Closed trans-intersphincteric fistulotomy: a new modified sphincter-sparing technique for high transsphincteric anal fistula.

Background: The main goals of surgery for fistula-in-ano are to completely resolve the condition and maintain optimal anal function. Effective management of the internal opening during and proper postoperative drainage of the intersphincter plane are crucial for achieving successful outcomes. This study evaluated the clinical efficacy of a novel sphincter-sparing technique for treating high transsphincteric anal fistula (HTAF).

Adding Affordances and Communication Efficacy to the Technology Acceptance Model to Study the Messaging Features of Online Patient Portals among Young Adults.

The use of messaging features within online patient portals could be beneficial to patients, but many patients do not utilize these features. Furthermore, it remains uncertain the reasons why patients may (or may not) use messaging features to communicate with a care provider. This study proposes and tests an extended Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), which incorporated perceived affordances (editability and persistence) and communication efficacy.

Focus Group Findings of Smoking Onset Among Male Youth in China.

Background: Adolescence is associated with smoking initiation among men in China. The lack of qualitative studies using Chinese adolescent samples can pose challenges to enacting effective smoking prevention messages that resonate with male Chinese teenagers' thoughts, needs, and wishes.

Objective: This focus group study was designed to obtain in-depth contextual information on early smoking among male teenagers in China.

Cigarette Initiation Among Chinese Male Teenagers in Early Smoking Interactions.

To collect in-depth information regarding cigarette initiation interactions in the early smoking experimentation among male youth in China, twenty focus groups with male teenagers (N = 165) were conducted. Focus group discussions indicated a high prevalence of cigarette initiation among peers, and such initiation often translated into immediate smoking. Of the identified cigarette initiation appeals, "face" and normative pressure appeals were the most difficult to reject.

Petersen estimator, Chapman adjustment, list effects, and heterogeneity.

We use a nonparametric mixture model for the purpose of estimating the size of a population from multiple lists in which both the individual effects and list effects are allowed to vary. We propose a lower bound of the population size that admits an analytic expression. The lower bound can be estimated without the necessity of model-fitting.

β-elemene reverses chemoresistance of breast cancer via regulating MDR-related microRNA expression.

Background: Multidrug resistance (MDR) directly contributes to the clinical failure of chemotherapy in breast cancer (BCA). β-elemene is a natural antitumor drug from plants. We previously confirmed that MDR could be reversed by β-elemene.

On population size estimators in the Poisson mixture model.

Estimating population sizes via capture-recapture experiments has enormous applications. The Poisson mixture model can be adopted for those applications with a single list in which individuals appear one or more times. We compare several nonparametric estimators, including the Chao estimator, the Zelterman estimator, two jackknife estimators and the bootstrap estimator.

Polymorphisms in the human apolipoprotein E receptor 2 gene in Japanese sporadic Alzheimer's disease patients.

Apolipoprotein E (apoE) polymorphism is associated with onset of Alzheimer's disease (AD). We found seven polymorphisms in apoE receptor 2 (ApoER2), an apoE-binding receptor, in Japanese sporadic AD patients, but no association of ApoER2 polymorphisms with AD. We consider that the functions of ApoER2 in the brain may be compensated for by those of other apoE-binding receptors such as VLDL receptor.

Comparing species assemblages via species accumulation curves.

Comparing species assemblages given incidence-based data is of importance in ecological studies, often done by a visual inspection of estimated species accumulation curves or by an ad hoc use of 95% pointwise confidence bands of these curves. It is shown that comparing species assemblages is a challenging problem. A chi(2) test is proposed.

On the nonidentifiability of population sizes.

When a nonparametric mixture model is adopted to deal with the heterogeneity among individual capture probabilities, the population size is nonidentifiable (Link, 2003, Biometrics 59, 1123-1130). Holzmann, Munk, and Zucchini (2006, Biometrics 62, 934-936) discussed the conditions under which a subfamily of mixing distributions is identifiable. Link (2006, Biometrics 92, 936-939) found that the nonidentifiability occurs across identifiable subfamilies.

Computing an NPMLE for a mixing distribution in two closed heterogeneous population size models.

Binomial and geometric mixtures can be used to model data gathered in capture-recapture surveys of animal populations, removal surveys of harvest populations, registrations of disease populations, ecological species census, and so on. To compute a nonparametric maximum likelihood estimator for the mixing distribution of heterogeneous capture probabilities, we consider a conditional approach and use a reliable and fast integrative procedure which combines the EM algorithm to increase the likelihood and the vertex-exchange method to update the number of support points. A convergent Newtonian algorithm is used in the M-step of the EM algorithm.

An empirical bayesian method for detecting differentially expressed genes using EST data.

Detection of differentially expressed genes from expressed sequence tags (ESTs) data has received much attention. An empirical Bayesian method is introduced in which gene expression patterns are estimated and used to define detection statistics. Significantly differentially expressed genes can be declared given detection statistics.

Selection of colour of sticky trap for monitoring adult bean thrips, Caliothrips fasciatus (Thysanoptera: Thripidae).

Adult bean thrips, Caliothrips fasciatus (Pergande), overwintering inside the navel of navel oranges shipped from California to Australia, are an actionable pest for the importing country, i.e. infested lots are fumigated with methyl bromide.

Estimating the species accumulation curve using mixtures.

As a significant tool in ecological studies, the species accumulation curve or the collector's curve is the graph of the expected number of detected species as a function of sampling effort. The problem of estimating the species accumulation curve based on an empirical data set arising from quadrat sampling is studied in a nonparametric binomial mixture model. It will be shown that estimating the species accumulation curve not only is independent of the unknown number of species but also includes estimating the number of species as a limiting case.