Tag: statistics

BMC Med Educ. 2025 Apr 18;25(1):573. doi: 10.1186/s12909-025-07156-0.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Traditional lecture-based learning has been the cornerstone of dental education; however, active learning strategies such as flipped classrooms are gaining popularity for their potential to enhance student engagement and performance. This study evaluated the effectiveness of three teaching methods-traditional live lectures, flipped video classrooms, and interactive flipped classrooms-on improving academic performance and student perceptions among fourth-year dental students.

METHODS: This study employed a stratified randomization design involving 156 fourth-year dental students using a single lecture in an undergraduate orthodontics course. The students were first grouped into four categories based on their Grade Point Average (GPA): Excellent, Very Good, Good, and Satisfactory. From these groups, students were randomly drawn and placed into one of three intervention groups: live lecture, flipped classroom with video lectures, and flipped classroom with interactive video lectures. Pre- and post-intervention assessments evaluated knowledge improvement, while objective structured assessments measured academic performance. Student perceptions were gauged using validated Likert-scale questionnaires. Paired t-tests assessed within-group differences, and ANOVA compared effectiveness across teaching methods. Pearson’s correlation analysis examined the relationship between academic performance and GPA of the students.

RESULTS: All three teaching methods showed significant improvements in post-intervention scores (p < 0.001). The Live Lecture Group had the greatest mean improvement (27.69), followed by the Flipped Video Lecture Group (27.30) and the Flipped Interactive Lecture Group (27.11). However, ANOVA revealed no statistically significant differences between the groups (F (2, 153) = 0.007, p = 0.993). Female students performed better in the live lecture setting (32.60 ± 25.08) compared to males (23.79 ± 21.44). Students with lower GPAs benefited most from the interactive flipped classroom, Pearson’s correlation indicated a strong positive association between GPA and post-intervention scores (r = 0.708, p < 0.001). Student satisfaction was highest in the interactive flipped classroom, with 97.7% rating the experience as “Excellent” or “Very Good.”

CONCLUSIONS: All three teaching methods led to significant improvement in post-test scores. While students reported higher engagement and satisfaction in flipped and interactive flipped lectures, the live lecture method was also effective for knowledge retention. These findings highlight the importance of tailoring educational strategies to diverse student needs in dental education. Educators should consider a blended model that integrates flipped and traditional strategies selectively, balancing feasibility with student needs, as developing multiple formats can be time-intensive with only modest differences in outcomes.

CLINICAL TRIAL NUMBER: Not applicable.

PMID:40251621 | DOI:10.1186/s12909-025-07156-0

J Cardiothorac Surg. 2025 Apr 18;20(1):210. doi: 10.1186/s13019-024-03230-8.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To observe, compare and explore the effect of enhanced extracorporeal counterpulsation (EECP) treatment on cardiac rehabilitation in patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) after undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) using a drug-coated balloon (DCB).

METHODS: This study was a prospective randomised controlled trial of 60 patients with AMI after undergoing PCI using a DCB. Using a random number table method, the patients were randomly divided into control and rehabilitation groups, with 30 patients in each. The follow-up period was 6 months. Patients in the control group received conventional drug and exercise rehabilitation after undergoing DCB-based PCI; those in the rehabilitation group were also given an EECP-based rehabilitation regimen after 7 days of medication and exercise rehabilitation. The effects of EECP on the rehabilitation of patients with AMI after undergoing DCB-based PCI were evaluated by observing changes in cardiac function before and after treatment in the two groups of patients, including cardiac output (CO), stroke volume (SV), brain natriuretic peptide (BNP), left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and 6-minute walking distance (6MWD).

RESULTS: After 6 months of treatment, the control versus the rehabilitation groups’ cardiac function results were as follows: CO (5.00 ± 0.67 vs. 4.64 ± 0.58, P = 0.023), SV (70.53 ± 3.33 vs. 65.57 ± 6.10, P < 0.001), BNP (157.63 ± 15.37 vs. 219.40 ± 16.73, P < 0.001), LVEF (65.57 ± 4.33 vs. 60.10 ± 2.92, P < 0.001) and 6MWD (455.43 ± 39.75 vs. 400.73 ± 36.81, P < 0.001). The patients in the rehabilitation group showed improved cardiac function compared with the control group, with statistically significant differences. Furthermore, the improvement in the New York Heart Association cardiac function grading (P < 0.001) and Canadian Cardiovascular Association angina grading (P < 0.001) in the rehabilitation group were significantly improved compared with the gradings of the control group.

CONCLUSION: Using EECP treatment significantly improved the cardiac function of patients with AMI after undergoing DCB-based PCI and was beneficial for their cardiac rehabilitation.

PMID:40251618 | DOI:10.1186/s13019-024-03230-8

J Health Popul Nutr. 2025 Apr 18;44(1):122. doi: 10.1186/s41043-025-00817-2.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: There is mounting evidence suggesting a direct connection between inflammatory responses and the pathophysiology of overactive bladder (OAB). However, conventional inflammatory markers do not directly indicate a correlation with OAB. Therefore, our goal was to investigate the relationship between OAB and a novel inflammatory marker, the neutrophil percentage-to-plasma-albumin ratio (NPAR).

METHODS: This study included 28,906 participants from the 2005-2018 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Weighted multivariate regression models and multiple regression equations were applied to evaluate the correlation between NPAR and OAB. Additionally, to evaluate the possibility of a linear relationship between NPAR and OAB, smoothed curve fitting was used. Sensitivity and stratified analyses were conducted to assess the robustness of the results.

RESULTS: The final sample size consisted of 28,906 individuals, with an overall OAB prevalence of 24.6%. Using a weighted multivariate logistic model and adjusting for multiple covariates, we identified a strong association between NPAR and OAB (OR 1.074, 95% CI 1.06-1.08). Individuals in the highest NPAR quartile had a 32% greater prevalence of OAB compared to those in the lowest quartile. Smoothed curve fitting showed a nonlinear connection between NPAR and OAB, and the effect sizes remained consistent across specific subgroups (P for interaction < 0.05).

CONCLUSION: The incidence of OAB was shown to positively correlate with higher NPAR levels in this investigation. NPAR might be a useful and affordable biomarker for determining who is at risk for OAB, facilitating timely intervention.

PMID:40251617 | DOI:10.1186/s41043-025-00817-2

BMC Chem. 2025 Apr 18;19(1):103. doi: 10.1186/s13065-025-01455-9.

ABSTRACT

Milk is a widely consumed dietary product due to its high nutritional value. The presence of veterinary drug residues in milk constitutes a potential risk to human health and undesirable effects on consumers. In this study, a chromatographic method was developed and optimized for quantitative analysis of imidocarb dipropionate (IMD), flunixin meglumine (FNM), and sulfadimidine (SDD) residues in milk. These drugs are used together as a combination therapy for the management of anaplasmosis in cattle. The chromatographic separation was performed using an ODS Hypersil C18 column with UV detection at 270 nm. The mobile phase consisted of 0.05 M phosphate buffer, pH 3: acetonitrile: methanol (55:30:15, by volume), with a flow rate of 1 mL/min. Before analysis, a protein precipitation procedure was performed to extract the studied drugs from milk by using methanol as an extractor/deproteinization agent. The proposed method was successfully employed to quantify the studied drug residues in cattle milk samples within and after their withdrawal periods. The developed method was statistically compared with reported methods, demonstrating no significant difference in terms of accuracy and precision. Greenness and environmental impact were also evaluated for the proposed procedure, verifying it was a green and eco-friendly analytical method.

PMID:40251611 | DOI:10.1186/s13065-025-01455-9

Virol J. 2025 Apr 18;22(1):104. doi: 10.1186/s12985-025-02706-w.

ABSTRACT

Listeriosis, caused by Listeria monocytogenes (Lm), is a severe foodborne illness with a high fatality rate. Listeria phages specifically target and lyse Lm, offer a promising alternative for biocontrol and phage therapy. However, most existing studies focus on the lytic characteristics of Listeria phages using limited sample sizes. In this study, a large number of Listeria phages were isolated from diverse sources, and their lytic profiles and morphology were characterized. A total of 317 Listeria phages were isolated from 90 food-related environmental samples and 196 natural environmental samples collected across seven provinces. The phages were tested for lytic activity against 35 Lm strains representing nine serotypes, and their morphology was characterized using transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Statistical analysis was conducted to evaluate the lytic patterns of phages. The phages were classified into three groups based on their total lysis ratios. Broad Host Range Phages (BHRP) were primarily members of the Myoviridae-like phages and demonstrated the ability to lyse a vast majority of nine serotype host strains. Medium Host Range Phages (MHRP) comprised both Siphoviridae-like and Myoviridae-like phages, and demonstrated lysis of 6-9 serotype strains. Narrow Host Range Phages (NHRP) belonged to the Siphoviridae-like phages and exhibited effective lysis of serotype 4 strains. Furthermore, phages isolated from food-related environmental sources demonstrated greater lytic activity against Listeria serotypes 1/2b, 4a, and 4c compared to those derived from natural environmental sources. The study first isolated a multitude of Listeria phages, elucidated their lytic patterns and ecological distribution, and provided a valuable resource for future research.

PMID:40251606 | DOI:10.1186/s12985-025-02706-w

BMC Med Imaging. 2025 Apr 18;25(1):127. doi: 10.1186/s12880-025-01668-3.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: To use of statistical methods to assess the diagnostic value of arterial spin labeling (ASL) imaging for follow-up of treated arteriovenous malformations.

METHODS: We screened references from four databases, namely, the Cochrane Library, PubMed, Web of Science and Embase, that met the requirements. The methodology quality of the included studies was evaluated using the QUADAS-2 (Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies-2) tool. Data pertaining to diagnostic performance were extracted, and the pooled sensitivity and specificity were calculated using a bivariate mixed-effects model.

RESULTS: We included six studies with a total of 132 patients with arteriovenous malformation (AVM). The merged sensitivity and specificity of ASL for the diagnosis of brain AVMs with incomplete occlusion after treatment were 0.94[0.86-0.98] and 0.99 [0.59-1.00], respectively. According to the SROC curve summary, the AUC was found to be 0.98 [0.96-0.99]. No significant publication bias was observed.

CONCLUSION: While ASL does not currently match the diagnostic precision of DSA, it is instrumental in post-treatment surveillance of AVM patients. With the development of ASL technology in the future, this technique holds promise as a minimally invasive diagnostic strategy for AVMs with fewer side effects.

REGISTRATION NUMBER OF PROSPERO: CRD42023422087.

CLINICAL TRIAL NUMBER: Not applicable.

PMID:40251605 | DOI:10.1186/s12880-025-01668-3

BMC Psychol. 2025 Apr 18;13(1):407. doi: 10.1186/s40359-025-02715-y.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to explore the link between cognitive impairment and levels of asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA).

METHODS: The study included 172 patients from the Department of Geriatrics and Neurology at the Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University. The enrollment period spanned from October 2013 to July 2014. To assess their cognitive function, we used the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA). Additionally, automatic biochemical analyzers were employed to measure various biochemical blood indexes, while enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was used to determine the serum ADMA concentrations.

RESULTS: The participants were categorized into four groups based on the MMSE scale, which reflects cognition (higher scores indicating better cognitive function), and five groups based on the MoCA scale, which also measures cognition (higher scores indicating better cognitive function). Various factors were analyzed for their statistical significance in relation to different cognitive impairment groups determined by each scale. Regarding the MoCA scale, the following factors were found to be statistically significant: Age (P = 0.0001), systolic blood pressure (P = 0.0261), ALT (P = 0.0104), AST (P = 0.0106), endogenous creatinine clearance (P = 0.0006), and serum ADMA concentration (P = 0.0383). For the MMSE scale, the following factors showed statistical significance: Age (P = 0.0008), ALT (P = 0.0002), AST (P = 0.0088), CRP (P = 0.0407), and endogenous creatinine clearance (P = 0.0027). Interestingly, as the scores on the MoCA scale decreased, the serum ADMA concentration increased (P=0.0383), but this trend was not observed in the groups classified based on the MMSE scale (P > 0.05).

CONCLUSION: The level of sensitivity measured by the MoCA scale indicated the presence of initial cognitive dysfunction. The extent of cognitive impairment showed a direct correlation with ADMA levels, indirectly implying a connection between impaired endothelial function and cognitive dysfunction.

PMID:40251603 | DOI:10.1186/s40359-025-02715-y

BMC Womens Health. 2025 Apr 19;25(1):193. doi: 10.1186/s12905-025-03714-2.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Post sexual-based violence (SBV) services are crucial for mitigating SBV-induced consequences. However, these services are reportedly rare and often underutilized, particularly by young women in Sub-Saharan Africa. This study aimed to explore the barriers and facilitators to accessing post-SBV services among young women (18-24 years) attending higher education institutions in Nigeria.

METHODS: An online survey, using a piloted questionnaire, was administered to a purposive sample of 114 participants recruited from social media platforms between the 8th and 22nd March 2022. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the study findings.

RESULTS: The majority (71.1%) of the participants were between the ages of 21 and 24 years. Of the 37 participants who indicated they have had their first sexual intercourse, a quarter (9, 24.3%) indicated it was non-consensual. Also, 1 in 5 respondents did not identify SBV/abuse as abnormal. Half of the participants (50.9%) strongly agreed that a post-SBV health service should be the first place to seek care following an incident of rape, however, over half (53.2%) reported a lack of awareness of existing post-SBV health services as a key barrier affecting access. Less than half of the participants strongly agreed that healthcare workers could provide the post-SBV services highlighted in the study, including emergency contraceptives to prevent pregnancy (42.9%) and post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) to prevent human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) (39.6%), highlighting awareness gaps. Other significant barriers included stigma, shame, and a lack of support systems. Key facilitators included assurance of confidentiality and access to free post-SBV health services.

CONCLUSION: Significant barriers and facilitators affect access to post-SBV health services in Nigeria, particularly among young women. Multilevel efforts by families, civil society organizations, communities, and governments are essential to address these barriers and improve access to post-SBV health services.

PMID:40251599 | DOI:10.1186/s12905-025-03714-2

Virol J. 2025 Apr 18;22(1):105. doi: 10.1186/s12985-025-02726-6.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: There have been no previous studies on male HPV infection in the Huizhou region. This research aims to investigate the HPV infection rate and genotype distribution among male patients in this area, offering valuable insights for developing targeted preventive strategies against HPV infection in male population.

METHODS: This study included 1009 male patients from Huizhou Central People’s Hospital who underwent HPV genotype testing between 2014 and 2023. We analyzed the distribution of HPV genotypes by year, age group, and diagnosis. Additionally, clinical data from 308 HPV-positive patients were retrospectively collected, and differences in high-risk vs. low-risk types, single vs. multiple infections, and genotype correlations were analyzed.

RESULTS: The overall HPV positivity rate was 30.53%, with the positive rate(40.56%) in the 2014-2019 group being significantly higher than that in 2021 (25.56%) and 2022 (24.29%)(p<0.05). The most common genotypes were HPV6, HPV52, HPV11, and HPV16. HPV infection was most prevalent in the 41-50 age group, while males aged ≤ 30 were predominantly infected with low-risk types (41.73%). The 31-40 age group had a higher prevalence of high-risk types (52.07%), with males under 50 primarily infected with low-risk HPV6, while those aged 51 and above mostly had high-risk HPV52 infections. The highest HPV positivity rate was found in the viral wart group (79.01%). Single infections were more common (64.29%), with co-infection of HPV6 and HPV16 being the most prevalent type.

CONCLUSION: The overall HPV infection rate was relatively high among outpatient male patients in Huizhou, with single infections being predominant. Additionally, HPV infection rates exhibited significant differences across various years, age groups, and diagnostic types, suggesting that these factors should be considered when formulating HPV prevention and control strategies.

PMID:40251597 | DOI:10.1186/s12985-025-02726-6

Neural Netw. 2025 Apr 12;188:107432. doi: 10.1016/j.neunet.2025.107432. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

While end-to-end Text-to-Speech (TTS) methods with limited target speaker corpus can generate high-quality speech, they often require a non-target speaker corpus (auxiliary corpus) which contains a substantial amount of <text, speech> pairs to train the model, significantly increasing training costs. In this work, we propose a fast and high-quality speech synthesis approach, requiring few target speaker recordings. Based on statistics, we analyzed the role of phonemes, function words, and utterance target domains in the corpus and proposed a Statistical-based Compression Auxiliary Corpus algorithm (SCAC). It significantly improves model training speed without a noticeable decrease in speech naturalness. Next, we use the compressed corpus to train the proposed non-autoregressive model CMDF-TTS, which uses a multi-level prosody modeling module to obtain more information and Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models (DDPMs) to generate mel-spectrograms. Besides, we fine-tune the model using the target speaker corpus to embed the speaker’s characteristics into the model and Conditional Variational Auto-Encoder Generative Adversarial Networks(CVAE-GAN) to enhance further the synthesized speech’s quality. Experimental results on multiple Mandarin and English corpus demonstrate that the CMDF-TTS model, enhanced by the SCAC algorithm, effectively balances training speed and synthesized speech quality. Overall, its performance surpasses that of state-of-the-art models.

PMID:40249999 | DOI:10.1016/j.neunet.2025.107432