Tag: statistics

Microsc Res Tech. 2022 Feb 17. doi: 10.1002/jemt.24078. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

To evaluate the caries-affected dentin and composite-resin interface with scanning electron microscopy (SEM) after different caries removal methods in human molars. Twelve with extensive approximal caries lesions that did not reach the pulp and five caries-free molars (control group [CG]) were used. Carious teeth were divided into four experimental groups: Atraumatic Restorative Treatment (ART), Rotary Instrument (RI), Photo-Ablation, and Papain-Based Enzymatic Gel (Brix 3000®, Brix, Brazil). Class II slot cavities were prepared with RI in the CG. Then all caries removed teeth and control groups were restored (All-Bond Universal, BISCO, USA; Clearfil MajestyES-2, Kuraray, Japan). Specimens were prepared for SEM examinations. Hybrid layer (HL) thicknesses were measured using ImageJ programme. Gap measurements were performed with micro-CT. Data were analyzed with ANOVA and posthoc Dunnett’s t-tests (p < .05). The highest HL thickness was found in Photo-Ablation Group, and a statistically significant difference was observed among the control and experimental groups (p < .05). The lowest HL thickness was measured in the Enzymatic Gel Group. In terms of internal gap formation, CG showed statistically significant differences compared to the other groups (p < .05). The highest internal gap was observed in RI Group, while the lowest gap was observed in CG. According to SEM, a uniform HL and resin tags were seen in the CG. Smear layer, irregular HL, and gap formation were observed in ART Group. In RI Group, nonuniform HL formation and resin tags were observed. In Photo-Ablation Group, a uniform HL without smear layer and internal gap was observed. In the Enzymatic Gel Group, both opened dentinal tubules, and melting-like formations were observed on the dentin surface. Especially melting-like formations were observed in peritubular dentin. It can be concluded that all caries removal methods except rotary instrumentation were conservative methods, which preserve more healthy dental tissues.

PMID:35178808 | DOI:10.1002/jemt.24078

Scand J Med Sci Sports. 2022 Feb 17. doi: 10.1111/sms.14144. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Individuals at risk of Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) have low levels of physical activity in childhood due to impaired motor competence, however physical activity levels in adulthood have not been established. This study sought to determine the impact of DCD risk on physical activity levels in adults using accelerometry measurement. Participants (n=656) from the Arvo Ylppö Longitudinal Study cohort had their motor competence assessed at the age of five years, and their physical activity quantified via device assessment at the age of 25 years. Between group differences were assessed to differentiate physical activity measures for individuals based on DCD risk status, with general linear modelling performed to control for the effects of sex, body mass index (BMI), and maternal education. Participants at risk of DCD were found to have a lower total number of steps (d=0.3, p=.022) than those not at risk. Statistical modelling indicated that DCD risk status increased time spent in sedentary light activity (β=0.1, 95% CI 0.02 to 0.3, p=.026) and decreased time spent in vigorous physical activity via interaction with BMI (β=0.04, 95% CI 0.001 to 0.1, p=.025). Sensitivity analysis found that visuomotor impairment did not significantly impact physical activity but did increase the role of DCD risk status in some models. This 20-year-longitudinal study indicated that DCD risk status continues to negatively impact on levels of physical activity into early adulthood.

PMID:35178792 | DOI:10.1111/sms.14144

Stat Med. 2022 Feb 17. doi: 10.1002/sim.9334. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

High-throughput experiments are an essential part of modern biological and biomedical research. The outcomes of high-throughput biological experiments often have a lot of missing observations due to signals below detection levels. For example, most single-cell RNA-seq (scRNA-seq) protocols experience high levels of dropout due to the small amount of starting material, leading to a majority of reported expression levels being zero. Though missing data contain information about reproducibility, they are often excluded in the reproducibility assessment, potentially generating misleading assessments. In this article, we develop a regression model to assess how the reproducibility of high-throughput experiments is affected by the choices of operational factors (eg, platform or sequencing depth) when a large number of measurements are missing. Using a latent variable approach, we extend correspondence curve regression, a recently proposed method for assessing the effects of operational factors to reproducibility, to incorporate missing values. Using simulations, we show that our method is more accurate in detecting differences in reproducibility than existing measures of reproducibility. We illustrate the usefulness of our method using a single-cell RNA-seq dataset collected on HCT116 cells. We compare the reproducibility of different library preparation platforms and study the effect of sequencing depth on reproducibility, thereby determining the cost-effective sequencing depth that is required to achieve sufficient reproducibility.

PMID:35178743 | DOI:10.1002/sim.9334

Int J Health Plann Manage. 2022 Feb 17. doi: 10.1002/hpm.3439. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Women empowerment has been viewed as a good strategy in the reduction of global maternal morbidity and mortality. Most of the recent studies in Uganda have focussed on antenatal care (ANC) frequency and the associated factors with no focus on the effect of women empowerment. Our study aims at examining the prevalence of optimal access to ANC by considering the timing of initiation, type of ANC provider and ANC frequency and their association with women empowerment.

METHODS: We used Uganda Demographic and Health Survey 2016 data of 9957 women aged 15-49 years. Multistage stratified sampling was used to select study participants and we conducted multivariable logistic regression to establish the association between women empowerment and access to ANC using Statistical package for the social sciences version 25.

RESULTS: Out of 9957 women, 2953 (29.7%: 95% CI: 28.5.0-30.2) had initiated ANC in first trimester, 6080 (61.1%: 95% CI: 60.4-62.3) had 4 or more ANC contacts, and 9880 (99.2%: 95% CI: 99.0-99.3) had received ANC from a skilled provider. Overall, 2399 (24.1%: 95% CI: 23.0-24.6) had optimal access to ANC. Economic empowerment and exposure to media were the only women empowerment indices that were positively associated with optimal access to ANC. Other factors that were significant include; region, wealth index, age, level of education and working status.

CONCLUSION: To ensure increased access to ANC, policy-makers and other stakeholders should prioritise the use of mass media in maternal health programs, equitable allocation of the limited financial resources with a focus on older, poor and uneducated women.

PMID:35178763 | DOI:10.1002/hpm.3439

Stat Med. 2022 Feb 17. doi: 10.1002/sim.9355. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

In phase II oncology trials, two-stage design allowing early stopping for futility and/or efficacy is frequently used. However, this design based on frequentist statistical approaches could not guarantee a high posterior probability of attending the pre-specified clinically interesting rate from a Bayesian perspective. Here, we proposed a new Bayesian design enabling early terminating for efficacy as well as futility. In addition to the clinically uninteresting and interesting response rate, a prior distribution of response rate, the minimum posterior threshold probabilities and the lengths of the highest posterior density intervals were specified in the design. Finally, we defined the feasible design with the highest total effective predictive probability. We studied the properties of the proposed design and applied it to an oncology trial as an example. The proposed design ensured that the observed response rate fell within prespecified levels of posterior probability. The proposed design provides an alternative design to single-arm two-stage trials.

PMID:35178729 | DOI:10.1002/sim.9355

Infection. 2022 Feb 17. doi: 10.1007/s15010-022-01772-4. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: Since 2020, a SARS-COV2 epidemic has been raging worldwide. The cycle of the PCR test in which the virus is detected is called cycle threshold (CT). The method of obtaining the sample is not detailed in any published study and is based on general guidelines of the CDC. Our contention is that the manner in which the sample is obtained has a dramatic effect on CT values.

METHODS: For each person suspected of having Covid-19 who arrives at the emergency room, two swabs are taken in succession, one according to CDC guidelines and the other according to “Ziv” guidelines. The Ziv method sample collection guidelines determine the depth of penetration, the number of rotations of the swab, and their direction. Each double sample was sent for analysis.

RESULTS: Analysis of the CT results of the sample to results methods and of the Seegene platform clearly found (p = 0.003 and p = 0.001, respectively) that more rigorous sample collection yielded lower CT values.

CONCLUSION: The method of obtaining the samples had a dramatic effect on CT results. Any publication that includes CT results, and certainly studies that discuss CT kinetics, must describe in detail the method by which the samples were obtained. In places where it is also important to detect the onset of illness (airports, hospitals, schools, etc.), it is important to use the Ziv method to reduce the risk of false negatives.

PMID:35178676 | DOI:10.1007/s15010-022-01772-4

Biometrics. 2022 Feb 18. doi: 10.1111/biom.13634. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Combining dependent tests of significance has broad applications but the related p-value calculation is challenging. For Fisher’s combination test, current p-value calculation methods (e.g., Brown’s approximation) tend to inflate the type I error rate when the desired significance level is substantially less than 0.05. The problem could lead to significant false discoveries in big data analyses. This paper provides two main contributions. First, it presents a general family of Fisher type statistics, referred to as the GFisher, which covers many classic statistics, such as Fisher’s combination, Good’s statistic, Lancaster’s statistic, weighted Z-score combination, etc. The GFisher allows a flexible weighting scheme, as well as an omnibus procedure that automatically adapts proper weights and the statistic-defining parameters to a given data. Second, the paper presents several new p-value calculation methods based on two novel ideas: moment-ratio matching and joint-distribution surrogating. Systematic simulations show that the new calculation methods are more accurate under multivariate Gaussian, and more robust under the generalized linear model and the multivariate t-distribution. The applications of the GFisher and the new p-value calculation methods are demonstrated by a gene-based SNP-set association study. Relevant computation has been implemented to an R package GFisher available on the Comprehensive R Archive Network. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

PMID:35178716 | DOI:10.1111/biom.13634

Clin Exp Pediatr. 2022 Feb 17. doi: 10.3345/cep.2021.00962. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

The literature review aimed to analyze studies assessing the motor abilities of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) using the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency (BOTMP). The PubMed, OVID, Cochrane, and PEDro databases were searched for relevant articles published between February 2003 and September 2021. Despite the retrieval of limited studies, most included in this review were of fair to good quality. The diagnostic criteria for ADHD adhered to Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders standards. The BOTMP has been used diversely in various countries, has been translated into various languages, is administered by various qualified medical professionals on children with variants of ADHD, with the long form of the tool used more widely than its short form. The motor performance of children with ADHD was better than that of children with other developmental disorders, but children with ADHD underperformed compared to their age-matched typically developing peers. Although the BOTMP tool has been widely used to evaluate the motor performance of children with various disabilities, our understanding of the motor repertoire of children with ADHD is inadequate. Future research can aim to use the BOTMP to better understand the motor repertoire of children with ADHD to aid their overall rehabilitation.

PMID:35176833 | DOI:10.3345/cep.2021.00962

Zhonghua Wei Chang Wai Ke Za Zhi. 2022 Feb 25;25(2):157-165. doi: 10.3760/cma.j.cn441530-20210430-00185.

ABSTRACT

Objective: To explore the differences of short-term outcomes and quality of life (QoL) for gastric cancer patients between totally laparoscopic total gastrectomy using an endoscopic linear stapler and laparoscopic-assisted total gastrectomy using a circular stapler. Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted. Clinicopathological data of patients with stage I to III gastric adenocarcinoma who underwent laparoscopic total gastrectomy from January 2017 to January 2020 were retrospectively collected. Those who were ≥80 years old, had serious complications that could affect the quality of life, underwent multi-organ resections, palliative surgery, emergency surgery due to gastrointestinal perforation, obstruction, bleeding, died or lost to follow-up within 1 year after surgery were excluded. A total of 130 patients were enrolled and divided into circular stapler group (CS group, 77 cases) and linear stapler group (LS group, 53 cases) according to the surgical method. The differences of age, gender, body mass index, number of comorbidities, history of abdominal surgery, ASA, tumor location, degree of differentiation, tumor length, tumor T stage, tumor N stage, tumor pathological stage and preoperative quality of life between the two groups were not statistically significant (all P>0.05). The observation indicators: (1) Surgery and postoperative conditions. (2) Postoperative complications: Any adverse conditions that require conservative treatment or surgical intervention after surgery were defined as postoperative complications, of which, complications occurring within 30 days after surgery were defined as early complications; complications occurring within 30 days to 1 year after surgery were defined as late complications. (3) Postoperative quality of life was assessed by the quality of life core scale (QLQ-C30) and gastric cancer specific module scale (QLQ-STO22). The higher the scores of functional scales and global health status, the better the corresponding quality of life. The higher the scores of symptoms scales, the worse the corresponding quality of life. Results: (1) Surgery and postoperative conditions: Compared with the CS group, the LS group presented less intraoperative blood loss [50.0 (50.0-100.0) ml vs. 100.0 (100.0-100.0) ml, Z=-3.111, P=0.002] and earlier time to flatus [(3.1±0.8) days vs. (3.5±1.1) days, t=-2.490, P=0.014]. However, there were no statistically significant differences between two groups of patients in terms of operation time, time to start a liquid diet and postoperative hospital stay (all P>0.05). (2) Postoperative complications: The early complication rates of the CS group and the LS group were 22.1% (17/77) and 18.9% (10/53), respectively, while the late complication rate were 18.2% (14/77) and 15.1% (8/53), respectively, whose differences were not statistically significant (all P>0.05). (3) Postoperative quality of life: After 1-year follow-up, 7 (5.4%) patients were lost, including 5 in CS group and 2 in LS group. One year after operation, the QLQ-C30 scale showed that the score of financial difficulty of the LS group was significantly higher than that of the CS group [33.3 (0 to 33.3) vs.0 (0 to 33.3), Z=-1.972, P=0.049] with statistically significant difference, and there were no statistically significant differences in the scores of other functional fields and symptom fields between the two groups (all P>0.05). The QLQ-STO22 scale showed that the scores of dysphagia [0 (0 to 5.6) vs. 0 (0 to 11.1), Z=-2.094, P=0.036] and eating restriction were significantly lower [0 (0 to 4.2) vs. 0 (0 to 8.3), Z=-2.011, P=0.044] in patients of the LS group than those of the CS group. There were no significant differences in scores of other symptoms between two groups (all P>0.05). Conclusions: Compared with the circular stapler, the esophagojejunostomy with linear stapler for gastric cancer patients can reduce intraoperative blood loss, shorten the time to flatus after operation, alleviate the symptoms of dysphagia and eating restriction but increase the economic burden to a certain degree.

PMID:35176828 | DOI:10.3760/cma.j.cn441530-20210430-00185

Zhonghua Wei Chang Wai Ke Za Zhi. 2022 Feb 25;25(2):166-172. doi: 10.3760/cma.j.cn441530-20210702-00257.

ABSTRACT

Objective: To compare the clinical efficacy and quality of life between uncut Roux-en-Y and Billroth II with Braun anastomosis in laparoscopic distal gastrectomy for gastric cancer patients. Methods: A retrospective cohort study was performed. Inclusion criteria: (1) 18 to 75 years old; (2) gastric cancer proved by preoperative gastroscopy, CT and pathological results and tumor was suitable for D2 radical distal gastrectomy; (3) postoperative pathological diagnosis stage was T1-4aN0-3M0 (according to the AJCC-7th TNM tumor stage), and the margin was negative; (4) Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) physical status score <2 points, and American Association of Anesthesiologists (ASA) grade 1 to 3; (5) no mental illness; (6) able to answer questionnaires independently; (7) patients agreed to undergo laparoscopic distal gastrectomy and signed an informed consent. Exclusion criteria: (1) patients with severe chronic diseases and American Association of Anesthesiologists (ASA) grade >3; (2) patients with other malignant tumors; (3) patients suffered from serious mental diseases; (4) patients received neoadjuvant chemotherapy or immunotherapy. According to the above criteria, clinical data of 200 patients who underwent laparoscopic distal gastrectomy at the Department of General Surgery of the First Affiliated Hospital of Army Medical University from January 2016 to December 2019 were collected. Of the 200 patients, 108 underwent uncut Roux-en-Y anastomosis and 92 underwent Billroth II with Braun anastomosis. The general data, intraoperative and postoperative conditions, complications, and endoscopic evaluation 1 year after the surgery were compared. Besides, the quality of life of two groups was also compared using the Chinese version of the European Organization For Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) quality of life questionnaire-Core 30 (QLQ-C30) and quality of life questionnaire-stomach 22 (QLQ-STO22). Results: There were no significant differences in baseline data between the two groups (all P>0.05). All the 200 patients successfully underwent laparoscopic distal gastrectomy without intraoperative complications, conversion to open surgery or perioperative death. There were no significant differences between two groups in operative time, intraoperative blood loss, postoperative complications, time to flatus, time to removal of gastric tube, time to liquid diet, time to removal of drainage tube or length of postoperative hospital stay (all P>0.05). Endoscopic evaluation was conducted 1 year after surgery. Compared to Billroth II with Braun group, the uncut Roux-en-Y group had a significantly lower incidences of gastric stasis [19.8% (17/86) vs. 37.0% (27/73), χ(2)=11.199, P=0.024], gastritis [11.6% (10/86) vs. 34.2% (25/73), χ(2)=20.892, P<0.001] and bile reflux [1.2% (1/86) vs. 28.8% (21/73), χ(2)=25.237, P<0.001], and the differences were statistically significant. The EORTC questionnaire was performed 1 year after surgery, there were no significant differences in the scores of QLQ-C30 scale between the two groups (all P>0.05), while the scores of QLQ-STO22 showed that, compared to the Billroth II with Braun group, the uncut Roux-en-Y group had a lower pain score (median: 8.3 vs. 16.7, Z=-2.342, P=0.019) and reflux score (median: 0 vs 5.6, Z=-2.284, P=0.022), and the differences were statistically significant (all P<0.05), indicating milder symptoms. Conclusion: The uncut Roux-en-Y anastomosis is safe and reliable in laparoscopic distal gastrectomy, which can reduce the incidences of gastric stasis, gastritis and bile reflux, and improve the quality of life of patients after surgery.

PMID:35176829 | DOI:10.3760/cma.j.cn441530-20210702-00257