Effect of mechanical insufflation-exsufflation for ineffective cough on weaning duration in diseases of the peripheral or central nervous system (MEDINE): study protocol for a randomised controlled trial in a neurological weaning centre.

Introduction: Patients with neurological or neurosurgical disease can suffer from impaired cough, which may result in life-threatening retention of tracheobronchial secretions, atelectasis, pneumonia and finally death. Due to a lack of alternatives and pathophysiological plausibility, the application of mechanical insufflation-exsufflation (MI-E) has already become international standard care in neuromuscular disease and spinal cord injury although a lack of evidence for efficacy. High-quality studies to support the use of MI-E in neurological and neurosurgical patients during weaning from mechanical ventilation are missing.

Flexible semiparametric mode regression for time-to-event data.

The distribution of time-to-event outcomes is usually right-skewed. While for symmetric and moderately skewed data the mean and median are appropriate location measures, the mode is preferable for heavily skewed data as it better represents the center of the distribution. Mode regression has been introduced for uncensored data to model the relationship between covariates and the mode of the outcome.

Weighted expectile regression for right-censored data.

Expectile regression can be used to analyze the entire conditional distribution of a response, omitting all distributional assumptions. Among its benefits are computational simplicity, efficiency, and the possibility to incorporate a semiparametric predictor. Due to its advantages in full data settings, we propose an extension to right-censored data situations, where conventional methods typically focus only on mean effects.

School-related experience and performance with inflammatory bowel disease: results from a cross-sectional survey in 675 children and their parents.

Objective: We describe school performance and experience in children with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) across Germany and Austria. Predictors of compromised performance and satisfaction were evaluated to identify subgroups of increased risk.

Design: This cross-sectional analysis was based on a postal survey in children aged 10-15 with Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis or unclassified IBD and their families.