified analyses according to SGA status. Our data showed that maternal preeclampsia was not associated with the subsequent development of any stage or severe ROP in VLBW infants.

  10. Unplanned Readmission in Outpatient Hand Surgery: An Analysis of 23,613 Patients in the NSQIP Data Set.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Donato, Daniel P; Kwok, Alvin C; Bishop, Michael O; Presson, Angela P; Agarwal, Jayant P

    2017-01-01

    Objective: In an era of controlling cost and improving care, 30-day readmission rates have become an important quality measure. The purpose of this study was to identify the rates of 30-day unplanned readmission and the associated risk factors in patients undergoing outpatient hand surgery. Methods: The 2011-2014 National Surgical Quality Improvement Project data were queried for patients who met 368 hand-specific Current Procedural Terminology codes. Univariable and multivariable analyses were performed to identify patient- and surgery-specific risk factors associated with unplanned readmission within 30 days. Results: Of the 368 Current Procedural Terminology codes queried, 208 were represented in the data, for a total of 23,613 patients. The overall unplanned readmission rate was 0.88% (207/23,613). On both univariable and multivariable analyses, operative year (2012), increasing age, obesity, smoking status, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, preoperative steroid use, preoperative anemia, increasing American Society of Anesthesiologists classification, increasing operative time, and a procedure performed by a surgeon other than a plastic or orthopedic surgeon were associated with increased readmission rates. Diabetes, hypertension, low albumin levels, elevated international normalized ratio, and dirty/infected wound classification were only significant in univariable analysis. Current Procedural Terminology codes associated with the highest readmission rates were related to amputations. The most common readmission diagnoses were wound complications, followed by uncontrolled postoperative pain. Conclusions: The incidence of unplanned readmission is low in patients undergoing outpatient hand surgery. Specific patient comorbidities are associated with increased unplanned readmission rates. This information may be useful in identifying patients at higher risk for unplanned readmission and in counseling of high-risk patients preparing for surgery.

  11. [Risk factors for anorexia in children].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Wei-Xiao; Lang, Jun-Feng; Zhang, Qin-Feng

    2016-11-01

    To investigate the risk factors for anorexia in children, and to reduce the prevalence of anorexia in children. A questionnaire survey and a case-control study were used to collect the general information of 150 children with anorexia (case group) and 150 normal children (control group). Univariate analysis and multivariate logistic stepwise regression analysis were performed to identify the risk factors for anorexia in children. The results of the univariate analysis showed significant differences between the case and control groups in the age in months when supplementary food were added, feeding pattern, whether they liked meat, vegetables and salty food, whether they often took snacks and beverages, whether they liked to play while eating, and whether their parents asked them to eat food on time (Panorexia in children. Liking of meat (OR=0.093) and vegetables (OR=0.272) and eating on time required by parents (OR=0.079) were protective factors against anorexia in children. Timely addition of supplementary food, a proper diet, and development of children's proper eating and living habits can reduce the incidence of anorexia in children.

  12. Effect of different exercise programs on the psychological and cognitive functions of people with Parkinson's disease

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lilian Teresa Bucken Gobbi

    2013-09-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this study was to analyze the effect of different exercise programs on the psychological and cognitive functions in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD. Forty-five patients with PD participated in the study. The participants were randomized in three intervention programs: Group-1 (n=15, cognitive-activities, Group-2 (n=15, multimodal exercise and Group-3 (n=15, exercises for posture and gait. The clinical, psychological and cognitive functions were assessed before and after 4 months of intervention. Univariate analysis did not reveal significant interactions between groups and time (p>0.05. However, univariate analysis for time revealed differences in stress level and memory. Participants showed less physical stress (p<0.01 and overall stress (p < 0.04 and higher performance in episodic declarative memory (p < 0.001 after exercise. These findings suggest that group work with motor or non-motor activities can improve cognitive and psychological functions of patients with PD.

  13. Cranial and dental analysis of mouse-like hamsters of the genus Calomyscus (Rodentia: Calomyscidae) from plateau of Iran

    OpenAIRE

    Shahabi, Saeed; Darvish, Jamshid; Aliabadian, Mansour; Mirshamsi, Omid; Mohammadi, Zeinolabedien

    2012-01-01

    To assess morphometric interspecific differences, we studied by multivariate and univariate analyses 32 cranial, mandibular and dental variables and four standard external measurements in 84 specimens of the genus Calomyscus (C. elburzensis, C. bailwardi, C. hotsoni and C. grandis) from Iran. Almost all mean cranial measurements in C. grandis were larger than in the other three species, while the opposite occurred for C. hotsoni. C. bailwardi showed the smallest dental measurement. Principal ...

  14. Systematic analysis of DEMETER-like DNA glycosylase genes shows lineage-specific Smi-miR7972 involved in SmDML1 regulation in Salvia miltiorrhiza.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Jiang; Li, Caili; Lu, Shanfa

    2018-05-08

    DEMETER-like DNA glycosylases (DMLs) initiate the base excision repair-dependent DNA demethylation to regulate a wide range of biological processes in plants. Six putative SmDML genes, termed SmDML1-SmDML6, were identified from the genome of S. miltiorrhiza, an emerging model plant for Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) studies. Integrated analysis of gene structures, sequence features, conserved domains and motifs, phylogenetic analysis and differential expression showed the conservation and divergence of SmDMLs. SmDML1, SmDML2 and SmDML4 were significantly down-regulated by the treatment of 5Aza-dC, a general DNA methylation inhibitor, suggesting involvement of SmDMLs in genome DNA methylation change. SmDML1 was predicted and experimentally validated to be target of Smi-miR7972. Computational analysis of forty whole genome sequences and almost all of RNA-seq data from Lamiids revealed that MIR7972s were only distributed in some plants of the three orders, including Lamiales, Solanales and Boraginales, and the number of MIR7972 genes varied among species. It suggests that MIR7972 genes underwent expansion and loss during the evolution of some Lamiids species. Phylogenetic analysis of MIR7972s showed closer evolutionary relationships between MIR7972s in Boraginales and Solanales in comparison with Lamiales. These results provide a valuable resource for elucidating DNA demethylation mechanism in S. miltiorrhiza.

  15. Experimental analysis of multivariate female choice in gray treefrogs (Hyla versicolor): evidence for directional and stabilizing selection.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gerhardt, H Carl; Brooks, Robert

    2009-10-01

    Even simple biological signals vary in several measurable dimensions. Understanding their evolution requires, therefore, a multivariate understanding of selection, including how different properties interact to determine the effectiveness of the signal. We combined experimental manipulation with multivariate selection analysis to assess female mate choice on the simple trilled calls of male gray treefrogs. We independently and randomly varied five behaviorally relevant acoustic properties in 154 synthetic calls. We compared response times of each of 154 females to one of these calls with its response to a standard call that had mean values of the five properties. We found directional and quadratic selection on two properties indicative of the amount of signaling, pulse number, and call rate. Canonical rotation of the fitness surface showed that these properties, along with pulse rate, contributed heavily to a major axis of stabilizing selection, a result consistent with univariate studies showing diminishing effects of increasing pulse number well beyond the mean. Spectral properties contributed to a second major axis of stabilizing selection. The single major axis of disruptive selection suggested that a combination of two temporal and two spectral properties with values differing from the mean should be especially attractive.

  16. Combined Metabolomic Analysis of Plasma and Urine Reveals AHBA, Tryptophan and Serotonin Metabolism as Potential Risk Factors in Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (GDM)

    OpenAIRE

    Leitner, Miriam; Fragner, Lena; Danner, Sarah; Holeschofsky, Nastassja; Leitner, Karoline; Tischler, Sonja; Doerfler, Hannes; Bachmann, Gert; Sun, Xiaoliang; Jaeger, Walter; Kautzky-Willer, Alexandra; Weckwerth, Wolfram

    2017-01-01

    Gestational diabetes mellitus during pregnancy has severe implications for the health of the mother and the fetus. Therefore, early prediction and an understanding of the physiology are an important part of prenatal care. Metabolite profiling is a long established method for the analysis and prediction of metabolic diseases. Here, we applied untargeted and targeted metabolomic protocols to analyze plasma and urine samples of pregnant women with and without GDM. Univariate and multivariate sta...

  17. The joint return period analysis of natural disasters based on monitoring and statistical modeling of multidimensional hazard factors

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Liu, Xueqin [State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875 (China); National Marine Environmental Monitoring Center, State Oceanic Administration, Dalian 116023 (China); School of Social Development and Public Policy, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875 (China); Li, Ning [State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875 (China); Yuan, Shuai, E-mail: syuan@nmemc.org.cn [National Marine Environmental Monitoring Center, State Oceanic Administration, Dalian 116023 (China); Xu, Ning; Shi, Wenqin; Chen, Weibin [National Marine Environmental Monitoring Center, State Oceanic Administration, Dalian 116023 (China)

    2015-12-15

    As a random event, a natural disaster has the complex occurrence mechanism. The comprehensive analysis of multiple hazard factors is important in disaster risk assessment. In order to improve the accuracy of risk analysis and forecasting, the formation mechanism of a disaster should be considered in the analysis and calculation of multi-factors. Based on the consideration of the importance and deficiencies of multivariate analysis of dust storm disasters, 91 severe dust storm disasters in Inner Mongolia from 1990 to 2013 were selected as study cases in the paper. Main hazard factors from 500-hPa atmospheric circulation system, near-surface meteorological system, and underlying surface conditions were selected to simulate and calculate the multidimensional joint return periods. After comparing the simulation results with actual dust storm events in 54 years, we found that the two-dimensional Frank Copula function showed the better fitting results at the lower tail of hazard factors and that three-dimensional Frank Copula function displayed the better fitting results at the middle and upper tails of hazard factors. However, for dust storm disasters with the short return period, three-dimensional joint return period simulation shows no obvious advantage. If the return period is longer than 10 years, it shows significant advantages in extreme value fitting. Therefore, we suggest the multivariate analysis method may be adopted in forecasting and risk analysis of serious disasters with the longer return period, such as earthquake and tsunami. Furthermore, the exploration of this method laid the foundation for the prediction and warning of other nature disasters. - Highlights: • A method to estimate the multidimensional joint return periods is presented. • 2D function allows better fitting results at the lower tail of hazard factors. • Three-dimensional simulation has obvious advantages in extreme value fitting. • Joint return periods are closer to the reality

  18. The joint return period analysis of natural disasters based on monitoring and statistical modeling of multidimensional hazard factors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Liu, Xueqin; Li, Ning; Yuan, Shuai; Xu, Ning; Shi, Wenqin; Chen, Weibin

    2015-01-01

    As a random event, a natural disaster has the complex occurrence mechanism. The comprehensive analysis of multiple hazard factors is important in disaster risk assessment. In order to improve the accuracy of risk analysis and forecasting, the formation mechanism of a disaster should be considered in the analysis and calculation of multi-factors. Based on the consideration of the importance and deficiencies of multivariate analysis of dust storm disasters, 91 severe dust storm disasters in Inner Mongolia from 1990 to 2013 were selected as study cases in the paper. Main hazard factors from 500-hPa atmospheric circulation system, near-surface meteorological system, and underlying surface conditions were selected to simulate and calculate the multidimensional joint return periods. After comparing the simulation results with actual dust storm events in 54 years, we found that the two-dimensional Frank Copula function showed the better fitting results at the lower tail of hazard factors and that three-dimensional Frank Copula function displayed the better fitting results at the middle and upper tails of hazard factors. However, for dust storm disasters with the short return period, three-dimensional joint return period simulation shows no obvious advantage. If the return period is longer than 10 years, it shows significant advantages in extreme value fitting. Therefore, we suggest the multivariate analysis method may be adopted in forecasting and risk analysis of serious disasters with the longer return period, such as earthquake and tsunami. Furthermore, the exploration of this method laid the foundation for the prediction and warning of other nature disasters. - Highlights: • A method to estimate the multidimensional joint return periods is presented. • 2D function allows better fitting results at the lower tail of hazard factors. • Three-dimensional simulation has obvious advantages in extreme value fitting. • Joint return periods are closer to the reality

  19. Airline Overbooking Problem with Uncertain No-Shows

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chunxiao Zhang

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper considers an airline overbooking problem of a new single-leg flight with discount fare. Due to the absence of historical data of no-shows for a new flight, and various uncertain human behaviors or unexpected events which causes that a few passengers cannot board their aircraft on time, we fail to obtain the probability distribution of no-shows. In this case, the airlines have to invite some domain experts to provide belief degree of no-shows to estimate its distribution. However, human beings often overestimate unlikely events, which makes the variance of belief degree much greater than that of the frequency. If we still regard the belief degree as a subjective probability, the derived results will exceed our expectations. In order to deal with this uncertainty, the number of no-shows of new flight is assumed to be an uncertain variable in this paper. Given the chance constraint of social reputation, an overbooking model with discount fares is developed to maximize the profit rate based on uncertain programming theory. Finally, the analytic expression of the optimal booking limit is obtained through a numerical example, and the results of sensitivity analysis indicate that the optimal booking limit is affected by flight capacity, discount, confidence level, and parameters of the uncertainty distribution significantly.

  20. A comparison of multivariate genome-wide association methods

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Galesloot, Tessel E; Van Steen, Kristel; Kiemeney, Lambertus A L M

    2014-01-01

    Joint association analysis of multiple traits in a genome-wide association study (GWAS), i.e. a multivariate GWAS, offers several advantages over analyzing each trait in a separate GWAS. In this study we directly compared a number of multivariate GWAS methods using simulated data. We focused on six...... methods that are implemented in the software packages PLINK, SNPTEST, MultiPhen, BIMBAM, PCHAT and TATES, and also compared them to standard univariate GWAS, analysis of the first principal component of the traits, and meta-analysis of univariate results. We simulated data (N = 1000) for three...... for scenarios with an opposite sign of genetic and residual correlation. All multivariate analyses resulted in a higher power than univariate analyses, even when only one of the traits was associated with the QTL. Hence, use of multivariate GWAS methods can be recommended, even when genetic correlations between...

  1. The influence of different classification standards of age groups on prognosis in high-grade hemispheric glioma patients.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Jian-Wu; Zhou, Chang-Fu; Lin, Zhi-Xiong

    2015-09-15

    Although age is thought to correlate with the prognosis of glioma patients, the most appropriate age-group classification standard to evaluate prognosis had not been fully studied. This study aimed to investigate the influence of age-group classification standards on the prognosis of patients with high-grade hemispheric glioma (HGG). This retrospective study of 125 HGG patients used three different classification standards of age-groups (≤ 50 and >50 years old, ≤ 60 and >60 years old, ≤ 45 and 45-65 and ≥ 65 years old) to evaluate the impact of age on prognosis. The primary end-point was overall survival (OS). The Kaplan-Meier method was applied for univariate analysis and Cox proportional hazards model for multivariate analysis. Univariate analysis showed a significant correlation between OS and all three classification standards of age-groups as well as between OS and pathological grade, gender, location of glioma, and regular chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatment. Multivariate analysis showed that the only independent predictors of OS were classification standard of age-groups ≤ 50 and > 50 years old, pathological grade and regular chemotherapy. In summary, the most appropriate classification standard of age-groups as an independent prognostic factor was ≤ 50 and > 50 years old. Pathological grade and chemotherapy were also independent predictors of OS in post-operative HGG patients. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier B.V.

  2. Cost-effectiveness analysis of EGFR mutation testing in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with gefitinib or carboplatin-paclitaxel.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arrieta, Oscar; Anaya, Pablo; Morales-Oyarvide, Vicente; Ramírez-Tirado, Laura Alejandra; Polanco, Ana C

    2016-09-01

    Assess the cost-effectiveness of an EGFR-mutation testing strategy for advanced NSCLC in first-line therapy with either gefitinib or carboplatin-paclitaxel in Mexican institutions. Cost-effectiveness analysis using a discrete event simulation (DES) model to simulate two therapeutic strategies in patients with advanced NSCLC. Strategy one included patients tested for EGFR-mutation and therapy given accordingly. Strategy two included chemotherapy for all patients without testing. All results are presented in 2014 US dollars. The analysis was made with data from the Mexican frequency of EGFR-mutation. A univariate sensitivity analysis was conducted on EGFR prevalence. Progression-free survival (PFS) transition probabilities were estimated on data from the IPASS and simulated with a Weibull distribution, run with parallel trials to calculate a probabilistic sensitivity analysis. PFS of patients in the testing strategy was 6.76 months (95 % CI 6.10-7.44) vs 5.85 months (95 % CI 5.43-6.29) in the non-testing group. The one-way sensitivity analysis showed that PFS has a direct relationship with EGFR-mutation prevalence, while the ICER and testing cost have an inverse relationship with EGFR-mutation prevalence. The probabilistic sensitivity analysis showed that all iterations had incremental costs and incremental PFS for strategy 1 in comparison with strategy 2. There is a direct relationship between the ICER and the cost of EGFR testing, with an inverse relationship with the prevalence of EGFR-mutation. When prevalence is >10 % ICER remains constant. This study could impact Mexican and Latin American health policies regarding mutation detection testing and treatment for advanced NSCLC.

  3. Meta-analysis of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) studies shows altered fractional anisotropy occurring in distinct brain areas in association with depression

    LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

    Murphy, Melissa L

    2011-09-27

    Abstract Fractional anisotropy anomalies occurring in the white matter tracts in the brains of depressed patients may reflect microstructural changes underlying the pathophysiology of this disorder. We conducted a meta-analysis of fractional anisotropy abnormalities occurring in major depressive disorder using voxel-based diffusion tensor imaging studies. Using the Embase, PubMed and Google Scholar databases, 89 relevant data sets were identified, of which 7 (including 188 patients with major depressive disorder and 221 healthy controls) met our inclusion criteria. Authors were contacted to retrieve any additional data required. Coordinates were extracted from clusters of significant white matter fractional anisotropy differences between patients and controls. Relevant demographic, clinical and methodological variables were extracted from each study or obtained directly from authors. The meta-analysis was carried out using Signed Differential Mapping. Patients with depression showed decreased white matter fractional anisotropy values in the superior longitudinal fasciculus and increased fractional anisotropy values in the fronto-occipital fasciculus compared to controls. Using quartile and jackknife sensitivity analysis, we found that reduced fractional anisotropy in the left superior longitudinal fasciculus was very stable, with increases in the right fronto-occipital fasciculus driven by just one study. In conclusion, our meta-analysis revealed a significant reduction in fractional anisotropy values in the left superior longitudinal fasciculus, which may ultimately play an important role in the pathology of depression.

  4. Systematic Evaluation of the Prognostic Impact and Intratumour Heterogeneity of Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma Biomarkers

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Gulati, Sakshi; Martinez, Pierre; Joshi, Tejal

    2014-01-01

    and statistical analysisBiomarker association with CSS was analysed by univariate and multivariate analyses. Results and limitationsA total of 17 of 28 biomarkers (TP53 mutations; amplifications of chromosomes 8q, 12, 20q11.21q13.32, and 20 and deletions of 4p, 9p, 9p21.3p24.1, and 22q; low EDNRB and TSPAN7...... expression and six gene expression signatures) were validated as predictors of poor CSS in univariate analysis. Tumour stage and the ccB expression signature were the only independent predictors in multivariate analysis. ITH of the ccB signature was identified in 8 of 10 tumours. Several genetic alterations...... that were significant in univariate analysis were enriched, and chromosomal instability indices were increased in samples expressing the ccB signature. The study may be underpowered to validate low-prevalence biomarkers. ConclusionsThe ccB signature was the only independent prognostic biomarker. Enrichment...

  5. Analysis on the training effect of criteria and practical guidance for determination of brain death: evoked potentials

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yan ZHANG

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available Objective To analyze the training results of short-latency somatosensory-evoked potential (SLSEP for brain death determination and to improve the training program. Methods A total of 101 trainees received theoretical training, simulation skills training, bedside skills training and test analysis for SLSEP in brain death determination. The composition of trainees was analyzed and the error rates of 6 knowledge points were calculated. Univariate and multivariate backward Logistic regression analyses were used to analyze the influence of factors including sex, age, specialty, professional category, professional qualification and hospital level, on the error rates. Results Among them, trainees of 30-49 years old occupied 76.24% (77/101, most of them were from third grade, grade A hospitals (98.02%, 99/101, and 78 trainees (77.23% were from Department of Neurology. There were 82 clinicians (81.19%, 31 (30.69% had senior certificate and 42 (41.58% had intermediate certificate. Total error rate of 6 knowledge points was 4.50% (91/2020. Of the 6 knowledge points, the error rate of pitfalls was the highest (9.41%, 19/202, followed by result determination (5.94% , 12/202, recording techniques (4.75% , 24/505, procedures (3.96%, 32/808, sequence of confirmatory tests (1.98%, 2/101 and environmental conditions (0.99%, 2/202. Univariate and multivariate Logistic regression analyses showed that age (OR = 1.566, 95% CI: 1.116-2.197; P = 0.009 and professional qualification (OR = 1.669, 95% CI: 1.163-2.397; P = 0.005 were independent risk factors associated with high error rates. Conclusions The differences between brain death determination and routine check of SLSEP should be paid more attention to improve the quality of determination for brain death by SLSEP.  DOI: 10.3969/j.issn.1672-6731.2015.12.007

  6. Analysis of factors affecting local tumor progression of colorectal cancer liver metastasis after radiofrequency ablation

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Jeon, Seong Hee; Cho, Yun Ku; Choi, Seung A; Kim, Mi Young; Lee, Ho Suk [Veterans Health Service Medical Center, Seoul (Korea, Republic of)

    2017-03-15

    The purpose of this study was to evaluate the independent predictive factors for local tumor progression (LTP) of colorectal liver metastasis (CRLM) after radiofrequency ablation (RFA). Patients with CRLM were included in the analysis if nodules were up to five in number, each nodule was ≤ 5 cm, and RFA was performed in our center from January 2006 to December 2015. Univariate and multivariate analyses to identify the predictors of LTP were performed by using a Cox proportional hazard model. Overall, 58 tumors from 38 patients were included in this study. LTP occurred in 14 tumors from 9 patients. The overall 1- and 3-year LTP rates were 23.5% and 29.4%, respectively. Multivariate analysis showed that tumor size > 2 cm and insufficient ablative margin were two independently significant adverse prognostic factors for LTP (p = 0.045 and 0.022, respectively). The 3-year LTP rates for 33 and 25 tumors with and without sufficient ablative margin were 4.5% and 61.2%, respectively. The difference was statistically significant (p < 0.001). The difference in the 3-year LTP rates according to the tumor size was not statistically significant (p = 0.791). Insufficient ablative margin seems to be the most potent predictor of LTP after RFA of CRLM.

  7. Gut Transcriptome Analysis Shows Different Food Utilization Efficiency by the Grasshopper Oedaleous asiaticus (Orthoptera: Acrididae).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huang, Xunbing; McNeill, Mark Richard; Ma, Jingchuan; Qin, Xinghu; Tu, Xiongbing; Cao, Guangchun; Wang, Guangjun; Nong, Xiangqun; Zhang, Zehua

    2017-08-01

    Oedaleus asiaticus B. Bienko is a persistent pest occurring in north Asian grasslands. We found that O. asiaticus feeding on Stipa krylovii Roshev. had higher approximate digestibility (AD), efficiency of conversion of ingested food (ECI), and efficiency of conversion of digested food (ECD), compared with cohorts feeding on Leymus chinensis (Trin.) Tzvel, Artemisia frigida Willd., or Cleistogenes squarrosa (Trin.) Keng. Although this indicated high food utilization efficiency for S. krylovii, the physiological processes and molecular mechanisms underlying these biological observations are not well understood. Transcriptome analysis was used to examine how gene expression levels in O. asiaticus gut are altered by feeding on the four plant species. Nymphs (fifth-instar female) that fed on S. krylovii had the largest variation in gene expression profiles, with a total of 88 genes significantly upregulated compared with those feeding on the other three plants, mainly including nutrition digestive genes of protein, carbohydrate, and lipid digestion. GO and KEGG enrichment also showed that feeding S. krylovii could upregulate the nutrition digestion-related molecular function, biological process, and pathways. These changes in transcripts levels indicate that the physiological processes of activating nutrition digestive enzymes and metabolism pathways can well explain the high food utilization of S. krylovii by O. asiaticus. © The Authors 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Entomological Society of America. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  8. Connectomic markers of symptom severity in sport-related concussion: Whole-brain analysis of resting-state fMRI.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Churchill, Nathan W; Hutchison, Michael G; Graham, Simon J; Schweizer, Tom A

    2018-01-01

    Concussion is associated with significant adverse effects within the first week post-injury, including physical complaints and altered cognition, sleep and mood. It is currently unknown whether these subjective disturbances have reliable functional brain correlates. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) has been used to measure functional connectivity of individuals after traumatic brain injury, but less is known about the relationship between functional connectivity and symptom assessments after a sport concussion. In this study, rs-fMRI was used to evaluate whole-brain functional connectivity for seventy (70) university-level athletes, including 35 with acute concussion and 35 healthy matched controls. Univariate analyses showed that greater symptom severity was mainly associated with lower pairwise connectivity in frontal, temporal and insular regions, along with higher connectivity in a sparser set of cerebellar regions. A novel multivariate approach also extracted two components that showed reliable covariation with symptom severity: (1) a network of frontal, temporal and insular regions where connectivity was negatively correlated with symptom severity (replicating the univariate findings); and (2) a network with anti-correlated elements of the default-mode network and sensorimotor system, where connectivity was positively correlated with symptom severity. These findings support the presence of connectomic signatures of symptom complaints following a sport-related concussion, including both increased and decreased functional connectivity within distinct functional brain networks.

  9. A comparison of genotyping-by-sequencing analysis methods on low-coverage crop datasets shows advantages of a new workflow, GB-eaSy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wickland, Daniel P; Battu, Gopal; Hudson, Karen A; Diers, Brian W; Hudson, Matthew E

    2017-12-28

    Genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS), a method to identify genetic variants and quickly genotype samples, reduces genome complexity by using restriction enzymes to divide the genome into fragments whose ends are sequenced on short-read sequencing platforms. While cost-effective, this method produces extensive missing data and requires complex bioinformatics analysis. GBS is most commonly used on crop plant genomes, and because crop plants have highly variable ploidy and repeat content, the performance of GBS analysis software can vary by target organism. Here we focus our analysis on soybean, a polyploid crop with a highly duplicated genome, relatively little public GBS data and few dedicated tools. We compared the performance of five GBS pipelines using low-coverage Illumina sequence data from three soybean populations. To address issues identified with existing methods, we developed GB-eaSy, a GBS bioinformatics workflow that incorporates widely used genomics tools, parallelization and automation to increase the accuracy and accessibility of GBS data analysis. Compared to other GBS pipelines, GB-eaSy rapidly and accurately identified the greatest number of SNPs, with SNP calls closely concordant with whole-genome sequencing of selected lines. Across all five GBS analysis platforms, SNP calls showed unexpectedly low convergence but generally high accuracy, indicating that the workflows arrived at largely complementary sets of valid SNP calls on the low-coverage data analyzed. We show that GB-eaSy is approximately as good as, or better than, other leading software solutions in the accuracy, yield and missing data fraction of variant calling, as tested on low-coverage genomic data from soybean. It also performs well relative to other solutions in terms of the run time and disk space required. In addition, GB-eaSy is built from existing open-source, modular software packages that are regularly updated and commonly used, making it straightforward to install and maintain

  10. Cosmopolitanism Influence on Destination Image: An Analysis of São Paulo City

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Felipe Nasrallah Bedran

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available This study aimed to find out how cosmopolitanism influences the destination image building. To accomplish this objective we interviewed foreign people, who know São Paulo, a city with national and international importance, due to its structure, economy, size, population and by its intense cultural and business life. This work reviewed cosmopolitanism that is the desire to know other cultures, besides his native one. This leads to an intention to travel through different regions, countries, to deepen in other societies and try to blend into it. Thus, one has particular characteristics, which influence the way one lives and consume products. The destination image can be defined as the sum of beliefs, ideas and impressions that a person has about a destination. To understand how cosmopolitanism influences the destination image, two approaches were used. A qualitative approach used interviews with professionals from SPTuris, as well as personal interviews with foreign tourists at the airport., This data was analyzed using content analysis. The quantitative approach included a survey with 205 foreigners. Data was analyzed using univariate and multivariate statistics, ANOVA and structural equation modeling. The result showed that cosmopolitanism and income influences the affective aspect in the destination image formation. It also showed that the stay purpose influenced the cognitive aspect, and that the length of stay influenced both aspects of the destination image. The research result showed that the cosmopolitanism influences mainly the affective aspect of São Paulo destination image. 

  11. Morphological variability of Liza aurata (Risso, 1810, along the southern Caspian Sea

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Huseyn Khayyami

    2014-05-01

    Full Text Available Morphological variability of Liza aurata (Risso, 1810, was studied in traditional morphometric measurements in 25 morphological characters from 90 specimens in three fishery areas in the southern Caspian Sea (Guilan, Mazandaran and Golestan. Univariate analysis of variance showed significant differences between the means of the three groups for 22 out of 25 standardized morphometric measurements. In discriminant function analysis (DFA, the proportion of individuals correctly classified into their original groups was 100%. Principal component analysis results (PCA for morphometric data indicated that samples of Guilan and Mazandaran showed high degree of overlap and these two regions were highly different from Golestan. The dendrogram derived from cluster analysis showed that the samples of L. aurata from Guilan and Mazandaran had same clade while both were obviously distinct from Golestan.

  12. Smoking, diabetes, blood hypertension: possible etiologic role for Peyronie’s disease? Analysis in 279 patients with a control group in Sicily

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Carlo Pavone

    2015-03-01

    Full Text Available Objective: To assess the proportion of patients with Peyronie’s Disease (PD and the possible association with its potential risk factors in the general population of the central and western Sicily in our weekly andrological outpatient clinic. Materials and methods: We recruited a sample of 279 consecutive patients consulting our andrological outpatient clinic. Two arms were created: the first one composed by PD patients (men with symptoms suggestive for PD, the second one composed by patients with other andrological diseases (control arm. For each patient we evaluated the age, cigarette smoking, diabetes, blood hypertension and erectile function. In the PD arm we administered validated questionnaires to determine the erectile function status by the International Index of Erectile Function 5 (IIEF-5 and the pain status during erection by the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS. A univariate analysis was conducted using R software. Results: We enrolled 279 consecutive patients. The number of PD patients was 97 (34,7%. The univariate analysis showed a correlation between PD and cigarette smoking (p = 0.0242, blood hypertension (p < 0.001, erectile dysfunction (p < 0.001. No significant association was observed between diabetes and PD (p = 0.358. The median age of PD arm was 60 years and the median age of the control arm was 63,5 years; therefore the median age of PD arm resulted lower than the median age of the control arm (p = 0,031. Conclusions: Peyronie’s disease is more common than we might think; furthermore it can be diagnosed among young patients. According to our results, cigarette smoking and blood hypertension may be considered statically significant risk factors for developing PD. On the contrary diabetes seems not to be a risk factor for PD. According to our results PD should be sought also in young patients. Further studies are necessary to confirm that removing the indicated risk factors may reduce the incidence of PD.

  13. Event-Level Analysis of Anal Sex Roles and Sex Drug Use Among Gay and Bisexual Men in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rich, Ashleigh J; Lachowsky, Nathan J; Cui, Zishan; Sereda, Paul; Lal, Allan; Moore, David M; Hogg, Robert S; Roth, Eric A

    2016-08-01

    This study analyzed event-level partnership data from a computer-assisted survey of 719 gay and bisexual men (GBM) enrolled in the Momentum Health Study to delineate potential linkages between anal sex roles and the so-called "sex drugs," i.e., erectile dysfunction drugs (EDD), poppers, and crystal methamphetamine. Univariable and multivariable analyses using generalized linear mixed models with logit link function with sexual encounters (n = 2514) as the unit of analysis tested four hypotheses: (1) EDD are significantly associated with insertive anal sex roles, (2) poppers are significantly associated with receptive anal sex, (3) both poppers and EDD are significantly associated with anal sexual versatility, and (4) crystal methamphetamine is significantly associated with all anal sex roles. Data for survey respondents and their sexual partners allowed testing these hypotheses for both anal sex partners in the same encounter. Multivariable results supported the first three hypotheses. Crystal methamphetamine was significantly associated with all anal sex roles in the univariable models, but not significant in any multivariable ones. Other multivariable significant variables included attending group sex events, venue where first met, and self-described sexual orientation. Results indicate that GBM sex-drug use behavior features rational decision-making strategies linked to anal sex roles. They also suggest that more research on anal sex roles, particularly versatility, is needed, and that sexual behavior research can benefit from partnership analysis.

  14. Expressions of EphA2 and EphrinA-1 in early squamous cell cervical carcinomas and their relation to prognosis

    OpenAIRE

    Holm, Ruth; de Putte, Gregg Van; Suo, Zhenhe; Lie, A Kathrine; Kristensen, Gunnar B

    2008-01-01

    By using immunohistochemistry we investigated the expression of EphA2 and EphrinA-1 in 217 early squamous cell cervical carcinomas and examine their prognostic relevance. For EphA2 expression, 21 tumors (10%) showed negative, 108 (50%) weak positive, 69 (32%) moderate positive and 19 (9%) strong positive, whereas for EphrinA-1 expression, 33 tumors (15%) showed negative, 91 (42%) weak positive, 67 (31%) moderate positive and 26 (12%) strong positive. In univariate analysis high expression (st...

  15. Predictable return distributions

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Pedersen, Thomas Quistgaard

    trace out the entire distribution. A univariate quantile regression model is used to examine stock and bond return distributions individually, while a multivariate model is used to capture their joint distribution. An empirical analysis on US data shows that certain parts of the return distributions......-of-sample analyses show that the relative accuracy of the state variables in predicting future returns varies across the distribution. A portfolio study shows that an investor with power utility can obtain economic gains by applying the empirical return distribution in portfolio decisions instead of imposing...

  16. Risk of isolated nodal failure for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treated with the elective nodal irradiation (ENI) using 3D-conformal radiotherapy (3D-CRT) techniques--a retrospective analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kepka, Lucyna; Bujko, Krzysztof; Zolciak-Siwinska, Agnieszka

    2008-01-01

    To estimate retrospectively the rate of isolated nodal failures (INF) in NSCLC patients treated with the elective nodal irradiation (ENI) using 3D-conformal radiotherapy (3D-CRT). One hundred and eighty-five patients with I-IIIB stage treated with 3D-CRT in consecutive clinical trials differing in an extent of the ENI were analyzed. According to the extent of the ENI, two groups were distinguished: extended (n = 124) and limited (n = 61) ENI. INF was defined as regional nodal failure occurring without local progression. Cumulative Incidence of INF (CIINF) was evaluated by univariate and multivariate analysis with regard to prognostic factors. With a median follow up of 30 months, the two-year actuarial overall survival was 35%. The two-year CIINF rate was 12%. There were 16 (9%) INF, eight (6%) for extended and eight (13%) for limited ENI. In the univariate analysis bulky mediastinal disease (BMD), left side, higher N stage, and partial response to RT had a significant negative impact on the CIINF. BMD was the only independent predictor of the risk of incidence of the INF (p = 0.001). INF is more likely to occur in case of more advanced nodal status.

  17. Graph theoretical analysis of functional network for comprehension of sign language.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Lanfang; Yan, Xin; Liu, Jin; Xia, Mingrui; Lu, Chunming; Emmorey, Karen; Chu, Mingyuan; Ding, Guosheng

    2017-09-15

    Signed languages are natural human languages using the visual-motor modality. Previous neuroimaging studies based on univariate activation analysis show that a widely overlapped cortical network is recruited regardless whether the sign language is comprehended (for signers) or not (for non-signers). Here we move beyond previous studies by examining whether the functional connectivity profiles and the underlying organizational structure of the overlapped neural network may differ between signers and non-signers when watching sign language. Using graph theoretical analysis (GTA) and fMRI, we compared the large-scale functional network organization in hearing signers with non-signers during the observation of sentences in Chinese Sign Language. We found that signed sentences elicited highly similar cortical activations in the two groups of participants, with slightly larger responses within the left frontal and left temporal gyrus in signers than in non-signers. Crucially, further GTA revealed substantial group differences in the topologies of this activation network. Globally, the network engaged by signers showed higher local efficiency (t (24) =2.379, p=0.026), small-worldness (t (24) =2.604, p=0.016) and modularity (t (24) =3.513, p=0.002), and exhibited different modular structures, compared to the network engaged by non-signers. Locally, the left ventral pars opercularis served as a network hub in the signer group but not in the non-signer group. These findings suggest that, despite overlap in cortical activation, the neural substrates underlying sign language comprehension are distinguishable at the network level from those for the processing of gestural action. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  18. Gene expression analysis of two extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis isolates show that two-component response systems enhance drug resistance.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yu, Guohua; Cui, Zhenling; Sun, Xian; Peng, Jinfu; Jiang, Jun; Wu, Wei; Huang, Wenhua; Chu, Kaili; Zhang, Lu; Ge, Baoxue; Li, Yao

    2015-05-01

    Global analysis of expression profiles using DNA microarrays was performed between a reference strain H37Rv and two clinical extensively drug-resistant isolates in response to three anti-tuberculosis drug exposures (isoniazid, capreomycin, and rifampicin). A deep analysis was then conducted using a combination of genome sequences of the resistant isolates, resistance information, and related public microarray data. Certain known resistance-associated gene sets were significantly overrepresented in upregulated genes in the resistant isolates relative to that observed in H37Rv, which suggested a link between resistance and expression levels of particular genes. In addition, isoniazid and capreomycin response genes, but not rifampicin, either obtained from published works or our data, were highly consistent with the differentially expressed genes of resistant isolates compared to those of H37Rv, indicating a strong association between drug resistance of the isolates and genes differentially regulated by isoniazid and capreomycin exposures. Based on these results, 92 genes of the studied isolates were identified as candidate resistance genes, 10 of which are known resistance-related genes. Regulatory network analysis of candidate resistance genes using published networks and literature mining showed that three two-component regulatory systems and regulator CRP play significant roles in the resistance of the isolates by mediating the production of essential envelope components. Finally, drug sensitivity testing indicated strong correlations between expression levels of these regulatory genes and sensitivity to multiple anti-tuberculosis drugs in Mycobacterium tuberculosis. These findings may provide novel insights into the mechanism underlying the emergence and development of drug resistance in resistant tuberculosis isolates and useful clues for further studies on this issue. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  19. Prostate cancer patient subsets showing improved bNED control with adjuvant androgen deprivation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anderson, Penny R.; Hanlon, Alexandra L.; Movsas, Benjamin; Hanks, Gerald E.

    1997-01-01

    determinations. The median follow-up for the 112 matched case/control patients was 41 months. The median follow-up was 46 months for the RT (range 11-102 months) and 37 months for the RT + H group (range 6-82 months). Results: Univariate analysis according to treatment for the prognostic factors of palpation stage, Gleason score, and pretreatment PSA demonstrates a significant improvement in 3-year bNED control with the addition of hormones for patients with T2C/T3, Gleason score 7-10, or pretreatment PSA >15 ngm/ml. A comparison of bNED control according to treatment demonstrates improvement in 5-year bNED control of 55% for patients treated with RT + H vs. 31% for those patients treated with RT alone (p = 0.0088), although there is not a survival advantage. Multivariate analysis demonstrates that hormonal treatment is a highly significant independent predictor of bNED control (p 0.0006) along with pretreatment PSA (p = 0.0001), palpation stage (p 0.0001), grade (p = 0.0030), and dose (p = 0.0001). Conclusions: (1) Patients with specific adverse pretreatment prognostic factors (i.e., T2C/T3, Gleason score 7-10, pretreatment PSA >15) benefit from adjuvant hormonal therapy. (2) Upon multivariate analysis, hormonal therapy is determined to be a highly significant predictor of bNED control, after adjusting for all other covariates. (3) The 5-year bNED control rates of 55% for RT + H vs. 31% for RT alone represents the magnitude of benefit from adjuvant hormone therapy. (4) The bNED control curves are separated by about 20 months, representing a delay in disease progression with adjuvant hormonal therapy, as there is no overall survival difference

  20. BIOMETRICAL ANALYSIS OF ARABIAN FOALS AND THEIR LATER SUCCESSES IN SHOWS AND ON RACE TRACK

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. PIESZKA

    2007-10-01

    Full Text Available Arabian horses are one of the most important products of Polish horse breeding.Many of them are International and World champions in shows; others are very wellknown as courageous race horses. To obtain such champions it is necessary to takeunder consideration many factors affecting the final results. The objective of thisstudy was to evaluate the effect of biometrical measurements of the foals at birthaccording to their future successes in shows and on racetrack. The study was carriedout on 143 horses winning in shows and in races. Body weight, height at withers,girth and canon circumferences taken at birth of these horses were analysed.Additionally coat colour was studied. All studied animals were divided into threegroups according to each measurement and the differences between such groupswere evaluated according points obtained for particular place at shows and place inraces. It was stated that horses heavier at birth and with higher girth circumferencegot more successes both at shows and on racetrack. Horses with higher height atwithers at birth were more successful in shows while animals with higher canoncircumference won oftener at race track. It was observed that the most courageousrace horses were bay while most champions were grey.

  1. Does Response to Induction Chemotherapy Predict Survival for Locally Advanced Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer? Secondary Analysis of RTOG 8804/8808

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    McAleer, Mary Frances; Moughan, Jennifer M.S.; Byhardt, Roger W.; Cox, James D.; Sause, William T.; Komaki, Ritsuko

    2010-01-01

    Purpose: Induction chemotherapy (ICT) improves survival compared with radiotherapy (RT) alone in locally advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (LANSCLC) patients with good prognostic factors. Concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) is superior to ICT followed by RT. The question arises whether ICT response predicts the outcome of patients subsequently treated with CCRT or RT. Methods and Materials: Between 1988 and 1992, 194 LANSCLC patients were treated prospectively with ICT (two cycles of vinblastine and cisplatin) and then CCRT (cisplatin plus 63 Gy for 7 weeks) in the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group 8804 trial (n = 30) or ICT and then RT (60 Gy/6 wk) on Radiation Therapy Oncology Group 8808 trial (n = 164). Of the 194 patients, 183 were evaluable and 141 had undergone a postinduction assessment. The overall survival (OS) of those with complete remission (CR) or partial remission (PR) was compared with that of patients with stable disease (SD) or progressive disease (PD) after ICT. Results: Of the 141 patients, 6, 30, 99, and 6 had CR, PR, SD, and PD, respectively. The log-rank test showed a significant difference (p <0.0001) in OS when the response groups were compared (CR/PR vs. SD/PD). On univariate and multivariate analyses, a trend was seen toward a response to ICT with OS (p = 0.097 and p = 0.06, respectively). A squamous histologic type was associated with worse OS on univariate and multivariate analyses (p = 0.031 and p = 0.018, respectively). SD/PD plus a squamous histologic type had a hazard ratio of 2.25 vs. CR/PR plus a nonsquamous histologic type (p = 0.007) on covariate analysis. Conclusion: The response to ICT was associated with a significant survival difference when the response groups were compared. A response to ICT showed a trend toward, but was not predictive of, improved OS in LANSCLC patients. Patients with SD/PD after ICT and a squamous histologic type had the poorest OS. These data suggest that patients with squamous LANSCLC might benefit

  2. Predictive features of CT for risk stratifications in patients with primary gastrointestinal stromal tumour

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zhou, Cuiping; Zhang, Xiang; Duan, Xiaohui; Hu, Huijun; Wang, Dongye; Shen, Jun

    2016-01-01

    To determine the predictive CT imaging features for risk stratifications in patients with primary gastrointestinal stromal tumours (GISTs). One hundred and twenty-nine patients with histologically confirmed primary GISTs (diameter >2 cm) were enrolled. CT imaging features were reviewed. Tumour risk stratifications were determined according to the 2008 NIH criteria where GISTs were classified into four categories according to the tumour size, location, mitosis count, and tumour rupture. The association between risk stratifications and CT features was analyzed using univariate analysis, followed by multinomial logistic regression and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. CT imaging features including tumour margin, size, shape, tumour growth pattern, direct organ invasion, necrosis, enlarged vessels feeding or draining the mass (EVFDM), lymphadenopathy, and contrast enhancement pattern were associated with the risk stratifications, as determined by univariate analysis (P < 0.05). Only lesion size, growth pattern and EVFDM remained independent risk factors in multinomial logistic regression analysis (OR = 3.480-100.384). ROC curve analysis showed that the area under curve of the obtained multinomial logistic regression model was 0.806 (95 % CI: 0.727-0.885). CT features including lesion size, tumour growth pattern, and EVFDM were predictors of the risk stratifications for GIST. (orig.)

  3. The status of diabetes control in Kurdistan province, west of Iran.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Esmailnasab, Nader; Afkhamzadeh, Abdorrahim; Roshani, Daem; Moradi, Ghobad

    2013-09-17

    Based on some estimation more than two million peoples in Iran are affected by Type 2 diabetes. The present study was designed to evaluate the status of diabetes control among Type 2 diabetes patients in Kurdistan, west of Iran and its associated factors. In our cross sectional study conducted in 2010, 411 Type 2 diabetes patients were randomly recruited from Sanandaj, Capital of Kurdistan. Chi square test was used in univariate analysis to address the association between HgAlc and FBS status and other variables. The significant results from Univariate analysis were entered in multivariate analysis and multinomial logistic regression model. In 38% of patients, FBS was in normal range (70-130) and in 47% HgA1c was <7% which is normal range for HgA1c. In univariate analysis, FBS level was associated with educational levels (P=0.001), referral style (P=0.001), referral time (P=0.009), and insulin injection (P=0.016). In addition, HgA1c had a relationship with sex (P=0.023), age (P=0.035), education (P=0.001), referral style (P=0.001), and insulin injection (P=0.008). After using multinomial logistic regression for significant results of univariate analysis, it was found that FBS was significantly associated with referral style. In addition HgA1c was significantly associated with referral style and Insulin injection. Although some of patients were under the coverage of specialized cares, but their diabetes were not properly controlled.

  4. Pretreatment Apparent Diffusion Coefficient of the Primary Lesion Correlates With Local Failure in Head-and-Neck Cancer Treated With Chemoradiotherapy or Radiotherapy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hatakenaka, Masamitsu; Nakamura, Katsumasa; Yabuuchi, Hidetake; Shioyama, Yoshiyuki; Matsuo, Yoshio; Ohnishi, Kayoko; Sunami, Shunya; Kamitani, Takeshi; Setoguchi, Taro; Yoshiura, Takashi; Nakashima, Torahiko; Nishikawa, Kei; Honda, Hiroshi

    2011-01-01

    Purpose: This study was performed to evaluate whether the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) of a primary lesion correlates with local failure in primary head-and-neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) treated with chemoradiotherapy or radiotherapy. Methods and Materials: We retrospectively studied 38 patients with primary HNSCC (12 oropharynx, 20 hypopharynx, 4 larynx, 2 oral cavity) treated with chemoradiotherapy or radiotherapy with radiation dose to gross tumor volume equal to or over 60 Gy and who underwent pretreatment magnetic resonance imaging, including diffusion-weighted imaging. Ten patients developed local failure during follow-up periods of 2.0 to 9.3 months, and the remaining 28 showed local control during follow-up periods of 10.5 to 31.7 months. The variables that could affect local failure (age, tumor volume, ADC, T stage, N stage, dose, treatment method, tumor location, and overall treatment time) were analyzed using logistic regression analyses for all 38 patients and for 17 patients with Stage T3 or T4 disease. Results: In univariate logistic analysis for all 38 cases, tumor volume, ADC, T stage, and treatment method showed significant (p < 0.05) associations with local failure. In multivariate analysis, ADC and T stage revealed significance (p < 0.01). In univariate logistic analysis for the 17 patients with Stage T3 or T4 disease, ADC and dose showed significant (p < 0.01) associations with local failure. In multivariate analysis, ADC alone showed significance (p < 0.05). Conclusions: The results suggest that pretreatment ADC, along with T stage, is a potential indicator of local failure in HNSCC treated with chemoradiotherapy or radiotherapy.

  5. Predicting Outcomes After Chemo-Embolization in Patients with Advanced-Stage Hepatocellular Carcinoma: An Evaluation of Different Radiologic Response Criteria

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gunn, Andrew J.; Sheth, Rahul A.; Luber, Brandon; Huynh, Minh-Huy; Rachamreddy, Niranjan R.; Kalva, Sanjeeva P.

    2017-01-01

    PurposeThe purpse of this study was to evaluate the ability of various radiologic response criteria to predict patient outcomes after trans-arterial chemo-embolization with drug-eluting beads (DEB-TACE) in patients with advanced-stage (BCLC C) hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).Materials and methodsHospital records from 2005 to 2011 were retrospectively reviewed. Non-infiltrative lesions were measured at baseline and on follow-up scans after DEB-TACE according to various common radiologic response criteria, including guidelines of the World Health Organization (WHO), Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST), the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL), and modified RECIST (mRECIST). Statistical analysis was performed to see which, if any, of the response criteria could be used as a predictor of overall survival (OS) or time-to-progression (TTP).Results75 patients met inclusion criteria. Median OS and TTP were 22.6 months (95 % CI 11.6–24.8) and 9.8 months (95 % CI 7.1–21.6), respectively. Univariate and multivariate Cox analyses revealed that none of the evaluated criteria had the ability to be used as a predictor for OS or TTP. Analysis of the C index in both univariate and multivariate models showed that the evaluated criteria were not accurate predictors of either OS (C-statistic range: 0.51–0.58 in the univariate model; range: 0.54–0.58 in the multivariate model) or TTP (C-statistic range: 0.55–0.59 in the univariate model; range: 0.57–0.61 in the multivariate model).ConclusionCurrent response criteria are not accurate predictors of OS or TTP in patients with advanced-stage HCC after DEB-TACE.

  6. Predicting Outcomes After Chemo-Embolization in Patients with Advanced-Stage Hepatocellular Carcinoma: An Evaluation of Different Radiologic Response Criteria

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Gunn, Andrew J., E-mail: agunn@uabmc.edu [University of Alabama at Birmingham, Division of Vascular and Interventional Radiology (United States); Sheth, Rahul A. [MD Anderson Cancer Center, Division of Interventional Radiology (United States); Luber, Brandon [Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins University, Divison of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics (United States); Huynh, Minh-Huy [Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (United States); Rachamreddy, Niranjan R. [Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School, Department of Radiology (United States); Kalva, Sanjeeva P. [University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Division of Interventional Radiology, Department of Radiology (United States)

    2017-01-15

    PurposeThe purpse of this study was to evaluate the ability of various radiologic response criteria to predict patient outcomes after trans-arterial chemo-embolization with drug-eluting beads (DEB-TACE) in patients with advanced-stage (BCLC C) hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).Materials and methodsHospital records from 2005 to 2011 were retrospectively reviewed. Non-infiltrative lesions were measured at baseline and on follow-up scans after DEB-TACE according to various common radiologic response criteria, including guidelines of the World Health Organization (WHO), Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST), the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL), and modified RECIST (mRECIST). Statistical analysis was performed to see which, if any, of the response criteria could be used as a predictor of overall survival (OS) or time-to-progression (TTP).Results75 patients met inclusion criteria. Median OS and TTP were 22.6 months (95 % CI 11.6–24.8) and 9.8 months (95 % CI 7.1–21.6), respectively. Univariate and multivariate Cox analyses revealed that none of the evaluated criteria had the ability to be used as a predictor for OS or TTP. Analysis of the C index in both univariate and multivariate models showed that the evaluated criteria were not accurate predictors of either OS (C-statistic range: 0.51–0.58 in the univariate model; range: 0.54–0.58 in the multivariate model) or TTP (C-statistic range: 0.55–0.59 in the univariate model; range: 0.57–0.61 in the multivariate model).ConclusionCurrent response criteria are not accurate predictors of OS or TTP in patients with advanced-stage HCC after DEB-TACE.

  7. Evaluation of Prognostic Factors Following Flow-Cytometric DNA Analysis after Cytokeratin Labelling: I. Breast Cancer

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pauline Wimberger

    2002-01-01

    Full Text Available In gynecologic oncology valid prognostic factors are necessary to estimate the course of disease and to define biologically similar subgroups for analysis of therapeutic efficacy. The presented study is a prospective study concerning prognostic significance of DNA ploidy and S‐phase fraction in breast cancer following enrichment of tumor cells by cytokeratin labelling. Epithelial cells were labeled by FITC‐conjugated cytokeratin antibody (CK 5, 6, 8, and CK 17 prior to flow cytometric cell cycle analysis in 327 fresh specimens of primary breast cancer. Univariate analysis in breast cancer detected the prognostic significance of DNA‐ploidy, S‐phase fraction and CV (coefficient of variation of G0G1‐peak of tumor cells for clinical outcome, especially for nodal‐negative patients. Multivariate analysis could not confirm prognostic evidence of DNA‐ploidy and S‐phase fraction. In conclusion, in breast cancer no clinical significance for determination of DNA‐parameters was found.

  8. [Preliminary analysis of the relationship between peripheral arterial disease and other atherosclerosis markers and diabetic nephropathy].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rioja, José; Moreno, Tamara; Coca, Inmaculada; Jiménez-Villodres, Manuel; Rodríguez-Morata, Alejandro; Valdivielso, Pedro

    2014-01-01

    To determine lipid serum levels, lipoproteins and other markers related to nephropathy and peripheral arterial disease (PAD) in a type 2 diabetes population stratified according to their level of renal dysfunction. A cross-sectional study was conducted on 72 type 2 diabetic patients followed-up in outpatient clinics. Patients were divided into 4 groups according to their estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR, mL/min) and albumin/creatinine ratio (ACR, mg/g) (eGFR > 60 and ACR 60 and ACR > 30 [n = 12], eGFR30-60 [n = 23] and eGFR < 30 [n = 14]). Clinical and anthropometric characteristic of all patients were recorded. Fasting lipids and apolipoproteins, as well as renal and hematology parameters were measured. Finally, a multivariate Wald stepwise logistic regression statistic analysis was performed to determine variables independently associated with the presence of renal dysfunction. The univariate statistical analysis showed that the higher renal dysfunction, the higher the prevalence of hypertension, smoking habit and triglycerides levels, and the lower hemoglobin levels (P < .05). The multivariate statistical analysis showed that only triglycerides levels (OR: 1.019, 95% CI: 1.004-1.034) and hemoglobin levels (OR: 0.516 95% CI: 0.292-0.914) were independently associated to the presence of renal dysfunction (eGFR < 60 mL/min.). The further inclusion of the presence of PAD in the statistical model did not modify those associations. The results confirm the relationship between triglycerides levels and diabetic nephropathy, independently of the presence of PAD. Copyright © 2013 Sociedad Española de Arteriosclerosis. Published by Elsevier España. All rights reserved.

  9. Pedagogical Techniques Employed by the Television Show "MythBusters"

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zavrel, Erik

    2016-11-01

    "MythBusters," the long-running though recently discontinued Discovery Channel science entertainment television program, has proven itself to be far more than just a highly rated show. While its focus is on entertainment, the show employs an array of pedagogical techniques to communicate scientific concepts to its audience. These techniques include: achieving active learning, avoiding jargon, employing repetition to ensure comprehension, using captivating demonstrations, cultivating an enthusiastic disposition, and increasing intrinsic motivation to learn. In this content analysis, episodes from the show's 10-year history were examined for these techniques. "MythBusters" represents an untapped source of pedagogical techniques, which science educators may consider availing themselves of in their tireless effort to better reach their students. Physics educators in particular may look to "MythBusters" for inspiration and guidance in how to incorporate these techniques into their own teaching and help their students in the learning process.

  10. Limitation of multi-elemental fingerprinting of wheat grains: Effect of cultivar, sowing date, and nutrient management

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Suarez-Tapia, Alfonso; Kucheryavskiy, Sergey V.; Christensen, Bent Tolstrup

    2017-01-01

    Multi-element fingerprinting demonstrates some potential for tracing the origin of agricultural products but not for discriminating among crop cultivars and nutrient management (source, rate). With principal component analysis (PCA) and univariate statistics, we examined 19 elements in grains from...... two winter wheat cultivars (Hereford, Mariboss) grown with different rates of animal manure (AM) or mineral fertilisers (NPK) in a long-term field experiment and two sowing dates (early, timely). Nitrogen, Cd and Mn related to NPK, and Mo and Na to AM. Barium, Fe, and P reflected nutrient rate......; these elements increased with nutrient rate regardless of source. Unmanured grains were enriched in Cu. Mariboss was characterized by higher concentrations of Sr, Ba and Sc compared to Hereford with Sr in grain as the main separator. Univariate statistics showed higher concentrations of N, P, Mg, Ba, Cu, Mo...

  11. Analysis of clinical factors for pathological complete response after preoperative neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy for rectal cancer

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ayiguli Hare; Palida Apizi; Iskandar Abulimiti; Zhang Jinrong; Tian Hanhan

    2014-01-01

    Objective: To evaluate the clinical factors associated with pathological complete response (pCR) after preoperative neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy for rectal cancer. Methods: A retrospective analysis was performed on the clinical data of 116 patients with rectal cancer, who underwent neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy followed by radical surgery from January 2009 to December 2012. All patients received pelvic intensity-modulated radiotherapy (50 Gy/25 fractions) with concurrent fluorouracil based chemotherapy and then underwent radical surgery 4-8 weeks later. The clinical factors associated with pCR or non-pCR were analyzed by Logistic regression. Results: Of the 116 patients, 20 (17.2%) achieved a pCR after neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy. The univariate analysis showed that percentage of circumference of the rectal tube invaded by the tumor, preoperative serum carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) level, T stage, N stage, distance from the anal verge, degree of tumor differentiation, and maximum tumor diameter were associated with pCR or non-pCR after neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy for rectal cancer. The multivariate analysis revealed that percentage of circumference of the rectal tube invaded by the tumor, preoperative serum CEA level,and T stage were predictive factors for pCR or non-pCR after neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy for rectal cancer. Conclusions: Non-circumferential tumor (percentage of circumference of the rectal tube invaded by the tumor <75 %), low CEA level, and early T stage before treatment may be associated with pCR after neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy for rectal cancer. (authors)

  12. Polypharmacy as a risk for fall occurrence in geriatric outpatients.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kojima, Taro; Akishita, Masahiro; Nakamura, Tetsuro; Nomura, Kazushi; Ogawa, Sumito; Iijima, Katsuya; Eto, Masato; Ouchi, Yasuyoshi

    2012-07-01

    To investigate the predictors of falls, such as comorbidity and medication, in geriatric outpatients in a longitudinal observational study. A total of 172 outpatients (45 men and 126 women, mean age 76.9 ± 7.0 years) were evaluated. Physical examination, clinical history and medication profile were obtained from each patient at baseline. These patients were followed for up to 2 years and falls were self-reported to their physicians. The factors associated with falls were analyzed statistically. A total of 32 patients experienced falls within 2 years. On univariate analysis, older age, osteoporosis, number of comorbid conditions and number of drugs were significantly associated with falls within 2 years. On multiple logistic regression analysis, the number of drugs was associated with falls, independent of age, sex, number of comorbid conditions and other factors that were significantly associated in univariate analysis. A receiver-operator curve evaluating the optimal cut-off value for the number of drugs showed that taking five or more drugs was a significant risk. In geriatric outpatients, polypharmacy is associated with falls. Intervention studies are needed to clarify the causal relationship between polypharmacy, comorbidity and falls. © 2011 Japan Geriatrics Society.

  13. Morphometric assessment of the red stripe weevils, Rhynchophorus vulneratus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) from several localities in Malaysia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sazali, Siti Nurlydia; Hazmi, Izfa Riza; Rahim, Faszly; Abang, Fatimah; Jemain, Abdul Aziz

    2018-04-01

    The recognition of intraspecific variation could enhance knowledge and understanding on the population divergence that might be resulted from different geographical areas. To study the possible effect derived from different locations, a morphometric study of the red stripe weevils, Rhynchophorus vulneratus from different localities in Malaysia was conducted using field and voucher specimens. A total of twenty-three morphological characters were examined from 108 individuals of R. vulneratus representing population of Kota Samarahan, Mukah and central of Peninsular Malaysia. The data were subjected to univariate one-way single factor analysis of variance (ANOVA) and analysed in factor analysis using SPSS version 22.0 software. Univariate ANOVA showed that all tested variables were significantly different (panalysis, the first three factors with eigenvalues greater than 1.0 were successfully extracted, resulting in a high variation of 82.687%. For factor 1, 39.213% of total variation was recorded, factor 2 accounted for 34.096% and factor 3 contributing to 9.377%, respectively. The mixed plotting among the twenty-three morphological characters suggests a strong correlation among the parameters examined and further statistical analysis should be conducted to include environmental factors such as habitat types, food availability and predation effect.

  14. [Risk factors for neonatal pulmonary hemorrhage in the neonatal intensive care unit of a municipal hospital].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fan, Jie; Hei, Ming-Yan; Huang, Xi-Lin; Li, Xiao-Ping

    2017-03-01

    To investigate the risk factors for neonatal pulmonary hemorrhage (NPH) in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) of a municipal hospital, and to provide a basis for the early identification and treatment of NPH. A total of 112 neonates who were admitted to the NICU of Shaoyang Central Hospital of Hunan Province and diagnosed with NPH were enrolled as the case group. A nested case-control method was used to select, as a control group (n=224), the neonates who underwent the treatment with an assisted mechanical ventilator and did not experience pulmonary hemorrhage. Univariate analysis and unconditional logistic regression analysis were used to identify the high risk factors for NPH. The univariate analysis showed that compared with the control group, the case group had significantly higher incidence rates of gestational diabetes and cholestasis in mothers, cesarean delivery, gestational age <34 weeks, 5-minute Apgar score ≤5, birth weight <2 500 g, heart failure and disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) before the development of NPH, partial pressure of oxygen/fraction of inspired oxygen (oxygenation index, OI) ≤100, and a reduction in mean platelet volume. The multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that DIC, heart failure, and OI ≤100 were independent risk factors for NPH (OR=33.975, 3.975, 1.818 respectively; P<0.05). Heart failure, OI ≤100, and DIC are risk factors for the development of NPH in the NICU of the municipal hospital.

  15. Recursive Partitioning Analysis for New Classification of Patients With Esophageal Cancer Treated by Chemoradiotherapy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nomura, Motoo; Shitara, Kohei; Kodaira, Takeshi; Kondoh, Chihiro; Takahari, Daisuke; Ura, Takashi; Kojima, Hiroyuki; Kamata, Minoru; Muro, Kei; Sawada, Satoshi

    2012-01-01

    Background: The 7th edition of the American Joint Committee on Cancer staging system does not include lymph node size in the guidelines for staging patients with esophageal cancer. The objectives of this study were to determine the prognostic impact of the maximum metastatic lymph node diameter (ND) on survival and to develop and validate a new staging system for patients with esophageal squamous cell cancer who were treated with definitive chemoradiotherapy (CRT). Methods: Information on 402 patients with esophageal cancer undergoing CRT at two institutions was reviewed. Univariate and multivariate analyses of data from one institution were used to assess the impact of clinical factors on survival, and recursive partitioning analysis was performed to develop the new staging classification. To assess its clinical utility, the new classification was validated using data from the second institution. Results: By multivariate analysis, gender, T, N, and ND stages were independently and significantly associated with survival (p < 0.05). The resulting new staging classification was based on the T and ND. The four new stages led to good separation of survival curves in both the developmental and validation datasets (p < 0.05). Conclusions: Our results showed that lymph node size is a strong independent prognostic factor and that the new staging system, which incorporated lymph node size, provided good prognostic power, and discriminated effectively for patients with esophageal cancer undergoing CRT.

  16. Clinical analysis of post-irradiation sensorineural hearing loss in patients suffering from nasopharyngeal carcinoma

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lu Xueguan; Liu Zhiyong; Zhang Liyuan; Tian Ye

    2005-01-01

    Objective: To investigate the incidence of post-irradiation sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) in patients suffering from nasopharyngeal carcinoma and to evaluate its potentially contributing factors. Methods: Pure tonetest and impedance audiography were carried out in patients suffering from nasopharyngeal carcinoma with a post-irradiation follow-up time over 1 year. Additionally, the test results were combined with clinical data and analyzed retrospectively. Results: The follow-up time of all patients ranged from 12 to 94 months (median 53 months). The incidences of SNHL at low and high frequencies were 8% and 42% respectively. Univariate analysis showed that patient's age and follow-up time affected the incidence of SNHL at high frequencies (t=2.051, P=0.0269; t=2.978, P=0.0011), but sex, preirradiation subjective hearing loss, irradiation dose and chemotherapy including cisplatin had no significance. Multivariate analysis by Binary Logistic Regression revealed that the risk of SNHL was correlated with patient's age and follow-up time (P=0.02; P=0.009). Conclusion: Post-irradiation SNHL at high frequencies in patients suffering from nasopharyngeal carcinoma is more common than that at low frequencies. The independent prognostic factors for development of SNHL at high frequencies are patient's age and follow-up time. But the role of preirradiation hearing level ,irradiation dose and chemotherapy including cisplatin are not conclusive and further research is needed. (authors)

  17. Performance analysis of cognitive multihop relaying with m-QAM detect-and-forward in Nakagami-m fading channels

    KAUST Repository

    Benjillali, Mustapha; Hyadi, Amal; Da Costa, Daniel Benevides Da; Alouini, Mohamed-Slim

    2013-01-01

    In this work, we investigate the performance of cognitive multihop regenerative relaying systems in the "underlay" spectrum sharing scenario. The multiple relays perform "detect-and-forward" relaying strategy to convey a message with an order m quadrature amplitude modulation (m-QAM) from the source to the destination over independent but not necessarily identical Nakagami-m fading channels. We adopt a closed-form analysis framework based on univariate and bivariate Meijer G-functions to derive the end-to-end error performance (in terms of bit and symbol error rates), the outage probability, and the ergodic capacity. Various numerical examples are presented to illustrate the results with a large combination of system and fading parameters, and simulation results confirm the accuracy of our closed-form analysis. © 2013 IEEE.

  18. Performance analysis of cognitive multihop relaying with m-QAM detect-and-forward in Nakagami-m fading channels

    KAUST Repository

    Benjillali, Mustapha

    2013-09-01

    In this work, we investigate the performance of cognitive multihop regenerative relaying systems in the "underlay" spectrum sharing scenario. The multiple relays perform "detect-and-forward" relaying strategy to convey a message with an order m quadrature amplitude modulation (m-QAM) from the source to the destination over independent but not necessarily identical Nakagami-m fading channels. We adopt a closed-form analysis framework based on univariate and bivariate Meijer G-functions to derive the end-to-end error performance (in terms of bit and symbol error rates), the outage probability, and the ergodic capacity. Various numerical examples are presented to illustrate the results with a large combination of system and fading parameters, and simulation results confirm the accuracy of our closed-form analysis. © 2013 IEEE.

  19. Tamoxifen therapy improves overall survival in luminal A subtype of ductal carcinoma in situ: a study based on nationwide Korean Breast Cancer Registry database.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hwang, Ki-Tae; Kim, Eun-Kyu; Jung, Sung Hoo; Lee, Eun Sook; Kim, Seung Il; Lee, Seokwon; Park, Heung Kyu; Kim, Jongjin; Oh, Sohee; Kim, Young A

    2018-06-01

    To determine the prognostic role of tamoxifen therapy for patients with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) according to molecular subtypes. Data of 14,944 patients with DCIS were analyzed. Molecular subtypes were classified into four categories based on expression of estrogen receptor (ER)/progesterone receptor (PR) and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2). Kaplan-Meier estimator was used for overall survival analysis while Cox proportional hazards model was used for univariate and multivariate analyses. Luminal A subtype (ER/PR+, HER2-) showed higher (P = .009) survival rate than triple-negative (TN) subtype. Tamoxifen therapy group showed superior (P < .001) survival than no-tamoxifen therapy group. It had survival benefit only for luminal A subtype (P = .001). Tamoxifen therapy resulted in higher survival rate in subgroups with positive ER (P = .006), positive PR (P = .009), and negative HER2 (P < .001). In luminal A subtype, tamoxifen therapy showed lower hazard ratio (HR) compared to no-tamoxifen therapy (HR, 0.420; 95% CI 0.250-0.705; P = .001). Tamoxifen therapy was a significant independent factor by multivariate analysis (HR, 0.538; 95% CI 0.306-0.946; P = .031) as well as univariate analysis. Tamoxifen therapy group showed superior prognosis than the no-tamoxifen therapy group. Its prognostic influence was only effective for luminal A subtype. Patients with luminal A subtype showed higher survival rate than those with TN subtype. Active tamoxifen therapy is recommended for DCIS patients with luminal A subtype, and routine tests for ER, PR, and HER2 should be considered for DCIS.

  20. The fading affect bias shows positive outcomes at the general but not the individual level of analysis in the context of social media.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gibbons, Jeffrey A; Horowitz, Kyle A; Dunlap, Spencer M

    2017-08-01

    Unpleasant affect fades faster than pleasant affect (e.g., Walker, Vogl, & Thompson, 1997); this effect is referred to as the Fading Affect Bias (FAB; Walker, Skowronski, Gibbons, Vogl, & Thompson, 2003a). Research shows that the FAB is consistently related to positive/healthy outcomes at a general but not at a specific level of analysis based on event types and individual differences (e.g., Gibbons et al., 2013). Based on the positive outcomes for FAB and negative outcomes for social media (Bolton et al., 2013; Huang, 2010), the current study examined FAB in the context of social media events along with related individual differences. General positive outcomes were shown in the form of robust FAB effects across social media and non-social media events, a larger FAB for non-social media events than for social media events, negative correlations of FAB with depression, anxiety, and stress as well as a positive correlation of FAB with self-esteem. However, the lack of a negative correlation between FAB and anxiety for social media events in a 3-way interaction did not show positive outcomes at a specific level of analysis. Rehearsal ratings mediated the 3-way interaction. Implications are discussed. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  1. Connectomic markers of symptom severity in sport-related concussion: Whole-brain analysis of resting-state fMRI

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nathan W. Churchill

    Full Text Available Concussion is associated with significant adverse effects within the first week post-injury, including physical complaints and altered cognition, sleep and mood. It is currently unknown whether these subjective disturbances have reliable functional brain correlates. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI has been used to measure functional connectivity of individuals after traumatic brain injury, but less is known about the relationship between functional connectivity and symptom assessments after a sport concussion. In this study, rs-fMRI was used to evaluate whole-brain functional connectivity for seventy (70 university-level athletes, including 35 with acute concussion and 35 healthy matched controls. Univariate analyses showed that greater symptom severity was mainly associated with lower pairwise connectivity in frontal, temporal and insular regions, along with higher connectivity in a sparser set of cerebellar regions. A novel multivariate approach also extracted two components that showed reliable covariation with symptom severity: (1 a network of frontal, temporal and insular regions where connectivity was negatively correlated with symptom severity (replicating the univariate findings; and (2 a network with anti-correlated elements of the default-mode network and sensorimotor system, where connectivity was positively correlated with symptom severity. These findings support the presence of connectomic signatures of symptom complaints following a sport-related concussion, including both increased and decreased functional connectivity within distinct functional brain networks. Keywords: fMRI, Functional connectivity, Concussion, Brain injury, Symptoms

  2. A retrospective analysis of survival and prognostic factors after stereotactic radiosurgery for aggressive meningiomas

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ferraro, Daniel J; Zoberi, Imran; Simpson, Joseph R; Jaboin, Jerry J; Funk, Ryan K; Blackett, John William; Ju, Michelle R; DeWees, Todd A; Chicoine, Michael R; Dowling, Joshua L; Rich, Keith M; Drzymala, Robert E

    2014-01-01

    While most meningiomas are benign, aggressive meningiomas are associated with high levels of recurrence and mortality. A single institution’s Gamma Knife radiosurgical experience with atypical and malignant meningiomas is presented, stratified by the most recent WHO classification. Thirty-one patients with atypical and 4 patients with malignant meningiomas treated with Gamma Knife radiosurgery between July 2000 and July 2011 were retrospectively reviewed. All patients underwent prior surgical resection. Overall survival was the primary endpoint and rate of disease recurrence in the brain was a secondary endpoint. Patients who had previous radiotherapy or prior surgical resection were included. Kaplan-Meier and Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate survival and identify factors predictive of recurrence and survival. Post-Gamma Knife recurrence was identified in 11 patients (31.4%) with a median overall survival of 36 months and progression-free survival of 25.8 months. Nine patients (25.7%) had died. Three-year overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) rates were 78.0% and 65.0%, respectively. WHO grade II 3-year OS and PFS were 83.4% and 70.1%, while WHO grade III 3-year OS and PFS were 33.3% and 0%. Recurrence rate was significantly higher in patients with a prior history of benign meningioma, nuclear atypia, high mitotic rate, spontaneous necrosis, and WHO grade III diagnosis on univariate analysis; only WHO grade III diagnosis was significant on multivariate analysis. Overall survival was adversely affected in patients with WHO grade III diagnosis, prior history of benign meningioma, prior fractionated radiotherapy, larger tumor volume, and higher isocenter number on univariate analysis; WHO grade III diagnosis and larger treated tumor volume were significant on multivariate analysis. Atypical and anaplastic meningiomas remain difficult tumors to treat. WHO grade III diagnosis and treated tumor volume were significantly

  3. On the Use of Running Trends as Summary Statistics for Univariate Time Series and Time Series Association

    OpenAIRE

    Trottini, Mario; Vigo, Isabel; Belda, Santiago

    2015-01-01

    Given a time series, running trends analysis (RTA) involves evaluating least squares trends over overlapping time windows of L consecutive time points, with overlap by all but one observation. This produces a new series called the “running trends series,” which is used as summary statistics of the original series for further analysis. In recent years, RTA has been widely used in climate applied research as summary statistics for time series and time series association. There is no doubt that ...

  4. High-Resolution Observations of a Filament showing Activated Barb

    Science.gov (United States)

    Joshi, Anand; Martin, Sara F.; Mathew, Shibu; Srivastava, Nandita

    2012-07-01

    Analysis of a filament showing an activated barb using observations from the Dutch Open Telescope (DOT) on 2010 August 20 are presented. The DOT takes Doppler images in Hα, among other wavelengths, in a region about 110 × 110 arcsec^{2} in area, at a cadence of 30~seconds. The offline image restoration technique of speckle reconstruction is applied to obtain diffraction limited images. The filament developed a new barb in 10~minutes, which disappeared within the next 35~minutes. Such a rapid formation and disappearance of a filament barb is unusual, and has not been reported earlier. Line-of-sight velocity maps were constructed from the Doppler images of the target filament. We observe flows in the filament spine towards the barb location prior to its formation, and flows in the barb towards the spine during its disappearance. Photospheric magnetograms from Heliospheric Magnetic Imager on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory, at a cadence of 45~seconds, were used to determine the changes in magnetic flux in the region surrounding the barb location. The variation of magnetic flux in this duration supports the view that barbs are rooted in minor magnetic polarity. Our analysis shows that barbs can be short-lived and formation and disappearance of the barb was associated with cancellation of magnetic flux.

  5. Analysis of risk factors in elderly patients with purple urine bag syndrome: A retrospective analysis in a medical center in northern Taiwan

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tao-Chun Peng

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Background: Purple urine bag syndrome (PUBS, an uncommon phenomenon that turns urine tubes or bags purple or blue, can be encountered in long-term-care facilities. A thorough literature review shows that East Asia has a high incidence of PUBS. It is important to recognize the clinical features and risk factors of this phenomenon. The aim of this study is to explore the characteristics of patients with PUBS and correlate the onset of PUBS symptoms with risk factors. Materials and Methods: We reported nine cases of clinically confirmed PUBS between January 2009 and June 2013. Pertinent clinical information was collected, including age, feeding type, renal function, type of Foley catheter, urine analysis, and bacteriological data. Results: All of patients with PUBS presented with stable vital signs without evidence of clinical infection, such as fever or chills. The mean age of the patients was 86.6 ± 10.1 years, with a preponderance of females (77%. Five PUBS patients (55% had a history of chronic renal insufficiency. Six patients (66% had constipation. A logistic regression univariate analysis demonstrated a statistically significant urine pH in patients with PUBS [odds ratio (OR, 3.078; P = 0.036]. Risk factors, such as gender, were found to be significant using logistic regression multivariate analysis (OR, 0.031; P = 0.021. During the follow-up, all of the patients had Foley catheters re-inserted, and all of the patients received health education. Conclusion: The incidence of PUBS in the elderly population is associated with asymptomatic bacteriuria, urine pH, and gender but not renal function, type of feeding, or type of Foley catheter used. To understand PUBS and maintain urological hygiene, it is important to educate families and health care workers about PUBS and to recognize that PUBS is not regarded as a symptom of severe disease.

  6. Univariate graduation of mortality by local polynomial regression

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Tomas, J.

    2012-01-01

    Life tables are used to describe the one-year probability of death within a well defined population as a function of attained age. These probabilities play an important role in the determination of premium rates and reserves in life insurance. The crude estimates on which life tables are based might

  7. Univariate real root isolation in an extension field

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Strzebonski, Adam; Tsigaridas, Elias

    2011-01-01

    on the polynomial of the input. We compute improved separation bounds for the roots and we prove that they are optimal, under mild assumptions. For isolating the real roots we consider a modified Sturm algorithm, and a modified version of Descartes' algorithm introduced by Sagraloff. For the former we prove...

  8. Tokyo Motor Show 2003; Tokyo Motor Show 2003

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Joly, E.

    2004-01-01

    The text which follows present the different techniques exposed during the 37. Tokyo Motor Show. The report points out the great tendencies of developments of the Japanese automobile industry. The hybrid electric-powered vehicles or those equipped with fuel cells have been highlighted by the Japanese manufacturers which allow considerable budgets in the research of less polluting vehicles. The exposed models, although being all different according to the manufacturer, use always a hybrid system: fuel cell/battery. The manufacturers have stressed too on the intelligent systems for navigation and safety as well as on the design and comfort. (O.M.)

  9. Qualitative Analysis of Dairy and Powder Milk Using Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alfarraj, Bader A; Sanghapi, Herve K; Bhatt, Chet R; Yueh, Fang Y; Singh, Jagdish P

    2018-01-01

    Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) technique was used to compare various types of commercial milk products. Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy spectra were investigated for the determination of the elemental composition of soy and rice milk powder, dairy milk, and lactose-free dairy milk. The analysis was performed using radiative transitions. Atomic emissions from Ca, K, Na, and Mg lines observed in LIBS spectra of dairy milk were compared. In addition, proteins and fat level in milks can be determined using molecular emissions such as CN bands. Ca concentrations were calculated to be 2.165 ± 0.203 g/L in 1% of dairy milk fat samples and 2.809 ± 0.172 g/L in 2% of dairy milk fat samples using the standard addition method (SAM) with LIBS spectra. Univariate and multivariate statistical analysis methods showed that the contents of major mineral elements were higher in lactose-free dairy milk than those in dairy milk. The principal component analysis (PCA) method was used to discriminate four milk samples depending on their mineral elements concentration. In addition, proteins and fat level in dairy milks were determined using molecular emissions such as CN band. We applied partial least squares regression (PLSR) and simple linear regression (SLR) models to predict levels of milk fat in dairy milk samples. The PLSR model was successfully used to predict levels of milk fat in dairy milk sample with the relative accuracy (RA%) less than 6.62% using CN (0,0) band.

  10. Comparative shotgun proteomic analysis of wild and domesticated Opuntia spp. species shows a metabolic adaptation through domestication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pichereaux, Carole; Hernández-Domínguez, Eric E; Santos-Diaz, Maria Del Socorro; Reyes-Agüero, Antonio; Astello-García, Marizel; Guéraud, Françoise; Negre-Salvayre, Anne; Schiltz, Odile; Rossignol, Michel; Barba de la Rosa, Ana Paulina

    2016-06-30

    The Opuntia genus is widely distributed in America, but the highest richness of wild species are found in Mexico, as well as the most domesticated Opuntia ficus-indica, which is the most domesticated species and an important crop in agricultural economies of arid and semiarid areas worldwide. During domestication process, the Opuntia morphological characteristics were favored, such as less and smaller spines in cladodes and less seeds in fruits, but changes at molecular level are almost unknown. To obtain more insights about the Opuntia molecular changes through domestication, a shotgun proteomic analysis and database-dependent searches by homology was carried out. >1000 protein species were identified and by using a label-free quantitation method, the Opuntia proteomes were compared in order to identify differentially accumulated proteins among wild and domesticated species. Most of the changes were observed in glucose, secondary, and 1C metabolism, which correlate with the observed protein, fiber and phenolic compounds accumulation in Opuntia cladodes. Regulatory proteins, ribosomal proteins, and proteins related with response to stress were also observed in differential accumulation. These results provide new valuable data that will help to the understanding of the molecular changes of Opuntia species through domestication. Opuntia species are well adapted to dry and warm conditions in arid and semiarid regions worldwide, and they are highly productive plants showing considerable promises as an alternative food source. However, there is a gap regarding Opuntia molecular mechanisms that enable them to grow in extreme environmental conditions and how the domestication processes has changed them. In the present study, a shotgun analysis was carried out to characterize the proteomes of five Opuntia species selected by its domestication degree. Our results will help to a better understanding of proteomic features underlying the selection and specialization under

  11. Dual-phase 99mTc-MIBI scintigraphy with delayed neck and thorax SPECT/CT and bone scintigraphy in patients with primary hyperparathyroidism. Correlation with clinical or pathological variables

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Qiu, Zhongling; Shen, Chentian; Zhu, Ruisen; Luo, Quanyong; Wu, Bo

    2014-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to assess the relationship between 99m Tc-MIBI and 99m Tc-MDP bone scintigraphy and clinical or pathological variables, including preoperative serum PTH levels and tumor diameter, in patients with newly diagnosed PHPT. Dual phase 99m Tc-MIBI planar scintigraphy was performed in 244 patients with PHPT. Of these patients, 155 underwent 99m Tc-MDP bone scintigraphy to detect bone changes before parathyroidectomy. Factors influencing 99m Tc-MIBI scintigraphy and 99m Tc-MDP bone scintigraphy detection rate were assessed using univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis; optimal cutoff values for predicting positive 99m Tc-MIBI and 99m Tc-MDP bone scintigraphy were evaluated using ROC analysis. Among 244 patients, 174 (71.31%) patients with 181 foci had a positive 99m Tc-MIBI planar scintigraphy; delayed neck and thorax SPECT/CT could identify and locate the 99m Tc-MIBI lesions but could not find more lesions than planar scintigraphy. 70 (28.69%) patients had a negative 99m Tc-MIBI planar scintigraphy. Tumor diameter, serum PTH level and symptoms were statistically significant predictive factors in predicting positive 9m Tc-MIBI scintigraphy both univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses. The optimal thresholds for tumor diameter and serum PTH by ROC analysis were 1.03 cm and 127.60 ng/L, respectively. Among 155 patients with bone scintigraphy, 99m Tc-MDP bone scintigraphy showed positive finding in 80 (51.61%) patients and negative finding in 75 patients. Univariate logistic regression analysis showed that patient age, sex, tumor diameter and PTH level (≥150 ng/L) were statistically significant in predicting positive 99m Tc-MDP bone scintigraphy. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed both tumor diameter and PTH ≥150 ng/L were statistically significant in predicting positive 99m Tc-MDP bone scintigraphy. The optimal thresholds for tumor diameter and serum PTH by ROC analysis were 1.96 cm and 163

  12. Magnetic resonance metabolic profiling of breast cancer tissue obtained with core needle biopsy for predicting pathologic response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ji Soo Choi

    Full Text Available The purpose of this study was to determine whether metabolic profiling of core needle biopsy (CNB samples using high-resolution magic angle spinning (HR-MAS magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS could be used for predicting pathologic response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC in patients with locally advanced breast cancer. After institutional review board approval and informed consent were obtained, CNB tissue samples were collected from 37 malignant lesions in 37 patients before NAC treatment. The metabolic profiling of CNB samples were performed by HR-MAS MRS. Metabolic profiles were compared according to pathologic response to NAC using the Mann-Whitney test. Multivariate analysis was performed with orthogonal projections to latent structure-discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA. Various metabolites including choline-containing compounds were identified and quantified by HR-MAS MRS in all 37 breast cancer tissue samples obtained by CNB. In univariate analysis, the metabolite concentrations and metabolic ratios of CNB samples obtained with HR-MAS MRS were not significantly different between different pathologic response groups. However, there was a trend of lower levels of phosphocholine/creatine ratio and choline-containing metabolite concentrations in the pathologic complete response group compared to the non-pathologic complete response group. In multivariate analysis, the OPLS-DA models built with HR-MAS MR metabolic profiles showed visible discrimination between the pathologic response groups. This study showed OPLS-DA multivariate analysis using metabolic profiles of pretreatment CNB samples assessed by HR- MAS MRS may be used to predict pathologic response before NAC, although we did not identify the metabolite showing statistical significance in univariate analysis. Therefore, our preliminary results raise the necessity of further study on HR-MAS MR metabolic profiling of CNB samples for a large number of cancers.

  13. Depressive symptoms in HIV-infected and seronegative control subjects in Cameroon: Effect of age, education and gender.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kanmogne, Georgette D; Qiu, Fang; Ntone, Félicien E; Fonsah, Julius Y; Njamnshi, Dora M; Kuate, Callixte T; Doh, Roland F; Kengne, Anne M; Tagny, Claude T; Nchindap, Emilienne; Kenmogne, Léopoldine; Mbanya, Dora; Cherner, Mariana; Heaton, Robert K; Njamnshi, Alfred K

    2017-01-01

    Depression is a leading cause of HIV/AIDS disease burden; it worsens health outcomes and quality of life. Addressing this problem requires accurate quantification of the extra burden of depression to HIV/AIDS in a given population, and knowledge of the baseline depression prevalence in the general population. There has been no previous study of depression in the general Cameroonian population. The current study attempts to address that important need. We used the Beck Depression Inventory-II to assess the prevalence and severity of depressive symptoms in 270 HIV-infected and seronegative Cameroonians. Univariate analyses showed a trend toward higher depressive symptoms among cases, compared to controls (p = 0.055), and among older subjects (>40 years), compared to younger subjects (≤40 years) (p = 0.059). Analysis of depression severity showed that 33.73% of cases had moderate-to-severe depressive symptoms, compared to 19.8% of controls (pHIV status, CD4 levels, viral loads, ART, or opportunistic infections on the risk of depressive symptoms. Both univariate and multivariable regression analyses showed significantly higher risk of depressive symptoms among females compared to males; this was significant for both female controls and female cases. Female cases had significantly higher CD4 cell counts and lower viral loads, compared to males. Both univariate and multivariable regression analyses showed that lower education (≤10 years) was associated with increased risk of depressive symptoms. This study shows a high prevalence of depressive symptoms among seronegative controls and HIV-infected Cameroonians. Integrating care for mental disorders such as depression into primary health care and existing HIV/AIDS treatment programs in Cameroon may improve the wellbeing of the general population and could lower the HIV/AIDS burden.

  14. Methods for meta-analysis of multiple traits using GWAS summary statistics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ray, Debashree; Boehnke, Michael

    2018-03-01

    Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for complex diseases have focused primarily on single-trait analyses for disease status and disease-related quantitative traits. For example, GWAS on risk factors for coronary artery disease analyze genetic associations of plasma lipids such as total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol, and triglycerides (TGs) separately. However, traits are often correlated and a joint analysis may yield increased statistical power for association over multiple univariate analyses. Recently several multivariate methods have been proposed that require individual-level data. Here, we develop metaUSAT (where USAT is unified score-based association test), a novel unified association test of a single genetic variant with multiple traits that uses only summary statistics from existing GWAS. Although the existing methods either perform well when most correlated traits are affected by the genetic variant in the same direction or are powerful when only a few of the correlated traits are associated, metaUSAT is designed to be robust to the association structure of correlated traits. metaUSAT does not require individual-level data and can test genetic associations of categorical and/or continuous traits. One can also use metaUSAT to analyze a single trait over multiple studies, appropriately accounting for overlapping samples, if any. metaUSAT provides an approximate asymptotic P-value for association and is computationally efficient for implementation at a genome-wide level. Simulation experiments show that metaUSAT maintains proper type-I error at low error levels. It has similar and sometimes greater power to detect association across a wide array of scenarios compared to existing methods, which are usually powerful for some specific association scenarios only. When applied to plasma lipids summary data from the METSIM and the T2D-GENES studies, metaUSAT detected genome-wide significant loci beyond the ones identified by univariate analyses

  15. [Analysis of the therapeutic effects of different treatment modalities on the outcomes of 87 patients with lung oligometastasis from nasopharyngeal carcinoma after radiotherapy].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tang, Q; Hu, Q Y; Piao, Y F; Hua, Y H; Chen, X Z

    2016-03-23

    The aim of the present study was to evaluate the efficacy of three different modalities in treatment of lung oligometastases from nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) after radiotherapy and to identify a more appropriate treatment modality. The clinical data of 87 cases of lung oligometastases from NPC were analyzed retrospectively. Among them, 33 patients underwent local small-field irradiation+ /- chemotherapy, 28 underwent whole-lung irradiation+ chemotherapy, and 26 underwent simple chemotherapy. The survival rates were calculated using Kaplan-Meier analysis. The differences among the modalities were evaluated using the log-rank test. Cox univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to determine the influencing factors. The 3-year lung metastasis survival (LMS) rates of patients with lung metastasis undergoing the three treatment modalities (local small-field irradiation+ /-chemotherapy, whole-lung irradiation+ chemotherapy and chemotherapy alone) were 89.3%, 72.7%, and 72.4%, respectively, showing a significant difference between the groups (P=0.003). Further subgroup analysis showed that the 5-year LMS rate was significantly higher in the local small-field irradiation+ /-chemotherapy group than that in the whole-lung irradiation+ chemotherapy group and chemotherapy alone group (P=0.001). The 2-year progression-free survival (PFS) rates of the three groups were 57.1%, 25.8% and 3.8%, respectively, showing significant intergroup differences (P=0.002 and P<0.001). Multivariate analysis indicated that compared with the whole lung irradiation group and the chemotherapy alone group, the local irradiation+ /- chemotherapy is an independent favorable prognostic factor for LMS and PFS (P<0.05). Local radiotherapy combined with systemic chemotherapy is the best therapeutic modality for lung oligometastases derived from NPC after radiotherapy, improving the LMS and prolonging the PFS.

  16. Predictors of unsuccessful outcome in cemented femoral revisions using bone impaction grafting; Cox regression analysis of 208 cases.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Te Stroet, Martijn A J; Rijnen, Wim H C; Gardeniers, Jean W M; Schreurs, B Willem; Hannink, Gerjon

    2016-09-29

    Despite improvements in the technique of femoral impaction bone grafting, reconstruction failures still can occur. Therefore, the aim of our study was to determine risk factors for the endpoint re-revision for any reason. We used prospectively collected demographic, clinical and surgical data of all 202 patients who underwent 208 femoral revisions using the X-change Femoral Revision System (Stryker-Howmedica), fresh-frozen morcellised allograft and a cemented polished Exeter stem in our department from 1991 to 2007. Univariable and multivariable Cox regression analyses were performed to identify potential factors associated with re-revision. The mean follow-up was 10.6 (5-21) years. The cumulative re-revision rate was 6.3% (13/208). After univariable selection, sex, age, body mass index (BMI), American Association of Anesthesiologists (ASA) classification, type of removed femoral component, and mesh used for reconstruction were included in multivariable regression analysis.In the multivariable analysis, BMI was the only factor that was significantly associated with the risk of re-revision after bone impaction grafting (BMI ≥30 vs. BMI <30, HR = 6.54 [95% CI 1.89-22.65]; p = 0.003). BMI was the only factor associated with the risk of re-revision for any reason. Besides BMI also other factors, such as Endoklinik score and the type of removed femoral component, can provide guidance in the process of preclinical decision making. With the knowledge obtained from this study, preoperative patient selection, informed consent, and treatment protocols can be better adjusted to the individual patient who needs to undergo a femoral revision with impaction bone grafting.

  17. Statistical strategies to reveal potential vibrational markers for in vivo analysis by confocal Raman spectroscopy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oliveira Mendes, Thiago de; Pinto, Liliane Pereira; Santos, Laurita dos; Tippavajhala, Vamshi Krishna; Téllez Soto, Claudio Alberto; Martin, Airton Abrahão

    2016-07-01

    The analysis of biological systems by spectroscopic techniques involves the evaluation of hundreds to thousands of variables. Hence, different statistical approaches are used to elucidate regions that discriminate classes of samples and to propose new vibrational markers for explaining various phenomena like disease monitoring, mechanisms of action of drugs, food, and so on. However, the technical statistics are not always widely discussed in applied sciences. In this context, this work presents a detailed discussion including the various steps necessary for proper statistical analysis. It includes univariate parametric and nonparametric tests, as well as multivariate unsupervised and supervised approaches. The main objective of this study is to promote proper understanding of the application of various statistical tools in these spectroscopic methods used for the analysis of biological samples. The discussion of these methods is performed on a set of in vivo confocal Raman spectra of human skin analysis that aims to identify skin aging markers. In the Appendix, a complete routine of data analysis is executed in a free software that can be used by the scientific community involved in these studies.

  18. Mathematical analysis of the 1D model and reconstruction schemes for magnetic particle imaging

    Science.gov (United States)

    Erb, W.; Weinmann, A.; Ahlborg, M.; Brandt, C.; Bringout, G.; Buzug, T. M.; Frikel, J.; Kaethner, C.; Knopp, T.; März, T.; Möddel, M.; Storath, M.; Weber, A.

    2018-05-01

    Magnetic particle imaging (MPI) is a promising new in vivo medical imaging modality in which distributions of super-paramagnetic nanoparticles are tracked based on their response in an applied magnetic field. In this paper we provide a mathematical analysis of the modeled MPI operator in the univariate situation. We provide a Hilbert space setup, in which the MPI operator is decomposed into simple building blocks and in which these building blocks are analyzed with respect to their mathematical properties. In turn, we obtain an analysis of the MPI forward operator and, in particular, of its ill-posedness properties. We further get that the singular values of the MPI core operator decrease exponentially. We complement our analytic results by some numerical studies which, in particular, suggest a rapid decay of the singular values of the MPI operator.

  19. An analysis of predictive factors for concurrent acute-on-chronic liver failure and hepatorenal syndrome

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    CHEN Yanfang

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available ObjectiveTo learn the clinical characteristics of concurrent acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF and hepatorenal syndrome (HRS, and to investigate the predictive factors for HRS in patients with ACLF. MethodsA total of 806 patients with ACLF who were admitted to our hospital from January 2012 to May 2014 were selected and divided into two groups according to the incidence of concurrent HRS. Clinical indices and laboratory test results were analyzed in the two groups, and the multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to figure out independent indices for the prediction of HRS in patients with ACLF. A prediction model was established and the receiver operating characteristic curve was drawn to evaluate the accuracy of the prediction model. Comparison of continuous data between the two groups was made by t test, and comparison of categorical data between the two groups was made by χ2 test. ResultsIn all patients with ACLF, 229 had HRS and 577 had no HRS. The univariate logistic regression analysis showed that hepatic encephalopathy, peritonitis, infection, age, cystatin C (Cys-C, serum creatinine (SCr, blood urea nitrogen, albumin, prealbumin, total bilirubin, direct bilirubin, total cholesterol, K+, Na+, phosphorus, Ca2+, prothrombin time, prothrombin activity, international normalized ratio, and hematocrit were significant predictive factors for HRS. The multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that concurrent peritonitis, Cys-C, SCr, and HCO3- were independent predictive factors for HRS in patients with ACLF (OR=3.155, P<0.01; OR=30.773, P<0.01; OR=1062, P<0.01; OR=0.915, P<0.05. The model was proved of great value in prediction. ConclusionConcurrent peritonitis, Cys-C, SCr, and HCO3- are effective predictive factors for HRS in patients with ACLF.

  20. Sexual dimorphism in the mandible of the armadillo Chaetophractus villosus (Desmarest, 1804) (Dasypodidae) from northern Patagonia, Argentina

    OpenAIRE

    Squarcia, SM.; Sidorkewicj, NS.; Camina, R.; Casanave, EB.

    2009-01-01

    The aim of this study was to study the sexual dimorphism in adult Chaetophractus villosus (Desmarest, 1804), from northern Patagonia, Argentina. Eight mandibular traits were measured in 37 males and 34 females. Univariate and multivariate morphometric analysis were applied to the data set. Results showed that C. villosus was sexually dimorphic, with higher absolute values corresponding to females. The total length of the mandible was the most important variable to discriminate sexes, followed...

  1. Sexual dimorphism in the mandible of the armadillo Chaetophractus villosus (Desmarest, 1804) (Dasypodidae) from northern Patagonia, Argentina Dimorfismo sexual da mandíbula do tatu Chaetophractus villosus (Desmarest, 1804) (Dasypodidae) do norte da Patagônia Argentina

    OpenAIRE

    SM. Squarcia; NS. Sidorkewicj; R. Camina; EB. Casanave

    2009-01-01

    The aim of this study was to study the sexual dimorphism in adult Chaetophractus villosus (Desmarest, 1804), from northern Patagonia, Argentina. Eight mandibular traits were measured in 37 males and 34 females. Univariate and multivariate morphometric analysis were applied to the data set. Results showed that C. villosus was sexually dimorphic, with higher absolute values corresponding to females. The total length of the mandible was the most important variable to discriminate sexes, followed...

  2. Risk of isolated nodal failure for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treated with the elective nodal irradiation (ENI) using 3D-conformal radiotherapy (3D-CRT) techniques - A retrospective analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kepka, Lucyna; Bujko, Krzysztof; Zolciak-Siwinska, Agnieszka

    2008-01-01

    Purpose. To estimate retrospectively the rate of isolated nodal failures (INF) in NSCLC patients treated with the elective nodal irradiation (ENI) using 3D-conformal radiotherapy (3D-CRT). Materials/methods. One hundred and eighty-five patients with I-IIIB stage treated with 3D-CRT in consecutive clinical trials differing in an extent of the ENI were analyzed. According to the extent of the ENI, two groups were distinguished: extended (n=124) and limited (n=61) ENI. INF was defined as regional nodal failure occurring without local progression. Cumulative Incidence of INF (CIINF) was evaluated by univariate and multivariate analysis with regard to prognostic factors. Results. With a median follow up of 30 months, the two-year actuarial overall survival was 35%. The two-year CIINF rate was 12%. There were 16 (9%) INF, eight (6%) for extended and eight (13%) for limited ENI. In the univariate analysis bulky mediastinal disease (BMD), left side, higher N stage, and partial response to RT had a significant negative impact on the CIINF. BMD was the only independent predictor of the risk of incidence of the INF (p=0.001). Conclusions. INF is more likely to occur in case of more advanced nodal status

  3. Effect of vitamin E supplementation on serum C-reactive protein level: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Saboori, S; Shab-Bidar, S; Speakman, J R; Yousefi Rad, E; Djafarian, K

    2015-08-01

    C-reactive protein (CRP), a marker of chronic inflammation, has a major role in the etiology of chronic disease. Vitamin E may have anti-inflammatory effects. However, there is no consensus on the effects of vitamin E supplementation on CRP levels in clinical trials. The aim of this study was to systematically review randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that report on the effects of vitamin E supplementation (α- and γ-tocopherols) on CRP levels. A systematic search of RCTs was conducted on Medline and EMBASE through PubMed, Scopus, Ovid and Science Direct, and completed by a manual review of the literature up to May 2014. Pooled effects were estimated by using random-effects models and heterogeneity was assessed by Cochran's Q and I(2) tests. Subgroup analyses and meta-regression analyses were also performed according to intervention duration, dose of supplementation and baseline level of CRP. Of 4734 potentially relevant studies, only 12 trials met the inclusion criteria with 246 participants in the intervention arms and 249 participants in control arms. Pooled analysis showed a significant reduction in CRP levels of 0.62 mg/l (95% confidence interval = -0.92, -0.31; P vitamin E-treated individuals, with the evidence of heterogeneity across studies. This significant effect was maintained in all subgroups, although the univariate meta-regression analysis showed that the vitamin E supplementation dose, baseline level of CRP and duration of intervention were not the sources of the observed heterogeneity. The results of this meta-analysis suggest that supplementation with vitamin E in the form of either α-tocopherol or γ-tocopherol would reduce serum CRP levels.

  4. Qualitative and quantitative analysis of milk for the detection of adulteration by Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moncayo, S; Manzoor, S; Rosales, J D; Anzano, J; Caceres, J O

    2017-10-01

    The present work focuses on the development of a fast and cost effective method based on Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) to the quality control, traceability and detection of adulteration in milk. Two adulteration cases have been studied; a qualitative analysis for the discrimination between different milk blends and quantification of melamine in adulterated toddler milk powder. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and neural networks (NN) have been used to analyze LIBS spectra obtaining a correct classification rate of 98% with a 100% of robustness. For the quantification of melamine, two methodologies have been developed; univariate analysis using CN emission band and multivariate calibration NN model obtaining correlation coefficient (R 2 ) values of 0.982 and 0.999 respectively. The results of the use of LIBS technique coupled with chemometric analysis are discussed in terms of its potential use in the food industry to perform the quality control of this dairy product. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  5. Neural Activity Patterns in the Human Brain Reflect Tactile Stickiness Perception

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Junsuk; Yeon, Jiwon; Ryu, Jaekyun; Park, Jang-Yeon; Chung, Soon-Cheol; Kim, Sung-Phil

    2017-01-01

    Our previous human fMRI study found brain activations correlated with tactile stickiness perception using the uni-variate general linear model (GLM) (Yeon et al., 2017). Here, we conducted an in-depth investigation on neural correlates of sticky sensations by employing a multivoxel pattern analysis (MVPA) on the same dataset. In particular, we statistically compared multi-variate neural activities in response to the three groups of sticky stimuli: A supra-threshold group including a set of sticky stimuli that evoked vivid sticky perception; an infra-threshold group including another set of sticky stimuli that barely evoked sticky perception; and a sham group including acrylic stimuli with no physically sticky property. Searchlight MVPAs were performed to search for local activity patterns carrying neural information of stickiness perception. Similar to the uni-variate GLM results, significant multi-variate neural activity patterns were identified in postcentral gyrus, subcortical (basal ganglia and thalamus), and insula areas (insula and adjacent areas). Moreover, MVPAs revealed that activity patterns in posterior parietal cortex discriminated the perceptual intensities of stickiness, which was not present in the uni-variate analysis. Next, we applied a principal component analysis (PCA) to the voxel response patterns within identified clusters so as to find low-dimensional neural representations of stickiness intensities. Follow-up clustering analyses clearly showed separate neural grouping configurations between the Supra- and Infra-threshold groups. Interestingly, this neural categorization was in line with the perceptual grouping pattern obtained from the psychophysical data. Our findings thus suggest that different stickiness intensities would elicit distinct neural activity patterns in the human brain and may provide a neural basis for the perception and categorization of tactile stickiness. PMID:28936171

  6. Is the prognosis for Japanese and German patients with gastric cancer really different?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bollschweiler, E; Boettcher, K; Hoelscher, A H; Sasako, M; Kinoshita, T; Maruyama, K; Siewert, J R

    1993-05-15

    Differing survival rates have been reported between patients having undergone surgical intervention for the treatment of gastric carcinoma in Japan and Western industrialized countries. Through the actual availability of the data compiled at a major Japanese medical center (National Cancer Center, Tokyo), it was possible, for the first time, to compare the patients and therapeutic results of a Japanese center (n = 1475) with that of a German center (Department of Surgery, Technical University of Munich, Munich; n = 453). The prognostic factors involving both groups were compared. Survival rates were analyzed in univariate and multivariate fashions. Some of the examined prognostic factors, such as sex, histologic type, tumor size, and Borrmann classification, were similarly distributed. Differences in frequency were discovered concerning pathologic tumor (pT), node (pN), and metastasis (pM) categories, localization, and age groups. Univariate analysis showed a 2-year survival rate of 88% for all Japanese patients with gastric cancer compared with 58% for German patients. The 5-year survival rates were 77% and 44%, respectively. The difference in the 2-year and 5-year survival rates for both departments may be related to differences in frequencies of several characteristics. In performing the same analysis in a multivariate fashion for the patient populations at both centers, it became clear that an important prognostic factor was the center itself. The survival curves of patients from Tokyo and Munich with the same prognostic factors demonstrate this difference. These differences, however, were small in comparison with those of univariate analysis. Using a similar classification of the tumor stage and similar prognostic characteristics, the prognosis for gastric cancer in Japan and Germany may be the same.

  7. Spatial Heterodyne Observation of Water (SHOW) from a high altitude aircraft

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bourassa, A. E.; Langille, J.; Solheim, B.; Degenstein, D. A.; Letros, D.; Lloyd, N. D.; Loewen, P.

    2017-12-01

    The Spatial Heterodyne Observations of Water instrument (SHOW) is limb-sounding satellite prototype that is being developed in collaboration between the University of Saskatchewan, York University, the Canadian Space Agency and ABB. The SHOW instrument combines a field-widened SHS with an imaging system to observe limb-scattered sunlight in a vibrational band of water (1363 nm - 1366 nm). Currently, the instrument has been optimized for deployment on NASA's ER-2 aircraft. Flying at an altitude of 70, 000 ft the ER-2 configuration and SHOW viewing geometry provides high spatial resolution (limb-measurements of water vapor in the Upper troposphere and lower stratosphere region. During an observation campaign from July 15 - July 22, the SHOW instrument performed 10 hours of observations from the ER-2. This paper describes the SHOW measurement technique and presents the preliminary analysis and results from these flights. These observations are used to validate the SHOW measurement technique and demonstrate the sampling capabilities of the instrument.

  8. Changes of visual-field global indices after cataract surgery in primary open-angle glaucoma patients.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Seol, Bo Ram; Jeoung, Jin Wook; Park, Ki Ho

    2016-11-01

    To determine changes of visual-field (VF) global indices after cataract surgery and the factors associated with the effect of cataracts on those indices in primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) patients. A retrospective chart review of 60 POAG patients who had undergone phacoemulsification and intraocular lens insertion was conducted. All of the patients were evaluated with standard automated perimetry (SAP; 30-2 Swedish interactive threshold algorithm; Carl Zeiss Meditec Inc.) before and after surgery. VF global indices before surgery were compared with those after surgery. The best-corrected visual acuity, intraocular pressure (IOP), number of glaucoma medications before surgery, mean total deviation (TD) values, mean pattern deviation (PD) value, and mean TD-PD value were also compared with the corresponding postoperative values. Additionally, postoperative peak IOP and mean IOP were evaluated. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to identify the factors associated with the effect of cataract on global indices. Mean deviation (MD) after cataract surgery was significantly improved compared with the preoperative MD. Pattern standard deviation (PSD) and visual-field index (VFI) after surgery were similar to those before surgery. Also, mean TD and mean TD-PD were significantly improved after surgery. The posterior subcapsular cataract (PSC) type showed greater MD changes than did the non-PSC type in both the univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses. In the univariate logistic regression analysis, the preoperative TD-PD value and type of cataract were associated with MD change. However, in the multivariate logistic regression analysis, type of cataract was the only associated factor. None of the other factors was associated with MD change. MD was significantly affected by cataracts, whereas PSD and VFI were not. Most notably, the PSC type showed better MD improvement compared with the non-PSC type after cataract surgery

  9. Determinants of orphan drugs prices in France: a regression analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Korchagina, Daria; Millier, Aurelie; Vataire, Anne-Lise; Aballea, Samuel; Falissard, Bruno; Toumi, Mondher

    2017-04-21

    The introduction of the orphan drug legislation led to the increase in the number of available orphan drugs, but the access to them is often limited due to the high price. Social preferences regarding funding orphan drugs as well as the criteria taken into consideration while setting the price remain unclear. The study aimed at identifying the determinant of orphan drug prices in France using a regression analysis. All drugs with a valid orphan designation at the moment of launch for which the price was available in France were included in the analysis. The selection of covariates was based on a literature review and included drug characteristics (Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) class, treatment line, age of target population), diseases characteristics (severity, prevalence, availability of alternative therapeutic options), health technology assessment (HTA) details (actual benefit (AB) and improvement in actual benefit (IAB) scores, delay between the HTA and commercialisation), and study characteristics (type of study, comparator, type of endpoint). The main data sources were European public assessment reports, HTA reports, summaries of opinion on orphan designation of the European Medicines Agency, and the French insurance database of drugs and tariffs. A generalized regression model was developed to test the association between the annual treatment cost and selected covariates. A total of 68 drugs were included. The mean annual treatment cost was €96,518. In the univariate analysis, the ATC class (p = 0.01), availability of alternative treatment options (p = 0.02) and the prevalence (p = 0.02) showed a significant correlation with the annual cost. The multivariate analysis demonstrated significant association between the annual cost and availability of alternative treatment options, ATC class, IAB score, type of comparator in the pivotal clinical trial, as well as commercialisation date and delay between the HTA and commercialisation. The

  10. Serial automated quantitative CT analysis in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Functional correlations and comparison with changes in visual CT scores

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jacob, Joseph; Bartholmai, Brian J.; Rajagopalan, Srinivasan; Kokosi, Maria; Wells, Athol U.; Egashira, Ryoko; Brun, Anne Laure; Nair, Arjun; Walsh, Simon L.F.; Karwoski, Ronald

    2018-01-01

    To determine whether computer-based CT quantitation of change can improve on visual change quantification of parenchymal features in IPF. Sixty-six IPF patients with serial CT imaging (6-24 months apart) had CT features scored visually and with a computer software tool: ground glass opacity, reticulation and honeycombing (all three variables summed as interstitial lung disease extent [ILD]) and emphysema. Pulmonary vessel volume (PVV) was estimated by computer only. Relationships between changes in CT features and forced vital capacity (FVC) were examined using univariate and multivariate linear regression analyses. On univariate analysis, changes in computer variables demonstrated stronger linkages to FVC change than changes in visual scores (CALIPER ILD:R 2 =0.53, p<0.0001; Visual ILD:R 2 =0.16, p=0.001). PVV increase correlated most strongly with relative FVC change (R 2 =0.57). When PVV constituents (vessel size and location) were examined, an increase in middle zone vessels linked most strongly to FVC decline (R 2 =0.57) and was independent of baseline disease severity (characterised by CT fibrosis extent, FVC, or DLco). An increase in PVV, specifically an increase in middle zone lung vessels, was the strongest CT determinant of FVC decline in IPF and was independent of baseline disease severity. (orig.)

  11. Serial automated quantitative CT analysis in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Functional correlations and comparison with changes in visual CT scores

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Jacob, Joseph; Bartholmai, Brian J.; Rajagopalan, Srinivasan [Mayo Clinic Rochester, Division of Radiology, Rochester, MN (United States); Kokosi, Maria; Wells, Athol U. [Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Foundation Trust, Interstitial Lung Disease Unit, Royal Brompton Hospital, London (United Kingdom); Egashira, Ryoko [Saga Daigaku, Department of Radiology, Saga (Japan); Brun, Anne Laure [Whittington Hospital, Department of Radiology, London (United Kingdom); Nair, Arjun [Guys and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, Department of Radiology, London (United Kingdom); Walsh, Simon L.F. [Kings College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Department of Radiology, London (United Kingdom); Karwoski, Ronald [Mayo Clinic Rochester, Department of Physiology and Biomedical Engineering, Rochester, MN (United States)

    2018-03-15

    To determine whether computer-based CT quantitation of change can improve on visual change quantification of parenchymal features in IPF. Sixty-six IPF patients with serial CT imaging (6-24 months apart) had CT features scored visually and with a computer software tool: ground glass opacity, reticulation and honeycombing (all three variables summed as interstitial lung disease extent [ILD]) and emphysema. Pulmonary vessel volume (PVV) was estimated by computer only. Relationships between changes in CT features and forced vital capacity (FVC) were examined using univariate and multivariate linear regression analyses. On univariate analysis, changes in computer variables demonstrated stronger linkages to FVC change than changes in visual scores (CALIPER ILD:R{sup 2}=0.53, p<0.0001; Visual ILD:R{sup 2}=0.16, p=0.001). PVV increase correlated most strongly with relative FVC change (R{sup 2}=0.57). When PVV constituents (vessel size and location) were examined, an increase in middle zone vessels linked most strongly to FVC decline (R{sup 2}=0.57) and was independent of baseline disease severity (characterised by CT fibrosis extent, FVC, or DLco). An increase in PVV, specifically an increase in middle zone lung vessels, was the strongest CT determinant of FVC decline in IPF and was independent of baseline disease severity. (orig.)

  12. Is investigator background related to outcome in head to head trials of psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy for adult depression? A systematic review and meta-analysis.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ioana A Cristea

    Full Text Available The influence of factors related to the background of investigators conducting trials comparing psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy has remained largely unstudied. Specializations emphasizing biological determinants of mental disorders, like psychiatry, might favor pharmacotherapy, while others stressing psychosocial factors, like psychology, could promote psychotherapy. Yet financial conflict of interest (COI could be a confounding factor as authors with a medical specialization might receive more sponsoring from the pharmaceutical industry.We conducted a meta-analysis with subgroup and meta-regression analysis examining whether the specialization and affiliation of trial authors were associated to outcomes in the direct comparison of psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy for the acute treatment of depression. Meta-regression analysis also included trial risk of bias and author conflict of interest in relationship to the pharmaceutical industry.We included 45 trials. In half, the first author was psychologist. The last author was psychiatrist/MD in half of the trials, and a psychologist or statistician/other technical in the rest. Most lead authors had medical affiliations. Subgroup analysis indicated that studies with last authors statisticians favored pharmacotherapy. Univariate analysis showed a negative relationship between the presence of statisticians and outcomes favoring psychotherapy. Multivariate analysis showed that trials including authors with financial COI reported findings more favorable to pharmacotherapy.We report the first detailed overview of the background of authors conducting head to head trials for depression. Trials co-authored by statisticians appear to subtly favor pharmacotherapy. Receiving funding from the industry is more closely related to finding better outcomes for the industry's elective treatment than are factors related to authors' background.For a minority of authors we could not retrieve background information

  13. Skin Flap Necrosis After Mastectomy With Reconstruction: A Prospective Study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Matsen, Cindy B; Mehrara, Babak; Eaton, Anne; Capko, Deborah; Berg, Anastasia; Stempel, Michelle; Van Zee, Kimberly J; Pusic, Andrea; King, Tari A; Cody, Hiram S; Pilewskie, Melissa; Cordeiro, Peter; Sclafani, Lisa; Plitas, George; Gemignani, Mary L; Disa, Joseph; El-Tamer, Mahmoud; Morrow, Monica

    2016-01-01

    Rates of mastectomy with immediate reconstruction are rising. Skin flap necrosis after this procedure is a recognized complication that can have an impact on cosmetic outcomes and patient satisfaction, and in worst cases can potentially delay adjuvant therapies. Many retrospective studies of this complication have identified variable event rates and inconsistent associated factors. A prospective study was designed to capture the rate of skin flap necrosis as well as pre-, intra-, and postoperative variables, with follow-up assessment to 8 weeks postoperatively. Uni- and multivariate analyses were performed for factors associated with skin flap necrosis. Of 606 consecutive procedures, 85 (14 %) had some level of skin flap necrosis: 46 mild (8 %), 6 moderate (1 %), 31 severe (5 %), and 2 uncategorized (0.3 %). Univariate analysis for any necrosis showed smoking, history of breast augmentation, nipple-sparing mastectomy, and time from incision to specimen removal to be significant. In multivariate models, nipple-sparing, time from incision to specimen removal, sharp dissection, and previous breast reduction were significant for any necrosis. Univariate analysis of only moderate or severe necrosis showed body mass index, diabetes, nipple-sparing mastectomy, specimen size, and expander size to be significant. Multivariate analysis showed nipple-sparing mastectomy and specimen size to be significant. Nipple-sparing mastectomy was associated with higher rates of necrosis at every level of severity. Rates of skin flap necrosis are likely higher than reported in retrospective series. Modifiable technical variables have limited the impact on rates of necrosis. Patients with multiple risk factors should be counseled about the risks, especially if they are contemplating nipple-sparing mastectomy.

  14. Sensitivity of human auditory cortex to rapid frequency modulation revealed by multivariate representational similarity analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Joanisse, Marc F; DeSouza, Diedre D

    2014-01-01

    Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) was used to investigate the extent, magnitude, and pattern of brain activity in response to rapid frequency-modulated sounds. We examined this by manipulating the direction (rise vs. fall) and the rate (fast vs. slow) of the apparent pitch of iterated rippled noise (IRN) bursts. Acoustic parameters were selected to capture features used in phoneme contrasts, however the stimuli themselves were not perceived as speech per se. Participants were scanned as they passively listened to sounds in an event-related paradigm. Univariate analyses revealed a greater level and extent of activation in bilateral auditory cortex in response to frequency-modulated sweeps compared to steady-state sounds. This effect was stronger in the left hemisphere. However, no regions showed selectivity for either rate or direction of frequency modulation. In contrast, multivoxel pattern analysis (MVPA) revealed feature-specific encoding for direction of modulation in auditory cortex bilaterally. Moreover, this effect was strongest when analyses were restricted to anatomical regions lying outside Heschl's gyrus. We found no support for feature-specific encoding of frequency modulation rate. Differential findings of modulation rate and direction of modulation are discussed with respect to their relevance to phonetic discrimination.

  15. Safety in ready mixed concrete industry: descriptive analysis of injuries and development of preventive measures.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Akboğa, Özge; Baradan, Selim

    2017-02-07

    Ready mixed concrete (RMC) industry, one of the barebones of construction sector, has its distinctive occupational safety and health (OSH) risks. Employees experience risks that emerge during the fabrication of concrete, as well as its delivery to the construction site. Statistics show that usage and demand of RMC have been increasing along with the number of producers and workers. Unfortunately, adequate OSH measures to meet this rapid growth are not in place even in top RMC producing countries, such as Turkey. Moreover, lack of statistical data and academic research in this sector exacerbates this problem. This study aims to fill this gap by conducting data mining in Turkish Social Security Institution archives and performing univariate frequency and cross tabulation analysis on 71 incidents that RMC truck drivers were involved. Also, investigations and interviews were conducted in seven RMC plants in Turkey and Netherlands with OSH point of view. Based on the results of this research, problem areas were determined such as; cleaning truck mixer/pump is a hazardous activity where operators get injured frequently, and struck by falling objects is a major hazard at RMC industry. Finally, Job Safety Analyses were performed on these areas to suggest mitigation methods.

  16. Significance of Epstein-Barr virus (HHV-4 and CMV (HHV-5 infection among subtype-C human immunodeficiency virus-infected individuals

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    J Sachithanandham

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Purpose: Opportunistic viral infections are one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality in HIV infection and their molecular detection in the whole blood could be a useful diagnostic tool. Objective: The frequency of opportunistic DNA virus infections among HIV-1-infected individuals using multiplex real-time PCR assays was studied. Materials and Methods: The subjects were in two groups; group 1: Having CD4 counts 350 cells/µl (n = 173. Individuals were classified by WHO clinical staging system. Samples from 70 healthy individuals were tested as controls. In-house qualitative multiplex real-time PCR was standardised and whole blood samples from 291 were tested, followed by quantitative real-time PCR for positives. In a proportion of samples genotypes of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV and CMV were determined. Results: The two major viral infections observed were EBV and CMV. The univariate analysis of CMV load showed significant association with cryptococcal meningitis, oral hairy leukoplakia (OHL, CMV retinitis, CD4 counts and WHO staging (P < 0.05 while the multivariate analysis showed an association with OHL (P = 0.02 and WHO staging (P = 0.05. Univariate analysis showed an association of EBV load with CD4 counts and WHO staging (P < 0.05 and multivariate analysis had association only with CD4 counts. The CMV load was significantly associated with elevated SGPT and SGOT level (P < 0.05 while the EBV had only with SGOT. Conclusion: This study showed an association of EBV and CMV load with CD4+ T cell counts, WHO staging and elevated liver enzymes. These viral infections can accelerate HIV disease and multiplex real-time PCR can be used for the early detection. Genotype 1 and 2 of EBV and genotype gB1 and gB2 of CMV were the prevalent in the HIV-1 subtype C-infected south Indians.

  17. Breast Cancer-Derived Lung Metastases Show Increased Pyruvate Carboxylase-Dependent Anaplerosis

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    Stefan Christen

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available Cellular proliferation depends on refilling the tricarboxylic acid (TCA cycle to support biomass production (anaplerosis. The two major anaplerotic pathways in cells are pyruvate conversion to oxaloacetate via pyruvate carboxylase (PC and glutamine conversion to α-ketoglutarate. Cancers often show an organ-specific reliance on either pathway. However, it remains unknown whether they adapt their mode of anaplerosis when metastasizing to a distant organ. We measured PC-dependent anaplerosis in breast-cancer-derived lung metastases compared to their primary cancers using in vivo 13C tracer analysis. We discovered that lung metastases have higher PC-dependent anaplerosis compared to primary breast cancers. Based on in vitro analysis and a mathematical model for the determination of compartment-specific metabolite concentrations, we found that mitochondrial pyruvate concentrations can promote PC-dependent anaplerosis via enzyme kinetics. In conclusion, we show that breast cancer cells proliferating as lung metastases activate PC-dependent anaplerosis in response to the lung microenvironment.

  18. A preliminary analysis of quantifying computer security vulnerability data in "the wild"

    Science.gov (United States)

    Farris, Katheryn A.; McNamara, Sean R.; Goldstein, Adam; Cybenko, George

    2016-05-01

    A system of computers, networks and software has some level of vulnerability exposure that puts it at risk to criminal hackers. Presently, most vulnerability research uses data from software vendors, and the National Vulnerability Database (NVD). We propose an alternative path forward through grounding our analysis in data from the operational information security community, i.e. vulnerability data from "the wild". In this paper, we propose a vulnerability data parsing algorithm and an in-depth univariate and multivariate analysis of the vulnerability arrival and deletion process (also referred to as the vulnerability birth-death process). We find that vulnerability arrivals are best characterized by the log-normal distribution and vulnerability deletions are best characterized by the exponential distribution. These distributions can serve as prior probabilities for future Bayesian analysis. We also find that over 22% of the deleted vulnerability data have a rate of zero, and that the arrival vulnerability data is always greater than zero. Finally, we quantify and visualize the dependencies between vulnerability arrivals and deletions through a bivariate scatterplot and statistical observations.

  19. Prognosis for medically treated elderly patients with coronary artery disease. Analysis by the cox model

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Furuno, Takashi; Yamasaki, Fumiyasu; Yabe, Toshikazu; Matsumura, Yoshihisa; Kitaoka, Hiroaki; Doi, Yoshinori

    1997-01-01

    The prognostic importance of age among well-known prognostic factors such as extent of coronary artery lesions, cardiac function, and myocardial ischemia was evaluated in 147 elderly patients with coronary artery disease aged 65 years or older who underwent dipyridamole perfusion scintigraphy and coronary angiography. After excluding 32 patients who initially underwent percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) or coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), 115 patients who were initially treated medically were analysed by the Cox model for cardiac events during a mean follow-up period of 29±22 months. Among the 114 patients who were available for follow-up, nine patients (7.9%) had cardiac events, including five cardiac deaths and four non-fatal cardiac events (requiring PTCA or CABG). When the 114 patients were divided into three age-groups; 53 patients aged 65-69 years, 42 aged 70-74 years and 19 aged 75 years or older, the incidence of cardiac death was highest in those aged 75 years or older. Univariate analysis showed that age of 70 years or older (hazards ratio 15.15, p=0.004), scintigraphic diffuse slow washout (hazards ratio 8.77, p=0.002), and triple-vessel or left main trunk disease (hazards ratio 6.36, p=0.05) were important prognostic factors. Multivariate analysis showed that scintigraphic diffuse slow washout (hazards ratio 6.33, p=0.05), and triple-vessel or left main trunk disease (hazards ratio 11.94 p=0.05) were statistically significant as independent prognostic factors. However, when age of 70 years or older was included in the analysis, it showed higher hazards ratio (21.21, p=0.03) than that of scintigraphic diffuse slow washout (7.36) or triple-vessel or left main trunk disease (5.30). Age of 70 years or older may be a significant prognostic factor in elderly patients with coronary artery disease which has an equivalent importance to the extent of coronary lesions. (author)

  20. Analysis of influencing factors for short-term outcome in patients with hepatitis B virus-related acute-on-chronic liver failure

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    ZHANG Xin

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available ObjectiveTo investigate the effects of antiviral drugs, lamivudine (LAM and entecavir (ETV, on the short-term outcome in patients with hepatitis B virus (HBV-related acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF. MethodsThe demographic and clinical data of 445 patients with HBV-related ACLF (LAM∶ETV, 333∶112 who were hospitalized in the First Clinical Medical College of Fujian Medical University from January 2004 to December 2010 were collected, including age, sex, complications, clinical biochemical parameters, coagulation parameters, the use of antiviral drug, artificial liver treatment, and the survival at 24 weeks. The independent risk factors for the outcome at 24 weeks were determined by univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses. ResultsThe univariate analysis indicated that the LAM group had significantly higher globulin, total bilirubin (TBil, alanine aminotransferase, international normalized ratio (INR, serum creatinine, and model for end-stage liver disease (MELD score than the ETV group (P<0.05, but had significantly lower cholinesterase and prothrombin time activity (PTA than the ETV group (P<0.05. The death group had significantly older age, higher incidence rates of liver cirrhosis, hepatic encephalopathy, spontaneous bacterial peritonitis, pulmonary infection, mycotic infection, electrolyte disturbance, hepatorenal syndrome, and upper gastrointestinal hemorrhage, and higher TBil, INR, white blood count, and MELD score than the survival group (P<0.05, but had significantly lower albumin, gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase, cholesterol, cholinesterase, serum sodium, PTA, alpha-fetoprotein, hemoglobin, platelet, and positive rate of HBeAg than the survival group (P<0.05. And there was no significant difference in the use of antiviral drugs (LAM∶ETV between the death group and the survival group (P=0.21. The multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that older age, hepatic encephalopathy, hepatorenal syndrome

  1. Radiographical findings in patients with liver cirrhosis and hepatic encephalopathy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Elwir, Saleh; Hal, Hassan; Veith, Joshua; Schreibman, Ian; Kadry, Zakiyah; Riley, Thomas

    2016-08-01

    Hepatic encephalopathy is a common complication encountered in patients with liver cirrhosis. Hepatic encephalopathy is not reflected in the current liver transplant allocation system. Correlation was sought between hepatic encephalopathy with findings detected on radiographic imaging studies and the patient's clinical profile. A retrospective analysis was conducted of patients with cirrhosis, who presented for liver transplant evaluation in 2009 and 2010. Patients with hepatocellular carcinoma, ejection fraction less than 60% and who had a TIPS (transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunting) procedure or who did not complete the evaluation were excluded. Statistical analysis was performed and variables found to be significant on univariate analysis (P encephalopathy group (n = 58) and a control group (n = 59). Univariate analysis found that a smaller portal vein diameter, smaller liver antero-posterior diameter, liver nodularity and use of diuretics or centrally acting medications showed significant correlation with hepatic encephalopathy. This association was confirmed for smaller portal vein, use of diuretics and centrally acting medications in the multivariate analysis. A decrease in portal vein diameter was associated with increased risk of encephalopathy. Identifying patients with smaller portal vein diameter may warrant screening for encephalopathy by more advanced psychometric testing, and more aggressive control of constipation and other factors that may precipitate encephalopathy. © The Author(s) 2015. Published by Oxford University Press and the Digestive Science Publishing Co. Limited.

  2. Penalized differential pathway analysis of integrative oncogenomics studies.

    Science.gov (United States)

    van Wieringen, Wessel N; van de Wiel, Mark A

    2014-04-01

    Through integration of genomic data from multiple sources, we may obtain a more accurate and complete picture of the molecular mechanisms underlying tumorigenesis. We discuss the integration of DNA copy number and mRNA gene expression data from an observational integrative genomics study involving cancer patients. The two molecular levels involved are linked through the central dogma of molecular biology. DNA copy number aberrations abound in the cancer cell. Here we investigate how these aberrations affect gene expression levels within a pathway using observational integrative genomics data of cancer patients. In particular, we aim to identify differential edges between regulatory networks of two groups involving these molecular levels. Motivated by the rate equations, the regulatory mechanism between DNA copy number aberrations and gene expression levels within a pathway is modeled by a simultaneous-equations model, for the one- and two-group case. The latter facilitates the identification of differential interactions between the two groups. Model parameters are estimated by penalized least squares using the lasso (L1) penalty to obtain a sparse pathway topology. Simulations show that the inclusion of DNA copy number data benefits the discovery of gene-gene interactions. In addition, the simulations reveal that cis-effects tend to be over-estimated in a univariate (single gene) analysis. In the application to real data from integrative oncogenomic studies we show that inclusion of prior information on the regulatory network architecture benefits the reproducibility of all edges. Furthermore, analyses of the TP53 and TGFb signaling pathways between ER+ and ER- samples from an integrative genomics breast cancer study identify reproducible differential regulatory patterns that corroborate with existing literature.

  3. Prognostic and survival analysis of presbyopia: The healthy twin study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lira, Adiyani; Sung, Joohon

    2015-12-01

    Presbyopia, a vision condition in which the eye loses its flexibility to focus on near objects, is part of ageing process which mostly perceptible in the early or mid 40s. It is well known that age is its major risk factor, while sex, alcohol, poor nutrition, ocular and systemic diseases are known as common risk factors. However, many other variables might influence the prognosis. Therefore in this paper we developed a prognostic model to estimate survival from presbyopia. 1645 participants which part of the Healthy Twin Study, a prospective cohort study that has recruited Korean adult twins and their family members based on a nation-wide registry at public health agencies since 2005, were collected and analyzed by univariate analysis as well as Cox proportional hazard model to reveal the prognostic factors for presbyopia while survival curves were calculated by Kaplan-Meier method. Besides age, sex, diabetes, and myopia; the proposed model shows that education level (especially engineering program) also contribute to the occurrence of presbyopia as well. Generally, at 47 years old, the chance of getting presbyopia becomes higher with the survival probability is less than 50%. Furthermore, our study shows that by stratifying the survival curve, MZ has shorter survival with average onset time about 45.8 compare to DZ and siblings with 47.5 years old. By providing factors that have more effects and mainly associate with presbyopia, we expect that we could help to design an intervention to control or delay its onset time.

  4. CPR in medical TV shows: non-health care student perspective.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alismail, Abdullah; Meyer, Nicole C; Almutairi, Waleed; Daher, Noha S

    2018-01-01

    There are over a dozen medical shows airing on television, many of which are during prime time. Researchers have recently become more interested in the role of these shows, and the awareness on cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Several cases have been reported where a lay person resuscitated a family member using medical TV shows as a reference. The purpose of this study is to examine and evaluate college students' perception on cardiopulmonary resuscitation and when to shock using an automated external defibrillator based on their experience of watching medical TV shows. A total of 170 students (nonmedical major) were surveyed in four different colleges in the United States. The survey consisted of questions that reflect their perception and knowledge acquired from watching medical TV shows. A stepwise regression was used to determine the significant predictors of "How often do you watch medical drama TV shows" in addition to chi-square analysis for nominal variables. Regression model showed significant effect that TV shows did change students' perception positively ( p <0.001), and they would select shock on asystole as the frequency of watching increases ( p =0.023). The findings of this study show that high percentage of nonmedical college students are influenced significantly by medical shows. One particular influence is the false belief about when a shock using the automated external defibrillator (AED) is appropriate as it is portrayed falsely in most medical shows. This finding raises a concern about how these shows portray basic life support, especially when not following American Heart Association (AHA) guidelines. We recommend the medical advisors in these shows to use AHA guidelines and AHA to expand its expenditures to include medical shows to educate the public on the appropriate action to rescue an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patient.

  5. Retroviral DNA integration: ASLV, HIV, and MLV show distinct target site preferences.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rick S Mitchell

    2004-08-01

    Full Text Available The completion of the human genome sequence has made possible genome-wide studies of retroviral DNA integration. Here we report an analysis of 3,127 integration site sequences from human cells. We compared retroviral vectors derived from human immunodeficiency virus (HIV, avian sarcoma-leukosis virus (ASLV, and murine leukemia virus (MLV. Effects of gene activity on integration targeting were assessed by transcriptional profiling of infected cells. Integration by HIV vectors, analyzed in two primary cell types and several cell lines, strongly favored active genes. An analysis of the effects of tissue-specific transcription showed that it resulted in tissue-specific integration targeting by HIV, though the effect was quantitatively modest. Chromosomal regions rich in expressed genes were favored for HIV integration, but these regions were found to be interleaved with unfavorable regions at CpG islands. MLV vectors showed a strong bias in favor of integration near transcription start sites, as reported previously. ASLV vectors showed only a weak preference for active genes and no preference for transcription start regions. Thus, each of the three retroviruses studied showed unique integration site preferences, suggesting that virus-specific binding of integration complexes to chromatin features likely guides site selection.

  6. Show Horse Welfare: Horse Show Competitors' Understanding, Awareness, and Perceptions of Equine Welfare.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Voigt, Melissa A; Hiney, Kristina; Richardson, Jennifer C; Waite, Karen; Borron, Abigail; Brady, Colleen M

    2016-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of stock-type horse show competitors' understanding of welfare and level of concern for stock-type show horses' welfare. Data were collected through an online questionnaire that included questions relating to (a) interest and general understanding of horse welfare, (b) welfare concerns of the horse show industry and specifically the stock-type horse show industry, (c) decision-making influences, and (d) level of empathic characteristics. The majority of respondents indicated they agree or strongly agree that physical metrics should be a factor when assessing horse welfare, while fewer agreed that behavioral and mental metrics should be a factor. Respondent empathy levels were moderate to high and were positively correlated with the belief that mental and behavioral metrics should be a factor in assessing horse welfare. Respondents indicated the inhumane practices that most often occur at stock-type shows include excessive jerking on reins, excessive spurring, and induced excessive unnatural movement. Additionally, respondents indicated association rules, hired trainers, and hired riding instructors are the most influential regarding the decisions they make related to their horses' care and treatment.

  7. Gene network analysis shows immune-signaling and ERK1/2 as novel genetic markers for multiple addiction phenotypes: alcohol, smoking and opioid addiction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reyes-Gibby, Cielito C; Yuan, Christine; Wang, Jian; Yeung, Sai-Ching J; Shete, Sanjay

    2015-06-05

    Addictions to alcohol and tobacco, known risk factors for cancer, are complex heritable disorders. Addictive behaviors have a bidirectional relationship with pain. We hypothesize that the associations between alcohol, smoking, and opioid addiction observed in cancer patients have a genetic basis. Therefore, using bioinformatics tools, we explored the underlying genetic basis and identified new candidate genes and common biological pathways for smoking, alcohol, and opioid addiction. Literature search showed 56 genes associated with alcohol, smoking and opioid addiction. Using Core Analysis function in Ingenuity Pathway Analysis software, we found that ERK1/2 was strongly interconnected across all three addiction networks. Genes involved in immune signaling pathways were shown across all three networks. Connect function from IPA My Pathway toolbox showed that DRD2 is the gene common to both the list of genetic variations associated with all three addiction phenotypes and the components of the brain neuronal signaling network involved in substance addiction. The top canonical pathways associated with the 56 genes were: 1) calcium signaling, 2) GPCR signaling, 3) cAMP-mediated signaling, 4) GABA receptor signaling, and 5) G-alpha i signaling. Cancer patients are often prescribed opioids for cancer pain thus increasing their risk for opioid abuse and addiction. Our findings provide candidate genes and biological pathways underlying addiction phenotypes, which may be future targets for treatment of addiction. Further study of the variations of the candidate genes could allow physicians to make more informed decisions when treating cancer pain with opioid analgesics.

  8. Acute renal failure in pediatric patients: Etiology and predictors of outcome

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ghani Amal

    2009-01-01

    Full Text Available Acute renal failure (ARF is the acute loss of kidney function over hours or days, the etiology of which varies in different countries. The data on the etiology and outcome of ARF in Arab children is limited. Our objective was to define the causes and predictors of outcome of ARF in Kuwaiti children, and the variables determining their fitness for dialysis. A total of 32 children with ARF were evaluated regarding their demographic and clinical data, the cause of ARF and the co-morbidities. Data were analyzed to find the independent variables determining fitness for dia-lysis and outcome. Males comprised 62.5% of the study children; 46.9% of ARF cases were due to sepsis and 56.2% underwent renal replacement therapy (RRT. Univariate analysis showed that age, hemodynamic instability, use of vasopressors, multi-organ failure (MOF, and mechanical venti-lation contributed to fitness for dialysis. However, MOF was the only independent variable affecting fitness for dialysis. The overall mortality was 43.8%. Univariate analysis showed that age below 24-months, hemodynamic instability, use of vasopressors, fluid overload, need for mecha-nical ventilation, MOF and late referral to the nephrologist were associated with poor outcome. However, multivariate analysis documented MOF, and the time of nephrologists′ intervention as independent prognostic indicators. Our study suggests that sepsis was the major cause of pediatric ARF. RRT is the optimal treatment, and the only factor determining child′s fitness for dialysis is MOF.

  9. Prevalence and risk factors for VRE colonisation in a tertiary hospital in Melbourne, Australia: a cross sectional study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Karki Surendra

    2012-10-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE has been established as a significant health-care associated problem since its first isolation in Australia in 1994. In this study, we measured the point prevalence and identified risk factors associated with vanB VRE colonisation in a tertiary care hospital in Melbourne, Australia where VRE has been endemic for 15 years. Methods A hospital-wide point prevalence survey was conducted on October 13, 2008 with colonisation detected using rectal swab culture. Patient’s demographic and medical information was collected through a review of medical records. Factors associated with VRE colonisation in univariate analysis were included in multivariate logistic regression model to adjust for confounding. Results The prevalence of VRE colonisation on the day of screening was 17.5% (95% CI, 13.7 to 21.9. VRE was detected from patients in each ward with the prevalence ranging from 3% to 29%. Univariate analysis showed the use of any antibiotic, meropenem, ciprofloxacin, diarrhoea and longer length of hospital stay were associated with increased risk of VRE colonisation (p0.05. Multivariate analysis showed the exposure to meropenem (p=0.004, age (≥65 years (p=0.036 and length of stay ≥7 days (p Conclusion Our study suggests that exposure to antibiotics may have been more important than recent cross transmission for a high prevalence of vanB VRE colonisation at our hospital.

  10. Weighing of risk factors for penetrating keratoplasty graft failure: application of Risk Score System

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Abdo Karim Tourkmani

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available AIM: To analyze the relationship between the score obtained in the Risk Score System (RSS proposed by Hicks et al with penetrating keratoplasty (PKP graft failure at 1y postoperatively and among each factor in the RSS with the risk of PKP graft failure using univariate and multivariate analysis. METHODS: The retrospective cohort study had 152 PKPs from 152 patients. Eighteen cases were excluded from our study due to primary failure (10 cases, incomplete medical notes (5 cases and follow-up less than 1y (3 cases. We included 134 PKPs from 134 patients stratified by preoperative risk score. Spearman coefficient was calculated for the relationship between the score obtained and risk of failure at 1y. Univariate and multivariate analysis were calculated for the impact of every single risk factor included in the RSS over graft failure at 1y. RESULTS: Spearman coefficient showed statistically significant correlation between the score in the RSS and graft failure (P0.05 between diagnosis and lens status with graft failure. The relationship between the other risk factors studied and graft failure was significant (P<0.05, although the results for previous grafts and graft failure was unreliable. None of our patients had previous blood transfusion, thus, it had no impact. CONCLUSION: After the application of multivariate analysis techniques, some risk factors do not show the expected impact over graft failure at 1y.

  11. [Relational database for urinary stone ambulatory consultation. Assessment of initial outcomes].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sáenz Medina, J; Páez Borda, A; Crespo Martinez, L; Gómez Dos Santos, V; Barrado, C; Durán Poveda, M

    2010-05-01

    To create a relational database for monitoring lithiasic patients. We describe the architectural details and the initial results of the statistical analysis. Microsoft Access 2002 was used as template. Four different tables were constructed to gather demographic data (table 1), clinical and laboratory findings (table 2), stone features (table 3) and therapeutic approach (table 4). For a reliability analysis of the database the number of correctly stored data was gathered. To evaluate the performance of the database, a prospective analysis was conducted, from May 2004 to August 2009, on 171 stone free patients after treatment (EWSL, surgery or medical) from a total of 511 patients stored in the database. Lithiasic status (stone free or stone relapse) was used as primary end point, while demographic factors (age, gender), lithiasic history, upper urinary tract alterations and characteristics of the stone (side, location, composition and size) were considered as predictive factors. An univariate analysis was conducted initially by chi square test and supplemented by Kaplan Meier estimates for time to stone recurrence. A multiple Cox proportional hazards regression model was generated to jointly assess the prognostic value of the demographic factors and the predictive value of stones characteristics. For the reliability analysis 22,084 data were available corresponding to 702 consultations on 511 patients. Analysis of data showed a recurrence rate of 85.4% (146/171, median time to recurrence 608 days, range 70-1758). In the univariate and multivariate analysis, none of the factors under consideration had a significant effect on recurrence rate (p=ns). The relational database is useful for monitoring patients with urolithiasis. It allows easy control and update, as well as data storage for later use. The analysis conducted for its evaluation showed no influence of demographic factors and stone features on stone recurrence.

  12. Cytogenetically Unrelated Clones in Acute Myeloid Leukemia Showing Different Responses to Chemotherapy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kohei Kasahara

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available We report a case of acute myeloid leukemia (AML with two cytogenetically unrelated clones. The patient was a 45-year-old male who was diagnosed with acute monoblastic leukemia (AMoL. Initial G-band analysis showed 51,XY,+6,+8,inv(9(p12q13c,+11,+13,+19[12]/52,idem,+Y[8], but G-band analysis after induction therapy showed 45,XY,-7,inv(9(p12q13c[19]/46,XY,inv(9(p12q13c[1]. Retrospective FISH analysis revealed a cryptic monosomy 7 clone in the initial AML sample. The clone with multiple trisomies was eliminated after induction therapy and never recurred, but a clone with monosomy 7 was still detected in myelodysplastic marrow with a normal blast percentage. Both clones were successfully eliminated after related peripheral blood stem cell transplantation, but the patient died of relapsed AML with monosomy 7. We concluded that one clone was de novo AMoL with chromosome 6, 8, 11, 13, and 19 trisomy and that the other was acute myeloid leukemia with myelodysplasia-related changes (AML-MRC with chromosome 7 monosomy showing different responses to chemotherapy. Simultaneous onset of cytogenetically unrelated hematological malignancies that each have a different disease status is a rare phenomenon but is important to diagnose for a correct understanding of the disease status and for establishing an appropriate treatment strategy.

  13. Nailfold capillaroscopy in Behçet's disease, analysis of 128 patients.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Movasat, Atusa; Shahram, Farhad; Carreira, Patricia E; Nadji, Abdolhadi; Akhlaghi, Maassoomeh; Naderi, Nassim; Davatchi, Fereydoun

    2009-05-01

    The aims of this study were to find the characteristics and prevalence of nailfold capillary changes in a large series of patients with Behçet's disease (BD) and to analyze their possible relation to other clinical characteristics of the disease. We performed nailfold capillaroscopy in 128 randomly selected patients fulfilling the international classification criteria for BD. Capillaroscopy was done in eight fingers with a x3.2 microscopy. All patients were questioned for history of Raynaud's phenomenon, ischemic ulcers, smoking, and hypertension. A computerized form including demographic, clinical, and para-clinical features was used to collect data. Univariate and multivariate logistic regressions were used to analyze the relation between capillaroscopic findings and disease characteristics. Odds ratio and a confidence interval at 95% (CI) were calculated for each item. The mean age of the patients was 37 +/- 10 years, and the male to female ratio was 1.56:1. Capillaroscopy was abnormal in 51 patients (40%, CI 8.5). Enlarged capillaries were seen in 33 patients (26%, CI 7.6), hemorrhages in 21 (16%, CI 6.4), and capillary loss only in one patient. In univariate logistic regression analysis, the presence of enlarged capillaries was associated with lower age at disease onset (OR = 0.9, CI 0.9-1; p = 0.04), hypertension (OR = 4.2, CI 1.5-11.4; p = 0.006), superficial phlebitis (OR = 5.5, CI 1.2-24.4; p = 0.03), and negative pathergy test (OR = 0.4, CI 0.2-0.9; p = 0.04). The presence of hemorrhages tended to be associated with articular symptoms (p = 0.05). Multivariate analysis also confirmed the association of enlarged capillaries with lower age at disease onset (p = 0.01), hypertension (p = 0.001), and superficial phlebitis (p = 0.03). Nailfold abnormalities, mainly enlarged capillaries, are frequent in patients with BD. Our results suggest that these abnormalities may be related to other vascular features of the disease such as superficial phlebitis, but it

  14. Decreased tongue pressure is associated with sarcopenia and sarcopenic dysphagia in the elderly.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maeda, Keisuke; Akagi, Junji

    2015-02-01

    The aim of this study was to clarify the association between tongue pressure and factors related to sarcopenia such as aging, activities of daily living, nutritional state, and dysphagia. One-hundred-and-four patients without a history of treatment of stroke and without a diagnosis of neurodegenerative disease (36 men and 68 women), with a mean age of 84.1 ± 5.6 years, hospitalized from May 2013 to June 2013 were included in this study. Maximum voluntary tongue pressure against the palate (MTP) was measured by a device consisting of a disposable oral balloon probe. Nutritional and anthropometric parameters such as serum albumin concentration, Mini-Nutritional Assessment short form (MNA-SF), body mass index, arm muscle area (AMA), and others and presence of sarcopenia and dysphagia were analyzed to evaluate their relationships. Correlation analysis and univariate or multivariate analysis were performed. Simple correlation analysis showed that MTP correlated with Barthel index (BI), MNA-SF, serum albumin concentration, body mass index, and AMA. Univariate and multivariate analysis showed that sarcopenia, BI, MNA-SF, and age were the independent explanatory factors for decreased MTP, and the propensity score for dysphagia, including causes of primary or secondary sarcopenia, and the presence of sarcopenia were significantly associated with the presence of dysphagia. Decreased MTP and dysphagia were related to sarcopenia or the causes of sarcopenia in the studied population. Furthermore, the clinical condition of sarcopenic dysphagia may be partially interpreted as the presence of sarcopenia and causal factors for sarcopenia.

  15. An improved method for bivariate meta-analysis when within-study correlations are unknown.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hong, Chuan; D Riley, Richard; Chen, Yong

    2018-03-01

    Multivariate meta-analysis, which jointly analyzes multiple and possibly correlated outcomes in a single analysis, is becoming increasingly popular in recent years. An attractive feature of the multivariate meta-analysis is its ability to account for the dependence between multiple estimates from the same study. However, standard inference procedures for multivariate meta-analysis require the knowledge of within-study correlations, which are usually unavailable. This limits standard inference approaches in practice. Riley et al proposed a working model and an overall synthesis correlation parameter to account for the marginal correlation between outcomes, where the only data needed are those required for a separate univariate random-effects meta-analysis. As within-study correlations are not required, the Riley method is applicable to a wide variety of evidence synthesis situations. However, the standard variance estimator of the Riley method is not entirely correct under many important settings. As a consequence, the coverage of a function of pooled estimates may not reach the nominal level even when the number of studies in the multivariate meta-analysis is large. In this paper, we improve the Riley method by proposing a robust variance estimator, which is asymptotically correct even when the model is misspecified (ie, when the likelihood function is incorrect). Simulation studies of a bivariate meta-analysis, in a variety of settings, show a function of pooled estimates has improved performance when using the proposed robust variance estimator. In terms of individual pooled estimates themselves, the standard variance estimator and robust variance estimator give similar results to the original method, with appropriate coverage. The proposed robust variance estimator performs well when the number of studies is relatively large. Therefore, we recommend the use of the robust method for meta-analyses with a relatively large number of studies (eg, m≥50). When the

  16. Examination of two methods for statistical analysis of data with magnitude and direction emphasizing vestibular research applications

    Science.gov (United States)

    Calkins, D. S.

    1998-01-01

    When the dependent (or response) variable response variable in an experiment has direction and magnitude, one approach that has been used for statistical analysis involves splitting magnitude and direction and applying univariate statistical techniques to the components. However, such treatment of quantities with direction and magnitude is not justifiable mathematically and can lead to incorrect conclusions about relationships among variables and, as a result, to flawed interpretations. This note discusses a problem with that practice and recommends mathematically correct procedures to be used with dependent variables that have direction and magnitude for 1) computation of mean values, 2) statistical contrasts of and confidence intervals for means, and 3) correlation methods.

  17. 18F-FET PET prior to recurrent high-grade glioma re-irradiation-additional prognostic value of dynamic time-to-peak analysis and early static summation images?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fleischmann, Daniel F; Unterrainer, Marcus; Bartenstein, Peter; Belka, Claus; Albert, Nathalie L; Niyazi, Maximilian

    2017-04-01

    Most high-grade gliomas (HGG) recur after initial multimodal therapy and re-irradiation (Re-RT) has been shown to be a valuable re-treatment option in selected patients. We evaluated the prognostic value of dynamic time-to-peak analysis and early static summation images in O-(2- 18 F-fluoroethyl)-l-tyrosine ( 18 F-FET) PET for patients treated with Re-RT ± concomitant bevacizumab. We retrospectively analyzed 72 patients suffering from recurrent HGG with 18 F-FET PET prior to Re-RT. PET analysis revealed the maximal tumor-to-background-ratio (TBR max ), the biological tumor volume, the number of PET-foci and pattern of time-activity-curves (TACs; increasing vs. decreasing). Furthermore, the novel PET parameters early TBR max (at 5-15 min post-injection) and minimal time-to-peak (TTP min ) were evaluated. Additional analysis was performed for gender, age, KPS, O6-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase methylation status, isocitrate dehydrogenase 1 mutational status, WHO grade and concomitant bevacizumab therapy. The influence of PET and clinical parameters on post-recurrence survival (PRS) was investigated. Shorter TTP min was related to shorter PRS after Re-RT with 6 months for TTP min  25 min (p = 0.027). TTP min had a significant impact on PRS both on univariate (p = 0.027; continuous) and multivariate analysis (p = 0.011; continuous). Other factors significantly related to PRS on multivariate analysis were increasing vs. decreasing TACs (p = 0.008) and Karnofsky Performance Score (p = 0.015; PET parameters were not significantly related to PRS on univariate analysis. Dynamic 18 F-FET PET with TTP min provides a high prognostic value for recurrent HGG prior to Re-RT, whereas early TBR max does not. Dynamic 18 F-FET PET using TTP min might help to personalize Re-RT treatment regimens in future through voxelwise TTP min analysis for dose painting purposes and PET-guided dose escalation.

  18. Socio-economic factors and adolescent sexual activity and behaviour in Nova Scotia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Langille, Donald B; Hughes, Jean; Murphy, Gail Tomblin; Rigby, Janet A

    2005-01-01

    Little is known about associations of adolescents' socio-economic status (SES) and their sexual activity and risk behaviours. This study examined these associations in Nova Scotia adolescents aged 15-19. Students at four high schools in northern Nova Scotia completed surveys examining relationships of family SES factors and: 1) sexual activity (having had vaginal or anal intercourse, intercourse before age 15 (early intercourse)); and 2) risk behaviours (use of contraception/condoms, number of partners and unplanned intercourse after substance use). Of students present when the survey was administered, 2,135 (91%) responded. Almost half (49%) had had vaginal intercourse, and 7% anal intercourse. In univariate analysis for young women, non-intact family structure and lower parental education were associated with having vaginal, anal and early intercourse. Female risk behaviours showed no significant univariate associations with SES. Young men had univariate associations of family structure, lower maternal education and paternal unemployment with early intercourse, and lower paternal education with anal intercourse. Condom use was higher for young men with employed fathers; those living with both parents less often had >1 sexual partner. In multivariate analysis, most SES associations with females' sexual activities held, while most for males did not, and few associations of SES and risk behaviours were seen for females. Indicators of lower SES are associated with sexual activity in young women. Sexual risk behaviours are not often associated with SES in females, though they are more so in males. These findings have implications for sexual health promotion and health services.

  19. Comparison of athropometrical measures among young female footballers and girls who are not involved in sports

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Međedović Tanja

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available The aim of this research is to gain relevant knowledge about significant differences in some anthropometric measures among female footballers and girls who are not involved in any sport at all. The sample comprised 107 female subjects. They were divided into two groups - female footballers and girls who are not involved in any sport. The selected group of female footballers (54 average age, 16,3 years represents the girls from various clubs in Vojvodina and Serbia (representatives of Vojvodina and Western Serbia. The group of girls who are not involved in any sport (53 average age, 16, 9 years consists of students of secondary school 'Svetozar Miletic' in Novi Sad. The sample of variables comprised 12 anthropometrical measures that defined longitudinal and transverse dimensions of the skeleton, volume and body mass, and subcutaneous fat (in accordance with the International Biological Programme. Both multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA and univariate analysis of variance (ANOVA were performed in order to determine the significant differences at the multivariate and univariate level. Based on the results, it was concluded that 8 variables out of 12 applied variables, showed significant differences between the groups. The following variables did not show any differences: knee diameter, weight, maximum volume of the lower leg and calf skin fold, while the following variables showed statistical significance in favor of the girls who are not involved in any sport: height, foot length, pelvic width, shoulder width and maximum thigh circumference.

  20. Investigation of Antileishmanial Activities of Acridines Derivatives against Promastigotes and Amastigotes Form of Parasites Using Quantitative Structure Activity Relationship Analysis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Samir Chtita

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available In a search of newer and potent antileishmanial (against promastigotes and amastigotes form of parasites drug, a series of 60 variously substituted acridines derivatives were subjected to a quantitative structure activity relationship (QSAR analysis for studying, interpreting, and predicting activities and designing new compounds by using multiple linear regression and artificial neural network (ANN methods. The used descriptors were computed with Gaussian 03, ACD/ChemSketch, Marvin Sketch, and ChemOffice programs. The QSAR models developed were validated according to the principles set up by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD. The principal component analysis (PCA has been used to select descriptors that show a high correlation with activities. The univariate partitioning (UP method was used to divide the dataset into training and test sets. The multiple linear regression (MLR method showed a correlation coefficient of 0.850 and 0.814 for antileishmanial activities against promastigotes and amastigotes forms of parasites, respectively. Internal and external validations were used to determine the statistical quality of QSAR of the two MLR models. The artificial neural network (ANN method, considering the relevant descriptors obtained from the MLR, showed a correlation coefficient of 0.933 and 0.918 with 7-3-1 and 6-3-1 ANN models architecture for antileishmanial activities against promastigotes and amastigotes forms of parasites, respectively. The applicability domain of MLR models was investigated using simple and leverage approaches to detect outliers and outsides compounds. The effects of different descriptors in the activities were described and used to study and design new compounds with higher activities compared to the existing ones.

  1. Analysis of allergen immunotherapy studies shows increased clinical efficacy in highly symptomatic patients

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Howarth, P; Malling, Hans-Jørgen; Molimard, M

    2011-01-01

    them. Thus, clinical studies of AIT can neither establish baseline symptom levels nor limit the enrolment of patients to those with the most severe symptoms. Allergen immunotherapy treatment effects are therefore diluted by patients with low symptoms for a particular pollen season. The objective...... tertiles). The difference observed in the average score in each tertile in active vs placebo-treated patients was assessed. This allowed an estimation of the efficacy that could be achieved in patients from sites where symptoms were high during the pollen season. Results:  An increased treatment effect...... of this analysis was to assess the effect possible to achieve with AIT in the groups of patients presenting the most severe allergic symptoms. Methods:  Study centres were grouped into tertiles categorized according to symptom severity scores observed in the placebo patients in each centre (low, middle and high...

  2. Link between perceived smoking behaviour at school and students smoking status: a large survey among Italian adolescents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Backhaus, I; D'Egidio, V; Grassucci, D; Gelardini, M; Ardizzone, C; La Torre, G

    2017-10-01

    To investigate a possible link between sociodemographic factors, the perception of smoking habits at school and smoking status of Italian adolescents attending secondary school. The study was a cross-sectional study. An anonymous online survey was employed to gather information on age, gender, smoking status and to examine the perception of smoking behaviour on the school premises. Chi-squared and Kruskal-Wallis tests were performed for the univariate analysis and logistic and multinomial regressions for the multivariate analysis. The statistical analyses included 1889 students. Univariate analysis showed significant differences concerning knowledge between smoker and non-smoker concerning the harmfulness of smoking (P smoking at school (odds ratio: 1.54 [95% confidence interval 1.26-1.89]). Students older than 19 years most often begin smoking because their friends smoke compared with younger students (adjusted odds ratio: 1.18 [95% confidence interval 0.48-2.89]). School environment and behaviour of role models play a crucial part in student smoking. To prevent and reduce youth tobacco smoking, not merely the presence of preventive measures is important but greater attention needs to be placed on the enforcement of smoking policies. Copyright © 2017 The Royal Society for Public Health. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  3. The Diagnostic and Prognostic Value of Hematological and Chemical Abnormalities in Soft Tissue Sarcoma: A Comparative Study in Patients with Benign and Malignant Soft Tissue Tumors.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ariizumi, Takashi; Kawashima, Hiroyuki; Ogose, Akira; Sasaki, Taro; Hotta, Tetsuo; Hatano, Hiroshi; Morita, Tetsuro; Endo, Naoto

    2018-01-01

    The value of routine blood tests in malignant soft tissue tumors remains uncertain. To determine if these tests can be used for screening, the routine pretreatment blood test findings were retrospectively investigated in 359 patients with benign and malignant soft tissue tumors. Additionally, the prognostic potential of pretreatment blood abnormalities was evaluated in patients with soft tissue sarcomas. We compared clinical factors and blood tests findings between patients with benign and malignant soft tissue tumors using univariate and multivariate analysis. Subsequently, patients with malignant tumors were divided into two groups based on blood test reference values, and the prognostic significance of each parameter was evaluated. In the univariate analysis, age, tumor size, and tumor depth were significant clinical diagnostic factors. Significant increases in the granulocyte count, C-reactive protein (CRP) level, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), and γ-glutamyl transpeptidase (γ-GTP) levels were found in patients with malignant soft tissue tumors. Multiple logistic regression showed that tumor size and ESR were independent factors that predicted malignant soft tissue tumors. The Kaplan-Meier survival analysis revealed that granulocyte counts, γ-GTP levels, and CRP levels correlated significantly with overall survival. Thus, pretreatment routine blood tests are useful diagnostic and prognostic markers for diagnosing soft tissue sarcoma. © 2018 by the Association of Clinical Scientists, Inc.

  4. Characterization of breast masses by dynamic enhanced MR imaging. A logistic regression analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ikeda, O.; Morishita, S.; Kido, T.; Kitajima, M.; Yamashita, Y.; Takahashi, M.; Okamura, K.; Fukuda, S.

    1999-01-01

    Purpose: To identify features useful for differentiation between malignant and benign breast neoplasms using multivariate analysis of findings by MR imaging. Material and Methods: In a retrospective analysis, 61 patients with 64 breast masses underwent MR imaging and the time-signal intensity curves for precontrast dynamic postcontrast images were quantitatively analyzed. Statistical analysis was performed using a logistic regression model, which was prospectively tested in another 34 patients with suspected breast masses. Results: Univariate analysis revealed that the reliable indicators for malignancy were first the appearance of the tumor border, followed by the washout ratio, internal architecture after contrast enhancement, and peak time. The factors significantly associated with malignancy were irregular tumor border, followed by washout ratio, internal architecture, and peak time. For differentiation between benignity and malignancy, the maximum cut-off point was to be found between 0.47 and 0.51. In a prospective application of this model, 91% of the lesions were accurately discriminated as benign or malignant lesions. Conclusion: Combination of contrast-enhanced dynamic and postcontrast-enhanced MR imaging provided accurate data for the diagnosis of malignant neoplasms of the breast. The model had an accuracy of 91% (sensitivity 90%, specificity 93%). (orig.)

  5. One Hundred Ways to be Non-Fickian - A Rigorous Multi-Variate Statistical Analysis of Pore-Scale Transport

    Science.gov (United States)

    Most, Sebastian; Nowak, Wolfgang; Bijeljic, Branko

    2015-04-01

    Fickian transport in groundwater flow is the exception rather than the rule. Transport in porous media is frequently simulated via particle methods (i.e. particle tracking random walk (PTRW) or continuous time random walk (CTRW)). These methods formulate transport as a stochastic process of particle position increments. At the pore scale, geometry and micro-heterogeneities prohibit the commonly made assumption of independent and normally distributed increments to represent dispersion. Many recent particle methods seek to loosen this assumption. Hence, it is important to get a better understanding of the processes at pore scale. For our analysis we track the positions of 10.000 particles migrating through the pore space over time. The data we use come from micro CT scans of a homogeneous sandstone and encompass about 10 grain sizes. Based on those images we discretize the pore structure and simulate flow at the pore scale based on the Navier-Stokes equation. This flow field realistically describes flow inside the pore space and we do not need to add artificial dispersion during the transport simulation. Next, we use particle tracking random walk and simulate pore-scale transport. Finally, we use the obtained particle trajectories to do a multivariate statistical analysis of the particle motion at the pore scale. Our analysis is based on copulas. Every multivariate joint distribution is a combination of its univariate marginal distributions. The copula represents the dependence structure of those univariate marginals and is therefore useful to observe correlation and non-Gaussian interactions (i.e. non-Fickian transport). The first goal of this analysis is to better understand the validity regions of commonly made assumptions. We are investigating three different transport distances: 1) The distance where the statistical dependence between particle increments can be modelled as an order-one Markov process. This would be the Markovian distance for the process, where

  6. European regional policy: Analysis of the management reports of structural funds 2000-2006

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    José Antonio Vidal Hernández-Mora

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available The present work endeavours to carry out a study of the weaknesses/errors detected by the European Court of Auditors (ECA in the reports presentedby 15 European countries on the economic and financial management of StructuralFunds in the period ranging from 2000 to 2006. The aim of our study is focusedon the description and analysis of the number and nature of the errors/weaknesses made by the member states, carrying out an empirical analysis on the possiblecauses at the root of this situation, conducting a study with univariate and multivariatestatistical techniques, using a probit choice model type and least squaresestimation. Amongst other conclusions, the current study establishes that the newCouncil Regulation has had an uneven effect on the different countries, and that thevolume of such errors/weaknesses detected in the reports of the EU member statesis linked to the amount of resources allocated to each member state per StructuralFund.

  7. Social network analysis shows direct evidence for social transmission of tool use in wild chimpanzees.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Catherine Hobaiter

    2014-09-01

    Full Text Available Social network analysis methods have made it possible to test whether novel behaviors in animals spread through individual or social learning. To date, however, social network analysis of wild populations has been limited to static models that cannot precisely reflect the dynamics of learning, for instance, the impact of multiple observations across time. Here, we present a novel dynamic version of network analysis that is capable of capturing temporal aspects of acquisition--that is, how successive observations by an individual influence its acquisition of the novel behavior. We apply this model to studying the spread of two novel tool-use variants, "moss-sponging" and "leaf-sponge re-use," in the Sonso chimpanzee community of Budongo Forest, Uganda. Chimpanzees are widely considered the most "cultural" of all animal species, with 39 behaviors suspected as socially acquired, most of them in the domain of tool-use. The cultural hypothesis is supported by experimental data from captive chimpanzees and a range of observational data. However, for wild groups, there is still no direct experimental evidence for social learning, nor has there been any direct observation of social diffusion of behavioral innovations. Here, we tested both a static and a dynamic network model and found strong evidence that diffusion patterns of moss-sponging, but not leaf-sponge re-use, were significantly better explained by social than individual learning. The most conservative estimate of social transmission accounted for 85% of observed events, with an estimated 15-fold increase in learning rate for each time a novice observed an informed individual moss-sponging. We conclude that group-specific behavioral variants in wild chimpanzees can be socially learned, adding to the evidence that this prerequisite for culture originated in a common ancestor of great apes and humans, long before the advent of modern humans.

  8. Social network analysis shows direct evidence for social transmission of tool use in wild chimpanzees.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hobaiter, Catherine; Poisot, Timothée; Zuberbühler, Klaus; Hoppitt, William; Gruber, Thibaud

    2014-09-01

    Social network analysis methods have made it possible to test whether novel behaviors in animals spread through individual or social learning. To date, however, social network analysis of wild populations has been limited to static models that cannot precisely reflect the dynamics of learning, for instance, the impact of multiple observations across time. Here, we present a novel dynamic version of network analysis that is capable of capturing temporal aspects of acquisition--that is, how successive observations by an individual influence its acquisition of the novel behavior. We apply this model to studying the spread of two novel tool-use variants, "moss-sponging" and "leaf-sponge re-use," in the Sonso chimpanzee community of Budongo Forest, Uganda. Chimpanzees are widely considered the most "cultural" of all animal species, with 39 behaviors suspected as socially acquired, most of them in the domain of tool-use. The cultural hypothesis is supported by experimental data from captive chimpanzees and a range of observational data. However, for wild groups, there is still no direct experimental evidence for social learning, nor has there been any direct observation of social diffusion of behavioral innovations. Here, we tested both a static and a dynamic network model and found strong evidence that diffusion patterns of moss-sponging, but not leaf-sponge re-use, were significantly better explained by social than individual learning. The most conservative estimate of social transmission accounted for 85% of observed events, with an estimated 15-fold increase in learning rate for each time a novice observed an informed individual moss-sponging. We conclude that group-specific behavioral variants in wild chimpanzees can be socially learned, adding to the evidence that this prerequisite for culture originated in a common ancestor of great apes and humans, long before the advent of modern humans.

  9. Analysis of Selected Properties of Fibreboard Panels Manufactured from Wood and Leather Using the Near Infrared Spectroscopy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kerstin Wagner

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper deals with the characterization of the properties of wood fibres leather shavings composite board by using the near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS and multivariate data analysis. In this study fibreboards were manufactured with different leather amounts by using spruce fibres, as well as vegetable and mineral tanned leather shavings (wet white and wet blue. The NIR spectroscopy was used to analyse the raw materials as well as the wood leather fibreboards. Moreover, the physical and mechanical features of the wood leather composite fibreboards were determined to characterize their properties for the further data analysis. The NIR spectra were analysed by univariate and multivariate methods using the Principal Component Analysis (PCA and the Partial Least Squares Regression (PLSR method. These results demonstrate the potential of FT-NIR spectroscopy to estimate the physical and mechanical properties (e.g., bending strength. This phenomenon provides a possibility for quality assurance systems by using the NIRS.

  10. An R package for the integrated analysis of metabolomics and spectral data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Costa, Christopher; Maraschin, Marcelo; Rocha, Miguel

    2016-06-01

    Recently, there has been a growing interest in the field of metabolomics, materialized by a remarkable growth in experimental techniques, available data and related biological applications. Indeed, techniques as nuclear magnetic resonance, gas or liquid chromatography, mass spectrometry, infrared and UV-visible spectroscopies have provided extensive datasets that can help in tasks as biological and biomedical discovery, biotechnology and drug development. However, as it happens with other omics data, the analysis of metabolomics datasets provides multiple challenges, both in terms of methodologies and in the development of appropriate computational tools. Indeed, from the available software tools, none addresses the multiplicity of existing techniques and data analysis tasks. In this work, we make available a novel R package, named specmine, which provides a set of methods for metabolomics data analysis, including data loading in different formats, pre-processing, metabolite identification, univariate and multivariate data analysis, machine learning, and feature selection. Importantly, the implemented methods provide adequate support for the analysis of data from diverse experimental techniques, integrating a large set of functions from several R packages in a powerful, yet simple to use environment. The package, already available in CRAN, is accompanied by a web site where users can deposit datasets, scripts and analysis reports to be shared with the community, promoting the efficient sharing of metabolomics data analysis pipelines. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  11. Evaluation of an Optimal Cut-Off Point for the Ki-67 Index as a Prognostic Factor in Primary Breast Cancer: A Retrospective Study.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rumiko Tashima

    Full Text Available The Ki-67 index is an important biomarker for indicating the proliferation of cancer cells and is considered to be an effective prognostic factor for breast cancer. However, a standard cut-off point for the Ki-67 index has not yet been established. Therefore, the aim of this retrospective study was to determine an optimal cut-off point in order to establish it as a more accurate prognostic factor. Immunohistochemical analysis of the Ki-67 index was performed on 4329 patients with primary breast cancer from August 1987 to March 2012. Out of this sample, there were 3186 consecutive cases from September 1997 with simultaneous evaluations of ER, PgR and HER2 status. Cox's proportional hazard model was used to perform univariate and multivariate analyses of the factors related to OS. The hazard ratios (HR and the p values were then compared to determine the optimal cut-off point for the Ki-67 index. The median Ki-67 index value was 20.5% (mean value 26.2%. The univariate analysis revealed that there was a statistically significant negative correlation with DFS and OS and the multivariate analysis revealed that the Ki-67 index value was a significant factor for DFS and OS. The top seven cut-off points were then carefully chosen based on the results of the univariate analysis using the lowest p-values and the highest HR as the main selection criteria. The multivariate analysis of the factors for OS showed that the cut-off point of 20% had the highest HR in all of the cases. However, the cutoff point of 20% was only a significant factor for OS in the Luminal/HER2- subtype. There was no correlation between the Ki-67 index value and OS in any of the other subtypes. These data indicate that the optimal cut-off point of 20% is the most effective prognostic factor for Luminal/HER2- breast cancer.

  12. Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma: impact of genetic hemochromatosis on outcome and overall survival after surgical resection.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sulpice, Laurent; Rayar, Michel; Boucher, Eveline; Pele, Fabienne; Pracht, Marc; Meunier, Bernard; Boudjema, Karim

    2013-03-01

    The influence of genetic hemochromatosis (GH) on outcomes following surgical resections for intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) has not been evaluated. All patients with ICC who underwent a surgical resection between January 1997 and August 2011 were analyzed retrospectively. Risk factors were assessed by univariate and multivariate analyses. Eighty-seven patients were analyzed; 16 of these patients (18.4%) had GH. Among the 71 non-GH patients, 52 (73.2%) and 19 (26.8%) had normal or cirrhotic parenchyma, respectively. There was no significant difference in survival between the GH and non-GH patients. A univariate analysis showed that major hepatectomy (P = 0.012), intraoperative blood transfusion (P = 0.007), tumor size >5 cm (P = 0.006), several nodules (P < 0.001), and microvascular invasion (P = 0.04) were significantly associated with poor survival. A multivariate analysis showed that intraoperative blood infusion (HR 0.37; CI 95% [0.19; 0.71]) and more than one nodule (HR 2.5; CI 95% [1.06; 5.8]) were associated with a lower survival rate. Although the incidence of GH was high in our series, the presence of GH did not affect the outcomes after a liver hepatectomy for ICC. GH does not appear to increase recurrences or worsen the overall and disease-free survival. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  13. Vitamin D Levels Are Inversely Associated with Liver Fat Content and Risk of Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease in a Chinese Middle-Aged and Elderly Population: The Shanghai Changfeng Study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Dan; Lin, Huandong; Xia, Mingfeng; Aleteng, Qiqige; Li, Xiaoming; Ma, Hui; Pan, Baishen; Gao, Jian; Gao, Xin

    2016-01-01

    Vitamin D exerts metabolic activities. We investigated whether the 25-hydroxy vitamin D [25(OH)D] is associated with liver fat content (LFC) and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in a middle-aged, elderly Chinese population. A total of 2,960 participants (954 men and 2,006 women) aged over 45 years old were enrolled. Each participant underwent a standard interview, anthropometric measurements and laboratory examinations. Vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency was diagnosed when serum 25(OH) D level was vitamin D deficiency, 769 (26.0%) had vitamin D insufficiency, and 209 (7%) had normal vitamin D. Male subjects with vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency had significantly higher LFC than those with normal 25(OH)D (P = 0.034), while the LFC values showed no significant difference among the female subjects with vitamin D sufficiency, insufficiency and deficiency (P = 0.396). Univariate correlation analysis showed that 25(OH)D had a significantly negative association with LFC in men (r = -0.085, P = 0.009), but not in women. After adjusting for age, cigarette smoking, examination season, serum calcium, PTH and all possible confounders that displayed significant associations with LFC in univariate correlation analysis, serum 25(OH)D remained associated with LFC in middle-aged and elderly Chinese men. Serum 25(OH)D level was inversely associated with LFC in middle-aged and elderly Chinese men.

  14. Magnitude and Determinants of the Ratio between Prevalence of Low Vision and Blindness in Rapid Assessment of Avoidable Blindness Surveys.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kaphle, Dinesh; Lewallen, Susan

    2017-10-01

    To determine the magnitude and determinants of the ratio between prevalence of low vision and prevalence of blindness in rapid assessment of avoidable blindness (RAAB) surveys globally. Standard RAAB reports were downloaded from the repository or requested from principal investigators. Potential predictor variables included prevalence of uncorrected refractive error (URE) as well as gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, health expenditure per capita of the country across World Bank regions. Univariate and multivariate linear regression were used to investigate the correlation between potential predictor variables and the ratio. The results of 94 surveys from 43 countries showed that the ratio ranged from 1.35 in Mozambique to 11.03 in India with a median value of 3.90 (Interquartile range 3.06;5.38). Univariate regression analysis showed that prevalence of URE (p = 0.04), logarithm of GDP per capita (p = 0.01) and logarithm of health expenditure per capita (p = 0.03) were significantly associated with the higher ratio. However, only prevalence of URE was found to be significant in multivariate regression analysis (p = 0.03). There is a wide variation in the ratio of the prevalence of low vision to the prevalence of blindness. Eye care service utilization indicators such as the prevalence of URE may explain some of the variation across the regions.

  15. A Single-Institution Analysis of 126 Patients Treated with Stereotactic Radiosurgery for Brain Metastases

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kevin B. Harris

    2017-05-01

    Full Text Available BackgroundThe objective of this study was to report our institutional experience with Gamma Knife® Radiosurgery (GKRS in the treatment of patients with brain metastases.MethodsRetrospectively collected demographic and clinical data on 126 patients with intracranial metastases were reviewed. The patients in our study underwent GKRS at Vidant Medical Center between 2009 and 2014. Kaplan–Meier curves were used to compare survival based on clinical characteristics for univariate analysis, and a Cox proportional hazards model was used for multivariate analysis.ResultsThe median age of the patient population was 62 years. Medicare patients constituted 51% of our patient cohort and Medicaid patients 15%. The most common tumor histologies were non-small cell lung cancer (50%, breast cancer (12.7%, and melanoma (11.9%. The median overall survival time for all patients was 5.8 months. Patients with breast cancer had the longest median survival time of 9.15 months, while patients with melanoma had the shortest median survival time of 2.86 months. On univariate analysis, the following factors were predictors for improved overall survival, ECOG score 0 or 1 vs. 2 or greater (17.0 vs. 1.8 months, p < 0.001, controlled extracranial disease vs. progressive extracranial disease (17.4 vs. 4.6 months, p = 0.0001, recursive partitioning analysis Stage I vs. II–III (18.2 vs. 6.2 months, p < 0.007, multiple GKRS treatments (p = 0.002, prior brain metastasectomy (p = 0.012, and prior chemotherapy (p = 0.021. Age, ethnicity, gender, previous external beam radiation therapy, number of brain metastases, and hemorrhagic vs. non-hemorrhagic tumors were not predictors of longer median survival time. Number of metastatic brain lesions of 1–3 vs. ≥4 (p = 0.051 and insurance status of Medicare/Medicaid vs. commercial insurance approached significance (13.7 vs. 6.8 months, p = 0.08. On multivariate analysis, ECOG

  16. A Content Analysis of How Sexual Behavior and Reproductive Health are Being Portrayed on Primetime Television Shows Being Watched by Teens and Young Adults.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kinsler, Janni J; Glik, Deborah; de Castro Buffington, Sandra; Malan, Hannah; Nadjat-Haiem, Carsten; Wainwright, Nicole; Papp-Green, Melissa

    2018-02-01

    Television is a leading source of sexual education for teens and young adults, thus it is important to understand how sexual behavior and reproductive health are portrayed in popular primetime programming. This study is a media content analysis of the 19 top-rated scripted English-language primetime television shows aired between January 1, 2015 and May 31, 2015, and viewed by American youth audiences 12-24 years of age. The purpose of this study is to assess how sex/sexuality and reproductive health are being portrayed in a popular medium that reaches many adolescent and young adult audiences. Themes used for this analysis include youth pregnancy/parenting, mentoring/guidance of youth regarding sexual behavior, sex/sexuality, body image/identity, sexual violence/abuse/harassment, gender identity/sexual orientation, and reproductive health. Themes have been classified in one of the following six categories: visual cues, brief mentions, dialogue, minor storylines, major storylines, and multi-episode storylines. Our findings indicate that narratives providing educational information regarding the risks and consequences of sexual behavior were missing from the television shows we analyzed and that storylines promoting low risk sexual behavior were rare. Sexual violence and abuse, casual sex among adults, lack of contraception use, or no portrayal of consequences of risky behaviors were common. Compared to prior research, we found an emergent theme normalizing non-heterosexual gender identity and sexual orientation. Our findings have important implications as exposure to popular media shapes the perceptions and behaviors of teens and young adults. This study has the potential to shed light on the need to create stories and narratives in television shows watched by American teens and young adults with educational messages regarding the risks and consequences of sexual behavior.

  17. Combined-modality treatment in advanced oral squamous cell carcinoma. Primary surgery followed by adjuvant concomitant radiochemotherapy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kreppel, Matthias; Dreiseidler, Timo; Zoeller, Joachim E.; Scheer, Martin; Drebber, Uta; Eich, Hans-Theodor; Mueller, Rolf-Peter

    2011-01-01

    The efficacy of adjuvant radiochemotherapy (RCT) in patients with advanced stage head and neck carcinoma has been proven in prospective randomized trials. However, these trials focused on different head and neck sites. Specific analyses for treatment effects in squamous cell carcinoma of the oral cavity (OSCC) are missing. We evaluated our experiences with adjuvant concomitant RCT in advanced OSCC to compare the results with other treatment schemes using adjuvant RCT. A total of 183 patients with OSCC of UICC stages II-IVb were reviewed retrospectively. All patients were treated with radical surgery followed by adjuvant, conventional fractionated concomitant RCT using carboplatin. Overall survival was plotted by Kaplan-Meier analysis. Prognostic factors were identified through univariate and multivariate analysis. Univariate analysis showed a significant impact of T, N, and UICC stage, histopathologic grading, surgical margins, extracapsular spread (ECS), and lymphangiosis carcinomatosa on overall survival (Table 3). Patients with stage IVa had a higher 5-year overall survival rate (42.8%) than patients with stage IVb (25.0%) (Figure 1). The differences were significant in multivariate analysis (p = 0.033) (Table 4). Adjuvant concomitant RCT is an effective treatment in patients with advanced stage OSCC. However, it remains unclear, which patients should be treated with adjuvant RCT. For patients with stage IVb, adjuvant RCT yields poor results. Prospective randomized trials are needed to confirm which patients should be treated with adjuvant RCT. (orig.)

  18. Artificial neural network for on-site quantitative analysis of soils using laser induced breakdown spectroscopy

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    El Haddad, J. [Univ. Bordeaux, LOMA, UMR 5798, F-33400 Talence (France); CNRS, LOMA, UMR 5798, F-33400 Talence (France); Villot-Kadri, M.; Ismaël, A.; Gallou, G. [IVEA Solution, Centre Scientifique d' Orsay, Bât 503, 91400 Orsay (France); Michel, K.; Bruyère, D.; Laperche, V. [BRGM, Service Métrologie, Monitoring et Analyse, 3 avenue Claude Guillemin, B.P 36009, 45060 Orléans Cedex (France); Canioni, L. [Univ. Bordeaux, LOMA, UMR 5798, F-33400 Talence (France); CNRS, LOMA, UMR 5798, F-33400 Talence (France); Bousquet, B., E-mail: bruno.bousquet@u-bordeaux1.fr [Univ. Bordeaux, LOMA, UMR 5798, F-33400 Talence (France); CNRS, LOMA, UMR 5798, F-33400 Talence (France)

    2013-01-01

    Nowadays, due to environmental concerns, fast on-site quantitative analyses of soils are required. Laser induced breakdown spectroscopy is a serious candidate to address this challenge and is especially well suited for multi-elemental analysis of heavy metals. However, saturation and matrix effects prevent from a simple treatment of the LIBS data, namely through a regular calibration curve. This paper details the limits of this approach and consequently emphasizes the advantage of using artificial neural networks well suited for non-linear and multi-variate calibration. This advanced method of data analysis is evaluated in the case of real soil samples and on-site LIBS measurements. The selection of the LIBS data as input data of the network is particularly detailed and finally, resulting errors of prediction lower than 20% for aluminum, calcium, copper and iron demonstrate the good efficiency of the artificial neural networks for on-site quantitative LIBS of soils. - Highlights: ► We perform on-site quantitative LIBS analysis of soil samples. ► We demonstrate that univariate analysis is not convenient. ► We exploit artificial neural networks for LIBS analysis. ► Spectral lines other than the ones from the analyte must be introduced.

  19. Artificial neural network for on-site quantitative analysis of soils using laser induced breakdown spectroscopy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    El Haddad, J.; Villot-Kadri, M.; Ismaël, A.; Gallou, G.; Michel, K.; Bruyère, D.; Laperche, V.; Canioni, L.; Bousquet, B.

    2013-01-01

    Nowadays, due to environmental concerns, fast on-site quantitative analyses of soils are required. Laser induced breakdown spectroscopy is a serious candidate to address this challenge and is especially well suited for multi-elemental analysis of heavy metals. However, saturation and matrix effects prevent from a simple treatment of the LIBS data, namely through a regular calibration curve. This paper details the limits of this approach and consequently emphasizes the advantage of using artificial neural networks well suited for non-linear and multi-variate calibration. This advanced method of data analysis is evaluated in the case of real soil samples and on-site LIBS measurements. The selection of the LIBS data as input data of the network is particularly detailed and finally, resulting errors of prediction lower than 20% for aluminum, calcium, copper and iron demonstrate the good efficiency of the artificial neural networks for on-site quantitative LIBS of soils. - Highlights: ► We perform on-site quantitative LIBS analysis of soil samples. ► We demonstrate that univariate analysis is not convenient. ► We exploit artificial neural networks for LIBS analysis. ► Spectral lines other than the ones from the analyte must be introduced

  20. Expression analysis of genes associated with human osteosarcoma tumors shows correlation of RUNX2 overexpression with poor response to chemotherapy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sadikovic, Bekim; Thorner, Paul; Chilton-MacNeill, Susan; Martin, Jeff W; Cervigne, Nilva K; Squire, Jeremy; Zielenska, Maria

    2010-01-01

    Human osteosarcoma is the most common pediatric bone tumor. There is limited understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying osteosarcoma oncogenesis, and a lack of good diagnostic as well as prognostic clinical markers for this disease. Recent discoveries have highlighted a potential role of a number of genes including: RECQL4, DOCK5, SPP1, RUNX2, RB1, CDKN1A, P53, IBSP, LSAMP, MYC, TNFRSF1B, BMP2, HISTH2BE, FOS, CCNB1, and CDC5L. Our objective was to assess relative expression levels of these 16 genes as potential biomarkers of osteosarcoma oncogenesis and chemotherapy response in human tumors. We performed quantitative expression analysis in a panel of 22 human osteosarcoma tumors with differential response to chemotherapy, and 5 normal human osteoblasts. RECQL4, SPP1, RUNX2, and IBSP were significantly overexpressed, and DOCK5, CDKN1A, RB1, P53, and LSAMP showed significant loss of expression relative to normal osteoblasts. In addition to being overexpressed in osteosarcoma tumor samples relative to normal osteoblasts, RUNX2 was the only gene of the 16 to show significant overexpression in tumors that had a poor response to chemotherapy relative to good responders. These data underscore the loss of tumor suppressive pathways and activation of specific oncogenic mechanisms associated with osteosarcoma oncogenesis, while drawing attention to the role of RUNX2 expression as a potential biomarker of chemotherapy failure in osteosarcoma

  1. Near work, education, family history, and myopia in Greek conscripts.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Konstantopoulos, A; Yadegarfar, G; Elgohary, M

    2008-04-01

    To investigate potential factors associated with the presence of myopia in a cohort of young adult men carrying out their military service in Greece. A nested case-control study of 200 conscripts (99 myopes and 101 non-myopes). The cohort consisted of approximately 1000 conscripts in compulsory national service. All cohort members had been screened for refractive errors by Snellen visual acuity measurement at presentation to military service; individuals not achieving visual activity 6/6 underwent noncycloplaegic refraction. The study sample consisted of the first 99 myopic and 101 nonmyopic conscripts who attended the study. In-person interviews of these 200 conscripts were conducted to obtain information on family history, occupation, level of education, near-work activities, and sleeping behaviour. chi(2) and Mann-Whitney tests were used as univariate analysis methods to identify the potential factors associated with the presence of myopia. Multiple logistic regression was used to estimate the adjusted relative risk of myopia. Univariate analysis showed that parental family history (Pfamily history (OR=3.39, 95% CI 1.56-7.36) were independently associated with myopia. In young Greek conscripts, parental family history, older age, and education level are independently associated with myopia.

  2. Patients' willingness to pay for cognitive pharmacist services in community pharmacies.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lakić, Dragana; Stević, Ivana; Odalović, Marina; Vezmar-Kovačević, Sandra; Tadić, Ivana

    2017-10-31

    To determine the general population willingness to pay for cognitive pharmacist service in community pharmacy, describe the behavior of participants regarding health care issues, and evaluate correlation between participants' sociodemographic characteristics or attitudes and their willingness to pay. A questionnaire-based survey was conducted among general population visiting community pharmacies. The participants were asked about receiving cognitive pharmacist services to identify and resolve potential medication therapy problems after the initiation of a new medicine to optimize health outcomes of the patients. A univariate and multivariate analysis were used to analyze associations between different variables and willingness to pay for pharmacy service. Of 444 respondents, 167 (38%) reported that they were willing to pay for a medication management service provided in the community pharmacy. Univariate analysis showed significant association between the willingness to pay for pharmacist-provided service and respondents' socio-demographic factors, health-related characteristics, and behavior, dilemmas, or need for certain pharmacist-provided service. The logistic regression model was statistically significant (χ2=4.599, Ppay for cognitive pharmacist services, which has not been fully recognized within the health care system. In future, pharmacists should focus on practical implementation of the service and models of funding.

  3. Analysis of genetic distance between Peruvian Alpaca (Vicugna Pacos showing two distinct fleece phenotypes, Suri and Huacaya, by means of microsatellite markers

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Carlo Renieri

    2011-10-01

    Full Text Available Two coat phenotypes exist in Alpaca, Huacaya and Suri. The two coats show different fleece structure, textile characteristics and prices on the market. Although present scientific knowledge suggests a simple genetic model of inheritance, there is a tendency to manage and consider the two phenotypes as two different breeds. A 13 microsatellite panel was used in this study to assess genetic distance between Suri and Huacaya alpacas in a sample of non-related animals from two phenotypically pure flocks at the Illpa-Puno experimental station in Quimsachata, Peru. The animals are part of a germplasm established approximately 20 years ago and have been bred separately according to their coat type since then. Genetic variability parameters were also calculated. The data were statistically analyzed using the software Genalex 6.3, Phylip 3.69 and Fstat 2.9.3.2. The sample was tested for Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (HWE and after strict Bonferroni correction only one locus (LCA37 showed deviation from equilibrium (Ploci associations showed significant disequilibrium. Observed heterozygosis (Ho= 0.766; SE=0.044, expected heterozygosis (He=0.769; SE=0.033, number of alleles (Na=9.667, SE=0.772 and Fixation index (F=0.004; SE=0.036 are comparable to data from previous studies. Measures of genetic distance were 0.06 for Nei’s and 0.03 for Cavalli-Sforza’s. The analysis of molecular variance reported no existing variance between populations. Considering the origin of the animals, their post domestication evolution and the reproductive practices in place, the results do not show genetic differentiation between the two populations for the studied loci.

  4. Talk Show Science.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moore, Mitzi Ruth

    1992-01-01

    Proposes having students perform skits in which they play the roles of the science concepts they are trying to understand. Provides the dialog for a skit in which hot and cold gas molecules are interviewed on a talk show to study how these properties affect wind, rain, and other weather phenomena. (MDH)

  5. Statistical analysis of temperature data sampled at Station-M in the Norwegian Sea

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lorentzen, Torbjørn

    2014-02-01

    The paper analyzes sea temperature data sampled at Station-M in the Norwegian Sea. The data cover the period 1948-2010. The following questions are addressed: What type of stochastic process characterizes the temperature series? Are there any changes or patterns which indicate climate change? Are there any characteristics in the data which can be linked to the shrinking sea-ice in the Arctic area? Can the series be modeled consistently and applied in forecasting of the future sea temperature? The paper applies the following methods: Augmented Dickey-Fuller tests for testing of unit-root and stationarity, ARIMA-models in univariate modeling, cointegration and error-correcting models are applied in estimating short- and long-term dynamics of non-stationary series, Granger-causality tests in analyzing the interaction pattern between the deep and upper layer temperatures, and simultaneous equation systems are applied in forecasting future temperature. The paper shows that temperature at 2000 m Granger-causes temperature at 150 m, and that the 2000 m series can represent an important information carrier of the long-term development of the sea temperature in the geographical area. Descriptive statistics shows that the temperature level has been on a positive trend since the beginning of the 1980s which is also measured in most of the oceans in the North Atlantic. The analysis shows that the temperature series are cointegrated which means they share the same long-term stochastic trend and they do not diverge too far from each other. The measured long-term temperature increase is one of the factors that can explain the shrinking summer sea-ice in the Arctic region. The analysis shows that there is a significant negative correlation between the shrinking sea ice and the sea temperature at Station-M. The paper shows that the temperature forecasts are conditioned on the properties of the stochastic processes, causality pattern between the variables and specification of model

  6. Alcohol content in the 'Hyper-Reality' MTV show 'Geordie Shore'

    OpenAIRE

    Lowe, Eden; Britton, John; Cranwell, Jo

    2018-01-01

    Aim: To quantify the occurrence of alcohol content, including alcohol branding, in the popular primetime television UK Reality TV show 'Geordie Shore' Series 11. \\ud \\ud Methods: A 1-min interval coding content analysis of alcohol content in the entire DVD Series 11 of 'Geordie Shore' (10 episodes). Occurrence of alcohol use, implied use, other alcohol reference/paraphernalia or branding was recorded. \\ud \\ud Results: All categories of alcohol were present in all episodes. 'Any alcohol' conte...

  7. Ovarian metastases resection from extragenital primary sites: outcome and prognostic factor analysis of 147 patients

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Li, Wenhua; Wang, Huaying; Wang, Jian; LV, Fangfang; Zhu, Xiaodong; Wang, Zhonghua

    2012-01-01

    To explore the outcomes and prognostic factors of ovarian metastasectomy intervention on overall survival from extragenital primary cancer. Patients with ovarian metastases from extragenital primary cancer confirmed by laparotomy surgery and ovarian metastases resection were retrospectively collected in a single institution during an 8-year period. A total of 147 cases were identified and primary tumor sites were colorectal region (49.0%), gastric (40.8%), breast (8.2%), biliary duct (1.4%) and liver (0.7%). The pathological and clinical features were evaluated. Patients’ outcome with different primary tumor sites and predictive factors for overall survival were also investigated by univariate and multivariate analysis. Metachronous ovarian metastasis occurred in 92 (62.6%) and synchronous in 55 (37.4%) patients. Combined metastases occurred in 40 (27.2%). Bilateral metastasis was found in 97 (66%) patients. The median ovarian metastasis tumor size was 9 cm. There were 39 (26.5%) patients with massive ascites ≥ 1000 mL on intraoperative evaluation. With a median follow-up of 48 months, the median OS after ovarian metastasectomy for all patients was 8.2 months (95% CI 7.2-9.3 months). In univariate analyses, there is significant (8.0 months vs. 41.0 months, P = 0.000) difference in OS between patients with gastrointestinal cancer origin from breast origin, and between patients with gastric origin from colorectal origin (7.4 months vs. 8.8 months, P = 0.036). In univariate analyses, synchronous metastases, locally invasion, massive intraoperative ascites (≥ 1000 mL), and combined metastasis, were identified as significant poor prognostic factors. In multivariate analyses combined metastasis (RR, 1.72; 95% CI, 1.09-2.69, P = 0.018), locally invasion (RR, 1.62; 95% CI, 1.03-2.54, P = 0.038) and massive intraoperative ascites (RR, 1.58; 95% CI, 1.02-2.49, P = 0.04) were independent factors for predicting unfavorable overall survival. Ovarian metastases are more

  8. Radical prostatectomy and positive surgical margins: relationship with prostate cancer outcome

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ricardo L. R. Felts de La Roca

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available Introduction Positive surgical margins (PSMs are an adverse factor that may predict a worse outcome in patients submitted to radical prostatectomy (RP. However, not all of these cases will evolve to biochemical (BCR or clinical (CR recurrence, therefore relationship between PSMs and these recurrent events has to be correlated with other clinical and pathologic findings to indicate complementary treatment for selected patients. Materials and Methods Of 1250 patients submitted to open retropubic radical prostatectomy (RRP, between March 1991 and June 2008, the outcome of 161 patients with PSMs and of 67 without PSMs as a control group, comprising a total of 228 cases were retrospectively reviewed. A minimum follow-up time of 2 years after surgery was considered. BCR was determined when PSA ≥ 0.2ng/mL. CR was determined whenever there was clinical evidence of tumor. Chi-square test was used to correlate clinical and pathologic variables with PSMs. Time interval to biochemical recurrence was analyzed by the Kaplan-Meier product limit analysis using the log-rank test for comparison between groups. Univariate and multivariate Cox stepwise logistic regression models were used to identify significant predictors of risk of shorter intervals to BCR. Results Prostate circumference margin was the most common site with 78 cases (48.44%. Regarding the outcome of 228 cases from both groups, BCR occurred in 68 patients (29.82%, and CR in 10 (4.38%. Univariate analysis showed statistically significant associations (p < 0.001 between presence of PSMs with BCR, but not with CR (p = 0.05. At follow-up of the 161 patients with PSMs, only 61(37.8% presented BCR, while 100 (62.8% did not. BCR correlated with pathologic stage; Gleason score; preoperative PSA; tumor volume in the specimen; capsular and perineural invasion; presence and number of PSMs. CR correlated only with angiolymphatic invasion and Gleason score. Considering univariate analysis of clinical and

  9. Large-Scale No-Show Patterns and Distributions for Clinic Operational Research

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Michael L. Davies

    2016-02-01

    Full Text Available Patient no-shows for scheduled primary care appointments are common. Unused appointment slots reduce patient quality of care, access to services and provider productivity while increasing loss to follow-up and medical costs. This paper describes patterns of no-show variation by patient age, gender, appointment age, and type of appointment request for six individual service lines in the United States Veterans Health Administration (VHA. This retrospective observational descriptive project examined 25,050,479 VHA appointments contained in individual-level records for eight years (FY07-FY14 for 555,183 patients. Multifactor analysis of variance (ANOVA was performed, with no-show rate as the dependent variable, and gender, age group, appointment age, new patient status, and service line as factors. The analyses revealed that males had higher no-show rates than females to age 65, at which point males and females exhibited similar rates. The average no-show rates decreased with age until 75–79, whereupon rates increased. As appointment age increased, males and new patients had increasing no-show rates. Younger patients are especially prone to no-show as appointment age increases. These findings provide novel information to healthcare practitioners and management scientists to more accurately characterize no-show and attendance rates and the impact of certain patient factors. Future general population data could determine whether findings from VHA data generalize to others.

  10. Large-Scale No-Show Patterns and Distributions for Clinic Operational Research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Davies, Michael L; Goffman, Rachel M; May, Jerrold H; Monte, Robert J; Rodriguez, Keri L; Tjader, Youxu C; Vargas, Dominic L

    2016-02-16

    Patient no-shows for scheduled primary care appointments are common. Unused appointment slots reduce patient quality of care, access to services and provider productivity while increasing loss to follow-up and medical costs. This paper describes patterns of no-show variation by patient age, gender, appointment age, and type of appointment request for six individual service lines in the United States Veterans Health Administration (VHA). This retrospective observational descriptive project examined 25,050,479 VHA appointments contained in individual-level records for eight years (FY07-FY14) for 555,183 patients. Multifactor analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed, with no-show rate as the dependent variable, and gender, age group, appointment age, new patient status, and service line as factors. The analyses revealed that males had higher no-show rates than females to age 65, at which point males and females exhibited similar rates. The average no-show rates decreased with age until 75-79, whereupon rates increased. As appointment age increased, males and new patients had increasing no-show rates. Younger patients are especially prone to no-show as appointment age increases. These findings provide novel information to healthcare practitioners and management scientists to more accurately characterize no-show and attendance rates and the impact of certain patient factors. Future general population data could determine whether findings from VHA data generalize to others.

  11. Increased red blood cell distribution width associates with cancer stage and prognosis in patients with lung cancer.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yasuko Koma

    Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Red cell distribution width (RDW, one of many routinely examined parameters, shows the heterogeneity in erythrocyte size. We investigated the association of RDW levels with clinical parameters and prognosis of lung cancer patients. METHODS: Clinical and laboratory data from 332 patients with lung cancer in a single institution were retrospectively studied by univariate analysis. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and Cox proportional hazard models were used to examine the effect of RDW on survival. RESULTS: THE RDW LEVELS WERE DIVIDED INTO TWO GROUPS: high RDW (>=15%, n=73 vs. low RDW, n=259 (<15%. Univariate analysis showed that there were significant associations of high RDW values with cancer stage, performance status, presence of other disease, white blood cell count, hemoglobin, mean corpuscular volume, platelet count, albumin level, C-reactive protein level, and cytokeratin 19 fragment level. Kruskal-Wallis tests revealed an association of RDW values with cancer stage in patients irrespective of comorbidity (patient with/without comorbidity: p<0.0001, patient without comorbidity: p<0.0001. Stages I-IV lung cancer patients with higher RDW values had poorer prognoses than those with lower RDW values (Wilcoxon test: p=0.002. In particular, the survival rates of stage I and II patients (n=141 were lower in the high RDW group (n=19 than in the low RDW group (n=122 (Wilcoxon test: p<0.001. Moreover, multivariate analysis showed higher RDW is a significant prognostic factor (p=0.040. CONCLUSION: RDW is associated with several factors that reflect inflammation and malnutrition in lung cancer patients. Moreover, high levels of RDW are associated with poor survival. RDW might be used as a new and convenient marker to determine a patient's general condition and to predict the mortality risk of lung cancer patients.

  12. Electricity consumption in Morocco: Stochastic Gompertz diffusion analysis with exogenous factors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gutierrez, R.; Gutierrez-Sanchez, R.; Nafidi, A.

    2006-01-01

    This paper proposes a means of using stochastic diffusion processes to model the total consumption of electrical power (including distribution and transport losses) in Morocco, as recorded by the official data for total sales published by Office Nationale de l'Electricite (ONE), the Moroccan electricity authority. Two models of univariate stochastic diffusion were used: the time-homogeneous Gompertz Diffusion Process (HGDP) and the time-non-homogeneous Gompertz Diffusion Process (NHGDP). The methodology proposed is based on the analysis of the trend function; this requires the analyst to obtain fits and forecasts for the consumption of electrical power by means of the estimated trend function (conditioned and non-conditioned). This latter function is obtained from the mean value of the process and the maximum likelihood estimators (MLE) of the parameters of the model. This estimation and the subsequent statistical inference are based on the discretised observation of the variable 'electricity consumption in Morocco', using annual data for the period 1980-2001. The fit and forecast are improved by using macroeconomic exogenous factors such as the gross domestic product per inhabitant (GDP/inhab), the final domestic consumption (FDC) and the gross fixed capital formation (GFCF). The results obtained show that NHGDP (with the above three exogenous factors) provides an adequate fit and medium-term forecast of electricity consumption in Morocco

  13. Obesity in show cats.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Corbee, R J

    2014-12-01

    Obesity is an important disease with a high prevalence in cats. Because obesity is related to several other diseases, it is important to identify the population at risk. Several risk factors for obesity have been described in the literature. A higher incidence of obesity in certain cat breeds has been suggested. The aim of this study was to determine whether obesity occurs more often in certain breeds. The second aim was to relate the increased prevalence of obesity in certain breeds to the official standards of that breed. To this end, 268 cats of 22 different breeds investigated by determining their body condition score (BCS) on a nine-point scale by inspection and palpation, at two different cat shows. Overall, 45.5% of the show cats had a BCS > 5, and 4.5% of the show cats had a BCS > 7. There were significant differences between breeds, which could be related to the breed standards. Most overweight and obese cats were in the neutered group. It warrants firm discussions with breeders and cat show judges to come to different interpretations of the standards in order to prevent overweight conditions in certain breeds from being the standard of beauty. Neutering predisposes for obesity and requires early nutritional intervention to prevent obese conditions. Journal of Animal Physiology and Animal Nutrition © 2014 Blackwell Verlag GmbH.

  14. Simultaneous analysis of the expression of 14 genes with individual prognostic value in myelodysplastic syndrome patients at diagnosis: WT1 detection in peripheral blood adversely affects survival.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Santamaría, Carlos; Ramos, Fernando; Puig, Noemi; Barragán, Eva; de Paz, Raquel; Pedro, Carme; Insunza, Andrés; Tormo, Mar; Del Cañizo, Consuelo; Diez-Campelo, María; Xicoy, Blanca; Salido, Eduardo; Sánchez del Real, Javier; Hernández, Montserrat; Chillón, Carmen; Sanz, Guillermo F; García-Sanz, Ramón; San Miguel, Jesús F; González, Marcos

    2012-12-01

    Several studies have evaluated the prognostic value of the individual expression of certain genes in patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). However, none of them includes their simultaneous analysis by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR). We evaluated relative expression levels of 14 molecular markers in 193 peripheral blood samples from untreated MDS patients using real-time PCR. Detectable WT1 expression levels, low TET2, and low IER3 gene expression were the only markers showing in univariate analysis a poor prognostic value for all treatment-free (TFS), progression-free (PFS), and overall survival (OS). In multivariate analysis, molecular parameters associated with a shorter TFS were: WT1 detection (p = 0.014), low TET2 (p = 0.002), and low IER3 expression (p = 0.025). WT1 detection (p = 0.006) and low TET2 (p = 0.006) expression were associated with a shorter PFS when multivariate analysis was carried out by including only molecular markers. Molecular values with an independent value in OS were: WT1 detection (p = 0.003), high EVI1 expression (p = 0.001), and undetectatable p15-CDKN2B (p = 0.037). WT1 expressers were associated with adverse clinical-biological features, high IPSS and WPSS scoring, and unfavorable molecular expression profile. In summary, detectable WT1 expression levels, and low TET2 and low IER3 expression in peripheral blood showed a strong association with adverse prognosis in MDS patients at diagnosis. However, WT1 was the only molecular marker displaying an independent prognostic value in both OS and TFS.

  15. Banach frames for multivariate alpha-modulation spaces

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Borup, Lasse; Nielsen, Morten

    2006-01-01

    The α-modulation spaces [$Mathematical Term$], form a family of spaces that include the Besov and modulation spaces as special cases. This paper is concerned with construction of Banach frames for α-modulation spaces in the multivariate setting. The frames constructed are unions of independent Ri...... Riesz sequences based on tensor products of univariate brushlet functions, which simplifies the analysis of the full frame. We show that the multivariate α-modulation spaces can be completely characterized by the Banach frames constructed....

  16. Postoperative Neutrophil-to-Lymphocyte Ratio as a Predictor of Long-Term Prognosis after Pancreatectomy for Pancreatic Carcinoma: A Retrospective Analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tsujita, Eiji; Ikeda, Yasuharu; Kinjo, Nao; Yamashita, Yo-Ichi; Hisano, Terumasa; Furukawa, Masayuki; Taguchi, Ken-Ichi; Morita, Masaru; Toh, Yasushi; Okamura, Takeshi

    2017-06-01

    To clarify the prognostic value of the postoperative blood neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) in patients undergoing pancreatectomy for pancreatic carcinoma (PAC). A high preoperative NLR has been reported to be a predictor of poor survival in patients with various cancers including PAC. However, it has not been extensively examined in postoperative NLR after pancreatectomy for PAC. This retrospective study enrolled 86 patients who underwent pancreatectomy without preoperative therapy for PAC from 2005 to 2013. Clinicopathological parameters, including postoperative NLR, were evaluated to identify predictors of the overall and recurrence-free survival of patients after pancreatectomy. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed, using the Cox proportional hazards model. Univariate and multivariate analyses showed that postoperative NLR at one month was an independent prognostic factor in the overall and recurrence-free survival of patients. The 3-year survival rate after pancreatectomy was as follows: 33.9 per cent in patients with a postoperative NLR of less than 3.0 at one month; and 7.3 per cent in those with a postoperative NLR of 3.0 or more at one month (P pancreatectomy in the NLR at one month ≥3.0 group was significantly lower than in the NLR at one month pancreatectomy in patients with PAC.

  17. Time Series Modelling of Syphilis Incidence in China from 2005 to 2012.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Xingyu; Zhang, Tao; Pei, Jiao; Liu, Yuanyuan; Li, Xiaosong; Medrano-Gracia, Pau

    2016-01-01

    The infection rate of syphilis in China has increased dramatically in recent decades, becoming a serious public health concern. Early prediction of syphilis is therefore of great importance for heath planning and management. In this paper, we analyzed surveillance time series data for primary, secondary, tertiary, congenital and latent syphilis in mainland China from 2005 to 2012. Seasonality and long-term trend were explored with decomposition methods. Autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) was used to fit a univariate time series model of syphilis incidence. A separate multi-variable time series for each syphilis type was also tested using an autoregressive integrated moving average model with exogenous variables (ARIMAX). The syphilis incidence rates have increased three-fold from 2005 to 2012. All syphilis time series showed strong seasonality and increasing long-term trend. Both ARIMA and ARIMAX models fitted and estimated syphilis incidence well. All univariate time series showed highest goodness-of-fit results with the ARIMA(0,0,1)×(0,1,1) model. Time series analysis was an effective tool for modelling the historical and future incidence of syphilis in China. The ARIMAX model showed superior performance than the ARIMA model for the modelling of syphilis incidence. Time series correlations existed between the models for primary, secondary, tertiary, congenital and latent syphilis.

  18. Investigation of Clinical Characteristics and Etiological Factors in Children with Molar Incisor Hypomineralization

    Science.gov (United States)

    Giuca, Maria Rita; Cappè, Maria; Carli, Elisabetta; Lardani, Lisa

    2018-01-01

    Aim The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the clinical defects and etiological factors potentially involved in the onset of MIH in a pediatric sample. Methods 120 children, selected from the university dental clinic, were included: 60 children (25 boys and 35 girls; average age: 9.8 ± 1.8 years) with MIH formed the test group and 60 children (27 boys and 33 girls; average age: 10.1 ± 2 years) without MIH constituted the control group. Distribution and severity of MIH defects were evaluated, and a questionnaire was used to investigate the etiological variables; chi-square, univariate, and multivariate statistical tests were performed (significance level set at p MIH defects: 55 molars and 75 incisors showed mild defects, 91 molars and 20 incisors had moderate lesions, and 40 molars and 3 incisors showed severe lesions. Univariate and multivariate statistical analysis showed a significant association (p MIH and ear, nose, and throat (ENT) disorders and the antibiotics used during pregnancy (0.019). Conclusions Moderate defects were more frequent in the molars, while mild lesions were more frequent in the incisors. Antibiotics used during pregnancy and ENT may be directly involved in the etiology of MIH in children. PMID:29861729

  19. Thin-section CT imaging that correlates with pulmonary function tests in obstructive airway disease

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Arakawa, Hiroaki, E-mail: arakawa@dokkyomed.ac.jp [Department of Radiology, Dokkyo Medical University, 880 Kita-Kobayashi, Mibu, Tochigi 321-0293 (Japan); Fujimoto, Kiminori [Department of Radiology, Kurume University School of Medicine (Japan); Fukushima, Yasutugu [Department of Pulmonary Medicine and Clinical Immunology, Dokkyo Medical University (Japan); Kaji, Yasushi [Department of Radiology, Dokkyo Medical University, 880 Kita-Kobayashi, Mibu, Tochigi 321-0293 (Japan)

    2011-11-15

    Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify independent CT findings that correlated with pulmonary function tests (PFTs) in patients with obstructive airway diseases. Materials and methods: Sixty-eight patients with obstructive airway disease and 29 normal subjects (mean age, 52 years; 36 men and 61 women) underwent inspiratory and expiratory thin-section CT and PFTs. Patient with obvious emphysema was excluded. Two radiologists independently reviewed the images and semi-quantitatively evaluated lung attenuation (mosaic perfusion, air trapping) and airway abnormalities (extent and severity of bronchial wall thickening and bronchiectasis, bronchiolectasis or centrilobular nodules, mucous plugging). Univariate, multivariate and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses were performed with CT findings and PFTs. Results: Forty-two patients showed obstructive PFTs, 26 symptomatic patients showed near-normal PFTs. On univariate analysis, air trapping and bronchial wall thickening showed highest correlation with obstructive PFTs such as FEV1.0/FVC, MMEF and FEF75 (r ranged from -0.712 to -0.782; p < 0.001), while mosaic perfusion and mucous plugging showed moderate correlation, and bronchiectasis, bronchiolectasis and nodules showed the least, but significant, correlation. Multiple logistic analyses revealed air trapping and bronchial wall thickening as the only significant independent determinants of obstructive PFTs. ROC analysis revealed the cut-off value of air trapping for obstructive PFTs to be one-third of whole lung (area under curve, 0.847). Conclusions: Our study confirmed air trapping and bronchial wall thickening are the most important observations when imaging obstructive PFTs. The cut-off value of air trapping for identifying obstructive PFTs was one-third of lung irrespective of inspiratory CT findings.

  20. The analysis of soil cores polluted with certain metals using the Box-Cox transformation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Meloun, Milan; Sánka, Milan; Nemec, Pavel; Krítková, Sona; Kupka, Karel

    2005-09-01

    To define the soil properties for a given area or country including the level of pollution, soil survey and inventory programs are essential tools. Soil data transformations enable the expression of the original data on a new scale, more suitable for data analysis. In the computer-aided interactive analysis of large data files of soil characteristics containing outliers, the diagnostic plots of the exploratory data analysis (EDA) often find that the sample distribution is systematically skewed or reject sample homogeneity. Under such circumstances the original data should be transformed. The Box-Cox transformation improves sample symmetry and stabilizes spread. The logarithmic plot of a profile likelihood function enables the optimum transformation parameter to be found. Here, a proposed procedure for data transformation in univariate data analysis is illustrated on a determination of cadmium content in the plough zone of agricultural soils. A typical soil pollution survey concerns the determination of the elements Be (16 544 values available), Cd (40 317 values), Co (22 176 values), Cr (40 318 values), Hg (32 344 values), Ni (34 989 values), Pb (40 344 values), V (20 373 values) and Zn (36 123 values) in large samples.

  1. Defending psychiatry or defending the trivial effects of therapeutic interventions? A citation content analysis of an influential paper.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cristea, I A; Naudet, F

    2017-11-29

    Leucht et al. in 2012 described an overview of meta-analyses of the efficacy of medication in psychiatry and general medicine, concluding that psychiatric drugs were not less efficacious than other drugs. Our goal was to explore the dissemination of this highly cited paper, which combined a thought provoking message with a series of caveats. We conducted a prospectively registered citation content analysis. All papers published before June 1st citing the target paper were independently rated by two investigators. The primary outcome coded dichotomously was whether the citation was used to justify a small or modest effect observed for a given treatment. Secondary outcomes regarded mentioning any caveats when citing the target paper, the point the citation was making (treatment effectiveness in psychiatry closely resembles that in general medicine, others), the type of condition (psychiatric, medical or both), specific disease, treatment category and specific type. We also extracted information about the type of citing paper, financial conflict of interest (COI) declared and any industry support. The primary analysis was descriptive by tabulating the extracted variables, with numbers and percentages where appropriate. Co-authorship networks were constructed to identify possible clusters of citing authors. An exploratory univariate logistic regression was used to explore the relationship between each of a subset of pre-specified secondary outcomes and the primary outcome. We identified 135 records and retrieved and analysed 120. Sixty-three (53%) quoted Leucht et al.'s paper to justify a small or modest effect observed for a given therapy, and 113 (94%) did not mention any caveats. Seventy-two (60%) used the citation to claim that treatment effectiveness in psychiatry closely resembles that in general medicine; 110 (91%) paper were about psychiatric conditions. Forty-one (34%) papers quoted it without pointing towards any specific treatment category, 28 (23%) were

  2. Investigating CSI: portrayals of DNA testing on a forensic crime show and their potential effects.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ley, Barbara L; Jankowski, Natalie; Brewer, Paul R

    2012-01-01

    The popularity of forensic crime shows such as CSI has fueled debate about their potential social impact. This study considers CSI's potential effects on public understandings regarding DNA testing in the context of judicial processes, the policy debates surrounding crime laboratory procedures, and the forensic science profession, as well as an effect not discussed in previous accounts: namely, the show's potential impact on public understandings of DNA and genetics more generally. To develop a theoretical foundation for research on the "CSI effect," it draws on cultivation theory, social cognitive theory, and audience reception studies. It then uses content analysis and textual analysis to illuminate how the show depicts DNA testing. The results demonstrate that CSI tends to depict DNA testing as routine, swift, useful, and reliable and that it echoes broader discourses about genetics. At times, however, the show suggests more complex ways of thinking about DNA testing and genetics.

  3. Public Interest in Breast Augmentation: Analysis and Implications of Google Trends Data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wilson, Stelios C; Daar, David A; Sinno, Sammy; Levine, Steven M

    2018-06-01

    Breast augmentation is the most common aesthetic surgery performed in the United States (US) annually. Analysis of Google Trends (GT) data may give plastic surgeons useful information regarding worldwide, national, and regional interest for breast augmentation and other commonly performed aesthetic surgeries. Data were collected using GT for breast augmentation and associated search terms from January 2004 to May 2017. Case volume was obtained from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) annual reports for the calendar year 2005-2016. Trend analysis showed that total search term volume for breast augmentation and breast implants gradually decreased worldwide and in the US over the study period while the search term boob job slowly increased. Univariate linear regression demonstrated a statistically significant positive correlation between average annual Google search volume of "breast augmentation" and the annual volume of breast augmentations performed in the US according to ASPS data (R 2  = 0.44, p = 0.018). There was no significant correlation between national volume of breast augmentations performed and search volume using the terms "breast implants" or "boob job" over time (p = 0.84 and p = 0.07, respectively). In addition, there appears to be country specific variation in interest based on time of year and peaks in interest following specific policies. To our knowledge, this is the first and only analysis of GT data in the plastic surgery literature to date. To that end, this study highlights this large and potentially powerful data set for plastic surgeons both in the US and around the world. This journal requires that authors assign a level of evidence to each article. For a full description of these Evidence-Based Medicine ratings, please refer to the Table of Contents or the online Instructions to Authors www.springer.com/00266 .

  4. Talking with TV shows

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Sandvik, Kjetil; Laursen, Ditte

    2014-01-01

    User interaction with radio and television programmes is not a new thing. However, with new cross-media production concepts such as X Factor and Voice, this is changing dramatically. The second-screen logic of these productions encourages viewers, along with TV’s traditional one-way communication...... mode, to communicate on interactive (dialogue-enabling) devices such as laptops, smartphones and tablets. Using the TV show Voice as our example, this article shows how the technological and situational set-up of the production invites viewers to engage in new ways of interaction and communication...

  5. Identifying Talent in Youth Sport: A Novel Methodology Using Higher-Dimensional Analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Till, Kevin; Jones, Ben L.; Cobley, Stephen; Morley, David; O'Hara, John; Chapman, Chris; Cooke, Carlton; Beggs, Clive B.

    2016-01-01

    Prediction of adult performance from early age talent identification in sport remains difficult. Talent identification research has generally been performed using univariate analysis, which ignores multivariate relationships. To address this issue, this study used a novel higher-dimensional model to orthogonalize multivariate anthropometric and fitness data from junior rugby league players, with the aim of differentiating future career attainment. Anthropometric and fitness data from 257 Under-15 rugby league players was collected. Players were grouped retrospectively according to their future career attainment (i.e., amateur, academy, professional). Players were blindly and randomly divided into an exploratory (n = 165) and validation dataset (n = 92). The exploratory dataset was used to develop and optimize a novel higher-dimensional model, which combined singular value decomposition (SVD) with receiver operating characteristic analysis. Once optimized, the model was tested using the validation dataset. SVD analysis revealed 60 m sprint and agility 505 performance were the most influential characteristics in distinguishing future professional players from amateur and academy players. The exploratory dataset model was able to distinguish between future amateur and professional players with a high degree of accuracy (sensitivity = 85.7%, specificity = 71.1%; ptalent identification. PMID:27224653

  6. Identifying Talent in Youth Sport: A Novel Methodology Using Higher-Dimensional Analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Till, Kevin; Jones, Ben L; Cobley, Stephen; Morley, David; O'Hara, John; Chapman, Chris; Cooke, Carlton; Beggs, Clive B

    2016-01-01

    Prediction of adult performance from early age talent identification in sport remains difficult. Talent identification research has generally been performed using univariate analysis, which ignores multivariate relationships. To address this issue, this study used a novel higher-dimensional model to orthogonalize multivariate anthropometric and fitness data from junior rugby league players, with the aim of differentiating future career attainment. Anthropometric and fitness data from 257 Under-15 rugby league players was collected. Players were grouped retrospectively according to their future career attainment (i.e., amateur, academy, professional). Players were blindly and randomly divided into an exploratory (n = 165) and validation dataset (n = 92). The exploratory dataset was used to develop and optimize a novel higher-dimensional model, which combined singular value decomposition (SVD) with receiver operating characteristic analysis. Once optimized, the model was tested using the validation dataset. SVD analysis revealed 60 m sprint and agility 505 performance were the most influential characteristics in distinguishing future professional players from amateur and academy players. The exploratory dataset model was able to distinguish between future amateur and professional players with a high degree of accuracy (sensitivity = 85.7%, specificity = 71.1%; ptalent identification.

  7. Improving the quality of pressure ulcer care with prevention: a cost-effectiveness analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Padula, William V; Mishra, Manish K; Makic, Mary Beth F; Sullivan, Patrick W

    2011-04-01

    In October 2008, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services discontinued reimbursement for hospital-acquired pressure ulcers (HAPUs), thus placing stress on hospitals to prevent incidence of this costly condition. To evaluate whether prevention methods are cost-effective compared with standard care in the management of HAPUs. A semi-Markov model simulated the admission of patients to an acute care hospital from the time of admission through 1 year using the societal perspective. The model simulated health states that could potentially lead to an HAPU through either the practice of "prevention" or "standard care." Univariate sensitivity analyses, threshold analyses, and Bayesian multivariate probabilistic sensitivity analysis using 10,000 Monte Carlo simulations were conducted. Cost per quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) gained for the prevention of HAPUs. Prevention was cost saving and resulted in greater expected effectiveness compared with the standard care approach per hospitalization. The expected cost of prevention was $7276.35, and the expected effectiveness was 11.241 QALYs. The expected cost for standard care was $10,053.95, and the expected effectiveness was 9.342 QALYs. The multivariate probabilistic sensitivity analysis showed that prevention resulted in cost savings in 99.99% of the simulations. The threshold cost of prevention was $821.53 per day per person, whereas the cost of prevention was estimated to be $54.66 per day per person. This study suggests that it is more cost effective to pay for prevention of HAPUs compared with standard care. Continuous preventive care of HAPUs in acutely ill patients could potentially reduce incidence and prevalence, as well as lead to lower expenditures.

  8. Pelvic Insufficiency Fracture After Pelvic Radiotherapy for Cervical Cancer: Analysis of Risk Factors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Oh, Dongryul; Huh, Seung Jae; Nam, Heerim; Park, Won; Han, Youngyih; Lim, Do Hoon; Ahn, Yong Chan; Lee, Jeong Won; Kim, Byoung Gie; Bae, Duk Soo; Lee, Je Ho

    2008-01-01

    Purpose: To investigate the incidence, clinical characteristics, and risk factors of pelvic insufficiency fracture (PIF) after pelvic radiotherapy (RT) in cervical cancer. Methods and Materials: Medical records and imaging studies, including bone scintigraphy, CT, and MRI of 557 patients with cervical cancer who received whole-pelvic RT between January 1998 and August 2005 were reviewed. Results: Eighty-three patients were diagnosed as having PIF after pelvic RT. The 5-year cumulative incidence of PIF was 19.7%. The most commonly involved site was the sacroiliac joint. Pelvic pain developed in 48 patients (57.8%) at diagnosis. Eleven patients (13.3%) needed admission or narcotics because of severe pain, and others had good relief of symptoms with conservative management. In univariate analysis, age ≥55 years (p < 0.001), anteroposterior/posteroanterior parallel opposing technique (p = 0.001), curative treatment (p < 0.001), and radiation dose ≥50.4 Gy (p = 0.005) were the predisposing factors for development of PIF. Concurrent chemotherapy (p = 0.78) was not significant. Multivariate analysis showed that age ≥55 years (p < 0.001), body weight <55 kg (p = 0.02), curative treatment (p = 0.03), and radiation dose ≥50.4 Gy (p = 0.04) were significant predisposing factors for development of PIF. Conclusion: The development of PIF is not rare after pelvic RT. The use of multibeam arrangements to reduce the volume and dose of irradiated pelvic bone can be helpful to minimize the risk of fracture, especially in elderly women with low body weight

  9. Multivariate spectral-analysis of movement-related EEG data

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Andrew, C. M.

    1997-01-01

    The univariate method of event-related desynchronization (ERD) analysis, which quantifies the temporal evolution of power within specific frequency bands from electroencephalographic (EEG) data recorded during a task or event, is extended to an event related multivariate spectral analysis method. With this method, time courses of cross-spectra, phase spectra, coherence spectra, band-averaged coherence values (event-related coherence, ERCoh), partial power spectra and partial coherence spectra are estimated from an ensemble of multivariate event-related EEG trials. This provides a means of investigating relationships between EEG signals recorded over different scalp areas during the performance of a task or the occurrence of an event. The multivariate spectral analysis method is applied to EEG data recorded during three different movement-related studies involving discrete right index finger movements. The first study investigates the impact of the EEG derivation type on the temporal evolution of interhemispheric coherence between activity recorded at electrodes overlying the left and right sensorimotor hand areas during cued finger movement. The question results whether changes in coherence necessarily reflect changes in functional coupling of the cortical structures underlying the recording electrodes. The method is applied to data recorded during voluntary finger movement and a hypothesis, based on an existing global/local model of neocortical dynamics, is formulated to explain the coherence results. The third study applies partial spectral analysis too, and investigates phase relationships of, movement-related data recorded from a full head montage, thereby providing further results strengthening the global/local hypothesis. (author)

  10. Time-frequency wavelet analysis of the interrelationship between the global macro assets and the fear indexes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Abid, Fathi; Kaffel, Bilel

    2018-01-01

    Understanding the interrelationships of the global macro assets is crucial for global macro investing. This paper investigates the local variance and the interconnection between the stock, gold, oil, Forex and the implied volatility markets in the time/frequency domains using the wavelet methodology, including the wavelet power spectrum, the wavelet squared coherence and phase difference, the wavelet multiple correlation and cross-correlation. The univariate analysis reveals that, in some crisis periods, underlying asset markets present the same pattern in terms of the wavelet power spectrum indicating high volatility for the medium scale, and that for the other market stress periods, volatility behaves differently. Moreover, unlike the underlying asset markets, the implied volatility markets are characterized by high power regions across the entire period, even in the absence of economic events. Bivariate results show a bidirectional relationship between the underlying assets and their corresponding implied volatility indexes, and a steady co-movement between the stock index and its corresponding fear index. Multiple correlation analysis indicates a strong correlation between markets at high scales with evidence of a nearly perfect integration for a period longer than a year. In addition, the hedging strategies based on the volatility index lead to an increase in portfolio correlation. On the other hand, the results from multiple cross-correlations reveal that the lead-lag effect starts from the medium scale and that the VIX (stock market volatility index) index is the potential leader or follower of the other markets.

  11. Value Added Methods: Moving from Univariate to Multivariate Criteria

    Science.gov (United States)

    Newman, David; Newman, Isadore; Ridenour, Carolyn; Morales, Jennifer

    2014-01-01

    The authors describe five value-added methods (VAM) used in school assessment as the backdrop to their main thesis. Then they review the assumptions underlying measurement and evaluation, the foundation of all assessment systems, including value-added. They discuss the traditional criterion variable used in VAM: a standardized test score. Next,…

  12. Penalized Maximum Likelihood Estimation for univariate normal mixture distributions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ridolfi, A.; Idier, J.

    2001-01-01

    Due to singularities of the likelihood function, the maximum likelihood approach for the estimation of the parameters of normal mixture models is an acknowledged ill posed optimization problem. Ill posedness is solved by penalizing the likelihood function. In the Bayesian framework, it amounts to incorporating an inverted gamma prior in the likelihood function. A penalized version of the EM algorithm is derived, which is still explicit and which intrinsically assures that the estimates are not singular. Numerical evidence of the latter property is put forward with a test

  13. Compounding approach for univariate time series with nonstationary variances

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schäfer, Rudi; Barkhofen, Sonja; Guhr, Thomas; Stöckmann, Hans-Jürgen; Kuhl, Ulrich

    2015-12-01

    A defining feature of nonstationary systems is the time dependence of their statistical parameters. Measured time series may exhibit Gaussian statistics on short time horizons, due to the central limit theorem. The sample statistics for long time horizons, however, averages over the time-dependent variances. To model the long-term statistical behavior, we compound the local distribution with the distribution of its parameters. Here, we consider two concrete, but diverse, examples of such nonstationary systems: the turbulent air flow of a fan and a time series of foreign exchange rates. Our main focus is to empirically determine the appropriate parameter distribution for the compounding approach. To this end, we extract the relevant time scales by decomposing the time signals into windows and determine the distribution function of the thus obtained local variances.

  14. Comparison of endoscopic endonasal and bifrontal craniotomy approaches for olfactory groove meningiomas: A matched pair analysis of outcomes and frontal lobe changes on MRI.

    Science.gov (United States)

    de Almeida, John R; Carvalho, Felipe; Vaz Guimaraes Filho, Francisco; Kiehl, Tim-Rasmus; Koutourousiou, Maria; Su, Shirley; Vescan, Allan D; Witterick, Ian J; Zadeh, Gelareh; Wang, Eric W; Fernandez-Miranda, Juan C; Gardner, Paul A; Gentili, Fred; Snyderman, Carl H

    2015-11-01

    We compare the outcomes and postoperative MRI changes of endoscopic endonasal (EEA) and bifrontal craniotomy (BFC) approaches for olfactory groove meningiomas (OGM). All patients who underwent either BFC or EEA for OGM were eligible. Matched pairs were created by matching tumor volumes of an EEA patient with a BFC patient, and matching the timing of the postoperative scans. The tumor dimensions, peritumoral edema, resectability issues, and frontal lobe changes were recorded based on preoperative and postoperative MRI. Postoperative fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) hyperintensity and residual cystic cavity (porencephalic cave) volume were compared using univariable and multivariable analyses. From a total of 70 patients (46 EEA, 24 BFC), 10 matched pairs (20 patients) were created. Three patients (30%) in the EEA group and two (20%) in the BFC had postoperative cerebrospinal fluid leaks (p=0.61). Gross total resections were achieved in seven (70%) of the EEA group and nine (90%) of the BFC group (p=0.26), and one patient from each group developed a recurrence. On postoperative MRI, there was no significant difference in FLAIR signal volumes between EEA and BFC approaches (6.9 versus 13.3 cm(3); p=0.17) or in porencephalic cave volumes (1.7 versus 5.0 cm(3); p=0.11) in univariable analysis. However, in a multivariable analysis, EEA was associated with less postoperative FLAIR change (p=0.02) after adjusting for the volume of preoperative edema. This study provides preliminary evidence that EEA is associated with quantifiable improvements in postoperative frontal lobe imaging. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  15. Clinical analysis on 159 cases of mechanical ocular trauma

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zi-Yao Liu

    2013-08-01

    Full Text Available AIM: To provide the basis of security guidance and decreasing the incidence through a general investigation of the mechanical ocular trauma among all the common causes, occasions where getting hurt as well as the characteristics of the high-risk group, and by further analysis and monitoring of the clinical cases and follow-up visit, study the related key factors of influencing the prognosis statistically. METHODS: The data of the 159 cases with mechanical ocular trauma were recorded.RESULTS: We obtained the 159 subjects' ages, genders as well as mechanical ocular trauma characteristic data, such as ocular distributions, the seasons of the injuries occurring, the causes and the occasions of the injuries, the high-risks group and so on. The factors affecting the visual prognosis,univariate analysis showed that the difference between urban and rural areas was a related influencing factor while the consulting hours and the ages of the patients were irrelevant. In the multivariate Logistic regression model of complications that affected the visual prognosis, there were four main factors leading to poor eyesight: endophthalmitis, retinal detachment, luxation or subluxation of the lens, prolapse of vitreous. In the multivariate Logistic regression model of the visual prognosis of mechanical eye injury, there were three factors of concern that corresponded to poor eyesight: the ages less than 10, zonation Ⅲ, grade of injury more than 3. CONCLUSION: The epidemiologic features of the mechanical ocular trauma in our hospital correspond to the reports from other areas. Appropriate medical care can improve the visual prognosis. Factors such as zonation Ⅲ, ages less than 10, grade of injury more than 3, endophthalmitis with the eye injury, prolapse of vitreous, luxation or subluxation of the lens and so on, indicate poor visual prognosis.

  16. Analysis of risk factors and risk assessment for ischemic stroke recurrence

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xiu-ying LONG

    2016-08-01

    Full Text Available Objective To screen the risk factors for recurrence of ischemic stroke and to assess the risk of recurrence. Methods Essen Stroke Risk Score (ESRS was used to evaluate the risk of recurrence in 176 patients with ischemic stroke (96 cases of first onset and 80 cases of recurrence. Univariate and multivariate stepwise Logistic regression analysis was used to screen risk factors for recurrence of ischemic stroke.  Results There were significant differences between first onset group and recurrence group on age, the proportion of > 75 years old, hypertension, diabetes, coronary heart disease, peripheral angiopathy, transient ischemic attack (TIA or ischemic stroke, drinking and ESRS score (P < 0.05, for all. First onset group included one case of ESRS 0 (1.04%, 8 cases of 1 (8.33%, 39 cases of 2 (40.63%, 44 cases of 3 (45.83%, 4 cases of 4 (4.17%. Recurrence group included 2 cases of ESRS 3 (2.50%, 20 cases of 4 (25% , 37 cases of 5 (46.25% , 18 cases of 6 (22.50% , 3 cases of 7 (3.75% . There was significant difference between 2 groups (Z = -11.376, P = 0.000. Logistic regression analysis showed ESRS > 3 score was independent risk factor for recurrence of ischemic stroke (OR = 31.324, 95%CI: 3.934-249.430; P = 0.001.  Conclusions ESRS > 3 score is the independent risk factor for recurrence of ischemic stroke. It is important to strengthen risk assessment of recurrence of ischemic stroke. To screen and control risk factors is the key to secondary prevention of ischemic stroke. DOI: 10.3969/j.issn.1672-6731.2016.07.011

  17. Socioeconomic status (SES) and childhood acute myeloid leukemia (AML) mortality risk: Analysis of SEER data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Knoble, Naomi B; Alderfer, Melissa A; Hossain, Md Jobayer

    2016-10-01

    Socioeconomic status (SES) is a complex construct of multiple indicators, known to impact cancer outcomes, but has not been adequately examined among pediatric AML patients. This study aimed to identify the patterns of co-occurrence of multiple community-level SES indicators and to explore associations between various patterns of these indicators and pediatric AML mortality risk. A nationally representative US sample of 3651 pediatric AML patients, aged 0-19 years at diagnosis was drawn from 17 Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database registries created between 1973 and 2012. Factor analysis, cluster analysis, stratified univariable and multivariable Cox proportional hazards models were used. Four SES factors accounting for 87% of the variance in SES indicators were identified: F1) economic/educational disadvantage, less immigration; F2) immigration-related features (foreign-born, language-isolation, crowding), less mobility; F3) housing instability; and, F4) absence of moving. F1 and F3 showed elevated risk of mortality, adjusted hazards ratios (aHR) (95% CI): 1.07(1.02-1.12) and 1.05(1.00-1.10), respectively. Seven SES-defined cluster groups were identified. Cluster 1 (low economic/educational disadvantage, few immigration-related features, and residential-stability) showed the minimum risk of mortality. Compared to Cluster 1, Cluster 3 (high economic/educational disadvantage, high-mobility) and Cluster 6 (moderately-high economic/educational disadvantages, housing-instability and immigration-related features) exhibited substantially greater risk of mortality, aHR(95% CI)=1.19(1.0-1.4) and 1.23 (1.1-1.5), respectively. Factors of correlated SES-indicators and their pattern-based groups demonstrated differential risks in the pediatric AML mortality indicating the need of special public-health attention in areas with economic-educational disadvantages, housing-instability and immigration-related features. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All

  18. Dosimetry analysis on radiation-induced acute esophagitis after three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy for non-small cell lung cancer

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    ZZhu Shuchai; Cui Yanli; Li Juan; Liu Zhikun; Shen Wenbin; Su Jingwei; Wang Yuxiang

    2010-01-01

    Objective: To analyze the related factors with radiation-induced esophagitis after threedimensional conformal radiotherapy for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), in order to explore the predictors for optimizing the treatment planning of NSCLC. Methods: From Aug 2000 to Dec 2004, 104 NSCLC patients received radiotherapy and were eligible for this study, 45 cases squamous cell carcinoma, 20 cases adenocarcinoma, 33 cases carrying with cancer cells by test and 6 case with no definitive pathologic feature.46 patients were treated with three dimensional conformal radiotherapy (3DCRT), the other 58 patients conventional radiotherapy (CRT) before later-course 3DCRT. All the patients received the prescribed dose between 60-78 Gy and the median dose 66 Gy. The correlation of the variables were evaluated by Spearman relationship analysis. The morbidity of radiation-induced esophagitis was analyzed by X 2 test. The multivariate effect on radiation-induced esophagitis was statistically processed by Logistic regression model. Results: In 104 patients, the morbidity of radiation- induced esophagitis was 46.2%, including 32 cases at grade 1, 15 cases at grade 2, 1 case at grade 3. Univariate analysis showed the maximal and mean dose of esophagus, the volume of esophagus irradiated, the values of V 40 , V 45 , V 50 , V 55 , V 60 , LETT 45 , LETT 50 , LETT 55 , LETT 60 for the esophagus were correlated with radiation-induced esophagitis. Logistic regression model showed that the maximum dose received by the esophagus was the independent factor of ≥ 2 grade radiation-induced esophagitis. Conclusions: The maxmal dose of esophagus received might be the important factor of radiation-induced esophagitis. (authors)

  19. Rap Music Use, Perceived Peer Behavior, and Sexual Initiation Among Ethnic Minority Youth.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Johnson-Baker, Kimberly A; Markham, Christine; Baumler, Elizabeth; Swain, Honora; Emery, Susan

    2016-03-01

    Research shows that rap music use is associated with risky sexual behavior in ethnic minority youth; however, it is unknown whether rap music use impacts sexual initiation specifically and, if so, which factors mediate this impact. Thus, we investigated the longitudinal relationship between hours spent listening to rap music in seventh grade and sexual initiation in ninth grade. We also examined the role of perceived peer sexual behavior as a potential mediator of this relationship. We analyzed data from students (n = 443) enrolled in a school-based randomized controlled trial of a sexual health education curriculum collected at baseline and at 18-month follow-up. Rap music use and perceived peer sexual behavior were assessed in seventh grade, whereas sexual initiation was assessed in ninth grade. Univariate, multivariate, and mediation analyses were conducted. At baseline, rap music use was significantly associated with race/ethnicity, parental music rules, and sexual behavior, but not with gender or parental education. Rap music use was a significant predictor of sexual initiation on univariate analysis but not multivariate analysis. Mediation analysis showed that the association between hours spent listening to rap music and sexual initiation was significantly mediated by perceived peer sexual behavior. Rap music use in early adolescence significantly impacts sexual initiation in late adolescence, partially mediated by perceived peer sexual behavior. More research is needed to understand how rap music influences perceptions of peer sexual behavior, which, in turn, influence early sexual initiation. Copyright © 2016 Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  20. The analysis of soil cores polluted with certain metals using the Box-Cox transformation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Meloun, Milan; Sanka, Milan; Nemec, Pavel; Kritkova, Sona; Kupka, Karel

    2005-01-01

    To define the soil properties for a given area or country including the level of pollution, soil survey and inventory programs are essential tools. Soil data transformations enable the expression of the original data on a new scale, more suitable for data analysis. In the computer-aided interactive analysis of large data files of soil characteristics containing outliers, the diagnostic plots of the exploratory data analysis (EDA) often find that the sample distribution is systematically skewed or reject sample homogeneity. Under such circumstances the original data should be transformed. The Box-Cox transformation improves sample symmetry and stabilizes spread. The logarithmic plot of a profile likelihood function enables the optimum transformation parameter to be found. Here, a proposed procedure for data transformation in univariate data analysis is illustrated on a determination of cadmium content in the plough zone of agricultural soils. A typical soil pollution survey concerns the determination of the elements Be (16 544 values available), Cd (40 317 values), Co (22 176 values), Cr (40 318 values), Hg (32 344 values), Ni (34 989 values), Pb (40 344 values), V (20 373 values) and Zn (36 123 values) in large samples. - A new procedure of statistical analysis, with exploratory data diagnostics and Box-Cox transformation was used

  1. The analysis of soil cores polluted with certain metals using the Box-Cox transformation

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Meloun, Milan [Department of Analytical Chemistry, University of Pardubice, CZ532 10 Pardubice (Czech Republic)]. E-mail: milan.meloun@upce.cz; Sanka, Milan [Central Institute for Supervisiting and Testing in Agriculture Division of Agrochemistry, Soil and Plant Nutrition, Hroznova 2, CZ656 06 Brno - Pisarky (Czech Republic); Nemec, Pavel [Central Institute for Supervisiting and Testing in Agriculture Division of Agrochemistry, Soil and Plant Nutrition, Hroznova 2, CZ656 06 Brno - Pisarky (Czech Republic)]. E-mail: pavel.nemec@ukzuz.cz; Kritkova, Sona [Department of Analytical Chemistry, University of Pardubice, CZ532 10 Pardubice (Czech Republic); Kupka, Karel [Trilobyte Statistical Software Ltd., CZ530 02 Pardubice (Czech Republic)]. E-mail: kupka@trilobyte.cz

    2005-09-15

    To define the soil properties for a given area or country including the level of pollution, soil survey and inventory programs are essential tools. Soil data transformations enable the expression of the original data on a new scale, more suitable for data analysis. In the computer-aided interactive analysis of large data files of soil characteristics containing outliers, the diagnostic plots of the exploratory data analysis (EDA) often find that the sample distribution is systematically skewed or reject sample homogeneity. Under such circumstances the original data should be transformed. The Box-Cox transformation improves sample symmetry and stabilizes spread. The logarithmic plot of a profile likelihood function enables the optimum transformation parameter to be found. Here, a proposed procedure for data transformation in univariate data analysis is illustrated on a determination of cadmium content in the plough zone of agricultural soils. A typical soil pollution survey concerns the determination of the elements Be (16 544 values available), Cd (40 317 values), Co (22 176 values), Cr (40 318 values), Hg (32 344 values), Ni (34 989 values), Pb (40 344 values), V (20 373 values) and Zn (36 123 values) in large samples. - A new procedure of statistical analysis, with exploratory data diagnostics and Box-Cox transformation was used.

  2. CT-guided percutaneous transthoracic aspiration biopsy of lung lesions: factors influencing the diagnostic accuracy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Huang Zhenguo; Zhang Xuezhe; Wang Wu

    2006-01-01

    Objective: To investigate the factors influencing the diagnostic accuracy in CT-guided percutaneous transthoracic aspiration biopsy of lung lesions. Methods: CT-guided percutaneous transthoracic biopsy was performed in 435 patients with surgical pathologic confirmation or clinical follow-up. Univariant statistical analysis and multivariant stepwise Logistic regression analysis were used to study the influence of lesion-related factors (benignancy or malignancy, size, location, depth, presence of cavity), procedure factors (laser-guidance, position of patient) and patient-related factors (sex, age, presence of emphysema); with the accuracy of the diagnosis. Results: 1)289 lesions were diagnosed as malignant ones and 146 as benign ones. The accuracy of CT-guided biopsy was 83.4%(363/435). Univariant analysis showed that the diagnostic accuracies for malignant and benign lesions were 88.9%(257/289) and 72.6%(106/146), respectively (χ 2 =18.71, P=0.00002). Laser-group was superior to non-laser group (88.4% versus 80.9%, respectively, χ 2 =4.00, P=0.0456). Mean diameters of lesions in correct diagnostic group and non-correct diagnostic group were 3.78±1.64 cm and 3.02±1.26 cm, respectively (F=13.79, P=0.0002). 2)Multivariant stepwise Logistic regression analysis showed that among the various factors influencing the final benign or malignant diagnoses (Wald χ 2 =14.01, P=0.0002) and using laser-guidance(Wald χ 2 =3.92, P=0.0477) were significantly associated with the diagnostic accuracy. Conclusions: Final correct diagnoses (benign, malignant) are closely related to the application of laser-guidance for determining the diagnostic accuracy in CT-guided transcutaneous thoracic needle aspiration biopsy. (authors)

  3. A power study of bivariate LOD score analysis of a complex trait and fear/discomfort with strangers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ji, Fei; Lee, Dayoung; Mendell, Nancy Role

    2005-12-30

    Complex diseases are often reported along with disease-related traits (DRT). Sometimes investigators consider both disease and DRT phenotypes separately and sometimes they consider individuals as affected if they have either the disease or the DRT, or both. We propose instead to consider the joint distribution of the disease and the DRT and do a linkage analysis assuming a pleiotropic model. We evaluated our results through analysis of the simulated datasets provided by Genetic Analysis Workshop 14. We first conducted univariate linkage analysis of the simulated disease, Kofendrerd Personality Disorder and one of its simulated associated traits, phenotype b (fear/discomfort with strangers). Subsequently, we considered the bivariate phenotype, which combined the information on Kofendrerd Personality Disorder and fear/discomfort with strangers. We developed a program to perform bivariate linkage analysis using an extension to the Elston-Stewart peeling method of likelihood calculation. Using this program we considered the microsatellites within 30 cM of the gene pleiotropic for this simulated disease and DRT. Based on 100 simulations of 300 families we observed excellent power to detect linkage within 10 cM of the disease locus using the DRT and the bivariate trait.

  4. Fungal communities in wheat grain show significant co-existence patterns among species

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nicolaisen, M.; Justesen, A. F.; Knorr, K.

    2014-01-01

    identified as ‘core’ OTUs as they were found in all or almost all samples and accounted for almost 99 % of all sequences. The remaining OTUs were only sporadically found and only in small amounts. Cluster and factor analyses showed patterns of co-existence among the core species. Cluster analysis grouped...... the 21 core OTUs into three clusters: cluster 1 consisting of saprotrophs, cluster 2 consisting mainly of yeasts and saprotrophs and cluster 3 consisting of wheat pathogens. Principal component extraction showed that the Fusarium graminearum group was inversely related to OTUs of clusters 1 and 2....

  5. Analysis of biopsy outcome after three-dimensional conformal radiation therapy of prostate cancer using dose-distribution variables and tumor control probability models

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Levegruen, Sabine; Jackson, Andrew; Zelefsky, Michael J.; Venkatraman, Ennapadam S.; Skwarchuk, Mark W.; Schlegel, Wolfgang; Fuks, Zvi; Leibel, Steven A.; Ling, C. Clifton

    2000-01-01

    Purpose: To investigate tumor control following three-dimensional conformal radiation therapy (3D-CRT) of prostate cancer and to identify dose-distribution variables that correlate with local control assessed through posttreatment prostate biopsies. Methods and Material: Data from 132 patients, treated at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), who had a prostate biopsy 2.5 years or more after 3D-CRT for T1c-T3 prostate cancer with prescription doses of 64.8-81 Gy were analyzed. Variables derived from the dose distribution in the PTV included: minimum dose (Dmin), maximum dose (Dmax), mean dose (Dmean), dose to n% of the PTV (Dn), where n = 1%, ..., 99%. The concept of the equivalent uniform dose (EUD) was evaluated for different values of the surviving fraction at 2 Gy (SF 2 ). Four tumor control probability (TCP) models (one phenomenologic model using a logistic function and three Poisson cell kill models) were investigated using two sets of input parameters, one for low and one for high T-stage tumors. Application of both sets to all patients was also investigated. In addition, several tumor-related prognostic variables were examined (including T-stage, Gleason score). Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed. The ability of the logistic regression models (univariate and multivariate) to predict the biopsy result correctly was tested by performing cross-validation analyses and evaluating the results in terms of receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. Results: In univariate analysis, prescription dose (Dprescr), Dmax, Dmean, dose to n% of the PTV with n of 70% or less correlate with outcome (p 2 : EUD correlates significantly with outcome for SF 2 of 0.4 or more, but not for lower SF 2 values. Using either of the two input parameters sets, all TCP models correlate with outcome (p 2 , is limited because the low dose region may not coincide with the tumor location. Instead, for MSKCC prostate cancer patients with their

  6. Analysis of Prognostic Factors After Yttrium-90 Radioembolization of Advanced Hepatocellular Carcinoma

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Inarrairaegui, Mercedes; Martinez-Cuesta, Antonio; Rodriguez, Macarena; Bilbao, J. Ignacio

    2010-01-01

    Purpose: To analyze which patient-, tumor-, and treatment-related factors may influence outcome after 90 Y radioembolization ( 90 Y-RE) for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Patients and Methods: Seventy-two consecutive patients with advanced HCC treated with 90 Y-RE were studied to detect which factors may have influenced response to treatment and survival. Results: Median overall survival was 13 months (95% confidence interval, 9.6-16.3 months). In univariate analysis, survival was significantly better in patients with one to five lesions (19 vs. 8 months, p = 0.001) and in patients with alpha-fetoprotein 52 UI/mL, and their survival in the multivariate analysis was significantly worse (hazard ratio, 4.7; 95% confidence interval, 13-1.73) (p = 0.002). Conclusions: Yttrium-90 radioembolization results in control of target lesions in the majority of patients with HCC but does not prevent the development of new lesions. Survival of patients treated with 90 Y-RE seems to depend largely on factors related to the aggressiveness of the disease (number of nodules, levels of alpha-fetoprotein, and presence of microscopic disease).

  7. Measuring performance at trade shows

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hansen, Kåre

    2004-01-01

    Trade shows is an increasingly important marketing activity to many companies, but current measures of trade show performance do not adequately capture dimensions important to exhibitors. Based on the marketing literature's outcome and behavior-based control system taxonomy, a model is built...... that captures a outcome-based sales dimension and four behavior-based dimensions (i.e. information-gathering, relationship building, image building, and motivation activities). A 16-item instrument is developed for assessing exhibitors perceptions of their trade show performance. The paper presents evidence...

  8. Physically Active Men Show Better Semen Parameters than Their Sedentary Counterparts.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lalinde-Acevedo, Paula C; Mayorga-Torres, B Jose Manuel; Agarwal, Ashok; du Plessis, Stefan S; Ahmad, Gulfam; Cadavid, Ángela P; Cardona Maya, Walter D

    2017-10-01

    The quality of semen depends upon several factors such as environment, life style, physical activity, age, and occupation. The aim of this study was to analyze and compare the conventional and functional semen parameters in men practicing vigorous physical activity to those of sedentary men. In this descriptive cross-sectional study, semen samples of 17 physically active men and 15 sedentary men were collected for analysis. Semen analysis was performed according to the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines, while functional parameters were evaluated by flow cytometry. Results showed that several semen parameters (semen volume, viability, progressive motility, total motility, normal morphology, and moribund cells) were superior in the physically active group in comparison with the sedentary group. Semen parameters such as viability, progressive motility and total motility, as well as the percentage of moribund spermatozoa were significantly different between both groups. However, sperm DNA damage, lipid peroxidation and mitochondrial potential were not significantly different among the groups. Nevertheless, the physical activity shows better semen parameters than sedentary group. Taken together, our results demonstrate that regular physical activity has beneficial impact in sperm fertility parameters and such a life style can enhance the fertility status of men. Copyright© by Royan Institute. All rights reserved.

  9. The energy show

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1988-01-01

    The Energy Show is a new look at the problems of world energy, where our supplies come from, now and in the future. The programme looks at how we need energy to maintain our standards of living. Energy supply is shown as the complicated set of problems it is - that Fossil Fuels are both raw materials and energy sources, that some 'alternatives' so readily suggested as practical options are in reality a long way from being effective. (author)

  10. Variable importance analysis based on rank aggregation with applications in metabolomics for biomarker discovery.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yun, Yong-Huan; Deng, Bai-Chuan; Cao, Dong-Sheng; Wang, Wei-Ting; Liang, Yi-Zeng

    2016-03-10

    Biomarker discovery is one important goal in metabolomics, which is typically modeled as selecting the most discriminating metabolites for classification and often referred to as variable importance analysis or variable selection. Until now, a number of variable importance analysis methods to discover biomarkers in the metabolomics studies have been proposed. However, different methods are mostly likely to generate different variable ranking results due to their different principles. Each method generates a variable ranking list just as an expert presents an opinion. The problem of inconsistency between different variable ranking methods is often ignored. To address this problem, a simple and ideal solution is that every ranking should be taken into account. In this study, a strategy, called rank aggregation, was employed. It is an indispensable tool for merging individual ranking lists into a single "super"-list reflective of the overall preference or importance within the population. This "super"-list is regarded as the final ranking for biomarker discovery. Finally, it was used for biomarkers discovery and selecting the best variable subset with the highest predictive classification accuracy. Nine methods were used, including three univariate filtering and six multivariate methods. When applied to two metabolic datasets (Childhood overweight dataset and Tubulointerstitial lesions dataset), the results show that the performance of rank aggregation has improved greatly with higher prediction accuracy compared with using all variables. Moreover, it is also better than penalized method, least absolute shrinkage and selectionator operator (LASSO), with higher prediction accuracy or less number of selected variables which are more interpretable. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  11. Prognostic factors of early metastasis and mortality in dogs with appendicular osteosarcoma after receiving surgery: an individual patient data meta-analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schmidt, A F; Nielen, M; Klungel, O H; Hoes, A W; de Boer, A; Groenwold, R H H; Kirpensteijn, J

    2013-11-01

    Recently an aggregated data meta-analysis showed that serum alkaline phosphatase (SALP) and proximal humerus location are predictors for shorter survival in canine osteosarcoma. To identify additional prognostic factors of mortality and metastasis an individual patient data meta-analysis (IPDMA) was conducted. Individual patient data from 20 studies, identified via the VSSO society, were pooled. Univariable and multivariable hazard ratios (HR) for metastasis and mortality were assessed, using stratified Cox models. The study included 1405 dogs who received surgical treatment, of which the metastasis status was measured in 1155 dogs and mortality status in 1336 dogs; median survival was 256 days. High versus normal SALP and weight (kg) were associated with an increase in hazard of metastasis [HR 1.34 (95%CI 1.07; 1.68) and HR 1.02 (per kg increase) (95%CI 1.01; 1.03)] and for mortality [HR 1.43 (95%CI 1.16; 1.77) and HR 1.02 (95%CI 1.01; 1.02)]. Distal radius tumor was associated with a lower hazard of metastasis compared to other locations: HR 0.75 (95%CI 0.58; 0.96). Proximal humerus and distal femur or proximal tibia location were related with an increased mortality: HR 1.53 (95%CI 1.26; 1.84) and HR 1.23 (95%CI 1.01; 1.49) compared to other locations. Older age (years) was associated with a higher hazard for mortality [HR 1.06 per year (95%CI 1.03; 1.09)] but not for metastasis: HR 1.03 (95%CI 0.99; 1.06). These results confirm findings from a recent aggregated data meta-analysis and (in addition) showed that tumor location, SALP, weight were prognostic factors for both mortality and metastasis. Age was a prognostic factor for mortality but not for metastasis. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  12. Factors that impact the outcome of endoscopic correction of vesicoureteral reflux: a multivariate analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kajbafzadeh, Abdol-Mohammad; Tourchi, Ali; Aryan, Zahra

    2013-02-01

    To identify independent factors that may predict vesicoureteral reflux (VUR) resolution after endoscopic treatment using dextranomer/hyaluronic acid copolymer (Deflux) in children free of anatomical anomalies. A retrospective study was conducted in our pediatric referral center from 1998 to 2011 on children with primary VUR who underwent endoscopic injection of Deflux with or without concomitant autologous blood injection (called HABIT or HIT, respectively). Children with secondary VUR or incomplete records were excluded from the study. Potential factors were divided into three categories including preoperative, intraoperative and postoperative. Success was defined as no sign of VUR on postoperative voiding cystourethrogram. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression models were constructed to identify independent factors that may predict success. Odds ratio (OR) and 95 % confidence interval (95 % CI) for prediction of success were estimated for each factor. From 485 children received Deflux injection, a total of 372 with a mean age of 3.10 years (ranged from 6 months to 12 years) were included in the study and endoscopic management was successful in 322 (86.6 %) of them. Of the patients, 185 (49.7 %) underwent HIT and 187 (50.3 %) underwent HABIT technique. On univariate analysis, VUR grade from preoperative category (OR = 4.79, 95 % CI = 2.22-10.30, p = 0.000), operation technique (OR = 0.33, 95 % CI = 0.17-0.64, p = 0.001) and presence of mound on postoperative sonography (OR = 0.06, 95 % CI = 0.02-0.16, p = 0.000) were associated with success. On multivariate analysis, preoperative VUR grade (OR = 4.85, 95 % CI = 2.49-8.96, p = 0.000) and identification of mound on postoperative sonography (OR = 0.07, 95 % CI = 0.01-0.18, p = 0.000) remained as independent success predictors. Based on this study, successful VUR correction after the endoscopic injection of Deflux can be predicted with respect to preoperative VUR grade and presence of mound after operation.

  13. Association Between Stress-Related Sleep Reactivity and Metacognitive Beliefs About Sleep in Insomnia Disorder: Preliminary Results.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Palagini, Laura; Bruno, Rosa Maria; Paolo, Toti; Caccavale, Lisa; Gronchi, Alessia; Mauri, Mauro; Riemann, Dieter; Drake, Christopher L

    2016-01-01

    To evaluate the relation between stress-related sleep reactivity and metacognitive beliefs about sleep in subjects with insomnia disorder (93) and in a group of healthy controls (30) a set of variables, including Ford Insomnia Response to Stress Test (FIRST) and Metacognition Questionnaire-Insomnia (MCQ-I), have been used. Internal consistency of the Italian version of FIRST was studied. Univariate correlation, regression analysis, and principal component analysis were also performed. The Italian version of FIRST showed good internal consistency and discriminant validity. Sleep reactivity was higher in women (p sleep (p sleep reactivity. Therapeutic strategies acting selectively on metacognition to reduce stress-related sleep reactivity in insomnia may be useful.

  14. Analysis on the training effect of criteria and practical guidance for determination of brain death: electroencephalogram

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wei-bi CHEN

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available Objective To analyze the training results of electroencephalogram (EEG for brain death determination and to improve the training program. Methods A total of 114 trainees received theoretical training, simulation skills training, bedside skills training and test analysis. The composition of the trainees and the results of EEG tests were analyzed. The error rates of 5 knowledge points of EEG tests were calculated. Univariate and multivariate backward Logistic regression analyses were used to analyze the influence of factors including sex, age, specialty, professional category, professional qualification and hospital level on the error rates. Results All of 114 trainees came from 72 hospitals. Among them, 91 trainees (79.82% were between 30-49 years old, 108 trainees (94.74% came from third grade, grade A hospitals, and most of them were from Department of Neurology (57.89% , 66/114 and Electrophysiology (19.30% , 22/114. There were 98 clinicians (85.96% and 52 trainees (45.61% had intermediate certificate. Of the 5 knowledge points, the total error rate was 9.19% (204/2221. Among them, the error rate of parameter setting was the highest (11.40% , 26/228, followed by those of result determination (10.44%, 80/766, recording techniques (10.25%, 69/673, environmental requirements (7.46%, 17/228 and pitfalls (3.68%, 12/326. The error rate of trainees who were older than 50 was significantly higher than that in other ages (P = 0.000, for all. The error rate of technicians was higher than that of clinicians (P = 0.039. Univariate and multivariate Logistic regression analyses showed that age was independent risk factor associated with high error rates (OR = 1.382, 95%CI: 1.156-1.652; P = 0.000. Conclusions Among the trainees, degree of mastering the knowledge points is different. The training program should be optimized according to the trainees. More attention should be paid to the difference of EEG between brain death determination and routine check to

  15. Trends in Testicular Cancer Survival: A Large Population-based Analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sui, Wilson; Morrow, David C; Bermejo, Carlos E; Hellenthal, Nicholas J

    2015-06-01

    To determine whether discrepancies in testicular cancer outcomes between Caucasians and non-Caucasians are changing over time. Although testicular cancer is more common in Caucasians, studies have shown that other races have worse outcomes. Using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results registry, we identified 29,803 patients diagnosed with histologically confirmed testicular cancer between 1983 and 2011. Of these, 12,650 patients (42%) had 10-year follow-up data. We stratified the patients by age group, stage, race, and year of diagnosis and assessed 10-year overall and cancer-specific survival in each cohort. Cox proportional hazard models were used to determine the relative contributions of each stratum to cancer-specific survival. Predicted overall 10-year survival of Caucasian patients with testicular cancer increased slightly from 88% to 89% over the period studied, whereas predicted cancer-specific 10-year survival dropped slightly from 94% to 93%. In contrast, non-Caucasian men demonstrated larger changes in 10-year overall (84%-86%) and cancer-specific (88%-91%) survival. On univariate analysis, race was significantly associated with testicular cancer death, with non-Caucasian men being 1.69 times more likely to die of testicular cancer than Caucasians (hazard ratio, 1.33-2.16; 95% confidence interval, testicular cancer. These data show a convergence in cancer-specific survival between racial groups over time, suggesting that diagnostic and treatment discrepancies may be improving for non-Caucasians. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  16. Time from last chemotherapy to death and its correlation with the end of life care in a referral hospital

    Science.gov (United States)

    Karim, Syed Mustafa; Zekri, Jamal; Abdelghany, Ehab; Dada, Reyad; Munsoor, Husna; Ahmad, Imran

    2015-01-01

    Background: A substantial number of cancer patients receive chemotherapy until the end of life (EoL). Various factors have been shown to be associated with receipt of chemotherapy until near death. In this study, we determine our average time from last chemotherapy to death (TLCD) and explore different factors that may be associated with decreased TLCD. Materials and Methods: A retrospective review of medical records of adult cancer patients who received chemotherapy during their illness and died in our hospital between January 2010 and January 2012 was conducted. Chi-square test and t-test were used to examine the correlation between selected factors and use of chemotherapy within 60 days of death. Multivariate analysis was used to test independent significance of factors testing positive in univariate analysis. Kaplan-Meier method was used to perform survival analysis. Results: Of the 115 cancer patients who died in the hospital, 41 (35.6%) had TLCD of 60 days or less. Patients with better performance status and those dying under medical oncology service were more likely to be in this group of patients. Univariate analysis showed that these patients were less likely to have palliative care involvement, were more likely to die of treatment related causes, and more likely to have died in the Intensive Care Unit. Multivariate analysis confirmed lack of palliative care involvement and better performance status as independent factors for TLCD less than 60 days. Survival analyses showed that patients with palliative care involvement and those dying under palliative care service were likely to have significantly longer TLCD. Conclusions: Cancer patients who have no involvement of palliative care team in their management tend to receive chemotherapy near the EoL, have more aggressive EoL care, and have higher risk of dying die from treatment related complications. Palliative care should be involved early in the care of cancer patients. PMID:25810576

  17. Suffering by comparison: Twitter users' reactions to the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chrisler, Joan C; Fung, Kaitlin T; Lopez, Alexandra M; Gorman, Jennifer A

    2013-09-01

    Social comparison theory suggests that evaluating the self in comparison with others (e.g., peers, celebrities, models) can influence body image. Experimental studies that have tested effects of viewing idealized images in the media often show that women feel worse about themselves after seeing images that illustrate the beauty ideal. Twitter presents a naturally occurring opportunity to study viewers' reactions. An analysis was conducted of 977 tweets sent immediately before and during the 2011 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show that reference the show. Although the majority were idiosyncratic remarks, many tweets contain evidence of upward social comparisons to the fashion models. There were tweets about body image, eating disorders, weight, desires for food or alcohol, and thoughts about self-harm. The results support social comparison theory, and suggest that vulnerable viewers could experience negative affect, or even engage in harmful behaviors, during or after viewing the show or others like it. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  18. Organ Donation in Switzerland - An Analysis of Factors Associated with Consent Rate

    Science.gov (United States)

    Keel, Isabelle; Immer, Franz F.; Jüni, Peter

    2014-01-01

    Background and Aim Switzerland has a low post mortem organ donation rate. Here we examine variables that are associated with the consent of the deceased’s next of kin (NOK) for organ donation, which is a prerequisite for donation in Switzerland. Methods and Analysis During one year, we registered information from NOK of all deceased patients in Swiss intensive care units, who were approached for consent to organ donation. We collected data on patient demographics, characteristics of NOK, factors related to the request process and to the clinical setting. We analyzed the association of collected predictors with consent rate using univariable logistic regression models; predictors with p-values donation, and respecting personal values and cultural differences, could be of importance for increasing donation rates. Additional measures are needed to address the pronounced differences in consent rates between language regions. PMID:25208215

  19. Metachronous metastasis- and survival-analysis show prognostic importance of lymphadenectomy for colon carcinomas

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Laubert Tilman

    2012-03-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Lymphadenectomy is performed to assess patient prognosis and to prevent metastasizing. Recently, it was questioned whether lymph node metastases were capable of metastasizing and therefore, if lymphadenectomy was still adequate. We evaluated whether the nodal status impacts on the occurrence of distant metastases by analyzing a highly selected cohort of colon cancer patients. Methods 1,395 patients underwent surgery exclusively for colon cancer at the University of Lübeck between 01/1993 and 12/2008. The following exclusion criteria were applied: synchronous metastasis, R1-resection, prior/synchronous second carcinoma, age Results Five-year survival rates for TM + and TM- were 21% and 73%, respectively (p Conclusions Besides a higher T-category, a positive N-stage independently implies a higher probability to develop distant metastases and correlates with poor survival. Our data thus show a prognostic relevance of lymphadenectomy which should therefore be retained until conclusive studies suggest the unimportance of lmyphadenectomy.

  20. Risk Aversion in Game Shows

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Andersen, Steffen; Harrison, Glenn W.; Lau, Morten I.

    2008-01-01

    We review the use of behavior from television game shows to infer risk attitudes. These shows provide evidence when contestants are making decisions over very large stakes, and in a replicated, structured way. Inferences are generally confounded by the subjective assessment of skill in some games......, and the dynamic nature of the task in most games. We consider the game shows Card Sharks, Jeopardy!, Lingo, and finally Deal Or No Deal. We provide a detailed case study of the analyses of Deal Or No Deal, since it is suitable for inference about risk attitudes and has attracted considerable attention....