Evaluating the Associations Among Dysautonomia, Gastrointestinal Transit, and Clinical Phenotype in Patients With Systemic Sclerosis.

Objective: Our objective was to identify patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc) with a high burden of autonomic symptoms and to determine whether they have a distinct clinical phenotype, gastrointestinal (GI) transit, or extraintestinal features.

Methods: In a prospective cohort of patients with SSc with GI disease, clinical data were systematically obtained at routine visits. Dysautonomia was identified by the Composite Autonomic Symptom Score (COMPASS)-31questionnaire.

Attitudes and barriers to pulmonary arterial hypertension screening in systemic sclerosis patients: A survey of UK-based rheumatologists.

Objectives: The objectives were to explore rheumatologists' current clinical screening practices of pulmonary arterial hypertension in patients with systemic sclerosis in the United Kingdom and to identify barriers to screening and consider potential solutions.

Methods: A survey of 31 questions was developed and included six sections: clinician demographics, the importance of screening, screening practices, barriers to screening, treatment and patient education. The survey was disseminated among rheumatologists working in the United Kingdom.

Miettinen and Nurminen score statistics revisited.

It is commonly necessary to perform inferences on the difference, ratio, and odds ratio of two proportions and based on two independent samples. For this purpose, the most common asymptotic statistics are based on the score statistics (-type statistics). As these do not correct the bias of the estimator of the product (1-), Miettinen and Nurminen proposed the -type statistics, which consist of multiplying the statistics by (-1)/, where is the sum of the two sample sizes.

Long-Term Benefit of Perlingual Polybacterial Vaccines in Patients with Systemic Autoimmune Diseases and Active Immunosuppression.

Introduction: We have previously shown that trained-immunity-based vaccines, namely TIbV, significantly reduce the rate of recurrent infections, both of the respiratory tract (RRTI) and urinary tract infections (RUTI) in SAD patients on disease-modifying drugs (DMARDs).

Objective: We evaluated the frequency of RRTI and RUTI from 2018 to 2021 in those SAD patients that received TIbV until 2018. Secondarily, we evaluated the incidence and clinical course of COVID-19 in this cohort.

Beamforming Techniques for Passive Radar: An Overview.

Passive radar is an interesting approach in the context of non-cooperative target detection. Because the signal source takes advantage of the so-called illuminator of opportunity (IoO), the deployed system is silent, allowing the operator cheap, portable, and practically undetectable deployments. These systems match perfectly with the use of antenna arrays to take advantage of the additional gains provided by the coherent combination of the signals received at each element.

Hubert's multi-rater kappa revisited.

There is a frequent need to measure the degree of agreement among R observers who independently classify n subjects within K nominal or ordinal categories. The most popular methods are usually kappa-type measurements. When R = 2, Cohen's kappa coefficient (weighted or not) is well known.

One-tailed asymptotic inferences for the difference of proportions: Analysis of 97 methods of inference.

Two-tailed asymptotic inferences for the difference d = p - p with independent proportions have been widely studied in the literature. Nevertheless, the case of one tail has received less attention, despite its great practical importance (superiority studies and noninferiority studies). This paper assesses 97 methods to make these inferences (test and confidence intervals [CIs]), although it also alludes to many others.