Differences In P-values Research Articles

The DNA methylation of the interleukin6 as a biomarker for the early detection of colorectal cancer

Objectives: To identify the DNA methylation pattern of the interleukin6 promoter region in colorectal cancer patients and colorectal polys patients that could be a biomarker for early detection of colorectal cancer.
 Methods: For this purpose, we examined the DNA methylation pattern of the promoter region of the IL6 specifically 358 bp (-292 to +67) including 7 CpG sites (-228, -213, -163, -119, +10, +19, +25) in a total of ninety samples with thirty samples each for controls, cancer patients, and colorectal polyps using the bisulfite conversion sequencing method.
 Result: Our results indicate that CpG +25 and CpG -119 can serve as biomarkers for early detection of colon cancer, showing a significant difference in P-values of 0.001 at CpG +25 and 0.004 at CpG-119. The hypomethylation of CpG -119 in cancer groups facilitates the binding of the methyl-sensitive transcription factor Sp1. It enhances the overexpression of IL6 besides hypermethylation of CpG +25 that prevents binding of the methyl-sensitive insulator CTF, unbinding the insulator to the promoter region of the cancer samples makes the promoter region open access to the TFs that enhances overexpression. Furthermore, a remarkable non-recorded SNP at CpG -228 was observed in 98.6% of the enrolled groups.
 Conclusion: In the state of DNA methylation, IL 6 could contribute to the onset of colorectal polyps and colorectal polyps cancer due to a significant level of methylation in CpG +25 and CpG -119.

Mendelian randomization identifies sex differences in pain manifestation of coronary artery disease

Abstract Background and aim Clinical manifestation of atherogenic cardiovascular disease differs between men and women. Men often present with classical symptoms i.e., chest pain radiating to left arm and jaw. Women may show a wide range of symptoms considered atypical, including but not limited to back pain and nausea. Anatomical pathways feeding cardiac pain have not been properly characterized with respect to sex-related differences in human at population level. Methods We performed sex-stratified GWAS analysis on CAD as well as chest, neck and shoulder, back and facial pain using the UK Biobank cohort (men N = 203,823; women N = 239,631). To unravel given differences in pain manifestation of atherogenic cardiovascular disease in men and women, we performed Mendelian Randomization to approximate the causal associations between coronary artery disease (CAD) and a variety of pain locations. Results We identified 32 and 19 independent instrumental variables (R2< 0.001, p-value 5x10-6) associated with CAD for men and women, respectively. MR analysis revealed potential causality between CAD and self-reported chest pain for men (OR: 1.33, CI: 1.25 – 1.41) and women (OR: 1.44, CI: 1.20 – 1.73) as well as a link between CAD and clinical chest pain for both sexes (men OR: 1.22, CI: 1.17 — 1.26; women OR: 1.31, CI: 1.18 — 1.46). MR displayed a relationship between CAD and back pain in women (OR: 1.35, CI: 1.03 — 1.66) but not in men (OR: 0.99, CI: 0.90 — 1.11, p-value difference: 0.036). Manifestation of neck and shoulder pain revealed a suggestive difference in causality between men and women (p-value difference: 0.051). Discussion Our study provided evidence supporting a causal association between CAD with manifestation of chest pain in both men and women. Additionally, no stronger effect in men was found contrary to clinical observations suggesting pain perception of the chest at population level could be similar between the sexes. Manifestation of back pain with CAD, however, showed a more causal effect in women compared to men. Here we show that pain perception of the heart is not limited to the chest in women at population level. Future research is required to identify what drives these differences at multiple levels.

Pengaruh Pendidikan Kesehatan dengan Metode Audio Visual terhadap Pengetahuan dan Sikap Santri dalam Pencegahan Kejadian Skabies di Pondok Pesantren Al Mawardi Desa Pasanggar Kabupaten Pamekasan

AbstrakIntroduction: Scabies is a significant world health problem in school or boarding children caused by Sarcotes scabiei, with dangerous systemic complications and an increased risk of death due to low priority for treatment and management. Health education with the right audio-visual method can increase one's knowledge and attitude towards a disease. Health education using the audio-visual method at Al Mawardi Islamic Boarding School aims to increase students' knowledge about scabies so that it can influence students' attitudes to adopt a healthy lifestyle so as to be able to prevent scabies.Method: The research design used a Quasi Experimental Design with a Pretest-Posttest Control Group approach and the sample was taken using a total sampling technique. This data analysis uses the Wilcoxon test and the Mann Withney test. Results: The results of the Wilcoxon test on students' knowledge showed a difference in P-value. In the experimental group, the results were P=0.000<a=0.05, while in the control group, the results were P=0.429>a=0.05. The results of the Wilcoxon test on students' attitudes in the experimental group the results were P=0.000, <a=0.05, while in the control group the results were P=0.613,>a=0.05. Conclusion: There was an influence on the knowledge and attitudes of students in preventing scabies in the experimental group. Whereas in the control group there were no significant changes before and after being given the pretest and posttest.Keywords: Health education, Knowledge and attitude, Scabies

Evaluation of Q Angle in Down syndrome

Background: Down Syndrome is a genetic disorder and the most common chromosomal abnormality. It is predominantly characterized by muscle hypotonia and joint hypermobility. Qangle is the angle formed between two imaginary lines one from ASIS to Center of Patella, another from Tibial tuberosity to the Center of Patella. Objectives: Aim of the study is to evaluate the Q-angle in male children with Down syndrome of 7-16 years of age and compare the values between children with internal and external tibial torsion. Methodology: It is an observational study done with convenient sampling carried out in 12 male children with Down syndrome. The tibial torsion was measured. Based on internal and external tibial torsion they were categorized into Group A and B respectively. Group A consisting of 7 children with internal tibial torsion and Group B consisting of 5 children with external tibial torsion. Q-angle was measured using standard goniometer. Results: There is no significant difference in P-value (P>0.05) between the right and left leg of children in Group A and in Group B. On comparison between Group A and Group B, there was a statistical significance in P-Value of 0.005 and 0.050 when compared mean of Q angle for right leg and left leg respectively. Conclusion: The study concluded that assessing Q-angle helps to evaluate the biomechanical changes in knee. In this study done for the male children with Down syndrome, the Q-angle lies within the normal range of 13.1±3.5. However children with internal tibial torsion has comparatively decreased angle and children with external tibial torsion has comparatively increased angle even though there is no deviation from the normal range for the age.

Non-invasive evaluation of embryos using mid-infrared attenuated total reflection spectrometry of incubation medium: a preliminary study

Research questionCan mid-infrared attenuated total reflection (MIR ATR) spectroscopy combined with machine learning methods be used as an additional tool to predict embryo quality and IVF treatment outcomes? DesignSpent culture media was collected and analysed. MIR ATR absorbance spectra were measured using an ALPHA II spectrometer equipped with an attenuated total reflection (ATR) spectrometry accessory. Patient and treatment data and results were collected and analysed in combination with machine learning techniques to identify possible correlations. The main outcome measures were to define the characteristics of absorbance spectra of spent culture media and to distinguish the difference in absorbance between top- and low-quality embryos, day 3 and day 5 embryos and implanting embryos versus non-implanting embryos. ResultsSpent culture media of 227 embryos was collected and analysed. Absorbance peaks in the culture media were different between day 3 and day 5 embryos. Moreover, significant differences in P-values, spanning from 0.014 to 0.044 in absorbance peaks for day 3 embryos and 0.024 up to 0.04 for day 5 embryos, were seen between implanting and non-implanting embryos. Machine learning techniques offered a pregnancy prediction value of 84.6% for day 3 embryos. ConclusionsMIR ATR may offer an additional parameter for better selection of embryos based on the spectrometric absorbance and secretions of metabolites in the culture media.

Researcher degrees of freedom in statistical software contribute to unreliable results: A comparison of nonparametric analyses conducted in SPSS, SAS, Stata, and R.

Researcher degrees of freedom can affect the results of hypothesis tests and consequently, the conclusions drawn from the data. Previous research has documented variability in accuracy, speed, and documentation of output across various statistical software packages. In the current investigation, we conducted Pearson's chi-square test of independence, Spearman's rank-ordered correlation, Kruskal-Wallis one-way analysis of variance, Wilcoxon Mann-Whitney U rank-sum tests, and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests, along with estimates of skewness and kurtosis, on large, medium, and small samples of real and simulated data in SPSS, SAS, Stata, and R and compared the results with those obtained through hand calculation using the raw computational formulas. Multiple inconsistencies were found in the results produced between statistical packages due to algorithmic variation, computational error, and statistical output. The most notable inconsistencies were due to algorithmic variations in the computation of Pearson's chi-square test conducted on 2 × 2 tables, where differences in p-values reported by different software packages ranged from .005 to .162, largely as a function of sample size. We discuss how such inconsistencies may influence the conclusions drawn from the results of statistical analyses depending on the statistical software used, and we urge researchers to analyze their data across multiple packages to check for inconsistencies and report details regarding the statistical procedure used for data analysis.

How Depressing Is Inbreeding? A Meta-Analysis of 30 Years of Research on the Effects of Inbreeding in Livestock

Inbreeding depression has been widely documented for livestock and other animal and plant populations. Inbreeding is generally expected to have a stronger unfavorable effect on fitness traits than on other traits. Traditionally, the degree of inbreeding depression in livestock has been estimated as the slope of the linear regression of phenotypic values on pedigree-based inbreeding coefficients. With the increasing availability of SNP-data, pedigree inbreeding can now be replaced by SNP-based measures. We performed a meta-analysis of 154 studies, published from 1990 to 2020 on seven livestock species, and compared the degree of inbreeding depression (1) across different trait groups, and (2) across different pedigree-based and SNP-based measures of inbreeding. Across all studies and traits, a 1% increase in pedigree inbreeding was associated with a median decrease in phenotypic value of 0.13% of a trait’s mean, or 0.59% of a trait’s standard deviation. Inbreeding had an unfavorable effect on all sorts of traits and there was no evidence for a stronger effect on primary fitness traits (e.g., reproduction/survival traits) than on other traits (e.g., production traits or morphological traits). p-values of inbreeding depression estimates were smaller for SNP-based inbreeding measures than for pedigree inbreeding, suggesting more power for SNP-based measures. There were no consistent differences in p-values for percentage of homozygous SNPs, inbreeding based on runs of homozygosity (ROH) or inbreeding based on a genomic relationship matrix. The number of studies that directly compares these different measures, however, is limited and comparisons are furthermore complicated by differences in scale and arbitrary definitions of particularly ROH-based inbreeding. To facilitate comparisons across studies in future, we provide the dataset with inbreeding depression estimates of 154 studies and stress the importance of always reporting detailed information (on traits, inbreeding coefficients, and models used) along with inbreeding depression estimates.

The Effects of Assigning Homework on the Achievement of Students at the Primary School Level

Assigning homework to students make they are learning more effective and they comprehend the assigned task in depth by applying drill and practice activities. The current study examines the effects of assigning homework on the achievement of students at the primary level. The population of the study was 100 boys’ primary schools. The sample respondents of the study were students of class 5th consist of a total of sixty students and each group such as experimental, comparison, and control group was twenty students. The experimental, comparison and control groups of the students were selected by the flipping of the coin as to which will be experimental, comparison, and the control group. The researcher adopted a simple random sampling technique. The data were collected through pre and post-standardized achievement tests based on mixed items (mix tests) developed by the researcher. The researcher developed fourteen lesson plans to teach the fourteen lessons. The pre and post standardized achievement tests were conducted, collected, and evaluated under the supervision of the researcher. Data were analyzed in the form of one-way ANOVA to find out the significant difference in f-value and p-value of the experimental, comparison, and control group regarding the 14 selected topics taught. The research concluded that there was no statistically significant difference in p-value and f-value in the achievement of the students in experimental, comparison, and control group from the lessons 1-6 due to repetition and diffusion in lessons and there was a statistically significant difference in p-value and f-value in experimental, comparison and control group from the lessons 7-14 taught. The data were presented in the form of tables.

A consistent approach to the genotype encoding problem in a genome-wide association study of continuous phenotypes.

In this study, we suggested a hypothesis test method that was robust to different genotype encodings in a genome-wide association analysis of continuous traits. When the population stratification is corrected for using a method based on principal component analysis, ordinally (or categorically) encoded genotypes are adjusted and turn into continuous values. Due to the adjustment of the encoded genotype, the association test result using conventional methods, such as the test of Pearson’s correlation coefficient, was shown to be dependent on how genotypes were encoded. To overcome this shortcoming, we proposed a non-parametric test based on Kendall’s tau. Because Kendall’s tau deals with rank, rather than value, associations between adjusted genotype and phenotype values, Kendall’s test can be more robust than Pearson’s test under different genotype encodings. We assessed the robustness of Kendall’s test and compared with that of Pearson’s test in terms of the difference in p-values obtained by using different genotype encodings. With simulated as well as real data set, we demonstrated that Kendall’s test was more robust than Pearson’s test under different genotype encodings. The proposed method can be applicable to the broad topics of interest in population genetics and comparative genomics, in which novel genetic variants are associated with traits. This study may also bring about a cautious approach to the genotype encoding in the numerical analysis.

Association between five lifestyle habits and breast cancer risk: Results from a case-control study in Morocco

Introduction Some modifiable lifestyle factors have been associated with decreased breast cancer risk. This study aimed to assess the association of a combined healthy lifestyle index with the risk of breast cancer in Moroccan women. Methods A case-control study was conducted in Fez region - Morocco, from February 2016 to August 2017. A total of 300 incident breast cancer cases and 300 controls, matched to cases by age (± 5 years) and area of residence, were recruited in the study. Cases were women newly diagnosed with histologically confirmed breast cancer at the University Hospital of Fez, and controls were healthy women recruited at one of six outpatient primary health centers randomly selected from the Fez region. For each participant we calculated a healthy lifestyle index based on five lifestyle factors (body mass index, smoking, fruits and vegetables consumption, physical activity, and alcohol consumption), by assigning scores of 0 to 1 to categories of each factors. Women with healthiest behavior were never smokers, had a BMI within 18.5 to 25 kg/m2, consumed at least 5 servings of fruits and vegetables per day, drank less than one alcoholic drink per day, and had a recreational physical activity of at least 20 MET-hours per week. The health index ranged from 0 (least healthy) to 5 (most healthy). Conditional logistic regression was used to assess the association between the healthy lifestyle score and breast cancer risk adjusting for confounding factors. Results The mean of combined score in cases and controls were 3.22 (± 0.75) and 3.65 (± 0.60), for the two groups respectively (P-value difference Conclusions Healthy lifestyle was associated with a decreased risk of breast cancer. These findings suggest that breast cancer prevention policies should include strategies to engage Moroccan women in healthy lifestyles.

A note on consistency of non‐parametric rank tests and related rank transformations

The extent to which rank transformations result in the same statistical decisions as their non-parametric counterparts is investigated. Simulations are presented using the Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney test, the Wilcoxon signed-rank test and the Kruskal-Wallis test, together with the rank transformations and t and F tests corresponding to each of those non-parametric methods. In addition to Type I errors and power over all simulations, the study examines the consistency of the outcomes of the two methods on each individual sample. The results show how acceptance or rejection of the null hypothesis and differences in p-values of the test statistics depend in a regular and predictable way on sample size, significance level, and differences between means, for normal and various non-normal distributions.

A comparison of the Dorfman–Berbaum–Metz and Obuchowski–Rockette methods for receiver operating characteristic (ROC) data

There are several different statistical methods for analysing multireader ROC studies, with the Dorfman-Berbaum-Metz (DBM) method being the most frequently used. Another method is the corrected F method proposed by Obuchowski and Rockette (OR). The DBM and OR procedures at first appear quite different: DBM is a three-way ANOVA analysis of pseudovalues while OR is a two-way ANOVA analysis of accuracy estimates with correlated errors. We show that the original DBM and OR F statistics for testing the null hypothesis of equal treatments have the same form and will typically have similar values; however, differences in the denominator degrees of freedom will result in differences in p-values even when the F statistics are identical. We show how the methods can be generalized to include variations in the accuracy measure, covariance method, and degrees of freedom. Identical results are obtained when the methods agree with respect to all three of these procedure parameters; hence for a particular choice of procedure parameters the choice of method appears to depend mainly on software preference and availability. The methods are compared using data from a factorial study with two modalities, five readers, and 114 patients.

Higher-order asymptotics and the likelihood principle: One-parameter models

Inferences based on higher-order asymptotics, in contrast to those based on standard first-order methods, approximate exact inferences closely enough to depend on the reference set. We use this feature to quantify the effect of the reference set on exact inferences. In particular, the difference in P-values for two reference sets can be at most O(n−½), and it is seen that one can often identify the coefficient of n−½. Although this is useful from a foundational viewpoint, the question arises of whether higher-order adjustments to first-order P-values reflect only the choice of reference set. It is indicated that for one-parameter problems this may largely be the case, but that when there are nuisance paramenters the situation is likely to be quite different. The nuisance parameter setting is not investigated thoroughly in this paper, but we believe that in that case the most important part of the higher-order corrections largely conforms to the likelihood principle.

EFFECT OF AEROBIC EXERCISES ON STUTTERING

Background and Objective:Stuttering is one of the most common speech disorders in adolescents than adults. Stuttering results in depression, anxiety, behavioral problem, social isolation and communication problems in daily life. Our objective was to determine the effect of Aerobic Exercises (AE) on stuttering.Methods:A quasi trail was conducted at National Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine (NIRM) from January to June 2015. Thirty patients were selected and placed in three different groups Experimental Group A, (EG = 10 patients, age between 7-14 years), Experimental Group B (EG =10 patients age between 15-28 years) and control group –group C, (CG = 10 patients, age between 7-28 years). Patient who stutter were included in this study and those with any other pathology or comorbidity of speech disorders were excluded. The assessment tool used was Real-Time analysis of speech fluency scale. Participants in all the groups received speech therapy while only the EG – A and B received aerobic exercises (AE) using treadmill and stationary bicycle along with the speech therapy. Pre-interventional and post interventional assessments were analyzed using the SPSS 21 in order to determine the significance of new treatment approach and the effectiveness of physical therapy on speech disorders.Results:All the groups showed significant treatment effects but both the EG groups (Group A, Group B) showed high improvement in the severity level of stuttering as compared to control group C. The results also showed that AE treated group B had significant difference in p-value (p=0.027) as compared to control group (p<0.05) while experimental group A had no significant difference (p > 0.05) between these groups.Conclusion:The eclectic approach of aerobic exercises with the traditional speech therapy provides proximal rehabilitation of stuttering.