Simple Plot Research Articles

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Exploring protein–protein interactions with large differences in protein expression levels using FLIM-FRET

Many molecular processes within a cell are carried out by molecular machines built from a large number of proteins organized by their protein-protein interactions (PPIs). Exploring PPIs in their cellular context is critical to better understand the proteins functions. Förster resonance energy transfer measured by fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM-FRET) enables to monitor PPIs and to map their spatial organization in a living cell with high spatial and temporal specificity. But both the accurate measurement and the interpretation of multi-exponential FLIM-FRET data associated to mixtures of interacting and non-interacting proteins are difficult. Here we show that a simple diagram plot can find interesting visualization properties by clustering pixels with similar decay signatures. FLIM diagram plot can be used to provide valuable information about stoichiometry and binding mode in PPIs, even in the presence of large differences in protein expression levels of the different interacting partners. The proposed FLIM diagram plot is a useful visual approach for a more straightforward interpretation of complex lifetime data. This approach was applied for revealing critical features of PPIs in live Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

Estimating population dynamics parameters of cabbage pests in temperate mixed apple tree-cabbage plots compared to control vegetable plots

Mixed fruit tree-vegetable systems, a particular type of agroforestry, simultaneously combine the production of vegetables at the ground level with that of fruits in tree canopies. Crop diversification generally promotes pest natural enemies but its impact on pest abundance is more ambivalent, possibly because the presence of trees also directly impacts pest reproduction, survival and movements. The purpose of this study was thus to estimate population dynamics parameters of vegetable pests (predation, immigration and survival) and compare them between mixed fruit tree-vegetable plots and vegetable control plots. For this purpose, seven pest stages were monitored in an experiment with exclusion cages set up in mixed fruit tree-vegetable plots, combining apple and cabbage, and two control plots grown with cabbage only, over one growing season. The data were then fed into a mechanistic-statistical model to estimate these parameters. Most significant results concerned the aphid Myzus persicae that had higher intrinsic growth rate, less immigration and suffered less predation in mixed fruit tree-vegetable plots. Egg laying also appeared larger for Lepidoptera species in these plots but egg survival was lower. Predation of caterpillars was also lower. Lastly predation of the aphid Brevicoryne brassicae, in contrast to M. persicae, was higher in mixed fruit tree-vegetable plots. Either no difference was noted between plot types for other parameters or the pest biology made it difficult to relate the model parameters to population dynamics process. We thus provide evidence that reproduction or survival of some pests may increase in mixed fruit tree-vegetable plots and their predation level may be similar or lower than in control plots which could explain the diversity of results concerning the effects of agroforestry on pest control. We also found no strong evidence that trees were a barrier to immigration in our simple mixed fruit tree-vegetable plots.

Forest Plots in Excel: Moving beyond a Clump of Trees to a Forest of Visual Information.

Forest plots provide an effective means of presenting a wealth of information in a single graphic. Whether used to illustrate multiple results in a single study or the cumulative knowledge of an entire field, forest plots have become an accepted and generally understood way of presenting many estimates simultaneously. This article explores advanced uses of the forest plot with the intent of highlighting the flexibility of Excel in generating both simple and complex forest plots. A step-by-step tutorial is included with specific directions for generating a stratified forest plot and general suggestions for modifying the forest plot to meet the user’s specific needs.

Does Religiosity Delay Adolescent Alcohol Initiation? A Long-Term Analysis (2008–2015) of Nationally Representatives Sample of 12th Graders

Objective: Underage alcohol consumption is associated with deleterious consequences, with earlier initiation leading to increased likelihood of alcohol misuse and dependence later in life. Religiosity represents a protective factor, such that those with increased religiosity delay alcohol initiation. Herein, we test the association between religiosity and alcohol initiation across several distinct national samples of high school seniors in the United States. Method: To assess long-term associations between alcohol initiation and religiosity, we utilized latent growth curve modeling and simple mean plots to conduct a secondary data analysis on 8 years (2008–2015) of the Monitoring the Future Survey (n = 20,099). Results: When compared with the baseline model, which posited a consistent age of initiation of approximately 9th grade χ2 (n = 18,224, df = 31) = 33.70, p <.34, CFI = .000, TLI = 1.00, RMSEA = .006 (90% CI: .00, .017), religiosity plays an equally consistent role in delaying age of initiation by two grade levels, or three calendar years χ2 (n = 17,978, df = 159.116) = 159.17, p<.0001, CFI = .848, TLI = .834, RMSEA = .017 (90% CI: .00, .03). When means were parsed out by religiosity level and gender, religion was a stronger protector against alcohol age of initiation for females than males. These associations were constant over the 8-year period and across multiple nationally representative samples of adolescents. Conclusions: Religiosity delays alcohol initiation for adolescents. Prevention programs should seek to identify which components of religiosity are most impactful, and subsequently develop and incorporate programmatic aspects that leverage these factors.

Regional patterns in medieval European glass composition as a provenancing tool

A legacy dataset of 1329 major element analyses of medieval glass (12th-15th centuries) has been compiled and analysed for geographical distribution of compositional characteristics. Three regional compositional types may be distinguished using simple elemental plots, associated with glass production in northwestern France, in the region around the Rhine, and in central Europe. Distribution maps are presented to aid interpretation and use of the data. The application of the approach is illustrated through three case studies. Late thirteenth-early fourteenth century medieval stained glass from York Minster (n = 91), late fourteenth-century stained glass from New College Oxford (n = 79) and a single medieval mirror found in Egypt were analysed using scanning electron microscopy–energy dispersive analysis. The York coloured and white glasses were identical and consistent with an origin in NW France. In the late fourteenth century, the coloured glass samples from Oxford were from the Rhenish region, while the white glass is consistent with an origin in NW France or England. The mirror glass from Egypt is of central European origin, and similar mirror glass is known from Italy. The apparent dominance of German mirror production may reflect an advantage of the glass, which is low in iron. The meta-analysis of the legacy data shows significant potential for developing an understanding of the production and movement of medieval glass.

Simple photoplethysmography pulse encoding technique for communicating the detection of peripheral arterial disease—a proof of concept study

Objective: To assess the feasibility of novel photoplethysmography (PPG) Pulse Sounder/Pulse Visualizer communication techniques for alerting the presence (or absence) of peripheral arterial disease (PAD). Approach: Proof of concept evaluation using our previously published multi-site PPG pulse data set (110 participants included; age > 40 years; 44% PAD by ankle brachial pressure index (ABPI)). Two main pulse encoding rules using the risetime as an example feature to mark each heartbeat in a 6 s analysis study window: if risetime at both great toes ⩽time threshold (‘no PAD’ state) then heartbeat marked with a single 5 kHz audio tone; if risetime from either great toe > threshold (‘PAD’) then heartbeat marked with a distinct train of 5 kHz audio tones. A simple spectrogram visual plot was also produced for each participant’s audio signals. ROC curve analysis first determined an appropriate risetime threshold using the simple-to-evaluate PAD Visualizer and then re-tested at this level with PAD Sounder and classification performance summarized. Main results: The pulse encoding rules used were easy to learn. Visualizer best communication performance at risetime 0.27 s gave specificity 80.6%, sensitivity 95.8%, accuracy 87.3%, negative predictive value 96.2%, and Kappa statistic of 0.75. Classification performance for blinded assessment with audio PAD Sounder was identical. Significance: Substantial agreements demonstrated between Sounder/Visualizer disease techniques and the ABPI PAD reference. These simple-to-use PAD communications methods when embedded into an appropriate device platform could offer significant benefits in PAD diagnosis for a range of clinical settings, including primary care where low-cost, portable and easy-to-use diagnostics can be desirable.

Abstract 1677: Understanding the TME: Advanced analysis and visualization of multiplexed fluorescence images

Abstract Background: Multiplexed immunofluorescence (mIF) has the potential to revolutionize immuno-oncology and pathology research as it enables the identification of complex cell phenotypes and their potential interactions in the tumor microenvironment (TME). But for a whole slide image with millions of cells, as we increase the number of biomarkers imaged for every cell, the complexity of the data analysis and visualization task increases exponentially. For n markers, a total of 2n phenotypes are possible (e.g. 10 markers have 1024 potential phenotypes). To address this problem and reveal the biologically relevant information embedded in the data, we have developed software tools to reduce the complexity, visualize, and quantify spatial distributions of cells across the full spectrum of possible phenotypes. Methods: Here we present results using two different methods. The first is an image processing technique called Phenotypic Surface Density Mapping (PSDM), that produces not only true surface density images of each phenotype (cells/µm2), but also surface density images that quantify a variety of other statistics such as the level of expression (intensity) of key markers, inter-phenotype nearest neighbor distance maps, and maps of cell size/morphology. Some important features of these surface density maps are that they are quantitatively robust, have real physical units (e.g. cells/µm2 or intensity/µm2), and they are generated in an unbiased fashion to reveal information about every possible phenotype. The second analysis method, dimensionality reduction, exploits a new technique called Uniform Manifold Approximation and Projection (UMAP), reducing dozens or even hundreds of dimensions for millions of cells to a simple 2D scatter plot. We have developed interactive software that displays the UMAP for a slide and allows the user to select a given cell or region of cells to view closeup images of each cell and statistics about the collection. Results: Examples of the surface density maps provide insights into mapping the complexity of the TME. We assess the results on deidentified samples by comparison with both human generated labels (pathology review) for individual cells and with automatically generated labels (software review). We show how these tools can be used to both identify tumors and quantify the level of activity in different tumor regions. We demonstrate how increasing the level of multiplexing allows one to differentiate subtle variability and separate subclasses of cells from each other. Conclusions: Multiplexed data brings valuable information about the TME but much of this information is inaccessible by simply viewing the captured images or performing simple cell counting alone. To address this problem, we demonstrate two new software tools, PSDM and UMAP that preserve and quantify the spatial information of the underlying biology and provide this analysis for all possible phenotypes. Citation Format: Douglas Wood, Bonnie Phillips, Courtney Hebert, Aditi Sharma, Jamie Buell, Sean Downing. Understanding the TME: Advanced analysis and visualization of multiplexed fluorescence images [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2019; 2019 Mar 29-Apr 3; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 1677.

Between a ROC and a hard place: Teaching prevalence plots to understand real world biomarker performance in the clinic.

The Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve and the Area Under the Curve (AUC) of the ROC curve are widely used in discovery to compare the performance of diagnostic and prognostic assays. The ROC curve has the advantage that it is independent of disease prevalence. However, in this note, we remind scientists and clinicians that the performance of an assay upon translation to the clinic is critically dependent upon that very same prevalence. Without an understanding of prevalence in the test population, even robust bioassays with excellent ROC characteristics may perform poorly in the clinic. While the exact prevalence in the target population is not always known, simple plots of candidate assay performance as a function of prevalence rate give a better understanding of the likely real-world performance and a greater understanding of the likely impact of variation in that prevalence on translation to the clinic.

Functional data analysis of multi-species abundance and occupancy data sets

• Functional Data Analysis provides tools for studying multi-species indices. • A huge simplification in terms of dimensional reduction is achieved. • Comparisons are made with percentage trends which crudely represent complex changes. • Differences in species patterns of occupancy and abundance are found. • Recommendations for accompanying visualisations for biodiversity indicators are made. Multi-species indicators are widely used to condense large, complex amounts of information on multiple separate species by forming a single index to inform research, policy and management. Much detail is typically lost when such indices are constructed. Here we investigate the potential of Functional Data Analysis, focussing upon Functional Principal Component Analysis (FPCA), which can be easily carried out using standard R programs, as a tool for displaying features of the underlying information. Illustrations are provided using data from the UK Butterflies for the New Millennium and UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme databases. The FPCAs conducted result in a huge simplification in terms of dimensional reduction, allowing species occupancy and abundance to be reduced to two and three dimensions, respectively. We show that a functional principal component arises for both occupancy and abundance analyses that distinguishes between species that increase or decrease over time, and that it differs from percentage trend, which is a simplification of complex temporal changes. We find differences in species patterns of occupancy and abundance, providing a warning against routinely combining both types of index within multi-species indicators, for example when using occupancy as a proxy for abundance when insufficient abundance data are available. By identifying the differences between species, figures displaying functional principal component scores are much more informative than the simple bar plots of percentages of significant trends that often accompany multi-species indicators. Informed by the outcomes of the FPCA, we make recommendations for accompanying visualisations for multi-species indicators, and discuss how these are likely to be context and audience specific. We show that, in the absence of FPCA, using mean species occupancy and total abundance can provide additional, accessible information to complement species-level trends. At the simplest level, we suggest using jitter plots to display variation in species-level trends. We encourage further application to other taxa, and recommend the routine augmentation of multi-species indicators in the future with additional statistical procedures and figures, to serve as an aid to improve communication and understanding of biodiversity metrics, as well as reveal potentially hidden patterns of behaviour and guide additional directions for investigation.

Demonstration and Popularization of Improved Oat Varieties/Accessions at the Highland of Guji Zone High Land, Ethiopia

This experiment was conducted with the objectives of to demonstrating and popularizing recommend improved Oat accessions/varieties to the area and to assess farmers preference for the improved Oat cultivars as a feed for livestock production in Guji Zone high land parts. The experiment was laid out in simple plot with size of 10 X10 m under four kebele's of eight farmers two each kebele's of Bore and Ana Sora districts. The materials used for this experiment was CI-8251, CI-8235, 79Ab384 (TX) 80SA95, Lampton, SRCPX80Ab2291and SRCPX80Ab2806 oat accessions. Data was recorded for plant height, maturity date, 50% flowering date, seed yield, diseases reaction, lodging, green fodder yield and farmers preferences. The varieties differed in yield and yield related parameters. Accession CI-8251 produced significantly higher green forage yield (73.13 ton/ha) followed by SRCPX80Ab2806 and 79Ab384 (TX) 80SA95 which was 64.05 and 61.65 ton/ha respectively, the variety lampton recorded lowest green forage yield (55.0 ton/ha) might be due to high lodging and diseases. The highest seed yield (31.34qt/ha) was obtained from SRCPX80Ab2806 accession followed by 79Ab384 (TX) 80SA95 and CI-8235 (31.15qt/ha and 30.65qt/ha) respectively while lampton variety gives only 22.94qt/ha was the lowest yield. The tallest plants (184.5 cm) recorded from Lampton followed by CI-8251 (175.5 cm) and 79Ab384 (TX) 80SA95 (161.25 cm) and minimum (147.75, 154.75cm) from SRCPX80Ab2806 and SRCPX80Ab2291 respectively. Based on their own evaluation criteria, farmers grouped SRCPX80Ab2806 and 79Ab384 (TX) 80SA95 in the first rank; CI-8251 in the second; SRCPX80Ab2291 in the third; CI-8235 and lampton ranked as last. Lampton variety was the most susceptible and have low resistance to disease and no diseases was recorded from accession CI-8251. Low diseases was recorded from 79Ab384 (TX) 80SA95 and SRCPX80Ab 22 91, but resistance to disease and give good yield and yield components. Hence accessions SRCPX80Ab2806, CI-8251 and 79Ab384 (TX) 80SA95 proved its superiority over all the other varieties included in the experiment and could popularized with the same agro-ecology of the zone and other parts of the country. Keywords: diseases resistance, forage yield, oats, Seed yield DOI : 10.7176/JNSR/9-5-05 Publication date :March 31 st 2019

«Og det er ikkje vits i å seie noko» – om Jon Fosses "Eg er vinden"

I Am the Wind is one of the last works Jon Fosse wrote for theatre. The piece was first staged during the Bergen Festival in 2007. Even though it was only a few years later that Fosse declared the end of his dramatic career, his playwriting with this play is clearly moving on its way out of the theatre and into a borderland between thought and action; it manifests an extremely subjective and the physical presence in which items from Fosse’s poetry are more clearly seen. In this article, I want to read I Am the Wind primarily as a theatre piece, that is, a text written for the stage, and emphasize the use of poetic elements. The piece’s sections of dialogue revolve around existential and individual psychological questions at the boundary of the banal; it thematizes both the need and the fear of loneliness. It also deals with nature’s magical attraction to humans and with the importance of silence on several levels. The work stages the death wish of late modern humanity, and provides lyrical and language-philosophical interpretations of this, which I wish to read into the apparently simple plot of the piece.&#x0D; I Am the Wind can be described through a number of features that also characterize both earlier and later pieces of Fosse’s writing. Simply put, the play is about two people’s voyage to the open sea in a boat; one of the characters jumps overboard and commits suicide. The situation in the play takes place either in the head of the one who witnesses the suicide, or there is a meeting between the two characters after death. Either way, this is a basic situation which assumes that the expectations of a realistic stage action are to be set aside. But what is the reason why Fosse shifts his piece against a dramatic zero point? What is the purpose of reducing the stage expression to a lyrical outline that almost destroys the theatrical form? Fosse often opts for silent moments in his pieces. I Am the Wind is an infinite and enigmatic boat trip that requires us to look at the play as a landscape without being forced to define it in words: for the words disappear during the boat trip; they are taken and gone with the wind; “there is no point in saying anything.”

Assessing seed regeneration in chestnut coppices: a methodological approach

Over the last decades, the abandonment of the traditional management due to many adverse factors caused a general aging of chestnut coppices; this led to an increased mortality of the chestnut stools and a consequent replacement with the entry of other species. Preservation and improvement of the chestnut coppice emphasize the importance of natural regeneration for future forest management: seed regeneration contributes to provide new stools for future coppice generations and promotes a proper development of the stand in terms of specific and structural diversity. In this study, we propose a method for investigating the relationship between density, diversity, development of natural regeneration and possible driving forces in terms of site conditions and stand parameters. At this purpose, a survey based on mixed sampling plots was conducted in different coppice systems (simple coppice, coppice with standards), 4÷8 years after the coppicing: measurements on stools, shoots and standards, as well as seed regeneration were carried out. Chestnut seed regeneration was characterized by taller individuals in simple coppice plots, even though the seedlings were fewer than those in coppice with standards treatment. Canopy cover and amount of standards, density of stools and resprouting shoots negatively influenced the establishment of chestnut seed regeneration: likewise, within the same treatment, plots with greater site index promoted the development of chestnut regeneration. The proposed methods allowed a characterization of the dynamics related to the natural regeneration of classical chestnut coppice systems, identifying the main controlling factors. Among them, factors modifiable by management, such as stand structure and amount of standards, offer forest managers multiple silvicultural options to control seed regeneration processes.

Automatic Fault Diagnostic System for Induction Motors under Transient Regime Optimized with Expert Systems

Induction machines (IMs) power most modern industrial processes (induction motors) and generate an increasing portion of our electricity (doubly fed induction generators). A continuous monitoring of the machine’s condition can identify faults at an early stage, and it can avoid costly, unexpected shutdowns of production processes, with economic losses well beyond the cost of the machine itself. Machine current signature analysis (MCSA), has become a prominent technique for condition-based maintenance, because, in its basic approach, it is non-invasive, requires just a current sensor, and can process the current signal using a standard fast Fourier transform (FFT). Nevertheless, the industrial application of MCSA requires well-trained maintenance personnel, able to interpret the current spectra and to avoid false diagnostics that can appear due to electrical noise in harsh industrial environments. This task faces increasing difficulties, especially when dealing with machines that work under non-stationary conditions, such as wind generators under variable wind regime, or motors fed from variable speed drives. In these cases, the resulting spectra are no longer simple one-dimensional plots in the time domain; instead, they become two-dimensional images in the joint time-frequency domain, requiring highly specialized personnel to evaluate the machine condition. To alleviate these problems, supporting the maintenance staff in their decision process, and simplifying the correct use of fault diagnosis systems, expert systems based on neural networks have been proposed for automatic fault diagnosis. However, all these systems, up to the best knowledge of the authors, operate under steady-state conditions, and are not applicable in a transient regime. To solve this problem, this paper presents an automatic system for generating optimized expert diagnostic systems for fault detection when the machine works under transient conditions. The proposed method is first theoretically introduced, and then it is applied to the experimental diagnosis of broken bars in a commercial cage induction motor.

Hydrotreatment of jatropha oil over noble metal catalysts

Jatropha oil is a promising nonedible feedstock for producing renewable diesel. In this work, the hydrotreatment processing of jatropha oil was investigated. Instead of using conventional alumina-supported Co–Mo, Ni–Mo, and Ni–W catalysts that need sulfidation pretreatment, noble metals such as Pd and Ru were chosen. Trials were performed in an isothermal trickle-bed reactor and the reaction conditions were as follows: temperature 603–663 K, weight hourly space velocity (WHSV) 1 to 4/h, pressure 1.5–3 MPa, and H2/oil ratio 200–800 (v/v). Yield of n-C15 to n-C18 hydrocarbons was maximized (70.3 and 43.8% for Pd/Al2O3 and Ru/Al2O3, respectively) at the following conditions: T = 663 K, WHSV = 2/h, P = 3 MPa, and H2/oil ratio = 600 (v/v). Since Ru favored cracking reactions to a larger extent than Pd, the yield of C15 to C18 hydrocarbons over Ru/Al2O3 was lowered. Using simple first-order plots for oil conversion, activation energies for the hydrotreating process over Pd/Al2O3 and Ru/Al2O3 were found and they were equal to 109 and 121 kJ/mol, correspondingly.

Normal Values for Left Ventricular Mass in Relation to Lean Body Mass in Child and Adolescent Athletes

It has been demonstrated that regular sport activity in children leads to physiological changes in the heart including increased left ventricular (LV) myocardial thickness and mass (LVM). The aim of the study was to establish the first specific normal values of LVM for child and adolescent athletes. Parasternal long-axis, 2D-guided echocardiographic measurements were obtained from a group of 791 Caucasian child athletes (age 5–18 years, 58.7% boys). For the preparation of normative data, LVM-for-lean body mass (LBM) reference curves were constructed using the LMS method. Then, a simple correlation plot was constructed to analyse the concordant and discordant indications of left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH), defined as LVM-for-LBM above the 95th percentile, according to the newly created and previously published normative data on LVM-for-LBM in the general population of children. Reference scatter plots of LVM-for-LBM for boys and girls in the analysed group of children practicing sports were presented, showing mean values of LVM and z-scores. The application to the studied group of reference centiles established for the general population of children would lead to false positive misclassification of increased LVH in 5.8% of the girls and 17.0% of the boys. We present the first specific normative data for LV mass in relation to lean body mass in Caucasian children and adolescents engaged in regular sport activities. The application of specific normative data for LV mass results in fewer false positive findings of left ventricular hypertrophy in this group than that of reference values for general paediatric population.

Resolution-enhanced Kendrick mass defect plots for the data processing of mass spectra from wood and coal hydrothermal extracts

The Kendrick mass defect (KMD) analysis conveniently turns a complex high-resolution mass spectrum into a compositional map with informative clustering of points depending on the elemental composition of the associated ions. It has nevertheless been left unchanged for thirty years with the use of chemical moieties such as methylene as base units for the computation of “regular” mass defects displayed in condensed plots regardless of the samples. The concept of “resolution-enhanced” KMD analysis using the mass of the repeating unit divided by an integer as the new fractional base unit has been recently introduced for the computation of expanded plots from polymeric mass spectral data with a dramatically improved separation of ion series. This user-friendly data processing is extended to the case of carbonaceous samples for the first time with the analysis of water-insoluble organic microspheres recovered from the hydrothermal extraction of wood and coals. In a didactic discussion with illustrative examples, the direct resolution-enhanced KMD analysis, the consecutive resolution-enhanced analysis of a part of a regular KMD plot or the systematic slicing of plots in a multistep procedure are shown to produce simple resolution-enhanced KMD plots or resolution-enhanced zooming from complex mass spectra. The combination of these techniques in a unique “advanced KMD analysis” toolkit is expected to revolutionize the data processing of high-resolution mass spectra with unprecedented separating and unraveling capabilities.

Basic Stata Graphics for Economics Students

This paper provides an introduction to the main types of graph in Stata that economics students might need. It covers univariate discrete and continuous variables, bivariate distributions, some simple time plots and methods of visualising the output from estimating models. It shows a small number of the many options available and includes references to further resources.

Who can tolerate a marginal kidney? Predicting survival after deceased donor kidney transplant by donor-recipient combination.

The impact of donor quality on post-kidney transplant (KT) survival may vary by candidate condition. Characterizing this variation would increase access to KT without sacrificing outcomes. We developed a tool to estimate post-KT survival for combinations of donor quality and candidate condition. We studied deceased donor KT recipients (n=120818) and waitlisted candidates (n=376272) between 2005 and 2016 by using the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients. Donor quality and candidate condition were measured by using the Kidney Donor Profile Index (KDPI) and the Estimated Post Transplant Survival (EPTS) score. We estimated 5-year post-KT survival based on combinations of KDPI and EPTS score using random forest algorithms and waitlist survival by EPTS score using Weibull regressions. Survival benefit was defined as absolute reduction in mortality risk with KT. For candidates with an EPTSscore of80, 5-year waitlist survival was 47.6%, and 5-year post-KT survival was 78.9% after receiving kidneys with a KDPIof20 and was 70.7% after receiving kidneys with a KDPIof80. The impact of KDPI on survival benefit varied greatly by EPTS score. For candidates with low EPTS scores (eg, <40), the KDPI had limited impact on survival benefit. For candidates with middle or high EPTS scores (eg, >40), survival benefit decreased with higher KDPI but was still substantial even with a KDPIof100 (>16 percentage points). Our prediction tool (www.transplantmodels.com/kdpi-epts) can support individualized decision-making on kidney offers in clinical practice.

Skandynawska powieść detektywistyczna dla dzieci i młodzieży w polskiej przestrzeni medialnej

The worldwide trend for the Scandinavian criminal novels lasting for many years until today has marked itself even more visibly in the first decade of the 21st century, among others after the success of the “Millenium” by Stieg Larsson. An interesting phenomenon in the modern Polish publishing market can be seen in the growing popularity of the detective novels for children and youth arriving from that cultural area. It is worth noticing that this type of literature has a grounded tradition - the classics of the genre include e.g. the novel by Astrid Lindgren about Bill Bergson or Åke Holmberg’s saga about detective Sventon. It is often the case that authors of crime fiction writing for an adult recipient devote a part of their output to young readers. A characteristic symptom of interest in this type of literature in our country can be found in the growing presence of various mentions about it in Polish media space. The considered novels are usually based on a simple puzzle plot, captivating the audience with their humour and a graceful connection of educational values, psychological observations and sensation. Children crime fiction are right now considered most often as popular page-turners, which can turn out to be helpful in raising and solidifying the interest in individual reading, although their cultural potential seems to be much bigger.