Category: Statistics

Int Arch Otorhinolaryngol. 2023 Jan 26;27(1):e143-e151. doi: 10.1055/s-0042-1758716. eCollection 2023 Jan.

ABSTRACT

Introduction Anosmia is one of the common symptoms of COVID-19, the link between severity of chest infection and anosmia was investigated by few studies. Objectives To find an association between anosmia and severity of chest infection. Methods An analysis of patients admitted to isolation hospital of our university with confirmed polymerase chain reaction positive testing for COVID-19, between March 2021 until September 2021. We called all patients who reported anosmia during their time of illness and asked them about anosmia. We examined their chest CT. A statistical analysis was done. Results A total of 140 patients completed the study; 65% were female and 56.4% had complete anosmia. Anosmia was significantly associated with loss of taste. Smell returned in 92.5% of anosmic patients. Duration of smell loss was ∼ 2 weeks in 40.5%. The most common symptoms associated with anosmia were running nose, sore throat, fever, and cough. Loss of smell was significantly associated with mild chest disease. 73.4% of anosmic patients had mild chest infection, 21.5% of them had moderate infection, and 5.1% had severe chest infection. Conclusion The pattern of anosmia in COVID-19 patients has some common similarities in general; the way it starts, the associated symptoms, the time until smell returns and, the most important, the severity of chest infection. As anosmia is significantly associated with mild chest infection. the presence of anosmia could be an independent predictor of good COVID-19 outcome as reflected by a lower disease severity and less frequent ICU admissions.

PMID:36714889 | PMC:PMC9879642 | DOI:10.1055/s-0042-1758716

Int Arch Otorhinolaryngol. 2022 Nov 10;27(1):e10-e15. doi: 10.1055/s-0041-1730428. eCollection 2023 Jan.

ABSTRACT

Introduction The acoustic analysis of speech (measurements of the fundamental frequency and formant frequencies) of different vowels produced by speakers with the Angle class II, division 1, malocclusion can provide information about the relationship between articulatory and phonatory mechanisms in this type of maxillomandibular disproportion. Objectives To investigate acoustic measurements related to the fundamental frequency (F0) and formant frequencies (F1 and F2) of the oral vowels of Brazilian Portuguese (BP) produced by male speakers with Angle class II, division 1, malocclusion (study group) and compare with men with Angle class I malocclusion (control group). Methods In total, 60 men (20 with class II, 40 with class I) aged between 18 and 40 years were included in the study. Measurements of F0, F1 and F2 of the seven oral vowels of BP were estimated from the audio samples containing repetitions of carrier sentences. The statistical analysis was performed using the Student t -test and the effect size was calculated. Results Significant differences ( p -values) were detected for F0 values in five vowels ([e], [i], [ᴐ], [o] and [u]), and for F1 in vowels [a] and [ᴐ], with high levels for class II, division 1. Conclusion Statistical differences were found in the F0 measurements with higher values in five of the seven vowels analysed in subjects with Angle class II, division 1. The formant frequencies showed differences only in F1 in two vowels with higher values in the study group. The data suggest that data on voice and speech production must be included in the protocol’s assessment of patients with malocclusion.

PMID:36714887 | PMC:PMC9879633 | DOI:10.1055/s-0041-1730428

PNAS Nexus. 2022 Sep 4;1(4):pgac176. doi: 10.1093/pnasnexus/pgac176. eCollection 2022 Sep.

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to compare basketball performance markers 1 y prior to initial severe lower extremity injury, including ankle, knee, and hip injuries, to 1 and 2 y following injury during the regular National Basketball Association (NBA) season. Publicly available data were extracted through a reproducible extraction computed programmed process. Eligible participants were NBA players with at least three seasons played between 2008 and 2019, with a time-loss injury reported during the study period. Basketball performance was evaluated for season minutes, points, and rebounds. Prevalence of return to performance and linear regressions were calculated. A total of 285 athletes sustained a severe lower extremity injury. A total of 196 (69%) played for 1 y and 130 (45%) played for 2 y following the injury. A total of 58 (30%) players participated in a similar number of games and 57 (29%) scored similar points 1 y following injury. A total of 48 (37%) participated in a similar number of games and 55 (42%) scored a similar number of points 2 y following injury. Fewer than half of basketball players who suffered a severe lower extremity injury were participating at the NBA level 2 y following injury, with similar findings for groin/hip/thigh, knee, and ankle injuries. Fewer than half of players were performing at previous preinjury levels 2 y following injury. Suffering a severe lower extremity injury may be a prognostic factor that can assist sports medicine professionals to educate and set performance expectations for NBA players.

PMID:36714864 | PMC:PMC9802060 | DOI:10.1093/pnasnexus/pgac176

PNAS Nexus. 2022 Sep 14;1(4):pgac154. doi: 10.1093/pnasnexus/pgac154. eCollection 2022 Sep.

ABSTRACT

We present a data-driven approach to characterizing nonidentifiability of a model’s parameters and illustrate it through dynamic as well as steady kinetic models. By employing Diffusion Maps and their extensions, we discover the minimal combinations of parameters required to characterize the output behavior of a chemical system: a set of effective parameters for the model. Furthermore, we introduce and use a Conformal Autoencoder Neural Network technique, as well as a kernel-based Jointly Smooth Function technique, to disentangle the redundant parameter combinations that do not affect the output behavior from the ones that do. We discuss the interpretability of our data-driven effective parameters, and demonstrate the utility of the approach both for behavior prediction and parameter estimation. In the latter task, it becomes important to describe level sets in parameter space that are consistent with a particular output behavior. We validate our approach on a model of multisite phosphorylation, where a reduced set of effective parameters (nonlinear combinations of the physical ones) has previously been established analytically.

PMID:36714862 | PMC:PMC9802152 | DOI:10.1093/pnasnexus/pgac154

PNAS Nexus. 2022 Aug 27;1(4):pgac169. doi: 10.1093/pnasnexus/pgac169. eCollection 2022 Sep.

ABSTRACT

Routing choices of walking pedestrians in geometrically complex environments are regulated by the interplay of a multitude of factors such as local crowding, (estimated) time to destination, and (perceived) comfort. As individual choices combine, macroscopic traffic flow patterns emerge. Understanding the physical mechanisms yielding macroscopic traffic distributions in environments with complex geometries is an outstanding scientific challenge, with implications in the design and management of crowded pedestrian facilities. In this work, we analyze, by means of extensive real-life pedestrian tracking data, unidirectional flow dynamics in an asymmetric setting, as a prototype for many common complex geometries. Our environment is composed of a main walkway and a slightly longer detour. Our measurements have been collected during a dedicated high-accuracy pedestrian tracking campaign held in Eindhoven (The Netherlands). We show that the dynamics can be quantitatively modeled by introducing a collective discomfort function, and that fluctuations on the behavior of single individuals are crucial to correctly recover the global statistical behavior. Notably, the observed traffic split substantially departs from an optimal, transport-wise, partition, as the global pedestrian throughput is not maximized.

PMID:36714860 | PMC:PMC9802426 | DOI:10.1093/pnasnexus/pgac169

PNAS Nexus. 2022 Sep 1;1(4):pgac181. doi: 10.1093/pnasnexus/pgac181. eCollection 2022 Sep.

ABSTRACT

SARS-CoV-2 continues to evolve, causing waves of the pandemic. Up to May 2022, 10 million genome sequences have accumulated, which are classified into five major variants of concern. With the growing number of sequenced genomes, analysis of the big dataset has become increasingly challenging. Here we developed systematic approaches based on sets of correlated single nucleotide variations (SNVs) for comprehensive subtyping and pattern recognition of transmission dynamics. The approach outperformed single-SNV and spike-centric scans. Moreover, the derived subtypes elucidate the relationship of signature SNVs and transmission dynamics. We found that different subtypes of the same variant, including Delta and Omicron exhibited distinct temporal trajectories. For example, some Delta and Omicron subtypes did not spread rapidly, while others did. We identified sets of characteristic SNVs that appeared to enhance transmission or decrease efficacy of antibodies for some subtypes. We also identified a set of SNVs that appeared to suppress transmission or increase viral sensitivity to antibodies. For the Omicron variant, the dominant type in the world, we identified the subtypes with enhanced and suppressed transmission in an analysis of eight million genomes as of March 2022 and further confirmed the findings in a later analysis of ten million genomes as of May 2022. While the “enhancer” SNVs exhibited an enriched presence on the spike protein, the “suppressor” SNVs are mainly elsewhere. Disruption of the SNV correlation largely destroyed the enhancer-suppressor phenomena. These results suggest the importance of fine subtyping of variants, and point to potential complex interactions among SNVs.

PMID:36714842 | PMC:PMC9802201 | DOI:10.1093/pnasnexus/pgac181

PNAS Nexus. 2022 Aug 27;1(4):pgac174. doi: 10.1093/pnasnexus/pgac174. eCollection 2022 Sep.

ABSTRACT

The instability of human bipedalism demands that the brain accurately senses balancing self-motion and determines whether movements originate from self-generated actions or external disturbances. Here, we challenge the longstanding notion that this process relies on a single representation of the body and world to accurately perceive postural orientation and organize motor responses to control balance self-motion. Instead, we find that the conscious sense of balance can be distorted by the corrective control of upright standing. Using psychophysics, we quantified thresholds to imposed perturbations and balance responses evoking cues of self-motion that are (in)distinguishable from corrective balance actions. When standing immobile, participants clearly perceived imposed perturbations. Conversely, when freely balancing, participants often misattributed their own corrective responses as imposed motion because their balance system had detected, integrated, and responded to the perturbation in the absence of conscious perception. Importantly, this only occurred for perturbations encoded ambiguously with balance-correcting responses and that remained below the natural variability of ongoing balancing oscillations. These findings reveal that our balance system operates on its own sensorimotor principles that can interfere with causal attribution of our actions, and that our conscious sense of balance depends critically on the source and statistics of induced and self-generated motion cues.

PMID:36714829 | PMC:PMC9802180 | DOI:10.1093/pnasnexus/pgac174

Popul Space Place. 2022 Oct 27:e26. doi: 10.1002/psp.2626. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Despite anecdotal evidence of a COVID-19 induced decline in the intensity of interstate migration in Australia, population-level evidence is limited. The recent release of the 2020 wave of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey provides a unique opportunity to robustly assess the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the level, direction, determinants, and reasons for migration in Australia. By applying a series of regression models to individual-level longitudinal microdata, and measuring migration at a range of spatial scales, this paper shows that COVID-19 has somewhat accelerated the long-term decline in the intensity of internal migration-particularly for residential mobility, short-distance migration, and migration due to employment and involuntary reasons. The socio-demographic determinants of migration have remained broadly stable, despite a slight increase in the deterring effect of duration of residence and a reduction in the impact of education. Finally, we show that the increase in net migration gains in regional areas is underpinned by a decrease in outflows. Juxtaposing these results with aggregate-level migration statistics from the Australian Bureau of Statistics from 2021, we conclude that the effect of COVID-19 on internal migration to date has been minimal and is likely to be short-lived. However, it may still be too soon to make a definitive judgement, as shifts in work patterns stemming from the pandemic may further transform the level, direction, and composition of internal migration.

PMID:36714823 | PMC:PMC9874503 | DOI:10.1002/psp.2626

Contemp Clin Trials Commun. 2023 Jan 21:101070. doi: 10.1016/j.conctc.2023.101070. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: The objective of the study was to evaluate the effect of Colchicine 0.5 mg. and Aspirin 75 mg. oral tablets given together on management of moderate COVID-19.

METHODS: The study was carried out in 122 moderate COVID-19 patients between ages 40-80 years in hospital, instructed to take either 1 tablet of Colchicine 0.5 mg. and Aspirin 75 mg. each (treatment group), or 1 tablet of Aspirin 75 mg (Control group), twice a day along with standard of care.

RESULT: At the end of treatment, reduction was seen in the treatment group in score of 8-point ordinal scale, troponin, D-Dimer, Hs-CRP from baseline. There was a fall of 51.1% among control arm and 53.4% among treatment arm in 8-point ordinal score. The reduction in mean D-Dimer was 37% in control group and 38.1% in treatment group. The mean reduction in CT severity score in control group was 3.65 and in treatment group was 4.82, and the difference between the two groups was statistically significant (P value = 0.018).

CONCLUSION: It was evident from CT scan scores that the treatment group has shown significant improvement in the reduction of inflammation and other COVID-19 symptoms as compared to the control group. The fall in Ferritin, Hs-CRP and D-Dimer level after treatment were indicative of improvement in internal inflammatory response of body in COVID-19 disease. As increased troponin levels indicate some degree of heart damage, the fall in troponin levels indicated that test treatment improved heart health in COVID-19 patients.

PMID:36714812 | PMC:PMC9862705 | DOI:10.1016/j.conctc.2023.101070

BMC Musculoskelet Disord. 2023 Jan 30;24(1):77. doi: 10.1186/s12891-023-06167-6.

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: To evaluate the outcomes of distal femoral, proximal tibial, and distal tibial physeal bar resection combined with or without the Hemi-Epiphysiodesis procedure and provide a better understanding of the application of physeal bar resection combined with Hemi-Epiphysiodesis procedure in the treatment of physeal bar growth arrest.

METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the patients who suffered physeal bar and underwent physeal bar resection with or without the Hemi-Epiphysiodesis technique during 2010-2020. All were followed up for at least 2 years or to maturity. A modified mapping method was used to determine the area of a physeal bar by CT data. The aLDFA, aMPTA, aLDTA, MAD, and LLD were measured to assess the deformity of the lower limb.

RESULTS: In total, 19 patients were included in this study. The average age was 8.9 years (range 4.4 to 13.3 years old). During the follow-up, 4 (21.1%) patients had an angular change < 5°; 12 (63.2%) patients had angular deformity improvement > 5° averaging 10.0° (range 5.3° to 23.2°), and 3 (15.8%) patients had improvement of the angular deformity averaging 16.8° (range 7.4° to 27.1°). Eleven patients (57.9%) had significant MAD improvement. After surgery, we found that 7 (36.8%) patients had an LLD change of < 5 mm and were considered unchanged. Only 2 (15%) patients had an LLD improvement > 5 mm averaging 1.0 cm (range 0.7 to 1.3 cm), and 7 (36.8%) patients had increasing of LLD > 5 mm averaging 1.3 cm (range 0.5 to 2.5 cm). There were no postoperative fractures, infections, or intraoperative complications such as neurovascular injury.

CONCLUSION: Physeal bar resection combined with Hemi-epiphysiodesis is helpful for partial epiphysis growth arrest. Without statistically verifying, we still believe that patients with limited growth ability could benefit more from physeal bar resection combined with Hemi-epiphysiodesis.

PMID:36710347 | DOI:10.1186/s12891-023-06167-6