Somatisation in primary care: A comparative study of Australians, Latin Americans, Vietnamese, and Polish living in Australia

This study identified differences in somatisation symptoms, psychiatric status, and the relationship between acculturation and somatisation. It also investigated GP’s (general practitioners) ability to detect somatisation in primary healthcare setting. A survey was carried out on 207 patients from Australia, Latin America, Vietnam, and Poland. A demographic questionnaire, an acculturation questionnaire, the Somatization Scale of the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised (SCL-90-R), the Self-Reporting Questionnaire (SRQ), and the Illness Behaviour Questionnaire (IBQ) were administered in the participants’ respective languages. In addition, GPs completed a brief rating scale with findings from medical consultation. These results demonstrated that psychosocial status was highly correlated to somatisation for Australians, Latin Americans, Vietnamese, and Polish. Overall, however, these groups did not present significant differences in symptoms of somatisation. GPs were generally inaccurate in detecting psychosocial difficulties and acculturation did not predict levels of somatisation in the three ethnic groups

Unweighted Unifrac is a theoretically better measure for dietary and cardiometabolic data

The objective of this report was to compare unweighted and weighted Unifrac statistical methods and decide which method is best for analyzing dietary and cardiometabolic data. The Freshmen Health Study (n=77), a study on exclusively Hispanic college students collected anthropometric, dietary, cardiometabolic, and microbiome data. Weighted and unweighted Unifrac were used to analyze differences in the microbiome between groups of dietary and cardiometabolic variables. The results showed that unweighted Unifrac was the only significant measure and is statistically better for analyzing this type of data because of the sampling method of selecting only unique sequences to each community and analyzing their similarities. This is important for detecting subtle changes in different groups because diets are composed of different compositions that can influence the gut microbiome in small amounts.Statistic

FreeSurfer vs. Manual Tracing: Distinguishing Stable from Cognitively Declining Elders Using Prospectively Measured Hippocampal Volume

Objective: Alzheimer’s disease (AD) pathology is thought to begin years before symptom onset. Hippocampal volume is sensitive to age-related cognitive decline and conversion from MCI to AD. Measurement of hippocampal volumes has used either automated methods such as FreeSurfer (FS) or manual tracing (MT). We compared the ability of FS and MT in detecting baseline volume differences in cognitively intact older individuals who subsequently showed significant cognitive decline. Participants and Methods: Seventy-five cognitively intact elders underwent baseline and 18-month follow-up structural MRI scan and neuropsychological testing. Participants were classified as Declining (n=27) or Stable (n=48) based on the baseline to 18-month changes on a listlearning task and a measure of general cognitive functioning. A 2 (left, right) x 2 (anterior, posterior) x 2 (Declining, Stable) repeated measures ANOVA was conducted for both the MT and FS hippocampal volumes derived at baseline. Results: MT identified significantly smaller left and right hippocampal volumes and smaller anterior than posterior hippocampal volumes in Declining compared to Stable subjects. In contrast, no group differences in hippocampal volumes were observed using FS. Notably, MT included more subiculum and entorhinal cortex, while FS included more of the amygdala and the CA region of the hippocampus. Conclusions: MT was superior to FS for detecting prospective volumetric differences associated with cognitive decline in cognitively intact older participants. MT afforded more unique coverage of the anterior hippocampus than FS. The differences in regional coverage of the mesial temporal lobe between MT and FS may account for the different findings in discriminating Stable and Declining groups

Sleep clinical record. what differences in school and preschool children?

The sleep clinical record (SCR) may be a valid method for detecting children with obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA). This study aimed to evaluate whether there were differences in SCR depending on age and to identify the possible risk factors for OSA development. We enrolled children with sleep disordered breathing between 2013 and 2015, and divided them according to age into preschool- and school-age groups. All patients underwent SCR and polysomnography. OSA was detected in 81.1% and 83.6% of preschool- and school-age groups, respectively. Obesity, malocclusions, nasal septal deviation and inferior turbinate hypertrophy were significantly more prevalent in school-age children (p6.5 had a sensitivity of 74% in predicting OSA in preschool children with positive predictive value of 86% (p=0.0001). Our study confirms the validity of the SCR as a screening tool for patient candidates for a PSG study for suspected OSA, in both school and preschool children

Statistical methods for detecting genes associated with sperm competition in natural populations of Drosophila, using blocks of tightly linked single nucleotide polymorphisms : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Statistics at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand

The purpose of the project is to develop statistical methods for detecting genes associated with sperm competition in natural populations of Drosophila (fruit flies). The flies' genotype information given by Fiumera et al. (2004) is used as the starting point of the analysis. This dataset utilizes blocks of tightly linked single nucleotide polymorphisms within genes suspected to affect sperm competition. The sperm competition detection process is completed in three different stages: maternal and offspring haplotypes reconstruction; paternal genotype and offspring fraction estimation; and preferred genotype detection. Software programs HAPLORE and PHASE 2.0 were implemented for maternal and offspring haplotype reconstruction. The software Parentage is applied on the reconstructed haplotypes for estimating paternal genotypes and the amount of offspring they produced. Lastly, the Kruskal Wallis and permutation tests were conducted to detect differences in offspring produced between groups of males with different genotypes