Statistical analysis techniques such as principal component analysis (PCA) and discriminant analysis (DA) have become an integral part of data analysis for differential sensing. These multivariate ...statistical tools, while extremely versatile and useful, are sometimes used as "black boxes". Our aim in this paper is to improve the general understanding of how PCA and DA process and display differential sensing data, which should lead to the ability to better interpret the final results. With various sets of model data, we explore several topics, such as how to choose an appropriate number of hosts for an array, selectivity compared to cross-reactivity, when to add hosts, how to obtain the best visually representative plot of a data set, and when arrays are not necessary. We also include items at the end of the paper as general recommendations which readers can follow when using PCA or DA in a practical application. Through this paper we hope to present these statistical analysis methods in a manner such that chemists gain further insight into approaches that optimize the discriminatory power of their arrays.
Towards ecological science for all by all Thornhill, Ian; Cornelissen, J. Hans C.; McPherson, Jana M. ...
The Journal of applied ecology,
February 2021, 2021-02-00, 20210201, Letnik:
58, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Anecdotally, female plastic surgeons are disproportionately underrepresented as speakers, moderators, and panelists at national and regional plastic surgery meetings. No studies have attempted to ...quantify female representation at Plastic Surgery The Meeting (PSTM). The objective of our study is to examine trends in female participation at PSTM. Names of participating plastic surgeons and their conference positions were obtained from PSTM meeting programs between 2015-2020. Conference positions included instructor, lead, lecturer, moderator, panelist, or other. Presentations were grouped as the following: conference/symposium; general session; instructional course; and lab. An automated gender assignment tool (gender-api.com) was used to determine the gender of participants. Descriptive statistics and trend analyses using Cochran-Armitage trend tests were performed. Between 2015-2020, 3,382 individuals (602 females, 17.8%) presented at PSTM in one of the instructional or moderating roles. Female presenters at PSTM increased from 60 (12.4%) in 2015, to 155 (26.5%) by 2020. The results for the proportion of females presenting in the general session and the instructional courses were statistically significant (p < .0001; p =.029), demonstrating a positive linear trend in the female proportions over the years. From 2015 to 2020, the proportions of females holding positions as moderators, panelists, and “other” increased significantly (p = .011; p = .011; p < .0001). Although female participation at PSTM has shown substantial growth over the last five years, there still exists a considerable gender imbalance. Notably, females were less likely to hold prominent positions, such as instructors, leads, or lecturers.
Study Design
This retrospective cohort study utilized the National Inpatient Sample (NIS) database for the years 2016–2018. Incidences of street fighting were identified using the corresponding ...ICD-10 codes.
Objective
To determine whether alcohol use (measured by blood alcohol content (BAC)) in patients sustaining maxillofacial trauma from hand-to-hand fighting influence hospitalization outcomes.
Methods
The primary predictor variable was BAC stratified into six categories of increasing magnitude. The primary outcome variable was mean length of hospital stay (days). The secondary outcome variable was total hospital charges (US dollars).
Results
Our final sample consisted of 3038 craniomaxillofacial fractures. Each additional year in age added +$545 in hospital charges (P < .01). Non-elective admissions added $14 210 in hospital charges (P < .05). Patients admitted in 2018 experienced approximately $7537 more in hospital charges (P < .01). Le Fort fractures (+$61 921; P < .01), mandible fractures (+$13 227, P < .01), and skull base fractures (+$22 170; P < .05) were all independently associated with increased hospital charges. Skull base fractures added +7.6 days to the hospital stay (P < .01) and each additional year in patient age added +.1 days to the length of the hospital stay (P < .01).
Conclusions
BAC levels did not increase length of stay or hospitalization charges. Le Fort fractures, mandible fractures, and skull base fracture each independently increased hospital charges. This reflects the necessary care (ie, ICU) and treatment (ie, ORIF) of such fractures. Older adults and elderly patients are associated with increased length of stay and hospital charges—they are likely to struggle in navigating the healthcare system and face socioeconomic barriers to discharge.
Background/Aims
No studies have characterized the morbidity and mortality of maxillary & malar fractures on a national scale. The aim of this study was to examine the risk factors for mortality in ...pediatric patients who had sustained maxillary and malar fractures by using a national pediatric hospital inpatient care database.
Materials and methods
This retrospective cohort study was conducted using the Kids' Inpatient Database (KID). The primary predictor variable was the cause of injury. The primary outcome variable was mortality rate. Additional predictor variables included age, gender, race, income, payer information, year and place of injury, number of facial fractures, concomitant facial fractures, other fractures of the body, and intracranial/internal organ injury. Univariate and multivariate regression models were performed to assess risk factors for mortality. Statistical significance was set to a p‐value <.05.
Results
A total of 5859 patients met the inclusion criteria. The most common age group was 13–17 years of age (n = 3816, 65.1%). Motor vehicle accidents were the most common mechanism of injury (n = 2172, 37.1%). The presence of cranial vault (OR = 2.81, p = .017), skull base (OR = 2.72, p < .001), and vertebral column fractures (OR = 2.13, p = .016), as well as sub‐arachnoid hemorrhage (OR = 4.75, p = .005), traumatic pneumothorax/hemothorax (OR = 2.16, p = .015), and heart/lung injury (OR = 3.37, p < .001) were each independently associated with increased odds of mortality.
Conclusions
Patients in their late teens most commonly sustained malar and maxillary fractures, likely due to general trends in craniomaxillofacial development. The presence of other fractures located in close proximity to the mid‐face increased the risk of mortality among pediatric patients with malar and maxillary fractures. This may be explained by the anatomical approximation of the mid‐face to vital neurovascular structures of the head, which, when damaged, may prove fatal.
This paper reports the findings of a literature review of the health, social care and housing needs of older lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) adults undertaken in 2006 for the Welsh ...Assembly Government. Peer‐reviewed literature was identified through database searches of BNI, PubMed, CINAHL, DARE, ASSIA and PsychInfo. Follow‐up searches were conducted using references to key papers and journals as well as specific authors who had published key papers. A total of 187 papers or chapters were retrieved, of which 66 were included in the study; major themes were identified and the findings synthesised using a meta‐narrative approach. The main themes that emerged from the review were isolation, health behaviours, mental health and sexual health behaviours. The literature indicates that the health, social care and housing needs of LGBT older people is influenced by a number of forms of discrimination which may impact upon the provision of, access to and take up of health, social care and housing services. Understanding of the health, social care and housing needs of older LGBT people is limited and research in this area is scarce. The research which exists has been criticised for using small samples and for tending to exclude participants from less affluent backgrounds. The focus of research tends to be on gay men and lesbians; consequently, the needs of bisexual and transgender people remain largely unknown. Additionally, research which does exist tends to focus on a narrow range of health issues, often related to the health needs of younger LGBT people. Discrimination in various forms has a major impact on needs and experiences, leading to marginalisation of LGBT people both in the provision of health and social care services and neglect of these groups in public health research.
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to identify which patient-level factors, if any, influence the risk of infection following dog bite wounds to the face.
Materials and methods
This retrospective ...cohort study was conducted using the Kids’ Inpatient Database (KID). The primary predictor variable was the type of facial injury. The primary outcome variable was the presence of facial infection. SPSS was used to perform statistical analyses and statistical significance was set at a
P
-value of < 0.05.
Results
Our final sample comprised a total of 4,420 patients who suffered dog bites to the face, of which 1,237 (28.0%) resulted in infection. Open wound (
n
= 4,176, 94.5%) was the most common facial injury, followed by bone fractures (
n
= 105, 2.4%). Relative to children 16–20 years old, children who were 0–5 years old were three times more likely to develop an infection (
P
< 0.01). Finally, open wounds (
P
< 0.01) were over seven times more likely to get infected relative to fractures.
Conclusions
Young children, particularly those below the age of five, are vulnerable to dog bite wounds to the face. Open wounds posed the greatest risk of getting infected.
Well‐established bodies of scholarship that inform contemporary global debates on gender, environment and health are fundamentally based on dualistic representations of women, such as First/Third ...World, rich/poor and victim/polluter. In this paper, we argue that recent socioeconomic transitions — affluence in the global South and rising inequality in the global North — demand the development of gender analytical frameworks that better recognize the diversity of roles that women play in the changing global social order that impact on their health. Our paper (a) critiques the dualisms found in three influential bodies of scholarship, namely gender, environment and development, science, technology and society, and sustainable development; and (b) through our critique, conceptually develops an ‘interconnectedness’ perspective that focuses on the increasingly shared lived realities of women in the North and the South, to understand the emerging complex relationships between gender, environment and health.
Since the 1980s and 1990s doctors in the UK have reported a lack of time; this has been reproduced in the reorganisation of work through various contracts and regulatory mechanisms. I draw on ...interviews with 32 General Practitioners (GPs) in Wales about their everyday work, focusing on accounts about the limited nature of their time. I use Adams’ analysis of the rationalisation of work time through the processes of commodification, compression, and colonisation, to explore tensions between traditional and new ways of doctoring. While it was possible to find evidence of traditional ways of managing time that shaped the activities of doctors and controlled those activities, the doctors were not passive participants in the rationalisation of work time. Rather they actively modified its processes using notions of professionalism that are aligned to traditional doctoring, and which offer new ways of doing and being a professional.
Prenatal phthalate exposure impairs testicular function and shortens anogenital distance (AGD) in male rodents. We present data from the first study to examine AGD and other genital measurements in ...relation to prenatal phthalate exposure in humans. A standardized measure of AGD was obtained in 134 boys 2-36 months of age. AGD was significantly correlated with penile volume (R = 0.27, p = 0.001) and the proportion of boys with incomplete testicular descent (R = 0.20, p = 0.02). We defined the anogenital index (AGI) as AGD divided by weight at examination AGI = AGD/weight (mm/kg) and calculated the age-adjusted AGI by regression analysis. We examined nine phthalate monoester metabolites, measured in prenatal urine samples, as predictors of age-adjusted AGI in regression and categorical analyses that included all participants with prenatal urine samples (n = 85). Urinary concentrations of four phthalate metabolites monoethyl phthalate (MEP), mono-n-butyl phthalate (MBP), monobenzyl phthalate (MBzP), and monoisobutyl phthalate (MiBP) were inversely related to AGI. After adjusting for age at examination, p-values for regression coefficients ranged from 0.007 to 0.097. Comparing boys with prenatal MBP concentration in the highest quartile with those in the lowest quartile, the odds ratio for a shorter than expected AGI was 10.2 (95% confidence interval, 2.5 to 42.2). The corresponding odds ratios for MEP, MBzP, and MiBP were 4.7, 3.8, and 9.1, respectively (all p-values < 0.05). We defined a summary phthalate score to quantify joint exposure to these four phthalate metabolites. The age-adjusted AGI decreased significantly with increasing phthalate score (p-value for slope = 0.009). The associations between male genital development and phthalate exposure seen here are consistent with the phthalate-related syndrome of incomplete virilization that has been reported in prenatally exposed rodents. The median concentrations of phthalate metabolites that are associated with short AGI and incomplete testicular descent are below those found in one-quarter of the female population of the United States, based on a nationwide sample. These data support the hypothesis that prenatal phthalate exposure at environmental levels can adversely affect male reproductive development in humans.
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