Flexible Distribution-Based Regression Models for Count Data: Application to Medical Diagnosis

Abstract

Data mining techniques have been successfully utilized in different applications of significant fields, including medical research. With the wealth of data available within the health-care systems, there is a lack of practical analysis tools to discover hidden relationships and trends in data. The complexity of medical data that is unfavorable for most models is a considerable challenge in prediction. The ability of a model to perform accurately and efficiently in disease diagnosis is extremely significant. Thus, the model must be selected to fit the data better, such that the learning from previous data is most efficient, and the diagnosis of the disease is highly accurate. This work is motivated by the limited number of regression analysis tools for multivariate counts in the literature. We propose two regression models for count data based on flexible distributions, namely, the multinomial Beta-Liouville and multinomial scaled Dirichlet, and evaluated the proposed models in the problem of disease diagnosis. The performance is evaluated based on the accuracy of the prediction which depends on the nature and complexity of the dataset. Our results show the efficiency of the two proposed regression models where the prediction performance of both models is competitive to other previously used regression models for count data and to the best results in the literature.     

Calcium phosphates grown on bacterial cellulose template

Bacterial cellulose membranes were employed as templates for calcium phosphates deposition by successive immersion in solutions of Ca(NO₃)₂·4H₂O and (NH₄)₂HPO₄, under ultrasonication. During the wet chemical reaction, mineral phases were loaded on bacterial cellulose fibrils, leading to precursor hybrid composites. These were subjected to a lyophilisation procedure in order to preserve the 3D porous aspect and afterwards to a thermal treatment with the aim of removing the polymeric phase and generating well crystallized structures. Different types of morphologies were achieved by varying the heating rate, as well as the calcination temperature and period. The as-prepared samples and the final ones were investigated from compositional and structural point of view through X-ray diffraction and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy and morphologically concerning by scanning electron microscopy. The magnetic properties were also evaluated in order to demonstrate the suitability of the obtained materials for the development of magnetic scaffolds dedicated to hard tissue applications.     

低温脂肪酶产生菌的筛选、鉴定及其部分酶学性质

从南极乔治王岛冻土来源的76株低温细菌中筛选到13株低温脂肪酶产生菌，对其中的BTsl0022菌株进行鉴定。通过生理生化特征、16s rDNA基因序列的同源性和系统发育分析发现，菌株RTsl0022属于假单胞菌属(Pseudomonas)，但与已定名的假单胞菌有一定的差异，与未定名的Pseudomonas sp．PsB的亲缘关系最接近，故将其暂定名为Pseudomonas sp．BTsl0022。对该菌脂肪酶的酶学性质初步研究表明，酶的最适作用温度为24℃，对热敏感，60℃处理30min仅残留25％酶活性，酶的适宜作用pH范围在7．0～9．0，最适pH为8．0。     

Probing nanomechanical properties of nickel coated bacteria by nanoindentation

As a powerful method for the study of mechanical properties at micro-/nanoscale, nanoindentation was applied to measure the hardness and elastic modulus of bacteria-templated metallic nanomaterials for the first time. Based on the morphological characterization by Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), nanoindentation testing results showed that after coating with nickel via electroless chemical plating, the elastic modulus and hardness of bacterial cells were increased about 17 times and 50 times, respectively, indicating a great improvement in mechanical properties. This study would lay a forceful mechanical foundation for a better and general understanding of this kind of biotemplated metallic nanomaterials, which showed potential applications in nanoelectronics, nanomagnetism and nanomechanics.     

Signed line intercept count

Elements of surfaces that bound a phase (β) in a two phase mixture (α+β) may be classified as: (a) convex (++) if both principal curvatures are positive; (b) concave (? ?) if both are negative; and (c) saddle (+ ?) if one is positive and the other negative. This classification excludes the limiting cases for which one or both of the principal curvatures is zero. The traces of these surfaces that form the boundaries of the β areas on a representative two dimensional section may also be: (a) convex (+) if the local curvature is positive; or (b) concave (?) if it is negative. Line intercepts may be tabulated separately for intersections with convex (+) and concave (?) segments of boundary. This paper presents a derivation of fundamental stereological formulae that relate these counting measurements to three-dimensional geometric properties of the structure they sample.     

节能降耗提高矿山效益

节能降耗是每一个矿山提高经济效益的有效途径。我们采取提高球磨机处理能力，降低单耗；利用“分时计价”政策，采用“避峰作业”；使用新设备等措施节能降耗，提高矿山经济效益。     

Fabricated Beef Product: Effect of Handling Conditions on Microbiological, Chemical, and Sensory Properties

Total microbial count was not adversely affected by lowering the holding temperature of fabricated beef roast from 60°C to 54°C or by 12 hr holding time. If a reduction in holding temperature is anticipated, then initial roast contamination and sanitation of the food facility are of critical importance. A stabilizing period of 20 min at room temperature (～23°C) did not decrease yield, but caused a slight lowering of sensory scores. Tenderness was more acceptable in product held at 54°C compared to 60°C. In general, all sensory evaluation ratings were slightly lower with increased holding time.     

高层印制线路板正面临的对位挑战

封装工业正在推动着印制线路板技术水平朝着半导体要求的方向发展。高密度印制线路板正广泛用于网络路由器、自动测试设备和服务器领域。高密度要求(>150 IO/cm~2)正成为客户的普通需求。为满足现有的高密度封装要求,由于线宽、线距和通孔孔径正接近传统制作极限,普遍的方法就是不断增加印制线路板的层数。这些特征正驱动着印制线路板在基材、图像转移、蚀刻、电镀、阻焊、测试流程和对位系统的变化。此文主要讲述了印制线路板特性的变化趋势和利用对位模式和雷利分布去预测满足高级对位要求的能力以及印制线路板各流程中有关对准度的控制要点。     

Current and emerging molecular diagnostic technologies applicable to bacterial food safety

There is an increasing need for rapid test methods to certify the quality and safety of food products. Current tests applied for the microbiological assessment of food products are based on standard approved culture-based isolation methods and can take several days to yield results. Nucleic acid diagnostic (NAD) tests for the identification of bacterial foodborne pathogens employing in vitro amplification technologies are capable of sensitive and specific detection of single or multiple pathogens in foods in a shorter timeframe than traditional methods. New developments in molecular biosensors have the potential to provide at-line bioanalysis, whereas microarray-based technologies may in the future be the NAD platforms of choice for multiple pathogen detection and identification. This article reviews current and emerging NAD platforms for foodborne bacterial pathogens that have the potential to impact food safety.     

Inference for pth‐order random coefficient integer‐valued autoregressive processes

Abstract. A pth‐order random coefficient integer‐valued autoregressive [RCINAR(p)] model is proposed for count data. Stationarity and ergodicity properties are established. Maximum likelihood, conditional least squares, modified quasi‐likelihood and generalized method of moments are used to estimate the model parameters. Asymptotic properties of the estimators are derived. Simulation results on the comparison of the estimators are reported. The models are applied to two real data sets.