Search results for "Variable"
showing 10 items of 1674 documents
Intrinsic challenges in ancient microbiome reconstruction using 16S rRNA gene amplification
2015
AbstractTo date, characterization of ancient oral (dental calculus) and gut (coprolite) microbiota has been primarily accomplished through a metataxonomic approach involving targeted amplification of one or more variable regions in the 16S rRNA gene. Specifically, the V3 region (E. coli 341–534) of this gene has been suggested as an excellent candidate for ancient DNA amplification and microbial community reconstruction. However, in practice this metataxonomic approach often produces highly skewed taxonomic frequency data. In this study, we use non-targeted (shotgun metagenomics) sequencing methods to better understand skewed microbial profiles observed in four ancient dental calculus speci…
Numerosity Discrimination in Children With Down Syndrome
2009
To understand the difficulties in mathematics exhibited by children with Down syndrome (DS), this study evaluated the core knowledge of numerosities with a discrimination task adapted from Xu and Spelke (2000). Although continuous variables varying with numerosity were controlled, children with DS discriminated the numerosity 8 from 16, but not from 12. Moreover, their performance did not differ from typically developing children matched either on chronological or mental age. Thus, the approximate numerosity system that recruits parietal lobes (Dehaene, Spelke, Pinel, Stanescu, & Tsivkin, 1999) is efficient in children with DS. These findings point at language-based systems as the source of…
Predictability of pharmaceutical spending in primary health services using Clinical Risk Groups
2014
Background: Risk adjustment instruments applied to existing electronic health records and administrative datasets may contribute to monitoring the correct prescribing of medicines. Objective: We aim to test the suitability of the model based on the CRG system and obtain specific adjusted weights for determined health states through a predictive model of pharmaceutical expenditure in primary health care. Methods: A database of 261,054 population in one health district of an Eastern region of Spain was used. The predictive power of two models was compared. The first model (ATC-model) used nine dummy variables: sex and 8 groups from 1 to 8 or more chronic conditions while in the second model (…
Transforming RNA-Seq Data to Improve the Performance of Prognostic Gene Signatures
2014
Gene expression measurements have successfully been used for building prognostic signatures, i.e for identifying a short list of important genes that can predict patient outcome. Mostly microarray measurements have been considered, and there is little advice available for building multivariable risk prediction models from RNA-Seq data. We specifically consider penalized regression techniques, such as the lasso and componentwise boosting, which can simultaneously consider all measurements and provide both, multivariable regression models for prediction and automated variable selection. However, they might be affected by the typical skewness, mean-variance-dependency or extreme values of RNA-…
Association between neonatal temperament,SLC6A4,DRD4and a functional polymorphism located inTFAP2B
2011
Genetic studies on human personality have provided little satisfactory results to date mainly because of the complexity of this trait. Neonatal temperament using observational measures is an alternative phenotype to approach genetics to human behavior. An association study was conducted on 117 Caucasian newborns. Their temperament was evaluated using the Neonatal Behavior Assessment Scale 48 h after birth. Thirteen polymorphisms in the SLC6A4, DRD4 and TFAP2B genes were genotyped. Linear regression was performed to analyze data, and Bonferroni correction was applied. To check the functional effect of the TFAP2B Indel Intron 2 polymorphism, reporter gene luciferase assays using a mouse corti…
Socio-clinical variables affecting the level of self-care in elderly patients with heart failure
2019
Background: Promoting self-care is the cornerstone of heart failure management. The number of hospitalizations and unscheduled visits could be reduced in elderly patients with heart failure by the patients’ active involvement in self-care. Aims: The aim of this study was to measure the level of self-care in elderly patients with heart failure, to examine the influence of socio-clinical variables on the level of self-care, and identify the socio-clinical variables that are predictors of self-care. Methods: The study included 100 heart failure patients (48 female, 52 male) aged between 60 and 88 years, treated at the Oleśno Health Care Center (Poland). The European Heart Failure Self-care Beh…
MARITAL STATUS IS A PROGNOSTIC FACTOR IN AMYOTROPHIC LATERAL SCLEROSIS
2017
Background and objectives Several variables have been linked to a shorter survival in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), for example, female sex, older age, site of disease onset, rapid disease progression, and a relatively short diagnostic delay. With regard to marital status, previous studies suggested that living with a partner might be associated to a longer survival and a higher likelihood to proceed to tracheostomy. Therefore, to further strengthen this hypothesis, we investigated the role of marital status as a prognostic variable in a cohort of ALS patients. Methods We performed a retrospective analysis on 501 consecutive ALS patients for which a complete disease's n…
The Association between Loneliness and Health Related Quality of Life (HR-QoL) among Community-Dwelling Older Citizens
2020
Background: This study aimed to assess the association between loneliness and Health-Related Quality of Life (HR-QoL) among community-dwelling older citizens in five European countries. We characterize loneliness broadly from an emotional and social perspective. Methods: This cross-sectional study measured loneliness with the 6-item De Jong Gierveld Loneliness Scale and HR-QoL with the 12-Item Short-Form Health Survey. The association between loneliness and HR-QoL was examined using multivariable linear regression models. Results: Data of 2169 citizens of at least 70 years of age and living independently (mean age = 79.6 ±
Associations of Leisure-Time Physical Activity Trajectories with Fruit and Vegetable Consumption from Childhood to Adulthood: The Cardiovascular Risk…
2019
A physically active lifestyle and a diet rich in vegetables and fruits have a central role in promoting health. This study examined the associations between leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) trajectories and fruit and vegetable consumption (FVC) from childhood to middle age. The data were drawn from the Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study with six age cohorts. Participants were 9 to 18 years (n = 3536
Adaptation of the disector method to rare small organelles in TEM sections exemplified by counting synaptic bodies in the rat pineal gland
1997
The disector is the only objective method for quantifying particles of variable size in a given volume. With this method, cell organelles are identified on adjacent sections, but only those present in one section are counted. When counting extremely rare structures in transmission electron microscope sections (physical disector), the usual procedure of counting on electron micrographs is limited for economic reasons (e.g. micrographs highly outnumbering the investigated structures). Hence, to apply this unbiased stereological method, a modification of the physical disector concerning 3 aspects has been developed. (1) The prerequisite of screening large corresponding tissue areas (here appro…