ANOVA F-test Research Articles

EFFECT OF PREHEATING ON MICROLEAKAGE AND MICROHARDNESS OF COMPOSITE RESIN (AN IN VITRO STUDY)

INTRODUCTION: advancements in composite restorations have been suggested, including preheating of composite resins before photo polymerization by a heating device.OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of preheating before curing on microleakage and microhardness of composite resins.MATERIALS AND METHODS: thirty extracted human molars were used for microleakage assessment. Sixty class V cavities were made in the buccal and lingual surfaces of teeth, and were randomly divided into three groups according to temperature of composite (Group I: 10 °C, Group II: 24°C, and Group III: 54-60°C). Each group is further divided into two subgroups according to the type of composite (nanohybrid composite (Grandio Voco Germany), and microhybrid composite (Z250 3M Espe), where subgroups (IA, IIC and IIIE received nanohybrid composite), and subgroups (IB, IID and IIIF received microhybrid composite). Microleakage was determined by dye penetration test with scoring criteria from (0-3).sixty composite discs were used in vickers microhardness test (VHN),with same experimental grouping as used in microleakage assessment. VHN was determined using calibrated Vickers indenter. Data were collected, tabulated and statistically analyzed by using ANOVA F-test and Chi-square test (p < 0.05).RESULTS: concerning microleakage ; there was no significant difference between the groups. The cervical margins showed more microleakage than the occlusal margins. The least microleakage was obtained in subgroup IIIE with mean 0.5 ± 1.08 in 80% of specimens occlusaly and, also IIIE showed the least microleakage in 50% of cases with mean 1 ± 1.25 cervically. Concerning top microhardness; subgroups IA obtained the highest mean top VHN 113.35 ±10.1 followed by subgroup IIIE 108.43 ±1.52.While regarding bottom microhardness subgroup IIC obtained the highest mean bottom VHN 88.49± 1.29, followed by subgroup IA with mean value85.49 ± 9.69.CONCLUSION: it was concluded that preheating enhanced microhardness of composite resin materials, but have no effect on microleakage

Determining Varying Usage of Sources of Information among Different Involvement Groups

This study tries to investigate the difference in usage of sources of information by the consumers for FMCG products when they are segregated into homogeneous groups. Mean value is calculated for each group which is ranked to identify the source of information more often used by each group. Further on, the one-way ANOVA (F-test) is performed on score values provided by the respondents to find out the varying usage of sources of information among the three groups of respondents segmented on the basis of involvement (low, medium and high). Finally, correspondence analysis is used to produce a two dimensional graphical plot of the observed data variation. This analysis shows that there is difference in usage of sources of information by different involvement groups. The results of the study could go a long way in rationalising the communication spending of the companies.

Analysis of means: a generalized approach using R

Papers on the analysis of means (ANOM) have been circulating in the quality control literature for decades, routinely describing it as a statistical stand-alone concept. Therefore, we clarify that ANOM should rather be regarded as a special case of a much more universal approach known as multiple contrast tests (MCTs). Perceiving ANOM as a grand-mean-type MCT paves the way for implementing it in the open-source software R. We give a brief tutorial on how to exploit R's versatility and introduce the R package ANOM for drawing the familiar decision charts. Beyond that, we illustrate two practical aspects of data analysis with ANOM: firstly, we compare merits and drawbacks of ANOM-type MCTs and ANOVA F-test and assess their respective statistical powers, and secondly, we show that the benefit of using critical values from multivariate t-distributions for ANOM instead of simple Bonferroni quantiles is oftentimes negligible.

Assessment of hyaluronic acid in tumor microenvironment (TME) of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (CCA).

248 Background: Improved understanding of TME in CCA may allow for development of novel therapeutics targeting stromal components. Hyaluronic acid (HA) is a polysaccharide that has been found in the TME of a number of solid tumors characterized by desmoplastic stroma, such as pancreatic cancer. Elevated HA levels were prognostic in these malignancies. HA prevalence and association with clinic-pathological features in CCA is unknown. Methods: A retrospective study was conducted using clinically annotated formalin-fixed paraffin embedded tissue from resected intrahepatic CCA samples. Specimens were analyzed for HA, scored using a positive pixel count algorithm (Aperio Imagescope) and positivity was calculated as % of total pixel count. Clinical variables were examined by chi-square or ANOVA F-test. Overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) were estimated using Kaplan-Meier method and compared via log-rank test. Multivariate analysis was conducted using Cox proportional hazards regression models. Results: 142 patient samples were stained for HA. HA was identified in all samples (100%), with a range of HA positivity of 32.8 – 91.8%. Median HA value was 67.1% and 95% of patients had HA positivity ≥ 45%. Factors associated with higher than median HA ( &gt; 67%) included perineural invasion (PNI) (40% vs. 21%, p = 0.011), necrosis (67% vs. 41%, p = 0.003), lymph node positivity (32% vs. 14%, p = 0.027), and small tumor size ( &lt; 6.8 cm vs. &gt; 8.4cm, p = 0.014). Stratification of HA staining by median positivity value was not an independent predictor of survival based on multivariate analysis. OS for patients with HA &gt; 67% was 40.1 months (mo) vs 48.5 mo with HA ≤ 67%, p = 0.537. PFS for patients with HA &gt; 67% was 14.4 mo vs. 25.7 mo with HA ≤ 67%, p = 0.177. Conclusions: Prevalence of HA staining in resected CCA is higher than seen in many solid tumors and is ubiquitous in our study. Absence of statistically significant association with OS and PFS might be attributable to ubiquitous prevalence, narrow signal range, and association with known negative prognostic factors. Further pre-clinical and clinical evaluation would be warranted.

K Bağımsız Grubu Karşılaştırmak İçin Dayanıklı Yöntemler

Objective: One-way ANOVA-F test is the most common test to examine whether there is a statistically significant difference between population means of more than two independent groups or not. However, ANOVA-F test can give misleading results when normality and homoscedasticity assumptions are violated. In order to get reliable results, robust methods can be preferred instead of ANOVA-F test. The purpose of this study is comparing six different methods including ANOVA-F test in terms of controlling actual Type I error rates under 28 different experimental conditions. These experimental conditions comprise of the combinations of the components which are symmetric and asymmetric distributions, homoscedasticity and heteroscedasticity, equal and unequal sample sizes and positive and negative pairings of variances with sample sizes. Furthermore, these six different methods were compared for two real data sets which were obtained from speech exercises of Parkinson’s patients. Material and Methods: Compared methods are ANOVA-F test, Welch test, Welch test with trimmed mean, Welch test with trimmed mean and a bootstrap-t, Box method, and Kruskal-Wallis test. Results: After computing actual Type I error rates of the methods with a simulation study, power rates are calculated for the four methods which controlled the actual Type I error rate according to a robustness criterion. Conclusion: Based on all results obtained from this study, Welch test is recommended when the assumptions are satisfied whereas Welch test with trimmed mean is recommended when the assumptions are violated.

Nurses Intent to Leave and Job Satisfaction in Hematology/Oncology Areas: Implications for Policy and Practice

Purpose/objective: To determine how satisfied the nurses are in the Hematology/Oncology areas, to find what extent the expatriate nurses intend to leave their jobs, and to find the relationship between job satisfaction and turnover intention in Hematology/Oncology units. The focus of this study was on measuring the effect of the demographic characteristics of the participants on their intent to leave and to link those characteristics to their job satisfaction. Design: Quantitative descriptive cross sectional research. Method: Study instruments included questions related to demographic characteristics, intent to leave, and the McCloskey Mueller Satisfaction Scale. Data were extracted and analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Scientists (20.V). Univariate descriptive statistics were conducted on the sample's demographic characteristics including gender, age, marital status, nationality and educational level. Bivariate associations between intent to leave and demographic characteristics were tested using Pearson Chi-square. Differences in satisfaction scores between nurses with and without intent to leave were tested using t-test and ANOVA f-test. Results: A total of 223 (68.6% response rate) expatriate nurses employed in the Hematology/Oncology units were surveyed.104 (46.6%) of the participants reported intent to leave within the next 1-3 years. Leavers were less satisfied in all satisfaction subscales than the stayers. Significant Differences were found between marital status and nationalities on one side and intention to leave on the other side (P value=0.027, 0.014, respectively). Predictors of intent to leave were dissatisfaction with different job aspects. Implications for nursing: Findings can be utilized by nursing managers and policy makers to enhance job satisfaction and use it as predictor for intent to leave. Conclusion: Study results predict relationships between job satisfaction and intent to leave the employment within Hematology/Oncology areas or the organization.

Decision-Making in Adolescents According to Reaction Time, HEG and PASS

Background: The Planning, Attention, Simultaneous and Successive (PASS) theory of intelligence allows us cognitive assessment. Hemoencephalography (HEG) allows us to assess cortical prefrontal activity. Reaction time (RT) allows us to assess decision-making. We aim to find teenager profile according to the PASS, HEG, and RT. Methods and findings: 59 secondary education adolescent students (30 females and 29 males, 14-16- year-old, mean=15.29, SD=0.67) were tested by two RT + HEG experiments. Stimuli of experiment 1 were cognitive and emotional dilemmas as displayed sentences or images. Stimuli of experiment 2 were shocking, unpleasant, and pleasant pictures with music or without music. PASS assessment was performed. We used oneway ANOVA (F-test) and correlation analysis. Longer reaction time was found in emotional dilemmas than cognitive items (p=0.000). The HEG activity deviation from baseline was not consistent in both cognitive and emotional processing and the statistically significant value showed remarkable variability. HEG-activity differences at statistically significant level between cognitive and emotional processing were not found, indicating that both cognitive and emotional tasks scored close together. All this means atypical pattern related to adult pattern. Poorer planning, attention, and successive was associated with poorer academic performance (p=0.00). Conclusion: A longer RT in emotional decision-making along with a simultaneously atypical HEG activity and all this associated with the relationship between poorer planning and poorer academic performance makes it reasonable that an imbalance between cognition and emotion in adolescence (relative to adulthood) contributes to adolescent personality. This imbalance is hypothesized to result in distinct patterns of activity shown in fMRI, and – we hypothesize – HEG in adolescence. Further HEG studies are needed.

Effects of a patient’s name and image on medical knowledge acquisition

To assess whether there are differences in medical students' (MS) knowledge acquisition after being provided a virtual patient (VP) case summary with a patient's name and facial picture included compared to no patient's name or image. 76 MS from four clerkship blocks participated. Blocks one and three (Treatment group) were provided case materials containing the patient's name and facial picture while blocks two and four (Control group) were provided similar materials without the patient's name or image. Knowledge acquisition was evaluated with a multiple-choice-question examination (CQA_K). Treatment group CQA_K scores were 64.6% (block one, n = 18) and 76.0% (block three, n = 22). Control group scores were 71.7%, (block two, n = 17) and 68.4% (block four, n = 19). ANOVA F-test among the four block mean scores was not significant; F (3, 72) = 1.68, p = 0.18, η2=0.07. Only 22.2% and 27.3% of the MS from blocks one and three respectively correctly recalled the patient's name while 16.7% and 40.9% recalled the correct final diagnosis of the patient. These results suggest that including a patient's name and facial picture on reading materials may not improve MS knowledge acquisition. Corroborating studies should be performed before applying these results to the design of instructional materials.

Impact of Disease Duration upon Symptom Burden Amongst Patients with Myeloproliferative Neoplasms (MPNs)

Background: The Philadelphia chromosome negative myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs), including essential thrombocythemia (ET), polycythemia vera (PV) and myelofibrosis (MF) all have a time dependent risk of progression to either an advanced myelofibrotic state (post ET/PV MF) and/or to acute myeloid leukemia. The impact of disease duration upon the MPN symptom burden is not well understood, nor are the precise mechanisms of disease progression. We sought to better understand the impact of disease duration on MPN symptom burden.Methods:Symptom burden data was collected utilizing the Myeloproliferative Neoplasm Symptom Assessment Form (MPN-SAF) amongst MPN patients, collected at the time of an office visit in an international cohort of MPN patients as previously described (Scherber et. al.). Symptom burden assessment was a previously validated 27-item symptom burden questionnaire scored on a 0-10 scale (0= as good as it can be, 10 = as bad as it could be). The patient or provider was asked to report the time since MPN diagnosis. MPN duration was determined to be early if the diagnosis was established between 0 to 5 years ago, intermediate if the diagnosis was established between 6 to 10 years ago, and late if the diagnosis was established 11 years ago or more. Anemia was defined as a red blood cell count less than 10 g/dL, leukopenia was defined as a white blood cell count was below 4 x 109, and thrombocytopenia if the platelet count was below 150 x109. Statistical significance was calculated using ANOVA f-test and chi squared.Results:Patient demographics and disease burden: A total of 1443 patients responded to the survey, including 592 (41%) ET, 549 (38%) PV, and 302 (21%) MF patients, including 181 (60%) primary MF, 67 (22%) post-ET MF, and 54 (18%) post-PV MF. Among MF patients, mean duration of MPN diagnosis was 9 years, and mean duration MF diagnosis was 4.7 years. Among respondents, 757 fit criteria for early disease duration, 353 fit criteria for intermediate disease duration, and 333 fit criteria for late disease duration. Respondent mean age was 62 years and approximately half of respondents were female (55%). Patients with longer diagnosis duration tended to be older (p=0.009) and were most likely to have anemia (0.02), leukopenia (p=0.01), or thrombocytopenia (p=0.03). These individuals were also most likely to have a history of hemorrhage (p=0.007) or require red blood cell transfusions (p<0.001).Combined cohort symptom burden: On average among the combined cohort of ET, PV and MF patients, symptoms tended to worsen with time with this effect being significant for symptom items of fatigue (BFI, p<0.04), concentration (p=0.007), insomnia (p=0.02), sexual difficulties (p=0.002), cough (p=0.03), night sweats (p=0.002), and pruritus (p=0.02). Symptoms of early satiety (p=0.004), concentration difficulties (p=0.01), insomnia (p=0.03), sexual difficulties (p=0.02), cough (p=0.01), and night sweats (p=<0.001) had significantly higher prevalence in those with longer disease duration. Similarly, the total calculated MPN-10 score (p=0.008) and quality of life assessment (0.03) demonstrated worsened outcomes with time (Table 1). No significant differences in symptoms for the combined cohort were observed among individuals diagnosed 0 to 1 years ago compared to those with a diagnosis established between 2 and 5 years ago.Symptom burden in MPN subtypes. When evaluating specific MPN types, patients with essential thrombocythemia experienced significantly greater sexual difficulties over time (p=0.03). The severity (p=0.01) and incidence (p=0.03) of pruritus and incidence of night sweats (p<0.001) were significantly increased over time for individuals with PV. For those with MF, the severity (p= 0.01) and incidence (p=0.009) of cough also significantly increased with longer diagnosis duration.DiscussionOverall, significant worsening in symptom burden can be recognized over time for individuals diagnosed with MPNs. Diagnosis may not necessarily correlate with disease duration as the timing of diagnosis may be delayed from onset of disease. Given the intent of this abstract to evaluate changes with disease duration, we did not investigate correlations between symptom burden and cytopenias. We do know that risk factors for survival in the MPNs include older age and thrombosis, however, disease duration should be investigated as an alternative marker of burden in future survival studies. [Display omitted] DisclosuresHarrison:CTI Biopharma: Consultancy, Honoraria, Speakers Bureau; Shire: Speakers Bureau; Gilead: Honoraria; Novartis: Honoraria, Research Funding, Speakers Bureau; Sanofi: Honoraria, Speakers Bureau. Kiladjian:Incyte Corporation: Consultancy; Novartis: Other: Travel grant; Research Funding paid to institution (Hôpital Saint-Louis et Université Paris Diderot); Novartis: Consultancy. Zweegman:Celgene: Research Funding; Janssen: Research Funding; Takeda: Research Funding. Barbui:Novartis: Speakers Bureau. Etienne:Novartis: Consultancy, Honoraria, Other: Congress Travel/Accomodations, Research Funding, Speakers Bureau; BMS: Consultancy, Honoraria, Speakers Bureau; ARIAD: Consultancy, Honoraria, Speakers Bureau. te Boekhorst:CTI Biopharma: Consultancy; Novartis: Consultancy. Vannucchi:Novartis: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Speakers Bureau; Novartis: Other: Research Funding paid to institution (University of Florence), Research Funding; Shire: Speakers Bureau; Baxalta: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees. Mesa:Novartis. Research- incyte, Gilead, cti, Genentech, promedior, NS Pharma: Consultancy.

Unmet Needs for Symptom Control in Essential Thrombocythemia with Front Line Therapy

Background:Thrombotic and hemorrhagic complications are commonly encountered in uncontrolled essential thrombocythemia (ET). Both anagrelide and hydroxyurea (HU) have proven efficacious in cytoreduction as well as reducing these events and remain first line therapy for most high-risk ET patients. Independent of their role in risk-reduction, little is known about how these therapies impact patient symptomatology or quality of life. In this study, we compared the clinical and symptomatic profiles of ET patients receiving HU or anagrelide against patients with no previous experience with these agents.Methods:Data was assessed from a prospectively collected international database of ET patients in which demographics, disease features, and ET symptoms utilizing the myeloproliferative neoplasm symptom assessment form (MPN-SAF; Scherber et al, 2011). The MPN-SAF includes the patient's perceptions of common MPN-related symptoms and overall quality of life (QOL) on a 0 (absent) to 10 (worst imaginable) scale. Total symptom score (TSS) was computed based on symptom items using the published scoring algorithm on a 0 (all reported symptoms absent) to 100 (all reported symptoms worst imaginable) scale. ET risk scores were calculated using the IPSET scoring algorithm (Passamonti 2012). Thrombocytopenia was defined as a platelet count <100 x 10(9)/L, anemia was defined as hemoglobin<10 g/dL and leukopenia was defined as a white blood cell count <4.0 x 10(9)/L. Associations between the MPN-SAF individual symptoms were investigated using chi-square test for categorical data and ANOVA F-test for continuous variables.ResultsHydroxyurea vs. HU NaiveA total of 402 ET patients with active HU use were compared to 392 ET patients with no history of HU use. Patients using HU were older (63.5 years vs. 52.3 years, p<0.001) and had a greater concentration of both high risk (24.9% vs. 11.4%, p=0.001) and intermediate risk (53.9% vs 38.4%, p<0.001) patients. They also had a higher rate of prior thrombosis (29.8% vs 11.3%, p<0.001) and leukopenia (10.1% vs. 3.0%, p<0.001). No differences were noted between gender, a history of prior hemorrhage, red blood cell transfusion requirements, or the presence of anemia/thrombocytopenia. In comparing symptom profiles, no significant differences were noted between TSS or individual symptoms with the exception of slightly more severe cough in HU patients (1.5 vs. 1.1, p=0.02, Figure 1).Anagrelide vs. Anagrelide NaiveA total of 49 ET patients with active anagrelide use were compared to 794 ET patients with no history of anagrelide use. Patients using anagrelide had a longer mean disease duration (8.1 years vs. 5.8 years) and were more anemic (9.1% vs. 1.2%, p<0.001). No differences were noted between age, gender, risk scores, the presence of leukopenia/thrombocytopenia, a history of prior thrombosis or hemorrhage complications or red blood cell transfusion requirements. Additionally, there were no significant differences between TSS or individual symptom items (Figure 1).HU vs. AnagrelideA total of 402 patients currently using HU were compared to 39 patients currently using anagrelide. Overall, HU users were slightly older (63.5 years vs. 55.1 years, p<0.001) with a greater population of patients meeting high risk criteria (24.9% vs. 2.8%, p=0.002) and having a history of prior thrombosis (29.8% vs. 12.8%, p=0.02). Patients receiving anagrelide had a slightly longer disease duration (8.2 years vs. 6.0 years, p=0.0446). In comparing symptom profiles, no differences were noted in TSS or individual symptom items between cohorts.DiscussionIn this retrospective analysis, it does not appear cytoreduction with either HU and/or anagrelide has a significant impact on ET symptom burden despite reducing vascular events. Importantly, the higher risk scores in HU patients did not translate directly into greater patient symptomatology supporting previous studies demonstrating a poor association between these two items. Prospective trials measuring ET symptom change, in the setting of randomized trials will better quantify impact of cytoreduction on symptom burden as well as quantify impact of newer agents such as interferon or jak inhibition. [Display omitted] DisclosuresKiladjian:Incyte Corporation: Consultancy; Novartis: Other: Travel grant; Research Funding paid to institution (Hôpital Saint-Louis et Université Paris Diderot); Novartis: Consultancy. Zweegman:Takeda: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; Celgene: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; Janssen: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding. Harrison:Sanofi: Honoraria, Speakers Bureau; Shire: Speakers Bureau; Gilead: Honoraria; CTI Biopharma: Consultancy, Honoraria, Speakers Bureau; Novartis: Honoraria, Research Funding, Speakers Bureau. Cervantes:Sanofi-Aventis: Consultancy; Novartis: Consultancy, Speakers Bureau; CTI-Baxter: Consultancy, Speakers Bureau. Barbui:Novartis: Speakers Bureau. Etienne:ARIAD: Consultancy, Honoraria, Speakers Bureau; Novartis: Consultancy, Honoraria, Other: Congress Travel/Accomodations, Research Funding, Speakers Bureau; BMS: Consultancy, Honoraria, Speakers Bureau. Roy:Novartis: Consultancy, Research Funding; BMS: Consultancy, Research Funding. te Boekhorst:Novartis: Consultancy; CTI Biopharma: Consultancy. Vannucchi:Novartis: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Speakers Bureau; Shire: Speakers Bureau; Novartis: Other: Research Funding paid to institution (University of Florence), Research Funding; Baxalta: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees. Mesa:Novartis. Research- incyte, Gilead, cti, Genentech, promedior, NS Pharma: Consultancy.

Reinforcing Sampling Distributions Through a Randomization-Based Activity for Introducing ANOVA

This paper examines the use of a randomization-based activity to introduce the ANOVA F-test to students. The two main goals of this activity are to successfully teach students to comprehend ANOVA F-tests and to increase student comprehension of sampling distributions. Four sections of students in an advanced introductory statistics course participated in this study. When the topic of ANOVA was introduced, two sections were randomly assigned to participate in a traditional approach (one for each instructor), while the other two sections participated in a randomization-based method. Students were administered a pre-test and a post-test that asked them to apply hypothesis testing concepts to a new scenario. Students also responded to some basic conceptual questions. This study showed mixed results related to students' understanding of the logic of inference, but the activity utilized shows some promising gains in student understanding of sampling distributions.

Potassium Cyanide and the Effect on the Rate of Decomposition of Mice in Grave-Soil

As a body decomposes, a multitude of physiochemical changes occur that are interdependent on physical factors including temperature, humidity and pH, and victim characteristics such as weight, clothing and ante-mortem pathology. One aspect that has not been investigated is to what extent poisons such as cyanides have on a decomposing cadaver. Cyanides are used extensively throughout industry from mining to electroplating, and found in some fruits. They have also been used to commit murders and suicides. Therefore, it is necessary to determine whether cyanide has any effect on the rate of decomposition of a body buried in a soil environment as well as to assess whether overall mass loss is a viable post-mortem interval estimation method. One hundred dead house mice (Mus. musculus) were weighed and then intragastrically injected with doses of 0, 5000, 10000, 20000 and 30000 parts per million (ppm) potassium cyanide solution. The mice were then buried in separate containers of 300g top soil. Five M. musculus samples were randomly assigned to one of four Day Removal Categories (DRCs). The removal categories were 7,14,21 and 30 days after initial burial. In each DRC, the mice were removed, cleaned, photographed, characterised using a scoring system developed by Megyesi et al. [1] and then weighed again. A percentage change was calculated between the initial and removal masses. Statistical analysis was conducted using Levene Test, oneway ANOVA and Welch F-Test. Results suggested that potassium cyanide concentration was not statistically significant to the overall rate of decomposition observed, however photographs and decompositional scoring suggested there was a localised effect observed by an increased concavity of the stomach and abdominal areas. Critical analysis deemed mass loss an unviable post-mortem interval estimation tool due to a dependence on numerous factors, many of which are lost at the time of death.

Differentiation of ductal carcinoma in-situ from benign micro-calcifications by dedicated breast computed tomography

PurposeCompare conspicuity of ductal carcinoma in-situ (DCIS) to benign calcifications on unenhanced (bCT), contrast-enhanced dedicated breast CT (CEbCT) and mammography (DM). Methods and materialsThe institutional review board approved this HIPAA-compliant study. 42 women with Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System 4 or 5 category micro-calcifications had breast CT before biopsy. Three subjects with invasive disease at surgery were excluded. Two breast radiologists independently compared lesion conspicuity scores (CS) for CEbCT, to bCT and DM. Enhancement was measured in Hounsfield units (HU). Mean CS±standard deviations are shown. Receiver operating characteristic analysis (ROC) measured radiologists’ discrimination performance by comparing CS to enhancement alone. Statistical measurements were made using ANOVA F-test, Wilcoxon rank-sum test and robust linear regression analyses. Results39 lesions (17 DCIS, 22 benign) were analyzed. DCIS (8.5±0.9, n=17) was more conspicuous than benign micro-calcifications (3.6±2.9, n=22; p<0.0001) on CEbCT. DCIS was equally conspicuous on CEbCT and DM (8.5±0.9, 8.7±0.8, n=17; p=0.85) and more conspicuous when compared to bCT (5.3±2.6, n=17; p<0.001). All DCIS enhanced; mean enhancement (90HU±53HU, n=17) was higher compared to benign lesions (33±30HU, n=22) (p<0.0001). ROC analysis of the radiologists’ CS showed high discrimination performance (AUC=0.94) compared to enhancement alone (AUC=0.85) (p<0.026). ConclusionDCIS is more conspicuous than benign micro-calcifications on CEbCT. DCIS visualization on CEbCT is equal to mammography but improved compared to bCT. Radiologists’ discrimination performance using CEBCT is significantly higher than enhancement values alone. CEbCT may have an advantage over mammography by reducing false positive examinations when calcifications are analyzed.

English Learning Strategy and Proficiency Level of the First Year Students

The purpose of the study was to identify whether English language learning strategies commonly used by the first year students at International College, Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University include six direct and indirect strategies. The study served to explore whether there was a difference in these students’ use of six direct and indirect English learning strategies between the different levels of their English proficiency. The questionnaire used as a research instrument was comprised of two parts: General information of participants and the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL). The researcher employed descriptive statistics and one-way ANOVA (F-test) to analyze the data. The results of the analysis revealed that English learning strategies commonly used by the first year students include six direct and indirect strategies, including differences in strategy use of the students with different levels of English proficiency. Recommendations for future research include the study of language learning strategy use with other research methods focusing on other languages, specific language skills, and/or the relationship of language learning strategy use and other factors in other programs and/or institutions.

Implications of radiologic-pathologic correlation for gallbladder disease in children and young adults with sickle cell disease

The purpose of this study is to describe gallbladderimaging findings in patients with sickle cell disease, andto determine how they correspond with occurrence of complications,need for cholecystectomy, and surgical pathology. This study is IRB approved and HIPAA compliant. Informed consent requirements were waived. We reviewed records of 77 children with sickle cell disease ages 0-18 years at the time of their first gallbladder imaging study. Demographics, hospital courses, and radiologic and pathologic reports were collected. Two pediatric radiologists independently and retrospectively reviewed the imaging studies. Statistical analysis was performed using kappa statistic, chi-squared test, and ANOVA F-test. Continuous variables were described with mean, median, variance, and range. Patients who underwent cholecystectomy (N = 25) were more likely than the patients who did not undergo cholecystectomy (N = 52) to have gallstones or sludge (100 versus 36.5%, p = <0.0001) or other gallbladder or biliary abnormality (70.8 versus 1.9%, p = <0.0001). Patients who did not undergo cholecystectomy more frequently had normal-appearing gallbladders and biliary tracts (63.5 versus 0%, p = <0.0001). Ninety-two percent of patients with cholecystectomy had chronic cholecystitis on pathology, and 96% had a complication, including chronic cholecystitis and sequelae of biliary obstruction. Young patients with sickle cell disease, cholelithiasis, and any other biliary imaging abnormality will almost certainly require cholecystectomy, and many will experience complications. The most common surgical pathologic diagnosis in this group is chronic cholecystitis, which has a variable radiologic appearance. Our findings support recommendations to perform elective cholecystectomy for children and young adults with sickle cell disease and cholelithiasis or gallbladder sludge.

Recurrence quantification analysis across sleep stages

Abstract In this work we employ a nonlinear data analysis method called recurrence quantification analysis (RQA) to analyze differences between sleep stages and wake using cardio-respiratory signals, only. The data were recorded during full-night polysomnographies of 313 healthy subjects in nine different sleep laboratories. The raw signals are first normalized to common time bases and ranges. Thirteen different RQA and cross-RQA features derived from ECG, respiratory effort, heart rate and their combinations are additionally reconditioned with windowed standard deviation filters and ZSCORE normalization procedures leading to a total feature count of 195. The discriminative power between Wake, NREM and REM of each feature is evaluated using the Cohen's kappa coefficient. Besides kappa performance, sensitivity, specificity, accuracy and inter-correlations of the best 20 features with high discriminative power is also analyzed. The best kappa values for each class versus the other classes are 0.24, 0.12 and 0.31 for NREM, REM and Wake, respectively. Significance is tested with ANOVA F-test (mostly p

Abstract P4-11-31: Inverse relationship between ER+/PR- breast cancer and OncotypeDx scores and concordance between IHC and RT-PCR

Abstract Background Estrogen receptor-positive/progesterone-receptor negative breast cancer (ER+/PR- BC) is recognized as a distinct clinical entity that is associated with potentially more aggressive tumor biology and early resistance to endocrine therapy when compared to ER+/PR+ BC. The OncotypeDx assay provides risk stratification and prognostic information for hormone receptor (HR)-positive invasive BC; however, the association between the PR status determined by immunohistochemistry (IHC) and by OncotypeDx genomic analysis and the impact on the recurrence score (RS) is less clear. Methods We designed an analysis to determine whether OncotypeDx scores differ between ER+/PR+ and ER+/PR- tumors. Three hundred and fifty patients (pts) with HR positive, node-negative invasive BC who underwent OncotypeDx testing at our institution between Dec 2006-Oct 2013 were included in our study. We examined whether there was discordance in the HR status on IHC staining reported by our pathologists and the RT-PCR analysis reported as part of the OncotypeDx assay. The data were analyzed by ANOVA-F test and t-test. Chi-square test was used to analyze the discrepancies between the two methods of tumor genomic profile assessment. Results The mean age at diagnosis was 58 yrs (SD ±10.1 yrs). Three hundred and one pts had ER+/PR+ and 47 pts had ER+/PR- tumors by IHC. Pt characteristics are shown in Table 1. PR- tumors had significantly higher OncotypeDx scores than PR+ tumors (24.7 ±8.53 vs 17.3 ±7.38; Mean ±SD; p &amp;lt;0.001), predicting a greater 10-yr risk of distant recurrence. Two hundred and eighty four pts had HR status reported by OncotypeDx assay. Comparison of IHC and OncotypeDx assay revealed that 20 pts (8.1%) who were ER+/PR+ by IHC had ER+/PR- tumors by RT-PCR. Of the ER+/PR- cases by IHC, 12 (31.6%) were ER+/PR+ and 2 (5.3%) pts were ER-/PR- by RT-PCR (p &amp;lt;0.001, Table 2). Independent evaluation for ER and PR expression showed a concordance of 99.3% for ER and 88.7% for PR between the two methods. Conclusion Our study shows that ER+/PR- BC tumors are associated with a significantly higher OncotypeDx scores; this interprets into a higher risk of recurrence. Our data also show that there was a high concordance of 99.3% for ER between IHC and RT-PCR analyses whereas the concordance for PR was much lower at 88.7%. Patient characteristicsVariablesER+/PR+ N=303 (%)ER+/PR- N=47 (%)AgeMean5859M statusM207 (68.3)39 (83)PM96 (31.7)8 (17)OncotypeDx score♦N30147Mean ± SD17.3 ± 7.3824.7 ± 8.53HistologyIDC248 (82.4)44 (93.6)ILC50 (16.6)3 (6.4)StageT1a2 (0.7)2 (4.2)T1b49 (16.2)9 (19.1)T1c174 (57.5)25 (53.3)T274 (24.5)11 (23.4)T32 (0.7)0SurgeryLumpectomy198 (65.6)30 (63.8)Mastectomy102 (33.8)17 (36.1)ChemotherapyYes93 (30.4)32 (68.1)No210 (69.6)15 (31.9)Endocrine txAI167 (55.4)30 (65.2)Tam89 (29.2)9 (19.5)Sequential AI &amp; Tam36 (10.9)4 (8.8)N= number, SD= standard deviation, M= menopausal, PM= premenopausal, IDC= invasive ductal carcinoma, ILC= invasive lobular carcinoma, AI= aromatase inhibitor, Tam= tamoxifen, ♦= statistically significant Comparison between IHC and RT-PCRIHCRT-PCRER+/PR+ N(%)ER+/PR- N(%)P valueER+/PR+226 (91.9)12 (31.6)&amp;lt; 0.001ER+/PR-20 (8.1)24 (63.2)ER-/PR-02 (5.3) Citation Format: Lubna N Chaudhary, Zeeshan Jawa, Aniko Szabo, Alexis Visotcky, Christopher R Chitambar. Inverse relationship between ER+/PR- breast cancer and OncotypeDx scores and concordance between IHC and RT-PCR [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Thirty-Seventh Annual CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium: 2014 Dec 9-13; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(9 Suppl):Abstract nr P4-11-31.

Using ANOM Slicing for Multi-Way Models with Significant Interaction

Multi-way (multifactor) models with significant interaction can be analyzed using simple effect comparisons. These F-tests are multiple comparisons, which are referred to as slice tests (e.g., in a two-factor study one slices by factor A by comparing the levels of factor B for each level of A). Slicing uses the full model degrees of freedom and mean squared error (MSE). This paper shows how to use analysis of means (ANOM) methods analogous to ANOVA F-test slicing to perform multiple comparisons. This approach results in a set of powerful decision charts that can be used to assess both statistical and practical significance.

On school violence in Korean middle school, prevention and reaction measures.

This study is aiming to explore the practical and realistic measure in more variable way, which enables us to manage the problems about school violence we are currently facing as well as to overcome limitations in the current situation where we react only with punishments, mainly in the form of the law enforcement, supported by the police. This study was conducted on male and female students (n= 424) and teachers (n= 136) attending at the seven middle schools located in Seoul. The frequency analysis, one way ANOVA F-test, t -test, the multiple regression analysis were applied. Students recognize’ harmful environmental cleanup’ as an important variable or factor to reduce school violence. Also, both teachers and students are aware that ‘regular survey on school violence’ could reduce school violence. In conclusion, it is considered that as an effective and viable prevention measure against school violence, more attention and affection efforts need to be activated and addressed, on the part of home, school, and government, which will enable our young generations of students to be brought up, and take up the future of our country.

Sensitivity and specificity of nassar color test in early detection of diabetic macular edema

Purpose: To evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of Nassar color discrimination test in the presence of diabetic macular edema (DME) as a sensitive diagnostic tool for the detection of early functional changes. Design: A prospective, comparative case–control study. Setting: Multicenter study in the outpatient clinic of Beni Suef University, Fayoum University, and Misr University for Science and Technology. Methods: The study included 120 eyes with Type I diabetes recruited from the outpatient clinic. All patients were received ophthalmic exams and tested with Nassar color plate test, fluorescein fundus angiography (FFA), and optical coherence tomography (OCT). The main outcome measures are the presence of mild or moderate tritans indicating early DME changes that were documented in each group. Statistical Analysis Used: Student's t-test and ANOVA f-test were used for statistical analysis. P Results: The mean age of the patients was 41.15 ± 5.61 years (range 23–49 years) with the mean disease duration of 13.56 ± 2.59 years (range 10–20 years). All patient with dry macula (n = 60, 50%) were normal on Nassar color test while patients with DME showed normal (n = 6, 5%), mild tritan (n = 14, 11.66%), and moderate tritan (n = 40, 33.33%), respectively. Hence, the Nassar color test is 90% sensitive and 100% specific. Conclusions: The Nassar color plate is an affordable and effective for early detection of DME and recommended to be used in all primary ophthalmic examination especially in areas where no access to comprehensive ophthalmic exams such as OCT and FFA.