Tag: statistics

J Biomed Mater Res A. 2021 May 8. doi: 10.1002/jbm.a.37207. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Statistical methods were used to provide insight into a polymer complex system composed of lysozyme and alginate to quantify the effects of such parameters as pH, and ionic composition of the mixing solution on the properties of the complexes including composition, particle diameter, and zeta potential. Various crosslinkers (calcium, barium, iron[III], and bovine serum albumin), were used with lysozyme for complex formation to investigate the effect of crosslinker charge density on protein release kinetics, modelled using ktⁿ . Multivariate statistical analysis showed that the kinetic parameters associated with the release were, not surprisingly highly dependent on the ionic strength of the release media, with higher ionic strength leading to faster release. The release parameter k was also shown to depend on the protein properties (size, ionic strength) while n was slightly, but not statistically dependent on the charge density of the crosslinker demonstrating that the nature of the crosslinker had minimal impact on drug release. The multivariate statistical has the potential to be used for optimization of the complexes and prediction of physical properties and degradation rates.

PMID:33964114 | DOI:10.1002/jbm.a.37207

Int Endod J. 2021 May 8. doi: 10.1111/iej.13547. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

AIM: To create an irreversible pulpitis gene signature from microarray data of healthy and inflamed dental pulps, followed by a bioinformatics approach using connectivity mapping to identify therapeutic compounds that could potentially treat pulpitis.

METHODOLOGY: The Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database, an international public repository of genomics datasets, was searched for human microarray datasets assessing pulpitis. An irreversible pulpitis gene expression signature was generated by differential expression analysis. The statistically significant connectivity map (ssCMap) method was used to identify compounds with a highly correlating gene expression pattern. qPCR was used to validate novel pulpitis genes. An ex vivo pulpitis model was used to test the effects of the compounds identified, and the level of inflammatory cytokines was measured with qPCR, ELISA and multiplex array. Means were compared using the t-test or ANOVA with the level of significance set at p≤0.05.

RESULTS: Pulpitis gene signatures were created using differential gene expression analysis at cutoff points p=0.0001 and 0.000018. Top upregulated genes were selected as potential pulpitis biomarkers. Among these, IL8, IL6 and MMP9 were previously identified as pulpitis biomarkers. Novel up-regulated genes; chemokine (C-C motif) ligand 21 (CCL21), metallothionein 1H (MT1H) and aquaporin 9 (AQP9) were validated in the pulp tissue of teeth clinically diagnosed with irreversible pulpitis using qPCR. ssCMap analysis identified fluvastatin (Statin) and dequalinium chloride (Quaternary ammonium) as compounds with the strongest correlation to the gene signatures (p=0.0001). Fluvastatin reduced IL8, IL6, CCL21, AQP9 (p<0.001) and MMP9 (p<0.05) in the ex-vivo pulpitis model, while dequalinium chloride reduced AQP9 (p<0.001) but had no significant effect on the other biomarkers.

CONCLUSIONS: AQP9, MT1H and CCL21 were identified and validated as novel biomarkers for pulpitis. Fluvastatin and dequalinium chloride identified by the ssCMap as potential therapeutics for pulpitis reduced selected pulpitis biomarkers in an ex vivo pulpitis model. In vivo testing of these licensed drugs is warranted.

PMID:33964033 | DOI:10.1111/iej.13547

Clin Cardiol. 2021 May 8. doi: 10.1002/clc.23622. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: SARS-CoV2 has affected more than 73.8 million individuals. While SARS-CoV2 is considered a predominantly respiratory virus, we report a trend of bradycardia among hospitalized patients, particularly in association with mortality.

METHODOLOGY: The multi-center retrospective analysis consisted of 1053 COVID-19 positive patients from March to August 2020. A trend of bradycardia was noted in the study population. Absolute bradycardia and profound bradycardia was defined as a sustained heart rate < 60 BPM and < 50 BPM, respectively, on two separate occasions, a minimum of 4 h apart during hospitalization. Each bradycardic event was confirmed by two physicians and exclusion criteria included: less than 18 years old, end of life bradycardia, left AMA, or taking AV Nodal blockers. Data was fetched using a SQL program through the EMR and data was analyzed using SPSS 27.0. A logistic regression was done to study the effect of bradycardia, age, gender, and BMI on mortality in the study group.

RESULTS: 24.9% patients had absolute bradycardia while 13.0% had profound bradycardia. Patients with absolute bradycardia had an odds ratio of 6.59 (95% CI [2.83-15.36]) for mortality compared with individuals with a normal HR response. The logistic regression model explained 19.6% (Nagelkerke R² ) of variance in the mortality, correctly classified 88.6% of cases, and was statistically significant X² (5)=47.10, p < .001. For each year of age > 18, the odds of dying increased 1.048 times (95% CI [1.25-5.27]).

CONCLUSION: The incidence of absolute bradycardia was found in 24.9% of the study cohort and these individuals were found to have a significant increase in mortality.

PMID:33964035 | DOI:10.1002/clc.23622

Int J Numer Method Biomed Eng. 2021 May 8:e3496. doi: 10.1002/cnm.3496. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Diabetes is a faction of metabolic ailments distinguished by hyperglycemia which is the consequence of a defect ,in the action of insulin, insulin secretion, or both and producing various abnormalities in the human body. In recent years, the utilization of intelligent systems has been expanded in disease classification and numerous researches have been proposed. In this research article, a variant of Convolutional Neural Network i.e. Functional Link Convolutional Neural Network (FLCNN) is proposed for the diabetes classification. The main goal of this article is to find the potential of a computationally less complex deep learning network like FLCNN and applied the proposed technique on a real dataset of diabetes for classification. This article also presents the comparative studies where various other machine learning techniques are implemented and outcomes are compared with the proposed FLCNN network. The performance of each classification techniques have been evaluated based on standard measures and also validated with a non-parametric statistical test such as Friedman. Data for modelling diabetes classification is collected from Bombay Medical Hall, Upper Bazar, Ranchi, India. Accuracy achieve by the proposed classifier is more than 90 percent which is closer to the other state-of-the-art implemented classifiers. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

PMID:33964103 | DOI:10.1002/cnm.3496

Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2021 May 8. doi: 10.1007/s11356-021-14263-0. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

In the present study, we analyzed variations in bacterial community structure along a salinity gradient in a tropical monsoonal estuary (Cochin estuary [CE]), on the southwest coast of India, using Illumina next-generation sequencing (NGS). Water samples were collected from eight different locations thrice a year to assess the variability in the bacterial community structure and to determine the physico-chemical factors influencing the bacterial diversity. Proteobacteria was the most dominant phyla in the estuary followed by Bacteroidetes, Cyanobacteria, Actinobacteria, and Firmicutes. Statistical analysis indicated significant variations in bacterial communities between freshwater and mesohaline and euryhaline regions, as well as between the monsoon (wet) and nonmonsoon (dry) periods. The abundance of Betaproteobacteria was higher in the freshwater regions, while Alphaproteobacteria and Epsilonproteobactera were more abundant in mesohaline and euryhaline regions of the estuary. Gammaproteobacteria was more abundant in regions with high nutrient concentrations. Various bacterial genera indicating the presence of fecal contamination and eutrophication were detected. Corrplot based on Pearson correlation analysis demonstrated the important physico-chemical variables (temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, and inorganic nutrients) that influence the distribution of dominant phyla, class, and genera. The observed spatio-temporal variations in bacterial community structure in the CE were governed by regional variations in anthropogenic inputs and seasonal variations in monsoonal rainfall and tidal influx.

PMID:33963997 | DOI:10.1007/s11356-021-14263-0

Braz J Microbiol. 2021 May 8. doi: 10.1007/s42770-021-00517-z. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Brazil has a herd of over 9 million goats, and the northeast of Brazil is home to over 93% of this herd. Caprine mycoplasmosis are widely disseminated worldwide, being highly contagious with high rates of morbidity and mortality, causing considerable economic loss to goat herders. In addition, there has been a lack of research using molecular testing to monitor the health and detect Mollicutes in this herd in Brazil. Therefore, the aim of this study is to associate animal management with the presence of the caprine origin Mollicutes in goats, in the southwest region of the state of Bahia, Brazil. A cross-sectional study was conducted on twelve farms, and statistical analyses were performed to identify associations between the presence of Mollicutes and the management of goats. Molecular testing identified Mollicutes class, Mycoplasma agalactiae (Ma) and M. conjunctivae (Mc), in the samples analyzed. Statistical associations were observed between animals from intensive livestock facilities and the presence of Mollicutes in nasal samples and dairy ranch animals and the presence of Mollicutes in ocular samples and animals from extensive ranching sites and positive results of Mollicutes in genital samples. We conclude that mycoplasmas are present in goat herds in the southwestern region of Bahia, which supports the need for more focused studies of mycoplasmas throughout the country. Our research also demonstrated the presence of two important opportunistic bacteria, Mc and Ma, and, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that M. conjunctivae was detected in Brazilian goats by molecular testing.

PMID:33964005 | DOI:10.1007/s42770-021-00517-z

Mycoses. 2021 May 8. doi: 10.1111/myc.13299. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: Onychomycosis is the general term to define fungal nail infections that arise from dermatophytes, non-dermatophytic molds, and yeasts. Thiol/disulfide homeostasis is a new indicator of oxidative stress. In this study, we aimed to investigate the role of thiol/disulfide balance in the pathogenesis of onychomycosis.

METHODS: This cross-sectional study included adult patients with onychomycosis who were admitted to the dermatology department and healthy adult volunteers without any dermatologic or systemic condition. The patients and controls were evaluated in terms of native thiol, total thiol, and disulfide levels, and disulfide/native thiol, disulfide/total thiol, and native thiol/total thiol ratios. The possible association between these parameters and clinical subtypes of onychomycosis and demographic characteristics was also investigated.

RESULTS: A total of 52 patients with onychomycosis and 50 healtyh subjects were enrolled in the study. The patient group showed lower levels of total thiol, native thiol, and native thiol/total thiol ratio, and higher ratios of disulfide/native thiol and disulfide/total thiol. No statistically significant relationship was found between the parameters, clinical subtypes of onychomycosis, and demographic characteristics (p>0.05).

CONCLUSION: Patients with onychomycosis showed a shifted thiol/disulfide homeostasis towards oxidative stress with a reduction in thiols and an increase in disulfide/native thiol, and disulfide/total thiol ratios. These findings may indicate the role of oxidative stress in the pathogenesis of onychomycosis.

PMID:33964024 | DOI:10.1111/myc.13299

Res Child Adolesc Psychopathol. 2021 May 8. doi: 10.1007/s10802-021-00823-y. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Deficient reward functioning, including reward-related personality, is implicated in depression’s etiology. A dopaminergic genetic multilocus genetic profile score (MGPS) has previously been associated with neural reward responsivity but, despite theoretical basis, has not been studied with reward-related personality. Such research is needed to elucidate associations between genetic variation and reward-related personality in a developmentally sensitive population. In the present study, we examined associations between dopaminergic MGPS’s and self-report reward-related personality in two young adolescent samples aged 10-15 years old (Sample 1: N = 100 girls, 82% White, 18% Other; Sample 2: N = 141, 65 girls, 76 boys, 89.36% White, 10.64% Other) using an established MGPS and an augmented MGPS. A “mini” meta-analysis synthesized results across samples. In Sample 1, an exploratory mediation analysis intended to gauge effect size for future work tested a path between the MGPS and depression through significant reward traits. In each independent sample, both MGPS’s showed significant associations with sensation-seeking but not social drive, a pattern that persisted following correction. Effect sizes of novel variants were at least as robust as established variants, suggesting their added utility. Additionally, the exploratory mediation analysis suggested no noteworthy indirect effect, but a small (R² = 0.022), statistically non-significant direct effect of the MGPS predicting prospective depressive symptoms. Results suggest that dopaminergic genetic variation is associated with the reward-related personality trait of sensation seeking but not social drive. Additional work is needed to probe whether sensation seeking may be a path through which this genetic variation confers depression risk.

PMID:33963956 | DOI:10.1007/s10802-021-00823-y

Forensic Sci Med Pathol. 2021 May 8. doi: 10.1007/s12024-021-00375-z. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Since the beginning of March 2020, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic has been the cause of millions of deaths worldwide. The need to better define the pathogenesis of coronavirus disease 19 (Covid-19) as well as to provide the correct statistical records concerning deaths related to this virus, inevitably involves the role of forensic pathology and routine autopsy practice. Currently, some data on macroscopic and microscopic features in autopsies performed in suspected Covid-19 cases are reported in the literature. The persistence of SARS-CoV-2 in cadavers has not yet been elucidated and only a few reports have emphasized the importance of evaluating the Virus RNA in post-mortem tissues. In this preliminary study, we observed that SARS-CoV-2 survives in multiple cadaver tissues many days after death despite some extreme conditions of post-mortem body preservation. The results of this on-going analysis could help improve the safety of working practices for pathologists as well as understanding the possible interaction between microbiological agents and the cadaver tissue’s supravital reactions.

PMID:33963967 | DOI:10.1007/s12024-021-00375-z

Odontology. 2021 May 8. doi: 10.1007/s10266-021-00610-7. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

This study evaluated the effect of epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) solution and thermal cycling on the bond strength (BS) of fiber posts to the root dentin using two different resin cements (conventional or self-adhesive). One hundred and forty-four bovine roots were endodontically treated. After post space preparation, specimens were randomly divided into six groups (n = 24) according to dentin pretreatment [distilled water, 0.05% EGCG solution or 2% chlorhexidine (CHX) solution] and resin luting agent used for fiber post cementation (RelyX ARC or RelyX U200-3 M ESPE). Then, the samples were separated into two subgroups (n = 12): storage in distilled water at 37 °C for 24 h and thermal cycling (5 °C/55 °C, dwell time 30 s-12,000 cycles) during 6 months. After that, the specimens were subjected to the pull-out BS test (Universal Testing Machine-0.5 mm/min) and the failures pattern was analyzed in a stereomicroscope. According to the BS results (three-way ANOVA, Tukey’s test, α = 0.05), the highest values were reported in the group EGCG + RelyX U200, showing significant statistical differences compared to all the other experimental groups. For Control and CHX groups BS values, there was no significant difference (p > .05) between the resin cements. For conventional resin cement, there was no significant difference among treatment solutions (p > .05). The thermal cycling did not influence the BS results (p > .05). As reported by the failure mode analysis, adhesive failure was predominant in all groups. EGCG solution improved the bond strength of self-adhesive resin cement to root dentin.

PMID:33963943 | DOI:10.1007/s10266-021-00610-7