2,708 research outputs found
Recent Developments in Nonregular Fractional Factorial Designs
Nonregular fractional factorial designs such as Plackett-Burman designs and
other orthogonal arrays are widely used in various screening experiments for
their run size economy and flexibility. The traditional analysis focuses on
main effects only. Hamada and Wu (1992) went beyond the traditional approach
and proposed an analysis strategy to demonstrate that some interactions could
be entertained and estimated beyond a few significant main effects. Their
groundbreaking work stimulated much of the recent developments in design
criterion creation, construction and analysis of nonregular designs. This paper
reviews important developments in optimality criteria and comparison, including
projection properties, generalized resolution, various generalized minimum
aberration criteria, optimality results, construction methods and analysis
strategies for nonregular designs.Comment: Submitted to the Statistics Surveys (http://www.i-journals.org/ss/)
by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org
High plasma leptin levels confer increased risk of atherosclerosis in women with systemic lupus erythematosus, and are associated with inflammatory oxidised lipids.
BackgroundPatients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) are at increased risk of atherosclerosis, even after accounting for traditional risk factors. High levels of leptin and low levels of adiponectin are associated with both atherosclerosis and immunomodulatory functions in the general population.ObjectiveTo examine the association between these adipokines and subclinical atherosclerosis in SLE, and also with other known inflammatory biomarkers of atherosclerosis.MethodsCarotid ultrasonography was performed in 250 women with SLE and 122 controls. Plasma leptin and adiponectin levels were measured. Lipoprotein a (Lp(a)), oxidised phospholipids on apoB100 (OxPL/apoB100), paraoxonase, apoA-1 and inflammatory high-density lipoprotein (HDL) function were also assessed.ResultsLeptin levels were significantly higher in patients with SLE than in controls (23.7±28.0 vs 13.3±12.9 ng/ml, p<0.001). Leptin was also higher in the 43 patients with SLE with plaque than without plaque (36.4±32.3 vs 20.9±26.4 ng/ml, p=0.002). After multivariate analysis, the only significant factors associated with plaque in SLE were leptin levels in the highest quartile (≥29.5 ng/ml) (OR=2.8, p=0.03), proinflammatory HDL (piHDL) (OR=12.8, p<0.001), age (OR=1.1, p<0.001), tobacco use (OR=7.7, p=0.03) and hypertension (OR=3.0, p=0.01). Adiponectin levels were not significantly associated with plaque in our cohort. A significant correlation between leptin and piHDL function (p<0.001), Lp(a) (p=0.01) and OxPL/apoB100 (p=0.02) was also present.ConclusionsHigh leptin levels greatly increase the risk of subclinical atherosclerosis in SLE, and are also associated with an increase in inflammatory biomarkers of atherosclerosis such as piHDL, Lp(a) and OxPL/apoB100. High leptin levels may help to identify patients with SLE at risk of atherosclerosis
Interaction Between Pre- and Post-Migration Factors on Depressive Symptoms in New Migrants to Hong Kong from Mainland China
The goal of the current study is to examine the role of poor migration planning as a moderator for the effects of two post-migration factors, namely acculturation stress and quality of life, on symptoms of depression. Using a random sample of 347 Hong Kong new migrants from a 1-year longitudinal study, we used multiple regression analyses to examine both the direct and interaction effects of poorly planned migration, acculturation stress, and quality of life on depressive symptoms. Although poorly planned migration did not predict depressive symptoms at 1-year follow-up, it did exacerbate the detrimental effect of the two post-migration factors, namely high stress or low quality of life (both also measured at baseline) on depressive symptoms at this stage. Our results indicate that preventive measures must be developed for new immigrants in Hong Kong, especially for those who were not well prepared for migration
Automatic Diagnosis of Pathological Myopia from Heterogeneous Biomedical Data
10.1371/journal.pone.0065736PLoS ONE86
Evaluating Temporal Factors in Combined Interventions of Workforce Shift and School Closure for Mitigating the Spread of Influenza
10.1371/journal.pone.0032203PLoS ONE7
Differential Conservation and Divergence of Fertility Genes boule and dazl in the Rainbow Trout
10.1371/journal.pone.0015910PLoS ONE61
Genome-Wide Meta-Analysis of Five Asian Cohorts Identifies PDGFRA as a Susceptibility Locus for Corneal Astigmatism
Corneal astigmatism refers to refractive abnormalities and irregularities in the curvature of the cornea, and this interferes with light being accurately focused at a single point in the eye. This ametropic condition is highly prevalent, influences visual acuity, and is a highly heritable trait. There is currently a paucity of research in the genetic etiology of corneal astigmatism. Here we report the results from five genome-wide association studies of corneal astigmatism across three Asian populations, with an initial discovery set of 4,254 Chinese and Malay individuals consisting of 2,249 cases and 2,005 controls. Replication was obtained from three surveys comprising of 2,139 Indians, an additional 929 Chinese children, and an independent 397 Chinese family trios. Variants in PDGFRA on chromosome 4q12 (lead SNP: rs7677751, allelic odds ratio = 1.26 (95% CI: 1.16–1.36), Pmeta = 7.87×10−9) were identified to be significantly associated with corneal astigmatism, exhibiting consistent effect sizes across all five cohorts. This highlights the potential role of variants in PDGFRA in the genetic etiology of corneal astigmatism across diverse Asian populations
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