A shiny app for modeling the lifetime in primary breast cancer patients through phase-type distributions.

Phase-type distributions (PHDs), which are defined as the distribution of the lifetime up to the absorption in an absorbent Markov chain, are an appropriate candidate to model the lifetime of any system, since any non-negative probability distribution can be approximated by a PHD with sufficient precision. Despite PHD potential, friendly statistical programs do not have a module implemented in their interfaces to handle PHD. Thus, researchers must consider others statistical software such as R, Matlab or Python that work with the compilation of code chunks and functions. This fact might be an important handicap for those researchers who do not have sufficient knowledge in programming environments. In this paper, a new interactive web application developed with shiny is introduced in order to adjust PHD to an experimental dataset. This open access app does not require any kind of knowledge about programming or major mathematical concepts. Users can easily compare the graphic fit of several PHDs while estimating their parameters and assess the goodness of fit with just several clicks. All these functionalities are exhibited by means of a numerical simulation and modeling the time to live since the diagnostic in primary breast cancer patients.

Reduced-sodium roasted chicken: Physical/technological characteristics, optimized KCl-seasoning mixture, consumer perception, liking, emotions, and purchase intent.

For thousands of years, sodium chloride (NaCl) has been used as a preservative and flavor enhancer. In the organism, NaCl plays a role in nerve functions, osmotic pressure, and nutrient absorption. However, high consumption of NaCl could lead to health issues, such as hypertension and heart-related problems. For these reasons, potassium chloride (KCl) has been considered a salt substitute in foods, but KCl could be limited to food matrixes because of its unwanted bitterness and metallic aftertaste. As a result, the objective of this study was to analyze KCl-reduced-sodium roasted chicken in physical/technological characteristics, KCl-seasoning mixture, consumer perception, liking, emotions, and purchase intent (PI). An extreme vertice mixture design decided granulated garlic (74.09%), black pepper (9.95%), smoked paprika (14.47%), and KCl (1.39%) ratio of good seasoning-KCl mixture for roasted chicken based on sensory attributes used on the desirability function methodology. After optimizing the KCl-seasoning blend, NaCl/KCl replacement levels (0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100%) were established and evaluated consumer perception, liking, emotions, and PI. Adding 25% and 50% of KCl showed no significant (p > 0.05) impact on the sensory attributes. Likewise, PI significantly (p < 0.05) increased when utilizing 25% and 50% of KCl after panelists received information about sodium health risks (SHR). Regarding emotional responses, unsafe and worried significantly (p < 0.05) decreased among the highest KCl replacement levels (75% and 100%) after panelists obtained the SHR. Overall liking, gender, age, salt user, and positive emotional responses (satisfied and pleased) were decisive predictors concerning PI among panelists.