Simultaneous inference in generalized linear model settings

Generalized Linear Models (GLM's) are utilized in a variety of statistical applications. Many times the estimated quantities from the models are of primary interest. These estimated quantities may include the mean response, odds ratio, relative risk, or attributable proportion. In these cases overall conclusions about these quantities may be desirable. Currently few sophisticated methods exist to simultaneously estimate these quantities from a GLM. I propose several methods of estimating these quantities simultaneously and compare them to the existing methods. Intervals for the expected response of the GLM and any set of linear combinations of the GLM are explored. Most existing methods emphasis the simultaneous estimation of the expected response; few consider estimation of the sets of regression parameters, and hence quantities such as the odds ratio or relative risk. Additionally, almost all intervals employ maximum likelihood estimators (MLEs) for the model parameters. MLEs are often biased estimators for GLMs, particularly at small sample sizes. Thus, another set of intervals is proposed that utilize an alternative estimator for the parameters, the penalized maximum likelihood estimator (pMLE). This estimator is very similar to the usual MLE, but it is shifted in order to account for the bias typically present in the MLE for GLMs. Various critical values of the simultaneous intervals are explored for both the MLE and pMLE based intervals. Emphasis is placed on scenarios where the sample size is small relative to the number of parameters being estimated. Simulation studies compare the various intervals and suggest general recommendations. The pMLE based intervals proposed exhibit superior performance, particularly at small and moderate sample sizes. While usual MLE based intervals typically do not attain the desired level of confidence at the small sample sizes, the pMLE based intervals do. Additionally, at moderate to large sample sizes the pMLE based intervals are, in many cases, less conservative than the usual MLE based intervals

Electrical Stimulation While Resistance Training Leads to Greater Gains in Muscle Mass and Strength

Resistance training (RT) has long been shown to increase muscle strength and muscle mass and is widely recommended for people of all ages and ability levels. Neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) is an involuntary mode of inducing muscle contractions that has been used to prevent muscle immobility, weakness, strength loss, and muscle loss in rehabilitative settings. However, the additive effects of NMES and RT are not well established. PURPOSE:. To determine if superimposing neuromuscular electrical stimulation during a resistance training intervention elicits greater gains in muscle strength and/or muscle mass than resistance training being performed alone. METHODS: An electronic search was performed from EBSCO, GoogleScholar, PubMed, and ResearchGate to identify all original research investigating the effects of superimposed NMES and RT on muscle strength and muscle mass. Studies that met the inclusion criteria for the meta-analyses were included if the study design was a randomized controlled trial with NMES being superimposed during RT and outcome measure included muscle strength and/or muscle mass. Effect sizes were calculated as the standard mean difference (SMD) using a pooled standard deviation (SD) and meta-analyses were computed using random effects models. RESULTS: Sixteen studies met the inclusion criteria for systematic review with 14 of those being included in the meta-analysis (n=8 for strength, n=1 for muscle mass, n=5 reported both). The meta-analyses comprised of 347 subjects demonstrated that superimposing NMES during a RT intervention has a significant additive effect on increase in muscle strength (SMD: 0.21; 95% CI: 0.03 to 0.38; p = 0.02; I² = 73.05%) as well as increase in muscle mass (SMD: 0.26; 95% CI: 0.04 to 0.49; p = 0.02; I² = 21.45%), compared to performing RT alone, in a healthy population. CONCLUSION: Use of NMES during RT results in greater gains in muscle strength and muscle mass when compared to resistance training performed alone. Incorporation of NMES during RT may be a more effective strategy to improve muscle strength and muscle mass. Future studies should determine whether use of NMES concurrently with RT may have additive effects on metabolic and/or cardiovascular health

Role of Acute and Chronic Glycemic Control on COVID-19 Severity and Length of Hospital Stay in Hospitalized Patients

COVID-19 patients with diabetes have greater morbidity and mortality. Glycated hemoglobin (A1c) indicates chronic glycemic control and is considered a standard of care in the diagnosis and management of diabetes. Whereas, fasting blood glucose (FBG) indicates acute glycemic control and is also recommended option to diagnose diabetes. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of acute and chronic glycemic control on severity and length of hospital stay among hospitalized patients with COVID-19. METHODS: This retrospective study used medical records from patients admitted to the University Medical Center, El Paso, TX with COVID-19 (n=364; age 60.0 ± 0.8 years; BMI 30.3 ± 0.4 kg/m²). Chronic and acute glycemia were assessed by A1c and FBG at the time of hospitalization. The severity of the COVID-19 outcome was measured by quick sepsis-related organ failure assessment (qSOFA) and the length of hospitalization was determined by the number of days spent in the hospital. Patients were categorized into 4 groups based on chronic and acute glycemia defining diabetes status. G1: diagnosed no diabetes by both A1c and FBG (A1c\u3c6.5%, FBG\u3c126 mg/dl), G2: diagnosed diabetes by FBG but no diabetes by A1c (A1c\u3c6.5%, FBG≥126 mg/dl), G3: diagnosed diabetes by A1c but no diabetes by FBG (A1c≥6.5%, FBG\u3c126 mg/dl), and G4: diagnosed diabetes by both A1c and FBG (A1c≥6.5%, FBG≥126 mg/dl). One-way ANOVA with posthoc Tucky test was used to determine the statistical differences among groups. RESULTS: Patients diagnosed as diabetes by FBG but not A1c (G2) had a greater COVID-19 severity, measured by qSOFA, compared with the other 3 groups. (G2: 0.61 ± 0.14 vs. G1: 0.24 ± 0.05; P\u3c0.004, G2: 0.61 ± 0.14 vs. G3: 0.16 ± 0.06; P\u3c0.001, and G2: 0.61 ± 0.14 vs. G4: 0.31 ± 0.04; P\u3c0.015). Additionally, this study found a greater length of hospitalization in G2 to compare with G1 (G2: 12.91 ± 1.99 vs. G1: 6.36 ± 0.56 days; P\u3c0.002). CONCLUSION: Patients with acute glycemia represent higher severity and longer length of hospital stay among hospitalized COVID-19 patients. Management of FBG should be considered in the treatment of hospitalized COVID-19 patients

Arthropods: Attitude and incorporation in preservice elementary teachers

Invertebrates perform many beneficial and essential ecological services for humans. Despite this, the general public tends to view them negatively. Preservice elementary teachers often find themselves in a tenuous position because they possess the same negativity toward invertebrates as the general public but have been commissioned by United States of America national and state standards to teach their future students about the very invertebrates they distain. This study investigated the effect frequent direct contact with Madagascar hissing cockroaches (Gromphadorhina portentosa) in an educational setting had on preservice elementary teacher"s arthropod (i.e., a subset of invertebrates) attitude and likelihood of arthropod incorporation in future science curriculum. A pre/post randomized design with a control group was used for the study. Preservice elementary teachers that received frequent direct contact with Madagascar hissing cockroaches in an educational setting during their preservice training programs had their attitudes and beliefs changed in a positive way toward that arthropod but not toward other arthropods. Implications concerning this finding, and other findings associated with the study, are discussed

A Randomized and Controlled Research Study Assessing the Emotions and Beliefs of Future Middle School Science Teachers toward Terrestrial Isopods

Terrestrial isopods, a diverse group of small crustaceans, are a beneficial component of a healthy ecosystem. Terrestrial isopods are also excellent living animals to have in a middle school science classroom. The current study evaluated if future middle school science teachers would utilize living terrestrial isopods in their classroom, and if they would not, to what extent fear and disgust towards arthropods was a factor that influenced their decision to avoid them. Before the terrestrial isopod activities, the teachers had moderate fear and moderate disgust toward terrestrial isopods and had no desire to teacher their students about terrestrial isopods. After participating in the terrestrial isopod activities, the teachers had no fear and no disgust toward terrestrial isopods and had a strong desire to teach their students about terrestrial isopods. Based on the findings of this study, new discoveries and powerful recommendations are presented that are relevant to those that are involved in the preparation of future middle school science teachers and those that provide professional development for current middle school science teachers

Fear and Disgust of Spiders: Factors that Limit University Preservice Middle School Science Teachers

Spiders perform many essential ecological services, yet humans often experience negative emotions toward spiders. These emotions can lead to the avoidance of beneficial events. These emotions may affect beliefs about what should or should not be included in a science curriculum. This study investigated how activities with living spiders affected preservice middle school science teachers’ emotions and beliefs. Prior to the activities both groups (i.e., treatment and control) had moderate to extreme fear and disgust toward the spider. The teachers that participated in the spider activities (i.e., treatment group) had much lower levels of fear and disgust after performing the spider activities than the control group that did not participate in the spider activities. The control group continued to have elevated levels of fear and disgust toward the spider throughout the study. Before the spider activities neither group planned to incorporate information about spiders or information about the essential ecological services of spiders into their science classroom. After the treatment group participated in the spider activities, the teachers had definitive plans to teach their students about spiders and the essential ecological services that they provide. The control group remained unchanged and had no plans to teach this information to their students

Arthropods and the Current Great Mass Extinction: Effective Themes to Decrease Arthropod Fear and Disgust and Increase Positive Environmental Beliefs in Children?

Earth is experiencing a great mass extinction (GME) that has been caused by the environmentally destructive activities of humans. This GME is having and will have profound effects on Earth\u27s biodiversity if environmental sustainability is not reached. Activities and curriculum tools have been developed to assist teachers in integrating the current GME theme into their existing curriculum. There has also been a recent appeal to incorporate the current GME theme into science and environmental education research but this research has yet to be conducted. This study presents the first time the current GME theme has been assessed in a research setting. This study analyzed the effect living Poecilotheria spider activities had on United States children. The variables measured included 1) human fear toward the Poecilotheria spiders; 2) human disgust toward the Poecilotheria spiders; and 3) human environmental beliefs associated with the current GMEs impact on the Poecilotheria spiders. New to this study is the finding that the use of living spiders in a positive educational setting that addresses the current GME are effective tools in decreasing fear and disgust and increasing positive environmental beliefs toward Poecilotheria spiders in children. Teachers of elementary children should consider arthropods, arthropod information and the current GME as effective themes to decrease arthropod fear and disgust and increase positive environmental beliefs in children. Lastly, this study presents a structural equation model showing that the reduction of fear and disgust towards specific animals can increase positive environmental beliefs in children when focused on the current GME

Addressing the Lack of Measurement Invariance for the Measure of Acceptance of the Theory of Evolution

The Measure of Acceptance of the Theory of Evolution (MATE) was constructed to be a single factor instrument that assesses an individual’s overall acceptance of evolutionary theory. The MATE was validated and the scores resulting from the MATE were found to be reliable for the population of inservice high school biology teachers. However, many studies have utilized the MATE for different populations, such as university students enrolled in a biology or genetics course, high school students, and preservice teachers. This is problematic because the dimensionality of the MATE may not be consistent across populations. In order to address this issue, this manuscript explores the dimensionality of the MATE for the population of preservice elementary teachers. With this objective in mind, rating scale and partial credit Rasch models are fit to the observed data to provide evidence for or against a one-dimensional latent structure. It was found that both of the models exhibit a lack of fit, although the fit of the partial credit model was superior to the fit of the graded response model. Further analysis revealed potential sources of model misfit. The results of this study call into question any findings and conclusions made using the MATE for any population other than inservice high school biology teachers

Confidence intervals for Assessing Heterogeneity in Generalized Linear Mixed Models,

Generalized linear mixed models are frequently applied to data with clustered categorical outcomes. The effect of clustering on the response is often difficult to practically assess partly because it is reported on a scale on which comparisons with regression parameters are difficult to make. This article proposes confidence intervals for estimating the heterogeneity due to clustering on a scale that is easy to interpret. The performance of the proposed asymptotic intervals and percentile bootstrap intervals are compared by simulations and in an application