Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

The Relation Of Dietary Patterns To Future Survival, Health, And Cardiovascular Events In Older Adults, Paula Diehr

Paula Diehr

BACKGROUND: There have been few long-term follow-up studies of older adults who follow different dietary patterns. METHODS: We cluster-analyzed data on dietary fat, fiber, protein, carbohydrate, and calorie consumption from the U.S. Cardiovascular Health Study (mean age=73), and examined the relationship of the dietary clusters to outcomes 10 years later. RESULTS: The five clusters were named "Healthy diet" (relatively high in fiber and carbohydrate and low in fat), "Unhealthy diet" (relatively high in protein and fat, relatively low in carbohydrates and fiber); "High Calorie," "Low Calorie," and "Low 4," which was distinguished by higher alcohol consumption. The clusters were strongly …

Modeling The Optimum Duration Of Antibiotic Prophylaxis In An Anthrax Outbreak, Ron Brookmeyer, Elizabeth Johnson, Robert Bollinger

Ron Brookmeyer

A critical consideration in effective and measured public health responses to an outbreak of inhalational anthrax is the optimum duration of antibiotic prophylaxis. We develop a competing-risks model to address the duration of antibiotic prophylaxis and the incubation period that accounts for the risks of spore germination and spore clearance. The model predicts the incubation period distribution, which is confirmed by empirical data. The optimum duration of antibiotic prophylaxis depends critically on the dose of inhaled spores. At high doses, we show that exposed persons would need to remain on antibiotic prophylaxis for at least 4 months, and considerable morbidity …

Statistical Models And Bioterrorism: Application To The U.S. Anthrax Outbreak, Ron Brookmeyer, Natalie Blades

Ron Brookmeyer

In the fall of 2001 an outbreak of inhalational anthrax occurred in the United States that was the result of bioterrorism. Letters contaminated with anthrax spores were sent through the postal system. In response to the outbreak, public health officials treated over 10,000 persons with antibiotic prophylaxis in the hopes of preventing further morbidity and mortality. No persons receiving the antibiotics subsequently developed disease. The question arises as to how many cases of disease may actually have been prevented by the public health intervention of antibiotic prophylaxis. A statistical model is developed to answer this question by relating to the …

Rejoinder To "“Wavelet-Based Nonparametric Modeling Of Hierarchical Functions In Colon Carcinogenesis.”, Jeffrey S. Morris, Marina Vannucci, Philip J. Brown, Raymond J. Carroll

Jeffrey S. Morris

No abstract provided.

Quality Control And Peak Finding For Proteomics Data Collected From Nipple Aspirate Fluid Using Surface Enhanced Laser Desorption And Ionization., Jeffrey S. Morris, Kevin R. Coombes, Herbert A. Fritsche, Charlotte Clarke, Jeng-Neng Chen, Keith A. Baggerly, Lian-Chun Xiao, Mien-Chie Hung, Henry M. Kuerer

Jeffrey S. Morris

Background: Recently, researchers have been using mass spectroscopy to study cancer. For use of proteomics spectra in a clinical setting, stringent quality-control procedures will be needed.

Methods: We pooled samples of nipple aspirate fluid from healthy breasts and breasts with cancer to prepare a control sample. Aliquots of the control sample were used on two spots on each of three IMAC ProteinChip® arrays (Ciphergen Biosystems, Inc.) on 4 successive days to generate 24 SELDI spectra. In 36 subsequent experiments, the control sample was applied to two spots of each ProteinChip array, and the resulting spectra were analyzed to determine how …

Imputation Of Missing Longitudinal Data: A Comparison Of Methods, Paula Diehr, Jean Mundahl Engels

Paula Diehr

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Missing information is inevitable in longitudinal studies, and can result in biased estimates and a loss of power. One approach to this problem is to impute the missing data to yield a more complete data set. Our goal was to compare the performance of 14 methods of imputing missing data on depression, weight, cognitive functioning, and self-rated health in a longitudinal cohort of older adults. METHODS: We identified situations where a person had a known value following one or more missing values, and treated the known value as a "missing value." This "missing value" was imputed using …

Wavelet-Based Nonparametric Modeling Of Hierarchical Functions In Colon Carcinogenesis., Jeffrey S. Morris, Marina Vannucci, Philip J. Brown, Raymond J. Carroll

Jeffrey S. Morris

In this article we develop new methods for analyzing the data from an experiment using rodent models to investigate the effect of type of dietary fat on O6-methylguanine-DNA-methyltransferase (MGMT), an important biomarker in early colon carcinogenesis. The data consist of observed profiles over a spatial variable contained within a two-stage hierarchy, a structure that we dub hierarchical functional data. We present a new method providing a unified framework for modeling these data, simultaneously yielding estimates and posterior samples for mean, individual, and subsample-level profiles, as well as covariance parameters at the various hierarchical levels. Our method is nonparametric in that …

Trajectories Of Health For Older Adults Over Time: Accounting Fully For Death, Paula Diehr

Paula Diehr

The process of healthy aging can best be described by plotting the trajectory of health-related variables over time. Unfortunately, graphs including data only from survivors may be misleading because they may confuse patterns of mortality with patterns of change in health. Two approaches for creating graphs that account for death in such situations are 1) to incorporate a category or value for death into the longitudinal health variable and 2) to measure time in years before death or some other event. The first approach has been applied to self-rated health (excellent to poor) and the 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36). …

Genome-Wide Scan For Quantitative Trait Loci Influencing Ldl Size And Plasma Triglyceride In Familial Hypertriglyceridemia, Melissa A. Austin, Karen L. Edwards, Stephanie A. Monks, Kent M. Koprowicz, John D. Brunzell, Arno G. Motulsky, Michael C. Mahaney, James E. Hixson

Kent M Koprowicz

No abstract provided.

Multiple Luteinizing Hormone Receptor (Lhr) Protein Variants, Interspecies Reactivity Of Anti-Lhr Mab Clone 3b5, Subcellular Localization Of Lhr In Human Placenta, Pelvic Floor And Brain, And Possible Role For Lhr In The Development Of Abnormal Pregnancy, Pelvic Floor Disorders And Alzheimer's Disease, A Bukovsky, K Indrapichate, H Fujiwara, Maria Cekanova Ms, Rndr, Phd, Me Ayala, R Dominguez, Mr Caudle, J Wimalsena, Rf Elder, P Copas, Jf Foster, Ri Fernando, Dc Henley, Nb Upadhyaya

Maria Cekanova MS, RNDr, PhD

Distinct luteinizing hormone receptor (LHR) protein variants exist due to the posttranslational modifications. Besides ovaries, LHR immunoreactivity (LHRI) was also found in other tissues, such as the brain, fallopian tube, endometrium, trophoblast and resident tissue macrophages. The 3B5 mouse monoclonal antibody was raised against purified rat LHR. In rat, porcine and human ovaries, the 3B5 identified six distinct LHR bands migrating at approximately 92, 80, 68, 59, 52 and 48 kDa. Characteristic LHRI was detected in rat, human and porcine corpora lutea. During cellular differentiation, subcellular LHR distribution changed from none to granular cytoplasmic, perinuclear, surface, nuclear and no staining. …

A Comprehensive Approach To The Analysis Of Maldi-Tof Proteomics Spectra From Serum Samples., Keith A. Baggerly, Jeffrey S. Morris, Jing Wang, David Gold, Lian-Chun Xiao, Kevin R. Coombes

Jeffrey S. Morris

For our analysis of the data from the First Annual Proteomics Data Mining Conference, we attempted to discriminate between 24 disease spectra (group A) and 17 normal spectra (group B). First, we processed the raw spectra by (i) correcting for additive sinusoidal noise (periodic on the time scale) affecting most spectra, (ii) correcting for the overall baseline level, (iii) normalizing, (iv) recombining fractions, and (v) using variable- width windows for data reduction. Also, we identified a set of polymeric peaks (at multiples of 180.6 Da) that is present in several normal spectra (B1–B8). After data processing, we found the intensities …

Bayesian Shrinkage Estimation Of The Relative Abundance Of Mrna Transcripts Using Sage, Jeffrey S. Morris, Keith A. Baggerly, Kevin R. Coombes

Jeffrey S. Morris

Serial analysis of gene expression (SAGE) is a technology for quantifying gene expression in biological tissue that yields count data that can be modeled by a multinomial distribution with two characteristics: skewness in the relative frequencies and small sample size relative to the dimension. As a result of these characteristics, a given SAGE sample may fail to capture a large number of expressed mRNA species present in the tissue. Empirical estimators of mRNA species’ relative abundance effectively ignore these missing species, and as a result tend to overestimate the abundance of the scarce observed species comprising a vast majority of …

Expression And Localization Of Estrogen Receptor-Alpha Protein In Normal And Abnormal Term Placentae And Stimulation Of Trophoblast Differentiation By Estradiol, A Bukovsky, Maria Cekanova Ms, Rndr, Phd, Mr Caudle, J Wimalasena, Js Foster, Dc Henley, Rf Elder

Maria Cekanova MS, RNDr, PhD

Estrogens play an important role in the regulation of placental function, and 17-beta-estradiol (E2) production rises eighty fold during human pregnancy. Although term placenta has been found to specifically bind estrogens, cellular localization of estrogen receptor alpha (ER-alpha) in trophoblast remains unclear. We used western blot analysis and immunohistochemistry with h-151 and ID5 monoclonal antibodies to determine the expression and cellular localization of ER-alpha protein in human placentae and cultured trophoblast cells. Western blot analysis revealed a ~65 kDa ER-alpha band in MCF-7 breast carcinoma cells (positive control). A similar band was detected in five normal term placentae exhibiting strong …

Dna Fingerprinting Abnormalities Can Distinguish Ulcerative Colitis Patients With Dysplasia And Cancer From Those Who Are Dysplasia/Cancer-Free , Ru Chen, Peter S. Rabinovitch, David A. Crispin, Mary J. Emond, Kent M. Koprowicz, Mary P. Bonner, Teresa A. Brentnall

Kent M Koprowicz

No abstract provided.

Placental Expression Of Estrogen Receptor Beta And Its Hormone Binding Variant – Comparison With Estrogen Receptor Alpha And A Role For Estrogen Receptors In Asymmetric Division And Differentiation Of Estrogen-Dependent Cells, Antonin Bukovsky, Michael R. Caudle, Maria Cekanova Ms, Rndr, Phd, Romaine I. Fernando, Jay Wimalasena, James S. Foster, Donald C. Henley, Robert F. Elder

Maria Cekanova MS, RNDr, PhD

During human pregnancy, the production of 17-beta-estradiol (E2) rises steadily to eighty fold at term, and placenta has been found to specifically bind estrogens. We have recently demonstrated the expression of estrogen receptor alpha (ER-alpha) protein in human placenta and its localization in villous cytotrophoblast (CT), vascular pericytes, and amniotic fibroblasts. In vitro, E2 stimulated development of large syncytiotrophoblast (ST) aggregates. In the present study we utilized ER-beta affinity purified polyclonal (N19:sc6820) and ER-alpha monoclonal (clone h-151) antibodies. Western blot analysis revealed a single ~52 kDa ER-beta band in chorionic villi (CV) protein extracts. In CV, strong cytoplasmic ER-beta immunoreactivity …

Assessing Brain Activity Using Spatial Bayesian Variable Selection, Michael Smith, B Putz, D Auer, Ludwig Fahrmeir

Michael Stanley Smith

Statistical parametric mapping (SPM), relying on the general linear model and classical hypothesis testing, is a benchmark tool for assessing human brain activity using data from fMRI experiments. Friston et al. (Neuroimage 16 (2002a), 484) discuss some limitations of this frequentist approach and point out promising Bayesian perspectives. In particular, a Bayesian formulation allows explicit modeling and estimation of activation probabilities. In this study, we directly address this issue and develop a new regression based approach using spatial Bayesian variable selection. Our method has several advantages. First, spatial correlation is directly modeled for activation probabilities and indirectly for activation amplitudes. …