Weighted pseudo-values for partly unobserved group membership in paediatric stem cell transplantation studies

Generalised pseudo-values have been suggested to evaluate the impact of allogeneic stem cell transplantation on childhood leukaemia. The approach compares long-term survival of two cohorts defined by the availability or non-availability of suitable donors for stem cell transplantation. A patient's cohort membership becomes known only after completed donor search with or without an identified donor. If a patient suffers an event during donor search, stem cell transplantation will no longer be indicated. In such a case, donor search will be ceased and cohort membership will remain unknown. The generalised pseudo-values approach considers donor identification as binary time-dependent covariate and uses inverse-probability-of-censoring weighting to adjust for non-identified donors. The approach leads to time-consuming computations due to multiple redefinitions of the risk set for pseudo-value calculation and an explicit adjustment for waiting-time bias. Here, the problem is looked at from a different angle. By considering the probability that a donor would have been identified after ceasing of donor search, weights for common pseudo-values are defined. This leads to a faster alternative approach as only a single risk set is necessary. Extensive computer simulations show that both, the generalised and the new weighted pseudo-values approach, provide approximately unbiased estimates. Confidence interval coverage is satisfactory for typical clinical scenarios. In situations, where donor identification takes considerably longer than usual, the weighted pseudo-values approach is preferable. Both approaches complement each other as they have different potential in addressing further aspects of the underlying medical question.

A Pseudo-Value Approach to Analyze the Semantic Similarity of the Speech of Children With and Without Autism Spectrum Disorder

Conversational impairments are well known among people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but their measurement requires time-consuming manual annotation of language samples. Natural language processing (NLP) has shown promise in identifying semantic difficulties when compared to clinician-annotated reference transcripts. Our goal was to develop a novel measure of lexico-semantic similarity – based on recent work in natural language processing (NLP) and recent applications of pseudo-value analysis – which could be applied to transcripts of children’s conversational language, without recourse to some ground-truth reference document. We hypothesized that: (a) semantic coherence, as measured by this method, would discriminate between children with and without ASD and (b) more variability would be found in the group with ASD. We used data from 70 4- to 8-year-old males with ASD (N = 38) or typically developing (TD; N = 32) enrolled in a language study. Participants were administered a battery of standardized diagnostic tests, including the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS). ADOS was recorded and transcribed, and we analyzed children’s language output during the conversation/interview ADOS tasks. Transcripts were converted to vectors via a word2vec model trained on the Google News Corpus. Pairwise similarity across all subjects and a sample grand mean were calculated. Using a leave-one-out algorithm, a pseudo-value, detailed below, representing each subject’s contribution to the grand mean was generated. Means of pseudo-values were compared between the two groups. Analyses were co-varied for nonverbal IQ, mean length of utterance, and number of distinct word roots (NDR). Statistically significant differences were observed in means of pseudo-values between TD and ASD groups (p = 0.007). TD subjects had higher pseudo-value scores suggesting that similarity scores of TD subjects were more similar to the overall group mean. Variance of pseudo-values was greater in the ASD group. Nonverbal IQ, mean length of utterance, or NDR did not account for between group differences. The findings suggest that our pseudo-value-based method can be effectively used to identify specific semantic difficulties that characterize children with ASD without requiring a reference transcript.

Multimedialny moduł tematyczny (MMT), czyli o głośnym czytaniu jako aksjologicznej edukacji na lekcjach polskiego w szkole średniej

<p align="JUSTIFY">The task of humanistics, including didactics of the Polish language, is a meeting with literary work. This is a difficult task, especially nowadays when electronic media has become the main carriers of values and pseudo-values. The author presents the results of the research based on the value of reading after the lessons about Sophocles' <em>King Oedipus</em> as part of the curriculum of multimedia thematic modules. Reading has turned out to be an irreplaceable benefit in the face of the growing reluctance of young people to discuss difficult and demanding reading material in Polish language lessons.</p>

Image of Power in the Context of Archetype Theory

Images of statesmen often reflect the social and social phenomena that occur in society, since they become the value choice of the majority of the population. This article proposes the hypothesis that values reflect the archetypes of the collective unconsciousness. In this regard, the study of archetypes, on the one hand, contributes to the creation of continuity of deep value bases between past and future generations. On the other hand, it allows to analyze and predict the success or failure of public and state initiatives. Also, in times of crisis and spread of pseudo-values, we can talk about the manifestation of the Shadow archetype in the images of false heroes in society. The article considers the archetype of the Shadow through the analysis of portraits of Russian political figures of the 90s, presented in the concept of Russian sociologist Zh.T. Toshchenko.

Palliative care delivery according to age among metastatic breast cancer patients. ESME-MBC cohort

Background Metastatic breast cancer (MBC) may require inpatient palliative care (IPC) but literature suggests age-related disparities in palliative care delivery. This study, based on real-world data, aimed to assess the cumulative incidence function (CIF) of IPC delivery and if age is an independent factor, taking into account the competing risk of death. Methods The national multicenter ESME (Epidemio-Strategy-Medical-Economical)-MBC cohort includes consecutive MBC patients treated in the 18 French Comprehensive Cancer Centers. IPC identification used ICD-10 palliative care coding. Main analysis first estimated pseudo values of 2-year and 8-year CIF of IPC. Linear regression models estimated the mean changes of pseudo-values (2 models: 2-year and 8-year CIF of IPC). Results Our analysis included 12375 patients, 5093 (41.2%) of whom were aged 65 or over. The median follow-up was 41.5 months (95% CI, 40.5-42.5). The CIF of IPC was 10.3% (95% CI, 10.2-10.4) and 24.8% (95% CI, 24.7-24.8) at two and eight years, respectively. At two years, among triple-negative patients, young patients (&lt;65 yo) had a higher CIF of IPC than older patients after adjusting for cancer characteristics, centre, and period (65+/&lt;65: β=-0.05; 95% CI, -0.08 to -0.01). Among other tumour subtypes, older patients received short-term IPC more frequently than young patients (65+/&lt;65: β = 0.02; 95% CI, 0.01 to 0.03). At eight years, outside large centres, IPC was delivered less frequently to older patients adjusted to cancer characteristics and period (65+/&lt;65: β=-0.03; 95% CI, -0.06 to -0.01). Conclusions We found a relatively low CIF of IPC and that age influenced IPC delivery. Young triple negative and older non-triple negative patients needed more short-term IPC. Older patients diagnosed outside large centres received less long-term IPC. These findings highlight the need for a wider implementation of IPC facilities and for more age-specific interventions. Key messages Our study highlighted particular challenge for older MBC patients diagnosed outside large French Comprehensive Cancer Centers. By identifying age at MBC diagnosis as a factor of IPC delivery, this report supports a wider implementation of IPC facilities and more age-specific interventions.

Cognitive Play Model of Narration “Quest” in Roald Dahl’s Fairy Tale Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

The article focuses on reconstruction and analysis of the model of narration “Quest” in Roald Dahl’s fairy tale Charlie and the Сhocolate Factory. A narrative text is considered as a unit with semantic and communicative completeness. It is claimed that the elements of the narrative structure are narrator, narratee, the story (which includes the plot and its composition, fiction characters) and the model of narration. It is assumed that model of narration is a cognitive and linguistic construal, inbuilt into the narrative structure of the text. It is believed that play tenet forms the background of the model of narration of the fairy tale Charlie and the Сhocolate Factory. The model of narration determines a definite plot and composition, a certain type of narrator and narratee. The semantics of search is realized in the plot ­– the search of the Golden ticket, the search of the secrets of the chocolate factory, overcoming the obstacles. Characters of the fairy tale are quest participants. Four of them personify simulacrums of modern society (Bodriyar) – greed and gluttony (Augustus Gloop), parent’s permissiveness (Veruca Salt), uncontrolled TV watching (Mike Teavee), vanity (Violet Beauregarde). The fifth quest participant Charlie Bucket embodies modesty and honesty. The narrator of the fairy tale tells the story from the point of view a didactic adult, who criticizes pseudo values of the characters and supports honesty of the main hero Charlie. The narrator as if teaches the implied child reader through the quest-game what is true and what is simulacrum. The winner of the quest becomes Charlie and other participants fail the quest because of their uncontrolled behavior.

Regression analysis in an illness-death model with interval-censored data: A pseudo-value approach

Pseudo-values provide a method to perform regression analysis for complex quantities with right-censored data. A further complication, interval-censored data, appears when events such as dementia are studied in an epidemiological cohort. We propose an extension of the pseudo-value approach for interval-censored data based on a semi-parametric estimator computed using penalised likelihood and splines. This estimator takes interval-censoring and competing risks into account in an illness-death model. We apply the pseudo-value approach to three mean value parameters of interest in studies of dementia: the probability of staying alive and non-demented, the restricted mean survival time without dementia and the absolute risk of dementia. Simulation studies are conducted to examine properties of pseudo-values based on this semi-parametric estimator. The method is applied to the French cohort PAQUID, which included more than 3,000 non-demented subjects, followed for dementia for more than 25 years.