Comparative Efficacy of Non-contrast vs. Contrast-enhanced CT Radiomics in Predicting Coronary Artery Plaques Among Patients with Low Agatston Scores.

Rationale And Objectives: Patients with a low Agatston score often present with clinical signs and symptoms suggestive of coronary artery disease, despite having minimal calcium deposits. This study aimed to compare the efficacy of low-dose non-contrast cardiac CT with coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) in pericoronary adipose tissue (PCAT) radiomics for predicting coronary artery plaques, using CCTA as the reference standard.

Materials And Methods: This retrospective study analyzed 459 patients with suspected coronary artery disease and a coronary artery calcium score < 100 Agatston units, who were treated between June 2021 and December 2023 at a tertiary hospital.

On the Optimal Combination of Elliptically Distributed Biomarkers to Improve Diagnostic Accuracy.

Diagnostic biomarkers play a critical role in biomedical research, particularly for the diagnosis and prediction of diseases, etc. To enhance diagnostic accuracy, extensive research about combining multiple biomarkers has been developed based on the multivariate normality, which is often not true in practice, as most biomarkers follow distributions that deviate from normality. While the likelihood ratio combination is recognized to be the optimal approach, it is complicated to calculate.

Protective antibody threshold of RTS,S/AS01 malaria vaccine correlates antigen and adjuvant dose in mouse model.

Mouse models are useful for the early down-selection of malaria vaccine candidates. The Walter Reed Army Institute of Research has optimized a transgenic Plasmodium berghei sporozoite challenge model to compare the efficacy of Plasmodium falciparum circumsporozoite protein (CSP) vaccines. GSK's RTS,S vaccine formulated in the adjuvant AS01 can protect malaria-naïve individuals against malaria.

Differential Genome Replication of a Unique Single-Amino-Acid Mutation in the Adenovirus-4 Component of the Live Oral Adenovirus Type 4 and Type 7 Vaccine.

The FDA-approved Adenovirus Type 4 and Type 7 Vaccine, Live, Oral is highly effective and essential in preventing acute respiratory diseases (ARDs) in U.S. military recruits.

Comprehensive bioinformatic analysis of the expression and prognostic significance of TSC22D domain family genes in adult acute myeloid leukemia.

Background: TSC22D domain family genes, including TSC22D1-4, play a principal role in cancer progression. However, their expression profiles and prognostic significance in adult acute myeloid leukemia (AML) remain unknown.

Methods: The online databases, including HPA, CCLE, EMBL-EBI, GEPIA2, BloodSpot, GENT2, UCSCXenaShiny, GSCALite, cBioportal, and GenomicScape, utilized the data of TCGA and GEO to investigate gene expression, mutation, copy number variation (CNV), and prognostic significance of the TSC22D domain family in adult AML.

Quantification of epicardial fat volume using low-dose cardiac scan in patients with low calcium score.

Background: We investigated the accuracy of quantifying epicardial adipose tissue volume (EATV) using low-dose cardiac scan (EATV) and evaluated its clinical utility in predicting coronary heart disease in patients with low or mild calcification.

Methods: In total, 204 patients with clinical symptoms of coronary heart disease and coronary artery calcium score (CACS) of <100 AU were enrolled in this retrospective study. After obtaining EATV and EATV measured using computed tomography angiography (EATV), the agreement between the two measurements was evaluated using Pearson correlation coefficient and Bland-Altman analysis.

Assessment of nonlinear dose-response relationships via nonparametric regression.

We propose a simple approach to assess whether a nonlinear parametric model is appropriate to depict the dose-response relationships and whether two parametric models can be applied to fit a dataset via nonparametric regression. The proposed approach can compensate for the ANOVA, which is sometimes conservative, and is very easy to implement. We illustrate the performance by analyzing experimental examples and a small simulation study.

Characterization of isolated starch from Fort. root and anhydro-sugars preparation using its decoction residues.

Fort. root (Ban-lan-gen, IIR), a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), has an ancient and well-documented history for its medicinal properties. Aside from epigoitrin, indole alkaloids, and their corresponding derivatives as medicinal ingredients, it also contains lots of biomass such as starch.

A Voting-Based Ensemble Deep Learning Method Focused on Multi-Step Prediction of Food Safety Risk Levels: Applications in Hazard Analysis of Heavy Metals in Grain Processing Products.

Grain processing products constitute an essential component of the human diet and are among the main sources of heavy metal intake. Therefore, a systematic assessment of risk factors and early-warning systems are vital to control heavy metal hazards in grain processing products. In this study, we established a risk assessment model to systematically analyze heavy metal hazards and combined the model with the K-means++ algorithm to perform risk level classification.

In vitro and in vivo inhibition of malaria parasite infection by monoclonal antibodies against Plasmodium falciparum circumsporozoite protein (CSP).

Plasmodium falciparum malaria contributes to a significant global disease burden. Circumsporozoite protein (CSP), the most abundant sporozoite stage antigen, is a prime vaccine candidate. Inhibitory monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) against CSP map to either a short junctional sequence or the central (NPNA) repeat region.

An Android Inline Hooking Framework for the Securing Transmitted Data.

Information leaks can occur through many Android applications, including unauthorized access to sensors data. Hooking is an important technique for protecting Android applications and add security features to them even without its source code. Various hooking frameworks are developed to intercept events and process their own specific events.

Comparison of Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains reveals that Exolysin A toxin plays an additive role in virulence.

Background: Pseudomonas aeruginosa possesses an array of virulence genes ensuring successful infection development. A two-partner secretion system Exolysin BA (ExlBA) is expressed in the PA7-like genetic outliers consisting of ExlA, a pore-forming toxin and ExlB transporter protein. Presence of exlBA in multidrug-resistant (MDR) strains has not been investigated, particularly in the strains isolated from wounded soldiers.

Decomposition feature selection with applications in detecting correlated biomarkers of bipolar disorders.

Feature selection is an important initial step of exploratory analysis in biomedical studies. Its main objective is to eliminate the covariates that are uncorrelated with the outcome. For highly correlated covariates, traditional feature selection methods, such as the Lasso, tend to select one of them and eliminate the others, although some of the eliminated ones are still scientifically valuable.

Longitudinal survey of condom use across a US Navy and Marine Corps shipboard deployment.

Objectives: Condoms are highly effective in preventing sexually transmitted infections (STIs) but implementation is often inconsistent with use rarely examined across travel transition periods. We examined the prevalence of condom use among ship-assigned US military personnel across an overseas deployment cycle and identified factors associated with condom non-use.

Methods: Longitudinal survey data were collected from ship-assigned US Navy/Marine Corps personnel on 11 ships before (T1), during (T2) and after (T3) an overseas deployment.

An Identity-Based Anti-Quantum Privacy-Preserving Blind Authentication in Wireless Sensor Networks.

With the development of wireless sensor networks, IoT devices are crucial for the Smart City; these devices change people's lives such as e-payment and e-voting systems. However, in these two systems, the state-of-art authentication protocols based on traditional number theory cannot defeat a quantum computer attack. In order to protect user privacy and guarantee trustworthy of big data, we propose a new identity-based blind signature scheme based on number theorem research unit lattice, this scheme mainly uses a rejection sampling theorem instead of constructing a trapdoor.

Elevated Serum Levels of sCD30 and IL6 and Detectable IL10 Precede Classical Hodgkin Lymphoma Diagnosis.

We investigated whether an immune system environment characterized by elevated serum levels of B-cell activation molecules was associated with the subsequent development of classical Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL). We measured serum levels of B-cell-stimulatory cytokines, IL6 and IL10, soluble CD30 (sCD30), and total IgE prior to cHL diagnosis in 103 cases and 206 matched controls with archived specimens in the DoD Serum Repository. Prediagnosis serum sCD30 and IL6 levels had strong positive associations with risk of a cHL diagnosis 0 to 1 year prior to diagnosis [sCD30 OR = 5.

Revealing Facts and Avoiding Biases: A Review of Several Common Problems in Statistical Analyses of Epidemiological Data.

This paper reviews several common challenges encountered in statistical analyses of epidemiological data for epidemiologists. We focus on the application of linear regression, multivariate logistic regression, and log-linear modeling to epidemiological data. Specific topics include: (a) deletion of outliers, (b) heteroscedasticity in linear regression, (c) limitations of principal component analysis in dimension reduction, (d) hazard ratio vs.

Biomarker identification and effect estimation on schizophrenia - a high dimensional data analysis.

Biomarkers have been examined in schizophrenia research for decades. Medical morbidity and mortality rates, as well as personal and societal costs, are associated with schizophrenia patients. The identification of biomarkers and alleles, which often have a small effect individually, may help to develop new diagnostic tests for early identification and treatment.

Association between antibodies to multiple infectious and food antigens and new onset schizophrenia among US military personnel.

Introduction: Multiple studies have documented immune activation in many individuals with schizophrenia suggesting that antigens capable of generating a prolonged immune response may be important environmental factors in many cases of this disorder. While existing studies have found single-agent associations of antibodies to food and neurotropic infectious agents with schizophrenia, a simultaneous examination of multiple agents may shed light on agent interactions or possible etiopathogenic pathways.

Methods: We used traditional regression and novel statistical techniques to examine associations of single and combined infectious and food antigens with schizophrenia.

Genetic association with multiple traits in the presence of population stratification.

Testing association between a genetic marker and multiple-dependent traits is a challenging task when both binary and quantitative traits are involved. The inverted regression model is a convenient method, in which the traits are treated as predictors although the genetic marker is an ordinal response. It is known that population stratification (PS) often affects population-based association studies.

An evaluation of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief effect on health systems strengthening in sub-Saharan Africa.

Background: President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) has been criticized for its vertical or "stove-piping" structure, with resources targeting a specific disease rather than working to strengthen the underlying health system. This study aimed to evaluate whether PEPFAR activities were associated with system-wide improvements in both proximal and distal indicators of health systems strengthening.

Methods: The World Bank database provided 12 indicators of health systems strengthening that were analyzed for their relationship to PEPFAR.

National estimates of seroincidence and seroprevalence for herpes simplex virus type 1 and type 2 among US military adults aged 18 to 29 years.

Background: While population-based seroprevalence studies of herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) and type 2 (HSV-2) are widespread, seroincidence studies are largely limited to select or high-risk populations. The US military offers a potential population to derive national seroincidence rate estimates for young adults (ages 18-29).

Methods: We used banked, longitudinal serum specimens collected in a cohort of 1094 military personnel aged 18 to 30 years who served between 1989 and 2005 to estimate national HSV-1 and HSV-2 seroincidence and seroprevalence for the young, adult military population, weighted according to the US Census.

Impact of targeted testing for latent tuberculosis infection using commercially available diagnostics.

Background: The interferon-γ release assays (IGRAs) are increasingly being used as an alternative to the tuberculin skin test (TST). Although IGRAs may have better specificity and certain logistic advantages to the TST, their use may contribute to overtesting of low-prevalence populations if testing is not targeted. The objective of this study was to evaluate the accuracy of a risk factor questionnaire in predicting a positive test result for latent tuberculosis infection using the 3 commercially available diagnostics.

Descriptive epidemiology and natural history of idiopathic venous thromboembolism in U.S. active duty enlisted personnel, 1998-2007.

The estimated incidence of idiopathic venous thromboembolism (IVTE) cases in the United States ranges from 24,000 to 282,000/year. This analysis explores the incidence and prevalence of IVTE in the military and if cases experience increased attrition. The Defense Medical Surveillance System was searched for incident IVTE cases from 1998 through 2007.

U.S. military recruits waived for pathological curvature of the spine: increased risk of discharge from service.

Selective accession waivers for medically disqualifying conditions like spinal curvature are one way the military meets its manpower needs. We evaluated retention patterns during the first 2 years of service of a cohort of military recruits with waivers for pathological curvature of the spine (spinal curvature). Recruits waived for spinal curvature (n = 417), who accessed from 1998 to 2005 were identified and matched with 3 qualified recruits.