Application of ensemble methods to analyse the decline of organochlorine pesticides in relation to the interactions between age, gender and time
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Description
Organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) are toxic chemicals that persist in human tissue. Short and long term exposure to OCPs have been shown to have adverse effects on human health. This motivates studies into the concentrations of pesticides in humans. However these studies typically emphasise the analysis of the main effects of age group, gender and time of sample collection. The interactions between main effects can distinguish variation in OCP concentration such as the difference in concentrations between genders of the same age group as well as age groups over time. These are less studied but may be equally or more important in understanding effects of OCPs in a population. The aim of this study was to identify interactions relevant to understanding OCP concentrations and utilise them appropriately in models. We propose a two stage analysis comprising of boosted regression trees (BRTs) and hierarchical modelling to study OCP concentrations. BRTs are used to discover influential interactions between age group, gender and time of sampling. Hierarchical models are then employed to test and infer the effect of the interactions on OCP concentrations. Results of our analysis show that the best fitting model of an interaction effect varied between OCPs. The interaction between age group and gender was most influential for hexachlorobenzene (HCB) concentrations. There was strong evidence of an interaction effect between age group and time for β-hexachlorocyclohexane (β-HCH) concentrations in >60 year olds as well as an interaction effect between age group and gender for HCB concentrations for adults aged >45 years. This study highlights the need to consider appropriate interaction effects in the analysis of OCP concentrations and provides further insight into the interplay of main effects on OCP concentration trends.
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ID Code: | 198345 | ||||||
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Item Type: | Contribution to Journal (Journal Article) | ||||||
Refereed: | Yes | ||||||
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Measurements or Duration: | 19 pages | ||||||
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DOI: | 10.1371/journal.pone.0223956 | ||||||
ISSN: | 1932-6203 | ||||||
Pure ID: | 49846353 | ||||||
Divisions: | Past > QUT Faculties & Divisions > Faculty of Health Past > Institutes > Institute for Future Environments Past > QUT Faculties & Divisions > Science & Engineering Faculty Current > Schools > School of Public Health & Social Work |
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Funding Information: | KM’s contribution to this study was supported by an Australian Research Council (ARC) Laureate Fellowship (Project ID: FL150100150). AT and NMW were supported by funding from the ARC awarded to KM during this study. This study was partly funded by the Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The authors acknowledge support from the Australian Research Council (ARC) and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Mathematical & Statistical Frontiers (http://www.acems.org.au). The authors thank laboratory staff at Sullivan Nicolaides Pathology, Andreas Sjödin (US—CDC) for undertaking chemical analysis of samples and Jochen Mueller (Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences, The University of Queensland) for the data. This study was funded by the Department of the Environment and Energy (Australian Government). | ||||||
Copyright Owner: | The Author(s) | ||||||
Copyright Statement: | This work is covered by copyright. Unless the document is being made available under a Creative Commons Licence, you must assume that re-use is limited to personal use and that permission from the copyright owner must be obtained for all other uses. If the document is available under a Creative Commons License (or other specified license) then refer to the Licence for details of permitted re-use. It is a condition of access that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. If you believe that this work infringes copyright please provide details by email to qut.copyright@qut.edu.au | ||||||
Deposited On: | 03 Apr 2020 02:12 | ||||||
Last Modified: | 19 Apr 2024 06:32 |
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