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For a better understanding of possible physical links between geophysical observables and earthquake characteristics, it is important to analyze statistical spatiotemporal patterns in nature related to such events. For this purpose, characteristic changes in groundwater level (GWL) were observed before and after the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake in Japan. Previous research has shown that self-organizin
The performance of baseband beamforming in multi-user multiple-input multiple-output (MU-MIMO) systems has been extensively studied for simplified statistical channel models where no angular parameters are taken into account. In contrast, there is little performance analysis with ray-based models, which are more physically motivated, feature prominently in standardization and have been experimenta
https://www.schirn.de/en/magazine/interviews/2018_interview/interview_joachim_koester/
AIM: The aim of this study was to assess the predictive role of biomarkers, associated with cardiovascular stress and its neuroendocrine response as well as renal function, in relation to mortality and risk of re-hospitalization among consecutive patients admitted because of heart failure (HF).METHODS AND RESULTS: A total of 286 patients (mean age, 75 years; 29% women) hospitalized for newly diagn
Little attention has been given to the design of efficient studies to evaluate longitudinal biomarkers. Measuring longitudinal markers on an entire cohort is cost prohibitive and, especially for rare outcomes such as cancer, may be infeasible. Thus, methods for evaluation of longitudinal biomarkers using efficient and cost-effective study designs are needed. Case cohort (CCH) and nested case-contr
We propose and study a fully efficient method to estimate associations of an exposure with disease incidence when both, incident cases and prevalent cases, i.e., individuals who were diagnosed with the disease at some prior time point and are alive at the time of sampling, are included in a case-control study. We extend the exponential tilting model for the relationship between exposure and case s
Motivation: Comparisons of microbiome communities across populations are often based on pairwise distance measures (beta-diversity). Standard analyses (principal coordinate plots, permutation tests, kernel methods) require access to primary data if another investigator wants to add or compare independent data. We propose using standard reference measurements to simplify microbiome beta-diversity a
Background: Plasmodium falciparum malaria is an important cause of morbidity in northern Uganda. This study was undertaken to assess village-, household-, and individual-level risk factors of asymptomatic falciparum malaria in children in 12 villages in northern Uganda. Methods: Between 10/2011 and 02/2014, 1006 apparently healthy children under 16 years old were enrolled in 12 villages using a st
Background: Falciparum malaria is an important risk factor for African Burkitt lymphoma (BL), but few studies have evaluated malaria patterns in healthy BL-age children in populations where both diseases are endemic. To obtain accurate current data, patterns of asymptomatic malaria were investigated in northern Uganda, where BL is endemic. Methods: Between 2011 and 2015, 1150 apparently healthy ch
Long-term follow-up is common in many medical investigations where the interest lies in predicting patients’ risks for a future adverse outcome using repeatedly measured predictors over time. A key quantity is the likelihood of developing an adverse outcome among individuals who survived up to time s given their covariate information up to time s. Simple, yet reliable, methodology for updating the
Background: The capacity of electronic health record (EHR) data to guide targeted surveillance in chronic kidney disease (CKD) is unclear. We sought to leverage EHR data for predicting risk of progressing from CKD to end-stage renal disease (ESRD) to help inform surveillance of CKD among vulnerable patients from the healthcare safety-net. Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study of adult
The capacity of risk prediction to guide management of CKD in underserved health settings is unknown. We conducted a retrospective cohort study of 28,779 adults with nondialysis-requiring CKD who received health care in two large safety net health systems during 1996-2009 and were followed for ESRD through September of 2011. We developed and evaluated the performance of ESRD risk prediction models
Plasma-free fatty acids (FFAs) are largely derived from adipose tissue. Elevated levels of FFA and fatty acidebinding protein 4 (FABP4), a key cytoplasmic chaperone of fatty acids, have been associated with adverse cardiovascular outcomes, but limited data are available on the relation of these biomarkers with cardiovascular and total mortality. We studied 4,707 participants with a mean age of 75
Background: Although free fatty acids have been positively associated with risk factors for stroke, the role of plasma free fatty acids in the development of stroke has not been elucidated in older adults. Aims: We sought to examine the association between plasma free fatty acids and incident stroke. Methods: Prospective cohort of 4369 men and women ≥65 years of age in the Cardiovascular Health St
Background: Widespread implementation of Alzheimer's disease biomarkers in routine clinical practice requires the establishment of standard operating procedures for pre-analytical handling of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). Methods: Here, CSF collection and storage protocols were optimized for measurements of β-amyloid (Aβ). We investigated the effects of (1) storage temperature, (2) storage time, (3)
Modern society is increasingly dependent on a reliable supply of electricity. Depending on where an electricity outage occurs and who is affected the consequences may range from a mere nuisance to major economic losses or actual threats against the health and safety of citizens. The direct costs of power outages have been assessed in numerous studies, however electricity outages normally also enta
Geospatial information is indispensable for various real-world applications and is thus a prominent part of today’s data science landscape. Geospatial data is primarily maintained and disseminated through spatial data infrastructures (SDIs). However, current SDIs are facing challenges in terms of data integration and semantic heterogeneity because of their partially siloed data organization. In th
To identify homeless people with chronic kidney disease (CKD) who were at highest risk for end-stage renal disease (ESRD), we studied 982 homeless and 15,674 domiciled people with CKD receiving public health care. We developed four risk prediction models for the primary outcome of ESRD. Overall, 71 homeless and 888 domiciled people progressed to ESRD during follow-up (median: 6.6 years). Homeless
Background Cardiac fibrosis is thought to play a central role in the pathogenesis of atrial fibrillation (AF). Retrospective studies have suggested that circulating fibrosis biomarkers are associated with AF, but prospective studies are limited. Methods We measured circulating levels of 2 fibrosis biomarkers, procollagen type III, N-terminal propeptide (PIIINP) and transforming growth factor β1 am
Although fatty acid binding protein 4 (FABP4) may increase risk of diabetes and exert negative cardiac inotropy, it is unknown whether plasma concentrations of FABP4 are associated with incidence of sudden cardiac death (SCD). We prospectively analyzed data on 4,560 participants of the Cardiovascular Health Study. FABP4 was measured at baseline using ELISA, and SCD events were adjudicated through
