On the Type-I Half-logistic Distribution and Related Contributions: A Review

The half-logistic (HL) distribution is a widely considered statistical model for studying lifetime phenomena arising in science, engineering, finance, and biomedical sciences. One of its weaknesses is that it has a decreasing probability density function and an increasing hazard rate function only. Due to that, researchers have been modifying the HL distribution to have more functional ability. This article provides an extensive overview of the HL distribution and its generalization (or extensions). The recent advancements regarding the HL distribution have led to numerous results in modern theory and statistical computing techniques across science and engineering. This work extended the body of literature in a summarized way to clarify some of the states of knowledge, potentials, and important roles played by the HL distribution and related models in probability theory and statistical studies in various areas and applications. In particular, at least sixty-seven flexible extensions of the HL distribution have been proposed in the past few years. We give a brief introduction to these distributions, emphasizing model parameters, properties derived, and the estimation method. Conclusively, there is no doubt that this summary could create a consensus between various related results in both theory and applications of the HL-related models to develop an interest in future studies

Inheritance of deleterious mutations at both BRCA1 and BRCA2 in an international sample of 32,295 women

Background: Most BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation carriers have inherited a single (heterozygous) mutation. Transheterozygotes (TH) who have inherited deleterious mutations in both BRCA1 and BRCA2 are rare, and the consequences of transheterozygosity are poorly understood. Methods: From 32,295 female BRCA1/2 mutation carriers, we identified 93 TH (0.3 %). "Cases" were defined as TH, and "controls" were single mutations at BRCA1 (SH1) or BRCA2 (SH2). Matched SH1 "controls" carried a BRCA1 mutation found in the TH "case". Matched SH2 "controls" carried a BRCA2 mutation found in the TH "case". After matching the TH carriers with SH1 or SH2, 91 TH were matched to 9316 SH1, and 89 TH were matched to 3370 SH2. Results: The majority of TH (45.2 %) involved the three common Jewish mutations. TH were more likely than SH1 and SH2 women to have been ever diagnosed with breast cancer (BC; p = 0.002). TH were more likely to be diagnosed with ovarian cancer (OC) than SH2 (p = 0.017), but not SH1. Age at BC diagnosis was the same in TH vs. SH1 (p = 0.231), but was on average 4.5 years younger in TH than in SH2 (p < 0.001). BC in TH was more likely to be estrogen receptor (ER) positive (p = 0.010) or progesterone receptor (PR) positive (p = 0.013) than in SH1, but less likely to be ER positive (p < 0.001) or PR positive (p = 0.012) than SH2. Among 15 tumors from TH patients, there was no clear pattern of loss of heterozygosity (LOH) for BRCA1 or BRCA2 in either BC or OC. Conclusions: Our observations suggest that clinical TH phenotypes resemble SH1. However, TH breast tumor marker characteristics are phenotypically intermediate to SH1 and SH2

A global research priority agenda to advance public health responses to fatty liver disease

Background & aims An estimated 38% of adults worldwide have non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). From individual impacts to widespread public health and economic consequences, the implications of this disease are profound. This study aimed to develop an aligned, prioritised fatty liver disease research agenda for the global health community. Methods Nine co-chairs drafted initial research priorities, subsequently reviewed by 40 core authors and debated during a three-day in-person meeting. Following a Delphi methodology, over two rounds, a large panel (R1 n = 344, R2 n = 288) reviewed the priorities, via Qualtrics XM, indicating agreement using a four-point Likert-scale and providing written feedback. The core group revised the draft priorities between rounds. In R2, panellists also ranked the priorities within six domains: epidemiology, models of care, treatment and care, education and awareness, patient and community perspectives, and leadership and public health policy. Results The consensus-built fatty liver disease research agenda encompasses 28 priorities. The mean percentage of ‘agree’ responses increased from 78.3 in R1 to 81.1 in R2. Five priorities received unanimous combined agreement (‘agree’ + ‘somewhat agree’); the remaining 23 priorities had >90% combined agreement. While all but one of the priorities exhibited at least a super-majority of agreement (>66.7% ‘agree’), 13 priorities had 90% combined agreement. Conclusions Adopting this multidisciplinary consensus-built research priorities agenda can deliver a step-change in addressing fatty liver disease, mitigating against its individual and societal harms and proactively altering its natural history through prevention, identification, treatment, and care. This agenda should catalyse the global health community’s efforts to advance and accelerate responses to this widespread and fast-growing public health threat. Impact and implications An estimated 38% of adults and 13% of children and adolescents worldwide have fatty liver disease, making it the most prevalent liver disease in history. Despite substantial scientific progress in the past three decades, the burden continues to grow, with an urgent need to advance understanding of how to prevent, manage, and treat the disease. Through a global consensus process, a multidisciplinary group agreed on 28 research priorities covering a broad range of themes, from disease burden, treatment, and health system responses to awareness and policy. The findings have relevance for clinical and non-clinical researchers as well as funders working on fatty liver disease and non-communicable diseases more broadly, setting out a prioritised, ranked research agenda for turning the tide on this fast-growing public health threat

Lung adenocarcinoma promotion by air pollutants

A complete understanding of how exposure to environmental substances promotes cancer formation is lacking. More than 70 years ago, tumorigenesis was proposed to occur in a two-step process: an initiating step that induces mutations in healthy cells, followed by a promoter step that triggers cancer development1. Here we propose that environmental particulate matter measuring ≤2.5 μm (PM2.5), known to be associated with lung cancer risk, promotes lung cancer by acting on cells that harbour pre-existing oncogenic mutations in healthy lung tissue. Focusing on EGFR-driven lung cancer, which is more common in never-smokers or light smokers, we found a significant association between PM2.5 levels and the incidence of lung cancer for 32,957 EGFR-driven lung cancer cases in four within-country cohorts. Functional mouse models revealed that air pollutants cause an influx of macrophages into the lung and release of interleukin-1β. This process results in a progenitor-like cell state within EGFR mutant lung alveolar type II epithelial cells that fuels tumorigenesis. Ultradeep mutational profiling of histologically normal lung tissue from 295 individuals across 3 clinical cohorts revealed oncogenic EGFR and KRAS driver mutations in 18% and 53% of healthy tissue samples, respectively. These findings collectively support a tumour-promoting role for PM2.5 air pollutants and provide impetus for public health policy initiatives to address air pollution to reduce disease burden

The evolving SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in Africa: Insights from rapidly expanding genomic surveillance

INTRODUCTION Investment in Africa over the past year with regard to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) sequencing has led to a massive increase in the number of sequences, which, to date, exceeds 100,000 sequences generated to track the pandemic on the continent. These sequences have profoundly affected how public health officials in Africa have navigated the COVID-19 pandemic. RATIONALE We demonstrate how the first 100,000 SARS-CoV-2 sequences from Africa have helped monitor the epidemic on the continent, how genomic surveillance expanded over the course of the pandemic, and how we adapted our sequencing methods to deal with an evolving virus. Finally, we also examine how viral lineages have spread across the continent in a phylogeographic framework to gain insights into the underlying temporal and spatial transmission dynamics for several variants of concern (VOCs). RESULTS Our results indicate that the number of countries in Africa that can sequence the virus within their own borders is growing and that this is coupled with a shorter turnaround time from the time of sampling to sequence submission. Ongoing evolution necessitated the continual updating of primer sets, and, as a result, eight primer sets were designed in tandem with viral evolution and used to ensure effective sequencing of the virus. The pandemic unfolded through multiple waves of infection that were each driven by distinct genetic lineages, with B.1-like ancestral strains associated with the first pandemic wave of infections in 2020. Successive waves on the continent were fueled by different VOCs, with Alpha and Beta cocirculating in distinct spatial patterns during the second wave and Delta and Omicron affecting the whole continent during the third and fourth waves, respectively. Phylogeographic reconstruction points toward distinct differences in viral importation and exportation patterns associated with the Alpha, Beta, Delta, and Omicron variants and subvariants, when considering both Africa versus the rest of the world and viral dissemination within the continent. Our epidemiological and phylogenetic inferences therefore underscore the heterogeneous nature of the pandemic on the continent and highlight key insights and challenges, for instance, recognizing the limitations of low testing proportions. We also highlight the early warning capacity that genomic surveillance in Africa has had for the rest of the world with the detection of new lineages and variants, the most recent being the characterization of various Omicron subvariants. CONCLUSION Sustained investment for diagnostics and genomic surveillance in Africa is needed as the virus continues to evolve. This is important not only to help combat SARS-CoV-2 on the continent but also because it can be used as a platform to help address the many emerging and reemerging infectious disease threats in Africa. In particular, capacity building for local sequencing within countries or within the continent should be prioritized because this is generally associated with shorter turnaround times, providing the most benefit to local public health authorities tasked with pandemic response and mitigation and allowing for the fastest reaction to localized outbreaks. These investments are crucial for pandemic preparedness and response and will serve the health of the continent well into the 21st century

Dimethyl fumarate in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 (RECOVERY): a randomised, controlled, open-label, platform trial

Dimethyl fumarate (DMF) inhibits inflammasome-mediated inflammation and has been proposed as a treatment for patients hospitalised with COVID-19. This randomised, controlled, open-label platform trial (Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19 Therapy [RECOVERY]), is assessing multiple treatments in patients hospitalised for COVID-19 (NCT04381936, ISRCTN50189673). In this assessment of DMF performed at 27 UK hospitals, adults were randomly allocated (1:1) to either usual standard of care alone or usual standard of care plus DMF. The primary outcome was clinical status on day 5 measured on a seven-point ordinal scale. Secondary outcomes were time to sustained improvement in clinical status, time to discharge, day 5 peripheral blood oxygenation, day 5 C-reactive protein, and improvement in day 10 clinical status. Between 2 March 2021 and 18 November 2021, 713 patients were enroled in the DMF evaluation, of whom 356 were randomly allocated to receive usual care plus DMF, and 357 to usual care alone. 95% of patients received corticosteroids as part of routine care. There was no evidence of a beneficial effect of DMF on clinical status at day 5 (common odds ratio of unfavourable outcome 1.12; 95% CI 0.86-1.47; p = 0.40). There was no significant effect of DMF on any secondary outcome

Audiences’ Perceptions of News Media Services in Three Arab Countries

Since their launch, Arabic news satellite TV channels have been recognized as a milestone in the history of Arab media, and their operation has affected – or infected - the Arab audience like no other medium has ever done. This study investigates Arab audiences‘ perceptions of news media services. Moreover, it is a study of news consumption profiles and how these are related to new and old news service provision as well as to viewers‘ motivations for watching news, and their perceptions of different news services in terms of their credibility. It also attempts to understand the evolution of mass media services in the Arab world in the last decade and the interaction between the news media and their audiences. The study takes place in the Arab Gulf States region (GCC countries), “The Gulf Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf”. Research data were obtained using a self-completion survey from three countries Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Qatar, where 1,752 participants of Arab descent answered the questionnaire. The findings indicate that news consumers‘ demographic profiles did not differ greatly between the three countries. In gender, the major participants of the study were reported to be more male than female. The majority of the audiences were young, under thirty years old, better educated, had bachelor degrees, were employed, and earned up to 25,000 (USD) per year. Politically they did not display extreme or polarised political orientations. Moreover, the study found that Arabic news TV services have emerged as the leading news resource and source of information for participants in the three Arab Gulf States. Furthermore, Al-Jazeera and BBC (Arabic) TV were rated as highly credible sources. Finally, the results of the study suggest that Arab audiences seek information from media they deem to be reliable and credible to gratify their need for news information

Effect of electrolyte solution and deposition methods on TiO

In this work, TiO2 nanostructure thin films were deposited by using anodization technique, while CdS thin films were deposited on TiO2 films by two methods chemical bath deposition (CBD) and successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR). The structure of TiO2/CdS films were investigated and analyzed by XRD, SEM, and AFM, but the optical properties were investigated by UV–visible spectroscopy, PL spectroscopy, and spectral response. XRD analysis of all deposited films has confirmed the formation of two phases one is tetragonal phase (anatase, and rutile) for TiO2, and second hexagonal phase which belong to CdS layer. SEM images of TiO2 nanotubes arrays (NTAs)/CdS showed the TiO2 NTs walls become decorated with aggregates of fine CdS nanoparticles that partly penetrate into the TiO2 NTAs pores. AFM measurements displayed increase in the surface roughness compared with TiO2 films. PL measurement results of TiO2/CdS core–shell show two peaks, one is located at UV-region pointed to energy band gap for TiO2 nano films, and second one is located at visible region pointing to recombination of photogenerated electron–hole pairs within CdS layers. Spectral response measurements showed photocurrent peaks for all TiO2/CdS films deposited with different electrolyte solution have red-shift to visible region. When illuminated with a UV–Vis light source, the TiO2/CdS core–shell films displayed high response. A higher response to UV–Vis light was attained with the use of TiO2 NTAs/CdS films prepared by anodization /CBD. This approach offers a technique for fabricating photoelectrodes

A group acceptance sampling plan based on flexible new Kumaraswamy exponential distribution: An application to quality control reliability

AbstractIn this study, we presented a group acceptance sampling plan for situations in which the lifetime of an item followed a flexible new Kumaraswamy exponential distribution for applications to quality control reliability. This study includes a detailed analysis of the operating characteristic function values, producer risk, and minimum required group size for the acceptance number, which are determined by three shape parameters. To determine the quality index, we used the median and tested various parametric values to obtain the optimized values. These optimized values are presented in the tables and graphically for a better understanding. In addition, we explain the results of our study using two real-life datasets and an example. Comparison has been also made between GASP and OSP