Category: Statistics

Work. 2025 Apr 28:10519815251331802. doi: 10.1177/10519815251331802. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BackgroundDuring the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare workers were exposed to intense stress in the emergency departments and sudden changes in their daily lives.ObjectiveThe study aimed to investigate the impact of the pandemic on performance and participation in the activities of daily living, personal lives, and overall well-being of the healthcare workers in an emergency department.MethodsSeventy-eight people working in an emergency department of a university hospital (100% of those eligible) participated in the study during June-July 2022. A self-report survey, cross-sectional design was used to collect data. Participants completed the Perceived Stress Scale-10 (PSS) and the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COPM). Independent sample t-tests, Pearson correlation, and multiple regression analysis were used for statistical analysis.ResultsThere was a significant negative correlation between PSS and COPM Performance (r = -0.524) as well as between PSS and COPM Satisfaction (r = -0.508), indicating that higher levels of stress were associated with lower performance and satisfaction. In addition, work-related factors, including working experience, daily working hours, and time available for rest at work, were significantly associated with PSS, COPM Performance, and Satisfaction (p < 0.05). The strongest multivariate associations (p = 0.001) were found between lacking time to rest at work and PSS (direct) and COPM Performance and Satisfaction (inverse).ConclusionThe stress experienced by emergency healthcare workers during COVID-19 negatively impacted their performance, daily activities, personal lives, and well-being. A potential implication is that policy-makers addressing work-related factors and implementing regulations could improve the well-being of these workers in their professional practices.

PMID:40289629 | DOI:10.1177/10519815251331802

Br J Clin Pharmacol. 2025 Apr 27. doi: 10.1002/bcp.70066. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

AIMS: Prescribing pharmaceuticals is essential to improve health, but it also has substantial environmental impact. This study investigated the extent to which Swedish general practitioners (GPs) are willing to integrate environmental aspects into treatment decisions and their opinions on policies to reduce pharmaceutical pollution.

METHODS: A questionnaire assessing environmental considerations in prescribing was developed and distributed to 1233 Swedish GPs and physicians in training (response rate: 22%) between September 2023 and June 2024. It included 3 patient cases to assess trade-offs between therapeutic effect and environmental impact of pharmaceuticals used for pain management, blood pressure reduction, and contraception. Questions about attitudes to policies to reduce the environmental impact of pharmaceuticals were also included. Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics.

RESULTS: Most respondents were willing to prescribe a less effective pharmaceutical if it was environmentally preferable, 77% for pain management and blood pressure reduction, and 50% for contraception. Environmental impact was ranked as the least important factor in prescribing decisions when compared to cost, regional treatment guidelines, dosage intervals, and user-friendliness. A total of 68% of respondents agreed that physicians should consider environmental aspects when prescribing, however only a few often searched for environmental information when prescribing. Policies directed towards other stakeholders, such as authorities and the pharmaceutical industry, received substantial support.

CONCLUSION: Swedish GPs are willing to consider environmental factors when prescribing. However, other factors are more often considered and GPs attribute higher responsibility to other actors. Improving access to environmental information about pharmaceuticals could support greener prescribing.

PMID:40289270 | DOI:10.1002/bcp.70066

Br J Clin Pharmacol. 2025 Apr 27. doi: 10.1002/bcp.70068. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

AIMS: Clinical trials have shown an increased risk of death in patients with recent myocardial infarction who received antiarrhythmic drugs such as flecainide, encainide or moricizine, especially in the presence of associated structural heart disease such as cardiac dysfunction. This study aimed to evaluate the safety outcomes of propafenone use in atrial fibrillation patients with heart failure when compared to those of amiodarone use.

METHODS: This population-based cohort study used the National Health Insurance Research Database in Taiwan. Eligible patients were those who had atrial fibrillation or atrial flutter diagnosis, had heart failure diagnosis, and first received propafenone or amiodarone between 2002 and 2018. The primary endpoints were death due to arrhythmia and the composite proarrhythmic outcome, which consisted of sudden cardiac arrest, arrhythmic death, ventricular arrhythmia and implantation of defibrillator.

RESULTS: After propensity score matching, the study cohort consisted of 7235 propafenone and 14 470 amiodarone users. Compared to amiodarone, propafenone was associated with significantly lower risk of the composite proarrhythmic outcome (adjusted hazard ratio: 0.52; 95% confidence interval: 0.42-0.64; P < .001). Propafenone users also had lower risk of death owing to arrhythmia compared to amiodarone users (adjusted hazard ratio: 0.22; 95% confidence interval: 0.08-0.65; P = .006). Subgroup analysis and sensitivity analysis showed similar trends, favouring propafenone.

CONCLUSION: Propafenone was not significantly associated with increased risk of proarrhythmia and mortality when compared to amiodarone in atrial fibrillation patients with heart failure in contemporary real-world settings. Prospective studies are needed to determine whether propafenone should definitely be avoided in these patients.

PMID:40289259 | DOI:10.1002/bcp.70068

J Natl Cancer Inst. 2025 Apr 26:djaf107. doi: 10.1093/jnci/djaf107. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Human papillomavirus (HPV) causes cervical cancer and a proportion of oropharyngeal, vulvar, vaginal, penile, and anal cancers. Evaluating racial and ethnic heterogeneity by anatomic site will identify populations with the highest cancer incidence rates (IRs) and help to optimize available prevention strategies.

METHODS: Using the 2001-2020 US Cancer Statistics database, we estimated age-standardized IRs cervical carcinoma, oropharyngeal, anal, vaginal, vulvar, and penile squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs) by race and ethnicity. We examined changes over time by comparing IRs in 2016-2020 with 2001-2005.

RESULTS: Between 2001-2020, 750,897 HPV-related cancers occurred among 6,168,715,419 total person-years, with 61% (n = 455,475) in females. Among females, the highest IRs of oropharyngeal (1.6/100,000 person-years), vulvar (2.3/100,000 person-years), and anal (2.1/100,000 person-years) SCC were among White females. The highest IR for vaginal SCC (0.6/100,000 person-years) was among Black females and for cervical carcinoma (10.0/100,000 person-years) among Hispanic females. Among males, the highest IR for oropharyngeal SCC (8.0/100,000 person-years) was among White males, penile SCC (1.3/100,000 person-years) among Hispanic males, and anal SCC (1.5/100,000 person-years) among Black males. From 2001-2005 to 2016-2020, for most racial and ethnic groups, both in terms of absolute incidence, and proportion of the total HPV-related cancer burden, cervical carcinoma and vaginal SCC rates decreased, vulvar and anal SCC increased, and there was no clear pattern in oropharyngeal and penile SCC rates.

CONCLUSION: For all cancer types, there were disparate racial and ethnic patterns by anatomic site likely caused by a constellation of factors, including access to preventive care and site-specific HPV prevalence.

PMID:40289254 | DOI:10.1093/jnci/djaf107

J Egypt Natl Canc Inst. 2025 Apr 28;37(1):14. doi: 10.1186/s43046-025-00272-4.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Cytarabine is a prodrug which is activated to cytarabine triphosphate (Ara-CTP) through a series of phosphorylation steps. For considerable leukemic cell death, high level of Ara-CTP is required. Sterile alpha motif and histidine-aspartate domain-containing protein 1 (SAMHD1) and Nucleotide diphosphate kinase-2 (NME2) are genes involved in Ara-CTP metabolism. To best of our knowledge, there are no similar studies focused on the association of different polymorphisms involved Ara-C metabolism on the response to induction chemotherapy among adult AML Egyptian patients. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the effect of SAMHD1 rs28372906 and NME2 rs3744660 polymorphisms on AML complete remission rate (CR), overall survival (OS), and disease-free survival (DFS) among adult AML Egyptian patients, after Ara-C based induction therapy.

METHODS: This study was a retrospective conducted at the National Cancer Institute, Cairo University, Egypt. The patient group included 136 adult patients with newly diagnosed AML, while the control group included 48 healthy subjects. The clinical history of all studied patients was collected from patient records. Patients and controls were genotyped for NEM2 (rs3744660) and SAMHD1 (rs28372906) by using Taq Man Genotyping assay and Taq Man genotyping master mix (REF: 4,371,353, Applied Biosystems, USA). Real-time PCR assay was performed on Thermo Fisher Quant Studio™ 3. The Statistical Package for Social Science version 21.0 was used to analyze our data.

RESULTS: Regarding the SAMHD1 (rs28372906) polymorphism, we did not find any genotype variations between patient, and control groups, where all of them were AA genotype. Regarding NME2 (rs3744660) polymorphism the statistical analysis reported significant association between D28 blasts and OS (P-value = 0.043), while the remaining initial patient characteristics and response to induction were not associated with OS.

CONCLUSION: CR, DFS, and OS were not significantly associated to SAMHD1 rs28372906 and NME2 rs3744660 polymorphisms.

PMID:40289230 | DOI:10.1186/s43046-025-00272-4

Sci Rep. 2025 Apr 27;15(1):14706. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-96207-z.

ABSTRACT

A 200 mm processing platform for the large-scale production of graphene field-effect transistor-quantum dot (GFET-QD) hybrid photodetectors is demonstrated. A comprehensive statistical analysis of the electrical data revealed a high yield (96%) and low variation in the 200 mm scale fabrication. The GFET-QD devices deliver responsivities of 10⁵ to 10⁶ V/W in the wavelength range from 400 to 1800 nm with a response time of 10 ms. The spectral sensitivity compares well to that obtained via similar GFET-QD photodetectors. The device concept enables gate-tunable suppression or enhancement of the photovoltage, which may be exploited for electric shutter operation by toggling between the signal capture and shutter states. The devices show good stability over a wide operation range. Furthermore, an integration solution with complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor technology is presented to realize image-sensor-array chips and a proof-of-concept image system. This work demonstrates the potential for the volume manufacture of infrared photodetectors for a wide range of imaging applications.

PMID:40289227 | DOI:10.1038/s41598-025-96207-z

Sci Rep. 2025 Apr 27;15(1):14704. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-99373-2.

ABSTRACT

The Fracture Risk Assessment Tool (FRAX), widely used for predicting the 10-year likelihood of hip fractures, does not incorporate factors like prior falls and sociodemographic characteristics, notably the Social Vulnerability Index (SVI). Recognizing these limitations, we aim to evaluate the predictive accuracy of FRAX by integrating fall frequency, fall energy, and SVI into the model for assessing the risk of fall-induced hip fractures. A retrospective case-control study was conducted, and patients aged ≥ 40 years with a documented diagnosis of a fall-induced hip fracture were age-matched with controls with a history of falls without an associated hip fracture. Basic demographic data, along with information about the number of prior falls and the energy of the current falls, were collected. The FRAX and SVI were calculated accordingly. Logistic regression analysis was employed to identify significant predictors. The performance of the models was evaluated and reported using appropriate metrics. Baseline characteristics of the dataset were presented as medians with interquartile ranges (IQR) or as percentages, where applicable. The significance of the identified variables was quantified using Odds Ratio (OR) along with their 95% Confidence Interval (CI). A p-value threshold of 0.05 was set for statistical significance. A total of 261 patients per group were included with a median age of 74 (IQR 67-80) and 72 (IQR 62-83) years. The FRAX score was significantly associated with the likelihood of experiencing a fall-induced hip fracture, as indicated by an OR of 1.06 (CI: 1.03-1.09). Participants with a one-time history of falls had an OR of 1.58 (CI: 1.02-2.37), compared to 1.84 (CI: 1.09-3.1) for those with multiple falls. The White participants, along with the Housing Type and Transportation domain of the SVI, also demonstrated to play a role (OR = 2.85 (CI: 1.56-5.2) and OR = 0.3 (CI: 0.12-0.8), respectively). This study underscored the significance of factors such as fall frequency, SVI, and race in predicting fall-induced hip fractures. It also highlighted the need for further refinement of the FRAX tool. We recommend that future research should be focused on validating the impact of these sociodemographic and fall characteristics on a broader scale, along with exploring the implications of clinical surrogates related to falls.

PMID:40289226 | DOI:10.1038/s41598-025-99373-2

World J Microbiol Biotechnol. 2025 Apr 28;41(5):155. doi: 10.1007/s11274-025-04364-0.

ABSTRACT

Hygromycin B (HYG-B) is a 5-glycosylated 2-dexoystreptamine- aminoglycoside antibiotic-(2DOS-AGA) produced by Streptomyces hygroscopicus subspecies hygroscopicus NRRL ISP-5578 with broad-spectrum activity against many pathogenic bacteria, fungi and helminths. In the literature, limited studies are concerned with the biosynthetic pathway and different cultural conditions affecting the production of HYG-B. This study aimed to optimize key environmental conditions influencing its production as one-factor-at-a-time (OFAT) and as a statistical model of response surface D-optimal design (DOD). Moreover, the biosynthetic pathway of HYG-B in light of the identified genes/proteins of the HYG-B gene cluster was proposed and elucidated. The effect of culture media composition and incubation time were studied OFAT, and the results showed that both culture media 6 (CM6) and CM4 gave the highest specific productivity, 5.88 and 3.99 µg/mg, respectively, and 7 days as incubation time. So, using CM6 and 7 days incubation resulted in a sevenfold increase (190 µg/mL) compared to the original unoptimized condition (CM1 and 6 days incubation; 26.9 µg/mL). Three important factors-initial pH, incubation temperature, and agitation-were tested using a DOD quadratic model generating 20 experimental runs. An initial pH of 6.4, an incubation temperature, of 28 ℃, and agitation. of 295 rpm were predicted and experimentally verified, resulting in a 13-fold increase (371.5 µg/mL) compared to the unoptimized condition and a sevenfold increase compared to that obtained as OFAT. In conclusion, DOD design is an efficient tool for optimizing HYG-B. However, the optimized conditions should be scaled up in a bioreactor for industrial production of HYG-B by S. hygroscopicus NRRL ISP-5578.

PMID:40289225 | DOI:10.1007/s11274-025-04364-0

Sci Rep. 2025 Apr 27;15(1):14732. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-00115-1.

ABSTRACT

Accurate medium- to long-term runoff forecasting is crucial for flood control, drought resilience, water resources development, and ecological improvement. Traditional statistical methods struggle to utilize multifaceted variable information, leading to lower prediction accuracy. This study introduces two innovative coupled models-SRA-SVR and SRA-MLPR-to enhance runoff prediction by leveraging the strengths of statistical and deep learning approaches. Stepwise Regression Analysis (SRA) was employed to effectively handle high-dimensional data and multicollinearity, ensuring that only the most influential predictive variables were retained. Support Vector Regression (SVR) and Multi-Layer Perceptron Regression (MLPR) were chosen due to their strong adaptability in capturing nonlinear relationships and extracting latent hydrological patterns. The integration of these methods significantly improves prediction accuracy and model stability. By integrating 80 atmospheric circulation indices as teleconnection variables, the models tackle critical challenges such as high-dimensional data, multicollinearity, and nonlinear hydrological dynamics. The Yalong River Basin, characterized by complex hydrological processes and diverse climatic influences, serves as the case study for model validation. The results show that: (1) Compared to baseline single models, the SRA-MLPR model reduced RMSE (from 798.47 to 594.45) by 26% and MAPE (from 34.79 to 22.90%) by 34%, while achieving an NSE (from 0.67 to 0.76) improvement of 13%, particularly excelling in extreme runoff scenarios. (2) The inclusion of teleconnection indices not only enriched the predictive feature set but also improved model stability, with the SRA-MLPR demonstrating enhanced capability in capturing latent nonlinear relationships. (3) A one-month lag in atmospheric circulation indices was identified as the optimal predictor for basin-scale runoff, providing actionable insights into temporal runoff dynamics. (4) To enhance model interpretability, SHAP (SHapley Additive exPlanations) analysis was employed to quantify the contribution of atmospheric circulation indices to runoff predictions, revealing the dominant climate drivers and their nonlinear interactions. The results indicate that the Northern Hemisphere Polar Vortex and the East Asian Trough exert significant control over runoff dynamics, with their influence modulated by large-scale climate oscillations such as the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO). (5) The models’ scalability is validated through their modular design, allowing seamless adaptation to diverse hydrological contexts. Applications include improved flood forecasting, optimized reservoir operations, and adaptive water resource planning. Furthermore, the study demonstrates the potential of coupled models as generalizable tools for hydrological forecasting in basins with varying climatic and geographic conditions. This study highlights the potential of coupled models as robust and generalizable tools for hydrological forecasting across diverse climatic and geographic conditions. By integrating atmospheric circulation indices, the proposed models enhance runoff prediction accuracy and stability while offering valuable insights for flood prevention, drought mitigation, and adaptive water resource management. These methodological advancements bridge the gap between statistical and deep learning approaches, providing a scalable framework for accurate and interpretable hydrological, climatological, and environmental predictions. Given the escalating challenges brought about by climate change, the findings of this study make contributions to sustainable water management, interpretable decision-making support, and disaster preparedness at a global level.

PMID:40289219 | DOI:10.1038/s41598-025-00115-1

Int J Legal Med. 2025 Apr 28. doi: 10.1007/s00414-025-03499-x. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: Multi-factorial age estimation (MFA) models have been developed based on Bayes’ rule, combining MRI data of the third molars (T), left wrist (W) and/or both clavicles (C). Internal cross-validated performance was reported, but external validation is needed before bringing the approach into practice. This study aimed to validate these MFA models in two independent samples.

METHODS: In the Ghent sample, W + C MRI was prospectively conducted in 108 healthy Caucasian volunteers (52 males, 56 females) aged 16 to 21 years. In the Graz sample, T + W + C MRI was prospectively conducted in 335 healthy Caucasian males aged 13 to 24 years. Development was staged and checked for intra-observer reliability, and age estimation performances were tested.

RESULTS: Staging clavicles was most prone to intra-observer variability. Applying the W + C model to Ghent males rendered a mean absolute error of 1.55 years, a root mean square error of 1.90 years, 70.6% correctly categorised adults and 94.4% correctly categorised minors. In females, the results were 1.49 years, 1.83 years, 92.1% and 66.7%, respectively. Regarding the Graz sample, the W + C results were 1.66 years, 2.08 years, 94.7% and 80.7%, respectively. For the T + W + C model, the results were 1.41 years, 1.80 years, 95.2% and 81.5%, respectively.

CONCLUSION: The T + W + C and W + C models rendered a similar accuracy of the point prediction of age in both validation samples. However, they bared a larger risk of wrongfully categorising a minor as an adult than reported for internal validation, stressing the importance of the prediction interval for age estimation in practice.

PMID:40289208 | DOI:10.1007/s00414-025-03499-x