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Women often wear high-heeled shoes for professional or esthetic reasons. However, high-heeled shoes can cause discomfort and injury and can change the body’s center of gravity when maintaining balance. This study developed an assessment... more
Women often wear high-heeled shoes for professional or esthetic reasons. However, high-heeled shoes can cause discomfort and injury and can change the body’s center of gravity when maintaining balance. This study developed an assessment system for predicting the maximal safe range for heel height by recording the plantar pressure of participants’ feet by using force-sensing resistor (FSR) sensors and conducting analyses using regression models. Specifically, 100 young healthy women stood on an adjustable platform while physicians estimated the maximal safe height of high-heeled shoes. The collected FSR data combined with and without personal features were analyzed using regression models. The experimental results showed that the regression model based on the pressure data for the right foot had better predictive power than that based on data for the left foot, regardless of the module. The model with two heights had higher predictive power than that with a single height. Furthermore...
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Summary: Vascular access is the main access method for administering hemodialysis to patients. Hemodialysis quality is crucial for the health care quality of patients requiring such treatment. Complications related to hemodialysis access... more
Summary: Vascular access is the main access method for administering hemodialysis to patients. Hemodialysis quality is crucial for the health care quality of patients requiring such treatment. Complications related to hemodialysis access may reduce hemodialysis quality. Content Outline: Vascular access is the main access method for administering hemodialysis to patients. Hemodialysis quality is crucial for the health care quality of patients requiring such treatment. Complications related to hemodialysis access may reduce hemodialysis quality. With a view to maintaining patients’ health care quality, this study analyzed data from the Taiwan Society of Nephrology: Kidney Dialysis, Transplantation (TSN KiDiT) registration system and investigated the steps involved in continuous quality improvement to understand the relationship between hemodialysis access types and health care quality and shed light on the various types of access through which patients currently receive hemodialysis. ...
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Several purchase models are developed to understand customer dynamic purchasing behavior. The negative binomial distribution (NBD) contains two characteristics which are Poisson purchasing and gamma heterogeneity is shown as a robust... more
Several purchase models are developed to understand customer dynamic purchasing behavior. The negative binomial distribution (NBD) contains two characteristics which are Poisson purchasing and gamma heterogeneity is shown as a robust method in product purchase frequency. An approach is to develop individual-level estimation b y MCMC Bayesian NBD model. Since the smart phone launch to publish, many companies start to design app to approach their customers. The app can work successfully only when they meet customers' requirements. An e mpirical exam is to estimate effects that influence the app download frequency for different catalog. Four different types of app results are compared. The proposed model can capture app download frequency successfully.
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Background and purposeStudies have suggested that blood pressure (BP) levels after endovascular thrombectomy (EVT) are correlated with clinical outcomes. The aim of our study was to investigate the effect of BP in different time intervals... more
Background and purposeStudies have suggested that blood pressure (BP) levels after endovascular thrombectomy (EVT) are correlated with clinical outcomes. The aim of our study was to investigate the effect of BP in different time intervals within the first 24 hours after EVT on functional outcomes.MethodsData of patients who received EVT for acute ischemic stroke at two institutions were reviewed. After EVT, hourly BP data were collected and divided into four time intervals: 1–6 hours, 7–12 hours, 13–18 hours, and 19–24 hours. The mean, maximum, and standard deviation (SD) of BP were calculated and compared with the outcome of interest in patients with successful recanalization. The outcome of interest was functional independence, which was defined as a 3-month modified Rankin Scale score of ≤2.ResultsOf 224 patients with stroke who received EVT, 166 (74.1%) (mean age 70.2±13.1 years; 49.4% men) achieved successful recanalization and 82 (49.4%) exhibited functional independence. Afte...
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Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to establish a social-network sp.orts lottery system to support users in predicting and simulating sports lottery betting. The community data were generated to support user decision and featured... more
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to establish a social-network sp.orts lottery system to support users in predicting and simulating sports lottery betting. The community data were generated to support user decision and featured instant game records and odds data synchronisation. Furthermore, the next development cycle were evaluated through a questionnaire. Design/methodology/approach – An extended prototype website development methodology was applied to develop the system. An online sample was collected to evaluate the function, interface, operation, and prediction designs. The χ2 test and variance analysis were used to determine the association between facets and basic demographics. Finally, the regression model was used to identify the potentially essential predictors that influence the measurement facets. Findings – The high frequency of Facebook users, sports lottery purchases, and sports game viewers prefer the ability to predict the results of future sports games as adv...
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Research Interests: Cardiology, Public Health, Medicine, Humans, Taiwan, and 15 moreFemale, Male, Patients, Clinical Sciences, Aged, Middle Aged, Proportional hazards model, Cardiovascular Diseases, Coronary artery bypass surgery, Confidence Interval, Thoracic and cardiovascular surgery, Cardiovascular Events, Cardiovascular medicine and haematology, Coronary Artery Bypass, and hazard ratio
Research Interests: Engineering, Chemistry, Food Science, Biology, Diet, and 15 moreAntioxidants, Humans, Functional Food, Animals, Antioxidant, Lactobacillus, Fruit, Lactobacillus Casei, Fermentation, Beverages, DPPH, Gonadotropin Releasing Hormone, Pepino, Angiotensin Converting Enzyme Inhibitors, and Glutamate decarboxylase
Research Interests: Chemical Engineering, Chemistry, Food Science, Antioxidants, Functional Food, and 15 moreAnimals, Antioxidant, Lactobacillus, Camote Ipomoea Batatas, Anthocyanins, Fermentation, Antioxidant Activity, Amino Acids, DPPH, Food Sciences, Carboxylic Acids, Cell Proliferation, Lactic Acid, Anthocyanin, and ipomoea batatas
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Background The long-term prognostic influence of left atrial diameter (LAD) remodeling on the status of post-radiofrequency catheter ablation (RFCA) atrial fibrillation (AF) is unclear. This study employed a two-stage model from 3-year... more
Background The long-term prognostic influence of left atrial diameter (LAD) remodeling on the status of post-radiofrequency catheter ablation (RFCA) atrial fibrillation (AF) is unclear. This study employed a two-stage model from 3-year echocardiographic data to ascertain whether the two-stage model predicts RFCA outcome more favorably than models using the baseline LAD. Methods Data were retrospectively collected from 263 consecutive patients with drug-refractory AF undergoing RFCA. Regular echocardiographic measurements of LAD were performed at baseline, 1, 3, 6, and 12 months and then every 6 months after RFCA. Sex, age, type of AF, number of RFCA, and AF status were recorded. We obtain the actual (predicted) 3-year LAD using a longitudinal linear mixed model (1st stage). Logistic regression models based on the baseline LAD (Model 1), actual (predicted) 3-year LAD (Model 2) (2nd stage), and observed 3-year LAD (Model 3) were constructed to predict RFCA outcome. The area under the ...
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Background Timely endovascular thrombectomy (EVT) significantly improves outcomes in patients with acute ischemic stroke (AIS) with large vessel occlusion type. However, whether certain central nervous system-specific plasma biomarkers... more
Background Timely endovascular thrombectomy (EVT) significantly improves outcomes in patients with acute ischemic stroke (AIS) with large vessel occlusion type. However, whether certain central nervous system-specific plasma biomarkers correlate with the outcomes is unknown. We evaluated the temporal changes and prognostic roles of the levels of these biomarkers in patients with AIS undergoing EVT. Methods We enrolled 60 patients who received EVT for AIS and 14 controls. The levels of plasma biomarkers, namely neurofilament light chain (NfL), glial fibrillary astrocytic protein (GFAP), tau, and ubiquitin C-terminal hydrolase L1 (UCHL1), were measured with an ultrasensitive single molecule array before, immediately after, and 24 h after EVT (T1, T2, and T3, respectively). The outcomes of interest were death or disability at 90 days (defined as a modified Rankin Scale score of 3–6) and types of hemorrhagic transformation (hemorrhagic infarction or parenchymal hemorrhage). Results Of t...
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To identify nurses' attitudes and beliefs toward cancer clinical trials and their perceptions about factors influencing patients' participation in these trials. Descriptive. National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive... more
To identify nurses' attitudes and beliefs toward cancer clinical trials and their perceptions about factors influencing patients' participation in these trials. Descriptive. National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center. 417 nurses employed at the cancer center were surveyed; 250 (60%) subjects responded. 59-item questionnaire. Nurses' attitudes toward clinical trials and perceptions of patient understanding of and influences on participation in clinical trials. 96% of nurses reported that participation in clinical trials is important to improving standards of care; only 56% believed that patients should be encouraged to participate in trials if they had cancer. In multiple regression analyses, older age and being a research nurse were significant predictors of positive attitudes toward clinical trials. Work setting also was a significant predictor of nurses' perceptions of patients' understanding of treatment. Overall, nurses reported that an ...
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Purpose: To use 5 years of primary data to compare the incremental cost-effectiveness of breast conservation and radiation versus mastectomy with the restriction of choice to a single therapy versus providing a choice of either therapy.... more
Purpose: To use 5 years of primary data to compare the incremental cost-effectiveness of breast conservation and radiation versus mastectomy with the restriction of choice to a single therapy versus providing a choice of either therapy. Patients and Methods: We evaluated a random retrospective cohort of 2,517 Medicare beneficiaries treated for newly diagnosed stage I or II breast cancer from 1992 through 1994. The outcome measures were quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) and 5-year medical costs. Risk and propensity score adjustments were used in the analysis. Results: A breast conservation and radiation regimen has significantly higher costs than mastectomy in the first year after surgery; the adjusted 5-year costs are $14,054 (95% confidence interval, $9,791 to $18,312) greater than those of mastectomy. The adjusted incremental cost-effectiveness ratio comparing breast conservation and radiation to mastectomy was $219,594 per QALY for the comparison of the two strategies. If the p...
Research Interests: Breast Cancer, Medicine, Multivariate Analysis, Humans, Female, and 15 moreClinical, Clinical oncology, Cohort, Medicare, Mastectomy, Aged, Middle Aged, Quality adjusted life years, Adult, Cost Benefit Analysis, Neoplasms, Economic evaluation, Patient Participation, Health Care Costs, and Confidence Interval
Purpose: There are few data on sequelae of breast cancer treatments in older women. We evaluated posttreatment quality of life and satisfaction in a national population. Patients and Methods: Telephone surveys were conducted with a random... more
Purpose: There are few data on sequelae of breast cancer treatments in older women. We evaluated posttreatment quality of life and satisfaction in a national population. Patients and Methods: Telephone surveys were conducted with a random cross-sectional sample of 1,812 Medicare beneficiaries 67 years of age and older who were 3, 4, and 5 years posttreatment for stage I and II breast cancer. Regression models were used to estimate the adjusted risk of decrements in physical and mental health functioning by treatment. In a subset of women (n = 732), additional data were used to examine arm problems, impact of cancer, and satisfaction, controlling for baseline health, perceptions of ageism and racism, demographic and clinical factors, region, and surgery year. Results: Use of axillary dissection was the only surgical treatment that affected outcomes, increasing the risk of arm problems four-fold (95% confidence interval, 1.56 to 10.51), controlling for other factors. Having arm proble...
Research Interests: Perception, Breast Cancer, Medicine, Population, Humans, and 15 moreFemale, Clinical, Clinical oncology, Patient Satisfaction, Medicare, Aged, Prognosis, Cross Sectional Studies, Predictive value of tests, Axilla, Cohort Studies, Breast Neoplasms, Neoplasm staging, Quality of health care, and Interviews as topic
Research Interests: Economics, Health Economics, Breast Cancer, Health, Medicine, and 15 moreHumans, Female, Health information, Cost effectiveness, Instrumental Variable, Medicare, Mastectomy, Aged, Elderly Women, Experimental Data, Breast Conserving Surgery, Health Outcome, Combined Modality Therapy, Breast Neoplasms, and Medical and Health Sciences
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Research Interests: Emergency Medicine, Medicine, Critical Care, Humans, Female, and 15 morePneumonia, Male, Physicians, American, Patient Admission, Intensive Care Unit, Aged, Intensive Care Medicine, Intensive Care Units, Hospital Mortality, Outcome Assessment, Generalized estimating equation, National Health Insurance, Medical and Health Sciences, and Random effects
Research Interests: Economics, Breast Cancer, Health Services Research, Medicine, Humans, and 12 moreHealth Services, United States, Female, Mastectomy, Aged, Older Women, Public health systems and services research, Logistic Models, Breast Conserving Surgery, Econometric models - Eviews SPSS, Medicare Part B, and Breast Neoplasms
Owing to aging, how to sufficiently use the limited resources becomes controversial. Knowing how to estimate medical cost accurately and efficiently becomes an important issue. However, it is common to have dropouts when analyzing medical... more
Owing to aging, how to sufficiently use the limited resources becomes controversial. Knowing how to estimate medical cost accurately and efficiently becomes an important issue. However, it is common to have dropouts when analyzing medical cost. The naive estimators ignoring the unobservable data may be biased. Lin et al. (1997) suggested partitioning the study duration and estimating the cost of each interval and then constructing the estimate by summing up the cost from each interval. Furthermore, to take into account of the unobservable data, Lin et al. (1997) and Band and Tsiatis (2000) proposed weighted estimators that used the survival probability and uncensored probability as the weight, respectively. Furthermore, the medical cost may be related to many covariates. Baser et al. (2006) suggested using the general linear model for the longitudinal data to model the partitioned cost, where a random intercept is included. This paper extends the model to a more general parametric m...
1.Introduction Large national sample surveys often use sample designs to cover the complexity of study objectives. Sample weights based on the features of the sample design are often incorporated into calculations to generate population... more
1.Introduction Large national sample surveys often use sample designs to cover the complexity of study objectives. Sample weights based on the features of the sample design are often incorporated into calculations to generate population estimates. The most common components of the sample weight are the base weight that reflects the different probabilities of selection and nonresponse adjustments. In general, the higher the probability of sample selection, the more likely a givenperson will be selected. Further, the greater the difference among subgroups in response rates and the analytic characteristics of interest, the greater the need to adjust survey weights for nonrespsonse. These weightadjustments are designed to reduce the bias in the survey estimates (Cohen 1998). M edicare Health Outcomes Survey (HOS) is a new quality measure for M edicare + Choice Plans, which is designed to measure two year change in physical and mental function among plan enrollees. The purpose of this st...
An Edgeworth expansion for the distribution function of the product-limit estimator of survival time under the left-truncation and right-censoring model is derived. This expansion gives more accurate approximations than the usual normal... more
An Edgeworth expansion for the distribution function of the product-limit estimator of survival time under the left-truncation and right-censoring model is derived. This expansion gives more accurate approximations than the usual normal approximation from weak convergence. In addition, by constructing the bootstrap sample from left-truncation and right-censored data, the Edgeworth expansion for the bootstrap statistic is given, allowing a bootstrap base confidence interval with better coverage probability.
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To investigate whether adding an anticholinergic or beta‐3 agonist can improve the therapeutic effect of intravesical onabotuliumtoxinA injection in patients with refractory overactive bladder (OAB).
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Aims: Curved M-mode images of global strain (GS) and strain rate (GSR) provide sufficiently detailed spatiotemporal information of deformation mechanics. This study investigated whether a deep convolutional neural network (CNN) could... more
Aims: Curved M-mode images of global strain (GS) and strain rate (GSR) provide sufficiently detailed spatiotemporal information of deformation mechanics. This study investigated whether a deep convolutional neural network (CNN) could accurately classify these images in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) who underwent radiofrequency catheter ablation (RFCA) with different outcomes.Methods and Results: We retrospectively evaluated 606 consecutive patients who underwent RFCA for drug-refractory AF. Patients were divided into AF-free (n = 443) and AF-recurrent (n = 163) groups. Transthoracic echocardiography was performed within 24 h after RFCA. Left atrial curved M-mode speckle-tracking images were acquired from randomly selected 163 patients in AF-free group and 163 patients in AF-recurrent group as the dataset for deep CNN modeling. We used the ReLu activation function and repeatedly performed CNN model for 32 times to evaluate the stability of hyperparameters. Logistic regressio...
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Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have been widely used in consumer products. In vitro and animal studies have demonstrated that exposure to perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and/or perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) increases... more
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have been widely used in consumer products. In vitro and animal studies have demonstrated that exposure to perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and/or perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) increases oxidative/nitrative stress. Recent studies have also found that isomers of PFOA/PFOS may have unique biological effects on clinical parameters. However, the correlation between PFOA/PFOS isomers and markers of oxidative/nitrative stress has never been investigated in the general population. In the current study, 597 adult subjects (ages between 22 and 63 years old) were enrolled from a control group of a case-control study entitled "Work-related risk factors and coronary heart disease". We investigated the correlation between the serum isomers of PFOA/PFOS, lipid profiles, and the urine compounds 8-hydroxy-2-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG) and 8-nitroguanine (8-NO2Gua) in these participants. There were 519 men and 78 women with a mean age of 45.8 years. Linear PFOA levels were positively correlated with serum low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), small dense LDL, and triglyceride, and linear PFOS levels were positively correlated with LDL-C and HDL-C in multiple linear regression analyses. After controlling for potential confounders, the mean levels of 8-OHdG and 8-NO2Gua significantly increased across the quartiles of linear PFOS in multiple linear regression analyses. When both the 8-OHdG and 8-NO2Gua levels were above the 50th percentile, the odds ratio (OR) of higher levels of LDL-C (>75th percentile) with one unit increase in ln linear PFOS level was the highest (OR 3.15 (95% CI = 1.45-6.64), P = 0.003) in logistic regression models. In conclusion, serum linear PFOA/PFOS were correlated with lipid profiles, and linear PFOS was associated with urine oxidative/nitrative stress biomarkers. The positive correlation between linear PFOS and LDL-C was more marked when concentrations of urine oxidative/nitrative stress biomarkers were elevated. Further studies are needed to elucidate the causal relationships among PFAS isomers, lipid profiles, and oxidative/nitrative stress.
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The medical costs in an ageing society substantially increase when the incidences of chronic diseases, disabilities and inability to live independently are high. Healthy lifestyles not only affect elderly individuals but also influence... more
The medical costs in an ageing society substantially increase when the incidences of chronic diseases, disabilities and inability to live independently are high. Healthy lifestyles not only affect elderly individuals but also influence the entire community. When assessing treatment efficacy, survival and quality of life should be considered simultaneously. This paper proposes the joint likelihood approach for modelling survival and longitudinal binary covariates simultaneously. Because some unobservable information is present in the model, the Monte Carlo EM algorithm and Metropolis-Hastings algorithm are used to find the estimators. Monte Carlo simulations are performed to evaluate the performance of the proposed model based on the accuracy and precision of the estimates. Real data are used to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed model.
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Hand function assessment is crucial for patients with stroke, who must perform regular repetitive tasks during rehabilitation. However, the conventional evaluation method is subjective and not uniform among physicians. A novel method is... more
Hand function assessment is crucial for patients with stroke, who must perform regular repetitive tasks during rehabilitation. However, the conventional evaluation method is subjective and not uniform among physicians. A novel method is proposed in this paper to analyze raw data from a data glove equipped with 16 six-axis inertial measurement units. The proposed method can provide accurate assistance to physicians and objectively assess patients’ hand function. Three tasks (the thumb task, the grip task, and the card-turning task) were conducted to evaluate participants’ hand function. Representative parameters of hand function in each task and overall evaluation were extracted through principal component analysis and used to develop logistic regression models. The results revealed that all three tasks can be used to perfectly predict healthy subjects and subjects with stroke, with the thumb task exhibiting the highest predictive accuracy for the severity of hand dysfunction. Overall, the proposed method can serve as an efficient method for physicians to assess the hand function of patients with stroke.
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PurposeThe purpose of this study is to review the levels of open government data (OGD) among various countries that are not consistent with the development levels of those countries. This study evaluates the associativity between OGD... more
PurposeThe purpose of this study is to review the levels of open government data (OGD) among various countries that are not consistent with the development levels of those countries. This study evaluates the associativity between OGD Index (OGD) and the characteristics of those countries as well as to compare the degree of OGD among countries. Accordingly, an advanced discussion to explore how a country’s characteristics affect how that country’s government opens data was presented.Design/methodology/approachThe stakeholder relationships of OGD is analysed with the characteristics of a country. The usage data are compared with the data availability according to nine indicators. These data collected from the statistics and OGDI websites are grouped for comparative statistical analyses based on basic descriptive statistics, one-way analysis of variance and a regression model with variance inflation faction.FindingsThe results 1) revealed the reasons some countries have high-ranking in...
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Energy expenditure (EE) monitoring is crucial to tracking physical activity (PA). Accurate EE monitoring may help people engage in adequate activity and therefore avoid obesity and reduce the risk of chronic diseases. This study proposes... more
Energy expenditure (EE) monitoring is crucial to tracking physical activity (PA). Accurate EE monitoring may help people engage in adequate activity and therefore avoid obesity and reduce the risk of chronic diseases. This study proposes a depth-camera-based system for EE estimation of PA in gyms. Most previous studies have used inertial measurement units for EE estimation. By contrast, the proposed system can be used to conveniently monitor subjects’ treadmill workouts in gyms without requiring them to wear any devices. A total of 21 subjects were recruited for the experiment. Subjects’ skeletal data acquired using the depth camera and oxygen consumption data simultaneously obtained using the K4b2 device were used to establish an EE predictive model. To obtain a robust EE estimation model, depth cameras were placed in the side view, rear side view, and rear view. A comparison of five different predictive models and these three camera locations showed that the multilayer perceptron model was the best predictive model and that placing the camera in the rear view provided the best EE estimation performance. The measured and predicted metabolic equivalents of task exhibited a strong positive correlation, with r = 0.94 and coefficient of determination r2 = 0.89. Furthermore, the mean absolute error was 0.61 MET, mean squared error was 0.67 MET, and root mean squared error was 0.76 MET. These results indicate that the proposed system is handy and reliable for monitoring user's EE when performing treadmill workouts.
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In the family of alkylphenolic compounds, 4-tertiary-Octylphenol (4-t-OP) is extensively used in many products. In animal and in vitro studies, 4-t-OP exposure has been linked to cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors; however, there... more
In the family of alkylphenolic compounds, 4-tertiary-Octylphenol (4-t-OP) is extensively used in many products. In animal and in vitro studies, 4-t-OP exposure has been linked to cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors; however, there are no previous human epidemiological studies. In this study, 886 subjects were recruited from a cohort of Taiwanese adolescents and young adults to study the relationship between serum levels of 4-t-OP, CVD risk factors, and common carotid artery intima-media thickness (CIMT). The geometric mean (SD) 4-t-OP concentration was 32.52 (1.71) ng/mL. We found that serum levels of 4-t-OP were negatively associated with markers of glucose homeostasis (insulin, homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) and homeostasis model assessment of β-cell function (HOMA-β)), z score of body mass index (BMI z score) and CIMT but were positively associated with lipid profiles (high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), Apolipoprotein A1). A one-unit elevation in natural log-transformed 4-t-OP (ng/mL) was negatively correlated with CIMT (mm) (β = -0.029, SE = 0.003, P < 0.001) in multiple linear regression analyses. The relationship between 4-t-OP and CIMT remained the same in all subgroups or if bisphenol A (BPA) was considered a covariate. In this study, we observed that higher levels of 4-t-OP levels were negatively correlated with markers of glucose homeostasis, BMI z score, and CIMT; positively correlated with lipid profiles (HDL-C and apolipoprotein A) in this cohort. Future research on exposure to 4-t-OP and CVD risk factors is warranted.
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This study investigated the association between patient characteristics and the occurrence of pressure injuries for patients at the end of life. A retrospective study was conducted using data collected from 2062 patients at the end of... more
This study investigated the association between patient characteristics and the occurrence of pressure injuries for patients at the end of life. A retrospective study was conducted using data collected from 2062 patients at the end of life between January 2007 and October 2015. In addition to demographic data and pressure injury risk assessment scale scores, injury history, disease type, and length of hospitalization were revealed as the major independent variables for predicting the occurrence of pressure injuries. Both &khgr;2 tests and t tests were employed for binary variable analysis, and logistic regression was used to conduct multivariate analysis. Classification models were formulated through decision tree analysis, backpropagation neural network, and support vector machine algorithms. The rules obtained using the decision tree algorithm were analyzed and interpreted. The accuracy rate, sensitivity, and specificity of the decision tree, backpropagation neural network, and support vector machine algorithms were 77.15%, 79.54%, and 74.76%; 78.12%, 81.37%, and 74.85%; and 79.32%, 81.03%, and 78.75%, respectively. The predictive factors, ranked in order of importance, were history of pressure injuries, without cancer, excretion, activity/mobility, and skin condition/circulation. These were the primary shared risk factors among the four models used in this study.
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Compared with left atrial (LA) dimension, LA emptying fraction (LAEF) has received less emphasis as a predictor of atrial fibrillation (AF) recurrence after radiofrequency catheter ablation (RFCA). In addition, patients experiencing... more
Compared with left atrial (LA) dimension, LA emptying fraction (LAEF) has received less emphasis as a predictor of atrial fibrillation (AF) recurrence after radiofrequency catheter ablation (RFCA). In addition, patients experiencing post-RFCA AF recurrence may respond to previously ineffective antiarrhythmic drugs (AADs). Classifying these patients into a third RFCA outcome category is recommended. To identify predictors of RFCA outcome classified into three categories, and to build proportional odds logistic regression models for clinical applicability to predict AF recurrence. Data were retrospectively collected from 483 consecutive patients with drug-refractory AF undergoing RFCA (328 men; age 58.4 ± 11.5 years; 383 paroxysmal). Patients were classified into 3 groups based on the last RFCA outcome: group 1, free from AF without AADs; group 2, free from AF with AADs; and group 3, recurrence of AADs-refractory atrial tachyarrhythmia. After a mean follow-up duration of 64.5 ± 43.2 m...
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This project was undertaken to examine the association between dietary intake of soy or cruciferous vegetables and breast cancer treatment-related symptoms among Chinese-American (CA) and Non-Hispanic White (NHW) breast cancer survivors.... more
This project was undertaken to examine the association between dietary intake of soy or cruciferous vegetables and breast cancer treatment-related symptoms among Chinese-American (CA) and Non-Hispanic White (NHW) breast cancer survivors. This cross-sectional study included 192 CA and 173 NHW female breast cancer survivors (stages 0-III, diagnosed between 2006 and 2012) recruited from two California cancer registries, who had completed primary treatment. Patient-reported data on treatment-related symptoms and potential covariates were collected via telephone interviews. Dietary data were ascertained by mailed questionnaires. The outcomes evaluated were menopausal symptoms (hot flashes, night sweats, vaginal dryness, vaginal discharge), joint problems, fatigue, hair thinning/loss, and memory problems. Associations between soy and cruciferous vegetables and symptoms were assessed using logistic regression. Analyses were further stratified by race/ethnicity and endocrine therapy usage (...
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In the original publication, the values provided for the isoflavone and glucosinolate intake variables were incorrectly labeled in Table 1. The correct values of 6.3 mg/day for isoflavone intake, and 20.4 mg/day and 50.1 mg/day for... more
In the original publication, the values provided for the isoflavone and glucosinolate intake variables were incorrectly labeled in Table 1. The correct values of 6.3 mg/day for isoflavone intake, and 20.4 mg/day and 50.1 mg/day for glucosinolate intake are provided in this erratum.
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Lung cancer is a heterogeneous disease with varied outcomes. Molecular markers are eagerly investigated to predict a patient's treatment response or outcome. Previous studies used frozen biopsy tissues to identify crucial genes as... more
Lung cancer is a heterogeneous disease with varied outcomes. Molecular markers are eagerly investigated to predict a patient's treatment response or outcome. Previous studies used frozen biopsy tissues to identify crucial genes as prognostic markers. We explored the prognostic value of peripheral blood (PB) molecular signatures in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) fractions from patients with advanced NSCLC were applied for RNA extraction, cDNA synthesis, and real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for the expression profiling of eight genes: DUSP6, MMD, CPEB4, RNF4, STAT2, NF1, IRF4, and ZNF264. Proportional hazard (PH) models were constructed to evaluate the association of the eight expressing genes and multiple clinical factors [e.g., sex, smoking status, and Charlson comorbidity index (CCI)] with overall survival. One hundred and forty-one patients with advanced NSCLC were enrolled. They included 109 (77.30%...
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An Edgeworth expansion for the distribution function of the product-limit estimator of survival time under the left-truncation and right-censoring model is derived. This expansion gives more accurate approximations than the usual normal... more
An Edgeworth expansion for the distribution function of the product-limit estimator of survival time under the left-truncation and right-censoring model is derived. This expansion gives more accurate approximations than the usual normal approximation from weak convergence. In addition, by constructing the bootstrap sample from left-truncation and right-censored data, the Edgeworth expansion for the bootstrap statistic is given, allowing a bootstrap
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ABSTRACT The real-time polymerase chain reaction (rtPCR) provides sensitive and accurate quantitative results and becomes a widespread technique in analyzing gene expressions. House-keeping genes are required as references to normalize... more
ABSTRACT The real-time polymerase chain reaction (rtPCR) provides sensitive and accurate quantitative results and becomes a widespread technique in analyzing gene expressions. House-keeping genes are required as references to normalize data of target genes, which may be unstable. This normalization process is similar to the normalization in analyzing high-density oligonucleotide arrays. This article evaluates the feasibility of normalizations for high-density oligonucleotide arrays to normalize data collected in rtPCR experiments. Since data features are different, simulations are used to evaluate the performance of these normalizations to rtPCR data based on five indices. Their feasibilities are illustrated by a rtPCR data.
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Rationale: Although several studies have investigated volume-outcome,relationships for surgical procedures, there has been no such study of ICU patients admitted for pneumonia. Objective: This study examines associations between... more
Rationale: Although several studies have investigated volume-outcome,relationships for surgical procedures, there has been no such study of ICU patients admitted for pneumonia. Objective: This study examines associations between in-hospital mortality of ICU-admitted pneumonia,patients and their attending physician’ s case volume. Methods: We used 2002~2004claims data from Taiwan’s National Health Insurance, for all 87,479 adult ICU admissions for pneumonia. Patients
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Stroke patients with orthostatic hypertensive responses that are one of the blood pressure regulation problems can easily fall down while doing rehabilitation, which may result in prolonged hospitalization and delayed treatment and... more
Stroke patients with orthostatic hypertensive responses that are one of the blood pressure regulation problems can easily fall down while doing rehabilitation, which may result in prolonged hospitalization and delayed treatment and recovery. This may result in increasing the medical cost and burden. In turn, developing a diagnostic test for the orthostatic hypertension (OH) is clinically important for patients who are suffering from stroke. Clinically, a patient needs to have a tilt testing that requires measuring the change of blood pressures and heart rate at all angles to determine whether a stroke patient has OH. It takes lots of time and effort to perform the test. Assuming there exist measurement errors when obtaining the blood pressures and heart rate at all angles, this paper proposes using multiple mixed-effect models to obtain the true trajectories of these measurements, which take into account the measurement error and the possible correlation among multiple measurements, and a logistic regression uses these true trajectories at a given time and other fixed-effect covariates as predictors to predict the status of OH. The joint likelihood function is derived to estimate parameters and the area under the receiver operating characteristics curve is used to estimate the predictive power of the model. Monte Carlo simulations are performed to evaluate the feasibility of the proposed methods. Also, the proposed model is implemented in the real data and provides an acceptable predictive power.