Statistical modeling using early markers of innate immunity to explain variation in humoral responses to influenza vaccine in older adults

Greater understanding of the factors associated with a protective response to influenza vaccine in older adults could have tremendous public health benefits. We studied 158 participants age 50–74 years vaccinated with 2010–2011 inactivated influenza vaccine and performed innate immunity and humoral immunity assays directed against influenza A/California/2009 (H1N1) as measured through hemagglutination inhibition (HAI), microneutralization, and B cell ELISPOT at days 0, 3, and 28 postvaccination. We report the results of statistical modeling using Day 3 cytokines, chemokines, and innate cell populations to model Day 0 to Day 28 HAI seroconversion, viral neutralization seroconversion, and B cell ELISPOT results.     

An Evaluation of Spin in Lower Extremity Joint Trials

Background

Spin is a specific type of reporting bias that misrepresents data and results within randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Because spin may provide a surgeon with an inaccurate representation of trial results, thus misconstruing the surgeons' interpretation thereof and possibly negatively affecting patient care, it is important that spin is identified within publications. The primary goal of our study was to determine the prevalence of spin found within the abstracts of lower extremity joint trials.

Expectation-maximization technique for fibro-glandular discs detection in mammography images

Breast cancer is among the leading causes of death in women worldwide. Mammography is the most effective imaging method for detecting no-palpable early-stage breast cancer. Understanding the nature of data in mammography images is very important for developing a model that fits well the data. Statistical distributions are widely used on the modelling of the data. Gamma distribution is more suitable than Gaussian distribution for modelling the data in mammography images. In this paper, we will use Gamma distribution to model the data in mammography images. The histogram of images can be seen as a mixture of Gamma distributions. Thresholds are selected at the valleys of a multi-modal histogram. The estimation of thresholds is based on the statistical parameters of the histogram. The expectation-maximization technique with gamma distribution (EMTG) is therefore developed to estimate the statistical histogram parameters. The experimental results on mammography images using this technique showed improvement in the accuracy in detection of the fibro-glandular discs.     

国内关于肺炎系统评价和Meta分析文献的质量评价

目的 回顾分析国内肺炎系统评价和Meta分析的一般情况和质量.方法 对CNKI、维普、万方、CBM数据库进行检索,搜集发表在国内中文期刊有关肺炎的系统评价和Meta分析文献,由2名调查员独立盲态提取文献的一般信息、Cochrane系统评价(CSR)格式和Meta分析报告质量(QUOROM)声明所要求条目信息后进行分析.结果 共纳入11篇文献,其中4篇为系统评价,7篇为Meta分析.共分析了326个研究,分布于国内30个行政区和国外7个国家,研究对象为17 971人.文献格式均未采用CSR格式或QUOROM声明.在CSR格式4大项40个条目中,分别有25、2、1、5、7个条目在4、3、2、1、0篇文献中有对应信息,整体条目信息出现比例为70.6%(113/160).在QUOROM声明6大项18个小项中,分别有10、2、2、2、1、1项在7、5、4、2、1、0篇文献中有对应信息,整体小项信息出现比例为73.8%(93/126);48个条目中,分别有10、2、1、3、5、7、6、14个条目在7、6、5、4、3、2、1、0篇文献中有对应信息,整体条目信息出现比例为39.9%(134/336).结论 国内肺炎系统评价和Meta分析研究起步晚,研究数量和对象较少,财政投入薄弱.文献质量尚可,但在选择标准、文献检索、真实性评价、评价方法、研究特征等方面还存在不足,应加强人员培训.     

Synoptic pathology reporting for thyroid cancer: a review and institutional experience

Thyroid cancer surgical pathology reports contain information that is critical for diagnosis, determining completeness of resection, staging and guiding postoperative management. Traditional narrative pathology reporting is prone to errors and omissions with variability in content and completeness. The objective of this review was to evaluate the impact of synoptic reporting on thyroid cancer pathology reporting. Our institutional study of pathology reporting of differentiated thyroid cancers at a Canadian tertiary care institution relative to the College of American Pathologists checklists is also presented and critically evaluates deficiencies in the narrative pathology reporting format.