Monitoring the Comparative Safety of SGLT2i vs GLP-1 RA in Older Adults With Type 2 Diabetes by Frailty Status

Using Medicare (4/2013-12/2017), we conducted 9 sequential analyses of patients with type 2 diabetes initiating SGLT2i vs. GLP1-RA mimicking the accrual of new data every 6 months to monitor SGLT2i safety with respect to diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) since their U.S. approval. For each analysis, we estimated cumulative HRs (95% CIs) after 1:1 propensity score matching on >70 covariates comparing treatments within frail and non-frail patients. By analysis 1, SGLT2i were associated with a higher DKA rate vs. GLP-1RA in both frail and non-frail patients, but results were highly imprecise due to few events. With the accrual of more DKA events, precision of the estimates continued to improve through analysis 9 [HR=2.95 (95% CI, 1.19-7.31)] in frail patients; [HR=1.77 (1.15, 2.75)] in non-frail patients], with sufficiently precise estimates by analysis 6 in frail patients [HR=2.80 (95% CI, 1.03, 7.61)] and by analysis 7 in non-frail patients [HR=1.62 (95% CI, 1.01, 2.57)].

Does background color affect moral judgment? A registered replication report of Zarkadi and Schnall’s (2013) Study 1

Do colored backgrounds lead to polarized judgments? Zarkadi and Schnall (2013) found in their Study 1 that, indeed, exposing participants to a black-and-white (versus other colored) background polarized participants’ judgments in a moral dilemma task. This study supported a moral intuitionist model of moral judgment and lent further support to so-called Conceptual Metaphor Theories (Lakoff & Johnson, 1999).After a large pilot study (n = 12,322) that failed to replicate this effect, we conducted two strict preregistered replications relying on Bayesian sequential analyses. First study ran on a French-speaking sample (min N = 300, max N = 450) indicated that our data supports the [presence/absence] of an effect and/while data from the second study ran on an English-speaking sample (min N = 300, max N = 450) [also/while] [does not support/supports] the presence/absence of an effect. This research [confirms/failed to confirm] the effect of the background color on a moral dilemma evaluation and indicates that color may [not be/be determinative] in moral judgement formations. [There is thus strong evidence for the link between polarized color and judgments/There is therefore no evidence for the effect and we think that this line of research is a dead end].

Association between long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) GAS5 polymorphism rs145204276 and cancer risk

Objective The long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) growth arrest‑specific transcript 5 (GAS5) plays an important role in various tumors, and an increasing number of studies have explored the association of the GAS5 rs145204276 polymorphism with cancer risk with inconclusive results. Methods PubMed, Medline, EMBASE, Cochrane databases, and Web of Science were searched, and nine studies involving 6107 cases and 7909 controls were deemed eligible. Odds ratios (ORs) and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated to evaluate the relationship between rs145204276 and cancer risk in six genetic models. Results The pooled results suggest that the variant allele del was not associated with overall cancer risk. However, the subgroup analysis showed that allele del was significantly associated with a 22% decreased risk of gastrointestinal cancer (OR = 0.78, 95% CI: 0.72–0.85). Both sensitivity analyses and trial sequential analyses (TSA) demonstrated that the subgroup results were reliable and robust. Moreover, False-Positive Report Probability (FPRP) analysis indicated that the results had true significant correlations. Conclusion These findings provide evidence that the GAS5 rs145204276 polymorphism is associated with the susceptibility to gastrointestinal cancer. Further studies with different ethnicities and larger sample sizes are warranted to confirm these results.

Sequentially Working Origami Multi-Physics Simulator (SWOMPS): A Versatile Implementation

This work presents the underlying implementation of a new origami simulator (SWOMPS) that allows for adaptability and versatility with sequential analyses and multi-physical behaviors of active origami systems. The implementation allows for easy updating of origami properties, realistic simulation with multi-physics based actuation, and versatile application of different loadings in arbitrary number and sequence. The presented simulator can capture coupling between multiple origami behaviors including electro-thermo-mechanical actuation, heat transfer, self-stress induced folding, inter panel contact, applied loading forces, and kinematic/mechanical deformations. The simulator contains five different solvers, including three for mechanical loading, one for self-folding, and one for thermal loading. The paper presents details of this code package and uses three practical examples to highlight the versatility and efficiency of the package. Because various loadings and different origami behaviors can be modeled simultaneously and/or sequentially, this simulator is well suited for capturing origami behaviors in practical real-world scenarios. Furthermore, the ability to apply an arbitrary number and sequence of loadings is useful for design, optimization, or system control studies where an unknown set of loads are needed to fold functional active origami. The coded implementation for this simulator and additional examples are made available to encourage future expansions of this work where new sequential and multi-physical behaviors in origami can be explored.

Lifetime mobility of an Arctic woolly mammoth

Little is known about woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) mobility and range. Here we use high temporal resolution sequential analyses of strontium isotope ratios along an entire 1.7-meter-long tusk to reconstruct the movements of an Arctic woolly mammoth that lived 17,100 years ago, during the last ice age. We use an isotope-guided random walk approach to compare the tusk’s strontium and oxygen isotope profiles to isotopic maps. Our modeling reveals patterns of movement across a geographically extensive range during the animal’s ~28-year life span that varied with life stages. Maintenance of this level of mobility by megafaunal species such as mammoth would have been increasingly difficult as the ice age ended and the environment changed at high latitudes.

Colchicine in Patients With Coronary Artery Disease: A Systematic Review and Meta‐Analysis of Randomized Trials

Background Inflammation plays a pivotal role in coronary artery disease (CAD). The anti‐inflammatory drug colchicine seems to reduce ischemic events in patients with CAD. So far there is equipoise about its safety and impact on mortality. Methods and Results To evaluate the utility of colchicine in patients with acute and chronic CAD, we performed a systematic review and meta‐analysis. MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane CENTRAL and conference abstracts were searched from January 1975 to October 2020. Randomized trials assessing colchicine compared with placebo/standard therapy in patients with CAD were included. Data were combined using random‐effects models. The reliability of the available data was tested using trial sequential analyses . Of 3108 citations, 13 randomized trials (n=13 125) were included. Colchicine versus placebo/standard therapy in patients with CAD reduced risk of myocardial infarction (odds ratio [OR] 0.64; 95% CI, 0.46–0.90; P =0.01; I 2 41%) and stroke/transient ischemic attack (OR 0.50; 95% CI, 0.31–0.81; P =0.005; I 2 0%). But treatment with colchicine compared with placebo/standard therapy had no influence on all‐cause and cardiovascular mortality (OR 0.96; 95% CI, 0.65–1.41; P =0.83; I 2 24%; and OR 0.82; 95% CI, 0.55–1.22; P =0.45; I 2 0%, respectively). Colchicine increased the risk for gastrointestinal side effects ( P <0.001). According to trial sequential analyses, there is only sufficient evidence for a myocardial infarction risk reduction with colchicine. Conclusions Among patients with CAD, colchicine reduces the risk of myocardial infarction and stroke, but has a higher rate of gastrointestinal upset with no influence on all‐cause mortality.

On affiliation and alignment: Non-cooperative uses of anticipatory completions in the context of tellings

In this paper, we address the larger notion of cooperation in interaction and its underlying dimensions as defined in Conversation Analysis: alignment and affiliation. Focusing on three cases from three different languages (Danish, Estonian and Finnish) we investigate a specific practice, that of anticipatory completions, in a particular context, that of storytelling, and show that the practice of completing another speaker’s turn in an anticipatory manner is not de facto definable as either an aligning or non-aligning action, nor can it be said to be either affiliating or non-affiliating. Through our analyses, we aim to distinguish and illustrate the manifold layers of and perspectives to alignment and affiliation and argue for their relevance for studies of interactional phenomena. We conclude that the notion of cooperation and its implementation through affiliating and/or aligning actions is a multi-layered and complex issue, the intricacies of which are best understood and captured through detailed sequential analyses.

Conflict Resolution and Emotional Expression in Sibling and Mother-Adolescent Dyads: Within-Family and Across-Context Similarities

Early adolescents (aged 12-15) were observed during dyadic conflict discussions with their siblings ( n = 23) and mothers ( n = 32) in their homes. The verbal conflict behaviors and affect of family members were coded continuously. Sequential analyses identified temporal associations between individuals’ affect and their own and their partners’ verbal conflict behaviors. In addition, within-family and across-context similarities in behavior were examined. Results revealed that while many links between emotion and behavior were consistent with previous research (e.g., attack/assert when frowning/upset, withdraw/concede when sad), several differences emerged depending on the relationship (sibling vs. mother-adolescent) and position in the family (e.g., adolescent vs. mother). Furthermore, many within-family similarities were observed in responses to emotion, while adolescents showed few similarities in their behavior across contexts. Results are discussed in relation to the developmental context of early adolescence and family systems theory.

The Human Cognitive System Corrects Traces of Error Commission on the Fly

Human perception and action rely on a fundamental binding mechanism that forges integrated event representations from distributed features. Encountering any one of these features later on can retrieve the whole event, thus expediting cognitive processing. The traditional view on binding confines it to successful action episodes, however, holding that the human cognitive system does not leverage errors for optimizing corresponding event representations. Here we explore through sequential analyses of erroneous action episodes whether binding promotes future successful behavior even when actions go awry. Results indicate that the processes leading to binding integrate different aspects of the action episode in a highly efficient and flexible manner to privilege future correct actions and prepare the ground for error-based learning.

A fully automated, transparent, reproducible, and blind protocol for sequential analyses

Despite many cultural, methodological, and technical improvements, one of the major obstacle to results reproducibility remains the pervasive low statistical power. In response to this problem, a lot of attention has recently been drawn to sequential analyses. This type of procedure has been shown to be more efficient (to require less observations and therefore less resources) than classical fixed-N procedures. However, these procedures are submitted to both intrapersonal and interpersonal biases during data collection and data analysis. In this tutorial, we explain how automation can be used to prevent these biases. We show how to synchronise open and free experiment software programs with the Open Science Framework and how to automate sequential data analyses in R. This tutorial is intended to researchers with beginner experience with R but no previous experience with sequential analyses is required.