DESIGN: Data on sociodemographic background were obtained from parents. Height and weight were measured and BMI-for-age was determined. Adolescents were interviewed on their habitual dietary intakes using a semi-quantitative FFQ. Cognitive ability was assessed using the Wechsler Nonverbal Scale of Ability in a one-to-one manner. Dietary patterns were constructed using principal component analysis based on thirty-eight food groups of the semi-quantitative FFQ.
SETTING: Urban secondary public schools in the district of Gombak in Selangor, Malaysia.
SUBJECTS: Malay adolescents aged 12 to 13 years (n 416).
RESULTS: The mean general cognitive ability score was 101·8 (sd 12·4). Four major dietary patterns were identified and labelled as 'refined-grain pattern', 'snack-food pattern', 'plant-based food pattern' and 'high-energy food pattern'. These dietary patterns explained 39·1 % of the variance in the habitual dietary intakes of the adolescents. The refined-grain pattern was negatively associated with processing speed, which is a construct of general cognitive ability. The high-energy food pattern was negatively associated with general cognitive ability, perceptual reasoning and processing speed. Monthly household income and parents' educational attainment were positively associated with all of the cognitive measures. In multivariate analysis, only the high-energy food pattern was found to contribute significantly towards general cognitive ability after controlling for socio-economic status.
CONCLUSIONS: Consumption of foods in the high-energy food pattern contributed towards general cognitive ability after controlling for socio-economic status. However, the contribution was small.
METHODS: Using 2007-2009 data from the GYTS, subjects from 6 countries were used to assess current smokers' odds of reporting time to first cigarette or craving positive (TTFC/C+) by the number of cigarette smoking days per month (DPM) and the number of cigarettes smoked per day (CPD).
RESULTS: The percentage of GYTS smokers who reported TTFC/C+ ranged from 58.0% to 69.7%. Compared with students who smoked on 1-2 DPM, those who smoked on 3-9 DPM had 3 times the adjusted odds of reporting TTFC/C+. The adjusted odds of reporting TTFC/C+ were 3 to 7 times higher among those who smoked 10-29 DPM and 6 to 20 times higher among daily smokers. Similarly, the adjusted odds of TTFC/C+ were 3-6 times higher among those who smoked 2-5 CPD and 6 to 20 times higher among those who smoked >6 CPD, compared to those who smoked <1 CPD.
CONCLUSION: Associations of TTFC/C+ prevalence with both frequency and intensity of cigarette smoking provide a construct validation of the GYTS question used to assess respondents' TTFC/C status.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: 52 healthy volunteers were scanned in a 16-slice MDCT, and the volume of 104 sets of carpal bones was measured using a Syngo workstation (Both CT and workstation-Siemens Healthcare, Erlangen, Germany).
RESULTS: Male carpal bones were of higher volume compared to the female carpal bones (p<0.001). Area under the curve (AUC) assessment of responder-operator characteristics curves showed that the trapezium bone was best able to predict sex with an AUC of 0.986. At a trapezium bone volume of ⩾1.94cm(3), there was a 93.5% probability that the subject was male. Binary logistic regression analysis found that the highest accuracy was derived using the pisiform, trapezium and capitate bones. There was a strong relationship between sex prediction and grouping of the carpal bone volumes (Nagelkerke R(2)=0.923) with an overall prediction accuracy of 97%.
CONCLUSION: All 8 carpal bones exhibit sexual dimorphism to varying degrees. A binary regression analysis combining the 5 carpal bones with the highest predictive values for sex produces an accurate predictive model.
AIMS: This research aims to measure the success and effectiveness of the SPP system using three surrogate measures: usage (frequency of use), performance (recognition accuracy) and satisfaction (children's subjective reactions), and how these measures are aligned with the success of the SPP system, as well as to each other.
METHODS AND PROCEDURES: We have measured the absolute change in the word error rate (WER) between the pre- and post-training, using the ANOVA test. Correlation co-efficiency (CC) analysis was conducted to test the relation between the surrogate measures, while a Structural Equation Model (SEM) was used to investigate the causal relations between the measures.
OUTCOMES AND RESULTS: The CC test results indicate a positive correlation between the surrogate measures. The SEM supports all the proposed gtheses. The ANOVA results indicate that SPP is effective in reducing the WER of impaired speech.
CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: The SPP system is an effective assistive tool, especially for high levels of severity. We found that performance is a mediator of the relation between "usage" and "satisfaction".
METHODS: This is a retrospective study on 750 women seen at a tertiary urogynecological unit who had undergone a standardized interview, clinical examination, and 4D TPUS. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were undertaken to study the association between examination findings and symptoms of OD. This study was approved by the local human research ethics committee (Nepean Blue Mountains Local Health District Human Research Ethics Committee, IRB approval no. 13-16).
RESULTS: The datasets of 719 women were analyzed. Mean age was 56.1 (18.4-87.6) years. Ninety-seven patients (13 %) reported fecal incontinence, 190 (26 %) constipation, and 461 (64 %) symptoms of OD. On examination, 405 women (56 %) were diagnosed with significant posterior compartment prolapse (POP-Q ≥ stage 2), which was associated with symptoms of OD (p
OBJECTIVE: To analyze the amount of blood loss at different stages of Posterior Instrumented Spinal Fusion (PSF) surgery in adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) patients.
SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA: Knowing the pattern of blood loss at different surgical stages may enable the surgical team to formulate a management strategy to reduce intraoperative blood loss.
METHODS: One hundred AIS patients who underwent PSF from January 2013 to December 2014 were recruited. The operation was divided into six stages; stage 1-exposure, stage 2-screw insertion, stage 3-release, stage 4-correction, stage 5-corticotomies and bone grafting, and stage 6-closure. The duration and blood loss at each stage was documented. The following values were calculated: total blood loss, blood loss per estimated blood volume, blood loss per minute, blood loss per vertebral level fused, and blood loss per minute per vertebral level fused.
RESULTS: There were 89 females and 11 males. The mean age was 17.0 ± 5.8 years old. Majority (50.0%) were Lenke 1 curve type. The mean preoperative major Cobb angle was 64.9 ± 15.0°. The mean number of levels fused was 9.5 ± 2.3 levels. The mean operating time was 188.5 ± 53.4 minutes with a mean total blood loss 951.0 ± 454.0 mLs. The highest mean blood loss occurred at stage 2 (301.0 ± 196.7 mL), followed by stage 4 (226.8 ± 171.2 mL) and stage 5 (161.5 ± 146.6 mL). The highest mean blood loss per minute was at stage 5 (17.1 ± 18.3 mL/min), followed by stage 3 (12.0 ± 10.8 mL/min). The highest mean blood loss per vertebral levels fused was at stage 2 (31.0 ± 17.7 mL/level), followed by stage 4 (23.9 ± 18.1 mL/level) and stage 5 (16.6 ± 13.3 mL/level).
CONCLUSION: All stages were significant contributors to the total blood loss except exposure (stage 1) and closure (stage 6). Blood loss per minute and blood loss per minute per level was highest during corticotomies (stage 5), followed by release (stage 3). However, the largest amount of total blood loss occurred during screw insertion (stage 2).
LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 2.
PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the prescribed and measured gain of hearing aids fit according to the NAL-NL1 and the DSL v5 procedure for children with moderately severe to profound hearing loss; and to examine the impact of choice of prescription on predicted speech intelligibility and loudness.
RESEARCH DESIGN: Participants were fit with Phonak Naida V SP hearing aids according to the NAL-NL1 and DSL v5 procedures. The Speech Intelligibility Index (SII) and estimated loudness were calculated using published models.
STUDY SAMPLE: The sample consisted of 16 children (30 ears) aged between 7 and 17 yr old.
DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: The measured hearing aid gains were compared with the prescribed gains at 50 (low), 65 (medium), and 80 dB SPL (high) input levels. The goodness of fit-to-targets was quantified by calculating the average root-mean-square (RMS) error of the measured gain compared with prescriptive gain targets for 0.5, 1, 2, and 4 kHz. The significance of difference between prescriptions for hearing aid gains, SII, and loudness was examined by performing analyses of variance. Correlation analyses were used to examine the relationship between measures.
RESULTS: The DSL v5 prescribed significantly higher overall gain than the NAL-NL1 procedure for the same audiograms. For low and medium input levels, the hearing aids of all children fit with NAL-NL1 were within 5 dB RMS of prescribed targets, but 33% (10 ears) deviated from the DSL v5 targets by more than 5 dB RMS on average. For high input level, the hearing aid fittings of 60% and 43% of ears deviated by more than 5 dB RMS from targets of NAL-NL1 and DSL v5, respectively. Greater deviations from targets were associated with more severe hearing loss. On average, the SII was higher for DSL v5 than for NAL-NL1 at low input level. No significant difference in SII was found between prescriptions at medium or high input level, despite greater loudness for DSL v5 than for NAL-NL1.
CONCLUSIONS: Although targets between 0.25 and 2 kHz were well matched for both prescriptions in commercial hearing aids, gain targets at 4 kHz were matched for NAL-NL1 only. Although the two prescriptions differ markedly in estimated loudness, they resulted in comparable predicted speech intelligibility for medium and high input levels.