{"id":195019,"date":"2021-04-15T22:24:48","date_gmt":"2021-04-16T02:24:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/?post_type=bu-article&#038;p=195019"},"modified":"2021-04-15T16:59:29","modified_gmt":"2021-04-15T20:59:29","slug":"student-wins-distinguished-student-paper-award-at-enar-conference","status":"publish","type":"bu-article","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/news\/articles\/2021\/student-wins-distinguished-student-paper-award-at-enar-conference\/","title":{"rendered":"Student Wins Distinguished Student Paper Award at ENAR Conference"},"content":{"rendered":"\t<div class=\"wp-block-editorial-leadin sphnews-block-editorial-leadin is-style-default has-media has-media-focus-center-middle has-primary-theme\">\n\t\t<div class=\"container-lockup\">\n\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-leadin-media\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<img width=\"600\" height=\"362\" src=\"\/sph\/files\/2021\/04\/paper-award-600.jpg\" class=\"\" alt=\"Healthcare business concept, Medical examination and growth graph data of business on tablet with doctor&#039;s health report clipboard on background.\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"container-words-outer\">\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"container-words-inner\">\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"wp-prepress-tag\">School News<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h1 class=\"head\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"http:\/\/S\">Student Wins Distinguished Paper Award at ENAR Conference<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h4 class=\"deck\">Zhenwei Zhou, a PhD student studying biostatistics, developed a statistical method to examine the relationship between metabolic syndrome and inflammatory\u00a0biomarkers that vary with BMI and insulin resistance.<\/h4>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar sphnews-prepress-layout-metabar\">\n\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-date\">April 15, 2021<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-credits\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<ul data-credit-type=\"By\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/news\/authors\/corinne-steinbrenner\/\">Corinne Steinbrenner<\/a><\/li>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/ul>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-share js-bu-prepress-share-tools\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-twitter\"><span>Twitter<\/span><\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-facebook\"><span>Facebook<\/span><\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-action\"><\/span>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\t\n\n\n<p>Zhenwei Zhou, a PhD student in the Department of Biostatistics at the School of Public Health, has received a <a href=\"https:\/\/enar.org\/meetings\/StudentPaperAwards\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Distinguished Student Paper Award<\/a> from the <a href=\"https:\/\/enar.org\/index.cfm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">International Biometric Society Eastern North American Region<\/a> (ENAR).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Zhou presented his paper, \u201cModeling Metabolic Syndrome and Inflammatory Biomarkers via Bayesian Graphical Regression with Multiple Data Types,\u201d at the <a href=\"https:\/\/enar.org\/meetings\/spring2021\/index.cfm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">ENAR&nbsp;2021 Spring Meeting<\/a>, which was held online March 14-17.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Zhou\u2019s paper, co-authored by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/profile\/ching-ti-liu\/\">Ching-Ti Liu<\/a>, professor of biostatistics, describes an innovative statistical method and analyzes the relationships between metabolic syndrome, certain inflammatory biomarkers, and demographic variables, and how those relationships vary with other factors, such as body mass index (BMI) and insulin resistance status.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The research is significant for two reasons, says Liu. First, Zhou\u2019s analysis uncovered some interesting relationships between metabolic syndrome and several important inflammatory biomarkers that vary with BMI. These findings add to researchers\u2019 understanding of metabolic syndrome (a cluster of conditions that increase a person\u2019s risk of heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes) and may someday assist doctors in making more personalized health management plans. Second, the statistical method Zhou developed could be very useful in analyzing other datasets that involve multiple data types.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The new statistical method is a variation of a Bayesian graphical regression method, says Zhou.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOne restriction of that method is that the variables in the model need to be continuous and normally distributed,\u201d he says. Zhou wanted a method that could handle not only continuous variables, but also binary and ordinal variables. So he found a way to modify Bayesian graphical regression to accommodate this wider range of data types.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Zhou says he was surprised and honored to win the ENAR award. The judges\u2019 validation of his work has boosted his confidence and motivated him to continue pursuing research in related fields, he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI am grateful that Professor Liu has been providing me advice and support,\u201d Zhou says. \u201cHe has helped me realize that, when you are developing biostatistical methods, it is very useful to start by performing analysis on a real-world problem. Sometimes you will find that the current available methods are not ideal, and then you can work on developing new methods that are better at meeting the needs of medical research.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Zhenwei Zhou, a PhD student in the Department of Biostatistics at the School of Public Health, has received a Distinguished Student Paper Award from the International Biometric Society Eastern North American Region (ENAR). Zhou presented his paper, \u201cModeling Metabolic Syndrome and Inflammatory Biomarkers via Bayesian Graphical Regression with Multiple Data Types,\u201d at the ENAR&nbsp;2021 Spring [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15205,"featured_media":195028,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"bu_prepress_billboard":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term_manual":""},"tags":[2094,503,2358,1767,1744,2728,2740,2367,2051,3177,2122],"bu-publication":[3516],"sphnews-article-category":[3521,3540,3541],"sphnews-topic":[],"bu_edition":[],"media_type":[],"profile_tax":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/195019"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/bu-article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15205"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195019"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/195019\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":195040,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/195019\/revisions\/195040"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195019"},{"taxonomy":"bu-publication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-publication?post=195019"},{"taxonomy":"sphnews-article-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sphnews-article-category?post=195019"},{"taxonomy":"sphnews-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sphnews-topic?post=195019"},{"taxonomy":"bu_edition","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu_edition?post=195019"},{"taxonomy":"media_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media_type?post=195019"},{"taxonomy":"profile_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profile_tax?post=195019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}