Biostatistics Commons^™

High-Resolution Serum Proteomic Patterns For Ovarian Cancer Detection, Keith A. Baggerly, Sarah R. Edmonson, Jeffrey S. Morris, Kevin R. Coombes

Jeffrey S. Morris

No abstract provided.

Singular Value Decomposition Of Analogs Of Gbr 12909, Anna Fiorentino

Theses

Analogs of GBR 12909 are drugs that could potentially be used to treat cocaine addiction. Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) is a multivariate analysis technique used to show relationships between the data and the variables associated with the data. The input data consists of the conformers of each analog (DM324, 728 conformers; TP250, 739 conformers) along with the eight torsional angles (Al, A2, B1-B6). A novel scaling technique was developed to address the problem of data circularity by subtracting the values of the torsional angles of the global energy minimum conformation from those of each conformer.

In SVD the original data …

Slimsvm : A Simple Implementation Of Support Vector Machine For Analysis Of Microarray Data, Avik Karmaker

Theses

Support Vector Machine (SVM) is a supervised machine learning technique being widely used in multiple areas of biological analysis including microarray data analysis. SlimSVM has been developed with the intention of replacing OSU SVM as the classification component of GenoIterSVM in order to make it independent of other SVM packages. GenolterSVM, developed by Dr. Marc Ma, is a SVM implementation with an iterative refinement algorithm for improved accuracy of classification of genotype microarray data. SlimSVM is an object-oriented, modular, and easy-to-use implementation written in C++. It supports dot (linear) and polynomial (non-linear) kernels. The program has been tested with artificial …

Food Based Approaches For A Healthy Nutrition In Africa, Mamoudou Hama Dicko

Pr. Mamoudou H. DICKO, PhD

The latest estimates of the FAO demonstrate the problems of the fight against hunger. These problems are manifested by the ever-increasing number of chronically undernourished people worldwide. Their numbers during the 1999-2001 period were estimated at about 840 million of which 798 million live in developing countries. Sub-Saharan Africa alone represented 198 million of those. In this part of Africa the prevalence of undernourishment ranges from 5-34%, causing growth retardation and insufficient weight gain among one third of the children under five years of age and resulting in a mortality of 5-15% among these children. Malnutrition resulting from undernourishment is …

Analysis Of Molecular Conformations Using Relative Planes, Deepa S. Pai

Theses

Ring substructures of a drug usually participate actively in binding to the receptor. It is necessary to study the spatial relationship of these molecular recognition features in order to determine the pharmacophore of the drug. This is a particularly difficult problem when the drug is a flexible molecule with many energetically accessible conformations.

In this research an innovative approach to calculate the relative displacement and orientation of every possible pair of rings in a given molecule was designed, tested, and implemented in the "Planes" program. Planes were defined from each of the ring substructures and the displacement and rotation of …

Random Search Conformational Analysis Of Piperazine And Piperadine Analogs Of Gbr12909 : Implicit Aqueous Solvation Effects, William A. Roosma

Theses

The object of this work was to study the effect of solvent on the conformational potential energy surface (PES) of GBR12909 analogs. Local minima on the PES's were found by the Random Search algorithm using the Sybyl molecular modeling package from Tripos, Inc., and an implicit solvent model. Two force-field/charge models were employed in the analysis: the Tripos force field with Gasteiger-Huckel charges and the MMFF94 force field with MMFF94 charges.

The effect of solvent on the location of minima in multi-dimensional torsional angle space was studied by comparison to the vacuum phase results. Minima were plotted in torsional angle …

Analysis Of Auf1 Targeted Mrna Sequences, Jiebo Lu

Theses

AUF 1, an A+U rich element (ARE) binding protein, plays an important role in mRNA decay. To identify the mRNAs that interact with AUF 1, mRNA derived from a human cardiac cDNA expression library was purified by AUF 1 affinity chromatography and cloned following RT-PCR. 261 sequences were obtained. The sequences were searched against two protein databases and four nucleic acid databases, and the sequence information and database search results were input into a local Microsoft Access database, BLAST-AUF 1, by Java applets for parsing document. Analysis of protein information by querying BLAST-AUF 1 identified 194 function-known proteins, which were …

An Applied Statistical Reliability Analysis Of The Internal Bond Of Medium Density Fiberboard, David Joseph Edwards

Masters Theses

The forest products industry has seen tremendous growth in recent years and has a huge impact on the economies of many countries. For example, in the state of Maine in 1997, the forest products industry accounted for 9 billion U.S. dollars for that year. In the state of Tennessee, for example in 2000, this figure was 22 billion U.S. dollars for that year. It has, therefore, become more important in this industry to focus on production higher quality products. Statistical reliability methods, among other techniques, have been employed to help monitor and improve the quality of forest products. With such …

Prediction Of Radiation Pneumonitis By Dose-Volume Histogram Parameters In Lung Cancer--A Systematic Review, George Rodrigues, Michael Lock, David D'Souza, Edward Yu, Jake Van Dyk

Edward Yu

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: To perform a systematic review of the predictive ability of various dose-volume histogram (DVH) parameters (V(dose), mean lung dose (MLD), and normal tissue complication probability (NTCP)) in the incidence of radiation pneumonitis (RP) caused by external-beam radiation therapy. METHODS AND MATERIALS: Studies assessing the relationship between CT-based DVH reduction parameters and RP rate in radically treated lung cancer were eligible for the review. Synonyms for RP, lung cancer, DVH and its associated parameters (NTCP, V(20), V(30), MLD) were combined in a search strategy involving electronic databases, secondary reference searching, and consultation with experts. Individual or group data …

An Analysis Of The Periodicity Of The Cell Cycle And Apoptotic Regulatory Proteins In Prostate Xenografts Using Anova And Cosinor Methods, Aleen Hosdaghian

Theses

Circadian rhythms have been found in both plants and animals, in normal tissues as well as in most tumors and human cancers. By following these rhythms in healthy and cancerous tissue, it has been possible to find optimal times to deliver a dose of drug, such that efficacy is maximized and toxicity to normal tissues is minimized. In this study, the periodicity of several cell cycle and apoptotic regulatory proteins were studied in two prostate cancer models against a dietary therapeutic agent, Selenium. The ALVA-3 1 (androgen-independent) and PC-3 (androgen-independent) prostate cancer cell lines were grown in vivo, as a …

Status And Demographic Analysis Of The Dusky Shark, Carcharhinus Obscurus, In The Northwest Atlantic, Jason G. Romine

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

No abstract provided.

Maternal Age And Other Predictors Of Newborn Blood Pressure, Matthew Gillman, Janet W. Rich-Edwards, Sheryl L. Rifas-Shiman, Ellice S. Lieberman, Ken Kleinman, Steven Lipshultz

Public Health Department Faculty Publication Series

Objective

To investigate perinatal predictors of newborn blood pressure.

Study design

Among 1059 mothers and their newborn infants participating in Project Viva, a US cohort study of pregnant women and their offspring, we obtained five systolic blood pressure readings on a single occasion in the first few days of life. Using multivariate linear regression models, we examined the extent to which maternal age and other pre- and perinatal factors predicted newborn blood pressure level.

Results

Mean (SD) maternal age was 32.0 (5.2) years, and mean (SD) newborn systolic blood pressure was 72.6 (9.0) mm Hg. A multivariate model showed that …

Child Care Center Policies And Practices For Management Of Ill Children, Jennifer F. Friedman, Grace M. Lee, Ken P. Kleinman, Jonathan A. Finkelstein

Public Health Department Faculty Publication Series

OBJECTIVES:

The objectives of this study were to 1) describe child care staff knowledge and beliefs regarding upper respiratory tract infections and antibiotic indications and 2) evaluate child care staff reported reasons for a) exclusion from child care, b) referral to a health care provider, and c) recommending antibiotics for an ill child.

METHODS:

A longitudinal study based in randomly selected child care centers in Massachusetts. Staff completed a survey to assess knowledge regarding common infections. For six weeks, staff completed a record of absences each day, describing the reason for an absence, and advice given to the parents regarding …

Analyzing Time-To-Event Data In A Clinical Trial When An Unknown Proportion Of Subjects Has Experienced The Event At Entry, Raji Balasubramanian, Stephen W. Lagakos

Raji Balasubramanian

Ensuring The Comparability Of Comparison Groups: Is Randomization Enough?, Vance Berger, Sherri Rose

Sherri Rose

It is widely believed that baseline imbalances in randomized trials must necessarily be random. In fact, there is a type of selection bias that can cause substantial, systematic and reproducible baseline imbalances of prognostic covariates even in properly randomized trials. It is possible, given complete data, to quantify both the susceptibility of a given trial to this type of selection bias and the extent to which selection bias appears to have caused either observable or unobservable baseline imbalances. Yet, in articles reporting on randomized trials, it is uncommon to find either these assessments or the information that would enable a …