Parsimony and parameter estimation for mixtures of multivariate leptokurtic-normal distributions.

Unlabelled: Mixtures of multivariate leptokurtic-normal distributions have been recently introduced in the clustering literature based on mixtures of elliptical heavy-tailed distributions. They have the advantage of having parameters directly related to the moments of practical interest. We derive two estimation procedures for these mixtures.

Promising Effects of Novel Supplement Formulas in Preventing Skin Aging in 3D Human Keratinocytes.

Dietary intervention is considered a safe preventive strategy to slow down aging. This study aimed to evaluate the protective effects of a commercially available supplement and six simpler formulations against DNA damage in 3D human keratinocytes. The ingredients used are well known and were combined into various formulations to test their potential anti-aging properties.

Bile Acids and Bilirubin Role in Oxidative Stress and Inflammation in Cardiovascular Diseases.

Bile acids (BAs) and bilirubin, primarily known for their role in lipid metabolism and as heme catabolite, respectively, have been found to have diverse effects on various physiological processes, including oxidative stress and inflammation. Indeed, accumulating evidence showed that the interplay between BAs and bilirubin in these processes involves intricate regulatory mechanisms mediated by specific receptors and signaling pathways under certain conditions and in specific contexts. Oxidative stress plays a significant role in the development and progression of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) due to its role in inflammation, endothelial dysfunction, hypertension, and other risk factors.

Women and insurance pricing policies: a gender-based analysis with GAMLSS on two actuarial datasets.

In most of the United States, insurance companies may use gender to determine car insurance rates. In addition, several studies have shown that women over the age of 25 generally pay more than men for car insurance. Then, we investigate whether the distributions of claims for women and men differ in location, scale and shape by means of the GAMLSS regression framework, using microdata provided by U.

Emerging Microfluidic Tools for Simultaneous Exosomes and Cargo Biosensing in Liquid Biopsy: New Integrated Miniaturized FFF-Assisted Approach for Colon Cancer Diagnosis.

The early-stage diagnosis of cancer is a crucial clinical need. The inadequacies of surgery tissue biopsy have prompted a transition to a less invasive profiling of molecular biomarkers from biofluids, known as liquid biopsy. Exosomes are phospholipid bilayer vesicles present in many biofluids with a biologically active cargo, being responsible for cell-to-cell communication in biological systems.

Peto's paradox: Nature has used multiple strategies to keep cancer at bay while evolving long lifespans and large body masses. A systematic review.

Comparative oncology is an understudied field of science. We are far from understanding the key mechanisms behind Peto's paradox, i.e.

Local and Overall Deviance R-Squared Measures for Mixtures of Generalized Linear Models.

In generalized linear models (GLMs), measures of lack of fit are typically defined as the deviance between two nested models, and a deviance-based is commonly used to evaluate the fit. In this paper, we extend deviance measures to mixtures of GLMs, whose parameters are estimated by maximum likelihood (ML) via the EM algorithm. Such measures are defined both locally, i.

The spontaneous immortalization probability of mammalian cell culture strains, as their proliferative capacity, correlates with species body mass, not longevity.

Background: The Peto's paradox consists in the observation that individuals from long-lived and large animal species do not experience a higher cancer incidence, despite being exposed for longer time to the possibility of accumulating mutations and having more target cells exposed to the phenomenon. The existence of this paradox has been recently confirmed (Vincze et al., 2022).

Treatment with PCSK9 Inhibitor Evolocumab Improves Vascular Oxidative Stress and Arterial Stiffness in Hypercholesterolemic Patients with High Cardiovascular Risk.

Atherosclerosis and atherosclerotic-related cardiovascular diseases (ASCVD) are characterized by high serum levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) that can promote the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). To answer the need for better LDL-C control in individuals at high and very high risk for CVD, a new injectable innovative family of lipid-lowering (LL) monoclonal antibodies against the protein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9) has been approved. However, the effect of these drugs on vascular function, such as ROS generation and arterial stiffness, has not already been extensively described.

Hybrid Funnel Technique: A Novel Approach for Implant Site Preparation: A Pilot Study.

(1) Background: Different techniques and tools have been developed for implant site preparation. In this clinical scenario, Hybrid Funnel Technique (HFT), a novel osteotomy procedure, has been proposed. (2) Aim: The aim of this retrospective observational study was to consider the different responses to compression of the histological bony compartments (cancellus and cortical).

Quantile hidden semi-Markov models for multivariate time series.

Unlabelled: This paper develops a quantile hidden semi-Markov regression to jointly estimate multiple quantiles for the analysis of multivariate time series. The approach is based upon the Multivariate Asymmetric Laplace (MAL) distribution, which allows to model the quantiles of all univariate conditional distributions of a multivariate response simultaneously, incorporating the correlation structure among the outcomes. Unobserved serial heterogeneity across observations is modeled by introducing regime-dependent parameters that evolve according to a latent finite-state semi-Markov chain.

New Insights into Bile Acids Related Signaling Pathways in the Onset of Colorectal Cancer.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) ranks as the second among the causes of tumor death worldwide, with an estimation of 1.9 million new cases in 2020 and more than 900,000 deaths. This rate might increase by 60% over the next 10 years.

Electrolytic Cleaning and Regenerative Therapy of Peri-implantitis in the Esthetic Area: A Case Report.

Implantology represents the gold standard in oral rehabilitation. Unfortunately, a new pathology begins to show itself to clinicians that no longer affects only and solely the supporting tissues of the tooth but also dental implants and peri-implantitis. In this study, we present a case report regarding a tissue regeneration maneuver involving dental implants.

Parsimonious hidden Markov models for matrix-variate longitudinal data.

Hidden Markov models (HMMs) have been extensively used in the univariate and multivariate literature. However, there has been an increased interest in the analysis of matrix-variate data over the recent years. In this manuscript we introduce HMMs for matrix-variate balanced longitudinal data, by assuming a matrix normal distribution in each hidden state.

Fermentation of Berries with Reduces Oxidative Stress in Endothelial Cells and Modulates Macrophages Function.

Accumulating evidence suggests that high consumption of natural antioxidants promotes health by reducing oxidative stress and, thus, the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases. Similarly, fermentation of natural compounds with lactic acid bacteria (LAB), such as , enhances their beneficial properties as regulators of the immune, digestive, and cardiovascular system. We investigated the effects of fermentation with on the antioxidant and immunomodulatory effects of Pushgay berries (, Ericaceae family) in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) and macrophage cell line RAW264.

Grape Pomace for Topical Application: Green NaDES Sustainable Extraction, Skin Permeation Studies, Antioxidant and Anti-Inflammatory Activities Characterization in 3D Human Keratinocytes.

Food waste is a global problem due to its environmental and economic impact, so there is great demand for the exploitation of new functional applications. The winemaking process leads to an incomplete extraction of high-value compounds, leaving the pomace still rich in polyphenols. This study was aimed at optimising and validating sustainable routes toward the extraction and further valorisation of these polyphenols, particularly for cosmeceutical applications.

Multiple scaled symmetric distributions in allometric studies.

In allometric studies, the joint distribution of the log-transformed morphometric variables is typically symmetric and with heavy tails. Moreover, in the bivariate case, it is customary to explain the morphometric variation of these variables by fitting a convenient line, as for example the first principal component (PC). To account for all these peculiarities, we propose the use of multiple scaled symmetric (MSS) distributions.

Effect of Fermented Broths Enriched with Seed Extracts on Intestinal Barrier and Inflammation in a Co-Culture System of an Enterohemorrhagic and Human Intestinal Cells.

Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) "fermentates" confer a beneficial effect on intestinal function. However, the ability of new fermentations to improve LAB broth activity in preventing pathogen-induced intestinal inflammation and barrier dysfunction has not yet been studied. The objective of this study was to determine if broths of LAB fermented with or seed extracts prevent gut barrier dysfunction and interleukin-8 (CXCL8) release in vitro in human intestinal Caco-2 cells infected with enterohemorrhagic (EHEC) O157:H7.

Dichotomous unimodal compound models: application to the distribution of insurance losses.

A correct modelization of the insurance losses distribution is crucial in the insurance industry. This distribution is generally highly positively skewed, unimodal hump-shaped, and with a heavy right tail. Compound models are a profitable way to accommodate situations in which some of the probability masses are shifted to the tails of the distribution.

Selective chemiluminescent TURN-ON quantitative bioassay and imaging of intracellular hydrogen peroxide in human living cells.

Hydrogen peroxide is an unavoidable by-product of cell metabolism, but when it is not properly managed by the body it can lead to several pathologies (e.g., premature aging, cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases, cancer).

Allometric analysis using the multivariate shifted exponential normal distribution.

In allometric studies, the joint distribution of the log-transformed morphometric variables is typically elliptical and with heavy tails. To account for these peculiarities, we introduce the multivariate shifted exponential normal (MSEN) distribution , an elliptical heavy-tailed generalization of the multivariate normal (MN). The MSEN belongs to the family of MN scale mixtures (MNSMs) by choosing a convenient shifted exponential as mixing distribution.

Multivariate generalized hidden Markov regression models with random covariates: Physical exercise in an elderly population.

A time-varying latent variable model is proposed to jointly analyze multivariate mixed-support longitudinal data. The proposal can be viewed as an extension of hidden Markov regression models with fixed covariates (HMRMFCs), which is the state of the art for modelling longitudinal data, with a special focus on the underlying clustering structure. HMRMFCs are inadequate for applications in which a clustering structure can be identified in the distribution of the covariates, as the clustering is independent from the covariates distribution.

Parsimonious mixtures of multivariate contaminated normal distributions.

A mixture of multivariate contaminated normal distributions is developed for model-based clustering. In addition to the parameters of the classical normal mixture, our contaminated mixture has, for each cluster, a parameter controlling the proportion of mild outliers and one specifying the degree of contamination. Crucially, these parameters do not have to be specified a priori, adding a flexibility to our approach.

The Kullback-Leibler autodependogram.

The autodependogram is a graphical device recently proposed in the literature to analyze autodependencies. It is defined computing the classical Pearson -statistics of independence at various lags in order to point out the presence lag-depedencies. This paper proposes an improvement of this diagram obtained by substituting the -statistics with an estimator of the Kullback-Leibler divergence between the bivariate density of two delayed variables and the product of their marginal distributions.

Bivariate discrete beta Kernel graduation of mortality data.

Various parametric/nonparametric techniques have been proposed in literature to graduate mortality data as a function of age. Nonparametric approaches, as for example kernel smoothing regression, are often preferred because they do not assume any particular mortality law. Among the existing kernel smoothing approaches, the recently proposed (univariate) discrete beta kernel smoother has been shown to provide some benefits.