Category: Nevin Manimala

PLoS Comput Biol. 2021 Jun 18;17(6):e1009089. doi: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009089. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

The advent of high-throughput metagenomic sequencing has prompted the development of efficient taxonomic profiling methods allowing to measure the presence, abundance and phylogeny of organisms in a wide range of environmental samples. Multivariate sequence-derived abundance data further has the potential to enable inference of ecological associations between microbial populations, but several technical issues need to be accounted for, like the compositional nature of the data, its extreme sparsity and overdispersion, as well as the frequent need to operate in under-determined regimes. The ecological network reconstruction problem is frequently cast into the paradigm of Gaussian Graphical Models (GGMs) for which efficient structure inference algorithms are available, like the graphical lasso and neighborhood selection. Unfortunately, GGMs or variants thereof can not properly account for the extremely sparse patterns occurring in real-world metagenomic taxonomic profiles. In particular, structural zeros (as opposed to sampling zeros) corresponding to true absences of biological signals fail to be properly handled by most statistical methods. We present here a zero-inflated log-normal graphical model (available at https://github.com/vincentprost/Zi-LN) specifically aimed at handling such “biological” zeros, and demonstrate significant performance gains over state-of-the-art statistical methods for the inference of microbial association networks, with most notable gains obtained when analyzing taxonomic profiles displaying sparsity levels on par with real-world metagenomic datasets.

PMID:34143768 | DOI:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009089

PLoS One. 2021 Jun 18;16(6):e0246913. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0246913. eCollection 2021.

ABSTRACT

Video games have become a ubiquitous part of demographically diverse cultures. Numerous studies have focused on analyzing the cognitive aspects involved in game playing that could help in providing an optimal gaming experience by improving video game design. To this end, we present a framework for classifying the game player’s expertise level using wearable electroencephalography (EEG) headset. We hypothesize that expert and novice players’ brain activity is different, which can be classified using frequency domain features extracted from EEG signals of the game player. A systematic channel reduction approach is presented using a correlation-based attribute evaluation method. This approach lead us in identifying two significant EEG channels, i.e., AF3 and P7, among fourteen channels available in Emotiv EPOC headset. In particular, features extracted from these two EEG channels contributed the most to the video game player’s expertise level classification. This finding is validated by performing statistical analysis (t-test) over the extracted features. Moreover, among multiple classifiers used, K-nearest neighbor is the best classifier in classifying game player’s expertise level with a classification accuracy of up to 98.04% (without data balancing) and 98.33% (with data balancing).

PMID:34143774 | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0246913

Sci Prog. 2021 Apr-Jun;104(2):368504211025873. doi: 10.1177/00368504211025873.

ABSTRACT

The coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has caused dramatic changes in the daily lives of Romanians, affecting their mental health. The COVID-19 pandemic has evolved at three significant peaks, which sequentially occurred on: April 29, 2020; September 18, 2020; and the third wave registered the highest severity on November 27, 2020. Little is known about the mental health changes during this phase of this pandemic. This study evaluated mental health levels in Romania at the end of the first wave of the pandemic and amidst the third and most severe wave. We administered a two-phase internet-based survey among 543 and 583 participants, respectively, recruited through snowball sampling at a 6-month interval. The IPAT Anxiety Scale measured anxiety, the Beck’s Depression Inventory measured depression, and the Dissociative Experiences Scale measured dissociation. We observed no statistically significant differences in the number of participants with clinically relevant scores at either time point. In the first survey, 23.8%, 19.2%, and 32.6% reported being clinically anxious, clinically depressed, and showed clinical dissociation, respectively. Binary logistic regressions indicated that age, education level, and previous traumatic events were significantly associated with clinical levels of anxiety and depression. Moreover, multiple linear regression analysis reported a collective significant effect of gender, age, psychological impact, traumatic events, and dissociation on predicting high levels of anxiety and depression. Romanian adults’ mental health status was affected during the COVID-19 pandemic, and it did not change 6 months after the first lockdown.

PMID:34143706 | DOI:10.1177/00368504211025873

Sci Prog. 2021 Apr-Jun;104(2):368504211026131. doi: 10.1177/00368504211026131.

ABSTRACT

Commonly used fastener positioning methods include pixel statistics (PS) method and template matching (TM) method. For the PS method, it is difficult to judge the image segmentation threshold due to the complex background of the track. For the TM method, the search in both directions of the global is easily affected by complex background, as a result, the locating accuracy of fasteners is low. To solve the above problems, this paper combines the PS method with the TM method and proposes a new fastener positioning method called local unidirectional template matching (LUTM). First, the rail positioning is achieved by the PS method based on the gray-scale vertical projection. Then, based on the prior knowledge, the image of the rail and the surrounding area of the rail is obtained which is referred to as the 1-shaped rail image; then, the 1-shaped rail image and the produced offline symmetrical fastener template is pre-processed. Finally, the symmetrical fastener template image is searched from top to bottom along the rail and the correlation is calculated to realize the fastener positioning. Experiments have proved that the method in this paper can effectively realize the accurate locating of the fastener for ballastless track and ballasted track at the same time.

PMID:34143708 | DOI:10.1177/00368504211026131

Ecol Lett. 2021 Jun 18. doi: 10.1111/ele.13820. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Exploring and accounting for the emergent properties of ecosystems as complex systems is a promising horizon in the search for general processes to explain common ecological patterns. For example the ubiquitous hollow-curve form of the species abundance distribution is frequently assumed to reflect ecological processes structuring communities, but can also emerge as a statistical phenomenon from the mathematical definition of an abundance distribution. Although the hollow curve may be a statistical artefact, ecological processes may induce subtle deviations between empirical species abundance distributions and their statistically most probable forms. These deviations may reflect biological processes operating on top of mathematical constraints and provide new avenues for advancing ecological theory. Examining ~22,000 communities, we found that empirical SADs are highly uneven and dominated by rare species compared to their statistical baselines. Efforts to detect deviations may be less informative in small communities-those with few species or individuals-because these communities have poorly resolved statistical baselines. The uneven nature of many empirical SADs demonstrates a path forward for leveraging complexity to understand ecological processes governing the distribution of abundance, while the issues posed by small communities illustrate the limitations of using this approach to study ecological patterns in small samples.

PMID:34142760 | DOI:10.1111/ele.13820

Health Rep. 2021 Jun 16;32(6):3-13. doi: 10.25318/82-003-x202100600001-eng.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Few quantitative studies have used national-level data to examine access to mental health consultation (MHC) by immigrants in Canada, and even fewer studies investigate MHCs using the following variables: immigrant admission category, duration in Canada since landing and world source regions. This study examines MHCs by immigrants and refugees-compared with those of Canadian-born respondents-while controlling for self-reported mental health (SRMH) and immigrant characteristics, using a population-based survey linked to immigrant landing information. This study, which is based on a linked database, allows for much richer insight into immigrant populations than most previous studies.

DATA AND METHODS: Based on data from four cycles (2011 to 2014) of the Canadian Community Health Survey linked to data from the Longitudinal Immigration Database, the odds ratios of having had MHCs are compared between the Canadian-born population and immigrants by immigration dimensions, while controlling for SRMH. Results are hierarchically adjusted for age, sex, socioeconomic factors and sense of belonging.

RESULTS: After the above-mentioned factors were controlled for, immigrants were much less likely than Canadian-born respondents to access MHCs. Specifically, compared with the Canadian-born population that had high levels of SRMH, immigrants with high levels of SRMH were statistically less likely to have had an MHC (odds ratio [OR]=0.5, 95% confidence interval [CI] from 0.4 to 0.5), while those with low SRMH levels were more likely to report an MHC (OR=4.8, 95% CI from 4.5 to 5.1, for the Canadian-born population but OR=1.8, 95% CI from 1.5 to 2.1, for immigrants). Most Asian immigrants with low SRMH levels were only as likely to report MHCs as Canadian-born respondents with high SRMH levels. Refugees with low SRMH levels also had only a slightly elevated MHC level (OR=1.6, 95% CI from 1.1 to 2.3) compared with Canadian-born individuals with high SRMH levels. Overall, refugees were not more likely than immigrants of other admission categories to report having had an MHC, even though previous findings have shown that refugees report low levels of SRMH.

DISCUSSION: This study provides new evidence on the differences in access to MHC between Canadian-born individuals and immigrants by various characteristics, while controlling for SRMH. Results probably reflect the structural or cultural barriers to MHC and point to a possible pathway to either maintain or improve mental health among immigrants.

PMID:34142786 | DOI:10.25318/82-003-x202100600001-eng

Laryngoscope. 2021 Jun 18. doi: 10.1002/lary.29602. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS: The prevalence of tympanostomy tube surgery (TTS) in patients with a cleft deformity was investigated, in relation to cleft width and cleft type.

STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective review of medical health records.

METHODS: Retrospective review of medical health records. Seventy-eight patients with non-syndromic cleft deformity of the palate and/or alveolus and lip between 2003 and 2017 were investigated. All available medical documents were analyzed. The study group was divided into subgroups: 1) patients with isolated cleft palate (CP) and patients with a cleft palate with cleft lip and alveolus (CLP). 2) According to Veau’s classification (I-IV), further subgroups were defined. Cleft width was measured using plaster cast models.

RESULTS: TTS was performed in 55% of the patients (n = 43). Considering Veau’s classification, TTS was conducted as follows: Veau I 65.2% (n = 15/23), Veau II 55.0% (n = 11/20), Veau III 47.6% (n = 10/21), and Veau IV 50.0% (n = 7/14). Cleft classifications, maxillary arch width, and absolute/relative cleft width had no statistical impact on TTS occurrence. Although no significant correlation could be found, patients in our study group with CP (Veau I and II) underwent TTS more often (60.5%, n = 26/43) than patients with CPL (Veau III and IV; 48.6%, n = 17/35) during a three-year follow-up.

CONCLUSION: None of the cleft characteristics examined had a significant impact on the proportion of patients who received TTS. Nevertheless, patients with lower Veau classification and CP received tympanostomy tubes more often. Therefore, otolaryngologists and pediatricians treating children with cleft palate should maintain a high level of suspicion for chronic middle ear effusion, even in patients with small clefts.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 3 Laryngoscope, 2021.

PMID:34142721 | DOI:10.1002/lary.29602

Eur J Clin Invest. 2021 Jun 18:e13630. doi: 10.1111/eci.13630. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Several prognostic models for gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) are provided in the literature; however, their clinical significance has not been thoroughly evaluated, especially with regard to application at early gestation and in accordance with the most recent diagnostic criteria. This external validation study aimed to assess the predictive accuracy of published risk estimation models for the later development of GDM at early pregnancy.

METHODS: In this cohort study, we prospectively included 1132 pregnant women. Risk evaluation was performed before 16 + 0 weeks of gestation including a routine laboratory examination. Study participants were followed-up until delivery to assess GDM status according to the IADPSG 2010 diagnostic criteria. Fifteen clinical prediction models were calculated according to the published literature.

RESULTS: Gestational diabetes mellitus was diagnosed in 239 women, that is 21.1% of the study participants. Discrimination was assessed by the area under the ROC curve and ranged between 60.7% and 76.9%, corresponding to an acceptable accuracy. With some exceptions, calibration performance was poor as most models were developed based on older diagnostic criteria with lower prevalence and therefore tended to underestimate the risk of GDM. The highest variable importance scores were observed for history of GDM and routine laboratory parameters.

CONCLUSIONS: Most prediction models showed acceptable accuracy in terms of discrimination but lacked in calibration, which was strongly dependent on study settings. Simple biochemical variables such as fasting glucose, HbA1c and triglycerides can improve risk prediction. One model consisting of clinical and laboratory parameters showed satisfactory accuracy and could be used for further investigations.

PMID:34142723 | DOI:10.1111/eci.13630

J Adv Nurs. 2021 Jun 18. doi: 10.1111/jan.14940. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

AIMS: This study aimed to identify the predicting factors of quality of life (QoL) from a set of psychosocial, sociodemographic and clinical variables amongst older adults in a long-term care setting.

DESIGN: A cross-sectional, descriptive correlational study.

METHOD: The study was conducted in a nursing home and a day care centre from July to December 2019. Two hundred older adults were recruited. Guided by the salutogenic model, the sense of coherence (SOC) scale, Connor-Davidson resilience scale, de Jong Gierveld loneliness scale and World Health Organization quality of life instrument-older adults (WHOQOL-OLD) were used. The sociodemographic and clinical profiles of participants were collected. Descriptive statistics, Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient, independent-samples t test, one-way analysis of variance and stepwise regression were utilised in the analysis.

RESULTS: The mean score for WHOQOL-OLD was 94.42 ± 19.55. The highest mean score was observed in the “Death and Dying” facet, while the lowest mean scores were reflected in the “Autonomy” and “Intimacy” facets of QoL. Regardless of resident type, most QoL scores were similar across different variables. Based on the stepwise regression, higher manageability and meaningfulness in SOC, higher resilience, lower social loneliness, lower emotional loneliness and hearing impairments are significantly associated with higher QoL.

CONCLUSION: Manageability, meaningfulness and resilience should be enhanced while ameliorating feelings of loneliness to improve the QoL amongst older adults receiving long-term care. Age, marital status, educational level, care arrangement, body mass index, performance in activities of daily living, comorbidities and hearing and mobility impairments could influence QoL and thus warrant more attention.

IMPACT: Future interventions can be conducted in group sessions to facilitate social interaction and alleviate loneliness. More resources should be allocated to enhance older adults’ care arrangements and coping mechanisms to provide them with the support, as they face challenges in daily life due to mobility impairment and other restrictions.

PMID:34142732 | DOI:10.1111/jan.14940

Am J Epidemiol. 2021 Jun 18:kwab177. doi: 10.1093/aje/kwab177. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

We examined the association between early-life participation in collision sports and later life cognitive health over a 28-year period in a population-based sample drawn from the longitudinal Swedish Adoption/Twin Study of Aging (1987-2014). Cognitive measures included the Mini-Mental State Examination and performance across multiple cognitive domains (e.g., global cognition, verbal ability, spatial ability, memory, processing speed). Among a sample of 660 adults (mean age at baseline 62.8 years [range: 50-88]; 58.2% female) who contributed 10,944 person-years of follow-up, there were 450 cases of cognitive impairment (crude rate: 41.1/1,000 person-years). Early-life participation in collision sports was not significantly associated with cognitive impairment at baseline nor its onset over a 28-year period in a time-to-event analysis which accounted for the semi-competing risk of death. Furthermore, growth curve models revealed no association between early-life participation in collision sports and the level of or change in trajectories of cognition across multiple domains overall nor in gender-stratified models. We discuss the long-term implications of adolescent participation in collision sports on cognitive health.

PMID:34142704 | DOI:10.1093/aje/kwab177