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The analysis of means (ANOM) is a method that can compare the mean of each treatment with the overall mean. As one-way ANOVA, the conventional ANOM is not robust under unequal variances. We applied two inference procedures, single-stage and modified single-stage sampling, to solve heteroscedastic analysis of means (HANOM) under unbalanced design. Using proposed weighted average across groups, the influence of the unknown mean and variance are both eliminated. To validate the stability of HANOM under several scenarios of unequal variances and sample sizes, simulation studies of empirical type I error rate are conducted to test the quality of procedures. A real application is provided for illustrating these two procedures clearly. In addition, we build an user-friendly interface to show the results of the HANOM by using Shiny package in R software. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given k (≥2) independent and normally distributed populations with unknown means and unknown (and possibly unequal) variances, we used the single-stage sampling procedure for multiple comparison with a control to the problem of unequal sample sizes. A simulation of the family-wise error type I was conducted to validate the quality of the procedure and a numerical example was provided for illustrating this procedure. We provided a user-friendly interface by R shiny to obtain the critical values for the practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective : To describe perioperative feeding performance in infants with Robin sequence (RS) who underwent mandibular distraction osteogenesis (MDO). Design : A retrospective study of infants that underwent MDO from May 2010 to December 2019. Setting : Tertiary pediatric hospital. Patients : A total of 40 patients underwent MDO and 20 met inclusion criteria. Of the included infants, 6 had an associated syndrome and 80% were male. Main Outcome Measures : Time to full oral feeds, rate of G-tube placement, and change in weight percentile following MDO. Results : Average oral intake prior to MDO was 22.1% of individual goal feeds. Among the 15 (75%) children that did not require G-tube placement, mean time to full oral feeds after MDO was 11 days ± 5.7 days, with 80% of infants reaching full oral feeds within 2 weeks after extubation. The proportion of G-tube placement in patients with a syndrome was higher than in isolated RS (−0.6; 95% CI: −1.0, −0.2). Mean percentages of weight-for-age percentile decreased during the first 3 months after the procedure. This was followed by a mean upturn in weight starting after the third month after MDO with a recovery to preoperative mean weight-for-age percentiles by 6 months after surgery. Conclusions : This study suggests that infants with RS may achieve full oral feeds despite poor feeding performance before MDO. Infants with syndromic RS are more likely to require G-tube. These findings may be used to inform G-tube discussion and offer a timeline to work toward goal oral feeds for infants with RS after MDO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Timeline followback (TLFB) is often used in addiction research to monitor recent substance use, such as the number of abstinent days in the past week. TLFB data usually take the form of binomial counts that exhibit overdispersion and zero inflation. Motivated by a 12‐week randomized trial evaluating the efficacy of varenicline tartrate for smoking cessation among adolescents, we propose a Bayesian zero‐inflated beta‐binomial model for the analysis of longitudinal, bounded TLFB data. The model comprises a mixture of a point mass that accounts for zero inflation and a beta‐binomial distribution for the number of days abstinent in the past week. Because treatment effects appear to level off during the study, we introduce random changepoints for each study group to reflect group‐specific changes in treatment efficacy over time. The model also includes fixed and random effects that capture group‐ and subject‐level slopes before and after the changepoints. Using the model, we can accurately estimate the mean trend for each study group, test whether the groups experience changepoints simultaneously, and identify critical windows of treatment efficacy. For posterior computation, we propose an efficient Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithm that relies on easily sampled Gibbs and Metropolis–Hastings steps. Our application shows that the varenicline group has a short‐term positive effect on abstinence that tapers off after week 9. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent studies have produced inconsistent findings regarding the association between community social vulnerability and COVID-19 incidence and death rates. This inconsistency may be due, in part, to the fact that these studies modeled cases and deaths separately, ignoring their inherent association and thus yielding imprecise estimates. To improve inferences, we develop a Bayesian multivariate negative binomial model for exploring joint spatial and temporal trends in COVID-19 infections and deaths. The model introduces smooth functions that capture long-term temporal trends, while maintaining enough flexibility to detect local outbreaks in areas with vulnerable populations. Using multivariate autoregressive priors, we jointly model COVID-19 cases and deaths over time, taking advantage of convenient conditional representations to improve posterior computation. As such, the proposed model provides a general framework for multivariate spatiotemporal modeling of counts and rates. We adopt a fully Bayesian approach and develop an efficient posterior Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithm that relies on easily sampled Gibbs steps. We use the model to examine incidence and death rates among counties with high and low social vulnerability in the state of Georgia, USA, from 15 March to 15 December 2020. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To assess the impact of rural-urban residence on children with obstructive sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) who were candidates for tonsillectomy with or without adenoidectomy (TA). Study Design: Retrospective cohort study. Setting: Tertiary children's hospital. Methods: A cohort of otherwise healthy children aged 2 to 18 years with a diagnosis of obstructive SDB between April 2016 and December 2018 who were recommended TA were included. Rural-urban designation was defined by ZIP code approximation of rural-urban commuting area codes. The main outcome was association of rurality with time to TA and loss to follow-up using Cox and logistic regression analyses. Results: In total, 213 patients were included (mean age 6 ± 2.9 years, 117 [55%] male, 69 [32%] rural dwelling). Rural-dwelling children were more often insured by Medicaid than private insurance (P <.001) and had a median driving distance of 74.8 vs 16.8 miles (P <.001) compared to urban-dwelling patients. The majority (94.9%) eventually underwent recommended TA once evaluated by an otolaryngologist. Multivariable logistic regression analysis did not reveal any significant predictors for loss to follow-up in receiving TA. Cox regression analysis that adjusted for age, sex, insurance, and race showed that rural-dwelling patients had a 30% reduction in receipt of TA over time as compared to urban-dwelling patients (hazard ratio, 0.7; 95% CI, 0.50-0.99). Conclusion: Rural-dwelling patients experienced longer wait times and driving distance to TA. This study suggests that rurality should be considered a potential barrier to surgical intervention and highlights the need to further investigate geographic access as an important determinant of care in pediatric SDB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To describe perioperative feeding performance in infants with Robin sequence (RS) who underwent mandibular distraction osteogenesis (MDO)., A retrospective study of infants that underwent MDO from May 2010 to December 2019., Tertiary pediatric hospital., A total of 40 patients underwent MDO and 20 met inclusion criteria. Of the included infants, 6 had an associated syndrome and 80% were male., Time to full oral feeds, rate of G-tube placement, and change in weight percentile following MDO., Average oral intake prior to MDO was 22.1% of individual goal feeds. Among the 15 (75%) children that did not require G-tube placement, mean time to full oral feeds after MDO was 11 days ± 5.7 days, with 80% of infants reaching full oral feeds within 2 weeks after extubation. The proportion of G-tube placement in patients with a syndrome was higher than in isolated RS (-0.6; 95% CI: -1.0, -0.2). Mean percentages of weight-for-age percentile decreased during the first 3 months after the procedure. This was followed by a mean upturn in weight starting after the third month after MDO with a recovery to preoperative mean weight-for-age percentiles by 6 months after surgery., This study suggests that infants with RS may achieve full oral feeds despite poor feeding performance before MDO. Infants with syndromic RS are more likely to require G-tube. These findings may be used to inform G-tube discussion and offer a timeline to work toward goal oral feeds for infants with RS after MDO., Competing Interests: Declaration of Conflicting InterestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.