Functional Connectivity between Face-Movement and Speech-Intelligibility Areas during Auditory-Only Speech Perception

PubMed Central

Schall, Sonja; von Kriegstein, Katharina

2014-01-01

It has been proposed that internal simulation of the talking face of visually-known speakers facilitates auditory speech recognition. One prediction of this view is that brain areas involved in auditory-only speech comprehension interact with visual face-movement sensitive areas, even under auditory-only listening conditions. Here, we test this hypothesis using connectivity analyses of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data. Participants (17 normal participants, 17 developmental prosopagnosics) first learned six speakers via brief voice-face or voice-occupation training (<2 min/speaker). This was followed by an auditory-only speech recognition task and a control task (voice recognition) involving the learned speakers’ voices in the MRI scanner. As hypothesized, we found that, during speech recognition, familiarity with the speaker’s face increased the functional connectivity between the face-movement sensitive posterior superior temporal sulcus (STS) and an anterior STS region that supports auditory speech intelligibility. There was no difference between normal participants and prosopagnosics. This was expected because previous findings have shown that both groups use the face-movement sensitive STS to optimize auditory-only speech comprehension. Overall, the present findings indicate that learned visual information is integrated into the analysis of auditory-only speech and that this integration results from the interaction of task-relevant face-movement and auditory speech-sensitive areas. PMID:24466026

Cosmic veto gamma-spectrometry for Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty samples

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Burnett, J. L.; Davies, A. V.

2014-05-01

The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) is supported by a global network of monitoring stations that perform high-resolution gamma-spectrometry on air filter samples for the identification of 85 radionuclides. At the UK CTBT Radionuclide Laboratory (GBL15), a novel cosmic veto gamma-spectrometer has been developed to improve the sensitivity of station measurements, providing a mean background reduction of 80.8% with mean MDA improvements of 45.6%. The CTBT laboratory requirement for a 140Ba MDA is achievable after 1.5 days counting compared to 5-7 days using conventional systems. The system consists of plastic scintillation plates that detect coincident cosmic-ray interactions within an HPGe gamma-spectrometer using the Canberra LynxTM multi-channel analyser. The detector is remotely configurable using a TCP/IP interface and requires no dedicated coincidence electronics. It would be especially useful in preventing false-positives at remote station locations (e.g. Halley, Antarctica) where sample transfer to certified laboratories is logistically difficult. The improved sensitivity has been demonstrated for a CTBT air filter sample collected after the Fukushima incident.

Low working memory capacity is only spuriously related to poor reading comprehension

PubMed Central

Van Dyke, Julie A.; Johns, Clinton L.; Kukona, Anuenue

2014-01-01

Accounts of comprehension failure, whether in the case of readers with poor skill or when syntactic complexity is high, have overwhelmingly implicated working memory capacity as the key causal factor. However, extant research suggests that this position is not well supported by evidence on the span of active memory during online sentence processing, nor is it well motivated by models that make explicit claims about the memory mechanisms that support language processing. The current study suggests that sensitivity to interference from similar items in memory may provide a better explanation of comprehension failure. Through administration of a comprehensive skill battery, we found that the previously observed association of working memory with comprehension is likely due to the collinearity of working memory with many other reading-related skills, especially IQ. In analyses which removed variance shared with IQ, we found that receptive vocabulary knowledge was the only significant predictor of comprehension performance in our task out of a battery of 24 skill measures. In addition, receptive vocabulary and non-verbal memory for serial order—but not simple verbal memory or working memory—were the only predictors of reading times in the region where interference had its primary affect. We interpret these results in light of a model that emphasizes retrieval interference and the quality of lexical representations as key determinants of successful comprehension. PMID:24657820

Low working memory capacity is only spuriously related to poor reading comprehension.

PubMed

Van Dyke, Julie A; Johns, Clinton L; Kukona, Anuenue

2014-06-01

Accounts of comprehension failure, whether in the case of readers with poor skill or when syntactic complexity is high, have overwhelmingly implicated working memory capacity as the key causal factor. However, extant research suggests that this position is not well supported by evidence on the span of active memory during online sentence processing, nor is it well motivated by models that make explicit claims about the memory mechanisms that support language processing. The current study suggests that sensitivity to interference from similar items in memory may provide a better explanation of comprehension failure. Through administration of a comprehensive skill battery, we found that the previously observed association of working memory with comprehension is likely due to the collinearity of working memory with many other reading-related skills, especially IQ. In analyses which removed variance shared with IQ, we found that receptive vocabulary knowledge was the only significant predictor of comprehension performance in our task out of a battery of 24 skill measures. In addition, receptive vocabulary and non-verbal memory for serial order-but not simple verbal memory or working memory-were the only predictors of reading times in the region where interference had its primary affect. We interpret these results in light of a model that emphasizes retrieval interference and the quality of lexical representations as key determinants of successful comprehension. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Meta-analytical prognostic accuracy of the Comprehensive Assessment of at Risk Mental States (CAARMS): The need for refined prediction.

PubMed

Oliver, D; Kotlicka-Antczak, M; Minichino, A; Spada, G; McGuire, P; Fusar-Poli, P

2018-03-01

Primary indicated prevention is reliant on accurate tools to predict the onset of psychosis. The gold standard assessment for detecting individuals at clinical high risk (CHR-P) for psychosis in the UK and many other countries is the Comprehensive Assessment for At Risk Mental States (CAARMS). While the prognostic accuracy of CHR-P instruments has been assessed in general, this is the first study to specifically analyse that of the CAARMS. As such, the CAARMS was used as the index test, with the reference index being psychosis onset within 2 years. Six independent studies were analysed using MIDAS (STATA 14), with a total of 1876 help-seeking subjects referred to high risk services (CHR-P+: n=892; CHR-P-: n=984). Area under the curve (AUC), summary receiver operating characteristic curves (SROC), quality assessment, likelihood ratios, and probability modified plots were computed, along with sensitivity analyses and meta-regressions. The current meta-analysis confirmed that the 2-year prognostic accuracy of the CAARMS is only acceptable (AUC=0.79 95% CI: 0.75-0.83) and not outstanding as previously reported. In particular, specificity was poor. Sensitivity of the CAARMS is inferior compared to the SIPS, while specificity is comparably low. However, due to the difficulties in performing these types of studies, power in this meta-analysis was low. These results indicate that refining and improving the prognostic accuracy of the CAARMS should be the mainstream area of research for the next era. Avenues of prediction improvement are critically discussed and presented to better benefit patients and improve outcomes of first episode psychosis. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS.. All rights reserved.

Preoperative localization strategies for primary hyperparathyroidism: an economic analysis.

PubMed

Lubitz, Carrie C; Stephen, Antonia E; Hodin, Richard A; Pandharipande, Pari

2012-12-01

Strategies for localizing parathyroid pathology preoperatively vary in cost and accuracy. Our purpose was to compute and compare comprehensive costs associated with common localization strategies. A decision-analytic model was developed to evaluate comprehensive, short-term costs of parathyroid localization strategies for patients with primary hyperparathyroidism. Eight strategies were compared. Probabilities of accurate localization were extracted from the literature, and costs associated with each strategy were based on 2011 Medicare reimbursement schedules. Differential cost considerations included outpatient versus inpatient surgeries, operative time, and costs of imaging. Sensitivity analyses were performed to determine effects of variability in key model parameters upon model results. Ultrasound (US) followed by 4D-CT was the least expensive strategy ($5,901), followed by US alone ($6,028), and 4D-CT alone ($6,110). Strategies including sestamibi (SM) were more expensive, with associated expenditures of up to $6,329 for contemporaneous US and SM. Four-gland, bilateral neck exploration (BNE) was the most expensive strategy ($6,824). Differences in cost were dependent upon differences in the sensitivity of each strategy for detecting single-gland disease, which determined the proportion of patients able to undergo outpatient minimally invasive parathyroidectomy. In sensitivity analysis, US alone was preferred over US followed by 4D-CT only when both the sensitivity of US alone for detecting an adenoma was ≥ 94 %, and the sensitivity of 4D-CT following negative US was ≤ 39 %. 4D-CT alone was the least costly strategy when US sensitivity was ≤ 31 %. Among commonly used strategies for preoperative localization of parathyroid pathology, US followed by selective 4D-CT is the least expensive.

Review of nutritional screening and assessment tools and clinical outcomes in heart failure.

PubMed

Lin, Hong; Zhang, Haifeng; Lin, Zheng; Li, Xinli; Kong, Xiangqin; Sun, Gouzhen

2016-09-01

Recent studies have suggested that undernutrition as defined using multidimensional nutritional evaluation tools may affect clinical outcomes in heart failure (HF). The evidence supporting this correlation is unclear. Therefore, we conducted this systematic review to critically appraise the use of multidimensional evaluation tools in the prediction of clinical outcomes in HF. We performed descriptive analyses of all identified articles involving qualitative analyses. We used STATA to conduct meta-analyses when at least three studies that tested the same type of nutritional assessment or screening tools and used the same outcome were identified. Sensitivity analyses were conducted to validate our positive results. We identified 17 articles with qualitative analyses and 11 with quantitative analysis after comprehensive literature searching and screening. We determined that the prevalence of malnutrition is high in HF (range 16-90 %), particularly in advanced and acute decompensated HF (approximate range 75-90 %). Undernutrition as identified by multidimensional evaluation tools may be significantly associated with hospitalization, length of stay and complications and is particularly strongly associated with high mortality. The meta-analysis revealed that compared with other tools, Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) scores were the strongest predictors of mortality in HF [HR (4.32, 95 % CI 2.30-8.11)]. Our results remained reliable after conducting sensitivity analyses. The prevalence of malnutrition is high in HF, particularly in advanced and acute decompensated HF. Moreover, undernutrition as identified by multidimensional evaluation tools is significantly associated with unfavourable prognoses and high mortality in HF.

Comprehensive benchmarking of SNV callers for highly admixed tumor data

PubMed Central

Bohnert, Regina; Vivas, Sonia

2017-01-01

Precision medicine attempts to individualize cancer therapy by matching tumor-specific genetic changes with effective targeted therapies. A crucial first step in this process is the reliable identification of cancer-relevant variants, which is considerably complicated by the impurity and heterogeneity of clinical tumor samples. We compared the impact of admixture of non-cancerous cells and low somatic allele frequencies on the sensitivity and precision of 19 state-of-the-art SNV callers. We studied both whole exome and targeted gene panel data and up to 13 distinct parameter configurations for each tool. We found vast differences among callers. Based on our comprehensive analyses we recommend joint tumor-normal calling with MuTect, EBCall or Strelka for whole exome somatic variant calling, and HaplotypeCaller or FreeBayes for whole exome germline calling. For targeted gene panel data on a single tumor sample, LoFreqStar performed best. We further found that tumor impurity and admixture had a negative impact on precision, and in particular, sensitivity in whole exome experiments. At admixture levels of 60% to 90% sometimes seen in pathological biopsies, sensitivity dropped significantly, even when variants were originally present in the tumor at 100% allele frequency. Sensitivity to low-frequency SNVs improved with targeted panel data, but whole exome data allowed more efficient identification of germline variants. Effective somatic variant calling requires high-quality pathological samples with minimal admixture, a consciously selected sequencing strategy, and the appropriate variant calling tool with settings optimized for the chosen type of data. PMID:29020110

Coastal circulation and sediment dynamics in Hanalei Bay, Kaua'i, Hawaii, part III, studies of sediment toxicity

USGS Publications Warehouse

Carr, Robert S.; Nipper, Marion; Field, Michael; Biedenbach, James M.

2006-01-01

Toxicity tests are commonly conducted as a measure of the bioavailability of toxic chemicals to biota in an environment. Chemical analyses alone are insufficient to determine whether contaminants pose a threat to biota. Porewater toxicity tests are extremely sensitive to a broad range of contaminants in marine environments and provide ecologically relevant data on sensitive life stages. The inclusion of porewater toxicity testing as an additional indicator of sediment quality provides a more comprehensive picture of contaminant effects in these sensitive habitats. In this study purple-spined sea urchin (Arbacia punctulata) fertilization and embryological development porewater toxicity tests were used to evaluate the sediments collected from the coastal environment around Hanalei Bay, Kaua’i, Hawaii. These tests have been used previously to assess the bioavailability of contaminants associated with sediments in the vicinity of coral reefs.

Listening comprehension across the adult lifespan

PubMed Central

Sommers, Mitchell S.; Hale, Sandra; Myerson, Joel; Rose, Nathan; Tye-Murray, Nancy; Spehar, Brent

2011-01-01

Short Summary The current study provides the first systematic assessment of listening comprehension across the adult lifespan. A total of 433 participants ranging in age from 20-90 listened to spoken passages and answered comprehension questions following each passage. In addition, measures of auditory sensitivity were obtained from all participants to determine if hearing loss and listening comprehension changed similarly across the adult lifespan. As expected, auditory sensitivity declined from age 20 to age 90. In contrast, listening comprehension remained relatively unchanged until approximately age 65-70, with declines evident only for the oldest participants. PMID:21716112

Comprehensive Design Reliability Activities for Aerospace Propulsion Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Christenson, R. L.; Whitley, M. R.; Knight, K. C.

2000-01-01

This technical publication describes the methodology, model, software tool, input data, and analysis result that support aerospace design reliability studies. The focus of these activities is on propulsion systems mechanical design reliability. The goal of these activities is to support design from a reliability perspective. Paralleling performance analyses in schedule and method, this requires the proper use of metrics in a validated reliability model useful for design, sensitivity, and trade studies. Design reliability analysis in this view is one of several critical design functions. A design reliability method is detailed and two example analyses are provided-one qualitative and the other quantitative. The use of aerospace and commercial data sources for quantification is discussed and sources listed. A tool that was developed to support both types of analyses is presented. Finally, special topics discussed include the development of design criteria, issues of reliability quantification, quality control, and reliability verification.

Cost Benefit of Comprehensive Primary and Preventive School-Based Health Care.

PubMed

Padula, William V; Connor, Katherine A; Mueller, Josiah M; Hong, Jonathan C; Velazquez, Gabriela Calderon; Johnson, Sara B

2018-01-01

The Rales Health Center is a comprehensive school-based health center at an urban elementary/middle school. Rales Health Center provides a full range of pediatric services using an enriched staffing model consisting of pediatrician, nurse practitioner, registered nurses, and medical office assistant. This staffing model provides greater care but costs more than traditional school-based health centers staffed by part-time nurses. The objective was to analyze the cost benefit of Rales Health Center enhanced staffing model compared with a traditional school-based health center (standard care), focusing on asthma care, which is among the most prevalent chronic conditions of childhood. In 2016, cost-benefit analysis using a decision tree determined the net social benefit of Rales Health Center compared with standard care from the U.S. societal perspective based on the 2015-2016 academic year. It was assumed that Rales Health Center could handle greater patient throughput related to asthma, decreased prescription costs, reduced parental resources in terms of missed work time, and improved student attendance. Univariate and multivariate probabilistic sensitivity analyses were conducted. The expected cost to operate Rales Health Center was $409,120, compared with standard care cost of $172,643. Total monetized incremental benefits of Rales Health Center were estimated to be $993,414. The expected net social benefit for Rales Health Center was $756,937, which demonstrated substantial societal benefit at a return of $4.20 for every dollar invested. This net social benefit estimate was robust to sensitivity analyses. Despite the greater cost associated with the Rales Health Center's enhanced staffing model, the results of this analysis highlight the cost benefit of providing comprehensive, high-quality pediatric care in schools, particularly schools with a large proportion of underserved students. Copyright © 2018 American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Respective Advantages and Disadvantages of Different Ways of Measuring the Instructional Sensitivity of Reading Comprehension Test Items.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Perkins, Kyle

In this paper four classes of procedures for measuring the instructional sensitivity of reading comprehension test items are reviewed. True experimental designs are not recommended because some of the most important reading comprehension variables do not lend themselves to experimental manipulation. "Ex post facto" factorial designs are…

Sensitivity Analysis of Multidisciplinary Rotorcraft Simulations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wang, Li; Diskin, Boris; Biedron, Robert T.; Nielsen, Eric J.; Bauchau, Olivier A.

2017-01-01

A multidisciplinary sensitivity analysis of rotorcraft simulations involving tightly coupled high-fidelity computational fluid dynamics and comprehensive analysis solvers is presented and evaluated. An unstructured sensitivity-enabled Navier-Stokes solver, FUN3D, and a nonlinear flexible multibody dynamics solver, DYMORE, are coupled to predict the aerodynamic loads and structural responses of helicopter rotor blades. A discretely-consistent adjoint-based sensitivity analysis available in FUN3D provides sensitivities arising from unsteady turbulent flows and unstructured dynamic overset meshes, while a complex-variable approach is used to compute DYMORE structural sensitivities with respect to aerodynamic loads. The multidisciplinary sensitivity analysis is conducted through integrating the sensitivity components from each discipline of the coupled system. Numerical results verify accuracy of the FUN3D/DYMORE system by conducting simulations for a benchmark rotorcraft test model and comparing solutions with established analyses and experimental data. Complex-variable implementation of sensitivity analysis of DYMORE and the coupled FUN3D/DYMORE system is verified by comparing with real-valued analysis and sensitivities. Correctness of adjoint formulations for FUN3D/DYMORE interfaces is verified by comparing adjoint-based and complex-variable sensitivities. Finally, sensitivities of the lift and drag functions obtained by complex-variable FUN3D/DYMORE simulations are compared with sensitivities computed by the multidisciplinary sensitivity analysis, which couples adjoint-based flow and grid sensitivities of FUN3D and FUN3D/DYMORE interfaces with complex-variable sensitivities of DYMORE structural responses.

Behavioral metabolomics analysis identifies novel neurochemical signatures in methamphetamine sensitization

PubMed Central

Adkins, Daniel E.; McClay, Joseph L.; Vunck, Sarah A.; Batman, Angela M.; Vann, Robert E.; Clark, Shaunna L.; Souza, Renan P.; Crowley, James J.; Sullivan, Patrick F.; van den Oord, Edwin J.C.G.; Beardsley, Patrick M.

2014-01-01

Behavioral sensitization has been widely studied in animal models and is theorized to reflect neural modifications associated with human psychostimulant addiction. While the mesolimbic dopaminergic pathway is known to play a role, the neurochemical mechanisms underlying behavioral sensitization remain incompletely understood. In the present study, we conducted the first metabolomics analysis to globally characterize neurochemical differences associated with behavioral sensitization. Methamphetamine-induced sensitization measures were generated by statistically modeling longitudinal activity data for eight inbred strains of mice. Subsequent to behavioral testing, nontargeted liquid and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry profiling was performed on 48 brain samples, yielding 301 metabolite levels per sample after quality control. Association testing between metabolite levels and three primary dimensions of behavioral sensitization (total distance, stereotypy and margin time) showed four robust, significant associations at a stringent metabolome-wide significance threshold (false discovery rate < 0.05). Results implicated homocarnosine, a dipeptide of GABA and histidine, in total distance sensitization, GABA metabolite 4-guanidinobutanoate and pantothenate in stereotypy sensitization, and myo-inositol in margin time sensitization. Secondary analyses indicated that these associations were independent of concurrent methamphetamine levels and, with the exception of the myo-inositol association, suggest a mechanism whereby strain-based genetic variation produces specific baseline neurochemical differences that substantially influence the magnitude of MA-induced sensitization. These findings demonstrate the utility of mouse metabolomics for identifying novel biomarkers, and developing more comprehensive neurochemical models, of psychostimulant sensitization. PMID:24034544

Measuring the Instructional Sensitivity of ESL Reading Comprehension Items.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brutten, Sheila R.; And Others

A study attempted to estimate the instructional sensitivity of items in three reading comprehension tests in English as a second language (ESL). Instructional sensitivity is a test-item construct defined as the tendency for a test item to vary in difficulty as a function of instruction. Similar tasks were given to readers at different proficiency…

Prosody impairment and associated affective and behavioral disturbances in Alzheimer's disease.

PubMed

Roberts, V J; Ingram, S M; Lamar, M; Green, R C

1996-12-01

We examined the ability to produce, repeat, and comprehend emotional prosody in 20 patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and in 11 elderly normal control subjects. In addition, caregivers of AD patients completed affective and behavioral measures with reference to the patient. Relative to control subjects, comprehension of emotional prosody was marginally impaired in mildly demented AD patients, whereas production, comprehension, and repetition of emotional prosody were significantly impaired in moderately demented AD patients. The moderately demented patients performed significantly poorer than the mildly demented patients on the production and repetition tasks. In contrast, there was no significance difference between the two groups on the prosody comprehension task. Additional analyses revealed an inverse relationship between the ability to correctly produce and repeat emotional prosody and the frequency of agitated behaviors and depressive symptomatology in moderately demented patients. This latter findings suggests that the inability to communicate emotional message is associated with disturbances in mood and behavior in AD patients. Implications for the management of disruptive behavior in agitated and aprosodic AD patients include the development of caregiver sensitivity to unexpressed emotion and caregiver assistance with emotional expression.

Requirements for Next Generation Comprehensive Analysis of Rotorcraft

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Johnson, Wayne; Data, Anubhav

2008-01-01

The unique demands of rotorcraft aeromechanics analysis have led to the development of software tools that are described as comprehensive analyses. The next generation of rotorcraft comprehensive analyses will be driven and enabled by the tremendous capabilities of high performance computing, particularly modular and scaleable software executed on multiple cores. Development of a comprehensive analysis based on high performance computing both demands and permits a new analysis architecture. This paper describes a vision of the requirements for this next generation of comprehensive analyses of rotorcraft. The requirements are described and substantiated for what must be included and justification provided for what should be excluded. With this guide, a path to the next generation code can be found.

Evaluation of ionic liquid stationary phases for one dimensional gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and comprehensive two dimensional gas chromatographic analyses of fatty acids in marine biota.

PubMed

Gu, Qun; David, Frank; Lynen, Frédéric; Vanormelingen, Pieter; Vyverman, Wim; Rumpel, Klaus; Xu, Guowang; Sandra, Pat

2011-05-20

Ionic liquid stationary phases were tested for one dimensional gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and comprehensive two dimensional gas chromatography (GC×GC) of fatty acid methyl esters from algae. In comparison with polyethylene glycol and cyanopropyl substituted polar stationary phases, ionic liquid stationary phases SLB-IL 82 and SLB-IL 100 showed comparable resolution, but lower column bleeding with MS detection, resulting in better sensitivity. The selectivity and polarity of the ionic liquid phases are similar to a highly polar biscyanopropyl-silicone phase (e.g. HP-88). In GC×GC, using an apolar polydimethyl siloxane×polar ionic liquid column combination, an excellent group-type separation of fatty acids with different carbon numbers and number of unsaturations was obtained, providing information that is complementary to GC-MS identification. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Sensitivity of Rayleigh wave ellipticity and implications for surface wave inversion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cercato, Michele

2018-04-01

The use of Rayleigh wave ellipticity has gained increasing popularity in recent years for investigating earth structures, especially for near-surface soil characterization. In spite of its widespread application, the sensitivity of the ellipticity function to the soil structure has been rarely explored in a comprehensive and systematic manner. To this end, a new analytical method is presented for computing the sensitivity of Rayleigh wave ellipticity with respect to the structural parameters of a layered elastic half-space. This method takes advantage of the minor decomposition of the surface wave eigenproblem and is numerically stable at high frequency. This numerical procedure allowed to retrieve the sensitivity for typical near surface and crustal geological scenarios, pointing out the key parameters for ellipticity interpretation under different circumstances. On this basis, a thorough analysis is performed to assess how ellipticity data can efficiently complement surface wave dispersion information in a joint inversion algorithm. The results of synthetic and real-world examples are illustrated to analyse quantitatively the diagnostic potential of the ellipticity data with respect to the soil structure, focusing on the possible sources of misinterpretation in data inversion.

A History of Rotorcraft Comprehensive Analyses

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Johnson, Wayne

2013-01-01

A history of the development of rotorcraft comprehensive analyses is presented. Comprehensive analyses are digital computer programs that calculate the aeromechanical behavior of the rotor and aircraft, bringing together the most advanced models of the geometry, structure, dynamics, and aerodynamics available in rotary wing technology. The development of the major codes of the last five decades from industry, government, and universities is described. A number of common themes observed in this history are discussed.

The Neural Bases of Difficult Speech Comprehension and Speech Production: Two Activation Likelihood Estimation (ALE) Meta-Analyses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Adank, Patti

2012-01-01

The role of speech production mechanisms in difficult speech comprehension is the subject of on-going debate in speech science. Two Activation Likelihood Estimation (ALE) analyses were conducted on neuroimaging studies investigating difficult speech comprehension or speech production. Meta-analysis 1 included 10 studies contrasting comprehension…

Health economics and outcomes methods in risk-based decision-making for blood safety.

PubMed

Custer, Brian; Janssen, Mart P

2015-08-01

Analytical methods appropriate for health economic assessments of transfusion safety interventions have not previously been described in ways that facilitate their use. Within the context of risk-based decision-making (RBDM), health economics can be important for optimizing decisions among competing interventions. The objective of this review is to address key considerations and limitations of current methods as they apply to blood safety. Because a voluntary blood supply is an example of a public good, analyses should be conducted from the societal perspective when possible. Two primary study designs are recommended for most blood safety intervention assessments: budget impact analysis (BIA), which measures the cost to implement an intervention both to the blood operator but also in a broader context, and cost-utility analysis (CUA), which measures the ratio between costs and health gain achieved, in terms of reduced morbidity and mortality, by use of an intervention. These analyses often have important limitations because data that reflect specific aspects, for example, blood recipient population characteristics or complication rates, are not available. Sensitivity analyses play an important role. The impact of various uncertain factors can be studied conjointly in probabilistic sensitivity analyses. The use of BIA and CUA together provides a comprehensive assessment of the costs and benefits from implementing (or not) specific interventions. RBDM is multifaceted and impacts a broad spectrum of stakeholders. Gathering and analyzing health economic evidence as part of the RBDM process enhances the quality, completeness, and transparency of decision-making. © 2015 AABB.

The cost of understanding other people: social cognition predicts young children's sensitivity to criticism.

PubMed

Cutting, Alexandra L; Dunn, Judy

2002-10-01

Individual differences in sensitivity to teacher criticism, and their links with individual differences in social cognition, were examined in 141 young children from diverse family backgrounds. Children's sensitivity to teacher criticism was assessed in their first year of school (mean age 5.13 years), using a puppet scenario in which a teacher criticises the child for making an error in school work. Understanding of false belief and mixed emotions was assessed at the same time. One hundred and thirteen of the children had been seen one year earlier in preschool, when comprehensive assessments were made of false belief and emotion understanding. Individual differences were apparent in children's sensitivity to teacher criticism, which were correlated with individual differences in both preschool and concurrent social cognition: children with more advanced social cognition were more sensitive to teacher criticism. Regression analyses showed that preschool social cognition was especially important, explaining unique variance in sensitivity to criticism over and above variance accounted for by concurrent sociocognitive ability. The results suggest that there are costs as well as benefits to understanding other people, at least for young children, and that individual differences in early social cognition may have distinct developmental trajectories. These issues, along with implications for research into children's responses to criticism and failure, are discussed.

"Now I see it, now I don't": Determining Threshold Levels of Facial Emotion Recognition for Use in Patient Populations.

PubMed

Chiu, Isabelle; Gfrörer, Regina I; Piguet, Olivier; Berres, Manfred; Monsch, Andreas U; Sollberger, Marc

2015-08-01

The importance of including measures of emotion processing, such as tests of facial emotion recognition (FER), as part of a comprehensive neuropsychological assessment is being increasingly recognized. In clinical settings, FER tests need to be sensitive, short, and easy to administer, given the limited time available and patient limitations. Current tests, however, commonly use stimuli that either display prototypical emotions, bearing the risk of ceiling effects and unequal task difficulty, or are cognitively too demanding and time-consuming. To overcome these limitations in FER testing in patient populations, we aimed to define FER threshold levels for the six basic emotions in healthy individuals. Forty-nine healthy individuals between 52 and 79 years of age were asked to identify the six basic emotions at different intensity levels (25%, 50%, 75%, 100%, and 125% of the prototypical emotion). Analyses uncovered differing threshold levels across emotions and sex of facial stimuli, ranging from 50% up to 100% intensities. Using these findings as "healthy population benchmarks", we propose to apply these threshold levels to clinical populations either as facial emotion recognition or intensity rating tasks. As part of any comprehensive social cognition test battery, this approach should allow for a rapid and sensitive assessment of potential FER deficits.

Feasibility and initial efficacy of a culturally sensitive women-centered substance use intervention in Georgia: Sex risk outcomes.

PubMed

Jones, Hendrée E; Kirtadze, Irma; Otiashvili, David; Murphy, Keryn; O'Grady, Kevin E; Zule, William; Krupitsky, Evgeny; Wechsberg, Wendee M

2015-12-08

This paper reports on the feasibility and initial efficacy of a culturally sensitive, comprehensive women-centered substance use intervention for women who inject drugs in Georgia in terms of the primary and secondary sex risk outcomes. The hypothesis under examination was that, relative to case management participants, participants in a culturally sensitive, comprehensive women-specific and -centered intervention would, on average, show significant decreases in past-30-day frequency of unprotected sex, unprotected sex at the last sexual encounter, and increases in condom use and safer sex actions. The study was a two-arm randomized trial, in which 173 potentially eligible women were screened, and those 128 women determined to be eligible were assigned at random to either Reinforcement-based Treatment plus Women's Co-Op (RBT + WC) or case management (CM). RBT + WC participants received 12 sessions of a structured intervention with the goal of reducing risky sex and substance use and improving physical and mental health. CM participants received 12 sessions of case management and informational brochures that focused on the same issues on which RBT + WC focused. Participants were assessed at baseline, post-treatment, and 3 months following treatment enrollment. Analyses revealed case management having significantly overall higher Safer Sex action scores than RBT + WC, and a significant decrease over time for past 30-day number of unprotected sex acts. Unprotected sex at the last encounter and Condom Use action scores were nonsignificant. Women who inject drugs in Georgia are engaging in risky sexual practices, and are in need of an intervention that addresses these risky behaviors. Reasons for the failure to find differences between a culturally sensitive, comprehensive women-centered intervention and case management tailored to the needs of women who inject drugs in Georgia may have been the result of inadequate power to detect an effect in a sample whose drug use was not as serious as warranted by the intervention. (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT01331460 ).

Creating a roadmap for delivering gender-sensitive comprehensive care for women Veterans: results of a national expert panel.

PubMed

deKleijn, Miriam; Lagro-Janssen, Antoine L M; Canelo, Ismelda; Yano, Elizabeth M

2015-04-01

Women Veterans are a significant minority of users of the VA healthcare system, limiting provider and staff experience meeting their needs in environments historically designed for men. The VA is nonetheless committed to ensuring that women Veterans have access to comprehensive care in environments sensitive to their needs. We sought to determine what aspects of care need to be tailored to the needs of women Veterans in order for the VA to deliver gender-sensitive comprehensive care. Modified Delphi expert panel process. Eleven clinicians and social scientists with expertise in women's health, primary care, and mental health. Importance of tailoring over 100 discrete aspects of care derived from the Institute of Medicine's definition of comprehensive care and literature-based domains of sex-sensitive care on a 5-point scale. Panelists rated over half of the aspects of care as very-to-extremely important (median score 4+) to tailor to the needs of women Veterans. The panel arrived at 14 priority recommendations that broadly encompassed the importance of (1) the design/delivery of services sensitive to trauma histories, (2) adapting to women's preferences and information needs, and (3) sex awareness and cultural transformation in every facet of VA operations. We used expert panel methods to arrive at consensus on top priority recommendations for improving delivery of sex-sensitive comprehensive care in VA settings. Accomplishment of their breadth will require national, regional, and local strategic action and multilevel stakeholder engagement, and will support VA's national efforts at improving customer service for all Veterans.

Creating a Roadmap for Delivering Gender-sensitive Comprehensive Care for Women Veterans

PubMed Central

deKleijn, Miriam; Lagro-Janssen, Antoine L.M.; Canelo, Ismelda

2015-01-01

Background: Women Veterans are a significant minority of users of the VA healthcare system, limiting provider and staff experience meeting their needs in environments historically designed for men. The VA is nonetheless committed to ensuring that women Veterans have access to comprehensive care in environments sensitive to their needs. Objectives: We sought to determine what aspects of care need to be tailored to the needs of women Veterans in order for the VA to deliver gender-sensitive comprehensive care. Research Design: Modified Delphi expert panel process. Subjects: Eleven clinicians and social scientists with expertise in women’s health, primary care, and mental health. Measures: Importance of tailoring over 100 discrete aspects of care derived from the Institute of Medicine’s definition of comprehensive care and literature-based domains of sex-sensitive care on a 5-point scale. Results: Panelists rated over half of the aspects of care as very-to-extremely important (median score 4+) to tailor to the needs of women Veterans. The panel arrived at 14 priority recommendations that broadly encompassed the importance of (1) the design/delivery of services sensitive to trauma histories, (2) adapting to women’s preferences and information needs, and (3) sex awareness and cultural transformation in every facet of VA operations. Conclusions: We used expert panel methods to arrive at consensus on top priority recommendations for improving delivery of sex-sensitive comprehensive care in VA settings. Accomplishment of their breadth will require national, regional, and local strategic action and multilevel stakeholder engagement, and will support VA’s national efforts at improving customer service for all Veterans. PMID:25767971

Disclosure Control using Partially Synthetic Data for Large-Scale Health Surveys, with Applications to CanCORS

PubMed Central

Loong, Bronwyn; Zaslavsky, Alan M.; He, Yulei; Harrington, David P.

2013-01-01

Statistical agencies have begun to partially synthesize public-use data for major surveys to protect the confidentiality of respondents’ identities and sensitive attributes, by replacing high disclosure risk and sensitive variables with multiple imputations. To date, there are few applications of synthetic data techniques to large-scale healthcare survey data. Here, we describe partial synthesis of survey data collected by CanCORS, a comprehensive observational study of the experiences, treatments, and outcomes of patients with lung or colorectal cancer in the United States. We review inferential methods for partially synthetic data, and discuss selection of high disclosure risk variables for synthesis, specification of imputation models, and identification disclosure risk assessment. We evaluate data utility by replicating published analyses and comparing results using original and synthetic data, and discuss practical issues in preserving inferential conclusions. We found that important subgroup relationships must be included in the synthetic data imputation model, to preserve the data utility of the observed data for a given analysis procedure. We conclude that synthetic CanCORS data are suited best for preliminary data analyses purposes. These methods address the requirement to share data in clinical research without compromising confidentiality. PMID:23670983

Ambient temperature and genotype differentially affect developmental and phenotypic plasticity in Arabidopsis thaliana.

PubMed

Ibañez, Carla; Poeschl, Yvonne; Peterson, Tom; Bellstädt, Julia; Denk, Kathrin; Gogol-Döring, Andreas; Quint, Marcel; Delker, Carolin

2017-07-06

Global increase in ambient temperatures constitute a significant challenge to wild and cultivated plant species. Forward genetic analyses of individual temperature-responsive traits have resulted in the identification of several signaling and response components. However, a comprehensive knowledge about temperature sensitivity of different developmental stages and the contribution of natural variation is still scarce and fragmented at best. Here, we systematically analyze thermomorphogenesis throughout a complete life cycle in ten natural Arabidopsis thaliana accessions grown under long day conditions in four different temperatures ranging from 16 to 28 °C. We used Q 10 , GxE, phenotypic divergence and correlation analyses to assess temperature sensitivity and genotype effects of more than 30 morphometric and developmental traits representing five phenotype classes. We found that genotype and temperature differentially affected plant growth and development with variing strengths. Furthermore, overall correlations among phenotypic temperature responses was relatively low which seems to be caused by differential capacities for temperature adaptations of individual accessions. Genotype-specific temperature responses may be attractive targets for future forward genetic approaches and accession-specific thermomorphogenesis maps may aid the assessment of functional relevance of known and novel regulatory components.

Hearing impairment, cognition and speech understanding: exploratory factor analyses of a comprehensive test battery for a group of hearing aid users, the n200 study

PubMed Central

Rönnberg, Jerker; Lunner, Thomas; Ng, Elaine Hoi Ning; Lidestam, Björn; Zekveld, Adriana Agatha; Sörqvist, Patrik; Lyxell, Björn; Träff, Ulf; Yumba, Wycliffe; Classon, Elisabet; Hällgren, Mathias; Larsby, Birgitta; Signoret, Carine; Pichora-Fuller, M. Kathleen; Rudner, Mary; Danielsson, Henrik; Stenfelt, Stefan

2016-01-01

Abstract Objective: The aims of the current n200 study were to assess the structural relations between three classes of test variables (i.e. HEARING, COGNITION and aided speech-in-noise OUTCOMES) and to describe the theoretical implications of these relations for the Ease of Language Understanding (ELU) model. Study sample: Participants were 200 hard-of-hearing hearing-aid users, with a mean age of 60.8 years. Forty-three percent were females and the mean hearing threshold in the better ear was 37.4 dB HL. Design: LEVEL1 factor analyses extracted one factor per test and/or cognitive function based on a priori conceptualizations. The more abstract LEVEL 2 factor analyses were performed separately for the three classes of test variables. Results: The HEARING test variables resulted in two LEVEL 2 factors, which we labelled SENSITIVITY and TEMPORAL FINE STRUCTURE; the COGNITIVE variables in one COGNITION factor only, and OUTCOMES in two factors, NO CONTEXT and CONTEXT. COGNITION predicted the NO CONTEXT factor to a stronger extent than the CONTEXT outcome factor. TEMPORAL FINE STRUCTURE and SENSITIVITY were associated with COGNITION and all three contributed significantly and independently to especially the NO CONTEXT outcome scores (R2 = 0.40). Conclusions: All LEVEL 2 factors are important theoretically as well as for clinical assessment. PMID:27589015

Hearing impairment, cognition and speech understanding: exploratory factor analyses of a comprehensive test battery for a group of hearing aid users, the n200 study.

PubMed

Rönnberg, Jerker; Lunner, Thomas; Ng, Elaine Hoi Ning; Lidestam, Björn; Zekveld, Adriana Agatha; Sörqvist, Patrik; Lyxell, Björn; Träff, Ulf; Yumba, Wycliffe; Classon, Elisabet; Hällgren, Mathias; Larsby, Birgitta; Signoret, Carine; Pichora-Fuller, M Kathleen; Rudner, Mary; Danielsson, Henrik; Stenfelt, Stefan

2016-11-01

The aims of the current n200 study were to assess the structural relations between three classes of test variables (i.e. HEARING, COGNITION and aided speech-in-noise OUTCOMES) and to describe the theoretical implications of these relations for the Ease of Language Understanding (ELU) model. Participants were 200 hard-of-hearing hearing-aid users, with a mean age of 60.8 years. Forty-three percent were females and the mean hearing threshold in the better ear was 37.4 dB HL. LEVEL1 factor analyses extracted one factor per test and/or cognitive function based on a priori conceptualizations. The more abstract LEVEL 2 factor analyses were performed separately for the three classes of test variables. The HEARING test variables resulted in two LEVEL 2 factors, which we labelled SENSITIVITY and TEMPORAL FINE STRUCTURE; the COGNITIVE variables in one COGNITION factor only, and OUTCOMES in two factors, NO CONTEXT and CONTEXT. COGNITION predicted the NO CONTEXT factor to a stronger extent than the CONTEXT outcome factor. TEMPORAL FINE STRUCTURE and SENSITIVITY were associated with COGNITION and all three contributed significantly and independently to especially the NO CONTEXT outcome scores (R(2) = 0.40). All LEVEL 2 factors are important theoretically as well as for clinical assessment.

Impact of a social-emotional and character development program on school-level indicators of academic achievement, absenteeism, and disciplinary outcomes: A matched-pair, cluster randomized, controlled trial.

PubMed

Snyder, Frank; Flay, Brian; Vuchinich, Samuel; Acock, Alan; Washburn, Isaac; Beets, Michael; Li, Kin-Kit

2010-01-01

This paper reports the effects of a comprehensive elementary school-based social-emotional and character education program on school-level achievement, absenteeism, and disciplinary outcomes utilizing a matched-pair, cluster randomized, controlled design. The Positive Action Hawai'i trial included 20 racially/ethnically diverse schools (mean enrollment = 544) and was conducted from the 2002-03 through the 2005-06 academic years. Using school-level archival data, analyses comparing change from baseline (2002) to one-year post trial (2007) revealed that intervention schools scored 9.8% better on the TerraNova (2 nd ed.) test for reading and 8.8% on math; 20.7% better in Hawai'i Content and Performance Standards scores for reading and 51.4% better in math; and that intervention schools reported 15.2% lower absenteeism and fewer suspensions (72.6%) and retentions (72.7%). Overall, effect sizes were moderate to large (range 0.5-1.1) for all of the examined outcomes. Sensitivity analyses using permutation models and random-intercept growth curve models substantiated results. The results provide evidence that a comprehensive school-based program, specifically developed to target student behavior and character, can positively influence school-level achievement, attendance, and disciplinary outcomes concurrently.

Greenland Regional and Ice Sheet-wide Geometry Sensitivity to Boundary and Initial conditions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Logan, L. C.; Narayanan, S. H. K.; Greve, R.; Heimbach, P.

2017-12-01

Ice sheet and glacier model outputs require inputs from uncertainly known initial and boundary conditions, and other parameters. Conservation and constitutive equations formalize the relationship between model inputs and outputs, and the sensitivity of model-derived quantities of interest (e.g., ice sheet volume above floatation) to model variables can be obtained via the adjoint model of an ice sheet. We show how one particular ice sheet model, SICOPOLIS (SImulation COde for POLythermal Ice Sheets), depends on these inputs through comprehensive adjoint-based sensitivity analyses. SICOPOLIS discretizes the shallow-ice and shallow-shelf approximations for ice flow, and is well-suited for paleo-studies of Greenland and Antarctica, among other computational domains. The adjoint model of SICOPOLIS was developed via algorithmic differentiation, facilitated by the source transformation tool OpenAD (developed at Argonne National Lab). While model sensitivity to various inputs can be computed by costly methods involving input perturbation simulations, the time-dependent adjoint model of SICOPOLIS delivers model sensitivities to initial and boundary conditions throughout time at lower cost. Here, we explore both the sensitivities of the Greenland Ice Sheet's entire and regional volumes to: initial ice thickness, precipitation, basal sliding, and geothermal flux over the Holocene epoch. Sensitivity studies such as described here are now accessible to the modeling community, based on the latest version of SICOPOLIS that has been adapted for OpenAD to generate correct and efficient adjoint code.

Relationship Between Changes in Workplace Bullying Status and the Reporting of Personality Characteristics.

PubMed

Persson, Roger; Høgh, Annie; Grynderup, Matias Brødsgaard; Willert, Morten Vejs; Gullander, Maria; Hansen, Åse Marie; Kolstad, Henrik Albert; Mors, Ole; Mikkelsen, Eva Gemzøe; Kristensen, Ann Suhl; Kaerlev, Linda; Rugulies, Reiner; Bonde, Jens Peter Ellekilde

2016-09-01

To examine whether a shift in work-related bullying status, from being non-bullied to being bullied or vice versa, was associated with changes in reporting of personality characteristics. Data on bullying and personality (neuroticism, extraversion, and sense of coherence) were collected in three waves approximately 2 years apart (N = 4947). Using a within-subjects design, personality change scores that followed altered bullying status were evaluated with one-sample t tests. Sensitivity analyses targeted depressive symptoms. Shifts from non-bullied to frequently bullied were associated with increased neuroticism or decreased sense of coherence manageability scores. Shifts from bullied to non-bullied were associated with decreasing neuroticism and increasing extraversion scores, or increasing sense of coherence meaningfulness and comprehensibility scores. Excluding depressive cases had minor effects. Bullying seems to some extent to affect personality scale scores, which thus seem sensitive to environmental and social circumstances.

Choice of Reading Comprehension Test Influences the Outcomes of Genetic Analyses

PubMed Central

Betjemann, Rebecca S.; Keenan, Janice M.; Olson, Richard K.; DeFries, John C.

2010-01-01

Does the choice of test for assessing reading comprehension influence the outcome of genetic analyses? A twin design compared two types of reading comprehension tests classified as primarily associated with word decoding (RC-D) or listening comprehension (RC-LC). For both types of tests, the overall genetic influence is high and nearly identical. However, the tests differed significantly in how they covary with the genes associated with decoding and listening comprehension. Although Cholesky decomposition showed that both types of comprehension tests shared significant genetic influence with both decoding and listening comprehension, RC-D tests shared most genetic variance with decoding, and RC-LC tests shared most with listening comprehension. Thus, different tests used to measure the same construct may manifest very different patterns of genetic covariation. These results suggest that the apparent discrepancies among the findings of previous twin studies of reading comprehension could be due at least in part to test differences. PMID:21804757

High-Resolution Imaged-Based 3D Reconstruction Combined with X-Ray CT Data Enables Comprehensive Non-Destructive Documentation and Targeted Research of Astromaterials

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Blumenfeld, E. H.; Evans, C. A.; Oshel, E. R.; Liddle, D. A.; Beaulieu, K.; Zeigler, R. A.; Righter, K.; Hanna, R. D.; Ketcham, R. A.

2014-01-01

Providing web-based data of complex and sensitive astromaterials (including meteorites and lunar samples) in novel formats enhances existing preliminary examination data on these samples and supports targeted sample requests and analyses. We have developed and tested a rigorous protocol for collecting highly detailed imagery of meteorites and complex lunar samples in non-contaminating environments. These data are reduced to create interactive 3D models of the samples. We intend to provide these data as they are acquired on NASA's Astromaterials Acquisition and Curation website at http://curator.jsc.nasa.gov/.

[The diagnostic value of ultrasonic elastography and ultrasonography comprehensive score in cervical lesions].

PubMed

Lu, R; Xiao, Y

2017-07-18

Objective: To evaluate the clinical value of ultrasonic elastography and ultrasonography comprehensive scoring method in the diagnosis of cervical lesions. Methods: A total of 116 patients were selected from the Department of Gynecology of the first hospital affiliated with Central South University from March 2014 to September 2015.All of the lesions were preoperatively examined by Doppler Ultrasound and elastography.The elasticity score was determined by a 5-point scoring method. Calculation of the strain ratio was based on a comparison of the average strain measured in the lesion with the adjacent tissue of the same depth, size, and shape.All these ultrasonic parameters were quantified, added, and arrived at ultrasonography comprehensive scores.To use surgical pathology as the gold standard, the sensitivity, specificity, accuracy of Doppler Ultrasound, elasticity score and strain ratio methods and ultrasonography comprehensive scoring method were comparatively analyzed. Results: (1) The sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of Doppler Ultrasound in diagnosing cervical lesions were 82.89% (63/76), 85.0% (34/40), and 83.62% (97/116), respectively.(2) The sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of the elasticity score method were 77.63% (59/76), 82.5% (33/40), and 79.31% (92/116), respectively; the sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of the strain ratio measure method were 84.21% (64/76), 87.5% (35/40), and 85.34% (99/116), respectively.(3) The sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of ultrasonography comprehensive scoring method were 90.79% (69/76), 92.5% (37/40), and 91.38% (106/116), respectively. Conclusion: (1) It was obvious that ultrasonic elastography had certain diagnostic value in cervical lesions. Strain ratio measurement can be more objective than elasticity score method.(2) The combined application of ultrasonography comprehensive scoring method, ultrasonic elastography and conventional sonography was more accurate than single parameter.

High sensitivity of tidewater outlet glacier dynamics to shape

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Enderlin, E. M.; Howat, I. M.; Vieli, A.

2013-02-01

Variability in tidewater outlet glacier behavior under similar external forcing has been attributed to differences in outlet shape (i.e. bed elevation and width), but this dependence has not been investigated in detail. Here we use a numerical ice flow model to show that the dynamics of tidewater outlet glaciers under external forcing are highly sensitive to width and bed topography. Our sensitivity tests indicate that for glaciers with similar discharge, the trunks of wider glaciers and those grounded over deeper basal depressions tend to be closer to flotation, so that less dynamically induced thinning results in rapid, unstable retreat following a perturbation. The lag time between the onset of the perturbation and unstable retreat varies with outlet shape, which may help explain intra-regional variability in tidewater outlet glacier behavior. Further, because the perturbation response is dependent on the thickness relative to flotation, varying the bed topography within the range of observational uncertainty can result in either stable or unstable retreat due to the same perturbation. Thus, extreme care must be taken when interpreting the future behavior of actual glacier systems using numerical ice flow models that are not accompanied by comprehensive sensitivity analyses.

High sensitivity of tidewater outlet glacier dynamics to shape

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Enderlin, E. M.; Howat, I. M.; Vieli, A.

2013-06-01

Variability in tidewater outlet glacier behavior under similar external forcing has been attributed to differences in outlet shape (i.e., bed elevation and width), but this dependence has not been investigated in detail. Here we use a numerical ice flow model to show that the dynamics of tidewater outlet glaciers under external forcing are highly sensitive to width and bed topography. Our sensitivity tests indicate that for glaciers with similar discharge, the trunks of wider glaciers and those grounded over deeper basal depressions tend to be closer to flotation, so that less dynamically induced thinning results in rapid, unstable retreat following a perturbation. The lag time between the onset of the perturbation and unstable retreat varies with outlet shape, which may help explain intra-regional variability in tidewater outlet glacier behavior. Further, because the perturbation response is dependent on the thickness relative to flotation, varying the bed topography within the range of observational uncertainty can result in either stable or unstable retreat due to the same perturbation. Thus, extreme care must be taken when interpreting the future behavior of actual glacier systems using numerical ice flow models that are not accompanied by comprehensive sensitivity analyses.

Repeal of Comprehensive Background Check Policies and Firearm Homicide and Suicide.

PubMed

Kagawa, Rose M C; Castillo-Carniglia, Alvaro; Vernick, Jon S; Webster, Daniel; Crifasi, Cassandra; Rudolph, Kara E; Cerdá, Magdalena; Shev, Aaron; Wintemute, Garen J

2018-04-02

In 2016, firearms killed 38,658 people in the United States. Federal law requires licensed gun dealers, but not private parties, to conduct background checks on prospective firearm purchasers with the goal of preventing prohibited persons from obtaining firearms. Our objective was to estimate the effect of the repeal of comprehensive background check laws - requiring a background check for all handgun sales, not just sales by licensed dealers - on firearm homicide and suicide rates in Indiana and Tennessee. We compared age-adjusted firearm homicide and suicide rates, measured annually from 1981-2008 and 1994-2008 in Indiana and Tennessee, respectively, to rates in control groups constructed using the synthetic control method. The average rates of firearm homicide and suicide in Indiana and Tennessee following repeal were within the range of what could be expected given natural variation (differences = 0.7 firearm homicides and 0.5 firearm suicides per 100,000 residents in Indiana and 0.4 firearm homicides and 0.3 firearm suicides per 100,000 residents in Tennessee). Sensitivity analyses resulted in similar findings. We found no evidence of an association between the repeal of comprehensive background check policies and firearm homicide and suicide rates in Indiana and Tennessee. In order to understand whether comprehensive background check policies reduce firearm deaths in the United States generally, more evidence on the impact of such policies from other states is needed.

Cost analysis of a school-based comprehensive malaria program in primary schools in Sikasso region, Mali.

PubMed

Maccario, Roberta; Rouhani, Saba; Drake, Tom; Nagy, Annie; Bamadio, Modibo; Diarra, Seybou; Djanken, Souleymane; Roschnik, Natalie; Clarke, Siân E; Sacko, Moussa; Brooker, Simon; Thuilliez, Josselin

2017-06-12

The expansion of malaria prevention and control to school-aged children is receiving increasing attention, but there are still limited data on the costs of intervention. This paper analyses the costs of a comprehensive school-based intervention strategy, delivered by teachers, that included participatory malaria educational activities, distribution of long lasting insecticide-treated nets (LLIN), and Intermittent Parasite Clearance in schools (IPCs) in southern Mali. Costs were collected alongside a randomised controlled trial conducted in 80 primary schools in Sikasso Region in Mali in 2010-2012. Cost data were compiled between November 2011 and March 2012 for the 40 intervention schools (6413 children). A provider perspective was adopted. Using an ingredients approach, costs were classified by cost category and by activity. Total costs and cost per child were estimated for the actual intervention, as well as for a simpler version of the programme more suited for scale-up by the government. Univariate sensitivity analysis was performed. The economic cost of the comprehensive intervention was estimated to $10.38 per child (financial cost $8.41) with malaria education, LLIN distribution and IPCs costing $2.13 (20.5%), $5.53 (53.3%) and $2.72 (26.2%) per child respectively. Human resources were found to be the key cost driver, and training costs were the greatest contributor to overall programme costs. Sensitivity analysis showed that an adapted intervention delivering one LLIN instead of two would lower the economic cost to $8.66 per child; and that excluding LLIN distribution in schools altogether, for example in settings where malaria control already includes universal distribution of LLINs at community-level, would reduce costs to $4.89 per child. A comprehensive school-based control strategy may be a feasible and affordable way to address the burden of malaria among schoolchildren in the Sahel.

Performance optimization of helicopter rotor blades

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Walsh, Joanne L.

1991-01-01

As part of a center-wide activity at NASA Langley Research Center to develop multidisciplinary design procedures by accounting for discipline interactions, a performance design optimization procedure is developed. The procedure optimizes the aerodynamic performance of rotor blades by selecting the point of taper initiation, root chord, taper ratio, and maximum twist which minimize hover horsepower while not degrading forward flight performance. The procedure uses HOVT (a strip theory momentum analysis) to compute the horse power required for hover and the comprehensive helicopter analysis program CAMRAD to compute the horsepower required for forward flight and maneuver. The optimization algorithm consists of the general purpose optimization program CONMIN and approximate analyses. Sensitivity analyses consisting of derivatives of the objective function and constraints are carried out by forward finite differences. The procedure is applied to a test problem which is an analytical model of a wind tunnel model of a utility rotor blade.

Specifics of Chemical Toxilogical Analyses in the Russian Federation for the Purpose of Identification of Narcotics in Biological Matters

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Coates, Cameron W; Eisele, Gerhard R

2011-01-01

The Russian Federation (RF) is committed to implementing a comprehensive drug testing program under its Personnel Reliability Program (PRP) for military personnel involved in handling sensitive nuclear materials. This commitment leads to a number of mandatory requirements for the laboratory conducting the confirmation testing to ensure the legitimacy and integrity of the testing process. These requirements are established by the RF Duma to ensure that individuals conducting these tests have adequate training, certifications, and experience to conduct narcotic confirmation tests. This paper describes the facility requirements and personnel qualifications needed for conducting comprehensive drug abuse confirmation testing. Details regarding themore » personnel training and laboratory experience in the theory and practice of analytical forensic toxicology of drugs of abuse will be presented, as well as the facility requirements for the laboratory conducting such tests. Chain-of-custody, from sample receipt through completion of testing, reporting of results, and continuing until final disposition of specimens will be addressed.« less

Comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography for the analysis of Fischer-Tropsch oil products.

PubMed

van der Westhuizen, Rina; Crous, Renier; de Villiers, André; Sandra, Pat

2010-12-24

The Fischer-Tropsch (FT) process involves a series of catalysed reactions of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, originating from coal, natural gas or biomass, leading to a variety of synthetic chemicals and fuels. The benefits of comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography (GC×GC) compared to one-dimensional GC (1D-GC) for the detailed investigation of the oil products of low and high temperature FT processes are presented. GC×GC provides more accurate quantitative data to construct Anderson-Schultz-Flory (ASF) selectivity models that correlate the FT product distribution with reaction variables. On the other hand, the high peak capacity and sensitivity of GC×GC allow the detailed study of components present at trace level. Analyses of the aromatic and oxygenated fractions of a high temperature FT (HT-FT) process are presented. GC×GC data have been used to optimise or tune the HT-FT process by using a lab-scale micro-FT-reactor. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

PeTTSy: a computational tool for perturbation analysis of complex systems biology models.

PubMed

Domijan, Mirela; Brown, Paul E; Shulgin, Boris V; Rand, David A

2016-03-10

Over the last decade sensitivity analysis techniques have been shown to be very useful to analyse complex and high dimensional Systems Biology models. However, many of the currently available toolboxes have either used parameter sampling, been focused on a restricted set of model observables of interest, studied optimisation of a objective function, or have not dealt with multiple simultaneous model parameter changes where the changes can be permanent or temporary. Here we introduce our new, freely downloadable toolbox, PeTTSy (Perturbation Theory Toolbox for Systems). PeTTSy is a package for MATLAB which implements a wide array of techniques for the perturbation theory and sensitivity analysis of large and complex ordinary differential equation (ODE) based models. PeTTSy is a comprehensive modelling framework that introduces a number of new approaches and that fully addresses analysis of oscillatory systems. It examines sensitivity analysis of the models to perturbations of parameters, where the perturbation timing, strength, length and overall shape can be controlled by the user. This can be done in a system-global setting, namely, the user can determine how many parameters to perturb, by how much and for how long. PeTTSy also offers the user the ability to explore the effect of the parameter perturbations on many different types of outputs: period, phase (timing of peak) and model solutions. PeTTSy can be employed on a wide range of mathematical models including free-running and forced oscillators and signalling systems. To enable experimental optimisation using the Fisher Information Matrix it efficiently allows one to combine multiple variants of a model (i.e. a model with multiple experimental conditions) in order to determine the value of new experiments. It is especially useful in the analysis of large and complex models involving many variables and parameters. PeTTSy is a comprehensive tool for analysing large and complex models of regulatory and signalling systems. It allows for simulation and analysis of models under a variety of environmental conditions and for experimental optimisation of complex combined experiments. With its unique set of tools it makes a valuable addition to the current library of sensitivity analysis toolboxes. We believe that this software will be of great use to the wider biological, systems biology and modelling communities.

Sensitivities of Greenland ice sheet volume inferred from an ice sheet adjoint model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Heimbach, P.; Bugnion, V.

2009-04-01

We present a new and original approach to understanding the sensitivity of the Greenland ice sheet to key model parameters and environmental conditions. At the heart of this approach is the use of an adjoint ice sheet model. Since its introduction by MacAyeal (1992), the adjoint method has become widespread to fit ice stream models to the increasing number and diversity of satellite observations, and to estimate uncertain model parameters such as basal conditions. However, no attempt has been made to extend this method to comprehensive ice sheet models. As a first step toward the use of adjoints of comprehensive three-dimensional ice sheet models we have generated an adjoint of the ice sheet model SICOPOLIS of Greve (1997). The adjoint was generated by means of the automatic differentiation (AD) tool TAF. The AD tool generates exact source code representing the tangent linear and adjoint model of the nonlinear parent model provided. Model sensitivities are given by the partial derivatives of a scalar-valued model diagnostic with respect to the controls, and can be efficiently calculated via the adjoint. By way of example, we determine the sensitivity of the total Greenland ice volume to various control variables, such as spatial fields of basal flow parameters, surface and basal forcings, and initial conditions. Reliability of the adjoint was tested through finite-difference perturbation calculations for various control variables and perturbation regions. Besides confirming qualitative aspects of ice sheet sensitivities, such as expected regional variations, we detect regions where model sensitivities are seemingly unexpected or counter-intuitive, albeit ``real'' in the sense of actual model behavior. An example is inferred regions where sensitivities of ice sheet volume to basal sliding coefficient are positive, i.e. where a local increase in basal sliding parameter increases the ice sheet volume. Similarly, positive ice temperature sensitivities in certain parts of the ice sheet are found (in most regions it is negativ, i.e. an increase in temperature decreases ice sheet volume), the detection of which seems highly unlikely if only conventional perturbation experiments had been used. An effort to generate an efficient adjoint with the newly developed open-source AD tool OpenAD is also under way. Available adjoint code generation tools now open up a variety of novel model applications, notably with regard to sensitivity and uncertainty analyses and ice sheet state estimation or data assimilation.

Development and Validation of a HPLC-ESI-MS/MS Method for Simultaneous Quantification of Fourteen Alkaloids in Mouse Plasma after Oral Administration of the Extract of Corydalis yanhusuo Tuber: Application to Pharmacokinetic Study.

PubMed

Du, Weijuan; Jin, Lisha; Li, Liping; Wang, Wei; Zeng, Su; Jiang, Huidi; Zhou, Hui

2018-03-21

The tuber of Corydalis yanhusuo is a famous traditional Chinese medicine and found to have potent pharmacological effects, such as antinociceptive, antitumor, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, and anti-depressive activities. Although there are several methods to be developed for the analysis and detection of the bioactive ingredients' alkaloids, so far, only few prominent alkaloids could be quantified, and in vitro and in vivo changes of comprehensive alkaloids after oral administration are still little known. In this study, we first developed a simple and sensitive high-performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-ESI-MS/MS) method to quantify the comprehensive alkaloids of extracts of C. yanhusuo in mouse plasma, using nitidine chloride as an internal standard. As results, at least fourteen alkaloids, including an aporphine (oxoglaucine), a protopine (protopine), five tertiary alkaloids (corydaline, tetrahydroberberine, tetrahydropalmatine, tetrahydrocolumbamine, and tetrahydrocoptisine) and seven quaternary alkaloids (columbamine, palmatine, berberine, epiberberine, coptisine, jatrorrhizine, and dehydrocorydaline) could be well quantified simultaneously in mouse plasma. The lower limits of quantification were greater than, or equal to, 0.67 ng/mL, and the average matrix effects ranged from 96.4% to 114.3%. The mean extraction recoveries of quality control samples were over 71.40%, and the precision and accuracy were within the acceptable limits. All the analytes were shown to be stable under different storage conditions. Then the established method was successfully applied to investigate the pharmacokinetics of these alkaloids after oral administration of the extract of Corydalis yanhusuo in mice. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first document to report the comprehensive and simultaneous analyses of alkaloids of C. yanhusuo in mouse plasma. It was efficient and useful for comprehensive pharmacokinetic and metabolomic analyses of these complex alkaloids after drug administration.

Cluster randomized trial of a multilevel evidence-based quality improvement approach to tailoring VA Patient Aligned Care Teams to the needs of women Veterans.

PubMed

Yano, Elizabeth M; Darling, Jill E; Hamilton, Alison B; Canelo, Ismelda; Chuang, Emmeline; Meredith, Lisa S; Rubenstein, Lisa V

2016-07-19

The Veterans Health Administration (VA) has undertaken a major initiative to transform care through implementation of Patient Aligned Care Teams (PACTs). Based on the patient-centered medical home (PCMH) concept, PACT aims to improve access, continuity, coordination, and comprehensiveness using team-based care that is patient-driven and patient-centered. However, how VA should adapt PACT to meet the needs of special populations, such as women Veterans (WVs), was not considered in initial implementation guidance. WVs' numerical minority in VA healthcare settings (approximately 7-8 % of users) creates logistical challenges to delivering gender-sensitive comprehensive care. The main goal of this study is to test an evidence-based quality improvement approach (EBQI) to tailoring PACT to meet the needs of WVs, incorporating comprehensive primary care services and gender-specific care in gender-sensitive environments, thereby accelerating achievement of PACT tenets for women (Women's Health (WH)-PACT). EBQI is a systematic approach to developing a multilevel research-clinical partnership that engages senior organizational leaders and local quality improvement (QI) teams in adapting and implementing new care models in the context of prior evidence and local practice conditions, with researchers providing technical support, formative feedback, and practice facilitation. In a 12-site cluster randomized trial, we will evaluate WH-PACT model achievement using patient, provider, staff, and practice surveys, in addition to analyses of secondary administrative and chart-based data. We will explore impacts of receipt of WH-PACT care on quality of chronic disease care and prevention, health status, patient satisfaction and experience of care, provider experience, utilization, and costs. Using mixed methods, we will assess pre-post practice contexts; document EBQI activities undertaken in participating facilities and their relationship to provider/staff and team actions/attitudes; document WH-PACT implementation; and examine barriers/facilitators to EBQI-supported WH-PACT implementation through a combination of semi-structured interviews and monthly formative progress narratives and administrative data. Lack of gender-sensitive comprehensive care has demonstrated consequences for the technical quality and ratings of care among WVs and may contribute to decisions to continue use or seek care elsewhere under the US Affordable Care Act. We hypothesize that tailoring PACT implementation through EBQI may improve the experience and quality of care at many levels. ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT02039856.

Cognitive correlates of pragmatic language comprehension in adult traumatic brain injury: A systematic review and meta-analyses.

PubMed

Rowley, Dane A; Rogish, Miles; Alexander, Timothy; Riggs, Kevin J

2017-01-01

Effective pragmatic comprehension of language is critical for successful communication and interaction, but this ability is routinely impaired following Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) (1,2). Individual studies have investigated the cognitive domains associated with impaired pragmatic comprehension, but there remains little understanding of the relative importance of these domains in contributing to pragmatic comprehension impairment following TBI. This paper presents a systematic meta-analytic review of the observed correlations between pragmatic comprehension and cognitive processes following TBI. Five meta-analyses were computed, which quantified the relationship between pragmatic comprehension and five key cognitive constructs (declarative memory; working memory; attention; executive functions; social cognition). Significant moderate-to-strong correlations were found between all cognitive measures and pragmatic comprehension, where declarative memory was the strongest correlate. Thus, our findings indicate that pragmatic comprehension in TBI is associated with an array of domain general cognitive processes, and as such deficits in these cognitive domains may underlie pragmatic comprehension difficulties following TBI. The clinical implications of these findings are discussed.

High salt diet induces metabolic alterations in multiple biological processes of Dahl salt-sensitive rats.

PubMed

Wang, Yanjun; Liu, Xiangyang; Zhang, Chen; Wang, Zhengjun

2018-06-01

High salt induced renal disease is a condition resulting from the interactions of genetic and dietary factors causing multiple complications. To understand the metabolic alterations associated with renal disease, we comprehensively analyzed the metabonomic changes induced by high salt intake in Dahl salt-sensitive (SS) rats using GC-MS technology and biochemical analyses. Physiological features, serum chemistry, and histopathological data were obtained as complementary information. Our results showed that high salt (HS) intake for 16 weeks caused significant metabolic alterations in both the renal medulla and cortex involving a variety pathways involved in the metabolism of organic acids, amino acids, fatty acids, and purines. In addition, HS enhanced glycolysis (hexokinase, phosphofructokinase and pyruvate kinase) and amino acid metabolism and suppressed the TCA (citrate synthase and aconitase) cycle. Finally, HS intake caused up-regulation of the pentose phosphate pathway (glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase and 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase), the ratio of NADPH/NADP + , NADPH oxidase activity and ROS production, suggesting that increased oxidative stress was associated with an altered PPP pathway. The metabolic pathways identified may serve as potential targets for the treatment of renal damage. Our findings provide comprehensive biochemical details about the metabolic responses to a high salt diet, which may contribute to the understanding of renal disease and salt-induced hypertension in SS rats. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Investigating Predictors of Listening Comprehension in Third-, Seventh-, and Tenth-Grade Students: A Dominance Analysis Approach

PubMed Central

Tighe, Elizabeth L.; Spencer, Mercedes; Schatschneider, Christopher

2015-01-01

This study rank ordered the contributive importance of several predictors of listening comprehension for third, seventh, and tenth graders. Principal components analyses revealed that a three-factor solution with fluency, reasoning, and working memory components provided the best fit across grade levels. Dominance analyses indicated that fluency and reasoning were the strongest predictors of third grade listening comprehension. Reasoning emerged as the strongest predictor of seventh and tenth grade listening comprehension. These findings suggest a shift in the contributive importance of predictors to listening comprehension across development (i.e., grade levels). The implications of our findings for educators and researchers are discussed. PMID:26877573

A Dynamic Speech Comprehension Test for Assessing Real-World Listening Ability.

PubMed

Best, Virginia; Keidser, Gitte; Freeston, Katrina; Buchholz, Jörg M

2016-07-01

Many listeners with hearing loss report particular difficulties with multitalker communication situations, but these difficulties are not well predicted using current clinical and laboratory assessment tools. The overall aim of this work is to create new speech tests that capture key aspects of multitalker communication situations and ultimately provide better predictions of real-world communication abilities and the effect of hearing aids. A test of ongoing speech comprehension introduced previously was extended to include naturalistic conversations between multiple talkers as targets, and a reverberant background environment containing competing conversations. In this article, we describe the development of this test and present a validation study. Thirty listeners with normal hearing participated in this study. Speech comprehension was measured for one-, two-, and three-talker passages at three different signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs), and working memory ability was measured using the reading span test. Analyses were conducted to examine passage equivalence, learning effects, and test-retest reliability, and to characterize the effects of number of talkers and SNR. Although we observed differences in difficulty across passages, it was possible to group the passages into four equivalent sets. Using this grouping, we achieved good test-retest reliability and observed no significant learning effects. Comprehension performance was sensitive to the SNR but did not decrease as the number of talkers increased. Individual performance showed associations with age and reading span score. This new dynamic speech comprehension test appears to be valid and suitable for experimental purposes. Further work will explore its utility as a tool for predicting real-world communication ability and hearing aid benefit. American Academy of Audiology.

Disclosure control using partially synthetic data for large-scale health surveys, with applications to CanCORS.

PubMed

Loong, Bronwyn; Zaslavsky, Alan M; He, Yulei; Harrington, David P

2013-10-30

Statistical agencies have begun to partially synthesize public-use data for major surveys to protect the confidentiality of respondents' identities and sensitive attributes by replacing high disclosure risk and sensitive variables with multiple imputations. To date, there are few applications of synthetic data techniques to large-scale healthcare survey data. Here, we describe partial synthesis of survey data collected by the Cancer Care Outcomes Research and Surveillance (CanCORS) project, a comprehensive observational study of the experiences, treatments, and outcomes of patients with lung or colorectal cancer in the USA. We review inferential methods for partially synthetic data and discuss selection of high disclosure risk variables for synthesis, specification of imputation models, and identification disclosure risk assessment. We evaluate data utility by replicating published analyses and comparing results using original and synthetic data and discuss practical issues in preserving inferential conclusions. We found that important subgroup relationships must be included in the synthetic data imputation model, to preserve the data utility of the observed data for a given analysis procedure. We conclude that synthetic CanCORS data are suited best for preliminary data analyses purposes. These methods address the requirement to share data in clinical research without compromising confidentiality. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Prediction of amyloid-β pathology in amnestic mild cognitive impairment with neuropsychological tests.

PubMed

Bahar-Fuchs, Alex; Villemagne, Victor; Ong, Kevin; Chetélat, Gaël; Lamb, Fiona; Reininger, Cornelia B; Woodward, Michael; Rowe, Christopher C

2013-01-01

Assessment of disease biomarkers, particularly the in vivo assessment of amyloid-β (Aβ) burden with positron emission tomography (PET), is gradually becoming central to the diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) due to Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, the incorporation of biomarker evidence to the diagnostic process is currently restricted mainly to research settings. The identification of memory measures that are associated with Aβ is of clinical relevance as this may enhance the confidence in making a diagnosis of MCI due to AD in clinical settings. Forty one persons with amnestic MCI underwent Aβ imaging with (18)F-Florbetaben PET, magnetic resonance imaging, and a comprehensive neuropsychological assessment. All measures of episodic memory were significantly correlated with Aβ burden, but regression analyses revealed a strong and selective association between story recall and Aβ over and beyond the effects of age, education, global cognition, hippocampal volume, or other memory tests. Analyses of sensitivity and specificity of memory measures to detect high versus low Aβ scans suggested that word-list recall performed better when high sensitivity was preferred, whereas story recall performed better when high specificity was preferred. In conclusion, a measure of story recall may increase the confidence in making a diagnosis of MCI due to AD in clinical settings.

Sensitive and comprehensive analysis of O-glycosylation in biotherapeutics: a case study of novel erythropoiesis stimulating protein.

PubMed

Kim, Unyong; Oh, Myung Jin; Seo, Youngsuk; Jeon, Yinae; Eom, Joon-Ho; An, Hyun Joo

2017-09-01

Glycosylation of recombinant human erythropoietins (rhEPOs) is significantly associated with drug's quality and potency. Thus, comprehensive characterization of glycosylation is vital to assess the biotherapeutic quality and establish the equivalency of biosimilar rhEPOs. However, current glycan analysis mainly focuses on the N-glycans due to the absence of analytical tools to liberate O-glycans with high sensitivity. We developed selective and sensitive method to profile native O-glycans on rhEPOs. O-glycosylation on rhEPO including O-acetylation on a sialic acid was comprehensively characterized. Details such as O-glycan structure and O-acetyl-modification site were obtained from tandem MS. This method may be applied to QC and batch analysis of not only rhEPOs but also other biotherapeutics bearing multiple O-glycosylations.

Diagnostic Accuracy of the Veteran Affairs' Traumatic Brain Injury Screen.

PubMed

Louise Bender Pape, Theresa; Smith, Bridget; Babcock-Parziale, Judith; Evans, Charlesnika T; Herrold, Amy A; Phipps Maieritsch, Kelly; High, Walter M

2018-01-31

To comprehensively estimate the diagnostic accuracy and reliability of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Clinical Reminder Screen (TCRS). Cross-sectional, prospective, observational study using the Standards for Reporting of Diagnostic Accuracy criteria. Three VA Polytrauma Network Sites. Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Enduring Freedom veterans (N=433). TCRS, Comprehensive TBI Evaluation, Structured TBI Diagnostic Interview, Symptom Attribution and Classification Algorithm, and Clinician-Administered Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Scale. Forty-five percent of veterans screened positive on the TCRS for TBI. For detecting occurrence of historical TBI, the TCRS had a sensitivity of .56 to .74, a specificity of .63 to .93, a positive predictive value (PPV) of 25% to 45%, a negative predictive value (NPV) of 91% to 94%, and a diagnostic odds ratio (DOR) of 4 to 13. For accuracy of attributing active symptoms to the TBI, the TCRS had a sensitivity of .64 to .87, a specificity of .59 to .89, a PPV of 26% to 32%, an NPV of 92% to 95%, and a DOR of 6 to 9. The sensitivity was higher for veterans with PTSD (.80-.86) relative to veterans without PTSD (.57-.82). The specificity, however, was higher among veterans without PTSD (.75-.81) relative to veterans with PTSD (.36-.49). All indices of diagnostic accuracy changed when participants with questionably valid (QV) test profiles were eliminated from analyses. The utility of the TCRS to screen for mild TBI (mTBI) depends on the stringency of the diagnostic reference standard to which it is being compared, the presence/absence of PTSD, and QV test profiles. Further development, validation, and use of reproducible diagnostic algorithms for symptom attribution after possible mTBI would improve diagnostic accuracy. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Recapitulation of Tumor Heterogeneity and Molecular Signatures in a 3D Brain Cancer Model with Decreased Sensitivity to Histone Deacetylase Inhibition

PubMed Central

Smith, Stuart J.; Wilson, Martin; Ward, Jennifer H.; Rahman, Cheryl V.; Peet, Andrew C.; Macarthur, Donald C.; Rose, Felicity R. A. J.; Grundy, Richard G.; Rahman, Ruman

2012-01-01

Introduction Physiologically relevant pre-clinical ex vivo models recapitulating CNS tumor micro-environmental complexity will aid development of biologically-targeted agents. We present comprehensive characterization of tumor aggregates generated using the 3D Rotary Cell Culture System (RCCS). Methods CNS cancer cell lines were grown in conventional 2D cultures and the RCCS and comparison with a cohort of 53 pediatric high grade gliomas conducted by genome wide gene expression and microRNA arrays, coupled with immunohistochemistry, ex vivo magnetic resonance spectroscopy and drug sensitivity evaluation using the histone deacetylase inhibitor, Vorinostat. Results Macroscopic RCCS aggregates recapitulated the heterogeneous morphology of brain tumors with a distinct proliferating rim, necrotic core and oxygen tension gradient. Gene expression and microRNA analyses revealed significant differences with 3D expression intermediate to 2D cultures and primary brain tumors. Metabolic profiling revealed differential profiles, with an increase in tumor specific metabolites in 3D. To evaluate the potential of the RCCS as a drug testing tool, we determined the efficacy of Vorinostat against aggregates of U87 and KNS42 glioblastoma cells. Both lines demonstrated markedly reduced sensitivity when assaying in 3D culture conditions compared to classical 2D drug screen approaches. Conclusions Our comprehensive characterization demonstrates that 3D RCCS culture of high grade brain tumor cells has profound effects on the genetic, epigenetic and metabolic profiles of cultured cells, with these cells residing as an intermediate phenotype between that of 2D cultures and primary tumors. There is a discrepancy between 2D culture and tumor molecular profiles, and RCCS partially re-capitulates tissue specific features, allowing drug testing in a more relevant ex vivo system. PMID:23272238

Phytotoxicity of floodplain soils contaminated with trace metals along the clark fork river, Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site, Deer Lodge, Montana, United States

USGS Publications Warehouse

Rader, B.R.; Nimmo, D.W.R.; Chapman, P.L.

1997-01-01

Concentrations of metals in sediments and soils deposited along the floodplain of the Clark Fork River, within the Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site, Deer Lodge, Montana, USA, have exceeded maximum background concentrations in the United States for most metals tested. As a result of mining and smelting activities, portions of the Deer Lodge Valley, including the Grant-Kohrs Ranch, have received National Priority List Designation under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act. Using a series of plant germination tests, pH measurements, and metal analyses, this study investigated the toxicity of soils from floodplain 'slicken' areas, bare spots devoid of vegetation, along the Clark Fork River. The slicken soils collected from the Grant-Kohrs Ranch were toxic to all four plant species tested. The most sensitive endpoint in the germination tests was root length and the least sensitive was emergence. Considering emergence, the most sensitive species was the resident grass species Agrostis gigantea. The sensitivities were reversed when root lengths were examined, with Echinochloa crusgalli showing the greatest sensitivity. Both elevated concentrations of metals and low pH were necessary to produce an acutely phytotoxic response in laboratory seed germination tests using slicken soils. Moreover, pH values on the Grant-Kohrs Ranch appear to be a better predictor of acutely phytotoxic conditions than total metal levels.

Adjoint Sensitivity Analyses Of Sand And Dust Storms In East Asia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kay, J.; Kim, H.

2008-12-01

Sand and Dust Storm (SDS) in East Asia, so called Asian dust, is a seasonal meteorological phenomenon. Mostly in spring, dust particles blown into atmosphere in the arid area over northern China desert and Manchuria are transported to East Asia by prevailing flows. Three SDS events in East Asia from 2005 to 2008 are chosen to investigate how sensitive the SDS forecasts to the initial condition uncertainties and thence to suggest the sensitive regions for adaptive observations of the SDS events. Adaptive observations are additional observations in sensitive regions where the observations may have the most impact on the forecast by decreasing the forecast error. Three SDS events are chosen to represent different transport passes from the dust source regions to the Korean peninsula. To investigate the sensitivities to the initial condition, adjoint sensitivities that calculate gradient of the forecast aspect (i.e., response function) with respect to the initial condition are used. The forecast aspects relevant to the SDS transport are forecast error of the surface pressure, surface pressure perturbation, and steering vector of winds in the lower troposphere. Because the surface low pressure system usually plays an important role for SDS transport, the forecast error of the surface pressure and the surface pressure perturbation are chosen as the response function of the adjoint calculation. Another response function relevant to SDS transport is the steering flow over the downstream region (i.e., Korean peninsula) because direction and intensity of the prevailing winds usually determine the intensity and occurrence of the SDS events at the destination. The results show that the sensitive regions for the forecast error of the surface pressure and surface pressure perturbation are initially located in the vicinity of the trough and then propagate eastward as the low system moves eastward. The vertical structures of the adjoint sensitivities are upshear tilted structures, which are typical structures of extratropical cyclones. The adjoint sensitivities for lower tropospheric steering flow are also located near the trough, which confirms that the accurate forecast on the location and movement of the trough is essential to have better forecasts of Asian dust events. More comprehensive results and discussions of the adjoint sensitivity analyses for Asian dust events will be presented in the meeting.

Executive Function and Reading Comprehension: A Meta-Analytic Review

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Follmer, D. Jake

2018-01-01

This article presents a meta-analytic review of the relation between executive function and reading comprehension. Results (N = 6,673) supported a moderate positive association between executive function and reading comprehension (r = 0.36). Moderator analyses suggested that correlations between executive function and reading comprehension did not…

A Systematic Review of the Research on Vocabulary Instruction That Impacts Text Comprehension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wright, Tanya S.; Cervetti, Gina N.

2017-01-01

Although numerous studies have identified a correlational relationship between vocabulary and comprehension, we know less about vocabulary interventions that impact reading comprehension. Therefore, this study is a systematic review of vocabulary interventions with comprehension outcomes. Analyses of 36 studies that met criteria are organized…

The PDF4LHC report on PDFs and LHC data: Results from Run I and preparation for Run II

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Rojo, Juan; Accardi, Alberto; Ball, Richard D.

2015-09-16

The accurate determination of Parton Distribution Functions (PDFs) of the proton is an essential ingredient of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) program. PDF uncertainties impact a wide range of processes, from Higgs boson characterization and precision Standard Model measurements to New Physics searches. A major recent development in modern PDF analyses has been to exploit the wealth of new information contained in precision measurements from the LHC Run I, as well as progress in tools and methods to include these data in PDF fits. In this report we summarize the information that PDF-sensitive measurements at the LHC have provided somore » far, and review the prospects for further constraining PDFs with data from the recently started Run II. As a result, this document aims to provide useful input to the LHC collaborations to prioritize their PDF-sensitive measurements at Run II, as well as a comprehensive reference for the PDF-fitting collaborations.« less

Reading Comprehension and Phonics Research: Review of Correlational Analyses with Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Luft, Pamela

2018-01-01

This manuscript reviews 28 studies of reading research on deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) students published since 2000 that used correlational analyses. The examination focused on assessment issues affecting measurement and analysis of relationships between early phonological or orthographic skills and reading comprehension. Mixed outcomes…

Investigating Predictors of Listening Comprehension in Third-, Seventh-, and Tenth-Grade Students: A Dominance Analysis Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tighe, Elizabeth L.; Spencer, Mercedes; Schatschneider, Christopher

2015-01-01

This study rank ordered the contributive importance of several predictors of listening comprehension for third, seventh, and tenth graders. Principal components analyses revealed that a three-factor solution with fluency, reasoning, and working memory components provided the best fit across grade levels. Dominance analyses indicated that fluency…

Epidermis Microstructure Inspired Graphene Pressure Sensor with Random Distributed Spinosum for High Sensitivity and Large Linearity.

PubMed

Pang, Yu; Zhang, Kunning; Yang, Zhen; Jiang, Song; Ju, Zhenyi; Li, Yuxing; Wang, Xuefeng; Wang, Danyang; Jian, Muqiang; Zhang, Yingying; Liang, Renrong; Tian, He; Yang, Yi; Ren, Tian-Ling

2018-03-27

Recently, wearable pressure sensors have attracted tremendous attention because of their potential applications in monitoring physiological signals for human healthcare. Sensitivity and linearity are the two most essential parameters for pressure sensors. Although various designed micro/nanostructure morphologies have been introduced, the trade-off between sensitivity and linearity has not been well balanced. Human skin, which contains force receptors in a reticular layer, has a high sensitivity even for large external stimuli. Herein, inspired by the skin epidermis with high-performance force sensing, we have proposed a special surface morphology with spinosum microstructure of random distribution via the combination of an abrasive paper template and reduced graphene oxide. The sensitivity of the graphene pressure sensor with random distribution spinosum (RDS) microstructure is as high as 25.1 kPa -1 in a wide linearity range of 0-2.6 kPa. Our pressure sensor exhibits superior comprehensive properties compared with previous surface-modified pressure sensors. According to simulation and mechanism analyses, the spinosum microstructure and random distribution contribute to the high sensitivity and large linearity range, respectively. In addition, the pressure sensor shows promising potential in detecting human physiological signals, such as heartbeat, respiration, phonation, and human motions of a pushup, arm bending, and walking. The wearable pressure sensor array was further used to detect gait states of supination, neutral, and pronation. The RDS microstructure provides an alternative strategy to improve the performance of pressure sensors and extend their potential applications in monitoring human activities.

The behavioural patterns and neural correlates of concrete and abstract verb processing in aphasia: A novel verb semantic battery.

PubMed

Alyahya, Reem S W; Halai, Ajay D; Conroy, Paul; Lambon Ralph, Matthew A

2018-01-01

Typically, processing is more accurate and efficient for concrete than abstract concepts in both healthy adults and individuals with aphasia. While, concreteness effects have been thoroughly documented with respect to noun processing, other words classes have received little attention despite tending to be less concrete than nouns. The aim of the current study was to explore concrete-abstract differences in verbs and identify their neural correlates in post-stroke aphasia. Given the dearth of comprehension tests for verbs, a battery of neuropsychological tests was developed in this study to assess the comprehension of concrete and abstract verbs. Specifically, a sensitive verb synonym judgment test was generated that varied both the items' imageability and frequency, and a picture-to-word matching test with numerous concrete verbs. Normative data were then collected and the tests were administered to a cohort of 48 individuals with chronic post-stroke aphasia to explore the behavioural patterns and neural correlates of verb processing. The results revealed significantly better comprehension of concrete than abstract verbs, aligning with the existing aphasiological literature on noun processing. In addition, the patients performed better during verb comprehension than verb production. Lesion-symptom correlational analyses revealed common areas that support processing of concrete and abstract verbs, including the left anterior temporal lobe, posterior supramarginal gyrus and superior lateral occipital cortex. A direct contrast between them revealed additional regions with graded differences. Specifically, the left frontal regions were associated with processing abstract verbs; whereas, the left posterior temporal and occipital regions were associated with processing concrete verbs. Moreover, overlapping and distinct neural correlates were identified in association with the comprehension and production of concrete verbs. These patient findings align with data from functional neuroimaging and neuro-stimulation, and existing models of language organisation.

Analytically tractable climate-carbon cycle feedbacks under 21st century anthropogenic forcing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lade, Steven J.; Donges, Jonathan F.; Fetzer, Ingo; Anderies, John M.; Beer, Christian; Cornell, Sarah E.; Gasser, Thomas; Norberg, Jon; Richardson, Katherine; Rockström, Johan; Steffen, Will

2018-05-01

Changes to climate-carbon cycle feedbacks may significantly affect the Earth system's response to greenhouse gas emissions. These feedbacks are usually analysed from numerical output of complex and arguably opaque Earth system models. Here, we construct a stylised global climate-carbon cycle model, test its output against comprehensive Earth system models, and investigate the strengths of its climate-carbon cycle feedbacks analytically. The analytical expressions we obtain aid understanding of carbon cycle feedbacks and the operation of the carbon cycle. Specific results include that different feedback formalisms measure fundamentally the same climate-carbon cycle processes; temperature dependence of the solubility pump, biological pump, and CO2 solubility all contribute approximately equally to the ocean climate-carbon feedback; and concentration-carbon feedbacks may be more sensitive to future climate change than climate-carbon feedbacks. Simple models such as that developed here also provide workbenches for simple but mechanistically based explorations of Earth system processes, such as interactions and feedbacks between the planetary boundaries, that are currently too uncertain to be included in comprehensive Earth system models.

Proteomic Analysis of Excretory-Secretory Products of Mesocestoides corti Metacestodes Reveals Potential Suppressors of Dendritic Cell Functions

PubMed Central

Vendelova, Emilia; Camargo de Lima, Jeferson; Lorenzatto, Karina Rodrigues; Monteiro, Karina Mariante; Mueller, Thomas; Veepaschit, Jyotishman; Grimm, Clemens; Brehm, Klaus; Hrčková, Gabriela; Lutz, Manfred B.; Ferreira, Henrique B.

2016-01-01

Accumulating evidences have assigned a central role to parasite-derived proteins in immunomodulation. Here, we report on the proteomic identification and characterization of immunomodulatory excretory-secretory (ES) products from the metacestode larva (tetrathyridium) of the tapeworm Mesocestoides corti (syn. M. vogae). We demonstrate that ES products but not larval homogenates inhibit the stimuli-driven release of the pro-inflammatory, Th1-inducing cytokine IL-12p70 by murine bone marrow-derived dendritic cells (BMDCs). Within the ES fraction, we biochemically narrowed down the immunosuppressive activity to glycoproteins since active components were lipid-free, but sensitive to heat- and carbohydrate-treatment. Finally, using bioassay-guided chromatographic analyses assisted by comparative proteomics of active and inactive fractions of the ES products, we defined a comprehensive list of candidate proteins released by M. corti tetrathyridia as potential suppressors of DC functions. Our study provides a comprehensive library of somatic and ES products and highlight some candidate parasite factors that might drive the subversion of DC functions to facilitate the persistence of M. corti tetrathyridia in their hosts. PMID:27736880

Comparative analysis of full-gate and short-gate dielectric modulated electrically doped Tunnel-FET based biosensors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sharma, Dheeraj; Singh, Deepika; Pandey, Sunil; Yadav, Shivendra; Kondekar, P. N.

2017-11-01

In this work, we have done a comprehensive study between full-gate and short-gate dielectrically modulated (DM) electrically doped tunnel field-effect transistor (SGDM-EDTFET) based biosensors of equivalent dimensions. However, in both the structures, dielectric constant and charge density are considered as a sensing parameter for sensing the charged and non-charged biomolecules in the given solution. In SGDM-EDTFET architecture, the reduction in gate length results a significant improvement in the tunneling current due to occurrence of strong coupling between gate and channel region which ensures higher drain current sensitivity for detection of the biomolecules. Moreover, the sensitivity of dual metal SGDM-EDTFET is compared with the single metal SGDM-EDTFET to analyze the better sensing capability of both the devices for the biosensor application. Further, the effect of sensing parameter i.e., ON-current (ION), and ION/IOFF ratio is analysed for dual metal SGDM-EDTFET in comparison with dual metal SGDM-EDFET. From the comparison, it is found that dual metal SGDM-EDTFET based biosensor attains relatively better sensitivity and can be utilized as a suitable candidate for biosensing applications.

Accuracy of mucocutaneous leishmaniasis diagnosis using polymerase chain reaction: systematic literature review and meta-analysis

PubMed Central

Gomes, Ciro Martins; Mazin, Suleimy Cristina; dos Santos, Elisa Raphael; Cesetti, Mariana Vicente; Bächtold, Guilherme Albergaria Brízida; Cordeiro, João Henrique de Freitas; Theodoro, Fabrício Claudino Estrela Terra; Damasco, Fabiana dos Santos; Carranza, Sebastián Andrés Vernal; Santos, Adriana de Oliveira; Roselino, Ana Maria; Sampaio, Raimunda Nonata Ribeiro

2015-01-01

The diagnosis of mucocutaneous leishmaniasis (MCL) is hampered by the absence of a gold standard. An accurate diagnosis is essential because of the high toxicity of the medications for the disease. This study aimed to assess the ability of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to identify MCL and to compare these results with clinical research recently published by the authors. A systematic literature review based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses: the PRISMA Statement was performed using comprehensive search criteria and communication with the authors. A meta-analysis considering the estimates of the univariate and bivariate models was performed. Specificity near 100% was common among the papers. The primary reason for accuracy differences was sensitivity. The meta-analysis, which was only possible for PCR samples of lesion fragments, revealed a sensitivity of 71% [95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.59; 0.81] and a specificity of 93% (95% CI = 0.83; 0.98) in the bivariate model. The search for measures that could increase the sensitivity of PCR should be encouraged. The quality of the collected material and the optimisation of the amplification of genetic material should be prioritised. PMID:25946238

Prediction of Advisability of Returning Home Using the Home Care Score

PubMed Central

Matsugi, Akiyoshi; Tani, Keisuke; Tamaru, Yoshiki; Yoshioka, Nami; Yamashita, Akira; Mori, Nobuhiko; Oku, Kosuke; Ikeda, Masashi; Nagano, Kiyoshi

2015-01-01

Purpose. The aim of this study was to assess whether the home care score (HCS), which was developed by the Ministry of Health and Welfare in Japan in 1992, is useful for the prediction of advisability of home care. Methods. Subjects living at home and in assisted-living facilities were analyzed. Binominal logistic regression analyses, using age, sex, the functional independence measure score, and the HCS, along with receiver operating characteristic curve analyses, were conducted. Findings/Conclusions. Only HCS was selected for the regression equation. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis revealed that the area under the curve (0.9), sensitivity (0.82), specificity (0.83), and positive predictive value (0.84) for HCS were higher than those for the functional independence measure, indicating that the HCS is a powerful predictor for advisability of home care. Clinical Relevance. Comprehensive measurements of the condition of provided care and the activities of daily living of the subjects, which are included in the HCS, are required for the prediction of advisability of home care. PMID:26491568

Space Shuttle Crawler Transporter Truck Shoe Qualification Tests and Analyses for Return-to-Flight

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Margasahayam, Ravi N.; Meyer, Karl A.; Burton, Roy C.; Gosselin, Armand M.

2005-01-01

A vital element to Launch Complex 39 (LC39) and NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) mobile launch transfer operation is a 3 million kilogram behemoth known as the Crawler Transporter (CT). Built in the 1960's, two CT's have accumulated over 1700+ miles each and have been used for the Apollo and the Space Shuttle programs. Recent observation of fatigue cracks on the CT shoes led to a comprehensive engineering, structural and metallurgical evaluation to assess the root cause that necessitated procurement of over 1000 new shoes. This paper documents the completed dynamic and compression tests on the old and new shoes respectively, so as to certify them for Space Shuttle's return-to-flight (RTF). Measured strain data from the rollout tests was used to develop stress/loading spectra and static equivalent load for qualification testing of the new shoes. Additionally, finite element analysis (FEA) was used to conduct sensitivity analyses of various contact parameters and structural characteristics for acceptance of new shoes.

48 CFR 25.703-3 - Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act of 2010, section 106.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 1 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false Comprehensive Iran... Prohibited Sources 25.703-3 Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act of 2010, section... of goods or services with a person that exports certain sensitive technology to Iran, as determined...

48 CFR 25.703-3 - Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act of 2010, section 106.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 1 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Comprehensive Iran... Prohibited Sources 25.703-3 Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act of 2010, section... goods or services with a person that exports certain sensitive technology to Iran, as determined by the...

48 CFR 25.703-3 - Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act of 2010, section 106.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Comprehensive Iran... Prohibited Sources 25.703-3 Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act of 2010, section... goods or services with a person that exports certain sensitive technology to Iran, as determined by the...

Is There a Common Linkage among Reading Comprehension, Visual Attention, and Magnocellular Processing?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Solan, Harold A.; Shelley-Tremblay, John F.; Hansen, Peter C.; Larson, Steven

2007-01-01

The authors examined the relationships between reading comprehension, visual attention, and magnocellular processing in 42 Grade 7 students. The goal was to quantify the sensitivity of visual attention and magnocellular visual processing as concomitants of poor reading comprehension in the absence of either vision therapy or cognitive…

Neural correlates of three cognitive processes involved in theory of mind and discourse comprehension.

PubMed

Lin, Nan; Yang, Xiaohong; Li, Jing; Wang, Shaonan; Hua, Huimin; Ma, Yujun; Li, Xingshan

2018-04-01

Neuroimaging studies have found that theory of mind (ToM) and discourse comprehension involve similar brain regions. These brain regions may be associated with three cognitive components that are necessarily or frequently involved in ToM and discourse comprehension, including social concept representation and retrieval, domain-general semantic integration, and domain-specific integration of social semantic contents. Using fMRI, we investigated the neural correlates of these three cognitive components by exploring how discourse topic (social/nonsocial) and discourse processing period (ending/beginning) modulate brain activation in a discourse comprehension (and also ToM) task. Different sets of brain areas showed sensitivity to discourse topic, discourse processing period, and the interaction between them, respectively. The most novel finding was that the right temporoparietal junction and middle temporal gyrus showed sensitivity to discourse processing period only during social discourse comprehension, indicating that they selectively contribute to domain-specific semantic integration. Our finding indicates how different domains of semantic information are processed and integrated in the brain and provides new insights into the neural correlates of ToM and discourse comprehension.

Using a Comprehensive Sexuality Education Framework to Analyse the Contents of a Brazilian Adolescent Health Handbook

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jobim Fischer, Vinicius; González-Jiménez, Antonio José

2017-01-01

This study set out to analyse the sexuality contents of the "Caderneta de Saúde do Adolescente," an adolescent health handbook developed for use in Brazil. Using content analysis, the adequacy of the document was assessed using an approach informed by the International Planned Parenthood Federations comprehensive sexuality education…

Baby-MONITOR: A Composite Indicator of NICU Quality

PubMed Central

Kowalkowski, Marc A.; Zupancic, John A. F.; Pietz, Kenneth; Richardson, Peter; Draper, David; Hysong, Sylvia J.; Thomas, Eric J.; Petersen, Laura A.; Gould, Jeffrey B.

2014-01-01

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: NICUs vary in the quality of care delivered to very low birth weight (VLBW) infants. NICU performance on 1 measure of quality only modestly predicts performance on others. Composite measurement of quality of care delivery may provide a more comprehensive assessment of quality. The objective of our study was to develop a robust composite indicator of quality of NICU care provided to VLBW infants that accurately discriminates performance among NICUs. METHODS: We developed a composite indicator, Baby-MONITOR, based on 9 measures of quality chosen by a panel of experts. Measures were standardized, equally weighted, and averaged. We used the California Perinatal Quality Care Collaborative database to perform across-sectional analysis of care given to VLBW infants between 2004 and 2010. Performance on the Baby-MONITOR is not an absolute marker of quality but indicates overall performance relative to that of the other NICUs. We used sensitivity analyses to assess the robustness of the composite indicator, by varying assumptions and methods. RESULTS: Our sample included 9023 VLBW infants in 22 California regional NICUs. We found significant variations within and between NICUs on measured components of the Baby-MONITOR. Risk-adjusted composite scores discriminated performance among this sample of NICUs. Sensitivity analysis that included different approaches to normalization, weighting, and aggregation of individual measures showed the Baby-MONITOR to be robust (r = 0.89–0.99). CONCLUSIONS: The Baby-MONITOR may be a useful tool to comprehensively assess the quality of care delivered by NICUs. PMID:24918221

An initial evaluation of the Social Communication Questionnaire for the assessment of autism spectrum disorders in children with Down syndrome.

PubMed

Magyar, Caroline I; Pandolfi, Vincent; Dill, Charles A

2012-02-01

This study investigated the psychometric properties of the Social Communication Questionnaire (SCQ) in a sample of children with Down syndrome (DS), many of whom had a co-occurring autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The SCQ is a widely used ASD screening measure; however, its measurement properties have not been comprehensively evaluated specifically in children with DS, a group that seems to be at higher risk for an ASD. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, scale reliability, convergent and discriminant correlations, significance tests between groups of children with DS and DS + ASD, and diagnostic accuracy analyses were conducted. Factor analyses identified 2 reliable factors that we labeled Social-Communication and Stereotyped Behavior and Unusual Interests. Pearson correlations with Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised subscales indicated support for the SCQ's convergent validity and some support for the discriminant validity of the factor-based scales. Significance tests and receiver operating characteristic analyses indicated that children with DS + ASD obtained significantly higher SCQ factor-based and total scores than children with DS alone, and that the SCQ Total Score evidenced good sensitivity and adequate specificity. Results indicated initial psychometric support for the SCQ as an ASD screening measure in children with DS. The SCQ should be considered as part of a multimethod evaluation when screening children with DS.

A new generation of cancer genome diagnostics for routine clinical use: overcoming the roadblocks to personalized cancer medicine.

PubMed

Heuckmann, J M; Thomas, R K

2015-09-01

The identification of 'druggable' kinase gene alterations has revolutionized cancer treatment in the last decade by providing new and successfully targetable drug targets. Thus, genotyping tumors for matching the right patients with the right drugs have become a clinical routine. Today, advances in sequencing technology and computational genome analyses enable the discovery of a constantly growing number of genome alterations relevant for clinical decision making. As a consequence, several technological approaches have emerged in order to deal with these rapidly increasing demands for clinical cancer genome analyses. Here, we describe challenges on the path to the broad introduction of diagnostic cancer genome analyses and the technologies that can be applied to overcome them. We define three generations of molecular diagnostics that are in clinical use. The latest generation of these approaches involves deep and thus, highly sensitive sequencing of all therapeutically relevant types of genome alterations-mutations, copy number alterations and rearrangements/fusions-in a single assay. Such approaches therefore have substantial advantages (less time and less tissue required) over PCR-based methods that typically have to be combined with fluorescence in situ hybridization for detection of gene amplifications and fusions. Since these new technologies work reliably on routine diagnostic formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded specimens, they can help expedite the broad introduction of personalized cancer therapy into the clinic by providing comprehensive, sensitive and accurate cancer genome diagnoses in 'real-time'. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Society for Medical Oncology. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

The Comprehensive School in Spain: A Review of Its Development Cycle and Crises

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bolívar, Antonio

2015-01-01

The purpose of this study is to describe, analyse and evaluate the successive comprehensive reforms in Spain as a "paradigmatic" example of the emergence, evolution and crisis of the comprehensive school. In the first part, we describe the development of the comprehensive school project (1970-2013), using the image of the life cycle,…

The Validity of Individual Rorschach Variables: Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses of the Comprehensive System

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mihura, Joni L.; Meyer, Gregory J.; Dumitrascu, Nicolae; Bombel, George

2013-01-01

We systematically evaluated the peer-reviewed Rorschach validity literature for the 65 main variables in the popular Comprehensive System (CS). Across 53 meta-analyses examining variables against externally assessed criteria (e.g., observer ratings, psychiatric diagnosis), the mean validity was r = 0.27 (k = 770) as compared to r = 0.08 (k = 386)…

Reflex-based grasping, skilled forelimb reaching, and electrodiagnostic evaluation for comprehensive analysis of functional recovery-The 7-mm rat median nerve gap repair model revisited.

PubMed

Stößel, Maria; Rehra, Lena; Haastert-Talini, Kirsten

2017-10-01

The rat median nerve injury and repair model gets increasingly important for research on novel bioartificial nerve grafts. It allows follow-up evaluation of the recovery of the forepaw functional ability with several sensitive techniques. The reflex-based grasping test, the skilled forelimb reaching staircase test, as well as electrodiagnostic recordings have been described useful in this context. Currently, no standard values exist, however, for comparison or comprehensive correlation of results obtained in each of the three methods after nerve gap repair in adult rats. Here, we bilaterally reconstructed 7-mm median nerve gaps with autologous nerve grafts (ANG) or autologous muscle-in-vein grafts (MVG), respectively. During 8 and 12 weeks of observation, functional recovery of each paw was separately monitored using the grasping test (weekly), the staircase test, and noninvasive electrophysiological recordings from the thenar muscles (both every 4 weeks). Evaluation was completed by histomorphometrical analyses at 8 and 12 weeks postsurgery. The comprehensive evaluation detected a significant difference in the recovery of forepaw functional motor ability between the ANG and MVG groups. The correlation between the different functional tests evaluated precisely displayed the recovery of distinct levels of forepaw functional ability over time. Thus, this multimodal evaluation model represents a valuable preclinical model for peripheral nerve reconstruction approaches.

Using Television Commercials to Develop Reading Comprehension.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bowman, James D.; Bowman, S. Ray

1991-01-01

Suggests that teachers can use reluctant readers' sensitivity to and sophistication with "musicomedy" to both assess and develop reading comprehension. Discusses several class activities using the musical and humorous expressions in television commercials for fulfilling this objective. (RS)

Personalized genomic analyses for cancer mutation discovery and interpretation

PubMed Central

Jones, Siân; Anagnostou, Valsamo; Lytle, Karli; Parpart-Li, Sonya; Nesselbush, Monica; Riley, David R.; Shukla, Manish; Chesnick, Bryan; Kadan, Maura; Papp, Eniko; Galens, Kevin G.; Murphy, Derek; Zhang, Theresa; Kann, Lisa; Sausen, Mark; Angiuoli, Samuel V.; Diaz, Luis A.; Velculescu, Victor E.

2015-01-01

Massively parallel sequencing approaches are beginning to be used clinically to characterize individual patient tumors and to select therapies based on the identified mutations. A major question in these analyses is the extent to which these methods identify clinically actionable alterations and whether the examination of the tumor tissue alone is sufficient or whether matched normal DNA should also be analyzed to accurately identify tumor-specific (somatic) alterations. To address these issues, we comprehensively evaluated 815 tumor-normal paired samples from patients of 15 tumor types. We identified genomic alterations using next-generation sequencing of whole exomes or 111 targeted genes that were validated with sensitivities >95% and >99%, respectively, and specificities >99.99%. These analyses revealed an average of 140 and 4.3 somatic mutations per exome and targeted analysis, respectively. More than 75% of cases had somatic alterations in genes associated with known therapies or current clinical trials. Analyses of matched normal DNA identified germline alterations in cancer-predisposing genes in 3% of patients with apparently sporadic cancers. In contrast, a tumor-only sequencing approach could not definitively identify germline changes in cancer-predisposing genes and led to additional false-positive findings comprising 31% and 65% of alterations identified in targeted and exome analyses, respectively, including in potentially actionable genes. These data suggest that matched tumor-normal sequencing analyses are essential for precise identification and interpretation of somatic and germline alterations and have important implications for the diagnostic and therapeutic management of cancer patients. PMID:25877891

Phytotoxicity of floodplain soils contaminated with trace metals along the Clark Fork River, Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site, Deer Lodge, Montana, USA

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Rader, B.R.; Nimmo, D.W.R.; Chapman, P.L.

1997-07-01

Concentrations of metals in sediments and soils deposited along the floodplain of the Clark Fork River, within the Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site, Deer Lodge, Montana, USA, have exceeded maximum background concentrations in the United States for most metals tested. As a result of mining and smelting activities, portions of the Deer Lodge Valley, including the Grant-Kohrs Ranch, have received National Priority List Designation under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act. Using a series of plant germination tests, pH measurements, and metal analyses, this study investigated the toxicity of soils from floodplain slicken areas, bare spots devoid ofmore » vegetation, along the Clark Fork River. The slicken soils collected from the Grant-Kohrs Ranch were toxic to all four plant species tested. The most sensitive endpoint in the germination tests was root length and the least sensitive was emergence. Considering emergence, the most sensitive species was the resident grass species Agrostis gigantea. The sensitivities were reversed when root lengths were examined, with Echinochloa crusgalli showing the greatest sensitivity. Both elevated concentrations of metals and low pH were necessary to produce an acutely phytotoxic response in laboratory seed germination tests using slicken soils. Moreover, pH values on the Grant-Kohrs Ranch appear to be a better predictor of acutely phytotoxic conditions than total metal levels.« less

A rational inference approach to group and individual-level sentence comprehension performance in aphasia.

PubMed

Warren, Tessa; Dickey, Michael Walsh; Liburd, Teljer L

2017-07-01

The rational inference, or noisy channel, account of language comprehension predicts that comprehenders are sensitive to the probabilities of different interpretations for a given sentence and adapt as these probabilities change (Gibson, Bergen & Piantadosi, 2013). This account provides an important new perspective on aphasic sentence comprehension: aphasia may increase the likelihood of sentence distortion, leading people with aphasia (PWA) to rely more on the prior probability of an interpretation and less on the form or structure of the sentence (Gibson, Sandberg, Fedorenko, Bergen & Kiran, 2015). We report the results of a sentence-picture matching experiment that tested the predictions of the rational inference account and other current models of aphasic sentence comprehension across a variety of sentence structures. Consistent with the rational inference account, PWA showed similar sensitivity to the probability of particular kinds of form distortions as age-matched controls, yet overall their interpretations relied more on prior probability and less on sentence form. As predicted by rational inference, but not by other models of sentence comprehension in aphasia, PWA's interpretations were more faithful to the form for active and passive sentences than for direct object and prepositional object sentences. However contra rational inference, there was no evidence that individual PWA's severity of syntactic or semantic impairment predicted their sensitivity to form versus the prior probability of a sentence, as cued by semantics. These findings confirm and extend previous findings that suggest the rational inference account holds promise for explaining aphasic and neurotypical comprehension, but they also raise new challenges for the account. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Longitudinal study of factors affecting taste sense decline in old-old individuals.

PubMed

Ogawa, T; Uota, M; Ikebe, K; Arai, Y; Kamide, K; Gondo, Y; Masui, Y; Ishizaki, T; Inomata, C; Takeshita, H; Mihara, Y; Hatta, K; Maeda, Y

2017-01-01

The sense of taste plays a pivotal role for personal assessment of the nutritional value, safety and quality of foods. Although it is commonly recognised that taste sensitivity decreases with age, alterations in that sensitivity over time in an old-old population have not been previously reported. Furthermore, no known studies utilised comprehensive variables regarding taste changes and related factors for assessments. Here, we report novel findings from a 3-year longitudinal study model aimed to elucidate taste sensitivity decline and its related factors in old-old individuals. We utilised 621 subjects aged 79-81 years who participated in the Septuagenarians, Octogenarians, Nonagenarians Investigation with Centenarians Study for baseline assessments performed in 2011 and 2012, and then conducted follow-up assessments 3 years later in 328 of those. Assessment of general health, an oral examination and determination of taste sensitivity were performed for each. We also evaluated cognitive function using Montreal Cognitive Assessment findings, then excluded from analysis those with a score lower than 20 in order to secure the validity and reliability of the subjects' answers. Contributing variables were selected using univariate analysis, then analysed with multivariate logistic regression analysis. We found that males showed significantly greater declines in taste sensitivity for sweet and sour tastes than females. Additionally, subjects with lower cognitive scores showed a significantly greater taste decrease for salty in multivariate analysis. In conclusion, our longitudinal study revealed that gender and cognitive status are major factors affecting taste sensitivity in geriatric individuals. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Prosodic Sensitivity and Reading: An Investigation of Pathways of Relations Using a Latent Variable Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kim, Young-Suk Grace; Petscher, Yaacov

2016-01-01

Emerging evidence suggests that children's sensitivity to suprasegmental phonology such as stress and timing (i.e., prosodic sensitivity) contributes to reading. The primary goal of this study was to investigate pathways of the relation of prosodic sensitivity to reading (word reading and reading comprehension) using data from 370 first-grade…

Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy Compared With Radiofrequency Ablation for Inoperable Colorectal Liver Metastases

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kim, Hayeon, E-mail: kimh2@upmc.edu; Gill, Beant; Beriwal, Sushil

Purpose: To conduct a cost-effectiveness analysis to determine whether stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) is a cost-effective therapy compared with radiofrequency ablation (RFA) for patients with unresectable colorectal cancer (CRC) liver metastases. Methods and Materials: A cost-effectiveness analysis was conducted using a Markov model and 1-month cycle over a lifetime horizon. Transition probabilities, quality of life utilities, and costs associated with SBRT and RFA were captured in the model on the basis of a comprehensive literature review and Medicare reimbursements in 2014. Strategies were compared using the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio, with effectiveness measured in quality-adjusted life years (QALYs). To account formore » model uncertainty, 1-way and probabilistic sensitivity analyses were performed. Strategies were evaluated with a willingness-to-pay threshold of $100,000 per QALY gained. Results: In base case analysis, treatment costs for 3 fractions of SBRT and 1 RFA procedure were $13,000 and $4397, respectively. Median survival was assumed the same for both strategies (25 months). The SBRT costs $8202 more than RFA while gaining 0.05 QALYs, resulting in an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of $164,660 per QALY gained. In 1-way sensitivity analyses, results were most sensitive to variation of median survival from both treatments. Stereotactic body radiation therapy was economically reasonable if better survival was presumed (>1 month gain) or if used for large tumors (>4 cm). Conclusions: If equal survival is assumed, SBRT is not cost-effective compared with RFA for inoperable colorectal liver metastases. However, if better local control leads to small survival gains with SBRT, this strategy becomes cost-effective. Ideally, these results should be confirmed with prospective comparative data.« less

Investigating disparities in spatial accessibility to and characteristics of sport facilities: direction, strength, and spatial scale of associations with area income.

PubMed

Billaudeau, Nathalie; Oppert, Jean-Michel; Simon, Chantal; Charreire, Hélène; Casey, Romain; Salze, Paul; Badariotti, Dominique; Banos, Arnaud; Weber, Christiane; Chaix, Basile

2011-01-01

We conducted an environmental justice study of the spatial distribution of sport facilities, a major resource for physical activity, in the Paris Region in France. Comprehensive data of the French Census of Sport Facilities allowed us to investigate disparities not only in the spatial accessibility to facilities, but also in the characteristics of these facilities. We found that the associations between area income and the presence of facilities or favorable characteristics of these facilities varied from positive to negative depending on the facilities and on the characteristics examined. Sensitivity analyses defining area income in circular areas of different radii permitted a refined identification of areas underserved in sport facilities. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A multi-model assessment of terrestrial biosphere model data needs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gardella, A.; Cowdery, E.; De Kauwe, M. G.; Desai, A. R.; Duveneck, M.; Fer, I.; Fisher, R.; Knox, R. G.; Kooper, R.; LeBauer, D.; McCabe, T.; Minunno, F.; Raiho, A.; Serbin, S.; Shiklomanov, A. N.; Thomas, A.; Walker, A.; Dietze, M.

2017-12-01

Terrestrial biosphere models provide us with the means to simulate the impacts of climate change and their uncertainties. Going beyond direct observation and experimentation, models synthesize our current understanding of ecosystem processes and can give us insight on data needed to constrain model parameters. In previous work, we leveraged the Predictive Ecosystem Analyzer (PEcAn) to assess the contribution of different parameters to the uncertainty of the Ecosystem Demography model v2 (ED) model outputs across various North American biomes (Dietze et al., JGR-G, 2014). While this analysis identified key research priorities, the extent to which these priorities were model- and/or biome-specific was unclear. Furthermore, because the analysis only studied one model, we were unable to comment on the effect of variability in model structure to overall predictive uncertainty. Here, we expand this analysis to all biomes globally and a wide sample of models that vary in complexity: BioCro, CABLE, CLM, DALEC, ED2, FATES, G'DAY, JULES, LANDIS, LINKAGES, LPJ-GUESS, MAESPA, PRELES, SDGVM, SIPNET, and TEM. Prior to performing uncertainty analyses, model parameter uncertainties were assessed by assimilating all available trait data from the combination of the BETYdb and TRY trait databases, using an updated multivariate version of PEcAn's Hierarchical Bayesian meta-analysis. Next, sensitivity analyses were performed for all models across a range of sites globally to assess sensitivities for a range of different outputs (GPP, ET, SH, Ra, NPP, Rh, NEE, LAI) at multiple time scales from the sub-annual to the decadal. Finally, parameter uncertainties and model sensitivities were combined to evaluate the fractional contribution of each parameter to the predictive uncertainty for a specific variable at a specific site and timescale. Facilitated by PEcAn's automated workflows, this analysis represents the broadest assessment of the sensitivities and uncertainties in terrestrial models to date, and provides a comprehensive roadmap for constraining model uncertainties through model development and data collection.

Sensitivity of physical parameterizations on prediction of tropical cyclone Nargis over the Bay of Bengal using WRF model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Raju, P. V. S.; Potty, Jayaraman; Mohanty, U. C.

2011-09-01

Comprehensive sensitivity analyses on physical parameterization schemes of Weather Research Forecast (WRF-ARW core) model have been carried out for the prediction of track and intensity of tropical cyclones by taking the example of cyclone Nargis, which formed over the Bay of Bengal and hit Myanmar on 02 May 2008, causing widespread damages in terms of human and economic losses. The model performances are also evaluated with different initial conditions of 12 h intervals starting from the cyclogenesis to the near landfall time. The initial and boundary conditions for all the model simulations are drawn from the global operational analysis and forecast products of National Center for Environmental Prediction (NCEP-GFS) available for the public at 1° lon/lat resolution. The results of the sensitivity analyses indicate that a combination of non-local parabolic type exchange coefficient PBL scheme of Yonsei University (YSU), deep and shallow convection scheme with mass flux approach for cumulus parameterization (Kain-Fritsch), and NCEP operational cloud microphysics scheme with diagnostic mixed phase processes (Ferrier), predicts better track and intensity as compared against the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) estimates. Further, the final choice of the physical parameterization schemes selected from the above sensitivity experiments is used for model integration with different initial conditions. The results reveal that the cyclone track, intensity and time of landfall are well simulated by the model with an average intensity error of about 8 hPa, maximum wind error of 12 m s-1and track error of 77 km. The simulations also show that the landfall time error and intensity error are decreasing with delayed initial condition, suggesting that the model forecast is more dependable when the cyclone approaches the coast. The distribution and intensity of rainfall are also well simulated by the model and comparable with the TRMM estimates.

Automatic differentiation evaluated as a tool for rotorcraft design and optimization

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Walsh, Joanne L.; Young, Katherine C.

1995-01-01

This paper investigates the use of automatic differentiation (AD) as a means for generating sensitivity analyses in rotorcraft design and optimization. This technique transforms an existing computer program into a new program that performs sensitivity analysis in addition to the original analysis. The original FORTRAN program calculates a set of dependent (output) variables from a set of independent (input) variables, the new FORTRAN program calculates the partial derivatives of the dependent variables with respect to the independent variables. The AD technique is a systematic implementation of the chain rule of differentiation, this method produces derivatives to machine accuracy at a cost that is comparable with that of finite-differencing methods. For this study, an analysis code that consists of the Langley-developed hover analysis HOVT, the comprehensive rotor analysis CAMRAD/JA, and associated preprocessors is processed through the AD preprocessor ADIFOR 2.0. The resulting derivatives are compared with derivatives obtained from finite-differencing techniques. The derivatives obtained with ADIFOR 2.0 are exact within machine accuracy and do not depend on the selection of step-size, as are the derivatives obtained with finite-differencing techniques.

An Integrated Framework for Multipollutant Air Quality Management and Its Application in Georgia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cohan, Daniel S.; Boylan, James W.; Marmur, Amit; Khan, Maudood N.

2007-10-01

Air protection agencies in the United States increasingly confront non-attainment of air quality standards for multiple pollutants sharing interrelated emission origins. Traditional approaches to attainment planning face important limitations that are magnified in the multipollutant context. Recognizing those limitations, the Georgia Environmental Protection Division has adopted an integrated framework to address ozone, fine particulate matter, and regional haze in the state. Rather than applying atmospheric modeling merely as a final check of an overall strategy, photochemical sensitivity analysis is conducted upfront to compare the effectiveness of controlling various precursor emission species and source regions. Emerging software enables the modeling of health benefits and associated economic valuations resulting from air pollution control. Photochemical sensitivity and health benefits analyses, applied together with traditional cost and feasibility assessments, provide a more comprehensive characterization of the implications of various control options. The fuller characterization both informs the selection of control options and facilitates the communication of impacts to affected stakeholders and the public. Although the integrated framework represents a clear improvement over previous attainment-planning efforts, key remaining shortcomings are also discussed.

NUMERICAL FLOW AND TRANSPORT SIMULATIONS SUPPORTING THE SALTSTONE FACILITY PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Flach, G.

2009-02-28

The Saltstone Disposal Facility Performance Assessment (PA) is being revised to incorporate requirements of Section 3116 of the Ronald W. Reagan National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2005 (NDAA), and updated data and understanding of vault performance since the 1992 PA (Cook and Fowler 1992) and related Special Analyses. A hybrid approach was chosen for modeling contaminant transport from vaults and future disposal cells to exposure points. A higher resolution, largely deterministic, analysis is performed on a best-estimate Base Case scenario using the PORFLOW numerical analysis code. a few additional sensitivity cases are simulated to examine alternative scenarios andmore » parameter settings. Stochastic analysis is performed on a simpler representation of the SDF system using the GoldSim code to estimate uncertainty and sensitivity about the Base Case. This report describes development of PORFLOW models supporting the SDF PA, and presents sample results to illustrate model behaviors and define impacts relative to key facility performance objectives. The SDF PA document, when issued, should be consulted for a comprehensive presentation of results.« less

An integrated framework for multipollutant air quality management and its application in Georgia.

PubMed

Cohan, Daniel S; Boylan, James W; Marmur, Amit; Khan, Maudood N

2007-10-01

Air protection agencies in the United States increasingly confront non-attainment of air quality standards for multiple pollutants sharing interrelated emission origins. Traditional approaches to attainment planning face important limitations that are magnified in the multipollutant context. Recognizing those limitations, the Georgia Environmental Protection Division has adopted an integrated framework to address ozone, fine particulate matter, and regional haze in the state. Rather than applying atmospheric modeling merely as a final check of an overall strategy, photochemical sensitivity analysis is conducted upfront to compare the effectiveness of controlling various precursor emission species and source regions. Emerging software enables the modeling of health benefits and associated economic valuations resulting from air pollution control. Photochemical sensitivity and health benefits analyses, applied together with traditional cost and feasibility assessments, provide a more comprehensive characterization of the implications of various control options. The fuller characterization both informs the selection of control options and facilitates the communication of impacts to affected stakeholders and the public. Although the integrated framework represents a clear improvement over previous attainment-planning efforts, key remaining shortcomings are also discussed.

Proteomic Analysis of Aphid-Resistant and -Sensitive Rose (Rosa Hybrida) Cultivars at Two Developmental Stages.

PubMed

Muneer, Sowbiya; Jeong, Hai Kyoung; Park, Yoo Gyeong; Jeong, Byoung Ryong

2018-05-25

The rose is one the most commercially grown and costly ornamental plants because of its aesthetic beauty and aroma. A large number of pests attack its buds, flowers, leaves, and stem at every growing stage due to its high sugar content. The most common pest on roses are aphids which are considered to be the major cause for product loss. Aphid infestations lead to major changes in rose plants, such as large and irregular holes in petals, intact leaves and devouring tissues. It is hypothesized that different cut rose cultivars would have different levels of sensitivity or resistance to aphids, since different levels of infestation are observed in commercially cut rose production greenhouses. The present work compared four cut rose cultivars which were bred in Korea and were either resistant or sensitive to aphid infestation at different flower developmental stages. An integrative study was conducted using comprehensive proteome analyses. Proteins related to ubiquitin metabolism and the stress response were differentially expressed due to aphid infestation. The regulations and possible functions of identified proteins are presented in detail. The differential expressions of the identified proteins were validated by immunoblotting and blue native page. In addition, total sugar and carbohydrate content were also observed.

The Relationship between Cognate Awareness and English Comprehension among Spanish-English Bilingual Fourth Grade Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Proctor, C. Patrick; Mo, Elaine

2009-01-01

This study was designed to investigate the effect of English reading comprehension on cognate knowledge among a sample of Spanish-speaking bilinguals alongside their monolingual English-speaking counterparts. In order to understand this developmental relationship, the effects of English reading comprehension were controlled in regression analyses,…

Validation of the Simple View of Reading in Hebrew--A Semitic Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Joshi, R. Malatesha; Ji, Xuejun Ryan; Breznitz, Zvia; Amiel, Meirav; Yulia, Astri

2015-01-01

The Simple View of Reading (SVR) in Hebrew was tested by administering decoding, listening comprehension, and reading comprehension measures to 1,002 students from Grades 2 to 10 in the northern part of Israel. Results from hierarchical regression analyses supported the SVR in Hebrew with decoding and listening comprehension measures explaining…

Effective psychological and psychosocial approaches to reduce repetition of self-harm: a systematic review, meta-analysis and meta-regression

PubMed Central

Robinson, Jo; Spittal, Matthew J; Carter, Greg

2016-01-01

Objective To examine the efficacy of psychological and psychosocial interventions for reductions in repeated self-harm. Design We conducted a systematic review, meta-analysis and meta-regression to examine the efficacy of psychological and psychosocial interventions to reduce repeat self-harm in adults. We included a sensitivity analysis of studies with a low risk of bias for the meta-analysis. For the meta-regression, we examined whether the type, intensity (primary analyses) and other components of intervention or methodology (secondary analyses) modified the overall intervention effect. Data sources A comprehensive search of MEDLINE, PsycInfo and EMBASE (from 1999 to June 2016) was performed. Eligibility criteria for selecting studies Randomised controlled trials of psychological and psychosocial interventions for adult self-harm patients. Results Forty-five trials were included with data available from 36 (7354 participants) for the primary analysis. Meta-analysis showed a significant benefit of all psychological and psychosocial interventions combined (risk ratio 0.84; 95% CI 0.74 to 0.96; number needed to treat=33); however, sensitivity analyses showed that this benefit was non-significant when restricted to a limited number of high-quality studies. Meta-regression showed that the type of intervention did not modify the treatment effects. Conclusions Consideration of a psychological or psychosocial intervention over and above treatment as usual is worthwhile; with the public health benefits of ensuring that this practice is widely adopted potentially worth the investment. However, the specific type and nature of the intervention that should be delivered is not yet clear. Cognitive–behavioural therapy or interventions with an interpersonal focus and targeted on the precipitants to self-harm may be the best candidates on the current evidence. Further research is required. PMID:27660314

Neoadjuvant therapy versus upfront surgical strategies in resectable pancreatic cancer: A Markov decision analysis.

PubMed

de Geus, S W L; Evans, D B; Bliss, L A; Eskander, M F; Smith, J K; Wolff, R A; Miksad, R A; Weinstein, M C; Tseng, J F

2016-10-01

Neoadjuvant therapy is gaining acceptance as a valid treatment option for borderline resectable pancreatic cancer; however, its value for clearly resectable pancreatic cancer remains controversial. The aim of this study was to use a Markov decision analysis model, in the absence of adequately powered randomized trials, to compare the life expectancy (LE) and quality-adjusted life expectancy (QALE) of neoadjuvant therapy to conventional upfront surgical strategies in resectable pancreatic cancer patients. A Markov decision model was created to compare two strategies: attempted pancreatic resection followed by adjuvant chemoradiotherapy and neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy followed by restaging with, if appropriate, attempted pancreatic resection. Data obtained through a comprehensive systematic search in PUBMED of the literature from 2000 to 2015 were used to estimate the probabilities used in the model. Deterministic and probabilistic sensitivity analyses were performed. Of the 786 potentially eligible studies identified, 22 studies met the inclusion criteria and were used to extract the probabilities used in the model. Base case analyses of the model showed a higher LE (32.2 vs. 26.7 months) and QALE (25.5 vs. 20.8 quality-adjusted life months) for patients in the neoadjuvant therapy arm compared to upfront surgery. Probabilistic sensitivity analyses for LE and QALE revealed that neoadjuvant therapy is favorable in 59% and 60% of the cases respectively. Although conceptual, these data suggest that neoadjuvant therapy offers substantial benefit in LE and QALE for resectable pancreatic cancer patients. These findings highlight the value of further prospective randomized trials comparing neoadjuvant therapy to conventional upfront surgical strategies. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd, BASO ~ The Association for Cancer Surgery, and the European Society of Surgical Oncology. All rights reserved.

Experiment Evaluation of Bifurcation in Sands

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Alshibi, Khalid A.; Sture, Stein

2000-01-01

The basic principles of bifurcation analysis have been established by several investigators, however several issues remain unresolved, specifically how do stress level, grain size distribution, and boundary conditions affect general bifurcation phenomena in pressure sensitive and dilatant materials. General geometrical and kinematics conditions for moving surfaces of discontinuity was derived and applied to problems of instability of solids. In 1962, the theoretical framework of bifurcation by studying the acceleration waves in elasto-plastic (J2) solids were presented. Bifurcation analysis for more specific forms of constitutive behavior was examined by studying localization in pressure-sensitive, dilatant materials, however, analyses were restricted to plane deformation states only. Bifurcation analyses were presented and applied to predict shear band formations in sand under plane strain condition. The properties of discontinuous bifurcation solutions for elastic-plastic solids under axisymmetric and plane strain loading conditions were studied. The study focused on theory, but also references and comparisons to experiments were made. The current paper includes a presentation of a summary of bifurcation analyses for biaxial and triaxial (axisymmetric) loading conditions. The Coulomb model is implemented using incremental piecewise scheme to predict the constitutive relations and shear band inclination angles. Then, a comprehensive evaluation of bifurcation phenomena is presented based on data from triaxial experiments performed under microgravity conditions aboard the Space Shuttle under very low effective confining pressure (0.05 to 1.30 kPa), in which very high peak friction angles (47 to 75 degrees) and dilatancy angles (30 to 31 degrees) were measured. The evaluation will be extended to include biaxial experiments performed on the same material under low (10 kPa) and moderate (100 kPa) confining pressures. A comparison between the behavior under biaxial and triaxial loading conditions will be presented, and related issues concerning influence of confining pressure will be discussed.

Greater first year effectiveness drives favorable cost-effectiveness of brand risedronate versus generic or brand alendronate: modeled Canadian analysis

PubMed Central

Papaioannou, A.; Thompson, M. F.; Pasquale, M. K.; Adachi, J. D.

2016-01-01

Summary The RisedronatE and ALendronate (REAL) study provided a unique opportunity to conduct cost-effectiveness analyses based on effectiveness data from real-world clinical practice. Using a published osteoporosis model, the researchers found risedronate to be cost-effective compared to generic or brand alendronate for the treatment of Canadian postmenopausal osteoporosis in patients aged 65 years or older. Introduction The REAL study provides robust data on the real-world performance of risedronate and alendronate. The study used these data to assess the cost-effectiveness of brand risedronate versus generic or brand alendronate for treatment of Canadian postmenopausal osteoporosis patients aged 65 years or older. Methods A previously published osteoporosis model was populated with Canadian cost and epidemiological data, and the estimated fracture risk was validated. Effectiveness data were derived from REAL and utility data from published sources. The incremental cost per quality-adjusted life-year (QALY) gained was estimated from a Canadian public payer perspective, and comprehensive sensitivity analyses were conducted. Results The base case analysis found fewer fractures and more QALYs in the risedronate cohort, providing an incremental cost per QALY gained of $3,877 for risedronate compared to generic alendronate. The results were most sensitive to treatment duration and effectiveness. Conclusions The REAL study provided a unique opportunity to conduct cost-effectiveness analyses based on effectiveness data taken from real-world clinical practice. The analysis supports the cost-effectiveness of risedronate compared to generic or brand alendronate and the use of risedronate for the treatment of osteoporotic Canadian women aged 65 years or older with a BMD T-score ≤−2.5. PMID:18008100

Insight into mental illness and child maltreatment risk among mothers with major psychiatric disorders.

PubMed

Mullick, M; Miller, L J; Jacobsen, T

2001-04-01

This study examined the relationship between insight into mental illness and current child maltreatment risk among mothers who had a major psychiatric disorder and who had lost custody of a child because of abuse, neglect, or having placed the child at risk of harm. Specifically, a measure of insight was examined in relation to systematically observed parenting behaviors known to be correlated with past child maltreatment and in relation to a comprehensive clinical determination of risk. Forty-four mothers who had a major psychiatric disorder were independently rated for their insight into their illness, the quality of mother-child interaction, and the overall clinical risk of maltreatment. Better insight into mental illness was associated with more sensitive mothering behavior and with lower assessed clinical risk of maltreatment. The association remained when mothers with current psychotic symptoms were excluded from the analyses. Better insight did not appear to be associated with past psychotic symptoms, maternal psychiatric diagnosis, or the mother's level of education. Insight into mental illness may function as a protective factor that influences the risk of child maltreatment in mothers with mental illness. Measures of insight could be usefully incorporated into comprehensive parenting assessments for mothers with psychiatric disorders.

Disentangling syntax and intelligibility in auditory language comprehension.

PubMed

Friederici, Angela D; Kotz, Sonja A; Scott, Sophie K; Obleser, Jonas

2010-03-01

Studies of the neural basis of spoken language comprehension typically focus on aspects of auditory processing by varying signal intelligibility, or on higher-level aspects of language processing such as syntax. Most studies in either of these threads of language research report brain activation including peaks in the superior temporal gyrus (STG) and/or the superior temporal sulcus (STS), but it is not clear why these areas are recruited in functionally different studies. The current fMRI study aims to disentangle the functional neuroanatomy of intelligibility and syntax in an orthogonal design. The data substantiate functional dissociations between STS and STG in the left and right hemispheres: first, manipulations of speech intelligibility yield bilateral mid-anterior STS peak activation, whereas syntactic phrase structure violations elicit strongly left-lateralized mid STG and posterior STS activation. Second, ROI analyses indicate all interactions of speech intelligibility and syntactic correctness to be located in the left frontal and temporal cortex, while the observed right-hemispheric activations reflect less specific responses to intelligibility and syntax. Our data demonstrate that the mid-to-anterior STS activation is associated with increasing speech intelligibility, while the mid-to-posterior STG/STS is more sensitive to syntactic information within the speech. 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Exploring natural variation of Pinus pinaster Aiton using metabolomics: Is it possible to identify the region of origin of a pine from its metabolites?

PubMed

Meijón, Mónica; Feito, Isabel; Oravec, Michal; Delatorre, Carolina; Weckwerth, Wolfram; Majada, Juan; Valledor, Luis

2016-02-01

Natural variation of the metabolome of Pinus pinaster was studied to improve understanding of its role in the adaptation process and phenotypic diversity. The metabolomes of needles and the apical and basal section of buds were analysed in ten provenances of P. pinaster, selected from France, Spain and Morocco, grown in a common garden for 5 years. The employment of complementary mass spectrometry techniques (GC-MS and LC-Orbitrap-MS) together with bioinformatics tools allowed the reliable quantification of 2403 molecular masses. The analysis of the metabolome showed that differences were maintained across provenances and that the metabolites characteristic of each organ are mainly related to amino acid metabolism, while provenances were distinguishable essentially through secondary metabolism when organs were analysed independently. Integrative analyses of metabolome, environmental and growth data provided a comprehensive picture of adaptation plasticity in conifers. These analyses defined two major groups of plants, distinguished by secondary metabolism: that is, either Atlantic or Mediterranean provenance. Needles were the most sensitive organ, where strong correlations were found between flavonoids and the water regime of the geographic origin of the provenance. The data obtained point to genome specialization aimed at maximizing the drought stress resistance of trees depending on their origin. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Accuracy statistics in predicting Independent Activities of Daily Living (IADL) capacity with comprehensive and brief neuropsychological test batteries.

PubMed

Karzmark, Peter; Deutsch, Gayle K

2018-01-01

This investigation was designed to determine the predictive accuracy of a comprehensive neuropsychological and brief neuropsychological test battery with regard to the capacity to perform instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs). Accuracy statistics that included measures of sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predicted power and positive likelihood ratio were calculated for both types of batteries. The sample was drawn from a general neurological group of adults (n = 117) that included a number of older participants (age >55; n = 38). Standardized neuropsychological assessments were administered to all participants and were comprised of the Halstead Reitan Battery and portions of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-III. A comprehensive test battery yielded a moderate increase over base-rate in predictive accuracy that generalized to older individuals. There was only limited support for using a brief battery, for although sensitivity was high, specificity was low. We found that a comprehensive neuropsychological test battery provided good classification accuracy for predicting IADL capacity.

How Efficacious is Danshen (Salvia miltiorrhiza) Dripping Pill in Treating Angina Pectoris? Evidence Assessment for Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.

PubMed

Jia, Yongliang; Leung, Siu-Wai

2017-09-01

More than 230 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of danshen dripping pill (DSP) and isosorbide dinitrate (ISDN) in treating angina pectoris after the first preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses-compliant comprehensive meta-analysis were published in 2010. Other meta-analyses had flaws in study selection, statistical meta-analysis, and evidence assessment. This study completed the meta-analysis with an extensive assessment of the evidence. RCTs published from 1994 to 2016 on DSP and ISDN in treating angina pectoris for at least 4 weeks were included. The risk of bias (RoB) of included RCTs was assessed with the Cochrane's tool for assessing RoB. Meta-analyses based on a random-effects model were performed on two outcome measures: symptomatic (SYM) and electrocardiography (ECG) improvements. Subgroup analysis, sensitivity analysis, metaregression, and publication bias analysis were also conducted. The evidence strength was evaluated with the Grades of Recommendation, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) method. Among the included 109 RCTs with 11,973 participants, 49 RCTs and 5042 participants were new (after 2010). The RoB of included RCTs was high in randomization and blinding. Overall effect sizes in odds ratios for DSP over ISDN were 2.94 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 2.53-3.41) on SYM (n = 108) and 2.37 (95% CI: 2.08-2.69) by ECG (n = 81) with significant heterogeneities (I 2  = 41%, p < 0.0001 on SYM and I 2  = 44%, p < 0.0001 on ECG). Subgroup, sensitivity, and metaregression analyses showed consistent results without publication bias. However, the evidence strength was low in GRADE. The efficacy of DSP was still better than ISDN in treating angina pectoris, but the confidence decreased due to high RoB and heterogeneities.

Global sensitivity analysis of DRAINMOD-FOREST, an integrated forest ecosystem model

Treesearch

Shiying Tian; Mohamed A. Youssef; Devendra M. Amatya; Eric D. Vance

2014-01-01

Global sensitivity analysis is a useful tool to understand process-based ecosystem models by identifying key parameters and processes controlling model predictions. This study reported a comprehensive global sensitivity analysis for DRAINMOD-FOREST, an integrated model for simulating water, carbon (C), and nitrogen (N) cycles and plant growth in lowland forests. The...

Early life adversity and telomere length: a meta-analysis.

PubMed

Ridout, K K; Levandowski, M; Ridout, S J; Gantz, L; Goonan, K; Palermo, D; Price, L H; Tyrka, A R

2018-04-01

Early adversity, in the form of abuse, neglect, socioeconomic status and other adverse experiences, is associated with poor physical and mental health outcomes. To understand the biologic mechanisms underlying these associations, studies have evaluated the relationship between early adversity and telomere length, a marker of cellular senescence. Such results have varied in regard to the size and significance of this relationship. Using meta-analytic techniques, we aimed to clarify the relationship between early adversity and telomere length while exploring factors affecting the association, including adversity type, timing and study design. A comprehensive search in July 2016 of PubMed/MEDLINE, PsycINFO and Web of Science identified 2462 studies. Multiple reviewers appraised studies for inclusion or exclusion using a priori criteria; 3.9% met inclusion criteria. Data were extracted into a structured form; the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale assessed study quality, validity and bias. Forty-one studies (N=30 773) met inclusion criteria. Early adversity and telomere length were significantly associated (Cohen's d effect size=-0.35; 95% CI, -0.46 to -0.24; P<0.0001). Sensitivity analyses revealed no outlier effects. Adversity type and timing significantly impacted the association with telomere length (P<0.0001 and P=0.0025, respectively). Subgroup and meta-regression analyses revealed that medication use, medical or psychiatric conditions, case-control vs longitudinal study design, methodological factors, age and smoking significantly affected the relationship. Comprehensive evaluations of adversity demonstrated more extensive telomere length changes. These results suggest that early adversity may have long-lasting physiological consequences contributing to disease risk and biological aging.

Comprehensive Census of Bacteria in Clean Rooms by Using DNA Microarray and Cloning Methods▿ †

PubMed Central

La Duc, Myron T.; Osman, Shariff; Vaishampayan, Parag; Piceno, Yvette; Andersen, Gary; Spry, J. A.; Venkateswaran, Kasthuri

2009-01-01

A census of clean room surface-associated bacterial populations was derived from the results of both the cloning and sequencing of 16S rRNA genes and DNA microarray (PhyloChip) analyses. Samples from the Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Multiple Testing Facility (LMA-MTF), the Kennedy Space Center Payload Hazard and Servicing Facility (KSC-PHSF), and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory Spacecraft Assembly Facility (JPL-SAF) clean rooms were collected during the various assembly phases of the Phoenix and Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) spacecraft. Clone library-derived analyses detected a larger bacterial diversity prior to the arrival of spacecraft hardware in these clean room facilities. PhyloChip results were in agreement with this trend but also unveiled the presence of anywhere from 9- to 70-fold more bacterial taxa than cloning approaches. Among the facilities sampled, the JPL-SAF (MSL mission) housed a significantly less diverse bacterial population than either the LMA-MTF or KSC-PHSF (Phoenix mission). Bacterial taxa known to thrive in arid conditions were frequently detected in MSL-associated JPL-SAF samples, whereas proteobacterial lineages dominated Phoenix-associated KSC-PHSF samples. Comprehensive bacterial censuses, such as that reported here, will help space-faring nations preemptively identify contaminant biomatter that may compromise extraterrestrial life detection experiments. The robust nature and high sensitivity of DNA microarray technologies should prove beneficial to a wide range of scientific, electronic, homeland security, medical, and pharmaceutical applications and to any other ventures with a vested interest in monitoring and controlling contamination in exceptionally clean environments. PMID:19700540

Evolving Relevance of Neuroproteomics in Alzheimer's Disease.

PubMed

Lista, Simone; Zetterberg, Henrik; O'Bryant, Sid E; Blennow, Kaj; Hampel, Harald

2017-01-01

Substantial progress in the understanding of the biology of Alzheimer's disease (AD) has been achieved over the past decades. The early detection and diagnosis of AD and other age-related neurodegenerative diseases, however, remain a challenging scientific frontier. Therefore, the comprehensive discovery (relating to all individual, converging or diverging biochemical disease mechanisms), development, validation, and qualification of standardized biological markers with diagnostic and prognostic functions with a precise performance profile regarding specificity, sensitivity, and positive and negative predictive value are warranted.Methodological innovations in the area of exploratory high-throughput technologies, such as sequencing, microarrays, and mass spectrometry-based analyses of proteins/peptides, have led to the generation of large global molecular datasets from a multiplicity of biological systems, such as biological fluids, cells, tissues, and organs. Such methodological progress has shifted the attention to the execution of hypothesis-independent comprehensive exploratory analyses (opposed to the classical hypothesis-driven candidate approach), with the aim of fully understanding the biological systems in physiology and disease as a whole. The systems biology paradigm integrates experimental biology with accurate and rigorous computational modelling to describe and foresee the dynamic features of biological systems. The use of dynamically evolving technological platforms, including mass spectrometry, in the area of proteomics has enabled to rush the process of biomarker discovery and validation for refining significantly the diagnosis of AD. Currently, proteomics-which is part of the systems biology paradigm-is designated as one of the dominant matured sciences needed for the effective exploratory discovery of prospective biomarker candidates expected to play an effective role in aiding the early detection, diagnosis, prognosis, and therapy development in AD.

Comprehensive census of bacteria in clean rooms by using DNA microarray and cloning methods.

PubMed

La Duc, Myron T; Osman, Shariff; Vaishampayan, Parag; Piceno, Yvette; Andersen, Gary; Spry, J A; Venkateswaran, Kasthuri

2009-10-01

A census of clean room surface-associated bacterial populations was derived from the results of both the cloning and sequencing of 16S rRNA genes and DNA microarray (PhyloChip) analyses. Samples from the Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Multiple Testing Facility (LMA-MTF), the Kennedy Space Center Payload Hazard and Servicing Facility (KSC-PHSF), and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory Spacecraft Assembly Facility (JPL-SAF) clean rooms were collected during the various assembly phases of the Phoenix and Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) spacecraft. Clone library-derived analyses detected a larger bacterial diversity prior to the arrival of spacecraft hardware in these clean room facilities. PhyloChip results were in agreement with this trend but also unveiled the presence of anywhere from 9- to 70-fold more bacterial taxa than cloning approaches. Among the facilities sampled, the JPL-SAF (MSL mission) housed a significantly less diverse bacterial population than either the LMA-MTF or KSC-PHSF (Phoenix mission). Bacterial taxa known to thrive in arid conditions were frequently detected in MSL-associated JPL-SAF samples, whereas proteobacterial lineages dominated Phoenix-associated KSC-PHSF samples. Comprehensive bacterial censuses, such as that reported here, will help space-faring nations preemptively identify contaminant biomatter that may compromise extraterrestrial life detection experiments. The robust nature and high sensitivity of DNA microarray technologies should prove beneficial to a wide range of scientific, electronic, homeland security, medical, and pharmaceutical applications and to any other ventures with a vested interest in monitoring and controlling contamination in exceptionally clean environments.

The Acetylene-Ethylene Assay for N2 Fixation: Laboratory and Field Evaluation 1

PubMed Central

Hardy, R. W. F.; Holsten, R. D.; Jackson, E. K.; Burns, R. C.

1968-01-01

The methodology, characteristics and application of the sensitive C2H2-C2H4 assay for N2 fixation by nitrogenase preparations and bacterial cultures in the laboratory and by legumes and free-living bacteria in situ is presented in this comprehensive report. This assay is based on the N2ase-catalyzed reduction of C2H2 to C2H4, gas chromatographic isolation of C2H2 and C2H4, and quantitative measurement with a H2-flame analyzer. As little as 1 μμmole C2H4 can be detected, providing a sensitivity 103-fold greater than is possible with 15N analysis. A simple, rapid and effective procedure utilizing syringe-type assay chambers is described for the analysis of C2H2-reducing activity in the field. Applications to field samples included an evaluation of N2 fixation by commercially grown soybeans based on over 2000 analyses made during the course of the growing season. Assay values reflected the degree of nodulation of soybean plants and indicated a calculated seasonal N2 fixation rate of 30 to 33 kg N2 fixed per acre, in good agreement with literature estimates based on Kjeldahl analyses. The assay was successfully applied to measurements of N2 fixation by other symbionts and by free living soil microorganisms, and was also used to assess the effects of light and temperature on the N2 fixing activity of soybeans. The validity of measuring N2 fixation in terms of C2H2 reduction was established through extensive comparisons of these activities using defined systems, including purified N2ase preparations and pure cultures of N2-fixing bacteria. With this assay it now becomes possible and practicable to conduct comprehensive surveys of N2 fixation, to make detailed comparisons among different N2-fixing symbionts, and to rapidly evaluate the effects of cultural practices and environmental factors on N2 fixation. The knowledge obtained through extensive application of this assay should provide the basis for efforts leading to the maximum agricultural exploitation of the N2 fixation reaction. PMID:16656902

SVDS plume impingement modeling development. Sensitivity analysis supporting level B requirements

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chiu, P. B.; Pearson, D. J.; Muhm, P. M.; Schoonmaker, P. B.; Radar, R. J.

1977-01-01

A series of sensitivity analyses (trade studies) performed to select features and capabilities to be implemented in the plume impingement model is described. Sensitivity analyses were performed in study areas pertaining to geometry, flowfield, impingement, and dynamical effects. Recommendations based on these analyses are summarized.

DNA metabarcoding uncovers fungal diversity of mixed airborne samples in Italy

PubMed Central

Banchi, Elisa; Ametrano, Claudio Gennaro; Stanković, David; Verardo, Pierluigi; Moretti, Olga; Gabrielli, Francesca; Lazzarin, Stefania; Borney, Maria Francesca; Tassan, Francesca; Tretiach, Mauro; Pallavicini, Alberto

2018-01-01

Fungal spores and mycelium fragments are particles which become and remain airborne and have been subjects of aerobiological studies. The presence and the abundance of taxa in aerobiological samples can be very variable and impaired by changeable climatic conditions. Because many fungi produce mycotoxins and both their mycelium fragments and spores are potential allergens, monitoring the presence of these taxa is of key importance. So far data on exposure and sensitization to fungal allergens are mainly based on the assessment of few, easily identifiable taxa and focused only on certain environments. The microscopic method used to analyze aerobiological samples and the inconspicuous fungal characters do not allow a in depth taxonomical identification. Here, we present a first assessment of fungal diversity from airborne samples using a DNA metabarcoding analysis. The nuclear ITS2 region was selected as barcode to catch fungal diversity in mixed airborne samples gathered during two weeks in four sites of North-Eastern and Central Italy. We assessed the taxonomic composition and diversity within and among the sampled sites and compared the molecular data with those obtained by traditional microscopy. The molecular analyses provide a tenfold more comprehensive determination of the taxa than the traditional morphological inspections. Our results prove that the metabarcoding analysis is a promising approach to increases quality and sensitivity of the aerobiological monitoring. The laboratory and bioinformatic workflow implemented here is now suitable for routine, high-throughput, regional analyses of airborne fungi. PMID:29558527

Transmission of Bordetella pertussis to young infants.

PubMed

Wendelboe, Aaron M; Njamkepo, Elisabeth; Bourillon, Antoine; Floret, D Daniel; Gaudelus, Joel; Gerber, Michael; Grimprel, Emmanuel; Greenberg, David; Halperin, Scott; Liese, Johannes; Muñoz-Rivas, Flor; Teyssou, Remy; Guiso, Nicole; Van Rie, Annelies

2007-04-01

Pertussis vaccination has reduced the number of notified cases in industrialized countries from peak years by more than 95%. The effect of recently recommended adult and adolescent vaccination strategies on infant pertussis depends, in part, on the proportion of infants infected by adults and adolescents. This proportion, however, remains unclear, because studies have not been able to determine the source case for 47%-60% of infant cases. A prospective international multicenter study was conducted of laboratory confirmed infant pertussis cases (aged

Can time-averaged flow boundary conditions be used to meet the clinical timeline for Fontan surgical planning?

PubMed

Wei, Zhenglun Alan; Trusty, Phillip M; Tree, Mike; Haggerty, Christopher M; Tang, Elaine; Fogel, Mark; Yoganathan, Ajit P

2017-01-04

Cardiovascular simulations have great potential as a clinical tool for planning and evaluating patient-specific treatment strategies for those suffering from congenital heart diseases, specifically Fontan patients. However, several bottlenecks have delayed wider deployment of the simulations for clinical use; the main obstacle is simulation cost. Currently, time-averaged clinical flow measurements are utilized as numerical boundary conditions (BCs) in order to reduce the computational power and time needed to offer surgical planning within a clinical time frame. Nevertheless, pulsatile blood flow is observed in vivo, and its significant impact on numerical simulations has been demonstrated. Therefore, it is imperative to carry out a comprehensive study analyzing the sensitivity of using time-averaged BCs. In this study, sensitivity is evaluated based on the discrepancies between hemodynamic metrics calculated using time-averaged and pulsatile BCs; smaller discrepancies indicate less sensitivity. The current study incorporates a comparison between 3D patient-specific CFD simulations using both the time-averaged and pulsatile BCs for 101 Fontan patients. The sensitivity analysis involves two clinically important hemodynamic metrics: hepatic flow distribution (HFD) and indexed power loss (iPL). Paired demographic group comparisons revealed that HFD sensitivity is significantly different between single and bilateral superior vena cava cohorts but no other demographic discrepancies were observed for HFD or iPL. Multivariate regression analyses show that the best predictors for sensitivity involve flow pulsatilities, time-averaged flow rates, and geometric characteristics of the Fontan connection. These predictors provide patient-specific guidelines to determine the effectiveness of analyzing patient-specific surgical options with time-averaged BCs within a clinical time frame. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

RIEMS: a software pipeline for sensitive and comprehensive taxonomic classification of reads from metagenomics datasets.

PubMed

Scheuch, Matthias; Höper, Dirk; Beer, Martin

2015-03-03

Fuelled by the advent and subsequent development of next generation sequencing technologies, metagenomics became a powerful tool for the analysis of microbial communities both scientifically and diagnostically. The biggest challenge is the extraction of relevant information from the huge sequence datasets generated for metagenomics studies. Although a plethora of tools are available, data analysis is still a bottleneck. To overcome the bottleneck of data analysis, we developed an automated computational workflow called RIEMS - Reliable Information Extraction from Metagenomic Sequence datasets. RIEMS assigns every individual read sequence within a dataset taxonomically by cascading different sequence analyses with decreasing stringency of the assignments using various software applications. After completion of the analyses, the results are summarised in a clearly structured result protocol organised taxonomically. The high accuracy and performance of RIEMS analyses were proven in comparison with other tools for metagenomics data analysis using simulated sequencing read datasets. RIEMS has the potential to fill the gap that still exists with regard to data analysis for metagenomics studies. The usefulness and power of RIEMS for the analysis of genuine sequencing datasets was demonstrated with an early version of RIEMS in 2011 when it was used to detect the orthobunyavirus sequences leading to the discovery of Schmallenberg virus.

Decadal-scale sensitivity of Northeast Greenland ice flow to errors in surface mass balance using ISSM

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schlegel, N.-J.; Larour, E.; Seroussi, H.; Morlighem, M.; Box, J. E.

2013-06-01

The behavior of the Greenland Ice Sheet, which is considered a major contributor to sea level changes, is best understood on century and longer time scales. However, on decadal time scales, its response is less predictable due to the difficulty of modeling surface climate, as well as incomplete understanding of the dynamic processes responsible for ice flow. Therefore, it is imperative to understand how modeling advancements, such as increased spatial resolution or more comprehensive ice flow equations, might improve projections of ice sheet response to climatic trends. Here we examine how a finely resolved climate forcing influences a high-resolution ice stream model that considers longitudinal stresses. We simulate ice flow using a two-dimensional Shelfy-Stream Approximation implemented within the Ice Sheet System Model (ISSM) and use uncertainty quantification tools embedded within the model to calculate the sensitivity of ice flow within the Northeast Greenland Ice Stream to errors in surface mass balance (SMB) forcing. Our results suggest that the model tends to smooth ice velocities even when forced with extreme errors in SMB. Indeed, errors propagate linearly through the model, resulting in discharge uncertainty of 16% or 1.9 Gt/yr. We find that mass flux is most sensitive to local errors but is also affected by errors hundreds of kilometers away; thus, an accurate SMB map of the entire basin is critical for realistic simulation. Furthermore, sensitivity analyses indicate that SMB forcing needs to be provided at a resolution of at least 40 km.

The Relationship Between Ocular Itch, Ocular Pain, and Dry Eye Symptoms (An American Ophthalmological Society Thesis).

PubMed

Galor, Anat; Small, Leslie; Feuer, William; Levitt, Roy C; Sarantopoulos, Konstantinos D; Yosipovitch, Gil

2017-08-01

To evaluate associations between sensations of ocular itch and dry eye (DE) symptoms, including ocular pain, and DE signs. A cross-sectional study of 324 patients seen in the Miami Veterans Affairs eye clinic was performed. The evaluation consisted of questionnaires regarding ocular itch, DE symptoms, descriptors of neuropathic-like ocular pain (NOP), and evoked pain sensitivity testing on the forehead and forearm, followed by a comprehensive ocular surface examination including corneal mechanical sensitivity testing. Analyses were performed to examine for differences between those with and without subjective complaints of ocular itch. The mean age was 62 years with 92% being male. Symptoms of DE and NOP were more frequent in patients with moderate-severe ocular itch compared to those with no or mild ocular itch symptoms. With the exception of ocular surface inflammation (abnormal matrix metalloproteinase 9 testing) which was less common in those with moderate-severe ocular itch symptoms, DE signs were not related to ocular itch. Individuals with moderate-severe ocular itch also demonstrated greater sensitivity to evoked pain on the forearm and had higher non-ocular pain, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorders scores, compared to those with no or mild itch symptoms. Subjects with moderate-severe ocular itch symptoms have more severe symptoms of DE, NOP, non-ocular pain and demonstrate abnormal somatosensory testing in the form of increased sensitivity to evoked pain at a site remote from the eye, consistent with generalized hypersensitivity.

The Relationship Between Ocular Itch, Ocular Pain, and Dry Eye Symptoms (An American Ophthalmological Society Thesis)

PubMed Central

Galor, Anat; Small, Leslie; Feuer, William; Levitt, Roy C.; Sarantopoulos, Konstantinos D.; Yosipovitch, Gil

2017-01-01

Purpose To evaluate associations between sensations of ocular itch and dry eye (DE) symptoms, including ocular pain, and DE signs. Methods A cross-sectional study of 324 patients seen in the Miami Veterans Affairs eye clinic was performed. The evaluation consisted of questionnaires regarding ocular itch, DE symptoms, descriptors of neuropathic-like ocular pain (NOP), and evoked pain sensitivity testing on the forehead and forearm, followed by a comprehensive ocular surface examination including corneal mechanical sensitivity testing. Analyses were performed to examine for differences between those with and without subjective complaints of ocular itch. Results The mean age was 62 years with 92% being male. Symptoms of DE and NOP were more frequent in patients with moderate-severe ocular itch compared to those with no or mild ocular itch symptoms. With the exception of ocular surface inflammation (abnormal matrix metalloproteinase 9 testing) which was less common in those with moderate-severe ocular itch symptoms, DE signs were not related to ocular itch. Individuals with moderate-severe ocular itch also demonstrated greater sensitivity to evoked pain on the forearm and had higher non-ocular pain, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorders scores, compared to those with no or mild itch symptoms. Conclusions Subjects with moderate-severe ocular itch symptoms have more severe symptoms of DE, NOP, non-ocular pain and demonstrate abnormal somatosensory testing in the form of increased sensitivity to evoked pain at a site remote from the eye, consistent with generalized hypersensitivity. PMID:29391860

Accuracy of combined dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging and diffusion-weighted imaging for breast cancer detection: a meta-analysis.

PubMed

Zhang, Li; Tang, Min; Min, Zhiqian; Lu, Jun; Lei, Xiaoyan; Zhang, Xiaoling

2016-06-01

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is increasingly being used to examine patients with suspected breast cancer. To determine the diagnostic performance of combined dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) and diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) for breast cancer detection. A comprehensive search of the PUBMED, EMBASE, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library databases was performed up to September 2014. Statistical analysis included pooling of sensitivity and specificity, positive likelihood ratio (PLR), negative likelihood ratio (NLR), diagnostic odds ratio (DOR), and diagnostic accuracy using the summary receiver operating characteristic (SROC). All analyses were conducted using STATA (version 12.0), RevMan (version 5.2), and Meta-Disc 1.4 software programs. Fourteen studies were analyzed, which included a total of 1140 patients with 1276 breast lesions. The pooled sensitivity and specificity of combined DCE-MRI and DWI were 91.6% and 85.5%, respectively. The pooled sensitivity and specificity of DWI-MRI were 86.0% and 75.6%, respectively. The pooled sensitivity and specificity of DCE-MRI were 93.2% and 71.1%. The area under the SROC curve (AUC-SROC) of combined DCE-MRI and DWI was 0.94, the DCE-MRI of 0.85. Deeks testing confirmed no significant publication bias in all studies. Combined DCE-MRI and DWI had superior diagnostic accuracy than either DCE-MRI or DWI alone for the diagnosis of breast cancer. © The Foundation Acta Radiologica 2015.

Intonation and Gesture as Bootstrapping Devices in Speaker Uncertainty

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hübscher, Iris; Esteve-Gibert, Núria; Igualada, Alfonso; Prieto, Pilar

2017-01-01

This study investigates 3- to 5-year-old children's sensitivity to lexical, intonational and gestural information in the comprehension of speaker uncertainty. Most previous studies on children's understanding of speaker certainty and uncertainty across languages have focused on the comprehension of lexical markers, and little is known about the…

Characteristics and Methodological Quality of Meta-Analyses on Hypertension Treatments-A Cross-Sectional Study.

PubMed

Wu, Xin Yin; Du, Xin Jian; Ho, Robin S T; Lee, Clarence C Y; Yip, Benjamin H K; Wong, Martin C S; Wong, Samuel Y S; Chung, Vincent C H

2017-02-01

Methodological quality of meta-analyses on hypertension treatments can affect treatment decision-making. The authors conducted a cross-sectional study to investigate the methodological quality of meta-analyses on hypertension treatments. One hundred and fifty-eight meta-analyses were identified. Overall, methodological quality was unsatisfactory in the following aspects: comprehensive reporting of financial support (1.9%), provision of included and excluded lists of studies (22.8%), inclusion of grey literature (27.2%), and inclusion of protocols (32.9%). The 126 non-Cochrane meta-analyses had poor performance on almost all the methodological items. Non-Cochrane meta-analyses focused on nonpharmacologic treatments were more likely to consider scientific quality of included studies when making conclusions. The 32 Cochrane meta-analyses generally had good methodological quality except for comprehensive reporting of the sources of support. These results highlight the need for cautious interpretation of these meta-analyses, especially among physicians and policy makers when guidelines are formulated. Future meta-analyses should pay attention to improving these methodological aspects. ©2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

What do we mean by sensitivity analysis? The need for comprehensive characterization of "global" sensitivity in Earth and Environmental systems models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Razavi, Saman; Gupta, Hoshin V.

2015-05-01

Sensitivity analysis is an essential paradigm in Earth and Environmental Systems modeling. However, the term "sensitivity" has a clear definition, based in partial derivatives, only when specified locally around a particular point (e.g., optimal solution) in the problem space. Accordingly, no unique definition exists for "global sensitivity" across the problem space, when considering one or more model responses to different factors such as model parameters or forcings. A variety of approaches have been proposed for global sensitivity analysis, based on different philosophies and theories, and each of these formally characterizes a different "intuitive" understanding of sensitivity. These approaches focus on different properties of the model response at a fundamental level and may therefore lead to different (even conflicting) conclusions about the underlying sensitivities. Here we revisit the theoretical basis for sensitivity analysis, summarize and critically evaluate existing approaches in the literature, and demonstrate their flaws and shortcomings through conceptual examples. We also demonstrate the difficulty involved in interpreting "global" interaction effects, which may undermine the value of existing interpretive approaches. With this background, we identify several important properties of response surfaces that are associated with the understanding and interpretation of sensitivities in the context of Earth and Environmental System models. Finally, we highlight the need for a new, comprehensive framework for sensitivity analysis that effectively characterizes all of the important sensitivity-related properties of model response surfaces.

Engineering the fitness of older patients for chemotherapy: an exploration of Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment in practice.

PubMed

McCarthy, Alexandra L; Cook, Peta S; Yates, Patsy

2014-03-01

Clinicians often report that currently available methods to assess older patients, including standard clinical consultations, do not elicit the information necessary to make an appropriate cancer treatment recommendation for older cancer patients. An increasingly popular way of assessing the potential of older patients to cope with chemotherapy is a Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment. What constitutes Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment, however, is open to interpretation and varies from one setting to another. Furthermore, Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment's usefulness as a predictor of fitness for chemotherapy and as a determinant of actual treatment is not well understood. In this article, we analyse how Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment was developed for use in a large cancer service in an Australian capital city. Drawing upon Actor-Network Theory, our findings reveal how, during its development, Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment was made both a tool and a science. Furthermore, we briefly explore the tensions that we experienced as scholars who analyse medico-scientific practices and as practitioner-designers charged with improving the very tools we critique. Our study contributes towards geriatric oncology by scrutinising the medicalisation of ageing, unravelling the practices of standardisation and illuminating the multiplicity of 'fitness for chemotherapy'.

Building livable communities with transit : planning, developing and implementing community-sensitive transit

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1999-09-01

This booklet presents some of the successes of the community-sensitive transportation facility development process. Although a comprehensive process is described here, not every project involves the full range of steps. By applying the techniques out...

Language knowledge and event knowledge in language use

PubMed Central

Willits, Jon A.; Amato, Michael S.; MacDonald, Maryellen C.

2018-01-01

This paper examines how semantic knowledge is used in language comprehension and in making judgments about events in the world. We contrast knowledge gleaned from prior language experience (“language knowledge”) and knowledge coming from prior experience with the world (“world knowledge”). In two corpus analyses, we show that previous research linking verb aspect and event representations have confounded language and world knowledge. Then, using carefully chosen stimuli that remove this confound, we performed four experiments that manipulated the degree to which language knowledge or world knowledge should be salient and relevant to performing a task, finding in each case that participants use the type of knowledge most appropriate to the task. These results provide evidence for a highly context-sensitive and interactionist perspective on how semantic knowledge is represented and used during language processing. PMID:25791750

Language knowledge and event knowledge in language use.

PubMed

Willits, Jon A; Amato, Michael S; MacDonald, Maryellen C

2015-05-01

This paper examines how semantic knowledge is used in language comprehension and in making judgments about events in the world. We contrast knowledge gleaned from prior language experience ("language knowledge") and knowledge coming from prior experience with the world ("world knowledge"). In two corpus analyses, we show that previous research linking verb aspect and event representations have confounded language and world knowledge. Then, using carefully chosen stimuli that remove this confound, we performed four experiments that manipulated the degree to which language knowledge or world knowledge should be salient and relevant to performing a task, finding in each case that participants use the type of knowledge most appropriate to the task. These results provide evidence for a highly context-sensitive and interactionist perspective on how semantic knowledge is represented and used during language processing. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Evolution of dinosaur epidermal structures.

PubMed

Barrett, Paul M; Evans, David C; Campione, Nicolás E

2015-06-01

Spectacularly preserved non-avian dinosaurs with integumentary filaments/feathers have revolutionized dinosaur studies and fostered the suggestion that the dinosaur common ancestor possessed complex integumentary structures homologous to feathers. This hypothesis has major implications for interpreting dinosaur biology, but has not been tested rigorously. Using a comprehensive database of dinosaur skin traces, we apply maximum-likelihood methods to reconstruct the phylogenetic distribution of epidermal structures and interpret their evolutionary history. Most of these analyses find no compelling evidence for the appearance of protofeathers in the dinosaur common ancestor and scales are usually recovered as the plesiomorphic state, but results are sensitive to the outgroup condition in pterosaurs. Rare occurrences of ornithischian filamentous integument might represent independent acquisitions of novel epidermal structures that are not homologous with theropod feathers. © 2015 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.

“Whatdunit?” Sentence Comprehension Abilities of Children With SLI: Sensitivity to Word Order in Canonical and Noncanonical Structures

PubMed Central

Gillam, Ronald B.; Evans, Julia L.; Sergeev, Alexander V.

2017-01-01

Purpose With Aim 1, we compared the comprehension of and sensitivity to canonical and noncanonical word order structures in school-age children with specific language impairment (SLI) and same-age typically developing (TD) children. Aim 2 centered on the developmental improvement of sentence comprehension in the groups. With Aim 3, we compared the comprehension error patterns of the groups. Method Using a “Whatdunit” agent selection task, 117 children with SLI and 117 TD children (ages 7:0–11:11, years:months) propensity matched on age, gender, mother's education, and family income pointed to the picture that best represented the agent in semantically implausible canonical structures (subject–verb–object, subject relative) and noncanonical structures (passive, object relative). Results The SLI group performed worse than the TD group across sentence types. TD children demonstrated developmental improvement across each sentence type, but children with SLI showed improvement only for canonical sentences. Both groups chose the object noun as agent significantly more often than the noun appearing in a prepositional phrase. Conclusions In the absence of semantic–pragmatic cues, comprehension of canonical and noncanonical sentences by children with SLI is limited, with noncanonical sentence comprehension being disproportionately limited. The children's ability to make proper semantic role assignments to the noun arguments in sentences, especially noncanonical, is significantly hindered. PMID:28832884

Development and validation of a reading-related assessment battery in Malay for the purpose of dyslexia assessment.

PubMed

Lee, Lay Wah

2008-06-01

Malay is an alphabetic language with transparent orthography. A Malay reading-related assessment battery which was conceptualised based on the International Dyslexia Association definition of dyslexia was developed and validated for the purpose of dyslexia assessment. The battery consisted of ten tests: Letter Naming, Word Reading, Non-word Reading, Spelling, Passage Reading, Reading Comprehension, Listening Comprehension, Elision, Rapid Letter Naming and Digit Span. Content validity was established by expert judgment. Concurrent validity was obtained using the schools' language tests as criterion. Evidence of predictive and construct validity was obtained through regression analyses and factor analyses. Phonological awareness was the most significant predictor of word-level literacy skills in Malay, with rapid naming making independent secondary contributions. Decoding and listening comprehension made separate contributions to reading comprehension, with decoding as the more prominent predictor. Factor analysis revealed four factors: phonological decoding, phonological naming, comprehension and verbal short-term memory. In conclusion, despite differences in orthography, there are striking similarities in the theoretical constructs of reading-related tasks in Malay and in English.

The dye-sensitized solar cell database.

PubMed

Venkatraman, Vishwesh; Raju, Rajesh; Oikonomopoulos, Solon P; Alsberg, Bjørn K

2018-04-03

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) have garnered a lot of attention in recent years. The solar energy to power conversion efficiency of a DSSC is influenced by various components of the cell such as the dye, electrolyte, electrodes and additives among others leading to varying experimental configurations. A large number of metal-based and metal-free dye sensitizers have now been reported and tools using such data to indicate new directions for design and development are on the rise. DSSCDB, the first of its kind dye-sensitized solar cell database, aims to provide users with up-to-date information from publications on the molecular structures of the dyes, experimental details and reported measurements (efficiencies and spectral properties) and thereby facilitate a comprehensive and critical evaluation of the data. Currently, the DSSCDB contains over 4000 experimental observations spanning multiple dye classes such as triphenylamines, carbazoles, coumarins, phenothiazines, ruthenium and porphyrins. The DSSCDB offers a web-based, comprehensive source of property data for dye sensitized solar cells. Access to the database is available through the following URL: www.dyedb.com .

Primary treatments for clinically localized prostate cancer: a comprehensive lifetime cost-utility analysis

PubMed Central

Cooperberg, Matthew R.; Ramakrishna, Naren R.; Duff, Steven B.; Hughes, Kathleen E.; Sadownik, Sara; Smith, Joseph A.; Tewari, Ashutosh K.

2012-01-01

Objectives To characterize the costs and outcomes associated with radical prostatectomy (open, laparoscopic, or robot-assisted) and radiation therapy (dose-escalated 3-dimensional conformal radiation, intensity-modulated radiation, brachytherapy, or combination), using a comprehensive, lifetime decision analytic model. Patients and Methods A Markov model was constructed to follow hypothetical men with low-, intermediate-, and high-risk prostate cancer over their lifetimes following primary treatment; probabilities of outcomes were based on an exhaustive literature search yielding 232 unique publications. Patients could experience remission, recurrence, salvage treatment, metastasis, death from prostate cancer, and death from other causes. Utilities for each health state were determined, and disutilities were applied for complications and toxicities of treatment. Costs were determined from the U.S. payer perspective, with incorporation of patient costs in a sensitivity analysis. Results Differences in quality-adjusted life years across modalities were modest, ranging from 10.3 to 11.3 for low-risk patients, 9.6 to 10.5 for intermediate-risk patients, and 7.8 to 9.3 for high-risk patients. There were no statistically significant differences among surgical modalities, which tended to be more effective than radiation modalities, with the exception of combination external beam + brachytherapy for high-risk disease. Radiation modalities were consistently more expensive than surgical modalities; costs ranged from $19,901 (robot-assisted prostatectomy for low-risk disease) to $50,276 (combination radiation for high-risk disease). These findings were robust to an extensive set of sensitivity analyses. Conclusions Our analysis found small differences in outcomes and substantial differences in payer and patient costs across treatment alternatives. These findings may inform future policy discussions regarding strategies to improve efficiency of treatment selection for localized prostate cancer. PMID:23279038

Associations of family characteristics with perceptions of care among parents of children with autism.

PubMed

Sobotka, S A; Francis, A; Vander Ploeg Booth, K

2016-01-01

Although autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is an increasingly common chronic disability, primary care provider (PCPs) report deficits in providing primary care for children with ASD, and parents report lapses in receipt of medical home services. In this study, we describe parental experiences with specific medical home components for their children with ASD. We analysed data from all children within the National Survey of Children with Special Health Care Needs database with ASD and a usual place for care (n = 2859). We evaluated the receipt of core medical home components: accessible, comprehensive, coordinated, family centred and compassionate and culturally sensitive care. Children were mean age 10.1 years, and respondents were 75% mothers and 95% reported having a primary care provider (PCP). Seventy-one percent reported care to be usually comprehensive, over three-fourths of respondents reported care to be family centred and compassionate and 87% reported care to be culturally sensitive. Of the parents who reported a need for care coordination (n = 1049), only 14% of parents reported usually getting the help they needed. More educated, English-speaking, non-Hispanic White mothers of older children supported by private insurance were more likely to report never getting as much help coordinating care as desired. Coordination with education services are especially important for children with ASD, yet 27% of parents reported dissatisfaction with PCPs' communication with schools or early intervention. Although parents report a high level of access to PCPs and places for care as well as receiving most core components of the medical home, care coordination activities are lacking for children with ASD. More resourced families are particularly likely to report unmet needs. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Sensitivity to Morphosyntactic Information in 3-Year-Old Children with Typical Language Development: A Feasibility Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Deevy, Patricia; Leonard, Laurence B.; Marchman, Virginia A.

2017-01-01

Purpose: This study tested the feasibility of a method designed to assess children's sensitivity to tense/agreement information in fronted auxiliaries during online comprehension of questions (e.g., "Are the nice little dogs running?"). We expected that a group of children who were proficient in auxiliary use would show this sensitivity,…

Minimal second language exposure, SES, and early word comprehension: New evidence from a direct assessment*

PubMed Central

Deanda, Stephanie; Arias-Trejo, Natalia; Poulin-Dubois, Diane; Zesiger, Pascal; Friend, Margaret

2015-01-01

Although the extant literature provides robust evidence of the influence of language exposure and socioeconomic status (SES) on language acquisition, it is unknown how sensitive the early receptive vocabulary system is to these factors. The current study investigates effects of minimal second language exposure and SES on the comprehension vocabulary of 16-month-old children in the language in which they receive the greatest exposure. Study 1 revealed minimal second language exposure and SES exert significant and independent effects on a direct measure of vocabulary comprehension in English-dominant and English monolingual children (N = 72). In Study 2, we replicated the effect of minimal second language exposure in Spanish-dominant and Spanish monolingual children (N = 86), however no effect of SES on vocabulary was obtained. Our results emphasize the sensitivity of the language system to minimal changes in the environment in early development. PMID:26957947

A Discrepancy in Comprehension and Production in Early Language Development in ASD: Is it Clinically Relevant?

PubMed

Davidson, Meghan M; Ellis Weismer, Susan

2017-07-01

This study examined the extent to which a discrepant comprehension-production profile (i.e., relatively more delayed comprehension than production) is characteristic of the early language phenotype in autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and tracked the developmental progression of the profile. Our findings indicated that a discrepant comprehension-production profile distinguished toddlers (30 months) with ASD from late talkers without ASD (91% sensitivity, 100% specificity) in groups that were comparable on expressive language, age, and socioeconomic status. Longitudinal data for children with ASD revealed that the discrepant profile steadily decreased from 30 to 44 months until there was no significant comprehension-production difference at 66 months. In conclusion, results suggest that lower comprehension than production may be an age-specific marker of toddlers with ASD.

Comprehensive testing for, and diagnosis of, sexually transmissible infections among Australian gay and bisexual men: findings from repeated, cross-sectional behavioural surveillance, 2003-2012.

PubMed

Holt, Martin; Hull, Peter; Lea, Toby; Guy, Rebecca; Bourne, Chris; Prestage, Garrett; Zablotska, Iryna; de Wit, John; Mao, Limin

2014-05-01

To analyse changes in testing for sexually transmissible infections (STI) among gay and bisexual men in Melbourne, Sydney and Queensland, Australia, particularly comprehensive STI testing (at least four tests from different anatomical sites in the previous year), and the characteristics of men who had such testing. Data were analysed from repeated, cross-sectional, community-based surveys conducted during 2003-2012. Trends in specific STI tests and comprehensive testing were assessed and the characteristics of participants who reported comprehensive STI testing were identified using multivariate logistic regression, stratified by HIV status. Among HIV-negative and unknown status men (n=51 009), comprehensive STI and HIV testing increased substantially from 13% in 2003 to 34% in 2012. During the same period, comprehensive STI testing (excluding HIV testing) increased from 24% to 57% among HIV-positive men (n=5532). In both HIV status groups, comprehensive testing was more commonly reported by men who had unprotected anal intercourse with casual partners, and men with higher numbers of partners. Among HIV-negative/unknown status participants, comprehensive STI and HIV testing was also associated with education level, regional location and finding partners online. Among HIV-positive men, comprehensive STI testing was also associated with free time spent with gay men and illicit drug use. Comprehensive testing was related to a high annual rate of diagnosis with STIs (20% of HIV-negative/unknown status men and 38% of HIV-positive men). There has been a substantial improvement in the proportion of gay and bisexual men in Melbourne, Sydney and Queensland who report comprehensive testing. Comprehensive testing is most likely among men whose practices put them at increased risk of infection, and is associated with a high rate of STI diagnosis. However, opportunities for comprehensive testing are still being missed, suggesting a need for its ongoing promotion.

Virtual Patients and Sensitivity Analysis of the Guyton Model of Blood Pressure Regulation: Towards Individualized Models of Whole-Body Physiology

PubMed Central

Moss, Robert; Grosse, Thibault; Marchant, Ivanny; Lassau, Nathalie; Gueyffier, François; Thomas, S. Randall

2012-01-01

Mathematical models that integrate multi-scale physiological data can offer insight into physiological and pathophysiological function, and may eventually assist in individualized predictive medicine. We present a methodology for performing systematic analyses of multi-parameter interactions in such complex, multi-scale models. Human physiology models are often based on or inspired by Arthur Guyton's whole-body circulatory regulation model. Despite the significance of this model, it has not been the subject of a systematic and comprehensive sensitivity study. Therefore, we use this model as a case study for our methodology. Our analysis of the Guyton model reveals how the multitude of model parameters combine to affect the model dynamics, and how interesting combinations of parameters may be identified. It also includes a “virtual population” from which “virtual individuals” can be chosen, on the basis of exhibiting conditions similar to those of a real-world patient. This lays the groundwork for using the Guyton model for in silico exploration of pathophysiological states and treatment strategies. The results presented here illustrate several potential uses for the entire dataset of sensitivity results and the “virtual individuals” that we have generated, which are included in the supplementary material. More generally, the presented methodology is applicable to modern, more complex multi-scale physiological models. PMID:22761561

Comprehensive Assessment of Osteoporosis and Bone Fragility with CT Colonography

PubMed Central

Murthy, Naveen S.; Khosla, Sundeep; Clarke, Bart L.; Bruining, David H.; Kopperdahl, David L.; Lee, David C.; Keaveny, Tony M.

2016-01-01

Purpose To evaluate the ability of additional analysis of computed tomographic (CT) colonography images to provide a comprehensive osteoporosis assessment. Materials and Methods This Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act–compliant study was approved by our institutional review board with a waiver of informed consent. Diagnosis of osteoporosis and assessment of fracture risk were compared between biomechanical CT analysis and dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) in 136 women (age range, 43–92 years), each of whom underwent CT colonography and DXA within a 6-month period (between January 2008 and April 2010). Blinded to the DXA data, biomechanical CT analysis was retrospectively applied to CT images by using phantomless calibration and finite element analysis to measure bone mineral density and bone strength at the hip and spine. Regression, Bland-Altman, and reclassification analyses and paired t tests were used to compare results. Results For bone mineral density T scores at the femoral neck, biomechanical CT analysis was highly correlated (R2 = 0.84) with DXA, did not differ from DXA (P = .15, paired t test), and was able to identify osteoporosis (as defined by DXA), with 100% sensitivity in eight of eight patients (95% confidence interval [CI]: 67.6%, 100%) and 98.4% specificity in 126 of 128 patients (95% CI: 94.5%, 99.6%). Considering both the hip and spine, the classification of patients at high risk for fracture by biomechanical CT analysis—those with osteoporosis or “fragile bone strength”—agreed well against classifications for clinical osteoporosis by DXA (T score ≤−2.5 at the hip or spine), with 82.8% sensitivity in 24 of 29 patients (95% CI: 65.4%, 92.4%) and 85.7% specificity in 66 of 77 patients (95% CI: 76.2%, 91.8%). Conclusion Retrospective biomechanical CT analysis of CT colonography for colorectal cancer screening provides a comprehensive osteoporosis assessment without requiring changes in imaging protocols. © RSNA, 2015 Online supplemental material is available for this article. An earlier incorrect version of this article appeared online. This article was corrected on July 24, 2015. PMID:26200602

Radionuclide observables during the Integrated Field Exercise of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Burnett, Jonathan L.; Miley, Harry S.; Milbrath, Brian D.

In 2014 the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) undertook the Integrated Field Exercise (IFE) in Jordan. The exercise consisted of a simulated 0.5 – 2 kT underground explosion triggering an On-site Inspection (OSI) to search for evidence of a Treaty violation. This research evaluates two of the OSI techniques, including laboratory-based gamma-spectrometry of soil samples and in situ gamma-spectrometry for 17 particulate radionuclides indicative of nuclear weapon tests. The detection sensitivity is evaluated using real IFE and model data. It indicates that higher sensitivity laboratory measurements are the optimum technique during the IFE and OSI timeframes.

Simultaneous separation and determination of 15 organic UV filters in sunscreen cosmetics by HPLC-ESI-MS/MS.

PubMed

Meng, X; Ma, Q; Bai, H; Wang, Z; Han, C; Wang, C

2017-08-01

A comprehensive methodology for the simultaneous determination of 15 multiclass organic UV filters in sunscreen cosmetics was developed using high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-ESI-MS/MS). Sunscreen cosmetics of various matrices, such as toning lotion, emulsion, cream and lipstick, were analysed. Ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE) was utilized as the extraction technique for sample preparation. The 15 UV filters were chromatographically separated by two groups of mobile phase system on an XBridge C 18 analytical column (150 × 2.1 mm I.D., 3.5 μm particle size) and quantified using HPLC-ESI-MS/MS. The quantitation was performed using the external calibration method. The established method was validated in terms of linearity, sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, stability, intraday and interday precisions, recovery and matrix effect. The method was also applied for the determination of UV filters in commercial sunscreen cosmetics. The experimental results demonstrated that the developed method was accurate, rapid and sensitive and can be used for the analytical control of sunscreen cosmetics. © 2016 Society of Cosmetic Scientists and the Société Française de Cosmétologie.

Parameter optimization, sensitivity, and uncertainty analysis of an ecosystem model at a forest flux tower site in the United States

USGS Publications Warehouse

Wu, Yiping; Liu, Shuguang; Huang, Zhihong; Yan, Wende

2014-01-01

Ecosystem models are useful tools for understanding ecological processes and for sustainable management of resources. In biogeochemical field, numerical models have been widely used for investigating carbon dynamics under global changes from site to regional and global scales. However, it is still challenging to optimize parameters and estimate parameterization uncertainty for complex process-based models such as the Erosion Deposition Carbon Model (EDCM), a modified version of CENTURY, that consider carbon, water, and nutrient cycles of ecosystems. This study was designed to conduct the parameter identifiability, optimization, sensitivity, and uncertainty analysis of EDCM using our developed EDCM-Auto, which incorporated a comprehensive R package—Flexible Modeling Framework (FME) and the Shuffled Complex Evolution (SCE) algorithm. Using a forest flux tower site as a case study, we implemented a comprehensive modeling analysis involving nine parameters and four target variables (carbon and water fluxes) with their corresponding measurements based on the eddy covariance technique. The local sensitivity analysis shows that the plant production-related parameters (e.g., PPDF1 and PRDX) are most sensitive to the model cost function. Both SCE and FME are comparable and performed well in deriving the optimal parameter set with satisfactory simulations of target variables. Global sensitivity and uncertainty analysis indicate that the parameter uncertainty and the resulting output uncertainty can be quantified, and that the magnitude of parameter-uncertainty effects depends on variables and seasons. This study also demonstrates that using the cutting-edge R functions such as FME can be feasible and attractive for conducting comprehensive parameter analysis for ecosystem modeling.

A protocol for better design, application, and communication of population viability analyses.

PubMed

Pe'er, Guy; Matsinos, Yiannis G; Johst, Karin; Franz, Kamila W; Turlure, Camille; Radchuk, Viktoriia; Malinowska, Agnieszka H; Curtis, Janelle M R; Naujokaitis-Lewis, Ilona; Wintle, Brendan A; Henle, Klaus

2013-08-01

Population viability analyses (PVAs) contribute to conservation theory, policy, and management. Most PVAs focus on single species within a given landscape and address a specific problem. This specificity often is reflected in the organization of published PVA descriptions. Many lack structure, making them difficult to understand, assess, repeat, or use for drawing generalizations across PVA studies. In an assessment comparing published PVAs and existing guidelines, we found that model selection was rarely justified; important parameters remained neglected or their implementation was described vaguely; limited details were given on parameter ranges, sensitivity analysis, and scenarios; and results were often reported too inconsistently to enable repeatability and comparability. Although many guidelines exist on how to design and implement reliable PVAs and standards exist for documenting and communicating ecological models in general, there is a lack of organized guidelines for designing, applying, and communicating PVAs that account for their diversity of structures and contents. To fill this gap, we integrated published guidelines and recommendations for PVA design and application, protocols for documenting ecological models in general and individual-based models in particular, and our collective experience in developing, applying, and reviewing PVAs. We devised a comprehensive protocol for the design, application, and communication of PVAs (DAC-PVA), which has 3 primary elements. The first defines what a useful PVA is; the second element provides a workflow for the design and application of a useful PVA and highlights important aspects that need to be considered during these processes; and the third element focuses on communication of PVAs to ensure clarity, comprehensiveness, repeatability, and comparability. Thereby, DAC-PVA should strengthen the credibility and relevance of PVAs for policy and management, and improve the capacity to generalize PVA findings across studies. © 2013 Society for Conservation Biology.

Suicide in Castellon, 2009-2015: Do sociodemographic and psychiatric factors help understand urban-rural differences?

PubMed

Suso-Ribera, Carlos; Mora-Marín, Rafael; Hernández-Gaspar, Carmen; Pardo-Guerra, Lidón; Pardo-Guerra, María; Belda-Martínez, Adela; Palmer-Viciedo, Ramón

Studies have pointed to rurality as an important factor influencing suicide. Research so far suggests that several sociodemograpic and psychiatric factors might influence urban-rural differences in suicide. Also, their contribution appears to depend on sex and age. Unfortunately, studies including a comprehensive set of explanatory variables altogether are still scare and most studies have failed to present their analyses split by sex and age groups. Also, urban-rural differences in suicide in Spain have been rarely investigated. The present study aimed at explaining rural-urban differences in suicidality in the province of Castellon (Spain). A comprehensive set of sociodemographic and psychiatric factors was investigated and analyses were split by sex and age. The sample comprised all suicides recorded in the province of Castellon from January 2009 to December 2015 (n=343). Sociodemographic data included sex, age, and suicide method. Psychiatric data included the history of mental health service utilization, psychiatric diagnosis, suicide attempts, and psychiatric hospitalization. Consistent with past research, suicide rates were highest in rural areas, especially in men and older people. We also found that urban-rural differences in sociodemographic and psychiatric variables were sensitive to sex and age. Our results indicated that specialized mental health service use and accessibility to suicide means might help understand urban-rural differences in suicide, especially in men. When exploring urban-rural differences as a function of age, general practitioner visits for psychiatric reasons were more frequent in the older age group in rural areas. Study implications for suicide prevention strategies in Spain are discussed. Copyright © 2017 SEP y SEPB. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

Methodological Approaches toward Chemico-Biological Diagnostics of the State of Soils in Technogenically Transformed Territories

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fokina, A. I.; Dabakh, E. V.; Domracheva, L. I.; Skugoreva, S. G.; Lyalina, E. I.; Ashikhmina, T. Ya.; Zykova, Yu. N.; Leonova, K. A.

2018-05-01

The comprehensive diagnostics of the state of soils in the impact zone of thermal power station (TPS-5) in the city of Kirov was performed on the basis of the soil chemical analyses and the study of biota response to the loads at different organization levels. The chemical analyses attested to a satisfactory state of the soils. However, the use of soil cyanobacteria and bird's-foot trefoil ( Lótus corniculátus) as test objects showed the toxicity of studied soil samples. The toxicity of the samples was judged from the bioindication effects of cyanophytization and melanization of soil microbial complexes. The obtained results demonstrated that at relatively low concentrations of total and mobile heavy metal compounds in the soil samples, their amount released into the tested soil water (1: 4) extract exceeded the limit allowable for normal functioning of living organisms. For the first time, the express cyanobacterial tetrazole-topographic method of biotesting was applied in the geoecological study to estimate the toxicity of the soil samples. The results obtained with the help of traditional and express methods proved to be comparable. The express-method was sufficiently sensitive and efficient. It allowed the determination of the samples' toxicity in five hours, i.e., four to five times faster than the traditional technique. An inverse relationship between the number of viable cells of cyanobacteria (as judged from the inclusion of formazan crystals) and the concentration of lead ions in the tested soil extracts was found. This finding can be considered a prerequisite for further study and application of the express method in the practice of geoecological monitoring. Our study demonstrated the necessity of a comprehensive approach for the assessment of the real ecological state of soils in the investigated impact zone of the thermal power station.

Levels of text comprehension in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD): the influence of language phenotype.

PubMed

Lucas, Rebecca; Norbury, Courtenay Frazier

2014-11-01

Many children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have reading comprehension difficulties, but the level of processing at which comprehension is most vulnerable and the influence of language phenotype on comprehension skill is currently unclear. We explored comprehension at sentence and passage levels across language phenotypes. Children with ASD and age-appropriate language skills (n = 25) demonstrated similar syntactic and semantic facilitation to typically developing peers. In contrast, few children with ASD and language impairments (n = 25) could read beyond the single word level. Those who could read sentences benefited from semantic coherence, but were less sensitive to syntactic coherence. At the passage level, the strongest predictor of comprehension was vocabulary knowledge. This emphasizes that the intimate relationship between language competence and both decoding skill and comprehension is evident at the sentence, as well as the passage level, for children with ASD.

Surveillance strategies for Classical Swine Fever in wild boar – a comprehensive evaluation study to ensure powerful surveillance

PubMed Central

Schulz, Katja; Peyre, Marisa; Staubach, Christoph; Schauer, Birgit; Schulz, Jana; Calba, Clémentine; Häsler, Barbara; Conraths, Franz J.

2017-01-01

Surveillance of Classical Swine Fever (CSF) should not only focus on livestock, but must also include wild boar. To prevent disease transmission into commercial pig herds, it is therefore vital to have knowledge about the disease status in wild boar. In the present study, we performed a comprehensive evaluation of alternative surveillance strategies for Classical Swine Fever (CSF) in wild boar and compared them with the currently implemented conventional approach. The evaluation protocol was designed using the EVA tool, a decision support tool to help in the development of an economic and epidemiological evaluation protocol for surveillance. To evaluate the effectiveness of the surveillance strategies, we investigated their sensitivity and timeliness. Acceptability was analysed and finally, the cost-effectiveness of the surveillance strategies was determined. We developed 69 surveillance strategies for comparative evaluation between the existing approach and the novel proposed strategies. Sampling only within sub-adults resulted in a better acceptability and timeliness than the currently implemented strategy. Strategies that were completely based on passive surveillance performance did not achieve the desired detection probability of 95%. In conclusion, the results of the study suggest that risk-based approaches can be an option to design more effective CSF surveillance strategies in wild boar. PMID:28266576

Surveillance strategies for Classical Swine Fever in wild boar - a comprehensive evaluation study to ensure powerful surveillance.

PubMed

Schulz, Katja; Peyre, Marisa; Staubach, Christoph; Schauer, Birgit; Schulz, Jana; Calba, Clémentine; Häsler, Barbara; Conraths, Franz J

2017-03-07

Surveillance of Classical Swine Fever (CSF) should not only focus on livestock, but must also include wild boar. To prevent disease transmission into commercial pig herds, it is therefore vital to have knowledge about the disease status in wild boar. In the present study, we performed a comprehensive evaluation of alternative surveillance strategies for Classical Swine Fever (CSF) in wild boar and compared them with the currently implemented conventional approach. The evaluation protocol was designed using the EVA tool, a decision support tool to help in the development of an economic and epidemiological evaluation protocol for surveillance. To evaluate the effectiveness of the surveillance strategies, we investigated their sensitivity and timeliness. Acceptability was analysed and finally, the cost-effectiveness of the surveillance strategies was determined. We developed 69 surveillance strategies for comparative evaluation between the existing approach and the novel proposed strategies. Sampling only within sub-adults resulted in a better acceptability and timeliness than the currently implemented strategy. Strategies that were completely based on passive surveillance performance did not achieve the desired detection probability of 95%. In conclusion, the results of the study suggest that risk-based approaches can be an option to design more effective CSF surveillance strategies in wild boar.

Does simultaneous bilingualism aggravate children's specific language problems?

PubMed

Korkman, Marit; Stenroos, Maria; Mickos, Annika; Westman, Martin; Ekholm, Pia; Byring, Roger

2012-09-01

There is little data on whether or not a bilingual upbringing may aggravate specific language problems in children. This study analysed whether there was an interaction of such problems and simultaneous bilingualism. Participants were 5- to 7-year-old children with specific language problems (LANG group, N = 56) or who were typically developing (CONTR group, N = 60). Seventy-three children were Swedish-Finnish bilingual and 43 were Swedish-speaking monolingual. Assessments (in Swedish) included tests of expressive language, comprehension, repetition and verbal memory. Per definition, the LANG group had lower scores than the CONTR group on all language tests. The bilingual group had lower scores than the monolingual group only on a test of body part naming. Importantly, the interaction of group (LANG or CONTR) and bilingualism was not significant on any of the language scores. Simultaneous bilingualism does not aggravate specific language problems but may result in a slower development of vocabulary both in children with and without specific language problems. Considering also advantages, a bilingual upbringing is an option also for children with specific language problems. In assessment, tests of vocabulary may be sensitive to bilingualism, instead tests assessing comprehension, syntax and nonword repetition may provide less biased methods. © 2012 The Author(s)/Acta Paediatrica © 2012 Foundation Acta Paediatrica.

Comparison of Species Sensitivity Distributions Derived from Interspecies Correlation Models to Distributions used to Derive Water Quality Criteria

EPA Science Inventory

Species sensitivity distributions (SSD) require a large number of measured toxicity values to define a chemical’s toxicity to multiple species. This investigation comprehensively evaluated the accuracy of SSDs generated from toxicity values predicted from interspecies correlation...

The Validity of Conscientiousness Is Overestimated in the Prediction of Job Performance.

PubMed

Kepes, Sven; McDaniel, Michael A

2015-01-01

Sensitivity analyses refer to investigations of the degree to which the results of a meta-analysis remain stable when conditions of the data or the analysis change. To the extent that results remain stable, one can refer to them as robust. Sensitivity analyses are rarely conducted in the organizational science literature. Despite conscientiousness being a valued predictor in employment selection, sensitivity analyses have not been conducted with respect to meta-analytic estimates of the correlation (i.e., validity) between conscientiousness and job performance. To address this deficiency, we reanalyzed the largest collection of conscientiousness validity data in the personnel selection literature and conducted a variety of sensitivity analyses. Publication bias analyses demonstrated that the validity of conscientiousness is moderately overestimated (by around 30%; a correlation difference of about .06). The misestimation of the validity appears to be due primarily to suppression of small effects sizes in the journal literature. These inflated validity estimates result in an overestimate of the dollar utility of personnel selection by millions of dollars and should be of considerable concern for organizations. The fields of management and applied psychology seldom conduct sensitivity analyses. Through the use of sensitivity analyses, this paper documents that the existing literature overestimates the validity of conscientiousness in the prediction of job performance. Our data show that effect sizes from journal articles are largely responsible for this overestimation.

The Validity of Conscientiousness Is Overestimated in the Prediction of Job Performance

PubMed Central

2015-01-01

Introduction Sensitivity analyses refer to investigations of the degree to which the results of a meta-analysis remain stable when conditions of the data or the analysis change. To the extent that results remain stable, one can refer to them as robust. Sensitivity analyses are rarely conducted in the organizational science literature. Despite conscientiousness being a valued predictor in employment selection, sensitivity analyses have not been conducted with respect to meta-analytic estimates of the correlation (i.e., validity) between conscientiousness and job performance. Methods To address this deficiency, we reanalyzed the largest collection of conscientiousness validity data in the personnel selection literature and conducted a variety of sensitivity analyses. Results Publication bias analyses demonstrated that the validity of conscientiousness is moderately overestimated (by around 30%; a correlation difference of about .06). The misestimation of the validity appears to be due primarily to suppression of small effects sizes in the journal literature. These inflated validity estimates result in an overestimate of the dollar utility of personnel selection by millions of dollars and should be of considerable concern for organizations. Conclusion The fields of management and applied psychology seldom conduct sensitivity analyses. Through the use of sensitivity analyses, this paper documents that the existing literature overestimates the validity of conscientiousness in the prediction of job performance. Our data show that effect sizes from journal articles are largely responsible for this overestimation. PMID:26517553

Test Anxiety and a High-Stakes Standardized Reading Comprehension Test: A Behavioral Genetics Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wood, Sarah G.; Hart, Sara A.; Little, Callie W.; Phillips, Beth M.

2016-01-01

Past research suggests that reading comprehension test performance does not rely solely on targeted cognitive processes such as word reading, but also on other nontarget aspects such as test anxiety. Using a genetically sensitive design, we sought to understand the genetic and environmental etiology of the association between test anxiety and…

Nondimensional Parameters and Equations for Nonlinear and Bifurcation Analyses of Thin Anisotropic Quasi-Shallow Shells

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nemeth, Michael P.

2010-01-01

A comprehensive development of nondimensional parameters and equations for nonlinear and bifurcations analyses of quasi-shallow shells, based on the Donnell-Mushtari-Vlasov theory for thin anisotropic shells, is presented. A complete set of field equations for geometrically imperfect shells is presented in terms general of lines-of-curvature coordinates. A systematic nondimensionalization of these equations is developed, several new nondimensional parameters are defined, and a comprehensive stress-function formulation is presented that includes variational principles for equilibrium and compatibility. Bifurcation analysis is applied to the nondimensional nonlinear field equations and a comprehensive set of bifurcation equations are presented. An extensive collection of tables and figures are presented that show the effects of lamina material properties and stacking sequence on the nondimensional parameters.

Emotional state talk and emotion understanding: a training study with preschool children.

PubMed

Gavazzi, Ilaria Grazzani; Ornaghi, Veronica

2011-11-01

ABSTRACTThe present study investigates whether training preschool children in the active use of emotional state talk plays a significant role in bringing about greater understanding of emotion terms and improved emotion comprehension. Participants were 100 preschool children (M=52 months; SD=9·9; range: 35-70 months), randomly assigned to experimental or control conditions. They were pre- and post-tested to assess their language comprehension, metacognitive language comprehension and emotion understanding. Analyses of pre-test data did not show any significant differences between experimental and control groups. During the intervention phase, the children were read stories enriched with emotional lexicon. After listening to the stories, children in the experimental group took part in conversational language games designed to stimulate use of the selected emotional terms. In contrast, the control group children did not take part in any special linguistic activities after the story readings. Analyses revealed that the experimental group outperformed the control group in the understanding of inner state language and in the comprehension of emotion.

Review of Comprehensive Evaluation Methods for Power Quality and Its Trend in New Generation Energy System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Ruihua; Wang, Rong; Liu, Qunying; Yang, Li; Xi, Chuan; Wang, Wei; Li, Lingzhou; Zhao, Zhoufang; Zhou, Ying

2018-02-01

With China’s new energy generation grid connected capacity being in the forefront of the world and the uncertainty of new energy sources, such as wind energy and solar energy, it is be of great significance to study scientific and comprehensive assessment of power quality. On the foundation of analysizing the current power quality index systematically and objectively, the new energy grid power quality analysis method and comprehensive evaluation method, this paper tentatively explored the trend of the new generation of energy system power quality comprehensive evaluation.

Reducing variable frequency vibrations in a powertrain system with an adaptive tuned vibration absorber group

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gao, Pu; Xiang, Changle; Liu, Hui; Zhou, Han

2018-07-01

Based on a multiple degrees of freedom dynamic model of a vehicle powertrain system, natural vibration analyses and sensitivity analyses of the eigenvalues are performed to determine the key inertia for each natural vibration of a powertrain system. Then, the results are used to optimize the installation position of each adaptive tuned vibration absorber. According to the relationship between the variable frequency torque excitation and the natural vibration of a powertrain system, the entire vibration frequency band is divided into segments, and the auxiliary vibration absorber and dominant vibration absorber are determined for each sensitive frequency band. The optimum parameters of the auxiliary vibration absorber are calculated based on the optimal frequency ratio and the optimal damping ratio of the passive vibration absorber. The instantaneous change state of the natural vibrations of a powertrain system with adaptive tuned vibration absorbers is studied, and the optimized start and stop tuning frequencies of the adaptive tuned vibration absorber are obtained. These frequencies can be translated into the optimum parameters of the dominant vibration absorber. Finally, the optimal tuning scheme for the adaptive tuned vibration absorber group, which can be used to reduce the variable frequency vibrations of a powertrain system, is proposed, and corresponding numerical simulations are performed. The simulation time history signals are transformed into three-dimensional information related to time, frequency and vibration energy via the Hilbert-Huang transform (HHT). A comprehensive time-frequency analysis is then conducted to verify that the optimal tuning scheme for the adaptive tuned vibration absorber group can significantly reduce the variable frequency vibrations of a powertrain system.

Cost-effectiveness of a smokeless tobacco control mass media campaign in India.

PubMed

Murukutla, Nandita; Yan, Hongjin; Wang, Shuo; Negi, Nalin Singh; Kotov, Alexey; Mullin, Sandra; Goodchild, Mark

2017-08-10

Tobacco control mass media campaigns are cost-effective in reducing tobacco consumption in high-income countries, but similar evidence from low-income countries is limited. An evaluation of a 2009 smokeless tobacco control mass media campaign in India provided an opportunity to test its cost-effectiveness. Campaign evaluation data from a nationally representative household survey of 2898 smokeless tobacco users were compared with campaign costs in a standard cost-effectiveness methodology. Costs and effects of the Surgeon campaign were compared with the status quo to calculate the cost per campaign-attributable benefit, including quit attempts, permanent quits and tobacco-related deaths averted. Sensitivity analyses at varied CIs and tobacco-related mortality risk were conducted. The Surgeon campaign was found to be highly cost-effective. It successfully generated 17 259 148 additional quit attempts, 431 479 permanent quits and 120 814 deaths averted. The cost per benefit was US$0.06 per quit attempt, US$2.6 per permanent quit and US$9.2 per death averted. The campaign continued to be cost-effective in sensitivity analyses. This study suggests that tobacco control mass media campaigns can be cost-effective and economically justified in low-income and middle-income countries. It holds significant policy implications, calling for sustained investment in evidence-based mass media campaigns as part of a comprehensive tobacco control strategy. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2017. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

Linear regression metamodeling as a tool to summarize and present simulation model results.

PubMed

Jalal, Hawre; Dowd, Bryan; Sainfort, François; Kuntz, Karen M

2013-10-01

Modelers lack a tool to systematically and clearly present complex model results, including those from sensitivity analyses. The objective was to propose linear regression metamodeling as a tool to increase transparency of decision analytic models and better communicate their results. We used a simplified cancer cure model to demonstrate our approach. The model computed the lifetime cost and benefit of 3 treatment options for cancer patients. We simulated 10,000 cohorts in a probabilistic sensitivity analysis (PSA) and regressed the model outcomes on the standardized input parameter values in a set of regression analyses. We used the regression coefficients to describe measures of sensitivity analyses, including threshold and parameter sensitivity analyses. We also compared the results of the PSA to deterministic full-factorial and one-factor-at-a-time designs. The regression intercept represented the estimated base-case outcome, and the other coefficients described the relative parameter uncertainty in the model. We defined simple relationships that compute the average and incremental net benefit of each intervention. Metamodeling produced outputs similar to traditional deterministic 1-way or 2-way sensitivity analyses but was more reliable since it used all parameter values. Linear regression metamodeling is a simple, yet powerful, tool that can assist modelers in communicating model characteristics and sensitivity analyses.

77 FR 23368 - Federal Acquisition Regulation; Representation Regarding Export of Sensitive Technology to Iran

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-04-18

... to Iran AGENCY: Department of Defense (DoD), General Services Administration (GSA), and National... representation to implement section 106 of the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act... certain sensitive technology to Iran. DATES: Effective Date: May 18, 2012. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT...

The Processing of Case in Near-Native Spanish

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jegerski, Jill

2015-01-01

This article reports a study that sought to determine whether non-native sentence comprehension can show sensitivity to two different types of Spanish case marking. Sensitivity to case violations was generally more robust with indirect objects in ditransitive constructions than with differential object marking of animate direct objects, even among…

The minimum test battery to screen for binocular vision anomalies: report 3 of the BAND study.

PubMed

Hussaindeen, Jameel Rizwana; Rakshit, Archayeeta; Singh, Neeraj Kumar; Swaminathan, Meenakshi; George, Ronnie; Kapur, Suman; Scheiman, Mitchell; Ramani, Krishna Kumar

2018-03-01

This study aims to report the minimum test battery needed to screen non-strabismic binocular vision anomalies (NSBVAs) in a community set-up. When large numbers are to be screened we aim to identify the most useful test battery when there is no opportunity for a more comprehensive and time-consuming clinical examination. The prevalence estimates and normative data for binocular vision parameters were estimated from the Binocular Vision Anomalies and Normative Data (BAND) study, following which cut-off estimates and receiver operating characteristic curves to identify the minimum test battery have been plotted. In the receiver operating characteristic phase of the study, children between nine and 17 years of age were screened in two schools in the rural arm using the minimum test battery, and the prevalence estimates with the minimum test battery were found. Receiver operating characteristic analyses revealed that near point of convergence with penlight and red filter (> 7.5 cm), monocular accommodative facility (< 10 cycles per minute), and the difference between near and distance phoria (> 1.25 prism dioptres) were significant factors with cut-off values for best sensitivity and specificity. This minimum test battery was applied to a cohort of 305 children. The mean (standard deviation) age of the subjects was 12.7 (two) years with 121 males and 184 females. Using the minimum battery of tests obtained through the receiver operating characteristic analyses, the prevalence of NSBVAs was found to be 26 per cent. Near point of convergence with penlight and red filter > 10 cm was found to have the highest sensitivity (80 per cent) and specificity (73 per cent) for the diagnosis of convergence insufficiency. For the diagnosis of accommodative infacility, monocular accommodative facility with a cut-off of less than seven cycles per minute was the best predictor for screening (92 per cent sensitivity and 90 per cent specificity). The minimum test battery of near point of convergence with penlight and red filter, difference between distance and near phoria, and monocular accommodative facility yield good sensitivity and specificity for diagnosis of NSBVAs in a community set-up. © 2017 Optometry Australia.

Beyond Boys’ Bad Behavior: Paternal Incarceration and Cognitive Development in Middle Childhood

PubMed Central

Haskins, Anna R.

2017-01-01

A growing number of American school-aged children have incarcerated or formally incarcerated parents necessitating a more comprehensive understanding of the intergenerational effects of mass imprisonment. Using the Fragile Families Study, I assess whether having an incarcerated father impacts children’s cognitive skill development into middle childhood. While previous studies have primarily found effects for boys’ behavior problems, matching models and sensitivity analyses demonstrate that experiencing paternal incarceration by age 9 is associated with lower cognitive skills for both boys and girls and these negative effects hold net of a pre-paternal incarceration measure of child cognitive ability. Moreover, I estimate that paternal incarceration explains between 2 and 15 percent of the Black-White achievement gap at age 9. These findings represent new outcomes of importance and suggest that paternal incarceration may play an even larger role in the production of intergenerational inequalities for American children than previously documented. PMID:28579646

a Voxel-Based Filtering Algorithm for Mobile LIDAR Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Qin, H.; Guan, G.; Yu, Y.; Zhong, L.

2018-04-01

This paper presents a stepwise voxel-based filtering algorithm for mobile LiDAR data. In the first step, to improve computational efficiency, mobile LiDAR points, in xy-plane, are first partitioned into a set of two-dimensional (2-D) blocks with a given block size, in each of which all laser points are further organized into an octree partition structure with a set of three-dimensional (3-D) voxels. Then, a voxel-based upward growing processing is performed to roughly separate terrain from non-terrain points with global and local terrain thresholds. In the second step, the extracted terrain points are refined by computing voxel curvatures. This voxel-based filtering algorithm is comprehensively discussed in the analyses of parameter sensitivity and overall performance. An experimental study performed on multiple point cloud samples, collected by different commercial mobile LiDAR systems, showed that the proposed algorithm provides a promising solution to terrain point extraction from mobile point clouds.

How to use multi-criteria decision analysis methods for reimbursement decision-making in healthcare: a step-by-step guide.

PubMed

Diaby, Vakaramoko; Goeree, Ron

2014-02-01

In recent years, the quest for more comprehensiveness, structure and transparency in reimbursement decision-making in healthcare has prompted the research into alternative decision-making frameworks. In this environment, multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) is arising as a valuable tool to support healthcare decision-making. In this paper, we present the main MCDA decision support methods (elementary methods, value-based measurement models, goal programming models and outranking models) using a case study approach. For each family of methods, an example of how an MCDA model would operate in a real decision-making context is presented from a critical perspective, highlighting the parameters setting, the selection of the appropriate evaluation model as well as the role of sensitivity and robustness analyses. This study aims to provide a step-by-step guide on how to use MCDA methods for reimbursement decision-making in healthcare.

A review on recent developments in mass spectrometry instrumentation and quantitative tools advancing bacterial proteomics.

PubMed

Van Oudenhove, Laurence; Devreese, Bart

2013-06-01

Proteomics has evolved substantially since its early days, some 20 years ago. In this mini-review, we aim to provide an overview of general methodologies and more recent developments in mass spectrometric approaches used for relative and absolute quantitation of proteins. Enhancement of sensitivity of the mass spectrometers as well as improved sample preparation and protein fractionation methods are resulting in a more comprehensive analysis of proteomes. We also document some upcoming trends for quantitative proteomics such as the use of label-free quantification methods. Hopefully, microbiologists will continue to explore proteomics as a tool in their research to understand the adaptation of microorganisms to their ever changing environment. We encourage them to incorporate some of the described new developments in mass spectrometry to facilitate their analyses and improve the general knowledge of the fascinating world of microorganisms.

Beyond Boys' Bad Behavior: Paternal Incarceration and Cognitive Development in Middle Childhood.

PubMed

Haskins, Anna R

2016-12-07

A growing number of American school-aged children have incarcerated or formally incarcerated parents necessitating a more comprehensive understanding of the intergenerational effects of mass imprisonment. Using the Fragile Families Study, I assess whether having an incarcerated father impacts children's cognitive skill development into middle childhood. While previous studies have primarily found effects for boys' behavior problems, matching models and sensitivity analyses demonstrate that experiencing paternal incarceration by age 9 is associated with lower cognitive skills for both boys and girls and these negative effects hold net of a pre-paternal incarceration measure of child cognitive ability. Moreover, I estimate that paternal incarceration explains between 2 and 15 percent of the Black-White achievement gap at age 9. These findings represent new outcomes of importance and suggest that paternal incarceration may play an even larger role in the production of intergenerational inequalities for American children than previously documented.

Solving an emergency rescue materials problem under the joint reserves mode of government and framework agreement suppliers

PubMed Central

Sun, Xiao-Qing; Zhu, Rui; Li, Ming; Miao, Wang

2017-01-01

Emergency rescue material reserves are vital for the success of emergency rescue activities. In this study, we consider a situation where a government owned distribution center and framework agreement suppliers jointly store emergency rescue materials. Using a scenario-based approach to represent demand uncertainty, we propose a comprehensive transportation pattern for the following supply chain: “suppliers—government distribution center—disaster area.” Using a joint reserves model that includes the government and framework agreement suppliers, we develop a non-linear mathematic model that determines the choices of the framework suppliers, the corresponding optimal commitment quantities, and the quantity of materials that are stored at a government distribution center. Finally, we use IBM ILOG CPLEX to solve the numerical examples to verify the effectiveness of the mode and perform sensitivity analyses on the relevant parameters. PMID:29077722

Breast Milk Oligosaccharides: Structure-Function Relationships in the Neonate

PubMed Central

Smilowitz, Jennifer T.; Lebrilla, Carlito B.; Mills, David A.; German, J. Bruce; Freeman, Samara L.

2015-01-01

In addition to providing complete postnatal nutrition, breast milk is a complex biofluid that delivers bioactive components for the growth and development of the intestinal and immune systems. Lactation is a unique opportunity to understand the role of diet in shaping the intestinal environment including the infant microbiome. Of considerable interest is the diversity and abundance of milk glycans that are energetically costly for the mammary gland to produce yet indigestible by infants. Milk glycans comprise free oligosaccharides, glycoproteins, glycopeptides, and glycolipids. Emerging technological advances are enabling more comprehensive, sensitive, and rapid analyses of these different classes of milk glycans. Understanding the impact of inter- and intraindividual glycan diversity on function is an important step toward interventions aimed at improving health and preventing disease. This review discusses the state of technology for glycan analysis and how specific structure-function knowledge is enhancing our understanding of early nutrition in the neonate. PMID:24850388

A fault tree model to assess probability of contaminant discharge from shipwrecks.

PubMed

Landquist, H; Rosén, L; Lindhe, A; Norberg, T; Hassellöv, I-M; Lindgren, J F; Dahllöf, I

2014-11-15

Shipwrecks on the sea floor around the world may contain hazardous substances that can cause harm to the marine environment. Today there are no comprehensive methods for environmental risk assessment of shipwrecks, and thus there is poor support for decision-making on prioritization of mitigation measures. The purpose of this study was to develop a tool for quantitative risk estimation of potentially polluting shipwrecks, and in particular an estimation of the annual probability of hazardous substance discharge. The assessment of the probability of discharge is performed using fault tree analysis, facilitating quantification of the probability with respect to a set of identified hazardous events. This approach enables a structured assessment providing transparent uncertainty and sensitivity analyses. The model facilitates quantification of risk, quantification of the uncertainties in the risk calculation and identification of parameters to be investigated further in order to obtain a more reliable risk calculation. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Enabling a Comprehensive Teaching Strategy: Video Lectures

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brecht, H. David; Ogilby, Suzanne M.

2008-01-01

This study empirically tests the feasibility and effectiveness of video lectures as a form of video instruction that enables a comprehensive teaching strategy used throughout a traditional classroom course. It examines student use patterns and the videos' effects on student learning, using qualitative and nonparametric statistical analyses of…

Most Likely to Succeed: Exploring Predictor Variables for the Counselor Preparation Comprehensive Examination

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hartwig, Elizabeth Kjellstrand; Van Overschelde, James P.

2016-01-01

The authors investigated predictor variables for the Counselor Preparation Comprehensive Examination (CPCE) to examine whether academic variables, demographic variables, and test version were associated with graduate counseling students' CPCE scores. Multiple regression analyses revealed all 3 variables were statistically significant predictors of…

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in Iran: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

PubMed

Dadashi, Masoud; Nasiri, Mohammad Javad; Fallah, Fatemeh; Owlia, Parviz; Hajikhani, Bahareh; Emaneini, Mohammad; Mirpour, Mirsasan

2018-03-01

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is among the most prevalent pathogens causing healthcare-associated infections. Accurate and updated data describing the epidemiology of MRSA are crucial for the development of national policies to control MRSA infection in each country. This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of MRSA in different parts of Iran. Several databases, including MEDLINE, Embase, Web of Science and Scientific Information Database (http://www.sid.ir), were searched from 1 January 2000 to 31 March 2016 to identify studies addressing the frequency or prevalence of MRSA in Iran. Comprehensive Meta-Analysis software v.2.2 was used to analyse the data. Of the 725 records identified from the databases, 31 studies fulfilled the eligibility criteria. The analyses showed that the frequency of MRSA infections was 43.0% (95% confidence interval 36.3-50.0%) among confirmed S. aureus isolates. Further stratified analyses indicated that the prevalence of MRSA was higher in studies performed after the year 2000. Since a high rate of MRSA infections was seen in this analysis, regular surveillance of hospital-associated infections, monitoring of antibiotic sensitivity patterns, and formulation of definite antibiotic policy may facilitate more accurate action for the prevention and control of MRSA. Copyright © 2017 International Society for Chemotherapy of Infection and Cancer. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Differences in Performance Among Test Statistics for Assessing Phylogenomic Model Adequacy.

PubMed

Duchêne, David A; Duchêne, Sebastian; Ho, Simon Y W

2018-05-18

Statistical phylogenetic analyses of genomic data depend on models of nucleotide or amino acid substitution. The adequacy of these substitution models can be assessed using a number of test statistics, allowing the model to be rejected when it is found to provide a poor description of the evolutionary process. A potentially valuable use of model-adequacy test statistics is to identify when data sets are likely to produce unreliable phylogenetic estimates, but their differences in performance are rarely explored. We performed a comprehensive simulation study to identify test statistics that are sensitive to some of the most commonly cited sources of phylogenetic estimation error. Our results show that, for many test statistics, traditional thresholds for assessing model adequacy can fail to reject the model when the phylogenetic inferences are inaccurate and imprecise. This is particularly problematic when analysing loci that have few variable informative sites. We propose new thresholds for assessing substitution model adequacy and demonstrate their effectiveness in analyses of three phylogenomic data sets. These thresholds lead to frequent rejection of the model for loci that yield topological inferences that are imprecise and are likely to be inaccurate. We also propose the use of a summary statistic that provides a practical assessment of overall model adequacy. Our approach offers a promising means of enhancing model choice in genome-scale data sets, potentially leading to improvements in the reliability of phylogenomic inference.

Analyse Factorielle d'une Batterie de Tests de Comprehension Orale et Ecrite (Factor Analysis of a Battery of Tests of Listening and Reading Comprehension). Melanges Pedagogiques, 1971.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lonchamp, F.

This is a presentation of the results of a factor analysis of a battery of tests intended to measure listening and reading comprehension in English as a second language. The analysis sought to answer the following questions: (1) whether the factor analysis method yields results when applied to tests which are not specifically designed for this…

The Micronesia Challenge: Assessing the Relative Contribution of Stressors on Coral Reefs to Facilitate Science-to-Management Feedback

PubMed Central

Houk, Peter; Camacho, Rodney; Johnson, Steven; McLean, Matthew; Maxin, Selino; Anson, Jorg; Joseph, Eugene; Nedlic, Osamu; Luckymis, Marston; Adams, Katrina; Hess, Don; Kabua, Emma; Yalon, Anthony; Buthung, Eva; Graham, Curtis; Leberer, Trina; Taylor, Brett; van Woesik, Robert

2015-01-01

Fishing and pollution are chronic stressors that can prolong recovery of coral reefs and contribute to ecosystem decline. While this premise is generally accepted, management interventions are complicated because the contributions from individual stressors are difficult to distinguish. The present study examined the extent to which fishing pressure and pollution predicted progress towards the Micronesia Challenge, an international conservation strategy initiated by the political leaders of 6 nations to conserve at least 30% of marine resources by 2020. The analyses were rooted in a defined measure of coral-reef-ecosystem condition, comprised of biological metrics that described functional processes on coral reefs. We report that only 42% of the major reef habitats exceeded the ecosystem-condition threshold established by the Micronesia Challenge. Fishing pressure acting alone on outer reefs, or in combination with pollution in some lagoons, best predicted both the decline and variance in ecosystem condition. High variances among ecosystem-condition scores reflected the large gaps between the best and worst reefs, and suggested that the current scores were unlikely to remain stable through time because of low redundancy. Accounting for the presence of marine protected area (MPA) networks in statistical models did little to improve the models’ predictive capabilities, suggesting limited efficacy of MPAs when grouped together across the region. Yet, localized benefits of MPAs existed and are expected to increase over time. Sensitivity analyses suggested that (i) grazing by large herbivores, (ii) high functional diversity of herbivores, and (iii) high predator biomass were most sensitive to fishing pressure, and were required for high ecosystem-condition scores. Linking comprehensive fisheries management policies with these sensitive metrics, and targeting the management of pollution, will strengthen the Micronesia Challenge and preserve ecosystem services that coral reefs provide to societies in the face of climate change. PMID:26087252

The Micronesia Challenge: Assessing the Relative Contribution of Stressors on Coral Reefs to Facilitate Science-to-Management Feedback.

PubMed

Houk, Peter; Camacho, Rodney; Johnson, Steven; McLean, Matthew; Maxin, Selino; Anson, Jorg; Joseph, Eugene; Nedlic, Osamu; Luckymis, Marston; Adams, Katrina; Hess, Don; Kabua, Emma; Yalon, Anthony; Buthung, Eva; Graham, Curtis; Leberer, Trina; Taylor, Brett; van Woesik, Robert

2015-01-01

Fishing and pollution are chronic stressors that can prolong recovery of coral reefs and contribute to ecosystem decline. While this premise is generally accepted, management interventions are complicated because the contributions from individual stressors are difficult to distinguish. The present study examined the extent to which fishing pressure and pollution predicted progress towards the Micronesia Challenge, an international conservation strategy initiated by the political leaders of 6 nations to conserve at least 30% of marine resources by 2020. The analyses were rooted in a defined measure of coral-reef-ecosystem condition, comprised of biological metrics that described functional processes on coral reefs. We report that only 42% of the major reef habitats exceeded the ecosystem-condition threshold established by the Micronesia Challenge. Fishing pressure acting alone on outer reefs, or in combination with pollution in some lagoons, best predicted both the decline and variance in ecosystem condition. High variances among ecosystem-condition scores reflected the large gaps between the best and worst reefs, and suggested that the current scores were unlikely to remain stable through time because of low redundancy. Accounting for the presence of marine protected area (MPA) networks in statistical models did little to improve the models' predictive capabilities, suggesting limited efficacy of MPAs when grouped together across the region. Yet, localized benefits of MPAs existed and are expected to increase over time. Sensitivity analyses suggested that (i) grazing by large herbivores, (ii) high functional diversity of herbivores, and (iii) high predator biomass were most sensitive to fishing pressure, and were required for high ecosystem-condition scores. Linking comprehensive fisheries management policies with these sensitive metrics, and targeting the management of pollution, will strengthen the Micronesia Challenge and preserve ecosystem services that coral reefs provide to societies in the face of climate change.

Diagnostic value of FIB-4 for liver fibrosis in patients with hepatitis B: a meta-analysis of diagnostic test.

PubMed

Yin, Zhi; Zou, Jin; Li, Qiongxuan; Chen, Lizhang

2017-04-04

This study is aimed at evaluating the diagnostic value of FIB-4 for liver fibrosis in patients with hepatitis B through a meta-analysis of diagnostic test. We conducted a comprehensive search in the Pubmed, Embase, Web of Science, and Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure before October 31, 2016. Stata 14.0 software was used for calculation and statistical analyses. We used the sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative likelihood ratio (PLR, NLR), diagnostic odds ratio (DOR) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) to evaluate the diagnostic value of FIB-4 for liver fibrosis in patients with hepatitis B. Twenty-six studies were included in the final analyses, with a total of 8274 individuals. The pooled parameters are calculated from all studies: sensitivity of 0.69 (95%CI:0.63-0.75), specificity of 0.81 (95%CI: 0.73-0.87), PLR of 3.63 (95%CI:2.66-4.94), NLR of 0.38 (95%CI:0.32-0.44), DOR of 9.57 (95%CI: 6.67-13.74), and area under the curve (AUC) of 0.80 (95%CI: 0.76-0.83). We also conducted subgroup based on the range of cut-off values. Results from subgroup analysis showed that cut-off was the source of heterogeneity in the present study. The sensitivity and specificity of cut-off>2 were 0.69 and 0.95 with the AUC of 0.90 (95%CI: 0.87-0.92). The overall diagnostic value of FIB-4 is not very high for liver fibrosis in patients with hepatitis B. However, the diagnostic value is affected by the cut-off value. FIB-4 has relatively high diagnostic value for detecting liver fibrosis in patients with hepatitis B when the diagnostic threshold value is more than 2.0.

Model of urban water management towards water sensitive city: a literature review

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Maftuhah, D. I.; Anityasari, M.; Sholihah, M.

2018-04-01

Nowadays, many cities are facing with complex issues such as climate change, social, economic, culture, and environmental problems, especially urban water. In other words, the city has to struggle with the challenge to make sure its sustainability in all aspects. This research focuses on how to ensure the city sustainability and resilience on urban water management. Many research were not only conducted in urban water management, but also in sustainability itself. Moreover, water sustainability shifts from urban water management into water sensitive city. This transition needs comprehensive aspects such as social, institutional dynamics, technical innovation, and local contents. Some literatures about model of urban water management and the transition towards water sensitivity had been reviewed in this study. This study proposed discussion about model of urban water management and the transition towards water sensitive city. Research findings suggest that there are many different models developed in urban water management, but they are not comprehensive yet and only few studies discuss about the transition towards water sensitive and resilience city. The drawbacks of previous research can identify and fulfill the gap of this study. Therefore, the paper contributes a general framework for the urban water management modelling studies.

A new framework for comprehensive, robust, and efficient global sensitivity analysis: 1. Theory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Razavi, Saman; Gupta, Hoshin V.

2016-01-01

Computer simulation models are continually growing in complexity with increasingly more factors to be identified. Sensitivity Analysis (SA) provides an essential means for understanding the role and importance of these factors in producing model responses. However, conventional approaches to SA suffer from (1) an ambiguous characterization of sensitivity, and (2) poor computational efficiency, particularly as the problem dimension grows. Here, we present a new and general sensitivity analysis framework (called VARS), based on an analogy to "variogram analysis," that provides an intuitive and comprehensive characterization of sensitivity across the full spectrum of scales in the factor space. We prove, theoretically, that Morris (derivative-based) and Sobol (variance-based) methods and their extensions are special cases of VARS, and that their SA indices can be computed as by-products of the VARS framework. Synthetic functions that resemble actual model response surfaces are used to illustrate the concepts, and show VARS to be as much as two orders of magnitude more computationally efficient than the state-of-the-art Sobol approach. In a companion paper, we propose a practical implementation strategy, and demonstrate the effectiveness, efficiency, and reliability (robustness) of the VARS framework on real-data case studies.

Empirical Observations on the Sensitivity of Hot Cathode Ionization Type Vacuum Gages

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Summers, R. L.

1969-01-01

A study of empirical methods of predicting tile relative sensitivities of hot cathode ionization gages is presented. Using previously published gage sensitivities, several rules for predicting relative sensitivity are tested. The relative sensitivity to different gases is shown to be invariant with gage type, in the linear range of gage operation. The total ionization cross section, molecular and molar polarizability, and refractive index are demonstrated to be useful parameters for predicting relative gage sensitivity. Using data from the literature, the probable error of predictions of relative gage sensitivity based on these molecular properties is found to be about 10 percent. A comprehensive table of predicted relative sensitivities, based on empirical methods, is presented.

Does the Component Processes Task Assess Text-Based Inferences Important for Reading Comprehension? A Path Analysis in Primary School Children

PubMed Central

Wassenburg, Stephanie I.; de Koning, Björn B.; de Vries, Meinou H.; van der Schoot, Menno

2016-01-01

Using a component processes task (CPT) that differentiates between higher-level cognitive processes of reading comprehension provides important advantages over commonly used general reading comprehension assessments. The present study contributes to further development of the CPT by evaluating the relative contributions of its components (text memory, text inferencing, and knowledge integration) and working memory to general reading comprehension within a single study using path analyses. Participants were 173 third- and fourth-grade children. As hypothesized, knowledge integration was the only component of the CPT that directly contributed to reading comprehension, indicating that the text-inferencing component did not assess inferential processes related to reading comprehension. Working memory was a significant predictor of reading comprehension over and above the component processes. Future research should focus on finding ways to ensure that the text-inferencing component taps into processes important for reading comprehension. PMID:27378989

Factor Structure of the Comprehensive Trail Making Test in Children and Adolescents with Brain Dysfunction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Allen, Daniel N.; Thaler, Nicholas S.; Barchard, Kimberly A.; Vertinski, Mary; Mayfield, Joan

2012-01-01

The Comprehensive Trail Making Test (CTMT) is a relatively new version of the Trail Making Test that has a number of appealing features, including a large normative sample that allows raw scores to be converted to standard "T" scores adjusted for age. Preliminary validity information suggests that CTMT scores are sensitive to brain…

Comprehensive Trail Making Test Performance in Children and Adolescents with Traumatic Brain Injury

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Allen, Daniel N.; Thaler, Nicholas S.; Ringdahl, Erik N.; Barney, Sally J.; Mayfield, Joan

2012-01-01

The sensitivity of the Trail Making Test to brain damage has been well-established over many years, making it one of the most commonly used tests in clinical neuropsychological evaluations. The current study examined the validity of scores from a newer version of the Trail Making Test, the Comprehensive Trail Making Test (CTMT), in children and…

Probing the Politics of Comprehensive Sexuality Education: "Universality" versus "Cultural Sensitivity": A Dutch-Bangladeshi Collaboration on Adolescent Sexuality Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roodsaz, Rahil

2018-01-01

As part of Western European development aid policy, comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) is increasingly promoted in resource-poor countries. This paper engages with CSE promotion in Bangladesh funded by the Dutch Government. It unpacks the "collaboration" by looking at how a paradox is played out between the universal ideals…

The Association Between Nutrition Facts Label Utilization and Comprehension among Latinos in Two East Los Angeles Neighborhoods

PubMed Central

Sharif, Mienah Z.; Rizzo, Shemra; Prelip, Michael L; Glik, Deborah C; Belin, Thomas R; Langellier, Brent A; Kuo, Alice A.; Garza, Jeremiah R; Ortega, Alexander N

2014-01-01

Background The Nutrition Facts label can facilitate healthy dietary practices. There is a dearth of research on Latinos’ utilization and comprehension of the Nutrition Facts label. Objective To measure Nutrition Facts label use and comprehension and to identify their correlates among Latinos in East Los Angeles. Design Cross-sectional interviewer-administered survey using a computer assisted personal interview (CAPI) software conducted in either English or Spanish in the participant’s home. Participants/Setting Eligibility criteria were: living in a household within the block clusters identified, being age 18 or over, speaking English or Spanish, identifying as Latino and as the household’s main food purchaser and preparer. Analyses were based on 269 eligible respondents. Statistical analyses performed Chi-square test and multivariate logistic regression analysis assessed the association between the main outcomes and demographics. Multiple imputation addressed missing data. Results Sixty percent reported using the label; only 13% showed adequate comprehension of the label. Utilization was associated with being female, speaking Spanish and being below the poverty line. Comprehension was associated with younger age, not being married, and higher education. Utilization was not associated with comprehension. Conclusions Latinos who are using the Nutrition Facts label are not correctly interpreting the available information. Targeted education is needed to improve Nutrition Facts label use and comprehension, to directly improve diet, particularly among males, older Latinos, and those with less than a high school education. PMID:24974172

Neural correlates and network connectivity underlying narrative production and comprehension: a combined fMRI and PET study.

PubMed

AbdulSabur, Nuria Y; Xu, Yisheng; Liu, Siyuan; Chow, Ho Ming; Baxter, Miranda; Carson, Jessica; Braun, Allen R

2014-08-01

The neural correlates of narrative production and comprehension remain poorly understood. Here, using positron emission tomography (PET), functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), contrast and functional network connectivity analyses we comprehensively characterize the neural mechanisms underlying these complex behaviors. Eighteen healthy subjects told and listened to fictional stories during scanning. In addition to traditional language areas (e.g., left inferior frontal and posterior middle temporal gyri), both narrative production and comprehension engaged regions associated with mentalizing and situation model construction (e.g., dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, precuneus and inferior parietal lobules) as well as neocortical premotor areas, such as the pre-supplementary motor area and left dorsal premotor cortex. Narrative comprehension alone showed marked bilaterality, activating right hemisphere homologs of perisylvian language areas. Narrative production remained predominantly left lateralized, uniquely activating executive and motor-related regions essential to language formulation and articulation. Connectivity analyses revealed strong associations between language areas and the superior and middle temporal gyri during both tasks. However, only during storytelling were these same language-related regions connected to cortical and subcortical motor regions. In contrast, during story comprehension alone, they were strongly linked to regions supporting mentalizing. Thus, when employed in a more complex, ecologically-valid context, language production and comprehension show both overlapping and idiosyncratic patterns of activation and functional connectivity. Importantly, in each case the language system is integrated with regions that support other cognitive and sensorimotor domains. Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Australian seafood compositional profiles: A pilot study. Vitamin D and mercury content.

PubMed

Padula, David; Greenfield, Heather; Cunningham, Judy; Kiermeier, Andreas; McLeod, Catherine

2016-02-15

Given the scarcity of comprehensive nutritional data for Australia's >400 commercially produced seafood species a pilot study was undertaken to collect and analyse 22 species of wild and aquaculture seafood in order to develop a model for future comprehensive surveys. The species analysed were: Atlantic salmon, Australian sardine, prawn (six species), barramundi, abalone (three species), blue sprat, burrowing blackfish, gummy shark, oyster (four species), ocean trout and yellowtail kingfish. The analyses undertaken in this pilot study were: moisture, protein, total fat, cholesterol, fatty acids, vitamin C, vitamins A and D, and 21 mineral elements (including total mercury and methyl mercury). The data reported here are for vitamin D and mercury only. Comprehensive data have already been published elsewhere. Issues identified that should be addressed prior to undertaking a more extensive and representative study of the remaining major edible commercial Australian seafood species include: choice of samples and nutrients for analysis, facilities for sample handling and storage, data management and scrutiny, and laboratory quality control. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A Comprehensive Enzyme Kinetic Exercise for Biochemistry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barton, Janice S.

2011-01-01

This article describes a comprehensive treatment of experimental enzyme kinetics strongly coupled to electronic data acquisition and use of spreadsheets to organize data and perform linear and nonlinear least-squares analyses, all in a manner that promotes development of important reasoning skills. Kinetic parameters are obtained for the stable…

Reading for Understanding: Methodist Youths' Shared Scripture-Reading Practices

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rackley, Eric D.

2018-01-01

Informed by reading comprehension and comprehension strategies research, this study explores the Scripture-reading practices of four Methodist youths. Several rounds of inductive thematic analyses of Scripture-reading protocols revealed a set of five strategic reading practices youths used to understand Scripture. They drew inferences about the…

Practitioner Talk on Deaf Children's Reading Comprehension: Analysing Multiple Voices

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Swanwick, Ruth A.; Kitchen, Ruth; Clarke, Paula J.

2012-01-01

This study examined different perspectives of deaf education practitioners on deafness and reading comprehension. This involved a full deaf education support team comprising teachers of the deaf, communication support workers, and deaf instructors from a UK citywide service covering early years, primary and secondary settings. Using a focus group…

Epistemological and Reading Beliefs Profiles and Their Role in Multiple Text Comprehension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mateos, Mar; Solé, Isabel; Martín, Elena; Castells, Nuria; Cuevas, Isabel; González-Lamas, Jara

2016-01-01

Introduction: The aim of this study was to analyse the role of epistemological beliefs and reading beliefs in the comprehension of multiple texts which presented conflicting positions about a controversial topic (nuclear energy). More specifically, we investigated the influence of the multidimensional configuration of epistemological and reading…

Comprehensive Isotopic and Elemental Analysis of a Multi-Oxide Glass By Multicollector ICP-MS in Isotope Substitution Studies

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

v, Mitroshkov; JV, Ryan

2016-04-07

Multicollector ICP-MS was used to comprehensively analyze different types of isotopically-modified glass created in order to investigate the processes of glass corrosion in the water. The analytical methods were developed for the analyses of synthesized, isotopically-modified solid glass and the release of glass constituents upon contact with deionized water. To validate the methods, results from an acid digestion sample of the Analytical Reference Glass (ARG) showed good agreement when compared to data from multiple prior analyses on the same glass [Smith-1]. In this paper, we present the results of this comprehensive analysis from the acid digestion of six types ofmore » isotopically-modified glass and the release of glass constituents into water corrosion after one year of aqueous corrosion.« less

The impact of parent-child interaction on brain structures: cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses.

PubMed

Takeuchi, Hikaru; Taki, Yasuyuki; Hashizume, Hiroshi; Asano, Kohei; Asano, Michiko; Sassa, Yuko; Yokota, Susumu; Kotozaki, Yuka; Nouchi, Rui; Kawashima, Ryuta

2015-02-04

There is a vast amount of evidence from psychological studies that the amount of parent-child interaction affects the development of children's verbal skills and knowledge. However, despite the vast amount of literature, brain structural development associated with the amount of parent-child interaction has never been investigated. In the present human study, we used voxel-based morphometry to measure regional gray matter density (rGMD) and examined cross-sectional correlations between the amount of time spent with parents and rGMD among 127 boys and 135 girls. We also assessed correlations between the amount of time spent with parents and longitudinal changes that occurred a few years later among 106 boys and 102 girls. After correcting for confounding factors, we found negative effects of spending time with parents on rGMD in areas in the bilateral superior temporal gyrus (STG) via cross-sectional analyses as well as in the contingent areas of the right STG. We also confirmed positive effects of spending time with parents on the Verbal Comprehension score in cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses. rGMD in partly overlapping or contingent areas of the right STG was negatively correlated with age and the Verbal Comprehension score in cross-sectional analyses. Subsequent analyses revealed verbal parent-child interactions have similar effects on Verbal Comprehension scores and rGMD in the right STG in both cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses. These findings indicate that parent-child interactions affect the right STG, which may be associated with verbal skills. Copyright © 2015 the authors 0270-6474/15/352233-13$15.00/0.

Test anxiety and a high-stakes standardized reading comprehension test: A behavioral genetics perspective.

PubMed

Wood, Sarah G; Hart, Sara A; Little, Callie W; Phillips, Beth M

2016-07-01

Past research suggests that reading comprehension test performance does not rely solely on targeted cognitive processes such as word reading, but also on other non-target aspects such as test anxiety. Using a genetically sensitive design, we sought to understand the genetic and environmental etiology of the association between test anxiety and reading comprehension as measured by a high-stakes test. Mirroring the behavioral literature of test anxiety, three different dimensions of test anxiety were examined in relation to reading comprehension, namely intrusive thoughts, autonomic reactions, and off-task behaviors. Participants included 426 sets of twins from the Florida Twin Project on Reading. The results indicated test anxiety was negatively associated with reading comprehension test performance, specifically through common shared environmental influences. The significant contribution of test anxiety to reading comprehension on a high-stakes test supports the notion that non-targeted factors may be interfering with accurately assessing students' reading abilities.

A novel comprehensive set of fungal Real time PCR assays (fuPCR) for the detection of fungi in immunocompromised haematological patients-A pilot study.

PubMed

Rahn, Sebastian; Schuck, Anna; Kondakci, Mustafa; Haas, Rainer; Neuhausen, Nicole; Pfeffer, Klaus; Henrich, Birgit

2016-12-01

Fungal infections are recognized in an increasing number of patients with immunological deficits and are associated with high rates of mortality (Brown et al., 2012a). In this pilot-study, a rapid Real time PCR (fuPCR) was designed for the detection and differentiation of fungal pathogens in clinical specimens of haematological patients. The fuPCR, targeting the internal transcribed spacer region 2 (ITS2) of rDNA region, is comprised of seven multiplex reactions, which were shown to be specific and sensitive for a comprehensive spectrum of clinically relevant fungal species. This was validated by testing respective fungal DNAs in each fuPCR reaction and 28 respiratory samples of fungal pneumonia-proven patients. Clinical sample sets of throat swab, EDTA-blood and blood sera from 50 patients with severe haematological malignancies, including haematopoietic stem cell transfer (HSCT), and samples from 30 healthy individuals were then analysed. In a first step, 198 samples of immunosuppressed patients were solely examined by fuPCR; and 50.8% (33/65) respiratory swabs, 4.8% (3/63) EDTA blood samples and 1.4% (1/70) blood serum samples were tested positive. In a second step, 56 respiratory samples of immunosuppressed patients and 30 of healthy individuals were simultaneously analysed by fuPCR and standard cultivation techniques. By both methods 30.4% (17/56) swabs of the immunocompromised patients were tested positive, 37.5% (21/56) were tested negative and 32.1% (18/56) were tested fuPCR positive and culture negative. In analysing the blood samples of the immunocompromised patients 5.4% (3/56) EDTA blood samples and 16.1% (9/56) sera samples were tested fuPCR-positive, whereas all samples of 30 healthy individuals with no signs of immunological deficits were tested negative by fuPCR. 38.9% (14/36) of the fungi detected in respiratory samples of the immunosuppressed patients, belonged to Candida spp., 47.2% (17/36) to Saccharomyces spp., 5.6% (2/36) to Cladosporium spp. and 8.3% (3/36) to Alternaria spp., whereas cultivation only identified Candida spp. (10/17) and Saccharomyces spp. (7/17). In this pilot study a novel fuPCR assay was developed and validated for the simultaneous and comprehensive detection of fungal pathogens in clinical respiratory specimens of haematological patients. Future work will focus on the validation of the blood-stream detected fungi in pathogenicity of these patients. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

Performance of Stratified and Subgrouped Disproportionality Analyses in Spontaneous Databases.

PubMed

Seabroke, Suzie; Candore, Gianmario; Juhlin, Kristina; Quarcoo, Naashika; Wisniewski, Antoni; Arani, Ramin; Painter, Jeffery; Tregunno, Philip; Norén, G Niklas; Slattery, Jim

2016-04-01

Disproportionality analyses are used in many organisations to identify adverse drug reactions (ADRs) from spontaneous report data. Reporting patterns vary over time, with patient demographics, and between different geographical regions, and therefore subgroup analyses or adjustment by stratification may be beneficial. The objective of this study was to evaluate the performance of subgroup and stratified disproportionality analyses for a number of key covariates within spontaneous report databases of differing sizes and characteristics. Using a reference set of established ADRs, signal detection performance (sensitivity and precision) was compared for stratified, subgroup and crude (unadjusted) analyses within five spontaneous report databases (two company, one national and two international databases). Analyses were repeated for a range of covariates: age, sex, country/region of origin, calendar time period, event seriousness, vaccine/non-vaccine, reporter qualification and report source. Subgroup analyses consistently performed better than stratified analyses in all databases. Subgroup analyses also showed benefits in both sensitivity and precision over crude analyses for the larger international databases, whilst for the smaller databases a gain in precision tended to result in some loss of sensitivity. Additionally, stratified analyses did not increase sensitivity or precision beyond that associated with analytical artefacts of the analysis. The most promising subgroup covariates were age and region/country of origin, although this varied between databases. Subgroup analyses perform better than stratified analyses and should be considered over the latter in routine first-pass signal detection. Subgroup analyses are also clearly beneficial over crude analyses for larger databases, but further validation is required for smaller databases.

Comprehensive genetic testing for female and male infertility using next-generation sequencing.

PubMed

Patel, Bonny; Parets, Sasha; Akana, Matthew; Kellogg, Gregory; Jansen, Michael; Chang, Chihyu; Cai, Ying; Fox, Rebecca; Niknazar, Mohammad; Shraga, Roman; Hunter, Colby; Pollock, Andrew; Wisotzkey, Robert; Jaremko, Malgorzata; Bisignano, Alex; Puig, Oscar

2018-05-19

To develop a comprehensive genetic test for female and male infertility in support of medical decisions during assisted reproductive technology (ART) protocols. We developed a next-generation sequencing (NGS) gene panel consisting of 87 genes including promoters, 5' and 3' untranslated regions, exons, and selected introns. In addition, sex chromosome aneuploidies and Y chromosome microdeletions were analyzed concomitantly using the same panel. The NGS panel was analytically validated by retrospective analysis of 118 genomic DNA samples with known variants in loci representative of female and male infertility. Our results showed analytical accuracy of > 99%, with > 98% sensitivity for single-nucleotide variants (SNVs) and > 91% sensitivity for insertions/deletions (indels). Clinical sensitivity was assessed with samples containing variants representative of male and female infertility, and it was 100% for SNVs/indels, CFTR IVS8-5T variants, sex chromosome aneuploidies, and copy number variants (CNVs) and > 93% for Y chromosome microdeletions. Cost analysis shows potential savings when comparing this single NGS assay with the standard approach, which includes multiple assays. A single, comprehensive, NGS panel can simplify the ordering process for healthcare providers, reduce turnaround time, and lower the overall cost of testing for genetic assessment of infertility in females and males, while maintaining accuracy.

Red Meat and Colorectal Cancer: A Quantitative Update on the State of the Epidemiologic Science

PubMed Central

Alexander, Dominik D.; Weed, Douglas L.; Miller, Paula E.; Mohamed, Muhima A.

2015-01-01

The potential relationship between red meat consumption and colorectal cancer (CRC) has been the subject of scientific debate. Given the high degree of resulting uncertainty, our objective was to update the state of the science by conducting a systematic quantitative assessment of the epidemiologic literature. Specifically, we updated and expanded our previous meta-analysis by integrating data from new prospective cohort studies and conducting a broader evaluation of the relative risk estimates by specific intake categories. Data from 27 independent prospective cohort studies were meta-analyzed using random-effects models, and sources of potential heterogeneity were examined through subgroup and sensitivity analyses. In addition, a comprehensive evaluation of potential dose-response patterns was conducted. In the meta-analysis of all cohorts, a weakly elevated summary relative risk was observed (1.11, 95% CI: 1.03–1.19); however, statistically significant heterogeneity was present. In general, summary associations were attenuated (closer to the null and less heterogeneous) in models that isolated fresh red meat (from processed meat), adjusted for more relevant factors, analyzed women only, and were conducted in countries outside of the United States. Furthermore, no clear patterns of dose-response were apparent. In conclusion, the state of the epidemiologic science on red meat consumption and CRC is best described in terms of weak associations, heterogeneity, an inability to disentangle effects from other dietary and lifestyle factors, lack of a clear dose-response effect, and weakening evidence over time. Key Teaching Points: •The role of red meat consumption in colorectal cancer risk has been widely contested among the scientific community.•In the current meta-analysis of red meat intake and colorectal cancer, we comprehensively examined associations by creating numerous sub-group stratifications, conducting extensive sensitivity analyses, and evaluating dose-response using several different methods.•Overall, all summary associations were weak in magnitude with no clear dose-response patterns.•Interpretation of findings from epidemiologic studies investigating diet and health outcomes involves numerous methodological considerations, such as accurately measuring food intake, dietary pattern differences across populations, food definitions, outcome classifications, bias and confounding, multicollinearity, biological mechanisms, genetic variation in metabolizing enzymes, and differences in analytical metrics and statistical testing parameters. PMID:25941850

A review of decision support, risk communication and patient information tools for thrombolytic treatment in acute stroke: lessons for tool developers

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background Tools to support clinical or patient decision-making in the treatment/management of a health condition are used in a range of clinical settings for numerous preference-sensitive healthcare decisions. Their impact in clinical practice is largely dependent on their quality across a range of domains. We critically analysed currently available tools to support decision making or patient understanding in the treatment of acute ischaemic stroke with intravenous thrombolysis, as an exemplar to provide clinicians/researchers with practical guidance on development, evaluation and implementation of such tools for other preference-sensitive treatment options/decisions in different clinical contexts. Methods Tools were identified from bibliographic databases, Internet searches and a survey of UK and North American stroke networks. Two reviewers critically analysed tools to establish: information on benefits/risks of thrombolysis included in tools, and the methods used to convey probabilistic information (verbal descriptors, numerical and graphical); adherence to guidance on presenting outcome probabilities (IPDASi probabilities items) and information content (Picker Institute Checklist); readability (Fog Index); and the extent that tools had comprehensive development processes. Results Nine tools of 26 identified included information on a full range of benefits/risks of thrombolysis. Verbal descriptors, frequencies and percentages were used to convey probabilistic information in 20, 19 and 18 tools respectively, whilst nine used graphical methods. Shortcomings in presentation of outcome probabilities (e.g. omitting outcomes without treatment) were identified. Patient information tools had an aggregate median Fog index score of 10. None of the tools had comprehensive development processes. Conclusions Tools to support decision making or patient understanding in the treatment of acute stroke with thrombolysis have been sub-optimally developed. Development of tools should utilise mixed methods and strategies to meaningfully involve clinicians, patients and their relatives in an iterative design process; include evidence-based methods to augment interpretability of textual and probabilistic information (e.g. graphical displays showing natural frequencies) on the full range of outcome states associated with available options; and address patients with different levels of health literacy. Implementation of tools will be enhanced when mechanisms are in place to periodically assess the relevance of tools and where necessary, update the mode of delivery, form and information content. PMID:23777368

Rotavirus vaccine RIX4414 (Rotarix™): a pharmacoeconomic review of its use in the prevention of rotavirus gastroenteritis in developing countries.

PubMed

Plosker, Greg L

2011-11-01

This article provides an overview of the clinical profile of rotavirus vaccine RIX4414 (Rotarix™) in the prevention of rotavirus gastroenteritis (RVGE) in developing countries, followed by a comprehensive review of pharmacoeconomic analyses with the vaccine in low- and middle-income countries. RVGE is associated with significant morbidity and mortality among children <5 years of age in developing countries. The protective efficacy of a two-dose oral series of rotavirus vaccine RIX4414 has been demonstrated in several well designed clinical trials conducted in developing countries, and the 'real-world' effectiveness of the vaccine has also been shown in naturalistic and case-control trials after the introduction of universal vaccination programmes with RIX4414 in Latin American countries. The WHO recommends universal rotavirus vaccination programmes for all countries. Numerous modelled cost-effectiveness analyses have been conducted with rotavirus vaccine RIX4414 across a wide range of low- and middle-income countries. Although data sources and assumptions varied across studies, results of the analyses consistently showed that the introduction of the vaccine as part of a national vaccination programme would be very (or highly) cost effective compared with no rotavirus vaccination programme, according to widely used cost-effectiveness thresholds for developing countries. Vaccine price was not known at the time the analyses were conducted and had to be estimated. In sensitivity analyses, rotavirus vaccine RIX4414 generally remained cost effective at the highest of a range of possible vaccine prices considered. Despite these favourable results, decisions regarding the implementation of universal vaccination programmes with RIX4414 may also be contingent on budgetary and other factors, underscoring the importance of subsidized vaccination programmes for poor countries through the GAVI Alliance (formerly the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization).

Pharmacogenetics of clozapine response and induced weight gain: A comprehensive review and meta-analysis.

PubMed

Gressier, Florence; Porcelli, Stefano; Calati, Raffaella; Serretti, Alessandro

2016-02-01

Clozapine (CLZ) is the prototype atypical antipsychotic and it has many advantages over other antipsychotic drugs. Several data suggest that both CLZ response and induced weight gain are strongly determined by genetic variability. However, results remain mainly inconclusive. We aim to review the literature data about pharmacogenetics studies on CLZ efficacy, focusing on pharmacodynamic genes. Further, we performed meta-analyses on response when at least three studies for each polymorphism were available. Sensitivity analyses were conducted on Caucasian population when feasible. Electronic literature search was performed to identify pertinent studies published until May 2014 using PubMed, ISI Web of Knowledge and PsycINFO databases. For meta-analyses, data were entered and analyzed through RevMan version 5.2 using a random-effect model. Our literature search yielded 9266 articles on CLZ; among these, we identified 59 pertinent pharmacogenetic studies. Genotype data were retrieved for 14 polymorphisms in 9 genes. Among these, we had available data from at least three independent samples for 8 SNPs in 6 genes to perform meta-analyses: DRD2 rs1799732, DRD3 rs6280, HTR2A rs6313, rs6311, rs6314, HTR2C rs6318, HTR3A rs1062613, TNFa rs1800629. Although literature review provided conflicting results, in meta-analyses three genetic variants within serotonin genes resulted associated to CLZ response: rs6313 and rs6314 within HTR2A gene and rs1062613 within HT3A gene. On the other hand, no clear finding emerged for CLZ-induced weight gain. Our results suggest a possible serotonergic modulation of CLZ clinical response. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. and ECNP. All rights reserved.

A computational modeling of semantic knowledge in reading comprehension: Integrating the landscape model with latent semantic analysis.

PubMed

Yeari, Menahem; van den Broek, Paul

2016-09-01

It is a well-accepted view that the prior semantic (general) knowledge that readers possess plays a central role in reading comprehension. Nevertheless, computational models of reading comprehension have not integrated the simulation of semantic knowledge and online comprehension processes under a unified mathematical algorithm. The present article introduces a computational model that integrates the landscape model of comprehension processes with latent semantic analysis representation of semantic knowledge. In three sets of simulations of previous behavioral findings, the integrated model successfully simulated the activation and attenuation of predictive and bridging inferences during reading, as well as centrality estimations and recall of textual information after reading. Analyses of the computational results revealed new theoretical insights regarding the underlying mechanisms of the various comprehension phenomena.

Riddle appreciation and reading comprehension in Cantonese-speaking children.

PubMed

Tang, Ivy N Y; To, Carol K S; Weekes, Brendan S

2013-10-01

Inference-making skills are necessary for reading comprehension. Training in riddle appreciation is an effective way to improve reading comprehension among English-speaking children. However, it is not clear whether these methods generalize to other writing systems. The goal of the present study was to investigate the relationship between inference-making skills, as measured by riddle appreciation ability, and reading comprehension performance in typically developing Cantonese-speaking children in the 4th grade. Forty Cantonese-speaking children between the ages of 9;1 (years;months) and 11;0 were given tests of riddle appreciation ability and reading comprehension. Chinese character reading and auditory comprehension abilities were also assessed using tests that had been standardized in Hong Kong. Regression analyses revealed that riddle appreciation ability explained a significant amount of variance in reading comprehension after variance due to character reading skills and auditory comprehension skills were first considered. Orthographic, lexical, morphological, and syntactic riddles were also significantly correlated with reading comprehension. Riddle appreciation ability predicts reading comprehension in Cantonese-speaking 4th-grade children. Therefore, training Cantonese speakers in riddle appreciation should improve their reading comprehension.

Effects of reading goals on reading comprehension, reading rate, and allocation of working memory in children and adolescents with spina bifida meningomyelocele

PubMed Central

ENGLISH, LIANNE; BARNES, MARCIA A.; FLETCHER, JACK M.; DENNIS, MAUREEN; RAGHUBAR, KIMBERLY P.

2011-01-01

Spina bifida meningomyelocele (SBM) is a neurodevelopmental disorder associated with intact word decoding and deficient text and discourse comprehension. This study investigated the ability to adjust reading in accordance with specified reading goals in 79 children and adolescents with SBM (9–19 years of age) and 39 controls (8–17 years of age). Both groups demonstrated slower reading times and enhanced comprehension when reading to study or to come up with a title than when reading for specific information or for entertainment. For both groups, verbal working memory contributed to comprehension performance in those reading conditions hypothesized to require more cognitive effort. Despite their sensitivity to the goals of reading, the group with SBM answered fewer comprehension questions correctly across all reading goal conditions. The results are discussed in relation to the hypothesized cognitive underpinnings of comprehension deficits in SBM and to current models of text comprehension. PMID:20338082

Assessment of technical condition of concrete pavement by the example of district road

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Linek, M.; Nita, P.; Żebrowski, W.; Wolka, P.

2018-05-01

The article presents the comprehensive assessment of concrete pavement condition. Analyses included the district road located in the swietokrzyskie province, used for 11 years. Comparative analyses were conducted twice. The first analysis was carried out after 9 years of pavement operation, in 2015. In order to assess the extent of pavement degradation, the tests were repeated in 2017. Within the scope of field research, the traffic intensity within the analysed road section was determined. Visual assessment of pavement condition was conducted, according to the guidelines included in SOSN-B. Visual assessment can be extended by ground-penetrating radar measurements which allow to provide comprehensive assessment of the occurred structure changes within its entire thickness and length. The assessment included also performance parameters, i.e. pavement regularity, surface roughness and texture. Extension of test results by the assessment of changes in internal structure of concrete composite and structure observations by means of Scanning Electron Microscope allow for the assessment of parameters of internal structure of hardened concrete. Supplementing the observations of internal structure by means of computed tomography scan provides comprehensive information of possible discontinuities and composite structure. According to the analysis of the obtained results, conclusions concerning the analysed pavement condition were reached. It was determined that the pavement is distinguished by high performance parameters, its condition is good and it does not require any repairs. Maintenance treatment was suggested in order to extend the period of proper operation of the analysed pavement.

Diabetes mellitus and arthritis: is it a risk factor or comorbidity?: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

PubMed

Dong, Qing; Liu, Hua; Yang, Daren; Zhang, Yunyan

2017-05-01

Investigators have explored the association between diabetes mellitus and arthritis for a long time; however, there are uncertainties and inconsistencies among various studies. In this study, we tried to explore the relationship between diabetes mellitus and the overall risk of arthritis, as well as the potential modifiers for this relationship. We conducted a comprehensive literature search through PubMed and identified 36 eligible studies. The overall analyses, subgroup analyses, as well as sensitivity analyses, were conducted to illustrate the association between diabetes mellitus and arthritis. Study quality was evaluated using the Newcastle-Ottawa Quality Assessment Scale. All statistical analyses were conducted using STATA SE version 13.0. In our study, 36 eligible studies were identified and involved in the meta-analysis. The overall association between diabetes mellitus and arthritis is 1.61 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.14-2.28, P = .007). The association exists only in nongouty arthritis, where we observed the estimated odds ratio (OR) 1.33 (95% CI: 1.05-1.67, P < .001). The opposite point estimates from different types of diabetes may indicate possible different associations for type I (OR: 0.98, 95% CI: 0.18-5.39, P = .985) or type II diabetes (OR: 1.28, 95% CI: 0.88-1.84, P = .194). Diabetes mellitus performs more likely as a comorbidity of arthritis rather than a risk factor; however, more studies will be helpful to increase the confidence of identifying the association between diabetes and arthritis.

Physical Education, the Policy Entrepreneur and Comprehensive Schooling: Can They Exist in Harmony?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thorburn, Malcolm

2009-01-01

This article analyses the ways in which policy entrepreneurs have recently influenced physical education (PE) policy and practice in England and Scotland and discusses some of the implications this might have for students' learning opportunities within comprehensive schools in future years. And, while considerations of this sort raise a plethora…

Comprehensive School Teachers' Professional Agency in Large-Scale Educational Change

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pyhältö, Kirsi; Pietarinen, Janne; Soini, Tiina

2014-01-01

This article explores how comprehensive school teachers' sense of professional agency changes in the context of large-scale national educational change in Finland. We analysed the premises on which teachers (n = 100) view themselves and their work in terms of developing their own school, catalysed by the large-scale national change. The study…

Discourse-Level Reading Comprehension in Chinese Children: What Is the Role of Syntactic Awareness?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tong, Xiuhong; Tong, Xiuli; Shu, Hua; Chan, Shingfong; McBride-Chang, Catherine

2014-01-01

This study aimed to investigate the association between syntactic awareness and discourse-level reading comprehension in 136 Hong Kong Chinese children. These children, aged 11, from a longitudinal study, were administered a set of cognitive and linguistic measures. Partial correlational analyses showed that children's performances in two…

Authentic Leadership for Teacher's Academic Optimism: Moderating Effect of Training Comprehensiveness

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Srivastava, Anugamini Priya; Dhar, Rajib Lochan

2016-01-01

Purpose: This study aims to analyse the impact of authentic leadership (AL) on academic optimism (AO) through the mediating role of affective commitment (AC). As this study also examines the moderating role of training comprehensiveness (TC) in strengthening the relation between AC and AO. Design/methodology/approach: Data were collected from…

Modeling Comprehension Processes via Automated Analyses of Dialogism

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dascalu, Mihai; Allen, Laura K.; McNamara, Danielle S.; Trausan-Matu, Stefan; Crossley, Scott A.

2017-01-01

Dialogism provides the grounds for building a comprehensive model of discourse and it is focused on the multiplicity of perspectives (i.e., voices). Dialogism can be present in any type of text, while voices become themes or recurrent topics emerging from the discourse. In this study, we examine the extent that differences between…

Exploring the Technical Adequacy of the Family Interaction Inventory.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Robinson, Christopher S.; And Others

There are no available measures that assess family interaction from a comprehensive theoretical perspective. This study reports analyses of the measurement integrity of scores from a measure developed to offer a comprehensive assessment. The preliminary version of the Family Interaction Inventory (FII) is a 24-scale instrument with 5 items per…

Concurrent and Longitudinal Effects of Morphological Awareness on Reading Comprehension among Chinese-Speaking Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhang, Haomin

2016-01-01

This study explored the concurrent and longitudinal effects of morphological awareness on the development of reading comprehension among Chinese-speaking children (N = 123, mean[subscript age] = 8.1 at Time 2). Drawing upon multivariate analyses, the study found that morphological awareness and lexical inferencing ability were intertwined together…

Scaling up Comprehensive Sexuality Education in Nigeria: From National Policy to Nationwide Application

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Huaynoca, Silvia; Chandra-Mouli, Venkatraman; Yaqub, Nuhu, Jr.; Denno, Donna Marie

2014-01-01

Nigeria is one of few countries that reports having translated national policies on school-based comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) into near-nationwide implementation. We analysed data using the World Health Organization-ExpandNet framework, which provides a systematic structure for planning and managing the scaling up of health innovations.…

77 FR 8298 - Proposed Collection; Comment Request

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-02-14

... a quantitative, comprehensive or even representative survey or study of the burdens associated with... existing registered money market fund: Documentation of credit risk analyses, and determinations regarding... for documentation of credit analyses and other determinations) = 2340 responses. (30 funds x 12...

Low angle light scattering analysis: a novel quantitative method for functional characterization of human and murine platelet receptors.

PubMed

Mindukshev, Igor; Gambaryan, Stepan; Kehrer, Linda; Schuetz, Claudia; Kobsar, Anna; Rukoyatkina, Natalia; Nikolaev, Viacheslav O; Krivchenko, Alexander; Watson, Steve P; Walter, Ulrich; Geiger, Joerg

2012-07-01

Determinations of platelet receptor functions are indispensable diagnostic indicators of cardiovascular and hemostatic diseases including hereditary and acquired receptor defects and receptor responses to drugs. However, presently available techniques for assessing platelet function have some disadvantages, such as low sensitivity and the requirement of large sample sizes and unphysiologically high agonist concentrations. Our goal was to develop and initially characterize a new technique designed to quantitatively analyze platelet receptor activation and platelet function on the basis of measuring changes in low angle light scattering. We developed a novel technique based on low angle light scattering registering changes in light scattering at a range of different angles in platelet suspensions during activation. The method proved to be highly sensitive for simultaneous real time detection of changes in size and shape of platelets during activation. Unlike commonly-used methods, the light scattering method could detect platelet shape change and aggregation in response to nanomolar concentrations of extracellular nucleotides. Furthermore, our results demonstrate that the advantages of the light scattering method make it a choice method for platelet receptor monitoring and for investigation of both murine and human platelets in disease models. Our data demonstrate the suitability and superiority of this new low angle light scattering method for comprehensive analyses of platelet receptors and functions. This highly sensitive, quantitative, and online detection of essential physiological, pathophysiological and pharmacological-response properties of human and mouse platelets is a significant improvement over conventional techniques.

Convergence in the temperature response of leaf respiration across biomes and plant functional types

PubMed Central

Heskel, Mary A.; O’Sullivan, Odhran S.; Reich, Peter B.; Tjoelker, Mark G.; Weerasinghe, Lasantha K.; Penillard, Aurore; Egerton, John J. G.; Creek, Danielle; Bloomfield, Keith J.; Xiang, Jen; Sinca, Felipe; Stangl, Zsofia R.; Martinez-de la Torre, Alberto; Griffin, Kevin L.; Huntingford, Chris; Hurry, Vaughan; Meir, Patrick; Turnbull, Matthew H.; Atkin, Owen K.

2016-01-01

Plant respiration constitutes a massive carbon flux to the atmosphere, and a major control on the evolution of the global carbon cycle. It therefore has the potential to modulate levels of climate change due to the human burning of fossil fuels. Neither current physiological nor terrestrial biosphere models adequately describe its short-term temperature response, and even minor differences in the shape of the response curve can significantly impact estimates of ecosystem carbon release and/or storage. Given this, it is critical to establish whether there are predictable patterns in the shape of the respiration–temperature response curve, and thus in the intrinsic temperature sensitivity of respiration across the globe. Analyzing measurements in a comprehensive database for 231 species spanning 7 biomes, we demonstrate that temperature-dependent increases in leaf respiration do not follow a commonly used exponential function. Instead, we find a decelerating function as leaves warm, reflecting a declining sensitivity to higher temperatures that is remarkably uniform across all biomes and plant functional types. Such convergence in the temperature sensitivity of leaf respiration suggests that there are universally applicable controls on the temperature response of plant energy metabolism, such that a single new function can predict the temperature dependence of leaf respiration for global vegetation. This simple function enables straightforward description of plant respiration in the land-surface components of coupled earth system models. Our cross-biome analyses shows significant implications for such fluxes in cold climates, generally projecting lower values compared with previous estimates. PMID:27001849

Convergence in the temperature response of leaf respiration across biomes and plant functional types.

PubMed

Heskel, Mary A; O'Sullivan, Odhran S; Reich, Peter B; Tjoelker, Mark G; Weerasinghe, Lasantha K; Penillard, Aurore; Egerton, John J G; Creek, Danielle; Bloomfield, Keith J; Xiang, Jen; Sinca, Felipe; Stangl, Zsofia R; Martinez-de la Torre, Alberto; Griffin, Kevin L; Huntingford, Chris; Hurry, Vaughan; Meir, Patrick; Turnbull, Matthew H; Atkin, Owen K

2016-04-05

Plant respiration constitutes a massive carbon flux to the atmosphere, and a major control on the evolution of the global carbon cycle. It therefore has the potential to modulate levels of climate change due to the human burning of fossil fuels. Neither current physiological nor terrestrial biosphere models adequately describe its short-term temperature response, and even minor differences in the shape of the response curve can significantly impact estimates of ecosystem carbon release and/or storage. Given this, it is critical to establish whether there are predictable patterns in the shape of the respiration-temperature response curve, and thus in the intrinsic temperature sensitivity of respiration across the globe. Analyzing measurements in a comprehensive database for 231 species spanning 7 biomes, we demonstrate that temperature-dependent increases in leaf respiration do not follow a commonly used exponential function. Instead, we find a decelerating function as leaves warm, reflecting a declining sensitivity to higher temperatures that is remarkably uniform across all biomes and plant functional types. Such convergence in the temperature sensitivity of leaf respiration suggests that there are universally applicable controls on the temperature response of plant energy metabolism, such that a single new function can predict the temperature dependence of leaf respiration for global vegetation. This simple function enables straightforward description of plant respiration in the land-surface components of coupled earth system models. Our cross-biome analyses shows significant implications for such fluxes in cold climates, generally projecting lower values compared with previous estimates.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Dobromir Panayotov; Andrew Grief; Brad J. Merrill

'Fusion for Energy' (F4E) develops designs and implements the European Test Blanket Systems (TBS) in ITER - Helium-Cooled Lithium-Lead (HCLL) and Helium-Cooled Pebble-Bed (HCPB). Safety demonstration is an essential element for the integration of TBS in ITER and accident analyses are one of its critical segments. A systematic approach to the accident analyses had been acquired under the F4E contract on TBS safety analyses. F4E technical requirements and AMEC and INL efforts resulted in the development of a comprehensive methodology for fusion breeding blanket accident analyses. It addresses the specificity of the breeding blankets design, materials and phenomena and atmore » the same time is consistent with the one already applied to ITER accident analyses. Methodology consists of several phases. At first the reference scenarios are selected on the base of FMEA studies. In the second place elaboration of the accident analyses specifications we use phenomena identification and ranking tables to identify the requirements to be met by the code(s) and TBS models. Thus the limitations of the codes are identified and possible solutions to be built into the models are proposed. These include among others the loose coupling of different codes or code versions in order to simulate multi-fluid flows and phenomena. The code selection and issue of the accident analyses specifications conclude this second step. Furthermore the breeding blanket and ancillary systems models are built on. In this work challenges met and solutions used in the development of both MELCOR and RELAP5 codes models of HCLL and HCPB TBSs will be shared. To continue the developed models are qualified by comparison with finite elements analyses, by code to code comparison and sensitivity studies. Finally, the qualified models are used for the execution of the accident analyses of specific scenario. When possible the methodology phases will be illustrated in the paper by limited number of tables and figures. Description of each phase and its results in detail as well the methodology applications to EU HCLL and HCPB TBSs will be published in separate papers. The developed methodology is applicable to accident analyses of other TBSs to be tested in ITER and as well to DEMO breeding blankets.« less

Revise and resubmit: How real-time parsing limitations influence grammar acquisition

PubMed Central

Pozzan, Lucia; Trueswell, John C.

2015-01-01

We present the results from a three-day artificial language learning study on adults. The study examined whether sentence-parsing limitations, in particular, difficulties revising initial syntactic/semantic commitments during comprehension, shape learners’ ability to acquire a language. Findings show that both comprehension and production of morphology pertaining to sentence argument structure are delayed when this morphology consistently appears at the end, rather than at the beginning, of sentences in otherwise identical grammatical systems. This suggests that real-time processing constraints impact acquisition; morphological cues that tend to guide linguistic analyses are easier to learn than cues that revise these analyses. Parallel performance in production and comprehension indicates that parsing constraints affect grammatical acquisition, not just real-time commitments. Properties of the linguistic system (e.g., ordering of cues within a sentence) interact with the properties of the cognitive system (cognitive control and conflict-resolution abilities) and together affect language acquisition. PMID:26026607

Splicing variant profiles and single nucleotide polymorphisms of the glucocorticoid receptor gene in relation to glucocorticoid sensitivity of B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.

PubMed

Huang, Meixian; Inukai, Takeshi; Kagami, Keiko; Abe, Masako; Shinohara, Tamao; Watanabe, Atsushi; Somazu, Shinpei; Oshiro, Hiroko; Goi, Kumiko; Goto, Hiroaki; Minegishi, Masayoshi; Iwamoto, Shotaro; Urayama, Kevin Y; Sugita, Kanji

2018-02-01

Glucocorticoid (GC) shows antileukaemic activity via binding to the GC receptor (GR). The human GR gene has 4 splicing variants besides the functional isoform GRα, but their significance in GC sensitivity of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) has been inconsistent. Additionally, several studies evaluated the relevance of GR gene single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the GC sensitivity of ALL, but the current cumulative evidence appears inconclusive. Addressing limitations in previous studies, we used a large series of B-cell precursor ALL (BCP-ALL) cell lines established from Japanese patients to comprehensively examine all 5 splicing variants of the GR gene and candidate SNPs, and their association with GC-sensitivity. We performed real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analyses with 10 sets of primers that differentially quantify the 5 isoforms in different combinations, and the strongest correlations with GC sensitivity were observed for the real-time RT-PCR of exons 7 and 8 (prednisolone sensitivity; r = -0.534, R 2  = 0.29, P = 1.4 × 10 -6 ) and exons 8 and 9a (r = -0.583, R 2  = 0.34, P = 7.6 × 10 -8 ), both specific for GRα and GRγ isoforms. In contrast, the real-time RT-PCR of junction of exons 3g and 4 and exon 4, specific for GRγ isoform alone, did not show significant correlation with GC sensitivity (prednisolone sensitivity; r = -0.403, R 2  = 0.16, P = 4.6 × 10 -4 ). These observations are consistent with the notion that GRα plays a central role in the GC-mediated proapoptotic activity in BCP-ALL. In addition, a promoter region SNP genotype (rs72555796) showed a significant association with GC sensitivity (prednisolone sensitivity; P = .010) and tended to show an association with GR gene expression (RT-PCR of exons 7 and 8; P = .170). These findings indicate that isoform profiles and SNP genotypes of the GR gene may be useful indicators of GC sensitivity in BCP-ALL. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Measurement of 37Ar to support technology for On-site Inspection under the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Aalseth, Craig E.; Day, Anthony R.; Haas, Derek A.

On-Site Inspection (OSI) is a key component of the verification regime for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). Measurements of radionuclide isotopes created by an underground nuclear explosion are a valuable signature of a Treaty violation. Argon-37 is produced from neutron interaction with calcium in soil, 40Ca(n,α)37Ar. For OSI, the 35-day half-life of 37Ar provides both high specific activity and sufficient time for completion of an inspection before decay limits sensitivity. This paper presents a low-background internal-source gas proportional counter with an 37Ar measurement sensitivity level equivalent to 45.1 mBq/SCM in whole air.

Comprehensive metabolic profiling of chronic low-grade inflammation among generally healthy individuals.

PubMed

Pietzner, Maik; Kaul, Anne; Henning, Ann-Kristin; Kastenmüller, Gabi; Artati, Anna; Lerch, Markus M; Adamski, Jerzy; Nauck, Matthias; Friedrich, Nele

2017-11-30

Inflammation occurs as an immediate protective response of the immune system to a harmful stimulus, whether locally confined or systemic. In contrast, a persisting, i.e., chronic, inflammatory state, even at a low-grade, is a well-known risk factor in the development of common diseases like diabetes or atherosclerosis. In clinical practice, laboratory markers like high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP), white blood cell count (WBC), and fibrinogen, are used to reveal inflammatory processes. In order to gain a deeper insight regarding inflammation-related changes in metabolism, the present study assessed the metabolic patterns associated with alterations in inflammatory markers. Based on mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy we determined a comprehensive panel of 613 plasma and 587 urine metabolites among 925 apparently healthy individuals. Associations between inflammatory markers, namely hsCRP, WBC, and fibrinogen, and metabolite levels were tested by linear regression analyses controlling for common confounders. Additionally, we tested for a discriminative signature of an advanced inflammatory state using random forest analysis. HsCRP, WBC, and fibrinogen were significantly associated with 71, 20, and 19 plasma and 22, 3, and 16 urine metabolites, respectively. Identified metabolites were related to the bradykinin system, involved in oxidative stress (e.g., glutamine or pipecolate) or linked to the urea cycle (e.g., ornithine or citrulline). In particular, urine 3'-sialyllactose was found as a novel metabolite related to inflammation. Prediction of an advanced inflammatory state based solely on 10 metabolites was well feasible (median AUC: 0.83). Comprehensive metabolic profiling confirmed the far-reaching impact of inflammatory processes on human metabolism. The identified metabolites included not only those already described as immune-modulatory but also completely novel patterns. Moreover, the observed alterations provide molecular links to inflammation-associated diseases like diabetes or cardiovascular disorders.

Testing covariates of Type 2 diabetes-cognition associations in older adults: moderating or mediating effects?

PubMed

McFall, G Peggy; Geall, Bonnie P; Fischer, Ashley L; Dolcos, Sanda; Dixon, Roger A

2010-09-01

The general goal of this study was to advance our understanding of Type 2 diabetes (T2D)-cognition relationships in older adults by linking and testing comprehensive sets of potential moderators, potential mediators, and multiple cognitive outcomes. We identified in the literature 13 health-related (but T2D-distal) potential covariates, representing four informal domains (i.e., biological vitality, personal affect, subjective health, lifestyle activities). Cross-sectional data from the Victoria Longitudinal Study (age range = 53-90 years; n = 41 T2D and n = 458 control participants) were used. We first examined whether any of the 13 potential covariates influenced T2D-cognition associations, as measured by a comprehensive neuropsychological battery (15 measures). Next, using standard regression-based moderator and mediator analyses, we systematically tested whether the identified covariates would significantly alter observed T2D-cognition relationships. Six potential covariates were found to be sensitive to T2D associations with performance on seven cognitive measures. Three factors (systolic blood pressure, gait-balance composite, subjective health) were significant mediators. Each mediated multiple cognitive outcomes, especially measures of neurocognitive speed, executive functioning, and episodic memory. Our findings offer a relatively comprehensive perspective of T2D-related cognitive deficits, comorbidities, and modulating influences. The implications for future research reach across several fields of study and application. These include (1) neuropsychological research on neural and biological bases of T2D-related cognitive decline, (2) clinical research on intervention and treatment strategies, and (3) larger-scale longitudinal studies examining the potential multilateral and dynamic relationships among T2D status, related comorbidities, and cognitive outcomes. Copyright 2010 APA, all rights reserved.

Developing General Literacy Ability and Intercultural Sensitivity through English Literacy Instruction: Using Global Literature for Korean EFL Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bae, Jiyoung

2012-01-01

This study explored L2 literacy ability and intercultural sensitivity of Korean late elementary to early middle school students learning English as a foreign language. This study investigated the latent variable structure of L2 literacy abilities, including fluency, vocabulary, reading comprehension, and writing abilities, and intercultural…

The change of adjacent segment after cervical disc arthroplasty compared with anterior cervical discectomy and fusion: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

PubMed

Dong, Liang; Xu, Zhengwei; Chen, Xiujin; Wang, Dongqi; Li, Dichen; Liu, Tuanjing; Hao, Dingjun

2017-10-01

Many meta-analyses have been performed to study the efficacy of cervical disc arthroplasty (CDA) compared with anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF); however, there are few data referring to adjacent segment within these meta-analyses, or investigators are unable to arrive at the same conclusion in the few meta-analyses about adjacent segment. With the increased concerns surrounding adjacent segment degeneration (ASDeg) and adjacent segment disease (ASDis) after anterior cervical surgery, it is necessary to perform a comprehensive meta-analysis to analyze adjacent segment parameters. To perform a comprehensive meta-analysis to elaborate adjacent segment motion, degeneration, disease, and reoperation of CDA compared with ACDF. Meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs). PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Library were searched for RCTs comparing CDA and ACDF before May 2016. The analysis parameters included follow-up time, operative segments, adjacent segment motion, ASDeg, ASDis, and adjacent segment reoperation. The risk of bias scale was used to assess the papers. Subgroup analysis and sensitivity analysis were used to analyze the reason for high heterogeneity. Twenty-nine RCTs fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Compared with ACDF, the rate of adjacent segment reoperation in the CDA group was significantly lower (p<.01), and the advantage of that group in reducing adjacent segment reoperation increases with increasing follow-up time by subgroup analysis. There was no statistically significant difference in ASDeg between CDA and ACDF within the 24-month follow-up period; however, the rate of ASDeg in CDA was significantly lower than that of ACDF with the increase in follow-up time (p<.01). There was no statistically significant difference in ASDis between CDA and ACDF (p>.05). Cervical disc arthroplasty provided a lower adjacent segment range of motion (ROM) than did ACDF, but the difference was not statistically significant. Compared with ACDF, the advantages of CDA were lower ASDeg and adjacent segment reoperation. However, there was no statistically significant difference in ASDis and adjacent segment ROM. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

77 FR 23515 - Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-04-19

... from a quantitative, comprehensive or even representative survey or study of the burdens associated... existing registered money market fund: Documentation of credit risk analyses, and determinations regarding... for documentation of credit analyses and other determinations) = 2340 responses. (30 funds x 12...

Validation of a portable nitric oxide analyzer for screening in primary ciliary dyskinesias.

PubMed

Harris, Amanda; Bhullar, Esther; Gove, Kerry; Joslin, Rhiannon; Pelling, Jennifer; Evans, Hazel J; Walker, Woolf T; Lucas, Jane S

2014-02-10

Nasal nitric oxide (nNO) levels are very low in primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) and it is used as a screening test. We assessed the reliability and usability of a hand-held analyser in comparison to a stationary nitric oxide (NO) analyser in 50 participants (15 healthy, 13 PCD, 22 other respiratory diseases; age 6-79 years). Nasal NO was measured using a stationary NO analyser during a breath-holding maneuver, and using a hand-held analyser during tidal breathing, sampling at 2 ml/sec or 5 ml/sec. The three methods were compared for their specificity and sensitivity as a screen for PCD, their success rate in different age groups, within subject repeatability and acceptability. Correlation between methods was assessed. Valid nNO measurements were obtained in 94% of participants using the stationary analyser, 96% using the hand-held analyser at 5 ml/sec and 76% at 2 ml/sec. The hand-held device at 5 ml/sec had excellent sensitivity and specificity as a screening test for PCD during tidal breathing (cut-off of 30 nL/min,100% sensitivity, >95% specificity). The cut-off using the stationary analyser during breath-hold was 38 nL/min (100% sensitivity, 95% specificity). The stationary and hand-held analyser (5 ml/sec) showed reasonable within-subject repeatability(% coefficient of variation = 15). The hand-held NO analyser provides a promising screening tool for PCD.

SBML-SAT: a systems biology markup language (SBML) based sensitivity analysis tool

PubMed Central

Zi, Zhike; Zheng, Yanan; Rundell, Ann E; Klipp, Edda

2008-01-01

Background It has long been recognized that sensitivity analysis plays a key role in modeling and analyzing cellular and biochemical processes. Systems biology markup language (SBML) has become a well-known platform for coding and sharing mathematical models of such processes. However, current SBML compatible software tools are limited in their ability to perform global sensitivity analyses of these models. Results This work introduces a freely downloadable, software package, SBML-SAT, which implements algorithms for simulation, steady state analysis, robustness analysis and local and global sensitivity analysis for SBML models. This software tool extends current capabilities through its execution of global sensitivity analyses using multi-parametric sensitivity analysis, partial rank correlation coefficient, SOBOL's method, and weighted average of local sensitivity analyses in addition to its ability to handle systems with discontinuous events and intuitive graphical user interface. Conclusion SBML-SAT provides the community of systems biologists a new tool for the analysis of their SBML models of biochemical and cellular processes. PMID:18706080

SBML-SAT: a systems biology markup language (SBML) based sensitivity analysis tool.

PubMed

Zi, Zhike; Zheng, Yanan; Rundell, Ann E; Klipp, Edda

2008-08-15

It has long been recognized that sensitivity analysis plays a key role in modeling and analyzing cellular and biochemical processes. Systems biology markup language (SBML) has become a well-known platform for coding and sharing mathematical models of such processes. However, current SBML compatible software tools are limited in their ability to perform global sensitivity analyses of these models. This work introduces a freely downloadable, software package, SBML-SAT, which implements algorithms for simulation, steady state analysis, robustness analysis and local and global sensitivity analysis for SBML models. This software tool extends current capabilities through its execution of global sensitivity analyses using multi-parametric sensitivity analysis, partial rank correlation coefficient, SOBOL's method, and weighted average of local sensitivity analyses in addition to its ability to handle systems with discontinuous events and intuitive graphical user interface. SBML-SAT provides the community of systems biologists a new tool for the analysis of their SBML models of biochemical and cellular processes.

Overview of the reanalysis of the Harvard Six Cities Study and American Cancer Society Study of Particulate Air Pollution and Mortality.

PubMed

Krewski, Daniel; Burnett, Richard T; Goldberg, Mark S; Hoover, B Kristin; Siemiatycki, Jack; Jerrett, Michael; Abrahamowicz, Michal; White, Warren H

This article provides an overview of the Reanalysis Study of the Harvard Six Cities and the American Cancer Society (ACS) studies of particulate air pollution and mortality. The previous findings of the studies have been subject to debate. In response, a reanalysis team, comprised of Canadian and American researchers, was invited to participate in an independent reanalysis project to address the concerns. Phase I of the reanalysis involved the design of data audits to determine whether each study conformed to the consistency and accuracy of their data. Phase II of the reanalysis involved conducting a series of comprehensive analyses using alternative statistical methods. Alternative models were also used to identify covariates that may confound or modify the association of particulate air pollution as well as identify sensitive population subgroups. The audit demonstrated that the data in the original analyses were of high quality, as were the risk estimates reported by the original investigators. The sensitivity analysis illustrated that the mortality risk estimates reported in both studies were found to be robust against alternative Cox models. Detailed investigation of the covariate effects found a significant modifying effect of education and a relative risk of mortality associated with fine particles and declining education levels. The study team applied spatial analytic methods to the ACS data, resulting in various levels of spatial autocorrelations supporting the reported association for fine particles mortality of the original investigators as well as demonstrating a significant association between sulfur dioxide and mortality. Collectively, our reanalysis suggest that mortality may be attributable to more than one component of the complex mixture of ambient air pollutants for U.S. urban areas.

Passive Microwave Algorithms for Sea Ice Concentration: A Comparison of Two Techniques

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Comiso, Josefino C.; Cavalieri, Donald J.; Parkinson, Claire L.; Gloersen, Per

1997-01-01

The most comprehensive large-scale characterization of the global sea ice cover so far has been provided by satellite passive microwave data. Accurate retrieval of ice concentrations from these data is important because of the sensitivity of surface flux(e.g. heat, salt, and water) calculations to small change in the amount of open water (leads and polynyas) within the polar ice packs. Two algorithms that have been used for deriving ice concentrations from multichannel data are compared. One is the NASA Team algorithm and the other is the Bootstrap algorithm, both of which were developed at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. The two algorithms use different channel combinations, reference brightness temperatures, weather filters, and techniques. Analyses are made to evaluate the sensitivity of algorithm results to variations of emissivity and temperature with space and time. To assess the difference in the performance of the two algorithms, analyses were performed with data from both hemispheres and for all seasons. The results show only small differences in the central Arctic in but larger disagreements in the seasonal regions and in summer. In some ares in the Antarctic, the Bootstrap technique show ice concentrations higher than those of the Team algorithm by as much as 25%; whereas, in other areas, it shows ice concentrations lower by as much as 30%. The The differences in the results are caused by temperature effects, emissivity effects, and tie point differences. The Team and the Bootstrap results were compared with available Landsat, advanced very high resolution radiometer (AVHRR) and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data. AVHRR, Landsat, and SAR data sets all yield higher concentrations than the passive microwave algorithms. Inconsistencies among results suggest the need for further validation studies.

Sensitivity Analysis and Parameter Estimation for a Reactive Transport Model of Uranium Bioremediation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meyer, P. D.; Yabusaki, S.; Curtis, G. P.; Ye, M.; Fang, Y.

2011-12-01

A three-dimensional, variably-saturated flow and multicomponent biogeochemical reactive transport model of uranium bioremediation was used to generate synthetic data . The 3-D model was based on a field experiment at the U.S. Dept. of Energy Rifle Integrated Field Research Challenge site that used acetate biostimulation of indigenous metal reducing bacteria to catalyze the conversion of aqueous uranium in the +6 oxidation state to immobile solid-associated uranium in the +4 oxidation state. A key assumption in past modeling studies at this site was that a comprehensive reaction network could be developed largely through one-dimensional modeling. Sensitivity analyses and parameter estimation were completed for a 1-D reactive transport model abstracted from the 3-D model to test this assumption, to identify parameters with the greatest potential to contribute to model predictive uncertainty, and to evaluate model structure and data limitations. Results showed that sensitivities of key biogeochemical concentrations varied in space and time, that model nonlinearities and/or parameter interactions have a significant impact on calculated sensitivities, and that the complexity of the model's representation of processes affecting Fe(II) in the system may make it difficult to correctly attribute observed Fe(II) behavior to modeled processes. Non-uniformity of the 3-D simulated groundwater flux and averaging of the 3-D synthetic data for use as calibration targets in the 1-D modeling resulted in systematic errors in the 1-D model parameter estimates and outputs. This occurred despite using the same reaction network for 1-D modeling as used in the data-generating 3-D model. Predictive uncertainty of the 1-D model appeared to be significantly underestimated by linear parameter uncertainty estimates.

Diagnostic algorithm for detection of targetable driver mutations in lung adenocarcinomas: Comprehensive analyses of 205 cases with immunohistochemistry, real-time PCR and fluorescence in situ hybridization methods.

PubMed

Kao, Hua-Lin; Yeh, Yi-Chen; Lin, Chin-Hsuan; Hsu, Wei-Fang; Hsieh, Wen-Yu; Ho, Hsiang-Ling; Chou, Teh-Ying

2016-11-01

Analysis of the targetable driver mutations is now recommended in all patients with advanced lung adenocarcinoma. Molecular-based methods are usually adopted, however, along with the implementation of highly sensitive and/or mutation-specific antibodies, immunohistochemistry (IHC) has been considered an alternative method for identifying driver mutations in lung adenocarcinomas. A total of 205 lung adenocarcinomas were examined for EGFR mutations and ALK and ROS1 rearrangements using real-time PCR, fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) and IHC in parallel. The performance of different commercially available IHC antibody clones toward targetable driver mutations was evaluated. The association between these driver mutations and clinicopathological characteristics was also analyzed. In 205 cases we studied, 58.5% were found to harbor EGFR mutations, 6.3% ALK rearrangements and 1.0% ROS1 rearrangements. Compared to molecular-based methods, IHC of EGFR mutations showed an excellent specificity but the sensitivity is suboptimal, while IHC of ALK and ROS1 rearrangements demonstrated high sensitivity and specificity. No significant difference regarding the performance of different antibody clones toward these driver mutations was observed, except that clone SP125 showed a higher sensitivity than 43B2 in the detection of p.L858R of EGFR. In circumstances such as poor quality of nucleic acids or low content of tumor cells, IHC of EGFR mutation-specific antibodies could be used as an alternative method. Patients negative for EGFR mutations are subjected to further analysis on ALK and ROS1 rearrangements using IHC methods. Herein, we proposed a lung adenocarcinoma testing algorithm for the application of IHC in therapeutic diagnosis. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Knowledge, Perceptions and Acceptability to Strengthening Adolescents’ Sexual and Reproductive Health Education amongst Secondary Schools in Gulu District

PubMed Central

Herman, Lule; Ovuga, E.; Mshilla, M.; Ojara, S.; Kimbugwe, G.; Adrawa, A. P.; Mahuro, N.

2014-01-01

Adolescents in Northern Uganda are at risk of teenage pregnancies, unsafe abortions and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). There is silence on sex both at home and school. This cross sectional descriptive analytical study interviews a random sample of 827 students and 13 teachers on knowledge, perception and acceptability to a comprehensive adolescent sexual and reproductive health education in “O” and “A” level secondary schools in Gulu District. Quantitative data was analysed using SPSS 16.0. Directed content analysis of themes of transcribed qualitative data was conducted manually for common codes, sub-categories and categories. Of the 827 students; 54.3% (449) reported being in a sexual relationship especially those aged 15–17 years. Majority 96.1% (807) supported the teaching of a comprehensive ASRHE, citing no negative impact 71.5% (601). Majority 81.6% (686) agreed that such education could help prevention of STIs, abortions and teenage pregnancies, and that it should be taught by health workers 69.0% (580). Majority 76.6% (203) reported that ASRHE was not currently being taught in their schools. Students had low knowledge levels and misconceptions about ASRHE. ASRHE was highly acceptable though not being emphasized; its success in school settings requires multidisciplinary culturally sensitive approaches amongst which health workers should be frontiers. PMID:24748950

Risk analysis for rumor propagation in metropolises based on improved 8-state ICSAR model and dynamic personal activity trajectories

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, N.; Huang, H.; Duarte, M.; Zhang, J.

2016-06-01

Social media has developed extremely fast in metropolises in recent years resulting in more and more rumors disturbing our daily lives. Knowing the characteristics of rumor propagation in metropolises can help the government make efficient rumor refutation plans. In this paper, we established a dynamic spatio-temporal comprehensive risk assessment model for rumor propagation based on an improved 8-state ICSAR model (Ignorant, Information Carrier, Information Spreader, Advocate, Removal), large personal activity trajectory data, and governmental rumor refutation (anti-rumor) scenarios. Combining these relevant data with the 'big' traffic data on the use of subways, buses, and taxis, we simulated daily oral communications among inhabitants in Beijing. In order to analyze rumor and anti-rumor competition in the actual social network, personal resistance, personal preference, conformity, rumor intensity, government rumor refutation and other influencing factors were considered. Based on the developed risk assessment model, a long-term dynamic rumor propagation simulation for a seven day period was conducted and a comprehensive rumor propagation risk distribution map was obtained. A set of the sensitivity analyses were conducted for different social media and propagation routes. We assessed different anti-rumor coverage ratios and the rumor-spreading thresholds at which the government started to launch anti-rumor actions. The results we obtained provide worthwhile references useful for governmental decision making towards control of social-disrupting rumors.

Laser-induced fluorescence detection platform for point-of-care testing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Berner, Marcel; Hilbig, Urs; Schubert, Markus B.; Gauglitz, Günter

2017-08-01

Point-of-care testing (POCT) devices for continuous low-cost monitoring of critical patient parameters require miniaturized and integrated setups for performing quick high-sensitivity analyses, away from central clinical laboratories. This work presents a novel and promising laser-induced fluorescence platform for measurements in direct optical test formats that leads towards such powerful POCT devices based on fluorescence-labeled immunoassays. Ultimate sensitivity of thin film photodetectors, integrated with microfluidics, and a comprehensive optimization of all system components aim at low-level signal detection in the targeted biosensor application. The setup acquires fluorescence signals from the volume of a microfluidic channel. An innovative sandwiching process forms a flow channel in the microfluidic chips by embedding laser-cut double-sided adhesive tapes. The custom fit of amorphous silicon based photodiode arrays to the geometry of the flow channel enables miniaturization, fully adequate for POCT devices. A free-beam laser excitation with line focus provides excellent alignment stability, allows for easy and reliable swapping of the disposable microfluidic chips, and therewith greatly improves the ease of use of the resulting integrated device. As a proof-of-concept of this novel in-volume measurement approach, the limit of detection for the dye DY636-COOH in pure water as a model fluorophore is examined and found to be 26 nmol l-1 .

Process development and exergy cost sensitivity analysis of a hybrid molten carbonate fuel cell power plant and carbon dioxide capturing process

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mehrpooya, Mehdi; Ansarinasab, Hojat; Moftakhari Sharifzadeh, Mohammad Mehdi; Rosen, Marc A.

2017-10-01

An integrated power plant with a net electrical power output of 3.71 × 105 kW is developed and investigated. The electrical efficiency of the process is found to be 60.1%. The process includes three main sub-systems: molten carbonate fuel cell system, heat recovery section and cryogenic carbon dioxide capturing process. Conventional and advanced exergoeconomic methods are used for analyzing the process. Advanced exergoeconomic analysis is a comprehensive evaluation tool which combines an exergetic approach with economic analysis procedures. With this method, investment and exergy destruction costs of the process components are divided into endogenous/exogenous and avoidable/unavoidable parts. Results of the conventional exergoeconomic analyses demonstrate that the combustion chamber has the largest exergy destruction rate (182 MW) and cost rate (13,100 /h). Also, the total process cost rate can be decreased by reducing the cost rate of the fuel cell and improving the efficiency of the combustion chamber and heat recovery steam generator. Based on the total avoidable endogenous cost rate, the priority for modification is the heat recovery steam generator, a compressor and a turbine of the power plant, in rank order. A sensitivity analysis is done to investigate the exergoeconomic factor parameters through changing the effective parameter variations.

A new look at sulphur chemistry in hot cores and corinos

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vidal, Thomas H. G.; Wakelam, Valentine

2018-03-01

Sulphur-bearing species are often used to probe the evolution of hot cores because their abundances are particularly sensitive to physical and chemical variations. However, the chemistry of sulphur is not well understood in these regions, notably because observations of several hot cores have displayed a large variety of sulphur compositions, and because the reservoir of sulphur in dense clouds, in which hot cores form, is still poorly constrained. In order to help disentangle its complexity, we present a fresh comprehensive review of sulphur chemistry in hot cores along with a study of sulphur's sensibility to temperature and pre-collapse chemical composition. In parallel, we analyse the discrepencies that result from the use of two different types of models (static and dynamic) in order to highlight the sensitivity to the choice of model to be used in astrochemical studies. Our results show that the pre-collapse chemical composition is a critical parameter for sulphur chemistry in hot cores and that it could explain the different sulphur compositions observed. We also report that differences in abundances for a given species between the static and dynamic models can reach six orders of magnitude in the hot core, which reveals the key role of the choice of model in astrochemical studies.

Evaluation of the precision of contrast sensitivity function assessment on a tablet device

PubMed Central

Dorr, Michael; Lesmes, Luis A.; Elze, Tobias; Wang, Hui; Lu, Zhong-Lin; Bex, Peter J.

2017-01-01

The contrast sensitivity function (CSF) relates the visibility of a spatial pattern to both its size and contrast, and is therefore a more comprehensive assessment of visual function than acuity, which only determines the smallest resolvable pattern size. Because of the additional dimension of contrast, estimating the CSF can be more time-consuming. Here, we compare two methods for rapid assessment of the CSF that were implemented on a tablet device. For a single-trial assessment, we asked 63 myopes and 38 emmetropes to tap the peak of a “sweep grating” on the tablet’s touch screen. For a more precise assessment, subjects performed 50 trials of the quick CSF method in a 10-AFC letter recognition task. Tests were performed with and without optical correction, and in monocular and binocular conditions; one condition was measured twice to assess repeatability. Results show that both methods are highly correlated; using both common and novel measures for test-retest repeatability, however, the quick CSF delivers more precision with testing times of under three minutes. Further analyses show how a population prior can improve convergence rate of the quick CSF, and how the multi-dimensional output of the quick CSF can provide greater precision than scalar outcome measures. PMID:28429773

SIPSim: A Modeling Toolkit to Predict Accuracy and Aid Design of DNA-SIP Experiments.

PubMed

Youngblut, Nicholas D; Barnett, Samuel E; Buckley, Daniel H

2018-01-01

DNA Stable isotope probing (DNA-SIP) is a powerful method that links identity to function within microbial communities. The combination of DNA-SIP with multiplexed high throughput DNA sequencing enables simultaneous mapping of in situ assimilation dynamics for thousands of microbial taxonomic units. Hence, high throughput sequencing enabled SIP has enormous potential to reveal patterns of carbon and nitrogen exchange within microbial food webs. There are several different methods for analyzing DNA-SIP data and despite the power of SIP experiments, it remains difficult to comprehensively evaluate method accuracy across a wide range of experimental parameters. We have developed a toolset (SIPSim) that simulates DNA-SIP data, and we use this toolset to systematically evaluate different methods for analyzing DNA-SIP data. Specifically, we employ SIPSim to evaluate the effects that key experimental parameters (e.g., level of isotopic enrichment, number of labeled taxa, relative abundance of labeled taxa, community richness, community evenness, and beta-diversity) have on the specificity, sensitivity, and balanced accuracy (defined as the product of specificity and sensitivity) of DNA-SIP analyses. Furthermore, SIPSim can predict analytical accuracy and power as a function of experimental design and community characteristics, and thus should be of great use in the design and interpretation of DNA-SIP experiments.

SIPSim: A Modeling Toolkit to Predict Accuracy and Aid Design of DNA-SIP Experiments

PubMed Central

Youngblut, Nicholas D.; Barnett, Samuel E.; Buckley, Daniel H.

2018-01-01

DNA Stable isotope probing (DNA-SIP) is a powerful method that links identity to function within microbial communities. The combination of DNA-SIP with multiplexed high throughput DNA sequencing enables simultaneous mapping of in situ assimilation dynamics for thousands of microbial taxonomic units. Hence, high throughput sequencing enabled SIP has enormous potential to reveal patterns of carbon and nitrogen exchange within microbial food webs. There are several different methods for analyzing DNA-SIP data and despite the power of SIP experiments, it remains difficult to comprehensively evaluate method accuracy across a wide range of experimental parameters. We have developed a toolset (SIPSim) that simulates DNA-SIP data, and we use this toolset to systematically evaluate different methods for analyzing DNA-SIP data. Specifically, we employ SIPSim to evaluate the effects that key experimental parameters (e.g., level of isotopic enrichment, number of labeled taxa, relative abundance of labeled taxa, community richness, community evenness, and beta-diversity) have on the specificity, sensitivity, and balanced accuracy (defined as the product of specificity and sensitivity) of DNA-SIP analyses. Furthermore, SIPSim can predict analytical accuracy and power as a function of experimental design and community characteristics, and thus should be of great use in the design and interpretation of DNA-SIP experiments. PMID:29643843

Career Decision-Making and the Military Family: Toward a Comprehensive Model

DTIC Science & Technology

1990-03-01

specify and test the model. Appendices A through E contain the papers on the five major sub- models. 4 II. IN SEARCH OF A COMPREHENSIVE MODEL Employee ... employees (e.g., Mobley, et al., 1979). In other words, the civilian has considerable opportunity to incorporate experience content into career... belongingness ) to growth needs (esteem, self- actualization). The emphasis is upon display of sensitivity, responsiveness and accommodation by management

Analyzing the Reliability of the easyCBM Reading Comprehension Measures: Grade 5. Technical Report #1204

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Park, Bitnara Jasmine; Irvin, P. Shawn; Lai, Cheng-Fei; Alonzo, Julie; Tindal, Gerald

2012-01-01

In this technical report, we present the results of a reliability study of the fifth-grade multiple choice reading comprehension measures available on the easyCBM learning system conducted in the spring of 2011. Analyses include split-half reliability, alternate form reliability, person and item reliability as derived from Rasch analysis,…

Analyzing the Reliability of the easyCBM Reading Comprehension Measures: Grade 2. Technical Report #1201

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lai, Cheng-Fei; Irvin, P. Shawn; Alonzo, Julie; Park, Bitnara Jasmine; Tindal, Gerald

2012-01-01

In this technical report, we present the results of a reliability study of the second-grade multiple choice reading comprehension measures available on the easyCBM learning system conducted in the spring of 2011. Analyses include split-half reliability, alternate form reliability, person and item reliability as derived from Rasch analysis,…

Analyzing the Reliability of the easyCBM Reading Comprehension Measures: Grade 4. Technical Report #1203

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Park, Bitnara Jasmine; Irvin, P. Shawn; Alonzo, Julie; Lai, Cheng-Fei; Tindal, Gerald

2012-01-01

In this technical report, we present the results of a reliability study of the fourth-grade multiple choice reading comprehension measures available on the easyCBM learning system conducted in the spring of 2011. Analyses include split-half reliability, alternate form reliability, person and item reliability as derived from Rasch analysis,…

Analyzing the Reliability of the easyCBM Reading Comprehension Measures: Grade 6. Technical Report #1205

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Irvin, P. Shawn; Alonzo, Julie; Park, Bitnara Jasmine; Lai, Cheng-Fei; Tindal, Gerald

2012-01-01

In this technical report, we present the results of a reliability study of the sixth-grade multiple choice reading comprehension measures available on the easyCBM learning system conducted in the spring of 2011. Analyses include split-half reliability, alternate form reliability, person and item reliability as derived from Rasch analysis,…

Analyzing the Reliability of the easyCBM Reading Comprehension Measures: Grade 7. Technical Report #1206

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Irvin, P. Shawn; Alonzo, Julie; Lai, Cheng-Fei; Park, Bitnara Jasmine; Tindal, Gerald

2012-01-01

In this technical report, we present the results of a reliability study of the seventh-grade multiple choice reading comprehension measures available on the easyCBM learning system conducted in the spring of 2011. Analyses include split-half reliability, alternate form reliability, person and item reliability as derived from Rasch analysis,…

Analyzing the Reliability of the easyCBM Reading Comprehension Measures: Grade 3. Technical Report #1202

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lai, Cheng-Fei; Irvin, P. Shawn; Park, Bitnara Jasmine; Alonzo, Julie; Tindal, Gerald

2012-01-01

In this technical report, we present the results of a reliability study of the third-grade multiple choice reading comprehension measures available on the easyCBM learning system conducted in the spring of 2011. Analyses include split-half reliability, alternate form reliability, person and item reliability as derived from Rasch analysis,…

The Impact of Race and Socioeconomic Status on the Reading Comprehension Growth Trajectories of Adolescents

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pickens, Tyra W.

2016-01-01

The purpose of the current study was to examine features of adolescent reading comprehension trajectories and make within-person and between-person analyses of growth that occurs during the high school grades. Racial and socioeconomic group differences of the adolescent reading trajectories were also investigated and compared. This examination…

Reading Development in European Portuguese: Relationships between Oral Reading Fluency, Vocabulary and Reading Comprehension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fernandes, Sandra; Querido, Luís; Verhaeghe, Arlette; Marques, Catarina; Araújo, Luísa

2017-01-01

This study investigated direct and indirect effects between oral reading fluency, vocabulary and reading comprehension across reading development in European Portuguese. Participants were 329 children attending basic education, from grade 1 to grade 6. The results of path analyses showed that text reading fluency is much more dependent on the…

The Relation between DIBELS, Reading Comprehension, and Vocabulary in Urban First-Grade Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Riedel, Brant W.

2007-01-01

The relation between Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) and reading comprehension at the end of first grade and second grade was examined in a sample of 1,518 first-grade students from a large urban school district. Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) analyses were used to determine optimal DIBELS cut scores for…

An Investigation of Chinese University EFL Learner's Foreign Language Reading Anxiety, Reading Strategy Use and Reading Comprehension Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lu, Zhongshe; Liu, Meihua

2015-01-01

The present study explored the interrelations between foreign language (FL) reading anxiety, FL reading strategy use and their interactive effect on FL reading comprehension performance at the tertiary level in China. Analyses of the survey data collected from 1702 university students yielded the following results: (a) Both Foreign Language…

Integrating Cognitive Views into Psychometric Models for Reading Comprehension Assessment. Research Report. ETS RR-17-35

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rahman, Taslima; Mislevy, Robert J.

2017-01-01

To demonstrate how methodologies for assessing reading comprehension can grow out of views of the construct suggested in the reading research literature, we constructed tasks and carried out psychometric analyses that were framed in accordance with 2 leading reading models. In estimating item difficulty and subsequently, examinee proficiency, an…

Dimensionality of Reading Skills with Elementary-School-Age Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lonigan, Christopher J.; Burgess, Stephen R.

2017-01-01

Confirmatory factor analyses of data from 1,501 kindergarten to 5th-grade children who completed 3 measures of decoding, 3 measures of reading comprehension, and 3 measures of listening comprehension as part of a larger study were used to identify the dimensionality of reading skills across elementary school. A 1-factor (reading) model was the…

An automatic and effective parameter optimization method for model tuning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, T.; Li, L.; Lin, Y.; Xue, W.; Xie, F.; Xu, H.; Huang, X.

2015-05-01

Physical parameterizations in General Circulation Models (GCMs), having various uncertain parameters, greatly impact model performance and model climate sensitivity. Traditional manual and empirical tuning of these parameters is time consuming and ineffective. In this study, a "three-step" methodology is proposed to automatically and effectively obtain the optimum combination of some key parameters in cloud and convective parameterizations according to a comprehensive objective evaluation metrics. Different from the traditional optimization methods, two extra steps, one determines parameter sensitivity and the other chooses the optimum initial value of sensitive parameters, are introduced before the downhill simplex method to reduce the computational cost and improve the tuning performance. Atmospheric GCM simulation results show that the optimum combination of these parameters determined using this method is able to improve the model's overall performance by 9%. The proposed methodology and software framework can be easily applied to other GCMs to speed up the model development process, especially regarding unavoidable comprehensive parameters tuning during the model development stage.

Optimization Issues with Complex Rotorcraft Comprehensive Analysis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Walsh, Joanne L.; Young, Katherine C.; Tarzanin, Frank J.; Hirsh, Joel E.; Young, Darrell K.

1998-01-01

This paper investigates the use of the general purpose automatic differentiation (AD) tool called Automatic Differentiation of FORTRAN (ADIFOR) as a means of generating sensitivity derivatives for use in Boeing Helicopter's proprietary comprehensive rotor analysis code (VII). ADIFOR transforms an existing computer program into a new program that performs a sensitivity analysis in addition to the original analysis. In this study both the pros (exact derivatives, no step-size problems) and cons (more CPU, more memory) of ADIFOR are discussed. The size (based on the number of lines) of the VII code after ADIFOR processing increased by 70 percent and resulted in substantial computer memory requirements at execution. The ADIFOR derivatives took about 75 percent longer to compute than the finite-difference derivatives. However, the ADIFOR derivatives are exact and are not functions of step-size. The VII sensitivity derivatives generated by ADIFOR are compared with finite-difference derivatives. The ADIFOR and finite-difference derivatives are used in three optimization schemes to solve a low vibration rotor design problem.

[Comparison of simple pooling and bivariate model used in meta-analyses of diagnostic test accuracy published in Chinese journals].

PubMed

Huang, Yuan-sheng; Yang, Zhi-rong; Zhan, Si-yan

2015-06-18

To investigate the use of simple pooling and bivariate model in meta-analyses of diagnostic test accuracy (DTA) published in Chinese journals (January to November, 2014), compare the differences of results from these two models, and explore the impact of between-study variability of sensitivity and specificity on the differences. DTA meta-analyses were searched through Chinese Biomedical Literature Database (January to November, 2014). Details in models and data for fourfold table were extracted. Descriptive analysis was conducted to investigate the prevalence of the use of simple pooling method and bivariate model in the included literature. Data were re-analyzed with the two models respectively. Differences in the results were examined by Wilcoxon signed rank test. How the results differences were affected by between-study variability of sensitivity and specificity, expressed by I2, was explored. The 55 systematic reviews, containing 58 DTA meta-analyses, were included and 25 DTA meta-analyses were eligible for re-analysis. Simple pooling was used in 50 (90.9%) systematic reviews and bivariate model in 1 (1.8%). The remaining 4 (7.3%) articles used other models pooling sensitivity and specificity or pooled neither of them. Of the reviews simply pooling sensitivity and specificity, 41(82.0%) were at the risk of wrongly using Meta-disc software. The differences in medians of sensitivity and specificity between two models were both 0.011 (P<0.001, P=0.031 respectively). Greater differences could be found as I2 of sensitivity or specificity became larger, especially when I2>75%. Most DTA meta-analyses published in Chinese journals(January to November, 2014) combine the sensitivity and specificity by simple pooling. Meta-disc software can pool the sensitivity and specificity only through fixed-effect model, but a high proportion of authors think it can implement random-effect model. Simple pooling tends to underestimate the results compared with bivariate model. The greater the between-study variance is, the more likely the simple pooling has larger deviation. It is necessary to increase the knowledge level of statistical methods and software for meta-analyses of DTA data.

On the comprehensibility and perceived privacy protection of indirect questioning techniques.

PubMed

Hoffmann, Adrian; Waubert de Puiseau, Berenike; Schmidt, Alexander F; Musch, Jochen

2017-08-01

On surveys that assess sensitive personal attributes, indirect questioning aims at increasing respondents' willingness to answer truthfully by protecting confidentiality. However, the assumption that subjects understand questioning procedures fully and trust them to protect their privacy is rarely tested. In a scenario-based design, we compared four indirect questioning procedures in terms of their comprehensibility and perceived privacy protection. All indirect questioning techniques were found to be less comprehensible by respondents than a conventional direct question used for comparison. Less-educated respondents experienced more difficulties when confronted with any indirect questioning technique. Regardless of education, the crosswise model was found to be the most comprehensible among the four indirect methods. Indirect questioning in general was perceived to increase privacy protection in comparison to a direct question. Unexpectedly, comprehension and perceived privacy protection did not correlate. We recommend assessing these factors separately in future evaluations of indirect questioning.

Sensitivity to Speaker Control in the Online Comprehension of Conditional Tips and Promises: An Eye-Tracking Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stewart, Andrew J.; Haigh, Matthew; Ferguson, Heather J.

2013-01-01

Statements of the form if… then… can be used to communicate conditional speech acts such as tips and promises. Conditional promises require the speaker to have perceived control over the outcome event, whereas conditional tips do not. In an eye-tracking study, we examined whether readers are sensitive to information about perceived speaker control…

Effects of Social-Cognitive Processing Demands and Structural Importance on Narrative Recall: Differences between Children, Adolescents, and Adults

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pavias, Marcella; van den Broek, Paul; Hickendorff, Marian; Beker, Katinka; Van Leijenhorst, Linda

2016-01-01

This study examined the contributions of developmental changes in social-cognitive ability throughout adolescence to the development of narrative comprehension. We measured the effects of sensitivity to the causal structure of narratives and of sensitivity to differences in social-cognitive processing demands on narrative recall by children (8-10…

Integrating Infant Mental Health into Primary Health Care and Early Childhood Education Settings in Israel: The "Mediational Intervention for Sensitizing Caregivers" Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shohet, Cilly; Jaegermann, Nurit

2012-01-01

The Mediational Intervention for Sensitizing Caregivers (MISC) model is a comprehensive developmental approach to help adults understand their role in child development by enhancing the quality of adult-child interactions. This article describes how the Irving B. Harris Program for Infants, Toddlers and Their Families at Bar-Ilan University…

Fifty years of chasing lizards: new insights advance optimal escape theory.

PubMed

Samia, Diogo S M; Blumstein, Daniel T; Stankowich, Theodore; Cooper, William E

2016-05-01

Systematic reviews and meta-analyses often examine data from diverse taxa to identify general patterns of effect sizes. Meta-analyses that focus on identifying generalisations in a single taxon are also valuable because species in a taxon are more likely to share similar unique constraints. We conducted a comprehensive phylogenetic meta-analysis of flight initiation distance in lizards. Flight initiation distance (FID) is a common metric used to quantify risk-taking and has previously been shown to reflect adaptive decision-making. The past decade has seen an explosion of studies focused on quantifying FID in lizards, and, because lizards occur in a wide range of habitats, are ecologically diverse, and are typically smaller and differ physiologically from the better studied mammals and birds, they are worthy of detailed examination. We found that variables that reflect the costs or benefits of flight (being engaged in social interactions, having food available) as well as certain predator effects (predator size and approach speed) had large effects on FID in the directions predicted by optimal escape theory. Variables that were associated with morphology (with the exception of crypsis) and physiology had relatively small effects, whereas habitat selection factors typically had moderate to large effect sizes. Lizards, like other taxa, are very sensitive to the costs of flight. © 2015 Cambridge Philosophical Society.

A Parametric Study on Using Active Debris Removal to Stabilize the Future LEO Debris Environment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Liou, J.C.

2010-01-01

Recent analyses of the instability of the orbital debris population in the low Earth orbit (LEO) region and the collision between Iridium 33 and Cosmos 2251 have reignited the interest in using active debris removal (ADR) to remediate the environment. There are; however, monumental technical, resources, operational, legal, and political challenges in making economically viable ADR a reality. Before a consensus on the need for ADR can be reached, a careful analysis of the effectiveness of ADR must be conducted. The goal is to demonstrate the feasibility of using ADR to preserve the future environment and to guide its implementation to maximize the benefit-cost ratio. This paper describes a comprehensive sensitivity study on using ADR to stabilize the future LEO debris environment. The NASA long-term, orbital debris evolutionary model, LEGEND, is used to quantify the effects of many key parameters. These parameters include (1) the starting epoch of ADR implementation, (2) various target selection criteria, (3) the benefits of collision avoidance maneuvers, (4) the consequence of targeting specific inclination or altitude regimes, (5) the consequence of targeting specific classes of vehicles, and (6) the timescale of removal. Additional analyses on the importance of postmission disposal and how future launches might affect the requirements to stabilize the environment are also included.

Comparative cost analysis of housing and case management program for chronically ill homeless adults compared to usual care.

PubMed

Basu, Anirban; Kee, Romina; Buchanan, David; Sadowski, Laura S

2012-02-01

To assess the costs of a housing and case management program in a novel sample-homeless adults with chronic medical illnesses. The study used data from multiple sources: (1) electronic medical records for hospital, emergency room, and ambulatory medical and mental health visits; (2) institutional and regional databases for days in respite centers, jails, or prisons; and (3) interviews for days in nursing homes, shelters, substance abuse treatment centers, and case manager visits. Total costs were estimated using unit costs for each service. Randomized controlled trial of 407 homeless adults with chronic medical illnesses enrolled at two hospitals in Chicago, Illinois, and followed for 18 months. Compared to usual care, the intervention group generated an average annual cost savings of (-)$6,307 per person (95 percent CI: -16,616, 4,002; p = .23). Subgroup analyses of chronically homeless and those with HIV showed higher per person, annual cost savings of (-)$9,809 and (-)$6,622, respectively. Results were robust to sensitivity analysis using unit costs. The findings of this comprehensive, comparative cost analyses demonstrated an important average annual savings, though in this underpowered study these savings did not achieve statistical significance. © Health Research and Educational Trust.

Titan Ice and Dust Experiment (TIDE): Detection and Analysis of Compounds of Interest to Astrobiology in the Lower Atmosphere and Surface of Titan

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kojiro, Daniel R.; Holland Paul M.; Stimac, Robert M.; Kaye, William J.; Takeruchi, Noreshige

2004-01-01

The Titan Orbiter Aerorover Mission (TOAM) is a proposed concept for the Solar System Exploration Visions Mission, Titan Explorer, a follow-on to the Cassini-Huygens mission. TOAM would use a Titan polar orbiter and a lighter-than-air aerorover to investigate the surface and atmosphere of Titan. Astrobiology issues will be addressed though TOAM investigations including, for example: Distribution and composition of organics (atmospheric, aerosol, surface); Organic chemical processes, their chemical context and energy sources; and Seasonal variations and interactions of the atmosphere and surface. The TIDE instrument will perform in-situ analyses to obtain comprehensive and sensitive molecular and elemental assays of volatile organics in the atmosphere, oceans and surface. TIDE chemical analyses are conducted by a Gas Chromatograph-Ion Mobility Spectrometer (GC-IMS). This TIDE GC-IMS was a component of the mini-Cometary Ice and Dust Experiment (mini-CIDEX) developed for the chemical analysis of a cometary environment. Both the GC and helium IMS of mini-CIDEX have been further developed to better meet the analytical and operational requirements of the TOAM. application. A Micro-ElectroMechanical System (MEMS) GC and Mini-Cell helium IMS are under development to replace their respective mini-CIDEX components, providing similar or advanced analytical capabilities.

Lexical decision as an endophenotype for reading comprehension: An exploration of an association

PubMed Central

NAPLES, ADAM; KATZ, LEN; GRIGORENKO, ELENA L.

2012-01-01

Based on numerous suggestions in the literature, we evaluated lexical decision (LD) as a putative endophenotype for reading comprehension by investigating heritability estimates and segregation analyses parameter estimates for both of these phenotypes. Specifically, in a segregation analysis of a large sample of families, we established that there is little to no overlap between genes contributing to LD and reading comprehension and that the genetic mechanism behind LD derived from this analysis appears to be more complex than that for reading comprehension. We conclude that in our sample, LD is not a good candidate as an endophenotype for reading comprehension, despite previous suggestions from the literature. Based on this conclusion, we discuss the role and benefit of the endophenotype approach in studies of complex human cognitive functions. PMID:23062302

Predictors of Reading Comprehension for Struggling Readers: The Case of Spanish-speaking Language Minority Learners.

PubMed

Mancilla-Martinez, Jeannette; Lesaux, Nonie K

2010-08-01

This longitudinal study examined the process of English reading comprehension at age 11 for 173 low achieving Spanish-speaking children. The influence of growth rates, from early childhood (age 4.5) to pre-adolescence (age 11), in vocabulary and word reading skills on this complex process were evaluated using structural equation modeling. Standardized measures of word reading accuracy and productive vocabulary were administered annually, in English and Spanish, and English reading comprehension measures were administered at age 11. Latent growth curve analyses revealed that English skills accounted for all unique variance in English reading comprehension outcomes. Further, expected developmental shifts in the influence of word reading and vocabulary skills over time were not shown, likely on account of students' below grade level reading comprehension achievement. This work underscores the need for theoretical models of comprehension to account for students' skill profiles and abilities.

Predictors of Reading Comprehension for Struggling Readers: The Case of Spanish-speaking Language Minority Learners

PubMed Central

Mancilla-Martinez, Jeannette; Lesaux, Nonie K.

2010-01-01

This longitudinal study examined the process of English reading comprehension at age 11 for 173 low achieving Spanish-speaking children. The influence of growth rates, from early childhood (age 4.5) to pre-adolescence (age 11), in vocabulary and word reading skills on this complex process were evaluated using structural equation modeling. Standardized measures of word reading accuracy and productive vocabulary were administered annually, in English and Spanish, and English reading comprehension measures were administered at age 11. Latent growth curve analyses revealed that English skills accounted for all unique variance in English reading comprehension outcomes. Further, expected developmental shifts in the influence of word reading and vocabulary skills over time were not shown, likely on account of students’ below grade level reading comprehension achievement. This work underscores the need for theoretical models of comprehension to account for students’ skill profiles and abilities. PMID:20856691

Comprehensive evaluation of garment assembly line with simulation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xu, Y.; Thomassey, S.; Chen, Y.; Zeng, X.

2017-10-01

In this paper, a comprehensive evaluation system is established to assess the garment production performance. It is based on performance indicators and supported with the corresponding results obtained by manual calculation or computer simulation. The assembly lines of a typical men’s shirt are taken as the study objects. With the comprehensive evaluation results, garments production arrangement scenarios are better analysed and then the appropriate one is supposed to be put into actual production. This will be a guidance given to companies on quick decision-making and multi-objective optimization of garment production.

Use of a modified informed consent process among vulnerable patients: a descriptive study.

PubMed

Sudore, Rebecca L; Landefeld, C Seth; Williams, Brie A; Barnes, Deborah E; Lindquist, Karla; Schillinger, Dean

2006-08-01

Little is known about patient characteristics associated with comprehension of consent information, and whether modifications to the consent process can promote understanding. To describe a modified research consent process, and determine whether literacy and demographic characteristics are associated with understanding consent information. Descriptive study of a modified consent process: consent form (written at a sixth-grade level) read to participants, combined with 7 comprehension questions and targeted education, repeated until comprehension achieved (teach-to-goal). Two hundred and four ethnically diverse subjects, aged > or = 50, consenting for a trial to improve the forms used for advance directives. Number of passes through the consent process required to achieve complete comprehension. Literacy assessed in English and Spanish with the Short Form Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults (scores 0 to 36). Participants had a mean age of 61 years and 40% had limited literacy (s-TOHFLA<23). Only 28% of subjects answered all comprehension questions correctly on the first pass. After adjustment, lower literacy (P=.04) and being black (P=.03) were associated with requiring more passes through the consent process. Not speaking English as a primary language was associated with requiring more passes through the consent process in bivariate analyses (P<.01), but not in multivariable analyses (P>.05). After the second pass, most subjects (80%) answered all questions correctly. With a teach-to-goal strategy, 98% of participants who engaged in the consent process achieved complete comprehension. Lower literacy and minority status are important determinants of understanding consent information. Using a modified consent process, little additional education was required to achieve complete comprehension, regardless of literacy or language barriers.

Metrics for Evaluating the Accuracy of Solar Power Forecasting: Preprint

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Zhang, J.; Hodge, B. M.; Florita, A.

2013-10-01

Forecasting solar energy generation is a challenging task due to the variety of solar power systems and weather regimes encountered. Forecast inaccuracies can result in substantial economic losses and power system reliability issues. This paper presents a suite of generally applicable and value-based metrics for solar forecasting for a comprehensive set of scenarios (i.e., different time horizons, geographic locations, applications, etc.). In addition, a comprehensive framework is developed to analyze the sensitivity of the proposed metrics to three types of solar forecasting improvements using a design of experiments methodology, in conjunction with response surface and sensitivity analysis methods. The resultsmore » show that the developed metrics can efficiently evaluate the quality of solar forecasts, and assess the economic and reliability impact of improved solar forecasting.« less

A novel approach for modelling vegetation distributions and analysing vegetation sensitivity through trait-climate relationships in China

PubMed Central

Yang, Yanzheng; Zhu, Qiuan; Peng, Changhui; Wang, Han; Xue, Wei; Lin, Guanghui; Wen, Zhongming; Chang, Jie; Wang, Meng; Liu, Guobin; Li, Shiqing

2016-01-01

Increasing evidence indicates that current dynamic global vegetation models (DGVMs) have suffered from insufficient realism and are difficult to improve, particularly because they are built on plant functional type (PFT) schemes. Therefore, new approaches, such as plant trait-based methods, are urgently needed to replace PFT schemes when predicting the distribution of vegetation and investigating vegetation sensitivity. As an important direction towards constructing next-generation DGVMs based on plant functional traits, we propose a novel approach for modelling vegetation distributions and analysing vegetation sensitivity through trait-climate relationships in China. The results demonstrated that a Gaussian mixture model (GMM) trained with a LMA-Nmass-LAI data combination yielded an accuracy of 72.82% in simulating vegetation distribution, providing more detailed parameter information regarding community structures and ecosystem functions. The new approach also performed well in analyses of vegetation sensitivity to different climatic scenarios. Although the trait-climate relationship is not the only candidate useful for predicting vegetation distributions and analysing climatic sensitivity, it sheds new light on the development of next-generation trait-based DGVMs. PMID:27052108

A Longitudinal Investigation of Direct and Indirect Links between Reading Skills in Kindergarten and Reading Comprehension in Tenth Grade

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stanley, Christopher T.; Petscher, Yaacov; Catts, Hugh

2018-01-01

In this study, researchers examined the extent to which several fundamental measures of reading proficiency from kindergarten students (N = 3180) were linked to reading comprehension in tenth grade while controlling for third grade vocabulary and oral reading fluency. Analyses tested the direct and indirect relations between and among…

Comprehension of a Colon Cancer Pamphlet among American Adults at Least 50 Years of Age

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Liu, Chiung-ju

2010-01-01

Objective: The purpose of this study was to identify determinants of comprehension of an educational pamphlet on colon cancer, by adults at least 50 years of age living in the United States. Design: Data were analysed from the "2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy" survey. The survey was designed to assess functional English…

The Effects of Conditioned Reinforcement for Reading on Reading Comprehension for 5th Graders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cumiskey Moore, Colleen

2017-01-01

In three experiments, I tested the effects of the conditioned reinforcement for reading (R+Reading) on reading comprehension with 5th graders. In Experiment 1, I conducted a series of statistical analyses with data from 18 participants for one year. I administered 4 pre/post measurements for reading repertoires which included: 1) state-wide…

The Direct and Indirect Effects of Word Reading and Vocabulary on Adolescents' Reading Comprehension: Comparing Struggling and Adequate Comprehenders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Oslund, Eric L.; Clemens, Nathan H.; Simmons, Deborah C.; Simmons, Leslie E.

2018-01-01

The current study examined statistically significant differences between struggling and adequate readers using a multicomponent model of reading comprehension in 796 sixth through eighth graders, with a primary focus on word reading and vocabulary. Path analyses and Wald tests were used to investigate the direct and indirect relations of word…

Evaluating Treatment and Generalization Patterns of Two Theoretically Motivated Sentence Comprehension Therapies.

PubMed

Des Roches, Carrie A; Vallila-Rohter, Sofia; Villard, Sarah; Tripodis, Yorghos; Caplan, David; Kiran, Swathi

2016-12-01

The current study examined treatment outcomes and generalization patterns following 2 sentence comprehension therapies: object manipulation (OM) and sentence-to-picture matching (SPM). Findings were interpreted within the framework of specific deficit and resource reduction accounts, which were extended in order to examine the nature of generalization following treatment of sentence comprehension deficits in aphasia. Forty-eight individuals with aphasia were enrolled in 1 of 8 potential treatment assignments that varied by task (OM, SPM), complexity of trained sentences (complex, simple), and syntactic movement (noun phrase, wh-movement). Comprehension of trained and untrained sentences was probed before and after treatment using stimuli that differed from the treatment stimuli. Linear mixed-model analyses demonstrated that, although both OM and SPM treatments were effective, OM resulted in greater improvement than SPM. Analyses of covariance revealed main effects of complexity in generalization; generalization from complex to simple linguistically related sentences was observed both across task and across movement. Results are consistent with the complexity account of treatment efficacy, as generalization effects were consistently observed from complex to simpler structures. Furthermore, results provide support for resource reduction accounts that suggest that generalization can extend across linguistic boundaries, such as across movement type.

The Extended Language Network: A Meta-Analysis of Neuroimaging Studies on Text Comprehension

PubMed Central

Ferstl, Evelyn C.; Neumann, Jane; Bogler, Carsten; von Cramon, D. Yves

2010-01-01

Language processing in context requires more than merely comprehending words and sentences. Important subprocesses are inferences for bridging successive utterances, the use of background knowledge and discourse context, and pragmatic interpretations. The functional neuroanatomy of these text comprehension processes has only recently been investigated. Although there is evidence for right-hemisphere contributions, reviews have implicated the left lateral prefrontal cortex, left temporal regions beyond Wernicke’s area, and the left dorso-medial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) for text comprehension. To objectively confirm this extended language network and to evaluate the respective contribution of right hemisphere regions, meta-analyses of 23 neuroimaging studies are reported here. The analyses used replicator dynamics based on activation likelihood estimates. Independent of the baseline, the anterior temporal lobes (aTL) were active bilaterally. In addition, processing of coherent compared with incoherent text engaged the dmPFC and the posterior cingulate cortex. Right hemisphere activations were seen most notably in the analysis of contrasts testing specific subprocesses, such as metaphor comprehension. These results suggest task dependent contributions for the lateral PFC and the right hemisphere. Most importantly, they confirm the role of the aTL and the fronto-medial cortex for language processing in context. PMID:17557297

Comprehensive Evaluation and Analysis of China's Mainstream Online Map Service Websites

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, H.; Jiang, J.; Huang, W.; Wang, Q.; Gu, X.

2012-08-01

With the flourish development of China's Internet market, all kinds of users for map service demand is rising continually, within it contains tremendous commercial interests. Many internet giants have got involved in the field of online map service, and defined it as an important strategic product of the company. The main purpose of this research is to evaluate these online map service websites comprehensively with a model, and analyse the problems according to the evaluation results. Then some corresponding solving measures are proposed, which provides a theoretical and application guidance for the future development of fiercely competitive online map websites. The research consists of three stages: (a) the mainstream online map service websites in China are introduced and the present situation of them is analysed through visit, investigation, consultant, analysis and research. (b) a whole comprehensive evaluation quota system of online map service websites from the view of functions, layout, interaction design color position and so on, combining with the data indexes such as time efficiency, accuracy, objectivity and authority. (c) a comprehensive evaluation to these online map service websites is proceeded based on the fuzzy evaluation mathematical model, and the difficulty that measure the map websites quantitatively is solved.

Age-related differences in warning symbol comprehension and training effectiveness: effects of familiarity, complexity, and comprehensibility.

PubMed

Lesch, M F; Horrey, W J; Wogalter, M S; Powell, W R

2011-10-01

Age-related changes in selective attention, inhibitory efficiency, and the ability to form new associations suggest that older adults may have greater difficulty with more complex and less comprehensible symbols. We examined comprehension of symbols varying in terms of ratings of familiarity, complexity, and comprehensibility, by younger (aged 18-35) and older (aged 55-70) adults. It was found that older adults have greater difficulty than younger adults in comprehending warning symbols and that accident scenario training improves comprehension. Regression analyses indicated that familiarity and comprehensibility were important in determining performance on the pre-training comprehension test by both younger and older adults. However, training eliminated the effects of stimulus characteristics for younger adults, while older adults' comprehension continued to be significantly influenced by comprehensibility. We suggest that symbol design incorporates cues to knowledge to facilitate the linkage between new knowledge (i.e. the warning symbol) and relevant knowledge in long-term memory. Statement of Relevance: Symbol characteristics play an important role in age-related differences in warning symbol comprehension. To optimise comprehension by older adults, symbols should have a clear relationship with areal-world referent. Alternatively, symbol design could incorporate cues to knowledge to facilitate the linkage between new knowledge and relevant knowledge in long-term memory.

The Anxiety Sensitivity Index--Revised: Confirmatory Factor Analyses, Structural Invariance in Caucasian and African American Samples, and Score Reliability and Validity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Arnau, Randolph C.; Broman-Fulks, Joshua J.; Green, Bradley A.; Berman, Mitchell E.

2009-01-01

The most commonly used measure of anxiety sensitivity is the 36-item Anxiety Sensitivity Index--Revised (ASI-R). Exploratory factor analyses have produced several different factors structures for the ASI-R, but an acceptable fit using confirmatory factor analytic approaches has only been found for a 21-item version of the instrument. We evaluated…

Multidimensional Assessment of Phonological Similarity within and between Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ingram, David; Dubasik, Virginia L.

2011-01-01

Multidimensional analysis involves moving away from one-dimensional analyses such as most articulation tests to comprehensive analyses involving levels of phonological information from the word level down to segments. This article outlines one such approach that looks at four levels from words to segments, using nine phonological measures. It also…

WAIS-IV Subtest Covariance Structure: Conceptual and Statistical Considerations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ward, L. Charles; Bergman, Maria A.; Hebert, Katina R.

2012-01-01

D. Wechsler (2008b) reported confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) with standardization data (ages 16-69 years) for 10 core and 5 supplemental subtests from the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Fourth Edition (WAIS-IV). Analyses of the 15 subtests supported 4 hypothesized oblique factors (Verbal Comprehension, Working Memory, Perceptual Reasoning,…

Dandelions, tulips and orchids: evidence for the existence of low-sensitive, medium-sensitive and high-sensitive individuals.

PubMed

Lionetti, Francesca; Aron, Arthur; Aron, Elaine N; Burns, G Leonard; Jagiellowicz, Jadzia; Pluess, Michael

2018-01-22

According to empirical studies and recent theories, people differ substantially in their reactivity or sensitivity to environmental influences with some being generally more affected than others. More sensitive individuals have been described as orchids and less-sensitive ones as dandelions. Applying a data-driven approach, we explored the existence of sensitivity groups in a sample of 906 adults who completed the highly sensitive person (HSP) scale. According to factor analyses, the HSP scale reflects a bifactor model with a general sensitivity factor. In contrast to prevailing theories, latent class analyses consistently suggested the existence of three rather than two groups. While we were able to identify a highly sensitive (orchids, 31%) and a low-sensitive group (dandelions, 29%), we also detected a third group (40%) characterised by medium sensitivity, which we refer to as tulips in keeping with the flower metaphor. Preliminary cut-off scores for all three groups are provided. In order to characterise the different sensitivity groups, we investigated group differences regarding the Big Five personality traits, as well as experimentally assessed emotional reactivity in an additional independent sample. According to these follow-up analyses, the three groups differed in neuroticism, extraversion and emotional reactivity to positive mood induction with orchids scoring significantly higher in neuroticism and emotional reactivity and lower in extraversion than the other two groups (dandelions also differed significantly from tulips). Findings suggest that environmental sensitivity is a continuous and normally distributed trait but that people fall into three distinct sensitive groups along a sensitivity continuum.

Skeletal mechanism generation for surrogate fuels using directed relation graph with error propagation and sensitivity analysis

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Niemeyer, Kyle E.; Sung, Chih-Jen; Raju, Mandhapati P.

2010-09-15

A novel implementation for the skeletal reduction of large detailed reaction mechanisms using the directed relation graph with error propagation and sensitivity analysis (DRGEPSA) is developed and presented with examples for three hydrocarbon components, n-heptane, iso-octane, and n-decane, relevant to surrogate fuel development. DRGEPSA integrates two previously developed methods, directed relation graph-aided sensitivity analysis (DRGASA) and directed relation graph with error propagation (DRGEP), by first applying DRGEP to efficiently remove many unimportant species prior to sensitivity analysis to further remove unimportant species, producing an optimally small skeletal mechanism for a given error limit. It is illustrated that the combination ofmore » the DRGEP and DRGASA methods allows the DRGEPSA approach to overcome the weaknesses of each, specifically that DRGEP cannot identify all unimportant species and that DRGASA shields unimportant species from removal. Skeletal mechanisms for n-heptane and iso-octane generated using the DRGEP, DRGASA, and DRGEPSA methods are presented and compared to illustrate the improvement of DRGEPSA. From a detailed reaction mechanism for n-alkanes covering n-octane to n-hexadecane with 2115 species and 8157 reactions, two skeletal mechanisms for n-decane generated using DRGEPSA, one covering a comprehensive range of temperature, pressure, and equivalence ratio conditions for autoignition and the other limited to high temperatures, are presented and validated. The comprehensive skeletal mechanism consists of 202 species and 846 reactions and the high-temperature skeletal mechanism consists of 51 species and 256 reactions. Both mechanisms are further demonstrated to well reproduce the results of the detailed mechanism in perfectly-stirred reactor and laminar flame simulations over a wide range of conditions. The comprehensive and high-temperature n-decane skeletal mechanisms are included as supplementary material with this article. (author)« less

Clinical Application of Picodroplet Digital PCR Technology for Rapid Detection of EGFR T790M in Next-Generation Sequencing Libraries and DNA from Limited Tumor Samples.

PubMed

Borsu, Laetitia; Intrieri, Julie; Thampi, Linta; Yu, Helena; Riely, Gregory; Nafa, Khedoudja; Chandramohan, Raghu; Ladanyi, Marc; Arcila, Maria E

2016-11-01

Although next-generation sequencing (NGS) is a robust technology for comprehensive assessment of EGFR-mutant lung adenocarcinomas with acquired resistance to tyrosine kinase inhibitors, it may not provide sufficiently rapid and sensitive detection of the EGFR T790M mutation, the most clinically relevant resistance biomarker. Here, we describe a digital PCR (dPCR) assay for rapid T790M detection on aliquots of NGS libraries prepared for comprehensive profiling, fully maximizing broad genomic analysis on limited samples. Tumor DNAs from patients with EGFR-mutant lung adenocarcinomas and acquired resistance to epidermal growth factor receptor inhibitors were prepared for Memorial Sloan-Kettering-Integrated Mutation Profiling of Actionable Cancer Targets sequencing, a hybrid capture-based assay interrogating 410 cancer-related genes. Precapture library aliquots were used for rapid EGFR T790M testing by dPCR, and results were compared with NGS and locked nucleic acid-PCR Sanger sequencing (reference high sensitivity method). Seventy resistance samples showed 99% concordance with the reference high sensitivity method in accuracy studies. Input as low as 2.5 ng provided a sensitivity of 1% and improved further with increasing DNA input. dPCR on libraries required less DNA and showed better performance than direct genomic DNA. dPCR on NGS libraries is a robust and rapid approach to EGFR T790M testing, allowing most economical utilization of limited material for comprehensive assessment. The same assay can also be performed directly on any limited DNA source and cell-free DNA. Copyright © 2016 American Society for Investigative Pathology and the Association for Molecular Pathology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Prevalence and psychometric screening for the detection of major depressive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder in adults injured in a motor vehicle crash who are engaged in compensation.

PubMed

Guest, Rebecca; Tran, Yvonne; Gopinath, Bamini; Cameron, Ian D; Craig, Ashley

2018-02-21

Physical injury and psychological disorder following a motor vehicle crash (MVC) is a public health concern. The objective of this research was to determine rates of major depressive disorder (MDD) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in adults with MVC-related injury engaged in compensation, and to determine the capacity (e.g. sensitivity and specificity) of two psychometric scales for estimating the presence of MDD and PTSD. Participants included 109 adults with MVC-related injury engaged in compensation during 2015 to 2017, in Sydney, Australia. The mean time from MVC to baseline assessment was 11 weeks. Comprehensive assessment was conducted at baseline, and the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS-21) and the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) were administered to determine probable MDD and PTSD. An online psychiatric interview, based on Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders (DSM-5), was used to diagnose actual MDD and PTSD, acknowledged as gold standard diagnostic criteria. One-way multivariate analyses of variance established criterion validity of the DASS-21 and IES-R, and sensitivity and specificity analyses were conducted to determine the most sensitive cut-off points for detecting probable MDD and PTSD. Substantial rates of MDD (53.2%) and PTSD (19.3%) were found. The DASS-21 and IES-R were shown to have excellent criterion validity for detecting MDD and PTSD in injured participants. A range of cut-off points were investigated and shown to have acceptable sensitivity and specificity for detecting MDD and PTSD in an injured population engaged in compensation. The preferred cut-off points based on this study are: to detect MDD, a DASS-21 total score of 30 and/or a DASS-21 depression score of 10; to detect PTSD, IES-R scores of 33-40 and/or a DASS-21 anxiety score of 7-8. Major psychological disorder is prevalent following a MVC. Results suggest the DASS-21 and IES-R are suitable for use in clinical/compensation settings to detect probable MDD and PTSD soon after a MVC in physically injured people engaged in compensation. These results provide positive direction in the public health arena for improving mental health outcomes. Clinical Trials registration number: ANZCTR - ACTRN12615000326594 (9th April 2015).

Reduced levels of hydroxylated, polyunsaturated ultra long-chain fatty acids in the serum of colorectal cancer patients: implications for early screening and detection

PubMed Central

2010-01-01

Background There are currently no accurate serum markers for detecting early risk of colorectal cancer (CRC). We therefore developed a non-targeted metabolomics technology to analyse the serum of pre-treatment CRC patients in order to discover putative metabolic markers associated with CRC. Using tandem-mass spectrometry (MS/MS) high throughput MS technology we evaluated the utility of selected markers and this technology for discriminating between CRC and healthy subjects. Methods Biomarker discovery was performed using Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FTICR-MS). Comprehensive metabolic profiles of CRC patients and controls from three independent populations from different continents (USA and Japan; total n = 222) were obtained and the best inter-study biomarkers determined. The structural characterization of these and related markers was performed using liquid chromatography (LC) MS/MS and nuclear magnetic resonance technologies. Clinical utility evaluations were performed using a targeted high-throughput triple-quadrupole multiple reaction monitoring (TQ-MRM) method for three biomarkers in two further independent populations from the USA and Japan (total n = 220). Results Comprehensive metabolomic analyses revealed significantly reduced levels of 28-36 carbon-containing hydroxylated polyunsaturated ultra long-chain fatty-acids in all three independent cohorts of CRC patient samples relative to controls. Structure elucidation studies on the C28 molecules revealed two families harbouring specifically two or three hydroxyl substitutions and varying degrees of unsaturation. The TQ-MRM method successfully validated the FTICR-MS results in two further independent studies. In total, biomarkers in five independent populations across two continental regions were evaluated (three populations by FTICR-MS and two by TQ-MRM). The resultant receiver-operator characteristic curve AUCs ranged from 0.85 to 0.98 (average = 0.91 ± 0.04). Conclusions A novel comprehensive metabolomics technology was used to identify a systemic metabolic dysregulation comprising previously unknown hydroxylated polyunsaturated ultra-long chain fatty acid metabolites in CRC patients. These metabolites are easily measurable in serum and a decrease in their concentration appears to be highly sensitive and specific for the presence of CRC, regardless of ethnic or geographic background. The measurement of these metabolites may represent an additional tool for the early detection and screening of CRC. PMID:20156336

Long-term projections and acclimatization scenarios of temperature-related mortality in Europe.

PubMed

Ballester, Joan; Robine, Jean-Marie; Herrmann, François Richard; Rodó, Xavier

2011-06-21

The steady increase in greenhouse gas concentrations is inducing a detectable rise in global temperatures. The sensitivity of human societies to warming temperatures is, however, a transcendental question not comprehensively addressed to date. Here we show the link between temperature, humidity and daily numbers of deaths in nearly 200 European regions, which are subsequently used to infer transient projections of mortality under state-of-the-art high-resolution greenhouse gas scenario simulations. Our analyses point to a change in the seasonality of mortality, with maximum monthly incidence progressively shifting from winter to summer. The results also show that the rise in heat-related mortality will start to completely compensate the reduction of deaths from cold during the second half of the century, amounting to an average drop in human lifespan of up 3-4 months in 2070-2100. Nevertheless, projections suggest that human lifespan might indeed increase if a substantial degree of adaptation to warm temperatures takes place.

Zero-gravity atmospheric Cloud Physics Experiment Laboratory; Programmatics report

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1974-01-01

The programmatics effort included comprehensive analyses in four major areas: (1) work breakdown structure, (2) schedules, (3) costs, and (4) supporting research and technology. These analyses are discussed in detail in the following sections which identify and define the laboratory project development schedule, cost estimates, funding distributions and supporting research and technology requirements. All programmatics analyses are correlated among themselves and with the technical analyses by means of the work breakdown structure which serves as a common framework for program definition. In addition, the programmatic analyses reflect the results of analyses and plans for reliability, safety, test, and maintenance and refurbishment.

MVIAeval: a web tool for comprehensively evaluating the performance of a new missing value imputation algorithm.

PubMed

Wu, Wei-Sheng; Jhou, Meng-Jhun

2017-01-13

Missing value imputation is important for microarray data analyses because microarray data with missing values would significantly degrade the performance of the downstream analyses. Although many microarray missing value imputation algorithms have been developed, an objective and comprehensive performance comparison framework is still lacking. To solve this problem, we previously proposed a framework which can perform a comprehensive performance comparison of different existing algorithms. Also the performance of a new algorithm can be evaluated by our performance comparison framework. However, constructing our framework is not an easy task for the interested researchers. To save researchers' time and efforts, here we present an easy-to-use web tool named MVIAeval (Missing Value Imputation Algorithm evaluator) which implements our performance comparison framework. MVIAeval provides a user-friendly interface allowing users to upload the R code of their new algorithm and select (i) the test datasets among 20 benchmark microarray (time series and non-time series) datasets, (ii) the compared algorithms among 12 existing algorithms, (iii) the performance indices from three existing ones, (iv) the comprehensive performance scores from two possible choices, and (v) the number of simulation runs. The comprehensive performance comparison results are then generated and shown as both figures and tables. MVIAeval is a useful tool for researchers to easily conduct a comprehensive and objective performance evaluation of their newly developed missing value imputation algorithm for microarray data or any data which can be represented as a matrix form (e.g. NGS data or proteomics data). Thus, MVIAeval will greatly expedite the progress in the research of missing value imputation algorithms.

Language comprehension in children, adolescents, and adults with Down syndrome.

PubMed

Witecy, Bernadette; Penke, Martina

2017-03-01

There is conflicting evidence as to whether receptive language abilities of individuals with Down syndrome (DS) continue to improve into adulthood, reach a plateau in late adolescence, or even start to decline. The study aims to shed light on the question whether receptive syntactic skills change from childhood/adolescence to adulthood and provides a detailed qualitative analysis of the receptive abilities of adults with DS. 58 individuals with DS participated in the study: 31 children/adolescents (aged: 4;6-19;0 years) and 27 adults (aged: 20;8-40;3 years). They completed measures of grammar comprehension, nonverbal cognition, and phonological working memory. There was no significant correlation between comprehension performance and chronological age in the overall sample. Separate correlational analyses for the subgroups of children/adolescents and adults yielded a significant positive result for the former subgroup but not for the latter. We also found significant positive correlations between grammar comprehension scores and nonverbal mental age as well as measures of phonological working memory. Qualitative analyses showed various limitations in the receptive syntactic abilities of adults with DS. Difficulties increase with sentence length and grammatical complexity, but are also apparent in simple sentences. The results suggest that syntactic comprehension abilities of individuals with DS continue to improve through childhood and adolescence and that thereafter a plateau is reached and maintained. Language comprehension in adults with DS is impaired for a variety of grammatical structures and receptive performance seems to be related to nonverbal cognitive abilities, phonological working memory, and grammatical complexity. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Reading Comprehension and Phonics Research: Review of Correlational Analyses with Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Students.

PubMed

Luft, Pamela

2018-04-01

This manuscript reviews 28 studies of reading research on deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) students published since 2000 that used correlational analyses. The examination focused on assessment issues affecting measurement and analysis of relationships between early phonological or orthographic skills and reading comprehension. Mixed outcomes complicate efforts to determine evidence-based practices, and to develop an accurate model of reading. Across the 28 studies, DHH participants represented a wide age range with potential floor and ceiling effects that reduce score variability for valid correlations. Many studies assessed readers beyond the optimal ages during which early skills develop and are most useful for reading. Reading skills also were assessed using a diverse array of measures and skill definitions. Particularly for reading comprehension, word-level and text-level abilities appear to be different constructs. Suggestions include more consistent skill definitions and differential timing for early- versus later-developing skill assessments to ensure more robust correlational relationships.

Engagement of the left extrastriate body area during body-part metaphor comprehension.

PubMed

Lacey, Simon; Stilla, Randall; Deshpande, Gopikrishna; Zhao, Sinan; Stephens, Careese; McCormick, Kelly; Kemmerer, David; Sathian, K

2017-03-01

Grounded cognition explanations of metaphor comprehension predict activation of sensorimotor cortices relevant to the metaphor's source domain. We tested this prediction for body-part metaphors using functional magnetic resonance imaging while participants heard sentences containing metaphorical or literal references to body parts, and comparable control sentences. Localizer scans identified body-part-specific motor, somatosensory and visual cortical regions. Both subject- and item-wise analyses showed that, relative to control sentences, metaphorical but not literal sentences evoked limb metaphor-specific activity in the left extrastriate body area (EBA), paralleling the EBA's known visual limb-selectivity. The EBA focus exhibited resting-state functional connectivity with ipsilateral semantic processing regions. In some of these regions, the strength of resting-state connectivity correlated with individual preference for verbal processing. Effective connectivity analyses showed that, during metaphor comprehension, activity in some semantic regions drove that in the EBA. These results provide converging evidence for grounding of metaphor processing in domain-specific sensorimotor cortical activity. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Meta-Analyses of the Effects of Tier 2 Type Reading Interventions in Grades K-3.

PubMed

Wanzek, Jeanne; Vaughn, Sharon; Scammacca, Nancy; Gatlin, Brandy; Walker, Melodee A; Capin, Philip

2016-09-01

This meta-analysis extends previous work on extensive Tier 3 type reading interventions (Wanzek & Vaughn, 2007; Wanzek et al., 2013) to Tier 2 type interventions by examining a non-overlapping set of studies addressing the effects of less extensive reading interventions for students with or at risk for reading difficulties in Grades K-3. We examined the overall effects of these interventions on students' foundational skills, language, and comprehension as well as the intervention features that may be associated with improved outcomes. We conducted four meta-analyses on 72 studies to examine effects on (1) standardized foundational skill measures (mean ES = 0.54), (2) not-standardized foundational skill measures (mean ES = 0.62), (3) standardized language/comprehension measures (mean ES = 0.36), and (4) not-standardized language/comprehension measures (mean ES = 1.02). There were no differences in effects related to intervention type, instructional group size, grade level, intervention implementer, or the number of intervention hours.

Improving Sensitivity to Detect Mild Cognitive Impairment: Cognitive Load Dual-Task Gait Speed Assessment.

PubMed

MacAulay, Rebecca K; Wagner, Mark T; Szeles, Dana; Milano, Nicholas J

2017-07-01

Longitudinal research indicates that cognitive load dual-task gait assessment is predictive of cognitive decline and thus might provide a sensitive measure to screen for mild cognitive impairment (MCI). However, research among older adults being clinically evaluated for cognitive concerns, a defining feature of MCI, is lacking. The present study investigated the effect of performing a cognitive task on normal walking speed in patients presenting to a memory clinic with cognitive complaints. Sixty-one patients with a mean age of 68 years underwent comprehensive neuropsychological testing, clinical interview, and gait speed (simple- and dual-task conditions) assessments. Thirty-four of the 61 patients met criteria for MCI. Repeated measure analyses of covariance revealed that greater age and MCI both significantly associated with slower gait speed, ps<.05. Follow-up analysis indicated that the MCI group had significantly slower dual-task gait speed but did not differ in simple-gait speed. Multivariate linear regression across groups found that executive attention performance accounted for 27.4% of the variance in dual-task gait speed beyond relevant demographic and health risk factors. The present study increases the external validity of dual-task gait assessment of MCI. Differences in dual-task gait speed appears to be largely attributable to executive attention processes. These findings have clinical implications as they demonstrate expected patterns of gait-brain behavior relationships in response to a cognitive dual task within a clinically representative population. Cognitive load dual-task gait assessment may provide a cost efficient and sensitive measure to detect older adults at high risk of a dementia disorder. (JINS, 2017, 23, 493-501).

Validation of Actigraphy in Middle Childhood.

PubMed

Meltzer, Lisa J; Wong, Petrina; Biggs, Sarah N; Traylor, Joel; Kim, Ji Young; Bhattacharjee, Rakesh; Narang, Indra; Marcus, Carole L

2016-06-01

Few studies have examined the validity of actigraphy in school-aged children. The objective of this study was to examine the validity of a commonly used actigraph compared to polysomnography (PSG) in a sample of children age 5 to 12 y born prematurely, sleeping in their natural home environment. 148 children born preterm (85 boys and 63 girls), ages 5-12 y (mean = 9.3 y, standard deviation = 2.0) wore the Philips Respironics Actiwatch-2 for 1 night concurrently with comprehensive, ambulatory PSG in the child's home. Sleep outcome variables were sleep onset latency, total sleep time (TST), and sleep efficiency. Epoch-by-epoch comparisons were used to determine sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy. Secondary analyses examined differences between children with no sleep issues, obstructive sleep apnea syndrome, and periodic limb movements in sleep (PLMS). Actigraphy significantly underestimated TST (30 min) and sleep efficiency (5%). Actigraphy underestimated or overestimated sleep onset latency by at least 10 min for a third of the children. Sensitivity and accuracy were good at 0.88 and 0.84, respectively, whereas specificity was lower at 0.46. Differences between actigraphy and PSG for TST and sleep efficiency were greatest for children with PLMS. This study adds to the small existing literature demonstrating the validity of actigraphy in middle childhood. Although actigraphy shows good sensitivity (ability to detect sleep), specificity (ability to detect wake) is poor in this age group. Further, the results highlight the importance of considering whether a child has PLMS when interpreting actigraphic data, as well as the difficulties in accurately capturing sleep onset latency with actigraphy. © 2016 Associated Professional Sleep Societies, LLC.

Further characterisation of the functional neuroanatomy associated with prosodic emotion decoding.

PubMed

Mitchell, Rachel L C

2013-06-01

Current models of prosodic emotion comprehension propose a three stage cognition mediated by temporal lobe auditory regions through to inferior and orbitofrontal regions. Cumulative evidence suggests that its mediation may be more flexible though, with a facility to respond in a graded manner based on the need for executive control. The location of this fine-tuning system is unclear, as is its similarity to the cognitive control system. In the current study, need for executive control was manipulated in a block-design functional MRI study by systematically altering the proportion of incongruent trials across time, i.e., trials for which participants identified prosodic emotions in the face of conflicting lexico-semantic emotion cues. Resultant Blood Oxygenation Level Dependent contrast data were analysed according to standard procedures using Statistical Parametric Mapping v8 (Ashburner et al., 2009). In the parametric analyses, superior (medial) frontal gyrus activity increased linearly with increased need for executive control. In the separate analyses of each level of incongruity, results suggested that the baseline prosodic emotion comprehension system was sufficient to deal with low proportions of incongruent trials, whereas a more widespread frontal lobe network was required for higher proportions. These results suggest an executive control system for prosodic emotion comprehension exists which has the capability to recruit superior (medial) frontal gyrus in a graded manner and other frontal regions once demand exceeds a certain threshold. The need to revise current models of prosodic emotion comprehension and add a fourth processing stage are discussed. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Mobile Genome Express (MGE): A comprehensive automatic genetic analyses pipeline with a mobile device.

PubMed

Yoon, Jun-Hee; Kim, Thomas W; Mendez, Pedro; Jablons, David M; Kim, Il-Jin

2017-01-01

The development of next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology allows to sequence whole exomes or genome. However, data analysis is still the biggest bottleneck for its wide implementation. Most laboratories still depend on manual procedures for data handling and analyses, which translates into a delay and decreased efficiency in the delivery of NGS results to doctors and patients. Thus, there is high demand for developing an automatic and an easy-to-use NGS data analyses system. We developed comprehensive, automatic genetic analyses controller named Mobile Genome Express (MGE) that works in smartphones or other mobile devices. MGE can handle all the steps for genetic analyses, such as: sample information submission, sequencing run quality check from the sequencer, secured data transfer and results review. We sequenced an Actrometrix control DNA containing multiple proven human mutations using a targeted sequencing panel, and the whole analysis was managed by MGE, and its data reviewing program called ELECTRO. All steps were processed automatically except for the final sequencing review procedure with ELECTRO to confirm mutations. The data analysis process was completed within several hours. We confirmed the mutations that we have identified were consistent with our previous results obtained by using multi-step, manual pipelines.

Correlation of SA349/2 helicopter flight-test data with a comprehensive rotorcraft model

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Yamauchi, Gloria K.; Heffernan, Ruth M.; Gaubert, Michel

1986-01-01

A comprehensive rotorcraft analysis model was used to predict blade aerodynamic and structural loads for comparison with flight test data. The data were obtained from an SA349/2 helicopter with an advanced geometry rotor. Sensitivity of the correlation to wake geometry, blade dynamics, and blade aerodynamic effects was investigated. Blade chordwise pressure coefficients were predicted for the blade transonic regimes using the model coupled with two finite-difference codes.

Mood-dependent integration in discourse comprehension: happy and sad moods affect consistency processing via different brain networks.

PubMed

Egidi, Giovanna; Caramazza, Alfonso

2014-12-01

According to recent research on language comprehension, the semantic features of a text are not the only determinants of whether incoming information is understood as consistent. Listeners' pre-existing affective states play a crucial role as well. The current fMRI experiment examines the effects of happy and sad moods during comprehension of consistent and inconsistent story endings, focusing on brain regions previously linked to two integration processes: inconsistency detection, evident in stronger responses to inconsistent endings, and fluent processing (accumulation), evident in stronger responses to consistent endings. The analysis evaluated whether differences in the BOLD response for consistent and inconsistent story endings correlated with self-reported mood scores after a mood induction procedure. Mood strongly affected regions previously associated with inconsistency detection. Happy mood increased sensitivity to inconsistency in regions specific for inconsistency detection (e.g., left IFG, left STS), whereas sad mood increased sensitivity to inconsistency in regions less specific for language processing (e.g., right med FG, right SFG). Mood affected more weakly regions involved in accumulation of information. These results show that mood can influence activity in areas mediating well-defined language processes, and highlight that integration is the result of context-dependent mechanisms. The finding that language comprehension can involve different networks depending on people's mood highlights the brain's ability to reorganize its functions. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Nonindependence and sensitivity analyses in ecological and evolutionary meta-analyses.

PubMed

Noble, Daniel W A; Lagisz, Malgorzata; O'dea, Rose E; Nakagawa, Shinichi

2017-05-01

Meta-analysis is an important tool for synthesizing research on a variety of topics in ecology and evolution, including molecular ecology, but can be susceptible to nonindependence. Nonindependence can affect two major interrelated components of a meta-analysis: (i) the calculation of effect size statistics and (ii) the estimation of overall meta-analytic estimates and their uncertainty. While some solutions to nonindependence exist at the statistical analysis stages, there is little advice on what to do when complex analyses are not possible, or when studies with nonindependent experimental designs exist in the data. Here we argue that exploring the effects of procedural decisions in a meta-analysis (e.g. inclusion of different quality data, choice of effect size) and statistical assumptions (e.g. assuming no phylogenetic covariance) using sensitivity analyses are extremely important in assessing the impact of nonindependence. Sensitivity analyses can provide greater confidence in results and highlight important limitations of empirical work (e.g. impact of study design on overall effects). Despite their importance, sensitivity analyses are seldom applied to problems of nonindependence. To encourage better practice for dealing with nonindependence in meta-analytic studies, we present accessible examples demonstrating the impact that ignoring nonindependence can have on meta-analytic estimates. We also provide pragmatic solutions for dealing with nonindependent study designs, and for analysing dependent effect sizes. Additionally, we offer reporting guidelines that will facilitate disclosure of the sources of nonindependence in meta-analyses, leading to greater transparency and more robust conclusions. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Evaluating comprehensiveness in children's healthcare.

PubMed

Diniz, Suênia Gonçalves de Medeiros; Damasceno, Simone Soares; Coutinho, Simone Elizabeth Duarte; Toso, Beatriz Rosana Gonçalves de Oliveira; Collet, Neusa

2016-12-15

To evaluate the presence and extent of comprehensiveness in children's healthcare in the context of the Family Health Strategy. Evaluative, quantitative, cross-sectional study conducted with 344 family members of children at the Family Health Units of João Pessoa, PB, Brazil. Data were collected using the PCATool Brazil - child version and analysed according to descriptive and exploratory statistics. The attribute of comprehensiveness did not obtain satisfactory scores in the two evaluated dimensions, namely "available services" and "provided services". The low scores reveal that the attribute comprehensiveness is not employed as expected in a primary care unit and points to the issues that must be altered. It was concluded that the services should be restructured to ensure cross-sector performance in the provision of child care. It is also important to improve the relations between professionals and users to promote comprehensive and effective care.

The Scope and Nature of Reading Comprehension Impairments in School-Aged Children with Higher-Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder.

PubMed

McIntyre, Nancy S; Solari, Emily J; Gonzales, Joseph E; Solomon, Marjorie; Lerro, Lindsay E; Novotny, Stephanie; Oswald, Tasha M; Mundy, Peter C

2017-09-01

This study of 8-16-year-olds was designed to test the hypothesis that reading comprehension impairments are part of the social communication phenotype for many higher-functioning students with autism spectrum disorder (HFASD). Students with HFASD (n = 81) were compared to those with high attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptomatology (ADHD; n = 39), or typical development (TD; n = 44), on a comprehensive battery of oral language, word recognition, and reading comprehension measures. Results indicated that students with HFASD performed significantly lower on the majority of the reading and language tasks as compared to TD and ADHD groups. Structural equation models suggested that greater ASD symptomatology was related to poorer reading comprehension outcomes; further analyses suggested that this relation was mediated by oral language skills.

How Children Talk Together to Make Meaning from Texts: A Dialogic Perspective on Reading Comprehension Strategies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Maine, Fiona

2013-01-01

This study considers reading comprehension as a dialogic transaction of making meaning from text. The concept of text and reading is taken to include the visual and multimodal as well as written forms. Case studies of children discussing texts are analysed to explore how children engage in inter-mental and intra-mental processes of reading,…

Comprehension of direct and indirect sarcastic remarks in children and adolescents with Tourette's syndrome.

PubMed

Drury, Helena; Shah, Shivani; Stern, Jeremy S; Crawford, Sarah; Channon, Shelley

2018-05-01

Previous research has reported that aspects of social cognition such as nonliteral language comprehension are impaired in adults with Tourette's syndrome (TS), but little is known about social cognition in children and adolescents with TS. The present study aims to evaluate a measure of sarcasm comprehension suitable for use with children and adolescents (Experiment 1), and to examine sarcasm comprehension in children and adolescents with TS-alone or TS and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD; Experiment 2). In Experiment 1, the measure of sarcasm comprehension was found to be sensitive to differences in nonliteral language comprehension for typically-developing children aged 10 to 11 years old compared to children aged 8 to 9 years old; the older group performed significantly better on the comprehension of scenarios ending with either direct or indirect sarcastic remarks, whereas the two age groups did not differ on the comprehension of scenarios ending with sincere remarks. In Experiment 2, both the TS-alone and TS+ADHD groups performed below the level of the control participants on the comprehension of indirect sarcasm items but not on the comprehension of direct sarcasm items and sincere items. Those with TS+ADHD also performed below the level of the control participants on measures of interference control and fluency. The findings are discussed with reference to the possible contribution of executive functioning and mentalizing to the patterns of performance.

Impact of Host Factors on Robotic Partial Nephrectomy Outcomes: Comprehensive Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

PubMed

Cacciamani, Giovanni; Gill, Tania S; Medina, Luis; Ashrafi, Akbar; Winter, Matthew; Sotelo, Renè; Artibani, Walter; Gill, Inderbir

2018-05-03

Host factors (tumor size/complexity, patient comorbidities) impact outcomes of robotic partial nephrectomy (RPN). We report a comprehensive systematic review and meta-analysis to critically evaluate impact of host factors on operative, peri-operative, functional, oncological and survival outcomes of RPN. All full-text English-language publications on RPN comparing host factors were evaluated. We followed Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement and Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) guidelines to evaluate Pubmed®, Scopus® and Web of Science® (01/01/2000-31/06/2017). Weighted mean difference (WMD) and odds ratio (OR) compared continuous and dichotomous variables, respectively. Sensitivity analyses were performed as needed. To condense the sheer volume of analyses, data are presented using novel summary forest plots. PROSPERO registration number CRD42017062712. Our meta-analysis evaluated 41 papers including 10,506 patients. Tumor factors: Compared to patients with complex tumors, those with non-complex tumors had lesser OR-time (WMD: -44.95; p=0.003), EBL (WMD: -160; p< 0.003), warm ischemia time (WIT) (WMD:-8.56 ; p≤ 0.00001) and post-operative complications (OR:0.42; p=0.01). Tumors > 4 cm were associated with higher OR-time (WMD: 30.11; p≤ 0.00001), EBL (WMD: 39.26, 95% CI 28.77, 49.74; p≤ 0.00001), WIT (WMD: 5.17; p≤ 0.00001), transfusions (OR: 3.15; p=0.003), postoperative complications (OR:1.88; p=0.004) and LOS (WMD:0.56; p=0.0004). Hilar tumors reported greater EBL (WMD:51.34; p=0.03), WIT (WMD: 8.17; p≤ 0.00001) and conversion to OPN (OR: 14.14; p=0.006). Tumor location, anterior versus posterior, did not impact RPN outcomes. Patient factors: Older patients (> 70 years) trended non-significantly towards greater %eGFR decrease and overall mortality. Abnormal BMI cohort reported greater OR-time (WMD:13.47; p<0.001), EBL(WMD:45.44; p<0.0001) and postoperative complications (OR:1.48; p=0.03). CKD cohort had lesser reduction in post-operative % eGFR (WMD:7.16; 95% CI 2.74, 11.59; p=0.002) and increased postoperative complications (OR: 2.05; 95% CI 1.47, 2.85). RPN outcomes are impacted by host factors, including tumor and patient characteristics. Awareness of this increased risk, and its mitigation with expert patient selection, is important for excellent RPN outcomes. Our meta-analysis provides comprehensive, objective, summary data of 10,506 patients, detailing discreet outcomes for discreet host factors, to better inform urologists and patients considering RPN surgery. Copyright © 2018 American Urological Association Education and Research, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

θ-Band and β-Band Neural Activity Reflects Independent Syllable Tracking and Comprehension of Time-Compressed Speech.

PubMed

Pefkou, Maria; Arnal, Luc H; Fontolan, Lorenzo; Giraud, Anne-Lise

2017-08-16

Recent psychophysics data suggest that speech perception is not limited by the capacity of the auditory system to encode fast acoustic variations through neural γ activity, but rather by the time given to the brain to decode them. Whether the decoding process is bounded by the capacity of θ rhythm to follow syllabic rhythms in speech, or constrained by a more endogenous top-down mechanism, e.g., involving β activity, is unknown. We addressed the dynamics of auditory decoding in speech comprehension by challenging syllable tracking and speech decoding using comprehensible and incomprehensible time-compressed auditory sentences. We recorded EEGs in human participants and found that neural activity in both θ and γ ranges was sensitive to syllabic rate. Phase patterns of slow neural activity consistently followed the syllabic rate (4-14 Hz), even when this rate went beyond the classical θ range (4-8 Hz). The power of θ activity increased linearly with syllabic rate but showed no sensitivity to comprehension. Conversely, the power of β (14-21 Hz) activity was insensitive to the syllabic rate, yet reflected comprehension on a single-trial basis. We found different long-range dynamics for θ and β activity, with β activity building up in time while more contextual information becomes available. This is consistent with the roles of θ and β activity in stimulus-driven versus endogenous mechanisms. These data show that speech comprehension is constrained by concurrent stimulus-driven θ and low-γ activity, and by endogenous β activity, but not primarily by the capacity of θ activity to track the syllabic rhythm. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Speech comprehension partly depends on the ability of the auditory cortex to track syllable boundaries with θ-range neural oscillations. The reason comprehension drops when speech is accelerated could hence be because θ oscillations can no longer follow the syllabic rate. Here, we presented subjects with comprehensible and incomprehensible accelerated speech, and show that neural phase patterns in the θ band consistently reflect the syllabic rate, even when speech becomes too fast to be intelligible. The drop in comprehension, however, is signaled by a significant decrease in the power of low-β oscillations (14-21 Hz). These data suggest that speech comprehension is not limited by the capacity of θ oscillations to adapt to syllabic rate, but by an endogenous decoding process. Copyright © 2017 the authors 0270-6474/17/377930-09$15.00/0.

Health economic comparison of SLIT allergen and SCIT allergoid immunotherapy in patients with seasonal grass-allergic rhinoconjunctivitis in Germany.

PubMed

Verheggen, Bram G; Westerhout, Kirsten Y; Schreder, Carl H; Augustin, Matthias

2015-01-01

Allergoids are chemically modified allergen extracts administered to reduce allergenicity and to maintain immunogenicity. Oralair® (the 5-grass tablet) is a sublingual native grass allergen tablet for pre- and co-seasonal treatment. Based on a literature review, meta-analysis, and cost-effectiveness analysis the relative effects and costs of the 5-grass tablet versus a mix of subcutaneous allergoid compounds for grass pollen allergic rhinoconjunctivitis were assessed. A Markov model with a time horizon of nine years was used to assess the costs and effects of three-year immunotherapy treatment. Relative efficacy expressed as standardized mean differences was estimated using an indirect comparison on symptom scores extracted from available clinical trials. The Rhinitis Symptom Utility Index (RSUI) was applied as a proxy to estimate utility values for symptom scores. Drug acquisition and other medical costs were derived from published sources as well as estimates for resource use, immunotherapy persistence, and occurrence of asthma. The analysis was executed from the German payer's perspective, which includes payments of the Statutory Health Insurance (SHI) and additional payments by insurants. Comprehensive deterministic and probabilistic sensitivity analyses and different scenarios were performed to test the uncertainty concerning the incremental model outcomes. The applied model predicted a cost-utility ratio of the 5-grass tablet versus a market mix of injectable allergoid products of € 12,593 per QALY in the base case analysis. Predicted incremental costs and QALYs were € 458 (95% confidence interval, CI: € 220; € 739) and 0.036 (95% CI: 0.002; 0.078), respectively. Compared to the allergoid mix the probability of the 5-grass tablet being the most cost-effective treatment option was predicted to be 76% at a willingness-to-pay threshold of € 20,000. The results were most sensitive to changes in efficacy estimates, duration of the pollen season, and immunotherapy persistence rates. This analysis suggests the sublingual native 5-grass tablet to be cost-effective relative to a mix of subcutaneous allergoid compounds. The robustness of these statements has been confirmed in extensive sensitivity and scenario analyses.

High-precision drop shape analysis on inclining flat surfaces: introduction and comparison of this special method with commercial contact angle analysis.

PubMed

Schmitt, Michael; Heib, Florian

2013-10-07

Drop shape analysis is one of the most important and frequently used methods to characterise surfaces in the scientific and industrial communities. An especially large number of studies, which use contact angle measurements to analyse surfaces, are characterised by incorrect or misdirected conclusions such as the determination of surface energies from poorly performed contact angle determinations. In particular, the characterisation of surfaces, which leads to correlations between the contact angle and other effects, must be critically validated for some publications. A large number of works exist concerning the theoretical and thermodynamic aspects of two- and tri-phase boundaries. The linkage between theory and experiment is generally performed by an axisymmetric drop shape analysis, that is, simulations of the theoretical drop profiles by numerical integration onto a number of points of the drop meniscus (approximately 20). These methods work very well for axisymmetric profiles such as those obtained by pendant drop measurements, but in the case of a sessile drop onto real surfaces, additional unknown and misunderstood effects on the dependence of the surface must be considered. We present a special experimental and practical investigation as another way to transition from experiment to theory. This procedure was developed to be especially sensitive to small variations in the dependence of the dynamic contact angle on the surface; as a result, this procedure will allow the properties of the surface to be monitored with a higher precession and sensitivity. In this context, water drops onto a 111 silicon wafer are dynamically measured by video recording and by inclining the surface, which results in a sequence of non-axisymmetric drops. The drop profiles are analysed by commercial software and by the developed and presented high-precision drop shape analysis. In addition to the enhanced sensitivity for contact angle determination, this analysis technique, in combination with innovative fit algorithms and data presentations, can result in enhanced reproducibility and comparability of the contact angle measurements in terms of the material characterisation in a comprehensible way.

High-precision drop shape analysis on inclining flat surfaces: Introduction and comparison of this special method with commercial contact angle analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schmitt, Michael; Heib, Florian

2013-10-01

Drop shape analysis is one of the most important and frequently used methods to characterise surfaces in the scientific and industrial communities. An especially large number of studies, which use contact angle measurements to analyse surfaces, are characterised by incorrect or misdirected conclusions such as the determination of surface energies from poorly performed contact angle determinations. In particular, the characterisation of surfaces, which leads to correlations between the contact angle and other effects, must be critically validated for some publications. A large number of works exist concerning the theoretical and thermodynamic aspects of two- and tri-phase boundaries. The linkage between theory and experiment is generally performed by an axisymmetric drop shape analysis, that is, simulations of the theoretical drop profiles by numerical integration onto a number of points of the drop meniscus (approximately 20). These methods work very well for axisymmetric profiles such as those obtained by pendant drop measurements, but in the case of a sessile drop onto real surfaces, additional unknown and misunderstood effects on the dependence of the surface must be considered. We present a special experimental and practical investigation as another way to transition from experiment to theory. This procedure was developed to be especially sensitive to small variations in the dependence of the dynamic contact angle on the surface; as a result, this procedure will allow the properties of the surface to be monitored with a higher precession and sensitivity. In this context, water drops onto a 111 silicon wafer are dynamically measured by video recording and by inclining the surface, which results in a sequence of non-axisymmetric drops. The drop profiles are analysed by commercial software and by the developed and presented high-precision drop shape analysis. In addition to the enhanced sensitivity for contact angle determination, this analysis technique, in combination with innovative fit algorithms and data presentations, can result in enhanced reproducibility and comparability of the contact angle measurements in terms of the material characterisation in a comprehensible way.

Pre-study feasibility and identifying sensitivity analyses for protocol pre-specification in comparative effectiveness research.

PubMed

Girman, Cynthia J; Faries, Douglas; Ryan, Patrick; Rotelli, Matt; Belger, Mark; Binkowitz, Bruce; O'Neill, Robert

2014-05-01

The use of healthcare databases for comparative effectiveness research (CER) is increasing exponentially despite its challenges. Researchers must understand their data source and whether outcomes, exposures and confounding factors are captured sufficiently to address the research question. They must also assess whether bias and confounding can be adequately minimized. Many study design characteristics may impact on the results; however, minimal if any sensitivity analyses are typically conducted, and those performed are post hoc. We propose pre-study steps for CER feasibility assessment and to identify sensitivity analyses that might be most important to pre-specify to help ensure that CER produces valid interpretable results.

Radionuclide observables during the Integrated Field Exercise of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty.

PubMed

Burnett, Jonathan L; Miley, Harry S; Milbrath, Brian D

2016-03-01

In 2014 the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) undertook an Integrated Field Exercise (IFE14) in Jordan. The exercise consisted of a simulated 0.5-2 kT underground nuclear explosion triggering an On-site Inspection (OSI) to search for evidence of a Treaty violation. This research paper evaluates two of the OSI techniques used during the IFE14, laboratory-based gamma-spectrometry of soil samples and in-situ gamma-spectrometry, both of which were implemented to search for 17 OSI relevant particulate radionuclides indicative of nuclear explosions. The detection sensitivity is evaluated using real IFE and model data. It indicates that higher sensitivity laboratory measurements are the optimum technique during the IFE and within the Treaty/Protocol-specified OSI timeframes. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Multiple flood vulnerability assessment approach based on fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method and coordinated development degree model.

PubMed

Yang, Weichao; Xu, Kui; Lian, Jijian; Bin, Lingling; Ma, Chao

2018-05-01

Flood is a serious challenge that increasingly affects the residents as well as policymakers. Flood vulnerability assessment is becoming gradually relevant in the world. The purpose of this study is to develop an approach to reveal the relationship between exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity for better flood vulnerability assessment, based on the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method (FCEM) and coordinated development degree model (CDDM). The approach is organized into three parts: establishment of index system, assessment of exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity, and multiple flood vulnerability assessment. Hydrodynamic model and statistical data are employed for the establishment of index system; FCEM is used to evaluate exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity; and CDDM is applied to express the relationship of the three components of vulnerability. Six multiple flood vulnerability types and four levels are proposed to assess flood vulnerability from multiple perspectives. Then the approach is applied to assess the spatiality of flood vulnerability in Hainan's eastern area, China. Based on the results of multiple flood vulnerability, a decision-making process for rational allocation of limited resources is proposed and applied to the study area. The study shows that multiple flood vulnerability assessment can evaluate vulnerability more completely, and help decision makers learn more information about making decisions in a more comprehensive way. In summary, this study provides a new way for flood vulnerability assessment and disaster prevention decision. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Using archived ITS data for sensitivity analyses in the estimation of mobile source emissions

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2000-12-01

The study described in this paper demonstrates the use of archived ITS data from San Antonio's TransGuide traffic management center (TMC) for sensitivity analyses in the estimation of on-road mobile source emissions. Because of the stark comparison b...

Sensitivity analysis in economic evaluation: an audit of NICE current practice and a review of its use and value in decision-making.

PubMed

Andronis, L; Barton, P; Bryan, S

2009-06-01

To determine how we define good practice in sensitivity analysis in general and probabilistic sensitivity analysis (PSA) in particular, and to what extent it has been adhered to in the independent economic evaluations undertaken for the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) over recent years; to establish what policy impact sensitivity analysis has in the context of NICE, and policy-makers' views on sensitivity analysis and uncertainty, and what use is made of sensitivity analysis in policy decision-making. Three major electronic databases, MEDLINE, EMBASE and the NHS Economic Evaluation Database, were searched from inception to February 2008. The meaning of 'good practice' in the broad area of sensitivity analysis was explored through a review of the literature. An audit was undertaken of the 15 most recent NICE multiple technology appraisal judgements and their related reports to assess how sensitivity analysis has been undertaken by independent academic teams for NICE. A review of the policy and guidance documents issued by NICE aimed to assess the policy impact of the sensitivity analysis and the PSA in particular. Qualitative interview data from NICE Technology Appraisal Committee members, collected as part of an earlier study, were also analysed to assess the value attached to the sensitivity analysis components of the economic analyses conducted for NICE. All forms of sensitivity analysis, notably both deterministic and probabilistic approaches, have their supporters and their detractors. Practice in relation to univariate sensitivity analysis is highly variable, with considerable lack of clarity in relation to the methods used and the basis of the ranges employed. In relation to PSA, there is a high level of variability in the form of distribution used for similar parameters, and the justification for such choices is rarely given. Virtually all analyses failed to consider correlations within the PSA, and this is an area of concern. Uncertainty is considered explicitly in the process of arriving at a decision by the NICE Technology Appraisal Committee, and a correlation between high levels of uncertainty and negative decisions was indicated. The findings suggest considerable value in deterministic sensitivity analysis. Such analyses serve to highlight which model parameters are critical to driving a decision. Strong support was expressed for PSA, principally because it provides an indication of the parameter uncertainty around the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio. The review and the policy impact assessment focused exclusively on documentary evidence, excluding other sources that might have revealed further insights on this issue. In seeking to address parameter uncertainty, both deterministic and probabilistic sensitivity analyses should be used. It is evident that some cost-effectiveness work, especially around the sensitivity analysis components, represents a challenge in making it accessible to those making decisions. This speaks to the training agenda for those sitting on such decision-making bodies, and to the importance of clear presentation of analyses by the academic community.

Skin sensitizer identification by IL-8 secretion and CD86 expression on THP-1 cells.

PubMed

Parise, Carolina Bellini; Sá-Rocha, Vanessa Moura; Moraes, Jane Zveiter

2015-12-25

Substantial progress has been made in the development of alternative methods for skin sensitization in the last decade in several countries around the world. Brazil is experiencing an increasing concern about using animals for product development, since the publication of the Law 9605/1998, which prohibits the use of animals when an alternative method is available. In this way, an in vitro test to evaluate allergenic potential is a pressing need.This preliminary study started setting the use of myelomonocytic THP-1 cell line, according to the human cell line activation test (h-CLAT), already under validation process. We found that 48-h chemical exposure was necessary to identify 22 out of 23 sensitizers by the analyses of CD86 expression. In addition, the CD54 expression analyses presented a poor efficiency to discriminate sensitizers from non-sensitizers in our conditions. In view of these results, we looked for changes of pro-inflammatory interleukin profile. The IL-8 secretion analyses after 24-h chemical incubation seemed to be an alternative for CD54 expression assessing.Altogether, our findings showed that the combination of the analyses of CD86 expression and IL-8 secretion allowed predicting allergenicity.

Correlates of lower comprehension of informed consent among participants enrolled in a cohort study in Pune, India.

PubMed

Joglekar, Neelam S; Deshpande, Swapna S; Sahay, Seema; Ghate, Manisha V; Bollinger, Robert C; Mehendale, Sanjay M

2013-03-01

Optimum comprehension of informed consent by research participants is essential yet challenging. This study explored correlates of lower comprehension of informed consent among 1334 participants of a cohort study aimed at estimating HIV incidence in Pune, India. As part of the informed consent process, a structured comprehension tool was administered to study participants. Participants scoring ≥90% were categorised into the 'optimal comprehension group', whilst those scoring 80-89% were categorised into the 'lower comprehension group'. Data were analysed to identify sociodemographic and behavioural correlates of lower consent comprehension. The mean ± SD comprehension score was 94.4 ± 5.00%. Information pertaining to study-related risks was not comprehended by 61.7% of participants. HIV-negative men (adjusted OR [AOR] = 4.36, 95% CI 1.71-11.05) or HIV-negative women (AOR = 13.54, 95% CI 6.42-28.55), illiteracy (AOR= 1.65, 95% CI 1.19-2.30), those with a history of multiple partners (AOR = 1.73, 95% CI 1.12-2.66) and those never using condoms (AOR = 1.35, 95% CI 1.01-1.82) were more likely to have lower consent comprehension. We recommend exploration of domains of lower consent comprehension using a validated consent comprehension tool. Improved education in these specific domains would optimise consent comprehension among research participants.

An automatic and effective parameter optimization method for model tuning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, T.; Li, L.; Lin, Y.; Xue, W.; Xie, F.; Xu, H.; Huang, X.

2015-11-01

Physical parameterizations in general circulation models (GCMs), having various uncertain parameters, greatly impact model performance and model climate sensitivity. Traditional manual and empirical tuning of these parameters is time-consuming and ineffective. In this study, a "three-step" methodology is proposed to automatically and effectively obtain the optimum combination of some key parameters in cloud and convective parameterizations according to a comprehensive objective evaluation metrics. Different from the traditional optimization methods, two extra steps, one determining the model's sensitivity to the parameters and the other choosing the optimum initial value for those sensitive parameters, are introduced before the downhill simplex method. This new method reduces the number of parameters to be tuned and accelerates the convergence of the downhill simplex method. Atmospheric GCM simulation results show that the optimum combination of these parameters determined using this method is able to improve the model's overall performance by 9 %. The proposed methodology and software framework can be easily applied to other GCMs to speed up the model development process, especially regarding unavoidable comprehensive parameter tuning during the model development stage.

Evaluation of the Premi Test and comparison with the One-Plate Test for the detection of antimicrobials in kidney.

PubMed

Cantwell, H; O'Keeffe, M

2006-02-01

The Premi Test, a test kit designed for the rapid screening of antimicrobial residues in meat, fish and eggs, was evaluated and compared with the (modified) One-Plate Test, an agar diffusion assay. The performance characteristics described for qualitative, screening methods in Commission Decision 2002/657/EC were used for the evaluation. The Premi Test was found to detect a range of antimicrobials to MRL levels in kidney fluid but to have poorer sensitivity for some antimicrobials such as tetracyclines, sulphonamides, flumequine and streptomycin. The test was found not to be sensitive for the banned antimicrobial chloramphenicol. The One-Plate Test was found to detect most tetracyclines and flumequine to MRL levels but to be less sensitive than the Premi Test for most of the other classes of antimicrobials. Neither test alone provides a comprehensive screening test for antimicrobial residues in kidney at MRL levels. However, the Premi Test is fast, easy to use and rugged and, in combination with other antimicrobial tests, may be used to provide a comprehensive screening system for antimicrobials in tissues.

Application of global sensitivity analysis methods to Takagi-Sugeno-Kang rainfall-runoff fuzzy models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jacquin, A. P.; Shamseldin, A. Y.

2009-04-01

This study analyses the sensitivity of the parameters of Takagi-Sugeno-Kang rainfall-runoff fuzzy models previously developed by the authors. These models can be classified in two types, where the first type is intended to account for the effect of changes in catchment wetness and the second type incorporates seasonality as a source of non-linearity in the rainfall-runoff relationship. The sensitivity analysis is performed using two global sensitivity analysis methods, namely Regional Sensitivity Analysis (RSA) and Sobol's Variance Decomposition (SVD). In general, the RSA method has the disadvantage of not being able to detect sensitivities arising from parameter interactions. By contrast, the SVD method is suitable for analysing models where the model response surface is expected to be affected by interactions at a local scale and/or local optima, such as the case of the rainfall-runoff fuzzy models analysed in this study. The data of six catchments from different geographical locations and sizes are used in the sensitivity analysis. The sensitivity of the model parameters is analysed in terms of two measures of goodness of fit, assessing the model performance from different points of view. These measures are the Nash-Sutcliffe criterion and the index of volumetric fit. The results of the study show that the sensitivity of the model parameters depends on both the type of non-linear effects (i.e. changes in catchment wetness or seasonality) that dominates the catchment's rainfall-runoff relationship and the measure used to assess the model performance. Acknowledgements: This research was supported by FONDECYT, Research Grant 11070130. We would also like to express our gratitude to Prof. Kieran M. O'Connor from the National University of Ireland, Galway, for providing the data used in this study.

Visualizing ecological sensitivity assessment of Huangnan, in the Three-river Region, China, based on GIS

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meng, Xia; Guo, Luo

2017-07-01

Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture is located in the three-river source region (the TRSR) in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, China, which is characterized with ecological sensitivity and vulnerability. In the paper, we integrated remote sensing images, field investigation and social-economic data , and with the help of analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and comprehensive index methods, a sensitivity assessment system was built to calculate ecological sensitivity scores and assign levels for the study area. Results show that: areas which are moderately or even highly ecologically sensitive account for 54.02%, distributed in south, north and northeast of study area and those that have most apparent ecological sensitivity are mainly located in Zeekog, northwest of Huangnan while other counties enjoy relatively lower sensitivity. The results will facilitate future region management and planning for decision-makers.

Effectiveness of Light Sources on In-Office Dental Bleaching: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses.

PubMed

SoutoMaior, J R; de Moraes, Sld; Lemos, Caa; Vasconcelos, Bc do E; Montes, Majr; Pellizzer, E P

2018-06-12

A systematic review and meta-analyses were performed to evaluate the efficacy of tooth color change and sensitivity of teeth following in-office bleaching with and without light gel activation in adult patients. This review was registered at PROSPERO (CRD 42017060574) and is based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA). Electronic systematic searches of PubMed/MEDLINE, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Library were conducted for published articles. Only randomized clinical trials among adults that compared in-office bleaching with and without light activation with the same bleaching gel concentrations were selected. The outcomes were tooth color change and tooth sensitivity prevalence and intensity. Twenty-three articles from 1054 data sources met the eligibility criteria. After title and abstract screening, 39 studies remained. Sixteen studies were further excluded. Twenty-three studies remained for qualitative analyses and 20 for meta-analyses of primary and secondary outcomes. No significant differences in tooth color change or tooth sensitivity incidence were found between the compared groups; however, tooth sensitivity intensity decreased when light sources were applied. The use of light sources for in-office bleaching is not imperative to achieve esthetic clinical results.

Measuring what matters: Effectively predicting language and literacy in children with cochlear implants

PubMed Central

Nittrouer, Susan; Caldwell, Amanda; Holloman, Christopher

2012-01-01

Objective To evaluate how well various language measures typically used with very young children after they receive cochlear implants predict language and literacy skills as they enter school. Methods Subjects were 50 children who had just completed kindergarten and were 6 or 7 years of age. All had previously participated in a longitudinal study from 12 to 48 months of age. 27 children had severe-to-profound hearing loss and wore cochlear implants, 8 had moderate hearing loss and wore hearing aids, and 15 had normal hearing. A latent variable of language/literacy skill was constructed from scores on six kinds of measures: (1) language comprehension; (2) expressive vocabulary; (3) phonological awareness; (4) literacy; (5) narrative skill; and (6) processing speed. Five kinds of language measures obtained at six-month intervals from 12 to 48 months of age were used as predictor variables in correlational analyses: (1) language comprehension; (2) expressive vocabulary; (3) syntactic structure of productive speech; (4) form and (5) function of language used in language samples. Results Outcomes quantified how much variance in kindergarten language/literacy performance was explained by each predictor variable, at each earlier age of testing. Comprehension measures consistently predicted roughly 25 to 50 percent of the variance in kindergarten language/literacy performance, and were the only effective predictors before 24 months of age. Vocabulary and syntactic complexity were strong predictors after roughly 36 months of age. Amount of speech produced in language samples and number of answers to parental queries explained moderate amounts of variance in performance after 24 months of age. Number of manual gestures and nonspeech vocalizations produced in language samples explained little to no variance before 24 months of age, and after that were negatively correlated with kindergarten performance. The number of imitations produced in language samples at 24 months of age explained about 10 percent of variance in kindergarten performance, but was otherwise not correlated or negatively correlated with kindergarten outcomes. Conclusions Before 24 months of age, the best predictor of later language success is language comprehension. In general, measures that index a child’s cognitive processing of language are the most sensitive predictors of school-age language abilities. PMID:22648088

Comprehensive care plus creative architecture.

PubMed

Easter, James G

2005-01-01

The delivery of high-quality, comprehensive cancer care and the treatment environment go hand in hand with the patient's recovery. When the planning and design of a comprehensive cancer care program runs parallel to the operational expectations and functional standards, the building users (patients, staff, and physicians) benefit significantly. This behavioral response requires a sensitive interface during the campus master planning, architectural programming, and design phases. Each building component and user functioning along the "continuum of care" will have different expectations, programmatic needs, and design responses. This article addresses the community- and hospital-based elements of this continuum. The environment does affect the patient care and the care-giving team members. It may be a positive or, unfortunately, a negative response.

Examining the genetic and environmental associations among spelling, reading fluency, reading comprehension and a high stakes reading test in a combined sample of third and fourth grade students

PubMed Central

Little, Callie W.

2015-01-01

The present study is an examination of the genetic and environmental effects on the associations among reading fluency, spelling and earlier reading comprehension on a later reading comprehension outcome (FCAT) in a combined sample of 3rd and 4th grade students using data from the 2011-2012 school year of the Florida Twin project on Reading (Taylor et al., 2013). A genetically sensitive model was applied to the data with results indicating a common genetic component among all four measures, along with shared and non-shared environmental influences common between reading fluency, spelling and FCAT. PMID:26770052

Comparing the Cost of Treatment with Octreotide Long-Acting Release versus Lanreotide in Patients with Metastatic Gastrointestinal Neuroendocrine Tumors.

PubMed

Ayyagari, Rajeev; Neary, Maureen; Li, Shang; Rokito, Ariel; Yang, Hongbo; Xie, Jipan; Benson, Al B

2017-11-01

The 2 somatostatin analogs currently recommended by the National Comprehensive Cancer Network for the treatment of gastrointestinal (GI) neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) include octreotide long-acting release (Sandostatin LAR) for injectable suspension and lanreotide (Somatuline Depot) injection for subcutaneous use. To estimate the costs to payers associated with 30-mg octreotide LAR and 120-mg lanreotide treatment among patients with metastatic GI-NETs. The costs to payers associated with the 2 drugs were estimated by including the costs of each drug, drug administration, and adverse events. The unit drug costs for octreotide LAR and for lanreotide were obtained from ReadyPrice Wholesale Acquisition Cost; the doses were obtained from published studies. The adverse event rates were obtained from 2 phase 3 clinical trials, PROMID and CLARINET. Deterministic one-way sensitivity analyses were used to assess the impact of modifying assumptions and inputs on the results, including the 2017 Average Sales Price (ASP). All costs were estimated in 2016 US dollars, with a constant discount of 3%. The costs to payers associated with the treatment of GI-NETs during 1-, 3-, and 5-year horizons were $74,566, $180,082, and $262,344, respectively, for octreotide LAR and $84,856, $205,562, and $299,667, respectively, for lanreotide. Thus, octreotide LAR was associated with lower costs by $10,290 (1 year), $25,480 (3 years), and $37,323 (5 years) compared with lanreotide. Over a 5-year horizon, the costs of adverse events and administration accounted for 0.72% of the total cost for octreotide LAR and 0.51% of the total cost for lanreotide. Sensitivity analyses confirmed that the main factor affecting the cost difference was the price of the drugs; analyses using the ASP yielded similar results. For the management of metastatic GI-NETs, the cost to payers of treatment with 30-mg octreotide LAR is considerably lower than with 120-mg lanreotide over 1-, 3-, and 5-year horizons. In the presence of healthcare resource constraints, these findings may support decision-making when considering the care of patients with metastatic GI-NETs.

Is self-monitoring of blood glucose effective in improving glycaemic control in type 2 diabetes without insulin treatment: a meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials

PubMed Central

Zhu, Hongmei; Zhu, Yanan; Leung, Siu-wai

2016-01-01

Objective The present study aimed to verify the effectiveness of self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG) in patients with non-insulin-treated type 2 diabetes (T2D). Methods A comprehensive literature search was conducted in PubMed, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, ScienceDirect and ClinicalTrials.gov from their respective inception dates to 26 October 2015. Eligible randomised controlled trials (RCTs) were included according to prespecified criteria. The quality of the included RCTs was evaluated according to the Cochrane risk of bias tool, and the evidence quality of meta-analyses was assessed by the Grading of Recommendation, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) criteria. A meta-analysis of primary and secondary outcome measures was performed. Sensitivity and subgroup analyses were carried out to evaluate the robustness and heterogeneity of the findings. Begg's and Egger's tests were used to quantify publication biases. Results A total of 15 RCTs, comprising 3383 patients with non-insulin-treated T2D, met the inclusion criteria. The SMBG intervention improved glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) (mean difference −0.33; 95% CI −0.45 to −0.22; p=3.0730e−8; n=18), body mass index (BMI; −0.65; −1.18 to −0.12; p=0.0164; n=9) and total cholesterol (TC; −0.12; −0.20 to −0.04; p=0.0034; n=8) more effectively than the control in overall effect. The sensitivity analysis revealed little difference in overall effect, indicating the robustness of the results. SMBG moderated HbA1c levels better than the control in all subgroup analyses. Most of the RCTs had high risk of bias in blinding, while the overall quality of evidence for HbA1c was moderate according to the GRADE criteria. Publication bias was moderate for BMI. Conclusions SMBG improved HbA1c levels in the short term (≤6-month follow-up) and long term (≥12-month follow-up) in patients with T2D who were not using insulin. Trial registration number CRD42015019099. PMID:27591016

Multimarker Strategy for Heart Failure Prognostication. Value of Neurohormonal Biomarkers: Neprilysin vs NT-proBNP.

PubMed

Bayes-Genis, Antoni; Barallat, Jaume; Galán, Amparo; de Antonio, Marta; Domingo, Mar; Zamora, Elisabet; Gastelurrutia, Paloma; Vila, Joan; Peñafiel, Judith; Gálvez-Montón, Carolina; Lupón, Josep

2015-12-01

Neprilysin breaks down numerous vasoactive peptides. The soluble form of neprilysin, which was recently identified in heart failure, is associated with cardiovascular outcomes. Within a multibiomarker strategy, we directly compared soluble neprilysin and N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide as risk stratifiers in a real-life cohort of heart failure patients. Soluble neprilysin, N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide, ST2, and high-sensitivity troponin T levels were measured in 797 consecutive ambulatory heart failure patients followed up for 4.7 years. Comprehensive multivariable analyses and soluble neprilysin vs N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide head-to-head assessments of performance were performed. A primary composite endpoint included cardiovascular death or heart failure hospitalization. A secondary endpoint explored cardiovascular death alone. Median soluble neprilysin and N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide concentrations were 0.64ng/mL and 1187 ng/L, respectively. Both biomarkers significantly correlated with age (P<.001) and ST2 (P<.001), but only N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide significantly correlated with estimated glomerular filtration rate (P<.001), body mass index (P<.001), left ventricular ejection fraction (P=.02) and high-sensitivity troponin T (P<.001). In multivariable Cox regression analyses, soluble neprilysin remained independently associated with the composite endpoint (hazard ratio=1.14; 95% confidence interval, 1.02-1.27; P=.03) and cardiovascular death (hazard ratio=1.15; 95% confidence interval, 1.01-1.31; P=.04), but N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide did not. The head-to-head soluble neprilysin vs N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide comparison showed good calibration and similar discrimination and reclassification for both neurohormonal biomarkers, but only soluble neprilysin improved overall goodness-of-fit. When added to a multimarker strategy, soluble neprilysin remained an independent prognosticator, while N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide lost significance as a risk stratifier in ambulatory patients with heart failure. Both biomarkers performed similarly in head-to-head analyses. Copyright © 2015 Sociedad Española de Cardiología. Published by Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

Twenty-five years of optical coherence tomography: the paradigm shift in sensitivity and speed provided by Fourier domain OCT [Invited

PubMed Central

de Boer, Johannes F.; Leitgeb, Rainer; Wojtkowski, Maciej

2017-01-01

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) has become one of the most successful optical technologies implemented in medicine and clinical practice mostly due to the possibility of non-invasive and non-contact imaging by detecting back-scattered light. OCT has gone through a tremendous development over the past 25 years. From its initial inception in 1991 [Science 254, 1178 (1991)1957169] it has become an indispensable medical imaging technology in ophthalmology. Also in fields like cardiology and gastro-enterology the technology is envisioned to become a standard of care. A key contributor to the success of OCT has been the sensitivity and speed advantage offered by Fourier domain OCT. In this review paper the development of FD-OCT will be revisited, providing a single comprehensive framework to derive the sensitivity advantage of both SD- and SS-OCT. We point out the key aspects of the physics and the technology that has enabled a more than 2 orders of magnitude increase in sensitivity, and as a consequence an increase in the imaging speed without loss of image quality. This speed increase provided a paradigm shift from point sampling to comprehensive 3D in vivo imaging, whose clinical impact is still actively explored by a large number of researchers worldwide. PMID:28717565

Comprehensive Monte-Carlo simulator for optimization of imaging parameters for high sensitivity detection of skin cancer at the THz

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ney, Michael; Abdulhalim, Ibrahim

2016-03-01

Skin cancer detection at its early stages has been the focus of a large number of experimental and theoretical studies during the past decades. Among these studies two prominent approaches presenting high potential are reflectometric sensing at the THz wavelengths region and polarimetric imaging techniques in the visible wavelengths. While THz radiation contrast agent and source of sensitivity to cancer related tissue alterations was considered to be mainly the elevated water content in the cancerous tissue, the polarimetric approach has been verified to enable cancerous tissue differentiation based on cancer induced structural alterations to the tissue. Combining THz with the polarimetric approach, which is considered in this study, is examined in order to enable higher detection sensitivity than previously pure reflectometric THz measurements. For this, a comprehensive MC simulation of radiative transfer in a complex skin tissue model fitted for the THz domain that considers the skin`s stratified structure, tissue material optical dispersion modeling, surface roughness, scatterers, and substructure organelles has been developed. Additionally, a narrow beam Mueller matrix differential analysis technique is suggested for assessing skin cancer induced changes in the polarimetric image, enabling the tissue model and MC simulation to be utilized for determining the imaging parameters resulting in maximal detection sensitivity.

Examining the relationship between comprehension and production processes in code-switched language

PubMed Central

Guzzardo Tamargo, Rosa E.; Valdés Kroff, Jorge R.; Dussias, Paola E.

2016-01-01

We employ code-switching (the alternation of two languages in bilingual communication) to test the hypothesis, derived from experience-based models of processing (e.g., Boland, Tanenhaus, Carlson, & Garnsey, 1989; Gennari & MacDonald, 2009), that bilinguals are sensitive to the combinatorial distributional patterns derived from production and that they use this information to guide processing during the comprehension of code-switched sentences. An analysis of spontaneous bilingual speech confirmed the existence of production asymmetries involving two auxiliary + participle phrases in Spanish–English code-switches. A subsequent eye-tracking study with two groups of bilingual code-switchers examined the consequences of the differences in distributional patterns found in the corpus study for comprehension. Participants’ comprehension costs mirrored the production patterns found in the corpus study. Findings are discussed in terms of the constraints that may be responsible for the distributional patterns in code-switching production and are situated within recent proposals of the links between production and comprehension. PMID:28670049

Cues, quantification, and agreement in language comprehension.

PubMed

Tanner, Darren; Bulkes, Nyssa Z

2015-12-01

We investigated factors that affect the comprehension of subject-verb agreement in English, using quantification as a window into the relationship between morphosyntactic processes in language production and comprehension. Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded while participants read sentences with grammatical and ungrammatical verbs, in which the plurality of the subject noun phrase was either doubly marked (via overt plural quantification and morphological marking on the noun) or singly marked (via only plural morphology on the noun). Both acceptability judgments and the ERP data showed heightened sensitivity to agreement violations when quantification provided an additional cue to the grammatical number of the subject noun phrase, over and above plural morphology. This is consistent with models of grammatical comprehension that emphasize feature prediction in tandem with cue-based memory retrieval. Our results additionally contrast with those of prior studies that showed no effects of plural quantification on agreement in language production. These findings therefore highlight some nontrivial divergences in the cues and mechanisms supporting morphosyntactic processing in language production and comprehension.

Examining the relationship between comprehension and production processes in code-switched language.

PubMed

Guzzardo Tamargo, Rosa E; Valdés Kroff, Jorge R; Dussias, Paola E

2016-08-01

We employ code-switching (the alternation of two languages in bilingual communication) to test the hypothesis, derived from experience-based models of processing (e.g., Boland, Tanenhaus, Carlson, & Garnsey, 1989; Gennari & MacDonald, 2009), that bilinguals are sensitive to the combinatorial distributional patterns derived from production and that they use this information to guide processing during the comprehension of code-switched sentences. An analysis of spontaneous bilingual speech confirmed the existence of production asymmetries involving two auxiliary + participle phrases in Spanish-English code-switches. A subsequent eye-tracking study with two groups of bilingual code-switchers examined the consequences of the differences in distributional patterns found in the corpus study for comprehension. Participants' comprehension costs mirrored the production patterns found in the corpus study. Findings are discussed in terms of the constraints that may be responsible for the distributional patterns in code-switching production and are situated within recent proposals of the links between production and comprehension.

Shuttle filter study. Volume 1: Characterization and optimization of filtration devices

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1974-01-01

A program to develop a new technology base for filtration equipment and comprehensive fluid particulate contamination management techniques was conducted. The study has application to the systems used in the space shuttle and space station projects. The scope of the program is as follows: (1) characterization and optimization of filtration devices, (2) characterization of contaminant generation and contaminant sensitivity at the component level, and (3) development of a comprehensive particulate contamination management plane for space shuttle fluid systems.

Tracking competition and cognitive control during language comprehension with multi-voxel pattern analysis

PubMed Central

Musz, Elizabeth; Thompson-Schill, Sharon L.

2017-01-01

To successfully comprehend a sentence that contains a homonym, readers must select the ambiguous word’s context-appropriate meaning. The outcome of this process is influenced both by top-down contextual support and bottom-up, word-specific characteristics. We examined how these factors jointly affect the neural signatures of lexical ambiguity resolution. We measured the similarity between multi-voxel patterns evoked by the same homonym in two distinct linguistic contexts: once after subjects read sentences that biased interpretation toward each homonym’s most frequent, dominant meaning, and again after interpretation was biased toward a weaker, subordinate meaning. We predicted that, following a subordinate-biasing context, the dominant yet inappropriate meaning would nevertheless compete for activation, manifesting in increased similarity between the neural patterns evoked by the two word meanings. In left anterior temporal lobe (ATL), degree of within-word pattern similarity was positively predicted by the association strength of each homonym’s dominant meaning. Further, within-word pattern similarity in left ATL was negatively predicted by item-specific responses in a region of left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC) sensitive to semantic conflict. These findings have implications for psycholinguistic models of lexical ambiguity resolution, and for the role of left VLPFC function during this process. Moreover, these findings demonstrate the utility of item-level, similarity-based analyses of fMRI data for our understanding of competition between co-activated word meanings during language comprehension. PMID:27898341

The Validity of the 16-Item Version of the Prodromal Questionnaire (PQ-16) to Screen for Ultra High Risk of Developing Psychosis in the General Help-Seeking Population

PubMed Central

Ising, Helga K.; Veling, Wim; Loewy, Rachel L.; Rietveld, Marleen W.; Rietdijk, Judith; Dragt, Sara; Klaassen, Rianne M. C.; Nieman, Dorien H.; Wunderink, Lex; Linszen, Don H.; van der Gaag, Mark

2012-01-01

In order to bring about implementation of routine screening for psychosis risk, a brief version of the Prodromal Questionnaire (PQ; Loewy et al., 2005) was developed and tested in a general help-seeking population. We assessed a consecutive patient sample of 3533 young adults who were help-seeking for nonpsychotic disorders at the secondary mental health services in the Hague with the PQ. We performed logistic regression analyses and CHi-squared Automatic Interaction Detector decision tree analysis to shorten the original 92 items. Receiver operating characteristic curves were used to examine the psychometric properties of the PQ-16. In the general help-seeking population, a cutoff score of 6 or more positively answered items on the 16-item version of the PQ produced correct classification of Comprehensive Assessment of At-Risk Mental State (Yung et al., 2005) psychosis risk/clinical psychosis in 44% of the cases, distinguishing Comprehensive Assessment of At-Risk Mental States (CAARMS) diagnosis from no CAARMS diagnosis with high sensitivity (87%) and specificity (87%). These results were comparable to the PQ-92. The PQ-16 is a good self-report screen for use in secondary mental health care services to select subjects for interviewing for psychosis risk. The low number of items makes it quite appropriate for screening large help-seeking populations, thus enhancing the feasibility of detection and treatment of ultra high-risk patients in routine mental health services. PMID:22516147

Large-scale application of the flood damage model RAilway Infrastructure Loss (RAIL)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kellermann, Patric; Schönberger, Christine; Thieken, Annegret H.

2016-11-01

Experience has shown that river floods can significantly hamper the reliability of railway networks and cause extensive structural damage and disruption. As a result, the national railway operator in Austria had to cope with financial losses of more than EUR 100 million due to flooding in recent years. Comprehensive information on potential flood risk hot spots as well as on expected flood damage in Austria is therefore needed for strategic flood risk management. In view of this, the flood damage model RAIL (RAilway Infrastructure Loss) was applied to estimate (1) the expected structural flood damage and (2) the resulting repair costs of railway infrastructure due to a 30-, 100- and 300-year flood in the Austrian Mur River catchment. The results were then used to calculate the expected annual damage of the railway subnetwork and subsequently analysed in terms of their sensitivity to key model assumptions. Additionally, the impact of risk aversion on the estimates was investigated, and the overall results were briefly discussed against the background of climate change and possibly resulting changes in flood risk. The findings indicate that the RAIL model is capable of supporting decision-making in risk management by providing comprehensive risk information on the catchment level. It is furthermore demonstrated that an increased risk aversion of the railway operator has a marked influence on flood damage estimates for the study area and, hence, should be considered with regard to the development of risk management strategies.

Ethical considerations in the study of online illness narratives: a qualitative review.

PubMed

Heilferty, Catherine McGeehin

2011-05-01

This aim of the review was to describe differences in ethical approaches to research on Internet communication during illness and to report conclusions drawn relevant to a proposed narrative analysis of parent blogs of childhood illness. As the study of the online expression of illness experiences becomes more expansive, discussion of related ethical issues is central to promoting research trustworthiness and rigour. Ethical considerations are central to the patient-provider relationship. The EBSCO Host, CINAHL, Medline, Communication & Mass Media Complete, and Google Scholar databases were searched from January 1990 to September 2009 using the terms 'Internet research and ethics', 'Internet research, illness and ethics' and 'blog, Internet research and ethics'. Of the 4114 references found, 21 met the inclusion criteria for the review. The review was designed to be a comprehensive assessment of the concepts analysed and the qualitative research measures taken concerning ethics in Internet research across formats. Three main approaches to ethical conduct in Internet research on illness experiences were found: human subjects, representation and open source approaches. The personal and sensitive nature of online illness narratives demand their consideration in health care as 'human subjects' research. The best hope for ethical treatment of author-participants is the creation of a comprehensive plan for addressing any and all potential ethical conflicts that may arise in the collection, analysis and reporting of data, taking into consideration rapid changes in technology. © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Determining the privacy policy deficiencies of health ICT applications through semi-formal modelling.

PubMed

Croll, Peter R

2011-02-01

To ensure that patient confidentiality is securely maintained, health ICT applications that contain sensitive personal information demand comprehensive privacy policies. Determining the adequacy of these policies to meet legal conformity together with clinical users and patient expectation is demanding in practice. Organisations and agencies looking to analyse their Privacy and Security policies can benefit from guidance provided by outside entities such as the Privacy Office of their State or Government together with law firms and ICT specialists. The advice given is not uniform and often open to different interpretations. Of greater concern is the possibility of overlooking any important aspects that later result in a data breach. Based on three case studies, this paper considers whether a more formal approach to privacy analysis could be taken that would help identify the full coverage of a Privacy Impact Analysis and determine the deficiencies with an organisation's current policies and approach. A diagrammatic model showing the relationships between Confidentiality, Privacy, Trust, Security and Safety is introduced. First the validity of this model is determined by mapping it against the real-world case studies taken from three healthcare services that depend on ICT. Then, by using software engineering methods, a formal mapping of the relationships is undertaken to identify a full set of policies needed to satisfy the model. How effective this approach may prove as a generic method for deriving a comprehensive set of policies in health ICT applications is finally discussed. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Young readers' use of phonological information: phonological awareness, memory, and comprehension.

PubMed

Gray, Audra; McCutchen, Deborah

2006-01-01

In this study, we explored the relationship between beginning readers' phonological awareness and other aspects of phonological processing, specifically as manifested in short-term memory and comprehension tasks. The theoretical questions underlying the study were (a) what roles phonological processes play in children's beginning reading, from word identification through sentence comprehension, and (b) whether those roles are sufficiently related that potential difficulties at one level directly affect processing at other levels. Phonologically induced effects were observed for word-list memory and for sentence judgments for both novice readers (at the end of kindergarten) and relatively more experienced readers (end of Grades 1 and 2). For both age groups, correlational analyses revealed relationships among phonological awareness, phonological processing in list memory, and word reading. However, phonological processing in sentence comprehension was not related to other types of phonological processing. These results indicate that although phonology plays a role during comprehension, phonological processing may not be as limiting a factor in comprehension as in word reading.

VARS-TOOL: A Comprehensive, Efficient, and Robust Sensitivity Analysis Toolbox

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Razavi, S.; Sheikholeslami, R.; Haghnegahdar, A.; Esfahbod, B.

2016-12-01

VARS-TOOL is an advanced sensitivity and uncertainty analysis toolbox, applicable to the full range of computer simulation models, including Earth and Environmental Systems Models (EESMs). The toolbox was developed originally around VARS (Variogram Analysis of Response Surfaces), which is a general framework for Global Sensitivity Analysis (GSA) that utilizes the variogram/covariogram concept to characterize the full spectrum of sensitivity-related information, thereby providing a comprehensive set of "global" sensitivity metrics with minimal computational cost. VARS-TOOL is unique in that, with a single sample set (set of simulation model runs), it generates simultaneously three philosophically different families of global sensitivity metrics, including (1) variogram-based metrics called IVARS (Integrated Variogram Across a Range of Scales - VARS approach), (2) variance-based total-order effects (Sobol approach), and (3) derivative-based elementary effects (Morris approach). VARS-TOOL is also enabled with two novel features; the first one being a sequential sampling algorithm, called Progressive Latin Hypercube Sampling (PLHS), which allows progressively increasing the sample size for GSA while maintaining the required sample distributional properties. The second feature is a "grouping strategy" that adaptively groups the model parameters based on their sensitivity or functioning to maximize the reliability of GSA results. These features in conjunction with bootstrapping enable the user to monitor the stability, robustness, and convergence of GSA with the increase in sample size for any given case study. VARS-TOOL has been shown to achieve robust and stable results within 1-2 orders of magnitude smaller sample sizes (fewer model runs) than alternative tools. VARS-TOOL, available in MATLAB and Python, is under continuous development and new capabilities and features are forthcoming.

The Reinvention of the Comprehensive School System in Finland: How Do Market-Oriented Reforms Impact upon Equity and Equality of Opportunity?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ylonen, Annamari

2009-01-01

This article examines the changing nature of comprehensive schooling in Finland since the 1990s and focuses on analysing the impact of the changes on equity and equality of opportunity. Comparisons are made between the development of "school markets" in the south of the country and the situation in the north of the country where the case…

A Second Look at Dwyer's Studies by Means of Meta-Analysis: The Effects of Pictorial Realism on Text Comprehension and Vocabulary.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reinwein, Joachim; Huberdeau, Lucie

A meta-analysis examined a series of studies by F.M. Dwyer on the effect of illustrations on text comprehension. Principal component analysis was used to reduce the four posttests used by Dwyer to more fundamental factors of learning, followed by analyses of variance. All nine studies (involving secondary-school and college students) in which…

Recombinative generalization of within-syllable units in nonreading adults with mental retardation.

PubMed

Saunders, Kathryn J; O'Donnell, Jennifer; Vaidya, Manish; Williams, Dean C

2003-01-01

Two adults with mental retardation demonstrated the recombination of within-syllable units (onsets and rimes) using a spoken-to-printed-word matching-to-sample (MTS) procedure. Further testing with 1 participant showed comprehension of the printed words. Printed-word naming was minimal before, but greater after, comprehension tests. The findings suggest that these procedures hold promise for further basic and applied analyses of word-attack skills.

Evaluating Treatment and Generalization Patterns of Two Theoretically Motivated Sentence Comprehension Therapies

PubMed Central

Des Roches, Carrie A.; Vallila-Rohter, Sofia; Villard, Sarah; Tripodis, Yorghos; Caplan, David

2016-01-01

Purpose The current study examined treatment outcomes and generalization patterns following 2 sentence comprehension therapies: object manipulation (OM) and sentence-to-picture matching (SPM). Findings were interpreted within the framework of specific deficit and resource reduction accounts, which were extended in order to examine the nature of generalization following treatment of sentence comprehension deficits in aphasia. Method Forty-eight individuals with aphasia were enrolled in 1 of 8 potential treatment assignments that varied by task (OM, SPM), complexity of trained sentences (complex, simple), and syntactic movement (noun phrase, wh-movement). Comprehension of trained and untrained sentences was probed before and after treatment using stimuli that differed from the treatment stimuli. Results Linear mixed-model analyses demonstrated that, although both OM and SPM treatments were effective, OM resulted in greater improvement than SPM. Analyses of covariance revealed main effects of complexity in generalization; generalization from complex to simple linguistically related sentences was observed both across task and across movement. Conclusions Results are consistent with the complexity account of treatment efficacy, as generalization effects were consistently observed from complex to simpler structures. Furthermore, results provide support for resource reduction accounts that suggest that generalization can extend across linguistic boundaries, such as across movement type. PMID:27997950

Effects of word frequency and modality on sentence comprehension impairments in people with aphasia.

PubMed

DeDe, Gayle

2012-05-01

It is well known that people with aphasia have sentence comprehension impairments. The present study investigated whether lexical factors contribute to sentence comprehension impairments in both the auditory and written modalities using online measures of sentence processing. People with aphasia and non brain-damaged controls participated in the experiment (n = 8 per group). Twenty-one sentence pairs containing high- and low-frequency words were presented in self-paced listening and reading tasks. The sentences were syntactically simple and differed only in the critical words. The dependent variables were response times for critical segments of the sentence and accuracy on the comprehension questions. The results showed that word frequency influences performance on measures of sentence comprehension in people with aphasia. The accuracy data on the comprehension questions suggested that people with aphasia have more difficulty understanding sentences containing low-frequency words in the written compared to auditory modality. Both group and single-case analyses of the response time data also indicated that people with aphasia experience more difficulty with reading than listening. Sentence comprehension in people with aphasia is influenced by word frequency and presentation modality.

A Dominance Analysis Approach to Determining Predictor Importance in Third, Seventh, and Tenth Grade Reading Comprehension Skills

PubMed Central

Tighe, Elizabeth; Schatschneider, Christopher

2015-01-01

The purpose of the present study was to investigate and rank order by importance the contributions of various cognitive predictors to reading comprehension in third, seventh, and tenth graders. An exploratory factor analysis revealed that for third grade, the best fit was a four-factor solution including Fluency, Verbal Reasoning, Nonverbal Reasoning, and Working Memory factors. For seventh and tenth grade, three-factor solutions with Fluency, Reasoning, and Working Memory factors were the best fit. The three and four-factor models were used in separate dominance analyses for each grade to rank order the factors by predictive importance to reading comprehension. Results indicated that Fluency and Verbal Reasoning were the most important predictors of third grade reading comprehension. For seventh grade, Fluency and Reasoning were the most important predictors. By tenth grade, Reasoning was the most important predictor of reading comprehension. Working Memory was the least predictive of reading comprehension across all grade levels. These results suggest that inferential reasoning skills become an important contributor to reading comprehension at increasing grade levels. PMID:26346315

Combining laser-assisted microdissection (LAM) and RNA-seq allows to perform a comprehensive transcriptomic analysis of epidermal cells of Arabidopsis embryo.

PubMed

Sakai, Kaori; Taconnat, Ludivine; Borrega, Nero; Yansouni, Jennifer; Brunaud, Véronique; Paysant-Le Roux, Christine; Delannoy, Etienne; Martin Magniette, Marie-Laure; Lepiniec, Loïc; Faure, Jean Denis; Balzergue, Sandrine; Dubreucq, Bertrand

2018-01-01

Genome-wide characterization of tissue- or cell-specific gene expression is a recurrent bottleneck in biology. We have developed a sensitive approach based on ultra-low RNA sequencing coupled to laser assisted microdissection for analyzing different tissues of the small Arabidopsis embryo. We first characterized the number of genes detected according to the quantity of tissue yield and total RNA extracted. Our results revealed that as low as 0.02 mm 2 of tissue and 50 pg of total RNA can be used without compromising the number of genes detected. The optimised protocol was used to compare the epidermal versus mesophyll cell transcriptomes of cotyledons at the torpedo-shaped stage of embryo development. The approach was validated by the recovery of well-known epidermal genes such AtML1 or AtPDF2 and genes involved in flavonoid and cuticular waxes pathways. Moreover, the interest and sensitivity of this approach were highlighted by the characterization of several transcription factors preferentially expressed in epidermal cells. This technical advance unlocks some current limitations of transcriptomic analyses and allows to investigate further and efficiently new biological questions for which only a very small amounts of cells need to be isolated. For instance, it paves the way to increasing the spatial accuracy of regulatory networks in developing small embryo of Arabidopsis or other plant tissues.

Dakota, a multilevel parallel object-oriented framework for design optimization, parameter estimation, uncertainty quantification, and sensitivity analysis version 6.0 theory manual

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Adams, Brian M.; Ebeida, Mohamed Salah; Eldred, Michael S

The Dakota (Design Analysis Kit for Optimization and Terascale Applications) toolkit provides a exible and extensible interface between simulation codes and iterative analysis methods. Dakota contains algorithms for optimization with gradient and nongradient-based methods; uncertainty quanti cation with sampling, reliability, and stochastic expansion methods; parameter estimation with nonlinear least squares methods; and sensitivity/variance analysis with design of experiments and parameter study methods. These capabilities may be used on their own or as components within advanced strategies such as surrogate-based optimization, mixed integer nonlinear programming, or optimization under uncertainty. By employing object-oriented design to implement abstractions of the key components requiredmore » for iterative systems analyses, the Dakota toolkit provides a exible and extensible problem-solving environment for design and performance analysis of computational models on high performance computers. This report serves as a theoretical manual for selected algorithms implemented within the Dakota software. It is not intended as a comprehensive theoretical treatment, since a number of existing texts cover general optimization theory, statistical analysis, and other introductory topics. Rather, this manual is intended to summarize a set of Dakota-related research publications in the areas of surrogate-based optimization, uncertainty quanti cation, and optimization under uncertainty that provide the foundation for many of Dakota's iterative analysis capabilities.« less

SMARTPHONE-BASED DILATED FUNDUS PHOTOGRAPHY AND NEAR VISUAL ACUITY TESTING AS INEXPENSIVE SCREENING TOOLS TO DETECT REFERRAL WARRANTED DIABETIC EYE DISEASE.

PubMed

Toy, Brian C; Myung, David J; He, Lingmin; Pan, Carolyn K; Chang, Robert T; Polkinhorne, Alison; Merrell, Douglas; Foster, Doug; Blumenkranz, Mark S

2016-05-01

To compare clinical assessment of diabetic eye disease by standard dilated examination with data gathered using a smartphone-based store-and-forward teleophthalmology platform. 100 eyes of 50 adult patients with diabetes from a health care safety-net ophthalmology clinic. All patients underwent comprehensive ophthalmic examination. Concurrently, a smartphone was used to estimate near visual acuity and capture anterior and dilated posterior segment photographs, which underwent masked, standardized review. Quantitative comparison of clinic and smartphone-based data using descriptive, kappa, Bland-Altman, and receiver operating characteristic analyses was performed. Smartphone visual acuity was successfully measured in all eyes. Anterior and posterior segment photography was of sufficient quality to grade in 96 and 98 eyes, respectively. There was good correlation between clinical Snellen and smartphone visual acuity measurements (rho = 0.91). Smartphone-acquired fundus photographs demonstrated 91% sensitivity and 99% specificity to detect moderate nonproliferative and worse diabetic retinopathy, with good agreement between clinic and photograph grades (kappa = 0.91 ± 0.1, P < 0.001; AUROC = 0.97, 95% confidence interval, 0.93-1). The authors report a smartphone-based telemedicine system that demonstrated sensitivity and specificity to detect referral-warranted diabetic eye disease as a proof-of-concept. Additional studies are warranted to evaluate this approach to expanding screening for diabetic retinopathy.

A genome-wide inducible phenotypic screen identifies antisense RNA constructs silencing Escherichia coli essential genes

PubMed Central

Meng, Jia; Kanzaki, Gregory; Meas, Diane; Lam, Christopher K.; Crummer, Heather; Tain, Justina; Xu, H. Howard

2013-01-01

Regulated antisense RNA (asRNA) expression has been employed successfully in Gram-positive bacteria for genome-wide essential gene identification and drug target determination. However, there have been no published reports describing the application of asRNA gene silencing for comprehensive analyses of essential genes in Gram-negative bacteria. In this study, we report the first genome-wide identification of asRNA constructs for essential genes in Escherichia coli. We screened 250,000 library transformants for conditional growth-inhibitory recombinant clones from two shot-gun genomic libraries of E. coli using a paired-termini expression vector (pHN678). After sequencing plasmid inserts of 675 confirmed inducer-sensitive cell clones, we identified 152 separate asRNA constructs of which 134 inserts came from essential genes while 18 originated from non-essential genes (but share operons with essential genes). Among the 79 individual essential genes silenced by these asRNA constructs, 61 genes (77%) engage in processes related to protein synthesis. The cell-based assays of an asRNA clone targeting fusA (encoding elongation factor G) showed that the induced cells were sensitized 12 fold to fusidic acid, a known specific inhibitor. Our results demonstrate the utility of the paired-termini expression vector and feasibility of large-scale gene silencing in E. coli using regulated asRNA expression. PMID:22268863

Comprehensive rotorcraft analysis methods

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stephens, Wendell B.; Austin, Edward E.

1988-01-01

The development and application of comprehensive rotorcraft analysis methods in the field of rotorcraft technology are described. These large scale analyses and the resulting computer programs are intended to treat the complex aeromechanical phenomena that describe the behavior of rotorcraft. They may be used to predict rotor aerodynamics, acoustic, performance, stability and control, handling qualities, loads and vibrations, structures, dynamics, and aeroelastic stability characteristics for a variety of applications including research, preliminary and detail design, and evaluation and treatment of field problems. The principal comprehensive methods developed or under development in recent years and generally available to the rotorcraft community because of US Army Aviation Research and Technology Activity (ARTA) sponsorship of all or part of the software systems are the Rotorcraft Flight Simulation (C81), Dynamic System Coupler (DYSCO), Coupled Rotor/Airframe Vibration Analysis Program (SIMVIB), Comprehensive Analytical Model of Rotorcraft Aerodynamics and Dynamics (CAMRAD), General Rotorcraft Aeromechanical Stability Program (GRASP), and Second Generation Comprehensive Helicopter Analysis System (2GCHAS).

Validation of a Comprehensive Early Childhood Allergy Questionnaire.

PubMed

Minasyan, Anna; Babajanyan, Arman; Campbell, Dianne E; Nanan, Ralph

2015-09-01

Parental questionnaires to assess incidence of pediatric allergic disease have been validated for use in school-aged children. Currently, there is no validated questionnaire-based assessment of food allergy, atopic dermatitis (AD), and asthma for infants and young children. The Comprehensive Early Childhood Allergy Questionnaire was designed for detecting AD, asthma, and IgE-mediated food allergies in children aged 1-5 years. A nested case-control design was applied. Parents of 150 children attending pediatric outpatient clinics completed the questionnaire before being clinically assessed by a pediatrician for allergies. Sensitivity, specificity, and reproducibility of the questionnaire were assessed. Seventy-seven children were diagnosed with one or more current allergic diseases. The questionnaire demonstrated high overall sensitivity of 0.93 (95% CI 0.86-0.98) with a specificity of 0.79 (95% CI 0.68-0.88). Questionnaire reproducibility was good with a kappa agreement rate for symptom-related questions of 0.45-0.90. Comprehensive Early Childhood Allergy Questionnaire accurately and reliably reflects the presence of allergies in children aged 1-5 years. Its use is warranted as a tool for determining prevalence of allergies in this pediatric age group. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Sensitivity analysis of static resistance of slender beam under bending

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Valeš, Jan

2016-06-08

The paper deals with statical and sensitivity analyses of resistance of simply supported I-beams under bending. The resistance was solved by geometrically nonlinear finite element method in the programme Ansys. The beams are modelled with initial geometrical imperfections following the first eigenmode of buckling. Imperfections were, together with geometrical characteristics of cross section, and material characteristics of steel, considered as random quantities. The method Latin Hypercube Sampling was applied to evaluate statistical and sensitivity resistance analyses.

Testing the effectiveness of simplified search strategies for updating systematic reviews.

PubMed

Rice, Maureen; Ali, Muhammad Usman; Fitzpatrick-Lewis, Donna; Kenny, Meghan; Raina, Parminder; Sherifali, Diana

2017-08-01

The objective of the study was to test the overall effectiveness of a simplified search strategy (SSS) for updating systematic reviews. We identified nine systematic reviews undertaken by our research group for which both comprehensive and SSS updates were performed. Three relevant performance measures were estimated, that is, sensitivity, precision, and number needed to read (NNR). The update reference searches for all nine included systematic reviews identified a total of 55,099 citations that were screened resulting in final inclusion of 163 randomized controlled trials. As compared with reference search, the SSS resulted in 8,239 hits and had a median sensitivity of 83.3%, while precision and NNR were 4.5 times better. During analysis, we found that the SSS performed better for clinically focused topics, with a median sensitivity of 100% and precision and NNR 6 times better than for the reference searches. For broader topics, the sensitivity of the SSS was 80% while precision and NNR were 5.4 times better compared with reference search. SSS performed well for clinically focused topics and, with a median sensitivity of 100%, could be a viable alternative to a conventional comprehensive search strategy for updating this type of systematic reviews particularly considering the budget constraints and the volume of new literature being published. For broader topics, 80% sensitivity is likely to be considered too low for a systematic review update in most cases, although it might be acceptable if updating a scoping or rapid review. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Prediction of coefficients of thermal expansion for unidirectional composites

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bowles, David E.; Tompkins, Stephen S.

1989-01-01

Several analyses for predicting the longitudinal, alpha(1), and transverse, alpha(2), coefficients of thermal expansion of unidirectional composites were compared with each other, and with experimental data on different graphite fiber reinforced resin, metal, and ceramic matrix composites. Analytical and numerical analyses that accurately accounted for Poisson restraining effects in the transverse direction were in consistently better agreement with experimental data for alpha(2), than the less rigorous analyses. All of the analyses predicted similar values of alpha(1), and were in good agreement with the experimental data. A sensitivity analysis was conducted to determine the relative influence of constituent properties on the predicted values of alpha(1), and alpha(2). As would be expected, the prediction of alpha(1) was most sensitive to longitudinal fiber properties and the prediction of alpha(2) was most sensitive to matrix properties.

Type II diabetes mellitus and incident osteoarthritis of the hand: a population-based case-control analysis.

PubMed

Frey, N; Hügle, T; Jick, S S; Meier, C R; Spoendlin, J

2016-09-01

Emerging evidence suggests that diabetes may be a risk factor for osteoarthritis (OA). However, previous results on the association between diabetes and all OA were conflicting. We aimed to comprehensively analyse the association between type II diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and osteoarthritis of the hand (HOA) specifically. We conducted a matched (1:1) case-control study using the UK-based Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) of cases aged 30-90 years with an incident diagnosis of HOA from 1995 to 2013. In multivariable conditional logistic regression analyses, we calculated odds ratios (OR) for incident HOA in patients with T2DM, categorized by T2DM severity (HbA1C), duration, and pharmacological treatment. We further performed sensitivity analyses in patients with and without other metabolic diseases (hypertension (HT), hyperlipidaemia (HL), obesity). Among 13,500 cases and 13,500 controls, we observed no statistically significant association between T2DM and HOA (OR 0.95, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.87-1.04), regardless of T2DM severity, duration, or pharmacological treatment. Having HT did not change the OR. Although we observed slightly increased ORs in overweight T2DM patients with co-occurring HL with or without coexisting HT, none of these ORs were statistically significant. Our results provide evidence that T2DM is not an independent risk factor for HOA. Concurrence of T2DM with HT, HL, and/or obesity did not change this association significantly. Copyright © 2016 Osteoarthritis Research Society International. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Are There Gender Differences in Emotion Comprehension? Analysis of the Test of Emotion Comprehension.

PubMed

Fidalgo, Angel M; Tenenbaum, Harriet R; Aznar, Ana

2018-01-01

This article examines whether there are gender differences in understanding the emotions evaluated by the Test of Emotion Comprehension (TEC). The TEC provides a global index of emotion comprehension in children 3-11 years of age, which is the sum of the nine components that constitute emotion comprehension: (1) recognition of facial expressions, (2) understanding of external causes of emotions, (3) understanding of desire-based emotions, (4) understanding of belief-based emotions, (5) understanding of the influence of a reminder on present emotional states, (6) understanding of the possibility to regulate emotional states, (7) understanding of the possibility of hiding emotional states, (8) understanding of mixed emotions, and (9) understanding of moral emotions. We used the answers to the TEC given by 172 English girls and 181 boys from 3 to 8 years of age. First, the nine components into which the TEC is subdivided were analysed for differential item functioning (DIF), taking gender as the grouping variable. To evaluate DIF, the Mantel-Haenszel method and logistic regression analysis were used applying the Educational Testing Service DIF classification criteria. The results show that the TEC did not display gender DIF. Second, when absence of DIF had been corroborated, it was analysed for differences between boys and girls in the total TEC score and its components controlling for age. Our data are compatible with the hypothesis of independence between gender and level of comprehension in 8 of the 9 components of the TEC. Several hypotheses are discussed that could explain the differences found between boys and girls in the belief component. Given that the Belief component is basically a false belief task, the differences found seem to support findings in the literature indicating that girls perform better on this task.

Morphological awareness and reading comprehension: Examining mediating factors.

PubMed

Levesque, Kyle C; Kieffer, Michael J; Deacon, S Hélène

2017-08-01

The relation between morphological awareness-defined as the awareness of and ability to manipulate the smallest units of meaning in language-and reading comprehension remains in need of specification. In this study, we evaluated four potential intervening variables through which morphological awareness may contribute indirectly to reading comprehension. We assessed word reading and vocabulary as well as children's ability to read and analyze the meaning of morphologically complex words (morphological decoding and morphological analysis, respectively). Controls of phonological awareness and nonverbal ability were included in the model. Participants were 221 English-speaking children in Grade 3. Multivariate path analyses revealed evidence of two indirect relations and one direct relation between morphological awareness and reading comprehension. In the first indirect path, morphological awareness contributed to morphological decoding, which then influenced word reading and finally reading comprehension. In a second indirect path, morphological awareness contributed to morphological analysis, which contributed to reading comprehension. Finally, in a direct path, morphological awareness contributed to reading comprehension beyond all other variables. These findings inform as to the potential mechanisms underlying the relation between morphological awareness and reading comprehension in children. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Follow-up study on reading comprehension in Down's syndrome: the role of reading skills and listening comprehension.

PubMed

Roch, Maja; Florit, Elena; Levorato, Chiara

2011-01-01

According to the 'Simple View of Reading', reading comprehension requires some abilities such as reading skill and listening comprehension. Individuals with Down's syndrome show relative strengths in reading skills, mainly in word recognition, where they attain a reading age of about 7-8 years. Compared with word recognition, their reading comprehension is usually delayed by at least 6 months. Poor reading comprehension is paralleled by weak listening comprehension. It is claimed that poor listening comprehension might constrain the development of reading comprehension and, therefore, be a cause for the asynchrony between reading skills and reading comprehension. A follow-up study was carried out in order to analyse the improvements in reading skills, listening and reading text comprehension, and to support the hypothesis of a causal relationship between listening and reading comprehension. Ten children and adolescents with Down's syndrome, aged between 11 years 3 months and 19 years 10 months, were assessed twice over a one-year period as to their reading skills, listening and reading text comprehension. Three main findings emerged: (1) reading skills, on the one hand, and comprehension (both listening and reading), on the other hand, are independent; (2) reading comprehension development is determined mainly by listening comprehension, which in the present study proved to be very poor; and (3) an improvement after a one-year period, even though limited, occurred for all examined abilities except for listening comprehension. The results are discussed in the light of the theoretical framework of the 'Simple View of Reading' and of their relevance for practical and educational issues. © 2011 Royal College of Speech & Language Therapists.

Measurement Invariance in Careers Research: Using IRT to Study Gender Differences in Medical Students' Specialization Decisions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Behrend, Tara S.; Thompson, Lori Foster; Meade, Adam W.; Newton, Dale A.; Grayson, Martha S.

2008-01-01

The current study demonstrates the use of item response theory (IRT) to conduct measurement invariance analyses in careers research. A self-report survey was used to assess the importance 1,363 fourth-year medical students placed on opportunities to provide comprehensive patient care when choosing a career specialty. IRT analyses supported…

Impacts of ocean acidification on marine organisms: quantifying sensitivities and interaction with warming

PubMed Central

Kroeker, Kristy J; Kordas, Rebecca L; Crim, Ryan; Hendriks, Iris E; Ramajo, Laura; Singh, Gerald S; Duarte, Carlos M; Gattuso, Jean-Pierre

2013-01-01

Ocean acidification represents a threat to marine species worldwide, and forecasting the ecological impacts of acidification is a high priority for science, management, and policy. As research on the topic expands at an exponential rate, a comprehensive understanding of the variability in organisms' responses and corresponding levels of certainty is necessary to forecast the ecological effects. Here, we perform the most comprehensive meta-analysis to date by synthesizing the results of 228 studies examining biological responses to ocean acidification. The results reveal decreased survival, calcification, growth, development and abundance in response to acidification when the broad range of marine organisms is pooled together. However, the magnitude of these responses varies among taxonomic groups, suggesting there is some predictable trait-based variation in sensitivity, despite the investigation of approximately 100 new species in recent research. The results also reveal an enhanced sensitivity of mollusk larvae, but suggest that an enhanced sensitivity of early life history stages is not universal across all taxonomic groups. In addition, the variability in species' responses is enhanced when they are exposed to acidification in multi-species assemblages, suggesting that it is important to consider indirect effects and exercise caution when forecasting abundance patterns from single-species laboratory experiments. Furthermore, the results suggest that other factors, such as nutritional status or source population, could cause substantial variation in organisms' responses. Last, the results highlight a trend towards enhanced sensitivity to acidification when taxa are concurrently exposed to elevated seawater temperature. PMID:23505245

Impacts of ocean acidification on marine organisms: quantifying sensitivities and interaction with warming.

PubMed

Kroeker, Kristy J; Kordas, Rebecca L; Crim, Ryan; Hendriks, Iris E; Ramajo, Laura; Singh, Gerald S; Duarte, Carlos M; Gattuso, Jean-Pierre

2013-06-01

Ocean acidification represents a threat to marine species worldwide, and forecasting the ecological impacts of acidification is a high priority for science, management, and policy. As research on the topic expands at an exponential rate, a comprehensive understanding of the variability in organisms' responses and corresponding levels of certainty is necessary to forecast the ecological effects. Here, we perform the most comprehensive meta-analysis to date by synthesizing the results of 228 studies examining biological responses to ocean acidification. The results reveal decreased survival, calcification, growth, development and abundance in response to acidification when the broad range of marine organisms is pooled together. However, the magnitude of these responses varies among taxonomic groups, suggesting there is some predictable trait-based variation in sensitivity, despite the investigation of approximately 100 new species in recent research. The results also reveal an enhanced sensitivity of mollusk larvae, but suggest that an enhanced sensitivity of early life history stages is not universal across all taxonomic groups. In addition, the variability in species' responses is enhanced when they are exposed to acidification in multi-species assemblages, suggesting that it is important to consider indirect effects and exercise caution when forecasting abundance patterns from single-species laboratory experiments. Furthermore, the results suggest that other factors, such as nutritional status or source population, could cause substantial variation in organisms' responses. Last, the results highlight a trend towards enhanced sensitivity to acidification when taxa are concurrently exposed to elevated seawater temperature. © 2013 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Self-perceived weather sensitivity and joint pain in older people with osteoarthritis in six European countries: results from the European Project on OSteoArthritis (EPOSA)

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background People with osteoarthritis (OA) frequently report that their joint pain is influenced by weather conditions. This study aimed to examine whether there are differences in perceived joint pain between older people with OA who reported to be weather-sensitive versus those who did not in six European countries with different climates and to identify characteristics of older persons with OA that are most predictive of perceived weather sensitivity. Methods Baseline data from the European Project on OSteoArthritis (EPOSA) were used. ACR classification criteria were used to determine OA. Participants with OA were asked about their perception of weather as influencing their pain. Using a two-week follow-up pain calendar, average self-reported joint pain was assessed (range: 0 (no pain)-10 (greatest pain intensity)). Linear regression analyses, logistic regression analyses and an independent t-test were used. Analyses were adjusted for several confounders. Results The majority of participants with OA (67.2%) perceived the weather as affecting their pain. Weather-sensitive participants reported more pain than non-weather-sensitive participants (M = 4.1, SD = 2.4 versus M = 3.1, SD = 2.4; p < 0.001). After adjusting for several confounding factors, the association between self-perceived weather sensitivity and joint pain remained present (B = 0.37, p = 0.03). Logistic regression analyses revealed that women and more anxious people were more likely to report weather sensitivity. Older people with OA from Southern Europe were more likely to indicate themselves as weather-sensitive persons than those from Northern Europe. Conclusions Weather (in)stability may have a greater impact on joint structures and pain perception in people from Southern Europe. The results emphasize the importance of considering weather sensitivity in daily life of older people with OA and may help to identify weather-sensitive older people with OA. PMID:24597710

Self-perceived weather sensitivity and joint pain in older people with osteoarthritis in six European countries: results from the European Project on OSteoArthritis (EPOSA).

PubMed

Timmermans, Erik J; van der Pas, Suzan; Schaap, Laura A; Sánchez-Martínez, Mercedes; Zambon, Sabina; Peter, Richard; Pedersen, Nancy L; Dennison, Elaine M; Denkinger, Michael; Castell, Maria Victoria; Siviero, Paola; Herbolsheimer, Florian; Edwards, Mark H; Otero, Angel; Deeg, Dorly J H

2014-03-05

People with osteoarthritis (OA) frequently report that their joint pain is influenced by weather conditions. This study aimed to examine whether there are differences in perceived joint pain between older people with OA who reported to be weather-sensitive versus those who did not in six European countries with different climates and to identify characteristics of older persons with OA that are most predictive of perceived weather sensitivity. Baseline data from the European Project on OSteoArthritis (EPOSA) were used. ACR classification criteria were used to determine OA. Participants with OA were asked about their perception of weather as influencing their pain. Using a two-week follow-up pain calendar, average self-reported joint pain was assessed (range: 0 (no pain)-10 (greatest pain intensity)). Linear regression analyses, logistic regression analyses and an independent t-test were used. Analyses were adjusted for several confounders. The majority of participants with OA (67.2%) perceived the weather as affecting their pain. Weather-sensitive participants reported more pain than non-weather-sensitive participants (M = 4.1, SD = 2.4 versus M = 3.1, SD = 2.4; p < 0.001). After adjusting for several confounding factors, the association between self-perceived weather sensitivity and joint pain remained present (B = 0.37, p = 0.03). Logistic regression analyses revealed that women and more anxious people were more likely to report weather sensitivity. Older people with OA from Southern Europe were more likely to indicate themselves as weather-sensitive persons than those from Northern Europe. Weather (in)stability may have a greater impact on joint structures and pain perception in people from Southern Europe. The results emphasize the importance of considering weather sensitivity in daily life of older people with OA and may help to identify weather-sensitive older people with OA.

Fiber-pigtailed silicon photonic sensors for methane leak detection

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Teng, Chu; Xiong, Chi; Zhang, Eric

We present comprehensive characterization of silicon photonic sensors for methane leak detection. Sensitivity of 40 ppmv after 1 second integration is reported. Fourier domain characterization of on-chip etalon drifts is used for further sensor improvement.

Stewart Air National Guard Base, NY, C-5M Painting Refurbishment Assessment

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-12-06

is asthma due to sensitization. After sensitization, any exposure , even to levels below the occupational exposure limit, can produce an asthmatic...Consultative Services Division provide a comprehensive exposure and risk assessment of the corrosion control process conducted on the C-5M in Building...101 at Stewart Air National Guard Base, NY. This facility was previously a fuels systems maintenance facility. At the time of this assessment, the

Development of a structural optimization capability for the aeroelastic tailoring of composite rotor blades with straight and swept tips

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Friedmann, P. P.; Venkatesan, C.; Yuan, K.

1992-01-01

This paper describes the development of a new structural optimization capability aimed at the aeroelastic tailoring of composite rotor blades with straight and swept tips. The primary objective is to reduce vibration levels in forward flight without diminishing the aeroelastic stability margins of the blade. In the course of this research activity a number of complicated tasks have been addressed: (1) development of a new, aeroelastic stability and response analysis; (2) formulation of a new comprehensive sensitive analysis, which facilitates the generation of the appropriate approximations for the objective and the constraints; (3) physical understanding of the new model and, in particular, determination of its potential for aeroelastic tailoring, and (4) combination of the newly developed analysis capability, the sensitivity derivatives and the optimizer into a comprehensive optimization capability. The first three tasks have been completed and the fourth task is in progress.

Invariance levels across language versions of the PISA 2009 reading comprehension tests in Spain.

PubMed

Elosua Oliden, Paula; Mujika Lizaso, Josu

2013-01-01

The PISA project provides the basis for studying curriculum design and for comparing factors associated with school effectiveness. These studies are only valid if the different language versions are equivalent to each other. In Spain, the application of PISA in autonomous regions with their own languages means that equivalency must also be extended to the Spanish, Galician, Catalan and Basque versions of the test. The aim of this work was to analyse the equivalence among the four language versions of the Reading Comprehension Test (PISA 2009). After defining the testlet as the unit of analysis, equivalence among the language versions was analysed using two invariance testing procedures: multiple-group mean and covariance structure analyses for ordinal data and ordinal logistic regression. The procedures yielded concordant results supporting metric equivalence across all four language versions: Spanish, Basque, Galician and Catalan. The equivalence supports the estimated reading literacy score comparability among the language versions used in Spain.

Correlates of lower comprehension of informed consent among participants enrolled in a cohort study in Pune, India

PubMed Central

Joglekar, Neelam S.; Deshpande, Swapna S.; Sahay, Seema; Ghate, Manisha V.; Bollinger, Robert C.; Mehendale, Sanjay M.

2013-01-01

Background Optimum comprehension of informed consent by research participants is essential yet challenging. This study explored correlates of lower comprehension of informed consent among 1334 participants of a cohort study aimed at estimating HIV incidence in Pune, India. Methods As part of the informed consent process, a structured comprehension tool was administered to study participants. Participants scoring ≥90% were categorised into the ‘optimal comprehension group’, whilst those scoring 80–89% were categorised into the ‘lower comprehension group’. Data were analysed to identify sociodemographic and behavioural correlates of lower consent comprehension. Results The mean ± SD comprehension score was 94.4 ± 5.00%. Information pertaining to study-related risks was not comprehended by 61.7% of participants. HIV-negative men (adjusted OR [AOR] = 4.36, 95% CI 1.71–11.05) or HIV-negative women (AOR = 13.54, 95% CI 6.42–28.55), illiteracy (AOR= 1.65, 95% CI 1.19–2.30), those with a history of multiple partners (AOR = 1.73, 95% CI 1.12–2.66) and those never using condoms (AOR = 1.35, 95% CI 1.01–1.82) were more likely to have lower consent comprehension. Conclusions We recommend exploration of domains of lower consent comprehension using a validated consent comprehension tool. Improved education in these specific domains would optimise consent comprehension among research participants. PMID:24029848

Sources of sensitization, cross-reactions, and occupational sensitization to topical anaesthetics among general dermatology patients.

PubMed

Jussi, Liippo; Lammintausta, Kaija

2009-03-01

Contact sensitization to local anaesthetics is often from topical medicaments. Occupational sensitization to topical anaesthetics may occur in certain occupations. The aim of the study was to analyse the occurrence of contact sensitization to topical anaesthetics in general dermatology patients. Patch testing with topical anaesthetics was carried out in 620 patients. Possible sources of sensitization and the clinical histories of the patients are analysed. Positive patch test reactions to one or more topical anaesthetics were seen in 25/620 patients. Dibucaine reactions were most common (20/25), and lidocaine sensitization was seen in two patients. Six patients had reactions to ester-type and/or amide-type anaesthetics concurrently. Local preparations for perianal conditions were the most common sensitizers. One patient had developed occupational sensitization to procaine with multiple cross-reactions and with concurrent penicillin sensitization from procaine penicillin. Dibucaine-containing perianal medicaments are the major source of contact sensitization to topical anaesthetics. Although sensitization to multiple anaesthetics can be seen, cross-reactions are possible. Contact sensitization to lidocaine is not common, and possible cross-reactions should be determined when reactions to lidocaine are seen. Occupational procaine sensitization from veterinary medicaments is a risk among animal workers.

Is the evaluation of risk of bias in periodontology and implant dentistry comprehensive? A systematic review.

PubMed

Faggion, Clovis Mariano; Listl, Stefan; Alarcón, Marco Antonio

2015-05-01

The objective of this study was to assess how authors of systematic reviews (SRs) with meta-analyses published in periodontology and implant dentistry evaluate risk of bias (ROB) in primary studies included in these reviews. A literature search for SRs with meta-analyses was performed in PubMed and Cochrane library databases up to July 20th 2014. The reference lists of included articles were screened for further reviews. The standards of evaluating ROB in primary studies were evaluated by using a 14-item checklist based on the Cochrane approach for evaluating ROB. Standards in ROB evaluations in Cochrane and paper-based SRs were compared using the Fisher's exact test. All searches, data extraction and evaluations were performed independently and in duplicate. Seventy SRs were included (45 paper-based and 25 Cochrane SRs, respectively). The median percentage of items addressed was 58% (interquartile range 4-100%). Cochrane SRs more frequently included ROB assessments than paper-based reviews in terms of examiner blinding (p = 0.0026), selective outcome reporting (p = 0.0207) and other bias (p = 0.0241). The ROB evaluation in primary studies currently included in SRs with meta-analyses in periodontology and implant dentistry is not sufficiently comprehensive. Cochrane SRs have more comprehensive ROB evaluation than paper-based reviews. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Analyses of Sporocarps, Morphotyped Ectomycorrhizae, Environmental ITS and LSU Sequences Identify Common Genera that Occur at a Periglacial Site

PubMed Central

Jumpponen, Ari; Brown, Shawn P.; Trappe, James M.; Cázares, Efrén; Strömmer, Rauni

2015-01-01

Periglacial substrates exposed by retreating glaciers represent extreme and sensitive environments defined by a variety of abiotic stressors that challenge organismal establishment and survival. The simple communities often residing at these sites enable their analyses in depth. We utilized existing data and mined published sporocarp, morphotyped ectomycorrhizae (ECM), as well as environmental sequence data of internal transcribed spacer (ITS) and large subunit (LSU) regions of the ribosomal RNA gene to identify taxa that occur at a glacier forefront in the North Cascades Mountains in Washington State in the USA. The discrete data types consistently identified several common and widely distributed genera, perhaps best exemplified by Inocybe and Laccaria. Although we expected low diversity and richness, our environmental sequence data included 37 ITS and 26 LSU operational taxonomic units (OTUs) that likely form ECM. While environmental surveys of metabarcode markers detected large numbers of targeted ECM taxa, both the fruiting body and the morphotype datasets included genera that were undetected in either of the metabarcode datasets. These included hypogeous (Hymenogaster) and epigeous (Lactarius) taxa, some of which may produce large sporocarps but may possess small and/or spatially patchy genets. We highlight the importance of combining various data types to provide a comprehensive view of a fungal community, even in an environment assumed to host communities of low species richness and diversity. PMID:29376900

Inferential Processing among Adequate and Struggling Adolescent Comprehenders and Relations to Reading Comprehension

PubMed Central

Barth, Amy E.; Barnes, Marcia; Francis, David J.; Vaughn, Sharon; York, Mary

2015-01-01

Separate mixed model analyses of variance (ANOVA) were conducted to examine the effect of textual distance on the accuracy and speed of text consistency judgments among adequate and struggling comprehenders across grades 6–12 (n = 1203). Multiple regressions examined whether accuracy in text consistency judgments uniquely accounted for variance in comprehension. Results suggest that there is considerable growth across the middle and high school years, particularly for adequate comprehenders in those text integration processes that maintain local coherence. Accuracy in text consistency judgments accounted for significant unique variance for passage-level, but not sentence-level comprehension, particularly for adequate comprehenders. PMID:26166946

Background | Office of Cancer Clinical Proteomics Research

Cancer.gov

The term "proteomics" refers to a large-scale comprehensive study of a specific proteome resulting from its genome, including abundances of proteins, their variations and modifications, and interacting partners and networks in order to understand cellular processes involved.  Similarly, “Cancer proteomics” refers to comprehensive analyses of proteins and their derivatives translated from a specific cancer genome using a human biospecimen or a preclinical model (e.g., cultured cell or animal model).

Overview of Sensitivity Analysis and Shape Optimization for Complex Aerodynamic Configurations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Newman, Perry A.; Newman, James C., III; Barnwell, Richard W.; Taylor, Arthur C., III; Hou, Gene J.-W.

1998-01-01

This paper presents a brief overview of some of the more recent advances in steady aerodynamic shape-design sensitivity analysis and optimization, based on advanced computational fluid dynamics. The focus here is on those methods particularly well- suited to the study of geometrically complex configurations and their potentially complex associated flow physics. When nonlinear state equations are considered in the optimization process, difficulties are found in the application of sensitivity analysis. Some techniques for circumventing such difficulties are currently being explored and are included here. Attention is directed to methods that utilize automatic differentiation to obtain aerodynamic sensitivity derivatives for both complex configurations and complex flow physics. Various examples of shape-design sensitivity analysis for unstructured-grid computational fluid dynamics algorithms are demonstrated for different formulations of the sensitivity equations. Finally, the use of advanced, unstructured-grid computational fluid dynamics in multidisciplinary analyses and multidisciplinary sensitivity analyses within future optimization processes is recommended and encouraged.

Sensitivity analyses of stopping distance for connected vehicles at active highway-rail grade crossings.

PubMed

Hsu, Chung-Jen; Jones, Elizabeth G

2017-02-01

This paper performs sensitivity analyses of stopping distance for connected vehicles (CVs) at active highway-rail grade crossings (HRGCs). Stopping distance is the major safety factor at active HRGCs. A sensitivity analysis is performed for each variable in the function of stopping distance. The formulation of stopping distance treats each variable as a probability density function for implementing Monte Carlo simulations. The result of the sensitivity analysis shows that the initial speed is the most sensitive factor to stopping distances of CVs and non-CVs. The safety of CVs can be further improved by the early provision of onboard train information and warnings to reduce the initial speeds. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Balancing data sharing requirements for analyses with data sensitivity

USGS Publications Warehouse

Jarnevich, C.S.; Graham, J.J.; Newman, G.J.; Crall, A.W.; Stohlgren, T.J.

2007-01-01

Data sensitivity can pose a formidable barrier to data sharing. Knowledge of species current distributions from data sharing is critical for the creation of watch lists and an early warning/rapid response system and for model generation for the spread of invasive species. We have created an on-line system to synthesize disparate datasets of non-native species locations that includes a mechanism to account for data sensitivity. Data contributors are able to mark their data as sensitive. This data is then 'fuzzed' in mapping applications and downloaded files to quarter-quadrangle grid cells, but the actual locations are available for analyses. We propose that this system overcomes the hurdles to data sharing posed by sensitive data. ?? 2006 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

The Sensitivity of Genetic Connectivity Measures to Unsampled and Under-Sampled Sites

PubMed Central

Koen, Erin L.; Bowman, Jeff; Garroway, Colin J.; Wilson, Paul J.

2013-01-01

Landscape genetic analyses assess the influence of landscape structure on genetic differentiation. It is rarely possible to collect genetic samples from all individuals on the landscape and thus it is important to assess the sensitivity of landscape genetic analyses to the effects of unsampled and under-sampled sites. Network-based measures of genetic distance, such as conditional genetic distance (cGD), might be particularly sensitive to sampling intensity because pairwise estimates are relative to the entire network. We addressed this question by subsampling microsatellite data from two empirical datasets. We found that pairwise estimates of cGD were sensitive to both unsampled and under-sampled sites, and FST, Dest, and deucl were more sensitive to under-sampled than unsampled sites. We found that the rank order of cGD was also sensitive to unsampled and under-sampled sites, but not enough to affect the outcome of Mantel tests for isolation by distance. We simulated isolation by resistance and found that although cGD estimates were sensitive to unsampled sites, by increasing the number of sites sampled the accuracy of conclusions drawn from landscape genetic analyses increased, a feature that is not possible with pairwise estimates of genetic differentiation such as FST, Dest, and deucl. We suggest that users of cGD assess the sensitivity of this measure by subsampling within their own network and use caution when making extrapolations beyond their sampled network. PMID:23409155

Univariate and bivariate likelihood-based meta-analysis methods performed comparably when marginal sensitivity and specificity were the targets of inference.

PubMed

Dahabreh, Issa J; Trikalinos, Thomas A; Lau, Joseph; Schmid, Christopher H

2017-03-01

To compare statistical methods for meta-analysis of sensitivity and specificity of medical tests (e.g., diagnostic or screening tests). We constructed a database of PubMed-indexed meta-analyses of test performance from which 2 × 2 tables for each included study could be extracted. We reanalyzed the data using univariate and bivariate random effects models fit with inverse variance and maximum likelihood methods. Analyses were performed using both normal and binomial likelihoods to describe within-study variability. The bivariate model using the binomial likelihood was also fit using a fully Bayesian approach. We use two worked examples-thoracic computerized tomography to detect aortic injury and rapid prescreening of Papanicolaou smears to detect cytological abnormalities-to highlight that different meta-analysis approaches can produce different results. We also present results from reanalysis of 308 meta-analyses of sensitivity and specificity. Models using the normal approximation produced sensitivity and specificity estimates closer to 50% and smaller standard errors compared to models using the binomial likelihood; absolute differences of 5% or greater were observed in 12% and 5% of meta-analyses for sensitivity and specificity, respectively. Results from univariate and bivariate random effects models were similar, regardless of estimation method. Maximum likelihood and Bayesian methods produced almost identical summary estimates under the bivariate model; however, Bayesian analyses indicated greater uncertainty around those estimates. Bivariate models produced imprecise estimates of the between-study correlation of sensitivity and specificity. Differences between methods were larger with increasing proportion of studies that were small or required a continuity correction. The binomial likelihood should be used to model within-study variability. Univariate and bivariate models give similar estimates of the marginal distributions for sensitivity and specificity. Bayesian methods fully quantify uncertainty and their ability to incorporate external evidence may be useful for imprecisely estimated parameters. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Comprehensive Molecular Characterization of Muscle-Invasive Bladder Cancer.

PubMed

Robertson, A Gordon; Kim, Jaegil; Al-Ahmadie, Hikmat; Bellmunt, Joaquim; Guo, Guangwu; Cherniack, Andrew D; Hinoue, Toshinori; Laird, Peter W; Hoadley, Katherine A; Akbani, Rehan; Castro, Mauro A A; Gibb, Ewan A; Kanchi, Rupa S; Gordenin, Dmitry A; Shukla, Sachet A; Sanchez-Vega, Francisco; Hansel, Donna E; Czerniak, Bogdan A; Reuter, Victor E; Su, Xiaoping; de Sa Carvalho, Benilton; Chagas, Vinicius S; Mungall, Karen L; Sadeghi, Sara; Pedamallu, Chandra Sekhar; Lu, Yiling; Klimczak, Leszek J; Zhang, Jiexin; Choo, Caleb; Ojesina, Akinyemi I; Bullman, Susan; Leraas, Kristen M; Lichtenberg, Tara M; Wu, Catherine J; Schultz, Nicholaus; Getz, Gad; Meyerson, Matthew; Mills, Gordon B; McConkey, David J; Weinstein, John N; Kwiatkowski, David J; Lerner, Seth P

2017-10-19

We report a comprehensive analysis of 412 muscle-invasive bladder cancers characterized by multiple TCGA analytical platforms. Fifty-eight genes were significantly mutated, and the overall mutational load was associated with APOBEC-signature mutagenesis. Clustering by mutation signature identified a high-mutation subset with 75% 5-year survival. mRNA expression clustering refined prior clustering analyses and identified a poor-survival "neuronal" subtype in which the majority of tumors lacked small cell or neuroendocrine histology. Clustering by mRNA, long non-coding RNA (lncRNA), and miRNA expression converged to identify subsets with differential epithelial-mesenchymal transition status, carcinoma in situ scores, histologic features, and survival. Our analyses identified 5 expression subtypes that may stratify response to different treatments. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Applicability of the Compensatory Encoding Model in Foreign Language Reading: An Investigation with Chinese College English Language Learners

PubMed Central

Han, Feifei

2017-01-01

While some first language (L1) reading models suggest that inefficient word recognition and small working memory tend to inhibit higher-level comprehension processes; the Compensatory Encoding Model maintains that slow word recognition and small working memory do not normally hinder reading comprehension, as readers are able to operate metacognitive strategies to compensate for inefficient word recognition and working memory limitation as long as readers process a reading task without time constraint. Although empirical evidence is accumulated for support of the Compensatory Encoding Model in L1 reading, there is lack of research for testing of the Compensatory Encoding Model in foreign language (FL) reading. This research empirically tested the Compensatory Encoding Model in English reading among Chinese college English language learners (ELLs). Two studies were conducted. Study one focused on testing whether reading condition varying time affects the relationship between word recognition, working memory, and reading comprehension. Students were tested on a computerized English word recognition test, a computerized Operation Span task, and reading comprehension in time constraint and non-time constraint reading. The correlation and regression analyses showed that the strength of association was much stronger between word recognition, working memory, and reading comprehension in time constraint than that in non-time constraint reading condition. Study two examined whether FL readers were able to operate metacognitive reading strategies as a compensatory way of reading comprehension for inefficient word recognition and working memory limitation in non-time constraint reading. The participants were tested on the same computerized English word recognition test and Operation Span test. They were required to think aloud while reading and to complete the comprehension questions. The think-aloud protocols were coded for concurrent use of reading strategies, classified into language-oriented strategies, content-oriented strategies, re-reading, pausing, and meta-comment. The correlation analyses showed that while word recognition and working memory were only significantly related to frequency of language-oriented strategies, re-reading, and pausing, but not with reading comprehension. Jointly viewed, the results of the two studies, complimenting each other, supported the applicability of the Compensatory Encoding Model in FL reading with Chinese college ELLs. PMID:28522984

Applicability of the Compensatory Encoding Model in Foreign Language Reading: An Investigation with Chinese College English Language Learners.

PubMed

Han, Feifei

2017-01-01

While some first language (L1) reading models suggest that inefficient word recognition and small working memory tend to inhibit higher-level comprehension processes; the Compensatory Encoding Model maintains that slow word recognition and small working memory do not normally hinder reading comprehension, as readers are able to operate metacognitive strategies to compensate for inefficient word recognition and working memory limitation as long as readers process a reading task without time constraint. Although empirical evidence is accumulated for support of the Compensatory Encoding Model in L1 reading, there is lack of research for testing of the Compensatory Encoding Model in foreign language (FL) reading. This research empirically tested the Compensatory Encoding Model in English reading among Chinese college English language learners (ELLs). Two studies were conducted. Study one focused on testing whether reading condition varying time affects the relationship between word recognition, working memory, and reading comprehension. Students were tested on a computerized English word recognition test, a computerized Operation Span task, and reading comprehension in time constraint and non-time constraint reading. The correlation and regression analyses showed that the strength of association was much stronger between word recognition, working memory, and reading comprehension in time constraint than that in non-time constraint reading condition. Study two examined whether FL readers were able to operate metacognitive reading strategies as a compensatory way of reading comprehension for inefficient word recognition and working memory limitation in non-time constraint reading. The participants were tested on the same computerized English word recognition test and Operation Span test. They were required to think aloud while reading and to complete the comprehension questions. The think-aloud protocols were coded for concurrent use of reading strategies, classified into language-oriented strategies, content-oriented strategies, re-reading, pausing, and meta-comment. The correlation analyses showed that while word recognition and working memory were only significantly related to frequency of language-oriented strategies, re-reading, and pausing, but not with reading comprehension. Jointly viewed, the results of the two studies, complimenting each other, supported the applicability of the Compensatory Encoding Model in FL reading with Chinese college ELLs.

Macular Degeneration

MedlinePlus

... happens when the light-sensitive cells in the macula slowly break down. Your gradually lose your central vision. A common early symptom is that straight lines appear crooked. Regular comprehensive eye exams can detect macular degeneration before the disease causes vision loss. Treatment can ...

Space shuttle orbiter digital data processing system timing sensitivity analysis OFT ascent phase

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lagas, J. J.; Peterka, J. J.; Becker, D. A.

1977-01-01

Dynamic loads were investigated to provide simulation and analysis of the space shuttle orbiter digital data processing system (DDPS). Segments of the ascent test (OFT) configuration were modeled utilizing the information management system interpretive model (IMSIM) in a computerized simulation modeling of the OFT hardware and software workload. System requirements for simulation of the OFT configuration were defined, and sensitivity analyses determined areas of potential data flow problems in DDPS operation. Based on the defined system requirements and these sensitivity analyses, a test design was developed for adapting, parameterizing, and executing IMSIM, using varying load and stress conditions for model execution. Analyses of the computer simulation runs are documented, including results, conclusions, and recommendations for DDPS improvements.

Performance of FLT-PET for pulmonary lesion diagnosis compared with traditional FDG-PET: A meta-analysis.

PubMed

Wang, Zixing; Wang, Yuyan; Sui, Xin; Zhang, Wei; Shi, Ruihong; Zhang, Yingqiang; Dang, Yonghong; Qiao, Zhen; Zhang, Biao; Song, Wei; Jiang, Jingmei

2015-07-01

Widely used (18)F 2'-deoxy-2'-fluoro-d-glucose (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET) can be problematic with false positives in cancer imaging. This study aims to investigate the diagnostic accuracy of a candidate PET tracer, (18)F 2',3'-dideoxy-3'-fluoro-2-thiothymidine (FLT), in diagnosing pulmonary lesions compared with FDG. After comprehensive search and study selection, a meta-analysis was performed on data from 548 patients pooled from 17 studies for evaluating FLT accuracy, in which data from 351 patients pooled from ten double-tracer studies was used for direct comparison with FDG. Weighted sensitivity and specificity were used as main indicators of test performance. Individual data was extracted and patient subgroup analyses were performed. Overall, direct comparisons showed lower sensitivity (0.80 vs. 0.89) yet higher specificity (0.82 vs. 0.66) for FLT compared with FDG (both p<0.01). Patient subgroup analysis showed FLT was less sensitive than FDG in detecting lung cancers staged as T1 or T2, and those ≤2.0 cm in diameter (0.81 vs. 0.93, and 0.53 vs. 0.78, respectively, both p<0.05), but was comparable for cancers staged as T3 or T4, and those >2.0 cm in diameter (0.95 vs. 1.00, 0.96 vs. 0.88, both p>0.05). For benignities, FLT performed better compared with FDG in ruling out inflammation-based lesions (0.57 vs. 0.32, p<0.05), and demonstrated greater specificity regardless of lesion sizes. Although FLT cannot replace FDG in detecting small and early lung cancers, it may help to prevent patients with larger or inflammatory lesions from cancer misdiagnosis or even over-treatment. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Further Studies on Oceanic Biogeochemistry and Carbon Cycling

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Signorini, S. R.; McClain, C. R.

2003-01-01

This TM consists of two chapters. Chapter I describes the development of a coupled, one-dimensional biogeochemical model using turbulence closure mixed layer (TCMLM) dynamics. The model is applied to the Sargasso Sea at the BATS (Bermuda Atlantic Time Series) site and the results are compared with a previous model study in the same region described in NASNTP-2001-209991. The use of the TCMLM contributed to some improvements in the model simulation of chlorophyll, PAR, nitrate, phosphate, and oxygen, but most importantly, the current model achieved good agreement with the data with much more realistic background eddy diffusivity. However, off-line calculations of horizontal transport of biogeochemical properties revealed that one-dimensional dynamics can only provide a limited assessment of the nutrient and carbon balances at BATS. Future studies in the BATS region will require comprehensive three-dimensional field studies, combined with three-dimensional eddy resolving numerical experiments, to adequately quantify the impact of the local and remote forcing on ecosystem dynamics and carbon cycling. Chapter II addresses the sensitivity of global sea-air CO, flux estimates to wind speed, temperature, and salinity. Sensitivity analyses of sea-air CO, flux to wind speed climatologies, gas transfer algorithms, SSS and SST were conducted for the global oceans and regional domains. Large uncertainties in the global sea-air flux are identified, primarily due to the different gas transfer algorithms used. The sensitivity of the sea-air flux to SST and SSS is similar in magnitude to the effect of using different wind climatologies. Globally, the mean ocean uptake of CO, changes by 5 to 16%, depending upon the combination of SST and SSS used.

ICan: An Optimized Ion-Current-Based Quantification Procedure with Enhanced Quantitative Accuracy and Sensitivity in Biomarker Discovery

PubMed Central

2015-01-01

The rapidly expanding availability of high-resolution mass spectrometry has substantially enhanced the ion-current-based relative quantification techniques. Despite the increasing interest in ion-current-based methods, quantitative sensitivity, accuracy, and false discovery rate remain the major concerns; consequently, comprehensive evaluation and development in these regards are urgently needed. Here we describe an integrated, new procedure for data normalization and protein ratio estimation, termed ICan, for improved ion-current-based analysis of data generated by high-resolution mass spectrometry (MS). ICan achieved significantly better accuracy and precision, and lower false-positive rate for discovering altered proteins, over current popular pipelines. A spiked-in experiment was used to evaluate the performance of ICan to detect small changes. In this study E. coli extracts were spiked with moderate-abundance proteins from human plasma (MAP, enriched by IgY14-SuperMix procedure) at two different levels to set a small change of 1.5-fold. Forty-five (92%, with an average ratio of 1.71 ± 0.13) of 49 identified MAP protein (i.e., the true positives) and none of the reference proteins (1.0-fold) were determined as significantly altered proteins, with cutoff thresholds of ≥1.3-fold change and p ≤ 0.05. This is the first study to evaluate and prove competitive performance of the ion-current-based approach for assigning significance to proteins with small changes. By comparison, other methods showed remarkably inferior performance. ICan can be broadly applicable to reliable and sensitive proteomic survey of multiple biological samples with the use of high-resolution MS. Moreover, many key features evaluated and optimized here such as normalization, protein ratio determination, and statistical analyses are also valuable for data analysis by isotope-labeling methods. PMID:25285707

Accounting for parameter uncertainty in the definition of parametric distributions used to describe individual patient variation in health economic models.

PubMed

Degeling, Koen; IJzerman, Maarten J; Koopman, Miriam; Koffijberg, Hendrik

2017-12-15

Parametric distributions based on individual patient data can be used to represent both stochastic and parameter uncertainty. Although general guidance is available on how parameter uncertainty should be accounted for in probabilistic sensitivity analysis, there is no comprehensive guidance on reflecting parameter uncertainty in the (correlated) parameters of distributions used to represent stochastic uncertainty in patient-level models. This study aims to provide this guidance by proposing appropriate methods and illustrating the impact of this uncertainty on modeling outcomes. Two approaches, 1) using non-parametric bootstrapping and 2) using multivariate Normal distributions, were applied in a simulation and case study. The approaches were compared based on point-estimates and distributions of time-to-event and health economic outcomes. To assess sample size impact on the uncertainty in these outcomes, sample size was varied in the simulation study and subgroup analyses were performed for the case-study. Accounting for parameter uncertainty in distributions that reflect stochastic uncertainty substantially increased the uncertainty surrounding health economic outcomes, illustrated by larger confidence ellipses surrounding the cost-effectiveness point-estimates and different cost-effectiveness acceptability curves. Although both approaches performed similar for larger sample sizes (i.e. n = 500), the second approach was more sensitive to extreme values for small sample sizes (i.e. n = 25), yielding infeasible modeling outcomes. Modelers should be aware that parameter uncertainty in distributions used to describe stochastic uncertainty needs to be reflected in probabilistic sensitivity analysis, as it could substantially impact the total amount of uncertainty surrounding health economic outcomes. If feasible, the bootstrap approach is recommended to account for this uncertainty.

Quantitative pre-clinical screening of therapeutics for joint diseases using contrast enhanced micro-computed tomography.

PubMed

Willett, N J; Thote, T; Hart, M; Moran, S; Guldberg, R E; Kamath, R V

2016-09-01

The development of effective therapies for cartilage protection has been limited by a lack of efficient quantitative cartilage imaging modalities in pre-clinical in vivo models. Our objectives were two-fold: first, to validate a new contrast-enhanced 3D imaging analysis technique, equilibrium partitioning of an ionic contrast agent-micro computed tomography (EPIC-μCT), in a rat medial meniscal transection (MMT) osteoarthritis (OA) model; and second, to quantitatively assess the sensitivity of EPIC-μCT to detect the effects of matrix metalloproteinase inhibitor (MMPi) therapy on cartilage degeneration. Rats underwent MMT surgery and tissues were harvested at 1, 2, and 3 weeks post-surgery or rats received an MMPi or vehicle treatment and tissues harvested 3 weeks post-surgery. Parameters of disease progression were evaluated using histopathology and EPIC-μCT. Correlations and power analyses were performed to compare the techniques. EPIC-μCT was shown to provide simultaneous 3D quantification of multiple parameters, including cartilage degeneration and osteophyte formation. In MMT animals treated with MMPi, OA progression was attenuated, as measured by 3D parameters such as lesion volume and osteophyte size. A post-hoc power analysis showed that 3D parameters for EPIC-μCT were more sensitive than 2D parameters requiring fewer animals to detect a therapeutic effect of MMPi. 2D parameters were comparable between EPIC-μCT and histopathology. This study demonstrated that EPIC-μCT has high sensitivity to provide 3D structural and compositional measurements of cartilage and bone in the joint. EPIC-μCT can be used in combination with histology to provide a comprehensive analysis to screen new potential therapies. Copyright © 2016 Osteoarthritis Research Society International. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Evaluation of attention training and metacognitive facilitation to improve reading comprehension in aphasia.

PubMed

Lee, Jaime B; Moore Sohlberg, McKay

2013-05-01

This pilot study investigated the impact of direct attention training combined with metacognitive facilitation on reading comprehension in individuals with aphasia. A single-subject, multiple baseline design was employed across 4 participants to evaluate potential changes in reading comprehension resulting from an 8-week intervention using Attention Process Training-3 (APT-3). The primary outcome measure was a maze reading task. Pre- and posttesting included attention and reading comprehension measures. Visual inspection of graphed performance data across conditions was used as the primary method of analysis. Treatment effect sizes were calculated for changes in reading comprehension probes from baseline to maintenance phases. Two of the study's 4 participants demonstrated improvements in maze reading, with corresponding effect sizes that were small in magnitude according to benchmarks for aphasia treatment research. All 4 participants made improvements on select standardized measures of attention. Interventions that include a metacognitive component with direct attention training may elicit improvements in participants' attention and allocation of resources. Maze passage reading is a repeated measure that appears sensitive to treatment-related changes in reading comprehension. Issues for future research related to measurement, candidacy, and clinical delivery are discussed.

The Negative Affect Hypothesis of Noise Sensitivity

PubMed Central

Shepherd, Daniel; Heinonen-Guzejev, Marja; Heikkilä, Kauko; Dirks, Kim N.; Hautus, Michael J.; Welch, David; McBride, David

2015-01-01

Some studies indicate that noise sensitivity is explained by negative affect, a dispositional tendency to negatively evaluate situations and the self. Individuals high in such traits may report a greater sensitivity to other sensory stimuli, such as smell, bright light and pain. However, research investigating the relationship between noise sensitivity and sensitivity to stimuli associated with other sensory modalities has not always supported the notion of a common underlying trait, such as negative affect, driving them. Additionally, other explanations of noise sensitivity based on cognitive processes have existed in the clinical literature for over 50 years. Here, we report on secondary analyses of pre-existing laboratory (n = 74) and epidemiological (n = 1005) data focusing on the relationship between noise sensitivity to and annoyance with a variety of olfactory-related stimuli. In the first study a correlational design examined the relationships between noise sensitivity, noise annoyance, and perceptual ratings of 16 odors. The second study sought differences between mean noise and air pollution annoyance scores across noise sensitivity categories. Results from both analyses failed to support the notion that, by itself, negative affectivity explains sensitivity to noise. PMID:25993104

Comprehensive untargeted metabolomics of Lychnnophorinae subtribe (Asteraceae: Vernonieae) in a phylogenetic context.

PubMed

Martucci, Maria Elvira Poleti; Loeuille, Benoit; Pirani, José Rubens; Gobbo-Neto, Leonardo

2018-01-01

Members of the subtribe Lychnophorinae occur mostly within the Cerrado domain of the Brazilian Central Plateau. The relationships between its 11 genera, as well as between Lychnophorinae and other subtribes belonging to the tribe Vernonieae, have recently been investigated upon a phylogeny based on molecular and morphological data. We report the use of a comprehensive untargeted metabolomics approach, combining HPLC-MS and GC-MS data, followed by multivariate analyses aiming to assess the congruence between metabolomics data and the phylogenetic hypothesis, as well as its potential as a chemotaxonomic tool. We analyzed 78 species by UHPLC-MS and GC-MS in both positive and negative ionization modes. The metabolic profiles obtained for these species were treated in MetAlign and in MSClust and the matrices generated were used in SIMCA for hierarchical cluster analyses, principal component analyses and orthogonal partial least square discriminant analysis. The results showed that metabolomic analyses are mostly congruent with the phylogenetic hypothesis especially at lower taxonomic levels (Lychnophora or Eremanthus). Our results confirm that data generated using metabolomics provide evidence for chemotaxonomical studies, especially for phylogenetic inference of the Lychnophorinae subtribe and insight into the evolution of the secondary metabolites of this group.

Comprehensive untargeted metabolomics of Lychnnophorinae subtribe (Asteraceae: Vernonieae) in a phylogenetic context

PubMed Central

Martucci, Maria Elvira Poleti; Loeuille, Benoit; Pirani, José Rubens

2018-01-01

Members of the subtribe Lychnophorinae occur mostly within the Cerrado domain of the Brazilian Central Plateau. The relationships between its 11 genera, as well as between Lychnophorinae and other subtribes belonging to the tribe Vernonieae, have recently been investigated upon a phylogeny based on molecular and morphological data. We report the use of a comprehensive untargeted metabolomics approach, combining HPLC-MS and GC-MS data, followed by multivariate analyses aiming to assess the congruence between metabolomics data and the phylogenetic hypothesis, as well as its potential as a chemotaxonomic tool. We analyzed 78 species by UHPLC-MS and GC-MS in both positive and negative ionization modes. The metabolic profiles obtained for these species were treated in MetAlign and in MSClust and the matrices generated were used in SIMCA for hierarchical cluster analyses, principal component analyses and orthogonal partial least square discriminant analysis. The results showed that metabolomic analyses are mostly congruent with the phylogenetic hypothesis especially at lower taxonomic levels (Lychnophora or Eremanthus). Our results confirm that data generated using metabolomics provide evidence for chemotaxonomical studies, especially for phylogenetic inference of the Lychnophorinae subtribe and insight into the evolution of the secondary metabolites of this group. PMID:29324799

Primary treatments for clinically localised prostate cancer: a comprehensive lifetime cost-utility analysis.

PubMed

Cooperberg, Matthew R; Ramakrishna, Naren R; Duff, Steven B; Hughes, Kathleen E; Sadownik, Sara; Smith, Joseph A; Tewari, Ashutosh K

2013-03-01

WHAT'S KNOWN ON THE SUBJECT? AND WHAT DOES THE STUDY ADD?: Multiple treatment alternatives exist for localised prostate cancer, with few high-quality studies directly comparing their comparative effectiveness and costs. The present study is the most comprehensive cost-effectiveness analysis to date for localised prostate cancer, conducted with a lifetime horizon and accounting for survival, health-related quality-of-life, and cost impact of secondary treatments and other downstream events, as well as primary treatment choices. The analysis found minor differences, generally slightly favouring surgical methods, in quality-adjusted life years across treatment options. However, radiation therapy (RT) was consistently more expensive than surgery, and some alternatives, e.g. intensity-modulated RT for low-risk disease, were dominated - that is, both more expensive and less effective than competing alternatives. To characterise the costs and outcomes associated with radical prostatectomy (open, laparoscopic, or robot-assisted) and radiation therapy (RT: dose-escalated three-dimensional conformal RT, intensity-modulated RT, brachytherapy, or combination), using a comprehensive, lifetime decision analytical model. A Markov model was constructed to follow hypothetical men with low-, intermediate-, and high-risk prostate cancer over their lifetimes after primary treatment; probabilities of outcomes were based on an exhaustive literature search yielding 232 unique publications. In each Markov cycle, patients could have remission, recurrence, salvage treatment, metastasis, death from prostate cancer, and death from other causes. Utilities for each health state were determined, and disutilities were applied for complications and toxicities of treatment. Costs were determined from the USA payer perspective, with incorporation of patient costs in a sensitivity analysis. Differences across treatments in quality-adjusted life years across methods were modest, ranging from 10.3 to 11.3 for low-risk patients, 9.6-10.5 for intermediate-risk patients and 7.8-9.3 for high-risk patients. There were no statistically significant differences among surgical methods, which tended to be more effective than RT methods, with the exception of combined external beam + brachytherapy for high-risk disease. RT methods were consistently more expensive than surgical methods; costs ranged from $19 901 (robot-assisted prostatectomy for low-risk disease) to $50 276 (combined RT for high-risk disease). These findings were robust to an extensive set of sensitivity analyses. Our analysis found small differences in outcomes and substantial differences in payer and patient costs across treatment alternatives. These findings may inform future policy discussions about strategies to improve efficiency of treatment selection for localised prostate cancer. © 2012 BJU International.

Sensitivity to changes during antidepressant treatment: a comparison of unidimensional subscales of the Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology (IDS-C) and the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD) in patients with mild major, minor or subsyndromal depression.

PubMed

Helmreich, Isabella; Wagner, Stefanie; Mergl, Roland; Allgaier, Antje-Kathrin; Hautzinger, Martin; Henkel, Verena; Hegerl, Ulrich; Tadić, André

2012-06-01

In the efficacy evaluation of antidepressant treatments, the total score of the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD) is still regarded as the 'gold standard'. We previously had shown that the Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology (IDS) was more sensitive to detect depressive symptom changes than the HAMD17 (Helmreich et al. 2011). Furthermore, studies suggest that the unidimensional subscales of the HAMD, which capture the core depressive symptoms, outperform the full HAMD regarding the detection of antidepressant treatment effects. The aim of the present study was to compare several unidimensional subscales of the HAMD and the IDS regarding their sensitivity to changes in depression symptoms in a sample of patients with mild major, minor or subsyndromal depression (MIND). Biweekly IDS-C28 and HAMD17 data from 287 patients of a 10-week randomised, placebo-controlled trial comparing the effectiveness of sertraline and cognitive-behavioural group therapy in patients with MIND were converted to subscale scores and analysed during the antidepressant treatment course. We investigated sensitivity to depressive change for all scales from assessment-to-assessment, in relation to depression severity level and placebo-verum differences. The subscales performed similarly during the treatment course, with slight advantages for some subscales in detecting treatment effects depending on the treatment modality and on the items included. Most changes in depressive symptomatology were detected by the IDS short scale, but regarding the effect sizes, it performed worse than most subscales. Unidimensional subscales are a time- and cost-saving option in judging drug therapy outcomes, especially in antidepressant treatment efficacy studies. However, subscales do not cover all facets of depression (e.g. atypical symptoms, sleep disturbances), which might be important for comprehensively understanding the nature of the disease depression. Therefore, the cost-to-benefit ratio must be carefully assessed in the decision for using unidimensional subscales.

Effects of Word Frequency and Modality on Sentence Comprehension Impairments in People with Aphasia

PubMed Central

DeDe, Gayle

2014-01-01

Purpose It is well known that people with aphasia have sentence comprehension impairments. The present study investigated whether lexical factors contribute to sentence comprehension impairments in both the auditory and written modalities using on-line measures of sentence processing. Methods People with aphasia and non-brain-damaged controls participated in the experiment (n=8 per group). Twenty-one sentence pairs containing high and low frequency words were presented in self-paced listening and reading tasks. The sentences were syntactically simple and differed only in the critical words. The dependent variables were response times for critical segments of the sentence and accuracy on the comprehension questions. Results The results showed that word frequency influences performance on measures of sentence comprehension in people with aphasia. The accuracy data on the comprehension questions suggested that people with aphasia have more difficulty understanding sentences containing low frequency words in the written compared to auditory modality. Both group and single case analyses of the response time data also pointed to more difficulty with reading than listening. Conclusions The results show that sentence comprehension in people with aphasia is influenced by word frequency and presentation modality. PMID:22294411

Diagnostic Accuracy of Right Ventricular Dysfunction Markers in Normotensive Emergency Department Patients With Acute Pulmonary Embolism.

PubMed

Weekes, Anthony J; Thacker, Gregory; Troha, Daniel; Johnson, Angela K; Chanler-Berat, Jordan; Norton, H James; Runyon, Michael

2016-09-01

We determine the diagnostic accuracy of goal-directed echocardiography, cardiac biomarkers, and computed tomography (CT) in early identification of severe right ventricular dysfunction in normotensive emergency department patients with pulmonary embolism compared with comprehensive echocardiography. This was a prospective observational study of consecutive normotensive patients with confirmed pulmonary embolism. Investigators, blinded to clot burden and biomarkers, performed qualitative goal-directed echocardiography for right ventricular dysfunction: right ventricular enlargement (diameter greater than or equal to that of the left ventricle), severe right ventricular systolic dysfunction, and septal bowing. Brain natriuretic peptide and troponin cutoffs of greater than or equal to 90 pg/mL and greater than or equal to 0.07 ng/mL and CT right ventricular:left ventricular diameter ratio greater than or equal to 1.0 were also compared with comprehensive echocardiography. One hundred sixteen normotensive pulmonary embolism patients (111 confirmed by CT, 5 by ventilation-perfusion scan) were enrolled. Twenty-six of 116 patients (22%) had right ventricular dysfunction on comprehensive echocardiography. Goal-directed echocardiography had a sensitivity of 100% (95% confidence interval [CI] 87% to 100%), specificity of 99% (95% CI 94% to 100%), positive likelihood ratio (+LR) of 90.0 (95% CI 16.3 to 499.8), and negative likelihood ratio (-LR) of 0 (95% CI 0 to 0.13). Brain natriuretic peptide had a sensitivity of 88% (95% CI 70% to 98%), specificity of 68% (95% CI 57% to 78%), +LR of 2.8 (95% CI 2.0 to 3.9), and -LR of 0.17 (95% CI 0.06 to 0.43). Troponin had a sensitivity of 62% (95% CI 41% to 80%), specificity of 93% (95% CI 86% to 98%), +LR of 9.2 (95% CI 4.1 to 20.9), and -LR of 0.41 (95% CI 0.24 to 0.62). CT had a sensitivity of 91% (95% CI 72% to 99%), specificity of 79% (95% CI 69% to 87%), +LR of 4.3 (95% CI 2.8 to 6.7), and -LR of 0.11 (95% CI 0.03 to 0.34). Goal-directed echocardiography was highly accurate for early severe right ventricular dysfunction identification and pulmonary embolism risk-stratification. Brain natriuretic peptide was sensitive but less specific, whereas troponin had lower sensitivity but higher specificity. CT had good sensitivity and moderate specificity. Copyright © 2016 American College of Emergency Physicians. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Meta-epidemiologic study showed frequent time trends in summary estimates from meta-analyses of diagnostic accuracy studies.

PubMed

Cohen, Jérémie F; Korevaar, Daniël A; Wang, Junfeng; Leeflang, Mariska M; Bossuyt, Patrick M

2016-09-01

To evaluate changes over time in summary estimates from meta-analyses of diagnostic accuracy studies. We included 48 meta-analyses from 35 MEDLINE-indexed systematic reviews published between September 2011 and January 2012 (743 diagnostic accuracy studies; 344,015 participants). Within each meta-analysis, we ranked studies by publication date. We applied random-effects cumulative meta-analysis to follow how summary estimates of sensitivity and specificity evolved over time. Time trends were assessed by fitting a weighted linear regression model of the summary accuracy estimate against rank of publication. The median of the 48 slopes was -0.02 (-0.08 to 0.03) for sensitivity and -0.01 (-0.03 to 0.03) for specificity. Twelve of 96 (12.5%) time trends in sensitivity or specificity were statistically significant. We found a significant time trend in at least one accuracy measure for 11 of the 48 (23%) meta-analyses. Time trends in summary estimates are relatively frequent in meta-analyses of diagnostic accuracy studies. Results from early meta-analyses of diagnostic accuracy studies should be considered with caution. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Assessing reading comprehension with narrative and expository texts: Dimensionality and relationship with fluency, vocabulary and memory.

PubMed

Santos, Sandra; Cadime, Irene; Viana, Fernanda L; Chaves-Sousa, Séli; Gayo, Elena; Maia, José; Ribeiro, Iolanda

2017-02-01

Reading comprehension assessment should rely on valid instruments that enable adequate conclusions to be taken regarding students' reading comprehension performance. In this article, two studies were conducted to collect validity evidence for the vertically scaled forms of two Tests of Reading Comprehension for Portuguese elementary school students in the second to fourth grades, one with narrative texts (TRC-n) and another with expository ones (TRC-e). Two samples of 950 and 990 students participated in Study 1, the study of the dimensionality of the TRC-n and TRC-e forms, respectively. Confirmatory factor analyses provided evidence of an acceptable fit for the one-factor solution for all test forms. Study 2 included 218 students to collect criterion-related validity. The scores obtained in each of the test forms were significantly correlated with the ones obtained in other reading comprehension measures and with the results obtained in oral reading fluency, vocabulary and working memory tests. Evidence suggests that the test forms are valid measures of reading comprehension. © 2016 Scandinavian Psychological Associations and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Imitated Prosodic Fluency Predicts Reading Comprehension Ability in Good and Poor High School Readers

PubMed Central

Breen, Mara; Kaswer, Lianne; Van Dyke, Julie A.; Krivokapić, Jelena; Landi, Nicole

2016-01-01

Researchers have established a relationship between beginning readers' silent comprehension ability and their prosodic fluency, such that readers who read aloud with appropriate prosody tend to have higher scores on silent reading comprehension assessments. The current study was designed to investigate this relationship in two groups of high school readers: Specifically Poor Comprehenders (SPCs), who have adequate word level and phonological skills but poor reading comprehension ability, and a group of age- and decoding skill-matched controls. We compared the prosodic fluency of the two groups by determining how effectively they produced prosodic cues to syntactic and semantic structure in imitations of a model speaker's production of syntactically and semantically varied sentences. Analyses of pitch and duration patterns revealed that speakers in both groups produced the expected prosodic patterns; however, controls provided stronger durational cues to syntactic structure. These results demonstrate that the relationship between prosodic fluency and reading comprehension continues past the stage of early reading instruction. Moreover, they suggest that prosodically fluent speakers may also generate more fluent implicit prosodic representations during silent reading, leading to more effective comprehension. PMID:27486409

Lesion localization of speech comprehension deficits in chronic aphasia

PubMed Central

Binder, Jeffrey R.; Humphries, Colin; Gross, William L.; Book, Diane S.

2017-01-01

Objective: Voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping (VLSM) was used to localize impairments specific to multiword (phrase and sentence) spoken language comprehension. Methods: Participants were 51 right-handed patients with chronic left hemisphere stroke. They performed an auditory description naming (ADN) task requiring comprehension of a verbal description, an auditory sentence comprehension (ASC) task, and a picture naming (PN) task. Lesions were mapped using high-resolution MRI. VLSM analyses identified the lesion correlates of ADN and ASC impairment, first with no control measures, then adding PN impairment as a covariate to control for cognitive and language processes not specific to spoken language. Results: ADN and ASC deficits were associated with lesions in a distributed frontal-temporal parietal language network. When PN impairment was included as a covariate, both ADN and ASC deficits were specifically correlated with damage localized to the mid-to-posterior portion of the middle temporal gyrus (MTG). Conclusions: Damage to the mid-to-posterior MTG is associated with an inability to integrate multiword utterances during comprehension of spoken language. Impairment of this integration process likely underlies the speech comprehension deficits characteristic of Wernicke aphasia. PMID:28179469

Lesion localization of speech comprehension deficits in chronic aphasia.

PubMed

Pillay, Sara B; Binder, Jeffrey R; Humphries, Colin; Gross, William L; Book, Diane S

2017-03-07

Voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping (VLSM) was used to localize impairments specific to multiword (phrase and sentence) spoken language comprehension. Participants were 51 right-handed patients with chronic left hemisphere stroke. They performed an auditory description naming (ADN) task requiring comprehension of a verbal description, an auditory sentence comprehension (ASC) task, and a picture naming (PN) task. Lesions were mapped using high-resolution MRI. VLSM analyses identified the lesion correlates of ADN and ASC impairment, first with no control measures, then adding PN impairment as a covariate to control for cognitive and language processes not specific to spoken language. ADN and ASC deficits were associated with lesions in a distributed frontal-temporal parietal language network. When PN impairment was included as a covariate, both ADN and ASC deficits were specifically correlated with damage localized to the mid-to-posterior portion of the middle temporal gyrus (MTG). Damage to the mid-to-posterior MTG is associated with an inability to integrate multiword utterances during comprehension of spoken language. Impairment of this integration process likely underlies the speech comprehension deficits characteristic of Wernicke aphasia. © 2017 American Academy of Neurology.

A Comprehensive Guide for Performing Sample Preparation and Top-Down Protein Analysis

PubMed Central

Padula, Matthew P.; Berry, Iain J.; O′Rourke, Matthew B.; Raymond, Benjamin B.A.; Santos, Jerran; Djordjevic, Steven P.

2017-01-01

Methodologies for the global analysis of proteins in a sample, or proteome analysis, have been available since 1975 when Patrick O′Farrell published the first paper describing two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2D-PAGE). This technique allowed the resolution of single protein isoforms, or proteoforms, into single ‘spots’ in a polyacrylamide gel, allowing the quantitation of changes in a proteoform′s abundance to ascertain changes in an organism′s phenotype when conditions change. In pursuit of the comprehensive profiling of the proteome, significant advances in technology have made the identification and quantitation of intact proteoforms from complex mixtures of proteins more routine, allowing analysis of the proteome from the ‘Top-Down’. However, the number of proteoforms detected by Top-Down methodologies such as 2D-PAGE or mass spectrometry has not significantly increased since O’Farrell’s paper when compared to Bottom-Up, peptide-centric techniques. This article explores and explains the numerous methodologies and technologies available to analyse the proteome from the Top-Down with a strong emphasis on the necessity to analyse intact proteoforms as a better indicator of changes in biology and phenotype. We arrive at the conclusion that the complete and comprehensive profiling of an organism′s proteome is still, at present, beyond our reach but the continuing evolution of protein fractionation techniques and mass spectrometry brings comprehensive Top-Down proteome profiling closer. PMID:28387712

A Comprehensive Guide for Performing Sample Preparation and Top-Down Protein Analysis.

PubMed

Padula, Matthew P; Berry, Iain J; O Rourke, Matthew B; Raymond, Benjamin B A; Santos, Jerran; Djordjevic, Steven P

2017-04-07

Methodologies for the global analysis of proteins in a sample, or proteome analysis, have been available since 1975 when Patrick O'Farrell published the first paper describing two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2D-PAGE). This technique allowed the resolution of single protein isoforms, or proteoforms, into single 'spots' in a polyacrylamide gel, allowing the quantitation of changes in a proteoform's abundance to ascertain changes in an organism's phenotype when conditions change. In pursuit of the comprehensive profiling of the proteome, significant advances in technology have made the identification and quantitation of intact proteoforms from complex mixtures of proteins more routine, allowing analysis of the proteome from the 'Top-Down'. However, the number of proteoforms detected by Top-Down methodologies such as 2D-PAGE or mass spectrometry has not significantly increased since O'Farrell's paper when compared to Bottom-Up, peptide-centric techniques. This article explores and explains the numerous methodologies and technologies available to analyse the proteome from the Top-Down with a strong emphasis on the necessity to analyse intact proteoforms as a better indicator of changes in biology and phenotype. We arrive at the conclusion that the complete and comprehensive profiling of an organism's proteome is still, at present, beyond our reach but the continuing evolution of protein fractionation techniques and mass spectrometry brings comprehensive Top-Down proteome profiling closer.

Impact of confidence number on accuracy of the SureSight Vision Screener.

PubMed

2010-02-01

To assess the relation between the confidence number provided by the Welch Allyn SureSight Vision Screener and screening accuracy, and to determine whether repeated testing to achieve a higher confidence number improves screening accuracy in pre-school children. Lay and nurse screeners screened 1452 children enrolled in the Vision in Preschoolers (VIP) Phase II Study. All children also underwent a comprehensive eye examination. By using statistical comparison of proportions, we examined sensitivity and specificity for detecting any ocular condition targeted for detection in the VIP study and conditions grouped by severity and by type (amblyopia, strabismus, significant refractive error, and unexplained decreased visual acuity) among children who had confidence numbers < or =4 (retest necessary), 5 (retest if possible), > or =6 (acceptable). Among the 687 (47.3%) children who had repeated testing by either lay or nurse screeners because of a low confidence number (<6) for one or both eyes in the initial testing, the same analyses were also conducted to compare results between the initial reading and repeated test reading with the highest confidence number in the same child. These analyses were based on the failure criteria associated with 90% specificity for detecting any VIP condition in VIP Phase II. A lower confidence number category were associated with higher sensitivity (0.71, 0.65, and 0.59 for < or =4, 5, and > or =6, respectively, p = 0.04) but no statistical difference in specificity (0.85, 0.85, and 0.91, p = 0.07) of detecting any VIP-targeted condition. Children with any VIP-targeted condition were as likely to be detected using the initial confidence number reading as using the higher confidence number reading from repeated testing. A higher confidence number obtained during screening with the SureSight Vision Screener is not associated with better screening accuracy. Repeated testing to reach the manufacturer's recommended minimum value is not helpful in pre-school vision screening.

Methodology and preliminary results of a systematic literature review of ante-mortem and post-mortem diagnostic tests for bovine tuberculosis.

PubMed

Downs, Sara H; Parry, Jessica E; Upton, Paul A; Broughan, Jennifer M; Goodchild, Anthony V; Nuñez-Garcia, Javier; Greiner, Matthias; Abernethy, Darrell A; Cameron, Angus R; Cook, Alasdair J; de la Rua-Domenech, Ricardo; Gunn, Jane; Pritchard, Elizabeth; Rhodes, Shelley; Rolfe, Simon; Sharp, Michael; Vordermeier, H Martin; Watson, Eamon; Welsh, Michael; Whelan, Adam O; Woolliams, John A; More, Simon J; Clifton-Hadley, Richard S

2018-05-01

A systematic review was conducted to identify studies with data for statistical meta-analyses of sensitivity (Se) and specificity (Sp) of ante-mortem and post-mortem diagnostic tests for bovine tuberculosis (bTB) in cattle. Members of a working group (WG) developed and tested search criteria and developed a standardised two-stage review process, to identify primary studies with numerator and denominator data for test performance and an agreed range of covariate data. No limits were applied to year, language, region or type of test in initial searches of electronic databases. In stage 1, titles and available abstracts were reviewed. References that complied with stage 1 selection criteria were reviewed in entirety and agreed data were extracted from references that complied with stage 2 selection criteria. At stage 1, 9782 references were reviewed and 261 (2.6%) passed through to stage 2 where 215 English language references were each randomly allocated to two of 18 WG reviewers and 46 references in other languages were allocated to native speakers. Agreement regarding eligibility between reviewers of the same reference at stage 2 was moderate (Kappa statistic = 0.51) and a resolution procedure was conducted. Only 119 references (published 1934-2009) were identified with eligible performance estimates for one or more of 14 different diagnostic test types; despite a comprehensive search strategy and the global impact of bTB. Searches of electronic databases for diagnostic test performance data were found to be nonspecific with regard to identifying references with diagnostic test Se or Sp data. Guidelines for the content of abstracts to research papers reporting diagnostic test performance are presented. The results of meta-analyses of the sensitivity and specificity of the tests, and of an evaluation of the methodological quality of the source references, are presented in accompanying papers (Nuñez-Garcia et al., 2017; Downs et al., 2017). Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier B.V.

A study of the Ljubljansko polje aquifer system behaviour and its simulations using multi-tools

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vrzel, J.; Ludwig, R.; Vižintin, G.; Ogrinc, N.

2017-12-01

Our study of comprehensive hydrological system behaviour, where understanding of the interfaces between groundwater and surface water is crucial, includes geochemical analyses for identification of groundwater sources (δ18O and δ2H) and estimation of groundwater mean residence time (3H, 3H/3He). The results of the geochemical analyses were compared with long-term data on precipitation, river discharge, hydraulic head, and groundwater pumping rate. The study is representative for the Ljubljansko polje in Slovenia, which belongs to the Sava River basin. The results show that the Sava River water and local precipitation are the main groundwater sources in this alluvial aquifer with high system sensitivity to both sources, which ranged from a day to a month. For a simulation of such a sensitive system different tools describing water cycle were coupled: simulation of the percolation of the local precipitation was done with the WaSiM-ETH, while the river and groundwater dynamics were performed with the MIKE 11 and FEFLOW, respectively. The WaSiM-ETH and MIKE 11 results were later employed as the upper boundary conditions in the FEFLOW model. The models have high spatial and daily temporal resolutions. A good agreement between geochemical data and modeling results was observed with two main highlights: (1) groundwater sources are in accordance with hydraulic heads and the Sava River water level/precipitation; (2) responsiveness of the aquifer on the high water level in the Sava River and on precipitation events is also synchronic with the mean groundwater residence time. The study shows that links between MIKE 11-FEFLOW-WaSiM-ETH tools is a great solution for a precise groundwater flow simulation, since all the tools are compatible and at the moment there is no routine approach for a precise parallel simulation of groundwater and surface water dynamics. The Project was financially supported by the the EU 7th Research Project - GLOBAQUA.

Impact of long-term air pollution exposure on metabolic control in children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes: results from the DPV registry.

PubMed

Lanzinger, Stefanie; Rosenbauer, Joachim; Sugiri, Dorothea; Schikowski, Tamara; Treiber, Birgit; Klee, Daniela; Rathmann, Wolfgang; Holl, Reinhard W

2018-06-01

Studies on the association between air pollution and metabolic control in children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes are rare and findings are inconsistent. We examined the relationship between air pollution variables (particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter <10 μm [PM 10 ], NO 2 and accumulated ozone exposure [O 3 -AOT]) and metabolic variables (HbA 1c and daily insulin dose [U/kg body weight]) in children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes. We investigated 37,372 individuals with type 1 diabetes aged <21 years, documented between 2009 and 2014 in 344 German centres of the prospective diabetes follow-up registry (Diabetes-Patienten-Verlaufsdokumentation [DPV]). Long-term air pollution exposure (annual and quinquennial means) data were linked to participants via the five-digit postcode areas of residency. Cross-sectional multivariable regression analysis was used to examine the association between air pollution and metabolic control. After comprehensive adjustment, an interquartile range increase in O 3 -AOT was associated with a lower HbA 1c (-3.7% [95% CI -4.4, -3.0]). The inverse association between O 3 -AOT and HbA 1c persisted after additional adjustment for degree of urbanisation or additional adjustment for PM 10 . Moreover, the inverse association remained stable in further sensitivity analyses. No significant associations between HbA 1c and PM 10 or NO 2 were found. No association was observed between any of the three air pollutants and insulin dose. The inverse association between O 3 -AOT and HbA 1c could not be explained by regional differences in diabetes treatment or by other differences between urban and rural areas. Furthermore, our results remained stable in sensitivity analyses. Further studies on the association between air pollution and HbA 1c in children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes are needed to confirm our observed association and to elucidate underlying mechanisms.

Validation of the depression anxiety stress scales (DASS) 21 as a screening instrument for depression and anxiety in a rural community-based cohort of northern Vietnamese women.

PubMed

Tran, Thach Duc; Tran, Tuan; Fisher, Jane

2013-01-12

Depression and anxiety are recognised increasingly as serious public health problems among women in low- and lower-middle income countries. The aim of this study was to validate the 21-item Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS21) for use in screening for these common mental disorders among rural women with young children in the North of Vietnam. The DASS-21 was translated from English to Vietnamese, culturally verified, back-translated and administered to women who also completed, separately, a psychiatrist-administered Structured Clinical Interview for DSM IV Axis 1 diagnoses of depressive and anxiety disorders. The sample was a community-based representative cohort of adult women with young children living in Ha Nam Province in northern Viet Nam. Cronbach's alpha, Exploratory Factor Analyses (EFA) and Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) analyses were performed to identify the psychometric properties of the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress subscales and the overall scale. Complete data were available for 221 women. The internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha) of each sub-scale and the overall scale were high, ranging from 0.70 for the Stress subscale to 0.88 for the overall scale, but EFA indicated that the 21 items all loaded on one factor. Scores on each of the three sub-scales, and the combinations of two or three of them were able to detect the common mental disorders of depression and anxiety in women with a sensitivity of 79.1% and a specificity of 77.0% at the optimal cut off of >33. However, they did not distinguish between those experiencing only depression or only anxiety. The total score of the 21 items of the DASS21-Vietnamese validation appears to be comprehensible and sensitive to detecting common mental disorders in women with young children in primary health care in rural northern Vietnam and therefore might also be useful to screen for these conditions in other resource-constrained settings.

Cross-cultural adaptation, evaluation and validation of the Spouse Response Inventory: a study protocol.

PubMed

Kaiser, Ulrike; Steinmetz, Dorit; Scharnagel, Rüdiger; Jensen, Mark P; Balck, Friedrich; Sabatowski, Rainer

2014-10-14

Since the response of spouses has been proven to be an important reinforcement of pain behaviour and disability it has been addressed in research and therapy. Fordyce suggested pain behaviour and well behaviour be considered in explaining suffering in chronic pain patients. Among existing instruments concerning spouse's responses the aspect of well behaviour has not been examined so far. The SRI (Spouse Response Inventory) tries to consider pain behaviour and well behaviour and appears to be acceptable because of its brevity and close proximity to daily language. The aim of the study is the translation into German, followed by evaluation and validation, of the SRI on a German sample of patients with chronic pain. The study is comprehensively designed: initially, the focus will lie on the translation of the instrument following the guidelines for cross-cultural translation and adaptation and evaluation of the German version according to the source study. Subsequently, a validation referring to predictive, incremental and construct validation will be conducted using instruments based on similar or close but different constructs. Evaluation of the resulting SRI-G (SRI-German) will be conducted on a sample of at least 30 patients with chronic pain attending a comprehensive pain centre. For validation at least 120 patients with chronic headache, back pain, cancer related pain and somatoform pain disorder shall be included, for a total of 480 patients. Separate analyses according to specific pain diagnoses will be performed to ensure psychometric property, interpretability and control of diagnosis of specific limitations. Analyses will include comprehensive investigation of psychometric property of the scale by hierarchical regression analyses, correlation analyses, multivariate analysis of variance and exploratory factor analyses (SPSS). The study protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee of the University of Dresden (EK 335 122008) based on the Helsinki declaration. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

The march from early life food sensitization to allergic disease: a systematic review and meta-analyses of birth cohort studies.

PubMed

Alduraywish, S A; Lodge, C J; Campbell, B; Allen, K J; Erbas, B; Lowe, A J; Dharmage, S C

2016-01-01

There is growing evidence for an increase in food allergies. The question of whether early life food sensitization, a primary step in food allergies, leads to other allergic disease is a controversial but important issue. Birth cohorts are an ideal design to answer this question. We aimed to systematically investigate and meta-analyse the evidence for associations between early food sensitization and allergic disease in birth cohorts. MEDLINE and SCOPUS databases were searched for birth cohorts that have investigated the association between food sensitization in the first 2 years and subsequent wheeze/asthma, eczema and/or allergic rhinitis. We performed meta-analyses using random-effects models to obtain pooled estimates, stratified by age group. The search yielded fifteen original articles representing thirteen cohorts. Early life food sensitization was associated with an increased risk of infantile eczema, childhood wheeze/asthma, eczema and allergic rhinitis and young adult asthma. Meta-analyses demonstrated that early life food sensitization is related to an increased risk of wheeze/asthma (pooled OR 2.9; 95% CI 2.0-4.0), eczema (pooled OR 2.7; 95% CI 1.7-4.4) and allergic rhinitis (pooled OR 3.1; 95% CI 1.9-4.9) from 4 to 8 years. Food sensitization in the first 2 years of life can identify children at high risk of subsequent allergic disease who may benefit from early life preventive strategies. However, due to potential residual confounding in the majority of studies combined with lack of follow-up into adolescence and adulthood, further research is needed. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Immediate sensitivity to structural constraints in pronoun resolution

PubMed Central

Chow, Wing-Yee; Lewis, Shevaun; Phillips, Colin

2014-01-01

Real-time interpretation of pronouns is sometimes sensitive to the presence of grammatically-illicit antecedents and sometimes not. This occasional sensitivity has been taken as evidence that structural constraints do not immediately impact the initial antecedent retrieval for pronoun interpretation. We argue that it is important to separate effects that reflect the initial antecedent retrieval process from those that reflect later processes. We present results from five reading comprehension experiments. Both the current results and previous evidence support the hypothesis that agreement features and structural constraints immediately constrain the antecedent retrieval process for pronoun interpretation. Occasional sensitivity to grammatically-illicit antecedents may be due to repair processes triggered when the initial retrieval fails to return a grammatical antecedent. PMID:25018739

Cultural sensitivity and health promotion: assessing breast cancer education pamphlets designed for African American women.

PubMed

Kline, Kimberly N

2007-01-01

This study discusses the implications for cultural sensitivity of the rhetorical choices in breast cancer education materials developed specifically for African American audiences by national organizations. Using the PEN-3 model of cultural sensitivity as an analytic framework for a generative rhetorical criticism, this study revealed that adaptations have been made in some pamphlets to acknowledge African American cultural values related to community, self-reliance, spirituality, and distrust of the Western medical establishment, but many messages could be revised to achieve a more comprehensive, balanced, accurate, and audience-specific discussion of the breast cancer issue. Achieving cultural sensitivity in health promotion materials necessitates attention to nuanced meanings in messages, revision of questionable arguments and evidence, and avoidance of ambiguity.

Narrative comprehension and production in children with SLI: An eye movement study

PubMed Central

ANDREU, LLORENÇ; SANZ-TORRENT, MONICA; OLMOS, JOAN GUÀRDIA; MACWHINNEY, BRIAN

2014-01-01

This study investigates narrative comprehension and production in children with specific language impairment (SLI). Twelve children with SLI (mean age 5; 8 years) and 12 typically developing children (mean age 5; 6 years) participated in an eye-tracking experiment designed to investigate online narrative comprehension and production in Catalan- and Spanish-speaking children with SLI. The comprehension task involved the recording of eye movements during the visual exploration of successive scenes in a story, while listening to the associated narrative. With regard to production, the children were asked to retell the story, while once again looking at the scenes, as their eye movements were monitored. During narrative production, children with SLI look at the most semantically relevant areas of the scenes fewer times than their age-matched controls, but no differences were found in narrative comprehension. Moreover, the analyses of speech productions revealed that children with SLI retained less information and made more semantic and syntactic errors during retelling. Implications for theories that characterize SLI are discussed. PMID:21453036

Effects of Classroom Practices on Reading Comprehension, Engagement, and Motivations for Adolescents

PubMed Central

Guthrie, John T.; Klauda, Susan Lutz

2014-01-01

We investigated the roles of classroom supports for multiple motivations and engagement in students’ informational text comprehension, motivation, and engagement. A composite of classroom contextual variables consisting of instructional support for choice, importance, collaboration, and competence, accompanied by cognitive scaffolding for informational text comprehension, was provided in four-week instructional units for 615 grade 7 students. These classroom motivational-engagement supports were implemented within integrated literacy/history instruction in the Concept-Oriented Reading Instruction (CORI) framework. CORI increased informational text comprehension compared with traditional instruction (TI) in a switching replications experimental design. Students’ perceptions of the motivational-engagement supports were associated with increases in students’ intrinsic motivation, value, perceived competence, and increased positive engagement (dedication) more markedly in CORI than in TI, according to multiple regression analyses. Results extended the evidence for the effectiveness of CORI to literacy/history subject matter and informational text comprehension among middle school students. The experimental effects in classroom contexts confirmed effects from task-specific, situated experimental studies in the literature. PMID:25506087

Effects of Classroom Practices on Reading Comprehension, Engagement, and Motivations for Adolescents.

PubMed

Guthrie, John T; Klauda, Susan Lutz

2014-10-01

We investigated the roles of classroom supports for multiple motivations and engagement in students' informational text comprehension, motivation, and engagement. A composite of classroom contextual variables consisting of instructional support for choice, importance, collaboration, and competence, accompanied by cognitive scaffolding for informational text comprehension, was provided in four-week instructional units for 615 grade 7 students. These classroom motivational-engagement supports were implemented within integrated literacy/history instruction in the Concept-Oriented Reading Instruction (CORI) framework. CORI increased informational text comprehension compared with traditional instruction (TI) in a switching replications experimental design. Students' perceptions of the motivational-engagement supports were associated with increases in students' intrinsic motivation, value, perceived competence, and increased positive engagement (dedication) more markedly in CORI than in TI, according to multiple regression analyses. Results extended the evidence for the effectiveness of CORI to literacy/history subject matter and informational text comprehension among middle school students. The experimental effects in classroom contexts confirmed effects from task-specific, situated experimental studies in the literature.

Prediction During Natural Language Comprehension.

PubMed

Willems, Roel M; Frank, Stefan L; Nijhof, Annabel D; Hagoort, Peter; van den Bosch, Antal

2016-06-01

The notion of prediction is studied in cognitive neuroscience with increasing intensity. We investigated the neural basis of 2 distinct aspects of word prediction, derived from information theory, during story comprehension. We assessed the effect of entropy of next-word probability distributions as well as surprisal A computational model determined entropy and surprisal for each word in 3 literary stories. Twenty-four healthy participants listened to the same 3 stories while their brain activation was measured using fMRI. Reversed speech fragments were presented as a control condition. Brain areas sensitive to entropy were left ventral premotor cortex, left middle frontal gyrus, right inferior frontal gyrus, left inferior parietal lobule, and left supplementary motor area. Areas sensitive to surprisal were left inferior temporal sulcus ("visual word form area"), bilateral superior temporal gyrus, right amygdala, bilateral anterior temporal poles, and right inferior frontal sulcus. We conclude that prediction during language comprehension can occur at several levels of processing, including at the level of word form. Our study exemplifies the power of combining computational linguistics with cognitive neuroscience, and additionally underlines the feasibility of studying continuous spoken language materials with fMRI. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Sensitivity to Referential Ambiguity in Discourse: The Role of Attention, Working Memory, and Verbal Ability

PubMed Central

Boudewyn, Megan A.; Long, Debra L.; Traxler, Matthew J.; Lesh, Tyler A.; Dave, Shruti; Mangun, George R.; Carter, Cameron S.; Swaab, Tamara Y.

2016-01-01

The establishment of reference is essential to language comprehension. The goal of this study was to examine listeners’ sensitivity to referential ambiguity as a function of individual variation in attention, working memory capacity, and verbal ability. Participants listened to stories in which two entities were introduced that were either very similar (e.g., two oaks) or less similar (e.g., one oak and one elm). The manipulation rendered an anaphor in a subsequent sentence (e.g., oak) ambiguous or unambiguous. EEG was recorded as listeners comprehended the story, after which participants completed tasks to assess working memory, verbal ability, and the ability to use context in task performance. Power in the alpha and theta frequency bands when listeners received critical information about the discourse entities (e.g., oaks) was used to index attention and the involvement of the working memory system in processing the entities. These measures were then used to predict an ERP component that is sensitive to referential ambiguity, the Nref, which was recorded when listeners received the anaphor. Nref amplitude at the anaphor was predicted by alpha power during the earlier critical sentence: Individuals with increased alpha power in ambiguous compared with unambiguous stories were less sensitive to the anaphor's ambiguity. Verbal ability was also predictive of greater sensitivity to referential ambiguity. Finally, increased theta power in the ambiguous compared with unambiguous condition was associated with higher working-memory span. These results highlight the role of attention and working memory in referential processing during listening comprehension. PMID:26401815

Sensitivity to Referential Ambiguity in Discourse: The Role of Attention, Working Memory, and Verbal Ability.

PubMed

Boudewyn, Megan A; Long, Debra L; Traxler, Matthew J; Lesh, Tyler A; Dave, Shruti; Mangun, George R; Carter, Cameron S; Swaab, Tamara Y

2015-12-01

The establishment of reference is essential to language comprehension. The goal of this study was to examine listeners' sensitivity to referential ambiguity as a function of individual variation in attention, working memory capacity, and verbal ability. Participants listened to stories in which two entities were introduced that were either very similar (e.g., two oaks) or less similar (e.g., one oak and one elm). The manipulation rendered an anaphor in a subsequent sentence (e.g., oak) ambiguous or unambiguous. EEG was recorded as listeners comprehended the story, after which participants completed tasks to assess working memory, verbal ability, and the ability to use context in task performance. Power in the alpha and theta frequency bands when listeners received critical information about the discourse entities (e.g., oaks) was used to index attention and the involvement of the working memory system in processing the entities. These measures were then used to predict an ERP component that is sensitive to referential ambiguity, the Nref, which was recorded when listeners received the anaphor. Nref amplitude at the anaphor was predicted by alpha power during the earlier critical sentence: Individuals with increased alpha power in ambiguous compared with unambiguous stories were less sensitive to the anaphor's ambiguity. Verbal ability was also predictive of greater sensitivity to referential ambiguity. Finally, increased theta power in the ambiguous compared with unambiguous condition was associated with higher working-memory span. These results highlight the role of attention and working memory in referential processing during listening comprehension.

Discovery of nitrate-CPK-NLP signalling in central nutrient-growth networks

PubMed Central

Liu, Kun-hsiang; Niu, Yajie; Konishi, Mineko; Wu, Yue; Du, Hao; Sun Chung, Hoo; Li, Lei; Boudsocq, Marie; McCormack, Matthew; Maekawa, Shugo; Ishida, Tetsuya; Zhang, Chao; Shokat, Kevan; Yanagisawa, Shuichi; Sheen, Jen

2018-01-01

Nutrient signalling integrates and coordinates gene expression, metabolism and growth. However, its primary molecular mechanisms remain incompletely understood in plants and animals. Here we report novel Ca2+ signalling triggered by nitrate with live imaging of an ultrasensitive biosensor in Arabidopsis leaves and roots. A nitrate-sensitized and targeted functional genomic screen identifies subgroup III Ca2+-sensor protein kinases (CPKs) as master regulators orchestrating primary nitrate responses. A chemical switch with the engineered CPK10(M141G) kinase enables conditional analyses of cpk10,30,32 to define comprehensive nitrate-associated regulatory and developmental programs, circumventing embryo lethality. Nitrate-CPK signalling phosphorylates conserved NIN-LIKE PROTEIN (NLP) transcription factors (TFs) to specify reprogramming of gene sets for downstream TFs, transporters, N-assimilation, C/N-metabolism, redox, signalling, hormones, and proliferation. Conditional cpk10,30,32 and nlp7 similarly impair nitrate-stimulated system-wide shoot growth and root establishment. The nutrient-coupled Ca2+ signalling network integrates transcriptome and cellular metabolism with shoot-root coordination and developmental plasticity in shaping organ biomass and architecture. PMID:28489820

New tools for classification and monitoring of autoimmune diseases

PubMed Central

Maecker, Holden T.; Lindstrom, Tamsin M.; Robinson, William H.; Utz, Paul J.; Hale, Matthew; Boyd, Scott D.; Shen-Orr, Shai S.; Fathman, C. Garrison

2012-01-01

Rheumatologists see patients with a range of autoimmune diseases. Phenotyping these diseases for diagnosis, prognosis and selection of therapies is an ever increasing problem. Advances in multiplexed assay technology at the gene, protein, and cellular level have enabled the identification of `actionable biomarkers'; that is, biological metrics that can inform clinical practice. Not only will such biomarkers yield insight into the development, remission, and exacerbation of a disease, they will undoubtedly improve diagnostic sensitivity and accuracy of classification, and ultimately guide treatment. This Review provides an introduction to these powerful technologies that could promote the identification of actionable biomarkers, including mass cytometry, protein arrays, and immunoglobulin and T-cell receptor high-throughput sequencing. In our opinion, these technologies should become part of routine clinical practice for the management of autoimmune diseases. The use of analytical tools to deconvolve the data obtained from use of these technologies is also presented here. These analyses are revealing a more comprehensive and interconnected view of the immune system than ever before and should have an important role in directing future treatment approaches for autoimmune diseases. PMID:22647780

HPV-QUEST: A highly customized system for automated HPV sequence analysis capable of processing Next Generation sequencing data set.

PubMed

Yin, Li; Yao, Jiqiang; Gardner, Brent P; Chang, Kaifen; Yu, Fahong; Goodenow, Maureen M

2012-01-01

Next Generation sequencing (NGS) applied to human papilloma viruses (HPV) can provide sensitive methods to investigate the molecular epidemiology of multiple type HPV infection. Currently a genotyping system with a comprehensive collection of updated HPV reference sequences and a capacity to handle NGS data sets is lacking. HPV-QUEST was developed as an automated and rapid HPV genotyping system. The web-based HPV-QUEST subtyping algorithm was developed using HTML, PHP, Perl scripting language, and MYSQL as the database backend. HPV-QUEST includes a database of annotated HPV reference sequences with updated nomenclature covering 5 genuses, 14 species and 150 mucosal and cutaneous types to genotype blasted query sequences. HPV-QUEST processes up to 10 megabases of sequences within 1 to 2 minutes. Results are reported in html, text and excel formats and display e-value, blast score, and local and coverage identities; provide genus, species, type, infection site and risk for the best matched reference HPV sequence; and produce results ready for additional analyses.

Real Option in Capital Budgeting for SMEs: Insight from Steel Company

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Muharam, F. M.; Tarrazon, M. A.

2017-06-01

Complex components of investment projects can only be analysed accurately if flexibility and comprehensive consideration of uncertainty are incorporated into valuation. Discounted cash flow (DCF) analysis has failed to cope with strategic future alternatives that affect the right value of investment projects. Real option valuation (ROV) proves to be the right tool for this purpose since it enables to calculate the enlarged or strategic Net Present Value (ENPV). This study attempts to provide an insight of the usage of ROV in capital budgeting and investment decision-making processes of SMEs. Exploring into the first stage processing of steel industry, analysis of alternatives to cancel, to expand, to defer or to abandon is performed. Completed with multiple options interaction and a sensitivity analysis, our findings prove that the application of ROV is beneficial for complex investment projects independently from the size of the company and particularly suitable in scenarios with scarce resources. The application of Real Option Valuation (ROV) is plausible and beneficial for SMEs to be incorporated in the strategic decision making process.

Prospective funding of general hospitals in Norway--incentives for higher production?

PubMed

Kjerstad, Egil

2003-12-01

In Norway, a new system of Activity Based Financing (ABF) for general hospitals was introduced on a comprehensive basis in July 1997. The main purpose of the reform was to increase activity so that more patients could receive treatment more quickly without reducing the quality of care. In this paper we analyse whether the reform has had any significant effect using two different performance indicators: number of patients treated and production of DRG points (Diagnosis Related Group). We divide the hospitals into two groups: hospitals owned by counties that have adopted the ABF system, and hospitals owned by counties using other funding systems. The first group then becomes the experiment group, while the second serves as a comparison group. It is argued that fixed-effect models are suitable specifications for this evaluation study, handling selection bias and the influence of unobservable explanatory variables in a consistent manner. We find that the reform has had a significant effect on the number of patients treated and DRG points produced. The results are sensitive as to how the experiment and the comparison group are determined.

Integrated modeling analysis of a novel hexapod and its application in active surface

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, Dehua; Zago, Lorenzo; Li, Hui; Lambert, Gregory; Zhou, Guohua; Li, Guoping

2011-09-01

This paper presents the concept and integrated modeling analysis of a novel mechanism, a 3-CPS/RPPS hexapod, for supporting segmented reflectors for radio telescopes and eventually segmented mirrors of optical telescopes. The concept comprises a novel type of hexapod with an original organization of actuators hence degrees of freedom, based on a swaying arm based design concept. Afterwards, with specially designed connecting joints between panels/segments, an iso-static master-slave active surface concept can be achieved for any triangular and/or hexagonal panel/segment pattern. The integrated modeling comprises all the multifold sizing and performance aspects which must be evaluated concurrently in order to optimize and validate the design and the configuration. In particular, comprehensive investigation of kinematic behavior, dynamic analysis, wave-front error and sensitivity analysis are carried out, where, frequently used tools like MATLAB/SimMechanics, CALFEM and ANSYS are used. Especially, we introduce the finite element method as a competent approach for analyses of the multi-degree of freedom mechanism. Some experimental verifications already performed validating single aspects of the integrated concept are also presented with the results obtained.

Microarray R-based analysis of complex lysate experiments with MIRACLE

PubMed Central

List, Markus; Block, Ines; Pedersen, Marlene Lemvig; Christiansen, Helle; Schmidt, Steffen; Thomassen, Mads; Tan, Qihua; Baumbach, Jan; Mollenhauer, Jan

2014-01-01

Motivation: Reverse-phase protein arrays (RPPAs) allow sensitive quantification of relative protein abundance in thousands of samples in parallel. Typical challenges involved in this technology are antibody selection, sample preparation and optimization of staining conditions. The issue of combining effective sample management and data analysis, however, has been widely neglected. Results: This motivated us to develop MIRACLE, a comprehensive and user-friendly web application bridging the gap between spotting and array analysis by conveniently keeping track of sample information. Data processing includes correction of staining bias, estimation of protein concentration from response curves, normalization for total protein amount per sample and statistical evaluation. Established analysis methods have been integrated with MIRACLE, offering experimental scientists an end-to-end solution for sample management and for carrying out data analysis. In addition, experienced users have the possibility to export data to R for more complex analyses. MIRACLE thus has the potential to further spread utilization of RPPAs as an emerging technology for high-throughput protein analysis. Availability: Project URL: http://www.nanocan.org/miracle/ Contact: mlist@health.sdu.dk Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. PMID:25161257

Microarray R-based analysis of complex lysate experiments with MIRACLE.

PubMed

List, Markus; Block, Ines; Pedersen, Marlene Lemvig; Christiansen, Helle; Schmidt, Steffen; Thomassen, Mads; Tan, Qihua; Baumbach, Jan; Mollenhauer, Jan

2014-09-01

Reverse-phase protein arrays (RPPAs) allow sensitive quantification of relative protein abundance in thousands of samples in parallel. Typical challenges involved in this technology are antibody selection, sample preparation and optimization of staining conditions. The issue of combining effective sample management and data analysis, however, has been widely neglected. This motivated us to develop MIRACLE, a comprehensive and user-friendly web application bridging the gap between spotting and array analysis by conveniently keeping track of sample information. Data processing includes correction of staining bias, estimation of protein concentration from response curves, normalization for total protein amount per sample and statistical evaluation. Established analysis methods have been integrated with MIRACLE, offering experimental scientists an end-to-end solution for sample management and for carrying out data analysis. In addition, experienced users have the possibility to export data to R for more complex analyses. MIRACLE thus has the potential to further spread utilization of RPPAs as an emerging technology for high-throughput protein analysis. Project URL: http://www.nanocan.org/miracle/. Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press.

Cell viability and MRI performance of highly efficient polyol-coated magnetic nanoparticles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Arteaga-Cardona, Fernando; Gutiérrez-García, Eric; Hidalgo-Tobón, Silvia; López-Vasquez, Ciro; Brito-Barrera, Yazmín A.; Flores-Tochihuitl, Julia; Angulo-Molina, Aracely; Reyes-Leyva, Julio R.; González-Rodríguez, Roberto; Coffer, Jeffery L.; Pal, Umapada; Diaz-Conti, Mario Pérez-Peña; Platas-Neri, Diana; Dies-Suarez, Pilar; Fonseca, Rebeca Sosa; Arias-Carrión, Oscar; Méndez-Rojas, Miguel A.

2016-11-01

This work aimed at determining conditions that would allow us to control the size of the NPs and create a system with characteristics apt for biomedical applications. We describe a comprehensive study on the synthesis and physical characterization of two highly sensitive sets of triethylene glycol (TREG) and polyethylene glycol (PEG)-coated superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) to be evaluated for use as magnetic resonance (MR) contrast agents. The ferrofluids demonstrated excellent colloidal stability in deionized water at pH 7.0 as indicated by dynamic light scattering (DLS) data. The magnetic relaxivities, r 2, were measured on a 1.5 T clinical MRI instrument. Values in the range from 205 to 257 mM-1 s-1 were obtained, varying proportionally to the SPIONs' sizes and coating nature. Further in vitro cell viability tests and in vivo biodistribution analyses of the intravenously administered nanoparticles showed that the prepared systems have good biocompatibility and migrate to several organs, mainly the meninges, spleen, and liver. Based on these results, our findings demonstrated the potential utility of these nanosystems as clinical contrast agents for MR imaging.

Chemical analysis of Panax quinquefolius (North American ginseng): A review.

PubMed

Wang, Yaping; Choi, Hyung-Kyoon; Brinckmann, Josef A; Jiang, Xue; Huang, Linfang

2015-12-24

Panax quinquefolius (PQ) is one of the best-selling natural health products due to its proposed beneficial anti-aging, anti-cancer, anti-stress, anti-fatigue, and anxiolytic effects. In recent years, the quality of PQ has received considerable attention. Sensitive and accurate methods for qualitative and quantitative analyses of chemical constituents are necessary for the comprehensive quality control to ensure the safety and efficacy of PQ. This article reviews recent progress in the chemical analysis of PQ and its preparations. Numerous analytical techniques, including spectroscopy, thin-layer chromatography (TLC), gas chromatography (GC), high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS), high-speed centrifugal partition chromatography (HSCPC), high-performance counter-current chromatography (HPCCC), nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR), and immunoassay, are described. Among these techniques, HPLC coupled with mass spectrometry (MS) is the most promising method for quality control. The challenges encountered in the chemical analysis of PQ are also briefly discussed, and the remaining questions regarding the quality control of PQ that require further investigation are highlighted. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Discovery of nitrate-CPK-NLP signalling in central nutrient-growth networks.

PubMed

Liu, Kun-Hsiang; Niu, Yajie; Konishi, Mineko; Wu, Yue; Du, Hao; Sun Chung, Hoo; Li, Lei; Boudsocq, Marie; McCormack, Matthew; Maekawa, Shugo; Ishida, Tetsuya; Zhang, Chao; Shokat, Kevan; Yanagisawa, Shuichi; Sheen, Jen

2017-05-18

Nutrient signalling integrates and coordinates gene expression, metabolism and growth. However, its primary molecular mechanisms remain incompletely understood in plants and animals. Here we report unique Ca 2+ signalling triggered by nitrate with live imaging of an ultrasensitive biosensor in Arabidopsis leaves and roots. A nitrate-sensitized and targeted functional genomic screen identifies subgroup III Ca 2+ -sensor protein kinases (CPKs) as master regulators that orchestrate primary nitrate responses. A chemical switch with the engineered mutant CPK10(M141G) circumvents embryo lethality and enables conditional analyses of cpk10 cpk30 cpk32 triple mutants to define comprehensive nitrate-associated regulatory and developmental programs. Nitrate-coupled CPK signalling phosphorylates conserved NIN-LIKE PROTEIN (NLP) transcription factors to specify the reprogramming of gene sets for downstream transcription factors, transporters, nitrogen assimilation, carbon/nitrogen metabolism, redox, signalling, hormones and proliferation. Conditional cpk10 cpk30 cpk32 and nlp7 mutants similarly impair nitrate-stimulated system-wide shoot growth and root establishment. The nutrient-coupled Ca 2+ signalling network integrates transcriptome and cellular metabolism with shoot-root coordination and developmental plasticity in shaping organ biomass and architecture.

Potential of mean force between like-charged nanoparticles: Many-body effect

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Xi; Zhang, Jin-Si; Shi, Ya-Zhou; Zhu, Xiao-Long; Tan, Zhi-Jie

2016-03-01

Ion-mediated interaction is important for the properties of polyelectrolytes such as colloids and nucleic acids. The effective pair interactions between two polyelectrolytes have been investigated extensively, but the many-body effect for multiple polyelectrolytes still remains elusive. In this work, the many-body effect in potential of mean force (PMF) between like-charged nanoparticles in various salt solutions has been comprehensively examined by Monte Carlo simulation and the nonlinear Poisson-Boltzmann theory. Our calculations show that, at high 1:1 salt, the PMF is weakly repulsive and appears additive, while at low 1:1 salt, the additive assumption overestimates the repulsive many-body PMF. At low 2:2 salt, the pair PMF appears weakly repulsive while the many-body PMF can become attractive. In contrast, at high 2:2 salt, the pair PMF is apparently attractive while the many-body effect can cause a weaker attractive PMF than that from the additive assumption. Our microscopic analyses suggest that the elusive many-body effect is attributed to ion-binding which is sensitive to ion concentration, ion valence, number of nanoparticles and charges on nanoparticles.

A cultural critique of community psychiatry in India.

PubMed

Jain, Sumeet; Jadhav, Sushrut

2008-01-01

This article is the first comprehensive cultural critique of India's official community mental health policy and program. Data are based on a literature review of published papers, conference proceedings, analyses of official policy and popular media, interviews with key Indian mental health professionals, and fieldwork in Kanpur district, Uttar Pradesh (2004-2006). The authors demonstrate how three influences have shaped community psychiatry in India: a cultural asymmetry between health professionals and the wider society, psychiatry's search for both professional and social legitimacy, and WHO policies that have provided the overall direction to the development of services. Taken together, the consequences are that rural community voices have been edited out. The authors hypothesize that community psychiatry in India is a bureaucratic and culturally incongruent endeavor that increases the divide between psychiatry and local rural communities. Such a claim requires sustained ethnographic fieldwork to reveal the dynamics of the gap between community and professional experiences. The development of culturally sensitive psychiatric theory and clinical services is essential to improve the mental health of rural citizens who place their trust in India's biomedical network.

From the viral perspective: infectious salmon anemia virus (ISAV) transcriptome during the infective process in Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar).

PubMed

Valenzuela-Miranda, Diego; Cabrejos, María Eugenia; Yañez, José Manuel; Gallardo-Escárate, Cristian

2015-04-01

The infectious salmon anemia virus (ISAV) is a severe disease that mainly affects the Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) aquaculture industry. Although several transcriptional studies have aimed to understand Salmon-ISAV interaction through the evaluation of host-gene transcription, none of them has focused their attention upon the viral transcriptional dynamics. For this purpose, RNA-Seq and RT-qPCR analyses were conducted in gills, liver and head-kidney of S. salar challenged by cohabitation with ISAV. Results evidence the time and tissue transcript patterns involved in the viral expression and how the transcription levels of ISAV segments are directly linked with the protein abundance found in other virus of the Orthomyxoviridae family. In addition, RT-qPCR result evidenced that quantification of ISAV through amplification of segment 3 would result in a more sensitive approach for detection and quantification of ISAV. This study offers a more comprehensive approach regarding the ISAV infective process and gives novel knowledge for its molecular detection. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Structural Basis for Conserved Regulation and Adaptation of the Signal Recognition Particle Targeting Complex.

PubMed

Wild, Klemens; Bange, Gert; Motiejunas, Domantas; Kribelbauer, Judith; Hendricks, Astrid; Segnitz, Bernd; Wade, Rebecca C; Sinning, Irmgard

2016-07-17

The signal recognition particle (SRP) is a ribonucleoprotein complex with a key role in targeting and insertion of membrane proteins. The two SRP GTPases, SRP54 (Ffh in bacteria) and FtsY (SRα in eukaryotes), form the core of the targeting complex (TC) regulating the SRP cycle. The architecture of the TC and its stimulation by RNA has been described for the bacterial SRP system while this information is lacking for other domains of life. Here, we present the crystal structures of the GTPase heterodimers of archaeal (Sulfolobus solfataricus), eukaryotic (Homo sapiens), and chloroplast (Arabidopsis thaliana) SRP systems. The comprehensive structural comparison combined with Brownian dynamics simulations of TC formation allows for the description of the general blueprint and of specific adaptations of the quasi-symmetric heterodimer. Our work defines conserved external nucleotide-binding sites for SRP GTPase activation by RNA. Structural analyses of the GDP-bound, post-hydrolysis states reveal a conserved, magnesium-sensitive switch within the I-box. Overall, we provide a general model for SRP cycle regulation by RNA. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Transport calculations and sensitivity analyses for air-over-ground and air-over-seawater weapons environments

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Pace, J.V. III; Bartine, D.E.; Mynatt, F.R.

1976-01-01

Two-dimensional neutron and secondary gamma-ray transport calculations and cross-section sensitivity analyses have been performed to determine the effects of varying source heights and cross sections on calculated doses. The air-over-ground calculations demonstrate the existence of an optimal height of burst for a specific ground range and indicate under what conditions they are conservative with respect to infinite air calculations. The air-over-seawater calculations showed the importance of hydrogen and chlorine in gamma production. Additional sensitivity analyses indicated the importance of water in the ground, the amount of reduction in ground thickness for calculational purposes, and the effect of the degree ofmore » Legendre angular expansion of the scattering cross-sections (P/sub l/) on the calculated dose.« less

Defense Commissaries: DOD Needs to Improve Business Processes to Ensure Patron Benefits and Achieve Operational Efficiencies

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-03-01

sales, leverage efficiencies, and achieve savings in commissary operations. Second, DeCA has not conducted cost - benefit analyses for costs ...conduct comprehensive cost - benefit analyses for service contracts and distribution options. DOD concurred with GAO’s first two recommendations and...partially concurred with the third recommendation. GAO continues to believe the cost - benefit analysis recommendation is valid

Comprehensive Genetic Characterization of Intraprostatic Chronic Inflammation and Prostate Cancer in African American Men

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-09-01

with new methodologies of intratumoral phylogenetic analyses, will yield pivotal information in elucidating the key genes involved evolution of PCa...combined with both clinical and experimental genetic data produced by this study may empower patients and doctors to make personalized treatment decisions...sequencing, paired with new methodologies of intratumoral phylogenetic analyses, will yield pivotal information in elucidating the key genes involved

Viking navigation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Oneil, W. J.; Rudd, R. P.; Farless, D. L.; Hildebrand, C. E.; Mitchell, R. T.; Rourke, K. H.; Euler, E. A.

1979-01-01

A comprehensive description of the navigation of the Viking spacecraft throughout their flight from Earth launch to Mars landing is given. The flight path design, actual inflight control, and postflight reconstruction are discussed in detail. The preflight analyses upon which the operational strategies and performance predictions were based are discussed. The inflight results are then discussed and compared with the preflight predictions and, finally, the results of any postflight analyses are presented.

Oral morphosyntactic competence as a predictor of reading comprehension in children with specific language impairment.

PubMed

Buil-Legaz, Lucía; Aguilar-Mediavilla, Eva; Rodríguez-Ferreiro, Javier

2016-07-01

Children with a diagnosis of specific language impairment (SLI) present impaired oral comprehension. According to the simple view of reading, general amodal linguistic capacity accounts for both oral and reading comprehension. Considering this, we should expect SLI children to display a reading comprehension deficit. However, previous research regarding the association between reading disorders and SLI has yielded inconsistent results. To study the influence of prior oral comprehension competence over reading comprehension during the first years of reading acquisition of bilingual Catalan-Spanish children with SLI (ages 7-8). We assessed groups of bilingual Catalan-Spanish SLI and matched control children at ages 7 and 8 with standardized reading comprehension tasks including grammatical structures, sentence and text comprehension. Early oral competence and prior non-verbal intelligence were also measured and introduced into regression analyses with the participants' reading results in order to state the relation between the comprehension of oral and written material. Although we found no significant differences between the scores of our two participant groups in the reading tasks, data regarding their early oral competence, but not non-verbal intelligence measures, significantly influence their reading outcome. The results extend our knowledge regarding the course of literacy acquisition of children with SLI and provide evidence in support of the theories that assume common linguistic processes to be responsible for both oral and reading comprehension. © 2016 Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists.

A computer model for one-dimensional mass and energy transport in and around chemically reacting particles, including complex gas-phase chemistry, multicomponent molecular diffusion, surface evaporation, and heterogeneous reaction

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cho, S. Y.; Yetter, R. A.; Dryer, F. L.

1992-01-01

Various chemically reacting flow problems highlighting chemical and physical fundamentals rather than flow geometry are presently investigated by means of a comprehensive mathematical model that incorporates multicomponent molecular diffusion, complex chemistry, and heterogeneous processes, in the interest of obtaining sensitivity-related information. The sensitivity equations were decoupled from those of the model, and then integrated one time-step behind the integration of the model equations, and analytical Jacobian matrices were applied to improve the accuracy of sensitivity coefficients that are calculated together with model solutions.

Inhomogeneous Forcing and Transient Climate Sensitivity

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Shindell, Drew T.

2014-01-01

Understanding climate sensitivity is critical to projecting climate change in response to a given forcing scenario. Recent analyses have suggested that transient climate sensitivity is at the low end of the present model range taking into account the reduced warming rates during the past 10-15 years during which forcing has increased markedly. In contrast, comparisons of modelled feedback processes with observations indicate that the most realistic models have higher sensitivities. Here I analyse results from recent climate modelling intercomparison projects to demonstrate that transient climate sensitivity to historical aerosols and ozone is substantially greater than the transient climate sensitivity to CO2. This enhanced sensitivity is primarily caused by more of the forcing being located at Northern Hemisphere middle to high latitudes where it triggers more rapid land responses and stronger feedbacks. I find that accounting for this enhancement largely reconciles the two sets of results, and I conclude that the lowest end of the range of transient climate response to CO2 in present models and assessments (less than 1.3 C) is very unlikely.

De novo transcriptome sequencing of Acer palmatum and comprehensive analysis of differentially expressed genes under salt stress in two contrasting genotypes.

PubMed

Rong, Liping; Li, Qianzhong; Li, Shushun; Tang, Ling; Wen, Jing

2016-04-01

Maple (Acer palmatum) is an important species for landscape planting worldwide. Salt stress affects the normal growth of the Maple leaf directly, leading to loss of esthetic value. However, the limited availability of Maple genomic information has hindered research on the mechanisms underlying this tolerance. In this study, we performed comprehensive analyses of the salt tolerance in two genotypes of Maple using RNA-seq. Approximately 146.4 million paired-end reads, representing 181,769 unigenes, were obtained. The N50 length of the unigenes was 738 bp, and their total length over 102.66 Mb. 14,090 simple sequence repeats and over 500,000 single nucleotide polymorphisms were identified, which represent useful resources for marker development. Importantly, 181,769 genes were detected in at least one library, and 303 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified between salt-sensitive and salt-tolerant genotypes. Among these DEGs, 125 were upregulated and 178 were downregulated genes. Two MYB-related proteins and one LEA protein were detected among the first 10 most downregulated genes. Moreover, a methyltransferase-related gene was detected among the first 10 most upregulated genes. The three most significantly enriched pathways were plant hormone signal transduction, arginine and proline metabolism, and photosynthesis. The transcriptome analysis provided a rich genetic resource for gene discovery related to salt tolerance in Maple, and in closely related species. The data will serve as an important public information platform to further our understanding of the molecular mechanisms involved in salt tolerance in Maple.

The EuroPrevall outpatient clinic study on food allergy: background and methodology.

PubMed

Fernández-Rivas, M; Barreales, L; Mackie, A R; Fritsche, P; Vázquez-Cortés, S; Jedrzejczak-Czechowicz, M; Kowalski, M L; Clausen, M; Gislason, D; Sinaniotis, A; Kompoti, E; Le, T-M; Knulst, A C; Purohit, A; de Blay, F; Kralimarkova, T; Popov, T; Asero, R; Belohlavkova, S; Seneviratne, S L; Dubakiene, R; Lidholm, J; Hoffmann-Sommergruber, K; Burney, P; Crevel, R; Brill, M; Fernández-Pérez, C; Vieths, S; Clare Mills, E N; van Ree, R; Ballmer-Weber, B K

2015-05-01

The EuroPrevall project aimed to develop effective management strategies in food allergy through a suite of interconnected studies and a multidisciplinary integrated approach. To address some of the gaps in food allergy diagnosis, allergen risk management and socio-economic impact and to complement the EuroPrevall population-based surveys, a cross-sectional study in 12 outpatient clinics across Europe was conducted. We describe the study protocol. Patients referred for immediate food adverse reactions underwent a consistent and standardized allergy work-up that comprised collection of medical history; assessment of sensitization to 24 foods, 14 inhalant allergens and 55 allergenic molecules; and confirmation of clinical reactivity and food thresholds by standardized double-blind placebo-controlled food challenges (DBPCFCs) to milk, egg, fish, shrimp, peanut, hazelnut, celeriac, apple and peach. A standardized methodology for a comprehensive evaluation of food allergy was developed and implemented in 12 outpatient clinics across Europe. A total of 2121 patients (22.6% <14 years) reporting 8257 reactions to foods were studied, and 516 DBPCFCs were performed. This is the largest multicentre European case series in food allergy, in which subjects underwent a comprehensive, uniform and standardized evaluation including DBPCFC, by a methodology which is made available for further studies in food allergy. The analysis of this population will provide information on the different phenotypes of food allergy across Europe, will allow to validate novel in vitro diagnostic tests, to establish threshold values for major allergenic foods and to analyse the socio-economic impact of food allergy. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Largely overlapping neuronal substrates of reactivity to drug, gambling, food and sexual cues: A comprehensive meta-analysis.

PubMed

Noori, Hamid R; Cosa Linan, Alejandro; Spanagel, Rainer

2016-09-01

Cue reactivity to natural and social rewards is essential for motivational behavior. However, cue reactivity to drug rewards can also elicit craving in addicted subjects. The degree to which drug and natural rewards share neural substrates is not known. The objective of this study is to conduct a comprehensive meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies on drug, gambling and natural stimuli (food and sex) to identify the common and distinct neural substrates of cue reactivity to drug and natural rewards. Neural cue reactivity studies were selected for the meta-analysis by means of activation likelihood estimations, followed by sensitivity and clustering analyses of averaged neuronal response patterns. Data from 176 studies (5573 individuals) suggests largely overlapping neural response patterns towards all tested reward modalities. Common cue reactivity to natural and drug rewards was expressed by bilateral neural responses within anterior cingulate gyrus, insula, caudate head, inferior frontal gyrus, middle frontal gyrus and cerebellum. However, drug cues also generated distinct activation patterns in medial frontal gyrus, middle temporal gyrus, posterior cingulate gyrus, caudate body and putamen. Natural (sexual) reward cues induced unique activation of the pulvinar in thalamus. Neural substrates of cue reactivity to alcohol, drugs of abuse, food, sex and gambling are largely overlapping and comprise a network that processes reward, emotional responses and habit formation. This suggests that cue-mediated craving involves mechanisms that are not exclusive for addictive disorders but rather resemble the intersection of information pathways for processing reward, emotional responses, non-declarative memory and obsessive-compulsive behavior. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. and ECNP. All rights reserved.

Rational Deletion Cloze Processing Strategies: ESL and Native English.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Markham, Paul L.

1987-01-01

Explores cloze sensitivity to global comprehension by means of retrospective interview techniques. No significant differences were found between English as a second language (ESL) college students (N=14) and native English-speaking students (N=14) in their processing strategies. (Author/CB)

A Simple Method for Estimating Informative Node Age Priors for the Fossil Calibration of Molecular Divergence Time Analyses

PubMed Central

Nowak, Michael D.; Smith, Andrew B.; Simpson, Carl; Zwickl, Derrick J.

2013-01-01

Molecular divergence time analyses often rely on the age of fossil lineages to calibrate node age estimates. Most divergence time analyses are now performed in a Bayesian framework, where fossil calibrations are incorporated as parametric prior probabilities on node ages. It is widely accepted that an ideal parameterization of such node age prior probabilities should be based on a comprehensive analysis of the fossil record of the clade of interest, but there is currently no generally applicable approach for calculating such informative priors. We provide here a simple and easily implemented method that employs fossil data to estimate the likely amount of missing history prior to the oldest fossil occurrence of a clade, which can be used to fit an informative parametric prior probability distribution on a node age. Specifically, our method uses the extant diversity and the stratigraphic distribution of fossil lineages confidently assigned to a clade to fit a branching model of lineage diversification. Conditioning this on a simple model of fossil preservation, we estimate the likely amount of missing history prior to the oldest fossil occurrence of a clade. The likelihood surface of missing history can then be translated into a parametric prior probability distribution on the age of the clade of interest. We show that the method performs well with simulated fossil distribution data, but that the likelihood surface of missing history can at times be too complex for the distribution-fitting algorithm employed by our software tool. An empirical example of the application of our method is performed to estimate echinoid node ages. A simulation-based sensitivity analysis using the echinoid data set shows that node age prior distributions estimated under poor preservation rates are significantly less informative than those estimated under high preservation rates. PMID:23755303

A review on design of experiments and surrogate models in aircraft real-time and many-query aerodynamic analyses

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yondo, Raul; Andrés, Esther; Valero, Eusebio

2018-01-01

Full scale aerodynamic wind tunnel testing, numerical simulation of high dimensional (full-order) aerodynamic models or flight testing are some of the fundamental but complex steps in the various design phases of recent civil transport aircrafts. Current aircraft aerodynamic designs have increase in complexity (multidisciplinary, multi-objective or multi-fidelity) and need to address the challenges posed by the nonlinearity of the objective functions and constraints, uncertainty quantification in aerodynamic problems or the restrained computational budgets. With the aim to reduce the computational burden and generate low-cost but accurate models that mimic those full order models at different values of the design variables, Recent progresses have witnessed the introduction, in real-time and many-query analyses, of surrogate-based approaches as rapid and cheaper to simulate models. In this paper, a comprehensive and state-of-the art survey on common surrogate modeling techniques and surrogate-based optimization methods is given, with an emphasis on models selection and validation, dimensionality reduction, sensitivity analyses, constraints handling or infill and stopping criteria. Benefits, drawbacks and comparative discussions in applying those methods are described. Furthermore, the paper familiarizes the readers with surrogate models that have been successfully applied to the general field of fluid dynamics, but not yet in the aerospace industry. Additionally, the review revisits the most popular sampling strategies used in conducting physical and simulation-based experiments in aircraft aerodynamic design. Attractive or smart designs infrequently used in the field and discussions on advanced sampling methodologies are presented, to give a glance on the various efficient possibilities to a priori sample the parameter space. Closing remarks foster on future perspectives, challenges and shortcomings associated with the use of surrogate models by aircraft industrial aerodynamicists, despite their increased interest among the research communities.

Speciation of Soil Phosphorus Assessed by XANES Spectroscopy at Different Spatial Scales

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hesterberg, Dean; McNulty, Ian; Thieme, Juergen

Precise management of soil phosphorus (P) to meet competing demands of agriculture and environmental protection can benefit from more comprehensive characterization of P speciation in soils. Our objectives were to provide spatial context for spectroscopic analyses of soil P speciation in relation to molecular-scale species and landscape-scale management of P, and to compare soil P-species diversity from spectroscopic measurements at submicron and millimeter scales. The spatial range of ~26 orders of magnitude between atomic and field scales presents a challenge to upscaling and downscaling information from spectroscopic analyses of soils. Scanning fluorescence X-ray microscopy images of a 50-mm ´ 45-mmmore » area of an organic soil sample showed heterogeneous distributions of P, Al, and Si. Microscale X-ray absorption near edge structure (μ-XANES) spectra collected at the P K-edge from 12 spots on the soil sample exhibited diverse features that indicated variations in highly localized P speciation. Linear combination fitting analysis of the μ-XANES spectra included various proportions of three standards that appeared in fits for most spots and five standards that appeared in fits for one spot each. The fit to a bulk-soil spectrum was dominated by two of the common standards in the μ-XANES fits, and a fit to the sum of m-XANES spectra included four of the standards. Lastly, these results illustrate a gain in P species sensitivity from spatially resolved XANES analysis. Integrating spectroscopic analyses from multiple scales determines soil P species diversity and will ultimately help connect speciation to the chemical reactivity and mobility of P in soils.« less

Speciation of Soil Phosphorus Assessed by XANES Spectroscopy at Different Spatial Scales

DOE PAGES

Hesterberg, Dean; McNulty, Ian; Thieme, Juergen

2017-07-27

Precise management of soil phosphorus (P) to meet competing demands of agriculture and environmental protection can benefit from more comprehensive characterization of P speciation in soils. Our objectives were to provide spatial context for spectroscopic analyses of soil P speciation in relation to molecular-scale species and landscape-scale management of P, and to compare soil P-species diversity from spectroscopic measurements at submicron and millimeter scales. The spatial range of ~26 orders of magnitude between atomic and field scales presents a challenge to upscaling and downscaling information from spectroscopic analyses of soils. Scanning fluorescence X-ray microscopy images of a 50-mm ´ 45-mmmore » area of an organic soil sample showed heterogeneous distributions of P, Al, and Si. Microscale X-ray absorption near edge structure (μ-XANES) spectra collected at the P K-edge from 12 spots on the soil sample exhibited diverse features that indicated variations in highly localized P speciation. Linear combination fitting analysis of the μ-XANES spectra included various proportions of three standards that appeared in fits for most spots and five standards that appeared in fits for one spot each. The fit to a bulk-soil spectrum was dominated by two of the common standards in the μ-XANES fits, and a fit to the sum of m-XANES spectra included four of the standards. Lastly, these results illustrate a gain in P species sensitivity from spatially resolved XANES analysis. Integrating spectroscopic analyses from multiple scales determines soil P species diversity and will ultimately help connect speciation to the chemical reactivity and mobility of P in soils.« less

Functional, structural and phylogenetic analysis of domains underlying the Al sensitivity of the aluminum-activated malate/anion transporter, TaALMT1.

PubMed

Ligaba, Ayalew; Dreyer, Ingo; Margaryan, Armine; Schneider, David J; Kochian, Leon; Piñeros, Miguel

2013-12-01

Triticum aestivum aluminum-activated malate transporter (TaALMT1) is the founding member of a unique gene family of anion transporters (ALMTs) that mediate the efflux of organic acids. A small sub-group of root-localized ALMTs, including TaALMT1, is physiologically associated with in planta aluminum (Al) resistance. TaALMT1 exhibits significant enhancement of transport activity in response to extracellular Al. In this study, we integrated structure-function analyses of structurally altered TaALMT1 proteins expressed in Xenopus oocytes with phylogenic analyses of the ALMT family. Our aim is to re-examine the role of protein domains in terms of their potential involvement in the Al-dependent enhancement (i.e. Al-responsiveness) of TaALMT1 transport activity, as well as the roles of all its 43 negatively charged amino acid residues. Our results indicate that the N-domain, which is predicted to form the conductive pathway, mediates ion transport even in the absence of the C-domain. However, segments in both domains are involved in Al(3+) sensing. We identified two regions, one at the N-terminus and a hydrophobic region at the C-terminus, that jointly contribute to the Al-response phenotype. Interestingly, the characteristic motif at the N-terminus appears to be specific for Al-responsive ALMTs. Our study highlights the need to include a comprehensive phylogenetic analysis when drawing inferences from structure-function analyses, as a significant proportion of the functional changes observed for TaALMT1 are most likely the result of alterations in the overall structural integrity of ALMT family proteins rather than modifications of specific sites involved in Al(3+) sensing. © 2013 The Authors The Plant Journal © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Shot noise-limited Cramér-Rao bound and algorithmic sensitivity for wavelength shifting interferometry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Shichao; Zhu, Yizheng

2017-02-01

Sensitivity is a critical index to measure the temporal fluctuation of the retrieved optical pathlength in quantitative phase imaging system. However, an accurate and comprehensive analysis for sensitivity evaluation is still lacking in current literature. In particular, previous theoretical studies for fundamental sensitivity based on Gaussian noise models are not applicable to modern cameras and detectors, which are dominated by shot noise. In this paper, we derive two shot noiselimited theoretical sensitivities, Cramér-Rao bound and algorithmic sensitivity for wavelength shifting interferometry, which is a major category of on-axis interferometry techniques in quantitative phase imaging. Based on the derivations, we show that the shot noise-limited model permits accurate estimation of theoretical sensitivities directly from measured data. These results can provide important insights into fundamental constraints in system performance and can be used to guide system design and optimization. The same concepts can be generalized to other quantitative phase imaging techniques as well.

Cognitive spare capacity: evaluation data and its association with comprehension of dynamic conversations

PubMed Central

Keidser, Gitte; Best, Virginia; Freeston, Katrina; Boyce, Alexandra

2015-01-01

It is well-established that communication involves the working memory system, which becomes increasingly engaged in understanding speech as the input signal degrades. The more resources allocated to recovering a degraded input signal, the fewer resources, referred to as cognitive spare capacity (CSC), remain for higher-level processing of speech. Using simulated natural listening environments, the aims of this paper were to (1) evaluate an English version of a recently introduced auditory test to measure CSC that targets the updating process of the executive function, (2) investigate if the test predicts speech comprehension better than the reading span test (RST) commonly used to measure working memory capacity, and (3) determine if the test is sensitive to increasing the number of attended locations during listening. In Experiment I, the CSC test was presented using a male and a female talker, in quiet and in spatially separated babble- and cafeteria-noises, in an audio-only and in an audio-visual mode. Data collected on 21 listeners with normal and impaired hearing confirmed that the English version of the CSC test is sensitive to population group, noise condition, and clarity of speech, but not presentation modality. In Experiment II, performance by 27 normal-hearing listeners on a novel speech comprehension test presented in noise was significantly associated with working memory capacity, but not with CSC. Moreover, this group showed no significant difference in CSC as the number of talker locations in the test increased. There was no consistent association between the CSC test and the RST. It is recommended that future studies investigate the psychometric properties of the CSC test, and examine its sensitivity to the complexity of the listening environment in participants with both normal and impaired hearing. PMID:25999904

A practical, evidence-based, comprehensive (PEC) physical examination for diagnosing pathology of the long head of the biceps.

PubMed

Rosas, Samuel; Krill, Michael K; Amoo-Achampong, Kelms; Kwon, KiHyun; Nwachukwu, Benedict U; McCormick, Frank

2017-08-01

Clinical examination of the shoulder joint has gained attention as clinicians aim to use an evidence-based examination of the biceps tendon, with the desire for a proper diagnosis while minimizing costly imaging procedures. The purpose of this study is to create a decision tree analysis that enables the development of a clinical algorithm for diagnosing long head of biceps (LHB) pathology. A literature review of Level I and II diagnostic studies was conducted to extract characteristics of clinical tests for LHB pathology through a systematic review of PubMed, Medline, Ovid, and Cochrane Review databases. Tests were combined in series and parallel to determine sensitivities and specificities, and positive and negative likelihood ratios were determined for each combination using a subjective pretest probability. The "gold standard" for diagnosis in all included studies was arthroscopy or arthrotomy. The optimal testing modality was use of the uppercut test combined with the tenderness to palpation of the biceps tendon test. This combination achieved a sensitivity of 88.4% when performed in parallel and a specificity of 93.8% when performed in series. These tests used in combination optimize post-test probability accuracy greater than any single individual test. Performing the uppercut test and biceps groove tenderness to palpation test together has the highest sensitivity and specificity of known physical examinations maneuvers to aid in the diagnosis of LHB pathology compared with diagnostic arthroscopy (practical, evidence-based, comprehensive examination). A decision tree analysis aides in the practical, evidence-based, comprehensive examination diagnostic accuracy post-testing based on the ordinal scale pretest probability. Copyright © 2017 Journal of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery Board of Trustees. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Insensitive Ruins It All: Compositional and Compilational Influences of Social Sensitivity on Collective Intelligence in Groups.

PubMed

Meslec, Nicoleta; Aggarwal, Ishani; Curseu, Petru L

2016-01-01

A group's collective intelligence reflects its capacity to perform well across a variety of cognitive tasks and it transcends the individual intelligence of its members. Previous research shows that group members' social sensitivity is a potential antecedent of collective intelligence, yet it is still unclear whether individual or group-level indices are responsible for the positive association between social sensitivity and collective intelligence. In a comprehensive manner, we test the extent to which both compositional (lowest and highest individual score) and compilational aspects (emergent group level) of social sensitivity are associated with collective intelligence. This study has implications for research that explores groups as information processors, and for group design as it indicates how a group should be composed with respect to social sensitivity if the group is to reach high levels of collective intelligence. Our empirical results indicate that collectively intelligent groups are those in which the least socially sensitive group member has a rather high score on social sensitivity. Differently stated, (socially sensitive) group members cannot compensate for the lack of social sensitivity of the other group members.

Speech Perception Deficits in Mandarin-Speaking School-Aged Children with Poor Reading Comprehension

PubMed Central

Liu, Huei-Mei; Tsao, Feng-Ming

2017-01-01

Previous studies have shown that children learning alphabetic writing systems who have language impairment or dyslexia exhibit speech perception deficits. However, whether such deficits exist in children learning logographic writing systems who have poor reading comprehension remains uncertain. To further explore this issue, the present study examined speech perception deficits in Mandarin-speaking children with poor reading comprehension. Two self-designed tasks, consonant categorical perception task and lexical tone discrimination task were used to compare speech perception performance in children (n = 31, age range = 7;4–10;2) with poor reading comprehension and an age-matched typically developing group (n = 31, age range = 7;7–9;10). Results showed that the children with poor reading comprehension were less accurate in consonant and lexical tone discrimination tasks and perceived speech contrasts less categorically than the matched group. The correlations between speech perception skills (i.e., consonant and lexical tone discrimination sensitivities and slope of consonant identification curve) and individuals’ oral language and reading comprehension were stronger than the correlations between speech perception ability and word recognition ability. In conclusion, the results revealed that Mandarin-speaking children with poor reading comprehension exhibit less-categorized speech perception, suggesting that imprecise speech perception, especially lexical tone perception, is essential to account for reading learning difficulties in Mandarin-speaking children. PMID:29312031

Developing tools for the safety specification in risk management plans: lessons learned from a pilot project.

PubMed

Cooper, Andrew J P; Lettis, Sally; Chapman, Charlotte L; Evans, Stephen J W; Waller, Patrick C; Shakir, Saad; Payvandi, Nassrin; Murray, Alison B

2008-05-01

Following the adoption of the ICH E2E guideline, risk management plans (RMP) defining the cumulative safety experience and identifying limitations in safety information are now required for marketing authorisation applications (MAA). A collaborative research project was conducted to gain experience with tools for presenting and evaluating data in the safety specification. This paper presents those tools found to be useful and the lessons learned from their use. Archive data from a successful MAA were utilised. Methods were assessed for demonstrating the extent of clinical safety experience, evaluating the sensitivity of the clinical trial data to detect treatment differences and identifying safety signals from adverse event and laboratory data to define the extent of safety knowledge with the drug. The extent of clinical safety experience was demonstrated by plots of patient exposure over time. Adverse event data were presented using dot plots, which display the percentages of patients with the events of interest, the odds ratio, and 95% confidence interval. Power and confidence interval plots were utilised for evaluating the sensitivity of the clinical database to detect treatment differences. Box and whisker plots were used to display laboratory data. This project enabled us to identify new evidence-based methods for presenting and evaluating clinical safety data. These methods represent an advance in the way safety data from clinical trials can be analysed and presented. This project emphasises the importance of early and comprehensive planning of the safety package, including evaluation of the use of epidemiology data.

Ecotoxicological bioassays of sediment leachates in a river bed flanked by decommissioned pesticide plants in Nantong City, East China.

PubMed

Zhou, Yan; Wang, Fenghe; Wan, Jinzhong; He, Jian; Li, Qun; Qiang Chen; Gao, Jay; Lin, Yusuo; Zhang, Shengtian

2017-03-01

Traditionally, the toxicity of river contaminants is analyzed chemically or physically through river bed sediments. The biotoxicity of polluted sediment leachates has not caught our attention. This study aims to overcome this deficiency through a battery of biotests which were conducted to monitor comprehensive toxicity of sediment leachates for the Yaogang River in East Jiangsu Province of China, which is in close proximity to former pesticide plants. The general physical and chemical parameters of major pollutants were analyzed from river bed sediments collected at five strategic locations. The ecotoxicity analyses undertaken include overall fish (adult zebrafish) acute toxicity, luminescent bacteria (Vibrio fischeri) bioassay, and zebrafish embryo toxicity assay. Compared with the control group, sediment leachates increased the lethality, inhibited the embryos hatching and induced development abnormalities of zebrafish embryos, and inhibited the luminescence of V. fischeri. The results show that sediment leachates may assume various toxic effects, depending on the test organism. This diverse toxicity to aquatic organisms reflects their different sensitivity to sediment leachates. It is found clearly that V. fischeri was the organism which was characterized by the highest sensitivity to the sediment leachates. The complicated toxicity of leachates was not caused by one single factor but by multiple pollutants together. This indicates the need of estimations of sediment leachate not only taking into account chemical detection but also of applying the biotests to the problem. Thus, multigroup bioassays are necessary to realistically evaluate river ecological risks imposed by leachates.

A genome-wide inducible phenotypic screen identifies antisense RNA constructs silencing Escherichia coli essential genes.

PubMed

Meng, Jia; Kanzaki, Gregory; Meas, Diane; Lam, Christopher K; Crummer, Heather; Tain, Justina; Xu, H Howard

2012-04-01

Regulated antisense RNA (asRNA) expression has been employed successfully in Gram-positive bacteria for genome-wide essential gene identification and drug target determination. However, there have been no published reports describing the application of asRNA gene silencing for comprehensive analyses of essential genes in Gram-negative bacteria. In this study, we report the first genome-wide identification of asRNA constructs for essential genes in Escherichia coli. We screened 250 000 library transformants for conditional growth inhibitory recombinant clones from two shotgun genomic libraries of E. coli using a paired-termini expression vector (pHN678). After sequencing plasmid inserts of 675 confirmed inducer sensitive cell clones, we identified 152 separate asRNA constructs of which 134 inserts came from essential genes, while 18 originated from nonessential genes (but share operons with essential genes). Among the 79 individual essential genes silenced by these asRNA constructs, 61 genes (77%) engage in processes related to protein synthesis. The cell-based assays of an asRNA clone targeting fusA (encoding elongation factor G) showed that the induced cells were sensitized 12-fold to fusidic acid, a known specific inhibitor. Our results demonstrate the utility of the paired-termini expression vector and feasibility of large-scale gene silencing in E. coli using regulated asRNA expression. © 2012 Federation of European Microbiological Societies. Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved.

Mapping the tumour human leukocyte antigen (HLA) ligandome by mass spectrometry.

PubMed

Freudenmann, Lena Katharina; Marcu, Ana; Stevanović, Stefan

2018-07-01

The entirety of human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-presented peptides is referred to as the HLA ligandome of a cell or tissue, in tumours often termed immunopeptidome. Mapping the tumour immunopeptidome by mass spectrometry (MS) comprehensively views the pathophysiologically relevant antigenic signature of human malignancies. MS is an unbiased approach stringently filtering the candidates to be tested as opposed to epitope prediction algorithms. In the setting of peptide-specific immunotherapies, MS-based strategies significantly diminish the risk of lacking clinical benefit, as they yield highly enriched amounts of truly presented peptides. Early immunopeptidomic efforts were severely limited by technical sensitivity and manual spectra interpretation. The technological progress with development of orbitrap mass analysers and enhanced chromatographic performance led to vast improvements in mass accuracy, sensitivity, resolution, and speed. Concomitantly, bioinformatic tools were developed to process MS data, integrate sequencing results, and deconvolute multi-allelic datasets. This enabled the immense advancement of tumour immunopeptidomics. Studying the HLA-presented peptide repertoire bears high potential for both answering basic scientific questions and translational application. Mapping the tumour HLA ligandome has started to significantly contribute to target identification for the design of peptide-specific cancer immunotherapies in clinical trials and compassionate need treatments. In contrast to prediction algorithms, rare HLA allotypes and HLA class II can be adequately addressed when choosing MS-guided target identification platforms. Herein, we review the identification of tumour HLA ligands focusing on sources, methods, bioinformatic data analysis, translational application, and provide an outlook on future developments. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Efficient Exploitation of Separation Space in Two-Dimensional Liquid Chromatography System for Comprehensive and Efficient Proteomic Analyses.

PubMed

Lee, Hangyeore; Mun, Dong-Gi; So, Jeong Eun; Bae, Jingi; Kim, Hokeun; Masselon, Christophe; Lee, Sang-Won

2016-12-06

Proteomics aims to achieve complete profiling of the protein content and protein modifications in cells, tissues, and biofluids and to quantitatively determine changes in their abundances. This information serves to elucidate cellular processes and signaling pathways and to identify candidate protein biomarkers and/or therapeutic targets. Analyses must therefore be both comprehensive and efficient. Here, we present a novel online two-dimensional reverse-phase/reverse-phase liquid chromatography separation platform, which is based on a newly developed online noncontiguous fractionating and concatenating device (NCFC fractionator). In bottom-up proteomics analyses of a complex proteome, this system provided significantly improved exploitation of the separation space of the two RPs, considerably increasing the numbers of peptides identified compared to a contiguous 2D-RP/RPLC method. The fully automated online 2D-NCFC-RP/RPLC system bypassed a number of labor-intensive manual processes required with the previously described offline 2D-NCFC RP/RPLC method, and thus, it offers minimal sample loss in a context of highly reproducible 2D-RP/RPLC experiments.

The effectiveness of group-based comprehensive risk-reduction and abstinence education interventions to prevent or reduce the risk of adolescent pregnancy, human immunodeficiency virus, and sexually transmitted infections: two systematic reviews for the Guide to Community Preventive Services.

PubMed

Chin, Helen B; Sipe, Theresa Ann; Elder, Randy; Mercer, Shawna L; Chattopadhyay, Sajal K; Jacob, Verughese; Wethington, Holly R; Kirby, Doug; Elliston, Donna B; Griffith, Matt; Chuke, Stella O; Briss, Susan C; Ericksen, Irene; Galbraith, Jennifer S; Herbst, Jeffrey H; Johnson, Robert L; Kraft, Joan M; Noar, Seth M; Romero, Lisa M; Santelli, John

2012-03-01

Adolescent pregnancy, HIV, and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are major public health problems in the U.S. Implementing group-based interventions that address the sexual behavior of adolescents may reduce the incidence of pregnancy, HIV, and other STIs in this group. Methods for conducting systematic reviews from the Guide to Community Preventive Services were used to synthesize scientific evidence on the effectiveness of two strategies for group-based behavioral interventions for adolescents: (1) comprehensive risk reduction and (2) abstinence education on preventing pregnancy, HIV, and other STIs. Effectiveness of these interventions was determined by reductions in sexual risk behaviors, pregnancy, HIV, and other STIs and increases in protective sexual behaviors. The literature search identified 6579 citations for comprehensive risk reduction and abstinence education. Of these, 66 studies of comprehensive risk reduction and 23 studies of abstinence education assessed the effects of group-based interventions that address the sexual behavior of adolescents, and were included in the respective reviews. Meta-analyses were conducted for each strategy on the seven key outcomes identified by the coordination team-current sexual activity; frequency of sexual activity; number of sex partners; frequency of unprotected sexual activity; use of protection (condoms and/or hormonal contraception); pregnancy; and STIs. The results of these meta-analyses for comprehensive risk reduction showed favorable effects for all of the outcomes reviewed. For abstinence education, the meta-analysis showed a small number of studies, with inconsistent findings across studies that varied by study design and follow-up time, leading to considerable uncertainty around effect estimates. Based on these findings, group-based comprehensive risk reduction was found to be an effective strategy to reduce adolescent pregnancy, HIV, and STIs. No conclusions could be drawn on the effectiveness of group-based abstinence education. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Comprehensive cardiac rehabilitation improves outcome for patients with implantable cardioverter defibrillator. Findings from the COPE-ICD randomised clinical trial.

PubMed

Berg, Selina Kikkenborg; Pedersen, Preben U; Zwisler, Ann-Dorthe; Winkel, Per; Gluud, Christian; Pedersen, Birthe D; Svendsen, Jesper H

2015-02-01

The aim of this randomised clinical trial was to assess a comprehensive cardiac rehabilitation intervention including exercise training and psycho-education vs 'treatment as usual' in patients treated with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD). In this study 196 patients with first time ICD implantation (mean age 57.2 (standard deviation (SD)=13.2); 79% men) were randomised (1:1) to comprehensive cardiac rehabilitation vs 'treatment as usual'. Altogether 144 participants completed the 12 month follow-up. The intervention consisted of twelve weeks of exercise training and one year of psycho-educational follow-up focusing on modifiable factors associated with poor outcomes. Two primary outcomes, general health score (Short Form-36 (SF-36)) and peak oxygen uptake (VO₂), were used. Post-hoc analyses included SF-36 and ICD therapy history. Comprehensive cardiac rehabilitation significantly increased VO2 uptake after exercise training to 23.0 (95% confidence interval (CI) 20.9-22.7) vs 20.8 (95% CI 18.9-22.7) ml/min/kg in the control group (p=0.004 (multiplicity p=0.015)). Comprehensive cardiac rehabilitation significantly increased general health; at three months (mean 62.8 (95% CI 58.1-67.5) vs 64.4 (95% CI: 59.6-69.2)) points; at six months (mean 66.7 (95% CI 61.5-72.0) vs 61.9 (95% CI 56.1-67.7) points); and 12 months (mean 63.5 (95% CI 57.7-69.3) vs 62.1 (95% CI 56.2-68.0)) points (p <0.05). Explorative analyses showed a significant difference between groups in favour of the intervention group. No significant difference was seen in ICD therapy history. Comprehensive cardiac rehabilitation combining exercise training and a psycho-educational intervention improves VO₂-uptake and general health. Furthermore, mental health seems improved. No significant difference was found in the number of ICD shocks or anti-tachycardia pacing therapy. © The European Society of Cardiology 2014.

Ocean warming and acidification: Unifying physiological principles linking organism response to ecosystem change?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pörtner, H. O.; Bock, C.; Lannig, G.; Lucassen, M.; Mark, F. C.; Stark, A.; Walther, K.; Wittmann, A.

2011-12-01

The effects of ocean warming and acidification on individual species of marine ectothermic animals may be based on some common denominators, i.e. physiological responses that can be assumed to reflect unifying principles, common to all marine animal phyla. Identification of these principles requires studies, which reach beyond the species-specific response, and consider multiple stressors, for example temperature, CO2 or extreme hypoxia. Analyses of response and acclimation include functional traits of physiological performance on various levels of biological organisation, from changes in the transcriptome to patterns of acid-base regulation and whole animal thermal tolerance. Conclusions are substantiated by comparisons of species and phyla from temperate, Arctic and Antarctic ecosystems and also benefit from the interpretation of paleo-patterns based on the use of a unifying physiological concept, suitable to integrate relevant environmental factors into a more comprehensive picture. Studying the differential specialization of animals on climate regimes and their sensitivity to climate leads to improved understanding of ongoing and past ecosystem change and should then support more reliable projections of future scenarios. For example, accumulating CO2 causes disturbances in acid-base status. Resilience to ocean acidification may be reflected in the capacity to compensate for these disturbances or their secondary effects. Ion and pH regulation comprise thermally sensitive active and passive transfer processes across membranes. Specific responses of ion transporter genes and their products to temperature and CO2 were found in fish, crustaceans and bivalves. However, compensation may cause unfavourable shifts in energy budget and beyond that hamper cellular and mitochondrial metabolism, which are directly linked to the animal's aerobic performance window. In crabs, oysters and, possibly, fishes, a narrowing of the thermal window is caused by moderate increases in CO2 levels. Furthermore, a decrease in the efficiency of energy production may occur and affect growth and fitness as well as larval development. Different sensitivities of life history stages indicate physiologically sensitive bottlenecks during the life cycle of marine organisms. Available evidence suggests that the concept of oxygen and capacity limited thermal tolerance (OCLTT) provides access to the physiological mechanisms closely defining the sensitivities and responses of species to various stressors. It provides causality and quantifies the levels and changes of performance and resistance, and supports more realistic estimates of species and ecosystem sensitivities to environmental change. The emerging picture of differential sensitivities across animal phyla is in line with existing categorizations of sensitivities from palaeo-observations during the Permian-Triassic mass extinctions (A.H. Knoll et al., Earth and Planetary Science Letters 256, 295-313, 2007).

Structure of Preschool Phonological Sensitivity: Overlapping Sensitivity to Rhyme, Words, Syllables, and Phonemes.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Anthony, Jason L.; Lonigan, Christopher J.; Burgess, Stephen R.; Driscoll, Kimberly; Phillips, Beth M.; Cantor, Brenlee G.

2002-01-01

This study examined relations among sensitivity to words, syllables, rhymes, and phonemes in older and younger preschoolers. Confirmatory factor analyses found that a one-factor model best explained the date from both groups of children. Only variance common to all phonological sensitivity skills was related to print knowledge and rudimentary…

Assessment of sustainable urban transport development based on entropy and unascertained measure.

PubMed

Li, Yancang; Yang, Jing; Shi, Huawang; Li, Yijie

2017-01-01

To find a more effective method for the assessment of sustainable urban transport development, the comprehensive assessment model of sustainable urban transport development was established based on the unascertained measure. On the basis of considering the factors influencing urban transport development, the comprehensive assessment indexes were selected, including urban economical development, transport demand, environment quality and energy consumption, and the assessment system of sustainable urban transport development was proposed. In view of different influencing factors of urban transport development, the index weight was calculated through the entropy weight coefficient method. Qualitative and quantitative analyses were conducted according to the actual condition. Then, the grade was obtained by using the credible degree recognition criterion from which the urban transport development level can be determined. Finally, a comprehensive assessment method for urban transport development was introduced. The application practice showed that the method can be used reasonably and effectively for the comprehensive assessment of urban transport development.

Distractions, distractions: does instant messaging affect college students' performance on a concurrent reading comprehension task?

PubMed

Fox, Annie Beth; Rosen, Jonathan; Crawford, Mary

2009-02-01

Instant messaging (IM) has become one of the most popular forms of computer-mediated communication (CMC) and is especially prevalent on college campuses. Previous research suggests that IM users often multitask while conversing online. To date, no one has yet examined the cognitive effect of concurrent IM use. Participants in the present study (N = 69) completed a reading comprehension task uninterrupted or while concurrently holding an IM conversation. Participants who IMed while performing the reading task took significantly longer to complete the task, indicating that concurrent IM use negatively affects efficiency. Concurrent IM use did not affect reading comprehension scores. Additional analyses revealed that the more time participants reported spending on IM, the lower their reading comprehension scores. Finally, we found that the more time participants reported spending on IM, the lower their self-reported GPA. Implications and future directions are discussed.

Necklace: combining reference and assembled transcriptomes for more comprehensive RNA-Seq analysis.

PubMed

Davidson, Nadia M; Oshlack, Alicia

2018-05-01

RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) analyses can benefit from performing a genome-guided and de novo assembly, in particular for species where the reference genome or the annotation is incomplete. However, tools for integrating an assembled transcriptome with reference annotation are lacking. Necklace is a software pipeline that runs genome-guided and de novo assembly and combines the resulting transcriptomes with reference genome annotations. Necklace constructs a compact but comprehensive superTranscriptome out of the assembled and reference data. Reads are subsequently aligned and counted in preparation for differential expression testing. Necklace allows a comprehensive transcriptome to be built from a combination of assembled and annotated transcripts, which results in a more comprehensive transcriptome for the majority of organisms. In addition RNA-seq data are mapped back to this newly created superTranscript reference to enable differential expression testing with standard methods.

Comprehensive Analysis of Transport Proteins Encoded Within the Genome of Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus

PubMed Central

Barabote, Ravi D.; Rendulic, Snjezana; Schuster, Stephan C.; Saier, Milton H.

2012-01-01

Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus is a bacterial parasite with an unusual lifestyle. It grows and reproduces in the periplasm of a host prey bacterium. The complete genome sequence of B. bacteriovorus has recently been reported. We have reanalyzed the transport proteins encoded within the B. bacteriovorus genome according to the current content of the transporter classification database (TCDB). A comprehensive analysis is given on the types and numbers of transport systems that B. bacteriovorus has. In this regard, the potential protein secretory capabilities of at least 4 types of inner membrane secretion systems and 5 types for outer membrane secretion are described. Surprisingly, B. bacteriovorus has a disproportionate percentage of cytoplasmic membrane channels and outer membrane porins. It has far more TonB/ExbBD-type systems and MotAB-type systems for energizing outer membrane transport and motility than does E. coli. Analysis of probable substrate specificities of its transporters provides clues to its metabolic preferences. Interesting examples of gene fusions and of potentially overlapping genes were also noted. Our analyses provide a comprehensive, detailed appreciation of the transport capabilities of B. bacteriovorus. They should serve as a guide for functional experimental analyses. PMID:17706914

Systemic lupus erythematosus in a multiethnic cohort (LUMINA): XXVIII. Factors predictive of thrombotic events.

PubMed

Ho, K T; Ahn, C W; Alarcón, G S; Baethge, B A; Tan, F K; Roseman, J; Bastian, H M; Fessler, B J; McGwin, G; Vilá, L M; Calvo-Alén, J; Reveille, J D

2005-10-01

To determine the relationship between the presence of antiphospholipid (aPL) antibodies, hydroxychloroquine use and the occurrence of thrombotic events in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Four hundred and forty-two SLE patients from the LUMINA (Lupus in Minorities: Nature vs Nurture) cohort, a multiethnic (Hispanics from Texas, n = 99 and Puerto Rico, n = 36; African Americans, n = 172; and Caucasians, n = 135) cohort, were studied by generalized estimating equation (GEE) to determine the relationship between antiphospholipid (aPL) antibodies (measured as IgG and IgM aPL antibodies and/or the lupus anticoagulant) at enrolment or historically prior to enrolment, hydroxychloroquine use (ever) and the occurrence of thrombotic (central and/or peripheral, arterial and/or venous) events after adjusting for known and possible confounders [socioeconomic-demographic features, smoking, disease activity and damage, serum cholesterol levels, anti-oxidized low-density lipoprotein IgG and IgM antibodies, and high-sensitivity (hs) C-reactive protein]. Postanalysis correlation between aPL and anticardiolipin (aCL) assays was attempted by performing aCL assays on random samples of patients whose aPL status was known. A number of clinical variables were significant in the univariable analyses; however, in the multivariable GEE analyses, only smoking [odds ratio (OR) 2.777, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.317-5.852] and disease activity as measured by the SLAM (Systemic Lupus Activity Measure) (OR 1.099; 95% CI 1.053-1.147) were significant. In particular, hydroxychloroquine use, which appeared to be protective against thrombotic events in the univariable analyses, was not retained in the multivariable analyses. aPL antibodies were not significant in either analysis. Few additional aPL-positive patients emerged from the validation study. Smoking and disease activity emerged as important determinants in the occurrence of thrombotic events in our patients. Comprehensive treatment strategies should be directed to both smoking cessation and control of disease activity in patients with SLE.

Sensitivity of water resources in the Delaware River basin to climate variability and change

USGS Publications Warehouse

Ayers, Mark A.; Wolock, David M.; McCabe, Gregory J.; Hay, Lauren E.; Tasker, Gary D.

1994-01-01

Because of the greenhouse effect, projected increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels might cause global warming, which in turn could result in changes in precipitation patterns and evapotranspiration and in increases in sea level. This report describes the greenhouse effect; discusses the problems and uncertainties associated with the detection, prediction, and effects of climate change; and presents the results of sensitivity analyses of how climate change might affect water resources in the Delaware River basin. Sensitivity analyses suggest that potentially serious shortfalls of certain water resources in the basin could result if some scenarios for climate change come true . The results of model simulations of the basin streamflow demonstrate the difficulty in distinguishing the effects that climate change versus natural climate variability have on streamflow and water supply . The future direction of basin changes in most water resources, furthermore, cannot be precisely determined because of uncertainty in current projections of regional temperature and precipitation . This large uncertainty indicates that, for resource planning, information defining the sensitivities of water resources to a range of climate change is most relevant . The sensitivity analyses could be useful in developing contingency plans for evaluating and responding to changes, should they occur.