Category: Statistics

PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2022 Jan 10;16(1):e0010120. doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0010120. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Intestinal parasites and Tuberculosis (TB) co-infection is a major public health problem. The parasitic infection suppresses the cell mediated immunity that protects tuberculosis. Helminthes-induced immune modulation promotes progression to active tuberculosis. However, there is paucity of evidences on the intestinal parasites-tuberculosis co-infection in Ethiopia. This study explores the magnitude and associated factors of intestinal parasitic infection and TB among suspected pulmonary Tuberculosis (PTB) patients.

METHODOLOGY: A cross-sectional study design was conducted in Kuyu General Hospital from December 2019-March 2020. The socio-demographic data and associated factors were collected by structured questionnaire and then spot-spot sputum and fresh stool samples were collected following standard guidelines and were processed. Descriptive analysis was conducted and reported in frequency and percentage. Bivariate analysis was computed and a multivariable analysis was conducted to provide an adjusted odds ratio (AOR). P-value <0.05 at 95% confidence interval was considered as statistically significant.

RESULTS: The burden of intestinal parasites was 20.2% (49/ 242) and 6.1% (20/ 242) of them were helminths infections and 14.1% (29/ 242) were protozoa infections. Of 242 patients, 14.9% (36/242) were sputum smear-positive for acid fast-bacilli. Of 36 smear positive patients, 9(25%) had TB-intestinal parasites co-infection. Dwelling in rural areas and having untrimmed fingernails were statistically significantly associated with intestinal parasites. Having a contact history of Tb patients was significantly associated with pulmonary tuberculosis.

CONCLUSIONS: The magnitude of intestinal parasites and TB among PTB suspected patients were high. Hookworm infection was the predominant helmenthic infection. It is important to consider screening TB patients for intestinal parasites and treat co-infection properly.

PMID:35007304 | DOI:10.1371/journal.pntd.0010120

Rev Esc Enferm USP. 2022 Jan 5;56:e20210252. doi: 10.1590/1980-220X-REEUSP-2020-0252. eCollection 2022.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To identify the main nursing diagnoses and interventions in children in the immediate postoperative period of palatoplasty.

METHOD: Documentary and retrospective study, developed in a Brazilian public and tertiary hospital, between August and September 2020. Children who underwent only palatoplasty, between January and December 2019, aged between 10 and 24 months, were included. Those with medical syndromes and/or comorbidities were excluded. The Theoretical Framework of Basic Human Needs and the NANDA International and Nursing Interventions Classification Taxonomies were used. Data underwent descriptive statistical analysis.

RESULTS: The sample consisted of 126 children. Psychobiological needs such as oxygenation, hydration, nutrition, elimination, cutaneous-mucosal and physical integrity, pain and environmental perception predominated. Based on them, nine nursing diagnoses, with four focusing on the problem and five on risk, as well as 17 interventions, were identified.

CONCLUSION: The use of standardized languages to identify affected human needs and, based on them, diagnoses and interventions, favored clinical reasoning for the construction and organization of clinical nursing practice.

PMID:35007314 | DOI:10.1590/1980-220X-REEUSP-2020-0252

PLoS One. 2022 Jan 10;17(1):e0262484. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0262484. eCollection 2022.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Extracellular vesicles are released into body fluids from the majority of, if not all, cell types. Because their secretion and specific cargo (e.g., proteins) varies according to pathology, extracellular vesicles may prove a rich source of biomarkers. However, their biological and pathophysiological functions are poorly understood in hematological malignancies.

OBJECTIVE: Here, we investigated proteome changes in the exosome-rich fraction of the plasma of myelodysplastic syndrome patients and healthy donors.

METHODS: Exosome-rich fraction of the plasma was isolated using ExoQuick™: proteomes were compared and statistically processed; proteins were identified by nanoLC-MS/MS and verified using the ExoCarta and QuickGO databases. Mann-Whitney and Spearman analyses were used to statistically analyze the data. 2D western blot was used to monitor clusterin proteoforms.

RESULTS: Statistical analyses of the data highlighted clusterin alterations as the most significant. 2D western blot showed that the clusterin changes were caused by posttranslational modifications. Moreover, there was a notable increase in the clusterin proteoform in the exosome-rich fraction of plasma of patients with more severe myelodysplastic syndrome; this corresponded with a simultaneous decrease in their plasma.

CONCLUSIONS: This specific clusterin proteoform seems to be a promising biomarker for myelodysplastic syndrome progression.

PMID:35007303 | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0262484

PLoS Comput Biol. 2022 Jan 10;18(1):e1009762. doi: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009762. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Activities of transcription factors (TFs) are temporally modulated to regulate dynamic cellular processes, including development, homeostasis, and disease. Recent developments of bioinformatic tools have enabled the analysis of TF activities using transcriptome data. However, because these methods typically use exon-based target expression levels, the estimated TF activities have limited temporal accuracy. To address this, we proposed a TF activity measure based on intron-level information in time-series RNA-seq data, and implemented it to decode the temporal control of TF activities during dynamic processes. We showed that TF activities inferred from intronic reads can better recapitulate instantaneous TF activities compared to the exon-based measure. By analyzing public and our own time-series transcriptome data, we found that intron-based TF activities improve the characterization of temporal phasing of cycling TFs during circadian rhythm, and facilitate the discovery of two temporally opposing TF modules during T cell activation. Collectively, we anticipate that the proposed approach would be broadly applicable for decoding global transcriptional architecture during dynamic processes.

PMID:35007289 | DOI:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009762

PLoS One. 2022 Jan 10;17(1):e0262414. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0262414. eCollection 2022.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Postpartum urinary Catheter-Related Infections (CRIs) are a significant cause of maternal sepsis. Several studies done have reported the presence of mixed populations of bacteria with a significant increase in Extended-Spectrum Beta-Lactamase (ESBL) Enterobacteriaceae spps, Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), Multi-Drug Resistant (MDR) bacteria in urine and blood cultures of catheterized patients despite the use of prophylactic antibiotics. This study aimed at determining the bacterial species diversity and susceptibility patterns of indwelling urinary catheters from postpartum mothers attending Mbale Regional Referral Hospital (MRRH).

METHODS: A cross-sectional study employing quantitative and qualitative was carried out in MRRH among postpartum mothers with urinary catheters and their care-takers. The purposive non-random sampling strategy was used to collect data using an interviewer-administered questionnaire for the quantitative data collection and in-depth interviews for qualitative data collection. All the data collection tools used were developed, pretested and validated. At the point of de-catheterization, Catheter tips from enrolled participants were cut about 2-3cm below the balloon aseptically into test-tube containing peptone water, sonication technique employed, and incubation done 24hours then cultured to ensure phenotypic identification. An antibiotic sensitivity test was performed using the disc diffusion method following Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) guidelines. Quantitative data collected was entered in Microsoft Excel and then exported to STATA14 for statistical analysis. Thematic analysis was used to analyse and organise qualitative data by an inductive coding method using Nvivo 12 software.

RESULTS: In this study, 208 postpartum mothers participated, the majority of whom were caesarean section mothers of age range 20-24 years and 17 care-takers with a median age of 32 years. The prevalence of catheter tips bacterial colonisation was 98% despite 88.5% of the participants being on broad-spectrum antibiotics. The average duration of catheterisation was 2 days. All bacteria isolates were potential uro-pathogens with a mean occurrence of 2 bacteria species in each urinary catheter tip. The rates of MDR to commonly used antibiotics were high. The urinary catheter size of greater than F14 and duration of catheterization greater than 2 days were significantly associated with the number of bacterial species isolated from each sample. The maintenance care and knowledge of care-urinary catheter care among the care-takers was found sub-optimal.

CONCLUSION: There was a high prevalence of catheter colonisation with bacterial spps diversity averaging 2 spps per sample despite use of broad spectrum antibiotics. The MDR rates were high, which calls for routine culture and sensitivity. Health workers practicing obstetric medicine need to pay attention to catheter sizes during catheterisation and its duration. Health education should be part of antenatal and postnatal care education.

PMID:35007300 | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0262414

PLoS Med. 2022 Jan 10;19(1):e1003884. doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1003884. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted maternity services worldwide and imposed restrictions on societal behaviours. This national study aimed to compare obstetric intervention and pregnancy outcome rates in England during the pandemic and corresponding pre-pandemic calendar periods, and to assess whether differences in these rates varied according to ethnic and socioeconomic background.

METHODS AND FINDINGS: We conducted a national study of singleton births in English National Health Service hospitals. We compared births during the COVID-19 pandemic period (23 March 2020 to 22 February 2021) with births during the corresponding calendar period 1 year earlier. The Hospital Episode Statistics database provided administrative hospital data about maternal characteristics, obstetric inventions (induction of labour, elective or emergency cesarean section, and instrumental birth), and outcomes (stillbirth, preterm birth, small for gestational age [SGA; birthweight < 10th centile], prolonged maternal length of stay (≥3 days), and maternal 42-day readmission). Multi-level logistic regression models were used to compare intervention and outcome rates between the corresponding pre-pandemic and pandemic calendar periods and to test for interactions between pandemic period and ethnic and socioeconomic background. All models were adjusted for maternal characteristics including age, obstetric history, comorbidities, and COVID-19 status at birth. The study included 948,020 singleton births (maternal characteristics: median age 30 years, 41.6% primiparous, 8.3% with gestational diabetes, 2.4% with preeclampsia, and 1.6% with pre-existing diabetes or hypertension); 451,727 births occurred during the defined pandemic period. Maternal characteristics were similar in the pre-pandemic and pandemic periods. Compared to the pre-pandemic period, stillbirth rates remained similar (0.36% pandemic versus 0.37% pre-pandemic, p = 0.16). Preterm birth and SGA birth rates were slightly lower during the pandemic (6.0% versus 6.1% for preterm births, adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 0.96, 95% CI 0.94-0.97; 5.6% versus 5.8% for SGA births, aOR 0.95, 95% CI 0.93-0.96; both p < 0.001). Slightly higher rates of obstetric intervention were observed during the pandemic (40.4% versus 39.1% for induction of labour, aOR 1.04, 95% CI 1.03-1.05; 13.9% versus 12.9% for elective cesarean section, aOR 1.13, 95% CI 1.11-1.14; 18.4% versus 17.0% for emergency cesarean section, aOR 1.07, 95% CI 1.06-1.08; all p < 0.001). Lower rates of prolonged maternal length of stay (16.7% versus 20.2%, aOR 0.77, 95% CI 0.76-0.78, p < 0.001) and maternal readmission (3.0% versus 3.3%, aOR 0.88, 95% CI 0.86-0.90, p < 0.001) were observed during the pandemic period. There was some evidence that differences in the rates of preterm birth, emergency cesarean section, and unassisted vaginal birth varied according to the mother’s ethnic background but not according to her socioeconomic background. A key limitation is that multiple comparisons were made, increasing the chance of false-positive results.

CONCLUSIONS: In this study, we found very small decreases in preterm birth and SGA birth rates and very small increases in induction of labour and elective and emergency cesarean section during the COVID-19 pandemic, with some evidence of a slightly different pattern of results in women from ethnic minority backgrounds. These changes in obstetric intervention rates and pregnancy outcomes may be linked to women’s behaviour, environmental exposure, changes in maternity practice, or reduced staffing levels.

PMID:35007282 | DOI:10.1371/journal.pmed.1003884

PLoS Genet. 2022 Jan 10;18(1):e1009604. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1009604. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Short tandem repeats (STRs) are highly informative genetic markers that have been used extensively in population genetics analysis. They are an important source of genetic diversity and can also have functional impact. Despite the availability of bioinformatic methods that permit large-scale genome-wide genotyping of STRs from whole genome sequencing data, they have not previously been applied to sequencing data from large collections of malaria parasite field samples. Here, we have genotyped STRs using HipSTR in more than 3,000 Plasmodium falciparum and 174 Plasmodium vivax published whole-genome sequence data from samples collected across the globe. High levels of noise and variability in the resultant callset necessitated the development of a novel method for quality control of STR genotype calls. A set of high-quality STR loci (6,768 from P. falciparum and 3,496 from P. vivax) were used to study Plasmodium genetic diversity, population structures and genomic signatures of selection and these were compared to genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping data. In addition, the genome-wide information about genetic variation and other characteristics of STRs in P. falciparum and P. vivax have been available in an interactive web-based R Shiny application PlasmoSTR (https://github.com/bahlolab/PlasmoSTR).

PMID:35007277 | DOI:10.1371/journal.pgen.1009604

Oper Neurosurg (Hagerstown). 2021 Dec 22. doi: 10.1227/ONS.0000000000000044. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Both the pterional and supraorbital approaches have been proposed as optimal access corridors to deep and paramedian anatomy.

OBJECTIVE: To assess key intracranial structures accessed through the surgical approaches using the angle of attack (AOA) and the volume of surgical freedom (VSF) methodologies.

METHODS: Ten pterional and 10 supraorbital craniotomies were completed. Data points were measured using a neuronavigation system. A comparative analysis of the craniocaudal AOA, mediolateral AOA, and VSF of the ipsilateral paraclinoid internal carotid artery (ICA), terminal ICA, and anterior communicating artery (ACoA) complex was completed.

RESULTS: For the paraclinoid ICA, the pterional approach produced larger craniocaudal AOA, mediolateral AOA, and VSF than the supraorbital approach (28.06° vs 10.52°, 33.76° vs 23.95°, and 68.73 vs 22.59 mm3 normalized unit [NU], respectively; P < .001). The terminal ICA showed similar superiority of the pterional approach in all quantitative parameters (27.43° vs 11.65°, 30.62° vs 25.31°, and 57.41 vs 17.36 mm3 NU; P < .05). For the ACoA, there were statistically significant differences between the results obtained using the pterional and supraorbital approaches (18.45° vs 10.11°, 29.68° vs 21.01°, and 26.81 vs 16.53 mm3 NU; P < .005).

CONCLUSION: The pterional craniotomy was significantly superior in all instrument maneuverability parameters for approaching the ipsilateral paraclinoid ICA, terminal ICA, and ACoA. This global evaluation of 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional surgical freedom and instrument maneuverability by amalgamating the craniocaudal AOA, mediolateral AOA, and VSF produces a comprehensive assessment while generating spatially and anatomically accurate corridor models that provide improved visual depiction for preoperative planning and surgical decision-making.

PMID:35007268 | DOI:10.1227/ONS.0000000000000044

PLoS Comput Biol. 2022 Jan 10;18(1):e1009672. doi: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009672. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Animals display characteristic behavioural patterns when performing a task, such as the spiraling of a soaring bird or the surge-and-cast of a male moth searching for a female. Identifying such recurring sequences occurring rarely in noisy behavioural data is key to understanding the behavioural response to a distributed stimulus in unrestrained animals. Existing models seek to describe the dynamics of behaviour or segment individual locomotor episodes rather than to identify the rare and transient sequences of locomotor episodes that make up the behavioural response. To fill this gap, we develop a lexical, hierarchical model of behaviour. We designed an unsupervised algorithm called “BASS” to efficiently identify and segment recurring behavioural action sequences transiently occurring in long behavioural recordings. When applied to navigating larval zebrafish, BASS extracts a dictionary of remarkably long, non-Markovian sequences consisting of repeats and mixtures of slow forward and turn bouts. Applied to a novel chemotaxis assay, BASS uncovers chemotactic strategies deployed by zebrafish to avoid aversive cues consisting of sequences of fast large-angle turns and burst swims. In a simulated dataset of soaring gliders climbing thermals, BASS finds the spiraling patterns characteristic of soaring behaviour. In both cases, BASS succeeds in identifying rare action sequences in the behaviour deployed by freely moving animals. BASS can be easily incorporated into the pipelines of existing behavioural analyses across diverse species, and even more broadly used as a generic algorithm for pattern recognition in low-dimensional sequential data.

PMID:35007275 | DOI:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009672

J Trauma Nurs. 2022 Jan-Feb 01;29(1):41-46. doi: 10.1097/JTN.0000000000000630.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Child maltreatment is widespread, and its victims are frequently treated by trauma providers. However, providers across disciplines report feeling ill-equipped to identify and treat victims of child maltreatment and also report high levels of burnout and secondary traumatic stress.

OBJECTIVE: This study aims to evaluate an intervention to improve health care provider knowledge, recognition, and reporting of child maltreatment and promote provider resilience as they care for victims of child maltreatment.

METHODS: This is a single-group pre/posttest study design conducted from April to October 2019 of an educational intervention addressing child maltreatment knowledge, recognition, and self-care strategies for providers. Baseline and 6-month post-event questionnaires evaluated child maltreatment recognition and reporting, and the Professional Quality of Life instrument was used to measure compassion satisfaction, burnout, and secondary traumatic stress. Statistical analyses were conducted to evaluate the impact of the intervention on participants’ self-reported knowledge, compassion, burnout, and secondary traumatic stress.

RESULTS: A total of 164 health care providers participated in the study; the majority were nurses (69.5%). There was a 51.2% response rate for the 6-month post-event questionnaire (n = 84). Health care providers’ knowledge of child maltreatment recognition and reporting significantly improved from pre-event (Mdn = 24.0) to post-event (Mdn = 27.0), z =-6.4, p < .001, and significantly decreased in secondary traumatic stress pre-event (Mdn = 20.0) to post-event (Mdn = 17.5), z =-2.11, p = .035. No changes were noted in compassion satisfaction or burnout.

CONCLUSIONS: Educational activities can improve provider knowledge and recognition of child maltreatment and facilitate secondary traumatic stress reduction.

PMID:35007250 | DOI:10.1097/JTN.0000000000000630