Category: Statistics

Environ Monit Assess. 2024 Jul 4;196(8):698. doi: 10.1007/s10661-024-12873-y.

ABSTRACT

Air pollution is affected by the atmospheric dynamics. This study aims to determine that air pollution concentration values in İstanbul increased significantly and reached peak values due to atmospheric blocking between the 30th of December 2022 and the 5th of January 2023. In this study, hourly pollutant data was obtained from 16 air quality monitoring stations (AQMS), the exact reanalysis data was extracted from ERA5 database, and inversion levels and meteorological and synoptic analyses were used to determine the effects of atmospheric blocking on air pollution. Also, cloud base heights and vertical visibility measurements were taken with a ceilometer. Statistical calculations and data visualizations were performed using the R and Grads program. Omega-type blocking, which started in İstanbul on December 30, 2022, had a significant impact on the 1st and 2nd of January 2023, and PM₁₀ and PM_2.5 concentration values reached their peak values at 572.8 and 254.20 µg/m³, respectively. In addition, it was found that the average concentration values in the examined period in almost all stations were higher than the averages for January and February. As a result, air quality in İstanbul was determined as “poor” between these calendar dates. It was found that the blocking did not affect the ozone (µg/m³) concentration. It was also found that the concentrations of particulate matter (PM) 10 µm or less in diameter (PM₁₀) and PM 2.5 µm or less in diameter (PM_2.5) were increased by the blocking effect in the İstanbul area. Finally, according to the data obtained using the ceilometer, cloud base heights decreased to 30 m and vertical visibility to 10 m.

PMID:38963549 | DOI:10.1007/s10661-024-12873-y

Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol. 2024 Jul 4. doi: 10.1007/s00127-024-02712-3. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: The role of adherence to the recommendations for 24-hour movement behaviors (24-HMB), including physical activity (PA), screen time (ST), and sleep duration (SLP), in relation to emotional and behavioral problems in Chinese adolescents remains uncertain. This study aimed to investigate these associations and explore potential sex differences.

METHODS: This school-based cross-sectional study included 15,071 Chinese adolescents with a mean age of 14.53 (SD: 1.65) years. Data on emotional and behavioral problems and 24-HMB (including PA, ST, and SLP) were collected. Analysis was performed using general linear mixed models, with additional sex-stratified analyses conducted.

RESULTS: The number of 24-HMB recommendations met was negatively associated with total difficulties (β estimate=-0.96, 95% CI: -1.07 to -0.85) and positively related to prosocial behavior (β estimate = 0.41, 95% CI: 0.37 to 0.46) among adolescents. Compared with none of the recommendations met, meeting all recommendations (total difficulties: β estimate=-2.98, 95% CI: -3.41 to -2.55; prosocial behaviors: β estimate = 1.05, 95%CI: 0.87 to 1.24) demonstrated the strongest association with both difficulties and prosocial behaviors, followed by meeting recommendations for PA + ST (total difficulties: β estimate=-2.15, 95% CI: -2.41 to -1.90; prosocial behaviors: β estimate = 0.98, 95% CI: 0.87 to 1.09). These associations were consistently significant in both boys and girls.

CONCLUSION: Adherence to more 24-HMB recommendations, particularly meeting all recommendations or combined PA + ST recommendations, could improve emotional and behavioral well-being among adolescent girls and boys. The significance of balanced movement behaviors for promoting adolescent mental health merits increased attention.

PMID:38963547 | DOI:10.1007/s00127-024-02712-3

Pediatr Surg Int. 2024 Jul 4;40(1):174. doi: 10.1007/s00383-024-05758-1.

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: The detection of congenital heart disease (CHD) before neonatal surgery is crucial for anaesthetic and perioperative management. There are no established criteria for pre-operative echocardiography in neonates. We aimed to survey current practice in the United Kingdom and evaluate the reliability of antenatal screening and postnatal clinical assessment in detecting CHD before surgery.

METHOD: A 9-point questionnaire was sent to all paediatric surgical centres in the United Kingdom to assess their practice. Subsequently, a single-centre retrospective review of all neonatal surgery over 5 years (2015-2020) was conducted in our tertiary paediatric/neonatal hospital. Data included pre-operative clinical assessment, performance of chest radiograph and echocardiography. Indications for echocardiography were categorised and assessed using sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value.

RESULTS: All 26 paediatric surgical centres responded to our survey. 23/26 (88.5%) did not have established criteria or guidelines for pre-operative echocardiography. There was a large variation in which surgical conditions required a pre-operative scan and whether a normal clinical examination was considered sufficient to not require one. For the retrospective review, 454 patients were identified. There were 40 cases with CHDs (8.8%), 13 were classed as major or moderate. Indications for echocardiography were categorised into abnormal foetal cardiac screening, medical/surgical conditions associated with CHD and an abnormal cardiorespiratory examination. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value for major and moderate CHD were 46%, 99%, 67%, 98% for abnormal foetal screening, 46%, 97%, 35%, 98% for associated medical conditions, 62%, 66%, 6%, 98% for associated surgical conditions, and 100%, 66%, 9%, 100% for abnormal clinical examination.

CONCLUSION: The use of pre-operative echocardiography in neonates is not standardised across the UK. The results from our cohort demonstrate that foetal echocardiography is not sufficient to capture all major and moderate CHDs, but the absence of abnormal clinical examination is highly reliable in ruling out them out. Specifying a list of medical/surgical of conditions associated with CHD warranting pre-operative echocardiography may improve yield, but this depends on the availability of resources and expertise.

PMID:38963543 | DOI:10.1007/s00383-024-05758-1

Psychometrika. 2024 Jul 4. doi: 10.1007/s11336-024-09980-7. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Wu and Browne (Psychometrika 80(3):571-600, 2015. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11336-015-9451-3 ; henceforth W &B) introduced the notion of adventitious error to explicitly take into account approximate goodness of fit of covariance structure models (CSMs). Adventitious error supposes that observed covariance matrices are not directly sampled from a theoretical population covariance matrix but from an operational population covariance matrix. This operational matrix is randomly distorted from the theoretical matrix due to differences in study implementations. W &B showed how adventitious error is linked to the root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) and how the standard errors (SEs) of parameter estimates are augmented. Our contribution is to consider adventitious error as a general phenomenon and to illustrate its consequences. Using simulations, we illustrate that its impact on SEs can be generalized to pairwise relations between variables beyond the CSM context. Using derivations, we conjecture that heterogeneity of effect sizes across studies and overestimation of statistical power can both be interpreted as stemming from adventitious error. We also show that adventitious error, if it occurs, has an impact on the uncertainty of composite measurement outcomes such as factor scores and summed scores. The results of a simulation study show that the impact on measurement uncertainty is rather small although larger for factor scores than for summed scores. Adventitious error is an assumption about the data generating mechanism; the notion offers a statistical framework for understanding a broad range of phenomena, including approximate fit, varying research findings, heterogeneity of effects, and overestimates of power.

PMID:38963537 | DOI:10.1007/s11336-024-09980-7

Breast Cancer Res Treat. 2024 Jul 4. doi: 10.1007/s10549-024-07422-7. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: Data on the prognostic impact of the micropapillary component in breast cancer are limited. The purpose of this study was to investigate the clinicopathological characteristics and long-term outcomes of pure and mixed invasive micropapillary breast cancer (IMPC) patients compared to invasive ductal cancer (IDC) patients.

METHODS: This retrospective study analysed all IMPC and IDC patients treated at the European Institute of Oncology (IEO) between 1997 and 2019. The overall cohort of IMPC patients was divided in two groups, pure and mixed IMPC. Each patient with mixed or pure IMPC was matched with one patient with IDC, based on year of surgery, age, pT, pN, and molecular subtype.

RESULTS: A total of 30,115 IDC, 120 pure IMPC and 150 mixed IMPC patients were considered eligible. Compared to IDC, pure and mixed IMPC patients presented a higher rate of locally advanced disease (pT2-T3, pN2-N3), vascular invasion, and Luminal B subtype. After matching, pure and mixed IMPC showed a significant higher rate of vascular invasion compared to IDC patients (p < 0.001). Invasive disease-free survival was better in IDC compared to pure IMPC patients (p = 0.11). Long-term overall survival was significantly worse in pure IMPC group compared to IDC group (p = 0.004), being instead similar between mixed IMPC vs matched IDC (p = 0.07).

CONCLUSION: These real-world data reported the worse prognosis of pure IMPC compared to IDC, highlighting the peculiar prognostic value of the micropapillary subtype itself in the decision-making process of IMPC management. An accurate pre-surgical diagnostic evaluation and a multidisciplinary approach are pivotal to best personalize its treatment.

PMID:38963526 | DOI:10.1007/s10549-024-07422-7

J Nephrol. 2024 Jul 4. doi: 10.1007/s40620-024-02012-8. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Cystinuria is a rare genetic disease characterized by impaired tubular transport of cystine. Clinical features of cystinuria mainly include nephrolithiasis and its complications, although cystinuric patients may present with other comorbidities. There are currently no data on bone features of patients with cystinuria. Our aim is to characterize bone mineral density (BMD) in cystinuria.

METHODS: Our study included adult cystinuric patients with estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) ≥ 60 mL/min/1.73 m² followed at 3 specialized outpatient clinics in Italy (Rome, Naples and Verona). Markers of bone turnover were analyzed in a centralized laboratory. Clinical, biochemical and dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) data were collected from September 2021 to December 2022. Linear regression models were used to evaluate statistically significant deviations from zero of Z-scores.

RESULTS: Twenty-seven patients were included in the study. Mean (SD) age was 37 (15) years, 41% were women. Mean estimated glomerular filtration rate was 99 mL/min/1.73 m². Serum parameters associated with bone turnover (parathyroid hormone, FGF23, calcium and phosphate) were all in the normal range, with only 4 patients showing mild hypophosphatemia. Prevalence of low bone mineral density, defined as Z-score ≤ – 2 at any site, was 15%. Average Z-scores were negative across most sites.

CONCLUSIONS: Our study suggests that cystinuric patients have lower bone mineral density compared with individuals of the same sex and age, even when their kidney function is normal.

PMID:38963523 | DOI:10.1007/s40620-024-02012-8

Odontology. 2024 Jul 4. doi: 10.1007/s10266-024-00976-4. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

To evaluate the physical properties of enamel submitted to hydrogen peroxide (HP) incorporated with titanium dioxide nanoparticles (NP) co-doped with nitrogen and fluorine and irradiated with violet LED light (LT). Enamel-dentin disks were randomly allocated (T₀) into groups, according to HP (HP6, HP15, or HP35) and NP (no NP, 5NP, or 10NP) concentrations, and irradiated or not with LT. A negative control (NC) group was set. After three bleaching sessions (T₁, T₂, and T₃), specimens were stored in saliva for 14 days (T₄). Enamel surface microhardness number (KHN), surface roughness (Ra), cross-sectional microhardness (ΔS), energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), scanning electron (SEM), and polarized light (PLM) microscopies were performed. Surface KHN was significantly influenced by NP over time, independently of LT irradiation. At T₃ and T₄, gels with 5NP and 10NP exhibited no KHN differences compared to NC and baseline values, which were not observed under the absence of NP. NP incorporation did not statistically interfere with the ΔS and Ra. PLM images exhibited surface/subsurface darkening areas suggestive of demineralizing regions. SEM demonstrated some intraprismatic affection in the groups without NP. EDS reported a higher enamel calcium to phosphorus ratio following 10NP gels applications. Gels with NP maintained the enamel surface microhardness levels and seemed to control surface morphology, upholding the mineral content. None of the proposed experimental protocols have negatively influenced the enamel surface roughness and the cross-sectional microhardness.

PMID:38963521 | DOI:10.1007/s10266-024-00976-4

J Math Biol. 2024 Jul 4;89(2):25. doi: 10.1007/s00285-024-02122-8.

ABSTRACT

The Ebola virus disease (EVD) has been endemic since 1976, and the case fatality rate is extremely high. EVD is spread by infected animals, symptomatic individuals, dead bodies, and contaminated environment. In this paper, we formulate an EVD model with four transmission modes and a time delay describing the incubation period. Through dynamical analysis, we verify the importance of blocking the infection source of infected animals. We get the basic reproduction number without considering the infection source of infected animals. And, it is proven that the model has a globally attractive disease-free equilibrium when the basic reproduction number is less than unity; the disease eventually becomes endemic when the basic reproduction number is greater than unity. Taking the EVD epidemic in Sierra Leone in 2014-2016 as an example, we complete the data fitting by combining the effect of the media to obtain the unknown parameters, the basic reproduction number and its time-varying reproduction number. It is shown by parameter sensitivity analysis that the contact rate and the removal rate of infected group have the greatest influence on the prevalence of the disease. And, the disease-controlling thresholds of these two parameters are obtained. In addition, according to the existing vaccination strategy, only the inoculation ratio in high-risk areas is greater than 0.4, the effective reproduction number can be less than unity. And, the earlier the vaccination time, the greater the inoculation ratio, and the faster the disease can be controlled.

PMID:38963509 | DOI:10.1007/s00285-024-02122-8

Int Urogynecol J. 2024 Jul 4. doi: 10.1007/s00192-024-05860-x. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION AND HYPOTHESIS: This study was aimed at exploring the immediate impacts of pelvic floor muscle exercises (PFMEs) on various maternal physiological parameters in pregnant women.

METHODS: The study included a total of 52 women, 26 pregnant (Pregnant group: 28.04±6.01 years; 26.83±3.81 kg/m²) and 26 nonpregnant (Control group: 29.42±5.73 years; 25.41±3.03 kg/m²) individuals. All women received PFME as follows: PFME was performed for 5 min (6-s holding contraction, 10 s of relaxation, 3 rapid PFM contractions). Evaluations were conducted before, immediately after, and 5 min post-exercise, with measurements including inferior vena cava (IVC) diameters and pulsatility index, blood pressure, oxygen saturation, and heart rates. Two-way analysis of variance was performed for group and time comparisons in repeated measurements.

RESULTS: In both groups, the IVC collapsibility index values were lower 5 min after exercise, although this decrease, although clinically significant, did not reach statistical significance (p = 0.057). Post-exercise systolic blood pressure significantly decreased in both groups, whereas diastolic blood pressure decreased significantly in the pregnant group (p = 0.001, p = 0.023).

CONCLUSIONS: The study found no statistically significant changes in the collapsibility index of the IVC after PFME but observed a clinically suggestive decrease. The clinical decrease in the collapsibility index can be interpreted as PFME in the supine position increasing venous return. Additionally, PFME was found not to alter maternal and fetal heart rates but contributed to the decrease in maternal systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Our study supports the view that the acute effects of PFME neither induce fetal stress nor pose maternal risks.

PMID:38963506 | DOI:10.1007/s00192-024-05860-x

Int Urogynecol J. 2024 Jul 4. doi: 10.1007/s00192-024-05856-7. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION AND HYPOTHESIS: Pregnancy is associated with an increase in pelvic floor dysfunction. Yoga, an ancient Indian practice involving asanas (physical postures), pranayam (breathing patterns) and meditation, can help women to control their pelvic floor muscles. However, the literature to support yoga as a remedy for pelvic floor dysfunction is lacking. We hypothesized that yoga could be an important method in improving pelvic floor dysfunction in pregnancy.

METHODS: In a randomised control study, 200 pregnant women matched for age, weight, parity and physical activity were randomised at the 13- to 20-week period of gestation into two groups: group I (n = 100, undergoing yoga therapy) and group II (n = 100, given usual antenatal care). A trained instructor provided two physical sessions, each lasting for 60 min and further online sessions for 5 days a week for 3 months. The Pelvic Floor Distress Inventory (PFDI-20) questionnaire was used to assess the primary outcome at recruitment, 32 weeks (antenatal), 1 week and 6 weeks post-partum in both groups.

RESULTS: In the 200 women randomised and matched for age and parity, there were no complications seen throughout the pregnancy and none of the patients was lost to follow-up in either group. The proportion of women exhibiting a decline in PFDI-20 scores was greater in group 1 (24%) than in group 2 (8%). The mean difference of scores between recruitment and 6 weeks post-partum was statistically significant (p value = 0.0026).

CONCLUSIONS: Yoga in pregnancy significantly improves pelvic floor dysfunction in an easy manner with no proven adverse effects.

PMID:38963502 | DOI:10.1007/s00192-024-05856-7