Friedman Rank Sum Test Research Articles

Comparison of Bioinformatics Pipelines and Operating Systems for the Analyses of 16S rRNA Gene Amplicon Sequences in Human Fecal Samples.

Amplicon high-throughput sequencing of 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene is currently the most widely used technique to investigate complex gut microbial communities. Microbial identification might be influenced by several factors, including the choice of bioinformatic pipelines, making comparisons across studies difficult. Here, we compared four commonly used pipelines (QIIME2, Bioconductor, UPARSE and mothur) run on two operating systems (OS) (Linux and Mac), to evaluate the impact of bioinformatic pipeline and OS on the taxonomic classification of 40 human stool samples. We applied the SILVA 132 reference database for all the pipelines. We compared phyla and genera identification and relative abundances across the four pipelines using the Friedman rank sum test. QIIME2 and Bioconductor provided identical outputs on Linux and Mac OS, while UPARSE and mothur reported only minimal differences between OS. Taxa assignments were consistent at both phylum and genus level across all the pipelines. However, a difference in terms of relative abundance was identified for all phyla (p < 0.013) and for the majority of the most abundant genera (p < 0.028), such as Bacteroides (QIIME2: 24.5%, Bioconductor: 24.6%, UPARSE-linux: 23.6%, UPARSE-mac: 20.6%, mothur-linux: 22.2%, mothur-mac: 21.6%, p < 0.001). The use of different bioinformatic pipelines affects the estimation of the relative abundance of gut microbial community, indicating that studies using different pipelines cannot be directly compared. A harmonization procedure is needed to move the field forward.

Effects of Passive Head-and-Neck Movements on the Performance of i-gel® Supraglottic Airway Device in Anesthetized Patients - A Randomized Crossover Trial.

Background:Passive movements of head and neck are sometimes unavoidable during surgery under general anesthesia due to patient positioning according to the needs of the surgery or transmitted movements from surgical manipulations.Aims:This prospective crossover randomized study evaluates the effects of passive movements of the head and neck on the performance of i-gel® supraglottic airway device in spontaneously breathing patients under general anesthesia.Materials and Methods:Sixty spontaneously breathing patients on pressure support ventilation with positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) under general anesthesia were randomized to seven sequences of passive head-and-neck movements with i-gel® in situ. After steady state of general anesthesia was achieved and maintenance with sevoflurane in N2O and O2 was reached, the passive head-and-neck movements were done. Peak airway pressure, exhaled minute volume, end-tidal carbon dioxide (ETCO2), oxygen saturation, audible leak of airway gases, and visible outward displacement of the i-gel® were recorded in the neutral position and with each passive head-and-neck movement. Paired continuous data were analyzed by Friedman rank sum test with paired Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Paired nominal data were analyzed by Cochran's Q test with pair-wise McNemar test.Results:Extension, right or left lateral flexion, and right or left rotation of the head and neck resulted in significant reduction in the exhaled minute ventilation, rise in ETCO2, and leak of airway gases compared to the neutral position (P < 0.05). Flexion movement did not cause significant changes in the exhaled minute ventilation, rise in ETCO2, and audible leak of airway gases as compared to the neutral position.Conclusions:Ventilatory performance of the i-gel® deteriorates upon extension, right or left lateral flexion, and right or left rotation of the head and neck in spontaneously breathing patients under general anesthesia on pressure support ventilation with PEEP.

Qualitative and Quantitative Assessment of Remineralizing Effect of Prophylactic Toothpaste Promoting Brushite Formation: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

ABSTRACTBackground:Currently various studies are conducted to improve the effect of existing and developing new remineralizing agents. One of the trends in remineralizing therapy is the development of toothpaste allowing brushite crystals formation in the demineralized lesions of hard tooth tissues.Aim:The aim of this study was to assess the effect of toothpaste, forming a brushite, on the functional acid resistance of enamel and the speed of its remineralization.Materials and Methods:This was a randomized controlled double-blind clinical study. Sixty consent patients aged 20–25 years were enrolled in the three groups: test group (n = 20), positive control group (n = 20), and negative control group (n = 20), which used brushite-forming toothpaste, toothpaste with hydroxyapatite (HAP), and toothpaste without remineralizing agents, respectively. The hygiene indices, the rate of enamel remineralization, the dynamics of acid resistance of enamel, and the level of enamel sensitivity were determined at baseline, after 2 and 4 weeks to assess the effectiveness of toothpastes. Friedman rank sum test (for related variables) and the Kruskal–Wallis rank sum test (for independent variables) with Nemenyi post hoc test were used for statistical comparisons.Results:The study test and positive control groups showed significantly greater acid resistance of enamel (P > 0.05) and rate of its remineralization at the study endpoints as compared with negative control group.In the test and positive control groups, Schiff index values significantly decreased after 4 weeks, whereas in the negative control group no significant differences were observed at the study time points. The oral hygiene level improved significantly after 2 and 4 weeks in all groups.Conclusion:The 30-day use of paste that promotes brushite formation and paste with hydroxyapatite resulted in faster enamel remineralization and higher enamel resistance. Brushite-containing toothpaste may be used as an alternative to HAP containing for remineralizing and desensitizing treatment.

Performance of 24-hour urinary creatinine excretion-estimating equations in relation to measured 24-hour urinary creatinine excretion in hospitalized hypertensive patients

Estimated 24-hour urinary creatinine excretion (24 hrUCr) may be useful for converting spot urine analyte/creatinine ratio into estimated 24-hour urinary excretion of the evaluated analyte, and for verifying completeness of 24-hour urinary collections. We compared various published 24 hrUCr-estimating equations against measured 24 hrUCr in hospitalized hypertensive patients. 24 hrUCr was measured in 293 patients and estimated using eight formulas (CKD-EPI, Cockcroft-Gault, Walser, Goldwasser, Rule, Gerber-Mann, Kawasaki, Tanaka). We used the Pearson correlation coefficient, the Bland-Altman method, and the percentage of estimated 24 hrUCr within 15%, 30% (P30), and 50% of measured 24hUCr to compare estimated and measured 24 hrUCr. Differences between the mean bias by eight formulas were evaluated using the Friedman rank sum test. Overall, the best formulas were CKD-EPI (mean bias 0.002 g/d, P30 86%) and Rule (mean bias 0.022 g/d, P30 89%), although both tended to underestimate 24 hrUCr with higher excretion values. The Gerber-Mann formula and the Asian formulas (Tanaka, Kawasaki) were less precise in our study population but superior in an analysis restricted to subjects with highest measured 24 hrUCr per body weight. We found significant differences between 24 hrUCr-estimating equations in hypertensive patients. In addition, formula performance was critically affected by inclusion criteria based on measured 24 hrUCr per body weight.

Intravitreal dexamethasone implant Ozurdex\xae in na\xefve and refractory patients with different subtypes of diabetic macular edema

BackgroundDiabetic macular edema (DME) can be treated with different alternatives, among them Dexamethasone intravitreal implant 0.7 mg (DEX 0.7) has demonstrated that may improve both central macular thickness (CMT) and best corrected visual acuity (BCVA). This study aimed to evaluate the effect of the intravitreal dexamethasone implant Ozurdex® in patients with different subtypes of diabetic macular edema over a 6-month follow-up period.MethodsEighty-four (29 naïve and 55 previously treated) eyes were included in this retrospective study. For each patient, the BCVA [Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study (ETDRS) charts] and macular thickness on optical coherence tomography (OCT) at baseline visit and within the 2nd, 4th, and 6th months of follow-up were obtained. The main outcomes measurements were the mean change in BCVA and in CMT with respect to the baseline value. The percentage of patients gaining ≥5 letters and ≥ 10 letters in BCVA was also analyzed. Results: A total of 84 eyes, 29 (34.5%) naïve and 55 (65.5%) non-naïve, from 69 patients were included in the study. BCVA at baseline was 58.8 (16.4) and 61.8 (11.6) in naïve and refractory patients, respectively, p = 0.4513. At every visit, BCVA significantly improved from baseline in naïve and non-naïve eyes (p < 0.0001 and p = 0.0003, respectively; Friedman rank sum test). At baseline, the mean CMT was 466.2 (189.7) μm and 448.1 (110.7) μm in the naïve and non-naïve patients, respectively (p = 0.5830); and decreased to 339.3 (92.5) μm and 357.5 (79.1) μm, respectively (p = 0.0004 and p < 0.0001, respectively, Wilcoxon signed-rank test). The proportion of patients gaining ≥10 letters was significantly greater in the naïve group, p = 0.0199.ConclusionThe intravitreal dexamethasone implant (Ozurdex) is effective for the treatment of diabetic macular edema, even in refractory cases that have failed to respond to previous therapies.

Merging of Numerical Intervals in Entropy-Based Discretization.

As previous research indicates, a multiple-scanning methodology for discretization of numerical datasets, based on entropy, is very competitive. Discretization is a process of converting numerical values of the data records into discrete values associated with numerical intervals defined over the domains of the data records. In multiple-scanning discretization, the last step is the merging of neighboring intervals in discretized datasets as a kind of postprocessing. Our objective is to check how the error rate, measured by tenfold cross validation within the C4.5 system, is affected by such merging. We conducted experiments on 17 numerical datasets, using the same setup of multiple scanning, with three different options for merging: no merging at all, merging based on the smallest entropy, and merging based on the biggest entropy. As a result of the Friedman rank sum test (5% significance level) we concluded that the differences between all three approaches are statistically insignificant. There is no universally best approach. Then, we repeated all experiments 30 times, recording averages and standard deviations. The test of the difference between averages shows that, for a comparison of no merging with merging based on the smallest entropy, there are statistically highly significant differences (with a 1% significance level). In some cases, the smaller error rate is associated with no merging, in some cases the smaller error rate is associated with merging based on the smallest entropy. A comparison of no merging with merging based on the biggest entropy showed similar results. So, our final conclusion was that there are highly significant differences between no merging and merging, depending on the dataset. The best approach should be chosen by trying all three approaches.

Metal Artifact Reduction in Virtual Monoenergetic Spectral Dual-Energy CT of Patients With Metallic Orthopedic Implants in the Distal Radius.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the image quality of virtual monoenergetic images obtained from dual-layer-detector spectral CT of patients with metallic orthopedic implants of the distal radius. A retrospective analysis was performed between April 2016 and January 2017. Forty-three consecutively registered patients (33 women, 10 men; mean age, 50.7 ± 15.4 years) with metallic implants for distal radius fractures underwent dual-layer-detector spectral CT. Sixteen virtual monoenergetic image sets ranging from 50 to 200 keV were generated from the single slice with the most pronounced low-attenuation artifact from implants. Image quality was quantitatively assessed on the basis of the attenuation of the artifacts and reference tissue, background image noise, and artifact index. Qualitative assessment included degree of artifact, diagnostic image quality of the periimplant bones, and delineation of fracture lines. The Friedman rank sum test and kappa analysis were used for statistical analysis. There were statistically significant differences in quantitative and qualitative parameters at different monoenergy levels (all p < 0.001). Artifact index was the lowest at 120 keV. Low-attenuation artifacts in the periimplant regions were least pronounced at 110 keV, and the diagnostic image quality of periimplant bone was best at 130 keV. Fracture lines were well delineated in all cases at 80-110 keV (p < 0.001). The optimal energy setting for incurring the fewest metallic artifacts and obtaining the best diagnostic image quality from distal radius implants during dual-layer-detector spectral CT is the range of 110-130 keV.

The significance of selected tree species age in their efficiency in elements phytoextraction from wastes mixture

The phytoextraction of toxic elements present in industrial wastes by selected tree species seems to offer an interesting alternative to hyperaccumulators, which are generally highly effective but small. For this reason, the study aimed to compare the potential of 1- and 2-year-old Tilia cordata Miller and Ulmus laevis Pall seedlings growing on a mixture of wastes (flotation tailings and sewage sludges) in the environment. One-year-old T. cordata was the only plant unable to grow successfully. A general decrease in tree biomass was observed following their growth on the waste mixture. The mean biomass of 2-year-old T. cordata and U. laevis seedlings was 59.5 ± 1.6 and 57.0 ± 8.6 g, respectively, whereas that of 1-year-old T. cordata was 16.0 ± 9.3 g. These values were 46.2, 48.0 and 50.5% lower than those determined for the control trees. Phytoextraction of 67 elements in particular organs of trees in many cases was significantly diverse. According to the Friedman rank sum test, T. cordata (1y) and U. laevis (2y) growing in soil were the only plants that differed as regards their ability to phytoextract elements. In the case of trees growing on the waste mixture, the most effective accumulating plants were seedlings of 2-year-old T. cordata. Significantly lower efficiency was observed for 2-year-old U. laevis, while the lowest efficiency was recorded for 1-year-old T. cordata. The obtained results unambiguously pointed to the significant role of a proper selection of tree species concerning their age for phytoextraction of elements from polluted substrates.

Relationship between concentration of rare earth elements in soil and their distribution in plants growing near a frequented road

Rare earth elements (REEs) are a group of elements whose concentration in numerous environmental matrices continues to increase; therefore, the use of biological methods for their removal from soil would seem to be a safe and reasonable approach. The aim of this study was to estimate the phytoextraction efficiency and distribution of light and heavy (LREEs and HREEs) rare earth elements by three herbaceous plant species: Artemisia vulgaris L., Taraxacum officinale F.H. Wigg. and Trifolium repens L., growing at a distance of 1, 10, and 25 m from the edge of a frequented road in Poland. The concentration of REEs in soil and plants was highly correlated (r > 0.9300), which indicates the high potential of the studied plant species to phytoextraction of these elements. The largest proportion of REEs was from the group of LREEs, whereas HREEs comprised only an inconsiderable portion of the REEs group. The dominant elements in the group of LREEs were Nd and Ce, while Er was dominant in the HREEs group. Differences in the amounts of these elements influenced the total concentration of LREEs, HREEs, and finally REEs and their quantities which decreased with distance from the road. According to the Friedman rank sum test, significant differences in REEs concentration, mainly between A. vulgaris L., and T. repens L. were observed for plants growing at all three distances from the road. The same relation between A. vulgaris L. and T. officinale was observed. The efficiency of LREEs and REEs phytoextraction in the whole biomass of plants growing at all distances from the road was A. vulgaris L. > T. officinale L. > T. repens L. For HREEs, the same relationship was recorded only for plants growing at the distance 1 m from the road. Bioconcentration factor (BCF) values for LREEs and HREEs were respectively higher and lower than 1 for all studied plant species regardless of the distance from the road. The studied herbaceous plant species were able to effectively phytoextract LREEs only (BCF > 1); therefore, these plants, which are commonly present near roads, could be a useful tool for removing this group of REEs from contaminated soil.

Low Potency of Indian Dust Mite Allergen Skin Prick Test Extracts Compared to FDA-Approved Extracts: A Double-Blinded Randomized Control Trial.

BackgroundSkin prick testing is the most important diagnostic tool to detect immunoglobulin E-mediated allergic diseases. With increase in the number of allergy tests performed in India, it is imperative to know the potency of indigenous extracts in comparison with U.S. Food and Drug Administration (USFDA)-approved extracts.MethodsA randomized comparison trial of Indian manufactured and USFDA-approved extracts of Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus (DP) and Dermatophagoides farinae (DF) was done at Christian Medical College & Hospital, Vellore, India from April 2014 to June 2015, to compare the skin test reactivity of indigenous allergen extracts of dust mites against validated allergen. Study enrollment included 197 patients with allergic disorders that showed sensitivity to dust mite during routine allergy skin testing. Study participants were tested with varying dilutions of DP and DF indigenous extracts along with USFDA-approved allergens in a blinded fashion. Results were recorded, and statistical significance was calculated using the Friedman rank sum test.ResultsUsing the Friedman rank sum test with a Tukey adjustment for multiple comparisons, we found that the extracts in each dilution were significantly different (P < .0001). The full strength indigenous extracts, B-DF (DF allergen standard extract from Bioproducts and Diagnostics, India) and C-DF (DF allergen extract from Creative Diagnostics, India) extracts, had mean wheal sizes of 7.69 (standard deviation [SD] 9.91) and 31.01(SD 51.04), respectively. The full strength S-DF (DF allergen extract from Jubilant Hollister Stier, Spokane, WA, USA) had a mean wheal size of 109.97 (SD 162.73), which was significantly higher (P < .0001) than both the indigenous extracts. For each of the dilutions, the S-DF mean wheal size was significantly greater than that of the corresponding B-DF and C-DF wheal sizes. The full strength indigenous C-DP (DP allergen extract from Creative Diagnostics, India) had mean wheal size of 39.37 (SD 51.74). The full strength standard S-DP (DP allergen extract from Jubilant Hollister Stier, Spokane, WA, USA) extract had a mean wheal size of 167.66 (SD 270.80), which was significantly higher (P < .0001) than the indigenous C-DP extract. Similar differences were seen across all dilutions.ConclusionThe indigenous extracts have significantly lower potency compared to USFDA-approved extracts; hence, there is an urgent need for policy makers to institute stringent criteria for standardization of antigens in India.

Improving the performance of statistical learning methods with a combined meta-heuristic for consumer credit risk assessment

In credit risk applications, it is common to use statistical learning methods for classification. It is possible to enhance accuracy of these methods by identifying an optimum feature subset of variables instead of whole set. In this study, a combination of two well-known meta-heuristics was used together with a statistical method on the basis of two stages. In the first stage, prediction accuracy performances of several statistical learning methods on a real world dataset from UCI database were compared with Friedman rank sum test. In the second stage, a promising method was chosen from the previous stage and implemented into the combined meta-heuristic. Subset selection was performed by the heuristic and classifier learned with selected variables on the same dataset from the first stage. Performance improvement was validated with Wilcoxon rank-sum test. Promising results were reached compared to that presented in the literature, and credit assessment and scoring practitioners may highly benefit from the proposed approach.

Follistatin during pregnancy and its potential role as an ovarian suppressing agent

ObjectiveOvarian quiescence is a common condition during pregnancy. In vitro, follistatin, an antagonist of follicle-stimulating hormone, blocks follicular development at early stages, and its serum levels increase during pregnancy. A possible surrogate biomarker of ovarian arrest during pregnancy is a decrease in anti-mullerian hormone (AMH) levels followed by an increase in these levels on the second day after labor. The purpose of this study was to determine whether follistatin could act as an ovarian-suppressing agent during pregnancy. Follistatin levels and AMH levels were determined at various stages of pregnancy and postpartum. Study designThe follistatin and AMH levels of 69 patients were retrospectively determined with the AMH Gen II ELISA and with the Human Follistatin Quantikine ELISA Kit. For 49 patients, samples were available from various trimesters for cross-sectional analysis; for the other 20, samples were available longitudinally from day one before labor and then daily on days 1 through 4 after labor. Statistical significance was determined with linear regression, the Friedman rank sum test and the Wilcoxon–Nemenyi–McDonald–Thompson post hoc test. ResultsThe behavior of follistatin levels was exactly opposite that of AMH levels: Follistatin levels increased significantly during pregnancy and on the first day after parturition but declined afterwards, whereas AMH levels decreased significantly during pregnancy and increased after labor. ConclusionFollistatin can induce ovarian arrest during pregnancy.

The shifting dynamics of social roles and project ownership over the lifecycle of a community-based participatory research project.

. Community based participatory research (CBPR) is often initiated by academic researchers, yet relies on meaningful community engagement and ownership to have lasting impact. Little is understood about how ownership shifts from academic to community partners. . We examined a CBPR project over its life course and asked: what does the evolution of ownership look like from project initiation by an academic (non-community) champion (T1); to maturation-when the intervention is ready to be deployed (T2); to independence-the time when the original champion steps aside (T3); and finally, to its maintenance-when the community has had an opportunity to function independently of the original academic champion (T4)? . Using sociometric (whole network) social network analysis, knowledge leadership was measured using 'in-degree centrality'. Stakeholder network structure was measured using 'centralisation' and 'core-periphery analysis'. Friedman rank sum test was used to measure change in actor roles over time from T1 to T4. . Project stakeholder roles were observed to shift significantly (P < 0.005) from initiation (T1) to project maintenance (T4). Community stakeholders emerged into positions of knowledge leadership, while the roles of academic partners diminished in importance. The overall stakeholder network demonstrated a structural shift towards a core of densely interacting community stakeholders. . This was the first study to use Social network analysis to document a shift in ownership from academic to community partners, indicating community self-determination over the research process. Further analysis of qualitative data will determine which participatory actions or strategies were responsible for this observed change.

Exact p-values for pairwise comparison of Friedman rank sums, with application to comparing classifiers

BackgroundThe Friedman rank sum test is a widely-used nonparametric method in computational biology. In addition to examining the overall null hypothesis of no significant difference among any of the rank sums, it is typically of interest to conduct pairwise comparison tests. Current approaches to such tests rely on large-sample approximations, due to the numerical complexity of computing the exact distribution. These approximate methods lead to inaccurate estimates in the tail of the distribution, which is most relevant for p-value calculation.ResultsWe propose an efficient, combinatorial exact approach for calculating the probability mass distribution of the rank sum difference statistic for pairwise comparison of Friedman rank sums, and compare exact results with recommended asymptotic approximations. Whereas the chi-squared approximation performs inferiorly to exact computation overall, others, particularly the normal, perform well, except for the extreme tail. Hence exact calculation offers an improvement when small p-values occur following multiple testing correction. Exact inference also enhances the identification of significant differences whenever the observed values are close to the approximate critical value. We illustrate the proposed method in the context of biological machine learning, were Friedman rank sum difference tests are commonly used for the comparison of classifiers over multiple datasets.ConclusionsWe provide a computationally fast method to determine the exact p-value of the absolute rank sum difference of a pair of Friedman rank sums, making asymptotic tests obsolete. Calculation of exact p-values is easy to implement in statistical software and the implementation in R is provided in one of the Additional files and is also available at http://www.ru.nl/publish/pages/726696/friedmanrsd.zip.

Spectral CT with monochromatic imaging and metal artifacts reduction software for artifacts reduction of ¹²⁵I radioactive seeds in liver brachytherapy.

To investigate the optimal monochromatic energy for artifacts reduction from (125)I seeds as well as image improvement in the vicinity of seeds on monochromatic images with and without metal artifacts reduction software (MARS) and to compare this with traditional 120-kVp images, so as to evaluate the application value of gemstone spectral imaging for reducing artifacts from (125)I seeds in liver brachytherapy. A total of 45 tumors from 25 patients treated with (125)I seed brachytherapy in the liver were enrolled in this study. Multiphasic spectral computed tomography (CT) scanning was performed for each patient. After a delay time of 15 s of portal vein phase, a traditional 120-kVp scan was performed, focusing on several planes of (125)I seeds only. The artifact index (AI) in the vicinity of seeds and the standard deviation (SD) of the CT density of region of interest in the outside liver parenchyma were calculated. Artifact appearance was evaluated and classified on reconstructed monochromatic S and 120-kVp images. Image quality in the vicinity of seeds of three data sets were evaluated using a 1-5 scale scoring method. The Friedman rank-sum test was used to estimate the scoring results of image quality. The greatest noise in monochromatic images was found at 40 keV (SD = 27.38, AI = 206.40). The optimal monochromatic energy was found at 75 keV, which provided almost the least image noise (SD = 10.01) and good performance in artifact reduction (AI = 102.73). Image noise and AI reduction at 75 keV was decreased by 63.44 and 50.23%, compared with at 40 keV. Near-field thick artifacts were obvious in all 45 lesions, in 120-kVp images, and 75-keV images, but basically reduced in 75 keV MARS images and artifacts completely invisible in 7 lesions. The number of diagnosable images (score ≥3) was significantly more in the 75-keV MARS group (28/45), and the 75-keV group (22/45) than in the 120-kVp group (11/45) (p < 0.0167 for both). Compared with 120-kVp images alone, 75-keV images plus 75-keV MARS images can increase tumor visibility around seeds and increase the proportion of diagnostic images to 84.4% (38/45). Spectral CT producing 75-keV MARS images could substantially reduce near-field thick artifacts caused by (125)I seeds and improve image quality, even to a state of being completely free from artifacts. Spectral CT imaging (with and without MARS) can provide more accurate CT images for estimating efficacy after (125)I seed brachytherapy in the liver.

High Level of von Willebrand Factor in Non-ST Segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction Patients Predicted Cardiovascular Ischemic Events After Off-Pump Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery.

The aim of our study was to determine the characteristics and value of plasma von Willebrand factor antigen (vWF: Ag) levels after off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting (OPCAB) surgery in predicting the risk of cardiovascular ischemic events.A retrospective cohort analysis of 203 non-ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction patients was performed. Patients were divided into a poor recovery group and a stable condition group according to whether ischemic events occurred or not within 90 days postoperatively. The level of vWF: Ag was detected using a blood coagulation analyzer. SPSS17.0 statistical software was used for data analysis. The Friedman rank sum test and Mann-Whitney U test were used for intra-group and inter-group data analysis, respectively. The diagnostic performance of vWF: Ag was evaluated by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis.Plasma vWF: Ag levels at postoperative days 14, 30, 60, and 90 in the poor recovery group were significantly higher than those at the corresponding time points in the stable group. The area under the ROC curve in diagnosing adverse events was 0.927 (95% CI: 0.867~0.987) with 96.6% sensitivity and 58.6% specificity when the cut-off value of vWF: Ag was 233% at postoperative day 30.The changing characteristics of plasma vWF: Ag sensitively reflect the degree of vascular endothelial injury of OP-CAB patients and might serve as a surrogate marker of the adverse event of non-ST segment elevation myocardial infarction.

Influence of short-term storage conditions on the stability of total protein concentrations and electrophoretic fractions in plasma samples from loggerhead sea turtles, Caretta caretta

Plasma protein electrophoresis has been proposed for use in reptile medicine to aid in the diagnosis of disease. Reference intervals of plasma proteins in loggerhead sea turtles have been established; however, studies evaluating the effect of storage conditions on plasma protein and protein fractions in this species are lacking. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of short-term storage conditions on total protein concentration and electrophoretic fractions of sea turtle plasma. Blood was collected from sea turtles, and plasma obtained after centrifugation was fractioned into five aliquots. One aliquot was analyzed within 3 h after collection, whereas the remaining aliquots were stored at either +4 °C or −20 °C for 2 or 7 days. Overall, there was a significant effect of storage temperature and duration on albumin, β-globulin, and A/G ratio (Friedman rank sum test P < 0.001) but not on total protein concentration. The results of the current study show that short-term storage conditions influence the electrophoretic pattern of plasma proteins and the A/G ratio in Caretta caretta. Therefore, in order to obtain plasma protein concentrations that can serve as reliable screening tests in veterinary diagnostic laboratories, practitioners should refrigerate plasma for no more than 2 days.

Sensory and chemical interactions of food pairings (basmati rice, bacon and extra virgin olive oil) with banana

The aim of this study aimed to investigate food pairings as an important sensory phenomenon in order to determine how different components in the selected food pairings affect and interact with other components. Three novel food pairings (banana and bacon, banana and olive oil, and banana and rice) were selected. A conjoint approach utilising qualitative (organic volatile analysis and descriptive sensory analysis) and quantitative (comparable semi quantitative organic volatile analysis and affective sensory tests) methods of analysis n an attempt to elucidate the success or failure of selected food pairings. Free choice profiling (descriptive sensory analysis) data was analysed using Generalised Procrustes analysis. The correlation between volatile analysis and descriptive sensory analysis results were analysed using ANOVA partial least squared regression. Hedonic results were analysed using a Friedman rank sum test, while preference results were analysed using a Wilcoxon signed rank test. The food pairings of banana and bacon and banana and rice were found to be liked significantly more than banana and olive oil. The results of this study suggest that synergistic and/or antagonistic interactions between the volatile compounds in the foods influenced the hedonic ratings of these food pairings.

An efficient randomised sphere cover classifier

This paper describes an efficient randomised sphere cover classifier (αRSC), that reduces the training data set size without loss of accuracy when compared to nearest neighbour classifiers. The motivation for developing this algorithm is the desire to have a non-deterministic, fast, instance-based classifier that performs well in isolation but is also ideal for use with ensembles. We use 24 benchmark datasets from UCI repository and six gene expression datasets for evaluation. The first set of experiments demonstrate the basic benefits of sphere covering. The second set of experiments demonstrate that when we set the α parameter through cross validation, the resulting αRSC algorithm outperforms several well known classifiers when compared using the Friedman rank sum test. Thirdly, we test the usefulness of αRSC when used with three feature filtering filters on six gene expression datasets. Finally, we highlight the benefits of pruning with a bias/variance decomposition.

Emotion affects torso force production during flexion and extension movements: implications for spine loading

Psychosocial variables have long been linked to injury risk but it has not been clear how these might influence the mechanical parameters associated with injury. This study aimed to clarify the relation between emotional states and the force produced for voluntary torso motion. A total of 15 subjects were tested. Subjects were exposed to images ranging from pleasant, unpleasant, neutral and blank for a 5 s duration, at which time a tone sounded. They were required to exert a force in flexion or extension, at the tone, to change the images. Exposure to unpleasant emotional stimuli increased muscle force production in flexion movements when compared to all other stimuli used (pleasant, neutral and blank). Friedman rank sum test revealed a significant main effect of emotion intensity and flexion, (Friedman chi-square = 12.3405, p = 0.006. It is proposed that this connection would increase muscle force production during, for example, lifting tasks in an unpleasant environment thereby leading to increased in spine compression.