No abstract

The ROSE package provides functions to deal with binary classification problems in the presence of imbalanced classes. Artificial balanced samples are generated according to a smoothed bootstrap approach and allow for aiding both the phases of estimation and accuracy evaluation of a binary classifier in the presence of a rare class. Functions that implement more traditional remedies for the class imbalance and different metrics to evaluate accuracy are also provided. These are estimated by holdout, bootstrap, or cross-validation methods.

Although Hartigan (1975) had already put forward the idea of connecting identification of subpopulations with regions with high density of the underlying probability distribution, the actual development of methods for cluster analysis has largely shifted towards other directions, for computational convenience. Current computational resources allow us to reconsider this formulation and to develop clustering techniques directly in order to identify local modes of the density. Given a set of observations, a nonparametric estimate of the underlying density function is constructed, and subsets of points with high density are formed through suitable manipulation of the associated Delaunay triangulation. The method is illustrated with some numerical examples

Background: Alcohol is a well-established risk factor for head and neck cancers (HNC). This study aims to explore the effect of alcohol intensity and duration, as joint continuous exposures, on HNC risk. Methods: Data from 26 case-control studies in the INHANCE Consortium were used, including never and current drinkers who drunk ≤10 drinks/day for ≤54 years (24234 controls, 4085 oral cavity, 3359 oropharyngeal, 983 hypopharyngeal, and 3340 laryngeal cancers). The dose-response relationship between the risk and the joint exposure to drinking intensity and duration was investigated through bivariate regression spline models, adjusting for potential confounders, including tobacco smoking. Results: For all sub-sites, cancer risk steeply increased with increasing drinks/day, with no appreciable threshold effect at lower intensities. For each intensity level, the risk of oral cavity, hypopharyngeal, and laryngeal cancers did not vary according to years of drinking, suggesting no effect of duration. For oropharyngeal cancer, the risk increased with durations up to 28 years, flattening thereafter. The risk peaked at the higher levels of intensity and duration for all sub-sites (odds ratio=7.95 for oral cavity, 12.86 for oropharynx, 24.96 for hypopharynx, and 6.60 for larynx). Conclusions: Present results further encourage the reduction of alcohol intensity to mitigate HNC risk.

The synergistic effect of tobacco smoking and alcohol consumption on the risk of head and neck cancers has been mainly investigated as a cross-product of categorical exposure, thus leading to loss of information. We propose a bi-dimensional logistic spline model to investigate the interacting dose-response relationship of two continuous exposures (i.e., ethanol intake and tobacco smoking) on the risk of head and neck cancers, representing results through three-dimensional graphs. This model was applied to a pool of hospital-based case-control studies on head and neck cancers conducted in Italy and in the Vaud Swiss Canton between 1982 and 2000, including 1569 cases and 3147 controls. Among never drinkers and for all levels of ethanol intake, the risk of head and neck cancers steeply increased with increasing smoking intensity, starting from 1 cigarette/day. The risk associated to ethanol intake increased with incrementing exposure among smokers, and a threshold effect at approximately 50 g/day emerged among never smokers. Compared to abstainers from both tobacco and alcohol consumption, the combined exposure to ethanol and/or cigarettes led to a steep increase of cancer risk up to a 35-fold higher risk (95 % confidence interval 27.30-43.61) among people consuming 84 g/day of ethanol and 10 cigarettes/day. The highest risk was observed at the highest levels of alcohol and tobacco consumption. Our findings confirmed a combined effect of tobacco smoking and alcohol drinking on head and neck cancers risk, providing evidence that bi-dimensional spline models could be a feasible and flexible method to explore the pattern of risks associated to two interacting continuous-exposure variables.