Dropout in a longitudinal, cohort study of urologic disease in community men

BACKGROUND: Reasons for attrition in studies vary, but may be a major concern in long-term studies if those who drop out differ systematically from those who continue to participate. Factors associated with dropout were evaluated in a twelve-year community-based, prospective cohort study of urologic disease in men. METHODS: During 1989–1991, 2,115 randomly selected Caucasian men, ages 40–79 years from Olmsted County, Minnesota were enrolled and followed with questionnaires biennially; 332 men were added in follow-up. A random subset (~25%) received a urologic examination. Baseline characteristics including age, benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) symptoms, comorbidities, and socioeconomic factors were compared between subjects who did and did not participate after the twelfth year of follow-up. RESULTS: Of the 2,447 men, 195 died and were excluded; 682 did not participate in 2002. Compared with men in the 40–49 year age group, men ≥ 70 years of age at baseline had a greater relative odds of dropout, 2.65 (95% CI: 1.93, 3.63). In age-adjusted analyses, relative to men without stroke, men who had suffered a stroke had a higher odds of dropout, age-adjusted OR 3.07 (95% CI: 1.49, 6.33). Presence of at least one BPH symptom was not associated with dropout, (age-adjusted OR 1.12 (95% CI: 0.93, 1.36)). CONCLUSION: These results provide assurance that dropout was not related to primary study outcomes. However, factors associated with dropout should be taken into account in analyses where they may be potential confounders

Studi Komparatif Similariti Cosine, Dice Dan Jaccard Atas Metode Extended Fisherface

Dalam tulisan ini, kami menguji ExtendedFisherface untuk pengenalan wajah dari salah satu contoh citraper orang terhadap fungsi similariti Cosine, Dice dan Jaccard.Fisherface sendiri adalah salah satu metode pengenalan wajahyang paling sukses. Fisherface membutuhkan beberapa citrapelatihan untuk setiap wajah, sehingga tidak dapat diterapkanpada aplikasi pengenalan wajah di mana hanya satu contoh citraper orang yang tersedia untuk pelatihan. Dan hal tersebut dapatdiatasi dengan memperluas metode Fisherface yang dapatmenurunkan beberapa citra wajah dari satu citra tunggal.Pengujian Extended Fisherface ini dilakukan pada databasewajah Bern dan memberikan hasil yang baik pada fungsisimilaritas Cosine

Selective roles of vertebrate PCF11 in premature and full-length transcript termination

The pervasive nature of RNA polymerase II (Pol II) transcription requires efficient termination. A key player in this process is the cleavage and polyadenylation (CPA) factor PCF11, which directly binds to the Pol II C-terminal domain and dismantles elongating Pol II from DNA in vitro. We demonstrate that PCF11-mediated termination is essential for vertebrate development. A range of genomic analyses, including mNET-seq, 3′ mRNA-seq, chromatin RNA-seq, and ChIP-seq, reveals that PCF11 enhances transcription termination and stimulates early polyadenylation genome-wide. PCF11 binds preferentially between closely spaced genes, where it prevents transcriptional interference and consequent gene downregulation. Notably, PCF11 is sub-stoichiometric to the CPA complex. Low levels of PCF11 are maintained by an auto-regulatory mechanism involving premature termination of its own transcript and are important for normal development. Both in human cell culture and during zebrafish development, PCF11 selectively attenuates the expression of other transcriptional regulators by premature CPA and terminatio

Sexual functioning in a population-based study of men aged 40-69 year: The good news

The aim of the study was to provide cross-sectional data on age-related sexual functioning of men aged 40-69 y. The study was a randomised age-stratified community-based sample survey. In all, 799 men from two comparable middle-sized areas of Belgium participated in the study. Trained male nurses visited each participant at home and conducted a structured interview during which the participants filled out the International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF). The main outcome measures were scores on the IIEF questionnaire at item level. This study showed that 69% of the sample attempted to have intercourse during the past 4 weeks with an age-related increase in the proportion of sexually inactive men (11% at age 40-49 y; 25% at age 50-59 y; 52% at age 60-69 y; P=0.0001). Almost 90% of sexually active men reported to be able to get and keep an erection until completion of intercourse, to ejaculate with a feeling of orgasm, and reported to be satisfied with their sexual partner relation and their overall sex life. About 75% of sexually active men reported to be (very) highly confident about their erectile functioning. Only 15% of sexually inactive men reported a high to very high frequency and strong to very strong level of sexual desire. Whereas 26% still reported high to very high confidence in their erectile capacity, 34% reported to be moderately to (very) satisfied with their sexual life. This study showed that sexuality still matters at middle to high age and that it deserves to be regarded as an important and continuing aspect of the overall adaptation to getting older.Journal ArticleResearch Support, Non-U.S. Gov'tSCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe