A Ballooned Beta-Logistic Model

<p>The beta distribution is a simple and flexible model in which responses are naturally confined to the finite interval (0,1). Its parameters can be related to covariates such as dose and gender through a regression model. The ballooned beta-logistic (BBL) model expands the response boundaries from (0,1) to (<i>L</i>,<i>U</i>), where <i>L</i> and <i>U</i> are unknown parameters. Under the BBL model, expected responses follow a logistic function that can be made equal to that of the four-parameter logistic (4PL) model. But the distribution of responses differs from the classical 4PL model that has additive normal errors. In contrast, the BBL model naturally has bounded responses and inhomogenous variance. The asymptotic normality of maximum likelihood estimators (MLEs) is obtained even though the support of this nonregular regression model depends on unknown parameters. We find MLEs converge faster to <i>L</i> and <i>U</i> than extreme values do at the minimum and maximum concentrations. Given enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay data from multiple plates, we study a motivating validation objective, which is to set suitability criteria for estimates of <i>L</i> and <i>U</i>; after this, plates with boundary estimates outside these limits would be considered “reference failures.” We show the BBL model has advantages over the 4PL model. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.</p

Simultaneous inference of a misclassified outcome and competing risks failure time data

<div><p>Ipsilateral breast tumor relapse (IBTR) often occurs in breast cancer patients after their breast conservation therapy. The IBTR status' classification (true local recurrence versus new ipsilateral primary tumor) is subject to error and there is no widely accepted gold standard. Time to IBTR is likely informative for IBTR classification because new primary tumor tends to have a longer mean time to IBTR and is associated with improved survival as compared with the true local recurrence tumor. Moreover, some patients may die from breast cancer or other causes in a competing risk scenario during the follow-up period. Because the time to death can be correlated to the unobserved true IBTR status and time to IBTR (if relapse occurs), this terminal mechanism is non-ignorable. In this paper, we propose a unified framework that addresses these issues simultaneously by modeling the misclassified binary outcome without a gold standard and the correlated time to IBTR, subject to dependent competing terminal events. We evaluate the proposed framework by a simulation study and apply it to a real data set consisting of 4477 breast cancer patients. The adaptive Gaussian quadrature tools in SAS procedure NLMIXED can be conveniently used to fit the proposed model. We expect to see broad applications of our model in other studies with a similar data structure.</p></div

Multifunctional Hydrogel Enhances Inflammatory Control, Antimicrobial Activity, and Oxygenation to Promote Healing in Infectious Wounds

Chronic infected wounds often fail to heal through normal repair mechanisms, and the persistent response of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and inflammation is a major contributing factor to the difficulty in their healing. In this context, we developed an ROS-responsive injectable hydrogel. This hydrogel is composed of ε-polylysine grafted (EPL) with caffeic acid (CA) and hyaluronic acid (HA) grafted with phenylboronic acid (PBA). Before the gelation process, a mixture CaO2@Cur-PDA (CCP) consisting of calcium peroxide (CaO2) coated with polydopamine (PDA) and curcumin (Cur) is embedded into the hydrogel. Under the conditions of chronic refractory wound environments, the hydrogel gradually dissociates. HA mimics the function of the extracellular matrix, while the released caffeic acid-grafted ε-polylysine (CE) effectively eliminates bacteria in the wound vicinity. Additionally, released CA also clears ROS and influences macrophage polarization. Subsequently, CCP further decomposes, releasing Cur, which promotes angiogenesis. This multifunctional hydrogel accelerates the repair of diabetic skin wounds infected with Staphylococcus aureus in vivo and holds promise as a candidate dressing for the healing of chronic refractory wounds

Palladium-Catalyzed Direct Intermolecular Amination of Unactivated Methylene C(sp³)–H Bonds with Azodiformates via Bidentate-Chelation Assistance

An efficient and convenient method enabling direct amination of unactivated methylene C­(sp³)–H bonds to form C–N bonds with azodiformates as amino source is described. This method highlights the emerging strategy of unactivated methylene as versatile functional groups in organic synthesis and provides a strategy to construct functionalized C–N bonds for the synthesis of complex molecules

Additional file 2 of Association of mental health status between self-poisoning suicide patients and their family members: a matched-pair analysis

Additional file 2: Supplementary table 2. Multivariable analysis of significant characteristics for predicting self-poisoning suicide among patients after adjusting for age and gender (n=151)

Additional file 7 of Association of mental health status between self-poisoning suicide patients and their family members: a matched-pair analysis

Additional file 7: Supplementary table 7. Multivariable analysis of significant characteristics from matched family members for predicting depression among self-poisoning suicide patients after adjusting for age and gender (n=102)

Additional file 3 of Association of mental health status between self-poisoning suicide patients and their family members: a matched-pair analysis

Additional file 3: Supplementary table 3. Multivariable analysis of significant characteristics in terms of matched family members for predicting self-poisoning suicide among patients after adjusting for age and gender (n=151)

The effects of different grades of nitrogen pneumoperitoneum on intestinal permeability to FD-4.

<p>Intra-abdominal hypertension significantly stimulated the intestinal permeability to FD-4.Compared with that in the 0-mmHg group, the FD-4 concentration in the 12-, 16-, and 20-mmHg groups were increased 5.2-,12.4- and 26.7-fold, respectively. Slightly elevated intra-abdominal pressures of 4 and 8 mmHg did not affect the FD-4 concentrations. No significant differences were observed between the 0-mmHg group and the 4- and 8-mmHg groups. All data are shown as means ± SD. **P<0.01, vs. 0 mmHg; ^▴▴P<0.01, vs. 4 mmHg; ^★★P<0.01, vs. 8 mmHg; ^▪P<0.05, vs. 12 mmHg; ^⧫P<0.05, vs. 16 mmHg.</p

Additional file 4 of Association of mental health status between self-poisoning suicide patients and their family members: a matched-pair analysis

Additional file 4: Supplementary table 4. Multivariable analysis of significant characteristics for predicting anxiety among self-poisoning suicide patients after adjusting for age and gender (n=102)

The effects of different grades of nitrogen pneumoperitoneum on the expression levels of TJ proteins.

<p>i: Immunohistochemical localization of claudin 5 and occludin (×200). Increased intra-abdominal pressures tended to reduce the expression levels of claudin 5 and occludin. A–D: Claudin 5. The black arrow indicates the positive signals for claudin 5 in the lateral membrane of the epithelia. E–H: Occludin. The white arrows indicate the positive signals for occludin in the apical cell borders of the colonic epithelia. ii: Western blotting results for claudin 5 and occludin. The expression levels of the proteins were normalized relative to actin. Compared with the 0-mmHg group, the 8-, 12-, 16-, and 20-mmHg groups had significantly reduced densities of claudin 5 and occludin. All data are shown as means ± SD. *P<0.05, **P<0.01, vs. 0 mmHg; ^▴P<0.05, ^▴▴P<0.01, vs. 4 mmHg;^★★P<0.01, vs. 8 mmHg; ^▪P<0.05, ^▪▪P<0.01, vs. 12 mmHg.</p