Tag: statistics

Memory. 2024 May 22:1-12. doi: 10.1080/09658211.2024.2357144. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

We investigated the phenomenological and narrative characteristics of young adults’ self- and other-related memories within the context of significant relationships. We also examined whether participants’ gender and/or gender concordance between participants and their siblings was associated with autobiographical memory characteristics. We collected data from 108 college students who had only one sibling. All participants provided narratives in response to three memory prompts (i.e., self-related, sibling-related, and family-related) and rated their memories along dimensions such as significance, emotional valence, clarity etc. The narratives were coded on thematic content, transformativeness, mentions of others, and event type dimensions. Results revealed differences between self-related memories and sibling- and family-related memories across several dimensions. However, sibling-related and family-related memories were mostly similar to each other. No statistically significant gender or gender concordance differences were observed. Further exploratory analysis showed that memory narratives describing extended events were more transformative than single event narratives. The findings enhance our understanding about the self-in-relation to others through relationship memories.

PMID:38776462 | DOI:10.1080/09658211.2024.2357144

Diabetes Care. 2024 May 22:dc232153. doi: 10.2337/dc23-2153. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: Evidence of the associations between fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and diabetes risk from women of reproductive age, in whom diabetes may have adverse long-term health effects for both themselves and future generations, remains scarce. We therefore examined the associations of long-term PM2.5 exposure with fasting blood glucose (FBG) level and diabetes risk in women of reproductive age in China.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: This study included 20,076,032 women age 20-49 years participating in the National Free Preconception Health Examination Project in China between 2010 and 2015. PM2.5 was estimated using a satellite-based model. Multivariate linear and logistic regression models were used to examine the associations of PM2.5 exposure with FBG level and diabetes risk, respectively. Diabetes burden attributable to PM2.5 was estimated using attributable fraction (AF) and attributable number.

RESULTS: PM2.5 showed monotonic relationships with elevated FBG level and diabetes risk. Each interquartile range (27 μg/m3) increase in 3-year average PM2.5 concentration was associated with a 0.078-mmol/L (95% CI 0.077, 0.079) increase in FBG and 18% (95% CI 16%, 19%) higher risk of diabetes. The AF attributed to PM2.5 exposure exceeding 5 μg/m3 was 29.0% (95% CI 27.5%, 30.5%), corresponding to an additional 78.6 thousand (95% CI 74.5, 82.6) diabetes cases. Subgroup analyses showed more pronounced diabetes risks in those who were overweight or obese, age >35 years, less educated, of minority ethnicity, registered as a rural household, and residing in western China.

CONCLUSIONS: We found long-term PM2.5 exposure was associated with higher diabetes risk in women of reproductive age in China.

PMID:38776453 | DOI:10.2337/dc23-2153

J Pharm Pharmacol. 2024 May 22:rgae058. doi: 10.1093/jpp/rgae058. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to reveal the anti-fibrotic effects of Botrychium ternatum (Thunb.) Sw. (BT) against idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and to preliminarily analyze its potential mechanism on bleomycin-induced IPF rats.

METHODS: The inhibition of fibrosis progression in vivo was assessed by histopathology combined with biochemical indicators. In addition, the metabolic regulatory mechanism was investigated using 1H-nuclear magnetic resonance-based metabolomics combined with multivariate statistical analysis.

KEY FINDINGS: Firstly, biochemical analysis revealed that BT notably suppressed the expression of hydroxyproline and transforming growth factor-β1 in the pulmonary tissue. Secondly, Masson’s trichrome staining and hematoxylin and eosin showed that BT substantially improved the structure of the damaged lung and significantly inhibited the proliferation of collagen fibers and the deposition of extracellular matrix. Finally, serum metabolomic analysis suggested that BT may exert anti-fibrotic effects by synergistically regulating tyrosine metabolism; phenylalanine, tyrosine and tryptophan biosynthesis; and synthesis and degradation of ketone bodies.

CONCLUSIONS: Our study not only clarifies the potential anti-fibrotic mechanism of BT against IPF at the metabolic level but also provides a theoretical basis for developing BT as an effective anti-fibrotic agent.

PMID:38776436 | DOI:10.1093/jpp/rgae058

J Addict Med. 2024 May 22. doi: 10.1097/ADM.0000000000001328. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

This case report highlights a 36-year-old male without history of psychiatric disease, chronic pain, or substance use disorder who developed severe substance use disorder per Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition criteria to kratom. He was successfully treated with sublingual buprenorphine after a 3-year period of intermittent withdrawal management and trials of oral and extended-release injectable naltrexone. After a period of abstinence from kratom, he was tapered from buprenorphine using 2 monthly injections of 100 mg extended-release buprenorphine. His case underscores some of the current uncertainties around kratom use disorder diagnosis and treatment.

PMID:38776432 | DOI:10.1097/ADM.0000000000001328

J Addict Med. 2024 May 22. doi: 10.1097/ADM.0000000000001310. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: Benzodiazepines are commonly misused medications frequently implicated in overdose deaths. Data show that benzodiazepine prescribing is associated with increased misuse. We sought to determine national trends in benzodiazepine prescribing from the emergency department (ED).

METHODS: This is a retrospective review of the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey from 2012 to 2019. Our primary outcome was to evaluate trends in ED visits where a benzodiazepine was prescribed at discharge. Secondarily, we identified commonly prescribed benzodiazepines and assessed trends over time. We examined demographic data and used descriptive statistics and Spearman rho or Pearson correlation coefficient as applicable.

RESULTS: Between 2012 and 2019, there were 13,848,578 visits where benzodiazepines were prescribed at ED discharge. In 2012 and 2019, there were 1,407,478 visits (1.1% of all ED visits) and 1,361,372 visits (0.9%), respectively, where benzodiazepines were prescribed (mean [SD], 1,731,072 [287,623] [1.26%]), with no trend (P = 0.31). Common benzodiazepines prescribed were diazepam (5,980,279 visits, 43.2% of all prescriptions), alprazolam (3,306,549, 23.9%), and clonazepam (2,105,963, 15.2%), with no changes over time. Fifteen percent of prescriptions were for patients 65 years or older.

CONCLUSION: Despite reports of increased misuse, there was no change in ED discharge benzodiazepine prescribing. Concerningly, alprazolam, a benzodiazepine with high misuse potential, was frequently prescribed despite limited ED indications, and there was a large percentage of visits where benzodiazepines were prescribed to older adults despite warnings for adverse effects in this population. Future studies should assess rational prescribing and the role of targeted interventions to curb inappropriate use.

PMID:38776422 | DOI:10.1097/ADM.0000000000001310

Prehosp Emerg Care. 2024 May 22:1-7. doi: 10.1080/10903127.2024.2359505. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Objectives: Despite limited supporting data, hospitals continue to apply ambulance diversion (AD). Thus, we examined the impact of three different diversion policies on diversion hours, transport time (TT; leaving scene to arrival at the hospital), and ambulance patient offload time (APOT; arrival at the hospital to patient turnover to hospital staff) for 9-1-1 transports in a 22-hospital county Emergency Medical Services (EMS) system.Methods: This retrospective study evaluated metrics during periods of three AD policies, each 27 days long: hospital-initiated (Period 1), complete suspension (Period 2), and County EMS-initiated (Period 3). We described the median transports and diversion hours, and compared the daily average and daily 90^th percentile TT and APOT during the three study periods.Results: Over the study period, there were 50,992 total transports in the county; Period 3 had fewer median transports per day than Period 1 (581 vs 623, p < 0.001), while Period 2 was similar to Period 1 (606 vs 623, p = 0.108). Median average daily diversion hours decreased from 98.1 hours during Period 1 to zero hours during both Periods 2 (p < 0.001) and 3 (p < 0.001). Median daily average TT decreased from 18.3 minutes in Period 1 to 16.9 minutes in both Periods 2 (p < 0.001) and 3 (p < 0.001). Median daily 90th percentile TT showed a similar decrease from 30.2 minutes in Period 1 to 27.5 in Period 2 (p < 0.001), and to 28.1 in Period 3 (p = 0.001). Median average daily APOT was 26.0 minutes during Period 1, similar at 25.2 minutes during Period 2 (p = 826) and decreased to 20.4 minutes during Period 3 (p < 0.001). The median daily 90th percentile APOT was 53.9 minutes during Period 1, similar at 51.7 minutes during Period 2 (p = 0.553) and decreased to 40.3 minutes during Period 3 (p < 0.001).Conclusions: Compared to hospital-initiated AD, enacting no AD or County EMS-initiated AD was associated with less diversion time; TT and APOT showed statistically significant improvement without hospital-initiated AD but were of unclear clinical significance. EMS-initiated AD was difficult to interpret as that period had significantly fewer transports. EMS systems should consider these findings when developing strategies to improve TT, APOT, and system use of diversion.

PMID:38776421 | DOI:10.1080/10903127.2024.2359505

Sci Transl Med. 2024 May 22;16(748):eadj3385. doi: 10.1126/scitranslmed.adj3385. Epub 2024 May 22.

ABSTRACT

Variation in DNA methylation (DNAmet) in white blood cells and other cells/tissues has been implicated in the etiology of progressive diabetic kidney disease (DKD). However, the specific mechanisms linking DNAmet variation in blood cells with risk of kidney failure (KF) and utility of measuring blood cell DNAmet in personalized medicine are not clear. We measured blood cell DNAmet in 277 individuals with type 1 diabetes and DKD using Illumina EPIC arrays; 51% of the cohort developed KF during 7 to 20 years of follow-up. Our epigenome-wide analysis identified DNAmet at 17 CpGs (5′-cytosine-phosphate-guanine-3′ loci) associated with risk of KF independent of major clinical risk factors. DNAmet at these KF-associated CpGs remained stable over a median period of 4.7 years. Furthermore, DNAmet variations at seven KF-associated CpGs were strongly associated with multiple genetic variants at seven genomic regions, suggesting a strong genetic influence on DNAmet. The effects of DNAmet variations at the KF-associated CpGs on risk of KF were partially mediated by multiple KF-associated circulating proteins and KF-associated circulating miRNAs. A prediction model for risk of KF was developed by adding blood cell DNAmet at eight selected KF-associated CpGs to the clinical model. This updated model significantly improved prediction performance (c-statistic = 0.93) versus the clinical model (c-statistic = 0.85) at P = 6.62 × 10^-14. In conclusion, our multiomics study provides insights into mechanisms through which variation of DNAmet may affect KF development and shows that blood cell DNAmet at certain CpGs can improve risk prediction for KF in T1D.

PMID:38776390 | DOI:10.1126/scitranslmed.adj3385

Sci Robot. 2024 May 22;9(90):eadj8812. doi: 10.1126/scirobotics.adj8812. Epub 2024 May 22.

ABSTRACT

To enhance wearable robots, understanding user intent and environmental perception with novel vision approaches is needed.

PMID:38776377 | DOI:10.1126/scirobotics.adj8812

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2024 May 28;121(22):e2319249121. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2319249121. Epub 2024 May 22.

ABSTRACT

The consistency of energy landscape theory predictions with available experimental data, as well as direct evidence from molecular simulations, have shown that protein folding mechanisms are largely determined by the contacts present in the native structure. As expected, native contacts are generally energetically favorable. However, there are usually at least as many energetically favorable nonnative pairs owing to the greater number of possible nonnative interactions. This apparent frustration must therefore be reduced by the greater cooperativity of native interactions. In this work, we analyze the statistics of contacts in the unbiased all-atom folding trajectories obtained by Shaw and coworkers, focusing on the unfolded state. By computing mutual cooperativities between contacts formed in the unfolded state, we show that native contacts form the most cooperative pairs, while cooperativities among nonnative or between native and nonnative contacts are typically much less favorable or even anticooperative. Furthermore, we show that the largest network of cooperative interactions observed in the unfolded state consists mainly of native contacts, suggesting that this set of mutually reinforcing interactions has evolved to stabilize the native state.

PMID:38776371 | DOI:10.1073/pnas.2319249121

PLoS One. 2024 May 22;19(5):e0302870. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0302870. eCollection 2024.

ABSTRACT

The systematic identification of insertion/deletion (InDel) length polymorphisms from the entire lentil genome can be used to map the quantitative trait loci (QTL) and also for the marker-assisted selection (MAS) for various linked traits. The InDels were identified by comparing the whole-genome resequencing (WGRS) data of two extreme bulks (early- and late-flowering bulk) and a parental genotype (Globe Mutant) of lentil. The bulks were made by pooling 20 extreme recombinant inbred lines (RILs) each, derived by crossing Globe Mutant (late flowering parent) with L4775 (early flowering parent). Finally, 734,716 novel InDels were identified, which is nearly one InDel per 5,096 bp of lentil genome. Furthermore, 74.94% of InDels were within the intergenic region and 99.45% displayed modifier effects. Of these, 15,732 had insertions or deletions of 20 bp or more, making them amenable to the development of PCR-based markers. An InDel marker I-SP-356.6 (chr. 3; position 356,687,623; positioned 174.5 Kb from the LcFRI gene) was identified as having a phenotypic variance explained (PVE) value of 47.7% for earliness when validated in a RIL population. Thus, I-SP-356.6 marker can be deployed in MAS to facilitate the transfer of the earliness trait to other elite late-maturing cultivars. Two InDel markers viz., I-SP-356.6 and I-SP-383.9 (chr. 3; linked to LcELF3a gene) when tested in 9 lentil genotypes differing for maturity duration, clearly distinguished three early (L4775, ILL7663, Precoz) and four late genotypes (Globe Mutant, MFX, L4602, L830). However, these InDels could not be validated in two genotypes (L4717, L4727), suggesting either absence of polymorphism and/or presence of other loci causing earliness. The identified InDel markers can act as valuable tools for MAS for the development of early maturing lentil varieties.

PMID:38776345 | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0302870