Biostatistics Commons^™

Comparison Of Long-Term Survival Of Patients With Early-Stage Non–Small Cell Lung Cancer After Surgery Vs Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy, Alexander Chi, Wei Fang, Yeping Sun, Sinjin Wen

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

IMPORTANCE Previous comparisons of surgery and stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) for early-stage (ES) non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) did not account for the extent of regional lymph node examination (LNE) during surgery. OBJECTIVE To compare long-term overall survival (OS) of patients with ES NSCLC after surgery vs SBRT when the extent of regional LNE in patients undergoing surgery is thoroughly considered. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS Cohort study with survival comparisons using the multivariable Cox proportional hazards model and after propensity score matching. Data from the National Cancer Database were analyzed from October 28, 2018, through April 18, 2019. Patients with …

Crosstalk Among Lncrnas, Micrornas And Mrnas In The Muscle ‘Degradome’ Of Rainbow Trout, Bam Paneru, Ali Ali, Rafet Al-Tobasei, Brett Kenney, Mohamed Salem

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

In fish, protein-coding and noncoding genes involved in muscle atrophy are not fully characterized. In this study, we characterized coding and noncoding genes involved in gonadogenesis-associated muscle atrophy, and investigated the potential functional interplay between these genes. Using RNA- Seq, we compared expression pattern of mRNAs, long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) and microRNAs of atrophying skeletal muscle from gravid females and control skeletal muscle from age-matched sterile individuals. A total of 852 mRNAs, 1,160 lncRNAs and 28 microRNAs were differentially expressed (DE) between the two groups. Muscle atrophy appears to be mediated by many genes encoding ubiquitin- proteasome system, autophagy related …

Low Sucrose, Omega-3 Enriched Diet Has Region-Specific Effects On Neuroinflammation And Synaptic Function Markers In A Mouse Model Of Doxorubicin-Based Chemotherapy, Tonya S. Orchard, Monica M. Gaudier-Diaz, Panchita Phuwamongkolwiwat-Chu, Rebecca Andridge, Maryam B. Lustberg, Joshua Bomser, Rachel M. Cole, Martha A. Belury, Courtney A. Devries

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Chemotherapeutic agents such as doxorubicin may negatively affect long-term brain functioning in cancer survivors; neuroinflammation may play a causal role. Dietary approaches that reduce inflammation, such as lowering sucrose and increasing eicosapentaenoic acid plus docosahexaenoic acid (EPA + DHA), may attenuate chemotherapy-induced neuroinflammation and synaptic damage, thereby improving quality of life. Ovariectomized, C57BL/6 mice were assigned to a chemotherapy (9 mg/kg doxorubicin + 90 mg/kg cyclophosphamide) or vehicle two-injection regimen, with injections two and four weeks after starting diets. In Study 1, mice received low sucrose diets with EPA + DHA or No EPA + DHA for four to six …

Waking Up Every Day In A Body That Is Not Yours: A Qualitative Research Inquiry Into The Intersection Between Eating Disorders And Pregnancy, Elizabeth A. Claydon, Danielle M. Davidov, Keith J. Zullig, Christa L. Lilly, Lesley Cattrell, Stephanie C. Zerwas

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Background: Women with eating disorders are more likely to negatively react to finding out they are pregnant, although this difference in attitudes between women with eating disorders and controls disappears at 18-weeks’ gestation. Those with anorexia also are twice as likely to have an unplanned pregnancy and those with bulimia have a 30-fold increased chance compared with healthy controls. Therefore, due to these considerations, pregnancy and the transition to motherhood can be an extremely challenging time for these women both psychologically and physically. The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to understand the intersection between eating disorders and pregnancy …

Rubella Immunity And Serum Perfluoroalkyl Substances: Sex And Analytic Strategy, Courtney S. Pilkerton, Gerald R. Hobbs, Christa Lilly, Sarah S. Knox

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Background

Perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) have been associated with decreased immunity to child- hood tetanus and diphtheria immunizations. If these vaccinations are vulnerable to influence from PFASs, questions arise about associations with other common inoculations.

Objective

To examine whether serum PFASs were associated with reduced immunity to rubella immu- nization, and whether interactions with sex or ethnicity warranted analytic stratification. Usually, toxicology analyses are calculated controlling for race and sex. However, sex differ- ences in immune function have been reported and a reduction of immunity to rubella in women could pose risks such miscarriage.

Methods

We analyzed a nationally representative sample …

Genome-Wide Association Analysis With A 50k Transcribed Gene Snp-Chip Identifies Qtl Affecting Muscle Yield In Rainbow Trout, Mohamed Salem, Rafet Al-Tobasei, Ali Ali, Daniela Lourenco, Guangtu Gao, Yniv Palti, Brett Kenney, Timothy D. Leeds

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Detection of coding/functional SNPs that change the biological function of a gene may lead to identification of putative causative alleles within QTL regions and discovery of genetic markers with large effects on phenotypes. This study has two-fold objectives, first to develop, and validate a 50K transcribed gene SNP-chip using RNA-Seq data. To achieve this objective, two bioinformatics pipelines, GATK and SAMtools, were used to identify ∼21K transcribed SNPs with allelic imbalances associated with important aquaculture production traits including body weight, muscle yield, muscle fat content, shear force, and whiteness in addition to resistance/susceptibility to bacterial cold-water disease (BCWD). SNPs ere …

Integrated Analysis Of Lncrna And Mrna Expression In Rainbow Trout Families Showing Variation In Muscle Growth And Fillet Quality Traits, Ali Ali, Rafet Al-Tobasei, Brett Kenney, Timothy D. Leeds, Mohamed Salem

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Muscle yield and quality traits are important for the aquaculture industry and consumers. Genetic selection for these traits is difficult because they are polygenic and result from multifactorial interactions. To study the genetic architecture of these traits, phenotypic characterization of whole body weight (WBW), muscle yield, fat content, shear force and whiteness were measured in ~500 fish representing 98 families from a growth-selected line. RNA-Seq was used to sequence the muscle transcriptome of different families exhibiting divergent phenotypes for each trait. We have identified 240 and 1,280 differentially expressed (DE) protein-coding genes and long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs), respectively, in fish …

Adverse Event Detection By Integrating Twitter Data And Vaers, Junxiang Wang, Liang Zhao, Yanfang Ye, Yuji Zhang

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Background: Vaccinehasbeenoneofthemostsuccessfulpublichealthinterventionstodate.However,vaccines are pharmaceutical products that carry risks so that many adverse events (AEs) are reported after receiving vaccines. Traditional adverse event reporting systems suffer from several crucial challenges including poor timeliness. This motivates increasing social media-based detection systems, which demonstrate successful capability to capture timely and prevalent disease information. Despite these advantages, social media-based AE detection suffers from serious challenges such as labor-intensive labeling and class imbalance of the training data.

Results: Totacklebothchallengesfromtraditionalreportingsystemsandsocialmedia,weexploittheircomplementary strength and develop a combinatorial classification approach by integrating Twitter data and the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) information aiming to identify potential AEs after …

Novel Caries Loci In Children And Adults Implicated By Genome-Wide Analysis Of Families, Manika Govil, Nandita Mukhopadhyay, Daniel E. Weeks, Eleanor Feingold, John R. Shaffer, Steven M. Levy, Alexandre R. Vieira, Rebecca L. Slayton, Daniel W. Mcneil, Robert J. Weyant, Richard J. Crout, Mary L. Marazita

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Background: Dental caries is a common chronic disease among children and adults alike, posing a substantial health burden. Caries is affected by multiple genetic and environmental factors, and prior studies have found that a substantial proportion of caries susceptibility is genetically inherited.

Methods: To identify such genetic factors, we conducted a genome-wide linkage scan in 464 extended families with 2616 individuals from Iowa, Pennsylvania and West Virginia for three dental caries phenotypes: (1) PRIM: dichotomized as zero versus one or more affected primary teeth, (2) QTOT1: age-adjusted quantitative caries measure for both primary and permanent dentitions including pre-cavitated lesions, and …

Method Overtness, Forensic Autopsy, And The Evidentiary Suicide Note: A Multilevel National Violent Death Reporting System Analysis, Ian R. H. Rockett, Eric D. Caine, Steven Stack, Hilary S. Connery, Kurt B. Nolte, Christa L. Lilly, Ted R. Miller, Lewis S. Nelson, Sandra L. Putnam, Paul S. Nestadt, Haomiao Jia

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Objective

Higher prevalence of suicide notes could signify more conservatism in accounting and greater proneness to undercounting of suicide by method. We tested two hypotheses: (1) an evidentiary suicide note is more likely to accompany suicides by drug-intoxication and by other poisoning, as less violent and less forensically overt methods, than suicides by firearm and hanging/suffocation; and (2) performance of a forensic autopsy attenuates any observed association between overtness of method and the reported presence of a note.

Methods

This multilevel (individual/county), multivariable analysis employed a generalized linear mixed model (GLMM). Representing the 17 states participating in the United States …

The Complementary Health Approaches For Pain Survey (Chaps): Validity Testing And Characteristics Of A Rural Population With Pain, Termeh Feinberg, Dina L. Jones, Christa Lilly, Amna Umer, Kim Innes

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Objectives

Little is known about patterns and correlates of Complementary Health Approaches (CHAs) in chronic pain populations, particularly in rural, underserved communities. This article details the development and implementation of a new survey instrument designed to address this gap, the Complementary Health Approaches for Pain Survey (CHAPS).

Design

Following pilot-testing using pre-specified criteria to assess quality and comprehension in our target population, and after feedback regarding face-validity from content experts and stakeholders, the final cross-sectional self-report survey required 10–12 minutes to com- plete. It contained 69 demographic, lifestyle and health-related factors, and utilized a Trans- theoretical Model (TTM) underpinning to …

Subclinical Atherosclerosis, Cardiovascular Health, And Disease Risk: Is There A Case For The Cardiovascular Health Index In The Primary Prevention Population?, Sarah S. Singh, Courtney S. Pilkerton, Carl D. Shrader Jr, Stephanie J. Frisbee

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Background: Current primary prevention guidelines for cardiovascular disease (CVD) prioritize risk identification, risk stratification using clinical and risk scores, and risk reduction with lifestyle interventions and pharmacotherapy. Subclinical atherosclerosis is an early indicator of atherosclerotic burden and its timely recognition can slow or prevent progression to CVD. Thus, individuals with subclinical atherosclerosis are a priority for primary prevention. This study takes a practical approach to answering a challenge commonly faced by primary care practitioners: in patients with no known CVD, how can individuals likely to have subclinical atherosclerosis be easily identified using existing clinical data and/or information provided by the …

Brief Report: Exercise And Blood Pressure In Older Adults—An Updated Look, George A. Kelley, Kristi S. Kelley

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Background/Objectives. Raised blood pressure is a major problem in older adults. Using a random-effects model, a recent meta- analysis reported statistically significant reductions in both resting systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) as a result of aerobic, resistance, and combined aerobic and resistance exercise in adults ≥65 years. To provide more objective information regarding this nonpharmacologic approach, this study applied more robust methods to this data. Design. Meta-analysis of 41 randomized controlled trials representing 96 groups (52 exercise; 44 control). Setting. Any location where a randomized controlled trial could be conducted. Participants. Adults ≥65 years. Intervention. Trials …

Brief Report: Exercise And Anxiety In Adults With Arthritis And Other Rheumatic Diseases: Support For Evidential Value, George A. Kelley, Kristi S. Kelley, Leigh F. Callahan

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Objective. Given the high prevalence of anxiety in adults with arthritis and other rheumatic diseases (AORD) and the subsequent need for interventions to reduce anxiety, this brief report sought to determine if evidential value exists to support the role of exercise for reducing anxiety in adults with AORD. Methods. Utilizing data from a prior meta-analysis, a recently developed approach, P- curve, was used to determine evidential value by assessing for publication bias and p-hacking. Binomial tests as well as the more robust Stouffer’s test were used to examine for evidential value. To examine the influence of selected studies on p-curve …

Effects Of Mantra Meditation Versus Music Listening On Knee Pain, Function, And Related Outcomes In Older Adults With Knee Osteoarthritis: An Exploratory Randomized Clinical Trial (Rct), Kim Innes, Terry Kit Selfe, Sahiti Kandati, Sijin Wen, Zenzi Huysmans

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Objective. Disease-modifying treatments for OA remain elusive, and commonly used medications can have serious side effects. Although meditation and music listening (ML) have been shown to improve outcomes in certain chronic pain populations, research in OA is sparse. In this pilot RCT, we explore the effects of two mind-body practices, mantra meditation (MM) and ML, on knee pain, function, and related outcomes in adults with knee OA. Methods. Twenty-two older ambulatory adults diagnosed with knee OA were randomized to a MM (N=11) or ML program (N=11) and asked to practice 15-20 minutes, twice daily for 8 weeks. Core outcomes included …

Discerning Suicide In Drug Intoxication Deaths: Paucity And Primacy Of Suicide Notes And Psychiatric History, Ian Rh Rockett, Eric D. Caine, Hilary S. Connery, Gail D'Onofrio, David J. Gunnell, Ted R. Miller, Kurt B. Nolte, Mark S. Kaplan, Nestor D. Kapusta, Christa L. Lilly, Lewis S. Nelson, Sandra L. Putnam, Steven Stack, Peeter Varnik, Lynne R. Webster, Haomiao Jia

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Objective

A paucity of corroborative psychological and psychiatric evidence may be inhibiting detec- tion of drug intoxication suicides in the United States. We evaluated the relative importance of suicide notes and psychiatric history in the classification of suicide by drug intoxication versus firearm (gunshot wound) plus hanging/suffocation—the other two major, but overtly violent methods.

Methods

This observational multilevel (individual/county), multivariable study employed a general- ized linear mixed model (GLMM) to analyze pooled suicides and undetermined intent deaths, as possible suicides, among the population aged 15 years and older in the 17 states participating in the National Violent Death Reporting System …

Perfluoroalkyl Substances And Kidney Function In Chronic Kidney Disease, Anemia, And Diabetes, Baqiyyah N. Conway, Ashley N. Badders, Tina Costacou, John M. Arthur, Kim E. Innes

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Background: Anemia often complicates chronic kidney disease (CKD), leading to insufficient tissue oxygenation and hypoxic injury, the factor thought to underlie progression from CKD to renal failure. Perfluorocarbons are potent oxygen transporters used in organ preservation and synthetic blood development. Data are scarce on their relationship with kidney function, especially in diabetes where anemia and hypoxia are more prevalent. We investigated the relationship of perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAS) with kidney function and variation by diabetes and anemia status.

Methods: Data on 53,650 adults (5,210 with diabetes) were obtained from the C8 Health Project. CKD was defined as an estimated glomerular filtration …