Category: Statistics

AIDS Rev. 2024;26(1):1-14. doi: 10.24875/AIDSRev.23000017.

ABSTRACT

This study was performed to reveal the risk factors associated with mortality in people living with HIV (PLHIV) who were diagnosed with COVID-19. Studies reporting deaths among PLHIV and infected with SARS-CoV-2 were investigated. After protocol setup and registration, the extracted sources were categorized and assessed for quality. This study examined ten articles with a total of 46,136 patients. Patients aged ≥ 60 years (hazard ratio [HR] = 2.22; 95% CI: 1.617, 3.050; p < 0.001), male (HR = 1.668; 95% CI: 1.179, 2.361; p = 0.004), and people with diabetes (risk ratio [RR] = 3.34; 95% CI: 1.45, 7.68; p = 0.005) were at higher risk of death. Adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART) reduced mortality risk (RR = 0.90; 95% CI: 0.83, 0.98; p = 0.02). Patients in the survival groups showed a statistically significant lower mean of C-reactive protein (mean difference = 114.08; 95% -74.05, 154.10; p < 0.001). Deceased patients showed higher mean levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6). Chronic respiratory disorders, hypertension, oxygen requirement, admission to an intensive care unit, D-dimer levels, and HIV viral load < 50 copies RNA/mL before admission did not show statistically significant differences between the deceased and survival groups. ART therapy reduced mortality risk (RR = 0.90; 95% 0.83, 0.98; p = 0.02). Identifying PLHIV at higher mortality risk could improve the outcomes of COVID-19 by stratifying these patients to the most effective treatment in a timely fashion.

PMID:38530743 | DOI:10.24875/AIDSRev.23000017

Eur J Psychotraumatol. 2024;15(1):2330880. doi: 10.1080/20008066.2024.2330880. Epub 2024 Mar 26.

ABSTRACT

Background: Childhood adversity can have lasting negative effects on physical and mental health. This study contributes to the existing literature by describing the prevalence rates and mental health outcomes related to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) among adolescents registered for mental health care.Methods: Participants in this cross-sectional study were youths (aged 12-18 years) who were referred to outpatient psychiatric departments in the Netherlands. Demographic information was collected from the medical records. The Child Trauma Screening Questionnaire (CTSQ) was used to examine the presence of ACEs and posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS). To assess mental health problems, we used the Dutch translation of the Youth Self Report. Descriptive statistics and frequencies were used to calculate prevalence rates across the various ACEs domains. ANOVA and chi-square tests were used to explore the relationship between ACEs and mental health.Results: Of the 1373 participants, 69.1% reported having experienced at least one ACE and 17.1% indicated exposure to four or more ACEs in their lives. Although there was substantial overlap among all ACE categories, the most frequently reported were bullying (49.2%), emotional abuse (17.8%), physical abuse (12.2%), and sexual abuse (10.1%). Female adolescents (72.7%) reported significantly more ACEs than their male counterparts (27.0%). Furthermore, a higher number of ACEs was associated with significantly more self-reported general mental health problems, an elevated prevalence of both mood and post-traumatic stress disorders, and a greater presence of two or more co-existing psychiatric diagnoses (comorbid psychiatric classification).Conclusions: This cross-sectional study on childhood adversity and its association with mental health showed that ACEs are highly prevalent in youth registered for mental health care. This study provides support for a graded and cumulative relationship between childhood adversity and mental health problems.

PMID:38530708 | DOI:10.1080/20008066.2024.2330880

J Phys Chem A. 2024 Mar 26. doi: 10.1021/acs.jpca.3c08131. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Using reactive force field (ReaxFF) and molecular dynamics simulation, we investigate the combustion process of hydrogen-oxygen systems in initial thermal nonequilibrium states with different translational and rovibrational temperatures for oxygen. The system studied in this work contains 300 oxygen molecules and 700 hydrogen molecules with a density of 7 times the air density. For this system, the characteristic relaxation times of oxygen and hydrogen vibrational energies are 0.173 and 0.249 ns, respectively. 0.6% of hydrogen undergoes a chemical reaction with oxygen during the thermal nonequilibrium relaxation stage. For the distribution of translational energy and vibrational energy of oxygen in the thermal nonequilibrium state, the maximum mean error of the statistical distribution in the simulation and the Boltzmann distribution at temperature calculated from the average kinetic energy of molecules is about 2.25 × 10^-5. At the same time, it was observed in the simulation that many-body interactions play a certain role in the combustion process. Furthermore, we compare the ignition time and temperature rise behavior of different combustion mechanisms and molecular dynamics simulations starting from the thermal equilibrium state. These results will provide meaningful references for the construction of thermal nonequilibrium combustion chemical reaction mechanisms.

PMID:38530707 | DOI:10.1021/acs.jpca.3c08131

JACC Heart Fail. 2024 Mar 23:S2213-1779(24)00180-X. doi: 10.1016/j.jchf.2024.02.016. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Clinical trials are vital for assessing therapeutic interventions. The associated data monitoring committees (DMCs) safeguard patient interests and enhance trial integrity, thus promoting timely, reliable evaluations of those interventions. We face an urgent need to recruit and train new DMC members. The Heart Failure Collaboratory (HFC), a multidisciplinary public-private consortium of academics, trialists, patients, industry representatives, and government agencies, is working to improve the clinical trial ecosystem. The HFC aims to improve clinical trial efficiency and quality by standardizing concepts, and to help meet the demand for experienced individuals on DMCs by creating a standardized approach to training new members. This paper discusses the HFC’s training workshop, and an apprenticeship model for new DMC members. It describes opportunities and challenges DMCs face, along with common myths and best practices learned through previous experiences, with an emphasis on data confidentiality and need for quality independent statistical reporting groups.

PMID:38530701 | DOI:10.1016/j.jchf.2024.02.016

Elife. 2024 Mar 26;12:RP90156. doi: 10.7554/eLife.90156.

ABSTRACT

The understanding of eco-evolutionary dynamics, and in particular the mechanism of coexistence of species, is still fragmentary and in need of test bench model systems. To this aim we developed a variant of SELEX in vitro selection to study the evolution of a population of ∼10¹⁵ single-strand DNA oligonucleotide ‘individuals’. We begin with a seed of random sequences which we select via affinity capture from ∼10¹² DNA oligomers of fixed sequence (‘resources’) over which they compete. At each cycle (‘generation’), the ecosystem is replenished via PCR amplification of survivors. Massive parallel sequencing indicates that across generations the variety of sequences (‘species’) drastically decreases, while some of them become populous and dominate the ecosystem. The simplicity of our approach, in which survival is granted by hybridization, enables a quantitative investigation of fitness through a statistical analysis of binding energies. We find that the strength of individual resource binding dominates the selection in the first generations, while inter- and intra-individual interactions become important in later stages, in parallel with the emergence of prototypical forms of mutualism and parasitism.

PMID:38530348 | DOI:10.7554/eLife.90156

JMIR Res Protoc. 2024 Mar 26;13:e53722. doi: 10.2196/53722.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Vitamin D deficiency has been associated with hypertensive disorders in pregnancy (HDP). The risk of developing HDP was reported to be further augmented among individuals with a vitamin D receptor (VDR) genetic variant. However, the reported roles of VDR variants in hypertensive disorders are inconsistent among different populations. Given the relatively higher incidence of vitamin D deficiency among Malaysian pregnant women and the high incidence of HDP in this population, we hypothesize that there may be associations between the risk of vitamin D deficiency and HDP with VDR genetic variants.

OBJECTIVE: This paper outlines the protocol for a study to determine the association of vitamin D status and VDR sequence variants among Malaysian pregnant women with HDP.

METHODS: This prospective study consists of two phases. The first phase is a cross-sectional study that will entail gathering medical records, a questionnaire survey, and laboratory testing for vitamin D status, with a planned recruitment of 414 pregnant women. The questionnaire will be utilized to assess the risk factors for vitamin D deficiency. The vitamin D status will be obtained from measurement of the vitamin D (25-hydroxyvitamin D₃) level in the blood. The second phase is a case-control study involving a Malay ethnic cohort with vitamin D deficiency. Participants will be divided into two groups with and without HDP (n=150 per group). Genomic DNA will be extracted from the peripheral blood monocytes of participants using the Qiagen DNA blood kit, and VDR sequence variants will be determined using polymerase chain reaction-high-resolution melting (PCR-HRM) analysis. Sanger sequencing will then be used to sequence randomly selected samples corresponding to each identified variant to validate our PCR-HRM results. The VDR genotype and mutation frequencies of BsmI, ApaI, TaqI, and FokI will be statistically analyzed to evaluate their relationships with developing HDP.

RESULTS: As of December 2023, 340 subjects have been recruited for the phase 1 study, 63% of whom were determined to have vitamin D deficiency. In the phase 2 study, 50 and 22 subjects have been recruited from the control and case groups, respectively. Recruitment is expected to be completed by March 2024 and all analyses should be completed by August 2024.

CONCLUSIONS: The outcome of the study will identify the nonmodifiable genetic components contributing to developing vitamin D deficiency leading to HDP. This will in turn enable gaining a better understanding of the contribution of genetic variability to the development of HDP, thus providing more evidence for a need of customized vitamin D supplementation during pregnancy according to the individual variability in the response to vitamin D intake.

TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT05659173; https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT05659173.

INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): DERR1-10.2196/53722.

PMID:38530345 | DOI:10.2196/53722

Physiol Meas. 2024 Mar 26. doi: 10.1088/1361-6579/ad37ee. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a prevalent cardiac arrhythmia associated with significant health ramifications, including an elevated susceptibility to ischemic stroke, heart disease, and heightened mortality. Photoplethysmography (PPG) has emerged as a promising technology for continuous AF monitoring for its cost-effectiveness and widespread integration into wearable devices. Our team previously conducted an exhaustive review on PPG-based AF detection before June 2019. However, since then, more advanced technologies have emerged in this field. This paper offers a comprehensive review of the latest advancements in PPG-based AF detection, utilizing digital health and artificial intelligence (AI) solutions, within the timeframe spanning from July 2019 to December 2022. Through extensive exploration of scientific databases, we have identified 57 pertinent studies. Our comprehensive review encompasses an in-depth assessment of the statistical methodologies, traditional machine learning techniques, and deep learning approaches employed in these studies. In addition, we address the challenges encountered in the domain of PPG-based AF detection. Furthermore, we maintain a dedicated website to curate the latest research in this area, with regular updates on a regular basis.&#xD.

PMID:38530307 | DOI:10.1088/1361-6579/ad37ee

Phys Med Biol. 2024 Mar 26. doi: 10.1088/1361-6560/ad37ea. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Accurate and reproducible tumor delineation on Positron Emission Tomography (PET) images is required to validate predictive and prognostic models based on PET radiomic features. Manual segmentation of tumors is time-consuming whereas semi-automatic methods are easily implementable and inexpensive. This study assessed the reliability of semi-automatic segmentation methods over manual segmentation for tumor delineation in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma (HNSCC) PET images.&#xD;&#xD;Approach: We employed manual and six semi-automatic segmentation methods (Just Enough Interaction (JEI), watershed, grow from seeds (GfS), flood filling (FF), 30% SUVmax and 40%SUVmax threshold) using 3D slicer software to extract 128 radiomic features from FDG-PET images of 100 HNSCC patients independently by three operators. We assessed the distributional properties of all features and considered 92 log-transformed features for subsequent analysis. For each paired comparison of a feature, we fitted a separate linear mixed effect model using the method (two levels; manual method versus one semi-automatic method) as a fixed effect and the subject and the operator as the random effects. We estimated different statistics ¬- the intraclass correlation coefficient agreement (aICC), limits of agreement (LoA), total deviation index (TDI), coverage probability (CP) and coefficient of individual agreement (CIA) – to evaluate the agreement between the manual and semi-automatic methods.&#xD;&#xD;Main Results: Accounting for all statistics across 92 features, the JEI method consistently demonstrated acceptable agreement with the manual method, with median values of aICC = 0.86, TDI = 0.94, CP = 0.66, and CIA = 0.91.&#xD;&#xD;Significance: This study demonstrated that the JEI method is a reliable semi-automatic method for tumor delineation on HNSCC PET images.&#xD.

PMID:38530298 | DOI:10.1088/1361-6560/ad37ea

Photobiomodul Photomed Laser Surg. 2024 Mar 26. doi: 10.1089/photob.2023.0136. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Objective: To assess the impact of intravascular laser irradiation of blood (ILIB) on the primitive carotid artery (PCA) hemodynamic variables, specifically blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR), in mastectomized patients undergoing hormone blocker treatments. Materials and methods: This study is a controlled, experimental, and randomized clinical trial. Patients were allocated into two groups: the experimental group (G1)-patients who received ILIB therapy using a 660 nm laser targeted at the PCA, and the control group (G2)-patients who did not receive ILIB therapy. Clinical research was conducted weekly, with measurements of systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), and HR. The Mann-Whitney U test for independent samples was used, with a significance level of α = 0.05. Results: Systemic photobiomodulation on the PCA did not demonstrate a statistically significant difference in relation to SBP and DBP. However, for HR, the p-value was <0.05, indicating a significant difference between G1 and G2. The initial mean p > decreased from 142.3 to 116.4 mmHg in G1, and from 130.4 to 119.8 mmHg in G2. The DBP varied from 78.8 to 72.8 mmHg in G1, and from 79.1 to 74.2 mmHg in G2. A statistically significant difference was observed in HR, decreasing from 81.3 to 62.06 bpm in G1, and changing minimally from 74.1 to 75.1 bpm in G2. A considerable reduction was present in the timing of application. Conclusions: ILIB therapy applied to the PCA induces a reduction in BP and, more notably, HR in mastectomized women using the tamoxifen or aromatase inhibitors.

PMID:38530295 | DOI:10.1089/photob.2023.0136

J Radiol Prot. 2024 Mar 26. doi: 10.1088/1361-6498/ad37c7. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Statistically significant increases in ischemic heart disease (IHD) mortality with cumulative occupational external radiation dose were observed in the National Registry for Radiation Workers (NRRW) cohort. There were 174541 subjects in the NRRW cohort. The start of follow up was 1955, and the end of the follow-up for each worker was chosen as the earliest date of death or emigration, their 85th birthday or December 31, 2011. The dose-response relationship showed a downward curvature at a higher dose level > 0.4 Sv with the overall shape of the dose-response relationship best described by a linear-quadratic model. The smaller risk at dose > 0.4 Sv appears to be primarily associated with workers who started employment at a younger age (< 30 years old) and those who were employed for more than 30 years. We modelled the dose response by age-at-first exposure. For the age-at-first exposure of 30+ years old, a linear dose-response was the best fit. For age-at-first exposure <30 years old, there was no evidence of excess risk of ischemic heart disease mortality for radiation doses below 0.1 Sv or above 0.4 Sv, excess risk was only observed for doses between 0.1-0.4 Sv. For this age-at-first exposure group, it was also found that the doses they received when they were less than 35 years old or greater than 50 years old did not contribute to any increased IHD risk.

PMID:38530293 | DOI:10.1088/1361-6498/ad37c7