A phase IIb randomized placebo-controlled trial testing the effect of MAG-EPA long-chain omega-3 fatty acid dietary supplement on prostate cancer proliferation.

Background: High prostate eicosapentaenoic fatty acid (EPA) levels were associated with a significant reduction of upgrading to grade group (GG) ≥ 2 prostate cancer in men under active surveillance. We aimed to evaluate the effect of MAG-EPA long-chain omega-3 fatty acid dietary supplement on prostate cancer proliferation.

Methods: A phase II double-blind randomized placebo-controlled trial was conducted in 130 men diagnosed with GG ≥ 2 prostate cancer and undergoing radical prostatectomy between 2015-2017 (Clinicaltrials.

Effects of Concentrated Long-Chain Omega-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acid Supplementation on Quality of Life after Radical Prostatectomy: A Phase II Randomized Placebo-Controlled Trial (RCT-EPA).

Prostate cancer (PCa) and associated treatments incur symptoms that may impact patients' quality of life. Studies have shown beneficial relationships between diet, especially omega-3 fatty acids, and these symptoms. Unfortunately, only few data describing the relationship between long-chain omega-3 fatty acids (LCn3) and PCa-related symptoms in patients are available.

Multi-mode movement decisions across widely ranging behavioral processes.

Movement of organisms plays a fundamental role in the evolution and diversity of life. Animals typically move at an irregular pace over time and space, alternating among movement states. Understanding movement decisions and developing mechanistic models of animal distribution dynamics can thus be contingent to adequate discrimination of behavioral phases.

Effects of concentrated long-chain omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid supplementation before radical prostatectomy on prostate cancer proliferation, inflammation, and quality of life: study protocol for a phase IIb, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial.

Background: Prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in north-American men. Few dietary or lifestyle interventions have been tested to prevent prostate cancer progression. Omega-3 fatty acid supplementation represents a promising intervention for prostate cancer patients.

Survival analysis and classification methods for forest fire size.

Factors affecting wildland-fire size distribution include weather, fuels, and fire suppression activities. We present a novel application of survival analysis to quantify the effects of these factors on a sample of sizes of lightning-caused fires from Alberta, Canada. Two events were observed for each fire: the size at initial assessment (by the first fire fighters to arrive at the scene) and the size at "being held" (a state when no further increase in size is expected).

Forest productivity mitigates human disturbance effects on late-seral prey exposed to apparent competitors and predators.

Primary production can determine the outcome of management actions on ecosystem properties, thereby defining sustainable management. Yet human agencies commonly overlook spatio-temporal variations in productivity by recommending fixed resource extraction thresholds. We studied the influence of forest productivity on habitat disturbance levels that boreal caribou - a threatened, late-seral ungulate under top-down control - should be able to withstand.

A Randomized Double-Blind Placebo-Controlled Trial of the Effect of Vitamin D Supplementation on Breast Density in Premenopausal Women.

This double-blind, placebo-controlled parallel group trial assessed whether oral supplementation with 1,000, 2,000, or 3,000 IU/day vitamin D over one year reduces percent mammographic breast density in premenopausal women. The trial was conducted between October 2012 and June 2015, among premenopausal female volunteers from Quebec City (Quebec, Canada). Women were randomized with ratio 1:1:1:1 to one of four study arms (1,000, 2,000, or 3,000 IU/day vitamin D or placebo).

Association measures for bivariate failure times in the presence of a cure fraction.

This paper proposes a new joint model for pairs of failure times in the presence of a cure fraction. The proposed model relaxes some of the assumptions required by the existing approaches. This allows us to add some flexibility to the dependence structure and to widen the range of association measures that can be defined.

On the validity of within-nuclear-family genetic association analysis in samples of extended families.

Splitting extended families into their component nuclear families to apply a genetic association method designed for nuclear families is a widespread practice in familial genetic studies. Dependence among genotypes and phenotypes of nuclear families from the same extended family arises because of genetic linkage of the tested marker with a risk variant or because of familial specificity of genetic effects due to gene-environment interaction. This raises concerns about the validity of inference conducted under the assumption of independence of the nuclear families.

Multilevel Analysis of the Predictors of HIV Prevalence among Pregnant Women Enrolled in Annual HIV Sentinel Surveillance in Four States in Southern India.

Background: Heterogeneity of the HIV epidemic across districts of south India is reflected in HIV positivity among antenatal clinic (ANC) attendees. Along with individual factors, contextual factors also need consideration for effective HIV interventions. Thus, identifying district and individual level factors that influence ANC HIV positivity assumes importance to intervene effectively.

Equivalence between Step Selection Functions and Biased Correlated Random Walks for Statistical Inference on Animal Movement.

Animal movement has a fundamental impact on population and community structure and dynamics. Biased correlated random walks (BCRW) and step selection functions (SSF) are commonly used to study movements. Because no studies have contrasted the parameters and the statistical properties of their estimators for models constructed under these two Lagrangian approaches, it remains unclear whether or not they allow for similar inference.

Increased HIV prevention program coverage and decline in HIV prevalence among female sex workers in south India.

Background: As one way of assessing the impact of Avahan, the India AIDS Initiative of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, we examined the association between HIV prevention program indicators and changes in HIV prevalence among female sex workers (FSWs) between 2005 and 2009.

Methods: We conducted a secondary data analysis from 2 large cross-sectional surveys (2005-2006 and 2008-2009) across 24 districts in south India (n = 11,000 per round). A random-effect multilevel logistic regression analysis was performed using HIV as the outcome, with individual independent variables (from both surveys) at level 1 and district-level FSW-specific program indicators and contextual variables at level 2.

Two cross-sectional studies in south India assessing the effect of an HIV prevention programme for female sex workers on reducing syphilis among their clients.

Objective: To assess the impact of the Avahan HIV prevention programme for female sex workers (FSWs) in south India on reducing syphilis prevalence among their clients, by comparing rates of syphilis over time as reported in two large-scale surveys of FSWs' clients.

Methods: A random-effect multilevel logistic regression analysis was performed using syphilis as the dependent variable, with individual independent variables (from the two survey rounds) at level 1 and the district-level programme (from the Avahan computerised monitoring and information system) and contextual variables (from Indian government datasets) at level 2. Programme variables included their 2006 value and their difference in value between 2008 and 2006, as well as the interaction between the latter and the study round.

Assessing outcomes of large-scale public health interventions in the absence of baseline data using a mixture of Cox and binomial regressions.

Background: Large-scale public health interventions with rapid scale-up are increasingly being implemented worldwide. Such implementation allows for a large target population to be reached in a short period of time. But when the time comes to investigate the effectiveness of these interventions, the rapid scale-up creates several methodological challenges, such as the lack of baseline data and the absence of control groups.

Effects of a telehealth programme using mobile data transmission on primary healthcare utilisation among children in Bamako, Mali.

Pesinet is a non-profit organisation which operates a microinsurance programme combined with a monitoring service in low-income countries to increase primary healthcare utilisation for children. We studied the association between enrolment in the Pesinet programme and changes in utilisation of health services. We conducted a prospective controlled study in Bamako (Mali) in children under five years old.

A two-stage, single-arm, phase II study of EGCG-enriched green tea drink as a maintenance therapy in women with advanced stage ovarian cancer.

Objectives: A two-stage, single-arm, phase II study was conducted to assess the effectiveness and safety of an epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG)-enriched tea drink, the double-brewed green tea (DBGT), as a maintenance treatment in women with advanced stage serous or endometrioid ovarian cancer (clinicaltrials.gov, NCT00721890).

Methods: Eligible women had FIGO stage III-IV serous or endometrioid ovarian cancer.

Population-level impact of Avahan in Karnataka state, south India using multilevel statistical modelling techniques.

Objective: To assess the population-level impact of "Avahan," the India AIDS Initiative of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, between 2003 and 2008 in Karnataka state, India.

Design: Secondary data analysis using all consistent data collection sites from antenatal clinic (ANC) sentinel surveillance data from 2003 to 2008 in Karnataka.

Methods: A multilevel logistic regression model considering individual- and district-level variables was developed to compare time trends in HIV prevalence among young ANC women (younger than 25 years of age) between Avahan (18) and non-Avahan (9) districts.

Variance estimation and confidence intervals for the standardized mortality ratio with application to the assessment of a cancer screening program.

The effect of a cancer screening program can be measured through the standardized mortality ratio (SMR) statistic. The numerator of the SMR is the observed number of deaths from the screened disease among participants in the screening program, whereas the denominator of the SMR is an estimate of the expected number of deaths in these participants under the assumption that the screening program has no effect. In this article, we propose a variance estimator for the denominator of the SMR when this expected number of deaths is estimated with Sasieni's method.

A generalization of Turnbull's estimator for nonparametric estimation of the conditional survival function with interval-censored data.

Simple nonparametric estimates of the conditional distribution of a response variable given a covariate are often useful for data exploration purposes or to help with the specification or validation of a parametric or semi-parametric regression model. In this paper we propose such an estimator in the case where the response variable is interval-censored and the covariate is continuous. Our approach consists in adding weights that depend on the covariate value in the self-consistency equation proposed by Turnbull (J R Stat Soc Ser B 38:290-295, 1976), which results in an estimator that is no more difficult to implement than Turnbull's estimator itself.

Mixed conditional logistic regression for habitat selection studies.

1. Resource selection functions (RSFs) are becoming a dominant tool in habitat selection studies. RSF coefficients can be estimated with unconditional (standard) and conditional logistic regressions.

Serum prognostic markers in head and neck cancer.

Purpose: Recognized prognostic factors do not adequately predict outcomes of head and neck cancer (HNC) patients after their initial treatment. We identified from the literature nine potential serum prognostic markers and assessed whether they improve outcome prediction.

Experimental Design: A pretreatment serum sample was obtained from 527 of the 540 HNC patients who participated in a randomized controlled trial.

Group-size-mediated habitat selection and group fusion-fission dynamics of bison under predation risk.

For gregarious animals the cost-benefit trade-offs that drive habitat selection may vary dynamically with group size, which plays an important role in foraging and predator avoidance strategies. We examined how habitat selection by bison (Bison bison) varied as a function of group size and interpreted these patterns by testing whether habitat selection was more strongly driven by the competing demands of forage intake vs. predator avoidance behavior.

Identification of cancer care and protocol characteristics associated with recruitment in breast cancer clinical trials.

Purpose: It is estimated that only 5% of patients with cancer participate in a clinical trial. Barriers to participation may relate to available protocols, physicians, and patients, but few data exist on barriers related to cancer care environments and protocol characteristics.

Methods: The primary objective was to identify characteristics of cancer care environments and clinical trial protocols associated with a low recruitment into breast cancer clinical trials.