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The abrupt alternation between hot and wet extremes can lead to more severe societal impacts than isolated extremes. However, despite an understanding of hot and wet extremes separately, their temporally compounding characteristics are not well examined yet. Our study presents a comprehensive assessment of successive heat‐pluvial and pluvial‐heat events globally. We find that these successive extremes within a week occur every 6–7 years on average within warm seasons during 1956–2015, about 15% more often than would be expected by chance, and that they have a significant increase in frequency of about 22% per decade due to warming. We further investigate the role of vapor pressure deficit (VPD) and find that heat‐pluvial (pluvial‐heat) events are linked to negative (positive) VPD anomalies. Our results are statistically significant based on moving‐blocks bootstrap resampling and field significance tests, highlighting these methods' importance in robustly identifying compound events under autocorrelation and multiple‐testing conditions. Plain Language Summary: In recent years, the world has experienced various clustered weather and climate extremes, which are highly disruptive to humans and society. However, current knowledge on the risk of successive occurrence of hot (humid heat, including the effects of both temperature and humidity) and wet (pluvial flooding, usually caused by extreme rainfall) extremes remains unclear. In this study, we present a comprehensive assessment of the two types of interacting hot and wet extremes: humid heat extremes followed by pluvial flooding (heat‐pluvial) and extreme pluvials followed by humid heat (pluvial‐heat). We find that these events have increased significantly in most regions of the world for the last three decades, which can be associated with the warming effect. Importantly, we identify that the vapor pressure deficit plays an important but varying role in the abrupt alternation between heat and pluvial events. We emphasize the importance of using reliable statistical tests to ensure the validity of the results for complex compound events. Our analysis highlights the need for policymakers and stakeholders to develop adaptation strategies to cope with overlapping vulnerabilities due to compound hot and wet extremes, especially in areas prone to both such as West Australia, South America and Sub‐Saharan Africa. Key Points: Temporally compounding heat and pluvial events occur about 15% more often than would be expected by chanceIncreases in hot‐wet compound events have largely been linked to warmingVapor‐pressure‐deficit anomalies are a signature of heat‐pluvial versus pluvial‐heat sequences, a conclusion drawn from field significance tests [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The JAYA algorithm is a population-based meta-heuristic algorithm proposed in recent years which has been proved to be suitable for solving global optimization and engineering optimization problems because of its simplicity, easy implementation, and guiding characteristic of striving for the best and avoiding the worst. In this study, an improved discrete JAYA algorithm based on reinforcement learning and simulated annealing (QSA-DJAYA) is proposed to solve the well-known traveling salesman problem in combinatorial optimization. More specially, firstly, the basic Q-learning algorithm in reinforcement learning is embedded into the proposed algorithm such that it can choose the most promising transformation operator for the current state to update the solution. Secondly, in order to balance the exploration and exploitation capabilities of the QSA-DJAYA algorithm, the Metropolis acceptance criterion of the simulated annealing algorithm is introduced to determine whether to accept candidate solutions. Thirdly, 3-opt is applied to the best solution of the current iteration at a certain frequency to improve the efficiency of the algorithm. Finally, to evaluate the performance of the QSA-DJAYA algorithm, it has been tested on 21 benchmark datasets taken from TSPLIB and compared with other competitive algorithms in two groups of comparative experiments. The experimental and the statistical significance test results show that the QSA-DJAYA algorithm achieves significantly better results in most instances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydraulic fracturing (HF) can trigger induced seismicity, but documented occurrences tend to be localized compared with the regional extent of industry operations. Factors that determine intrinsic geological susceptibility of a given region to induced seismicity remain incompletely understood. To address this uncertainty, we have developed a stochastic modeling approach to enable statistical testing of hypotheses regarding the distribution of induced seismicity. For reference, we adopted a null hypothesis that HF-induced seismic events are randomly associated with HF wells. Realizations of synthetic induced-seismicity catalogs are generated based on the Gutenberg–Richter relationship for magnitudes and explicit assumed spatial relationship(s) between HF wells and other known features, such as mapped structural corridors. Uncertainties in observed event locations and magnitudes are also considered. Based on 1000 independent realizations for each test scenario, normalized correlation coefficients, Bayesian information criteria and other statistical measures are used to quantify the similarity of synthetic catalogs to the observed seismicity distribution. We applied this approach to induced seismicity associated with HF operations within the Montney Formation, in western Canada. Three hypotheses were tested, each showing a statistically significant improvement over the null hypothesis. A previous machine-learning-based model for Seismogenic Activation Potential (SAP) showed the highest correlation between observed and synthetically generated seismicity catalogs. Our method has been developed using cloud-based computing and is easily adapted to other regions and data types. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Employee strengths use has been found to be beneficial to employee and the employer organization. Yet, we have little knowledge on the antecedents to employee strengths use. Especially, there is a dearth of research investigating work characteristics and employee strengths use relationship. Drawing on conservation of resources theory, this study sought to investigate the relationship of job autonomy as a type of work characteristic with employee strengths use and the mediational effect of work engagement as well as the moderating effect of job insecurity on the relationship. A three-wave research design, spaced by a four-week interval, was utilized to collect data. A convenience sample of 218 employees working in diverse Chinese companies was applied to test our hypotheses. Results showed that job autonomy is positively related to employee strengths use, work engagement acts as a mediator in the link between job autonomy and employee strengths use. In addition, job insecurity was found to lessen the direct relationship of job autonomy with work engagement and the indirect relationship of job autonomy with employee strengths use via work engagement. This study advances the theory and research on employee strengths use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dozens of TMS and tDCS studies suggest a functional involvement of motor cortex in action language comprehension, supporting the embodied cognition view. In a recent study (Solana & Santiago, 2022, Neurosci. Biobehav. Rev., 141, 104834), we evaluated the soundness of this literature by means of p-curve analyses and tests for excess significance. The analysis estimated a low average power (≈ 30%) and showed signs of publication bias, which led us to conclude that this body of findings does not stand on solid ground. Yet, the employed techniques seem to perform poorly when high heterogeneity is present (as is the case) and cannot quantify the amount of publication bias. For these reasons, in the present paper, we reanalyzed the same set of studies with a method that does not have these limitations: z-curve analysis. Z-curve not only replicated our prior conclusions but showed an even more heartbreaking situation, with a lower power estimation (≈ 20%) and clear signs of a strong publication bias (around 6-10 unpublished contrasts expected to exist for each published one). Researchers on this topic should consider these shortcomings before drawing conclusions from this body of findings, as well as start implementing robust and transparent research practices to improve their reliability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Occlusal rest provides support for removable partial dentures (RPD). Rest seats are ideally prepared in enamel, but the abutment teeth might be restored or need restorations. This study compared the fracture strength of abutments restored with composite to amalgam restorations after rest seat preparation. Disto-occlusal cavities were prepared in 30 extracted human maxillary premolars. The specimens were allocated in three groups (n = 10) based on the type of restoration. All the specimens were exposed to thermomechanical aging followed by cycling loading. Fracture strength was tested using a universal testing machine, and then, the fracture mode was recorded. The data were analyzed using Kruskal–Wallis test with a significance level set at 0.05. The fracture mode was recorded as catastrophic or non-catastrophic. The fracture strength between all tested groups showed no significant difference. The highest and lowest fracture strength were recorded on amalgam and Tetric N-Ceram groups, respectively. Composite Tetric N-Ceram showed equal distribution of fracture sites on the restorative materials and teeth, it also displayed the highest number of non-catastrophic fractures unlike other groups where the fracture occurred more within the restorations. The fracture strength of composite was comparable to that of amalgam restorations with prepared rest seats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The risk of malignancy in pediatric thyroid nodules is higher compared to the risk in adults. Our aim was to investigate the clinical, radiological, and histopathological characteristics of pediatric thyroid nodules. Materials and Methods: The data of 132 children and adolescents who had thyroid nodules were collected retrospectively from medical records. Results: The mean age of the patients was 12.07 ± 4.08 years and 67% were female. Fine-needle aspiration biopsy was performed in 86 patients (65%) and the results were as follows: benign in 53.4% (n = 46), atypia or follicular lesion of undetermined significance in 3.5% (n = 3), suspicious for follicular neoplasia in 2.3% (n = 2), and malignancy in 32.5% (n = 28). The overall malignancy rate was 22.7% (n = 30). Malignancy was detected after surgery in 2 thyroid nodules belonging to the atypia or follicular lesion of undetermined significance category. Malignancy was detected in 7 patients who had autoimmune thyroiditis and in 1 patient who had congenital dyshormonogenesis. The malignancy rate of the nodules in the patients, who had autoimmune thyroiditis, was found to be 13.4%. Mixed echogenicity, microcalcifications, nodules larger than 10 mm, abnormal lymph nodes, and irregular borders were more common in the malignant group. The nodule size, abnormal lymph nodes, and irregular borders were found to be significant in terms of predicting malignancy. Conclusion: We found malignancy in 22.7% of the thyroid nodules, and the malignancy rate of nodules in the patients, who had autoimmune thyroiditis, was 13.4%. The nodule size, abnormal lymph nodes, and irregular nodule borders emerged as the most significant risk factors for malignancy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Psoriasis is an inflammatory systemic disease with a chronic relapsing course. Methotrexate, a dihydrofolate reductase inhibitor, and Apremilast, an oral phosphodiesterase type 4 inhibitor, are currently the mainstay drugs in the treatment of psoriasis. Aims and Objectives: To compare the efficacy of Methotrexate with a combination of Methotrexate and Apremilast in treating chronic plaque psoriasis. Materials and Methods: The present study was a prospective comparative study conducted among 40 patients, aged above 18 years, with clinically diagnosed psoriasis attending Dermatology OPD of a tertiary care hospital in North India. The study utilised a pre-structured proforma to record a detailed demographic profile and clinical examination related to chronic plaque psoriasis. The patients were divided into two groups of 20 each. Group A was treated with oral Methotrexate, while Group B was treated with oral Apremilast and Methotrexate, and they were evaluated every 4 weeks for 12 weeks. Necessary investigations were done wherever indicated. Results: The male-to-female ratio was 1.35, and the majority (55.0%) of patients belonged to the age group of 31-50 years. 27.5% of patients had comorbidities like diabetes, hypertension, etc., The mean PASI score of group A at the first, second and third follow-ups was higher than that of group B. The reduction in mean PASI score was statistically significant in group B at successive follow-ups, with a percentage improvement of 89.4% at the end of 12 weeks. Conclusions: When comparing monotherapy with methotrexate and multidrug therapy with Methotrexate and Apremilast, multidrug therapy had better efficacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A/B testing is widely used for comparing two versions of a product and evaluating new proposed product features. It is of great importance for decision-making and has been applied as a golden standard in the IT industry. It is essentially a form of two-sample statistical hypothesis testing. Average treatment effect (ATE) and the corresponding p-value can be obtained under certain assumptions. One key assumption in traditional A/B testing is the stable-unit-treatment-value assumption (SUTVA): there is no interference among different units. It means that the observation on one unit is unaffected by the particular assignment of treatments to the other units. Nonetheless, interference is very common in social network settings where people communicate and spread information to their neighbors. Therefore, the SUTVA assumption is violated. Analysis ignoring this network effect will lead to biased estimation of ATE. Most existing works focus mainly on the design of experiment and data analysis in order to produce estimators with good performance in regards to bias and variance. Little attention has been paid to the calculation of p-value. We work on the calculation of p-value for the ATE estimator in network A/B tests. After a brief review of existing research methods on design of experiment based on graph cluster randomization and different ATE estimation methods, we propose a permutation method for calculating p-value based on permutation test at the cluster level. The effectiveness of the method against that based on individual-level permutation is validated in a simulation study mimicking realistic settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The aim of the present study was to test the hypothesis that recovery sleep could counteract the detrimental effects of sleep deprivation (SD) on male rats’ fertility. Materials and Methods: Twenty-two rats were housed in groups of six per cage with unrestricted access to food and water in a room. The modified multiple platform method was used to induce SD in rats over a 96-hour period. We examined the effect of SD on semen quality, reproductive hormones, and testicular histology in adult male rats. Then, we investigated the effect of 7 days recovery sleep on impaired reproductive function induced by SD. Results: After the acclimation period, 22 rats were randomly separated into three experimental groups (SD, recovery sleep, and the control groups). Ninety-six hours of SD resulted in a significant decrease in sperm motility (24.33±10.93 vs. 48.20±8.55, p<0.001) and the number of morphologically normal sperm (9.68±2.77 vs. 26.21±14.60, p<0.01) in rats, accompanied by a decrease in testosterone levels (1.53±0.55 vs. 4.44±0.56, p<0.001) and destruction of testicular tissue structure compared with control group. After 7 days of recovery sleep, semen quality, especially sperm motility, was improved and testosterone levels were significantly higher compared to post-SD (3.70±0.53 vs. 1.53±0.55, p<0.05), but remained low compared to the control group. Conclusions: In conclusion, 96 hours of SD deteriorated the parameters of sperm motility and the number of morphologically normal sperm in rats, probably due to the decrease in serum testosterone levels and the disruption of testicular tissue structure when compared to the control group. After 7 days of recovery sleep, semen parameter, especially sperm motility and testosterone levels did not return to baseline levels compared to the control group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This retrospective analysis examined the association between change in A1C and professional continuous glucose monitoring (p-CGM) use in patients with type 2 diabetes and poor glycemic control who were not using insulin. Data from 15,481 eligible patients (p-CGM users n = 707 and p-CGM nonusers n = 14,774) showed a greater decrease in A1C from baseline to the end of follow-up for p-CGM users, and differences favored p-CGM users regardless of whether they started insulin therapy during the follow-up period. These findings suggest that people with type 2 diabetes who have poor glycemic control using multiple noninsulin therapies may benefit from p-CGM, which can reduce A1C over a 6-month period compared with usual care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Physical ability is a comprehensive indicator of a person's general functional state and motor abilities, which also depend on the level of development and manifestation of the primary motor skills. The study aims to determine students' physical ability levels at the junior high school stage of education. Methods: research and analysis of literary sources on the problem and research conducted through the national system for assessing students' physical ability, which included the following tests: 30-meter running, standing long jump, throwing a medicine ball, 200-meter shuttle run, and T-test. Fifty-three students, aged 12-13 years from 119 Secondary School 'Acad. Mihail Arnaudov' in the city of Sofia, were studied. All statistical operations were carried out by mathematical-statistical processing with SPSS.22 by applying variation analysis and statistical hypothesis testing. Results: The state of the physical ability of the examined students in this junior high school is at a good level. Conclusion: More attention should be paid to developing motor skills and their sensitive periods in physical education and sport lessons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite mammography (MG) being among the most widespread techniques in breast cancer screening, tumour detection and classification remain challenging tasks due to the high morphological variability of the lesions. The extraction of radiomics features has proved to be a promising approach in MG. However, radiomics features can suffer from dependency on factors such as acquisition protocol, segmentation accuracy, feature extraction and engineering methods, which prevent the implementation of robust and clinically reliable radiomics workflow in MG. In this study, the variability and robustness of radiomics features is investigated as a function of lesion segmentation in MG images from a public database. A statistical analysis is carried out to assess feature variability and a radiomics robustness score is introduced based on the significance of the statistical tests performed. The obtained results indicate that variability is observable not only as a function of the abnormality type (calcification and masses), but also among feature categories (first-order and second-order), image view (craniocaudal and medial lateral oblique), and the type of lesions (benign and malignant). Furthermore, through the proposed approach, it is possible to identify those radiomics characteristics with a higher discriminative power between benign and malignant lesions and a lower dependency on segmentation, thus suggesting the most appropriate choice of robust features to be used as inputs to automated classification algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The Apolipoprotein E (ApoE) polymorphism plays an important role in the pathophysiology of end-stage renal disease (ESRD). Additionally, ApoE may contribute to the progression of oxidative stress. Thus, this study aimed to determine the ApoE gene polymorphism and evaluate the malondialdehyde (MDA) level in ESRD patients and healthy individuals. Methods: The present cross-sectional study was conducted at 2010 at Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences (Kermanshah, Iran). The study population comprised ESRD patients (n=136) and healthy individuals (n=137). The MDA level was assessed using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), and the frequencies of ApoE gene alleles were analyzed using restriction fragment length polymorphism-polymerase chain reaction (RFLP-PCR). The data were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), version 13. The significant differences of ApoE genotypes in case and control groups were assessed using Pearson's Chi square tests, and two-tailed Student's tests. A logistic regression model was used to calculate the odd ratio. P<0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: According to the results, ESRD patients had a higher frequency of the E2/E3 genotype than the healthy group (P<0.001). The results indicated that E3/E4 genotype frequency in the patients' group was higher than that of the control group (P=0.026). Furthermore, the E3/E2 (OR=5.7, 95% CI=2.68-12.14) (P<0.001) and E3/E4 (OR=1.57, 95% CI=1.05-2.34) (P=0.029) genotypes were found to increase the risk of ESRD. Moreover, the MDA level in ESRD patients was higher than the healthy individuals (P<0.001). The patients with E3/E2 (P<0.001) and E3/E4 (P<0.001) genotypes had a higher level of MDA than the control group. Conclusion: According to the findings, patients with ESRD had higher genotypes of E3/E2 and E3/E4, which suggests a higher risk of developing ESRD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Consumption of an organic diet reduces exposure to a range of agricultural pesticides. Only three studies have examined the effect of an organic diet intervention on exposure to the herbicide glyphosate, the most heavily used agricultural chemical in the world. Despite its widespread use, the primary sources of glyphosate exposure in humans are poorly understood. OBJECTIVE: Our objective was to examine the effect of an organic diet intervention on urinary glyphosate concentrations among pregnant individuals. METHODS: We conducted a 2-wk randomized crossover trial in which 39 pregnant participants living near (≤0.5 km) and far (>0.5 km) from agricultural fields received a 1-wk supply of conventional groceries and 1 wk of organic groceries, randomized to order. We collected daily first morning void urine samples and analyzed composite samples from each week for glyphosate. We examined differences in urinary glyphosate concentrations between the conventional week and the organic week among all participants and stratified by residential proximity to an agricultural field. RESULTS: Median specific gravity-adjusted glyphosate concentrations were 0.19 μg/L and 0.16 μg/L during the conventional and organic weeks, respectively. We observed modest decreases in urinary glyphosate concentrations from the conventional to organic week among far-field participants, but no difference among near-field participants. In secondary analyses excluding participants who did not meet a priori criteria of compliance with the intervention, we observed significant decreases in urinary glyphosate concentrations, particularly among far-field participants (푝< 0.01-0.02, depending on exclusion criteria). DISCUSSION: This trial is the first to examine the effect of an organic diet intervention on glyphosate among people living near and far from agricultural fields. Our results suggest that diet is an important contributor to glyphosate exposure in people living >0.5 km from agricultural fields; for people living near crops, agriculture may be a dominant exposure source during the pesticide spray season. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Healthcare systems are shifting toward "patient-centered" care often without assessing the values important to patients. Analogously, the interests of the patient may be disparate with physician interests, as pay-for-performance models become common. The purpose of the study was to determine which medical preferences are essential for patients during their surgical care. Methods: This prospective, observational study surveyed 102 patients who had undergone a primary knee replacement and/or hip replacement surgery about hypothetical scenarios regarding their surgical experience. Data analysis included categorical variables presented as a number and percent, while continuous variables presented as mean and standard deviation. Statistical analysis for anticoagulation data included the Pearson chi-square test and one-way ANOVA test. Results: A large majority, 73 patients (72%), would not pay to have a four-centimeter or smaller incision. The remaining 29 patients (28%) would prefer to have a four-centimeter or smaller incision and would pay a mean of $1,328 ± 1,629 for that day. A significant number of patients preferred not to use anticoagulation (p = 0.019); however, the value attributed to avoiding a specific method of anticoagulation was found not to be significant (p = 0.507). Conclusions: The study determined the metrics prioritized by hospitals and surgeons are not important to the majority of patients when they evaluate their own care. These disconnects in the entitlements patients expect and receive can be solved by including patients in discussions with physicians and hospital systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many current statistical and machine learning methods have been used to explore Alzheimer's disease (AD) and its associated patterns that contribute to the disease. However, there has been limited success in understanding the relationship between cognitive tests, biomarker data, and patient AD category progressions. In this work, we perform exploratory data analysis of AD health record data by analyzing various learned lower dimensional manifolds to separate early-stage AD categories further. Specifically, we used Spectral embedding, Multidimensional scaling, Isomap, t-Distributed Stochastic Neighbour Embedding, Uniform Manifold Approximation and Projection, and sparse denoising autoencoder based manifolds on the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) dataset. We then determine the clustering potential of the learned embeddings and then determine if category sub-groupings or sub-categories can be found. We then used a Kruskal–sWallis H test to determine the statistical significance of the discovered AD subcategories. Our results show that the existing AD categories do exhibit sub-groupings, especially in mild cognitive impairment transitions in many of the tested manifolds, showing there may be a need for further subcategories to describe AD progression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some data are collected on circular (rather than linear) scales. Often researchers are interested in comparing two samples of such circular data to test the hypothesis that they came from the same underlying population. Recently, we compared 18 statistical approaches to testing such a hypothesis, and recommended two as particularly effective. A very recent publication introduced a novel statistical approach that was claimed to outperform the methods that we had indicated were highest performing. However, the evidence base for this claim was limited. Here we perform simulation studies to offer a more detailed comparison of the new "Angular Randomisation Test" (ART) with existing tests. We expand previous evaluations in two ways: exploring small and medium sized samples, and exploring a range of different shapes for the underlying distribution(s). We find that the ART controls type I error rates at the nominal level. The ART had greater power than established methods in detecting a difference in underlying distribution caused by a shift around the circle. Its performance advantage in this case was strongest when samples where small and unbalanced in size. When the difference between underlying unimodal distributions was in shape rather than central tendency, then the ART was at least as good (and sometimes considerably more powerful) than the established methods, except when distributions samples were small and uneven in size, and the smaller sample came from a more concentrated underlying distribution. In such cases its power could be markedly inferior to established alternatives. The ART was also inferior to alternatives in dealing with axially distributed data. We conclude that under widely-encountered circumstances the ART test can be recommended for its simplicity of implementation, but researchers should be aware of situations where it cannot be recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Capturing the conditional covariances or correlations among the elements of a multivariate response vector based on covariates is important to various fields including neuroscience, epidemiology and biomedicine. We propose a new method called Covariance Regression with Random Forests (CovRegRF) to estimate the covariance matrix of a multivariate response given a set of covariates, using a random forest framework. Random forest trees are built with a splitting rule specially designed to maximize the difference between the sample covariance matrix estimates of the child nodes. We also propose a significance test for the partial effect of a subset of covariates. We evaluate the performance of the proposed method and significance test through a simulation study which shows that the proposed method provides accurate covariance matrix estimates and that the Type-1 error is well controlled. An application of the proposed method to thyroid disease data is also presented. CovRegRF is implemented in a freely available R package on CRAN. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the first part of this article, we discuss and generalize the complete convergence introduced by Hsu and Robbins in 1947 to the r-complete convergence introduced by Tartakovsky in 1998. We also establish its relation to the r-quick convergence first introduced by Strassen in 1967 and extensively studied by Lai. Our work is motivated by various statistical problems, mostly in sequential analysis. As we show in the second part, generalizing and studying these convergence modes is important not only in probability theory but also to solve challenging statistical problems in hypothesis testing and changepoint detection for general stochastic non-i.i.d. models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regional-level studies aimed at identifying and assessing various types of extreme weather events and comprehending their effects on various sectors are crucial. In the present study, we have utilized the RClimDex software to compute the trend in temperature and precipitation extreme events in the Varanasi district of Uttar Pradesh, India, from 1980 to 2018. We employed both Mann-Kendall test and linear regression to test the statistical significance of the computed trend. Out of 13 temperature indices, 8 showed a significant trend while the remaining showed a non-significant trend. The annual mean maximum temperature, warm days, diurnal temperature range and a monthly minimum of maximum temperature had decreased significantly by 0.029°C, 0.159 days, 0.032°C and 0.122°C/yr respectively, whereas cool days and cold spell duration had increased significantly by 0.264°C and 0.372 days/yr respectively, indicating an increased cooling effect over the study area. Similarly, out of the 11 rainfall indices, only two showed a significant trend, while the remaining showed a nonsignificant trend. The increasing drought over the study area is evident as the number of rainy days and consecutive wet days have decreased significantly by 0.262 days and 0.058 days/yr respectively, with a non-significant increase in consecutive dry days during the same period. The weak negative non-significant trend of a maximum of five consecutive days of rainfall, very heavy rainfall days and total annual precipitation indicate the decreasing trend of floods. This study stresses the development of adaptation plans to overcome the adverse consequences of extreme weather events in Varanasi district. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the literature of modern psychometric modeling, mostly related to item response theory (IRT), the fit of model is evaluated through known indices, such as χ2, M2, and root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) for absolute assessments as well as Akaike information criterion (AIC), consistent AIC (CAIC), and Bayesian information criterion (BIC) for relative comparisons. Recent developments show a merging trend of psychometric and machine learnings, yet there remains a gap in the model fit evaluation, specifically the use of the area under curve (AUC). This study focuses on the behaviors of AUC in fitting IRT models. Rounds of simulations were conducted to investigate AUC's appropriateness (e.g., power and Type I error rate) under various conditions. The results show that AUC possessed certain advantages under certain conditions such as high-dimensional structure with two-parameter logistic (2PL) and some three-parameter logistic (3PL) models, while disadvantages were also obvious when the true model is unidimensional. It cautions researchers about the dangers of using AUC solely in evaluating psychometric models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern civilization has a great impact on our lives and this includes our health. While the development of medical sciences has been spectacular, especially if we consider the advances in technology, the rate of civilization's illnesses is higher. If the main indicator of a society's health status is life expectancy at birth, then we will live to an increasingly greater age. At the same time, health risks have escalated in many respects; therefore, we cannot be satisfied with improvements on a global scale. In this paper our aim is to examine the current state of the art about eating disorders in fashion world, on the hypothesis of the different risk and prevalence of eating disorders and body image concerns in models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The determination of the last common ancestor (LCA) of a group of species plays a vital role in evolutionary theory. Traditionally, an LCA is inferred by the rooting of a fully resolved species tree. From a theoretical perspective, however, inference of the LCA amounts to the reconstruction of just one branch—the root branch—of the true species tree and should therefore be a much easier task than the full resolution of the species tree. Discarding the reliance on a hypothesized species tree and its rooting leads us to reevaluate what phylogenetic signal is directly relevant to LCA inference and to recast the task as that of sampling the total evidence from all gene families at the genomic scope. Here, we reformulate LCA and root inference in the framework of statistical hypothesis testing and outline an analytical procedure to formally test competing a priori LCA hypotheses and to infer confidence sets for the earliest speciation events in the history of a group of species. Applying our methods to two demonstrative data sets, we show that our inference of the opisthokonta LCA is well in agreement with the common knowledge. Inference of the proteobacteria LCA shows that it is most closely related to modern Epsilonproteobacteria, raising the possibility that it may have been characterized by a chemolithoautotrophic and anaerobic life style. Our inference is based on data comprising between 43% (opisthokonta) and 86% (proteobacteria) of all gene families. Approaching LCA inference within a statistical framework renders the phylogenomic inference powerful and robust. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comparative psychology experiments typically test a null statistical hypothesis against an alternative. Coupled with Morgan’s canon, this is often taken to imply that the model positing the simpler psychological capacity should be treated as a ‘default’ that must be ruled out before any other model can be accepted. It has been posited that this practice neglects evidence. I argue that the problem is deeper, including the way it structures the evaluation of evidence that is considered; it frames model choice around the acceptance or rejection of a default. I oppose this default framing in all its forms and develop an evidentialist alternative. Default framing fails to respect the difference between experimental statistical hypotheses and substantive hypotheses such as models. It is not actually supported by the use of null hypothesis significance testing (which I retain), it distorts the weighting of evidence, and it systematically biases practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces the R package clustAnalytics, which comprises a set of criteria for assessing the significance and stability of communities in networks found by any clustering algorithm. clustAnalytics works with graphs of class igraph from the R-package igraph, extended to handle weighted and/or directed graphs. clustAnalytics provides a set of community scoring functions, and methods to systematically compare their values to those of a suitable null model, which are of use when testing for cluster significance. It also provides a non parametric bootstrap method combined with similarity metrics derived from information theory and combinatorics, useful when testing for cluster stability, as well as a method to synthetically generate a weighted network with a ground truth community structure based on the preferential attachment model construction, producing networks with communities and scale-free degree distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a new approach known as greedy segmentation (GS) to identify multiple changepoints for a functional data sequence. The proposed multiple changepoint detection criterion links detectability with the projection onto a suitably chosen subspace and the changepoint locations. The changepoint estimator identifies the true changepoints for any predetermined number of changepoint candidates, either over-reporting or under-reporting. This theoretical finding supports the proposed GS estimator, which can be efficiently obtained in a greedy manner. The GS estimator's consistency holds without being restricted to the conventional at most one changepoint condition, and it is robust to the relative positions of the changepoints. Based on the GS estimator, the test statistic's asymptotic distribution leads to the novel GS algorithm, which identifies the number and locations of changepoints. Using intensive simulation studies, we compare the finite sample performance of the GS approach with other competing methods. We also apply our method to temporal changepoint detection in weather datasets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To document retrospectively whether New Zealand (NZ) Māori have a higher incidence of health associated (HA) Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia (SAB) with a vascular-access-device (VAD) compared to other ethnicities in Waikato District Health Board (WDHB). Methods: From January 1, 2008 to December 31, 2018, all ages of inpatients with a VAD HA-SAB in one District Health Board (DHB) were retrospectively studied. All data was obtained from the Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) SAB records and analyzed. Results: The study period of 11 years identified 311 VAD HA-SABs. The overall statistical hypothesis testing of VAD HA-SABs was p = 0.175. A greater proportion of VAD HA-SABs occurred in the renal population at a rate of 35.7% (111). Renal representation of ethnic groups with a VAD HA-SAB were non-NZ Māori 52.86% and Māori 47.14%. Peripheral VAD had a greater percentage of incidence of VAD HA-SAB. Conclusion: Māori renal patients with VAD's in WDHB experienced an increased incidence of HA-SABs from 2008 to 2018 in comparison to other ethnic populations. Māori renal patients are 3½ times more likely to suffer VAD HA-SAB than non-Māori patients. NZ data for VAD HA-SABS requires IPC teams to include ethnicity and provide a standardized, correct diagnosis of a VAD HA-SABS. NZ health strategies need to ask well-directed questions in order to progress toward equitable health outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The eradication of neonatal Group B Streptococcus (GBS) infections, considered as a major public health priority, necessarily requires a mastery of the data on vaginal carriage in pregnant women. The aims of this study were to determine the prevalence of vaginal carriage of GBS in pregnant women, antibiotic susceptibility, and associated risk factors. This was a cross-sectional, descriptive study conducted over a period of 9 months (July 2020 to March 2021) in pregnant women between 34 and 38 weeks of gestation (WG) followed at the Nabil Choucair health center in Dakar. Identification and antibiotic susceptibility of GBS isolates were performed on the Vitek 2 from vaginal swabs cultured on Granada medium. Demographic and obstetric interview data were collected and analyzed on SPSS (version 25). The level of significance for all statistical tests was set at P <.05. The search of GBS vaginal carriage had involved 279 women aged 16 to 46 years, with a median pregnancy age of 34 (34-37) weeks' gestation. GBS was found in 43 women, for a vaginal carriage rate of 15.4%. In 27.9% (12/43) of volunteers screened, this carriage was monomicrobial, while in 72.1% (31/43) of women, GBS was associated with other pathogens such as Candida spp. (60.5%), Trichomonas vaginalis (2.3%), Gardnerella vaginalis (34.9%) and/or Mobiluncus spp. (11.6%). The level of resistance was 27.9% (12/43) for penicillin G, 53.5% (23/43) for erythromycin, 25.6% (11/43) for clindamycin and 100% for tetracycline. However, the strains had retained fully susceptible to vancomycin and teicoplanin. The main risk factor associated with maternal GBS carriage were ectocervical inflammation associated with contact bleeding (OR = 3.55; P =.005). The high rate of maternal vaginal GBS carriage and the levels of resistance to the various antibiotics tested confirm the importance of continuous GBS surveillance in our resource-limited countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction. Acute aortic syndrome (AAS) is a rare clinical syndrome with a high mortality rate. The Canadian clinical practice guideline for the diagnosis of AAS was developed in order to reduce the frequency of misdiagnoses. As part of the guideline, a clinical decision aid was developed to facilitate clinician decision-making (RIPP score). The aim of this study is to validate the diagnostic accuracy of this tool and assess its performance in comparison to other risk prediction tools that have been developed. Methods. This was a historical case-control study. Consecutive cases and controls were recruited from three academic emergency departments from 2002–2020. Cases were identified through an admission, discharge, or death certificated diagnosis of acute aortic syndrome. Controls were identified through presenting complaint of chest, abdominal, flank, back pain, and/or perfusion deficit. We compared the clinical decision tools' C statistic and used the DeLong method to test for the significance of these differences and report sensitivity and specificity with 95% confidence intervals. Results. We collected data on 379 cases of acute aortic syndrome and 1340 potential eligible controls; 379 patients were randomly selected from the final population. The RIPP score had a sensitivity of 99.7% (98.54–99.99). This higher sensitivity resulted in a lower specificity (53%) compared to the other clinical decision aids (63–86%). The DeLong comparison of the C statistics found that the RIPP score had a higher C statistic than the ADDRS (−0.0423 (95% confidence interval −0.07–0.02); P < 0.0009) and the AORTAs score (−0.05 (−0.07 to −0.02); P = 0.0002), no difference compared to the Lovy decision tool (0.02 (95% CI −0.01–0.05 P < 0.25)) and decreased compared to the Von Kodolitsch decision tool (0.04 (95% CI 0.01–0.07 P < 0.008)). Conclusion. The Canadian clinical practice guideline's AAS clinical decision aid is a highly sensitive tool that uses readily available clinical information. It has the potential to improve diagnosis of AAS in the emergency department. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper focuses on analysing the current tax behaviour of Slovak citizens and their inclination to tax evasion. Inclination to tax evasion is defined in this research based on respondents' answers to questions focused on their tax morale. The data processed in this research was obtained from a questionnaire survey on a sample of 1067 respondents. Intentional sampling was used to ensure the same structure of respondents. In terms of tax evasion acceptance, we identified three groups of people: honest, dishonest, and unconscious. The research confirmed that 78% of the population is prone to tax evasion, and only 22% have never evaded paying taxes and would not do so knowingly or unconsciously. By applying the statistical hypothesis testing, we also found out that except for sex (women are less prone to tax evasion), inclination to tax evasion also depends on education, age, main source of income and experience. Finally, three types of logistic regression models to predict the inclination of a specific tax behaviour were constructed and evaluated based on the total accuracy metric and validated on the ex-post set. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OBJECTIVES: Incidental small renal masses (SRMs) now account for the majority of new diagnoses of renal cancers. Although there are established management guidelines, referral and management patterns can vary. We aimed to explore identification, practice patterns, and management of identified SRMs in an integrated health system. STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective analysis. METHODS: We identified patients with a newly diagnosed SRM measuring 3 cm or less from January 1, 2013, to December 31, 2017, at Kaiser Permanente Southern California. These patients were flagged at the time of radiographic identification to ensure adequate notification of findings. Diagnostic modality, referral, and treatment patterns were analyzed. RESULTS: Of 519 patients with SRMs, 65% were found on abdominal CT and 22% on renal/abdominal ultrasounds. Within 6 months, 70% of patients consulted with a urologist. Initial management patterns were as follows: active surveillance (60%), partial/radical nephrectomy (18%), and ablation (4%). Among 312 patients on surveillance, 14% eventually received treatment. The majority of patients (69.4%) did not receive guideline-recommended chest imaging for initial staging. Urologist visit within 6 months of SRM diagnosis was associated with increased adherence to staging (P = .003) and subsequent surveillance imaging (P < .001). CONCLUSIONS: In this contemporary analysis of an integrated health system's experience, referral to a urologist was associated with guideline-concordant staging and surveillance imaging. Frequent utilization of active surveillance with a low rate of progression to active treatment was noted in both groups. These findings shed light on care patterns upstream of urologic evaluation and support the need for clinical pathways to be implemented at the time of radiologic diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Diabetes and hypertension are known to co-exist frequently as adverse cardiovascular risk factors. Both can produce cardiac autonomic neuropathy that can be measured by ECG RR interval-based heart rate variability (HRV). We compared 5 minutes HRV in four groups based on diabetes and hypertension. Methodology: A cross sectional study was done on 203 participants divided into four groups-diabetics, hypertensives, diabetic-hypertensives and normotensive-nondiabetics. They were evaluated for current disease control and five minutes HRV was done in supine condition following standard protocols by Variowin HR Software. HRV parameters of time domain, frequency domain and Poincare plot were compared between groups and associated with gender, glycaemic control and blood pressure control. Statistical significance was set at p<0.05. Results: Three diseased groups had mean age in mid-fifties, mean duration of disease > 6 years, comparable BMI, poor glycaemic and blood pressure control. As compared to normal groups, three diseased groups exhibit reduced HRV with respect to all three domains of HRV with varying statistical significance. Among diseased groups, HRV was associated with blood pressure control better than glycaemic control but not with gender. LF/HF ratio was the most consistent HRV parameter showing statistical significance in tests. Conclusion: HRV is reduced in both diabetics more than hypertensives; related to blood pressure control more than glycaemic control. It points altered cardiac autonomic balance, and possibility of cardiovascular risk and early detection of it with timely intervention. It also calls for investigation of same for reinforcement of our observations and further exploration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Menopause is the permanent cessation of menstruation due to loss of ovarian follicular activity. Assessment of the age of menopause is particularly important because previous studies have shown a high risk of osteoporosis, hypertension, stroke, and coronary heart disease. This study aims to determine the risk factors for early menopause in Javanese women in Oransbari District, West Papua Province. The cross-sectional sampling method was carried out on women aged 51.73 years with an interval of 40.07-78.58 years. Age at menopause was calculated using the Probit Generalized Linear Model (GLM) analysis. We used a binary logit regression (BLR) model to estimate risk factors for early menopause. BLR analysis was fitted to estimate the odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI). Age at menopause is divided into two categories, normal (=45 years) and early (<45 years). Our results show that the average age of menopause is 43.1 years, or the early menopause category, with an age range of 39.61 to 55.28 years. The results of the partial parameter significance test at the 10% significance level showed that no formal education (OR: 2.348; CI 1.4213.917) had the most significant risk factor for experiencing early menopause, followed by parity (OR: 0.623; CI: 0.377-1.023), contraception (OR: 0.118; CI: 0.038-0.296), and the lowest risk was the age at first delivery (OR: 0.389; CI: 0.207-0.716). The biocultural conditions experienced early in life in Oransbari shape the character of a younger reproductive age as an adaptive response to maximize fitness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a typical application of geodesy, the GNSS/INS (Global Navigation Satellite System and Inertial Navigation System) integrated navigation technique was developed and has been applied for decades. For the integrated systems with multiple sensors, data fusion is one of the key problems. As a well-known data fusion algorithm, the Kalman filter can provide optimal estimates with known parameters of the models and noises. In the literature, however, the data fusion algorithm of the GNSS/INS integrated navigation and positioning systems is performed under a certain norm, and performance of the conventional filtering algorithms are improved only under this fixed and limited frame. The mixed norm-based data fusion algorithm is rarely discussed. In this paper, a mixed norm-based data fusion algorithm is proposed, and the hypothesis test statistics are constructed and adopted based on the chi-square distribution. Using the land vehicle data collected through the multi-GNSS and the IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit), the proposed algorithm is tested and compared with the conventional filtering algorithms. Results show that the influences of the outlying measurements and the uncertain noises are weakened with the proposed data fusion algorithm, and the precision of the estimates is further improved. Meanwhile, the proposed algorithm provides an open issue for geodetic applications with mixed norms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non-tuberculous mycobacteria ( NTM) are opportunistic pathogens that often infect the immunosuppressed individuals. NTM osteomyelitis is a rare disease, mostly as part of disseminated infection. In this article, the diagnosis and treatment of an AIDS patient complicated with NTM osteomyelitis of the lower tibia were reported. The 40-year-old female patient was admitted due to the left ankle pain during antiretroviral therapy. According to blood culture test and imaging examination, the patient was diagnosed with Talaromyces marneffei osteomyelitis before surgery. Postoperative pus culture was positive for NTM. She was pathologically diagnosed with NTM osteomyelitis. After multiple cycles of surgical treatments and more than 1 year of postoperative follow-up, the patient was physically stable. The diagnosis and treatment of this case prompt that the diagnosis of NTM osteomyelitis should be considered for AIDS patients presenting with rapidly-progressive osteomyelitis. The diagnosis depends on the culture of pathogens. Prompt surgical debridement and anti-NTM treatment based on drug sensitivity test are of significance for clinical prognosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mapper, a topological algorithm, is frequently used as an exploratory tool to build a graphical representation of data. This representation can help to gain a better understanding of the intrinsic shape of high-dimensional genomic data and to retain information that may be lost using standard dimension-reduction algorithms. We propose a novel workflow to process and analyze RNA-seq data from tumor and healthy subjects integrating Mapper, differential gene expression, and spectral shape analysis. Precisely, we show that a Gaussian mixture approximation method can be used to produce graphical structures that successfully separate tumor and healthy subjects, and produce two subgroups of tumor subjects. A further analysis using DESeq2, a popular tool for the detection of differentially expressed genes, shows that these two subgroups of tumor cells bear two distinct gene regulations, suggesting two discrete paths for forming lung cancer, which could not be highlighted by other popular clustering methods, including t-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding (t-SNE). Although Mapper shows promise in analyzing high-dimensional data, tools to statistically analyze Mapper graphical structures are limited in the existing literature. In this paper, we develop a scoring method using heat kernel signatures that provides an empirical setting for statistical inferences such as hypothesis testing, sensitivity analysis, and correlation analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To determine the relevance of morphometric properties attributed to the meat yield and fatness index of the saltwater hard clam Meretrix meretrix. A new strain of M. meretrix with red shell color was produced after five generations of selection within a family of full-sibs. 7 morphometric traits, including shell length (SL), shell height (SH), shell width (SW), ligament length (LL), projection length (PL), projection width (PW), and live body weight (LW), and 2 meat characteristics, including meat yield (MY) and fatness index (FI) were measured from 50 individuals of three-year-old M. meretrix. The correlation coefficients, path coefficients, determination coefficients among attributes were analyzed. The results indicated that correlation achieved very significant levels (P<0.01). In addition, the multiple regression equations were formulated by considering the meat yield and fatness index as the dependent variables, respectively, and 7 other morphometric traits as independent variables. The correlation indices (R2) of morphometric traits against the meat yield and fatness index of clams were 0.901 and 0,929, respectively, indicating that the live body weight and shell length were the common main factors influencing the meat characteristics. By testing the significance of partial regression coefficient and gradually removing the non-significant morphometric traits, a multiple regression equation was established to estimate the relationship between shell length (SL, mm), live body weight (LW, g), ligament length (LL, mm) and meat yield (MY, %), fat index (FI, %): MY (%) = 0.432SL+0.251LW and FI (%) = 0.156SL+0.067LL+0.42LW-3.533. The study draws a conclusion that live body weight and shell length have a predominant direct effect on the meat yield and fatness index, which provides theoretical information for the breeding of M. meretrix. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Few studies including contradictory results have addressed the acute effects of the 11+ on motor performance, indicating a potentially reduced applicability of the program for warming up before competitions. This study aims to compare the acute effects of a soccer-specific warm-up (Football+) and the 11+ on motor performance. Materials and methods: Thirty-eight volunteer collegiate players (22 males; age = 21.1±1.9 years, height = 1.81± 0.06 m, weight = 73.4± 9.5 kg; 16 females; age = 21.3±1.5 years; height = 1.71± 0.07 m, weight = 67.8± 8.5 kg) underwent the 11+ and the Football+ in a randomized crossover design with a one-week washout. The Football+ starts with a self-estimated 40–50 percent running, followed by dynamic stretching of the hip muscles, shoulder contact, controlled lunge, Copenhagen exercise, and modified Nordic hamstring exercise. The second part involves roughly intensive small-sided games, followed by plyometric and anaerobic exercises in the third part. The warm ups' effects on performance were determined by a linear sprinting test (20 m), countermovement jump performance (CMJ), Illinois agility (IA), and dribbling speed (DS) tests. Within-subject differences were reported as the means and SD. Pairwise t tests at the significance level of p<0.05 were used to calculate the significant differences. Results: Overall, except for the CMJ (mean = -0.43±3.20 cm, p = 0.21, d = -0.13), significant differences for the 20 m sprint (mean = 0.04±0.10 s, p = 0.005, d = 0.42), IA (mean = 0.65±0.45 s, p = 0.01, d = 1.43), and DS (mean = 0.60±1.58 s, p = 0.012, d = 0.38) were observed. In females, significant differences observed only for IA (mean difference = 0.52±0.42 s, p<0.001, d = 1.24) and DS (mean difference = 1.29±1,77 s, p = 0.005, d = 0.73), with the Football+ showing superiority. In males, significant differences were found only for 20 m sprinting (mean difference = 0.06±0.09, p = 0.005, d = 0.60) and IA (mean difference = 0.74±0.46, p<0.001, d = 1.62), with the Football+ having superiority. Discussion: Although practicable for injury prevention, the 11+ may not optimize acute performance and prepare players for high-intensity physical tasks as well as a well-structured, roughly intensive warm-up. Further gender-specific studies should evaluate the long-term effects of the Football+ on performance and injury prevention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Programmed cell death-1 (PD-1) blockade has been shown to confer clinical benefit in cancer patients. Here, we assessed the level of serum interleukin 14α (IL14α) in patients receiving anti-PD-1 treatment. Methods: This prospective study recruited 30 patients with advanced solid cancer who received pembrolizumab treatment in Northern Jiangsu People's Hospital between April 2016 and June 2018. The western blot analysis was used to assess the expression level of serum IL14α in patients at baseline and after 2 cycles of treatment. Interleukin 14α was performed using the unpaired 2-tailed Student test. The progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were calculated using the Kaplan-Meier method and compared by the log-rank test. Results: The early change of IL14α after 2 cycles of anti-PD-1 therapy was calculated as delta IL14α % change = (IL14α level after 2 cycles − IL14α level before treatment)/IL14α level before treatment × 100%. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) was analyzed to get a cutoff point of delta IL14α % change as 2.46% (sensitivity = 85.71%, specificity = 62.5%; area under the ROC curve [AUC] = 0.7277, P =.034). Using this cutoff to subgroup the patients, an improved objective response rate was observed in patients with a delta IL14α change higher than 2.46% (P =.0072). A delta IL14α change over 2.46% was associated with a superior PFS (P =.0039). Conclusions: Early changes of serum IL14α levels may be a promising biomarker to predict outcomes in patients with solid cancer following anti-PD-1 treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: No measures of the changes occurring in the liver in the case of outflow deprivation during hepatectomies are available. This study investigated four indexes obtained using hyperspectral imaging in a pig model, measured in different liver lobes, before and after hepatic vein occlusion. The variations of StO2% and deoxy-Hb were considerably good markers of venous liver congestion. Introduction. The changes occurring in the liver in cases of outflow deprivation have rarely been investigated, and no measurements of this phenomenon are available. This investigation explored outflow occlusion in a pig model using a hyperspectral camera. Methods. Six pigs were enrolled. The right hepatic vein was clamped for 30 min. The oxygen saturation (StO2%), deoxygenated hemoglobin level (de-Hb), near-infrared perfusion (NIR), and total hemoglobin index (THI) were investigated at different time points in four perfused lobes using a hyperspectral camera measuring light absorbance between 500 nm and 995 nm. Differences among lobes at different time points were estimated by mixed-effect linear regression. Results. StO2% decreased over time in the right lateral lobe (RLL, totally occluded) when compared to the left lateral (LLL, outflow preserved) and the right medial (RML, partially occluded) lobes (p < 0.05). De-Hb significantly increased after clamping in RLL when compared to RML and LLL (p < 0.05). RML was further analyzed considering the right portion (totally occluded) and the left portion of the lobe (with an autonomous draining vein). StO2% decreased and de-Hb increased more smoothly when compared to the totally occluded RLL (p < 0.05). Conclusions. The variations of StO2% and deoxy-Hb could be considered good markers of venous liver congestion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reproducibility of research is poor; this may be because many articles report statistically significant findings that are false positives. Two potential solutions are to lower the P -value for statistical significance testing from 0.05 to 0.005 and to report the minimum false-positive risk (minFPR). This study determined these metrics for randomised controlled trials (RCTs) in general anaesthesiology journals. We identified superiority RCTs published between January 1, 2019 and March 15, 2021 from seven leading anaesthesia journals. P -values for primary outcomes were collected, and minFPRs for these outcomes were calculated using a formula assuming a 50% prior probability of an intervention being effective (minFPR 50). The primary outcomes were the percentage of RCTs maintaining statistical significance at P <0.005 and minFPR 50. We included 318 RCTs. P -values below 0.05 were reported in 205/318 (64%) of RCTs. Of these 205 RCTs, 119/205 (58%) maintained statistical significance at the P <0.005 threshold. The mean (standard deviation) minFPR 50 was 22% (20). At P =0.005, the minFPR 50 was approximately 5%. These proposed metrics aimed at mitigating reproducibility concerns would call a significant portion of the anaesthesiology literature into question. We found a minFPR of 22% and determined that 42% of primary outcomes would not maintain statistical significance if the P -value threshold changed from 0.05 to 0.005. These findings could partially explain the lack of reproducibility of research findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consumption of unhealthy commercial foods and beverages (UCFB) is common among infants and young children living in low- and middle-income countries. Such foods can displace other nutritious foods, however, there is limited evidence on how this consumption tracks across time. This study assessed and tracked UCFB consumption of children living in rural/peri-urban Cambodia during the complementary feeding period, identified UCFB consumption patterns of these children, and explored the association between UCFB consumption and growth. A 6-month longitudinal cohort study was implemented among 567 caregivers of children aged 10-14 months at recruitment. UCFB consumption was estimated each month via a telephone-administered 7-day food frequency questionnaire, and UCFB consumption patterns were identified based on changes in this frequency of consumption over time. The majority of children either maintained (45.7%, n = 246) or developed (43.5%, n = 234) an unhealthy consumption pattern and only 10.8% (n = 58) of children maintained/transitioned into a healthy consumption pattern. High consumers of UCFB at 10-14 months had a 4.7 (CI: 4.7 [3.1-7.2]) times odds of being high consumers of UCFB at 15-19 months (p < 0.001). There was a trend of lower length- for-age z-scores (LAZ) among children maintaining or developing an unhealthy consumption pattern (~-0. SD LAZ) compared to children maintaining/transitioning into a healthy consumption pattern, however, this association was not statistically significant. Findings indicate that high UCFB consumption begins during infancy and tracks into early childhood. National policies and programmes centred on early interventions addressing the use of UCFB for infant and young child feeding are needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trauma anesthesia care can be among the most challenging situations anesthesia providers may encounter. The challenges encountered are helped by providing anesthesia providers on forward-deployed surgical teams with the best equipment available that meets the limitations of light weight, easily movable, and not reliant on electrical supply. This study assesses three questions derived out of the recent formation and equipping of the U.S. Army's Forward Resuscitative and Surgical Detachment. The highly advanced field transport ventilator, the Hamilton-T1 is being used by the detachments' anesthetists with the Universal Portable Anesthesia, Complete (UPAC) draw-over vaporizer. However, no literature supports best use practices regarding use in a push- or pull-through configuration, adding supplemental oxygen, and the impact on the ventilator from contamination with inhaled anesthetics. Utilizing a human patient simulator, these questions were examined in a quasiexperimental and descriptive manner, using the Hamilton-T1 and UPAC vaporizer in multiple configurations. The findings support the efficacy of both push- and pull-through configurations, offer options for the most efficacious use of oxygen, and appear to show no adverse effects from anesthetic vapor entering the ventilator's compression mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: Pollution-related health hazards are very common among people living and/or working in industrial areas, particularly near industries and metro cities. These air pollutants contribute to allergens, increase inflammation, and affect lung function. Aim: The present study aimed to examine the effect of yoga training on lung functions and inflammation in terms of soluble interleukin-2 receptor (sIL-2R) in people working and living in a polluted area. Settings and Design: This is a randomized controlled interventional pilot study. Methods and Materials: Forty-eight male volunteers from the industrial area, aged 20--50 years, were randomly assigned to the experimental group and the control group. Each group comprises 24 study participants. Lung function and sIL-2R were studied at the baseline and post-yoga intervention period of 16 weeks. Statistical Analysis Used: Study data were analyzed using descriptive methods, a one-tailed t-test, a paired t-test, and an independent t-test. Result: Study results showed directional and significant improvements in forced vital capacity, forced expiratory volume in the first second, and peak expiratory flow rate compared to the control group participants. The results pertaining to sIL-2R showed a directional and significant decrease in the experimental group compared to the control group. Conclusion: The present study showed that yoga helps to promote better health, improve lung function and reduce inflammation among people residing in polluted environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Social housing tenants are at greater risk of engaging in unhealthy behaviours than the general population. Housing association employees are in an ideal position to contribute positively to their tenants' health. 'New Home, New You' (NHNY) is a joint venture between a social housing association, a city council and a community healthcare provider in the South West of England. It was designed with the aim of improving the health and well‐being of social housing tenants. Objectives: The aim of this retrospective evaluation was to establish whether social housing tenants were benefiting from this health‐related behavioural intervention in terms of their mental well‐being and health‐related behaviours. Methods: This was a mixed‐methods evaluation. The outcome evaluation was a secondary analysis of quantitative data collected during the NHNY project. The process of delivering and receiving the intervention was evaluated using qualitative, semi‐structured interviews with housing officers and tenants who had participated in the programme. The development of the intervention was evaluated through a focus group and additional semistructured interviews with key stakeholders. Quantitative data were analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. Qualitative interviews were analysed using thematic analysis. Results: Six key stakeholders and a total of seven housing officers from several teams and seven tenants were interviewed. Of the 1016 tenants who were invited to participate in NHNY, 226 enroled in the programme. For participating tenants, the scope for health‐related behaviour change was greatest in relation to eating and smoking. Small positive statistically significant changes in mental health were found between the 6‐ and 12‐month mean score and between the baseline and the 12‐month score. Conclusions: The findings indicate that NHNY may have been beneficial for some participating tenants. Housing officers can have a significant role in promoting health messages and embedding behaviour change among their tenants. Although the programme was implemented as a service improvement rather than a controlled trial and focused on a particular intervention and geographical area, other housing associations may find this evaluation useful for considering whether to adopt some of the principles applied in NHNY in other settings. Patient or Public Contribution: A social housing tenant representative provided input on the methodology and methods used to evaluate NHNY, as well as the information sheet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, sustainability has become increasingly important in a company's image. Customers are becoming more environmentally conscious and demanding that the companies they do business with are also taking steps to reduce their environmental impact. By adopting sustainable practices, companies can demonstrate their commitment to positively impacting the world and building customer trust. This scientific article aims to contribute to a better understanding of the role of sustainability in shaping consumer perceptions of a company's image and provide insights that can help companies develop more effective sustainability strategies and build stronger brand images. The study utilised general scientific methods for processing data, and the data obtained from the online survey were assessed using mathematical-statistical methods and statistical hypothesis testing. Sustainability has become an important aspect of a company's image. With increasing environmental awareness among consumers, companies are expected to take responsibility for their impact on the planet and society. Sustainability in a company's image has become an important aspect of its brand identity, and it can significantly impact its reputation, success, and long-term viability. Consumers are increasingly concerned about the environmental impact of the products they buy and use, and many of them have started to prefer companies that use sustainable practices and produce ecofriendly and sustainable products over those that are not. Companies that embrace sustainability and prioritise environmental and social responsibility are more likely to thrive in a rapidly changing business landscape where consumers are increasingly interested in sustainability and ethical practices. By embracing sustainability, companies can create a positive reputation, build customer trust, and drive long-term success. The added value of the scientific article is that it provides valuable insights and strategies for practising sustainable marketing, which helps to build the company's image. By analysing the impact of sustainability on a company's image, we contribute to the opportunities for companies to improve the brand image and reputation of the company, which can positively increase customer loyalty and trust and gain a competitive advantage in their industry. Therefore, this scientific paper can provide businesses with valuable insights to differentiate themselves from competitors, attract new customers, and increase profit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The application of voltage reduction in medium and low voltage grids to reduce peak power demand or energy consumption has been implemented since the 1980s using several approaches. Conservation Voltage Reduction (CVR), as one such approach, uses a voltage control device to reduce or increase the voltage setpoint on a busbar, thereby reducing or increasing the amount of active and reactive power supply in the network. Voltage regulation for CVR is always implemented according to established network planning standards in each country. Research in this field has proven that a CVR factor ( C V R f ) of 0.7–1.5 for peak demand reduction can be achieved. This is an evaluation metric of CVR. The aim of this research is to determine and validate C V R f for peak demand reduction by comparing actual results obtained during regular tap changes with other randomly distributed periods outside tap change operations, using a set of measurement data. It is important to understand CVR deployment capability by evaluating CVR potentials from historical random tap operations before a robust network-wide deployment is introduced. This research provides such guidance. It also provides a novel approach to determining tap changes from voltage measurements using a time-based algorithm. A C V R f ranging from 0.95 to 1.61 was estimated using a measurement dataset from a test field. The result of the entire evaluation shows that the C V R f are smaller during peak PV production and greater during peak demand periods. Further evaluation using statistical hypotheses testing and a control chart was used to validate the evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background & Objective: Endometrial carcinoma is one of the most common malignancies in women in developed countries and the fourth malignancy in Iranian women. Therefore, the identification of its causative factors is essential for the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. This study was aimed to compare the leptin receptor (Ob-R) expression in the endometrial carcinoma cases and non-carcinoma samples. Methods: In this case-control study, 89 samples (including 45 carcinoma and 44 noncarcinoma samples) were examined. The carcinomatous samples were selected by the census method and others were selected with random method. The data were obtained from histopathologic diagnosis, immunohistochemistry (negative, positive and intensity of immunoreactivity), age, history of diabetes, and hypertension. Ob-R expression was compared in the studied groups using Chi-square, Fisher tests and Multivariate logistic regression analysis. In all tests the level of significance was set at 0.05. The SPSS 26 was used for data analysis. Results: The frequency of high levels of leptin receptors in the patients with endometrial carcinoma was significantly higher compared to the control group (57.8% vs. 2.3%) (P<0.05). Adjusting the effects of age, history of diabetes mellitus (DM) and hypertension (HTN) revealed that the positive-receptor group had 37.75 (95% CI; 5.18-275.04) odds of having endometrial carcinoma (P<0.001). Conclusion: The leptin receptor may be a risk factor for the endometrial carcinoma among women tested in Kashan. Based on these results, leptin receptor might be considered as a potential biomarker for screening the endometrial carcinoma or targeting the therapeutic purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Chronic post-herpetic neuralgia (CPHN) is a symptomatic condition that afflicts adults and elderly individuals. The chronicity of this symptomatology can be conditioned by the epigenetic modifications induced by the virus on the processes of neurotransmission and sensitivity to pain. The aim of this study is to investigate whether manipulating endogenous bioelectrical activity (EBA), responsible for neurotransmission processes and contributing to the induction of epigenetic modifications, can alleviate pain symptoms. Methods: This manipulation was carried out with the antalgic neuromodulation (ANM) treatment of radioelectric asymmetric conveyer (REAC) technology. Pain assessment before and after treatment was performed using a numerical analog scale (NAS) and a simple descriptive scale (SDS). Results: The results of the analysis showed an over four-point decrease in NAS scale score and over one point decrease in SDS scale score, with a statistical significance for both tests of p < 0.005. Conclusions: The results obtained in this study demonstrate how REAC ANM manipulation of EBA can lead to improvement in epigenetically conditioned symptoms such as CPHN. These results should prompt further research to expand knowledge and ensure optimized therapeutic outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]